Decatur Democrat, Volume 35, Number 18, Decatur, Adams County, 24 July 1891 — Page 2

democrat DEcXTUJaTIJNrD. * BLACKBURN, - Pvnnan. The saying that every man has his price probably originated with a man who sold himself for a very little money. The Czarevitch and his respected “pa" must bear charmed lives, since they always escape the attempts made to kill them. Cakes of soap are used as currency In Queretaro, Mexico, and are probably rejoiced to know that Mexicans consider , them of some value. A woman in Missouri was shaved clean by lightning one day. That’s just our luck. We poor men have to go to the barber shops and take our chances. A Kansas boy who has just died of hydrophobia is said to have contracted the disease from skinning a calf 9 years old. Thus the grounds for skepticism as to the existence of such a disease as hydrophobia in human beings increase from day to day. Richard Henry Strange, the colored actor, is going to Europe toplay Shaksperian plays. It is said that he shines particularly in the dark and gloomy roles of tragedy, which may be natural, though when his color is considered it seems impossible. 1 Two girds of the “best families” in Paducah, Ky., have married Chinamen. Here is an opportunity for Colonel Watterson to write a friendly letter of advice to girls who contemplate defiling the blue blood of his State by marrying moon-eyed Mongolians. A New York judge decided that an Italian husband must pay his wife $5 a week for her support, and said that an Italian might live on $3 a week if he wanted to, but when, he married an American woman he must support her in American style. This is a good arg~jnent. ’ If London society is going to close Ms doors against Sir William GordonCumming he might come over here and i settle in Kentucky. The fact that he is a colonel would let him in all right, and the rest of the colonels down there would be willing to take chances on his eliding his counters over the line. The immigration officers at New York are vigorously enforcing the Owen law, which foreign steamship companies undertook to ignore. A few fines and some resolute action have brought them to terms, and they will be very careful hereafter not to bring paupers here ilrom Europe, since they will be compelled to take them back. There is in Southern Oregon 16,000 square miles of timber land, the product of which, sold at $lO per 1,000 feet, would pay the National debt twice over. But it won’t do any such thing. It will probably be given to some railroad corporation in order to “devolop the resources and benefit the people of the Northwest.” Another young woman has gone and killed herself with carbolic acid on account of a recreant lover. Now Carbolic acid is a most fiendish and agonizing short-eut to the hereafter. It burns, . and eats, and gnaws ones vitals till Prometheus’ lot is to the sufferer, by comparison, enviable. No lover is worth committing suicide about and most positively not worth taking carbolic acid for. One of the latest insurance dodges , on the mutual plan is reported from Paris. The projector of a new company announces that a portion of the expected gains or profits will be devoted to charities. As the gentleman is well-known to have been a director or other official in several, defunct insurance concerns, not one of which has omitted to fail in short order, he is not likely to obtain much support from the class he seems so anxious to serve. The Court of Appeals of New York has decided that a pledge to abstain from intoxicating liquors, if kept, is a good enough consideration to enforce the payment of money promised in a will under these conditions. It does not matter that the abstainer is benefitted by his action. He is even more entitled to the money than as if he were injured. Indeed, the promise of money to perform an act injurious to one’s self or others could certainly not be enforced, rs it would be clearly against public policy. So! A popular young Chicago pastor has been discharged by his congregation for kissing one of the fair members of his fiock. This isn’t right or proper or in the true Christian spirit at all. There are lots of different sorts of kisses, and the minister may have been administering a fatherly or priestly kiss of condolence or congratulation or something. The trustees should have at least investigated the matter and proved beyond the shadow of a doubt what nature of kiss was administered before taking judgment, “ What’s in a kiss?” is a decidedly open question. A Denver inventor is perfecting an instrument that, as a wonder worker, will outrival the pnonograph or telephone. It is said that the new invention, the zotograph, does with light what the phonograph does with sound; and by a combination of the two instruments will reproduce a scene, for example, reproducing a speech with the picture of the speaker and his gestures so perfectly that one could hear and see everything associated with the scene. It will photograph, record, reproduce, and perpetuate pictures of objects in motion. The zotograph will be very handy in illustrating the Congressional Record. The Japanese are a curious people. Tha Japanese carpenter planes towards

him insteadof fromhim. The Japanese horseman mounts his horse from the right side. The address of a Japanese letter is arranged in strict accord with the progress from the general to the particular. Thus, a Jap writing to a country in New York would place on the envelope! “United States of America, New York State, New York, West Tenth street, 115, Hoe Yank.” A Japanese always gives a gratuity upon his arrival at a hotel or restaurant, instead of upon his departure. In drawing a cork the Japanese waiter never turns the corkscrew, but whirls the bottle. Certain Chicago lawyers were persuaded to sign a paper asking the judges of the new Federal Court of Appeals to wear gowns, saying that if the judges were so appareled it would be more agreeable for Chicago lawyers to practice before them and that they l&lieved such robes would be peculiarly appropriate to a court of so much dignity. All of which is nonsense and flub-dub of the most outrageous character. Chicago lawyers who find it disagreeable to practice before a court composed of judges dressed as plain American citizens arte dressed ought to emigrate to England without delay. If they remain here much longer they will want to wear wigs themselves. The lawyers who lent their names to further this silly business do not need the attention of a costume to make themselves ridiculous. The London Times commenting upon the verdict of the jury in the baccarat case, says: “We almost wish, for the sake of English society, that as a result of this unhappy case the Prince of Wales had also signed a declaration that he would never touch a card again.” In the memorable interview between Agrippa and Paul the King sud: “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Chris~tian.” The Times seems to be an Agrippa in this wretched business. How much better it would have been if the Times had taken the resolute stand of Paul in his reply: “I would to God that not only thou but also all that .hear me this day were both almost and altogether such as I am.” For the whole world knows “this thing was not done in a corner.” Instead of almost wishing the Prince would let cards alone in future it should have thundered the advice at him to let them alone altogether and quit gambling in future for the sake of himself as well as of English society. The Atlantic cable acts as if the man at the other end of it was seeking a postoffice or some other salary within the gift of the Emperor of Germany. Pretty nearly every day it brings information of some deed of bravery performed by this extraordinary monarch. The other day it was his calm behavior in a dreadful railway disaster. The Emperor was going from somewhere to some other where when, horrible to relate, his train, without warning or malice prepense, came to a stop. Now then, what did the Emperor in this trying emergency do? Did he crawl under the seat? Was he paralyzed with fear? No, indeeed. Did he plunge down the aisle, leap from the car and. scoot across the fields holding his crown on his head with both hand; to keep his hair from lifting off? No, sir, not he. He calmly shoved up hi# window, poked his head out, saw there was no danger and, emulating, as best he could under the circumstances, the noble example of l the far-famed King of Spain, pulled his head in again. Now, of course, that is about what any ordinary citizen would do, provided he could get the car win dow up (which he probably could not), but— well, one thing is proved: Though the cable runs through miles and miles of water, it manages to keep a good deal of its foreign news perfectly dry. In Heathenish Turkey. The food for the Sultan is prepared by one man and his aids, and none others touch it (“Politikos” declares in “The Sovereigns and Courts of Europe,” recently published by the Appletons. ) It is cooked in silver vessels, and when done each bottle is sealed by a slip of paper and a stamp, and this is broken in the presence of the Sultan by the High Chamberlain, who takes one spoonful of each separate bottle before the Sultan tastes it. This is to prevent the Sultan from being poisoned. The food is almost always served up to the Sultan in the same vessels in which it was cooked, and these are often of gold, but when of baser metal, the bottle is set into a rich, golden, bellshaped holder, the handle of which is held by a slave while the Sultan eats. Each bottle is a course, and is served with bread and a kind of pancake, which is held on a golden tray by another slave. The Sultan drinks no wine or spirits, but he drinks a great deal of sherbet and is very fond of ice cream. He would reduce his harem if he could, but custom makes this impossible, and the most stubborn custom is that which compels the Sultan to marry off his ladies and to give to each of them a dowry of $50,000. To secure this, it is said, many pashas and other dignitaries send their daughters to the selamlik. To Sleep After Night Work. A Swiss doctor says that many persons who extend their mental work well into the night, who during the evening follow attentively the programs of a theater or concert, or who engage evenings in the proceedings of societies or clubs, are awakened in the morning or in the night with headache. For a long while the doctor was himself a sufferer from headaches of this kind, but of late years has wholly protected himself from it by simple means. When he is obliged to continue his brain work in the evening, or to be out late night in rooms not well ventilated, instead of going directly to bed he takes a brisk walk for half an hour or an hour. While taking this tramp he stops now and then and practices lung gymnastics by breathing in and out deeply a few times. When he goes to bed he sleeps soundly. Notwithstanding the shortening of the hours of sleep, he awakes with no trace of headache. There exists a clear and well-known physiological reason Why this treatment should be effective.— Scientific American.

A. GIFT ENTERPRISE. ■4 ~ UNCLE SAM AND HIS SUGAR BOUNTY. -T' . - A Short Road to Wealth fOrthe SugarGrowers—Five Hundred and Sixty-eight Meh Want 5H,000.000— Applications for the Bounty—An Unblushing Bobbery of the Many tor the Few. How happy we should all be if we, could get two prices for everything we sell! We should hear no more about agricultural depression, and farm mortgages would become as scarce as gold spoons in a poorhouse. If only the heavens would open their coffers and drop down a jiollar every time we sell a bushel of wheat! > Alas, the heavens are not built that way! It takes Uncle Sam, with his Billion-Dollar Congress, to start a gift enterprise and make two prices where only one existed before. Last year the McKinleyites voted a bounty of 2 cents a pound on raw sugar, and this year the Louisiana planters are to have two prices for every pound of sugar. The New York price of the best raw sugar is now 3% cents a pound, and Uncle Sam has undertaken to chip in 2 cents more on every pound, giving the planters a price of about 5% cents. That will be a rather expensive business, but then the people of this country are used to tariff taxes, and a great many of them even like to be gulled for the glory of the g. o. p. But this bounty business is going to be more expensive music than the McKinleyites calculated upon. McKinley spoke in his tariff report of the bounty as “but a little more than §7,000,000 per annum.” The Louisiana planters, however; have put in claims for the coming crop, and If they raise as much sugar as they estimate Uncle Samuel will have a neat little bill of §11,206,100 to pay. The bounty applications filed in the Internal revenue office at New Orleans amount to 650, but these represent only 568 individuals, as some planters own more than one plantation and a separate application must be made for each. Seventeen of these planters estimate their crop of sugar each at 5,000,000 pounds or more, and ask for a bounty of §2,356,720, an average of $138,600 apiece. In the second class are 162 persons, applying each for a bounty of $35,670. The third class planters number 268, and they each want $10,380. There Is a fonrth class of 121 planters, asking for $857 apiece; and besides these there are 350 small planters who will sell their cane to the big mills which can make sugar up to the bounty standard. This sugar bounty "is to last fifteen years, unless the people undo it. In that time it bids fair to cost the taxpayers at least $200,000,000. What say the growers of wheat and corn? Are they willing to pay tariff taxes for fifteen years to 568 sugar planters? The only redeeming feature about this bounty is that it will prove such an eyeopener to tariff-blinded farmers. They must see that the protection humbug is itself only a bounty, since protection and bounty both alike take money out of one man’s pocket and put it into another man’s. When Uncle Sam undertakes to irake some of his children rich, he can only do so by robbing the others, for the old gentleman himself has no independent income, and must look to the taxgatherer alone. A Protectionist for Revenue. The Hon. B?F. Jones, of Pittsburg, who was at one time Chairman of the Republican National Committee, writes to the American Economist giving his reasons for being a protectionist One of his reasons is, “because revenues can more easily, more surely and with less objection be raised by judicious protective tariff laws than otherwise.” Jones ought to know something about raising revenues easily and surely, being a member of the steel beam combine, which has a protective duty of $20.16 a ton, and which maintains prices in the home market at such a high point that foreign importations still come in occasionally. The combination of which Jones is a member does not shrink from publicity. One member of it was before the McKinley committee and gave the names of the twelve companies composing it. He assured the committee that if any change were made in the tariff "we would die of starvation. ” But a change was made, the committee assuming, it seems, that the witness was fibbing and nobody would starve. The old duty on steel and iron beams for building was IK cents a pound, equal to 114 per cent, ad valorem; the preserit duty is nine-tenths of a cent, equal to 83 per cent. This reduction went into effect last October, and nobody has yet heard of any beam manufacturer starving. On the contrary, the combination is maintaining the price of beams at precisely the figure that prevailed when the new law went into effect. The protectionists say that it pays the country Jo make everything at home that can be produced here, although the price to the consumer may be higher. Does any sane man believe that the country gains anything by taxing itself 83 per cent, on steel beams for the sake of twelve men who combine and keep up prices to the point where imports can come In? The beam manufacturers are evidently adding the full duty to their prices; and the stale protectionist doctrine that the tariff reduces prices in the home market to as low a point as in other countries does not prove true in practice. Retaliating Upon Our Farmers. The news has recently been published that Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland have agreed upon a great customs league. The terms of the agreement have not yet been made public, but it is stated that the movement Is due to our high tariff McKinleyism, which shuts out many of the products of those countries. It is prodosed by tfyese nations to retaliate upop us by combining against our grain, cattle,, and meat. A hostile tariff of the kind here indicated would undoubtedly narrow the foreign market of our farmers very seriously. Even those among our farmers who believe that in some way McKinleyism is good for them at home must admit that It is a bad thing for them abroad, when it arouses such retaliatory measures. The farmers will also observe that when our high protection, which Is mainly for the benefit of the manufacturers, causes retaliation abroad, the first thing that is touched is agricultural produce. Those nations do not think of retaliating upon us by putting McKinley duties on our manufactures, since our exports of these are too insignificant It is the farmer’s corn, wheat, flour, beef, and pork whichfire retaliatory tariffs in Europe. .Thus under our policy of McKinley-* -Ism the manufacturers get the advantages at home of a high tariff, while the retaliation, thereby aroused falls upon our farmers. A report from Huddersfield, England, where a large part of our fine worsted cloth is made, says: “The tariffs levied Under the McKinley bill do not very greatly affect the finer qualities of worsted cloths sent out to the United States, and as the manufacturers in the United States have not yet found out the secret of producing these goods with the same degree of finish and quality as Huddersfield manufacturers, they are unable to compete in this line. ” In other words, the American consumer of fine worsteds is going right on buying

from Huddersfield and paying the increased McKinley duty. The rich man continues to buy what he wants; but the poor man is left to the tender mercies of the home market Wool Prices Again. The low price of wool is disturbing the souls of the protectionists, and they are putting forward explanations which do not explain. A correspondent of the American Economist writes from Michigan to the cheap and ignorant mouthpiece of the American Protective Tariff League to ask, “What is the matter with our Michigan wool?” The Economist answers this question in the following way: “Wool has become so cheap in the world’s market that it can be imported over our tariff and compete with the domestic product, thus tending to neutralize and obscure the benefits which our wool growers had a right to expect. ” But a protectionist journal of far heavier caliber, the Boston Commercial Bulletin, effectually squelched this pretense before" it was written. The Bulletin Is a commercial paper of the very highest standing, and exists for other purposes besides the propagation of protection notions. In an article of recent date this journal pointed out that Australian wool is actually higher in our markets than a year ago. The Bulletin says that “the price of Australian wool has steadily declined abroad, and the English manufacturers are paying less for it than a year ago. ” But how is it with American buyers? “Our buyers are paying the same that they paid a year ago, and the additional duty of a cent a pound on grease wool makes the scoured cost of Australian combing about two cents a pound more than a year since [Bo’s, quality merino, were 78 cents then and are 80 cents now], while Ohio XX fleece costs in the grease three cents and scoured six cents a pound less than at that time. ” The American Economist’s answer, therefore, is worth nothing, for how can Australian wool at 80 cents a pound affect Ohio and Michigan wool prices more disastrously this year than it did last year at 78 cents. McKinley Makes a Muss of It. While in New York several days ago Major McKinley was seen by a reporter of the Tribune, and was asked if the contract-labor law would hurt the now industry of tinplate-making by keeping European skilled labor out of this country. To this question ne replied: “No, I don’t think it will. The Secretary of the Treasury has the discretion to issue licenses to those who are interested in new industries, authorizing them to go abroad and make contracts with skilled laborers. Os course, these licenses will be revoked as soon as the industries are established. A license respecting the importation of machinery can also be granted. This discretion, I think, has been exercised, by the Secretary of the Treasury in this matter. ” What a change has come over the young Napoleon of protection! Last year in his speech in the House of Representatives he applauded his high duty on the ground that “it will defend our capital and labor in the production of tin-plate,” and he invited British manufacturers to “bring $25,000,500 over here and sit down among us and employ our labor. ” But now only a brief year has elapsed, and the young Napoleon finds that we have no tin-plate laborers, and he takes comfort in the fact that the manufacturer can “go abroad and make contracts with skilled laborers. ” Then your tin-plate tax was not to help “our labor” after all! McKinley also shows the advantage which our tin-plate infant has in the fact that it can get a license to import its machinery. Alas, this is too bad! Think of McKin'ey betraying the protection dogma, “the foreigner pays the tax,” by showing how our tin-plate manufacturers may get around paying it! If the foreigner pays it, how can a license benefit our manufacturers? The Tariff Joker. Ex-Congressman Horr, of Michigan, is writing a series of articles in the New York Weekly Tribune for the especial purpose of teaching the farmers the beauties of protection. When Horr was in Congress, he made considerable of a reputation as a humorist, and his Tribune articles show that his humor only ripens with age. In a recent article on anew plate-glass factory at Irwin, Pa., he says: “This new factory is the direct result of the piovisions of the McKinley bill. That wise measure advanced the rate of duty on this kind of glass so as to provide for the enormous difference in wages here _in the United States and the wages paid "for the same kind of work in the old world. ” What a delicious joke the humorist perpetrates here! The McKinley law did not raise the duty on plqte glass at all, except that on the very smallest size, not above ten by fifteen inehes,fethe duty was raised from 3 cents to 5 cents per square foot Os this size only $22,000 worth of glass was imported last year, while of the larger sizes, where the duty was not changed, the imports amounted to $895,000! Yet the Tribune says of Horr’s articles: “Nothing so genial, unanswerable, and free from partisan politics, and yet so overwhelming in their proof that the party which enacted the McKinley bill can be trusted with the Government, has been put into print during the last twenty years. ” Canada has just abolished the duty on raw sugar, but has left a duty bf about 1 cent on refined. The object in leaving a duty on the latter is thus explained by a prominent Canadian commercial journal: “This was necessary to prevent the Spreckels refinery [of California], which was ready to sell its surplus sugar at 3% cents for export in order to reduce stock, from flooding the Pacific coast at cut values. ” Where are those Republican organs which were denying so strenuously last year that American manufacturers sell their goods at lower prices abroad then at home? Here is clearly a case for more denying and denunciation. The effect of the removal of the raw sugar duty in Canada was exactly the same as in the United States. Prices at once fell about equal to the amount of the duty removed; the refiners took orders for granulated sugar at 4% cents a pound, which is very near our oWn price. It is said that the Canadian refiners will have to manufacture refined sugar at about 2 cents a pound less money; and for this reason the papers of Canada are prophesying an enormous increase in consumption. In Canada, too, the tariff is a tax, and its«emoval saves money to the consumer. France has been imitating our McKinleyism pretty closely in the new tariff which it is now making; but at one important point the law-makers of that country called a halt When the attempt was made to put a protective duty on wool the extreme protectionists girded up their loins for their supreme effort, hut the Chamber voted by a crushing majority that wool remain on the free list On the wool-tax folly France refuses to copy onr McKinleyism. Hon. Allen W. Thurman shows himself a worthyson of the “Old Boman” when he says of the wool- tariff: “The principal objection that I have to the tariff on wool is the same that I have

against all tariffs, viz., that I do net see what light I have to compel others by law to assist me in my business. ” Mr. Thurman is himself an extensive woolgrower. • • ' A WINDOW-GLASS YARN THE TARIFF JESTER AND HIS LITTLE FIB. R. G. Horr on Window-Glass Prices—Says Protection Has Reduced Them More than Half—Figures Are Against Him— Foreign and Home Prices.The high-sounding boasts of the protectionists become such a habit with them that they neglect to compare market reports of prices: and hence in claiming everything they expose themselves to the suspicion of willfully misstating facts. R. G. Horr, the exuberant tariff jester, boasts that as the effect of protection window-glass costs less than one half what It did “in former years. ” » This is grossly untrue. The duty on window-glass was raised to a highly protective point in 1861. The duty was only 20 per cent in the tariff of 1846, and this was reduced to 15 per cent in 1857. The high protection on glass has had practically no effect in reducing the price of domestic glass since it was first imposed thirty years ago. The prices of domestic glass In 1860, as given by the protected manufacturers themselves before the Senate Finance Committee several years ago, were only about 8 per cent, above present prices. Here are the figures for 1860 as published by the President of the American Window-Glass Manufacturers’ Association; and the prices for 1890 are given with them for comparison: Price per % box of 50 ft. Sizes. Quality. 1860. 1890. Bxlo inches3d $1.95 $1.90 Bxlo inches4th 1.80 1.805 10x14 inches2d 2.40 2.04 10x14 inches3d 2.10 1.90 12x18 incheslst 3.00 2.75 12x18 inches3d 2.40 2.28 18x24 inches2d 3.60 3.13 22x28 inches2d 3.60 3.32 Total 8 boxess2o.Bs $19,125 While nearly everything else has fallen greatly in price years, home-made window glass has been kept at very near the prices at which it started out under high protective duties. If Mr. Horr had changed his boast from domestic to foreign glass he would have stated the truth. The average price of glass imported in 1867 was 4.12J< cents a pound, while in 1890 the price was only 2 cents. Thus we see that while people in other countries are getting thcir> glass at less than half the price “in former years,” we put up a high-tariff wall to prevent ourselves from getting the benefit of lower prices. The Treasury reports show that the glass imported last year paid an average of 109 per cent. Every $1 worth of window glass that went into the custom houses came out as $2.09 worth, and was passed on to the consumer with profits added to correspond. As about one-third of the glass we use is imported, notwithstanding this enormous duty, it is seen that the domestic manufacturers are “living up to the tariff” by adding the full amount of the duty to their product. The racent advance in prices at a meeting of the trust in Chicago, for all points west of Pittsburg, shows that the manufacturers are determined to get all the advantage they can out of the extra protection granted them by McKinley in the shape of duties on boxes, packing, etc. Life ■ Sha lows. In the endless and ceaseless round of change in the combinations of the elements of matter, the physical form of man is as nothing. Byron defines life as “a confused noise between two silences —birth and death.” We are shadows pursuing shadows, our spiritual natures being the only unchanging and continuous entities. As Emerson puts it: “You are you and I am I,” and we are conscious of being nothing else. If we accept the theory that the heavenly bodies grow by accretions of cosmic dust which is floating everywhere in ethereal space, a portion of the dust of Solomon or imperial Caesar may now be on the surface of Jupiter or in the sun and other portions on still remoter orbs, earth in its rapid flight of sixty-eight thousand miles an hour having parted with some of these royal ashes. Thoughts and ideas are the only realities, the only permanent and unchanging phenomena. Men and nations with all their buzzing and humming activity are as fleeting as the ripples on a summer sea. The littleness and powerlessness of man are ever present thoughts to the philosopher. The brightest is only a ray of sunshine soon to disappear in the coming gloom of night. You are only a phantom of nothingness and your trivial life is quickly ended in dreamless and forgotten sleep. Earthly life is now and evermore will be the same brief but unequal struggle with oblivion. Steep Railway Grades. In the mountain gorges of the West grades of 400 and 500 feet to the mile are met. The greatest inclination on any European railroad worked by ordinary locomotives is on the two miles between Enghien and Montmorency, near Pans, being 45 feet in 1,000, or an angle of 2 degrees 5 minutes. Grades of 35 feet to the 1,000, or 2 degrees, are found on several roads. The grade of the Simplon road, the highway road over the Alps with the least slope, in only 3 degrees to the 1,000, the maximum slope that can be traveled on a highway being 132, or 7| degrees. The grades on cable or cog-wheel railways are, of course, considerably greater;, that of the road up the Swiss Rigi from Vitzman is in the steepest part 250 to 1,000, while the maximum on the Mount Washington Railroad is estimated at 330 and 375, this latter being the steepest railway with a central toothed rail, and the steepest of any kind in the world, except the cable road up the cone of Mount Vesuvius, which has the extraordinary inclination of 630 to 1,000. In time the tops of nearly all mountains within the beaten routes of travel will have railway tracks to Jtheir tops, as in several cases in the Alps and in Pike’s Peak. I In Three Great States. In 1890 Illinois mined 12,104,272 tons of coal against 5,988,895 in the year 1880. Onio, in 1890, produced 9,976,787 tons, and Indiana 2,848,057 tons. The area in coal can be mined here is very large, being 37,000 square miles in Illinois, 10,000 square miles in Ohio, and 7,000 miles in Indiana. The coal mined in the States above named in 1890 was 25,000,000 tons, and i£*was worth a little less than a dollar a ton at the’mines. Right is imperative. Duty makes hq apology, but commands obedience. One cannot parley with obligation, but must qbey it, for its only word is must.—The Independent. “The good die young." The others become the oldest inhabitants.

GUTTA PERCHA IN DEMAND, the Progress of Electricity Driving it from the Market. The projectors of the Gautemalan end Pacific cables are said to be confronted with a serious problem as to insulation. What they are to use to cover their long submarine wires is almost as important a question as were the original preliminary grants. They want gutta percha, because that is the material always used in long-distance submarineinsulation, and because there is no other substance that has yet been found to take its place. But the supply is so limited that an attempt to buy such a quantity as they will need would send the price from $1.75 a pound, as it is now quoted, up to $4 or $5 a pound. Gutta percha, like platinum, is a stuff that has increased in price as Ithe use of electricity has become more and more general. Just as platinum bas almost become the king of metals, so gutta percha has become the king of insulators. It was very cheap a few years ago, but the increased demand has sent it up to $1.75 a pound now, with a constant tendency to increase. The Gautemalan people, it is said, have proposed the use of caoutchouc to insulate their wires, and the rubber market in consequence has been expecting a boom. But experts say that while Para rubber is a good insulating material under ordinary circumstances, it cannot withstand the forces that attack it at the bed of the ocean, and it is extremely improbable that the projectors of a great cable will try any such elaborate experiments <vith it as would be involved in a trans-ocean line. Balata, which is neither gutta percha nor rubber, but possessing many of the properties of the former, would be a good substitute for gutta percha, it is said, if it could be found in sufficient quantities. There is also said to be a gum on the banks of the Orinoco which makes an insulating material almost as good as .gutta percha, but it is not found in commerce. Gutta percha, which thus bids fair to be a more important article in the market than ever before, comes to us through England from the Malay Peninsula, India and China. Gutta, or, as it ir variously written, gutah, gatta, gittah, gotta, is the Malayan term for gum, and percha is the name of the tree. The trees attain the height of from sixty to eighty feet, with a diameter of from two to four feet. The wood is soft, fibrous, spongy and of a pale color, marked with black lines, these being the reservoirs of gutta percha. The gutta, as it flows from the tree, is of a grayish hue, although the market product becomes almost black in its preparatory processes. The collection of gutta percha generally takes place after the rainy season, as in the dry season the gutta does not flow so readily. The yield of a wellgrown tree of the best variety is from two to three pounds. The natives extract the gum by cutting down the tree at a height of fourteen or sixteen feet above the ground. Narrow strips of bark are then removed, and are beaten by the natures to accelerate the flow of milk or gutta, which is received into hollow bamboos or in holes scraped in the ground. The next step in the process is boiling. This is conducted in a “kwali,” or pan of iron, in which lime juice or cocoanut oil is mixed with the gum. When sufficiently boiled, the gutta is pressed into molds. On arriving at the port of shipment the gutta, before exportation, undergoes examination and classification into parcels according to its quality. Nearly the whole product is then shipped to England, whence it reaches the United States in small quantities and generally of the poorest variety. Four-fifths of the entire product is used in making cables, and uine-tenths of it is handled in England. That which is exported to this country is oftentimes only the refuse from the British shops, boiled over and remolded. The constant diminution in the supply of gutta percha was explained by an importer yesterday in this way: If a Malay or Chinese wishes to plant pepper or anything else, he burns down a portion of the. forest, and when he has raised two or three crops, he clears a new portion. Thus finely-wooded spots become denuded of trees and covered with rank grass, rendering them unfit for further cultivation. Again, to obtain the gum, the trees are cut down, none are planted to take their places, and the result is that in districts where percha trees once abounded only ene or two can now be found. A writer in an Eastern paper says that in twenty years over 90,000 piculs (of 133| pounds each) of gutta percha were exported from Sarawak alone, and that this meant the death of at least 3,000,000 trees. It Nearly Broke Oft' the Match. Just before the charity ball last winter a certain young South-Sider was paying such assiduous attention to a certain young North Side woman that Mrs. Grundy had it they were engaged. The young woman, of course, knew better, but she did think matters had progressed to the point where he was sure to ask her to go to the ball. So she declined two invitations from other admirers. The invitation she wanted never came. Her parents were not society people and she had to stay at home. He didn’t go, either. The next time he called she was chilly. The threatened storm blew over, however, though nothing was said on either side about the ball, and she other day they were married. They did not take a wedding trip, but went at once to their modest little home. The next day the young husband greatly surprised his bride by taking a sealed envelope from his pocket-book and throwing it in her lap. It was addressed to her. “Open it, honey,” he said, “it belongs to you." “Honey" opened it and found the following memorandum: Ticket»lo Flowerslo Carriage...". 5 Totals2s “Why, Tom,” said she, “what on earth does this mean ?” “Perhaps you will remember that you didn’t go to the charity ball last winter?” “Perhaps.” “Well, just as I was getting ready to write you my mother came to me and: 'Tom, are you going to the charity ball?’ ‘Sure,’ said 1 ‘I s’pose you’re going to take that Jones girl?’ said she. ‘Sure,’ said I. ‘My son,’ said she, 'don’t you do it It’ll cost you s2s—slo for a ticket $lO for flowers, and $5 for a carriage.’ 'What of it?’said I. ‘Are you going to marry her ?’ said she. 'Guess not’said I, lying, of course. 'Then I wouldn’t spend $25 on her,’ said she, ‘Well,’ said I, ‘s’pose I am thinking of asking her to have me ?’ 'Then I certainly shouldn’t waste $25,’ said she. I kind of thought things oyer and—you’re Mrs. Smith and there’s the $25. Get yourself something pretty with it, Honey." Os course she protested she didn’t

need any money yet but it ended in her taking the $25 all right But some way or other “Honey* doesn’t seem so swett on her mother-in-law as she was. Her Old Charge in Danger. There is a well-to-do young Southern man in this city who lives in a handsome residence not far from Central Park; and he has among other valued possessions a family of seven children. He had been “brought up” by an old negro “mammy” somewhere near Alexandria, Ya., am}, when his wife recently suggested that another nurse be secured for the children his thoughts reverted to Aunt Maria. He decided to bring the old Degress here, and in a few weeks she was comfortably installed in the nursery, much to the awe of the Northern born young Southrons, who were not familiar with the institutions of a bygone age and who did not quite understand Aunt Maria’s authority. The young man has a telephone in his house, and as the old Degress hsd never heard of that invention she looked upon it at first with wonder and then with suspicion. The jingling bell, receiver and other necessary adjuncts were more than Aunt Maria’s mind could Master. She would never go near “dat debbil’s t’ing nohow.” Finally one day last week S. rang up from his office, and after a brief conversation requested his wife to*’ send the old woman to the telephone. A great deal of persuasion was required to make her consent, but she was finally induced to place the receiver at her ear and listen. “Is that yon, Aunt Maria?” inquired S. over the wife. An expression of astonishment spread over the old woman’s countenance, Quickly followed by one of awe and another of fear. For several minutes she stood bewildered, and then she shouted: “L-L-Lawd a massa, Mars’ Randolp’l How you done git down in dar?” Then she decided that he could not but be in danger. “Come out’en it!” she cried. “Youse up to some more dem pranks like when yo’ was a chile. Come out’en it! You’ll git hurt. I’se cornin’ den arter you,” and with that she started for the street door. Mrs. S. had hard work to keep Aunt Maria at home until “Mars’ Randolp’" arrived. She refused to have matters explained, and abjured him by everything not “to go down in dar again.” She has never gone near the telephone since. — New York Herald. Poisoning by Narcotics. The principal narcotic poisons are laudanum, morphine, and opium. Os laudanum the fatal dose is at least two drams, two grains and a half of the extract are said by Tanner to be equal to four grains of the crude opium, while De Quincy could take sixteen ounces of the tincture of opium daily; infants have been killed by a single drop of laudanum, which is equal to about the twelfth of a grain of opium. No one should use laudanum, opium, or morphine without the express orders and daily watchful care of a physician, for all these drugs have an entirely different action in health and sickness, as will be shown in an article devoted to the so-called opium habit. "When an excessive dose of any of these narcotics is suspected, a physician should be immediately called, and pending his arrival every eflfort should be made to keep the patient awake. The symptoms of poisoning are gradually increasing giddiness, drowsiness, stupor, slow, heavy breathing, weak pulse, pallor, and final coma. There., may be nausea, and even convulsions. The first remedial action is to free the stomach by means of emetics or the stomach pump; then rouse the patient by slapping the chest and neck with a wet towel, dashing cold water about the head and face, walking up and down—out of doors if that is necessary —giving electric shocks, and even artificial respiration when other means fail to rouse from the stupor which precedes death. Strong coffee may be useful as an adjunct. The case should be in the hands of a competent physician, in a word, keep the patient awake until the doctor arrives, loosen the clothing, and keep the head cool. The treatment for suffocation by illuminating gas is the same, applied with utmost vigor.—Harper’s Bazar. Average Lite of » trow. “Do you know that the average life of a crow is 100 years ?” said an Atlantian who poses as a naturalist. “It is so. One was killed down in Dougherty County a few weeks ago with ‘37* branded on his back. He was well feathered everywhere except just between the wings on his back, where the figures ‘37’ could be distinctly seen branded in the flesh. I can see but one meaning to that, and that is that some one caught him in 1837, branded the figures on his back and released him. But it is the first case of branding a bird I have ever known. • “Terrapins live even longer than crows. One is said to have been caught dowp in the Savannah River recently with the figures ‘1776’ cut in its shell. And fish. There are fish alive to-day that are known to have been in existence more than 100 years ago. In the Royal Aquarium at St. Petersburg are fish put in there 150 years ago.”—Allan ta Constitution. A Straight Tip. He was trying to spread himself over three seats in a bridge car when a hustler came along and seized him by the knee \ and gave him a whirl which not only ' faced him about but landed him on hands and knees on the floor. “W-whaz zhat fur?” stammered the man as he picked himself up. “I wanted a seat here,” was the reply. “Shay,” said the first, as a quiet smile stole over his face. “You thought I was asleep, didn’t you?" “Yes." “Zhat’s horse on you, an* you owe me ’pology.” “Well, I apologize.” “Zbas right—zhas right! Put ’er there! Been drunk fr most a week. You thought I was asleep. Accused me wrongfully an ’pologuealikeagemlan. All right; shake again! Perfect gem’lan—perfect gem’lan.” Wheat Growing From a Boy’s Hoad. A grain of wheat has sprouted in the fore-head of a 5-year-old boy. On May 15 little Thomas Stretch, the son of Miller Reeve A. Stretch, of Lower Alloway Creek Township, was quite senously (injured by being caught in a belt at the mill and would have been killed but for the promptness of his father in stopping the machinery. He has now almost recovered from the effects of the accident, but a few days ago a dark spot was noticed over his eye. It was carefully opened with g lance and was found to be a grain of wheat, which was sprouted. The grain was probably forced under the skin when his head struck a bin while he was being whirled around the shaft—jPkitadelpkia Frees.