Decatur Democrat, Volume 35, Number 25, Decatur, Adams County, 11 September 1891 — Page 2

©he glenwixat DECATUR, IND. M, BLACKBURN, - - - Publisher. The old way was to pray for rain. The new way is to shoot for it, and the more noise the better. Bennington was not a big battle, but New Orleans, Buena Vista and Gettysburg have not obscured it, nevertheless. } ■ ______ A new chair in the University of Kansas is devoted to the study of women. It is to be hoped the chair Is large enough for two. If in treating men should be coms' \ pelled to give ther friends money in- \ “stead of beer, how soon the custom | would be voted a ridiculous one. A Vanceburg (Ky.) man had an engineer who saved his life fined •9.01 for assault. The Kentucky dignity is dearer than life, it seems. There is to be a monster fish exhibit at the World’s Fair. It would be interesting to have an annex furnished with photographs telling fish stories. , The grave must lose its horror when a “smile on the face of the corpse” can be produced by the undertaker for $5. That w r as an item in the bill in Philadelphia. The steamship Majestic, that lately broke the Atlantic record, made the voyage across the ocean without going a single mile out of the chart line. That was fine steering. It has been discovered that people go out between the acts at theaters because they do not like the orchestra music. They wipe their mouths as they come back as a matter of habit. What a wild burlesque on business it is when the betting men of one exchange “buy and sell” in half a day 11,000,000 bushels of wheat not one grain of whiph any of them will ever handle. “Why are policemen allowed to carry revolvers in the daytime?” Shrieks the New York Becorder. Why? To protect themselves from the dangerous classes in New York, of course. Ask us a harder one. In view of the fact that so many suicides axe found clutching smoking revolvers in their cold, stiff hands, the introduction of smokeless powder may be regarded as a severe blow to to the reportorial staff. It is reported that many Boston ladies will adopt the most pronounced type of reformed garb this fall. But they won’t take off their spectacles. No, sir! The Boston woman is modest and knows where to draw the line. A young Savannah lawyer swam across the Savannah River five times the other day to win a bet of SSO, all of which tends to show the state of legal business in Savannah. It is time Judge Lynch gave Blackstone a show. “It is true,” says Mr. Waterson, “‘that journalism is not literature.” But he should have added that a great deal of the literature of the present day is first found in journalism. The American newspaper nowadays secures the cream of contemporaneous literature. Farmers in Belgium and Germany string wires across their fields of grain and ring bells by water-power to keep off predatory birds. This suggests a , new use for the electric bell. A farmer could so fix things that his wife could touch the button and the birds would have no rest. Robert McDonald, a New York portrait painter, has been declared insane because he imagined he was painting a $500,000 picture. It will be hard on artists, musicians and actors if senseless exaggerations of one’s own work is to be regarded as a test of insanity. It is an old theory, but one that always makes either the father or the ? mother of a family mad, that if there are more girls than boys in a family, it is an indication that the father is intellectually stronger than his wife, and if there are more of boys, the wife’s brain is larger. Lady Burton says she doesn’t regret her vandalism in destroying her late husband’s last manuscript, but „ “regrets having confessed it.” Lady Burton is in rather an analogous attitude with the small boy who wasn’t sorry for stealing the melons, but was awfully sad that he was caught at it. A recent American visitor to the German Court told the Emperor that he had a Yankee head on his shoulders. In a former era the Emperor might have punished him by telling an attendant to take the Yankee head off from his visitor’s shoulders. But his Royal Highness seemed to like it. Anarchy is threatened in China. Anarchy means disruption, disintegration, and immigration on a larger scale than ever before. This -bodes no good to Europe or America. Rome, overrun by the barbarians, was .no more helpless than would Ahierica be if the cellestial hordes . -were let loose upon her. The Medical Becord erroneously a Boston poet with the honor

cardinal of the sea.” The phrase belongs to a distinguished Frenchman. A Boston gentleman first called the clam “the strawberry of the sea,” however, and his name is Charles Woodbury. It is rather the happier thought. The absurdity of certain kinds of collecting is illustrated by the sale at a recent auction of a chair said to have belonged to a famous man for £SOO. A moment or two later the auctioneer announced that he had made an error, and that this was a chair which was simply an antique of unknown history. It was then resold for £l. Even a stony heart must bleed for the man who fell dead in a Chicago West-side gambling-house when the police raided the place. It appears that the unfortunate man held three jacks and a pair of eights at the very momeht when the police entered, and he doubtless felt that to be pulled with such a hand made life no longer worth the living. News comes from the San Luis Rey region in San Diego, County, Cal., that some thirty or forty Mission Indians are to be deprived of thejlands upon which they and their civilized ancestors have lived for over a hundred years. And yet, when Helen Hunt Jackson told a similar story in “Ramona,” the California Indlan-haters pooh-hoohed it as absurd and improbable. The promiscuous “fooling” around men which distinguishes so many American woman, is exceedingly dangerous. Every day you hear of a crying woman in a strange town, who thought she was only “flirting.” Lectures are heard every day to young men, but nothing is said to young women, although there should be a great deal said to them, and in plain language. Many of the greatest fools in the world may be found among pretty girls. The German Socialists ask for woman suffrage and the abolition of the standing army, among other things, but would the women vote, if given the ballot, for the disbanding of the army? Women dread war but .they love pomp and pagentry of arms in time of peace, least doubtful whether, in any country, they would like to see the standing army entirely done away with, officers, cadets, and all, even if they thought such action safe from the standpoint of patriotism. Without a doubt, it was a put-up-job on the part of the press of Chicago to simultaneously attack what is known as the “Sweater System” in that city. But it has resulted in so much of good to the thousands of poor, in whose behalf it was started, that no one will censure the papers which engaged in the work. The “Sweater System” is one by which some mercenary grasping, and cruel man, without a cent of capital invested, makes clothing by contract, employing women, children, and infirm men, and paying wages Iso meagre that life is barely supported. The system grew out of a desire on the part of manufactors to escape the bother of managing their own rooms. And the result is that wages which in the first instance are none too large, are curtailed before they reach the earner by the avariciousness of some vampire who, in his capacity of go-between, is known as a “sweater.” Animal Worship. One of the most singular customs among the ancient Egyptians was the worship of animals. In the light of modern days their devotion to these sacred animals displays many absurdities. It was considered a capital crime to kill any of them voluntarily, the offender being duly tried and immediately executed. If an ’ ibis or hawk was accidently killed, the unfortunate cause of its death was very often put to death by the people without the formality of a trial. Should it so happen that a man found the carcass of either of these birds he would fall upon his knees at its sides and loudly cry out that he had found it dead. Cats were also looked upon as sacred, and at the death of a tabby every male inmate of its owner’s house cut off his eyebrows. When a dog was buried each man shaved his head and body. They carried their hawks, cats and dogs in all war expeditions, and those that died were salted and prepared for burial at their homes, with as much care as would be taken with a human being. In addition to these animals and birds there were sacred bulls, crocodiles, and beetles, the latter being especially revered on account of being considered a type of the sun. These curious people also entertained peculiar notions regarding its mode of reproduction, in which they traced analogies to the movements of the other heavenly bodies. One species was dedicated to the sun, another to the moon and a third to Tooth or Hermes. Many plants were also looked upon as sacred, the principal, as is well known, being the lotus. In this flower the Egyptians found an allusion to the rising of the sun from the ocean, from the fact that its blossoms are thrown above the surface of the water. '• Peach trees were sacred to the great Harpocrates, the god of silence —a diety supposed to be the same as Horus, the son of Isis. Leeks and onions, the accacia and the heliotrope were worshiped and consecrated to the sun, and the laurel was considered the noblest of all plants. “There’s no place like home, Johnson.” “No,” returned Johnson, who lives In a Flatbush flat. “No; and on the whole I think it’s a blessing there ain’t.” I• A v- -»' **? '•«'. A*

DR. TALMAGE’S SERMON. THE DISCOURSE DELIVERED AT ELMIRA. WEW YORK. The Subject Rendered Appropriate by the Fact That They Are Holding an Interstate Fair There—Text of the Sermon. Geneala. xxlx. 8. Droves at the Well. The Rev. Dr. Talmage preached in Elmira, N. Y., to an immense multitude that had gathered to attend the New York and Pennsylvania Exposition. His text was Genesis xxix, 8, “And they said, we cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well’s mouth; then we water the sheep.” There are some, reasons why it is appropriate that I should accept the invitation to preach at this great interstate fair, and to these throngs of countrymen and citizens—horsemen just come from their fine chargers, the king of beasts, for I take the crown from the lion and put it on the brow of the horse, which is in every way nobler—and speak to these shepherds just come from their flocks—the Lord himself in one place, called a Shepherd and in another place called a Lamb, and all the good are sheep—and preach to you cattlemen come up from the herds, your occupation honored by the fact that God himself thinks it worthy of immortal record that he owns “the cattle on a thousand hills.” « It is appropriate that I come, because I was a farmer’s boy, and never saw a city until I was nearly grown, and, having been born in the country, I never got over it, and would not dwell in cities a day if my work was not appointed there. My love to'you now, and whbn I get through 1 will give you my hand, for though I have this summer shaken hands with perhaps 40,000 people in twenty-one States of the Union, all the way through to Colorado and North and South, I will not conclude my summer vacation till I have shaken hands with you. You old fanner out there! How you make me think of my father! You elderly woman out there with cap and spectacles! How you make me think of my mother! And now, while the air of these fair grounds is filled with the bleating’ of sheep, and the neighing of horses, and the lowing of cattle, I cannpt find a more appropriate text than the one I read. It is a scene in Mesopotamia, beautifully pastoral. A well of water of great valud in that region. The fields around about it white with these flocks of sheep lying down waiting for the watering. I hear their bleating coming on the bright air, and the langhterof young men and maidens Indulging in rustic repartee. I look off, and I see other flocks of sheep coming. Meanwhile, Jacob, a stranger, on the interesting errand of looking for a wife, comes to the well. A beautiful shepherdess comes to the same well. I see her approaching, followed by her father’s flock of sheep. It was a memorable meeting. Jacob married this shepherdess. The Bible account of it Is, “Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice and wept.” It has always been a mystery with me what he found to cry about! But before that scene occurred Jacob accosts the shepherds and asks them why they postpone the slaking of the thirst of these sheep, and why they did not immediately proceed to water them. The shepherds reply to the effect: “We are all good neighbors, and as a matter of courtesy we wait until all the sheep of the neighborhood come up. Besides that, this stone on the well’s mouth Is somewhat heavy, and several of us take hold of it and push it aside, and then the buckets and the troughs are filled and the sheep are satisfied. We canuot, until all the flocks are gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well’s mouth; then we water the sheep.” “Oh, this is a thirsty world! Hot for the head, and blistering for the feet, and parching for the tongue. The world’s great want is a cool, refreshing, satisfying draft. We wander around and find the cistern empty. Long and tedious drought has dried up the world’s fountains, but nearly nineteen centuries ago a Shepherd, with crook in the shape of a cross, and feet .cut to the bleeding, explored the desert passages of this world, and one day came across a well a thousand feet deep, bubbling and bright, and opalescent, a,nd looked to the North, and the South, and the East, and the West, and cried out with a voice strong and musical that rang through the ages: “Ho, every one that thlrsteth, come ye to the waters!” Now, a great flock of sheep to-day gather around this Gospel well. There are a great many thirsty souls. I wonder why the flocks of all nations do not gather—why so many stay thirsty; and while I am wondering about it, my text breaks forth in the explanation, saying: “We cannot, until ail these flocks be gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well’s mouth; then we water the sheep.” If a herd of swine come to a well they angrily jostle each other for the precedence; if a drove of cattle come to a well, they hook each other back from the water, but When the flock of sheep come, though a hundred of them shall be disappointed, they only express it by sad bleating—they come together peacefully. We want a great multitude to come around the Gospel well. I know there are those who do not like a crowd—they think a crowd is vulgar. If they are oppressed for room in church it makes them positively impatient and belligerent. Not so did these oriental shepherds. They waited until all the flocks were (fathered, and the more flocks that came the better they liked it. And so we ought to be anxious that all the people should come. Go out into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come In. Go to the rich and tell them they are indigent without the Gospel of Jesus. Go to the poor and tell them the affluence there is in Christ Go to the blind and tell them of the touch that gives eternal illumination. Go to the lame and tell them of the joy that will make the lame man leap like a hart Gather all the sheep off of all the mountains. None so torn of the dogs, none so sick, none so worried, none so dying as to be omitted. When the fall elections come the whole land is scoured for voters, and if a man is too week or sick to walk to the polls a carriage is sent for him; but when the question is whether Christ or the devil shall rule this world, how few there are to come out to seek the sick, and the lost, and the suffering, and the bereft, and the lame, and induce their suffrages lor the Lord Jesus. Why not gather a great flock? All America in a flock; all the world in a flock. This well of the Gospel is deep enough to put out the burning thirst of the fourteen hundred million of the race. Do not let the church by a spirit of exclusiveness keep the world out. Let down all the bars,' swing open all the gates, scatter all the invitations, “Whosoever will, let him come.” Come, white and black. Come, red men of the forest. Come, Laplander, out of the snow. Come, Patagonian, out of the heat. Come in furs. Come, panting under palm leaves. Come one. Come all. Come now. As at this well of Mesopotamia Jacob and Rachel were betrothed, so now, at thia well of salvation Christ

our Shepherd will meet you coming up with your long flocks of cares ana anxieties, and He will stretch out His hand in pledge of Bis affection, while all Heaven will cry out, “Behold the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.” You notice that this well ot Mesopotamia had a stone on it, which must be removed before the sheep could be watered; and I And on the well of salvation to-day Impediments aud obstacles, which must be removed in order that you may obtain the refreshment and life of this Gospel. In your case the impediment is pride of heart. You cannot bear to come to so democratic a fountain; you do not want to come with so many others. It is to you like when you are dry, coming to a town pump, as compared to sitting in a parlor sipping out of a chased chalice which has just been lifted from a silver salver. Not so many publicans and sinners. You want to get to Beaven, but it must be in a special car, with your feet on a Turkish ottoman and a band of music on board the train. You do not want to be in company with rustic Jacob and Rachel, and to be drinking out of the fountain where 10,000 sheep have been drinking before you. You will have to remove the obstacle of pride, or never find your way to the well. You will have to come as we came, willing to take water of eternal life in any way and at any hand, and in any kind of pitcher, crying out: “O Lord Jesus, I am dying of thirst. Give me the water of eternal life, whether in trough or goblet Give me the water of life; I care not in what it comes to me.” Away with all your hindrances of pride from the well’s mouth. Jacob, with a good deal of tug and push, took the stone from the well’s mouth, so that the flocks might be watered. And I would that to-day my word, blessed of God, might remove the hindrance to your getting up to the Gospel well. Yes, I take it for granted that the.work is done, and now, like oriental shenherds, I proceed to water the sheep. Come, all ye thirsty! You have an undefined longing in your soul. You tried money making; that did not satisfy you. You tried office under Government; that did not satisfy you. You tried pictures and sculptures, but works of art did not satisfy you. You are as much discontented with this life as the celebrated French author who felt that he could not any longer endure the misfortunes of the world, and who said: “At 4 o’clock this afternoon I shall put an end to my own existence. Meanwhile, I must toil on up to that time for the sustenance of my family.” And he wrote on his book until the clock struck 4, when he folded up his manuscript and, by his own hand, concluded his earthly life. When an aged clergyman was dying—a man very eminent in the church—a young theological student stood by his side, and the man looked up and said to him. “Can’t you give me some comfort in my dying heart?” “No,” said the young man; “I can’t talk to you on this subject; you know all about It, and have known it so long.” “Well,” said the dying man, “just recite to mo some promises.” The young man thought a moment, and ho came to this promise, “The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin;” and the old man clapped his hands and in his dying moment said: “That's just the promise I have been waiting for., ‘The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.’” Gh, the warmth, the grandeur, the magnificence of the promises! Come, also, to this Gospel well, all ye “troubled. I do not suppose you have escaped. Compare your view of this life at fifteen years of age with what your view of it Is at forty, or sixty, or seventy. What a great contrast of opinion! Were you right then, or are you right now? Ttvo cups placed in your hands, the one a sweet cup, the other a sour cup. A cup of joy and a cup of arrlef. Which has been the nearest to being full, and out of which have you the mope freI quently partaken? What a different place the cemetery is from what it used to be! Once it was to yon a grand city improvement, and you went out on the pleasure excursion, and ran laughing up the mound, an<J you criticised in a light way the epitaph. But since the day when you heard the bell toll at the gate as you went in with the procession, it is a sad place, and there it a flood of rushing memories that suffuselthe eye and overmaster the heart. Oh, you have had trouble, trouble, knows how much you have had. it is a wonder you have been able to live through it It is a wonder your nervous system has not been shattered and your brain has not reeled. Trouble, trouble. If I could gather all the griefs oi all sorts from this great audience &nd could put them in one scroll, neither man nor angel could endure the recitation. Well, wfaat do you want? Would you like to have your property back again? “No,” you say, as a Christian man; “I was becoming arrogant, and I think that is why the Lord took it away. I don’t want to have my property back.” Well, would you have your departed friends back again? “No,” you say; “I couldn’t take the responsibility of bringing them from a tearless realm to a realm of tears. I couldn’t do it.” Well, then, what do you want? A thousand voices in the audience cry out, “Comfort, give us comfort.” For that reason I have rolled away the stone from the well’s mouth. Come, all ye wounded of the flock, pursued of the wolves, come to the fountain where the Lord’s sick and bereft ones have come. “Ah,” says some one, “you are not old enough to understand my sorrows. You have not been in the world as long as I have, and you can talk to me about my misfortunes in the time of old age.” Well, I have been a great detfl among old people, and I know how they feel about their failing health, and about their departed friends, and about the lonliness that sometimes strikes through their soul. After two persons have lived together for forty or fifty years and one of them is taken away, what desolation! I shall not forget the cry of the late Rev. Dr. De Witt, of New York, when he stood by the open grave of his beloved wife, and after the obsequies had ended, he leaked down into the open place and sara: “Farewell, my honored, faithful and beloved wife. The bond that bound us Is severed. Thou art in glory, and lam here on earth. We shall meet again. Farewell! Farewell!” To lean on a prop for fifty years, and then have It break under you! There were only two years’ difference between the deaths of my father and mother. After my mother’s decease my father used to go around as though looking for something; and he would often get up from one room without any seeming reason and go to another room; and then he would take his cane and start out and some one would say, “Father, where are you going?” and he would answer, “I don’t know exactly where I am going.” Always looking for something. Though he was a tender-hearted man, I never saw him cry but once, and that was at the bruial of my mother. After sixty years living together, it was hard to part. And there are aged people to-day who are feeling just such a pang as that. I want to tell them there is perfect enchantment tn the promises of this Gospel; and I come to them and offer them my arm, or I take their arm and I bring them to this Gospel well. Sit down* father or mother, sit down. See if there is anything at the well for you. Come, David, the psalmist, have you anything encouraging to offer them? “Yea,” «aye

the psalmist; “They shall still bring-ftwtfr fruit in old age, they shall be fat. an#• flourishing, to show that the Lord is upright, He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in me.” Come, Isaiah, have you anything to say out of your prophecies for these aged people? “Yes,” says Isaiah: “Down to old age I am with thee, and to hoary hairs will I carry thee.” if the Lord is going to carry you, you ought not to worrv much about your failing eyesight aud failing limbs. You get a little worried for fear sometime you will come io want, do you? Your children and grandchildren sometimes speak a little sharp at you because ot your ailments. The Lord will not speak sharp. Do you think you will come to want? Who do you think the Lord is? Are His granaries empty? Will He feed the raven and the rabbit, and the lion in the desert, and forget you? Why. naturalists tell us that the porpoise will not forsake its wounded and sick mate. And do you suppose the Lord of Heaven and earth has not as much sympathy as the fish of the sea? But you say: “I am so near worn out, and I am of no use to God any more.” I think the Lord knows whether you are of any more use or not; if you were of no more use he would have taken you before this. Do you think God has forgotten you because He has taken cure of you seventy or eighty years? He thinks more of you to-dav than He ever did, because you think more of Him. May the God of Abraham and. Isaac and Jacob and Paul the aged be your God fdrever! But I gather all the promises to-day in a group, and I ask the shepherds to drive their flocks of lambs and sheep up to the sparkling supply. “Behold, happy is the man whom God cor rectoth.” “Though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion.” “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.” “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” lam determined to-day that no one shall go away uncomforted. Yonder is a timid and shrinking soul who seems to hide away from the consolations lam uttering, as a child with a sore hand hides away from the physician lest he touch the wound too roughly, and the mother has to go and compel the little patient to come out and see the physician. So I come to your timid and shrinking soul to-day, and compel you to come out in the presence of the Divine Physician. He will not hurt you. He has been healing wounds for many years, and He will give you gentle and omnipotent medicament. But people, when they have trouble, go anywhere rather than to God. De Quincy took opium to get rid of his troubles. Charles Lamb took to punch. Theodore Hook took to something stronger. Edwin Forrest took to theatrical dissipation. And men have run all around the earth, hoping in the quick transit to get away from their misfortunes. It has been a dead failure. There is only one well that can slack the thirst of an afflicted spirit, and that is the deep and inexhaustible well of the Gospel. ■ ’ But some one says in the audience, “Notwithstanding all you have said this morning, I find no alleviation for my troubles.” Well, I ain not through yet. I have left the most potent consideration for the last. lam going to soothe you with the thought of Heaven. However talkative we may be, there will come a time when the stoutest and most emphatic interrogation will evoke from us no answer. As soon" as we have closed our lips for the final silence no power on earth can break that taciturnity, but where, oh, Christian, will be your spirit? In a scene of infinite gladness. The spring morning of Heaven waving its blossoms in the bright air. Victors fresh from battle showing their scars. The rain of earthly sorrow struck through with the rainbow of eternal joy. In one group, God and angels and the redeemed—Paul and gilas, Latimer and Ridley, Isaiah and Jeremiah, Payson and John Milton, Gabriel and Michael the archangel. Long line of choristers reaching across the hills. Seas of joy dashing to the white beach. Conquerors marching from gate to gate. You among them. Oh, what a great flock of sheep God will gather around the celestial well. No stone on the well’s mouth while the shepherd waters thfFsheep. There Jacob will recognize Rachel the shepherdess. And standing on one side of the well of eternal rapture your children, and standing on the other side of the well of eternal rapture your Christian ancestry, you will be bounded on all sides by a joy so keen and grand that no other world has ever been permitted to experience it. Out ot that one deep well of Heaven the Shepherd will dip reunion for the bereaved, wealth for the poor, health for the sick, rest for the weary. And then all the flock of the Lord’s sheep will lie down in the green pastures, and world without end we will praise the Lord that on this first autumnal Sabbath of 1891 we were permitted to study among the bleating flocks and lowing herds of this fair ground the story of Jacob and Rachel the shepherdess, at the well In Mesopotamia. Oh, plunge your buckets into this great Gospel well and let them come up dripping with that water of which it a man drink he never again shall thirst. They Hau Reaiiona. I heard two colored men in the railway station at Augusta, Ga., denouncing each other with such vigor and indignation that seemed as if murder would be done. They kept it up for ten minutes, and then one of them Anally said: “Julius, does yo’ know why I doan’ let all yer blood right out on dis yere flooh? It’s bekase I was gwine to tell de police who stole Marse Thompson’s red calf.” “Hu!” An’ does yo’ know what prevents me from killin’ yo’ as dead as a hammer wid one blow of dis couplin-pin?” queried the other. “It’s bekase Marse Jackson will give $lO to know who stole dem hams, an’ I’ze gwine right up to tell him! Yo’ hear me, Peter—l’ze sayin’ hams!” Five minutes later they were sitting on a trunk together and conversing in the most friendly manner.— New York World. Traveling: in tbe Early Daye. Hannibal Hamlin’s first trip to Washington was filled with variety. From his home he traveled to Portland by stage coach. From Portland he went to Boston by boat, then to Norwich by rail, from the latter place he crossed the Sound to Greenport, from there he took the Long Island railroad to New York, from the latter place he again took the railway to Philadelphia, from that point he made the best of his way by boat and stage coach to Baltimore, and from the Monumental City at last reached the capital by rail. Arriving in Washington after this tedious journey, he found it to be a straggling, dilapidated and overgrown village of less than 20,000 Inhabitants. The streets of magnificent houses which now accommodate the two hundred and odd thousand residents of the place then used m cow pasture*.

DEATH IN THE POT. DAVID A. WELLS ON THE WOOL TARIFF. He Shows Its Effects in Increasing the Use of Shoddy—Consumption and Pneumonia from the Tariff Standpoint — How Our Death Rate Is Affected by Shoddy. The Wool Tariff. Hon. David A. Wells has recently written a striking article on the wool tariff for the New York World. He takes as his text the Bible words, “There is death in the pot, ” applying them to the enormous development of the shoddy business by reason of the tax on wool, and the injurious effects of shoddy clothing upon the health of the people. After calling attention to the analysis made by the New York Dry Goods Econ~ omist to show that oqr manufacturers who favor a high tax on wool use comparatively little wool in making their so-called “woolen goods," while those manufacturers who are asking for free wool are makers of good, honest fabrics, : Mr. Wells concludes: “In view of these revelations, is it u mere coincidence, as the Economist pertinently asks, that the men engaged in the business ot making bogus woolens and employing skilled designers, as they undoubtedly do, not so much for producing attractive fabrics as for ingeniously hiding from the public their inferior nature, should be stanch advocates of a high tariff on wool; while the | manufacturers of all-wool goods are in > favor of free wool? Is not the explana- I tlon to bo found in tho fact that high- | taxed wool moans, to its advocates a larger market for productions composed mainly of shoddy, cotton, cow-hair, and little wool? while tL* advocate of free wool feels that If Ire had all tho wool markets of the world to draw from on the same bas sas his foreign competitors he could meet the large domestic demand for heavy woolens with goods made of all or nearly all wool. It is interesting also to note that while a large class of American wool manufacturers — such men as E. B. Bigelow, J, Wiley Edmonds, Theodore Pomeroy, and their special representative, John L. Hayes—were unanimous in 1866 in characterizing shoddy as ‘a worthless material,’ and earnest in their petition to Congress to save the American people from the calamity of its use, the representatives and successors of these same men are now equally agreed that shoddy properly prepared ‘is an innoxious and most serviceable material,’ and that it is only througlu.its extensive use that the American people can have cheap clothing and appear well dressed. Os course this latter proposition has foundation so long as a fiscal policy (which these same friends of shoddy advocate) is maintained that prevents the American people from having a proper and natural supply of wool, and which if abrogated would not only render the use of shoddy as a condition for producing cheap clothing to a groat extent unnecessary, but would make feasible the production of clothing that was equally cheap, and at tho same time warm, healthy and durable. In short, was there ever a better illustration of the wise maxim, that the great art in all cases of fraud upon the public is to get up a quantum suiheit of the wrong, and then set the abomination to defend Itself, “Now, wherein is the pertinency of these facts to the Scriptural text adopted as the title of this article, ‘There Is Death in the Pot?’ Just here: The tariff taxes Imposed on that proportion of the wool consumption of the country —about 300,000,000 pounds—which the country does not produ e, and which It is needful to import, augment the price of all wool clothing to the American masses to a degree that they canuot or are unwilling to pay. Let any one who desires to test this matter for himself inquire at any respectable furnishing store the relative prices of undoubted all-wool fabrics, and of the fabrications that ordinarily pas* under the name of woolens, and he will be abundantly satisfied. The result is that the masses buy at some popular price something for their clothing frhtch Is called ‘ woolen,’ but which js not rightfully entitled Jq any swoh designation—something like the fabrics before referred to produced in Philadelphia, and analyzed by the Dry-Goods Merchant, which were composed of 73 per cent, of cotton and shoddy. The climate of the United States, especially of its northern portions, is,as everybody knows, liable to sudden and extreme changes. In temperature, and for the practically six winter months of the year, it is most essential that all exposed to such changes should be warmly and substantially clad. No one in their senses, would knowingly venture into atmosphere charged with conditions favoring ‘grip,’ pneumonia, and the varied throat and lung ailments or diseases, clad in cotton garments. And yet this is exactly what tbe workingmen and poorer classes of tho country do habitually under a tariff system that the proper and healthful use of wool for the most ordinary clothing purposes. Does not this condition of things also suggest a possible explanation of the fact that while the mortality from consumption and pneumonia in the United States is greater than from any other causes, the rate per 100,000 deaths annually in this country from these diseases is far greater than in the cold and more damp climates of England and Wales. “In 1880 the mortality from consumption In the United States was at the rate of 13,059 in every 100,000 deaths and 8,330 from pneumonia. The corresponding figures for the same year in England and Wales were 9,141 for consumption and 4,772 for pneumonia. “Certainly the man who wears the cheap coat, which the high tariff on wool compels him to wear, is like to become very cheap before he gets through wearing it “Concerning the sanitary influence of the excessive use of shoddy in the United States as a material for the manufacture of clothing, a spirit of fairness requires the statement that when properly prepared, as it undoubtedly is in most cases, its original earthy or organic impurities are wholly or in a great degree eliminated from it or destroyed by the processes pf carding, spinning, boiling, dyeing and steaming to which it is subjected in its conversion into fabrics, But as all these processes are costly and are not primarily undertaken from sanitary considerations, the tendency is to regard the purification of shoddy in its largest sense, in the course nf its manufacture, as an incidental matter, in respect to which any special effort Is not necessary. But be this as it may. shoddy is not wool, and if the wearers of clothing largely made from It and purchased because it Is cheap could know of its genesis they would one and all be earnest and uncompromising opponents of any law or policy, like our existing tariff, which restricts them from using wool, cheap, healthy and of far greater enduring properties, in its place. “The experience thus selected and above set forth as an Illustration of the Influences prejudicial to public health arising from unnatural legislative restrictions on the free use of commodities that enter largely into the living and well-being of the masses is not exceptional. Many others similar and even more striking might be cited. “Indeed it may be regarded as a general rule that when the natural and free supply of any article in common uae by the masses is artificially restricted, the tendency is to fall book upon and use

an inferior substitute, and for the gen- “ oral plane of living to be thereby lowered. Such a policy undoubtedly la productive of gain to a comparatively few, but is certainly a of evil to the many. * Divided Counsels at the Helm. It is really painful to hear two such eminent statesmen as our President and Maj. McKinley.expressing views so outof harmony with each other. The President waxes eloquent about opening “the markets of our sister republics tn Central and South America to the products of American shops and farms;" yet the great tariff-maker said in Congress last year: “If we would invade tljfo world’s markets harsher conditions ana greater sacrifices would be demanded) ot the masses. * / Alas, the good old ship Protection is veering about at sea in a most aimless condition. There is first one helmsman and |hen another at the wheel, and no one seems to know what port they are trying to make. They are not even agreed on so simple a question as whether foreign trade is a good thing or not. Is the President willing to abandon his reciprocity dreams in order not to* demand those “harsher conditions and greater sacrifices” from the masses? Or is McKinley willing this year to have our farmers enter markets in which last year he professed to see only the most ruinous competition for them? Yet even McKinley is now making public rejoicings on the stump in Ohio that our foreign trade is greater than ever. Where will these helmsmen steer their ship? Cheap Tin-Plate HoaatM, And now the tin-plate epidemic has struck Baltimore again, it having been quiescent there since last fall, when a> bogus report was in circulation that an enormous plant was to be established in that city to manufacture tin plate. Report now says that the firm of Coates & Co will build a large establishment at Locust Point, near Baltimore, A curious feature in connection with this report is an interview in the Baltimore Manufacturers' Becord with Dr. L. R. Coates, the head of the firm, in which that gentleman boasts thus; “From all that wo have been able to learn, we have reached the conclusion that tin plate can be made as cheaply in the United States as in Wales, in France, in Germany, or in any other part of the world. ” This is the same boast which was made two years ago by W. C. Cronemyer, Secretary Os the American Tinned-Plate Association at Pittsburg, Pa. In a published circular this gentleman said: “And it is a fact, and wo can prove it by figures, that they can bo made here and sold with profit at present selling prices. ” Notwithstanding this assertion of our ability to make tin-plate without any increase of duty, the patriotic Mr. Cronemyer was one of the most active and z? persistent workers securing the present duty of 3 1-5 cents per pound. If these tin-plate people speak the truth, why do wo need that high McKinley duty? Protective XV Rget In Italy. A correspondent of that hide-bound protection organ, the Chicago Inter Ocean, writes to that paper from Venice, Italy, an account of a visit to a lacemaking establishment in that city. The correspondent has the following to say about wages: “I was shown some wonderful articles —scarfs, shawls, mantles, spreads, handkerchiefs, etc. —some of which required six months in the making, offered to me at what I thought were ridiculously low prices. When I expressed my astonishment and asked how it was possible to dispose of so exquisite a fabric for such an Insignificant sum the manager of the department—who has been in America and knows something of Its conditions—looked sidelong at me aud said, with an eloquent smile: ‘Well, wo pay our girls seven cents a day.’" And this in Italy, one of the most highly protected countries In Europe! Imported Industries, J Protectionists arc excessively jubilant whenever they can print a report that seme EproreiJ) majjujaciurer has been cdinpelledoy the McKinley law to set up a branch establishment in this country. But these European manufacturers wtR take away every penny that they make. What becomes then of that venerable superstition about protect’on keeping our money in the country? The muddle-headed protectionists tell us very glibly that under protection two profits are kept in the country, the profit made by the manufacturer and that made by the buyer of his goods. This is not true; but It It were, what about the profit made in the American branch factory of some great European manufacturer? Does It not take to Itself wings and fly away to Europe? > Prunes and Prune-Eaten. ; It Is estimated that the United States consumes annually about 85,000,000 pounds of prunes. The greater part of these is imported. The domestic supply is produced wholly on the Pacific coait, the output In 1890 being about 16,000,000 pounds. These California prunes arc so much better than foreign prunes that they sell readily In New York at considerably higher prices Nearly all imported prunes, except those coming from France, are of a common quality and are bought by all housewives of modest means. Yet McKinley doubled the duty on tho Imported prunes of the poor In order to guarantee higher profits still to California prune growers, who sell their product to tho rich. An Awkward Coincidence. It is too bad that almost on the very day Major McKinley delivered his beautiful peroration about the protective tariff “securely shielding American labor from the degrading competition of the old world" the Trades and Labor Assembly of Chicago should find that many women in that city are working twelve or thirteen hours dally for 81. 50 per week. Perhaps it would be a wise plan,, since protective tariffs are such good' things, to let Chicago have one all by herself. Her women might then be able to earn S 3 per week.— Louisville CourierJournal. _ Fhee sugar is opening the eyes of the people as to the effects of a tariff tax. A “Republican Workingman" writes to the New York Press thus: “On account of sugar being free, the poor man can today purchase three and a half pounds of granulated sugar for 16 cents. If other Imports were free, why could not he buy as cheap and have more luxuries than heretofore. “ Henry Cabot Lodge predicts that the tariff will not be the leading Issue In the campaign of 1892, but he anticipates that “able Democratic editors* will see in this prediction an Illustration of tne old saying that “the wish la father to the thought." Republican losses on the tariff issue In Massachusetts would lend color to this Democratic view. McKinley doubled the duty on oatmeal, although we export enormous quantities every year, and put this Into hie “farmers’ tariff.” This was protended to be a lift for labor, but now tho newly organised oatmeal trust has reduced wages at Akron, Ohio, between 40 and 80 per cent. All taxes that the people pay, the government should receive.—A'dward AtMason.