Democratic Press, Volume 1, Number 44, Decatur, Adams County, 15 August 1895 — Page 2

Democratic Press. DECATUR. IX-1 J. Democratic Press Co,. - Publisher*. Oscar Wilde will probably stand for parliament now. Well directed Improvement pays a dollar for every cent that it costs. “A “pants” company having failed, let us hope that it will try trousers next time. ■ rmp i ■ —w»u—— Let us pause and reflect.—Washing, ton rust. lii-iivr reflect, w outlier you pause or not. The gasoline can. In the hands of a careless servant girl, is deadlier than a grade crossing. No doubt there is a part of Japan’s treaty stipulations which demands credit for laundry bills. A Baltimore paper says that the lobster industry is waning. It is natural for it to go backward, anyway. The first thing an intelligent man loes, after the grocer and the dry goods man are considered, is to secure a. good newspaper. “This isn’t an ideal world,” says Russell Sage. Well, Uncle Russell seems to be doing more than his full share to keep it from becoming so. There is good reason for New York's pronounced enthusiasm for salt water yacht-racing. That is a diversion U hich cannot very well be taken away from her by the West. The best thing that the little Central American States can do is to get together and establish a nationality which big bullies like England will be compelled to respect “Every dog has his day,” remarks a Milwaukee paper, "why shouldn't every cat have one?” Because the cat has pre-empted the nighttime and is already working a twelve-hour turn. It will not be the fault of the benevolent people of Cincinnati if the children of that town turn out to be lacking in true grit. They have provided 400 large sand piles for the children to play in. The women of Grand Rapids have united in a petition to the management of the West Michigan fair asking that “as a feature of the public exhibitions this year the hula-hula style of dance be omitted." This movement is timely. Boston has a new name. The Westminster Gazette says "to the limbo of lies theosophy is slowly and surely returning.” The theosophists have recently announced that Boston is the center of their belief. The inference is plain.

The venerable John Ruskin was ask- ; ed recently whether parents ought to leave fortunes to their children and - tersely replied: "When they are strong ' throw them out of the nest as the bird does. But let the nest always be open to them.” It has b«en said of Ruskin that of late he has been losing his faculties. On the other hand, he seems to have preserved them remarkably. The bushel of many weights should give way to the cental 100 pounds. The trade needs but one standard unit of measure; more makes needless work and breeds confusion and errors. The cental system of weights is the simplest and its use would greatly facilitate trade. It has no imperfections that need defending, and even the best friends of the bushel have no logical arguments in defense of their opposition to the substitution of the cental for the bushel. The latest marine horror is the sinking of the Italian steamer Maria I*. in the harbor of Genoa, involving the loss of 148 lives. The present year is likely ‘ to have an unusual record of great marine disasters, as will be seen by the ' following list of wrecked steam rs thus ■ far: Port Nictheroy, Rio Janeiro harbor, 120; Nordsee. North Sea, 25; Initrahuil, English coast, 26; Prescott, at sea, 23; Chicora, Lake Michigan, 26; Elbe, North Sea, 332; Terciera, Rio Janeiro harbor, 100; Kingdon, at sea, 40; Reina Regente, Algerian coast, 425; Marie. English coast, 20; Billiton, at sea, 20; Gravlna, at sea, 108; Dorn Pedro, Spanish coast. 103; Colima. Mexican coast. 188; Washtenaw, at sea, 30; Maria I’., Gulf of Genoa, 148. Turkey has sent to the scene of the Macedonian outbreak fourteen battalions of infantry, nine squadrons of cavalry, and nine field batteries to put down the Christians of that province. As it the odds were not large enough against the Macedonians, the Christian powers, Germany, Austria, and England, it is reported, have reached an agreement, which agreement is not to let the Macedonian Christians go too far in putting down the unspeakable Turks. It is astonishing the amount of consideration these cruel and bestial Orientals receive from the great powers. As they have failed thus far, however. in any scheme to protect the Armenian Christians there is no reason to expect that the Macedonian cry “come over and help us” will be answered. In making his report on the defenses of the Northwest coast Gen. Schofield qualifies his approval of localities to j be selected for protection by saying j that there are numerous places where !

batteries could be planted "should the ' department ever extend their fortifications that far north.” This Is a most reasonable qualification. We certainly ought not to consider any scheme of piece-meal coast defense, and we ought not to consider any scheme of extending our defenses unless we know be. forehand just how far we are going to proceed with it It is just as well to bear in mind that this country is menaced by three of the greatest and newest military and naval stations and fortresses in the world, those at Bermuda. Halifax and Esqulmalt all of them the property of our good friends, the English. If we are going to match them gun for gun it is certain to cost us no trifling amount. But unless our defenses are complete they can hardly be worth undertaking at all. People who have been reading Cooper's novels under the impression that the novels amused or edified them are now rudely jostled out of this notion by Mark Twain. Mark has been reading Cooper, and decides that the author of the "Pathfinder” was an extremely poor hand at his trade. He shows the public, so to speak, that the romancer’s art was very shabby and ragged and full of blemishes. One gathers the impression that if Mark were not too indolent he would dash off a romance of the red man just to show how the thing really ought to be done. May be Cooper was not much of an artist. It is to be remembered, however, that he told his vivacious stories and carpentered his somewhat jerky plots in an earlier day and without any thought but to amuse his audience. He did amuse it, and still amuses. His artistic blemishes flavor his excellences; he is to be taken without minute inspection. If Mark must hit somebody, why not alm at that unterrified crew of English novelmakers—both men and women—who continue to write slightly varied paraphrases of "Lady Audley’s Secret?” Although Hardy and Meredith and Walter Besant have saved and glorified the nation’s reputation, the others continue to thrive noxiously. Individually they are small, but collectively they would make a first-rate target. If nothing detrimental intervenes the country’ this year will have the largest com crop in its history. It comes at a most opportune time. The foreign demand for both oats and wheat is declining. while that for corn seems to be increasing. For some years the National Government has maintained in Europe an agent whose business has been the introduction of corn as a food product, and this policy has been productive of good results. It has been hard to teach the Europeans that corn was as good a food for man as for other animals, but this fact has come to be understood by the poorer classes—the great food consumers—and the lower price of corn as compared with wheat has been a powerful incentive to its use. This year’s corn crop is estimated at 2.400,000,000 bushels, which is more than 200,000,000 in excess of the largest production of corn on record. With no foreign demand such a crop would be almost a calamity to the producers in this country, but the indications are that the exports of corn this year will be more than quadrupled. There has never been so active a demand for com for export as now, and this demand Is more likely to increase than to decline. If com instead of wheat should be made the leading export crop it would be far better for the American farmer. Com is more easily raised and is not so exhausting a crop for the soil as wheat or barley. Besides this there is less foreign competition for the producer of corn than for any other grain. The wheat area is constantly diminishing in America, while the com area is increasing, and the time may not be far distant when the United States will Import instead of eSport wheat for domestic consumption. The growth of the foreign corn trade is one of the most hopeful things about this country’s foreign trade. Wonders Seen by a Native Alaskan. “The Indians of the interior of Alaska,” says a traveler,“are as unsophisticated and uncivilized as the natives of the interior of Africa. I saw an Indian lad in Juneau who had been brought from Forty Mile Camp, and it was amusing to watch his interest in the big ships, houses, cattle, electric lights, telephones and phonographs that he saw there. The tittle incandescent electric lights interested him perhaps more than anything else, and he would have gone broke in buying them if his guardian had not prevented him. He thought that he could take them back to his tribe and make them glow by simply turning the thumbscrew, and ho believed that he could sell them like hot cakes on the Yukon. The mysteries of the phonograph seemed to him something supernatural, and they were entirely beyond his powers of understanding.” Growth of Public libraries. The growth of public libraries in the United States is one of the remarkable features of our system of progress. There are now nearly 5,000 of them; and a recent writer points out the significant far* that with, the single exception of the county, there is not a single civil division of our government that has not adopted this form of educational service. The nation, the States, the cities and towns have libraries for general use, and the work of the librarian has become a regular prosesI sion, with requirements of systematic study and training.—Astoria Astorian. Pneumatic Boots Are the Latest. The pneumatic principle has been applied to boots. The air tubes lie between the upper and lower soles, and give a springy movement to the foot calculated to reduce friction with the ground and to Jlevlate fatigue.

KILLS THE HOPPERS. MACHINE THAT SLAUGHTERS 8,000 BUSHELS A DAY. Minnesota Scientists Tackle the Farmers' Terror in a New WayCan vas and Kerosene Send the Pests to Death. “Hopper-Dozers.” Minnesota scientists have tackled the grasshoppr pest in a new way. Canvas and kerosene is the combination, before which the tiny hoppers go down to their death. Out there it is known as a “hop-per-dozer.” The State pays the expenses of the slaughter, and the slaughter ’s terrific. Think, if you can, of 8,000 bushel baskets packed with hoppers. That was the average record in a day of killed and wounded insects at the height of the scourge. Dr. Otto Lugger, Minnesota’s expert on bugs, is the man who utilized the curious “hopper-dozer,” says the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Why he calls it by that name it would be interesting to know. Perhaps it is because it sends the hoppers to their last sleep. lie was invited to do something to rid the farms of their voracious brigades of hoppers early this summer. He found evidences of enough of them to kill all the crops in Minnesota. The rains helped to kill off some of them, but science had to do its share in the extermination. In the neighborhood of Taylor’s Falls Dr. Lugger found a grass-hopper-infested district covering fifty or sixty square miles. The insects were descendants, ho thought, of a previous generation which had made trouble in 1890. They were of the so-called pellucid or California variety. There happened to be a State appropriation for killing hoppers, and this was turned over to the executioner. “I had 200 hopper-dozers built after the must approved fashion.” said Dr. Lugger to a correspondent, “and purchased sixty barrels of kerosene oil. All we asked of the farmers was that they run the machines. That they were anxious to do this is shown by the fact that there was a fight for the machines. Every farmer in the section wanted one and wanted it at once. We could not get them built fast enough to supply the demand. The same thing was done at Kush City, Duluth and other points, although there were not as many of them furnished at these places. I estimate that these machines killed about 8,000 bushels a day during the time that they were all running. I do not

CHE “HOPPER-DOZER," BY WHICH S.OOO BUSHELS HAVE BEEN KILLED IN ONE DAY.

think that this is exaggerated in the least, as there were over 40U of the machines, and at the end of a day’s work from three to ten bushels could be taken out of each machine with a shovel. Just about on.e hopper in ten that dies does so in the machine, so you can see that my estimate is not a large one by any means.” “What is the nature of the machine?” he was asked. “It is something of the nature of an overgrown dustpan, and is made of tin. It is about eight feet long by two feet wide, runs on three small runners, and is drawn over the ground by a horse. At the front of the machine is a trough filled with coal oil, and behind this, at right angles, a piece of canvas rises to a height of three or four feet. As this machine is drawn over the ground the hoppers jump into it, the canvas preventing them from jumping over. They fall into the oil and that is the end. “Some of them strike the oil head first and die instantly. Others only touch it with their feet or bodies and are able to jump out again. It makes little difference in the end, however, as they cannot live over three minutes if they have even the THE GBASSHOPFEB. smallest drop of the oil upon their bod? s. The fact that only those which get into the oil head first die instantly is the reason that such a small percentage of them are found in the pan at the close of the day’s work. "Os course the hopper-dozers are only a makeshift. I am conducting experiments now which I hope will show me a much better way of getting rid of the pests than the very clumsy one of gathering them up on a dustpan. A little while ago I read in some paper that in certain counties in Colorado the hoppers were dying in great numbers with some sort of a disease. I sent to the postmasters of a number of towns in that State asking them to send me some of the insects that were diseased. I received a large number, and there is no doubt in my mind that they are really afflicted with a disease that is contagious in its nature. We are trying to find out if the insects which we have In this State are liable to this disease. If so we will then know how to dsil with them in a scientific manner.” Philip Ilauffman and Michael Snyder were arrested at Coney Island, New York, charged with running an illicit still at Neptune avenue. The men rented the house one year ago. since which time they have lived in it and carried on their work. The whisky was stored in a cellar under the rear extension of the house. Grand Chief Powell, of the Order of Railway Telegraphers, has asked for a conference with tie managers of the Cotton Bjlt Railway relative to the com- | pany’s abolition of its agreement under which its telegraphers work.

BARRED BY A RAILROAD. Illinois Central Refuses to Allow Chi* cagoans to Cross Its Tracks. Actual conflict between citizens and armed officers of the Illinois Central Company od the Chicago lake front because passage to and from the lake front was denied to the people has brought the question of rights to a decisive issue. Mayor Swift declares the crisis has been reached. He propose* to protect the people against a repetition of the outrage of exclusion. John Dunn, assistant to the president of the company, announces he will not budge from the determined stand taken by his force of men with revolvers He says citizens were denied right to cross the tracks out of regard for their lives and intimates the corporation will fight any opening of streets. In short, the company’s position is construed by city officials to be a determination to stick for alleged vested rights. This earnestness on the pan of both contestants makes any more conferences and consequent agreements impossible. Chicago’s lake front on Wednesday was in the possession of fifty armed men, hired by the Illinois Central Railroad Company to blockade passage to the harbor from Randolph to 12th streets. They had clubs in their I their pockets. They were instructed to use both if necessary on any jjerson who insisted on his right to an approach to piers in navigable waters, and, in carrying out the instructions, they compelled a score of women to imperil their lives Wednesday night. This climax of the contest between the corporation and the municipality was caused by the action of the company in retaliation for the order to tear down the Van Buren street viaduct. Special Officer O’Keefe was called into the general manager’s room and ordered to secure a large force of assistants. He was informed that at sundown the people were to be taught they had no right to a passage to the lake front. He was told to furnish his assistants with weapons and to arrest peacefully in all cases where a beating was not necessary, any man, woman or child who tried to enter Chicago from the steamboats. This order, said to be without precedent in the history of maritime matters, was put into working force at the time when the people were returning from Lincoln Park and Windsor I’ark Beach by boat. CROP CONDITIONS. General Outlook for Corn Is Flatter* ing—Much Rain in Places. The reports as to the conditions of the crops throughout the country and the general iniiuence of the weather on

growth, cultivation and harvest, made by the directors of the different State weather services, say that the general outlook for an exceptionally fine corn crop continues flattering. Except in the Dakotas and Minnesota where it is somewhat late and in Indiana where it is maturing slowly, the crop is generally in advance of the season and early corn is now practically made over the southern portion of the corn belt. Kansas and Missouri report much of the crop made, and iu Missouri the largest crop ever raised in that State is promised. Six hundred lowa reports, all counties being represented, show the condition of corn as much above the average in sixty-one counties, above average in eight counties, while thirty counties promise a crop below the average. In Nebraska corn is in excellent condition in the southwestern part of the State and in the counties along the Missouri River; but has been much injured in the southeastern section, except in the river counties. In Indiana, while corn is maturing slowly, it is in good condition. In Ohio the outlook is less favorable, being poor in the uplands and on clay soils. Kentucky reports corn prospects unprecedented. No unfavorable reports respcctin jcorn are received from the Southern States except from portions of Texas and the Carolinas, where in some counties drought is proving injurious. In Texas cotton is needing rain on upland; and the southwest portion of the State, North Carolina, I lorida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisian.- report improvement in the condition of cotton over the previous week, while the outlook in South Carolina is less favorable. In Missouri there has been too much rain for cotton and the crop is grassy and the outlook unfavorable in Arkansas. Spring wheat harvest has begun in North Dakota and continues elsewhere in the spring wheat region. Tobacco is in good condition in Virginia and growing rapidly in Kentucky and continues in excellent condition in Maryland, but in Ohio it is not doing well. Light local frosts occurred in Northern Indiana and in Northern Maryland and in the mountains of West Virginia. No damage reported except slight injury to corn in Maryland. Drought continue, in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Southern Texas and in portions of Maryland and the Carolinas. where crops are being injuriously affected. Sir T. F. Wade died at Cambridge. He was born about 1820 and entered the army in 1838, serving afterward in China and elsewhere. He was advanced to the rank of K. C. B. in 1875 for his exertions in negotiating important treaties with the Chinese Government and obtaining treating facilities in that empire, The students' recent outbreak in Guatemala was due mainly to the punishment inflicted on some of their number. Twelve were arrested and switched until the blood flowed. One afterwards committed suicide by shooting himself. Louis Stern, of New York, was sentenced at Kissengen, Germany, to two weeks' imprisonment for insulting a public official and to pay a fine of 6OJ marks for resistance to the authority of ths state.

TWO SHIPS GO DOWN. AT LEAST TWENTY-SIX LIVES ARE LOST. British Vessel Prince Oscar Strike, an Unknown Boat-In Ten Minute. Both Go to the Bottom-One Entire Crew and Six of Another Lost. Horror in Mid-Ocean. The British steamer Capac, from 1 alparaiso. brought to I‘hil.i lelphi 1 Thursday night seventeen shipwrecked mariners and the news of a terrible disaster that occurred on July 13 a short distance south of the equator. The mariners are the survivors of the crew o the British ship Prince Oscar, which was sunk after collision with an unknown vessel, which also went down, but with all hands on board. Six of the Prince Oscar’s crew were drowned soon after tin y left the sinking ship by the capsizing of the small boat into which they scrambled. From the site of the unknown vessel it is thought she curried a crew of .it least twenty men. The seventeen survivors were huddled into one small boat, with neither food nor water, but wore fortunately picked up by the British ship Dharwar. from Melbourne, Australia, for London. From that ship they were transferred to the steamer Capac and. without rnonev or clothing, they were landed. Captain Clipperton. the English consul, will care for them until they can be sent to their homes. Mi<lnight Disaster. The disaster occurred shortly after midnight in latitude 9:30 south, longitude 2,5:20 west. The Prince Oscar, which was bound from Shields, which port she left May 27 for Iquique, laden with coal, was going at a clipping gait on the port tack before a brisk wind and with all canvas set. It is estimated by the crew that she was making about six and a half knots nn hour when suddenly there loomed up directly under her bows a four-masted vessel. The mate asserts that the stranger had no lights burning, and after she was sighted it was impossible to alter the course of the Prince Oscar. The iron hull of the latter struck the unknown full amidships, knocking her almost on her beam end and crashing through the woodwork until her prow was more than half buried. The stranger went over almost on her beam ends as the Prince Oscar backed away from the rebound. As the crew of the Prince Oi- ar stood peerlug through the darkness they saw the stranger partly right herself and then she rapidly began to sink. They listened in vain for some signs of life, but not a cry for help nor a word of command came from the stricken vessel. Three Days of Hardship. Roth boats hovered about the scene of the wreck until daylight came, when they headed they knew not where. Twentyfour hours later a heavy sea struck the boat ci u.:.,:' tided by the mate and capsized it. The occupants, eight in nnmr, were thrown into the sea. and the already overcrowded craft which Captain Henderson commanded put quickly to the rescue. They were successful in getting four of them aboard. The rest were drowned. There were now seventeen men in the small lifeboat, with nothing to eat, nothing to drink and barely room to stretch their weary limbs. The sun was broiling hot, and their hunger and thirst were almost unbearable. Toward evening of the second day one of the crew discovered a small cask of fish oil stowed away in the boat. This was dealt out to the survivors in small doses, and they used it to moisten their parched lips and tongues. SUPREME JUDGE DIES. Justice Howell E, Jackson of Tennessee Passes Away. Howell Edmunds Jackson, Associate Justice of the Supremo Court of the United States, died at his residanee at West Meade, six miles west of Nashville, Tenn., at 2 o'clock Thursday afternoon in the frith year of his age. of consumption. Judge Jackson was appointed by President Harrison in 1890. lie bad been in failing health for the last four years, but it has been only in the last eight or nine months that the progress of the disease began to cause his family and friends uneasiness. Quite lately he seemed to improve slightly. He went to Washington \ . •' ' // /MW f ■ \ > JUSTICE HOWELL E. JACKSOX. to sit in the second hearing of the income tax cases. He stood that trying trip only fairly well, and after his return home appeared t<> lose strength rapidly. Judge Jackson was twice married, the first time to Miss Sophia Malloy, daughter of David B. Malloy, a banker of Memphis, who died in 1873. To this union were born four children, as follows: Henry. Mary. William 11., and Howell Jackson. Henry Jackson is at present Soliciting Freight Agent of the Southern Railway, with headquarters at Atlanta, Ga.: W. H. Jackson is District Attorney of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad at Cincinnati; Howell E. Jackson is manager of the Jackson cotton mills at Jackson. Tenn. In 1876 Judge Jackson married Miss Mary E. Harding, daughter of Gen. W illiam G. Harding. Hans Hanson was sentenced in the United States Court at San Francisco to be hanged Oct. IS for the murder of Maurice Fitzgerald, mate of the bark Hesperia Hanson and Thomas St. Clair killed the mate as the first step in a mu•my. St. Clair will die the same day as liis companion in crime. Dr. Clifford J. Wright, a young physician of Covington. Ky.. a member of one of the wealthiest Kentucky families and prominent m society, died in convulsions. Ihe attending physician said the trouble was due to the excessive use of cigarettes.

ALLAN PINKERTON. Without Exception the Greatest Detective the Country Ever Knew. Without donbt tiro greatest detective the country has ever seen was Allan Pinkerton, the founder of the national detective agency which bears Ids name, and who achieved such fame in connection with the administration of Abraham Lincoln, he having been his especial guard. Pinkerton was a born detective. though during the early years of his life he was a cooper. He was born in 1819 in Scotland. When he eanie to this country he located In Illinois and established a fine business, following the trade he had learned in his native country. He continued as a cooper until he was 33 years old. Then, through a lucky accident, he entered upon the true work of his life. In 1850, when State banks and wildcat money were the order of the day, counterfeits were common, and the storekeepers throughout the country were frequently swindled. One day a saddler of Dundee, where Pinkerton was located, came to him and said that he had been taken in by a bogus bill. He said he thought be could point out a suspicious character. Pinkerton followed the man whom the saddler indicated. The cooper-detective was disguised as a workman and succeeded in shadowing the man he had has eye on without exciting his suspicious. At last he traced him to an island in Fox River, and there a complete establishment for making counterfeit money was discovered. The entire gang was arrested and Pinkerton became famous throughout the country. It was seen that the cooper had the making of a detective ami he was ap]H>iuted deputy sheriff of the county. In this capacity be soon became the ter- • • « At. i / : \ / /t '---f ■ . h z <; . ALLAN FIXKL.'tTOX, ror of cattle thieves, counterfeiters and evil doers generally. Soon nf'er he wetendered a position as deputy sheriff of Cook County, but he did not remain long iu this capacity, for the Ifiinnis Central and Rock Island Railroad, recognizing his ability as a detective, prevailed upon him to organize a detective agency for the protection of the road against train robbers. It was In the capture of express thieves and bank robbersthat Pinkerton achieved his most remarkable successes. Beginning with the Maroney robbery in 1858, where after months of liersisteut shadowing, he recovered nearly $40,000 for the Adams Expr >- Company, ho conducteel the work in scores of similar cases and was usually successful. He captured the notorious Carbondale bank robbers, recovering $35,000. Then came the great robbery of the' Adams Express Company on the New York and New Haven Railroad. Jan. 6, 1866, when a gang of six thieves burst open the safe and secured nearly $700,000. Allan Pinkerton secured the conviction of the guilty men. and got back all but a very small portion of the money. The following year he succeeded in breaking up the formidable Reno anil Anderson gaug. who had for years been the terror of the West, plundering towns, robbing stores and blowing open safes with apparent impunity. So greatly was public Indignation aroused against those desperadoes that after their arrest they were taken from the jail in New Albany, Ind., by 100 masked men and hanged. In his whole life Allan Pinkerton never touched cards, never made a bet, or indulged in any form of gambling. He was foud of driving and horseback riding, and in his later years took much pleasure and spent much of his spare time in literary work. In all he produced seventeen books of his thrill ing experience as a detective. At the age of 66 years he died of cancer of the stomach. Ended with a Pun. The Washington Star cites what it calls another instance of woman's skill In having the last word. ’’The ostrich is a foolish bird." a gentleman was saying. “When it sees an enemy coming it sticks its head into the sand instead of running away.” “Oh. well," said his wife, "that’s its nature.” "I know it. But just the same it isn't logical.” “Oh, yes. it is, my dear.” “How do you make that out?" “It’s ornithological.” “Doctor Cureall.” One of the most remarkable developments of the automatic machine is 8 “Doctor Cureall.” in Holland. It is a wooden figure of a roan, with compartments all over it, labeled with the names of various ailments. If you have a pain, find its corresponding location on the figure, drop a coin into the slot, and the proper pill or powdei will come out. Do You Know This? I-amp chimneys should never be washed in cold water and should always be thoroughly dried before use: after washing, or if new, they should be warmed before the lamp is lighted, to prevent cracking.