Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 March 1884 — For the Benefit of the Workingman. [ARTICLE]

For the Benefit of the Workingman.

John Roach is a great protectionist. He has used his influence for many years at Washington to perfect the system of taxation under which he holds a virtual monopoly of his business of building ships. It is never for his own interest that he advocates high taxation. Not at all. It is sor 1 the sake of the dear workingmen. In this strain we find him defending the duty on iron ore before the Tariff Commission: When we have the iron shall we now leave it in the mines undeveloped and depend on foreigners to supply a material of so vast importance to us, and with no other reason to give only that we refuse to degrade and crush labor? But, alas for human consistency! We find the same John Roach testifying before the Ways and Means Committee last week that he had imported 6Q,000 tons of Spanish ore. This is the reason he gave for the course which, in the above Remarks, he had so fervently dedenounced : Mr. Hewitt—What is that ore worth in Spain? Mr. Roach—Jt is not worth in Spain more than $1.50 a ton. * Mr. Hewitt—Then its cost (stated at $5.50) is mostly freight is it? Mr. Roach—l do not care what it is. It does not go into the pockets of the workings men in this country. Mr. Hewitt—As none of it goes into the pockets of the workingmen of this country will you tell us why you buy foreign ore? Mr. Roach—My answer to that question Is, I buy it because it is the cheapest. The New York Herald was quick to detect this hypocritical discrepancy and to twit Mr. Roach with it. He replied that the quantity o‘s ore he had bought was not “sufficiently large to affect the market and was too ridiculously small” to help the protection, of American labor. But he is not to get off so cheaply as this. Our census returns show that each man employed in the mines produces 251 tons a year. The 60,000 tons of Spanish ore imported by Mr. Roach would have kept 240 men busy for a year. Counting four people as dependent cm each miner for support, the importation of Mr. Roach took the living out 1,200 American mouths for a -year. This incident is a capital illustration of the thorough insincerity of the pretenses by which the bosses fool the workingmen into believing that protection is maintained for their benefit.— Chicaao Tribune. Mr. Blaine has nearly finished the first volume of his book, and will rest awhile befor.e getting out the secohd volume. A good scheme. There is to be a Presidential nomination pretty soon, and a second volume of a welladvertised book is not a bad thing to hold over the heads of a mass of delegates. Foster and Sherman have joined forces, it is said, against Arthur. It has not been decided as yet whiah shall have custody of the partnership at Chicago. If it is Foster he will be required, no doubt, in view of the experience four years ago, to give heaw bonds.

Monster Sea Serpents. That there are sea monsters, spoken of as “sea serpents,” not hitherto actually captured and scientifically described and cisßsified, seems to be tolerably, well established, although some natu-' ralists still regard these creatures as fabulous. One of the latest accounts touching this matter is the following: While the boats of the bark Hope On, commanded by Capt. Seymour, were on the watch for whales off the Pearl Islands, between forty and fifty miles from Panama, the water broke a short distance away, and Capt Seymour made ready for a whale. But a head like that of a horse rose from the water and then dived. The creature was seen by all the boat’s crew. Capt Seymour describes the animal as about twenty feet long, with a handsome 1 ? horse-like head, with two unicorn-shaped horns protruding from it. The creature had four legs, or double-jointed fins, a bronzed hide profusely speckled with large black spots, and a tail which appeared to be divided into two parts. It was seen on two different days, and if whales had not been seen about at the time an effort would have been made to catch it Capt. Seymour and his officers agree that the creature is peculiar to the locality, and that it could easily be killed with lances and guns. It is important to notice that officers of the Pacific Mail Company state that they have seen the animal on several occasions, but not so closely as did officers and men of the Hope On. This account is repeated by Richard A. Proctor, the popular -writer on science, in the Newcastle Chronicle, who evidently gives it full credence. Norwegian fishermen relate numerous traditions of sea serpents seen on their coasts, particularly in Moldefjord. [See Naturalist Library, Vol. HL, Edinburgh.] Incredulous naturalists assume that all these observers were more or less ignorant and superstitious, coloring their stories with their recollections of the fabulous serpent, “Midguardsormen,” of the old Scandinavian mythology, who was represented as dwelling in the depths of the ocean and enfolding the foundations of the earth in his coils. But however ignorant fishermen may be of other matters, they are certainly less likely than any other class of observers to be deceived in a case of this kind. In the reports of the Linnean Society of New England will be found accounts of the appearance of sea serpents off the coast of New England. An animal supposed to be a sea serpent was seen off the coast of Cape Ann, Massachusetts, in 1817. Eleven witnesses of good reputation testified before several magistrates— one of whom was himself a witness of the fact—that this animal was like a huge serpent, dark brown in color, or, as others said, mottled, with white under the head and neck. Its head was as large as a horse’s, but shaped like a serpent’s, and its length was estimated at fifty feet. Col. Perkins observed something projecting in front of the head like a single horn, but others took this to be the monster’s tongue. Since then there have been several other instances of a similar sort, a monster having been reported as discovered off’ the New Jersey coast-not many months ago, and another off a part of the English coast very recently. Gosse, in his “Romance of Natural History,” and some other naturalists maintain that the evidence is sufficient to warrant the assertion that there is a race of marine animals, apparently of several species, characterized by a serpentine neck, a head large as compared with the thickness of the neck, an air-breath-er, propelled by paddles, something not unlike the plesiosaurians now found in the fossil state among the rocks of the mesozoic age.— lnter Ocean.