Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1891 — Page 4

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Tr ——i-.Hai for thll paper ahould b* accom. fHlad bj the name of the author; not neeeeaarily for bat te an evidence of good faith on the part «f the witter. Write onlj on one aide of the paper. Be yaittoolarly oareful, in firing namea and datea, to hare the fatten and fifnrea plain and dUttnct.

j Monet talks, and it talks cents, too. ! In the modern comic opera the Jokes are not funny, but the music is. What has become of the old-fash-ioned boy who called his sister “Sis?” Feab of what people will say has a more religious effect on the world tfian"fear of what the Lord will think. New-Yorkers are planning “a hoarding-house twist.” It will fill, a long-felt want of a lot of fellows who never could get “a trust” in that line. Frank Leslie Wilde will probably be the way she will sign her name now. It would make the original Frank Leslie wild if he were alive to see it. There are 000.000 more women than men in England. Perhaps it was to this fact that Matthew Arnold referred when he spoke of the “saving remnant.” The man who stepped on a banana peel will not give immediate credence to the statement that an acre of bananas will support more people than thirty acres of wheat.

Yale seniors are going tq wear caps and gowns hereafter. Having adopted the flowing garb of femininity, they only need the girls now to make the situation complete. “Two counter-irritants, ” according to Life, are “a mustard plaster and a woman shopping.” Yes? Well, what's the matter with the third and worst of all—a saucy salesgirl? Although the devil be the father of lies, he seems, like other great inventors, to have lost much of his reputation by the continual improvements that have been made upon him. Accident risks for women can be profitably taken out at a much lower rate than upon men. Statistics show that there are eight sudden deaths among men for every one among" women.

The spectacle of the underwriters discussing “The Model Policy” and saying never a word about 4-11-44 is what makes the Afro-American throw down his newspaper with a sniff. Mr. Frank Leslie is said to be 39 years old. Mrs. Leslie herself is crowding 50 very hard. She acknowledges forty summers, but her memory is faulty and she has forgotten quite a portion of her existence. They are telling such terrible stories about famine in Europe that pretty soon the tender-hearted Americans will be giving away their grain by the ship-load instead of selling it for $2 a bushel, as they intended. } Every word spoken in the Boston Common Council goes down in the record, so it is not considered quite proper for ladies to enter the hall until after the clerk has finished reading the minutes of the preceding meeting. -f According to a contemporary •nothing is sold in Baltimore on Sunday except ice, bread and milk.” Surely it is not so bad as that, for they can not have tflb inhumanity to refuse to sell a railroad ticket to some other town. The men who are opposed to women wearing dresses that only reach to their shoe-tops should form a crusade against the men who spit tobacco juice in public places. The public balls, street cars, and most of the churches will have little pools on the floor that ruin a woman's dress skirt. Don’t get angry at trifles. Look at vexations now as you will view them thirty days from date. The angry man who gets the wrong key and pushes and rattles the door till he breaks the lock, loses more time than if he had quietly gone for the right key, and pays for a new lock besides. A man who has been farming in Dakota for four years has suddenly come into possession of an English estate and the title of Earl. There is many an ancient and noble English estate for the management of which four years’ experience in wrestling with an arid Dakota farm would be the finest sort of schooling. Much to the alarm of his »imirers Tennyson has written a comedy. When a man has become famous by doing what he can do well, he rarely escapes from the delusion that he could have done a great deal better by doing something else. Only some such delusion could ever have set Tennyson to writing comedy. Boston Nihilists are to send an embassy to Russia. The Czar should not be worried about this, for we violate no confidence in saying that it is to introduce the great Boston diet of beans to the down-trodden peasantry. Boston culture and Russian culture long ago came together on the bean question, and now the Nihilists have taken it up. The shooting of girls by rejected suitors is getting to be outrageously common, and there should be prompt and vigorous measures taken in every CMS which is brought to Justice. In ■mm* where the murder is followed by tnkidt, ft would shock the public to

resort to the old-time method of burial at the cnJfes-roads, but it might be effective as a preventive. A New Orleans clergyman says that if the lottery company is not beaten at the polls next spring it “will be wiped out in revolution.” If there were less of that form of public sentiment, in New Orleans which looks to revolution as the only proper means for righting a wrong, there would be fewer wrongs 90 firmly rooted that the ordinary methods of law cannot cope with. uynch law is a poor substitute for the cool and deliberate justice administered by the courts. The name of Omaha has been made to suffer by the intemperate folly of the mob that overawed the officers of the law and dragged a prisoner from the jail to his death the other night. Two wrongs never yet made a right, and the original crime, though heinous, was little worse than that committed by its avengers.

Michigan raises twice as many peaches as Delaware without telling half as many lies about the failure of the crop. Illinois produces much more whisky than Kentucky and does not have to bear the stale jokes of the humorist concerning the disproportion between corn juice and water within the commonwealth. "Westward indeed does the course of empire take its way, and a little northward as well. It is the fashion to jeer at the hunters in this country who merrily follow the anise-seed bag over hill'and dale, but certainly this is more commendable and less contemptible than the sort of thing they do in England, if one may judge by the account given of a recent hunt in Leicester. A party of hunters came upon a stag and caught it alive. Then it occurred to them that it was the lawful prey of other huntsmen who had been chasing it before they took a hand. They therefore put the unfortunate animal in a barn with its legs hobbled and its eyes bandaged. Presently the second party—or the first in starting —came up, and in this state the stag was let out and killed. The anise seed bag is better than so unsportsmanlike a piece of butchery as this.

At a conference of the European representatives of the transatlantic steamship lines in Bremen it was resolved that the examination of emigrants with a view to determining whether they should be permitted to enter the United States ought not to be made by the consular agents of this Government, hut by agents controlled by the companies. Presumably the next step will be to attempt to force this view of the matter upon the Government, but it is an attempt which should have no success. Faulty as is the present consular inspection of emigrants, it is perfection jn comparison with the results likely to follow the surrender of this duty to the steamship companies. It is the business of those corporations to carry as many emigrants as they possibly can secure, and no regard for the interests of the United States is likely to impel them to rigidly weed out the pauper, the diseased, or the criminal from the vast hordes of people who seek transportation to that new world which they think an El Dorado.

The Supreme Court has decided that the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company shall pay a fine for refusing to obey the law of New York which forbids the heating of passenger cars with the deadly stove. The corporation Will go to the United States Supreme Court to test the constitutionality of this question. It is foreign corporation, and claims not to be liable to the statute because it does no^operate fifty miles of railroad within the State of New York. No court has yet agreed with the company on this point, but its adherence to the car stove is remarkable, not only for its blindness but for its obstinacy. The car stove has caused the company a good deal of trouble. It burned up a train in the tunnel last spring and it roasted several people to death. The consequence was the indictment of President Clark and the directors, and, it is reported, much mental anguish on the part of the principal offender. In the meantime the company has announced that it has adopted a system of steamheating and it is known that its new cars are fitted up for such a system. Yet it is so wedded to the stove that it continues to fight in behalf of its memory, notwithstanding that the fatal thing has dragged its officers into a criminal court.

New Lakes on Mars.

There is one point of view from which the formation of a new lake in Southern California by the overflowing of a sandy desert with water from the Colorado River possesses peculiar interest. It may throw light upon some of the mysterious changes that have occurred upon the planet Mars. Near the equator of Mars there is a region which has been believed to be part of the dry land of that planet, and which has been named Lybia by the Italian astronomer Schiaparelli. But a few years ago a change occurred in the color of “Lybia,” and some of the observers thought that it must have been suddenly overflowed with water, since it had assumed the color characteristic of the other regions of Mars that are supposed to be water-covered. Other similar changes have been seen by telescopists on Mars. Now that a new lake has actually been formed on the earth by the unexpected filling up with water of a depressed area of dry land those who believe that a similar occurrence, on a larger scale, has taken place on Mars will probably be strengthened in tint interesting opinion.

THE REIGN OF TRUSTS.

M’KINLEY'S TARIFF LAW PROTECTS THEM. Th<> Home Con«uiu« P»jii Ike Tariff- «ml Not the Foret*i> Manufacturer—McKlnloj Object Lcsaon*-It'a Cheaper to Foreigners—Tariff Shot, Etc. High Tariff Promt***. When Beniamin Harrison was nominated for the Presidency, he wrote the following in his letter of acceptance: “The declaration of the convention against all combinations of capital, organized in trusts or otherwise, to control arbitrarily the condition of trade among our*citizens. is in harmony with the views entertained and publicly expressed by me long before the assembling of the convention. * This was the promise which he made to the people, namely, that nothing should be done by liis administration to foster trusts, but that every effort would be put forth to suppress them, In accordance with these sentiments, the representatives of President Harrison in the House and Senate passed the McKinley tariff and the anti-trust bill of Senator Sherman. Shortly after the passage of the former the administration organ, the New York Tribune, exclaimed in a St of exultation: “This (the McKinley bill! is a trusVkilling tariff, men and brethren.” At the same time it declared that the anti-trust law makes impossible the formation of trusts to control the markets and advance prices. Such were the promises of the Harri- : son administration. Were they carried out? The /act that there were many trusts in existence at the time that these promises were made, and that since the , enactment of the Sherman anti-trust law, many more have been organized in open defiance of it, is sufficient to show that the trusts did not fear this law. Nor, in fact, have they had cause to fear it, for the Attorney General, whose duty it is to execute the law, has not brought a single suit—thus himself violating the plain commands of the act The Jaw was never intended to be anything but a dead letter. It was passed for a purpose, however. This purpose was two-fold. The McKinley tariff had largely increased the rates of duty on the products of the trusts, thus giving them still greater opportunities to enlarge their tariff bo- ; nuses. The anti-trust law was enacted I to detract the attention of the people from this fact The other rea- ! son for its enactment was to satisfy the clamor of the people against! the trusts. It was the belief of Sheiman and McKinley that the law which the former fathered would accomplish both of these purposes without in any way causing the trusts, who were the real beneficiaries of the McKinley bill, the least annoyance. We give a list of a few of the leading trusts which depend for their existence on the tariff: 1. Cotton Oil Trust This trust embraces several smaller ones, among them the Little Rock Cotton Oil Combination. Its stock is heavily watered. Tariff protection 10 cents per gallon.

2. Linseed Oil Trust. It controls the mills and markets. Tariff protection 32 cents per gallon on linseed oil. 3. Borax Trust It embraces all the borax mines of California and Oregon. No borax is found abroad, but imported boracic acid was a competitive product. On this the duty was increased from 3 cents to 5 cents per pound. The duty on borax is 3 cents and 5 cents per pound. 4. National White Lead Trust Controls the production of many lea 1 products, especially white lead. It disposes of its surplus abroad, and Is in this way able to keep up prices here. Protection on white lead, 3 cents per pound. 5. Ultramarine Blue Trust Protection, 4% cents per pound. 6. Acid Trust Embracing the manu-. factories of sulphuric, nftric and muriatic acids east of the Mississippi River. ‘ gCPtSition, suiptpirle acid, y i cent per pound] rprmerly free. t. C4stor Oil Trust. Protection, 6i cents per gallon* &-'"Wooa Alcohol Trust This is a branch of the Whisky Trust, known as the Distillers and Cattle Feeders’ Company 9. Sanitary Earthenware Trust, composed of seven pottery manufactories in Trenton, N. J., and East Liverpool, Ohio. On its products % the duties were Increased by 5 to 10 per cent, by the McKinley tariff. Directly after the enactment of the McKinley tariff it cut down wages. Protection on pottery, 55 and 60 per cent

10. Window-Glass Trust It embraces ' many window-glass factories in New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. Secretary of the Treasury Foster owns stock in this trust. Protection, over 100 per cent. 11. Table Glassware Trust. This trust is composed of glass manufacturers in Ohio and Pen nsy. vania. It was formed immediately after the passage of the McKinley tariff. The duties were raised to 60 per cent Many of the factories in this trust made over 60 per cent profit last year. 12. School Slate Trust Protection, 30 per cent 13. Gypsum Trust (plaster of paris). It controls every important mill in the United States. Protection, $1 to $1.75 per ton. 14. Steel Trusts. Bessemer Steel Association, makers of blooms and slabs; Merchants’ Steel Association, finished steel; Western Steel, of Chicago; Ohio Steel, mostly controlled by English capital. These trusts control the manufacture of beam, channel, and structural iron and steel. Protection heavy. 15. Wire Rod Trust. Composed of Western mills. Protection, 6-10 c per pound. 16. Shot Trust 2% cents per pound protection. 17. Copper Trtist This trust is known as the Association of Copper Manufacturers in the United States. Controls all copper products. Meets once a year to fix prices; protection 35 and 45 per cent 18. Asbestos Trust This trust is composed of five firms in Boston, New York and Chicago; protection 25 per cent 19. American Ax and Edge Tool Trust. Organized in February, 1890. Previous to its organization axes sold at $5.25 per dozen, now the lowest price for first quality axes rs $7 to $7.50 per dozen; protection 45 per cent. 20. Steel Rail Trust This is one of the most important of all the trusts. It Is composed of six companies, and controls absolutely the production of steel rails; protection 6-10 cent per pound. 21. Parbed Wire Trust It was organized in St Louis in 1889, and embraces some nineteen companies; protection 6-10 cent per pound 32. Strap and T-hinge Trust Organized in New York. It advanced prices 20 per cent ; protection 2% cents per pound. 23. Coffin Trust Embraces sixty concerns. Prices have been raised 35 per cent; protection 35 per cent 24. Sugar Trust It was reorganized In 1889 under the name of the “Sugar Refineries Company. ” It controlled when organized twenty sugar factories, one-half of which have been dismantled. Protection % cent per pound. 25. Glucose Trust Protection % eent per pound. 26. Cigarette Trust Protection $4.50 per pound. 27. Oatmeal Trust It embrace* four-

teen constituent companies. It also has reduced wages. Protection 1 cent per pound. 28. Starch Trust This trust controls right factories Protection on starch 2 cents per pound. 29. Salt Trust Organized this year. It raised prices at once Protection 8 and 13 cents per 100 pounds. 30. Cracker, Cake and Biscuit Trusts. The New York Biscuit Company controls trade east of Chicago; the American Biscuit Company has all the trade wos: of Chicago. The former has a capital of £5.000,000, the latter one of $10,000,000. They advanced prices 20 per cent after dividing the field as above Protection 20 por cent 31. Distillers and Cattle-Feeders’ Trust, also known as the Whisky Trust it controls ail Northern distilleries. Protection very high. 32. .lute Bagging Trust. Protection 1.6 and 1.8 cents per square yard. 33. Oil Cloth Trust It embraces the manufacturers of table, shelf and stair oil cloths. Protection 30 to 40 per cent 34. Twine Trust This trust is composed of over thirty corporations. Protection .7 cent per pound. 35. Cartridge Trust Protection 35 per cent. This is but a partial list of the tariffprotected trusts, which number over one hundred. Everyone knows that the an-ti-trust law will not be enforced against them, especially now that a member of one of the leading trusts is Harrison’s Secretary of the Treasury. And yet the New York Tribune tries to fool the people by saying that, “this (the McKinley bill) is a trust-killing tariff, men and brethren. *

Tariff Shot.

Since 1816 we have had four periods of high and prohibitive tariffs, one period of a moderate tariff with incidental protection, and three periods of low or revenue tariffs. During our whole history high tariffs have lowered the price of farm products by checking exports and imports, whilo low tariffs, by stimulating foreign trade, have raised the prices of what the farmer has to sell. This truth is well shown by the average prices of corn during each tariff period. I. Period—Moderate tariff, with incidental protection (Clay called this a revenue tariff), 1816 to 1824. Corn 76 3-10 cent per bushel. 11. Period —High and prohibitive tariffs of 1824, 1828 and 1832; 1825-1832. Corn 62 cents per bushdT. 111. Period—Low compromise tariff of 1833; 1833-1842. Corn 77% cents per bushel. IV. Period—High protective tariff of 1842; 1843-1846. Corn 57 cents per bushel. V. Period—Low revenue tariff of 1846; 1846-1857. Corn 73% cents per bushel. VI. Period—Lowei revenue tariff of 1857 (spoken of by protectionists as our “free trade tariff”); 1858-1860. Corn 60% cents per bushel. VII. Period—War tariffs of 1861-1882. Corn 75 cents per bushel. VIII. Period—High tariff of 1883: 1883-1890. Corn 53 1-6 cents per bushel.

Who Pays the Tariff?

Some time ago a number of merchants in New York, importing worsted goods to the amount of many millions of dollars annually, complained to the Treasury Department of an Appraiser of Customs who had arbitrarily raised the valuation of their imports. While the case has just been decided in favor of the importers, we have to do only with the facts bearing on the operation of the tariff. The wholesale price of the goods in question was 56 cents a yard in England—the price paid by buyers from every market, as the manufacturers testify. Under the former tariff the duty on their goods was IS cents a yard and 35 per cent, ad valorem. The McKinley tariff raised the duty to 44 cents a yard ana 50 per cent, ad valorem—or a duty of 72 cents a yard on a material costing 56 cents a yard at the point of production. Adding duties, charges and commissions of importers, the wholesale price in New York would be $1.50 a yard, and little, if anything, less than $2 a yard at retail to the American consumer. It is manifest that the manufacturer cannot pay these enormous duties; nor does he pay any share of them, since he sells his goods at the same price to the importers in the United States and elsewhere without reference to foreign tariffs. The duties, then, to the last cent, come out of the pockets of Amercian consumers. When the McKinley tariff was in committee the home manufacturers of worsteds alleged that they could not compete with importers at the prices then existing. To secure the present advance in duties on worsteds they consented to an increase of 20 per cent, in the duty upon combing wool. Can they afford now to sell their products at the former range of prices of which they complained, and pay an increased tax upon their imported raw materials? The effect of the McKinley tariff has not only been to raise the cost of imports by the amount of the increased duty, but to raise to nearly if not quite the same level the cost of the rival domestic products to American consumers. This is what the McKinley tariff was enacted for; and it has not failed in its purposa

McKinley Object Lessons.

A striKing illustration of the wonders accomplished by the McKinley bill is shown in this week’s issue of the Bulletin of the American Iron and Steel Association, the organization which probably had mere influence than any other in having the duties increased on many products of iron and steel. Under the caption, “The News of the Past Week,” on a single page it announces the assignment of the iron shipbuilding firm of Harrison, Loring & Co., at Boston; the suspension of the Blandon Iron and Steel Company (limited) of Blandon, Pa., which has a capital of $125,000; a conference over wages between the emp'oyes of the Edgar Thomson Steel Works at Braddock, Pa., and their Superintendent, at which scrappers, who had been averaging oxer S3OO a month, were placed on a salary of S2OO a month, while the wages of ladiemcn were reduced 30 cents a day: the closing of the Keystone Iron Works at River View, Kan., the largest establishment of the kind near Kansas City, under attachments aggregating $100,000; the coming public sale at Boiling Springs, Pa., of the Katherine Furnace, which was built in 1881-2: a reduction of about 15 per cent in the wages of the employes of the Hainsworth Steel Company at Pittsburg: the suspension of the Oliver & Roberts Wire Company (Limited) of Pittsburg, with liabilities of $1,087,460; and a strike at Lebanon, Pa, over the refusal of certain firms to sign the wage scale of the Amalgamated Association. For a single week «nd a single page this seems a rather startling showing, but the Bulletin makes no reference to it editorially. It devotes its efforts instead toward proving that tin plates are now being made in this country, and that Andrew Carnegie was right when be wrote In the Nineteenth Century that America often has steel rails at lass cost

than these could be imported free ofduty. A few more such weeks and one or two more McKinleys, and the iron and steej trade of the United States will be entirely bankrupt— New York Times.

Protection and Immigration.

“Yes, men are on the free list They cost us not even freight We promote free trade in men. and it is the only free trade I am prepared to promote," said William D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, the leader of the protectionists In Congress in 1873. For the past thirty years this has been the keynote of the high tariff policy. Ever since the contract labor law of 1864, which provided for the establishment of a national immigration bureau, the purpose of which was to encourage immigration and which went so far as to give the manufacturer who imported his workmen a first lien upon their wages to reimburse him for his expenditures in bringing them over, was sandwiched In between the internal revenue law of 1862 and the high tariff of 1864, we have had high and prohibitive tariffs upon everything the workman has to buy, and free trade in the only thing he has to sell—his labor. This policy has been so successful that in many of the mills and mines of Pennsylvania, the hot-bed of high protectionism, no record is kept of the names of the workmen employed, but they are noted in the pay rolls by numbers alone. That the beneficiaries of our high tariffs will see to it that this good thing—for themselves a'one—is not changed, may be illustrated by the statement which was made a few days ago by Andrew Carnegie just before he sailed from Liverpool To a Herald reporter he said in answer to the question: “And what do you tnink, Mr Carnegie, of the unchecked flood of undesirab e immigration Inte America?” “I say, don’t touch immigration; let it flow on. W’e are getting the cream of Europe. I want to see America great, really great. We need all the population we can got. We have only seventeen persons to the square mile, and there are hundreds of millions of acres of land where the sod has never been turned. I say, hands off immigration. ” Only a few days ago Mr. Carnegie cut down the wages of his workmen, in many cases 50 per cent. The workmen had to submit because they saw others ready and willing to take their places. The labor market is already drugged, say the protectionists, and wo need a higher tariff to give employment The production of farm products, according to the same high authorities, is already in excess of the demand, and we need a high tariff upon manufactures to create a “home market” for them, and to prevent those employed in our factories from becoming farmers. And yet the chief beneficiaries of our high tariffs are doing all in their power to aggravate these evils which they seem to deplore By the formation of trusts, under the benign influences of the tariff, they are enabled to exact higher prices for their products, and by “Keeping” the people’s hands off immigration they are able to have a constantly congested labor market and to Keep down the prices of farm products. How long will it be before the farmers and workmen will see through this hypocritical tariff policy, the two maxims of which are “free trade in labor” and “overproduction of farm products? 1 *

Cheaper to Foreigners.

The Eastman Company is the name ol a firm of manufacturers of photographU materials, and its home office is in Rochester, N. Y. It has also a branch at No. 115 Oxford street, London. A comparison of the price lists which it issuei from the two places will add one mori to the many instances of the overwhelming affection of the McKin'ey tariff sot the American consumer. We append • table showing how the -Prices of Eastman’s Bromibe Paper”in London compare with those exacted in this country by an industry which has to be protected from the dreaded competition of foreigners: London prioe Amer* blze ' per doz. lean sheets. price. 4>tfx 3>4 *0.16 *J.2J 6 X 4 12 .40 6%x 4% 37 .60 7J4X 6 41 .70 8 X 5 60 .76 8&X 6)4 62 110 10 X 8 87 3.60 12)4x10)4 1.50 2.25 15)4x12)4 1.87 3.36 2) xl7 8.50 640 25 x2l 5.25 9/0 30 X 25 7.12 14.00 Thus the London photographer gets his supplies from this American firm at only a little more than one-half as much a« the Americ an photographer has to pay. Turning now to the columns of the McKinley bill, we find the rates on albumenized paper to be 35 per cent ad valorura; the old rate was 15 per cent. Of course, “the wisest and bravest tariff that was ever framed” was manipulated by this endangered American industry in the most shameless and ridiculous manner. What does Mr. McKinley think now of a company that asked for 35 per cent protection, and then gives the Londoner 50 per cent off its prices to Americans?—New York Evening Post

Protection’s Profits.

The Board of Directors of the Cumberland Glass Company advertise the payment of a dividend of 100 per cent. It is an extraordinarily profitable business that yield-i a yearly profit of 100 per cent, and the Louisville CourierJou nal has been moved to an investigation of the cause. It finds that the Cumberland Glass Company is protected in its business by duties ranging from 68 to 142 per cent This is a practical authorization by Congress to charge from 68 to 142 per cent, more for its wares than they are worth. This explains the mystery. What is perhaps the greatest dairy section in the United States is within a radius of fifty miles of Utica In this territory the manufacture of cheese is conducted on an enormous scale, and the transactions run well into the millions of dollars every year. The McKinley bill added two cents a pound to the duty on cheese, raising it to six cents. The ruling price paid for cheese on the Utica Board of Trade, Monday, was B%c. Two years ago it was Was there ever a greater swindle than that addition of two cents to the duty on cheese? We think the dairymen in this section are disposed to answer the question in the negativa The tariff was increased for their “benefit. ” Where is the benefit? —Utica Observer. Reciprocity mu t bo confined to farm products so far as any practical results can be hoped for. But South America Is an agricultural country and can feed itself in the main, which leaves us where we started. Reciprocity with manufacturing countries would give us broader markets for our food, but according to the MoKinley s hool it would cripple our industries. Scrutinized closely, then, reciprocity as defined by Blaine is an arrant humbug. It exists in glowing colprs upon paper, but yields no practical results.—Kansas City Times. A French poet has discovered that “Cronstodt” has just.enough letters in it to spell “Tsar Carnot.” “This being the case,” adds a critic, “nobody need be surprised at the fall of the German Emperor. m Happy thought! Feeblewittle suggests that henceforth it be considered quite the proper thing to serve dropped eggs with r plcked-up dinners.

CHILDREN’S COLUMN.

A DEPARTMENT FOR LITTLE BOYS AND GIRLS. Something that Will Interest the Juvenile Members of Every Household Quaint Actions and bright Sayings oi Cute Children. To Malcolm Douglas. A very bright man made a droll little rhyme; Boom—boom—boom! I’ve wished that he hadn'4 full many a time; Boom—bcom—boom! I said, “Now, this book may bo hidden away. This rhyme is so fuuny I’ll learn it to say, Borne child will be wanting a story some day.» Boom—boom—bcooj! To learn it was only a brief moment’s task, Boom—tidera-da—boom! (Now v once to forget it is all that I ask!) Boom—tlderu-da—boom! Then quickly I tried it on two little boys Who reveled in games that made plenty of noise, But this pleased them better than all of their toys— Boom—tidera-da—boom! And, bearing me say it, the little boys, too. Boom—tidera-da—boom! With very slight practice could say it all through— Boom—tidera-da—boom'. And over and over, and over once more, We’d say it while marching and pounding the floor. Till some wicked people—well, really, they swore At our boom—tidera-da—boom-a-diddle-dee— Boom—tldera-da- boom! And ever since then X have lost all my peace; Boom—tidera-da—boom! For, waking or sleeping, it never will cease; Boom—tidera-da—boom! Though the trials of many were grievous to bear With that fiendish old jingle of “Punch with care,” Compared with this torment, they’re simply nowhere! Boom tidera-da boom-a-diddle-dee— Boom tidera-da boom! It’s worn on my nerves till I’m ready to drop; Boom—tldera- da —boom! But, horror of horrors, it never will stop! Boom—tldera-da—boom! ’Gainst reading or preaching it still holds Its own. And even when Into my parlor were shown Some strangers, my greeting, in solemnest tone, Was, “Boom tidera-da boom-a-diudle dee— Boom—tidera-da—boom!.” It would seem the bright man Must be worse off stijl; Boom—tidera-da—boom! I should like to inquire if he’s really ill; Boom—tidera-da - boom! But the mischief has gone to my head like wine, And, just as I’m going to say something fine, I can’t even get to the end of the lins Without boom—tidera-da—boom— Boom—tidera-da—boom— Boom tidera-da —boom-a-diddle-aee— Boom—Boom—BOOMl —St. Nicholas. The Story of a Proud Penny. A penny, having traveled around the world a bit, became very proud and conceited. “I belong to the peerless aristocracy of money,” it said to itself and to all who would listen. “There is no one who does not bend the knee to my family; we are sought after by the proudest people on earth, and we rule the world. ” One day the penny was talking in this strain to an iron nail. The nail and the penny chanced to rest side by side in a workman’s pocket. The

man was a carpenter who had been engaged to complete some work upon the balcony of a new house. His wife was busily engaged scrubbing the floors and cleaning the windows of the new house. “It must be very dull and humiliating to be a nail,” said the penny. “You are obliged to occupy such a menial position in life.” “Oh, I do not know about that, ” answered the nail. “We nails help to hold homes together, and that is a noble mission I am sure; and whatever our niche in life may be, we realize that we belong to the great iron race—we are proud of the stuff we are made of." “Oh, a 6 for that, you have little to boast about,” sneered the penny. “Think of my family—the proudest and greatest on earth. We could buy yours up and pitch you into the sea if we cared to do so, and the world would go on without you. Men would invent something to take your place. But society could not exist without us. ” “But you are a mere nobody in your own family,” retorted the naik| becoming angry. “Your gold and silver relations look down upon • you—common copper that you are. ” “Oh, it is mere spleen which makes you talk like that” replied the penny. “You know very well that it is taking

good care of me and treating me well that gives men a chance to possess my grand relatives. Any one who dispises me is never the associate of silver or gold. lam welcomed in every circle, I am petted and sought after wherever I go. Already I have traveled over half the world. My life is full of adventure and excitement. Although now I am housed in an obscure workman’s pocket, to-morrow I may be reposing in the purse of a prince. No such future awaits you. You are doomed to an obscure and humdrum existence.”

Just then the workman’s wife com* plained that she could not remove the paint stains from jiff the windows she was attempting to clean. “Why, let m» tell you how to do that,” said the werkman. “A painter told me only the other day. Take a penny under your thumb and rub it over the paint spots. They will all disappear. It is far better than a knife. Here is a penny—try it.” He took the boastful penny from his pocket and the woman did as directed. The paint disappeared as if by magic. “I am so glad to know about this,’* said the woman. “I will keep this penny with my scrub-brushes and scouring cloths, that I may always be prepared for such an emergency. ” And thereafter the proud penny remained with scrub-brushes, while the nail was afterwards used to fasten a United States banner to the mast of a ship.

American Art.

Vice President Frank Millet, of the National Academy, has an article on the “Outlook for Art in America,” in the Century, from which we quote: “Within the past few years also there has arisen here a coterie of picturebuyers who make a point of purchasing none but works by American artists, thus stimulating home production, softening the harshness of foreign competition, and gathering together, as is amply proven by occasional exhibitions; most interesting and choice collections of contemporary art. which are revelations even to the most hopeful and enthusiastic friends of our artists. In various institutions there have been established funds for the purchase of works of art for permanent public exhibition. The library building of the city of Pittsburg, given to the city by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, has, with equally unparalleled generosity, been endowed by him with a fund the annual income of which —fifty thousand dollars—is to be expended in the purchase of works of art for the permanent collection, and at least ninety per cent, of this sum is, by the terms of the endowment, to be spent for the productions of American artists. The extent of this gift is scarcely to be realized at first sight. What a museum of art will in a few years he built up by this fifty thousand per annum in perpetuo! The income from the fund of the Chantrey bequest in England for the purchase of modern pictures is but twenty thousand dollars a year, and, so far as is known, was, up to the date of Mr. Carnegie’s endowment, the largest sum in the hands of any institution for such a purpose. What a stimulus to production this fund in Pittsburg will become and what a power iu the hands of the committee to urge our artists to turn from the tentative to the genuine accomplishment! The prospect is as encouraging as it is novel, and as bewildering in its possibilities as it is encouraging, for the Carnegie fund is doubtless, the precursor of other similar endowments in different cities, and almost before we are aware of it we shall find this new factor one of the most important ones in our artistic development. ”

How to Prevent Rust on Iron and Steel.

1. In the German army oil of gutta percha is used for this purpose. It is applied with a flannel rag and will stand for years. To take off this preservative apply more of the oil, let it remain on the article for from twelve to twenty-four hours, when both the old and new applications can be wiped off. 2. A solution of gutta percha in benzine (consistency of cream) is a simple preservative against rust on metal. Jt can be easily applied with a brush and as easily removed by the application of benzine. 3. Dissolve thirty grains of camphor with a pound of fat, take off the froth and add graphite, until it has attained the color of iron. Wipe off tools, etc., and then apply the mixture and wipe off after twenty-four hours with a soft cloth. This will keep tools or polished iron or steel free from rust for many months. 4. To preserve polished iron surfaces from rust, melt together seven parts fat (tallow) and one part resin, stirring the same until it cools. Apply in a half liquid state; if too stiff, thin with benzine or petroleum. It preserves the polish and can easily be removed. 5. To make a permanent preservative for iron and steel, it is best to use nothing but linseed oil, thickened with a pigment related to the metal itself, and native oxide or a roasted oxide of iron is the best for the purpose. Boiled linseed oil will form a skin, through which no oxidation can take place. 6. Slack a piece of fresh lime in a covered vessel with only water enough to make it crumble. While the lime is yet hot, mix it w’ith enough tallow to make a soft dough and apply this mixture to polished surfaces. As it does not dry to any extent or become hard, it is easily removed. 7. Olmstead varnish or preparation has been in use for many years, and has proved itself perfect, especially for planed and ground surfaces and on Russian iron, which are very sensative tb rust. It is made by melting first sixty grains resin and then one pound of fresh tallow or other grease, when both are to be united. Must be applied while still warm and the surface must be perfectly clean before application. This can also be removed without much trouble. —Industrial World.

Best Color for War Ships.

The question as to the color which best defies detection on land or sea has always been a matter of dispute. The French naval authorities have made a new departure. All the vessels are painted a dull sulphurous gray, exactly the color of cannon smoke as it issues from the gun. The contention is that this color has the advantage of being indistinguishable in fogs, sea mists, and darkness. It is more baffling to the search light than any other tint. The French, at any rate, have the only navy in the world as yet that has departed from white and b!*»k.—The Engineer, New York City.

Telephonic Risks.

Danzig officials have discovered that bacillary infectious can be com municated by the “membranes” ot telephones.