Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 January 1892 — Page 4

®l)elfmocratir Sentinel RENSSELAER, INDIANA. X w. McEWEN, Pobusheb.

“Love,” writes a correspondent, “is a pleasant sensation of uneasiness.” » Blessed be those who have nothing, for bursted banks don’t trouble them. “How to Rest" is the recent work of a great physician. We commend it to the wicked. The Atlantic cables ought to be placed under bonds not to transmit any London “society” news for about one year. Once again it is announced that Mr. Howells will bid farewell to Boston forever. Mr. Howells is the Adelina Patti of literature. When it is remembered how slowly but with crushing effect the glaciers move, it is not difficult to believe that the “tooth of time” must be a grinder. Flies are like some people. The older they grow-the vainer they get. If you have noticed, the mirrors in your house have to be cleaned twice j as often now as in the spring.

People are becoming more and more convinced every day that medicine is injurious. Water inside and out, and dieting, will accomplish wonders, but let medicine alone whenever possible. There was no divorce granted in the suit of the wife of Earl Russell against her titled husband, but it would seem that a divorce of the ; aristocratic pair from decent society ought to he expected. “When your time comes you are going,” said Mr. Depew to a reporter who .asked if he feared dynamite cranks. The predestinarian and the railroad man are neatly blended in that oracular response. t The souvenir spoon craze is including knives and forks. Now, if it will only include skillets and kettles, by the time a girl is old enough to get married, she will have enough furniture to furnish her house. The rapturous joy of the British taxpayer over the news that the duke of Clarence is betrothed may sustain something of a damper when the i the usual appropriation for a dowry ! for the royal bride is asked of parlia- j ment. Beatty of reputation is a mantle of spotless ermine, in which, if you are enwrapped, you shall receive the ; homage of those above you, as real, as ready, as spontaneous as any ever paid to personal beauty in its most j powerful hour. * So long as a lawyer can get a fee i of $400,000 for breaking a will he will i brealf it, even if it is the will of a lawyer. Let those who imagine they have a right to say what shall be i done with the money they have i earned in a long life consider this fact. The gentleman who dropped that dynamite bomb on the floor of Russell Sage's office did not accomplish much in the way of effecting the better distribution of wealth, but he seems to have distributed his own body with entire fairness to everybody in the neighborhood.

Succi, the fasting man from the Hubian desert, proposes to test his wonderful powers by taking poison enough to kill forty men. If he wants to be sure of an eternal sleep, he should confine himself to poison enough to kill any one man. His stomach may rebel at a dose for forty men. Society, my friend, is a wall of very strong masonry, as it now stands; It may be sapped in the course of a thousand years, but stormed in a day — no! You dash your head against it — you scatter your brains, and you dislodge a stone: society smiles in scorn, effaces the stain, and replaces the stone. Thoughtful persons of much experience know that the way to be happy is to give up all attempts to be so. In other words the cream of enjoyment in this life is always impromptu—the chance walk, the unexpected visit, the unpremeditated journey, the unsought conversation or acquaintance. Endeavor to always be patient of the faults and imperfections of others; for thou hast many faults and imperfections of thine own that require a reciprocation of forbearance. If thou art not able to make thyself that which thou wishest to be, how canst thou expect to mold another in conformity to thy will? Uearly every man acts silly when he goes into the probate judge's office after a marriage license. Only one in ten asks for what he wants. Some ask for “a death warrant,” some for *a deed to a woman,” and all sorts of fool things. They all have the same look on their faces, and their errand Is always apparent before they speak. Farmers out West complain of “a lack of thrashers,” and the Boston Herald in a streak of generosity proposes to send out “a band of muscular •choolmaams” from the old BayState. The suggestion is a good one, and the big brothers of the Dakota •outh will welcome the band of

“thrashing schoolma’ams" with open arm, A far-away —but not very far off —contemporary advises a young man, when writing a love letter, to keep before his mind how the letter would look in print.' But he is much more apt to keep before his vision how the one to whom he is writing looks in print, muslin, calico or silk. And quite right he is, too. There is too much pessimism abroad in the land. Georoe W. Allen, better known as “Land Bill Allen." died in an Ohio poor-house. He spent a handsome fortune in getting his homestead law before the people, and many thousands owe their beautiful homes to his untiring labors. His orignal bill of 1863 has been many times amended. but its principles have been preserved. Now that he is dead there is a movement to raise a monument to his memory. If there has ever been a moment when the utterances which are attributed to the Emperor William in his recent address to the military would be the most ill-advised possible, this is the time. With all Europe full of discontent, with the whole world seething with revolt against kingly authority, the Emperor reasserts the doctrine of absolute dominion such as obtained in the old Roman days. To proclaim boldly that he as Emperor owns his subjects, body and soul, was hardly tolerated in the time of the Cmsars; will it be accepted in Germany to-day? Alas and alas! Between the physicians and the philosophers, even that ethereal and delightful consolation of poor humanity, the kiss, will soon be driven from this world of woe! The doctors, with their terrible tales of diseases of the respiratory organs, communicated when the kiss was throwing off sparks, will cast a gloom over the ecstasies of courtship. Fancy the feelings of the young and happily engaged bachelor when, as he prepares to place the kiss of affection upon the rub}'lips of his future bride, she draws back and with assumed kindness says: “Excuse me, George, dear! but you know diphtheria is so uncommonly prevalent just now!” A woNDERFTL cheapening in the process of steel manufacture is reported from Baltimore. It promises to be as great an improvement upon the Bessemer process as that was upon the previously employed methods of producing steel from the raw iron. The iron is melted, a few chemicals placed on it. and after a few seconds the melted mass is poured off into molds, the work of reduction being as complete as it is simple. The steel is said to Ik* of the best, and obtained at a cost of barely that of the old mode of conversion. It is said to cost $6.50 to convert a ton of pig iron into steel by the Bessemer process, and that by this method at least an equally good result can be obtained for *1.25. If this be true another revolution in the iron and steel class of industries is imminent.

Tiie New York Home Journal rebukes the Grolier Club for giving its authority to what the Journal Is pleased to term the “singular, inexcusable practice” of gilding the tops of books and leaving the edges white. It is to the credit of the Grolier Club if this is true. The top of a volume is cut and gilded because otherwise the dust gathers about it and renders it unsightly, but this is not the case with front and .bottom, which may therefore be left uncut, a fact which adds greatly to the beauty and individuality of the volume. A book that is to be treated simply as an occasion for the display of the art of the bookbinder may have its front cut and gilded, but the effect is the same as in the case of a woman dressed to display the art of her modiste. The individuality of book aud woman is in such a case lost.

Of course it was fated that Gilbert and Sullivan should work together in comic opera once more. Sir Arthur has made his little excursion into the realms of grand opera, and it has cost the manager such a pretty penny that lie is only too glad of a chance to recover some of his losses by enlisting anew the services of the merry pair of “Pinafore” and “The Pirates of Penzance.” The English public is not ripe for national opera of heroic proportions; it likes the tootle-tootle of the ballad or the dry humor of G. & S. better than Waverley novels set to music. And G. & S. are now going to coin money enough with their dry humor so that Sir Arthur may try another excursion to the domain of high art some day.

The Mary Ann Jenkins’ Cargo.

Here’s one of the latest told in com nection with Joseph Jefferson when he was a barn-stormer under the management of Sol Smith: The “show” stranded in a Mississippi town. Luckily it was in the summer time, and the river was full of flatboats plying to and fro with produce and live stock. It was the case of going the whole hog or none, so Sol Smith, who was an eloquent old actor, finally prevailed on the skipper, who was going down the river with a load of hogs, to give the actors free transportation. It may be imagined that the trip was not enjoyably spent in such unsavory company, but actors were not as particular in those days as they are now. One evening the flatboat passed a palatial steamer, her deck filled with elegantly dressed Southern ladies and gentlemen. The captain hailed ths skipper of the flatboat: “What boat is that?” “The Mary Ann Jenkins, of Bummersport.” “And what kind of a cargo have you got on board?” “Ob, not much of a one—only hogs and actors.”— St. Louis Republic.

SOMEWHAT STRANGE.

.ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OF EVERY DAY LIFE. Queer Episodes and Thrilling Adven* fnres Which Show that Truth Is Stranger than Fiction. Locisa Bokri.fr, a twelve-year-old Genian trirl, had been working in n family living a mile or so from her home near Carter’s Camp. Bonn., and when she quit their service the farmer’s wife made her a present of a pair of geese. The girl started for home early in the morning driving her geese. (>n her way she had to pass the house of a farmer who hod several savage dogs, and to defend

tier geese she armed herself with a club, •lust as she arrived opposite the farmer’s something sprang out of the woods on the other side of the road and seized one of the geese, instead of a dog. however, it was a big wildcat. The girl, nothing daunted, sprang to the relief of her goose and attacked the animal with her cluh. The wildcat dropped the goose and sprang upon the girl. With one sweep of its claws it tore her dress nearly off her and tore the flesh on her shoulder. 1 he frightened goose, squawking loudly, and hurt so that it could only flutter about in the road, then seemed to be more tempting to the wildcat than the girl was and it sprang away and again seized the goose. Ixniisa hurriedly regained her feet, and, unmindful of her torn clothes and bleeding shoulders, grabbed her club and ran to the defense of her goose again. But her aid was not ! needed, for the first thing she saw was one of the dreaded dogs coining up the | road like a whirlwind, and before she j realized the fact he had the wildcat by I the neck, and with one crunch of his teeth and a shake of his head he stretched ! the catamount dead at the roadside. The j girl gathered up her geese and again started for home. The dog trotted along at her side and would not leave her until she was safely at her home with her geese, when he trotted leisurely back home.

Mrs. Mary J. Kacffer, a married lady about fifty years of age, has for several months been locating deposits of gold near Mansfield, Ohio. Although the precious metal was not found in paying quantities it created excitement. The singular part of the discoveries, however, lies in the fact that she located the deposits by means of what she terms a •'mineral compound. ” This consists of u small leaden jar filled with a chemical compound known only to herself, with two wires attached. She grasps one wire in each hand, holding the jar before her. Mrs. Knutter says that when the jar vibrates in u circle it signifies there is gold in the earth immediately below that spot. Her experiments in seeking gold so far have met with success. A few days ago, in company with Eli Bovd, an experienced gas and oil man of Fostoria. she went a few miles northwest of Mansfield, and with tho magic jar, properly charged for natural gas, she located a deposit. To ascertain to what depth it would be necessary to bore to strike the gas she cut a forked poach limb, and grasping tho two forks, she held them tight over the spot indicated by the jar. lhe gentleman who accompanied her says tho branch turned like the spoke of a wheel, over and over. 150 times. This, Mrs. Kauffer says, indicates that the gas lies at a depth of 150 feet, each revolulution of the peach limb signifying one foot. A great many people share in the belief that natural gas can be found in that vicinity, hut thpy all doubt the virtue of that magic jar and tlie reliability of that peach limb test that savors so much of tho dark ages. Ai'Strai.ia has given the world another curiosity. On some noble stream in Queensland, known as Tinana Creek, a gentleman, while out hunting the other day, captured what he denominates a tree-climbing pig. lie describes the animal as “pretty fat” and weighing about a hundred pounds, with bristly brown fur, small bluek spots, snout und ears like a pig, but the jaw is furnished with front teeth like a rodent; it has large canines, and powerful back grinders. The fore feet are furnished with hooklike claws; the hind ones have two hook claws on each hoof. The tail is thick, about u foot long and highly prehensile, and in a state of rest is usually carried in what is known ns a Flemish coil. Tho animal is also furnished with a pouch, which it only appears to use for carrying a supply of food in while it is traveling to fresh pastures. The animal climbs trees and hangs by its tail while it gathors its food by the book claws The flesh is excellent, and is described as tasting just like vcul and ham pie. The theory is that the animal is a cross between the ordinary wild pig and the Queensland tree-climbing kangaroo.

“Thu most valuable cat’s-eye in the world is now on exhibition in a jeweler's shop in London,” said R. T. Thornton, of St. Louis, who has just returned from a visit to England. “It came from Ceylon (which, with Madras, has the monopoly of these jewels), and was originally found by a laborer while loading a cart with dirt. He sold it for a sum equivalent to about $40 in American money, and then, in its uncut state, it weighed 475 carats. Subsequently, it passed through several hands, and ultimately fell into those of a native rice merchant, who gave $7,000 for it and had it cut. Its present weight is 170 carats, and it is said to be insured for $25,000. It reflects four opalescent rays, combining to form a simple brilliant ray. There is an unusually great demand for cat's-eyes just now, and the more beautiful of them sell for as much almost as diamonds. In England now, in order to be considered in the swim, one must sport a cat’s-eye sure, and that is the reason for the great demand and large price asked for them.” A well-known firm of opticians in London manufacture specially constructed spectacles to be worn by horses. The object is to promote “high stepping.” Horse spectacles, we learn, are made of stiff leather, quite inclosing the eyes of the horse, and the glasses employed are deep concave and large in size. The effect is to give the ground in front of the horse the appearance of being raised; the animal, therefore, steps high, thinking he is going uphill, or has to step over an obstacle in front of him. If he system is persevered with when the animal is young the effect is said to be marvellous. Many horses, it is alleged, could be materially improved by a visit to the optician, and it is recommended that the sight of all horses should be tested. This particularly applies to valuable hunters, which are found optically unfit for their work, when a little artificial assistance would make them as 'useful as ever. Apart from this consideration, many vices, it is believed, might be cured by means of eye-glasses. The cause of shying is, as a rule, short sight. “Did you ever hear of a skunk farm?” laughingly asked Frank M. Green, of Grand Kapids, at the Fifth Avenue

; Hotel, in New York. '‘‘What cnlled it to my mind was the whiffof tho oil refineries and fertilizer factories 1 got recently coming in over tho Pennsylvania. An old trapper has a skunk farm near Grattan, Mich., about twenty-two miles from Grand liapids, and is making a good living out of it, as you know skunk ; skins bring good prices. He first dug a deep trench uround a half acre of land, and then on top of the stone with which he filled the trench he put a very high fence. Inside of this place he has made a lot of pits iu the ground, in which the skunks burrow and breed. He does not ■ seem to have any trouble in handiing ! the aninials. aud lie had something over j one hundred when I wus up there some : months ago. The old man expects to | make a nice thing out of it.” Jons Craig, a young newspaper man who was recently appointed secretary of the California World’s Fair Commission, went to bed one night recently with a j luxuriant growth of whiskers and woke j up with one side pure white. Ho thought ; some cue had played a practical joke on him aud altered tho color with dye, but after shaving oft’ his beard it came out again half red and half white. Tho only I explanation of the curious change of I color is Craig’s mental worry for seven months over tho failure of tho State j authorities to approve tho California appropriation for the World’s Fair. The State Comptroller refused to honor the salary warrants of tho commission anil the case was appealed to the Supreme Court, where it has been hanging for ] several months. The members of the commission are all men of means, but Craig left a good newspaper job to accept tho secretaryship, and hasn’t received a cent of pay for seven months, and the annoyance he has suffered has affected him so much that his beard has changed color.

While Miss Winter, of Einmittsburg, Md., was overlooking her childhood’s treasures, she came across an old Testament which she found on the site of a soldier’s camp near there during the war, after the soldiers had left for tho field of Gettysburg. On exarning the book her eyes fell on the name “Samuel Wolcott,Griffen's Mills, Erie County,N. Y.,” and Miss Winter decided to write to the address, thinking tho owner would like to recover tho book. In a few davs she received a reply from Mrs. Woaden, j of Clinton,X. J., stating that she was a I sister of tho soldier and the only living! member of a large family. She said her j brother had returned home from the army in 1863, and died in 1864, and Miss Winter’s letter had been forwarded to her as his nearest of kin. Mrs. Weaden seemed much pleased at the idea of recovering this long-lost memento of lier dead brother, and Miss Winter sent the Testament to her.

0. V. Thornton, a St. Joseph (Mo.) undertaker, reports a remarkable case of hair growing after death. Thirteen years ago James Campbell, aged twenty-two, was killed in a cyclone at Richmond, Mo. 'l’ho remains were buried in a Country church-yard at Hardin. Lately Campbell’s father built a vault and engaged the St. Joseph undertaker to remove the remains. Upon opening the wooden coffin, which was in a good state of preservation, the entire body of Campbell was found to be covered with a luxuriant growth of curly, glossy hair, which filled every vacant spuce in the box. The flesh was not decomposed, neither was tho clothing, and everything was in a good state of preservation. The corpse was completely enveloped in tho post-mortem crop of hair. A fine gem that was dropped overboard in Lake lamouin, Georgia, about ten years ugo by a northern tourist, while out duck shooting, was recovered when the lake went dry a short time ago. Judge Hopkins caino across a flounder in his rambles over tho lake’s bottom. As tho flounder is a salt-water fish and never before found in these waters, his find was quite a curiosity. Some explain its presence by saying that there is a subterranean passage by which the water flowed out and emptied into tho Gulf of Moxico and the fish entered the lake by that means.

An English chemist, who was at a Washington (D. (J.) hotel, exhibited a little microphone he lm«l made which would render audible tho footsteps of a fiy. It was only a small affair, and consisted of a box with a sheet of thin strawpaper stretched over tho upper side. By means of a little electrical devieo, consisting of two carbon disks, a carbon pencil and a weak battery, tho sheet of paper over tho top of tho box was caused to produce vibrations when a fly walked over it stroug enough to reuct energetically on an ordinary telephone transmitter when held close to the latter.

A remarkable fish was recently captured off the Ardglais coast, County Down, Ireland.' According to Land and Wuter, “it was three-quurtorsof a in weight, and had a head similar to that of a pike. From tho gills to the tail on each side there was a bright blue band; the tops of the tail fins were also a bright blue, and around the head und shoulders thej-e was a network of deep blue lines, which gave the fish a very comical, unnatural uspoct.” It is unknown to the fishermen of that section. An artesian well at Galveston has reached a depth of more than 2,000 feet and is still going down. Wood was pierced at a depth of about 1,500 feet, and its age is estimated by Professor Siligley at 200,000 years. Down in Arkansas lives Mrs. Stella Christian, the wife of a well-to-do farmer and the mother of nine sons. During the war sho assumed male attire and won a reputation for bravery as a soldier in the Confederate army. She served under General Mclntosh, and it wus not until after she had been wounded at the battle of Elk Horn Tavern that her sex w-us sho was obliged to quit the service.

Pursued by an Alligator.

Young Stafford Jenkins, who lives at Egypt, Ga., and goes to school in Sylvania, had a very exciting experience with an alligator while driving from his home here to-day. The old saurian was lying by the side of the road sunning himself, and Stafford thought he was dead. As it was the largest one he had ever seen he thought he would measure it, and accordingly got out of the buggy, and, getting a fence rail for a measuring rod, he laid it down alongside of the sleeping alligator. It was a ten-foot rail, and the end reached a little over half way his body. Stafford pulled it up for a second measurement, and was just cutting a notch in the rail at the end of the animal's head, when the 'gator awoke and yawned. To suy that tho boy was frightened would but feebly express it. Ho says it seemed to him that he was at the mouth of some dark and lonely cave. He recovered sufficiently before the alligator was completely awake to spring for the buggy and put whip to the horse. -

By this time, however, the alligator was alive to the situation and gavo hot pursuit. For nearly two miles pursuer and pursuod went at lightning speed down the road, the distance neither lessening or increasing between them. Finally they came upon a party of men and the mad saurian halted. The purty gathered poles and fence rails and advanced to attack him. A terrific fight ensued, and for a while it looked as if the half dozen men would be vanquished and destroyed. Sometimes, with a sweep of his infuri ated, tail, tho alligator would cut completely in half a rail in the hands of one of his opponents. At last one of the crowd very' thoughtfully punched out the eyes of the monster, and after that he was soon conquered. The alligator, they say, measured after ho was dead over sixteen feet in length, and as to his size in circumferenco this scribe would be afraid to venture an assertion. This is the largest and most savngo alligator over heard of in this section. —[Atlanta Constitution.

THE “ TRUMPET RAT.”

j How a French Soldier Deceived a Naturalist. t\ hen the French Zouaves were first in Africa a new sort of rat made its appearunco there. It was called “trumpetrat,” having u long proboscis. . 'The sale of a specimen by one of the soldiers to an enthusiastic u ituralist gavo rise to au action at law. Said the plaintiff in court: “ I his zouave has cheated me out of 100 francs. He knows that I am much interested in natural sciences. 1 have collections of fossils, of shells, of rare animals, of curious plants. One day ho called upon me and said: ‘Sir, I have a kind of animal which has never been mentioned by any naturalist. It is "a trumpet rat, and luis a trunk like an elephant's. It is alive and well; if you wish to see it, you have only to come to my house.’ “I was very anxious to behold this strange animal. We arrived at his house and he showed mo in a cage an enormous rat, very lively and in good condition, which really had on its nose a slender excrescence more than an inch in length. The excrescence was covered with hair like the body' of tho animal, with vertebrae in it, and (a most extraordinary thing) larger at tho summit than at tinbase—the contrary to what it ought to bo in the usual course of things. To convince myself that it was not a dupe and a mystification I stuck a pin into the trumpet. The animal cried out and a drop of blood came from the prick. The experiment was conclusive. It was really' a trumpot forming part of the rat. “I was amazed. I asked this man if he would sell his rat. Ho said ves; and I paid him 50 fruncs for it. My friends andservauts all admired it, and I was enehanted. My rat was a male. .Seine one said that I ought to procure a fomale. I asked the zouave if lie could procure for me a female, and he said he had two. 1 saw them and bought one of them for 50 francs. Some months afterward tho female had young, I looked at them and they had no trumpets. I said to myself, ‘They' will sprout.’ I waited one month, two months, six months; everyday I looked at tho noses of my rats, but the trumpets nevor appeared.

“11l a house where I go frequently I made the acquaintance of an officer who had served a long time in Africa. I told him about my trumpet rats and he laughed j as though his sides would split. When he I was calm again he told me that the trumj pet rat was not a freak of nature, but an invention due to the leisure moments of the zouaves. This is how they make I them: You take two rats and fasten their ; paws firmly to a board, the nose of one | close to the end of the tail of the other. Then with a penknife or a lancet you j make an incision into the nose of the rat j which is hindermost and you graft the ■ tail of the first into the nose; you tie I firmly the muzzle to the tail and you : leave the two rats in this position for | forty-eight hours. At the end of that i time the union has taken placo and the [ two parts are grown together; then you I cut off the tail of the rat which is in I front to the required length and let him j go, but still keep the othor fastened to | the board, with his head looso, and you give him something to cat. At the end ! of a fortnight the wound is perfectly j healed and the eye of the most curious ! investigator would not see a trace of the j grafting. This is the way the zouaves make rats with trumpets.” | On the part of the defendant it was | urged that no had certainly made up the rats as stated, but he affirmed that ho had not sold them to the plaintiff as having been “born” wdth trumpets. Verdict for the zouave.

The Restful Change.

In addition to the night's sleep, it is a good plan to take a short nap in the middle of the day. It divides the working time, gives the nervous system a fresh hold on life, and enables one to more than make up for the time so occupied. It is well to guard against too long a sleep at such a time, since that is apt to produce disagreeable relaxation. There has been much discussion regarding the after-dinner nap. Many believe it is injurious; but it is, nevertheless, natural and wholesome. Much can be accomplished in the way of resting, otherwise than in sleep. It is very important to economize the opportunities for rest during working hours in the day. The great principle that underlies daily rest is relieving one part of the organization from duty while the others are at work. This can be done to a great extent. When the muscles are tired and worn from mechanical work that requires but little attention of the brain, stop motion and set the brain at work. The laborer can read, think and speak while his limbs are at rest. His brain need not be idle because the hammer or chisel has dropped from his weary hand. On the other hand, a man can work with his hands when his head is tired. The bookkeeper, whose head is weary with business facts and figures by 5 o'clock in the afternoon, has considerable time in the evening to sing, play, dig in the garden or black his boots, all or either of which he may do while his head is partly at rest. There is another very important way of obtaining rest mentally, that is, by chnnsring from one occupation to another. The dexterous gold beater, when he finds one arm getting tired takes the hammer in the other; and so may the man that hammers thoughts out of his brain exercise one set of mental functions while the others are at rest. One may read until tired, and then write; may acquire knowledge until weary, and then teach it to others.— [New York Journal. Marguerite—Oh, there’s Tiffany's. That’s where my pocket-book came from. Jack —Is it? It's where mine went. — New York Truth.

COMPARING THE COST.

PRODUCING DRESS GOODS HERE AND ABROAD. The Ttn-IMate Industry Fraud May Now Be Exposed—Manufacturers Unite In a Trust to Suppress Competition In the Home Market—TarlfT ShotFacts to Consider. When Mr. Schoenliof was the United States Consul at Tunstall, England, he made a study of the comparative costs of producing dress goods iu England and the United States. He was specially fitted for this work, having himself been engaged as a manufacture of textiles. Mr. Schoenliof shows c early in the following that with free wool we can easily compete with England. He says: “la dress goods a change seems to be taking place which favors the softer goods again, tho same as in men’s wear, against cassimeres, w.iich had a run for quite a number of years. The trouble in dross goods is that one can seldom say irom one season to another what class of goods will be in demand. Hence the domestic manufacturer with his limited market is always tossed about between the rocks of overproductions aud of inability to supply the goods just in demand. In this the foreign manufacturer has an advantage. He originates fashions and designs for America as well as the rest of the world. He can turn his looms witli ease and more readily than our manufacturers, partly because he works on a smaher and more scattered basis (in Germany and France a very large number of hand looms are j still in operation ) than our big concerns, and partly because he has the world’s i nations as his customers and is, therefore, not engaged with his entire fores ! on one and the same class or style of goods. Importations will, for these reasons, always goon, whether we continue advancing the tariff or not, and tho bulk will continue to be made here after increase or reduction of tariffs. Whether with a protit or without depends entirely on whether we happen to hit the thing in demand or not. '1 hat the labor cost plays no great part in this can be seen from a statement of comparative cost relating to dress goods of carded wool, so-called sackings. These goods are very extensively manufactured, and at present seem to have a run. They are of the liannel kind, and what applies to them j in the manufacturing and cost would be j applicable to that class of goods, too. In a slightly modifie 1 form this applies also to stripes or plaids The principal difference here would be that the former are dyed in the piece, the latter in the yarn. But even tnis is an infinitesimal consideration in cost, as will be seen further on. The shuttle, of course, carries with equal speed and equal good will, whether freighted with colored yarn or yarn in the gray.

The goods in America are made from the wool up, carded, spun, woven, dyed and finished in the mill. The English goods to which the comparison relates are made complete in the mill, except the dyeing and finishing, which is done by outside parties. I found the relations to stand thus: Comparison of cost of 6-4 sackings, 6% ounces to the yard, calculated on the pound basis in: , Massachusetts. > England. , Labor. Supplies, Total, Labor, Supplies, Total, cents, cents, cen.s. cents, cents. Scouring, card i n g and spinning 4.8 1.14 5.9 4. 1.5 5.5 Weaving, reaming, burling, etc 9.02 .83 1".47 7.4 .... 7.4 Dyeing... .8 1.1 1.9 8. Fit l’g and flnish'ng2.(s .... 2.0 4. Cha r g e s , etc 11.4 13. Total cts. 32.27 37.9 Wool-. 70. . ' 32. T0ta1.... 81.0227 6H.9 The general cost outside of the wool was stated by the manufacturer as being covered by 33 cents a pound. In England the dyeing and finishing is higher, being done outside. Tho American dyeing cost has to be corrected, being higher than given in my report on these dress goods I intimated then that some corrections might be necessary. What stands for tho pound ought to stand for the yard price, which would make the dyeing cost in all colors, except navy and myrtle, to bo 4.6 cents the pound, dress goods. Allowing for this difference there is still sufficient margin in tho general cost to make American flannels and carded wool dress goods independent of foreign competition, were there no tariff whatever. Tho American weaver gets 2.65 cents per yard of these goods, turns out about 300 yards a week, and earns accordingly 87.95. The English weaver gets 7s 8d per piece of sev-enty-two yards, 2.56 cents per yard, turns out 105 yards on au average, and earns 52.71.

Both are paid by the piece at nearly the same rate. The American operator handles two looms, works harder and longer hours. The Yorkshire girls handle one loom and are satisfied with earning 12 shillings a week Higher than 15 shillings their ambition seldom goes. This Is the alpha and the omega, the question and the answer, in the problem of to day. This class of goods needs nothing so much as free wool to make it exportable. Manufacturers know this very well, and have been very outspoken at times about it. How could it be otherwi e? The general cost of production, aside from woo!, is somewhat below the foreign cost, but the wool costs more than twice as much as abroad. Regarding the wool question in general an American manufacturer and commission merchant writes me: “English goo :s are invariably made out of a blend, and in this, blend there are all the way from five to twenty different qualities of wool, each of which Is associated with it, to give some desirable quality to the goods, either of texture. finish or price.” “lam obliged nearly every week, ” he further states, “to refuse profitable contracts to make goods which would occupy considerable quantities of American machinery, simply because the raw stock and the experience of handling the same do not exist in th's country. The importation of the former is prohibited by the tariff, and the tariff is likewise responsible for our Inexperience in handling certain raw stocks, which have been excluded from this market for upwards of twenty-five years. ” Here we have the whole difficulty. .We have neither the experience in handling raw stocks, nor have we the stocks of wosl required for the blending, because they have been excluded from the market for upwards of twenty-five years. Otherwise we could employ our cheap labar and working methods very profitably on ordei* now going constantly to foreign countries on account of the absence of these necessary requirements.

Cheaper to Foreigners.

Last week we showed how the axe manufactures united in a trust to suppress competition in the “home market, and how it sells axes and other tools at less prices abroad, aud thus prevents any over-supply in the home market from depressing prices here. The history of the National Saw Co., or as popularly known the Saw Trust, is similar to that of the Axs Trust The principal members of the “Saw Trust” are: The Wheeler, Madden & Clemson Mtg. Co . of Middletown, N. Y.; The Woodrough & McParlln Co., of Clncin-

natl, Ohio; The Woodrough & Clem son Co., of Boston, Mas?., and The Monhagen Steel Ca, of Middletown, N. Y. The trust has its main office in Reads street, New York. To home dealers it sends out a catalogue and a discount sheet, but furnishes exporters and foreign buyers with quite a different one. It shows even greater favor to foreign buyers than does the Axe Trust. A few illustrations will be sufficient to show this. 6 The lowest price at which the trust sell at wholesale their back champion tooth cross-cut saws in the United States is 26 to 28 cents per foot The price quoted to foreign buyers for the same saw is 20 cents per foot, or over 25 per cent. less. Extra thick back saws are quoted to the home trade at 29 to 31 cents per foot, but to the foreign trade at only 22 cents per foot, or 26 per cent below the home price. The trust offers to the foreign trade, at equally advantageous prices, its circular, hand, panel and rip saws and saw tools. High tariffs are enacted to keep out foreign competition in the home market, and thus give domestic manufacturers absolute control over production and prices. What is more natural then than that manufacturers should form combinations to exact from home consumers all that the tariff allows?

The Tin Plate Industry.

Colonel Ira Ayer, special agent ap- ! pointed by Secretary of the Treasury Foster to collect statistics on tin plate, has begun sending out requests for information on that subject » He has recommended to the Treasury a system of reports to bo made quarterly. Colonel Ayer explained that this work was being done in order that the Government might have information on which to act on that provision of the McKinley law which provides that on and after October 1, 1897, tin-plates and terneplates lighter in weight than sixty-three pounds per 100 squaro feet shall be admitted free of duty, unless it shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the President (who shall thereupon by proclamation make known the fact) that the aggregate quantity of such plate, lighter than sixty-three pounds per 100 square feet produced in tho United states during either of the six years next preceding June 30, 1897, has equaled one-th rd of the amount of such plates imported and entered for consumption during any fiscal year after the passage of this act and prior to said Oct 1, 1897, prov.ded that the amount of such plates manufactured into articles exported and upon which a drawback shall be paid shall not be included in ascertaining the amount of such importations. Tlie statistics which Colonel Ayer is after include points on which to settle all the questions which may be raised under this section. He has recommended to the department for adoption a system of reports which prescribe that the forms of invoice shall embrace the brand, number of boxes, size, number of sheets per box, weight of box, total weight, quantity lighter than sixty-three pounds per 100 square feet and sixtythree pounds and over per 100 square feet. Statement from all the rolling mills showing the names of the manufacturers to whom sheet iron and steelhave been sold w.ll be asked for. The stamping companies will then be asked to make affidavits as to the amounts which have been stamped into articles and afterward tinned or terne-plated. Mr. Ayer said lately that he had received reports from the “Tin Plate Manufacturers’ Association of America,” which gavo the names of concerns engaged in making tinned plate and those which are preparing to do so. “Will these reporls be used in making the official statement to the Government”” he was asked. “.No, they will not, ”he said. “la making the report to the Treasury nothing will be considered except the sworn statements of the parties making the goods.” The list of concerns counted by the association as engaged in the “tin-plate industry” makes an imposing array—on paper. It includes twenty-three firms. An examination of this list, however, shows that the greater proportion are still doing a business in “futures. ” The total capacity of these plants, which ares to be completed “soon” or which “propose to make tinned plates" is put down by the association at 300,000 boxes a week, which is regarded as a very comfortable figure by those whose enthusiasm on the subject has Jed them to earn the reputation of “tin plate liars.” Closer examination of this same summary of the association shows that the statement is made that only five of the twenty-three concerns are actually making tinnei or terne plates. These five, on their own showing, havo a capacity of 3,150 boxes per week, which is said to be barely enough for samples for use in the trade.—St. Louis Republic.

Tariff Shot.

When the McKinleyites claim that, workmen in the textile industries in the United States receive higher wages than are paid in England, they confuse wages paid according to the amount of work done with earnings. No one doubts but that weavers and spinners in factories in the United States earn more than similar workmen abroad. This is because they work faster and accomplish more. That weavers are paid a higher price per yard in the United States than in England is untrue. The price paid for weaving 6-4 sackings, 6% ounces to the yard, in Massachusetts, is 2.65 cents per yard, or, In England a weaver is paid 2.56 cents, or per yard for thd same class of goods. The American weaver turns out 300 yards per week, and earns $7.95 weekly. On the other hand the English weaver turns out only 105 yards per week, and earns §2.71, or While the American weaver gets only 334 per cent, more per yalrd, he earns each week over 190 per cent more than his English competitor. Prices current in the Boston wool market last week contain matter for reflection lor those deluded people who look - upon McKinley as the friend and benefactor of the American sheep. In spite of the increased protective duties Ohio wools were 134 cents to 334 cents less by the pound than at the corresponding dates last year. Ohio XX wool is 30 cents a pound now against 33 34 cents a pound at the corresponding time last year. Ohio delaines told last week at 34 34 cents a pound; the same wool sold last December at 36 cents, a decline of 134 cents since McKinley undertook to regulate the b essings of Providence with his-protective tariff panacea. Michigan clothing wool sold last w>ek at 3434 cents against 3634 cents last year, a loss of 2 cents a piund, while Michigan X wool shows a decline of 234 cents—from 29 cents last year to 2634 cents now. The demand for Ohio wool is reported dull, while the foreign wool markets seem to have an upward tendency. This reversal of what the McKinleyites expected to result from the increased duties may be partly explained by the fact that American wools are useless in many kinds of goods unless mixed with foreign wools. Whatever the cause it is hard to see how McKinley can look an Ohio sheep in the face. —St. ,Louis Republic. There are an astonishing number-o! people In this world who had to live 108 years before anyone ever heard of them.