Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1892 — Page 4 Advertisements Column 2 [ADVERTISEMENT]

on other funds. The managers of the team are congratulated upon the result of their efforts. During the coming year there will probably be an effort to set aside a portion of the annual gains for the purpose of educating free of expense a certain number of ambitious students who might not otherwise be able to acquire proficiency in this branch of scholastics. The people of France have always been regarded as thrifty and temperate. It is painful therefore to learn, in the Paris correspondence of a London newspaper, that “drunkenness has so much increased in France of late years that this country, once so sober, is now sorely puzzled to know what to do vyith its habitual topers.” The same writer adds that the quantity of spirits consumed in France has increased enormously. The cheap bars for the working classes which have sprung up in all parts of Paris during the last year or so are undoubtedly doing much to increase the evil here. They are generally crowded, and the quantity of absinthe that is drunk in these places at all hours of the day is quite sufficient to explain the alarming increase of alcoholic madness. ” From this it appears that Paris, too, is menaced by the saloon question, and that the country of cheap wine is rapidly becoming demoralized by cheap bars. Mr. Henry M. Standby, the African explorer, who is the Unionist Parliamentary candidate for North Lambeth in the city of London, will need all the assistance which M*s. Stanley can give him to win in that peculiar constituency. The sitting member, Gen. Fraser, is a Tory. He won the seat in 1886 by a majority of 412 over Walter Wren, a popular candidate. He carried the seat in 1885 also, but only by a majority of 206. Fraser, however, was an exceptionally strong candidate and made a great canvass. It is related of him that he used to be on Westminster bridge at 5 o’clock every morning for three weeks before the election to exchange greetings with the Lambeth artisans on their way to work. Mr. Stanley will hardly do that. It is probable, too, that Fraser retired from the contest because the Liberals have gained in the constituency. They carried it at the City Council’s election in March. Mr. Stanley does not seem to have the capacity of making friends with the working people. The Tories sent him to Pembroke to woo the sailor votes there, but they would have none of him. He failed also to make a good impression in Sheffield. The Tories of Lambeth took him because they could not find another. The contest will be decided week after next. It may be that Mrs. Stanley can win the seat for her husband, but the chances are the other way.

A railway ride of twenty miles for 2 cents! That is the prospect held out by the London County Council to overcrowded Londoners who have their eyes bent longingly toward the green fields of the country. Mr. William Saunders, one of the radical members of that rather radical body, is the proponent of this scheme, which, in addition to the cheap fare, embraces another novel feature. It Is proposed that the railway, upon which the motive power is to be electricity, shall be paid for on the “betterment” principle, or, as we say here, by special assessment. In New South Wales some lines of railway have been constructed at the cost of contiguous property, but the pending project in London is the first of the kind in England. And there is as much to be said in favor of resorting to the betterment plan in the construction of a railway as in making a street or laying a pavement. The principles involved are identical. It is not likely that the Conservatives of the County Council will look with approbation upon Mr. Saunders’ proposal. They have already been horrified by certain progressive features of the Liberal and Radical programme, and t;he pending proposition will add alarm to the feeling of distress which has oppressed the Tories ever since the remarkable victory of the Progressives in March last. But the Tory minority is so feeble that its opposition to the Saunders scheme will be immaterial, and it is likely to be undertaken and pushed to success. It will certainly command the enthusiastic support of the labor element, and on that account the Liberals will find it convenient to give the project their approval and assistance. And in that event the dream of cheap fares over a railway owned and operated by the people of London will be very near a realization.