Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1892 — Page 5

A M’KINLEY INDUSTRY.

CAMPAIGN MATERIAL FROM WHOLE CLOTH. A Carefully Compiled List ot Ware Reductions Since the McKinley Tariff Act Began to Boom Business and Baise Wages. Facts About Wages. The Tariff Reform Club has compiled a list of about 500 wage reductions which have occurred in protected industries since the McKinley tariff act began to boom business and raise wages. The protectionists, last spring, thought it time to begin to demonstrate the good effect upon wages of their panacea for all ills, and they published what purported to be a list of twenty-seven protected firms which have raised wdges since October, 1890. The American Econogilftt has published this ?fme list several times, ana refers to it nearly every week with pride. It has been copied and recopied in thousands of Republican papers. After Senator Aldrich and the American Economist had criticised the list of 500 wage reductions, because there appeared to be several repetitions of items, and because some of the reductions had occurred in industries and States where statistics indicated that on the. wliole average wages had not declined since 1890, the Reform Club concluded to see if the protectionist list was all genuine. Kings County Knitting Co. It sent a man over into Brooklyn to inquire into the general advance of 5 per cent, credited to the “Kings County Knitting Co.” After a long hunt the firm was located on the top floor of a building in a remote part of the city. The employes consisted of three men and from ten to fifteen girls. The first person met was the employer, who failed to remember anything about the said “general advance” until reminded of the American Economist article. But even this stimulus to the memory could not make the three factory girls who were interviewed recall a time when their wages had been advanced; they could, however, easily remember time's when they were earning more than now. Langley & Davis. The club has since continued its investigation. It sent another man to Oriskany Falls, N. Y., where Langley & Davis had advanced wages 25 and 50 cents a day, so it was alleged. It was learned that this firm made skirts for ladies’ dresses, and that they employ fifteen hands: 7 weavers, 4 carders, 2 spinners, 1 dyer and 1 finisher. The boss weaver’s wages were advanced last spring from $2 to $2.25 a day, to keep him from going to other mills. The others in his department (5 women and 1 man) were reduce ! last June from 4A to 4 cents per cut for weaving. They were then earning about $1 per day, though their average for last winter did not exceed 60 cents. The boss carder was also advanced from $2 to $2.25 for the same reason. One of the young men in his department had his wages raised last May from $4.50 to $5 per week; because he was thought likely to get the “springfever” and leave, the company thought It better to retain a man who had been with them through the winter at $5 rather than break in a new man. The finishers’ wages were reduced last spring from $1.50 to $1.25 per day. The wages of the other employes have not suffered from “McKinley" advances, but remained stationary, from 50 cents to $1 or more per day. The employes smiled an anti-MoKin-ley smile when they were informed of the Republican material Which was being supplied at their expense. Some of them suggested that it might be a scheme of Langley <fc Davis to attract laborers to Oriskany Falls so that cheap labor could be obtained when the firm starts its new mill in i few weeks. Other interesting information was obtained in regard to this firm and the materials used by it, but it would be out of place here, even if there were space for it.

Wilkins & Close. Two other firms visited were those of Wilkins 4. Close and C,ose <t Christie, glove manufacturers at Mayfield, N. Y. Mr. Wilkins said that hi had read the report that wages had been advanced from 15 to 25 per cent, h his factory, but that he did not knew how such a statement had gotten intCprint, as there was really no basis for it. He said that they employed about 10( men and 25 girls in their glove and leather-dressing factories, and that wagestere no higher than for several years previous. They take on 30 or 40 new hamfe a year from the farms round about. jThese hands are paid 75 cents a dar for the first month; then $1 for some time; and if they become proficient thtir wages are advanced to $1.25. Mr. IVilkins said: “There has been no more advance this year with us, or anywhere in the county (Fulton County, N. Y.j which produces two-thirds of our gbve product) than has been customary for seven or eight years. The McKinlei bill has had no material effect on busness. Fivesixths of our gloves go Vest, and the demand for them depends <n the crops and the weather. A warn winter and short crops will lower wags, and a cold winter and good crops wil raise them slightly." Close & CrlstL. The situation at the fa<ory of Close & Cristie, just across the itreet, was the same. The gloves made py both these firms are mostly heavy, heap, unlined gloves sold largely in th< West to harvesters, drivers, etc. Noeimilar gloves are made or used to anyextent in any other country, and then is absolutely no competition from abrad, and therefore no protection to thii industry from any tariff Close & Cristje employ forty or fifty hands. They boti admitted that there was no foreign lompetitlon in their line of goods, butithey were enjoying the notoriety thy were getting through the report of tte alleged wage advances of from 15 to i per cent., and, being Republicans, didnot feel called upon to deny it. Theylaughingly said that they thought wags had been increased more than usuA in their factory this year and that tie McKinley bill might have had somet'ing to do with it. They said that therelvas foreign competion on some kinds If gloves made at Gloversville and Johffitown, N. Y., but that they had heard >f no wage advances in any factory here. It may be observed that no papei printed in Fulton County had published these reports. Alfred D4ge. The factory of ifred Dolge, of Dolgeville, N. Y., wasulso visited. The report said that wags had been advanced 2t> per cent. hee. Dolge manufactures piano felts, Sounding-boards, cases, and other pia,o supplies. He also makes felt shoes ind slippers. He employs altogether nirly 300 persons. It is the custom at Doleville to hold an annual reunion. At Buch times Mr. Dolge, the paternal foprietor of the place, makes an addrei and announces the promotions and aqances in wages to be made for the ending year. The new employes who hae been earning what may be regarded’as apprenticeship wages, and some f the older- employes who have servedtheir employer most faithfully, expect to have their wages advanced at th; time. It 'is Dolge’s boast that in thiiway he stimulates his employes to io their best. Twenty or twenty-five,wio have worked hard and overcarned the: old wages of perhaps $1.25 or sl.f| per day, usually get an advanced about one

shilling. Many others are disappointed, but Dolge gives them hope by telling them that if £hey do their duty fully their turn will come next. At the reunion in February, 1891, between forty and fifty had their wages advanced a shilling each, and the hours of labor were reduced from ten to nine and a half, with, the promise (the supply of promises is never short) that if the employes accomplished as much in nine and a half hours as they formerly did in ten, the hours would be further reduced to nine at the next annual reunion. This advance in wages was slightly more than usual. It t*ay be accounted for by knowing that Dolge, by a gross misrepresentation of facts, had been successful in 1890 in having the duty on piano felts increased from between 60 and 70 to an average of about 100 per cent. Dolge already had a monopoly of American-made felt, and this ■tfquld cut off much of the foreign competition. Besides, he had, from a freer trader in 188‘2-u, bScAnaA h'mo’st ardent protectionist, and had told his employes In his speeches that higher duties meant higher wages, and the njqn intended to take him at his word. In the next place, Dolge had been figuring to get the Republican nomination for Congress in his district, and knew the value of such a move in politics. Then, also, he appreciated the advertising that his business would get through Republican editors, who were scouring the political and industrial horizon to find a case of higher duties followed by higher wages. It is also said by the very best judges both in and out of his factory that he is making at least 100 per cent, clear profit on his felts, which he sells for about $4 per pound. If he had not made advances in wages, his own employes might have exposed his greed and the falsity of his promises. He has gotten thousands of dollars’ worth of advertising, and has had his vanity tickled by having his personality and his business described in nearly every Republican paper in the land; but up to date he has not captured the nomination for Congress. He is, however, on the New York Tribune’s list of millionaires, and as he has made his money during the last twenty years his prospects are good. His standing with the Republican party is now so good that from ten to twenty girls are kept busy addressing wrappers for the New York State Republican Committee, in which to mail copies of the Dolgeville Herald. This paper keeps the public posted about Dolgeville, and tells of the American terne-plate roofs being put on by Dolge. Competent judges say that he could get as good imported roofing terne for $10.50 per box as he now gets for $16.50. But there is another side to this case. No wage advances occurred at Dolge-

ville this year. Some of those who expected advances have been greatly disappointed and have asked for them. Moreover, the hours of labor have not been reduced to nine, though Dolge admitted in his speech that as much or even more work had been done per hand than in former years. Nor have the changes in wages during the last few years always been advances. Four years ago common laborers in Dolge’s employ received $1.50 per day; they now get but $1.25. The price for hauling lumber to Little Falls has been reduced from $1.50 per thousand to sl, and for coal from 10 to 3 cents per 100 pounds. These reductions affect at least fifty or sixty employes in and out of the factory. During the last year the price for covering and trimming pianohammers has been reduced from 26 and 9 cents respectively to 18 and 3 cents per set. Three years ago the felt shoemakers got 35 cents per pair; they get 3 ) cents now. The girls in the shoe department and many others throughout the mill have also had their wages reduced. Two-thirds of the employes are foreign born (mostly German), and it is said that only Republicans and foreigners have much chance of promotion or advancement under Dolge. Certain it is that nearly every foreman and subboss is a foreigner. Hawthorn Mills Company.

Reports said that wages had been advanced 15 per cent, at the Hawthorn mills at Glenville, Conn. These mills employ 210 or 215 —about 175 in the woolen department, where suitings, cheviots, etc., are made, and 30 or 40 in the felt department, where polishing felts are produced. Some of the employes interviewed had not heard of the campaign wage-advance report. When shown it they were quick to denounce it as a lie, and began to tell of the numerous reductions of the last year. One employe said: “If I had known you were going to be here I could have prepared a list of reductions a yard long. ” In the woolen department about eighty men, all Hungarians, Poles, Russian Jews, Swedes and Danes, except six or eight Germans, had their wages reduced in June, 1892, from $1 to $1.15 per day to 90 cents to sl. In the dyeroom ten men—all Poles—were reduced from $1 to 90 cents, and Manager Hunt has since told the boss dyer not to pay over 80 cents per day. The men at first refused to accept these wages, but are now back at work. In the felt department all are men and foreigners (same class as above). During Cleveland’s administration they got $1.15 a day; they have for over three years been receiving but $1 per day. In the weave room thirty -five weavers (mostly women) make about $1.50 a day when they do not have to wait for filling, warp, etc., but their average for the year is only about. sl. Last fall, when nearly half of the looms (67 in all) were running on a certain class of goods, the manager announced that he would have to reduce the price of weaving from 5.2 cents per yard to 4| cents or he could not compete with another mill making this same class of goods. The reduction was made. In the finishing room about fifteen women and girls “burl” and “speck” cloth for 50 cents a day of ten hours. In the weave room there were five loom repairers last fall; now four do the work and have received no advance in wages. A boss gigger left the factory August 10, 1892, when told that his wages would be reduced from $1.50 to sl. He came from Broadbrook a short time before, where he had once earned $3.50 a day. Hunt told the employes in 1888 that if Cleveland was elected wages would have to come down. The men think he intended this for an excuse for a contemplated reduction. But Harrison’s election did not interfere with Hunt’s plans, for the reductions began at once after the election. Herman Lieb, a carder, voted for Harrison, and had his wages cut from $1.50 to $1.25 the next week. It may be mentioned here that there are only twenty voters in the whole factory. This company violates the weekly payment law by paying only once in two weeks, after withholding two weeks’ pay; it has a “company store;” it owns and rents houses to its employes; its treatment of employes and tenants is said to be particularly harsh; and it exhibits many other symptoms of a wellprotected industry. These reports embrace six of the twenty-seven cases of “wage advances” attributed to MoKinleyism. It is now the intention of the Reform Club to investigate and report on all. If there has been a case in a protected industry where wages have been advanced, and the advance is not due to the demands of a strong labor union, or where the members of the firm are not in politics and are not writing articles for Repubii-

can magazines or papers, tne ciub will not hesitate to give full credit to the firm that does business upon such philanthropic principles, and the protectionists will then have some genuine campaign material, which apparently is very scarce at present, or they would not be compelled to establish the “McKinley industry” of manufacturing “wage advances* out of wage reductions.

Who Pays the Tariff Tax?

There is a street car driver in Washington named Mike Doran, says the Washington correspondent of the Republic. He is a native of Ireland and has been in this country about six years. He is a pretty bright fellow, is a close reader of the newspapers, and a careful observer of everything that is going,on. During the past year Mike has been led away by the theories of the Republicans that protection was a good thing for the poor man and helped to keep up wages. A -»s. A’n Incident oACured within the past week qr ten days that has made Mike somewhat skeptical. He had been told, by the Republicans, of course, and by McKjpley in particular, that the foreigners paid our ialeS. McKlnlej said so in his Minneapolis speech and, Mike believed him at the time. About ten days ago a cousin of Mike’s arrived in this country. He brought a present from Mike’s mother to her son, consisting of twelve pairs of woolen socks, which she herself knit him. It is safe to say that the value of the socks was about 20 cents a pair, but when Mike’s cousin arrived at the Custom House he was assessed 25 cents a pair tariff duty on socks. When he came to Mike he showed his receipt from the Custom House officers for the $3 that he had paid for the dozen socks, and Mike, of course, had to refund the money to him. This set Mike thinking, and on the suggestion of a friend, with whom he conferred, he addressed the following letter to Governor McKinley on the subject: Dear Sir —l read your speeches in the House of Representatives during the Fiftyfirst Congress when the tariff bill was under discussion, in which you asserted and made me believe that the foreigners paid our taxes. I also read your speech as presiding officer of the Republican National Convention at Minneapolis, in which you asserted again that the foreigner paid our taxes. My mother sent me a dozen pair of socks from Ireland a few days ago. each pair being worth about 20 cents. My cousin who brought them to me had to pay 25 cents a pair tariff duties on the socks at the New York custom-house. Will you please be kind enough to tell me to what foreign government I shall apply to have that 53 refunded to me? If the foreigner pays the tax, as you say he does. I am entitled to get my money back, but I do not know just exactly to what foreign government to apply, and I hope you will be kind enough to Inform me by return mall. Yours truly, Michael. Doran. Hon. William McKinley. This is a very pretty little object lesson and should not be lost sight of by people who are laboring to understand the tariff question.

A Millennium Overdue.

It has been.nearly two years since our present tariff act went into effect. It was to encourage industries and provide work for all at higher wages. An era of peace and plenty was to follow. There was no doubt about it. But what has been our experience? Besides thousands of strikes, over 500 wage reductions in protected industries have been reported. At the present time there are labor riots in Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, and Wyoming, and the militia is on guard in three States. At no other time in our history have there been so many ready to fill any vacancies that may occur in the ranks of labor. If it were not for sentiment and fear 100,000 men would be begging for the places of the 3,000 strikers at Homestead. And this is the condition of labor in spite of our big crops and high prices forthem. It would not be fair to blame McKinley for all this—the excessive heat of this summer, or the Democratic House, or a thousand other things, may have temporarily unsettled business and workingmen’s minds. Such unforeseen events would upset the best laid plans. But how many years do you think it will take, Major, before your pet measure will begin to usher in the wage-earner’s promised millennum?

Our Miracle Worker.

Right here in the United States, in the year 1890, was wrought one of the greatest miracles on record. By a sort of jugglery of economic conditions a great statesman, Wm. McKinley Jr. by name, has enabled us to make manufactured goods cheaper by taxing them; to make farm products dearer by taxing them; to increase foreign commerce by placing barriers to stop it; to kill trusts by restricting competition; to encourage industry by advancing wages and reducing prices and profits; to find markets lor our farm products in the farming countries south of us; to reduce the cost of making goods by increasing wages and the cost of raw materials; to collect our revenues by levying duties upon foreigners who seek our markets for their goods, except when out of pity we excuse them by means of our reciprocity clause; and to raise big crops when there are famines in foreign countries. And yet there are some who would have us go back to the oldfashioned hum-dpum life when people paid their own taxes, made goods cheaper by removing the restrictions to competition, and in general always expected that water run would down hill. But then no new invention or discovery was ever fully appreciated at first.

Shopping in Europe.

Mr.- McKinley, will you please explain how it is, if your protective tariff is making manufactured goods so cheap here, that the thousands of Americans now returning from Europe are all coming back loaded with every article on your tariff list that they can, by hook or crook, get into this country without paying the duty? These tounsts go to great trouble to purchase and carry these articles, and take great risks in concealing them and the facts concerning them, which would necessitate the payment of duties at the custom house. They all do it. Republicans and Democrats, Presbyterians and infidels, with one accord agree to buy all they can abroad and to beat the custom-house officials as much as possible here, and then they boast of their unpatriotic and shameful proceedings. It is noticeable that they seldom bring back articles on the free list, or on which the duty is light, but mostly those on which the duty is from 5o to 100 per cent, and above. How do you assimilate these facts with your theories? It is common to hear these tourists say that they have saved enough on the four or five suits purchased abroad to pay for their trip. Is this because suits are cheaper here than there? By a judicious mixture of shoddy, woolen goods are made cheaper than before the McKinley law. “A cheap coat makes a cheap man,” indeed, when adulteration is the first requisite to a covered back. The foreigner, poor as he is, has at least woolen clothing. His rags we can use, ours he can not. —St. Louis Courier. Governments make hostile tariffs, and Buffering from the effects, the palliative reciprocity is suggested; and with a wild hurrah the American statesman enters the field as the discoverer of what to do, after we’ve followed his advice and put our “foot in it.”—St. Louis Courier.

EARLY AUTUMN STYLES.

THIS A GREAT SEASON FOR WHITE GOWNS. Many New Things to Be Seen—Why Big Hats Are Not Always Objectionable— Sleeves and Sashes—Some Charming Costumes. Fads of Fashion. New York correspondence:

OMEONE once obSjected to concerts on account of the music. It reminds me ot the lady at the springs who, in orV' der to be able to \ ( show her beautiful l' white gowns In the drinking pavilioh, forced her husband, ff ifc a perfectly healthy I man, to partake of iff sulphur water every • ] morning for two II in months. This i Eyhas oeA'n K great season for whjtq Spy*gowns, and it must (hl* - be conceded that a fresh, pretty girl looks prettier in

white than in any other color. Then, again, how delightfully becoming are the white serges and white silks, with enormous puffed sleeves standing out from the shoulder about twelve inches. A very pretty dress may be made by laying a white figured muslin over a white satin, gathered around a squarecut opening, and then hanging straight from there to the feet. At a garden party last week, the hostess, a young married woman of great beauty .who makes a point always to wear exactly the right thing at the right time, made her appearance on the lawn clad in an exquisite pale rose sown, direct from leading metropolitan establishment, where it had been “confectioned,” as they term it, especially for this outdoor fete. Now imagine, if you can, the feelings of this fair hostess to see one of her friends, a tall girl of remarkably fine figure, make her appearance on the lawn wearing a costume qualified to give the lookers-on an attack of the “creeps,” being of a garish hue of red-dish-yellow in combination with magenta. During the whole afternoon this horror hovered about the fair vision of pink, “killing” it, as the artists say, most effectually. Could this have been

END OF SUMMER MODES.

her object? It would be a severe thing to say, but when you’ve nursed a dear gazelle and learned to love its soft black eyes, it’s pretty hard to have another girl steal him away from you, isn’t it? My initial illustration sets forth a very seasonable out-door gown for a young girl, the material of the skirt being a mauve crepon trimmed with jet galloon, and a blouse in surah made up over adjusted lining and also trimmed with the galloon. The belt is sewed to the skirt and hooks on one side. The sleeves are tight from the elbow. In my second picture I present two charming out-door toilets for early autumn. The one on the right is a silvergray serge with an amber-colored surah blouse, and sleeves with red and black spots. The bottom of the skirt is set off with three bias stripes of black and yellow. The lower sleeves are in plain surah, embroidered. The blouse is embroidered with black silk. The costume on the left is an apple-green foulard, covered with black laco, the embroidery being on the silk in black stitching. The corsage, is of the silk, but the sleeves are of velvet in a darker shade. At the back the lace simulates a flgaro; in front it falls epaulet-style and covers the whole front. The straight collar is also covered with lace, ana the sleeves have lace cuffs. There is also a belt and plastron of galloon, embroidered with dull green silk on a peach-colored background. It is very common at this period of the season to see sleeves differing in color and material from the stuff of which the gown is made. As in the

FOR SUPPLEMENTAL SEASON.

dress just described for you, velvet seems to be the favorite material for such sleeves, the folded belt and collar being of the, same material. Such sleeves are usually in pale colors, and add a peculiar charm to an artistic toilet. The velvet sleeve invariably ends in a deep flaring lace cuff, or else there is a long cuff of guipure or pleated gauze. another style calls for a long, tight sleeve of dress material, with a puffed velvet sleeve ending at the elbow. where it is held by a band and bow of ribbon. Strange as it may seem, these velvet sleeves are particularly effective in combination with cost, gauzy, filmy materials like chiflons, crepons, silk gauzes, silk muslins and the whole long list of summer stuffs. The wide flaring cuffs of guipure are strikingly becoming to a fine hand and arm. Some of these puffed sleeves are divided in the middle by bands of silver galloon. In all cases belts and collars should present the same scheme of ornamentation.

In my.third illustration you will find pictured on the right an altogether charming toilet for a summer fete or afternoon oocasion. The material made use of is a flower-figured batiste, cream ground, with shaded pink carnations. The large collar, which Is put on separately, is finished with a deep flounce of lace, and falls in epaulets over the puffed sleeves. The straight collar, ornamented with pink velvet ribbon, is sewed to the large collar. The lower sleeve is set off with bracelet bands of ribbon. The wide belt is formed of the stuff pleated or of the ribbon lined with stiff material and boned. In the figure on the left I show you a very stylish wrap in striped beige crepe garnitured with lace. Chantilly lace and black moire ribbons are used for this purpose, also jet passementerie and beige velvet for the yoke. At the back there is only one large pleat. A deep flounce of Chantilly finishes the wrap at the bot-

A SEPTEMBER IDYL.

tom, surmounted by a strip of galloon At the back the yoke Is rounded, and the lace which edges it is caught up on each shoulder with a bow. At the waist line at the back there is a bow with long ends. Corsages are now pretty generally made with the back in one piece, slightly gathered at the middle of the waist line, or else with a simple flat fold down tho middle. And I need hardly add that they are often so bolaced that at first glance you see nothing of the dress material; but this is not as it should bo. The rule is: all the lace effects you please, but don’t mar the outlines of the figures. Borne makers now cut skirts with two breadths of material, one front and one back, Instead of running a bias seam at the middle of the back. It your material is plain, the front breadth is cut on the straight and the back on the full bias; if striped or plaid, then both breadths are cut on the straight and gored at tho sides. There is but little time now left for thin gowns, and the summer girl is making the most oi It. It seems to me she grows more and more gorgeous and beautiful as she draws near to the end of her rolgn. Just at present she is a vision of white chiffon and lace, her sash being in Empire style, wide and long, and of white satin, of course. Her hat, also white and very large, is trimmed with pink ribbon and pink roses, and then she draws the veil. Horrible! you exclaim, to cover up a pretty face with a white lace veil, but it is fashionably correct, so why shouldn’t she? It is not our business to make fashions, but to follow them. “My dear,” said a fond husband to hie better half one Sunday morning, “if you wear that hat to church the people behind you will be furious, for you will

A LATE SUMMER GOWN.

cut off the view of all the other hate In front of you. ’’ “Never fear,” replied the woman of fashion; “mine will keep them occupied until services are over. ” In the fourth picture you will find a pretty gown for the end of summer. It is made up in figured linen, or you might choose batiste. There is a plastron of surah and belt of pleated linen. reach only to the elbow, below which the arm is covered with open-work silk mitts. The skirt is set off at the bottom with two narrow flounces of the material. Lace is much used for tunics, set on the edge of a square yoke, from which it falls straight down over the dress, and is not belted in or set off with any drapery or sash of any kind. Such a garment is very trying, and calls for a tall, well-proportioned figure, which, of course, is dimly seen through its transparent folds. These tunics, which, by the way, may be made either of piece lace, tulle, or gauze, may be worn in light colors over dark, or in dark shades over light, underskirts, as ecru tulle over pale gijeen satin, or fine black Chantilly over corn-colored silk. I have still another novelty in late summer gowns to show you—in the last illustration—a terra cotta-glace serge. The bottom of the skirt has three rows of satin ribbon of the same shade, separated by open-work gold galloon. The corsage is trimmed in the same manner and also has a pleated lace collarette, bise color. This collarette has a straight collar covered with ribbon, and ornamented with ribbon loops falling over the lace. The deep cuffs are gamltured like the skirt and corsage. In spite of the fact that the summer girl has yet a brief space of time in which to display her dainty feet dressed in white canvas shoes or thrust into dark russets, yet it is quite apparent that she pauses now and then to give a thought to that glorious season of deep tones and gorgeous colorings which we call Fall. What will the Mistress of the Modes proclaim? As yet I hear only whisperings. Green is to be a prime favorite—not dull shades, but vivid tints and tones, and browns, too, are to be very modish in strong colors. Purplish reds, known as magentas, will be in high favor, as also dahlia, hyacinth and all the purples that get their brilliancy from red. Bonnets and hats will be relieved by velvet ribbons in cherry and poppy, but there must be nothing loud or glaring; all must be rich, elegant, and artistic Copyright, 1892.

NOTES AND COMM.ENTS.

South Africa has been scourged by a locust pest and considerable damage is still being wrought. A swarm of locusts crossed over' one place in a column over six miles wide, clearing pretty much everything before them. The mealie crop in the Orange Free State has been destroyed by the locusts, causing n loss of over $1,000,000. Statistics gathered in spite of the opposition and efforts to conceal them, show that an enormous number of men are either killed or maimed for lite every year in the coupling of cars, because in the act the cars are jammed close together and the coupler is often not as spry as he should be, being tired and sleepy, chilled sometimes with the cold 1 , or perhaps slips on ice or snow on the track. A government commission in Western Australia has just made an exhaustive report upon the present condition of agri culture in that colony, together with the causes affecting the same. The commission also suggested in what way the cultivation of the soil might be advanced and the prosperity of the farmers increased. One of the conclusions arrived at was that agricultural depression was unknown there. Of the something like 075 members elected to Parliament, only ten are farmers, which strikes an American as remarkable. Army and navy officers, to a large extent representative of the “leisure class,” contribute 53 members; journalists, 35; labor, 15, and railway directors, 60. The law in Great Britain, as with us. is the stepping stone par excellence to public life. There are 104 lawyers in the new Parliament.

Wyoming is rapidly attaining prominence as a mineral-producing State. Strikes of good ore have been made frequently of lute and the fact is causing an influx of prospectors whose search for the precious metals will be sure to result in more finds. Wyoming is already noted for her coal fields and deposits of iron; if she adds to her reputation as a gold and silver producing State she will soon be running neck and neck with Colorado. The rapid growth of the habit of sobriety and temperance is one of the characteristics of American railway service, the use of intoxicants becoming more and more the exception, although it is said to be the rule in the English service. It was a subject for comment in an English railway publication recently that, the 5,000 laborers who were employed in changing the grade of the Great Western Railway were not allowed to refresh themselves during working hours with anything stronger than oatmeal water. Commercial authorities in Chicago and New Orleans are predicting an unusual increase in agricultural activity in the next two or three years, for reasons like these: A great deal of unoccupied farming land in the older Htates is now relatively far above the price of equal or better in land in tho newer States which have, within the past few years been opened up by railroad building. Agriculturists, instead of remaining on tliis high priced land, find it to their advantage to go on cheaper but good land where railway facilities enable them to reach markets. According to a bulletin just issued jrom the Census Office there are about 1,500,000 more males than females in the sixty-two and a half millions of population. In the New England and Middle States there 45,000 more females than males. In the south middle section, including the District, the females outnuin ; ber the males by some 20,000. While in the northern central section of the country as far west as Nebraska the males are in the majority by over 800,000, in tho south central portion this excess reaches only about 200,000. In the western section of the country the predominance of the males is shown by a majority of over 500,000

A gospel barge, the gift of a wealthy New Yorker to Bishop Walker to tlie Episcopal Church of North Dakota, is to be launched at Bismarck soon. It is to be called the Missouri Missioner and used for Christian work in towns and camps along the Missouri for a distance of more than 500 miles. It is ninety-three feet in length ami twenty-five feet in breadth. The Bishop hopes, with this liarge church, to reach many people who could not otherwise attend divine service, and It is to be used for general Christian york of every kind that the region calls or. Bishop Walker refuses to give, the lame of the giver, saying only that he is man with many interests in the West. “In five years’ time,” says Edgar L. Wakeman, “I have tramped along 3,000 miles of British roads. Each time I step my feet upon their broad, firm, even surface, every drop of American blood in me tingles with shame at the thought of the mud pikes and bottomless road sloughs of our own splendid country—rich, great and strong enough to match the roods of Europe without a week’s delay. And yet for five months of every year, and in a lessor degree for the other seven, half of the people of our farming communities are imprisoned and impoverished helplessly at home. As one result, the people of the whole country pay, in an indirect road-tax, though annual sharp advances on all food necessities of life, all of which the farmers lose, a sum each year enormous enough to maintain as superb roads as England anywhere possesses, around every section of cultivable land in the entire United States.”

Dr. Gilmore Ellis, superintendent of the insane asylum at Singapore, India, has made public some interesting results of his study of the peculiar form of madness known as “amok.” He has gathered from the testimony of Malays who have run amok, or “amuck,” as we spell it, that strong emotions bring on genuine paroxyms, during which the person has no recollection of his acts. It is a curious coincidence that the theory brought out by Zola in “La Bete Humaine” is identical with that of the murderous Malay. Zoin’s hero sees everything red before him when seized by the passion of slaughter. Bo the Malays whom Dr. Ellis interviewed declared that they grew giddy and “everything appeared red or dark like blood before their eyes.” The doctor’s theory of responsibility for the amok-runners is vague, as he would excuse those who act from a certain impulse while he would hold guilty those who work themselves into a murderous rage over real or imaginary wrongs. This is too fine a distinction for the European to understand. The State Olive Growers’ Association of California recently held a convention to compare notes and transact a little business in the interest of their products. Samples were exhibited from San Diego, . anta Barbara, Livermore, Pomona, Alburn, Banta Clara, Sonoma, and other counties.- President Ellwood Cooper talked to the convention about the adulteration of olive oil. The State law prohibiting it had proved a failure for the reason that it did not provide for the apoointment of inspectors to analyze the

oils sold, the citizen being obliged to proceed individually against violator* of the law and get together his own evidence. Treasurer Justinian Cairo said that the public seemed to be unwilling to pay a fair price for pure oil and would rather buy cheap adulterated oils so long as they were palatable. Mr. Cooper suggested that, the olive oil act should require that the names of manufacturers of oils be placed on the bottles, and that if adulterated products are offered for sale , the names of all the ingredients, the quantity, etc., must be printed on the packages containing them. Rev. C. F. Loop of Pomona, a student of olive culture. in the old and new worlds, stated that California, for 500 miles north and south, was the ideal country for olivegrowing. There are now, he said, fifty varieties cultivated in the State, including the black olive of Africa and the razza of Tuscany. Within a few years California would be able to supply the United States with both the fruit and the oil. It was decided by the convention to make an exhibition of pure California olive oils at the Manufacturers’, Dealers’, and Consumers’ Food Exposition to be held at Madison Square Garden, New York, in October, 1892, and at the Italian American exposition now being held at Genoa, and which runs until January, 1893.

POPULAR SCIENCE NOTES.

Observations made to determine the longitude of Montreal show that the t ransmission of the electric current across the ocean and back occupied a trifle over a second, the distance being 8,000 miles. A gold coin passes from one to another 2,000,000,000 times before the stamp or impression upon it becomes obliterated by friction, while, a silver coin changes bet ween 3,250,000,000 times before it becomes entirely effaced. Wonderful Screws. An authority on the subject asserts that the smallest screws known are those used by the watch manufacturers. The fourth jewelwheel screw is very minute, being almost invisible to the naked eye. A person of onlinary eye-«ight would pronounce it a section of a very small hair. With a glass it is seen to be a perfect screw, with threads so fine that it would take 200 of them to wind round the little speck of wire to a distance of a half an inch, providing they were that long. As it is they are but the forty one-thous-andth of an inch in diameter and less t han one-ten thousandth of an inch in length. -

Effect of ITbat oh Hair and Nails. —lt is gei erally understood that the hair and nails grow faster in hot weather than in cold; but, perhaps, few are aware that any temjiersture can impart so great a stimulous to the growth as Colonel Pejevnlsky, the Russian traveler, says the Central Asian heat dui during his journey in those regions. In June the ground became so excessively hot that travel in day time wn* rendered impossible. Within a fortnight after thiaoppressive weather set in, Colonel Pejevalsky says that some youthful Cossacks of his party, whose fares were perfectly smooth, devclo]Mjd respectable beards within th# short ]M*riod of twenty days. Wonders ra a To® or Coal. —There is more in a ton of common bituminous coal than moat people are aware of. Besides gasses, a ton of coal will yield 1500 pounds of coke, twenty gallons of ammonia water, and 140 pounds of coal tar. Destructive of the tar gives us (19.9 pounds of pitch, 17 pounds of creosote, 14 pound* of heavy oils, 9.5 pounds of naphth*yellow, 6.3 pounds of naphthaline, 4.75 pounds of naphihaole, 2.25 jxiunds of alizarin, 2.4 pounds of solvent naphtha, 1-5 pound* of phenol, 1.2 pounds of aurine, 1.1 pounds of analine, 0.77 nowndsoftoludine, 0.46 pound* of anthramne, and 0.9 pounds of toluene. From the last named product saccharine is obtained, which is 223 times sweeter than sugar. A Dust Detector.— Borne curious color phenomena have been observed by Mr. John Aitkin when air is suddenly expanded, and have led to the construction of a new instrument, tailed the “ koniscope,’’ tor roughly determining the amount of impurities in the air. The instrument consists simply of an air pump and a tube 20 inches long provided with glass ends. The air to be tested is drawn into the tube, where it is moistened and expanded. If com|»aratively few dust particles are present—say, SBO,OOO tier cubic centimeter— the color is very faint, but a blue of increasing depth occurs as the particles increase in number, becoming a very dark blue with 4,000,000 per cubic centimeter. The koniscope make* it easy to trace the pollution arising in our homes from open flames and other causes, and to separate pure from impure current* in the room*.

“Hand and Seal.”

The expression “hand and seal,"which occurs so frequently in legal documents, is a reminder of the time when few men were able to write even their own names. Scores of old English and French deeds are extant, some of them executed by kings and noblemen, ia which the signature is a hand dipped in ink, the seal being afterward appended, together with the sign of the cross, the name of the man executing the deed being written by another hand. Dipping the entire hand in ink was, however, inconvenient and dirty, aad later the thumb was substituted. The seal continued to be used, and though now it has become only a formality, legal practice has in many ways pronounced ita employment indispensable.

What a Bad Egg Is.

There is water a-plenty in a fresh-laid egg, but no more air than there is in * hammer. As long as you can keep the air out of. your egg it will remain sweet and fresh, but nobody has succeeded in keeping it out more than six days. It sounds funny, but the moment you give en egg fresh air that moment you ruin its health. People wonder why a bad egg is so [xisitively obtrusive as to odor, but they shouldn’t What do they expect of a combination of {Nitrified albumen, decayed cheese, sulphuric acid, carbonic add gas, ammonia and ultra-rancid margarine set free? Honeysuckles t— Pittsburg Bulletin.

When Machinery is in Order.

Engineers judge of the condition of their machinery fay the tone it gives out while running. Every engine, whether stationary or locomotive, has a particular tone of its own; the engineer becomes accustomed to that, and any departure from it at once excites * suspicion that all is not right. The engineer may not know what is the natter, he may' have no ear for music, but the change in tone of his machine wffi be instantly perceptible, will be instantly recognized, and will start him oa an immediate investigation.—[St Louis Globe-Democrat