Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 May 1893 — SPOKE TWENTY-SIX HOURS. [ARTICLE]

SPOKE TWENTY-SIX HOURS.

The Determined Effort of a Statesman to Defeat Vicious Legislation. The longest speech on record is believed by the Pall Mall Budget to Fave been that made by Mr. De Cosmos in the legislature of British Columbia, when a measure was pending the passage of which would take from a great many settlers their lands. De Cosmos was in a hopeless minority. The job had been held back till the eve of the close of the session; unless legislation was taken before noon of a given day the act of confiscation would fail. The day before the expiration of the limitation De Coßmos got the floor about 10 a. m. and began a speech against the bill. Its friends cared little, for they supposed that by 1 or 2 o’clock he would be through, and the bill could be put on its passage. One o’clock came, and De Cosmos was speaking still—had not more than entered upon his subject. Two o’clock —he was saying “in the seoond place.’’ Three o’clock—he produced a fearful bundle of evidence and insisted on reading it. The majority began to have a suspicion of the truth — he was going to speak until next noon and kill the bill. For awhile they made merry over it, but as It came on to dusk they began to get alarmed. They tried interruptions, but soon abandoned them, because each ono afforded him a chance to digress and gain time. They tried to shout him down, but that gave him a breathing space, and finally they settled down to watch the oombat between strength of will and weakness of body. They gave him no mercy—no adjournment for dinner, no chance to do more than wet his lips with water, no wandering from his subjeot, no sitting down. Twilight darkened; the gas was lit; members slipped out to dinner in relays and returned to sleep in squads, but De Cosmos went on. The speaker, to whom he was addressing himself, was alternately dozing, snoring and trying to look wide awake. Day dawned and the majority slipped out in squads to wash and breakfast, and the speaker still held on. It cannot be said .that it was a very logical, eloquent or sustained speech. There were digressions in it, repteltions also. But still the speaker kept on; and at last noon came to a baffled majority, livid with rage and impotence, and a single man who was triumphant, though his voice had sunk to a husky whisper, his eyes were almost shut and were bleared and bloodshot, his legs tottered under him, his blacked lips were cracked and smeared with blood. De Cosmos had spoken twenty-six hours und saved the settlers their lands.

Why Foam Is White. The question as to why all foarti is white is not an easy one to understand, but the fact is that foam is always white, whatever may he the color of the deveruge itself. The froth produced on a bottle of the blaekost ink is white, be perfectly so were it not tinged to a certain extent by particles of the liquid which the bubbles hold in mechanical suspension. As to the cause of this whiteness it is sufficient to say that it is due to the large number of reflecting surfaces formed by the foam; for it is these surfaces which, by reflecting the light, produce upon our eyes the impression of white. If wo rememher that all bodies owe their colors to the rays of light which they cannotabsorb, and all bodies which reflect all the light they receive, without absorbing any, appear perfectly white, we shall be prepared to understand how the multitude of reflecting surfaces formed by the foam, and whlfch do not absorb any light, must necessarily give the froth a white appearance. It is for the same reason that any very fine powder appears white; even the blackest marble when ground to dust losing every trace of Its original color. j “ (J j