Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1893 — TO CORRESPONDENTS. [ARTICLE]

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

' *" rr »«Udte tW—«< th* taOmt wt-Mi— »flr te mbU<satl«k,botMiß«iltakMof good faith on tteaw tt th» writer. Writ* oalroo on. rid* of tb* wm. B. th. latur* and fl«TtrM plain and dlxtinet.

The ragman’s business is picking Upt BS9=^^!^_=!=a! . To steal a child you must catch the kid-napping. The unemployed who want work will never find it around anarchistic meetings. The closed season lor sealskin poeketbooks will probably last during the winter. ’ . y • Idle money is useless money, and useless money is no better than no money at all. ———— - #- Judging from the newspaper reports Roby, Ind., is just the riot sort of a place for a fight. According to a contemporary “gold Is now a drug in. Chicago. ” It has been a drug in Dwight for some time. Seymour, the mind reader, has not yet succeeded in burying himself alive. Has he tried a store that does not advertise? A New York man is in jail charged with stealing cannon balls. He probably was about half shot when he did it. The closed season for seals includes May, June and July. The closed season for sealskins this year also includes nine other months. If Fay Templeton could manage to separate from Howell Osborne outside of the newspaper offices the general public would feel better about it. In many instances the man who spends his life waiting for his ship to come in wastes his time, because he originally omitted to send any ship out.

The next time that yacht Navahoe goes skimming around England she ought to do it as the representative of Philadelphia, not the United States. Mlle. Rhea denies that she has married her leading man. Perhaps her information on this point is at fault; the young man himself ought to know, however. A Brazilian 1 recently saved his life by carrying a roll of £IOO notes inside his vest yhen a bullet came that way. Yet there are people who neglect so simple a precaution. The brain is always clearest in the morning.—Kate Field. How little some folks know about such things. The bromo-seltzer industry is a refutation of Kate’s statement When John L. Sullivan is loaded he always jumps upon somebody whose gun isn’t Luck favors fools and drunken men, but the Boston bruiser is tempting fate too often. Filled with a righteous indignation at the defiant gamblers of Sacramento a deputy sheriff sallied among them to the interruption of a game. Before he could sally out he had his pockets picked. Save that virtue is its own reward the deputy might be considered the victim o’ ill-luck. An Oakland, Cal., man having reappeared after a mysterious absence explains that he remembers having taken three drinks of local whisky, and that the succeeding four days were a blank. However, he deserves felicitation upon his mental strength. There seems to be no doubt that he did remember the three drinks. A horrible story comes from Austria of thd discovery by the police of a gang of men who made it a business to cripple young children in order to make them objects of charity as beggars. When arrested several children were found in the house suffering from broken limbs and other mutilations. It is hard to conceive an adequate punishment for such crimes. It seems a little curious that with all the cry about hard times and the starving masses it is almost impossible for city people to obtain a good servant in the kitchen for less than exorbitant wages, and farmers are complaining that they cannot find men to work for them for love or money. If they are starving, why not work at whatever comes to them? If they are in a position where they can afford to lie idle, why cry about short rations? The two things don’t fit, some way.. Better late than never i 3 a maxim in which the Columbian Roller Chair Company has at last seen wisdom, and a sweeping reduction in rates has been the result Under the new tariff persons of moderate means can afford to patronize the “gospel chariots” and a marked increase in the business of the chair company is sure to result The reduction ranges from 33 to 50 per cent Trip tickets have also been placed on sale, and the whole plan indicates that the company means to recover, as far as possible, the losses sustained by the excessive charges in the past Under the new order of things visitors to the Fair will find It alike pleasant and profitable to use the chairs instead of wearing themselves out by making the tour of the buildings on toot The change comes late, but is

none the less gratifying, and its wis-' dom is already apparent

European correspondents, who used to be capable of making a war cloud out of every fog, have learned by experience to become conservative. Not even the extreme tension of the situation in Siam led to a declaration of war among them, or even to a suspension of diplomatic relations. There was a great deal of speculation and a pointing out of the tremendous possibilities in the case, but the correspondents did not venture into the probabilities. Even Mr. Blowitz, who is supposed to know mere than any one else of the innermost intentions of financiers and Kings, came near being “scooped” when the French minister at Bangkok called for his passports and his umbrella. The European correspondents are less unreliable but also less interesting than they once were.

This eternal question, whether the “United States are,” or the “United States is," has come up again, and Boston papers are taking a band in the discussion. In a letter to the Transcript the other day, Charles Dudley Warner wrote: “The United States of America is a nation, and that is its name. If I were speaking of it as a nation, I should say is—no matter about the grammar. Speaking otherwise, I might say: ‘The United States are distinguished by great variety of production.’ I should then be thinking of the several States, rather than of the political nation.” But, on the other hand, in a letter to the Journal, Mr. S. C. B. Tillinghast, of Medford, has the following patriotic communication: “Concerning ‘the United States is* and ‘the United States are’ the late Jefferson Davis held that the latter is the only correct form. It cost the rebellion to demonstrate that the Uniied States is. The whole doctrine of State rights is in ‘the United States are.’ Let us insist that our children be taught that ‘the United States is.’”

The New York Sun has been making a study of the debts of the various States, and finds that in the last te« years there has been a total decrease of $10,000,000, the forty-four States owing collectively $224,000,000, upon which they are paying $lO,000,000 a year in interest Ten States, Massachusetts, Indiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and South Carolina, have increased their Indebtedness. Seven States, Vermont lowa, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin Oregon and Montana. are out of debt The other twenty-seven States have reduced their debts during the ten-year period. Ten years ago five States had more than $20,000,000 each in outstanding obligations, as follows: Virginia, $29,000,000; Tennessee, $27,000,000; Lcuisiana, $23,000,000; Massachusetts, $20,000,000, and Pennsylvania, $20,000,000. The debts of these five States now stand as follows: Virginia, $31,000,000; Tennessee, !>10,000,000; Louisiana, $11,000,000; Massachusetts, $28,000,000; and Pennsylvania, $11,000,000. The outcome in genjral shows that good financiering is the rule in the majority of States.

Says the Chicago Herald: Among the list of nuisances with which down-town Chicago is cursed the otherwise amiable bicycle enthusiast is assuming a prominent place. Not satisfied with the freedom of the boulevards, where the wheeling is superb and where he will be in no one's way, this person has taken to spinning along through the business district where the crowds are thickest. An exaspenating feature of the downtown bicycler is his whistle. Approaching a thronged crossing he sounds a shrill note, and without slackening speed dashes onward, expecting people to get out of the way. This whistling business is going to get the lordly wheelman into trouble one of these days. Chicagoans have long ago resigned the right of way in their own streets to cahle cars, cabs, and other deadly vehicles, but when it comes to being whistled aside like refractory curs by a spindle-shanked person bestriding a bicycle the public rebels. A good stout cane thrust between the spokes of a wheel has a repressing effect on the autocratic bicycler, and it is to be hoped that this method will be adopted unless the nuisance Is abated. Only a fragment of our boasted liberties remains and we can’t afford to surrender the last shred at the behest of any longlegged, stoop-shouldered victim of Kiphorls bicycllstanum, even if it is the World’s Fair year.