Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 November 1893 — Page 5

JUGGLED STATISTICS.

MANUFACTURERS GET IN FINE WORK WITH FIGURES. TkOM Favored by Protection Will Spend Millions to Prarest the Removal of the Doties—The Ohio Parmer and McKinley —The Income Tax. How and Why ’Tl* Done. When it is sought to do away with unnatural obstructions to trade opposition U at once encountered from tnose interested in maintaining the obstructions. The manufacturers specially favored by protection danu, wnich turn water away from competitors’ mills and into their own sluiceways, will spend millions to prevent the removal of the dams. Buying votes, bull-dozing employes, bribing legislators, coloring or falsifying statistics, and. tricks, jobs and chicanery of all kinds are in order. Observe for a moment the effects of protection upon statistics —official and unofficial. INo one who has heard or read the testimony before the Ways and Means Committee, given by manufacturers during the last decade, in regard to wages and labor cost, has any doubt as to the worthlessness of most of the statistics presented. If the “facts" presented are not absolutely false, it Js only the highest wages in America that are compared with the lowest in England or Europe. Who doubts but that these same manufacturers, wherever possible, have juggled their returns to the Census Bureau.' 1 Who doubts that Census Taker Porter has often shut one eye and passed such patriotic imperfections by? Even his population statistics are worthless because of his inability to see and count “free-traders." Major Brock, of the Bureau of Statistics, neglected to make corrections amounting to more than (75,000,000 in the value of our imports, but no pains were spared to present the protection and reciprocity statistics in the most favorable light. Statistician Dodge, of the Agricultural Department, always fixed up his statistics to show what protection and reciprocity had done tor the farmer. The tin-plate statistics of the Treasury and consular reports of the State Department were all edited with the one end in view and are notoriously crooked. All departments, both Federal and State, are expected to do their duty in this line. In this connection ex-Labor Commissioner Peck, of New York, is called to mind. He made figures to order for Republican manufacturers and burned the public papers that would disclose the particulars in regard to the inaccuracies. He is now under indictment for this offense, and is out on bail, awaiting-his trial. For the same reasons the statistics published in trade papers and reports are unreliable when they deal with protected industries. The public must be deceived or kept in ignorance of facts not favorable to protection. It is probable that steel rails are made as cheaply here as anywhere, but the manufacturers will not disclose the cost of production. An instance of the baneful effects upon statistics is supplied by the sugar industry. Willett & Gray’s Sugar Trade Journal is the semi-official mouthpiece of the sugar trust, and is interested in making profits appear as small as possible until the Democrats decide what they will do with the 4 cent per pound duty on refined sugar. Recently a Baltimore man, to decide a bet, wrote to Willett & Gray to find out if refiners were making more than one cent or less than 4 cent per pound on refined sugars. These supposed reliable authorities, after complaining about the “great injustice" done refiners by “absurd and misleading statements,” proceeded to juggle with facts in a most reckless manner. They told the Baltimorean about “long prices,” subj set to disoount, brokerage, cost of refining at 4 cent per pound, Tosses by “wear and tear” of machinery, taxes, interest, etc., until the inquirer might almost suppose the refiners were losing money every day. And yet in a special number issued in February, 1891, giving an “Analysis of the Sugar Refining Business forlßßß -1889-1890, ” Messrs. Willett <fc Gray themselves estimated the cost of refining in 1888 and 1889 at 4 cent, and in 1890 at 9-16 cent per pound. They then deducted nothing for brokerage on refined or for impurity on raw sugar. They knew then, as they know now that the 9-16 cent cost of refining includes both of these items and also wear and tear, storage, taxes, interest, etc. But even the 9-16 cent is probably too much. The Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin expresses the opinion that the cost of refining does not exceed 4 cent per pound. Instead of estimating net profits at considerably less than 4 cent, as did Willett & Gray, the Bulletin concluded that they were fully 1 cent for Eastern apd 24 cents per pound for Western refiners, and that profits were about twice as great as the average for the last year, when it estimated “an aggregate of $28,532,000 that is clean-profit to the most arbitrary monopoly that the country ever saw or put up with.” —Byron W. Holt.

The Ohio Farmer and McKiale.r. There is not a farmer in the State cf Ohio who does not feel that in some way his interests have been sacrificed. He sees immense wealth accumulated by the manufacturing industries. He sees that the respective plants have quadrupled in value. He recognizes that those engaged in those interests have lived each year at a coat twice, thrice greater than he has expended. He then realizes that his farm has depreciated in value. That it has declined twenty, thirty and in many instances fifty per cent, within the last three decades, and he asks himself, “Why is this so? Why does not the Government devise some legislation which will at least keep my property from depreciation. I have been promised a home market for my products, but I have discovered that ’my home market is ruled and regulated by the prices obtainable in the streets of Liverpool Home market is a myth, if it is subject to the control of the Liverpool market. My farm has depreciated in value yearly, though ft is more productive than it ever has been. I have made it so by the hardest of labor, yet it is still declining in value. I pay indirect taxes which enrich the manufacturer. His goods are not controlled by a foreign market. The tariff enables him to have a home market, and he sells at a large profit. But I must part with my products at a price fixed in Liverpool. I can’t see the justice of legislation which enforces a tribute Irom me for others, and leaves me naked to contend with the cheap labor cf foreign countries.” That is a sensible argument and a sen »ible conclusion, but the farmer will continue to suffer—his lands will continue to depreciate until the protective tariff is repealedThe McKinley and kindred legislations are responsible for the present depressed conditions. The Repub icans have enacted all the laws for more than thirty years. These laws tax the multitude t»the benefit of the manufacturing interests. They have taken hundreds of millions of dollars from the laborer, the mechanic, the

farmer, and they will continue to take millions more if they are not replaced with wholesmoe laws which tax only for the support of the government.— Pomeroy (Ohio) Democrat. A Just Income Tax. Why is it that the average legislator appears to be determined to make the poorer classes pay in proportion to their ability higher taxes than the rich? One can understand why it should be so in a Government where great power is lodged in a privileged aristocracy. But why is it so in a republic? It is a notorious feature of the McKinley law that the highest percentage of extortion is laid upon those, kinds and qualities of goods which are the necessities or the commonest comforts of the masses of the people. The luxuries of the rich are taxed lightly in comparison. This is one of the outrageous wrongs of that iniquitous statute. No sooner is an income tax proposed than forthwith schemers are prolific of projects for such an income tax as will cause certain hardship to the great body of persons of small incomes, wageea ners, salaried men and small traders, but may be borne by capitalists easily or with comparative ease. The purpose of such schemes appears to be to make an income tax unpopular, and so to defeat it in the interest of plutocrats who now contrive to escape all taxation on a large share of their invested wealth. These are the persons whom an income tax ought to catch and compel to do their proper duty towards the Government that protects them Incomes under $5,000 ought to be exempt from tax or subject to only a nominal rate. As a rule the receivers of such incomes are persons who pay their full share of taxes in indirect but not less certain ways. They are ; not the ones who do or can shirk their proper share of the expenses of government. They are not the ones who indulge in luxurious living. They are not the ones who pile up vast fortunes by adding interest they cannot spend to capital that is more than sufficient for comfort and for self-indulgence. The proper object of an income tax is not to oppress the industrious and the struggling and to prevent them from acquiring a modest competence. Its object is to compel those who have incomes in excess of the moderate requirements of living and of rearing a family and of saving against the years of weakness, to do their full share in supporting the Government under which they prosper in an extraordinary degree. 1 The difference between what the very I rich man pays and what is paid by the man who nas no capital but his hands and his health, under the indirect system of tariff taxation, is a difference that is relatively oppressive to the great majority of the people and partial to the few. A properly graduated income tax, with sharply increasing rates for incomes above $5,C00, would correct this injustice and oppress nobody. With a Treasury deficit of $50,000.000 in sight it would be strange if such a tax were not growing in favor.—New York World.

Too Good to Be True. It is reported from Washington on the authority of Democratic members of the Ways and Means Committee that a tariff bill will probably be ready to lay before the full committee on or before the 10th of November. It is further reported that these members agree that the bill will be reported to the House and placed on the calendar by the 20th of next month. “If this program is carried out,” says a Washington dispatch to the Herald, “it will be possible for the House to conclude consideration of the bill and send it over for the concurrence of the Senate before the Christmas holidays. The probabilities, therefore, are that the measure will become a law during the latter part of February or early in March.” To this it is added that the Democrats of the committee are now working every day from early morn to dewy eve upon the various schedules. All this is encouraging, so lar as the committee is concerned. It means that the Democrats of the committee now understand that it is important to respond within a reasonable time to the popular decision at the polls last November. It means, or seems to mean, that the policy of procrastination is no longer regarded with favor by those who are charged with the duty of redeeming the party pledge and the decision of the people to the form of law. It seems to mean that these gentlemen intend to do what they can to get the revised tariff in operation long enough before the next Congressional election to give the people some chance to judge as to its merits. It seems to mean that they are disposed to reject the cowardly counsels of mere politicians, to assume that the people meant what they said at the polls and to rely upon the popular approval.—

Giving Consumer, a Chance. By the grace of the McKinley tariff, which imposes an average duty of 24 cents a pound on various sizes of window glass, the American Window Glass Trust is enabled to maintain an absolute monopoly of the domestic market. The advantage of the trust seems to have been pressed too far, for at a meeting held in Chicago on Wednesday last it was agreed that the market —that is, the home market —should remain open for an indefinite period. The explanation offered by the President of the combination was simple enough: “There is no demand for glass; we cannot create trade, and in the face of the light demand there is no necessity to maintain prices.” In other words, the prices of the trust, under changed industrial and commercial conditions, have become practically prohibitory, and a new and lower level is to be sought in unlimited com* Setition. When this shall have been etermined with reasonable accuracy, to the last penny which consumers can afford to pay, the trust will again step in to “maintain prices” under the she ter of a tariff ranging from 100 to 130 per cent.—Philadelphia Record.

We Will Try Them. A Yonkers (N. Y.) firm of carpet manufacturers confirm the published report that they are making carpets for export to the English market in order to fill English orders. They are enabled to successfully compete in the English market by reason of improved machinery. There can be no reasonable doubt that aftf r the tariff duty shall have been removed from parpet wools the carpets made in Kensington will find ready sale in every neutral market of the world.—Philadelphia Record. McKinley Protection Did It. Wheat sold in New York on Monday at 68 cents per bushel for December options. This is the lowest price ever recorded in the dealings of thePrcduce Exchange. Such prices do not cover the average cost of production. The only gleam of comfort to be derived from such transactions is the incidental promise of cheap bread to the millions who find their daily bread hard to earn.—Philadelphia Record. Remember that what your children hear at home takes wings and flies abroad.

MONSTER STRUCTURE.

THE BIGGEST EDIFICE AT THE WORLD’S FAIR. All Nations Represented in the Wondrous Building of Manufacturers and Liberal Arts—The Most Notable Exhibits. This is the giant of them all. It is one of the world’s architectural wouders. Though not having at much ground acreage as the large structure erected at the New Orleans Cotton Centennial in 1884, it is, nevertheless, more imposing and has much more available space. The New Orleans building covered a little more than 33 acres; the Liberal Arts building but 31. If to this be added the acreage of the galleries the footing will be 44 acres of flooring. During the time it was being erected, I was very much interested. I watched the growth of the huge skeleton, arch by arch. I think it is more wonderful than any exhibit it oontains. The iron and steel required in its construction would build two Brooklyn bridges. The Eiffel Tower is very high, over a thousand feet. The Eiffel Tower could be laid along the floor of the Manufactures and Liberal Arts building, with a few hundred feet to spare. Six games of baseball could be played within it and none of the games would interfere with each other. Five car loads of nails were used in laying the floor. The immense arches are supported on axles not thicker than a man’s arm. The object of so setting them was to leave the arches at liberty to contract with the cold or to expand with the heat. Few people can form any idea of how the iron within this | mammoth building is affeoted by the changes of the temperature. Some 50 ! carloads of glass have been spread out over the immense roof. The glass had all been set in the spring. Just ns soon as the weather began to soften up and ; we had those frequent and sudden i changes that usually oocur here in May and June, the roof suffered to a great extent. I remember on one occasion particularly of a certain sudden cooling in the atmosphere that broke hundreds of panes of glass in the roof. Even now, it is a difficult thing to keep the roof in , repair. ) In the immediate centre of the hall stands a high clock tower whose chimes frequently fill the air with sweet sounds. This tower is about 150 feet high. All pavilions may be readily located by points from this structure. For instance, at the N. E. corner Germany stands. Immediately north of tnis is Austria and still farther north comes Japan. At the S. E. corner is France, followed on the south by Belgium and then by Russia. At the southwest corner is Great Britain and diagonally opposite to it is the space allotted to our home exhibitors. England has the most unpretentious pavilion of all. Indeed it is no pavilion. They have merely enclosed the floor space alloted to them. The pavilions of Germany and France are the most pretentious. Which nation has the better exhibit is a question very difficult to answer. I have seen both and am inclined to think they are about equal. If France le ids in some things Germany does in others and vice versa. Neither nation has spared money in preparing for the display. Each Dation is completely represented. If there is a French restaurant, there is also a German one.' The display in both exhibits represents the highest art in each country. The salons of Berlin are as gay as those of Paris and nil that furnishes the salons of Paris and. Berlin, all that goes to dress up the men and women who fill these salons, —all is represented at the Fair. It will delight every visitor to see the magnificence each of these peoples has sent on as representative. Those with money will find much to buy and many suggestions as to interior decorations that will be positively fascinating. It is the hardest thing in the world to pass through this building without stopping to see and examine all that is displayed. Thirty governments are here represented. Siam and Persia. Ceylon and Jamaica, Brazil and Switzerland, Russia and Japan, Corea and Morocco, France and Germany are side- by side on this neutral ground in friendly rivalry. There is something in each exhibit peculiar to the people—characteristic of them- some particular work which no other nation has, some national industry in whiihthey lead. For instance,, there is nothing on the World’s Fair grounds equal to the display of glass work from Austria. It is simply exquisite. The tints and hues in the beautiful handiwork O'intiot be described. The method of decorating,' the artistic design and finish of these decorations must be st*n. | Then Switzerland is therewith her jew - elery and wood carving. Geneva watches are shown of all sizes and shapes. Some are not larger than your thumb nail The cases containing them are always crowded with admirers, who, like myself, are simply fascinated. Imagine a set of of jewelry worth (30,000, consisting of five separate pieces gleaming like, well, I scarcely know what. # I remember one morning when a boy I went into our grape arbor and came upon a beautiful sight. A gigantic spider had woven a wondrously delicate polygonal net and some fairy finger had hung it with thousands of ilewdrops. The sun was peeping through an opening on the opposite side of the bower, and the rays that parsed in fell flashing on the spider's net and lit it into flumes of gold and purple and yellow and indigo. This little scene that I had almost forgotten was recalled to my mind when I saw the set of jewelry to which I have referred. There was a necklace, quite small; a pair of earrings, not large, and two unpretentious-looking bracelets. Then I read the legend below, which said: “Price (30,000.” I bad no idea that so much value could be wrought together in tiny jjebbles so very small. But they were diamonds and that somewhat quieted my astonishment. The wood carving and the music boxes here are equally wonderful. One piece carved from a so'id piece of wood, is the most delioate thing of the sort imaginable. It is a bouquet of flowers standing in a flower pot. The carving proper is not more than 10 inches high and 6 inches wide. Yet it took the author fifteen months to complete it. Its label reads (2,400. Spain was allotted a very poor plaoe in which to make her display in this building. Yet did her architect make the best of it. It is a reproduction of some of the halls of the Alhambra. The effeot is very pleasing. The prettiest statue of the child Jesus I have ever seen is shown here. It representa the Divine One when He was ibout eight years of age. He is seated in a large chair whose I a k is a gilded oross that rises far above Hia head. His arras are extended over the sides of the chair. His face is upliited; His mouth partially n|*n. In this, as in all the Catholic statuary displayed in this exhibit, the eyes are made of glass and are very life like. I came upon two huge rases wrought

in a manner lately invented by a Spanish woman. These vases are of steel and are enorusted with pure gold. The designs and the figures are beautifully laid on. They have an exquisite finish and the contrast between the gold and the steel ia very rich and pleasing. They are each about four feet high and are intended as centre ornaments for parlors. It will take a snug sum to own the pair. Sixty thousand dollars will buy them, twenty thousand dollars being the prioe for the first one and forty thousand dollars the figure on tho other. Siam has a very small pavilion, bqt I heard somebody remark it contained more value to the square foot than any other nation’s display. The pavilion itself is a beautiful affair. Pagoda shaped, it glitters in gold and cut glass. Tiny pieces of glass about one inch long and three-eighths of an inch wide are so cut that five of them make a atar. Such stars are all over the little building and the uncovered places are gilded. They display beautiful carviug on elephants’ tusks, magoificant silver work, and that peculiar ware which they make of papier macho inlaid with pearl. They manifest a degree of culture that I did not think existed in Siam. Some beautiful needle work from the art school of Lady BhasKarawongoeza is shown. I did not think they were already struggling so markedly for the arts of European civilization. The Netherlands have a magnificent display of ceramics. They have panel pictures that are simply exquisite. The Danes have a very notable and complete exhibit. One of the most interesting features they have are relics of Hans Christian Anderseu. With just pride they glory in the man whose fairy tales have delighted the children of every nation. Unfortunately a lsok of spaco foroes the Italian exhibitors into very crowded quarters. They are placed, like Spain, under the gallery, and tho darkness prevents their wares from being seen to the best advantage. Undoubtedly they are tho most artistic people in Europe. Every time I get near tlioir exhibit I am drawn to it, and cannot go on without stopping to admire. Their statuary is simply wonderful. They have figures in all conceivable positions, and in every instance so life-like, so oxquisite that it is simply fascinating.

Fought to the Death.

A visitor at Scranton, Penn., saw a furious fight between a woodchuck and a muskrat on Choke CreekJ a few days ago. He was walking toward the creek, on the opposite side of which he saw a woodchuck slaking his thirst near a pool under a leaning yellow birch tree. The woodchuck became alarmed at his apfiroaeh, gave a whistle and started on a ively canter for its burrow, a few rods up the bank. At the same instant a monster muskrat, which had been nosing around in the grass and weeds near the woodchuck’s hole, made a dash for the pool under the leuning birch. The startled animals ran into one another in their haste to reach their respective abiding places, and the collision instantly made them forget all fear, caused them to become as angry as hornets, and set them to fighting like bulldogs. Each animal seemed to think that the other was to blame for running against it, and, instead of apologizing and trying to pass one another, they began to bite and scratch, bristle and squeal angrily, and roll and tumble in the grass, an though they were bound to kill one and other. The muskrat kept working the woodchuck toward tjie creek, the blood and fur flew, and at length the woodchuck broke away, cried enough, and went limping to its burrow. It hadn’t taken five steps before the pugnacious muskrat collared it and made it fight. The woodchuck sailed into the big rat with renewed vigor, but the latter knew its business, and in less than three minutes it caught the woodchuck by the throat and dragged it over the bank into the pool. The lighting animals churned the water into foam, but the muskrat held the woodchuck’s head under water until it was drowned, when it flung the carcass onto a stone and swam out of sight under the roots of the birch.

How to Hear a Color.

One of the most wonderful discoveries in science that has been made within the last year or two is the fact that a beam of light produces sound. According to Milling, a beam of sunlight is thrown through a lens on a glass vessel that contains lampbllok, colored silk or worsted or other substances. A disk, having slits or openings cut in it, ia made to revolve swiftly in this beam of light so as to cut it up, thus making alternate flashes of light and shadow. On putting the ear to the glass vessel strange sounds are heard so long os the flashing beam is fall ng on the vessel. Recently a wonderful discovery has been made. A beam of sunlight is caused to pass through a prLm so as to produce what is called solar spectrum or rainbow. The disk is turned and the colored light of the rainbow is made to break through it. Now place the ear to the vessel containing the silk, wool, or other material. As the colored lights of the spectrum fall upon it sounds mil bo given by different parts of the spectrum and there will be silence in other parts. For instance, if the vessel contains red worsted, and the green light flashes upon it, loud sounds will be given. Only feeble sounds will be heard if the red and blue part of the rainbow fall upon the vessel, and other colors make no sound at ail. Green silk gives sound best in red light. Every kind of material gives more or less sound in different colors and utters no sound in others. — [New York Advertiser.

The Awful Pause.

“It is quite fatal to apnear stupid and uninterested when you arc out in society, you know," said a pretty girl to an amused listener to her prattle, “and I have discovered a capital recipe against looking dull whioh I will give you gratis At Mrs. A.’s the other day 1 found myself at a big luncheon, with a lot of older people present, and on taking our places at the table 1 was dismayed to find that one of my neighbors was an elderly woman and a total stranger, who turned her shoulder to me during a greater part of the repast, and the other was Milly 8., who is a dear girl, hut has not au idea in her head. After the first few minutes had pnssed in total silence a bright idea struck me. ‘Milly,’ I said, •let’s count; we will look just ae if we were talking, and it’s ever so muoh easier. When I leave off you beg’n.' And I began in my most vivacious manner, ‘One, two, three, four, five, six, seven’—then I paused, and Milly, showing her little white teeth with bona fide merriment, went on, ‘Eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen,’ and we both ended with a burst of genuine laughter. “ ‘What a good time those girls are having!' I heard our vis-a-vis saying to her neighbor.rather enviously, I thought. ‘I wonder what they are talking about”' —[Chicago Journal.

WORN BY THE WOMEN

SOME OF THE VERY LATEST IDEAS IN DRESS. Rakish Trimming* of Braid* Are Much In Use—The Tailor-Made Gown* Are Being Carried Out In the Most Severe Line*. Gotham Fashion Gossip. ,is'ew York correspondence:

AKISH trimmings of braids are used FXk f°r all sorts of gowns for all kinds of occasions. Thus a stylish skirt of 1 very heavy repped 1 80 f wool has two bands v&J of wide Hercules KL / braid at each side My from belt to hem. Buttons and but--1 \ tonholes are added n 1 on the braid as far M as the nees, and ■WI on one side these r/ * buttons and but- % Wl tonholes are practicable, for the skirt really butvly\S tons on, not all the ■pt-jK way down, to be sure, but just far

enough to make getting into it an easier matter than is usual. The set of this skirt is a wonder; front and sides are stiff as board and sweep out in a beauteous inclined plane from belt to foot. At the back it lies in heavy or-gan-pipe flutes. The stiffness is due partly to [crinoline and partly to the weight ana close weave of the goods. The bodice is a round waist with cute little skirts attached, and fluting as prettily as does the back of the dress skirt. Sleeves are leg-o'-mutton with coat cuffs turned back loosely; the bodice opens over a vest of silk, and there are stiff revere that flute a little at the edge. The wool stuff is a bright green ground, heavily reppod in dull red, a line of brown running on the green ground between the reps and softening and enriching tho entire effect. The vest and braid are shot green and brown silk. The skirts of the bodice, the entire dress skirt and the cuffs and revere are lined with a bright emerald shade of silk. The whole combination is most stunning,

A HOUSE DRESS BESIDE SHOWY MOURNING.

but it is all very heavy. Really, it would be better to let a maid follow trundling the gown in a wheelbarrow, that all may admire. It will be, you will find, too much like work to carry it. Women now are excessively careful that their house gowns shall harmonize with their rooms. A well-khown society woman always sends her dressmakers a sample of the curtains hanging in the reception rcom in which the dress ordered is to be worn. Even little breakfast gowns are carefully selected to harmonize with whatever the scheme of color may be in the dining room. It is even said that one young lady insisted that her fiance should give her full information about the plans for furnishing the house in which he intended to receive her, contending that otherwise she should not dare select any of her more elaborate gowns. While many of us are not in a position requiring such extreme care, it may be as well to avoid a receiving gown of a color that will distinctly clash with the walls of your room, or the chair upon which you may perhaps be seated. After the initial, which presents a simple and dressy walking costume in gray cloth, there comes a houso dress which .is a safe one for any ordinary surroundings. It is made of black silk with a yellow stripe through it and strewn with little yellow dots. The bodlco' fastens at the side and is cut on the cross. Two wee bows hold the bertha in place and the collar, of velvet, is trimmed with yellow ribbon. The companion figure displays an odd and yet very swell example of stylish mourning. The gown is in black orepon and the cape corresponds and has a band of crepe cut on the cross about

FALL FROMENADE COSTUMES.

the edge. A crepe ruching ges about the Leek and a small bonnet i-> worn trimmed with two crepe bows. Another dressy bit of mourning is portrayed at the right in the third illustration. In this model, which is designed for a young or middle-aged matron, the skirt is mode of black cashmere trimmed with three graduated rows of crepe. The jacket is of cloth with a pretty butterfly cape of. crepe. Although, as shown, the dress is for mourning, It can be carried out for any other time by substituting velvet for the crepe trimming. The other street costume of the same picture has its skirt of dark-brown cloth trimmed only at the hem with a narrow flounce. The pretty cape is trimmed with three rows of otter fur, as is the deep collarette. The Medici collar is warmly lined with the same fur. Dark-blue, quite the usual yachting shade, is combined with a dull grassgreen for the street, and in m.ny instances in most extraordinary fashion. Only that the green is too evidently a new color to permit anyone for a moment to imagine that the gown was other than a fresh inspiration of the latest craze, it would be supposed that the girl had made some awful mistake

As for instance, a gown of blue rough cloth is made quite plain with a full gored skirt. Over this is worn a Russian blouse bodice of the green cloth, the skirts coming well down and hot buttoning below the waist lino. Over the blouse is worn an Eton jacket of the blue cloth, cut short in the back and front, and hanging loose and open with little revers at the collar. If the green thing were left off the rest of the gown would be recognized as just a little outing affair, but that cannot be suspected either, because as the girl steps up the high curb the blue skirt is lined, as far as you can see, with green silk to match the green bodice affair. So it must be all right, you decide, and sigh with wonder. Tailor-made gowns are being carried out in the most severe lines, the only concession to the present mode being in the gored skirt, but no exaggeration of effect is allowed there even. The bouice tits as a tailor-made must, without a wrinkle. It is double-breasted and has coat collar revors which are no more pronounced than those on a man's coat. The finish of tho gown is in all

A CAPE IN BLACK VELVET.

ways like that on u man’s suit. Masculine collar, tie and cuffs aro worn and a soft felt hat. The material chosen is an extraordinarily heavy cheviot, in solid black or dark mixture. Every effort is made to render the ?;own conspicuous for alwolute simplicity and freedom from all exaggeration of style. It is, perhaps, unnecessary to say that such a gown costs about three times the usual ornate and iiddle-deo-dee gown, and that proportion generally holds between tho cost of u thing which is elegantly simple and one which is “simply elegant.” Pretty capes are shown In bewildering variety, und two pretty velvet ones are sketched in the nnal two pictures. The first of these is In black velvet lined with pink silk. Rows of small jet ornaments hide each seam of the narrow breadths of velvet, and the epaulettes and collar are profusely trimmed with passementerie. A jet ball fringe finishes the cape's edge. The epaulettes come over to fasten at the (font of the oape aud must tie well stiffened with crinoline. Miroir brown velvet composes the other pretty ga> ment. It is lined with turquoise blue silk and ornamented at the shouldors with points of jet. What appears in front as a ruching of velvet falls In a hood at the back. The latest and most hideous idea for skirt decoration is a series of ruffles set a-tilt in a manner calculated to make a woman fall over her hose directly she gets into the skirt. The first ruffle starts in tho back as high almost as the hips and in its progress to the front dips to a level below the hips right in front. The next frill is set just below the first and accomplishes a corresponding dip from back to front, and so on down. When a ruffle in its

ANOTHER OF BROWN VELVET.

dip hits the edge of the skirt it U stopped there and taken up on the opposite edge of the skirt to continue ill reckless career to tho starting place at the back. The frills, of courso, got shorter and shorter till the last appears only at the back, and for a tiny space to each side. It is surely safe to say that no woman could comfortably Keep her balance In such a skirt. But with a bit of grumbling at an occasional crazy or demontod trimming we should remember one groat advantage to the sex due to the wide skirts. That is the improved gait women hare acquired since these now wide gowns came in. Wtmen should be grutoful, for there was never a skirt so pietty, so light, or so easy to wear as tne unexaggerated example of the skirt fashion now gives us. Lot us stick to it. A generation of such skirts would do much to reorgani e women physically, and give her again the grace it is said she so sadly lacks just now. With the advent of real cold weather the great big muffs of our grandmother’s day are to be carried, and they are surely a lot more sensible than those of a few years ago, that hardly warmed the tips of tne tiniest fingers. The big ones are so nice to keep tho hand* warm when coming home from the party, and they do say, those who aro old enough to know, that the c b'g muffs will hold three hands as well a* two. and that is a big advantage. Copyright, lsus.

A Long Kick.

Two Irishmen engaged in peddling linen bought an old mule to aid in carrying tne burdens. One would ride awhile, then the other, carrying tip bales of linen on the mule. One day the man who was on foot got close to hismuleship, when ho receiv“d a kick on one of his shins. To be revenged he hurled a stone at the mule, hut by accident he struck his companion on the back of the head. Seeing what he had done, he stopped and began to groan and rub his shin. The one on the mule turned and asked what was the matter. “Tho cratur's kicked mo,” was the reply. “Be jabers,” said the other, “he did the same to me on the back of the head."

A Long Feast.

Athenaeus decribes a feast given bv a prince of Gaul, which continued without Interruption for a whole year. Even stranges passing though hi* dominions during this time were compelled to oome and eat.

GLIMPSES IN A MINT.

The Process of Coining the Precious Metals. It is rather difficult to attempt a description of how money is made. Even encyclopedias, which are supposed to be equal to any and all emergencies, object to that. In a measure they are right. To get the best idea of a multiple and minute processes of minting, one must be an eye witness. It adds charm to the proceedings to stand by the dusty furnnoes, arranged in sentinel-like rows, to see them open their jaws and to look right down into the fiery cavern, where insatiable tongues of flame are licking up the molten masses of silver and gold. A day or two ago Officer Brown, atanding beside a visitor who had watched with all the fascination of a novice the great iron mouths opening and closing, betrayed himself into a ueat little explanation of tbe process of minting money. Officer Brown has been many years at the mint, so the visitor listened with interest, as to one who spoke with authority. Here is the process in a nutshell : "Making money," said he, with one of those eloquent waves of the hands he keeps by him to use on explanatory occasions such as these, "is just like making cake. You mix tho dough, we mix the metal. You roll out the dough into shape, we roll out the metal into bars. You out the dough into cakes, we cut tho metal into coins. Then we stamp them. The metal left over is melted up and used again, just ns the cook gathers up the left-overs, rolls them again and cuts more cakes."

In other words, an amount of metal, say the equivalent of SOO,OOO in gold, which chemically is made up of 00 per cent, gold and 10 per cent, copper, ia put into a black-lead crucible about the size of a peck measure. It ia kept in the furnace one hour and fifteen minutea. The workman watches his gold as sacredly as tho cook her cakes, and when the molten liquid is brought to the proper consistency he takes a three-cor-nered black-lead cup, nbout the size that would fit a monkey’s head, and dips up $2,000 worth of the metal at a time, pouriug it out again with that marvelous dexterity whiob only oomas from practice into moulds holding SI,OOO each. Nothing can be more beautiful than the fiery stroamof young and pure gold as it glidea into the locked arms of the iron mould. When the liquid solidifies it forms a bar, or, to bo technioally correct, an ingot about twelve inches long and about naif an inch thick. These ingots are subjected to a process of rolling out which lengthens them without increasing the width. The bars are then ready to bo cut. One muchine outs the coin, another stamps them after the procesa of milling baa been performed. Milling, in mint parlance, has somewhat ot a different signification than in ordinary vernacular. It signifies tho rolling over of tho edge of the coin preparatory to atamping it with the minute denticulutions. which are commonly known as tho milling. The latter is port o( the process of stamping, and is done at the time that the signet is put on the coin. , Speaking of stamping introduces the largo corps of women who form a considerable part of the woiking force of the mint. About one hundred of them are employed, and they attend entirely to the adjusting and stamping. It may be said in explanation of the prooess of the torm "adjusting" that every coin before it is shaped is oarefully weighed. If too. heavy the edge is delicately filed until the coin is of lawful weight; if too light the piece is sent to be remelted. This process of weighing and adjusting is au employment to which women, with their dclicaoy of touch, are well suited. They are also in charge of the stamping. Incidentally it may be said that most presses stamp from 80 to 110 coins everv minute. In ono short hour $15,000 in ten-dollar gold pieces can be stamped around the edge and on both sidea. There is another part of the work which comes under the chnrge of the women employed at the mint. They do the sewing. At first thought it seems a trifle incongruous to associate sewing with money minting, but all the bags used bv tho mint are sewed in the building. The bags are made of white duck and run up by machine, being sewed twice for security. The bag making is no small thing when you come to consider the number it takes to pack up tbe newly-coined weabbof the country each year. The five-oent pieces are packed in SSO bags and the pennies in $lO bags, small silver in SI,OOO and the gold in $5,000 pouohss. Roughly speaking, last year fully 2,000 bags were made up for gold alone, 16,000 for silver, 5,000 for half dollars, besides maov thousands for the smaller coins.—[Philadelphia Times.

Two Colors of Tobacco Smoke.

Smoke consist* of minute particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air, and its color depends partly upon the chemical constitution of suoh particles, but also largely upon their size. Exact experiment has shown that as the size of minute partioles suspended in air is gradually increased they give rise to colors varying from sky-blue down through the whole range of the spectra) scale. This is the cause of sunset and sunrise colors in the sky. Its effects can also be traced in the case of the two kinds of tobacco smoko, i modified by the murky tints of 1 the carbonaceous products. The smoke given off from the heated surface of the burning tobacco in the bowl of the pipe consists of matter all of which has been highly heated and very fully oxidized and decomposed. It consists mainly cf exceedingly small solid particles, exhibiting by virtue of their amalloess a bluish color. On the other hand, that smoko which has been drawn through the tobacco into the mouth of the a oker carries with it a relatively targe quantity of water and hydrocarbon, which ate condensed upon the solid particles above mentioned. The relatively large size of such particles explains the well-known grayish color of the smoke which issues from the mouth of the smoker.—[TidBita.

He Didn’t See the Joke.

At a public dinner the toast of the ‘•Army, Navy and Reserve Forces” was proposed in terms of equivocal compliment. In submitting the toast the chairman -a well-known personage snid< “This is a toast which requires very little comment from me, as the subject is one with which you are all familiar. Tho Army and Navy have been drank for very many years, aad the Reserves ditto.” The result was an explosion of merriment, the meaning of which it took the genial chairman some little time to understand.—[London Tit Bits. The bret ding <>f parrots in holbensei to be practicable.