Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1893 — Page 5

FOR AN INCOME TAX.

SENTIMENT IN its FAVOR IS SPREADING. Con[rewm>» Warner, Who Represents the Wealthiest District In This Country, la In Favor of Taxing Men's Wealth Rather than Their Wants. Tax on Incomes. In the face of a prospective deficit of $70,000,000, on one hand, and the emphatic demand of the people to reduce tariff duties, on the other hand, Democratic Congressmen who feel the responsibility of the situation are casting about for a way out of the predicament. Many of them from the South and West have long been in favor of an income tax. In fact, they introduced about twentv different income tax bilis during the first session of the last Congress. During the last few months Representatives from all parts of the country have declared for an income tax. The Hon. John DeWitt Warner, of the Thirteenth Congressional District of New York, probably represents more very large incomes than any other Congressman. His district is the home of millionaires and multi-millionaires. The Vanderbilts, Goulds, Astors, Rockefellers, Havemeyers, Whitneys, and perhaps 400 or 500 more of the wealthiest of New York City’s 1,200 or 1,300 millionaires live in this district. Under an income tax this district would probably contribute more to the revenue than any other district and more than any one State, except perhaps ten or twelve of the largest. And yet Mr. Warner is not afraid to advocate an income tax. He not only thinks it more just than a tariff tax, but he believes it would meet the approval of the tens of thousands of mechanics, clerks and laborers in his district. We quote the following from an interview with Mr. Warner in the Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin of Oct 21: “I certainly prefer an income tax, if it is necessary to raise sufficient revenue, rather than the retention of such high tariff duties as to involve an inordinate proportion of protection. I would not hesitate a minute how to vote if the question were presented between a protective tariff which would furnish the necessary revenue and a bill which made the duties onethird lower, and enacted an income tax to supply the deficiency. Personally, I think it would not be long bofore a substantially revenue tariff would bring as much money into the Treasury as would higher rates, because not only would imports increase as the result of lower tariff rates but we should have such an era of prosperity that exports would greatly increase and would naturally be paid for to a large extent by a further increase of imports. ’’ “But do you think it necessary to put the entire machinery for collecting an Income tax into operation to raise $20,000,000 or $30,000,000?" was asked. “The machinery need be no more elaborate than for the collection of any other tax, and I fear the amount of the deficit to be provided for the first year may reach $50,000,000 or more. Ido not think, however, that an income tax would be really necessary, because the increase in customs receipts under a revenue tariff might soon give us a surplus, and we could issue in the meantime Treasury certificates redeemable at the pleasure of the Government within not more than ten years. There may be a disposition in the House, however, to insist upon legislation which will meet the whole revenue problem at once. Members may say that my expectation of increased customs receipts is only a prediction, and that adequate revenue ought to be certainly provided for now. We shall then have a contest between different Dlans for meeting the emergency. "There will be the same opposition to an income tax that there is to any new form of taxation: and of the contest between the income tax, the plan for issue of bonds, and other plans, I should not be surprised if the final outcome were authority to meet any temporary deficit by the Issue of short-term bonds in anticipation of income, leaving the question of whether an inoome tax is needed to be settled by experiment, and this seems to me to be the best plan at present." “But do you not think that the needed revenue can be raised by increasing the internal revenue tax on beer or whisky?” “I presume that it could be raised by doubling the beer tax,” replied Mr. Warner; “but I do not favor such a proposition as supplementing a tariff already so high as to levy from those in poor or moderate circumstances the greater part of the neoessary income of the Government. If it is true that an income tax would levy its heaviest burdens on the rich, while it let the poor escape taxation, this would hardly De more than a fair offset for the enormously disproportionate burden which is imposed upon consumption instead of wealth by tariff taxation. The increase of the tax on beer would simply carry further the same wrong theory of legislation. If, however, it was a question of taking it off of clothes and pntting it on beer, I would be for taking it off of clothes, but I am not in favor of putting it on both in order to saddle the whole tax on consumption.” “But do you believe that the increase in the tax on beer would affect the retail price?” asked your correspondent. “The consumer would have to pay it in the end. You cannot lay a tax upon a theory that it will not affect the cost of the articles on which it is laid. The oonsumer would have to pay the increase, whether it was in smaller glasses or poorer beer or a reduction of the inducement to competition among producers. “I repeat: If wealth already paid most of the Federal taxes, and in some emergency the question arose as how to increase the revenuces by taxes on consumption, I might think a plumping levy on beer to be a good thing. But the trouble is that the most of our Federal taxes are now levied on consumption; such will be the case even when the tariff is reduced to a revenue basis; and, therefore, if we need additional taxes I believe in levying them on men’s wealth rather than on men’s wants." Free Trade Factories. Without any enmity whatever toward the Northeast, the interior States and the South, which have the power, should reform the tariff thoroughly in the interest of their own manufacturing development. No great skill is required to see that under absolute free trade manufacturing would be more profitable in the South and West than in the East. Importations would be! chiefly for the East, as the cost of trans- | portation would increase rapidly after ; goods left the ship for the railroad. I Southern iron and cotton and Western i wool, wood and hides would be made up j near the supply of material and the home market. The Northeast would i be forced to export manufactured goods more extensively. Thus the Northeast would work to get gold with cheap goods and the South and West would have a larger home market for wheat, corn and meat. The sections now al-' most entirely agricultural would be re-

lieved of part of their dependence on European markets for prices and on the Northeast for capital. The deeper tariff reform goes the better in every way for the South and West. Why Agriculture Is Depressed. At the close of the war it was hoped that those measures and policies which were the outgrowth of the struggle would be set aside, and that legislation would be enacted to relieve the people of the burdens of taxation which they had uncomplainingly borne. In this they were not gratified. On the contrary, in the year 1867—two years after the close of tne war —the doctrine of “protection for protection’s sake* was inaugurated, and the Congress of that year, instead of lessening the tax burdens, increased them. The pernicious dcctrine of “protection for protection’s sake” was not satisfied with the almost prohibitory character of many of the then tariff duties. They had tasted blood, and, like the daughters of the horse-leech, they cried for more This infamous system of taxation reached its culmination in the passage of the ‘McKinley bill.” Never have the people of any nation on the earth given up in taxation, in the same length of time, as large an amount of money as have the people of the United States. These taxes are not shown in the receipts of customs by the Government. That shown there was enjoyed by the Government. True, much of the revenue has been expended in wasteful extravagance; but still it went into the Government coffers and was spent by the Government. But the custom revenues are but a tithe of the tax paid by the consumers of the country. For every dollar received by the Government six have been paid to the protected industries. On this forced contribution of the people the manufacturers have grown enormously wealthy, and the consumers have grown correspondingly poo r . The cause of the present depression has its origin in the immense taxes imposed on tne people by the tariff laws. In the vicious legislation which throws around manufacturing vocations the protecting care of the government and leaves the most important industry (that of agriculture) to struggle along without government aid. The protection policy not only robs the farmer by demanding tribute from him but it has destroyed the foreign market. The nations which were formerly the purchasers of the products of our farms have adopted the MoKinley doctrine of exclusiveness and have built up cereal-growing districts. They are independent of the American farmer. They have given kind for kind,which is most wonderfully human. Agriculture is the source of all wealth, and with it depressed all other vocations must suffer, and therefore the reasons of the present unwholesome conditions are found in the fact that agriculture has been impoverished that manufacturers might grow rich.—Pomeroy (Ohio) Democrat.

The Less Protection the Better. Western and Southern staple producers never needed a tariff for revenue more than now. A tariff for revenue is equivalent to a reduoed cost of transportation both ways. Every farmer.knows what reduced transportation charges do for the movement of crops and the purchase of goods. Farm debts never pressed more heavily and farm profits were never more unsatisfactory. Wheat prioes drag. Cotton is no better, and the big packing houses have claimed that they must cut down expenses. These are the three great sources of. our export trade. For seventy years the tariff question has been the same—how much the staple producers should be charged for the support of Government and the maintenance of certain lines of manufacture. Not only how much actual money they should pay, but how much restriction of trade they could stand. Radical additions to taxation and restriction have been made without notice to the staple producers. The imposition of new burdens in 1883 ana 1890 was made when all the pledges out were for reduction. In spite of that habitual treatment the agricultural States do not ask for an immediate blotting out of all protection. Their expectation is that a Democratic Ways and Means Committee will present a bill whose guiding pur. pose will be the encouragement ol trade and production. The raising of revenue necessitates some protection’ as long as we have a tariff of any kind. We can stand that much protection, and not a great deal more. It has always been the case heretofore, when a tariff bill is in course of preparation, that the country hears a great deal about the effect on the protected industries. This time we have a right to hear less about that and more about cheap transportation and the encouraging effect on export industries. When the Ways and Means Committee in its experiments gets to a bill for the merchants, farmers, school teachers, preachers, lawyers, carpenters, masons and blacksmiths it can Btop right there. That bill will be good enough.—St. Louis Republic.

No Escape from a Lower Tariff. Until the silver question is disposed of little will be heard of the tariff. But the high protectionists should not take the general silence upon the latter issue to mean a weakening of the popular determination to reduce and revise the rates. Henry McCormick, of Harrisburg, Pa., one of the wealthiest iron and steel manufacturers in the country. a Scotchman, like Carnegie, who early saw what high duties meant for his purse and who was largely instrumental in securing the enactment of the steel rail duties, says in a recent interview: “In the prosperous period of the last twenty years the steel and iron industries of this country have been placed on a firm business basis through the fostering care of the tariff, and they are able to stand alone now. The steel industry no longer needs such a strong prop. I advocated a high tariff for steel rails years ago, when a tariff was needed, but I believe the Amerioan manufacturers have grown sufficiently wealthy, an 1 their plants have been so well equipped with the latest improved machinery that they can afford to compete witn the foreign manufacturers on the same level before long. * This frank admission .that now that he and Carnegie and the rest have filled their pockets out of it, the tariff may well go as a thing which has outgrown its usefulness even to them, very well represents the popular thought on this question. The people believe these industries are better able to stand alone now than before, and need less instead of higher duties. They have so expressed themselves at- the polls, and are determined to try the experiment of lower duties. This talk that the panic has demonstrated anything against tariff reform or changed public opinion is not only without foundation but mischievous to the protected interests. The wiser course for them is to adopt a more yielding attitude toward the popular verdict and thus place themselves in a position to influence the impending action of Congress in the way of conservatism, and also in the way of expedition.—Springfield Re publican. * Tragedy was first represented on a wagon by Thespis, at Athens, B. C. 536.

HOW TO MAKE HATS.

A FEW SUGGESTIONS TO AMATEUR MILLINERS. If the Hat Is Jut Right the Rest of a Woman's Costume Will Escape Without Serious Scrutiny—lt Is Easy to Trim the Home-Made Article. Have Many Hats. Mew York correspondence:

many occasions the hat is alt that really shows of the get-up. At the theater, for instance, and on any of the many sitting-down affairs a woman goes in for, it is better to have one gown and three hats than the reverse. You are probably making up your mind that hats cost so much that three hats to one gown is not going to be within any ordinary pocket-book’s reach. Surely not if you get your hats made, but you mustn’t. You must make them yourself, and here are some rules to help you. The amateur’s hat is seldom large enough in the crown, it seldom fits well, and it always has too much on it. Avoid these faults and this one more: The amateur’s hat is insecurely trimmed; I mean the bows wobble, the feathers don’t seem to know their own minds, and the flowers are loose in the wrong place. Now, having been told what not to do, attend to the things you must do. First, to trim a big hat, get it big enough in the crown. Make sure which is the front and which the back, and put a mark to designate the exact front and the exact back. For your first attempt you have selected a felt that does not need wiring about the brim. The fewer irregularities you give the brim

EASY TO TRIM.

the better. The bend upward just in front that is at present popular is secured by stitching the brim and the crown of the hat together very near the bottom. One stitch taken over and over and the end carefully secured does the work. The rosette or fancy pin put under the brim in such hats against the hair is to cover the stitch. Now decide where you want your bow. Don’t try your hat on; it is not to be tried on till it is all done. Having settled in your mind where the bow will be, make it. Bows are big and many looped, and the loops stand independent and well clear of each other at the base. If your ribbon be light, use white wire; if dark, use black. Tape wire is best because you can stitch through it. Have lots of it all smooth, and straight. Make the first loop of the wire, pass the ribbon over the loop, making it snugly tight, then tie the ribbon and wire round and round at the base with good stout thread. Wind this first loop till it is all solid. Make another loop from the long end of the wire, pass more ribbon over, bind the new loops secure, and fasten the two loops safely together. Allow a little length of wire each time between the loops, so that when all the loops are made they will be bound together to a solid stem of the wire. Neither wire nor ribbon is to be cut till the whole bow is made, and a short piece of the wire should be left to assist in adjusting the bow to the hat. If a feather is to go with the bow, or if several feathers are to be added, now is the time to do it. Feathers at present are made wide at the top and narrow at the base. To the quill should be fastened securely, by winding round and round with

MIGHT AS WELL BE HOME-MADE.

thread or fine wire, a stout wire at least a finger’s length, turned into a loop. The feathers must each stand clear of the loops. This effect is accomplished by securing the wire loop of the feathers to the stem of your bow and leaving a wee bit of the wire clear above the binding by which you fasten the feathers to the bow. Now you have the whole group that is to go on the hat made and firm ,and the whole cluster has a stem that is part ot itself, and about half an inch long. If your hat is to have a band around the crown, lay your bow aside and attend to the band. Secure it smoothly and firmly. Better use ribbon, for velvet is so hard to make “set.” The bow and feather or feathers are now to be fastened. Decide where it is to be placed. Set it so that the point where loops and feathers spring free of each other shall come about at the top of the hat, for, of course, you have chosen a low-crowned hat. The stem to your bow you fasten securely to the side of the hat crown. Sew over and over the stem, taking a good hold underneath each time. When the sewing is done, there should be no more wobble to the bow or the feathers than as if they and the hat were all made together, and so

,HE woman whose hat is just right will escape without serious scrutiny of the rest of her costume. This is a little secret that many a woman has discovered who spends not so very much on her wardrobe, and yet ' has a reputation for dressing. On

enough. To be big enough it must come easily and well down on the sides of the head. A good way to start your theater hat is to tie a band of ribbon very loosely around the head. Slip it off and sew stout wire to the outside of the ribbon circle. Lot the ends of the wire lap over securely. Sew three rows of the wire to the ribbon, each round of wire lapped and tightly finished at the ends. If you mean to wind the wire, so the crown of your little theater hat will be like a twist of ribbon, you must make your foundation circle that much larger around to allow for the twisting of the ribbon. Two rosettes set in iront and a little apart, and a couple of velvet points, faced with a contrasting silk and spreading to right and left, set right at the back and bound to the crown by a knot of velvet, make a pretty head-rig. Or you may set a little mercury wing on each side of the circle, and have a Jeweled buckle and a tiny aigrette just in front. There are endless varieties, all pretty, and the main rule is make the crown big enough, let it be secure, and make your dows before you put them on. Spangles are a great deal used just now. Felt hats have a row of spangles around the edge. These are mounted on a narrow beading of jet and lap over each other. Toques are often bordered with spangles; Dut in their case the spangles are mounted in a stiff band set vertically on the edge. Charming models appear with full crown of scarlet or fuchsia red velvet, encircled in this way. The trimming may be a cluster of black satin roses with jet hearts, or a rosette made of clipped cock's feathers, each feather brightened up with a dashing of jet braiding about the edge. In both cases a couple of quill feathers may be added or a pair of handsome jet pins. There is a wide range of variety in the five hats sketched. First there ia

a small stringlcss bonnet having its pointed jet crown set on narrow bands of brown beaver. It is set off by a black military aigrette, shot with mauve pink shading to pale pink. Next comes a child’s model made in light brown felt with bow and long strings of rcse-colored satin ribbon. The third example is a theater hat composed of rose-colored geraniums and trimmed in front with three black velvet bows. A carriage hat in pale beige felt follows, the brim slashed picturesquely, as is now so much the vogue, and edged with black ostrich feathers and ecru guipure. It is trimmed with black ostrich tips, held in place by a large velvet rosette, and smaller rosettes are put inside at the base of the cuts. The last specimen is a pretty modification of the harlequin hat and has the brim cut into points, each point being bent slightly upward. Made of Havana brown felt and trimmed, with two black feathers, set near the'edge, it becomes a very serviceable hat. Instructions have not been given for the making of each of these widely differing models, and, indeed, the trimming of some of them would be all the amateur should attempt. But if you will once try to trim or make your own headwear, you will be bo surprised and pleased by your success that your courage will rise till you feel equal to anything. It is mostly a matter of courage. Are you brave enough to go buy your material and begin? Copyright, 1893.

Queer Superstition of an Emperor.

A curious story comes from Hayti. When Soulouque was emperor, about 35 years ago, a revolution broke out one night when he was asleep in his palace at Port au Prince. Awakened by the sound of musketry, without waiting to change his dress, Soulouque rushed down to tho courtyard and leaped upon his horse. Being somewhat of a dandy, the Emperor was clad in a magnificent suit of silk pajamas which had been especially manufactured for him in Paris. Pushing forward with his men, he led the attack upon the insurgents, who. finally driven back, left their leader in the hands of the imperial troops. Still Soulouque lingered, and not until the execution of these men had been carried out on the Champ de Mars did he return to his palace and doff his novel uniform. Soulouque attributed' his victory in a large measure to his pajamas, and they were an object of special interest in the palace for many year*.

secure must the fastening and attaching of loops and feathers and all to each other be that you must now be able to bend single' loops here and there as you like, without injuring the security of the whole in the least. Therefore, in selecting the position for the bow you must also decide upon the angle at which to place it, because that angle cannot be modified onoe the bow is last. Rosettes for beneath the brim in front and against the hair In back must be made firmly and all finished before they are put on. Then they must be applied with exactness and fastened with great care. If the hat was a good size to start with, if you have trimmed it with due consideration for having the front of the hat come in front, if you selected a shape that suits you, and if the hat trimmed in your hand looks simple and ship-shape you may try it on. It is sure to look well. When you call at a swell millinery to select a hat you take one “ready-made," don't you? It is all nonsense to “try on" to' see if the hat is going to be all right. The secret of a pretty theater hat is almost all in having the crown big

'TWILL TEST YOUR SKILL.

ANOTHER EASY ONE.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The women of Iceland have had municipal suffrage for more than twenty years. They are now eligible to municipal offices. A man in Washington County, Penn., has a bantam rooster that is so familiar with a cat that it can get on the feline’s back and orow without the cat’s taking any notice of it. Thb British Government report of an investigation into the epidemio of influansa of the past four years regards the proof of the contagiousness of the disease as overwhelming, and that it is not transported through tho atmosphere. The Chineso doctor's lot is not wholly a happy one. Four members of the Imperial Colloge of Physicinns at Pekin failed recently to make a proper diagnosis of the Emperor’s indisposition and were punished by being fined a year’s salary. It has been said that the world pays most to those who kill—generals and great lords; next most to those who amuse—singers and actors, while those who preaoh, teach and write for the papers come along somewhere near the bottom of the list. For what is the greatest amount of lumber used? Nine people out of ten will say for houses and buildings. It is doubtful if 35 por cent, of the lumber output goes into buildings. The railroads, farmers, and miscellaneous purposes take about 40 per oent., and the other 20 per cent, goes into boxes. The estimate is made, says the Southern Lumberman, on the judgment of some of the oldest and best informed lumbermen in the country. Thb costliest mile of railroad is a mile measured on the steel portion of the Forth bridge. The length of this portion is a mile and twenty yards, and tha cost of it was considerably over $10,000,000. The most expensive railway system in the world is the "Inner Circle” line of Londbn, which cost, including the purchase of land, from $8,000,000 to $5,000,000 per mile. The last constructed mile, between the Mansion House and Aldgato, cost altogether, including "compensations,” nearly $lO,000,0Q0.

It is reported that a company has been organised at Dundee, Scotland, for tho purpose of working the whale and seal fisheries of the Antarotic ocean. An experimental expedition was sent there during the past summer, and it has returned with the report, backed by abundant substantial evidenoe, that whales and seals are much more abundant in the Antarctic waters than in tho Arctic. It is asserted that an Antarotic sealskin is a much better article than that about which the United States has lately been having so much trouble. This company proposes to establish a depot in the Falkland islands, where the sealskins may be prepared for markot, and the sealers obtain supplies, and the product will be takon thenoe to England by a line of fast steamers. Forty years ago a mulatto boy of Chatham County, N. C., was sold into slavery and was taken to Georgia. A few days ago he returned, a venerablelooking man and worth more than SSOO, - 000. His name was Nathan, and he was sold to a man named Toomer, who made him his body-servant. He proved himself honest and faithful and enjoyed his master’s full confidence. He served Mr. Toomer until his death, shortly after tho war. His unusual intelligence, quiok perception and good judgment gained Nathan the respect and esteem of all the white people, and he acquired considerable property. He then married the daughter of Dixon, the big cotton planter, and it is well known that Dixon left his large estate to this daughter. Last month Nathan’s wife died, and she loft all her property to her husband. Nathan recently converted all bis Georgia property into money, and will, it is said, make New York City his future home. A Nbw York exchange notes the fact that the treatment of oholera invented by Dr. Elmer Lee, of Chicago, and triumphantly demonstrated in the hospitals of St. Petersburg last year, has robbed the dread disease of most of its terrors. The process is the simplest thing possible. It consists merely in flooding the intestinal canal of the patient with warm soapsuds at frequent intervals, and thus washing out and rendering harmless the cholera germs, whose ravages are carried on in the intestines. By the use of this method Health Officer Jenkins, of New York, has been able to save no less than nineteen of the twenty-two cases that have developed at Quarantine, reducing the mortality to 15 per cent. This is a wonderful achievement, considering that the ordinary death rate of oholera runs from 50 to 75 per cent., according to the violence of the plaguo. Since this discovery a person fortified with soap and water ana a good syringe need dread the cholera no more then an attack of pneumonia or bilious fever. The disease has been vpiquished and an American doctor did it. *

According to a Dutch Government report just issued, the labor question is practically unknown in the Netherlands. Strange as it may seem, the Dutch workmen like long hours and are content to live on forty cents a day. The reason why they prefer long hours to short is beoause they can thus work in the slow and leisurely manner that suits them best and can indulge their national conscience in the matter of thoroughness; and they are content with low wages beoause they know how to make them go a long way. The only thing that in any wav resembles a labor question in Holland is connected with the introduction of machinery, which puts the true Dutchman out of gear altogether, forces him to work briskly and even makes him dls cover that old-fashioned wages are not quite up to new-fashioned ideas. The alligator business in Florida, Dr. Hugh M. Smith, of the Fish Commission, informs us, is on the deolioe for want of alligators. Formerly the capture of alligators brought many « dollar to the state. Hunting was as systematic as it was relentless. “It is within bounds to say,” writes Dr. Smith, “that since 1880 not less than 2.500,000 alligators have been killed in the state, and it is not surprising that the supply has been greatly reduced in view of the more migratory habits, the remaikably slow growth of the animal, and the sacrifice of large numbers before they had reached the reproductive age.” According to the observations of these who have studied the alligator, it is not more than a foot long in a twelvemonth. He is ten years old before he is two feet tong. When he is twelve feet in length he has lived three-quarters of a century. On the St. John’s, below Palatka alligators are rapidly diminishing. In the Indian River region the headquarters of the alligator hunters are to-day at Cocoa, Melbourne, and Fort Pierce. Ten years ago 5,000 alligator skins in the season were thought to be a fair business. To-day not half this number are taken. Kissimmee, on

Lake Tohopekaliga, is the centre of the alligator hide business. In 1889 38,600 bides were taken there. It was not unusual for a hunter to kill a dozen alligators in a day. The business in hides seems to be centered in Jacksonville, but the receipts are rapidly diminishing. "The way in whioh an immonse crowd will colleot in any New York street in a few seoonds is always a matter of wonderment and comment among strangers in the city,” said a Wall street broker to a Sun reporter, "but the way a crowd sprang up from the ground in a deserted street in the dead of midnight this week greatly surprised even mo. I had remained at mv office until nearly 2 in the morning, ana was walking up Broadway for a few blocks before taking the car home. I camo opposite City Hall Park with not a soul in sight. Suddenly there was a shout of alarm behind me and a scurrying of feet. A man was pursuing another along Mail street, the first shouting ‘Murder!’ A policeman came running from tho shadow of the park: a orowd of men was at his heels; more men seemed to spring out of the ground around the Post Office, and in half a minute there wore fifty or sixty persons running after the first two men. Tho policeman caught up with the couple as they started to pummel each other, and then I saw streams of men and hoys running from doorways along Park How, aproned clerks from the post office, waiters from the restaurants, printers and newsboys from the newspaper buildings, and tramps from tho park benches, until long beforo 1 had reacned the scene of the melee, at Mail street and Park Row, there was a dense crowd of people choking Mall street from curb to curb, several hundred men and boys, where two minutes before there was not a sign or sound of life.”

Some Curious Superstitions.

"Say,” said Colonel Peter Sweeney of rhe Union Pacific the other evening to the Omaha Boe, just after the mau he was walking up with stopped and pickod up a pin that lay shining close to tho curbstone, "did you ever notice how many cranks there are in tho world? Of course, I don’t refer to present company —oh no, certainly. But I was just remarking on the curious superstitions that people get into their heads. Now, for instance, you stopped just now and picked up thut pin, from which I infer that you are in tho habit of doing so whenever 3 ou see one. "Well, I know of lots of men who nover fail to pick up a pin, the same as you do. Then there are tho sidewalk crauks, who always step on eaoh third or fourth crack, according to tho width of the boards, or, if they are walkiug on a pavement, they step between aud on the cracks. "After these come the stair cranks. They wouldn't tell it to anyone if they were asked about it, but the fact is that these persons always start upstairs left foot first, and feel badly if the right foot doesn’t strike the top of the stairs first. These persons, I may remark, are usually those who have been afflicted with a semimilitary education, as are those sock and shoe cranks who put their hosiery and footwear on the left foot first. "Then some men have a peculiar way of entering a room. They will always enter with a certain foot foremost and their exit will be made in the same way. And, great Scott! I might go on for a year about cranks and never get through. But do not mind telling me why you pick up stray pins?” "Why, no, certainly not," answered the other man. "I do it for luck, of course.” "For luck, eh! Well, have these blooming pins ever brought you any luck?” "Tobesuro. Why, only last winter, at a time when I was in very uneasy circumstances, I picked up three pins in one forenoon, with the point toward me in every case. That afternoon I got ” "You got a draft?” asked Colonel Sweeney in a sort of I-think-you-are-a-tone of voice. "I got an insurance assessment of $80.05,” replied the pin crank sadiv, "and still you say pins don’t bring luck. Wasn’t that luck—bad luck?" But Colonel Sweeney hadn't a word to say.

The Toothsome Terrapin.

In two or three places along the CheatKnke terrapin of the precious diamond ok variety are hatched and reared in “crawls." Such a "crawl" ie simply an enclosure through which the tides ebb and flow. The bottom is of mud and grass, and there is a convenient sand bank for the mother turtles to lay theii eggs in. At breeding time tbe turtle scratches a shallow hole in uio ■and and deposits from eight to twenty eggs, which she oovers up, and then goes back to the water. Lett gulls and crows should scratoh the eggs up and eat them, nets are sometimes spread over the nests. The young are batched about September 1, but often remain buried until spring. Sometimes they are packed in boxes with straw until they get to be a few weeks old and are ready to go into the water. They grow about one inch a year, and at tbe end of six years are big enough to be called "counts” and to sell at the highest market price. They are feJ twice a week with crabs and fish to fatten them.—[Washington Star.

A Nearly Automatic Steam Plant.

A new London steam plant has been constructed of a character so largely automatic in its various mechanisms as to oppear almost independent of human attention. This is particularly marked in the case of the huge boilers, in the management of which, so long as the steam pressure is under 100 pounds, the automatic stokers keep steadily at their work feeding the furnao s, and the steam blast keeps the fires roaring. As, however, the indicator on the pressure gauge keeps up tow rd the 100 pounds, a driving belt begins to slide off one wheel on to another, and precisely at the maximum pressure the steam blast is shut off, the stokers stop dead, and the fires begin to lie down; then the driving band begins to reverse its movement, ana presently the steam blast is turned on and the fires begin to be fed again, the vast and magnificent driving wheel of thirty feet in diameter, in the center of the building, all the while revolving with the utmost possible steadiness ana regularity. The self-regulatiDg character of the different parts is pronounced one of the typical wonders of modern machinery.—[New York Sun. T. T. Bell of Independence, Mo., while chopping down a large walnut tree a few days ago found a tenpenny nail nearly ten inches beneath the surface. Mr. Bell says he remembers driving it there while fixing a swing at the beginning of the war—thirty years ago. Pern hss only thirty-six telegraph officen in the entire country and but J,SOO miles of wire.

FOR THE YOUNG FOLKS.

LONG FINOEB AND LONG TONGtJB. Dear children, you are very nice, To be so very young— But tell me, have you ever met Long Finger and Long Tongues Long Tongue can only blab the news To towns and cities near; Long Finger reaches round the world And spreads it everywhere. Long Tongue shouts out, ‘ ‘Hello! Hello!” And talketh over much; Long Finger tells us all he knows Just by a gentle touch. Ah, I must solve my riddle now Or you will guess it soon— Long Finger is the Telegraph, Long Tongue the Telephone. —[Pearl Rivers in The Picayune. A SOUTH AMERICAN BOY’g PRT. In South Amorioa a boy who wants to own a pet animal gets a monkey instead of a dog. Sometimes he can buy a monkey already trained, and if he can do so he is a very happy boy, because wild monkeys are ugly little fellows, and it takes a long time to teach them how to live with civilized people. A South American boy has to pet a monkey because there are not enough dogs in South America. The dogs that are iound there are used more as beasts of burden, like Arctic dogs, for useful purposes, such as drawing wagons of eggs to market or boxes of cocoanuts. Nor are they affectionate animals like out dogs. But with the South American boy a nice tame monkey, with soft furhairand snapping black eyes, is very highly prized, and he becomes attached to it. just as an English boy becomes attached to his collie or his Newfoundland, so he does not feel the need of a good dog.—[New York News. ELEPHANT TRAINING. New elephants are trained as follows: They arc first tied betwoen two trees, and are rubbed down by a number of men with long bamboos to an accompaniment of the most extravagant eulogies of the animal, sung and shouted at it at the top of their voices. The animal, of course, lashes out furiously at first; but in a few days it ceases to act on the offensive, or as natives say, "Shurum lugta hai.” It becomes ashamed of itself, and it then stands with its trunk curled up shrinking from the mon. Ropes are now tied round its body, and it is mounted at its picket for several days. It is then takon out for exercise, secured between two tame elephants. The ropes still remain round its body to enable the mahout to hold on should the olephant try to shake him off. A man precedes it with a spear to teach it to halt when ordered to do so, whilst, as the tame elephants wheel to the right or left, tho mahout presses its neck with his knees, and taps it on the heed with a smnll stick to train it to turn in the required direction. To teach aa elephant to kneel it is taken into water five feet deep when the sun is hot, and, upon being pricked on the back with a pointed stick, it soon lies down, f tartly to avoid the pain, partly from ncllnation for a bath. By taking it into shallow water daily, it is soon taught to kneel even on dry land.—[Yankee Blade.

HONOR THE DRAB OLD MOTHER. Time has scattered tho snowy flakes on her brow, plowed deep furrows on ber cheek—but is she uot sweet and beautiful now? The lips which hare kissed many a hot tear from tho childish cheek are the sweetest lips in all the world. The eye is dim, vet it glows with the. rapt radiance of a holy love which can never fade. Oh, yes, she is a dear old mother. Her sands of time are nearly run out, but feeble as she is they will go further and reach down lower for you than any other on earth. You cannot walk into midnight whore she cannot see yoii; you cannot enter a prison whose bars shall keep' her out; you can never mount a scaffold too high for her to reach that she may kiss and bleat you. In evidence of her deathless love, when the world shall despise and forsake you—when it leaves you by the wayside to die unnoticed, the dear old mother will gather you up in her feeble arms, carry you home and tell you of all your virtue* until you almost forget that your soul ia disfigured bv vices. Love her tenderly, and cheer her declining years with holy devotion.—[Th» Bugle Call. ANDREW MAnVBI, AND THE BRIDE. Andrew Marvel, a poet of some little fame, was chosen as a member of Parliament for the borough of Hull, ia the reign of ChArJes 11. He was a man of integrity and spirit, and such persons seem to have been rare in that reign. The Government, wishing to bring over to their side so important a person, and believing that a man of no fortuno could readily be bought, sent the lord treasurer, who had been his school-fcliow, to see Marvel Danby, at parting, slipped into bis hand an order lor $5 000, and then went to his carriage. Marvel called the treasurer back to tho garret, and then summoned Jack, bis servant-boy. "Jack, what had I for dinner yesterday?” "Don’t you know, sir? The little shoulder of mutton you ordered me to briDg you from the market." "Quite right, child; and what have I for to-day?” "Don’t you know, sir, that you bid me lay by the blade-bone to boil?” " ’Tis bo; very right, child; go away.” Then, turning to the astonished treasurer, he said: "My lord, do you hear that? Andrew Marvel’s dinner is provided. There is your piece of paper; I want it not. The ministry must seek other men for their purpose; I am not one.”

The Chocolate Tree in Trinidad.

We learn that J. H. flart, Curator of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Trinidad, has recently returned from a visit to Central America, after having successfully transported thither -no less than twenty-five thousand plants of Trinidad cocoa. In return he has conveyed to Trinidad two highly desirable varieties of the Theobroma cacao, and two species new,to that colony, and already numerous plants of each are thriving well. One of the varieties is a purely whiteseeded one, producing white pods and splendid beans, which require only fortyeight hours’ fermentation instead of the ten days usual in Trinidad. The second variety, known in Nicaragua as “alligator cacao,” is peculiar from the soft covering of its pod and. the raised instead of indented seotional ribs. The. new species are Theobroma bicolor and Theobroma sp.* the latter known as “cacao meco, ” “caoao mono” or “monkey cocoa.”—[Scientific American.