Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 November 1894 — Page 5

WHERE BLAME RESTS.

REPUBLICAN LAWS CAUSED THE HARD TIMES. The Harrison Administration Squandered the Cleveland Snrplns and Jacrgled Ac* counts to Conceal the Empty Treasury— The New Tariff Has Brought Prosperity. What Harrison Knows. Ex-President Harrison recently delivered a speech in Mr. Wilson’s district in which he said: “If you have felt the effects of the depression, if you think more of these effects and prefer not to lead the country through the slough of despondency, show it by defeating Wilson.” McKinley and Sherman also declared that the hard times, which began a year and a half ago, wore due to Democratic misrule and “fear of free trade.” Never before did “statesmen" so misrepresent facts, debase themselves and insult the intelligence of an enlightened nation. Harrison knows only too well' what a difficult task he had to keep his empty treasury from collapsing before it was turned over to Cleveland. He knows, as do all the others, that his Secretary of the Treasury had to transler accounts and to juggle the books to conceal from the public, if possible, the exhausted surplus of 4S100,00j;(»0 which Cleveland turned over to Harrison in 1889. He knew that the Sherman silver coinage act of 1890 was rapidly draining the country of gold and that it must result in a panic. He knows, as does Sherman, who voted to abolish his own silver legislation, that the panic was precipitate! bv the fear of capitalists that gold would go to a premium and that if we continued to coin 8-,,000,000 of silver a month we would soon drop to a silver basis. He knows that lariff relorm was too far away to have had any material effect in starting the depression. He may not know the causo of the periodical panics tnat affect not only this country but the whole world, about every ten years, but he does know, or ought to know, that the fear of “free trace” was not, at anv time, one of the principal causes of the piolonged depression.

He knows that his secretary intended and prepared to issue bonds to replenish the treasury. Incertainty as to what duties would ba levied* undoubtedly aggravated and perhaps prolonged the depression. Reed has too much common sense to declare that a tariff bill that brought prosperity with it caused a panic a year before it was born. He said, in his New York speech of Oct. 13: “Nobody can charge this (depression) fairly to the terms of the tariff which now exi-ts, any more than tffey can to the tariff which used to exist. What caused this disaster everybody knows who has any business sense. It was the utter uncertainty, the appalliug doubt as to what would happen to us.” Reed is much too rough on the Democrats, but is not so demagogical as McKinley and Harrison. How little Senator Allison believes of this talk is evident from the fact that he has recently adopted the tariff for revenue plank of the Democratic platform. Perhaps the responsibility lor hard times has never been more cleariv fixed than by Thos. G. Sherman, in his speech in Paterson, N. J., early in 1893. He said: What laws are In force? Republican laws. Who, when the panic begat], held ninetenths of the offices through which those laws are administered? Republicans. Who hold most of the offices to-day? Republicans. Who passed the tariff now in existence? Republicans. Who passed all the tariff laws that have Ibeen In existence for the la3t thirty years? Republicans. Is there more or less protection to American Industries In force to-day than there was In the first year of Harrison’s administration, when, we are told, everything was so prosperous? More by about one-third to one-half. What have the Republicans been telling us, for the last thirty years, was the cause of American prosperity? The Morrill tariff. Is there more or less protection given by the tariff to-day than was given by the great and wonderful Morrill tariff? More by 100 per cent, all around; more on wooleu goods by 200 per cent ; more on iron and steel by 80 per cent.; more on silk by 60 per cent ; more on flax manufactures by 'OO per cent. To which, after quoting, Congress, man McKeighan added: “Everything stands to-day just as Harrison and McKinley left it, with every American industry protected and everybody in this country guarantee! tremendous prosperity as the result of taxing each ether. Yet, here we are. ”

P, osperitv that withers as soon as tariff reduction is suggested cannot bs very substant al. Yet that is what McKinley would have us believe his protecti' n prosperity dii, although it was rooted in thirt/ years ot protection soil. All sensible and unpre udiced persons know that riotous speculation, fostered by continued hi.h protection, which ga.e sp. cial’privileges to corporations and trusts, had made the country ripe for a panic They know that the countries that suffered most when the panic came were the highly protected countries of Australia, the United States, and Francs. - Used Recommends Rest. Ex-Speaker Reed's significant failure in his campaign speeches to indor, e the demand of the McKinleyites for a restoration of the high tarift, has prepared the public for his interview at Ann Arbor recently, m w'hich he declared that “it would not necessarily follow that the return Of the Republican party to power in IHSJrf would mean the re-enactment of the McKinley law.” and that he did not think the party would make that an issue, as conditions had changed materially in the last few years, and there was room for many modifications. Mr. Reed went a stepfurther, and admitted that the rates in the Me ts inley law were marked up higher than he exppeted when he appointed the Committee on Ways and Means. In taking this position the ex-Speaker only anticipates the mass of his party.' It is clear enough to any careful observer that there never was any popular demand for so extreme a measure as' McKinley framed, and that no party could now do a more unpopular thing than to pledge itself to a restoration of a policy which the people rejected so emphatically in 189U*and again in 189:'. McKinley, of course, tries desperately hard to hold on to the old issue, for it is all he has to offer as a candidate for the next Presidential nomination of hit party, but he w 11 find hiibself more and more lonesome all the while. — Kew York Post. A Htmineffg View. The statement of President Roberts of the Pennsylvania Railroad that the country has entered upon an era of renewed prosperity can safely be accepted as an offset to the calamity campaign orators that we are hearing from nowadays. Pre ident Roberts is at the ;he*d of the greatest railway corpora-

tion in the world, and views the situation from a business rather than from a political, standpoint. Like other men of his class, he is not oversanguine, and does not look for a boom but he sees every reason to expect a wholesome return of the couniry to full prosperity and activity in all department?. He speaks with authority. —Boston Herald. Tariff Umbrella Smashed. Ex-President Harri-oa let the cat out of the bag the other day when he said to the workingmen at Brazil. Inch: “You were told that it would be a good thing to imash this tariff umbrella under which you and your employer had been walking together and sharing the benefits of its protection. You were told that you were getting too much of the drip, but you found when you had smashed toe umbrella that in the very nature of things he had an accumulation and had provided himself with a rubbsr coat, while you were in your shirt sleeves. ” That is only a part of the truth. Protection has provided castles and steam yachts as well as rubber coats for many employers, while it has left the employes penniless and hungry. Thirty years of protection began with all prosperous ani wealth well distributed. It ends with panic and de-

THE HAGGLING OF THE PIRATES OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH.

Pirate M'Kinley to his Southern Brother in Crime-"Y u turn over the State of Louisiana to me and I’ll give you this in exchange.”

pression and with 5 000 millionaires and 0,030,003 tramps and paupers. In 1? 60 nine-tenths of the people owned nine-tenths of the wealth: in 1890 » per cent, of the people owned 84 per cent, of the wealth. That protection umbrella has been a great thing for those under it, but the workingmen have, as ex-President Harrison says, been getting only the drip. The smashing of the lariff umbrella has revealed a horrible state of affairs under it. The laborer< of this country have grown poor holding that umbreila over their employers. !\ow, that it is being smashed, all will fare alike again. American Goods Abroad. An incident happened on the Sixth Avenue Elevated Road yesterday morning which well illustrates one of the peculiarities of the system of selling goods cheaper for export than for home use. A prominent railroad man was in conversation with another gentleman, and near them sat an exporter of various kinds of merchandise. The raihoad man was showing his friend a bsautiful pocket knife which he had purchased in London. “There.” he remarked, “I wonder why our manufacturers here cannot make such fine knives as th's. What do you suppose I paid for it ” “I don't know what such a knife would cost in London,” an-wered his friend: “but I know that here in New York that knife could not be bought for less than $3.” “I paid just five shillings and sixpence, or $1.37 in our money.” “Will you let me see the knife?” asked the exporter at this juncture. , Taking it he opened the blade and found it was stamped with the firm name of a well-known American manufacturer of cutlery, at which discovery the owner of the knife was naturally surprised and not a little chagrined, for, strange to say, he had not noticed the name of the manufacturer cn the knife before, and his imputation that American manufacturers could not make as fine knives as those made in England had lean rudely disproved. The railroad man said he believed in protecting home industries. “Yes,” an wared the exporter, “and I see you believe in patronizing them.” —Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin.

Prosper ou«« Pottery Milln. The East Liverpool (Ohio) Crisis, an organ of the pottery trade—one of the many industries which were going to be ruined by tariff reform—gives this complacent picture of the ruin thus far wi ought:. “The pottery trade in the West is now booming more than it has done at any time during the past three years. Mot a man in the city need be idle who wants to work. Workmen for odd jobs were never ;o hard to find here. "Not one but half a dozen works in this city are now running over time, and the talk of a shut-down prevalent a few weeks since, has been silenced. The Chelsea, at New Cumb:rland, is experiencing the biggest boom in it 3 history and is running out nine kilns of ware per week, which breaks the record for that plant.” And this is the state of affairs in a great typical industr .• in Governor McKinley s State. But has the Governor heard of it? No; the Governor has not heard of it. He is too far from home—only bad news travels far—and too busy spell-binding the rustlers on the front’er at the rate of twenty-two speeches a day.—Philadelphia Record. Repnbllcan Cn*qodneß<. The Republicans are to be congratulated upon securing a congenial lot of recruits down in Louisiana. The rich cane planters propose not only to transfer thei ■ allegiance to the Republican party but to wreak vengeance upon men who are not Democrats for herring and sugar only. The Louisiana Planter recently published a communication urging the people of Louisiana to boycott Harter’s iron tonic and wild cherry bitters on the ground that they are made by Michael D. Harter, the well-known Democratic Congressman from Ohio, “a violent, persistent and bitter enemy of sugar. ” The writer of the communication also urges the people of the Pelican State not to buy' rail* rolled in the mills of Represents-

tive Tom L. Johnson, another distinguished Ohio Democrat, or drink whisky made in the State of Kentucky, because the people of that State keep Mr. Blackburn in t>*e Senate. Those Louisiana planters have suddenly blossomed out into first-class Republicans in point both of intelligence and cussedness.—Chicago Herald. Richt Kind of Momentum* The bill which passed, however, with all its defects and censurable features, contains, even by the admission of its severest critics, a most solid instailn ent of tariff reform,and will do much toward lightening taxation and securing freer plav and larger markets for American Industries. But its chief value and importance, atter all, lies in the fact that it marks a change in our tariff legislation and starts us well on the way toward genuine revenue taxes. Every law and every system has its momentum. Protection, left to itself, eventually culminates in prohibition, while ihe momentum of eienan inmerfectly framed revenue tariff is steadily toward the goal of commercial freedom.—Hon. Wm. L. Wilson, in North American Review. Connecticut's In-lustr!e* Booming. A general revival of business is reported from Hartford, Conn. Almost

all the works have largely increased their forces during the past few months, and have dropped the short time sch dule which prevailed for nearly a year. A similar revival of manufacturing busine s in Meriden, Bridgeport, and other manufacturing cities in Connecticut is reported. Fashions in Sticks and Canes. “There are but few articles 3old in the We.-t End that are not subject to the fluctuations of fashion: and, although you might not suspect it, even the walking-stick trade is affected largely by the variations of its unwritten laws, ’’declared a provider of those popular appendages and aids to progression .to the writer, as ttaev chatted at the door of his shop. “Time gone by we did a rare line in malacca canes with silver tops or ivory handles: but now these are voted ‘oldfashioned,’ and plain sticks of nazel, cherry, ash, acacia, or vine, sometimes mounted, lut oftenor quite unadorned, are ‘all the go.’ “To many men one walking-stick Is sufficient, nut, luckily for us, there are others who delight in having a selection to choose from. Indeed, I have customers who use several in a single day. • For informal morning strolls ‘ whanghees,’ bamboos, or sticks of ordinary wood, hooked at the top so as to be conveniently carried over the arm, are popular; while for an afternoon sauntering. when ladie are likely to be encountered, more elegant specimens of our art are put into requisition. “Many gentlemen who travel in foreign lands make a practico of cutting likely stems that they may chance upon, and bring to us to mold and trim into shape, and there are not a few regular collectors of walkiijg-sticke. “Highly artistic specimens of native carving as are many of the specimens brought in this manner together, they are often valued at quite prodigious sums and when an historic association attaches to the article, of course the price goes still higher.”

Beyond His. Expectations. When the first edition of Thomson's “Seasons” came out the poet sent a copy, handsomely hound, to Sir Gilbert Elliott, of Minto afterward lord justice clerk, who had shown him great kindnrss. Sir Gilbert showed the book, which was really a credit to the publisher, to his old gardener, who was a relation of Thomson's. The old man took it in his hands, turning it over and over, and gazing at it in evident admiration. Sir Gilbert asked: “Well, Davi i, what do you think of James Thomson now? There’s a hook that will make him famous all the wor d over, and immortalize his name.” lavid, looking first at Sir Gilbert and then at the book, replied proudly: “In truth, sir, it is a grand book! I did na’ think the lad had ingenuity enow to ha’ done sic a neat piece of handicraft as that. ” And without a glance inside the handsome covers, the gardener handed the book ljack to his employer, repeating his surprise that his noor poetical relative should have attained to such praiseworthy work. Behanzin to Become a Catholic. Eehanzin, the ex-King of Dahomey, is about to emt race the Roman Catholic faith. When M. Carnot was assassinated the ex-King ordered a mass for the repcse of his soul. He was greatly affected^by the murder of the late President, and he has been in a low state of health ever since. Th * 15 g" Document. “The fact that a dollar under the Wilson bill will buy of t,e necessaries of life about as much as $1.1(1 or $1.25 would buy under the McKinley bill is a campaign document by itself,” observes the Bbston Herald tlnd.). In regard to the mammoth remains of Canada and Alaska, Dr. G. M. Dawson notes that in the northwestern part of the continent they are abundant in, if not confined to, the limits of a great unglaciated area there, comprising nearly all Alaska and part of the adcent Yukon district of Canada. No mastodon bones have been reported lrom this region.

WRAPS FOR AUTUMN.

THE GOLF CAPE LEADS IN POPULARITY. Cape* Have Advantages Over Coats When the Drees Sleeves Are large-Back and Front Views of Garments Richly Made and Finished. ' Coats and Capes. New York correspondence:

IHE outside garment which leads in popularity i s ™ I I the golf cape. Evi- ■ dence of this is on bt-M every hand, in the Silim athletic-looking VjjpA. misses who stride raWfex about on mild days with their open capes hanging by ft ’ \ the cross-over p — 3 straps, and in the dotting of the promenade with 'fill brilliantly plaided .TJOL hoods, each one li $\ marking a golf’s '//’ll rearview. Ivo rest H liefs to the plainly * ness of this cape are permitted. 1 e-

ginning as a garment which was used exclusively in outdoor athletic sport, it still retains the element of practicability in every detail and must show its usefulness-to tlio entire exclusion of adornment. With such a style of garment safely in tho first place in wornman’s favor, it is but natural that the competing ones, those which are consigned to second and third position, should be of quite another sort Some of the small wraps fairly flaunt their excess of fripperies at the golf, which can merely show in return a flash of bright lining. The weo affair of tho initial illustration is of this kind and makes a very pretty garment, one which is entirely serviceable for mild days. Of beige cloth, it opens over a vest which is topped by a tulle bow. Between the pelerine and the pleated epaulettes, there is a smaller collar of Venetian guipure. 4 belt which buckles about the waist and long tabs with embroidered corners complete the wrap. Answering the same call of rivalry, coats are tending away fromplainnoss. True, in many instances the evidence of this is slight, but what are straws in some models increase in others to unmistakable indications of tho tendency of fashion's current. If tho golf cape’s life is to be very short, and the almost universal opinion is that its

THE GOLF'S CHIEF RIVAL.

fashionableness will not outlast a second season, then when it t;na ly gees out there will be left a c Election of highly wrougnt coats, jackets and wraps to bid for supremacy. It would not be unlike the rule of succession in styles to have the plainness of the present capo succeeded by a garment which was as fanci ul as it could be made. At present the plainest of coats show but slight points of alteration. Handsome mo.ton coat -shave very pointed lapels and the co lar at the pack faced with velvet. Other new coats are made with belt passing outside in the back and through slits under the fronts, which may hang loose or button close. Still another sort is made to hook from bust to waist line, the edges coming close together and the buttons being set closely along each side. Lelow the waist line the coat spreads its skirts wide, and above the hooks it turns away in pointed lapels/ - ' Back and front views are given here of a coat which is very richly made and finished. Its material is black moire antioue embroidered with jet. It has a full circular basque, and is embroidered with jet front and ba k, the deign being narrower at the back. The garment hooks in front and is lined with ivory white brocade. The standing collar has a turned down attachment. and the sleeves, as well as the triple epaulettes, are embroidered. Than this there is now no other garment that has as clear a claim to first choice after the golf, which it far exceeds in beauty, though it does not approach the cape in current liking. ■Whether to select a coat or a cape is a matter for consideration. The latter has certainly the advantage over a coat when sleeves are large, as all fashionable ones are; but, again, a coat is warmer. The cape appears to be more

A BACK VIEW OF IT.

necessary, as there are some dresses with which jt seems almost impossible to wear anything else. Nothing could possibly be dres ier than one of the new short models, and there is a great deal of warmth in them after all. For the woman of matronly figure or of advanced years the Small, circular capes, even though profusely trimmed, seem hardly dignified enough. For •uch a woman a cape-mantle is a wise

choice. One can be made from sealbrown melton, trimmed with sable. It should oomo a little below the hips, be banded wi h fur at the bottom and hang in deep pleats at the back. The front should have stole ends faslened with jet ornaments. A small, pleated epaulette collar, garnished with the fur, should outline the shoulders, and at either side of the epaulette collar and bottom of the stole ends a deep band of jet may be used as a garniture. Although suvh a mantle has the effect, when on, of a complete underpart with a cape top, jet in reality the tronts are narrow, but, being held by an elastic band round the waist, they keep close and compact. Broid ,et is required for the shoulder straps and for the front ends, or the latter may be ornaments with drops, such a - are used for center fronts. In tis case, allow about eighteen drop ornaments and one yatd of wide jet trimming—four ornaments finishing the ends back and front. In indoor costumes, no one feature is more conspicuous than the uses made of old laces. Many a young woman is now congratulating herself over the fact that her grandmother had a passion for collecting lace. The ladies of seventy years ago seem to have reveled in having yards and yards of un-

A RICHLY MADE BLACK WRAP.

cut “real thread. ” Thon they lot it lio in the dark, wrapped in embroidered and real lace handkerchiefs, and the real thread took on the delicate coffee shade that you can t reproduce with coffee to save you. Now the granddaughter of '9-1, who hus no passion for collecting except to wear, uses those laces and is perfectly happy in tho envy she creates. In utilizing them she often responds to the tage lor fronts, whi h has broken out afresh, and with such emphasis that a woman i annot have too many or too elaborate neck affairs, with high collars and fronts arranged therefrom. These aro evidently often planned to carry some bit of priceless yellow lace. Robespierre falls of lace are arranged from old paste buckles. Jabots of la ',e almost cover tho brocade or tho chiffon of the front. Fri is and falls are edgod with yards of roal narrow lace, and then the whole is fluted or accordion-pleated, so that the yards and yards can bo gotten into tho spaco of the front. Little frills of thread lace are set close together in perpendicular rows, a whole front being sometimes covered thus with lace of the narrowest width. Tho softness of the effect li very delicate, and tho girl wearing sp h a front holds her cnin high to show it all. J-omeiiraos insertion of lace is set between the little frills and the rich satin of tho foundation just glints through the creamy meshes, but shows no m»e. In fact, any way, real lace if used is sure to be right, only don’t cut it. A decidedly novel wrap is that which the artist presents in tho final illustration. It consists of two circular capes each edged with narrow ostrich feather galloon and a third cape, little more than a collar, which is embroidered with jet. Two long tabs extend down the front, which aro in turn or-

STOLE ENDS WITH REVERS ATTACHED.

namented with jet embroidered revere and have jet ornaments at the bottom. The wrap is lined with old rose satin. Only the lower cape is silk, all the remainder being of cloth. “Narrow ravers” doe t not often stand for such shaped ones as these. The wily milliner has evolved a combination of toque and a sort of capecollar, so that she seeks to make her customer purchase a garment besides a hat. She begins by showing a tiny affair that seems to be little more than a lot of Vandykes of velvet, hunte-’s green, for instance each Vandyke edged with sable. All are caught together, there is a Hash of jeweled buckle, a yellow gleam of old la< e, and the whole is a toque. The Vandykes take each a correct piuce when the whole is on the head, and the effect is charming. Then she throws lightly over the victim's shou'ders another affair that also seems to be Vandykes, only bigger. Each is edged with sable, theie's a i ash of a eweled buckle each side of the throat, the Vandykes repeat themselves in soft confusion about the chin, ani the yellow gleam of old lace shows between. Take the two together, toque and “toquette,” and the effect is charming. It inevitably leads the woman on whom they are trie 1 to wish that she could buy the two. a fact that the milliner is well aware of and her price is very high in een-e juenre. As it is a device which cannot be copied by any one not skilled in hat trimming, most women seem to be left out of the calculations altogether. But before long the milliners who can command more than two or three customers a day will offer like wear, and then the price Will be much lower. Copyright. 18H4. “Window gazing is a profession in London. A couple of stylishly dressed ladies pause before the‘ window of a merchant, remvin about five minutes, and audibly praise the goods displaved inside. Then they pass on to another store'on their long list of patrons. Connecticut has 30,000 farm*.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Too little advertising is like sowing too little seed. A farmer in sowing grain puts a number of seeds into each hill, and is satisfied if one healthy stalk comes from each planting. It is said that in the near future it will be possible, by tbe aid of the telautograph, to draw weather maps in all of the large cities on the globe at one and the same time. Of course, this involves setting apart a certain hour and minute when all of the lines are in the service of the government. As such an arrangement is actually in existence in this country, the extension of it would seem to be no very difficult matter in order to make it international. Comparisons are sometimes odious. But there is more truth than poetry in the following facts, which are taken from good authority. We have spent nearly $470,000,0CX) in building churches in this land, and $500,000,000 in building jails. It costs $50,000,000 a year to run tho churches and $400,000,000 to run the jails. The interest money on our jails amounts to two and one-half times as much per year as the whole church raises for home and foreign missions. We pay out eight times as much for running our fellow men down and jailing them as we do in trying to make thorn better so that they will not need jail. A somewhat famous Frenchman who has devoted himself to the promotion of freer trade between this country and his own, estimated nearly twenty years ago that the population of the United States would reach 100,000,000 at twentyfour minutes after 5 p. m. on July 24, 19011. He has recently, however, revised his estimate, and he now gives himself a wider range. He believes that |tho 100,000,000 will bo reached between the years 1915 and 1020. All calculations on this subject for the last fifty years have been absurdly out, and the Frenchman’s estimate may have to bo revised again should emigration remain at its present low obb for fivo years longer. One of the most striking things to the educated Metropolitan visitor is tho lack of monuments in and about New York. Probably no groat war in tho world has been loss commemorated by monuments than the war of the Revolution. There aro battle grounds in and about New York where thousands of heroes have died that uro remembered only by the students of history. There is not a monumonton Fort George or Fort Washington or Fort Tryon, and the old earthworks aro still there, mute evidences of the mighty labor that wrested the country from the grusp of England, but there Is absolutely nothing to commemorate tho struggle. It Is all well enough to say that great deeds wljl always livo in the memory of man, but granite is far more immutable and more pleasing. Odessa, which is frequently described as tho Liverpool of Russia, and which in point of trade and prosperity ranks as the most Important city of the Empire, has just boon celebrating the centennial anniversary of its foundation. Built on territory ceded to Russia by Turkey in 1792, the foundations of the present city were laid in 1794, and when, at tho beginning of the contury, tho French emigre, tho Due de Richelieu, arrived upon tho scene to assume his duties as Governor-General, a post to which he had been appointed by Emperor Alexander, there wore only 400 houses and about (1,000 inhabitants in the place. To-day the population is over 500,000, of whom no less than 150,000 aro Hebrews, and there is no city in tho Empire more bountifully endowed with magnificent public buildings or where tho inhabitants are possessed of greater wealth, mostly amassed by commerce.

The interest among scientists In aerial navigation appears to be incensing rather than the contrary, especially in France. Capt. Renard, Chief of tiie Military Aerostatic Department, ‘at Chalais-Moudon, lias nearly completed a largo dirigible balloon, culled theGonerul Meusnier. which is designed to keep up a speed of about 25 miles an hour for 10 hours. The balloon proper is 2110 feet long and has a capacity of 1201)00 cubic feet. It is driven by u very light gasoline engine operating a propeller wheel, nearly HO feet in diameter, at 200 revolutions a minute. If this balloon is a success it will be a quite important matter, for the car is IHO feet long and can curry a comparatively large number of men. Borne interesting experiments have also been made in France with an ordinary bulloon fitted with a small screw placed horizontally, to produce motion in a vertical direction, so as to avoid the usual wasteful process of discharging gas and sand alternately. The screw is seven and one-half feet in diameter, and by means of light hard machinery it could be revolved at the rate of 100 revolutions a minute. By this apparatus the balloon, of 28,000 cubic feet capacity, would be raised about 825 feet in a minute. General Armstrong, acting commissioner of Indian affairs, says that the annual reports received from the various Indian agencies show that on the whole the Indians were reasonably prosperous during the last fiscal year. The death rate has not boen large, nor does there appear to be any decrease in the number of Indians in the charge of the government. The year was one of peace, there having been very few disturbances or troubles usually occurring among the the Indians. It is evident, from the reports received, that the tribal relations of the Indians ure becoming less binding, and the individual Indianff are becoming more independent of tribe and more selfreliant. The allotting agents of the government have been kept busy the past year, many of the Indians evincing desires to own their own land. The Indian authorities believe tbit in allotting tracts of land to individual Indians the longest step has been made toward civilization, and that the Indians are more easily governed by the agents and the bureau when each has a personal and individual interesMn his home. The reports show that Indian education

Is progressing quite satifactorily, and that the Indians show greater willingness than heretofore to avail themselves of the school advantages offered by the government. The Chicago Herald says that the father of the Weather Bureau Service was Increase A. Lapham, a modest and retired, but ripe scholar, who lived in Milwaukee. He was the first to note by telegraph the progress of the wind currents and storms, and to predict their appearance in specified neighborhoods. On the strength of a weather dispatch from Omaha, in 1869, or thereabouts, he announced the first storm on Lake Michigan that ever was heralded twelve hours in advance of its arrival. The first work of the Weather Bureau was under his charge in Chicago. It was on the small beginnings of Dr. Lapham that tho entire system of the Signal Service was based. Dr. Lapham was a native of Palmyra, N. Y., and began life as a stonecutter for canal locks, but went in 1836 to Milwaukee, where he became a register of claims and a real estate dealer. He was eminent in many branches of science botany, eonchology, geology and archaeology and he contributed nearly fifty papers to scientific publications. As the result of the observation of many years, he was the author of a work on the “Antiquities of Wisconsin,” published bj' the Smithsonian Institution. He and Congressman H. E. Paine, of Wisconsin, framed the law of 1870, under which the Weather Bureau was established, but Cleveland Abbe, who had already begun sending out weather reports from the Cincinnati Obset vatory, is also entitled to a large share of tho erodit for originating the system. Dr. Lapham died in 1875.

ITS SHELL ITS FORT.

How a Tortoise Whip* a Number of Rata. A tortoise which was a most unique attraction years ago at Parkersburg, W. Va., has returned after neurly throe years** absence. It is about six Inches in length and almost a porfect ellipse in shape, A day or two ago tho tortoise was picked up uptown, and was identified by a series of dates—tho latest one 1891 —carved into his shi 11. Tho tortoise has proved one of tho local at tractions for tho sports. The tortoise was presented to a local merchant four or five years ago by some one who picked him up in the forest. His new owner set him down in the yard in tho rear of the store, and he was forgotten until one day a few days aftor his arrival, when one of tho clerks heard a terrific squoaling in the yard, and looking through the window, saw a strange sight. A big rat had attacked the tortoise and was biting and scratching at him, but with all his attempts the rat failed to make even an indentation in the armor of his enemy. The unique sight soon attracted the clerks and customers, until standing room was at a premium. The big rat climbed all over the tortoise and tried all points of vantage, but his sharp teeth merely slipped from tho smooth shell. While all this was going on the tortoise lay with feet closely gripped to the ground, while his head had been drawn in out of sight. Presently, in climbing ovor his antagonist, the rat stood with Ills hind foot in front of tho place whore the tortoise’s liead ought to have been, and it was there yet, for in a second the head and neck shot out and the horny mandibles closed with a snap on the rat’s hind legs. When the rat felt the grip it twisted about with a squeak of pain and rage and tried his best togot at his enemy’s head, but the shrewd tortoise had withdrawn not only its head but tho rat’s hind leg between tho upper and under shells, out of its enemy’s reach. Fight and struggle as it would, tho rat failed to move tho tortoise an atom. It then turned and tried to break loose, but that was equally as ineffectual for a minute, when it broke away, but with one leg as cleanly amputated as if cut with a knife. The rat bled to death. Astor this battle almost every day a similar one occurred. Sometimes the lats double-teamed on the scaly gladiator, but the result was always the same—a leg amputation, a tail abbreviated, a disk of hide and flesh cleanly cleft, or an almost severed nock always ended the battle. The clerks and young fellows enjoyed the unique departure in sport, and whenever a battle was on they filled the windows and doors and excitedly made their bets on points. The tortoise never paid any attention to the spectators, and the rats after getting fairly excited paid all of their attention to their enemy. This sort of thing continued for months, until at last it appeared as if the rats had caught on and quit for good, as they entirely disappeared from that locality. Some time after the rats coased to appear, the tortoise, probably ennuied from lack of sport and exercise, disappeared, until he was found a day or two ago.—[Philadelphia Press.

What a Maniac Can Stomach.

One of the medical officers of the County Asylum, Lancaster, contributes to the London Lancet an account of an operation upon a lunatic from whose incoherent statements it was suspected that he had swallowed some nails. Forceps passed into the stomach having failed to extract any foreign bodies, though they could be felt from the outside, it was decided to attempt to relieve the man by operation. On incision, the stomach was found to be occupied by a mass of rusty nails, many of them nearly three inches in length, and some very sharp, bent, and twisted. Their removal, naturally, was very tedious, as many of them could only be extracted one at a time. A piece of matted hair, nearly tiro inches in length, was also found. In all, there was removed from the stomach 192 nails, (the majority being two and a half inches in length, and many even longer), half a screw nail, a piece of brass wire, a carpet tack, several small pieces of stick, a buttyn, and the mass of hair already mentioned. The whole weighed one pound nine and one-half ounces, Several pieces of wood were found in the patient’s intestines, but no nails. .. . \