Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 May 1895 — Page 3

WAGES BEING RAISED

GOING UP FASTER THAN THEY EVER WENT DOWN. Prospects Indicate that Wage-Earners by- Next Year Will Have Regained All They Lost by Redactions During the McKinley Period. Republicans Silenced. There is a conspiracy of silence among Republican newspapers just now in regard to the rapidly increasing wages in woolen and cotton and other textile mills, and in various other mills and mines. It is perhaps fortunate for the Republicans that the tariff is not likely to’ be the leading issue next year, t Present prospects indicate that by next year the wage-earners will have regained all that they lost by thousands of wage reductions during the McKinley period. They- certainly will not care to experiment with another such wage-advancer as was the McKinley bill. We got free wool on August 28th, 1894. Before one Week had passed wages had advanced In the woolen mills of Rawitzer Bros., Stafford Springs. A score or more of wage advances were reported in large textile mills before the end of 1894, and the disease was beginning to spread to other industries. Early in 1895 everybody was surprised to learn that H. C. Frick & Co., and other coke producers had voluntarily advanced the wages of 15,000 workers 15 per cent Below is given a partial list of wage advances from April Ist to April 22d. The most startling feature of the situation is the fact that in all but one or two cases wages have been advanced “voluntarily”—that is, without a strike. The 200 employes of the Pakachoag worsted mills at South Worcester were surprised on April Ist at the announcement that their wages had on that day been advanced about 18 per cent—a restoration of a 15 per cent reduction made a year or two previous. On April Ist a 15 per cent, restoration of wages took place in the three woolen mills of ex-Congressman Moses T. Stevens & Sons, in New Hampshire. These mills represent the most extensive woolen manufacturing business carried on by any one firm In this country.

Thomas Dolan & Co., large manufacturers of woolens in Philadelphia, on April 4 advanced the wages of all weavers employed 15 per cent. Other firms were expected to follow suit. The Globe Iron Works, of Cleveland, Ohio, on April 14th restored the 10 per cent, reduction of wages made in 1893. Wholfender, Shore & Co., Cardington, Pa., posted notices in their mills on April 4th, restoring 5 per cent, of the 10 per cent, reduction made some time ago. Notices were posted' in the Washington Mills at Lawrence, Mass., on April sth, restoring wages reduced a year or two ago. Nearly 4,000 employes were affected. Representatives of the Bricklayer’s Company, Philadelphia, Pa., on April sth agreed to advance wages to bricklayers. The 400 employes of the Belding Bros. & Co.’s silk mills -were notified of a 5 per cent advance in wages on April 6th. On April 6th the Willimantic Linen Co., Willimantic, Conn., employing 2,000 hands, decided to advance wages generally 5 per cent. ”"x The American Linen Mills, Fall River, Mass., ordered an increase of wages on April 10th. Five hundred silk-ribbon weavers in New York City on or before April 10th had their wages raised, and 200 others were threatening to strike for an advance. Worumbo Mills, Lisbon Falls, Me., ordered a 10 per cent, advance about April 10th. The Fall River Iron Works mills (cotton goods), Fall River, Mass., posted notices on April 11th, advancing wages 10 per cent, in all departments. It has 1,800 employes. T-welve hundred employes in the mills at North Grosvenorsdale, Conn., had their wages advanced 10 per cent, on April 13th. E. W. Chapin & Co., manufacturers of woolens, Chapinville, Mass., advanced wages 10 per cent, about April 12th. United States Bunting Company, Lowell, Mass., advanced wages 10 per cent, about April 12. The Lakeside Manufacturing Company, Leicester, Mass., promised to “shortly restore the 10 per cent reduction which went into effect a year ago.” United States Cotton Company, Central Falls, R. 1., gave notice to its employes on April 11 that their wages would be increased 5 per cent to 10 per cent. All the cotton factories in Fall River, Mass., following the example set by Mr. Borden, on April 16 ordered an increase of per cent., restoring the rate prevailing before Aug. 20, 1894, the diange to take effect on April 22. More than 25,000 employes are affected, and the wage payments will be increased, it is stated, by §IB,OOO per week. the cotton factories in New Bedford, Mass., a restoration of the rate paid before Aug. 20, 1894, was ordered on April 17, an advance of about 5 per cent., affecting about 25,000 operatives. The Quinebaug and Danielsonville Manufacturing Companies posted notices on the 15th in their mills at Danielsonville, Williamsville and Wauregan, Conn., announcing an increase of wages to take effect on April 22. More than 4,000 operatives are affected by the advance. B. S. Stevens, manufacturer of woolens at Quinebaug, Conn., on the 17th increased the wages of his 200 employes by 15 per cent., restoring the rate paid In 1893. The Slater Woolen Company of Webster, Mass., gave notice on the 20th Inst, that the wages of its employes would be increased on May 1. An increase has been ordered by the same company in its cambric mills at East Webster for May 1. The rate paid before the reduction of last year is to be restored. In both mills 1,500 employes are benefited. John Chase & Sons, manufacturers of cassimeres at Webster, Mass., have Increased the wages of their 300 operatives by 10 per cent

Vassalborough Woolen Milla, near Augusta, Me., increase of 10 per cent Burke Holl Company, Rowley, Masa» Increase of 10 per cent, restoring old rate. Weybosset Woolen Milla, Olneyvllle, R. 1., wages increased in certain departments on the 18th Inst. Dyervllle Manufacturing Company, Dyerville, R. 1., increase of 5 per cent on the 17th Inst About 400 loom hands at the silk mills of John M. Stearns & Co., Williamsport, Pa., had their wages advanced 1 cent per yard on April 19. The firm of William H. Grundy & Co., the largest worsted mills at Bristol, Pa., Increased the wages of all employes 5 per cent on April 18, and promised another Increase of 4 per cent, if business shall continue to improve. The strikers in the Linwood mill, North Adams, Mass., returned to work on April 18, the old schedule of wages demanded by the strikers having been granted. The weavers In the Westerly Woolen Companies’ mills were notified on April 18 that they could return to work on the following Monday at an increase of wages and steady work.

A Good Showing. The current impression that the farming interests of the country are in a bad way has not all the elements of fact about it. The farmers have without doubt suffered from the depressed prices of the past few years, and those who have staked everything on wheat have sometimes come to actual loss. But, as the low prices have come to most other industries as well as agriculture, probably the average farmer has been able to exchange his products for as much machinery, clothing and food as he got in years when his proflucts sold at higher prices. The chief burden has fallen on those who borrowed money at the time when a. dollar was worth a bushel of wheat, and have to pay interest and debt when a dollar Is worth two bushels of wheat Yet even this* class is not so badly off as the calamity howlers have asserted. Estimates are misleading, but the returns of the money-lending companies furnish the best kind of evidence of the actual condition of the farmers. An insurance company that lends large sums on farm property makes the following report of its farm loans for last year: “Of the total interest that fell due In 1894, amounting to §2,953,969, only §200,151 remained unpaid December 31st, and this amount, the greater part of which w r as pot due until the latter part of the year, has since been largely reduced. The entire amount of interest due and unpaid December 31, 1894, (including the §200,151), amounted to but §253,058, or less than 5 (4.5) per cent, of the interest §5,628,340) that fell due in 1893 and 1894. Even this small amount is in no danger of loss, however, as it is amply secured by the property mortgaged. The interest accrued but not yet due on mortgage loans amounted to §784,325. The total real estate acquired under foreclosure and now owned after an experience of over thirty-six years, during which time more than §115,000,000 were invested in mortgage loans, amounts to but §431,372 during the year. Included in the amount acquired by foreclosure in 1894 were but three farms, involving only §9,781.” This w’ould be a good showing in what are accounted good times. When it is reflected that the statement covers the year of greatest depression in recent history, it is safe to assert that our farming industries are on a solid and enduring basis.—San Francisco Examiner.

The Supreme Court’s Duty. There can be no two opinions as to what the court ought to do in the matter of again taking up the income tax. A 3 it now stands the court has nullified a part of the law as unconstitutional, and has failed to render any decision whatever as to the rest of it. The law as it is now being enforced is left to rest upon negation alone. The court has not ruled either that it is constitutional or that it is not. Four Justices have decided one way and four the other. The ninth Justice has not heard the case. This is unfair alike to the Treasury and to the people subject to the tax. It compels the Treasury to collect the tax in uncertainty whether or not it may have to refund it. It compels the people to pay without knowing whether they are bound to do so or not. It leaves the country in perilous uncertainty as to .ts resources, the extent of its taxing power and the policy it should pursue. We w’ho have advocated the income tax as a just and equitable apportionment of the public burdens, equally with those who have opposed it, want all the questions touching its validity settled. The whole country wants to know whether it is or is not a constitutional tax, and the Supreme Court has no right to withhold its decision upon so important a point It is intolerable that the revenues of the Government and the rights of citizens should be left dependent upon a mere failure of the court to decide as to the validity or invalidity of a disputed statute.

A Blessing, Certainly. The New York Press says: “California fruit growers desire that currants should be' taken off the free list, as their business suffers in consequence of the importation of foreign currants .in large quantities. This is one of the blessings of the Wilson tariff bill, the practical workings of which have everywhere been fraught with disaster to the industries of our country, both large and small.” Certainly this is one of the blessings of the Wilson bill. To have cheap currants is a blessing to all of the people in this country, except the few fruit growers, who have beefi trying to monopolize our markets and advance prices. Not having a tariff to keep out foreign currants, the California Currant trust people are having trouble in compelling Americans to pay trust prices. Of course they want the McKinley bill back again—what trust does not? There are only 71,895 divorced women in this country; there might have been more. Too many men never praise their wives until after they bury them.

HONORING GERMAN GENIUS.

New York Teutons Will Ereet a Monument to the Poet Heine. A handsome monument and fountain In honor of the German poet, Heinrich Heine, is to be erected in Central Park, New York, by the German societies of that city. It will be of Tyrolean marble and will stand fifty feet high. The center piece, a column, shows the medallion of Heine in life size, a figure of the Lorelei surmounts the pedestal and on either side are figures of

IX HONOR OF THE GERMAN POET HEINE.

nymphs. The monument, which will cost §50,000, was originally offered to Heine's native city, Dusseldorf-on-tlie-Rhine, and later to the city of Mayencc, but both of these towns refused to accept It, knowing that the Crowned heads were not in favor of the poet's writings, because of his freedom of thought Heinrich Heine was a poetic genius, satirist and wit who was born in Dusseldorf, of Jewish parentage, In 17()9. At an early age he evinced a brilliancy of intellect which attracted attention in his native town and, after graduating from the Universities of Bonn and Gottingen, he took up literature and soon “Young Germany” was at his feet There was a reckless freedom of thought and hostility to monarchy expressed in his writings which won for him the admiration of the revolutionists and the antipathy of the royalists. For beauty and tenderness of expression his writings are unmatched in German literature except by the lyrics of Goethe. The revolution of the early 30’s threw Heine into such a violent fit of democracy that he was exiled and spent the remainder of his life in France. There he won high favor with the French Republicans. He died in 1856.

Four Feet of Snow.

I have seen, four feet of snow fall in eight hours, said Conductor Cobb of the Maine Central to the Lewiston Journal man, and yet It was so light that you could wade through it just as you can through water. It was In the Sierra Nevada Mountains—a sort of frost-like snow that falls In the night, burying everything. Twelve feet away from another man you can just see him, with a sort of halo around him, as though somewhere the sun was shining through the storm. In these storms it is impossible to tell direction or distance; One is simply lost when only a short distance from camp. In the morning we walked down into town. One man went ahead breaking the snow, which came nearly to bis armpits, as he moved through it He would tread until tired, when he would drop to the rear, and some one else would lead the procession. As we walked Into the valley it grew less, and down below in the town there had been no snow, and all the time the sun or the stars had shone. Such-a snow goes like the dew—disappears, evaporates.

Misapplied Missionary Work.

She was a thin, narrow, dark-visaged-woman with “specs” on, and she carried a package of tractlets and leaflets, which she scattered broadcast among the sinners in the Cass avenue car on which she rode, says the 1 Detroit Sun. When only one or two of the pamphlets were left a man got in. He was on his way to the depot, a countryman going home, evidently. He had a big turkey, which he disposed tenderly on the seat next to him,'and a glass flask with

CHARTRAN’S PICTURE OF CALVE AS CARMEN.

a rubber cork stuck boldly out of his coat pocket. “Heugh!” he exclaimed, as he stuffed his fare In the "box. “Colder than blazes up here, ain’t it?” Everybody looked cold disapproval at him, as good, polite Christian people do when spoken to in a street car, all but the woman with the “tracts.” She had fished out onfc and extended it to him. “Thankee/ he said, receiving it in a brown pawt "Comic almanac, hey?” “No, sir,” said the woman, firmly, in a high falsetto voice.. ‘.‘lt is to save your-ffnmortal soul. Touch not, taste not, handle not the wine.” And she pointed with a crooked forefinger to the glass flask protruding from his breast pocket I see,” said the man, smiling good-humoredly on his sour-vlsaged vis-a-vis; “but this bottle ain’t for me, ma’am.” “Woe unto him that glveth his neighbor drink,” quoted the woman, fiercely. “He ain’t eggsactly my neighbor, eyther,” said the man. “You see, it’s the new baby, and wife calculates to fetch him up by hand, and this bottle’s for him, bless his pootsy tootsy. Where’s the rigging of It?” And diving into another pocket he fished out some India rubber tubing, etc. The woman didn’t wait to finish her dissertation on temperance, but got out without asking the driver to stop.

HUNG IN A TREE.

Young Man Meets Death in a Very Peculiar Manner. A peculiar and fatal accident befell George Brady, son of Nathaniel Brady, of Homing Falls, W. Va., recently. Young Brady was riding a frisky young horse, and the animal ran off with him. Passing under a large apple tree growing by the roadside, the boy’s neck was caught in the forks of two large limbs, and his neck forced up into the crotch of the limbs. The horse was going very rapidly, and the force drew his neck into the forks of the limbs so tight as to hold him there, strangling him, and

causing death before assistance arrived, although several persons were near at hand. The horse ran on, leaving the boy hanging by the neck.

Not the Same Genesis.

A German Hebrew professor had five daughters, whom the students called Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. One day the professor began his lecture by saying ■ “Gentlemen, I wish to speak to you to-day about the age of Genesis,” which remark was greeted with a burst of feet scuffing and a general smile on the part of the class. The professor, thinking that his subject was being appreciated, continued, with a still firmer note in his voice “Genesis is not so old as some of you suppose.” This was greeted with such a burst of merriment that the professor had plenty of time, before it quieted down, to think what should be his next remark. And this, after all, was not so wide of the matter. “I may not be thinking of the same Genesis that you are.”

The postmaster’s boy and the professor’s boy were playing together. A question of precedence arose, and the professor’s boy exclaimed: “You ought to let me go first! My father’s an A. M.” “Huh!” replied his companion. “That’s nothing. My father’s aP. M.” —Harper’s Young People.

A MODERN ABSALOM.

CHINESE IS TOO HARD.

Easier to Learn to Write than to Speak —Every Word a Picture. The Chinese language is the most difficult for an adult foreigner to acquire and easier to forget. Chinese is as different from English'as any modern language can be. It is made up of many thousands of characters, each of which is credited with only on? sound. The Chinese language has no

EASY ORIENTAL WORDS.

alphabet The sounds assigned to the characters are, as a rule, arbitrary and liable to endless corruption and variation. It is estimated that there are upward of 300 dialects in China, more than two-thirds of which are found in the Southern provinces. The Mandarin dialect, which is spoken by the Court, by the large body of officials and the majority of the people In Northern China, is no doubt the purest and nearest to that spoken by the ancient Chinese. It has the same relationship to Cliinese as Parisian does to French. The other dialects vary from this acknowledged standard in the use of words to designate various objects and in calling the same words by different sounds. The Chinese written language is very much like classical Greek and Latin in respect to stability and permanence, but unlike them it is not dead. It shows more vitality than any in the world, and seems to grow more vigorous as it grows older. It is used by one-third of the entire human race, and is understood by the Japanese, Manchus, Coreans, Lewchooans, Annamese, Tonqulnese, besides the Chinese themselves. The primitive Chinese made rude pictures of the common objects about them, and used those outlines as symbols in writing. There are Oil of these symbols, and by combining any number of them in various ways a written language of 40,000 characters has been evolved in process of time. Each Is as arbitrary as an English letter, but does not necessarily have a phonetic value. They represent definite things, actions or relations, and may just as well be 0,000 as 000 in number. The biggest word in the language is made up of fifty distinct strokes, says Yan Phou Lee, in the St., Louis Dispatch. He calls It “hash,”, because it is so mixed up and seems ttu be made up of a large number of Imn gradients.

Beneficial.

Carrying weights upon the head graduated to the strength of the bearer, tends to straighten the spine and improve the condition of the chest. This form of exercise, taken for say half an hour a day, will do mjich good to young people who are becoming stooped and round-shouldered. The exercise should be commenced at an early age, and the weight must be very light to commence with. It should at first,. Indeed, be more an exercise of balancing. The wife—“ One half the world doesn’t know how the other half lives.” The husband—“ Well, it isn’t the .fault of your sewing society, any way.”—Life.

OUR BUDGET OF FUN.

HUMOROUS SAYINGS AND DO* INGS HERE AND THERE. Jdkea and Jokelets that Are Supposed to Have Been Recently Born-Sayings and Doings that Are Odd. Carious and Laughable—The Week’s Humor. Let Us All Laugh. ‘ Strawber—Was her father willing to help you out? Singerly—That’s the way he acted.—Brooklyn Life. “Tom, who did you say our friend Lawley married?” “Well, he married £40,000. I forget het other name."— Tit-Bits. “Do you think the new boarder is permanent?” “Yes, indeed I fie threatens continually to leave.’’—Chicago Inter Ocean. “Is your editor a man or letters?" “Don’t know, stranger, but /birxlhi find out by axin’ the Constitution. Applicant—Please, mum, the lady wot washes the steps for that woman which lives opposite says as you wants a girl. —Pall Mall Budget “Oh, doctor, how do you do? You look killing this evening." “Thank you; but I’m not; I’m off duty, you know."—Brooklyn Life. “I wonder why taxes are generally due In March?” said the suburban. “It’s easier to raise the wind then, I suppose.”— Harper's Bazar. . Tommy Asker—Now, If you was to git to be a artist, what would you like to draw? Andy Quick—A cheek on the bank.—Philadelphia Inquirer.

“De man dat comes roun' makln' de mos’ noise,” said Uncle Eben, “doan’ ginerally hab ’nuf time let’ ter make anyt’ink else.”—Washington Star. Squildig—He’s a great criminal lawyer, isn’t lie? McSwllligen—Well, I believe he always stops short of actual criminality.—Pittsburg Chronicle Telegraph. First Boarder-What’s the star boarder making all that hubbub about over that berry pie? Second Boarder—l guess lie found the berry.—Syracuse Post. Johnny fools his parents— It’s very sad to state— ' They think he's making garden WJien he’s only digging bait. —Washington Stafv Mrs. Jackson—Do you call this sponge cake? Why, It is as hard as a stone. Cook—Yes, mum, that's the way, a sponge Is before It Is wet. Soak it In .your tea.—Truth. Figgs—My! but isn't that a picture? Fogg—Quito stylish. But what Is it? Looks rather large for a parlor lamp, and rather too small for a woman.— • Boston Transcript. She—So Gio count’s relatives consider It mesalliance? "ife—Decidedly. The girl has only a qudVter of a million, and the count owes three times as much as that.—Judge. Professor (to his wife)— Ellse, I have promised to deliver an address to-mor-row evening on the rational exercise of the memory. Don’t let mo forgot about It—Fliegende Blaetter. “Oh, my dear Mrs. , how glad I 1110 to see you. It Is four years since we met, and you recognized mo immediately.” “Oh, yes. I recognized the hat.”—Fliegende Blaetter. She—l know I’m cross at times, John, but If I had my life to live over again I should marry you just the same. He —I have my doubts about that, my dear.—Philadelphia Times. The lady arrives a little lute at the sewing circle. Servant—Excuse me, madam, but I'd advise you to wait a few minutes. Just now they are talking about you!—lldmoristicho Blaetter. Gussy—Why do you so persistently wear the hair of another woman on your head? Beatrice—For the same reason that you wear the skin of another calf on your feet.—The Great Divide. Artist—l’m half distracted trying to think up a subject for my picture, "The Queen of May." Practical FriendWhy not paint a picture of a servant girl taking up carpets?—Chicago Record. Goutran burst like a whirlwind In upon his friend Gaston. “Will you be my witness?” “Going to fight?” “No, to get married." Gaston (after a pause) —Can't you apologize?—Los Angeles Herald. She—l can’t help thinking I have seen your portrait In the newspapers somewhere. He—Oh, no doubt; It’s often been published. She—Then I am not mistaken. What were you cured of?— Judge.

Mrs. Klcksey—l see by the head line in this paper that Spain has her hands full. Klcksey—Yes, and if she fools with this country she’ll have her whole anatomy full—of holes.—Philadelphia Inquirer. “Here comes the carriage, Maud! Fancy having to go and pay calls in such weather! It’s enough to give one one’s death of cold!” “Worse than that, mother! Everybody’s sure to be in!”—Boston Budget. Nurse—Sure, ma’am, the twins have been making a fuss all day, ma’am. Mrs. Olive Branch—What about? Nurse —It's because they can’t have a birthday a piece, like the Dawson children next door.—Tit-Bits. Mother—“ Don’t you feel able to sit tip to-day?” Boy—“No, mamma, I am too weak.” Mamma—“Well, let me ■ see, I guess you will be able to go to ■school Monday. To-morrow is Saturday,' and ” Boy (jumping out of bed)—“Saturday! I thoughtwas Friday.”—Harper’s Bazar. ■ .affy She (after the unmasking)—l see that strawberries are on the bill of fare, George. He (nervously)—Yes, but they are very sour at this season of the year. She—Of course; but I think I will take a few. One cannot expect strawberries to be’ at their best in March, you know.—Harlem Life. The only friends who are'not ashamed of you in your shabby clothes are the friends whose clothes are shabbier than your own. So few women know how to use dry goods after they get them.

PULSE of the PRESS

James W. Scott. Mr. Scott was personally a most genial ind likable man.—Buffalo Courier. It was impossible to be acquainted with him and not like him. —Scranton Truth. The city was eminently for the man and the man f A the city.—Kansas City Star. Long will his memory live in the arof American journalism. —Springfield News. Fortune failed to change him from the gonial, kindly spirit that he was.—Milwao* kee Journal. There is no man in the profession whose loss could be more severely felt. —Minneapolis Tribune. He intelligently labored to the achievement of the .public interest- Rockford— Register-Gazette. He was a man of high private chara» ter, and this was reflected in his newspaper.—Toledo Blade. He inaugurated a new era and injected a new spirit in the Western newspaper field. —Oshkosh Northwestern. Mr. Scott has been a force in Western journalism and politics that commanded national recognition.—Kansas City Journal. Mr. Scott was a man of great and enterprise and possessed wonderful executive ability.—Rochester Post-Ex-press. He had just attained the zenith of ths popularity and success for which he had striven so long and deserved so welt— Peoria Transcript. Above all he had a high sense of the duties which belong to newspaper work, believed in making a paper of clean character, attractive In its typographical appearance, and edited in its own office.— Springfield Republican. Mr. Scott was a grand type of a true American. He was eminently a practical man, and many editorial conventions have been instructed and benefited by his addresses and instruction. Few knew him but to love him.—Elgin News.

Opinions on Various Subjects. The oil producers can Jive on the fat es the land, If they wish.—Cincinnati Tribune. In any event, Great Britain never Into the handle of the jug get on the farther side.—Detroit Tribune; The author of “Trilby" may come to this country if ho likes, but he must aa* sums all the risks.—Chicago Record. What is needed is not legislation to make the dollar cheaper, but to make It less coy and delusive.—Chicago Dispatch. The counterfeiters of the postage stamp probably excited suspicion by using a good quality of gum.—Kansas City Journal. The Income tax opposition has revealed •no curious sact —the enormous estimate which multi-millionaires put upon two cents.—-St. Louis Post-Dispateh. The Lexow investigation cost $07,000, which is cheap enough, for Tammany would have been glad to pay forty times ns much to prevent it.—St. Louis GlobeDeinocrat. J’hojje persons who hnve positive knowledge that J. Wilkes Booth is still alive should form nn organization of some sort and do their talking to each other.—Chicago Tribune. • •- Russia is growling louder than EngIgjid over Japan’s peace treaty with China, but there are no signa that either of them means to do anything about it.— New York Recorder. Tax on Bachelors. ; The one commendable feature of the tax would be tho ease with which it could bo collected.—Bloomington Bulletin. Illinois proposes to tax bachelors, too. It looks as if a new name would have to bo Invented for single blessedness.—Boston Herald. There Is a bill in the Illinois Legislature to tax bachelors—the theory probably being that married men are already ’■"vertaxed.—Detroit News. A supplementary tax might indeed be levied upon such old maids as should be discovered to have promised once upon » time “to be nf sister” to any young man, As a rule old maids do not require a home other than that which they may provide for themselves, nnd it Is nn insult to them to suggest that they stand in neea of such a retreat. —St. Paul Call. Illinois proposes to tax bachelors above the age of 32, and with the proceeds of ’ the tax establish an old maids' hornet This would appear to be equitable, whether constitutional or not.—Minneapolis Tribune. If either division of the unmarried is to bo taxed it should be the women. Say that each woman refuses the marriage offers of five men, not a very unreasonable supposition; it follows that taxation to promote marriage should be first laid upon women.—New York Sun. Women who receive and decline offers of marriage should be compelled to pay a fine, the proceeds of the same to be turned into the fund created with the tax on bachelors for the support of women who honestly and earnestly try to get husbands and fail. —Cleveland Leader.

Woman and Her Hat. Many men are of the opinion that woman will not deserve the ballot until she gives up big hats and balloon sleeves.— Baltimore American. A Dallas lawyer opposes the bachelor’s tax and insists that women shall go back to sun-bonnets so that he can afford to marry one of them.—Galveston News. The Inflated theater hat flaunts itself triumphantly in public, while the whipping post skulks regretfully back into the shadow of innocuous desuetude.— New York World. There is a future awaiting the theatrical manager who will provide a hat museum near the foyer where women may inspect each other's bonnets between the acts.—New Haven Palladium. The designs for the theater hat thia spring are larger than ever. Fashion is an inexorable ruler. Perhaps since woman’s suffrage .is recognized the women will remove their hats.—Cleveland Plain Dealer. Dr., Cook’s Expedition. It is to be hoped that Frederick Cook will on his expedition to the south polo meet with better results than have the many explorers to the pole at the other extremity.—Washington News. Dr. Frederick Cook will lead an exploring party next September to the antarctic ice cap, which covers a sixth of the surface of the globe. The doctor expects to pre-empt this little tract and make a summer resort at the south pole for effete New Yorkers. —Minneapolis Journal. To Dr. Cook, who is said to be contemplating an exploring expedition to ths antarctic regions, we have a single suggestion to make. It is that he arrange to send out a relief expedition in advance to receive and care for his party when It arrives wherever it is going.—Washing, ton Star.