Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1896 — Page 5

the PEOPLE'S MONEY

WOULD BENEFIT THE DEBTOR. This ■question directs attention to the fundamental mistake of the supporters of the gold standard. They continually assume that the value of gold never changes. And yet they all know better. They all know that if our present silver and paper dollars were withdrawn from the currency the scarcity of money would cut prices in two and raise the rate of Interest to unprecedented heights. The most fanatical advocate of the gold standard dares not suggest such a contraction of the currency because he knows that it would mean immediate and universal bankruptcy. Yet if the value of gold is always the same, instead of being determined by the supply of money, then such a contraction of the currency would injure no one. All our silver and paper currency now is at par with gold, and yet by reason of their presence business men are able to get prices, and interest rates which prevent general ruin. Increase the supply of such currency and they will again get prices and interest rates which will secure general prosperity. The supporter of the gold standard in this discussion has denied that the value of money is governed by the law of supply and demand. “Perhaps the most fundamental of all the delusions of the silverties add bimetallists,” he says, “is that ‘more money means higher prices,’ and that higher prices are a blessing to mankind.” So far as we are aware, no bimetallist demands higher prices, except as a return to the level upon which the mass of present debts were first contracted. But our critic is certainly right in saying that it is our “fundamental” belief that “more money means higher prices.” If this belief be false, then bimetallism is false; and if this belief be true, then monometallism is the cause of falling prices, rising interest and business stagnation.

Our critic declares “that there is no traceable connection between the volume of currency and prices.” The fact that every economic writer in the world —prior to this silver discussion—held that the volume of currency determined prices makes no impression upon him. He does not attempt to reply to this argument that if the supply of currency is doubled two dollars must change hands every time one does now, and, therefore, double prices must be paid for everything. He does not attempt to reply to this theory, showing that in every country prices have increased whenever there has been a large increase in the supply of currency, and have proportionately diminished whenever there has been a diminution in the supply. He merely presents a table for different countries showing that the “per capita" circulation is four times as great in England and France as in Russia and Austria, though prices are on the same ■level. The fact that there is four times as much wealth to be exchanged for money in the former countries as in the latter does not seem to occur to him. Our critic’s table, instead of refuting the law of supply and demand, exemplifies it Having rejected the principle that the value of money Is governed by the law of supply and demand, the defender of the gold standard goes to the further extreme of declaring that the supply of money in the United States would not be increased by the free coinage of silver. If we had free coinage, he says, a dollar would only buy half as much as now, and yet we would transact all our business with the same number of dollars. In other words, each dollar separately would transact just half as much business as now, but all of them together would’ transact the same amount. The supposition is absurd. Prices could not increase faster than the amount of money in circulation increased. The free coinage of silver would increase the amount of money in circulation by about $100,000,000 a year. This would mean that our currency would increase rapidly enough to restore and maintain the level of prices of five years ago There would be no difference in value between silver money and gold money, for the supply of gold money throughout the world would be increasing as rapidly as the supply of silver money. But the supply of both would increase faster than population, and fast enough to restore to debtors normal prices and a normal rate of interest.

The Chicago Tribune in 1878.

The purchasing power of legal tender silver coin furnishes the only proper test. The values of gold or silver as bullion are not pertinent to the issue, whether the two metals, as legal tender, can be maintained.—Chicago Tribune, Jan. 9, 1878. The prime object in remonetizing silver is to add to the solid, substantial, intrinsic money stock of the country. There can’t be too much hard moneyready money—in circulation. Such an inflation is stimulating and invigorating. It is at once a sign and prop of national and commercial prosperity. The simple remonetization of the silver dollar, with proper provisions for its coinage, will contribute a steady stream to the money resources of the United States.—Chicago Tribune, Jan. 23, 1878. The theory that a remonetization of the silver '‘dollar demands that the weight of that dollar be Increased to correspond to the present London bullion value of silver, as measured by '‘cornered’ gold, is simply absurd. It is in plain defiance of the experiefice of all the rest of the world—even with our own experience before the silver dollar was demonetized—which teaches that 15% ounces of silver to 1 ounce of gold is the proper basis for equalizing the money value of the two metals.—Chicago Tribune, Jan. 8, 1878. A correspondent asks us why we give so marked a preference to the silver dollar of 371% grains of pure silver, and reject the proposed “Christiancy dollar,” or the “Blaine dollar,” or the trade dollar. We shall not undertake

now to repeat or restate all of them. But the first, reason is that the dollar of 37114 grains pure silver has been the monetary standard or unit of value in this country from 1792 until 1873, a period 1 of 81 years. It is the ancient, unchangeable dollar of that country.— Chicago Tribune, Feb. 11, 1878.

An Expensive Dollar.

Men who work for wages should remember that money not only buya things, but that it has to be bought. A dollar is bought by a workingman with a certain amount of work. If dollars are few and workingmen plenty he will have to pay pretty dear in effort for his coin. Perhaps he will not even get a chance to buy it at all, either because there are not enough dollars to go round or because he cannot or will not pay the price. In such event the fact that the dollar he doesn’t get is one of great value neither interests nor profits him. The shopkeeper buys his dollar with goods. Ninety-nine out of every hundred of his customers, if he runs a city store, work for wages, and if the dearness of the dollar destroy their power of purchasing he will get fewer dollars to pay.clerks, and some must be discharged, few dollars with which to buy goods and factories will be closed. Every class of labor thus suffers by a dear dollar. Does the banker, the money lender, the man whose investments bringing in interest outweigh all his other sources of Income suffer from a dear dollar? In no way. He does not buy dollars with work, with goods, with produce. He lends a dollar, gets back one which, under existing conditions, is sure to be more valuable than the one he lent, and moreover receives interest in money of high purchasing power. His apparent interest lies wholly on the side of a dollar which is dear to-day and dearer to-morrow. We say his apparent interest because in fact the present system persisted in will be harmful to the banking classes as to others. The goose that lays the golden egg may be slaughtered. All, securities are founded on the prosperity of the nation, and a policy which compels the distress of the people will compel the depreciation of the banker’s securities. The common people, however, will get near the core of this currency question if they remember that to get a dollar they must buy it with labor if workingmen, with wheat and corn if farmers, with cloth or china if merchants. The dollar -which will exchange for twice as much as these commodities, as did the dollar of thirty years ago, is a dollar that costs them dear.

Japan’s Business Boom.

In 1873, in Japan, an ounce of gold bought 15% ounces of silver. In 1896 half an ounce of gold buys 15% ounces of silver. Prices in gold-standard countries are calculated in gold value. The Japanese manufacturer can, therefore, make goods in that country, send them to the United States, sell them for half the gold price of 1873. get with that gold as much silver as he did in 1873, take that silver to Japan and with it purchase as much of everything as he ever did and pay as much debts and taxes as he ever did. As gold rises still higher In value, compared with silver, the Japanese can afford to make still lower and lower gold prices for his goods, and as the same goods must sell for the same price in the same market the American manufacturer must come down in his price, although his debts and taxes do not come down. This is the secret of the recent importations of Japanese goods at prices that have alarmed our manufacturers.—Cumberland (Md.) Times.

Money's Narrow Basis.

The only money in the country is the gold estimated at between $500,000,000 and $600,000,000, but in fact probably much Less. All ether forms of currency are in fact or in practice promises to pay money. The silver movement has for its purpose an Increase of the amount of actual money, and nothing else. Putting the highest estimate on the amount of gold in the country, there would then be less than $lO per capita on which to carry on the business. It is customary to use all the currency as a basis in estimating the per capita circulation. Such a course is no more justifiable than it would be to Inelude all bank checks, promissory notes and drafts as a part of the circulation. They, like greenbacks, national bank notes and treasury certificates, are mere promises to pay money, which is gold, and in which all other mediums of exchange must be finally redeemed. Silver men think the monetary basis is too, narrow for the superstructure.— Topeka Journal.

What Silver Men Want.

What the silver men propose is to make these silver dollars money—money that cannot depreciate in value by an accident while in the hands of the people—money that needs no redeemer or any other money behind it. They want one dollar as good as every other dollar, in fact as well as in theory. This is whait the Republican party has always contended for before it fell into the hands of Hanna, Kohlsaat and Platt at St. Louis, and Lt is what the people are demanding to-day. They want th(? parity of the metals established and maintained in accordance with what is declared to be the established policy of the Government, both In the Sherman law and in the bill repealing it. There has been no such thing as a parity since 1873. Restoration of it is demanded first, and maintenance afterward.—Topeka Journal.

Can the United States Do It?

Any nation which is the equal of Eng. land can do for silver what England has done for gold. The United States can do it, and the duty rests with her. The Government should make the citizen’s dollar worth commercially what it says it is worth.—Topeka (Kan.) Journal.

FORSAKE BY MAN.

VAST HERD OF 125,000 HORSES THAT ROAM THE WEST. Owners Ready to Give Them Away—Electricity and the Bicycle Reducing the Noble Animal to His First EstateImagine a herd of horses aggregating 125,000 for which no practical use can be found. Stockmen of the Northwest are to-day considering what disposition can be made of this immense number of animals. This great herd roams the prairies of Montana, North Dakota, Washington and Northern Idaho. They are grazing upon grass that is required for the sustenance of cattle and sheep, and are practically worthless for any purpose. The cause of this serious condition is due to the bicycle and to street car systems operated by electricity and by cable, the use of which within the last few years has so largely done away with the employment of horses. In some of the districts named the horses are increasing so rapidly in numbers that they are actually crowding live stock, used for supplying the meat markets of the country, off ranges where they find grass on which to subsist.. The men who own this vast number of horses, ranging, as they do, over such a large expanse of territory, can devise no means of relief, and they are practically helpless. Excellent horses, unbroken, can be bought for from $5 to sls a head, but even at this low figure no buyers can be found, while the horses too valuable to be destroyed, and at the same time too expensive to keep alive, continue to multiply. As a result of the policy adopted by the Northern Pacific and other railroad companies of the Northwest, after measures were adopted by the government to circumscribe and keep the Indians within certain bounds, the great ranges at one time occupied by the elk, buffalo, deer and antelope were quickly taken up by capitalists who, having heard of the fame of this region as hunting grounds, established ranches there and began raising stock on a large scale. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were invested in cattle and large herds of stock bought inTexas, Arizona, and other states and territories in the Southwest and driven to the rich ranges in Northern Idaho, North Dakota, Washington and Montana to fatten on the nutritious bunch grass which grows so luxuriantly there. Immense fortunes were made in this way and cattle kings were numbered by the score. Many capitalists invested in sheep and raised wool, but the rapid increase in the herds and changes in the tariff laws so affected prices that it was found that the investment no longer paid. Among these stockmen were many who raised large herds of horses, either separately or in conjunction with cattle. When the Northern Pacific Railroad was completed much greater accessibility to the horse markets of the East was possible. So encouraging was the investment in horses that many owners increased their herds to as high as ten or twelve thousand head. Attention was given to raising finer grades of horses and abandoning the half breed and bronco grades. Large draught horses, at one time, fouirr ready sale in the Eastern States and in Europe. It was also thought that there would be an excellent market for horses in large cities where street car companies use these animals for motive power. For a number of years there was much profit in raising stock for street car use, but when electricity and the cable system were adopted the profits in horse raising gradually diminished until, Instead of there being gains, there was a constant loss. Importations of fine breeding stock from Kentucky and Eastern States, as well as from England and Scotland, were made, but it was found that the horse industry was on the decrease. Shipments to Eastern and Middle Western states over one railroad alone dropped from 10,000 head yearly to 2,000. To such an extent did the market depreciate that instead of making money horse owners found that they stood a good chance of going into bankruptcy. Then the bicycle eame into general use and the horse raising industry received its final blow. Those who had been in the habit of using saddle horses found that a bicycle did not require to be “broken in,” nor did it require feeding or stabling, while in many ways the machine was capable of being applied to greater use than a horse. This surplus of 125,000 horses consists not alone of bronchos or cattle horses, but in it may be found such stock as coach and Clydesdale horses, nearly all of which, however, are unbroken. Among them pre the descendants of some very high priced stallions. One rancher near Walla Wallla, Wash., has 3,000 horses on his range, all of which are finely bred. These he is willing to sell at $lO per head, “big and little,” as the saying is among cattle men, which means colts as well as the grown animal. He can find no purchaser for his stock. The question which is now agitating these stockmen is, “What can be done to rid the ranges of this immense number of horses, in order that pasturage may be provided for the large herds of cattle and sheep?” For cattle of this description an amount of pasturage is required which a person other than a stockman or one conversant with the situation cannot imagine. Of course, there is no feeding in that part of the country for cattle during winter, for they range out of doors during the entire year; therefore they must depend for food entirely upon the bunch and other grass which grows- on the prairies and in the mountains. In 1895 an experiment was made with a view of providing a way out of the trouble. A plant was established at Portland, Ore., for the purpose of slaughtering horses and canning the meat for export to France. The plant was operated less than one year, however, but it did not succeed. Horsemen then sought to induce beef slaughtering, packing and rendering establishments in the United States to take horses for slaughtering purposes, but the attempt failed. The packing house ' owners absolutely declined to add horse ; slaughtering and canning to their beef ! slaughtering industry, on the ground I *hat if jt became generally known that

they were canning horse meet the sale of their canned beef would be materially affected, if not entirely destroyed. Proprietors of rendering establishments refused to go West to buy horses “from the range,” for the reason that they jvere able to obtain in the cities all the discarded horses they needed at a few dollars per head, or at the slight cost of hauling them from different parts of cities to their establishments. Horse owners in the West were thus again disappointed in finding a market for their stocks in large cities as they had expected.—New York Herald.

A REVERSED MEMORY.

A Man Who Remembers Nothing of ths Past, but Much of the Future. Franklin Hart, 26 years old, whose father lives in Trinity county, ChL, came to Portland, Or., on a visit last June well supplied with funds, which he spent freely. He suddenly disappeared on the morning of July 4, and all efforts of the police to trace him failed. The suicide and foul play theories ran out A large reward was offered i,a a stimulus for the detectives. On July 23 the fact was established that young Hart, on the afternoon of July 4, bought a tourist ticket to Chicago. Chicago was ransacked without locating him. Finally a letter was received from Hart, Sr., in California, saying that when he returned home he found a telegram saying that his son was in a Chicago hospital. Ho lost no time in reaching Chicago, finding Franklin In the County Hospital, convalescent. His son arrived in Chicago July 12, stopping at the Palmer House. On the second night he attempted suicide by asphyxiation with gas. He was sent to the hospital, and though his life was saved his mind was left in a peculiar state. “While Franklin’s physical condition is so good that he will be able to leave the hospital in a day or two,” writes Mr. Hart, “his mental state startles me. His mental vision is supernaturally prospective Instead of being retrospective, and the physicians here tell me that there Is no parallel case on record in any part of the civilized globe. They claim that the phenomena demonstrated in my son’s mentality is one of the many hidden forces in human nature. “In ordinary conversation Franklin is as lucid as ever, yet it is a matter difficult for him to recall past events without hard study. For Instance, when I referred to his Portland visit and his departure from there, it took him two days to recall even the more important facts and features of those events, as they had altogether passed from his memory since the almost tragic affair at the Palmer House.” The other peculiar phase of his case is that he seems to see into the future. For instance, the day prior to Mr. Hart’s arrival in Chicago, Franklin almost verbatim repeated to the doctor attending him the conversation he had with his father forty-eight hours later. In other words, it is said that young Hart has power to read all manner of events, even of the most trifling import, forty-eight hours in advance, with the same clearness that the healthy mind conjures up the past. Another remarkable condition of Franklin’s mind, writes Mr. Hart, Is that after the consummation of an event which he has foretold he is utterly unable to remember It. “Last Friday,” continued the writer, “Franklin told me that on that day he had received a lettr from his mothr. I knw it was a hallucination, but I asked him what it contained; so he repeated to me what he imagined had been written so him. The day following he, indeed, got a letter from his mother without the slightest variation from his prophetic revelation. Every hour in the day my son startles me and the doctors by some evidence of his wonderful mental vision.”

Facts About Flags.

Did you ever think of the number of American flags which float from public buildings on a gala day? Uncle Sam has a pile of them a big as a hillock, and the old fellow has use for them all Utah has just been added to the family of States, and now there are forty-five in our household. On the Fourth of July the new flag, with fortyfive stars, were unfurled to the breeze, and if a man had gone high enough up in a balloon to look down on the whole country he would have seen what would look like a huge rainbow stretching from Atlantic to Pacific. All brand new flags with the whole forty-five stars on them. But what becomes of the old flags? Well, the country has need of them all. They can be used in a thousand ways, pat* ticularly for decorative purposes, Your Uncle Sam is a queer fellow with some odd notions, but he is not thrifty in the way of selling his old flags. On the contrary, you can’t coax one out of him. He will do any other service in his power, but if you ask for J a flag the old gentleman gets into a "flurry and looks down to his boots as though he were going to do something unless you get out of the way in a jiffy. And he is quite right.—New York Herald.

An African Chief.

Kambombo is a tall fellow about fifty. He was seated on a mat, dressed with the usual loin-cloth, head shaved, but wore a tight-fitting cap of plaited cord, a bunch of small buckhorns about three Inches long, sewn to the cap just over his forehead; he had a snuffbox, the beautifully beaten Iron of which shone as though it were silver, also an isanje, a musical Instrument, upon which he played very well. His favorite wife sat near him on the mat, her hair daubed with clay and fat, in which some very nice skewers of copper. iron and ivory were stuck; she had beaded bracelets, and wore in her upper lip an immense iron-dish ornament holding as much as a champagne glass; her under lip was studded with an ivory peg: she is a hideous creature, but the chief thinks much of her; she had a girl attending her pipe, which she had to smoke out of the corner of her mouth because of the Up adornment. I noticed that inferior strangers in approaching the chief first squatted, then lay down on the right side in front of the chief as evidence of Obeisance, which he acknowledged by a slight grunt and a nod.—Century. In France a man can secure a divorce from his wife if she goes on the stage

BICYCLING FOR WOMEN.

WHAT IT HAS DONE TO IMPROVE THEIR PHYSICAL CONDITION. Wheeling Possesses Charms Enjoyed by No Other Forms of Sport—The Danger of Attempting Too Much at First Mr. Isaac B. Potter, Chief Consul of the New York Division, League of American Wheelmen, has an article on “The Bicycle Outlook" in The Century. The following is an extract: After a close study of the question for five years, I am ready to express my belief that the use of the bicycle will do more to improve the physical condition of Americau women, and therefore of the American iteople.than any other agency yet devised. Argument on this iwint lias given way to demonstration. Women are riding the wheel in all parts of the country, and their increasing numbers testify to its benefits and its popularity. The average woman loves to lie out of doors; she enjoys the change of scene, the gentle exercise, the delightful companionship of congenial friends, and the exhilarating benefits of contact with the pure air and bright sunlight, which the knowledge of cycling brings within her reach. To the woman, as to the man, these features, possessed by no other form of sport, comprise the foundation on which the popularity of the bicycle will rest. The only possible danger In cycling for women lies in the fascination which sometimes tempts her to undue effort. In^common with every other form of exercise, bicycle-riding may of course be overdone, and as well by women as by men; but under proper advice from the family physician, supplemented by such practical suggestions as may be had from an intelligent instructor or from an expert? eneed rider, any woman in a fair condition of health may undertake bi-cycle-riding with a feeling of certainty that the result will be delightful and helpful in a measure that was never anticipated. A mistake commonly made by women riders, and indeed by new riders of both sexes, is that of undertaking too much at first. Overexertion induces discouragement, and recollection of a tiresome ride has been known too deter new riders from repeating the attempt. The real pleasure of bicycle riding can be had only by keeping in mind this little truth. No new rider should continue the first trip to such a point as to feel weariness. A half hour is In most cases ample for the first road ride, and it should not be continued beyond that time, except by the strongest and most capable rider. The tyro exerts more power than the expert, and in consequence becomes more rapidly tired. He pushes the pedals witli undue force, fails to sit erect, falls to sit still, and tends to follow what seems to him to be an erratic motion of the wheel by a swinging and wobbling of the body which not only tends to increase and make real what was only an Imaginary difficulty, but insures also the quick coming of fatigue, that might otherwise have been avoided.

The new rider should learn to sit erect and to sit still, and In the early stages of his road practice avoid long rides, remembering that the exertion which he puts forth in his first efforts will be more than sufficient, as soon as a little skill has been acquired, to propel his wheel many miles farther than was covered by his first trip. If the first ride is wearisome, It should not be repeated on the next following day, but rather upon alternate days, until such skill Is acquired as will enable the new rider to enjoy ills outing without suffering too much fatigue. Bicycling for women has received the Indorsement of our leading women and our best physicians. The bicycledealers of most of our large towns state that the number of bicycles sold to women Is dally increasing, and that the established popularity of bicycling among the gentle sex Is assured. The tendency of the bicycle market to lower prices, even of wheels of the reliable ferade, will doubtless Increase the use of the wheel among women, and enhance Its aggregate benefit to the sex. When the time comes that the delightful country roads and shaded lanes can be so kept as to make more general the practice of touring during the vacation season of the year, the wheel will have gained Its true measure of value as a health restorer, and will attract thousands of riders from among the women of the land who do not yet know the joys of a hearty appetite and of refreshment Induced by sound sleep.

COLD-FIELDS OF GUIANA.

An Arizona Miner’s Prospecting Tour Among Them. Thomas Dalgleish, an old Arizona miner, has written an account of his own personal adventures among “The Gold-Fields of Guiana," for the Century. Mr. Dalgleish says: The first fine placer on the Cuyunl was found in 1893 by a Frenchman named Jacobs. His outfit was furnished by two Portuguese named Carras ami Rosa. They took out from two hundred to three hundred pounds a month for two or three years, the gold being worth $195 a pound. When I reached there in 1893 the placer was in full working order. Jacobs Is said to have disposed of his gains at Monte Carlo; Carrara died insolvent; Rosa left a few thousands; that Is, in brief, the history of the owners of one of the richest placer mines in that country. The mine was sold In 1895 for $1,500, and Jacobs is now simply an employee ifi the placer. The Barnard Syndicate has taken out a great deal of gold from placers situated on the Potaro River; but it is my impression that placermining is about over unless new territory is opened up. Quartz-mining is still in its infancy. There are at present two quartz-mines in operation on the Barima River with a good showing; but they are in the disputed territory, and I think have been obliged to shut down. Quartz on the Cuyunl is finely defined, although there is not a quartz mine on the river at present; but in all probability good quartz mines will yet be worked in British Guiana. ‘ At present it is impossible for a poor

man to prosjiect to advantage in that country. He must purchase all his provisions at Georgetown; buy or hire a boat; pay big wages to his captain and boatman, and give security for the wages of his men and pay for their food. I have known only one or two poor men who have made a stake out there. After prospecting three or four months, which is very fatiguing and trying to the constitution of the strongI est. a man may find nothing; but he ! will have learned a good deal. Then he ■ may take a notion, if he lias a few hundreds left, to buy another outfit. ■ This time he may find a creek that will , pay him one or two ounces a day in the i ton. When that much is got in the : ton. sluices are soon put in. which yield J two or three times as much gold. If ; lie has the good fortune to keep his I health and to find gold, he has to carry 1 his yield to Badtaca Grove, where he passes through the gold station. Here every man. both laborer and master, is searched. Some think this very disagreeable, but I see nothing objection.able In the law, which is a great protection to the placer-owner, the object being to prevent laborers ami others from stealing gold.. At Georgetown he must carry his gold to the Commissioner’s office, where lie gets a permit to pay the royalty at another government office, after which he may sell it to the banks. Miners are not allowed to sell gold in the bush or in, Georgetown. Each day a miner must enter his find In his gold-book, and if nn inspector should come along and find gold that was no* entered he might confiscate it. This is why a miner must buy his entire outfit in Georgetown, and have money enough to sec himself through before he starts. All the British colonial officials, at least all that I came in contact with, are polite and gentlemanly. I have met foreigners who think their laws are very stringent, but I would rather be where there is some law than on the other side of the Yucatan, where there is none.

The Prince’s Cast-off Clothing.

As the Prince of Wales has set the pace in matters of fashion for many years past it is something of Interest to know how his purchases are made. According to one of the British papers the prince never orders less than eight suits of clothes nt a time, for each of which he pays the uniform price of s4(l. He never wears a pair of trousers more than four times, and since his valet does not fall heir to his wardrobe, ami as his discarded clothes are not among the perquisites of his valet, there is a stock, of thousands of them at Marlborough house. At his death he will doubtless have as large a collection as did King George IV., the auction of whoso clothes extended through throe weeks. All the prince’s clothes, old and new—except his hats, which for some reason are kept nt Sandringham—are stored at Marlborough house in what is known as the “brushing rooms,” where several men an* kept busy looking after them. The uniforms and state robes alone nt Marlborough house are insured for $20,000, so tliat his entire wardrobe must represent a very comfortably fortune.

Money In Bicycle Invention.

Inventions of bicycle mindriesarejust now apparently the most profitable direction in which mechanical Ingenuity can be directed. All the really meritorious devices on the markets for wheels and wheelmen are selling well and returning fine dividends to their owners. And the most remarkable feature of the cast* is the fact that these prove paying Investments from tile start and no losing system of introducing them is necessary, as in other businesses. One of the most remarkable Instances of tills state of affairs is the ease of a popular saddle made of aluminum and leather. It was invented less than two years ago and has been on tile market but a short time. Yet this year the sales have already reached 80,000, and there are-more to come. On this 80?000 the Inventor realized 50 cents apiece, or $40,000, a tidy little sum, which would lie conslderrtl a fortune by some people and does fairly well for an annual income on a bicycle sundry, —Chicago Tribune.

Great Icebergs.

Icebergs in the North Atlantic this season have been exceptionally numerous, especially near the southeastern extremity of Newfoundland. Incoming vessels at St. Johns, Newfoundland, report passing icebergs continuously. One field of ice passed was four miles wide and 21 miles long, and as many as 12 bergs were sighted at one time from one point. Several very lofty masses of ice are also reported, one being 800 feet high and more than 400 feet long, while another enormous mass, though smaller, was 400 feet high and 600 feet long. Icebergs of more than 1,000 feet above the sea surface have not infrequently been reported, in the southern ocean, 1,500 feet being the greatest height recorded, but a berg 600 feet high in the North Atlantic is exceptional. When It is remembered that icebergs are submerged six-sevenths of their height one 600 feet high above the water surface represents a mass almost a mile high.

Cripples Carried to the Polls.

It has been many years since, by the “Crime of the Nations,” Poland wasdestroyed and divided up between Prussia, Austria and Russia; but the national feeling of this noble race is alive and strong to-day. This fact was brought out at the recent by-election at Schwetz, Polish Prussia. The struggle was characterized by extraordinary bitterness. Polish workmen who had left the constituency since 1893 were brought back at the expense of the Polish landlords. Cripples and confirmed invalids were carried to the polls, and even a dying man who had partaken of the last sacrament was borne to the voting urn. where he deposited his ballot. A sanguinary encounter took place between a Polish nobleman and several German electors who attempted to stop his carriage. The nobleman drew a revolver and severely wounded two of his assailants.—Buffalo (N. Y.) Express. In Brooklyn, N. Y., there are 846 suits pending against street-car companies, brought by persons injuwd in trolley accidents.

THE ISLAND OF SPITZBERGEN.

H Was Once Famous for Its Whale and Shark Fisheries. Spitsbergen has been crossed at last! From Tromso, Sweden, came the intelligence recently that the expedition organized by Sir W. Martin Conway has accomplished the feat so frequently attempted by others in vain. For the first time the interior of this strange land mass has been explored, and the data secured will doubtless make a most iuteres'lug contribution to human knowledge. Spitzbergen has been best known hitherto in connection with Arctic explorations and its once prosperous fisheries. The fisheries are still valuable, though not nearly so important as in former days. One marine animal sought by the pelagic hunters is the great northern shark. It is one of the largest of all sharks and is not dangerous to man. The liver of a single fullgrown specimen yields four or five barrels of oil. This oil is useful for several purposes, but it figures in commerce most conspicuously as a substitute for cod liver oil. Much of the cod liver oil now on the market is in reality obtained from shark's livers. Shark skin is employed to a considerable extent for leather, and a superior kind of sand paper is made from it. In the seventeenth century a considerable town was created on the neighboring island of Amsterdam, where,on a broad plain, grew up the astonishing village of Smcerenberg. Here, within ten degrees of the North Pole, for a score of years prevailed an amount of comfort and prosperity that can scarcely be <*redlted by the visitor of to-day in that desolate Arctic region. In the train of the whalers followed merchant vessels, loaded with wine, brandy, tobacco and edibles unknown in the fare of the hardy fishers. Shops were opened, drinking booths erected, wooden and even brick houses constructed for the laborers and whalemen. Bakeries were put up, and, as in Holland, the sound of the baker’s horn, announcing hot, fresh bread for sale, drew crowds of eager purchasers. The Dutch frau was not deterred by the frigidity of the latitude from becoming a temporary resident of Smcerenberg. But the shore fisheries soon falled.and, the whalers being driven to the remote and open seas, this strange summer city fell into decadence and eventual ruin. Near the vanished town lie today the mortal remains of more than 1,000 stalwart fishermen. From the Spitzbergen whale fishery Holland drew in a little over a century about $1)0,000,000. The most recent attempt to colonize the island was in 1872, when Sweden and Norway proposed to take possession of the whole country; but Russia objected. In 1803 tlie Norwegian, Carlsen, accomplished for tlie first time the feat of circumnavigating Spitzbergen. One of the most Interesting features of the main island Is an Ice sheet 3,000 feet thick, which flows toward the east and presents on the coast a precipitous wall insurmountable from the sea. Its sen front presents the broadest known glacier.

ENGLISH EXECUTIONS.

The Method* Are Different from Those In Thi* Country. When Mllsom, the murderer, was hanged the other day, writes Julian Ralph from London, the paper of largest English circulation, called Lloyd’s News, asserted that Billington, the hangman, hud loosened the drop at a signal given by a line in the clergyman’s prayer, and that the clergyman, kneeling too fur forward, had fallen through the trap a distance of twenty feet, but saved his own neck by clinging to Mllsom's legs. It was all true except that the distance was much less and the clergyman did not hang to the murderer’s legs. However, it brought about a revolution. The reporters had not been admitted to witness the executions up to that time, but at the hanging which followed, members of the press were invited to attend in order to overcome the revulsion of feeling caused by the story in Lloyd's News. The execution thus reported was a triple one at Winchester, and 1 have been rending all the reports of It because they show that these things are not done In the way here with us. The scaffold was in the coach-house of the governor of the prison. On its collapsible floor had been marked in chalk the Initials of each of the three murderers, In order that there might be no delay in getting them to their proper places. The bell of the prison began to toll at a quarter to eight o’clock. The clergyman was then with the condemned. At 8 o’clock the under sheriff and his deputy, the governor, the prison doctor, Billington the hangman,and his assistant, all followed by a large staff of wardens, walked In procession to the cells. Billingtonwascarrylng thestraps to be used In pinioning the men. The procession passed on to the jail yard, picking up the clergymen, but leaving Billington and his assistant, who speedily strapped the men’s arms. Even while this was being done the clergyman began the words of the burial service, and when the head of the line reached the scaffold the three murderers were walking at the end of it. They strode firmly to the scaffold, and while Billington adjusted the nooses around their necks and pulled the white caps over their heads his assistant strapped their legs together. The noose ropes were tied to the dangling ropes of the. scaffold, the clergyman still continuing with his readingof the service—and, we may be sure, seeing to it that he was not on the trap in tap floor. When he reached the words. “Lord have mercy on us,” and was beginning the Lord’s Prayer, Billington drew the lever and the three men dropped into eternity. Immediately afterward the prison doctor leaped down into the pit among the rigid, motionless bodies, and called up to those who looked down upon him that the execution had been successful. It is unwise to have a house too much shaded. An Italian proverb says that “where the sun never comes Id the doctor must.”