Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 December 1896 — Page 3

FARMS AND FARMERS

Harnessing Wind for Many Uses. A sensible arrangement is portrayed by Farm and Home, showing how an Ingenious North Dakota farmer makes full use of wind power. The machinery consists of a geared windmill attached to a pump, churn, washing machine, feed mill, wood saw ana grindstone. The illustration shows the “pump bouse.” The feed mill is on the upper floor, while on the ground floor is the , washing machine, churn, and pump, all po arranged as to be easily hitched to the wind. The deep setting creamer, which is neatly kept, is set in one cor-

A CHEAP SOURCE OF POWER.

ner of the pump house. A spout carries water also to a watering tank near by, where cattle and horses quench their thirst. The circular wood saw, the grindstone and the corn shelter, e, have been added In making the illustration, as has also a water tank. This last is for use as a reservoir in very cold weather, to supply water to a smaller drinking tank outside the building. The water in this reservoir and in the creamer can be kept from freezing in winter by placing a small stove, if necessary, in the room. The stove would also be very useful at churning time and on washing days. Having machinery in a small house under the windmill does not prevent carrying the power by means of a chain, belt or tumbling rod, from the mill to other adjacent buildings. Screening wheat, grinding, shelling, cutjtlng feed or other operations can usually be more conveniently done near the storage rooms. The mill is convenient to the kitchen and saves much labor in pumping water, churning, washing, etc. A Convenient Farm Bench. The illustration herewith, taken from the American Agriculturist, shows a bench easily made in the home workshop and very convenient in many operations about the farm—when planting the garden, graf ting in the orchard,

BENCH FOLDED.

assorting fruit, dressing fowls, and a 'hundred and one other times when it Is desired to have tools or packages raised above ground. When not in use, It can be folded into small space and put

MOVABLE BENCH.

away, as shown in the first illustration. construction is so plainly shown in the cut that little explanation is needed. The braces running from the middle to the bottom of the legs are hinged to the legs and go into slots a, underneath the bench near the' center. The bench ready for use is seen in the second picture. Some Careless Farmers. A Western grange officer who has been traveling through the rural districts, was impressed with the careless habits of many of the farmers. He says: “I have been much over the country during the last two years, and when I see a plow standing in the comer of the fence, a binder under a tree, wagons, carriages and implements standing promiscuously about the yard, it always attracts my attention, and I have ■been very much surprised at the lack of care and thrift which a ride over the country will disclose.”—Ohio Farmer. Bnryins: Apples for Winter. Most cellars are too warm to keep fruit well. They are also subject to frequent changes of temperature, in which the fruit suffers almost as much as it does by being kept too Warm. We have known farmers to put apples in pits as potatoes and roots are pitted, spreading a layer of straw over them in order to keep them from contact with the earth. Such apples come out with very little loss in tspring, where c? je is taken that none which are specked were put up in the fall.— Hural World. Warmins: the Poultry House. While there are many ways by which a-poultry house may be made warm, yet but few make it an object to provide heat. As we have before suggested, the cheapest method is to hang a lighted stable lantern in the poultry house, suspending it from tie middle of

the roof. The vessel containing the oil should have suffident capacity for permitting of holding a supply for the night, and the wick should not be turned too high. It is not necessary to have the temperature higher than 50 degrees, and as there is quite an amount of heat given off from a lamp the temperature will be raised to that point if the house is not too open; it will also assist in drying the walls and preventing dampness. There will be no liability of foul air or injury from the lamp in winter. Cut Feed for Horses. All farmers use cut feed for horses when at hard work, because there is a great saving in the laSor needed to digest cut feed. If mixed with some grain meal and wet so that the meal can only be got by -eating the cut feed mixed with it, the whole will be chewed sufficiently to moisten it with saliva, which is necessary to quicken digestion. But this economy in feeding cut feed is also important when the horse is not working. If the cut feed is corn stalks, it should always be steamed with very hot water, so as to soften the cut ends of the stalks, which may cause Injury. This is the beet, also, if hay or straw is cut, particularly wheat or rye straw, which, being harder than cut hay and less nutritious, is not likely to be thoroughly chewed. The stomach of the horse needs a slight irritation. This is the advantage which oats have over other grains. Its hull helps the grain to digest better, and this makes the horse feel frisky and able to do his best It is an old saying of farmers that when an old horse begins to act unusually coltish he has probably “got an oat standing corner wise against his stomach, and he jumps around so as to get it out” It is a homely illustration, but may have truth in It.—American Cultivator.

A Device for Lifting. It is often desirable in the stable, barn or other buildings, to raise some article from the floor for weighing, or other purpose. This is usually done by sheer strength in lifting. The simple device figured herewith will save much strength exerted in this way. On the top of a beam or crosspiece of the framing, mount a wooden roller, as suggested In the sketch. Whenever a weight is to be lifted It is only necessary to throw a rope over the roller gnd raise it as one would with a pul-

LIFTING DEVICE.

ley. The roller should of course be an large in diameter as the beam Is thick, so the rope will not draw across the corner of the beam. Breaking Prairie. A Kansas correspondent gives the experience of an lowa fanner whd wanted to raise a crop without waiting a year for the sod to rot. He proceeded 'as follows He first turned a four Inch sod and followed In the same furrow with stirring plow and turned six inches of dirt on top of the sod. The next sod was turned into the bottom of the furrow and another furrow on top of it, and so on to the end. The piece was then planted to corn, and he never put a plow or hoe into it after planting, and he had the biggest crop of corn in the country and scarcely a weed .to be found In it. The next spring he plowed the land and sowed to spring wheat and had one of the best crops h’e ev6r raised. And he said the ground for the whole ten inches turned was just like an ash heap, with scarcely n trace of sod to be found la It.

Mutton Is the Best Meat. Mutton is more easily digested than beef, though in a healthy man no marked difference would be observed, since in the stomach of such a man there arises no inconvenience from’the digestion of beef. However, mutton will be found to tax the stomach of a dyspeptic person less than beef does. Lamb is not nearly so nutritious as mutton. The tissue is soft, gelatinous and rich in water. Lamb should not be selected for those whose digestive organs are weak. Leaving the Farm. It is generally a mistake for the farmer’s boy to leave the farm, and in quite as many instances it is also a mistake for the old man to leave and move to town. It is a mistake for the boy to think he knows as much as his father. The latter may not be the more intelligent of tlie two, but he at least has the benefit ot a great deal of experience that the boy has not acquired. Plenty of Clover. Plenty of clover will go a long way toward making a farm profitable. Think how many ways it can be utilized—for pasture, for hay, for feeding the stock or for feeding the land, sometimes serving the double purpose of feeding the stock and then going back to the soil in the manorial product Fear not raising too much; it will always find a market. • Land-Poor Farmers. Mnay farmers are land poor. Others have poor land. Both may be said to be robbertt The one robs his tenant and the other robs his soil and himself, The remedy is to sell a part of the farm bi the one case and to add fertility and to adopt a wise rotation In the other. Profitable Cows. It seems doubtful whether large, coarse cows are more profitable, even when giving a heavy milk product. They are always very heavy eaters, and hard to keep in a rough pasture. A moderate sized cow, active and vigorous WtU thrive better in rough pasturw aad upon coarse fodder.

RELIGION OF WORKS.

DR. TALMAGE DESCRIBES IT IN HIS SUNDAY SERMON. Practical Religion the Kind that la Worth Something—The Rectifier of AH Mechanism and All Toil-Faith Without Works Is Dead. * The Washington Preacher. This subject of Dr. Talmage cuts through the conventionalities and spares nothing of that make believe religion which is all talk and no practice. The text chosen was James ii., 20, “Faith without works is dead.” I have often spoken to you about faith, but this morning I speak to you about works, for “faith without works is dead.” I think you will agree with me in the statement that the great want pf this world is more practical religion. We want practical religion to go into all merchandise. It will supervise the labeling of goods. It will not allow a man to say that a thing was made in one factor}' when it was made in another. It will not allow merchant to say, “That watch was manufactured in Geneva,” when it was manufactured in Massachusetts. It will not allow the merchant to say that wine came from Madeira when it came from California., Practical religion will walk along by the store shelves and tear off all the tags that make misrepresentation. It will not allow the merchant to say, “That is pure coffee,” when dandelion root and chicory and other Ingredients go into it. It will not allow him to say, “That is pure sugar,” when there are in it sand ami ground glass. When practical religion gets its full swing in the world, it will go down the street, and it will come to that shoe store and rip off the fictitious soles of many a fine looking pair of shoes and show that it is pasteboard sandwiched between the sound leather. And this practical religion will go right into a grocery store, and it will pull out the plug of all the adulterated sirups, and it will dump into the asa barrel in front of the store the cassia bark that is sold for cinnamon, and the brickdust that is sold for cayenne paper, and it will shake out the Prussian blue from the tea leaves, and it will sift from the'flour plaster of paris and bone dust and soapstone, and it will by chemical analysis separate the one quart of water from the few honest drops of cow’s milk, and it will throw out the live animalcules from the brown sugar. The Age of Adulteration. There has been so much adulteration of articles of food that it is an amazement to me that there is a healthy man or woman in America. Heaven only knows what they put into spices, and into the sugars, and into the butter, and into the apothecary drug. But chemical analysis and the microscope have been wonderful revelations. The board of health in Massachusetts analyzed a great amount of what was called pure coffee and found in it not one particle of coffee. In England there is a law that fotbids the putting of alum in bread. The public authorities examined fifty-one packages of bread and found them all guilty. The honest physician, writing a prescription dbes not know but that it may bring death instead of health to his patient, because there may be one of the drugs weakened by a cheaper article, and another drug may be in full force, and so the prescription may have just the opposite effect intended. Oil of wormwood, warranted pure, from Boston was found to have 41 per cent, of rosin and alcohol and chloroform. Scammony is one of the most valuable medical drugs. It is very rare, very precious. It is the sap or the gum of a tree qr a bush in Syria. The root of the tree is exposed, an incision is made into the root, and then shells are placed at this incision to catch the sap or the gum as it exudes. It is very precious, this scammony. But the peasant mixes it with a cheaper material. Then it comes to Aleppo, and the merchant there mixes it with a cheaper material; then it comes on to the wholesale druggist in London or New York, and he mixes it with a cheaper material; then it comes to the retail druggist, and he mixes it with a cheaper ma-' terial, and by the time the poor sick man gets it into his bottle it is ashes and chalk and sand, and some of what has been called pure scammony after analysis has been found to be no scammony at all.

A scaly Job. Now, practical religion will yet rectify all this. It will go to those hypocritical professors of religion who got a “corner” in corn and wheat in Chicago and New York, sending prides up and up until they were found beyond the reach of the poor, keeping these breadstuffs in their own hands, or controlling them until the prices going up and up and up, they were, after awhile, ready to sell, and they sold out, making themselves millionaires in one or two years, trying to fix the matter up with the Lord by building a church or a university or a hospital, deluding themselves with the idea that the Lord would be so pleased with the gift he would forget the swindle. Now, as such a man may not have any liturgy in which to say his prayers, I will compose for him one which he practically is making: “Oh, Lord, we, by getting a ‘corner’ in breadstuffs, swindled the people of the United States out of $10,000,000 and made suffering all up and down the land, and we would like to compromise this matter with thee. Thou knowest it was a scaly job, but, then, it was smart. Now, here we compromise it. Take 1 per cent, of the profits, and with that 1 per cent you can build an asylum for these poor, miserable ragamuffins of the street, and I will take a yacht and go to Europe. Forever and ever. Amen.”

Ah, my friends, if a man hath gotten his estate wrongfully and he build a line of hospitals and universities from here to Alaska, he cannot atone for it. After awhile this man who has been getting a “corner’* in wheat dies, and then satan gets a “corner” in him. He gbes into a great, long Black Friday. There is a “break” in the market According to Wall street parlance, he wiped others out, and now he is himself wiped out. No collaterals on which to make a spiritual loan. Eternal defalcation. Reform in Work. But this practical religion will not only rectify all merchandise; it will alsorectify all mechanism and all toil. A time will come when a man will work as faithfully by the job as he does by the day. You say when a thing is slightly done, “Oh, that was done by the job.” You can tell by the swiftness or slowness with which a hackman drives whether he is hired by the hour or by the excursion. If he is hired by the hour, he drives very slowly, so as to make as many hours as possible. If he is hired by the excursion, he whips up the horses so as to get around and get another customer. All styles of work have to be inspected—ships inspected, horses inspected, machinery inspected, boss to watch the journeyman, capitalist coming down unexpectedly to watch the boss, conductor of a city car sounding the punch bell to prove his honesty as a passenger hands to him a clipped nickel. All things must be watched and inspected —imperfections in the wood covered with putty, garments warranted to last until you put them on the third time, shoddy in all kinds of clothing, chromos, pinchbeck, diamonds for $1.50, bookbinding

that holds on until you'read the third chapter, spavined horses, by skillful dose of jockeys, for several days made to look spry; wagon tires poorly put on, horses poorly shod, plastering that cracks without provocation and falls off, plumbing that needs to be plumbed, imperfect car wheel that halts the whdie train with a' hot box. So little practical religion in the mechaanism of the world! I tell you, my friends, the law of man will never rectify these things; it will be the all prevading 'influence of the practical religion of Jesus Christ that will make the change for the better. All Will Feel It. Yes, this practical religion will also go into agriculture, which is proverbially honest, but needs to be rectified, and it will keep the farmer from sending to the city market veal that is too young to kill, and when the farmer farms on shares it will keep the man who does the work from making his half three-fourths, and it will keep the farmer from building his post and rail fence on his neighbor’s premises, and it will make him shelter his cattle in the winter storm, and it will keep the old elder from working on Sunday afternoon in the new ground where nobody sees him. And this practical religion will hover over the house, and over the barn, and over the field, and over the orchard. Yes, this practical religion of which I speak will come into the learned professions. The lawytr will feel his responsibility ip defending innocence and arraigning evil and expounding the law, and it will keep him from charging for briefs he never wrote, and for pleas he never made, and for percentages he never earned, and from robbing widow and Orphan because they are defenseless. Yes, this practical religion will come into the physician’s life, and he will feel his responsibility as the conservator of the public health, a profession honored by the fuct that Christ himself was a physician. And it will make him honest, and when he does not understand a case he will say so, not trying to cover up lack of diagnosis with ponderous technicalities or send the patient to a reckless drug store because the apothecary happens to pay a percentage on the prescriptions sent. And this practieal religion will come to the schoolteacher, making her feel her responsibility in preparing our youth for usefulness and for happiness and for honor, and will keep her from giving a sly box to a dull head, chastising him for what he cannot help and sending discouragement all through the after years of a lifetime. This practical religion will also come to the newspaper men, and it will help them in the gathering of the news, and it will help them in setting forth the best interests of society, and it will keep them from putting the sins of the world in larger type than its virtues, and its mistakes than its achievements, and it will keep them from misrepresenting interviews with public men and from starting suspicions that never can be allayed and will make them stanch friends of the oppressed instead of the oppressor. White Lies. Yes, this religion, this practical religion, will come and put its hand on what is called good society, elevated society, successful society, so that people will have their expenditures within their income, and they will exchange the hypocritical “not at home” for the honest explanation “too tired” or “too busy to see you” and will keep innocent reception from becoming intoxicated convivality. Yea, there is great opportunity for missionary work in what are called the sue--cessful classes of society. In some of the cities it is no rare thing now to see a fashionable woman intoxicated in the street or the rail car or the restaurant. The number of fine ladies who drink too much is increasing. Perhaps you may find her at the reception in most exalted company, but she has made too many visits to the wineroom, and now her eye is glassy, and after awhile her cheek is unnaturally flushed, and then she falls into fits of excruciating laughter about nothing, and then she offers sickening flatteries, telling some homely man .how well he looks, and then she is helped into the carriage, and by the time the carriage gets to her home it takes the husband the coachman to get her up the stairs. The report is she was taken suddenly ill at a german. Ah, no! She took too much champagne and mixed liquors and got drunk. That was all. Yea, this practical religion will have to come in and fix up the marriage relation in America. There are members of churches who have too many wives and too many husbands. Society needs to bo expurgated and washed and fumigated and Christianized. We want this practical religion not only to take hold of what are called the lower classes, but to take hold of what are called the higher classes. The trouble is that people have an idea they can do all their religion on Sunday with hymnbook and prayer book and liturgy, and some of them sit in church rolling up their eyes as though they were ready for translation when their Sabbath is bounded on all sides by an inconsistent life, and while you are expecting to come out from under their arms the wings of an angel there come out from their forehead the horns of a beast.

• New Work for the Old Gospel. There has got to be a new departure in religion. I do not say a new religion. Oh, no; but the old religion brought to new appliances. In our time we have had the daguerreotype and the ambrotype and the photograph, but it is the same old sun, and these arts are only new appliances of the old sunlight. So this glorious gospel is just what we want to photograph the image of God on one soul and daguerreotype it on another soul. Not a new gospel, but the old gospel put to new work. In our time we have had the telegraphic invention, and the telephonic invention, and the electric invention, but they are all children of old electricity, an element that the philosophers have a long while known much about So this electric gospel needs to flash its light bn the eyes and ears and souls of men to become a telephonic medium to make the deaf hear, a telegraphic medium to dart invitation and warning to all nations, an electric light to illumine the eastern and western hemispheres. Not a new gospel, but the old gospel doing a new work. Now you say, “That is a very beautiful thbory, but is it possible to take one’s religion into all the avocations and businesses of life?” Yes, and I will give you some specimens. Medical doctors who took their religion into everyday life: Dr. John Abercrombie of Aberdeen, the greatest Scottish physician of his day, his book on “Diseases of the Brain and Spinal Cord,” no more .wonderful than his book on “The Philosophy of the Moral Feelings,” and often kneeling at the bedside of his patients to commend them to God in prayer; Dr. John Brown of Edinburgh, immortal as an author, dying under the benediction of the sick of Edinburg, myself remembering him as he sat in his study in Edinburgh talking to me about Christ and his hope of heaven, and a score of Christian family physicians in Washington just as good as they were. Lawyers who carried their religion into their profession: Lord Cairns, the Queen’s adviser foymnny years, the highest legal authority in Great Britain—Lord Cairns every summer in his vacation preaching tis an evangelist among the poor sf bis country; John McLean, judge

of the Supreme Ceurt of the United States and president of the American Sunday School Union, feeling more satisfaction in the latter office than in the former, and scores of Christian lawyers aa eminent in the church of God as they are eminent at the bar. Religious Merchants. Merchants who took their religion into everyday life: Arthur Tappan, derided in his day because he established that system by which we come to find out the commercial standing of business men, starting that entire system, derided for it then, himself, as I knew him well, in moral character Al. Monday mornings inviting to a room in the top of his storehouse the clerks of his establishment, asking them about their worldly interests and their spiritual interests, then giving out hymn, leading in prayer, giving them a few words of good advice, asking them what church they attended on the Sabbath, what the text was, whether they had any especial troubles of their own. Arthur Tappan. I never heard his eulogy pronounced. I pronounce it now. And other merchants just as good. William E. Dodge, In the iron business; Moses H. Grinnell, in the shipping business; Peter Cooper, in the glue business. Scores of men just as good as they were. Farmers who take their religion into their occupation: Why, this minute their horses and wagons stand around all the meeting houses in America. They began thia day by a prayer to God, and when they get home at noon, after they have put their horses up, will offer a prayer to God at the table, seeking a blessing, and next summer there will be in their fields not one dishonest head of rye, not one dishonest ear of corn, not one dishonest apple. Worshiping God to-day away up among the Berkshire hills, or away down amid the lagoons of Florida, or away'-out amid the mines of Colorado, or along the banks of the Potomac and the Ilaritan, Where I knew them better because I went to school with them. Mechanics who took their religion into their occupations: James Brindley, the famous millwright; Nathaniel Bowditch, the famous ship chandler; hflihu Burritt, the famous blacksmith, and hundreds and thousands of strong arms which have made the hammer, and the saw, and the adze, and the drill, and the ax sound in the grand march of our national industries. Give your heart to God, and then fill your life with good works. Consecrate to him your store, your shop, your banking house, your factory and your home. They say no one will hear It. God will hear It. That is enough.

Short Sermons.

Judgment.—The time of God’s final Judgments and the dispensing of rewards and penalties has not yet arrived. The Lord Jesus Christ does not formally and finally Judge the quick and the dead until the last great assize at the end of the world. We are not now through with life, nor Is God through with us. To Judge men at present Is to prejudice them. Judgment Is not £be matter which God has now in hand.— Rev. Henry Swentzel, Episcopalian Brooklyn, N. Y.

I ure in Heart.—Many who declare that their hands are clean and their hearts pure tell an untruth. Their hands would be repulsive If we could see them as God sees them. Many things in society and business are condoned. There Is a great deal of sham, which, according to an unwritten law, Is looked upon by the world as right and fair. There Is, however, a standard of honesty, and all should live up to it. We can not have clean hands If we have Impure hearts.—Rev. R. F. Maclaren, Presbyterian, San Jose, Cal. Money.—Money Is of God. It is one of his most benevolent provisions. But It belongs to him. Every dollar a man has he borrows. He can no more claim ownership over It than he can over the air he breathes, or the sunlight that guides his steps. It Is only giv’en to man In trust; God is the real owner. When man moves out of the world he does not take a dollar with him of the money he has been calling his own. Man has but one thing which Is peculiarly his own, and his forever, and that is his character.—Rev. Frank Hungate Baptist, Columbus, Ohio. The Bible and Progress.—No real progress of the race ever started from Infidelity, or was ever helped to success by men who cut themselves loose from the historic influences of Christianity. All remedial, preventive and redemptive philanthropy has always been rooted in the Word of God, and the men who have wrought the most for their fellows have ever been guided and empowered by the forces embodied and made radiant in the historic events and noble lives of the church of God In all .time, for all real progress will always be based on the principles of the Bible—Rev. T. Beeber, Presbyterian, Norristown, Pa.

The True Hero.—The true hero puts no faith In charms and nostrum*, but believes only in hard facts and in Immovable realities. He believes in Immutable laws, natural, economic, commercial, financial, social. He believes In an Iron chain of cause and effect, which for good and evil binds all things and all men and nations. He looks at things and men with clear and keen eyes. He weighs all matters in the balance of sober judgment He whatever questions and problems como before him only after considering the ripest experience of mankind.—Rabbi Moses, Hebrew, Louisville, Ky. Revival.—We wait for prosperity. What we need In order that prewperity be restored Is a revival, a rewval ot faith, or confidence In the business world. For this we pray. But if It be true that the church is the body of Christ through which he brings tokens of his power and grace to the nation, what we need most of all Is a revival of heart, religion In the church. A return to God In repentance and obedience, and a revival of common honesty with God, which will result in our bringing the tithe Into his storehouse and laying our offerings upon his altar. If we would have God open his treasury we must open ours.—Rev. J. K. Montgomery, Presbyterian, Cincinnati, Ohio, Divine Arthitecture.—A gentleman who was walking near an uncompleted building one day saw a stonecutter chiseling patiently at a block of stone in front of him. The gentleman went up to him. “Still chiseling?” he remarked, pleasantly. “Yes, still chiseling,” replied the workman, going on with his work. “In what part of the building does this stone belong?” asked the gentleman. “I don’t know,” replied the stonecutter. “I haven’t seen the plans.” And then he went on chiseling, chiseling, chiseling. And that is what we should do. We have not seen the great plans of the Master Architect above, but each of us has his work to do, and we should chisel away until It Is done.—Rev. 8. H. Haines, Epiacooallan. N*w York.

BIG BANKS GO DOWN.

NATIONAL OF ILLINOIS CAUSES OTHERS TO FAIL. Eckel* Scores Official*—Comptroller Bay* the Snapenaion la Due to Reck* !*•• Method* Manager* Received Warning. Three Banka Closed. The National Bank of Illinois at Chicago failed to open its doora to the public Monday morning. Thia action was the nequel to the step taken by the committee of the Clearing-House Association, which Saturday evening decided to suspend the bank from clearing-house privileges. And as a result of this suspension E. S. Dreyer & Co. and Wasmanadorff, Heinemann & Co., two private banks clearing through the Illinois National, were forced to make application in court for a receiver. So far as can be aacertained by Chicago advices, the trouble is not likely to reach beyond these thsee banks, and in every case it is stated that depositors will be paid in full or nearly so. Not since ’73 has Chicago banking circles been shaken up as they were when the news of the closure of the National Bank of Illinois was made known. It has always been considered the second strongest national bank in the city. It was organized in July, 1871, passed safely through the Chicago fire, the panic of ’73, the troubles of ’77, and the troublous times of ’O3 with a clear record. According to Comptroller Eckels, "the failure is due to injurious, reckless and imprudent methods followed by the officers and not checked by the directors, though their attention had been individually called to the same and over their individual signatures they had promised to remedy the weak points in the bank's condition.” The essence of the trouble with the National Bank of Illinois was that the entire capital, $2,000,000, and surplus, $300,000, was practically loaned in one or two hand*. The bank had advanced some $1,500,000 on Calumet Electric Railroad stock, a property of momentarily, at least, doubtful security, while nearly $500,000 was loaned to E. 8. Dreyer & Co., who in turn had spread their capital over an expanse completely out of their power to handle. Other large loans to individuals more than completed the sum of the bank's capital and surplus. When these facts were brought to the attention of the clearing-house, a week of so ago, -a committee was appointed to investigate, in order if possible to discover some means of averting the failure. The result of the committee's investigation was to demonstrate that the management of the bank had been drifting into methods which no amount of bolstering up could offset, and that however willing the Chicago clearing-house might be to go to the assistance of the Illinois National, the most honest, safest and best policy would be to make a clean breast of the whole business and for the credit of the clearing-house Itsqlf, to suspend the bank from membership pending a report by the government bank examiner.

S. W. WOODWARD.

Something About the Probable Head , of the Inauguration Committee, 8. W. Woodward, who is likely to be chairman of the Committee of Arrangements for the Inauguration of President McKinley next March, la one of the leading merchants of Washington. He was born in Maine and began his business career as a young man in the dry goods store of Frank H. Converse, a merchant

S. W. WOODWARD.

in his native place of Damariscotta. In 1865 he went to Boston, where he wns employed as a clerk in the houses of Shepard Brothers and Cushing & Ames. In 1873 he formed a partnership with Mr. Lothrop nnd started in business for himself in Chelsea, Mass., where the firm remained until the removal to Washington in 1880. Though a Dombcrat in politics, Mr. Woodward's selection for the trying task of arranging for the inaugural parade nnd bail and the entertainment of the hundreds of thousands of guest* who are expected in the capital in March is indorsed by all classes.

CITIES MUST HIRE WATCHMEN.

Decision by Indiana Supreme Conrt an to Railway Street Croeaing*. The Indiana Supreme Court, by deciding that an incorporated town or city has not the power, by ordinance, to compel a railroad company to keep a watchman and erect gates at its own expense at points where tracks cross a street, upset a local police regulation that ha* been exercised in nearly* every town and city in the State for many years. The case in which the decision is announced camo from Crown Point, where the Pennsylvania Company refused to obey the ordinance. Judge Monks, who wrote the decision, holds that the watchman and gates, if maintained, must be paid for by the towns and cities. He maintains that a railroad company in crossing a street is on an equality with a citizen.

GOSSIP

The National Wool Growers’ Association unanimously adopted a resolution favoring an extra session of Congress. A bill was introduced by Representative Bull of Rhode Island, appropriating $50,000 for the - erection in Washington of a monument to Janies G. Blaine. “Gen.” J. S. Coxey, of Commonweal army fame, is in Washington to resume his effort to secure Congressional action on his scheme* for good roads and noninterest bearing bonds. Members of the House Ways and Mean* Committee say that the reports from Washington outlining an elaborate scheme for a duty on silver in the new tariff bill is merely a fiction

LEGISLATIVE GOSSIP.

SUBJECTS THAT WILL COME UP THIS SESSION. Ballot Law Will Receive Early Atten J tion—Liquor Legislation Will Also* Be Prominent—Effort to Abolish: reaching German in Public School*! Work for Hooaier Solons. Indianapolis correspondence So far as is known, no new laws are) to be proposed in the coming session, but: there are many important amendment* to existing ones suggested, and some of these amendments are likely to be bitterly opposed. Chief among these are the proposed 4 , amendments to the Australian ballot law.i One of these will seek to prevent fusion; of parties in the way it was accomplished' between the free silver wing of the Demo-1 crats and the Populists in the recentl campaign. A second amendment will seek to do away with the rubber stamp and ink and substitute in its stead a pencil, to be furnished by the election officers. Still another will provide that) each of the parties having tickets to be: voted for may appoint one or more of itsmembers to watch the count of the vote, a privilege that only the two dominant! parties now enjoy. The change from the! rubber stump to the pencil is on the scored as convenience and economy of votes, forj the law is so strict regarding distinguishing marks on the ballot that many votes have been lost because the careles* voter smeared or blotted the ballot through the careless use of the stamp,; especially as the ink stained other part*' of the ballot when folded. A fourth. 1 amendment will provide for indicating *i vote for a straight ticket by placing &i cross in the square nt its head, with exceptions to be noted by crosses oppositethe names of candidates on other tickets. Recent experience of shareholders in! building nnd loan associations has dem-t onstrated that the law incorporating and'

protecting these institutions needs radical amendment, and one of the first duties to which the Legislature addressee Itself will bo to reform the abuses which* are everywhere present in the system. Within the past few weeks these abuses* have come to the attention of the public in a way that they never have before, and! there is a general demand that the expense fund, the great source of profit to the incorporators and of loss to the shareholders, shall go. The last Legislature wrestled with this feature, but succeeded' in accomplishing nothing, ns the lobby, which the associations Invoked in their aid proved stronger than the claims of 1 the shareholders. The Governor, however, was authorized to appoint a com-, mission to investigate itnd report on some fbasible plan of reform, nnd this has been) done nnd its report will l>e submitted as soon as the session opens. Among the laws passed by the last Leg- 4 islature was one permitting special verdicts to be returned in all cases where tho, suits were to recover damages. .This will no doubt be repealed nt the coming session, jib It hns proved extremely burdensome to persons who Imve sustained injuri<>s and sue for damages. It is said by competent attorneys, some of whomwere In the Legislature and voted for thelow, that it has proved the most unjust measure in its practical operations that was ever enacted in Indiana. It seoma to have passed through all the stages of legislation without awakening a thought' of its hidden sting, and those who voted* for it two years ago are now anxious to vote again on its repeal. Corporation* have profited by it nnd that class will no, doubt attempt to perpetuate it, but the dhp'ussion it hns evoked and the abuse* that have arisen under it insure its repeal. It appears to belong to that, claa* of hasty aud ill-considered legislation! which is enacted by one body only to ba repealed by another. Considerable interest Is being map!- 4 tested by both the liquor and the temperance element in regard to certain proposed amendments to the Nicholson temperance law. The Liquor League has d<9-, termined to ask it* friends in the Legislature to relieve the saloon element from' some of the most burdensome features of. the measure, while many of the temperance people believe more safeguards still should be thrown around the liquor traf- 4 fie, Tho local option feature, which enables residents of a word or voting pre- 1 ' cinct to prevent the sale of intoxicant* in that locality if a majority sign a petl- 4 tiou asking that licenses be not is tho most feature to the saloon element and one that it desires re-: pealed. On the o-ther hand, the advocate* of the law sav that this feature should bo perfected by changing the signing of petitions to the opening of i>oll* in place* Where It is desired to test the sentiment of the voters and allow the majority so voting to control the issuance of licenses. The reason for this change lies in the fact that so many, after having signed a petl- 4 tion against an applicant for license, withdraw their names, a thing that would not! occbr under a voting system. Again, it is urged that many who refuse to sign such petitions would vote against li- 4 censes if they could do so under such *| protection as the Australian ballot sy*- 1 tern affords. E. B. Reynolds, member-elect from Wayne County, will introduce, It is understood, an amendment to the common school law to do away with the teaching; of German in the public schools. Thi* measure will occasion a good deal of discussion, and as there is a large German constituency in Indiana it is hardly probable that either party will take the responsibility of fathering such a measure. From time to time within the last few: years there have been efforts to do away with this branch of study in the city schools, but the sentiment in its favor, when the question came up for arbitrament by the people, has generally been pronounced aud the language is being taught in all the city schools in the State. It is probable that a law against trusts, combines and monopolies will be enacted, and if this expectation is realized it wilt be in the shape of original legslation in Indiana. Some of the more prominent members-electxfeel that some law of this kind should be passed and one Senator particularly is at work upon it. The coming Legislature will also attempt an apportionment law, this being the sixth year since the State was legally redistricted for Legislative purposes.

Wouldn’t Be Safe.

A corpulent theatrical manager, who has had more than his share of lawsuits, was annoyed receptly by a young attorney who has taken a claim against him. There were several unsatisfactory Interviews, and then the manager received the following note: • “Dear Sir—My time Is valuable, and unless you call on me at my office before 2 o’clock to-morrow afternoon, I shall begin suit against you. My office Is room 1945, tenth floor of the —— Building. “N. B.—Take elevator.” Manager Blank sent, In reply, tbte dispatch: “John Doe, Tenth Floor, Build* Ing—Decline to take elevator. ‘ JOHN BLANK.” ’