Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 March 1910 — Page 3

_ «i Opinions of Great Papers on Important Subjects.

v BABEL COME AO AIK. N lOWA professor has composed a letter, presumed to have been written by a newly M m graduated college student, In which are 160 aipw«M|S words habitually misspelled by the young fiAMn men and women In his classes. He comSsSnCisJ plled them from fifty-eignt examination papers. The words are those commonly used, both in writing and speaking, and the professor thinks that almost any teacher could furnish a similar list We have no doubt of that. But what encouragement have the students to adhere to, conventional English spelling when the teachers themselves are straying after false orthographical gods? Here, for instance, is Pi-of. Otto Jespersen of the University of Copenhagen telling the students of Columbia University: “Much would also be achieved if scholars of renown, philologists, students of literature and writers of books in general would indulge-4n some individual spellings, one in this class of words and another in some other class. These individual spellings need not be numerous, nor should they be necessarily consistent, and the author need not give any other reason for his special heterodoxies than that they Just suit his fancy. This would educate readers by showing them that different spellings need not always be marks of illiteracy and that there may exist difference of opinions in this as well as in other respects without any fear of human society falling at once to pieces on that account.” The professor’s watchword is “every man for himself; show your individuality in your spelling.” This is not spelling reform; it is anarchy. It is Babel over again. But it is cheerful news for the writers of those fifty-eight examination papers.—Chicago Tribune.

COST OT LIVING. HE cost, of living Is Increased by higher rents and advanced prices for food produces. Every salaried employe in cities is painfully conscious that living expenses are “ advanced in the past five years fully 25 jSgogjjj £/ per cent. If the advance in the cost of living has not been accompanied with a corresponding raise in salary strenuous economy has to be practiced. It is a pleasant experience to be able to ■' - increase the style of living, but a painful hardship to be forced to live in cheaper quarters and strenuously economize in household expenses. Wheat is averaging 20 per cent higher than the average of the past five years and $1 wheat is likely to hold firm indefinitely, ps domestic consumptive demand is rapidly overtaking production. Corn is high, and as it is the foundation of meat production meat is also destined to rule high until there is a great reduction in the ex-pense-0 f exploiting animal husbandry. If the population of cities forecasts the future there is but faint prospct that living expenses in cities will be cheaper in the next decade than at the present time. One cayse of the high expense of living in cities is the cost of municipal

IN SEARCH OF CULTURE.

Librarians and their assistants Jn public libraries have many experiences of the kind described by an anonymous writer in the Boston Transcript. She herself is employed in a public library; and was busy one day composing a note, when a woman, who may be known as Mrs. Smith, sailed up to her desk. Mrs. Smith moved amid a rustle of silks, and her hat loomed on the horizon like a child’#i old fashioned bathtub. Before beginning she saw Dr v . Pierce in his office—the door was open. I think he saw her, and that he would have retreated into the wardrobe, but he was too late. * She bore down on him, with one hand outstretched, the other clutching a mass of flapping papers. I could hear her distinctly—indeed, so could everybody in that part of the building. “Dr. Plejre? Oh, how do you do? I have never met you before, but I know Mrs. Pierce. Ancb I have used the library 'for years. I often got books here when old Mr. Akerß was librarian, but I was quite a girl then, and I guess I never read much but fairy books. I almost always ask for Miss Anderson when I come here; she is lovely—a perfect treasure^—and takes such pains. But they say she’s away on her vacation, and qp is Miss Hardy, in the reading room. “Now, I’m going to read a paper next Monday afternoon before the Twenty Minute Culture Club; it’s the first meeting of the season, and «at my house. Here’s the title: ‘ltalian Painters of Cinquecento.’ “I can’t for the life of me find where Cinquecento is, and I’ve looked through all the gazetteers and geographies you’ve get. Mrs. Brooks gave me the pames of a lot of painters, but I don’t believe she knows much about them or where they came from. "First there is Vassery’s ‘Lives of the Painters;' then there is this Carlo Dolce far Nlente, who lived in 14k?, and painted frescos for the Basilica of San Raphael, whoever he may be. And I know I’ve read an article somewhere about Bambino; I wish you would let me take some book about him, Qh, yes, I remember; he was a monk who fell In love with some nun he was painting, and instead of eloping with her, retired to a convent and wrote sonnets about her all the rest of his life. The Italians are such an artistic rac#,*and their art is so mingled with love affairs? ■ ■■ - - ■ - •<» "There was some one, I remember— I think it was Ponte Vecchio, but I am not sure—who painted a lady’s portrait, and had musicians playing all the time so her husband wouldn't hear him make love to her. Oh, I re? member it all! Ton recall it, don’t

EDITORIALS

you, Doctor Pierce? There is a picture, I saw It not long ago, that shows him meeting her, and he has his hand on his heart. When he died he left all these sonnets to his friend, Vita Nouva, and made hten swear to bury them all in the lady’s coffin, and he did, and they weren’t dug up for a hundred __ years, and then nobody could read what they were about because they were all written in cipher. Then they were published in the Golden Book of Venice, and every year they made the doge Jump into the Bea. “And I want to get a book about Andrea del Sarto because It struck me that Sarto was the name of the present' pope, and It would be Interesting to see if they are related. And I wonder—

From Dlarbekr to Baghdad, as a crow might do it, the distance is about four hundred miles., As the kelek goes—a contrivance sacred to the river Tigris since the days of Adam and Eve —the distance is nigh upon -a .thousand miles; and the time occupied anywhere between eight and twenty days. In “The Short Cut to India,” David Fraser tells of the kelek and of his Journey. The kelek is easily constructed. Take any number of inflated goatskins from 6ne hundred up to eight hundred, and tie them In rows underneath a framework of light poplar poles. One of two pairs- of great oars complete the ship, and It is ready for crew, cargo and passengers. When a “globe-trotter” ships aboard a kelek some of the cargo is left behind. and upon tbe space thus left vacant a hut Is erected. A light wooden framework Is hung round with cotton walls-that roll up or let down, according to tbe desire of the occupy®*- In addition, the roof has a thick grhu mat to keep out the sun. The traveler enjoys entire privacy as regards the people on his own kelek, for he gives orders (hat nobody is to come abaft hti gable. At tbe end of his little house, and projecting astern of the. raft, 5 is a tiny bathroom protected from public gaze fey cloth walls. Thus the kelek combines all the advantages of a modern mansion, living room, kitchen, sanitary arrangements, abundant light and air, and panoramic scenery that is an eternal feast for the eye. We tailed one morning at 10 p’slock, ITtCli the temperature over a hundred In the shade. But-heat may be corrected by a minimum of clothes and a maximum of cold water. The Tigris comes straight from ths mountain snows of Kurdistan, and its flood was like ice compared with the firs of ths air.

government and the tendency to exploit taxpayers with high-salaried officials and costly public improvements. The problem to be solved to reduce living expenses is to have a better balanced population. The massing qf the greater portion-of the people in cities and the tendency of migration from rural districts to centers of population are largely the cause of increased living expenses.' In , 1860 only 16.1 per cent of the people lived in cities and in 1900 there were 31.1 per cent, a gain of around 60 per cent in forty- years. Cities increase in population in a faster ratio than rural districts and so long as this regime prevails food products will rule high. A well-balanced population.-depannds an exodus fpom cities to the country, where undeveloped agriculture awaits the hand of labor to prpduce bountiful harvests that will find a world’s market at good prices.—Goodall’s Farmer.

THE PASSING OP POET ARTHUB. HE Japanese have decided to open Fbrt Arthur to the commerce of the world. That I is to say, the fortress, which they have never rehabilitated since the siege, Is to be v *rtually abandoned as the Gibraltar of jSGjyjg® the Far East. The decision is set down as an effort to reconcile others to Japanese encroachments in Manchuria. But the truth, no doubt, is that the decision is dictated by sound military reasons. \ Port Arthur as a fortress may have been valuable to Russia, although, if the Russians had blown up the defenses and the place, concentrating all their armies at Liao-yang, it would have been better for them. But Port Arthur as a naval base in an exposed position would be only a weakness to Japan, who has better protected naval bases within jtriking distance both in Korea and in her 'own Islands. Occupying Port Arthur as a fortified naval base would in the event of war impose upon the Japanese the Initial necessity of defending it, which would hamper her offense and divide her force. Japan cannot afford to have the fortress in another’s hand; but, possessed by herself, it 1b best to dismantle it.—Minneapolis Journal.

THE FARMER. OT so many years ago “farmer” was about Nas scornful a slang term as could be applied to anybody who blundered, stumbled tirnumamm or ln bad ” But what would the aver * SpSWrag age man in tbe streets say to-day if somebody shouted to him “You farmer?” Wouldn’t he throw his chest out and spring a smile ps broad as if lie owned a gold mine? He certainly would. The farmer doesn’t wear his hayseed in his hair any longer. He sells it and buys an automobile. And when “doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief” point their fingers at him and. say, “You’re it,” he merely throws on the speed clutch and smiles back along the wind. —Chicago Recorth Herald.

OVERBOARD IN THE TIGRIS.

. For a man ,who could not put on his owi( socks or tie the buttons of his waistcoat, and doubled up, moreover, with a chronic lumbago, that first plunge overboard was rather a venture. I looked for a long time before I leaped, thinking the while that although a man may forget how to sing, or dance, or pray, he can never forget how to swim, and then I shut my eyes and Jumped. For my faith I was magnificently rewarded, and that first swim in the brimming Tigris was absolutely and completely glorious. There was a mild adventure, too. Suddenly the water deepened, and I swam frantically after the kelek. Just as I caught up with It, the river shallowed again. I tried to Jump aborfrd, ■but the Jagged projecting poles of the framework made throwing oneself forward moßt difficult. The pace was so great that no sooner had I lifted a foot than the kelek slipped away from it, and with my weak hands I could not help the situation. A deepening 6t the water resulted ln rescue from a ridiculous and uncomfortable position.

Their Lazy Club.

In the engineering shops of a certain English firm the workmen of a year or it wo ago originated what they called the Lazy club. It was entirely their own Idea, which for obvious reasons has received neither recognition nor financial support from the management, but has been the most excellent means of reducing the number of late comers. Whenever a workman is more than five minutes after time he finds the gate Jocked, and he is not allowed to enter until the half hour is up. T'his half hour Is deducted from his wages, but In addition he has also to Pay Jo the treasurer of the Lazy club about 5 cents for coming late. If he- Isolate mohe than once or so during a week everybody In aware of the fact, and the second or third time he makes his appearance after starting time hs ie greeted with a terrific combination of noises produced on any available material by his fellow workmen. At certain periods tbe accumulated funds of the Lazy club are divided, not among those who have produced them, it should be noted, but among the entire staff equally. -Thus the late workman is made to pay the early coiners for bis laziness, The last distribution was just prior to a “bean -feast,” and funds accumulated during twelve months were distributed, amounting to over 61-76 a bead.—Bystem. V

Nearly every one can find-a lot of ways to reduce, expenses, but that isn’t people ere looking for; they want to reduce prices. Agents, and cyclones should b 4 dodged; yon can’t bluff them. People pretend to hate sin, but their all Jots it

CUPELS TO EAT OWN COOKING.

New Rule Expected t 9 Make Work for Xcm Jersey Fhraldaaa. - Schoolgirls taking up the course of domestic science at the Carrol Robbins school will be compelled to eat what they cook hereafter, because of the belief of the instructors that this will force the scholars to exercise more care and pay more attention to instructions, a Trenton (N. J.) correspondent of the New York Evening Telegram says. Just what the reqplt wttlbtfls a question. It is claimed that soma scholars who study domestio science only take the course as a pastime and make all sorts of uneatable things Just to pass the time away. It is feared that the new ruling will provide more work for local physicians and the hospitals. » The course is compulsory at this particular school. Heretofore the pupilß were only compelled to taste their own cooking. and then make a report of the value. Now, if a scholar makes six biscuits she will have to eat them all or suffer a penalty to be fixed later. - 8onj» good-sized schoolboys have suffered as a result of pranks played On them by the girls in the domestic science department. ■ “Eat this biscuit, aJmes; I Just made it in school,” was responsible for a boy scholar’s, who thought this girl was the “only, only,” having to spend a week in a local hospital. Gastritis of an acute nature was the made by the attending physiclans. Numerous cases of indigestion have been reoprted among the bqys because of some of the “eatables” turned out by the girls. One boy recently admitted to several chums that he almost dlsd while eating a mince pie forced on him by one of the girls, but boasted he was willing to “die for her.”

LEGAL INFORMATION

The Louisiana Code provides that if a donee has attempted to take the life of the donor, or if he has been guilty toward him of cruel treatment, crimes or grievous injuries, the gift will be considered revoked. In Grandchamp v. Administrator of Succession of Billis, 49 Southern Reporter, 998, it appeared that Billis had conveyed property to his wife, who later had reconveyed it to him. The conjugal association to have been stormy, concluding - ln the assassination by Billis -of his wife while she was fleeing from his house and his suicide on the same night. This wife’s heirs .contended that ingratitude sufficient to annul the reconveyance by the wife had been demonstrated by the husband. The Louisiana Supreme Court held that the death of the donee extinguished the action, because the revocation is a penalty which can be pronounced only against ths guilty. Even when the donee dies immediately upon the commission of the offense, this rule applies. The law having made no exception, the courts can make none. It was not intended to visit the sins of the donee upon the helrk-at law. Tor the merciless broadsides of unconstltutionality, the Federal Employers’ Liability Act, created to decrease the number of railroad fatalities, succumbed in Hoxie v. New York, N. H. A H. R. Co., 73 Atlantic Reporter, 754. The Connecticut Supreme Court of Errors criticised as and violative of the long-accepted common law the provision allowing employes to recover for injuries received through the negligence of fellow servants. The prohibition against railroads exempting themselves from liability for negligence by contract with their employes was deemed violative of the fifth amendment of the Federal Constitution, prohibiting the deprivation of liberty and property without due process of law, ln that it denied the parties the right to contract. Arbi, trarily making railroads while engaged in interstate commerce liable to employes for Injuries was considered invalid, except as a regulation of Interstate commerce, It not being sufficient that it remotely affected such commerce if that result was secured by invading the settled limits of the sovereignty of the States as to their own Internal police. The section providing for the distribution of the fund recovered in an action for death was assailed thus: If the damages recoverable are to be treated as representing the estate left by the decedent, it is for the State of his domicile to regulate the distribution thereof, afid, if the damages are treated as a fund created by the act, Congrees may not bring Jnto existence a new duty of executors or administrators to collect and a new duty of masters to pay what the decedent never owned.

Left No Traces.

Mr. Smith ordered chicken at th*.Fatted:-cage and after testing it he caleld the waiter and said: “Will you kindly tell me how you make this chicken soup?” ”Jes’ take de boilin’ hot watah and run do chicken fru, mtstah.” “Well, Rsstua, I think this chicken must have had Its rubbers on.”—Boston Courier.

Preparatory.

IJedd—The college men will soon begin preparations for next season's football” Greene—Why, they don’t play football untU the toll. “I know it; hot they must begin to let their ludr grow pretty eooa."—Yonkers Statesman. <.

SOME COMFORT TO KNOW THIS.

Woman with Wonderful Jewels May Not Have a Beautiful Neck. “I have come to regard some of the women who sit on the horseshoe at the opera as our greatest public benefactors,” said the bachelor man, according to the New York Press. “I suppose you are driving at something metaphysical?" “Both physical and metaphysical, I think. You see, when some of them wear decolete gowns, In spite of the fact that their necks really are not fit for publication, it gives those of us who have to sit down in the orchestra —or perchance up among the 'true music lovers’—such a comfortable feeling to observe that money will not buy everything. If we see an ugly neck banded with diamonds as big as English walnuts or circled with pigeon egg rubies we chuckle inwardly as we realize that our cheap little gown conceals a swan-like grace and beauty of neck for which madame gladly would surrender half the Jewels of her house. If- through our glasses we discern lines of care, hardness and worry, we sit back complacently and look as pretty as we know how, letting youth and good looks compensate us for lacking the cares of state or estate. Or, even if we have no conspicuous good looks, we still may know that the question of magnificent dressing and display Is merely one of price. We also could adorn the horseshoe as well as half of those who sit therein if we had the expense. It is not a question of Intelligence, talent, birth, greatness of soul, love for humanity,-dignity of Character, worth'in the world or to mankind—but simply and solely of price. We therefore may look at them without envy, without bitterness, without dissatisfaction with either them or ourselves; simply with the understanding that they represent what they have paid for and what dhey have been willing to pay for—and so do we; which seems to me perfectly fair all •around. As they thus furnish us a basis for contentment* I regard them public benefactors.”

Book news and Reviews.

M. Maeterlinck’s version of “Macbeth” as it was produced at his country home, Saint Wandrllle, is to be, published immediately in Paris. The memorial which Englishmen fepve designed for Tennyson is the restoration of the little Somersby church near which he was born, and the placing therein of a reproduction in bronze of Woolner’s bust of the poet. Three-quarters of the necessary sum has been raised—and there the subscription halts. “How Americans Are Governed” Is the title of a forthcoming hook written by Crittenden Marriott, whose most recent work for youthful readers was called “Uncle Sam’s Business.” The new volume will tell the story of the methods and power of national, State and city government in a way to command^the attention of the young. At the sale in London the other day of twenty-four letters written by Beethoven, Herr Kinsky of the Bologne Museum proved to be the fortunate bidder. He paid 63,300 for them, They deal chiefly with family matters connected with the composer’s worthless nephew, Karl, whom he loved in spite of the youth’s worthlessness. A long memorandum extending to forty-six pages is the longest manuscript in Beethoven’s handwriting that is known. Frederick Greenwood was asked .by four different publishers to write his “reminiscences,” but after some hesitation he declined, writing only fragments of such a book. Mr. Greenwood, after Thackeray resigned the Cornhill, took up the duties of editor. Later he became absorbed ln the Pall Man Gazette. Mr. Greenwood, it will be remembered, put the final touches to two great stories “left half told”— the "Dennis Duval” of Thackeray and the “Wiles and Daughters" of Mrs. Qpskell. The British Museum will shortly become the possessor of Nelson’s memorandum on, the action of Trafalgar. This is the document which Frank Sabin purchased three years ago for 818,000. An outcry arose from those who felt that it ought to belong to ths British nation, and Mr. Sabin offered It to the museum at the price he had himself paid. The authorities were not able to find the money, and an Englishman, B. M. Woollen* bought the memorandum at the price mentioned, agreeing to leave It to the mgseum. Hie death brings the precious bit of paper to its final home. Gilbert K. Chesterton, whose recent novel. "The Cross and the Ball," Is delighting the epicures of literary unexpected flavors, promises s new volume to be published under the title, "Whet Is Wrong.” . The ball of the new novel is the dome of St. Paul’s, the cross the religious emblem which surmounts. The two leading characters, a toonk and Lucifer, arrive in an airship, and the old monk, fresh from hie hermitage in the society of wild animals, is left clinging to the erase to find hie way down the ball to look on at this wicked world and Ito various absurdities and conventions.

On the Way.

Reportej—Say, do you know what becomes of office boys who use such terrible language? Office Boy—Sure! Dey grows up ter be city editors,—Cleveland LeadH. About everythng can now be found in sold storage except tbe bores, whose •ejtlvlty prevents it

FACTS IN TABLOID FORM.

Burglary and house breaking are on the decrease in London. .L_. The sick list of the London police force averages five hundred men every day. The average height Of a ware in feet is about-half the velocity of the wind in miles. N The pay rolls of the enlisted men in the navy during 1911 will aggregate nearly 618,000,000. Fishguard promises to supplant Queenstown as a stopping place for transatlantic passenger vessels. In Ceylon the manufacture of salt Is a government monopoly, and yielded in 1908 1,760,551 rupees (|585,860) to the revenue. A translation of the Scriptures into modern idiomatic Spanish is being prepared for use in Porto Rlco„Cuba. Mexico and South America. Canada’s total railway mileage last July was 30,330 miles. This means that there is one mile of railway for every three hundred inhabitants. Thirteen whales valued at 643,000 were killed off the coast of Korea during the first part of November by the Oriental Whaling Company of Japan. The sea kale used as food In China comes largely from the coast of Saghalien, where the leaves average one foot in width and forty-five feet in length. Water thrown on the ice of the aretic regions will crack it, Just as boiling water will crack a pieeffof glass. This is because the Ice is so much colder than water. Fears that the sea will soon become depleted of food fish if the operations of steam trawlers are not restricted, is not sustained by experience in the North Sea for the last ten years. In the recent parliamentary election in Victoria, Australia, women cast more than S 3 per cent of all the ballots polled. This was the first election In which women were allowed to vote for members of the state parliament. Misg Helen Gould gave 6160,000 to the Girls’ College in Constantinople last year. Mrß. William K. Vanderbilt gave 61.000,000 for sanitary tenements, and is supposed to have given half a million to a home for cripples at Chappaqua, N. Y. Mrs. Russell Sage gave 62,600,000 to schools and colleges, 6300,000 for the relief of aged women and 6180,000 for an industrial home at Lawrence, L. I. Writing on billiard playing, a Chk cago News correspondent says: “It has been my pleasure to play frequently on a miniature table-three feet by one foot six inches—using steel balls of one and one-eighth inches diameter, and I can testify to the great satisfaction these games have given. The balls, being of steel and having greater solidity than Ivory or composition, have a playing weight approximating to that of the full sized billiard ball, so giving that resistance to the cue which the small Ivory ball does not give.” In France experiments are now being carried out using. -the aeroplane as an offensive weapon. In one such recent experiment the aviator flew to a height of 376 yards with a gun mounted on the aeroplane. According to one report, a new type- of aeroplane, carrying two or more machine guns, is being tested in the camp at Chalais Meudon. Latham is said to be fitting a rapid-fire gun to one of his Antoinette machines?- He believes tbV; as much of the steering can be done with the feet, he will be able to aim and Are the gun while flying. Inland waters may be put to many uses-; sometimes they are utilized as sewage outlets for great cities, sometimes they are converted into commercial highways, or they may become restricted because of the reclamation of fertile bottom lands. All these may be good and necessary developments, says Science, or any one of them may be obviously best under the circumstances; but in promoting any such schemes due Regard should always be paid to the importance and promise of natural waters as a perpetual source of cheap and healthful food for the people of the country. There was recently sold at auction in Berlin the celebrated Lana collection of antiquities and art objects. Probably the most valuable of the relics was a bumper of hammered tin, which brought the top patce at the sale, something more than 68,000. This piece has ever been known by connoisseurs the world over as the “Breslau tin bumper,” because it is supposed to have been made hi that city. It dates from about the year 1600, and Is octagonal in shape, its sides having scenes from the lives of evangelists and other religious figures. It is one of the finest specimens of hammered metal ware extant.—Harper’s Weekly. Following an ancient city custom, the corporation has recently mad* presents of r?hat is called “livery doth” to certain high officers of state and public officials. The custom Is thus explained: In the early periods of history the retainers of great lords wearing their liveries were so numerous as to be dangerous both to the king and the laws, and the disorders in which they took part required all the vigor of the king and the legislature to restrain. Many statues tor that purpose were passed between 1177 and 1504. In these prohibitions and exemptions were made in flavor of the members of guilds and fraternities In cities and boroughs. This probably explains the creation of “liverymen” in the various companies, and fa supposed to bo the origin of this gift of “livery cloth."—Londoi! Dally Nows, .>