Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 94, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1910 — Page 2

PAPERS BY THE PEOPLE

PERIL IE FLIRTATION. By. Rev. Frederick E. Hopkins. '' ■ ' <| Flirtation Is the cause of our social evil. B' It undermines the home. v It makes marriage wj look like a failure. The rapidly Increasing Wj number of women who drink and smoke in M fashionable restaurants shows where stations V on the route are located and the men in the J uig, swift touring cars accomplish the rest of the trip with merciless brevity, but leave behind the fumes of a scandal that will fill the ittilu. In respect of this evil, as of all others, we need to remember that first steps are the dangerous steps, first compromises the dangerous compromises. When men and women are loitering about through Ilfs wondering what they will do next, a serpent not tar away is apt to lift its head and sight the bird. From the Garden of Eden to the present hour snakes have loved Eve in a snake's way. Samson has lied and Joked with Delilah, Sappho has loved the young student, ns the devil loves the world. It is a love with the most beautiful face you ever saw, It is love with the most attractive personality you have ever known. It is a love with what is called temperament, you know — makes a lie sound better than the truth. It can make the red-headed, black-faced Cleopatra look so fascinating that the great Marc Antony is content to be dragged behind her barge like a dead fish. The love of the flirt is a love that makes men and women forget their honor, their vows, their ambitions, their talents, their fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, and all the great hopes of time and eternity. The first steps may lead down the marble steps of a palace of pleasure. But look at the end! BRINGING NATIONS CLOSER TOGETHER. By Edgar Fuller. m " I It is easy to perceive from past history how B Individualism and competition peopled the f'l earth. The pressure of growing slavery kept w] actuating men to push farther westward, to frj where there was greater freedom. America W was discovered because the merchants of Venf ice formed a monopoly of the East India trade and levied tribute that was outrageous. A western route was sought in order to evade it, ana instead a new continent was dTseovered. This was of far greater importance to the oppressed lower classes of Europe than the accomplishment of the original purpose would have been and it is of great.relief ■ even yet. The world Is now becoming rapidly populated, with no more new continents to discover, and the result must be that collectivism and co-operation will take the place of individualism and competition—otherwise slavery will become universal. Members of the capitalist class, having pursued each other all over the globe trying to find a market for their surplus products and finding themselves up against it, are now gradually consolidating industrially into a trust and politically into one big fighting machine. Money knows no country and one country is as good to exact profits in as another. Labor sees what is coming and is also beginning to organize internationally. The railroads, the steamships and the telegraph are-bringing all nations closer and closer to each other and in course of time they will unite into

THE LIFE OF A SWITCHMAN.

It May Not Be Picturesque, but There Are Few More Dangerous. The frontier is fast disappearing, and the hardy pioneer who packed his pelts or harvested his scanty crops under the eye of hostile Indians is merely an heroic figure in history, writes P. C. Scoville. But the industrial frontier and the pioneer workman will never become things of the past. The venturesome spirits who 100, years ago would have pushed westward into un-

MAKING A COUPLING ON A STORMY NIGHT.

known lands have turned their hands to work, which. It not more picturesque. is fully as dangerous. That great time saving record breaking game wherein the necessities and luxuries of life are whirled from one end of the continent to the other at a constantly increasing pace has engaged many of the present day industrial pioneers. Among them, skirting the death line as delicately as the aviator, the deep sea diver, the structural steel worker, or the linesman, stands the switchman. Without him the arteries Of traffic would cease to flow.

In a thousand yards, amid a bewildering maze of tracks and switches, and under the pattering hail of cinders the switchman works, seemingly careless of the perils that beset his every footstep. Dangerous during the day, the yards are trebly so at night and during the winter. One second’s carelessness, a slippery footboard, an ice covered grabiron, or even a mistaken signal by the engineer may cause his instant death, or, less mercifully, make him a helpless cripple for life. Death, or his companion, disable-

ment, stares the switchman In the face at every turn. A huge chunk of coal may topple upon his head from aunt overloaded car, a pin may stick, and in the hurried effort to right the knuckle before the cars meet his hand may be crushed. Unheard trains may toss lftm when he rounds the end of a string of cars. While pulling a pin on a sharp curve to make a “drop” he may be caught between the corners of the cars and his ribs staved tau Constant vigilance is the price of the switchman’s life. Occasional!;' even “constant vigilance” is- fruitless

one vast co-operative commonwealth. There is destined to be considerable conflict, however, before this can be successfully accomplished. DISCONTENT OF RICHES AND POVERTY. By Winifred Black. A little girl lay down on her sister's grave B and died the other day. And when the mother VL went to the drug store to telephone to ask WJ for help she fainted, and the drug store peo--17 pie discovered that the mother had not eaten W anything for nearly two days because there was no money to buy food. In the same paper that told this little story I read that aigrettes were in fashion again this year because they were so expensive that the very presence of an aigrette meant that the owner must have money, or at least had it when she bought the hat, and that black pearls were again in vogue; and that it was bad form to let the bay horse go out with anything but an ermine carriage blanket.,. I wonder if the little girl who lay down and died rather than to struggle through a world like the one she lived in wasn't, after all, wise after her kind and condition? I suppose that poor mother walked the streets right beside some discontented rich woman a dozen times, and unless she walked unusilal paths she certainly went past a dozen young girls who are making their own mothers miserable because they can’t have just exactly the latest thing in jewelry or the newest thing in automobiles, “like the other girls.” If I had one of those “like-the-other-girls” daughters I’d make her spend at least half of her time getting acquainted with some of these “other girls,” like the one who lay down and died of hunger and heartache and sorrowful discouragement the other day. I believe it would do her good.—Chicago Examiner. THE CHURCH’S BUSINESS. By President Woodrow Wilson. _» The business of the church is not to pity B men. The business of the church is not to /y rescue them from their suffering by the mere WJ means of material relief or even by the means K of spiritual reassurance. The church cannot W afford to pity men because it knows that men, Jl if they would take it, have the richest and * completest inheritance that it is possible to conceive, and that, rather than being deserving of pity, they are to be challenged to assert in themselves those things which will make them independent of pity. No man who has recovered the integrity of his soul is any longer the object of pity, and it is to enable him to recover that lost integrity that the Christian church is organized. To my thinking, the Christian church stands at the center not only of philanthropy, but at the center of education, at the center of science, at the center of philosophy, at the center of politics—in short, at the center of sentiment and thinking life. And the business of the Christian church, of the Christian minister, is to show the spiritual relations of men to the greater world processes whether they be physical or spiritual. It is nothing less than to show the plan of life and men’s relations to the plan of life.

HIRSUTE ITALIAN BARBEES.

Peculiarltiea Noted by an Observing Hair Tonic ’Salesman. “My best customers,” said the salesman for the hair-tonic house, according to the New York Times, “are the proprietors of barber shops, where all Italian barbers are employed. There’s a reason for this and a very simple one. Did you ever see a baldheaded barber in an shop? Think it over. Rack your memory. I’ve been in the hair-tonic business for a good many years and, take my word for it, there is no such thing as a bald-headed dago barber. No, I can’t explain it. It is simply an incontrovertible fact. That’s why I say my best customers are the proprietors of these shops. Would you buy a bottle of hair tonic from a barber with' a bald Would you place any confidence in the recommendation of a barber whose thatch had a mangy, moth-eaten appearance? Not if you are in your sober senses. American barbers and barbers of other nationalities, particularly the Germans, have a disgusting habit of losing their hair. I use the adjective advisedly from my point of view, for it interferes with my business. And it’s a curious thing that when a barber loses his hair he doesn’t lose his job. Nor is his salary reduced. Inasmuch as a considerable portion of the revenue of a shop consists of the selling of various toilet preparations, you would naturally think that, in the interest of expert salesmanship, when a barber lost his hair he, would also lose his job. But the boss barber is a person to be reckoned with, quite aside from the purely commercial phase of the situation. He is loyal to his men and loyal to an extent that would seem suicidal to the head of a big industrial corporation. But that’s his attitude, and in a way it is an admirable one. Still, that has nothing to do with the fact that there are no bald-headed Italian barbers. TCeep your eyes peeled for one, and when you find him show me.”

French Revolution Relics.

A museum is about to be inaugurated in the famous Prison of the Conciergerie, which will be peculiarly rich in articles and papers connected with the revolution, and especially with Marie Antoinette, says the London Globe. The museum will be quartered in the Salle des Girondins. The Marie Antoinette relics include the armchair which she used during her long detention the lamp which illuminated her cell, the ebony and ivory crucifix which she kissed before leaving for her execution, and two pictures representing the doomed queen at communion and in her cell. Health, honesty, horse sense and hard work is s combination yon can't down;- if your rival has these qualities, form a trust with him. -r—rr

GREATEST WOMAN SCIENTIST.

Wnffc. Carle Share* with Moat Savant* Faculty of A batraction. In a quiet little house in Paris, screened from the outer world by a high wall, lives Mme. Curie, co-diseov-erer with her late husband of radium. Other women who might be inclined to envy this most wonderful of feminine scientists are disarmed by her extreme modesty. When an admirer belabors her with compliments upon her achievements v she smiles almost in astonishment and shrugs her shoulders as if she had done little to make a fuss about. When, upon the death of her husband, she was appointed to a chair at the Sorbonne, the great seat of learning in Paris, it was decided by sevefal women to present her with a testimonial. The occasion demanded it (so it was thought), for was not Mme. Curie the first' woman who had ever achieved such an honor? The scientist’s reply, however, spoiled everything. She said quietly: “It would be contrary to my husband’s ideas and certainly to my own.” So her feminine ad»mirer3 departed without leaving their testimonial behind them. Yet, despite her modesty, it is known that she was more than a mere assistant to her husband. It is, indeed, claimed that she herself was the origi-

MADAME CURIE AND HER DISCOVERIES.

nator of the radium discoveries. The best testimonial to her abilities came from Prof. Curie himself when he was offered the decoration of the Cross of the Legion of Honor and refused it because the same decoration was not offered to his wife. She shares with most savants that faculty of abstraction that is so valuable to those engaged in scientific work. When she is employed upon a difficult piece of research she hears nothing, sees nothing and is unmoved by anything that is not directly concerned with her investigations. It Is said that once when in the middle of an absorbing experiment a servant ran into the laboratory, screaming loudly: “Madame, madame, I have swallowed a pin!” “There, there, don’t cry,” said Mme. Curie, soothingly, “there is another that you may have.” Mme. Curie has a sister who is a notable doctor of medicine in Austria, and as an instance of heredity it may be said that the famous scientist believes that her little daughter shows promise of even more brilliant scientific powers than herself. She is training the child with the intention of developing these talents to the utmost.

FRANCE’S OLD-AGE PENSIONS.

Act Which Propablr Will Pui Follow* German Line*.The French old-age pensions scheme, the bill for which has. just passed its first reading In the Senate, follows the Prussian rather than the English measure. As in Prussia, it is contributory and compulsory, workmen and employers contributing an equal amount annually. Men are to pay SI.BO, women $1.20 and persons under 18 90 cents yearly until their 65th year, when they will become entitled to a pension, which will be paid from the total contributions plus the employers’ qiiota>and a sum of sl2 paid by the State. The conditions for receiving the full pension are that the worker shall have contributed to the fund for thirty years, including in the case of men the two years of military service. Those Who have contributed for more than ten years and less than thirty will be entitled to a reduced pension. Existing friendly societies which may be taken into the scheme will be authorized to collect old-age contributions from their members. They will receive from the State a contribution of 30 cents a head for sickness and insurance, plus an additional sum to cover expenses. The working classes in France are estimated to number 11,000,000. The

government has agreed with the opposition so far as to restrict the principle of compulsory contribution to town apd rural wage earners, otherwise workmen In the ordinary sense of this term, and to make contribution optional to the large class of small farmers, petty land owners and part-profit cultivators (metayers), all of whom are laborers in reality. If they do not contribute they cannot benefit by the pensions scheme. These rural classes are computed at 6,000,000 in number. Forty years hence, when the scheme is in full operation, the pensioners will have SB3 a year. They will start the year after the bill Is passed with $20.40 a year, the pension to rise gradually during the interval, a correspondent of the New York Sun says. The chief newspapers on the government side predict that early in April the bill will become law, and will be regarded as the greatest achievement of the third republic, but a great many prominent poliitcians are not so optimistic. Many Senators have voted for the second reading of the bill for no other reason than getting a better opportunity of making a more systematic and concentrated attack on the compulsory clauses.

Has Pins Worth $25,000.

Led on by a love for rare and unique scarf pins,- A. M. Brinckle, known throughout the country as the “scarf-

pin man,” arrived in Des Moines to continue his search for new designs to add to his collection, the Evening Tribune of that city says. During the years of travel in his capacity as salesman for a Connecticut cut-glass concern Mr. Brinckle has gathered together the largest assortment of rare and beautiful scarf pin 3 in the world. The collection contains 1,016 pins and is valued at $25,000. Jewelers in all large cities know of Mr. Brinckle-because of his fad. He is referred to in most localities as the “scarf-pin man” because of the fact that he wears so many unique pins. He declares that only once during the last fifteen years have any of his customers seen him wearing the same scarf pin. .He also has a collection of 300 scarfs. Gathering scarf pins is a hobby with Mr. Brinckle. Although unusual and costly, it has proved to be intensely interesting. A large number of the settings have a history, which the owner, with enthusiastic pride, loves to relate. The collection was recently placed on exhibition at Tiffany’s in New York, where many admiring collectors offered immense siims for the rarest specimens.

Kipling in the Herring Line.

Senator Beveridge, apropos of fame, said at a Washington luncheon: “What is fame, after all? Kipling, when he lived in Brattleboro, Vt., took a trip to Montpelier. The first; evening he came down to the hot€l dining room he overheard this dialogue between two waiters: “First Waiter —Do you know who that is, George? “Second Waiter—No. Who is it? “First Waiter —That is the celebrated Klpperin. “Second Waiter —What’s he done? “First Waiter—Hanged- if I know. Fish line, ain’t It?”

A Relief.

“Johnny," said the boy’s mother, ”1 hope you have beep a nice, quiet boy at school this afternoon.” “That’s what I was,” answered Johnny. “I went to sleep right after dinner, and the teacher said she’d whip any boy in the room who waked me up.”—Boston Post. When your cow gets out, how the neighbors enjoy running in and telling you about it! If a man’s acquaintance don’t know that he Is in love it’s a sign that he isn’t. What is one man’s hobby may be another man’s nightmare. -

SHEAR NONSENSE

“How do you keep your razor sharp?” “Easy enough. I hide It where my wife can’t find it”—Cleveland Plain'Dealer. “How Time’s , clothes hang about her! Why, they don’t fit at all.” “But think how much worse she would look if they did:”—Life. ' Guest'—Gracious! What long* legs the new waiter has! Host—Yes, I engaged him specially for the diners who are in a hurry.—Meggendorfer Blatter. Miss Kidder—S’sh! Carrie has dyed her hair black. Don’t tell anybody. Miss Askitt—ls it a secret? Miss Kidder —Yes; she wants to keep it'dark. —Boston Globe. “What part of the railway train do you regard as the most dangerous?” Inquired the nervoup man. “The dining car,” answered the dyspeptic.— Washington Star. “I’ll be ready in a minute,” she said to her husband. “You needn’t hurry, now,” he called up some time later. “I find that I shall have to shave again.”—Detroit Free Press. “I thought you said you told your wife everything you did.” “I do.” “It’s mighty strange. She hasn’t said a word to my wife about the $lO you borrowed from me.”—Washington Star, Patience —They say she got all her furn)ture on the installment plan? Patrice—She did. She has had four husbands, and she got a little furniture with each one.—Yonkers Statesman. She—Don’t you think woman’s suffrage would be a fine thing? He—l know I could always persuade my wife to vote as I wanted by telling her I intended voting the other way.—Boston Globe. “Why can’t that prima donna sing more than twice a week?” “I don’t know,” answered the Impresario, “unless it’s because she tired out her vocal cords arguing with me about salary.” —Washington Star. Maud—So he had the cheek to ask my age, did he? Well, what did you tell him? Ethel—l told him I didn’t know positively, but I thought you were twenty-four on your thirtieth bjrthday.—Boston Transcript. “Now, your conduct during the trial may have considerable effect on the jury.” “Ah, quite so,” responded this ultra-swell defendant. “And should I appear interested or just mifdly bored?”—Kansas City Journal. “You say you have quit snftking?” “Yes, never gding to smoke again.” “Then why don’t you throw away those cigars?” “Never, I threw away a box of good cigars the last time I quit smoking, and it taught me a lesson.”

“The way to run this country,” said the egotist, “is to put thoroughly wise, capable, alert, and honestwnen in control of affairs.” “Yes,” answered Miss Cayenne, “but what are we going to do? There’s only one of you."—Wash* ington Star. Cholly—The deuce, old chap; I cawnt go to the party. I have no collah button. Reggie—Go across the street and buy som§, deah fellow. Cholly—But I caawnt. Nobody has my measurements except my tailah, dontcherknow. —Life. Mr. Dubbs (with a newspaper) It tells here, my dear, how a progressive New York woman makes her social calls by telephone'. Mrs. Dul«bs —Progressive. Huh! She’s probably like me—not a decent thing to wear.— Boston Transcript. ' In a written examination on astronomy one of the questions was, “What happens when there is an eclipse of the moon?" A student with rather a good knack of getting out of a difficulty wrote: “A great many people come out to look at It.” “What’s that party kicking about?” aaid one New Yorker. “Oh, he’s one of those guys who are lucky and don’t know it,”jMplied the other. “He came' here on dround-tttp ticket from Philadelphia and lost the return coupon.” —Washington Everting Star. “I’m sure,” said the Interviewer, “the public would be interested to know the secret of your success.” “Well, young man,” replied the captain of industry, “the secret of my success has been my ability to keep it a secret.” —Sacred Heart Review. “I’d hate to be a millionaire.” “Gosh! Why?” “Well, millionaires are always getting letters threatening them with all sorts of horrible fates unless they immediately pay the writers large Sums of money.” “That’s nothing. I get just such letters on the first of every month.” —Cleveland Leader. asked the ludge. “do you think year husband is dead? You say you haven’t heard from him for more than a year. Do you consider that reasonable proof that he has passed out of existence T “Yes, your honor. If he was still alive he’d be askin’ me to send blip money.”—Chicago Record-Herald. Cincinnati Tourist (who, for the first time, has just entered a restaurant in Paris)—Have you ordered? St. Louis Tourist (who has reached the table some‘minutes before, and *who lodes up from a-French bill of fare) —Yea. Cincinnati Tourist—What did you order? St. Louis Tourist (impatiently)—How do X know?—Chicago Daily Nm • i , ■