Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 3 November 1883 — Page 9

WHY ARE WE ALL HARD UPt Poverty and Privation Among the Workingmetl of London. The Ninety Thousand Paupers of the World’s Capital—The Wretched Abodes of the Poor. Correspondence of tlio Indianapolis Journal. London, Oct. 20.—" Why are we all hard tip?” Such was the blunt question asked a lew nights ago by one of the speakers at a meeting of workingmen in the east end of London, and he very properly added that it was the duty of his fellow-toilers to find an answer to that question. Nowhere in this whole country could the query be more appropriately propounded, for nowhere else 'is the implication it contains so generally and lamentably true. The abject poverty of the lower classes in this teeming metropolis has been the saddest fact ill English soeial life for many a decade, and the latter •half of the nineteenth century finds this 'stern problem still unsolved and the conditions surrounding it changed, if at all, only for the worse. The richest city in the world is still, by a strange paradox, the most poverty stricken, and the one that does the most for foreign missions the most heathenish. Without designing for a moment to discredit the Christian zeal which reaches out to the poor and destitute in distant islands, we cannot heln thinking that if as .much concern were felt by the people here for the benighted thousands at their own doors as they seem to feel for Madagascar in the misfortunes she is suffering as a mission field consequent upon the invasion of the French, the result would be much more creditable iboth to England and to Christendom. But the question recurs, why are the lower classes of London so dreadfully ‘‘hard up?” Why are there 90,000 paupers here? Why are so many constantly out of employment, so many more working only by snatches, and so many of those who work regularly living from day to day on the ragged edges of starvation? Laziness, improvidence, bad habits, and, above all, drink, are, doubtless, the causes of a measure of the prevailing distress, but other agents are operating to keep down the workingman, of which he is simply the victim. What wonder that so many are unemployed when the labor market is so glutted, and when the demand for hands is diminishing while the population of the country increases at the rate of a thousand a day! Who can be surprised that the working classes here find it impossible to make both ends meet, and that such masses of them, in a penniless and premature oid age, take their inevitable places on the pauper list, when honest toil brings such a poor recompense! Can men save anything, •with families to keep, on the paltry pittance of $4 a week? Can they even live on that? Those who imagine they can should take a trot aroimd and see how they live, or, being unable to do this, they should profit by the observations of others, for there is always plenty of information available on this subject. The ibetter-to-do people will certainly not escape responsibility for the condition of their poorer neighbors here on the plea of unavoidable ignorance. That philanthropists and literarj' men should just now be giving so much prominence to the question of how the poor of London live is really the most, 'if not the only, hopeful feature of their sad case. All who go to see tell the same story of woe and want, though the incidents may differ. CASES IN POINT, An inspector of public schools recently chose three schools at random, and found that members of 1,139 families attended these schools. Noticing that the educational progress was very small, he examined into the causes. Personal visitation showed most of the children to be in a state of semi-starvation, and by careful counting he discovered that 871 families out of the 1,139 lived each in a single room. One hundred and fifty-nine of these families contained more than si2 members each, and many of them numbered more than eight. Other startling facts are furnished by the Rev. Andrew Mearns, secretary of the London Congregational Union, who, like the inspector, made the matter one of careful personal investigation. This gentleman finds that out of 2,290 persons living in consecutive houses in Bow Common, only 88 adults and 47 children attend any place of worship; while in one street, near Leicester Square, containing 240 families, only 12 were represented in church or chapel. The condition of some of these houses lie declares to be pestilential. To visit them you iiave to visit courts which the sun never penetrates, which are never visited by a breath of fresh air and which never know the virtues of a drop of cleansing water. In one cellar was found a father, mother, three children and four pigs. In another room was a man ill with smallpox, his wife just recovered from her eighth confinement, and the children tunning about half naked and covered with dirl. In an underground kitchen seven persons were found living, and a little child lying dead in the same room, while another apartment contained father, mother and six chileren, two of them being ill with scarlet fever. Tiie poverty of many who are trying to live honestly is described as appalling. In St. George’s-in-the-East large numbers of women and children, some of the latter being only seven years of age, were employed in sack making, for wbicli they got a farthing (naif a cent) each, while in one house a widow and her half-idiot daughter were found making piiliasses at l%d each. Another woman, who had a sick husband and child, was found employed at shirt-finishing at 3d (-6 cents) a dozen, and by the utmost effort could only make 0J a day, out of which she had to find her own thread. For the human styes in which these wretched people drag out their existences the most exorbitant rents are charged, and the treatment they receive from their landlords is heartless in the extreme. From three to six shillings a week are paid for rooms, often not more than eight feet square, a price which in any of the provincial towns would secure a comfortable and cleanly dwelling containing from three to five apartments. Occasionally these dens are let, for cash in advance, ready furnished, the socalled furniture, for which a good sum is charged, consisting usually of a wooden stump bedstead, a straw mattrass, two small deal tablesanda coupleof old chairs. Miserable rookeries of this description are said to be the best-paying property in London. A request from the tenant for repairs generally meets an insolent refusal, or, if the least thing is done, tiie rent is raised in consequence. In one case, the patching of boles in the wails, witli some pieces of old soapboxes, caused G i a week to be added, and an old cobbler, who pays three shillings a week, and who called the attention of the collector to the rat-holes in tiie walls and ceiling, Was mulcted 3d a week extra "for bis cheek.” How pitilessly delinquents are

treated one incident will suffice to show. The poor woman had lived for several years in a single room in a house in Little Clarendon street, but by misfortune had got in arrears with her rent. The landlord distrained her goods, taking everything, and she was left shivering in a tireless room, with barely sufficient clothing to cover her. Next day the landlord sent a man to remove the door and window of the room. The act was illegal; but what could the woman do? The rain came in ana saturated her scanty clothing as she lay weak and helpless on the floor, and thus the night passed. In tiie morning a neighbor came in. He found her almost insensible, but site murmured, "Give me time,” thinking him to be the landlord. She had lain two days and two nights in an empty room, to which, for the last twentyfour hours, the wind and rain had free access, and, although she was removed to the workhouse, she died in three days. 4 BICH PEOPLE SOWING THE WIND. These are but a few drops out of a great ocean of misery—solitary instances out of thousands that are yearly brought to light. In manifesting so little concern for the condition of such people, and in doing so little for their relief, the noper classes of London and of England are sowing to the wind, and they will surely reao tiie whirlwind. Tiie Archbishop of Canterbury remarked only the other day that the want of sympathy between the upper and lower classes made him tremble to think of the mine of ill-will which lay buried for the present among the suffering and toiling millions, and it \va3 difficult to see, he added, that tiie same seed would bear any different fruit from what it had yielded in former years and in other countries. One lower in authority, but equally competent to speak on tiie subject, puts tiie Archbishop’s idea into a little plainer language. Addressing tiie meeting to which reference was made at the beginning, he denounced revolution as an agent of reform, "but,” said he, “it is surely in store for us if a change does not come speedily by other means.” No one knew the London poor better or felt more sympathy for them than Charles Dickens; nor could any one more effectually satirize the treatment they received from the rich. And the best, or rather worst, feature of Dickens’s delineations is that they remain true to the life, witli some slight changes, to the present day. Tiie shade of Will Fern, through a thousand throats, still utters its dread warning. "Begin at the right end, gentlefolks,” it says. “In dealing with men like me first bring Hack to them tiie proper spirit. Bring it back, gentlefolks, bring it back, afore the day comes when even tiie poor man’s Bible changes in his altered mind and the words seem to read to him, ‘Whither thou goest, I can not go; where thou lodgest, I do not lodge; thy people are not my people, nor thy God my God.” Still, also, have we with ns the old Scrooges, who think the needs of tiie poor abundantly provided for in prisons and workhouses, and the Sir Joseph Bowley’s, who proclaim themselves the friend and father of the poor man, and then show their interest by preaching to him about the dignity of lahor; likewise the Alderman Cutes. "Famous man for the common people, Alderman Cute,” says tiie novelist. "Neverout of temper with them! Easy, affable, joking, knowing gentleman!” "You see, my friend,” observed tiie Aiderman, "there's a great deai of nonsense talked about want —‘hard up.’ you know; that's tiie phrase, isn’t it; ha! ha! lia!—and I intend to put it down. There is a certain amount of cant in vogue about starvation and I mean to put it down. That’s all! Lord bless you, you may put down anything among this sort of people, if you only know the way to set about it.” These characters still live and Hourish. and still, also, do Want and Starvation stalk through these streets. None of these long-tried methods have either banished these gaunt demons or lessened their terrors. But other agencies are now being tried, and if Dickens were alive his caustic pen would soon be used to puncture the State-aided emigration bubble. Tiie cry now is that the overcrowded streets of London must empty themselves into tiie colonies, that the half-starved artisans of a great city must be sent to scratch their living out of the waste lands of Canada and New Zealand. This would be well .enough if those whom it is proposed to export had inclination and skill for the kind of work offered to them, but they nave neither. Moreover, they think their lot hard, indeed, when their fatherland, witli ail iff vaunted wealth, has no answer to give to their wails of distress blit a cold offer of exile. Their own ideas are that opportunities to earn a living should be made for them in their own country and among their own people. Their demands will not be complied with yet awhile, but no one can look at their condition calmly, and remember the instincts of justice which animate the Anglo-Saxon race, without feeling that they must be in the end. What is asked is that all uncultivated crown, or other lands, shall be worked with improved machinery by such of the unemployed as are accustomed to, or would prefer, agricultural occupation, and that public works of other kinds should be started for the benefit of unemployed persons who are capable of hard labor, but could not tarm, an equitable portion of the profits to go in both cases to those doing the work. For those not capable of hard labor, lighter public works should be maintained, they contend, on the same principles, the cost of tiie initial proceedings to be borne by the tax-payers and the government in equal proportion. Such are the demands of thousands of the working people of London, as expressed recently in numerous meetings, at which the question considered has been the one at the head of this letter: “Why are we all hard up?" h. t. The Heredity of Crime. Interview with Secret Service Officer. The principles of hereditary descent seem to hold good as to counterfeiting. Os course, ttiere are many exceptions. Here we have a criminal whose ancestry seems to have been perfectly pure and honest. Here we have one whose ancestry is one continuous chain of jail-birds. But, in general, the rule holds good. Bad parents produce bad children, and parents who are counterfeiters breed counterfeiters.” "Have you any cases where the crime runs through several generations?” "Yes, many, I have now in my mind a family in Indiana who for three generations have been practicing counterfeiting. I believe the fourth will follow in the footsteps of tiie preceding ones. All along the line they have been detected and punished, but they plot and replot, arid are no sooner out of prison for one crime than they are in again for another. They are bright intellectually, and could make a good living in other ways, but villainy seems bred in their bones, and it comes out in the flesh, generation after generation. We have a number of other cases where the crime has existed in whole families for two generations, and seems to be fairly progressing towards a third. It often runs through a whole connection, and fathers and sons, brothers and sisters are now in prison for not the same but successive and different crimes. Mr. Gladstone Fells a Tree in an Hour. London Times, Oct. 111. On Saturday morning the Premier attended divine service at Hawarden Church, and was afterward en aged at the castle till luncheon, when he took iiis ax and walked into the woods and attacked a large decaying tree with such straight blows that lie felled it to tiie ground, single-handed, in about an hour. Several other trees which have succumbed to Mr. Gladstone’s skill with the ax, lie around. The Premier then walked back to tiie castle. Yesterday morning Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone and Miss Mary Gladstone, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Trevelyan, attended service at Hawarden Church. Mr. Gladstone rend tiie lessons for tiie dim

TIIE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, ISS3.

SUMMER DAYS IN MEXICO. Government. Buildings—Peculiarities of a Mexican Postoffice. How a Bishop Lives—The Virgin’s Bridge— Built by American Captives Who Were Kewarded with Heath. Correspondence of tho Indianapolis JournaL Monterey, Oct. 25. —Ttie last day of our stay in Monterey has come, and it is well to spend it in seeing tiie few sights which yet remain unvisited. As this is the capital city of Nuevo Leon, the government buildings deserve attention. First there is the “Municipal Palace,” which stands between the Plaza de Zaragoza and that bearing its name. It is a large, square adobe structure, two stories high, plastered inside with dazzlingly white cement, and with nothing particularly palatial about it that we can discover. A series of arches form a wide corridor all around it, under the shades of wiiich market women spread their wares upon the ground and squat beside them and policeman lounge, with their rusty sabers dangling at their heels. Inside are police headquarters, supreme court room, the hall in which the State Legislature holds its sessions, and various other apartments and offices devoted to different branches of the government. The Governor’s mansion, fronting the Plaza de Zaragoza on tiie south, is another adobe cement-covered house, which also rejoices in the rare luxury of a second story. The postofiice, on the opposite side of the same plaza, is an institution of tiie most aggravating character, conducted strictly on Mexican manana (to-iuorrow) principles. Although Monterey ha3 now many foreign residents, there is not a clerk in the. office who understands a word of any language but Spanish or can read other than Mexican names. As the Spanish alphabet does not contain all the English letters—for example, it has no W, its T’s are all F’s and its I’s are Y’s—the mistakes that perpetually occur are enough to make an angel weep. Os course Mexican ladies never go to the postoffice, and if an “Americana” ventures to do so bold a thing, perhaps she will be waited upon in course of time, after having been severely stared at, and all the men about tiie premises have first been attended to. There is no drop-letter system, and no city delivery. If you desire to communicate by letter witli a person in the same town, no amount of persuasion or postage stamps will induce the powers that be to put your missive into his box. While postage to the United States, Canada and Europe is only six cents per half ounce, it is twentv-five cents for same weight to any other part of Mexi-. co, if only across the line from one state to another—and very particular they are in weigiiing to get another twenty-five cents if possible. Mexican postal cards are three cents eacii, good for any part of the world, except in Mexico, but may not be sent from one town to another within their own borders. In Monterey, if you look particularly honest, they will sometimes sell you one or two postage stamps to carry away with you, but never more than two; but in most of tiie Mexican postoffices they will not sell you any; why, heaven only knows, except that it is one of the many “rules of the government.” The office is frequently closed for hours at a time, while the postmaster and all his clerks fre enjoying a long siesta. As there is no outside box for depositing letters, even if one had stamps to put on them, I am afraid this institution is responsible for considerable profanity, especially on the part of those who have been accustomed to better treatment in Los Estados Unidos del Norte, as they insist on calling our United States, in contradistinction to theirs del Sur (of the south). ANOTHER MEXICAN INSTITUTION. The casino, which is about the same thing as an American club house, is another institution common to every Mexican city. In the Monterey casino, where the “gilded youths” squander much of their time and money, are rooms for billiards, bar, gamblingand other necessaries of life, besides fine, large apartments, handsomely carpeted, curtained and decorated, devoted to Terpsichore. Herein the gilded youth aforesaid give monthly balls, with champagne supper accompaniments, which are attended by the beauty and fashion of the city. A Mexican dance, especially after champagne, is unlike any other under tiie sun, as I shall sometime have tiie pleasure of describing to you. Tiie Bishop’s residence also fronts the Plaza de Zaragoza, adjoining the yellow-towered cathedral. This famous gentleman, wiiose name is almost as tall as himself, being no less than El Yltmo Senor Doctor y Maestro Don Ignacio Montes de Oca y Obergon Digino Obispo del Linares—is a man of great attainments, good taste, and refinement. He has traveled in all lands, lived among all people, studied, thought and written much. He is now in the prime of iife, perhaps forty years old, and an exceptionally handsome specimen of a race of handsome men. His family are among the first in tiie republic, and his own private fortune is said to foot up among the millions. His house is another square, two-story structure, built around a central court. It is painted outside, wall-paper pattern, in brown and white figures, and the inner corridors arc embellistied by representations of mythological characters, artistic in design and execution. It is unnecessary to add ttiat these goddesses painted upon the walls are the only female figures about the premises, even in the servants’ quarters. The several reception rooms are furnished with much taste —for Mexico. One of them has a complete set of sofas and chairs made of the polished horns of the Roman buffalo, upholstered with their skins, tlie long, waving hair of which (white, tipped witli black), ' is as silky and beautiful as astrakhan. The grand salon of tiie library is lined on all sides, from floor to ceiling, with a magnificent collection of books, in all languages—for Obispo Montes de Oca is master of many tongues and a contributor of considerable note to French, Spanish and Italian literature, botli in poetry and prose. For companions he has a few dyspeptic priests, his books, his crucifixes, and two yellow-headed parrots, who squawk and quarrel continually. In Mexico bishops may not go into society, nor entertain any but the highest (male) dignitaries. His predecessor—a very old and infirm man—observed the ancient custom of strict seclusion to the lettter, and was never seen except in state. Tiie present iticnni bent endeavored to do likewise, but his health gave way for want of fresli air and exercise. Then lie purchased an elegant coupe (the only one I have seen in Mexico), in which, drawn by a pair of clipped mules, he is wont to take an evening drive. Now, this superstitions people do not relish the slightest innovation in matters pertaining to their church customs, and at first were greatly displeased at seeing the great Bishop taking tne air like other folks. 15y and by, finding himself afflicted with dyspepsia—a complaint which seems to belong to priests as much as the small roundshaven spot on the back of their heads—the Bishop took to horseback riding in the sub„.i,„ Tii..,, ,i.„

shocked. But hardly had tongues ceased wagging over this worldly innovation, when the crowning horror came, and the climax was cappeil with Hen ora Peralta, a famous Mexican opera singer, who died the other day at Guyamas. She was an immensely fat old lady, with no attraction whatever but a magnificent voice. Os course, the Bishop couldn’t attend the opera, but. being an intense lover of music, he invited tiie prima donna to his house, to sing and lunch with him—a la presidential custom in our own blessed country. But this sacrilegious proceeding raised sucli a breeze, which has not yet quite ceased to blow, that he has never ventured upon a second similar experiment, And so this cultured gentleman, with all his wealth and attainments and brilliant social gifts, really lives the life of a hermit. If lie calls upon a friend tiie ladies of the family are never visible. He may not marry and leave his honored name to children. He must not step down from his high but solitary state for a single moment, nor ever lose sight of tiie tragedy said to have been enacted more than eighteen hundred years ago on Calvary. The poor Bishop! I wonder if, sometimes in his lonely grandeur, he does not envy tiie bare-footed boy who blacks his boots. The children believe that lie was born with his mitre, and do not imagine that he ever removes his black robes, or eats and sleeps like other people. According to the custom of Ills office, he wears upon the middle finger of his right hand a ring set with a different precious stone for every month in the j’ear. For example, that for May is a magnificent emerald; for December, a diamond; for October, an amethyst. When Catholic ladies and gentlemen come into his presence they reverently kiss this jewel upon iiis hand. It is scarcely necessary to supplement tliis statement by tiie remark that American ladies, witli equal respect for the good and courteous Bishop, do no such tiling. It is said that Obispo Montes de Oca accomplishes much good with iiis private fortune in a quiet way—sustaining colleges, assisting needy families, and educating poor young men. It is to be hoped that he will find ins reward in a more cheerful hereafter than he has been permitted to enjoy here below. THE virgin’s BRIDGE. Let us finish our sight-seeing by a visit to the "Virgin’3 Bridge,” which is situated at the extreme southeastern edge of the town. Because of its out-of-the-way location most tourists come and go without seeing, or even hearing of this ancient and curious landmark. It is an old, old structure of solid stone, the date of wiiose building is lost in the morning twilight of antiquity. There is a tradition concerning it, which I cannot vouch for, but “will teii the tale as ’twas told to me.” Many years ago there were a number of American prisoners in the city, captured in some frontier raid, who were confined in the common prison and compelled to work on roads with Mexican criminals. A bridge was needed at this point, but it was an extremely difficult undertaking, an the current of the river was too deep and strong for adobe, and no large stones were to be found nearer than the mountains. So the Mexican authorities agreed among themselves to offer the American captives their liberty on condition that they would bridge tiie river with stone before a specified date. It seemed a feat impossible of accomplishment, for the alloted time was very short, and they had none of our modern apparatus for bridge-building. But, sustained by hopes of promised freedom, they toiled'bravely night and day, bringing these great stones from tiie distant mountains on their backs, and placing them with bleeding hands. After incredible labor, tiie work was accomplished within an ho iff of the specified time. Then, so the story runs, this is the way they were given their liberty: The next morning at daybreak they were marched out, manacled two and two, all stiff and exhausted as they were from superhuman efforts, upon the center of the bridge they had just finished, when, without a moment’s warning or time to say a prayer, a squad of artillery was ordered to fire upon them, until all were killed and the river ran red with their blood. Exactly in the middle of the bride, as if to to mark the tragedy, stands a smiling statue of tiie Virgin, dressed in sky-blue, with much scarlet adorning. Tiie image is life-size, upon a lofty pedestal, and surrounded by tiie usual chubby-cheeked, legless cherubim. The poise of tiie figure, with hands crossed upon her stomach —evidently before tiie Blessed Babe was born—and the smile of self-com-plaisant satisfaction upon tiie face, are exceedingly comical. Yet, because of its presence, all good Catholics never cross this bridge without crossing themselves—a paradoxical statement, but true nevertheless. And now the time has come to go further into the terra incognito of the interior, and to bid farewell to the-quaint, old city which for six months lias been my home. I shall long remember with love its queer conglomeration of the ancient and modern, tiie pathetic and ludicrous, tiie tragic and comic —and deplore the day when it becomes thoroughly Americanized, ns it is destined to be at uo distant day. Fannie Brigham Ward, FANNY KEUItLi:. Wendell Phillips's Reminiscences of Old Theater Hays. Boat on Letter in Philadelphia Press. Some time since it was my good fortune to be present at a private luncheon when Wendell Phillips was the only other guest. The great orator was in tiie Pest of spirits, talking, as few men can taik, of tilings past, present and future. Some chat of theatrical matters started him upon reminiscences of the days of Fanny Kemble. "We saved all our money,” he said, “to buy tickets. I was in the law school, and some of my friends sold everything they could lay hands on, books, clothing or whatever came first, to raise funds. Then we walked in from Cambridge; we could not afford to ride, when tickets to see Fannie Kemble were to be bought. I went nineteen nights running to see iter, Sundays, of course, excepted. After the play we used to assemble where tHe Parker House is now—it was tiie rear entrance to the Tremont Theater then—to see tier come out. Site would be so muffled up that we could not even see her figure, but we used to find great satisfaction in seeing her walk by on tHe arm of her escort up to tiie Tremont House. Then we would give three student cheers for her and walk out to Cambridge to bed. "Such audiences as she had, too! If you’d put a cap sheaf down over the theater, you would have covered about all Boston had to boast of in the way of culture and learning— Webster and Everett and Story. Judge Story used to be so enthusiastic tiiat he’d talk about her all tiie time of tiie lecture. Next morning he’d say, ‘Phillips’—or somebody else, as the case might be—‘were you at the theater last night? Well, what did you think of tiie performance?’ I said to him once: ‘Judge Story, you come of Puritan ancestors. How do you reconcile all this theater going witli Iheir teachings?’ ‘I don’t try to to reconcile it,’ he answered, striking his hands together, 'I only thank God I'm alive in the same era with such a woman!’” A Lucky Oil Speculation. CHICAGO, lII.—Mr. Peter VanScliaack, one of the lemliugcitizens of Chicago, iiiitl a member of tiie iauious "Old Halaiu.tmlcr” Wholesale drug house of Van Schaack, .Stevenson Jc Cos., informed a Tribune reporter that a large number oi iiis personal friends, as wctlasseoros of representative men throughout the Northwest, with whom he had conversed upon tho subject, had round St. Jacobs OH a pain-curing mm licultng remedy of wonderful efficacy, lie referred the reporter to prominent members of the city govn•••* -tho iipuiuud it mutt liiorltlv.

PROFESSIONAL HUMORISTS. Sketches of Geo. \V. Peck, Bill Nye, Keppier, and Field. Also, an Interview witli Seuator Plumb, Who Is Not Set Hown as a Humorist, but as an Ugly Alan. Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal Chicago, Nuv. I.—George Peck, the father of the "bad boy,” was here a few days ago. In the past few years Peck has become one of the most successful of professional humorists. His income is said to be nearly $25,000 a year. In 1871 he was a reporter on the New York Herald, “several hundred dollars worse off than when he was dead broke.” He left New York with a resolve "never to come back until I had accumulated $13.” Peck originated and grew up in Wisconsin. With "Brick" Pomeroy lie went to New York to start a Democratic paper. He was fortunate, losing but $2,000 —all that he had, however. After reporting on the Herald for a short time lie returned to Wisconsin, and, locating at La Crosse, started Peck’s Sun, which has brought rays of brightness to many households on dark and gloomy days. Five years ago lie removed to Milwaukee, and there lie has met with continuous success. A friend to him told nte, a few days ago, that he owned the whole town. That’s perfectly natural. It’s a way we editors have. The Sun consists mostly of real, and sparkless, wit and humor. Peck does nearly all the editorial work himself. His expenses are light and his profits large. Tiie humorist is about forty years of age, heavy-set, and wears an immense imperial. He iias fitted up an elegant office, and has a beautiful home. He is very popular, and especially so with tiie ragged newsboys. Not long ago he gave several hundred of them a banquet, and they in turn presented him with a pair of diamond cuff-buttons. Kill Nye, another Western humorist, and the funny man of tiie Rocky Mountains, is bald-headed, and the top of liis head shines like a shirt bosom in tiie hands of a Chinaman. He is married. He is a tall ntan, with full brown beard and brown eyes, and has the general appearance of a prosperous country merchant. He is quiet in iiis ways, and to look at him, one would not tlnnk that he could cause his fellow-be-ings to laugh. But appearances are deceptive. There’s Henri Watterson. People say lie looks just like the individual who is supposed to run things in an excessive!}’ warm climate. But lie isn’t such a person, notwithstanding he lives in Kentucky, and raises—tiie Democrats sometimes. Nye was a justice of the peace in Wyoming. He wrote a number of letters to tiie Denver Tribune. They contained considerable exaggerated humor, and gave him some local notoriety. A few years ago he started tiie Boomerang, and lias succeeded in making about $15,000 profits. He has long wanted to establish a funny paper in Minnesota, and his friends say he will soon locate near St. Paul. Tiie editor of Puck, Joseph Keppier, an Austrian with dark hair and eyes, and modest and cordial in manner, formerly lived in St. Joe, and St. Louis, Mo. He was born in Vienna about forty-seven years ago. While in his teens he became an acior, and played in Austria, Italy and Switzerland. When he was twenty-four years of age he came to America, and went to Missouri to join his father, who was seeking to make a fortune. The latter desired the son to become a physician, and sent him to St. Louis to study medicine. But tiie young man took to the stage, and aspired to become a manager. Fortunately, no-one was ever killed by hint as a doctor, or compelled to lie tortured by looking at him as an actor. His aspirations to be stage manager resulted in bankruptcy in a very few weeks. It that kind of lightning would just strike two or three hundred alleged stage managers that are now loose! But lightning never strikes twice in tiie same place. Keppier, after his bankruptcy, began drawing humorous pictures. Seven years ago, with his partner Scinvartzmann, he was employed by Frank Leslie at $35 a week. Tiie two saved and borrowed $1 500 and started Puck. Leslie prophesied that the enterprise would fail. But it didn’t, and in three weeks the paper was on a selfsustaining basis. Within a year it had a circulation of 20,000, and now. 1 understand, 100,000 copies are issued weekly. Both Keppier and Schwartzman are enjoying an income of $50,000 a year. I first first saw ’Gene Field in Kansas City about three years ago. The time was a summer night. Field was in a small-sized room, two or three sizes larger than a sleeping-car berth, writing paragraphs fur a Kansas City paper. On the closed door outside was a big yellow piece of pasteboard containing, in enormous black letters, the word "smallpox.” He was sitting in iiis underclothes, with liis t'eet perched on a threelegged table, tiie fourth leg having been broken from the weight above it. In adjoining rooms were the remainder of tiie editorial force, in costume similar to tiie then managing editor. Western editors are not much on style, Field is an average-sized man, with smooth face and blue eyes. What hair lie has on his head is decidedly light, colored. He wears a business suit, which, while not light, is not dark. He is thirty-three years old, is married, and lias four children. * At present he is living in Chicago, being paragraphist on.the Daily News. St. Louis people were the first to know of liis entrance to the world. His parents were wealthy and provided him with considerable money in liis younger days. For a time lie lived in New England, but returned to Missouri and attended tiie State University. There lie was exceedingly popular, and liis apartments were the rendezvous for college boys, who liave an inclination to enjoy themselves while at a university. Before he left college he visited Europe. His first newspaper work wis on tiie old St. Louis Journal, where he began as reporter at $lO a week. Then he went to St, Jo., and remained a year and a half, becoming city editor of a paper in that place. Afterward he returned io St. Louis, and later became managing editor of the Kansas City Times. Two years ago he accepted a similar position on tiie Denver Tribune, continuing in tiiat position until last summer, when lie was compelled to rcsigu on account of ill healtli. In August lie came to Chicago. There is probably no man in tiie newspaper ■ profession who lias a greater number of friends than Mr. Field. He is popular with all classes, and with men of every profession. Or course he lias enemies, but they are those who have winced under his sarcastic lashes. He is a humorist, out not of the class to which either I’eck or Nye belongs. His ridiculous comparisons in paragraphs will elicit laughter from the most sober-minded person. Some time ago he wrote a primmer, that was extensively copied, anti which contained considerable humor. A number of poems, pathetic and humorous, have been contributed by him.

He experiences no difficulty in writing poetry at any time, and can grind out a rhyme ito order, while tiie press waits. He is a most prolific writer, and ran prevaricate and "till up” equal to Gath. Then, too, lie has an excellent memory. His most intimate friends think lie would be most successful as a correspondent. and it is not improbable that lie will attempt such work before mai.v years. He could give to his letters a touch of humor and sarcasm that no correspondent of to-day can give. A characteristic of Mr. Field is his handwriting. Three pn-es of iis manuscript will fill a column of the average-sized newspaper. A KANSAS SENATOR. 1 met Senator Plumb, of Kansas, a’few days ago. Tiie Senator is not a humorist, but he is about as ugiy a person as one can find, unless he is looking at Chicago ladies. Last winter he used to say that he would have to divide honors on tiiat question with Senator-eiect Kenna, of West Virginia. .Senator Plumb lias the appearance of the regulation Kansan. He is of the average height, is not heavy set, lias dark eyes and hair, and a billy-goat beard two inches long on his chin, and red. In conversation, he has a habit of continually pulling his whiskers, throwing back iiis head and moving his eves. He wears almost invariably a common business suit and a dark felt hat. His jewelry is scarce. A number of years ago tiie Senator was part owner of a weekly paper published at Xenia, O. He was succeeded by Whitelaw Reid, now of the New York Tribune. After disposing of his interest, Plumb went to Kansas, and again became engaged in newspaper work. Later he studied law. He represented iiis town, Emporia, in tiie State Legislature for a time, and by tiiat body was chosen, six years ago, to represent Kansas in the United States Senate. Last fall he was unanimously re-elected for another senatorial term. He is moderately wealthy, being interested in some Kansas cattle corporations. It lias been claimed tiiat he was also interested in some of tiie rich mines of tiie South, but those interests instead of belonging to him are owned by a brother-in-law. In Washington the Senator has apartments near the principal hotels. His rooms look like the exchange editor's room on a large city daily. He is a subscriber to between one and two hundred papers. These generally are allowed to accumulate till Sunday morning. when lie glances through them and clips them with the rapidity oi‘ an experienced editor. This hurried action is one of his characteristics. He talks hurriedly, and walks hurriedly. In considering measures in the Senate, like “Sunset” Cox in the House, he pushes them through as rapidly as possible. He is not eloquent in his talk, but has the happy faculty of indulging in good common-sense arguments. While talking with him in one of the Chicago hotels, he said he understood that Dorsey was going to Europe for the benefit of iiis health. I said to him: “Senator, what will be the result in the coming speakership and presidential contests?” He replied: “Randall will be the next Speaker. He has more political sense than all the rest of the candidates put together. He has had experience, has had training under Tilden, and is one of the best, if not the best men that the Democrats have. He would make a good Democratic nominee for the presidency. Carlisle is a strong man, but he can hardly be compared to Randall. “I have come to this conclusion regarding the Presidency—tiiat a Democrat will stand no show unless iie has a war record. Roseera ns, of California, and Slocum, of New York, are men that might run a very good race. I have no fears of the Republicans being unsuccessful, however. There is no doubt but what they wili have the next President. It will be hard to say who will be the nominee All tiiat is said now would be merely guesswork. I don’t think Dlaine will h* a nominee, for those who have been liis wannest supporters in the past are now not favoring him.” The Senator was one of the ardent supporters last winter of the bill reducing letter postage. I asked him if there would be any legislation on that subject this edming session of Congress. Said he: “Pv an error that occurred in the bill passed Inst March the government will lose about $1,000,000. It provided for an increased; percentage in the sale of stamps to be given a? salaries to a certain class of postmasters. It was intended to iiave the increase go into effect Oct. 1, the time the measure became a law, but instead a clause was inserted making it go into effect the date of the passage of the bill. This gives a number of postmasters more pay than it was desired they should have. The error may prevent legislation on the subject in the shape of reduction next session. 'Tiie next reduction that will in all probability he made will he reducing drop-letters in letter-earner cities to one cent. People will object to paying the same price for havinga letter delivered in the city as it costs to send it to any place in the United States. Then will follow a reduction in newspaper postage.” k. AN EXCITING INCIDENT. How John A. Logan Hurled a Goblet at the Head of Dr. Green. Lusk'u “Politics ami Politicians of Illinois.” One of the most exciting incidents of the political campaign of 1861 occurred at Mount Vernon, in October of that year. General Logan had been granted leave of absence from the army fora short time, and was announced to make a speech at tins place. It is worthy of remark to say that, notwithstanding Jefferson county had sent many brave men to the army as defenders of the Union, it was nevertheless the home of many violent anti-war Democrats, who never lost an opportunity to denounce the prosecution of the war as being unjust and tinholy, On this occasion the town was filled to overflowing with men and women, all anxious to hear what the distinguished soldier had to say on the gfeat issues of the war. It was an open-air meeting, but shortly after General Logan commenced his address it began to rain an i he was forced to go to tlie court-house, which was filled to its very utmost, while hundreds stood by the windows and doors eager to hear every word. In the midst of tins rapt attention, a scene of great confusion ensued. Dr \V. Duff Green, a proud, scholarly Kentuckian, and brother of Wm. H. Green, taking an exception to some expression General Logan had used, arose to his feet and requested that the speaker repeat tl*o words, that he (Green) might not misunderstand him, whereupon General Logan said: “What I did say was. that any man who opposed the war is a traitor to bis country, and I say so now,” when Green, in a state of excitement, vociferated, “You are a liar, sir.” Logan, quicker that thought, seized a glass goblet which was near by and hurled it at the head of Green with terrible force, but fortunately h struck a column behind which Green dodged, breaking into innumerable pieces. Here the excitement exceeded anything ever witnessed in the town. Men shouted and women screamed; revolvers were drawn, in rapid succession and several attempts! made to shoot General Logan, but happily not a shot was tired nor a blow dealt on eit er side, and when order was restored; General Logan finished his speech as deliberately a> though nothing had occurred and without being again interrupted. Ac When She Was Young. “I have used Parker’s flair iiaUam and like it hotter than any aimilar preparation 1 know of,” writes Mrs. Ellen Perry, wife of Rev. P. Perry, of Coldbrooh Springe, Mans. My hair was a)moat entirely gray, hilt a dollar ho!tie of the Dulhuiii has restored the eofrnes* and the brown color l had wln*n I was young —not a single gray hair left. Since I began applying ♦he P lsnin my hair Inn stopped falling ou, and T find that it is a perfectly harmless and agreeable dressm^.*’

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