Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 August 1897 — Page 12

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THE SUNDAY JOURNAL SUNDAY, AUGUST 15, 1897. Washington Office—lSo3 Pennsylvania Avenue Telephone Calls. £uslneS3 Office 238 | Editorial Roomi.„A 86 TERMS Or SI USt K I i’TIO.N. DAILY BY MAIL. Daily only, one month $ .70 Daily only, three months 2.00 Dally only, one year S.OO Dail,., including Sunday, one year 10.00 Sunday only, one year 2.00 WHEN FURNISHED BY AGENTS. Daily, per week, by carrier 15 cts Sunday, single copy 5 cts Daily and Sunday, per week, by carriers....2o cts WEEKLY. Per year 11.00 Reduced Hates to Clubs. Subscribe witl any of our numerous agents or aer.d subscriptions to THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, India m. itoliN, Ind. Persons sending the Journal through the mails In the Umted States should put on an eight-page paper a ONE-CENT postage stamp; on a twelve or sixteen-page paper a TWO-CENT postage ■tamp. Foreign postage la usually double these rates. .AH communications intended for publication In this paper must. In older tc receive attention, be accompanied by the name and address of the J' titer. If it is desired that rejected manuscripts be returned, postage must in all cases be inclosed tor that purjiose. THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL Can be found at the following places; KEW YORK—Windsor Hotel and Astor House. —Palmer House and P. O. News Cos., ,17 Dearborn street. CINCINNATI—J. R. Hawley & Cos., 154 Vine street. _ eA-HJISVILLE—C. T. Deering, northwest corner of Third and Jefferson streets, and Louisville l ook Cos., 255 Fourth avenue. 8 r. LOUlS—Union News Company, Union Depot. WASHINGTON, D. C.—Riggs House, Ebbitt House, Willard's Hotel and the Washington News Exchange, street, between I’enn. avenue and F street. “Sixteen Pages== By request of the Nancy Hunks Lincoln Memorial Assorintlon donations of ip 1 each, for u fund to he uxed In Deeping in order the grave of Abrnlium Lincoln's mother, will he received by the Journal and acknonledged. The oldest Inhabitant cannot recall a season of such all 'round short crops for the calamltyite and croaker as the present. The unspeakable Turk—has any one heard that he has loft Thessaly? What has become of the ultimatum? The Sultan se’ems to be ruling Europe more than any other one man. One can scarcely pick up a newspaper nowadays that does not contain notices of the revival of local Industries In addition to the general news of returning prosperity. It Is the same everywhere. Congress adjourned July 24, but the Congressional Record continues to be issued daily in order to publish long speeches, for which members obtained leave to print. That "leave to print” is a great Institution. TJiose who a year ago were predicting that better times would surely follow the defeat of the silver delusion can claim seats among the minor prophets, at least after showing that 36 per cent, more of business ran through the bank meters of the country last week than in the corresponding week of 1896. T t is absurd to remark that there are no laws barring Anarchists from landing in this country, when, as a matter of fact, the law is very explicit in its provisions against criminals. If a man who declares a purpose to assassinate and applauds those who murder officials is not a criminal, then the few men in prison for derailing railway trains should be given their liberty.

The report that General Weyler has sent his resignation to Madrid will probably prove to be true. If so It will go to sustain his recent assertion that he and the late premier, Senor Canovas, were in full sympathy in their Cuban policy. The assassination of Canovas is notice to Weyler he will no longer b© wanted in Cuba, and so ho will probably step down and out before ho is recalled. His resignation will be an inglorious ending to a costly and fruitless campaign. Several hundred cars loaded with Kansas and Oklahoma wheat are sidetracked in the railroad yards at Kansas City, awaiting transportation to tidewater at Galveston, New Orleans and other gulf ports, and scores of tramp steamers are lying there awaiting the arrival of cargoes of grain for Kurope. While this state of things exists in the West and South, fleets of British vessels are crossing the Atlantic in ballast to load with grain for Kurope. This year, at least, the Uylted States is the granary of the world. A special cablegram announces the arrival in Thessaly of an agent of the Sultan with thirty-five boxes containing medals and eight boxes filled with swords of honor to be distributed among the m'en and officers of the victorious Turkish army In the conquered province. The Jeweled sword to be presented to Kdhem Pasha, the commandVr-in-chief of the Turkish army occupying Thessaly, is reported to he valued at $2u.000. The Sultan has hard work to meet his other obligations, but he evidently intends to keep himself solid with the soldiers. At the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at Detroit Professor Mason read a paper on expert testimony, in which he undertook to show that the reason why the testimony of experts in courts so frequtntly differs is that they are subject to the same errors of judgment as are other professional men. This does not help the matter so far as testimony is concerned, but it does eomethlng'to remove the quite general impression that expert testimony is in the nature of an opinion such as other professional men ask a fee for A tciegTam from New' York says that Wall street Is worth many Klondikes as a place for money making, $115,000,0(10 having been made there during the past thirteen weeks. This means that $115,000,000 have practically been transferred from the pockets of a largo number of people to those of e. limited number, without adding a dollar to the actual wealth of the world. Men who had many thousands when the advance ta prices began wiil have many more thour mds when the books are balanced. On the other hand, those who had a few thousands will have fewer or none. This is the method of Wall-street mining. When a gold mine turns out a dollar it Is a dollar added to the permanent wealth of the world. The Chicago College of Physicians and Hurgeons has always firmly and sternly refused admission to women who bombarded Its doors for admission as students, but now it has to admit them whether or no. Not long since the college became a department of the University of .Illinois. The university Is, of course, open to women as wt-ii as to men. and one young woman, am-

bitlouß to enter the medical profession, was quick to see her opportunity and demanded admittance again where she had once been denied. She was again refused by the now alarmed medical managers, but she appealed to the higher university authorities and won her case. Her success might serve as an example to like-minded women who desire to study in the Indiana Medical Gchool, which has been made a part of the Indianapolis University, did it not happen that it was already open to them, Indianapolis physicians being broader-minded than their Chicago brethren. The same is true of the law’ school. Indiana women no longer need to fight for the privilege of study in any institution. THE CURFEW. The movement for the enactment of a curfew ordinance in this city is to be respected on account of its motive, as all movements are which aim at moral progress or practical reforms. That much harm and evil come from the practice, too com. mon in this country, of allowing children the freedom of the streets at night cannot be doubted for a moment. Great harm comes from such unrestrained liberty even in the daytime, and hence the necessity for compulsory education laws, especially in cities, to rescue children from schools of vice and place them in schools of a different kind. Street roaming at night is as much worse than the same thing in the daytime as darkness is more favorable than light for the generation of evil. Moreover, many children and young persons who attend school or are otherwise engaged in the daytime, children of respectable and well-to-do parents who do not belong to the vagrant class, are apt to be given too much liberty, or to take it whether it Is given or not, in the way of being absent from their homes after nightfall without the slightest knowledge on the part of their parents what they are doing, where they are or what sort of company they are in. Such license as this offers every sort of facility and temptation to wrong doing and leads to the ruin of thousands of children. No doubt there is less street roaming now than there was before the introduction of the bicycle. The wheel has opened an entirely new avenue of juvenile sociability and occupation, and hundreds of boys and girls who would otherwise associate on the streets now do so on wheels, making long trips that lead to late hours and indulging in a species of juvenile conviviality that would shock their parents if they should take the trouble of informing themselves on the subject. Some of these young night riders and street roamers have pleasant homes and parents, who ought to know better than to give them such unrestrained license, while others have next to no homes at all, or at least no place where they can receive young companions and pass a pleasant evening in a proper and decorous way. For all the night roaming of children parents are largely to blame, partly in not making home more attractive to the children, partly in not training them properly, and partly In not exercising parental authority to keep their children out of dangerous ways. But parental authority in this country seems to be becoming a lost art and the American child is developing Into a young person entirely beyond the reach of anything of the kind. Without going further into the causes of night roaming and the different classes of children who engage in it, it is enough to say that the evil exists to an alarming extent and Is a prolific source of juvenile vice and school of adult crime. Therefore, any movement which seeks to reform, minimize or meliorate it is entitled to respect. That curfew law’s prohibiting children under a certain age fAm being on the streets after a certain hour at night have operated well in some places there seems to be no doubt. Persons who have lived in towns which have enacted the law say that the results have been beneficial. Colonel Hogeland, w’hose earnestness in the work of child reform cannot bo questioned, speaks very strongly on the subject. He says: The curfew lessens commitments to station houses, jails and reform schools 50 per Cent. Not only this, but where it has been tried for a reasonable time it has reduced the number qf convicts in the States’ prisons in the same’ proportion and in that way has protected the trades of honest mechanics. Where cities have the curfew young hoodlums no longer raid vacant houses and steal copper and brass fittings or break windows. Families where there Is no curfew ordinance are leaving communities in cities and towns and leaving vacant houses to avoid the influence of neighbors whose children are on the streets at all hours of the night. Superintendents of reform schools certify that the curfew, if honestly enforced, will prevent the commitment of hoys and girls to their institutions. Police officials say it will prevent thousands of boys from becoming tramps and save multitudes of young girls from lives of shame, and lastly, it improves both parents and children morally and socially. \ Making due allowance for the enthusiasm of a man with a hobby, there must be a basis of truth in these statements, yet they are lacking in definiteness. They w’ould be more impressive if accompanied by the personal statements of officials of cities where the law’ has been tried. There may still be a question whether the curfew Is as well suited to cities as it is to small towns, and whether its enforcement would not interfere with other more important duties of the police. The advocates of the law ought to fortify their theoretical arguments and general statements w’ith facta regarding its operation in places w’here it has been tried. A POSTAL SAVINGS BANK. A Chicago paper is pushing a bill to establish a postal savings bank system in a manner which might lead many to believe that the idea was its own discovery. Such Is not tho case. Several postmasters geneial, notably Mr. Wanamaker, urged tho passage of a bill similar to that recommended by the Chicago paper. The postal savings bank, it is proposed, shall be under the control of the postmaster general, w r ho shall establish at Washington a central bank and shall name such money order of (ices as lie deems necessary as places of deposit of sums not lass than one dollar or a multiple of a dollar, the aggregate of which, in any one year, shall not exceed .S3OO. Postal savings stamps of 5 cents, which shall be affloed to cards, shall he sold, which shall be redeemed in sums of one dollar. Wives and minors who deposit shall have control of their deposits. The interest on deposits shall be at the rate of 2 per cent, per annum. The money so deposited shall be invested In United States, State and approved municipal bonds of cities having 20.000 population and over; county bonds of counties of 40,000 populat'on or over may be purchased. In every case, however, the United States Is responsible for the deposits. Deposits shall he repaid on the demand of the depositors under rules adopted by the postmaster general. Such are, in brief, the outlines of the proposed postal savings bank bill. It is a simple scheme and has worked admirably In Europe, and there is no reason why It would not in this country. With us. for

THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, SUNDAY, AUGUST 15, 1897.

those who are able to save two or three dollars a month, the building and loan association is better, provided the depositor can continue through the life of a series. In the East the savings bank is better than the postal scheme. Still, there are thousands who will begin by purchasing a postal savings stamp for 5 cents and in a short time become regular depositors who would otherwise spend the money for trifles. In time, young people who now do not think of saving a nickel or a dime will acquire the habit of saving, which with some becomes almost a passion. There can be no good reason given why Congress should not pass a postal savings bank law such as is now being agitated. Indeed, such a measure can be urged on the ground that it will give additional security to our institutions, since the person who has a few’ dollars of savings has an additional interest in law’ and order. THE COMING LANGUAGE. At the convention of scientists in session last week in Detroit President Coburn, of the section upon economic science, advocated the adoption of a universal language which could be used by all nations in their dealings with each other. Personally, he favored English as the most desirable tongue, but was willing to leave it to a conference of representatives of leading nations. Evidently, there is no intention to revive Volapuk, the jargon which w’as devised a few years ago to serve as a universal medium of communication, and whose adoption could not be forced even upon the people most in need of it. It was proved by this experiment that, though a language may be invented, simple in form and construction, getting it into use is another and very different matter. A language does not come into sudden and complete existence. It is a thing of slow growth, of gradual development; it is a thing of Idioms, colloquialisms and constant changes; it has an element of life which no deliberately constructed vocabulary can have. To adopt a "Volapuk” is impossible, but to accept one of the living languages as the means of communication between scientists, scholars, diplomats and commercial men of all nations may easily Ixi feasible. Latin has long done service in this way in the ecclesiastical circles of Europe, and also as the technical vocabulary of medicine, law and other professions. French is the accepted language of diplomacy, and English has made its way in all lands where Britons and Americans have penetrated for purposes of commerce -a world-wide territory. Latin cannot be adapted to modern needs; because of the home-staying habit of the French people their language spreads but slowly; English, on the other hand, is coming into such general use that the traveler who knows no other tongue finds few places in whatever country where there are no Englishspeaking people. Left to its natural and inevitable grow’th, English seems likely, In the course of time, to be the leading speech in civilized countries. An acquaintance with It Is even now considered essential to the equipment of intelligent Europeans. If scientists formally adopt a tongue for their own International use they will undoubtedly find English the most available, and by the action will so much hasten the day when it will in fact be universal.

A SENSATIONAL SOCIOLOGIST. Those who have time to keep within sight of the theoretical sociologists who are ambitious to publish volumes or to air their views In quantites devoted to allvged economics are not surprised by their eccentricities. Those who do not keep within sight of these peculiar people are liable to b*e shocked and grieved, particularly if they happen to come across the last issue of the American Journal of Sociology, which is published under th’e auspices of Chicago University, which, at its founding by Mr. Rockefeller, w’as heralded as the central dispensary of Baptist faith and practice In all its pristine purity and positiveness. Imagine the consternation of the excellent brother who sits down to the perusal of the last issue of the periodical of the Chicago University swelling with feelings of pride and gratitude, when, running over its titte page for the most edifying article, his eyes fall upon the caption, "The Social Value of the Saloon.” For a moment he may doubt his own sanity. He will try his eyes upon sonve other line to ascertain if they are not playing him a trick. He may even resort to tests to make sure If there is not some derangement In his mental faculties. He will find nothing of the kind. H’e Is not the victim of optical illusion, nor has a cog in his mental machinery slipped. Scores have read it and have been so much astonished that hundreds and thousands have now come to know’ that the Chicago University’s Journal of Sociology • has an article on "The Social Value of the Saloon.” The sincerely good who have read the article must have been made sore of heart becauso It is almost wholly eulogistic of an institution whose Influence the church regards as entirely pernicious, and which is regarded by a large majority of the people as an institution which more than any other must be regulated by law. Because Mr. Rockefeller has created the Chicago University It has been assumed that nothing would be taught by its professors in conflict with the opinions and methods by which its founder has attained his wealth. To overcome such prejudice it is fair to say that Chicago University has been most liberal. Indeed, it may not be too much to say that in its efforts to do something for the benefit of the "masses,” the professors in sociology are open to tho charge of absurdities which, if they had been In practice for Years, would have left no capitalists to endow universities. It seems that the management of the institution. for reasons which it would be unjust to state without full knowledge, conceived tho project of setting an expert to Investigate the saloon "in a broad and scientific spirit.” The result of that investigation has been put into an article with the caption alluded to. The expert, investigating on broad scientific grounds, finds that the saloon is not only "th’e workingman's only club, but is a place where he can get loans of money, find books and papers, hear the latest stories, and, in short, stands not only for social opportunity, but affords the conditions of sociability. ’ It may have been the purpose of this sociologist to extol the social value of the saloon in order to Indicate to those who would do som'ething for the masses in cities the lines which they must pursue in order to succeed. That is, the philanthropists must establish institutions as nearly like tho saloon as possible if they expect to do anything for what they are pleased to regard as the laboring man. This, however, does not appear from the article. It is "the social value of the saloon” of which it speaks. The most useful lesson which the article can convey is tiie utter unreliability of the conclusions of such sociologists. They do not consider subjects In all their bearings.

Many of them start out with a theory of their own. and all their investigation is devoted to finding reasons to sustain It. The real sociologist should be an economist, so that he can see the saloon or any other institution from that Economic point of view which always has the housing and feeding of those for whom they speak as of first importance. It would not be amiss if the sociologist should he enough of a moralist to note the effect of institutions upon the moral status of the people w’ho come under their influence. # The chief objection to the article is that the writer does those for whom he claims to speak a great injustice when he assumes that, more than other people, those who are called workingmen are general frequenters of the saloon. There is reason to believe that no larger a proportion of men who labor from day to day spend their leisure hours about saloons than do men in other employments. But a small proportion of mankind desires the social features of the club. Tiie home and the social relations of neighborhoods, as represented by families, absorb the leisure of much the larger part of men in every vocation. The difficulty is that the sociologist selects some congested locality in large cities, where all the conditions are abnormal, for his investigations, and assumes that the people who live there are all w’orkingmen, and that all workingmen are under similarly harsh conditions. If such men were intelligent investigators they would not fall into such grave mistakes. A considerable portion of those who live in the congested districts of cities are not workingmen, but loafers, while the mass of men who do the manual labor of the country do not live in slums and are vastly different people. So long as, the professional sociologist makes such mistakes and arrives at such conclusions as many of them do, he will not b’e taken seriously. SIGNS OF MEXTAI, WEAKNESS. A Washington correspondent cites as a proof of Secretary Sherman's failing mental faculties his frequent inability to remember the names of persons well known to him. Innumerable people will be ready to rise in indignation to deny that this peculiarity indicates the weakness of any other faculty than that of memory; they know, for they have defective memories themselves, especially when proper names are concerned, and they have every reason to think that their reasoning and reflective powers are as strong as ever. It is to be regretted, they say, that one’s memory develops this weakness, but memory is not a high intellectual power at best, and its lapses, though inconvenient, are as likely as not to accompany the strongest of logical faculties. They are right in a sense. To say that Secretary Sherman forgets names means nothing out of the common; it is the exceptional person nowadays who does not forget names. It is a peculiarity that in some families seems to be inherited, so noticeable Is It even from childhood, but It is pretty sure to develop in a majority of the busy people of the world, unless the exigencies of society, or politics, or business make a retentive recollection almost a necessity. Proper names are arbitrary things, and for that reason the most difficult of all words to remember, but it has been repeatedly demonstrated that by careful attention to the matter a wonderful accuracy of memory in relation to them may be cultivated. Now and then an individual appears who has a natural facility in that direction, but as a rule the politicians and the social leaders who are noted for "never forgetting a name” have made a study of the art. It is an art that is worth while to one seeking popularity, but much charity should be extended to the one who does not possess it. So many things press upon the attention from childhood to old age in these modern days that the wonder is that so much, and not so little, is remembered. By a natural Instinct the mind comes to reject the nonessentials and seeks to retain only the important facts, but even with such effort much that is desiable must be forgotten. The memory is simply overtaxed, and the result is shown oftenest in failure to recall names, because that failure is most noticeable; but that a similar deficiency, though one more easily concealed, exists In regard to other matters than mere names would doubtless be shown in most cases on investigation. It is a fault of the times rather than of the Individual—a result of high-pressure existence—but it is a real intellectual weakness and one to be deplored in spite of asseverations to the contrary by those who dislike to acknowledge their own imperfections.

The Republican municipal convention yesterday afternoon was a spirited affair and among its delegates w’ere many w’ell-known citizens who have won the regard of the party by honorable service. The address of Mr. Taylor will repay a careful reading by men of both parties because it is a fair statement of the real results of Mayor Taggart’s administration. Fortunately, the constitutional limit of Indebtedness bars the much further progress of involving the city in a burdensome debt, for which no adequate return has yet been received. In Mr. Harding the Republicans have a candidate who is well known in the city and is familiar with its affairs. He has the capacity and the disposition to give Indianapolis a first-class administration. He is not embarrassed with pledges beyond those contained in tho excellent platform adopted by the convention. A city government which shall carry out the pledges of the Republican platform is what the people want. It indicates that the Republicans propose to make the canvas-s upon local issues and that its candidates are not In a position where tWey must direct attention from themselves by dragging in Irrelevant matters which are not. Issues. The activity of the Bureau of American Republics in developing trade between the United States and South America has induced the British Board of Trade to appoint a special committee on the development of foreign trade in South America. European nations are selling annually to Mexico, Central and South America and the West Indies from $100,000,000 to $150,000,000 worth of goods, the great bulk of which ought, to be sold to those countries by the United States. That market naturally belongs to the United States, but it has been grossly neglected. In undertaking to develop trade between the United States and South American states, the Bureau of American Republics has entered an inviting field and should receive every possible encouragement. The incident of ex-Presldent Andrews should have been closed long ago. He put himself in line with repudiators by taking part in a convention which declared the right of the debtor to pay his obligation in a less valuable money than that which he received. The trustees of Brown University Intimated that it was not the proper thing for him to do, and expressed the whU Duu

he refrain from advocating a system of repudiation should he continue with the college. After a time he concluded that he would rather advocate independent free coinage than hold his place in the university and resigned. That is all there is of it, yet papers which should have recognized the nature of President Andrews’s offense have kept up a series of editorials designed to make it appear that he has in some manner been wronged. The advocacy of the policy of paying debts in a less valuable money than that received is a moral offense equivalent to amending the Decalogue by striking out the word “not” in the prohibition “thou shalt not steal.” A martyr cannot be made out of such material. A Mr. Marks, who claims to be the original of D wyer Marks in “Uncle Tom's Cabin,” is now in Chicago, and has been talking volubly to newspaper reporters. He says the manner in which his name came to figure in the book came about through Mrs. Stowe wishing to locals,e her story, and, hearing his name mentioned as that of the only lawyer in the vicinity, adopted it for that of her lawyer, whose character she had already drawn and which had no likeness to hfs. This story may be true, but it is not the habit of novelists to “localise” stories by using real names, and. inexperienced as Mrs. Stowe was in such matters, she would have been likely to hesitate before applying the name of an actual living person to so objectionable a character as the one depicted. In these days it would mean the bringing of a libel suit by the individual so brought into’ notoriety. Mr. Marks volunteers further information of even more doubtful accuracy to the Chicago paper. He says: “When I saw Henry Ward Beecher on one occasion he told me confidentially that if I were to see the original manuscript it would be seen that he had written a large part of the book.” Mr. Beecher probably never said anything of the kind; it is the first time the claim has been made that any one save Mrs. Stowe even saw the manuscript before ii went to the printers. The story has been told over and over of her writing the installments in the intervals of her housework as fast as they were needed by the publisher of the National Era, in which they appeared, and of her reading them to her children. It is not related that she even submitted them to her brother, and as they lived far apart at the time, it is improbable that she had any aid from him. Moreover, there is other evidence that Mr. Beecher had no hand in the work. He wrote a novel himself, and those who from curiosity or a sense of literary duty struggled through its pages will be ready enough to testify that its author could have had no part in “Uncle Tom.” It is too late to deprive Mrs. Stowe of her exclusive right to her famous book. Hereafter young Mr. Fisk, of Toledo, will probably be careful how he makes himself either agreeable or useful to a chance acquaintance in traveling, especially if that acquaintance be a young woman. On a journey to Detroit by boat the other day he met the young and pretty Miss Epple, and proceeded to devote himself to her entertainment. His attentions were well received, and all proceeded happily until Miss Epple found herself suffering from a severe headache. Mr. Fisk, with an appearance of great solicitude for her comfort, gave her a powder which he assured her would relieve the pain, but which, on the contrary, made her so violently ill that she lost confidence in the honorable character of her new friend and made such complaints that on arrival at Detroit the officers of the boat had him arrested and put in jail. The morning papers had what the newsboys call a “fully ’count” of the affair and represented him as a depraved wretch with evil designs upon an innocent girl—the blackest of villains for whom hanging was too good. His denials and explanations availed nothing, and matters were looking dark when, fortunately for him, a rescuer in the person of a woman who read the morning papers made her appearance. She explained that she was the woman who was responsible for the headache powder, that it was a simple preparation without which she never traveled, and that she had handed it to the young man with the benevolent intent to relieve his companion’s evident* distress. The lady being well known and the young woman having, in the meantime, entirely recovered, the explanation was sufficient, and Mr. Fisk was turned loose with apologies for detaining him; but apologies wall hardly soften his injuries, and next time he will permit traveling acquaintances to call in their own physicians.

It is difficult to dissociate Charles Lamb from his essays and to picture him as other than the sweet, refined and evergentle spirit who, it would seem, must have inspired those pages with their lasting charm. Nevertheless, it appears that to his contemporaries he was not always lovable. The New York Independent has been publishing some recently discovered Shelley correspondence, and in a letter written to Shelley by Horace Smith, one of the authors of “Rejected Addresses,’’ this paragraph occurs: I had never seen much of Lamb before, and never desire to see him again, as I found him a low, coarse, drunken, snuffy fellow, with nothing redeeming in his conversation, although I deem his writings inimitable. He damned me and called me an ass before company for not admiring Christobel, and told my wife tnat if his sister were to die he shouldn’t care if she went to hell in five minutes—-all of which I was told no notice ought to be taken, because he was drunk the whole time he was in France. "I am sorry he didn’t stay in England,’’ was my reply. It is highly probable that Lamb was drunk on this occasion—or was suffering from a touch of the malady that affected his sister —but if ever a man had excuse for seeking forgetfulnass through drink he had it. He had, it seems, started with his sister for a visit to Paris. At Amiens, on the way, one of her fits of insanity came on, and he, being unable to speak French, was unable to explain their situation, and could not obtain admittance to any hotel. He brought her to Paris, and there had the same experience, but was providentially found by an Eng ish lady who knew him and rescued him from his predicament. If he had been himself he would not have spoken brutally of this sister to whom his life was devoted—but who at this late day shall say that he was so greatly astray when he called Smith an ass? Cheap cigarettes and cheap cigarette smokers are recognized in every well regulated community as an unmitigated evil. Nothing is said here as to cigarettes and their smokers in general, but only as to the cheap class. They are the greatest nuisance because they are cheap and therefore omnipresent, vile smelling and injurious. Therefore, it is gratifying to know that they are to be attacked in an effective way. The reputable tobacconists of Chicago, including the principal wholesale and retail dealers of tho city, have formed an association for the purpose of driving cheap cigarettes out of the market. The object of the organization is briefly stated by the president, who says: “Cheap cigarettes and the people w'ho smoke them are nuisances, and we propose to get rid of them if possible.” It is proposed to get all the reputable tobacco dealers in the city into the association and then boycott the sale of cigarettes at less than 15 cents a package. “There is no profit in handling cheap cigarettes,” said the president of the association, “and tho trade is highly objectionable to all reputable tobacconists. With the disappearance of the cheap cigarettes boys and ‘fiends,’ the very people who are now the most seriously affected by the practice, will be forced In a. great degree to aban-

don it. Buying of 5-cent packages of cigarettes is mostly done by boys and young men who can get a nickel, but who would find it difficult to raise 15 cents.” This might be called reform from within, and everybody will wish it success—at least, everybody except cheap cigarette smokers. The story of the cause of the diplomatic rupture between Austria and Bulgaria is interesting. An aid-de-camp of Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria, aided by the prefect of police and another official, murdered his paramour, an opera singer. The participation of the police in the murder was not even denied, but the officials justified themselves on the ground that because of the aid-de-camp’s intimate relations with Prince Ferdinand the murder was demanded by reasons of state. The aid-de-camp was convicted of murder and pardoned. Here Austria stepped in and demanded an adequate punishment on the ground that the murdered woman was an Austrian subject. The Bulgarian premier followed with an interview in which he intimated that the Austrian court had better begin its housecleaning at home by dispelling the mystery which shrouds the death of the late Crown Prince Rudolph. Upon this subject the Emperor of Austria is very sensitive, and when the taunt of the Bulgarian was reported to him he recalled his representatives in Bulgaria, protesting that murder in official circles in Bulgaria is protected. The incident will close with apologies by the Bulgarian government and a disavowal of the obnoxious newspaper interview by the Bulgarian premier. Philadelphia papers notice the recording of a curious deed in that city a few' days ago. It gives to one Charles Banks the privilege of allowing the eaves of his new house to encroach on the property of Mrs. Sarah Edwards to the extent of four inches, and binds the heirs of Mrs. Edw'ards for the same encroachment. The consideration named is S4O. The transaction recognizes the legal principle that the owner of land owns all above and all below it, from zenith to nadir. A man may erect a house a mile high on his own land, but he may not let the eave project an Inch over his neighbor’s land. BIBBLES IN THE AIR. Xo Data Now. Watts—Which is really the best bicycle? Potts—How can I tell, when prices are cut so? He Could Not Tell a Lie. Stranger—Are you the religious editor? The Editor—l cannot tell a lie. I am only the editor of the religious department. Strapped. Wlckwire—That time I had the fever I waked up and found myself strapped In bed. They told me I had been delirious. Mudge—Only this morning I w'aked up and found myself in bed, strapped. No Need of Lhw. Briggs—This idea of a curfew law' is all nonsense. Braggs—Don’t you think it would save a good many boys? “It might, but what is the need of it, when it would be so easy to get an injunction restraining them from the use of the streets?”

SCIENTIFIC. An international scientific association was proposed at the meeting of the British association in Canada in 18S4, and it is now suggested that the year 1900 would be an appropriate time to organize such a society. Floating fish-canning factories are proposed in Sweden. The factory would be a sea-going vessel with full equipment for canning, and would be anchored near the fishing fleet. The factory could follow the migrations of the fish, the canning of the fish while really fresh being an important result. Some unfortunates, we are told by M. Phillippe Tissie, are “born tired” in a literal sense. The condition is cne of nervous debility transmitted by a mother to her offspring as a result of her own fatigue or exhaustion—a kind of poisoning of the child through the vitiated blood of the parent. Among equine dwarfs the smallest is claimed to be a pony reared by Marchese Careano, a horse fancier of Lombardy. It is said to stand only six hands, or twentyfour inches high, while the Shetlands are seldom under eight hands. The owner has a theory that small horses will return a greater amount of work than large horses for the same expense in feeding. The microbes of fevers may be scattered, Prof. Charles Tichborne believes, in dew from sew’ers. As the sewer water is usually two or three degrees warmer than the cold air of certain hours of the night, the watery vapor rising through traps may be frequently condensed, when ’each particle of dew is liable to become a raft on which microbes may be carried for miles, to be finally deposited wherever tire dew is dissipated—perhaps in a dwelling reached through a warm shaft. A Breslau surgeon, Professor Mikuliez, wears gloves of fine thread in performing operations, and declares that this not only causes no inconvenience or difficulty but makes it easier to hold the tissues. The purpose of the gloves is to reduce the chances of introducing troublesome germs. Several changes of gloves are necessary in long operations, and each pair is made thoroughly aseptic in steam, while the hands are washed and disinfected in the usual way. A further recommendation is the use of a respirator of fine muslin as a safeguard against mouth bacteria. The phosphorescent lamp on which Puluj, an Austrian physicist, has been at work for many years, has a bulb much like that of the ordinary incandescent lamp, with electrodes of aluminium wire extending directly through the wall of the bulb. The negative pole terminates in a. small disc. A small square sheet of mica, coated with sulphide of calcium, hangs from the lamp globe, and faces the disc. When either one or both poles are connected to an induction coil or plate electric machine, a stream of radiant electricity is reflected from the disc to the mica, causing the latter to glow with brilliant phosphorescence. From an exhaustive study of cave debris rear the Rhine, Dr. Jacob Nueseh concludes that this record of the human occupation of Switzerland extends back about 28,000 years. Traces of man and his chipped stone industries are found with the oldest animal remains, which belong to postglacial time and a sub-arctic climate. This period of man and animals lasted about 8,000 years. Then followed a period of 8,000 to 12,000 years which seems to have been without man and characterized by a gradual change of animal life to modern types; and this was succeeded in turn bv the lake dwelling and polished stone period of about 4,000 years, which came to an end with the Introduction of bronze about 4,000 years ago. It is probable that man inhabited milder parts of Europe long before the Alpine glaciers had melted sufficiently to permit his occupation of Switzerland. Common errors resulting from the germ theory of disease were pointed out by Prof. Liebreich at the recent German congress of internal medicine. Medical men have carefully studied the substances capable of destroying the bacteria, but it is essential to consider the cellular elements of tile organism, and to avoid the error of concentrating attention entirely on microbes that often are not the primary cause of disease, but have developed to an unusual extent through a lowering of vitality. The bacillus of tubercle, for instance, IS found in healthy lungs, its development assuming the character of a disease only after the vitality of the pulmonary cells has been impaired. Professor Liebreich is of opinion that Koch’s new anti-tuberculin will not be more successful than the former preparation, and states that, while Behring’s diphtheria antitoxin has been very favorably reported on, there are many competent observers who question its benefit. Tetanus antitoxin he pronounces useless. The origin of life must long continue a tempting subject for speculation. A Philadelphia investigator, Mr. Charles Mosrls, contends that the conditions favoring the development of organic material were transitory, and no longer exist, such material having arisen from a vitally active stage of inorganic chemistry. Tivere must have been a time In the earth’s history, he reasons when chemical inactivity prevailed on acct unt of high temperature and unfavora-

ble physical conditions. Chemical activity arose and increased as the heated ocean was formed and changed the first simple substances into compounds of gradually growing variety and volume. Many resulting complex minerals were probably deposited as rock formations. The ocean, having deepened and freed Itself from foreign material, inorganic chemical activity gradually diminished until it has now practically ceased, oxidation having reduced nearly *fi substances to a state of chemical fixity. With the cooling of the primeval ocean and the increase of sunshine, came organic chemical activity. The material had been prepared in air and water, and may have had its origin in an early reaction between carbon dioxide and th® elements of water, yielding hydrocarbons, and subsequently between these and nitrogen. yielding the far more complex albuminous compounds. The complexity of mineral molecules doubtless increased under conditions restraining the activity of oxygen. Sved forms of organic substance--Blmplo carbon compounds—may have first appear, and and these would serve us the basis of gradually increasing complexity of molecules through a possibly long-continued process of deoxidation and formation of higher carbon and nitrogen compounds until true organic matter appeared, and the chemistry of life had begun. LITERARY NOTES. It is announced that Mr. Barrie’s “Margaret Ogilvie” is in its twentieth thousand, and his "Sentiment.'il Tommy” In its thir-ty-fifth. Anew volume of verse by Mr. Robert Underwood Johnson, the associate editor of the Century, will appear next autumn. The title is to be “Songs of Liberty and Other Poems.” That is a fine saying of Stevenson's which is to grace his monument in San Francisco. “To earn a little, to spend a little less, to be honest, to be kind, to keep a few friends, and these without capitulation.” It comes from his “Christmas Sermon,” and has more in it than many a big published book of sermons. Mr. Kipling has written to a Brooklyn boy who asked for more jungle stories: “Dear Clement: Yes, I know some more jungle stories, but they are so bad that I am afraid the mothers of the little boys who read the other stories wouldn’t want them to read this second erop; this is the reason I have not written them.” It is said that Hall Caine spent months in studying what may be termed subterranean London, in order to obtain material for a portion of his new romance, “The Christian,” just published by the Messrs. Appleton. The titles of the four parts into which the story is divided are “The Outer World,” “The Religious Life,” “The Devil's Acre” and "Sanctuary.” This year the Schiller prize was divided between the dramatists, Herren Von Wiidenbruch and Hauptmann. As this prize is bestowed in the name of the German Emperor, that monarch decided to set aside the judgment of the jury and awarded the whole prize to Herr Yon Wildenbrueh, the author of dramas which glorify the Hohenzollern race. The eminent literary historian, Professor Erich Schmidt, was one of the judges, and resigned ttis seat in consequence of the Emperor's arbitrariness. It is likely that tho English edition of Mark Twain’s new book, “The Surviving Innocent,” will be known in England as “More Tramps Abroad.” The English are learning to read American books, but they have never taken kindly to American titles. "The Marble 1 aun” is known across the water as "Transformation,” Poe's “The Gold Bug” as “The Gold Beetle,” Harold Frederic’s "The Damnation of Theron Ware” as “Illumination.” It would be easy to multiply instances of the ease with which the fastidious taste of London publishers is shocked. Hall Caine’s new book, “The Christian,’* was written and rewritten by the indefatigable author no fewer than three time®. This novel is the development of an idea not altogether unknown to readers of the Russian Tolstoi, namely, that it is difficult for a man to live the life of Christ in Christian society as it exists to-day. For three years has Mr. Caine lived in and for his now completed work, and the reward for all this willing but wearing labor is in the very near future. By Monday night he will have received the record price of £5,200 and one admirer thinks it is quite safe to prophesy that, with the Helnemanns’ first issue of 50,000 copies us an unassuming start, the total sale of the book by next Christmas will have well exceeded that of any other work of fiction in our day. The following is from a recent talk with James Lane Allen in which he was asked his opinion of the novelists of the day: “I have certainly this to say: That each is doing his best. If he is not he is certainly losing the greatest opportunity that the Atnercan novelist has so far had in our civilization. Never before was the interest in American fiction so keen, so genuine, and so widespread. Never before were there so many publishers eager to handle a good American novel or to pay such prices for it: never before were there so many critics on the whole press of the country so ready and so cordial to rate a book at its full value and never before was there so studious and so sympathetic an audience of readers. I give it only as an opinion and it may be worth nothing tvhatever, but the literary situation in this country just at present is peculiar. The Scotch school that have been carrying everything before them are now a waning influence. Among the English novelists not a one is gaining on this side. Kipling himself has never touched an American subject in prose without a distinct injury to his reputation. The Russians have had their day. With the exception of two or three foreign novelists new to us, the national attention is directed toward the future of American fiction. The novelists of to-day may not be in that future, but they are certainly trying to be.”

AHOIT PEOPLE AND THINGS. Alexander the Great had a large number of wives and was accustomed to reduce them to obedience by using the flat of his sword as a corrective. Sidney Smith’s wife was such a good cook that he calculated that during the course of his life he had eaten forty-eight four-horse wagon loads more than was good for him. Senor Sagasta, Spanish Liberal leader, tells his constituents that the United States “possibly” contains a population of 25,900,000, and that a Spanish army of fifty thousand could march victoriously from Boston to California in two weeks’ time. Mrs. May French-Sheldon, who has spent most of her life abroad, although she is a native of this country, has been elected a member of the English Royal Geographical Society. It Is said that she is the only woman who ever received this distinction. Mrs. Oliver H. P. Belmont Is said to valtfe her famous Marble House, at Newport, at $1,000,000. She recently refused an offer from Potter Palmer for it approxlm.ating that sum. It is assessed at SBOO,OOO. Cornelius Vanderbilt’s The Breakers is assessed at $938,000. Sarah Bernhardt has Instituted criminal proceedings for libel against La Press© and M Schurmann, a French impressario, for having said that she retained 33 per cent, of the receipts at a performance given in aid of the fund for the erection of a monument to Alexandre Dumas. Mary Stuart, of Scotland, was not a beauty. She had cross eyes, and, to save the trouble of having her hair dressed, cut it off close to her head and wore a wig. When, after her death, the executioner fitted ner head to show it to the people, the wig came off and showed a close-cropped skull covered with gray hair. Mrs. Lewis is the name of the woman who discovered some manuscripts of the gospel in a Syriac convent on Mount Sinai. With her sister, Mrs. Gibson, she has examined two service books of Palestinian Syriac of the twelfth century. These books are supposed to be written in the dialect spoken by Christ. The two sisters will soon publish a text of their researches. The Countess Miranda, Jietter known as Christine Nilsson, lias just made a trip to Sweden, her native country, where she visited the exposition at Stockholm. Her visit was a constant succession of the prods of public admiration, and crowds of people waited in the street for her to pass. She sang only once, at Upsaia, the old university cii y. where the students came to serenade m-r. An old friend of Jean Ingelow’s, while speaking of the poetess recently, said: “I remember a literary man invited to meet her at dinner at our house declaring ruefully that she had kept him discussing soup kitchens for the poor half the time (thephilanthropic interest was just awakening in London then), and when he resolutely determined on changing the subject she started clothing clubs.” All flags used in the United States navy are made by women at the Brooklyn navy yard. In the great sewing room from twenty to thirty women are assembled daily to work on the tings. Not only ars our own ‘ Old Glory” made by them, but also the tlaga of every nation in whos waters our vessels sail. Some of the worn-