Indianapolis Journal, Volume 52, Number 5, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 January 1902 — Page 11

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WASHINGTON- HOUSES where official society ivill DISPLAY ITSELF THIS WINTER. Attorney (JcncrnI Knox', JMls.(m ll..ti.e. vlth It Ilenutlfully Decorated Pink I)raivInK Hoom. DEPEWS HISTORIC MANSION CABINET FAMILIES WILL BEAR T11K uiti.NT or i:ti:htai.m.g. .Mvell" Civilian I.ndle Wm Receive Tltii Year on the Same Day Chosen by Mm. Roosevelt. Corre-r-ondcnc of the Indianapolis Journal. WASHINGTON, Jan. 4. Men are willing to spend fortunes for the exquisite pleasure of shining brilliantly in Washington society. The season" ushered in by the N w Year festivities has but begun. The forces of swelldom have but gathered. The expressman is still delivering Paris gowns. Florists are busy, caterers are busy, tailors are busy. Liverymen, shopkeepers, marketrr.en. hair dressers, awning renters are launching upon their happiest weeks of the year. Physicians, apothecaries and undertakers will begin 10 gloat a month or two later. From now until Lent the morry whirl will go on. Hearts will be won, hearts will be bought, hearts will be broken. Vanity will vie with Vanity. Vanity will be appeased. Vanity will be wounded. Scores will he caught in the vortex and drawn under; hundreds will be taught the pace tn.it kills; hundreds more will profit. The brunt of ofiicial hospitality, so far as physical exertion is concerned, will fall upon the Cabinet women. From now until Lent they will be expected to keep open house daily. Hence, they will return calls by card only. Until Mr. Cleveland's second administration viands were spread at these Cabinet afternoons." But this custom fur-ni.-hed bread and meat to a troublesome species of parasite which vigorously thrived and multiplied under stimulus of this nourishment to expensive proportions. This creature was catalogued in social classifications as the "lunch route fiend." Unbidden, she came, she saw, she overglutted. But the starvation policy wrought her extermination. The wife of the secretary of statethe premier of the Cabinet ordinarily takes the lead in Cabinet entertainments. But Secretary of State Hay's household will remain in mourning for the son Adelbert during th present season. In fact, there will bo a dearth of Cabinet hosts and hostesses for the first few weeks of the season, at least. Secretary of the Navy Long's family are also in mourning. And, as yet, no one ran count on when the new secretary of the treasury and new postmaster general will enter into the whirl and worry of Vanity Fair. KNOX'S FINE HOUSE. The rhow house of the Cabinet circle this season will be the luxuriously appointed mansion which Attorney General Knox just bought from Mrs. George W. Childs, of Philadelphia, and for which he paid $11S,0. This is on K street near Sixteenth, and Just east of Senator Hale's palatial dwelling. Mr. Knox has to walk just one block to his office. His new home is light, creamcolored brick, with stone trimmings and relief embellishments of the same tint. The attornej- general's pink drawing room Is already the talk of the town. It Is decorated and furnished in the Louis XI style. The wall panels are of pink satin damask with gold embroideries. Pink predominates in the luxurious rug which covers the polished inlaid floor. The framework of the furniture is entirely in gold, while the upholsterery is heavy pink satin, hand-painted. The woodwork is of ivory tint. Gilt candelabra grace the wall space on both sides of the doors. The wall panels of the dining room, immediately In the rear, are rich green. -The furniture of the latter apartment is of costly ebony, the chairs being upholstered In hand-carved ieather of dark green. The woodkork is dark oak. A capacious china closet is built into the wall on one side and a corresponding cabinet on the opposite contains silver plate. The woodwork of the library, across the hall. Is of light mahogany. In the center is a large desk in dark mahogany and gilt. The mantelpiece in the rear of the room support? a mirror, extending to the ceiling. The walls are lined with book shelves, and a huge terrestrial globe graces one corner of the room. Secretary Root also starts the season in & new home. A few weeks ago he moved Into the red brick mansion formerly occurs d by Paymaster General Alfred E. pate? of the army. It is on the corner of Eighteenth and N streets, in the heart of th- fashionable West End, and within a r.or.'s throw of the Imperial royal AustroHungarian legation. General Miles's house I- but a half block away and the Church cf the Covenant, where President Harrison w-.r-l.iped, is directly opposite. The secMary of war can look across Connecticut avovio from his drawing room windows ftr.d s.,-t. the British embassy. TUP. FIRST CABINET DINNER. ?-r. t iry Root will entertain President R' v. lt at dinner on Tuesday evening, t: llth of this month. It has become an " -' Wished custom for Cabinet officers, in t:.' ord.-r of their , succession to the presi-c-r.ey. t.. dine the chief executive during tae s,,.-,,! reason. Ordinarily the secretary r? Mte is the first to invite the President t-' H - board, the secretary of the treasury 1 ' the next, the secretary of war next. a:.d .... ..n down the line. But this season. i: :s:e;ieh as the secretary of state is in n-'wr-dng and the secretary of the treasury h about to retire. Secretary Root will ' 1 .-ff in the round of dinner-giving. T!:---.- dinner parties are generally the only r'' ,-raced by the presence of the Presl"t. President Roosevelt has. however, 'r tdy made an exception to the practice c' :.!- immediate predecessors by dining r :.!! with Senator Chauncey Depew. At o- i,f t;,,, dinners given by Secretary Mor1 - to Mr. Cleveland that original and ' 'ritric- secretary of agriculture had e-.-rvrrj at his board ices molded Into the forms of vegetables of all kinds, heaped Ir.fo a hay wagon wrought of spun sugar. The only Cabinet officer of recent years has lived here within his official InCome nas Attorney General Garland, a member of Mr. Cleveland's lirst council toard. Hf occupied . two-story frame koi! on Rhode Island avenue, gave no ent"rtPi!rj(nt5, anti declined even to attend President Cleveland's wedding. If dependt uon the official salary of $3,000 a year

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.v x.e.e öam allows him a Cabinet officer in these days cannot hope to make any social showing whatsoever. Secretary Hitchcock, for instance, pays his entire salary in rentals to Mrs. Dewey for the use of her house at Sixteenth and K streets, the same which was occupied by Secretary Alger. The only perquisites of each Cabinet officer are an "official messenger," whom he may detail as his valet de chainbre. and a double team and government carriage to bear him to and from office or while attending to government business. Throughout the season each Wednesday will be known as Cabinet day, although the ladies of that circle will be at home each afternoon, as stated. Monday will be Supreme Court day; Thursday, Senate day. Women of the House circle formerly received on Tuesdays, but, as a rule, they are now adopting the day of the locality in which they live. Friday used to be known as civilians' day, when swelldom of the unofficial brand kept open house, but a conspicuous number of civilians of th extreme northwest end are now at home on Saturdays, on which afternoon Mrs. Roosevelt also receives. WHERE THE DEPEWS WILL SHINE. Senator Chauncey Depew will bring his bride to the historic Corcoran house, at Connecticut avenue and H street. Before and during the Mexican war this historic mansion was occupied by Mr. Parkenham. the then British minister, and many are the traditions of brilliant hospitality enjoyed within its walls during that early period of Washington's social history. Daniel Webster's friend presented the house to him at the height of his fame and he dwelt there while secretary of state. When Mr. Webster left the Cabinet he decided that he was too poor to support such an establishment. It was thereupon bought by W. W. Corocoran, Washington's noted philanthropist. It has ever since been known only as the "Corcoran house." This mansion came very near being confiscated by the Union government early in the civil war. Mr. Corcoran's sympathies were with the South, and at the outbreak of hostilities he went abroad to avoid complications as a result of the conflict. The story goes that while he was In New York preparing to sail his agent here received orders to have the house cleared for the government's uses within two days. This order was wired by the agent to his client and the latter replied that he had already leased the mansion to the French minister. But it is said the agent never received this reply, and the insinuation has been that the wires bearing it were tapped by the secret service authorities, who became fearful of international complications on learning that a friendly sovereign had made the estate foreign territory for the time being. At any rate, on the agent's notifying the government of his readiness to turn over the property he was surprised by the official notice that Uncle Sam had changed his mind. So the French minister took possession. HISTORICAL ENTERTAINMENTS. The Marquis de Montholon, the diplomat In questlcn, dispensed generous and gorgeous hospitality while host of the big house. His crowning entertainment was aball given by order of Louis Napoleon while General Grant was stationed here as commander-in-chief of the army. General Grant attended and a French warship lying at Annapolis was ordered here that its officers might do him honor. The marquis received his guests in an elaborate court dress embroidered with jeweled fleur-de-lis and ordered directly from Paris for the occasion. Sir Frederick Bruce, minister from England, led the first cotillion at 5 o'clock in the morning and the dancing lasted until dawn, after which a sumptuous breakfast was served. Kate Chase Sprague attended this ball as a bride, as did the former wife of Stephen A. Douglas, newly married to General Williams. The war having closed, Mr. Corcoran returned to the house, where he remained until his death. It was subsequently occupied by Senator Brice, of Ohio, who is said to have paid Anton Seidl $5.000 for one evening's entertainment held there. The Brlces were among the most extravagant entertainers whom Washington has ever known. Thus it will be seen that the new Mrs. Depew, although Parisbred, will , have no just cause to sigh because traditions of a glorious past do not haunt the halls of her new world home. The Corbin mansion will 'be another of Washington's show houses this season. The last finishing touches have just been added and the adjutant general of the army, with his bride, are just moving in. This house, at Twenty-second and R streets, is within sight of the new French embassy, shortly to grace the extreme northwest. It is of plain exterior, of red brick with classic parapet roof moldings and English basement. The moldings of the windows and doors are of white marble. The interior Is luxuriously decorated with costly tapestries and rugs brought from Paris. This mansion will be the scene of many brilliant functions during the season. JOHN ELFRETH W ATKINS, JR. IN THE GOSSIP'S CORNER. The death of Senator W. J. Sewcll, a week ago Friday, will be pretty certain to turn loose a flood of good stories about him, for those of which he Is the center and those that he told, ofttimes concerning himself, are legion. I have enjoyed many of them, but one of the best. I think, is one that I heard Gen. Ed S. Bragg, of Wisconsin, tell In the lobby of the Ebbitt House in Washington, one night, while the general was still In Congress. In substance it is as follows: Sewell was a gallant soldier in the Union armies during the civil war, rose to the command of a brigade and was brevettcd major general for gallantry at Chancellorsville. Some one asked him, one time, whether his pay was regulated by his actual or his brevet rank. Sewell's Irish wit came bubbling up in the prompt reply: -When the ghost of Hamlet's father said My offense is rank and smells to heaven.' he didn't mean brevet rank, because there isn't a scent in it." xxx General Sewell was one of the few men, if not the only man in the national public ife who. until his front hair grew thin, wore a bang. There was nothing effeminate or afTected In the habit. His reason for zo doing was to hide an ugly scar made by a rebel bullet. I forget whether at Chancellorsville or Gettysburg, in both of which tights he was wounded. The general was by no means ashamed of the disfiguring mark, but he was one of the most modest men in the world, and fancied that if he did not keep the scar covered it would attract public attention to hlmseif. and that he sought to avoid. XXX It would be more than strange, wouldn't it. if the forty-four grain pearl that was stolen from Mrs. Paul G. Thebaud, of New York, the other day, just after she had bought it from a leading Gotham jewelry firm should turn out to be the forty-four iSa Indiana pearl of which I told you fast Sunday that had been, only recently, sold to the fashionable purveyor of gems in the metropolis. At all events, pearls of that liTe are enough of a rarity to make

IXDIAXAPOLIS

the mention of two of them in the same day and in the same town a coincidence of more than passing interest. XXX A young friend blew into my office the other day, the crisp saltiness of the Atlantic breezes still clinging to his garments, and he made me homesick for blue water. He came straight from Bath, Mc., but had spent the summer cruising on the coast as far down as Hatteras. Of course we talked of ships and the sea, and of "them that go down to the sea in ships." In my day on the coast the four-masted schooner was not of so old a type as not to be still somewhat of a marvel, and only one five-master was then afloat. Since then six-masters have made their appearance, and now a seven-master is being built. I had "read up" on the six-master and knew that the masts are named from bow to stern In order, fore, main, mizzen, spanker. Jigger and driver. I understand these names. With the first four I was familiar and the last two are the most natural names in the world, but I have been much puzzled to guess a possible name for the aftermast of the new monster, so I asked my friend. "That will be the Saturday mast," he said. "They'll start at the fore and change the names all the way aft Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday masts." This sounds plausible enough, but fancy routing out a lot of old barnacles to put a balance reef in the Wednesday sail! And It would take a man a whole week to get from the for'ard house to the quarterdeck to take his trick at the wheel. As a matter of fact, I understand the seventh mast will be known as the "pusher;" but with spanker, driver and pusher in use, it would seem as if all the appropriate rear end definitives have been exhausted, and that if the craze for more masts Is carried any further numbers will be the only available terms to describe them. xxx We hear a great deal about this being "the era of young men" in business and public affairs, but we little think how young are some of them who step Into places of vast responsibility. I had this in mind when I asked my coastwise friend about Wilder Murphy. I suppose you never heard of Wilder Murphy, but wherever there Is blue water, from Land's End to Hong-Kong and from 'Quoddy Bay to Cape Horn, Wilder Murphy is known to every son of the sea. When I quit following the water he was just making his devoirs to Neptune under the tutelage of his father, than whom no finer shipmaster is afloat, and now he commands one öf the finest ships ever built at Bath the Shenandoah, of the famous fleet owned by Arthur Sewall, once candidate for Vice President of the United States. He is the "boy captafn" par excellence, for he was twenty-two years old only last August, and he has been sailing the Shenandoah since he was In his 'teens. The Shenandoah Is a four-masted ship, built at Bath in 1SD0; COO feet long, 49 feet molded beam, 20 feet deep, registers 36 tons gross and 3,154 net, and will stow 5,000 tons of coal under her hatches With the thirtyfive or forty men who form her crew she is a pretty good load of responsibility for a "kid" to shoulder. And thereby hangs a tale. XXX About a year ago Murphy left his ship on the Pacific coast for a visit home and joined her in San Francisco after she was loaded and the agents had made arrangements for her insurance. .When the underwriters saw the stripling walk aboard and take command they threw up their hands in horror. "What! A kid like that take this ship and cargo around the Horn? No, sir!" And they refused to insure the vessel unless another master was substituted. Wilder did not lose his temper or waste any time in arguing. He sent a telegram to Mr. Sewall explaining the situation. As quick as the wires could carry the words the answer came: "Tell them they can't insure my ship. I'll insure her myself. Bring her home." And Wilder did. XXX Just bear in mind the dimensions of this really huge ship and compare them with these figures, which are the dimensions and capacity of the seven-masted schooner I already have alluded to: Length, 403 feet; beam, 50 feet; depth of hold, CO feet; draught, 27 feet; capacity, between 7,000 and 8,000 tons of coal. Her seven masts will spread 43,000 square feet of canvas, or nearly twice that spread by the Shenandoah, and to handle it will require but sixteen men, or less than half the crew young Murphy has under his command. No longer than fifteen years ago a vessel that could carry over 1,000 tons of coal under the hatches was considered very large, and I doubt if there was a sailing vessel in existence that could stow away 2,000 tons in a single load. THE GOSSIP. A Denn Who Dislikes Chicago. London Daily Maii. Dean Stubbs, of Ely, does not like Chicago. Reasonably not, since it is the beauty of his old cathedral and its delighttul environs which have inspired "In a Minster Garden" (Elliot Stock.) The dean's causerie revolves amiably round Ely, but when he discourses on his holiday in the New World he becomes most amusing. Of Chicago he says: "I thought it the most hatefully unlovely city I ever was in. There were tine buildings, of course warehouses for the most part, of the 'sky-scraping' variety but, as a whole, hateful, simply hateful a clanking wilderness of endless streets, monotonous, unpicturesque, untidy, dirty, foul." Yet the dean tells at least one story which proves that Chicago, for all its unloveliness, has a knack of digesting all who go to live there. It relates to Archdeacon Rushton, the secretary of Bishop Maclaren. The archdeacon was a Yorkshireman by birth: he had married a Canadian; but he had been settled for some time in Chicago. "His children, he told me, were born in that city. One day lately his youngest boy came home from school looking grave and solemn. He had Just been promoted to the history class, and had been reading about the war of independence. 'Father,' he said, are you a Britisher?' 'Yes. my boy. I am. Oh! Mother, are you a Britisher?' 'Yes. dear, I am.' she said. 'Well,' he replied, after a pause, 'I don't care. You had the King's army, and we were only a lot of farmers, but we thrashed you.' " Altogether a delightful book. Heckles of Danp-er. Philadelphia Inquirer. Reading the newspapers, day after day one could not fail to marvel at the number of experienced railroaders who are knocked from the tops of freight cars by the bridges under which their trains pass. Personally they are familiar with the fact that these bridges are there, and ordinarily they can tell when they are within a mile or two of them, and still they run counter to them, often with fatal results. The French have a proverb which, freely translated, reads that familiarity breeds contempt, and upon that theory only can the many fatalities of this character be explained. Between the. tops of the freight cars and the bottoms of the bridges there is not standing room for any grown man. and yet year after year experienced railroaders court death by standing up as the r trains rush along. For their own good s it not time they gave up that habit? Their vocation is dangerous enough as it is. Right Kind of a "Woman. Baltimore Herald. Senator Depew's fiancee declares that she wouldn't exchange her prospective husband for all the titles in France. That is the kind of Americanism that the , people of this country delight to honor.

SDXDAY MORXIXG. JAXUART

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THE BRITISH MOHAN he nccLAnns that a campaign of SLAM)EIt HAS BEEN BEGUN. Inslntn that He and Ills Trnilc t'nlnn Are Not Responsible for the Restriction of Oatpnt. LEADERS RESENT THE CHARGE CLAIMING THAT AN INDUSTRIAL CniSIS IS APPROACHING, And that Newspapers and Cnpltnlists Seek to Throw the Blame for It Upon Trades-Unionism. Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal. LONDON, Dec. 25. "A portion of the British press, with the Times at its head, has started a campaign of calumny against the British workman. It Is only when that same workman deserts his craft and dons martial uniform that he can hope to find favor in their sight. In civil life, bricklayers, carpenters, masons and laborers are vile shirkers of work, whose sole study is how best to neglect their duty. On the warpath these same men are transformed into heroes, whose devotion to duty none dare question. " This quotation is the opening paragraph of a letter from a British workman which appeared recently in the Dally News. In a striking way it calls attention to the current controversy in regard to trade-unionism. The point In immediate dispute is, whether trade unions have or have not counseled their members to limit output, and thus make room for more hands, by doing their day's work on what is called the "go-easy" principle. But there is also In Issue the broader question, whether the policy of trade-unionism in England is not putting this country at a ruinous disadvantage in the competition It meets from suoh countries as Germany and the United States. To support the charge of shirking, the case of bricklayers Is cited. Twenty years ago, says the Times, the bricklayer would put down his 1,000 bricks a day when on ordinary work, and on some kinds of work would even lay 1.200 a day, whereas the unwritten law now in force declares that a bricklayer must "go easy" and not lay, on ordinary work, more than 400 bricks a day. Here is a specific allegation and it has been frankly met. The general secretary of the Operative Bricklayers' Society Is Mr. John Batchelor. Interviewed on a recent date this gentleman denied that there was any unwritten law restricting men In their output of work, and characterized as "ridiculously untrue" the statement that there had been a drop on ordinary work from a thousand bricks a day to four hundred. On similar work, quality for quality, men lay as many bricks to-day, he declared, as they did twenty years ago. He explained, however, that what was known as "ordinary work" at that time, and what is now called by that name, are really two different classes of work. In modern buildings there is much more architectural detail, and, of course, this greater ornamentation is secured at the expense of speed. Then, too, overseers are much more stringent now than they used to be. Faulty work has Invariably to be done over again, and this also has told against speed. With these qualifications it was insisted by Mr. Batchelor that the men of his union put out as much work to-day as they ever did, and as to the union conniving at loafing and laziness, that, he said, was a shameless fabrication. A CHARGE DISPROVED. Upon the point that unions are active parties in limiting output, the writer In the Times seemed at first to have made out a good case, for he quoted, as though It were of recent date and still operative, the following rule: "Rule 5 You are strictly cautioned not to outstep good rules by doing double the work you are required, and causing others to do the same in order to gain a smile from your master. Such foolhardy and deceitful actions leave a great number of good members out of employment the year round. Certain Individuals have been guilty, who will be expelled if they do not refrain." This, on its face, looked conclusive, but investigation has shown that this ugly, guilty little rule, instead of emanating from any of the great trade unions of to-day, has been dug up out of the distant past. It was altogether a local requirement, and is so much a back number that the union formulating it has been thirty years defunct. No cause is helped by unfairness, and least likely of all Is this attack of capital upon labor to be helped by such means, owing to the very general conviction that labor in England has never yet been paid a fair remuneration. A leading representative of the labor interests of Great Britain Is Mr. W. G. Steadman, who Is also a member of the London County Council, and who, the other day, expressed the opinion before that body that England was approaching an Industrial crisis and that the object of the present attack by the Times and other papers was to screen capitalists, who were the real cause of this threatened disaster, and throw the blame for it upon trade-unionism. Highly Indignant, also, are such stanch and well-poised labor leaders as Mr. Ben Tillet, Mr. Tom Mann and John Bruns, M. P. These are representatives of what is called the "new unionism," which is decidedly the prevailing type at the present, and how far these are from any complicity in the alleged "go-easy" policy, is best shown by an exhortation they addressed a few years ago to the London dockers. "If our members," they said, "do not behave as honest men should, we must speak out plainly, and in a number of instances it has been the case that our members have not worked properly, thus weakening the hands of the executive when engaged in negotiation with employers of labor. Let us face the position in a dignified way and let it be known that membership in our union demands of the members fair work for fair pay." A NATIONAL CHARACTERISTIC. It thus remains to be proved that the output of British labor has been restricted by any formal requirement of trade-unionism or even with its connivance. But there is another way in which it is unquestionably restricted, and that Is by the constitutional disinclination of the British workman to "get a hustle on him." There may be no rule of a society saying "go easy," uor any watchword of this kind passed around amongst gangs of workmen, but there la

1902.

certainly a rule of English human nature to that effect. British workmen are almost as averse to rushing things as they are to quenching their thirst with anything weaker than beer. Between these two characteristics there is, perhaps, some vital connection. But their slowness Is chiefly due, neither to what they drink, nor to the climate in which they live, but to what Lord Rosebery has called the "fatal complacency" which Is a habit of the English mind. This trait affects all classes. Nobody seems to be in a hurry. "We are English, you know isn't that enough? What's the use of getting excited? Hav'n't we always been the favored of Providence?" This is the attitude, seemingly, of both employer and employe. In the former it shows itself in a fear of mercantile risks and in the failure to adopt up-to-date methods or to enlarge his plant when orders multiply. In the latter, in an obvious fear of making work scarce by doing it too quickly. That the English workman cannot successfully compete in skill and quickness with the American workman would be more to his discredit than it Is were there not so many proofs that the man who employs him stands in the same relation of inferiority to the American capitalist. Like master, like man, and as the Prince of Wales said at the lord mayor's banquet, what everybody in this slow-going old country needs to do is to "wake up." Too general here has been what the papers call "the policy of drift." If this is not exchanged soon for a new policy of thrift, enterprise taking the place of complacency, England will soon be out of the running both as a military power and as a competitor with other nations for the world's trade. This is what many Englishmen themselves are saying, and to every thoughtful visitor it is a conclusion to which he is driven by everything he sees and hears. UNIONS IN HARD LINES. The trade-unionism of England is having hard times just now. It may not be guilty of all that is charged upon It, but it has iepeatedly gono to illegal lengths in furthering strikes, and it Is deeply and foolishly culpable in the matter of opposing new machinery. There is at this moment a silly war against Improved machinery in the boot-making center of Northampton. This, too, despite the fact that the English boot and shoe trade has already been seriously disturbed by competition from our own side of the herring pond. It all, of course, means so much more fish for the American net; but, none the less, how lamentable it is to see English workmen warring against their own interests and handing over to foreigners the trade which they need to keep their own little ones from starving. Some of the excesses of British tradeunionism arc, at this time, so to speak, coming home to roost. Everybody will recall how, last summer, in the court of final appeal, after the matter had been carried up until it could go no higher, the Taff Vale Railway Company got an ironclad decision against certain forms of picketing and intimidation, and coupled with that, a judicial ruling which makes the funds of trade-runion societies liable, like those of any other corporate body, for damages done during strikes. The Taff Vale Railway Company is now taking advantage of this ruling. It is suing for a large sum the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, one of the very strongest of the trade unions, whose cash in hand at this date exceeds a quarter of a million pounds. Other large suits are also being prepared. The situation is truly alarming from the British workman's point of view. To strike at the reserve funds of trade-unionism is to touch it at a vital spot. No such blow has ever been dealt before, and never previously were labor leaders so dubious of the future. Of this legal assault by a railway company on the funds which English workmen have piled up out of their hard savings, a prominent trade-union leader said, yesterday: "This is the first shot in a gigantic battle we shall fight it to a finish." Meanwhile, as the latest statistics show, the troubles that are threatening organized labor are neither lessening the number of its adherents nor tending to a diminution of its resources. In the last year there was an increase of 104,247 members, making a total of nearly two millions. These are embraced in 1,272 separate organizations, and about 125,000 of the 2,000,000 are women. A gratifying increase is also reported in the funds of these societies. The figures of the smaller unions are not available, but taking the 100 largest, which have a combined membership of about 1,159,000, the Income for last year exceeded that of the year before by $500,000 and totaled nearly $2.000,000. In these 100 unions the accumulated funds amount at this time to not much less than $19,000,000. So that tradeunionism is not without the sinews of war, and if it be true, as some think, that the present onslaught is the beginning of a determined effort by the government to crush it out of existence, one may anticipate that the struggle to ensue will indeed be, not only a gigantic battle, but a veritable battle of giants. CHIEF USE OF FUNDS. It must not be thought, however, that the immense funds of English trade-unionism are held and used only for the protection of workmen against their employers. Far from this, It Is usually but a fraction of the outlay that goes to that purpose; the bulk of Its disbursement being in benefits of one kind or another to its own members. Taking again the 100 largest unions, it .Is found that during last year, out of every pound received, 13 shillings were spent in helping the unfortunate, 5 shillings in working expenses, and in what is called "dispute pay" which means payment to those on strike only 2 shillings out of every pound. In all, during last year, these 100 unions paid to the sick, the unemployed, the superannuated and other unfortunates not far from $5,000,000, and, apart altogether from their effect on international trade, who will dare to say that organizations which on so vast a scale are helping the unfortunate, do not abundantly justify their right to live and thrive by the good they do? This allusion to the unfortunate amongst British workmen brings up once more the letter quoted from in my first paragraph. The writer represents himself as one of five thousand laborers employed In the army ordnance department. The country, he says, would naturally assume that laborers In a department which has given such signal satisfaction during the war would be well paid and contented. But what are the facts, he asks; then giving, as a fair sample, the facts in his own case. "For a week's work," he says,. "I am paid 21 shillings. Of this sum five and sixpence a week has to go for rent, leaving fifteen and sixpence to provide all the necessaries of life for a family of five. Needless to say," he adds, "the necessaries of life cannot be provided out of this meager sum." The further story of this servant of the British government Is most pathetic: "Neither my wife nor I have been out of doors on a Sunday for years we have no respectable clothing. Our children vainly

cry to us for small extras. They often say 'You'll buy It me when you get money, won't you, dada?' and that's enough to drive one mad. My wife laments lu r fate I curse mine. From Monday to Friday I feel myself deeply wronged. On Saturday, when I take the weekly guinea, I feel like a whipped cur, and on Sunday I must needs hide myself in my kennel." This is the personal part of the man's story. Is he telling the truth, one wonders, in making it aprly to five thousand others? This he does at any rate. "Analyze my thoughts, my feelings, if you can.", he says, "and multiply it 5,000, and you have a fair estimate of the measure of contentment prevailing among the laborers directly employed by the government in the heart of this glorious empire." His closing lament Is that "the press is dumb and the pulpit is dumb," which reminds the writer of what Hall Caine, the novelist, said recently, In opening an industrial bazaar at Manchester. He characterized the labor programme as, in principle, profoundly religious and Christian. If it were true, as some said, that the leaders of the Labor party were mostly on the side of unbelief, it was the fault of the churches. Let economic and social redemption come through the churches, and the Irreligious and godless. If -there were such among the people, would disappear. HENRY TUCKLEYCURSE OF SEAF0RTH.

Uncanny History of n Malediction on a Scottish Family. London Letter in New York Press. All this week old Scotch folk have been whispering to younger ones the uncanny history of one of Scotland's oldest families a true history, but one that reads more strangely than the weirdest story of the accomplishment of a "curse" than ever novelist penned. It has been recnlled by the recent death of Sir Arthur Acland Hood, baron of Avalon, famed in the old days as a soldier, having fought at Sebastopol and in Spain, and one of whose progenitors sailed with Captain Cook. His name was moit familiar throughout the length and breadth of Scotland as the nephew by marriage of the lady who was the last of the Seaforth family, the race against which the "curse" was pronounced. Sir Walter Scott himself quoted the prophecy before its fulfillment. His "Lament of the Last of the Seaforths" was written before the curse had worked to completion. In the reign of Charles II, Kenneth Mackenzie, earl of Seaforth, was sent on a mission to Paris. His countess remain oil at Brahan Castle still the home of her descendantsin Rosshire. She imagined herself forgotten and sent for the seer of her clan, bidding him reveal to her what the earl was doing. The seer gave such a report that the lady of Brahan ordered his execution. The sentence was carried out, for chiefs and unquestioned powers of life and death. Before he was killed the seer cursed her and Seaforth: "The last of the long-descended race will be deaf and dumb. He will die mourning, knowing no future chief of Mackenzie will bear rule in Kintail. His lands will pass to a hooded lassie from the East, and she will kill her sister. He shall know of the truth of my words when his neighbors, the great chiefs about him, shall be one bucktoothed, another hare-lipped, another halfwitted, a fourth a stammerer. When he sees these men he shall know his sons are doomed to death; his lands shall hV. lands of the stranger, and no male of his race shall remain at Brahan." After a few days the earl returned home and died. His son, the fourth earl, w.;s created a marquis. The fifth earl fought against the crown and forfeited lands and titles. They wj?re restored in 1725, and he. and his son after him, lived in wealth and honor as great Highland chiefs. In 1794 was born Francis Humbertson Mackenzie, in whom, as the last of his race, the prophecy was fulfilled. At school' scarlet fever deprived him of hearing and he became dumb also. But he was a remarkable man. Sir Walter Scott calls him a nobleman of extraordinary talents, who must have made for himself a lasting reputation had he not had to struggle with natural infirmity. He was Governor of Barbadoes, where he put a stop to slave killing; he raised a regiment of his clansmen to fight in the wars with France the Seaforths, which is the pride of Scotland to-day. Lord Seaforth married and had four sons and four daughters, hearty children. His eldest daughter, when very young, married Admiral Sir Samuel Hood. She accompanied her husband to the East Indian seas, where he died, holding a high command. Tidings traveled slowly then. Lady Hood came home In a frigate, and when she landed on Leith pier she was told that her father and her four brothers were dead, and that she was chief of Kintail. "A hooded lassie from the East," It was true, for she wore the close coif of widowhood. "She has the spirit of a chieftainess in every drop of her blood." wrote Scott, "but the cleverest women fail in management of Highland estates. 1 do fear the accomplishment of the curse, and the house is to fall." Fall It did. Lady Hood could not stem the trouble or avert the fulfillment of the doom. The broad lands melted from the Mackenzie. The great Island of the Lewis was sold to Sir James Matheson. Estate after estate had to be parted with, until only one, Brahan, remained. "And she shall kill her sister." Iuly Hood was driving her younger sister, the Hon. Caroline Mackenzie, in a. pony carriage on a steep mountain road. The ponies took fright, and dashed off, and Miss Mackenzie was thrown out. Lady Hood, in the effort to save her, draggtd the ponies' heads so that the wheels went over the poor girl's neck. The hooded lassie from the East had fulfilled her fate; she had killed her sister! Lady Hood dropped her title, and as Mrs. Stewart-Mackenzie lived long and nobly, as remarkable a character in her way as was her father. She had sons and daughters. Her grandson lives at Brahan to-day, but he is not chief of Kintail. He not even rightfully "of Seaforth." Brahan Castle itself would have been sold had it not been for the present laird's sisters Julia Marchioness, of Tweeddale, and Lady Jeune who came to the rescue of this last shred of the once vast property of their ancestors. "It was so decreed." write Sir Humphry Davy. "Lord Seaforth knew the time had come when he returned from Barbadoes to find as his neighbors in the north the Laird of Gairloch buck-toothed; the Chisholm, hare-lipped; Grant of Grant a poor, demented man, and MacLeod of Raasay, whose lands lay with his own, a stammerer. Our Conscience Fund. H. E. Armstrong, in Ainslee's Magazine. In the year 1S11 an anonymous citizen of New York sent a, dollar to the Treasury Department at Washington with an avowal that he had defrauded the government and wanted to make restitution. A dollar meant something to Uncle Sam in thiue necessitous days when the country verged on war with Great Britain, and it was a patriotic as well as a penitent act. The contributor was the founder of the Conscience Fund, and probably he died In the odor of sanctity. During the preceding thirty-five years of the life of the Republic no one had despoiled the government, or the private conscience was callous. This New York man. indeed, seems to have been the one blemish on a golden era of national virtues, for fifty yars were to elapse before, there was an addition to the fund. In 1S51, just after Sumter was fired on, the sum of $G,00 in bonds was received by the Treasury Department with a letter explaining that a sorely tried conscience could no longer endure its burden of suilt. The plain inference was that the sender, realizing the United States would need a mint of money to carry on the wir, judged it not to be a time to defer repentance. Think of the bounty jumpers who pronttd by his fat contribution! It was really useful to the country In another way: The Conscience Fund, which had languished for want of a shining example, now became active. It has been quoted pretty steadily ever r.lnce. At the present time It amounts to more than $300.000. Indeed, restitution is getting to be the fashion, and the time may come when no one will take advantage of the government, or do so only with the laudable design of swelling the Con?cience Fund when any emergency confronts Uncle Sam.

THICK 1IVK CUNTS.

VARIETIES OF COAL THEY ARE MORI: NUMEROUS THAN THE AVER AGE CONSUMER KM) WS. orr thnt (inn In (ioinc, the Ohlrr Furl Become a Subject of Renewed Interest In the State. EXTENT OF INDIANA COAL BEDS THEIR DEVELOPMENT HAS BEEN RETARDED BY THE USE OP GAS. Wide Rnncre of Qunlltles Make the DifTerent Coals Avnllnhlc for Many Purposes. "To the average person." said an Indianapolis coal dealer, "especially i:i this city, where we are comparatively uneducated on the subject, coal is simply coal, with little distinction as to the varieties exc pi the general one that 'hard.' or anthracit is different from 'soft.' This Is a crude state of knowledge, to say the least. There is almost as much difference between coals as between woods, nnd. Indeed, one writer on the subject says that the different kinds of coal in the United States might b divided into almost as many varieties as there are of trees In the forest. Here is a list of those which you are supposed to be able to get through any large dealer In this place," and he produced from the papers on his desk a printed card showing a list with the present prices per ton affixed. The list read: "Anthracite (all sizes), $7.25; Blossburg, $5; smokeless, $1.75; Jackson, $1.25; Kanawha, $4.25; Pittsburg, $1.25; Raymond, $1.25; Winifrede, $1.25; Luhrlg. $1; Hocking valley, $1; Brazil block, $3.vi: Green county, $3.25; Indiana lump, $3.25. There were also live kinds of slack, ranging from $.1.25 to $1 AN IMPORTANT SUBJECT. These remarks of the dealer and his little card seemed to open up a new line of inquiry to the uninformed listener, to whom the coal question is becoming one of practical moment, and further inquiry in divers quarters Invested the subject with new interest. The difference between coals, from the soft, dirty varieties that clog the pipes with soot and leave their black mark on whatever they touch, to the hard, clean, smokeless fragments of anthracite Is a difference of degree, rather than of kind, and represents different stages and conditions in that long process which transforms generations of dead vegetation to solid subterranean strata, stored with the elements of combustion. The peat of the bogs, which, In some countries, is cut out with spades and used as fuel, is the first step In that process, which is still going on. Then comes a brownish substance, still showing its vegetable nature, called lign'te, then coal proper, the iemlc elements and general character of varying with Its age and the varying conditions under which it is formed. Some kinds have in them considerable bitumen, and burn with a yellow, smoky flame, while some are almost or quite free from this element; some soften and run togethe r in a mass when burning, and others puff up and disintegrate; some burn away to clean ashes, some leave a deposit of wasteful clinkers; some come out of the mine In cubical blocks, and some have no such regularity of form; some are so soft that it shatters into slack with handling and by exposure to the weather, and some suffer no wastage from these causes. MANY KINDS OF COAL. By virtue of their varying properties different coals are adapted to different purposes. For example, the coking coals, or those that fuse together in burning, are peculiarly fit for the blacksmith's work, and the Braz.il block is said to be unexcelled for locomotives; while, on the other hand, some kinds are unfit for iron-making or working, by reason of elements that the iron takes up to its deterioration. The great desiderata for household coal are cleanliness and freedom from sulphur, which causes clinker. For these qualities the Jackson coal, fom Ohio, has consldrabl vogue, and the recent demand lias exceeded the supply In some place. The Jackson, however, is said not to be an economical fuel, as it burns rapidly. There are other soft coals on the Indianapolis market for which cleanliness is claimed, particularly the Pocahontas smokeless, from Virginia, but this is yet higher-priced than the Jackson, being $1.75 per ton. There is one. coal so little known and appreciated here that the demand does not justify dealers in keeping it, nnd It Is doubtful If It can be cot without a special order. This Is the Canned, a compact, lc? terlcFs lump coal, so firm and hard that, in places where it Is mined, it is sometimes used in lieu of foundation stones for buildings, and so cleanly, when unburnrd, that it may be handled freely without selling the hands. Being unusually rich in gase, it Ignites more easily, perhaps, than any other coal, and if left undisturbed In the large lump will hold fire a remarkably longtime, the flames feeding on the outer surface, then, when struck with the poker, will fall Into fragments and quickly bo a glowing mass. It cannot be got hre for less than $- per ton. owing, doubties, to the little demand for It, but even at that figure some maintain that it is not an expensive fuel. That it is not cheaper and correspondingly popular here is the more to be wondered at, as there is a bed of It being worked at Cannelburg, Daviess count, this State. THE USES OF SLACK. Slack, which Is only the pulverized leavings of soft coal, has come to have a new value as house fuel since the Introduction of air-tight, high-draft stove.--. From experience the writer finds that a ton of Jackson slack will run an eishtecn-inch hot blast stove about a month and a half, which is longer than the same amount of Jackson block, costing $1.75 more, will run the kitchen stove. This slack, so ued. Is all the better for lyirg out in the weather, for the moisture will prevent dut and In such a stove it will burn, even if mixed with snow. The higher prices charged for certain coals do not necessarily indicate superi nrlty of quality, though the average consumer Fems to draw that conclusion. For example, because Kanawha or Pittsburg costs 75 cents more per tn than Braz.il block there exists an idea that the difference is established by a difference of value, wht roas there is simply a difference of freight costs. It is the ed story of hema products making their way slowly and against prejudice. In the opinion of State Geologist Blatchley, who hs made a careful study of the subject and incorporated