Pike County Democrat, Volume 31, Number 22, Petersburg, Pike County, 5 October 1900 — Page 3

mt (Stountg'Draartat M. M«C RTOOP8. Editor ud Proprietor. PETERSBURG. i INDIANA. A Fight in the Forest By David Ker.

T)AD LUCK to that mischievous [) beast! He seems just bent upon worrying my life out. Every day I hear of his doing fresh damage rfWmewhere; and yet when 1 go out to look for him and bring him down I can see no more of him than of my own ears.” It was seldom enough that the governor of Alexandrovsk—a fat, jolly, easy-going old Russian colonel—ce^ild be put out by anything, although he was evidently so just ksrw. When he lost a leg at Sebhstopol, his first remark was that it would be a clear saving of one stocking and one shoe. When Schamyrs fierce Circassians took him prisoner and threatened to hang him he replied only by telling them to ‘‘take care and do it properly;” and when he was sent<off to command an-out-of-the-way post in eastern Siberia, where most men would have been utterly miserable, Col. Bibikoflf was, as he himself jokingly phrased it, “as happy as the day was short.” lint the time for disturbing the colonel's composure had arrived at last, and the particular trouble which had power to drive him beyond the limits of his accustomed, coolness assumed the somewhat uncommon.form of an enormous black bear. Now,* the appearance of a bear, especially if he happened to be unusually big and fierce, would in any ordinary case have been rather welcome than otherwise to. the brave old colonel, who, crippled though he was, had by no means given up hunting, and killed almost as much game from the saddle of his sturdy little forest pony as he had once done on foot. But this particular bear was not an ordinary one by any means. On the contrary, if half the stories about him were to be believed, a more extraordinary, unaccountable, mysterious and utterly objectionable animal never yet disturbed a quiet neighborhood. Wonderful were the tales related of bruin's strength and size, and cunning and ferocity. He was said to be r as large as an ox, powerful enough to beat in a door with one blow of his paw, and so crafty that he seemed to guess every device employed against him, however skillfully concealed. His speed seemed to be as marvelous as" everything else about him. Ha would kill a horse or a bullock at midnight in one village and then fall upon a man before daybreak in an

otner village miles «way. In fact, everything that went wrong throughout the whole district, from the stealing of a ham to the pulling down of a house, was set down, rightly or wrongly; to the credit of this terrible bear. It must not be supposed, however, that all this was allowed to go on without anything being done to stop it. There were plenty of bold hunters in Alexandrovsk besides Col. Bibikoff, and every man of them had done his utmost to earn the glory of having killwl this fierce creature—a sufficient attraction for them, even without the reward of 200 roubles offered by the eolonel to any man who should bring the monster down. But the monster himself seemed In eo hurry to be brought down, and contrived to make it a very difficult job for every man who tried. If a peasant were strolling home earelessly about nightfall without a weapon of any kind he was as certain to fall in with the bear as the moon was to rise that night; but let a hunter go out with gun and knife on purpose to find him, and he was dually certain not to get so much as a glimpse of the beastV short black tail. And just so it fared with all other attempts to get rid of him. Traps had been set for him, and he had sniffed the bait and passed on. Pitfalls had been dug, and he had walked warily around them and then gone off. Food of which the bear was'•‘known to be fond had been poisoned and laid around his accustomed haunts; but bruin was far too cunning to touch it. In fact, he seemed too old a bear to be caught with any kind of chaff, however tempting. In the end the peasants made up their minda that it was useless to hunt him any more, deciding that it was not a bear at all, but one of those wicked magicians who, as they believed, had the powef of changing themselves into wolves, bears «nd other wild beasts and taking vengeance in that form upon those who had offended them. So the colonel had some reason to apeak so angrily, especially as he had himself ridden many a mile through the forest in the hope of meeting the bear, bnt all to no purpose. Suddenly a deep voice said, close to his elbow: “Col. Bibikoff, will you let me try?” “Try what?” asked the colonel, looking round with a start at a short, thick-set, shaggy-haired figure that might easily have been mistaken for the very Ijeai of which he was thinkBnt it was only his servant, Yury, a convict from southern Russia; for it was one of Col. Bibikoff’s queer ways to choose all his household servants from convicts tinder his charge, and to declare that he had never been bettar served in his life

I “To kill the beer tor you,’* replied Yury. “Do you think you can do it?” asked the colonel, looking keenly at him. “I can try,-’ said th« Russian, simply; ‘T am not afraid of hftn. If he’s only a bear, I’ve killed plenty of them already; and if he’s an evil spirit, as they all say, he can have no power over any man who trusts in God. Anyhow, I’ll tackle him, on con* dition that if I get the beat of it you’ll obtain my pardon from the czar.” ”Youry>ardon?” echoed the colonel, staring. “Just so, my master,” rejoined the convict. “I want to see Russia again before I die; and, besides, they say our father, the czar, is a bit of a bear hunter himself; so he’ll be all the more likely to grant it.” Col. Bibikoff pondered. The idea was certainly a very queer oAe, but if it should happen to benefit this man, who had served ^him so faithfully, and to whom he was greatly attached, why, so much the better. In any case, it could scarcely do any harm, for Yury was as old a bear hunter as himself. “Done,” said he, at length; “it’s a bargain.” “Thank you, master; and now I’ll be off at once, for if he knows I'm coming he won’t shpw.” Half an hour later anyone who had 1 been abroad in the forest to the north of Alexamlrovsk would have seen a very curious sight. A man was walking slowly through the thickest part of the wood, yelping and larking as he went exactly like a small dog; and, stranger still, his face, hands and clothes glistened all over as if they had been smeared with honey, which was actually the case. But Yury (for he it was) knew well what he was about. He had not lu:..:~ ed bears so loug without finding'out their fondness for dogs and honey; and he hoped to bring the beast within reach either by the ear or by the nose. Nor was he disappointed. All at once a half-snorting half-grunting sound issued from the thicket, mingled with a crackle of twigs and the rustling of dry leaves. Then the bushes in front of him shook and

ONLY HIS KNIFE LEFT. parted, and out shambled a huge black bear. To any other man, alone in the depths of the forest far from ail help, those long, white fangs and thick, strong limbs and mighty claws, would have been a terrible sight; but not so for the stout-hearted Russian. He leveled the short, hunting spear which was his only weapon, except the broad-bladed knife in his girdle, and planting his feet firmly awaited the onset of the bear, which, after watching him doubtfully for a moment with its small, sullen eyes, came charging at him open mouthed. A shock, a rush, a savage growl, and Yury found himself sprawling on his back among the bushes, with the bear’s grim jaws gaping over him. But the monster was hampered for a moment by the shaft of the spear which had been driven home into its shaggy breast; and the moment saved Yury. He sprang to his feet again just as one crunch of the terrible teeth snapped the strong spear like sealing wax; but he had lost his best weapon, and had now only his knife left. And now the struggle began in earnest. The bear, furious with pain, strove fiercely to close, while Yury warily eluded it, seeing that it was bleeding freely, and must grow weaker every moment. But at length he found himself fairly hemmeu in, with an impenetrable mass of bushes behind him, and the bear in front. Only one chance was left. As the hear rose upon its hind feet for the fatal hug, Yury ducked nimbly under the extended paws, and dashed himself, knife in hand, right unde* the huge black body. For a moment man and beast were mingled together in a writhing heap; and then Yury arose unharmed, and his enemy lay dead befoce him, pierced to the heart. Col. Bibikoff kept his word. The petition for pardon was sent, and was granted; and Yury lived many a year in his Russian home to tell his wondering companions how he had earned his freedom by killing the great black bear.—Golden Days. The Voices from Sorrow's DepthsT* It is only where there ie obstruction that the waters become deep and reflecting. Shallow brooks rub noisily by. Great streams, where their course is male easy, pause not to collect depth and silence. A life may flow gently to its close, but it never becomes great because of its ease. Obstacles, difficulties, sorrows, discouragements dam up the soul’e precious waters, and from the stillness of its deeps the voice of an Emerson, a Carlyle, a Shakespeare speaks to us.—September Success.

Fresh Facts Concerning the Tide el Events in the Political Arena. 8 SCALY TRICKS OF REPUBLICAN LEADERS of the Tra»U by Hmm'i Henchmen — Battlag Starving Workmen — McKinley Making Heady tor Plaader—T|ie Philippine War hot Over. [Special Correspondence.] There is merry war in the republican ranks over Hanna's Chicago speech, in which he said he did not know of any trusts. In Indiana the republicans fear that this wild statement, has lost them their last chance of success. Gov. Mount openly criticises llanna. But the mischief is done. Hanna now lamely explains that he used trusts in a technical sense. Thai 1 does not better his position, because in that speech he failed to say a word which indicated that he knew of any sort of a combination hurtful to the people. He failed to indicate that he or his party were in favor of restraining trusts or combinations of

any sort. * The gas belt of Indiana has suffered especially from trusts, and the men who have been rendered idle by them are furious at Hanna’s selfish indifference to their troubles. Bight .on the heels of Hanna’s fiasco Monies u campaign report prepared for the republicans by Carroll D. Wright, of the bureau of labor statistics. which assumes to show that trusts pay higher wages and employ more skilled men than did the separate industries. He takes 14 “selected” trusts. Very carefully selected. The Standard Oil and coal combine, for instance, are omitted. If there is not such things as trusts, why this defense from Carroll 1 D. Wright? The bureau of labor statistics, like the industrial commission and every other governmental bureau, is being presstd, into service by the administration. Statistics are manufactured to order to prove anything that the republicans desire. It is not necessary to show the flaws in Wright's statistics—though 1 there are plenty of them—let every workingman judge for himself. If he is working for a trust is he getting higher wages than before the i trusts came into existence. If he j is, does the; slight increase in wages ! cover the increased cost of living? I Let the strike of 130,000 coal miners J against one of the greatest trusts on j earth answer Carroll D. Wright. These men are striking for living wages. I They do not aspire to prosperity or | the full dinner pail, j Let the parade of hunderds of chilj.dren from the coal mines of Pennsylj vania answer the republican contention about the blessings which trusts bring to workingmen. No man puts his eight-year-old child into a coal mine to wqjrk. un- : less forced to do so by the starvai tion wages paid to himself. ' Let the reduction of wages made to j the 60,000 employes of the steel and i iron trusts answer Carroll-D. Wright’* I statistics. These men have been idle since June 80. locked out while their trust employes decided whether or not they would pay fair wages. Now, having been starved into submission. the men are invited to go back to work at a reduction. They are glad to go, in order to live, but they are not going to vote for the party which puts into the hands of a trust the power to starve them into submission.

The Miners’ Strike, The coal miners’ strike is likely to be a long and bitter one. The trusts scoured Euorpe for years and imported ,the cheapest labor that could be had there, under the impression that it would submit to'; low wages and bad conditions more”niieekly than the independent American workman. The foreign workmen were tractable enough until they found that they were starved worse than slaves or dumb beasts of burden. Now they have come to the conclusion that they may as well starve idle as working. Their habits of passive endurance will keep them out on sthike longer than the American. Thus ; the coal operators are reaping a harvest which they deserved, but did not • expect. | The administration press has been howling about the danger of violence and bloodshed from the first day of the miners’ strike. It seemed to know what was going to happen. Sure enough when some miners began to throw stones a lot of Pinkerton’s men shot into a crowd indiscriminately,, and then the militia was called out. How convenient for the coal operators to have a republican governor and 11,000 militia at their beck and call. No wonder the trust refused arbitration. . f Last Sunday the militia desecrated the day by parading in the mining villages with Gatling guns. Not that the miners were disorderly. Oh, no, but to show them what they may; expect in the next two or three weeks. It is to be hoped that violence and bloodshed may be avoided, but this baiting of starving men is paving the way for something worse than Homestead or Hazleton. A Cluaiy Back Down. The administration has executed a ratler clumsy bach-down on the Chi

Beae situation, and it is purely to% campaign purposes. Frightened by the popular uproar agsinat any further alliances or meddling with foreign powers, the admin* iatration now intimates that our forces will be withdrawn from Peking. They hare not marched out, however, and if they do, it will only be to the const. Six warships have just been ordered to Asiatic waters. What for? Time will show, but it is clear now that McKinley proposes to be right on the ground when there is any -Chinese plunder to be had. He is making a despearte effort to delay matters until after election. In case the republican party is successful our standing army will at once be increased to 150.000, if necessary, and the country may expect to be plunged into an expensive and probably disastrous war in the I orient. - Fillotno War Still Oa. The Filipinos seem determined to give the lie to the roseate prediction I of Philippine commission No. 2. which ! reported last week that the ij»surj reel ion was practically over and"that i the time was now ripe for the giving j out of railroad franchises. The Filipinos have definitely and deI liberately refused the proffered am- | nesty. They were never in better condition to carry on war. The trouble | has broken out afresh in all of the isI lands where our troops are stationed. I Manila itself is threatened. Aguinaldo | has gone McKinley one better by h.'s i humane treatment At American prisI oners and the offer of a reward for every American who surrenders.

1! a tilin'* Man Dick. Col. Dick, who is Hanna's righthand man in the campaign, is too foxy to take the stump but he has made a spectacle of himself by rushing into print to defend a bad cause. Congressman Lentz challenged him to defend the course of the republican majority of the military committee in the Coeur D'Alene investigation, and to explain why the republicans refused to print the testimony and let the country know what it was. Dick has no defense of the refusal to print, and spends five columns about the democratic minority of the committee and quoting testimony from witnesses whom he coached on the investigation, and who were there to defend the»r own acts as agents ojf the United States government aftei mdrtial law had been proclaimed. ADOLPH PATTERSON. DEMOCRACY IS FAVORED. Voluntary Vote In Chicago Give* Bryan a Plurality of 74,000 Ballots. Bryan will carry the city of Chicago. His plurality is likely to be niore than 74,<XX> votes, or ope-fourth greater than McKinley's in 1S96. The Chicago American has made a great poll of the voters. The returns leave no doubt that the depccrotie presidential ticket will sweep the city. A revolution of opinion has followed the McKinley administration. The facts are at hand. The figures^ it is. believed, are sound. The vote; was taken upon a greater scale, with greater care and with the observance of better and more intelligent methods than ever before employed in a similar work. Fifty canvassers, carefully chosen and sworn as to the accuracy of their figures, reached metre than 60,000 voters with this inquiry; “For.whom will you vote for president?” This is the result: For Bryan. 30,- | 660; for McKinley. 20,436. Total. 51,096. Bryan over McKinley, 10,224. The estimate of Bryan’s majority is made by comparison of this vote with the vote of Bryan and McKinley in this city in IS96 and the estimated voite for the coping election. The presidential votf of Chicago in 1896 was divided between these candidates as follows: McKinley. 201,074; Bryan, 144,770. Total. 345,844. McKinley over Bryan. 56.304. A comparison of the American’s ballot with the vote of Bryan and McKinley in Chicago in 1896 would indicate a majority for Bryan over McKinley of 74.720. The total vote of 1909 in Chicago for all presidential candidates is estimated at 374.000. By comparison with this estimate Bryan's majority over McKinley would run considerably over 74,000. Indeed, that prophecy is upon a conservative basis, j The American’s ballot !s of value in connection with the New Yotk Journal's reeentj poll of New York. The Journal’s poll, taken from week to week for two months, indicates that McKinley’s plurality of 24.000 in that city in 1896 will be exchanged to » great plurality of nearly TO.000 votes for Bryan. Unless all signs fail, the great centers of population in this country will roll up a tremendons tidal wave of votes for Bryan on election day.

-Are there no trusts? Ask the “men who used to work in the rolling mills. Are there no trusts? Ask the men who used to work in the bicycle factories. Are there no trusts? Ask the independent manufacturers or the small merchants, or anybody, in fact, except M. A. Hanna. A'o trusts, indeed! The woods are full of trusts, and every one is a menace to labor. But there’s a way to get rid of ’em, and that way isn’t by voting the republican ticket, either.—Toledo Bee. -There is no argument that the imperialists of the Hanna-McKinley party can bring forward in justification of their course toward the Filipinos, except the one that has been used by despots from time isxmemorial in support of their right to rule subject people by the strong arm and to crush their liberties by the tyrant agency of military pow*x. - Kansas City Times- '

LABOR AND EMF'IR 3. A Outer That Tkreattai ©,# ta Am* mmxinm Newly AcQsir <1 Cons trie*. The effect upon wages of annex* Ing countries overrunning with the cheapest kind of labor is evident enough to anyone who will consider the question dispassionately, but perhaps a brief account of what I have seen with my own eyes ip Eg} pi may serve to illustrate it. We hear a great -deal of the political benefit.; conferred by the British government upon the Egyptians, but lit Ue or nothing is said of the indust rial results of expansion, and yet tlose results are .the most important. Some years ago while I was living in Egypt I visited one of tie cotton mills at Mansourah, the commercial center of the cotton region. These mills are owned > by 1 ngiish, French and German capitalists and operated by native labor. Is the main room of the factory the i.ir was so thick with cotton-dust that found it difficult to breathe. A row cf Arab girls of 12 or 13 years of ag i were standing there before a series of tubs manipulating the raw cotton. “What are the hours of la >or of these girls?” I asked- the foreman, who was acting as my guide, “Fr^pi. four o’clock In the morning to six o’clock at night, with »:n intermission for dinner,” he ans vered. “And what is the pay?” “Twelve and a half cents a day.” I could hardly believe that, and the next time 1 met the English manager

of stable government which prevent* capital from going to countries where people are willing to work for «tarv» ation wages. It is an automatis ar> rangement of nature that in uneiv* ilised or partly civilised countries franchises end monopolies axe not well enough protected for capital to risk itself. If this were not so, all manufacturing industries 4buld seek at once the country of cheapest wages, other things being equal, and the starvation of the home population would follow. It is best for the world that the government of such countries should not *be too stable, and by insisting upon a stable government in the Philippines we are doing our best to throttle our own interests. It is clearly the interest of all wageearners to oppose' imperialism root and branch, and if they have any doubt on the subject, let them con* sider the cotton operatives of Egypt. —Ernest II. Crosby, in the American Federationist. WOULD TAX OLD SOLDIERS. ^ J'hUtpplne War to Be Impotent pun Then by the Republican*. The republican platform of 5900 is absolutely silent concerning the old soldiers. There’ is not one solitary word in their behalf; and.it is suspected that, in the eostly pursuit of foreign wars of conquest, the republican party foresees the necessity of economy in the direction of pension expenditures. ‘ ■ ' There is ground for believing that the party of imperialism is preparing

“THERE IRE NO TRUSTS Mark Hanna,

of one of these mills I cross-ques-tioned him on the subject. “Is it true” I asked, “that yob work your girls from’four until six for 12% cents a day?” “Yes,” he said, rather reluctantly. “I didn't quite like it when I irst went to Mansourah.but the girls c an’t seein to mind it.” “Don’t mind 14 hours' work a day?” 1 cried. “Oh. that is not all,” he rep.ied. . “When we are busy they stay • vet time from six till ten o’clock in the evening and we pay them an extra piastre (2% or five cents), and semetimes young mothers come with the babes at the breast and put tl.em down on the floor in the corner ant go to work with the-rest.” And all this, mind you, in an atmosphere whie£ you can almost out with a knifeXso thick is it with > otton. One thing has saved Egypt, and that is the absence of coal. It ccsts too much to bring it there for it to pay to introduce factories on a la -ge scale. But there is plenty of eoal in the Philippines. Coal can be had at the entrance of the mines in Japan for 13 cents a ton, I am informed, a ad It will be as cheap in the Philippic, ?s. With eoal at this price, with girls a ad boys ready to work for 12% cents, a day, what is to prevent the-immedkte flow of our eapital to these islands and the inauguration of a competition such as we have never knovm before? Either wages will fall here to tlte 12%-cent level or our factories w ll be moved bodily to our new posse ssions and our working men lelt jo starve. 4 - Bishop Potter, of New* York, h s just been in the Philippines, and Le tells us that the Filipino takes kindly to our factory system. Poor Filipino ! So do mice take kindly to cheese a a trap. The system, will prove a cur.e to them as it has already proved ; o the girls of Mansourah and at ti e same time that it will impoverish oi r American wage-earners at home. It may be said that the natives are net forced to work. But this is not tru<. When their cupidity is not sufficient to make them toil, means are foun t to compel them. This .has alread r been done in the mines of South. A: • rica, and the British government imposes taxes upon the natives ther i with the avowed object of foicin*: them to seek employment in the none i for the purpose of raising money, to pay the tax, that being the only wa;open for them to earn money. Th » same plan will doubtless be adoptet by our capitalists in the Philippine! if it tnrns out that Bishop Potter it mistaken and that the Filipinos d< not take kindly to factory work. .We are obi that we ought to es tabiis.i a stable government in flu Philippines. That is precisely what we ought not to do. is the laclt

to make the old soldiers pay for the i war of subjugation in the Philippines. Yet the republican party has aa- ! serfed a rigorous claim upon the vote* of the old soldiers. It has sought to exploit them and has exploited them for the benefit of monopolies and trusts, and it has lost no opportunity to brand the democrats as-enemies of '♦he men who fought to preserve the union and to wipe, out the unutterable curse of slavery. - » . However, the republican platform is now silent; and William McKinley j writes columns in a letter of aocepti ance without a single line or even ft I single word referring to the soldiers [ of the union. He was too busy defendj ing his war of conquest to offer ft j word of assurance to them that they are still to be dealt with justly and liberally by a grateful government. The democratic platform is in happy contrast with tha.t of the republicans. “We are proud of the courage and fidelity of the American soldiers and sail- [ ors in all our wars,” it says; “we favor liberal pensions to them and their dependents. and we reiterate theposition taken in the Chicago platform in 1896 that the fact cf enlistment and service shall be deemed conclusive evidence against disease and disability before enlistment.” And Mr. Bryan jjn his etter of acceptance declares "at “a liberal policy is- natural add necessary in a government which depends upon ft citizensoldiery instead of a large standing army. Self-interest, as well as gratitude. compels the government to make bountiful provision, for those who in the hour of danger and at gr^at sacrifice of business, health and#life tender their services to their country.” He therefore demands that- the pension laws shall be generously construed in the spirit which prompted their passage; and he makes it plain that in the event of his election he will not search out another Henry Clay Evans to be his pension commissioner POINTS AND OPINIONS * -It is useless for la Hung Chang to beg for the good offices of this country. They are all in the hands of republicans, who were never known to give up anything but campaign cash. —Denver Post. -In his speech before the McKinley Commercial club in Chicago Mr. Hanna said there are no trusts. What will the poor fellows do who have been accusing the democrats of being members of trusts? Wifi they admit they lied, or will they sparge Banna with having lied?—Dubuque Herald. -McKinley! Roosevelt and Hanna all pooh pooh the idea of there being trusts. Perhaps they will do the same as to such protests as are now being made against the coal trust in Pennsylvania. They may prove like the fellow who belittled the deluge whea it set in and said it was merely^ a shower.—Louisville Courier-Journal.