People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 February 1893 — Page 3

rwu old cnowfs. rmni nefitirlnes at gtNklqMt tad all the* talk lufubrioua wm overheats by «te. laid one old «row to t'other, and doleful •irope’a itt jaw "VWags fc:«et w thn n’d to be’ Cow. we, eaw!-* Bald t'other crow to this crow: Theret tho deuce to pay: Map get worse wad aalzeder every mortal day Sew oort is mol if on the stalk. It sours In my craw: Alaa, the world's degenerate: Caw, eaw, cawr Bald this crow to t’other crow: “When you and I were young, Sweeter far ttfin mocking birds —no crows so tuneful sung: But now the times are out of Joint, crows ’ throats have got a claw. Bronchitis, asthma, or la grippei Caw, caw, caw’" Bald t’other crow to this crow: “Alas, aday r alack. We never see a white crow now, ev'ty crow is black! Crows, as white as daisies are, were plentiful as straw: Oh. dear, what are we coning to I Caw, caw, caw'" Bald this erww to t'other crow: “Tho great crows all are dead, Crow oratory, statesmanship, and virtue too have fled: We*re fallen on an evil day: acrow's but a Jackdaw: We havo no crows of genius now I Caw, eaw, caw I" Bald t'other crow to this crow: “Sappose we take a fly: Ah, would that the whole race of crows were aa you and I!" Thn those crows went sailing off, till I no longer eaw •he flapping of their wings, but b*ard: "Caw, caw, caw!’* —K. A. Roberts, In Brooklyn Life.

AMERICAN PUSH.

By EDGAR FAWCETT.

f' (fIPVfwoMT. 1891 > BY the Author AMJANCe.

CHAPTER XX.—CoMTOTtrm. ‘•But If anything happens, Lonz, I pledge you my word that will happen! The king has done far more audacious things already than marry an American girl. As for a morganatic marriage—” “Curse a morganatic marriage!” cried Alonzo. “If he tried that, and she consented, I’d put a bullet through his brain, though they hung me ten minutes afterward.” “They don’t hang here; they guillotine,” said Eric, calmly. “It’s much neater, in a way. But you needn’t covet any such poetic fate. Clarimond loathes morganatic unions, has more than once told me. Lonz, Lonzl you know him too we'l by this time for such kind of talk! Here you are, rich, through his generosity, and you talk of him as if he were some common cad.” “I’ll resign my position!” quavered Alonzo, with both hands clenched at his aide. “I’ll go to starvation, if you please—” “Don’t. Go to the ball first.” “I’ll send him my resignation this very day!” “Wait until the ball is over.” “Curse tho ball!" , “You’re cursing everything, it strikes •te, in the most promiscuous manner.” “Forgive me,Eric, but I can’t help it.” “You can’t help it, dear boy,” said Brie, “because your heart is almost breaking in yonr breast!” Ho got up from his chair, and went straight to his friend, putting his arms ibout his neck And kissing him on the forehead. It was A very sweet and simple act, and it was also one that brimmed with a beautiful, spontaneous‘fraternity. , Alonzo threw back his head, stared forlornly at his companion, and then flung his head o* Eric’s broad, virile shoulder. A great, passionate turmoil of tears followed—the tears that men shed, and so tellingly seldom, and that are wrung, when shed at all, from deepcavemed wells of their spirits. Eric held him in his arms, not speaking a word, only throbbing with the most humane sympathy. But meanwhile his brain worked, and he thought, with the bitterness and irony that certain stern freaks of life will too often wrench from us, whether we are optimists, pessimists, or only a part of that huger throng which neither think nor feel too keenly. “And I brought him here for this! It’s too devilishly bad! In a way he was happy enough All he’d seen her again, and now it’s all a tumult with him, a madness, a torture. But he’ll stay for the balL He’ll Btay, just to see her again. And then? God knows with what reckless force he’ll fly straight in the face of his present. prosperity.” CHAPTER XH, Eric was right. On the evening of the ball he and Alonzo sought the palace together. They entered the great room a little before ten o’clock. Here the entire assembled court were waiting, and presently to a goldeh clash of music from the orchestra on an upper balcony muffled in choice living flowers, the king entered with the princess of Brindisi on his arm. It was a sight of extreme splendor. The enormous room, tapestried in gold and white, and hung with mirrors of huge Bize that reduplicated the chandeliers in endless glittering vistas, had been profusely adorned with roses, lilies and orchids from the royal hot-houses. The Saltravian nobles all wore their uniforms, and between the many beautiful ladies who were their wives a sumptuous kind of rivalry was to-night manifest, each one wishing, as it would seem, to eclipse the other in the glory of her jewels. But there were two ladies present who outshone them all, and these were the princess herself and her cherished ward, Bianca d’Este. The mother of Clarimond was literally mailed in gems. Her stomacher and corselet of mingled rubies and diamonds blazed, as the light caught them, with vivid and luxurious fires. Her hair was. oversprinkled with brilliants and her Beck and arms were aflame with them. Poeacj|sing so much natural presence and carriage, she looked more than merely regal Her worst foes (and there were two or three of these who now fazed at her with the most q—de-

me&nors) must have granted that she mss altogether magnificent With Bianca d’Este H was quite aa •pposite affair. She, too, was magnificent, but in a way that became her maidenhood and her youth. A collar of pearls five rows deep engirt her throat and these, with a cluster at her breast of sapphires, diamonds and other stones, in' imitation of a spray of flowers, were the only jewels that she wore. But the pearls had belonged to her ancestress, Mary of Modena, queen of England, and hence were not only superb but historic besides. As for the matchless bouquet it was owned by her mother, was famous throughout Europe and worth a handsome fortune in itself. The princess having begged Bianca’s mother by letter to permit the girt to wear it on this special occasion, it had been F*nt from Italy sunder the guardianslv.o of five trusted men, who now waited lb one of the halls of the palace and woul.l receive the glorious bauble from the hands of its wearer the instant that she emitted the ball-room. Shortly „fter the entrance of Clarimond and his mother the royal quadrille was danced, and to some conservative watchers, when they beheld the king lead forth Kathleen as his partner, the sight was one of absolute horror. Everybody else in the quadrille was of the blood royal except this upstart young American. Beautiful? Yes, amazingly so. Her beauty, in its perfect plainness of apparel, dimmed the fire of all those necklaces, bracelets and tiaras. With such eyes, with such a heavenly look about the brows, with such a slope of the arm and shoulder, and with that imperial kind of daintiness in her motion, she made every other woman look artificial, got up for the occasion, endimanchce. But what {que diablel) had that to do with the king's behavior? Whether she were huger kauri, why should he make her an excuse for smashing etiquette and then dancing on its debris? The thing was too idiotic. Did he mean to marry her? Was this to be his latest daring deed of uhconventionalism? “Look at him now,” whispered a lady of highest rank to a gentleman equally lofty, after a pause had followed the first general dance. “He has those two Americans at his side, Eric Thaxter apd M. Lispenard. What a revolution he has wrought in his mother! The princess is talking to them both and smiling her blandest” “Oh! the poor old princess!” giggled the gentleman. “Was there ever'such an overthrow? They say that he gave her her choice the other night after he had sent us all adrift like a pack of school children and treated poor Philibert so awfully. Either she had to pull down her flag and fold it discreetly away, just as she’s doing now, or leave the country inside of twenty-four hours.” “But is it true,” asked the lady, “that this American girl was once betrothed to M. Lispenard?” “You know what happened there on the palace grounds,” was the reply. “He saw her and ran off in an agony of embarrassment, followed by his friend.*' “Perhaps they had been married and then divorced,” said the lady. “I have it on the best of authority that people in America marry there in one province (let us say Venezuela) this year and are divorced with perfect ease the nextyear in some other province (let us say California).” '’Eoally? I’m not surprised. Americans are such curious creatures. But she’s wonderfully handsome, that girL Don’t you think so?” “Oh! of course,” granted the lady, saying no more, and saying even this much as thought were forced from her. “But I don’t like the affected simplicity with which she has gowned herself. Do you?” “I hadn’t thought a bit about her attire,” said the gentleman. “Where is she now? Do you know?” “Talking to a score or so of our best men,” returned the lady, a little harsh ly, “over yonder near the door that leads to the picture galleries. Take me in that direction, will you? I want to have a better look at her. I may be wrong, but it struck me there was a crookedness in one of her eyebrows—” Meanwhile, as the princess of Brindisi, subdued into humility that she had never before dreamed of as possible to her proud spirit, was saying suave if rather void things to Alonzo, the king slipped his arm within that of Eric Thaxter and murmured to him: “Come with me, my friend, into the conservatory. I have something I must Bay to you at once.” Clarimond and his companion were presently in the sweet-smelling dusk of a spacious glass pavilion, where you heard the sounds of falling water and caught its flashes, now and then, through coverts of shadowing leaves and blooms They found the place quite vacant; as yet, no flushed and fatigued dancers had sought it Their feet struck with little hollow clangs on the marble pavements of the odorous avenues, and thus accentuated, as it were, the exceeding stillness. It was a stillness that for his master to break, and at length he did so, in these words: “I suppose that Lispenard told you just what passed between him and myself.” “Yes, monsieur, he told me.” “Well,” said the king, musingly, “then you, Erie, who knew me so well, must have seen that I —betrayed myself.” “Betrayed yourself, monsieur. How?” “Oh that I showed him I love the woman he loves. Did he not tell you that? No, do not reply. I will not permit you to tell me, even if so inclined. It would be unfair, almost dishonorar ble, for me to insist on any such disclosure.” “An injustice from you, monsieur, would be as impossible as darkness from the sun.” The king suddenly paused His face was touched with a vague yet revealing light and Erie perceived on it a pallor, a seriousness, which he had before noted but which now seemed intensified. “If I wanted a counselor!” he broke forth, and then he laid a hand on Eric’s shoulder. “But in this case I ought not to want one. I should beau*

fictent tnrtc jay*eH Only, my mead, you would be the wisest and best at counselors; that is all I mean,” and ha withdrew his hand, giving a long aad dssp sigh. “From what I know of yon, monsieur,* said Eric, “you have always been suA ficient unto yourself. ” “Not always, not always—bnt -you are very kind.” “I am simply sincere, monsieur. You were born to be a great ruler of men. I have felt it for months past The more that I see of you, the more strongly you appeal to me as a power for good. The world would have had no need for republics if all kings hod been as perfect as yourself.” “Thanks, my Eric—thanks.” To the surprise of his hearer these words were very brokenly uttered. Clarimond remained inmovable, so that the revealing light still clothed his face. And now Eric saw that his vivid eyes were shining as though with halfrepressed tears. Only a slight silence elapsed before he spoke again: “Then if lam indeed worthy to be a great ruler, as you say, I should know, Eric, how to rule myself." “Pardon me. monsieu., but I do not understand.” The king’s glance turned from right to left as though in the dimness he suspected either some newcomer or some ambushed listener. With great abruptness he soon caught Eric’s hands in either of his own and held them straininjj'ly while his moist-beaming eyes plunged their look into the obscured face of his watcher. “Eric, I have never loved living woman until now, and I oould have her for my wife if I choose!” “For your queen,” faltered Eric, scarcely knowing why he 6poke the words. “Queen! queen!” Clarimond flung back, impatiently. “Dane*/ you are like everybody else. How otherwise could I have her for my wife, man? Have I not told yon that those morganatic marriages are loathsome to met But there it is! Instantly that ‘royalty* idea occurs to you! Well, you are aot to blame. It occurs to everybody, bo doubt, the moment my marriage U thought of. It occurred to her. Sba accepted me. Are you smiling because she accepted me? Are you saying to yourself that she merely did what thousands of women would in like circumstances do? But you sre wrong if you reason so, for she was sublimely frank. She made it clear to me that she stillloved Lispenard, and If she brought me a virgin body she could not bring me a virgin heart!” “She said this, monsieur?” “In substance, yes, Eric, if not in actual phrase. And I, knowing how this man and woman love one another —how the cruel worldliness of a single, hard-grained being has kept them apart —I, whom you have called great, pause, positively pause, before the fulfillment of my duty!” “Your duty, monsieur?” The king’s eyes darted fire for a second, there in the dusk where he and Eric stood. “I can unite them if I choose, almost by lifting my hand. If I do not choose, I can wed Kathleen. Which course is my duty? She will marry me, half from ambition; half because of her mother—that vicious, mannish, insatiable mother! Which courae, I say, is my duty? People talk of Quixotism! Bah! As if I did not know! There was never a meaner word created than that ‘Quixotism!’ It has been the cloak for countless acts of cowardice, and Corvantes, were he alive to-day, would regret that his genius ever aided in its coining.” Eric drooped his head, and felt his eyes fill with tears. He knew just what great throbs of a noble nature underlay this splendid bluster, this incomparable vehemence. “Monsieur,” he replied, when able to school his voice so that he could speak with self-governance, “you have been very right in saying that you require no counselor. lam Alonzo Lispenard’s friend; I know how he has suffered—how he suffers yet! lam your devoted servitor, and I realize the noble renunciation it is in your power to make. You yourself have hinted that you are capable of this fine self-effacement But I did not need your own admission to that effect I have already known you too long not to grasp the height and breadth of your generosity. ” Clarimond turned on his heel like a flash, threw both hands behind him, joining them there, and then moved slowly away. “I’ve horribly deceived you,” he shot over his shoulder. “I brought you here in the hope that, although an American, you would prove yourself a good courtier, and show me ample cause that I should plight troth with the woman I 10v.e.” “Monsieur,” replied Eric, foUowing him, “I am far too good a courtier for that! Sincerely as I esteem your character in its entirety, there is one element of it to which I must always pay primal obeisance.” “Yon mean?” questioned tho king, as Eric now reached his side again, in the fragrant twilight of their transient retreat “Your peerless conscience, your unparalleled sense of right?” As the festivity progressed, this evening, nearly everyone conceded that there had been nothing at all resem--bling it in brilliance and buoyancy for many and many a month. Indeed, some of the native guests roundly admitted that Clarimond’s reign had yet Been no grand assemblage bo delightful; for this season more foreigners than usual had gathered at the hotels, and among these, where position and antecedents made it possible, the royal invitations had been somewhat lavishly spread. As a pleasant result the entertainment sparkled with novelty. At midnight the doors of the banquetinghaH were opened, and wine and viands furnished in profuse largeness wrought just the needed result of quickened gayety and enlivened social zest The haughtiest Saltravian maids and matrons unbent and became affable to fellow-mortals of different grades or often of different countries from their own. Admiration for Kathleen’s beauty waxed with the progress of the

entertainment and after awhile many ladies sought to know her. Mrs. KenBaird, who had managed to get herself approached and talked to by some of the Bftost prominent men present was In Ms eeetacy of self-gratulation. She had •Bee oome face to face with Alonso, and had” managed to make it appear as if she had not intentionally cut him. It was So hard to treat anyone unamiably to-night! Some little time after midnight Eric touched Alonzo on the arm. The latter gave a kind of relieved start and at once said: "I’m so glad to find you. 1 mean to slip away, though of oourse you will not go yet” “You are tired so soon?” “Yes—of seeing A«r, ringed round with her new tdolators. It’s getting intolerable. I shouldn’t have come at all!” “But, my dear Lonz, the king wishes to speak with you. He has just sent me to ask you if you will not join him." Alonzo stood for a brief while irresolute. Then he tossed his head, bit his Hp, and said in a voice almost irritable: 1 “Of course—of course! How absurd of me! I’m almost forgetting that I'm a slave.” “A slave, Lonz! Yon! As If I’d let yon be! Come, now, take that horrible sentiment back! You’re as free as air, and you know it!” Alonzo slipped his hand into Eric's. “I’m very distressed,” he answered, “and I’m a fool. Forgive me!” “It isn’t for me to forgive you." “Oh, then I’ll apologize to him." “You needn’t He’ll never know. Come with me, dear boy.” They quitted the ball-room and passed through several dim corridors. “Where on earth are you taking me?" Alonzo murmured more than once, but Eric, as if the question needed no reply, kept pushing on. Presently, when it wail for the third time repeated, he replied, while pushing open a vague door over which was a lamp shaped like a drooping lotus flower: “You ought to know. It’s that little chapel. You told me, when I brought you here, one day, an age ago, that it was very good. You congratulated me on it, though you pronounced it • plagiarism from the Sainte Chapelle in rbria. It isn’t, for the simple reason that it’s a copy." [TO BE CONTINUED. [

BUSINESS INSTINCT.

Aa Aaecdot* Giving a Good lUwetrwtlow of the Term. When the “street” says of a man: “He has t, long head for business,” it credits him with an instinct for discovering a profitable investment or scenting a bargain. An illustration of this “long head” was given by the late Judge Pratt, of Oregon, at the beginning of his business career. Mr. Bancroft relates the anecdote in his “Chronicles of the Builders." During a trip from Portland to San Francisco Mr. Pratt and Capt Crosby, the commander of the vessel, conversed about the probable price of lumber In San Francisco. Pratt thought the vessel’s cargo would bring at least twentyfive dollars a thousand feet “I wish you would guarantee me that figure,” said the captain. “Well," rejoined Pratt, “there is no reason why I should guarantee you any sum, but it seems to me that lumber ought to bring that price there,” and he gave his reasons. “Will you buy my cargo, laid down at San Francisco, at twenty dollars a thousand?” asked the captain. “I will;” and the contract was at once drawn up and signed by both parties. As the vessel entered the harbor of San Francisco she was boarded by a purchasing agent of the United States government, who offered two hundred and fifty dollars a thousand for the cargo. The offer was declined; the vessel went up to the city, where the lumber was sold for four hundred dollars a thousand. Mr. Pratt cleared ten thousand dollars by his venture.— Youth’s Companion.

FIGHTING A SNAKE.

His Head Is Hard But -Its Tall Is Tender. If any reader of this article should ever be so unfortunate as to experience the embrace of a boa constrictor it is recommended that he try to release himself by taking hold of the creature’s tail and unwinding it from that end. It can be easily unwound in that way, but otherwise this is not possible. The way to kill a snake is not to attempt to crush its, head, the bones of whish are very hard, but to strikq the tail, where the spinal cord is but thinly covered by bone and suffers readily from injury. It is the same with an eel. Hit the tail two or three times against any hard substance and it quickly dies. The boas are not venomous, but theli fangs are sufficiently powerful t<o inflict /serious wounds, and large specimens have been known to swallow men whole. The case is related by the traveler Gironiere of a criminal in the Philippine islands who hid from justice in a cavern. His father, who alone knew of his hiding-place, went sometimes to see him and take him rice foi food. One day he found instead of his son an enormous boa asleep. He killed it and found his son's body ki the snake’s stomach. Serpents sometimes swallow prey so much too big for their digestions that they actually burst from repletion. The instance is recorded of a boa eonstrictoi which swallowed a goat the horns of which pierced the monster and killed him. —Yankee Blade.

“The Cave of Spider s.”

The “ice caves,” the “blue grottoes’" and other natural freaks of that ilk are completely laid in Hie shade by the Colorado “Cave of Spiders.-’ It is situated near Buena Vista, in the state named, and is said to literally swarm with spiders of a curious species and of immense size. The “Care of Spiders l was discovered in 1879. The webs woven by the odd subterranean speciei of aranea are said to be as strong as ordinary “button hole twist” and of • bright shining yellow solan

AN INTERESTING STUDY.

The Land Question Reduced to a Cold Mathematical Proposition. It is better to be right titan to hold an office. A true evangelist of the gospel of humanity will oontinue to cry aloud against the present system of land tenure, and denounce landlordism and land speculation, though every land owning populist becomes his enemy. One cannot have a great deal of faith in those who denpnnce all evils except the evil they are addicted to themselves. Land owners, who defend the present system because they are landlords, have not yet become enthused with the spirit of the crusade of the nineteenth century. A simple table will suffice to prove to all doubters that the present system must finally result in the building up of an aristocracy of monopolistic landlords Assume that each man in each generation rears to manhood tw<s sons. Start with only one hundred men in a county containing two hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, and see how many generations it will require to exhaust the supply of land. Acre* Vatu* Men. each per act*. 100 ;.2.b03 I 5.00 200 1,253 12.50 400 625 31 25 800 312 78.18 1,800 156 10583 8,200 78 488.83 It will be noticed that in the foregoing table I have assumed that in each and every case the fathers died by the time the sons became of age. Starting with one hundred men, in a country about twenty miles square, I assumed that at the end of every thirty years the demand for land was doubled and I figured the increase in the value of land at five per cent compounded every thirty years. At the end of five generations of thirty years each, (one hundred and fifty years) the re is but seventyeight acres of land for each man and the value of the land is M 88.38 per acre. If we start with one thousand men in the same county, we shall find that at the expiration of slaty years there is but sixty-two and one-half acres of land each, worth $31.25 per acre. Now apply these figures and assumptions not to a theory but the condition that confronts us. Take the state of Texas, with its 170,099,200 acres of land. Reliable statistics inform us that foreign corporations own one-fourth of all these acres, while domestic corporations have a title one-half, leaving every fourth acre in the Hands of the people of the state who are bona fide residents upon the land. Now, assume that the land in the state averages at the present time a value of 15 per acre. In sixty years, without the aid of immigration, every acre of the land will be occupied by an owner or a tenant. If by owners, then the corporations now owning it will have realized a profit of $2,550,037,500. If the land is occupied by tenants, then the corporations who ownjk will be receiving from such tenants the enormous annual tribute of $199,835,000 as rent Figuratively speaking,men sometimes “eat dirt" A mania said to eat dirt when forced to retract statements he has made. But in practice a man eats ho dirt except that certain quantity which it is said to be the lot of all men to eat with their daily food. An individual occupying a home does not live by consuming the land upon which it is located and when he moves he cannot lake the land with him. He simply occupies and uses it The inauguration then of a system under which “use and dtecupancy” was the only valid title to land, would rob no one of the right or opportunity of acquiring and holding a home, but would Bimply prevent him or her from selling the land when changing locations But under such a system no one could hold, out of use, land they did not occupy as a home or for businessfjjprposes, and thus become wealthy by the absorption of an unearned increment arising from the advance in the selling price of land. The man who really occupied and used land would have no hardship entailed upon him, but the land speculator would be destroyed from the face of the earth. The present uprising of the people is Simply the manifestation of a social evolution, which will never cease until humanity stands upon a higher and better plane. Society finds itself confronted by the question asked by Cain: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” and, utterly unable to avoid the issue, will evolve a civilization which will demand from all, services according to their ability and render to all, ministrations according to their need. Christianity cannot much longer preach the fatherhood of God without giving practical recognition to the universal brotherhood of man. The conditions which breed millionaires and paupers must give way to the ideal Christian commune where, as it is written, “He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack. ” Civilization is a failure so long as the masses of humanity must ceaselessly toil and drudge, in order that a few may live in luxurious idleness Interest, accursed of God and the curse of humanity, must be destroyed, and the earth, man’s heritage, must be restored to a common humanity, to whom the Lord freely gave it

HOME AND FARM MORTGAGES.

An Affbrt to Have the Census Bureau Undertake Periodically an Inquiry Concern- * Inir Them. Three years ago the Western Economic association of St Louis appealed to the voters of the United States to petition congress to have the eleventh census show the mortgage indebtedness and tenure of farms and homes, the argument being that such an inquiry would tend to give the ratio of the distribution of wealth. The investigation is nearly finished, and it will have the percentage of owned and rented homes and farms In every city and county in the United States. Enough data have already been published to predict a most startling showing. Briefly stated, three-fourths of the city populations live In rented houses, and in some cities and states It runs as high os ninety per cent Of the remaining fourth, one-half own their homes, but under mortgage 'to their full credit value, that is, they are virtually tenants. This means that under the Industrial feudalism now developing seven-eighths of our city population are liable to be turned out of work at the end of the week, and with their families into the streets at the end of the month. The condition of the agriculturists is hut little better. One-third of the farmers 6f the entire country are tenants; one-third own their farms,

GEORGE C. WARD.

but under mortgage to their full credit vsloet thus rendering them virtually tenants, and only one-third own their acres tree from debt By comparison with the oenaua of 1350, there has been an alarming increase in tenant farmers. In Illinois, for example, the growth was from 24 per cent in 158) to S 6 per cent in 18S0-. and la Montana it was ten-fold. In every state in the onion the per centage has increased in the last decade and. more startling still, the absolute as well as the relative number of farms has decreased. though the acreage has increased, showing the concentration of farms into fewer hands, and the remorseless reduction of the real tillers to the condition of serfs. The investigation demonstrates the truth of the assertion that “the rich are growing richer and the poor poorer," and that the American workingman is becoming the American slave, and the American farmer the American peasant Passing by the onuses of this revolutionary tendency, it is of the utmost importance that this inquiry should be repeated every ten years, so that by comparison we may discover in which direction we are moving. The interrupted duration of the oensus bureau has hitherto made permanent legislation on this subject Impossible, as the bureau has existed tor o*»ly about six years of each decade, every oensus requiring new legislation and a reorganisation with new men But there is now before congress a proposition to make the bureau permanent by continuing alx or seven heads of deportments and the necessary staff of olerks ia place during the four Intervening years and employing them on collateral statistic work, forming an experienced nucleus around which to reorganise the bureau at the beginning of each decade. It is not the creaton of a new bureau, but the permanent continuance of an old and oonstitutional one ThereJs no doubt that it will result Id better statistical work at lew oost than hr the present wasteful and unskilled method. But the general law effecting this reform contains no provision for a repetition of the "home and farm inquiry.” By incorporating such a provision now, the inquiry will be permanently established without any further legislation, and if a sufficient public demand were made, such a clause would be Inserted in the bill. With a view to evoking suoh a demand, the Western Economlo association, of SL Louis, issues this second appeal to the people of the United States The practical step la for any organised body to adopt resolutions of the following tenor: Whereas, There is now before congregy a proposition to place the oensus bureau on a permanent basis: and. Whereas, We believe It to be properly the business of such a bureau to show the distribution as well as the production of wealth: therefore be it by tfnsert here the name of the organization adopting the resolutions and the locality] Resolved, That we favor the permanent wtabllshment of the census bureau, and we request that it shall bo made a part of Its permanent duties to oollect data at eaoh decennial period to show what percentage of the people of the United States ocoupy their own homes and their own farms, and what percentage are tenants: and of those oocupylng their own homes and farms, what percentage have their property free from debt, and what is the value thereof: and of the homes and farms under mortgage, what is the value thereof, and what percentage of the value la so mortgaged. Resolved, That the secretary of this meeting be requested to transmit a copy of these resolutions to the congressman from this district and to the two senators from this state The appeal is not political, but purely economic, and is made to you personally, the reader. The next time you are In a meeting of the Knights of Labor, trades and labor union, Farmers’ Alliance, the grange, political meeting, religious body or what not, introduce resolutions of the foregoing character, and have them adopted. Also write your congressman a personal letter on the sublect As the bill will shortly come before congress, prompt action is necessary.

Secretary Western Economlo Association.

LOOKING BACKWARD.

Although the Birth of Nationalism Is of lleceut Date Its Urowth Has Basil Phenomenal. With this number the New Nation enters upon Its third year. Reform journalism is not pecuniarily profitable and ought not to be. If it were, its conductors would be quite too richly rewarded, at least nationalist papers would be; for certainly the dividends in growth and progross declared on our cause during the last two years have been such as to make it seem grasping to suggest the desirability of any.other form of returns. The progress of nationalism since 1890, and still more strikingly if we look back to the first organization of the nationalist propaganda in 1888, has exceeded the most sanguine anticipation of the most sanguine of onr faith. Look back four years and the United States was a practically virgin field for any form of the socialistic propaganda. To-day, nationalism, the name given to the most radical form of socialism, nothing less than- Jesus Christ’s socialism, is a household word from one ocean to another. Four years ago, ridiculed as amiable enthusiasts, people actually fools enough to believe that God’s kingdom of fraternal equality ever could come on earth, the nationalists to-day see their hope become the religion of hundreds of thousands, their practical programme adopted as the creed Of a national party which, having polled a million votes at its first election, in no spirit of idle boastfulness claims the presidency in 1896. Public management of the railroads, the telegraphs, the telephones, the express service, the coal mines, the liquor traffic, the deposit and exchange banking system and of the issue of money, state insurance and the municipalization of all the public services of cities and towns, idsas scarcely heard of four years ago, ms-ny of them not two years ago, have become burning issues before national, state and municipal conventions and at the polls, and nowhere have the nationalists any other opposition to meet than that of* mere inertia. The moral sentiment and the business sense are so absolutely and wholly on their side in every proposition that they have made, that a hearing is all they have needed to ask for. Ridicule was the only weapon that greed and ignorance could use against us from thn start, and that, long since dulled, we are turning against them with newlv whetted edge Our cause is instinctively recognized even by those who have not joined us, as that of all against the few, of the masses against the classes the people against the plutocrats. We have everywhere put the other side on the defensive Can there be any question as to the future of such, a party, which seeks the ideal of Christ by the most hard-headed sort of economic logic? Parties of radical social reform in Europe and Great Britain antedated ours, and until recently it has appeared that America would be a laggard in the glorious race. The prospect has changed of late. America aroused in time to recognize the falsity of its democratic pretensions, will yet be first to touch the goal of true liberty, equality and fraternity.—Edward Bellamy, in New Nation. .

B. A. KEELER,