People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1893 — Page 3

A LITTLE COMEDY OF ERRORS

CHAPTER I. ..Egan—Why look you cold on me! You know Be well Ant S.—l never saw you in my life till now. —Comedy of Errors.

The fare started up as if from a fit of profound abstraction. “The Clement house?” he repeated, glancing up at the hotel with its wide stone portico supported by massive pillars and ornamented with its usual quota of smoking, staring, well-dressed idlers. “Well, driver, what did we agree upon? Seventy-five cents—and here it is.” The money, in glittering silver pieces, was handed out and eagerly transferred to the hackman’s pocket; then the gentleman, with a small portmanteau in his hand, emerged from the carriage and walked leisurely up the steps of the hoteh He was a handsome man, tall, slender and elegant in figure, and he carried himself with a condescending air, as very handsome men are apt to do. He was enveloped in a long,loose ulster, evidently donned to protect his expensive broadcloth from the dust of travel; a soft black hat rested upon his auburn curls. His dark gray eyes were keen and slightly quizzical in expression; his whole countenance, though delicate in features and complexion, denoted strength, determination and reckless daring, with a touch of genuine mirthfulness to which, however, the dark sweeping mustache that he wore gave an odd contradiction by the indescribably mournful droop that it took. He had scarcely ascended the hotel steps when he was accosted on all sides by the assembled gentleman. “North! North! Ye gods and little fishes, if it isn’t North back again!” arose a chorus of astonished voices, as the group of idlers suspended all other conversation in order to question the newcomer. “Why, what does this mean, North? Back before anyone has had time to miss you!” said one, as he held his cigar aloft and hastily adjusted his eyeglasses. “Come back to get a better start?” “Afraid your friends wouldn’t be able to survive your absence?” “Forgot something, perhaps?” suggested one brilliant genius, thus bringing himself out in bold relief against the background of vague and unsatisfactory conjecture. “Was it your heart, North? Inquire up on Delaplaine street, and it will no doubt be returned and no questions asked!” Thus the running fire of banter went on. The victim of it, halted thus unceremoniously on the very steps of the liotel, stood in bewildered silence for a moment without attempting any response. But after the first pause of utter astonishment he recovered himself and found voice to speak. “Gentlemen,” he exclaimed, in tones that expressed a well-bred surprise and annoyance, “this is a curious misapprehension! I assure you it is a case of mistaken identity. lam not the person whom you evidently think me to be. I have not the honor of knowing you, and indeed I never saw you before.” The gentlemen addressed looked blank in their turn for an instant; then a derisive laugh swept around the circle. “Hear! hear!” cried two or three, applaudingly. “ ‘Mistaken identity’—‘not the person we think him to be!’ ” echoed mockingly from lip to lip. “Didn’t we bid you good-by only four hours ago, fairly bowed down with grief because you assured us that you would be gone for two whole weeks? And now here you are back again like the proverbial penny!” “What do you mean?” demanded the newcomer, with a perceptible increase of bewilderment and indignation. “I never was at the Clement house, never was in X before in my life!” Upon this declaration the laughter and protests broke out afresh. “Oh, I say, North, you’ve carried this far enough!” cried the brilliant genius who had previously distinguished himself. "Have you suddenly lost your senses, or do you imagine that we have all taken leave of ours? It is no use, you know, your trying to deny your own identity, when here are a dozen of your daily associates and intimate friends all ready to swear to it.” “I assure you, gentlemen—” the voice had the inflection of rising anger, but it was quickly drowned in the laughing comments of the others. “Come, come, North,” testily interposed the gentleman with the eyeglasses, “you’ve perjured yourself quite enough. Where’s the use, you know? You surely can’t think of carrying this poor little farce any farther. Aren’t you Ollin North, attorney at law? Anjswer me that!”

By S. S. MORTON.

[Copyrighted 1891. by S. S. Morton, and published by special arrangement.]

HE Clement house, sir! Here you are.” The hackman, descending nimbly from his elevated perch to the smooth •white pavement of flag stones, threw open the carriage door and stood surveying the solitary fare whom he had triumphantly captured at the railway station fifteen minutes before.

“Allan North, attorney at law?” repeated the gentleman, an additional wave of perplexity sweeping over his face. “Why, yes, to be sure I am; but —” A roar of laughter interrupted him. “Well done, North! Capital!” cried the applauding crowd. “When are you going on the stage? That facial expression is fine! You’ll make your mark as a first-class comedian!” “Really, this is preposterous—l protest,” began the stranger, rallying once more; when suddenly a voice thin and weak, but evidently the voice of one in authority, interposed: “What’s the circus?” lisped Col. Dayton, the gentlemanly manager, as with his incongruous combination of two hundred pounds avoirdupois and a small voice delicately pitched on the tone of C above, he advanced upon the scene. “Col. Dayton, just look at this gentleman and tell us who he is!” cried a dozen laughing voices before the stranger could speak. “This gentleman?” repeated the benign and astonished colonel, his round blue eyes roving over the group

HIS ROUND BLUE EYES FIXING THEMSELVES UPON NORTH.

and then fixing themselves like two animated interrogation points upon North. “Why, you don’t say so—you here, Mr. North? What’s up? Back to stay? Concluded not to go east after all? Nothing happened, I hope?” For as he watched the face of the man whom he was addressing a growing perplexity and uneasiness became apparent in the colonel’s countenance and manner. “You would think something had happened, colonel, if you could hear him talk. He is actually trying to make us believe that he never was at the Clement house before, and that he doesn’t know one of us! What’s your opinion of the case, colonel —temporary mental aberration?” The good colonel stared curiously at North for an instant, then broke into a musical little laugh that shook him gently from head to foot. An expression of calm despair swept over North’s countenance as the notes of mirth were taken up and loudly echoed by the others. Suddenly checking himself in his laughter, possibly because of the expression he caught in North’s eye, the colonel coughed asthmatically for a moment, and drawing a large handkerchief from his pocket he mopped his flushed face with it, glancing furtively at North the while from behind the ambush of snowy cambric. He was still chuckling with suppressed merriment when he finally spoke again, as everyone was evidently waiting for him to do.

“ That’s not so bad now, gentlemen—not so bad!” declared the polonel, who had a happy appreciation of humor, however absurd or whimsical it might be, and an amiable habit of sympathizing with any nonsense that might be afloat. “Glad to see you here again, anyway, Mr. North. You’ll have the same "rooms again, I suppose? They haven’t been taken yet, you see. Kept ’em for you all this time!” This w’as said with renewed chuckling and an air of good-naturedly, though clumsily, carrying on the pleasantry that Mr. North had originated. “Confound them all!” thought the latter in despair. “Whoever heard of such a case? How dare they dispute my word? Oaths and protestations seem to have no more weight than a feather against their own stupid preconceived ideas. I begin to feel my reason tottering, my memory failing me! Where did I ever see these idiots before? It’s all nonsense; I never saw them in my life! And yet lam certainly Allan North, attorney at law. How could they know me so well if they had never seen me before? Was I here four hours ago? Am I their old friend and comrade? Or am I dreaming—bewitched? No, no! It is a case of mistaken identity; I am clearly the unhappy victim of some other fellow’s good fortune his strange and unaccountable resemblance to me. The same name, too; what & singular coincidence! Upon my word, this savors of comedy, and, since it is forced upon me, I’ll take my role and see what I can make of it. I’m in the hands of these harmless lunatics who think they know who I am better than I do myself; so I’ll humor them for the present. It’s a queer entanglement, but protestations are useless unless the other fellow should turn up and settle the question; and, so far as I can see, the best thing for me to do is to drift I with this tide which I have found it So

impossible to stem, and let the results take care of themselves.- It cannot do any harm. How could anyone blame me for it, under the circumstances? And, really, I might as well combine a little innocent amusement with the important business that calls me to X . Unless I am vastly mistaken, this promises to be the most diverting experience I ever happened upon!” This soliloquy flashed through North’s mind in a very brief time, during which he stood abstractedly in the center of the group whose chaffing remarks he only half heard or comprehended; and as it reached this definite conclusion he resigned himself to his fate with a sense of reckless enjoyment. “Certainly, colonel,” he said, having caught the title, though the name of the gentlemanly manager had escaped him, “the same rooms, by all means. By the way, shall I register?” “As you please, Mr. North; as you please. When will you leave off jesting?” And the expression of vague uneasiness again appeared on Col. Dayton’s round, rosy face. “Just step into the office a minute, anyway. The clerk’s got a letter that was sent up after you left this morning. You didn’t tell us where your correspondence should.be forwarded to, so we were in something of a puzzle to decide—” The rest of the sentence was lost in the colonel’s puffing endeavor to open the heavy swing-door. Allan North, attorney at law, was glad to escape from the hilarious crowd on the hotel steps and followed the colonel into the office. But here another difficulty confronted him, when a dainty missive bearing a lady’s chirography was placed in his hand. True, the envelope was addressed simply to “Mr. North, Clement House, City,” and was not he that gentleman? But then, very probably at the time the letter was written he was not within one hundred miles of the Clement house and had never even heard of the place. It may appear to the cool, dispassionate reader that North’s proper course at this point was too obvious to admit of any hesitation or mental debate. Nevertheless he did hesitate; and he did argue within himself what line of action he should adopt. Refuse to take the letter? That would give rise to renewed questions, explanations and ridicule, which, in view of his late trying experiences, he did not wish to provoke. How would it do, for instance— His reflections were suddenly arrested by the discovery that the envelope was not sealed. A vague sense of relief came to his mind, as if he now saw an easy and justifiable solution of the difficulty. “Anoversight, of course,” ho thought, still contemplating the creamy envelope that he held, from which arose a faint exquisite perfume as of withered rose leaves; “but there cannot be anything very private or personal about this correspondence or the fair writer would not have been so careless. After all, whom is it for if not for me? Who is the man whose perfect counterpart I seem to be?” He paused in his speculations. A sudden suspicion darted like lightning into his mind, then as suddenly was dismissed. “Oh, no, that is impossible!” he mentally declared the next instant. “Quite out of the question. And yet the name— No, no! It cannot be! There must be some other explanation of the mystery. I will glance over this letter when I get to my room and see if it affords any clew to the solution.” With this decision he turned to the books and registered in dashing but somewhat illegible characters: “A. North, New York.” “And now, colonel,” he said, turning around to that gentleman, “where are you going to put me?” “Where am I going to put you?” The colonel’s amazed countenance was a study as he repeated the question. “What on earth are you thinking about, Mr. North? Your rooms are precisely as you left them this morning. Here Sam,” summoning a colored porter, “take Mr. North’s valise up to 54.” A few minutes later North found himself in the suite assigned to him, evidently the apartment of his mysterious double. He proceeded with much curiosity to survey his new domains. There was nothing in the appointments that especially attracted his at-

HE SUDDENLY RECOLLECTED THE LETTER.

tention, except a large black walnut writing table. The many drawers that it contained were locked, as he discovered when he attempted to open them. The pigeonholes were empty; a few books were ranged neatly beneath them. Everything indicated a careful preparation for the absence of the owner. Having ascertained that his surroundings were entirely non-committal, North surrendered himself once more to baffled speculations, which he pursued from the depths of a luxurious lounging chair. “If a man is not what he thinks himself,” he began, speaking aloud, as he frequently did in soliloquy, “but what the world thinks him to be, then I am entitled to the possession of this room, the use of all it contains, all the prerogatives of the rightful tenant. And yet I solemnly affirm that I never was in this deluded place before in the

whole course of my natural existence! I Isn’t that a curious contradiction of | facts and appearances? However, this j will all come out right some time. I There is nothing so crooked that time ; cannot make it straight; and why should I trouble myself about a misap- : prehension for which I am in no degree I responsible? I will pursue the even tenor of my way, neither aggressively asserting my own identity nor endeavoring to assume that of my mysterious double; and then, come what may, the dear public, and not I,will be to blame.” At this point in his soliloquy he suddenly recollected the letter in his pocket. “Ah!” he exclaimed, drawing it forth hastily and once more examining the address, “this is one of the prerogatives! An open letter is supposed to be designed for the perusal of the general public. ‘Mr. North, Clement House, City.’ Well, I am certainly that gentleman, so here goes! I shall see what my fair unknown correspondent has to say.” Very little, but entirely to the point, as he discovered on glancing hastily over these delicately traced lines: “Mrs. Maynard will be at home this afternoon at twoo'olock. Will it bo convenient for Mr. North to call at that hour?” At the toptof the sheet he now noticed the handsomely engraved address: “No. 83 Delaplaine street.” "Maynard— Mrs. Maynard,” mused North, abstractedly, dropping the hand that still held the perfumed sheet in its listless grasp and frowning at the carpet as if he expected to find somewhere amid its warp and woof the thread that should unravel this mystery. “Where have I heard that name lately? It seems to me I ought to know. Two o’clock—‘this afternoon at two o’clock.’ ” He drew out his watch suddenly and consulted it. “It is now precisely 12:30. . H’m! ‘No. 33 Delaplaine street.’ (And pray, where may that be?) ‘Will it bo convenient’ (oh, very convenient, but how about the expediency?) ‘for Mr. ' North to call at that hour?’ Short and sweet; and eminently unsatisfactory. No light whatever from this source. ' The mystery only grows deeper, my | position more involved. Shall I call on Mrs. Maynard, or not? It would bo a piece of unparalleled daring! To go, 1 or not to go; that is the question!” [to be continued.]

YOUNG AT EIGHTY YEARS.

A Chilian Woman Who Is Remarkably Well Preserved for Her Age. “Perhaps the most remarkable woman in the world lives in Santiago, Chili,” said Robert A. Bonham, an American who has spent several years in South America, to a Boston Globe reporter. “She is apparently a well-pre-served woman of thirty-five, rather good looking, spry as a girl and a pronounced coquette, yet it is known positively that she is eighty years old, and may be much older. She has a granddaughter who looks old enough to be her mother. This remarkable woman is of Spanish extraction, a native of Peru, and her name is Boockman, her second husband, now dead, having been a German. Middle-aged people aver that she was a grown woman when | they were chilclren and that she does not look a day older now than she did then. She is regarded with superstitious awe by the more ignorant of the natives, over whom she could undoubtedly exercise great influence were her morals not so notoriously bad. She is passionately fond of dancing, has a musical voice, snapping black eyes and a beautiful set of teeth. She claims that she owes her wonderful preservation to a charm which an old half breed Indian doctor exercised over her when she was a child. She says she will neither grow old nor die until the charm is broken. Some of the natives express the belief that she is in league with the devil. She got into an altercation with a young woman not long ago and cut her seriously, but the latter was afraid to enter a complaint against her lest she should exercise some baleful influence over her. It is said that she has many admirers and is soon to be married to a young Chilian of considerable wealth.”

FORCING IDEAS TO FLOW.

A London Physician’s Plan for Making Literary Composition Easy. Dr. Lauder Brunton, a London physician, has made a discovery which, according to the Daily News, ought to entitle him to the gratitude of all who live by intellectual labor. It is nothing less than the secret of how to have ideas at will. One night, after a long day’s work, this eminent physician was called upon to write an article immediately. He sat down with pen, ink and paper before him, but not a single idea came into his head, not a single word could he write. Lying back, he then soliloquized: “The brain is the same as it was yesterday, and it worked then; why will it not work to-day?” Then it occurred to him that the day before he was not so tired, and that probably the circulation was a little brisker than to-day. He next considered the various experiments on the connection between cerebral circulation and mental activity and concluded that if the blood would not come to the brain the best thing would be to bring the brain down to the blood. It was at this moment that he was seized with the happy thought of laying his head “flat upon the table." At once his ideas began to flow and his pen to run across the paper. By and by Dr. Brunton thought: “I am getting on so well I may sit up now.” But it would not do. “The moment,” he continues, “that I raised my head my mind became an utter blank, so I put my head down again flat upon the table and finished my article in that position.” ONE of the most important problems of the hour is the cheapest way to extract aluminum from the inexhaustible deposits of clay abounding in this country. The latest process is that invented by M. Faure, by which he expects to reduce the cost to about sixteen or eighteen cents a pound.—Inventive Age. IN the human blood there is an average of 300 red cells to every white one. The red cells have an average diameter of 1-3,200 of an inch, the white ones 1-25,000 inch.

WHAT IS SOCIALISM.

It is Neither Anarchy or Revolution—Applied Christianity. The following brief extracts are taken from an excellent article on socialism written by a contributor to the Los Angeles Express: “Probably no word in the English language has been so persistently abused, slandered and misused as the word socialism. Derived from socius— a friend—it distinctly refers to a social system founded upon the friendly feelings of humanity, justice, fraternity, and a common equality of opportunities. * * * A division of existing wealth would be ethically unjust and practically impossible. The socialist does not propose to share the fruits or labor with the idler and the non-pro-ducer; he believes in the old adage: ‘If he work not, neither shall he eat;’ he only adds: ‘He that works must also eat’. * * * * * “No socialistic authority teaches revolution or advises a violent uprising against existing conditions. * * * Hyndam spoke the sentiment of all in saying: ‘An attempt at mob violence would put back the cause for at least one generation. Socialism is a growth not a revolution; it can only come as a result of education, and the masses are not yet ready for its application.’ “But probably the most common error is the prevalent idea that socialism is an attempt to make all men socially equal, and to repress the intelligence and genius to the dead level of mediocrity. This is a wrong and erroneous conception of the aim of the socialist. Industrial and economic equality does not demand social equality. * * * Nature makes a difference intellectually and morally, but nature itself makes all men equal on the plane of material wants —the fool and the idiot require the same amount of the actual necessities of life as the philosopher and genius. Socialism only claims men should be equal on that plane of animal wants where nature has set her seal * * * “The theories of socialism rest upon the application—to our social life—of three ethical propositions, and any attempt to apply them or to reduce them to actual practice may be called socialism. “First —There should be no vested right or title to real estate. Land is the heritage of humanity and should be used for the common good, occupancy and use, furnishing the title to the produce. “Second —Every man is entitled to the full value of what is produced by his own labor. One is especially apt to overlook the force of this proposition. Most men will say at once: ‘This is just; it is self-evident truth; no man is entitled to take from another the result of individual labor.’ Reader, do you confess as much? Beware lest such a confession should prove you a socialist. In no other theory of social life could this claim be put to actual practice; under the wage system it would be impossible. Will one man employ another unless he can retain part of what is produced—in other words, unless he can make a profit by doing so? “Third. No personal payment for individual services,and the means (money) whereby this is now done should be abolished by the state. “These are the fundamental principles of modern socialism. The first may be called the land plank, the second is the labor plank, the third is the financial plank; and any one that accepts them and would apply them to practice should call himself a socialist. “The differences between the various schools of socialists are only the natural differences that must arise between the various plans of various men who would found a social system on these foundations. * * * It is nothing more and nothing less than practical Christianity—a direct application to social life of the ‘Sermon on the Mount.’ ” —Nonconformist.

WE MUST HAVE IT.

A System of Finance That Will Relieve the People From the Burden of Usury. There has been introduced into the legislature of Washington the following resolution: Whereas, There exists throughout the state of Washington and the United States a condition of business depression and industrial distress caused by a lack of circulating medium, or money, in sufficient volume to meet the demands of business and industry: and Whereas, The state of Washington and all counties, municipalities and school districts therein, and the people generally, are obliged to pay excessive rates of interest for money to conduct necessary public enterprises: and Whereas, The same is an evil that is in the power and is the duty of congress to remedy; therefore be it Resolved, By the house of representatives of the legislature of the state of Washiugton, the senate concurring, that we demand that congress shall empower and instruct the secretary of the treasury of the United States to cause to be printed treasury notes of the United States in convenient denominations for circulation as money among the people. That the amount of such bills be fixed as the requirements of this resolution may demand. That such currency when issued as hereinafter provided, shall be full legal tender for the payment of all debts, public and private. That the secretary of the treasury of the United States shall, under such provisions as congress may find necessary, lend the same at a tax of of 1/2 of 1 per cent per annum to states, counties, municipalities and school districts in the United States on approved bonds of said states counties, municipalities and school districts being deposited with the secretary of the treasury as security for the payment of the same within a time to be fixed by congress. That when such money is paid back to the secretary of the treasury it shall again be paid out as provided above, or in satisfaction of any obligations of the United States. Proposed for the consideration of the legislature of the state of Washington. Interest is the disease of business and society. It enables the idle to draw to themselves the substance of the industrious. Interest on money is founded on a childish misconception. The finder of a piece of yellow mineral called gold is possessed of the wonderful Aladdin’s lamp. He commands everything that human industry and ingenuity can produce Why? Because he has added something to the sum of good things? No; because it is Aladdin’s lamp, and the slaves of the stand ready to do his bidding. The modern Aladdin lends parts of his lamp, and the slaves must bring two parts back. The evil, grows by geometrical progression and the slavery daily reaches further and becomes more degrading.

That is the theory and practice of interest. The exclusive use as money of either gold and silver, or both gold and silver, places the world in absolute slavery to the holders of these metals. There are $1,400,000,000 in gold in circulation throughout the world. In the United States alone farmers have promised to pay $15,000,000,000 in gold. There is not gold enough in existence to pay interest on debts owed in the United States. The Baring failure, the Russian famine and the steady closing in of the contraction policy have all combined to bring about a foreclosure of these obligations, with the shipments of gold to Europe and financial distress in this country as the disastrous result. The facts alleged in the above joint resolution are apparent to anyone. They are beyond dispute. The remedy is the issue now. The rapid and continued export of our money is a cause of grave alarm in all parts of the country and among all classes. It needs no profound knowledge of finance to see the danger, and the effects are becoming distressing. The dominant parties offer no remedy. Here is a plan that will not only give relief, but will put our finances on the bedrock of justice and business common sense. It will break the backbone of interest. It will be urged by bankers and their hirelings that the money to be issued as above will not be good. But they will be on exactly the same footing as a national bank note—bonds issued regularly and deposited with the treasurer of the United States. The difference will be that the currency is issued directly to the people for labor without the intervention of private corporations. On the bonded indebtedness of the city of Spokane we would be paying onetwelfth the present tax, and paying it as a public tax instead of into the pockets of some idler. It would cut the rate of interest on private loans and set the wheels of industry in motion. The legislators at Olympia this winter, of whatever party, will be put on record on this measure, and if one of them votes for a senatorial candidate who will not pledge himself to this measure, the fact will be known and advertised. —Spokane (Wash.) Industrial World.

WHY PEOPLE ARE POOR.

The Enormous Tribute Paid By Labor in the Past Twenty Years. It seems curiously paradoxical to say that the people of the richest country on the earth are poverty stricken, and yet it is true. The “nine million mortgaged homes,” disclosed to view by the eleventh census of the United States, is proof enough of that fact, without citing more. Yet any one who will take the trouble to study the conditions which have prevailed during the past twenty years will not be surprised, after investigation, that it is so. During that period the productive forces of this country have been called upon to pay tribute to foreign speculators, to the amount of almost $2,000,000,000, of which we have positive knowledge, and perhaps twice as much more, concerning which, having been reinvested here, we are unable to get complete information. They have paid over $1,500,000,000 on the principal of a war debt, and about $1,600,000,000 of interest on the same. There has been consumed by fires $1,500,000,000, according to the best estimates obtainable. Not including the payments on either the principal or interest of the debt, it has cost $4,000,000,000 to run the national government for that period, or including the post offices, $5,000,000,000, and fully as much more to run the several state, county and municipal governments, and the judiciary probably considerable more, but say $4,000,000,000 for those purposes. The interests and dividends on railroad bonds and stocks, including that on “water,” has been about $4,000,000,000 more. The interest on the $9,000,000,000 of real estate mortgages which Mr. Porter's census agents reported at 8 per cent, would amount in that time to $14,400,000,000 and the interest on other individual debts, including the real estate mortgages not reported by the census, would be fully as much more. Then the direct “aids,” “bonuses,” “grants” and other concessions to great corporations have been considerably above a billion dollars in value, say $1,200,000,000. Omitting from the calculation all reference to the excessively expensive business methods now in use for handling supplies of all kinds, and which has been variously estimated to cost from half a billion to a billion dollars annually in excess of what the same business could be easily done for, and the following table shows the enormous expense which has been saddled upon the people during the period named, and the annual average: Tribute to foreign speculators ....$ 1,900,000,600 Principal national debt paid... 1,500,000,000 Interest national debt paid.... 1,600,000,000 Loss by fires.... 1,500,000,000 Expense national government.... 5,000,000,000 Expense states, etc... 4,000,000,000 Interest and dividends to railroads... 4,000,000,000 Interest on private debts (real estate mortgages)....... 14,400,000,000 Interest on private and other debts 14,400,000,000 Direct grants to corporations......1,200,000,000 Total, 20 years........$49,000,000,000 Annual average........$ 2,475,000,000 Not much wonder that this country is now afflicted with 9,000,000 mortgaged homes, 10,000 millionaires and 3,000,000 tramps, when the productive forces of the nation have been loaded with an annual burden of over two and one-half billion dollars, nearly all of which went directly into the coffers of a few powerful corporations. Now, how much of this incomprehensibly vast sum might have been saved to the people, and how much can the burden be now reduced? Is there any way in which the necessary reduction can be made except by undoing the vicious legislation which has been at the bottom of most of it and enacting just and equitable laws in its stead? —Iowa Farmer’s Tribune. —Our movement is fettered with an army of place-hunters and pap-suckers, but in spite of them the cause is marching on.