Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 December 1899 — A Natural Weather Bureau. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A Natural Weather Bureau.

/ An enchanted ravine of the Ulloa Valley, Honduras, is described as a regular weather bureau, with the peculiarity that it is always reliable. The tumbling of a cataract down the side of a mountain gives the ravine its voice, which can be heard for many miles, and this indicates by its volume the approach of rain and whether the coming storm is to be light or heavy. Tradition says that the ravine Is the home of a dragon who controls the clouds and winds. The average married woman acts as if she found her husband easy to get, and expects to have another one. i« •?.. *

Value of a Home Demand. There was a certain farmer who In the days of Clevelandism voted for tariff reform. His fancy had been caught by the glowing pictures of marvelous prosperity which the free traders and the tariff reformers had painted to describe the glorious days when under free trade we would have possesion of the markets of the world. Some little time after the triumph of the advocates of tariff reform in 1892, when the country, instead of enjoying the overflowing prosperity predicted, was suffering from the hard times brought on by the downfall of the protective system, this same farmer took a wagon load of garden truck to the nearest town for sale. The once thrifty town, which had formerly been such a good market, was a scene of idleness. The mills in the town were shut down, and many of the houses were vacant and nobody wanted the farmer’s products. He was obliged to drive home again, taking his garden truck with him. As he jogged along in disgust, one of the townsmen shouted out to him: “What did you bring your stuff here for? Why didn’t you haul your load to the nearest port, hire a boat and ship it across the ocean? You know you have been howling for a foreign market.” What the farmer said in reply is not on record, but it is not unlikely that the lesson struck home, and that he came to realize that it was money in his pocket and in that of every other farmer to have a market for farm products almost at their own doors, and that the prosperity of the wage earner in the towns means the sale of the farmer’s products and the* prosperity of the farmer himself. Railway Prosperity. The railways of the country are doing an unparalleled business at the present time. Not only are people traveling in greater numbers than in ordinary times, but there is an equally heavy amount of freight traffic. So much freight is to be transported that the railways are finding it difficult to provide enough cars to meet the demand for them. The situation is summed up by an Eastern railway official as follows: “With the enormous business in sight it will be a crime if, for the next six months at least, there is a single rate cut or an unemployed car east of Chicago. There is sufficient business to keep every road busy.” The great amount of business done by the railway companies is a sure indication of the great prosperity that prevails in all parts of the country. It reflects good times for all the people. The crops are large, causing unusually heavy shipments of grain and agricultural products, which means increased freight business for the railways, while the great amount of manufacturing and our large exports to foreign countries contribute to a great extent in giving the railways new business. Then the people are traveling more than usual, because they feel that they can afford it. The prosperity of the railways is an infallible test of the prosperity of the country. As they have never known a period when their receipts were greater, it may be assumed that the country is enjoying greater prosperity than ever before.—Milwaukee Sentinel.

Leaders Are at Sea. In regard to the tariff and silver the Democratic party was wrong, and it knows it was wrong. The reason it doesn’t admit the fact is because it is not honest.—Kansas City Journal. This is a little harsh. One reason It does not admit its mistake, it is not in condition to admit anything. Its leaders are at sea—on a wide and stormy sea, and in a boat of stone, with oars of lead, the rudder lost, and no friendly port in sight. You might as well say a man who has been on a horrible drunk for a long period is not honest, because he has no mind to submit to the dictates of reason. The Democratic party may sober up after a time; but present indications are for a considerable period of crapulency yet.—Salem (Ore.) Statesman. Don't Destroy the Shield. The exploitation of the anti-trust feeling will not be permitted to work the destruction of protective duties which are the shield of the American workingman against, not merely cheaper European labor—now much less feared than of old—but against the practice of foreign manufacturers of unloading vast amounts of their products on the American market at prices far lower than they ask at home, simply with a view' of smashing American competition.—St. Paul “Pioneer-Press.” Still Coming. time when prosperity began in I l Jr country was stated by Senator Allison in a speech at Bloomfield, lowa, Oct. 20. Mr. Allison said prosperity commenced the day df McKlntey’sJn-

filled. The precise time of the turn toward prosperity was a little earlier than that mentioned by the lowa Senator. It was when the count of the votes cast at the Presidential election of November, 1896, showed that protection, sound money and everything else genuinely American and thorough-* ly safe and sensible were Insured for at least four years to come. The moment that assurance was made clear by the count sf the vote prosperity began to arrive. It came slowly at first, but It has kept coming in grand style ever since, and apparently is not yet done coming. An Object Lesson for Kentucky.* “ ’Way down in Old Kentucky” they are feeling the difference between keeping the American market for ourselves, in supplying the demands of the American people with American products, In keeping American money at home and in attracting the gold of other countries to the United States—the difference between all that and the giving up freely to foreigners all the advantages of the American market. Mr. George Braden, president of the Globe Fertilizing Company, of Louisville, recently spoke as follows: “In Kentucky the general business conditions are better than they have been since 1893, and In some respects they are better than they have ever been since I can remember. Manufacturers are very busy, and concerns are paying better dividends than they have paid tor a long time. In addition, a goodly number of new industries have sprung Into existence, and there Is, therefore, plenty of work at good pay for all. Money is easy, and we have felt no stringency whatever.” This sort of thing ought to swing Kentucky over permanently to the party which makes its fundamental principle of faith the protection of American Interests. Value of High Paid Labor. The improved condition of the workingmen is more important to this country than any amount of foreign trade. When foreign trade can be obtained only by lengthening the day or lessening the wages of American labor, we would better get along without It. High paid labor is the pride of this country, and any protection which does not protect that is not worth having.—Gunton’s Magazine, November, 1899. 1 An Era of Cheap Money. A good farmer in Wilson Township has tried to loan his surplus money to his neighbors at 5 per cent, straight, but has been unable to do so owing to the present restoration |>f confidence and the large amount of money among the people. Is this not a strange condition to the men who said that Republican success would make money high and scarce?—Clinton Public. What Does This Mean? “Every wool grower of the country should ask his Congressman or Senator whether the customs authorities throughout the country are collecting the duty on wool as intended by the Dingley tariff.” This is the statement of a reliable authority in close touch with domestic wool interests. What does It mean? Another Free-Trade Trust. That there are trusts not fathered by a protective tariff is shown by statistics from England, France and Germany. The Board of Trade of Birmingham, England, Is now investigating the shipping trust, which it is claimed is working serious injury to British industry. Tacoma (Wash.) Ledger. Time to Laugh. Prosperity has laid its hand on the Sunflower State, and a journal acknowledges it by saying, “Laugh, and the world will be likely to take you for a Kansas farmer.”—Carlsbad (N. M.) Argus. Must Be an Orphan. A calico trust in England has been capitalized at $50,000,000. As its parent cannot be a protective tariff. Democrats will'claim that this trust is an orphan.—St Louis Globe-Democrat Blown Off the Earth.