Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 February 1901 — Few-Line Interviews. [ARTICLE]

Few-Line Interviews.

William A. Pinkerton, Chief of the Pinkerton Detective Agency—The most serious criminal question we will have to deal with in the future is how to prevent the robbing of country banks and how to capture country bank robbers. This class of criminals is constantly increasing, as may be seen by the immense number of small bank burglaries that are being committed in all parts of the country. The offenses are not limited to any particular locality, but occur in almost every State in the Union. The large city banks are no longer in much danger from robbery, but the country banks, with capitals of $2,000 to SIO,OOO, are suffering. We keep capturing the criminals who do this work, but it seems the number goes right on increasing just the same. A. A. Alsbury of Houston, Texas —The people of Beaumont are daffy. They have gone oil crazy. The people act like mad. The city is packed to suffocation. There is oil over everything. You can smell it from the train. One can scarcely bear to have the ear window raised, the odor is so strong. The air is saturated with oil until it will almost burn. I would be almost afraid to sleep in Beaumont for fear of fire. The hotels are not only crowded, but the private residences are filled with cots. Folks who have no prospective oil lands are getting rich feeding and bedding those who do have or those who have a hope of "possessing some of thp treasured soil. And it’s no exaggeration to say the people are wild, are crazy. John Goodnow, United States Consul General at Shanghai—What a people the Chinese are! The viceroy at Nankin, who controls 100,000,000 of his people, supplies his wants with 10 cents a day. His wealth is great, but his appetite is appeased with that small amount of food. They understand the secret of contentment. I met the descendants of Confucius living in the same place where their forefathers had lived for 2,500 yearg. Their conversation is beyond anything we dan imagine. Has a Chinaman his wife, children and business in a town? Then what should induce him to go beyond its walls? He is content.

Daniel J. Wood of Salt Lake City— What would England do if we should tell her we were going to build the Nicaragua canal in our own way, and she could ngree or disagree as suited her best. I know some over-nice Americans contend that we should not thus take advantage of England's present plight, but does any sane man suppose England would overlook a bet like that if it came her way? The history of the world’s diplomacy is a story of one nation taking advantage of another’s distress, and if we want to keep up with the proeessiou, we will have to transact business on the doctrine of doing unto others as others would do unto us if they got the chance. J. O. Brown of the City of Mexico— There is a steady increase of American energy, enterprise and capital in Mexico. And the heft of this at present appears to be moving south of the national capital for investment in coffee, sugar, mining, manufacturing, etc. Eight years ago there were twenty-three textile rubric factories in Mexico; uow there are over 180. It is a wonderfully growing country. Lieut. 11. C. Young, Twenty-eighth Infantry, U. S. V.—Aguinaldo is dead. I have no doubt about it. There isn’t a head of department in the Philippines who does not think the Filipino chieftain is no more. One of Col. Funston’s men killed him. Nobody knows which one, but all feel confident that Aguinaldo was dispatched by a member of that invading force during its operations. Capt. John T. Myers of the Marine Corps—The notion' that the Chinese are cowards and will not fight is an erroneous one. On the contrary, there are no people in the world who have so little fear of death. It is a part of their religion, I believe, thet death is only a transformation Into a more blissful state. The trouble has been that the Chine** soltjiers are not well officered. If the Chinese army was well officered and Snipped it would be a formidable fighti power.