Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 22, Number 103, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1901 — Page 3

The Doctor's Dilemma

, CHAPTER XXI. I went out late in the evening to question each of the omnibus drivers, but in vain. Whether they were too busy 1 to give me proper attention, or too anxious to join the stir and mirth of the townspeople, they all declared they knew nothing of any Englishwoman. As I returned dejectedly to my inn, I heard a lamentable voice, evidently English, bemoaning in doubtful French. The omnibus from Falaise had just come in. and under the lamp in the entrance of the archway stood a lady before my hostess, who was volubly asserting that there was no room left in her house. I hastened to the assistance of my countrywoman, and the light of the lamp falling upon her face revealed to me who she was. “Mrs. Foster!” I exclaimed, almost shouting her name in my astonishment. She looked ready to faint with fatigue and dismay, and she laid her hand heavSy on my arm, as if to save herself from nking to the ground. “Have you found her?” she asked, involuntarily. “Not a trace of her,” I answered. Mrs. Foster broke into an hysterical laugh, which was very quickly followed by sobs. I had no great difficulty in persuading the landlady to find some accommodation for her, and then I retired to my own room to turn over the extraordinary meeting which had been the last incident of the day. It required very little keenness to come to the conclusion that the Fosters had obtained their information concerning Miss Ellen Martineau where we had got ours, from Mrs. Wilkinson; also that Mis. Foster had lost no time in following up the clue, for she was only twenty-four hours behind me. She had looked thoroughly astonished and dismayed when she saw me there; so she had had no Idea that I was on the same track. But nothing could be more convincing than this journey of hers that neither she nor Foster really believed in Olivia’s death. That was as clear as day. But what explanation could I give to myself of those letters, of Olivia’s above all? Was it possible that she had caused them to be written, and sent to her husband? I could not even admit such a question, without a sharp sense of disappointment in her. I saw Mrs. Foster early in the morning, somewhat as a truce-bearer may meet another on neutral ground. She was grateful to me for my interposition in her behalf the night before; and as I knew Ellen Martineau to be safely out of the way, I was inclined to be tolerant towards her. I assured her, upon my honor, that I had failed in discovering any trace of Olivia in Noireau, and I told her all I had learned about the bankruptcy of Monsieur Perrier, and the scattering of the school. “But why should you undertake such a chase?” I asked; “if you and Foster are satisfied that Olivia is dead, why should you be running after Ellen Martineau l You show me the papers which seem to prove her death, and now I find you in this remote part of Normandy, evidently in pursuit of her. What does this mean ? “You are doing the same thing yourself,” she answered. “Yes,” I replied, “because I am not satisfied. But you have proved your conviction by becoming Richard Foster s second wife.” “That is the very point,” she said, shedding a few tears; “as soon as ever Mrs. Wilkinson described Ellen Martineau to me, when she was talking about her visitor who had come to inquire after her, I grew quite frightened lest he should ever be charged with marrying me whilst she was alive. So I persuaded him to let me come here and make sure of it, though the journey costs a great deal, and we have very little money to spare. We did not know what tricks Olivia might do, and it made me very miserable to think she might be still and I in her place.” I could not but acknowledge to myself that there was some reason in Mrs. Foster’s statement of the case. “There is not the slightest chance of your finding her,” I remarked. “Isn’t there?” she asked, with an evil gleam jn her eyes, which I just caught before she hid her face again in her handkerchief. “At any rate,” I said, “you would have no power over her if you found her. You could not take her back with you by force. I do not know how the French' laws would regard Foster's authority, but you can have none whntever, and he is quite unfit to take this long journey to claim her. Really I do not see what you can do; and I should think your wisest plan would be to go back and take care of him, leaving her alone. lam hero to protect her, and I shnll stay until I see you fairly out of the place.” I kept no very strict watch over her during the day, for I felt sure she would find no trace of Olivia in Noireau. At night I saw her again. She was worn out and despondent, and declared herself quite ready to return to Fulaise by the omnibus at five o’clock in the morning. I saw her off, and gave the driver a foe to bring ine word for what town she took her ticket at the railway station. When he returned in the evening he told me he had himself bought her one for Houfleur, and started her fairly on her way home. As for myself I had spent the day in making inquiries at the offices of the locgl custom hoyses which stand at every entrance into a town or village in France, for the gathering of trifling, vexatious taxes upon articles of food and merchandise. At one of these I had learned that, three or four weeks ago a young Englishwoman with a little girl had passed by on foot, each carrying a small bundle, which had not been examined. It was on the road to Granville, which was between thirty and forty miles away. From Granville was the nearest route to the Channel Islands. Was it not possible that Olivia had resolved to seek refuge there again?- Perhaps to seek roe! My heart, bowed down by the snd picture of her and the little child leaving the town on foot, beat high again at the thought -of Olivia in Guernsey.

By Hesba Stretton

At Granville 1 learned that a young lady and a child had made the voyage to Jersey a short time before, and T went on with stronger hope. But in Jersey I could obtain no further information about her; nor in Guernsey, -whither I felt sure Olivia ulould certainly have proceeded. I took one day more to cross over to Sark, and consult Tardif; but he knew'no more than I did. He absolutely refused to believe that Olivia was dead. “In August,” he said, “L shall hear from her. Take courage and comfort. She promised it, and she will keep her promise. If she had known herself to be dying she would certainly have sent me word.” “It is a long time to wait,” I said, with an utter sinking of spirit. “It is a long time to wait!” he echoed, lifting up his hands, and letting them full again with a gesture of weariness; “but we must wait and hope.” To wait in impatience, and to hope at times, and despair at times, I returned to Loudon.. CHAPTER XXII. One of my first proceedings, after my return, was to ascertain how the English law stood with regard to Olivia’s posi tion. Fortunately for me, one of Dr. Senior’s oldest friends was a lawyer of great repute, and he discussed the question with me after a dinner at his house at Fulham. “There seems to be no proof of any kind against the husband,” he said, after I had told him all. “Why!” I exclaimed, “here you have a girl, brought up in luxury and wealth, willing to brave any poverty rather than continue to live with him.” “A girl’s whim,” he said. “Then Foster could compel her to return to him?” I asked. “As far as I see into the case, he certainly could,” was the answer, which drove me frantic. “But thei'e is this second marriage,” I objected. “There lies the kernel of the case,” he said. “You tell me there are papers, which you believe to be forgeries, purporting to be the medical certificate with corroborative proof of her deat,h. Now, if the wife be guilty of framing these, the husband will bring them against her as the grounds on which he felt free to contract his second marriage. She has done a very foolish and a very wicked thing there.” “You think she did it?” I asked. He smiled significantly, but without saying anything. “But what can be done now?” I asked. “All you can do,” he answered, “is to establish your influence over this fellow and go cautiously to work with him. As long as the lady is in France, if she be alive, and he is too ill to go after her, she is safe. You may convince him by degrees that it is to his interest to come to some terms with her. A formal deed of separation might be agreed upon, and drawn up; but even that will not perfectly secure her in the future.” I -was compelled to remain satisfied With this opinion. Yet how could I be satisfied, whilst Olivia, if she was still living, was wandering about homeless, and, as I feared, destitute, in a foreign country? I made my first call upon Foster the next evening. Mrs. Foster had been to Brook street every day since her return, to inquire for me, and to leave an urgent message that I should go to Bellringer street as soon as I was again in town. The lodging house looked almost as wretched as the forsaken dwelling down at Noireau, where Olivia had perhaps been living; and the stifling, musty air inside it almost made me gasp for breath. “So you are come back!” was Foster’s greeting, as I entered the dingy room. “Yes,” I replied. “I need not ask what success you’ve had,” he said, sneering. “ ‘Why so pale and wan, fond lover?’ Your trip has not agreed with you, that is plain enough. It did not agree with Carry, either, for she came back swearing she would never go on such a wild-goose chase again. You know I was quite opposed to her going?” “No,” I said incredulously. The diamond ring had disappeared from his finger, and it was easy to guess how the funds had been raised for the journey. “Altogether opposed,” he repeated. “I believe Olivia is dead. I am quite sure she has never been under this roof with me, as Miss Ellen Martineau has been. I should have known it as surely as ever a tiger scented its prey. Do you suppose I have no sense keen enough to tell me she was in the very house where I was?” “Nonsense!” I answered. His eyes glistened cruelly, and made me almost ready to spring upon him. I could have seized him by the throat and shaken him to death, in my sudden passion of loathing against him; but I sat quiet, and ejaculated “Nonsense!” Such power has the spirit of the nineteenth century among civilized classes. “Olivia is dead,” he said, in a solemn tone. “I am convinced of that from nnother reason; through all the misery of our marriage, I never knew her guilty of an untruth, not the smallest. She was as true as the gospel. Do you think you or Carry could make me believe that she would trifle with such an awful subject as her own death? No. I would take my oath that Olivia would never have had that letter sent, or written to me those few lines of farewell, but to let me know that she (was dead.” There was no doubt whntever that he was suffering from the same disease ns that which hnd been the death of my mother—a disease almost invariably fatal, sooner or Inter. A few cases of cure, under most favorable circumstances, hnd been reported during the last half century; but the chances were dead against Foster’s recovery. In all probability, a long and painful illness, terminating in inevitable death, lay before him. In the opinion of my two senior physicians, ail that I could do would be to alleviate the worst pangs of it. His case haunted me day and night. In that deep undercurrent of consciousness which lurks beneath our surface

&nsatlons and impressions, there was always present the image of Foster, with his pale, cynical face and pitiless eyes. With this was the perpetual remembrance that a subtle malady, beyond the reach of our skill, was slowly eating away hits life. The man I abhorred; but the sufferer, mysteriously linked with the memories which clung about my mother, aroused my most urgent, instinctive compassion. Only once before had I watched the conflict between disease and its remedy with so intense an interest. It was a day or two after a consultation that I came accidentally upon the little note book which 1 had kept in Guernsey—a private note book, accessible only to myself. It was night; Jack, as usual, was gone out, and I was alone. I turned over the leaves merely for listless want of occupation. All at once 1 came upon an entry, made in connection with my'mother's illness, which recalled to me the discovery I believed I had made of a remedy for her disease, had it only been applied in its earlier stages. It had slipped out of my mind, but now my memory leaped upon it with irresistiblt force. __ I must tell the whole truth, however terrible and humiliating it may be. Whether I had been true or false to myself up to that moment I cannot say. I had taken upon myself the care and, if possible, the cure of this man, who w'as my enemy, if I had an enemy in the world. His life and mine could not run parallel without great grief and hurt to me, and to one dearer than myself. Now, that a better chance was thrust upon me in his favor/I shrank from seizing it with unutterable reluctance. I turned heartsick at the thought of it. Yes, I wished him to dig. Conscience flashed the answer across the inner depths of my soul, as a glare of lightning over the sharp crags and cruel waves of our island in a midnight storm. I saw with terrible distinctness that there had been lurking within a sure sense of satisfaction in the certainty that he must die. I took up my note book, and went away to my room,, lest Jack should come in suddenly and read my secret on my face. I thrust the book into a drawer in my desk, and locked it away, out of my sight. It seemed cruel that this power should come to me from my mother’s death. If she were living still, or if she had died from any other cause, the discovery of this remedy would never have been made by me. And I was to take it as a sort of miraculous gift, purchased by her pangs, and bestow it upon the only man I hated. For I hated him; I said so to myself. But it could not rest at that. I fought a battle with myself all through the quiet night, motionless and in silence, lest Jack should become aware that I was not sleeping. How should I ever face him, or grasp his hearty hand again, with such a secret weight upon my soul? Yet how could I resolve to save Foster at the cost of dooming Olivia to a lifelong bondage shduld he discover where she was, or to lifelong poverty should she remain concealed? If I were only sure that she was alive! It was for her sake merely that I hesitated. The morning dawned before I could decide. The decision, when made, brought no feeling of relief or triumph to me. As soon as it was probable that Dr. Senior could see me, I was at his house at Fulham; and in rapid, almost incoherent words laid what I believed to be my important discovery before him. He sat thinking for some time, running over in his own mind such cases as had come under his own observation. After a while a gleam of pleasure passed over his face, and his eyes brightened as he looked at me. “I congratulate you, Martin,” he said, “though I wish Jack had hit upon this. I believe it will prove a real benefit to our science. Let me turn it over a little longer, and consult some of my colleagues about it. But I think you are right. You are about to try it on poor Foster?” “Yes,” I answered, with a chilly sensation in my veins. “It can do him no harm,” he said, “and in my opinion it will prolong his life to old age, if he is careful of himself. I will write a paper on the subject for the Lancet, if you will allow me.” “With all my heart,” I said sadly. The old physician regarded me for a minute with his keen eyes, which had looked through the window of disease into many a human soul. I shrank from the scrutiny, but I need not have done so. He grasped my hand firmly and closely. “God bless you, Martin!” he said, “God bless you!” \ I went straight from Fulham to Bellringer street. A healthy impulse to fulfill all my duty, however difficult, was in its first fervid moment of action. Nevertheless there was a subtle hope within me founded upon one chance that was left —it was just possible that Foster might refuse to be made the subject of an experiment; for an experiment it was. I sat down beside him, and told him what I believed to be his chance of life; not concealing from him that I proposed to try, if he gave his consent, a mode of treatment which had never been practiced before. His eye, keen and sharp as that of a lynx, seemed to read my thoughts as Dr. Senior's had done. “Martin Dobrqe,” he said, in a voice so different from his ordinary caustic tone that it almost startled me, “I can trust you. I put myself with implicit confidence into your hands.” The last chance—dare I say the last hope?—was gone. I stood pledged on my honor as a physician, to employ this discovery, which had been laid open to me by my mother’s fatal illness, for the benefit of the man whose life was most harmful to Olivia and myself. I felt suffocated, stifled. I opened the window for a minute or two, and leaned through it to catch the fresh breath of the outer air. “I must tell you,” I said, when l drew my head in agnin, “that you must not expect to regain your health and strength so completely as to be able to return to your old dissipations. But if you are careful of yourself you may live to sixty or seventy.” “Life at any price!” he answered. “There would be more chance for you now,” I said, ‘‘if you could hove better air than this.” “How can I?” he asked. “Be frank with me," I answered, “and tell me what your means ore. It would be worth your while to spend your last farthing upon this chance.” “Is it not enough to make a man mad,” he said, “to know .there are thousands lying in the bank in his wife’s name, and he cannot touch a penny of it? It is life

itself to me; yet I may die like a dog la this hole for the want tit it. My death will lie at Olivia’s door, curse her!” He fell back upon his pillows, with a groan as heavy and deep as ever came from the heart of a wretch perishing from sheer want. I could not choose but feel some pity for him; but this was an opportunity I must not miss. “It is of no use to curse her,” I said; “come, Foster, let us talk over this matter quietly and reasonably. If Olivia be alive, as I cannot help hoping she is, your-wisest course would be to come to some mutual agreement, which would release you both from your present difficulties; for you must recollect she is na penniless as yourself. , Let me speak to you as if I were her, brother. Of this one thing you may be’ quite certain, she will never consent to return to you; and in that I will aid her to the utmost of my power. But there is no reason why you should not have a good share of the property, which she would gladly relinquish on condition that you left her alone.” (To be continued.)

TRADE IN LATIN AMERICAS.

Why the United States Loea Not Se-cure-Its Shore Thereof. Minister Loomis maintains that the United States does not have, in any part of Latin America, the share of trade which its productivity and proximity entitle it to. The Germans, the English, the French and even the Spanish exhibit a higher degree of commercial intelligence than we do in dealing with the Latin Americans. merchants and manufacturers are loath to understand that in order to succeed in Central or South America they must conform to the business methods to which centuries of usage have given the force and prestige of national customs. If we want to do business with the South Americans we must, in a large measure, do business in their way, and not try to force our methods upon them, though we, may be convinced that our manner of conducting commercial affairs is superior to theirs. The Latin-American merchant is ae customed to long credit. Six months is the usual period, but sometimes it is a year. He will pay, but he must have time in which to pay, for it is the custom of the South American trader to be a banker as well as a merchant, and he has to make large advances in money and supplies to the owners of coffee and other plantations to enable them to pay their laborers, and the merchant doefe not expect repayment until the coffee crop is harvested and sold, once a year. So it will be seen that long time in making his own payments is essential to him. The European merchants and manufacturers understand this, and arrange to give the South American merchant ample time in which to meet his obligations. The Europeans make a caraful, comprehensive systematic study of the conditions and necessities of the Latin-American market, and then set to work in an intelligent way to meet and satisfy those conditions and needs. —Success.

The Salad Had Preference.

American social leaders are more interested in the Kaiser of Germany thau they ever were in any crowned head, outside of the English rulers. Probably it is because tbe Kaiser is fond of Americans, and shows as keen a desire as his uncle, the King of England, to meet charming Americans and talk to them. In Berlin and Homburg he has met many of the rich social set of America and they are loud iu their praise of the Emperor. He is described as having the most fascinating personality in Europe today. It is said of him that he has that great quality which made the wife of Resident Cleveland one of the most notable women who ever presided at the White House. That is, the gift of making a visitor or auditor think that he is the one person in the world whom the great one desires to meet. A woman, who is of high social distinction in America, was presented to the Kaiser at some dinner that was not attended with royal state. She was talking to him when she was offered a famous German salad. It was handed on her right and the Kaiser was on her left, which put her in a predicament. She did not dare turn her face from the Emperor to help herself to the salad. The situation was too much for her. The Emperor, seeing the condition at a glance, looked at her for an Instant and laughed, as he said: “A Kaiser can wait, but a salad cannot.”—Philadelphia Post.

Vegetables Will Become Valuable.

Two Melbourneites claim to have discovered a new motive power, “lighter than air, more powerful than dynamite, very simple and nominal In cost.” Byronlte (named after one of the fnventors( Is a fine powder alleged to be made from cheap vegetables, and generates. It is said, when specially treated, a gas which supplies the actual motive power.—Sydney Bulletin.

Blisters by Suggestion.

Hypnotic suggestion enables us to control processes which are ordinarily beyond the reach of the will. For instance, blisters have been produced in highly sensitive subjects by simply touching the part with the finger or some inert substance and suggesting the presence of a strong irritant.—Journal of Physical Therapeutics. Molly—My Httle sister’s got measles. .Tlmmle—Oh, so has mine. Molly—Well. I’ll bet you my little sister’s got more measles than yours has.—London Tit-Bits. You can always tell a nice girl by the manner In which she uses the telephone. ...... It’s better ; to bow your head than break your fool neck.

THE FARMER AND PROTECTION.

He la Beat Off with a Near-by Market for Hie Prod nets. It is the stock argument of the free traders that protection is of all things Inimical to the interests of the farmer. They grudgingly concede that the manufacturing industries thrive under protection, but they point to the trusts as the legitimate result of the protective policy, unwilling or unable to see that the relation of protection to the trusts Is simply this: Protection allows American industries, to exist. The trusts, so Jar as they are hostile to the general good, are abuses of this condition, not its legitimate or intended effect. The remedy" for any evil caused by the trusts is not free trade, but regulation. Under free trade there possibly would not be any trusts. There wouldn’t be much business of any kind. Amputation of everybody’s legs is not the most sensible remedy for the habit of kicking people. Legs can be regulated without being taken off and especially without depriving the Innocent of something to stand on. The free traders have always contended that the farmers didn’t need any thing to stand on, and lots of farmers honestly believe they would be better off without protection. What do they think of Germany's agrarian tariff, designed to protect the German farmer by the imposition of heavy duties? If protection helps the German farmer, why not the American? Of course, the protection afforded Is different in kind, but the same In effect. This country doesn’t import farm products and Germany does. The American farmer is not in need of protection, except in isolated cases from neighboring countries, from competition in his own products. But when the workingman has no wages he - has no flour and meat and vegetables, and that’s what the farmer has to sell, gmd he doesn’t want to depend too much upon the foreign market for his sales. The peculiar speciousness of the free trade argument lies in its appeal to class cupidity. The prosperity of each class depends upon that of all. Wheat at .$2 and corn at 75 cents on the other side of the appear an ideal condition from the farmer’s view. But It is much better to have $1 wheat and 50-eent corn with money in the pocket of the American consumer to buy it.—Kansas City Journal. The “Son-Protected” Rallroai. Over 5,000,000 persons, or nearly G per cent of our entire population, are dependent on the steam railroads of the country for a livelihood. This is what the Free-Trade Trust would call a “nonprotected industry.” And yet what industry Is there that Is so quickly and so largely affected by the tariff as the railroad business? The following table showing a comparison between the conditions for the years ending June 30, 189 G, and 1900, proves this fact beyond question: June 30, June 30, 1900. 1890. Total miles of track... .259,788 240,129 Locomotives In service.. 37,663 35,950 Cars In service 1,450,838 1,297,649 Employes 1,017,(553 826,020 Wages paid $577,264,841 $468,824,531 Stock paying dividends, per cent - 54.34 29.83 Passengers carried. .576,865.230 511,772,737 Tons of freight... 1,101,680,238 765,891,386 Aver, passenger rate, cts. .2.003 2.019 Aver, freight rate, cts. ...0.729 0.806 Surplus after dividends $87,057,933 $1,534,169 These are significant figures. “Nearly 200,000 more employes, $11,000,000 more wages, 65,000,000 more passengers, 434,000,000 tons more freight, and yet both passenger and freight rates have been reduced, and at the end of the fiscal year 1900 there was a surplus of $87,000,000, against a surplus of sl,500,000 in 1896. The figures for 1901 will not be compiled for some months, but It is known that they will most materially increase the figures of 1900. Railroad business was at a low ebb In 1895 and 1896. But the increased business of the country made possible by the Dingley law has taxed the railroads In every part of the country to their utmost capacity. “Non-protected,” Indeed! Why, it is the greatest single beneficiary of protection in the country. And note how the increased railroad business reverts right back to other industries. There comes an increased demand for rails and ties and locomotives and cars and $100,0Q0,000 more annually in xvages. Think oi the food and clothing and luxuries that sum will buy every years. Think of the education it will pay for, of the homes It will help build. There are no non protected Industries, least of all the railroad business. All Industries are interdependent; all depend for their prosperity on a protective tariff. Oar Merchant Marine. We are accustomed to hearing it said that the United States has lost its old position as a great shipping nation and the flag of Its merchant marine, once conspicuous in every port, has almost disappeared from the seas. This is one of those half truths which deceive more than complete untruths. It is true that our ocean commerce Is carried on foreign bottoms,,but it is not true that the American shipping interest is dead. The Marine Review, in its annual review of shipping interests Just issued, says: “The present generation of shipbuilders have never enjoyed a season of such activity. To equal It one must go back to the clipper days of 1854 and 1855, before iron began to supplant wood In the constructiort of vessels, and when the American shipyards, thanks to the plentitude of constructive material, •were great hives of industry. When Iron was found to be more serviceable than wood the shipbuilding industry in the United States lagged because Ifoo was scarce. The advance of the United Staltes In recent years, however, as a steel-mnklng nation has, through force 1 of circumstances, revived shipbuilding

The coast shipyards are crowded win* passenger and freight steamer*, building for tbe coastwise trade. A considerable business is also being done Iff steel sailing vessels.” It says also that “the year has been one of unexampled activity with tbe shipbuilders on the great lakes, and they already have In hand enough orders to insure continued work for nearly all the plants another year.” The fleet of the great lakes Ims come Into existence since the old clipper days, and the lake tonnage alone probably far exceeds the total tonnage of all American merchant marine in the famous fifties. American ocean commerce has been driven from the seas by the subsidized lines of Europe and will not revive until our Government adopts a like policy. But nevertheless the American shipping interest is great and growing.—Pittsburg Commercial Gazette. Faint Praise. The commendation which Republican agitators for tariff tinkering are receiving from Democrats and free-trad-ers may be thought to make up in some measure for the censure of the great body of Republicans and protectionists. When a manwrong it is always comforting to know that somebody thinks he Is right. But, as a matter of fact, the Republican revisionaries are not called upon to blush hard and red. They are really rated not Very highly by the free-traders and are not considered of much importance. The Democratic view of their value as political allies is expressed by the Binghamton (N. Y.) Loader as follows: “Not all of the Republican opponents of the trust tariff have the moral courage to face the music without flinching, and hence their strictures on the Democrats, who are not to be blamed for enjoying the fun. The fact is, however, that Dingleyism will not be undone without Democratic aid, and it is quite as likely that the job will have to be turned over entirely to Democratic hands. The Republican advocates of a new tariff deal mean well, and they are much to be commended, but the purpose they have in view will not be accomplished until the Democrats are In power In Washington.” Good little boys are the revisionaries, and they serve a useful purpose In “shooing” the geese for the bigger boys to pluck, but they shall have nd hand in the plucking and no share of the feathers. Food Which Makes Him Fat.

Worse than Idle Gossip. The talk about European nations uniting in a tariff war on the United States is funny enough In view of their own relations on the tariff question. The Russian government has semi-officiglly Informed Germany that the proposed new German tariff, If carried Into effect, will result In Russian reprisals. The Austrian government, through Its prime minister, has made a similar statement. Harmony, on the tariff question has not existed in Europe In the memory of man. The talk about a union against the United States is worse than idle gossip.—Allentown (Pa.) Register. Like “American Sratem.” The inconsiderate Porto Ricans continue to make it unpleasant for the distinguished statesmen and prophets who composed the Kansas City platform. Instead of contenting themselves with the absolute free-trade with the United States for which they were held to be pining, they are npw demanding a special tariff duty In their favor against the coffee now coming free into the island from Brazil and the United States. —New York Trtftune. Shall We Change Place*? The domestic exports and imports of the United Kingdom for 1901 as compared with the United States for the same fiscal years were as follows: Exports. Imports. United Kingdom. $1,391,210,638 $2,582,304,121 United States ... 1A60.453.809 822,673,016 Do the free-traders want us to change places with Great Britain? New Steel Plant. A new steel plant, to employ 1.500 men, is to be built at New Castle, Pa., with a capitalization of $2,500,000 to compete with the United States Steel Corporation. This goes to help prove that the so-called “trusts” under protection engender competition, which benefits consumers and workers alike. ConolStency I The man who was cocksure that tin plate could never be made In this country is now urging the reduction of duty to cripple the metal manufacturers. If putting on the duty would not protect, how can removing it have any effect? Answer. We Have the Coin. European financiers have discovered to their chagrin that they can no longer make financial crises at will id the United States. And there are other discoveries coming Id them.— Chatham (N. YJI RanubUoo*. A,