Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 February 1903 — TO STRAIGHTEN THE RIVER. [ARTICLE]

TO STRAIGHTEN THE RIVER.

It seems that the editors who make it their business to oomplain against the times are not so original in their objections to the existing order as they sometimes seem to think. Someone has resurrected in Philadelphia a phampblet entitled “A Political Catechism,published in 1833, io which the author says: ‘'What great danger besets us prevading the whole mass of society? The exoeseive and restless struggle of everyone to get rich; and it is a matter of regret that so many have a profound reverenoe for nothing but money.” The writer goes on to declare that the country is sinking iqto “excessive anxiety for wealth, with the inevitable accompaniment of luxury and private and public corruption.”

J, W. Bachtenkircher, special teacher of writing in the Lafayette schools, has an article in Sunday’s Record Herald on hand writing. Mr. Bachtenkircher L “dead sot” against the vertioal writing system and not simply because, he can’t write his last name in one line in that usually “sj raddled out” form of penmanship, but as he claims, and quotes high authority to substantiate the claim, that it is to most persons an unnatural form of writing, compelling a cramped position of the hand resulting in an excessive amount of physical effort. The writing produced iB not on the average so attractive inappaerance nor so easily read as the slanting kind, and also very much slower to write. The vertical writ ing fad was imported from Europe and first adopted in this country in New York. In that city and some other eastern cities it has been abolished. A teacher in the Boys Commercial High School, in Brooklyn, says that the vertical style is objectionable to business men, that the young men who were so unfortunate as to have it thrust npontlum some yearsugo, are now kicking barrels in the warehouses for want of a better job. The vertical system of writing is probably all right for a small proportion of people whose natural movements it is adapted to, but for the great majority of people, it is a meritricious fad, and the sooner it sees its finish,the better.

The Venezuela trouble is at last settled and the blockade was raised Saturday and Sunday. The net results of the whole affair seem to be about this: The United States comes out of it with increased prestige and a more pronounced recognition than ever of the Monroe Doctrine, Germany and England will be some money ahead in tLe deal but they, and especially Germany, have lost immeasurably in the ir'«ndship of the South and Cea+rni American nations. This especially apVies to Germany, far more thsntb England, for it was the Germane who committed the nnneooesary. and ioexcusable outrages of einli'ig |be Venezuelan vessels and bombarding their forts. The lesson however, severe as it has been will probably be a good thing for Venezuela in the long run by teaohing. them to observe their financial obligations better. More than likely also, it will have a steadying effect on the Venezuelans, and tend to make revolutions leseuf reqent. Troubles with foreign nations are sometimes a great thing for tnrbnlent and revolutionary people, tending to make them . more patriotic and less at enmity among themselves. As witness the feot that Mexico never had a revolution after the French invu-

William Jennings Bryan prints in the Commoner a full-page statement of his financial resource?, a feat that could have been accomplished in considerably less spice before he began to associate with Republican prosperity. In connection with this unique aiticle ie printed a picture of Mr. Bryan’s house, a beautiful structure of stone and brick, with pillars, bay-windows, a oupola and all the other ornamentalnoeornpan • imeutS'of p! utocrstic’prideT Mr? Bryan states that the ground on which the house stands was purchased io 1893, but that was under a Democratic administration, with Mr. Bryan in congress, and no one put anything on a lot then ex* cept a mortgage. Six years of the robber tariff and the rule of Wall street, the rich growing rioher and the poor poorer, have put the Nebraska Absalom in a position to put up a palatial retreat for the greatest organizer of defeat the Democratic party has ever done business with, besides enabling him, as he says, to contribute $20,000 to various reform movements. “My editorial work,” writes Mr. Bryan, “is done in a basement room.” Anyone who reads The Commoner would have guessed as much. * The doleful note it sounds could never proceed from quarters where sunlight and fresh air had a fair chanoe —from which the eje could behold on neighboring farms evidenoes of a prosperity that has oome despite Mr. Bryan and that has not missed Nebraska nor even the great prophet of calamity himself.

Bill for an Appropriation* to Chang Kankakee River. Indianapolis, Ind., Feb 13,—A bill for au appropriation of $75,000 to straighten the Kankakee river from Shelby, Newton oounty to the Illinois State line, will be introduced iu the House soon. J. J. Fry, a banker at Rose Lawn, and J. R.. Davis a large property owner to push the matter. Fry said a bill hjs been introduced iu the Illinois legislature appropriating $125,000 to straighten the Kankakee from the Illinois line to Momenoe, The state has been trying for many years to solve the Kankakee marsh problem. A large tract of land has been redeemed by the nse of drains and great ditohes, but the Kankakee is such a crooked, sluggish stream that it has spread over the marshes and has not carried the water away. This bill will reolaim many thousand acres of laud io Newton, Jasper, Porter, Starke and Lake counties.