Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 October 1905 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

Officials of the State Department are looking at the Cuban situation with feelings akin to dread. Notwithstanding the belief, so hard to uproot from the minds of some people, that the administration would be glad of a valid excuse to pave the way to bring Cuba under the flag, it is fear rather than hope that besets the officials of state. Cuba until the last election period .was moving onward in an orderly, prosperous course, and there was genuine satisfaction in American administration circles over the apparent soundness of the fruit of the tree of independence. The passions of the people, so easily aroused in oth4| Latin-American republics, seemed in Cuba to be checked by an unexpected conservatism and a sincere desire to have the world know that the mixed races occupying the island were worthy of the gift of freedom. Recent events, however, have shown that the old leaven of unrest and turmoil is still present. The election riots at Cienfuegos have a deep significance, it is spared. They were not ordinary rows to pass and leave no after-effects when the day of the voting was done. Direct charges of undue and illegal government acts for the purpose of upholding its will are made, and the opposition party is strong enough, if it takes the revolutionary bit in its teeth, throw the island back into the scenes of Civil War which antedated the Spanish-American conflict

Brazilians are like other people in preferring to buy what is fashionable. A special agent of the Department of Commerce and Labor who has been making an inquiry into the cause of the comparatively small trade of the United States with Brazil reports that most of the population, “except the very few who have traveled in the United States, have exalted ideas as to the greatness of England, France and Germany, and the ‘fashionableness’ of using commodities produced in those countries.” They do not yet know In South America that England, France and Germany buy many things from the United States, and that American shoes, for Instance, are becoming so popular on the other side that the European manufacturers are copying American styles, xyhen they learn this, through the enterprise of the American manufacturer, the people of Brazil will begin to regard American goods with as much favor as they regard those which are made in Europe.

The annual report of the United States Commissioner of Education has a chapter bearing upon the libraries of the country In 1903. Only those containing one thousand or more volumes are mentioned. The North Atlantic States contain nearly one-half the libraries enumerated. New York stands first, with 924; Massachusetts next, with 624, and Pennsylvania follows with 491. Thirty per cent of the libraries and 40 per cent of the number of volumes computed for the nation at large are contained in these States. Taking the country as a whole, there is one library, containing at least one thousand volumes, for every eleven thousand six hundred and thirty-two inhabitants.

The growth of the rural free delivery system continues unabated. On July 1 there were 32,058 routes in operation, or 7,492 more than at a corresponding period last year. To enable better handling of the mall tho postoffice department Is arranging for the numbering of all rural letter boxes entitled to service, and authorizing carriers to deliver mall matter addressed to boxes by number alone, the same as is now permitted in the case of postoffice boxes. The boxes will be numbered in order, beginning with the first box reached by the carrier after leaving the postofflee, and new boxes erected afterward will be assigned the next number In use on the particular route.

It is expected that the Postoffice Department will take action to exclude many of the post cards from the mails on account of their Improper character. Some of them that come from foreign countries are decidedly and clearly Immoral. The souvenir post card fad has reached astonishing dimensions and the malls are flooded with them. For the most part they are attractive and artistic. The United States Postofflee Department has ruled that any card with writing on the address side must have • two cent stamp. Nearly every pen manufacturer in America and Europe sent pens to Portsmouth, with the request that they be used In signing the RussoJapanese treaty, but the "old gray goose” got the honor, after all.