Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 January 1906 — Page 6

The Doetor's Wife

BY MISS M. E. BRADDON

CHAPTER XXIII.--((>ntinue<l.> “Raymond. is.this true?" Mr. Lansiiril •tked, as closed upon his uncle. He spoke as if-tireife had been nq break or change iu'tUe cb Jiversfk ion Gilbert’s nauio bud been mghliattej.If the answer 'to this question had involved a sentence of death, 1 or a reprieve from the gallows. •Upland Lnnsdell eonld not have asked it- inert? eagerly. He ought'to hare Relieved in Isabel no firmly.Ss wo he quite imnTriverl by any village slander; lint lie loved her too ■inch to be reasimaWlei (Jealousy, the demon —closely united ns a - Siamese' twin to Love, the god—was already gnawing at his entrails. It could not be, it could not be, that she had deceived and defended himr but if she had; ah, what baseness, what treachery! “There is « strange - inan staging at a Ittle rustic tavern in Nessborongh 110 l law. Yon know what gossips these countoy people are. lleavou known I have ■ever put myself out of the way to learn •tber people's business; but these things get bruited about in all manner of places.” --—-—r—- “ Tell rottr story plainly. Raymond, There is a strange man staying in Ness--borough Hollow—well, what has all this to do with Mrs. Gilbert?" ' “Only this much—she has been seen walking alone with this man, after dark, to Nesslxirough Hollow.” “It must be a tie; a villainous invention! or if—if she has been seen to meet tills man. he is some relation. Yes, 1 have reason to think that she has some aelation staying in this neighborhood.” “But why. in that case, should she meet the man secretly at such an hour, while-her husband is lying ill?” “There might be a hundred reasons.” Mr. Raymond shrugged his shoulders. “Can yon suggest one?" he asked. “But has she heeu seen to meet him?” cried Roland, suddenly. “No, I will" not believe it, Some woman has been seen walking with some man; and the Grayferidge vultures, eager to swoop down npon my poor innocent dove, must have It that the woman is Isabel Gilbert. No, 1 will not believe this story.” “So he it, then,” answered Mr. Raymond. “In tliul case we can drop the subject.” But Roland was not so easily to be satisfied. The poisoned arrow had entered far into his soul, and he must needs drag the cruel barb backward and forward in the wound. “Not till you have given me the name es your authority.” he said. “Pshaw! my dear Roland, have I not already told you that my authority' is the common Grnybridge gossip?” _ “I’ll not believe that.' You are the last man in the world to be influenced by paltry village scandal. You have better grounds for what you told me. Rome one has seem law he! and this man. Who was that person?” “I protest against this cross-examina-tion. You refuse to be spared, and must take the consequences of your own obstinacy. 1 was the person who saw laabet Gilbert walking with a stranger —a showily dressed, disreputable looking fellow < —in Ness borough Hollo'tv. I had been dining with Hardwick, the lawyer, et Gray bridge, and rode home across country by the Briarwood and Hurston►igh road, instead of going through Waverty. I heard about Mrs. Gilbert •t Graybridge—heard her name linked with that of some stranger staying at Nessborongh Hollow, who had been known to send letters to her, and to meet ber after dark. Heaven only knows bow country people find out these things; but these things always are discovered •omehow or other. 1 defended Isabel—--1 know her head is a good one. though by no means so well balanced as it might be — I defended Isabel throughout a long discussion with the lawyer's wife: but ■Ming home by the Briargate road. I met Mrs. Gilbert walking arm-in-arm with ■ man who answered to-the description I bad heard at Graybridge." “When was this?”

"The night before last. It must have been some time between 10 and 11 when 1 net them, for, it was broad moonlight, tad I saw Isabella face as plainly as I aae yours." “And did she recognize you?” “Yes; and turned abruptly away from the road into the wasted grass between the highway and the tall hedgerow beyond." For some moments after this there was a dead silence, and Raymond saw the yonng man standing opposite him in the dusk, motionless as a stone figure, white as death. „ “Shake hands. Raymond." he said, in a dull, tbiek kiial of voice; “I thank you heartily for having told me the truth; R was much better to be candid: it was better to let me know the truth. Rut. ah, if you could know how I loved her— V yoo could know!” Roland I.ansdeli got up by and by. and walked to the open I'reuch window. There was a silvery shimmer of nioonlght open the lawn, and the great clock in the stables was striking 10. “Good night, Raymond,” said Mr. lnMdell, turning on the threshold of the ■window. “You can make s<>mg kind of apology for me to my uncle and t.wendiVSmr. 1 won't stop to say good night to “But where are yol| going?” “To Nesaborough Hollow;” “Are you mad. Roland?” “That's a great deal too subtle a qjics Ran to be answered just now. lam gmmg to Nessburough Hollow, to ace fcaboi Gilbert." CHAPTER XXIV. The moon was'slowly rising behind a Mark belt of dense foliage— A .noble mm to of elm and beech that sheltered Tojaioli'i domain from the common wwrM without —as Roland Lansdell emotd the lawn, and went in among the tiieknst depths of the park. “The money was wanted for this man. aomsaT' he thought. “And I thought lot an innocent child, who had ignorantly Rmiww * strong man’s heartP Jie walked on slowly now. and with hnsd bent, no longer trying to make

n ,cut for himself among the trees, • but, absen 11 y follow inga. pa rfffwv .wind tot path. wort) by' slow .'peasants' feet upon the grass. > , Nessborongh Hollow was some dip* -tanc-e-from -Lowland*; amLMr. Lsmstdcib who was faini.iar with almost every inch of hjs native comity, made his way thither by shadowy janes and rarely trodden by-ways, where .the summer wild tjowors smelled *we.etiy in ;the dewy night. Never, surely, had brighter heav ens chotie upon a fairs*- earth. ( The leaves- and blossoms, the long ttiafi “passes, TfffntTj’ stirred by ls'z.y''summer winds, made a perpetual whisper ilia! scarcely diroke; the general stillness; and now and the'n the long rich notes of the nightlrtgale sounded among the ctusieriug foliage that loomed darkly above tangled hedge row's" find broud wastes of moonlit grass. “Perhaps this is a turning point in my life.” lie. thought, during one of these pauses; ‘‘and there may he some chance for me after all. Why should I not have a career like other men, and try like •them be of some use to my species? Better,"perhaps, to lie always trying and always failing, than nr 'Stand nloof forever, wasting my intellect utiofl Vhifrcalculations. I will wash my hands of Mrs, George Gilbert and go back to the I’ri-... ory and sleep peacefully, and to-morrow morning I will ask Gwendoline to be my Wife.” But the picture of Isabel Gilbert and the stranger meeting in Xessborough Hollow was not to be so easily erased from Mr. Lausdell’s brain. The habit of vacillation, which had grown out of the idleness of his life, was stronger in him to-night than usual; hut the desire to see for himself how deeply he was wronged triumphed over every other feeling, and ‘ he never turned his face from tho dircctitjn in. which Xessborough Hollow lay. He came near the place at iast, a little tired by the long walk from Lowlands, a good deal wearied by "all the contending, emotions of the last few hours. He came upon the spot at last, not by the ordinary roadway, but across a strip of thickly wooded waste land lying high above the hollow. He saw all this; and then from the other end of the still glade he saw two. figures coming slowly toward the inn. Two figures, one of which was so familiar and had been so dear that despair, complete and absolute, came upon him for the first and last time, in that one brief start of recognition. Ah, surely he bad never believed in her falsehood until this moment: surely if he had believed Charles Raymond, the agony —otr seeing her here could not have been so great as this. —,, —, — He stood as still ns death, not betraying his presence by-so much ns the rustling of a leaf, while the two figures’ approached the spoF'nboye which he stood. Rut a little way off they passed, and were parting, very coolly, as. it seemed, w'hen Mrs. Gilbert lifted up her face and sftid something to the man. He stood with his back turned toward" Roland, to whom tire very expression- «T Isabel's face was visible in the moonlight. ‘ ll After this the" doctor's ■ Wife went away.. Roland watched her as she turned once, and stood for a moment looking back at the man from whom she had just parted, and then disappeared among the shadows in the gTade. All! IFslie had been nothing more than a shadow — if he could have awakened to find all this the brief agony of a dream! All that was left of the original savage in the fine gentleman arose at the moment in Roland Lausdell's breast. He leaped down the sloping hank with scarcely any consciousness of touching the slippery grass;* but he dragged the ftriis and branches from the loose earth in his descent, and a shower of torn verdure Hew up into the suinmewMir. He had nd weapon, nothing but his right arm. wherewith to strike the broadVhestod. black-bearded stranger. But he

never paused to consider that, or to count the ehanees of a struggle. He only knew that he wanted to kill the man for whose sake Isabel Gilbert had rejected him. In the next moment his hands were on the stranger's throat. ‘You scoundrel.” he gasped, hoarsely, “ypu consummate coward and scoundrel. to bring that woman to this place." There was a brief struggle, aud then the stranger treed himself from Mr. Lausdell’s grasp. There was no comparison between the physical strength and weight of the two men; and the inequality was sensibly increased by a stout walking stick of the bludgeon order carried by the black-bearded stranger. “Hoity-toity!" cried the gentleman, who seemed scarcely disposed to take Mr. Luhsdell's attack seriously; “have you newly escaped from some local lunatic asylum, my friend, that you go about the country flying at people's throats in this fashion? What's the roW? Can’t a gentleman in the merchant' navy take a moonlight stroll 'With his daughter for once iu a way, to wish her good-by before he fits out for a fresh voyage, without all'this hullabajoo?” "Your daughter!” cried Roland Lansdgll. "Your daughter?” ’ Ye*, tny daughter Isabel, wife of Mr. Gilbert, Mtigeon.” “Thank heaven!" murmured Roland, slowly, “thank heaven!” And then a little pang of remorse shot through his heart, as he thought how 'little'hi* boasted love had l>een worth, after all. How ready he had been to disbelieve in her. “I ought to have known,” he thought —*l ought to have known, that ahe'was innocent. If all tbe world had been hauded together against her, f Should have been her champion and defender. But my love* was only a paltry passion after all. The gold changed to brass in the fife of the first ordeal.” Ho thought this, or something like this, nnd then in the next moment be said, courteously: “Upon my wiyd. I have tp apologize for my ” he hesitated a little here, for he really was ashamed of himself; all the murderous instincts were gone, as if they had noTst .hoao. and the pain-

fullysacnte pe/reption of tlx* -riflli'irtnije belt) r fyiUf he felt that he had msdey gsrijgpfßnngT£ ~ • , Sic»p a’lnti’ cried Mr. Sleaford, jfe#.. SwitSHw^^sTofrlPEit! I .thought 1 kn*w your -Voice. • You're the languid aWelb who was so jo Illy knowing at the trial * —the languid swell \jho had udth'mg better to do than-join, the hunt, against a poor fellow that 'nprer cheated you out of sixpence. I said, if ever ! come* out"of prison alive I'd kill yon; and FIB keep my promise.” * ■ • Ho. -Juska.j J out these, last words Ho/tvycen his -Jet teeth. His big 'muscular hands were fastened- on Roland L.ansdell's' throatand his face, was-pushed ("forward till it almostrtoudied .that ot'ner hanilsiVihe face which defied him in the proud insolence of a moral conrage that rose ahove physical Superiority. The broad bright moonlight streaming through a wide gap in the foliage fell full upon thy* two ine:i; and in the dark face glowering atji.ih, Mr„. JUinsdell recognized rhe~man whom he had followed drfwji for flu* mere amusement. of tho chase—the man des.-r'.hed in ’the policl record* lyy a dozen aliases-, best, known by his familiar soubriquet or Jack the Scribe. ■'You dog,” cried Mr. Sleaford. dreamed about such a.meeting as thus; and it did me good to feel Wy fingers at ynur threat, even iff ujy dreams. I’ll do for you, if I - swing for this night’s work.’ r , *' ■*! ■' There was a struggle—a brief and desperate "struggle, in which the two men wrestled with each other, and the chances of victory seemed uncertain. Then Mr. Sleaford's bludgeon went whirling up into Hie air, 'and descended with a dull thud, once, twice, three times, upon Roland Lausdell's bare-head. After the third, blow,- Jack the Scribe loosed his grasp from the young man’s throat, and the master of Mordred Priory fell crashing down among the fern and wild flowers, - * . -- : " , He lay very quiet whereihe had fallen. CHAPTER XXV. After that farewell meeting with Mn Sleaford in Nessborongh ..Hollow, a sense of peace came upon Isabel Gilbert. She had questioned her father about his plans, and he had. told her that he should leave by the 7 ohdock train from IV arch am on the following morning. He should be heartily rejoiced, he said, to leave a place where, he felt like a fox in a hole. The sentimental element was by no means powerfully developed in the nature of Jack the Scribe, to Whom the . crowded pavements were infinitely more agreeable than tho wild roses and branching fern. His daughter slept tranquilly that night for the first time after Mr. Sleaford’s appearance before the surgeon's door. She slept In peace, worn out by the, fatigue and atixiety i of the iast fortnight; and no evil dream disturbed her slumbers.

Mr. Pawlkatt sat looking at his patient longer than usual that morning.* ■ George Gilbert lay in a kind of stupor, and did not recognize liis- medical attendant, and sometime -rival. He had long since ceased to be anxious about his noor patients ia the lanes behind the church, or about anything else upon this earth, as it seemedi/flnd now that her great terror had been lifted from her mind. Isabel saw a new and formless horror gliding swiftly toward her, like a great iceberg sailing fast upon an arctic sea. She followed Mr. Pawlkatt out of the room, and down the little staircase, and clung to. his arm as he was about to leave her. “Oh, do you think he will die?” she said. “I did not know"until this morning Thar he"-WTrr-gtr Tery ill. . Do you think that he will die?” “I am very- anxious, Mrs. Gilbert,” he answered gravely. “I will not conceal from yqy, that I am growing very anxious., The pulse is feeble and intermittent; and these low fevers—there, there, don’t cry. I’ll drive over to Wareham as soon as I’ve seen the most important of my cases; and I’ll ask Dr. Ilerslett to tome and look at your husband. Pray try to be calm.” “I am so frightened,” murmured Isabel, between her low, half-stifled sobs. “I never saw any one ill—like that—before.” - “I am not sorry to see this anxiety on your part, Mrs. Gilbert. As the frisnd and brother professional of your husband, and as a man who is—ahem—old enough to be your father, I will go so far as to say that I am gratified to find that you—l may say your heart is in the right place. There have been some very awkward reports about you, Mrs. Gilbert, during the last few days. I—l—of course should not presume to allude to those reports, if I did not believe them to be erroneous,” the surgeon added, rather hastily. (To be continued.)

An Occupation That Is Gone.

Twenty-five years ago the ship carver's trade flourished in all the ports of Maine and Massachusetts, but to-day his occupation is gone, for the chief product of his art, the figurehead, has almost disappeared from the merchant maripe. The profits* of sea freighting are counted in larger figures now, but the present age is altogether practical and utility has driven romance forever from the blue water. Men of middle age can recall the day when nearly every vessel was ornamented with some sort of figurehead, bfft now one might search for days along the docks without seeing anything of tho kind. The\owners of vessels have an eye only to profits, nnd no money is spent for fancy carving of eagles itj'J goddesses and horns of plenty to be nsnmted over the outwaters. to give craft , finishing touch and endow them with distinct personality. The fignreliends of tiie old fleet afforded an interesting study. Some were Illustrative of tho vessel’s -name, others whims of the owners or the captains. and others syhibolic of events occurring at the time the vessels were built.

Gold Minn In Panama.

' Near the Panama canal exist gold mines, abandoned’by Spain centuries ago. They will goon be reopened. A man will trust his wife with the care of his children, but not with ths care of hia prise chickens, _Y~ < —r" *

FARM AND GARDEN

Crowding induces disease and lowoal the vitality of fowls. In selecting a location for n poultry yard, choose a light, sandy soil. The falling off of a rooster’s comb shows him to be in bad health. }\iien - straw Is used for bedding/ it should be changed ut least once a week. , - Too much cannot be said about cleanliness In starting late lambs on a grain ration. Tbe hog Is a thrifty animal when fed on the dairy wastes, with a little grain added. Do not condemn a breed simply because a few fowls do not come, up to your expectations. • Harsh treatment restricts the flow of milk; treat cows with kindness they repay for it in dollars and cents. Giving a generous gfefitl of corn every evening is one of the best ways of inducing turkeys, ducks and geese to come home at night. All buckets, cans and other utensils with which the milk is brought in contact should lie made of tin. Rusty vessels should never be used. " The wise farmer does not sell a good milk cow. The more intelligent lie Is and the more observing the more poor cows he will have to sell, and it is not likely to be an easy matter to purchase profitable cow r s. Sheep can get along with a small quantity of water, but they require some. If they get plenty of dew on their grass they do not need to drink, but otherwise they do. It is important because it aids in digestion. Keep accounts with your flock of sheep and do not let any of them get very old on your hands. An old sheep Is a feeble animal and very hard, if not impossible, to fatten. Make mutton of theiii before there are any signs of failing.

Mffjjy fruit trees have made too much growth the last season, and there are many useless branches that will be In the way of the best results next. year. No one who has even :t small number of trees can afford to neglect them. It takes p. little trouble to prune trees, but It pays. It should not be done radically, JJ/ one Iras not had much experience, but a little common sense is about all that is needed to do tbe work right. The Kloffer pear Is hardy and productive, belonging to the Oriental group. Its range of growth in this country is very wide, extending from the gulf region to the lake region. The Bartlett belongs to. the European group and is much less hardy, but is of more delicate flavor. The Oriental pears should be gathered before ripe, placed, in a dark, cool place for two weeks or more to mellow up. Something of the same treatment Is usually followed with the European kinds. As showing how formidable a pest the gypsy moth is to contend with in Massachusetts, It is stated that 2,070 nests wete found on a single tree, each of which had between 500 and GOO eggs. This one tree was carrying through the winter a prospective increase of 1,035,000 caterpillars in a single year. Strong colonies, if undisturbed, will kill most deciduous trees In two years, and Evergreen trees in one year. They not only destroy the first foliage, but continue their ravages as tbe trees put forth new foliage, until the last of July. An interesting departure has been made by the Great Northern Railroad Company of England In conveying milk, nnd the Idea lias been taken up in Ireland to the extent of urging the railroad companies to use similar apparatus. Tbe milk ears are fitted with a special adjustable ventilating apparatus, and tbe oscillation which lias on a number of occasions nearly churned nlllk Into butter dtirlug a journey has almost disappeared. Even at a rapid speed on sharp curves there is scarcely’ any oscillation. The vans are forty-five feet, long and run on two four-wheeled bogles., absorbing of oscillation In milk cars seems to be worthy of study on the part of American railways.

Winter Feeding the Con, Many farmers (reat their cqws during the winter ns they do their horses who are not workjhg—that Is, they give them Just euopgh food to keep life In them until tWy can be put out to pasture again. They arghe that they can dispose of milk to much better advantage in the summer, and that If they have too much milk in winter they will have to make more butter than they wish to. That’s a laxy man’s way of doing business. If It Is not desired that the cows give targe quantities of milk during tbe winter the ration may be changed oseven reduced somewhat, but It canaot be tacking la the essential* which

the cow requires to keep up bet warmth of body and vitality without lasting injury to the animal. Let the ratkqx contain a fair amount of protein/and be in suffideat’ 'variety to keep' tbg/eOW' ill good condition, no matter how little milk satisfies you. An (HiJOct Lcaaoii In Fat Cattle. The grand champion steer of the International live stock exposition of winner over ail breeds and all ages ahd classes, Clear Lake Jute 11., an Aberdeeu-Angus two-year-phi, was sold at .public auction on Friday, Dec. 2, at S3O per hundredwe*iglit. The price obtained* for this steer was $lO per hundredweight higher than that obtained for the grand champion steer of the international live stock exposition in 1903. Jute’s weight was 1,870 pounds, and the price $39 per hundredweight, figured up $073.20 for the Minnesota Agricultural College of St Anthony Park, Minn.., tbe owner. This steer was certainly a model of its kind, and great credit is due to all concerned in the handling of it, especially -to those connected with the Minnesota Agricultural College, which certainly presented an object lesson in tbe handling of fat cattle. —St. Louis GlobeDemocrat.

The I'ae of Sinrilnst. In some sections sawdust can be bought at very low prices, and hence can be profitably .used if rightly used. It is not a good plan to use it to the exclusion of other materials, particularly in sectioixs where it is thrown on land already loose, as sandy soils are likely to be. Those who have experimented with it think it can best be hsed in connection with hay or straw, or even leaves, spreading it quite thickly over the floor and covering it with the coarser material. In thra way it quickly will absorb any of tbe liquid excrement that falls on it, will make a softer bed, and can be used over arid over again. Of course less straw or hay is used than when the sawdust is not a part of the bedding materfal. An excellent plan is to use it fob horses, then clean out the best of it, dry it in the sun, and use it as the bottom bedding for tbe pigs, froni whence it will go into the manure pile. In this way not enough of it is used to ituake trouble for the manure or the soil later.

Fiii-htlng- Hail SlorinS. In this country the production of rainfall by artificial means hits been abandoned, although during the past season, in California, a revival in the belief has arisen from a eoineidenc# of heavy rains following the efforts of a so-called “rainmaker.” The matter was given rather greater prominence than it deserved from the fact that the rains followed a drought and were very badly needed. In Europe the dissipation of hailstorms is being attempted by cannonading and other similar means of disturbing atmospheric air currents and electrical conditions, and the work baa been pursued continuously for several years. Syndicates of land owners have been formed, on the co-operative plan, to protect particular districts, and the results of the operations, as recorded in Comptes Rendus, of the French academy of science, seem to indicate that perhaps the cannonading is effective. While it is not proved that storms are averted, the cannonading appears to restore electrical equilibrium of the atmosphere and so tends to mitigate storm conditions, particularly hailstorms, which, In some districts, are of frequent occurrence, and which are very destructive of crops.

Grain and the Animal. Naturally there will always be differences of opinion ns to whether grain or other stock food brings the most to the owner sold at market prices or fed to the stock. Conditions have much to do with the solving of this problem. If feed is high and stock lotv iu price it doubtless pays to sell off the surplus food, but it decidedly does not pay to sell any needed by the nnd here is where the mistake made. For example, with grains and hay selling at high prices, the farmer figures that he can afford to stint Ids stock, even If they get quite thin. In order to have more food to sell. Of course, he knows that he can get less for the thin animal than for the one in good condition, but he nrgues that the difference he receives for the grain more than offsets this, but does It? Suppose a cow that Is thin aud giving the minimum quantity of milk would sell for $25, isu’tl]t fair to assume that the same animal would bring double that ainoiinV'lf In,good, condition aud n full milker? '-And would it require $25 worth of food to keep her id good condition above what. The minimum portion of food costs? This Is of tbe value of the additional milk and the ifffreased value of the richer manure. The subject la worth careful consideration, and thorough experiment on the part at those whe doubt the soundness of the argument.

LABOR NATES

Labor Oppressed Years Aeo. 1 All the writers on the early labor movement agree that the working people in the early history of the nation had a hard row to hoe. Here is®what one 'writer says:—_—’ “The length of a working day in 1825 varied from twelve to r fifteen hours. The New England mills generally ran thirteen hours a day the year round. The regulations of the factories were cruel and oppressive to a degree. Operatives were taxed by the company -for th» saxp;Kirt-of religion.—-Habitual absence from church was punished by the Lowell Manufacturing Company with dismissal from enlploymeiit and in other respects the life of the employes outside the factories was regulated as well as their life within them. Windows were nailed down and the -operatives deprived of fresh air. __ A case of rebellion on the part of 1,000 women on account of tyrannical and oppressive treatment is recorded. “Women and children were scourged by the use of a cowhide, and an instance is recorded of an 11-year-old boy whose leg was broken by a' billet of wood. In Mendon a boy of 12 drowned himself in a pond to escape factory labor. Wages in the mills were small, adults earning between 05 cents and 71 cents a day, “John Mitchell in his Organized Labor says: ‘From 1825 to 1529 tlid earnings of the American workingmen were higher than ever before in the American history- The unskilled workmen, such as sawyers and hodearriers, received about 75 cents a day for twelve hours’ work where they previously received 50 cents from sunup to sundown. 'During the winter, however, wages were much lower. Men who could earn in summer from 62% cents to 80 cents a day were glad to receive a smaller sum in winter.’ “According to J. B. McMaster, the remuneration of women was, as it is to-day, lower than that of men and their opportunities for employment incomparably less. Women might bind shoes, sew rags, fold and stitch books, become spoolers or make coarse shirts and duck pantaloons at 8 or 10 cents apiece. Tbe making of shirts was sought after because these garments could be made in the lodgings of the seamstress, who was commonly the mother of a little family and often a widow. Yet the most expert could not finish more than nine shirts a week, for which she might receive 72 or 90 cents. 'Fifty cents a week seems to have been about the average earnings at shirtmaking. “It was about 1825, when the conditions of the American workman had already begun to improve, that considerable unrest appeared among the laboring classes, and from this time to the outbreak of the civil war there was a gradual evolution totvard a higher standard of life and labor.” Industrial Notes. According to a report issued by the American Federation of Labor, the percentage of workmen unemployed in the month of October is smaller than it has ever been since records were kept. Of 1-885 unions, with an aggregate membership of 154,118, making returns, there were nine-teuths of one per cent without employment. The Louisiana Supreme Court has decided that a labor union has no right to control the acts of “its members when performing public duties. The case wai that of the Plumbers’ Union, which had ordered its members on the board ta vote for a certain candidate for inspector. The men refused and were expelled from the union, and the court now orders them reinstated. The Industrial Workers of the World have about 50 members m Chicago, according to J. J. Keppler, business agent of the Machinists’ Union, but he says “they make enough noise for 5,000.” The organization was formed last July, and nttempts to unite all the workers under one union. It operates in direct opposition to the American Federation of Labor, and officials of that organization say that the new idea is impractical and will not succeed. Beginning on Monday, Jan. 1, 30,000 hands employed by the American Woolen Company of Boston had their wages advanced 10 per cent. The increase becomes effective in the 30 plants of the corporation, which are loented in several Sttties, aud several woolen mills in the East not owned by the company have granted a similar advance. It is estimated that the advance will give the American Woolen Company’s hands an aggregate of about $1,000,000 more each year than they have been receiving. As its final word to the public in anticipation of the coming struggle with the book aud job printing houses, the International Typographical Union heads a circular thus: “We propose to sell to the employer eight hours out of twentyfour, and we will do ns we please tvith the remaining sixteen/’ A peculiar feature of the strike at New York will be the tying up of the National Civic Federation Review, organ of the Civic Federation, which is printed in one of the houses pledged to oppose tho eight-hour day with nine hours’ pay. - During the last two years Argentina, South America, has had more than her share of labor troubles. Strike haa succeeded strike, and to such n pass has the labor question arrived that Congress • sanctioned a residential law by which the-gorernment was authorized to expel from the country all forelgnere who were considered dangerous individuals. Over 2UO persons have been sent out of the country under this law. The gverage workingman has gained in one way conwderably from tbe strikes, as the eighthour working day is general throughout the country and wages are much highest