Saturday Evening Mail, Volume 27, Number 47, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 22 May 1897 — Page 3

THORN IN THE FLESH

THE TARIFF ISSUE IS LIKE BANQUO'S GHOST.

Changes In the R«t«i of Duty Area Perennial Source of Unsettled BttsineM—History of Tariff Legislation 8mnnlla|.

How Legation Attache* Thrive.

[Special Correspondence.]

WASHINGTON, May 17.—Shall we ever arrive at the blissful condition when business interests will not be unsettled by threats of a change in the rates of import dnty? Men who are mighty in the councils of both the great political parties tell me we never shall. They say nonpartisan adjustment of the tariff to business conditions by a permanent commission is what Mr. Ingalls would eall an iridescent dream. So long as we collect any part of our revenue by means of a tax on imports, so long will there be uncertainty before each election as to the tariff policy of the next administration, and so long will the business world sit in fear and trembling at the prospect of a change in the laws.

Tariff History.

This system of collecting revenue was adopted at the beginning of the republic. On the Fourth of July, 1789, George Washington, president, signed a law whose preamble declared that "it is necessary for the support of the government, for the discharge of the debt of the United States and for the,encouragement and protection of manufactures that duties bo laid on imported goods."

No material changes in this law were made until 1812, when, for the purpose of raising money for the war with Eng-

EMPTYTNO TIIK DISPATCH BAG.

land, tariff duties were nearly doubled. There wan a great outcry at this, and in 1810 congress repealed the act of 1812 and passed another tariff law imposing uiueli lower rates of duty.

But tho lower rates of the law of 1816 wore not satisfactory to the merchants of New York, and in 1817 they asked congress to increase the rates again. Hard times caused goneral discontent, and tho demand from New York was backed so strongly everywhere that in 1818 congress amended tho law so as to mako dutiable somo articles which were on tho freo list. Tho law thus amended remained in force until 1824.

In 1824 President Monroe recommended that congress give "additional protection to thoso articles which we are prepared to manufacture. The proposed increase was fought bitterly, but congress followed Monroe's recommendation and made a general increase in duties. Four years later (1828) another advance in rates was made.

Following tho passage of the act of 1828 ctuno protests from the south against tho turiff system. An attempt was niado to bring about radical changes in 18:13, but only slight amendments to the law of 1828 were made.

In the year following, however, there was a change in tho control of congress, and a complete revision of the tariff WHS made. Tho new law provided that by a sliding Heale of one-tenth biennally all duties in excess of 20 percent should be abolished within ten years.

Iu 1842 the Whigs came into power again, and they passed a high protective tariff. President Tyler vetoed it, and congress passed it over his veto.

This tariff lasted only four years. Under Polk iu 184(5 it was repealed, and a low tariff policy was rt adopted. The law was revised again in 1857, and congress once more lowered the rates of duty.

In 1861 the Republic ins got control of the government ami passed the famous war tariff law known as the Morrill law. Its author, now the senior senator from Vermont, has had a hand iu the making of every tariff I ill from 1861 to the present day.

In ISC» the law of 1861 was amended no as to increase the «te of duty on wool, and in 1870 a high rate of duty was put on steel rails. The duty on wool was reduced in 1883, and the duty on steel rails was increased. There were other minor amendments of the law, but no complete revision was attempted until 1890, when what is known as the McKiuley law was passed. Almost immediately there came a change of administration, and under President Cleveland was passed in 1894 the Wilson law, which is tho law of the land today. The country repudiated the McKinley law before it went into effect. No one knows just what it would have done iu the nutter of raising revenue. A tariff bill is always a lottery, because under a protective duty imports of some articles may be cut off entirely, and in that case yon get no rrvenue from them.

Colonel MorHnon't View.

I was surprised not long ago when Colonel VV\ Morrison, once chairman of the house ways and means committee, told m» that he thought we could not eecape from the tariff ai a means of raising revenue. He was and is a strong advocate of the income tax. But, while he thinks it would have been better for the country if it bad begun under another system, he believe* that, with the enormous expense under which the gov*

ernment is now run, no other system than the tariff is practicable. But this is not saying that Colonel Morrison believes in a tariff for protection.

When the whole country laughed at Hancock for saying the tariff was a local issue, the country was curiously misled. The persons who laughed understand that now. The tariff is even narrower than a local issue. It is a personal issue.

As a local issue the tariff is a log rolling measure of the worst kind. Before the bill gets out of the senate it will have been cut and hacked to suit the taste of this member and that according to the demands of his constituents. When the margin in favor of a bill is small, it is at the mercy of every highwayman of the dominant party.

The tariff is a personal or individual measure in this—-most men judge it by its effect on the prices of things they buy. The Dingley law is being anathematized now by thousands of men who have not read it. Why? Because they hear on every hand shopkeepers saying that the price of this and the price of that will be higher under the new law.

I am not defending the McKiuley law, or the Dingley law, or the protective tariff system. I am merely calling your attention to a curious fact which came to my notice when the McKinley law went into operation and which promises to be repeated this summer I had warning before the McKinley law went into effect that shopkeepers with vrhom I traded were going to put up the price of certain commodities. "Everything is going to be higher under the McKinley law," they said. Now, it was true that many things were found to be higher. But it seemed to me that the advances threatened were exorbitant. So I looked into one or two of them, and I found, first, that tho wholesaler had raised his price 25 or 50 per cent more than the amount of the advance iu the tariff rates second, that the retailer had added the additional wholesale cost to the retail price and then tacked on a few cents or a few dollars extra, according to the value of the article in cents or dollars.

The wholesaler was saying to himself, "The manufacturers shan't be tho only beneficiaries under the new tariff.'' And the retailer was saying "1 may as well add a little more and put the difference in my pocket. My customers will never know."

We are going to have alike experience this fall. If you don't believe me, get a copy of the tariff bill when it is printed and see just how much it affects the articles you buy. Then watch the dealer and see how much he will overcharge you. It is worth while as a study in political economy, even if it save you no money.

Diamond Smuggling.

Nature has placed a curious limitation on tariff taxes. Whenever a tariff rate is made so high that it pays to risk smuggling government receipts from that article begin to fall off. For that reason under the last administration they seriously considered the advisability of reducing the rate of duty on diamonds. There is nothing of equal value so easily concealed as a diamond. For that reason diamond smuggling has always been rather active. But under the Wilson law it has risen to enormous proportions. The rate of duty is so high that a man could afford to take the risk of seizure for the sake of the saving he will make if he gets his goods through safely. The same thing is truo of other imports, and the treasury experts in going over the new tariff law must take that into serious consideration.

One curious line of smuggling is carried on right under the eyes of the government at Washington. Dispatch bags for tho foreign legations here are delivered without examination. All the young attaches of European legations are importuned by their friends to have gloves and perfumery seut over to them in these dispatoh bags. Almost all of the bags received are laden with purchases of this kind in which the attaches have acted as agents. The amount saved by the young women who encourage this practice is inconsiderable, but they think it is just too deliriously daring to smuggle gloves and fans.

Official Effect*.

The legation people, by the way, seldom fail to make a profitable speculation on fnrnitnre and bric-a-brac out of their term of service here. Whenever a foreign minister is transferred to another station ho announces an auction sale of his "magnificent collection of art objects, fine furniture and wines." Of all these he has a very large stock, which he brought into the United States free of duty as part of his official effects. Society flocks to the auction. The secondhand man or speculator in auction goods stays away. There are no bargains to be had at a legation auction, and the professional buyer knows it.

Women of wealth, who would scorn to buy anything at a secondhand store, go to the minister's auction and pay more than the retail price for the well worn articles which are offered. Threadbare carpets actually sell for the usual price of new ones. The minister, who has had the use of these articles for the season of bis stay in Washington, makes the difference between what be paid for them and the American retail price— that is, about the amount of the duty he would have paid if he had been any me but a diplomat. Even the president of the United States is not favored as these diplomats are. If President McKinley bought a dutiable article abroad and bad it shipped to the United States, he would have to pay duty on it When Nellie Grant was married, she would have had to pay duty on ber wedding presents from abroad, but she very sen*'bly bad tbem shipped back to England unexamined, for England was to be ber home. That is the usual practice in t* -/case erf American girls who many En jbhmen.

George Geantha* Bae*.

The sap of wood exposed to a high temperature is very apt to undergo a kixxl of fermentation which produces a rot in the lumber.

SMILING LOVE.

prom thfl Spanish of Francisco ds Borja of Esquilache.] When bright and gay the waters roil

He looks to see if thou art nigh— To offer tli2e a diadem Of every ruby, every gem. When spring leads on the joyous

"Talking of the prices of birds, I've seen an ostrich that cost £800," said the taxidermist, recalling his youth of travel—"£S001"

He looked at me over bis spectacles. "I've seen another that was refused at £400. "No," he said, "it wasn't any fancy points. They was just plain ostriches— a little off color, too, owing to dietary, and there wasn't any particular restriction of the demand either. You'd have thought five ostriches would have ruled cheap on an East Indiaman. But the point was, one of 'em had swallowed a diamond. "The chap it got it off was Sir Mobini Padishah, a tremendous swell—a Piccadilly swell, you might say, up to the neck of him, and then an ugly black head and a whopping turban, with this diamond in it. The blessed bird pecked suddenly and had it, and when Tbe chap made a fuss it realized it had done wrong, I suppose, and went and mixed itself with the others to preserve its incog. It all happened in a minute. I was among the first to arrive, and there was this heathen going over his gods, and two sailorS and the man who had charge of the birds laughing fit to split. It was a rummy way of losing a jewel, come to think of it The man in charge had not been about just at the moment, so that he didn't know which bird it was. Clean lost, you see. I didn't feel half sorry, to tell you the truth. The beggar had been swaggering over his blessed diamond ever since he came aboard. "A thing like that goes from stem to stern of a ship in no time. Every one was talking about it. Padishah went below to hide his feelings. At dinner— he pigged at a table by himself, he and two other Hindoos—the captain kind of jeered at him about it, and he got very excited. He turned round and talked into my ear. He would not buy the birds he would have his diamond. He demanded his rights as a British subject. His diamond must be found. He was firm upon that. He would appeal to the house of lords. The man in charge of tho birds was one of thqse wooden headed chaps you can't get a new idea into anyhow. He refused any proposal to interfere with the birds by way of medicine. His instructions to feed them 60 and so and treat/" so and so, and it was as much ho his place was worth not to feed them so and so and treat them so and so. Padishah had wanted a stomach pump, though you can't do that to a bird, you know. This Padishah was full of bad law, like most of these blessed Bengalese, and talked of having alien on the birds and so forth. But an old boy, who said hie son was a London barrister, argued that what a bird swallowed became ipso facto part of the bird, and that Padisheh's only remedy lay in an action for damages, and even then it might be pcs-sible to show contributory negligcnce. He hadn't any right of way about an ostrich that didn't belong to him. That upset Padishah extremely, the more so as most of ns expressed nn opinion that that was tho reasonable view. Tbeitj wasn't any lawyer aboard to settle the matter, so we all talked pretty free. At last, after Aden, it appears that ho came round to the general opinion and went privately to the man in charge and made an offer for all five ostrielu?s. "The next morning there was a fine shindy at breakfast. The man hadn't any authority to deal with the birds, and nothing on earth would induce him to. sell, but it seems he told Padishah that a Eurasian named Potter had already made him an offer, and on that Padishah denounced Potter before us all. But I think the most of us thought it rather smart of Potter, and I know that when Potter said that he'd wired at Aden to London to buy the birds and would have an answer at Suez I cursed pretty richly at a lost opportunity. "At Sue* Padishah gave way to tears—actual, wet tears—when Potter became the owner of the birds and offered him £250 right off for the five, being more than 200 per cent on what Potter bad given. Potter said he'd be hanged if he parted with a feather of them that he meant to kill tbem off one by one and find the diamond. But afterward, thinking it over, be relented a little. He was a gambling hound, was this Potter, a little queer at cards, and this kind of prize packet business must have suited him down to the ground. Anyhow, he offered for a lark to sell the birds separately to separate people by auction at a starting price of £80 for a bird. Bat one of them, be said, be meant to keep for luck.

"You must understand this diamond was a valuable one—a little Jew chap, a diamond merchant, who was with ns, bad put it at £3,000 or .£4,060 when Padishah bad shown it to him—and thi* idea of an ostrich gamble caught on. Now, it happened that I'd been having a few talks on general subjects with the man who looked after these ostriches, and quite incidentally he'd •aid one of the birds was ailing, and h#

TERRE HAUTE SATURDAY E V~E!NTN3h MALL, MAY 22, 1897.

In crystal rivers to the sea, 'Midst «hinmg pearls they take, my soul. Their sweetest, loveliest smile from thee, And when their dimpling currents flow They imitate thy laughing brow.

When morning from his dusky bed Awakes vrith cold and slumbering eye, Ere yet he wears his tints of red

Eton,

He brightens on thy eyes and takes A nobler lifter. When the dun And darksome April first awakes And gives his better smiles to May,

1

He k'*?ps for thee his fairest day.

are sorte idle hards who dream they have seen, with raptured eyes, T1 railing field, the dimpled stream, 'AxA (strange deceit) the laughing skiflS. My Sylvia, field nor stream nor sky E'er smiled but when thy smile was nigh. —E. A. Bo wring in New York Ledger.

Thf

AN OSTRICH DEAL.

1

fancied it hqd^indigestion. It had one feather in its tail almost all white, by which I knew it, and so, when next day the auction started with it I capped Padishah's £85 by £90. "I fancy I was a bit too sure and eager with my bid, and some of the others spotted the fact that I was in|the know. And Padishah went for that particular bird like an irresponsible lunatic. At last the Jew diamond merchant got it for £175, and Padishah said £180 just after the hammer came down—so Potter declared. At any rate the Jew merchant secured it, and there and then be got a gun and shot it. Potter made a hades of"a fuss^ because he said it would injure the sale of the other three, and Padishah, of course, behaved like an idiot, but all of us were very much excited. I can tell you I was precious glad when that dissection was ov^r and no diamond had turned up—precious glad. I'd gone to one forty on that particular bird myself. "The little Jew was like most Jews —he didn't make any great fuss over bad luck, but Potter declined to go on with the auction until it was understood that the goods could not be delivered until the sale was over. The little Jew wanted to argue that the case was exceptional, and as the discuesion ran pretty even the thing was postponed until the next morning.' We had a lively dinner table that evening I can tell you, but in the end Potter got his way, since it wonld stand to reason he would be safer if he stuck to all the birds and that we owed him some consideration for his sportsmanlike behavior. And the old gentleman whose sou was a lawyer said he'd been thinking the thing over and that it was very doubtful if, when a bird had been opened and the diamond recovered, it ought not to be banded back to the proper owner. "I remember I suggested it came under the laws of treasure trove—which was really the truth of the matter. There was a hot argument, and we settled it was certainly fcolish to kill the bird on board the ship. Then the old gentleman, going at large through his legal talk, tried to make out the sale was a lottery and illegal and appealed to the captain, but Potter said he sold the birds as ostriches. He didn't want to sell any diamonds, be said, and didn't offer that as an inducement. The three birds he put up, to the best of his knowledge and belief, did not contain a diamond. It was in the one he kept— BO he hoped. "Prices rtiled high next day, all the same. The fact that now there were four chances instead of five, of course, caused a rise. The blessed birds averaged £227, and oddly enough this Pa dishah didn't secure one of 'em—not one. He made too much shindy, and when he ought to have been bidding he was talking about liens, and, besides, Potter was a bit down on him. One fell to a quiet little officer chap, another to the little Jew, and the third was syndicated by the engineers, and then Potter 6eemed suddenly sorry for having sold them, and said he'd flung away a clear £1,000 and that very likely he'd draw a blank, and that he always had been a fool, but when I went and had a bit of a talk to bin:, with the idea of getting him to hedge on liis last chance, I foopd he'd already sold the bird he'd reserved to a political chap that was on board— a chap who'd been studying Indian morals and social quastions in his vacation. That last was tho £300 bird. "Well, they landed three of the blessed creatures at Brindisi—though the old gentleman said it was a breach of the customs regulations and Potter and Padishah landed too. The Hindoo seemed half mad as be saw his blessed diamond going this way and that, so to speak. Hf kept on saying he'd get an injunction—he had injunction on the brain—and giving his name and address to the chaps who'd bought the birds, so that they'd know where to send the diamond. None of them wanted his name and address, and none of them would give his own. It was a fine row, I can tell you—on the platform. They all went off by different trains. I came on to Southampton, and there I saw the last of the birds, as I came ashore. It was th a one the engineers bought, and it was standing up near the bridge in a kind of crate and looking as leggy and silly a setting for a valuablo diamond as ever you saw—if it was a setting for a valuable diamond. "How did it end? Ob, like that. Well—perhaps. Yes, there's one more thing that may throw light on it. A week or so after landing I was down Regent street doing a bit of shopping, and who should I see arm in arm and having a purple time of it but Padishah and Potter. If you come to think of it— "Yes. I've thought that Only, you see, there's no doubt the diamond was real. And Padishah was an eminent Hindoo. I've seen his name in the papers often. But whether the bird swallowed the diamond certainly is another matter, as you say."—Argonaut

Larding Pork.

In larding with pork the fattest piece procurable should be bought (lean salt pork is not available for any use) and the strips alwayscut from that part between the streak of lean and the rind. This is the only portion firm enough for the purpose. The bits should then be laid in ice water to become crisp before using.—New York Post

Biliousness

Is caused by torpid liver, which prevents digestion and permits food to ferment and potrify in the stomach. Then follow dizziness, headache.

Hood's

insomita, nervousness, and, 1 If not relieved, bffious trrer I I is on in I I I PUb stimulate the stoeneh, rouse tbe liver, cure headache, dizziness, cook sttpatkm, etc. cents. Sold tar an drafotfrts. TfceooijPUb to take with Hood's San&pariUa.

Up! Up! Up-t-date

Cincinnati Excursion!

$2.50 ROUND TRIP $2.30

Saturday Night, May 29th, 1897.

Big Four Train leaves 1:56 a. m. Tickets good returning until Monday night's train, leaving Cincinnati at 8:00 p. m. Through Coaches. Sleepers and Chair Oars. Henta In Clialr Car, BOc Each Way.

CREAT ATTRACTIONS. The Lagoon Now Open. Chester Park. The Zoo. Base Ball. Hecure seats early f»r chair car*. Comfortable coaches for everybody. Tickets on sale at Terre Haute House Tlcltel Office and Sixth Street Station. "The Yaller Depot."

A

E. E. SOUTH. Goneral Agent.

DMINISTBATOtt'8 SALE.

Notice Is hereby given that The Terre Haute Trust Co., as administrator of the estate of Richard A. Tlernan deceased. In pursuance of the orders of the Vlgo Circuit court, will offer for sale and sell at public auctlcn. at the south df or of the court house, In Terre Haute. Vtgocounty, Indiana, on tbe 5th day of June. i(W7, at 10 o'clock a. m. of said day, tbe following parcels of real estate, situated In the city of Terre Haute, Vlgo county, Indiana, to-wlt:

Lot so. three (3). in tbe subdivision made by tbe commissioners in the proceedings in said court for the partition of tbe real estate of said Richard A. Tlernan. being in outlot No. 65, of the outlota of Terre Haute also

Lot so. six (0), In said subdivision, and tbe undivided one-fourteenth, 1-14. of tbe north balf, (H), of lot No. eigbt, (8). In Gookins' addition to Terre Haute, said real estate to be sold In parcels to tbe highest bidder.

TERMS: One third cash in hand and one third In six months, and one third in twelve months, the deferred payment* to bear Interest at six per cent., waiving valuation and appraisement laws with attorneys fees secured by notes and mortgagees on tbe premises. TERRE HAU T8T CO.

GEO. HAUCK & CO.

Dealer In all kinds of

O O A IL,

Telephone33. 949 Main Street.

£)R. L. H. BARTHOLOMEW, Dentist.

Main St. Terre Haute, lad.

$ r^ .^v-xr-1

Motherhood.

A mother who is in good physical condition transmits to her children the blessings of a good constitution. The child fairly drinks in health from its mother's robust constitution before birth, and from a healthy mother's milk after.

Is not that an incentive to prepare for a healthy maternity? Do you know the meaning of what is popularly called those longings," or cravings, which beset so many women during pregnancy?

There is something lacking in the mother's blood. Nature cries out and will be satisfied at all hazards.

One woman wants sour things, another wants sweets, another wants salt things, and so on.

The real need all the time is to enrich the blood so as to supply nourishment for another life, and to build up the entire generative system, so that the birth may be possible and successful.

If expectant mothers would fortify themselves with Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound, which for twenty years has sustained thousands of women in this condition, there would be fewer disappointments at birth, and they would not experience those annoying longings."

In the following letter to Mrs. Pinkham. Mrs. Whitney demonstrates the power of the Compound in such cases. She says: From the time I was sixteen years old till I was twenty-three, I was troubled with weakness of the kidneys and terrible pains when my monthly periods came on. I made up my mind to try Lydia E. Pinkham \egetable Compound and was soon relieved. After I was married, the doctor said I would never be able to go my full time and have a living child, as I was constitutionally weak. I had lost a baby at seven months and a half. 1 he next time I commenced at once and continued to take your Compound through the period of pregnancy, and I said then, if I went my full time and tho baby lived to be three months old, I should send a letter to you. My baby is now seven months old and is as healthy and hearty as one could wish.

I am so thankful that I used your medicine, for it gave me the robust health to transmit to my child. I cannot express my gratitude to you I never expected such a blessing. Praise God for Lydia E. Pinkham Vegetable Compound, and may others who are suffering do as I did and find relief, and may many homes be brightened as mine lias been."—Mils. L. Z. WiilTKBV, 5 George St., E. Somerville, Mass.

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COT. Third and Cherry streets, Terre Haute Ind., are prepared to execute all orders In] their line wltn neatness and dispatch.

Embalming a Specialty.

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Tbe parity of the lily, the clow of tbe roee, I and tbe Huh of Hebe combine in Pozaom's wondrous Powder.