Semi-weekly Express, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 25 September 1896 — Page 3

If

HE'S A BOWERY MAN.

1FISODES IN THE CAREER OF AN OPTIMISTIO OLD SPORT.

Qrocer*! Amazement and the Undoing of Joyse—A Temperance Lecturer's Advice Well Heeded.

"Providence will provide." Among the actor folk and the sporting men of the metropolis ODe is likely to hear that expression of pious optimism so frequently as to Justify a gcaeral surprise, for religious sentiment is not popularly deemed a dominent inherency in either class. Actors know by experience what "hustling" is required to capture an engagement where "the ghost -will walk" in these times, even with Providential aid and gamblers are well aware tow mightily a "sure thing" helps Providence yet, in hours of adversity, both the knights of the footlights and those of the green cloth seem to find consolation in that utterance of trustful resignation. How did It ever gain such currency and crdedence among them? Simply through the contagious confidence in its verity cherished by a very widely known and popular old-time eport and actor, Tom J. Leigh, whose eloquent advocacy of its immortal truth dates back nearly as far as that remote time "when the memory of man runneth not to the contrary"—which ip quite definite enough for any son of Malta.

Tom Leigh was mixed up in more vicssitudinous early American drama than Colonel Brown ever heard of, and forgot, says the New York Sun. "He was stage manager with Tom Hamblin in the old Bowery theater. This is ancient enough history for anyone "still in the ring and smiling." How

Aft*r tho Ten.

"I went, first, down to the Metropolitan Hotel, where Charley Collins was tending bar, to get a ten from hijn, but he was out. Then I kept on to tlie Astor House, where met Ed Eddy and got the ten. Of course, if I had gone right home with it I could have bought stuff enough to live on several days, but that I felt, would have been a foolish thing to do, for the time had come for Providence to provide, and knew the provision would not be in any such puny. Inadequate fashion. So went over to 21 Ann street and sat into a poker game, where in a little while I had swelled the $10 to $40. That was a sufficient stake for giving Providence a chance to operate on a larger scale and in a more expeditious way, eo I transferred the scette of my activity to the faro bank at 14 Ann street. There, In a little while, I raised the forty to nine hundred, and I have no doubt I could have run it up to a good deal more, for things were coming my way, but I remembered the little woman at homo waiting for me to bring something to eat, and cashed in. "I went arouud to a big wholesale grocery house and began buying. I bought bag of coffee, and a box of tea, and a barrel of sugar, and two barrels of flour, and hams, and sides of bacon, and cheese, and dozens of jars and bottles and cans of things, some of which had never heard of until the salesman told me they were good to have. 'Don't you want some Worcestershire sauce?' says he. 'Yse,' says I, feeling scared to think I might have forgotten It, for it is something I'm mighty fond of 'put In twenty dozen.' 'Gosh!' he exclaimed, with his eyes bulging out, 'you don't want to bathe in it!' A dozen big bottles is all you want.' But I stood out for five dozen, anyhow. 'You'll want some baking powder,' save he and I agreed that would and told him to put in a do:en boxes. 'Cans, you mean, says he. 'No. when say boxes I moan boxes,' I replied, which was a clear bluff on my part, for I didn't know then, and don't to this day, how many dozens of cans there are in a box. He didn't »rgue tlie point, but I know Kate was giving away halving powder to friends and neighbors for thre years after. Well,when neither he nor I could think of anything more I might, want I had the stuff loaded •n a big two-horse truck and saw it start»d for home.

Forgot the Snlt.

"I set out in the same direction, but Itopped on the way to take a drink or two Kith the boys, and when I got there that iilg truckload just filled a rooifl. Kate met we at the door, laughing so that the tears itood in her eyes, and she said, 'Tom, you only forgot one thing.' 'What was that. Kate?' 'Salt.' 'So I did.' admitted, 'but I'll get It right off.' There was a big pork packing house on the street right back of where I lived, and I knew they must have •alt there, so I went around and told the man In charge that I wanted a bag of salt, •ud asked how much it would be. 'Three dollars and a half," savs he. I paid him »nd orderd it delivered at once. When 1 returned home that evening I found that bar: of salt standing In the hallway. There Has nowhere else to put it. I guess it must have been eight feet high. I never before realised how cheap salt was. And ttat was aaother thing Kate was giving

& i. A w' i,

away, to anyone who would take it, for two or three years. "It was all very gratifying to me, but not at all surprising, for I knew perfectly well that when a real emergency would come Providence would provide, and do it liberally. "There is one thing you should not forget when looking for Providence to provide, along with unswerving faith, you must maintain unceasing vigilance in looking out for the means by which the help is to come, else you may, by sheer inattention, let your chance slip by, in which case you will have only yourself to blame. And the improbable, under such circumstances, is that which is most likely to happen the unexpected, that most liable to arrive the darkest moment, that which is brightest with realization of hope.

HYSTERIA AND SUPERSTITION.

Thrived In tho Middle Ages In Northern Europe. Mental diseases, and especially hysteria, have, from the earliest time to the present, exercised a tremendous influence upon the current metaphysical conception of the universe and upon the whole mental development, and that precisely because they not only occurred sporadically, but, as we shall soon see, attacked the masses in the form of epidemics and so became of the highest significance and importance for the life of society as a whole, says Popular Science Monthly.

Religious enthusiasm and proneness to the mystic and the occult formed, even in the highest antiquity, an important factor of those degenerate and hysterical individuals who entertained the delusion that they were in communication with good or with bad spirits, and who by that channel influenced the masses not a little. A great number of the priestesses who delivered oracular responses to the Greeks with strong quaking of their bodies weie psy-

lnany are alive today who ever heard tlie |30patliic subjects undergoing the hystoriflrst "whoop" of the Jibbenainosay on the

boards? Very few, you may be sure. But Tom Leigh did, and taught the "Jib" the attitude that went with it. "Yet is his eye not dim, nor his natural force abated."

In His OM Days.

What life, motion and color the Bowery had in those bygone times! "Chicken disputes" were still genteel amusements for gentlemen "canine contests" were conflucted in public and advertised in the newspapers rats had not yet become the cherished wards of corporate sentimentality demonstrations of manly powers "with the bare knuckles" excited the liveliest popular interest, and upon special occasions were matters of national concern the "deal box" and "lay out" were hardly more concealed than the "stock ticker" and "quotation blackboard" are today the man Who didn't play poker was a curiosity and felt it incumbent upon him to be apologetic about it altogether, it was a hearty, vigorous, vertile, merry, generous, adventurous life that bounded then in the veins of the man of the Bowery—and Tom Leigh was a type of the time and place. Manly energy and fair, unperverted chance were In those days esteemed the legitimate progenitors of fortune, and in that school of experience he learned his optimistic philosophy, "Providence will provide." Time has "made the ancient good uncouth men have taken a safer, meaner and more "respectable" way, that they have buttressed with law and creed but still the old paths are not deserted, and when they trend too far down the hill—such as paths often have a way of doing—Tom's maxim has in it much of cheer for the weary. And, if you want him to, he will give you such abundant proofs that it is right, from his own experience, that you must be convinced. For instance, ho says: "One morning when we were through breakfast, my wife remarked: "Tom, there isn't anything more in the house to eat.' That was Kate's way, never to give undue prominence to disagreeable facts until absolutely' compelled by circumstances—the best women in the world Kate is—and when she said there wasn't anything, I could have sworn there wasn't even salt. And I wasn't surprised, for I had been in a streak of rather bad luck for some time. But, I said: "All right, Kate don't worry. Providence will provide.'

caj

convulsions- well Iqiown to us today. Hence epilepsy, which in those days was not discriminated from hysterical cramps, came to be called the morbus sacer, or saored disease. Plutarch, in his description of the Pythian priestess, delineates the typical image of a hysterical subject who, in ecstatic convulsion, stammered unintelligible words, into which the priests injected some sense. But hysteria, with its inclination to religious enthusiasm, was not limited to separate persons. On the contrary, -fce meet with it among *11 peoples and in all periods of history, and among all peoples we meet with it in the form of epidemics of various kinds. But never did this disease find a better or more fertile soil in which to thrive than in the middle ages of northern Europe, marked as they were by ignorance and superstition, and, accordingly, we find that epidemics of hysteria then assumed dimensions surpassing those of any similar outbursts in other centuries. A great many fine books have been written about the individual and epidemic crazes of those ages. The French have made particularly careful researches into the matter.

Calmell describes a great number of hysterical epidemics of difteret forms. One of the principal eruptions in Germany was demonomania of teufulswahn. "In the year 1540." says Calmeil, "a delusion called vaudoisle prevailed in Artois, that the devils. carried many secretly in the night of the assemblies, where compacts were made with Satan. Without knowing how, the participants of the nocturnal meetings found themselves next morning back in their dwellings."

ETIQUETTE AT THE BANKS.

Boston People Make tho Life of the Teller an FmyOnf. It would seem that most of the members of the large business concerns of our proud city understand to a degree the term "bank etiquette," as though they had basked in its element a lifetime and had been taught from childhood to un.'lor- ta'.i:l its legitimate meaning, says the Boston Transciipt. They arrange their JefHw'iS with a metho-. the most satisfactory imaginable to the bank clerk, a delight to behold. This regularity, while it distinctly shows the training of a thorough business man, i3 attended with little or no effort on their part, but it means to the banK clei"s the raving of an infinite amount of hard, trying labor. This method consists of placing all the bills, clean or ragged, of the larger denominations together on the top of whatever size package they chose to make, keeping the $1 and $2 bills srictly to the bottom. Thus the clerk can, with little difficulty, make rapid headway thriugh his arduous work, for he knows what he is facing. These deposits are meat to the eyes of the tellers on ordinary days, but more especially so on heavy days, when they have all they can do to finish up at 6 o'clock.

It is interesting to note the marvelous rapidity with which an expert goes through the bills, counting, sorting, straightening and proving all at the same time. You observe that oftentimes he abruptly throws out a certain bill across the desk, far apart from the rest, with a "There!" most strongly emphasized and immediately spurs up to resume his usual place, not the least disconcerted. The uniniated is struck mute by the sudden exclamation, starts nervously and stares blankly at the man whom he supposes to have been bitten by an invisible scorpion or reptile. Closer scrutiny proves it has taken the outsider fully fifteen minutes to distinguish between it and the genuine bill, much to the disgust of the expert, who, at a single glance, detected it, going as be was at the rate of a mile a minute, and discarded it. as quickly as though it burned him.

A pie that is a work of art, is made with Dr. Price's Baking Powder.

Her Want Supplied.

An amusing rebuke was recently administered in England to one of those sharp bargainers who are always on the alert to get more than their money's worth. The offender in the present instance was a woman, who sent, the following advertisement to a London paper: "A lady in delicate health wishes to meet with a useful companion. She must be domestic, musical, an early riser, amiable of good appearance and have some experience in nursing. A total abstainer preferred. Comfortable home. No salary."

A few days afterward the advertiser received by express a basket labeled: "This side up—with care—perishable." On opening it she found a tabby cat, with a letter tied to its tail. It ran thus: "Madam—In response to your advertisement, I am happy to furnish you with a very useful companion, which you will find exactly suited to your requirements. She is domestic, a good vocalist, an early riser, possesses an amiable disposition and is considered handsome. She has had a great experience as a nurse, having brought up a large family. I need scarcely add that she is a total abstainer. As salary is no object to her. she will serve you faithfully in return for a comforatble home.—Youth's Companion.

Pension* For Indlnntuns.

Washington, Sept. 24.—Among the pensions granted to citizens of Indiana are the following:

Original—John P. Stout, Terre Haute. Increase—William M. Nicholson, Chambersburg.

STORY OF PHARAOH.

THE CONDITION OF HIS KINGDOM ON HIS ACCESSION WAS DKSOLAIK.

A Great Battle in Which 9,000 Prisoners Were Taken—Utter Defeat For .Hss• Maury.

fERRE HAUTE EXPRESS, FRIDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 25,1896.

Professor Flinders Petrie contributes to the Century for August an account of his discovery of a tablet which gives the first historic account of the oppression of the children of Israel. Concerning the character of "Pharaoh of the Hard Heart" Professor Petrie writes as follows: A melancholy prospect he had seen as he grew up. His father had been active in the earlier ye^rs of the reign but after about twenty years he ceased all personal labor and seems to have sunk in his fatuous pride into a mere despot, devoted to perpetuating his effigies on the monuments and his family in the harem. The kingdom went seeadily into decay year after year, and the old man became more Indolent and more fatuous while none of his sons seems to have been allowed to take up the reins and save the country. "Egypt is desolated and abandoned to invasion from all lands the barbarians overrun its frontier, the revolters invade it daily, every country is pillaging its cities, raiding its dwellings in the fields and on the river. They abide and settle there for days and months, seated in the land they reach the hills of middle Egypt.

At the end of March, in his fifth year, Merenptah had a dream. Ptah, the great god or Memphis, appeared to him and warned him to be ready a fortnight hence. This is, doubtless, a priestly way of putting some warnings from spies or travelers who reported the preparations in progress. Then, early in April, the great tempest of foreign invasion burst in from the west, coming just when all the harvests were gathered in, the fields stripped bare, the whole land naked and open and canals dried up in short, just when the greatest facilities existed for invasion and the full granaries tempted the desert peoples.

The warning had not been in vain. Merenptah was prepared and attacked the assembled host with his cavalry the gods fought with them and for one long afternoon from midday till dark they slew and slow and slew, for six hours slaughtering the multitude. The defeat was utter. The king, Maury, son of Dad, escaped, thanks to the darkness but he did not even secure a horse or provisions and fled from the fight on foot, completely terrified. His wives and his rich equipage, his silver and gold and bronze vessels, the ornaments of his wife, his thrones, his bows, his weapons and all that he had were a prey to the Egyptians. Some 16,000 bodies lay on the 9,000 prisoners were

field of battle taken.

and

Cream puffs are delicious when raised with Dr. Price's Baking Powder.

DISORDERLY SERVANTS.

Blent* In

They search for the corn land,

seeking to fill their bellies they come to Egypt to find provision for their mouths. Such is the melancholy picture drawn by Merenptah of the state of the country on his accession—a striking contrast to the work of the really great kings of Egypt, of the Amenhotep and Tliothmes line, who had handed on the rule of Syria from father to son unbroken. The continuous record that we have of Thothmes III. shows that every year regularly he went through Syria to receive tribute and maintain his power, taking all the young princesses to be educated in Egypt before they came to act as vassals in their own country. Until he was over 50 this annual outing was kept up and his children to the third and fourth generation received this dominion in peaceful succession. But under Rameses all this stability had vanished a few raids which did not cover half the previous conquests of Syria, a treaty on equal terms with the foe and the boastful king sunk into an inglorious lethargy, in which even Egypt itself was largely given up to the foreigners.

And this decay was what had eaten into the soul of Merenptah during all his youth and vigor until he was at least 40 nothing could be done by him. It was not until the old king had come to that condition which we can now see before our eyes in the Cairo museum—a withered mummy, which seems as if still dwelt in and half alive with the spirit of insensate pride— it was not until the evil genius of the land was in his tomb that a stroke could be struck for the freedom of the country.

Then began careful preparation. For four years Merenptah was consolidating his power, with apparently one expedition to Syria, up the coast to the plain of Esdraelon and Tyre this reconquest we have learned of only since finding the new tablet. But it did not do more than secure the principal fortresses near the coast and command the corn districts of Philistia and Esdraelon, which were cultivated by the people of Israel, among others. It is evident that reorganization had been going on, strenghtening the resistance of the country by the vigor with which the great Libyan invasion was repelled after the country had been long submitting to minor attacks.

the

Families

Object lonahle Behavior While Are in the Country. "What's the matter, old man? You look tired."

The greeting on Monday morning had the peculiar intonation that indicates a suspicion of a prolong^ search for relaxation on Sunday and its subsequent effect on the nervous system, says the New York Times. "Look tired! I am tired, and I'm cross and ugly. Do I look as if I had been attacked by nervous dyspepsia, almost exhausted by St. Vitus' dance and then left on the rack for hours?' "Well, not quite that, old man." "Then I'm in luck. The fjict of the matter is that I was out of the house only three hours yesterday, and then I went to Harlem and back in the cable cars. They were the only restful hours I had between 10 in the morning and midnight. Why? Because I was the victim of the confidence of two of my neighbors that have closed their premises and gone to the country, leaving servants in charge. Do you catch on? Well, some of your funny friends on the press don't come anywhere near the actual facts when they bring out every year the penworn descriptions of the antics of servants during the absence of families. If my neighbors' servants would dress up in the fineries of their mistresses and occupy the parlors I wouldn't mind, because the damage would be to the feelings of those who should be concerned, but when they invite their sisters, cousins, aunts and nearer relatives to jamborees in the rear yard or basement and disturb my peace of mind I'm ready to kick. "The rear of my house is about thirty feet from the side of a large apartment house that has tenants that are as quiet as they can be, usually. My favorite room is in the rear, because it is cool and shady there. My sufferings began in the morning, while reading the papers, and I thought they wouldn't last long, but I don't know the meaning of servants* invitations. Tho quiet old gentleman who closed the apart*y, tMjstfs

second story and went away

with 'his wife and daughter about a month ago, leaving a servant in charge, would have been surprised if he had returned unexpectedly yesterday. I judged from the conversation that the servant had Invited her brother and sister and two cousins to spend the day with her In the very nicely furnished rooms, because they took possession of the parlor and proceeded to make themselves comfortable. The young men were In their shirt sleeves, and they appreciated the restful qualities of the lounges by drawing them to the windows and gathering all of the sofa pillows they could find and stretching out at full length on them. Between snatches of all the new tunes of the variety halls were remarks on the eccentricities of the tenants. One found a French textbook and tried to instruct the, other in the pronunciation of French. Another who thought he had the voice of an elocutionist recited from one of the classics that the old gentleman prized. Magazines and illustrated periodicals -amused them for a while. The mixture of slang and good literature was not very edifying. After lunch they turned to gossip and the details of picnics on previous occasions. The laughter and loud talking jarred one's nerves, and I think I would be willing to pay a month's rent for the old gentleman if he had returned and found the party in possession. I couldn't read and I couldn hardly -write a letter any my wife couldn't get her usual afternoon doze. Late in the afternoon the visitors went away, and I thought we would have a quiet evening, but that's where I made a mistake. "My wife remained at home, but I went out for a breath of air. When I returned I heard the most exasperating noises from the basement and yard of the house adjoining. The servants in charge there had invited their freiends or relatives to spend the evening, and the way they carried on was disgraceful. The fact that the front of the house was dark with drawn curtains was no indication that liveliness should not be expected behind the gloom. contrast of the quietness in June, before the family departed, with the noisiness in July was remarkable and suggestive. screeches, songs and remarks could not have been louder if the company had occupied an East Side tenement. The disturbance lasted until midnight. Perhaps you don't wonder now that I look tired.

BUFFALO'S COMING BOOM,

The New Electric Power From Niagara Will Bo Tnrned On Next Month. One of the most important events of the nineteenth century is about to occur on November 15th of Jhis year, namely, the introduction into Buffalo of electricity for power, light and heat, developed by the great falls of Niagra. For five years the numerable obstacles, and feeling its way along by untried experiments,, has been steadily at work building its immense tunnel, placing its great water wheels, and constructing and applying its huge dynamos and now the transmission of an unparalleled volume of electricity is about to be effected, for use in the big city at the western end of the Empire state, says the Boston Evening Transcript. To the general public this is looked upon as a test, or further experiment of the company but to the experts who have the work in charge and who have conceived all the numberless details thus far, the easiest part of the entire achievement is the transmission of the current for a distance of but twenty or twenty-five miles. In fact, the National Electrical convention, which was held in New YoTk last June, started its machinery by power transmitted from Niagara Falls, a distance of 462 miles.

Tho franchise given to the Niagara Power company by the city of Buffalo calls for the delivery of 10,000 horse power into the city by June 1, 1897 but the company has been persuaded to make special haste in completing the equipment, so that 1,000 horse power will be brought in this fall, and the city is now taking steps for an elaborate celebration of the event.

The tremendous advantages to consumers of power will be readily understood when it is learned that there will be a saving of from $25 to ?50 per horse power in price, besides which there is no cessation of the generators day or night, and the power may be used twenty-four hours per day at no further cost, if desired. Such a low cost of power will be a great attraction to the many large industries scattered all over the country, many of which would thus save annually from $10,000 to. $100,000 in power alone, and also secure the benefits of the unexcelled transportation facilities afforded at Buffalo. Again the value of electric power is far superior to steam power at the same price as it is susceptible to adaptation to each machine in a shop, and not confined to the operation of all the machinery through a long line of shafting deVices. The convenience of electricity is generally sufficient to warrant paying 50 per cent more in price, because it is not I necessary to run a great lot of idle shafting, etc., when most of the machines are jnot in use and all of them are periodically stopping and starting as their work demands. With an electrical equipment all that is required is to press a button on any single machine to stop or start it, and only so much power is employed to run that machine as is required when it is actually in use. Another feature of great value is its cleanliness, and the entire absence of dirt, dust, ashes, and soot, besides the trouble and expense of handling fuel and ashes.

Electricity is clean, convenient and reliable, and can be carried to distant places, or to remote parts of a building, by a simple wire. It is infinitely more desirable than any other form of power, but its cost is generally much more than that of steam power that its use is precluded, particularly on a large scale.

Nature has, therefore, apparently shown Buffalo great partiality, since she has located this great, water power at her side, and made it possible to procure electric power, in limitless quantities, at a less cost for twenty-four hours than it can be produced for at any other spot ou earth for ten hours. In addition to this, too, she has given Buffalo the unique position which commands the benefit of the vast commerce of the great lakes, the Erie canal and the twenty-seven railroads which center within her borders.

One more advantage possessed by Buffala is that of being located within easy reach of half the entire markets of the United States, there being more than 35 million people within a radius of about 500 miles in all directions. There is no other city anywhere so located and these markets can be reached within twelve hours.

Constantly growing for forty years, the popularity of Price's Baking Powder.

Is It the Itomance?

New York, Sept. 24.—Steamship men are puzzling their brains in an endeavor to establish the identity of a hull which the English steamer Storm King sigh.ted at sea, bottom up, apparently of a steamer about 4,000 tons. The only vessel of that immense size that has been lost in the North Atlantic within the last four years was the Naronic of the White Star Line freight service, which left Liverpool, February 11, 1893, and was never afterward heard from, except through a lifeboat that was picked up and taken to Brazil. There Is no positive information that the hull seen by the Storm King is that of the Naronic, but some shipping men are inclined to think it Is that of tho missing craft.

DUTY OF AMERICANS.

AS AGRICULTURAL PAPKR SPEAKS PLAINLY ON THIS POINT.

Considers It of Vital Necessity That the Chicago Platform be Defeated aad Sound Money Katablished. t' f1

r/

It has been an unbroken rule of this paper, to refrain from taking any part in partisan politics or discussing questions which are Issues In party politics, says the Springfield (O.) Farm News. Under ordinary conditions no other course is proper for a strictly agricultural paper. In recent years the issues between political parties have been such that the triumph of one or the other meant no radical change fraught with danger to the American people.

This year conditions are extraordinary. The questions at issue are vital, and upon their proper settlement depend the happiness and prosperity of our people, if not the perpetuity of our form of government itself. After careful deliberation and long and thoughtful consideration of every phase of the question. Farm News believes that its duty to American farmers, the duty of its management as American citizens, requires that it violate its heretofore unbroken custom.

The radical and we believe dangerous policies enunciated in the Democratic platform adopted at Chicago are a challenge to every man who believes in law and order, progress and prosperity, national honor and national honesty, and to answer that challenge effectually there is no course open but to advocate the election of William McKinley.

Impelled By a Sense of Dnty. We do this not because he is a Republican. The mere names Republican or Democrat have no meaning for us, as our noninterference in previous elections will testify. We 'take this course entirely free from partisan spirit and no man can more bitterly regret the necessity for such a step than do the' management of this paper. Nothing but the strongest sense of imperative duty could force it.

At such a crisis candor requires a candid statement of the reasons governing this departure from an unbroken custom.

The free coinage of silver at 16 to 1, demanded in the Democratic platform, means a silver standard of currency for this country. It is not a demand for bimetallism in any sense of the word, and in the opinion of the leading bimetallists of the world, including General Francis A. Walker, whose life and great talents have been devoted to the cause of bimetallism, the free coinage of silver by this country alone will make it practically impossible to secure for silver the position which bimetallists believe it should occupy—equality with gold in the currency of the world.

Silver monometallism means the reduction of our currency systeni to equality with that of Mexico or China a classing of ourselves with the government of Asia and, the stagnate second-rate powers of South Aperica. It means a currency fluctuating in value from day to day, a dollar worth one thing now and something else next week. Men who lived through the period of depreciated paper money from 1862 to 1879 know the curse of an unstable currency. It means no fixed level upon which all prices and all wages can stand, but values shifting constantly and without fixed relation.

Denounces the Chicago Platform. Outside of Jhe radical demand for silver monmetallism, the Democratic platform enunciates doctrines that cannot be held less than direct attacks upon law and order, and if carried out would sap the very foundations of our government.

The thinly veiled suggestion of an intention to pack the Supreme Court, to secure such decisions as.party exigencies might demand, is revolutionary.

The denunciation of the present administration for using force to put a stop to rioting, plunder and murder is a Md for support from those classes that are inimical to all law and is an insult to the honest laboring men of the country, because it assumes that they are anarchists.

The civil service plank is a demand for a return to the spoils system, with all its corrupt and brutalizing consequences.

In view of these new, radical and dangerous doctrines which the Democratic party has adopted under the lead of reckless men Farm News would be recreant to duty if it failed to cast its influence on the side of sound money, respect for constitution and law, national honor and prosperity.

This paper becomes no political organ, owes fealty to no man, and when the doctrines represented in this campaign in the personalit',* of William McKinley shall have been accepted by the American people, as we hope and believe they will be. Farm News will again take its stand ouside of party politics in the hope that never again will such attacks upon American institutions be made by any political party as to demand the alignment under another party banner of every American citizen whose love for free institutions is greater than his desire for party supremacy.

A monument to enterprise and excellence—the fame of Price's Baking Powder.

OUR TRADE WITH AFRICA.

Prediction That This Country Will Be Gradually Frozen Out. United States Consul Peter Strickland at Goree Dakar, Africa, writes in a pessimistic vein, predicting a gradual freezing out of America from the trade of the continent of Africa, and particularly from one section thereof, viz: Fouta-Djallon country, a district larger probably than the state of Pennsylvania, and said to be quite fertile. Timboo, the principal place in the district, was recently taken possession of by French troops, and now it is probable that the commcrce of the Fouta-Djallon country, which formerly found the principal outlet through the Sierra Leone, will be diverted to the French ports on the coast immediately north of Sierra Leone. He says in the New York Times: "The product of the Fouta-Djallon region has heretofore largely consisted of valuable hides, which, in exchange for articles of American manufacture, have been shipped from Sierra Leone by sail directly to Boston, Mass., thus affording the nucleus for a more extended commerce. But in the French shipping ports there is always to be met the discriminating duty of 7 per cent against all goods not of French manufacture, which must soon have the efTect of sending all the produce of this newly acquired district to France in payment for goods of French manufacture. There seems to be no hope that Americans, with a discriminating duty of 7 per cent against their goods, can look for a serious commercial footing In very extensive districts of the African continent: "Space forbids that I shall here discuss many of the causes which have actually decreased American commerce in parts of Af rica which have lately attained to a great development, nor could I well do so without trenching on grounds which have been supijposed to lie beyond consular jurisdiction.

But every mall this way makes it evident that the needs of American manufacturer! for wider markets are great. Manufactories appear to have been stimulu.e-l into existence beyond the capacity our own country steadily to support them: and th« question, How and where are the surplui goods to be disposed of so that the people at present engaged in manufacturing may not be periodically thrown out of employ* ment and become in many instances, a burden to„the public? seems to be a grow* ing one. The European nations, havinj possessed themselves of ail the coasts o! Africa, now claim to regulate the trale ol the whole continent, not only at the "points where they have civil governments established, but with the natives of -the far interior, who, as yet, scarcely recognize their pretentions. The process has began ot fortifying perhaps the whole continent against us by protective tariffs, for .f even one nation now do it with effect the rest will have to do it in time in order to equalize things between them. It is American trade only which is doomed to suffer, and the question seems to be, Bow can the suffering be prevented? "There is another view to be taken ot this matter which appears todeserve attention. Many of what are called 'raw mate* rials' are now imported by us free of duty for the benefit of manufacturers, but it would seem that unless our manufacturers can put themselves into a position to afford large prices in gold they cannot in the future be expected to benefit much by this concesion in their favor. Hides and India rubber are raw materials produced in this country, and both were formerly to some extent exported direct to America, in payment for goods manufactured from tha same materials, but they are now exported in French vessels directly to Franca, partly in payment of goods -manufactured there of the same materials. Labor is cheaper ia France than it has been in America, and with the extended outlets which French manufacturers now have it is evident that when raw materials which have been cheaply purchased by their own manufactured goods are once in their hands tliey are not going to part with them without securing the largest profits possible, eithei? from fabrics of their own manufacture ot by selling them to those who are willingto pay fancy prices in gold. Formerly American boots and shoes were exported this way and were liked, but the.new con-' ditions have effectually put a to all such shipments."

BLACK MECHANICS.

Are They to Be Crowded to the Wall By White Competition. Eight years ago, when conditions of all sorts were very much different from what they are today, the editor of the Age took a position in his book, "Black and White," that the labor question, the right and the opportunity to make an honest living would become the most important and troublesome question with which the race would have to deal. To reason from this point of view at that time, when we had a virtual monopoly of the common, and much of the skilled labor of the southern states, appeared to many as it the author was dealing in prophecy, pure and simple, and many able reviewers disposed of the matter in that way.

But what was advanced as a matter of opinion eight years ago, has unfortunately become one of the pressing facts of our industrialism, says the Age. So rapidly hav events traveled that the Afro-America! population in all the states north as well as south, find themselves in a hand-to-hand struggle for an opportunity to make a lining and this is true of common as of skr lled labor. The hard times of the past ten years, and the natural and inevitable process of the reaction from the conditions ol slavery to those of freedom, and an unusual contraction of the circulating money medium of the people us compared with tb natural and artificial increase of the population, and the steady increase in the use of machinery to the displacement of hand work in all departments of industry, including that of agriculture, have greatly increased the number of those who must make their living out of the sweat of theii faces. The abolition of slavery alone verj nearly doubled the number of laborei in the southern states. It did more. Wher« labor had been degraded by the system ol slavery, in so far that a white man must be low indeed who would engage in it, under the condition of freedom the dignity of labor, and especially the skilled sort, ha* been steadily on the increase. In factory and farm and the laundry and the like, white men and white women are taking their places as producers where, before they were almost entirely consumers.

But there is another phase of the question, the one which gave us most concern eight years ago as a speculation, and whici is giving us more trouble now a3 a fact and will give us more trouble in the future. This is the attitude of the trades unions and the refusal of white men and women ta work with black men and women. Th€ trades unions refuse to accept blacks into membership in the skilled trades and to work with them because they are not members, and boycott firms and corporations that employ them as "scabs" or nonunion men. Coal miners and stone cutters even do this as well as iron moulders and stonemasons. In the lowest and highest form ol labor the trades unions proscribe the black laborer, say that he shall not earn a subsistence for himself and those dependent upon him. The proscription extends through all departments of the industrial system.

A few days ago all the mechanics in a large house in Atlanta went on a strike because a black man working on the same floor was promoted to the grade of work in which they were employed. Such a thing as that would not have occurred in Atlanta fifteen years ago. There is hardly a machine shop or factory or mason or stonecutting or other industry in Atlanta where it would not occur today.

As labor becomes more and more dignified, as competition grows more intense, aa it is constantly doing, as these necessities compel the white men and women of the south to engage more and more in all forma of labor, as is the tendency of free conditions of labor, if the policy of proscribing

Afro-American

labor of all sorts shall

grow as it has done in the last decade, and a half, the race will find itself in a fearful condition, with an ever increasing volume of pauperism and crime as natural resultants for the state to deal with. What is the remedy

Apreciation of the goodness of Price's Baking Powder is world wide.

Dr.

Li Hunt: Chanff's Message.

Washington, Sept. 24.—Acting Secretary Rockhill received from United States Commercial Agent Patterson at Vancouver, B. C., the following dispatch under date of September 4th: "At an interview given the consuls of this city on board the steamsip Empress of China, just previous to her departure for Hong Kong today, His Excellency Li Hung Chang, Viceroy of China, requested me to become the bearer of the following message to my government: 'I was greatly impressed by the courtesy and kindness extended to me by the government of your country which I regard as the model government of Western civilization. I shall ever retain the most pleasant memories of my visit to the UnitedStates and I desire you to make my greetings to your country most cordial, as I now take leave oi America.'

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