Semi-weekly Express, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 2 October 1896 — Page 5

TRIED FREE COPPER.

'HOW SWEDEN ONCE EXPERIMENTED WITH VERY CHEAP MONEY.

Wllllain J. Bryan's Prototype Brought Disaster on the Country Death to Himself.

William J. Bryan's scheme of finance is not new, even if it la dangerous. It has been exploited a good many times since trade made a medium of exchange necessary. It was tried by Baron de Gortz, minister of finance in the reign of Charles XII of Sweden. And Mr. Bryan and his followers might profit by his experience.

There was the one bright particular attempt to make cheap money do the work of good money. The cheap money that time was backed by all the authority and the credit and the power of one of the greatest monarchs the world has known. It was tried fairly, and through all conditions of trade. And the end of it was that an outraged people took out the minister of finance who had discovered the short cut to wealth and cut off his head at the foot of the gallows, thus giving expression to th^ir undying determination to return to a sound currency, and remain there for all time— which the Swedes have done from that day to this.

When John Sherman made hiB brief talk In Chicago last Wednesday he said among other things: "The cheap money will always drive out the better money. It always has, and it always will. This is sure and certain. All the experience of the world proves it." And no man in this country should be better authority on the subject.

But there is a story in the Swedish cheap money incident, and here it is, as told by the Chicago Evening Post. There were reporters in those days. Voltaire is the reporter in the present instance. In his "History of Charles XII" the story may be read. Charles had been having a good deal tof trouble, but he had proved himself superior to most of the difficulties which assailed him, and also of the difficulties which" he, adventurous man, could go out and find. He was one of the great powers of the earth. England and Russia were not better. Austria and Germany were not so Strong. "He wanted nothing but money," Bays Voltaire. "Credit at home as well as abroad was completely exhausted." lUado Copper fCqual .Silver.

There was where Baron de Gortz, the William J. Bryan of his day, came out strong. He had long cherished the idea that money was but the mint stamp, and that all a nation had to do, if it was out of funds, was to coin a lot of cheap material of any kind and call it money, and it would be money.

Sweden had some silver, but it had more copper. Moreover, copper was cheaper, and the treasury of the king could produce all of that metal the visionary minister of finance needed for the operation of his project. So he took a quantity of copper and had it minted in coins about the size of our present 2-cent pieces, and called them dollars. It was the perfection of the free coinage scheme. Here was cheap money and it was sure to be plenty. It was small enough in size to make it easy of handling. It had the sacred mint sign of the sovereign on its face. It was bound to go.

And it did go. The face of the new copper coin bore the legend: "One dollar, S. M." That meant that this little bit of copper was to be accepted everywhere in payment of debts as a dollar of silver mintage. The real silver dollar was a good deal larger—not much different in size from the silver dollar of the United States. Keep track of that. The silver dollar was about 412 grains weight The copper coin, with a dollar stamped on its face, was about one-eighth that size. This was the cheaper bullion, and there Was about one-eighth of it. But De Gortz, the inflationist, called it a dollar, and expected it to do a dollar's work.

De Gorz's plan to give copper the value of silver. Nothing less. It had long been one of his cherished dreams. Here was the chance to try it. Charles trusted him fully. What made silver worth more than copper? He held it was an arbitrary rule, and could be changed by another arbitrary rule. If he had been successful there is no reason why he should not have concluded to give copper the value of gold. And he would not have been a whit more ambitious than are the gentlemen who today thtnk 63 cents can be made as good as 100 cents by declaring it is 100 cents.

Overrun With False Money. "Baron de Gortz," says Voltaire, "at first issued his new coin with discretion. But by the rapidity of the movement which he could no longer control he was in a little time hurried beyond the limits which he had originally prescribed. All kinds of merchandise and provisions having risen to an immoderate price, he was obliged to Increase the quantity of the copper cola."

According to Mr. Bryan that should not have been a misfortune. Here was the d.iy for big wages. Here was the day of high prices for the product of the farm. A farmer could sell a wagon load of produce for a sum that would have been a fortune a few years ago. Men formerly worth a dollar a day at labor could now easily secure work at $3. It was the very heydey of good times. Everyone had money. And the more money there was, the easier it was to get hold of. And it even had an advantage over Bryan's scheme. The farmer who Bold his wagon load of produce for a great many dollars did not need two wagons to haul his money home in. That would have been the case but for the forethought. of the minister of finance. He had followed the fiat idea to its logical conclusion, but he had a smaller quantity of metal than Americans are promised.

And right then, when everything was going so well, trouble came. It was unfortpnate, but even the wise Baron de Gortz, the Bryan of Sweden, could not change the inevitable. Voltaire continues: "But the more the volume of the money was increased' the smaller was its value. At last Sweden, overrun by this false money, set up a cry against De Gortz. The people, who had always beheld their sovereign with veneration, could not find it in their hearts to hate him, and therefore made the weight of their resentment fall on a minister who, as he was a foreigner and the chief director of the finances, was doubly sure of the public hatred."

And from there to the last pase of bis history Voltaire does not say anything rtior* Rbout the cheap money scheme of the m'nIsty. But on the last page he says something, and it was of the last interest to De Gortz: "The Baron De Gorta, beifig seized Initantly after the death of Charles, was condemned by the senate of Stocknol.n to biv bis head cut off at the fo.vt of the gallows of the town."

And the sentence of the senate was duly carried out, and thac was the end of -hr free copper movement in Sweden. There was a panic, of course, but that was thr '"bad lands" through which the nation had to go from a state of war to a condition of jeace—from a copper dollar with the intent falsehood of "silver mint" on its fact to the solid condition of an honest dollar. A.nd when Sweden once outlived the influ

.r

enoe and effects of the cheap money campaign of the misguided De Gortz it left experimenting with, money and never tried it again. '•'•4 -t *v

T'~

'Ai

SPAIN'S TWO FAIR ISLES.

Philliplnes Are Also In Revolt—Wonder

War Can

Arouse Them.

Spain now has both hands full with her two island possessions of fertile lands. One hand is extended to crush rebellion in Cuba, while the other reaches out to stay revolution in the Philippines. The Philippine islands have been bound to the civilized world only by a thread of commercial and missionary interest. The 1,200 or more islands of the archipelago know little of the nineteenth century, its ways and civilization, for within their borders Jiave been preserved remains of the middle ages, including bits of paganism of prehistoric days.

Since the discovery of the islands by Magellan, in 1521, they have, like the West Indies, been known as garden spots, where vegetation fitted for human food grows while man sleeps. The archipelago is emphatically a land of rest. Rest is the people's principal occupation. It is a wonder that war can arouse them.

Such is the character of the people who now object to paying Spain an income tax whether they have the income or not, and who object to giving the public forty days' labor annually, observes the New York Herald. Not one in a thousand of the heterogeneous 7,000,000 or persons who inhabit the islands ever did forty days of solid work in any year, and few there are who have ever expended enough epergy in their entire lives to equal forty days of Western toil. How these people can awake to war and how they can gather energy enough to wage war is a wonder.

The nominal rule of Spain over the 115,000 of square miles of dry land that constitute the Philippine islands began in 1660, but was not generally acknowledged until 1829. In many proportions of the archipelago the rule of the Spanish crown today hardly reaches the dignity of being nominal, for thousands of the natives never heard of Spain, and Spain knows little of them and less of their country.

Tens of thousands of square miles of the islands are unknown to geography, excepting that they are embraced within an uncertainly defined coast lipe.

Within some of these lines leave thousands of natives, who have governments under tribal chiefs, entirely independent of Spanish rule. They'know nothing of Spain. They have their kings and their wars in blissful ignorance of the fact that they aro all subjects of a foreign crown. This is particularly true in Mindanao, where there are impenetrable jungles, rugged mountains, beetling cliffs and active volcafloes. Here the natives are in tribes under rival kings, and here they fight regardless of Spain. Spain has never molested these people of Mindanao, and many other tribes scattered about the arohipelago have had the same immunity.

Cavite, the center of the present revolution, is ten European miles from Manila, the capital of the island of Luzon, the main island of the group.

The islands are all subject to earthquakes and the districts of Manila, Cavite, Iloilo and Santa Anna have all suffered severely at various times. All the buildings of the natives are thatched, go as to lessen the danger in case of earth trembles at night time.

There are many wealthy Chinese in the Philippines. They monopolize the merchant service. They buy from the planter and sugar maker and sell to Europeans and Americans.

The Spaniards, compel them to pay an enormous tax. All government offices are filled by the Spaniards. There have never been any public improvements in any of the islands.

MIDDLE NAMES SCARCE.

In the Good Old Days They Were Seldom to Be Met With. Since the adoption of its constitution in 1777 New York has had thirty-one governors. Not one wrote his middle name out in full. Fourteen had no middle names. There never was a candidate for governor, with the single exception of John Boyd Thacher, who spread his name out to its fullest extent and reveled in pride when he looked upon it. To John Boyd we should feel indebted, says the New York Press. It is*the literary intsinct, the cult of James Russell Lowell, Williams Wadsworgh Longfellow, William Culllen Bryant, William Gilmore Sims, Oliver Wendell Holmes, George Edgar Montgomery and Laura Jean Libbey, which we must thank for knowledge of the Boyd in Thacher's name.

But for the cult mensioned in the foregoing paragraph we should probably never have known Henry Cabot Lodge, the handsomest of senators. He would have been simply Henry C. Lodge, which sounds strange. The swell society set, in order to distinguish themselves from men in trade and waiters in waiting, have adopted the first initial and the second full name, as, for instance, T. Suffern Tailer, J. Edward Simmons, D. Russell Brown, O. Vincent Coffin, J. Warren Goddardd, J. Seaver Page and J. Harper Bonnell.

The nglish style is to have as many names as possible, so that if a man does not look like a gentleman and has not the manners of one, he can redeem himself by the respectability of his names. A century ago most of the great men of the world had no middle names. There were George Washington, Napoleon Bonaparte, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, George Clinton, John Jaly, Morgan Lewis, Increase Sumner, Caleb Strong, Issac Wilbur and all the rest. A middle name was a rarity. We have among us this day not a few who have dropped their middles names for one reason or another. Charles Wallace Brooke (never forget the "Wallace") says there is no middle name in law.

Bryan's Disreputable Double. William Jennings Bryan, candidate for president of the United States, has a double of whom he has no reason to be proud. He was arrested by the police of New York the other day and when arraigned in the Jefferson market police court created something ot a sensation among those present. His firm chin and the line of his mouth were precisely similar to those of the head of the Democratic ticket, He was Count Di Gloria, although he was traveling incognito as John Pastur. His arrest was caused by the Pittsburg police, who telegraphed that he was wanted for larceny. In the description they furnished it was stated that his resemblance to William J. Bryan was remarkable. It was this resemblance that attracted Central Office Detective Wade's attention to him. Wade thought at first it was the leader of the silverites. When arraigned in court the prisoner said he was a singer and teacher of music, of 204 West Forty-ninth street. He admitted that he formerly conducted a musical conservatory in Pittsburg, but denied that he had done anything wrong. He said his arrest was a mistake, which he could explain at the proper time. The count was remanded.

A dispatch from Pittsburg says that Mrs. M. A. Kearns, with whom Count Di Gloria boarded, obtained a warrant for his arrest, charging him with stealing about $100 worth of sheet music when he left her house. It is also said in Pittsburg that the count took with him a young girl pupil ho sorxr in -"hurch at Carnegie.—Chicago Clunoa!cla

DUC D'AUMALE'S LIFE

SOME PHASES OF HIS CAREER IN EXUJB AMD AX HOME.

A Brave Soldier and Tin* Gentleman Devotes Himself to Art and isttsriLsvcd by All Who Knew Htm*

it IB a curious thing that in the everchanging political fortunes of France there is one lnconsistenecy which occurs each time that the country lays down the scepter and the crown, and re-writes "Liberty, equality, fraternity," says a correspondent of the New York Post. The infant republic exercises at once a monarchial rule and banishes all pretenders. There is to Americans something Incompatible in the very ideas of exile and a republic, yet in France one is ever the result of the other, and the princes of the blood are thus banished by a government which they do not recognize, while the government proclaims an equality which it does not allow. This explanation, however, is rational enough. The law of self-preservation comes before all others, for governments as well as for individuals.

Strange, too, It is how fast the glory of these princes fade. There are doubtless many who know by heart the names, ages and characters of iVc£oria a prosaic descendants and progenitors, who would yet be puzzled to trace the genealogy of that great family which, remaining in exile since the days of Louis Phillipe, has ever in its dreams continued to rule France. And yet its history is full of chafm afifl mystery, of intrigue and tragedy, and6f all things that delight us most, and we need but pronounce the word Oreians to call forth a procession of princes, dukes and kings who rouse in us an endless variety of emotions. Last in this procession, but foremost among the living Orleanists, IB Louis, Due d'Aumale, one of the most interesting of all of them.

Born and bred to be a warrior, he

n° fatifue-

waB

no

sooner launched upon his military career than he was deprived of a country to fight for. What could be more tragic than this? Yet the duke did not give himself over to idie dreams, but turned for consolation to the world of letters, to the study of beautiful things in art and In literature, and with so happy a result that it proved not only a consolation to himself but a pleasure and benefit to the rest of the world. hen bilt a small child he was asked what he wished to become. "A soldier," he answered with conviction. At 20 his conviction was unaltered and he determined to take part in the African wars, presenting himself to his commander with tills message: "I beg you, general, to spare

I am young and itiung

and, like all true sons of Gascony, I must win my spurs. I ask only one thing-if there is any fighting to be done, don't forget the regiment of the Due d'Aumale." The general did not forget. The young prince proved true-to hiB word and with

fo!lowers

he made

captive of Abl-

el-Kader who was guarded by 10,000 horsemen, and BO terrified the Arabs that they enemy's tuinds

tllelr

WWMoo. to the

make the young warrior long for worlds to conquer, but within a few -years taf/mblti°ns

were

rendered use­

less. Exiled from France, he sought to make England his home, but lived really "\th® fortes of war times, adopting a watchword which is full of pathos, "J'attendrai' (I will wait). Plans and plots, however, failed—time passed and waiting became unbearable, so the duke at length, abandoning all idea of recovering France' became absorbed in studying, in writing and in collecting rare and precious objects of all kinds, and especially those which were in any way connected with his own family or with the chateau at Chantilly. This had been left him in 1829 by a great uncle who begged that he woud restore its splendors. Could this be done? Why, it was here that the grand Due de Conde enterained Racine, Moliere, La Bruyere, La Fontaine XIV. It was here, in preparing to receive the king, that poor Vatel, the steward, because of some entree gone wrong, terminated his life in despair and with the same stroke made himself immortal.

Such splendors could not be restored but the memory of them was in inspiration. The Due d'Aumale searched and studied and finally completed an invaluable collection of paintings, statues and carvings. Henri Daumet, the architect, had meanwhile reconstructed the grand chateau which was now one of the finest specimens of renaissance architecture in France but the work was scarcely terminated when the duke and all of his family was obliged to abandon their home and to flee to England with little hope of returning.

The duke in desperation now determined upon a plan which proved that he prized his country more highly even than his family. He made known a wish to leave Chantilly to Franqe and chose the institute as his heir. The French republic responded to this act of mingled diplomacy and generosity and withdrew the decree which kept him an exile. Not needing the advice of proud royalists he returned to Chantilly, where he expects to remain till the end of his life. And how much better to live here in this enchanting place, surrounded by sympathetic friends, himself the faithful patron 6f tflrt and letters, than to remain an outraged prince—exiled for life!

Go to Chantilly when next you are near there. If you love the gay world go on Derby day, when the great races of the Jockey Club bring a host of frivolous Parisiennes in dainty gowns and well dressed? well padded monsietfrs with waxed mustaches—who take the little town by storm. If you are a horseman yourself visit the great stables, stately and superb, the finest in Europe. If you are devoted to history stroll through the long galleries of the chateau, study the paintings by Van der Meulen and live over the battles of "Le Grande Conde." If you are an artist no need to bid you—you have already feasted. If you area poet wander through the forest or lie there gaxing up at a delicate, silvery trees and the sky beyond, while you dream of that far-away Charles of Orleans, who, in the midst of political strife, when the king, his uncle, had gone mad, and his father, the regent, been murdered, still sang on gayly and with such grace and charm that his rondels are today unexcelled. "Enfin," as the French themselves say. "il en a pour tous les gouts." But. best of all, if you have the duke himself, as all who know him do, follow him some day in the hunt, which is his passion. Once when in exile he said bitterly to some one who asked how he was: "I am well—health eanont be confiscated." So It has proved. He retains all the energy and enthusiasm of youth and only the gray hairs in his long mustache and tiny pointed beard and & slight stoop suggest the years he has numbered. His clear, kind, blue eyes tell the truest story, for, as some one has said: "They are the eyes of a poet, of a lover, of a gentleman."

AROUND THE WORLD ALONE.

On August ldt He Had Sailed 18,000 Mile* Tn His

T.lttle

Vessel.

Our reporter had a pleasant interview last Monday with Captain-Slocum on board Ms yacht Spray, says the Sajmoan Times. His trip had Its origin In want, at employ­

4-

ment for the Spray—built bjr her present captain and owner—when the original intention to enter the fishing business had been abandoned. The happy thought suggested itself to make a lonehand trip around the world. To another man such an idea wbtiid have seemed preposterous, in so small a* craft, and without assistance but to our oaptain, who in the past has had vast experience of. the Bea and its dangers under circumstances requiring the exercisc of self-reliance, the venture did not appear to be improbable of accomplishment.

He knew his craft, and he knew himself, and his, enterprise has borne satisfactory fruit so far. Captain Slocum calculated that, wherever he might be, he must eat and drink, and that it would not be more expensive to satisfy nature in this respect on board his boat than on shore, and the Spray herself would be but little the worse for herpfoyage in comparison with laying her up on shore. It will be seen therefore that there were no serious expenses for Captain Slocum to provide against doing his circumnavigation of the globe more particularly since he bad a yacht license. On the credit side of the venture may be counted the establishment of the yacht as a meustum of curiosities (including the captain himself) on her return to port and the sale of a printed account of the voyage.

These are the monetary considerations but there is something further—what about the lasting fame attached to the accomplishment by one unaided brain and a pair of hands of a venture such as no man ever executed (or probably conceived) before is this not something to be pnud of? And' should he succeed in accomplishing his task —of which we have but little doubt and for which he has our best wishes—he will tetand singularly alone In his department as the great nineteenth century exponent of pluck, self-reliance and indomitable energy and perseverance.

On examining the Spray's charts our reporter traced the course of the vessel from Cape Sable, her starting point, to Gibraltar thence Tia Canary and Cape Verde Islands to Pernambuco, the nearest point on the South American continent thence to Rio Janeiro, Montevideo, Buenos Ayres and Sandy Point thence through the Strait of Magellan, up the west coast of the continent- to the Island of Juan Fernandez thence to Samoa, sighting the Marquesas the last part of the journey in six-ty-two days, the same time as the schooner Adriatleo, lately in from Valparaiso. Captain Slocum states that, although his isolation was in a sense irksome, yet he had no mental uneasiness until he had passed through the Strait of Magellan and looked toward the broad ocean which separated him from Samoa, his next port of call. At that time he was threatened with what appeared to be influenza, or something similar, and, to use the words of his mental soliloquy, "It won't do, Joshua, for you to tackle a direct course in a stormy latitude you had better go north and sweat out your ailment in the sun." This was done the sickness left him in the warmer latitude, and he safely and comfortably continued his lonely Journey across the mighty waters.

The captain says that he knows his vessel so well that, incredible as it may appear even to nautical minds, he can let her steer herself with the wind dead aft and she will make a straight course. Although at times of rough weather the hours of sleep enjoyed by Captain Slocum were few and far between, yet on the whole a fair average amount of rest has been obtained during the journey, as evidenced by the apparently robust health, which the captain is enjoying at this time.

Space will not admit of a more extended report of this really miraculous venture, which so far has covered over 18,000 nautical milts. Captain Joshu Slocum, during his toW years of seafaring life, has commanded the following vessels: Barks Constitution (wrecked In Samoa), B. A. Mar, Amethyst, Aquidneck (of which h?. was the owner) and the ship Northern Light. He also was xjavlgating officer of the war machine Destroyer when on her voyage to Brazil to annihilate, for and on account of President Plexoto, the navy of the rebel 'Admiral Mello,' and last but not least of this enterprising man's adventures was building a canoe thirty-five feet long from the wreck of the Aquidneck, and, with his family, sailing a distance of 5,000 miles to New York.

TQOK HER FROM A POORHOSE.

Fred tombn»H Selects the Star and IS Married Within An Honr. Ottawa, 111., Sept. 30.—Fred Dornbush of Pe?-M came here today in search of a wife. He wasn't very particular in his choice and perhaps this is the reason he went out to the county poorhouse and stated his desires to ^Superintendent Irwin.

The latter nearly fell off the farm when he heard the strange request, but consented to line up the women of the place and let Dornbush make his selection. Such an aggregation of women as was arrayed before the wife hunter could never be found outside of this county's poorhouse. There were women with false teeth and no teeth at all others with glass eyes, crooked noses, bald heads and hare lips. Some were old, others were older and some whose ages could not be ascertained. There were some of common sense and some with no sense at all. They smirked and grinned at Dornbush and all were "hopln', thank you kindly, sir."

After a critical survey of the outfit Dornbush selected a widow of about 50, who said she was just 35, could c.^ok, bake, mend underwear, darn stacking and carry a sweet, confiding smile forever upon her countenance. Dornbush considered her the star of the outfit and the following brief conversation followed: "What's your name?" "Bertha Schultz." "Widow?" "Yjes." "Marry me?" "Yes." "Right away?* "Yes." "Come on."

Dornbush and trie woman went to town, secured a license, visited Judge Larkin, who tied the knot, and bride and groom left on the first train for Peru.

KITCHEN HINTS.

Melted butter will not make good cake. The colder eggs are the quicker they will froth.

Mutton should be deep red and close grained. Veal should be white, dry and close grained.

The best poultry has firm flesh, yellow skin and legs. ?jitmegs should be grated at the blossom end first

Lemons will keep for weeks if covered with cold water. To make good pastry the Ingredients must be very cold.

Pork should be fine, close grained and the rind smooth and thin. The best beef is moderately fat and tho Jtesh of bright red color.

Soap and chalk .mixed and rubbed on mildewed spots will remove them. A spoonful of vinegar added to the water In. which meat or fowls are boiled makes them tender.

Good macaroni is of a yellowish tint, does not break readily In cooking and swells to three or four times its bulk.

A little vinegar kept boiling on the stove while onions or cabbage are cooking will present the disagreeable odor going through tho luUHM-

BAILWAYS FOB BENT

FOBTABUE OUTFITS THAT CAM BF BOUGHT OH HIUD OIBAK.Y.

Smallest 8taam Hallway tetba World Be~ to a Cuban Plantar—Some Interesting Facta.

Mr."*.

"A railway for sale 6% miles tang. 309 tip-up wagons, one passenger' ear, one horse box, two locomotives. All in good condition." This advertisement In an Indian paper that had found its way Into the writer's hands caused him to wonder how such a thing as. a railway came to be for sale, and who would be likely to be a purchaser, says the New York Recorder. Inquiries resulted in the astonishing discovery that there aro several big engineering firms in existence from which one may order a portable railway much as one orders a suit of clothes. A call upon the manager of one of these concerns elicited the information that the advertised railway would no doubt be the property of the planter who intended retiring or purchasing a new and better class of line for his plantation, and that there would be little difficulty in finding a buyer, a less prosperous planter probably jumping at the chance of getting a line on the cheap.

Such light raUways, the writer learned, are common in India, and the manager in question regarding the dispatching of a ready-made railway to the other end of the world as a very ordinary affair indeed.

When the West of India Portuguese Guarantee railway was being constructed in Goa, Madras, a portable railway seven miles long was ordered by the contractor. There were between BOO and 600 double end-tipping wagons, which cost $50 each. The rails and sleepers weighed but thirty tons to the mile and the gross cost of the railway was $15,000.

There were no locomotives the trucks were simply pushed by native women, who Were paid 8 cents a day Jo*' the work.

A three-foot guage portable railway, four miles long, was ordered some time ago by a Peruvian sugar planter. The rails weighed sixty-five tons to the mile, and, as IB usual in the exporting of portable railways, were packed in fixed sections of convenient length, rteady to be laid by unskilled laborers. There were six specially designed sugar cane trolleys costing $75 each, and tw loeomotlves at $7,000 each, each weighing nine and a half tons and capable, under considerable pressure, of traveling at tho rate of eight or ten miles an hour. Nevertheless the little train could carry 100 tons of cane per day, and as there were two harvests a year it will be seen that it soon justified its purchase.

No stoker, signals or stations are needed on these miniature lines. The smallest steam railway in the world was sent from a London house to a planter in Cuba a few years ago. It was onlytwo miles long, with twelve-pound rails, an eighteen-inch guage, and a locomotive eight feet in length. The latter weighed four and one-half tons, and cost $2,000 indeed, the entire cost of the railway, including line, twenty trucks, engine and freight charges was barely $8,000.

On one occasion a whole railway went astray In transit, just as though it were a picnic hamper. It was a four-mile line, ordered by and completed for a contractor in Copenhagen within five months. The gross weight of the rails was 140 tons (fourteen pounds to the yard), and there were no fewerthan 250 end and side-tipping wagons.

This little railways was to have been used as an aid to the constrution of quays on the sea coast, but, owing to a misunderstanding, it was.sent to a port 130 miles from its proper destination. The captain of the steamer carrying it, not feeling inclined to go about Denmark crying "Whose line is this?" brought the entire railway back with him.

Cotton and sugar planters in South America frequently hire their little "systems" to neighboring planters for $500 a month-r-that is, of course, when they themselves are not usins the lines. This rental Includes rails, wagons and locomotive, but not the labor involved in the removal or the return. Indeed, the Writer was pssured It is quite a usual thing for a South American planter to be asked the question, "Can I borrow your railway for a month?" and this being so, perhaps a line for sale is not such an extraordinary thing after all.

KITE FLYING WITH A PURPOSE.

Scientists Ascertain Many Useful Facts From the Upper Air. During two summers previous to the present Messrs. Clayton and Ferguson of the Blue Hill meteorological observatory, assisted by William A. Eddy of Bayonne, N. J., have made certain investigations in meteorology by means of kites, says the New York Independent. The scene of operations was Blue hill, an eminence a few miles south of Boston, 635 fet in height. Numerous kites of the Malay pattern, in sizes varying from five to over nine feet in height, have been brought into service in these experiments. The larger kites require, of course, a cord of large size, yet any great length of this is sufficient to pull them down if the breeze is light, and often several of the smaller kites'have to be sent up in advance to pull up a large one. On a few occasions they have had up at once as many as a dozen kites, all attached by branch strings to the main line. In a fresh breeze the combined pull from the usual number is about 120 pounds and is much greater in gusts. A huge reel on trucks has been devised for holding the string, the length run out being registered by a wheel and a dial. Nearly every day during this and the two previous seasons there have been sent up on the line an aneroid barometer and a self registering thermometer, by which the atmospheric pressure and the temperature at the highest altitude reached are ascertained, comparison being made with similar records at the surface of the earth for the same time. A special apparatus contained in a tin case has now been constructed for these purposes—for the humidity and for measuring the speed of the wind. Changes of weather are indicated at the high altitudes many hours earlier than on the hilltop. Thia apparatus has recently been sent to a height of about one mile.

Last year experiments were begun In bird's-eye photography, the camera being suspended from the kites and operated bycords from the ground. Most of the views obtained were quite clear and very pleasing from their uniqueness. Several interesting phenomena have been noticed in these experiments. Early one August afternoon, while a five-foot kite was aloft In a breeze so light as to barely keep it from falling, a large cumulus cloud approached the zenith. When directly above the kite thf latter began to ascend rapidly and almost vertically, only ceasing when its string was all out and drawn taut. It followed the course of the cloud across the sky at short distance, but when it was quite past rapIdly fell to its former position. Another phenomenon in the Blue hill flying is thr electrical manifestations on the kite string at all altitudes, but In greatest extent whe the kites are highest. On account of th null on the string by the Wind our Blue

bill flyers have adapted fine piano wire far kite end, as it baa the smallest saiface a proportion to its weight of anything yet found. With this, however, the electric jparks often proved very annoying to the person bedding the kite, until relief was tound by thrusting the end of a connecting wire into the ground. Brer with this tin manipulators of the kites sometimes exhibited amusing Jumps and contortion* whan a mischievous boy happened to kick off the stone which held the wire down. Soston people will be interested to learn that Its celebrated east wind at its beginning enters like a wedge between the earth and the stratum of atmosphere next above It. A northerly wind, on the contrary, slides along the lower stratum and chills downward, also tending downward In mass. A warm upper stratum does not affect the lower atmosphere so quickly. Up to the present time the greatest altitude to which a kite has been flown is 7,345 feet—1,000 feet higher Mount Washington. This was accomplished at Blue hill on August 1st, the kites used being a nine-foot kite, led by a smaller on$, with a second smaller one below. The wind surface furnished hf. these was about sixty-five square feet.

ELECTRIC RAILWAY GROWTH.

Present System In and Aroand the City of Washington. In few cities has the Incoming of the trolley car wrought greater changes than in the national capitaL There is an inaccuracy in speaking of the Incoming of the trolley car in Washingotn, for all overhead trolley wires have to stop just outside the old boundarly, or the limits of the city proper. Within these city limits there are several underground trolley systems and more will probably be built. Before the coming of the electric car Washington had no suburbs, says the New York Poet today the suburban development Is going on so rapidly as almost to imperil real estate yalues in some of the older parts of the city. In most other large cities electricity was Ingrafted upon the horse car system, with the resulting development which quicker and pleasanter transit was sure to bring. In Washington, so far as the suburbs were concerned, electricity found a comparatively unwritten page. The result of this has been a different sort of street railway development here from that which is found in the cities where the trolley simply superseded the horse. The suburban railways do not here follow the established highways as a rule, but strike off boldly through the open country, with stations at every street crossing. In many Instances little plaees of shelter have been built at these crossings, and in other particulars the street railway lines much more closely resemble the steam railroads In their methods than the old horse cars.

The new electric railroad from Georgetown to Cabin John Bridge, a distance of eight miles along the banks of the Potomac, is an example of the newer development of the electric railway. The road will in time be extended to Great Falls, a very picturesque locality, sixteen miles above the city. The public highway from Washington along the upper Potomac was narrow and unsuited to take on an electric car line. Accordingly, the company secured a strip of land along the edge of the bluffs of the Potomac. The engineers, realizing the commercial value a picturesque route, brought the new railroad through such a beautiful country that its patrons are almost entirely pleasure riders. The car tracks are perhaps thirty feet above the level of the Potomac, and on an average sixty feet away. At the foot of the bluff upon which the railway runs Is the old Maryland highway known as the "River Road," over which the colored farmer may be seen driving his mule to market with produce. Just beyond the road is the old canal, with its towpath, lock and generally picturesque features. The scattered population along the line of the railway can do little for its support, but on warm evenings the people of Washington are very generous patrons of the country electric roads, and this line comes In for a large share of the business.

On the other side of the Potomac another trolley line extends to Fort Meyer and Arlington, and is on its way to Falls Church, a Virginia village eight miles away. From Georgetown to the main entrance at Arlington the engineers have so laid out the road as to preserve a very gradual grade. This enables the cars to coast the entire length of their return trip and at Fort Meyer, the only place where it is ever necessary to make a stop, a little sharper grade has been provided, so that the car starts readily forward when the brake is taken off. Another famous Washington street railway is the Chevy Chase line, which runs a number of miles through what a few years ago was an unbroken wilderness. Francis G. Newlands, a representative in congress from Nevada, bought up large tracts of this unoccupied land and built the Chevy Chase Railroad that the land might be brought into the market. So far, a small settlement of summer cottages has been built on the heights near the terminus of the road, but if it were not for the seekers of cool breezes on summer evenings the dividends of the road would hardly be satisfactory. The new electrio railroad line to Alexandria and Mount Vernon has been described in tbese columns. It is operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. and of the thirteen local trains that formerly plied on the steam road between this city and Alexandria eight have already been taken off on account of the superior attractiveness of the electric line. Washington people are, moreover, promised a new electric railway to Baltimore, also a branch to Annapolis and Bay Ridge, as well as a large number of shorter lines. These roads are opening up a hitherto unknown Washington. The location of the city in the hollow of a river valley, with surrounding hills on every side, makeo It seem that the population was in time destined to find its way to these hilltops when a method for reaching them sould be obtained. This the electric car 1b doing, and its effect upon the development of Washington cannot be slight. The population of the city Is being gradually pushed up to

these

beautiful hilltops, and a safety valve provided, effective for all time, against the intense overcrowding of the old part of the city. Washington has no wide rivers to compress within narrow limits Its growing population. There Is nothing but space on good building land about here, and tho alectrle trolley Is annihilating space stf judged by horse car standards.

Hotel Onont* RohlMMl.

Pittsburg, Sept. 30.—It has Just been learned that burglars entered the Hotel Norman, near Wilmerdlng, Pa., Sunday morning, and after chloroforming all tha inmates, carried off $10,000 iu money, jewelry and silverware. A safe, containing between $7,000 and ?8,000, was blown open and the contents taken. The cajh register in the bar room was likewise opened anJ robbed, after which every room in the house was searched and Btripped of portable valuables.

There were seventeen guests In the house beside Mr. Wymard and his family. Every cent of money belonging to the guests were taken, together with their watches and jewelry. The silverware pf the house, Mrs. Wymard's diamonds, and, in fact, everything of value that was readily movable was taken. The thiceves left no clew.

To Core a Cold la One Day.

"•I'ko laxative Bromo Quinine Tablet*. All 1 tusk'sts rofund the money If it falls to cars. 25c.