Terre Haute Weekly Gazette, Terre Haute, Vigo County, 2 December 1886 — Page 9

THE STORY OF LABOR.

A HISTORY OF THE NEW MOVEMENT AMONG WORKINGMEN.

A Book of 600 Pages, Written by George E. McNeill, assisted by Henry George, T. V. Powderly, Chief Arthur, Heber

Newton and Others. ...

The latest contribution to labor literature is a history of the working people's movement in the latest times. The editor and author of much of the story is Mr. George E. McNeill, whose portrait here appears.

GEORGE E. M'NEILL.

Mr. McNeill is an official in the Knights of Labor organization and is besides connected with the statistical department of the Massachusetts labor bureau. It is odd how persistently that word "labor" keeps popping up, so that, there is no avoiding it. The word necessitates a repetition in writing that would not be tolerated a moment in elegant composition. Just so, before the subject is done with, the cause it represents will force itself upon the notice of circles that have deemed themselves quite too elegant to listen to it.

George E. McNeill is well qualified to write a book on the question of the day. He was born in Andover, Mass. His father was the neighbor of and co-worker for freedom to the slave with John G. Whittier in the old days of rotteri egging and dead catting Abolitionists.

As a boy George McNeill worked in the woolen factories of Andover. Then he learned the shoemaker's trade. Questions of workingmen's rights and duties were familiar to him from an early age. The great factory strike of 1851 took place while he worked in the woolen mill. He afterward became a high officer in the Sons of Temperance, and a member of the Eight Hour league. He was president of the Eight Hour league for eight years. He has worked as faithfully as the original founders of the Knights of Labor for the education and enlightenment of workingmen, establishing numerous schools and evening classes for them. It would take too much space to name all the labor organizations which he has founded or been connected with. He is a man of electric energy and iron strength, both of which have been •spent ceaselessly. He has .been mechanic, speaker, writer and editor, showing that when a man is harmoniously developed he can do almost everything, and do it welL

But one of the best of Mr. McNeill's achievements is the writing of his book on the history of the labor movement.

The book is a work of over 600 pages, illustrated with portraits of founders and leaders of the labor movement. The first picture of the volume is the portrait of Uriah

S. Stevens, the venerated founder of the order of the Knights of Labor. He is now no longer living, but it will interest the world to know that the founder of the most ]owt?rful and rapidly growing or'

UBIAH s. STEVENS. ganization of modern tunes, was a tailor. But, here is another point whitih all should note, he. was an educated tailor. He was of an old American Quaker family on his mother's side, on the father's his ancestors fought in the Revolution. He studied for the Baptist ministry, but compromised the matter and became a tailor. He taught school awhile, too. Undoubtedly it was his superior education which gave him some advantages over his fellow workmen. It was an educational organization that he intended the Knights of Labor to be. But the order lias so developed and enlarged the original idea that it has become not only a great industrial power but also a political one. The six original "Knights" who with Mr. Stevens, founded the organization, were James S. Wright, Robert C. Macauley, James M. Hilsee, William Cook, Robert W. Keen and Joseph S. Kennedy, The meeting at which they, signed their names was held Dec. 28, 1869.

Among the illustrations of Mr. McNeill's book is one which strikes a note that echoes 10,000,000 hearts of America. It is the bell that summons the mechanic to work. Those interested in the subjects it treats will find the history of the labor movement in both textj book and encyclo pedia. And who fc not interested? Tht| volume is collect: "The Labor Movement the Problem' of To-day." It is" indeed the problem of to-day. The work gives a connected and clear account of the history, purpose and possibilities of la- THE MECHANICS'" BELL. bor organizations in Europe and America guilds, trades unions and Knights of Labor wages and profits hours of labor functions of capital Chinese labort competition: arbitration: Drofit shar­

ing and co-operation principles of the Knights of Labor moral and educational aspects of the labor question. Among those who have contributed to the contents are Grand Master Workman T. V. Powderly, Henry George, labor candidate for mayor of New York Chief Peter M. Arthur, of the»Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers John Jarrett and Rev. R. Heber Newton. The chapter on co-operation and that giving the history of the eight hour labor movement are among the most interesting. The history of the organizations in each trade is taken up, and sketches of congressmen who have influenced legislation for the working men are given.

Finally, there are in the volume portraits of forty-seven men who are leaders in the labor movement. Of these, thirty-six learned one of the mechanical trades and worked at. it. Some of them afterward studied law, but whether that is against them or the iaw each must dccido for himself.

THE MOEN-WILSON CASE.

The Pi-incipal Parties to a Famous Law r. suit. :i

At present dates the Wilson-Moen case stands as the great mystery. Trio wuujryeyed young man who yet liap a square jaw and an insinuating nose, you observe, sues Philip L. Moen,

Esq., for $100,000, alleged to be due him on a contract. There had already been paid him on that contract $350,000, he says, and it is admitted that a very large sum had been paid. Wilson was a poor and illiterate youth who did not learn to read and write He never went to

LEVI P. WILSON.

when he was a boy. 6chool. He has never given any evidence of being a poor boy who worked his way up till providence blessed his labors and made him a millionaire. On the contrary, the only marked ability he seems to have manifested was a talent for spending money. That talent he cultivated assiduously and joyously, till he fairly rivaled Coal Oil Johnny in capacity to run through with wealth.

The defendant in the case is Philip L. Moen, of Worcester, Mass. The farmers of America will immediately be in sympathy in a lump with Wilson, when ib is mentioned that Moen made his millions out of the barbed wire fence patents, of which he is owner. They will say they hope Wilson will gouge him well, as he has gouged them with barbed wires, for the past twenty PHILIP L. MOENV years. However, the barbed wire fence patent has run out, and Wilson plainly has gouged him well.

Moen owns a beautiful residence in Worcester, and is a highly respected citizen. He refused to pay the $100,000, hence the law suit, which he has won at the first trial. But the lawv instead of clearing up the matter, has only deepened the mystery. What did Moen pay Wilson so much money for? However weak Mr. Levi Wilson's whiskers are, his power of keeping a secret is sufficiently strong. Moen denies there Was any secret at all worth speaking of, and declares it was a ease of pure blackmail. But why, then, did he pay this shrewd young man $350,000?

So far, the affair shows that secrets can be kept, even in our age of the world, in spite of newspapers and detectives. One surmise is that there was a woman story in the respectable Mr. Moen's case, and that he wouldn't have had it get out for all the world. Innocent citizens of the first water have been trapped by atrociously wicked women before now, even when the citizen was 60 years old and no handsomer than Mr. Moen.

But on the other hand, Wilson says, in the statement made to his lawyer, that Moen "told mo to dress the other man well, and give him everything Mb wanted, at his expense." According to this, it was a man who was in the case. Wilson claimed only to be the agent for this other man, and says the sums of money were got for him. Moen again vowed that there was no other man, and that Wilson spent the money "his own self."

Our Modern. .Xsop.

A Groceryman once had an Apprentice who was young and green in the ways of the World. "Let me teach you how to Succeed in Life," said the Groceryman and ho forthwith proceeded to Initiate him into the ways that lead to Fortune. He showed him how to Sand the Sugar, put Beans into the coffee, trim down the Weights, place a False bottom in the measures, and substitute decayed vegetables for good ones whenever the customer's back was turned. In course of time the Apprentice became more dexterous in the business than the Groceryman himself, at which the latter's heart rejoiced exceedingly. "Hereafter, my son," said he, "I will let you go to market and buy the store supplies. Here is my bank book go and pay cash for all you purchase." But instead of going to market the Apprentice hurried to the bank, drew out all his master's Money, and hied him away to Canada.

Moral—As the twig is bent the tree is in-clined.—-The J*Jge. Mr. Evarts said to me not long ago: "It is strange that, in administering justice, the wisdom for this world for 6,000 .years has discovered no other way than for both sides to hire a man to exaggerate their sidr, and then try to find out what is the truth between them." That wasn't anite a fair description of our lawyers' business, because we never exaggerate, but then that was his playful way.—Congressman Reed.

Shopping in the Coantry.

"No, ma'am those are two articles we don't keep but the oysters, I think, you will find at the postolHce, and bananas you can get across the way, at the barber's."—Harper's Bazax.

HOMING l'IGEOXS,

A SPORT WHICH IS GROWING GRADUALLY INTO POPULAR FAVOR.

What These Ringed Messengers Accomplished 'During the Paris Siege—Long Flights in America—A Pigeon's Speed and Endurance.

It was the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 that first brought to universal attention the value of carrier or homing pigeons as couriers. When Paris was besieged and all intercourse with the outer world cut off, pigeons were sent out of the city in balloons when the wind was favorable to take them into the outlying friendly country. Here they were captured and brought to a post where they were loaded with dispatches and allowed to return. As there was no other jway possible to have messages de-

BASKET AND PAN. livered into Paris, the pigeon service was brought to a state of perfection within a month that it might have taken a century to accomplish under other circumstances. Sixtyfour balloons bearing 363 birds were sent out of Paris. Fifty-seven of these birds returned to Paris bearing 150,000 official dispatches andover 1,000,000 private messages. The reduction of such a great mass of matter to packets light enough to be transported by pigeons was done by photography. The important papers of Europe, for instance, were spread out on a wall covering a space ten feet square, these were photographed to occupy space on a delicate collodion film the size of a postage stamp. A dozen of these films were inclosed in a quill and attached to a feather in the tail of the bird. On reaching its destination the films were taken from the quill, and through the aid of a magic lantern their contents were thrown on a large screen and hastily copied off and printed in the Parisian newspapers, while private messages were delivered to the jwsons to whom they were directed.

"ABNOUX."

Thus were the possibilities of the pigeon post brought out. But the world has' been slow to adopt this method of transmitting messages owing to the perfection of the telegraph and the invention of the telephone. Another serious drawback to the use of pigeons in some countries is the prevalence of fogs, which render it impossible for a bird to find its way. In America this drawback need not be considered, so that there is nothing to prevent a rather general adoption of homing pigeons when the uses to which they may be put become more generally known.

Although races of homing pigeons is the national sport in Belgium and portions of France, numerous public trials in this country have demonstrated that the atmosphere and climate is particularly well adapted to the development of great speed and certainty in the nights of these birds. The bird "Arnoux," whose portrait we give and which can "be taken as an excellent type of a carrier, has made some remarkably long flights—one from Pensacola, Fla., to Newark, N. J., a distance of 1,010 miles, being twentj -six days out. But another Newark bird has recently returned from Montgomery, Ala., a distance of 866 miles, in four and one-quarter days. For shorter distances birds have returned over 500 miles in fourteen hours, their speed up to about 300 miles, being more than a .mile per minute.

A PIGEON LOFT.

To establish a homing station old birds may be purchased, but they must be kept in confinement along time before they become sufficiently "at homo" in their new quarters to be trusted out. But their young can bo set at liberty as soon as they are ready to fly, which is when a month or so old. Our illustration of a pigeon loft is from a photograph of one in Philadelphia. It is arranged" so that the act of a bird alighting on the trap prior to entering the loft operates an instantaneous camera which photographs the bird and the clock at the same time, thereby recording automatically the precise moment that a racing bird reaches home.

Another illustration shows a net for catching a particular bird in a loft and a convenient basket for sending them on a train to the point of liberation. On the occasion of the late international yacht races birds have been used to bear dispatches from the yachts to the New York newspaper offices. We give an illustration of the method of tying HD a bird for a reporter's use This will suggest

TOR REPORTER'S TJSE.

TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA THURSDAY DECEMBER 2,1880.—TWO PARTS —PART SECOND. WWMB

many ways in which a bird may be utilized on special occasions. There are many birds in use now bearing messages from city offices to country homes or factories. Recent experiments provo that a bird may be trained to take its food at one. station and water at another, and that it will regularly each day fly from one to the other, thus establishing a reliable letter post.

The keeping and training of carrier pigeons is likely destined to l»ocome one of the pastimes of our people, and a stimulus in that direction will be the exhibition of these birds at the American Institute fair, New York.

HON. JACOB ROMEIS.

Fhe Poor Hoy Who Grew Up to Best Frank nurd. Jacob Romeis was born in Weissenbach, Bavaria, Dec. 1,1835. In 1847 he came to America with his parents, settling at Buffalo. Shortly afterward lie began to earn his own living as a cabin boy on a Lake Erie steamer. In 1850 he left the lake and went to work as a train baggageman on the Wabash railroad. By 1863 he had become a passenger conductor. In 1872 he was made general baggage agent of the line. Then he climbed to the post of depot master of the eastern division of the Wabash. Each of these positions was full of responsibility, and promotion in every case was the result of honest, intelligent endeavor. JACOB ROMEIS. But Mr. Romeis, who, in the meantime, had settled in Toledo, O., was not satisfied with business success alone. He studied public affairs, and in 1874 his fitness to serve the people was recognized by his fellow citizens, who made him an alderman. By 1879 ho had become mayor, and he held that office until 1884, administering _the city's affairs with prudence and discretion. During his third term as mayor he was nominated for congress by the Republicans against Hon. Frank Hurd, the eminent free trader. The fight was a spirited one but Romeis won, as he did this year when nominated for a second term, despite his opponent's talents, adroitness and political experience. Romeis' majority this year was 1,486.

Mr. Romeis' career should encourage poor young men, for it shows that in this broad land of ours any one who has talents and determination may win a prize in the great tournament we call human life.

A Peculiar Railway Accident. "Talking about peculiar railway accidents," said Mr. Ward, of the Allen Paper Car Wheel company, "I want to tell you of an accident which happened up in Wisconsin some years ago. It was on the St. Paul road, too. Now, I wasn't there and didn't see the wreck, but a man whom I know to be truthful was, and ho told me all about it. A passenger train was running along one day when the conductor, who was sitting next a window, happened to glance out, and he started up with a cry of amazement.

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'My God! there's a locomotive in the ditch.' "Just then he noticed that the speed of his train was slackened, and gently came to a stop. The conductor looked ahead and saw that there was no engine on his train. He ran back and saw that the locomotive in the ditch was the one that had a few moments before been pulling his train. It had jumped the track, broken its couplings, and gone into the ditch without making so much as a jar. It had cleared the track so completely that the train had passed by it. This is explained in this way: The moment the engine left the rails it was under full steam and momentum. As it broke from the baggage car next to it it shot ahead with fearful force. At the same instant the air brakes were set by the rupture of the pipecoupling, and the train's speed began to slacken. It is easy to see how it is all done, but I don't believe that such a thing ever occurred before or will ever occur again." —Chicago Herald "Train Talk,"

JOHN DONAHUE OF JERSEY.

The Printer Whose Vote May Change the Senate's Complexion. A few weeks ago Printer John Donahue, of Paterson, N. J., was comparatively unknown even in his own state. Outside its bounds he had never been beard of. To-day he is talked about from ocean to ocean.

And no wonder for, as member of the Xew Jersey assembly from the Second Passaic district, Mr. Donahue may cast the electing vote in the contest for the seat of Senator Sewell, the

JOHN DONAHUE.

Republican member from New Jersey, whose term, is about to expire. Mr. Dohahue is a young man with a beardless face. He was born in Wales in 1859, but of Irish parentage. When 10 years old he came to America, settling in Paterson. Two years later lie began to earn his own living, working first jn a jute factory, then in a silk factory, and then as compositor on Rev. J. J. Curran's Weekly Times. For two summers he has been employed by the bureau of statistics of labor and industries as enumerator. Ho is a Knight of Labor, and for four yeprs has done much to further the order in Paterson. The majority given him over Browfc on the first count was 73. The Republican majority in the district last year was 720.

To Soothe the Savage Breast. "Mary, suppose you sing something." "Oh, it's 60 late, Charlie. I'm afraid it'll awake every one," "That's too bad," exclaimed Charley with every appearance of distress. "But why do you want me to sing, dear?" she tenderly inquired. "Why, you see," he replied, "a fellow I owe $5 to has been waiting outside all evening for me, and I thought may be if you'd sing a little he'd go way."—Pittsburg Dispatch.

'EX-PRESIDENT ARTHUR.

FACTS, INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES OF HIS CAREER.

Wi­

llis lloyhood's Ambition Was to B«* a Political Leader —Me Had His Wish and More, lnt Found That Life Was

Not Worth Living.

A few times after the spring of 1885 a worn looking, rather colorless man, with whitened side whiskers, was to be seen walking about Fifth avenue and Broadway, New York. It was only a very few times, but those who saw the worn looking man always turned to look at him the second time. A thought struck them could that be ex-President Arthur? It looked like his pictures, as they had been seen hundreds of times, and yet so changed.

It was ex-President Arthur, and just so had he changed. In the years from the summer of 1881 to 1885 he turned from a young man to an old one. It is not too much to say that tho shot which struck Garfield at last killed Arthur.

The day that shot was fired Arthur was on his way from Albany to New York. He had come down by the night boat. It was in the bitterest and hottest of the Piatt and Conkling senatorial fight, and the vice-president had been to Albany trying to re-elect Conkling to a seat from which he had resigned because of his enmity to the president. The vice-president of tho United States was thus put in the light of taking sides against the president. EX-PRESIDEKT ARTHUR.

The boat on which Arthur came to New York was delayed by fog, and did not get in till 11 o'clock. As it touched the dock a messenger leaped on board. Senator Conk ling stood on deck. "Garfield was shot at Washington this morning,"' said the messenger to him.

Conkling turned without a word and went into the vice-president's state room with news of the tragedy. Arthur was never the same man from that day on. He knew too well what the opposition faction in the Republican party would say and believe to the end of time. It wore on his soul. He carried it with him as a burden by day and it lay beside him close upon his heart by night. He was over 6 feet tall, a man of splendid physique, but he was sensitive as a child. One of his intimate friends says since his death: "The assassination of Garfield nearly killed him."

It did so in fact. From boyhood he had wished to play a great role in politics. More than thirty years ago he said to a school friend: "It ig my ambition to be a politician. I want to be a leader of men, and one who helps to shape the policy of a great political party. I don't think there is any nobler work for a man than that."

He had his wish to the letter. From one office of political preferment to another he went till he reached the very top. Every place that he occupied, too, he filled with distinguished ability. During the war he was first judge advocate of the Second brigade of New York, and afterwards engineer in chief on the staff of Governor Morgan of that state. In both these capacities he did more than any other man in New York to equip soldiers and forward them rapidly to the seat of war. On the governor's staff it was part of his duties to look after the defences of New York harbor.

Matters looked rather serious at the time of the Mason and Slidell affair. Suppose it would lead to war with England?

New York city was defenceless against a foreign fleet, just as it is at this moment, for the matter of that. Mr. Arthur consulted expert engineers and devised a plan for tho defence of the harbor. It was to stretch across it a line of crib3 of timber chained together and laden with stone. Hap-

NEW YORK HOME. pily, however, the misunderstanding with England was speedily settled, and there was no occasion to try the uovel defence snefirested.

TAKING OATH OF OFFICE.

Arthur's next important office was that of collector of the port of New York. To this day in that city his administration of the office is spoken of as a model one. It would have gladdened the hearts of the civil service reformers' if they had existed at that time. He made no changes at all except for cause, and removals during his term were only 3% per cent, of the force per year as against 28 per cent, in the time of his predecessor. Promotions were made by a regular system of advancement from lower to higher grades.

When nominated for the vice-presidency he held no office except chairman of the state republican committee of New York. He

was a warm iartisan ana a warm mend, and this led to all the trouble which culminated in the assassination of ^Garfield. But after that tragic event, whatever could have been said of him before, Las behavior was unexceptionable.,-

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He was the most courteous and best dressed gentleman in America. As president he was approachable and ?:imHy to all. There was a grace and dignity in his pose and bearing which might be commended to all his countrymen. Whatever a president could do to be both useful and ornamental to the country, Arthur did, to the best of his ability. There is no doubt of that* And whatever he did was done in good taste. Ha entertained so generously and handsomely that he spent nearly all his presidential salary as he went. It is told that lie had eighty, pail's of trousers at once.

Tho good will of the larger portion of the Republican party slowly returned to him.

Even active hostility sank at least into indifference. So the boy's dream of being a political leader was fulfilled. He had got his wish and more than he expected. But it crushed him at last. The cloud of powder smoke which settled down over him when the fatal shot was fired .at Garfield that July morning never lifted, (ii-eat shocks and great worries kill. A thrilling scene was that in which, at his home in New York, 123 Lexington avenue, he took oath of office as president of the United States. Garfield died between 10 and 11 o'clock p. m., Monday, Sept. 19,1881. A few hours later, in the dead of night, the presidential oath was administered to Arthur by Judge John R. Brady, of the supreme court of New York, that the cotintry might not bo without a president A touching little incident at the time shows the affection that existed between Arthur and his children. Judge Brady has recalled it since the death of the ex-president. He says: "The scene which occurred after I had finished my solemn duty was one of affection which I will remember as long us I live, as it is seldom that such marked devotion is seen between' father and child. "Distinct Attorney Rollins stepped forward and offered his hand to congratulate the president, but before Gen. Arthur could raise his hand his son Allan, who was as tall as his father, sprang between them, saying, "Me first, papal" and throwing his arms around his fifther, kissed him. The president folded both arms around his son and fondly embraced him before he received the congratulations of the rest of us. It was a touching scene, and one which left an impression on all who were present."

He Jook his seat, and as time went on his term became tranquil. He lived down the bitterness of those who had been his enemies. Then it was that the enemy whom no man can stave off appeared. President Arthur began to fail slightly at first, then more and more. Liver and kidney derangement, the result of worry and intense suppressed feeling, appeared. His heart became seriously enlarged. There was a susceptibility to colds which was troublesome, even dangerous. Then his stomach began to fail. This man of superb physique pould no longer digest his food. It could not be disguised Bright's disease—that grim follower of intense and long continued mental worry—had appeared. Then Arthur and Arthur's physicians alike knew that it was all up with him, though he was only 56 when he died. All the world began to speak of him kindly and to recall his past good deeds. So it is always with dying men. The newspapers recalled among other things how he alone had fought for and secured the right of the colored race to ride in public conveyances in New York city, the same as white people.

For two years he had been an invalid, knowing what the inevitable end would be. Only a week before he died he said:

tflVlll

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all, life is not worth living." And yet he had had his wish.

'After

Moudj'n Chicago Church Burned.

CHICAGO AVENUE OR MOODY'S CHURCH, The friends of Dwight L. Moody, the celebrated evangelist, were pained to hear that the church for which he had collected $100,100 from all parts of the globe was destroyed. The fire was caused by an overheated flue, and will only cause a temporary inconvenience to the congregation, as, although the interior was destroyed, the loss will be but $20,000, while the insurance is $00,000 on the building.

Moody's church was begun in 1873 and finished in two years. The main auditorium had a seating capacity of 2,000, while the lecture room would accommodate about 900 more.

Prosperity of the Navajos.

The Navajos have now about 10,000 acres under cultivation, and nearly all fenced, raising 180,000 bushels of corn for their own support. They own 75,000 horses, 1,000 mules, 1,500,000 sheep, and numerous fowls, goats, burros or donkeys, eta They weave, and the work of their looms is of marvelous beauty and strength. They have almost trebled in numbers since their surrender, and are now entirely self-supporting. For a community of 21,000 souls this is certainly a fair showing, and is the direct result of first, a sound- thrashing and complete subjugation. and second, careful care under military control.—New York Times.

Baroness (Snrdett-Coutts' Husband. Mr. Bartlett, the young American snob who was espoused by the Baroness BurdettCoutts, now rides in a carriage emblazoned with two coats of arms, his wife's and his own. The latter is surmounted by three crests—Bartlett, Bnrdett and Coutt®.—London Letter,