JUSTICE Lira An Estimate of the Jurist Horn- inated by President Taft to Succeed Justice Peckham on the Supreme Bench of the United ' States. By JAMES A. EDGERTON. 'V:. IT Is not of tec that a president of ; the United States is called upon , to naine a member of the supreme court.' There are onlv nine 1ns- jtices in our highest tribunal, and they jremaiu in. office practically for life, al though theoretically they may' retire jafter seventy, provided they have served ten years. As a matter of fact (few of them do retire. Three of the jpresent members of the court are over seventy, Chief Justice Fuller and Jus jHces Harlan and Brewer. All of them have served more than ten years, and hence they are eligible for retirement on full pay. But do they avail them selves of the opportunity? Not per ceptibly. In this they only follow prec ledent, for 1 voluntary retirement has jbeen the exception in that court. Many members of it have served till over jeighty. ; Very few have retired, except for ill health. . ' ' . 1 Justice Horace Harmon Lurton, the iman nominated by President Taft to succeed the late Rufus W. Peckham, 'Is sixty-five. He has been for sixteen years a United States circuit judge ana ior- seven years prior to that time MESi VAU DEVESTKll, DATJGKTfSB OF JUDGE ' - LOKTON. , was on the supreme bench of Tennes see, part of the me as chief justice. Justice Lurton is an ex-Confederate soldier and a Democrat. As Justice Peckham was also a Democrat the new appointment does not disturb the political balance 'of the court The other Democrats in the body are Chief Justice Fuller and Justice White, three out of nme. White was also a Con federate soldier. A rather striking coincidence Is that there are likewise two ex-Union soldiers in the court, Justices Harlan of " Kentucky and Holmes of Massachusetts; " j Served 'With Taft Seven years. The ponnection, between President Taft and Justice Lurton has been . of the closest. When Lurton was ap pointed United ,States districijudge In 1893 it was Judge Taft, already a member of that court, who administer ed to. him the oath of office. " The two served, together for seven years. Then ; Taft went to the Philippines inl900, and it waS through the Instrumentality of Judge Lurtop that General Luke E. iWright, also of Tennessee,, was made Taft's associate and finally his suc- . cessor -as governor. It .isfnot impos sible that Lurton also haa 'something to do with making another -' Tennes seean, Jacob M. . Dickinson, secretary of war in President Taft's cabinet. It Js-known that Taft' surged Roosevelt to appointJudge Lurton" to "the su-' breme bench, but Roosevelt .had other views and gave the office to his attor ney, gerieral, William H. Moody. For some time the gupteme court' has been working with seven members,, the death of Justice Peckham and the Ill ness of Justice Moody having caused two temporary vacancies. Fortunately Moody Is ' how practically recovered, , ) ana this, witn tne connrmation ot jus tice "Lurton, 'will 'again; make a -full bench. It is fortunate that it is so not only because of ; a congestion of ' Cases before the eourt,. but for ; the further reason that two very impor tant "trust suits are to comeup for hearing this winter, that against the if V ! XCDGS! HOBACB H. LDBTOK. . V'ffvv; Hi jL ( 1 -r & v if . OF TENNESSEE Tribute Paid to His Ability In Rendering Decisions In Monop olistic Cases What Judge Al ton B. Parker Says of Lurton Y Qualifications. '-. 1 tobacco trust and the famous decision of Circuit Judge Sanborn dissolving the Standard Oil company. Just what the attitude of the new justice "will be toward the government cases against the trusts is a matter that is causing much . comment '- in Washington and throughout the country. One of the arguments urged against his appointment was that he had de cided an employer's liability case against labor, and he was - further charged , with : corporation leanings. Against this view It is urged that no body knows Judge Lurton's record and habits of thought better than Presi dent Taft. Not only so, but the only and original John Wesley Gaines, the former congressman from Tennessee, who used to take such keen delight In making the corpoflmons jump side ways and. turn double , back;- hand springs, 'says that the allegation that Judge Lurton is a trust jurist is abso lutely false. - "I , wouldn't support my brother if he was a trust owned "man or judge," said Mr. Gaines, "aiM I know what I am talking about whefl I say that Judge Lurton is ho one sided man . in anything. His decisions on monopolistic cases are considered the greatest in existence in this country and have been sustained by the sit preme court. Three of his decisions were cited the other day by Judge San born In the Standard Oil case." Supported by Democrats. . Judge Alton B. Parker,t Democratic candidate for president In 1S104, may not be as good anti-trust authority as Mr. Gaines, , but from the fact that Parker was also urged for this vacan cy On the supreme bench his tribute to his successful rival as not only grace ful, but evidently sincere. Says Judge Parker: "I know Judge Lurton both socially atd professionally, and - in my judg- it- s mm-. w s 1 V 1U MBS. H. H. IiUETON. Ui HOBACB H. .UBTON, JB. ' - ment .one better equipped for service 4h that greatest of all courts, the su preme court of the United States, could not be found., v The country 13 to be congratulated." ' :' .It is told of the new supreme court justice that at one time he had before him ithe case of a Tennessee bad man and gun fighter who was known to haVe several killings nqtehed on his gun handle. " Thinking to intimidate Lurton, the bad -man, fully arjhed, en tered the :, office' of : the judge and locked the door; -vLnrton looked : the; bad man out of countenance until he unlocked the door and slunk out of tberoom.'; I do- not vouch for this yarn, but If it is true It shows that the Tennessee jurist either has plenty of. nerve-or a hypnotic eye. While a soldier ; Lurton'; was twice, taken prisoner," once at the surrender of Fort. DonelsOn,. after; which he. es caped and re-enlisted, and again as a member of Morgan's '? famous ; raid. This time hie did not get away till the end of the .war. He" was born In In .Kentucky in 1844, ran away from col lege to enter., the army, was admitted to the bar In 1867 and entered practice at Clarksvilley Tenu. In 1875 he was made chancellor, but -resigned three years later to. resume the practice of law; He was once a barik president and is trustee in one or two southern universities. , J III. i -9 HILL FOR BETTER FARMING- Declares That Present Methods Soon . Will Not Meet DemandX f , "Seek a system of farming in the' United States which shall greatly in crease the productiveness of the soil;" advised James J. Hill, the great rail road builder, in an address before the National Corn exposition in' Omahaj Neb., the other day. ' Mr. Hill warned the congress that the time is not far distant when the farms of the United States as tilled at present will not feed the people of the country. , He said: , "There, are final limits already in sight to the- quantity of tillable land. The1 productivity ; of the soil and the food supply as compared with acreage and with population both decline. Our total agricultural product has been growing so rapidly and so immensely that we find it hard to realize that this may be entirely consistent with failure at the same time to keep pace with the growth of national needs. "" . . . "The country; unless there shall be'a change, is approaching a time when it must import . wheat ' to ' meet home needs, Other food products 'also lag behind': the constant new demand. Since that demand cannot 'be escaped and since not to meet it means want or a lowering of the standard of life and comfort in this country, wrhich no American ; would wish to see, there is but one course before the nation. That is to increase the productiveness of the farm so that the earth's : gifts may year by year equal or exceed the peo ple's requirements." ':'';-:, -' NOVEL; MISSION VILLA Califomian to Have Attractive Resi dence on Balboa Island. - .An island villa home which promises to be one of the attractions of the southern California coast will shortly be started by W. S. Collins on a small tract of land which he Is having cut off from the north end of Balboa Is land.. ; Plans ; have been prepared for the entire project, including elaborate landscaping and the building of a re taining wall andva bridge across the channel to the main island. The little island which Mr. Collins is cutting off for at site is to be when all the dredg ing and filling work is completed 500 feet by: 250 feet in size. A retaining .wall of ..'concrete and' stone will be built around the. Isle. in. Tvhat will be roughly an Oval shape; . There will be four mission style entrances at .the ends and sides of this wall. The pier ends will be treated in pergola effect. The bridge will be, of the arch type and of concrete. It will be wide enough to accommodate automobiles. . The house itself will stand at the center of the oval. ; It will be of mis sion type and of re-enforced concrete construction. The dimensions will be 50 by 80 feet, including porches. -. The living room will be 18 by 32 feet and contain; a large stone mantel.: -The ceil ings throughout will-, be beamed, .v The grounds will be terraced;- and sunken gardens will be arranged in the four angles, formed by the walks leading to the wall gates. ; , . t " v A CENTRAL BANK. Would Be Under Standard Oil Control, Says Leslie M. Shaw. :, .' Former Secretary - of the Treasury Leslie M. Shaw, speaking to about 400 business men at the board of trade meetings in Indianapolis the other night, declared . thiit there was no doubt in the minds of those who had studied the proposed central bank that such an institution would be: owned' or at least controlled by the. Standard Oil company.'' Mr. Shaw added:- . "I am frank to say that it seems to me quite ' un-Auierican to place with any group of men the power to con tract or expand our currency at -will and to grant or withhold credit to any bank,- to any merchant and to any cor poration at pleasure.. --; ' "But, lest it be charged that I am appealing to popular prejudice, I am willing to go on record that If we are to have a central bank Ihall welcome control by the Standard Oil company or by the: United States Steel corpora tion,' though preferably, by both com bined. This is not based on personal friendship but it is based wholly on the question of fitness for the task." . a Moving Pictures, by Day' ;; 'By a .new development far Paris of the -cinematograph:; pictures 'can j be shown with brilliant effect in, the full light of day and, even In the brightest of artificial Illuminants. i Hitherto it has been necessary to hold such exhi bitions in darkened rooms, a system in which the danger of sudden panic Is always a possibility to be considered. The new. apparatus renders this quite unnecessary. ' - The ; brighter the light the-better the pictures show up.- The process is simple. The lantern ; Is placed behind the screen, which may be either of dull glass or prepared can vas,, and 'the essence of the invention Is a dark chamber In which the projec tion Is directly effected. . i Souvenir Chair For President Taft" President Taft Is to have a new chair, which is being made in .one of the furniture factories In Grand Rapids, Mich. It is to be a souvenir of the trip he made as secretary of war to Japan and the .Philippines. . At that time members of, the party secured several koa logs. These were . brought home and seasoned and after being sawed into lumber at Grand Rapids are being made into chairs for vari ous members of the Taft party. ' - . Vi-, j. A Christmas Query. ' - ;T .-...."Why does Santa reindeer use?" : Asked eager little Kate. 1 -; "This time of year I think snow deer Much more appropriate!" . v Upplncott's Magazine.' . . , - . , GREAT DEVELOPER OF ALL MUSCLES Kansas City Man's Game For Benefiting Business Men. TWENTY CAN; PLAY TOGETHER Athletic Director of Kansas City Club, Deviser of Push-of-war Game, Tells How It Can Be Played Deemed Bet v ter Than Tug-of-war. ...'':;,..'.. the tune worn assertion that there's nothing new under the sun" has been given a severe jolt on the solar plexus, by Dr. J. A, Reilly, ath letic director of the Kansas f!1fv Ath. letlc club. The Reilly scheme Is so new mat ne , nasn't even secured a name for It, bat t or want of a better nanaie It Is called tJReilly's push-of-war."; It is a scheme wherebv twpntv men can take strenuous exercise at th same time, combined -with an exciting game wnicn Drlngs every muscle to the body Into action. The new ram ia played with a heavily padded perpen dicular frame fifteen feet loner hv throa rana a hair feet high placed on rollers or casters. Ten men are placed on eacn side or the frame and attempt to push the frame across a goal line twenty-two and a half feet from the center of the court. Instead of sittine down and pulling, as in a tug-of-war, the men stand up and push. t How Idea For the Game, Was Conceived. "I believe I have solved the nmhiom of getting business men to take exer cise and - derive the fullest benefits therefrom,", Dr. BeUly said the other afternoon. "It is new. too.-aa far as I am able to learn. , I have been Irv ing for some time to devise some ex ercise that will induce a erroro of men to enter Into it with good spirit, and my experiments along this- line have extended several vears. ' I conceived this idea from looking at the dumbbell ana Indian club rack standing on the floor there. ; ft is mn-o-o hi a oi7 or . " ub., u7 experiment I placed a Vrestling mat across the top of .it and Induced my noonday class of business men to cet on opposite sides of ' the frame and pusn against each other, " The plan was a success from the start. ,' The Iron lips or holders used to hang the Indian clubs , or dumbbells on made the pushing machine dangerous, so I ordered one built. i-The new machine will be so padded that there will be no danger, from Injury, and if a man's arm oecomes tared he can . use his shoulders or back and push against it, ' Better Than a Tug-of-war. ; : '--.' Thfe old tug-of-war exercise was bad in that the chest and other muscles were drawn together and cramped as the men pulled on the ropes. In the new ' plan all of the muscles j are ex panded and many, parts of the body never used . In the hardest kinds of exercise are brought into play. Add to this the excitement' of a struggle against an opponent and you can see that it will be a successful game: -- "One of the hardest, things to over come for a physical director is to get a class of business men, interested in exercise. If a ; man feels- that he is inferior to other men on the floor he doesn't enjoy getting out and making a "show of himself, but in this kind of exercise it will not be known who is doing the bulk of the work, and at the same time every man will be doing his utmost for the. sake of his team.- I shall organize several teams as soon as I get my new-, pushing machine in the gymnasium." Museum In a Prison.. . - Paris is to' have yet another museum of the revolution; It is to be' fitted up in the'Conciergerie prison, and the two apartments devoted to It are to be the: Salle des Girondins and. the eell occupied : by - Marie.; Antoinette. This cell is to be fittl and furnished exactly as It was when the. .unhappy queen awaited her fate in it, and a number of authentic relics are avail able.? Among them are Included the queen's i velvet s eated armchair, the lamp by the light of which she wrote her last letter and the simple - black wooden crucifix which she kissed on her departure to the place of execu tion. A credit of 1,000 francs has been voted for the purposes of the museum by the Paris municipal council. - A Whistling kitchen, i. . Official trials'of a "whistling kitch en" for army use have recently been made by the Japanese war office, and the results are said to have been emi nently successful. .5 The Inventor is a paymaster named Okezakl. The kitch en travels on two wheels and can be drawn over almost any ground by one horse. It not only boils rice and heats soup, but itj ; notifies by whistle when the cooking is finished. It can take up a supply , of water from the mud diest of ditches or ponds and trans form '"t into good drinking condition and carry it In that state to, the front. The vehicle can be taken asunder and tarried on the shoulders of two men. Biggest Salmon Hatchery. -The biggest salmon hatchery in the world has been, opened at Booneville, Ore. , It will be the central plant for the state and is located on the Colum bia river, where most of the fry will probably be liberated. The building has a capacity of : 60,000,000 eggsr There are now 20,000,000 eggs on hand ready for hatching.:- Nursery and feed ing ponds are supplied sufficient fot feeding 3,000,000 young fish. : NEW COMET TRANSPARENT.' Discoverer Sees a Star Right Through lt, Millions of Miles Beyond. Fifty-six million miles away froiri the earth, 140,000,000 miles from the sun. and: more than three times as large as the earth irf diameter these are the facts which have been deter mined by Zaccheus Daniel, a graduate student of Princeton university,-about the new comet which he discovered on the evening of Dec. 6 while perched oh the roof of the Princeton observa tory sweeping the heavens, as he has done on every clear, night,, winter and summer, for years, with his five and three-quarter Inch telescope. ' - Mr. Daniel holds the Thaw fellow ship in astronomy, the annual income ()f a gift of $10,000 by Mr. William Thaw of Pittsburg.: However, he has been absorbed In astronomy ever since he Was a boy, and long before he went to the university he possessed a' four inch telescope mounted ba a tripod. ' When asked about the new -comet Mr. Daniel said: "Of course, while the new comet ap pears about three times as large as the earth, according to measurements estimated from the computation f its orbit, it doesn't contain one-thousandth part of the matter, or solids, which the earth does. Gases and vapors appear to make up a large part of it. Yet it seems to have a starllke mucleus. , ;"A; remarkable thing about it,, too, was that on the nighr. I saw it 1 could distinguish a star many millions of miles farther away shining right through: the comet. .. It moved.. very slowly, however, at the rate of only one degree of arc a day. We know its orbit now, and from that we have determined its distance from the sun and from the earth, its diameter, which is about 25,000 miles, and that It was at -perihelion, or nearest the sun, on Dec. 5, about a day before it was; dis covered." - , , HUDSON-FULTON PARK. . s -. L ,..:.... . Home at liew York' Planned Voir Half Moon and Clermont. Trustees and members of the Hud son-Fulton commission and members of the various committees in charge-of the recent celebration at New York city have devised a plan for a Hudson Fulton park wherein will be a water basin in which the replicas of the Cler mont and the Half Moon will be- Dre- served. ',-'. :-...:: The project now before the commit tees is to buy a piece of property at Spuyten Duyvil a few blocks north: of the Hudson River railroad station at the foot of Two Hundred and Thirty first street. New York. On Which there is a subway station. Three piers are to be built into the Hudson ntid the two vessels moored in places .between the piers. There will be, it Is proposed, a terrace leading down from Palisade avenue, and 139-feet above the levet of the river a bridge crossing the rail-, road tracks and then, steps down to the basin, t George Gardiner Fry, a member of the Half Moon commioo worked out the plan and has suflacient runos in hand to start the work. . FINEST PHYSICS LABORATORY Martin Ryerson to Give Chicago UnK versity ?1 ,000,000 to Complete It. Plans are in contemnlation for (ri-Hnoi the University of Chieae-n ' he. finosf physical laboratory In .- the United ocaies, n not in the world: It is said that before all the plans are consum mated the plant will cost Sl.oon.onn All of the money is to be furnished by- Martin Eyerson, president of the board of trustees of . the university, who also was the donor of the present Eyerson laboratory . at the university. One of Mr. Eyerson's objects is to afford to, the physics deDartment of the university the best faculties that cuu oe oDiainea ior original research. In Professor Albert A. - Michelson, as winner or tne Nobel prize for discov eries relating to optics and lieht the university has a scientist of the first order, and it is felt that he and the men associated with him In the lab oratory work at the university should command all the aid that intelligent investment or money can furnish. , '- Roosevelt's African Trophies. i. 'V The American buhtins expedition In Africa headed by ex-President Eoose velt to date has -collected and rouehlv prepared for preservation 6,663 large and small mammals and birds. When Christmas Co NIKS. We're apt to think at this tiine of year iuBi uiiiAMs ana toys aaa all our sums. But lessons are whispering, low, yet clear, " we u cearKen, wnen unrlstmaa Those grudgesf for instance, we think we And crish as it they : were bosom - - -. fihnms. . - A this week's friend of a last Week's foe may do maae, ir we will, wnen Chrlst mas comes. Hard thoughts are heavy to carry at best wn.n tneir leaaen welgbt that our love benumbs. - , , Why should we plod on by that load pp- yi ebacu i - . . . Why not cast it 'aside when Christmas comes? . -. '. j- Do TOU know fL T1Alc-1im. .tta muul an muuga ne uraws irom tne old world s -. ; nle few nlums ' i The slightest of favors that you can da j wm give nun a nit wnen Christmas I corneas ' , -, - t' The little folk, too, who play such parts ' i. o, w a uiajr kivo tllolu Itxr mOTO 1 - than A n.Tv. d , , J .We may give them, more of our Inmost ' ... hM. i r. luxu to, . .. ., t. - 1 Cfnn nlAHM. .A .1 1 n . -V , comes. . , .- ..-.':- bon't be afraid that vnn'11 in tnn munTi -mere are Hungry moutns for a world'. of crumhfL 'J . . . - - ? 1 f here . are hands stretched out for your t: every toucn. . Do a man's. fuU work when Christmas Warwick James Price in Pittsburg Dis- paten. -1- , , - ..j FRENCH JUNK ;: FROMJfyAMA. Machinery That Cost Millions J: to Be Transported. FINDS MADE IN ODD PLAGES. Old Locomotives, Cars, Dredges and Girders Will Be Sent to Mew York to Be Sold How They Helped Us on the Canal Before Being Condemned. The isthmian canal comission has begun the job of transporting about 100,000 tons of old French junk from the isthmus to New York city. The junk includes old locomotives, dump cars, tanks, barges, boilers, girders, dredges, sheet iron, parts of old ma chinery and other things for which the French canal company paid millions of dollars and which it left to go to ruin on the isthmus. " The commission is selling on com petitive bidding all the. old iron and steel along the canal route, except such parts as may be reserved for canal work, - . ' About 700 tons will be moved to the States every two weeks by the steam ships Ancon and Cristobal It will take three years to transport all of the junk. Most of It will be scrapped where It lies on the isthmus. The com mission will ship no pieces of more than twenty tons in weight. This will permit the shipping of locomotive boil ers with fire boxes and flues, j. Most of this old material is of for eign manufacture, and as it is landed in New York Uncle Sam is confronted with the proposition of being obliged to pay himself $1 a short ton on-the entry. Under a provision in the sun dry civil act of May, 1908, this duty will be returned by Uncle Sam to the canal funds, but to-' accomplish this without a special appropriation ' each year It wd be necessary to have the sale-consummated only after the junk has passed through the New York cus tom, house. Each contractor will be ender a bond of $75,000, and payments are- to be made to the canal commis- -sion after each delivery. Much Junk in Gatun Lake Basin. : The- sale Is being made at this time chiefly for the purpose of getting out the old material that lies in the great basin of Gatun lake before the basin Is- filled with water. - There are large quantities of the junk in the lake basin.' i Each of the locomotives left by the French yields between $400 and $600 ' worth of copper alone. The commis sion will-save the old steel rails on the isthmus to be used as re-enforcement in. the concrete work and as telephone and telegraph poles. Some of this old French junk has : been found in extraordinary , places. , Dredges have been discovered almost eomDletelv buried in sand hundreds.!.. of feet away fronany body of water-, and qvergroVn with dense tropical vegetation. Apparently they had been carried away from "the river bed by high, water or the river itself had shifted its course. Several of these buried dredges were in a fairly good state of preservation and are now do- ' ing work on the isthmus. . . j Some of the junk has been lifted from the bottom of the Chagres river and from the bottom of the old French canal prism, where hundreds of thou sands of dollars' worth of equipment sank after the French abandoned the work. Some of the relics in the canaj prism hear the crossing of the Rio Grande river were dislodged only after heavy Charges of dynamite had been exploded under them.. Others have been raised from watery; graves and are now helping to link the Atlantic with the 'Pacific . ' . Relics Put to Good Use. The profit from the sale of the French junk will be small compared' with the value of the service that the commission - already has derived from -the castoff, equipment. For the first two years of their work the commis sion relied. . absolutely upon the old locomotives left by ' the French. In 1906 there were 106 of these weather beaten locomotives in service com pared with only fifteen American made engines. Since that time-the percent- , age - of ' the " French ' locomotives has ; steadily decreased. ' : French dump cars were used almost exclusively by .the" commission in the : first two years. At one time . more than ,2,000 of them were hauling dirt rrom Uncle Sam's shovels. ; .The French . relics furnished also many shop tools, stationary engines and much repair ; material in the early . days of the con-. ; struction work. In fact . Americans may thank the ? old French equipment for the fact that the canal is today just half completed. Without the aid ;of this rusty, storm ,' battered : assortment of French ma- ' .' cbinery there would have been long delays In providing an adequate equip ment from the States. It is estimated that the French supplies and ' equip ment thus far utilized amount to fully $1,000,000-: : I v ' ; , - Big, Yale Honor, For ' Chinaman. . , Yon Hslang Ts'ao, a Chinese student at .Yale university, - recently won the . . Ten Eyck prize' at the. annual junior exhMtlpn 'This is the first time smdent.from -.the orient has, captured the prize. He spoke on "America and the Far East" The Ten Eyck prize - was establlshed by the Kingsley Trust ;. company In 1888 in memory of Henry J. Ten Eyck of the class of 1879, and It Is considered one of the biggest hon ors at Yale. , . , ....