The Cottage Grove sentinel., July 29, 1910, Image 2

PRAISE BY CANNON
Speaker Commends Work of the
Sixty-First Congress.
Gen. Smith Says Uncle Same Is Not
Prepared for War—How Con­
gress Aided Morse—Dolly
Madison’s House.
Washington.—On the day congress
adjourned Speaker Cannon issued a
statement covering the work of • the
sixty-first session, which he says was
the best he has known In his 35 years
experience. Incidentally “Uncle Joe”
said he expects to return next De­
cember and will place his fate as
speaker in the hands of his party.
“I do not think the work of a con­
gress should be measured by the vol­
ume of business, but by the character
of the legislation and the care taken
In its consideration/.’ he said. “Meas­
ured by that standard, the sixty-first
congress will take a high place in the
record of legislation. There have
been, however, more than 6,000 of the
27,000 bills considered and reported
from committees and about 300 public
laws enacted in this session, as against
400 public laws for the entire sixtieth
congress. I can commend the entire
membership of the house for industry
and intelligence in their legislative
work of this session.”
Continuing, the speaker said:
“In my judgment, the two sessions
of the sixty-first congress have ac­
complished more and done better work
than any other congress of which I
have been a member. It has rarely
occurred that a congress enacting a
new tariff law has accomplished much
else save handling the appropriations
for the government. This congress
has not only revised the tariff, with­
out disturbing business, but it has en­
acted important legislation, amending
the Interstate Commerce law, making
that law more effective, giving the In­
terstate Commerce greater power and
creating a court of commerce, and
this without seriously affecting the
business of the railroads or checking
their increase of wages to their em­
ployes. This seems to me to meet
the definition of statesmanship in leg­
islation.
“This congress has also enacted a
Speaker Cannon.
postal savings bank law, which is an
entirely new legislation, blazing a new
trail In lawmaking in this country.
That law is not on the statute books
by means of hurried enactment.
“After the house had prepared a
tentative bill, a Republican caucus
was called to consider it, and after
three long sessions a bill was agreed
upon which received the majority vote
in the house, and the senate also ac­
cepted that bill without amendment.
“In my judgment this is the best il­
lustration of party legislation we have
had in many years, and it fully justi­
fies the necessity for party action in
a great legislative body. If there had
not been party solidarity on this bill
there would have been no legislation
creating postal savings banks.” The
speaker detailed other legislation
which had been enacted.
“The appropriations,” he said, “have
been large, but not nearly as large as
demanded by the people who were agi­
tating over the development of the
various departments of the govern­
ment.
In 1837 congress appropriated $30,-
000 with which it purchased Madison’s
diary, and with this money Mrs. Madi­
son was enabled to take up her resi­
dence In her city home. Washington
was always attractive to her, and she
was glad to get back. Her return was
a renewal in private life of all her so­
cial triumphs. Her parlors were al­
ways thronged, and she entertained
practically, up to the time of her death
In 1849.
After her death the home was sold
to Admiral Wilkes, who occupied the
house until the civil war. During the
second year of the war Gen. McClellan
used the house as his headquarters,
and its parlors then were the scenes of
great military and naval social func­
tions.
MORSE AND THE TELEGRAPH.
Here is a story of the establishment
of the first telegraph line and the cir-
cumstances surrounding Mr. Morse’s
efforts to get congress to appropriate
money for the construction, as told by
Senator Bailey, of Texas, in the senate.
Senator Joseph W. Bailey.
It is remarkable now to read the
story in all its baldness, and yet it. is
absolutely true, and one Is fairly
startled to think of what might have
happened If Morse had become a little
bit discouraged and failed to go on
with his wonderful Invention. Senator
Bailey said that Inventor Morse had
appealed to congress for an appropria­
tion of $40,000 for the construction of
a telegraph line between Baltimore
and Washington. The bill was intro­
duced In the senate, and passed that
body near the closing hours of the ses­
sion. After its passage in the senate
Mr. Morse hurried over to the house,
and, approaching the doorkeeper, said:
“Will you tell me who is the kindest-
hearted man in the house?”
“Sure,” said the doorkeeper; “Mr.
Carruthers, of Tennessee.”
Mr. Carruthers was called out, the
matter was presented to him by Mr.
Morse, and together they went down
to the basement of the Capitol, where
a miniature plant had been Installed
for a practical demonstration. Mr.
Morse went to one table where there
was an instrument, and sent a mes­
sage dictated by Mr. Carruthers to an
assistant at another table, who re­
ceived It and transmitted the same
message back to the first table. Mr.
Carruthers was satisfied, the bill pass­
ed the house, and in due course of
time the line was constructed connect­
ing the two cities.
“And it was a strange coincidence,”
said Senator Bailey, “that the first
message sent over the line from Balti­
more was one announcing the nomina­
tion of James K. Polk, who had been
Mr. Carruthers’s opponent for the
presidency.”
GEN. SMITH’S INTERVIEW.
Officers of the army and navy who
are In Washington were much inter­
ested by the interview recently at­
tributed to Brig.-Gen. Jacob H. Smith,
retired—perhaps better known as
“Hell Roaring Jake”—Who has just re­
turned from a tour of the world, in
which he declared that the United
States is wholly unprepared for war.
He was discussing the possibility of
a clash with Japan.
“I believe there is little probability
of trouble,” he said, “but if it comes
our army is wholly unprepared and
our navy is by no means ready. I
hope to heaven such a war never là
started. I am one of those soldiers
who doesn’t want war. But I believe
the best way to prevent war is to be
prepared.
“Now, how about our army? The
people will not let us have enough
soldiers to be of any use. The Japa­
nese would seize thé Philippines and
Sandwich islands before we could say
’Jack Robinson.’ We haven’t enough
of an army to hold these island and
INTEREST IN HISTORIC HOUSE.
we have to send our troops 14,000
A great deal of‘interest centers just miles to get them there. Once we lost
now around what is called “the Dolly our Pacific islands we never could get
Madison house,” which is one of the them back.
“AS for the navy, our ships are all
historic spots in Washington. This
house stands at the corner of H street right, but our idea of battle is differ­
and Madison place, near the B’elasco ent from the Japanese idea. They are
theater, which is built on the ground as fanatical as Moslems and believe
where Secretary Seward lived during that every soldier killed in battle .goes
the war, and where he came near re­ straight to heaven. They think noth­
ceiving his mortal wound on the night ing. of sinking a ship. The men would
that Lincoln was assassinated.
go to the bottom singing hosannas. If
It was in this quaint old house that an American general sacrificed his
Dolly Madison, the widow of the fourth men as the Japanese commanders
president, lived and held court for a slaughtered theirs at Port Arthur
number of years as the social queen of there would not be a general fifteen
the National Capital. It is said that minutes.
her home was a fair rival for the
“Thank heaven, there is little prob-
White House, for she was extremely I ability of war. To be sure, the people
popular, always agreeable, and was I of the west coast are bitter toward
liked by the young as well as the Japan, but Japan has her hands full
with Korea and is in no financial con­
old.
The house was built in 1825 by dition to undertake another conflict.
Richard Cutts, Mrs. Madison’s brother- Then, too, the statesmen of the two
in-law. It came into the former presi­ governments are getting to under­
dent’s hand the year before his death, stand each other and any trouble that
and he in turn bequeathed it to his comes up is sure to be settled by di­
plomat v'
¡ridow, Dolly.
CROPS FOR DRY FARMING.
Fall-Sown Grains Generally Best for
This Purpose.
Wheat is the great money-making |
crop of a large part of the semi-arid
West. It is not particularly a drouth­
resistant crop, although certain varie­
ties appear to succeed better than
others in the dry districts. The hard
Red Turkey or Russian wheat is the
type or variety which has proven hard­
iest and most productive throughout
the Western part of the winter wheat
belt. In the spring wheat states the
standard sorts grown are Fife and
Bluestem, which are also hard wheats.
The Durum, or Macaroni wheat, is
rapidly coming into use in the North­
western states, and it appears to be
hardier and more productive than the
ordinary spring wheats. This wheat
was introduced from Russia, where it
has long been grown in a climate and
under conditions similar to those of the
western part of the Northwest states.
It is decidedly a “dry land farming”
crop, and it is the hope of those inte­
rested in introducing this wheat that
it may prove successful in districts
where the rainfall is not sufficient or
is too uncertain to grow the common
wheat, and thus extend profitable
wheat growing still farther west and
into the semi-arid lands of the Moun­
tain states.
At present, with the varieties grown,
the success of the wheat crop in the
West is more largely due to the fact
that the crop grows during a part of
the year when drouth is least apt to
prevail than to the drouth-resistant
character of the crop. But wheat is a
deep feeder and a rapid grower. The
plant draws its food and moisture from
a large volume of soil and is able to
withstand considerable unfavorable
weather conditions; yet the crop is
often materially injured and the yield
decreased by dróuth during almost any
period of its growth. By hot winds
and unfavorable weather conditions a
promising crop may be destroyed in a
few days.
Wheat cannot stop growing and-re­
main dormant during an unfavorable
period of growth, as does kafir corn or
sorghum. The grain must- finish its
growth and mature in about a certain
period, whatever the conditions ;for
growth may be.
Spring wheat is not well adapted for
growing in Kansas, but with sufficient
moisture to start it in the fall, and
with the usual spring rains, winter
wheat is a profitable crop, even in the
western counties of the state, where
the annual rain fall does not exceed
fifteen to twenty inches.
However, the methods of growing
the crop are crude.
Often the West­
ern farmer plants so many acres that
he is unable to farm the land well,
and the result is a poor crop, if the
season is at all unfavorable.
Some farmers, however, are adopt­
ing better methods. Enough good
farming has been done to prove that it
pays to cultivate and till the land well.
Mr. H. W. Campbell reported remark­
able results from practice of his sys­
tem of culture on the Pomeroy model
farm, in Graham county, Kansas.
For sereval years this farm was made
to produce twice as much wheat per
acre as the average crop in the sur­
rounding country, with on other treat­
ment of the soil except thorough till­
age and cultivation.
At the Fort Hays Branch experiment
station, in Ellis county, enough has
been accomplished, in the ten seasons
since that station was established, to
demonstrate that in the semi-arid
West good farming pays as well or
even better than it does in the rich
farming states of the Mississippi val­
ley.
Emmer.
Emmer has proved to be especially
hardy and drouth-resistant; and in the
Northwestern states this grain has
given greater yields per acre than bar­
ley or oats.
However, at the Fort
Hays station, in Western Kansas, em­
mer has not proved as hardy and pro­
ductive as barley and oats. As a feed
emmer will hardly take the place of
barley and oats, but it may be ground
and fed in combination with these
grains or with corn. Wherever barley
or oats produce well emmer is not an
especially profitable crop to grow, but
in those sections of the West in which
the grains mentioned cannot be suc­
cessfully grown, emmer may prove to
be a profitable crop.
Barley.
Barley is successfully grown in Kan­
sas farther west than any other spring
grain. In fact, barley is produced in
larger quantities in the western coun­
ties of Kansas than in the central and
eastern counties. The counties pro­
ducing the largest number of bushels
in 1900 were as follows: Pawnee,
Barton, Ness, Rush, Thomas, Pratt
and Hodgman. Each of these counties
produced over 150,000 bushels of bar­
ley in the year mentioned.
Winter Rye.
Another crop that grows*
* success­
fully in western Kansas is winter rye.
This crop, however, is not grown as
extensivély as barley, and is appar­
ently a less profitable crop to grow
than wheat.—Dry Farming Bulletin.
Train Robbers Confess.
Fairfield, Cal.—-Carl Dunbar Bishop,
of Kansas City, Mo., who, under the
name of Charles Dunbar, was arrested
here as a suspect in connection with
the robbery of" the China and Japan
fast mail near Benicia last April 17,
has not only confessed his complicity
in that crime, but has also admittted
that he and his partner, Joseph C.
Brown, robbed the postoffice at Arma­
da, Cal., last June 15. Brown had pre­
viously confessed the train robbery.
WOGRESS AND INDUSTRI.
Old age Insurance is compulsory in
Germany.
Musk importations in 1908 amounted
to over $80,000.
The silk of the spider is lighter and
stronger than that secured from the
silkworm.
Lavender and rose perfumes are
credited with the virtue of being mi­
crobe-killers.
Four and a half million gross boxes
of matches are used in London in a
year.
Traveling cranes are now equipped
with scales, so the load may be weigh­
ed in transit.
There are about 3,000 weddings ev­
ery twenty-four hours, taking the en­
tire world into consideration.
The natives of Korea carry visiting
cards which measure about twelve
inches square, and when their use is
required they are merely shown.
The Farthing Gazette, probably the
cheapest daily newspaper in existence
has been started In Moscow, and has
already a considerable circulation.
While two police were set aside *o
guard the Bank of England, and two
the stock exchange, nine were employ­
ed to look after the Beckton gas works.
During 1908 the automobile export
business of France, United States, Uni­
ted Kingdom, Italy and Germany, the
five leading .countries engaged in their
manufacture and sale, aggregated
more than $45,000,000, against $9,000,-
000 in 1902, a growth of 400 per cent.
Automobile exports from the four for­
eign countries named, taken as a
whole, increased from $8,000,000 to
$39,000,000, a- gain of 385 per cent,
while those from the United States in­
creased from $1,000,000 to $5,500,000, a
gain of 450 per cent.
Sorrowful Face Due to Other Troubles
YORK.—A small, quiet, but sor­
rowful if not disgusted looking
N man EW
sat by the side of a medium-sized
automobile that was drawn out of the
road as a large touring car came
along, driven by a man with an inter­
rogatory aspect. The man in the
touring car had seen that auto every
time he passed that day, so he slowed
up and leaned over:
“How long have, you been here?”
“Several hours.”
“Can’t you find out what the mat­
ter is?”
“No.”
“Inlet valve all right?”
“Yes.”
“Trouble with spark plug?”
“Think not.”
“How are your batteries?”
“O. K.”
“Haven’t got a short circuit, have
you?”
“Oh, no.”
“How’s your commutator?”
“Great.”
“Perhaps your worm gear is
clogged.”
“No; all clear.”
“Got any gasoline in your tank?”
“Plenty.”
“How about your circulation? Cylin­
der isn’t bound, is it?”
“No, sir.”
“Tires seem all right?”
“Never better.”
“Wei, maybe your vibrator isn’t ad­
justed.”
“That’s all right.”
“Have you looked at your carbure­
tor?”
“Yes.”
“How about the cam shaft?”
“Grand.”
“Have you tightened your connect­
ing rods, examined your clutches and
gone over the differentials?”
“Yes, yes.”
The man in the touring car paused
a moment and then, looking at the
stranger by the roadside, said at last:
“What’s the matter with that machine
of yours?”
“There isi^t anything the matter
with this machine; but since noon my
wife has been in that house over there
kissing her sister’s first baby good-by.
When she gets through, if you are not
.more than a thousand miles away and
will leave our adefress, I will tele­
graph or cable the ¿lad news.”
Led Her to Tears
FASHION HINTS How a Bride’s Roses The
Pullman was hot and WJllie
Boy thought of the explosion. No use
leaving the jar out on the vestibule.
It might break there. He wanted to
stay in the Pullman, but he couldn’t.
He had to stay outside and hold the
pickled roses. Night came and Willie
Boy was sleepy. He went to bed, but
he didn’t sleep; he was too busy hang­
ansas city , mo .— when wmie ing the roses out of the window to
Boy got married he bought his keep the alcohol cool.
wife flowers, of course. And after the Kansas City came, and then home;
wedding Mr. Willie Boy naturally de­ Emaline walked into the house and
cided to preserve the flowers to look Willie Boy followed with the pickled
at for all time by pickling them in once-were roses.
alcohol. That was all right—it didn’t
“What’ll we do with ’em?” he asked.
cost much, just $2 or $3—but there
“Why, put them in the attic, of
was a 700-mile trip before Mr. and
course,” Emaline answered.
Mrs. Willie Boy got home.
Willie Boy hadn’t been married
At first they decided they’d pack
the treasure in the brass jardiniere very long and he wasn’t independent.,
“Art” sent and bring it home in the Still there surged into his face the
bottom of one of the trunks. Then blood of battle and his voice splut­
Emaline—that’s her first name—re­ tered as he spoke.
“A-at-tic?” he asked. “Will we?
membered that among other things it
might explode and ruin her perfectly We won’t. I carried those things 700
good rose-colored dress that “Doc” miles, and if they’re worth carrying
went crazy -over before she was mar­ that far they’re worth looking at, even,
ried, and that there was a 26-ifich wil- if I don’t think they amount to much.
lowz plume in the same trunk, not to Attic nothing. Mantel, that’s where
speak of a pretty coat, a lavender they’re going, understand—mantel.
gown, a few more hats, a couple of Hear me ?”
hundred doodads or
some more
And that’s the reason Emaline cried
clothes. So the natural consequence the first day she had got to her new
came. Willie Boy carried the remains. home.
K
A very attractive dress f ^r a young girl
is made tunic fashion of dark blue Rajah,
with Persian Bands as trimming. The
undersleeves are of deep ecru net, finely
tucked.
WOULDN’T STAND FOB IT.
When It Came to Taking; the Sul­
tan’s Medicine, Harem Rebelled.
Abdul Hamid, ex-Sultan of Turkey,
is certainly a miserable old man. To
cap the climax of all his woes it is
stated that he has been deserted by his
beloved and, up to recently, devoted
harem. Wouldn’t that make any Turk
just a little bit disgusted with life in
general, especially a man «who has al­
ways been famed for the beauty of the
ladies who reigned over his heart and
home? According to La Turquie, the
ex-Sultan was in such fear of being
poisoned that all food or drink which
he took had previously to be tasted by
some member of his entourage. Re­
cently he decided to make similar reg­
ulations with regard to the medicine
prescribed for him by his medical at­
tendants.
• The result was that the women of
the harem were called upon to swallow
nauseous drugs and potions, a regimen
which soon told upon their health. In
order to save themselves further ex­
periences of the kind they decided to
; desert the ex-Commander of the Faith­
ful, which they did at the dead of
night, so as to “avoid painful parting
^Scenes with the prisoner.”
From an incident at Frankfort-on-
Main, Germany, it would appear that
after the dispersal of the ex-Sultan’s
harem some of the women were fas­
cinated by the footlights of'the vaude­
ville stage. The chief attraction at a
Frankfort music hall has been eight
“genuine odalisques from Abdul
Hamid’s harem,” who appeared -under
the charge of two eunuchs.
A member of the audience discovered
that one of the women spoke German
with a pure Berlin accent. He com­
plained to the police, who proceeded to
the hotel where the party stayed to in­
vestigate the supposed fraud. The
Turkish consul, being called, declared
that the passports proved that seven
of the members of the troupe were
actually women of the harem. The
eighth alleged odalisque, who hailed
from Berlin, fell on her knees and im­
plored the consul’s protection, declar­
ing that she had been kidnaped by the
two Turks in charge of the troupe.
Kept
It
Several
Week«.
Cynicus—It is impossible for a wo­
man to keep a secret.
Henpekke—I don’t know about that.
My wife and I were engaged for sev­
eral weeks before she said anything
to
*
me about it.
Editor—I am obliged to decline your
poem with thanks. I am very sorry,
but— Poet—But what? Editor—The
management insists upon my declining
all poems that way
Mosquito Gets Credit for a Runaway
EW YORK.—A mosquito which ap­
parently was a cross of the famous
N
or notorious families of Jersey well­
borers. and Staten Island rock-drillers,
saw George Gordon’s nose, buzzed a
little song about “Oh, for a pasture
new I ” and swept down upon the nose.
The nose and George Were at that
moment behind a horse that George
was driving.
Now, Gordon had had all he could
do to manage that skittish steed be­
fore the advent of the insect. When
he felt the first jab of the skeeter’s
surgical scissors George started to
knock the squatter off his nasal terri­
tory. But he restrained his hand, for
in that instant he remembered that he
needed both hands to handle the frac­
tious . horse.
And there was George in a dilemma
equal to that ancient one that con­
cerned a devil and a deep sea. If he
didn’t knock that mosquito off his
nose he’d lose his life blood, but if he
took a hand from the reins to deliver
that knockout swing away would go
his bad-tempered horset
^Gordon shook his head violently
and blew his breath toward the mos­
quito to dislodge it, but all to no pur­
pose. The insect held on and just
bored and bored. Gordon gritted his
teeth and remembered the story he
had read in school about the Spartan.
But what was a' mere fox gnawing at
a boy’s vitals to a real, war-size Jersey
mosquito sinking an artesian well in a
man’s nose!
George could stand it no longer. Up
went one hand in a savage sweep. It
missed the mosquito. Forgetting all
except his desire for vengeance,
George swung with the other hand.
And as the skeeter buzzed ‘Ha, ha!’*
the horse, freed from control, bolted.
Perhaps the wind created by the speed
blew the mosquito off Gordon’s nose.
At any rate the pest vanished. Just
as Gordon grabbed the reins and
started to saw on tile bit a wheel
struck, a stone and out hex shot. He
landed bruised and stunned at the
side of the road.
Dr. Frederick T. Witte, who was
passing in his auto, got out, revived
Gordon and ¿took him home in his ma­
chine. When they arrived at the Gor­
don domicile, lo! there was the runa­
way horse standing quietly at the sta­
ble door.
Eat Muskrat, Maybe; Farm in Chicago
HICAGO;—“Loin of Chicago,Grown
Muskrat with Bullrush Sauce.”
C Bills
of fare in Chicago restaurants
will carry the foregoing item as a
“special, fresh today” entree if the
plans of three pioneer “muskrat farm­
ers” culminate in success.
The first mu’skrat farm has been
started. Its products are to be food
and fur. Its market will be Chicago,
as a beginning at least, but success
may broaden its scope. Mark Gelder,
loan merchant, 1732 South State
street; Jack Eck, painter, 348 Twenty­
sixth street, and John- Horan, Willow
Springs, are the proprietors of the
farm. Its location is in the “Sag” in
the towns of Worth and Palos, 20
miles southwest of Chicago. It com-
crises 190 acres, is more than a mile
long and consists of the fairest stretch
of swamps and shallow, little lakes to
be found in this section of the coun­
try. It already has a large muskrat
population.
The birth of the farm èame when
Gelder signed a lease for the land
with Mrs. Catherine Rawlings, its
owner, for a term of 15 years, start­
ing on April 16, at a rental of $200 a
year in advance.
The farm may figure as a worthy
champion in the fight against the high
cost of living. Secretary of Agricul­
ture Wilson recently recommended
the meat of muskrats as a food. He
emphasized its cheapness and its
good qualities, including flavor and
nutritious value.. The farm may en­
able many people to follow his advice.
“Our first idea was just to trap for
the furs,” jsaid Gelder,. “but knowing
muskrats were good to eat, we decided
to investigate conditions and try to
promote muskrats as a popular article
of diet. We have strong hopes of suo-
cess, for a trial will convince people
that the meat of the muskrat is good.
**