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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (May 11, 1901)
:,i if jf JtJlWPajl!Fpsl,l -11 sT THE MORNING OREGONIAN. SATURDAY- 1TAY 11, 1901. ;h rsgomcm .Catered at the Fostofnce at Portland. Oregon, as second-class matter. TELEPHONES. Editorial Booms..... 1CU Business Office. ..067 REVISED SUBSCRIPTION BATES. By "Mall ipostB.ec prepaid). In Advance Dally, with Sunday, per month... ..$ S3 Dfcii)', Sunday excepted, per jear 7 Co Pally, with Sunday, per jear a 00 Sunday, per year .......... 2 00 2?" "VeJdj-. per sear ....... 1 SO lifWeekly, 3 monUu .............. so To City Subscribers 2aily. per -week, delivered. Sundays cxcepted.l5c H&Ily, per week, dcluered. Sundajs included.20c- POSTAGE RATES. United States. Canada and Mexico: 20 to 16-page paper.... ...................... lc 10 to 22-page paper... ......... 2c Porelgn rates double. News or discussion Intended for publication In The Oregonian should be addressed invaria bly "Editor The Oregonian." not to the name of any individual. Letters relating to advertis ing, subscriptions or to any business matter Should be addressed simply "The Oregonian." The Oregonian does not buy poems or stories xrom Individuals, .and cannot undertake to re turn any manuscripts sent to It without solici tation. No stamps should be Inclosed for this jrctrpose. Puget Sound Bureau Captain A. Thompson. ofaee at Jill Pacific avenue, Tacoma. Box 853. ITacoma PostoJflce. Eastern Business Office 47. 48, 49 and 00 Tribune buildinc. iCew York City: 4C9 "The 2tookery." Chicago; the S. C. Beckwlth special agency. Eastern representative. Per sale in San Pranclsco by J. K. Cooper. 746 Market street, near the Palace Hotel; Gold smith Bros., 23C Sutter street; F. W. Pitts. 3008 Market street: Foster & Orear. Ferry xews stand. For sale In Los Angeles ay B. TV Gardner. 259 So. Spring street, and Oliver & Haines. 106 Bo Spring etreet. For sale in Chicago by the P. O. News Co.. 217 Dearborn.street. For sale In Omaha by Barkalow Bros., 1C12 "Farnham street. For eale In Salt Lake by the Salt Lake News Co , 4 4 "W. Second South street. For sale In Ogden by TV. C. Kind, 204 Twen-ty-flrth street. On file In "Washington, D. C with A, w. Sunn. COO 14th JC. w. On flle ax BuHalo. 3C. ST.. In tlie Orecon c- tlblt at the exposition. For sale in Ienw. Colo., by Hamilton & Xendrick. 006-012 Seventh street. cations have been approved -within the period named has been 211, with aggre gate capital of $25,960,000. The banks actually organized In the period have been 529, -with aggregate capital of ?27, 387,000. The number of small banks au thorized under the new law has been 369, with combined capital of $9,702,000; while the number of larger banks has been 160, with combined capital of $17, 685,000. Theses additions to the system, after allowance for banks which have failed or gone into liquidation, make the total number of active banks 4098, -witn authorized capita. of $643,161,695. The remarkably small proportion of bonds deposited by the new banks con tinues to be one of the peculiar features of their organization. "With organiza- the rules Smith; Gould arid Martin, who had bought and sold $40,000,000 of gold for Gould and Smith. This injunction restraining the Gold Exchange from en forcing Its own rules was denounced by the New York Times as "another illus tration of the wicked purpose to which our judicial system may be perverted." WHEX THE TIDE EBBS. Out of the maelstrom of speculation Which Is just now turning the Nation Into a great gambling pit, the unprofes sional operator -will probably emerge With more experience ana less money than when he first began to assist In the building of the financial cardhouse. that according to the American table of mortality, upon which life insurance companies base their premium rates, 2125 deaths "were to be expected from so large a number of young men. Con sequently, no more than 140 deaths froni disease can be charged to the "spirit of subjugation and tyranny." If we add these 140 deaths by disease to the 1192 deaths hy violence, we find that the monthly sacrifice 41 life has aver aged 43. "Were it simply a case of "doff eat dog" tio'ns Involving a capital of $27,387,000 between the big moneyed Interests who TODAT'S -WEATHER.-Partly cloudy, with northerly winds. I . 3PORTLAJTD, SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1O01 WORTH AM, IT COST. The President did not exaggerate. In Sis speech at Los Angeles before the G. A. R. and the Loyal Legion, when lie said that "this Nation of ours Is stronger and more firmly cemented than it has ever been before In all Its history. There are more men and -women loving our .flag today than ever loved it before, and there is more re spect paidi to it at home and abroad than ever before." In our Revolution ary War John Adams said that if a vote had been taken there would have been a popular majority against the -war for independence and in favor of the perpetuation of the rule of Great Britain. A few men of great talents, wealth and social Influence in the vari ous states organized and executed the struggle for Independence, at the head of a numerical minority of the people. Sam Adams, Hancock and John Adams In New England; Schuyler, Gouvemeur Morris, Livingston and George Clinton in New York; Franklin and Robert Morris In Pennsylvania; Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard Henry Lee and Jefferson In Virginia; Gadsden and the Plnkneys in South Carolina, were the leaders of the Insurrection against the mother country. The educated so-called "respectable classes" were largely Tories. As early as 1810 bitter threats of secession were made upon the floor of Congress by the representatives of New England, and nothing but the timely announcement of peace in 1814 prevented the Hartford Convention from putting these" threats Into execu tion. We certainly were not a united loyal people at the close of the last war with Great Britain. During the Civil War, out of the 19,000,000 of so-called Union ists in the so-called loyal states, there were at least a million of men who were open or covert sympathizers with the cause of the South. Wjp certainly were not a united people so long as bayonets -were employed to govern the so-called reconstructed states. The wave of genuine emotion that swept, over the country when the murdered Garfield died was the first notable public ex- iilbltion of deep National feeling that -was seen arter the Civil War. The burial of Grant, with the great Confed erate Captains among his pallbearers, was another sign of a better and loftier anood of feeling" on both sides than the Ibltter temper of the days of reconstruc tion. The war with S-aain, ;alling upon the sons of the North and the South alike to fight for the old flag, seemed to sponge oflT.the slate all record of dis cord in the past, and from that day there has been a steady growth in the feeling of nationality, so that today the President is right when he says that at no period of our history as a Nation 3bave so many men and women loved our flag as love it today all over this iroad land. The last Stuart that occupied the English throne fled to France in 16SS. He was a very mean, cruel tyrant; and yet the Jacobites did not cease fighting and dying in rebellion mgalnst the crown under the lead of the grandson of James II until 1745. Nearly sixty years after the expulsion of the last xelgnlng Stuart the Jacobites were able to march an army victoriously through Scotland and half way through England to London before they Jost heart and retreated. Loyalty to the right of Un heal descendant and the divine right of Kings made hundreds of gallant men right to the death at Culloden in 1745 for a quarrel that began in 1688. We are wiser In our generation. We fought each other to the death for four years tp settle the question whether National supremacy or state sovereignty should rule this country, and, although the battle ended but thirty-six years ago, we are in full, actual enjoyment of that solid nationality that we fought so bit terly to achieve. It was a terrible price to pay for it, but since we are today realls one people, in our abounding na tionality, it was worth all it cost. and permitting a circulation to the whole of that amount, if the proper bonds were deposited, the minimum cir culation required under the law is about $6,850,000. The actual deposit of bonds for circulation stands at $7,985,600, or only about $1,135,000 above the actual minimum requirements. It is evident that In most cases the banks have con tented themselves with meeting only the minimum requirements of the law, and have not sought to take advantage of the circulation privileges of the Na tional banking system. We commend this showing to our Populist statesmen whose lives are made burdensome by the large profits made by National banks on bond-secured circulation. GREATEST WEEK STREET. IX WALIi The new gold-standard law, as was expected, has considerably augmented the number and circulation, of National "banks. The approved applications from March 14, 1900. when the gold-standard law took effect, to Saturday last, April 27, 1901, were 774. representing proposed capital of $40,465,000. Of this number 63 applications were for banks of less than $50,000 capital, with aggregate capital of $14,505,000. All these banks first became possible under the law of March 14, 1900, which reduced the min imum capital from $50,000 to $25,000. The ! cumber of larger banks for which appli- The'bull campaign, which broke on Thursday with forcing "the shorts" on Northern Pacific to settle at enormous loss was never equaled in its last week for Its Immense volume of trading. It has lasted about thirty days, and is the biggest gamble ever known. It has drawn buyers from all parts of the country, notably from Chicago and St. Paul. In New York City all classes were drawn Into the whirlpool hotel waiters. butlers, shopkeepers 'and among the heaviest losers among the small outside investors have been women, who are very nervy players, but very hysterical losers. The leader in the great bull movement has been James B, Keene, and other winners on the gamble are said to be the Moore brothers, formerly of the Chicago Dia mond Match Company, John W. Gates, Daniel Lamont and others less known to the public. These were the great speculators, pure and simple, but the greatest 'winners are men like the Rockefellers, Morgan and their associ ates, who through their enormous wealth and the ability with which it is wielded are the controlling directors in the finance of the day. The profits which such men reap out of so enor mous an advance In everything they own have been very great. To the same class of men belong James J. Hill, of the Great Northern; E. H. Harrlman, the buyer of the Chicago & Alton and a dominating Influence in the Union Pa cific; William K. Vanderbllt, who Is credited with trying to unite the Van derbllt system with the Northwestern, the St. Paul and the Union Pacific, and A. J. Cassett, of the Pennsylvania Rail road, who Is expanding that system so as to include the Long Island, the Bal timore & Onto, the Chesapeake & Ohio and the Western New Tork & Penn sylvania, and Is credited with the ulti mate purpose of securing a Pacific Coast extension through the Atchison system. George Gould is a very large owner in the railroad properties that showed the largest advance, and is credited with having made $35,000,000 during the bull campaign. The explanation of the extraordinary strength of the bull mar ket and Its duration Is thus explained by the New York-Sun: A new power entered the market. This force consisted of the arbitrary purchasing on a great scale, at the high level of prices then established, of the securities of one road by the managers of another, with the idea of put ting an end to' the rate w are and other ex pensive railway contests that had previously prevailed. ... How the new process will work out in the future remains to be seen. But there was no doubt as to its immediate effect upon market prices. This peremptory "buying for control" served greatly to Increase the already existing scarcity of high-grade securities. The net re sult Is that the railroad stocks of the country are, hardly without an exception, selling at prices which represent advances of from 200 to 000 per cent over those of five 3 ears ago. So furious nejond precedent did the stock specu lation become that the sales on the New York exchange last Saturday aggregated 15,468,350 shares, against 0,870,070 In the preceding week of five business days, and 2.0S2.474 In what was then considered a fairly active week a year ago. Sales of bonds rose to $40,004,500, against fO,137.500 a year ago. On one day, Tuesday, sales amounted to 3,281,220 shares. The presence of the great railway "buyers for control" In the market was what created the situation in Northern. Pacific which wrecked the bull market probably before the purely speculative pools expected it. As soon as it was discovered that there was "a corner" on Northern Pacific, and that "the shorts" would be forced to settle at ruinous prices, the whole market on other stocks, bought at high prices, be came a sale. Everybody thatwas load ed up with stocks began to unload, just as sailors clear decks when they expect a storm or a battle. Everybody knew that with the money situation created by the stress of "the shorts" in North em Pacific a bull campaign could not continue to Doom, so everybody began to lighten ship by throwing overboard stocks purchased at high prices. The most famous previous panic on Wall street was that of September 24, 1869, known as "Black Friday," when a bull clique on gold, headed by Jay Gould and James Fiske, Jr., pushed the price up from 131 to 162, when It broke, on the news that Secretary of the Treas ury Boutwell had directed the sale of $4,000,000 of gold, to 134. On the morn ing of "Black Friday" gold opened at 137, and by noon rose to 162, amid a scene of public excitement and fury that has never been seen In the stock market before or since. New street was packed with a yelling crowd of men, who saw "with every movement of the hands on the gold Indicator that they were face to face with pecuniary ruin. In the magnitude of transactions "Black Friday" did not compare with the recent campaign in Wall street, but in outdoor excitement and wolfish fury of conduct the "Black Friday" shorn lambs surpassed any similar subse quent spectacle in Wall street The bankrupt victims of "Black Friday" charged Secretary Boutwell with being In the "bull" clique, and there was a Congressional investigation of the whole matter, which showed clearly that there was no possible collusion between any officer of the Government and the gold gamblers. Gould and FIsk escaped the consequences of their gamble on gold, for Judge Cardozo issued an Injunction against the Goldroom selling out under seek to manipulate stocks to the disad vantage of each other, these financial furores would not be attended by seri ous results. Unfortunately, however, the possibilities for sudden riches to be attained by following the operations of the big leaders are so alluring that mill ions of dollars are withdrawn from le gitimate enterprises and used in keep ing the water in stocks at a boiling heat The small banker, the merchant, the professional man with a moderate income, the clerk and hundreds of oth ers in every walk of life take a turn at the market, and millions of hard earned money is thus quietly absorbed by the professional operators In Wall street This money fails to accomplish much In the way of doing good for anybody or anything. It does not even develop any latent wealth in connec tion with the enterprises in which it is supposed to be invested. The speculative magnet in Wall street has drawn money from the re motest parts of the country. It has re moved it from channels where it was needed, and has given nothing In re turn for It While stocks so badly wa tered that they would need a life-pre server to keep them from sinking: in. ordinary times have been selling at fabulous prices, the greatest difficulty is experienced in finding men with money to invest In legitimate enter prises for the development of natural resources of the country. Some of the finest mining propositions that have ever been put before the public have been hawked -around Eastern money circles for months past, but with paper securities advancing at a record-breaking rate, the speculatlye public has no desire to put money into mines. The State of Oregon today can offer greater Intrinsic value, dollar for dol lar, In timber, agricultural, mining or grazing land than can be shown in any Wall-street securities for the posses sion of which the public is now en gaged in such a mad rush. We should like to have the wealth of the Goulds, Harrlmans, Morgans and Rockefellers put into the development of our won derful natural resources, but their in terests seem to lie in different direc tions. If, however, the unprofessional operators will quit playing the game of the big manipulators and put their money into the development of natural and legitimate enterprises in the West, we shall have no need of the aid of the big men. "Unfortunately, perhaps, for the latter, a diversion of capital in this direction for the purpose mentioned might divest their Interesting game' of Its chief attraction. Operating saw. mills, quartz mills, ranches, etc., might not show such quick profits as are sometimes possible in the business of juggling watered stocks, buV the rec ords of this more legitimate line of in dustry will show no such startling per centage of failures as is in evidence whenever the ebb tide sets in in Wall street The death of Lord Salisbury at this time, an event foreboded by his alarm ing- physical condition, -would he a se vere, and for the time a stagger ing, blow to England. His name at the head of the English Government has .long been a synonym of power and per sistence In national undertakings. It is probable, however, that in the manage ment of the war in South Africa, Eng land's present "old man of the sea" would be improved by the change that would of necessity follow Salisbury's death or retirement An aged man beset with physical infirmities cannot maintain the mental power necessary to grapple with great questions of na tional policy. The inability of the late John Sherman to rise to the require ments of the office of Secretary of State is a matter of pathetic memory. Salis bury's Inability to meet the crisis in South Africa, and, Indeed, to form a proper estimate of the gravity of the situation there, has not been less pro nounced. Longfellow was right Whatever poet, orator or sage may say of It, Old age Is still old age. It Is the waning, not the crescent morn, The flash of lightning, not the blaze of noon. Happy the man who recognizes this decree of nature and yields to it grace fully before the irreverent world puts it in plain speech and the country he has grandly served In his prime is forced to suggest his retirement. REV. GUXSAULCS ON- PREACHING The cannibals of Fly River, Guinea, have killed and eaten the Rev. James Chalmers and the Rev. Oliver Tomp kins, of the London Missionary Society. It was Sidney Smith who said, when he bade farewell to a disputatious clerical brother, who was going to the FIJI Islands as a missionary: "Good-bye; if the savages eat you, I hope you will try to agree with them." These sav ages do not eat missionaries because they have any religious hostility for them as preachers of a new faith; they only eat them because as non-consumers of rum and tobacco their flesh is far more palatable than that of any other type of white man. In the judg ment of a cannibal, the meat of a mis- fslonary Is better eating than anything else except the flesh of a young child, another non-consumer of tobacco and ardent spirits. These cannibals not sel dom spare the lives of American and European sailors, for the simple rea son that their flesh is so impregnated with the flavor of alcohol and tobacco as to be as unpalatable as we' And that of crows, gulls, buzzards and other carrion-consuming birds. The argument of cotton-trade exten sion is evidently exerting a profound influence upon expansion sentiment In the South, and old political theories will have trouble to stand against it. China Is the greatest foreign market which the United States has for Its cotton goods. American sales there are more than one-third of Its total exports of such articles. The United States sells Germany $385,000 worth of cotton goods a year. Great Britain takes $1,250,000 worth, and all the rest of Europe spends only $270,000 here for the manufactured products. China last year bought nearly $9,000,000 worth, or four times as much as all Europe. Tet this is but a small portion of the trade we might enjoy with China, for five-sixths of her im ports of cotton goods are from other countries than the United States. When It is considered that more than three fourths of all the cotton of the world Is grown in the United States, It Is evident that this country has far too small a share of the world's trade in the manu factured product Great Britain, for in stance, has to buy its raw material here and pay transportation charges on it across the ocean. Its merchants ought to be at a considerable disadvantage, with those of the United States in com peting for Chinese trade In cotton manufactured go6ds. American dealers have -the advantage over their British rivals, as ease of access to Chinese mar kets Is about the same in both England and the United States. China Is an es pecially inviting field for the cotton goods exporter, owing to the universal use of this material among its 400,000, 000 people. Woolen is little used there. The Chinaman prefers cotton through out the year. These facts were recently set out by Chinese Minister Wu at a meeting of the Southern Manufactur ers' Club at Charleston. They will cre ate sentiment not only for friendly re lations with China, but for retention of the Philippines. The report that President McKInley would not on any account receive Mr. Kiruger, either officially or as a private citizen, -was, of course, without author ity. There is no reason why the ex President of the Transvaal an aged man and for many years a prominent one in his own country should not he graciously ahd kindly received by the President of the United States. Since he holds no official position at the present time, suoh reception would, of course,. be non-official, and the atten tion bestowed upon him would be with out other significance than that which qourtesy and the1 consideration due to age at all times dematfd. While for obvious reasons It is altogether prob able that the President would prefer not to meet the disappointed, discomfited old man who was for so many years dictator of a so-called republic, this fact would not justify a refusal to re ceive him at the "White House on the basis of friendliness and courtesy. General Boynton, of the Washington (D. C.)' School Board, has reported on another popular school history's ac count of the Civil War with disastrous results to the history. The first error he mentions is one crediting Halleck in stead of Grant with planning the cap ture of Forts Henry and Donelson. The same book blunders still more when It says that Pickett's line of assault at Gettysburg was three miles long, whereas it had a front of 1600 yards at the start, and 600 yards at the point of its farthest advance. The St Paul Pioneer Press has scored a decided hit In exposing the errone ousness of certain loud complaints of anti-imperialism. For many months the New Tork Evening Post, In solemn protest against the war In the Philip pines, has published periodically a little table under the head of "Our losses in the Philippines." The table begins with August 6. 1898. On March 18, 1901, it showed that 736 officers and men had been killed, 456 had died of wounds or accidents, and 2266 had died of disease, making the impressive total of 3458 deaths because of our tyrannical efforts to oppress the Filipinos. Now, 3458 deaths Is an enormous sacrifice of life in thirty-one months of more or less active campaigning, and there is no one In the United States who does not wish that It had not been necessary to make the sacrifice. But the Pioneer Press points out that when the Evening Post Includes the deaths by disease to bol ster up Its Implied argument against the war it overshoots the mark, for the chances are that, even if the young men composing the Army in the Phil ippines had remained In this country, a large numben,of them would have died. The Army and Navy Journal shows A letter written by John Brown, of Osawatomle, on November 17, 1859,-in the Virginia jail, from which he was led to execution soon thereafter, was sold at auctlbn in New York yesterday for $220. DeBpised, buffeted,,slncere, yet visionary, old man, who could have Im agined' at that time or subsequently, "as his body was taken by night; unattend ed save by his devoted wife and a few faithful friends to its lonely grave at North Elba, that anyvalue' would ever attach to an expression of an opinion of his or to his autograph? Sermon at Chicago- May 5. The true minister is the true minstrel of the 'human soul the words minstrel and minister have a common root He organizes the vagrant and apparently op posing sounds, the devious wafts of mel ody and the split and recalcitrant cur rents of tone about a common and reg nant center. The center ,1s the all-supreme and embracing theme. It alone co ordinates and compels each aimless shiv er of a chord and each stubbornly Iso lating; tonic energy into harmony. It Is of first Importance to note that only the power which commands our ad miration can lift us up. "We live by admiration." "We are made erect and manly by adoration. Before a merely beautiful character, a profound moralist, a true philosopher, a heroic martyr, we do not fal lto earth in obedience, as did Saul of Tarsus, neither do we rise to our full height at his command as did the new man, Paul. Divine enough must be that power which endows the minister of men divine enough to 'make our unhelped humanity lie full length upon the common earth which Is our fate and home If we try to live without that power, and yet divine enough that power must be on tne otner side to lift man into the image of God and place him permanently on his .feet before the problem of life. Jesus believed in man, because he be lieved In God. He revealed man In re vealing God. No one ever so depended upon God to re-enforce .man at his best. No one ever stayed so faithfully by man at his worst. He would not even save himself a't Calvary from man's fury. He would rather trust that roan would come again to Calvary, age after age, to find If one drop of his blood still quivered there. But this trust of his in man was fundamentally a trust in God, his Father and man's Father. This, then, is the meliorism which must be Christ's gift to the man who Is his minister. It Is far from that pessimism which says that the world Is as bad as It can be, and is far from that optimism which says that the world Is as good as It can be. It is meliorism, as it has been Called, and its assurance is in Jesus Christ when it says that this is not the worst possible world, nor Is this the beet possible -world, but by the certain victory Of Jesus, It Shall toe the best possible world. This hope keeps the minister from fainting. Let us be honest with God and con science and the fact that it is a hope less world without this Lord of man un furling his blood-stained banner of hope. The only pulpit that men respect perma nently pours forth the music of the re demption. It is tremulous with the mi nors of Good Friday. Golf is better than a meaningless gospel. Men scorn to squander an otherwise pleasant hour, of their Sunday where two things are not believed first, the fact that humanity, unhelped from God, is prostrate and de spairing; second, the fact that with the Christ there come hope, self-respect and manhood. People were never as willing nay, so desirous to go to church as they are now. If Christ Is there to get them on their feet. Without him they will not stay to hear your dream of a better day. and with him they will not tolerate any de preciation of humanity or any defamation of the soul of man. It Is a fearful thing to fall to tell men of Christ In an ae both as misanthropies and aspiring as our own. Dr. Kosweu Hitchcock mentions a Bedouin In the des ert whose piteous condition was this: He had been without food so long that he was starving. His hope was that some other traveler who had already gone that way might have left by chance or provision a packet containing food. Away beyond, near a fountain, he spied what he took to be a traveler's bag, and to his hunger It must contain bread. Slowly and hard ly he pulled himself over the hot sand to the little pouch. He took It up and poured out "before his vacant eyes a stream of glorious gems, As they wooea the sun by their splendor his famished hodv fell over, while he murmured: "Oh. It Is only diamonds, only diamonds." -Merciful heaven, that this should be an honest description of so much that Is called preaching! "Diamonds, only dia monds!" It Is a piteous thing for the preacher and the people. Both are dis appointed sadly. Diamonds! And he, the preacher, works so long, to find them, and so hard to grind them well, and so un ceasingly, perhaps, to set them In a gold en paragraph and they, the people, want only the bread of life. One mouthful of plain bread and you may have the pol ished dogmas, the glittering periods, the fiamellke phrases, the splendid sentences. Let the preacher say at each year's dawn: "I have 52 precious Sunday morn ings before me. I can waste not. I will not take these- 52 hours from you for any less sublime task or privilege. I do not know enough of politics, sociology, art, literature, music or science to justi fy your coming to hear me speak on these topics. "I know here but one thing, and If I am true to It you will never weary of my use of your time and the expending of my limited strength. My theme has the breadth of God's love and the many-side-edness of his abundant goodness. It is perennially fresh and beautiful. I will not attempt to vie with your other sources of Intellectual and spiritual vitality in furnishing you delightful Information or high entertainment. If they are valuable to you. It is because each to whom you give your attention is a specialist, fco, also, am I." FROM PLURAL TO SINGULAR, Chicago Tribune. The Hon. John W. Foster, In defending the use by him of the phraae "United States" as a noun In the singular, men tions three words which the constitution treats as plural nouns while they are Al ways singular now. These are the House of Representatives, which "shall choose their Speaker"; the Senate," which "shall chose their other officers"; and .Congress, which "shall assemble . . . unless they shall," etc. There are many other nouns singular !n form but signifying, like "House" and "Senate," a collection of persons which a century ago were used with a verb In the plural number. George Clinton, wrltlns of the convention which framed the 'Na tional Constitution, thought It quite prop er to say "the convention were." "Admin istration" and "government" were In his day considered nouns in the plural in this country, as they still are In England. The result was rather curious sometimes In the light of modern usage. Kufus King wrote to the British Government: "The decision of this Government respecting their West Indies," and "this Government ere." The phrase, "the nation who have done," excited no comment once. Neither did the phrase, "the Chamber of Commerce are," nor the phrase, "the party who stuck at nothing." When "Parliament," "the Leg islature." and "the opposition" meaning the party which was not In power were followed by a verb, that verb was usual ly In the plural number. Today the American who should say that the House, the Senate or Congress "have" adjourned, would be looked on as guilty of a grammatical slip by the majority. A few only would understand that he .was simply old-fashioned. As regards the phrase "United States," there Is no question that to the men who framed the Constitution and to their Im mediate successors it conveyed an Idea not of unity, but of plurality. The con ception of States in union ae distinguished from that of States blended to form a single nation was at first generally en tertained. It grew weaker as men be came gradually familiar with the Idea of a national government with far greater powers than were possessed by the Con gress of the Confederation. Finally, In the popular acceptation of the phrase "United States" ceased to mean a. number or states federated for certain common purposes, end came to signify one grand national entity or unit This change came first In the North and West In South Carolina, where the doctrine of state sovereignty flourished, it was not customary to say "the United States is." The South Carolinan was unalterably con vinced up to 1865 that the United States were made up of several states, chier among them being South Carolina. SEATTLE'S EXTREMITY. Tolls are now collected on traffic over the "free" bridge at Albany. It was a "free Institution" so long that It became unfit ''for travel. If free-horses were not ridden to death, and if free con veniences were not abused, they might stay "free" much longer. Unfortu nately, therd comes a time when people who have to keep up "free" things no longer regard them "free." Their opin ion may not be agreeable to their next door neighbors, but in this free country every freeman has a right to his own mind. Herbert Spencer, who recently cele brated his 81st birthday, stated the problem of evolution in 1852, seven years before Darwin Illuminated the theory and gave it reasonable explanation. Darwin was 50 years old when he pub lished his "Origin of Species" in 1859; Spencer was 39, and Huxley 34, and all lived to see their vlews accepted in a large measure by those who at first fought them. "Why Americans "Win. Atlanta Constitution. One reason why American manufactur ers are taking away the trade of Great Britain is shown in the experience of the port comimssioners of Calcutta. They de cided to purchase nine American railway engines. When It was announced that they would make the purchases In this country, there was a howl from the Brit ish manufacturers and the commissioners determined. In self-defense, to give the figures to the public. The American company offered the en gines at J6S90 each, and agreed that they should be delivered within six months; the best British figures were $7745 for each en gine on nine months delivery. The Amer ican price was 11 per cent lower than that of the British manufacturers, and the American engines were promised within two-thirds the time. ' In the face of this difference, the com 'missloners point out that they could do nothing else than buy the American en gines. The publication of the figures ha3 had the dual effect of silencing their crit ics at home and setting the British manu facturers to wondering. - SPeople in the Southern States who listened to Bryan speak and voted for him fn, 1900 have? jiow had an opportu nity to listen to his opponent. It Is un derstood that they are "generally re signed to the defeat of their candidate. Of course, the Woolleyltes will con tend that the brewer wh'o Tvas scalded to death in his own vat only received Just punishment. Savage is the name of the new Gov ernor of .Nebraska, It is worthy of a Kansan. Uses of Politeness. q. New York Evening Sun. , Here is a striking example of Chinese euphuism. The Court does not refer to the foreign troops in Pekln as "invaders"' or as "the enemy." Oriental politeness forbids a discourtesy like that. So the French, Russians, English, Germans and all the rest of- them are described as "guests of the country." Possibly some may find in this another proof of Chinese guile. When many years ago the English sent a punitive expedition to the capital to burn a building as a penalty for cer tain outrages, the local authorities gave out the news that the foreign devils In uniform had come all the way from the sea to do honor to the head of the state. And so .the real object of the expedition was frustrated, which just goes to show that politeness is not only good form, but very useful at times. Portland Is One of Them. New York Tribune. The St John's River, at Jacksonville, is SO broad and qontains so immense a vol ume of water, and the. business part of' 'the city Is so" near Its banks, -that It seems especially lamentable that this huge stream could not have been drawn upon sufficiently to stop the progress of the flames. Many of our cities on. the verge of large rivers fall to provide against calamity by using the resources just be fore their eyes- Its Dangerous Ride On a Raft Was the Making? of It. New York Commercial. During the past few years probably no city of its size has more frequently been the subject of newspaper comment or a topic of conversation than the City of Seattle, Wash. To those who are fa miliar with its recent development Seattle has been, and Is. the wonder and admiration of its friends, and the one target for criticism by Its ambltfous rivals on the Pacific Coast Today Seattle Is a thriving city of nearly one hundred thousand souls, with an air of business about it that reminds one of Crlcago In its most active, growing days. The panic of 1893 .struck Seattle amid ships. Its real estate values dropped to the very bottom; its commerce was par alyzed; the boom had "busted." and most of Seattle's business men were on the verge of bankruptcy. They were like a lot of shipwrecked sailors on a raft, each wondering if the next wave would wash him overboard, or If he would be there When the sun again peeped over the horizon. It was that ride on the raft that made the Seattle o today. The disgruntled ones will tell you it was" luck that when that vessel came down from Alaska laden with gold, It was by luck, pure and simple, that she stopped at Seattle. Any other old port would have done Just as well. Luck may start such cities as Seattle, but It doesn't make them. That vessel loaded with gold was dry land to these shipwrecked business men, but they had grown wise while riding on that raft Not the least valuable of the lessons they learned was that they must hang together. It was a case like this: "If we go down, we will all go together: and, if we are to be saved, we must all pull together." That Is what made, and is making, Seattle, and so long as these business men remember their ride on that raft, the town will continue to thrive and grow, and all the growlers In Christen dom can't stop It Go into Seattle today with anything that they want, and they will put It through with more success and more dispatch 'than any other business com munity of its size in the United States. Competition is keen there in every line, and. each map is trying to get the better of his competitors. But tackle them with anything that's against the town, and the whole business community will rise up like one man against you. There seems to exist an undercurrent not unlike that of Freemasonry among the business men, and ho who attempts to short-circuit that current 1b sure to set a shock. It's no uncommon experience, while sitting In a man's office, to hear him called up on the telephone. You don't hear the mes sage, but your man says: "Three o'clock? All right; I'll be there." You can depend upon It that there is a meet ing of the "clan." He doesn't have 16 excuses to offer, but simply: "I'll be there." Seattle Is a wonder. It is constantly surprising Itself. It should be the pride of every citizen of the great Pacific Northwest, for In that section of our country where they have more than their share of natural advantages, what helps one helps them all: and there are opportunities and possibilities In abund ance. We congratulate the business men of Seattle on their success. It's all theirs, and they deserve it. - But we trust that they will never for get that "ride on the raft" XOTE AND .C0MUEXL Is It h t en gh f r y u? The Mayor of Omaha has closed almost everything on Sunday but kidnaping. It will be noticed that the money lost In Wall street Is not lost by the Popu lists who howl about it J If Agulnaldo does not get over here pretty soon Major Pond will have all his bookings made for next season. W know that this la gentle Slay. Because the sun and sky Combine to make all outdoors look Exactly like July. We leam from the Baltimore papers that that city Is boss-ridden. What a remarkable thing for a great American city. When you see a small boy hold up two fingers to another small boy, you will know that the water Is getting warmer. There Is a very general Impression that no matter how high the panic car ries James J. Hill, when he lights It will be on his feet Minnesota hs trying to bring back 20 men who have deserted their wives. They will find the State of Minnesota not so easy to escape as the state of matrimony. It never occurred to the. reformers who closed the Omaha saloons on Sunday that the whisky element could get drunk enough Saturday night to last till Monday. The presidential party will see many fine buildings and beautiful homes and much magnificent scenery while in Portland. Let us hope that the streets will fall opposite the blind spots In their eyes. He made a million dollars One day In railroad stock, The next he put hta diamond pin. And oiercoat. In boclc; And yet he said In smothered tone From up against the wall. " 'TIs better to have plunged and lost. Than never to have plunged at all." A few months before the death of Father Boyle, of Washington, he built a missionary chapel down by the navy yard, and bought at a junkshop an old bell which had been discarded by one of the Presbyterian churches. He sent the bell to a foundry in Georgetown and had several Inches "ot metal pared oft the rim to get rid of a crack, and the harsh and discordant tones of the bell became short and sweet. Meeting- a Presbyterian parson not long after. Father Boyle called his attention to the change, and the latter could scarcely believe It was the same bell. "What In the world did you do with that bell," Inquired tho Presbyterian pastor, "to cause such a change In the tone?" "We blessed It and bFessed It and blessed It until we got the Presbyterian devil out of It," retorted Father Boyle, "and then It sounded all right" Arthur Griffiths, of Richmond, Ind., is said to be a mathematical prodigy. He has eight different methods of his own for addition, lfr for division and 64 for multiplication. He can take any num ber, it is said, between 970 ana 1000, and raise it to the fifth 'power in 39 seconds without the- use of either pencil ' or paper. Griffith, can add. mentally ttixe& columns at a time, It Is asserted? divide any set of figures or multiply any set of figures in from one to 40 seconds dnd extract square and cube roots in from three to IS seconds. He remembers.' every problem that he works. The hardest test which he has yet experi enced, so he says, Is to stand and see af freight train pass with 20 or 30 cars, and then tell the number of each car In their order and specify to what road each be longed. Besides being a wonder In mathematics. Griffith Is fairly well ed ucated In the common school studies. He can read, write and spell, and can carry on an Intelligent and Interesting conversation. He knows the name and length of every railroad in the country. PLEASAHTIUES OF PARAGRAPHED Suspicious. "Ethel, you can have my apple." "Why, what's the matter with lt2" Harper's Bazar. HIa Great Anxiety. Athlete Did I break It, doctor? Doctor I will be plain with you. The arm Is broken, the cojlar-bone crushed, the skull is iractured Athlete No. no. no! The did I bnak the "'natr" "Record i" Tlt-Blt. Mamma Tommy, the teacher tells me that you do not behave well In school and that you are sadly behind In your studies. Tommy And you sat and listened to her! Mamma, don't you know It takes two persona to gossip? Boston Transcript. Ampry Described. Mrs. Goodsoul (answering Tins) What la It. little slrl.' Mary Please, ma"'am, we've lost our kltti . She- lrrj'i'eyter day. and we're hun-tlng hej.fvy'want'to know if you have seen a cat by the name of Min erva go by your house. Puck. Preparing for a Siege. Wife The last tlma 1-1 asked you to give me some money you couldn t because the cashier was sick now you eay It's the treasurer. Husband I know it he caught it from tho cashier, and now I'm afraid the secretary will get it. Life. Cblmmy Don't yer wish yer had big eyes, like dat Fauntleroy Van Gibbons kid? Billy Nawt He might be all right in bein' liked by de wimmin. but he aln'l In it when it cornea to squlntln' through a natlhole in de baseball fence. Philadelphia Record. The Premium on Plagiary. "What made you tell that manager the Ideas In your play wera not original?" "Because' answered the mer cenary genius, "If I had told him they were original he would have taken It for granted they were no gijod." Washington Star. Requires Diplomacy. Chicago News. It needs but a casual review of some of President McKinley's speeches to see that this swinging around the circle is not all that It is supposed to be. President Harri son in his movement around a somewhat smaller orbit set the standard for pruden tial speechmaklng, and his successor seems to be doing quite as well, although the conditions he has to meet are de cidedly more difficult The task of as suring the people of one state that they are most superior persons, without In- ferentlally Implying that the people of the 44 other commonwealths are not equal ly admirable, demands tact To compli ment Democrats in a way that will not offend Republicans; to commend Texas In words that will not seem invidious to New Mexico and Arizona; to expatiate upon the glories of St Paul while demon strating a passionate admiration for Min neapolisthese things call for diplomacy. t At Sen. James Whltcomb Riley. O, we go down to sea in ships But Hope remains behind. And Love, with lauchter on his lips. And Peace of passive mind; "While out across the deeps of. night. With lifted sails of prayer. . We voyage off In quest of light. Nor find it anywhere. O, Thou, who -arroughtest earth and sea. Tet keepest from our eyes The shores of an eternity , In calms of Paradise, Blow back upon our foolish quest With allthe driving rain. Of blinding tears and wild unrest, 'And waft us home again. The Colored Band. Paul L. Dunbar In Saturday Evening Post Wen de colo'ed ban cornea ma'chln' down da street. Don't you people stan' dalh starln"; 111 yo' fett Ain't dey playln'? Hip. hooray! Stir yo' stomps an' clean de way, Fu' de music dat dey mekln can't be beat. Oh. de major man's a-swlngln of his stick. An' de pickaninnies crowdln 'roun' him thick; In his go'geous uniform. He's de llghtnln' of de sto'm. -An' de little clouds er'oun' look mighty slick. Tou kin hyeah a nne perfo'mance w'en white ban's serenade. An' dey play dey high-toned music mighty sweet. But hit's Sousa played In ragtime, an' hit's Rastus on Parade, Wen de colo'ed ban comes ma'chln down de street. Wen de colo'ed ban comes ma'chln' down de street! Tou kin hyeah de ladles all erroun repeat: "Ain't dey han'somer Ain't dey gran? Ain't dey splendid? Goodness. Ian! Wy dey's pu'fect Tom dey fo'heads to dey feet!" An slch steppln' to de music down de line, Tain't de music by itself dat makes It fine. Hit's de walkln'.. step by step. An' de keepln time wld "Hep," Dat It mek a. common ditty soun divine. Ob. de white ban' play hits music, an' hit's . mighty good to hyeah. An' hit sometimes leaves a tlcklln in. yo feet. But de hea't goes Into business fu to be'p erlong de eah. Wen de colo'ed ban goes jna'chhV down de street. JC A