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About Morning Oregonian. (Portland, Or.) 1861-1937 | View Entire Issue (July 20, 1905)
TKjfi JSIOKXIXG OREGOXIA, THURSDAY, JULY 20, J. 905. v Eatered at tie PostotS.ce at Portland. Or., u seeettd-clasa matter. SUBftCKIPXIOX BATES. I XV ARIAS LT IK ADVANCE. ' By Xail r Express.) Dally and Sunday, per year ..$9.00 Dally d Sunday, sir month! 8.00 Dally ana Sanaay, three months. ....... 2.55 Ds.ll- wid &HHdj-. per month.' .S3 Dally witbeut 8ay. jer year- 7.50 jjauy unoui seaoar, six roontns..... 2.90 utuiy tv-iibcmh. eunaay. three monuxs 1MH Dally without Sunday, per month. .65 Sunday. ter -rear . 2.00 Sunday, six months ..... 1.80.: SuBday, three months ...... .00 BT CARRIER. , Dally Tlthemt Sunday, per week, .15 Dally, per week, Sunday Included . -"0 THE "WEEKLY OREGONIAN. (Issued Every Thursday.' Weekly, per year...'..-.. X.30 "Weekly, six months .75 Weekly, three months 60 HOW TO .REMIT Send postofflce money crder, express order or personal check on your leaal bank.' Stamps, coin or currency are at the sender's risk. EASTERN BUSINESS OFFICE. The 8. C Beckirlth Special Areacy 5?ew York, rooms 3-&0 Tribune building. Chi cago, rooms 510-512 Tribune building;. KEPT ON SALE. Chicago Auditorium Annex, Postofflcs 2Cews Co 178 Dearborn street. Dallas, Texv-Globs Kews Depot, 260 Main street. Sen Antonio, Tex. Louli Book and Cigar Co., 21 East Houston street. Denver Julius Black, Hamilton & Kend rlck, 805-812 Seventeenth street; Harry D. Ott. 1563 Broadway; Pratt Book Store. 1214 Fifteenth street. Colorado Sprlafcs, Celo. Howard H. BelL Des Melacs, Isw-Moses Jacobs. 308 Filth street. DhIhOj, MIbb-O. Blackburn, 215 West Su perior street. GoldS dd, 'ev. C. Malone. Kansas CKy, Mow RIcksecker Cigar Co.. Klnth 'and Walnut. XiOt Asseles Harry Drapkin; B. E. Amos, C14 West Seventh street. Mlaaeapolls M. J. Kavanauch. 50 South Third; L. Begelsburger, 217 First avenue South. f Cleveland, O-James Fushaw, S07 Superior street. New Tork City E. Jones & Co., Astor House. Oakland, Cal-W, H. Johnston. Fourteenth and Franklin streets. Ogdea F. B. Oodard and Meyers & Har top, D L. Boyle. Omnha, -Barl-.alow Bros.. 1612 Farnam; Mageath Stationery Co.. 130S Farnam; Mc Laughlin Bros.. 246 South 14th; McLaughlin & Holtz, 1515 Farnam. Sacramento, Cal. Sacramento News Co., 428 JC street. Salt Lake Salt Lake News Co.. 77 West Eecond street South: Frank Hutchison. Yellowstone Park, Wyo. Canyon Hotel, Lake Hotel. Yellowstone Park Assn. Eobc Beach B. E. Amos. San Francisco J. X. Cooper & Co., 740 Mt.rV.4t street: Goldsmith Bros., 230 Sutter; 1 Eee. Palace Hotel News Stand; F. W. n Us. 10QS Market; Frank Scott. SO Ellis; N ""Vheatley Movable News Stand, corner Mar ket and Kearney( streets; Hotel St. Francis News Stand; Foster & Orear, Ferry News Stand. St. Loals, Xo. E. T. Jett Book & News Company. 800 Olive street. Waahlagto&, B. O P. D. Morrison, 2132 Pennsylvania avenue. PORTiJaND, THURSDAY", JULY 20. 1808. THE GRAFTING JUDGE. Js Warren B. Hooker the first indl- (dual of a new American species of Scientists now tell us that new of nlants and animals m.n v orln- jdge CB warning. Evolution goes (Jumps, not by gradual changes, they ; and, "while you are looking on, you ty see a distinct type emerge from estors quite unlike it. Like pro duces like for the most part, but not always. Hooker Is certainly a new kind of Judge in this country, sinister of aspect, portentous, and iltogether unlike his forbears. He s not accused of Ignorance: for all hat is known by the public about him, may oe learned in tne law. The un- st Judge of the Scriptures decided cording to the largest bribe; nobody kes this charge against Hooker. Bacon's offense was to take the and decide regardless of It. "I the Justest Judge that was in Eng these fifty years," he protested p. Hooker may be Just on the .-Mu and. it is not In evidence that his ds are soiled like Bacon's. Never ess. he Is a figure of evil portent. l because of what he Is; more evil huse of the forces that are working save him from retribution f 4idge Hooker is a grafter. He plied I shameful art of graft while he was . Congress: he plied It while he was justice by appointment; he continued ply It while he was a Justice by elec n; and, In his testimony before the Mature, iie excuses himself, and in s the public, with the grafter's shifty platitudes of evasion. It was not "brought to his notice" that Ball drew an unearned salary. He "had no ar rangement" -with Ball to do this. He "never knew" that his nephew. Mau rice, a schoolboy, was not "laboring' In the Fredonla postofflce. Could cyn ical contempt for the public conscience go farther? What would Judge Hooker say to such a defense In his- own court? And It Is the unholy army of graft that Is fighting for him! A committee of the State Bar Association con demned him in a report and demanded a legislative inquiry. His pals packed the meeting which heard the report, and had it rejected. The New York Citv oar-forced the call of a special session of the Legislature to try him. What effort has been spared to make this trial a mock en"? And the 'man who thus played the artful dodger with his coun try's laws, who almost literally picked her pockets, and who defends himself for It, like a bad boy caught in -an or chard, with wriggling equivokes. Is a Justice -of the Supreme Court In the roost populous, wealthy and enlightened state in the Union! He Is a sinister portent. The American people have been called reverent; and the charge savors too much of truth. We jest about heaven, we grow witty over hades; but no American writer, no newspaper the least repute, has ever made light of our courts of .justice. We are tender even of their mistakes: our National disposi tion Is to reverence even blindness, big otry and prejudice when they wear the ermine, And this is well. For Amer icans knoWltbat the vital organ in this social body Is the Judiciary. They have J 3nown. too, in the past, that this organ as sound. Grant that senile greed has ankered the Senate. It can be healed. r even excised, as a last -resort. Grant hat our commercial methods are cor upt and corrupting. Law will ultlmate- subdue and correct the strongest and ealthleet Vlrate. Even foolish laws re comparatively harmless so long as ie courts are sound. There is no hope :r democratic government the Moment falls In "the. courts. Failure in cities dlscouragiag: failure in State Leg laturee b fct&SUng; failure In the judi- ary iMv -ruin. Anarchy icomes xt TJite fe the serious significance of ooker'mcaee: JC means that graft, af- eating through City Couaclte, State Legislatures and Congress, has finally begun to gnaw at the cpurts the heart of the civic body. It Is of 111 omen that his defenders are numerous and power ful. But Judge Hooker is what biologists call a monster. -Nothing like him came before; nothing like him will follow. He is not the first of a new species of judge: he Is unique of his kind. Had there been a long line of Judges on the New York bench gradually getting worse and worse until Hooker capped the evil climax, the case would be terri fying. But there has been nothing of (the kind. Had the people known of his misdeeds when they made him judge. It would signify that they were unfit for self-government. But they did not. Judge Hooker Is an unhappy accident. The trouble Is that accidents have their causes in .the general trend of events, and therefore he is a .portent and one of sinister meaning. METHOD OF NOMINATIONS. Whether the Republicans of Oregon should hold conventions to nominate or 'suggest' candidates. In .advance of the primaries that must be held under di rection of law. Is a. matter of discussion in many quarters. For itself The Ore- gonian will say that it would not advise such course. Since ihe direct jprimary is provided by statute, as the one legal way by which candidates may be nominated. such primary must be held, in any event. Noattempt to forestall Its ac tion will, at this stage In our affairs. be acceptable. There are various and variant opin ions as to this law. But it has not yet been tried on any extended scale. In our state. The lawwas enacted in the hope and for the purpose of applying a rem edy to the abuses of "boss rule" and "machine politics." Conventions were believed to be controlled by manipulat ors, for their own ends. This law was a protest against that system. If now the people believe that groups iofJ slelght-of -hand performers are schem ing to set it aside, they will express their dlapproval. It Is most probable that If conven tions were held and tickets nominated according to programmes so dictated, the electors, would vote down every thing carrying the conentlon trade markson the ground that they (the electors) had had no fair treatment in making the nominations. Better, for the present, to give the primary law a fair trial. Better follow It. in letter and In spirit. It can be re pealed at a future time. If experience and use prove it unsatisfactory. It must be admitted that the experience had with It thus far gives little ground to hope for good results, from a party standpoint; for It may turn out, when applied to the state at large, quite In the manner of the experience had with It Jn Portland. That is to say, when Mayor Williams was nominated by a plurality representing only a small por tion of the Republican votes, most of those who supported other candidates for the nomination holding that such nomination had no binding force voted against him In the election. We shall see.- later, how -this will work, on the larger scale. Meantime, as The Oregonlan conceives, there is nothing for it but to adhere to the prl :mary law. In letter and in spirit. Any attempt to forestall It will certainly produce increased dissatisfaction. AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT REFORM. Another piece of decayed timber has been removed from the wobbling Sta tistical bureau of the Agricultural De partment. John Hyde, for many years chief of the bureau, has resigned, not exactly under fire, but partially, as a result of the cotton-crop report scan dal. The honesty of Statistician Hyde has never been questioned, but in a manner he was a more dangerous nian in his position than Holmes. Dishon esty In a man sooner or later shows Its earmarks, and can In a measure be guarded against. Incompetency and eccentricity, which were present In a marked degree In the makeup of Hyde, are certain to produce statistical re sults more unsatisfactory than those which had knowingly been "Juggled." But the dismissal of Holmes, the res ignation of Hyde, and even the retire ment of the great "Tama James" Wil son from the head of the department, will not bring about any material Im Drovement until there Is a change In the system of crop reporting. Simul taneously with the expulsion of Holmes came the announcement that a stifl greater air of secrecy was to be thrown around the reports of the department. The Secretary In graphic language took the news bureaus of the world Into his confidence, and told how he had locked his understudies in a closely-guarded room, cut out telephone connection, guarded the windows against any helio graphlc tips, and thus figured out the July report. This kind of work may prevent the escape of any advance in formation as to the nature of the re ports, but it will not improve the stand ard of accuracy nor provide- any better plan for preparing them. It was the secrecy thus maintained In preparing the reports that gave Mr. Holmes his opportunity to juggle them to suit the Interests of his fellow-conspirators on the outside. Had these re ports, from which the monthly report Is "cooked up." been given the fullest publicity as fast as they were received, there would have been no opportunity for Mr. Holmes. Instead of remedying the matter by ordering an abandonment of this policy of absolute secrecy, the Secretary Intensifies the situation by treating his assistants like a lot of con victs and keeping them locked up until they had put together a report based on information that had been accumu lating since the appearance of the last preceding report. Perhaps the best way to remedy the evil would be for the Bureau of Statis tics to retire from the business of guesting at crop conditions and from reducing the guesses to figures which dlshbncst assistant statisticians could sell to Interested brokers. This unsat isfactory service could be supplanted by the crop reports of the Weather Bu reau, which are always much more re liable than those of the Bureau of Sta tistics. When reports are compiled un der lock and key by the Bureau of Sta tistics, the public Is in Ignorance of the method employed or the system of percentages used in. securing the fear fully and wgnderfullj- made figures that a'Poear. It would seem that a much more sat isfactory and safer method would be to make public the local reports from the different states as fast as they .are re oslved. and, abandoning all pretense' at secrecy, afford everybody Interested the opportunity to do their own figur ing and esthMLting en aatltaUve r percentage amounts reflected by 'Umcc reports. So far as the Agricultural De partment reports In Oregon, Washing ton and Idaho are concerned, they are worse than useless. as they are so far at variance with the facts that the only parties who can use them to advantage are peonie who desire to Influence the market, for either grain or ships. FOREIGN MISSIONS. Opinions upon the outlook for foreign missions vary with men's prejudices. A man free from prejudice and perfectly Informed would hold an opinion abso lutely correct. Bishop Thoburn. of In dia, is probably as well Informed as an outsider can be. of the external aspect of Oriental missions. He would proba bly not say. himself, that he Is free from prejudice. Bishop Thoburn pre dicts a yearly harvest of a million souls In Asia before long. The Open Court, which Is. in a sense, the American or gan of enlightened Oriental thought. says that few converts are or ever will be made to Christianity except from Interested motives, and that most of the converts lose their old religion without really gaining the new. The missionary makes two mistakes, one of dogma and one of method. "His dogmatic mistake is to divide religions Into two classes, true and false. Now, there can be no such thing as a false religion. The only truth In any relig ion is its religiosity; all religions have this, and therefore all are true. The alleged facts of all systems of faith concerning miracles, historic origins, and the like, may be equally neglected. They are quite on a JeveL But some faiths have more religiosity than oth ers: therefore. , while, all religions are true, all are not' equally good. The missionary should go to the heathen preaching, not "My religion is true and yours Is false." but rather "Your re ligion has some eternal truth, mine has more." The missionary's mistake in method crows out of his mistake in dogma. Believing the heathen religion falre. he tries to tear it out root and branch, and sometimes succeeds: but he tears out all that Is worth while In the man's character with It. All missionary ef fort that has. had a success of any con sequence has proceeded otherwise, grafting the new (abslt omen) upon the old. By this method Christianity con auered the Roman world. Christmas, Easter. All-Halloween, are heathen fes tivals. The Eucharist Is an ancient heathen rite. The cross Is an exceed ingly ancient heathen emblem All have been invested, most wisely and edlfyingly. with Christian significance not destroyed. The only successful missions among the American Indians, In early da3s. were the Catholic They accepted the aboriginal rites, even their spirits and demons, and Interpreted them in terms of Christianity. So they did in China, where Catholic missions have always been the despair of their rivals. Teutonic Christianity Is full of Teu tonic mytnoiogy; hence it is almost a different faith from Latin Christianity. which contains more of the Graeco Roman concepts. Christian missions in the Orient will never achieve their high est amibtions until they adopt this his toric method Instead of their present one of radical destruction of the lndig enous faiths. COMPETITION ON ISTHMIAN ROUTES. The threat of the Pacific Mall Steam ship Company to withdraw Its steamers from the Panama route unless the Gov ernment would permit continuation of the monopoly so long enjoyed by the corporation was In vain. Not only has the Isthmus route been thrown open to all comers, leaving the Pacific Mall still there, but the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company has announced its Intention of going Into the trade via the Tehauntepec Railroad, on an Independ ent basis, which cannot fail to afford material relief to the shippers. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company has been under the domination of the rail roads for so many years that It long ago ceased to be operated on the straight business principles which should govern the policy of a common carrier. Instead. It has given a service which practically at all times disclosed an evident desire to make the Isthmus route as unpopular as possible in order that the traffic would be forced to seek a more expeditious, although more costly, route across the American con tinent by rail. The owners of the American-Hawaiian line have had : i lifetime of experience In the ocean car rylng trade. Prior to construction of the present line of big steam freighters they operated a line of high-class sail lng vessels between New York and Philadelphia and Pacific Coast ports. carrying freight at rates based on the cost of handling it by water, and not on the cost of handling It by rail. Port land, as well as other cities, profited by the service of the old clipper lines, and. until about ten years ago. there had never been a day In more than twenty years when there was not a ship on berth or en route for this port from the Atlantic Coast. This service affected rail rates quite materially, and. since the advent of the big steam freighters, there has been steady Increase In the amount of freight coming around Cape Horn. This traffic. however, has been stifled somewhat on account of the length of time consumed In making the long voyage around tw.o continents. Now that the line will be permitted to send freight across the Isthmus of Tehauntetpec as well as Panama, there will be a great saving of time and an enormous Increase In the traffic. There Is. of course, the possibil ity of this independent line being ab sorbed by the Pacific Mall, but It has already scored enough of a success, even with the handicap of the voyage around the Horn, to Induce other inde pendent lines to get into the trade the moment there is anything like a com bination formed for the purpose of ad vancing rates. The new route by way of Tehaunte pec is much shorter than by way of Panama, but the rail haul across the Isthmus Is much longer than at Pan ama. This will not be a drawback, as It will shorten the time between the two coasts. With a good fleet of steam ers oa both oceans and efficient service across the Isthmus, heavy cargo may be put through from New York to Pa cific Coast ports on a schedule that will compare favorably with some of the slow freights that crawl & crops the con tinent. Harvest is on at full blast at all points south of Snake River, and the cron all over the Pacific Northwest Is so near to the safety point that & record-breaking yield sow seems certain. Unless there showl be a Mg vMvewMt to the Bast by rail, axporters oparatmg at Perttaad ai Puree 9nnd wJK k called on to handle about ZOO shiploads of the cereal. Thus far one lone ship has been chartered, and the list of available grain tonnage en route Is the smallest In many years. With any thing like a normal selling movement. this peculiar situation will result either In much higher freight rates or a grain blockade early in the season. The ex porters no longer pla'ce themselves at the mercy of the farmer by chartering ships ,o arrive and take chances on securing the wheat with which to fill them after they are headed in this di rection. It Is not at all clear that the farmer will profit by the change, but there will be fewer failures among the grainmen than there have been in the past. That New York society leaders have a great deal of money has long" been known. That they had a great deal of private history to" conceal, or proper for concealment, has also been well known. But It has not heretofore been known that social Hons were willing to pay large sums of money for that pur pose. It took an enterprising grafter named Able to demonstrate that noto riety of a certain kind even New York society is anxious to avoid. He got up a book called "Fads and Fancies of New York 'Society," and solicited and procured subscriptions at $1500 and more per book. One of the conditions was that certain interesting personal revelations about the subscriber would -"not be printed In a salacious weekly known as Town Topics. Ahle realized J 200.000 from the sale of his book. It must have been a very Interesting pub lication. It may be. remembered that the Presi dent recently, Vn an address before a body of physicians, eulogized General Leonard Wood as a doctor, and regret ted that the country could not properly reward him for the services he had ren dered. Further, the President said: And the foul astaulu and attacks made upon him. rentlemen. were largely because they grudged the Xaet that this .admirable military officer should have been a doctor. The New York Evening Post replies In a vein of pleasantry. It says an in cipient Kipling sends It the following under the headline "No. Mr. President'; "'E might 'a been a baker. An obllgin' undertaker, E might a come from any trolde at all; The cause of our emotion Is ls bloc tain" quick permotlon From duffer like the. rest of u to Major Gencrawl. The Tacoma newspaper correspond ents are sending out graphic accounts of the ascent by the Mazamas, Appa lachians and Sierras of "Mount Ta coma." The Tacoma mind is singuiany tenacious of the invention that the great Washington mountain Is not property named Rainier, but Ta coma. Tacoma. of course, ought to know, because Tacoma named it. But the public has an old-fashioned way of hanging onto the euphonious and elegant name under which the peak was everywhere known for nearly 100 years, and It Is not likely to change. To be sure. 100 years Is not a very long time, but that seems to be as long as Mount Rainier 'had any name at all. and It Is a good deal better than no name, or even two names. A celestial visitor without appar ent fixity of purpose Is cold to be hov ering over Mount Hood. The Fair man agement has not been apprised of any visiting delegations from any of the other planets, but the fame of the big show Is spreading so rapidly that It mlcht be that visitors will "drop In" on us from unexpected localities. Or, there Is a faint possibility that the ve hicle poised in the air may contain a delegation from California who were unable to secure lower berths on train or steamer In time for the Exposition and are coming by th only route still beyond the reach of the octopus. Mr. Schwerln should send some of his hired men out with a megaphone and take steps to shut off this only possible source of opposition. x As an attraction for the Eastern vis itors to the Exposition, probably noth ing of Its class would surpass the pro posed exhibition arranged" for 200 Uma tilla Indians to appear In a reproduc tion of the Custer massacre. The Amer ican Indian has a high standing east of the Mississippi River, where he Is not very well known, and. as one of the at tractions which the great West.has for the Eastern tourists, he Is near the head. Our Indians are not the kind thau-J. Fenlraore Cooper wrote about (that kind exists only In books), but as a poser and a good representative of the kind of Indians which are pictured In the papers, the Umatilla Is a pretty good imitation of the real thing, and he could put up a show that would be pic turesque and Interesting. One of the pleasant surprises In con nection with the Fair is the steady large attendance. 'Admissions on week days do not depart far from the 17,000 mark. This Indicates that daily arri vals from the East and the Pacific Coast tax the capacity of local and transcontinental trains. Present Indi cations point to the same steady Influx of visitors throughout the Summer. Russia, the dispatches say, will accept no peace which affects the dignity of the empire. Russian dignity is like the virtue of a certain clas3 of females. The less there is of It the more careful they are to have It treated with re spect. One man of the jury cannot see as the other eleven do. That Is whit he Is there for. It Is the beauty and the glory of our incomparable jury system. The Juror; may protect his friend, or the friends of his friend. General Fred Funstos's etrcnu ous father has been fined $5 for wreck lag three Kansas saloon joints. A hero and a martyr In one family Is over' crowding things, even in Kansas It may be remarked that about 94 per cent of Eastern people -who have visited Portland "this season, will serve as walking advertisements' for Oregon and the Fair. Depew's feelings are hurt and he is sad. Yet why? He has been advising his juniors these maay years to smile at adversity. rf l Peary evidently wanted a vessel so strenuees that It w&uM "get there"; cene.Btly he suHa K Roocevatt. The Jry. pas sit tit prtaMtorta Mfe. May Ute oe itave a tMef oe Vm CtaUOsr tku Mm tfcsc try- u Uimmri tmr Ml an. art. 0REGONOZONL When Governor Folk Met Governor Hoch. " - He said: "Our surnaaes rhyme; But If I were Folks - g And you were a Hoax. , ' Now wouldn't It be a crime? Rev. H. C. Monser, of Champaign. 111.. has discovered, after years of Investiga tion, that the three most popular novels are "David Copperfleld." "Uncle Tom's Cabin and "Ben Hur." Doubtless he failed to consider the claims of "Dead- wood Dick." "Old Sleuth'' and "Picayune Pete, the Pirate." It is reported that a party of Portland young men have organized what they call the Mirth Club. This is said to be their rallying cry as they go down 'the Trail: Rah! Rah! Rah! out of breath! Rajah! Rajah! tickled to death! Mirror Mare! Gay Parce! Wa-hoo! ah-hoo! who are we? Judge Cotton called upon the President at Oyster Bay yesterday, and probably stayed to dinner. But the South can't object, as his name has the right color, even If he does come from a state that has a Mississippi Deinocrat for Governor. XJcws Frjom NJcms. It's a terrible tale that comes from Xjems. In the German Cam croons: The Cannibal hordes have held a feast And eaten of white men eight at least And quite 3X0 coon3! Now, why should the German Cameroons (The horror my soul condemns ) Permit their people tp. fill .their plate With blacks 3X and whlte9 but eight? Is the ratio such in Njems? Soliloquy of an Airship. (Applicable to any airship anywhere.) I am an airship Behold me! I know I'm not much to look at. But take a squint anyhow At me. Most useless of all things earthy. Most hopeless, and surely most helpless! Are you not sorry for me? Do you not weep for me? If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. So that you may climb on top of the shed And come in out of the wet. For I am going to tell you The sad story of my life! Alas! Pity the poor airship! Help the helpless! 1 am the weakest proposition that files- Except that I don't fly; I Just float A little., sometimes; But any old tub can float. Listen! - ' Once I was a mere bunch of gas. t looting arouna in space. But an adventurous geezer got hold of me. Imprisoned me In this confounded gunny sack. Cigar-shaped. But truly scented not with the Havana aroma (Nay! nay!); Potato-shaped is more like it. Though 1 am not worth the price Of one respectable potato. For all practical purposes. This geezer got hold of me and said: "You're an alrahlpt" And truly was I glad to know It, For I had Imagined myself merely a bag of gas " With a flimsy framework underneath And a choo-choo engine worth about four bits Canadian. But this geczcrina, whom the world pro claims Inventor (With his press agent's aid) v Calls me an airship, and I reckon I am. For having, no resistance myself I cannot protest. Or kick: ' And It I'm not an airship. What in the name of Sam Hill; Or of Jim Hill of the G. Nj, ' Am I? I don't know; Do you? What do I look like thirty cents,' Well, I'll feel like a pewter nickel That has been stepped on by a Missouri mule. After 1 come down from my first flight, Unless the wind Is favorable. Ah! there's the rub! And the wind Is never favorable Enough To" make-me sky-hoot successfully. The trouble with "me Is That my gasbag Is too big and bunglesome To cope " . With the artistic currents of ozone That rule the cerulean realms Where I must do business. Wherefore I invariably flunk And refuse to perform my appointed stunt. Just at the critical moment. If I could sail v And tack and turn around ( And evolute artistically, . , I should be dirigible Whatever that means But I can't"; And that's why . . I ' Don't fly! . ROBEHTUS LOVE. Gifts for Libraries. Boston Herald. According to a report made at the present meeting of the American Library Association In Portland. Or., $5,12S,000 was given for libraries In the United States during the last seven mouth of last year. Of this Impressive total 54.118.670 was gifts of pothers than Mr. Carnegie. The largest single gift outside Mr. Carnegie's was Archer M. Huntington's of J1.69J.009 to the HUpanic Society of America. Mr. Car negle's gifts In this period numbered 34 and amounted to II, 003.509. But his gifts for the whole year, as heretofore stated, reached a total of 1190. dis tributed among- 104S cities, towns, vll lages .and hamlets, and representing the nrincely output of JJ.32.20. Of the states receiving the largest num ber of gifts In the saves a oaths pe rloJ. Indiana ranks first, a fact upon which this hustling literary common Wealth may plume itself. Bat Illinois is -a close second, ana .aass stands third. " . Uamade History. Fross Life. The ending of the pretsctive' tariff was drsjMtfc One day a fteet Japanese wanMps appeared la New Tork IrttrtMrv "We've eeme,' ahmtted the AdtsJr&l cssHund, "t ea yew: country te the etttsd warM!" ' that Date isrwira AsserMana M4 pf tku Mnsir . Asr ta "MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP" AT SAN FRANCISCO The SapexrUerw Have Decided to Rehaitd and Operate the Gearr Street Railroad as as Up-te-Date Electric Line. A writer in the Sacramento Union says the most Important and Interesting politi co-economic experiment ever undertaken by any city In California will be inaug urated in San Francisco before the end of the present vear. The supervisors have appropriated $3500O with which to begin the reconstruction of the Geary- street railway and Its conversion Into a first-class, up-to-date- underground elec tric line. This money 13 how available and the city's engineers have already coki- menced figuring" on the work. The su pervisors have promised to appropriate next year $318,000 more. The first sum. it is calculated, will reconstruct 'he road and the second will equip it. This experiment Involves two things more than ordinarily Important. First. will, it carried to a conclusion, dem onstrate whether underground conduits for electric railways are practicable in San Francisco; and. second, whether eucn a 'railway can oe duui ana suc cessfully operated by the municipal au thorities. Of course, municipal railways have been tried In other places some with success and some without it: but the-politicians In this state have never yet put their hands to railroading and It will be highly Interesting to observe exactly what sort of a bluff they, will make at it. Ihe franchise for a street railroad on Geary street Point Lobos avenue. Fifth avenue and D street, owned by the Pa cific Improvement; Company, expired about three years ago. Formal application was made for a renewal, but the advocates of "municipal ownership" saw their op portunity and. In response to their pro tests, the supervisors refused to advertise for bids for a new privilege. Shortly after this a speclaf election was ordered and tjie question of establishing a muni cipal railway on Geary street submitted. In the form of a bond Issue, to a vote of the people. The Pacific Improvement Company and several of the residents of Geary street, who have no confidence In the ability of the City Hall politicians to operate the road, even if they could successfully build It, took a hand at this election and the bond issue proposition was defeated. The city charter pro vides that bonds must be authorized by three-fifths vote. The bonds In this case received a majority, but failed to receive the required three-fifths vote. But this failure did not discourage the advocates of "municipal ownership. One year afterward they again submitted their proposition to issue jTbO.oqo wortn oc bonds with which to build and equip the road. Again the Pacific Improvement Company and the doubting residents of the street took a hand and again the proposition was defeated by about the same vote. These two elections established certain facts, however, which encouraged the ex perimenters. The vote cast at each con test aggregated about 25,000. The total vote of the citv Is. 75.000. Thus It ap peared, that only about one-third of the people 'were sufficiently Interested In the LONDON ANDNEW YORK. St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Rut whether the" actual flgure.be a little above or a little below the 4.000.000 line. New Yock Is still the second city in tne world In population, as It Is the first in wealth. Greater London had b.osi.uw peo ple In 1S01. at the time of the latest cen- 9US. It flSS I.VJV.VW nun. York could annex towns as readily as Londoh doi.it would Show a population of more tfiari 5.000.000 now. The New York metropolitan district would De Denina London's district, but not to anything like the extent which the present restnetea figures show. The gap between tnem.. however. Is rapidly narrowing, wwoon growth Is at the rate of 16 per -cent Us a decade. New York's Is 35 per cent. Leav ing out of the circulation the New Jer sey towns Jersey City. .-Newark. Hoboken, and the others within a raoius oi a aozen miles of Mayor McClellan's City nan and counting In the district .in Its own state which ig likely to be absorbed in the Interval. New York City will probaDiy pass London by 1!H0 at the latest- Presidential Addresses. Providence. (R. I.). Journal. Of lata years, at least, we have had no President who was the equal of Benjamin Harrison in securing appropriateness ot sentiment and felicity of expression In the perfunctory occasional addresses which a President Is called upon to mane as ne moves about the country In response to invitations or on tours of his own selec tion. Mr Roosevelt Is at times conspicu ously below the standard that his Indiana predecessor set. His familiar talk about the responsibilities ot the Monroe Doc trine and the Importance of a large Navy, though eminently sound, grows wearisome with so. much repetition; and his sen tences of compliment and felicitation are apt to bo Inelegant In construction and unduly colloquial In phraseology. Take, for example, his stereotyped openlng "Mr. President, and you, my," etc, or the closing of his brief remarks at Adams on Thursday "I am awfully glad to have seen you. "De-llght-ed" we may accept as a mannerism, but "awfully glad" Is a schoolgirl phrase that most certainly does not comport with tho dignity of the Presidential office. Nantes of the Old Guns. Washington Star. "In the olden days," remarked a vet eran sea paptaln the other day, "the custom obtained of giving names to the. guns on men-of-war. "In the case of.the United States frig ate Chesapeake the principal guns bore distinctive names, as follows; Brother Jonathan. True Blue, Yankee Protec tion, Putnam. Raging Eagle, Viper, General Warren. Mad Anthony, Amer ica. Washington. Liberty Forever, Dreadnaugbt. Defiance. Liberty or Death, United, Tars. Jumping Billy, Rattler, Bull Dog. Spitfire, Nancy Daw son, Revenge, Bunker's Hill, Poca hontas, Towser, Willful Murder. These names, were engrave'd on small squares of copper plate." Thoroughly Equipped. Judge. The late Thomas B. Reed so me urn es evolved complicated Jokes, but this one of Governor LaFolle.tte'a is, as roundabout as any ot his. "I saw him." he said, "referring to one of ills political opponents 'who is celebrated for his occasional eccentricity, "sitting out In his backyard in a wagonbox which rested on the ground, quite unattached to anything. But yet he was quite ready for' a drive," "How!" asked a "friend. "If he had no animal and the .wagon had no wheels, how" "O." said LaFolIette, "the last election was a horse on him. and he has wheels in his head quite handy." Telephone Comparison. Seattle, Commonwealth. There la no large city In the world, save' Stockholm, where the telephone Is in such general use as It Is In San Francisco. In London there are only 2.02" telephones In use to every 103 of Its Inhabitants. In-Paris the ratio is L8S te every 1W, la Vienna 1.21, in New Tork 6.37, in Caristlania 5.45 and la Berlin 3.4. la saa Francisco' tne ratio la 12 to every 100 Inhabitants. 8tekhelK. has. however, a ratio of 13.7. The xtraorHsMury yalasaent sC 'ta tekfMone scvi la SUefcfcelra, mm fcn srttwiteked fcy titer taiiiatttton sjitwfua ifcfr ariTsjttiwpgU aatT a, private subject of "municipal ownership" to take the trouble to vote; but of these a clear majority favored a trial of the Idea, So the supervisors reasoned that on a full vote the city would pronounce In favor of a .government road on Geary street, and this, proceeding a step further, jus tifies them in making, an appropriation out of the current revenues with which to Inaugurate the enterprise. This, as has been previously stated, has been done $330,000 this year. and. un less a cog Is slipped. $318,000 next year. A proposition to actually begin the work of reconstruction has aroused interest among all classes of citizens along the line, and already there Is much diversity of opinion as to what sort of a- road should be built. Some consider an under ground line1 to be a pipe dream; these want to stick to the old. reliable, trolley. Others think the underground wires should bo put in the present cable con duit and that the old track should be used. Others, still, favor an entirely new structure. One thing, however, all agree on: The city must immediately purchase a site and build a power house. - That this is the real thing is demonstrated by the fact that already the price, of every available site along the line of the road has "gone up" to a dizzy alti tude. Mayor Schmltz" Is not the only politi cian who desires to go on record as favor ing the Geary-street project. Members of the Board of Public Works. Board of Education. Police Commission and the Inferior taxeaters generally are all anx ious to have It known that they are ad vocates Qf "municipal ownership," and so they attend the meetings and clamor with the rest. The engineers of the United Railroads Company have figured on an underground line on Sutter street and the lowest they can get for two and one-half miles Is 51.016,503". Dr. Hartland Law. who favors the experiment on Geary street, is said to believe that the road cannot be built and equipped for less than 51,500.000. He has' written to the Board of Supervisors his opinion that the appropriation this year should be made larger or the work proposed to be done cut down But after the road is built, what? Who will operate It? Under the -charter It Is the duty of the Board of Public Work3 not only to operate the road, but to build the superstructure. But there Is a quar rel between that body and the supervisors, and the latter have taken the business entirely out of Its hands. So, later on. It will be the duty of the Board of Public Works to operate the road. Will the supervisors also relieve It of that duty? Undoubtedly the supervisors possess the authority to do this. It has been said that In the last analysis all the powers of any government will be found to re side in Its law-making department. The supervisors are the lawmakers of San Francisco and In the management of this municipal railroad they -willX probably have their way. . ODD BITS OFJREGON LIFE - Enjoying Themselves. Long Creek Ranger. C. H. Lee. wife . and son Oscar, ara taking their annual outing on the moun tain south of town.' The year's supply of wood will be cut before they return to town. No Wonder He's a Bachelor. Castle Rock Leader. J. Newton, of Hazel Dell, went to Kelso lately. Jack Is a bachelor, but keeps house. While he was away someone, supposedly a crowd of girls, went to the" house and turned everything upside down. And now It's up to him to marry one ot them or sUe for damages, and he says the latter Is what he Is going to do. Calamitous Encounter With a Cow. Sara Corr. Vancouver Columbian. A young gentleman and a young lady from Vancouver, were enjoying a drive on our streets Sunday, and met with quite an accident. Attempting to pass a cow which was taking an afternoon siesta In the middle of the road, the recumbent bovine suddenly sprang to her feet, and In doing so demolished .one of the buecy wheels. The young couple were obliged to borrow a buggy In the neighbor hood In order to return. New Style of Barrel for Them. Starbuck Star. Frank Barr. with the assistance of Herman MIncey, essayed to lower a bar rel of sorghum molasses Into a cellar, Wednesday, and had a rather sweet and curious and withal, a provoking acci dent. The barrel got the better of them In the descent, a severe Jar resulted, and according to Mr. MIncey, "the dod durned bung-hole flew out and - splattered 'em with molasses frqm Genesis to Revela tlops." leaving both gentlemen In a very sour mood and a very sweet condition. A Friendly Rattlesnake. Madras Pioneer. One day last week Aaron Hoffman had an experience with a rattler which he will not soon forget. While sprouting pota toes in the bin near the house, he was conscious of something rubbing against his back, and glancing over his shoulders found that an Immense rattlesnake had raised Its head and was In the act of crawling up on his back. T,he sight froze the blood In his. veins and he was too .paralyzed with fear to move, and while he sat there the snake crawled over his shoulder and across his knees and Into his hiding place. When young Hoffman did recover his powers of locomotion he ran Into the house, but the reaction from the terrible fright completely prostrated him and he was unable for some little time to tell his mother the cause 'of the fright. It Is a well-known fact that the rattlesnake, unless disturbed, will not strike, but even this fact does not make him a neighbor to be enjoyed. Origin of "O. K." Settled. Boston Herald. In the Choctaw Indian language there Is a word "okeh." which means. "It Is cor rect." or "I agree or approve." It la often used alone to give assent Or approval' to a suggestion of proposal.. "Okeh" was in common use among whites who had deal ings with the Choctaws mors than 30 years before the Van Buren campaign. It was a convenlent.expresslon where par ties understood each other's language Im perfectly, and was used to mean. " un derstand you ' and -approve of what you say," or T understood your statement and vouch for Its correctness." A Noiseless Patrolt. - Exchange. . When freedom from Jier mountain height Unfurls her standard to the ajr. And tears the robe of night and day Beyond, 't would alraosf seers, repair ' Unlike the stars of glory, I Shall not be there shall not tee there. When cannon crackers split their sides. And pinwheels spin and rackets xlara, "vTben bombs explode and miaea erupt. And rowan-candles Axx aHd'aare Unlike the roaaa-caadle, I Shall not be there shall' sot tea there. Let paadeaiomiaia break loose; Let caftans roar ami brass 'band "Mare. While TroQaesa; tears tbe'wetkia's robe And Oratory saws the- air. I'm gla t say that tiK'ow, , Shall Mfc be Jthr sll aet i there. (llklls aIp.)'J