12 THE IKTRXIXO OREGOXIAN. THURSDAY, APRIL, 7, 1910. rOKILAXD, OREGON. Kntered at Portland. Oregon. Postofflce as Ceeond-Ciasa flatter. Cubscriptiun Rates Invariably In Advance. (BY MAIL.) rmlly. Sunday Included, one year 0? I'ftily. Sundav lr.pluri-.L nix monies. .. 4.-- Iai;y. Sunday included, three mntUa- . laly. Sunday included, one montn..... I'ally. without Sunday, one year .75 .00 xajiy. witnout Sunday, six montns.... -Pally, without Sunday, three months 1. paily, without Sunday, one month - Weekly, one year J- Funday, ona year 2. fcuLday and 'weekly, one year (By Carrier.) Tally. Sunday included, one year lally. Sunday included, one month -- How to ltemit Send Postofflce money order, express order or personal check on your local bank. Stamps, com or currency are at the sender's risk. Give postoffice ad dress In full. Including county and state. PfMtsse Kate lo to 14 partes. 1 cent: 16 to 28 pages. 2 cents: 30 to 4'J paKes. 3 cents: 40 to 00 pages. 4 cents. Foreign postage double rate. Eastern Business Office The S. C. Heck with Special Apency New York, rooms 4 ' CO Tribune building. Cbicagu. rooms MO-512 Tribune building. PORTLAND, THL'HSDAV, APRIL 7, 1910. IS THE FTJ-TKENTII AMKSDMENT AUK? The Democrats of the state of Maryland are much exercised in spirit because they never have been able to disfranchise the negroes. They look with envious eyes upon their fel low partymen farther south who by "srandf a t her clauses,' fake educa tional requirements and the like have managed to deprive the blacks of their votes in spite of the fifteenth amend ment to the Federal constitution and they groan in perpetual apnny because they have not yet been able to follow their example. Two successive amend ments to the state constitution have been submitted to the people by the Maryland Democrats for this exalted purpose but both hive, with almost inconceivable perversity, been reject ed. The feeling grows' amnng the Democratic leaders of the state that something out of the ordinary must be done. The affair must be taken out of the hands of the people in one "way or another and naturally they look to the lawyers to discover a method of doing; it. By what seems to be a direct inter vention of Providence a great man has arisen to meet the dir? emergency. His name is Arthur W. Machen, Jr. By the exercise of a legal acumen which appears to be superhuman and may even be divine,. Mr. Machen has reached the conclusion that the fed eral constitution is unconstitutional, (saint Theresa praying for the con version of the Pope is as nothing compared to Mr. Machen impeaching the constitutionality of the constitu tion. The sublimity of his concept ap pals one. Lest the reader should find It too overwhelming, we hasten to Bay that it is not the entire constitu tion which Mr. Machen believes to be unconstitutional, but only a part of it, to tell the truth a very small part, namely the fifteenth amendment. P,y a marvelous coincidence it is just that part which safeguards the rljrht of the negroes to vote. With this incon venient, and as it appears, illegitimate fragment of the sacred document elim inated, nothing would stand in the way of the disfranchisement of the blacks and the everlasting dominion of the Democrats over the vordured hills and grassy vales of Maryland. It Is well, perhaps, to aid the explana tory remark that pretty nearly all the pegroes who are green walled by the hills of Maryland are Republicans. It follows naturally that they have no (Tight to vote from the general prin ciples of ethics. ; Mr. Machen assails the fifteenth amendment with an astonishing pha lanx of lawyers' arguments, all based on the clause in the constitution which Bays that no state shall be deprived pf its equal representation in the Pen Ate without its consent. The fifteenth (Intendment, he contends, deprived Maryland of its equal representation In the Senate anil to that amendment Maryland never agreed. Hence these tears. How was the deprivation ac complished? Perpend. A 'state," in the meaning of the constitution, is tieither more nor less than the people Of . that state. W hen the fifteenth amendment enfranchised the negroes It added a huge new body to the people of Maryland and thus deprived the old electorate of part of its rep resentation in the Senate without its consent. It may be proper to interpolate here the Information that Mr. Machen is not crazy. He is a lawyer in active nd Mjccessful practice and his attack n the fifteenth amendment wa.s pun ished in the Harvard I.inv Review. Nothing could be more nspcctn'nie. or Store, foolish. The fifteenth aiuend taient was added to the constitution $n a perfectly regular way and like 911 the oilier amendments it binds the States which i :d not agree to it as well as those which did. I'nder any other supposition each amendment would be Valid only in these states which voted tor it. A lovely condition of things would ensue if the proposition were admitted. It is nullification and seces sion all over again. As the Spring field Republican remarks. if Mr. Machen is right, the t'lvil war might as well never have been fought, for its results amount to nothing at all. Jt la hardly likely that the Supreme Court is ready Just yet to cancel the results of the struggle between the North and South to gratify the Demo crats of Maryland and please the in genious fancy of a partisan lawyer. MIIS1IY I.OltltY lAI'OSK.I). J It is interesting In tho extreme to pote that the only tangible evidence if the presence at Washington of a paid lobby in connection with a ship subsidy hill discloses the subsldy-seek-rrs as the culprits. That immense sums have been spent by some secret agency behind the plan hVs for years been , apparent through the vast amounts of costly liter;! ture circulated in the interest of the graft. The ab sence of any organised effort to light the iniquitous measure by means of a lobby, or otherwise, emboldened the grafters to such an extent that they have gone too far in their vilification of those who are not in favor of taxing the people for the benefit of a few millionaire ship-owners. The attack of Mr. Penten. paid put licity agent of the subsidy forces, on Representatives Steenerson and Kus termftnn "was po brutal and uncalled for that it has had the good effect of exposing the shady methods -of the ship-subsidy lobby and eventually may bring to light the sources from which the apparently mexhausiible supply of funds is coming. Unfor tunately for the cause of American shipping, the present disgraceful at tempt to influence legislation by coer cion, threats and other unlawful meth ods does not establish a precedent in ship-subsidy bribery and corruption. As far back a .'IS "2, when the Pacific Mail Steamship Company secured its. first subsidy, it developed in a subse quent investigation that the directors of the company had actually approved an appropriation of $1,000,000 for use in securing the passage of "a subsidy bill. This was nearly forty years ago. The trusts that are most interested in passage of the present ship-subsidy bill are colossal affairs in comparison with the one company which set aside a million-dollar - "shrsh fund" forty years ago. Whatever may be the out come of the libel suit against Mr. Fen ton, the attacked members of Con gress, who have exposed the nefarious methods of the subsidy trust, have performed a service of- great value to the country. INEKADirABLE VILLAINY. Xow, everybody knows, and every body has known, this many and many a year, that the attack on George H. WUHanis, in Oregon and at Washing ton, when he was Attorney-General, and when President Grant named him for Chief Justice, had its origin in the venom and mendacity of vicious minds. The attack on Richard A. Rallinger Is of the same description, but less vehement and venomous; be cause scoundrelism now. rife as it is. can't quite reach the heights of its pretensions then. These assailants and calumniators appear at every stage in the history of democracy. They revib 1 Washing ton; they reviled Lincoln. They would revile the Lord from heaven. It is their nature; for they can fmly live and breed in muck and ordure, after their kind, as other coprophagi. These creatures, of the human kind, always disgusting to decent 'sensibili ties in their own time, and damned in history whenever it carries their names to posterity, rrobab!y wlil exist in every age nnd time. They are in eradicable diseases of the body politic, loathsome, yet having power of propa gation in the villainies of human na ture, as maggots breed in a carcass under -warmth of the sun. Some of these creatures in Portland, who defamed Oregon's greatest citi zen when he was Mayor of Portland, and asserted that he was in league with all possible and imaginary cor ruption and wroyig. have recently been professing greate-st veneration for his character and his name. But it is not surprising. Yet the wolves that pull down the horse or stag have belter morals. At least they can't be taxed with hypocrisy. lAI'ANSION ALWAYS HAS FOES, Often nowadays one hears that trade in the Orient is not worth the statesmanship of Hay and Knox and that expansion of American influence in the Orient will not return the price of the effort. This may or may not bo true. The trend of American ex pansion indicates that it may not bo true. The observer can loarn from history that it is precarious to proph esy gloomy things about the spread of America westward. When Britain was "negotiating a treaty with the United States for pos session of that part of Washington now comprised in the State of Wash ington, it had proph' ts who declared the -N'orlh Pacific Coast not worth Britain's keeping.- On the American side were near-sighted statesmen who asserted the same for their nation. Commander Gordon. brother of Aberdeen, then War Minister of Eng land, "would not give tho bleakest knoll on the bleakest hill of Scot land for all these mountains in a heap," anil Gordon knew because he had spent more than a year on Colum bia River. So, too, spJd Lieutenant William Peel, son of England's pre mier, for the younger Peel had been with Gordon and also knew the coun try. In the United States the country beyond the Rocky Mountains was de clared in Congress unfit for any Amer ican citizen to live in except as a place of punishment. The land was too far away to be of any use and talk of connection by steam witli the Co lumbia River was absurdity. , But -the United States gained hold and Britain lost. The one has been glad ever since and t: e other has been sorry. So that international pother about affairs on the Pacific Ocean and its border lands have cost dear thus far only the nations that thought the lands anil the ocean not worth striving for. WATKIIWAYS ASH Jt VI I.IWAIIS. In the current number of the World's Aork, James J. Hill con cludes his interesting series of articles on "Highways of Progress." In this article he discusses the future of our waterways and reiterates his former statements that the interests of the railroads and the. waterways are not antagonistic. Mr. Hill advocates establishment of a permanent com mission to carry out a comprehen sive plan for development of trunk lines, first on a scale that would make them "real carriers of commtnve" in stead of artificially supported enter prises of doubtful utility. He would give this commission authority to ex pend regular appropriations for river and harbor work. In commenting on failure of water transportation to hold its own iigainst the railroad. Mr. Hill asserts that the charges- on the water--ways 'have not been low enough to offset the advantages of speed and certainty of delivery by rail. In this connection Mr. Hill presents a plausible reason why the waterways of Germany, so often held up as an example of ompotirion. are 'enabled to wrest so much business from the itate-owned railrouds of that country. He quotes a report made to the Chi cago Harbor, Commission by Dr. George C. Tunell, in which it is stated that "the average freight rate per ton per mile on the United Prussian and Hessian State Railroads during 1906 was 13.41 mills, while the aver age rate, in the United States was but 7.4 S mills. Unlike the railroads of Kurope; those of this country compete vigorously with the water carriers for even the lowest kind of traffic. The average rate on coal and coke on the United Prussian and Hessian State Railways in l'.'OS was 9.70 mills; on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway it was but 3.27 mills." From these figures it will be noted that the water carriers in Germany have a much greater leeway for cut ting rates than American water car riers could possibly have, with the much lower rail rates prevailing in this country. While Mr. hill is undoubted- sincere in his friendly senti ment toward the waterways of the country, his views are at variance with those of a great -many other railroad men in other parts of the country. Waterway improvement has nearly al ways been antagonized by the rail roads. Even along the upper and middle Columbia River the railroads opposed all river improvements for many years, although their own exper ience with steamboats between Celilo and Lewiston had "proved that the boats could not successfully compete with the railroads at the rates now in effect. ' Mr. Hill takes the position that rap idly increasing industrial development will soon make the traffic burden so heavy that the railroads will be un able to bear it unaided. This pres sure, he insists, should be relieved by increasing the efficiency of our rivers and also by improving terminal facili ties where the river carriers load and discharge freight. The article through out is a much stronger plea for the waterways of the country than one might expect from a man who has for so long been closely identified with the greatest competitor of the boats. IR. ALLEN'S WINE tALfl LATIOX, Twenty-two hundred an acre seems at firrst glance to be a very high price for agricultural land of any sort. The unwary will declare in their haste no doubt that Dr. Allen, of Massa chusetts, made a big blunder in paying at that -rate for his cosy Hood River orchard, but a little piece of calcula tion will set them- right. It is not a very remarkable thing for an orchard to pay a net profit of $400 an acre. Many acres near Hood River pay a good deal more than that sum. Ten per cent, of $2200 is only $220, so that the orchard which Dr. Allen has bought may be expected to return something like 20 per cent on his investment. When we remem ber that the best bonds nowadays pay sea rcoly more than five per cent it will be seen that he has done fairly wcil -with his money. The transaction will look better still when it is taken into account that his orchard does not depend on the stability of any bank or the shrewd ness of any railroad management for its value. Bankruptcy cannot injure it, nor high finance assail. Clearly Dr. Allen understands a thing or two besides .therapeutics and - anatomy. W1IAT ONE SENATOR HAS DONE, Senator Lodge, of Massachusetts, has secured adoption of an amend ment to the river and harbor bill pro hibiting opening of the draws in bridges across the Charles river and Fort PoiiJ: Channel, Boston, during rush hours. Boston is a great sea port, ani there is an immense volume of coastwise - and foreign shipping moving through these draws day and night. But Boston apparently thinks that the rights of a few hundred thou sand people who dwe.l in the city are entitled to. some consideration, even if it is necessary to divide the incon venience of a draw- bridge between the people and the vessel masters and owners. Of course the inconvenience which the shipping passing through Portland's bridge draws would suffer in the course of a day if the draws were closed for a few hours, would be inconsequential in comparison with that of Boston, but the improvement would be just as welcome to the de layed and vexed Portlanders as it witl be to the Bostonians. Senator Bourne, of Portland, is a member of the -commerce committee wVioh adopted the resolution afford ing Boston this great relief, but it is not in evidence that he made any at tempt to secure similar relief for Portland. There is a possibility that the requirements of the Golf - club, or the mailing list of Statement No. 1 voters are taking up so muc'h of his time that the vexatious and unneces sary delays of 200.000 Portlanders cannot well be considered at this time. Xow that Senator Lodge has dem onstrated that the Government actu ally can do the fa'ir thing by the peo ple, some of our closed-draw enthusi asts might endeavor to enlist the serv ices of the Senator from Massachu setts. If they do not decide to appeal direct to Senator Lodge, they might join in the purchase of an alarm eloe'i for Senator Bourne. . . t Ol (.US, f(ILl)S A'D, CONSl'M PTION. If the Is'ew York doctors are to be believed, people suffer from colds a great deal more than they need. A number of them discoursed to an au dience of mothers y pon this pertinent subject the other day, according to the Xew York Times, and gave them val uable advice which ought to be known to everybody. The best remedy for a cold that is, for a common cold seems to be a stream of tepid water with a little salt in it. The water is permitted to How into one nostril and out at the other. . It washes away the germs which are the real caise of the cold anil aids the mucus membranes to resume their normal condition. This is a great improvement over cat nip tea, cayenne pepper, mustard plasters and most of the other old time remedies for colds. It is so sim ple, and probably so effectual, that it is not likely to be used very widely. People like a little mystery and some ceremony mingled with, their merlica ments. If a cold could be cured hy merely sni fling at a piece of rock salt, many would stiil prefer to treat it with smartweed tea and a night sweat. The pomp of a cure is to most peo ple its greatest charm. If the pomp is absent they have no faith in the cure. That is one reason why doc tors habitually shroud themselves with regal state and imposing ceremonial. The Xew York physicians, explain ing the origin of colds, lay a good deal of stress on drafts. "Keep out of drafts," they told the assembled mothers on the occasion which we have mentioned, "and your nose will never trouble you." The difficulty in applying this precept practically is that -we cannot keep cut of drafts. The more one shu-is them the more dangerous thc-y become, because when they do strike, as they certainly will in the end. their insidious power is re doubled by the coddling we have given ourselves. One of the physicians who sjioke at the Xew York mothers' meeting illustrates this point beauti fully. The poor thin- confessed that site caught cold whenever a draft touched her feet. This is a pitiable condition for a human being to lapse into. That physician ought to have been ashamed to disclose what her system of pampering herself had led to. A person who is normally hard ened by xposure can sit in drafts with perfect safety. They are a nat ural circumstance in the world we in habit, and they become dangerous only when s e are improperly prepared for them. At this meeting another wretched being was cited who caught cold from the draft on his wrists whenever he put his hands In his pockets. The consequences of exces sive coddling could hardly be better demonstrated. The way -a draft acts to cause a cold is easy to understand. It cools the surface which it strikes and thus drives the blood to the interior of the body. The inrush of tlood expands the inner lining of the cavities, opens its pores and admits the microbes which are forever swarming about seeking what they may devour. Once Inside the membranes, they begin their work of destruction. The log ical conclusion seems to be that as often as we are hit by a draft we must expect to catch cold, but reflection discloses that this is erroneous. In the first place, it Is not necessary to have the insides of our bodies swarm ing with deadly microbes. They gather there because we breathe im pure air. devour indigestible food and too much of it, and commit other sins against internal cleanliness, which is vastly more important than mere ex ternal baths. The latter have been erected into a fetich by modern soci ety, but the idol is only clay and is bound to crumble before long. If we used half the energy In keeping the insides of our bodies clean which we spend in soaping and scrubbing the outsides, we should live longer and more happily. Unfortunately, a dirty skin is visible, while a foul stomach can be concealed. Therefore our out- ( sides are diligently washed while the stomach wallows in filth. No sin is a sin as long as it can be kept out of sight.. . In the second place. It is not neces sary that the. internal membranes should be so extremely sensitive to in rushes of blood as the Xew York phy sicians seem to believe. By properly exposing our bodies to cold air, espe cially to pure cold air, we can accus tom the lining surfaces to an occa sional .surplus of blood. We- can harden them so that they will not open doors for the microbes to scud through every time a draft strikes the feet or wrists. The gospel of over protection is as full of evil In medi cine as in economics. People protect themselves too much already. When Arctic explorers are traveling over the polar ice, exposed night and day to the severest extremes of cold and breathing frigid air constantly, they never thjnk r . catching cold. But as soon as they return to what is iron ically called "civilization" and take to coddling themselves, they almost in variably begin to sneeze and snuffle. When Indian youths are brought In from their tepees to the close rooms of the Government schools, the chances seem to be about even that they will die of tuberculosis. The best modern teaching on the subject of colds is to cure them by not taking them, and the best way not to take them is to give the body a gener ous supply of pure air and sunlight, with a moderate supply of simple food. The probability is that if we wore no clothing, had no houses but open sheds and no food but what each per son cooked for himself, we should never hear of such a thing as a cold. Whether the gain would outweigh the loss is another rftiestion. A summary of the condition of Portland's Xational banks, as printed in The Oregonian yesterday, makes a remarkably favorable showing. A gain of .more than 27 per cent in deposits in 11 months, with corre sponding prosperity reflected in the other items in the statement,. Is in keeping with the favorable statistics in other branches of business in this city. As the .outlook for the future in every branch of business or Indus try is much brighter than ever before in the history of the city, we may reasonably expect this favorable show ing to be steadily improved through out the year. There are so many great industrial enterprises actually under .way and so much new capital coming into the country that It would be almost impossible to check the record upward movement that is now in evidence not only in Portland, but throughout Portland territory, in Ore gon, Washingto'n and Idaho. From a picturesque standpoint, na ture made few mistakes in moulding the stage settings for Portland; but modern requirements of business have made it necessary to "make over'.' a considerable portion of the territory adjacent to this city. Down on the peninsula the Harriman forces are driving a tunnel under the Ports mouth hill, and a little farther down, on the opposite side of the river, the Hill forces are to build a tunnel through to the Tualatin valley. The river, as nature left it, was not exactly suited to our demands, and the Port of Portland is straightening It out and deepening the water. We are also cut ting down hills in some parts of the city, and filling up valleys elsewhere. This remodeling, however, can all be accomplished without robbing the city of its natural beauties. When the streets are all improved and the roses at a blooming age, Portland will be prettier than ever, which, as it stands, is a. strong statement. Ex-Presidents and widows of ex Presidents are given the franking privilege in a bill that passed the House yesterday. How about the wife of an ex-President? Must she wait until -she is a widow? A woman mistook the moon, for the comet and became greatly excited. This seems incredulous to persons who in sentimental youth have become ac quainted with night's luminary. Some statesmen think battleship money would better be spent on roads. Then when the enemy comes it will have unobstructed and easy transit all about. Senator Bourne has abandoned his absent-treatment homestead bill as impracticable. His collection of also ran bills is growing. The only sovereign T. R. obeys is the American people. Won't that sound fine when he runs for office again ? - Many a tribute paid the dead was owing before life and the means of appreciating the tribute were taken away. Not all agents of sailors' unions are wholesale murderers, but now and then one seems to be the limit. "Xow we see what a tough time the beasts in the African jungles have been, having. Now that T. R. has shut out the Methodists, the noise Is louder yet. HERE'S RICH STIFF ABOUT T. R. Relijchtf uI Comment on America's Fore most Citizen. Harper's Weekly. The joke is on us. When we saw the big headline on the front page of the World. "HERO. ABANDONED. STARV ING, KEPT BEACON BURNING." the suspicion never crossed our mind that It might be Somebody Else. But it was a mere llghthousekeeper of the name of Loughborough, or something like that. Well, anyhow, there were other things of passionate interest in another part of .the paper about' Himself. We never feel very confident of the accuracy of war correspondents, but from what we read and we read It all we Judge that he hasn't changed much. Thank God for that! We confess that we were troubled by that report of whiskers sprouting. But the minute our eyes lit upon "the follow ing statement for publication," namely, "I have nothing to say and will have nothing to say," as a preface to quite a long talk, we knew that everything was all right. This Impression, too. was con firmed by the further blunt and unequivo cal declaration that anything he had said, would, might, or should say in the future, "can be accepted as false as soon as it appears." That marked the condition of the impatient as normal. Well, sir, he got out Just in the nick of time. Naturally he did not feel like talking freely, but the insinuating Mn O'Laughlin, war correspondent of the New York Times and Chicago Tribune, managed to worm out of him a truly thrilling account of an adventure which took place the day before he left that makes one's hair stand on end. It seems that some foolhardy elephant was about to attack him In a jungle. With careless mien he stepped forward, and drawing a. painstaking bead, he plunked the hide ous beast in the left eye. Its carcass is said to be one of the finest specimens. But, be that as it may, another "bull ele phant" that is the only kind they raise there "dashed at him. touching him with its trunk as it passed." Mind you; Its trunk, not Its tail, as plainly appears from the observation taken later by Lieu-tenant-Colonei Mearns, showing that the desperate and despicable creature was moving south by southeast. "The hunter saved himself by a quick Jump behind a tree." Another account says "up," but we guess "behind" is right. If that wasn't a close squeeze,' what was It? Well, anyhow, he then began his jour ney homeward bound, "during which he struggled afoot through a thick Jungle under the burning equatorial sun, 14 hours the first day, 13 the second, and 12 the third. There wasn't any fourth. He had arrived. On the way he picked up a white-eared kob, a shoe-horn stork, and a dikdik. The others got nothing. They came by train. Egypt was waiting. It is'a way Egypt has. On the banks were colored gentlemen clad in feathers and colored ladles clad in smiles. There was nothing particular to talk about, so he passed the morning writing a few books, finally reaching his destination at early dusk. He entered Khartoum, according to the war correspondent of the World, who, by the way, is a liar, "with his usual self-confidence," only to find the stupid authorities wabbling about like a lot of headless hens. "We assume," said Slatin Pasha, "that he does not want a public demonstration; consequently," etc., etc. Did one ever hear, the like? We have no wish to stir up trouble, but frankly we must say that we have no patience with such persons. However, another Pasha, appropriately named Say ing or Said or Having Said, came out to meet him with a bunch of Egyptians and the unhappy incident was passed over with the customary silence. The first real speech made for publica tion was delivered with emphasis on the following day. It was a lallapaloosa. The natives were informed that they were blessed by British rule and ought to be glad of it, by George! "Every word," writes Mr. Lambert, war corre spondent of the American, "was snapped out with every ounce of his energy and every syllable was emphasized with a Jerk of the clenched fist." That made the lazy beggars sit up and take notice. We suspect it was the first time they even heard a real orator. Our own Peer less Leader was down that way once, but his oily harangues were as zephyrs to a cyclone compared with this burst of in tellectual endeavor. Many experienced a decided uplift. Others didn't. Sheik All Youssef in par ticular, the head of. the Constitutional Nationalists, manifested a distinctly querulous disposition. He did not think his conquered people were getting a square deal out of unqualified commenda tion of British 'rule in the Soudan. He 'even went so far as to suggest that mix ing up In their -politics at a critical time was unwise and calculated to do harm. "Another view-point, however," says the war correspondent of the A. P., "is that judgment should be withheld until results show whether his speech was rash or succeeds by its very daring." That strikes us as the proper sentiment. It will be ail right, we are sure. Anyway, people who don't know their own business ought to be told, and the sooner they learn that the better. ' In the evening he was greeted at the palace with a fanfare of trumpets, walked up to the throne and sat down. The nig gers brought in some sandwiches and luncheon was served to the Khedive and his guest. - Rippling conversation ensued for an hour. The Khedive listened. He is a most accomplished linguist and lis tens perfectly in English. He really need not' have done so, because, although the fact is not generally known, our Hero speaks Khedive fluently. We await re ports of further doings without anxiety. He is armed to the teeth. Reflection off a Bachelor. New York Press. Most people never forget to pose except when they are home with the family. About the time a man has gone broke on an automobile he has learned a little about running one. A man can easily get an idea he wants to do something for the world if a good salary goes with it- You can tell a woman who has a na tural complexion by the way those who haven't hate her for it. A girl likes to have a man give ber flowers; but she likes a thousand times more to have him beg for one back to carry in his watch case. Triable to Burn Up. Chicago Record-Herald. Gifford Pinehot has gone over to Eu rope to tell Roosevelt all about It, and Ballinger may as well get ready to have Ice applied to his ears." But Not Rooset-elt. Washington Herald. What Mr Roosevelt is going to do po litically in the future seems to be a mat ter of worry to a large number of peo ple, not Including Mr. Roosevelt, how ever. ' ONE PORTLAND MAX ABROAD. Xew York Paper' Description of a Notable Event. " New York Times. April 1. Wearing many diamonds, his fare wreathed in smiles and his big touring car stored in the hold, John Matthiesen. who came to this country In 1887. sailed yesterday on the North German Lloyd liner George Washington with his wife and son Edward to see his native land from the seat of his touring car. When he left Germany there were many places he had never seen. Now he satisfies a life-long ambition. Matthiesen is the proprietor of the Hotel Zur Rheinpfalz. in Portland, Or. He and his family are traveling in the second cabin. He and his wife had one stateroom, his son another, and a third was full of baggage. He is rotund and of pleasing address, and in every link of his massive watch chain that stretched from vest pocket to vest pocket a diamond was set. Matthiesen had many more pieces of jewelry, and he was told that he had better register his I property with the customs officials to avoid trouble over the duty when he returns, but he did not think this was necessary, exhibit ing bills to show that every piece had been purchased on this side. When Mr. Matthiesen went to the of fice of the line to make arrangements for shipping his automobile the of ficials could not find his name on the booking list. The agent was apologiz ing when the hotelkeeper told them it was in the second cabin. He ex plained that he went second cabin by choice, because he did . not like those who travel first class. "I am making this voyage for pleas ure alone, and I am going to travel In my own way," he said. "I am not much on style. I don't want to dress for dinner, and I want to be in a place where if I don't dress the others won't criticise me. No. sir. I am going second class and I am going in comfort. "Out West I have my meals served the way I want them. I don't propose to sit down tcVeat and have a waiter come in Juggling a bit of Frenchified cooking, then wait 20 minutes for him to bring another mouthful. No Installment-plan meals for me; I want as much as I want, and all at once. That's my style." Mattheisen ' beams good nature. Speaking of his trip he said: "Me and the wife are going to have a great time. When I was In Germany I never saw much of the country. If I visited a nearby town I had to walk there and back. Now I can afford to go back and see things the right way. Instead of walking we will travel in an automobile." New York is a much finer, place now than when he was last here, according to Mr. Mattheisen, but he rather de plored that it was growing up Instead of spreading out. Before going to- the steamer he took his wife and son down to West street to see one of the old horse cars. The car. he explained, was not the attraction, but he wanted them to see a horse car with a stove In It. They took a ride In one of the cars. The Oregon man was frank in speak ing of his money. He admitted he had $20,000 worth of Jewelry. He said he came here a poor young man in 1887. went to Oregon and took up a home stead in the Hood River section. The property became so valuable that he sold it for $72,000. This was his start. He went to Portland, became a hotel proprietor, and prospered. He modestly declined to state-the amount of his fortune, but admitted it , would keep him from want. HOW TO KILE OFF DANDELION. Gasoline Applied as This Writer Directs Annihilates the Pest. PORTLAND, April 5. (To the Editor.) It may be of interest to persons annoyed with the dandelion (taraxacum) to know that an application of gasoline destroys it. The dandelion is the most per sistent pest in lawns known on this Coast. The plague Is everywhere. At the end of two years in average Oregon soil the root Is 12 to 16 inches long. Digging does not eradicate them, as a bit of root an inch or two long left in the ground in a short time sends up a smiling yellow blossom, which soon ripens its seeds, each seed having a cotton-like covering constituting wings, by which one plant starts a hun dred or more all over the neighborhood. For 12 years in this city, with crow bar, pick and shovel, kerosene, salt and boiling water, have I tried in vain to get rid of the dandelion. Last Summer I treated a few of them to a dose of gaso line with gratifying results. But gaso line is a bad thing to use about a lawn, as It kills all the grass It touches. To avoid this, I now use a three-quarter-inch bit of gas pipe, three fet long, which Is placed directly on the center of the dandelion. Into the upper end of this gas pipe is poured from the spout of a little pitcher a teaspoonful of the fluid. This arrangement prevents the gasoline spreading on the grass. In 24 hours or so, .the dandelion thus treated, turns to a sickly purple, and the end is near. One gallon of gasoline will kill hundreds of plants. C. E. CLINE. As the Eastern Man Seen It. New England Grocer. We recognize without qualification the superiority of the Western apples with regard to size, style and general beauty of the fruit. There Is no ques tion about It. but when it comes to flavor there is no apple grown west of the Hudson River which will compare for a moment with the New England grown apple. Western apples are to the New England palate flavorless and Inclined to be "punky." The Eastern apple-growers do not consider them selves in competition with the Western grown fruit for the very reason named. For instance, no one wanting a barrel of New England Baldwin or Northern Spy apples would think of taking in stead Western apples, so that there cannot be any real competition. The Western box apples are popular in New England at a certain season when New England apples for seasonable use are scarce. Very Practical, Indeed. Yakima Republic. William S. U'Ren. of Oregon City, Or., writes to us saying that In his state the people have adopted "practical methods of selecting their United States Senators." From a Democratic standpoint they are probably the most practical methods ever devised, he might have added in order to make his statement Ynore, impressive. They have enabled the Democrats, who are only about one-fourth of the popu lation, to elect two United States Sena tors, one of whom belongs to 'their own party. . His Middle Name Hla Fortune. St. Paul Dispatch. Thomas Fortune Ryan ts a candidate for the United States Senate from Vir ginia. We take it for granted that he is making the campaign on the strength of his middle name. Learnlns From Cataloamea. , Washington Herald. "A fellow can pick up, some useful in formation from these seed catalogues." "How now?" "I have Just discovered that succotash isn't a regular vegetable." What Democracy Needs. Charleston News and Courier. It is easy enough to discover Harmon, but what we want to find is harmony. Not Mr. Payne. Springfield (Mass-) Republican. It is a pertinent question who is the Republican leader of the House? Name him, if you can. LIFE'S SUNNY SIDE The judge stared hard at the accused man. "You are charged." be said, "with rob bing a Hmburger cheese factory. Have -you anything to say?" "Judge." the prisoner hoarsely replied. "I was driven to it by hunger." The Judge shook his head portentously. "Six months at hard labor, for the lar ceny, and six months for the excuse." he growled. "Call the next case." Cleve land Plain Dealer. . . V One of the stories Justice Brewer was so fond of telling was used by him to show high regard for the law of Kansas. Justice Brewer related that a Justice of the peace owned a farm in Kansas that bordered on Missouri. One day the Justice was sitting on a fence, built di rectly on the state line, superintending some work his son and a farm hand were doing. The son and his companion en gaged In a dispute which ended in a fist fight. The justice of the peace. Justice Brewer would explain, watched the en counter for a few minutes and then shouted in a loud voice: "Gentlemen, in the name of tho law of the state of Kansas and by virtue of my authority, I command you to desist." "Just then the rail broke." continued Justice Brewer, "and the justice of the peace landed in Missouri. Arising to his feet, he exclaimed: ' "Give him son; I hav lost my jurisdiction." " Kansas City Journal. Professor William Frear. of the Penn sylvania State College," said Hermann B. Winter, of Philadelphia, who Is at the Arlington, "not so very long ago dis cussed in Harrisburg the 83 kinds of brkfast foods that he recently tested for the Government. " "Most of them were very good," said Professor Frear. The taste test in most cases was pleasure rather than work. To make work out of It would be to act like a little boy I knew in Bellefonte. " 'This little boy's mother went the other day to a reception, leaving the baby in Jimmy's care. With an Injured look Jimmy said on her return: "Mamma. 1 wish you wouldn't make me mind the baby again. He was so bad that I had to eat two mince pies ami half the fruit cake to amuse him." Washington Herald. A group of Scotch lawyers were me convivially at an Ayrshire Inn one cold evening last December. The conversa tion turned upon pronunciations. "Now, I," said one of the barristers, "always say neether, while John, -here, says ny.ether. What do you say. Sandy?" The hot tipple had made Sandy doze, and at the sudden question he aroused and replied. "1? Oh, I say whuskey." Lippincott's. . "In a certain country of Arkansas a man named Walters was put on trial for stealing a watch." said Frank J. Jenkins, of Little Rock, at'the Riggs. "The evidence had been conflicting, and as the jury retired the judge remarked, suavely, that if he could afford any as sistance in the way of smoothing out possible difficulties he should be, most happy to do so. "Eleven of the jurors had filed out of the box. but the twelfth remained, and there was on his countenance an expres sion indicating great perplexity. "Is there any question you would like to ask me before you retire?" asked, his honor, observing the juror's hesitancy. . "The. man's face brightened. 'Yes. your , honor,' he replied, eagerly. 'I'd like- to j know, your honor, whether the prisoner -, really stole the watch." " Washington Post. "Doctor," said the young man with the -jingling pockets, "I have come to thank you for your valuable medicine." "So it helped you, did lt?"repUed the doctor, smiling. "I am very glad." . The young man nodded. - "It helped me wonderfully," he said. ' "And how many bottles did you take?"' Inquired the medico. "Oh, I didn't take any of it!" replied young fur coat. "But uncle took one bottle, and now I am his sole heir." JAPAN'S VIEW OF IT. -And the Method of Her AnolOfretto. PORTLAND, Or.. April 6. (To the Ed itor.) It Is far from fact that "Japan pretends that Corea remains an inde pendent nation." as The Oregonian puts it In the editorial of April 6. Japan made strenuous efforts for more than two scores of years, until the Russia-Japan war, to make Corea an Independent na tion sufficiently strong to liberate- herself from foreign intrigues dangerous to Ja pan's existence. Corea did not prove herself capable of doing this, and after the Russia-Japan war, Japan declared to the whole world In most explicit and def inite terms that Corea shall be made Japan's protectorate. This was stipu lated in the Portsmoth treaty and was clearly stated in official communiques to the powers, which' subsequently led to the treaty between Corea and Japan of November 17, 1905. Under these cir cumstances Japan never since pretends that Corea is an independent nation, but Insists that Corea is a protectorate. This action of Japan was and remains fully Justified on reason of necessity to preserve Japan's national existence. The right to preserve one's own existence, or, . in other words, the right of self defense under certain circumstances, holds good equally to an individual as - well as a nation. Suppose, for Instance, that a neighbor's house was set in flames on account of the neighbor's flagrant negligence to keep the house in order. What, in this case, should be the right and duty of the fire department, or in absenoe of such public Institution, of a man living next door? He is fully Justified In taking every nnKslble measure or action necessary to get the flames under control and In order to keep his own house from conflagra tion. There is at present no fire de partment in the community of nations, and every member of the family of na tions Is Justified to perform the duty of the fire department for himself. What Japan did and is still doing toward Co rea is nothing more than the man under" the same circumstances. This Is not at all "subterfuge" nor "diplomatic circum locution," as The Oregonian .puts It. Nor Japan is an aggressive nation any more than a modest mistress. Y. NUMANO. Ralslna- Something Elae. Kansas City Star. -. The House has consented to the plan to raise the Maine. The House Is willing to have anything laised in preference to what the insurgents have been raising, i The Musical Lawn Mower. (A New Jersey man has Invented an attach ment to & lawn mower, which will produce. muKic while the sraas Is belnr cut. News Nots.) Denver Republican. Oh. give back the days of the old-fashioned clatter. When, at the first peep of ths dawn. Your neighbor you called him as mad as a h&tter "Went mowing- his long-whiskered lawn; For now he's "improved" It with themes op eratic That complicate matters anew. And the 4e,nKuae you hurl Is both loud and emphatic . ' As tho tunes of the mowing 'reach you. Ke begin with a scens from some standby from "Verdi, , Which drowns out the click of tho blades. And h ttfrns on a bit from old "Carmen." so sturdy. When he trims off the terrace's grades; And you .toss on your bed and your, curs at Puoclni. And you wish to see quartered and drawn Ths neighbor of your s, who so low-down and j mean ho Makes music while mowing the lawn.