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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 10, 1905)
THE SUNDAY OBEG OXIAX, PORTLAND, SEPTE3IBEB 10, 1905. Entered at the. Postofflee at Portland. Or., as second-class matter. SUBSCRIPTION RATES. INVARIABLY IN ADVANCE. m Vaft nr Pttimu 1 Dally and Bunday. per yetr (9.00 ' Dally and Sunday, six month.. &.00 Dally and Sunday, three months... ...... 2.&S Daily and Sunday, cer month.......... .M Sally -without Sunday, per year.. Dally without Sunday, six month Dally without Sunday, three months... 1.05 "Dallr without Sunday, txr month....... .63 6unday. oer yetr. .... .- 2.50 Bunday. six months 1-25 Sunday, thrca months W BT -CARRIER. Dally without 8unday. per weelc Dallr. ser week. Sunday Included.... 30 v THE WEEKLT OREOONIAN. (luued Every Thursday.) Weekly, per year..... 1.50 Weekly, six months. .7. ......... ........ .TO Weekly, three months -3 HOW TO REMIT Send postofflca money order, express order or personal check on your local bank. Stamps, cola, or currency are at the sender's risk, EASTERN BUSINESS OFFICE. The S. C Beckwith Special Atescr-New xork, rooms 43-00 Tribune bulletins;, idi cago, rooms 310-312 Tribune building. BX1T ON SAT.E. Chlcaco Auditorium Annex, Fostofflce News Co- 17b Dearborn street. Dallas, Tex Globe News Depot, 200 Main street. Ban Antonio, Tex. Louis Book and Cigar Co C21 East Houston street. Denver Julius Black. Hamilton & Kend rick. &06-012 Seventeenth street: Pratt Book Store. 12 U Fifteenth street. Colorado Springs, Colo. Howard H. BelL Des Moines. I. Hoses Jacobs. 800. Fifth street. Goldfleld, Nev F. Sandetrom; Guy Marsh. liaoaas City, Mo. Rlcksecker Cigar Co.. Ninth and Walnut. Los Angeles Harry Drapkln: B. E. Amos. CM West Seventh street; Dlllard News Co. Minneapolis M. J. Kavanaugh, SO South Third. Cleveland, O. James Pushaw, 307 Superior street. New York City I. Jones tt Co., Astor House. Atlantic City, N. J. Ell Taylor. 207 North Illinois ave. Oakland, Cal. W. H. Johnston. Fourteenth and Franklin streets. Osden F. R. Godard and Meyers & Har top. D L. Boyle. Omaha Barkalow Bros.. 1612 Farnam: Mageath Stationery Co, 1308 Farnam; 240 EMth 14 th. Sacramento. Cat. Sacramento News Co, ! K street. Snlt Lake Salt Lake News Co.. 77 West Cecasd street South; National News Agency. Vclluwstone Park. Wyo. Canyon Hotel. Lskc Hotel, Yellowstone Park Assn. I on- Beach-B. E. Amos. bnn Francisco J. K. Cooper & Co., 740 Market street; Goldsmith Bros.. 230 Sutter and Hotel St. Francis News Stand: L. E. Lee. Palace Hotel Ncwa Stand; F. W. PIttf. IMS Market; Frank Scott. 80 Ellis; N. Wheatley Movable New Stand, corner Mar ket aiHi Kearney streets; Foster & Orear, Ferry News Stand. M. Louis. Mo. E. T. Jett Book & News Company. Olive street. Washington, U. C Ebbltt House. Pennsyl vania avenue. PORTLAND. SUNDAY. SEPTEMBER 10. PUBLIC UTILITIES. Tfce American people are no longer arm id of that kind of sociallpm which Js involved in the municipal ownership of public utilities. The preposterous notin that there Is anything inherent ly dangerous or wicked in a city, as a corporation, owning property or con ducting business has passed away. It was kept alive for a long time by greedy and selfish owners of fran chises who found the superstition vastly -to their interest, but the com mon sense of the people has triumphed over mammonish -sophistry and it is dead. Uke Ue dew en the mountain. . Like, the foam on the river. Like the bubble en the fountain. It is gone and forever. This does not mean that the people are everywhere and in all cases ready for municipal ownership of street rail ways, electric lighting plants and so on. Far from it. The matter is still under debate. But the affirmative finds new advocates daily. The question is taken up in city after city where it has hitherto excited little Interest. Once taken up, It is never dropped! And the arguments against municipal ownership which have any present validity are directed point blank at the common pense of the voters. The buga boo of socialism, as all scarecrows sooner or later must, has lost Its ter rors and has been laid away In the garret. Of the really serious objections to mu nicipal management of public utilities one Is that It Is necessarily wasteful and more burdensome to the patrons than private management: th nther Is that party control of the employe vu mibiu; cuy pontics more corrupt than they are now. The first objection may be tested by known facts, the second Is pure prophecy and can be tested only by future experiments. Neither of tfiem is valid against muni cipal ownership. A city may own its utilities and lea'e them to private management, as New York does its new subway. Ownership and manage ment are very different things. But it is well known from the ex amples of Manchester, Berlin, Glasgow and many other cities, that a munici pality may both own and manage street railroads economically and hon estly. If it cannot (be done In America, the reason 1b that our city govern ments are dishonest. To say that it never can be done -Is to assume that they will always be dishonest It is notable that the movements for decent city government and for municipal ownership in the United States have grown up together and at about the same rate. The good government ef fort has been deeper, more persistent and, upon the whole, more successful Jn Chicago than elsewhere In America, "Municipal ownership has also advanced farthest in Chicago. The principle has been adopted there by a vast major ity of the voters: "but either the real difficulties in the way of carrying it out, or Mayor Dunne's timidity, or something else, has for the present blocked the movement in that city. It seems likely that as city govern ments become more and more con cerned with matters that directly touch the convenience and dally routine of the people's lives, the people will more anf. more urgently and persistently drive them into honest ways. Just as one objection to municipal -ownership assumes that our city gov ernments will always be dishonest, the other assumes that we shall never have efficient civil service reform. With all employes protected by civil service rules, they could never become the slaves of any political party. They would fie as free from domination as any other citizens. The municipal ownership question is coming to the front In New York City and pretty nearly .all the anti-Tammany forces are taking the affirmative. Still the dread exists that the ultimate outcome mould be the perpetual subjection of the city to Tammany, which might possibly add the whole great army of civic employes to its forces. It is Just Uicly thrush,, jjt the. iqroush- golng adoption of municipal owner ship would ruin Tammany by provid ing a perpetual stimulus to fight the wily old serpent low down among the masses. Both objections to municipal manage ment have very .great weight; but -no one must forget that the present fail ure of republican government In our cities, their corruption, depravity and measureless shame, have In nearly every case been caused, in large part, by the evil Influences which seem In separable from the private ownership of public utilities. Public ownership might possibly 'be no better: it could hardly "be worse. Public . ownership with private management, under short leases, seems a pretty good practical aim, very well worth trying as a change from what we now endure. DIVORCE AND HAPPINESS. Twenty-one divorces were granted by Judge Cleland Friday. Few questions were asked, but neatness, dispatch and good nature marked the entire proceed ings. Forty-two persons seem' to have agreed that marriage Is a dismal fail ure, and the entire forty-two are pre sumably happier for the kindly Inter cession of the court. Indeed, the court seems to havchad no alternative. The defendants made no - protest. There was obviously nothing to do but accept the ex parte statements of the twenty one complainants. Eighteen of the twenty-one complain ants were women. It is always bo. Three-fourths or more of all divorces are given to women. Why? Because they are less patient and more abused than men? Or because the men are more tolerant and less Inclined to rush before the public with their grievances? We answer at once that women are both more patient and more frequently abused than men, because all women and many men say so. Therefore the fault must he with the men, for the sufficient reason that man is a brute. Desertion Is the cause of divorce In most cases. The husband gets drunki and runs away. He leaves the wife to struggle along as best she may with the little ones, If there are any, which there usually are. He seeks new pas tures and a new victim, and sooner or later appears in the same role in an other courL Recent figures show that desertions are becoming more common than ever, and that therefore the mar riage vow is less regarded than ever. One woman In a hundred suffers from abandonment; few men are subjected to the same experience. Few women leave their husbands under any circum stances of provocation, neglect, or abuse. Here is one woman's story: Ho wouldn't support roe. and I told bias I could not support myself and Mm too. He only earned S all the tlrae we lived to gether, and spent It for liquor, eo one morn ing we talked It over and separated. She didn't leave him; but Bhe agreed that he should leave her. If he had done the right thing, or tried to do It, she doubtless would have stayed with him. But he was glad to quit her. and go off and get drunk in peace. Most women who are deserted are better off. else it might be well to make abandonment a criminal offense. Mar riage is an essential institution of soci ety; hut unhappy marriages are not. That most marriages are not unhappy is proven by the fact that society has no thought of abandoning marriage as an institution. HARR1MAN POLICY EXPLAINED. Mr, C. M. Keys, of the Wall-Street Journal, contributes to the last Issue of the World's Work a very Interesting article on "Railroad Methods and Rail road Kings." Mr. Keys, who is a close student of railroad matters and a trenchant writer, makes the statement that "to introduce the free-and-easy Western methods on an Eastern trunk line is as disastrous to the administra tion and to the revenues as it would be to Introduce into a departrment store In New York the free-and-easy credit sys tem' of the country store." Conversely, Mr. Keys finds that it has been proven by experiment "that to introduce the methods of the Pennsylvania (a tnodel Eastern road) on a free-and-easy West ern road means the throwing away of millions in revenue and the thorough disorganization of the line." In his dis cussion of the men and methods of the big railroad systems Mr. Kej's throws some interesting sidelights on the two men who virtually control the trans portation facilities of the entire Pacific Northwest. Every Portlander and every Orego- nlan is familiar with the fact that the local representatives of Mr. Harrlman's railroad properties in the Pacific North west have, almost without exception, been strongly In favor of construction of branch llpes to a number of points In Oregon, Washington and Idaho. Mr. Mohler recommended construction of these lines; Mr. Calvin did likewise; Mr. Worthlngton quickly recognized the necessity for them, and Mr. O'Brien, through longer service and more inti mate acquaintance with the country served, knew better than any of them that the branches should be. built. Why the construction of these branches has been so long delayed is explained In a measure toy the statement of Mr. Keys that Mr. Harrlman "Is ohairman, presi dent, general manager, superintendent' of construction, chief engineer and traffic director of every road In his sys tem." Mr. Keys pays high tribute to Messrs. Mohler, Calvin, Stubbs, Kruttschnltt and other Harrlman officials when he states that they "are second to none in the railway world." The limitations of their power, however, are apparent in the statement that "the system is run from 120 Broadway by Mr. Harrlman. Orders are Issued from his desk in the Inside office. There are no other or ders." While admitting that this "one man" system has proved profitable in the case of Mr. Harrlman, Mr. Keys quite properly condemns It as "killing the Initiative" In these understudies. and thereby depriving Mr. Harrlman of many valuable suggestions from men who have th,e talent, experience and ability to make suggestions and go ahead with projects In their Immediate fields, which are seldom visited by Mr. Harrlman. Even when he does appear on the ground his visits are so hurried as to give him at the best but an In sufficient knowledge of conditions. Be tween Harrlman and Hill a 'wide con trast Is noted. In mentioning this con trast Mr. Keys says: It It. true that Mr. Hill knows In detail the figures' of his roads and their traffic. It Is true that he watches like a cat every hamlet on the road, and writes down Its earning in little red book. But he leaves the method to the men. He has made his men. and he tyieta them. Messrs. Farrell. Ward. Slade and Homeland, on the GreataNorthem, are not clerks. Ther are live ralrrotd men. Thw jbave brains, and are allowed to use them. .- Every division superintendent feels that he may Inaugurate, some new thing whirls next year will appear in "general orders." Ther is routine work, of.couae, sail la-. It Mr. Hill Is M vrvat tt.-H lr TT- I roan or Mr. Ca&sett, but the "Great Northern spirit" Is not a spirit or routine. It Is a spirit -cr almost daring, initiative. This "spirit of Initiative" on th Wni jlman system has been held In restraint tp such an extent that Mr. Harrlman has not realized as much proportion ately from the territory involved as Mr. Hill has secured from his field. The present activity In the Northwest would Indicate that at last Mr. Harrlman is beginning to appreciate the value of a territory whose' undeveloped and unex plolted riches were urn derstood and ap preciate oy bis local ' officials many years ago. JOURNALISTIC TOADEATXNG. The St Helens Mist says "The Ore gonlan has opened its batteries on Mr. Ladd because he has started a news- , paper." Not at .all. Mr. Ladd has every kind of right to publish a rfews paper, but no right to attempt to de ceive the public by putting the names of dummies at the head of It and trying to avoid responsibility for himself. But this neither -was what has led The Oregonlan to criticise Mr. Ladd. When he and others sold out a great franchise in Portland for which they hadn't paid the city a single dollar for a vast sum of money. It was time to raise a protest against the system under which such things are possible. Of course Mr. JLadd's newspaper ap proved and defended that transaction; and It attacked The Oregonlan In vil lainous terms, because It criticised the transaction and protested against the system that made it possible. There was still another reason. From the time when Mr.. Ladd went Into the newspaper business, nearly three years ago, his paper has teemed with con tinuous and most malignant abuse of The Oregonlan, with attacks upon Its business, Its editor and Its owners. No Invention too false or gross, no vitu peration too vile. For three years The Oregonlan said nothing. Finally it concluded to let Mr. Ladd understand that some things could be said as well as others. Mr. Ladd and others attempted a newspaper because, as they said, there was "need of another voice." To the statement Itself The Oregonlan could take no exception. But the necessary Interpretation of it came to be that there was need of a "voice" whose ob ject In life would be to assail, malign, abuse and vilify The Oregonlan. Thbt Is a necessary conclusion, since the main object of Mr. Ladd's paper thus far has been to do this thing. The fact Is, the offense of The Oregonlan and of the Telegram was that they were not toadeaters and lickspittles to our local nobility, and the "first families" felt the need of an organ equal to that func tion. Very likely the toadeatlng and tuft hunting and lickspittle organ would have remained unnoticed by The Ore gonlan, and It miffht have mirsued Its own way to Its heart's content, had It let The Oregonlan alone. But It had made for years persistent and venom ous attack The Oregonlan returning not one word. Finally, however, for bearance ceased to be a virtue. The Oregonlan. It has been learned. has yet sufficient resources of offense and defense, of self-protection and of retaliation, loath as It Is to use them. Beside?, when an organ of plutocracy Is masking under false names, and masquerading under false colors, as "a champion of the people," and as an exclusive defender of "popular rights," the public has a right to call for, and to witness, exposure of the hj-pocrisv. Out of the capitalistic greed, of which the Ladd organ is a product, you will get regard for popular rights and pub lic Interests when the wolf rhall dwell with the lamb and the leopard shall He down with the kid; and when men shall gather grapes of thorns and ftgs of thistles. It is not only from the Czar of Rus sia, but from the Rockefellers and thjjlr Imitators here and everywhere, that you are to learn the quality of the mercy that despots feel. TOE ELIXIR OF LIFE. Professor Elie Metchnlkoff, a Rus sian, successor to the great Pasteur In his world-famous institute, has worked out a theory which promises to teach us how to live long and perennially young. It may be readabout a,t length in the September McClure's, but a brief statement of it need not be ob scure. The genial professor recurs to the phagocytes, those small white bod ies which roam the rivers of the hu man blood seeking what they may de vour. When hostile germs Invade the system these valiant corpuscles throw themselves headlirig upon the deadly intruders; a war of extermination en sues; and when peace Is restored, either the man is dead whose body was the scene of. combat, or the last of the enemy has been devoured by his micro scopic defenders. It seems, though, that the phagocytes are subject to panics and sudden ter rors. Certain ermS will put them to Instant, unresisting flight by their mere aspeot, such Is Its horror. Cholera germs, for example, or those of small pox. But the warrior corpuscles rally from their rout and a" battle follows which need not be utterly hopeless; sometimes they win after all, and. If they do win, it may happen, or It may not, that they lose all tBeir dread of the loathsome foe and devour him with lusty appetite whenever he shows him self again. In this, case we become Im mune to, the dlsgase. Thus It Is with smallpox. One victors over those germs decides not only the present, but all future wars. But there are diseases, and cholera Is such a one. whose germs never lose their terrors for the phago cytes. Each new Invasion throws them Into a new panic, and, consequently, against these diseases we never acquire Immunity. The danger Is as great from the hundredth exposure as from the first. But the tale Is not told. There dwells within us. so reasons the sapient Metchnlkoff, within the cloaca, or sew ers, of the human form divine, a cer tain other germ, a busy and evil mon ster who, though warmed by us and fed, repays our Involuntary hospital ity In a manner most ungrateful. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union should not delaj to Include him in their maledictions, for he manufactures an intoxicating beverage which he subtly Instills throughout the gates and alleys of the body,, and certain of the phago cytes, partaking thereof, forthwith run mad and -begin to devour the vital sub stance of the bones, the arteries and the brain, which they were created to de fend. Nor. alas! do they spare the hair. They swallow, up Its pigmented cells and turn it gray, and this, with the creaklngs In our ravaged Joints. Is the fln, warning we receive of the vic torious advance of Old Age wltn Death In his rear. It is the traitorous attack of .our..crirTipb.ajOTytesupoa.ji jthat I constitutes old age, and could we teach them to shun the exhilarating but dis astrous beverage brewed by the lethal germs In the Intestines we should gam bol In everlasting youth; or, at any rate, we should live twice as long as we do now. But the phagocytes are Inaccessible and Indocile., Hardened In bibulous In iquity, exhortation would be lost upon them even ff they could be made to hear 1L Not so the wicked distillers who Inhabit the Intestines and manu facture the 'deadly draught. Provi dence has luckily placed them at our mercy. If we" canont regenerate the phagocyte, we can destroy the germ that putteth the bottle to his Hps and maketh him drunken also, which amounts practically to the same thing; for as long as he Is sober he Is benefi cent. Learn, then, the secret of perpet ual youth. It Is simply to keep the In testines clear of Hthal germs. Aha, sneers the cynic, there Is a receipt for catching birds of much the same value; that Is, to put salt on their tails. But' this time we have the cynic on the hip. We can rout him, horse, foot and ar tillery. We know how to kill the germs of decay In the Intestines. We can slay the ministers of death. We can set the dogs of war upon them and hound them to destruction. These dogs of war, when not raging with Bellona on the stricken field, are mild creatures. The housewife would never dream, to watch the placid sur face of her milk nans, that In fhnlr shallows he Is born and nurtured he the .victor over death. But so It Is. The germ that slays the lethal inhabi tant of the Intestines Is the germ that turns milk sour. Drink him "down and never die. Sour milk Is the elixir of life. The balmv hnnthlnir vti- la tVia fountain of perpetual youth which Ponce deLeon. wandering to his death through the swamps of Florida, vainly soughL Once more Professor Metchnl- koff has taught the world the old les son that salvation from the ills of life lies not In the mysterious and remote, but In the simple and common things around us. His theorv is so easv to understand and so cheap to apply that moat people will probably treat it with contempt, but he is a great scientist and what he says Is much more likely to be true than false. Death Is a fear ful thing, look at It as we may. "To He In cord obstruction and to rot" Is not a cheerful prospecL Since time be gan men have sought exemption from It In vain. Shall the victory which has eluded magic and prayer be won at last by clabbered milk? TWO LUMINARIES IN ECLIPSE. The vanity of fwo bright and shinlnsr Hghts of the prlzerlng received a rude shock at Col ma yesterday. Incidentally something besides the vanity of one of the sluggers stopped numerous hard short-armjabs, swings and punches. The Iron of defeat would have entered the soul of Mr. James Brltt attended with much less pain had it been In the hands of some "gentleman" fighter instead of a plain, coarse, ordinary slugger like "Battling" Nelson. There are, of course, people who will never Iearnvto distinguish .a gentleman prizefighter from the other kind. In fact, they will argue that there Is no difference. With Mr. Brltt, however, 4here Was no ques tion, for he himself was sure that he was not a -vulgar prlzefiKhter. but a gentleman bpxer; and as, sucK be' grant ed- himself . license to make numerous slighting and sneering remarks regard ing both the social standing and fight ing ability of- 'Battling" Nelson. The other exponent of an alleged "manly art" to have his sensibilities Jarred was the ex-cbamplon heavy weight. James J. Jeffries. After belntr selected to referee the fight for the stip ulated sum of $1000. he temporarily for got that he was rapidly drifting Into a class known as "has beens" and de manded $2,000. This demand was not met. but. before Mr. Jeffries came out of his trance and agreed to referee the game for an Insignificant 51000. the mill came so near to ending In a row that Mr. Jeffries was the subject of some very unfavorable comment He Is now In possession of the knowledge that the public regards him as containing too much common money-getting clay to make a satisfactory Idol. He can now Join James Brltt, James J. Corbett, John L. Sullivan and other Jims and Johns who used to be In the spot light more frequently than was absolutely necessary. THE COUNTRY EDITOR. The country editor has come to town. He has left for a- time his sanctum, his devil, his esteemed contemporary and the sapid pumpkin contributed by Uncle Ebeneezer Hayseed upon the celebrated occasion when he called In to pay a year's subscription. The pumpkin, glowing through the dust of the office window like a serene and golden sunset, was the last thing the editor's eye rested upon as he cllrrtbed Into the smoker with his grip In his hand and his pass In his pocket, to dare the temptations of the great city. But when he returns vanquished and bank rupt from his encounter with metropol itan sin, the pumpkin will glow no longer, for "our wife" will have baked it Into a batch of those luscious pies. May they take all the bad taste out of his mouth and relilumlne his soul with thepeaceful light of bucolic innocence. May the forms not be pled nor the devil drunk when he gets back, and may all his delinquent subscribers pay up forth with, either in cash or 'cprtrwood, for he will need both. The Joys of the cits are expensive, and Winter Is at hand. Here's to the country editor, the her ald of progress, the angel of enlighten ment. May hi circulation never be less and may his advertising columns continually grow longer. Figures from the Census Bureau In reference to the number of women In the more Important occupations In which they are competing with men show the following: 1000. 1S30. SSS 20S Journalists L103 TLawvera .7 1.010 Literary and scientific per sons Chemists, aasavtsts. etc 5.8S4 2 IS 2.761 39 34.510 4.537 24S.Odd 21G.63I 21.270 S.474 92.PC5 30.471 Musicians and teachers of muti J.3.-.0 Phnlrf sna'anri mrrmrii 7 S5T Teachers and jirofessors. .. .327.014 Laundresses 335.2S2 Stenographers and type writers SG.II8 Telegraph and telrohone operators -. 22 550 Cotton mills , Von1n mlir . .120.210 . . . 30.030 Silk mills 32.437. 20.603 In ten years In these occupations the number of women has increased 1,415. 236, while the Jncrease In the number of men has been 5.135,025. The fear sometimes expressed that women will crowd out men In all occupations not requiring great physical strength is not borne out by the census figures. In fact,. the results have in some cases beea." the. rcyerae For example, the number of male stenographers and typewriters has more than doubled, and that, too. In the face of the' fact that more women than ever are now being employed In wagejearnlng vocations. Dr. Clarence True Wilson Is right There Is no "easy way to salvation." The person who In the glamor of the footlights of the ecclesiastical show ex pects "salvation" to descend upon him through the exhortation, the prayers, the entreaties, of those who make a business of this sort 6f thing. Is mis taken In hlshope. Salvation comes by no such an ''easy" leap. It, Is the fruit age of slow years of endeavor to live honorably and to deal Justly b all men. The religion that springs up In a night Is well designated as the "fair, festival and oyster supper Tellglon," broken doses of which are palatable, but the effects of which are neither remedial nor preventive. "The very worst enemy of God," continued Dr. Wilson, "is the evangelist who seeks by card signing, the raising of the hand and other contrivances arranged to make the way of salvation easy." The public was prepared to expect some thing like this of Elbert Hubbard when he comes to us next month, and. Ignor ing the open Trail, proceeds to tell the. people at the Fair, In substance, that religion is not a picnic, but a solemn and wholesome feast, to which a man must sit down every day In the year If he would absorb and digest Its ele ments properly. But It came somewhat as a surprise from Dr. Wilson. The New York Evening- Post calls on the American people to shake off their slavish lethargy and to submit no longer to the tasteless fruits to which they are subjected. It calls attention to the fact that there has been Just as much progress In developing the lus clousness of fruits as there has been In developing the beauties of flowers; and that pears, peaches and plums to make one's mouth water are grown to day in larger variety and In larger quantities than ever before. But who gets them? It-Is no longer the ordi nary consumer. All he can get, unless he goes to some restaurant where he paj-s two or three prices, is a tasteless Imitation, picked half-ripe for shipping, and probably still half-ripe when he pays for it. The Post lays the evil to the fact that the ortMnary grower pre fers quantity to quality because a pa tient public puts up wkh a poor pear or peach as complacently as If It were the real thing. What Is true In New York Is lamentably true In Portland, the chief city of a etate which Nature Intended for the cultivation fruit In its most perfect formi Our grievance is not so sreat over the extortionate price as over the poor quality. Citizens of Baker and Clackamas Counties have shown rood business Judgment by appointing committees to inspect the assessment rolls and ascer tain whether the assessment has been fair and equal. Several months ago at tention was called In these columns to the necessity for such action If the great majority of the taxpayers are to get a square deal. The tendency all oVer the state Is to assess the large holder at a lower rate than the small holder, thereby throwing upon the poorer classes an undue proportion of the tax burden. When the taxpayers," through a commercnil organization or other association of interested persons, take up the matter and uncover the facts, a more equitable assessment can be secured. If the common people fall to get a square deal, it Is largely their own fault The Oregonlan prints extended ac counts of the prizefight yesterday in San Francisco-not that It likes this sort of "literature." but because most people want it. More persons in Ore gon and throughout the Northwest will read about this prizefight today than will listen to all the deliverances from all the pulpits; and most of those who hear the deliverances from the pulpits will read the accounts of the prizefight, too. More's the pity, unquestionably; but the newspaper must "give atten tion to public opinion." The report of this prizefight in San Francisco Is the chief matter of Interest In the United States, and largely throughout the world, today. And what the cynic may think about It, or what he may say, will make no difference. It Is a matter of significance that the Providence. R. L, Journal, a Republi can paper published In a manufactur ing center, should complain that the reoent convention in Chicago paid o much attention to foreign trade and so little to our own domestic la discus sion of the lowering of the tariff. "The needs of producers for the home market exclusively, or mainly, and of domestic consumers, are entitled to at least equal consideration." It says. "The tariff should be readjusted, not wholly for the permission of a freer outflow, but, partly at- least, for the permission of a freer Inflow." As a New England view of tariff reform, this Is Interesting. In Berlin cattle on the hoof are sell ing for U cents "a pound. Oregon could fatten the transcontinental rail roads and the steamship lines with freight at much higher than prevailing rates, and' then realize more for, the product of the range than the Beef Trust pays. The Washington Post says the news papers will quit publishing the -details of divorce cases the very next morn ing after the ladies refuse to read pa pers containing such stories. This may be construed into fixing the datel. for such reform at the latter end of eter nity. Alton B, Parker Is reported as hav ing accepted a J100,000-a-year Job as counsel foxg. rapid transit concern In Brooklyn. Isn't this the .man who once ran for President? The name "sounds familiar. ' There is complaint both In Russia and" In Japan that President Roosevelt has forced a peace that neither party want ed and that both parties are dissatis fied with. He must be a great man. Its severest critic can find no fault with the capacity of the Portland dry dock, nor the expedition with which It Is able to berth mammoth carriers. Fetch on your big ships. .. It will not be very long before the royal bands at'SL Petersburg- and To klo will be playing- "When Johnny Comes Marching Home." Somehow we have not heard much lately about Roosevelt and the Big Stick. ! - OREGOOZONE Murderous 31aurulcrihgs. x- i Once I was shaved on a shuddering ship. And the barber gouged and gored. When ho had finished I gave him a tip I tipped him overboardl II. I ara not an Igorrote; And I wouldn't kill a dog; But I'd gp a little furrier And I'd mangle and I'd murder The street-car end-seat hog. Two Heroes. Mickey the Pug. weight 12$. age 23, pre vious occupation hodcarrier and later bollermaker's helper, works 47 minutes with his fists and wins $40,000 his share of the gate receipts. Newspapers print his picture and the story of his 'victory" on the front page, under seven-column fright heads, and for seven years he is the most famous and "thebest man" on earth. Then ho dies of delirium tremens, and the worms hold high carnival over his corpse. But his obituary notices oc cupy half the front page, and for seven weeks Fltzy the Fighter writes reminis cences of the world-famed Mickey the Pug, and nearly all the earth drinks in the thrlllful tale of his uppercuts. solar plexus punches, left Jabs and the like Then he is utterly forgotten, and his bones bleach. Jim Jones writes a poem that thrills the multitude and urges men to mightier and nobler endeavor, or he paints a pic ture that inspires his fellows to high en deavor, or he promulgates a plan for the betterment of mankind, adding largely to the happiness of the race. His name is known only in his own street, and if he should protest against the bosalncss of a policeman or a street-car conductor and get Into the lock-up he couldn't find any body to go his bail. After a time he dies and the paper says: "James Smith, of Blank street, died yesterday; funeral to morrow." Then about 30 years after hi3 death the town raises a monument over his remains and there are annual meet ings In the Town Hall, where his career is discussed and contributions are taken up for the purchase of geraniums to hang on the monument. It's all a mere matter of taste. Professor Pickering, of Harvard, ad vances a startling theory of the origin of the Pacific Ocean. The professo? has been on a trip to Honolulu. He declares that, from certain astronomical observa tions, and from -studies of the Hawaiian volcanoes made by him. he has reached the conclusion that the moon is composed of. matter thrown off from the earth, which originally occupied the space now covered by the Pacific. Thus, one by one, our fondest traditions fall. The green cheese lunar theory Is solar-plexused. The moon Is made of sodium chloride and H-2-O. It Is the salt crystals that cause It to shine. Policeman Hinners awfully funny name, tKat accidentally bumped into a young man from Columbia. Mo., who was carrying two revolvers. Tho incident hap pened In New York. Don't forget that. Columbia Is the state university town of Missouri, where five colleges and a fa mous Bible class are located. New York Is the metropolis of the United States. and Is located In the heart and center -of Eastern culture and civilization. The young man whose two revolvers were re vealed to Policeman Hinners by the sense of touch freely acknowledged, at the po lice station, that he was guilty of carry ing concealed weapons In this case act ually plural, and, therefore, according, to the statute. But he stated that he carried oniy one revolver wnn nim irom -Mis souri, purchasing the other when he ar rived in New York, because he had heard that New York waa infested with robbers. Conditions have changed mightily. The Central West has gotten down to one re volver, the wild and woolly East requires two, while the Far West gets along fair ly well with nothing but a cotton hand kerchief in the. back pocket. A lady newspaper correspondent says the Georgia peach leads the world, but there are young men with sweethearts In this town who give the primacy to the .Portland peach. "Hell during a boom;- don't buy," says the Atchison Globe. And yet there are those who hold that altruistic principles have a firmer hold in Kansas than any where else on the globe. Unload on eth ers that's morality for you. "Prof. Dr. Alexander Geddes. Balti more's Champion Poet," contributes an ode on Labor day to the Baltimore Her ald. The Prof. Dr. doubtless felt that he owed this ode to humanity. A town named Soldier, in Kansas, de feated a town named Winchester in a baseball game last week. It was not the first time that a soldier and a Winchester came together. Kack-Kack is the name of the chief of the Pottawatomie Indians. Though Kack Kack wears feathers and his name sounds that way, he Is no Spring chicken, being 75 years old. ' Philadelphia Is planning a grand cele bration for the 200th anniversary of Bon Franklin's birth. That town should read up on Franklin's maxims of honesty be fore proceeding to any such memorial observance. If B. Franklin should return to Philadelphia now and find his statue In the public square he would make tracks for a toy store and buy a kite that would bring the lightning from the clouds to destroy the statue. Franklin was Old fashioned; he had his faults, but he never grafted anything except electricity. Pat Crowe was seen in oh, beg your pardon! v itOif ri-tvTU t LOVE." Planting a City. Country Life In America. Dr. Helnrlch C Leonhardt f Tona wanda recently supplied almost the whole city with young trees.- At a dinner which he attended he heard the suggestion, made that the city needed shade trees. Immediately- he bought thousands of young elm. maple and chestnut trees, and as soon as It was possible had them shipped to Tona wanda and stored in a nursery there. Then he announced that all who would might have trees by applying- at tho nursery. The effect was wonderful. Streets that never would have had trees were soon filled with flourishing young saplings thatln twenty, years win oe priceless a magmnceni monu ment to one man. Two thousand of the trees were distributed In an In credibly short time. There was more tree-planting- In Tonawanda this Spring than ever before. The only condition attached to the offer was that persons taking trees should guar antee to plant them for shade pur poses and to plant them in accordance with directions given at the- nursery. . CURRENT VERSE OF THE DAY The Tjlttle Child That Died. Elisabeth Rachel Chapman, in "Baby." Turn where I will I miss. I miss my sweet; By my lone lire, or Is the crowded way. Once ao familiar to his Joyous feet. I nllis, I hunger for him all the day. This is the houne wherefrom his welcome rang; These are the Wintry walks where he and I Would- pause to mark If a stray robin- sang. Or soma aew sunset-Came enrlch'd the eky. Here, where we crossed the dangerous road. and where . Unutterably desolate I stand. How often peering through the somber , I felt the sudden tightening of his -hand!. Round me the city looms, void., waste and) wild, Wanting the presence of one little child In Bohemia. Boston Transcript. Though one suffer petty woes Threadbare coat and peeping toes In Bohemia care becomes Weightless as the bee that hums From a. rose-corolla white To the brightest beam of light! Though the search for paltry gain Leave a vulgarizing stain, In Bohemia, land of dreams. ' And romance, forever gleams ' - That rare poetry, whose- art Springs unbidden from the heart! Hard It is to bear life's grind. If one have a sprightly mlndt - To Bohemia let us flee. Free of spirit, you and roe; In Bohemia let us dwell, . Drinking deep from Fancy's well! .' Envy, anger, bitter words Hush the soul's sweet-slngtng birds: In Bohemia. let us test Kindest converse, truest rest; "Where. In daylong; sunlit peace, Joy's glad hymn shall never cease!' - Bedtime. Harper's Magazine. Last year my bedtime was at eight; And every slncle night I used to wish the clock would . wait, i Or else stay out of sight. It always jwemed to me The next halt-hour 'd be v. The nicest time of all the day If mother would agree. But cite always shook her head. And she sort of jumped, and said. Why. It's late after eight And It's time you were In bed! That clock would always do Its best To sit all aulet there. Until I was my eomfyest In rorae big easy chair. Then Its striking would begin. And I'd tell by mofherkln How I'd Just begun a chapter, and It was so Int'restln And the end was Just ahead But she usurully said. No. It's late after eight v And It's time to go to bed. And now my bedtime is ha'-paat. But yet that old clock does The rame mean tricks It's Just as fast Or faster than It was. Iaaf .night it seemed to me The next half-hour 'd be The nicest time of all the day If mother would asrree. But she smiled and shook her head. And nhe kissed me while she said. Why. it's late ha'-past eight And it's time you went to bed! What's the Use? What's the use of being gloomy. Though the Fall Is nearlng? Peaches ripening, grapes are bloom Through the land. In spaces roomy. Maize. Is buro earing. What's the use? What's the use of constant doubting Lest the future's bounty Shall In some way you be flouting? If you proeper now be "shouting For the gifts you count ye. What's the use? What'a the use to borrow trouble Now or any season? Just rejoice, your Joy 'twill double; Doubt It, Joy bursts-like a. bubbble . Without rhyme or reason. What'a. the use? mi What's the use God's love to'' question' T Or attempt to bound It? ' All the 'seasons give suggestion; It will not a idngte test shun. Tou can never sound Itt What's the usej? Better Just accept your mercies " With a heart o'erflowtnjr. As their number It rehearses. Net forebodeful of reverses; So your Joy'll be growing! Isn't that better? The Editor's Table. Toronto Mall and Express. There's a little box of pills. . There's aheap of lengthy bills. There's a caustic letter from a country reader, There's a ticket for a stall. There's another for a ball. There's a circular about a patent feeder." There's a lot of cigarettes. There's letters of regrets. There's a proof of highly-colored litho graphing. There's a solitary, ace. There's a photo of her face. There are articles to start the angels laughing. There's a pretty chiming clock. There's nome Western mining stock. There are stacks of verse In every sort of metre, ' There's a cotton offlce hat. There's a badly ragged mat. There's a pipe bowl than which nothing could be sweeter. There's a ticket for the Zoo. There's a map of Tlmbuctoo. There's a guide to Palestine and one to Russia. There's the latest opera ncore. There's a lump of Iron ore. There's a relic of a Rugby football rusher. There are pots of Ink and glue. There are letters old and new. There are piles of old exchanges and & paper. There's & narrow pair of shears. There's a glass of that which cheers. There's a, double-backed and pointed paper scraper. There's a partly-smoked cigar. There's an ornamental Jar, There's the circulation swearer's weekly, fable; Oh. the sight will tickle you If you ever catch a view Of the editor while writing at his table. A Home Picture. Locomotive Engineers Journal. Ol the happy little, home when the sun shone out. And the busy little mother got the. children all about; , . And Johnny fetched the water and Tommy brought the wood. And Billy-boy tied both his shoe, as every laddie should And Dannie rocked the cradle with a clatter and a song. To make the little sister grow so pretty-and so strong. O! the sweet peas and the morning glories climbing' 'round the door. And the tender vine of shadow with its length across the floor. O! the "plnles" and the roses, and the quiver of the grass. And the cheery call of friendship from the neighbors as tby pass! O! the scuffle and the shouting, and the little mother's laugh , ' As the rabbit starts up somewhere, and, her "great helps" scamper off. O! the happy little home when .the twilight fell, ' -.- And all along the meadow ran? the old cow bell. With a tinkle that Is music- through tho rushing of the years And I see the- little mother in the tremble of the tears; And I hear her happy laughter as she cries "The boys have come!" And we know she's getting supper in the happy little home. O! the happy little home when the moon gleamed forth. And Billy-boy would have it tht it "rlsed In the north." O.l the raptures and the whispers near the little mother's chair. . ' As the white-robed little figures are flitting here and there. And we're Just as near to heaven as wa mortals ever roam When we kneif and say our prayenr ia'the happy uttle home. vr .'