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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 18, 1912)
THE ST7NDAY OREGOXTAN. POjRTjLAKT). AUGUST IS, 1912. r- 1 1 -ri o emnaai nea KW v bf C J V'r'l 1 ' j V jl J 1 Books o Standard Size, Easter on Same Day Every Year, Time J r "' " ( S Re-fashioned and Arithmetic Overhauled How to Eliminate I I fo;t ' - JJs "1 f Jf Perplexities Is Explained by Highbrows J I- - I I I Everyone, sooner or later, la struck with the irregularities of calculation in different parta or the world in distances, coinage, time and so forth. Hardiy a traveler living has omitted to express a wish that there was some general scheme in operation to regularize the entire order of things, so as to be intelligible to men or any clime. Hence the Interest of the following story, which tells how German scientists would males everything simple, logical and smooth lor perplexed humanity. BERLIN', Aug:. 8. (Special Corre spondence.) Eminent Germans are deep In plans to systematize, schematize and normalize the world. They are. annoyed at human Inequali ties and asperities, and want things all made equal, simple and smooth. ' The leader of the movement Is Pro fessor Wllhelra Ostwald, the Nobel prizewinner of 1909. After him come Professor Schmoller, of Berlin; Dr. Klaus Wagner, the traveler Hesse Wartegg and several others. They have plans for publishing: all books In standard sizes, compelling: Easter to fall always on the same day of the same month, reforming- the cal endar, revolutionizing: chronology and turning- arithmetic inside out. The BCientiflc world backs their efforts, for In capacity for planning: Germany beats all humanity hollow. The monumental irregularities of chronog-oly annoy the scientists most. The day as at present divided up is, they say, a monstrosity. It has no right to be cut Into 24 hours, when longer spaces of time are counted by centuries and millenniums. The day of the re formed future will have 100 hours, each divided into 100 minutes, and each min ute into 100 seconds. The exigencies of life have already Introduced in practice this system of chronology; it remains only to recog nize the fact. We do not count time by hours, but by quarter hours, of which there are nearly 100 in the day. When a man wants to state timef ough ly he states It by the quarter; appoint ments are made by the quarter, and for practical purposes 15 minutes is the real time. Less than 15 minutes does not much count, while half an hour is too long a unit. The new hours, being a hundredth part of the day, will each contain 14 2-5 minutes, which is prac tically a quarter of an hour. Instead of saying "a quarter to one," people will say simply "at forty-nine." Professor Wagner says people will get used to that in a few days. The practical obstacles are small. Every new clock will have a dial divided into 100 parts. Old clocks can be easily adapted. They will need new dials. with double rows of figures from 1 to 50 and from 60 to 100. and the hour hand will complete its circuit twice a day. For the hours the mechanism will therefore need no change. The minute I problem will have to be met In old clocks by letting the minute hand go four times round the clock for each hour. WEEKS that refuse to fit into the year, and meaningless irregular months must also be radically recon structcd. The week must first be taken in hand. The French revolution's at tempt to lengthen it to 10 days failed, Ten days was too long and the present week is too long. The week of the future will have six days. It will be gin on Monday, drop Saturday alto gether and end with Sunday. There will be 60 Sundays in the year. The month, the German scientists agree, must contain six weeks that is, 36 days and there will be 10 months in the year. In that case any date of the month will always fall on the same week-day. This will save tremendous trouble. This arrangement provides for only 360 days. The remaining five will not count as days of the month or as days of the week. That would upset the symmetrical months and weeks. The odd five will be sandwiched In wher ever convenient, and used for holidays, such as Christmas, Easter and the Na tional holidays of the different coun tries. Leap Tear would not spoil the harmony, because Leap Year day would not be the 29th . of February, but a dateless, intercalated day. With such a division of time the year would not any longer fall into quar ters. Things that are now done quar terly would be done every two months, that is, every 72 days. Quarterly re ports, quarterly meetings and so on, would all be regulated on the two month basis. This would be an ail vantage in Itself, once people got used t it. Professor Wagner, backed by all the systematizers, holds that the day should be forced to begin at a natural hour. In ancient times the day some times began in the morning, and some times in the evening. To begin the day at midnight was a contrivance of Roman Jurists, who wanted to shroud the change from day to day in the quietest time of the 24 hours. But nowadays the night is not quiet, for trains run through it, and ships steam through It. It is a time of amusement, and sometimes of work. There are more people in bed in the early morning than there are at mid night. The natural day begins at sunrise. and the reasonable average day should begin at the average hour of sunrise. The day of the future will therefore begin at 6 In the morning, but, it will be called 0 o'clock, and what is now 5:45 A. M. will be 89 o'clock. A similar reduction to reason is sug gested for the system of changing the date. The day should change not as it now does on the 180th meridian, but a little to the east, so that It will coin cide with the American Pacific coast. That will give the Pacific Ocean an absolute unity as regards dates. At present Jt is Monday in the eastern islands of the Pacific when it is still Sunday in the western islands. New Tear's Day also badly wants transfer. The present New Tears Day la wrongly placed, and though nobody says so, everybody Ignores it in prac tice. Financial years, school years, and many other years are dated from Spring to Spring. This Is clumsy, and instead of 1910, 1911, 1912, we have to write 1910-11, 1911-12, and so on. Statistics usually adhere to the calendar year, hence there is confusion. We have the statistics of a country for a single year, but the finances for three-quarters of one year and a quar ter of the next. This could be reme died by putting New Tear's day In its logical place. The real beginning of the year is the beginning of Spring, that Is the 21st of March at 6 A. M. For convenience sake the best day to choose would be the first of April. "That." say cynics, "would have the merit of making the New Tear's good resolutions and All Fools day coin cide." That, too, is all in the direction of logical simplicity. TEMPLIKI CATION of the metric sys tem is required by Professor Os wald. The system will gain acceptance everywhere only if it Is simplified. The metershould be the standard of meas urement for land. Acres, hectares and other superficial measures must be abandoned. "750,000 square meters of land," will henceforth be the expres sion. The objection is that this gives no one any Idea of areas. The schem atizes reply that this is true only at first. A person used to calculating in English pounds sterling has no idea at first of 750,000 francs, but he soon gets used to it. Ostwald is strongly in favor of a ho mogeneous money system. His propo sal for a unit is a gram of gold. That is worth about 70 cents. It will be divided Into 100 parts, as are the Amer ican dollar and the French and German francs and marks. Dr. Herrmann Kauffmann Is the In ventor of a reformed international al phabet. It Is called tho "hygienic-logical alphabet." It is logical because It has one letter to every sound, and hy gienic because it is based upon sound study of the human eye. The present system of printed type", says Kauffmann, is absurd and an anachronism, it is a mere servile copy of the old-fashioned handwriting. Handwriting, having to be done with a pen, developed of necessity a system founded on strokes. But printing does not need to be so done. Strokes are bad for the eyes, and hard to read;' the eye naturally prefers to deal with black, solid surfaces. Kauffmann's ex periments with the eye prove that. His system has characters that are solid, angular, round and Irregular Ink blots. When printed merely the same size as newspaper type they can be read at double the distance, and without fa tigue. In. a week you can learn flu ently to read anything printed In your own language in "hygienic-logical" type. Decimal arithmetic is the last enemy of the schematizers. It must be aban doned .they say, In favor of the duo decimal, which formerly prevailed. In stead of calculating in 10's and 100's men will calculate In 12's and 144's. The units will not, however, be written 12 and 144; new characters will be invented, but that will be their value. Instead of the present 10 Arabio num erals, from 0 to 9, there will be 12, as 10 and 11 will both have independent numerals to represent them. In future people will count, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, one-twelve, two-twelve, and on; and they will count, ninety, tenty, eleventy, hundred, the new hundred be ing equal to 144. The advantage of this system for practical life Is great. One hundred and forty-four is really a more logical and complete unit than 100, as It can be divided up Indefinitely In twos and threes. Most of these proposals, say the schemtizers, will make no real diffi culty. The change in arithmetic Is the only exception. That Is a remote ideal. Tha nthar- nhanPAD Wnillrl CAUSA A. little confusion and worry for a few days. but tney wouia save perma.neui. cunm sion and worry caused by the present irregularities. Waste no energy," is the watchword of Ostwald's systematizers. Their am bition is that the coming man should be free to spend his time and talents in productive work, instead of wasting part, as now, in unraveling meaning less complications Inherited from ttie past. HERBERT BATEMAN. PERILOUS CORNER IN CONGO'S RUBBER OUTPUT (Henry Weston told this story in the grill of the Victoria Hotel, London. One would never nave dreamed that the grim, wiry man In natty evening clothes had seen the things of which he spoke. But hs had seen them, and he saw them again, there in the, brightly-lighted restaurant, with luxuriant signs of civilization all about him.) 1WAS never very strong on figures, but Joe Starett could make them talk. Into a cafe in Bagamoyo where I was cooling my throat with soda and brandy came Joe Starett one evening, and, sitting down at my table, he took out a paper and pencil and began to work out wonders with them. A few half-whispered words, a-few strokes of the soft lead on white, crinkly paper, and I could see that Joe and I were destined to be nabobs for wealth. A. hasty computation and few more scratches and I had visions of saying goodby to the dark continent for good, going back to England and buying a yacht, which had always been my idea of the acme of affluence. Joe's scheme was so eloquently simple I couldn't see how I had missed it for so long. Boiled down. It was this: No Bel gian ever paid a decent price for rub ber, or for the matter of that, for any thing be bought. We were to head a little Tubber trading expedition in Northwestern Rhodesia, work up Into the Congo, make friends with the na tives, offer them a few cents more a hundredweight for their rubber, and cut the Belgian traders out. Joe had done a little rubber poaching In the Congo more than once, and was already on excellent terms with some of the, native chiefs. They hid their rubber in the forest and refused to sell to the Belgians, keeping their stock for him. It seemed reasonable to sup pose that if we continued to pay high er prices they would all give the Bel gians Just enough to throw off the scent and we would enjoy a virtual monopoly. It looked good, and I con sented without much persuasion. Accordingly we took steamer to Belra in Portuguese East Africa and from there traveled by rail to Salis bury. From there it was a long trek to another railroad and Broken Hill where we stocked our expedition. Thence we worked up the Kafue Riv er, skirted the border of Northwestern Rhodesia and struck into the Congo by the Lualaba River. We didn't do much trading until we reached Lake Kabcle. for we reckoned to work back from there in the arc of a circle and gather rubber as we went. In the neighborhood of the lake we did a big business with the chief of the V JimUu, whom Starett knew and who had saved out all his best stock for us. We cleaned him out, and it looked as though we'd have to strike straight bacic xor isroKcn nui, zor we naa al most all the rubber our boys could carry. We began to think we'd made a mistake in not doing the whole thing on a larger scale, but one of the prin cipal objects of the expedition was not to be discovered, ana too Dig a parry would not have been so safe. The UJimlju had trade with all the neighboring tribes because they knew they could strike a better bargain with us. and our scheme seemed to be work ing beautifully. Starett wanted to cut straight across country then for Lake Uoero. where he knew another chief ind where we figured we could collect enough rubber to more than pay for the enterprise. We Experience First Setback. We had tramped three days from Lake Kabele, and we had already begun to outline plans for spending our money when we experienced our first setback. Zanzi, our personal servant, was pre paring supper while we sat in front of our tent trying to fight off the flies. It was hot, with the dead, dank heat of the forest, and every man of us was almost panting for the cool of the even ing. Just audible above the humdrum sounds of the jungle I heard a steady, muffled pounding, far in the distance. I called Joe's attention to it, and he heard it too. "It's a runner," I said after listening for a moment intently. "That's what it is," said Starett, "and somehow I don't feel that he's bearing any good news for us. The blacks had heard the approaching stranger by now and were preparing to meet him. All live things are enemies in the Jungle until they have been proved otherwise. Joe Starett and I cocked our rifles. Presently round a sharp turn in the trail there dashed a naked, steaming savage. On his breast was painted the token which signlfed his peacefulness and that he carried news. The only weapon he held was a short, stout asse gai. This he tosed aside as soon as he saw us, further to Indicate his friend liness. Starett and I sprang to our feet, ex pectlng something serious, but Just as the man reached my side his arms dropped limply and he fell forward with a thud. We bent over him. chafing his wrists and forcing artificial respiration. but although we knew he was not dead, the savage did not move. Our blacks stood around gaping, but in a Jiffy we had them scampering for water and I hurried for brandy, we could see the messenger was from the UJlmiJu and we knew the news must be serious that sent him pounding along a torld jungle trail on so scorching a day. Each second he lay there speech less might mean that death was stalk ing closer to us. The thought which was uppermost in our minds was mat a tsei glan patrol was in the neighborhood. It was 10 minutes before tne messen ger opened his eyes. Almost immedi ately he sat up. breathing hard. By signs and a few words he told us that we had not been a single day from the villacre of the Ujlmiju when a party of soldiers had arrived and learned that we had been there. The chief had at first told them we went to the west ward, but the Belgian officers could not miss the wide trail we had made and they threatened to wipe out the village unless the natives told the truth. The chief had seen the roily of refusing, and finally admitted that we had gone to the eastward. Warned of Onr Danger. The Belgian patrol had started in pursuit of us, but the chief had been impressed by our generosity and wished to trade again some time, so he had sent the messenger on a wide detour to warn us. That meant no sleep that night. The Belgians and their native soldiers would be unhampered by the burdens such as we carried, and every hour they would draw nearer to us. It was not even safe to attempt to keep all the rubber, and we cached much of it where we could regain it some fu ture time. The messenger left us to return to his people. All that night we flound ered wearily through the forest. If we kept straight to the eastward we would reach Lake Bangweolo and Northwestern Rhodesia, where we would, of course, be safe from Belgian pursuit. But it was a long march and! there was no time to be lost. When the sun rose X climbed a niffb. I A True Narrative of Peril and Heroism, Wherein the Ambition of Two Englishmen to Get-Rich-Quick Is Slighted by a Belgian Patrol hill to scan the country for the smoke from'a'fire, for we thought the Bel gians would probably rest by night and travel by day, in order not to run any chances of missing our trail. Al though it was probably their breakfast hour, I saw no signs of a fire. We made a hasty meal and then tramped on again. Toward noon we were obliged to rest, for the blacks were staggering under their burdens and we did not care to make them mutinous. All depended upon having cheerful workers. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon we ate another hasty meal and tramped on again. Just before sunset Starett clambered to the top of an Immense tree on a hill, and away In the distance he saw two thin columns of blue smoke rising in the still air. The Belgians were catching up to us When I returned to camp and told Starett what I had seen we dared not let the natives know, for fear they would desert us. Already they were grumbling and showing signs of fear. The Belgians are more feared by the savages than they are of some of their gods. The porters protested openly when we ordered them to take up their loads of rubber. After two hours of tramping dropped behind to take another look from a treetop. We had Just traversed an open plain, where the vegetation was not so thick. . After darkness fell I noticed that many of the men were throwing away part of their burdens and we were obliged to watch them constantly, using threats and some times force to make them stick to their tasks. About midnight two of the fellows dropped the rubber they were carrying and scampered off Into the forest. Before others followed I drew my pistol anddisplayed It men acingly, promising the men that if they remained faithful they would stand a better chance of escaping tne patrol. By morning the porters were stagger ing in their tracks and we were all about ready to drop from lack of sleep and proper nourishment. It was abso lutely necessary to stop for food. It would not do to kindle a fire, for the patrol, traveling without baggage, had probably drawn closer to us during the night, and if they saw the smoke from our camp and realized our proximity they would doubtless push forward at once. The tired, sweating men dropped the rubber from their shoulders and squat ted on the ground as soon as we gave the word to halt. They had grumbled, but they had done all that was in the power of man to accomplish. We Discover Onr Pursuers- Hardly had we begun to munch our cold provender when Starett spied a thin column of blue haze rising above the forest and floating away westward. As nearly as we could figure, the Belgians were not more than a mile distant. We sent a native into a tree to try to spy them out and meanwhile discussed plans for escape. It was no longer possible to keep the knowledge of our immediate danger from the natives.. They could see with, their own eyes from the, ground that we were being overtaken. It did not seem fair to risk the lives of so many black men for the sake of the rubber and, besides, we ourselves were in danger. A length of rope and an overhanging bough are the usual Belgian medicine for poachers. According to the plan we decided upon I addressed the natives and explained the situation to them. I promised them to do all that lay within our power to protect and save who remained with us and offered to give five days' provisions to any who desired to leave our little band and shift for themselves. About 10 of the porters signified their desire to set out into the jungle alone and trust to their knowledge of forest life to escape from the patrol. The others, about 20 more, wished to stay with us. The provisions were distrib uted and the 10 who were casting loose from us tramped off Into the Jungle. All the rubber was left on the spot, and, munching our breakfasts as we marched, we began to pound wearily along the trail again. Scarcely had they disappeared when the native who had climbed the tree came hurrying to us and reported that he had seen the glint of sunlight on gun barrels between the palms of the for est. That meant our pursuers were hot upon our trail. The man who had caught this glimpse of Belgian power was so scared that he rushed off into the jungle to join his fellows who had left us. Three more men ran with him, but the others remained loyal. Still munching our breakfast as we ran, we started off at a dog trot, but the heat of the sun and our sheer ex haustlon soon brought us to a walk. I did not know how far we might be from Lake Moero, but all that day we traveled and that night had not reached its shore. We did not wish to leave the trail for the Jungle until absolutely forced to, for in the woods lurked fever and poisonous snakes, and we might easily lose our way. Besides, we would there continue to wander about in Bel gian territory, while if we could reach Lake Moero the way would be open to British soil. . How we staggered along I do not know. Once, I cannot tell whether it way day or night, we lay down and slept, but the dreams that came to me were worse than the reality, and we dared not loiter long. We started out again refreshed, but the Belgians had gained on us and once we beard the tramping of their men. How our enemies stood tne strain i do not know, but they were not harassed by the fear of death, and the trail they followed was broken by us. We could have scattered into the jun sle, but always we were hoping that the waters of the lake would glimmer through the trees and we would be able to skirt it in one final burBt of speed and find safety on our own terri tory. I Catch a Glimpse of Bine. At last, one morning, I caught a glimpse of blue down the long aisle of palms and trees. I shouted in my Joy and Starett laugher deliriously. An an swering shout echoed from the' jungle. We had come to the water, but it seemed too late. We bad no canoes I and the lake was miles across. Never theless, spurred by the shout of tri umph at our heels, we crashed through brush and weeds to the very edge of the water. It was not the lake. We had n-.ipsed that body of water and come out upon the eastern bank of the Luapula River, which empties into It. Across the span of sparkling water rose the green mountains of Northeastern Rhodesia, A hundred yards away I saw the mouth of an enormous cavern. It was our last hope, the only place to make a stand. My legs pained me and my breath was coming in short, stabbing gasps, but. with a shout to our men, 1 headed for the cavern. We could not tell hpw spacious it might be or how much protection it would afford us, but it was the sole straw at which we could grasp. Before we reached our goal, looKing back over my shoulder, I saw the Bel gians straggle out of the forest. I saw several bring their rifles to tneir shoul ders. In a zig-zag course I bounded for the cave. Bullets patted into the sand about us . and three of the natives dropped. It was not in humanity to leave them lying wounded there, and we dragged them with us to the pro tection of the cavern. We found them dead. Luckily for us, the cave was large and a tunnel which ran for about 60 or 70 feet turned at an acute angle from the large opening. As we dashed into the rocky hole, not knowing what we might find there, the leaden bullets from the high-powered rifles of the pa trol sputtered against the rocks and were flattened. Among us we had 15 rifles. There were at least 40 of the Belgians, and they were better equipped for fighting than were we. No sooner naa we gained the protection of the cave than Starett and I began firing and two of the natives Joined us. We were pro tected by stones, but the enemy was by then on the open beach exposed to our bullets. Five of the Belgians dropped before they knew what was happening. The others wavered for a moment and we pumped lead into them with renewed fury. They lay prone and returned the fire. There was a Derfect rain of slugs among the rocks at the mouth of the cave, but none did damage. We picked off two more of the Belgian patrol, both of them native soldiers. As soon as the magazines of our rifles were emptied we gave way to others whose guns were loaded and then in turn relieved them. The incessant, heavy fire we were thus able to maintain must have given self. n.,,. n,irnpr in exaggerated idea of Starett our force, and presently they began to retreat. Some 50 paces they ran, then dropped to the earth and began to pep per at ub again. After a round of shots they retreatea anomer dv iiaco, wu repeated the performance until they had gained the protection of the woods. From the position of the sun we guessed it to be noon. While we were unmolested I explored the passage be hind the cave, but there was no open ing which led from the 70-foot tunnel. It was close quarters, but we divided the men Into watches of four and had all but those on guard snatch a little use their rifles to any great extent, for sleep. Our plan was to fight the Belgians off until dark, then make a break for the river. From time to time we saw a man peer from behind a palm and we never failed to try a shot although we did little execution. It puzzled me that the patrol did not attack us, for al though they may have thought we had great numbers and knew we were pro tected In the cavern, they must also have realized that only a limited num ber of our men could fire at once from the narrow opening. Night would make the conditions more equal, and It was distinctly to their advantage to attack by dayiignt. The Inactivity made me uneasy, for knew that we could pick them off effec tively If they charged us across the open and each man of them less meant better chances for us. Late In the afternoon I heard the sound of axes chopping. I called Star- ett's attention to It and we figured they were cutting trees for a raft on which to pursue us if we escaped to tne river, We began to contemplate a break for the water without further delay in or der to take them by surprise before the raft was finished. We explained the situation to the natives and at the same time suggested that any who wished might go to the Belgians under a flag of true and give themselves up. trusting to be treated merclluliy. Every man of them preferred to stay with us. Xovel Scheme to Avoid Fire. Starett and I stripped off our outer clothing the better to swim. We were all but ready to make a break when a heavy fusillade came from the Jungle. The men who were at the moutn oi tne cave returned it with a will. Then out from the line of woods which Jutted down to the very bank of the river a number of enormous logs Degan To roil. From behind each log 'came a scat tering rifle fire. The sound of the axes was clear to us now. The enemy had cut logs and were crawling along the srround behind them pushing uiem ior ward between shots. Whenever a head showed we fired, but they were fully as well protected as were we. Steadily those deadly pieces or lumDer aavanceo. toward the mouth of the cave. As they rolled forward the men in the woods kent ud a continual fire over the heads of their comrades. J- rom xime 10 lime, h a. Ioe- rolled on toward us. a body was left writhing on the ground, but we could not stay that slow advance. The situation had been forced, unere was nothing left but to fight our way to the river. I gave tne wora. With a yell we dashed from tne cave. Wheeling toward the beach we nrea at the men behind their movable breast works as we ran. Some snots tola, Dut theirs were the more deadly. Half our men were in the open before the Bel gians left their cover and closed with us. It was pistol, Kmie ami rmts uull then. The reserve lorce oi tne pairoi ran to the attack. We did not stop to fight, only to beat off those who were in our way. It was eacn man ior nim- and I fought shoulder to shoulder. A big black raised a C1UD and would have dropped me in my tracks, but Joe's pistol flashed. The savage crumpled and the club glanced off my shoulder. At the very water's edge a wounded savage grappled with my friend. It gave me pleasure to feel cold steel grind on his ribs, and Star ett shook himself free of the con vulsive fingers. We were in the water. Diving and ducking to dodge blows and occasional shots, thrashing all the while toward midstream. The Belgians dared not their own men and ours were a con fused, struggling mass in the water. Starett and I helped each other until at last we felt the river bottom slip ping away under our feet. We were la water deep enough to swim. There was a sense of freedom as we struolc out for the opposite bank. But as we fought free of our assailants our dan ger Increased. As the chances of hit ting their own men lessened, the Bel gians began to use their rifles. The leaden slugs sang about our ears and threw up little Jets of spray all around us. We swam under water all we could and changed our direction while doing it. Coming up for breath, we dived again. My chest ached. I was gasping, and the blood trickled Into my eyes from a wound In the forehead, but each time I rose to the surface I saw Starett near me. He was swimming strong, and when I thought that all was over he slipped his arms under my shoul ders and held him up. It seemed to me the bullets were coming less fre quently. Then I knew no more until I felt men rubbing my wrists and working my arms to force respiration. I sat up. Starett was bending over me and three of the blacks were helping him to revive me. We were In Northwest ern Rhodesia and there was no sign of the Belgians across the river. Twelve of us, starved and gaunt, made our way to Kazembe. The rub ber monopoly was a dream of the past, but we were glad to have come through with our lives. (Copyright, 1912.) A Skimmed-Mllk Patriot. The man who stays away from the polls is in direct conspiracy with the voter whose ballot Is debauched be cause he makes It proportionately eas ier for the tainted ballot to win its cause. No non-voter is a good citizen. At most he is merely not a bad citizen. If he does not vote today (when his country needs him) ho should not be permitted to vote tomorrow (when he may have an ax to grind). This non-voter la a menace wherever he lives and he lives everywhere. If he had an ounce of conception of what it cost his forefathers to obtain the ballot, he would not so lightly treat Its use. He is a sklmmed-milk patriot. His negligence is born of thought esness and habit rather than of malice the same refined distinction that ex ists between kleptomania and theft. The mere passage of a compulsory voting law would have a tremendous moral effect that would add years to the life of the Republic. The mere statement of the case as it is proves uncontrovertibly the need for action. National Magazine. Guarding a Royal Train. Few people know that the passage of a roval train is guarded almost every yard of the way, be the journey of the Sovereign short or long. Many people laugh when they read of lines upon lines of soldiers being drawn up along the railway metals in Russia when the Czar travels; but the same thing practically occurs In Eng land, only without the ostentatious display of uniforms. The line over which the royal train is to pass Is quite as effectively guarded, though to all appearance there Is nobody there. London Pall Mall Gazette.