LINCOLN GQIIHTY LEADER. CHil. r. ADA B. SOCX.K, Pub. TOLEDO OREGON. If a man makes no enemies be has but few friends. A wife is the only extravagant habit some men have. His satanlc majesty doesn't waste ny of his time on the hypocrite. A marriage license gives a man a legal right to lie to one woman. The Japanese do not have consump tion. Even the children are taught how to breathe. A poor girl's Idea of a mercenary wretch Is a young man who marries a rich widow. Rockefeller has cornered violets, riant a few In your garden and smash the violet trust After a man takes more than $5,000 they quit calling it stealing and refer to It as embezzlement. A Boston paper wants a good Amer ican name for the chauffeur. How would It do to call him down? Some bachelors sigh because they are lonely, and some married men sigh because they hove no chance to be. Nevertheless, Russell Sage Is the greatest object lesson In favor of va cations that could possibly be discov ered. Some people seem to think the Al mighty is making a mistake In not leaving the management entirely to them. The widow who has scattered the ashes of her husband on two conti nents may be trying to make extra work for the lust day. It would appear that influential peo ple who obey the laws must be doing so Just becnuse they like to and not through any fear of getting into trou ble If they should break over. The fact that few Americans be come chess experts has often caused wonder. The American who Is capable of becoming a chess master is usually trying to pile up a hundred million dollars at easier work. The man who leaves a team of horses unhitched on the public streets In these days of coughing chu-chus and teckless drivers is the bosom friend of the man who sows the whole rechili gulf with floating mines In tho hope of getting a warship or two. Mr. Moseley's commission of Eng lishmen who came here to study Amer ican schools gives them much praise and some censure. One of the chief objections Is to sending big boys to women teachers, whose influence, it is alleged, makes them less virile. No doubt a manly man does make a good schoolmaster for a boy more than 12 years old. But It Is contrary to all ex perience to assert that a good woman teacher has a harmful effect on the manliest of boys. A generation ago an English physi cian of note declared that four-fifths of the English-speaking people dig their graves with their teeth. But this undoubtedly doesn't tell the whole story. The manner in which eating is done and the makeup of the modem menu have a good deal to do with wrecking constitutions. Many Is the business man who allows himself to become so absorbed In his u flairs that be will swallow his meals in nervous baBte that soon becomes disastrous to digestive organs. Ilyglcnlsts observe that Gladstone is credited with chew ing each bite 22 times, and attribute his longevity to his correct hablt of eating. The culinary art of modern society has not for its purpose the preparation of the most wholesome food. The object to be attained is rather to tempt a Jaded pulate, to in duce disregard of the guidance of ap petite. Milton's phrase, "They also serve who only stand and wait," has long been applied to the female portion of the human race. The modern girl pre fers to quote, "Let us then be up und doing," with a courageous heart, train ed muscles, and a resourceful bead. When a prominent Philadelphia soci ety girl was recntly attacked by a negro she used her gun-metal-handled umbrella as she would a golf club, and a vigorous "drive" caused the thief to drop her purse and flee. When two sisters discovered a burglar under their bed not long ago, they dragged blm forth, one of theiu sat on his chest, and the other ran for the police. A little New Jersey girl recently rescued two small brothers from a burning building, and a Chicago housemaid broke through a group of men and dragged a child from under a trolley car. A "mere man," who recently fainted under the ordeal of vaccina tion, has collected these Items of a veek for the edification of his own sex. After a little less than two years of work the Department of the Interior has Issued a statement outlining the disposition of the fund for reclaiming the arid lands of the Western States and Territories. Twenty seven million dollars will be expended during the Dext two or three years, and the work of construction, when finished, will ltave redeemed 1,000,000 acres of land, capable of supporting a population of 600,000. This announcement closes the preliminary stage of the reclamation project, which, being self-perpetuatiye by the law which set It in motion, will continue to operate as long as the work of Irrigation is commercially profitable. The object of the reclama tion law is tp make the government the agent of the people in turning over the public domain to small land own ers on a strictly business basis. The settler can buy of the government the reclaimed land at what it costs to re deem it. In this way the fund for Irri gation will not be exhausted, but will remain Intact for making more land cultivable. The Eastern farmer is nol taxed for the benefit of the Western farm, as would be the case If the gov etnment sold the reclaimed land at the old figure of $1.25 per acre. The new lands are to be sold to actual settlers, and their purchase limited to 1(10 acres. So great is the fertility of irrigated land that the average farm need not exceed forty or fifty acres to support a family in abundance. The population being so much denser than in other farming districts west of the Mississippi, life on the farm can give way to life In the village, and the ele ment of loneliness which has hereto fore made the vocation of farming re pugnant to many will be eliminated. Great Interest is already being taken in the reclamation projects by pros pective homes eekers. Some forty years ago the good peo ple of these United States abolished the slave trade. And is it not time that we abolish the trade slave? A trade slave is a man or woman who must go to his or her business early in the morning and spend from 12 to 10 hours each day waiting upon a lazy and exacting public that could make its purchases in two-thirds the time. Ask any dealer why he keeps open so long and he gives only one excuse "Others do." It is a feeble excuse. Dealers could, if they would, stand to gether In this matter, and, without in Jury to any and with benefit to all, establish a work-week that would emancipate their trade slaves. Few things in life are more piteous than the listless girls, dispirited young men and gray-haired veterans of the stores whose lives are narrowed down to their dally toll by a brutally selfish public. To them the beauties of nature exist only in pictures, and the joys of life are but things of their dreams. Mil lions are giving their whole lives for Just enough to eat and drink and wear. And they are held to that hard lot, not by any natural condition, but by the thoughtless public that likes to take its ease, to consult U own time and to domineer over it- slaves. Vision aries have many schemes for revolu tionizing the entire economic order, but none for revolutionizing human nature. The great oppressive force, the great source of Injustice, under uny system, lies In human nature. We nil our mouths with phrases that have no meaning and the heart must stand voiceless. Better than all the Imagin ings of the centuries of absolute In dustrial equality to tome is the weekly half-holiday that we can make our own. One-half day of freedom and of pleasure each week for the store work ers counts more for emancipation and equality than all the vain dreams ever dreamed. The merchants of every city and in this land may bring on this practical reform if they will. They can give their employes a chance to go home and enjoy their fumllies, take them out to the parks or into the country and enjoy some of God's sun shine and the sight of green fields, make a garden, plant flowers, play games, go a-fishlng, and do a thousand and one things to get nearer to na ture, to humanity and to God, and feel that it Is sweet to be alive. They would go hack to work with fresh ened spirit, with better courage and with an Inspiring feeling that there is something more in life than endless drudging. And no business would be lost. In Happy Ignorance. "I thought you said all your friends had deserted you since you lost your money?" "They have." "But, I see a gray-whiskered man who calls here every day. Who Is he?" "That's the 'doctor. He hasn't heard of it" Cleveland Plain Dealer. An Awful Warning. "There's a girl who has bad twelve offers of marriage." "Mercy 1" "And she's been waiting five years for the thirteenth." Cleveland Plain Dealer, RUSSIA'S HELPLESS FLEET oCo FULLY one-third of the Russian navy Is imprisoned by treaty in the Black Pea. Excepting for four destroyers which were lniilt on the Baltic, and were permitted by the Porte to steam to Sebastopol after their armament had been removed, and the merchant vessels which are in the auxiliary and volunteer fleet-i, none of the ships has ever passed through the Dardanelles. The entire Black Sea fleet, including all classes of ships, numbers 153 vessel, and includes 8 battleships, 9 cruisers, 12 gun vessels, 9 auxiliary cruisers, 10 volunteer steamships, 10 destroyers, 29 first-class and 63 second-clas torpedo boats. The tonnage represented by the vessels Is considerably more than than half of the entire Japanese navy, yet, owing to the numerous treaties and conven tions which have closed the Darda nelles to all foreign fighting ships, the Muck Sea fleet renin ins inert. Since the time when it became evi dent that hostilities in the far East were inevitable several diplomatic at tempts to. have this powerful fleet re leased from Its imprisonment were re ported to have been made by Russia. Some of the fleet, it must be admitted, would be unable to niaUe the long voy age to the far East, and perhaps would be of little effect If they did. On the other hand, the formidable battleship squadron while not of the latest type, is, on. the whole, heavily armored, and carries batteries of effective size. The destroyers are of the most modern type, and from the first-class torpedo boats a strong flotilla could be formed. it Is almost Impossible to entirely divorce any consideration of the Rus sian Black Sea fleet and the history of the Dardanelles, for the fleet has been organized und built especially to meet the conditions. Originally It was con ceived with the Idea of commanding the shores of that immense inland sea, and to lie able. If the necessity should arise, to assist any operation against Turkey. A ViiNt Inland Sea. The Black ea 13 a very large body of inland water. Some Idea of its sire may best be given by calling to mind that its area i about that of the Mid die States and Mississippi combined. In figures It may be 'expressed as 1(53, 711 square miles. Its only outlet Is through the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmora and the Dardanelles into the Aegean Sea, an arm of the Mediter ranean. The Bosphorus and the Dar danelles are two narrow straits, und, consequently, easily fortified, although it may be asserted that the Turkish forts are not Glbraltars, by any mean. At its greatest width the Bosphorus is not over two and a quarter miles, and its tortuous course is nineteen miles long. The Dardanelles Is a wind ing body of water, forty-five miles long, and averaging two miles in width. The latter is at one point only 600 yards wide, and here, on the Asiatic side, are the fortresses of Chanak-Kale and Kuin-Kall, and on the European side Sed-il-Bahr and Kalld-Bahr. The latter Is generally spoken of as "The Key of the Sea," or "The Castle of Europe." All four forts have some modern ordnance, the Asiatic being commonded by 200 Krupp cannon, yet there remain some ancient brass cannon of Immense size which are capable of hurling stonesbot Black Sea Squadron Made Ineffective by;; the Treaties Which;; Close the Dardanelles 1 of from 20 to 29 inches In diameter, which are not nearly so terrible as their appearance would suggest. The forty-five miles of the Dardan elles, whose shores, although not such a panorama of beauty as thope of the Bosphorus, are still full of fine pietur esqueness, are bordered by rugged mountains, rising one behind the other, brown and barren on the European side, and by low, wooded bills on the Asiatic. Important towns dot the way. Among them, at the entrance to tho Sea of Marmora, are Galllpoll, on the European side, called the "Key to Constantinople;" Ak-bashl Llman, the ancient port of Sestos; Abydos, Just opposite the scene of Leander's swim ming, and, later, of Lord Byron's. Be low this lies Chanak-Kalessl, some times called Dardanelles. As the Dardanelles, the Sea of Mar mora and the Bosphurus are all with in the Ottoman Empire, tho Turkish Government has always contended that no. foreign warship should be al lowed at any time to pass through. Owing to the same international jcal ousles which have prolonged the life of the Sick Man of Europe, the Porte has been able to have Its position strengthened by treaties and by a con vention of the European powers. The various treaties, etc., referring to the closing of the straits to foreign ships of war may be summarized as follows: 1809, January 5. Treaty. Great Britain and Turkey. Dardanelles and Bosphorus closed to ships of war of foreign states when the Porte is at peace. 1822 Notification. Turkey. Bos phorus closed to merchant ships of power not having treaties. 182, October 7 Treaty. Russia and Turkey. Trade to be opened to all friendly powers. 1829 September 14 Treaty. Russia and Turkey. Black Sea and straits opened to merchant vessels of Russia, and to those of all powers at peace with the Porte. 1840. July 15 Convention. Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia and Turkey. Dardanelles and Bosphorus closed to foreign ships of war when the Porte is at peace. 1841, May 3 Convention. Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia. Russia and Turkey. Dardanelles and Bosphorus closed to -foreign ships of war when the Porte is at peace. Kir min for light vessels of war for service of missions. 1844, Dec. 24 Regulation. Turkey. Protection of Dardanelles und Bos phorus us to passage of sailing vessels und steamers through the straits be tween sunset and sunrise. 3850, March 30 General triaty, Great Britain, Austria, France, Prus sia, Russia, Sardinia and Turkey. Lim itation of Russian and Turkish naval forces; non-establishment of military maritime arsenals. 1871, March 13 Treaty, Great Brit ain, Austria, France, Prussia. Italy, Russia and Turkey. Abrogation of treaty of March 30, 1850, respecting non-llmitatlon of forces and establish ment of arsenals. Buaaia'a Obligation Largely Moral. While these documents distinctly shut in the Russian Black Sea fleet, It has been held that the obligation' of Russia to live up to the treaties is largely moral. On the other hand, the United States has never recognised th right of the Turk to close the Sea of Marmora or the Black Sea to fighting ships, and In 1S98 a bint that Admiral Sampson and the fleet that had swept Cervera's squadron from the seas would knock at the gates and seek re diess for the Armenian outrages had a good effect upon the Porte. It has beeii held that Russia, believing destiny w ill make her mistress of Turkey sooner or later, is Becretly glad of the 9ets which have closed the entrance to the Black Sea. If the great White Bear ever does get control. It can easily lo Imagined how such treaties would be cherished and insisted upon. The hopes of Russia, in this direc tion, if they do exist, must be of th slightest. England desires the Dar danelles closed because it would com pel a very considerable Increase of her Mediterranean squadron, for she here, as In other parts of the world, finds it essential to her national existence to be mistress. Some years ago a certain United States 8enator predicted that the United States will sooner or later be compelled to depart from tradition and settle for all time the vexed Near Eastern question by turning out the Turks and becoming responsible for the peace of the Turkish States in Eu rope. Dreamlike as this proposition appears, there are those in Europe who have faith in its accomplishment. In the United States the idea has not even the stability of a vision. Not only is the Dardanelles forti fied, but the Bosphorus bristles with forts in pairs strung out along its !"rgth flt iTitprrslq of two mfe. n the Russian Black Sea battleships are the most heavily armored in the world It has been suggested that this wa done for the purpose of attempting the passage of the straits, should necessity ever arise. The Ships of the Fleet. Two of the Black Sea buttleshlps. the Knyaz Potemkin and the Tria Zvlatitella, nre very speedy ships for their class, both being able to do seven teen knots an hour. In addition to the fleet mentioned, two powerful 13,000ton battleships the Zlatoust and the Erstafl which are to have an eighteen-knot speed, are being built, and two protected cruisers, a new type for the Black Sea. of oV45 tons, with twenty-three-knot speed, are also being built. Those are to be named the Kagul and the Otchakow, and are part of the new Russian naval program, which provides for five 1 11,-5!0-ton battleships, the largest In the world the largest English battleship being 1(1,350 tons each, and the Con necticut class for the United States but Iti.OOO tons, the nearest approach to which class are six French ships of 14,092 tons each. One advantage the Russian Black Sea fleet possesses over those of other powers is the ability, of some of the ships to burn oil. The Caspian oil fields are not so distant that petroleum may not be economically transported to the borders of the sen, and, as against coal, the fuel is cheap and economically carried. Unfortunately an oil tank is not protection to tho boilers when the ship is In action; but when an 18-inch armor belt girds tha ship tho likelihood of a projectile find ing its way to the vitals Is rather re mote. Yet owing to a desire for high angle fire, the Russian designers have made ships that are considered dan gerously high out of the water. They look terrible and Impressive, but, un luckily, they are the best of targets. Notwithstanding the reported at tempts to have this large fleet released, there are reasons to believe that at the present time Russia feels much safer having It where It is, for it Is no secret that the ships were built with the single idea of punishing the "Sick Man of Europe" sooner or later. Philadel phia Ledger.