Lincoln County leader., October 30, 1908, Image 2

UF.GOLH COUNT! LEADER
RE COLLINS, Edftar
r N HAYDCN, Manacar .
TOLEDO OREGON
A burnt child may dread the nre,
but one's old flames are always fascl
natlinj. The woman who weds to acquire a
bank book soou becomes dissatisfied
with her taste in literature.
Nowadays no man is a face card In
the political deck till he gets his por
trait on the souvenir postals.
The world may be getting better in
every other way, but it certainly shows
a disposition to be aerouaughty this
year.
In Madrid the police have cleared
the streets of all beggars but the blind
ones, who probably see no other way
to make a living.
"Beware of the cracked mug!" od
Tlscs the Beaumont (Tex.) Enterprise.
Also beware of the line of conversa
tion that lends to a cracked mug.
The deed of that man who shot his
wife because she didn't talk enough
was shocking, of course; but fortun
ately such eases are extremely rare.
Count Okuma, who has so much to
say concerning the probability of a war
with tti! country, appears to ho the
Richmond Pearson liobson of Japan.
It is claimed that a circus elephant
at Marion, Ohio, Is 212 years old. Pos
sibly Minister Wu would be glad to
know something of tho pachyderm's
diet.
Every little while somebody swims
out as far as he can and Is supposed
to be "fooling" when he calls for help.
This is one of the most foolish ways
of ending one's life.
When Emperor William and King
Edward had their pleasant little tete-a-tete
were the big sticks checked In the
cloak-room? Court etiquetto would
seem to have dictated such a pro
cedure. Our very best urlstocruts need not bo
shocked that one of the German
princes lias gone to work. As the ob
ject is merely the elimination of super
fluous fat, there is no real dishonor
attached.
"The Niagara Falls are 30,000 years
old," Buys the Chicago Journal. This
is probably true, but every time you"
go there you find that the villagers
have a few new ways of separating
you from your money.
It is reported that mony chop siiey
emporiums throughout the country
have recently been closed owing to a
lack of business. This ought to bring
a measure of relief to people who have
been dreading the yellow poril.
What chance has a young man to
rise in the employment of a large cor
poration? is a question frequently
asked. Of course it depends largely on
the young man; but according to a
statement recently sent out by the
Pennsylvania Kallroad Company, sixty
seven of the eighty-five principal olll
eers of tlrt company started at the bot
tom nud worked up. A fact like this is
worth many volumes of theorizing on
the subject.
It Is quite true that "cleanliness is
next to godliness, ' but in this day of
fads and scientific frills the question
is whether we are not getting alto
gether too afraid of a little dirt. Dirt
has been defined as matter in the
wrong place, and hygiene Is the sci
ence of keeping It In the right place.
I!ut we are Inclined to think, that we
ure all a little bit too much up in tho
nlr on the matter of cleanliness; a
Utile too afraid of coming in contact
wltli the clean-smelling, kindly earth,
and are in danger of becoming nasty
nlee. Wldncs, a manufacturing town of
about thirty thousand inhabitants,
situated on the Mersey, a few miles
from LIveriKwl, Is put forward by En
glish papers as enjoying "the world's
cheapest gas." Since the latest reduc
tion, made In June, the price to ordi
nary consumers is twenty-eight cents
per thousand cubic feet ; to consumers
of more than three million feet a year
twenty-four cents; to all users of gas
for motive power purges, twenty
cents. In addition to supplying light,
heat and power at these low prices, the
gas department contributes ten thou
sand dollars a year to the borough
rates tills sum representing profits.
Denial of the probability of war be
tween Japan and the United States
would be gratuitous if there were not
bo much persistent talk about the
dreadful poflslbillty. It may be worth
while to collect three recent utterances
on the subject by persons who know.
A French officer who has been In Ja
pan inoking a dispassionate study of
military matters says, in effect, that
Jajiun Is physically Incapable of war
with the United States. The American
ambassador to Japan, Mr. O'Brien,
says that war talk is absurd. Marquis
Katsura, the new head of the Japanese
cabinet," supports his assertion that
Japan Is bent on peace by pointing out
that the financial problem of Japan is
sufficient to engross her for some time
to come. War between this country
and Japan Is possible; so is war be
tween any two nations. But it is per
verse Jingoism which tries to frighten
folk with so nebulous a possibility.
The totals of Are loss in this coun
try may signify little to the average
mind, but the comparative figures
should mean much. The figures Issued
by the national board of fire underwrit
ers show that the average Are loss per
capita in the United States for the last
five years was $3.02, against 33 cents
for six European countries, including
France, Germany a;id Austria. It may
be objected perhaps that it is unfair
to select this particular period for pur
poses of comparison, since both the
Baltimore fire of 1904 and the Ran
Francisco fire of 1000 are Included in
it And yet if these two fires, repre
senting about $350,000,000, were de
ducted from the total fire loss of the
country for the five years which Is
estimated at $1,257,710,055 the total
would be reduced by but little over a
fourth. And the American per capita
loss would remain about six and one
liulf limes larger than the European.
What Is to blame for this great dis
parity? Are we so much more careless
than Europeans? Are European build
ing codes, fire departments and water
supplies from six and a half to ten
times better than those found in th
United States?
Despite the steadily improving in
dustrial conditions, we still occasion
ally read of the suicide of some man
who has searched in vain for work and
despairs of finding it before his last
cent Is spent. Such suicides are often
due in reality to other than Industrial
causes, but when they are the result
of Inability to find employment they
are among the most pitiable facts of
our national life. Helpless to put an
end entirely to the conditions that
bring them about, society must for the
great part watch them as one of the
symbolic indications of good or bad
times. Fortunately the number of
genuine cases of this kind has this year
been very small. Of late factories that
were closed have been reopening their
doors, and others that were working
part time hnve increased their forces.
It Is true that the applicants for work
under such circumstances are still ul
most certain to be more numerous than
the places to be filled, but the dispro
portion Is steadily decreasing. The
statistician of the shite bureau of la
bor statistics for New York has re
cently given out figures of the extent
of luck of employment during the first
quarter of the year. Whereas in some
previous yVars Industry has been so
active that the weather conditions have
been chiefly responsible for the Idle
ness of such men as had no work at
that season, this year the closing of
factories and reduction of forces have
been responsible for many times as
much Idleness as all other cuuses com
bined. That, however, was for ,the
first quarter of the year. For the
second quarter the compilation of fig
ures has not gone for enough to per
mit results in iereentages to be an
nounced, but the returns already show
a very great improvement The mid
dle of May was the' time when the
marked Improvement began, and now
the improvement is evident in all lead
ing lines of Industry. The Indications
all are that the industrial backset was
only of a temporary nature, and that it
will pass away without, leaving serious
scars.
A Victim of Lepron?,
"On my travels In Venezuela," said a
New ork man, "I stayed in a hotel
with a young man In whose family
.there wus the taint of leprosy, though
lie aninrontly did not have it ' One
night sitting at dinner he became an
gry at a waiter and brought his hand
down on tho table with full force. He
instantly realized that he did not feel
the blow and sat looking at his hand,
his face whitening with horror. 'Give
me your knife, Bob, he said to his
chum. He grabbed the pocketknife in
a frenzy and stabbed the side of his
hand with vicious cuts from finger
tips to wrist You may not know that
leprosy appears in the side of the hand,
numbness being a sign. The man did
not feel the cuts. He arose from the
table, knocking over his chair, rushed
out into the courtyard of the hotel, and
we heard the quick tang of a revolver
shot telling us how he had conquered
the leper's curse by ending his life."
Couldn't lllik It.
First Sortwoman (after Jumping a
stile) Come along. Do have a try!
Second Sportswoman Oh, it's all
wry well for you to risk your 'neck,
but I'm going to be married next week
Punch.
$HH$HH$H$H$HSH$Hfr
The Grand Canyon
of the Colorado Fiver
Congress, at its last session, was
asked to appropriate money for a monu
ment to John Wesley Powell, to be
erected somewhere on the rim of the
Grand Canyon of the Colorado, which
he was the first white man to explore.
Ills achievement differed from those of
other explorers In that they followed
routes or trails more or less known to
the aborigines, while his way was
through a chasm so tremendous, so ap
palling In Its vostness, so filled with
hidden perils that even the natives
feared and shunned it Until after
Powell and his companions pnssed
through the terrific depths of the Grand
Canyon what the world had known of It
was mostly bused upon mythical tales
told by the Indians, or some hunter or
prospector. Stories were related of
parties entering the gorge in boats, and
being carried down with fearful ve
locity Into whlrliwols, where all were
overwhelmed. Others told of under
rround passages of the madly rushing
river, Into which boats had been car
ried, never to reappear. It was cur
rently believed that the river was lost
under the rocks for several hundred
miles, and that any attempt to ride Its
surface meant certain death. There
were stories of great catracts, from
which the roaring music of the waters
could be heard on the summits of dis
tant mountains, and there were ac
counts of parties wandering on the
brink of the canyon, vainly endeavoring
to reach the waters below, and, finally
dying from thirst within sight and hear
ing of the river, which seemed to mock
their distress. The mysteries of the
canyon were woven Into the mouths of
lie religion of the Indians.
The. Grand Canyon of Arizona : is
within a government forest reservation
sixty by eighty miles in size. About
two-thirds of it Is on the eastern and
the other third on the western side.
GRAND CANYON FROM SCENIC DIVIDE.
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VIEW OF THE UIVER
The timber Is In fairly good condition.
There was a bad lire two years ago
which ruined several hundred acres of
fine forest, but there Is little danger of
Its recurrence because of the vigilance
of the superintendent and bis corps of
foresters.
It is thirteen miles from one rim of
the canyon to that on the opposite side,
and there are two trolls by which the
western side, may be reached. One of
them, the Bright Angel Troll, Is op
posite the new hotel, ftnd although it Is
eighteen or twenty miles to the top the
climb Is comparatively easy. It follows
a stream of clear, pure cold water
which comes tumbling down o narrow
canyon on the western side, and Major
Powell during his first memorable ex
ploration of the canyon called it the
Bright Angel River because It was such
a grateful discovery.
People ure beginning to find their
fr $ ifr J t$H$H$l t $t fr
way to the Grand Canyon. Last year,
which was the first since the railroad
was opened, about 12,000 people came.
This year, if the present average keeps
up, there will be from 20,000 to 25,000
visitors, and every one who comes goes
home a walking advertisement for the
place. There is nothing to compare
with It anywhere In the world. It Is
Impossible to exaggerate the grandeur,
the sublimity, the impresslveness of the
scenery; and' Its fascination cannot be
accurately described. It is impossible
for one man to express his emotions to
another.
It Is a singular fact that three
fourths of the people who come to the
canyon are women. . A large number
of them are well along In years, and
the endurunce and the nerve they show
is extraordinary. Nearly every woman
who comes .insists upon going down to
the bottom of the canyon,. while onlj
half of the men show that amount oJ
energy.
Were a canal of the size of the pro
Jected cut at Panama to be dug in th.
Grand Canyon It would opjieor hardly
larger than a baby ribbon to a spec
tator on the rim. It is estimated that
to obtain enough earth to fill the Grand
Canyon it would be necessary to exca
vate 20,000 Panama canals.
The Grand Canyon is like an Inverted
mountain range, 217 miles long, reach
ing a depth of 7,530 feet, with a series
of depressions averaging 0,000 feet chis
eled out of the earth by the erosion of
ages. It Is the generally accepted the
ory that this great chasm Is solely the
work of water of the floods that come
down from the mountains every spring
and summer but Mr. Ordonez, a dis
tinguished Mexican geologist, who
came here not long ago, made a sugges
tion which may not be entirely new but
Is worth mentioning. It is his Idea
that, while the earth was cooling,. the
at'tN'a.'Xv;:
FROM ANGEL PLATEAU.
-
soil and the rocks contracted and split
a deep and wide fissure In the surface
of the plateau, and that Its sides have
since been worn down and polished by
tjie action of the water. That seems
reasonable.
All Sign Fall.
"You seem to need rain very badly.'
"Yes," answered Former Corntossel
In a tone of patient resignation. "We've
done our best, but it doesn't do any
good. We've given one Sunday school
picnic after another, left the-rockln'
chairs an' hummocks an' buggies out
over night an' painted all tho buildings
fresh. But none of the things that used
to bring rain seem to work any more!"
Washington Star.
It is not what you think of your em
ployer, but what your employer thiuk?
of you.
SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY
The horses of Iceland are shod wltl
sheep's horns.
Turkey holds the record for the num
ber of aged persons in proportion to tho
population.
Some of the screws made for the uso
of watchmakers are so tiny 100,000
could be piuced in an ordinary thimble.
There is an average of seven car col
lisions a day on the steam, subway, ele
vated and surface railways of New
York.
During the summer season the bor
sugh of Richmond, New York City, dou
bles Its population on every pleasant
Sunday, but only for that one day.
The newspaper was invented by a
Paris physician, who, finding his visits
welcome whenever he brought any news
or gossip, applied to Cardinal Richelieu
for a patent, to publish the Paris Ga
zette in 1022.
Several German firms (in Eibenstock'
and Zwickau) have purchased large
forest sections in the vicinity of Chiojd
ul, Roumania, where they propose to
erect sawmills and ship from there an
nually about 40,000 cubic meters of
lumber to Italy, France and Germany.
Negotiations among the German man
ufacturers of wall paper have finally
led to the organization of a trust. Tho
seven leading manufacturers who have
already joined have a combined annual
production of about $2,i;2o,ouu. i lie
total output of wall paper in Germany
Is estlmnted at $7,000,000 per annum.
Mips Jean Gordon, who has won a
notional reputation by her work In be
half of women and children, done as
factory inspector In Louisiana, is not
to be re-elected to her ofllce. It is as
serted that she has Incurred the enmity
of the manufacturers and the politi
cians and in spite of the protests of the
women of the State she will be turned
out of ofllce.
The blood of the rhinoceros Is very
highly esteemed by Burmese nnd Chi
nese as a medicine for all kinds of ail
ments. Whenever a party of hunters
tire successful in shooting a rhinoceros
they nre less numerous than they
used to bf! the native beaters carefully
draw off the blood and bring it to Ran
goon stored In hollow bamboos. The
precious liquid is worth its weight Id
silver. London Standard.
Tho sheath skirt Is iiot; new in Bur
mah, where the women wear a garment
split to the waist, "now concealing, now
revealing." The men wear the same
sarong, unspllt. In Cochin and Travan
core, India, the reputable native worn-
en wear nothing above the waist except
noserings and earrings; the Syrian
Christians wear a jacket and a comical
little "Cochin tail," something like the
obi of Nippon, on their skirts. New
York Press.
Pear-shaied balloons are the fashion
In Belgium. The point is upward, tho
base of the balloon is spherical. It Is
claimed that balloons of this Rhape
pierce the air vertically with far great
er sliced than the ordinary spherical
balloon. Consequently they are stead
ier. Also the upper pointed end pre
vents the accumulation of moisture or
snow on the surface, which frequently
weighs a balloon down and destroys Its
power to rise.
Though Russia has much cool and
Iron, her Industries ore quite undevel
oped. Her industrial backwardness may
be gauged from the fact that with a
territory and a population twice as
large as those of the United States,
Russia produces only one-tenth of the
quantity of iron produced In the Uni
ted States, and that she raises only
tne-twentleth of the quantity of eml.
Agriculturally and Industrially, Russia
Is o mediaeval country. New York
Evening Post.
Dr. II. C. Stevens, of Seattle, reports
recent experiments which show that
objects seen by Indirect vision ordi
narily opixmr larger in the right half
of tho field of vision than in the left.
With a smaller number of persons this
is reversed. From these facts he de
duces a possible origin of right and
left-handedness. Right-handedness,, or
Its reverse, develops at about the age
of seven months. Dr. Stevens suggests
that they may be due to the phenomena
of vision Just described. By a reflex
effect the infant reaches after the ob
ject best seen with the arm nearest to
them.
Miss Martha Van Rensselaer, super
visor of the reading course for farmers'
wives conducted by the Agricultural
College of Cornell University, believes
that there should be a woman Judge In
Juvenile courts where girls are tried.
She bases her opinion on personal ob
servation of various Juvenile courts,
notably those in New York city. She
believes that there are many questions
which fflrls would answer truthfully If
there Was a woman on the bench, but
which they now invariably lie about
when questioned by a man. This Is
one of the very few Instances In which
Miss Van Rensselaer believes segrega
tion of the two sexes would be benefl.
claL i