Lincoln County leader., July 16, 1909, Image 2

I'
LINCOLN GQURTY LEADER
Rt COLLINS, Cdlter
f N HAYDEN, Maimer
TOLEDO OREGON
Brooding over failurea doesn't hatch
out any successes.
The pen Is mightier than the sword,
but the hatpin yields to neither of
them.
Caitro Is the late big noise, but he
doesn't know the silencer has been
put on.
The Cuban republic is at last start
ed right. It has a deficit of $12,-000.000.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox Is delivering
"Lectures to Husbands." Mr. Wilcox
has a season ticket.
Scientists say . sassafras tea is In
jurious. Nothing, it seems, is too sa
cred for the scientists to attack.
The Queen of Holland's baby car
riage cost $10,000. And it is a car
riage of only one mamma-power, too.
A Chicago youth marries his step
mother and becomes his own stepfath
er. Looks like a case of frenzied matrimony.
It Is unnecessary to spend $10,000,
000 to send a message to Mars. Where
Is the gentleman who carried the mes
sage to Garcia?
An Oklahoma boy advertised for a
husband for his mother. Now he has a
stepfather. Practical jokes are sure to
come home to roost.
According to Mr. Hobson, we must
Hot even think of war with Japan. If
that bars him from talking about I)t
we second the motion.
It Is all right to advise the boys to
remain on the farm, but when all the
girls are away attending college stick
ing to the farm is no dream.
Every old. man who marries a young
woman has some sort of excuse which
he thinks the neighbors sho'uld accept
and ever after hold their peace.
Professor Pickering of Harvard says
It will cost only $10,000,000 to com
municate with the people on Mars.
Another case of money talking.
King Leopold of Belgium recently
celebrated his seventy-fourth birthday.
He has been acting recently as if he
had at last reached the age of discretion.
A . suffragette declares that women
are no better than men. If any man
has a desire to butt In where angels
fear to tread here's his opportunity for
an argument.
Please see to It that your back yard
looks as neat and clean as your front
yard. It is a credit mark that never
falls to win admiration; besides. It
strengthens the owner's self-respect.
Professor Barnes, of Philadelphia,
Bays people do not need salt In their
food. Be patient, brethren; some day
a doctor will come along and convince
us that all food is absolutely unnecessary.
The desire to be clean will not be
daunted nowadays. The story comes
from an apartment house district In
New York that on Sundays the friends
of the tenants visit them In hordes to
use their bath-tubs The charge Is two
cents for a fine hot "wash," and five
cents If towels are provided.
Women's hats more than thirty-one
and a half inches in diameter are
classified as wheels by the traffic man
ager of the Swiss state railways. He
has Issued an order that women who
wear hats exceeding that diameter
must ride in the baggage car, or leave
their hats in that car and enter the
passenger car bareheaded.
"Penny-In-the-slot sprays were used
In Egyptian temples two thousand
' years ago," declared a lecturer, recent
ly, before the Royal Photographic So
ciety of London. "Taximeters were
used on Chinese chariots In the fourth
century, and the Idea of the torpedo
boat Is at least two and a half cen
turies old." The Preacher's comment,
"No new thing under the sun," is ob
viously suggested. But it might be
urged that it takes as much intelli
gence to appreciate nd revive a good
old idea as to originate a novel one.
If such a book has not been writ
' ten, some historian might make an in
teresting volume on the various Euro
pean Influences for and against the in
dependence of America. One of the
friends of America who does not ap
pear in many of the popular histories
was Jean Luiao of Leyden University.
He was a correspondent of Washing
ton, Jefferson and Adams, and through
his newspaper helped the American
cause on the continent of Europe.
Washington thanked him for his ser
vices. Now the Netherland Society of
Philadelphia and the Netherland So
ciety of Letters at Leyden have united
to erect a tablet to his memory at
Leyden University.
John D. Rockefeller, the organlier
of the greatest trust, has created,
named and defined the one good trust
He calls it in his Reminiscences the
"Benevolent TruBt," an organization
managed and supported by successful
business men for the sole purpose of
directing philanthropic work in the
most practical and useful lines, of
financing approved charities and plac
ing money donated for benevolent ob
jects where it will do the most good.
He sees in his mind's eye the best
business men of the country devoting
their energies and means to the task
of efficiently meeting all the philan
thropic and educational needs of the
country. That a useful trust with an
enormous Income and a wide field of
operation might be organized on this
plan is shown by the list of benefac
tions for last year. Although a year
of business depression, the aggregate
of gifts reached a total of $90,932,000.
This was $50,000,000 less than the year
previous, in the record of which were
several exceptional benefactions, and
less than the two preced'ng yeais, but
it was a fine record for a bad year.
The great aggregate of $441,&02, 115,
nearly half a billion, devoted to public
bpnpfnrtlni pnlnta in an endowment
for charity, scientific research crd edu
cational desources and opportunities
which staggers the imagination. It In
dicates the growth of the altruism and
idealism leavening American money
madness, and foreshadows an era ol
social development hitherto undream)
of.
Ten or fifteen years ago the farm
mortgage in the West was synonymous
with ruin. That was because the
rapid development of Western States
by men with little or no capital had
been checked by a series of years oi
crop failure combined with nation
wide Industrial depression. Only too
many of the borrowers found them
selves without resources to tide over
tlfe hard times. Then came a period
of recuperation on the basis of splen
did crops for many successive years.
The debotrs put all their energies at
work to pay off their creditors, and
some of the Western States got them
selves Into such a condition that a
farm mortgage was almost as hard to
find as a farm without a mortgage had
been a few years previously. When
that Btage had been reached the for
tunate farmers, along with the towns
people who shared their prosperity,
found themselves accumulating funds
which needed investment. Purchases of
adjoining lands sent land values rapid
ly upward, and In many cases farmers
began to purchase cheap lands still
farther West for their sons. In this
way Nebraska and Kansas and Dakota
are engaged in doing now what Illi
nois and Indiana and Ohio did a gen
eration ago. Such purchases often in
volve temporary debts, and so the
farm mortgage now begins to become
a little more frequent, but with an en
tirely different significance from what
It had two decades ago. The Nebraska
bureau of labor and industrial statis
tics reports that last year the farm
mortgages filed amounted to a total of
$34,400,000, as aealnst 30.700.nnn re
leased, a slight .Increase. The city real
estate mortgages filed amount to al
most $14,000,000, as against $9,000,000
released, which indicates an era of
home building, partly due to farmers
moving into the city and acquiring
town homes, while at the
keeping their farms as a source of In
come. Chattel mortgages filed amount
ed to $34,400,000, as against $19,000,
000 released, a large part of which
may properly be attributed to the ap
pearance of tenants on the fnrmH
which the owners are ceasing to work
witn tneir own hand. This mortgage
extension is one stage in the mnvA.
ment of prosperity. There are no in.
dicatlons that States like Nebraska and
Kansas can ever again suffler such de
pression as that of the "90s.
The First Scnpr groat.
The word "scapegoat" originated In
an ancient Hebrew custom practiced
at the feast of the Passover. Placing
a young goat upon the altar, "the
priests would pray over It. askine that
all the sins of the people be visited
upon the goat. Then, after each mem
ber of the tribe had transferred his
guilt to the victim by laying on his
hands, the animal was turned loose In
the forests to be devoured by wild
beasts.
Trade Term.
"How much," began the lady to Bax
ter, In temporary charge of the coal
yard, "how much is stove coal now?"
"That depends," said Baxter, with
whom language Is often a vehicle of
confusion. "A la carte, it's seven an'
a half. Cul-de-sac, It'll cost you fifty
cents extry."
There is no nlctura An not tt t V &
a . vxjuu. iuy LIU
type, if you are satisfied with a like-
unn,
Men are as anxious to speak well of
each other as women are not
Pafee people.
COLLEGE IN. AMERICAN LIFE.
By William Allen White.
A generation ago, when the college curricu
lum began to broaden and the laboratory be
gan to take an Important place in college life,
educated men bewailed the material spirit
of our education. There was a movement to
force education back to the humanities, back
to culture, back to "the sweet serenity of
books." But now the laboratory is returning
to the democracy that founded it the service
that Is due. Our scientific societies are most purely
altruistic. The health and well-being of the masses is
engaging scientists all over the nation. A score of sci
entific societies, State and national, have as their reason
of being some Improvement in our public life.
The Society for the Prevention of Tuberculosis is do
ing effective work in many States. From the other end
of the college campus the students of economics are
coming into public life, and one group of them has
formed and is maintaining the National Tax Association
and the American Academy of Political and Social
Sciences, which hold national conferences and are gath
ering most valuable data and forming most important
conclusions in economics and sociology.
The future work of these and similar associations will
be inestimable. But it is altogether unselfish. There Is
not a dollar in it for anyone. Like all of the great
American democratic movements, the study of econom
ics is forthe good of the many at the sacrifice of the
few. And it is but one of a score of the activities of
rrien from the broader college and the greater university
which democracy is establishing all over thp land, by
local tax or private gifts. American Magazine.
CASH CAPITAL OF STOCK GAMBLING.
By Frederick U. Adams.
I take it that no effective denial can be en
tered against the assertion that many of the
superb buildings which are massed in the
Wall street district of New York are largely
devoted to housing concerns which draw their
revenue from the speculative public. This
same public partially paid for their erection.
It continues to contribute the funds which
make such investments profitable. The read
er will be appalled by the facts I am about to cite and
the unanswerable proof I am about to submit.
It is not alleged that what Is known as the Wall
street district is entirely devoted to the purposes of
speculation. It includes hundreds, and possibly thou
sands, of firms which have no direct concern with the
various exchanges; but it is possible to arrive at a rea
sonably close approximation to the total paid by those
who defray the cost of the Wall street game.
The tax books of New York City show that the Wall
street district is assessed at a figure between $200,000,-
0C0 and $300,000,000, the exact amount being dependent
on what may properly be included In the term, "Wall
street district." Within the most reasonable boundaries
for this district must be included property worth at
least the former figure; and it may be assumed that the
real selling value is at least 20 per cent in excess of
that assessed against the owners.
It Is ultra-conservative to assert that one-third of
this capitalization is employed In catering to specu
lative enterprises and employments. This constitutes
an item of $75:000,000 for New York City alone, and
the nation will swell this to $100,000,000 and more.
We have taken no-account of the cost of the fixtures
,1a the thousands of offices In these buildings; neither
has mention been made of many other items which
properly belong in this calculation. The total amount
of fixed capital Invested in the speculative game in the
United States Is approximately indicated in the follow
ing table:
Invested in exchange buildings $ 25,000,000
Value of membership tickets 100,000,000
Invested in office buildings 1000,000-
Fixtures and incidentals 25,000,000
Total $250,000,000
Everybody's Magazine.
"WHERE ARE THE HOUSES OF YESTERDAY ?"
by Margaret fiutcnon.
Three-quarters of a century ago It was tuo
ambition of every prosperous citizen to buikl
himself a bouse. These houses really held
things. There were Immense pictures. And
then, what splendid tables there were In these '
houses! There was not only that great table
with the many leaves dedicated to eating;
but In all the sitting rooms there would bt
ever so many flue, spacious, solid tables on
which work could be done aud thliigsacould be laid.
Nowadays we have diminutive flats with reception
rooms that Just receive a tottering little table and noth
ing else. We dine at a table which accommodates a
buby cruet almost under protest. The narrow beds in
our little bedrooms have sides, but no middle. There
are no more fine pictures, only a quantity of photographs
perilously edged against a narrow slut of wood.
And, worst of all, there Is not a decent table at which
a person can sit with hooks and work at It. A drawing
room may look prettier since the abolition from It of all
sensible tables. But it is much less habitable. It Is
small wonder that people nowadays try continually to
curtail the time after dinner. It is because there la
nothing one can do in a drawing room. At best some
body plnys the violin, or sings; at worst the pianola Is
set going. The poet who wished for "an hour of crowd
ed life" should try living now. On the score of crowd
edneRH, if not of life, he would be well content
(EDESnJCCLBJ
A preliminary estimate by the geo
logical survey puts the country's pe
troleum production -for 1908 at between
175,000,000 and 180,000,000 barrels, as
against 166,000,000 barrels in 1907.
The white rhinoceros which Presi
dent Roosevelt is expected to try to
shoot while In Africa really is of a
yellowish color, not so much lighter
than its commoner relatives, but it is
a larger beast.
According to two scientists of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
each human emotion creates in a deli
cate machine which they have invent
ed a distinct electric force which it is
possible to classify.
The blackening of the glass of incan
descent lamps Is due to the fact thnt,
although the fusing point of carbon Is
In the neighborhood of 4,000 C, It be
gins to vaporize long before that tem
perature is reached.
New Mexico produced- nearly 3,000,
000 tons of coal last year, her mines
receiving a full quota of miners for
the first time in several years, owing
to the depression of the industry else
where In the country.
A British religious organization is
trying to transplant a race by encour
aging the emigration of the Laps from
Lapland, where they are in danger of
extinction, to the more healthful re
gions of Labrador and Newfoundland
A writer in the London Times mie-
gests a way in which an instantaneous
photograph of the wheels of a passing
auto may give a measure of its Rneeri
With the focal-plane camera shutter
the slot moves in such a way as to dls
cIopb first the part of the wheels which
touches the ground. Since the upper
part of the wheels is moving with
twice' the velocity of the car. and the
lower part is relatively statlonarv. the
effect In the photograph is to distort
the Image of a wheel into an elliptical
form whose shape varies in accordance
with the speed. Hence, if the time
movement of the shutter Is accurately
known, the speed of the Dassinar car
can be quickly deduced.
Prof. George Forbes has eiven new
life to the belief In the existence of an
unseen planet beyond NeDtune. H
bases his conclusions in favor of the
reality of this planet on tne peculiari
ties of four remarkable comets, sup
poped to be intimately related to one
another. These are the comets of
FIVE TIMES THE HEIGHT OF NIAGARA.
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THE KAIETEUR FALL ON THE POTARO RIVER
The perpendicular height of the Kaieteur Fall on the Potaro river
Essequibo, British Guiana, is 741 feet, or nearly five times thJnf '
The width varies from 350 feet in the dry JJn wT"t?
season, and the depth of water passing over similarly ranges rom a few
feet to twenty feet. Even in very dry seasons the river has a denh oT
thirty-five feet about a quarter of a mile above the faU The Lt P, ?
fall ,s of sandstone, with a capping of harder coglomeSe. 1 7Ugg sd
that the falls may be used to provide power, and it Is pointed out that th!
chief fal alone would .supply two and one-eighth million horse power -London
Illustrated News. power.
1566, 1843,' 1880 and 1882. Prof.
Forbes' Idea Is that the comet of 1656,
which was described as of "prodigious
magnitude," and which Is said to have
led to the abdication of the Emperor
Charles V., was disrupted by the influ
ence of the supposititious planet, and
gave birth to the three other comets
named, all of which were very bright
and otherwise remarkable. His cal
culations Indicate that the planet In
T , onni8,tUated ftt a d,stan of
about 9,000,000.000 miles from the sun
and that Its period of revolution Is
about 1,000 years. "
You often hear men say : rve ta.
en all I Intend to from Him !"
It Is the faithless person who hasn't
any faith In his faith.
i