5upplement
CORVALLIS ( rAZETTE.
rlUOAY, SEPTEMBER 2S, UW.
NO FALTERING UNDER
THE NATION'S DUTY.
Silver and Expansion Are the
Paramount Issues.
M. E. Ingalls, a Life-Long Sound Money
Democrat, Writes of the Neces
sity for Assuming a Larger
National Life.
One of the most successful, distin
guished and popular railway presidents
in the United States is the Hon. Mel
ville B. Ingalls of Cincinnati. From the
very ground of railroad construction he
has worked his way up to the presidency
of the Chesapeake and Ohio and Big
Four railway systems, among the most
prosperous of our great trunk lines. Mr.
Ingalls is one of the people, and is prac
tical in every idea. He is a lifelong Dem
ocrat, and from the September issue of
the North American Keview the follow
ing extracts are made from Mr. Ingalls'
Advice to Cold Democrats:
What has happened since November,
1896, to warrant a reversal of the judg
ment which the American people then
pronounced at the polls? Under what
conditions have we entered on the pres
ent presidential campaign, and what, in
this regard, is the duty of patriotic citi
ens, independent of partisan afflfiation?
To the Democrat who voted for Palmer
and Buckner, as well as to the Democrat
who voted for McKinley four years. ago,
the situation to-day presents peculiar
embarrassments. Preferring to act with
his party, when possible, the patriotic
Democrat must, nevertheless, answer the
a)l of duty, no matter in what direction
It leads him.
The second and supreme trial of the
great financial issue, which never should
have been dragged into partisan politics,
will be made at the polls in November,
1000. This test will, I believe, be con
clusive. What are the conditions under
which it is to be made?
There is in the United States at the
THE PATENT LAWS
BREED MONOPOLIES.
A Drummer Continues His Chats
on Trade Changes.
Reorganization of Employing Companies
Affords Larger Opportunities to the
Men Expansion Gives Drummers
New Fields.
(Concluded from last week.)
Monopolies in this country are due
more to the patent system than any oth
er cause; the average trust could uot mo
nopolize its product, and it will not try.
If it does, there is the same old remedy
which we free American citizens, who
are supposed to have something to say
In the election of our State legislatures,
can apply. We can pass State laws for
the regulation of those monopolies. And,
by the way, speaking of politics, the Re
publican national platform declares
against monopolies and would propose
national legislation against them.
Gev. Roosevelt, a singularly clear
headed public man on civic questions, let
me tell you, sees the point. He would
legislate against monopolies. I firmly
believe that this legislation will come,
and with it other laws intended to regu
late industrial corporations, a good deal
as railroads and banks are regulated now.
Whynot? When the trusts really get to
going so that they themselves know what
they can do, and so that they won't be
ashamed to show in what a cheap, prim
itive, experimental stage most of their
methods now are, then, like the banks
and the railroads, they ought to be made
to "show down," and they will be.
Then the Wall street investor for
.whom we don't care anything in particu
lar will be protected from making bad
investments, and the unwary investors,
the widows and the orphans, whom cer
tain sand-bagging plutocrats like to tell
us about with so many tears, will be
doubly protected. Moreover, the em
ployes of the trusts, the clerks in the
offices and the hands in the mills, can buy
trust stocks, and they will want to.
I spoke about the Wall street investor.
He hasn't been making so very much
money iu industrial stocks of late. He
gqt caught lots of times. Perhaps you
recall the case of the bicycle trust. The
promoters of that scheme went to cer
tain bankers in New York on an eighty
million dollar basis. It wouldn't go. It
wasn't worth the money. There wasn't
the property in plants, good will, etc.
About a year later the promoters, the
same promoters, no doubt, who had learn
ed a good deal in the meantime, came
back with the bicycle trust proposition on
a forty million dollar basis, and it went
at that; could earn dividends on the forty
mlHions. It is probably true that the
American Bicycle Company is not fully
satisfied with every single one of the mill
ion details of its business, but doubt'e.-s
it will get there. Other manufacturers,
and big manufacturers, in the bicycle
business will also get there; and other
big trusts in the bicycle business are
bound to get there, too. You can't keep
a good man down or a good proposition.
You can't corner all the capital and
brains in the country. Remember that.
But I was speaking about the investor,
the wary one, not the widow or the or
phan. He has suffered on account of the
present day unparalleled prosperity, in
which every citizen has a right to share.
If any citizen is prevented from sharing
in that prosperity, he is the victim of
conditions which cannot be righted by
the election of Bryan, strongly as he may
be tempted to trust in that remedy. Un
der the gold standard we have become
"the leading creditor nation, and we are
financing the world. We have produced
three great crops in succession, and we
are feeding Europe. We have had three
years of unexcelled manufacturing in
dustry, and we are finding a prompt and
generous market all over the world. The
American farmer, the American laborer
and the American business man were
never as prosperous as they are to-day.
It is by their suffrages that this presiden
tial election must be decided. In what
direction do their interests lie?
The American farmer is selling for
37Yi cents a bushel corn which it costs
him 15 cents to produce. His wheat and
cotton, his beef and pork are selling at
profitable prices. He is spending his
money in luxuries and enjoying himself.
He is riding in railroad trains, and, as he
looks from the car windows uver the
bountiful harvests, he is taking a new
view not only of his native land, which
was never fairer or happier, but is also
thinking of his new markets and ne"w
"possessions" across the seas.
The laborer Is to-ay receiving more
wages than he ever received before, and
he is receiving them in a currency that is
good all over the world. In many in
stances, undoubtedly, there must be a
readjustment of wages, and the sporadic
strikes now reported in various manufac
turing centers point probably to the be
ginning of this readjustment. In my opin
ion, these and kindred difficulties will be
safely and speedily settled.
Now, can any sane man tell me how
the laborer will help his condition, or the
solution of the problems so vital to him,
by voting to debase our standard of value
and thereby reducing his own wages?
What has labor to hope from Bryan,
ostensibly the friend of the dissatisfied,
the champion of the aggrieved, and the
chosen candidate of all the long-haired
reformers in the United States? Does
not the supreme salvation of labor de
pend, after all, upon preserving our
standard of value, upon the non-partisan
regulation of trusts, and upon the appli
cation to those great commercial aggre
gations, which are so peculiarly a pro
duct of this age, of a system of license
and taxation? Is it uot idle to denounce
the trust as an evil, a menace to the na
tional welfare? Is not the trust a nat
ural and essential development of our
time? A quarter of a century ago the
word "corporation" implied an inherent
reproach in the minds of exactly those
citizeus who to-day regard the trust,
which is the incorporation of corpora
tions, with the same disfavor. Yet it is
to the solution of the trust problem that
the American business man, as well as
stock-watering evil aloug with the trust
"magnate" and the promoter. He is get
ting down ou the earth again. Some of
the trusts in which he invested have even
gone to pieces. They were badly con
ceived and badly managed. They couldn't
hold together. They didn't "do business"
on a business basis.
There was no reason why they should
expect to hold together. Perhaps there
were too many purely ornamental per
sons in the offices with high salaries.
Perhaps there were too many sons and
nephews of "the president," who sat
around looking handsome and thinking
that there was no other task of impor
tance connected with their job. What
ever the cause, the badly organized and
badly managed trust has gone to pieces
or is going. Nothing can help it, if it
can't help itself. So, too, the people are
realizing that the problem is economic
after all, that no person, nor any party,
is to blame for this condition of thiugs;
nor, in fact, that any person, or party,
or policy can prevent the good ones from
succeeding, can prevent the bad ones
from failing.
That suggests another thing. I spoke
of the more or less handsome nephew of
"the president." He has got to be up to
his job or he can't stay. It isn't enough
for him to succeed in his new position in
doing the same old things that he used
to do in the old one. There is new study
for him, new problems; buying, handling
the labor situation, selling the product
at a profit, studying the world's mar
kets. All this he has got to do because it has
got to be done; and if he hasn't the in- I
clination or the brains to do it, you can j
wager your last dollar at the risk of
walking from Kokoino to Kankakee that
neither the "President" nor any one else j
will keep him in. That is why it is the i
worst kind of fol-de-rol, unworthy of
anybody as intelligent as the Great j
American Traveler, to pretend that there :
are no opportunities in manufacturing
and trade now, and especially none for
voung men.
Fudge!
There was never so good a chance for
brains, and good health, and sobriety,
and acumen, and vitality. Have these
things and capital must have you. And
if it must have you it must pay you. The
larger the corporation, the more impor
tant in it Is the man. There are just ns
many large corporations now as there
were small ones before. As many big
meu are required as there were small
ones required before. What these so
called magnates want is somebody who
can do the work. Price is no object if
they can depend upon you. You can't
strike a $10,000 position all at once. You
have got to show that you are worth $1,
000, or $2,000, or $3,000. It is the same
old climb as it always has been; there is
the same old ladder to go up by, and the
same old persimmon when you get to the
top round and the same old persimmons,
too, all the way up at all the rounds.
AH this seems pretty long unless it
also seems to have some" bearing upon
the drummer question. I don't know
whether you ever thought of it or uot,
but many different causes have been op
erating in the last few years to throw
commercial travelers out of work. Man
ufacturers have sought to eliminate com
mission men, who must have laid off a
good many of their travelers. The cata
logue houses, so-called, those doing busi
ness direct with the consumer by means
of catalogues and other printed matter,
have grown enormously. They have laid
off drummers if they ever had them; and
one of the reasons why they can sell so
cheaply to the consumer is that one ele
ment of selling expense, the drumming,
is eliminated. Any house that corre
sponds extensively, that takes care with
its correspondence, by just so much
makes the selling easy; and if the pro
cess were kept up long enough, this
the American fanner and laborer, must
adders .mself. And in the solution of
that ,...olein he will find the present goal
of patriotism.
The business man who does not inquire
into the politics of his bookkeeper is
asked by the supporters of Mr. Bryan to
allow partisan politics to be injected into
the circulating medium through which he
carries on his business. He refused in
189G, as he will refuse, I believe, in 1900,
to impute either Democracy or Republi
canism to the dollar. He will say that
it is not a political question, and that it
should uot be made such. Asking him
self where he shall seek guidance in the
casting of his ballot, he, like the laborer
and he farmer, looks out upon prosper
ity unprecedented. He sees trade follow
ing the flag all around the world, and
new markets opening to him under new
national responsibilities. He realizes, as
a business man, that these responsibili
ties must be grappled with and adjusted
on a business basis. No policy of evasion
or retreat can commend itself to him.
Yet, into the field of partisan discussion
he finds these responsibilities dragged,
like the dollars from his counting room,
by the politicians who seek his vote. And,
like the farmer and the laborer, he finds
his next national ballot invested with
unique importance.
What will be the reply of the American
patriot, who Is now asked to believe that
his home and his pocketbook are staked
on the next turn of the ballot, that a
wrong decision spells ruin, and that he
must decide issues of such moment as
were never before submitted to the Amer
ican electorate?
Bryan's election appears to
me impossible. Good citizens,
irrespective of party, should vote for Mc
Kinley in November. That it is the duty
of patriots to do so I have no doubt.
The safety of the American republic is
not menaced by a bogey, crowned with an
imperial diadem of straw. The cry of
imperialism is simply a pretext of the
Democratic leaders to save themselves
from the fatal blunder they made in
189ti, the blunder of dragging the dollar
to the polls and endeavoring to degrade
it. Imperialism is not the paramount
issue, despite all efforts tolnake it so.
Now, as in 189(i, the real issue is the
Silver Danger. That is the peri! threat
ening this country, not the imaginary
evils attendant on the acquisition of new
territory, which was the inevitable re
sult of a war for which the shriekers
against imperialism were largely respon
sible. The only peril now threatening
the United States is ruin and retrogres
sion under silver, the turning back of
the wheels of progress and prosperity
to the standards of China and Mexico,
and the abandonment of our position as
the greatest country in the civilized
world.
Shall we go forward or shall we turn
back? That is the question for the vot
ers in November. Under McKinley we
would cause drummers to lose their
places.
Then consider that millions and mill
ions of dollars are spent in this country
for advertising purposes, not merely in
the newspapers and the magazines, but
on the fences and the bill boards, in
signs, in distributions of printed mat
ter, and what not.
What is all this money spent for?
To sell goods.
And the study of hundreds of the
brightest meu in the country is devoted
to making advertising more and more
effective, so that a given expenditure will
result in greater and greater sales at a
lower and lower expense. Why do the
advertisers want to sell more and more
cheaply? So that they can beat their
competitors by giving the consumer bet
ter things for the same money, or just
as good thiugs for less money. All this
effort to sell things cheaper means that
drummers are going to be laid off if they
by their methods have been selling things
more expensively.
There is another thing that we owe it
to ourselves to look fairly in the face.
Many drummers in the past have consid
ered that the business that they helped
their houses to do belonged to them and
not to the houses. Others, surely all the
houses, used to take a contrary view;
and of late years they have resorted to
the various more or less direct methods
of selling in order to get their business
back into their own hands. No doubt
about it! No doubt about it!
One of the things which a trust aims
to do is to reduce its selling expense. If
four manufacturers making the same ar
ticle are drumming Indiana, and their
four able and persuasive representatives
light into Indianapolis some day, they
all go around among the trade doing lit
tle except neutralize one another. About
four times the talk, nerve force and
money are spent to sell only ns many
goods as Indianapolis wants that day,
as needs be spent. This is one of the
many things that the trusts have found
out that they knew before they started
in.
Now, it is inevitable in the very econ
omics, iu the very natural law of the
situation, that some of those drummers
must go some time; they may be sent
into new territory, they may lie recalled
to work in the office at home, or they
may be dismissed entirely. Just so much
of their work as has been unnecessary
will surely be dispensed with in time.
Competition does that, and we couldn't
have any better illustration of the fact
that competition is always active. Here
it is potent, actually. Fn the case of the
glucose trust that was afraid to encour
age too much competition (of other capi
tal and brains) by making more than sev
en per cent, it was active potentially.
It i3 preposterous to say that fifty
thousand commercial travelers, or thirty
five thousand, have been thrown out of
work by the trusts. There are probably
not sixty thousand of them in the whole
country. Besides, if ten per cent of
them have been thrown out of work by
the various changes in producing ond dis
tributing that have come about in the last
few years, other causes have probably
contributed equally with the combination
movement. Even so, and putting the
case at its very worst, the general im
provement ic business, the wide expan
sion of trade at home and abroad, which
all of our producers, manufacturers and
traders have helped to bring about, and
by which they have all inevitably profit
ed this has put all of those commercial
travelers back into places just as good,
or better, or will do so. It is inevitable.
More people were employed after ma
chinery was introduced simply because
the wants of the human race became
greater and wider every year, and these
wants had to be supplied, and could be,
because things were so much cheaper.
We hav taken over Porto Rico, Ha
go forward, under Bryan we torn back.
The coming test of silver question
at the polls must, in all human proba
bility, be the final one. The will of the
voters twice registered will not be he
third time disputed. Each year that we
preserve our present money standard
gives it additional security. The Amer
ican people do not like experiments with
their currency, their school houses, their
churches or their savings banks. A. re
versal of the popular verdict of 1896
would mean a reversal of all the achieve
ments that make up our national pros
perity. Bryan's election would mean that
the sovereign people had decreed that our
laborers shall be paid in silver, while
pur foreign debts must still be -paid in
gold.
Convinced as I am that the financial
question is the paramount issue in No
vember, 1900, as it was in November,
1896, it is worth while for Democrats
who supported McKinley, as I did, four
years ago, to ask what are the issues
upon which our party could have appeal
ed to the American people with fair pros
pects of success, and what we can con
tend for in future contests, after this
economic and financial question is finally
settled. To my mind these define them
selves as reform in governmental admin
istration, economy in governmental ex
penditure, the taxation and regulation of
oppressive trusts and combinations, and
the immediate enactment of a just and
honest scheme of colonial government.
These would have been issues upon which
every patriot could have been honestly
asked-to vote. Why should we not set
fairly about a reform in our old system
nf taxation, and, at the same time, initi
ate a departure which might well result
in throwing the cost of government upon
those who can best afford it?
The silver problem solved once for all, as
it will be in November, the colonial probJ
lent at once becomes paramount. We
must either give up Hawaii, Porto Rico,
and the Philippines, haul down our flag,
and shamefully abandon the rigljteousj
fruits of our prowess by land and sea,;
or we must prepaVe to govern these dis
tant additions to our country fairly and
honestly and capably. A per
petual, constitutional barrier must be
erected against the statehood of all our'
non-contiguous possessions. That su
premely important problem is to be metj
and overcome, not by cowardly evasionj
or disgraceful retreat, for the American
people will tolerate no such course. We;
muSt institute honestly and wisely and)
administer economically au American co-,
lonial system, worthy alike of our new
possessions and of their mother country.
We are not incapable of governing them:
We are, as a nation, incapable of nothing.;
I fully believe in the future of the'
American republic, and that we are wise,
and brave enough to bear the burdensj
and fulfill the task Providence has allot
ted us. Let us not falter at the threshi
old. M. E. INGALLS.
waii and the Philippines, and have some
interest in Cubaj and I venture to say
that the increased and increasing busi
ness in those distant islands has already
more than absorbed the work of all the
drummers in the country who have lost
their positions through industrial com
binations. If that is true, and I believe
it is, consider what a chance there is for
ten per cent of our commercial travelers,
or for fifty per cent of. them, in time in
foreign lands or at home here, helping
their new employers, or their old ones,
to meet all the numberless new and in
creasing demands of our prosperous and
proud American men, women, sweet
hearts, wives, cousins, aunts and chil
dren, and all the countless millions, who,
as we can be certain, are going to want
our American products more and more'
because the counted millions that we
know of have begun to take them now
almost faster than we can supply them.
That is expansion.
You cannot stop it in a million years!.
It has been going on since the world
began, and it will continue to go on,1
faster than ever, I gues3 to the end of
time. It happens when a people fairly
bursts its manufacturing and commercial
bounds. There must be an outlet for the;
products of our farms and factories, for
the capital and talents of our business,
men and hustlers.
Sometimes this expansion of new
strength, which amounts to an explosion
of new strength, must be preceded by a
battleship, even by a part of a standing!
army, or a permanent garrison, as in
Porto Rico or the Philippines. At other
times the battleship and the standing1
Urmy. or a part of it, just enough to hold
our own and make no doubt of it, must
follow.
The missionaries (who typify in a way
the advance of civilization into heathen
lands,- as we call them) are best of all the
daring forerunners of the commerce and
the progress that have "to get there too.
The human race, especially the Anglo
Saxons, are always wanting more and
better things; they are climbing, elirubtng,
climbing, always upon a higher plane of
living. These things they work for, and
fight for, and die for. So long as that
restless, world-conquering sentiment ex
ists, there will he expansion. So long,
too, the races of the earth which have
found themselves, and are still finding
themselves, unequal to the trading, and
selling, and fighting, and civilizing capac
ity of the Anglo-Saxons, must step aside;
they must learn to fight and to trade, and
to trade and to fight, much better; that is
all.
I try to say these thinfts thoughtfully,
as a drummer, notorious as he is for talk
ing, may sometimes do. This expansion
that I speak of is what we optimists
mean by destiny; we are not afraid of it,
we welcome it. We have done in the last
three years a hundred years of work
which, however, .we couldn't have done,
if we hadn't been prepared, if we hadn't
been that kind of people.
There is not a true American man in
these United States that is not better off,
in his patriotism or his pecuniary pros
pects, for the tasks of war and of states
manship that have been undertaken and
discharged in the last three years. You
are better off. whoever yon are, and I am
better off. Even if T had not been nec
essary to1 my employer in the field and
had not been kept on the pay-roll, then
there would have been ten times the
freedom of opportunity, which is all any
good man can want. There is freedom of
opportunity for everybody; but opportu
nity won't come looking for ns. We must
go running for it. watching every open
ing, looking for improvement, looking for
the way which our employer must find if
we do not make his capital and his ef
forts pay hi m a little better. In that
way our efforts, which are our capital,
will pay us better and better.
A DRUMMER.
THE COMING MAN.
A pair of very chubby legs
Incased in scarlet hose;
A pair of little stubby boots
With rather doubtful toes;
A little kilt, a little coat,
Cut its a mother enn
And lo! before us strides in state
The future's "coming man."
His eyes, perchance, will read the stars,
And search their unknown ways;
Perchance the human heart and soul
Will open to their gaze;
Perchance their keen and flashing glance
Will be a nation's light
Those eyes that now are wistful bent
On some "big fellow's" kite.
That brow where mighty thought will
dwell
In solemn, secret state;
Where fierce ambition's restless strength
Shall war with future fate;
Where science from now bidden caves
New treasures shall outpour
'Tis knit now with a troubled doubt,
Are two, or three cents, more?
Those lips that in the coming years
Will plead, or pray, or teach;
Where whispereH worlds on lightning
flash
From world to world may reach;
That, sternly grave, may speak command,
Or, smiling win control
Are coaxing now for gingerbread
With all a baby's soul!
Those hands those little busy hands
So sticky, small and brown;
Those hands whose only mission seems
To pull all order down
Who knows what hidden strength may lie
VvithHi their future grasp,
i Though now 'tis but a taffy stick
In sturdy hold they clasp?
I Ah, blessings on those little hands
Whose work is yet undone!
i And blessings on those little feet
I Whose race is yet unrnn!
I And blesings on the little brain
That has not learned to plan!
i Whate'er the future holds in store,
j God bless the "coming man."
Elmira Telegram.
PERCY.
I was at work.
We had been furnishing my wife
and I. We thought we had done it
cheaply, but a few charming things In
the bric-a-brac line, added at the last
moment, had so overbalanced our ac
count that I felt It imperative to make
up a better check than usual that week
on the daily paper upon which I earned
my dally bread.
So I was hard at work.
But my wife had been hard at work,
too. She had been to Paul Jones' sale
It was "remnant day" and she had got
a few little things which dear baby ab
solutely had to have, besides a few
more quite Indispensable trifles for her
selfall of them "dirt cheap." She had
been forced to confess, however, that
the week's housekeeping money bad
been severely encroached upon, and I
am afraid I was not enthusiastic over
the Jones sale.
"In fact I took some credit to myself
for my silence both over the interrup
tion and over the advisability of the
purchases; I did not even endeavor to
stop her when she had quickly gather
ed up all her little soft parcels and had
deprived me of her presence.
Instead of chasing the passing cloud
from her sweet eyes as I knew how to
do I had even heaved a sigh of relief
as the door slammed after her. But,
there, the bills were banging over my
head, and I had written one para
graph! So I was hard at work, and within
sight of the end at last, when a voice
on the staiis. shouting, "I know my
way," made me swear a gentle oath
under my breath before the door open
ed and one Percy Falmouth stood be
fore me.
1 was a college friend one of those
who always prevent one from working,
but to whom one is never able to say
nay.
I smiled a sickly smile of welcome
and pushed the cigarettes toward him,
but eveu as I did so I forgot his offense
iu sudden alarm at his appearance.
His face, that was wont to be fresh,
was sallow and gray, and his eye, that
was always merry, was dull and down
cast. "AV-hat's the matter, old man?" said
L "You're down on your luck."
It fook him some time to bring the
trouble out, even to me. But at last he
managed it. He was In love.
"Is that all?" cried I cheerily. "Well,
don't be alarmed. I assure you, when
you have got over the beginning it
Isn't bud at all."
"It isn't that," said my friend gloom
ily, after a pause.
"Isn't what?" I asked.
"It isn't that I mind being In love."
he explained, "but how am I to keep
a wife?"
My chair spun around again of Itself."
"You!" I cried, almost fiercely. "Why,
haven't you got $2,500 a year of your
own?" and a vision of the weekly
books and the monthly bills swam be
fore my eyes and made me run my fin
gerswildly through my hair. "You're
a uice one to talk!"
Percy smiled sarcastically.
"Two thousand five hundred dollars!"
echoed he. "Why, it wouldn't keep her
In frilled underwear and short silk pet
ticoats '."
I looked grave instantly. "O!" I mur
mured. "And It wouldn't keep any of them."
said my friend, rising and throwing
his cigarette away as he warmed to his
subject. "And one wouldn't wish that
it should. What man cares to see his
wife looking a frump, and dowdier
thau other women? And it isn't only
the clothes; It's the house, and the fur
niture, and the servants, and every
thing. Dinginess is out of date. Peo
ple don't cover up their carpets with
washing drugget now, or let their
wives go about in linsey-wolsey gowns
and dust the kuick-knacks, or give
their friends herrrag and mutton curb
for dinner. Ca ne se f ati pros, and you
know it."
I sighed. Yea, I did know It more or
less.
"If I were to marry on $2,500 a yesr,"
continued Percy emphatlcally,"l should
be in debt two months, and my wifa
and I would have quarreled forever."
Why didn't I smile? 1 had been mar
ried more than two months, and.
though I had certainly been In debt
most of the time, my wife and I had
not quarreled yet.
But a vision qf pouting moutb and
tear-dimmed blue eyes rose uncomfort
ably before me; instead of sniffing it
was I now who sighed.
Perhaps my wife had not brought
home small, soft parcels enough from
Jones' sale instead of as 1 bad measly
supposed that moruing too many.
"But a man can work," said i, as
bravely as I could, drawing my papers
toward me.
"Work!" echoed Percy, bitterly.
"That's all very well If you've got
brains. I have no qualifications for
earning money, and love In a cottage
isn't good enough nowadays."
Somehow this speech restored me to
my balance.
He smoked another clgaret, and then
took up his hat, and I breathed a sigh
of relief.
"It's a devil of a mess for a fellow to
be In," he said, gloomily.
"Yes," said I, I'm afraid you'll have
to find a wife who can work on her
own account. There are a good many
of them about nowadays."
He looked at me doubtfully. "O, I
hate that sort," he said. "A gtrl with
money's better, but that won't help ma
Just now."
"So I supposed," said I. And I let
him out. I had sworn at his entrance,
but he had brought me luck.
The words literally flew from my
pen when I sat down again; there was
something spurring me ou there was a
goal in sight that 1 knew of.
And when I had put my name to the
last sheet and was free I sought It.
Upstairs in the nursery my wife sat
beside the cradle; she bad our child la
her arms and was lulling him to sleep.
Her eyes shone as she looked up at me,
her face was fresh, and she was as
dainty as any man could wish in a
plain, white frock ready to welcome
me to dinner aftermy work. As I bent)
down to kiss her I said gayly: "Pve
made up a splendid week, darling; so
you needn't worry about the pur
chases." And she laughed, saying: "There
weren't so many after all, you know.!
Only a few dollars' worth. But I
shouldn't have interrupted you while
you were making them!"
And then we went together to the
dainty meal of her frugal ordering, and
I was sorry that I had uot been able to
explain to Percy what It was that
made it "good enough." Exchange.
ARTIFICIAL TREE
INDUSTRY.
Factory-Made Palms of Life-Like For
mation Are Now Numerous.
This is the age of things artificial. A.
palm manufactory has recently opened
a salesroom on Upper Broadway, and
a huge sign lower down on the same
thoroughfare notifies the mob that an
other store of the same sort will soon
be ready for business. The artificial
tree industry Is comparatively new and
it must be profitable. All over town
oue sees counterfeits. Many of the
large stores, and most of the more
prominent hotels of this city, Includ
ing some of those that are most taste
ful in their decorations, now have huge
palms in their halls or entrances, and
even in private houses it is not uncom
mon to find plauts with removable
leaves.
The prepared palms, such as are used
to-day, are infinitely more real In ap
pearance than the old artificial plants
of a few years ago. Many are so close
in their resemblance to the live plant
that it is hard to detect them as imita
tion without close scrutiny. The leaves
are real leaves, and not constructed out
of enameled tin, like the old kind, and
the fiber ou the trunk is real fiber. It
is only on approaching them and ex
amining them that the leaves are seen
to be painted and the stalks inserted
into, but not growing out of, the stem.
The price of the manufactured article
varies from 50 cents to $25 for the or
dinary specimens, but some of the
larger and finer ones amount to $50,
or even $100. A small fern palm sprig
of some fifteen iuches high is sold at
half a dollar; a tree, such as those that
ore seen in the hall3 of hotels, measur
ing, say, nine feet high, and with about
eighte-iii removable leaves, will cost
$17. The sago palm is a more expen
sive variety, a tree of five feet selling
for as much as $20. We may rail
against humbug to our hearts' content,
but, somehow or other, the laugh Is sel
dom on the fellow who fools us. Pitts
burg Dispatch.
Work's Great Work.
The movement in G. A. R. circles to
erect a monument over the grave of
Henry Clay Work, atHartford, Conn.,
revives the fact that his father was
once confined In the Missouri peniten
tiary on the charge of aiding slaves to
escape from the State of Missouri to
Illinois. Wheu the elder Work was re
leased, one of the conditions of his par
don being that he should return to the
State of Connecticut, whence he came
originally, and remain there for the
rest of bis natural life. Thi3 obliga
tion he faithfully kept. The son, Hen
ry C. Work, was born at Middletown,
Conn., and saw the end of American
slavery while thousands of soldiers and
citizens sang "Nicodemus," "Ring the
Bell, Watchman," and "Marching
Through Georgia."
The Czar's Scepter. -
The Russian scepter is of solid gold,
three feet long, and contains among Its
ornaments 268 diamonds, 360 rabies
and fifteen emeralds.