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About Wallowa chieftain. (Joseph, Union County, Or.) 1884-1909 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 2, 1902)
WALLOWA CHIEFTAIN. kOCIt KOI, Fabllaher. ENTERPRISE OREGON. Distance doesn't lend eni'liantniont to one's view of the almighty dollar. The stork should have been given a hint that Papa Zimmerman's purse strings could be loosened only by a boy. Eighty-two per cent of the house keepers of the country get along with out hired girls. The eighteen per ceut Love, like lightning, seldom strikes twice lu the same place. That's why widows usually marry for money the 6ecoud time. - Countries having the American en gine only need a supply of American coal to make them happy, and the coal Is rapidly reaching them. Girls, If you haven't found the right one yet, don't be disheartened. A Chi cago woman was recently married the third time to the same man. It was the Irony of fute. A couple of burglars broke Into a building at Rochester, X. Y which they supposed was a warehouse. It proved to be a Jail. Bad grammar may be cured by medi cal treatment, acordiiig to a German specialist. This discovery will be a boon to some of our statesmen and would-be statesmen. The Supreme Court of Michigan has decided that bicyclists ltave a right to ride on the sidewalks. There seems to be nothing left to pedestrians but the right to trust In Providence. Sarah Grand, author of "Heavenly Twins," says American gentlemen are the most chivalrous in the world. Ah, there, Sarah, Just tell your manager to forward a list of your lecture dates. Hardly has the twentieth century grot well started before a speaker at a wo men's club says the nineteenth cen tury, of which those who lived In It were so proud, was crude and unciv ilized. What a woman can't understand 1r how a man will stay up every night for six weeks running all over town trying to make votes for a candidate he doesn't know, but getting hopping mad If he has to run across the street to get some paregoric for his own baby. "Don't watch the clock," was Mr. Edison's advice to a young man who recently asked him how to succeed. I'rofoundly slgnilicant Is that old joke about the laborer who left his pickax hanging In the air at the stroke of noon. A hanging pickax Is the fittest emblem for a continued clock-watcher and the pickax hangs always lu the air, never digs out a path for him to advance upon. Juliet's "What's in a name?" might be asked regarding the vessels of the British navy which have borne the names of reptiles. It is said that four Vipers have been wrecked, the last of the name but recentlj and a Cobra still more lately has broken in two and gone to the bottom with officers and men. Also four Serpents, three Lizards, two Snakes, one Alligator, one Crocodile, one Itattlesuake, one Basi lisk, and two Dragons which are not reptiles, have at various times met with disaster. British tars, it Is said, have a superstitious feeling of dislike against sailing In vessels bearing such names. Lucky or unlucky, the names are need lessly disagreeable. The decision of the Michigan Supreme Court that bicyclists have a right to ride their wheels on the sidewalks un der proper restrictions Is likely to cause a great deal of trouble lu Michigan Cities and in those of any other State which adopts the principle of the decis ion. If bicycle riding were permitted on the crowded streets in the business sections of a city it would amount to an intolerable evil. Their total exclu sion from sidewalks of this character is based upon the principle that the side walks, as their name Implies, were set apart for pedestrians, and that vehicles of any kiwi which would interfere with the free ami safe use of such sidewalks have no right to be or to be operated there, except as such right or privilege may be grants by the City Council. City Councils have, we believe, been usually disposed to extend this privi lege to sidewalks through sparsely set tled districts where there were uo'bicy cle paths and either no pavement or a very bad one. All the Just claims of the bicyclist to the use of the sidewalk when the conditions exclude him from the street can be tar better met, with a duo regard for the convenience and safety of the pedestrian public, by start ing with the principle that he has no original right there and must get his privilege from the Council, than by as suming that he lias an oroginal right to go there and that the Council can only restrict the manner of Its exercise. Wc do not believe the Michigan decision will be followed by the courts of other States, or that wheelmen generally will regard it with favor. As a rule they have no use for sidewalks where they are liable to come Into collision with pedestrians unless driven to them by the bad condition of the Btreet, Life imprisonment Is at its best a punishment go horrible that only a sense of its absolute necessity can rec oncile one to the infliction of it upon a a feTlnw human being. To spend year after yeur In close confinement, living only In order to wait for death, Is a thought from which the mind recoils, and the strength of the Instinct of self preservation is nowhere more clearly displayed than In the fact that men are willing to face this project rather than shorten their tortures by submitting to the uoo.e or the electric chair. If. then, life Imprisonment Is in any case terrible to contemplate, how much Is its terror heightened wiien the person who is con demned to undergo It is so young as to make It seeai probable that four-tifths of his life will be spent within the pris on walls! Smith Jones, of Warwick County, Indiana, entered upon such a term of detention a few weeks ago. He is at present 13 years old, and has been guilty of so cold-blooded a murder that the Judge who tried his case, conclud ing that he would derive no benefit from the reform school, sent him directly to State prison, there to remain for the rest of his natural life. If the boy Is an ordinary boy, betrayed Into an act of murder by sudden impulse, the sentence passed upon him is certainly unjustifia ble. A certain number of years in the reform school would probably send him back to the world a steady and respon sible citizen. But It seems likely that the boy had shown tendencies that made his reformation impossible. He was probably what the sociologists call a "degenerate" and what medical men call a "pervert," with a physical and moral nature so hopelessly diseased that the only possible course of action was to separate him from his fellows and to put him in a place where bis de praved Instincts, altogether able under other conditions, might be conuneu and repressed. It is a life lost, but the loss seems inevitable. The most careful Investigation should be made, however, and the boy's case should not be abandoned until it Is altogether hope less. The other day a young man, son of a Xew Yorker, who left a million-dollar estate, was In court. Insisting that he could not pay a Judgment of $o30, or, In fact, any of his debts. He declared that he had been reared In Idleness, in an atmosphere of wealth. When his father died he left the son $0,000 a year, and no more. He also left him as help less as a baby, with a mind unstocked with a single thought that would sell for money In the business world. Mus cle! This young fellow had It, but he couldn't compete with the poorest man In a sewer trench. The $0,000 was noth ing for a man who belonged to several clubs and associated with people who could buy him and sell him and never feel it. Viewed from a moral stand point, he Is a good deal of a coward. The man who buys things knowing that he can not pay for them Is a swindler. You can not call him any thing else. If he has anything more than water In his veins he will work. He will dump the clubs and high-living associates and get down to business. He will learn, and find no disgrace In toll. But what of a man who allows his son to grow up in idleness? It is an Imposition. It is not fair. It is in viting disaster. How easily fortunes take flight In this country! There is history for It. The millionaire of to day may be the poor man to-morrow. The moving van backs up in front of his stone palace and he goes to live in a tenement. There is nothing certain about riches not even their paramount desirability. It It often easier to make money than to keep it The youth who grows to manhood without any greater Idea of the practical side of life than how to order a wine supper or guide an automobile may have to wear his tennis suit In lieu of underwear In chill December, and the world doesn't offer him much sympathy when trouble comes. Every man should teach bis boys to do something. His bank bp- count isn't a part of the issue. The real independence is called trained abil ity, and it Is capital that Is always available. Every man should have some of it, for when he does need it he needs it badly. Ambushed, Poor Fellow ! "When does the next train that stons at Montrose leave here?" asked the resolute widow at the booking office window. 'You'll have to wait five hours. ma'am." 'I don't think m." 'Well, perhaps you know better tlinn I do." "Yes, sir! And perhaps you know bet ter than I do whether I am expecting to travel by that train myself, or whether I am inquiring tor a relative that's vis iting at ui.V house! And maybe you think it's your business to stand behind there and try to instruct people about things they know as well as you do, if not better! And prehaps you'll learn some day to give people civil answers when they ask you civil questions, young man; but my opinion is you won't!" "Yes. ma'am:" gasped the booking clerk. Loudon Answers. Occupations In Norway. Sixty per cent of the population of Norway live by agriculture, 15 per cent by manufacturing and lumbering, 10 per cent by commerce and trade, 5 pet cent by mining, and the remainder are In the professions and the army and navy and engaged in different employ ments. Mistake Somewhere. Mr. Sezzlt I never can understand my wife's letters. She doesn't punctu ate them, and you can't tell where a sentence ends or another begins. Mr. Asklt-But I thought you married a girl of the period. Baltimore Ameri can. Some poems show considerable feel ing, yet they fail to touch. LUCK 01' FIRST-BORN. OCCASIONALLY A LATE COMER ACQUIRES FAME. The Mrjorltr of the World' DUtlno tions Are (shared Between the lint and Second 8om, the Lion's Share UolnK to the t iret-Horn. The law Is by no means alone In fa voring the first born of a family and comparatively neglecting later comers, for a ca.eful examination of the biog raphies of our most eminent men will prove that quite a preponderating uum ber of them owe their fame largely to the fuct that they made their entry Into the world in advance of their brothers and sisters, says London Tlt- Blts. To such an extent does this appear to be the case that, If a dozen names of distinguished men are taken at ran doui, It would be quite safe to assert that four of them (or possibly live) are first sous; of the remainder three are second sons, while younger sons, rang ing from uuuiber th.ee downward, must be content with dividing the small amount of celebrity among tbem. Occasionally a very late comer ac quires fame, but the odds are all agaiust him. Thus, Iteiijamin Frank liu, the great natural philosopher and politician, had no fewer than thirteen brothers and sisters lu front of him. Sir lilchard Arkwright, the famous in ventor, was the thirteenth child of his parents, and Sir Joshua Heyuolds was uumber seven In his family. But by far the majority of the world's distinctions are shared betweeii first and second sons, the lion's share going to the first born. Fame In the world of letters has gone In quite undue proportions to the eldest born. If we may take Daute, Goethe, Shakspeare and Milton as the four greatest names In the history of the world's literature we shall find that all four, with the exception of Shakspeare the greatest. It Is true, of them all were eldest sous. , This privilege of the first born Is claimed for Shelley and Byron and Heine, and In modern times, to mention names without regard to relative mer it, by Ruskln, Max Muller, Lecky, Prof. Jebb, Sir Lewis Morris, Frederick Har rison, Sir John Lubbock, Sir George Trevelyan, Mr. I'luero and others far too numerous to mention. Confucius and Mohammed, Talley rand, Rossini, Charlemagne, Luther and Raphael were all eldest sons; as also are such eminent statesmen of to day as Mr. A. J. Balfour. Mr. Cham berlain, Mr. Broderick, Lords Itose bery and Goschen and Mr. John Mor ley. Among the great soldiers we have Lord Wolseley and Lord Kitchener; among lawyers Sir Francis Jeune and Sir Edward Clarke; In the church, the late Bishop of London, and on the stage Sir Henry Irving. Of famous second sons the list Is dis tinguished If comparatively short, for we find such giants of the past as Michael Angelo and Beethoven; the Pope, Garibaldi and Pascal; Wallace and Sheridan; John Wesley and Mon taigne. Of famous statesmen of our own time we have Sir William Har court and Mr. Asqulth, as well as Lord Salisbury, to mention only three names. The list of second sons contains a great soldier In Sir Itedvers Buller, an eminent Judge In Lord Alverstone, still better known as Sir Richard Webster; a clever actor In Mr. Beerbohm Tree; an artist In Mr. Phil May, and men of letters in Grant Allen and Sir Edwin Arnold. Xor are the third sons by any means to be despised In point of quality, al though the number is relatively very small. They Include the greatest 'soldier of modern times, the Duke of Wellington; the greatest author of any time, Shak speare, and the most famous fiction writer of the last century, Sir Walter Scott. Voltaire was a third son, and so were C. .1. Fox, the famous statesman and orator. Lord Lytton and Sir Robert Walpole, while Lord Halsbury has proved that a third son can fill with uistinction the highest place In the law, and the late Sir Walter Besant that he can win laurels la the field of letters. GREAT BRITAIN'S SNAKES Only Three Kimla in the Island and One In Pnlnonous. Only three kinds are generally recog nized in the British Islands the smooth snake, the ringed snake and the adder? Ireland, indeed, has always claimed, by favor of St. Patrick, to be free from these reptiles, though last autumn two specimens of the ringed snake were actually found In County Wicklow. Probably they had been Im ported, and as they were killed, the saint's ban, after all, may have driven them to their doom. Of the three British species, one, the smooth snake, named by zoologists coronella austriaca, Is rare. In fact, It was not observed until 1853 and has seldom been found except in Hamp shire, Dorset and Surrey, perhaps most frequently in the Bournemouth dis trict. When full grown It is about a couple of feet long and might at the first glance be thought an adder. The ringed snake is less likely to suffer from mistaken identity, for its mark ings and general tints do not resemble those of the latter. Indeed, It deserves encouragement, since it has been known to swallow an adder, though mice and voles, water newts, frogs and toads, with the eggs and young of birds, form Its usual diet. It is the largest of our snakes, for specimens a yard long are not uncommon, and a fflnnt Of Its kind, measuring Cve feet eight Inches, was once capturwl In the New forest. In September of last year a house at Cefncaeau, near Llanelly, was said to lie suffering from a plague of snakes. The story has been care fully lnvestlga ed. In one house no fewer than twenty two were found, which, however, were all small. But very soon there would have been many more, for lu an old back wall from which they had been eeu to Issue about 1.20 eggs were discovered, each containing a young ringed snake Just ready for hatching. The hunt was then carried further afield, and those reptiles were found to be extraordinarily abundant lu an old quarry a short distance from the gar dens behind the house. They are not the kind of visitors timid people would welcome, although, whether big or lit tle, they are perfectly harmless, and the only serious objection to them is that when disturbed they are apt to emit an Ill-smelling fluid. The adder, however, says the London Stundard. has teeth fitted with poison glands and is really dangerous. It does not use these to secure Its ordinary food, but only If the prey l larger than usual, or in self-defense, as. for Instance, if It is trodden on. The ven om Is frequently fatal to dogs, not sel dom to sheep, and It his been known to kill n bullock. The cause of death In such cases Is failure of the heart, but If that Is averted rather severe local blood poisoning may ensue. Grown persons do not often die from the ef fects of u bite, though a few such cases ore on record; but the poison causes considerable suffering, and re covery may not be complete for some weeks. With children the danger is, of course, greater. "The bright day urtngs forth the adder that craves wary walking." It Is smaller than the ringed snake, for Its length seldom ex ceeds a couple of feet. WHY HOWARD DIDN'T DROWN, Experience of an Old-Time Reporter in a Khawneetown Flood. "I remember a story nbout Fhoelan Howard," says Senator Mason, "which has never been printed, and which I have always thought good. The city of fclinwneetown was undenroinz Its lie rlodlcal Inundation from the floods of the Ohio ltlver, and Thoclan Howard was sent down by a Chlcaco Dauer to write up the calamity. This is the story as Phoclan tells It: " 'I found everything under water. and I hired a one-legged, stutterinir boatman to row nie over the town. We got along all right until we came to the cemetery. Then, In trying to read the inscription on a monument. I lemied over so far that I lost my balance and tumbled Into the water. Down I went and came nn again, and struircled to reach the boat. I could not swim a lick, and the boat was out of reach. I saw the boatman wavine his wooden leg nnd struggling to say something. 1 went down again, thinking to myself, "Here 1 am, a first-class man In n sec ond-class town, drowning In a third- class graveyard. Too bad." I came up again, still out of reach of the boat. I knew that I was sure to drown If I went down again, so I made a desner- ate struggle. The boatman was still nourishing his wooden leir aud wiir- gllng his mouth, trying to say some thine, litis was kent un till lust m I was trolmr down airain. when hp limu the puckering string and shouted: "St-st-8t-stand up." I stood ud and found that the water came about to my waist.' " Pleased wtth the Hour. Lieut. Heffernan was saying the other day that be had hardly ever seen an Irishman who wasn't ready with a quick retort, no matter what the cir cumstances might be. "It was about three years ago that I arrested a certain fellow. He was about the drunkest man I eVer saw to be still standing on his feet. As soon as I got hold of him he wanted to make trouble. He was just like many others from the ould sod when they get full of bad 'booze' and they think there Is a chance for a scrap. He made a pass at me, but I reached over and tapped him once on the head with my stick. He became quiet right away, and he looked up at me and said: " 'And what tolmels It?' "Of course I couldn't help but answer. 'Just struck one.' ' 'Well, if thot's so,' he answered. 'Oi'm dnm glad yez didn't hit me an hour sooner.' "Louisville Times. Matrimony Follows the Flag. A good many formalities are nece. sary for the women of Sumatra before they can lay aside their widow's weeds, says Womanhood. Immediately after the husbnn.r death the disconsolate widow places a flagstaff in front of her door, and nn this a flag Is raised. As long as the flag remains tintorn by the wind etiquette forbids her to marry, but witn the appearance of the first rent she can lay aside her mourning garb, begin to take notice and to receive of fers of marriage. It would seem, therefore, that much depends on the strenuousness of the season, the favorableness of the gales, and the quality of the material used in the construction of the flag. Scotch Mist. Thomas A fine soft mornln', Andra. Andrew Oo, aye; but why dinna ye pit oop yer umbrellie? Thomas (aghast) Sosh, ye were al ways a wasteful mon, Andra; can ye no' see It s a new one? Loudon King. Ttia IntA afvla In hmicu. 1 architects try to give new houses the squally eueci. Lettuce is so easily raised; it's a pity it is not good to eat LET THIS BE mmm muam mm mm mm iMNLaBMwHMBBMHMMBa ..... i , i. MONKEYS DEGENERATE MEN. Trofeejor Hneckel G'vei Out a New Kvolntio-' TlieirT. That Professor Ernst Haeckel, the distinguished German naturalist, and the world's sr-oatrst living advocate of the biological the ory of evolution, has reversed his views of half a century and taken a stand with Prof. Rudolf Vlrchow lu opposition to liar w I n I s ni Is the startling announce ment made in tu.sai iiAi.tKti.. Paris. It Is stated that during his expedition to Java, begun last year, Prof. Haeckel hns found striking evident in support of the theory, advanced for the first time only a few months ago by Vlr chow, that monkeys are descended from man, and not man from monkeys. That, In fact, monkeys are nothing less than degenerated humans. Ernst Haeckel, now professor of zoology ot Jena University, was the first distinguished scientist to fully ac cept Darwin's theory when the "Origin of Species" was published. The scien tific world was trembling on the brink of the revolution he caused later by the publication of "The Descent of Man," when Haeckel anticipated Dar win in his most far-reaching conclu sions, and in a measure prepared the world for the startling doctrines hinted at in the "Origin of Species" and fully promulgated in "The Descent of Man." Since then Haeckel has been the most advanced among the evolutionists. He has long asserted that the history of man Is complete in all lu essential de tails, and that all that now reimitna tn be done is to fill in here and there such concrete evidence as zoological aud paleontologieal research shall reveal. In his "Systematic Phylogeuy," a monumental work In three volumes, he made a theoretic systematic arranire. ment of the veeetable and iitilmnl worlds living and extinct on tUa h; of the law of evolution. The work has been called a vast pedigree tree, with man at the ton and the lnu-uet i, nucleated cell at the bottom. In 5his pedigree there were no emntv r accounted spaces. Haeckel .(.notn,, ed hypothetical animals and organisms, ana to mm. in theorv. there .. missing link. Twenty-five years before tho ,1 ery of Dubois' pithecanthropus Haeckel una ioreseen in his phylogeuy such a creature, and he had christened It "pith ecanthropus allalus," or the apelike man before language. He gave to It a place midway in the order of life be tween tne highest aDe and the in.., - - - "coi human. In 1809 Dr. Eugene Dubois army physician, traveling In Java, un earthed the fossil remains of a hitherto undiscovered creature. There were only a thigh bone, two molar teeth, and a cranium. Scientists hailed the creature reconstructed theoretically finm ti... few fossilized bones as tho missing link. The size of tile r.t.,,,,1.,... showed that the creature hiwl capacity for exactly 1,000 c. M. 3 as against the cranial capacity of the high est known gorilla of 05 c. f a n.i ' i uuu liiH 1 cranial capacity of the lowest form of uuiuuu, me eauan woman of Ceylo -or the bushman of Australia, with I3wl c. m. o. iue inign none and teeth were those of a fully developed human of medium height. . Dubois called his discover . canthronus erectus. or tim o,,m undine man Scientists differed as to the origin of jnucv-uiiiuropus, auu the bite Prof Cope, of the University nt r vaala,1 was of the opinion that it was a species of the homo neanderthaleusis and about 17.000 years old. To Haeckel the discover , - - j --..a ui im mense Importance. In Kenton, 1..,- . year, he organized a smnti ov.i.., and set out for Java In the hope of mak ing fresh discoveries corroborative of his systematic phytogeny. He, with all otner scientists who had investigated Dubois' discovery, reenrdort , canthropus as having Indisputable vis- un cvmcuce or one or the most Import ant steps in the evolution of man "If Prof Haeckel has made any such discovery said Dr. Edgar Grant Conk to. professor of zoology at the Unlva. ir--Mii'"hfti A WARNING. slty of Pennsylvania, "or If he has re canted his former multitudinous writ ings and lecturlngs sufficiently to make any such statement It means that one of the most remarkable revolutions lri1 biological science has taken place. If he has made discoveries there," contin ued Prof. Couklln, having explained Haeckel's position with regard to evo lution, "which would cause him to re verse all his established views, to re cant the preachings of a busy and a long lifetime, they must be of an Im portance I cannot pretend to calculate." PROFESSOR WALLACE PAYNE. He Hji Comp eted Thirty Yeara' Ber v'ce nt Carletnn Colleze. Prof. William Wallace Payne, who has completed thirty years of active and valuable service at Carletou Col- leg e, Korthfleld, Mass, Is one of the best-known astrou oniers In America, and has done much to popularize his science and to build up the as tronomical work In the Inst It ution with which he has been so long nnd i-uoi-. rAV.NE. so worthily con nected. He was born lu Hillsdale Coun ty, Mlehlgi, in lfl7, and was gradu ated from Hillsdale College lu 18IJ3. In 1871 he came to Carlcton as professor of mathematics aud natural philosophy. After several years of faithful work he succeeded In his long cherished desire of building nn efficient observatory here. In 1882 he perfected the weather service, for which Northfield Is famous. Prof. Payne Is lu excellent health, aud looks forward to many years of useful activity. Death Missed Mis Mark. A group of railroaders sat and talked on narrow escapes. One of them said: "On a certain afternoou I was walking .w o uutruucK trestle arty feet high. A train came on me and I had to step off the track and stand on the little space-a space less than a foot wld between the track and the trestle's wise. I stood there, facing the train, and as It went by, to keep myself from losing my balance, for only my tow were on the ties, my heels unsupported il l , 71 haU t0 take h0'1 and let go again of the various parts of the en g ue and of the couches. Of course the hontn" ,BOll,Kfast' Otherwise I should have been shaken off and killed. slJ, t'e W?y f st',u'tls 1 llllve my sn k; .0,,bUt0Ue of u,y ateBt. our divlsf t'mr,y "l lf' We ud o u';rv y,,s an e"gl,le ma ?or fai7 w nlerfUl "WOl""e ue he t nt, ,0,'e,luyI w,ls diking in Z th,nk,,,K- Vleat Xuy ri(Kbt bI,lml me murmured: for 1 h I, m 1 t,Ur"ed 1,1 BHtoiilHhnient. 5uc,: Halted with her back Ti r,ly a yur(1 fr y Sded down 8lmt 0ff everything, h wnel t " U'e aml trk'l to see lot can be co l e, Utn iT? f th0 '. excei on 8tho!m, Swe- tLree-fourlTs der of 11,0 1., "u"eu- -The remain Alumi, to,?'," '"""'Ho-. A" , ulJ- -Washington Star the wage! of ,,a f,niment 18 ls-theextenu-P' VUasTof beTneBet thUt the man anything of the kind. nUen,aa Isn't A K'rt that cunTT 1 be ouS "lnB aDd "ill sing