The Butler Weekly Times Newspaper, December 28, 1905, Page 9

‘ ee he Butler “Weekly Times. VOL, XXVIII. BUTLER, MISSOURI, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1905. — MRS. SANTA CLAUS. UNCLE SAM’S DEAD LETTER EX- PERT GUIDES STRAY CHRIST- MAS GREETINGS. ye out Many Presents to Children las a Remarkable Memory and Knowledgesand Deciphers the most Puzzling Addresses. Tucked away in a little corner of the Postoffice Department at Washing- ton behind a desk which has held a thousand interesting stories sits a eharming white haired woman who is known the length and breadth of the land as “Mrs. Santa Claus.” The woman to whom this suggestive- ly dear name has been given is Mrs. UP SSFSSS Sez PY MNS. “SANTA CLAUS.” Patti Lyle Collins, head of the “Open- ing and Unmailable Division” of the Postoffice Department. Each holiday season brings to her desk thousands and thousands of “Santa Claus” letters and were she of the ordinary type of clerk, thinking only of the salary she draws twice a month, these letters might go into Uncle Sam’s waste basket without so much as a thought for the writers. Not ¢o with Mrs, Collins, - Through her generous heart, her love for chil- dren and, possibly, with a memory or two of her own when she, too, believed in the real existence of the children’s patron saint, this lovable woman at- tends first to her duties of returning the letters to their writers if this is possible and then she plays “Mrs. Santa Claus” to her army, of little friends. Christmas Presents to the Children When such a thing is possible Mrs. Colling finds out the addresses of these children, sends them some little thing they have asked for and gets her friends interested in them until she as now earned the title which came to her so long ago merely through her associations with this part of Uncle Sam’s postoffice. This ig rather the sentimental side of Mrs, Collins’ work, but there is an- other and scientific phase of it which has made her invaluable to the Gov- ernment. She is the official chiro- graphical expert of the Department and through her efforts each year ninety per cent, of mail matter bear- ing manifestly indecipherable ad- dresses finds its way to the person to whom it is addressed, Mrs, Collins is a linguist and a deep student, Added to this she has stored away in her brain @ fund of general knowledge which enables her to solve problems which would puzzle a hun- dred other heads. Her knowledge of streets in various cities of Europe led to her compilation of a street directory of its countries. ‘The value of Mrs. Collins’ work in ferreting out addresses is all the more notable when it is considered that each postoffice in all the large cities has & division especially set apart for de- ciphering illegible and otherwise puz- gling addresses. So after this has been done letters which are still unclaimed are sent to the postoffice at ton. ph Knows All Languages. Mrs, Collins has of this rather psycholo; she knows just what country, even to the ¢' various nationalties have gical work thi This Mrs. Collins to which would have been Washing- made such a study section of the ities, in which settled. She her finger on the ni IT decipher many a letter 3 un-| the story on intelligible. Among the hundreds of such which she received the other day was ene addressed to “Ygnac Lech, Combryja Co, brot stryt no 93, Szanony Pan.” How many, or rather how few, peo- ple would have known how to go about locating this person. The letter wa’ postmarked Florence. Mrs, Collins’ own store of information told her that the Cambria Iron Works of Johns- town, Pa., was employing a large num- ber of Italians and she sent the letter on, Sure enough Mr. “Yanac Lech” was there and received the letter which, without Mrs. Collins’ assist- ance would never have fallen into his hands, A facetious student at the University of Virginia wrote to a young society girl in Washington and addressed the envelope entirely in Greek. It takes greater obstacles than that to balk Mrs, Collins and the young woman re- reived her letter as promptly as if it had been addressed in the most legible English hand. Tho list of such letters is almost unlimited in length. A Spaniard sent a letter to “Sr. Fer- nado Maya, Fuerte galen Colo” and it was promptly forwarded to Mr. Maya at “Fort Garland, Colorado,” Mrs, Collins is a charming woman and occupies a tiny apartment in one of Washington's fashionable apartment houses. _—_—_——— Senator Harris Balked. Henry Clay Evans, late consul gen- eral at London, was once in Congress Long, long ago the Wise Men, we are told, Laden with Myrrh and frankiacense and gold, journeyed afar, and found the Shepherd’s fold 0a the first Christmas Day. from Tennessee and knows all the emi- nent men of that State. He was tell- ing a good story the other night of Col. Sandford and Major Saunders, prom- inent business men of the Knoxville re ‘ion, They were once on a Pullman com- ing this way. It was hot and they sat in pajamas far into the night. An old man came in, lighted a cigar, smoked and said nothing. They did not recog- nize him, and kept on talking about the miserably poor representation, their State had in Congress. “It is a pity,” said one of them “that a State like ours should have such poor worthless men at Washington. Our senators are no good, old Harris is played out and Josiah Patterson is the only man in the House that amounts to anything.” At this remark the stranger arose id in a tone of thunder began to hurl invective and abuse at the two men. “Tt is about time I was taking part-in this conversation,” he yelled and went on to tell a few warm things to the astonished party of two. had subsided a bit one of them “But who are you to get so mad about it?” “Who am I? Well, I am Senator Harris, ding you, and I have much say to scoundrels like you.” Both men were tened to apologize. They all became nd old man often told friendly, and the himee! EU EET EEE POLITICAL TAXATION, LEGISLATION LIKELY REQUIRING PUBLICATION OF ALL LARGE CONTRIBUTIONS. Such a Bill, Introduced Last Year, was Looked upon as a Crank Meas- ure—Will be on a Different Basis This Session, Exposure of the practice of the great life insurance companies and other corporations, of making contri- butions to political campaign funds and of devoting large amounts of money to influence legislation will bring before the next session of congress the question of the passage of a bill similar to that introduced at the last session by Representative Bourke Cockran, of New York, and familiarly known as the “Corrupt Practice” bill, It may not be that this bill will be taken up and given the serious consideration which it was denied at the last session, but that a bill containing provisions of the same general description as those of the Cockran bill will be introduced and pressed to a vote is a moral cer- tainty. The Cockran bill provided that every contribution of more than $50 to a national campaign fund should be reported to the clerk of the dis- trict court of the United States, Baby's First Christmas. Oh Baby, Baby, may thy life be sweet; May God-sent angels guide thy little feet; May every day to come be as complete As thy first Christmas day. Criminal penaities were provided for violations of the law, Looked Upon as a Cockran Oddity. The bill was treated with derision last winter, both by the daily press and by gentlemen of tle liouse of Representatives, the Senate and Third House. It was worth a laugh, people said. There was very little corruption, they averred. The idea that corporations employed _ legisla- tive agents and disbursed huge sums of money for or against certain bills was moonshine doled out by — sensa- tionalists to gratify the morbid fancy and the appetite for scandal of a pe- culiar class of people. The legislative inquiry into the af- fairs and conduct of the Equitable Life and Mutual insurance companies at New York seems to have placed the matter of campaign contributions and legislative disbursements in other than a humorous light. It mat- ters not whether the corporations come forward voluntarily with their contributions to camnaien funds or whether they are solicited and hound- ed by campaign collectors until they contribute—the result is the same. Vice-president Gillette of the Mu- tual Life Insurance Company testi- fied that his company contributed And now both young aad old, with shining eyes Gather to watch their Baby’s glad surprise, His eestasics, his joy, his gleefal erics, 0a his first Christmas day. to the republican committees in the last three presidential campaigns, and John A. McCall, president of the New York Life Insurance Company admitted that he had _ contributed $150,000 of the company’s funds to the same committees. In fact the big companies’ have frequently been) contributors to both political parties. Public May Demand Legislation, There are two questions involved in any fair consideration of these dis- closures, The first is the desirability of corporations taking such an active and intluential part in political cam- paigns and the second fs the moral- ity of corporation of_icers making contributions on their own initiative out of. funds that are really trust funds. Of course a law can be made pro- hibiting campaign contributions by insurance companies or other corpo- rations, This may correct the abuse or it may not. Laws are not always obeyed or enforced, There, for exam- ple are the laws of Moses. The world has been violating them for thou- sands of years, It might be consid- ered fair if the directors of every in- surance company, savings bank, trust company or other corporation hand- ling the people's money, would adopt a rule forbidding absolutely all such contributions and holding every offl- cer financially and morally respon- sible for its observance, Second, pod- litical candidates and committees could announce that they would neither solicit nor receive contribu- tions. Public sentiment is rapidly crystal- izing into the conviction that corpo- rate contributions should either be made impossible or else req ired to be made in such public fashion that they would be robbed of their bane- ful effect, —<—___——— Foote’s Farrago. Foote, the comedian, when a young person of either sex applied for a po- sition, seldom refused outright, but gravely handed them the following lines, and asked them to commit and repeat them to him correctly in ten minutes, If repeated with no error, he promptly took them for trial. That there could be no collusion with those who applied later, he fre- quently changed the order of the lines and the proper names: the garden to cut a ke an apple pie and at that time a great she-bear coming up the street pops its head into the shop. What, no soap? So he died and she very impudently married the barber: and there were present the Picninnies, and the Jobe lilies and the Garyulies and the grea! Panjandrum himself with the little round button at the top, and they fell to play- ing the game of “catch as catch can,” till the gunpowder ran out the heels of their boots. The popularity of “Trilby” for a time exceeded that of any novel pub- lished, with the possible ‘exception of $92,500 of the policy holders’ money | “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” {| dis mawnin’. NEW PONTOON BRIDGES. Collapsible Boats of Canvas Which Can ve Carried by One Man. The soldiers of the United States En- gineers’ Corps seem to have solved one of the greatest problems which has confronted generals in command of an army when on the march, Small un- fordable streams are often encountered by the army and these must be crossed in the shortest time possible. In fact large rivers often confront an army when about to give battle to the enemy, and it would take weeks, if not months, to construct even temporary bridges to allow the men with their heavy armaments to cross. The pontoon boat, of course, is well known to every reader of history, for this most useful auxiliary came into great use during the war of the Rebellion, The pon- toon train, however, is a very cum- bersome affair when the ordinary flat bottom boat with the necessary tim- bers and accessories are packed on to what is known as the “pontoon train.” The German army recently adopted a sort of sectional pontoon boat which allowed of greater mobility to the train. However, the soldiers of the United States Engineer Battalion have been drilling in the use of pontoon boats made of heavy canvass stretched over a wooden frame, These boats are wa- ter-tight and when assembled are cap- able of supporting six or more men. A boat may be taken apart and packed into a small bundle light enough to be carried by one man, Upon arrival at a sinall stream all that is necessary is for each man to unstrap his bundle, quickly put the boat into shape, and launch it into the water, The wagons which must necessarily carry the tim- bering and flooring of the bridge to be, can be sent forward with a much smaller guard than is necessary when the cumbersome pontoon train wagons, each carrying @ boat or section, are in motion. —— One Good Use for Millionaires. Regret has been often expressed re- garding the threatened extinctfon of many species of wild animals. Of late, however, some of the world’s miHionaires have begun to devote their attention to the task of preserving them, and numbers of wealthy men have established or endowed parks and private zoological gardens, in which buffaloes, antelopes, giraffes, gnus, and other dwindling species are carefully cherished. In some cases herds of bison are kept, after the fash- ion of deer, on the estates of great landowners. Nor are Europe and Asia behind- hand. Large preserves of big game are to be found in France and Ger- many, and in England the Duke of Bedford has made a wonderful collec- tion of wild*animals at Woburn Park. It comprises many rare animals, in- cluding waterbuck, gnus, sable ante- lopes, and some almost extinct species of deer, Strong on Details. “oRastus, where’s that rake?” “De rake’s wid de hoe, Mars “Well, then, where’s the hoe “Marster, de hoe’s wid de rake.” “Well, ’Rastus, confound it, where are they both?” “Dey’s boff togedder, Marster. ’Pears like youse pow’ful tickler "bout details You leave de regulatin’ and I'll look of all dat to me, Marster, out fo’ yo’ interests.” —— Time to Move. Oh that I were where I would be, Then would I be where I am not, For where I am, I would not be, And where I could be, I cannot. HO. 9 WHITE HOUSE XMAS DINNER. THE ROOSEVELT FAMILY CELE+ BRATES IN THE GOOD OLD- FASHIONED WAY. Always Have Huge Rhode Island Ture key Which is not Spoiled by French Cooks.—President Himself Does the Carving. Old fashioned cooks and old fash- foned cookery hold the fort in the White House kitchen at Christmas tide. When the President and Mrs, Roosevelt give one of their great state dinners to cighty or one hundred guests, they usually entrust all the preparations to professional caterers, put when it comes to the dinner which SS a oss ms € THE PRESIDENTS TURKEY is pre-eminently the home meal of the ‘year the French chefs have to give way to women who know just how to prepare the generous wholesome dishes that an American citizen looks forward to finding on his dinner table on the joyous holiday. President Roosevelt also shows a fondness lor carving the turkey himself, A good old fashioned Christmas dim- ner, moreover, with all the ess nuals from turkey to plum pudding is a reg ular institution at the White House during the present administration, |Perhaps President Roosevelt, with his assertive good health and his fam- ily of lively young folks, are particur ly well qualified to appreciate a rous ing yule-tide feast, but whatever be the reason certain it is that during the Roosevelt regime the Christmas re past has become one of the most im- portant as well as one of the jollics® meals of the year. To Be Family Reunion. President Roosevelt and his family follow the general policy of all pre vious occupants of the White House in observing Christmas as a family fes- tival. This year it will have especial significance as a reunion, since of late mont the junior members of the Roosevelt household have been scat- tered as never before, by reason of their attendance at diffe schools and coll The Roos t Christ mas, While a family alla by no means confined to the immediate household, The Roosevelt children have long been allowed to entertain their numerous cousius on Christmas and other relatives are likewise in at- tendance, while the President and Mrs. Roosevelt usually ask a few per- sonal friends to also join the party. Christmas dinner at the White House is served in the evening and the President arouses an appetite for it by (Continued on next page,) ‘Do You Use, Acetylene? if so, We Want to Send You A SAMPLE BURNE We believe we have the very best and the cheapest line of Acetylene Burners, Our sample will show better than we can explain here wi it would you to use our burners. 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