Evening Star Newspaper, September 30, 1893, Page 15

———— THE EVENING STAR: WASHINGTON, D. C. SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER 30, 1893—EIGHTEEN PAGES. 15 A FRENCH ELECTION. Some of the Droll Features of This Interesting Event. THE ELECTOR AND THE CANDIDATE. asset Relations That Are Different From Those in America. WHAT CONSTITUTES SUCCESS. Correspondence of The Evening Star. PARIS, September 9, 1893. NE OF THE OLD-} jest members of the French state council | lamented lately one fact in the constitu- tion of the present French republic. France, instead of giving herself an cffi- cient personal execu- tive like the Ameri- | can President.has on- ly borrowed from the United States “these cannibals of politi- clans.” ‘It was on the third Sunday of August of this year that the general elections of the Srench republic took place. On Sunday iast, the second ballot, tp determine a hun- dred and more contested cases, finished the political campaign. That Sunday should invariably be chosen as the election day is a first oddity, but it is by no means the last. The elections, though they decide the administration of France for four years and more, have nothing to do with the president's office. He ts elected every seven 2>ars by the parliament, and not by any general vote of the people. Even then he an only act through his ministers, who are responsible in everything to the cham- ber of deputies.which answers to our House of Representatives. It does more than an- swer to our House of Representatives, for France, it must be remembered, is composed of separate states with their separate legislatures, as with us; it is as if our Congressmen should be supreme in state as well as in federal legislation. ‘The French senate scarcely counts at all: indeed, it is on the program of many poli- ticians “to suppress the senate.” It is only these deputies who are elected by universal suffrage, ali the same year, each in his own district. So this year’s elections, by the general renewal of depu- ties, determines the whole administration of the country. That as a result of these elections the old Panama majority remains im power as heretofore surprises nobody. ‘The vractical workings of an over-refined civil service, the effects of eloquence, the Peasants’ rooted fear of voting against those already in office, thanks to an apa- thy by which a full third of the French voters abstained from presenting them- selves at the polls, have brought about a change which is scarcely any change at all. It appears that there is nothing to prevent those deputies who cling together fortunate majority from re-electing themselves indefinitely. ful way, and was not to be caught. After the fifth meeting, however, he lost patience, and plumply asked the importunate ques- foner the reason of his great interest in “You see” answered the man, “I am a wholesale dealer and want information | oe starting a branch house there—that’s date and Peasent. As a general thing it is tiresome for the candidate to get on with the peasant, dis- trustful, hard-headed and yet childish. In @ country where everyone, including ser- vant girls, puts his little savings in stocks of some kind, the Panama canal and its failure are matters well-known to all. Since the prosecutions of last winter everyone | also has an idea that the deputies now going out of office (and coming in again) have had their share in the pickings. The coachman of a deputy is supposed to say, on quitting his service: “Ixow that 1 quit the service of Monsieur le Depute, Monsieur le Depute will give me a certificate of good conduct’ ‘With pleasure, Francois.” the politician answers, “but on condition that you will say to everybody that I am an honest man!” Among the peasants candidates have had something like this to go through: Peasant—“Welcome back, Monsteur le cian. It is these deputies therefore who furnish necessarily the chief types of the profes- sional politician in France. There are no strong. well organized parties back of them; 80 each has to engineer his own election. The method differs considerably according as the candidate's district is made up of peasants and country people, or of work- men and tradespeople in the towns. In both cases he has to make much of his Personal program—his promises of what he ‘will do and not do if elected, the local inter- ests he will serve and a gzeat deal of talk sbout “our country,” the republic, the revo- lution, socialism, progress and liberty. One deputy will have on his program that he is for “showing amnesty” to all victims of “political and social injustice.” Another is for the reduction of railway fares. A third is great on the extension of French com- merce. A fourth is against the influence of the church. A fifth is for religious liberty, which means that he is for the church. No — has @ party platform to bind him close- The first duty of the politician who pre- sents himself as a candidate in the country is t make the acquaintance of his con- Stituency. This is particularly necessary when, as often happens, he does not him- self live in the district which he wishes to Fepresent, for any voter, who is not un. dezgoing bankruptcy or is not otherwise in- @ligible, can run for office in any part of France he shooses to elect. Curious inei- dents arise from this state of things. One August afternoon an office-seeking young count arrived in a farming hamlet belonging to the district where he had p:o- claimed himself a candidate. Before the single wine shop of the place he had a drum beaten, and soon the harvesters came trooping from the fields. There was never 80 democratic a count. He laughed and talked with each and ail till a hundred bot- tles of beer had been opened. Then he came down to work and made a plain little Speech, promising all the thine< he would @o-and have done for art of the coun- try should they make ‘heir deputy. He Wound up by a direct appeal. “Now. my friends, you will all vote for me, will you not?" The workingmen looked at each other in silence. Then an old man among them sata: You see, Monsieur le Comte, we'd like to, but we can’t. We're only Belgians over here to help at the harves! Some years ago it came into the head of Ernest Renan to interrupt his interminable course of Hebrew anti-theology and become @ deputy. He put out his program and Started off to make his speeches and talk With the electors in all the different towns gf his chosen district. It was a time when nce was just acquiring a protectorate over the Islands of Madagascar. At every Meeting there was the same burly man, Fhe called cut when the speech was over for , information about the resources of Madagascar with respect to French com- merce. His questions were always varied gnd searching, but Renan had looked up the matter thoroughly, in his own wonder- Depute, you must have made your pile this time in Paris.” Deputy (taken aback)—“I—what do you mean?” Peasant—“Why, didn’t you get any of the money going in that affair of Panama?” Deputy (indignantly)—“I swear to yor Peasant—“But would you bet on it?” Deputy—“Certainly. I was offered money and I refused it.” Peasant—“I thought you were smarter than that.” Deputy—“So, you'll vote for me ugain?” Peasant—“No, I don’t think I will. 1 don’t think a man who doesn't know how to look out for his own interests will do much for others.” Then having frightened the candidate, shown his power as one of the sovereign people and enjoyed his laugh and the pres- tige of his wit, the peasant in most cases turns in and votes for that same deputy again, saying to himself that he must he a deep one after all. Paying for Services Rendered. There are certain formalities to be ful- filled by the candidate previo1s to the day of the election. Several days before he must put on record in the mayor's office his can- didacy, with his proof of eligibility and his cath of allegiance to the constitution of the republic. His electioneering has alresdy been going on for some time. He must be careful, above all things, to give no money to any Voter, unless he can show that some service has ‘been rendered for which it is the pay. A deputy in Brittany got around the prohibition in this way. To every voter in the village he gave a hundred election posters to distribute. For this service he paid each one %. Every voter in the village was solemaly going about handing out these electioneering | tracts. They kept on handing them to each | other, no one being able to decrease his pile, until they got the idea of pasting them against their houses, which they did. In the larger towns the run of poiltics tsl| somewhat more lively, as well ss more se- rious. Local interests are still uppermost, | for the average French voter thinks of little outside of his own parish. A war scare would be needed to change this; and, itieal Rumors. in case of actual war, a dictator would Probably have to come up and suspend for a fime the republican form of govern- ment, which works rather weakly in| France. For instance, only a few days 2g0 there was a report, more than half be- lieved all over Paris’ for a full eight hours, that President Carnot was dead. having suc- | eumbed to a surgical operation. ‘The re- | port was quickly denied, but everybody said: “They will wait till the closing of | the Bourse before they make the truth | public. ‘They fear a panic in s ‘The | next thing everybody “There | will be a military government put. in.” This was because the old chamber of dep-| uties, with all those of its now defeated members, {s still lesally in power until the 15th of October: f any necessity should arise meanwhile for convoking parlia it is they and not the newly elected deputies who would have to be summoned. It is re- membered that the old majority of deputie remains in power, under the new elect scarcely two hundred old deputies cut of nearly six hundred were defeated. It may therefore be judged how delicate the equt- librium is thought to be by ordinary people. | The French Political Parties. All candidates for the chamber of -leputies belong to one or another of the half dozen | political groups into which the deputies | fall when they are once elected; and, as Elected. the case may be, they talk conservatism, or revision of the constitution, “opportun- ism” (letting things go as they are), oF |uty to make an ment, | *" radical anti-clericalism. But each und every one of them, when he is appealing for the votes of the workingmen in a large manufacturing town, will be sure to wind up with something lke socialism, which pleases them best. It ts in this way that we have Christian socialists and socialists pure and simple, radical socialists and progres- sive republican socialists. Long before the election it is important that each of the politizal groups or parties shoul! have a banque: in some one of largest cities in France. This is to give a chance to some prominent senator or dep- fter-dinner speech, in ich he will lay down a political program. ‘This all the candidates throughout France | will catch up and use for a watchword, each tacking on to it his own local utter- ances. After the election they wili nat- urally do as they please about its pron- tses. They are not bound to any party, and they combine in the strangest and most un- expected manner when voting in the cham- ber of deputies. Law and custom, and perhaps che fear of riots, prevent anything like the American parades and monster mass meetinss, But in the towns public reunions, political meet- ings, are of great importance. The candi- date who faces such a meeting must kave a quick wit, for a single bad break may cost him ali the votes he has gained by hard electioneering. In all these meetings what would reem to the American as the most laughable general formulas are given out by the speakers with the utmost solemnity. Re- actionists talk against the government by atheists; radicals declare themselves the only genuine sons of the revolution; a1d whenever an appeal is made to working- men capital and “the dirty bourgeoisie” are sure to catch it. In a manufacturing suburb .of Paris one of the candidates gravely proposed “the extinction of pau- perism by the emasculation of capital “That's well put,” cried a voice, and the phrase was embodied in a resolution as the unanimous sense of the meeting. The dep- uty was elected: but no one will expect him to really and truly “emasculate” capl- tal. Vive la revolution, vive Carnot, vive socialism and every other ism. In the se- curity of his success the successful candl- date can look back smilingly on the dan- gers he has STERLING HEILIG. a PALACE CAR DEVELOPMENT. Times When Women Were Not Ex- pected to Eat While Traveling. From the Boston Transcript. One of the earliest uses of an exclusive railroad car in this part of the country was on the occasion of the marriage of Jenny Lind. The great singer, wishing to Pass her honeymoon far from the madding crowd, hired a cottage in Pittsfield; and, in order to be free from the intrusion of im- pertinent starers, had a passenger car of the pattern in use fitted for her use as a draw- ing room by the removal of the seats and the supply in their place of luxurious house- hold furniture. This fashion was frequent- ly adopted by other_noted people of the stage and by statesmen on an electioneer- ing tour. Very likely the increased demand for the luxury led to the invention of a car the use of which was for sale at retail, so to speak—that is, a chair in it to be rented to any one who came along. The early efforts were constructed with a view to privacy, being a series of apartments of various sizes. The open room, which has been an encouragement to sociability, was quickly evolved. It is interesting to notice, by the way, that the latest device for drawing-room car is a return to the apart- ment system. Some of the early dining cars were rough affairs compared with the luxuriously ap- pointed dining rooms on wheels that are now found all over the land. In those older days you were forced to stand up against a counter built in the car, fore and aft, and there feed at a trough (almost literally one, since the top of the counter was provided with a ledge to prevent the plates from be- ing tossed to the floor by the wobbling car), steadying your hand and arm with as much skill as you could master, just the same as on board ship. This luxury was for the use of the sterner sex only; women in those days were not expected to eat while travel- ing. Clumsy as was this arrangement, it was an improvement on the railroad res- taurant, into which you rushed to grab your food and swallow it without going through the process of mastication, and to swallow a cup of boiling hot coffee—in your haste your sense of taste was paralyzed so that you were unable to tell what the scald- ing beverage was—all the time in mortal terror that the conductor's Irritating shout, “All aboard!” would come before you had secured a fair equivalent for your money. ‘The drawing room and sleeping cars of these days have come through a process of evolution. Admirable as they are in many Ways as preventives of much of the weari- ness of long railroad journeys, they are still far from perfect. The science of heating them has reached a high point, but in the best of them, particularly the sleeping cars, ventilation {s never first rate. There are many minor points that can be easily bet- tered. Why is it, for instance, that you never find a clock in a drawing-room car? Is it because every passenger who can afford the luxury of the car is supposed to be furnished with a Frodsham chzonometer or a Jurgensen repeater? Nevertheless, the clock would be appreciated, and so, too, would be a time table, in big type, of the actual train on which you are traveling. As a bit of evidence to show the slowness of evolution, it is Interesting to note that only within a'short time has there been built a drawing room or sleeping car in which every corner and edge are rounded off so as to prevent discomfort if you are tossed or thrown against a partition or casing. coe COURTSHIP UP TO DATE. Expeditious Manner in Which Chi cagoans Conduct Affairs of the Heart. From the Chicago Tribune. In a cozy little parlor in a world’s fatr hotel they sat together—he and she. “Mrs. Chickwell,” he began, “may—may 1 ask your first name?” “Amy,” softly answered the charming young widow. “Amy! Lovely name!” he rejoined, tak- ing her hand. “It seems as if I had known you an age—” “It has been at least three days and a half,” she murmured, dreamily. “Haven't we had abundant opportunity to get acquainted? Haven't we walked to- gether the whole length of the Manufac- turers’ building? Have we not been—* “But, Mr. Spatchley, think of—* “Call me Harry,” he pleaded, possessing himself of her other hand. “Well—Harry—it you only knev- “I don't want to know, dearest: My heart tells me all I want to know! In my far- away California home I have often dreamed of a time like this when—* “California? And my home is in New England!’ “It wouldn't make any hfference to me if you came from “But, Harry- “I know what you are going to say, ‘This is so sudden!" It isn’t sudden. I've waited more than three whole days, and my mind was made up the minute I saw you! Don't turn your head =e dear! ° “ou : ee “I have a little surprise for you, Amy,” said the enraptured young man, ‘half an hour later, in some embarrassment. Ex- cuse me a momen He went out of the room and returned presently accompanied by a stout old !ady with @ determined expression of counten- he said, “this Is my mother. ill live with us, you know.” So glad! And I have a ilttle surprise for , too, Harry.” She left the room and returned in a mo- ment with five fair-haired little girls, ap- oo ranging in age from three to thir- een. These are my little darlings, Harry,” she whispered. “Lydia, Minerva, Penelope, Rachel and Mehitabie; kiss the gentleman, He ts to be your new bapa. sea The Bicycle. From the Chicago Herald. . This has been a great week for the bi- cycle enthusiasts, and the results of the contests have been such as to gain more devotees of the whirring wheel. Some rec- ords have been broken and the Sport has been conducted in a fair and equitable manner. Considering that bicycling in its present form is only four or five y. the popularity it has obtained is surprising to the laymen. To the “crank,” howe’ er, there is nothing astonishing about it. The modern bicycle offers a means of getting over ground that is at once healthful and economical. The silent steed needs no oats. A drop of ofl now and then satisfies its ap: petite. It doesn’t die; it isn't subject to spavin, ringbone or glanders. It doesn't run away, and no stable is required to shelter it. Seated on its back the rider laughs to scorn the crowded cable ‘cars and the elevated road. His cheeks glow with the ruddy health engendered by the exercise, and he would not exchange places with the fashionable in the dog cart, whom he leaves far behind on the boulevard. It is no wonder, then, that all bicyclers are enthusiasts. They have a right to be. They enjoy advantages over ordinary people, and they are only human in showing that they possess them. TROLLEY OCTOPUS. It is Covering the Country Like a: Spider's Web. NG? A GOOD NEIGHBOR FOR CIViES. How Escaping Currents Destroy Life and Property. AN EXPERT’S OPINION. N THE MATTER , of furnishing news K items for the press associations it 1s a question whether the steam railroad or trolley road has the lead. The former will undoubtedly fur- nish the larger item at one time, but the latter, with a per- sistency that is ap- palling, . will, at the end of the month, be found to have occupied as much space in the daily press. Unless a trolley accident results in the killing of more than one per- son the news thereof seldom circulates out- side of the states in the immediate neigh- borhood of the occurrence, and the same can be said of the railroad. In the east the battle ground of the trol- ley octopus cari be truthfully sald to be 1o- cated. Here the trolley has, through its cheapness, seized upon the highways and byways of the country and now an elec- tric car is as common on the country roads as a farmer’s wagon. They can be likened to mushrooms in thelr quick growth anda glance at @ map of the eastern states will surprise those who think they have kept track of electric railway development. Railroad systems, representing many mil- lions of capital, that have developed the country through which they pass, are being paralleled with astonishing rapidity by these light-waisted corporations. They afford a certain amount of uccomraodation to the small towns and boroughs through which they wind their way, but it is a question whether this accommodation is not nullified by the ess of the trollcy wires, The Deadly Circuit. A deadly circuit is often completed in the most unlooked for manner, and it is this menace to life that causes the great oppo- sition from the real thinkers of the coun- try. Up in Pennsylvania and over in New Jersey the trolley octopus is growing fat, and its great arms are covering the coun- try like @ spider's web. Free transporta- tion furnished the editors of the country press has built up an effective subsidy, and nothing is heard of the numerous accidents and narrow escapes, but none the less ir- ritating, that are occurring every day, un- less there are fatal terminations. The farmers, whom one would naturally Suppose would be the trolley’s warmest advocates, are its most bitter antagonists. Their peace and quiet is constantly dis- turbed, and although many of this class are away behind on scientific advances, their knowledge is sufficient to tell them of the strength and surprising effectiveness of an electric bolt from a trolley wire. In driving along the country roads a con- tinual lookout must be kept up by the farmers on the rails under foot and the wires overhead. There is no telling when the magnetic horseshoes of the animals they are driving will complete a straying circuit, or, in the dark, whether a broken wire may not be curled up in the roadway loaded with the fluid that kills. The read- ers of the daily press have not yet heard of the accidents that are bound to happen as a result of flimsily constructed roadbeds, but they are certain to appear as the wear and tear of the road demonstrates itself, and in this way additional casualties wili be added to the long list of trolley victims. With the danger so apparent in the coun- try what will the harvest be in thickly populated districts of the city? This ques- tion was put to a Star reporter very re- cently by a young electric engineer. The reporter could only reply by pointing to an item in his paper telling of three deaths in Baltimore inside of three days as a result of the uncontrolled speed and muggy state of the motorman's brain, (of the trolley nes at city, ung engineer continuing, said: ia Motormen Should Be Examined. “If the trolley companies would require the motormen to pass an examination as to general intelligence these accidents could be reduced very materially, but men of intelligence will not be satisfied with a dollar and a quarter a day as a salary. The men employed generally know about as much of the electric fluid they are sup- Posed to be masters of as a South Sea Islander. If the current is uninterruptd and the attachments on the car work all right everything is serene, but let hitch occur and they are as a ship at sea with- out a rudder. “I questioned a motorman on one of our suburban roads as we were coming down a particularly steep grade one afternoon last summer what he would do in case the brakes refused to work and he laconically replied: ‘Jump.’ That word told me more of the man’s understanding than a hundred words carefully considered. He no doubt knew there was an electric brake on the car or a reverse current, but he also knew 80 little of electricity that he had little con- fidence in it. n dry weather the trolley system ts comparatively safe as regards its fluid. but in wet weather the usually unobserving ped ell to keep his eye Peeled. For beauty’s sake an tron post ig now generally used instead of a wooden one to support the wires, and as a result the landscape {s enhanced at the cost of making it dangerous to traverse. Everybody knows that an electric current, when once astray, is hard to locate and when located a mighty dangerous thing to capture. Take a rainy night and a street through which a trolley road winds its way as an object lesson. Say the line has been built for six months, The insulation at the top of the iron poles becomes worn through in such a way as to be unperceived by the lineman. The fluid hugs the pole and should It be near a corner will no doubt switch off onto the tron cul- vert covering. The water running on the pavement will quickly act as a conductor and the unsuspecting pedestrian walking in- to this current will have about one chance out of four of getting through it with his life. Electricity, to my mind, has not reached that point of development as yet that should permit the erection of trolley lines within city limits. It is bad enough in the country. A Recent Incident. “The fire in the Western Union building a few weeks back and the thrilling accl- dent that followed, wherein a lineman pulled through with his life by the narrow- est of margins, can be ascribed to the trol- ley system of railroading. The manager of the Western Union located the offending cireult up near Baltimore, but he doubt- less overlooked several trolleys nearer home. ‘The lines that enter the big Corcoran build- ing come in close vicinity to the trolley sys- tems at a dozen different points in the sub- urbs. Telegraph, telephone and electric light (incandescent) wires are not con- structed to carry the volts of electricity that a trolley line does, and a heavy storm can be looked upon as an effective and de- cided affirmation of this assertion. Permit the system to enter Washington and grid- iron the city, as has been done in Balti- more, and the most skeptical can see wherein the danger is increased. “Every day complaints are forthcoming as to the dangerous character of the cable cars, not on account of the lack of safe- guards so much as the speed and careless- ness of the motormen, yet those cars can be much easier controlied than those of the trolley and are not as swift. People will always be found who are careless and clumsy; but for these faults they should not be killed or maimed. About the only good word that can be said in favor of the trolley in connection with Washington is that our streets are wide, and from this t the list of casualties may be kept within reasonable proportions. Tt has always been a wonder to me that the telegraph and telephone companies do not combine for mutual protection from the trolley system. The trolley is not only @ constant menace to life and limb, but it has the additional unhappy faculty of an- noying its neighbors of the electrical kind to @ serious extent. Telegraph and tele- phone companies, wherever their wires are near the wires of a trolley road, have been sufferers from the proximity, in that t facilities for communication ‘between the different points have been interfered with materially. “The trouble arises from the use by the trolley companies of heavily charged eleo- earth for the return vircuits. ‘The earth is also used by telegraph companies and to | some extent by telephone companies, tnovgh | the telephone people in the larger cities are establishing the more expensive, but more efficient, metallic cireuits—that is, making j the complete circuit by means of two wires instead of one wire and the earth—as rap- idly as possible. It has been found that where the lines of telephone and telegraph |companies are in the vicinity of trolley [Ines their satisfactory operation has been |prevented by induction through the earth from the latter. “The effect of this induction may be more clearly understood by giving the results of experiments recently made by an elec- trician of the Postal Telegraph Company in Harrisburg, Pa., where there is a sys- tem of trolley lines. It was found that the ground between Harrisburg and Carlisle, Which are eighteen miles apart, with the Susquehanna river between them, was so thoroughly charged with electricity from the return circuits through the earth of the trolley lines in Harrisburg that it was pos- sible to operate a wire between the two cities without any battery. “The Atlantic cables in New York city, Tunning into the Broad sireet office of the Commercial Company, are affected the same way. The cables ‘are run up from the ocean by means of an underground wire through Long Island. The line runs near the South Brookiyn trolley line. ‘She cavie operators noticed soon after the trolley line began operations that their wires worked badly. ‘The current would first be very strong and then very light. An investiga- tion showed that the trouble was caused by the trolley lines. One of the Western Union cables, which also crosses Long Island, had been affected in the same way, and both the Western Union and the Postal Companies have felt bad effects in every gity,m the country where there are trolley es. “1 might continue citing cases wherein the trolley has proved to be a dangerous neighbor until a book could be filied with them. It is also declared that the influence of these circuits upon systems of pipes is very bad. in a western town it is re- ported that a lead pipe running from a Well to a house was out of condition, and that when it was dug up its appearance in- dicated that it had been subjected to an electric current powerful enough to cor- rode it, ‘he current unquestionably came from the return circuit turough the earth of a trolley road system in ue vicinity, and it was suggested that if this effect was common it might result not only in de- stroying lead water pipes, but also produce lead poisoning. Electricians do not regard the danger from this sgurce as very seri- ous, however. I merély mention it as among the possibilities. But that gas and water pipes may become charged with electricity by this means there seems to be no doubt. An interesting chapter on trol- ley wires and their relation with other lines might easily be written from a fire- man’s point of view. A particularly trouble- some fire has less terrors for them than a broken trolley wire. Lightning and Trolley Wires. “Many electricians will contend that light- ning is not drawn to a trolley wire, and that about the safest place to occupy dur- ing @ storm is a trolley car. How 1 wish one of these believers would have been on an Eckington car with me in the early part of the past summer during @ storm of con- siderable electrical display. ‘There were about a dozen of us all told, and as we Teached the vicinity of the junction where the road branches off to Glenwood the storm had about reached its height. ‘The lightning was simply terrific, and all of a sudden it seemed as if the car was a mass of flame. Back and forth darted balls of fire near the roof of the car, and I am Positive that had we not all stooped down and rushed from the car several would have been seriously if not fatally hurt. it stands to reason that a wire carrying the force of electricity a trolley does is magnet enough to attract a bolt of lightning from @ considerable distance. “The last big storm we had here playeo havoc with the trolley systems of Pennsyl- vania and New Jersey. For several hours the power had to be closed down and the cars brought to a standstill. A motorman Teported that while waiting for power, with the trolley on the wire, a sudden flash of lightning illuminated ' the incandescent lamps in the car and sent the car forward nearly 200 feet before it stopped. The elec- tric stroke passed down through the trolley arm into the motors and made them spin along the tracks. The motorman and sev- eral of the passengers were shocked se- verely and suffered for several minutes as @ result of their thrilling experience. “Every now and then one hears of a new electrical discovery whereby telegraph or telephone connection is established between certain points without the use of a wire. With the information comes the statement that the discoverer is going to have his ideas patented. Then no more is heard of the great discoery, the patent ciMice, no doubt, telling the would-be patentee to in- vestigate the neighborhood and ascertain if a trolley road is not in the vicinity. As they hear no more of it, it is a rafe guess to make that they found the trolley. Likewise a man in Ohio made public the fact that he could operate a wire without the use of batteries of any kind. He demon- strated to a number of capitalists that his plan was successful, and of considerable economic advantage. They came on to Washington brimful of their great discov- ery, but, as in the other case, the patent office lowered their temperature about @ hundred degrees by telling them to ascer- tain if there was not a trolley line in the neighborhood of where their experiments had been held. They never came back. A Boy and His Hose. “I might as well round out this inter. view,” said the electrician, “by teiling you of a humorous occurrence that came under my notice in Baltimore during a recent visit to that city, in which the trolley wire played an important part, and at least one boy living along the line of the ‘cross-town’ road knows more about electricity than he did, and so does his father. The boy had out a sprinkling hose and was wetting down the street, the pavement and the neighboring doorsteps. His father came out, lighted @ cigar and sat down on the steps to see his boy do his work. After wetting everything in sight, the boy looked around for new worlds to conquer. Sud- denly he glanced upward and his eyes rest- ed on the shining trolley wire which stretch- ed away in the distance. It looked rather hot, and he concluded to sprinkle it as an evidence of good faith. Without consulting his father, he turned the hose on the trol- ley wire and struck it fair with a nice, plump stream of water, while he held the nozzle of the hose the better to direct the stream. “Then the boy was struck by the current of electricity which flew down the stream to meet him, He dropped to the sidewalk like a shot, but still held on to the nozzle. ‘The water was turned on his father, and he too was shocked, but finally the latter pull- ed himself together and yanked the boy out of further trouble. It was a narrow es- cape for both, but the contortions the father and son went through made the crowd of onlookers howl with laughter.” The Jesting Painter and the Starving Toilers. From Puck. 2 | trical circuits and from the use also of the | Ground Impregnated With Electricity | LINCOLN AS HE WAS. Views of the War President Through Senator Palmer's Eyes. HIS GREATNESS NOT FORESEEN, Some Interesting Anecdotes Told After Dinner. HOW SUMNER WAS SHOCKED. ID YoU KNOW Abraham Lincoln per- sonally?” asked The Star woman of Sena- tor Palmer of IUnois the other evening. 1t was in the interval after dinner, and for once, @ very rare happening with the Senator from Illinois, “there was no ambi- tious office seeker present, and nobody who cared to talk about silver. Gen. Palmer—one 1s at no loss for a title by which to address him, since out in Llll- nois he is addressed as colonel, general, judge or Senator by his friends, and as Air. Palmer by his wife—settled himself m his chair, while the pleased look of one who remembers interesting things and likes to dwell upon them, stole over his face. “Yes, I knew him well. I met him for the first time, I think, in 1839, though before that I had heard him speak in court.” “And was he eloquent?” asked an inquis- itive newspaper man in the corner. “No,” said the Senator, “hardly eloquent. I regarded him as a good lawyer, a fair speaker—methodical and painstaking rather than eloquent. But as of course you know, he was a great story teller.” This promised well, and nobody coming in to interrupt, The Star woman wished for @ memory phonographically constructed, and settled herself to listen. A Sample Lincola Story. “Lincoln never told a story simply for the sake of the story. His object always was to illustrate a point. I remember what was, I think, the first story I ever heard bun tell. It was in Springfield, and a*number of us were together one evening. With us was Judge Krum of St. Louis, Judge Krum was a good deal out of temper with a local magistrate who had decided a case against him, and swore he would carry it to ibe supreme court and take the conceit out of that judge. ““That reminds me of a man I once knew, who had a dream,’ said Mr. Lincoln. ‘He dreamed that he was to tind a hidden treasure in the earth, but this he could do only on condition that during the digging tor it, he keep silent, and say not a word. He set out to dig and a great many things happened that would have drawn speech from almost anybody, but the man kept bis mouth shut. A tremendous infantry battle went on near bim, and a naval engagement took place in sight. The man kept un dig- ging, and said not a word. A giaut came striding by, taking enormous steps, end was soon out of sight. Then a dwarf came prancing along on his little feet, looking as if he felt nine fect high. He came to the edge of the hole and looxed in. “‘Say,’ he said to the digger’ "—the Sen- ator reproduced his high squeaky little voice admirably—" ‘have you seen a giant go by ere - “The man kept on digging, and said not @ word. ‘Say, can’t you give a civil answer to @ question?’ asked the dwarf. The man kept on digging and said nothing. ‘Oh, very well,’ said the dwarf, ‘I'll just walk on and catch up with him’ pretty soon anyway.’ The man stopped digging and looked up. “Yes, you will,” he said. “Of course,” said the Senator, “we all saw the application and roared. That merely serves to show his purpose in telling stor- jes. His height, his lack of comeliness and his story-telling were his most noticeable characteristics.” “He was never anything but extremely plain in appearance,” said Mrs. Palmer. “He was even worse looking in earlier life than during his presidency. I can't remem- ber when I did not know him, but I think he never appeared so well as he did just a little while before he was killed.” His Greatness Not Foreseen, “None of us,” went on the Senator, “ er foresaw greatness for him. He served one term in Congress, in the Fortieth, but didn't make any stir. He was a candidate for the Senate in 1856. He came to me and asked my support. I was unable to give it, and told him so, as I had espoused the anti- Nebraska bill, and as I had already had a row with some of my party because of it, it was necessary for me to be more dem- cratic than ever. “I nominated Trumbull, and on the first ballot the vote stood about forty-nine for Lincoln, forty-seven for Yates and five for Trumbull. Lincoln saw that he could not get the five of us, and so he went among his supporters and made them vote for ‘Trumbull. Trumbull was elected, and Lin- coln came to our room that night and we Promised to support him in the fight two years later with Douglas. “That was a great campaign,” eaid the Senator, his eyes lighting up with the spirit of fight. “We canvassed that state thor- oughly. It was during that-campaign that Lincoln made what I consider his greatest speech, beginning, ‘United we stand, divided we fall." Douglas beat, however. “When we proposed to nominate Lincoln for President, Hornblower, the father of Judge Hornblower, who succeeds Justice Blatchford on the Supreme bench, came to me and tried to persuade me to consent to placing Lincoln's name second on the ticket. He thought we ought to have some known and tried man like Seward to head the tick- et. David Davis, who was present, agreed with him, and remonstrated with me for my obstinacy, but I steadily refused and when Hornblower left, took occasion to give Davis a piece of my mind.” When the News Came. ‘ “I never shall forget the night the news came of Lincoln's election,” said Mrs. Pal- mer. “The ladies of Springfield were serv- ing hot coffee in an upstairs room over a confectioner’s, used as an ice cream saloon. Everybody was there waiting for the news, ‘and all excitement.” Mrs. Lincoln was there early in the evening, but became so nervous and excited that she finally went home. Mr. Lincoln seemed not to be at all excited. I saw him that very day walking along the street with a market basket on his arm, and Tad, his favorite, clinging to the market basket and doing his best to keep up with his father. “The decisive telegram came from New York, and Mr. Lincoln read it out, stand- ing under the gas jet in the middle of the room head and shoulders above the rest, who crowded the room, and looked on from the stairs. He read it with no evidence of excitement, and then said quietly: ‘Well, 1 must go home and tell Mary.” An artist from Frank Leslie's was present, and we all appeared in the paper, just as we stood while Mr. Lincoln read the news.” Parenthetically, that is one of the few pictures of Mrs. Palmer to be found, for she is not fond of being photographed, and has not “had her picture taken” for six- teen years. “Do you think that Lincoln before his inauguration thought there would be a big war?” asked the hewspaper man with the inquiring mind. : “Yes,” went on the white-haired old sol- dier, “I do. I was a member of the peace conference which met here in Willard Hall in February and continued into Merch. I said to Mr. Lincoln that the conference would accomplish absolutely nothing, and asked what he wanted me to do, as I was regarded as his spokesman. He told me to make big promises. “ “There's going to be a war,’ he said, ‘and what we want is time. Promise anything.’ “I did so. I promised things I could never have supported, but I knew they would not be accepted, and they were not. Chase and others wanted a convention which would divide the country amicably, but—and the Senator's voice grew stronger and more ringing, couldn't stand that. I stood and told Chase that no convention could unmake this Union—that the north- west would cut its way, sword in hand, to the gulf before it would allow it And I meant it, too. I meant it Linco! and His binet. “Did Lincoln have trouble in getting a cabinet?” inquired The Star woman. “Well, tt required careful consideration, but I don’t think it worrled him much. I remember one day a man from Pennsyl- vania came in to ask if Cameron were going into the cabinet and to say that if Cameron did Chase wouldn't. “Well,” said Mr. Lincoln in his quiet way, ‘if Mr. Chase won't take a place in ———————a——————E——E—E—EEESS ees the cabinet I reckon we'll have to try to do without him.’ ” “Just about that time,” Gen, Palmer went on with a laugh, “Senator Sumner said to me one day: ‘Palmer, what sort of @ woman is Mrs. Lincoln?” 1 ectlt® Lincoln is a very worthy woman,’ “Well, do you know,’ he said, ‘we hear very strange stories of her. We hear that in New York the other day she came down fo breakfast at the hotel in her evening 3s “Oh,” said 1, ‘I'm sure Mrs. Lincoln wouldn't do that. She would make her toilet before breakfast and not come down in her night robe.” “Senator Sumner looked shocked at my ignorence and I suppose he always thought I understood him to mean a night robe. Somehow I never thought so highly of him after that.” “But Mrs. Lincoln was eccentric,” broke in @ Springfield woman who happened to be present. “Why, the story always was that she finally decided to marry Mr. Lin- colin so suddenly that the wedding cake was cut while it was still warm. I saw her ene muddy spring day in Springfield most ¢legantly attired going out to make calls. The streets were almost impassable and there were no public convewances of any kind, so what do you suppose Mrs. Lin- coln did? Why, ghe called a dray that was passing and wenf calling in that.” “She became a believer in spiritualism before she died,” said Mrs. Palmer in her gentle way, “and fancied Mr. Lincoln communicating with her. ‘Don't you h him knocking? she would say. But I do not believe that Mr. Lincoln was ever a spiritualist, as has been claimed. He al- ways attended the Presbyterian Church in Springfield, and continued in that chureh, T believe, till his death.” The Springfield woman remarked further: “Mrs. Lincoln, you know, died at the house of her sister in Springfield. She had sixty boxes and trunks, and the floors of the house had to be strengthened to hold them. One trunk was full of crape bonnets, another of—what do you suppose? s, and there were at least a dozen Cashmere shawls.” This was interesting, but tt diverted The Star woman from what Senator Palmer was saying to the inquisitive newspaper man about Lincoin’s policy. No Policy but Duty. “I came to Washington tn "65," he said, “on a mission from Gov. Oglesby. Some mistake had been made, we thought, in the apportionment of troops, and we had been credited with several thousand men Jess than the state had furnished. After losing my temper with the provost marshal, I found from Mr. Lincoln himself that he was cognizant of the mistake, but had tak- en the men from Tilinois because he could get them more easily there than elsewhere. As I had resigned my commission to come to Washington I asked Mr. Lincoln to 2s- sign me to duty. He proposed to send me to Kentucky and told me to come up the next day and talk it over. “I went, and sat in the ante room while People passed in and out of the President's office. Finally the doorkeeper came out and told me to come in. Mr. Lincoln was in the hands of the barber, and had his face lath- ered ready for shaving. “You're home folks, Palmer,’ he sai ‘I had to shave some time, and I couldn't do it before the others.’ We talked awhile and finally I said, ‘If I had known that we were going to have a big war, I should never have thought of going to Springfield and getting @ one-horse lawyer for Presi- lent.’ ‘Mr. Lincoln wheeled about in his chair, and I thought he was mad. “Neither would I, Palmer, he said. ‘Neither would I. A man with ‘a policy—a great man—would have ruined us. If I have helped to save the country, and to bring the rebellion to a conclusion, it has been because I have had no policy. I have simply tried to do my duty every day, hop- ing that when tomorrow came I should be equal to it.’ “He was a self-contained man,” concluded the Senator, “and so tender-hearted he would not have had a court martial sen- tence carried out, so that Congress was obliged to pass a law taking the matter out of his hands. He read the people he came in contact with by a marvelous instinct, and he had the kindest heart that ever beat in a human breast.” ——+2+—____ ALAMANDERS. Curious Lizards to Which an Old-Time Superstition Relates. “Nobody knows how the superstition re- specting the supposed fire-proof quality of the salamander had its rise,” said Dr. Stej- neger, the reptilian expert of the Smith- sonian Institution. “However, I can give what I think is a pretty shrewd guess at it To explain, I shall have to tell you a story. “Once upon a time I was camping out with a party, hunting and fishing. We had Mghted a big fire, using for fuel several old logs. While we were seated around watch- ing the progress of some cookery in which we were engaged, a young lady at my side gave a little scream and pointed into the flames. I looked, and there was a small lizard crawling right out from among the glowing embers. It walked away, unhurt apparently, through the grass and made its escape. “Now, that salamander had occupied a hole in ‘one of the logs used for fuel. Sev- eral species of its kind lve in ula tree «runks. Doubtless this one found that it was getting uncomfortably hot and crawled out. Being moist and slimy, its body was protected from enough to ensble it to escape through the embers, But the sight of the animal ¢e- Uberately making its appearance from the midst of the fire was certainly very sur- prising. Any ignorant person might easily nave been led to imagine that the creature must be fire-proof. It seems to me quite probable that the superstition took its rise from just such occurrences. “There are so many species of salaman- ders that a description of them all would fll a book. They are to be found all over the world, except in very cold regions. In a popular sense, the name ‘salamander’ is applied to all batrachians with tails. That is rather a loose definition. A tadpole is a batrachlan with a tail, but it is not salamander. The great majority of sala. manders are small, such as the newts, found m springs. The biggest species in this coun- try is the so-called ‘mud eel,” or ‘siren.’ It has only two feet, just behind the head, and it has external gills, when fully devel- oped, which is an exception to the rule among salamanders. “The biggest salamander in the world is found in Japan. It attains a length of two feet, and 1s related to the ‘hellbender.’ Most salamanders live on insects, but the very large kinds eat pretty nearly everything as a rule. For instance, the Japanese species is omnivorous. So far as I am aware, none of the salamanders is considered good to eat, by civilized men at all events. Two years ago I obtained a specimen of the only known species of blind salamander. It came from a cave in Missourl A so- called blind salamander exists in certain caves of Austria, but it is not a true sala- mander, though ‘it would come under the popular definition, being a batrachian with a tail. “One peculiar thing about salamanders ts that they are not so large when full grown as when they are partly developed. That seems a funny paradox, does it not? You see, salamanders go through a metamor- phosis during their lifetime, as frogs do, though the change is not so marked. They have a larval period, as the tadpole is the larva of the frog. On becoming adult they shrink up considerably. During the larval period they have gills lke a fish, which usually become rudimentary later on. An odd exception to this rule is the ‘axy- lot!’ of Mexico, which does not undergo any such metamorphosis and never becomes adult in a scientific sense. In other words, it never reaches what is the final stage with other salamanders, but always remains a larva. “Axylotis of different species are found in various parts of the United States, but they do undergo the change and become adult. However, if you keep one of them in water and prevent it from escaping, it will remain a larva always and will undergo no metamorphosis. In order to change, it has to get on dry land. Having become @ land animal, its external gills disappear, being no longer required for breathing in water. The Mexican axylotl never goes on land— at all events, not for a longer time than its gills will remain wet. ah this bottle is one of the bizgest toads in the world. I suppose it weighs nearly four pounds. It comes from Arizona, and ts the only specimen of the species that we have ever secured. Isn't it a beauty?” —__+2-___ Benefits of Dancing. From the Buffalo Courier. Good things to eat will insure the suc- cess of a pleasure resort, but they will not insure happiness to a girl who finds all her clothes getting tight from lack of partners with whom to dance off her indiscretions in diet. One evening divided between waltzes and quicksteps will render quite innocuous that second plate of ice cream, which otherwise would have been sadly un- reconciled to three hours of association with unripe peaches and wilted cucumbers. Waltzes and quicksteps are also excellent neutralizers of the omnipresent bon bon, which the hotel girl consumes from sheer lack of something else to do. ——_——————— ‘Mrwrat exhaustion and 1 abay canes by Beome-aoiaeae, injury by the fire long| MADE FROM GARBAGE, Clever Washington House- keeper Solved an Important Problem. “Do you think they're pretty?” said « clever Washington woman recently to @ caller. “They're my souvenir pillows Haven't I a variety?” “Indeed you have,” exclaimed the caller, “and what a delightful idea! I suppose each one is assgciated in some way with the different places you've visited?” “Ab, no,” replied the clever woman, with an amused smile, “nothing half so interest- ing! They're each and every one memen- through the press, to the powers that be to give us a better service. “Our most eloquent petitions had ne ef- fect whatever, and I was in despair. “In fact I was reall when I happened to hit upon and I actually believe it saved atiack of nervous prostration. “You know what a nice attic the top of the house? Well, I with the coffee grounds, and spread out on the been used. “I didn’t quite with them, until say that in the pillows of them. “That was the ately set to work to have it all ready by the lated enough grounds, and yellow headrest you my coffee pillow. “I'm not much of an in the encyclopaedia to see plant was like, and those like flowers embroidered imitations of genuine though I don’t sons would know it. “Of course I had to all my melon rinds, but I'm that, as they're delicious, nice for junches this winter. “That pale green pillow stuffed with corn husks, but I can assure you the cobs puzzle. “I dried them, however, and kept ing how T could use them, of thet arrangement”—pointing to an odd-looking cluster the chandelier. “Unique, isn’t it? “I thoroughly scraped the cobs they were dried gilded and tied with @ different colored ribbon, the resull “How Very ingenious! I never should guessed what that pretty ornament w: said the caller admiringly, and the clever woman went on: E “ t ge l Ee i i i i i ™ i i i fr ik J i ' 8 ‘5 i 5 i Ry j i BL id ag tee rad “But the potato skins! They were worse than anything.” continued the clever man. “I disposed of them, though, s triumphantly. “You see those three cushions floor? All stuffed with you never would lightediy, “but I course I had the peeling, and th dried beautifully. able to sit on, evening on the “I didn’t bot elaboretely. If I have been the “Tea leaves grounds, and you don’t know ful slumber pillows they “The faint aroma lngering actually has a soporifie in the house has one to if RFE | th i fal eae a i fie ; & & i" ea the tile with a thick layer of putty and pressed each egg shell firmly down into it. “The ridges of putty in between I gilded, varnished the whole, and every one wants “Un. yon, tases Seeaps hemo hast Dusy, “Oh, yes, me but”—exultingly—“I have solved the gar- bage question—to my own satisfaction, af poverty problem? One reason is to be found in the land xystem, which given to every worker couraged him to supply own labor. Effort has and wants are limited. in the national Nowhere else are parties formed to the blossom trees, and nowhere pilgrimages simply for the sake af beauty. A country life has, therefore, its own Interest, and men do not crowd the cities for the sake of excitement. There is, too, in Japan a curious absence of ostenta- tious luxury. The habits of living are in all classes much the same, and the rich Go not out- shine the poor by carriages, palaces, and jewelry. The rich spend their money on curios, which, if costly, are limited, and the most popular agitation is that against the big European houses which ministers build for themselves. Wealth ts thus not absorbed, and is more ready for investment in remunerative labor. The last reason which occurs to the mind of a traveler with comparatively few opportunities for form- ing opinions ts the equality of manners in all classes. Rich and poor are alike cour- teous. It is not possible to distinguish eme ployer from laborer by their behavior; all are clean, all are easy, alll are restrained. ‘The governor lets his child go to the mon school and sit next to the child of casual laborer, certain that his child pick up no bad manners and get no tamination in thought or in person. equality enables rich and poor to friends, and gifts can pass without dation. The rich nobles in the coun! as the university men whom owes Tokio, are thus al they know to be in need. and friends becomes the chann . ‘The tion is will this survive the mtroduction of the industrial system? It is possible some of it may and that Japan may teacl the west how to deal with the poor. —_—_—_-+2+___- Mr. Greathead is Far-Seeing. From the New York ‘Tribune. “ “Let the financial situation depress, Mr. Greathead, “it cannot affect @ man frugal habits like myself. I am a keen server and I have made @ careful study of the nutritive processes. A great, deal nutriment is wasted because people do not thoroughly chew alimentary substances, By eating slowly and masticating ly T am able to live on a much less quane tity of food than most people. I went inte a restaurant the other day and ordered @ small steak with potatoes. as know, the restaurant small steak ts mothe ing more or less than the round steak vule * To my surprise the : Het i t a | Hi f aa¥ i