Evening Star Newspaper, January 6, 1894, Page 19

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, Rise and Spreadof the Red Terror of Europe. AN EPIDEMIC OF DISEASED IDEAS After Pallas, Leauthier; After Leau- thier, Who? A WAR AGAINST ORDER — @ritten for The Evening Star. cut It's a ramshactle house we are living in, the rain drips through the rotting roof, diseases creep out of the rotting floor and deform us, and in this devil of a house we are all dy- ing miserably. Tear it down, burn it, de- atroy it utterly and—hoch, die Anarchie! ‘The organization of society is a mistake, property ts robbery, all authority is a crime, civilization—that is the enemy! As long as society guarantees the right of property there exists the right of theft to counteract it; as long as the present constitution makes possible the rich man, there exists the indi- vidual right to murder him. And this again is anarchy. I need hardly say that it varies greatly in its expression. With Prince Krapotkin or Prof. Reclus, it coos gently; it is specula- tive; it apes constitutionality. With Citi- zeness Louise Michel it screams hyste-ically. It is suave, noisy, learned or unlearned, but it is always anarchy. It was not until the theory of Bakunin spread into southern Europe that anarchy became at once a pow- er and a menace. Fourierism, that gentle Protest against civilization, which ensnared among others such staunch Americans as Horace Greeley, Hawthorne,George William Curtis and Charles A. Dana, was as innoc- uous as the fantasies of Rosseau. Even im the collectivism of Karl Marx and the demo-tyranny of Lasalle there was an ele- ment of conservative safety. There is no militant destruction in the theory that the state—the organized people—should own everything and rule everyone. But that is not anarchy, as it has been fashioned by Bakunin and corrected by Pouget, Michel, Torrida and the inuividualists. No, an- archy recognizes no state, admits the right of no majority to rule, demands that polit- teal power, even though it be revolutionary, be destroyed, gives everyone the ownership of the world end undivided authority over himself. It is a subtle theory if you think it over, but it appeals frankly, enticingly to the undeliberative mind. No law, no prop- erty, no right, no wrong—nothing save the individual stalking abroad in an untram- meled world. Society is not to be tolerated, not even societies of anarchists; organiza- tion even to destroy, is wrong. It spreads like fire in a mine. Beginning of the New Anarchy. ‘This idea had taken root by 1889, when the Spanish anarchists insisted on holding @ convention in Paris during the exposition; it was with difficulty the more radical an- archists were persuaded to acquiesce. A convention, they argued. predicated a certain amount of authority, no*matter how slight, and was inconsistent with pure anarchy. It was the beginning of the new anarchy. Companions from Spain, Italy, France, Ger- many, Russia,America—notably from South America—debated for days. Was there an individual right to rob the rich man? An individual right to murder him? The con- vention decided in the negative. There was a@ similar experience at the socialistic con- gress at Zurich this year. The most vehe- ment individualists were expelled. They met in an impromptu congress, it may be remembered, and gave emphatic utte-ance to the Bakunin doctrine—the doctrine of Malatesta and Pouget. + Ta oe pare At Work in His Laboratory. ‘There was little menace in the old con- spiractes. The new anarchy Is dangerous. It attempts the life of the German em- peror; in France, Leauthier, debonair, as Revachol, assassinates a Servian minister; in a there is a series of outrages end- -for the time, perhaps—in the atrocity the Liceo theater. in Ba->celona; merely cidents. The mischief is afoot working | jerground, blindly, irresponsibly, inevita- —the red terror. You cannot stretch out hand and say, “It is here.” It may be you at your elbow or it may be over sea. For the “good of the cause” it kills the rich man cr massacres a theater full of inno- t people. It has sworn destruction jainst the world, “in which people eat.” European thinkers and the most alert men in this country recognize the greatness of the danger. These anarchists, some of them honest fa ics, mattoids, paranoiacs,others frank thieves and murderous with personal | lusts fot are at the same time as Individual as molecules and are joined by a ®y ipa th: stronger than any ‘iveted conspiracy. is inj touch with Capo Lago; London and Vienna | strike hands, It is an indefinite. indeter | minate conspiracy. in which each individual, | accordng to his @Wm@-reason or insanity, se-| his victim. | efore introducing you to some of the! archists I have met, It would not be out of the way to listen to a few words f-om | Madame Severine. | You do not know her? She is one of the flamboyant women of Paris. She stepped down from a wealt is home into the proletariat. the eyebrows. e In all good faith of the exisiing so- jon, “What are , about it? The Words of an Apostte, , assassinations, theft ana ke that of Ravachol, she says, ere but incidents « episodes in a strife remedy have you? ion by no means of terror, but ter- ror of what? de: Even vulgar a: wassins laugh at !t, and in all the states of Europe the suppression of anarchists has id one dur’ late years who asked for grace or died a yard. Appeal to their hey have mone. You may decapi-! is man and that, but after that is me? Have you locked up ail the knives and dynamite in the iverse and guillo- tined forever the spirit of revolt? After Ravachol comes Vailas, after Pallas, Leau- thier. There is no plot for the police to un- 1. The anarchist is his own leader, h own confidant, his own accomplice. Can you gather up in one raid the anarchists of two worlds? But there ts no need of Mme. Severine to emphasize the reality of the da too, a corstanti= treren <i student—and every a pou v YT reporter knows that diseased ideas are epidemic. One mur- | | small, pointed beard and the Jong, thin nose | spasms of suppression. der begets another. Crimes of violence spread like infectious diseases. I never knew an honest anarchist who was not either semi-insane, a mattoid, or a neuro- ath. Louise Michel is a grapho-mantac, ft. Elisee Reclus—the greatest living ge- ographer—is a neurotic, August Spies was a ranoiac, like Prince Krapotkin. In a word they are “cranks.” You might say that anarchy is the child of socialism and neurosis and not be far out of the way. Is it strange, then, that it has all the vitality of a religious mania? It is dangerous chief- ly because it is irresponsible, spasmodic, and spreads as fast as the worn-out civilization of the cities breeds diseased minds. The Arrest of an Anarchist. There are (and this is the estimate of Die Autonomie of London and La Revolte of Paris) 30,000 anarchists, adherents of the revolutionary party. They are scattered over the world, and are held in a sort of vague comradeship by 150 newspapers. Lon- don is the headquarters of these propagand- ists of dynamite outrage. Great Britain, of course,shelters political refugees of all sorts. It protects the worst scoundrel who robs or murders under the cloak of a political move- ment. In his place in parliament, Mr. John Burns refers feelingly to the “legal mur- der’ of the Chicago anarchists. London, with its careless hospitality, is naturally the home of the propagandist of destruc- tion. They were men of all nations—those noisy, mysterious men who met in that hall in.Tottenham Court road, those familiar fellows in shabby paletots, who idled stren- uously in the drinking shops of Soho. And next to London comes New York. You know well enough the strongholds in this city—Justus Schwab’s basement saloon on the west side, Grobe Michel's basement off the Bowery, the Dingy Garden in Pike street. You may not know, however, that twenty-two newspapers advocating the so- cial revolution are published in New York. This is nearly as many as there are in Paris. There is a notion that Herr Most is a dan- gerous man. Those who know anything of the anarchy of New York laugh at the idea. He is on the outside and is useful to the police when they want to flaunt an arrest or to the newspapers when they want a name to give interest to a “story.” Peu- kert is the leader of the autonomists. He is a dark, slight, bearded, feline man, an Aus- trian and a man of parts. The individual- ists, like Emma Goldman, brand him as a spy. In any case, in a society which refuses leaders, he is the figurehead. Their Numbers Unknow: The anarchists themselves say their most efficient members are in Paris. But here it is almost impossible to arrive at any approxi- mate estimate of the number. Pouget asserts there are 10,000 avowed anarchists, adher- ents of the revolutionary party, propagan- a.sts of violence, dynamite and the knife. But in addition there is in Paris a large class of idle and vicious, old criminals, fa- natics, who hang on the skirts of any move- ment that makes for disorder. They ‘can hardly be called anarchists, for they do not trouble themselves with a theory to cloak theft and murder. Nevertheless they are to be reckoned withal. The movement in Italy is noteworthy. In that country there was no split between the socialists and the extreinisis. Basily and gradually socialism was intensified into an- archy. There was, as it were, a develop- ment of the theories of Karl Marx, a de- velopment that passed through the inter- mediate stage of Bakuninism, to the advo- cacy of plunder and bomb-throwing. In 1891 the Italian federation of the “Anar- chist Revolutionary Socialistic Party” was formed at the Congress Capo Lago. It rec- ognized the autonomy of the separate groups and their methods of combined ac- tion. There followed an immediate spread of anarchy. The remarkable thing is that it was not confined to the citiés, as is the case in all other countries, Russia not excepted. It made converts—or perverts—among the Peasants. There sprang up in Sicily the Fasci di Lavatori. It has adherents in a! most every part of southern Italy. The college of the Propaganda in Rome? ‘There are two of them. One preaches Christ, and the other sends out the mission- aries of the red terror. Come down into Paris for @ little while. Not here in the boulevards, where the elec- tric lights flatter the asphalt into silver and the gay people flaunt themselves like flags. Come down into the underworld out of which the “social revolution” is to come—the world of the cut-throat, thief, the visionary, the declasses, beggars, paupers—all the damned. it is here that anarchy works. Montmartre, which saw the beginning ana end of the communist war—or was it a re- bellion?—of 1871, is still the home of the revolutionists. Their chief rendezvous is in the neighboring suburb of Blignancourt. You turn to the right out of the iiue Ramy into a blind ailey. At the further end ts a low, shambling brick house. There is an obtuse angied roof of tiles over it. The windows are narrow and high up. The door faces the Rue Kamy. This is the Maison du Peuple. The socialjsts built it. They contributed the bricks and tiles, joists and mortar. Each man gave a day's labor to the building. Not a penny was spent on it. In its first better days it was used as a co-operative warehou This socialistic enterprise failed. Ci zen Lisbonne, a noted firebrand, open- ed a wine shop there, The hottest of the revolutionists gathered there. When the government closed the Bourse de Travail the expelled workingmen made this their headquarters. All save the active anar- chists have been crowded out, however, and the Maison du Peuple is the House of the Red Terror, Louise Michel. A long, low room, seating, perhaps, 500, a hall and a tavern. Everywhere are relics of the Commune—pictures of Blanqui, Eudes, Trinquet, Rossel. Obituaries and ‘‘mottoes” hang on the walls. The air is blue with smoke. Waiters pass from the high, zinc- | covered bar to the tables, carrying wine, | beer and absinthe. There {s the noise of clanking glasses and the drone of conversa- | tion. That high-shouldered man with the) is Pouget. He is the editor of “Fere Pei- nard,” an anarchist sheet, written in the slang of the gutter. It sells 15,000 copies a | day to the workmen of Belleville. He was / one of those who raided the bakers’ shops | in 1882, and spent seven years in New Cale- | donia. ‘That stout man in a gray suit, peer-| ing short-sightedly th lasses, | is d'Axa, editor of him are a half dozen of the “young wri-} of France, symbolists, poets, men of and insanity. At the far end a woman gets up and| makes a speech. Her voice is strident, with | ike the voice of a street singer. | ngle of white mane on her head | and neck, and a face so curiously like George Eliot's that it startles one. A gaunt, hard, vitriolic old woman—Louise Michel, the red nun. Her inttuence is paramount in the under- a of Paris. She rules there. In Paris an influence of this sort Is of the first im- portance. It attracts the drifting class of which is ready for any violence. reason Paris is the oniy city anarchists would find an army | r hand: The red terror has become a question of It can no longer be treat- ‘he easy indifference and occasional it has grown from a@ group of seven in 18S], to an army of 20,000 in 1894. There is immediate perti- nence in Mme. Severine’s question, “What are you going to do about | | VANCE THOMPSON. | |or traveling bags. 1894-TWENTY PAGES. WEIGHING THE MAIL Howthe Post Office Adjusts Railway Mail Rates With the Roads. A SOURCE OF REVENUE Weighing of M: Compensation Every Four Years, and an Average THE PENNSYLVANIA’S PLUM Hig POST OF FICK Department is getting ready to weigh the railroad mail in the Pacific division, All of the railroad mail 1s weighed once in four years to deter- mine the rate of com- pensation to be paid to the railroads for the four years to come. Instead of weighing mail on all of the raflroads in one year, the Postmaster General has the country divided into four districts, and weighing ts done in one of these each year. Last year the mail of the Atlantic division was weighed. ‘This year it will be the mail of the Pacific division, Last year’s reweigh- ing increased the expenses of the Post Ottice Department for railroad transportation a little more than $1,500,000, or 6 1-4 per cent. ‘This year the increase will not be so great, because the business on the western routes ig not nearly so heavy as the business on the eastern routes. The weighing of mail is done usually in February or March. Last year it began on the 3uth of January. As the Post Office De- partment wants to establish a fair average of the year’s business, it chooses a time when there is an “average” mail handled. To weigh the mail in summer, when bust- ness is light, would not be fuir to the ratl- roads. To weigh it in December, when there is a rush of holiday business, would not be fair to the government. February and March are recognized “average” months and they are chosen by the superin- tendent of the railway mail service usually. The Postmaster General has the authority to name any time for the weighing, and he will order a reweighing of mail on a road if the railroad company gives any good rea- son for believing that there has been an un- usual increase In the amount of mail car- ried. Sometimes, when there is a phenomenal development of a new country, the railroads ask a reweighing of the mall. A big road would not do 80 unless the occasion was ex- traordinary. None of the rallroads running to the Oklahoma country have asked a re- weighing since that country was opened to settlement, though the inerease in mail service has been very heavy. The Oklahoma routes are likely to show the largest per cent of increase in the readjustment next month. The road which asks a reweighing is usu- ally the small road which has ito look close- ly after the dollars and cents. Sometimes large quantities of mail matter are diverted unexpectedly to some small road as a part of a through route. Then the company asks the Postmaster General for a special weigh- ing, and usually gets it. How the Weighing is Done. The quadrennial weighing of the mail is done by the employes of the railway mail service, the clerks of large post offices and @ few special agents. Whenever it 1s pos- sible, the regular postal employes are used. Where this is not possible, special agents are employed for thirty days at $3 a day. These special agents travel on the railway mail cars. A platform scale is put in each car. The special agent puts each bag or bundle of mail on the scales as it is put on board.the cars and notes the weight. As each mail bag is delivered at the appropriate station it is weighed and its weight entered in another column. The two columns are added and they should balance within a fraction of a pound. The mileage of each Package of mail is noted. At the end of thirty days the Post Office Department figures up the number of pounds of mail hauled and the number of miles and cal- culates the haul for the whole year. Then the compensation of the road is figured out at the rate provided by law. Contracts for carrying the mails are not let to the lowest bidder. There is no com- petition for them except as one railroad of- fers better facilities than another. The Postmaster General awards the contract for carrying the mail where he pleases—always where the quickest service can be had, if there is a choice. Where there is no choice in speed, the oldest established road usual- ly has the contract—because it has always had it and because it is better prepared, therefore, to handle the business. A rail- road is never willing to give up the mail contract, though every railroad company in the United States will swear that it is los- ing money on mail handling. Even the Pennsylvania railroad, which takes more than $1,754,000 from the treasury every year on account of post office work, will solemn- ly assure Congress that it is losing money if the question of reducing compensation is brought up. The New York Central raii- road receives more than $1,500,000 annually for hauling mail matter—but Mr. Depew would assure a congressional committee that the work was worth two millions, What the Railroads Receive. There are many mail routes which do‘not Pay expenses. Just as Congress has arbi- trarily determined that a letter from Port- land, Me., to Bangor, Me., shall pay the same rate as a letter from Portland, Me., to Portland, Ore., so it has determined that the railroad that hauls thousands of pounds shall receive almost the same compensa- tion as the railroad that hauls hundreds of pounds. There is a slight gradation which lessens a little the compensation for car- rying large quantities of mati—and there is a minimum rate per mile for very unimpor- tant routes. No raflroad receives Jess than $42.75 per mile per year for carrying the mail. The minimum d to be $50. It was reduced by Congress 10 per cent in 1876 and 5 per cent two years later, From $42.75 a mile the compensation ranges up to $3,151 per mile, which is the rate that will be paid to the Pennsylvania railroad for three years to come for hauling the mail from New York to Philadelphia. The haul from New York to Philadelphia is 90.65 miles. The number of mail trips made every week is 252. That makes more than 13,000 trips in @ year. For this the Pennsylvania Com- pany used to receive $257,495. Under the readjustment last year this was raised to $285,686, and that is the sum that will be paid to the Pennsylvania until June 30, 1897, when another readjustment will be made. The adjustment of compensation on this route is too important a matter to be determined by a thirty-day average. The New York-Philadelphia mail is always weighed for sixty consecutive days to get an average for readjustment. Spectal Mail Cars. The amonnt paid for transportation does not include the use of special mail cars, When the first contracts for railroad trans- portation of the mails were made it was understood that the mail bags would be stowed away in baggage cars like trunks Now so much of the work of assorting and distributing the mail is done in transit that the Post Office De- partment has to have not only special cars, but special trains. The railroad companies build the mail cars and the Post Office De- partment pays a rental for them varying from $25 to $0 a year, according to the size of the car. The Pennsylvania railroad receives $58,273 a year for rent of the mail cars used on the Philadelphia-New York division. The best-paying route after the New York-Philadelphia is the route be- tween New York and Buffalo. The gross amount paid for the service annually used to be $019,088. Beginning with July 1, 1893, the New York Central will receive for four years for hauling the mall between New York and Buffalo $1,137,517 a year, or $4,550,068. But the distance from New York to Buffalo is 439.52 miles and the com- pensation per mile therefore is only $2,588. ‘The average weight of the mall carried be- tween New York and Buffalo every day is 231,201 pounds. The average weight of the ; mail hauled between New York and Phila- delphia daily is 283,914. The New York Cent gets a little matter of $219,760 a year for rent of mail cars on the New York- Buffalo route. But that includes compensation for the jal fast mail train which runs from New York to Chicago. The Philadelphia-Washington route which is covered by the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore road pays $1,735 a mile. It jumped from $106,113 a year in the four years preceding the 1st of last July to $238,- 587 a year, which will be the rate of com- pensation until July 1, 1897. Doubtless a reweighing on the P., W. and B., two years ago, would have increased the compensation $100,000 a year. The Post Office Depart- ment is about $200,000 ahead on this one route under the quadrennial “average” sys- tem. The route from Baltimore to Bellaire, Ohio, on the Baltimore and Ohio road now pays $30,000 more than it did last year—an increase of forty-two per cent. The Boston and Albany road will get $244,333 a year up to the 30th of June, 1897, where it used to get $167,039 for hauling the mails between Boston and Albany. The Pittsburg-Cumber- land route on the Baltimore and Ohio is worth nearly $100,000 more than it was last year—an increase of thirty-five per cent. Fast Mail Routes. The place where railway mail service does not pay is on a small road where the mail is Ught and the post offices are near the sta- tions. Under the law governing compensa- tion for transporting the mail by railroad it is provided that the railroad company shall deliver the mail to all post offices which are within eighty rods of the railroad station. Some railroads doubtless pay out as much for messenger service to small post offices as they receive from Uncle Sam for hauling his mail bags. But there is a prestige about carrying the mail that atones in @ great degree for the lack of profit in hauling it. Ever since the railway mail was established there has been something at- tractive to railroad managers in having their lines known as ‘Fast Mail Routes,” e railroad companies have continually ‘starred” the mail car in their advertising literature—for to be known as the carrier of the mail is to have the reputation of being “on time’’—a reputation which is so seldom deserved even by the best of railroads. Compromises. Although the railroads protest constantly of the injustice of their treatment by the Post Office Department they very seldom rebel against it. The P., W. and B. did one year—and the Postmaster General threaten- ed to send all of the Philadelphia-Washing- ton mail around by way of Harrisburg. The railroad finally came to terms. When Con- gress in 1876 reduced the compensation of the railroads ten per cent, Wm. H. Vander- bilt for the New York Central and Thos. A. Scott for the Pennsylvanta railroad notified the Postmaste> General that they would not make any further effort to assist in estab- Ushing the fast mail. It was an unhappy day for the superintendent of the railway mail, for these two roads were the first to hold out a helping hand to the Post Office Department, and they had just begun to co- operate with the department im quickening the time between the east and the west. But Congress atoned for its parsimony by making a special appropriation for fast mail trains, and now the Post Office Department controls special trains which run between Chicago and New York, St. Louis and New York, St. Louis and Kansas City and Chica- go and the Pacific coast. One matter which is usually not consider- ed when the work of the railroads in haul- ing the mails is figured out the transpor- tation of railway mail clerks. The railroad companies cannot charge for this service, and they also agree to haul supplies without charge. The 6,082 clerks of the railway mail service traveled last year 153,000,000 miles. Figure their transportation at the low rate of one cent a mile and it makes a total of $1,530,000—not an inconsidezable part of the $25,000,000 which is paid to the railroads every year for mail facilities. ae CHILD BRIDES IN BOSTON. The Law Permits Girls to Marry at 12 and Boys at 14, How many people know that it is lawful in Massachusetts for a little girl of twelve to become a bride? Who could believe at first thought that many little girls in short dresses have been legally married in Bos- ton, several during the past year, and that the law, even in the hands of thoughtful and responsible officials, was powerless to prevent it? According to a decision, which has never been reversed, a ‘marriage be- tween two infants above che age of twelve in females and fourteen in males is valid without the consent of their parents or guardians, notwithstaniing the statutes which prohibit magistrates or ministers, under a penalty, from solemnizing the mar- riage of a female under the age of eighteen or a male under the age of twenty-one with. out the consent of parents or guardian: The theory of protection which makes the consent of parents or guardians necessary ‘s really a very flimsy protection for the young and ignorant foreign girls who are ‘requently sold into marriage at a tender ige in Boston by parents who are not suffi- ciently responsible for the siate to permit them this privilege of disposing of their daughters before their eighteenth birthday, when a girl of Massachusetts 18 of age. Italians, Hebrews, Poles, Syrians, Arabs of the most ignorant «lasses, men unabie to sign their names In the:r own language and not understandiag a question asked of them, appear in the citv registraz’s Gffice seek’ng licenses to marry girls who are :o be math- ers of the next veneration of American v'ti- zens. During one sek recently three men came to the registrar's office for marriage licenses and gave sixteen years or less as the age of the bride. {n cach case they were told to bring the girl, and in ene of the cases the fact that the girl was sixteen and had her guardian's conseat to her marriage was established through a trusted inter- preter. This often happens when jnquiry is instituted. “Talk about Gretna Green!” said the city vegistrar to a writer for the Transcript. ‘It was difficult to vet 1 ied in Gretna Green compared with this. city. retna Green was hedged about and hard 'n com- parison to Boston, The laws as they stand now here would do very well for a country town where everybody knew everybody eise, but for a city with a foreign population lke ours—well, thoughtful people simply have no idea of what is going on in this matter. Any girl of twelve cr over and any boy of fourteen may be married with con- sent, and the marriage is legal without consent if any clergyman or justice of the peace can be prevailed upon to perform the ceremony, whether they have a license or not.” ‘The records of 181% show fifty-seven mar- riages of girls of seventeen or less, three of these were fifteen and one was a child of fourteen. She was in the grammar school and wore short dresses. When her teacher sent to see why she did not come to school It seemed to her impossible to believe that she was married. Her parents had col The bridegrooms of the 1 ried girls of Massachusetts are usually men double that age. Boston women have spent a good deal of thought and time and money for the child widows of India, There is room for a good deal of endeavor in behalf of the child brides of Massachusetts, = 8 ‘What They Did Not Resemble. From Truth. Smythe—"That drummer that I met last night told some of the best stories I ever heard.” Mrs. Smythe—"Well, if they were so good, what were they like Smythe—“I couldn't say exactly, but they certainly weren't like tract Wicked Youth.—“Irish! Irish!" | | | Murphy (as he turns the hod.—"Phat’s thot?” 19 BALLOONS IN WAR Epoch Approaching When They Will Come Into Active Employment FOR COAST DEFENSE. ———_—_+—_—_ Aerial Batteries to Protect Our Shores From Invasion. PROGRESS OF OTHER NATIONS. Written for The Evening Star. NCLE SAM MAY goon be forced to consider seriously the establishment of a balloon corps os an adjunct of the army. This country is sadly behind in the development of ronautics, which afe unquestionably destined to play an important part in the warfare of the not distant future. England, Germany and especially France have been giving much attention to the subject, though their experiments have beer: veiled in secrecy as far as possible. Within a year the French have produced a balloon that can be steered and maneuy- ered in the teeth of a wind blowing twenty miles an hour. In truth, the most important problem in aerostation has been solved, and the di- rigible balloon is now an accomplished fact. Cigar-shaped air ships recently have been run by propellers in France on calm days at fourteen miles an hour, and there is no doubt that double this speed will be attained before long. The Germans are said to have produced a balloon that can be steered, and which carries great weight, but little is known about it. The Supposition that atmospheric air is too tenuous a medium for propeller fans to act upon is an exploded absurdity, while it is certain that a rudder will operate to direct the aerial machine if the latter can be riven fast enough to give it steerage way. Obviously, a balloon that is floating help- lessly with the air-currents cannot be steer- ed any more than a vessel adrift on the water. But give it even a small power of Propulsion, and tt will obey the helm. Such, at all events, is the conclusion arrived at by recent trials. The notion that an air ship, sustained by gas, is not to be relied on is another fallacy. Within the last few years ballooning has been revolutionized abroad and reduced to a science. Experts now understand how to make balloons tight, so that leakage is reduced to nothing almost. When one has a gas-bag of gold- beater’s skin that will stay afloat thirty days he has something to start business with, Aerial Batteries for Coast Defense. If half-a-dozen aerial batteries of four balloons each were stationed at different points along the Atlantic coast no hostile fleet could come near our seaboard cities. The hostile vessels could be sunk within a few minutes by dropping nitro-glycerine cartridges upon their decks. This could be accomplished with the utmost accuracy and Precision. Dr. Myers, the aeronautical en- gineer, speaks of experiments made by him in killing ducks by dropping shot from an elevation of 1,500 feet upon the water be- low. Each splash showed where the last shot fell, until the fifth or sixth shot hit the and killed it. Falling from so great a height the velocity of the leaden pellet was as great as if fired from a gun. ‘The air-currents at a high elevation are terete er — west to east. Accord- wly woul particularly for such war balloons to ascend on the coast and float seaward over an enemy’s fleet ke so many birds carrying in their claws engines of destruction against which the foe would be absolutely helpless. Having wiped out the ships, it would be necessary for the flying battery to return in the face of the wind, but this conld be accomplished very easily by using the propellers. At the same time, for the reason above mention- ed, it would be comparatively difficult for balloons sent up from the hostile vessels to advance toward the shore, inasmuch as they would have to encoun’ an unfavor- able breeze. Cheap and Effective. Uncle Sam has been thinking of putting More than $20,000,000 into coast and harbor defenses for the Atlantic shore line. To keep these in order after they were con- structed would reqiire an expenditure of millions of dollars annually, without con- sidering the fact that the entire system would have to altered over and remodeled every few years. Such aerial batteries as are here described would cost comparatively little at the beginning, and could probably be maintained for $1,000 per annum each at the utmost. Of course, they could not be made thoroughly serviceable off-hand. A long course of preliminary experiments oul be required—in fact, just such work is European nations have been quietly en- gaged in for some years past. Meanwhile, if England should take a notion to come down upon our cities with a flock of bal- loons from Montreal, we would be obliged to sue for peace on any termi Safe From Attack. Against balloons no armed force on land or water can have any means of defense or retaliation. No fort on land or afloat can withstand high explosives dropped from alcft. The warriors who man an air ship are absolutely safe from harm at an ele- vation of a little more than a mile. Owing to the force of gravity pulling it down, no shot that can be fired from any sort of gun will do damage beyond 6,000 feet above the surface of the earth. The gas bag is practically secure from serious hurt at an elevation of only 1,600 feet. At that height it f% easily hit, though not while passing overhead, because its transit across the field of vision is then so rapid. Besides, bullets discharged straight up in the air might do harm in falling back, inasmuch as, according to a@ well-known law of physics, they would have the same velocity on reaching the earth again as when dis- charged from the rifle or cannon. How- ever, as the balloon is passing away, the Ime of sight is so slowly that sharpshooters could easily pepper it with accuracy. Even so the balloon would not suffer im- portantly. Though pierced by a score or even 100 bullet holes, its buoyancy would not seriously affected. A ritie bullet puncturing a great gas bag containing 40,000 or 60,000 cubic feet of hydrogen makes only a little hole, which is partly closed again by the broken edges of the fabric. Some gas escapes, but not enough to be of any consequence. But there is no reason for passing over a hostile army or fleet at so low an elevation, inasmuch as bombs can be dropped just as well and as accurately from a point high enough to be out of reach. Besides, the instant | that a bomb fs thrown the balloon rises rapidly, being relieved of that much weight. Ac uignt, or In a fog, it would be entirely safe from observation. Or it is easy enough for the airship to come down into the lower part of a cloud, whence the crew can see the enemy below, while invisible to them. Thus the latter are entirely helpless, Guns Not Needed. These are the most important conclusions obtained from experiments recently made by foreign powers for the purpose of find- ing out what elements of danger are in- volved in balloon warfare. A missile dis- charged from a firearm in an airship ex- hibits the remarkable phenomenon of a ball going continually faster and faster as it nears its mark, no matter how distant the latter may be. However, guns would not be utilized for this purpose, and bombs would be infinitely more effective than bullets. Simply dropped, they do the rest. During the siege of Paris, in the Franco- Prussian war, balloons were sent up in great numbers from the city, passing over the besieging armies. The aeronauts took with them homing pigeons, which carried back news to the beleaguered me- tropolis. These balloons were constantly fired at, and Krupp, the gun maker, at the request of Von Moltke, designed a “‘bal- loon musket” for the purpose of attacking them. Nevertheless, this sort of rifie prac- tice proved wholly ineffective, and only those balloons were captured which were low down through expended gas. Illuminating Bombs and Stinkpots. If the voyagers in a war balloon are op- erating at night and desire to get a clear view of the camp or forts of the enemy, they have only to drop one of the new tl- lumineting bombs, which will explode on reaching the earth end light up the sur- roundirgs with 100,000 candle power, Then perhaps they may let fall stinkpots, which will set free volumes of poisonous and as- phyxiated gases. These are an ancient de- vice, utilized by the Saracens in the middle ages to the terror of the lers, but /similar infernal contrivances are likely to play a part in future conflicts of nations. The French “melinite” bombs on bursting Mberate most deadly fumes. Experiments have shown that one of them will kill by suffocation sheep and dogs within a radius of many yards. It has been suggested that shells might be filled with stupefying, but harmless drugs, which, on exploding, would put a whole regiment or ship's crew to sleep. After being captured the foe could be brought to by means of restoratives. Maxim's Machine. All such contrivances could be operated to the greatest advantage from balloons. The idea on which the famous Mr. Maxim has been working for some time past is a cylinder of aluminum containing ea three- fourths vacuum, its collapse being pre- vented by strong ribs inside. The machine is to be propelled and steered by electric gear, while sustained and balanced by the wings of a great aeroplane. The inventor expects to be able to fill his aerial car with explosives and hover in it over a city, which must pay ransom or be destroyed. However, Prof. H. A. Hazen of Washing- ton, an accepted authority in aeronautics, asserts that the aeroplane idea, of which Prof. 8. P. Langley of the Smithsonian In- stitution is the foremost advocate, is im- practicable. His opinion is that man must imitate the bird if he is ever to fly at all. The “soaring” of the bird, by which an animal many times heavier than the air is enabled to sustain itself motionless in the latter medium on extended pinions, is as yet an unexplained phenomenon. If it could be accounted for, light might be thrown on the problem of human flight. -sbgpacenniens A prj ae birds, by the way, whic! act y fly quite a dis- tance, have been in deny mg hn bing but they are only toys. For Reconnoitering. The United States signal office has ai- ready constructed balloons for reconnoi- tering. These are intended for ascents 1,0 feet or so, being anchored to the grouad by a wire rope, through which a copper wire runs. The latter affords telephonic com- munication with the aerial car, from which the observer gives notification of what he sees. In this way a full description of the enemy’s formation, movements and fortis- cations can be readily obtained. If desired the telephone wire may communicate with the headquarters of the commanding gener- al miles away. The whole apparatus is car- ried in three wagons, one conveying the balloon packed in a basket and the others containing cylinders filled with compress>4 hydrogen gas. When it is desired to make an ascent the bailoon is taken out of the basket, attached to one of the cylinders and is inflated and ready within fifteen minut-s. Sketch maps can be sent down by the rope. Should balloons come into use in warfar- they might be forbidden by internationel law because too murderous. There would be a great howl if any nation should send @ flock of airships to destroy a defenseless city by means of bombs. On the other hand, such contrivances, if once perfected, may be the means of doing away with atl wars, for the reason that the latter would become too destructive, Thus resort would have to be had to arbitration, instead of violence, for settling the disputes of rival powers. Trying to Fly. Man has been trying to fly ever since the earliest historic times. The first notable record of an attempt in this direction Je- scribes the artificial pigeon of Archytas—a famous geometrician of the Pythagorean school, who flourished 400 years B. C, He made a wooden bird, which, as is alleged, flew by mechanical means, its buoyancy he- ing affected by magnets. But if it fell w the ground it could not lift itself again. J Nero an inventor is said to have fown in Bota, but he lost his life in coming down—an unfortunate fatality which seems to have terminated many ancient attempts at flying. The failure was tributed to his evil genius, which tackied him while aloft, taking him at a disad- vantage. John Muller is said to have constructed an artificial eagle at Nuremberg, which flew out to meet the Emperor Charles V and ac- same jod a monk named Elm ‘about o rertoos from the top of @ tower in Spain. By means of a pair of wings a per- son named Dante of Perouse was enable’ to fly, and, while amusing the people of that city with his aerial performances, he fell from the top of St. Mary’s Church 2nd oke his thigh. “re has been gravely suggested that, with the help of trained birds, like the condor cf 1 South America, which can carry off a sheen or calf, man might be enabled to fly; but this plan would certainly be attended w'th danger, and up to date it has never heen tried. RENE BACHE. WEALTH NOT WELL DIVIDED. Seventy-one Per Cent of It Owned by ® Per Cent of American Families. George K. Holmes, special census agent on mortgage statistics, approaches the con- centration of wealth In the current number of the Political Science Quarterly. In- stead of attempting to compute the property holdings of the rich he strives to ascertain how much of the national wealth the mass- es of the people possess. The census bu- reau took from every family in twenty- two states and territories answers to the questions whether it owned or hired the farm or home occupied, and the extent of the incumbrance on owned farms and homes, if any, with the value of the prop- erty. The results are believed by the Springfield Republican to be fairly repre- sentative of the whole country. Assuming this to be so, 32 per cent of the farm families and 63 per cent of the home fam- ilies in the country are tenants. Among farm-owning families 30 per cent carry mortgage debts averaging $1,130 on farms whose average value is $3,190; among home- owning families 29 per cent carry incum- brances averaging $1,120 on homes valued on the average at $3,254. The census will show the number of farms to be about 4,500,000, leaving 8,190,152 families occupy- ing homes that are not farms. Mr. Holmes confines his wealth estimates here to prop- erties valued at less than $5,000. Such farms incumbered constitute 80 per cent in number and 52 per cent in value of all in- cumbered farms; and such incumbered homes conetitute §2 cent in number and 46 per cent in value of ail incumbered homes. The census did not take the values of unincumbered farms and homes and the percentages in the other case are here as probably the truth. According to the estimates tabulated by Mr. Holmes 91 per cent of the families of the country own no more than about 29 r cent of the wealth, and 9 cent own it per cent of the wealth. Mr. Holmes believes his estimates do not overstate the case against the poor. These conclusions are about as dubious as any which have ever been reached in the study of this question. Proceeding to divide the richer 9 per cent of the families as between the rich and moderately well off, Mr, Holmes takes the New York Tribune's list of mil- Honaires (4,047) and gives them an average of about $3,000,000—this estimate being also partly based upon the results of Thomas |G. Shearman’s claims in the same line. This gives to the 4,047 very rich families, or three-hundredihs of 1 per cent of all the families, about $12,000,000,000, or 20 per cent of the nation’s wealth; d leaves the remaining property of the tion Gl per cent) to 9 per cent of the families, includ- ing the comparatively few millionaires. The result seems incredible to Mr. Holmes. That 4,047 families should possess nearly as much ‘wealth—seven-tenths as much, at Jeast—as 11,593,887 families is, indeed, rath- er startling. But it is probable, he con- tends, that the statement is approximately correct. Excluding the millionaires, the wealth of the 1,092,218 families lyjng be- tween them and the great mass of people holding property valued at less than $6,000 becomes an average of $28,000 a family, which seems large for so many, but which Mr. Holmes goes on to demonstrate,must be about the case. It Went Against Hi From Life. ae SS et SKINS OF BEASTS Many Sorts of Animals Which Purnish the Market With Furs. London the Great Fur Market of tne World—Cats and Dogs Supply Vast Numbers of Skins for Garments. “White has always been considered @ mark of distinction among beasts,” sald a zoologist to a writer for The Star. “You will find mention of that fact in the Bible, fifth chapter of Judges. The Indians of this country used to regard a white buffalo hide as of exceptional value, and for one Such they would give several horses. Now- a@days the aborigines of Alaska set such store by a white marten skin that they will pay five fox skins for it. The rever- ence with which white elephants are re- gerded in Siam is well known. In Africa King Cetewayo, who was subdued by the British, kept a herd of royal white cattle. They were said to be very beautiful. The zcbu, or sacred ox of India, is white. Blue, by the way, is most rare in mammals, the only species in which that color is found being the blue-faced mandrill. The so-call- ed ‘blue fox’ is rather a deep drab. “It is a curious fact that many wild ani- mals increase with the settlement of a country, feeding in the cultivated fields and thus procuring food more readily than when the land was u:reciaimed, An exam- ple of this is afforded by the rabbit, which has increased so erormously in some parts of the world—notably in Australia and New Zealard, into which it was imported. In 1891 no less than 8108 bales of rabbit skins from New Zealand and Australia werg offered for sale in London. Vast num- bers are killed for the use of meat pre- serving companies, which put them up in cans. In this shape they are sold in great Quantities for ships’ stores, being a very cheap sort of meat. The fur is chiefly util- ized for making soft felt hats. For this purpcse the hair is cut off by machinery and passed through a blower, which _— it _— ons copper disc. As umulates it adheres together and forms a sort of cloth. ‘The Greatest Fur Market. “The greatest fur market of the world ts London, where auctions are held ‘periodi- cally. These sales, at which pelts of @ thousand kinds are disposed of in vast quantities, are attended by merchants from everywhere. They are conducted in silence save for the voice of the auctioneer, bids being made by nodding the head. Else- where in Europe various fairs furnish facilities for trading in furs. The chief medium through which that sort of busi- ness is transacted in Germany is the Leip- sic fairs, where skins of cats, squirrels and Persian lambs are dealt in to a large ex- tent. There are similar markets for furs at Frankfurt-on-the-Oder and at several towns in Siberia. The fair of Kiatka, on the border of China, is the depot from which Chinese traders in pelts make their purchases, particularly of ermine. | Fashion Fixes Prices. The prices for skins of much on fashion, and hence fluctuate considerably A fine lion skin sf i i a i i : i @ small fortune. Tiger claws for pins by jewelers. or even more apiece in the is a woolly tiger of Mongolia fur of great richness. thickness of the hair is due the animal lives in a cold ferats rl i itt carried to England and sold at for manure. The substance es ‘civet’ is obtained from ‘civet cat.’ It is of a yellow the consistency of honey. sembles that of musk. When odor is so powerful as to tt E t agreeal aromatic cate. It is utilized chiefly with and improving the costly scents. Civet cats kept in wicker cages for collecting this secretion, latter is used by women in Africa for powdering their exported from Aden in horns. Russian Wolves. “Wolves furnish many skins to market. In Russia about 170,000 are killed annually, a reward of a head being offered for them. 80,000 of them were slain in the of Wologda alone, the number of killed by wolves in the same province year being 203. The Eskimo practice an ingenious method ing wolves, planting a stake in the @ blade of flint fastened to the About the flint blade they wrap blubber, which freezes hard. along come some wolves and lick blubber until the edges of the flint tongues. Tasting their own blood, they come frantic and attack each fight continuing until the whole died. Next day the artful hi along and skins them. That is why wolfskin rugs are so cheap From Chinese Dogs. “Chinese dogs, belonging to a peculiar breed native to that country, supply much | 5 Ay i i e it He a fis ffs i itt Tir 5 NiftH reise i (ine! ? i isl ire - ii} elt l E { & ut soa egeS abe Heer beet Con a ‘ports to England about ‘ompany ex, x of the pelts annually. Vet another litt! animal, mostly taken in Siberia, furnishes the ermine fur, which is worn by the Queen of England, and is also utilized for the state | robes of British peers. Nevertheless, it is no longer so fashionable as it used to he, and hence is much less costly than for merly: paager Skins for Brushes. “Badger skins are largely used nowadays for shaving brushes. For that purpose the hair is cut off close to the pelt and sorted into lengths, being then tied up in neat bundles and sold by weight. The hide itself 1s employed for glue, Skunk fur has come much into favor of late years. In 1891 nearly 700,000 skunkskins were sold in Lon- don, though not long ago they were con- sidered valueless. The highest priced skin is that of the sea otter, a single pelt some- times fetching $1,000. ‘This fur ts princl- pally used in Russia, for the collars of noblemen’s coats. Many thousand mole- skins are collected annually and made into waistcoats. Squirrel skins are taken for taxes in parts of Stverte. A fur ‘most ex- tensively employed is that of the muskrat, from 8,000,000 to 4,000,000 skins being mais keted in yearly. 3 af e