Evening Star Newspaper, January 6, 1894, Page 21

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1894—-TWENTY PAGES. HOCH, DIE ANARCHIE! Rise and Spread of the Red Terror of Europe. AN EPIDEMIC OF DISEASED IDEAS After Pallas, Leauthier; After Leau- thier, Who? A WAR AGAINST ORDER | Written for The Evening Star. HUFFLE THE cards together, cut and deal again; this is anarchy. It's a ramshackle house we are living in, the rain drips through the rotting Toof, 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 is 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 maxes 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 hystezically. It ts 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 gtate—the organized people—-should own everything and rule everyone. But that is not anarchy, as it has been fashioned by Bakunin and corrected by Povuget, Michel, Torrida and the inuividualists. No, an- archy recognizes no state, admits the right of no majority to rule, demands that polit- ical power, even though it be revolutionary, be destroyed, gives everyone the ownership of the world and 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 individval stalking abroad in an untram- meled world. Society ‘s 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 Patis during the exposition; it was with difficulty the more radical a! 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 pain, Italy, France, Ger- many, Russia,América—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 TFemembered, and gave emphatic utte-ance to the Bakunin doctrine—the doctrine of Malatesta and Pouget. At Work tn Ht ‘There was little menace in the old con- The new anarchy Is dangerous. mpts the life of the German em- in France, Leauthier, debonair, as Revachol, assassinates a Servian minister; ain there Is @ series of outrages end- r the time, perhaps—in the atrocity #t the Liceo theater, in Bazcelona; merely incidents. The mischief is afoot working erground. blindly, irresponsibly, inevita- bly—the red terror. You cannot stretch out you> hand and say, “It is here.” It may be| 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- cent people, It ha® sworn destruction against the world, “in which people eat.” Eucopean thinkers and the most alert men in this country recognize the greatness of the danger. These anarchists, some of them honest fanatics, mattoids, paranoiacs,others frank thieves and murderous with personal | lusts fof revenge, are at the same time as Individual as molecules and are joined by a zympathy stronger than any jron-bound, riveted conspiracy. Chicago is in| 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. 7 der begets another. Crimes of violence Spread like infectious diseases. I never knew an honest anarchist who was not either semi-insane, a mattold, or a neuro- sir Louise Michel is a grapho-maniac, ft. Elisee Reclus—the greatest living ge- ographer—is a neurotic, August Spies was a paranoiac, like Prince Krapotkin. In 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 reads as fast as the eee ng ca sp! of the cities breeds diseased min 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 id 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 Unknown. 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 extreimisis. Basily and gradually socialism was intensified into an- archy. There was, as it were, a develop- ment of the theories of Karl Mara, 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 “. re 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 citi¢s, 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 al- 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 a 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 and 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 iue Ramy into a blind ailey. At the further end ts a low, shambling brick house. There is an obtuse angled roof of tiles over it. The windows are narrow and high up. The door faces the Rue Ramy. This is the Maison du Peuple. The socialists 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 wa used as a co-operative warehou: This socialistic enterprise failed. Citt- 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- efore introducing you to some of the anarchists T have met, it would not be out | ef the way to listen to a few wor com | Madame Severine. ace! You do not know her? } She is one of the flamboyant women of She stepped down from a wealthy, eois home into the proletariat. She is red to the eyebrows. In all good faith she asks the @dvocates of the existing so-| ¢lety the old Tweed question, “What are you going to do about it?” The Words of an Apostle, These explosions, assassinations, theft ana murder, like that of Ravachol, she says, ere but incidents of war, episodes in a strife ut mercy. What remedy have you? pression by no means of terror, but te ror of what? Of death? Even vulgar as- vassins laugh at {t, and in all the states of Europe the suppression of anarchists has not found one during late years who asked for grace or died a coward. Appeal to their pity? They have none. You may decapi- tate this man and that, but after that is done? Have you locked up all the knives and dynamite in the universe and guillo- tined forever the sptrit of revolt? After Ravachol comes Vailas, after Pallas, Leau- thier. There is no plot fer the police to un- rayel. The anarchist is his own leader, his 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 reafity of the danger. too, a constantly teres student—and every poli ideas are epidemic. One mur-| | spasms of suppresston. covered bar to the tables, carrying wine, | beer and absinthe. There is the noise of clanking glasses and the drone of conversa- tion. That high-shouldered man with the smail, pointed beard and the long, thin nose is Pouget. He is the editor of “Pere 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 through his eyeglasses, | is @'Axa, editor of “L’Anarchie.” With him are a half dozen of the “young wri-| ters” of France, symbolists, poets, men of genius and insanity. At the far end a woman gets up and| makes a speech. Her voice is strident, with worn edges, like the voice of a street singer. She has a tangle of white mane on her hea 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. Tier influence is paramount in the under- world of Paris. She rules there. In Paris an influence of this sort is of the first im- portance. It attracts the drifting class of | rascality which is ready for any violence. And for this reason Parts is the only city in which the anarchists would find an army | made to their hands. | The red terror has become a question of | practical politics. It can no longer be treat-| ed with the easy indifference and occasional | it has grown from | a group of seven in 1881, to an army of 30,000 in 1894. There is immediate perti- nence in Mme. Severine’s question, “What | are you going to do about it?” } VANCE THOMPsoN. | WEIGHING THE MAIL 2| Howthe Post Office Adjusts Railway Mail Rates With the Roads. A SOURCE OF REVENUE Weighing of Mail and an Average Compensation Every Four Years, THE PENNSYLVANIA’S PLUM Hig PUST OFFICE Department is getting ready to weigh the railroad mail in the Pacific division. All of the ratiroad mail is 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 is done in one of these each year. Last year the mall 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 Uttle 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 sth 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 bus!- ness is light, would not be fuir to the rail- 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 rallroads ask a reweighing of the mail. A big road would not do so unless the occasion was ex- traordinary. None of the railroads 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 io 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 1s 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 is 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 rail- 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 Ratlroads 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 ts a slight gradation which lessens a little the compensation for car- rying large quantities of mail—and there is a minimum rate per mile for very unimpor- tant routes. No railroad receives less than $42.75 per mile per year for carrying the mail. The minimum used 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 a 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 mar 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. Special 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 or traveling bags. 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 uild the mail cars and the Post Office De- partment pays a rental for them varying from $25 to $50 a year, according to the size of the car. The Pennsylvania railroad receives $58,273 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 $019,083. Beginning with July 1, 1898, the New York Central will receive for four years for hauling the mail 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 31,201 pounds. The average weight of the mail hauled between New York and Phila- delphia daily is 283,914. The New York Central gets @ little matter of $219,790 a year for rent of mail cars on the New York- Buffalo route. But that includes special compensation for the 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 $1,785 a mile. It jumped from $106,113 a year in the four years preceding the Ist 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 $244,833 a year up to the 30th of June, 1897, where it used to get $167,089 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 light 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 te railroad managers in having their lines known as ‘Fast Mail Routes,” The 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 Ded cent, Wm. H. Vander- bilt for the New York Central and Thos, A. Scott for the Pennsylvania railroad notified the Postmaster General that they would not make any further effort to assist in estab- lishing 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 in 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. Louls 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 is the transpo:- 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. pa ee ie, CHILD BRIDES IN BOSTON. The Law Permits Girls to Marry at 12 and Boys at 14. How many people know that it ts lawful in Massachusetts for a little girl of twelve to become a bride? Who could belteve 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 magistrat: or ministers, under a penalty, from solemnizing the mar- riage of a female under the age of eighteen or a male under the ege of twenty-one out the consent of parents or guardians. The theory of protection which makes the consent of par2ats or guardians ne ‘@ really a very ilimsy protection for the young and ignorant foreign girls who are ‘requently sold into marricge at a tender \ge in Boston by parents who are not suff- ciently responsible for the siate to permit them this privilege of disposing of their daughters befo-e their eighteenth birthday, when a girl of Massachusetts 1s of age. Italians, Hebrews, Poles, Syrians, Arabs of the most ignorant classes, men unabie to sign their names in the:r own language and fot understandiag a question asked of them, appear in the city registrar's office seek'ng licenses to :marry girls who are :o be moth- ers of the next generation of American c'ti- zens. During one w2ek recently three men came to the registrar's office for marriage licenses and gave sixieen years or less as the age of the bride. in eich case they were told to bring the girl, and in e of the cases the fact that the girl was sixteen and wad her guardian’s consent to her marrisge was established through a trusted inter- preter. This often haypens when inquiry is instituted. “Talk about Gretna Green!” said the city registrar to a writer for the Transcript. ‘It was difficult to vet married in Gretna Green compared with this city. Gretna Green was hedged about and hard ' eom- 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 ike ours—well, thoughtful people simply have no idea of what is going on in this matter. Any girl of twelve or 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 1893 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 con- sented! The bridegrooms of the little mar- 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, = eee 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 tracts. ——_+ee A Slight Turn. From Puck. Wicked Youth.—“‘Irish! Irish!" Murphy (as he turns the hod.—"Pha: thot?” ts Geena nena rarnn enn tp ne renee ee el Rt A Ti lac Nt Dacca ht a te nt ithe a Si ti Re a cl cS i atch oo I Plt Sn Mins BIR PBIB sh oh A Bic hE TN im oe Sain Dae ie RE AA Bh conn Bn ath a nc SOE ta nc Rk ee Bo Be ak STE. 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 as an adjunct of the army. This country is sadly behind in the development of aeronautics, which afte 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 velled in secrecy as far as possible. Within a year the French have produced a balloon ‘that can be steered and maneuv- 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- Tigible 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 1s 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 driven 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 it 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- Paiste speaks of experiments made by him in killing ducks by dro; shot an egy tion of 1300 tee coon tae Sah Each splash showed where the last shot fell, until the fifth or sixth shot hit the bird 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 always moving from west to east. Accord- ingly it would be particularly easy for such war balloons to ascend on the coast and float seaward over an enemy’s fleet ike 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 could 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 encounter 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 probabiy 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 woul be required—in fact, just such work as 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 frora Montreal, we would be obliged to sue for peace on any terms. 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 prectically secure from serious hurt at an elevation of only 1,500 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 ipe of sight is changed 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 be seriously affected. A rifie bullet puncturing a great gas bag containing 0,000 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 ts 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 rifle 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 il- lumineting bombs, which will explode on reaching the earth and 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 crusaders, but ‘similar infernal contrivances are likely to play a part in future conflicts of nations. The French “melinite” bombs on bursting liberate 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 a 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 wes city, which must pay ransom or es: 4 However, Prof. H. A, Hazen of W: - 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 a 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 erabled 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 throwr on the problem ‘of human flight. the way, which will actually fiy quite a dis- tance, have been made in but they are only toys. For Reco: tering. The United States signal office has al- ready constructed balloons for reconnoi- tering. These are intended for ascents 1,10 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 forti‘i- cations can be readily obtained. If desired the telephone wire may communicate with the headquarters of the commanding gener- al miles away, The whole apparacus 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 balloon is taken out of the basket, attached to one of the cylinders and is inflated and ready within fifteen minuts. Sketch maps can be sent down by the rope. Should balloons come into use in wartfa! they might be forbidden by international law because too murderous. There would be a great howl if any nation should send a 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 ww the ground it could not lift itself a vy an inventor is eat in coming down—an unfortunate fatality which seems to have terminated many ancient attempts at flying. The failure was attributed to his evil genius, which tackied him while aloft, 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- companied him back to town. Abou: the same period a monk named Elmerus flew ‘about a furlong 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 wi that city with his aerial performances, he fell from the top of St, Mary's Church 2nd his thigh. thes been gravely suggested that, with the help of trained birds, like the condor of |} South America, which can carry off a sheen or calf, man might be enabled to fly; but this plan would certainly be @ attended with to date heen ac RENE BACHE. 9 ——— — WEALTH NOT WELL DIVIDED. Seventy-one Per Cent It Owned by ® Per Cent of American Families. George K. Holmes, special census agent on mortzage 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 ineum- brances averaging $1,189 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. Buch farms incumbered constitute 80 per cent in number and 52 per cent in value of all in- cumbered farms; and such ineumbered homes constitute 82 cent in number and 46 per cent in lue of all incumbered homes. The census did not take the values of unincumbered farms and homes and the percentages in the other case are adopted 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 per cent own '1 per cent of the wealth. And 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 ® 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) an@ 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-hundredths of 1 per cent of all the families, about $12,000,000,000, or 20 cent of the nation’s wealth; and leaves the remaining property of the nation (Gl per cent) to 9 per cent of the families, includ- ing the comparatively few millionaires. The result seems incredible to Mr. Holmes. That 4,017 families should possess nearly as least—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 $5,000 becomes an average of $25,000 a family, which seems large for so many, but which Mr. Holmes goes on to demonstrate,must be about the case. It Went Against His From Life. 19 SKINS’ OF BEASTS Many Sorts of Animals Which Purnish the Market With Purs, London the Great Far Market of tne World—Cats and Dogs Supply Vast Numbers of Skins for Garments. “White has always been considered a mark of distinction among beasts,” said a Zoologist to a writer for The . “You will find mention of that fact in the Bible, fifth chapter of Judges. The Indians of this country used to regard a white hide as of exceptional value, and for one King Cetewayo, who British, kept a herd of royal They were said to be very Zebu, or sacred ox of India, is white. by the way, is most rare in mammals, only species in which that color is being the biue-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 and thus procuring food more ready than when the land was utreciaimed. An exam- ple of this is afforded by the rabbit, which wer@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 Quantities for ships’ stores, being a cheap sort of meat. The fur is ized for making soft felt hats. purpcse the hair is cut off by and passed through blower, it adheres forms @ sort of cloth, The Greatest Fur Market. “The greatest fur market of the London, where auctions are held cally, These sales, at which thousand kinds are disposed quantities, are attended by merchan everywhere. They are conducted in save for the voice of the auction being made by nodding the head. Else- where in Europe various fairs furnish facilities for trading in furs. The chief f il i i g . ire Hi al i 5 flit fe 3 i gs i i i | i Ay i i EEEse 5 I Hitt i ! | f es agreeably cate. It is utilized chi with and improving the costly scents. Civet cats & ? i “Wolves furnish many skins to the fur market. In Russia about 170,000 of are killed annually, a reward of 10 a head being offered for them. During 80,000 of them were slain in the of Wologda alone, the number of killed by wolves in the same province year being 208. The Eskimo the practice an ingenious method ing wolves, planting a stake in the @ blade of flint fastened to the About the flint blade they blubber, which freezes here” along fight continuing until the whole died. Next day the artful hunter comes along and skins them. That is one reagon why wolfskin rugs are so cheap today. From Chinese Dogs. much wealth—seven-tenths as much, at| [in i : 3 en? i #88 | : i i i 34 i t g $ | i a The tails are made up ments, which fetch very high prices. are also used in the mani finest ‘sable’ paint brushes. creature is lost. Even the paws and throst are sold by traders, who make them Into coat lini and tobacco poems, Company exports to of the pelts annually. Yet 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- | ples 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 is employed for glue. Skunk fur has come much into favor of late years. In 1891 nearly 700,000 skunkskins were sold in Lon- ¢@on, 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 is princi- 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 Siberia. A fur most ex- tensively employed is that of the muskrat, from 8,000,000 to 4,000,000 skins being max keted in yearly.