Evening Star Newspaper, April 21, 1894, Page 14

4 THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1894-TWENTY PAGES. STITCH AND STITCH OF THE PROBLEMS OF THE TIMES Keeping Life in the Body on Thirteen Cents a Day. COUNTING THE PENNIES Q@pecial Correspondence of The Evening Star. PARIS, April 3, 1894. In the Workshop. cheap restaurants end lodging houses, with the cold comfort of a free library thrown in. ‘Yet the soberest social reformer catches a half-sympathy with revolution and anarchy when he thinks of her lot. Meanwhile, she makes her life as pleasant and careless as Possible, applying herself cheerily, as it were, to stitching body and soul together. Who They Are. ‘They are not milliners and dressmakers alone, but makers of men’s goods from trousers and caps to military uniforms, em- broiderers and artificial flower workers,sim- ple plain sewers at the machine, or those who piece and patch. Perhaps not one in twenty of these girls ever touches a sew- ing machine or knows how to work it. They are, for the most part, the daughters of working people, or little shopkeepers, who cannot afford to keep them after they are fifteen years of age; or they are girls too often who find themselves alone and with- out resources in the capital. They begin by ‘an apprenticeship, happy if they have learn- a enough at home or at school to enable m to earn a few cents a day from the Ing. What determines them to enter ir particular form of employment, or to be “workers” at all, instead of taking a step higher and “going into commerce,” as they say, is force of circumstances, love of free- dom, lack of education, or lack of ambition. The Legal Working Day. Until a reformatory law of two years ago, which has failed in practice, the jegal day of work for these girls was twelve hours. ‘When work was slack it might run down to ten hours; but at all times im the busy season it was sure to be twelve and a half, with over-work and scant over-pay in the night. But im the best shops, even during the crowded year of the exposition, there were not more than 150 to 200 full days of work. Late December and January are al- ‘ways dead months in winter, and August and early September in summer, because the great world has made !ts purchases or 1s out of town, and the foreign visitors are ‘Two Cents Worth of Springtime. t yet come. The wages of these working Bays have to make up fur the time when no work. Thus the average among o are able to find.work whenever iging and light and it as well. What are the possibilities of such an in- fome in this city, where life Is so dear? How far does an honest life become an im- possibility under such circum 3? In- formation is not wanting in answer to both these questions. As to the latter, one of the most heartléss sides of Parisianism is the taking it for granted, in story papers @nd filustrations and popular songs, in the talk and actions of men, that this great ¢lass of sewing giris need not be respected as honest women. Whether this is true or Rot in fact, I oniy mean to say they are re- garded as fair game. The Necessities. The first thing necessary Is to have a foot over one’s head. When girls live with their parents, or wives with their hus- bands, they simply have to take their part im paying the rent, and things go easily. But most of these girls are young and alone, and have to live in little rooms, hired by themselves. Unless they are two to- gether, the room will be under a mansard Foof, and only a few feet larger than the epace occu: by the cot bed and chair and nd wi which girl has been happy to furnish it for her 7 rent will cost her She will limit her and she may do less oblig keep her room when sick and out of work in the days of bitterest cold 3t is understood that her cell-like chamber Total for the day.. steers No provision was made for cold or sick- ness, or for any unusual interruption of work. The majority of these girls have al- ways before them a possible state of want which approaches this pitiful éxtreme. There is never a time when they are not obliged to count their pennies. The figures here given are not or even too un- common. 5 Cheerfal and Hardworking. It must not be thought that these sewing girls, with all their poor pay in the work- ‘shops, are sour-faced, or make a depress- ing feature in the city’s general look. On the contrary, they add a note of gayety. How they are gay, why they are gay—that is a mystery of Parisian womanhood from fifteen on to twenty-five. They live on the hill of @fontmartre, or at Clichy or Batig- nolles, where rent is cheap and there are others of their kind. In the early morning they come treoping down toward the crowded center, where the shops are, with their coquettish little hats, which hav been worked over many a time, with gcwns imitating in cut the latest styles at which they work. With a dust of rice-powder on their faces, they brace themselves fm their corsets to think they are well dressed; ard they sacrifice cheerfully two cents worth of their day's food to buy a bunch of violets. They have nothing of the careless habits of the common Paris working woman. You wonder how they do it all on their scant pay. That is to say you wonder, or you cease to wonder, On full working days they must be at their workshops by 8 o'clock, even in winter, when the light of day has scarcely come. In the work room they are under the charge of a premiere—a “first lady’’— who is often ugly in face and temper, with- out which she might not have had the virtue to persevere even as a free-and-easy sewing girl until old maidenhood and pro- motion. She now has her reward, in its loveless way. Some of these premferes in the great shops receive over $1,000 a year, and under the system of profit-sharing, which has come into great vogue in Paris, one alone has had as much as 16,000 francs (33,200), in addition to her year’s wages. But all this scarcely meant a decent New Year present for the common sewing girl under her charge, for the profits are shared in a rising scale, according to time and rank of service, after the universal rule that to her who has more shall be given. Altogether, of the positions which may be reckoned as possible prizes in a sewing- girl's career, there are but a very few thousand in all Paris. This includes the many posts where special knowledge and accomplishments are required, as in the " or skilled “trier-on.” For the file—60,000 out of the 65,600— there is nothing higher to look for than one dollar to one dollar twenty cenis a day, when work is on. The little girl | whose annual expenditure was $75 (for she was honest) could count on only twenty- five cents a day, when averaging her whole year. She was ‘at the lower extreme, but those at the higher cannot hope to reach beyond eighty cents, and then they are rich, and may marry. In order to make a comparison between such an existence and the life of an or- which dinary shop girl, take a case of Two Cents Worth of Coffee. have personal knowledge. The girl had the advantage of being both young and pretty. She had been consecutively nursery govern- ess, child's nurse, a demoiselle of the Jardin de Paris, and an artists’ model. Becoming tired of these two latter phases of Parisian existence, she tried to get some Place behind a counter. It took two months, with influence. She now receives $5 a week in a sewing machine agency. The proprietor, who learned about her case through a spiteful anonymous letter, took her aside and asked her if she wished to stay. She said yes, if she might. He promised her an increased salary of a dollar a week, to be given her in a lump sum at the end of five months. In the meantime he would assist her to pay her room rent. This patron was an _ honest man, and was only following out the dic- tates of his conscience with regard to a girl who had come into his employ. For one such man in Paris, honorable and scrupulous, you have a hundred greedy, wicked, conscienceless. The girl considers she is very lucky with her $5 a week, apd the chance of buying her own furniture at the end of the five months. The Lunch Hour. Of all the species of working girls, the most romantic to the eye and most frequent- ly in view are these sewing hands from the great dressmaking and millinery shops of the Boulevard, the Rue de la Paix, the Rue de Rivoli and around the Place Vendome. At the noon sortie a perfect flood of little women issues forth upon the street, with tousled hair, high words, wrapped in their eternal little gowns of black merino in win- ter and stamped calico in summer, They | are speckled here and there with bits of thread; their faces are flushed and their | eyes are bright from the overheated atalier and they are going now to eat their lunches at the restaurants. They are the better paid and more chic sewing girls. All are young; the older ones, married for the most part, have remained at the work- shop, where they cook or heat up what they have brought with them from their homes. | The younger ones love better to take the air. Some go to little restaurants, where they meet their sweethearts. The beau, who is a clerk of the neighborhood, will pay for the girl's breakfast. She, in return, in the evening, will make him such neckties, from silk and satin that she has robbed from the workshop, that he may easily rival the most flaming dude. How a pretty working girl in the central part of Paris shall behave herself is undoubtedly only a matter for her own discretion. But scant wages, the opportunities of a corrupt city, and, worse still, the dangers forced on these girls by a system universally adopted by their empioy- ers have thei¢ natural result in the majority of ca rs,” says a grave authority, “the street attracts the sewing sirl; at eighteen it amuses her; at twenty it holds heg fast.” If the girl can persevere till twenty-five she may marry at iast the clerk tor whom she has made the flaming neckties or some fellow earning littie, hke herself, and not curious about her ‘past. But even then the danger is not finished. To see this we have only to go through the rest of the sewing girl’s day. The critical time is when she is dismissed r home at night. No matter what the time when work at hand and her year’s savings made {3 sure to prolong her labor far on into the night. Count Albert de Mun, who has made himself the apostle of a kind of Christian ives a black de- scripti t midnight they These working girls live up at Montmartre or farther, and the workshops are in the center of Paris, in the rich and elegant quarters. Some of ‘these girls prefer not to go away from the shop at that hour at all. For those who must venture it (and it is nearly all), how are they to go? The bus no longer passes. They must take 2 do this. Oftener they must go on foot, | a walk of an hour. And they are young girls of eighteen, or seventeen, even of six- teen years of age. Do you know what they have said to me? ‘We cannot ask protec- tion from the policemen. They answer us that honest girls do not go running on the streets at such an hour.’ STERLING HEILIG. | his vessel to withstand ice pressure. MaP SHOWING ROUYES OF FiVii AKCLIC EXPHDIVIONS. ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS Five Exploring Parties Expected to Be in the Field This Season. The Routes and Plans of Each — Mr. Stein’s Trip is Postponed Until Next Year, From Harper's Weekly. There will be five exploring parties in the arctic regions this season, the ‘largest num- ber ever in that field in one year, except when the circumpolar stations were main- tained (1880-82) to make meteorological ob- servations. The mission of two of these Parties is to explore and to map almost wholly unknown land areas and coast lines. ‘The other three will try to attain the north pole, and to tell us of the geographic and other conditions to be found there. The parties are small, in accordance with the theory now generally held that a few well- selected men are better for arctic work than a large force, every man more than is abso- lutely needed being a source of weakness and danger. with the best appliances and material. Only one expedition, that of Dr, Nansen, will run any considerable risks of disaster, and we may expect from these little bands !mpor- tant additions to our knowledge of the arc- tic regions. The American flag is at the head of three of these enterprises, while Norway and England send out the other parties. First on the list is Lieut. R. E. Peary, United States navy, who saw the sun rise, in the latter part of February, above the hills south of his camp in Inglefield gulf, north- west Greenland. We have no reason to doubt that betveen March 15 and 20 Peary, with eight or nine men and many dogs and sledges, clambered to the top of the ice cap and fairly started on the journey to the northeast coast of Greenland. Over the lofty surface of the inland ice he must make his way for 650 miles before he reaches In- dependence bay, where his explorations will begin. He knows more about this sort of sledge work than any other man, and is perfectly confident he can reach the north coast every time he makes the attempt. Peary’s laudable ambition is to fill up the big gaps in our knowledge of north Greenland. At Independence bay he will divide his men into three parties, one of which will survey the entire northern coast of the mainland. Another party will try to solve the mystery of the lofty rounded islands he saw to the north in 1892. It is likely that they form en archipelago extending for a considerable dis. tance north of the mainland. The third par- ty will travel southeast along the coast to survey the wholly unknown shore line be- tween Independence bay and Cape Bismarck, the most northern point reached by the Koldewey expedition in 1870. If Peary com- pletes these coast surveys, all the shore line of the largest island in the world will then be mapped, except the coast of Melville bay, in west Greenland, and about 200 miles of the east coast north of the 67th parallel. Peary himself will doubtless superintend the survey of the northern islands, a work of special difficulty, unless good sledging is found in the channels separating them. If the ice conditions in the Arctic sea are at all favorable, two or three men will start toward the pole, and travel as far as they can; but all the parties are to return to Inglefield gulf early next fall, in time to go home on the steamer that will be sent for them. Peary believes that if he ts at all for- tunate he can complete this summer all the work there is for him to do in north Green- land. This explorer’s qualifications make him an almost ideal leader of an arctic en- terprise, and if he has fairly good luck, we may expect to hear next fall of further bril- Mant achievements by Lieut. Peary. Stein’s Projected Fiel Mr. Robert Stein, who for nine years has been in the service of the United States geological survey, has chosen a most prom- ising field for the expedition he is organiz- ing. Just west of North Greenland, on the other side of Baffin Bay, is the large mass of Ellesmere Land, virgin ground for the discoverer, for many an explorer has pass- ed it by unnoticed, and we know it only on the eastern and a part of the southern coast fringe. Mr. Stein and nine or ten rien will soon go north on a whaler, and bulld a@ house on the coast of this land at the en- trance to Jones sound. From this depot a boat and sledge party will start west through the sound and up the west coast. There may be rich geographical prizes here, for nobody knows how far Ellesmere Land may stretch to the west, nor what islands may extend the Parry archipelago further north in that untraversed western sea, nor whether Eliespere Land is really itself an island, cut of™from Grinnell Land on the north by Hayes sound, as the natives as- sert. These and various scientific researches will keep the party very busy for eighty days. Then the party will come home, leaving perhaps two or three men at the house to keep up the.station and carry on scientific observations until reinforced in 1895 by a second party, that will begin ex- plorations toward the pole, designed by Mr. Stein to cover a series of years. His plans for this year’s work have been approved by the highest authorities. It is understood, however, that Mr. Stein distrusts his abil- ity as a leader of men, and that, with rare self-abnegation, he has chosen to place the command of the party he will take north in the hands of an able young army officer. (Since the above was written Mr. Stein has postponed his expedition until next year). Dr. Neasen and His Party. The expeditions whose quest is the north pole are entering the arctic area from the Euro-Asiatic side. Dr. Nansen and his lit- tle party on the Fram left Christiania on June 24 last. He has been heard from only once since he entered the Kara tea, The natives along Russia’s arctic shores have been stimulated by promises of rewards to take to the white settlements uny news they may hear of Nansen. The fact that nothing has been heard from him indicaies that he succeeded in crossing the Arctic ocean to the New Siberian Islands, where he intended to force his vessel into the ice. Nansen believes a current near these is- lands moves north across the pole, having its outlet in the polar stream that flows south along Greenland’s east coast, He de- pends upon this current to carry the Fram to or near the pole, and then south to the open sea east of Greenland. Nearly every arctic authority believes this venture is one of the most foolhardy ever undertaken, though all admire Nansen for his undoubt- ed pluck and the brilliant work he has al- ready done. While one or two geographers, like Dr. Supan, think Nansen’s project is justifiable, most authorities have little faith in his theory of currents, or the hoagie’ A of ie is provisioned for five years, and if he loses his vessel he will try to haul his whaie- boat over the ice to the open sea. Frederick Jackson's Plan. Frederick G. Jackson's plan, on the other hand, tommends itself to every one, for he. will take the Franz-Josef Land route, which for years has been in great favor Each party will be equipped | among arctic experts as offering a good chance to reach the pole. A wealthy Englishman has contributed the entire cost of the expedition, which will leave England late in July on a specially-butlt steamer. After landing the six or seven members of the party, late in August, on the south shores of Franz-Josef Land, the vessel will return to England, and the explorers will put up a Russian log house and make themselves as snug as possible for the winter. This camp will be the main depot, from which, in the spring, the party with dogs and sledges will start north through Austria sound, followirg the steps of the Austrians who discovered this land mass, and caching supplies every thirty or forty miles. It has long been thought that be- yond Petermann Land, the most northern of these islands yet seen, the archipelago may extend far north, and perhaps to the pole. Jackson hopes that this is the case, and if so he will plant his supply depots along the coast, within easy reach of one another. This will, of course, involve a num- ber of journeys to the main supply depot, but Jackson is in no hurry. He will be pro- visioned for four years, and proposes to take all the time necessary to reach the le, if that elusive goal can be reached | by this route. He is not depending, how- lever, upon \having land the whole way. and he will have collapsible boats for the| navigation of stretches of open water. The! advantages of Jackson's plan are that his| | base of operations is within easy reach of Europe, that he may find an almost con- tinuous coast line leading far toward the pole, and that, at any rate, he may be able to map the entire Franz-Josef Land region, now only partly known. Walter Wellman’s Trip. For the first time since Parry started for the pole with boats and sledges over the terriblygrough sea ice north of Spitzbergen, in 1827, the same route and methods are to be tested this year by Mr. Walter Weil- man, an enterprising American journalist. Mr. Wellman and several comrades started early in March for Norway, where a| steamer has been engaged to take them to! the edge of the arctic ice, landing on the way a depot of supplies on the coast of | Northwest Spitzbergen. It would, perhaps, be difficult to improve upon Wellman’s| equipment. His toboggan sledges, there is little doubt, are most suitable for the ice he will meet, and he has everything that experience suggested to facilitate his journey. About three months afte: the party have landed tne steamer will be at the ‘ice edge again to take them home. If they fail to connect with the steamer they will depend upon their boats to take them to the supply depot established on Spitzbergen, where they will be compelled to winter. At this writing Wellman’s enter- prise can be regarded only as a dash toward the pole, but when it is recalled | that Parry, with a wretched and cumbrous | equipment, and before the days of success- ful arctic siedging, attained by this route a latitude that was not equaled for a half century later, it will not be very suzpris-| ing if Wellran makes a high northing, ven though very rough going, and the per- stent southern drift of the ice wiping out | many of his hard-won miles, are factors | against him. ———ey THE KEARSARGE’S ARMOR. How It Was Afterward Used to Pro- tect a German Man-of-War. From the New York Herald. The history of the Kearsarge has been so many times told that it seems like “tak- ing owls to Athens” to attempt to say any- thing new about her. There is, however, an | item of ifiterest connected with this famous | vessel which, so far as I am aware, has never appeared in print. A number of years ago while stopping in @ little mountain town in Germany I be- came acquainted with Chief Engineer A. Gebhardsbauer of the imperial German navy. He recalled to me that when the! Kearsarge fought the Alabama oif Cher- | bourg anchor chains had been placed on both sides of the Kearsarge in order to pro- bo the boiler and engines from the enemy's | | Said that the one great factor in the solu- A long time after the battle, when the! Kearsarge was lying off the Azores Islands, | the anchor chains which had done such good service were removed, and were delivered | cver to the care of the United States consul | at Fayal. They remained in the consular} storehouse until July, 1870, | At this time, just at the outbreak of the| Franco-German war, the German wooden | frigate Arcona arrived at»Fayal. The Ar-| cona was one of the old type of wooden war vessels. Mr, Gebhardsbauer, who was chief | engineer of the Arcona, was ordered by her | commander to rig up something to afford protection for her engines in case the Arco- | na should fall in with a French ship, it be- | ing the intention to proceed to Germany at | once. | In a search for material in the storehouse | of Mr. Dabney, the United States consul, he | found the old anchor chains of the Kear- sarge and immediately secured them. They were placed on the Arcona exactly as they had been on the Kearsarge, and in a short time she was ready and sailed for the Fatherland. The Arcona met with neither adventure | nor trouble of any kind on her homeward voyage, but she remained in service, and the) chains were kept on her until the close of | the war, afterward being turned over to the | navy yard at Kiel as old iron. They were still there in 1888, and several indents made by the shot from the Alabama could still be seen in thera. The log book of the Kearsarge does not | show that the chains were disposed of as I | have stated. No mention whatever is made | of the disposition made of them. Further, | | the records of the State Department contain | nothing on the subject. The facts remain, nevertheless, and now | that the old ship has gone, it would seem highly proper that everything In the way of | | relics of her should be in the possession of this government. Portugal courteously re- turned the gun “Long Tom” of the brig Armstrong, and Germany would undoubted- ly do the same with the armor of the Kear- sarge. ree Excitement Ahead. . Tom Johnsing (of Thompson street)—“Hoo- ray! Deacon, hooray! Fo'-leben -fo’ty-fo" jest {come on de slips.” Deacon Bones—“Great hebbens! An’ me out widout mah razzer!” | Vance of what has been reached in the! | roads. The greater the obstacles in the way ; Vorabie than when you go into an undevel- AS TO. GOOD ROADS The Problem Discussed by Ex-Gov- ernor James A, Beaver. EDUCATION OF PUBLIC SENTIMENT Some of the Difficulties in the Way. PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS . (Copyrighted by the Irving Syndicate.) HE ROAD PROB- lem is far from @ sat- isfactory solution. In fact, very few of the many factors enter- ing into the problem have been successful- ly solved. As we read of representatives of the executive and legislative branches of the national go ernment and of the ato governors of three of igeesercd our most populous, wealthy and‘influential states assembling for the purpose of inspecting the practical operations of state aid furnished to some of the municipalities within that state for the construction of good roads, it would seem if a great stride had been made in the right direction. To some extent this is true, but the friends of road improvement have, to a large extent, been confined to public officials, who, by reason of their re- lations to the people, were compelled to give attention and careful consideration to the subject. We must not forget that while these persons occupy high official position, they are, nevertheless, the servants of the people. Any great movement or any need- ed reform must necessarily move slowly when the servant instructs’ the master and when he attempts to move in any direction in opposition to or in advance of the power which controls him. If the people were moving and the officials following, there would be more hope of an early and suc- cessful solution of the great problem. The Factor of Public Sentiment. It will be understood from what has been tion of the problem of good roads is public sentiment. Whenever the masses of our people can be brought to think upon this subject properly and can have their thoughts awakened to the importance of the subject so as to beget a desire for bet- ter things, we will secure them, and not be- fore. As a general thing the people will get what they want. We are not likely to secure what they do not want. The first | step, therefore, is to awaken a desire for | what they ought to have. The result will follow desire. The inspection of the practical results se- cured by state aid offered by New Jersey | to any locality availing itself of her offer made by the Secretary of Agriculture, ac- companied by ‘representatives of the legis- lative branch of the government, with the governors of New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, will do good. The good accomplished, however, will be} largely because of the attention which such a visit and inspection will attract. It will cause our people to think upon the subject, and careful thought and common- sense consideration must inevitably lead to right conclusions upon this subject. Difficulties in the Way. ‘The average citizen becomes quickly sen- sitive whenever the subject of taxation | is broached. Nothing so quickly puts him in an attitude of defiance or antagonism as a proposition to impose a new tax or to change the amount or mode of imposing and collecting an old one. Here lies one of the chief dif culties in the way of securing roed improvement. If we were starting | the question afresh, with the knowledge | and experience which we have gained in| the past, It would be comparatively easy, | but when you propose to increase local | taxation for road purposes or to change the mode of collecting an amount equal | to what has heretofore been levied, in other words, when you propose to require the ordinary citizen who has “worked out” his tax for many years to pay a like! amount in cash you then place him at | once in an attitude of opposition and de- flance. Our newer states will find much less ait- | ficulty in dealing with this subject than | those which have been building roads un- der laws which related to primitive con. ditions for one hundred years or more. As we travel in the newer states we are | surprised at the number and character of their school buildings and are apt to disparage the older states, as we com- pare them with the newer ones, but it is well to remember that the new states be- gin where the old ones leave off. Their people carry with them into their new homes the best results attained in their former homes. They have nothing to undo. They begin upon new foundations, and, as result, their building is apparently in ad- older settlements. This is so doubtless in the matter of public roads. It is especially true as to road legislation, If the legisla- tion in the several states within the last five years relating to this subject be ex- amined it will be apparent that the mewer states have a decided advantage over the older ones in providing for the construc- tion and maintenance of good roads. The state of Washington, called the Pennsyl- vania of the west, has enacted at least three practical and effective road laws since 1890. The state of Pennsylvania has been all that time vainly endeavoring to secure such changes in existing laws as will ena- ble the advocates of good roads to make a start in the direction of reform and im- provement. No Grounds for Discouragement. Meager and unsatisfactory net results must not discourage the advocates of good of progress the greater the necessity for ac- tivity and earnestness and continued dis- cussion. Real reform 1s proverbially slow. | It ts reached only by and through earnest | and continuous agitation. This agitation ts | to be carried on in such @ way as to reach | the great mass of our reading and thinking people. The medium through which it is to be carried on is the county paper, If we could enlist in the cause of road re- form every editor of every county newspa- per in the United States and could imbue him with practical ideas upon the subject the battle would be half won. The difficulty in accomplishing such a result 1s twofold. First. The average editor is the follower rather than the leader of public sentiment, and, secondly, discussion and experience have not gone so far as to determine defi- nitely what are the best results at which to aim and what are the methods through which those results are to be reached, County or State Contrel. The friends of road reform are not agreed as to the authority which shall control the laying out and construction of public high- ways, There are disadvantages in the town- ship or town system which prevails in many of our older states, There are less but still serious objections to county control. It would seem as if the state could more easily end more effectively carry into practical effect a uniform system; but, when the machinery for carrying such a system into effect is out- lined, it becomes 80 cumbersome and expen- sive that the average legisiator is appalled, hesitates and then despairs. It is a comparatively easy matter to pro- vide roads in populous, wealthy districts, where land is occupied’ by suburban resi- dents and is worth one thousand dollars per acre, as is the case in some of the coun- ties In many of our states, immediately ad- joining the larger cities. The people in these sections really desire good roads. A fair tax upon the value of thelr property will secure them. They are ready not only to pay such a tax, but are quite willing to contribute voluntarily toward the road fund, when practical results are apparent. ‘The conditions are entirely different when you come to a farming community, where land is worth fifty dollars an acre, and where the burden of taxation for county, poor and school purposes is as large as the ordinary farmer can bear; but even in such a community the conditions are more fa- oped region, where population is sparse, where the country is mountainous, where the grades are steep and taxable property reaches the minimum, How will you make a general law te WAY WOMEN DREAD APRIL Sing, Cleing—Sovin, Swen, Pring, end Hai Meals Exhaust Bay and Bri siege of winter leaves such excessive labor, and over many find they have on the road to weakness of some vital system, Paine’s celery merve and blood and strength to the down, weak and ner- Yous feel very soon an incrensed power for work and enjoyment. All bave the true instinct that Mfe, recovery from {lines and the maintenance of health come from perfect nutrition. Paine’s celery compound Teaches the very origin of nervous weakuess as Well us diseases of the liver, kidneys and stomach. It brings to the million of nerve cells all over the bedy the exact food they meed to become again every particle of poisonous bumor. The first bottle of Paine’s erlery compound starts the tired out, “run down” man or womas fairly om the roa to firm bealth. Says Mrs. ©. B. Prunerman of Dover, N. H.t “T was run down and felt very tired all the time I was rot able to do my work, aud bad not been since baby came to us. I took a bottle of # cer- tain sarsaparilia, but it did me no good. My sister came to me and advised me to get a bottle of Paine’s celery compound. I was Giscouraged oud had no faith im anything. My father went and got the compound to try and see if it would fot do me good. Before I had taken one-balf of the bot- Ue I felt as well as ever, and I have doue my own work ever since without any trouble.”” Bers is the experience of thousands of others. where the value of taxable property and the physical features of the country are so di- verse. Or, face another difficulty. How will you provide by state legislation for a uni- form system of roads where in most sec- tions of the state good road material is abundant and in some counties of it scarcely a stone can be found? The first step in securing better results is taken when we clearly apprehend the diffi- culties which confront us. The object of this article is, therefore, to bring clearly to the minds of the friends of road reform the difficulties which confront them in reaching a practical solution of the problem. When these are vy, @ and clearly appre- hended a great step has been gained, and the attention of all who are interested in the subject will be turned toward the com- ™mon standpoint which can be occupied by all friends of the movement. and from which the ifficuities which confront them can be met and mastered. A Common Ground of Action. ‘What Is this common ground? How shall ‘we meet the difficulties which have been herein suggested? It would seem, with the short experience of the state of New Jersey, under her well-considered act of the 14th of April, 1891, as amended on the 29th of March, 1892, that county control supplemented by state ald will meet the difficulties which exist in most of our older states, at least such as have been enumer- ated herein, County control in the layine out of the roads seems to be essential to any well-considered system of highways communicating with the principal cities, towns and villages therein. and state aid would enable the wealthier communities to come to the help of those less able to bear the burdens of well-constructed and well-maintained roads. The visit of che Secretary of Agriculture and the governors of neighboring states alluded to in the beginning of this article was made for the purpose of seeing the Practical results of New Jersey's legisla- tion. If the impressions gained by this visit could reach the public in a form east- ly accessible to all our people much would be gained in the direction of imparting information in a form which would be more attractive and at the same time more practical than the publication of the laws urder which the work inspected was un- dertaken and carried forward. It is that such information will reach the pub- lic at an early day in such a form as to carry with it the impression which ought to be made thereby. JAMES A. BEAVER. Bellefonte, Pa., March 31, 1894. ————_+e-+—____ DE RUDYARD. He Doesn't Like Walter Besant’s Praise of America. From the Toledo Blade. Walter Besant’s experience with Rud- yard Kipling appears to have discusted him with that overestimated, if clever, young man. Kipling was excessively annoyed to learn that Besant thought this country rather a decent sort of place, and the “low, vulgar Irish” whom Kipling announces America so full of seemed to Besant a prosperous, intelligent and thrifty class, and the latter did not hesitate to say so. Consequently | the two English literary men have not quite agreed. Whenever Kipling comes to New York— and he makes periodical trips—his absurd hatred of both America and Ireland brings him infinite mortification, for he expresses his sentiments with the candor of a child. He stopped at an uptown hotel recently over night, and a friend who had made his way upstairs asked the hall porter where Rudyard Kipling’s room w: “He ain't stoppin’ here, replied that functionary; “leastways, I never heard of hi ‘Did you ever hear of William Shakes- peare?” snapped the short story writer trom India. coming up just then. As Kipling bore away his visitor he had the mortification of listening to the laugh- ter of a pair of Bohemians who had over- heard everything in an adjoining room. This is the gentleman who has not found in Walter Besant a sympathetic listener to his denunciations of America and all things American. Besant is a good, genial, dignified man of the world, a warm friend of Justin McCarthy, and has a great liking for Dublin, which, it is understood, will be the scene of his next story, Halt's | Hetr Renewer,, is prosounced the best epara’ made hickening the growth the bale, aad that ‘whlch ‘ie ghay to sis Frow the Phfladelphia Times. It will not be surprising if, in months, a fresh disaster in Africa is an- nounced, Fifteen men who have never been there have started for the wilderness of Central Africa for the sole purpose of test- ing the economic theories set forth in Prof. ‘Theodor Hetzka’s book, “Freeland.” These enthusiastic young men imagine that they are going to found an ideal community, but all who know the conditions they will meet fear that before a year has passed trouble and suffering will overwhelm their brightest hopes and ail who are left of them will be glad to get home again. It is a remarkable spectacle. To test a new social theory, these men are plunging into a savage district where no white col- onists have ever been. They hope to take @ steamboat far up the Tana river, only once thus ascended, and then with the greatest difficulty. They expect to settle down beside powerful native tribes, noted for their treacherous and unfriendly char- acter. In fact, every step of their way is new and experimental, like their theory, and not only hardsnips but dangers also will environ them. Details ef the Scheme. The pioneer expedition, numbering fifteen men, Austrians, Germans and English, left burg on the last day of February for the mouth of the Tana river in East Africa. Their leader, Dr. Juiius Wilhelm, had start- ed three weeks earlier. The steamship on which they embarked carriel a small steamer of twenty horse power for service on the Tana. Each member of the party had paid $250 for his passage from, Ham- burg to Hargazo Falls. about 359 miles up the river. The equipment, including ample supply of Mannlicher rifles, w purchased with funds contributed by abo’ thirty societies founded in Europe to by Dr. Hetzka start his new colony in Africa. About forty more pioneers expect to go out this season. Dr. Hetzka has filled a large volume with the details of the theory whose practice- bility he now desires to test. 1 will su here to indicate some of its broader fea- tures. The large amount of land thet has been ceded by the British East Africa © pany cannot be owned by individuals, | is to be the property of the community. No rent will be charged for the land. The improvements made on the land a’ the property of the community, those pe s making them being recompensed therefor. The community will be divided into associa- tons, each of which will carry on its par- | ticular industry, such as agriculture, cloth making, lumber manufactures and so on. The productions of every sort will belong to the community, and the necessaries of life will be distributed from the community | Storehouses. The surplus of all produce, after the wants of the community have | been supplied, will be sold to the outsid world. At the end of each year the jon the total year’s work will be distri | among the people in proportion to the jeach person has done. In this wey members of the community ma’ cumu- late private possessions to be: to | their children, but houses and la 1 |Rot be among them. A community fund | will be accumulated to tide the people over | bad years. There are many novel features, jincluding a bank that will loan money without interest. an ac is w Prospective Wealt jo; I'll not give you another day. Pay me now or get out. You'll not have any more money tomorrow than you have today.” Hall Bedroome—“Oh, yes, I will; I'm go- ing to have a friend here tonight to teach him how to play poke —_____, A famous remedy, Dr. Bull's Gough Syrup, }