Evening Star Newspaper, September 1, 1894, Page 15

I! a i ts THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 1894—EIGHTEEN PAGES. “CARP” TAK COREAS SQUEEZER. Min Yung Jun, the Corean Premier, THE PEOPLE TERRIBLY OPFRESSED. What Foreigners May Expect When They Go to Corea. BURNED TO EXTORT MONEY. (Copyrighted, 1804, by Frank G. Carpenter.) Written for The Evening Star. HE MAN WHO HAS had more to do with the oppression of the Corean people, and who was to a large extent the cause of the rebellion, is going about Seoul today with hundreds of fol- lowers. He rides in a chair, seated on a leopard skin, and he has a house contain- ing scores of rooms. He is sail to be a millionaire. A few years ago he was worth practically nothing. He pas made his immense fortune by squeezing the pco- ple, and by his relationship to the ‘queen. His name is Min Yung Jun. He is now about forty years old, but he is one of the greatest political strikers of the world, and he is an adept in the selling of offices and im getting money out of the people. A part of his receipts have gone to the king, but a large amount has stuck to his own clothes. He first showed his efficiency in this line as governor of Ping Yang, a city of perhaps 150,000 inhabitants, which lies within a hundred miles of Seoul. Here he was nicknamed by the people as “Stove Min” because he burned up everything he touched, and he is now called Buddha Min, INGA RIDE hot pokers. Now and then they would let them out in the yard, and if the minister came in sight, would warn them that they had better be quiet, for he was a dangerous man, and was already inclined to cut their heads off for their non-payment of the money. Think of such a thing actually go- ing on for weeks without the minister knowing it. ard I am told that a somewxat My Keso. similar state of affairs prevailed for a short time in connection with the quarters | of one of the missionaries. Money or Blvod. There is nowhere in the world that the almighty dollar is worth more to a man than it is in Corea. He can often save his skin by plating the palm of his enemy with silver, and persons sentenced to flogging can ransom their punishment with money. They have, in fact, a fixed rate for this In Corea. Ten biows of the bamboo will be omitted on the payment of about $5; twenty blows for $10, and so on upward. There are few men who would not give all they have rather than have their thighs reduced to a jelly, and the bamboo is a great persuader. At the same time, officials are sometimes punished for their cruelty, and those who cause the death of perscns by torture, receive 100 blows and are dismissed from the public service. I am told that the present dynasty Probably for his supreme cheek of abscorb- The Prime Minister of Corca. ing everthing about him into his own nir- vana. I have secured a photograph of him, with a lot of his dancing girls behind him, and his son at dis side. His feet rest upon @ leopard skin, ani he is by no means a bud-looking orean. He has evidently great organizing powers, and he has bronght office brokevase down to a system. A Land of Squeezers. Corea, like China, is a land of squeezers. Officials who are paid something like $500 @ year are expected to squeeze about $5,000 annually from the peop! There is No security of property iu Corea, and hence Ro incentive for the people to accumulate. If a man lays up money and the magis- trates find it out, they have one of their urder strappers accuse him of some crime. False witnesses are plenty, and they can whip the man or torture him until he pays Scmething to be let go. Sometimes poor men are arrested on such charges. When tortured they say they have nothing and can give nothing. The reply often is, “You have a rich uncle. or a rich cousin, and he mvst pay this amount for you.” As to the officials, they must get their money out of the people, and if they pay high prices for their offices they have got to oppress their subjects. Unt'l within the last year or so the magistrates were allowed to have terms of from two to three years. The Prices of the offices were high. By judt- cially apportioning their oppressions over this time they could squeeze enough to make a profit and still let the people live. The rebellion was not against the king, but against his officials, and had the king Fot foolishly sent his troops against the Febels he might have escaped his present troubles and the war between China and Japan deferred. How They Squeezed “Carp.” This squeezing, which exists among the magistrates, runs, in fact, through the whole of Corean society. You remember the doggerel which runs something like this: ‘The biggest fleas have smaller fleas Upon their backs to bite ‘em, And those small fleas have other fleas, And so ad infinitum. Well, the Corean official flea is of all izes, from this great prime minister, Min down to the kesos who trot along bes your chair when you go through the city of Seoul. I had four chair- bearers to carry me, and part of the time there was a soldier on each side of us. In addition, there was “Gen.” Pak, and I doubt not that every one of them got his percentage out of everything I bought. I fad to have the money paid over in my presence to be sure that it would be paid at all, and when Pak bought a cigar for me I venture he always received a cigar- ette as his commission on the purchase. The Chinaman who kept house for Mr. Power, the electrician to the king, with whom I stopped, got his percentage on the price of every mouthful of food we ate and of everything we bought. I could not hire a horse that the man who ran behind it and acted as my groom did not get his percentage of the hire. Such things are perfectly legitimate in Seoul. The man who keeps the gate of your house is given 10 per cent of the amount of all purchases made. This, of course, comes out of the landlord, who is charged an additional price. If the percentage is not paid, the seller will get no more business, and he will be boycotted by all the gatemen of the town. A case of sqeezing occurred not long ‘o in connection with the Russian legation, and it was carried on a long time before the Russian minister found it out. These kesos went out into the country and found Men who were in debt to people in Seoul. They told them that the Russian minister had bovght the claims against them, and that they must be paid with high interest. They put them in cha‘ ought them right to the 'e: t them in the outhouses, which are reserved for the kesos, and which surround every large Corean establishment. Here they whipped them from time to time with paddles. They would strip them half naked, sus- pend them by their elbows, and torture them by touching their bare legs wita red- has much less terrible punishments than were common in the past, and that within the last 250 years knee-crushing and brand- ing have been abolished,and there is no cut- ting off of the noses and feet of men, as was done in the middle ages. What Foreigners May Expect. These punishments will give you some idea of the horrors which are bound to attend any protracted war in this part of the world. The Japanese will carry on their struggle on western methods, but the Co- reans and the Chinese will do as they have done in the past, and woe be to the pris- crers who fall into their hands. During the war between the Chinese and English about a generation ago the foreign prison- ers were carried «bout in iron cages, and I met an English consul gt Canton a few years since who had his whiskers pulled out one at a time while he was being shown as a curiosity to the people in an iron pen, the rcof of which was so low that he could neither sit por stand within it. This man said at the time that China should give up a life for every hair he lost from his beard, and his position, I am told, was such that he was able to carry out his threat. The American Colony in Corea. And thig brings me to the American col- ony in Corea. Some of the best men that the Un:ted States has ever produced are now laboring here. Dr. H. N. Allen, the secretary of the American legation, will go down into history as one of the greatest of cur diplomats. He has dune more for Corea than any man ever connected with the Uni- ted States legation, and if our diplomatic service was organized on any other than a political basis he would today be the Amert- can minister to Corea. He has his wife and his children, two bright boys, with him, and his house is inside the legation compound. He comes from Ohio, and he 1s a thoroughly able man in every respect. He practically saved the life of one of the princes of the royal family, and his value to America and Europe is inestimable. The American minister, Mr. Sill, has been in Corea only a short time. I will write more concerning Tim in a future letter. He has been a professor and an educator all his life, and he fs a cultured gentleman. He comes from Michigan and was appointed largely through the influence of Don Dick- inson. He is a man of no experience in Tortured With Red Hot Pokers, diplomatic life, but he is well liked and he is making a very good minister. There ts only one American firm in Corea, and this is that of Morse & Townsend, which has its chief house at the port of Che- mulpo. James R. Morse, the senior partner, lives in New York. He has spent some years in Corea and Japan and he is a very able man. W. D, Townsend, the other member of the firm, is a well-educated Bostonian, who does a big business in ship- ping all sorts of things out of the country and in importing supplies for the king, the court and the people. ‘The Missionaries. The missionary force in Corea is large, and it has done a great deal of good work. I don’t believe there are more earnest, ac- tive and intelligent missionaries anywhere than you will find in this country. They have a streng hold upon the people, and they are thoroughly respected by the king. The headquarters of the missions are in | Seoul. ‘The work is chiefly done by the Presbyterians and Methodists as far as the Americans are concerned. The French Catholics have a large force at work among the people, and there is also a mission of the Church of England, which is, I think, managed from London. The ‘American Presbyterian mission consists of some- thing like twenty people, and the most of the missionaries have wives and families. The Methodist mission is equally as large, and both have hospitals and schools. The Corean College, under the Methodist Epis- copal mission, is in charge of the Rev. H. G. Appenzeller, who is also treasurer of | the mission, and a most efficient man. I spent some time with him at his home in | Seoul, and I can certify that he is thor- | cughly well posted upon the country, and that his organization is doing a great deal ,oo4. The missionaries in Seoul live in- walled compounds or yards. Their gates are usually guarded by keepers, and lin case of trouble like the present these walls would be a slight protection from a mob. Connected With the Kt: In addition to these, there are a number of foreigners connected with the court and the king. Gen. Wm. McE. Dye was, for years, in the employe of the late Khédive of Egypt. He is a graduate of West Point, and he is one of the instructors and officers of the Corean army. He has becn of great value to the king during the present rebel- lion, and in case there is a protracted war between Japan and China upon Corean soil, his brains will have much to do with the di- rection of the struggle. I visited him not long ago. His red beard and hair have turned white since he left America, but his form is as straight as when he commanded his soldiers during the war of the rebellion, and his eye is as bright as it was during his wonderful career in Egypt. Gen. Clar- ence Greathouse, the foreign adviser to the king, is a Kentuckian by birth, and a Cali- fornian by adoption. He came from C: fornia to be consul general at Yokohama, and from there was called to Seoul as a foreign adviser to the king at a salary of $12,000 a year. He has a fine establishment here, and his mother, who is one of the sweetest old ladies out of Kentucky, is with him. Then there is Gen. Le Gendre, who is also one of the vice presidents of the home office, and who is connected with Gen. Greathouse as foreign adviser,and Col. F. J. H. Nienstead, who is in charge of the gov- ernment school. Last, but not least among the Americans, there is a bright young Washington man named Power, who came to Corea to put the electric light plant in the palace, and who has the position of elec- trician to the king. He ts only twenty-six years of age, but he has put up one of the finest electric light plants that you will find on the other side of the globe, and when the country is again settled he will probably build an electric railroad which is projected from Seoul to Chemulpo. Corea’s Former Minister. It is very unfortunate that this rebellion occurred just at this time, and if the Chinese are allowed to control affairs they will put the country in a worse state than ever. The king himself is more Progressive than any of his nobles, and he is anxious to see his country improved and his people bettered. It was only a few months ago that he undertook to establish @ postal service, and to do this he called from Waskington Mr. Ye Cha Yun, who, for years, was the secretary of the Corean legation, and who acted for a time as Corean minister. Ye went to Corea very en- thusiastic as to his work, and he was doing all he could to push modern progress there when the present rebellion broke out. He is one of the brightest of the younger Corean statesmen, and if his Prominence does not result in his losing his head through the jealousy of those above him, he will yet make himself felt in the administration of the government. I called upon him one day at his residence in Seoul. He lives within a stone’s throw of the nd the parlor in which he received furnished half in American and half in Corean style. He wore a gown of white silk, and on his head was a many- cornered black hat of horse-hair net. The desk before him was full of papers, and he was working as hard as he did at Washing- ton. He has, I am told, a good, fat posi- tion in the provinces where the rebellion occurred, and it is probably a lucky thing for his head that he ts using it in Seoul rather than in southern Corea. —— Lord Salisbury on Unsolved sctentii Problems, From the New York Sun. ‘The opening adcress at the sixty-fourth annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science was made by the president, Lord Salisbury, who is also chancellor of the University of Oxford. Not being a priest of science, Lord Salis- bury discreetly departed from the custom, established by his predecessors, of recalling the salient points in the progress of scien- tific investigation during the preceding year. He chose to undertake a survey, not of our knowledge, but of our ignorance; and he undoubtedly succeeded in showing that all we know may fairly be described as faint and scattered spots of radiance on a back- ground of impenetrable mystery. It was pointed out, for instance, that con- spicuous among the sclentifi@ enigmas which still defy solution is that regarding the nature and origin of the chemical ele- ments. Of these, sixty-five are known to us, but only a third of them seem needed to form the substance of this planet. Another thir€ are useful but somewhat rare, while the remainig third are curiosities. Upon what law or principle was this seemingly random collection of dissimilar material brought together? The chemist is as yet un- able to reply. Attention was then directed to the fact that nitrogen and oxygen are absent from the spectrum of the sun, although these two elements constitute the largest portion of the solid, liquid and aerial components of the earth. Bearing this in mind, Lord Salisbury propounded to physicists the fol- lowing conundrum: “If the earth is a de- tached bit whirled off the mass of the sun, how comes it that in leaving him we clean- ed him out so completely of his nitrogen and oxygen that not a trace of these gases remains to be discovered even by the sen- sitive vision of the spectroscope?” Another riddle touched upon by the lay president of the British association is the nature of what we call the ether. Almost all we know about the ether ts that it un- dulates, and probably at the same rate for the passage of light as for that of elec- tricity. Inasmuch as electricity penetrates everything the inference is that the ether by which it travels must pervade all space, whether empty or full. Apart from this de- duction and the fact of undulation the mys- tery of ether remains inscrutable. Then, again, what have we learned thus far about the origin of animal and vegetable life? What was the strange impulse which was able to strike across the ordinary laws of inorganic matter and twist them for a moment from their path? The biologist cannot tell us, Referring, finally, to Darwin's theory of the origin of species, Lord Salisbury con- terded that one of the strongest objections to the hypothesis seemed still to retain all Its foree. He had in mind the objection first made by Lord Kelvin, that the amount of time required by the advocates of the Dar- winian doctrine for working out their proc- ess of evolution could not be conceded with- out assuming the existence of a totally dif- ferent set of natural laws from those with which we are acquainted. If the mathe- maticians are right, and they adhere stur- dily to their figures, the biologists cannot have the time which they demand. Much stress was also laid by Lord Salisbury on anu admission by Prof. Weismann in a paper published a few months ago. “We accept natural selection,” says Weismann, “not because we are able to demonstrate the process in detail, nor even because we can with more or less ease imagine it, but simply because we must; because it is the orly possible explanation that we can con- ceive.” Belleve where ye cannot prove: that used tu be the injunction reserved for the priests, not of science, but of religion. Lord Salisbury closed a highly interest- ing, because wholly unexpected, address by quoting a statement of Lord’ Kelvin’s: “I have always felt that the hypothesis of natural selection does not contain the true theory of evolution, if evolution there has been, in biology. I feel profoundly con- vinced that the argument of design has been greatly too much lost sight of in re- cent zoological speculations.” As a matter of fact, these words were uttered some twenty years ago, but Lord Kelvin, who followed the president of the association with some brief remarks, neither disavowed nor in any way revised them. WHEN WEARY AND LANGUID Use Horsford’s Acid Phosphate. When you are weary and languid with the beat of summer, and strive in vain to keep cool, and sour temper also, the use of Horsford’s Acid Phosphate will materially ald you, IN ARCTIC: WATERS Walter Wellman’s Leckie Account of His Voyage to Spitzbergen. NO C8, BOT VERY ROUGH SEAS Progress of the Expedition Before the Disaster Occurred. THE MIDNIGHT SUN (Copyright, 1804, by Walter Wellman. All rights reserved.) Written for The Evening Star. LL READERS OF the newspaper press are familiar with the fact that WalterWell- man’s polar expedi- tion, after an espec- lally auspicious begin- ning, came to grief late in May, when the arctic ice, as if in- dignant because a lit- tle group of mortals had attacked its se- crets with such bold- ness,. crushed the Ragnvald Jarl, the expedition’s gallant ship, lke an eggshell. Before this Mr. Wellman had forwarded the first of the letters de- scriptive of his expedition’s work. They have now reached America, and the first is printed below. The accompanying map shows the point at which the disaster oc- curred: SPITZBERGEN, May 5.—We have had a wild ride from civilization to this uninhab- ited and remote corner of the earth, a fast and furious journey, and a lucky one. Probably we have beaten all records at this season of the,year. We have not only made the south eepel of Spitzbergen in three days from Tromsee, but we have done so in the first days of May. We are now, only our fourth day {pom civilization, be- tween the 77th and 7sth parallels of lati- tude, or farther horth than the spot at which the Jeannette was sunk, almost as far as Dr. Kane penetrated and nearer the pole than many of| the;early explorers were able to reach. Médreover, we have had to come thus far in ofer ‘to see a piece of ice, and all the ice now visible from the crow’s nest of the Ragnyald Jarl would not im- pede the progress ‘ofa fishing smack. To- day we have a calm sea, a bright, genial sun and a clear way to the north, Tomor- row, in all probability, we shall reach our headquarters at Dane's Island, just under the Suth parallel, Rarely have vessels been able to get so far north along this coast so early in the year. Never before, so far as we know, did one make the voyage, as we have done, absolutely without interruption by ice. Our American luck appears to be still with us. A Rough Voyage. But it was a wild ride. We left Tromsoe Tuesday evening, May 1, Early nex{ morn- ing we were out of the fiords to the north and in the open sea. At 8 o'clock Capt. Bottelfsen reported his latitude at 70.32. But long before this most of the members of our party were painfully aware that we had exchanged the quiet of the Norwegian fiords for the turbulence of the Arctic sea, As arctic travelers we must all be tested, but as sailors, the great majority of us have already been tried and found wanting. There was a disgraceful lack of diners at the dinner tables. The buuks were nearly all filled with suffering mortals. Our Nor- wegian contingent suffered even more than the Americans, and even the dogs in the un- derdeck were as miserable as dogs well could be, refusing all nourishment and filling the noisome air of their quarters with the most piteous whines. Two of them indeed suc- cumbed to the rigors of the journey, and our original pack of fifty-three has been reduc- ed, by drowning, by fighting, by strangula- tion and too much seasickness, to forty- eight. We held no funerals over the de- ceased. There is a great deal of sentiment in arctic work, and but for sentiment no ene would ever ergage in it, but we were all too miserable on our own accounts to waste any breath over dead dogs. Our only consolation in this connection was that we have lost fewer animals than we had ex- pected to lose, and have more than enough remaining for our work. No wonder both human and canine mem- bers of the expedition were ill. Even one of the sailors of the Jarl lost his meals overboard the first day out, but kept at his work all the while, brave fellow! Think of the heroic stuff there must be In a man who can run up the ropes and out the yardarms of a dancing ship while suffering the tor- ments of mal de mer! What Wise Norwegtia: Said. In Norway all the wise old sailing mas- ters and would-be experts shook their heads when they heard we were going to sail on the Ist of May. “Too early. Better wait till the 15th,” they said. They admited this was a favorable year, but still there must be a great deal of ice to the north. There always had been ice and always must be ice. Nevertheless we concluded to adhere to our program. We had studied the Spitz- bergen region not in the light of one man's experience, but in that of a thousand ex- periences running through 20) years, and we felt confident we had a reasonably good chance of pushirig our way through to Dane's Island in from ten to fifteen days, It must be confess however, that the ma- jority of us were looking rather eagerly for ice the first day aut. We knew that when the Ragnvald Jarl was once within the ice there would be no more rolling and pitching and the dinner be: ‘id cease from mock- ing, for the water Within the ice is as still 4s a pool in the woods. (Often, one skipper told us, the ice is formed below Bear Island, but those of us who ngped for relief in the neighborhood of the rocky islet discovered by Barentz 300 years ago were doomed to disappointment. \We passed to the west- ward of the island nt 3 o'clock yesterday morning in a howiing gale, with the mer- cury below the freezing point, but the cnly ice to be seen was rthat which made a crystal ship and fairy rigging of the Ragn- vald Jarl. Those of us who remained up until mid- right were rewarded with a glimpse of one of the distant high peaks of Spitzbergen. Only three days from Tromsoe and a glis- tening cap of our promised land dead ahead. Now we are rewarded with a much grander spectacle. It is like what one might imagine as the original from which modern scene painters draw inspiration for production of their transformation pictures upon the stage. A litle before midnight the down- shooting rays of the sun were seen straight north over Spitzbergen. Between the sun and us were successive curtains of clouds, filumined, of course, from the far side, like the mesh curtains used in fairy scenes of the theater. Through openings were sights so grand and deep as to draw the vision and hold it entranced, and make one think he was looking through all the clouds of this world, and the space which intervenes before the next one into the eternal beyond. I have no desire to attempt poetical or sen- timental description, but the spectacle was really beautiful beyond the power of my peor words to describe, and in that deep blue und, so far behind so many films of various-tinted clouds, the great sun was now and then to be seen flitting in a downward course straight for the all-snow peaks of Spitzbergen. In the forecastle stood Capt. Bottelfsen, sextant in hand, waiting an opportunity to take a midnight altitude. Another glimpse of the great white red orb, and he is gone. Darker clouds inter- vene, but his rays, through reflection from the glaciers and the snow peaks, are paint- ing all the northern horizon golden yel- lcw. Will the sun reappear? Yes; there he is. His lower edge dips below the clouds. Now his equator is to be seen, and now— Icok quickly—he stands completely unmask- . A new corona of golden light shines out in the north. The spectacle has passed beyond the art of the scene painter. Nature shows herseif to be without rivals. The Midnight Sun. An instant or two thus, and the sun stands still, It quivers in the heavens as if undetermined whether to honor earth by @ nearer approach. And then it starts up again on another twenty-four-hour sweep through the polar sky. The sun has set and the sun has risen all in one giorious Process. One day is gone. Another is here, and it is time to craw! into our bunks and draw closer the curtains over the port- holes. It is not easy to realize that for four months we have bid good-bye to night, and that the sun we are to have always in the heavens. The midnight sun, now so won- derful a spectacle because new to most of us, will soon be commonplace enough. It is a beautiful yet a sad thought—the thought that, as far as we are from home, there is one thing our friends there may gaze upon at the same instant we do, and that thus the sun as a common object may be made the medium of thought transfer- ence from polar regions to the haunts of civilization and back again. From a thought like this we are roused by the voice of Dr. Mahun shouting his familiar “Steady!” as the Ragnvald Jarl gives her hundred millionth lurch to port since morn- irg. The good doctor imagines it to be his duty to run the ship, and he goes out on deck and converses with the good natured cap- tain as to the advisability of “hanging some more curtains on those things that stick out over the sides from the front pole,” meaning thereby, of course, more sail on the yardarms of the mainmast. When the captain laughingly declines, the good doctor expresses himself as being willing to compromise on a smaller cur- tain on the back pole. The little after- deck of the Jarl, whereon a few of us sur- prise the sailors by ordering them to pour buckets of sea water upon our naked bod- ies early in the morning—this away up in the arctic region, near the pole, in early May—the good doctor calls this deck our back porch, A Calm Sea at Last. This morning we rose to find a bright sun, a calm sea and Spitzbergen but a few miles on our starboard vow. The sharp pointed peaks from which the group takes its name line the whole coast, the snow line running ar down to the water's edze. Nothing coider or more forbidding than ‘this ice- mantled region could be imagined, but to those of us who had been talking Spitzber- gen, scheming Spitzbergen, dreaming Spitz- bergen, for many a long month it was a land of beauty and of promise for hard work soon to come. Afier three days of tempest tossing the men crawled out of their bunks and the do; ere lifted out of their reeking hold to bask in the sunshine. Our first day in the Spitzbergen seas ts one of brightness and confidenc We have still to meet the ice which every one pre- dicted would block our way. But stay. What is that? The Ragnvald Jarl strikes some obstacle and shivers in every bone of her body. It is the ice at last! Ail rush on deck to behold, for the first time for most of us, the sea of ice. Another crash, which makes everything in the cabin of the Jarl rattle and shake. How serious is the ob- stacle? How long are we to be delayed? WALTER WELLMAN, ATORS WERE PUz- ZLED. By Quotations From the Bible. “S. M."" i the Philadelphia Star. A few days ago it became necessary to file the will of the late Senator Gibson of Louis- jana for probate im New York. Its publica- tion has caused a great deal of comment here, because of its simplicity and its high moral tone. The item of publication reads as follows: The will of the late Senator Gibson has beeu placed on file in the court of probate in New York, as well as in Louisiana. After making several bequests to relatives and friends, he gives the residue of his es- tates to his three sons, Mcntgomery, Tobias and Preston. He advises them that the only thing that is more difficult to build up than independent fortune is character, which is taore easily lost, and the only safeguards of character, he continues, are the Ten Com- mandments and the “Sermon on the Mount.” it is curious how few among our people in nigh official life can be found who have anything more than a thin and very super- ficial idea of what Christ said in the Ser- inon on the Mount. The great majority have not read it since their Sunday school days. We have had declaimed at stated intervals in both houses of Congress the Declaration of Independence, Washington's farewell address, Patrick Henry's famous speech in behalf of liberty, excerpts from Jefferson’s writings, Jackson's profanity, and Lincoln at Gettysburg, but never the Sermon on the Mount. Mr. Gibson’s will has set us to thinking and reading. It is not often, I am sorry to say, that men in politics and the newspaper business give such a matter thought or concern. I will relate what may be called a curious coincidence that is apropos. A year or two before Senator Gibson died he was addressing the Senate on the subject of the disturbed condition of the south brought about by having the colored man in politics. He quoted extensively from the Sermon on the Mount in defense of the south. Jones of Arkansas, the same who has become so well known as the chairman of the subcommittee of the finance com- mittee that was charged with the task of constructing the tariff bill that is now waiting the signature of President Cleve- land, was temporarily presiding. I was one of a group who were in close proximity to him. Leaning over toward us he said: “Where does Gibson find those quotations he is using?’ “He gets them from the Bible,” was the spontaneous answer that came from several of us. “Oh, I know that,” said Jones, “but from what particular section of the Bible?” None of us could answer positively. I walked over to Senator Hoar, the book authority of the body, and put the query to him. He gave me the correct information. Jones said it annoyed him that he could not remember the fact. He then asked for a copy of the Bible. When it was brought none of us could say where in the book the sermon could be found. It instantly occurred to me that I had in my desk a copy of the sermon printed in tract form. It was the habit of a kind-faced and el- derly woman to drop in on us at intervals and distribute tracts and religious reading printed in other forms, with the admonition that we might become better men if we would drop politics and newspaper work orce in a while and give the tracts cursory perusal. It was my habit to throw those given to me into a drawer with the inten- tion of taking the old lady’s advice when I had leisure. But I never found myself with leisure. That ts,. leisure for that kind of reading. I never wanted for time to read rewspapers and the latest novels, but it was different when the tracts caught my eye. But that is not material in finishing out the story. I found in my desk among the old lady's offerings several copies of the Sermon on the Mount. These I took to the Senate chamber and distributed. Senator Jones read the copy I gave to him and then carefully placed it in a side pocket. I have wondered since whether in making up the new tariff and allowing the sugar trust such full swing, it ever occurred to the Senator to refer to the sermon and reflect. ——~ see. It is a Long Lane That Has No Tarn- ing. HOW THE SE) From Life. a a ay ee ee en ee aa, ee PAT. CAP'N tapas Written Exclusively for The Evening Star. He was only a canal boy, with brown un- smiling eyes and a brown face, who used | rough tanguage toward the mules now and then and iost his temper frequently at being called “Cap’a Pat.” Short and thickset and strong was Cap'n | Pat—‘powerful strong,” said the keepers of the locks when they saw him pulling and hustling with the chain or pushing the mules vigorously “‘a littl away there.” “Powerful strong,” thought the captain, in reality, as he sat at the end of the deck, | moving the rudder to and fro; “powerful strong. and powerful sturdy, and powerful | stubborn.” “Ho, you Pat,” he called loudiy, | “loosen the rope a bit; the next thing you'll have the off mule tumbling into the canal.” | The boy, thus ordered, in a nonchalant manner loosened the rope, shrugged his | shoulders, slashed his whip and went on. “Thinks he knows it all,” muttered the man. i Except for the voice of the captain call-| ing out orders to Pat, and the everlasting tinkle of the mule bell, no sounds disturbed the stillness of the canal. Further back they had had the rush of the river, but here the river seemed far away—a woods and a marsh between it and the towpath. Without a tremble of the deck the boat glided on, the captain incessantly sticring the rudder. Out of a hole in the floor of the deck protruded the pipe of the cooking 3tove, from which puffed at intervals “I'll take the four-mile level. Be sure you water ‘em a-plenty.” The boat went gliding almost rapidly, the er in the four-mile tewe! oats lush, con the a] other side of the lock. peitiechey That night the boat tied up, alon: three others, at Seven Locks, and the ont morning the negro grinned again when he called Pat. The sun was streaming into the windows of the cab, as the boy rubbed and then opened his eyes, ‘Give you late sleep, boy,” said Ben, bap’s been worryin’ about your posters is up every- our The dyphtherea hrough the tow arenuly Captain Connel was worryi about nothing, except getting his career with al! speed, into the city. He and Ben had been working since 3 in the morning. The boat was moving swiftly down that fart of the canal known as “Log Wall.” When Pat, having eaten his breakfast, ap- pmred on deck. ‘he canal here is said to be bottomi end it is clear and shining lke the waters of a river. Capt. Connel was fairly swing- ing along, slashing his whip. For several miles the captain kept up his hurried pace, then he sent forth his imperative call; “C00-0-0-0-0!" The boys at the locks near the town hol- lered “Capt'n Pat” at the top of their im- pudent little voices; even the men around the locks tried to stir the boy’s ire; but, for some reason or other, Pat stubbornly re- fused to become excited. He was indeed making his last trip on the canal. The captain never gave a false promise, never, under eny circumstances, went back on his goin’ to leave = and go to farmin’, and Pat ven @ grunt and an- swered, “I b'lieve so.” eh. a The negro astride the rudder was count- ing on his fingers very slowly. “Three more trips, ain't it, Pat?” he asked; “that is, bein’ the ice sets in airly.” volumes of coal gas. Another smell mingled with that of the gas—an appetizing odor of stewed tomatoes and frying ham. Suddenly @ black head popped up from the cabin door and the lank body of a negro scrambled upon deck. “Wan’ me take a hand at the rudder, cap'n?" ‘The captain grunted an assent, rose and moved to the side. The negro straddled the rudder and swayed with it to and fro list- lessly. Ben's black face was sad and weary; he had been “on the canale” since childhood, The captain’s eyes were fastened upon Pat as he walked along the towpath a little in front of the mules. “None of "em don't like boatin’,” he ejaculated. “Naw,” acquiesced the negro, “none of ‘em don’t like boatin’. Pat he don’t like boatin’ for nothin’, Pat wants for to farm.” “tie thinks the money comes too slow, said the captain. “It do come slow,” muttered Ben. “Last year it were a dollar a day and now "tain't but seventy-five cents. Boatin’ ought ts fetch higher wages’n that.” He shuffled his clumsy boots and continued, speaking louder: “at likes for to plow and horrow. ‘The boy's clean sick 0’ the towpath.” The captain sighed. “There's more money in boatin’ than 1armin’,” he said, positively; “the weather's got more to do with hinder- in’ crops than it has with hinderin’ boatin’ “That's 80,” “but the floods they hinders both. They’ ain’t half uxed up the canale, nohow. Lust year we made tne down trip in five days; now it takes us six and seven. I heard the boat Scrape the bottom a minute ago. ““dne new locks is too narrow,” grumbled the captain. “A boat like ‘this’n can pull through, but some of the old boats: ain't goin’ to stand it. They’s fixin’ the canale up cheap, but it'll cost ‘em more in the long run. Ho, you Pat, ain’t you never gunno look out for the turns?” “it's a hard life for a boy,” said the ne- gro pensively. “Up at three and four in the mornin’, and nothin’ but the boat and the mules and the canale to look at, layin’ down late at night, sore in every Lmb. It ain't healthy for tu sleep on the water; twasn’t never meant, I reckon. Pat's got the sore throat.” The captain cleared his own throat. “There ain't no wonder about Pat having the sore throat,” he said roughly. “I found him this morning with the winder open over him. You can’t lay with the winder open over you in the summer Ume along the canale, much less in the fall. He makes up a furious fire for the dish washing and then he sleeps with the winder open. No more sense cnan a—" He rose, sull mut- vering, — _— down into the cab. In seven minutes was back again, having eaten his dinner, Without a word the negro relinquished in the captain’s favor the seat upon the rudder, walked along the deck, picked up a loag board and calied shrilly to Pat. The board was thrown quickly out across the canal, its qne end resting upon the boat, its other end upon the towpath. The crossed this temporary bridge with a few rapid steps and Pat in a similar manner reached the boat, and, turning, rescued the plank just as the end on the towpath slipped into the water. “See to the mules before you get your dinner,” ordered the captain. Cap'n Pat set briskly to work. Three timec he let a wooden bucket into the waters of the canal by means of a rope and handed it into the stable of the muies. Then he disappeared into the “hay house,” “One never knows about the ice,” said ‘You goin’ to farmin’ won along with Bub, Pat smiled serenely. “Y; 5 sence fame ‘ou bet, no; rn ‘8 mother, for one, was glad when she heard the news, given sullenly by the cap- tain, joyfully by Pat. All the moroseness had vanished from the boys brown eyes, he went dancing in a clumsy fashion over the Kitchen floor. Pat was his mother’s favor- told to put ‘em on Sunday mornin’. Billy was in a fever of happiness. Mrs. Connel hoped in her heart that he would like the canal. There had been three boys before Pat; none of them had relished “boatin’.” “Boys ought to choose their work,” re- marked Mrs. Connel sagely; “it makes “em So different. Now, Pat, since he’s workin’ glum on the canal.’ The captain looked at her and smiled. “1 do what I can for em,” he said, “but Pat he was rather young to turn loose, I as one of "em was to stick by me,” he added afeered o° Billy; he ain't got Pat seemed to understand the work, a-body would a-thought he cut out for boatin’. I re kr owed there was such a thing as farmin’.” Of all the canal folks it was Capt. Con- nel alone who caught the dyphtheria which continued to rage in the low part of the town. He caught it om the water, during his last trip one day's journey from his home. He was laid on the shelf all win- ter. In the spring he came out too early to see to purchasing the mules and caucht another disease, so the people said. When the boats started running Capt. Connel, ey hegg anxious-eyed, was stretched upon “The boys'll help,” said the mother, softly, “they’s all good boys.” “They got their wives,” sald the sick man, hopelessly. “How's a fifteen-year-old boy a-farmin’ goin’ to help to any account?” muttered the sick man. Ming Rawlins vt 94 to take Pat west.” rs. Connel added in an awed whisper. “Pat, he's expectin’ some day for to own @ ranch or some'n.” “I ain't a-goin’ to get out o° here in a hur- ry,” said Connel, irritably; “there's more the matter with my back than the doctor's nl news came to Pat and stun instant. He was standing door of the Rawlins farm, t' in his hand. In a week he would and miles away. No more stones id and haul off the hilly field: ing to the broad prairies; he expected day to dwia ranch. “Captain C never run a boat agai to run it then?” muttered glimpse of the broad orairie denly. Pat was running down Very quietly Pat entered his father’s room. He had never seen Captain C look like that, so a The sick man tried to smile. “You come to bid me good-bye, Pat?” He held out his 5g ie aa tis 3 Bi i 3 a¢2 "HH é i and, coming out with his arms full of corn, gave that in turn to the mules. “How many €ars apiece?” cried the cap- tain. “Six,” answered the boy. ‘Throw ‘em in a couple more; they've got a long pull at the next level.” Pat did as he was bid. “Now go get your dinner.” The boy came up from the cab very soon. He sat down near the edge of the boat, he Tg his sleeve over his perspiring fore- ‘Tain’t warm,” said the captain. es, ‘tis,” retorted Pat. ‘How's your throat?” asked the father suddenly. ‘Don’t hurt so awful much,” returned the Say, let me take the rudder.” set awhile and rest. Ben can wait for his dinner. They've got diphtheria Posted in the town. Mills hollered it over from his boat.” The boy laughed derisively. “You take keer of your throat or you'll have to see a doctor.” Again Cap'n Pat laughed. “I wonder ee, boatin’ don’t catch some'n,” he “If I thought I was to k on boat- ll my life I wouldn’t keer if I did have He looked his father squarely in the face, his brown cheeks flushing a little. nes keer if I'd die; I'd be glad of The captain steadied himself upon the rudder; his face, too, flushed. “I tell you what, you can stay home,” he said, ta a Voice hoarse with passion. "I've had enough of you. You can wo to farmin’ at fourteen a 8 ve. 1 ring lly alo next. He'll like it for the first season. That's the way with you all.” aS never liked it,” said Pat stubbornly. “After the one down trip, if I'd had any say, | I'd a-quit; I'd gone home on the cars ‘No, you never liked it,” said the captain, contemptuously. “When you was little they had to keep you tied all the time lest you'd Set off the boat into the water. And you Was born on the boat when we was tied up at Georgetown for the winter.” “You'd better give me the rudder,” said the boy ungraciously. ple man stood on ‘his feet and stretched arms, and the boy settled himself upon the rudder. ye temporary bi was it down and Ufted; the captain tremped eee the tant Path, ‘and the negro ate his dinner in the Peated the “Cooo-0-0-0-o” impatiently. liked to see the keeper ready at the lock before he reached it. “Not a sign of him,” he muttered. “"Co20-0-0-0-0!” Then the keeper appeared, but he raised the lower gate instead of the upper, a boat coming up the canal was ahead of Connel's. The keeper of the White Lock cried out Jovially, “Well, Cap'n Pat, you'll have to wait.” The boy was with the mules again; Captain Connel was on the boat. Slowly the empty boat rose in the canal, Tose out of the canal with the windows of its little cab seemingly a’ vay up in the air. As it moved out of the lock someone let a bucket, fastened to the end of a Tope, away down into the canal. “Seen anything of Ruffles?” called the captain of the empty boat. “They say he's taken hard times easy.” For the first time the negro smiled. “Tied up together on the nine-mile level, left him a-sleepin’ at 4 o'clock this mornin’.” “Not in sight o’ the Hanted House, I Rey hope. Ben grinned vigorously as he shook his head. Cap'n Pat changed the mules at the lock. ‘The three animals in the stable were wild to get out on the tow-path, and the three on the tow-path, in their gladness, almost tumbled into the stable. “You get aboard and feed the mules,” Then the boy was on his knees, the white trembling hands were on his head, and with a glad quiver of suppressed passion Con- nel's weak voice the words, “Cap'n Pat, Cap'n Pat.” LOUISE R. BAKER. ———— Brasses and Bronses of the Mindoos, From the Nineteenth Century. The brass and bronze trade is kept alive by the religious customs of the Hindoos, who are not allowed to use wooden and earthenware vessels freely, and brass and bronze are to them as important as glass and china to the westerners. Almost all Hindoo utensils are of brass, copper or bronze, and it is the custom to present the female portion of a Hindoo family with a valuable batterie de cuisine, made either of brass or copper, and a still existing Hindoo ceremony is that of carrying the utensils in a@ procession at the wedding. The result of this custom ts that almost all the platters, trays, bowls, nut crackers and all brass and copper utensils are most beautifully crnamented, and there are lovely combinations of brass and copper and silver and copper. All Hindoo lamps are made of brass. The Hindoo women used to have lovely brass caskets covered with ornamentations called chellams, man- ufactured in Malabar, in their jewels, but these are fast being re- placed by the vulgar English Japanned dis- atch box. At Sivaganga, a beautiful but seldom patrc nized brass trade exists, which makes toys and most life-like representa- tions of animals, lizards, frogs, &c. —-- eee - —— Familiarity Breeds Contempt. From the New York Weekly. Visiting Physictan.—“There is nothing the matter with that man but fever and ague. Why did you tell him he had typhoid fever?” Rural Doctor.—“Well, you see, this is @ sort of a summer resort, and it scares city people to hear that there ts fever apd in the village. They don't mind ot hema” fever. They have that Pure Acream of tartar baking pow- der. Highest of all in leavening strength.—Latest United States Governmea Food Report. Royal Baking Powder Oo, 106 Wall St, .Y.