Evening Star Newspaper, November 10, 1894, Page 16

>THE EVEN ING STAR, PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS. ORIENTAL STRIKERS The Class of Men Who are Em- ployed by Japanese Politicians. AN AMERICAN MUNISTER'S EXPERIENCE An Interesting Account of a Visit to the Parliament House. A PROSPEROUS COUNTRY (Copsrighted, 1804, by Frank G. Carpenter.) HE WAR WITH I China 1s taking away from Japan, for a time, a class of men who have materiaily disturbed the govern- ment. I refer to the Soshi. These are like = Do cther men on the face of the globe. ‘They are a kind of a cross between an anarchist and politi- cal striker, and though they exist in Pearly every part of the empire 1 have never seen them described in letters of travel. They are a peculiar feature of the modern Japan, and are the product of the old feudal system married to the modern civilization. Japan, you know, was twenty- five years ago much like Europe during the middle ages. The Daimios, or nobles of the country, owned the greater part of the land, and each had a number of soldiers or Samurai about him. These Samurai were all soldiers, and the Daimio was expected to support them. When the revolution came and the Daimios gave up their estates, these men were out of a job. They took up with different branches of trade. A large number went into the army. Some were employed in the new government, and today the class ts practivally wiped out. Springing from it, however, are these bands of Soshi, who are young men, many of whom are ready to sell themselves and their swords to the highest bidder. Every politician has a number of them connected with him, and | every political meeting is filled with them. ‘They carry sword-canes, and during elec- tions the papers are full of the attacks of one band of Soshi upon another, and of statements as to how one prominent man, ed by his Soshi, was met by an- other statesman, with his Sosh!, and how the two fought the matter out on the street, During my stey in Japan one of the members of parliement was waylaid by the Soshi of bis opponent and well pounded; and another tran, also a member of parlia~ ment, wis attacked about 9 o'clock in the morning, while on his way In a jinriksha to the house of representatives, by ten of these Soshi. One of them threw a bottle Soshi te attack him. He stands fully six feet in his stockings, and he weighs about two hundred pounds. He has lived in Japan for years, having been sent there in the first place, through the influence of ex- Senator Allan G. Thurman, who is “his uncle. He speaks the Japanese as well as the English, and he was employed in the legation as interpreter and confidential secretary for some time before his ap- pointment as minister. Last New . Year, when out driving, with his coachman and footman on the seat, he saw three of the most desperate Soshi with sword canes in their hands on the road in front of him. He knew they did not like him, but he told the coachman to drive slowly on. As nese the Soshi saw him they ranged them- selves on both sides of the road, so that his carriage would have to pass between them, and as it came opposite one of them yelled at him the Japanese word for “fool,” never supposing he would understand it. Mr. Dun raised his hat, and in the politest and most polished of Japanese paid him the compliments of the New Year. The Soshi was thunderstruck. He looked very sheepish and turned away. Where the Soshi Come From. I asked a number of the prominent men of Japan, including Count Ito, whence the | Sosh! came, and I was told that they were | in most cases disaffected and unsuccessful | students. ‘Thousands of young Japenese have been studying professions, and there are hundreds upon hundreds of lawyers and doctors more than are needed. The govern- ment places are all overcrowded, and the luniversities have been turning out their graduates by the hundreds a yeer. The brightest students have been picked out by the government and sent abroad to finish their educations. When they have come back they have been given poritions, and those who were not so fortunate have had to stay out. The “outs” have banded to- gether, and they have formed these cr- ganizations which are, to a certain extent, insurrectionary in ¢heir tendencies. They would, be a bad element in case of a revolu- tion, and they form one of the worst fea- tures of the new Japan. They hang around parliament, and they have been crowing in numbers rapidly up to the time of the pres- ent war. This will probably carry off a good many of them, tf the Chinese had enough nerve to kill anything outside of thelr own troops, which they seem not Soshi Attacking Japanese M. P. oY red ink and sulphuric acid at him, and it struck him on the shoulder, but fortu- nately did no damage. He luckily happened to have two of his own Soshi with him, and these men ran after the Soshi of the oppo- site party who threw the bottle, and caught, him and handed him over to the police. ‘This incident occurred on the 23d of last May, and from my notes which I took at the time, I see that on May 19 the Japan- ese papers record how twenty Soshi attack- ed the office of a political newspaper and stoned the editors. The most of the offi- cials of Japan have some of these Soshi with them when they go about over the country. In some cases they‘ride on the outside of their carriages, and in others ; they follow along on foot. A Set of Professional Thugs. ‘These Soshi are numbered by thousands, and, it is surprising how well they are or- ganized. Outside of those who are attach- ed to the politicians, there are bands or societies of them who work together for their mutual benefit, and who are, in fact, bands of thugs, assassins, blackmailers and @rikers Some of them give their services for their food and clothes, and for two or three dollars a day they will do anything. If they are arrested, you are expected to pay them for the time they stay in prison, and to send a few luxurtes now and then to the jail. They are not at all fond of for- eigners, and they form a large part of the anti-foreign element of the country. 1 heard of one instance of a forelgner who had some trouble with % girl. There was a questioa of ten dotlars between them, and the sir! had friends among the Sosht. of one of the bands called upon d told him he must pay. He re- y then said they would inform his employers of certain practices which he had been carrying on, and would mix them with lies about others. They threat- ened to assault him, and he finally conclud- ed that the cheapest way to get out of the matter was te pay the bill. The strangest thing about it was that when he was hand- ed-over the money, they gave htm a receipt guarantecing that he would not be troubled by any other Soshi in the country or by them. The American ister and the Soshi. The action of the government as regards these people has shown that they were evidently afraid of them, and it has been the wonder of foreigners that they have not been put down. They have carried on their work openly, and a sign-board was recently stuck vp in one of the main bus!- ness parts of Tokyo which read: “Soshi provided here. Terms moderate for the day ¢r month.” Among the men, in fact, who have shown much nerve in the matter ai our American minister and the Rev. Cl MacCauley, the head cf a school in Tokyo and a Unitarian minister of great proini- nence in Jap For some reason or other, the Soshi became incensed at Dr.MacCauley, and they warned him that he must give up his school. ‘They told him that he would be mobbed if he did not, and they made ali preparations to carry out their threat. Dr. MacCauley went to the American min- ister, Mr. Dun, and told nim the situation. Mr. Dun, who, by the way, is one of the best n who has ever representel us at the court of Japan, was very indignant, and he at once we and told the secre ary of state that the government was responsible for keeping the Soshi in order, and that he proposed to drive, with Dr, Mac y in the leg: carriage, down to the choc om the y fixed for the mob, and if th re insulted or attacked in any way the American v- ernment would hold the Japanese ¢ ment responsible for it. es clals at once took the ma the Soshi were put down he streets leading to the Mned w police, and the res that Dr. MacCauley ana the Ameri ister pas ‘ough unharmed molested a look. The American minister Is by @oward, and it would not be s t to the foreign office | to have. 5 The Japanese Parliament. Speaking of the Japanese parliament, it is the baby congress of the world, and it ts one of the most Interesting legislative bodies in existence. It has two houses, which sit in a building not unlike a great seaside hotel in its architectural structure. It is made of frame, and is of two storles, It is situated in the center of Tokyo, not far from where the Shogun laid down the bar- barous laws of the past,and just outside of the moats which run round the palace grounds. There is a wall around it, and when the houses Are in session you see about 500 | black jinrikshas with bare-legged men in | butter bow! hats sitting in them and wait- ing for their masters, who are inside. You have to go through a narrow entrance, so small that only one man can get through at a time, In getting to the reception room and also in going into the hall, and this is probably to prevent the danger of a rush by Soshi or others. There are plenty of officers dressed in uniform, and there is as much red tape as about the houses of parliament In London. The two houses do not look much unlike our Senate and House. The desks run In concentric circles back from the rostrum, on which the presi- dent and vice president sit, and they are | more Ike school desks than like those of our Congress. ‘The seats are made so that they can be turned up like opera chairs, and some mombers from the back districts, who have been more accustomed to sit: ting on the floor than on chairs, now and Count Ito, Prime Minister of Japan. then get up and kneel on their seats or sit cross-legged upon them. They do not keep their hats on, as they do in England, and their modes of procedure are more like the Reichstag than those of our Con- The most of the members dress iropean clothes, though now and then you find one wearing a kimono. ‘The Two Houses. The membership of the two houses ts about the same. The upper house fs called the house of peers, and it contains about three hundred members. It comprises the aristocrats of the Japanese empire, and contains, in the first place, all the male members of the imperial family of the age | of twenty and upward. Thus, the crown prince will be a member of this house when he gets to be twenty: It also contains | members selected from the eleven princes | and twenty-eight marquises, eighty counts, | three hundred and fifty-five viscounts and | twenty-nine barons of the empire. These men have to be elected by their own order, | and their number Is restricted. In addition | to this, there are some whom the emperor made members on account of their ning and of the services which they nave done for Japan, and It Is probable = the present war will largely increase this num 4 districts in ‘n nominated by the re chosen by the vote een men in each district who pay t taxes. Those who are members. their blood, or have been appointed by the emperor, are for life. Those elected by the different orders and by the taxpayers are for seven years. With all this It is questionable whether the up- per house contains the brains of Japan The house of representatives, like that of our own, is the noisiest and the ablest. It also numbers three hundred, and any man can be a member of Congress who Is of Japanese birth and over thirty years of age and pays a tax of not less than $15 a year. A Japanese has to be twenty-five years old before he can vote, and voters must have a similar taxpaying qualifica- tion to members of Congress. A Land of Low Salaries. Japan is a land of low calaries. The of- ficials do not get half as much as ours, and the members of the house of peers and of the house of representatives recelve 800 Japanese yen and their traveling expenses. The yen is now worth about 50 cents,so they receive in reality only $400 a year. Our House of Representatives. Congressmen, you know, receive $5,000. The presidents of both houses recieve 4,000 yen, and the emperor appoints the officers of the house of peers, and he selects those of the house of representatives from three can- didates who are elected by the house. All of the voting in the Japanese parlia- ment is done in secret ballot. There is a great deal of speech-making, and the repre- sentatives grow very excited when they discuss the measures relating to the govern- ment. The emperor has the right to dis- solve parliament, and he has dismissed the last two houses because they seemed in- clined to cut down the expenses beyond the possibilities of running the government. ‘The dissolution caused a great deal of ex- citement over the country, and the new election was much feared by’ the administra- tion. The country seemed to be torn up by the different factions, but this has been all done away with by the war with China, and the emperor will get all the money he wants from now on. The Emperor and Parliament. The emperor has treat power over par- Mament, and the constitution ts #0 adroitly worded that he can act independent of it. The laws provide that congress shall vote all the money, but that the last budget shall be in force in case a congress 1s dissolved without passing new appropriation bills. The emperor can veto all laws, and he can proclaim a law when parliament is not sit- ting. He still holds the chief command of army and navy, the right to make war or peace, and to conclude treaties, and he can confer such titles and pardons as he pleases, Minister Edwin Dun. Parliament has no right to interfere with his household expenses, and his cabinet go before the different houses and defend the administration. I don't know that the laws provide where congress. shall meet, but the fact that the emperor has culled them to Hiroshima, which is, I judge, near- ly 400 miles west of Tokyo, shows that he can do as he pleases in this matter. Japanese Finances. Speaking of Japanese finances, it 1s won- derful how the people have come to the as- sistance of the government in this war. ‘The bonds have been subscribed for even more eagerly than they were during our civil war, end millions of dollars more mon- ey has been offered than is needed. The Tokyo Policeman. condition of Japan at the ‘ime of the war was perhaps as xood as that of any other government in the world. The debt was practically nothing and the treasury had a surplus of more than twenty million dol- lars. As soon as war was declared the peo- ple began to send in contributions, and patriotism exists to such an extent that the richest men of Japan would impoverish themselves rather than see the country lack money. Japan has for the past genera- tion ‘been on the up grade, and Its people have been fast urowinz wealthy. A look over the Japanese stock reports shows that nearly every {nstitution in the country ts paying dividends, and some pay as hign as 10 and 2 per cent. The railroads have all been giving good profits to the stockhold- ers, and the stock Is not watered there as itis here. There are now about 5,000 stock companies in Japan, the most of which have sprung up within the past ten years, and some of which began in 1877. These companies embrace mines, rail- roads, silk factories, cotton factories, banks and all sorts of mercantile firms, In abuut 500 of the factories steam is now used, and in something like 300 the power is steam and water combined. Every institution publishes reports as to its business, and it is possible to learn just how the country stands financially. Since the war prices have gone up everywhere, and on the top of all this the rice crop and the tea crop of the present year are about one-third larger than usual. This fills the pockets of the farmers with money, and it adds millions to the wealth of the country, In estimating the expenses of the present war, the economical living of the Japanese must be taken into account. The clothes for their soldiers cost less than ours, and they can be fed on one-third the amount required for any army of the same size in Europe. The government has considerable avaliable pro; erty outside of that which she Is getting in the way of Icans. She owns many good aying Industries, and among others, a Tge part of the raflroads, which pay a good interest above thelr cost and operat- ing expenses, and which could be sold, I am told, for something like $60,000,000 in case of necessity. SATURDAY NOVEMBER 10, 1894-TWENTY-FOUR PAGES. THEY SAVE PENNIES The Fragal Prosperity of the Nor- man Peasants. AMTD PICTURESQUE SURROUNDINGS The State Extends to the Farmer Paternal Aid. INDUSTRY AND ECONOMY Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. PARIS, October 24, 1804. RTAINLY WOMEN do work in the fields over here. But, note this, they work on their own farms, The minute dividing up of land in France is the chief mark of the whole country. The peasant owns a lttle plot of farm land. His chief desire,which is also the chief desire of his wife and daugh- ters, is to buy up the plot adjoining it. French peasant women certainly work in the fields, But they are working in their own fields, small fields, under minute culti- vation; and all their female friends do just the same. They are all within calling dis- tance of each other. At 10 o'clock in the morning they stop work for an hour and take their second breakfast. At 1 o'clock noon they knock off for two hours of din- ner time; and in the evening they march back to the village with their brothers, lovers and husbands by their sides. . To marry and keep this life up is the peasant girl's chief wish. To emigrate to Paris means she has no “dot.” It means an exile. French peasant girls are pleased to work out in the fields. And they have redder cheeks and bigger appetites, bigger chest measurements and more good fun than sick- ly factory giris in any city. If it be true that the two chief prizes in a woman's life are to be happy in her husband and her chil- dren, then peasant girls in France do weil. The industry and downright miserly covet- ousness with which the inexpensive gaiety of the French peasant life is tinctured brings into being that prosperity which is the surest guarantee of dignity in wedlock. The peasant girl, though she be ugly as blue mud, is sure to find a husband; will be rewarded with a husband for her industry. Her father and her mother see to that. A husband does not only mean a pink-cheeked lover out of a cheap novel. It means the girl will set up an establishment just as her parents did—an honorable place in life, with comforts growing yearly, with dignity, solidity and consideration in the village. Manufactures and Farmiug. Where girls ars stingy and caretaking, men are sure to prosper. So the whole peas- ant lfe of France is cicse, mean, stingy— and so prospercus! Personally, I am ac quainted only with the Norman peasant. But he is the banuer carrier for sharpn and enlightened avarice. And as he ac to these two qualities the amiable weakness of hard drinking, Ue should be ail the more a sympathetic fig for Ame The Norman pe but he mixe profits of manufactures with the pi of his farming. Beyond Rouen the whole lite mbination of rural and ing activity. It is a strange sight to Amer te drive through a fla’ bevutifully cuitivated —farmi country, where g*aceful poplars line the level roads, where thorn hedges red with berries or wild plum hedges glittering with blue-pur- ple fruit mark off the fields, where cattle pasture in the clover, where birds flutter in the bushes, and where sweet-faced, loose- bodiced peasant girls swing through the fields, to see in this Arcadia the factory chimneys rising here and there beyond the trees. Large cotten manufacturers, instead of huddling in cities, have a large habit of set- ting up their factories in the country. Here, farmer; in late fall and winter time the girls and youths, and old folks, too, find paying work, together with a sort of club life very socia- ble and easy going. The pay is scarcely half what factory girls get in America. But then these French girls do not work even half as hard. They are not factory girls dependent on the factory. The peasant proprietors themselves invest their cash in cotton factories. The little Normar. farmers make things very hot for manufacturers who will not let them have their finger In the pie. The other manufac- turing establishments set up in these farm- ing lands are even stil more in the hands of petty farmers—beet root sugar works, chees2 factories, and appie brandy distil- leries. These canny Norman hayseeds also manufacture pure French brandy out of beets, wheat and potatoes, This is the mark of the Norman farmer. He is a Jack cf al. trades. His farm takes many shap It may be a cider orcherd, an asparagus bed, a market garden, a dairy, a vine! even (along the Norman coast), a mulber orchard, a sugar factory, a poppy farm (for opium), or the whole farm may be laid out in medical herbs of perfumers’ flowers. They Are Careful Farmers. Look at a typical small farm in Nor- mandy. One hundred acres is an extra- ordinarily large farm. The great majority of good-sized farms have but from six to fifteen acres. The present one is given up to apples, clover, wheat, rye, and a very great proportion of colza. Colza is a kind of rape or cabbage whose seed yields oil. The American's first impression is of paralyzing, rigid uniformity and cut and dried strict order. It is routine, routine, routine. Habits and customs remain sta- tionary, even at the same time when the natives are so crafty and so knowing. Fach farm stands on a line of beech and oak as regular and formal as the toy trees in a Noak’s ark. These trees, regularty cut and planted, form a square around the house and outbuildings. An enormous barn is devoted to cider making. This Norman cider is the pure juice of the apple without the addition of sugar. The apples remain on the trees even until the last of Novem- ber. They are mean little ‘apples, unfit for eating and scarcely good for cooking. Cider is the common drink throughout all Nor- mandy, as wine is in the other parts of France. The drink is not a pleasing one to us Americans. The stuff is sour, thin, colicky. Butsit is said that cider as a steady drink wil) not only prevent rheuma- tism, but even! cure or relieve it. And so the Norman cider has great vogue in France. Every other:detail of the farm is run with mathematical uniformness. Cows are not allowed to roam at will in meadows. They are tethered to stakes, which give them a certaim radius to graze from. Bach cow must eat up clean the grass or clover around Its stake before she will be moved onto another section of the field. Instead of golng to the water, water is brought to them. In Normandy the cows are not put — to grass for the sole purpose of amusing em. % This farm, whichis a very large one, is of eighty acres. It is supposed to be worth about $20,000..It would rent for $1,000 a year. The stock consists of forty head of cattle, cows and: calves and six horses. The wages of “hired men,” boarded and lodged, are from $00 to $80 a year. The three-course system is followed on such farms, a third of the land being planted with wheat, a third with oats (clover being sown after harvest) and a third with clover, colza, potatoes, beet root, carrots and pars- nips. The parsnip is largely cultivated for the fattening of cattle and winter food for cows. So {ts the carrot, which is considered very advantageous in the production of good butter. Saving the Pennies, Such is a large farm anywhere in Nor- mandy. But all around such farms are smaller ones. “Marry my daughter and take five acres with her!” urges the small farmer who has “got on” in the struggle for a plece of la belle France. Hired men, in order to save up money to buy land, In- vest their precious dollars in a calf or lamb and place them with a farmer to be nour- ished, fattened and increase. All profits of wool, milk, lambs «nd calves are equally divided. It is not so h these honest fellows who ma male population of drunkards. The hard drinkers are in reality the well-to-do mid- dle-aged or aged men who have assured their place in life and now are settled down to take thelr pleasure cheaply. The Norman peasant, us a rule, is quite uneducated. ‘The ttle farmers arrive at great prosperity without having ever both- ered their heads with learning. The French government is very tender of French agri- culture, and bolsters it up with very strong protection laws. But even more than this the universal habit of saving, saving pen- nies makes it a sure thing that any farmer, if he wish, may dle well off. The life leaves little time for reading and instruction And so the Norman farmer is a mixture of great shrewdness and great ignorance. During the late Russian fetes, down-in the town of Gisors, on the road to Dieppe, I heard two drunken gray-headed old sinners hiccoughing along: “Long live the Tsar!” cried one. “Hushi’ cried the other, “do not say that all the time. You'll end by annoying him.” I asked the hotel keeper “Who are those two old sinners?” He un- swered: “Two farmers, each one very well off.” These are the true, real Chimes of Normandy, clinking silver, clinking glasses, When merchants come from Paris in the autumn to buy up stock or cider it is al- ways a great battle with these tough old farmers. “How much is your eider?” ‘How much?" “Last year it was thirty francs. It is not so dear this year.” “How much?” “How much will you give?” “That's not the question. I ask you your rice 2 “Haven't I ‘told you? It's less than thirty francs.” “Go, walk yourself!” “Come back, monsieur.”” “Well, how much ts it?” And so on over again until one party weakens. Architecture Horses. One great advantage of the Norman farmer and his children, which goes far to make up to them what they lack in book learning, is the picturesqueness of the laud he lives in. Of the archaeological splendors of this ancient province nothing remains to be said. No little village is without its splendid Gothic church. Most villages have civic or private architectural remains which tourists love to hunt cut and admire. The people know about them, in a dull way, more than you would think. In the town of Jes Andieys there is # thirteenth century church, with stained glass and carved weodwork, which would bring, well, say, a million dollars in America, Outside the town is the Chateau Gaillard, erected by Richard Cozur-de-Lion in 1197, one of the finest specimens of a Norman castle either in England or Normandy. In 1204, duriag the siege of it by Philip Augustus, 1,200 cld men, women and children were left to starve outside its walls, because they were not strong enough to fight on either side. In 1314 this castle was the scene of the murder of Margaret of Bur- gunay. In the small town of Lillebonne is the now ruined castle in which William the Conqueror proposed to his robles the con- quest of England. In this church there lies a dead p; in another a dead king. qT easants all know this. And the tra- ditions serve them for books. It ts a great horse country. Horse raising is even mor important than the cheese and butter industry. ‘The Norman carriage | horse is exported, not only to America, but | to every country of the world. It is’ also | preferred for cavalry service at home; and | most of the private stables of Paris are supplied from this healthy, vigorous pro- vince, where both men and horses thrive. State Aid to Farmers, ‘The French state does for the farmers of France a great deal that our farmers have no dream of, Among its Beneficial acts has | been the establishment of government studs, or “haras,” which is the pleasing | name of a species of establishment which it Is diificult to describe in bare words. Everything is on a bandsome scale. The director in charge of the state-owned stal- lions receives from the state the pay of a the army, and the grooms, in me uniforms, give a brisk air to the For Normandy the haras is at St. place. Lo, tar down toward the English channel. The er tire cost of the great establishment, | which holds 300 stallions, is borne by the | government. Several millions of francs | were laid out on this one establishment. |The Norman farmers and their mares en- | Joy all the“advantege | It is only following out the maxim which | guides the present policy of the French government—“Plowing and pasture are the two breasts of Frace.” The present gov- ernment maintains professorships of agri- culture. Their duties are manifold. Dur- ing the winter they lecture on the theory and practice of farming in the training col- leges for male teachers. During the sum- mer they give lectures, chiefly out of doors, in the various towns and villages. The lec- turer gets the peasants together of a Sune day afternoon, and in an eesy fashion chats upon new methods, in preved machinery and rural topics generally. When the talk is over he displays specimens of manure, seeds and roots, endeavoring to persuade the more enterprising farmers to try ex- periments. From time to time these pro- fessors make out reports, write pamphlets and information sheets, which are scattered broadcast in the villages. Mayhap some one reads them. Silk-worm rearing, liquor- making and like subjects occupy their ‘The farmers read these documents, though they have no taste for reading. And they take up new ideas, although they have no taste for change. It is their avarice which |leads them forward. No country has such | chickens, butter, cream and fruit. And yet | if you live in a Normandy country hotel for week you will be starved for all these luxuries. They will appear to you as lux- uries, they come so seliom to the table. All 1 | their’ best products of the country round are |sent to Paris and to England. At Dieppe, | whére the lobsters come from, you might think that lobsters are imported articles and very precious, In the Calvados, where great attention is paid to bee culture, as well as to butter and cheese making, you will be given imitation glucose honey, It is not for noth- ing that Normandy is called “Le pays de sapience”—-the land of wisdom. No Buckwheat Cakes. The butter-making population of the Cal- vados ag obtain an annual revenue of $16,000,000! Camembert cheese ts sold to the amount of $100,000. Beeswax is another im- portant item. And, if you will believe it, the beehives are carried round in spring to clover fields, in summer to buckwheat, in order to economize the insects’ time in fly- ing. With ail this buckwheat there are never buckwheat cakes. Buckwheat 1s fed to pigs to fatten them and it is also given to chick- ens, And yet the Normans are fond, even to folly, of a kind of buckwheat cake—the crepe Normande—a buckwheat cake except that it is made of wheat. I once asked a stout woman if they never made the crepes from buckwheat. “They may do so in some un- happy province, but never in our Nor- mandy!’ And so with Indian corn. They grow it more and more each year. But you will never get green corn in all of France. They never let the corn come to maturity. They cut the tender stalks for fodder, but they will not eat its fruit. “I have just received a letter from my son in Paris,” says one old Norman peasant woman to another. “He writes that he's become an actor.” nd what's an actor?” “It appears to be allied to the carpentering business, Madame Bibot, because he writes that he is on the boards.” The joke is not particularly meritorious, but yet it illustrates the Norman peasant’s incurious contentment with the knowledge of her little circle; and after that the French incuriousness of everything outside of France. French agriculture thrives upon the industry and economy of the French farmer and is sustained by tender-hearted legislation, which, perhaps, works hardship to some other sections of the population. STERLING HEILIG. ——____+0-+-- — How Lincoln Translated It. From the San Francisco Argonaut. ‘Two letters were once addressed to @ cer- tain corps commander of the A of the Potomac on the eve of a forward movement, one of them written by Gen. Halleck, chief of the staff, and the other by President Lincoln. Gen. Halleck’s letter contained @ warning couched in this fashion: “In under- taking to place your command on the oppo- site shore of the Rappahannock river, you will exercise extreme caution in affording full protection to advance, rear and flanks, in order that the enemy may not be en- couraged to make an attack while you forces are separated in the act of crossing.” ‘This was good advice. Lincoln gave it to the same commander in the note which he wrote to him, but this was the form in which he expressed it: “Look out, when you cross the river, that you don't hahg yourself up in the middle like OW gon) 1 tence, neither able to hook with your horns nor notorious Norman J ick with your hoofs” WAR INVENTIONS America Outdoes China in Queer Ideas for Fighting. patie LIKE AN ARABIAN NIGHTS STORY Steam and Carbonic Acid Used in Place of Gunpowder. A GUN THAT SHOOTS WATER EAS ERAS Written for The Evening Star. HE FUNNY WEAP- > ons and engines of war employed by the Chinese in their pres- ent conflict with Ja- pan can hardly be more odd and strange than a thou- sand and one devices for similar purposes contrived by inge- nious Yankee inven- tors. New ideas for arms, ships, &c., are —_——. constantly being sug- gested to the army and navy by ambitious and original thinkers. The archives of those departments of the government are full of them, and fresh ones continually oc- cupy most of the attention of a division in the patent office. The most astonishing contrivance for warfare recently developed is Col. W. R. King’s gigantic electro-magnet, of which something has been said in the newspapers within the last few days. This engineer officer of the army has constructed on the top of a fort at Willet’s Point, near New York, a great horseshoe, composed of two big cannon and a metal bar, with sev- eral miles of heavy insulated telegraph wire wound around the muzzies of the guns for spools. Thus has been produced the most powerful magnet in the world, a current of electricity being supplied from a dynamo. As alleged, it is capable of deranging a ship’s compass at a distance of six miles, which would be useful in case hostile ves- sels tried to approach at night or In a fog. They would be apt to find themselves ashore unexpectediy. It has been suggested that a row of such magnets along the walls of a fort might be used to draw the small arms out of the hands of an on-coming enemy. This idea is the same as that of the Ara- bian Nights storm in which the iron nails were pulled out of ships that ventured too near the mountain of loadstone, The ingenuity of this conception is only surpassed by a design now on file at the Navy Department for a war vessel which is to have three decks. Each deck is divided up into twelve rooms. Instead of masts, there are three elevators, so arranged that each of them shall open into four rooms on each deck. The rooms are built like safes, with every possible burglar-proof contriv- ance. The ship is otherwise arranged like any other ship-of-war. The arrangement described is provided as a precaution in case of defeat in battle. In that event, the vessel being threatened with capture, her officers and crew retreat by the elev: tors to the room, in which they lock the: selves and defy the enemy. The rooms are fitted up with every modern convenience for comfort, so that the men and officers may amuse themselves at playing cards or otherwise until the foe goes away. In Place of Gunpowder. In 1872 Congress gave a lump sum of $270,000 to pay for the creation of three new models for breech-loading and muzzle-load- ing cannon. A board of experts was ap- pointed to attend to the business, and sug- gestions were invited. Cranks all over the country sent to Washington their ideas, which were eventually published in a book by the government. Some of them were very funny indeed. One was for a cen- trifugal gun which was made to throw bul- lets by the turning of a wheel. The bullets were to be thrown into a hopper. Another notion was for a cannon to shoot water. This may not have been so nonsensical as it seems. Taxidermists use water car tridges to kill humming-birds. It is not safe to declare that any new idea is useless or impracticable. One day not long ago a certain examiner of patents at Washington demonstrated conclusively by figures that a certain machine for which a patent was desired could not possibly work. He showed it by figures which were plain, and undeniable. His surprise, then, may be imagined when the inventor brought his machine and exhibited it in actual opera- tion, working to perfection. The notion of a gun in which carbonic acid gas is used instead of gunpowder strikes one off-hand as an absurdity. Yet this invention seems likely to do wonders in the future, if it = not fairly revolutionize modern war- fare. The patent was taken out not long ago in this country by a Frenchman named Paul Giffard. His idea is to compress carbonic acid gas to a liquid in a small cylinder. The cylinder may be attached to any rifle, which requires a very simple modification to adapt it for the purpose. A touch on the trigger liberates a very small quantity of the liquid carbonic acid, which instantly ex- pands on being relieved from the pressure and drives the bullets out of the gun. Another bullet ts yg oe in at the breech, and the operation is repeated until the cy- linder is exhausted. With a single cylinder 100 bullets were fired through an inch plank at the patent office the other day. Compressed Air and Stea: So long as a single drop of carbonic acid remains liquid in the cylinder, the pressure and hence the velocity imparted to the bul- let is the same. A cylinder is good for 150 rounds and costs only 25 cents. A valve prevents the escape of more than a small quantity of the carbonic acid at a time. It is expected that eventually atmospheric air compressed to a liquid will be used instead of carbonic acid gas. The pressure will then be 10,000 pounds to the square inch— more than ten times that of the carbonic acid. The velocity of the projectile will be proportionately greater. A government could put up these cylinders in quantities, and they would be much cheaper than or- dinary gunpowder cartridges. When one is used up, another can be attached very quickly to the rifle. An idea semewhat similar has been pat- ented recently for a steam gun. Superheat- ed steam is contined under great pressure and liberated like the compressed air in a pnetmatic gun. The pneumatic guns thus far invented are not available for use on board of vessels, because they have to have enormously long tubes in order to render it possible to compress the air sufficiently. ‘Thus it is necessary to trim the ship in or- der to bring the gun to bear upon the ob- ject. The improved pneumatic dynamite gun on shore, with a fix tube, can be made to strike any target with absohite accuracy by controlling the pressure of the air, The vessel to be hit must pass in front of it, but to do so is destruction. If the dynamite-carrying projectile falls within 10 yards or so of the ship, the latter is surely sunk. One of the »ddest of inventions for war is a projectile which carries a huge knife blade like an enormous chopping knife. it is intended to mow down men as with a scythe. That was the idea of the old-fash- foned chain-shot—a device so fearfully de- structive that its use was forbidden by the laws of nations. Two cannons were loaded with balls which were connected by a chain, and then were fired simultaneously. The chain was made as long as might be de- sired, and by this means an entire ship's company might be swept off her deck at one shot. The most approved method was to have the guns near together for convent- ot but trained at an angle like the let- ter V. It may be imagined how murderous such @ contrivance must have been at close quarters, as ships used to fight. Another inventor has reccrded a sugges- tion for a projectile with a hole through the middle, designed to enable the gunner to get a dead-center sii Of course, the notion is absurd, inasmuch as the marks- man does not fire straight at the target. He must allcw for the trajectory, for the “drift” of the shot due to its revolution caused by the rifling, for the wind, and on shipboard for the movements of the vessels engaged in conflict. Another ingenious idea has been paterted by one Thomas Hill. It is a ram for the bow of a ship, containing a gun which fires itself automatically, after the ram has punched @ hole through the ship’s side. A device for covering a vessel with pockets to receive and hold projectiles which strike the craft has not been found available by the navy. Castings for Cannon, ‘The most primitive type of cannon is Chinese. It is a log of wood bored out and made strong with iron hoops. On record at the patent office is the invention of James Puckle, dated 1718. It is cne of the earliest machine guns, working on the revolver prin- ciple. The inventor introduces certain modi- fications which render it practicable to fire square bullets at Turks and round bullets at Christians By the way, it was stated at the War Department yesterday that be- fore long metal cartridges, resembling rifle cartridges cn a large scale, would be ex- clusively adopted for cannon. By this change loading will be made easier and the ammunition will be preserved to greater advantage. Such cartridges would not be spoiled by contact with water. Sometimes it happens that the magazine of a ship has to be flooded with water in case of fire, and it is mest desirable to avoid spoiling tie wenpow eer, e powder used by Uncle Sam in hi guns is queer-looking stuff. Each Foy 4 an hexagonal prism an inch wide and two- thirds of an inch thick, with a hole bored through the middle of it. In appearance it resembles nothing so much a chunk of wood. If you touch a match to it, it will take seven oreight seconds to go off. Slow- burning powder like this is employed in cannon, because it does not strain the gun so much. The quicker the explosion the greater the shock and the shorter the life of the weapon. The manufacture of first- rate cannon powder in this country is com- paratively @ new thing. When the Dol; hin, Chicago, Atlanta and Boston wi food powder for them had to be got Pes Rapid-Firing Guns. An important new departure in gunnery. consists in using fifty pounds, say, of slow-" burning powder, where formerly only ten pounds were used for a charge. The strain on the gun is no greater and the velocity of the projectile is enormously increased. Slow-burning powder does not take several seconds to go off in the gun, the tempera- ture of the powder chamber being raised to 8,000 or 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit. ‘The on under such conditions is practi- cally instantaneous. The finest gun cannot be expected to be fit for further service after having been fired 250 times. What wears it out is"the scoring of the polished inside of the rifle barrel by the particles of gunpowder. Once a few scratches made, other such particles score them deeper and the gun is weakened and injured. When @ gun is pulled to pleces the workmen all scramble for the steel to turn It to use for thelr tools, because It is so extraordinarily e. The latest and perhaps the most wonder- ful of devices for rapid-firing guns utilizes the “kick” of the weapon to do the shoot- ing automatically. The first cartridge hav- ing been set off, the force of the recoil throws out the empty cartridge, drops an- other into the magazine and fires it. This process is kept up indefinitely so lo: As cartridges are put Into the hopper. A haste touch of a button ts all that is needed to Start the gun a-firing, and it goes on shoot- ing of its own accord. The bullets are thrown in a perfect storm. In one type of rapid-fire gun tney are shot at the rate of 1,600 a minute, and they go so fast that one may look through the tube through which they are passing and see daylight all the time, just as the spokes of a rapidiy mov- ing bicycle are invisible to the eye. Not- withstanding the use of water-jackets and air blasts to keep the gun cool, ch a rate of firfng, if kept up for a few minutes, will cause the muzzle of the weapon to become red-hot and to bend dewnward of its own weight. Navy Yard Museum. Recently an Oregon man named Catlin has patented a rifle which throws the empty cartridges over the shoulder of the man firing it. Accorpanying the papers making record of the invention in the pat- ent office is a photograph showing Mr, Cat- Mn in the act of shcoting, with seven empty cartridge shells actually in the air, Befc re the first one cculd fall to the ground he discharged six more bullets. At the navy yard is a little museum, in which are exhibited all sorts of curiosities in the way of weapons, etc., most of which are relics of wars in which the United States has besn engaged. One of these is the stern-post of the Kearsarge, with @ shell from the Alabama imbedded in ft The projectile proved harmless, failing to explode. There are which were captured catur from the pirates of Tripoli. Another cannon yet more interesting was brought to this continent by Cortez. It ts furnished with a sort of exaggerated flat iron, which is to be set into the breach in order to close the latter up when the gun is to be fired. In this museum are exhibited some enormous fron balis, which were intended to be fired from tweuty-inch cannon cast by Uncle Sam during the civil war. The weapors, however, were found to be too heavy, and so no more of such great size were made. RENE BACHE. —+ee_____ HIS BIG MOUTH. The Embarrassing Frankness ef Youth on a Ralflroad Car. From the New York Herald. “L’enfant terrible” has furnished merri- ment and discomfiture for countless gen- erations, and doubtless always will. Re cently I witnessed an Instance that was a little unusual in the sang froid displayed by the child's victim. T was crossing Indiana tn a Baltimore and Ohio sleeper with a friend of Scotch-Irish descent, in whose features the Milesian traits are prominent, especially the mouth, whose size is revealed to the utmost by a smooth-shaven face. To while away the time we got up a 7 Same of whist, inviting for partners two commercial travelers, who occupied the opposite section. The section in front of us was occupied by a stylishly dressed lady, with a Jittle girl of about five years. As the game progressed we noticed that the child was kneeling on the car seat, gazing steadily at my friend, never taking her eyes from his face for a moment. When the rubber was finished the drummers stepped across to their section and my friend and I rose to stretch our legs. The action seemed to break the spell upon the child, and she cried shrilly: “Oh, mamma! See what a big mouth that man has!’ aT oar and caught hol e 3 sh Hush!" eo a “But he has, mamma’ rsisted che child, climbing to her kivecs, and fixing her gaze on my friend's capat¢ious mouth, which was just to expand into an all-embracing smile. “Oh, look, mamma. It's getting bigger all the time!” > At this the whole car became uproarious, and the mother pulled the child down, with @ look of exquisite torture on her face. “Madam,” said my friend, leaning for- 't_reprove the child. She is q rig My mouth Is large, and I am not at all annoyed by it.” On returning from the next ea! sta- tion we found the rection vacant and from the porter that the mother had moved her embarrassing infant into the other sleeper. ee No Further Questions. Woman Lawyer—What is your age? Woman Witness—I was born in the same year as yourself. Woman Lawyer—Witness excused. His Turn at Last. From Puck. Theater-Goer—Pardon my curiosity, but that is most—er—remarkable hair yours! His Netghbor—Great, ain't it? Bought it at a costun, 's for four dollars. These won with big hats have made me suffey for years, and now I'm getting squart