Evening Star Newspaper, August 3, 1895, Page 18

18 THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, AUGUST 3, 1895-TWENTY PAGES. REED FOR PRESIDENT Will Have the Support of the Entire New England Delegation. VIEWS OF SENATOR CAROT LODGE What He Would Do to Remedy the Evils.of !mmigration. THE CONSULAR SERVICE ——————— (Copyrighted, 1895.) ENATOR HENRY af Cabot Ledge has gone to Europe with his two sons, to be ~ absent until Novem- \ ber. His object in WZ going was to obtain absolute rest, he told me at his beautiful home in Nahant two days before his de- parture. In two problems he {s par- ticularly interested, and one of these is the retorm of our consular service. As he has not been abroad before in twenty years, he had, before he started, no infor- mation on the subject gained from per- sonal observation. Possibly he will de- velop scme new views during his trip @cross the water. But he has heard the complaints made by business men and bus!- hess organizations about the inefficiency of our consuls, and he has studied the con- sular systems of other countries. A result of this activity on Mr. Lodge’s part was a Dill presented to the Senate at its last ses- sion by Mr. Morgan, providing for the re- organization of our consular service on civil service reform principles. “This measure,” said Mr. Lodge to me, “4g not suggested by the civil service organ- izations, although they heartily indorse it. It is suggested by business organizations, and I took a particular interest in it be- cause of the sudden and complete change in the service made under Mr. Quincy at he beginning of the present administra- ion. The principle, understand, was ex- actly the same under preceding adminis- rapidly under Mr. Quincy and the sudden- ness with which the service was turned up- side down directed particular attention to the mutter. The consular service under all administrations has been the plaything of politics. No attempt has been made to de- termine the fitness of a candidate for a consular office. “Consideration has heen given only to the political influence behind the applicant. Ovr consuls go abroad under great disad- vantayses—ignorant often of the language of the country to which they are assigned, without knowledse of business conditions and usually with no interest in their work. They Icok on thsir appointments as the re- ‘ward of political services, they don’t ex- pect to stay more than four years and they go merely for the salary and the fees. I have a privite secretary who was consul at-Magdeburg until this administration came in. He went there with a knowledge of the German !anguage, and he was be- coming a valuable representative of our government, when he was called back, for no other reazoa than that another political party had come into pewer. “Now we want ‘o give a certain perma- nence to office holding in the consular service. We wait men to be encouraged to make this their life work. That 1s why Senator Morgan and I, working together, got up the bill which he introduced in the Senate. It was Introduced too late in the short session of Congress to be considered before adjournment, but we hope to bring it up in the next Congress and push it through. Mr, Reed for President. “And what is your idea of the presiden- tlal nominee?” I asked. : “Mr. Reed will be undoubtedly the can- didate of the entire New England delega- tion in the republican convention. There igs not the least doubt that as the time for the convention approaches the whole interest of New England will be centered on the New England candidate.” “For the complimentary ‘first vote?’ ” “No; with the hope of bringing about his nomination. Mr. Reed will have the earn- est support of the New England dele- Bates." “And who do you think will be the nom- inee of the convention?” “I would not care to make a predictions so far ahead. Mr. Reed will be Speaker of the House. Of that there is no doubt. With his election to this, the highest office in the gift of the republican party, he will come before the whole country conspicu- ously as a presidential- candidate. Much may depend on his acts as Speaker. They may affect his interests favorably or they may affect them unfavorably. There is too much uncertainty ebout the future to hazard a prediction.” I asked Mr. Lodge if he was engaged on any literary work now. “f have not the time for it,” he said. “T cannot attend to that and to my public duties, too. When a man ts engaged on historical work of any magnitude, he must concentrate his thoughts on it. He cannot take them off at Intervals to attend to other things. I have been in public Mfe ten years and since I have been in the Senate my public duties have demanded all of my attention. I have written some articles from time to time, but always on public topics which I have been studying in connection with my duties as a Senator.” The Immigration Problem. “In what particular direction do* your Senatorial energies tend?” I asked. “To the study of legislative questions chiefly,” said the Senator. “I am inter- ested, deeply interested, in the immigration problem. Nothing {s of more public inter- est just now, I think, than the question of regulating the flood of immigrants con- Stantly coming to America. It is only within a few years that we have shut out the criminal and pauper classes. Now we have to consider how we will prevent the coming cf other undesirable people. The Slavic race is coming to America in great Rumbers and we are receiving a great many immigrants from Italy and Bohemia. Many of these men are willing to work in this country for almost as little as they received at home. They come in competi- tion with American werkmen, and cheapen American labor. This is not true of the better class of immigrants—the skilled la- borers. These men when they come to America socn demand as good wages as open laborers of the same grade re- ceive. “Sometimes these skilled laborers demand more, as the original diamond cutters did. The first diamond cutters were brought from Holland to Boston by a man named Morse, who paid them their own price for their labor. In Holland these men kept the methods of their trade a secret. Morse, who had dabbled in diamond cutting, soon learn- ed all that they knew, and in secret im- parted it to some American apprentices. After a time the Dutch diamond cutters de- manded an Increase of pay, and stopped work when they did not get it. Then the American apprentices were put to work at less wages than the Dutchmen had been re- ceiving, and since that time diamond cut- ting has been a leading American trade. @ diamond cutting business In America ould be even larger than It Is if the easury Department had not interpreted the contract labor law so as to send back to Holland recently a great many diamond cutters brought here for the purpose of es- tablishing new factories. Mr. Eocee thinks apt men should not have béen sent a 2 They Make Good Citizen: “The Dutch,” said the Senator, “are de- sirable immigrants. The Dutch and Danes and Swedes and Germans are all good ma- terial for making American citizens. We have the experience of a thousand years to show us that these amalgamate well with the English-speaking race. In our own colonial history we have evidence of their adaptability to local conditions. New Eng- Jand, Virginia and most of the southern states were settled by the English. The Swedes settled on the Delaware and the ‘Dutch in New York. Then came the Pala- tinate Germans into Pennsylvania and western North Carolina; then the north of Ireland men and the Scotch—chiefly Ulster- men. “These, with some Huguenots, made the chief constituents of our population during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the nineteenth century came the great influx of Irish and the Germans—both peo- ple who easily became Americanized. But im recent years there has been a marked increase in the immigration of Italians and of Russions—and it is a serious question whether we can make good Americans of them. Possibly we can in time. But the conditions in this country sre not now what they were fifty years ago. Then we had great tracts of land in the west on which we could distribute the new popula- tion. Now the country is becoming dense- ly settled, and it is difficult to see what we can do with all the cheap, unskilled labor which the old world is emptying on us every year. “Still, you cannot exclude a man merely because he is willing to work for a dollar a day,” I suggested. “No,” said the Senator, “nor can we draw the race line. I investigated the sub- ject of immigration statistically in 1890 and I learned then that in the preceding sixteen years 6,418,633 immigrants had en- tered the United States through her sea- ports—a number equal to one-tenth of our population. Immigration fluctuates with the prosperity of our country. During the recent perlod of depression it has fallen off a great deal. But it will revive with the revival of industry. We touched the high-water mark in a prosperous year— 1882—when 730,349 immigrants entered the country. In 1881 there were 720,645." ~ Indesirable Citizens. “And what percentage of increase has there been of late?” “Comparing the second half of this six- teen-year period with the first half, I fcund that there was a gain of more than 57 per cent. And this was in spite of the decline of Asiatic Immigration, due to the Chinese exclusion law. During the period I investigated nearly one-half of the people who came to this country to live were classified as ‘without occupation’—that is, they were unskilled laberers of the lowest class. The professional men and skilled laborers amounted to less than 12 per cent of the whole. The remainder was com- posed of ‘miscellaneous laborers.’ Not only was there an important and possibly dan- gerous increase in the number of immi- grants, but, as I have said, there was a radical change In the character of those who landed at our seaports. “We first show.d our appreciation of the importance of this change ir the enactment of the Chinese exclusion law. Everybody now admits the wisdom of that law. The next popular awakening was to the fact that great numbers of laborers were com- ing here under contract to work for wages lover than the American workmen re- ceived. Congress then passed the alien ecntract labor law, which is sound in prin- ciple, if defective in detail. These were the cnly departures from the original policy of the United States in the matter of immt- gration up to 189). Since that time we have had another law intended to restrict im- migration to those who are not likely to become dangerous citizens or who are not likely to become a charge on the state—to keep out the criminal, the insane and the pauper. “We no longer have the houndless, uncul- tivated territory into which we can send the newcomer,” said the Senator. “There is no longer a limitless demand for labor at high rates of wages. It is essential to the welfare of our people and to the preserva- tion of our system of government that the rate of wages should ke high and the liv- ing good. Our labor must be protected from undue competiticn ard our citizenship from the Infusion of an urdesirable element which threatens deterioration. The Solution Suggested. “There has been of late years a steady decline in immigration from France (which never sent us many citizens), from Bel- glum, Holland, Sweden and Great Britain. The immigration of Poles, Bohemians, Hungarians, Russians and Italians, on the other hand, is increasing, and worst of all is the increase in the number of Syrians and Armenians coming to us. These coun- tries are sending us not alone the ignorant, but the vicious. At the time of the killing of the Italians by a mob at New Orleans, an Italian newspaper said that there were galley slaves at every point on the Atlantic ccast. A special report to the State De- partment a few years ago sald that there was hardly a hamlet in Sweden or Germany which would not show instances of ob- Jectionable persons—criminals and paupers —assisted to emigrate to the United State: “What solution of the problem do you suggest?” “There are two ways of solving it,” said the Senator. “One is by a per capita tax on all immigration. This is a rough way of getting at the difficulty, though. The other is by establishing an education test. Shut out illiterates, and you narrow down the immigration list a great deal. We of Mas- sachusetts have an education test for voters. A man cannot register unless he can read and write, and as a test he must read a paragraph of the Constitution, printed on a card which is drawn at ran- dom from a box of such cards. Until re- cent years this law was not well enforced, put now it is very generally applied, and with satisfactory results. During his stay abroad, the Senator told me, he expects to do nothing but rest. “I shall not attempt to gather any special in- formation,” he said. “I want to get away from men and affairs fer a time. You can- not get a perfect rest In your own country. I will take my sons with me, and I will be as free from all thought of public business as possible.” = Notwithstanding this determination, it is probable that the Senator will pick up, in his wanderings through the old world, a great deal of information in support of his views of certain public questions—in fact, the cable already reports him as busy in- vestigating parliamentary methods—and not unlikely much of the information he acquires will apply to the subjects in which he is interested so deeply—immigration and the reform of the consular service. GEORGE GRANTHAM BAIN. -——___+-e2+___- Enemies of the Bees. From the Pall Matf Gazette. One would !magine that wasps and bees would flourish under the same or very sim- ilar conditions, yet it is Is not so in reality. Last winter was very hard on bees. Hardly an apiary came out quite scathless, and many were nearly ruined. Nevertheless, the wasp appears to be in a most flourish- ing condition, and is creating more than the usual amount of irrfation. Whether the creature does more good or harm one finds it difficult to determine. One often sees the wasp eating offal and carrying off grubs and performing other useful func- tions; but it also does a great deal of mis- chief and seems to have a very fine taste for frult, as it selects and destroys the very best. It is also a nuisance to any one of a yery nervous temperament, for, though it does not exactly sting ‘on sight,” it re- quires less provocation than a bee to do so. The wasp {s an undoubted robber of the bees, and many other creatures are ene- mies of these useful insects. Sparrows at this season may often be seen hovering about the hives, but there are bee keepers who think they kill only the drones, and are therefore rather glad to see them. It ts very difficult to settle the question con- clusively, but it seems very doubtful in- deed whether sparrows are able to dis- tinguish between a fat drone and the ordi- nary worker-bee. The blue titmouse, how- ever, leaves no room for doubt; he positive- ly revels in bees and amply merits the doom passed on him and the sparrow shot that ends his career. Luckily, he 1s very easily trapped. Better Natured at Long Range. From an Exchange. en are odd creatures.” ‘What row?” “You knew how cross old Bondclipper is when a man comes into his office and asks him a question?” “Yes.”” “Well, sir, he'll walk k to the end cf the office and answer a fool telephone mes- sage without a grunt.” WEALTH IN SAND Wonderful Sea Beach Deposits Ex- plored by the Geological Survey. RED WITH RUBIES AND GARNETS Gold and Other Precious Metals on the Oregon Seashore. OPINION OF EXPERTS Written for The Evening Star. HE METALLIC treasures of the sea beaches of Oregon have just been made a subject of investi- gation by the geolog- feal survey. Two ex- perts, H. V. Winchell and F_ F. Sharpless, were sent three months ago to ox- plore these wonderful sands, concerning the possibilities of which es a source of wealth <nere has been much speculation. They contain not only gold, but also consider- able quantities of platinum, as well as other rare and precious metals. So rich are they in rubles and garnets as to be actually red in places from the presence of those gems. In one spot there are at least 50,000 tons of sand that holds 2 to 5 per cent of garnets and rubies in remarkubly perfect and beautiful crystals. The experts report that in their opinion the gold and platinum might be extracted profitably from these beaches, while the rubles and garnets would be valuable in the manufacture of emery wheels. The sands of the seashore are rich in gold all along the Pacific coast from Point Men- docino in northern California to the mouth of the Umpogna river in Oregon. Cliffs on the ocean front commonly contain gold, and, where washed by the waves, the shore for mi! actually gtitters with speckles of the yellow metal. What cp- Pears today, howeyer, is either washed away or deeply buried tomorrow. Many attempts have been made to extract the Precious stuff from the sands, but as a rule they have heen urprolitable. The metal-bearing strata are some distance be- low the surface, and the overlying material Is apt to be washed back by the sea as fast as it is removed. In a few places such work Is still carried on at intervals, and each year these beaches contribute something to the world's store of gold. The locality upon which Messrs. Sharpless and Winchell bestowed their chief attention was near the mouth of the Coquille river, in the southwestern part of Oregon. The tract here explored extends along the seacast for two iiles and runs about an equal distance inland. Digging disclosed the fact that tie sands are divided into well-defined layers, ard in them are imbedded many trunks and stumps of trees, some of them of the gigan- tic redwood. Naturally, the metals, being heavy, occur in the deeper strata. Gold and platinum are found mostly in layer of black sand which varies in thickness from a few inches to twelve feet. On top of the black sand is a stratum of gray sand, which is not so rich. Don’t Pan Out Well. The gold in these sands occurs in the shape of minute scales. These yellow flakes are so extr2mely small and thin that fre- quently they will float in water, on acccunt of minute air bubbles which collect upon them. Some of them are almost micro- scopic, and often they have the form of small cups or basins. Here has been a fruitful cause of disappointment to miners. When a prospector, under ordinary circum stances, finds twenty or thirty specks of gold in his pan, he assumes that the ma- terial will yield at least $2 or $3 to the cubic yard. These sea-heach scales are so very thin that the average value of (0 “colors” is enly one cent. It is a remark- ably large “color” or scale that measures an eighth of an inch in diameter. The sands in the locality described have been washed and scoured very clean, hay- ing been subjected to the action of the Coquille river and of the waves of the Pacific. Their accumulation at this point has heen caused by the opposing forces of the river and the ocean. The deposits have been laid down within the age of man, as Is proved by the character of the tree trunks and geological indications. Care- ful tests demonstrated that to work the gray sand would not pay, inasmuch as it ylelded orly seven cents a ton on an aver- age. The black sands, however, hold from fifty to seventy-five cents in gold per ton, and their treatment for its extraction is regarded as a problem worthy of serious consideration. Zs Why Platinum is Costly. A good deal of platinum is found asso- ciated with the gold in the Pacific beach sands. At present market rates, it is worth $6 an ounce. A couple of years ago a big syndicate bought up the entire vis- ible supply of this metal, actually setting out to purchase all the scrap platinum existing in the world. But there was more of the latter than had been counted upon, so it was found impossible to control the market. This speculation carried the price of the substance up to $18 an ounce—a cir- cumstance very annoying to sclentific men, who use It for instruments of precision and especially for chemical apparatus, inas- much as it will stand the fire of the blow- pipe and does not corrode. Electricians also utilize quantities of platinum—an inch of wire for each incandescent lamp, in connection with telegraphic instruments, and in every place where the passage of a spark creates ozone to oxidize the metal points it passes between. Messrs. Winchell and Sharpiess express the,opinion that platinum could be ex- tracted from the sands at the mouth of the Coquille river at a profit. It is found on the Pacific coast wherever gold oc- curs, though its distribution is not uni- form, much being discovered in some places and very little in others. Samples submitted to test yielded two ounces of platinum to the ton of sand, which is enough to pay. Four-fifths of the platinum that supplies the world is obtained from two mines in the Ural mountains, Siberia. They are gold mines, the platinum being a by-product. Beth metals are got from “placer” deposits, being found mingled with the sands that have been worn away from the hills by running water. Twenty- nine hundred cart loads of earth must be washed to yield fifteen pounds of platinum. Nuggets are very rare, the biggest on rec- ord being now in the Dresden Museum. It is about as big as a tumbler. Some Rnure Metals. Samples of sand assayed by the two ex- perts yielded small quantities of those rare metals iridium and osmium, but it is very doubtful whether they could be ex- tracted profitably. Iridium is now quoted in the market at $15 an ounce, and os- mium at $60 an ounce. The latter, it will be observed, is nearly three times as pre- cious as gold. Iridium and platinum are the only metals that are heavier than gold. The former {is utilized to some ex- tent for making scientific instruments, not being susceptible to corrosion, In the beach sands described are found considerable quantities of a very extra- ordinary white metal, or rather mixture of metals. This natural alloy, known as “dridosmium, is composed of iridium, osmium, rhodium, platinum and ruthe- nium, Rhodium, by the way, is quoted at $112 an ounce, but it is by no means the most precious of metals, gallium being worth $3,000 an ounce. These metals are mere laboratory curiosities, however. The prices are nominal, inasmuch as there is glmost no market for them. The only important use for iridosmium is in tipping gold pens. It is employed in this way because it resists acids. For the purpose mentioned the grains of it, which are flat, like gold dust, are picked out from the sand with magnifying glasses. It should be mentioned that the sands of all beaches contain gold, though the quan- tity is usually too small to pay for sepa- Tating it. There is so much gold in sea water that a single bucketful of it reveals @ yellow trace on analysis. Every ton of water in the ocean contains about one grain of gold, which is enough to gild fifty-six square inches of surfate, or it may be drawn out into 500 feet of wire. In the Indian ocean is a volcarfic island, the sands along the shore of whtch are filled with gold-colored crystals of,chrysolite or “gold stone.” These crystals glitter in the sun, and about a century ago a crazy French- man, struck with the‘ brilliancy of the Pebbles, supposed that he had hit upon unlimited wealth. He gollected quantities of them, heated them in a crucible and fancied that he produced ingots from them. Only a few years ago'® lot of chrysolite- bearing sand from thersame island was shipped to France andjjmade a great sen- sation. People went wild about it, and companies were organjzed to begin mining operations along the stand of the golden isle. Much money wal wasted in the en- terprise. eud In Place of Emery. The suggestion to thé effect that the rubles and garnets of these sands might be utilized in the manufacture of abrasives 1s an important one. In 1893 there were 1,713 tons of emery produced in this coun- try, worth $83 per ton. 1 emery imported during “the same year amounted to $127,767. Rubles are better than emery as a material for emery wheels. The sands all along the coast of Oregon hold a large percentage of magnetic iron. This is easily separated by means of mag- nets, and the invention of the electric fur- nace has made it practicable to smelt it. Eventually it may become feasible to con- centrate the Sands for the iron, producing steel of exceptional fine quality for certain purposes and saving the gold and platinum as_by-products. "The assayer of the mint, Mr. Whitehead, has been making experiments recently with tellurium—a rare metal which occurs in combination with the gold mined at Crip- ple Creek, Col. The ores of that district are the richest in the world, running up to $60,000 a ton. So commonly do they con- tain the remarkable substance referred to that one of the camps of the region is nama Telluride. " “One peculiarity of tellurium,” said Mr. Whitehead the other day, as he handled several samples of Cripple Creek gold hich had been forwarded to the treasury, is that a bit of it as big as a pin'’s head mixed with a pound of gold will make the latter as brittle es glass. Of course, you are aware that gold ordinarily is extremely tough, being so ductile that 900 square Inches of ordinary commercial leaf are eaten out from a single dollar's worth. One of the most striking characteristics of tellurium ‘s its extreme brittleness. Here is a lump of it. You will observe that it looks somewhat like silver, and 1s very crystalline. It is slightly less heavy than iron, About Tellurium. “What Is it good for, you ask? Nothing whatever, so far as is known, except as a laboratory curiosity. Mr. Edison says that he would find an employment for it if he could obtain it in considerable quantities. It is worth $30 an ounce, but the demand for it is so small that the market would be broken if I offered for sale the whole of the one-pound bar which I have in my pos- session, This is the biggest bar of tel- lurfum ever cast. “Tellurium 1s found Jn small quantities all cver the United States, commonly com- ined with gold, silyer and bismuth. When present in ores cf silver and gold it renders their reduction by the process of amalga- mation impracticable, so that smelting has to be resorted to. The copper bullion that comes from the west usually contains some tellurium. Though amounting to only one- four-hundredth of 1 per cent, it renders the copper so brittle as td!he ‘unfit for the finer uses, though it is goof éhough for castings. ‘The copper of the ‘Lae Superior region contains no telluriui.’ The business of freeing western coppef frpm the objection- able metal is condycted on quite a scale, the largest wiftks being located at Baltimore and at Briigeport, Conn. From “per in solutfon ‘js precipitated a slimy stuff, consisting of gold, silver, selenium and ‘teélurlum. ‘The | tel- lurium may be separated’ out by chemical means, but ordinarily !f is thrown away with the rest of the pretipitate, after the gold and silver haye been saved. At a factory in Baltimore jrotiably about twenty pounds of it daily aré thus disposed of as of no account. - “Tellurium fovms a remarkable alloy with aluminum, When the two are melted to- gether in certain proportions they , sud- denly combine with a low! explosion, form- ing a very brittle subsiance. This gub- stance, when droppetl’ itito water, gives fcrth a peculiarand abominable odor. The same odor is communicated ‘to tne breath of anybody who swallows a small quantity of the alloy. This smell, in fact, is one of the worst producible in the laboratory, surpassing even sulphuretted hydrogen. Tellurium, by the way, was discovered by a German named Klaproth, in 1708. Re- cently many experts in the science of chemistry have been trying to break it up, being convinced that it 1s in reality not an element, but a compound of several ele- ments unknown. RENE BACHE. —— ee HARVEST TIME OF EXPRESS Com- 1E Queer Things the Northern Soldiers Sent Home From the War. From the Boston Transcript. The greatest harvest reaped by the prin- cipal express companies was during the late war of the rebellion, when everything was sent and received by express, no mat- ter what the cost. The writer of this sketch had a varied and somewhat tedious experi- ence in the business during that protracted disturbance, and was witness to many Scenes of somber and many of a humorous character, These were mostly seen in the returns from the seat of war just after a battle. Sometimes after a victorious federal ac- tion, or the capture of a rebel town, the officers, as well as the men, made a prac- tice of sending home trophies they had captured. These often were household ef- fects of comparatively little value, and cost the recipients at home a large tax for express transportation. Sometimes livestock was sent, consisting largely of dogs and denkeys, sometimes a singing bird, or fowls of peculiar breed. On one occasion a stal- wart negro fellow was received at the Bos- ton office, sent by an officer who found he could do nothing else with him,and thought he might be of use on his farm at home. The grinning darkey had a card firmly fastened about his neck, giving the address were to land him, with this direction: “Feed and grub this nigger all that he needs.” It was sad. however, to see the rough boxes often piled up outside the of- fice containing the remains of the boys in blue sent home for burial among the scenes which they had left a short time be- fore for the southern battlefields. These relics often proved a burdensome cost’ to their bereaved families at home. We were always glad to forward remittances of money to the oftentimes distressed ones at home. The business transacted by some of the big expresses, Adams & Co., for in- stance, was of enormous proportions, and added largely to the wealth of many pro- prietors, the terrible war proving a godsend to them, at least. ss % Men Above Principle. From the Detrolt ‘Tribune, “Ah, yes,” confessed the sweet girl grad- uate of yesterday, wito was today a bride, “St Is true that we pledged ourselyes never to marry, but we value men above prin- ciples, don’t you know.” , And the mind tha had then discussed the transcendental faunicipal politics tow concentrated its@lf upon the purchase of an oil stove that, would cook a steak and not heat the room. $$ As He Inferred. Fron Truth. cd i First Tourist (grandly}—“While in Eu- rope last summer I fjent, through Wales.” Second Tourist (from ‘ Chicago)—“How much did his princelets have in his clothes?” 2 Overstayed the Inspiration. From Puck. First Englishman—“But, deah boy, why didn’t you write a book about America?" Second Englishman (surprised)—Why, my deah fellow, didn't you know I was out theah ovah a yeah?” ——_++ Mary’s Little Ring. From Life. Mary had a little ring, "Twas given by her bean, And everywhere that Mary’ went ‘That ring was sure to go. She took the ring with her one day Off to the seashore, where She might display it 'to the girls Who were all clustered there. And when the girls all saw that ring ‘They made a great ado, Exclaiming with one volce, “Has tt just got around to you?” > —TOM MASSON, The value of the | A GREAT FIND A 8TORY FOR BOYS BY JOHN HABBERTON. ee (Copyright, 1895.) Charley Grateson and Jack Whyde were two lively twelve-year-old boys who lived out west many years ago, and they were also the closest of friends. When I say that either would trust the other so fully that he would lend his entire store of mar- bles, even when he was sure that the bor- rower would lose them all while playing “for keeps,” any great-hearted boy will know that they would also take each oth- er’s punishments at school, although teach- ers in those days were so cruel that bad boys had sometimes to choose between be- ing flogged with a thick hickory stick and being compelled to sit with the girls. Of course neither would go fishing unless accompanied by the other. One day, when Jack called for Charley to go to the river with him in search of a big bass which another boy said had got away from him, Charley’s face became almost as long as his own fishpole, as he explained that he would have to remain at home until he had pick- ed over a dollar's worth of coffee. At that time the people of the newer parts of the country could not go to a grocer and pur- chase coffee ground and browned, a pound at a time, with a lot of chickory in it to spoil the flavor; it was western custom to buy a dollar's worth of “green” coffee at a time, and brown it over the kitchen stove, first picking out the bits of husk, wood, stone and clay that seemed to have been put into the coffee bags for the sole pur- pose of making tiresome work for boys who had to go fishing or had some other important business of their own on hand. Jack offered to help Charley and let the bass wait, for the job was a b'g one; the local storexeeper sold six pounds of coffee for $1, and Mrs. Grateson, although a model mother, which means that she Iiked to see boys enjoy themselves when there was nothing else for them to do, was so particular that she insisted upon the coffee being spread so thinly on the kitchen table that no grain should lie upon another, so that no bit of wood or clay should escape the eye, nor would any tiny pebble reach the coffee mill to make a horrid noise and do a lot of damage. ‘Twas a long job; the bass upon whom the boys had sct their hearts wotld have twitched his tail in heartless glee had he known how the boys were being delayed. Sull, Jack and Charley were philosophical, when they couldn't do anything better; they had studied together and read the same books, so they began talking of the various parts of the world that produced coffee, and, as all of these ands were far aw: and strange, and produced much besides coffee, the boys soon found them- selves talking about monkeys, and serpents, and birds of Paradise, and pirates and precious stones. Then they wondered what sort of people gathered the coffee at which they were working, and why they didn’t pick it over before packing it, and Charley took a short rest and straightened his back by going to ask his mother whetner her own coffee came from Arabia, or Java, or Brazil; he came back with the information that he was a dreadfully lazy boy, who could alw: find excuses for stopping work. Still the coffee came from Rio, wh‘ch was in Brazil, and if the colored boys who gathered it had been as slow as the white boys who were picking it over, ‘harley’s mother wondered how it ever was gathered and shipped. This was scarcely complimentary the bass would set tired of something wasn't done, so the boys worked hard for fully ten minutes. Some of the rebbles they picked cut were as e coffee graf still ting if y y and loam of the part of the west which the boys infested these bits from far-away South America were quite interesting. Some looked as if they would be as clear as glass were the dirt washed from them, so they were carefully placed aside from the general refuse to be shown to other boys and perhaps traded for other worth- less things in which boys take great de- Pretty soon Charley took another rest, and as he turned from the sunny window toward the table he exclaimed: “Oh, Jack! See those stones sparkle and flash! Come here where you can get a good light on them. Perhaps boys who live in states where there is mica, or granite, or qua or other crystalline stones may ihink Charley and Jack a couple of scatterbrains to stand there several minutes staring in real -de- Nght at the play of sunlight upon some pebbles; but, I have said, there were no stones of any kind in their part of the country; besides, looking at the pebbles was a good excus2 for stopping work fot a while. “It's as pretty,” sald Jack, finally, the sun on broken icicles in wintei “ICs prettier than that,” Charley re- plied. “It reminds me of the bosom pin of the captain of the Trusty.” This was the highest compliment that could be paid to the beauty of anything tn that part of the country, from a pretty girl to a brand-new red barn, for the Trusty was the fastest steamboat on the river, and her captain was a greater man. in the estimation of boys who knew all about men,than the President of the United States. Capt. San: wore Sunday clothes €very day of the week, and in the middle of his. shirt front there always sparkled a diamond pin, which was the wouder and admiration of every cne along the river. Whenever the Trusty’s landing whi, heard a lot of bi and men were sure to plod through deep dust or mud, or over frozen clods, to the river, with the one thought and desire of gazing at Capt. Sam and his diamond pin, and all boys who were not going to be presidents or mis- sionaries or circus riders when they grew up resolved to become steamboat so as to g3t rich_encugh to wear a dia- mond like Capt. Sam's. As Jack continued to gaze at the flashing pebbles there came to his mind a thought so startling that he actually reeled and had to clutch at Charley's arm for support. Then he gasped, after some effort: “Oh, Charley! Diamonds come from Brazil. This coffee came from there. May- be these stones are diamonds!” “Jack!” exclaimed Cha opening his eyes so wide that it took him a long time to close them again. Then each boy tock some of the pebbles to the window and looked at them carefully. Jack dropped one, but in an instant he was on his hands and knees and feeling about the old rag carpet for the possible treasure. As he aros® he asked: “How can we find out about them There were no jewelers in the town, and the boys didn’t think to consult a cyclo- pedia or a book on mineralogy, for they had never heard of such Mterature, ai- though they had seen every book that was in the vicinity. Charley thought that per- haps the minister’s dictionary would tell something about the tests for diamonds, but suddenly he shouted: “I have it! I once read a story ahout somebody in prison who wrote his name on a window with his diamond ring, and I rever heard of anything else that would write on glass. Here goes!’ So saying he selected a pebble with a sharp angle, and turned toward the win- dow. Jack thought he heard Charley’s heart beat, and knew he saw Charley's hand tremble as if there was an ague fit behind it. “You try it,” Charley whispered. Jack took the stone, but he was so excited that he must have forgotten his own name, for instead of beginning to write it, as boys are possessed to do in all places where they shouldn’t, he began on the name of George Washington. There was a scratch- ing sound, and Charley’s breath made a noise like the exhaust pipe of Captain Sam’s steamboat as Jack traced a ragged yet distinct letter G. “Do it some more! Do it some more: whispered Charley hoarsely. So Jack slow. oak ly completed. the. first part of the first President’s name, while Charley repeated, again and again, “Diamonds Bu at the rate of two or three ex- clamations to each letter. Then he grasped Jack’s hand and exclaimed: “Solemn secret?” ."Solemner than Solomon!’ (This form of words had among boys of the town the full force of a legal oath, and any boy who violated it lost standing until he eeber got religion or shot a bear or a horse thief.) Just then the boys had a terrible scare, for a peddler suddenly entered the room through the open door. Each boy pocketed the precious stones in his hand before the peddler could see them, and while Charley went to ask his mother whether she want- ed to buy any ribbons, or gum camphor, or pearl buttons, or ague medicine, Jack cov- ered with one hand the stones yet on the table, while with the other hand he began to heap the unpicked coffee so that the peddler should not see any of the stones which perhaps remained. Fortunately Mrs. Grateson did not care to buy any- thing that day, so the boys soon got rid of the intruder, but one scare of that kind was enough. They shut the door and bolted it; there was fire in the stove, wait- ing to brown the coffee, and the day would have been warm enough without it, but it_was well to be on the safe side. The remaining coffee was picked over as rapidly as if Mrs. Grateson herself had been at it. Meanwhile the boys wondered how much money the precious stones would bring, and where the treasure was to be sold. It never occurred to them that the stones were not their own, but belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Grateson, who had purchased the coffee, with everything thereunto appertaining. Neither did they think to consult their parents, for the great find was a delicious secret, and all boys delight in secrets. Both had read stories in which scme one named Tiffany, in New York, was ailuded to as a dealer in jewels, so they finally agreed to send the stones to Mr. Tiffany by mail, and ask him to return whatever money they were worth. But what a job and what a risk it was! First, the stones had to be packed so that no one through whose hands they passed would know what was in the package, for although the local postmaster was as hon- est as a school day was iong, there might be thieves in the New York post office. The town merchants packel eggs in bran to keap them from shaking and breaking during shioment, so the boys xot a small button box, put a layer of bran in the bottom, laid the stenes, wrapped in paper, upon it, and then made all snug with more bran. Around the box: they placed several thicknesses of paper, fasten- ed with the best of kite paste, and thor- oughly dried before the fire. Then came the question of postage. They weighed the package at the drug store, and found it made about four ounces. They tearned, by cautious inquiry, that all closely sealed packages required letter postage, which at that time, from the boys’ town to New York, was at the rate of 10 cents per half ounce. Eighty cents!—more mongy than either boy had owned in all his life! Still, they rose to the demands of the occasion; they fished _ industriously every afternoon after school, selling their eatch to the farmers whose wagons passed along the river road, and in ubout a fort- night the price of the stamps was ac- cumulated. This time was not entirely wasted, though, for they thought to add a postscript to their letter, asking for pay- ment in very large bills, so that the bulk of the remittance might not attract atten- tion.. There were ro postal orders or registered letters at that time, and as there were no banks in the vicinity, nor had the boys reached the commercial end of the arithmetic at school, they knew nothing about bank checks. Finally the precious parcel was stamp- ed, and the boys went together, after dark, to drop it into the slot in the door of the Post office. Then they waited—waited a long time. Seven days was the average mail time between their village and New ¥ork, so they agreed to be as patient as they could for a full fortnight. There was plenty to busy their minds, however, for they had to arrange about spending the morey when it came. Charley was going to lift a mortgage from his father's place, and give it to the good man as a birthday present, if he could keep the affair secret until then; Jack, not to be oucone in filial affection, ressived to add to his home a lean-to kitchen, for which his mother longed. But these were mere extras. Each boy was to have his own horse—the very best the county could supply—and to wear red- topped boots every day of the week. They would buy an assortment of guns, too, end take a trip te New Orleans, about 1,500 miles distant, on the Trusty, and see Capt. Sam's diamond pin all they liked while they were on board. And what fun it would be, while they were in the great southern city, to buy big diamond pins themselves, and make Capt. Sam sick with envy during the return trip! Maybe they would buy a stock of goods, with which to go into business for themselves on their re- turn; they rather thougnt a candy store, with soda fountain annex, would be about the thing, for soda water had only re- cently made its appearance, and they never had been able to get enough of it. Most important of all, each should have the very longest fish pole that could be pur- chased in New Orleans, from which city all the long bamboo rods came; there were no such things as jofnted rods, that Jack and Charley knew of, but the boy who had the longest bamboo pole in town was King cf all the boys, and could use bad language to bigger boys without being kicked for it. As the fortnight neared its end Charley and Jack hurried to the post office when- ever the horn of the mail carrier was heard. The address they had given was Charley’: Whose family had a box at the post office, and one day there came from that box a bulky envelope, addressed “Charles Grate- son, esy.” Chariey’s hand trembled so as he took it that he dropped it. Jack quickly picked it up, and almost fainted, for—some- thing ia it rattled. The stones had re- turned. “Perhaps,” Charley whispered, as they walked quickly away, almost leaning upon each other for support, as they listened to the ominous rattle of the stones, which simply would not keep quiet, no fatter how the envelope was held, “perhaps he wants us to name a price. Some business men never make an offer. “Perhaps,” suzzested Jack, in uncertain, feeble tones, “Mr. Tiffany don’t buy pre- cicus stones in the rough.” The boys sneaked into a neighboring barn, opened the letter, and read as fol- ow! “Dear Sir: We return herewith the stones you sent us. They are worthless. “Yours, truly, TIFFANY & CO.” About that time the silence in that barn became so heavy that each boy felt himself compressed to about six inches of height. It was several moments before the two pairs of eyes would meet and remain so; then Charley tried to smile, but it was such a sickly effort that Jack tried to laugh at it, and he falied miserably. The boys caw each other home two or three times before either could think of anything to talk about, but finally Charley said: “Jack, 1 guess our old fish poles are Jong enough; don’t you think so?" The worst thing about the experience was that Charley's mother felt greatly provoked when she found one of her window panes spoiled by a name that had been scratched across It. She wondered many times who named “George” had been in that kitchen unknown to her; and Charley said, with en- tire truthfulness, that he was sure he didn’t ktow, unless It was the peddler who strayed in the last day that coffee was picked over. Charley was ord=red to keep on watch for the peddler, so that his mother might give the fellow a plece of her mind and his father could give him a thrashing and make him pay for a new glass, Both boys again went to fishing as a bus- iness, until they earned enough money to buy a window pane and some putty, both of which were expensive in the good old times of which I am writing, and Mr. and Mrs. Grateson were so surprised that they be- came suspicious; so finally Charley, calling in Jack to give him moral support and other assistance, told the whole story of the great find. It ought to have made them happy to note how the tale amused Mr. and Mrs. Grateson, but it didn’t; and when the good people saw how miserable the boys were they tendered cake and good ad- vice, part of which was to put the spoiled glass in a picture frame, and take turns, week on and week off, of hanging it in their rooms, to remind them never again to keep secrets from their parents. Both boys became quite well off when they grew up, but neither of them ever Wore a diamond. They couldn't have been hired to do it. —————————— Her Purchase Was Wrapped Up. From the Boston Evering Record. I went into a Columbus avenue drug store last night for a moment's chat with my friend, the head clerk. The conversation wandered into the genus customer, and many a funny yarn of the wiles and ways of the buyer were spun. But none of them touched the thing I saw as I stood there. A woman came in and asked for a post- age stamp. laying two coppers on the coun- ter gingerly as she did so. My friend pass- en oat a vermilion abomination, and she said: “Yes, thank you; but don’t you wrap up the goods you sell?” “Yes, generally, but not postage stamps as a rule.” “Well, I wish you_would put a paper around this stamp. Stamps are horrid to carry in one’s pocket. They stick so!” And the long-suffering young man wrap- ped the postage stamp up in white paper, tied it with a red string and handed out the parcel to his customer without a smile. ——_+e+_____ A Chance Meeting. From the Newark Town Talk. Hiflier (unexpectedly meeting Miss De Fash at Pumpkinsville, L. 1)—“Why, is that you, Miss De Fash? I thought you said you were going to spend the summer at Newport?” Miss “De Fash—“Can that be you, Mr. pales You told me you were going to travel in Burope,”” THE CHRONIO SHOPPER, Some Notes on n Personage Well Known in Stores. Really the female shopper ought to be classified and set apart from her sex, and labeled “a separate and distinct species,” for she is the gad fly of civilization. How quickly the keen-witted, long-suffering clerks detect the chronic shopper, and how they do hate her! She usually haunts the bargain counters, though she knows, as do the clerks, that if silk dress patterns were selling at 5 cents each she couldn’t buy enough for a sleeve, but that doesn’t prevent her pulling and hauling the goods over, un- pinning tickets to see if the remnant ts all in one piece, to meas- ure by “finger lengths" if the rem- nant is es long marked, 10 look for weak spots, stained or shop-worn places. She usually finds one of these defects or the other—very nat- urally something was the matter, or the gocds would not be selling for “less than cost,” and then, with a sigh and a super- cilicus smile, she lays the fabric back on the counter. “I reckoned there was something the matter with it, short measure or streaks or something. You sce, I am up to your tricks. I’m surely sorry,” with an anxious frown, “for that was just what I wanted for Mary Jane a frock for school. I sup- pose ther? is no more?” This with an air of anxious sclicitude. “Oh, yes! Here's a whole bolt nearly,” the exasperating clerk will reply, when shi is all the time fully aware of the woman's inability to buy. “That piece was cut ‘rom this bolt; it has been in the window,” and she flings the bolt on the counter. The shopper com- pares the two, and shakes her head with a pitying smile. “My dear child, they were not even made on the same loom,” she will say, commisseratin gly. “One has_ cotton warp and the other ie part silk. No, I wouldn't have any of that bolt, if my Mary Jane had to wear flour sacks first. I'll look at this,” and at it she goes again, tumbling remnants of crepe and hop sacking, grena- dine and silk tissue, examining each with @ critical eye, and solicitous as to price aré length of width. Then she saunters to the dress goods counter, but they soon wear her out there, with piling up the material around her, and throwing it in her face, with many apologies, till she Is smothered with lint andlack of air. No, ske flourishes best at the bargain counter. When she tackles a shoe clerk he loses flesh at the rate of a pound an hour. A bargain table of shoes is her delight. She tries on opera toes and toothpicks and Trilbys. She wavers between low walkers, Juliets, tennis shoes, common sense, Frencli heels, spring soles, button boots, laced Pclish gaiters and dancing slippers, till the clerk has rubbed holes in the heels of her stockings and all over his temper, which begins to ooze out in spots, and then she sighs—she sighs very easy—and is “so sorry that none of them seem to fit.” She “usually wears a neverbreak shoe any- how, and ought to have known that a common make would not fit.” “Oh, we carry the neverbreak shoe,” the perspiring clerk tells her, but she is ob- livious. “I suppose I'l] have to send away for it, as usual,” she Lf maunders on, and ay the clerk breaks all the enamel on his wisdom teeth, trying to keep from swear- ing, while he puts back her burst out, paste-patched, old ; Slip-shod button 2, boots that cost her ) dear at a dollar. Then she invades the ready-made sult de- partment, and insists on trying on half the garments in it,though the clerk tells her that she will get lost in one-half, and tight fast in the other. She infests the millinery. department, and with the eye of a con- noisseur and hands of a vandal tries on all the dainty confections, before the horrified girls in waiting can interfere. Even pulls out the tissue paper put inside to save the head piece from hair soil in trying on! She hunts up tiny bits of embroidery, rib- bon, lace and dress trimmings on the rem- nant counter, and “would take some if they ean find a yard or two more.” It is found, but she suddenly bethinks her, that it will “look so bad pieced,” so sighs again, and gives itup. The only place they can get even with her is at the sample business. She is an ‘nveterate hunter of “sample: for “friends.” ‘They will be delighted to send the samples, of course} Will she leave the mame and address of the friend?” But she never does. —— Economy in Spelling. i From the Chicago Inter-Occan. Some French statistician has turned himv self loose on the subject of wasted words and letters. The French and English lan- guages are, as he proves with many figures, especially open to criticism in this matter, and money is lost every year by lack of verbal economy. The French language con- tains 13 per cent of useless letters. There are 6,800 journals published in the language, and they print 108,000,000,000 letters every year,so that 14,200,000,000 words are printed not because they are needed, but they have come to be used in the French language as it is spoken. The writer computes that $1,- 988,000 is the annual cost of this useless ex- penditure of printers’ ink in France alone. Of journals printed in the English lan- guage there are 17,000, and they are larger, Twelve per cent of our printed letters are skipped over by the tongues pronouncing the words, and so $7,000,000 is thrown away, Useless letters, he goes on to say, fill up large amount of space on paper, and in this way 1s lost $15,600,000 among English-speak- ing people and $3,600,000 in France. The time taken up in writing these useless let- ters, if estimated at $5 a day per journalist, is worth $4,500,000. Grand total, $32,600,000, Ae Properly Valued. From the Somerville Journal. Stern father—“Do you realize, young man, that up to the present time It has cost me at least $20,000 to bring up and educate that girl?” Fond lover—‘Yes, sir, and from my point of view I should say, sir, that she is fully worth it.” ——_—_++_____ Placing the Responsibility, From Life. He—“Will you be my wife?” She—“Oh, this is such a surprise!” He—"I can’t help that. It isn’t my faul! that you've never heard anything like befcre.” ~ ———+e+______ From Truth. “You advertised for a dog?” me yes; got any with you™ “Yep.” ‘Bring ‘em inf