Evening Star Newspaper, January 18, 1896, Page 15

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 189¢6-TWENTY-FOUR PAGES. 15. PERSONALLY CONDUCTED. ENGLISH IN PARIS John Bull and His Ways From the French Standpoint. POZZLING 10 THE GAY PARISIAN Some Account of the Spread of Anglomania. REACTION SET IN Sy<cial Correspondence of The Evening Star. PARIS, January 7, 1896. LYHOUGH PARIS is always full of Eng- Jish people, the Pa- risians can never un- derstand them. Here is a personal- ly conducted party of tourists. You may see them any morn- ing, - little girls, old men, marriageable maidens, big-footed mothers and bony brothers, piling Into a six-horse omnibus, .aeels, somersaulting over the tail board, pulling, gesticulating, yet silent, the girls not a whit behind the men in gymnastical agility, all showing their splendid teeth, all with their hats knocked over their eyes, all pulling out telescopes and opera glasses, or else whisky flasks and sandwiches. They are ready for the omnibus to start before the French driver has finished rolling his cigarette. ‘They sit beaming on the pedestrians of the sidewalk, pointing with their fingers, gay and unconcerned, thinking no evil. ‘They recognize that everybody cannot be British, and that itis not the fault of the French that they are an inferior race. All the other races are’ inferior, the Germans, ~ the Italians, the Americans, the Russians, the Spanish, the Chinese. In fact, they rather like the French, because they are “Niee.” such- funny people. selves funny. Oh, no. Every one is laughing at them and at the ridiculous trip that they are on. They are going in the omnibus to the tomb of Na- joleon, the catacombs, the morgue, the jainte-Chapelle, the Louvre and the Cathe- dral of Notre Dame. They have never seen these monuments before? They must be savages, barbarians! What are they in . Such a hurry to see them for now? Be- cause they only have two days in Paris. ‘Then why don’t they try to see a few things tranquilly? Because they want to cover all the ground possible. What do you mean by “covering ground?” Expla- nation. ——{—_—_—t All So Nice. ‘The Erglish trippers are perfectly con- tented with their excursion. The sun is so much brighter than at home, the streets @re so much gayer, one gets up such a splendid appetite for sandwiches, tea, whisky and tobacco! Whether it is before the Obelisk, at the cemetery of Pere La- chaise or eating in a Duval restaurant, they have but one word to express all their impressions. “Nice!" It is nice. The sewers are nice, the Bon Marche is nice, French coffee is nice, im- pressionist paintings are nice, the soldiers are nice. Now, ene young Englishman has dropped Out of fhe party. He desires to “personally conduct” himself. He has risen earlier than the rest. He strikes the Boulevard at 9 am., just by the Madeleine, because he They are not *them- Champagne. eomes from one of those little “indicated” hotels marked on his everything-included ticket. He perceives the restaurant rand. The waiter: e engaged in sweeping out, chairs are led on tables, there is dust and there are suds. That does not stop him. He goes in. “Champagne!” Now, I myself can understand this thirst, but Frenchmen cannot. A quart bottle for himself, at 9 a.m.! Monsieur, that is noth- ing; it is as g little bird would dip Into a little brook, ‘then lift its little eyes to heaven and wag its little tail and flap its little beak, and fly away. And that is ex- actly what he does. They Prefer to Shop. It is not what the English do in Paris, but the way they do it, that distresses the Parisians. Here is a very different lot of English, “Anglaises suaves,” chic “jeunes miss,” well-dressed and elegant girls, who know Paris. They do not care to visit the monu- ments. They have seen them. They love to chatter along the beautiful streets and run through the big shops. There they evangelize the clerks, distributing tracts while trying on gloves. They spread the glad tidings all over the Bon Marche. They @re astonished that there is not a little chapel attached to the Louvre. They bewilder the employes with ques- tions. They seem to think they are at Sun- day school. “Are you married? How many children have you? What quarter do you fghabit? Is it healthy? Are your parents living? How old is your father? mother paralyzed? Do your children go to school? How much rent do you pay?” All that for a pair of gloves at four francs fifty! The French clerk naturally thinks that she is making love to him. But she is not. It distresses the French that English ‘women never go to the right shop for any- thing. At the baker’s they ask for port wine, at the cake shop they ask for grapes. Naturally the shopkeepers, not wishing to loge «hese strarge customers, who may turn cut great acquisitions, lasten to send out for milk, tea, raisins. * * * The other day, in one of the most celebrated cake shops of the Rue Saint-Honore, two pairs of English girls were seated at a little ta- ble eating coffee eclairs. They had browsht a small basket of hot-house peaches with Is your Peaches and Tea. them. In order to eaf the peaches they must have knives, forks, spoons, pulverized sugar and napkins. They were furnished all these things. “Now, if we could only have some tea!” A French Estimate. In general English men are looked on as being rude and crude, their wives as being everfed and dowdy and theiv daughters as being mo:k modest, stupid and unfeminine. It is thonght that Miss John Bull devotes too much time to physical development and too little to the acquirement of a few ac- complishments. A statement somewhat to this effect in one of the English contl- nental newspapers was the cause of the recent terrible war between the Ameri- cans, English, French, Sparish and Ital- jams over their women. It was a war by letter—and the lettsrs came in thick and fast to the Paris Herald, the Galignani Messsenger, the Swiss and Nice Times, the American Register, rot to speak of the Paris pavers, which took the debate up with pleasure, printing everything that came to them. The odor of pale ale and whisky is per- ceptible enough in Paris, and even the English cuisine has made great way in the last few years. English luncheon bars, tea rooms and grill rooms have reached their height, as far as number goes; and into the most ordinary as well as the most ex- pensive restaurants such dishes as ox-tail soup, rostbif, plumpudding and pommes anglaises have found their way. es They Don’t Understand. This latter-day descent on Paris by the English—which is out of all proportion to the American invasion of Paris—has not been met with admiration only. The En- glish curate on his travels, with his semi- clerical garb, his fried-egg hat, his mild, apologetic air, and his tendency to go about sight-seeing in company with En- glish ladies, is always capable of raising malicious smiles. “Oh, yes! All right!’ And the Salvalion Army of the boulevard is also looked on as being something un- canny. Hidebound in their own ways, the Parisians can no more comprehend the one religious extreme than the other. It is like walking about the City of Light in a cloth steamer cap, going to the Grand Opera in tweeds, and then visiting the Moulin Rouge in evening dress. To bother them still more, there are the English songs and songstresses in the cafes concerts. lt need hardly be said that whenever an English popular song is “adopted” into French, the words are won- derfully changed, being made always and invariably “objectionable.” So that when the songs are simply sung in English, the French audiences think all kinds of hor- rors must be concealed under the foreign words, and applaud wildly at every wink and gesture of the artist. Thus “Linger Longer, Lov,” fs supposed to be something very risque; and those of you who will have had the pleasure of hearing Yvette Guilbert sing it in English will have noted that Yvette is not sure about it herself. ‘The common Parisians hate the Englgh, and they fear them; they ridicule them, call them drunkards and gross feeders, gibe et their taste in dress and at their manners— yet, they envy them. They know that when the most contemptible small London. clerk goes back to London, he will drop all his out’andish traveling zear and come down to his desk each morning in a black coat and a high silk hat. They know that English home-life, not eaten into by the habits of the cafe and the promenade, has developed most of the refinzments which the Parisians have taken up so recently. Anglomania in France. Such English words as “comfortable,” “5 o'clock tea,” “sport,” “hone,” “gentle- man,” of recent introduction into the French language, tell their own tale plain- ly. Tennis, cricket, foot ball, golf and box- ing as fashionable amusements attest the vogue of English ways. French ladies write their acceptances and regrets on English note paper and with English pena. Young girls learn the English hand in writ- ing, and receive translations of Walter Scott for reading. English mustard takes the place of French. The habit of the morning tub is straight from England. English shoes and underclothing, neckties | and jewelry—everything—is said to be the best. Common Parisians accept the mastery of the English shop and ask not why. They see the leaders of Paris fashion clad by English tailors. It must be right. “Have Henri’s new suit made English!” I tell you it is the most pathetic thing !n the world to see the process of this transformation of young Frenchmen of small means end smaller information. The little tailor round the corner says that he has English pat- terns and English cloth. What “smoking jackets” and what pantaloons! The tailor makes the pantaloons too long expressly, in order that they may be “turned up.” A change is coming over this, and it is the last word of Anglomania in France. The young Due d’Orleans, heir. to the French throne, recently ordered a large stock of clothes from a Paris tailor, stipu- lating that they should be made quite French. It was given out that the duke would thenceforth follow no more English styles. The news made a real sensation in Paris, causing applause. The motto, therefore, is: “Henceforth our French youth must not be tricked up like English grooms.’ STERLING HEILIG. ————__ It Knew His Pecullarities. From the Chicago Record. Mrs. Mork (en Oklahoma matron)—“I wondeg what is the matter with the clock? The pesky thing went wrong jest about the time Alkali Ike began callin’ on you, an’ ft hain’t been anywhurs near right since. Ike don’t tamper with it, does he?” Miss Gladys Mork—‘“No, ma’am, but every time he comes in the clock stops and throws up its hands.” — A Labor-Saving Device. From the Cincinnati Enquirer, “I see,” said St. Peter, “that they have been inventing a machine to record the tunes produced on pianos.” “I wish,” said the recording angel, “that they would get up some kind of a rapid- action machine to record the remarks that are made about the pianos.” ALL ABQUT GOLD Supply of the Precious Metal and Where It Comes From. . ALSG WHAT BECOMES OF IT How It is Minted and What is Done With the Coin. ACTUAL CIRCULATION IN F THE GOVERN- ment had been forced to go to the Morgan syndicate, which has just been dissolved, for gold it would have made the second »urchase of gold oy the government in he history of the Jnited States. The irst purchase in his- tory was made at the time of the last syndicate deal. In the century prior to that first bond deal bonds were sold for gold, but gold was not purchased with bonds. The contract with Mr. Morgan and his friends, which was not consummated re- cently, was to call for the delivery of so many ounces of gold in exchange for so many bonds. This gold could have been delivered at any of the subtreasuries in the form of bars or coin. Gold bullion and gold coin are worth exactly the same. The gov- ernment coins gold free of charge for any one who delivers it at the mints. The owner of gold, however, does not have to wait for the coining process. ‘The law provides for a fund, out of which the value of a deposit of gold can be paid to the owner as soon as the assayer can deter- mine what it is worth. How simple the financial‘problem would be if all the gold which has passed throvgh the mints of the United States and been converted into coin was now in the vaults under the treasury building. It would amount to more than $1,730,000,- 000, or nearly one-half of all the gold now in the worid. Instead of this the United States has only ene-seventh of the world’s gold supply and less than one-eleventh of that belongs to the government. In fact, if the greenbacks outstanding were like the gold certificates, which are in circulation, the government would be §250,000,000 short of meeting its obligations, and it would require nearly one-half of all the gold owned in this coun- trys or one-sixteenth of the gold supply of pheswerd to make good its obligations. ‘e will take out of the ground in the text four years probably enough gold to make up this deficiency, if we could tie it down and keep it from going abroad. But we have taken out of the ground in twen- ty-three years $821,000,000 worth of gold to add to the $135,000,000. which was in this country at the end of 1872. And of this $956,000,000 only $580,000,000 is left with us in the form of coin. In the meantime we have imported enormous quantities of gold; but we haye exported quantities even more enormous. When John Sherman was Secretary of the Treasury $40,000,000 was placed to the credit of the assay office at New York by ene transfer check for the purchase of im- ported gold. That was the largest transac- tion of its kind in the history of the treas- ury. The Output of This Country. But all of that has gone away again, and with it much of our own gold. The balance of trade against us and the realization by Erglish investors on American sé€urities accounts for that. All these figures are given to me by Di- rector Preston, the head of the mint bu- reau, in his comfortable office in the treas- ury building. Most of them he has in his head, and some he finds in the proofs of the pages of his annual report, which is in the hands of the public printer. “The production of gold in the United States in 1895," says Director Preston, “was between $46,000,000 and $47,000,000. I have estimates as. high as $52,000,000, but I prefer to be conservative. The world’s pro- duction last year was more than $200,- 000,000."" It takes an educated acuteness to make a reasonable estimate of the world’s pro- duction of gold and silver. Every estimate, of course, must be approximate, for there is no way of pinning down the miner to an accurate statement of the value of what he has taken out of the ground, even if he knew it. The best that can be done is to get repcrts from the smelters and re- finers, from the mints, from the collectors of customs, and then, with a fair knowledge of what the great and little mines are doing, to estimate. The estimate may be many mil- lions wide of the mark. So may the esti- mate of exports and imports, ‘on which the accuracy of the figures on the gold supply deperds. In Africa and Australia the miners carry away enormous quantities of gold each year in belts. American tour'sts save the cost of exchange by taking large quantities of gold coin across the ocean every summer. These exports and imports, of course, do not figure in the official re- ports. Director Preston is an optimist on the world’s gold production, and particularly on the gold production of the United States. In 1894, he predicted that the world’s pro- duction would amount to $163,000,000. ‘This estimate was considered extravagant. The Production actually ‘reached $180,000,000. For 1895 Mr. Preston’ said the produc- tion would equal $183,000,000; it will exceed $200,000,000. ‘The Metal in Virginia. For 1896 Mr. Preston makes the predic- tion that the world will produce $225,000,- 000 worth of gold, and of that the United States will produce $60,000,000. The pro- duction abroad is to be increased by the werking of the rich placers on the Neva, as well as by the opening up of South Africa. In the United States the develop- ment of Cripple Creek may be followed by the withdrawal of some of the restrictions on mining in California imposed a few years ago. Then there is much talk of de- veloping the gold fields known-to exist in the lake region, and a company of Chicago- New York capitalists has been formed, with a capital of $2,500,000, to take gold od of the ground in Buckingham county, a. “There is undoubtedly gold_in_paying quantities i: Virginia,” said Mr. Preston. “That has been known for years, but no one with capital enough has ever gone into the state and made a systematic attempt to work the gold fields. The ore is difficult to handle, but it ought to yield a good re- turn. The only reason it has not been werked in the past is that men have pre- ferred to take their capital where millions were being taken out.” He was asked if Virginia was likely to be- come a great gold producer. “No one can tell,” said Mr. Preston. “People free over Cripple Creek for years and thought nothing of it; now it is one of the mest wonderful gold camps in the world. Geologists said you could not find gold in the porphyry rock. That is just where they are finding it now. So, you See, no one can tell what experiment and investigation may bring forth. Virginia or any other state may become a gold pro- ducer. At present California and Colorado are the great gold states. California pro- duced about $30,000,000 last year and Col- orado about $15,000,000. Scme estimates put culcrsays production a little higher than that.” “And where is all the gold going, and where has it gone?” “About $10,000,000 goes to the arts every year. I suppose the loss by abrasion since 1872 has be2n $2,000,000. The remainder, less $580,000,000, is the balance of our ex- ports over imports, caused by the balance of trade against us, and by the selling of American securities which are ~~ held abroad.” How Gold is Obtained. Most of the gold which is produced in the United States is dug out of the ground in the form of ore. Some is obtained by wash- ing. The latter was the original method in California, and all through the gold regions the gold seeker and his pan were familiar objects. The gold was washed free from the sand and dirt in which it was found by a twirling of the pan which sent the water over the edge, taking ‘with it the foreign substances and leaving only the precious metal. Guid thus obtained. was almost pure. - Then some one discoyered that there was. gold far under the surface of the ground, mixed with othér metals and en- compassed by the rock. From that discov- ery came the “bonanza’.,fortunes made in the Comstock and other, poted mines. There are two principal kinds of ore now: mined, the free-milling’ ére, which is ob- tained by crushing the Ofe in a stamp mill and gathering the loose:gold together with wicksilver, and the smelting ore, in which id and lead are found,tcgether and sepa- rated in the furnace. Afl-large minés pro- ducing free-milling oréthave their own stamp mills, but thereiare commercial stamp mills, and in Denyer especially there are huge smelting and refining works for the treatment of ore." “Much of the ore taken out of the grouh@ is shipped in its crude state, and the transportation charges are a serious item in figuring on the possi- bilities of profit in a mine. ‘The milling or smelting process through which the ore passes does not produce pure gold bullion. Its product is usually a mixture of gold and silver, in which some- times the one and sometimes the other metal predominates. California nuggets co.tain about 88 per cent of gold and 12 per cent of silver. The Colorado smelters turn out a bar in which silver and gold} mingle in varying proportions. Some gold ores ere associated with platinum and some with a mineral known to geologists as iridosmine, and these rémain in a small percentage in the bullion bars as they are effered to the government for sale. But the most complicated mixture which reaches a United States assay Office comes from the prodvet of the copper mines of Montana, Arizona, ete. The crude copper is refined from these ores by electrolysis, which de- posits all except ie copper in a slime at the bottom of the tank. This deposit con- tairs gold, silver, bismuth, antimony, ar- senic, lead, sulphur end many other miner- als. This slime is purified in part in the cop- per works, but there remain in the bullion bar with the precious metals many which are undesirable. Mints and Assay Offices. It is in one of these Impure forms in which mest of the gold comes to the assay offices or to the mints to be coined. There are four mints—at Philadelphia, San Francisco, Car- son City and New Orleans; and six assay of- fices—at New York, Denver, Boise City, Helena, Charlotte and St. Lovis, There is to be a mint at Denver which will take the place of the one at Carson, which is ‘vir- tually closed now. To these mints and ‘as- say offices the refined and unrefined gold Is sent or brought. Last year approximately 1,510,000,000 ounces of bullion offered to the gcvernment were of refined ard 814,000,000 of unrefiied gold. In addition to these were domestic coin, foreign bullicn, foreign coin and old Jewelry. The dcmestic coin sent to the mints Is the coin which through abra- sion in circulation has lost weight and is uncurrent. There was $1,200,685 worth of uncurrent coin received at the treasury, melted and recoined last year, on which the loss through abrasion was $216,886, In addi- ticn there was $983,799 worth of mutilated and uncurrent coin bought as bullion and melted up. The unrefined bullion which is brought to the mints and assay offices is “parted,” or divided into its constituent metals, and re- fined. This is not done for nothing. The owner of the bullion pays for the work. Last year the owners of bullion paid the government $151,413 for this parting and re- fining, the cost of which was a little less. When the product of this process is run into bars of gold and siiver, stamped with the mark of the assayer, the owner of the bullion receives a check on the treasurer of the United States forsthemmount due him. This he may receive in,gold coin or in any form of currency. The government now owhs the gold, and coin it whenever ‘there is need of coin or whenever the mints are idle. Usually a good deal of gold in bars 4s kept on hand in Philadelphia. There js. ngw: between $17,- 000,600 and $18,000, worth of gold bul- Lon stored thore. .There. is, $6,000,000 worth stored in New York. But at San Francisco, where the greatest amount of goid is re- ceived, there ts only $2,000,000. Gold coin is in demand constantly, gn ‘the Pacific coast for eyrrent cir ion. That is the only part. of the cour wherp it is in active serv There have been much larger amounts ef gold bullion stored, in the government yaulis. In 1882-53 there “was $108, worth of uncoined bution; on sto between $95,000,000 anid $100,000,000 of “it was in the vaults of thé assay office at‘ New'York. The mints-were’so busy ‘coining silver at that time that they could not eoin the gold. Ready for Shipment. When the bullion has been put through the mint, the coins are put in sacks or, if they are to be shipped, possibly they are packed in kegs for shipment. The last great gold shipment went from Philaael- phia to New York in Kegs. The bags of coin are packed in boxes and these are stored in the ccin vaults—vaufts of latticed steel. It was from one of these latticed vauits in Philadelphia, it will be remember- ed, that an old employe of the mint stole some bars of gold bullion a few years ago. These bars had been stacked one on another in the vauit for a number of years without being weighed or counted. Most of the coin used in the east is m ed in Philadelphia, and the coin minted co is used chiefly on the Pacific ecast. the government had $50,000,000 in gold in San Francisgo a few years ago which was needed in the east. So a special train, swarming with armed guards, was put on from San Francisco to New York, and the enormous shipment was brought registered mail” at a cost of X00. This is not the way gold is handled usually. The government is bound to give the hauling of its gold with- in a certain territory to the express company which kes the contract for carrying government money and _ securi- ties. Most of the shipments of gold are made between Philadeiphia and New York, and they are handled in the daytime, The express company sends a safe in one of its «wagons to the mint. The -goid is loaded into the safe, which is locked, put in the wagon, and urder armed guard is driven to the railroad station. There the safe is loaded in an express car and, if the ship- ment is a-big one, a special guard,, armed with a sawed-off shotgun, is sent with the messenger. For this service the govern- ment pays forty cents on each thousand dollars. That covers the transportation of the coin from the mint to the subtreasury in New York. For a transfer like this the treasurer of the United States draws a war- rant on the mint, which is countersigned by the Secretary of the Treasury. This is de- livered to the express company, which pre- sents it at the mint and receives some pack- ages in return. Whether these packages contain gold or iron the express people do not know, but they are responsible for the amount on. the face of that warrant until the coin is delivered safely in. New York. The government has so little gold now that there will be very little moving before the time for closing bids on the gew foan. But if the loan should be a popilar suc- cess, there will be a pretty lively move- ment of gold all over the country. Banks and individuals will be shipping coin to the nearest subtreasury for the purchase of bonds. 3 ‘There ts $586,000,000;wogth of gold scat- tered over the United States. Of this $113,- 000,000 worth is in the hands of the gov- ernment, $68,000,000. Bein# held to secure gold certificates, These eertificates would be available-to purchase bonds. Can $100,- 000,000 (and more) of, the free $56,000,000 now stored in banks and safe deposit vaults and the old stockifigs, about which Mr. Hoar spoke recently} be charmed out of its hiding place by an offer of 8 per cent interest? That is the;proplem the govern- ment is waiting anxioysly, to solve. He Might Know From Experience. From the Waldoboro Wanderer’: The small boy had'‘a féstless, unhappy look, as he approached the young man who was calling on his sigter. .- “I wouldn’t tell anybody but you about it,” he said, confidentially. ‘About what?” : “About what’s happened to me. But I thought you might help me.” “In what way?” “Do you remember that little bit of a t- gold watch my sister had?” “Yes.” “I was fooling with it, and sister was coming, and I put it in my mouth to keep her from seeing it, and the first thing I knew I swallowed it.” “How long ago?” “This very afternoon. If you put your ear down to my chest you can hear me ticking inside.” “You'd better have a doctor.” “Then I'd have to’ let the folks know. Sister says you have wheels in your head sometimes, and I thought, mebbe, you'd tell me what to do for ‘em, an’ that it might fit this case." THE DISPUTED LINE >—— The Differing Claims of England and Venezuela, BOTANIST AS A SURVEYOR —_>_— Question Falls Back on Dutch Possessions in Guiana. THE PRESENT STATUS Written for The Evening Star. The right of eminent domain to all the territory now included in British, French and Dutch Guiana was originally held by Spain by right of discovery. The Encyclopedia Britannica, under the caption of British Guiana, says: “In 1781 Rodney (@ British admiral) took possession, and although the colonies were restored to Holland in 1783 they surrendered again to the British-in 1796. They were-restored to the Dutch in 1802, but were again taken by the English on the breaking out of the war in 1803, and that year the proper Fistory of British Guiana began.” And further, “British Guiana, when finally acquired in 1803, and formally ceded (to England) in 1814, consisted of three colonies, Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice. These were con- solidated into one colony in 1831. It has an estimated area of 76,000 square miles, but the boundaries are still disputed by Venezuela and Brazil. An engagement, however, exists between the Briti Venezuelan governments that nei occupy territory claimed by bot Held by Holland. It therefore appears that in 1802 and a portion of 1803 the right of eminent demain over all the territury included in British Gulana was held by Helland. And conse- quently Lord Salisbury’s claim that the title of Great Britain to the disputed ter- ritory is primarily based upon her “con- quest of the Dutch settlements in 1781 and Indians and the traditions of those In- dians would be equally unreliable. On such information, traditions and remains Schom- burgk surveyed, located and marked his proposed boundary line between Venezuela and British Guiana, and at so great a dis- tance to the westward of the Essequibo river, that 20,000 square miles of Venezu- elan territory were included between the two. That is the history of this famous Schom- of ter and ability to Holiand and Spain to procure his- torical documents reliable evidence to puted territory in 1803, the British goversi- ment sent out, not even an engineer, but a roving German botanist to run a divisional line between British Guiana and Venezuela, and the line surveyed and marked out by him was so satisfactory to the British gov- ernment that it soon after bestowed upon plain Botanist Schomburgk the high honor of British knighthood. But in Venezuela news of the ‘survey of the Schomburgk boundary line met with a very different re- ception. It is a historical fact that it created such an outburst of astonishment and indignation there that the British gov- ernment at once repudiated this Schom- burgk line and ordered the removal of all the indicating posts and landmarks that had been placed there by Schomburgk. The Salisbury Boundary Line. It would be a great mistake to suppose that the survey and location of the bound- ary line known by his name, was the only valuable service performed by Botanist Schomburgk for the British government. Lord Salisbury says that “In submitting the maps of his survey, on which he indi- cated the line which he would propose to her majesty’s government for adoption, Sir R. Schomburgk called attention to the fact that her majesty’s government might justly claim the whole basin of the Cuyuni and Yurnari, on the ground that the nat- ural bowndary of the colony included any territory through which flow rivers which fall into the Essequibo.” “Upon this prin- ciple,” he said, “the boundary line would run from the sources of the Carumani to- ward the sources of the Cuyuni proper, and from thence toward its far more northern tributaries, the rivers Yurnari and Yurnan, and thus approach the very heart of Vef- ezuelan Guiana.” Now what is the precise meaning of those extracts from Schomburgk’s report to the British government? Apparently this is their meaning: The Essequibo river being the ‘natural boundary” line between Brit- ish Guiana and Venezuela, “Her majesty’s government may justly claim the whole basins of the Cuyuni and Yunari rivers, on the ground that the natural boundary of the colony inclified any territory through which flow rivers which fall into the Esse- THE TERRITORY as DISPUTE. 1796” is not well founded, as all her claims to those settlements were surrendered to Holland in 1802. The undisputed fact should be noted that Holland’s conveyance to England, in 1S14, of the colonies of Demerara, Essequibv and Berbice did not specify any precise boun- daries of either of those colonies. it then follows that England's only claim to this disputed territory must rest upon her con- quest from Holland in 1803, and to determine the extent of that conquest it must first be ascertained what rights Hol- land possessed in this disputed territory, in 1803, that England could obtain by con- quest. Can it be demonstrated that Hol- land ever obtained possession by conquest from Spain of any territory west of the Essequibo river that is now claimed by Venezuela? England could not capture from Holland any territory that that little kingdom did not at the time possess. In neither of Lord Salisbury’s letters to Mr. Olney does he assert that Holland ever obtained by conquest or ever exercised the right of possession of any portion of the territory now in dispute between Venezuela and British Guiana. Venezuelan Territory. After the war of independence, or in 1822, the government of Venezuela declared her territorial limits to be those of the cap- taincy general of Venezuela in i810. Yet out of “moderation and prudence” she has contented herself with claiming the Esse- quibo river to be the true boundary be- tween Venezuela and British Guiana. In 1836 Mr. Robert Ker Porter, the Brit- ish charge a’ affaires at Caracas, formally requested the government of Venezuela to establish a lighthouse on Point Barima, at the mouth of the Orinoco river, on terri- tory that is now in dispute, although the British government declared in 18S7, fifty years thereafter, that this request of its representative was never communicated to or approved by it. The Schomburgk Line. One Robert Schomburgk, a roving Ger- man botanist, appears to have been the criginator of the British claims and en- croachments upon the territory of Venezu- ela. In his second letter to Mr. Olney, Lord Salisbury says that in 1839 this Schomburgk ‘called the attention of the government of British Guiana to the neces- sity for an early demarkation of its bound- aries.” And this, said his lordship, led to his “appointment in November,18i0, special commissioner for provisionally surveying and delimiting the boundaries of British Guiana.” And his lordship thought it “im- portant to notice that Sir R. Schomburgk (he was not then a sir, but plain Mr. Schomburgk) did not discover or invent any new boundaries.” Oh, no; he was, says his lordship, particularly careful to “for- tify himself with the history of the casi and from actual exploration and inform: tion obtained from the Indians, and from the evidence of local remains, as at Bari- ma, and local traditions, as at Cuyuni, fixed the mits of the Dutch possession: and the zone from which all trace of Span- ish influence was absent. On such data he based his Teports.” What tmformation Schomburek received from those wild In- dians, what was the nature of their tra- ditions and what was the character of those remains, Lord Salisbury does not state. From some personal observations in tropical regions, I can quite positively say that fifty or one hundred years of luxuri- ant tropical vegetation would so deeply and so densely cover all remains in those re- gions that it would be impossible for the sharpest wild Indian or the most astute German botanist to tell whether the re- mains of civilization and former occupation found in Venezuela in 1840 were those of Dutch or Spanish structures. And the in- formation derived from wild and roving quibo.” Or it might be thus stated: When two states are separated from and bounded by a river, running .either towards the north or the south, the state on the east- ern side of that river may claim as her territory the basins of all the rivers that | flow from the westward into that natural boundary river. That principle of interna- tional law was discovered by the German botanist, Schomburgk, and was adopted by Lord Salisbury as his basis and authority in the location of his boundary line be- tween British Guiana and Venezuela. A glance at the map will show that this Salisbury line in its mighty sweep to the westward of the Schomburgk boundary line embraces a vast area of Venezuelan territory, 33,000 square miles; and when we add to this the territory between the Schomburgk line and the Essequibo river, it amounts to 53,000 square miles of terri- tory that Great Britain proposes to take from Venezuela. To give an idea of what is meant by 53,000 square miles of terri- tcry, it should be remembered that the area of our great state of New York is 47,000 square miles. In 1844 preliminaries were arranged for the negotiation of a treaty, and the Ven- ezuclan plenipotentiary, relying upon his- tory, treaties and maps, claimed the Hs- sequibo river as the frontier, to which Lord Aberdeen, the British plenipotentiary, responded by proposing the Morocco river as the boundary, thus, as he stated, leaving Venezucla in full possession of the mouth of the Orinoco river. For this cession of territory the latter presented no title what- ever. In 1850 the public mind in Venezuela was again greatly exasperated by information to the effect that Great Britain proposed to seize Venezuelan Guiana. Mr. Wilscn, then British charge d'affaires in Venezuela, hastened to contradict it, and affirmed that his government had no intention of occu- pying the territory in dispute and that it would not do so. At the same time he asked for and obtained a declaration to the ame effect from the Venezuelan govern- ment. “In 1876 Venezuela again urged a set- tlement of the question, to which five years afterward Lord Granville replied by a new proposition, fixing the boundary at a point on the Adantic coast twenty-nine miles east of the right bank of the Barima river, thus greatly enlarging British pre- tensions. “In 1883 the British government propos- ed a joint settlement of boundaries, and during the negotiation of the treaty the Venezuelan plenipotentiary obtained the written promise of the British government | that all questions between their respective countries should be settled by arbitration. A change of the British ministry occurred before the treaty was signed, and the suc- cessor of Lord Granville announced that Great Britain would not arbitrate a ques- tion of limits, although she had resorted to this process in her questions with the United States in 1827 and 1871. “In 1886 Lord Rosebery presented a new boundary proposition, coupled with a pro- viso for free navigation and commerce on the Orinoco river, which Venezucla de- clared to be an inadmissible proposition and refused to accept.” Pending these negotiations in London in 1887, the authorities of British Guiana proceeded to occupy a portion of Vene- zuelan territory. The government of Vene- zuela promptly protested against this vio- lation of treaty obligations on the part of Great Britain and demanded the with- drawal of her pretensions, and the latter failing to comply with this demand, Vene- zuela dissolved diplomatic relations with that government. Those relations have not since been renewed, although the govern- ment of the United States has several times exerted itself to bring about a gettle- ment. It will be recollected that upon the in- dignant protest of Venezuela, Great Britain repudiated the boundary line and ordered the of its indicating jandmarks. It will also be recollected that ten years later Great Britain's charge d'affaires in Venezuela solemnly declared that his government had no intention of occupying the territory in dispute, and and re- fuses to have her claim thereto decided by arbitration. It will also be recollected that Venezucla has unceasingly urged and entreated Great Britain to consent to a settlement of the boundary line between British Guiana and Venesuela by arbitration. All the afore enumerated facts President Cleveland, through Mr. Olney, communi- cated to Lord Sali » accompanied by a reference to the Monroe doctrine as American law arplicable to the subject, and thereupon respectfully requested that the “Venezuelan boundary question in its entirety should be submitted to impartial arbitration ” ‘ter reflecting upon the subject for five mgnths Lord Salisbury informed our gov- ernment that of the territory “within the so- called Schomburgk line they do not con- sider that the rights of Great Britain are open to question,” and therefore he re- fused to submit those rights to “arbitra- we of another power or of foreign jur- sts.”” Upon message after clearly ex- plaining the then state of the Venezuelan boundary question, he counseled the follow- ing course of action thereupon, namel; “For the United States to take measures, through a commission, to be appointed by the executive, to determine with suffi- cient certainty for its justification, what is the true divisional line between the repub- lic of Venezuela and British Guiana, and “when their report is made and accepted,” the President expressed the opinion that it would then “be the duty of the United States to resist, by every means in its power, as willful aggression upon its rights ant interests, the appropriation by Great Britain of any lands or the exercise of governmental jurisdiction over any terri- tory which, after investigation, we have determined of right belongs to Venezuela.” Both houses of Congress promptly enact- ed the requisite legislation to fully carry out the President's suggestions, and the members of the commission—five in num- ber—have been appointed by the Presi+ Cc. ROBBINS. ——_ AN ICE FLOE. on Two Young Indians Drift Twice Across Bering Sen. From the Alaska News. From a gentleman who recently arrived in Juneau from the far north we learn an almost incredible tale of suffering and en durance experienced by two Indian boys several years ago while out sealing. Our relator had been to Siberia on the revenut cutter Bear and had returned to Alaska with a cargo of reindeer. They were de- pesited at the Teller reindeer station, where he els» went ashore. Here a siedge and team of dogs were hired and a journey overland to Point Barrow was begun. At the latter point the ice was found to be glare and perfectly solid, so he continued his journey across Bering straits as far as the Big Diomed Island. This tsiand ts the home of quite a large tribe of Indians, whose subsistence is derived almost en- tirely from the sea. During the winter season they frequently travel many miles from. home in their sealing expeditions, but never except when the wind is from the north. Should the wind shift its direc- tion the ice is quite liable to break up in huge floes, to be carried here and there by every current it strikes until its final dis- integration is complete. In the time that was spent on Diomed Is- land two young Indians went out sealing, and before any seals were seen they had traveled over ten miles from their home. In the meantime the ice, which had been in a rotten condition for several days, broke into several huge fields, and when the Indians came to a realization of their position they were drifting out into Bering sea's broad expanre with the land slowly fading from view. On the first, second and third days nothing occurred to vary the monotony. Their Mttle snack of grub had disappeared and starvation seemed to stare of the floe several hundred feet distant from where the boys had spent the night. Seeing the huge, clumsy brute pull himself on the ice for a sleep, they watched him with an eagerness made all the more keen from the fact that it meant life or death to them. Their sufferings from thirst had already swollen their tongues so surveyed the field to his satisfaction the walrus lay down and was soon soundiy sleeping. With stealthy steps the Indians tow approached, and, the wind being in their favor, they succeeded in killing the animal before he could awaken and scram- ble off the ice. They first gorged them- selves with the bk four days. During all the they -were on the floe they subsisted ent upon this walrus. : s On the fifth day they saw land again, and vicinity and were cared for until to health, and then were sent bac homes. floated about on ; actly three weeks, during which time they traveled nearly 2,000-miles. ne Ein 3S RI Sunset for the Theater Company. From the New York Herald. oe orable tour ° year or so ago,” said an ac- tor, “we almost stranded in Hot Springs. Our next stand was Texarkana, and the manager wired me we must be sure to come on—would certainiy play to & big house. ‘Well, to make a long story short, I hustled around and raised enough money to get to Texarkana. It was dusk when we reached there, and as we rode up to the hotel In a "bus I saw what I presumed was the glow of sunset over the housetops. “By Jove!! I remarked to the driver, ‘ou do have fine sunsets down here!” “Sunset!” he growled, as he glanced in the direction I was looking, ‘that’s the opera house on fire!” ” Th 7 ERCURIAL - = POISON Is the result of the usual treatment of blood orders. The system is filled with Mercury and Potush remedies—arove to be dreaded than the disea: far worse it idly cured. can heartily — recom- it to any one suffering from this Renta 4 . F. DALEY, Blevateg R.R. Our ‘Tr atise on Blood and Skin ina! free to any nddress. SWIPT SPECIFIC 00., Avanta, Ga...