Evening Star Newspaper, May 7, 1898, Page 17

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1898-24 PAGES. == Wetton for The Evening Star. “Of course, all communication with Spain and ¢ as far as mail is concerned, has been ended,” explained a post office official to a Star reporter, “but that does from other countries is cut all letters a stamp thereon to the writers, informing them of suspended mail arrangements. A “letter, however, can be got to Spain or any ms except Cuba, which is Dlockaded against all comers, by a little diplomacy end tact. If a letter is sent to | Canada or London, cr, indsed, any British POssessio: led there, it will be sent to any Spanish possession, for there is no interruption with the mail arrangements except direct Spain. , between t untry and the same arrangement any let- sent to this country from any possesswon if the precaution is it sent to London and re- under a British stamp. With however, mail communication is cut and the world has informed by the regular jamation that there is a biock- By taken to hav mailed there cu owed to land there, notwithstand- ing the terms ef the International Postal Union, a previso to which arranges for just such a cendition of things, war, as now The Cuban is net a ready letter and he can stand any deprivations ards his mail. Indeed, he is just »py whether he gets it or not. Co little il com- on between Cuba and Spain until the past couple of years, during exists. during 3 which there has been a very large Spanish force of soldiery there. tubly increased the mail.” ** % x * “The army of drummers on th road has been reduced recently by the war talk,” Said a leading member of that large andj powerful organization to a Star reporter, “and it may be some time before things will get back to their former basis. Drum- mcs are no longer satisfied to be known as krights ef the grip. They demand the ad- ditiona! title as ambassadors of commerce. According to a recent report issued under the auspices of the Travelers’ Protective Association there are in round numbers over 169,000 members of organized associa- tions. In a lump sum they receive not less than $1,000,000 per day. They spend about that amount per day for railroad, steam- boat and other transportation, and more than $00,000 per day to the hotels, restau- Fants, ete. The drummer, therefore, causes an expenditure of nearly $3,000,000 per day in this country, and that being the fact, he becomes a very important element in commercial matters. As the army on the Foad decreases the expenditures in conse- quence are necessarily diminished, though there are but few who pay any particular attention to the drummer except the rail- road and hotel! people.” xe * * * “The remark of General Fitzhugh Lee that all men feel some fear on entering a battle is eminently correct,” said a premi- nent Canadian military man, who has been in Washington for some weeks on an offi- celal military inspection, to a Star reporter, -“though many military men do not lik: to be so free in their expressions in this par- ticular. Once ip a battle, however, a pecu- liar excitement takes the place of fear. This excitsment is not what could be called bra- very, for the men while under its influence are not always brave as that word is geu- erally understood. It is a question as to whether you or your foe shall exist, as to the survival of the fittest. The sight of one man being shot down in the front rank of a company, battalion or regiment has much mere to do with the work and action YY. battalion or regiment than or commands of the most gal- nt commanders. It is an awful sight to witness the first man fall, but that sight has more to do with the happenings or | result of that engagement than everything This has percep- else combined. But few men can speak of ! any recent experience in this respect, for the reason that there has been no recent expertence. as battles have only been fought on p for the past ten or more | years. In 1s%5 { happened to be in com-|} Mand of « battalion of Manitoba soldiery | during the Riel rebellion, which was a brief but flerce Indian war while it lasted. On our arrival at Batoche we found that ! Riel and his Indian followers were strong- ly intrenched in a convent bullding, which they had seized. The officers of our com- mand held a consultation as to how and where we would attack the convent to dis- lodge the Indians. About this time one of the men of the command who was sitting on the grass pretty well in the view of the command fel} dead, a rifle ball entering ! his forehead. The brain cozing out of that | small hole did more to inflame the com- mand and to direct its terrible force than anything that we could conceive of. It | was a question of taking the convent or | allowing the occupants to take our lives, and it was soon settled, in favor of our ives and against the Indians. The death of that one man decided the contest.” *~* * *& * “All the flour on the market is not wheat flour,” said the representative of one of the big milling concerns of the country to @ Star reporter, “though there are but few not in the business who can distinguish | the difference. The housekeepers, cooks and others who are supposed to know all about | flour as a matter of fact know but little about it. Bakers, of course, can tell good flour—by this | mean wheat flour—as soon as they mix up a dough, but as they eat very Dut littl thar “ <ne bread they make they care it. They find that anything into bread sults the purchasers hey do not worry over it. I sur through the south, and 4 that I could not sell any son that the flour which is that section of the coun- Ko! discover flour, for t sold throug tr all n I could offe t it be a serfous matter with me, This proved t for though I handled several very fine brands of flour I simply was not in it, as far as prices were concerned. The flour which is sold all through the south is for the most part made there, and it is so made that it effectually keeps western- | response of a knight of the trailer to the | “And I'll bet some of them work their has followed the overproduction of cotton at the expense of the food crops. The south can copsume three times the quantity of food it grows, but it cannot get rid of its cotton. The crop of last season has not given any sign of movement so far, and now that it cannot go on the water with- out extra expense fn the way of increased freight rates in consequence of war rates of insurance, ete., the chances are that it will tumble lower in price. If the quantity grown this year is sufficiently small it will cause the supply on hand now to rise in price.” ee es “The Gress guard is going rapidly, and it will not be long when it will he a bicycle mémory instead of a fact,” said a leading dealer in wheels to a Star reporter. “Time was, I admit, when ladies needed a dress guard to keep their skirts from being tan- gied up in the spokes of their wheels, but that time is gone, for there is no lady rider now who is not attired for the wheel when she goes out for a ride. The dress gvard was an inelegant thing, for it mat- ters net how carefully it was put on, it would rattle at times, causing an unplcas- ant sound and giving the rider the impres sion that there was something about to break. I seldom send out a dress guard on a new wheel any more, and besides, in our repair shop, we have taken hundreds of them off. There is no necessity for them if the skirt is of the proper length.” * OK KK “Among business men, there are but few who are good talkers when they are on their feet,” remarked a prominent store proprietor to a Star reporter, -‘‘and the re- sult is when they indulge in social re- unions and gatherings of any sort they have to depend upon lawyers and other in- ec guests to make the speeches. Our mest successful money makers and trade gatherers are perfectly at home x3 as talk is concerned when they are seated, and they can hold up their end in general cenversaticn, but just call one of them to say a word at a public gathering, and he ces to pieces. They are convincinz talk- ‘'s when they deal with one person at a time, but when they have to address a large party they appear at a disadvantage. ‘There is one thing I weuld like to impress upon young business men, and that is the value of being able to make a few remarks at public gatherings of any kind if called upon to do so. It don’t happen often that one is called upon, but ‘t i great help to a busines: ready talker on all oc Pe One of the most interesting, amusing and at the same time pathetic features in con- nection with the possibility of the District of Columbia Nat‘onal Guard being called into the secvice of the United States is the anxiety manifested by parents and others clesely related to certain would-be soldiers. } During the past two weeks. headquarters have been literally overrun with widowed mothers, worried fathers and tearful sis- ters, who called in the hope of blocking the endeavors of their loved ones to shed their blcod, if need be, in upholding the stars and stripes. The display of patriotism on the part of hundreds of Washington’s young men ts nothing short of remarkable. Just a few days ago a woman clad in deep mourning and bent with age visited the District's ad- jutant general. She wanted to know-if any ccurse she might follow would result in se- curing the discharge of her boy from the military serviee. ‘i 2 ‘He is all I have left,” she said, in a voice fraught with emotion. “‘He’s my very life: all I have to live for now, and he’s the only support I have in the world.” What is his age?” the visitor was asked. Nineteen.” e % The adjutant general explained that the young man had enlisted of his own’ free will, and as he was more than etghieen yeers of age, the enlistment» was valid. The mother was advised to exert her in- fluence with the boy in. the hope of inducing him to apply for shis discharge. She took her departure with the remark that she meant to pray that ker boy might be spared the necessity of leaving her in her vid age. S Insiances almost without number have been called to attention of youngsters un- der the age limit of eighteen years who have affiliated themselves with the N: tional Guard. When inquiring relatives heve been informed that trouble may very readily be brought dewn on the eager but indiscreet patriots because of their making false statements in subscribing to the oath of enlistment, the anxious ones have gone forth, well pleased at the prospect of using the information as a threat to induce app! cation for discharge. Surprisingly large 1s the number of youths who have notified their parents that they intend to go to war, whether the consent of the head of the household is given or not. These boys declare that they will run away from home, if necessary, and no reason exists for doubting their sincerity. A few weeks in active service, however, will, in all probability, reduce to a considerable de- gree the enthusiasm, if not the patriotic impulses, of most of them. xe RO * . “Are there many persons in Washington who try to ‘do’ the street car conductor out of a fare? Well. I just guess yes,” was the a question of a Star reporter the other day. games all right, too. See there. Do you sce the man in that front seat buried in his Paper? Well, he got on the car at the last corner while 1 was talking to you, and he waited until the car started off and then got on from the inside track, thinking per- haps that I would miss him. ‘There are shundreds of ‘em that do just that thing right along. They will walt at a corner where they see some one is going to get on the and then will wait until the car starts off again. They note where the con- ductor is and get oa the opposite end of the car. Now, | am going to walk by that fel- low to the front platiorm, and I'll bet he looks away trom his paper across the street while I am the ‘the collector of fares followed out this program and sure enougu the passenger neglected his newspaper forthwith, and saw something intensely in- teresting on the sidewsik that caused him to tura the back of hi d to the con- ductor. But that official's sharp “Far2, pleas and a touch on the shoulder brought him around with a glare in his eye, i the fact that he was obliged to dive down deep into his pocket for the coin after having had at least five minutes in which to get it out revealed how secure he thought himself to be in the possession of a free ‘hey don’t g2t by us often,” was the parting salutation of the conduc- tor. wk KK KE “I don’t suppose that adequate means for disposing of one’s hat in a theater will ever made flours out of the market. The adul- teration is bh iding a flour made of corn in such quantities that they can sell it on @n average cents per barrel lower than we can place an all-wheat flour on the market. This adulteration would be seri- d to in the north, west and €ast, but the people of the south seem to — to have the corn flour adulteration. e result is the southern millers control the trade.” “This war promises to be a good thing tm one way for the south,” remarked an ebservant tourist who had recently return- ed from a tour of the southern states to a Star reporter, “in that it will lessen the quantity of cotton to be grown for this year, and most likely for several years to come. The fact is there has been too muctr cotton grown for the past five or six years. One-half the quantity would have been suf- ficient to supply the demand, and would, be- sides, have brought as much money to the grower at one-half the outlay. Four-cent cotton ayd over a dollar wheat is the prop- | Osition that confronts the south just now. ; Cotton will not bring even 4 cents unless there is absolutely no prohibition on its go- | ing to all waters under any and all flags. | Realizing this, thousands of farmers in the cotton-growing states have already plowed ¢ ee ke * | i $ up the cotton planted by them and have | | planted in its place corn, oats, wheat, pea- nuts and other food crops. In this respect , the war will be a blessing to the south, for ‘4% will demonstrate the actual loss which ¥ be devised,”” was the wail of an old theater- goer to a Star reporter recently. “Of course the racks under the seats are all very nice, but they perform their duty just so long as the occupant of the seat is enabled to sit still. But just so sure as he is obliged to get up and let some one squeeze by him, should he neglect to remove his hat from under the seat and hold it In his hand, gen- erally high up out of reach, just so sure will it receive a dig from that some one’s knee, or in many cases his own, in endeav- ering to make himself as small as possible. Of course, the occupants of aisle seats are subjected to more annoyance of this kind than those who sit in inside seats, but I have seen a party of ladies pass seven men in a row and out of the seven have seen five of them reach stealthily underneath the seat and abstract a very much dilapi- | dated specimen of head covering. I have suffered so many in this way that the first move I make when any one wishes to pass my seat is to grab my hat and hold it above possible danger. I wish some inven- live genius would get to work and devise something that would do away with this nuisance.” : The following ts how a writer in the Clarion analyses the music of the bagpipes: “Big flies on window, 72 per cent; cats on midnight tiles, 11% per cent; voices of in- fant puppies, 6 per cent; grunting of hun- sry plas in the morning, 5% histles, 3 whant of crickets, 2 whistles, 3 per cent; c! 1 ets, 2 per cent.""—Glasgow ‘Times. TAUGHT HIM A_ LESSON The hasty man fashions many a bitter pill for his cwn ccnsumption, and the hair- trigger temper. is almost always a boom- crang to its unhappy possessor. At the in- tersection of Perrsyivania and New York avenues a few afternoons ago there o:- curred an incident that implanted in the Kindly heart of a well-known young Wash- ington man a quality of shame that will unquestionably serve as one of the larger lessons of bis life. The young man, ac- companied by the young woman who is lo kecome his wife next month, was standing close to the curtstcne at the junction of the two avenues awaiting a Georgetown car. The two were chatting merrily. The girl was in high spirits, and her laughter, the assonance of silvern belis, was pleas- ant music. Suddenly the young woman, ceased her laughter, and looked, with a flash of worriment in ‘her expression, in the direction of a fine-looking and well- dressed man who was standing on the pavement, leaning slightly against an awn- ing pole. Her escort, perceiving the svd- den change in her manner and expresston, also, looked in the same uirection. “Why does that man gaze at me so strangely?” said the girl. “He has been looking ‘at me with that same intentness ever since we have been standing here, and sometimes half smiling, too. 1 am sure-I do not know him. What can he mear?” The young man with her flushed with anger as he looked upon the man pointed out by his fiancee. The man, with big, clear gray eyes, was still regarding the giri with @ deep intentness of expression, a smil? flickering at the corners of his strong mouth. He leaned easily against the awn- ing pole, and carried a heavy- cane loosely in his left hand. Th2 girl saw that her flancee was becoming wrought up over the apparently persistent and ilirtauious stare oi the man. “On, never mind,” she said. “Probably he thinks he knows me. Pernaps, indeed, has met me somewhere.” Nothing of the sort,” was the reply. ‘The fellow is a masher, pure and simpie. He needs a lesson.”* The object of the conversation kept his gaze riveted upon, th2 face of the young woman, even when the latter's flance ap- preached him menacingly. The young fel- jow, a powerful man, raised his right arm, and, with all of his force, struck the man with clear gray eyes on the right side of the face with a heavy open palm. The marks of his fingers gtood out redly on the cheek of the man he had struck. "ll teach you, you loafer, to ogle young women on the str2et,” said the young man as he delivered the blow. The expression that appeared un the face of the older man, immediately he felt th> impact of the blow, was aimost inconceiv- ably pathetic. He started, and then turned very pale. . Man,” he said in a very low tone, “I am stone blind. No one who witn>ssed the scene is likely to forget it, nor can any of the witnesses think of the really pitiable grief of the young chap who struck the biow without feeling for him. He fairly took the blind man in his arms in the frenzy of his ex- Postulation. The blind man generously made light of it all, but he could ot miti- gate the heavy humiliation of the hot-head- ed young man. “I heard the laughter of a young wo- man,” said the blind man, quieuly. “It re- minded me of the voice in m2rriment of a girl I knew before my sight was taken. That is why I turned in the direction whenee the laughter came. Then a negro lad, in the livery of a “but- tons,” 2merged from the drug store ixto which his master had sent him on an er- rand, and taking the blind mag by the hand, led him carefully up 15th street. The men and women who saw and heard it all felt almost as sorry for the naturally generous but foolishiy impetuous young man who had struck the blow as they did for th> blind man. a ABOUT HAY FEVER. Season ts Approaching When Lots of People W4ll Suffer. “The season is approaching,” said @ Prominent physician to the writer recently, “when a great many people will suffer from what is known ap hay fever, and as. but few who are si tible to the com- Plaint know hew to avoid, much less to cur? it, a few remarks about the’ mature nd treatment of the ailment may not be uninteresting. “Hay fever is a nervous affection usuaily, most prevalent during the spring and early ‘summer, from which the poorer classes and more especially those living in popu- Ious towns rarely if ever suffer. It is known only to the educated, whose nerv- ous systems are highly «developed, and, though not in any sense dangerous, it is at all times very irritating and troublesome. The smell of hay, grass, the pollen 6f flow- the odor of fruit, dust or draught will generate the complaint. or excite an at- tack in persons subject to it, but rain or damp weather invariably brings relief. At one time it was generally supposed that the odor of hay when being mown or carted could alone induce the affection, which is closely analogous to asthma, but recent observation shows that its prevalence is entirely independent of the existence of hay fields and is really a nervous derange- ment. . “A visit to the seaside, a trip to sea or residence in a populous town will, however, remove the asthmatic tendency, but one of the best remedies is tobacco smoke, retain- ed in the mouth as long as possible and then ejected through the ncstrils. The in- halation of the steam of ten drops of creo- sote in a pint of hot water is also good, or twenty drops of spirits of camphor to the same quantity of water makes a very ef- fective inhalation. But the affection being a nervous one, tonics and nourishing diet are more essential than any of these pallia-. tives, which merely afford temporary re- Hef.” —_+ FOR TOTAL DISABILITY. A Woman Who Knew Just Why She Wanted a Pension. The pension examiner having read a few more stirring dispatches from the front and wondered what kind of a search war- rent would be necessary to find the hosts of Spain, picked up an envelope from his desk and smiled at something it suggested. “I had a funny case when I was out on my lest round,” he said to his only vis- itor. “A woman had called on a lawyer in the town where I was to see something about her pension, and he had sent ner to me with ti.e brief information that she wanted an increase. She told me her name and I remembered her as the wife of a man who had driven me forty miles in a buckboard a couple of weeks before.” “ ‘Mr. Kenston tells me you want an in- crease of pension?’ I said by way of intro- du ‘Total disability “Total disability?’ I exclaimed in aston- ishmept, for her husband was as strong a man as I was when he had taken me across the hills two weeks before, though I knew he had a bullet in his leg, which made him rheumatic.” “Yes, sir; total disability.’ she insisted. ‘How do you e that out ‘He's dead, sir. Died last Sunday.’ “Of cours concluded the examiner, ‘the pensioner was totally disabled, but it was not classified that way, and we fixed it up with the widow according to law.’ ——— A Philadelphia Joke. A salesman from Philadelphia who comes te Washington freqyently sat in the Ebbitt House a few evenings ago discussing the destruction of the Maine, the admirabla work of Commodore Dewey and his fleet in the far east and the Spanish-American war in general. His listener, who is the representative of a Milwaukee house, tried to get in a word, but it was Impossible. The Philadelphian was so verbose that no one could have in- terrupted him. He told all about the war, described to his Milwaukee friend the stra- tegic movements that the American would make and volunteered’ informa’ as to the exact date the war wou'd end. Everything was tade perfectly plain to the unan from navy ton | GETTING LIQUGR ABOARDIHE WAS wiTH Dewey] “There i, pe Sl oe drankanness among the enlisted’ mef of the United States navy than among the men forward of any of the world’s big’sea fit-outs,” sald ® naval officer of wexpeyienca .to a Star writer. “Drunke: p with the old navy. ‘In the days i old Tuscarora or the Tennessee,’ as tHe Bas put it, it was @ common enough thing % se> about three- quarters of a ship's company reiurning from shore liberty ss a state that they had to be hoisted over tHe side in bo’sun’s chairs, to save the treubleof carrying them up the gangway. But that sort of thing 1s ro longer 2ndured.t/Men who go ashore after having remained aboard ship for a considerable period are expected by the of- ficer of the deck to return just a trifle ex- hilarated, but they never return quite inca- Fable. Men who exhibit the shgntest indi- cations of being addicted to drmk are turned down flatly by the examining sur- gcors when they present themselv2s for en- Ustment nowadays. ‘I'he surgeons tell me that they can tell from a man's eyes whether he has 2ver suffered severeiy from excessive drinking, no matter how iong the man may have abstained from drink before seeking enlistment. Ii men addicted to rink do happen to gat by the examining surgeon, and reveal their weakness by g0- ing on tears every time they go ashore, the navy gets rid of them by simply ‘beaching’ tkem—that is, by putting them on t beach with their bags and hammocks wher- ever their ship may happen to be in a home port. A man cannot be “beached” for any cause in a foreign country. There are, of course, any number of men in the navy, and rattling fine sailormen, too, who have @ natural predilection for drink, and these men the officers keep an eye on, for their own good. Sailors are bound to try to smuggle liquor aboard ship. If they drink considerable on their shore liberties, they know that when they return aboard they are in for ‘big heads’ when they awaken in their hammocks the next morning, and In trying to safely bring a bit of liquor off to the ship they have in mind the taking of ‘a hair of the dog’ to sor: of ease them up when they turn to at ‘all hands’ the next morning. Some- times they get the liquor safely aboard, but generally they do not. Every enlisted Taan on a United States man-of-war, ex- cept the chief master-at-arms and the top sergeant of marines, is searche? at the gangway, upon his return from shore lib- erty, by the gangway corporal of the ma- rine guard, under the inspection of the of- ficer of the deck, for the purpose of ascer- taining if he -has any liquor concealed about his clothes. The men have picked up some ingenious schemes for smuggling liquor in such & way that the corporal of the guard is fcoled. For example, the men on the China station buy long eel-skins from the coolies, fill the skins with about a quart of Hquor, and wind them around their necks beneath the collars of their shirts. “It took the officers on the China station a long while to get Gn 10 this scheme. Then the men who felt that they surely needed a drink the next morning after returning from liberty discovered the plan of filling a rubber bag with liquor while ashore and of stowing the bag next to their walst- bands. The liquor smugglers who observ- ed that the searching ccrporal only passed his hands up and down on the outside of their clothes, then resorted to the plan of tying bottles of liquor with string on the inner side of their legs, beneath their trousers, but any searching corporai knows all about this one nowadays. The cox’un of the steam cutter,’ wio makes dozens of trips ashore a day when the cutter is ‘running boat,’ has,to be carefully watch- ed, for he is Hable to.be tampered with by the men who want liquor pretty badly, and his opportunities for getting Mquor aboard are many. /Rvery once in a while, upon the cutter’s returm, to the ship, it is searched by the officer of the deck, and the latter often finds iquor neatly stowed among the cutter cyal, in the cutter bilges or eyen in the béfjer tanks. When this happens the cox‘un of the cutter is in trou- ble. He gets a big rake-off from the men for his liquor smuggling, which accounts for the chances he will take. The ship's painter has to be 'Watthed, too. He is a petty officer, and ‘he “charge of the ship's alcohol, which ts chiefly used for the making of shellac to pawtit the lower decks. “Some of the sailors Mke a dose of alcohol mixed with coffee for ‘thhing’ and sobering up purposes, ‘nd, ‘as thé ‘ship's painter is occasionally cbrruptibies ‘and ‘carries the keys of the alcohol tanks, there is quite a Ittle drinking of "tlits mfxture on some of the ships where ‘old-titgers predominate.’ The. old flatfeet have, indeed, been known to drink the shellac after it-has been pre- pared for the sake of the alcohdl in it, and thére is an expression in the navy’ among the enlisted men, ‘If you see a jackie comb- ing his mustache with a marlin spike you know what he’s been at,’ that fs very sig- nificant. But, for all this, as I say, there is an exceedingly small percentage of drinking men in our navy in comparison with similar figures for other big navi The occasional drinkers in our service, when they return from the beach a bit un- der the weather, are merely put in the brig overnight, and permitted to go to work, without punishment, the next morning.” —— BISCUITS FOR THE NAVY. New York Bakers Are Baking a Big Supply for the Government. “If other provisions should run_ short our army and navy will not want for crack- ers while they are fighting the Spaniards,” said one of the largest biscuit manufactur- ers in New York to a writer for The Star. “We are now working day and night to fill an order cf the United States govern- ment for 50,000 boxes of biscuits, to be de- livered within six days at various military and naval stations along the Atlantic coast. This is the largest order we have received since last March, whén, in two days, we turned out 80,000 boxes or 8,000,- 000 biscuits for distribution among Uncle Sam‘s bluejackets. “The biscuits contracted for by the gov- ernment for the use of our sailormen is the finest production of its Kind made any- where. It is composed of the best ma- terials and baked tc perfection, as it forms a staple part of Jack's food, and the pres- ence of deleterious matter might prove disastrous to a vessel's crew. The biscuit is commonly known as pilot bread, and when properly made it will keep sweet and wholesome through a year-long voyage in tropic seas. There are now thirty or more bakeries in New York making crackers and pilot bread, and it {8 estimated that these concerns use up annually 500,000 barrels of flour for the purpose. One large comb: nation of cracker bakeries turns out as many as three hundred, different sorts of biscuits, It has a capital “of $10,000,000 and a baking capacity of 1,000 barrels of flour a day and employs 1,200 people in various capacitics in different establishments. The product is shipped not only to eastern and southern states of this country, but it goes in very large quantities to the West Indies and South America and even to faraway Africa. es Notes“of ‘Travel. From Punch. = “What a glorious victoty Dewey gained over the Spanish fleet at Manila,” said Holmes E. Offiey at the Riggs the other night. Offley was chief clerk of the Navy Department during Grant's two administra- tions, and few men are more familiar with naval affairs. Previous to his holding that position he was for nearly four years sec- retary to Admiral Goldsborough aboard the old flagship Colorado of the fleet that was sent to Europe just after the war of the rebellion. “That was a picked crew,” Offley con- tinued, “and it would be hard to find an abler one. Dewey was with us on the Col- orado and he was her executive officer. With Dewey there was John Crittenden Watson of Kentucky, then a lieutenant and now detailed to command a squadron of Sampson's fleet. Sullivan D. Ames was a Heutenant and a royal good fellow. He died some years ago. Henry B. Robeson, now a retired commodore, was with us. W. T. Sampson, now the acting admiral of the fleet off Havana, was then a lieutenant on the Colorado.” Lieutenant James P. Robertson and Ensign Charles H. Craven, rattling good boys, are both dead. “Of the midshipmen on the Colorado there were Ahrmentrout, now dead; Chas. Henry Davis, now commander of the Dixie: Theodore F. Jewell, now commander of the Minneapolis; F. W. Dickins, now assistant chief -of the bureau of navigation, and Charles H. Goodrich, who is also now a commander. “Admiral Goldsborough’s staff at that time was composed of Benjamin F. Gar- vin, chief engineer, who has been dead for a number of years; James McClellan, sur- Beon, also dead; Clement D. Hebb, captain of marines, now a retired colonel; Paymas- ter John 8. Cunningham, dead; Chaplain Charles R. Hale, now, I think, a Protestant Episcopal bishop in the west; Surgeon Jas. H. Tinkham, dead, and myself as the ad- miral’s secretary. “Dewey was always looked upon as a most jovial shipmate. Admiral Goldsbor- cugh, himself one of the best disciplina- rians and judges of ability in the service, recognized _Dewey as an A No. 1 man. Among his shipmates Dewey was regarded as what is called in the navy as ‘a square man.’ Any one who ever came in contact with him is not surprised at the magnifi- cent record he made in this fight at Ma- nila. I should say in justice that Sampson was held in about the same estimation, and the same can be justly said of Watson. “It was, indeed, a picked crowd on the Colorado and en the other ve 1s of the European squadron. ‘The war was just over and the United States wanted to show to the other nations that she had some- thing left. “But what I am over here at the hotel for is to sec if I can't hear something re- garding the wounded. In such a shake up as that some cne must have been injured on our vessels.” And the veteran naval man sat farther back in his chair to recall the days when es young and ready for an affray him- self. ————o MORAL EFFECT OF THE WAR. It im Good or Bad as at It. Two ladies were talking in an avenue car. “This war is perfectly dreadful,” said ore. “Indeed, it ts,” said the other. ‘ouldn’t be worse. “Yes, it would be worse if the Spaniards were treating us as we are treating them.’ “Of course; I don’t mean that. 1 mean in its meral effe. “I hadn't noticed that particularly.” “I didn’t till yesterday.” ‘In what way?” “On mz husband.” “He doesn’t want to enlist, does he?” “Oh, no, I don't mean that. It is on him and my little boy, too.” “Not on an innocent child?” “Yes. You know the little fellow has been marching around at a great rate with his tin sword and gun, and yesterday after- noon he: informed me, to my horror, that he was going to fight the d—n Spaniards. Think of that, will you? And he a prize Sunday school scholat You Look and when his father came home I told, him about it and insisted that he take Willie and gtve him a good whipping for Swearing, and what do you think he did? “Told you to do it yourself, as my hus band always does.” “No, he didn’t, either. He told me that under the circumstances it was not swear- ing, and that the boy could say what he pleased about the d—n Spaniards. And he’s a member of the church himself!” === She Thought He Was Crying. “Over in Minois, whén I was a boy,” said a congressman from the state to a Star re- porter, “‘there was a la r named Hatha- way, who lived in my native town, and who had something the matter with his eyes. i think the doctors said his lachrymal glands were weak. “Any way, he was always wiping his eyes. Sometimes it was amusing in court to see him bring out his big red bandana and wipe his eyes when he was talking to the court upon some dry legal proposition. You know you rather expect a lawyer to do it before a jury in criminal practice. “Well, they used to tell this story on Hathaway: One day a woman came into his office to consult with him regarding the beginning of a suit for divorce from her husband. She related how she had been abused, and told a story of suffering. Just at this point Hathaway reached for his handkerchief and wiped his eyes. “His client, who was a sympathetic na- ture, sought to stay his arm, and said: 2 on't cry, Mr. Hathaway, don’t cry.’ “Hathaway was sensitive regarding his infirmity, but he always laughed heartily when the story was told in his presence.” > A Saddened Anniversary. “One encounters some strange and at times pathetic things even in the hotel business,” said Eugene Coffin, one of the clerks at Willard’s, to a Star reporter. “On April 9 we had come to our place an elderly woman who registered as Mrs. Mary F. Doan of Boston. With her was her daughter. i “The following day, the mother: said, would be the fiftieth anniversary of her wedding. Her husband was dead, but she and her only daughter had come to Wil- lard’s to celebrate the anniversary. “I gave them the same room that the mother and her husband occupied fifty years ago. The hcusekeeper was notified, and she got the steward to have baked a cake on which read ‘fifty years.” “The next evening mother and daughter cccupied a private dining room and en- joyed all the luxuries that our house af- forded. The waiter who attended them said that before dinner both knelt on the ficor and were in silent prayer for several minutes.” a The Savage and the Bird Cage. A gentleman who went out with Stanley te Africa took with him a number of bird cages, in which he hoped to bring back some specimens of the rarer birds of the interior. Owing to the death of his carriers, he was obliged to throw away the bird cages with a number of other articles. These were seized by the natives in great glee, though they did not know what to do with them; but they eventually decided that. the small circular cages were a kind of rt gear, and, knocking off the bottom, the thiefs strutted about in them with evi- dent pride. One chief, thinking himself Written for The Evening Star. A Prejudice. It’s the land of the free and the home of the brave; To this proposition we stick. We're free t> enjoy what our tastes chance to crave And bold enough, likewise, to kick. So here's salutation to one who offends By assuming a right all his own, Howe'er he oppresses his sensitive friends; ‘The chap who is soaked with cologne! He see pass counterfeit money; not e. And yet he is struggling to pose With results, which, alas, from deceit are all free, As a fragrantly blosscming-rose. And when you're at lunch the aromas you like Seem stranger than any ozone, As the gasification of violet you From the chap who cologne. rike is soaked with And the cherished cigar which you think to enjoy, As you stroll after dinner, at @usk, Develops rank flavors that thicken coy With suggestions of old-fashioned musk. A climax of comfort 1s shattered straight- way. A loss for which naught can atone Is suffered, as gaily he wanders his wa The chap who is soaked with cologn * * * A Protest From the Bulbal. The bulbul of Pohick writes: “I had hoped, long ere this (all poets say ‘long ere’ when they mean ‘a good while’ ago, which 4 suppose is why I once heard an-editor make illusion to iong-ered poets) to be able to write you some real and poetry. But just as I was getting settted | down to vork a short time ago something brought to my attention tiat riled me As a rule, I re- yirg anything derogatory use it might be considered But so I could hardiy write. frain from s. when I find that base to wrench the laurels from my brow and wear them theirseives, I feel that the poetry business is being as- sailed in a way which calls for remon- strance.* And as I am the party aggrieved, it is net unbecoring in me to raise the first protest. I had intended to write this out in poetry, when my attention was first called to the following from Londen Punch. But I realized that I was being ousted out ef my own specialty and that others were laboring in the schooi ot poetry which I had founded and trying to pass the style off as original witn theirseives, wiich I re- gard us ungentiemaniy or uniadytike, as the case may be, and I became so indignant that I did not have time to chop the prose up into lengths and fit rhymes onto the loose ends. “I lay aside the tact that the poem holds. the Monroe doctrine up to ridicure and rep- resents this country as ‘a boss’ soliloquiz~ ing to Mseelf. Them is politics and so are not for me. It starts With that effete congeries called Europe Our starry Eagle new p.oceeds to cope; And when this urgent Fowl puis down bis claw, His flap is final and bis whoop Is hu “If the suthor had bad the fairness to acknowledge the source of his inspiration, I would have took off my sun-bonnet to the person who could have thought out anything so bold and dashing as making ‘Europe’ rhyme with ‘to cope.” “I don't say that they can be called an out-and-out plagiarism. But I do assert that the feliowing shows unscrupulous readiness to edapt the form which I have labored tv develop: Some time ago a painful case arcse in which we quoted Monrve though our nose Quite loud. Iv dic not have the sume effect As we had been encourage’ to expect. xons thought the bi Precisely guod enough, 7 us. |, but not And they would “ra.se “There is a lot more in the piece which bears the stamp of my creation, but the conclusion will suffice to show what I mean: Before this trifling gem appears in type, ‘The fatal moment may be fairly ripe; Or else it mayn't. Ome thing aloue is sure, Whi that our designs “But the purloiner of reputations has overdid himself. I 1.ever would have talked about ‘ripening moments,’ as if I thought clocks and watches was garden truck. And having ventured io assert a proba- bility, I would not have went back on it in the next breath by heaving in ‘or else it mayn’t’ just for the sake of having a little meter here and there.” “I refrain from offering any remarks on London poetry in general. But I don’t want aay protectorate established over me. In corclusion I desire only to say, “I care rot though folks on the foreign shore Will sey this is professional jealousy and nothing more. I have always thought and I think so still, If you don’t look out for your own righ nobody will.” * aes Getting Into Line. “Rafferty,” said Mr. Dolan as the latter strolled up the walk, “Oi'm glad ye’ve cem. Oi wor Uinkin’ about yez only a minute or two since. The two iv us is gettin’ left out iv the push. Where’s yer badges? Where's yer sporty clothes? Where's ony- thin’ thot shows ye’re somebody ty be look- ed up to an’ rushpected? Nowhere. “Oi called in here ty have no argymint,” replied his neighbor in measured tones. “Oi tought thot if ye had nothin’ ty do Oi'd pass a few minutes talkin’ over the war wid yez.” “The war, is it? Rafferty, thot’s got pasht talkin’. Mebbe ye've noticed thot whin the shootin’ begins a greddeal iv the talkin’ shtops. Of’ve nothin’ ty say about war now. But Of'd be marchin’ wid the b’ys inty Cuby only fur two reasons. Me wife positively furbid me goin’ an’ whin Oi wint ty see the recruitin’ officer he wouldn't accept me. Oi nivver mention the second ‘What is it ye’re goin'ty do?” “Oi'm goin’ty git up a goat show an’ a congress iv fathers.” “Lave me undherstan’ yez, Which wen tv ‘em is it yex want me in “Both. As a father ye kin come an yer own account en’ ty the goat show ye kin hal : F : E i i ty Fogarty’s.” replied Mr. Rafferty reflec- tively. “That'll be the suspicion onless we get up an’ do something. “Spos'n we hov a congress. beha Z How'll we “We'll read papers. “Oi ought ye'd hoy nothin’ ty say about the war. There'll be nothing but war news in the papers, barrin’ the haythen names the Spannards kapes ringin’ in. Oi how hardiy toime ty read the news thryin’ ty pronounce who's doin’ the work fur the Spannards, an’ where they're located. Hov yez taken account iv the way thim fellys turns things around? They couldn't be ightforward ty save their loives. They ays put the o last. If they were ty hor anybody wid ‘em named ‘O'Brien’ they'd ." "Twould be ‘Rourkeo” or fur thot if fur nothin’ else in me heart ty be moighty thankful there's no Irish among ‘em. “It wor the congress iy fathe: ; spakin’ iv, wor it not? effortful mildness, it wor. But let’s hear about the goat show.” “There’s nothin’ much ty do except ty goat an exhibition an’ wait fur the we wor inquired Mr. Dolan Dolan, thot sort iv ting may but it won’t.go wid goats. approaches human intilligence as a goat. There's no other thot'll ight dowa Ul a man’s level an’ chew cy an’ be sociable. Ye kin play all y thricks wid a horse. the animal much owin’ do fur Ther*'s Oi nivver ty hovin’ loiked been thrown from a rockin’ horse in me early infancy. But Ol wanst worked fur a hunt club. Ol was the felly thot dragged the bag around fur the dogs ty git a scent iv. Away the dogs ‘ud go t'inkin’ it wor a fox, an’ the horses afther ‘em. An’ whin "twor ovcr the people wid red coats an’ leg-of-mutton pants ud go in an’ hov the best goin’ ty Me an’ drink while the horse wint out ty the same old dish of hay an’ wather. Ye couldn't fool a goat thot way. He'd be waltzin’ inty the parlor ty have bis share o’ the best. No, Dolan, Oi wouldn't hov the impidence ty thry ty take any ad- vantage cf a goat. Oi'd feel "twor more in the way 0” justic> an’ common sinse ty go im the show meself an’ let the goat hov ‘43 name an the program an’ wear the medals.” * * * A Benefactor. | It is very customary to describe the joys that fill One's being when the birds begin to twitt2r and to trill. And yet, methinks, the welcomest and most inspiring song Is that which echoes loud amid the hot and dusty throng. When the ball game's fascinations held you there, in spite of heat, Wher peanuts are the only things that you have had to eat— Then comes a dulcet greeting, with the sound of clinking glass, "Tis “Cool drinks! Lemonade, and sass!” ginger ale It is true the youth's apparel has an aggra- vating hue, But the sweetness of his carol makes his plumage guod to view. And you iose the slight resentment that you might have had of yore, When you learn that “sass” means harm- less sars'parilla—nothing mor». Ah, sweeter than the chorus which ts jubl- lantly raised When the home team “makes a killing” and the other side looks dazed, Is his slight and simple solo, as good cheer he se2ks to pass, “Cool drinks! Lemonade, ginger ale and sass!" His Ay, e'en with his red sweater and his cap, whose visor nods, He's handsomer than Ganymede, prepared to serve the gods. a For who believes that thirst within the city may not be As cruel as upon the sandy desert or the sea? So, who would write of him except with an obsequious pen, ‘This tireless pilgrim, all alert to soothe his fellow men; Who lifts our drooping spirits, as the shower revives the grass, With nis “Cocl drinks! Lemonade, ginger ale and sass!” 3 a Three Si Extra. A voluble fakir was selling silk star sparged banners at the 15th street en- trance to the Treasury Departinent the other afternoon. His line of talk was ingenicus. “Lwsk a-here, fellers,” said he, “there's forty-eight stars on this flag. Forty-eight, mind you. “I'll bet a Matanzas mule that you can’t find another Old Glory in this country that has wot forty-eight stars on it. Those that you buy in the stores has only got forty-five stars—one for each state. But this here flag o’ mine has been built for the occasion. It's got three ex- tra stars added fer the three new states. Spaiz, Cuba and Philippineland. See? If you dcn’t get one of "em you ain't in the push. You"! have to paint three mere stars cn the flag you've already got, and you can't make a neat job of it. You