Evening Star Newspaper, July 2, 1898, Page 24

‘THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JULY 2, 1898-24 PAGES, SPAIN'S DECADENCE She is Today Little More Than a Wornout Land. ALL HER HIGH IDEALS ARE GONE -_ Ignorance and Misrule Have Done Their Work Well. A DOWN-TRODDEN PEOPLE Rev. Dr. J. S. Macintosh in the Philadelphia Ledger. Several visits previously made to Spain had yielded to your correspondent a sin- gularly fair knowledge of Spain, its condi- tion generally considered and the various classes of that failing and unhappy king- dom. But the latest visit opened up from the Inside the desperate state of matters in this land of the past. These words, “the pa: are used advisedly and with all so- ber, sad truth. Spain is the one country of Furope that has not yet emerged from the igrucance, the lethargy and the misery of the last and worst days of mediaevalism. Church and state, oligarchy and monarchy, beleng to the elsewhere vanished past. ‘Time and leisure are both demanded to carry the thoughtful student beyond the glamor of romantic traditions and the moving tales of great adventures, and to lead away from the bewitching survey of Escurial, Giralda and Alhambra to the patient and thorough investigation of the actua life of the present hour, to the state ountry as a visible fact, the condi- © upper classes and tne sullen en- ce and the manifold sufferings of the among whom today are found the ments for a possible regeneration of ased and steadily retrograding na- ticn. Studied thus quietly, and with an honest wish to see straight and learn facts, wnat is Spain You may pack it all into one phrase—a wornout land. The o impulsive and formative pow: and forces, not only of the glorious days of Ferdinand and Isabella, but also of the much later times of the great peninsular wers of Napoleon and Wellington, are worn out. The old nobility, haughty ‘and cere- menious, but honorable and honest; the old military leaders, brave and self-denying; the far-sighted statesmen and the church dignitaries, able and learned, are worn out. You ask for them in vain. Here and there one may be heard of, but he is a lonely relic of the vanished order; and, weary and disgusted, the far-sepurated and seif-dis- trvsting remnant do not assert themselves, and would effect naught if they did. The day of the best is gone; the day of the bureau has come. Realities of Life Worn Out. The old realities of life are worn out. Of course, if you are simply rushing from point to point on business or on pleasure bent you will not and you cannot reach these facts. The business man hurrying from town to town; the curious tour‘st seeking out “the sights; the historian, pur- suing the path of the Goth, the Saracen, the Castilian; the artist and the virtuoso loitering about seductive Tol2io, hoary Ci dova or fascinating Granada, may come and go often times and fail to realize the deep, far-reaching changes that hav> come into the national life. But you cannot miss this sad feature when you hear from the lips o missionaries, teachers, bank- 2 ve all, from som? of the sud. *, what thar own eyes have ked going on steadily aad what they fror de The forms 'S remain; the re ty is largely country life, the old ,caardian- ship of the chieftain for his retainers, the generous sympathy between iandowner erd tenant, the grave but sincere acknowledg- ment of the obligations of rank and prop- erty, with the related and produced loyelty and trust and affection of .he tenant and the devendent for his chief, are now not the rule, but the very rare exception. Ab- senteeism and exaction have wrought h even worse results than ame balefu facts did in Ireland. To a great degree the old patriotism is worn out. The Hteral provincialism, which has z!ways been more e ads a man to sav Galiacian,” or “I am a Valenciar stilian,” rather taaa “I am-a Span- gly marked at this time. The revolutions, the iynastiz changes above all the mercenary “bureau” at Mad: rid, and the merciless shipments of deat doomed conscripts to the famine and fever graves in Cuba and the Philippines have, to a large degree, kilied out the old tional spirit. The old neigaborlv and social faith is worn out. Man has bat iittle faith in man. Distrust, suspicioa and a stern sullenness have grown sad!y common. Exhausted Landed Estates. To drive over the old and now scarce passable roads, at times to cross afoot the hills, to stop at the wayside inns or to spend a few days on an estate or a farm, :ves vou the opportunity of seeing what neglect, increasing poverty and general un- Test are producing in many portions of a isrd that might be made to teem with plenty. The sum of such study may be 8 a in the two words, “waste stre Some of ts know full weil what the worneut lands were, often seen in the old plantation days. But never so mel- archoly spzcimens were here seen, nor can Bow anywhere jn Europe be seen, as you very often must look on in Spain. Districts which were very gardens In the days of the busy Saracens, and which were 1bun- Gantly fertile for many after centuries, are ¥ practically wastes. yielding here and a at herbage for a few weeks in spring to the lean sheep that range ove: the almost bare earth. North of Madrid, arctnd Cordova, to the east of Seville and about Granada, Xeres and Cadiz ex tion and barrenress meet the eye on ull It is not change of climate. it is not soil will not bear if cared for. Neglect, thriftlessness, abuse of the s: igtorance of the most elementary far: pride, seif-conceit and competition explain t condition of things. Lethargy procrastination everywhere rev themselves. Never do today what may } 1 tomorrow is a fixed article of “Manana, senor” Tomorrow is jay! Ignorance of any impro hods of caring for and cultivating the soll rules. The farming and ths imple- ments are of the olden days. The pride that counts the farmer’s Lonorable toil a disgrace holds in bondage the small pro- prictors. The idea of husbanding the re- sources of the land rarely shows itself in either land renter or gard:ner. Get all out porsthle and give nothing back. Then great depression, and in some cases hopelessness, have arisen from the growing competitic ef our own farmers and fruit ranchers. Americar grain and po-k. fruits and even Wines have made a sericus inroad on the Markets open to the Spa™ish husbandman ani fivit growers. Prices have falien. Orchards, olive yards, vineyards, with orange groves and lemon gardens, are row seen frequently abandoned or half-negiect- ef. Irrigation. which would make. this @unny land bring forth by handiuis, is not only not ushed and increased, but the o'd gran}: and waterways are uneared for. If to all this neglect you ad} the wanton destruction of forests and woods, It fs not very hard to realize that what the indus- trious Moor made a garden and what long ‘was a very granary to Europe is today a decaying and wasted land. “The king lives by the field.” This widespread and gro ing agricultural decay and this progressive exhaustion of the land work misctief all round. The small urades, industries avd Manufactures that are linked with and live by successful and profitable farming and fruit-growing are either dead or ying. Large numbers of persons are without their natural employ in the fields. Food is scant and of inferior qua‘ity. in the form of small silver, is scare Hence arise the ¢reums:ices when foo! betake themselves to stily ways of gain, Such as gambling and jotteries, and des- Ferate men to robbery aud brigandage. Burdened Land Owners. According to competent authorities, a darge proportion ef the ofd estates are Very heavily, if not hopelessly, ineumbered. The land owners are, to a great extent, in the bitter bonds of desperate debts. A condition of things obtains strikingly to that found half a century ago . and which called for the dras- ~measures but the wise legislation of Money, even “The Incumbered Estates Act.” In Spain for years a wretched system has prevailed of borrowing money on the growing crops and the timber fit to be felled. Very often the crop was deficient, or failed altogether. A new bill, ora larger debt, or a new mortgage resulted. The bankers are fre- quently the money lenders, and foreign- ers hold the mortgages and the bonds. Because of this overburdened condition, the land owners have been able to do but very little to develop the resources of the country. These are both many and great. If half utilized the work made necessary would give abundant and lucrative employ- ment to the peasants, and would yleld a steady and large revenue to the owners. But the mines and quarries are elther un- Wrought or are in the hands of strangers. One direct result of this really bankrupt condition of many of the landed gentry 1s the crowding of the younger sons into the army, the navy and the colonial offices. The military, the naval, the official life is adopted of necessity, and not seldom with one clear object. That purpose is to secure scme post in a colony where by well- known and commonly practiced methods, a fortune can be laid up for speedy return home in after years. Here we sce the out- stretch of the iron hand that has killed ard ts killing the geese that have laid for Spain the golden eggs. An ex-minister of Spain stated in Mad- rid that “the amount of money misappro- priated by the officers of the army must amount to millions of pesetas a moath.” And a story is told of a poor captain re- mitting from Havana to his wife at home about $6,000 in one half year. The State of the Peasantry. Ignorance, misgovernment, extreme pov- erty and sullen endurance. That is the condition of the peasant. He deserves a better lot. He is today the best man in the land. He has fine qualities; he has large capacities; he has many virtyes. Give him a real school, a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work, an honest and capable government, and a well-founded hope of enjoying the fruits of his toil, and he would rise up to be the new man of a new land, one of the finest peasants in the whole of Europe. But he has not had a chance. Today he has not a hope. The Spaniard as he was is not, and the world will never see him more. A thoughtful German who has lived for years in Spain declared that the old cavalier with his haughtiness and his honesty, his pride and his honor, his punctilious ceremoniousness but his essential gentlemanliness has gone fcrever. And if Spain is to have a nation- al and social resurrection the masses, not the classes, must be looked to. The hope of the future Hes with the “gente baja,” that is, the yeomanry and the peasantry. It is sadly true that at this hour these masses are fearfully, distressingly ignor- ant. No power has done anything effec- tive to save them from sinking lower and lower into the slough of a semi-animal stu- picity. Of course they are poor. What other result could years of merciless tax- ation, pressing chiefly on them, 1d? Of course they are superstitious. What full beam of light has ever been poured around them? Of course they are now often passionate and stealthy. What other than this fell fruit would you look for from the wretched culture which has been their only care? Of course they are lazy. But what openings have they had? What incentive to toil? How Lo But when all this disparagement has been set forth it remains true, according to the firm belief of a score of competent wit- nesses, that the peasant, the small farmer; the workingman, is the hope of this de- graded land. And he is the coming revolu- tionary. The air is heavy with the brew- ing storms. The tempest may burst in an hour. Sleeping in these poor peasants, who have never had a fair show fn th2 face of Europe, are great qualities. These men, now scoffed at as soldiers because, undrill- ed, unfed, unled, they have had to go from bitter defeat to defeat, can yet prove them- selves worthy of the praise of Napoleon and Wellington as the raw material out of which might be made the toughest in- fantry in the world. These masses are strangely pattent and erduring—“sufrida,” to use their own preg- nant word. They have great pluck and heroism. They are cheerful, grateful, af- fectionate and hospitable. But they have been ground down till the good is buried out of sight. The eyil has been called out. The nobles have racked and spoiled them. The government has known them only a3 patient beasts of burden on whom must be laid the multiplied and opprassive louds of petty taxes till they are verily crushed beneath the pitiless weight. For this op- pression, this extortion, the peasant gets nothing. The bad roads grow worse and the appropriated road tax fills the pocket of some official. The fallen bridges ere not repaired. but some engineer is benetited. The children are left without school or teacher, yet school tax is levied. ‘rhe beardless lads are hurried off to Cuba or some other colony and die soon, but their pay is drawn by the officer. The navy is made up of many phantom ships, and yet the taxes are collected for the naval bu- reau. A well-informed friend stated that the population of Spain was somewhere about 17,000,000; that of these 3,000,000 could not write; that 6,000,000 could neither read nor write, and that about a half of the whole had no sure and paying occupation. Here Is, indeed, a submerged half! And over this submerged half rules a rapacious bureaucracy, incompetent and regurdiess of the obligation flowing from place and power and trust. How long can this mis- rule last? ———_+e+___ JAPANESE SCHOOLS. Sunrise Kingdom Has Adopted West- ern Ways in Training Children, From St. Nicholas. Japanese children used to sit upon their heels in the school room, grouped round their maSter on the soft matting, chanting together their Iroha or reading in concert the wise maxims from their readers which have been the mental food of countless generations of their race. A change has come, and now they sit on benches before desks in western fashion, though they do not think this method of sitting very eom- fertable, and are glad, on returning home, to indulge in the usual squat. But they sull recite in concert, in a monotonous src of chant, the Iroha (ee-ro-hah), which cor- responds to our alphabet. Under the former system of schooling, all Japanese children learned to read and write the Hirangana characters and to cal- culate; and it was an unheard-of thing for 4 grown person to be unable at least to read and write and do simple calculation. They were seldom sent to school before the age of seven and were not hard pressed in their studies. In learning to write they Were acquiring the dexterity of finger and wrist needful in drawing, and without doubt their method of writing is one of the traits which have tended to make the Jap- anese a nation of artistic tendencies. A soft paper is used and a brush instead of a pen. Care and exactness are necessary, owing to the nature of the materials, and it 1s impossible to use the hand in a cramp- ed or stiff position; hence freedom and grace of movement result. The child holds the paper in one hand and the brush in the other; the whole arm works, motion ceming from the shoulder, elbow and wrist as well as from the finger muscles. The paper, as soon as touched, absorbs the indian ink with which he writes. The child thus finds it ngcessary to touch with precision and care, and acquires insensibly @ certain power of drawing in that precise touch and in the exercise of the arm and hand muscles. Western principles in education, as well as western school furniture, have been adopted in the sunrise kingdom. The Arabic numbers, 1, 2, 3, etc., are used, for the Japanese at once recognized the ad- vantage of these signs for numbers instead of thelr own cumbersome ones. Maps, charts and diagrams are seen on the school room walls; object lessons are given, and foreigners, hearing the children’s recita- tions, even though not understanding their speech, recognize that the young Japanese are getting some good results of modern civilization. + ‘The Banana Trade. From the London Mall. Immense fortunes have been made out of the banana business. Revenues do not ac- crue alone from the sale of the fruit, for the leaves are used for packing; the juice, being strong in tanning, makes an indelible ink and shoe blacking, the wax found on the underside of the leavés is a valuable article of commerce; manila hemp is made from the stems, and of this hemp are made mats, plaited work and lace hankerchiefs of the finest texture; moreover, the banana is ground into banana flour. Pitinr bie to be bs nai * yw ry warmth laring gas the storage places in which. immense WOMEN IN BUSINESS LIFE RANDOM... VERSE. erecee Toren < Sg tates qa They Fell athEa@usinina. Written tor The Bveritg Stanby Anne M. Laise. Down where the pal Shadows fall thick. trees; Away from the souud of the cannon’s boom Lay our soldier dead, 18a ¥remi-Iike tomb. Right nobly they fought ively thes died ‘They've reached their reward on the other side} Calmly they rest where thw battle’s dull roar And the cail’To arms” @eturbe them ‘no more, abo ot Talk not of heroes of agesIihe!past Our own honor roll ts sllitg ap - ‘With the names of men who for love of right Left home and comfort to ggin ip the fight. Into death's jaws, with unfgltering tread, Bravely they marched on Without fear or dread; Gladly they rushed to the hieat of the fray, ‘That “Old Glory’s” cause ailght prevail that day. “They are dead,” we say. Yes, beneath the sod Lie their forms, but their spirits live with God. We'll land them today with tongue and with pen, Their Number Has Increased Greatly Since the Late War. Unjust for Men te Compiain That They Are Being Driven Out of Employment. From the New Orleans Picayune. One of the most interesting as well as important factors in the labor problem to- day is the employment of women in the various departments of labor once reserved for men, and- the competition of women with men in the struggle for life. There were some 22,000,000 persons of both sexes engaged in gainful pursuits of ail sorts in 1890. Of these, abeut 4,000,000 fdat ‘ti the breese, MORGANATIG MARRIAGES They Are Perfeotly Legal in the Eyes of the Charch, Bat in Law They Bind Only One of the Parties—Some Notable Instances, . From Cassell’s Saturday Journal. It must be thoroughly und=rstood that, apart from the court laws, morganatie marriages are perfectly good and lawful. ‘They are recognized and celebrated by the Protestant, Greek and Roman churches. Ne stigma attaches to the wif> in the cyes of the world. There is nothing to prevent her being received as the lawful wife of her husband at, the court of his family if the head of his family so wishes, and questions 23 ‘Thomson, the secretary of Congress. Here we still further trace the process of evolu- tion in the Amefican eagle. Though we aim to divest this little history of the ‘boast of heraidry,” the following descrip- tion conveys an excellent idea of the de- vice: x on the wing and rising Proper. In the,dexter talon of the eagle an clive branch and in the sinister a bundie of arrows. Over the head of the eagie a constellation of st: surrounded with bright rays, aad at a little distance clouds. of the eag Words “E Pluribus Unum.» Srou with the e Hext and last report ts indorsed “Mr. atone improvement on the secretary's This made some slight alteration in the and, after itself under- Soe eee COALING WARSHIPS AT SEA, were females and 18,000,000 males. There were, according to the same census, about For they died Hke soldiers—they died like men. a SS How the Spaniards Planned to Do It in the West Indies, of pr2cedence can be settled by conferring 13,000,000 families in the United States. In 1860 there were about 10,000,000 workers of both sexes, and of these one-twentieth, or 500,000, were females. These were engaged chiefly in clothing factories, cotton mills and in shoe-binding, and they were found almost wholly in the New England states, Close to Ninety, Jobn Howard Bryant in the Albany Argus, Here now I stand, upon life's outer verge, Dark silien, aes Sora Tecree n, allent, 4 ‘Where earth's past myriads He in. dre1 sleep. “Tis here I stand without a thrill of fear, on her some title which will give her a definite rank of her own. On the other hand, by the court law the marriage never had any binding force at all. Therefore, if the man choos2s to be a scoundrel either for his own purposes or because his family insist that he must marry in his own rank in order that he may continue the Ine, It From the London ‘Chronicle. We have received a curious story of the means the Spanish government is taking to coal its warships, and the account comes to us in such detail that, pending the re- sult of inquiries, we give it, though with all reserve. It is briefly thix: A vessel fiy- whose men had gone away to sea or to the new lands of the west, and left their wo- men dependent. In the west and in the south a woman seldom went away from the home to work, or, if so, they were occupied with household duties in families. After the civil war the situation was vast- ly changed. A million men lost their liver or were so disabled as to be incapacitated to surport themselves. The south suffcred more than any other section, and many women were left self dependent. It was a new thing to see white women in the southern states start out to seek work in avenues that had been previously closed to women. They could not take domestic service, because such places were monopo- lized by the negroes who had been brought up to that sort of work. The posts of teaching the young did not afford places for all who were forced to work, and thus the white women of the south emulated their sisters of the north and west in seek- ing the means of earning a livelfhood in every honorable work within their capac- ity, snd, however much the necessity for such a state of things is regretted, it must be recognized all the same. It is not only unmanly, but it is out- rageously unjust, for men to complain that women are driving them out of employ- ment. There are 13,000,000 heads of fami- lies in the United States. Some of these are widows, but the greatest numbers ure men. There are men enough in the coun- try to support all the women if they would. The fact is that they do not. It is their own fault. If every man who pretends to be a man were supporting a woman as he should, there would be probably 4,000,000 places in offices, stores, shops and factor- jes that are now occupied by women work- ers left free to men, and the women would be at home. The worst feature in the entire situation is that the women are put off with about one-half the wages given to men for the same service. This is an outrage in many cases. When the women acquire the power in bus:ness which they have always been able to wield in love, they will correct the evil of lower wages, to ——ee____ A LIVING TORPEDO BOAT, The Ray Was in Active Service Long “Before Navies. Frem the St. Louis Glcbe-Democrat. Nature and artifice approach each other. In fact, invention is the chief means of their mutuai approach, inasmuch as in- vention is merely the practical application of nature's laws, At the same time, ft seems surprising to find that nature has devised a submarine torpedo boat ages be- fore man ever thought of building such a contrivance. Cuban waters swarm with these submarine terrors of nature’s manu- facture. Our fighting men are likely to come into unpleasant contact with them in the course of operations about the coast of the beleagured island. They are not powerful enough to damage Uncle Sam's warships, happily, but a big specimen will paralyze a man if stepped on. These sub- marine defenders of the isle which Spain still claims as part of her domain are living electric batteries of dangerous strength. If our troops, in landing through the shal. lows which they frequent, should strike a school of them, serious demoralization would result. Torpedo rays they are called. They con- stitute one of the puzzles of science. Ages before B. Franklin first drew sparks from the clouds they had solved the principle of electrical storage. In fact, they are living storage batterles. They are a very ancient type of fishes, contemporary with the sharks. The torpedo ray is the first cousin to the common skate, which it greatly resembles, though very much larger. Each of its big, fleshy wings contains an electric battery, which is as truly such as any ar- rangement of Leyden jars in a scientific laboratory. The batteries consist of a largo number of hexagonal cells, each of which is capable of storing a certain amount of electrical energy. Scientists have given a great deal of study to this extraordinary animal, and they as- sert that Its batteries are nothing more nor less than modified muscles. The back of each electric organ is positive, while the ventral part—i.e., the side toward the belly of the fish—is negative. It has been ascer- tained that a current can be conveyed through water for a considerable distance. It exercises all the known powers of elec- tricity, rendering needles magnetic, decom- posing chemical ccmpounds and emitting sparks. In loneliness allied to the sublime; The broken links of love that bound’ me here, Lie scattered on this treacherous shoal of time. But still I cling to friends who yet remain, Cling to the glorious scenes that round me lie, Striving to stay the heste of years in vain As swifter yet the winged moments fly Idly, I seek the future to explore, I partly know what 1 +22 —____ The Read Through the Marsh. Emma Herrick Weed in the Independent. A murderer fleeing adown the night (O the rond through the marsh i His bands are red but his cheeks are white, And awful shapes in the gloom affright, For the stars are few and she young. moon set, Ho shivers and shrinks at the brier’s touch, "Tis the hand of a flend with ite talon clutch! And the cry of the wind 1s a bloodhound’s ba: And the low, black clouds flerce birds of prey! The wild, weird plaint of the whippoorwill, Is a yoice—that voice that he cannot still! Far down in the north, beyond the firs, The filckering gleam’ auroral stirs. ‘Tis the sway of a lantern forward and back, The red avengers are on his track! He stumbles—he falls—and bis senses swim, The sinking sands are engulfing him! AL. pa 11 tortures, all feara he hath— Yet the road through the marsh is a pleasant path! A pilgrim Jonmneying down the night (O the road throug! One star looks out like a béaton-light, this can he shape bis course aright— And about are the ferns and flowers asleep. How sweet their breath, in the dews of even, Like the incense cup of @ soul forgives ‘Was that the whippoorwill’s timid call? How it blends with the breeze in the tree-tops tall! In the polar sky a soft ght growa. With the dawn's own semblance of gold and rose. What mean those beaotiful, mystic rites In the astral deers of the sammer nights? God knows! And he-kneels on the soft, cool sod: How good to leave the unknown with God! How good to feel when the way {s dim; ‘That the road is safe if we keep with Him! © soft sweet musings our pilgrim hath, For the road through the marsh is a pleasant path! — For the Summer Campaign. James Barrett Kirk in Life: “Just big enough for one.” “Yes, miss,"” replied the salesman, as Across the floor he paced “Here's something in the ize you want— How does it sult your: taste? She looked upon the azitele. at ne exposed to Wew; “It's much too frail,” whe‘anid; “I want It strong enough for ywo/* 2°77 — Left Alone, Jean Blewett in the Toronty Glebe. od: It's the lonesomest housdfoubver saw, ‘Thig big gray house where [ stay- T don’t call it living at at,.at all" Since my. mother Went ayay- Four long weeks ago, und ft déems a years “Gone home,” so the, cher sald, An’ ¥ ache in ‘my breast 4 /tt ‘frunting her, Ant my-eyes are alwaga'ted! I stay ‘duit of doors: till 1m" stimpst’ froze, "Canse every corner ant x0! M Seems empty enough to fiightpn'a toy, And filled to the doots #1th gloom. I hate them:to call me in to my meala, Somethnes I think I enn't bear To swallow a movthful of anything An’ her‘not sittin’ up there Saas the tex, an’ passin’ the things, n’ laughing to see me take ‘Two big lumps of sugar instead of one, An’ more than my share of cake. I'm too big to be kissed, T used to say, it somehow T don't feel right, Crawling into bed us still as a mouse— Nobody saying good-night. An’ tucking the clothes up under my chin, An’ pushing my hair back, so; ‘Things a boy inakes fun of before his chums, But things that he likes, you know, ‘There's no one to go to when things go wrong— She was always so safe and sure, Why, not a trouble could tuckle a'boy at she couldn't up an’ cure. There are lo:s of women, it seems to me, That wouldn't be missed so much— Women whose boys rre about all grown up, Au’ old maid aunties, an’ such. I can’t make it ont for the life of me Why she shonld have to go, An’ her boy left here in this old gray house, A-needing an’ wanting her so. : I tell you the very lonesomest thing In thia great big world today Isa big boy of ten whose heart 1s broke "Cause his mother is gone away. so but naught that ts before. wild and wet!), the marsh 1s green and deep!), ing the Norwegian flag and sailing with Norwegian papers has been fitted up in London as a coal hulk on a most elaborate scale. New engines and steam winches have been put into her. She has been fitted from one end to the other with electric ght, and has been, in fact, altered from stem to stern, to receive and discharge coal in large quantities. Some days ago she was cleared by the Norwegian consul in Lon- Gon, and proceeded to Cardiff, where she will take in 3.500 tons of coal. She will then be cleared, our information goes, for a neutral port, and will proceed in tow of a tug to Cape Verde to act as a receiving hulk to which Spanish war vessels would go for coal. She will lie up in a bay off.the African mainland, where her presence ‘will be unnoticed, and she will be refilled from time to time by fast steamers coming from various continental ports. This is the story as it reaches us, and we give it for what it is worth. We have the name of the ship and master, which we think it right to re- serve. We would point out that a floating coal- ing station would not be of any use to a Spanish fleet operating in Cuban waters, It must be remembered also that the Span- jards have a coaling station at the Cana- ries, and, in the event of the return of the fleet to Europe, a floating station at Cape Verde would, therefore, be of little advan- tage. Were the hulk to go to the western Atlantic it might then be of some use to the Spaniards. Moreover, the purchase of any large and fast steamer would only be from one of the more important shipping companies, and such a sale is not likely to be effected without its being generally krown to shipping circles. The ultimate destination of such a vessel would be care- fully watched for by both the embassies concerned and the government. a DRIVEN WELLS IN CAMP. is not necessary to take any legal steps to establish his independence. H2 need not even inform the unhappy lady of his inten- tion. And when we consider the extreme hardship of her position, we must also re- membzr that the rule is as oli as the old- est of the reigning houses of Germany, and is as well known as the law of military service. The victim of a morganatic mar- riage can no more plead that he (for the ruie applies equally to men) or sh2 did not know the possibilities of the pusition than the peasant who deserts his regiment could urge that he was not aware thai the thing was punishable. A notable case in th2 last ten years is that of Prince Oscar of Sweden, who fell in love with Miss Ebba Munck, the pretty daughter of one of the Swedish ministers, and insisted on marrying ner. The mar- riage, of course, was morganatic; the wif2 did not become a member of the royal family, and the children could never in- herit the throne. On the other hand, the king and queen thoroughly rscognize this lady as their daughter-in-law, and treat her with the utmost affection, The king, moreover, has conferred on the pair the non-royal title of Prince and Princess Ber- nadotte. Another instance is that of Prin- cess Frederica of Hanover, who fell in love with and married her father’s court phy- sician in defiance of her family, who made every effort first to stop the marriage, and, secondly, when it was accomplished, to induce the ‘princess to repudiate it. An- other quite recent case is that of the Grand Duke Michael of Russia, who mar- ried morganatically a German lady of noble but not royal birth. The late czar commanded the grand duke to give her up and marry within his own rank or be ban- ished from Russia. The grand duke pre- ferred exile with his wife, who has been created Countess Torby by the King of Bavaria in order to relieve her of the humiliation of being obliged to use her maiden name still. The reasons why Prince and Princess Edward of Saxe-Wetmar, Princess Victor of Hohenlohe-Langenburg and her son, Count Gleichen, reside in England, and Prince and Princess Louis of Battenberg follow the British fleet are these: In the first case, Prince Edward is married to a sister of the Duke of Richmond and Gordon; in the second, Prince Victor's widow was a daugh- ter of a Marquess of Hertford; in the third, Prince Louis, being the son ef a morganatic marriage, 1s not on the royal level. All these marriages are morganatic, with the result that in Germany Princess Edward would be known as Countess Dornberg (a title conferred on her after her marriage); Princess Victor would be merely Lady Laura Seymour, and her son would have no title at all; while Princess Louis would be styled Princess Victoria of Hesse, just as if she were unmarried. Some idea of what can be done in circumstances like this may be taken from the case of the late Grand Duke of Hesse, who afler the death of his first wife (our Princess Alice), mar- ried morganatically a laay of non-royal birth. A few days after the ceremony he dismissed her. Neither the common nor the court law ot England recognized these distinctions, and marriages with subjects were by no means uncommon up to about a century ago. Queen Mary II and Queen Anne were both the daughters of the marriage be- tween James II and Anne Hyde, daughter of Lord Chancellor Clarendon... George III, however, had German ideas, and resented some alliances of this kind. He got a law passed, called the royal marriage ac which declared that members of the royal family in the line of succession could not marry without the consent of the crown before they attained the age of twenty-five This law did not create a caste, it only im- posed a condition. The difference between it and the morganatic rule is that under the latter a marriage between a royalty and a subject can never become binding against the ro: iy. The latter may be voluntarily bound as iong as he or she may choose, but no longer; whereas a marriage between a royalty and a subject celebrated in England under the royal marriage act with the con- sent of the crown is as binding as a mar- riage celebrated lawfully between subjects, and cannot be broken except by the high court for legal cause. Moreover, the chil- dren of this union have full rights of su cession and inheritance to both their par- ents. ‘The marriages of Princess Louise, Prin- cess Henry of Battenberg and the Duchess of Fife constitute exact examples of what in Germany would be styled a morganatic union. In England, however, as they were celebrated with the consent of the queen, Are the Easiest to Operate and Give Better Results. From Fire and Water. One of the first things to be thought of in fixing upon a site for a military camp should be the facilities for obtaining a sufficient supply of potable water. There is apparently trouble in this respect at Chickamauga, where the driven wells smack too much of surface water. There, however, the difficulty can easily be over- come by piping wholesome water from an &ajacent creek, which flows enough to sup- ply a lurger number of men than is en- camped there in that place. At Camp Alger, near Falls Church, Va., there is not sufticlent water fit for drinking for even one-half of the troops now on the ground— to say nothing of what is needed for culi- nary and sanitary purposes. The at- tempts at sinking wells have not been suc cessful. The evil is one that can general- ly be easily remedied by putting down riven wells—the safest method where feasible. It was the plan adopted by the French during their invasion of China in 1856-57. The experience of the French military officers was that, when the Chinese evacuated any place, they at once poisoned the springs and surface wells— thereby causing the death of many of the soldiers. On finding this out, the engineer corps requesitioned iron pipes, which they forced into the earth with sledge hammers. On these pipes were fixed ordinary pumps. An abundant supply of pure water was thus obtained and the difficulty averted. A similar plan was successfully followed— possibly is still followed—by the British expedition invading the Soudan in Africa. It would not be inadvisable to adopt a like method at the national encampments and during the invasion of Cuba. Nicknames of the States. From the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. Alabama, cotton state; Arkansas, bear state; Caiifornia, go.den state: Colorado, centennial stat Connecticut, nutmeg state; Delaware, blue hen state; Florida, peninsula state; Georgia, cracker state; Illinois, sucker stat Indiana, hoosier state; lowa, hawkeye state; Kansas, sun- flower state; Kentucky, blue grass state; Louisiana, pelican state; Maine, pine tree state; Maryland, old line state; Massachu. setts, bay state; Michigan, wolverine state; Minnesota, gopher state; Mississippi, bayou State; Montana, stub toe state; Nebraska, black water state; Nevada, silver state. ‘The Dudes Before Santiago. From the Cleveland Leader. They scoffed when we lined up with Teddy, ‘key said we were dudes and all that; They imagined that “Cholly” and “Fweddte’t Would fsint at the of a hat! But let them look there in the ditches, Blood-statued by the swells in the ‘yan, And know that a chap may have riches And still be a man! It 1s not known just how much electricity 1s stored by a full sized torpedo ray, but the amount must be very considerable, judging from its effects on human beings who have been struck. Natives in Central America are said to make o practice of driving wild horses into water where fishes of this kind are, in order that the latter may stun the frightened quadrupeds and make them easy to capture. Only two other kinds of animals possess electric or- gans—a species of catfish and the well known “electric eel.” Both eel and catfish have thelr storage batteries located in their tails, They said that wo'd wilt <rder fire, And run if the foeman s4!’*‘Boo!” But a fellow may have a richi sire And still be a patriot, toe! Look there where we mét twice our number, Where the’ life-blood of dudes drenched the earth! The swells who ie in thelr last slumber Prove what we are worth! They laughed when we said we were gol They scoffed when we answered the calf} We might do at tennis or rowing, But as warriors!—oh, no—not at all! ——+ e+ _____ OUR TINY PACIFIC POSSESSIONS. Two Little Isinnds That May Serve Our Government Well. From the New York Herald. How many persons know that the United ‘Hina tained by fe dudes ta ths ok, States has possessions in the South Pacific | And learn that a chap may bave riches that might be used as coaling stations in} 4®¢ still be a mant our campaign against the Philippines? Did a you ever héar of Baker Island, or Howland “I Love You, Dear.” Island? It’s a thousand chances to one that There is no phrase so worn and old you never did, but they have been United ae the wena oe Ta States posssssions since 1857. ‘Aa this refrain “f love gan » “T love you, dear.*t It has been suggested that these tiny isl- i fede teens ands might come in handy just at this There Js bo chongn ae time, pending the annexation of Hawail. No new word acm thomas amd They have never before assumed tho slight- In trembling cogent Fee, fondly near, tones: “ dears est degree of importance, and even now the i Ses dae officials of the War Department at Wash- “T love you, deat." ington are not inclined to believe that they Bet tive trina acnaee eae can be put to a practical use, except in case if only “some cne’* 3qmiGeth near of the most dire necessity. ‘To murmur low, “I Mevevyou, dear.” Still, that emergency might possibly ees arise, and these desolate spots upon a still re more desolate sea may yet serve a pur- Patrigy 4 pose heretofore undreamed of. The exact A WORD FROM THE SOUTH. location of Baker Island, to be accurate, 18 | prom the Independent or i latitude 13 minutes 30 seconds north, longi- OY, to a) 2 tude 176 degrees 29 minut2s 80 seconds Now at thy call wi west. Howland Island Hes two or three Mother of States: miles to the north. Neither island is inhabited, except by sea. fowl and a multitude of half-starved, vi- ene, Thou, for whose Ductfipe peWrath .* ‘The crouched foe ‘Thire are our onda shapswords met. Thy dear bi clous rats. The latter do not hesitate to at- Motherrememiertt tack @ human being. At certain times of forget! at the year the islands are visited by vessels, . es which load with guano, which abounds in ‘Tyow, Mmow'st our battle-rage ~s great quantities. What little vegstation there is 1s coarse and scanty. calamity FAD Wwe charde,’ Fighting for theet Baker Island has no ‘resh water, but on Strong deeds our faith: shall_prowey qomand Island ars several pools of brack- BAS oben, = ara ish water, supposed to be partially fresh- hee ened by distifiaticn from the sen. ~ ‘The piripevoemett atchorage is said to very ansafe. The ‘Washington former island boasts a movable wharf. It is Jemterson gave quite impossible for vessels to load be- ‘Challenge ies lips flung tween November and April. pozzant and slave; > Howland Island is two miles long and Nocktown a eae ee half a mile wide. Baker Island is one mile Mother—rememb: Jone and three-quarters of a mile wide. ide from the fact that they are out of the usual sailing course, it would seem that the islands would possess little value asa ‘base of war But still there is some satisfaction i knowing ged they are there, and that they belong to our = errment. The time may come when. ine appear, we may be /and William Houstoun of Georgia.” After they are on the same footing as other mar- riages. A strong proof of this is to be found in the fact that the Duchess of Fife comes next to the Duke of York's family in the line of succession, and her daughters come after her. In Germany her marriage would have cut the duchess and her chil- dren out of the line altogether. The strong- est cese, however, is that of the Duke and Duchess of York. According to the Ger- man ‘aw, the Duke of Teck, being the son of @ morganatic marriage, could only mar- ry the late Princess Mary Adelaide mor- ganatically. Their children were morganat- ically born, and when Princess May mar- ried the Duke of York it was. merely a mor- ganatic alliance. It may be added, how- ever, that not even the German emperor has ever ventured to treat the duchess as a morganatic wife. ——+e+. BIRTH OF AMERICA’S EAGLE, Evolution of the Heraldic Bird Which in So Lively Just Now. From the Louisville Courier-Journal. On July 4, 1776, after the Declaration of Independence thad been read to the Conti- nental Congress, it was resolved “that Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams and Mr. Jefferson be a committee to prepare a device for a seal of the United States.” They reported on August 10, and the shield-like design they recommended had in one of its six divisions an eagle—a very insignificant lit- tle fellow, by the way—that played a most unimportant part on the device. ‘The two main figures were the Goddess of Liberty and the Goddess of Justice, who ‘stcod beneath the “Eye of Providence.” On this design we meet officially for the first time that well-known expression, “‘E. Pluri- bus Unum,” The quotation was one fa- miliar to the colonists as the motto of the Gentleman's Magazine, and naturally sug- gested itself as the most appropriate de- scription of the new order of things. ‘To make a long story short, the proposed seal was not accorded a favorable recep- tion, and the committee's report was laid on the table. is Nothing further was-done until March 25, 1779, when the matter was referred to new committee, consisting of “James Lov- ell of Massachusetts, Mr. Scott of Virginia in the efforts to evolve a suitable device for @ seal,-and.in a aentme Be iarnemigar reports were referred secretary Congress, Charles Thomson. The name of New Hampshire, granite state; New Jer. sey, Jersey blue state; New York, empire ; North Carolina, old north state; North Dakota, flickertail state; Ohio, buck. eye state; Oregon, beaver state; Pennsyi- Vania, keystone state; Rhode Island, little Rhody; South Carolina, palmetto ate; South Dakota, swing cat state; Tennessee, big bend state; Texas, lone star state; Vor. mont, green mountain state; Virginia, the eld dominion; Washington, Chinook state; West Virginia, the pan handle; Wisconsin, badger state. ———+e+—____ Spain’s Population, From the St. Louls Globe-Democrat, According to officials returns, the popula- tion of Spain in i887 was 16,045,786. There were in Spain at that date 42,395 resident foreigners, the Most of them being in the Provinces of Barcelona, Cadiz, Gerona and Madrid. The Basques in the north number about 400,000, and differ materially from the rest of Spain. There are 60,000 Morescoes in the south, 50,000 gypsies and a small number of Jews. In 1700 the Population was estimated at 8,000,000; in the four- teenth century it is believed to have amounted to upwards of 24,000,000. Statis- tics published by the Institute Geographico y Estadistico of Spain show that the popu- lation, according to occupation in 1889, was as follows: Agricultural, 4,854,742; indus- trial (textle and mineral), 243,867; commer- cial, 194,755; arts and trades, 8 310; do- mestic servants, 409,549; merchant marine, 115,764; professional, legal, medical, brought home an orang-outang from Borneo. Since owing to its full size the brute is a terror ‘to the neighbors, Its master won't hear of its being chained up, contenting himself with shutting the animal in his bed room cess sateiy for him, ‘Nicolas ut_unfortunai weve, alias “The Devourer,” > [= HOW THEY ARE MADE Firecrackers Are Manufactured in China by the Million, HARD WORK AND VERY POOR PAY Largest Part of Exports Come to This Country. FOR USE NEXT MONDAY From the San Francisco Chronicle. The consular reports of May 13, 1898, con- tain a paper from Consul General John Goodnow of Shanghai on the subject of firee crackers in China. He says that during the year ended June 30, 1807, there were ex- Ported from China 26,705,733 pounds of fires crackers, valued by the Chinese imperial customs at 1,903,082 haikwan taels, equal- ing at an average rate of exchange during that time, $1,564,151 gold. Of the total shipment by far the largest part were sent by sailing vessels to New York. A small quantity went to England. Other countries buy only infinitesimal amounts. The exports represent only a small frace tion of the amount manufactured and used in China. There are no large manufacter- Jes; the crackers are made in small houses, and in the shops where they are sold. In the latter places the proprietor of the shop, his wife (or wives) and the children do the work. No record is kept of the number made and sold, and no estimate is possible of their cost. ‘The use of crackers is uni- versal in China, and has been as far back as history records. It is most probable that in the beginning they were used to frighten away evil spirits. ww they are most frequently an expression of good feel- ing or of ceremonjous compliment. They are used at weddings, births and funerals; at festivals, religious, civil and military ceremonies; at New Year, to salute persons about to.take @ journey, and, in fact, on all occasions out of the ordinary routine. Use Cheap Paper. In making crackers only the cheapest kind of straw paper which can be produced in the immediate locality where the crack- ers are made is used for the body of the cracker. “A little finer paper is used for the wrapper. A piece of straw paper x20 inches will make twenty-one crackers ove and one-half inches long and one-fourth of an inch in‘diameter. The powder ts aiso of the cheapest grade and is made in the lo- cality where used. It costs 150 to 173 cash per petty, or 6 to 7 cents goid per pound. For the fuse a paper (called “leather” in Shanghai) is used, which is imported fromm Japan and is made from the inner lining of the bamboo. In other places a fine rice paper is used, generally stiffened slightly With buckwheat flour paste, which, the Chinese say, adds to its inflammability, A. strip of this paper one-third of an inch wide by fourteen inches (a Chinese foot) long is jaid on a table and a very little powder put down the middle of it with a holiow bamboo stick. A quick twist of the paper makes the fuse ready for use. It is not easy to persuade the Chinese to exhibit their modes of manufacture to a foreigner; but Mr. Williams, vice consul at Shanghai, thus describes the work as he has seen it: Chinese Methods, “The straw paper is first rolied by hand around an iron rod, which varies in size ac- cording to the size of cracker to be made. To complete the rolling a rude machine is used, This consists of two uprights supporting an axis, from which is suspended by two arms a heavy piece of wood, slightly con- vex on the lower side. There is just room between this swinging block and the top of the table to place the cracker. As each layer of paper is put on by hand, the crack- er is placed on the table and the suspended welght is drawn over the roll, thus tight- ening it until no more can be passed under the weight. For the smallest ‘whip’ crack- ¢r the workman uses for compression, in- Stead of this machine, a heavy piece of wood fitted with @ handle Mke that of u carpenter's plane. In filling crackers two hundred or three hundred are tied together Ughuy ina bunch. Red clay is spread over the end of the bunch and forced into the end of each cracker with a punch. While the clay is being tamped iu a@ little water is sprayed on it, which makes it pack clos- er. The powder is poured in at the other end of the cracker. With the aid of an awl the edge of the paper is turned in at the upper end of the ers inserted through thi Double Firecrackers, The long ends of the fuses are braided to- gether in such @ way that the crackers le in two parallel rows. The braid is doubled on itself, and a large quick-firing fuse in- serted, and the whole is bound with fine thread. The bundle is wrapped in paper and in this shape sent to the seacoast. A variety of cracker which is popular here is the “twice-sounding,” called “double- headed Dutchman” in’ the United States, It has two chambers separated by a plug of clay, through which runs a connecting fuse. There is also a fuse extending {rom the powder in the lower chamber through the side of the cracker. When the cracker is to be fired it is set on end and fire set to the fuse. The powder exploding in the chamber throws the crack- er high in the air, where the second charge is exploded by fire from the fuse extending through the plug between the two cham- bers. In the manufacture of these the clay is first tamped in with a punch to form the separating plug. The lower chamber is then loaded with powder and closed by turning over the paper at the end. The upper chamber is loaded and closed with clay. A hole is punched in the side of the lower chamber with an awl, and the fuse insert- ed through this opening. Cheap in China, At Canton the ordinary size cracker (one and one-half inches long by one-fourth of an inch in diameter) costs 1 tael (62 cents) for 10,000 for export. At Hankow the best quality of this size costs 1 tael for 5,00; while of the second quality 20,000 can be bought for 1 wei. At Chungking 15,00) of the ordinary crackers can be bought for 1 tael. At Shanghai 1 tael wiil purchase 5,000 of the ordinary size, while the largest sell for $ per thousand. These prices are probably only a shade above the actual cost of manufacture. The small manu- facturers sell to Chinese compradores, who buy as agents of foreign firms and ship the crackers in bundles to the seacoast, where they are packed in boxes which cost About 4 tacls ($2.50) per hundred, and hold 250,000 firecrackers. Aside from the fact that all the material used is native and produced where the crackers are manufactured and that trans- portation does not enter into the cost, the Wonderful cheapness of manufacture 1s ac- counted for by the kind of labor used and the wages paid. The items of cost of plant and interest on it are eliminated by the fact that the crackers are made in the homes of the workmen, ik i j i i i