Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, January 27, 1895, Page 18

THE OMAHA DAILY BEE:ISUNDAY, JANUARY 27, A Trip fom London to Paris on Nativ Locomotives, CONVENIENCES AMERICAN LACKING Differences in Engineers and Engine Driv- Ing Mere and in Europe—The Roads, the Country and Company. the Copyright 1595, by 8. 8. McClure, Limited, PARIS, an. 13.—~Hundreds of hansom cabs, countless carriages and myriads of om- nibuses came out of the fog and filled the ample grounds In front of Victoria ation. A solid stream of men, women and children was pouring in at the gates to the platforms where the trains stand. Long lines of people were waiting in front of the windows in the booking office. Trunks, bags and boxes falrly rained iInto the luggage room; but the porters (short, stout fellows) picked them up and bore them away, as red ants run away with crumbs at a plenie To the train titled people came in carriages behind splendid horses, .i.n coachmen in high hats and for'=.ea In yellow trousers ‘American nfllionaires came also, coaches and tlly ho's, and mingled with the plain English nobility. You can tell the American women by their wmart dresses, and the English by their heavy boots, red cheeks and heaps of halr. You can tell the Londen swell from the New Yorker, for there Is something the matter with one of his e And you can pick out duke and the lord, for they are, in most cases, plain and modest men. There 18 a noticcable absence of poor people, for the train is not going to the hop flelds of Kent, but to Paris and the Riviera, The faded carriages that stretch away in a long line towards the locomotive look singu- larly small to those who are accustomed to secing the heavy trains of America. THE ENGLISH LOCOMOTIVE. And now we come to the locomotive. The stoker touched his cap when 1 stepped aboard, and T noticed that be did this every time ho addressed me. 1f asked a simple question he invariably touched his cap before he answered. The absence of a pilot or it is sometimes called, locomotive look awkward an American. There are heads or main rods in glance she reminds one of a well made sta- tionary eugine. Even her beautiful high Wheels are half covered with steel. Like a well drossed Englishman, the English loco- motive looks best frem her knees up. Above her running board she is scrupu- lously clean, bright and interesting. But even here she has a vacant look. There is but cne steam dome and no sand box or bell; she looks as though she has been driven under a low bridge, had her back swept bare and then had had nothing rebuilt but one dome and the stack, In the cab, where ought to be comfortable seats for the driver and stoker, there are high boxes, that come nearly to the window gilis. No matter how long he remains cn duty the driver must stand up; nor has the stoker, who in descending a long bank might get a moment's rest, any place to sit, but must stand the whole way on his weary feet This is simply disgraceful. The precious lives of thousands of people are placed in the hands of the engine driver, and yet no thought is given to his comfort. 1 read, with considerable amusement, an article in an Bnglish journal urging the Board of Trade to provide medals as a reward to engine drivers “for duty ably done.” 1 would suggest bet- ter wages and seats In cabs. Medals arc all Tight as a mark, but even titles are no good when we are dead. Think of a man spending yeara in learning a trade, and then' doubling the road between London and Dover, 160 miles, for 7 shillings—S$1.75, or ninety miles for $1—just $3 lcss than an engineer gets for covering the same distance on a_mountain Toad In the United States. The risk is about the same, for the English driver runs four times as fast as the mountaincer. THE ENGLISH EXPRESS. Engine 17, designed by William Kirtley, lo- comotive superintendent of the London, Chat- ham & Dover rallway, was attached to the Parls traln, and when we got a signal to go she started the eleven light carriages, all fllled with people, as easily as a good horse starts a hansom. The fog that hung over the clty in the early morning had all blown away and the sun shone brightly on the glistening steel. Our engine was nearly new, and I saw before we had gone a mile that she was a good easy rider. She had not the exaggerated (eight foot) English wheels, and was all the better for it. She was smart, and had her train going so that the rear car passed out of the station shed at fifteen miles an hour. The furnace door was Ingeniously arranged, 80 that by pulling a lever the door parted in the middle. The firebox was not more than four feet long, but long enough to make plenty of steam, and with about 20 per cent less coal than an American engine of the same size would consume. There was noth- ing to look out for but the signals, as the roadways in England are all walled in, and the driver dashed right away to the sea. The track is not straight, and T soon found it mecessary to hang on to the cab as she swung round the corners. Out through the ragged edge of Lendon, over the Thames and down the rail our steei steed whirled us at a rapld rate. The English driver does not run “with his hand on the throttle and his eye on the road,” as wo are wont to picture a locomotive engi- neer, for the throttle is at the top of the » boller-head, and must be sought out by the driver before he can shut off steam, no mat- ter how great the emergency. It does not require a practiced railroader to understand that If the driver had his hand on the lever te could shut off without taking his eye from coweatcher,"” as makes the English and unfinished to no cylinders, cross sight, and at first THE CHANNEL STEAMER. the rail, second. NEAT STOP, HALTING START. Pive miles out we stopped at a small sta- tlon and picked up four more carriages. Our train was equipped with the matchless “Westinghouse" “air brakes; and they do work delightfully on theso light cars. So perfectly were they adjusted, and 80 smoothly did the quiet old seven shilling a day driver apply them, that the train came to a dead Stop with as little jolt as would attend the stopping of a baby carriage. Already I had learned to like our locomo- tive, but when we got a signal to go, aud the driver gave her steam, the fiftecn car- rlages refused to start. Here I witnessed, for the second time in my life, the working of the slowest, clumsiest plece of machinery in use today In any civilized country—the “reversing wheel.” 1 had seen it once be- fore, when the London & Northwestern's Prize eugine was leaving Chicago. When the locomotive falls to start her train it s always necessary to reverse ber to get what there is of slack between the cars. In this way the englne starts a car at a time, so that by the time the last car is started the focomotive has made a quarter of a turn or more and the front part of the train is o motion. With a quick-working reverse Jever this 15 accomplished easily, but with and In less than a quarter of a A wheel that must be glven from seven to eleven revolutions to reverse the machinery the process Is painfully slow, without the saving grace of being sure, As the wheel revolves the locomotive creeps forward, steal- Ing tho slack from car after car, so that by the time the machinery is in the forward motion the slack Is gone, and you are just where you were before you began to rever There was a serious collision on the Great Northern not long ago; a double- head express train dashed into a goods train that was being shunted, and if the locomo. tives had “wheels” the wonder Is that more people were not killed MILES WITHOUT A STOP. From Herne Hill, where wo got the last four carriages, it is seventy-fiva miles to Dover, and we were to make the run without a stop. Just about the time our smart steed ot them going she dashed into a tunnel half a mile long. The great drivers hammering the rails and the rattle of the carriages made a deafening roar, and to add to the torture the driver pulled the whistle. The English locomotive whistle is the shrillest, sharpest most_ear-splitting Instrument of torture ever | heard. It is about as musical as a Chinese fiddle accompanied by a lawn mower. . How bright e sun looked—for 1 had been in London four weeks—when we leaped out | of the other end of the tunnel. Although it | was now the middle of Octobor the sides of | tho cuts were beautifully carpeted with green turf. The whole right of way was perfectly clear, and here and there were neat brick and stone stations bstween the up and down tracks As the smoke of London began to grow dim in the distance, a beautiful panorama of | flelds and farms opened up before us. As far as the eye cculd reach, on either side, were rolling meadows and brown fields, dotted with thatch roofed stacks. If the spexd slackened as we ascended a long “bank’ these rural pictures claimed my attention and mado me forget for tho moment that we were at the front of the Paris express. But, when we had renched the summit, and the | world began to lip beneath us till the keen alr cut our faces, we were made to realize that we were not losing any time. Now were rolling along the top of a high hill, from whose flat summit wo looked down the chimney pots in tho village houses; and now dashing into a decp cut, where flocks of frightened quail rose up and beat the bank, or, caught by the eddying wind, were dashed against the sides cf the flylng train, as a man standing near the track and grown dizzy throws himself beneath tho.wheels, A sharp curve throws our train out on the brow of a gentle hill. Below, through a grean | valley, winds a_lazy looking river—the Med way. This is the old town of Rochester, the land of Dickens, and beycnd the river stands the old Norman castle, A SMOOTH DASH INTO DOVER. Away, away, the engine flles and the dull town is left for the sunny fields. We are pump and the click of the lotch on the re- verse lever. There was no bell to relieve the monotony of the rasping, phthisicy whistle. 1 wondered it we could ever understand each other—if she would respond to my touch, for the driver talked to her in a strange tongue. Aye, and these twin threads of steel stretch away through a forelgn land; but iU's all God's world. The same sun lights up the fiells with that matchless brilllancy so missed by Americans on the English isle. The trains here, as in Great Britain, are light, and it requires only a few moments to get them going. The country Is rough, or rather rolling, and there are deep curves, heavy hills and deep cuts, whose scooping sides are paved with the native stone, cut smooth as the walls of a house, The track is good and the riding easy. The country grows more beautiful as the town of Calais is left further and further behind; but ail s0 strangely new. The fields are small and well cultivated, and here and there on the terraced downs women trudge by the side of ox teams that are hauling heavy harrows by their heads, having sticks lashed to their horns The line runs along the coast, and the happy peasants toiling in flelds that tip gently to the west, watch the sunzet in the ca. Some of the little vales that face the water are strangely beautiful, lit by the mel- low light of the dying day. And now my new strange horse of iron quickens pace, for we are descending a long hill, and the fields wheel and whirl by so rapidly that I can scarcely count the horses in the long tandems that draw the high-wheeled carts. The engine men wore no gloves and handle the door chaln and hot levers as though they were wood. The driver held a piece of burn- ing waste in his hand to furnish fire for his cigarettes. 1 did not reproach him nor blame him for smoking cigarettes—it was the “wheel” no doubt that drove him to it. It the cabs had seats, running a locomo- tive would be much easter in Europe than in America. The ways are all walled or nd there is no necessity for the straining of the eyes and nerves which American drivers suffer so cons from much. WOMEN SWITCH TENDERS, The first stop fa at Amiens, eight miles out. There I saw what I had never seen be- fore—women working the switches in a sig- nal tower. There were two of them, and they appeared to have the station quite to themselves. 1 make no doubt they find their work very agreeable and interesting; that they are faithful, that their homes are lappy, and that they consider themselvea very &uperior and refuse to exchange calls with their sister, the “bullwhacker,” over in the field. At Amiens wo met night on her way to the west, and I gave up the engine for the more comfortable carriage. This compartment was very like the one assigned our party on the | Chatham & Dover, except that it was a trifle wider, and done in tan instead of blue. Here as in England the stations are ample THE STATION IN PARIS now entering the great hop flelds of Kent, ono of the fairest counties in all England, 1 am told. Ours is not the only locomotive abroad, for, almost every moment we can see another train flying across the country, al- ways crossing either above or below our track. Out in the flelds are other engines, great awkward machines pulling plows, and sometimes trains of wagons through village streets. At the end of a long curve, around which we swing at a mile a minute, rise the great spires of the cathedral of Canterbury. But there Is no time to dream, for we are now whirling away toward the water edge. At last the driver shuts off steam, the stoker washes the deck with a water hose connected with the injector pipe, and remarks that his work 1s done. His labors, like his salary, is light, for although we have been on the road nearly two hours he has not burned a half ton of coal. The trains, of course, are light and that makes light work for the engine men. It is all down hill now, and we fairly fall through the tunnels and deep cuts till all at once the “sllver streak,” as they call it here, is seen, and this s the end of the first heat. ABOARD THE VICTORIA. Many things bear the name of “the widow at Windsor,” and I was not surprised to find the “Victorla” rocking restlessly by the dock at Dover. 1t is surprising to an American to see how quickly fourteen English carriages can be emptied. T should say that in two minutes from the time our train stopped we were all aboard. In eight minutes the baggage was transferred from the train to the boat and in ten minutes we were leaving the dock. The channel has not the reputation of being particularly pacific and this was one of her busy days. In ten minutes after the whistle sounded the “Victorla” was capering out towards the coast of France just as un un- tamed broncho capers with a cowboy across a corral. To the disgrace of the London, Chatham & Dover Raliway company, she 1s & side wheeler. Except the reversing wheel and the seatless cab of the 17, this Is the only disgraceful thing I found on the Dover route, In spite of the rough sea we made the run from Dover to Calals, twenty-five miles, in a few minutes over an hour. IN FRANCE. “Chemin de Fer du Nord” is the first French sign seen by the voyager from Eng- land. It is the name of the railway—or “Road of Iron” as the French put it, over which we are to pass to Paris. The captain of the “Victoria” had given me a letter which contained a pass—a *'Pe mis de Monter sur les Machines,” and this pass went on to say that I would be “per- mitted to circulate or promenade on the ma- chine drawing the quick express during one voyage between Calais and Paris.” This lit- tle surprise had been arranged for me through the kindness of Mr. Morgan, secretary of the London, Chatham & Dover, an able manager and an agreeable gentleman. Those who had recovered sufficiently from the uneasiness of the channel went into the buffet and had breakfast. In London It is always morning till you have dined at night, and in France all that you eat, no matter how often, is breakfast until dinner, which is sel- dom before 7 p. m. Sliding back into my engine clothes, 1 went forward to where the locomotive stood steaming and sizzling, ready to be off, Just as I reached her the driver began to whirl.the reversing wheel, for he had heard the signal bell, and the long train moved away. 1 showed my pass. The driv smiled and waved me out* of the fireman's way. The cab was the same wretched, com- fortless cavity that I had seen on the “Dover,” only ‘not so clean. The tank, or tender, where the coal is carried, was filled with slack and dust. As fast as he shoveled into the heap where the slack was dry the freman turned the hose on it until it a puddle of mush, and to my surprise he shoveled this slop into the firebox and kept the locomotive howling hot. It would be m- possible, of courze, to fire an American ex- press locomotive with such fuel ©or there the engines are worked s0 much hirder to draw the heavy trains. When we had whipped around a few curves I saw that the best place for me was behind the driver, and I stepped over to his side, IN A STRANGE ENGINE. Thero existed between the engine, the en- ginemen and me a feeling of estrangement | in that was almost melancholy. 1 missed the sieepy panting of the alr- with all the tracks under cover. The train stops but five minutes, but the European car- riagey s0on discharg> thein passengers— the first class in the buffet, the second, as a rule, into the buvette. A brass hulled yard engine was bustling about uttering shrill shrieks in the great sheds. The yard men worked without lamps, and wore horns over their shoulders, through which they “‘conched” signals to the engineers. The lo- comotives have no headlights in Europe, such as are used in the states, but there was a hand lamp or a lightning bug chained fast on the pilot of the “shunter’ at Amiens. After trembling away in the twilight for an hour, and an hour into the night, the street lamps of Paris began to thicken by the way, and in a few minutes we stopped in the great station of the Nord, and we were in Paris—the woman's heaven and the horses’ hell. CY WARMAN. — e REBIGIOUS, A negro preacher in Oklahoma was killed the other day by his pistol drcpping out of his hip pocket and exploding. The biggest congregation as well as the poorest, is the Italian Catholic church of Néw York. Tt numbers 10,000 souls. The appropriations of the Methodist Epls- copal church for foreign missions for the coming year are $592,940, and for home mis- sions $478,205. An account has just been received by the officers of the American Bible soclety of the presentation to the dowager empress of China at the recent celebration of her 60th birth- day, of a magnificent and costly copy of the New Testament, from 10,000 Christian women of the Flowery kingdom. The book is in- closed In a solid silver casket, which rosts in a teakwood case. The cost of the book and casket is said to be $1,200. Engljsh Congregationalists owned 4,692 places of worship in England and Wales in 1894, with accommodations for 1,613,722 per- sons, but with only 2804 ministers. In Scotland they had ninety-nine churches, with 112 ministers, and in Ireland only twenty- seven churches, but a minister for every church. In London alone there are 375 Congregational churches, seating 220,000 peo- ple. Wesleyan Methodists number 2,337 ministers and 493,504 members in Great Britain and Ireland. Including colonies and heathen lands the number subject to the British conference is 702,509, The Primi- tive Methodists have 1,115 ministers and 195, 750 members, and the smaller sects of the church 1,283 ministers and 174,206 members. The Rev. Yung Kiung Yen, a native Chinese clergyman, of the Episcopal church, preached in St. Peter's Episcopal church, Germantown, Pa., recently. He was born in Shanghai in 1839, and came to this city to prepare for the ministry. Afterward he went to Kenyon Collega Gambler, from which he was graduated in 1861. In 1864 he became a candidate for Holy Orders under Bishop Boone, and was ordained by Bishop Williams in 1867. In 1889 he was appointed rector of the Church of Our Saviour Hong-Kew, Shanghal, of which he still has charge, as well as of the Episcopal chureh in the town of Ying-Zang-Kong, the two churches having eighty-four regular com- municants. He is the senior priest of the Church in China. S Washington's Odd Street Names. In examining the directory one cannot help but notice the confusion of names of streets, alleys and courts, says the Washington Post For instance, there are four Pleasant alleys in Washington, two Pleasant streets, apd Pleasant Plains thrown in. There are six Prospect streets, hills, alleys and courts in varicus parts of the town, and Prospect hills are as numerous out in the District as Fair- view school houses are out in Indiana. Wash- Ington has six Washington highways, incjud- log the alleys of that name, Coming down to alleys alone, there s a simplicity about the names of them that is certatnly refreshing. While the people of Washington are quarreling as to whether the pame of one of its streets is Stoughton or Staughton, they bave allowed sowe of the alleys to be named as follows: Plgsfoot alley, Cab bage alley,. Louse alley, Zigzag alley, Truck allley, Pig alley, two of them, Cow alley, Fighting siley, Blood alley, Tincup alley, and 50 0B i | PACK:D LIKE SARDINES 1895. 00 PEOPLE (% THE ACRE The American Mot Oity lis the Most Orowded E.rth, IN A BOX Water on Every Side, Yot Uncleanliness is the Rule—Startljag Investigations ot the New York Tenement Houso Committee, (Copyrighted, 1895, by 8 8, McClure, Limited.) Four-fifths of the people of New York City live in tenement housss, and suffer more or less from the evils of the tenement house system. How large a number this is is better shown by giving figures. New York's population now: amounts in round numbers to 2,000,000, This glves a tenement house population of 1,600,000—larger than the total population of any cther city in the United States, Chlcago's population is 1,09 8§50; Philadelphia, 1,046,964; Brocklyn, 853 945; 451,770; Boston, 448.477; Bal- timore San Francisco, 298,997; Cin- cinnati, eveland, Buffalo, Orleans, 214, Pittsburg, i Washington, 230,392; Detroit Milwaukee, 204,468, Thus New York has several hundred thousand more people living in her tenements than live in the entire city of Chicago. Her tenement dwellers outnum- ber the total population of St. Louls, Boston and Baltimore, three to one; and of San Franclsco, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Buffalo, New Or Pittsburg, Washington, Detroit and Milwaukze, respectively, by a great deal more than five to one. Therefore, the prob- lem of their proper government and the proper management of their homes becomes one of the most saricus in American muhici- pal life. THE TENEMENT HOUSE COMMITTEE. This population in New York inhabits, in round numbers, 39,000 tenement hous A tenement house in the eyes of the law is a building containing living apartments for three or more families, Of cours> under this heading many high class apartment and flat houses are included, but they do not num- ber in all more than 3,000. This leaves a total of 36,000 buildings which came directly under the jurisdiction of the tenement house committee appointed last fall by Gover: Flower at the request of the New York pre and now just dissolved. This committee was headed by Richard Watzon Gilder, editor of the Century magazine, poet and sociologist Its report is a voluminous document and c ers greater ground than was ever befor covered by a similar investigation, either in America or abroad. Its inspectors looked expertly into the condition ting in more than 9,000 hcuses, making a detailed report cn each separate family, in about 2,500 tene ments. The buildings thems:lves were ma carefully examined and their faults of con- struction and mainténance as shown by this report will form an examplo of incalculable worth to every city on the continent. & necrs and sanitationists, architects and phy cians studiad every phase of the tenement house building as it exists today, werked out the probable future of the temements if the present system is continued, and, wha more to the purpose, devisad a new system to be followed in the future by which nihny existing evils will be done away with. STARTLING _CONDITION. A condition of startllng import which this committee has discovered, but concerning which it has but little to say, lies in the presence among the tenements of immoral women. During the last year and a half the police raids inspired by Dr. Parkhurst have closed most of the resorts hitherto devoted exclusively to the-residence of that class. But these people’ have not been driven from the city. They Wave been scattered among the flats and tenement house. Where in the past they were concentrated in groups under single roofs, which sheltered no one not of their kind, they now occupy by ones and twos apartments in the great tenement buildings, of which they must to some extent become a part of the routine daily life. Thus, while in the past they separated them- selves as far as might be from those who did not seek their society, today they are forced by the very powers supposed to regulate their doings, into contact with not only hundreds of respectable people who have no desire to meet them, but with unnumbered thousands of ignorant and impressionable children upon whose minds the comparative luxury that comes from evil lives cannot well fail to have dangerous effect. This con- dition opens . again one of the vastest problems with which civilization has to deal, and it is not surprising that the committee, hampered by lack of time, confined itself to the statement of the condition. It is true, however, that the results of this investigation show all too plainly that serious thought and aotive effort must be dirceted along this ne. Another amazing discovery which this com- mittee made concerns the lack of breathing spots in the metropolis. New York has been supposed to be fairly well supplied with parks. The report of the committeo shows, however, that in a district of the cast side a population as numerous as the total popula- tion of San Francisco is entirely without park accommodations. It is scarcely probable that this is true of any other city where mcdern ideas and progressive improvements prevail. Study of the school system brought out extraordinary things. In the first place it re- vealed the gratifying fact that the problem of child labor in sweat shops and factories has been practically solved in New York City, and investigation carried on by the sociologi- cal department of Columbia college under the harge of Prof. Giddings shows that the pro- portion of children of school age at work in factories and other places is almost Infinites- simal. The number of children below the school age at work for recognized employers Is not worth noticing. This is most gratify- ing. Another side of the story, however, was told by Dr. Annie S. Danfel, whd is the' tene- ment house visiting' doctor ‘of the New York infirmary for women and children. Her study has been largely devoted to the employment of women and children in tenement house sweat shops. She found in ons year fifty-six children under 13 years of age working in sweat shops among the families which she visited {n‘her regular line of work as a phy- siclan. The youngest of these was only 8 yoars old. It was busy covering with silk a bead ornament for women's dresses, which its mother finished and the child worked daily as many hours as the mother worked, Said Dr. Danfel: “It ds not uncommon for chil- dren of 4 and 5 years to be found hard at work pulling ouy the basting threads and helping to sew the buttons on pantaloons which their mothers jare finishing. I also found two children of 3 years of age who vosed during the day.as models for artists, and at night did mest of the housework. Many of the evils.of the sweating system are connected with the spread of contagious dis- case. In one plaee where coats are made 1 attended children with the measles, There were in the room two sewing machines and a table for pressing. Phe children were lying il on a lounge and were covered with the unfinished clothing on which the family was at work. Besides the family other operators were in the room: and they slept there at night on shelves hung from the walls. It is extremely difficult to trace contagious disease communicated by clothing made in infected houses, but I have been able to follow one case with absolute certainty. In that shop children were Il with scarlet fever and were covered with the uneovered clothes. A woman took a pair of trousers to work on and the children in three familles—her own and two others in the house where she lived—were attacked with the disease. PROPOSED PUBLIC BATHS Another immense advance likely to grow out of this committee's work will be the In- troduction of public baths into the tenement districts of New York. 1In many European cities the public baths have had really ex: traordinary effects upon the cleanliness of the people. In Glasgow and Edinburgh the ad- vance has been noted. In the former city public laundries are operated in connection with the baths and there are six of them constructed at a cost of $150,000 each, The bulldings hold first baths for men and women large swimming tanks for adults, aceommoda- tlons for children of both sexes and the laun- dries, and thus they have become almost _self-supporting, They are crowded at all eans avallable times by the poorest people in these cities, and have literally worked a revolution in the personal sanitary condition of the residents. How nécessary some plan of this sort is in New York Is Indicated by the testimony of Dr. Jane I. Robbins, a member of the College settlement. The College sot- tlement opened two small bath rooms and oftered them to the women of the neighbor- hood. They came in such numbers when the price was 5 cents a bath that the settle. ment was obliged to put the price up to 10 cents. In one day with these two bath rooms, more than fifty baths were sold. One or two other enterprises of this fort have been started In New York, but no important action has been taken by the municipality In urging the importance of the establishment of public baths, Dr. Robbins said: “It may as well be distinctly understood that the men and boys living in crowded tenements do not, as a rule, take baths during the winter. The children are put into the tubs and some- times washed. The men wash their faces and hands. 1 asked a 13-year-old boy if the people dld not get dirty. He sald of course they did. Another boy of superior family told me that two baths in the course of the winter would do for him. Many of these children are taught cleanliness in their schools and they would be glad to avail them- selves of public baths. The people in the tenements can be readily taught the neces sity and comfort of keeping clean neglect to bathe often changes a small Into a suppurating sore.”” The tenement house committee will recommend the estab lishment of public baths by the city and it would be well if every American municipality Qid_likewise before its condition grew to be as bad as that now existing in New York A CONFUSION OF NATIONALITIES. Vastly more striking than the statistics on overcrowding which I gave at the beginning of this article are the detalled instances as set forth by the committee's examiners and the witnesses at its public hearings. New York's problem is vastly complicated by *the heterogencous nativity of its population. There is scarcely any nationality which Is ot represented among the inhabitants of New York's tenements, and it took sixteen hades and colors to indicate in a genc way the original nationality of the city's varlous districts on the map which the com- COURT IN. THE ITALIAN QUARTER. mitlec has prepared. The residents of the 5,000 worst houses reported by the com- mittee's examiners range from 30,000 Ger- mans down to 310 Chinese and four American Indians, covering almost every intermediate nationality. In framing legislation which will regulate the lives of all these people it be- comes necessary to consider all their national characteristics. It must be remembered that the Irishman will drink whisky and shirk his work when he is drunk, that the German will stupefy himself with beer, but that on the other hand-ho is -a good husband and his wife is the best of mothers; that the Italian will run his death rate up to the highest in the city by devouring decayed fruit and vegetables, and that he will drink hard and that the drink_will kill him where it will only weaken another man; that the Jew will live in.untold squalor ‘and that because of the low wages which he receives he will crowd his home with lodgers, no matter how tiny it may be or how many members there may be in his immediate family, but that because of his marvellous physical vitality, his observance of the Mosale law in the preparation and selection of his food and his disinclination toward disipation in any.way, his death rate will be the lowest in New York. All these things have their influences and all must be considered. The peculiaritics of the Irish quarter are mad drunkenness and wife beating; the pecullarities of the Italian quarter are gambling, drunkenness, deadly fights with knives and child labor; the peculiarities of the negro quarter are petty gambling, either extreme flth or extreme cleanliness, the lowest forms of debauchery where debauchery exists at all, prompt pay- ment of rent, Intermittent, employment and invariable good nature; the peculiaritics of the German quarter are moderate cleanliness, steady drinking rather than drunkenness, the best family life that can exist in the (ene- ment, a low average of general intelligence (due " doubtless to the influence of beer), thrift, regular employment and great fellow feeling; the peculiarities of the Jewish quarter are squalid rooms and clean food, svperhuman work, good health, high morals, oyercrowding, intermittent employment, sweat shops and the conditions growing therefrom, complete sobriety and a_ general abstinence even from the tobacco habit, rigid fidelity of husband to wife and wife to husband, of children to parents and parents to ¢ licren, general submission to outrageous oppressions by landiords or whoever has the mind to make them, a high average of intelligence with ambition such as Is not found else- where in New York, a desperate desire for education and a tendency to slyly violate the sanitary code in small ways for no other pose than the satisfaction of lLaving ken the law. The districts inhabited by native Americans in New York are so small as to scarcely deserve comment by them- selves. An article in the last issue of the Forum described the anatomy of a tenement street and remarked cleverly that there was a strong analogy Letween tenement stroets and country villages. This is particularly true of those streets on the west side, whose low buildings and quaint old rooms are filled principally with native Americans. The greatest evil of the tenement districts of New York—and it would be well for all other citles to note this fact now—is the presence of tenement houses only twenty-five feet wide, but puilt for occupation by four fomilies or more on each flcor. The present committee has not in any place forbid this, although the sentiments are clear upon the nt, but it has so hedged the construction tenement houses around about with wise restrictions that it will be practically im- possible in the future. The gaining of this point Is the most important work which this committes bas done or could do. DWARD MARSHALL. Washington Star: ‘S0 you dou't like this country?" sald the native of America. Not a bit," replied the distingulshed visitor from abroad. “You're down on the aren't you?" ‘Teetotally " “Well," the native replied after a pause during which the melancholy clearel from Lis brow, ‘we can be happy, mevertheless Everybody concerned can give thanks that you don't have to live here.” Lo Uve Doro. © The Salvation army publishes iwenty- elght War Crys, printéd in fourteen different languages, whose united circulation ia 15,000, 000 copies a year. way we run things NEBRASKA IRRIGATION LAWS Practical Suggestions in the Interest of the Drouth Section, WYOMING LAWS REFLECT EXPIRIENCE “Cinch" Contracts and Other Frau Leglslators to Squeleh—flond Schemes Also Condemned—A Timely Communication. Hon. T. A, Fort of North Platte, who has made the subject of irrigation a scientific recently addressed the following letter to Captain Willlam H. 1jams of this city Mr. Fort “In response to your inquiry what I believe would be the best and most practical law for Nebraska to adopt for the purpose of aiding, encouraging and promot ing the cause of irrigatlon in our state, 1 will say, first, for the general law we should follow the laws adopted by Wyoming. When that territory first created and accepted a code of laws her people were compelied to make certain experiments, Nebraska been compelled to do the same. Wyom g for an irrigation law adopted as a whole the code of her neighbor Colorado, As time went on the people of Wyoming dis covered many defects in the Colorado law One peculiarity connected with it was that if an irrigation case ever went into the courts it was sure to remain there for a number of yewrs, Colorado had also adopted the Cail fornia system of water measurement This was a prolific cause of trouble and misunder standing, as it would be simply impossible to prepare or draft a perfect law to mect all s that might arise and as conditions that call for a law change rapidly In western America the people must also keep these laws in harmony with their own movements and conditions. The people of Wyoming, finding that there should be a change made in thelr irrigation law, and having already tried the law of an older state, appointed a commis- sion of experts to visit the different states and territories and inquire into and examine the workings of thelr respective laws bearing on this question. On the return of the commission they prepared a new law, and by its enact- ment a greater portion of the old or Colo rado law was repealed. As the question of irrigation food supply of a people, and an irrigation o, If detained too long in court, would quently put this food supply in danger, they engrafted a section in the new law whereby an irrigation case could on m tion take precedence over and above all other cases on the docket, so that judges could legally advance an irrigation case over all others. OUR PRESENT LAW. Our present Nebraska law is very brief and terse, and has scme very good pints, but the state, the people, and the conditions have changed so rapidly &ince it was enacted that it has been outgrown, and a law applicable to our present condition is now required With the majority of the states and terr torfes to the west, their laws are made to conform almost solely t arid countrics, but Nebraska is not an arid state. We have {hree divisions in the length of our territory that reach back frem the commencement of our ! line corner in Nobar, in Rich county, to the edge of the Rocky mcuntains in Wyoming, a distance of 456 miles, giving us three bells <f territory to be divided in relation to its atmospheric conditions into humid, with the twenty-eight to thirty-six inches of rainfall annually, thence with the semi-arid belt that includes thé great pro- portion of our state, that extends from the 97th meridian at Schuyler to the 103d at Sidney, Neb., where the average rainfall does not exceed fourteen inches per annum. On a mean average temperature west cf Sidne; we have arid Nebraska. Our present law was made, or created, solely in the interest of the arid section and to encourage investment by corporations in frrigation enterprises. But now that the people have taken up'this ques- tion themselves, and our own people, espe- cially, and our farmers desire to add to the present value of their lands an artificial water supply, a new law is required that will directly benefit and encourage the farmers themselves in the construction of their own canals. At the North Platte irrigation convention in December, 1893, the question was asked where are we going to secure the capital to construct these canals. Here in Lincoln county our people have answered that ques- tion themselves. They e discovered that in spite of crop failurcs and disadvantages of various kinds they have had the capital in themselves, and as canals in Nebraska are from 80 to'90 per cent labor, they have now under construction over 250 miles of canals that have noil to date called in a dollar of outsido capital. PROPER LAW FOR NEBRASKA. What we require in Nebraska fs a law somewhat similar to the Wright district law of Californfa. This will enable the acutal owners <f the land that will be irrigated ar the actual users of the water to form their own companies, and build, own, manage and control their own water supply. The Wright act Is in itself a right act to the people, and it will be of an Immense advantage to Ne- braska. It will prevent the system of water very or peonage from being carried on in Nebraska, that tends to make the people who are dependent on great foreign water com- panies for their water, with which they in- sure themselves crops: we .want no slavery in Nebraska. The Wright act will also tend to prevent the carrying on of the cut throat water contract business. 1 refer to contracts being made with the persons who are en- tirely ignorant of farming, in relation to the artificial water supply that is obtained by fr- rigation. These o niracts are very nicely worded, but they are 5o devised that the pur: chaser 'of land agrees to take all the risk, bear about all the expenses, and the company all the pay; if the farmer fails to make his paymenis,” even though the company s t blame, through negligence or intent, fails to furnish water, or the farmer has failed through some natural unavoidable cause to raise a crop and is thereby in want cf funds to make the payment, the corporation can step in after he as broken up the land, built himself a house, constructed his laterals and nade himself a home that has an actual in- trinsic value, and eject him from his land. This practice has become common in some sections where great companies, who are al ways demanding their pound of flesh, are operating works, I make this extract from a circular sent out by the Rhone Fruit Land company of Colo- rado, who have probably been compelled to defend themselves in advance, owing to the frequency of this class of legal thievery that has been carried on there: “NO GOLD CLAUSE.” ““There will be no gold clause in our notes, neither will there be any ‘eclnch’ notes or ‘cineh’ mortgages, but every man will be glven a fair chance to pay his balance out of the products of his land. Our notes and mortgages will not be negotiated east, hence a purchaser can pay off his indebtedness or pay any amount thergon at any time," As this business of cinch notes and cinch mortgages has only, so far as I can learn, just started in our state, our leglslature will be wise if they at once, where it refers to irrigation or any other business, sit down hard on that class of individuals who may attempt anything of this kind. A clause in our irrigation law to that effect would greatly aid the farmer who is ignorant of how to apply or to secure water until he learns how to profitably manage an irrigation farm. The Wyoming law, combined with the Wright act of California, is what our state requires, as a wise and beneficial law, and badly, to pre vent frauds and rascally schemes. From a prominent citizen of our state I recelved in a letter the following “The unfortunate condition of our state opens a wide field for speculative projects of irrigation. 1 earnestly hope that none such will be enacted into law by our present legis- lature, and that all acts of that character now in force may be repealed “Give the bona fide resident and land owner, in conjunction with his neighbors, every facility to own and control his means of irrigation. 1If this is done the development of the west will be established on a sound and independent basis and will surpass the expectations of the most intense enthusiast In connection with the excitement created over discussion of this irrigation question there has already been many frauds perpe trated and have asked the peoj build them canals, the relative to has involves the to vote bonds to and the farmer to pay them for the water after they have furnished them the momey to supply the same. In sorme cases the people have been fools enough fo do %o, and in some cases the bonds voted have been more than enough to bufld the canals and have fur- nished a handsome bonus to the projectors and_owners 1 have two cases in mind. One where $10,- 000 was voted to build a canal, and another where $24,000 was voted. The canal where the $10,000 was voted 1 think can be dupli- cated for $7,000; where the $24,000 was voted, it 1 am informed rightly, can be buflt for $12,000. T have been informed that the dry Ogalalla canal, on which $35,000 bonds were voted, can be duplicated for $8,000 easily at the present time, even less, It is possible, To show the mode and intent of some of these companies I clip the following from the editorial column of the Orange Judd Farmer mber 8, 1804 have been invited to go Into an irrl« gation scheme in southern California, which 18 to cost $2,000,000, but is to be capitalized at twice that sum, while water rights at $20 per acre are to be issued to the tune of $8,000,000. Thus the poor settlers are to pay for thelr water a fum that will yield a big revenue on six times the actual Invest- ment. 1t was reprosented that our share in the profits would be $400,000, simply for booming the scheme. Wo are urged to join a large party of agricultural editors who start next week to view the site of this fabu- lous wealth. Yet we decline,’ Canals can be constructed in Nebraska at a cost of from $1 to $2 per acre per the irei- gating capacity of the canal; they can bo maintained at a cost to the users of the water of from 15 to 25 oents per acre annu- ally, the further west in the state the greater proportionate cost Owing to the present law ties from crossing the lands vided there is a canal already person who desi to build a canal to water his own nd cannot do so without the eon- €ont of the owner or owners of the original canal, A plan adopted b the company in selling their the water for a term of y year. After so many been paid the land owns a perpetual canal. In_ some of this form of contract is made obligatory or the canal is heavily taxed as a forfelt to compel the issuing of such contracts. There should be laws that will prevent fraudulent speculation, for somebody will lose heavily 1t they ae not prevented by legislation. And Nebraska's good name will be fnjured as well as her credit. In an arid county the control of the water carries with it the control of the land. In a semi-arid cr a humid country this Is not the case, if canals are built with the idea that there is profit to be de- rived from them by speculators, and about canal is finished there ensues a ars similar to (he cycle between nd 1889, some one will be abused and ridiculed for cutting up so much good Ne- land with fool canals. Whereas, it the canal can be attached to the land, and the farmers sccure water at cost, our state will have entered a new era that will cause her to excel all her sis'er agricultural state Failures, drouths and losses will be unknown, and the words prosperity, success, comfort and reliability of her crops’ return year by year will be synonymous with the word Ne braska. Let us all work for this era as good and loyal Nebraskans. . A. FORT. g The Millard Courier has changed hands aad is now owned and edited by Crane & Martin, who also publish three other papers in Douglas county. They know how to run a neat paper. preventing par- of others pro- nstructed, a old North Platte water 1 to rent ars at o much a annual rentals have that pays the rer water right in th the western states SRS A company has been formed for the pur- pose of prospecting for coal in Cass county. A number of leases have been sccured and active operations will shortly be begun. Mme. M. YALE DISCOVERER OF sior Hair Tonic, Falling Hair BALD HEADS COVERED, For the first time in the history of the world a discovery Is made that restores & hout dye. Mme. plic public_and olor back on the market ¢ Karantees 1 will restore the natural o matlor how long it has boen curc Is permanent in_every way. falling hair in rom 24 hou Week. | IU restores tne nalr on bald lieads and creates luxurlnt growth, Tt 8 a (oed cure for Caitment. of the hair Ip. The whole world bows down to Mme. iscovery and to her grent skill us licinist, which has never been equaled b or woman Sxcelsior Ha Sway ,over the Which the hair cure, " tieware of ottle i labe e “Tonir. A Without 1y 0. S0ld by all druggists. Mafl orders promptly filled by MME. M. YALE, Chicago. BREAKFAST — SUPPER. EPPS'S GRATEFUL-COMFORTING. COCOA BOILING WATER OR MILK, hol There are to, that it See tha ‘5 Exoe Price §1 per GURES QUICKER THAN ANY OTHER REMEDY, Tarrant's of € Debs and Capaibn is a saf cortain and quick cure {of gororrhea and gloot and 13 an old-tried remedy for all ases of the urinar ning in b form the of 1y netion (¢ ian any ake It 112 KNOW . REMI vent fruud, y package has a red strip across the face of Inbel, with the signature of Tarrant & Co., N. Y., upon it. FRICE, §1.00. Sold by all Arugghi WHO IS HE! He s one of the most skiliful of Chinese doce tors, bocause of his knowledge and Having been el in the medical colle China understai imn action of over 5,000 remedies. With fours teen years of practice and over ‘four years of that fme In Omaha has given hm u reputation bicked thousands of testi= uring BYERY Parties have gone out over the state | 4b parties asking for the |a two 2 (SATB®" CHARACTER of disea whether CHRONIC OR OTHERWISE. Dr. Wo guarant money will L stamp for book and question blanks. bonds Lo own, manage and coatrol the cavals | Dr.