Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, November 14, 1909, Page 20

Furnished BEE: NOVEMBER 14, 1909. These cards free Business Office THE OMAHA DAILY BEE Rooms FOR RENT As advertised in The Omaha Bee. Board and Rooms As advertised in The Omeaha Bee. No cards will be given to children Gossip About NCLE JOE CANNON ran across the son of an old friend In Bast St. Louls, just before starting on the river trip—in fact the son of & man who gave him a position sixty years ago. The speaker, with Vice President Sher- man, Governor Deneen and Mayor Cook, were on a rapid fire auto trip through the stock yards, when they met C. C. Nesbit, an inspector of welghts and measures. Nesbit hiked for the automobile and grasped Cannon by the hand, much to the astonishment of the other members of his party. “I'm C. C. Nesbit, son of old ‘Slim’ Nes- bit,"” he told the speaker. *‘You remember my father.” Uncle Joe's clgar lifted a few degrees and he smiled. “You're d—— right I do," $hls time almost chuckling. sixty years ago,” he related, as he turned to his companions, “old ‘Siim' Nesbit was keeping a store in Tuscola. One day, bare- foot and ragged, I dropped In to see him and asked for a job. ‘' ‘Sure,’ says old ‘Shim.' “l was poorer than h taloly needed the money Several years ago C. Nesbit wrote to Uncle Joe on behalf of a young woman in Warsaw, Ky., who wanted a job. He sald he was the son of ‘Slim’' Nesbit, and the young woman got her job by return mail he replied, “Why, about and I cer- i <illas The Cardimal and the Newales. The keen interest in small atfairs of life and kindly sympathy for those in humble walks of life by Cardinal Gibbons, was shown by an incident which oocurred dur- ing his usual stroll in Baltimore, Two newsboys were engaged in & rough- and-tumble fight near the cardinal's home. The lttle pugllists formed the center of a group of men and boys, as well as many ladles who were shopping. Many were the exclimations of pity and reproach uttered by those in the crowd. but e one seemed inciined to interferc. The cardinal's attention was arrested by the disturbance, and taking in the situa- Noted People gument. The urchin respectrully pulled off his ragged cap. As he did so the car- dinal sald in kindly tones: “My son, wait untll you have grown to be a man before you induige in manly sports. Next minute the boys were scampering down the street in opposite directions. The cardinal continued his stroll, smiling over his success as peacemak: My, Marstmas's Ambadend “Mr. Harriman, for all his wealth, was said & New York broker. “Yeot he thought a lot of money. He used to tell, with a good deal of sympathy, a story about the Russian ambassador to the court of Louis XIV. Louls XIV, playing cards at Versailles, dropped a franc on the floor and stooped to look for it. Then Mr. Harriman's Ru: sian ambassador, who was very rich, sald with a scornful laugh: “‘Let me assist your majesty.’ “And he took out a 1000-franc note, lighted it, and held it near the ground for a torch.” e Aty Mr. Pulitser’s Editorials, Atloat or ashore, relates a writer in the American Magazine, Joseph Pulitzer, pub- lisher of the New York World, Is sur- Tound by & troop of readers and secre- taries, and when the impulse to do & thing comes upon him his power of endurance breaks the youngest and strongest of them. Take him at sea, where most of his time has been spent of late, it is an ordinary oc- currence for him to rout out his personul staff at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning to aid him in the preparation of an article. To think with him is to uet. Let it be some political fight or prineiple to which he has dedicated the World, and though he may be on the other side of the earth he s able to visualize It and live with the paper and those In charge of it through every step of success or defeat. He does not compose with facility; some of those whole-page editorials in the Werld, bearing the signature ‘“Josepi Pulitzer,” which became so familiar during the Roossvelt administration and in the forming of the last Bryan campaign, rep- Tesanted weeks and weeks of unrelenting labor. ‘They meant the driving to distrac- tion of those upon whom he is compelled to depend to put his thoughts on paper; they meant & crying for “facts, facts,” and “more facts” which it was verleved would never cease; they meant the working over of draft after draft of the editorial in preparation; they meant countless finished articles thrown away and a beginning all over again until the ear of the blind man was satistied. Carpenter’s Letter (Continued from Page Two.) that the opium habit can be cured. Every- where pills to take away the craving are s0ld, and, in most of the great cities, hos- pitals and refuges have been established Where the slaves of the drug go to break off the habit. In Foochow there are six such hospitals, and four of these report that they have already cured 3,269 persons. Such institutions have been established at Peking, Nanking, Tientsin, Wuchang, Can- ton and in many other places. Foreign doctors have alsa come in, and profess to be able to cure the opium habit. One of these who 1s well recommended Is an American, Mr. C. B. Towne. He professes to be able to cure any one of the oplum habit in three days. He established hos- pitals at Tientsin and Shanghal. He has started one at Pqo Ting Fu, where it i3 sald that one hundred patients came to him during the first month and were cured. Then the number of applications myster- fously decreased, and Mr. Town found that this cama from a report to the effect that, although the cure was sucocessful, it al- ways killed the patient within 100 days thereafter. This story was false, but it almost broke up the hospital, Mr. Town's institution at Tientsin was established at the expense of the viceroy, and officials who were cured received a certificate certifylng that fact m Versus Mo One of the great dangers in the use of many of the antl-opium remedles is that they contain the drug in some other form The government has had to extend Its laws to morphine, and in one of the recent edicts the importation of morphia and of hypo- dermic syringes is prohibited and their sale is limited to practicing physicians. The morphine habit has long been prev- alent in many parts of the Chinese em- pire, and & vast amount of morphine pills are still consumed. In certaln cities along the Yangtseklang the hypodermic injecting of morphine is common. They have pro- fessional peddlers who go about with hypo- dermic syringes up their sleeves and give injections at the rate of about I cents aplece. Such men are to be found o the teahouses, and are ready to give one a jab In the arm upon asking. In the past it was customary for the members of & party to stand up In a row and hold out thelr arms with the sleeves rolled up to their shoulders. The most common place for the injection was about the biceps, but many of the oplum flends were tattooed from their necks to their wrists, and also on other parts-of their bodles. The morphine injectors make thelr own solutions, and, as they use dirty water, the danger of their communicating diseases is great The government s dolng all it can to abolish these morphine practices. It has stringent laws against them, but they are still secretly carried on in most of the cities. In the meantime, I understand that the English and Germans have been flooding China with cheap hypodermic syringes since the present crusade began, and that the Chinese imperial customs board has now issued regulations prohibt- ing their importation, except by the forelgn medical practioners and forelgn Aruggists. Hereaftor all morphla and syringes landed without a special permit from the customs will be confiscated. As to Raising Oplum, The greater part of the oplum used in China is raised at home. That imported from Indla amounts to millions of dollars a year, but a far greater quantity Is grown upon Chinese soll. Poppy pianta- tions are cultivated as far north as Man- churla, and there are provinces in south- ern and western China where opium is one of the principal crops. The reducing of the areas of cultivation is causing & conelderable loss to the farmers. The gov- ernment realizes this, but, nevertheless, it insists that the laws be enforced. Ac- cording to them, no ground can be planted to popples, and the old flelds must be cut down one-tenth of their original size every year In some provinces the viceroys have or- dered the immediate stoppage of all culti- vation of oplum, and in others they have remitted the taxes for five or ten years upon oplum lands which have been turned over to other crops. In Yunnan the sol- diers have been directed to dig up the poppy fields, and the viceroy of Nanking recently issued an order that his farmers must destroy thelr oplum seeds, and that such as had planted them should dig their fields over and put in something else. All the oplum ralsing lands have been registered and the government at Peking 15 keeping & close watch over the amount ocultivated. The prince regent has offered medals and rewards to those who have changed their crops from the poppy to grains, and they are to be freed from na- tional taxes for a fixed perfod. In short, there is no doubt about the earnest and active efforts of the officlals and of a large part of the people to do away with the oplum habit. Many are re- solved that it must be cut out of China at any cost, and the government is willing to submit to the emormous loss of revenus which it entalls, for the good of the people. S Millions of Oplum Smokers. On the other hand, It is a question whether the oplum evil Is anything like so great as is generally supposed. It has beon stated that more than 100,000,000 of the Chinese are oplum users. Some will tell you that the whole race is drugged and that all the men, women and children use opium dafly. This is untrue on its face. I doubt whether the oplum habit Is as prevalent among the Chinese as the whisky and beer drinking habit is among the English, Germans or Americans. In the first place, it is costly, and the bulk of the Chinese are poor. Agaln, the amount of oplum raised in China is pretty well known, and we have accurate statis- tics of all that is imported. Foreigners estimate the total annual consumption at something llke 40,000,000 pounds. If this were divided oqually among the people it would equal only one ounce per year per head. Now the average confirmed smoker takes about three mace a day, or ninety mace in one month. Ten mace make an ounce, and this would equal nine ounces a month, or nine pounds a year. Dividing the 40,000,000 pounds by nine gives a quotient of less than four and one-half millions, the total number of confirmed smokers required to consume all the opium raised in China. In other words, if one-tenth of the popula- tion were habitual oplum smokers they would consume all the oplum which China now has. If the estimate is doubled the number would be less than 10,000,000, Dr. George Morrison of the London Times, who Is of our most careful writers on things Chinese and who knows the country better than any Chinese I am acquainted with, estimates the consumers at less than 8,000,000 one Whisky Versus Oplum. In fact, opium is consumed here about as much as spirituous lquors are in Eng- land and the United States. Both habits are a mighty evil, and both cause & vast deal of misery; but to say that every man, woman and ohild in China is an oplum tiend is as false on its face as it would be to allege that every man, woman and child in England and America is addicted to drunkenness. In closing this letter 1 would say that it will be a long time before the hopes of the Chinese statesmen and patriots can come to fruition. The work of repression 1 going on rapidly, but opium is still smoked largely in secret and an enormous amount of underhand selling and smug- gling fs done. These people aré just as human as we are and the same conditions prevail as would obtain in the United States were we to try to abolish the drink habit within as short a time as the Chinese have alloted to the wiping out of this ter- rible drug. Some of the officlals are hypo- crites, others are openly disobeying the law, while others, bound In the Laccoon grip of the oplum, are secretly smoking the drug or are Injecting morphine into thetr persons behind their closed doors. The movement for the most part is earnest and honest, and it has already accomplished & vast deal of good. FRANK G. CARPED Thayer County (Continued from Page Three.) abundant living water for the extensive st farms located on its banks, The native timber along this creek is especlally worthy of ‘notice, bearing walnut and oak, maple and box elder that would do credit to eastern forests. One of the distinctive features of this place is a very fine magnesia limestone, which is extensively quarried here and shipped to points east and west. It ad- mits of very fine polish and gives the ap- pearan of brown marble. It makes a fine bullding stone. It should be remembered that over half of the trade of this place comes from the state of Kansas, from which they are only distant one half mile, Thayer county, though not the largest in the state, Is one of the most productive. Last year this county sold and shipped out 12,000 head of beef cattle and 61,000 head of fat hogs. Also 1,155,000 bushels of co 1,185,000 bushels of wheat and 136,000 bushels of oats. Besides this the flouring mills shipped out 400,00 pounds of flour and 210,000 pounds of mill feed. The county has 261,000 acres In farms and 191,000 acres under cultivation on which they produced this year, 96,000 acres of corn, 47,000 acres of wheat and 26,000 acres of oats. The dairy and poultry industry trees, 1s also assuming large proportions. Las year the farmers sold and shipped out 196,000 pounds of butter and 889,000 gallons of cream, together with 150,00 dogens of eggs and 490,000 pounds of dressed poultry, Thayer county, with & few others, has & history somewhat different from most of the countles of the state, that may ba designated as the Great Trall period Nearly two and one-half decades before it became & county, it was the great high- way along which those ambitious throngs of emigrants moved to the land beyond the great Rockies. This trall from the Mis- sourl river to the Rocky mountains and boyond, was white with the sails of the “ships of the desert,” all moving toward the setting sun. Horace Greeley passed over this route in 1550. In the same year the Pony Ex- press was established along this line from St. Joseph, Mo., to Sacramento, Cak The trip from St. Joseph to Sacramento, a distance of about 2000 miles, was made in eight days. It is supposed that & man named Chris- tlan Luth, a German, was the first sets tler. He located near the governmeng road. He was ridiculed by the pligrims over the road, for attempting.to farm om the great American desert. Joseph Walker and James Reed, from Fort Kearny, in 1869, located on the Little Blue near the east line of the county. In the same year, Isaac Alexander settied on Blg Sandy. He brought with him, from Kansas, & portable gristmill. In g winter of 1860-61, the few settlers wen shut In by & snow blockade, till thelr stock of provisions was nearly exhausted. For- tunately they had raised & crop of corn and buckwheat, which they brought to the little mill, and by hard work, ground out by hand, their immediate salvation with that memorable mill, Probably the first permanent settlers in Thayer county, were George Welsel, John, Charles and Willlam Nightengale, who lo- cated In the vicinity of Alexandria in 1538, In July, 1869, the first postoffice in the county was established at the dugout of €. J. Rhodes, on the west side of the Blue. The Salt Lake express, established in 1558, carried the first mall across these desolate prairies. The stations were fifty miles apart. The part of the route through Thayer county, was between Big Sandy, on the east, to Pawnc. Ranch on the west. In 159, when Pikes Peak rush had reached its highest point, this route was & vast caravan of gold seeke: arn ‘mi- grants, the latter secking a place to ab- lish a home, *he former thirsty with the ambition for gold, [N