The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 27, 1898, Page 21

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1898. e — e .l e —— CAL (e Special to The Sunday Call A-HINGTON, Nov. 17.—An ect that is able to do oue dred million dollars’ worth of damage to the farmers of the United States r may well be regarded in a single yes as the most dangerous and destructive of the many foes against which the ag- are obliged his is the highest famous chinch been such a srrow in Missouri. Kansas and the Middle West. surprising that the Gov- uld be making a serious the creature in question, or publication on the ould be now in course of pre- letter is from the pen of Webster, the Known en- nd will be hed short- ultura. that the ence s pre ravages North Caro- m 1845 to 1850 and portions of In- .. The loss which is in ARIZONA was estimated at $60,000,000, the heav- iest losses occurr Missouri and Kansas. estimated loss in the thirt. 1850 to 1887, the enormo 000,000. nother chinch - bug plague reached its maximum severity in 1896. Careful estimates of the loss during tne ,000,000, or 34 10 ja5t seven y would in all probabil- an and child Living iy gwell the amount to fully $330,000,- earlier outbreaks. oGy for the period from 1850 to 1898. n of smaller mONey Dyring the outbreak in Ohio at least yre disastrous, for the i3 farmers became discouraged and : c grain crops in those gought relief in suicide. ploneer day only took away all ~ yt'should be taken into consideration cash profits, but also deprived the early that the financial losses above esti- b of their very living, and in mated have not fallen upon the entire reduced them to starvatlon. patjon, but upon the nine States to 1865 the insect was againl pamed. In fact, small as it is. the i as estimated that f the wheat and half of ps were wiped out through . entire Northwest. ~This 30,000,000 bushels of 00 bushels of corn, value of more than hd 138,000, ing a total s a serious outbreak of the in the West in and ages The , Towa, ebraska, s computed Riley computed lone in the year to the whole 10t less than $100,- at outbreak oc- e the damage eXt ET In this chinch-bug has cost the people of these nine States a sum of money sufficient to defray the entire expense of the na- tional government for a whole year Fire excepted, there is probably no other thing that has caused so great a financial loss within the same period over the same area of country. No other insect, native to the west- ern hemisphere, has spread its devas- tating hordes over a wider area of country with more fatal effects to the staple grains of North America than has this one. But for the extreme sus- ceptibility to the very youns to de- struction by drenching rains, the prac- tice of raising grain year after year on the same areas, as followed in the United States, would be altogether un- profitable. - It seems+o be a fact that plentiful rain destroys the chinch-bugs, NEw MEX\CO if it comes at the nroper time. The vears of greatest abundance of the pest are apt to-be preceded by a series of years of drought. Each female chinch-bug laysabout 500 eggs, and the adult insect is not pro- duced until sixty days later. The new- ly hatched young are very active, and the first to appear may be observed with their progenitors about the bases of wheat, corn or grass plants, and later all stages are seen mingling to- gether, having little appearance of be- longing to the same spécies, so greatly do they vary in size and color in their several stages of development. On first emerging from the chrysalis the adult is generally of a dull pink color. In a short time these colors change to the normal ones of the species, which are black as to the body, with white wings. From attack by enemies the chinch- bug seems to be protected in some de- gree by its vile odor, which is similar to that of the related bedbug. How- ever, in the Middle West the birds which are its natural foes, such as the quail, are being ruthlessly K wiped out by the shotgun. This fact may ac- count, in a measure, for the bugs’ s~read and multiplication, but, as will be explained later, only in a small de- gree. Various predacious insects feed on the chinch-bug, but they do notseem to be of great importance. Indeed, the spread of the pest is accounted - for largely by the absence of natural eme- mies within the limits of the United States. The most important natural foes of . h<ec/s ffave Des. THAN WORT.0F G/2A I IN A c/INGLE S the chinch-bug are two species of para- sitic fungi, which under favorable cir- cumstances, ' destroy them by the wholesale, literally eating them up. For some years past a distinguished Kansas entomologist, Professor Snow, has been engaged in propagating these humble but destructive plants for the purpose of infecting healthy chinch- bugs with a fatal malady. Hehas widely advertised a proposal to exchange sick chinch-bugs for well ones, thelatter, as fast as they arrive, being infected with the deadly complaint by placing them together with insects already diseased. The sickened bugs are sent in tin boxes through the mails to farmers, who scat- ter them in the infested field: In this way the greedy insect hordes are in- oculated with the horrible complaint, and so perish by the wholesale. There has been devised recently an important improvement on this plan, by which the disease fungus is propagated artificially in a mixture of cornmeal and beef soup. The spores of the plant, being stirred up in the mixture aforesaid, quicklv germinate, and the result is the production of infection- produeing material. © This substance Is very much more convenient to handle than moribund insects, and it may be scattered over a field with far greater ease and convenience. The effectiv essof this plan for com- municating plague to chinch-bugs ar- tificially has been much questioned, but Profe r Webster and other scientists to-day pretty generally admit that it accomplishes wonderful results In a field of wheat that has been treated in the manner described, the track of the insects as they move in any direction is literally paved with their dead bod- ies, each little corpse enveloped in a e winding sheet of fungus. In places the ground is white with them, and, on stirring up the soil'at the edge of a cornfield, it is found to be full of dead chinch-bugs to a depth of two or three inches, the white fungus covered bodies contrasting strongly with the black lor of the rich loam. Never- theless, it seems that the fungus has little effect except where the insects s0 as to make contagion 2 . Furthermore, it requires moist weather for its maximum efficiency “There ought to be a central propa- gating station for the disease-fungus. from which farmers could obtain promptly an abundant supply,” says are very thic Professor Webster. “Farm®s, also, should watch the seasons carefully, and when there are two dry summers in succession, every preventive measure should be adopted—motably the burn- ing of leaves, dead grass and other rub- bish during winter or early snring, fol- lowed up by sowing small plats of early millet, Hungarian grass, or spring wheat, in low damp places in the fields. with a view of attacting the female: and massing the-bugs, and then freely. applying the funeus in their midst.” One very effective method of fighting chinch bugs is to lay a line of fresh coal tar as a barrier between a migrating horde and the fleld which they are ad- vacing to attack. The line, poured from the nozzle of a watering pot with the sprinkler removed, needs - to be only three quarters of an inch wide, and at intervals of twenty feet in its length are dug holes, in which tin cans are sunk. The insects proeeed along the tar line until they fall into the cans, where they are easily killed with a lit- tle kerosene. In this way the bugs are caught literally by the bushel. Chinch bugs are essentially gregari- ous, gathering and feeding together in flocks. On reaching a suitable fleld of grain they congregate upon the stalks until the latter are literally covered with the insects, varying in color from the black and white adults to the dif- ferently tinted larvae. Only the winged adults fly, the main body of less de- veloped bugs remaining and leaving in a hody onlv when the plants on which they have congregated have been drain- ed of their juices and have begun to wither. Then they simply crawl to the 7oyec # 7,000000 21 nearest healthy plants and begin work on them. A general migration by flight takes place in the autumn. Favorite articles of chinch bug diet are broom corn, sorghum, Bermuda grass, blue grass, bottle grass and crab grass. Over the Western country the major portion of the damage done is to fields of wheat, barléy, rye and corn. Oats are rarely attacked. The female chinch bug deposits her eggs about the roots of grasses and grain plants. In early days the insect doubtless sub- sisted on the native grasses, but it readily acquired a taste for exotic kinds. Last summer Entomologist-in-Chief Howard of the Department of Agricul- ture found chinch bugs in the act of destroying the lawn in a Brooklyn park. In 1897 an assistant of Professor How- ard’s collected chinch bugs from coarse grass, incrusted with a salty deposit, in the Colorado Desert of California. This locality is considerably below the ocean level and represents an ancient exten- sion of the Gulf of California. The immunity of the chinch bug from attacks by natural enemies so strik- ing that it has attracted the attention of al ento- -'~gists who have made a studyv of the species, and all accept this as indicating that it is an exotic, not originally belonging to our insect fauna. Professor Webster’s theory is that the bug Is of tropical seashore origin, and worked . its way northward centuries ago by ‘way of the east coast of Cen- tral America. Apparently the chinch bug occupied the most of the country prior to its occupancy by the white man, and its first * depredations were caused by its coming in contact with the advance of civilization. Not until within the last fifteen years has the chinch bug heen known to work serfous and widespread injury east of the Allegheny Mountains, north of Vir- ginia; and west of these mountains they have done scarcely any damage north and east of a line drawn from Chicago southeast to Cincinnati. Thousands of farmers in Ohio never gaw a chinch bug until within the last four years, and there are thousands more in Northwestern Ohio, Southern Michigan and Northern Indiana that even yet would not be able to recognize one were they to see it among their growing grain. RENE BACHE. COST OF HOTEL IS GOING UP BY JUMPS | of 520 a 0 were sitting in carved | chalirs, upholstered in tapes- try. At our feet were stretched two tiger skin | rugs, whose flerceness of ex- | as almost lost in a look of hment at the splendor of On the walls were paintings of renown. Throg\g_h a portiered doorway was the dining- Toom massively elegant, and a smaller exit led from the drawing-room to a | pedroom furnished as a Queen’s cham- | ber was furnished when, there were | thrones in France. ‘ One of the managerial staff of the pression W vague astonis their surroundings. LIVING | | Nine years ago, as before mentioned, | the price of the costliest suite of rooms in an American hotel was $100 a week. | Allowing the man the most epicurean | taste consonant with reason and the | chef’s ‘resources, his breakfast could | | not cost him more than $3 a day on an | Rooms, per week average; his luncheon, with wine, $6, | and his dinner, with wine, $10. The board of the servant was put down at | $9 a week. This did not take in tips, | cigars, liquors, except wines, or the en- tertainment of friends, because these | expenses would be the same whether | the man lived at a hotel or at his own | house. The total expenses for six | months, which is all the time this man | was supposed to stay in New York, may be summarized as follows: big Waldorf-Astoria Hotel was show- | Breakfast, per week $21 | ing to me the beauties of the “royal L\m(-heon,' per week 35 suite,” which has recently sheltered | Dinner, per week. E the visiting Prins of Belgium and | Rooms, per week. logl Italy. | “This suite costs $100 a day,” sald | Mr. Thomas, the assistant manager. Nine years ago the writer prepared an interview with one of the best- known hotel men in the metropolis in which it was stated that $10,000 a year | was all that a man, wife and maid ser- vant could spend in board and lodging in the highest-priced hotels in America, occupying the most’ expensive suite of rooms to be found, eating the costliest food on the menu and drinking the most expensive ines. It was pre- sumed that the man was not a glutton, nor a drunkard; neither did he throw money away in extravagant tips. He simply lived up to the limit, and $10,000 was t limit for mere food and shelter in the most expensive hotel the new | world Let us see what it weuld c0st_to “The: there ever if on hot | is more money to-day than was before in this country, ¥ judge by what is spent in tinued Mr. Thomas. “Big fortune being made nowadays in the street, in mines and in business, and the money is rapidly being put into circulation. Ten years ago you very seldom saw two men on a man’s trap. Now it is the rule. Men spend more for food, for wines for apartments, jewel- | ry. Theatérs cost more, entertainments are more lavish and the accommoda- s have grown accordingly. t buy anything better than ou’'re looking at. The furniture more than $50,000. rvice h iraproved. One is served now in a public restaurant as he could only e been served ten years ago in his own home, and in very few hom: s the service as nearly perfect as it is now in most really first-class hoteis. “Nine years ago the highest-priced suite of rooms in any hetel in this city | cost $100 a week. “Our suites cost from $10 a day up to $40,” replied Mr. Tt , “‘and we have large ones ies that run from that figure up to $100. We have one suite now occupied by a gentleman and his family which costs $88 per day, and that is exclusive of food and service. Those are ordinary prices for people of wealth, who demand the very best that iss to be had and are willing to pay for P A comparison of the present prices with those of a decade ago offers a sig- cant and startling contrast. If the opportunity to spend money in hotels is a fair criterion of the prosperity of the times, this country was never 80 Dros- perous as it is now. | fore more expensive. Maid’s board, per week. Total .oeeeveecenenens Total for six months........ ..$6,110 Now let us look at the prices of to- day. The same man takes the royal suite at the Astoria for $100 a day. Of | course this is a trifle large for a man | and wife, but it is not even as large as a private house conducted in similar style would be., He would have his meals served in his own dining room. This would necessitate the services of a butler furnished by the hotel at $3 a day. The board of the maid would be 25 per week. The breakfast would cost | $3 80 (this is precisely the same meal as.| was described in the interview nine years ago); the luncheon, with wine, | ‘would be and the dinner, with wine, $12. The price of ordinary dishes has not advanced to this extent in the past | ine years, but special dishes have been added to the bills of fare. Each hetel nowadays has its own specialty, and it is usually costlier than the same dish prepared in the ordinary fashion. Then, too, the improved service which hotels offer to-day costs more than the old style. Wages are higher and the grade of men employed is higher, and there- The' cost of six | rt of living may be | months of this s | set down as follows | Breakfast, per week Luncheon, per week Dinner, per week Butler,’ per week Maid, per week Roomis, pel Total per week. Total for six months.. This makes a difference of $17,435 60 for the six months in New York. In the interview of nine years ago it was supposed that the man did not go to Europe, but spent the months be- tween May 1 and November 1 in this country at various seaside and inland this resorts. ‘The expenses during period were thus summarized: 014 Point Comfort, 30 days at $20 per da; Eiberon, 20 days at §20 per day..... Richfield Springs, 40 days at $2 Saratoga, 30 days at $2 per day. Newport, 30 davs at ¥ Cranstons, 30 days at Total for six months. $8,750 his made the entire yearly expenses othhe man, his wife and maid for food and shelter $9860. Supposing that the man went to the same out-of-town places now as then and paid the same prices, his annual expenses would be $29,135 60. But there | are far more expensive places than those mentioned. Since that interview been erected in the far South and on the Pacific Coast where the expenses are about as high as they are in town. A man bent on paying the highest pos- sible prices for his rooms should have no difficulty to-day in finding accom- modations during his six months away from home that will cost an average day. In some instances the price may be greater, but that is a fair average. The maid's board will aver- age $15 a week and the services of a butler $15 more. The meals will cost $20 a day. It figures up as follows: feals, per week....... > fald's board, per wee Butler's services, per week. Total per week.... Total for six months....... Grand total for year. Of course these figures represent the highest amount a man can possibly pay for such accommodations. There is no attempt made in these calculations to economize. The man deliberately seeks for the highest priced articles he can find, and it costs him $33,000 a year. ine years ago he did the very same hing, he spent all that he could, but $9800 was the limit. We are supposing an extreme case. Men can live at these same expensive hotels modestly and at a moderate cost. Rooms with a bath may be had at the Waldorf-Astoria, and at all the other hotels mentioned at from $5 to $7 a day, and the meals may be made to cost pretty nearly what a man chooses to pay. But the man who wants to spend money in hotel living never had as good a chance to do so as he has to- day. BENJAMIN NORTHROP. —_———— INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE. John A. Merritt, the Third Assistant Postmaster General, in his annual re- port recommends immediate negotia- tions with the postal administrations of England, Germany and France to reduce the international postage rates to 2 cents for a half ounce or fraction thereof. The report says: ‘“The administrations named have direct or separate postal intercourse to a large extent with our country, and consequently are more lkely to agree to the change desired than the administrations of inland countries that have to pay transportation charges to the seacoast to intermediary nations. The English administration particu- larly will probably assent to the pro- posed arrangement, for it has but re- cently decided to adopt the 2-cent rate | on letters between the British Islands and Canada, as well as other parts of the empire—the change being ordered to take -effect December 25 next. “The department now realizes nothing in the way of revenue from ocean let- ters, practically all the postage paid on them going to the steamship companies carrying ‘the mails. If the rate should be reduced the same state of affairs would exist; the department would still get nothing and lose nothing, and the steamship ‘companies would suffer no hardship, for the stimulus given to correspondence by the reduction of rate would no doubt eventually at least give them as much compensation in the way of postage as they now get. ‘“An ocean penny postage would con- nect and permeate all the sea-divided communities of mankind with myriads of/new ties and veins to strengthen and beautify their brotherhood with bonds of sympathy and the circulation of knowledge. It would be one of the most powerful aids to the work of Christian missions. An ocean penny postage is demanded by the social necessities of the Anglo-Saxon race. The reduction does not require action of Congress, as the Postmaster General has authority under section 398 of the revised stat- | was written magnificent hotels have utes.” gD.QQC(QQDQDQQQfiQQQQ:&DOQfiQDUDDC‘Qflfifibfinfihfififififlfifl ow Favorite PAetrgssgs Saug Their [T\oney. wfifififlflfifififlfififififfifififififlfifi):(fi)2(flfl'fifl&fidfifi)‘.‘fifidfifififififit{fiwcfl:C(C(CfflD‘QCiCU:U:(QQQ&GQQQGQQDGGQQOQQC‘G‘Q Special to The Sunday Call. EW YORK, Nov. 25.—The actor is proverbially a spendthrift, and the women of the craft vary little in this respect fromtheir brothers. There are any number of rich actors of both sexes, but few of them are rich through their own prudence or good investment. There is one clever comic opera star whose wealth is largely the result of his careful disbursement of funds and his saving habits; but he is held up as a remarkable example—not in his own profession, for the actor prudent in money affairs is about as unpopular as a sporting man who refuses to keep up his reputationfor good fellowship by frequent loans to his improvident fellows. The richest actors have been the most reckless spenders. Fritz Emmett, who was the best-paying star of his time, andwhose fortune Ada Rehan Owns Several Strips of Real Estate in Brooklyn. accumulated as though by magic, threw his money right and left in the most extravagant fashion. Jose~h Murphy, who is wealthy, has never been miserly in his expenditures. Maggie Mitchell, Lotta, Fanny Davenport—three of the richest women stars—have all lived lavishly, had costumes and jewels that cost “>rtunes. Bernhardt has squandered severzl fortunes and is always in debt. The most conspicuous example of business acuteness, shrewdness, daring andapparent luck in investment among the women of the stage ispersonified in Mrs. Lillie Langtry, who has made a fortune in almost every venture to v-hich she has turned her hand. She has never been parsimonious, but her dealings have always been guided by a shrewd, clear head. When she came to this country she imported Englishserv- %mi because they were to be had for one-third the price paid in New or] She took a house in New York instead of stopping at a big hotel— not a fashionable house, but an old, roomy house, which is marked by the high fence which shut out the curious view of passersby. Her house at Long Branch was chosen in the same way—not for its showy pretentiousness or location, but for its solid return in comfort for the cash expended. ‘While Mrs. Langtry was in this country she invested largely in flat property in the tenement district of New York, which is said to have increased enormously in value within the last few years. Her California ranch was another paying venture, in spite of the vast amount of money which she put into it and the loss she sustained in a railway accident in which some valuablé horses were killed. But in every case Mrs. Langtry realizes a profit. She sold her yacht, the White Ladye, at a goodly su i, which was all profit, as the yacht had been a gift to the actfess. It was the same with her private car, which she disposed of by telegraph. making a handsome margin on the original outlay. Her stable in England is another gold mine, some of her horses recently carrying off some of the richest stakes of the English turf. She has a large fortune invested in jewels. Mrs. Langtry employs any number of men to take care of her business interests, but she gives her personal attention to all. Her special representative in London says that she has none of the varia- bleness of woman in her composition in dealing with business affairs. She makes up her mind as to how she will proceed in important mat- ters with lightning rapidity. She hesitates at no expense in carrying out her plans, and frequently wires her man in London to start for, New York at a day’s notice. Yvette Guilbert is another prudent, almost stingy, artist, who has a beautiful home in Paris, a chateau in the country, fine jewels and gowns, all as a result of her saving habits. ed while in New York her parsimony S o a pShP values a dollar for a hundred the bellboys and chambermaids. cents and obtains its worth in every case. ally by her saving instincts, for her youth knew the bitttrest pov- erty and hardship. Cora Potter is an able fortune out who never have admitted her success as an artist. Mrs. Potter reaped a golden harvest, d in bonds, in jewelsand in a collection Australia and in South Africa and she has her money invesle of laces Wood, w! of art treasures. Ada Rehan is another of the prudent fe honors of being sued for debt as an New York, a bungalow on the South Brooklyn, where she has in- earnings and disdained the empty advertisement. She owns a house in coast ‘of Ireland .nd property '~ veésted largely. Georgia Cayvan, whose gentle womanli her artistic worth won her a place for N a house in upper New York, which represents She also has some handsome jewels and some She never has been frugal in her living, but has been one of the careful ones on the stage. ‘Maude Adams, whose leap into sudden success has made her fa- mous, has also begun her stage career well by i in a new kind of bond called investment bonds. W Many of the younger ac! ments in part and being a cap- the Lyceum forces, owns a part of her savings. paintings of value. the possessor. the system of purchase squander their earnings. Lulu Glaser has been e first began to get a large salar— b and rare prints, but she buys carefully, s < thousands of dollars more than she originally now represents many paid for it. Edna Wallace Hopper has ma in comic opera, and at first save sci of her tendency to spend money, CoeRreit friend of hers,who deposited it in a savings bank In this way she accumulated a tidy sum. Since then ith enormous winnings in Wall street and on weekly to a woman in New York. she has been credited w ker of Tod Sloan’s mounts, EHO ey She has some magnificent dia- but beyond that no one knows her actual She lives in lavish style in an uptown apartment in New she would be nearly a millionairess. monds and a French poodle, possessions. York. ‘“Corinne,” after she had grown to her full diamonds. All her earnings were careful managemen the best-paying stars on the out- mendous houses. Many of the necessity for savl one. Virginia Harned secure ern stage as husbands. married rich m::.stars ragons to gol . :’:ggb hlresor the price of violets. Maude Adams Invests Her Savings in Bonds. o6 10 0 06 06 106 06 0 08 08 108 106 0% 0% 0% 108 308 100 308 0% 408 00 0 0 08 00K 08 % instance of a woman who has saved a comfort- of her earnings on the stage,although there are many nd curios,of which she is most fond. ich she hires by the season, is said to be a marvel in the way permitting pay’ ital plan to insure against prodigality in those who xtremely careful ¢ her money since she for her work. She buys lavishly of She has a stable of fine horses, v imposing collection of jewels. A S ilioe T 5 de a tidy fortune since she embarked d in a novel and original manner. who was known as “Little Corinne” for several years height, accumulated a big fortune in invested in this way, and, under the t of her mother, she became rich. She was one of of-towncircuits, alwaysdrawing tre- omen of the stage have sensibly done away with the Tig by marrying rich husbands. Anderson married a millionaire. e d two of the money-making stars of the mod- Marie Nevins and Agnes Huntington both Julia Arthur and Kathrine Clemmons hitched their and will never Liave to worry over such things In the hotels in which she became a huge joke with But Guilbert comes natur- In her tours. of Her house in St. Johns w who have saved their ness and charm as well as many seasons at the head of nvesting her earnings hich insure the life of tresses are saving in this way, are inclined to and _her collection a country home in Penn- she used to send a check and, if 1t all were true, The list is a long Beatrice Cameron and KATE MASTERSON. lt(fifl):():():():(fiflfifififififi)fi(Dififlflfififi‘fifififlfififi?fififififlflfififififififififififlfififififlfifi#fifififififlfifiufiflfififlflfinfififififl)fi(C(f:(u