The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 24, 1903, Page 6

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, _— g@mucflvpmm | the size of trees, the most of which are tropical species. Indeed, during the | coal period in Great Britain the propor- | | tion of ferns there to the other plants | was far greater than it is in the tropies | ! at the present day, while tree ferns are | | now wholly confined to tropical regions. Abundant tropical forms of vegetation | are found in the coal seams in Green- | land and on Melville Island as far| north as the seventy-fifth degree of | latitude; indeed, everywhere during the | | coal period the climatic conditions not | only of the temperate zone but of the | arctic lands were closely similar to | those of the present torrid zone. But, for man's use, it was neces- sary not only to have coal accumulate: | it must be preserved for distant ages | and brought within his reach. If the Mississippi basin had remained forever below the ocean level its stores of ac- cumulated coal would have been un-| uvailable. But, through causes which we can but dimly comprehend, at the close of the coal period the land all over that area, which had up to that time been slowly sinking, reversed its e Coal Growing Scarce. | BY GEORGE FREDERICK WRIGHT, A. M, LL D. [Author of "“The lce North Amer “Man end the ete.) Age in 3 Glaclal Period,” Coal is the chief cornerstone of mod- | movement and bezan to rise. This ern civilization. Nearly all the labor- | elevation was produced by lateral saving appliances must have coal to|pressure, which folded up the Alle- gheny Mountains and produced a num- ber of diminishing waves, so to speak, in the surface of the land extending to thé center of the Mississippl basin. But no sooner was this land elevated meke them effective. Outside of the muscles of men and enimals the chief sources of power available for the use of man are gravitation &s it is set free | in falilng water and heat arising from | ahove the sea than erosive agencles the chemical combustion of coal. BUt| ywent to work to dissect it and to re- waterfalls are staticaary, and even| move its more elevated portions. Con- with the ability to distribute their| sequently it is estimated that more power through electricity, it is avail-| than nine-tenths of the coal which was able as yet over only a limited area. If| originally deposited over Central and all the power of Niagara should De| Eastern Pennsylvania has been carried turned into electricity It could not|away by the rivers and hopelessly profitably be distributed beyond the|scattered over the bottom of the sea, | limits of Western New York, whereas | while the one-tenth which remains is coal can be carried to the ends of the | =0 folded up in the rocks that it is ob- earth and its power set free for use|tained with great difficulty. In the' wherever it is needed. If the prairies | more central portions of the Mississippi of the West and the comparatively | Valley, however, the disturbance of the level regions the world over, where are | strata has been less, and it is a com- found the best agricultural lands, were | paratively simple matter to obtain the | limited, as formerly, to water power for | rich deposits. ning their factories and mills, these | ecessarily be few and insignifi- | h great manufacturing cen- | eland, Detroit, Chicago, 5 . } BY BERT PAYSON TERHUNE. an neinnati would be img | [ ti N York Eve: World, sible away from the mountainous dis- | le Bullding,” ete.) tricts. It would be a tremendous sat-| In all the foregoing lessons we have agricultural interests of | dealt only with what are known as Vailey if they were | “straight” blows—blows which are de- ispense with steam traction engine and substitute in their places the work f i f horses and livered in such a way as to traverse the shortest possible distance bettveen the position, “on guard,” and the face or body at which they are aimed. As a straight line is thé shortest dis- tance between two points, so the ‘straight” blow covers the least pos- sible distance fore rather startling to be the fact that coal limited and rapidly dis- face rooll ctomes of e, n| The “swing” and “hook,” however, g et are delivered in a circular direction. e human race is intrench- | = ortpeie s g It is h blows we will now co: O, R T g sider, as well as an almost equally ef- mate but inevitable timated by the high- t the total available | orth America cover with an average feet of wor an ulti; It is fective blow known as the “jolt.” At first glance the circular motion would seem to be less effective than a straight arm blow. But, when correct- ly delivered, the swing and hook are | far heavier than any other blows e1d 4800 tons to the acre. . © 8CT€ | known to boxers: € unt of coal, therefore, Bat ik i St that is pe s within our reach in| DUt like every other detail in spar- | America ¢ not exceed 700,000,000,000 | ['0&; they must be mastered thorough- Iy if they are to be tried at all. An awkward swing or an ill-timed hook or | Jolt will place you at the mercy of your opponent. Moreover, there is, with most amateurs, a strong temptation to swing or to hook on occasipns when a | straight blow would be far safer and | more effective. Nothing but experi- | ar 1900 alone we | but little short of 300,000,- » the expansion of popula- s demanding an at such a rate that two or amount will soon be | the annual demand. | esent rate of increase in the But | ticing carefully, you will gain a fair working idea of it and future practice will teach you the rest. For, in box- | ing, more, perhaps, than in almost any- | thing else, every man must buy his | Own experience, paying for it in hard | knocks, and, if he be wise, profiting by | every detail of it. i In the tamest of sparring matches one is llable to receive a hard blow; to “run into” his opponent’s lead or | to be the victim of that opponent’s mis. T calculation of strength or distance. No blow from a soft eight-ounce glove will do you permanent harm. 1If it lands on you more heavily than you anticipated | keep your temper. Don't sulk, don't | slug back. Take it as part of the day’s | work and be thankful a glove and not | @ bare fist dealt you the blow. | raw on the gloves, stand on | and I will show you how to !wm:uardg Let your sparring partner lead for | your face with his'left. As he does so move your head to the right. just far enough te avold his blow (as in the | ordinary left counter for the face). At the same time lower the left arm from its position of guarding your heart and turn the palm outward so that the back of the glove and not the front of the knuckles is turned toward your opponent. Now bring your left arm around in a circular motion so that at a certain point in that circle the back of your knuckles will come in'contact with your antagonist’s jaw. In deliv- ering this blow your arm should - be stretched to almost its full length, be- ing bent at the elbow just enough to avert any jar to the elbow joint. As you swing your arm around to meet his jaw throw the shoulder with it and let the force and weight of the body go into the blow. In a swing remem- ber the back of the hand is always kept toward your opponent, and it is the row of knuckles joiring the hand to the fingers (not the middle row) that should strike him first. Be sure to bring the body around with the | blow. This is the easier because the moving to the right of your head is part of the general motion. The mov- ing of the head and the delivering of | the swing must of course be simulta- neous. Practice this blow very slowly at first, gauging most carefully the dis- tance your arm has to travel and mak- ing sure that your hand.turns natur- ally instead of twisting stiffly and awk- wardly. The swing requires co-opera- tion from almost every other part of the body. Without this co-operation it is awkward and lacking in force, pre- cision and speed. . + Do not raise the . from the ground in swinging for the face. Do not swing when too close to or too far away from your opponent. In the lat- ter case.you will miss him entirely and lose your balance, thus placing your- self at his mercy. In the former in- stance (if you are too close to him) your hand will go far behind him. therefore, the entire | ©PCe, Of course, can teach you the exact in North America ion when a swing or hook is most | would be consumed in less than 150 | 2dVisable, but, by study and by prac- | years, If we look to the rest of the world the prospect is not more encouraging. The coal fields of Europe are mostly con- fined to small areas in England and the northwestern part of the continent. Spain, Italy, Greece, Russia, Scandina- via and the larger part of the German Empire are dependent on England for thelr coal. At the present rate of in- creased production these fields will be nearly exhausted in fifty years. The re- maining great deposits of coal are mostly found in China, where they equal, if they do not exceed, those in the United States. It may therefore be fortunate for the world that China is 80 elow in her development that her re- served resources of fuel shall yet be avallable when that in the countries more advanced in civilization shall fail. 8.7 8. 5% The insignificant role which water power in this country can possibly play in keeping up our Industries appears on brief examination of the facts. It is estimated by the best authorities that if the entire rainfall over the State of Pennsylvania were utilized with a head of 150 feet, it would not yield one-tenth the amount of power that is now de- rived in that State alone from the con- sumption of coal. But on the most ex- travagant calculation ii would not be possible to make avaflable in that mountainous State one-tenth of this theoretical emount of water power. What then would be the condition of those vast areas of the Mississipp! val- ley where water power is far less avail- able? Coal is an accumulation of vegetable matter which has decayed under water where oxygen could not get access to the carbon to consume it and trans- form it into carbonic acid gas, as it does in the open air. The conditions of the coal fields, therefore, during the ac- cumulation of the coal must have been that of vast swampy regions, where there was not depth ol water enough to destroy the vegetation or to admit of the intrusion of gravel, sand and mud, which, brought in from surround- ing highlands, would have rendered it too impure for use. The character of the vegetation which supplied these great accumulations of coal is amply shown in the fossil forms which appear, especially near the top and bottom of the coal seams, while in some cases the entire stumps of trees are found still standing in place, with their roots pen- etrating into the under clay which sup- ported the vegetation. . - The fossil plants of the coal period seem to indicate that the climate was at that time warm and moist and uni- form, while the amount of coal accum- ulated shows that the air was more fully charged with carbonic acid gas than it is at the present time. Of the coal plants of Great Britain about half were ferns, many of them growing to - | desire of the church to resume polygamy. | Grant. W THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL JOEN_D.SPRECKE.S.Pmpflm. « « « «« .« « . .Address All Communications to JOHN McNAUGHT, Manager TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1903. Publication Office. ’ ..Third and Market Streets, S. F. ...NOVEMBER 24, 1903 THE UTAH SITUATION. TUESDAY. N Ogden newspaper of Mormon proclivities repub- A lishes The Call’s remarks on the pro-polygamy utter- ances of Apostle Grant, and says it is one of many anti-Mormon articles appearing in the press of the country and that its careful reading will disclose the fact that the author of our article is not a stranger to Utah affairs. The Ogden paper concludes, therefore, that ‘“these inflamma- tory editorials are being inspired by a bureau of promotion existing either in Ogden or Salt Lake, and having for its object the arousing of outside public sentiment to antago- nize the Mormon people and re-establish within the State the old bitterness that did so much to retard the growth of industrial life and keep Utah in the throes of a religious warfare.” As far as The Call is concerned we wish to disabuse the ] 2 & | mind of the Ogden editor in that particular, and to relieve anybody in Utah who may suffer from. the suspicion of en- geging in the promotion of outside criticism of the Mor- mons. for the future peace and welfare of Utah by inducing the Mormon church to act in good faith with the rest of the country, by cbserving the pledges upon which statehood was secured. Al the inside information we get is furnished by the authorities of the Mormon church and the conduct of Mormons themselves. The United States does not propose to permit the re- i . sumption of polygamy in Utah. It is useless to plead that resistance to it will disturb the industrial peace of the State. If it do, the responsibility is with those who provoke that resistance by violation of the law and breach of faith. Why is the church in politics? What is the purpose of its per- sistent control of politics? If it propose to keep faith and observe the law it has nothing to fear from politics. The people of this country recognize Mormonism as a form of religion, whose followers are entitled to that great guaranty of the Federa! constitution under which all forms of religion are free and equal. But when any church has purposes which require that it control the political action of its members, those purposes are inimical to the Govern- ment. The attempt to effect them through the political power of the state is a substantial union of church and state, which is abhorrent to the American spirit. It will be admitted by every one in Utah that the signs are abundant | that the church throws majorities. either way in politics. The people are at once suspicious when the members of any church all vote one way, and make erratic and unaccountable changes in political control, for which there is no natural nor public reason. It has been for some time evident that the Mormon church puts itseli first and the state plays a subordinate part ations outside of Utah are regarded with apprehension, because wherever Mormon voting strength appears it does ot with stability of purpose divide on party lines. Following the Mormon hegira from Nauvoo, that people suffered great atrocities that made many martyrs, but it was the destructive and inhuman explosion of pas- sionate resentment long accumulating and caused by just such political subordination of the Mormons as is suspected to be the practice to-day in Utah. So it would appear that the habit of using political power for its own purposes is inherited by the existing Mormon body. “People naturally look around for the reason, for the mo- tive, and, right or wrong, they seem to find both in the Naturally, this conclusion is reinforced by such speeches as that of Apostle The Ogden newspaper, characterizing our article, says: “Its basis is Heber J. Grant's humorous speech of a week ago, which was not intended to be taken seriously, and was simply a good-natured play upon Utah's past pecu- liarities. But the witticism has offered excuse for those who seek to estrange Gentile and Mormon and ruin business in Utah.” It must be admitted that Apostle Grant chose a queer sub- ject to joke about. His wit was in the present tense, not the past. He declared that he has, not had, two wives, and that he wants a third if the law will let him take her. If business is endangered in Utah, it is by the apostle’s peculiar idea of humor, and not because of any outside desire to dis- turb the favorable industrial conditions of an American State. Polygamy was considered as a Federal question when the Federal Government conditioned the statehood of Utah upon a permanent guaranty that the church would abandon plural marriage. If the Mormon church now proposes to use the political power of the State to protect a return to polygamy, the matter is still a Federal question. The first Republican national platform denounced “those twin relics of barbarism—slavery and polygamy.” One has been abol- ished by the Federal constitution. The other is subject to the same treatment. It is no invasion of the rights of the States to amend the constitution so as to forbid polygamy, make it a Federal offense and put those who offend exclu- sively under the jurisdiction of the Federal courts. If the Mérmors have in good faith permanently abandoned plural marriage, they can have no objection to such an amend- ment. Will the Ogden newspaper, and the Deseret News ‘at Salt Lake, promise that such an amendment to the Federal constitution will be ratified by a Mormon Legislature in Utah? Do they recognize polygamy as an anachronism as much as slavery is? Do they look upon it as the Gentile world looks upon it? Do they recognize it as a moral and legal offense, per se, or do they regard it as wrong only be- cause it is prohibited? This is a question which affects the aspiration of New Mexico and Arizona to statehood. It concerns the future of Idaho and Wyoming; and, to a degree, of Colorado and Nevada. It is so far reaching as to warrant action now to permanently remove it as a domestic question, local to the States. When it is made a Federal matter and put in the hands of the United States courts, there will be no further danger of a return of old antipathies and a ruin of the bright prospects of Utah. e T ——— THE PROMISE OF THE RAIN. Its colc ITH the coming of the rains nature renews her promise to California of a new season of prosper- ity and abundance. This year the coming of the first heavy downpour has been exceptionally opportune. As a rule the rains set in too early for some of the crops and not infrequently there are heavy losses occasioned by the first storms of the season. No such losses have been Te- ported this year. The rains were late in coming, ample time was given to get all crops under shelter, and conse- quently the showers are everywhere received as benefits whose effects are in no way diminished by any attendant damages. % - The showers have brought about the only change that marks the seasons in our climate. The dry season is over and the ;ainy season has begun. The effect of the change is felt in the freshness of the air and its influence will reach every living thing. When the clouds pass we shall have clear sunlit skies unmarked by the fogs that are so frequent in summer, we shall have green fields, we shall have blos- B We need no such promotion of our purpose to work | soming of winter flowers, and over a wide region of coun- try the ripening of winter fruits. To us, therefore, this | change of season, which, in the East, will bring blizzards | and snowsgornis, with discomfort to all and danger to many, will bring only a new sense of the joy of living, new im- pulses to activity and a new round of both business and pleasure. Of course, one good rainstorm does nat make a good season any more than one swallow makes a summer, but the appearance of the first swallow is very sure to be fol- lowed by the appearance of others, and the abundance of this first good rain gives promise of a propitious season throughout. In some localities the fall has been inade- quate to the needs of the farmers, but as a whole the State has fared well and the prospects are that we shall have a year of prosperity equal to any that have preceded it. We have of late been putting the railroads to a hard strain to supply cars and locomotives, to haul the fruit ready for market, and it now looks as if we might give them a still | The Last Laugh. when the conductor asked for his fare. “I can't change that” was the con- ductor’s daily plaint, and six times in with the double way into the succession the man eagle deadheaded his eity. “I'll fix that fellow with the twenty,” said the conductor, as he stepped to the cashier's window at the car barn. “Give me $20 in nickels. I want to spring a little bunch of small change on a cheap guy who's been working me for a week,” sald the wise con- ductor. The passenger boarded the car, as usual, and with a half apologetic smile tendered his $20 gold piece. The conductor took the coin, sank it | harder st-ain next year, In the city the most notable effect of the rain will be that of brightening up everything as soon as the clouds roll by. ‘ With cleaner streets to walk and a purer air to breathe the . people: will feel a new vigor as they go about their business. | and from this time on holiday trade will boom. The skies | may be gloomy for the present, but every cloud that hclpsf to make the gloom has a silver lining and carries a golden | promise. ~Whatever may be the conditions elsewhere, the winter comes to California with a blessing for everybody. | In the Missouri tdwn of Jefferson the courts have decided that no one may give away a glass of intoxicating liquor, | much less sell it. What earthly excuse can the citizens of | that benighted burg have now to substitute for the time- honored but fictitious hospitality of bibulous friends that brought ruin to good intentions? S — ARE WE ARISTOCRATS? OME of our contemporaries are busy despairing of the S republic because a crowd of well-dressed ladies mobbed the Goelet-Roxburghe wedding party in New York. One concludes from it that “the American people, and es- pecially the American women, are crazy over titles,” and that “our admiration for republican simplicity is really only skin deep.” Now, we don’t think the incident deserves such a serious conclusion.. We think the nicely’gowned ladies, who showed such bad taste in a struggle to get a sight of the Duke, were actuated by no better nor worse feeling than | extreme curiosity. A Duke is a spectacle, a show, just like Jumbo, or a baboon that eats with a knife and fork and drinks his swipes like a man. Every vear are celebrated in this country international | marriages. They are common between the sons and daugh- | ters of artisans, merchants and financiers. The American | voung man and young woman match with Germans, Irish, Scotch, Ttalians, Russians, French and what not. Among this enormous number of such marriages we have two or three every year between rich young women and titled for- eigners Their thousands of sisters who marry foreigners want husbands. They want titles, and we don’t despair of | the republic because both classes get what they want. The ladies who marry foreign titles don’t stay here. They go to | the country of their husbands and are denationalized. They lose identity as Americans, and there is so far no evidence that their happiness is of such a high quality as to lure | many of their countrywomen to the same method of expatri- | ation. They excite more curiosity than envy, and the re- public does not depend upon those who excite curiosity nor upon those who yield to it, to the verge of vulgarity and bad taste. Human sentiment goes through continuous reaction. If one generation goes wild over pageantry and pomp and cir- cumstance, the next, palled by what has become common, runs te the opposite extreme. The English people under- went this im the Puritan reaction against the pomp of the court of the Stuarts and the magnificence of religious ritual. I They went so far that legitimate human pleasures were looked upon sourly, and life was made a prolonged penance. Since that experience they and we have developed a more sane and sober mind than appeared in either extreme and have not returned either to pomp or asceticism. It is only necessary to see the resentment that is displayed by the vast mass of our people, when they see any ostentation of wealth, to feel sure that our republican simplicity is safe. .The masses tesent not only such ostentation, but they will not be patronized by the rich. All this is a manifestation of that spirit of American independence which is the safeguard of our institutions, The Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe have already passed off the sensational stage, which they shared with the last flood and cyclone, labor strike and train robbery, and Amer- ican liberty is as safe and sound as it was when political opponents were calling Washington an aristocrat and Hamil- ton a believer in a hereditary nobility. Dr. Herran, representing the United States of Colombia at Washington, says he has heard nothing from his Govern- ment in a month. This distinguished diplomat may find con. solation in the fact that if his Government hasn't taken him into its confidence it has taken everybody else. Perhaps if Dr. Herran will accept the news of what Colombia is doing | from the sources we do he may share our opinion of her affairs and her conduct. PGS S0 . The miscreants who recently attempted to wreck a train in Colorado will probably be hanged for their abortive ‘crime. This is as it should be, and Colorado is setting a splendid example to her sister Stat}s. There are some of- fenses against society that should be punished to the fullest limit of the Jaw even if only the motive and intention and not the accomplishment of crime can be proven. EERRER S R, A peasant woman migrated recently from the interior of Russia to the city of New York and went hopelessly insane from the noise and confusing din of the metropolis stréets. ‘What a shame it was that she did not continue her journey to Philadelphia. A few Quaker promotion pamphlets, judi- ciously distributed in the interior of Russia, might do some good. g Fresno has made another bid for the honor that attends a reputation for culture. A police inquiry has developed the fact that children 8 years of age in the town are addicted to tobacco smoking. It is quite probable that no better age could have been chosen to demonstrate to the youngsters -the manifold evils of the habit they are trying to acquire, ———— Salmon are so plentiful in the rivers near Redding, it is said, that a person not particularly venturuomemightu;xke a bridge of their backs and walk from shore to shore of the waterways. This announcement, while a trifle late, makes full correction and aniple amends for the impression that we were going to be a littie shy on fish stories this year, L B > P safely in an inside pocket and produced five rolls of nickels, opened each roll and counted the contents into the palm of the passenger; withholding 5 cents for that fare and a nickel for each of the previous {ree rides. “Guess that willr hold him for awhile,” the conductor chuckled as he | { walked forward to tell the story to the motorman. “I fixed him,” said the conductor when he turned in his cash at the end of his run. “Come again,” replied the cashier, filpping back the double eagle that con- stituted the chief part of the conduct- or's pile. | Slowly the conductor picked up the twenty. He sounded it. He bit it. It was lead, richly gilded, but a counter- feit and a bad one. The passenger has not since been ‘seen. 3 Defends the Nutmegs. Captain. H. Z. Howard, superintend- ent of the Oceanic Steamship Company, was born in Connecticut and takes pride in the circumstance. A sallor- man from the ground up, Captain How- ard has all the old-time mariner’s gruffness, but like the barnacles on a ship’s bottom the sharp edges are all on the outside and the plate beneath is good, smooth, serviceable steel. It takes time and patience to reach the steel and in the operation the seeker may rub some skin off his inquisitive fingers. “His bark is worse than his bite” was not said originally about Captain How- ard, but if it had been those who best | know the superintendent would have | chorused, “How apt!™ To return to the steel, however. People who have braved the barnacles and found the good metal beneath have no hesitation in accosting the captain in jocular vein and in every case the | man with the flerce frown and kind heart has a Roland for an Oliver. A lady from Ohio ¢rossed swords with Captain Howard the other day and now speaks of the superintendent as the Mark Twain of the water front. “From Connecticut, you say you came, captain?" “Yes, madam. And proud of it.” “You ought to be. That's where they make wooden nutmegs, is it not? Ever make any, captain?” “You should not speak madam, of our wooden nutmegs. deserve much credit for them.” “Credit! How's that, captain?" “Well, we made them so well that you people in Ohio used them for eight years before you found out they were built of wood.” lightly, We Senate Growing Young. The United States Senate seems to be growing more youthful. Thirteen years ago a careful computation was made from which it.appeared that the average of its members was 60 years. There were then but eight who were less than 50 years old and one who was less than 45. To-day the average is 59 years and 4 months, and in a slightly larger Senate there are fourteen men, instead of eight, who are less than 50, and of these eight are less than 45. The difference is doubtless due to the new States which have come into the Union since that time whose political leaders were naturally youriger men. The Delaware overturn has also given the Senate two youthful members. It is almost a rule that the young States have young Senators. Only one Senator is more than 80, Mr. Pettus, the junior Senator from Ala- bama, who was born in 1821. Fourteen are between 70 and 80, twenty-nine are between 60 and 70 and thirty-two be- tween 50 and 60. The flffteen who have crossed the three-score and ten line include both Senators from Alabama and Connecticut, besides Messrs. Teller, Allison, Frye, Hoar, Gibson, Stewart, Platt (New York), Quay, Bate, Proc- tor and Cullom. The constitution of the United States specifies 30 as the age requirement for the Senate, but by a safe margin of ten years all of the States have made good this condition. Only one man in the Senate does not give his age, Mr. Burton of Kansas, and for the purposes of this computa- tion he has been rated at 50.—Omaha Bee. Worse Than Dowie. The Middle West seems blest with freak sects. Maybe it is the climate which does it; maybe the peculiar tem- per of the people themselves. But now that Dowle has dropped out of sight we have, according to the Chicago In- ter Ocean, another colony which goes Elijah one better. The Inter Ocean says of it: A childless city, a city of long-haired, barefoot, penniless saints—that is the aim of the newest of freak religions. He had traveled from Ingleside every | & - about to make themselves comfortable in homes they declare they shall occu- py forever and a day. The saints began gathering at Ben- ton Harbor last spring. They are thers to await the beginning of the millen- nium, which they believe will come in 1917. The fourteen years they want for preparation are to be filled with strange devotion to strange ideas, and when the end shall come only the long- haired saints will be left on the face of the earth. They belleve they never will die. They do believe that children born to them before 1917 will die, and therefore this man Benjamin and his wife have decreed that no children shall be born in thé City of Israel be- fore that time. Polite in Battle. General Sherman's classic axiom that war is hell has found its exception if the following story from the New York Tribune is to be credited: “Major General Plumer, who led a battalion of mounted riflemen In the Matabeleland campaign in 1896, has a reputation rivaling that of ‘the mildest mannered man that ever scuttled ship or cut a throat.” In the thick of the fight he is the politest of warriors. As an example of his unvarying ‘drawing- room manners,’ as a brother officer once styled them, a story is told of him that during the Matabele campaign his small force found itself in a very hot corner, and men were falling rapidly in all directions. Plumer had two ma- chine guns with him, and these, he con- sidered, were not doing as well as they might. He called up an orderly” therg- fore and said to him: ‘Will you kindly go to Captain Blank (who commanded the guns) and tell him that I think he might do better if he would please move his guns a little further to the right? Thank you.” And then he calm- ly went on with his direction of the figh® in the same quiet, easy manner. Again, he was rather badly hit while in command of a column durfng the re- cent South African war and sent a mes- sage to his second in command to the effect ‘That he was rather badly scratched, and he would be greatly obliged if Colonel Blank would take over the command of the force pending further orders.” A Good Cause. * Willlam Butler Yeats, the famous Irish poet and prime mover in the intellectual revival in his native land, is now delivering lectures before Eastern universities upon the subject of his life work. Mr. Yeats’ visit to America is by in- vitation of the Irish Literary Society of New York. He is identified with the movement which, during the past ten years, has aimed to reawaken a true national consciousness in Ireland and has already notably affected its poli- tics, literature and national lfe. Of the significance of this movement, it has been justly said: “The prospect of such a new Ireland rising up out of the foundations of the old with love and not hate as its in- spiration has already sent a great thrill through the land. It is a new and un- looked for situation, full with fate, not only for Ireland, dut for the world.” Some of the organizations through which the movement works are the Irish Literary Society of London, the National Literary Soclety of Dublin, the Irish Literary Theater, the Feis Co#l Committee in Dublin, and the Gaelic League. Two of its chief aims are the revival of the Irish language as a living speech, and the study of the ancient literature with the creation of a new Irish Hterature both in Irish and Engligh. The Trackless Trolley. The trackless trolley has made a very favorable record in Europe so that the asserted intention of the General Elec- tric Company to equip some of the im- proved highways in the neighborhood of Albany with the automobile trolley has a semblance of probability. The experimental installation is to be made in connection with the Schenectady Railway along the State improved “vighway.from Newtonville to Loudon- ville. The system comprises an over- head feeder system, the motor pro- pelled omnibus or cars and the flexible overhead connections, but no tracks. Several ingenious arrangements have been devised to permit vehicles pass- ing each other, when both are fed from the same overhead wire. Clergymen Protest. Is this the first move toward & clergymen’s union? “The clergymen at Elmira, N. Y., have united in a protest against fun- erals being held on Sunday. They state This time it is in Michigan. Directly across the lake from Dowie's Zion City that a funeral necessitates many peo- ple working on Sunday who would a younger, weirder, more mystical band | otperwise enjoy a day of rest, and also of religlous zealots has begun building | ynat one doublés the duties of a min- its stronghold. These zealots call them- selves the Flying Rollers, but the peo- ister on that day. This is not a new argument, but it is unusual for all the ple of Benton Harbor, which city they | clergymen in a city to join in action on have taken as their own, call them the | j. If the move be successful at El- long-haired saints—that, among other | mira, other places may follow the lead.” things. These zealots have actually taken Benton Harbor into their keeping. They swarm its streets, bareheaded and barefooted. Indiana, from —springfield Republican. ' —— G ———