The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, December 5, 1903, Page 8

& THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, ¥ | ! . | i + - 1 of Railroads. . Bowles.) the child of e ve.” So wrote Charles thirty-three y scems doubly true to-day. Rob is Stevenson, writing of the first transcontinental line, said: “It seems = if this railway were the one chievem in of the age President Hadley of has written ng the industrial rev- of the nineteenth century ympares this revolution with the of the Yale 1 ver of ailroad as wor and po- eighteenth utior tical revelution entury Thus great 1e subje different standpoints. igree in accepting the railroad as the the century that . in the century reatest power in of the Yet less than seventy- three minds, viewing t from greatest produet of d; opening. ed; and it the and has p: he business civilization United States ! months because of a defect in the first { branch of the Baltimore and Ohio was locomotives ordered. The Washington |not opvened until August, 1834. The | Ligetts Gap Railroad, which formed | the nucleus of the present Delaware, Lmka\\smm and Western system, was | chartered by the Pennsylvania Legis- Jature in 1832. , at the age of 85 years, | f the Lackawanna | thirty years he president of this railroad, and he oldest of the conspicuous railway men! in service. His knowledge of railroad- ing extends back considerably more | than half a century. He can remember | the time when the Lackawanna mén- | agement ‘“‘set about constructing a| model engine of gr power for burn- ing anthracite coal.” That was in 1853, | to ch very little hard coal, bad been used for fuel. Mr. Sloan can| aleo remember the early days of the ' Hudson River Railroad, for he helped] to build it, and after making it a ~=uc-' cess as its president he turned it mer| to Commodore Vanderbliit, who devel-| oped from it and the Harlem road the ' great New York Central system. | R Trom such smail beginnings the rail- | roads of the U'nited States developed | with gradually increasing rapidity un-| til now railroading is the greatest of al|| the mechanica! industries. Between 1830 | and 1840 about 2800 miles of rnnmad‘ were put in operation in this country. | In 1850 there were 9021 miles of road, the and.from that time on the mileage mul.‘ tiplied wonderfully fast. The Union Pa-[ cific Railroad—the first line to the Pa-| cific Coast—was, chartered in 1862, and | the Northern Pacific was chartered in| 1864. The construction of these two | roads forms a picturesque chapter of | this country’s history. A railroad building fever took posses- sion of the country after the Civil| War. Capital came here freely from | abroad and new roads were started in | every direction. The sparsely settled | agricultural States offered substantial' inducements to railway corporations, giving lands, county bounties anrll } producer and consumer. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 35, 1903. THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL JOHN D. SPFECK'ELS Proprietor . . . . . . umnwmu_pnumum Manager Z....‘.........Thhd and l-rkutltrutl, 8. F. Publication 0ifica® SATU RDAY .DECEMBER 35, 1903 THE WOODWARD LAW. HE CALL recently advised the complammg pro- T ducers not to assume that the Harbor Commission- ers were averse to the enforcement of the Wood- rd law. That law was passed in response to The Call's demand, made long ago and persistently ren;wed, that free market facilities be afforded in this city to both The Harbor Commission estab- iished such a market on a State wharf and carried out the law in detail by the issue of pefmits to commission siness on that wharf, coming into immediate w { men to do b ! contact with the producer. The Commissioners have now acted, not upon any in- formation publicly furnished by any producer, but. upon the complaint of a retail dealer that commission firms holding the State permit refused to sell to him at the market price or any price the produce required by him in his business. It appears in his affidavit that he does not belong to the retail dealers’ association and that his ap- plication for membership therein was rejected and that the wholesalers gave him to understand that he could not have any goods because he was not a member of the association which rejected him. In this information is developed the fact that there exist a wholesale dealers’ combination and a retail deal- ers’ combination and that one is bound by agreement only to sell to and to buy of the other. This means that no retail dealer can exist without the consent of these two combinations and that any retailer who resorts to lhe free market to buy at first hands of the producer is denied the right to buy anything of the wholesalers and is excluded from the retail dealers’ combine. There is no doubt that this inter-combination would be held unlawful by the courts as in restraint of trade. As long as it exists it entirely nullifies the purpose of the iree market as expressed by the Woodward law. The commission firms involved made a technical defense and their permits were canceled by the Harbor Commis- sioners and the Chief Wharfinger was instructed not to permit them to do business on any of the wharves, docks or property of the State. This action vindicates | our confidence that the Harbor Commissioners would enforce the law if given proof of its violation., It was five years ago there was not a single | township aid. The Federal Govemmpnu not fair to claim that they must assume the facts to exist, d in the country. It is o when continuous cation between New mile of rai fifty -ailroad comm only vea York and Chicago was established, v s only thirty-three years—a single geperation—since the conti- t was spanned iron way. 1 1830 there were only twenty- i of railroad ack in this and for sever: prior date the process of railroad ction developed clumsily and Englishmen, boasting of the nts of George Stephenson Newcastle owners in! ve achies and the perating serviceable cars on station- mine ¥ rails, came over here to show heir American cousins how to build and operate railways. Nearly all of the first. projects were utter failures, and there was much complaint on the | part of the early railroad builders of | he Jack of interest in their efforts manifested in the communities in hich they were working. When Lafayette visited this country 1824 there was some talk on the rt of his enthusiastic entertainers of ng him a ride on a real raflroad. This part of the programme had to be | omitted, however, because there was no railroad in operation. On April 2, | 1823, the New York State Legislature | granted a c rter to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company to' build a | canal and a railroad from the coal! fields of Pennsylvania to Rondout, on | the Hudson River. This company did | not complete its gravity railroad until | 1828. In the meantime a variety of | periments were de in New York, New Jersey, Pen vania and Mary- | Jand by men of wealth and energy, who foresaw that the old stage coach must give way to some mechanical means of transportation. One of the most ardent supporters of the railroad | dea at that time was the patriotic Colonel Stevens of Stevens Castle, Ho- boken. $ .o e ] The first rails laid were strips of | wood on crossties of timber and stone. | Subsequently thin strips of iron were ! held in place by driving stout pegs into | the ground at each end. The original railway car was a four-wheeled ve- hicle shaped like an ordinary road carriage and capable of seating four | persons. At first the wheels were grooved, but the groove speedily gave way to the flange. The locomotive of that period was practically a steam boller with steam chest and piston rod set on a flat car. A box or bar- rel filled with fuel occupied the rear part of this_car. Pine knots and hickory wood were chiefly used for fuel, a liberal supply of pine knots heing carried for danger signals when- | ever these primitive trains were rnn‘ at might. Many and wonderful have been the‘ improvements in raflway applhncefl and methods since then, yet the man| whoe ran with blazing torch ahead of | the slow moving coach motor per-| formed the same responsible duty that | the penetrating headlight, the electrical | block signal, the swinging umaphore. and the watchful trackman perforln[ now. Some of the locomotives built in the early '20's, before the advent of the | De Witt Clinton, when they ventured out after dark pushed a small platform car on which there was a wvessel of blazing material. This was the first| type of locomotive headlight. A loco- | motive in those days cost from $150 to! $200. Through a gradual process of evo- | lution the railway locomotive is now al- | most ag elaborate a plece of machinery | as the pertec!ed printing press, and its’ cost is in the neighborhood of $15,000. - S TS “The patriarch of the great railroad systems of to-day is the Baltimore and Ghio. This company was chartered in Maryland on February 28, 1827, and in Virginia the following March. Con- struction was begun in Baitimore with much pomp and ceremony on July 4, 1828. The work of building this road progressed slowly. After the first flush of enthusiasm the public interest in the | project died out, and oniy a few earnest men were left to carry it to completion. | logical agency of the wind as seen i | ial being swept off from | stand on narrow pedestals, only wait- | also distributed its lands liberally } order to stimulate the building of rBH— roads. The year 1871 was a recnrd-} breaker in railroad construction, nearly | 8000 miles being added to the 52,000 miles which were in operation in 1870. Overconstruction caused a crash and the panic of 1873 came, with its attend- | ant reverses and bankruptcies. Since | then a very large proportion of the railroads in this country have passed | through the costly experience “of insol-| . vency and reorganization, only. to emerge, however, into an era of great- er magnitude and more far-reaching prosperity than ever before known to | railroad men in any country. Dust Storms. BY GEORGE FREDERICK WRIGHT, A M, LL D ““The Ice Age in North America,” an and the Glacial Perlod,” etc.] i (Copyright, 1903, by Joseph B. Bowles.) l Our last article dealt with the gen-' TAuthor of its transportation of immense quanti- | ties of sand and the piling up in many | localities of great sand dunes. A still| more important movement in some rP-. spects is that of fine dust suspended in the air until it is carried long dis- | tances. Mr. Darwin describes one such | storm encountered by him near the Cape Verde Islands, which had been | brought 1600 miles from land. In 1846 a | dust shower passed over Southern| France which it is estimated deposited | fully 1,000,000 pounds of dust over a| | limited area. This dust contained in-| numerable minute shells of microscopic | organisms, which could be traced to the | plains of South America. Such dust storms are frequent west of the Mis-| souri River, where sometimes for days; | together the sun will be almost- ab- scured by the dust held in luspensmn‘ by the moving wind. The material has | béen swept off from the arid regions to! the west and is being slowly deposited | over the better watered region of the | east. H B B oa | The dust storms of Eastern Mon-i golia and of China have attracted the | attention of all travelers, the mater- | the arid | plains of Central Asia. I well remem- ber traveling for a whole half day! | through such a storm 150 miles west | | of Peking, when it was impossible to | distinguish objects half way across the road. The burial of whole cara- | vans in such dust storms,in which, however, sand was the principal in- gredient, is not uncommon. It is es- timated by Geikie that thousands of feet of soil have been removed by | wind over thousands of square miles of some of the arid plains drained by | { the Colorado River and its tributaries. Nor is the action of wind .limited to the removal of the loose dust which had accumulated upon the surface. But, picking up the particles of sand | and driving them before it, it pro- duces the sand blast, which polishes | the rocks against which it is drtven, | and often undermines ledges, so that they topple over. In many places in’ Wyoming and Utah large blocks of sandstone and limestone have been thus acted upon by the drifting sand ! about their base, until they seem to ing for a little more of this peculiar erosion to make them topple over. By | these constant sand blasts the sur- faces of many of the hardest mate- ! rials are etched into furrows and | wrinkles. The abrading’ and poll.h-; ing effect of wind blown sands has long been noticed on Egyptian monu- ments exposed to sand drift from the Libyan Desert. . . A frequent effect of wind blown sand is that of changing the course of | rivers. The sand dunes u:eumullt-} ing across the course of streams in' Southwestern Michigan and on' the coast of France present many illustra- tions. It will be found in the most of such streams in Michigan that their outlets have been obstructed by sand bléwn in from the southwest, so mz their mouths have been pushed grad- ually to the north, where they are | the officers in setting them right! | been done. for theit action under the law is judicial in its mature. The firms aggrieved by it can now lay an action in the courts which will test the law and determine the right of the Harbor Commission to proceed under it. We desire the producers to note carefully the fore- going statement and to consider that the proof was left 1o be made by a retail dealer and not by a producer. An incident of the trial was significant. An attorney ap- peared, claimed recognition and made this statement: ‘I protest against the attempt to turn this place into a courtroom. 1 speak for the consumers, the people who are being robbed every day by this produce combine. It | is not right to force any man to make a charge against his combine. As soon as he does this he is boycotted and loses his position. It is not for the small dealers to prefer the charges. It is for you Commissioners. to act.” i s This seems to us a preposterous proposition. Such 2 combine as appears in the proof submitted works harm ta two classes, the producers and the consumers. Inci- | dentally a retail dealer suffers by a system that is in re- straint of trade. But in the end all restraint of trade hurts only two classes, those who produce and those who consume. Qur contention was made and persisted in in the interest of the producer, as removal of restraint upon him brings supply and demand into natural rela- tions and relicves the consumer of artificial exaction. No wrong in this world arising in commerce and trade was ever righted except by the exertion and co-operation | of those who suffer from it. To say that it is not right for the Harbor Commissioners to ask any man to make charges is to say that those who suffer the wrong must suffer in silence and lift neither voice nor hand to help We regret that such a view is taken. To project it into jurisprudence would mean that the remedies of the law are vain things, as to invoke them it is necessary to prove that a wrong has The author of the injury will not furnish proof of it, for the law throws the burden of the proof on the sufferer, who must prove his injury. Every effort so far made in this State to secure the ! natural rights of the producer has either failed or been | made difficult of accomplishment by the failure of the | sufferers themselves to give proof or information upon which a remedy can be predicated. The Woodward<daw was a step larggly into the unknown, taken in the belief that wrongs existed for which a remedy must be pro- vided. We now suggest that an earnest cffort be made to get the producer and consumer face to face in the free market. If the decision of the Harbor Commission | stand it may be expected that the combine of the whole- sale and retail associations will be destroyed, and the ef- ! fect upon the producer and consumer will be awaited with great interest by both ¢lasses. T Japan and Russia have apparently decided to stop snmarling at one another and live iif that peace which is the child of mutual fear. It is surely China’s turn to have good cause for alarm, for both her nuhtan! neighbors may have seen the wisdom of despoiling her of what both want—her rich lands and revenu COTTON KITING. OR a week ears held the market as the highest F priced thing in sight, and one ear was sold for $5000, fixing the value of a pair at $10,000. There is some association between ears and cotton, for that material is used to plug them for protection against the blasts of winter. No sooner did ears go up than cotton followed and bulls and bears in the Cotton Exchange were soon by the ecars. The price reached was 12.59 cents pér pound, which is the highest cotton since the civil war. "There were pre- dictions that 25-cent cotton will soon be seen, but that seems hardly probable, since such a price would limit the use of the fiber. The Southern cotton planter finds himself approaching nabobery in these prices, as the rise catches the crop largely in the hands of the producer. As a rise in one fiber is felt by others it may be ex- pected that wool and flax will respond. When clothing. is high there is a tendency to econotmze in food and high cotton may cause low wheat. “This tmdgncy to equalize the pflces of staples is inevitable and is a process + by which the gains of production are equalized, and in a long run of vears the grower of fibers an& the grmr of wheat come out neck and neck. . Inoncaspect themttbuquemn is of some mpomflgc to California. Tt. is believed "that the accidents tg | by the award and paid it promptly, a great step forward in price. This State can grow as goodcotton as is produced anywhere except on the sea islands. This has been demonstrated, and if the Southern crop continue uncertain on account of frosts and unfriendly weather we may yet see a large part of the San Joaquin and Sac- ramento valleys devoted to cotton raising. When it was produced as a crop in Kern County the manufac- turers found it to be of a very superior quality. e ——— | Preliminary steps of preparation have been taken to | provide a fitting representation of San Francisco at the St. Louis Exposition. It is high time that such meas- | ures should be under consideration. Other counties of | the State have their plans well under way, and if we de- of sending 'a map of the State to show that we are on earth. E cient differences by a treaty of arbitration, thereby ! rendering the Continental balance of power of less importance in British politics, it is now proposed to re- | new the cffort to secure an arbitration treaty between‘ the United States and Great Britain. Such a treaty was | negotiated by Mr, McKinley and Secretary of State Hay, but was delcgted in the Senmate. Whed it was under consideration in the Senate there was offered the somewhat amazing spectacle of certain [rish members of the British Parliament opening head- qiarters in Washington to advocate defeat of the treaty. They were sought by United States Senators and their | interference and advice in a political matter domestic to | this country were influential in defeating the treaty. Since then the relations of England and Ireland have! become more amicable. The new land bill and the visit of King Edward to Ireland have mitigated much of the harshness that for centuries has characterized the rela- | tions of the two countries. It is therefore probable that a new treaty may be considered on its merits free from foreign interference. Viewed from the standpoint of American interests such a treaty is as honorable as it is necessary. The United States and Great Britain led the way in the arbitration of issues which had in them the smell of powder and the potency of war. When the Alabama claims went to the | Geneva court and Great Britain without hesitation abided AMERICAN-BRITISH ARBITRATION. NGLAND and France having compésed their an- | been too much for {lay much longer we might be forced to the expediency 'Lq“e"uy s optbes s & o | sounds of a suppressed excitement { ter which I felt assured | explosions at the powder was taken in the interest of peace and civilization. Since ! then the two countries have arbitrated the Bering Sea | status and Mr. Blaine's claim that it was a mare clausum | was decided against us and in favor of Great Britain and we accepted the award and promptly upon proper ad)uAl dication paid indemnity to the British sealers whosel property we had seized. Next followed the Alaskan; boundary, and to the everlasting honor of British justice and judicial character the Lord Chief Justice of Great Britain decided that in our favor. England is our only European neighbor in North America. We do not covet her possessions here, but ‘contiguity breeds friction and no wisdom nor foresight can predict whence nor when it may come. There are | uneasy and adventurous spirits in all countries, who fo- ment integnational trouble for the purpose of causing | war, a condition dear to the hearts of all disturbers oh peace and soldiers of fortune. The peace of these two great nations should not be left to the Dugald Dalgettys | of the world. If a solemn treaty exist pledging the two countries to substitfite arbitration for war the profes- sional distutbers of the world’s peace will have less temptation to cause a friction because it will lead to arbi- tration and not te war. From a proper American standpoint such a treaty, wisely phrased, respectful of the national honor of both | countries, is a proper object of patriotic desire. Progress and commerce, human happiness and its orderly pursuit | require peace and are hindered by war. Such a treaty secures for them stability, and to conclude it would be the crowning glory of American diplomacy. France and Great Britain found no insurmountable barrier to such an agreement, though the frictions be- tween them, Continental and colonial, have been numer- ous and constant and French prejudice had been recently active and virulent. Conditions between us since the Alaska award haves been especially inviting and both | countries should take advantage of them now withoutl waiting for a change. B After much solemn discourse and patient inquiry the Grand Jury at Honolulu has discovered that “graft” has been one of the systematic and highly successful elements of activity in the Hawaiian Legislature. One would sus- pect from the flutter of the press of the islands that a ! discovery of something foreign to affairs legislative had been made. The unexpected happens when no “graft” is found. Lo il SR 1 The uproar of the calamity howlers, raised in violence and antagonism to our glorious national institution, inter- collegiate football, has been silenced by the bludgeon of the statistician. There were only nineteen young men killed on the gridiron during the splendid season just closed, and reflect on the fun thousands of others had while these were dying. SRR b e s England’s warships are hovering on the Venezuelan coast again ready to force Castro to the realization of treaty rights. This may be fun for England, and it cer- tainly doesn’t disturb Castro. If England were wise she would leave Venezuela alone and live in revengeful hopes that she will decide to assist Colombia in her affair with the United States. % \ _— Adtniral Sigsbee is of the emphatic opinion that we need more-men for our navy. Can it be possible that this distinguished fighting sailor has neglected to observe that we also need a few machines of war that will not break down under the stress of a pleasure cruise? Some of our fighting ships appear to be- dangerous even as ornaments. ‘ Peary says that his next effort, to be made shortly, to | reach the north pole will be rewarded with success. H:s| is evidently one of those sublimely optunuuc dispositions | that does not need eXperience for an inspiration. Some day pel‘hflpsz may realize that an explanation of a fail- % : ure is not necessarily an argument for a victory. Captain Carter, out of jail, intends to fight for the! bonds which the Federal Goverament considers part of his plunder. Uncle Sam might retaliate by presenting a bill | against Captain Carter for his board and lodging during mm@thmleflfi. Impudence seems | employes about the building, with in- !worth the value of his position itselfi, | when he is sitting, dignity of the law istrate. {in singing. | “golden link of the crown.” TALK OI‘ THE ’li\OWl}‘!/ Ben Hur Outdone. “The death last week of Er- nest Sevier, the well known at- torney of [Eureka, Cal.,” said one of his San Francisco clients, “reminds me of a story he told me shortly before his death. ‘Those boys of mine,’ he said, ‘were always a fair 1ot as boys go, but lately the rich at- mosphere of Humboldt County has them. One of their duties was to lead the old fam- {ily cow daily to pasture. After the novelty wore off there was a scarcity of boys and the pastoral duty fre- Suddenly I no- ticed a change of heart and marveling much, I went on a tour of investiga- tion the next mornln}. “Some distance from the house came » that was unfathomable, till coming to a bend in the road, there burst on my view a scene that would distance the chariot race in “Ben Hur.” | Mounted upon an old horse was one of the boys, tearing along the road like mad, while alongside was my other hopeful proudly seated upon the back of the family cow, likewise charging along, in a race! We had plenty of butter at home and needed milk, so I immediately declared the race off. The usual parental couneil was quietly held in the woodshed, af- the cow would be led to her feed—at least for a few days—as walking gave promise of being less exertion for the boys than sitting on anything, especially a et In Decad Men’s Houses. Over there in Berkeley the college correspondents for the city papers often have to work harder to “make good" before the eyes of their watchful eity editors than many a seasoned reporter on the city staff. There is one story which has become classic. On the occasion of one of the annual works at Stege all of the representatives of the San Francisco and Oakland papers in Berkeley indulged in a mad race to b2 first on the ground, but after arriving at the scene of the accident they found that the officials of the company had absolutely forbidden any newspaper man to approach within a hundred ! yards of the wrecked building until they themselves had made a thorough investigation of the premises and were prepared to give out a statement con- cerning the prabable cause of the dis- aster. They even threw a cordon of structions to allow no one to enter who claimed to be from the press. Finding all entreaties and threats un- availing one of the crowd of corre- spondents, to whom every minute was suddenly disappeared down the road in the direction of Point Richmond. ‘Within a half-hour an undertaker from Richmond appeared upon the scene and was allowed to carry into the wrecked building three coffins for the unfortunate Chinamen w had been blotted out of existence. ardly had the anxious group of corfespondents again begun to pesiege the officials of the company when out from the ruined shed walked the wise youag reporter, with his camera under his arm and a beatific smile illuminating his coun- tenance. He had slipped some silver to the sordid undertakar and gone into the ruins in a coffin. Dignity in Peril. Judge Henry A. Melvin of the Su- perior Court of Alameda County is a great devotee of music. Possessor of a fine barytone voice, the jurist finds much enjoyment for himself as well as his friends whenever he uses his vocal talents. But Judge Melvin has a zest for his work on the bench. and is personified in the able young mag- The other day the judicial dignity was nearly overturned in confusion, all because Judge Melvin will persist His Honor was on the bench in his courtroom in Oakland in the midst of a serious legal argument involving important questions of tech- nical construction. With brow knit and lips pursed in much contempla- tion of the learned counsel's points, Judge Melvin did not observe that a voung and, sad to relate, very inex- perienced newspaper man had made his way to the bench. Tapping the thought burdened arbiter on the shoulder, the youthful newsgatherer said in a tone that filled the court- room: “Say, Judge, what are you going to sing Sunday morning at the Episco- pal church?” Teeland’s Quarrel. ““A political quarrel of more than thirty years’ standing between Iceland and Denmark has at last been set- tled,” says the Pall Mall Gazette. “The Jcelanders, who speak a lan- guage different from Danish—in fact, their tongue is very néarly that of the old Norse Edda—have incessantly contended that between that country and Denmark there could only be the In mak- ing this claim they went by ancient historical traditions of still greater ! freedom. Their claim was that there should be a special Minister for Ice- land, who should reside at Reykjavik and be a native of the island. “Hitherto the Danish Minister of | Justice was at the same time the Min- {ister for Iceland, and he, residing at Copenhagen, was not required to know the Icelandic language. This was held to be sore grievance, éspecially when the Althing, or Parliament, was assem- bled, and the Danish Governor at Reykjavik had often to correspond by letter from the often storm-bound isle, with the authorities at Copenhagen, there being no telegraphic cable. Now the Danish Government has yielded to the demand of the Icelanders and the Althing has given its assent to the . bill in question. As a curious fact, it , may be mentioned that the island, ! with a population of but 80,000, has lnupmnd-mnhm.ocmm and twenty-four members, each easily accommadatsd in an ordinary roem. As a raee the Icelanders are intellec~ tually much gifted, producing many learned men.” The Ring of the Anuil. ‘Whoever W. S. Harwood may be, he has some unpleasant things to say about California in The World To-day. Listen: “What these Californians need to do, winter and summer, is to quit talking about real estate, stop the everlasting civic strife, give over the thought that there will ever De great citles in this region, put the knife into all booms and splurges, and give themselves to a study of the question: How can we make our cities the most attractive cities on the globe? “Nature has given more than her share. She has put the splendid moun- tains in place, spread a noble blue sea at their feet, given a climate such as no other region on earth can match, winters and summers of equal beauty; she has provided for the enrichment and adornment of city and hamlet and country place. But she did not provide these real estate sharks, nor these slovenly, slouchy boarding-house keep- ers, nor these stuffy, ramshackle, down-at-the-heel apartments for rent, where festers the meanest and nastiest lot of furniture that ever escaped the junkshop and where disease lurks in its most dreadful form.” » Premng Need. The New York Tribune remarks that “that voracious and disgusting Insect known as the cockroach is no longer to be tolerated in the wardroom, pan- try, the captain’s cabin, the bread lock- ers of the crew or wnywhere else in the navy. An expert cockroach Kkiller has offered his services to eradicate the pesky good-for-nothing from all of the war vessels and the buildings at the Atlantic coast navy yards, asking a specific amount for each ship and naval station. His process for the killing of roaches is a secret one, but he has done some very effective work on some of the vessels. He will next try his hand at League Island, where the roaches are reported to be both troublesome and destructive. “lis original demand was $100 a ship. but the Navy Department has effected a compromise with him whereby the charges are reduced about one-half.” If that bug charmer can work on fleas, by all that is holy send him to California. Do You Believe It? Now the New York Tribune prints this story in all seriousness. With all due respect to our Arizona contem- porary we will not be held responsible for the tale. Here it is: “About four years ago, according to the Prescott (Ariz.) Courler, Charles Erwin paid a visit to the petrified for- est of Arizona, and while there left a large sombrero under the natural bridge near the falls, and in such a position that the water dripped on it. One side of the rim was pinned up to the crown and therein was worked with a cord the letters, ‘C. E' In this place the hat remained until about a month ago, when Mr. and Mrs. George Ruffner were visiting the place. Er- win gave them a description of the lo- cation of his ‘plant’ and thither they went and found the hat. A complete petrification of the chapeau had taken place. It was absolutely stone. Mrs. Ruffner brought it home with her and now has it, regarding it as one of the cholce curios of her many travels.” William J. Abroad. The Westminster Gazette of London gives dotice of the arrival of Willlam Jennings Bryan upon Albion’'s shores in the following: “That most interesting individuality W. J. Bryan, who is on a visit to this country, is only 43 years old. He first distinguished himself in America as an orator who advocated the tariff for revenue only. Ile was elected to Con- gress in 1890, and became a conspicuous supporter of the free coinage of silver till 1896, when he was nominated for the Presidency, to the surprise of everybody. Andrew Carnegie in criti- cizing his policy referred to him as ‘Bryan the conjurer,” but addeq. 'i{a and his wife are models of purity in their simple lives, kind neighbors and earnest in their desire to do their part toward making the world a little bet- ter” ™ 4 « edge in Oklahoma. The Geary (Okl ) Journal publishes the following: “Ome of our school teachers received (ke following note from the mother of ome of her pupils recently: ‘Dear Mis, You write me about whipping Sammy. I hereby give you permission to beet him up eny tim- it h necessary to learn his lesens. He is just like his father—you have to learn him with a club. Pound nowledge into him. 1 wante him to mt it t\:d 't no atenshen to what his ::t‘m‘:yyu T'll handle him." " ——————————— Look out for 79 4th. front of xey s cel, eys. house; best ey specs, 15-30c.* m.gndl Cllflotfl. glace fruits and tistic M D-th ‘ friends. 716 Market st.. lh'e Call bidg. * —————— Special information business houses and b iy Knowle f