The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, January 19, 1904, Page 6

HE SAN FRANCISCO' . CALL, T — - INSTRUCTIVE < T — [ P—— UCK WRIGHT, Glacial . Ete.) joseph B. Bowles.) 1sual observer the mOun-i mode of expressing | future etern “as long as | the world Even to the istronomer, with his most perfected | ir urement of both | L ¢ no variation in tk meter of e » earth or the | sun has been dis This, how- | ever, is not because no changes are but because they are so s0 short lived that they selves perceptible to ality there is no | ¥ in nature. Every thing changing. To-morrow wi not be like to- , and to-day is net vester hat were the con- | ion years ago and what | 2 million years hence are ers of conjecture. Still a enough to make specula- ing, if not perfectly con- tions a m they will b largely we have intere clusive. That the whole so ystem is pass- ing through chang which would ve made the world uninhabitable at | some time in the past, and will m: it uninhabitable in the future, follows from therecentlyestablished law of the conservation of energ) According to this law force is as indestructible | as matter. Heat, light, gravitation, electricit 1 all other forms of force are interchangeable without loss. The | force that runs a steam engine is transformed heat. The power de- | veloped by placing a wheel under Niagara is transformed gravitation, and in the ultimate analysis trans- formed heat of the sun. The water was lifted through evaporation to a | height from which it could fall and so transfer the force of gravitation acting upon it to a revolving wheel, which in turn transforms it into elec- tricity, which runs the streetcars of Buffalo and furnishes light for its| hails and homes. But every one knows that heat is not uncaused. It must have a source of supply. The coal bin is mot inex- haustible. The glowing stove will cool if there is not a constantsupply of fuel, The warming pan will not be of ser- vice long if its heat is not renewed. Hence we infer that the sun must be a cooling body; for heat is radiating from it at an enormous rate. Only a little of this heat is arrested by the earth. When we think of the scorch- ing rays of the sun which fall con- stantly upon the trop it seems as though it were a great deal. But when we reflect how small a space the earth fills in the solar system we shall bet- ter appreciate how great is the amount of heat from the sun which is con- stantly being wasted. S0 small is the world that where it receives one unit of heat from the sun -2,130,000,000 units go off into space to be lost for- ever. This brings us to the question, whence does the sun derive its supply of heat, and is that supply inexhausti- ble? Astronomers and physicists with | one accord tell us that its heat is not, inexhaustible, but differ somewhat in guessing what the source is. Some have thought that the sun was heated up by having a constant stream of me- teors falling in.o it. We knmow that whenever the motion of a solid body is suddenly arrested this motion is changed into heat. I have seen a cold piece of iron made red hot in a minute by the rapid lusty blows of a black- smith’s hammer upon it. Msteorites when they fall to the earth are always smoking hot. This is caused by the friction of the air. But if meteorites were falling through space thick enough to keep up the heat of the sun so many would strike the earth that it, too, would be red hot. % Allied to this theory is that of the de- rivation of the sun's heat from the con- traction of its diameter. The present size of the sun is maintained by the cxpansive power of the heat within it. But =as the rim slowly contracts through the constant action of gravi- tation the degree of heat is kept up, and indeed intensified, so that the sun is now hotter than ¥ used to be, but being also smaller does not radiate as much as it once did. It is estimated thet to produce the present amount of heat the diameter of the sun must con- tract 220 feet per ‘or a mile in twenty.five years—four miles a cen- tury. Though this is too small. an amount to have been noted by any “present means of measurement since accurate observations begun to be made, it is by no means an insignifi- cant amount, and-points to limits both dn the past and future, It is estimated that if all the matter in the solar system had been moving from the utmost bounds of space to- ward the center of the sun it would furnish hest at the present rate for only 15,000,000 years, But it is probable that formerly the radiation of the sun, when it filled much larger space than now, was greater than at.present. It is & rather startling fact that if the sun’s heat were increased by ‘much mare than one-half it would boil away all the water on the globe. As water is necessary to life on the giobe, Pro- fessor Newcomh, our great authority 2t Weshington, thinks that “the bal- ance of causes which would result in ‘the sun radiating heat just fast enough tc preseive the carth !n its present > H | similar from state has probably not existed more than 10,000,000 years,” and that this is therefore ‘‘near the extreme limit of time that we can suppose water to have | existed on the earth in the fluid state.” But, though the mathematicians in- ist that some such limit as 10,000,000 20,000,000 vears must be placed upon | the existence of even the lowest forms of life on the earth, geologists still con- tend for a longer’ lease of time. Rea- ing from the known rate at which ferms.of life change, Darwin and Lyell assumed that it must have been on the earth for many hurdred million years. Darwin, indeed, in his earlier editions of “The Origin of Species,” speaks of | 366,000,000 years as a mere trifle of geo- logic time. But the geologists of the present day are more modest in their demands, and would, apparently, be satisfied with 100,000,000 or *twice that! number of years. Alfred Russell Wai- | lace, however, from geological evidence calculates that 30,000,000 years is all that need be demanded for the facts | of geology. estimate is an interesting ope. Taking the thickness of the sedi- | mentary rocks at 117,200 feet, which is &n extreme estimate, and reckoning the ccast line of the globe at 100,000 miles, and that the sediment brought into the sea is depcsited on an average over a belt th miles wide, he finds that at | the present rate the total thickness of rocks would be formed within the above mentioned length of time, For, at the present rate of erosion of the comti- nents, the whole land surface of the carth is lowered one foot in 3000 years | and the sediment deposited along the shores of the continents. One foot from ,600,000 square miles (the land surface the earth), is equal to nineteen feet | deposited in 3000 years over the belt | stretching thirty miles out from 100,000 miles of shore line; 177,200 divided by 19 muitiplied by 3000 equals 28,000,000. Such is the reduction to the age of the world made by more recent investi- gations both of astronomers and geolo- gists. Assuming the truth of the nebu- lar hypothesis, Professor George H. Darwin obtained results remarkably | calculations. concerning | the relations of the moon to the earth. The moon produces tides upon the earth | and conversely the earth must pro- | duce tides upon the moon. As was long ago shown these tides retard the daily motion of the revolution of these bodies. The tides are equivalent to a wave on the earth about three feet high, strik- ing twice a day on the eastern shore of the continents. This has the same effect as a brake on a wheel, and im- perceptibly but surely retards its mo- tion. As the moon is much smaller! than the earth and hence has less mo- mentum, its motion has been affected much more by its tides than has that of the earth. Whereas, the moon once revolved on its axis very rapidly, it now | requires a whole month to revolve, and s0 keeps the same face toward the | earth all the time. By Darwin’s calculation it was shown that formerly the earth revolved on its axis once every eight hours, but was reduced to its present rate by the same process that has reduced the moon. At the time when the moon and earth were revolving so rapidly they | were much nearer to each other than now; indeed, so near that the tides they produced on each other were many times as great as those now produced; so great, indeed, was the tidal wave which then rolled over the world that it is hardly possible to suppose that any form of life could have endured the conditions. Going further, Darwin proved that the moon was originally thrown off from the mass of the earth by the in- creased centrifugal motion of the con- tracting sphere of the earth, as water is thrown off from a grindstone. Fur- thermore, by his calculations of the re- tarding influence of the tides, he proves that this could not have oc- curred less than 50,000,000 nor more than 100,000,000 years ago. All geologic time, therefore, must be brought much within these limits, for after the birth of the moon an immensely long period must have elapsed before the condi- tions were such upon the earth that life could have endured them. So that his calculations agree in a remarkable manner with those of Mr. Wallace and of Professor Newcomb. But 1,000,000 vears is a long time, and slowly working causes produce im- mense results within that period. As Darwin remarks, “Few of us know what a million really means. Take a narrow strip of paper 83 feet 4 inches in length and stretch it along the wall of 4 large hall: then mark off at one end the tenth of an inch. This tenth of an inch will represent 100 years, and the strip a million years.” Bearing this in mind, we shall appreciate the fol- lowing calculations concerning the great length of the geological periods even on Mr. Wallace’s estimate of the total length of geological time, and they will seem sufficiently long for all necessary purposes. Vigneite of Dickens. Charles Dickens, it was often said, was above all things an actor. He was indeed an actor, and a consummate one. He was never when in public what in the ordinary semse of the word is “termed natural.” I saw him again and again 2t these Guild meetings; I heard him address various public assem- blages, and I listened, I think, to each of his public readings, and in all he had consciously an ideal in his mind, up to which he may be said to have acted. His characters have been counted, and they run into hundreds and hundreds. He must bave created them as he walked and 1ode and conversed or mused. The situation in which he found himself for the time became an ideal one forth- with, and his part a part with the rest. I once saw him hurry forward.in St. James Square to help a policeman who was struggling with a desperate fel- low whom he had arrested for stealing lead. My friend Mr. J. C. Parkinson, well known to and much liked by Mr. Dickens, was with me, and we hast- ened to assist. I really trembied, for the man looked savagely at Mr. Dick- ens, and in another moment a blow might have fallen. “I'll go with you to the station,” said Mr. Dickens to the policeman, and he did. Even then his wvoice, his air, his walk made me think of some accompliched artist called upon to represent all this on the stage.— Cornhill Magazine W | the secret ceremonial and the ritual part of Mormonism THE SMOOT CASE. E regarded the first protests against scating Apostle Smoot as a Senator as idle, for the reason that it could not be proved that he was constitutionally ineligible. We adhere to that convic- tion. According to the requirements of the constitution lie is a citizen of the United States and of the State of Utah. He is cligible to a seat in the Senate. Since the first grounds upon which the denial of his seat was asked, there has been added the charge that oaths taken in the secret ceremonies of the Mormon church, in the “Temple work,” so called, conflict with a Mormon’s alle- | giance to this Government. This may well be so, since was enriched with the hatred that was caused by the per- secution of the church at Nauvoo and during the hegira. Reasoning simply from the conjunction of human na- | ture and religious fanaticism with such circumstances, we do not doubt that oaths and obligations went into the ritual that put the church above the state. But, even if the text of such oaths is revealed and put in evidence, we know of no way by which Congress can divest a man of his citizenship for taking such an oath. | The legal question involved is novel and of great in- terest. A man may be divested of his citizenship by conviction of crime. But Apostle Smoot has not been con- victed of crime, and no lawyer has yet said how a crimi- nal information or indictment can be framed against him for taking the secret oath with which he is charged. Crimes are statutory, and there is no statute defining the taking of such an oath as a crime, therefore no indict- ment can lie. Treason is defined by the constitution as | “levying war against the United States, or giving aid | and comfort to the enemies thereof.” But the statute of treason which enforces that provision of the constitu- tion does not include the alleged oath. As John G. Carlisle will present the case against Smoot, the popular knowledge will be greatly enriched by information on a subject involving an aspect of citizenship of the greatest interest. Passing from that phase of the question with the cer- tainty that he can be divested of eligibility to his seat only by divesting him first of citizenship, which can be done only by his judicial conviction of a statutory crime, we cannot overlook other issues raised in the apostle’s very diffusive defense. He, in effect, puts the Mormon church on trial in his rejoinder to the charges against A lawyer who reads it will be amazed that a lawyer wrote it.. The only issue raised which the Senate could act upon being the guilt or innocence of the apos- tle of the statutory crime or polygamy, the answer im- pleads the whole practice and policy of the Mormon church. It denies that polygamy is any longer sanc- tioned by the church, but admits that it is practiced by a few individuals on their personal responsibility and lia- bility to answer to the law. Now how can a Mormon make a polygamous marriage except by the sanction of the church? He must receive the church sanction and go through the, church ceremony. It is alleged that the present head of the church, Joseph Smith, lives with- five awives and has become the father of twenty-two children since the church manifesto receding from polygariy, which was the key that opened the door for Utah to enter the Union. The apostle’s answer makes it incumbent upon the Senate to inquire into the domestic arrangements of the president of the church. It is true that the document protests against any evidence being introduced except upon Smoot’s personal eligibility, and declares evidence on other issues to be irrelevant, impertinent and immatgrial. But he has not the power nor the right to limit evidence, having himself raised issues that are necessarily controvertible. He does this by denying that he has.ever countenanced, aided, honored or preferred any person who has violated the law. This makes necessary an inquiry by evidence into his relations to the president of the church, and in- quiry into President Smith’s alleged continued practice of polygamy. é It is evident that in the future we are to have a suc- cession of such issues as have been raised by the apos- tle’s election to the Senate, and that prospect should cause now the fullest examination into every question raised in his answer, and there should be a decision which will settle the permanent policy of the Senate. In the case of Brigham Roberts, the House blundered. Tt began by depriving him of his constitutional right to take the oath and his seat upon presentation of his cer- tificate of election, which is prima facie evidence of title. to the seat. This initial blunder made the subsequent action of the House valueless as a precedent. The Sen- ate is avoiding that error and will furnish a precedent useful to the country. - Apostle Smoot and the Mormon hierarchy do not un- derstand the sentiment of the country, which is that po- lygamy is morally wrong, that is malum in se and not malum prohibitum—wrong in itself and not wrong only because it is prohibited. Therefore the counh:y perfect- ly well understands that in the Mormon mind and teach- himself. ings there is a conflict between what the church con- siders to be moral and what the law and the Gentile conscience consider immoral. Under such circumstances it is well understood by the country that the church has the most powerful motive for controlling the politics of enough States to prevent polygamy being made a Fed- eral question, as it can be by an anti-polygamy amend- ment to the constitution. When they can prevent that they are at liberty to repeal the anti-polygamy statutes of a State and conform the law to their idea of morals. This is the great question at issue, and it is of equal gravity with the former question of slavery, which was domestic to the States until the thirteenth amendment made it a Federal concern. TO STRENGTHEN THE COMMISSION. S is well known to all persons interested in com- A mercial matters, there has been for a long time an urgent need for increasing the powers of the In- terstate Commerce Commission, so as to give it ample authority to deal with the abuses of railway management by which certain shippers are given advantage over others. The commission itself has, in its reports to Con- gress, repeatedly pointed out the need of increased pow- ers, and again and again has cited specific instances of violation of the spirit of the ’law, which it is at present powerless to punish or to prevent. For the purpose of clothing the commission with the needed authority, identical bills have been introduced in the Senate by Senator Quarles and in the House by Cooper of Wisconsin, directly conferring upon the ‘commission authority to determine, after full hearing of | all partfes in interest, what changes shall be made in.a rate complained of, or in any practice affecting the rate, or in case of proceeding for review within sixty days. Such - order is subject to review or modification by the commission at any time upon full hearing of all parties concerned. The justness and reasonableness of every order thus issued by the commission is made subject to review by the circuit courts of the Unifed States, upon a petition filed within twenty days. Pending report, the court may, if it deem proper, suspend the order. An appeal to the Supreme Court may be taken within thirty days, and cases under the act are given precedence over all except criminal cases. The bill ,is clearly a fair one, and thoroughly safe- guards the rights of transportation companies from any possible unjust ruling or ordér of the commission, while at the same time it gives the commission power to ren- der really valuable service to the community by the cor- rection of abuses which up to this time have escaped re- dress. It is to be noted that the authority thus given is by no means new, for it was exercised by the commis- sion for some time to the general satisfaction of the public. The right of the commission to exercise it was, | however, denied by the Supreme Court on the ground | that it was not expressly conferred by the terms of the | interstate commerce act, and since that time the com- mission has been powerless to prevent the wrongs com- plained of. The matter is one of great importance to well nigh every interest of the country, and the needed authority ought to be granted by Congress during the present session. — e TR a— The Korean press has unswung its goose quills and in language variously objectionable urges that all for- eigners within the confines of the hermit kingdom be killed as a lesson to the powers that are striving to make the nation a scene of disastrous war. Tt should be made manifest to the Emperor of Korea that he has too many editors with their heads in the wrong place. —— W the wind and in the flavor of pie at the official counter, are feeling around for an issue for this year the boom of Mr. William Randolph Hearst goes on booming like a whistling buoy. Already East Oakland was organized for him, with an ANXIETY RELIEVED. HILE old and weather-worn Democrats, sea- irresistible club of ten charter members, and the 'Steenth | Ward Club of Los Angeles had painted a transparency expressive of his public and private virtues and ascriptive to his statesmanship. But there was something lacking, long felt want, an aching void like that caused by an omitted lunch. His friends had noted, with pained sur- prise, that of his fellow members of Congress only three had declared for him. Judge Wade, the lone member of the party from Towa, in drawing seats got one next to Hearst, and in Novem- | ber had said to his constituency that to sit beside such an augustness was a greater honor than to have been elected to the opportunity. He has sat within catching distance of Hearst's statecraft and had every chance to get it if it is contagious, but now finds it necessary to go home and deny to his constituents in Davenport that he will support Hearst for the Presidency. He also says that Towa is hopelessly Republican and may as well follow the band wagon and not try to drive the team. This positive repudiation of his November attitude set | people to wondering. They asked themselves in whis- pers ii close acquaintance with Mr. Hearst dispelled the illusion of his greatness? What ailed him was what both- ered those that read in his newspapers that he is the greatest thing that ever happened in this country. Had they not read that he gave every constituent a turkey on Christmas; that he had gone out and busted the trusts | like they were egg shells; that he was mapping out the policy of the party in Congress, and that Senator Jo Bailey was merely a brazen trumpet through which Hearst's ideas reached the world? So what was the matter any way with this.phenomenon among the phe- nomenal phenomena of the world of statesmen? If he could not carry more than three votes in Con- gress, what could he do in the District of Columbia, where nobody votes at all? Surely the non-voting folk of the district see him come and go. They note the brazen statue of General Rawlins turn uneasily on its ‘pedestal as he goes to his daily duty up Pennsylvania ave- nue. They see the marble statue of Ben Franklin smile and bow to him As he goes by, while the nude female fig- ures at the base of the peace monument at the foot of Capital Hill call for the police when he approaches and the Jovian statue of Washington, shivering shirtless in the cold, cries out, “Eclipse, penumbra, shade, shadow and forgetfulness are mine. Hearsed am I, and Hearst doth bestride my fame!” and have hoped that these mar- vels would impress the people. Well, they have. We read in thé Examiner that Mr. James Bilkey of South Washington called his neighbors in to form a William Randolph Hearst Presidential Club. William Soar and Robert Head, Philetus Legge and Jef- ferson Davis Grub responded and the club flung its de- fiant barner and candidate to the breeze. We have not room for the eulogy pronounced by Mr. Grub. It may be found in full in Mr. Hearst’s papers. His modesty forbade him to give it to the Associated Press. It merely says what every one may run and read in the Hearst papers, to wit, that Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln were well- meaning people, but have been greatly over- rated in history, while Grant, Cleveland and McKinley were accidents and disgraces to their country. The Goddess of Liberty has waited ever since 1776 for a man of her size to take charge of the Temple of Free- dom, keep the plumbing in order, have the lawn mowed, stand off bill collectors, shake down the furnace and keep the place fit. Such a man has now evolved and is to be put at work at once unless the people wish to be serfs and perhaps worse. Of course his name in full is Wil- liam Randolph Hearst. This énds widespread anxiety. The leader of leaders leads in’ South Washington, D. C. His boom is real, it is earnest and the waste basket is not its goal. The movement will now proceed to spread with all four feet. Chamberlain is advocating his tariff reform campaign with a daily increasing insistence. The most serious dif- ficulty of the English people in connection with the mat- ter is to determine in their own minds if he be the re- former whose past warrants confidence in his predictions and promises of the future. 2 4 A S i The charges of disorderly conduct preferred a"gain:! ‘ Prince Cupid in Washington in conséquence of that for the transportation of persons or property, when it ‘young man’s ambitious effort to celebrate the coming of is found to be discriminative or unreasonable. It is pro- vided that the order of the commission prescribing a just | ‘and reasonable rate shall be operative within thirty days, o ! emulate us in it should be. We ought not to be hard on strangers who mi-mjz that ought to land anybody in jail. soned and scarred by the vicissitudes of many seasons and skilled in observing the direction of | ‘A Tale of Whiskers. Deputy Coroner Streightif over in Berkeley is renowned the county over for the fearful and wonderful growth |of whisker which adorns his official | countenance. It is waist-long, a fiery, ;uncompromlsing red, pugnacious. When Streightif presides at an obsequies the { beard leaves no adornment to be de- | sired. Recently one of the Berkeley corre- ‘spondenla for a city paper caught a | fleeting glimpse of Streightif with most Kci the whisker apparently gone; it seemed that some cruel hand had shorn him like Samson and only a mere wisp | of the former glory remained in mourn- | ful memoriam of what had once been. | Wildly the reporter rang up his chiet | with the startling announcement, | “Streightif's lost his whiskers.” Im- | mediately the message came back hot | over the wire: { from the city. Write a comic of at least 500 words—history of the whis- kers, how the college town mourns | their loss, etc.” | The cartoonist arrived and together | the two newspaper men went around | to the branch Morgue to interview and ! sketch the shorn deputy. Streightif had his back turned from the door when the twain entered. Merrily the i reporter hailed him. “Oh, Streightif, [we want to learn all about how you |1ost your whiskers.” i | The official gravely turned about and with one hand drew forth the flaming insignia from where it had been snugly | tucked away under his vest. “Young !man,” quoth the injured Streightif, “don’t you get too fresh.” — 2 - own hands at once to help the men t¢ manage the artillery, thereby saving “Will send a cartoonist 1 Lee's army at this juncture from de- feat.” The District School. ' T The old story about the dull school- boy reappears occasionally in new dress. A New England paper says that a Springfield school teacher received the following note from the mother of one of her pupils on Monday: “Dea: Mis. You writ me about whiping Sam. my. 1 hereby give you permission to beet him up eny time it is necessary to learn him lesens. He is juste like his father—you have to learn him with a club. Pound nolege into him. I wante him to git it, and don’t pay no aten- shion to what his father says. I'll han+ dle him.” An Il Wind. He and she drifted into the County Clerk’s office in Oakland, targets for the gaze of the curious. It was a 100 | to 1 shot they wanted the cupid bu- reau. To a newspaper man who spied the pair they figured for a story. The reporter approached them. Yes, they wanted to be married. They had run away from home and | had come to Oakland, but, alas, at the last moment the bridegroom learn- ed that a marriage license cost $2 and his pockets yielded only $1 05. “Tell you what I'll do,” said the re- porter. “If you'll come up the street with me and sit for your photographs I'll buy the license and will see that you are married without a cent of cost. And more than that, you shall be my guests at a wedding breakfast.” It was a way out of trouble that the smiling pair had not dreamed of. A nod from the miss settled it. Off | the reporter and his guests hurried. Quickly a photographer posed the bri- dal couple. That done, the newspaper man filled on his end of the contract, | bought license and got the services of a Justice of the Peace. After the wed- | ding the party repaired to a restaurant and celebrated. The following day a pretty runaway marriage story was given to the news- paper’s readers, but the secret of its getting has been buried until now. | Following the Leader. At one of the industrial establish- ments at the Potrero there is a rule that all men late in reporting for work must enter on a book fo. that purpose the reasons why they were late. It invariably happens that the first man { makes an entry that “his wheel broke { down’ or that ‘‘the car was stopped by an accident.” The men who follow use this excuse by marking underneath “ditto,” “ditto,” without stopping to | see_what the heading is. One morning recently the first man made an entry thus: “Wife had twins.” As usual the’ “ditto,” “ditto” marks followed, until the last of these entries made was that of the office boy, aged 11 years. March of the Muscovite. Ther';')s a quarrel on the Muscovite er, The legions are marching to war, Afar from the banks of the Neva, Upholding the Peace of the Czar. The Lust of the Ages is loosened, Fierce, unquenchable, wild— | A Mastodon beating the crust of the | world, A Lion that plays with a child. There's a_ storm rder, | . The flelds are covered with slain; The legions swing silently on Through the beat of the iron rain. Down o'er the Steppes of the Tartar— A vast. immeasurable horde On like the tides of winter, Upholding the Peacé of their lord. Peace, at last, on the Muscovite border; Hushed are the thunders of war. Back to the banks of the Neva | The legions are marching afar; The world looks or: in silence At the new King come in the land, | As Roman and Grecian and Saxon yvield i To the march of the Muscovite band. 1. a . . - » A Day not ours to see, Sir, But a gllmpse of the Ages to be; ‘When a Slav rules over the land, Sir, And a Muscovite rules o'er the sea. PAUL DU SHAY. on the Muscovite Longstreet's Bravery. A writer in the Atlanta Constitution gives some highly interesting anecdotes conccrning the life of General Long- street, the famous Con aderate leader, who recently passed away. Of Long- | street’'s. actipns at Gettysburg the writer says: “Every Confederate who ever saw , General Longstreet in battle ranks says that he seemed to be oblivious to dan- ger. As to the Gettysburg reports, Col- onel McBride said: < al- though a prudent and cautious fighter, ‘was not only always ready to fight, but he was always anxious and wanted to fight. On the second day he was not slow, but was simply putting himself in shape to do the bloodiest fight of the war. At least two-thirds of the casual- ties in America’s greatest battle hap- pened in front of Longstreet's corps. Reports show this. The records also show that he only obeyed Lee's orders 's horse's dismounted, nothing dismayed, and began with their Imu-mm Again from Indian Territory comes this good one: “The following remarkable essay on the horse is said to be from the pen of an Indian student: ‘The horse is g very noble quadruped, but when he is angry he will not do so. He is ridden on the spinal cord by the bridle, and sadly the driver places his foots on the stirrups and divides his lower limbs across the saddle and drives his animal to the meadow. He has four legs; two are on the front side and two are after- ward. These are the weapons on which he runs. He also defends himself by extending these in the rear in a parallel direction toward his foe, but this he does only when he is in an aggravating mood. There is no animal like the horse. No sooner they see their guar- dian or master than they always cry for food, but it is always at the morn- ing time. They have got tails, but not so long as the cow and such other like animals.” " Cat in Sick Ward. The London Mail tells the f~'lowing odd story of a cat at a receiving hos- pital: “‘Lady Gertie' is one of the model patients of the London Hospital. Sha is at present in the Sisters’ room in a children’s ward, and although she is only a subdued-looking black kitten with her tail in a white bandage, her admission is quite regularized by the fact that she has a ‘card,’ a tempera- ture chart and visitors. “A boy brought her to the receiving- room a fortnight ago, with the simple explanation that she had been run over by a cart, so pussy was given 4 card marked ‘P. F. O." (prepare for opera- tion), and was attended to by a house surgeon. “At first there was little hope of sav- ing the tail, which had been badly crushed, but bandages and boracic dressing did wonders, and Lady Gertie will only be abbreviated by about an inch and a half.” —_————— Answers to Queries. FISH—Subscriber, San Jose, Cal. It is impossible to tell if the supply of fish will ever give out. It is esti- mated that every square mile of the sea contains 120,000,000 fish. PASSPORTS—A. B. C, City. The laws of the United States prohibit the granting of a passport to any one not a citizen of the United States. A per- son who has only made declaration of intention to become a citizen cannot obtain a passport. HEAT—H. P. T, Alameda, Cal The human system can endure heat to 212 degrees, the boiling point, because the skin is a bad conductor, and on account of the perspiration ecooling the body. Men have withstood 300 degrees of heat for several minutes without injury. MAKING A SHOE—Subscriber, City. With improved machinery used in tfe manufacture of shoes it re- quires but a very short time to make a pair of shoes. During a recent Speed test in a factory in Lynn, Mass., a pair of shoes was made in thirteen min- utes. In that time the “raw material” was started and passed through the hands of fifty seven operators. MAIL—Subscriber, City. If a man accupied rooms in “a rooming house,” leaves and does not give any direction as to mail matter that may come after his departure, it is the duty of the person keeping such rooming house to write on the envelope or parcel oppo- site the address, the words “not at” and deposit the same’ in a mail box. Ne one is authorized to hold mail for any ane unless directed so to do. BALLOON—Reader, Oakland, Cal. The credit of having reached the high- est altitude in a balloon is given to Drs. Bersen and Suring of Berlin. They rose to » height of 30,000 feet, poth losing cousciousness for a brief interval. They continued to ascend to 33,000 feet, when one of them be-