The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, May 30, 1904, Page 6

——— i et | Bernhardt’s New Play. Special Correspondence ‘. — PARIS, May 18.—All Paris is talking ©f ““Varennes™ the long-anticipated historical drama by Henr! Lavedan and | G. Lenotre, which Sarah Bernhardt has just produced at her ®wn theater.| *“Varennes” is not as good a play as its predecessor, “The Sorceress,” by \'h"-j torien Sardou, which is to be seen in the United States mext season, but it| §& notable as reproducing with great| fidelity some of the most dramatic epi- | sodes that preceded the French Revo-| lution and because it gives Bernhardt | an opportunity to do some of the bes scting she has done in years. The play @eals with the flight and capture at Va nes of Louis XVI and his Queen, ghe ili-starred Marie Antoinette, a char. scter that will henceforth be remem- | bered as one of the “divine Sarah's” | finest creations. In it the great trage- | dienne, now a sexagenarian, shows that | sge has not one whit diminished her powers and that in the role of a young | woman she can still compel that tribute of tears which our ancestors freely paid her a generation ago. The first of the six acts is purely preparatory, Bernhardt making no ap- pearance in it. The scene is laid at the Hotel de Noallles, the residence of Gen- | eral Lafayete in Paris; time, June, 1791. | General Lafayette, the Deputy Barnave &nd Count Axel de Fersen discuss the rumors that the royal family intend to escape from Paris. Fersen, the devoted | but purely platonic adorer of thel Queen, has made all the plans for the | flight. Of course, he reveals nothing. But the plot has been discovered by Madame de Rochereul, a lady in wait- ing to the Queen, who is in love with | Fersen. Jealous of Fersen's devotion to ber royal mistress, ghe resolves to frus- trate the scheme that would bring | them together, and warns Lafayette. | The second act shows the flight from the Tuilleries, and Bernhardt makes her first entrance on the stage as the| imperious Queen, saddened by the shadow of her impending fate, present- | ing a etriking contrast to the King, | placid, phlegmatic, excellently acted by M. Chameroy. There is a touching scene when the roxal children are| ewakened and dressed by the Queen, who embraces them passionately. All Jeave sthe palace disguised—the Queen &s a governess to a Russian nobleman, the King as her attendant. At the last | moment the noblewoman falls ill and | her place is taken by the traitress, Madame de Rochereul. Fersen plays his part in the escape as a postillion on | one of the four horses which drags the famous “berline,” asspecies of Noah's ark on wheels, which the fatuous Louis insisted on having built for the purpose. Sainte Menehould in the evening is the scene of the third act, which pre- sents a series of vivid pictures. The suspicions of the crowd are awakened by the presence of M. de Choiseul's troops, designed to cover the King's escape, and the passage of a chaise in which Leonard, the court hairdresser, travels in advance with the Queen’s casket of jewels and her secret papers. Then arrives the immense berline. Drouet, the local postmaster, a typical revolutionary patriot, suspicious of everything and everybody, flashes his Jantern for 2 moment on the face of the King. Surely, he thinks, he has seen that face before. After the carriage has Jeft he scans a banknote. The face engraved on it is the same that was re- wealed to him by the light of the lan- tern—ihe King's. With a howl of rage Drouet dashes off on horseback for Varennes to arouse the town and stay the flight of the royal fugitives. It is at Verennes that the fourth act occurs. Drouet has arrived there be- fore the roval party. When the car- riage arrives and the occupants are compelied to descend, it is Drouet who questions them, Drouet who refuses to be satisfied, Drouet who tells the traveling lady’s “lieutenant,” the King in disguise, that he is very like “some- body else.” But Drouet's zeal would bave been bafed had it not been for the perfidious Mme. de Rochereul, who contrives to reveal an info, | Fersen, disguised, lifts his hat as the | | come upon the peoples of the Con- ity in the passport which &ffords grounds for delaying the progress of the party. Then is brought forward an old Royalist, whose loyalty com- pletes the betrayal. Recognizing the King, he falls on his knees, exclaim- ing “Ah, sire!” and kisses the royal band, to which the King replies with simple dignity, “Yes, I am your King,” and then, being bungry, sits down to while the indignant Queen displays her heughty 8lsdain and contempt for the rabble. She has still some hopes of escape. The royal cavalry may,ar- rive in time. But in its place comes the National Guard, dispatched from In the fifth act the spectators are suddenly transported from spectacu- man of dignity and tenderness, sym- pathetic, eager to help her. He im- plores her to do something to con- ciliate the people, to show some feel- ing for those to whom heretofore she has only exhibited contempt. The only hope for royalty, he assures her, | lies In abandoning those who had posed as its friends. She speaks scorn- fully of the “vile rabble,” refuses to be a party to the desertion, and in haughty sngsr summons Fersen and telis him what Barnave has proposed. He tells her that Barnave 18 right, and that if her safety can be won by the sacrifice of her true friends they will joyfully die for her. With the Queen between them the two men look each other in the eyes and read there the same secret. Fersen, when left alone with the | Queen, falls on his knees and speaks | of his love. For a moment she is the Queen again, then the woman in her asserts itself and she bursts into tears. “To have loved thus in vain, cries Fersen. “Not in vain” the Queen sobs, and bids him leave her | now that he has learned he has not | loved alone. r { The last act presents a brilllantly | staged picture of the return of the | fugitives to the Tuilleries. A crowd | hangs about the gates, indulging in ribald jokes. Placards are displayed | bearing tire historic inscription, | “Whoso bows to the King shall be | beaten, whoso insults the King shall | be hanged.” A grim silence falls on | the mob as the coach drives up, but heir looks reveal the hatred to which s yet they fear to give utterance. Only | ’ [ { coach enters the gates, and the curtain falls. No Alliance for Kitchener. HEADQUARTERS OF THE CALL, 5 HENRIETTA STREET, CQVENT GARDEN, LONDON, May 18.—The good old rumor that Daisy Leiter and Lord Kitchener have become engaged to be married has been | revived again among the London club gossips. It was reiterated i yesterday with so much circumstance, | in spite of previous denials, that I| telegraphed to Lady Curzon, at Denl.? asking her to give you, a decisive word | on the subject. She did so with enough lucidity to satisfy any one, Here is her | answer to my telegram: *“Not the | slightest foundation for the report you | menuon."‘ Surprised Europe. It is quite clear that the recent bril- liant successes of the Japanese have tinent as lightning from a clear sky. The comments of the foreign press display an amazement not a little sur- prising to the Englishman who has| been accustomed for years to look | upon the Japanese as a great nation. | In this matter the British people have been well served by the press and by their instinct of travel. They knew Japan; the Continent did not. While Frenchmen and Russians appear but yvesterday to have regarded the Jap- anese as a race of uncivilized and, timid dwarfs, the English have been able to appreciate the intense strenu- ousness of purpose and heroic aspira- tions of this gifted people. An Asiatic power ourselves, we knew of -vhat | things the Ghoorka was capable, and the Japanese, it has been well said, | are “Ghoorkas with brains.” Eng- land would rather have been surprised | if her ally had failed in this war, forlf her seamen and soldiers since the alli- ance have been in close and intimate relation with the Japanese. In France it is becoming recognized that the task before General Kuro- patkin is one which no general, how- ever great, could accomplish. The organ of the French general staff, the | Echo de Paris, declares that the longer | General Kuropatkin delays the graver | will be his peril, and that not the Japanese but the Russians are in dan- ger of being cut off from their base. The conclusion is correct, but it is evident that it comes as a terrible shock to Frenchmen, who have always | believed in Russian invineibility. They | are loyal to their ally, as we to ours; | but they might well remember that even if Russia has to recoil from Man- | churia she yet remains a very great. power, and that what she sought, when she refused in February to ac- ' i cede to the reasonable requests of | Japan, meant the virtual dulructlon“ of Japanese independence—the end of & Japan not only as a great power, but as a self-governing state, and the sub- | Jjection of all Asia by Russia.—London Mail, Wiiliam the Worker. The Emperor of Germany usually | rises about 5 o'clock, and is generally | to be found in his workroom at 6. First | there is served to him a cup of tea or | bouillion and a sandwich. Then, light- ing a cigar, he reads over such clip- pings from newspapers and magaszines published all over the world as are. deemed worthy of his attention. At 7' o'clock the Emperor is ready to receive the reports of his adjutants and the ministers of state, and to this work he ' usually devotes some three hours. ' ‘When the person who is to have an' audience is admitted to the room and makes his bow, the Emperor, who re- ' ! tion, which is the number of small banking establishments | hind that of last year. | rather below that of last year owing to the cold, wet are all right. MONDAY, MAY 30, 1904. THE SAN FRANCISCO MRS SS R lh SS TBATE S O i ARt IR RN, AL McNAUGHT, Manager JOHN D. SPRECKELS, Proprictor « » « « « « « « » + Address All Communications to JOHN Publication Office ........... .Third and Market Streets, S. F. MORDEY . i int it sdaessis ks SR IRt B 20 Si d onas g aioh S5 EMS siesh s st iyt o od COILY: 30 . DIOE TREND OF TRADE. N many respects last week was the most unsatisfactory l one yet since.the current recession in trade com- menced. The reports were almost uniformly un- favorable and included some features which are not at all liked by the financial interests. Chief among these is the steadily increasing abundance of money, which is now a drug in the market, For several weeks currency has been flowing from rural districts into the large trade centers and thence into New York. This tide, which became evident a short time ago, has now grown to large proportions. It is taken to indicte a falling- off in business in the country at large, as the decrease in trade is diminishing the de- mand for funds in corresponding degrees. The currency redemption of bank notes at the New York sub-treasury thus far in May is running at the rate of nearly $1,000,000 per day. Ordinarily much of this money would, find its way into investment in standard railway and industrial shares in the stock market, but very little of it is fol- lowing that course now, for there is no disposition to invest in angthing which bears the Wall-street brand. People are leaving stocks alone, but the large and growing accumulations of capital must be got out into circulation somehow or other to earn something for their possessors, so they are being employed in gathering in blocks of reasonably safe bonds. This is, illustrated by the demand for the recent Russizn and Japanese loans, the New York City bond issue of $37,000,000 and the subscription of $167,000,000 for $35,000,000 Cuban bonds, taking the aggregate as subscribed in this country and Europe, for this country is not the only one by any means that has a surplus of funds. The fact is, Eng- land and France aiso have large lines of funds to spare. The gold holdings of the Bank of France, with last week’s increase of $28760,000, have risen to $546,860,000, which is far beyond anything in the previous history of the bank, according to statements received from New York. There is another unfavorable feature attracting atten- which’ are suspending here and there every few days. None of these institutions are large and they are mostly in country ricts. but they are good representatives of the condition of business in their different sections, and this new condition is therefore being watched by the larger financial interests of the great cities to which these institutions are tributary. Still another unsatisfactory condition is the continued decline in railway earnings, which- has become a set- tled current, and which, with the reductions in expendi- tyres by the railways, is taken as a convincing affirma- tion of the decrease in distributive trade throughout the country. The decrease in these earnings is slight, being only 3.3 per cent in May compared with the same month in 1903, but it is its continuity that gives it its importance. The steady decrease in the bank clearings is also at- tracting attention. The decrease last week was 14.6 per cent, compared with the same week in 1903, and every city of importance in the country except St. Louis and Minneapolis was on the wrdpg side of the exhibit. The former city showed an increase of IT pef cent, but this is a local condition, explainable by the exposition, which is bringing a good deal of cash into the town. Minne- apolis has been reporting rather more demand for flour | during the past week, which probably gives that place its small gain of two per cent over last year. The failures for the week were 226, against 206 last year, but included none of serious importanee. Commercial reports last week called attention to a perceptible increase in jobbing and retail business in many sections of the West, owing to ‘mproved weather, though thé movement of merchandise was admittedly be- The same improvement in the weather helped the cereal crops along materially and gave the crop prospects of the country a brighter aspect. It looks now as if we were to have plenty of money and grain during the rest of the year, though there will be no overproduction of the latter, as the general aggregate of the crops, according to current estimates, will be and backward spring. . £ The industrial conditions are not making a very-fa- vorable exhibit. Many of the leading industries show a gradual slowing down, with frequent closing of factories here and there and an increasing number of men' losing their employment. Some woolen and footwear mills are reporting conditions rather better, and raw wool has been moving off very. well of late, but more idle cotton machinery is reported. The staples show very little variation from conditions which have prevailed for some weeks. Provisions con- tinue in large supply all over the country, and while a better buying demand at Chicago has been observable, little confidence in its continuance is expressed. The iron and steel trades continue to send in poor reports, | and conditions in this industry are vastly different from those which prevailed last year and for several years pre- vious. Buyers now find no trouble in getting prompt de- liveries. In fact, the trouble now is to find buyers enough to deliver to. 8 As already mentioned, the three Pacific Coast States | are thus far showing very little of the falling off in busi- ness characteristic of the situation over the mountains. We have this advantage, and it .15 fair to stay with us indefinitely, that we are the supply area for a great deal of produce used by the Orient, particularly when two of its nations are at war, as at present. They want our grain, hay and other forms of feed and forage, and they will continue to want them, which we will find a very important factor in our coast business henceforth. This imparts a good deal of confidence to financial and trade interests and makes the outlook for us very cheerful. As long as we can supply large quantities of our field produce to the Orient we need not look for any serious hard times, tough those lines which depend upon the East will of course sympathize with the rise and fall of trade conditions there. At present some complaint of | less demand for goods is heard in the wholesale districts, but it must not be forgotten that summer is now practi- cally upon us and that midsummer -is always a quiet period, even when business is lively. We on this coast RAILROAD DISASTERS. N the June number of The Reader Magazine, Fran- l cis Lynde, an ex-railroad machinist, conmstruction - manager and all-round authority upon the operation of railroad schedules time cards, contributes an article upon the causes of of life on American, rail- roads, which contains some very sane reflections upon the proportion of railroad wrecks that are due to incom- petence on the part of employes. After admitting that the best governed of railroads cannot always take pre- Y v cautions against accidents due to natural causes alone, | Lynde has something to say regarding the fatal results of criminal negligence and inattention on the part of cMployes whose hands are heavy with the responsibilities of human life placed in them. v “Here and there,” says Lynde, “in the list of accidents caused by sheer inadequateness on the part of the human agent is the wreck due to criminal negligence. The man who ‘thinks’ he is right does not mean to take chances; his intentions are good and may lack nothing but the priceless quality of thoroughness. But the man who de“berntely ieop;rdizes the lives of others rather than endure a little personal discomfort or take a little extra trouble is a moral as well as a mental degenerate and the adjustment of his case asks for the impaneling of a murder jury.” The writer<goes on to assert that such cases can only be weeded cut when public sentiment demands a rigid enforcement of the law in the punishment of offenders or when the railroad itself exerts such a fine power of discretion in the selection of its employes that the admission of such a man to service on its lines will be impossible. This latter remedy can never enter into effect until the railroads establish regularly graded schools for the training of their operatives, just as the Northern Pacific has a college for the instruction of its corps of clerical workers. At the present time the man who is taken into the employ of the railroad straight from the farm or the shop has to work out his owa salvation in the way that seems to him the easiest; there is no delegated central authority to have direct supervision over his training, and his competency or oth#wise cannot be fully determined until he is brought face to face with the test. The other check upod railroad disasters due to crim- inal negligence that Lynde mentions—the rigid inquiry into the causes by the law and the punishment of offenders—is the surest safeguard as long as the present conditions. of employing operatives ‘ohtain. Too often the power of the railroad over a country jury, either actually exerted or greatly feared, brings about a careful glossing over of the facts of the case in their findings | and the power of punishment remains solely with the | railroad. Qur grim roster of 8000 odd killed every year in railroad travel must surely call for remedial measures of no uncertain character; the Coroner’s jury called to sit upon cases arising out of disaster on the rails is not the least factor of prevention that needs strengthening. ————— In a report recently submitted by investigators to the Board of Health the assertion was made that whatever other conditions were found to obtain in the dairies of the city the water supply was invariably discovered to be plentiful. Time, labor and expense might have been avoided by tasting some of the “milk” we buy. If our dairies were blotted from existence Spring Valley and a chemist would show us that we had lost nothing. PRESIDENT AS MEDIATOR. DVICES from Washington statg that Secretary A Hay has sent to the courts of St. Petersburg and Tokio, through our respective Embassadors at those places, informal notice that the President of the United States stands willing to tender his good offices in the services of peace when the moment for such action seems auspicious to the warring powers. Secretary Hay, though couched informally, is, in the usages of diplomacy, definite and indicative of the strong desire on the part of this Government to play the part of mediator. This is pre-eminently a good stroke on the part of Hay and the President. It must carry conviction to the court of St. Petersburg of the strict fairness and impar- tiality which our Government maintains in the present war, and it must assure the Czar's Ministers of their mistake in reckoning with anything but unswerving neu- trality on the part of the United States. To Japan the offer of our good offices can have no ulterior meaning and can bear no more significance than it has in the eyes of the Russians. Viewed strictly from the standards of diplomacy the United States is in a better position to offer itself as a mediator than any other power. We have no treaties of alliance binding us to either of the belligerents. We have no pacts with China save those relatjng to the regu- lation of trade and the freedom of her open ports. No past diplomatic act of ours allies us more closely to one of the warring nations than to the other. Our interest in the destinies of the East and the control of the Pacific is no stronger than that of England, of France or of Germany. Not an inch of territory on the mainland of Asia is ours either by treaty rights or by conquest. From the viewpoint of landed interests, then, we are absolutely without the circle of interested nations; the future of the Asiatic trade has no more momentous significance to us than to any of the other maritime nations of the world. When the time comes for peace preliminaries the lead- ihg powers of Europe manifestly cannot play the part of the dove. England. bound to Japan in alliance, France tied to the Russian cause, are disqualified. Ger- many is resting under too strong a suspicion of being an “honest broker” in affairs of the Far East to gain the confidence of Japan at least; Russia would probably gladly delegate the Kaiser to act as his peacemaker. Italy is in too delicate a position with regard to her own status in the sublime concert of powers to attempt any such delicate role as that of tribune in the war game. Austria has joint interests with Russia in the Balkans that would not make for impartiality in judgment. Of course peace is probably a long way off in the Orient. Neither the United States nor any other nation is likely to be called in the very near future to be the bearer of the olive branch. To the favorable impression of Hay’s joint note to the powers on the limiting of the field of war there will be added, however, further respect on the part of our friends across the water for our diplo- matic finesse in thus offering cmrs;xvei as arbiters. Hay's last note adds strength to the already stable prestige of our diplomacy. ‘The spirit of American progress and push and political sagacity in Hawaii will not down. The voice of the re- former and of the defender of other systems and ideals 4s as the chiding wind and the march of the new life is unimpeded. Another high officer of the Federal Govern- ment, but lately retired, has been accused of embezzle- ment. \ ——— By one of the freaks that now and again distinguish Russian diplomacy all the ports of Eastern Siberia have been opened to the trade of the world. If the warriors of the Czar continue as they have thus far progressed the world will probahly negotiate with Japan and not Russia for trade priviloges in the Far East. The note of | [ PALK_OF THE TOWN | A True Story. “Broadside Bill” they call him along ! the water-front. He is an old man-o'- | warsman of the days before the levi- | athan battleship was the vogue among | Uncle Sam's fighting fleets. Bill is fa- | ther to many a forecastle yarn, and he }!pinl his astonishing tales with a fa- | cility that would appeal to the hearer las carrying the impress of truth unle§s ! he knew old “Broadside” as well as his !mateys do. Here is one of William's | best: ¢ | “We was off the coast of Chile in the !trinte—well, never mind her name— ! and ran into a calm streak. For three ! days we didn’t logjan inch, and the ‘old | man’ was getting mighty hot. It seems he had important papers fer our Con- sul at Valparaiso. “The fourth day broke and still not |a breath of air. The ‘old man’ was | storming and raging around the quar- | ter deck In the second watch, when ail fc.l a sudden he halls the officer of the deck. “‘See that, says the cap'm, point- (ing over the port bow. “‘Aye, aye, sir,’ says the officer of | the deck, looking at a great big whale | | that was rolling easily in the glassy sea. * “That saves us,’ says the ‘old man,’ { shouting, ‘Clear away a boat and get {a lne on that whale." £ l “All in a heap of surprise the officer |ot the deck passes the word along. | Bo'suns come a-stumbling. A big haw- ser is hauled forr'd and away a boat’s | crew, me along, goes after that whale. | We buoved a line around the big feiler | and made it fast with a couple of half | hitches. The other end was hitched !around the foremast. | “‘All ready, sir,’ the cry went aft, | and then the ‘old man’ says: “ ‘Fire a shot into it meanin’ the whale. A marine let go his musket and the critter wakes up, and with a biow it starts off. As soon as the hawser was ! taut, the ship begins to move. You | wouldn't believe that bloomin’ whale towed us plum’ Into Valparaiso harbor, would you? Well, that's just what | happened in '64 down on the coast of { Chile.” To Science. | You taught me all, for once on love's high altar I bled a heart that broke before it i died. Once when I found a wounded doe I shot her; Licking my hand, she cried. she whinnied and - Once when a rose was nodding up above me, Safe in its nook and high above the street, | Ruthless. I plucked it, dripping with its I dew-tears; | _ After inspection I crushed it beneath my feet. Once in the north a bear I found and killed her; Two tiny cubs were pawing at my thigh. Once in the south a buterfly blew on me; Also it fed your fires that never die. : No pleasure now I take in crimson sun- sets, | _ Nothing below and nothing up above; | Bartered to you is all of my en?oyment. ' And the price paid is loss of all I love. -Dan McLaughlin. Mrs. Wong Kai Kah. The woman who will do the honors at the Chinese building at St. Louis is the wife of the Vice Imperial Com- missioner, Wong Kai Kah. Mrs. Wong | accompawied her husband to America in time to have a hand in the arrange- | ment of the Chinese exhibit. Indeed, to | Mrs, Wong almost entirely was left | the decoration of the interlor of the | building. It is built as prescribed by ! Chinese custom when a member of the | imperial family is to be the occupant, | for the Imperial Commissioner, Prince | Pu Lun, is no less a persondge than { the nephew of the Emperor. Mrs. Wong could not speak English when she landed in San Francisco, but she is gradually overcoming this diffi- (enlty. She is a keen observer of the social conditions and customs of the United States, hoping to make her visit ! one of profit to her countrywomen as well as to herself. She is a little-foot woman, because her feet were bound gvhile she was yet too young to have a voice in the matter. On thils, her first visit outside of China, she has become even more fully aware than she was before of the disadvantages of the cus- tom, although she had long since given over the absurd tradition of her class and made declaration of independence by leaving the feet of ner daughters unbound. Already she has voiced the wish that the women of China should be kept less closely at home, that they should travel more and study things of which they now know nothing. Mrs. Wong believes it quite important that women should study music and embroidery and house decoration, in all of which arts she is herself quite accomplished. It was because of her knowledge .of house decoration that she was intrust- ed with the interior furnishing of the Chinese building at St. Louis.—The World To-Day for June. _When the Tongue Falters. ‘Winston Churchill’s recent break- down in a speech in Parliament re- calis to the English press a similar Japse of memory on the part of a member named Sheil, in the House of lCommmu. Sheil was commencing a carefully prepared sentence with the word “Necessity,” when his memory deserted him. He repeated “Necessity” three times, and then Sir Robert Peel mischievously added: “Is not algays the mother of invention.” A corre- spondent of the London Daily Mail gives some instances of lapses of mem- ory that came under his own obser- vation as follows: “I was once stay- ing with a distinguished divine in Yorkshire, the author of several vol- umes of poems and other literary works, and he, too, himself' in the Lord's Prayer. oreover, he could not ‘recover himself’ when he recommenced. /I was once attending a down, and the class had to be dis- missed.” A Marine Brake. The Canadian Government has been investigating a method of stopping ves- sels, which is the invention of M. Louis Lacaste{ In the ordinary ship, stop- ping is rather a slow process; the en- gine must be stopped and reversed, and meanwhile the ship is forging ahead, perhaps into another vessel. The in- vention of M. Lacaste consists n placing along the sides of the ship a large number of vanes, which, whiie the ship is in motion, lie flat along the sides. When it is desired to stop. these . large vanes can be released, and they will stand out from the sides of the vessel, causing an enormous drag. In some experiments, conducted in the St. Lawrence River, the boat on which the experiments were made was stopped in its own length, from a speed of eleven knots. It seems evident that. if this system is practicable, it should be an immense safeguard in case of i minent collision, for in nearly every case the danger is sighted several ship- lengths ahead, but too late to stop with the present applianees. — Collier's Weekly. Expensive Target. Target practice is obviously a sub- Ject upon which most nations are si- lent as to details, and, therefore, very little has been made public concerning a most remarkable target practice held by order of the French Government off Toulon. The turret of the battleship Sufiren was subjected to the fire of two shots from a 9.2 inch gun of the Massena. A battleship in commiSsion fully manned and equipped, represent- ing millions of dollars, was thus delib- erately made a target for another ship. The idea was to ascertain what would be the effect of impact of shots upon the turret of a modern battleship. The range was short in order to minimize the possibility of not hittipg the tur- ret, and the turret was cdvered witn additional plating so that there was no risk of penetration. The report of this test was not given out.—The World's Work. Divorce in England. A fact that May have considerable significance in connection with the di- vorce problem has just been brought to light in the English official record of judicial statistics for 1902, namely, that out of 10350 suits in that year for dissolution of the marriage tie 415, or nearly half, were cases where there had been no children by the marriaga That children form a strong tie to bind parents together is a fact of common knowledge, but that childless marri- ages in themselves tend to the divorce court seems a falr inference from these statistics. » Answers to Queries. LIMITATION—A. F. E, City. In California the statute of limitation on an open account runs two years. WHITE HEATHER-C. F. Z, Bit- terwater, Cal. The novel “White Heather” was written by Willlam Black in 1885. RAPID FIRE—O. H., City. An auto- matic Colt revolver may be fired as rapidly as the individual using the same can pull the trigger. INTEREST—O. H., City. In the State of California the legal rate of interest is 7 per cent. Any rate may, however, be charged, according to con- traet. CHICKERING—Subscriber, City. Jo- mas Chickering, who in his day was a famous piano manufacturer, was a na- tive of New Ipswich, N. H,, born in 1798, died in Boston in 1353, He was the son of a blacksmith, learned cabinet- making, developed a musical turn, learned the art of making planos and then started for himself in 1823. AUSTRALIA—J. H. C. A, City. The whole continent of Australia from south to north was explored in 1862 by McDouall Stewart opening up the Al- bert River, the Finke River, the Mac- donnell ranges, the Ashbuton ranges, ete., altogether a quite practicable route across the continent, through a fairly continuous, though narrow, belt of upland and streams, a route utilized in 1872 for telegraph lines with fixed stations. The route was from Adelaide to a point west of Chambers Bay. This has always been looked aipon as one of the greatest and most successful of all Australian explorations. CALIFORNIA, SOUTH DAKOTA— D, City. The grounds for divorce in Cal- ifornia are: Violation of marriage vow, willful desertion or neglect one year, habitual grunkenness, felony, cruelty. In South the grounds are: Vio- one year, felony, cruelty, habitual intemperance. ‘The reason so many people went South Dakota to cbtain a divorce w:: on account of the easy manmmer in which actions were instituted and de- crees granted. - ——— Townsend's Californfa Glace fruits mwu—m&u—u” tnformation datly to R