Bellefonte, Pa., April 2, 1897.
THE WIND OF MARCH,
Up trom the sea the wild north wind is blowing
Under the sky's gray arch ;
Smiling, I watch the shaken elm-boughs, know-
ing :
It is the wind of March.
The stormy farewell of a passing season,
Leaving, however rude,
Or sad in painful recollection, reason
For reverent gratitude. ‘
Welcome to weary hearts its harsh forewarning
Of light and warmth to come,
The longed for joy of Nature's Easter morning,
The earth arises in bloom.
In the loud tumult Winter's strength is break-
ing ;.
1 listen to the sound,
As to a voice of resurrection, waking
To life, the dead, cold ground.
Between the gusts, to the soft lapse I hearken
. Of rivulets on their way;
"1 see these tossed and naked tree tops darken
With the fresh leaves of May.
This roar of storm, this sky so gray and lower-
ing
Invite the airs of Spring,
A warmer sunshine over fields of flowers,
The bluebird’s song and wing.
Closely behind, the Gulf's warm breezes follow
This northern hurricane,
And, borne thereon, the bobolink and swallow
Shall visit us again.
And in green wood-paths in the kine-fed pas-
. ture
And by the whispering rills,
Shall flowers repeat the lesson of the Master,
Taught on his Syrian hills.
Blow, then, wild wind"! thy roar «hall end in
singing,
The chill in blossoming ;
Come, like Bethesda's troubling angel, bring-
ing
The healing of the spring.
: —By John Greenleaf Whittier.
SUPPLIANTS FOR RAIN.
It was a terrible dry day. The spring
rains were mere sprinkies and the young
grass turned yellow in May. Day after
day a hot wind blew from the west, scorch-
ing the blades of corn and drying the ponds
into black, cracked-earth basins. The cat-
tle in the fields huddled together with
drooping heads and lolling tongues ; the
wind made a great thirst which was un-
quenchable in the brackish water to which
they had excess.
The farmers looked forward gloomily to
the time when even this should be gone
and measured their wells every morning
with hearts that sank as did the water.
The windmills whirled as industriously as
ever, but the pump spout, vomited a thick,
yellow liquid from which even the swine
turned away in disgust. The bored wells
were surrounded from daylight until even-
ing by farmers who had come with barrels
on sledges and waited patiently for their
turn-at the pump. , Men who had sneered
at ‘‘druv wells” in a rainy state like Il-
linois now begged humbly that they might
haul water from them.
The planted seeds blew from one field to
another and it seemed that oats would be
reaped in gardens and corn gathered in
meadows. Teams traveling along the
roads were hidden in moving pillars of
dust ; when they reached town, all
powdered as with dirty flour, they looked
like the ghosts of men and horses.
Old man Snow said that the top layer of
his farm had been traded by the wind for
that of John Glover down the road with a
few clods from the Bevis “hottom thrown in
for hoot.
But there were few who could joke as he
did, for farmers are serious folk and in the
most prosperous years prophesy calamity
and ruin ; when trouble actually does
come they sit in their barns and whittle
despondingly, wishing they had not solid
their corn or had held their cattle for a
rising market. Depending on the mode of
nature for their livelihood, they grow sus-
picious of her friendliness and every year
is a long battle for existence. Against all
man-made machinery and wisdom she
sends forth her dumb servants—the frost,
the wind, the rain, the drought, the insects
and the worms who do’ her secret work un-
derground. No wonder the farmer becomes
a fatalist and looks on each crop safely
aki as spoil wrested from a tireless
oe.
By the middle of June the drought had
changed the country to an autumnal brown
and the steady winds wore nerves thin and
turned sweet tempers sour as thunder
changes milk. Men, meeting on the roads,
drew up and exchanged dark reminiscences
of the ‘‘dry year of ’72,"’when the prairie
chicken and quail had, in their great thirst,
gathered in the door yards like. the tame
fowls and had drunk with them. The cat-
tle and the horses had died of a strange
madness and—this was whigpered—a
whole family had been found stark and
stiff, with a horrible black foam dried on
their lips. Those who had dared give ita
name called it the ‘‘thirst fever.”
A curious belief or superstition—call it
what you will—lingers in parts of Illinois
and is held by men who read their papers
and have intelligent opinions on our for-
eign relations. It is certain that people
can bring rain by their prayers ; this is not
a fetich of the vulgar, for some of the early
fathers of the western church believed they
had this power and, ’tis said, exercised it
while riding their prairie circuits.
Talking of that other dry year brought to
mind what had broken that drought. It
had always been said that the prayers of
Father Bliss, an old circuit rider, had
brought rain when the sky had been as
bare of clouds as a blue howl.
In their sore need the farmers on Big
Prairie and those on Black Snake Slough
—now a great expanse of dried muck—de-
cided to go to him and ask him to use his
power of prayer in their behalf. He lived
in Shawanee with his old wife on the
slender savings of his prime.
Some of his neighbors stopped one morn-
ing to see old ‘man Snow. They found
him sitting in the door of his old granary,
mending harness and wielding a palm-leaf
fan when the heat hecame too oppressive.
They told him their plan of going to Father
Bliss. Their spokesman dug his heel in
the dirt and looked rather shamefaced, for
he didn’t quite know what would be
Snow’s attitude.
“Well it won’t do any harm and maybe
it ull do good,’’ he answered, looking up
at the blue, wind-swept sky.
“Won't you go ’long and ask him ?”
Rick Hoover inquired. ‘You have kinda
got a gift for saying things.”
Snow was not to be caught by such chaff.
His eye twinkled and his face broadened
in his genial smile, that had acquired an
infantile innocence from his lack of upper
teeth and his aversion to those of com-
(
merce. ‘I guess you fellows ain’t got the
grit or faith, either, to go alone. I'll go,
but I want to say one thing right now,”’
he went on, more seriously ‘‘this ain’t no
joke—if you’re going to lark, you can just
count me out, and Luther too. I remem-
ber when Bliss prayed for rain in 72 and
brung it, and it ain’t no time for foolish-
ness. :
“Do you think we are having fun haul-
ing water and seeing our crops dry up and
blow away ?”’ Hoover asked with some
indignation. -
“No—no, but you young fellows some-
times get to kinda spoiling for some fun,’’
Snow replied. ‘I guess you had all better
come here on Friday—its central as any
place—-perhaps you'd better bring along
something. The old man is poor and a
little farm truck will come handy. You're
sure you wanta go ?’’
They assurred him that they did wish to
go and in no spirit of levity—trouble made
them less skeptical than they were in pros-
perity and willing to ask help at any door.
On the appointed day the delegation
drove into town bearing gifts as did the
wise men of old. Snow had a ham of his
own curing ; Hoover had a basket of sum-
mer apples ; Martin Bevis had a basket of
eggs packed in oats and the other men had
brought according to their means. Old
Christian Meyers, from the German settle-
ment, carried a great cheese of surpassing
strength and fragrance. Two Danes, Peter
Oleson and Larson, came with butter and
rye bread—the whole proceeding was a
mystery to them, save that it was hoped
to fetch the rain.
Francois Poussin, the little Alsatian
from the Grove, came to the Snow’s with
five bottles of home-made wine ; but Mrs.
Snow told him that this would give dire of-
fense to the preacher who was an old time
‘‘teetotaler.”’ Francois marveled that his
‘‘vine bleu’’ could be regarded as aught
but a blessing, but thanked Mis Snow for
the cans of gooseberry jam which she of-
fered as a substitute. Francois was a good
Catholic ; but if a good pilgrimage to an
old Protestant would bring rain to his
parched=fields he was willing to suffer-pen-
ance afterward. =
Ephraim Glover and Luther Snow rode
beside the wagons, curious yet scoffing as
young men will. As the procession wound
through Nankitt it acquired a tail of small
boys who hooted joyously as they kicked up
the dust with their bare toes.
Father Bliss lived on a quiet street in a
little house, with demur green blinds. He
was sitting on his tiny front porch in a
rocking chair, his spare old body buttoned
up in a linen gluster, the skirts sweeping
the floor as he swung to and fro. He no-
ticed that an unusual number of teams
were passing, but paid little heed until
they were hitched to neighboring posts and
acompany of dusty men came crowding
up his narrow walk, ladened with boxes,
baskets and flour sacks.
He arose from his chair, gathered his
duster close about his shriveled neck and
waited for them to make known their
business."
Old man Snow headed the suppliants.
“Good morning, Father Bliss,”’ he called
cheerfully over the top of his ham, which
he carried as if it were a child. He had
worn his celluloid collar and he moved his
neck uneasily as he spoke—a collar was no
better than a yoke to him, yet he was not
the man to disregard the conventionalities
because of bodily discomfort.
“Howdy do, brother Snow.” Father
Bliss returned. ‘“What does this mean ?”’
‘‘Me’n my neighbors come apurpose 'to
see you,”” Snow answered. When he
reached the steps he laid down his ham and
shook hands with the minister. His com-
panions followed: his example, laying their
offerings on the steps, then filing up and
taking the old man’s hand solemnly and
without words.
The litttle boys outside the fence screwed
their hands in between the pickets and
scarcely breathed in their interest. Luther
and Ephraim snickered and jogged Fran-
cios’ elbow. ‘‘Eez dat de rain-bringer by
prayer ?”’ the little Alsatian asked, scan-
ning the thin, gaunt old divine. ‘‘He
would be de better for a leetle of my vim—
he have not much blood.”
Old man Snow paid no attention to the
scoffers of the back row. He settled his
collar and then it suddenly dawned upon
him that he had found no way of saying
what he had come to say. The other men
looked at him hopefully as he began :
‘Father Bliss we have brought you some
truck from our farms; we thought you
might relish it. But it’s such a terrible
year that we ain’t got any green stuff.”’
“I'm very much obliged for your kind-
ness,’’ the other replied, still at sea as to
the meaning of their visit. ‘It’s very dry
-—Nankitt is extremely dusty.
‘‘We are knee-deep in the dust out our
way,’’ Snow put in, ‘‘and we're needing
rain powerful bad. The grass ain’t no
juice in it, and the woman folks have to
wash in hard water and even that has to
be brought in barrels.”’
It is not so easy to ask aid of Father
Bliss as he thought it would be. He
glanced at his fellow suppliants, who
grinned or looked sheepish. according to
their natures. He rubbed his chin and
gave his collar a twist, then bégan not ir-
reverently, though his words were plain :
‘‘Father Bliss, we’ve come to see if yon
wouldn’t pray that we might have a little
rain out our way ; we need about three
inches. We ain’t come here making fun,
though it does seem kinda queer ; but we
know you had a power of prayer and we
ask if you won't try to help us. You have
a great name for bringing rain.”
At this testimony the old man raised his
head ; pride was struggling with his usual
humble spirit. ‘‘You know brother Snow,
that I am but the instrument,”” he said.
but I don’t deny that I have always been
right successful,’’ he continued, the pride
of achievement again lighting his eyes.
“You understand, I hope, that I would
pray just as fervently if you h.d come
empty-handed—not that your gifts are
not welcome to my wife and me. But I
cannot be bought.’
“Ot course we understand,” Snow re-
plied. ‘‘In your time you done enough
for us all that we oughta bring you half
our crops—I don’t know what we’da done
when I was a young fellow if we hadn’t
had you to come round and marry us and
bury us. But you will pray for rain.”
*‘Yes,”” Father Bliss answered, ‘‘with all
my heart.”’ -
The suppliant again shook hands wit
him and thanked him for the boon he had
promised. The old man was serene—he
had no fear as to his power.
The delegation creaked down the nar-
row boardwalk with a care for the flowers
that bordered it on both sides. Francois
touched Snow on the elbow. ‘‘When
come de rain dat de ole man promise ?’’
*‘In a day or two,”’ he replied.
Francois looked up at the sky and sniffed
the dust-laden air ; hc had been much dis-
appointed at the simplicity of the suppli-
cati m ; he had expected some ceremony
which he would not comprehend. ‘I he-
lieve in de rain wen I feel my hand wet,”
he said, with a skeptical shrug and out-
stretched palms.
“It ull come,’’ Snow said, in debp con-
viction. :
During the night succeeding the second
day the farmers of Big Prairie were awak-
ened by the hiss of rain on the roofs and
the splatter of water as it fell into barrels
set at the corners of the house.
Old man Snow listened a moment,
smiling in the darkness ; it was one more
triumph over the enemy. He imagined
he could hear the parched earth drinking
like a thirsty man, in long, gurgling gulps.
-*‘He brung it,’’ he said aloud, and turned
over to sleep.—Chicago News.
A Village in Itself.
One New York Building Which Has Many People
in It. s
If you enter one of the largest office
buildings and go up and down and around
in it, you will see that itis not a mere
house, but almost a town in itself. It
nearly covers the space of an entire city
block. Thirty-two elevators serve the per-
sons and the wants of its denizens and their
visitors, and they carry some 40,000 pas-
sengers each day. The great business con-
cern which owns it fills a whole floor, with
halls as big as churches and regiments of
clerks. On the other floors live many
another big company and many an indi-
vidual doing a big business of this sort or
that ; and their number will not amaze you
as much as the luxury with which prosaic
tasks of money making now surround them-
selves. I wonder sometimes what my
grandfather would have thought of it. No
one in New York did business in a bigger
way than be, sending his famous clipper
ships to enrich the world and traffic in a
score of ports. Yet when my father began
to clerk for him the first of his duties was
to sand his office floor, and I can remember
how small and plain was this office, even at
a much later day, with the bowspirits of
vessels almost poking themselves in at the
window as they lay along the border of
South street.
The people who dwell in the typical of-
fice building of to-day walk about on pol-
ished marble floors ; the government has
given them a postoffice just for themselves ;
a big library and a resturant exclusively
serve the lawyers among them ; another
resturant generously serves whomsoever
may wish to eat ; there are rows of shops
in the huge, barrel-vaulted main hall ;
there are barbers’ rooms and bootblacks’
rooms, and so forth and so on. You can
almost believe that a man might live in
this building, going forth only to sleep, and
be supplied with pretty much everything
he need desire, except the domestic affec-
tions, a church and a theatre. It seems
rather surprising, indeed, that a missionary
chapel has not been started in one of its
corners and a roof garden for daytime per-
formauces up on the hilltop called its roof.
But up on this roof you may find the bu-
reau which breeds our weather for us, and
down in its underground stories, in the
very entrails of earth, you may confident-
ly leave it your wealth to guard.
Truly, the steel-clad burrows of a great
safe deposit company look capacious enough
to contain all the wealth of New York, and
whether your share of it be large or small,
your needs can be exactly met. You may
hire a safe so little that a diamond necklace
would almost fill it, or so big thatit isa
good-sized room, and its rent means the in- ¢
come of a good-sized fortune—§7,000 or so
per annum. Narrow lane arfer lane is
walled by tiers of these safes, as streets are
walled by house fronts ; there isa second
story below the first, and there are other
places where other things than gold and
silver, precious papers and jewels may be
stored. There are rooms full of trunks,
and I remember a big one with the sweat
of steam glistening on its walls.and ceil-
ings, which was filled full and heaped and
piled with bales of a shining and cream-
colored stuff—raw silk, costly and also per-
ishable, needing to be kept perpetually
moist lest it lose its pliability.
When in this treasure house of uncount-
able riches we see marble floors which can
be lifted by levers so that they lie against
the bases of doors impregnable without
them, and vents which can throw curtains
of scalding steam down upon the head of
anyone who may try to tamper with them,
it seems as though the days of Oriental ma-
gicians had returned, with conspicuous
modern improvements. Of course there
are rows and rows of little cabinets where
Croesus may handle his wealth very pri-
vately, and fine large waiting rooms, too,
all shut in by gates and bars and pass-
words.
“The ladies’ waiting room is a great con-
venience,’’ said the gray-coated guardian
one day. ‘“When gentlemen bring their
wives down town and have business to do
elsewhere, it’s a nice place to leave them
in.”” So itis; but if it is much used for
this purpose, I hope that its niceness,
‘not. its terrific security, determines the
fact.
Bradstreets Gloomy Review of Trade for
Last Week.
Bradstreet’s financial bulletin for the
week ending on Saturday said : While
the week is not without favorable features,
unfavorable influences have been more
numerous. Leading money markets show
no impr ment. Mercantile collections
continue slow and the volume of ‘ funds of-
fered is in excess of demands for discounts.
The tendency of investments to improve
has temporarily disappeared under the in-
fluence of the supreme court ‘‘anti-trust
decision,’’ which apparently threatens ar-
rangements for the maintenance of rail-
way rates, as well as railway trades union
activity, so far as it may affect interstate
commerce. The tendency of prices is
downward, quotations being lower for
wheat, corn, oats, coffee, cotton and for.
pig iron and steel billets, on the outlook
for lower priced ore.
The market for staples is higher, includ-
ing wool, raw sugar, petroleum and tur-
pentine. Prices are unchanged for print
cloths, refined sugar, lard and pork. Re-
cent activity in raw wool continues and
the prospect for an increased tariff on im-
ported woolens caused merchants to pur-
chase American goods more freely. Bank
clearings are disappointing, being 6.6 per
cent. less than last week.
Failures throughout the United States
were 231 this week, compared with
276 in the like week last year.
Dies from Hydrophobia.
A Braddock Man Bitten by a Dog Expires in Terrible
Agony.
* Philip James, of Braddock, died in ter-
rible agony at the West Penn Hospital
Pittsburg, Saturday morning of hydropho-
bia, caused by the bite of a mad dog.
James, who resides on the outskirts of
the town, had about three weeks ago driven
to Braddock to make some purchases.
Coming out of a store he found a very
small dog in his buggy. Whenever he
went near the animal showed its teeth and
snapped and snatched savagely at him.
Finally James grabbed the dog and threw
it from the buggy. Ashe did so the dog
sank its teeth into the fleshy part of James’
right hand.
ou a
TR
A Great Resort.
It was a matter of very great regret with
the editors during their recent visit South
that the itinerary or route programe, could
not be changed so as to admit of a half
day’s stay at Eureka Springs. This now
famous health resort is reached by the Eu-
reka Springs Railway, from Seligman, on
the St. Louis & San Francisco railroad,
through which we passed. We had not re-
covered entirely from the sight and appe-
tizing appreciation of Harvey’s—the road's
eating house manager—splendid breakfast
at Monett before the word was passed that
we were within a few miles only of Eureka
Springs. The fame of the place was not
unknown to many of us. Hence the
general interest grew the more the
subject was talked of. The trip over
the Springs railway is of itself worth taking
owing to its views of mountain gorge and
pine-clothed slopes. Here are to be seen
some of the grand ‘‘passes’’ along the pic-
turesque White River of Arkansas. Eure-
ka is the place where Messrs R. E. Brown-
ell and D. D. Chidester, of Chicago, and
Dr. C. E. Davis, of Eureka, have planned
and are now laying off the foundation for a
sanitarium. Here is one of the homes of
the International Teachers’ Association.
This is open now in temporary quarters un-
der charge of Mrs. Elizabeth Anderson.
The $20,000 stone home is going up on as
pretty a site as one can imagine, on top of
a mountain from whose base flows the Mag-
netic Spring, which has never failed in cur-
ing most any kind of functional or blood
disease. It is a specific for all kidney
troubles. Eureka is built on hillsides and
along pointed peaks. Streets are winding
and all ‘awry, in order to conform'to the
lay of the land. But each pretty house,
each business block is accessible from some
kind of well kept street or byway. An
electric street car line winds about from
one end of the town to the other, affording
a ride which for odd scenery and fine views
for convenience and for safety along sur-
prising slopes, is not duplicated anywhere
in America. This most remarkable street
railway ascends from its lowest elevation
to its highest, some 500 feet, and just at the
highest point lands you at the Crescent
Hotel, a modern structure of gray stone,
ornate and beautiful. fullfilling all the
needs of the most exacting traveler. A
Chicago man, Mr. John Oliver Plank, will
open it March 1st. He is the prince of ca-
terers, the newspaper man’s friend, who
has for so long managed the Mountain
House and the Montezuma Hotel at Hot
Springs, N. M. It is a remarkable fact
concerning the Eureka Springs that they
will cure kidney troubles in any form.
Few cases of sore eyes treated by the water
have been known to give any more trouble.
It is no wonder that the accounts given of
Eureka are so unanimous in their praise,
for along the line of this voad a person may
be seen at every turn who has felt the effect
of the curvative waters. Not the least
singular feature of the town is its brick,
stone and other substantial building ma-
terial. All this is found in these mount-
ains. Hence the city is. fresh and bright
looking. Such a development was never
dreamed of till the waters were discovered.
When this event occurred, as usual with fa-
mous waters, by a mere accident, the judg-
ment of knowing ones suggested that the
town be built to stay, and this has been
done. i
It is a homely fact to be sure, but worth
recording, that this is the land of chickens
and eggs. Why, no one can explain. But
you may revel here in the fattest domestic
feathered food at $1.25 per dozen. The
other product of this barnyard bird sells for
10 cents a dozen. When the average edit-
or and hard worked preacher reflects a mo-
ment on these figures, especially if he hails
from the bailiwick of Chicago, New York,
or any other big city, he will envy the Eu-
reka man who has fried chicken to ‘‘throw
at birds.”
From the Crescent Hotel one may get a
view of Pea Ridge Mountain, the scene of
one of the battles of the Civil War.
Other views within twelve miles of Eu-
reka Springs are: Pond Mountain, pro-
nounced unequaled for its kind in the Uni-
ted States ; Grand View ; a point overlook-
ing the winding valley of King’s River and
the sparkling Osage ; Pivot Rock, Bennet’s
Cave (called the Four-mile Cave), Blue
Spring, Roaring River, and the Narrows
and the Cedar Cliffs on White River.
Cigar and Cigarette.
There may be room for doubt as to
whether the better financial policy will not
be by way of increasing the internal rev-
enue duty on cigarettes rather than by add-
ing to the duty on leaf tobacco. Few or
no cigarettes are made from imported or
high-priced tobacco; as a rule they are
manufactured from the refuse ‘‘butts’’ of
partially consumed cigars. What adds to
the price of cigars tends to increase the
consumption of cigarettes. It is all but
certain that an increase of duty on im-
ported tobacco will encourage the home
growth and ultimately will lead to the
production of cigars in the United States
equal to those now made in Havana—pro-
vided always that the cigarette does not
crowd the cigar to the wall. Such an
event is fraught with danger to agriculture.
manufactures, trade and commerce, as well
as to the health of the public. The in-
crease of duty on leaf tobacco suggests the
need of additional internal revenue duty
on cigarettes.
Comparing the tobacco products of 1896
with those of 1885, it appears that the
number of cigars made in the United States
has decreased by 54,956,660, while the
number of cigarettes has increased by 323,-
687,340. The total number of cigars manu-
factured in this country during the last
fiscal year was 4,125,985,330 ; the number
of cigarettes was 4,097,908,500. The cigar
still is more generally used than the cig-
arette, but the sale of cigars decreases per-
ceptibly, while that of cigarettes increases
at an almost fabulous rate.
We do not care to discuss the moral or
hygienic effects of the use of tobacco. It is
quite certain that a fair share of nonagen-
arians gid centenarians of the day are to-
bacco Wsers. It is very doubtful if the
parson or elder or deacon of to-day who
eschews the weed and denounces its use is
himself a better man or exercises more or
better influence upon the world than his
pipe-smoking sire or grandsire. The fact
is that the use of tobacco increases, and in-
creases in its most dangerous form. The
cigarette is more to be feared than the
cigar. Moreover, the cigar manufacturer
pays higher wages to his employes ; pays
more money to the tobacco grower and
contributes more to the revenue of the
country than the cigarette maker. Of two
evils, admitting—though many will not
admit—that the use of tobacco is an evil,
the evil of the cigarette is greater than that
of the cigar.
— “A man of words and not of deeds
Is like a garden full of weeds” —
That used to be the way ;
But he that blows his bugle best
Is pretty sure to leave the rest
Away behind, to-day.
* —8leveland Leader.
Dr. Sswvallow Found Guilty in His Sec-
ond Libel Suit.
©
Rev. Dr. Silas C. Swallow editor of the
Pennsylvania Methodist, has been found
guilty of criminal libel in the suit brought
by captain John C. Delaney, superintend-
ent of public buildings and grounds. The
jury came in Thursday night with a sealed
verdict, which was not opened until court
convened Friday morning, Counsel for
the defense moved for a new trial, and was
given ten days within which to file the rea-
sons. Dr. Swallow, through the medium
of his paper, charged that captain Delaney
had been given presents. .by different con-
tractors to whom he had given contracts.
LETTER FROM SWALLOW.
On Friday evening Dr. Swallow addresig
ed an open letter to Governor Hastings. In
brief the letter, which is defiant in its lan-
guage, says that the Governor is cognizant
that men in the employ of the state are
wrongdoers and says: ‘‘No one knows
better than do you that you have wrong-
doers, your creatures filling important
places in the service of the state.” Dr.
Swallow calls attention to the fact that
suits were not brought on all of the alle-
gations of the Pennsylvania Methodist. ‘‘One
of our, witnesses,’ the letter continues,
‘‘who was positive at the outset that he
knew of fraud in bidding and of an at-
tempt to bribe him for $300, was shortly
after we were sued, given a state contract
and suddenly became a know-nothing.
Another was given additional state work.
Another was labored with by one of the
prosecutors till a late hour of night and
went over to the other side.”
In conclusion the letter says : “We sug-
gest to you the following : ‘‘First—Dismiss
prosecute and punish the ring-leaders.
Second—Appoint a committee of three
citizens, tried and true, to receive and act
as custodian for any conscience money,
furniture or other state property that may
be returned during the period of restitution
that should immediately follow such an
announcement.
“*Third—Devise some plan for prevent-
ing the possibility of such wrongdoing in
the future.
‘I state what I know when I write that
such property is scattered over the entire
state and is to be found in the homes and
offices of politicians, judges, lawyers, state
and national officials, otherwise reputable
people, in all grades of life, and also in the
house of ‘her whose feet take hold on
hell.’
‘‘Prosecutions for libel will not stop the
revolution now in progress and ‘revolu-
tions never move backward.” We must be
taught by object lessons, if we will not be
taught by revelation, that it is as much a
violation of the Eighth Commandment to
take unlawfully any part of the aggregated
contributions for public uses of 3,000,000
of people, or of 60,000,000, as it is to take
it from one individual.
Trade With Canada and Mexico.
There is no trade quite so profitable as
next door trade. Trade with Canada or
with Mexico in carried on at much greater
advantage than trade with England,
France or Germany. ‘Fhe trade of New
York, New England, Pennsylvania, Ohio
and all the lake shore States with Canada
and the trade of Louisana, Arkansas,
Texas and California with Mexico is more
readily managed and is more in consonance
with the laws of trade gravitation than is
trade hetween widely separated parts of the
Union.
It may be set down as a commercial max-
im that there is no trading where there is
not resulting mutual advantage to the trad-
ers. Whilst the experiment of reciprocal
trade with Canada lasted the exchange of
commodites grew apace. Before the pas-
sage of the McKinley act of 1890 the ex-
ports from Canada to the United States
were as large as the exports of that coun-
try to Great Britian, and we enjoyed an
answering market in Canada for our pro-
ducts. Since 1890 we have driven Cana-
dian export trade to Great Britian, until it
exceeds the exports to this country three
times. The excess in favor of Great Brit-
ain is over $20,000,000.
Our farmers should understand that they
do not escape Canadian competition by
driving Canadian wheat, barley and other
farm products into the Liverpool market.
They might better meet Canadian com-
petition at Buffalo, Detroit or Duluth, and
buy from the Canadians cheaper lumber
and fish. A tariff war such as the Dingley
schedules will precipitate between this na-
tion and adjoining nationalities will ad-
vantage nobody. It will be precisely as if
a string of custom houses should be erected
between Pennsylvania and New Jersey or
between Ohio and Indiana to carry and
obstruct the free trade which the people of
those States now enjoy.
The failure of our government to enter
into new reciprocity arrangements with
Canada and Mexico, and to pull down
every obstruction to the exchange of com-
modities in so far as it might be able to
obtain the consent of the governments of
those countries, is a failure not only of
statesmanship but of ordinary horse-trading
capacity.— Record.
.
For the Dressing Table.
A List of Convenient Toilet Articles for Sensible
Girls. .
A sensible girl will not keep a lot of cos-
metics and drugs on her toilet table, but
there are a few articles she should always
have in a convenient place.
She should have an array of glass stop-
pered bottles containing alcohol, camphor,
glycerine or vaseline, alum, borax and am-
monia.
A little camphor and water should be
used as a wash for the mouth and throat if
the breath is not sweet.
Powdered alum applied toa fever sore
will prevent it from becoming unsightly or
noticeable.
Insect stings or eruptions on the skin are
relieved hy alcohol.
A few grains of alum in tepid water will
relieve those whose hands perspire freely.
A few drops of sulphuric acid in the water
are also beneficial for this purpose, as well
as desirable for washing the feet when they
perspire freoly. - |
In addition to the soap for bathing,
white Castile should be kept for washing
the hair. Occasionally a little borax or
ammonia may be used for this-purpose, but
care should be taken in their application as
they are rather harsh in their effects.
A little fresh cold cream should he kept
on the toilet table during the cold weather,
and applied to the lips and hands every
night if the skin seems at all rough or
chapped.
——Another $5 fine for expectorating on
the floor of a car, has been imposed on a
Philadelphia spitter, contrary to the rules of
etiquette and the peace and dignity of the
Woman’s Health Association. This is the
second case tried and the second conviction
secured. Anarchists and men with dark
brown tastes in their mouths will now rise
to defend the great American spitter.
FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN"
How few women one sees who have ap-
parently studied out and made the best of
themselves in the matter of hair dressing ;
that is, women in private life. The actress
is fully alive and up to the possibilities of
a becoming coiffure. .
The matter of arranging the hair seems
to suggest nothing to the great mass of
women.
The big picture hat, the tiny toque, the
severe sailor, are all placed above locks ar-
ranged without the slightest attention to
the needs of the head covering in the way
of bringing out its adaptability and beauty.
Have you not shopped beside the woman
who draws all her back hair straight up
the back of her head in a manner that sug-
L gests to your distressed vision nothing so
much as the rear wall of a country barn?
The front arrangement is equally atrocious,
being scalped back as tightly as her brush
will allow, displaying in many instances
a high, knobby forehead, the whole sur-
mounted by a flat batter-cake of hair on
the very top of the head.
Over this a picture hat will as often as
not be placed, or worse still, a severe sai-
lor. Can the woman wonder if the behold-
er finds her the reverse of fair to look upon ?
Then you will motice one woman who
gathers her really pretty hair into a long
plait, combing it severely back from her
countenance and winding it around in
a small ball just above the nape of her neck.
Into this plaited ball she sticks many hair
pins of an assorted variety, notably and
most conspicuously big, square, silver ones,
surmounting all by a heavy comb affair
that snggests nothing so much as a manor
gate. This is the woman who wears flow-
ers under her hat brim, utterly and severe-
ly regardless of the incongruity between
her coiffure and her headgear.
There is yet another variety more preva-
lent than either of the others. It is the
woman who simply twists her hair at an
unbecoming angle, gathering it back in one
mass, over which arrangement no headgear
could by any chance be becoming. A lit-
tle study would soon enable each individ-
ual to determine what style of coiffure best
suited both the shape and expression of her
features. A very charming arrangement
suitable and becoming without the hat be-
comes grotesque when the headgear is
placed above it. ’
The hat must be studied and its relation
to the arrangement of the hair, even the stiff
sailor making a better and more becoming
appearance for a few tendrils of hair stray-
Ing In picturesque order over the brow, the
hair drawn out a little over the ears and
the knot placed at a becoming angle at the
back of the head.
The large garden hat, when placed over
strictly smooth and polished locks loses
half its charm and beauty. To get the best
effect the hair should be arranged softly,
pulled in puff, slightly waved, over the
ears and at the nape of the neck. The
quantities of trimming placed under the
brims of these large hats purposely to rest
upon and contrast with the hair, render
elaborate coiffures imperative. In doing
or arranging the hair, be particular about
the sort of hairpin you use. If the hair is
dark, use the dark pins about two inches
long, press them well into the hair so that
none of the ends will protrude and so that
the hair will not have that plastered look
against the head. Avoid the large metal
abominations that suggest the chignon
nailed to the head. If the hair is light the
gilded hairpin should be used and in any
case they should be well hidden, this being
an instance where the beauty of the hair
being unadorned, at least by hairpins, is
adorned the most.
_ Another point that women should study
in the arrangement of the hair is the nape of
the neck. If thispart of her person happens
to be particularly pretty she can dress her
hair to her own taste. But if it happens as
it does in so many instances, that there
are prudential reasons for concealing the
nape, then careful attention should be giv-
en the back arrangement.
If the hair is liked high, comb the hair
well down, gather it in the left hand at the
nape of the neck and give it a dexterous
twist, pull the twist down while holding
the hair with the left hand, pin it and ar-
range the balance in puffs or loops as de-
sired. This arrangement breaks the great
expanse of plain hair with a gently waving
twist, giving an appearance of a very full
suit of hair.
In arranging the hair in a Psyche knot
always pull a soft, lower puff toward the
neck, it is greatly more becoming than to
pull the hair tight and plain.
In trying on your hat study the back
view as carefully as the front, rejecting any
shape that is not as becoming back as front.
An unbecoming arrangement will some-
times disillusion the charm cast by the
very pretty face.
To make linen beautifully white use re-
fined borax in the water instead of soda or
washing powder. A large handful of pow-
dered borax to ten gallons of boiling water
is a proportion, then you will save one half
in soap by this method. Borax being a
natural salt, does not injure in the slight-
est degree the texture of the linen and will
soften.the hardest water.
For street wear the military jacket will
be ‘as popular as ever. braided to give
the. a broad effect. ;
smart jackets have only the frogs in
front, but then there are some which are
completety covered with braiding—the sou-
tache sewed on at the edge. ‘There will al-
so be in fashion the perfectly plain coat,
mediam length, with tight-fitting back and
loose fronts. For ‘older women the blazer
styles with fronts faced with silk and edged
with passementerie. One other style
which came in this winter and will again
be worn, this spring has velvet revers. and
the velvet is embroidered with jet. These
revers on plain cloth jackets are immensely
smart and becoming. A dark blue cash-
mere costume has one of the jackets made
of smooth cloth and the revers of the vel-
vet. It has just been imported and is evi-
dently one of the favorite styles.
Pique jackets entirely covered with beaid
will be more fashionable, and the braiding
makes delightful fancy work, as 1t is easy
and goes on quickly. .
- Boleros, figatros and many odd little af-
fairs not dignified with any name, continue
to be a jov and delight to those women
who find it necessary to remodel last year’s
waists. It is most surprising how one of
these boleros will transform a waist that
has seemed altogether passe. Passemen-
terie and openwork embroidery are now
made into these jackets which are consid-
ered appropriate with gowns of any and all
materials. Last year’s summer silks come
out like new under their kindly aid. Light
silks wili; with the black jacket on, look
smart enough for any occasion, while the
heavy, coarse white laces will give a dressy
look to the sombre waists that will make
them more becdming than when they first
made their appearance. .
Jacket fronts are often used on waists
when the entire jacket would look too
heavy. These fronts are quite inexpensive,
and almost invariably becoming.
Some exceedingly-
I