Bellefonte, Pa., Sept. 8. 1899.
LIFES VARIORUM.
Some work for this,some strive for that,and grind
at every turn;
Some long for what they haven't got, and what
they have they spurn,
And some rush for the mountain peak to get the
sun's last ray,
Then crawl into some sunless hole and sleep it off
next day.
Some find this earth a first rate place to slave and
stint and save
And life's chief pleasure to consist in being glum |
and grave, {
And others with a twinkle in the hand and heart
and eye
Will stake their lives that they can spend more
than they can tind laid by.
Some take a drink when they are dry and some
when they are wet;
Some drink for sweet remembrance sake, some
that they may forget,
And some there be, like you and me, free from
all sham accurs’d,
Who have laid down arule for life—never to get
athirst.
Some turn to this, some turn to that, for fortune
and for fame,
And some won't turn for anything and get there
just the same.
But there's a common turning point, a fate un-
kind but just,
Where rich and poor and great and small turn
one and all to dust. .
—Galveston News.
GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN.
“I’m in the mood for reminiscences and
you want them.”
He turned a little more from the electric
glare and my scrutiny. Tilting his hat
over a pair of deep-set eyes, he slowly lit a
cigar.
*‘You say there is a change in me.
Good God, Jack! did you expect me to get
back unscarred? Did you think I could
bring the same old face, the same surface
equability I’d carried off? See here, old
fellow, I don’t think you quite know what
that Cuban campaign meant to us. But I
sha’n’t go over Santiago and San Juan
to-night; the papers have told you all that.
But I'll give you an episode—not a pretty
one, mind you, but a true and a typic-
a.”
_ As he watched a curl of smoke float on a
Whiff of breeze that beat through the screen
of Virginia creeper, his head thrown back,
his face thwbwn momentarily into the
white ligh’_ " noted again the strong lines
carved f the old-young face of my former
classmate during those war months in
Cuba.
“I was sitting at my desk in the Admin-
istration building in Trinidad, where I
posed and worked twelve hours a day as
Regimental Adjutant, Secretary of State,
Receiver of Public Moneys, and Custodian
of Governmental Buildings. I sat there,
held down by the above chain of titles.
An old-time negress bearing the marks of
slavery and showing hungry lines curtsied
low and advanced to the desk, offering me
an open jewel-case. In her mongrel
Spanish she asked me to buy. The jewels
were superb. A pair of pendant ear-rings,
in each twenty-six amethysts, set in dull
chased gold, antique beyond description.
Although an ignoramus where female tog-
gery is concerned, I instantly recognized
their value. Of course my first thought
was of theft, and I demanded where she
had got them. The hesitation with which
she finally admitted her mistress had sent
her, refusing either name or residence,
aroused even deeper suspicion. ‘Take me
to her at once,’ I said, ‘or I shall lock you
up, and keep the jewels besides.” Like
the rest of her class, she stood in terror of
American law. Trembling, she asked per-
mission to go find if her mistress would see
me, and as a pledge of good faith left the
jewel-caze.
‘In a surprisingly short time she was
back, and asked me to follow her.”” He
rose and flicked the ashes from his cigar
through a rift in the thick leafage. ‘How
little we know of what fate or circumstance
is bringing us when we blindly follow the
passing whim. I went with that old crone
out of the idlest momentary curiosity. If
I bought the things I had nobody to give
them to; you know that. And yet, like a
cursed fool, I followed into one of the
back streets and into a 1ittte house
where the reception room was almost
entirely bare of furnishings. There
were two chairs, a very old inlaid cabinet,
and above it an oval mirror in a tarnished
repousse frame.
‘‘As I stood trying to decipher the hiero-
glyphics on the mahogany heirloom, a door
back of me opened. I sawa woman with a
pale scared face. For a full minute
we watched each other in the glass, until I
took in the type she stood for, then turned,
and made exit for her impossible.”” A
sort of suppressed irritation was in his
voice now. ‘‘Don’task me todescribe her.
She wasn’t pretty according to your stand-
ard—and mine. She was medium height,
and slim and pale and starved-looking. A
look of terror had glued itself like a label
over her whole face. The eyes were dark
hazel, I found afterwards eyes that were wide
apart, with lashes that seemed to have been
pushed up to get them out of the way.
Great shadews were below them, and above,
the most remarkably arched eyebrows I
ever remember—a mere line and jet black.
I knew that there was something more that
made her strikingly unusual, but it was
only later when the sun shone on her from
the open door I found it was her hair.
Her hair was yellow, not like ripe corn—
that’s too pale—but yellow satin, the deep,
glossy yellow that has all sorts of varia-
tions.’ His voice shook a little. ‘‘Jack,
there were broad bands of snow white right
through it, not gray in the ordinary sense.
Just as a manufacturer would stripe his
cloth or wall-paper, her hair was gold
striped with white. She had on white,
some sort of flowing affair that showed her
throat and emaciated arms to the elbow.
When she bade me ‘Sientese senor,” her
voice was low, vibrant, desolate.
‘‘She furnished me the skeleton of her
story—afterwards it was filled in—and the
old negress, who had re-entered the room,
stood guard behind her chair, now and then
drawing her ragged sleeve across her eyes,
and muttering a guttural prayer, as she
fingered the beads about her neck.
‘‘The stury was not long. Her mistress
did not tell me much about her people, ex-
cept to mention her maiden name—that of
one of the oldest and richest families on
the island. Her husband was a Spanish of-
ficial, and their home was a palace on Gra-
cia street.
‘With the insurrection came the Spanish
troops and officers. The city wassurround-
ed by an impassable trocha, on which was
located, every few hundred yards, a block-
house. Inside this trocha the Spanish
officers and their friends lived a life of rev-
elry—music, wine, women, and cards. Her
hushand was their constant companion.
The chief diversion was gambling, and the
game was always a big one. He lost per-
sistently and heavily.
“The war went on, the debauchery in-
creased, the game grew in intensity. Fi-
nally the husband had no more cash to push
across the velvet, and without the knowl-
enge of this little women his plantations
were mortgaged, and even their home.
Down there a mortgage amounts to a sale,
for the property is never redeemed. He
saw his pile of new gold slip away,
and there was no more now to take its
place. Ina little awhile the palace which
| sheltered his nobly born wife must pass
| from his hands. His officer friends laughed
i
| at his plight, and rather than face the dis-
| grace of poverty, he fled the city.
“God, Jack! to have seen that tender
young thing with great furrows about her
face, ploughed there by hunger and suffer-
ing; to have heard that voice urge pitifully:
“What would you, senor? He could not
bear it, he loved me so.”” He snapped his
fingers viciously. “It would have made
you say what I did—‘as big a fool as all
other women when there’s a man in the
case.’ I wonder why it’s so? It putsa
premium on baseness, and takes away all
stimulus to purer living. But that’s not
the point.
“Once outside the trocha, he was beyond
the pale of Spanish protection—for the
Cuban insurgents, hidden about the mount-
ain fastnesses, controlled the outlying dis-
tricts, and his escape would be a miracle.
In short, the news was rudely broken to
her that the home was no longer hers. Then
with only this faithful old negress she
moved from the palace, with its gildings
and tinsel, into the poor place where I
found her. For awhile she had a mere
pinch, of assistance from relatives and
friends.
“Then there came rumors, finally sub-
stantiated, that her husband had fallen into
the hands of the insurgents—negroes most
of them, who knew him as an influential
Spaniard. He was tried and sentenced to
die. Rather than hang, he plunged his
stiletto in his heart.
“The great Catholic church was scandal-
ized. He was a suicide, and this blameless
woman an outcast. She was denied the
solace of her religion. Her relatives and
friends fell away from her. A curse was
on her house. She might not even bury
her hushand’s remains, should she find
where the Cubans had slain him, since no
suicide may rest in consecrated ground.
“Then began the long months of real.
suffering. Piece by piece her furniture
went to buy food. Presently the Ameri-
cans declared war, and the celebrated
blockade of the island was in force. The
city was in a state of siege. On one side
the starving, rapacious Cubans. On the
inside the equally rapacious, treacherous
Spaniards On the outside, rocking, con-
stantly alert, the ‘watch-dogs of the Amer-
can navy,’ seeing to it that no relief enter-
ed from the sea.
‘The price of bread went up, until one
of her costliest carved and gilded chairs
would purchase but one loaf. All around
were the concentrados driven in from the
country, starving, dying, unburied in the
streets. How long until her own sad end,
how long would her furniture and jewels
stave off this same fate, were the thoughts
that racked her to madness by day and
made her dreams nightmares.
‘‘Her jewelry followed the furniture, the
least-prized pieces first, none realizing
a tithe of their actual value. Yet they
kept the grinning, ever-nearing wolf
away.
‘‘She dared not leave her house, for in-
sult awaited her at every step. For more
than a year she had not been upon the
street. The faithful old negress in her de-
votion undertook every mission for the sale
of valuables and the purchase of food,
shielding the delicate mistress who had
learned to dread even the footsteps of men
upon the street.”
He clasped his hands upon the arm of
my chair and for the first time looked close
in my face.
‘Jack, I always knew men, even good
men, were part brute. But now I know
that same are beasts. You don’t know,
you can’t know, for it’s not printable, a
hundredth part of what war meant in Cuba,
No, you can’t know it, and I won’t tell it.
It’s outside all this.
‘Then Santiago fell. Peace was not bet-
ter than war, until at last the American
soldiers came, spending their money and
distributing thousands of free rations. The
price of bread and meat came down, and
she was able to make her money go farther.
Pride and delicacy would not permit her
to avail herself of free rations. Soon again
she was penniless. This case of amethysts,
her mother’s, her grandmother’s, and what
further ancestors she did not know, was
the only thing of value she still possessed,
except her wedding-ring. She would, if
need be, starve with that on her finger.
“I had got into the abominable habit of
paying just half what was asked for a thing
—as a rule, about one-fourth the real value.
That’s our princely mode of trading down
there, but this story was my finish. I not
only paid her price, but assured her it was
a rash sacrifice on her part, and doubled it.
There was no further excuse to remain,
and so, carrying the old treasures I didn’t
want nor know what to do with, I left her
mourning their loss, yet touchingly grate-
ful to their purchaser.
“If that was all, old fellow, I wouldn’t he
here to-night. But you remember I never
could let well enough alone. I tried to
forget this, the first case which had come
at all close to my sympathies, selfish dog
that I was, for there were thousands as bad or
worse. But I failed,and reason waiting upon
inclination, I sought her again and again.
The negress was the sentinel who kept
guard over our interviews. I have never
seen her absolutely alone. I had informed
myself that her story was substantially
true, but worse. Her husband was shown
to be abnormally reckless, weak dissolute.
I was directed to certain unnamable districts
where vice and vice only flourished, there
to find and repurchase, with the money
heretofore less well spent, rare laces, fans,
jewels, pottery, hangings, of which he had
robbed her to bestow on the companions of
his evil life. This she had seduously con-
cealed, flinging about him that halo the
best of women consider the proper adjunct
of the most degraded death.
“These I have packed away, for I soon
discovered this was no woman to bestow
gratuities upon.
“She was highly educated, rarely profi-
cient in several languages, and a fine mu-
sician. I at last secured a place for her as
teacher in one of the schools we organized,
and the district of Trinidad is paying her
forty dollars a month. This to her seems
riches.”’
“Is that all?’’ I asked.
‘No, that’s not all.”’ He rose and be-
gan pacing back and forth on the long ve-
randa, the swaying vines marking him in-
to a human checker-board of light and
shade. “‘I used to be accounted a fellow
of some strength, didn’t I, old friend? I
never was one to be ‘struck’ with this girl
and that girl, like some of you. I never
had but one love affair. You know about
that, and the hell it made of life for me.”’
He stopped abruptly, then added, softly:
“This goes deeper. And this is without
sin—yet.”’
“Why don’t you marry her?’ I queried.
His jaw set like a clamp. ‘By God, I
mean to.” He perched himself on the
railing where the light streamed in unhin-
dered, pushed back his hat, and sui § ted
now in a sort of reckless defi- jig | ny
hard serntiny.”’ Nt
“I loved her. Everything. + Wp
pealed to everything in me™ ew
what it meant to shield, protec. eis
a big element of fatherliness in "his.
Her age? Twenty-two, and in spite of
hard usage she doesn’t look it. Her hair
even adds youth, not age. I got to hold
sacred every pale strand sucked of its gold
by some shuddering horror. I loved her,
and I told her so. There’s no reason why
I shouldn’t. Her husband was dead and a
good-riddance. She refused me. There's
no reason why she shouldn’t, seeing her
heart was buried—buried with that im-
maculate piece of manhood whose name
she bore.
“Yet—I felt I'd win at last.
on quietly, persistently.
with my thought. I wrapped her in my
heart. And, Jack, she's mine now—mine
for the asking. Yet I don’t ask her.” The
light showed his face sombre, inscrutable.
‘Not just yet. .
“‘T came away. I want to breathe Amer-
ican air for awhile; I want to drink Amer-
ican principles for awhile; and then I'm
going back to that sumptuous, languorous,
So I kept
I enveloped her
unprincipled Cuba and resign all my prin-’
ciples forever.’’
I lifted my brows in credulity.
“Imean it. Principle’s an unremunera-
tive commodity to overload with, and a
tender conscience a treacherous friend. I
propose to sell out cheap, and go in for a
a totally different stock in trade.”
“Poor old Phil!’ I thought. ‘You
must be hard pressed.”” He was the soul
of honor, and I had the feeling this was a
sort of sleep-talking. He would be sure to
wake up after a bit.
‘Jack, she’s not a widow.”
I started. for I was unprepared
this.
‘*That base cur is still above ground. It
got to me in this way. I began to suspect
a flaw in some of the transfers of property
her husband had made. To inform myself
regarding a certain valuable plantation, I
went some distance in the country. To
shorten the telling, I learned, in a curious-
ly roundabout way, that he was captured
by bandits—you know the mountains are
full of them—who pillage, capture, mur-
der. To save his worthless life he agreed
to go in with the worthless rascals, giving
out suicide to cover his tracks. He has
grown to be a power in the circle of banditti.
His knowledge of the city and the people
makes him a valuable ally.”’
‘Does she know ?’ I asked.
‘No, nor shall she. What! give her
back to that concentrated bit of infamy?
A thousand times no. He will never dare
show his face again, and it is to hoped a
friendly knife or bullet will soon rid her
and the world of him. I’m going to marry
her and take her away— not even you shall
know where. God will give me the chance
to make reparation for all she’s suffered,
and will perhaps allow me a little happi-
ness out of life in return.”’
“Phil,” I said, ‘‘do you really expect to
be happy under such conditions. It can’t
be done, man.”’
‘It can and it shall be. What does she
owe the world that hounded her? Who
cares if I live pure or foul?”” Don’t argue;
it is to be.”’
‘‘And what if there are children?
you thought of that?’
‘I’ve thought of everything,” he an-
swered sternly.
“‘All right,” I said; ‘I'm not going to
argue. It’s not necessary. Phil Caruthers
needs no man to point him the right.”
But when I saw the steamer pull out,
my friend watching me from the deck—
courage, strength stamped on every line in
his intrepid face, I was less sure. He was
going back to temptation, to the life he had
sketched—purposeless, drifting, swaying,
to every passing wind of circumstance.
The months passed. No word came from
him. I watched for notice of his resigna-
tion. At last, close as I felt to Caruthers,
I began to forget his little heart tragedy
which had so impressed me at the time.
One day a letter came. In a breathless
recurrence of interest I read:
for
Have
“Jack, old friend, I wonder if you've
thought of me at all, and, above all, I won-
der if you can by this time even recall that
I told you a story. Here’s the sequel:
‘I came back to carry out that plan out-
lined to you. She was glad to see me,
more than glad. I gave her the knick-
knacks I'd collected in my week’s visit,
but I'm glad to say my tongue refused
obedience. It did not speak of love.
When I offered her a ring—you remember,
the opals set in emeralds that we chose be-
cause so unlike the regulation thing—she
gave me a startled look. I found myself
stammering, ‘I bring this, senora, in place
of the many you have resigned, and I put
it here as a seal of my fealty to you and
your highest interests.” After that my lips
seemed to he locked againstany more love-
talk.
‘‘One day I had a dream that affected me
powerfully. I won’t burden you with it.
Suffice it, next day I started into the
mountains to find Don Lorenzo Loredo, in
his bandit haunts. It was a strange ex-
perience, Jack, old boy. I don’t want an-
other—yet—
“I found him with surprising ease. I
found him handsome—a very prince of
beauty—the courtier and gentleman. I
hated to find it so. I hate to own it to
you, but he was all of this. I knew now
how his wife could pardon much at his
hands. I went without definite purpose.
I meant—I think I meant—to threaten, to
bribe if need be, to do something that
would keep him apart from her always. I
ended by reaching his confidence. Jack,
its a terrible thing to see a soul stripped
naked, a thing never to forget. He told
me all. I knew he did, for it was so in-
finitely beyond what I had heard. He de-
described the temptations thrown about
him—weak, yes, but—I too have been face
to face with temptation. He told of the
devilish dexterity with which he was
caught in the toils and kept there. He was
made drunk, drugged, surrounded with
everything to feed his lowest self. He
sought counsel from the Church. His con-
fessor gave him absolution, took a big
share of his spoils, and sent him back to
the hell he was trying to climb out of.
‘‘And to hear that man speak of his
wife! His self-abasement in referring to
her as something sacred was a bit of trage-
dy in itself. And then as I was leaving,
‘Senor,’ he said, ‘you have befriended my
lady.” He bared his head. and the daz-
zling Cuban moonshine sifted difficulty
through thick boughs to show me a man
of guilt, yet with a strangely noble glamour
on his face and in his mien. ‘God bless,
you, senor. And now" tell her I am here,
if you deem it best. Tell her I am not a
bandit at heart, low as I have sunk. I do
EE -AA
world-weary Spain.
not love to steal, nor to threaten, nor to
murder. The last I have not done yet,
the rest I must do or loose my life. And
why should I care to keep it? Ah, senor,
we all love life, and I hope to redeem mine.
If it becomes impossible, it is always easy
to get one’s self ended.”
*‘I bade him good-by. What will you
think when I own that I even took his
hand without repulsion? His last words
ring with me now: ‘Ah, senor, if you
should ever graciously bestow a thought
upon a castaway, remember his birth, his |
remember |
life, the very air he breathed.’
it, and it gives me strength.
‘‘A- ship has just sailed away toward
It carried with it
about the hest good life has brought to me.
My lady has sailed away to peace—and
happiness I hope—in the land of her birth.
and now, Jack my boy, I am sitting here
wondering if I had the right to believe
him—-that brute, IT was about to say, but
I’ll change it to a poor devil up yonder in
the mountains. Have I done right to send
her away, and shall I do right when I send
him after her to start anew over there,
with the plantations, and silver and jewels
for my bridal gifts? Who knows? I mean
it so.
“Was it Emerson that said, ‘there’s
something in us higher than ourselves?’
Then that’s what did it, not weak, stum-
bling, envious Phil Caruthers. She is
gone. And when this letter shall have
ctarted to you, with its tattered fragments
of a finished tale, I shall turn my face to
the mountains once more. If I never
come back, at least I will have done what
I could, what you, old classmate, knew
better than I, I would do.
‘‘Ah, well, old man, I’ve buried my
ships behind me. The band down at camp
is playing ‘Home Sweet Home.” The dear
old air always sends a flood of feeling to
the hearts of us lonely fellows. I’ve al-
ways honored my country—looked to her
as the leader among nations. But until
now, here to-night, I've never known how
much she is to me.
‘“When I see her flag flung to the breezes
which waft up from the sea or blow down
from the mountains, I devoutly thank the
Father that I am an American citizen, an
American soldier. And that, old friend, is
henceforth my creed. Good-by.
PuiLrp CARUTHERS.’’
Annie Valentine Booth McKinrey in Har-
per’s Bazar.
Thirty-three Ton Arches
Of Chicago Coliseum Fell to the Ground Last
Evening, Killing Nine Men Outright, Four More
are Missing and are Supposed to be under the
Ruins.—All the Dead are Workmen Who Were on
the Arches.—Miracle that no More Were Hurt.
CHICAGO, Aug. 31.—Twelve steel arches,
each weighing thirty-three tons, which were
to have supported the superstructure of the
Coliseum building in course of erection on
Wabash avenue, between Fifteenth and
Sixteenth streets, fell to the ground late
this afternoon. It is known that nine lives
were crushed out. The bodies of four men
are supposed to be under the wreckage.
Several are in the hospital with injuries re-
ceived in the accident and of these two will
surely die, one may possibly recover and
the rest are for the greater part seriously
injured. The dead are: Charles Walpot,
crushed to death; Stephen J. Thompson,
crushed to death; John Farner, head
crushed; Richard Sherman, head cut off;
Edward Murry, head and both legs cut off;
Theodore Thorn, crushed to death; Al
Norman, workman from Toledo; Leroy
Fenner and Samuel Smith.
All of the twelve arches were standing,
the twelfth and lass having been completed
to-day. It was the intention of the steel
contractors, the Pittsburg bridge company,
of Pittsburg, Pa., to turn over its work to
the general contractors. The immense
‘‘traveler’’ or derrick which had been used
in the erection of the arches had been re-
moved and the agents of the bridge com-
pany were accounting their work as prac-
tically completed, when snddenly and
without the slightest warning the arch last
put in place, suddenly fell over against the
one next to it. The weight was too much
for this, it gave way, crashed against the
third and then one by one the great steel
spans fell over to the south, precisely in the
same manner as a number of cards would
fall. Nearly all of the men who were
killed were at work on top of the arches
forty feet above the ground.
An immense crowd gathered around the
place and despite the efforts of the police
who were close at hand, they swarmed
over the mass of wreckage, making desper-
ate but ill-directed efforts to drag out the
dead and to save the wounded. It was on-
ly with the greatest difficulty that the
police were finally able to drive back the
crowd, and give the firemen and uninjured
workmen a chance to rescue the injured.
That more men were not killed and injur-
ed was almost a miracle. Fully fifty men
were at work in the space covered by the
arches as they fell.
The work of rebuilding will commence
at once and it is expected that to-day’s ac-
cident will delay the opening of the build-
ing not over a month. No financial loss
will fall upon the coliseum company which
is erecting the structure. The only losers
will be the Pittsburg Bridge company,
whose loss is estimated at $25,000.
Arctic Explorer Returns.
HuiL, England, Aug 31..—Walter Well-
man, the leader of the Wellman Polar ex-
pedition, who returned to Tromsoe, Nor-
way, Aug. 17th, after having successfully
completed explorations in Franz Josefland,
arrived here to-day. He walks with the
aid of crutches, his right leg, which was
seriously injured by a fall into a snow cov-
ered crevasse while Mr. Wellman was lead-
ing his party, still being useless. The ex-
plorer was accompanied by the American
members of the expedition who are well.
In an interview with a representative of
the Associated Press, Mr. Wellman said:
‘“The object of the expedition was two-fold
—to complete exploration of Franz Josef-
land, of which the north and northeast
parts were practically unknown, and to
reach a high latitude, or even the pole
itself. ‘The first object was successfully
accomplished. The second would have
been achieved, at least to a greater extent
than by previous explorers but for the ac-
cident to myself.’
Hastening Troops to Manila.
SAN FraNcIsco, August 31.—All haste
is being used to dispatch the troops now
waiting here to Manila, It is expected that
the entire casual detachment now at the
Pres’dio will set sail within about two
weeks. The Puebla left today with 650 re-
cruits, the Warren goes on the 1st and the
Columbian on the 5th, with as many recruits
and casuals as they can carry. If these as-
signates do not take up all the recruits at
Presidio the remainder will be shipped on
the Sherman, which will be ready in about
ten days. The Leelanaw will leave with
her horses on the 31st of this month.
|
Dingley Tariff and Gold Standard.
(Continued from last week.)
These single gold standard adherents tell
| us that by having the money of the coun-
try based on a single gold standard makes
the silver dollar eqnal in value to the gold
dollar. And if the money of the country is
based on gold and silver the silver dol-
lar, though it be stamped with the fiat of
the government, would only be worth its
present bullion value. Now if this is true
! what is the greenback worth that is not
based on gold or silver. Will they tell us
that it is only worth its paper value? Now
after reading the foregoing some of my
readers might fail to see where the single
gold standard comes in so I will try to
throw a little more light on the subject.
The bankers under a pretense of a gold
basis can hoard the gold and issue from
four to six dollars in paper money for every
dollar in gold held in reserve. For in-
stance for every $100,000 in gold the bank-
ers can issue $600,000 in paper money and
have them based on a bimetal or single sil-
ver basis, and loan this immense amount of
money, which amounts to millions upon
millions, to the government to pay the ex-
penses of the war and other expenses of the
government, and get 3 per cent compound
interest in gold on it. This is real-
ly 18 per cent on the capital invest-
ed and would double the capital in less
than 6 years. Now this immense amount
of money with the enormous amount of in-
terest added must be paid by the taxpayer.
The tax money earned hy the
brawny arm of the laborer who. in order
to do so and supply sufficient shelter, fuel
food and clothing to keep himself and fam-
ily from starvation and rags must with
his family sacrifice pleasure and ambition.
Being cut off from the opportunity of bet-
18
| tering their condition by industry, on ac-
count of being kept down by the restric-
tien of the combines and trust companies.
Though wages are better and work more
plentiful for selfish gain they see to it that
the laborers do not make more than a
hand to mouth living.
For fear that some of my readers might
fail to see how it is possible for combines
and trust companies to restrict labor. I will
try to show them more clearly the way by
which it is accomplished. We will take for
example the individual coal operator. Many
of whom would like to see their men have
plenty of work and good wages. But it is
almost unreasonable to expect it under the
present monopoly rule. The operators
lose more in proportion when the mines
are idle than the miners do. Their ex-
penses go on whether they work or not,
so it is greatly to their advantage to have
work every day. But the railroad coal
trust companies have the monopoly of the
coal market, and can regulate the work
to suit themselves. Coal operators who do
not belong to the trusts are compelled to
sell to the trusts or be driven out of the
business. If a large manufacturing com-
pany would make a contract with an in-
dividual coal operator for 500 tons per day
for one year, the trust companies weuld
not allow them sufficient cars to fill the
contract. So the manufacturer would have
to buy of the trusts in order that he could
keep his works running. And those opera-
tors, who sell their coal to the trusts con-
not, insure their men steady work and good
wages. The trusts will not allow them
an equal number of cars each day. But
will ship in a large number of cars each
day for a while then probably none for a
week or two. So the operator is compelled
to employ a great many more men than he
would otherwise need, so that when a
rush of cars come they can be load-
el in time. In this way the men
are reduced in wages by not having a suffi-
cient number of bank cars to load to give
them good wages. Then when the idle
days come the men make nothing. Now
is this not plain enough to show how and
by whom the laborer is kept in poverty
and want.
When the arguments of these high
tariff and single gold standard ad -
herents fail to palm out to please them,
that is when they see that they are beat
in the argument, then they audaciously
refer us to Cleveland’s administration, and
how the business of the country was de-
pressed during the Democratic rule.
But the old Democratic party, in power
at that time, was as great a monopoly
party as the Republican party is now and
their rulings were the same. The cause of
the depression was class legislation. Favor-
ing the combines and trust companies.
Such as the vetoing of the Bland seignorage
bill which was one of the greatest causes
of the depression in business in those
years. We will propound a question to
them now. What did the old Cleveland-
Demo---Republican----gold--—monopolistic
party do? When their platform was re-
vised renovated and cleansed of a greater
part of its monopolistic polution at Chicago
in 1896, by the order of the patriots of
America, William Jennings Bryan be-
ing one of them, and a very prom-
inent one at that, they all resigned and
held a convention to suit themselves.
Hear Bryan's noble and patriotic
declaration -in a speech before the order
on the 26th day of November 1895.
“I want to say to my friend from
New York, that when we cross the Alle-
gheny mountains with the Republic re-
deemed amidst the acclamation of an
emancipated people we will go with him in
to the harbor of New York, and there place
anew light in the hand of the Goddess of
Liberty enlightening the world. And that
new light will he the light of a new civili-
zation.’
We will now answer the question
I have asked Cleveland and nearly all
his cabinet who with all the rest of his mo-
nopolistic adherents bolted the party and
nominated a federal general and a
confederate general for presidential candi-
dates that they might retain both North
and South with their bolting party.
They got 132,000 votes from the old Demo-
cratic party. And that was the only party
that voted for a single gold standard.
The other parties new Democrat, Prohibi-
tion, Peoples and Republican party voted
for a double standard gold and siiver at the
ratio of 16 to 1. But the Republican plat-
form: though it avowed a double standard it
had a proviso in it, that they would hold
to a single gold standard unless they could
coax English capitalists to allow us to is-
sue the money of the country on a bimetal
basis.
I give President McKinley credit for
sticking to his promise and according to
his campaign speeches he believes that gold
and silver at the ratio of 16 to 1 would be
best for this country, and that the toil-
ling masses would prosper better by hav-
ing a double standard. He was fearful
that foreign capitalists would not like for
us to have it and he sent a commis-
sion over to Europe to see if they would
condescend and allow us to have it. He
kept his promise and sent the commission.
A majority of Congress with Mr. Me-
Kinley also believed that a double standard
would be best for the country cousequent-
ly they appropriated thousands of dollars
to secure this blessed privilege. Some of
the European nations were agreed to have
bimetallism. France was so anxious that
it joined the McKinley commission in
order to assist in invoking the English
capitalists to confer this kind favor upon.
us. But it closed its doors in contempt and
refused to grant our plaintive request. So
the commissioners had to come back with
their ‘‘fingers in their mouths.’’ so to speak
and ‘‘grin and bear it like Jacobs cat,’’
and wait in patience until ‘‘English Lords’’
in the plentitude of their mercies
vouch safe unto us as a nation this most
humble request. Was this nation so hum-
ble in the days of Washington? No! No!!
Now I think I have given sufficient proof
in thisarticle that the high tariff and single
gold basis is not the cause of this seeming-
ly prosperous condition of the country.
The Spanish-American war is the only
cause. If it had not been for this war we
would have experienced the hardest times in
this country ‘that we (the
people) had ever experienced. I
found employment for thousands of
soldiers who had to be furnished with
clothing, arms and ammunition. Then
the vast number of war vessels that had to
be made or repaired aud equipped and fur-
nished with fuel and ammunition. Now
think of the vast amount of coal and
powder that these vessels consume. This
is what has given an increase of labor in
the mines, mills, shops and factories. But
what will all this result in when this war
is over and peace is again restored. Will
the expenses of this war cease then, I trow
not. It is very likely there will have to
be a large standing army kept constantly
on the islands for years and years, in or-
der to keep them under subjection.
Now with these running expenses added
to the whole expense of the war which
aggregate millions upon millions, it al-
most makes one shudder to contemplate,
especially when we are well aware that
the whole burden will fall on the tax-
payer. Thus the only ones that will be pro-
fited by the war will be the money lenders.
JAMES S. COLBURN.
laboring
Married Mother Superior Restored to Her
Church Rights.
A romance is recalled by the appointment
of Dr. Sebian Ross as superintendent of the
South Dakota hospital for the insane, at
Yankton, and the manner in which the
doctor won his bride, who was Mother
Superior of the convent of the Sacred Heart
at Yankton.
Mother Mary Paul was the daughter of
a well-to-do Iowa family, but she took the
veil and afterward became superior of the
convent at Yankton. In works of charity
she met her future husband, who was em-
ployed in a minor capacity on a river steam-
boat. The sister became interested in the
young man, and it was through her in-
fluence that he went to college and studied
medicine. On returning to South Dakota
he was appointed physician to the convent,
and frequently met Mother Paul in the
discharge of her duties.
One afternoon Mother Paul left the con-
vent, met the doctor and went to the home
of the Rev. Joseph Ward, protestant mis-
ister, and they were made man and wife,
no license being necessary. Mrs. Ross re-
turned to the convent and performed her
duties as usual for about a week, when she
confessed the whole proceeding to her con-
fessor and left the convent. Mrs. Ross was
afterward restored to her rights in the
church, and her first child was christened
at the altar at which she had once forever
renounced the world and taken the vows
of a nun.
President Casszit’s Son Goes to Philip-
pines.
HARRISBURG, Aug. 31.—A. J. Cassatt,
president of the Pennsylvania railroad
company, visited Camp Meade this after-
noon with a party of Philadelphia friends.
Mr. Cassatt’s youngest son, Major E. C.
Cassatt, will leave to-morrow with the
Twenty-seventh regiment for the Philip-
pines. A regimental review was given in
honor of the visitors by order of Colonel
Bell.
Captain Quay has Resigned.
WASHINGTON, August 31.—Captian An-
drew G. C. Quay, son of Senator Quay, of
Pennsylvania, has resigned from the army
to go into private business. Captain Quay
isa graduate of the military academy of
the class of 1888. His resignation has been
accepted by the President to take effect
August 31st. :
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