REFORM IS NEEDED.
Public Schools of Washington Are
Far Behind the Times.
A* Cmigre** Makri Ihr I.aw* for the
District of Colombia All Citl
icua Are Interented la
This Matter.
[Special Washington Letter.]
"You have been told of the
splendid educational advantages which
are afforded to young men and young
women in this national capital, but
there is another story to be told on
that subject.
Higher education is desirable only
for those who aspire to high places in
public affairs and in social life. Com
mon school education is desirable for
the masses. Every child should have a
common school education, and it were
better far that every child should learn
to read and write and cipher than that
a chosen few should have collegiate and
university advantages.
The common schools of this city are
not worthy of the national capital, be
cause they are not conducted on com
mon sense principles. Consequently
the children receive educations which
are impractical, because they do not fit
the boys and girls for practical contact
with the world.
in the first place, surprising as it may
eeem, grammar is not taught in our
common schools, nor in our high
schools. One of the young lady gradu
ates of the high school, a near relative
of the narrator, this evening said:
*'l am now going to college and am
studying Latin and Greek. It is abso
lutely necessary to study grammar in
order to learn the first principles of
those languages, and hence 1 am study
ing grammar. I never studied gram
mar while I was in the public schools
here, nor in the high school. What I
know of English grammar was learned
by absorption, by the lessons learned
at home, when my speech was correct
ed by my father and mother. So far
as the public schools are concerned, I
might have been graduated in complete
Ignorance of the correct methods of
speaking or writing my mother tongue.
"Moreover," she continued, "they did
not teach spelling in the public schools,
and very few of the high school gradu
ates know how to spell correctly. In
Latin and Greek I find that it is abso
lutely necessary to know how to spell
every word, in order to be able to use
the dictionary intelligently, when at
tempting to translate sentences and
paragraphs into English, llence lam
beginning, although a high school
graduate, to turn my attention to the
correct spelling of the English lan
guage. Of course, lam not a poor spell
er, but I am not a good speller because
spelling was never taught me in the
public schools."
This statement is so surprising that j
it would not be deemed worthy of quo- I
tation or belief, but for the fact that
the writer has personal knowledge of
its truthfulness. High school gradu
ates have attempted to write short
ll llllw
v WJP ipl'™
A PICNIC CLASS.
fcand and transcribe their notes on the
typewriter, and have demonstrated
their utter inability to do even that
kind of work, because they do not know
how to spell.
For example, graduates of the Wash
ington high schools acting as stenog
raphers for years for your correspon
dent have written out the word "al
right," supposing that the words "all
right," so commonly used, constitute
but one word spelled as above. Scores
of them use the word "anythink" for
anything. Hundreds of them say: "1
taken" or "he taken" for"I took" or
' lie took."
The young men and young women
who syak and spell in that manner are
gnduares of the Washington high
schools. There is not a common school
in the Ohio, Mississippi or Missouri val
leys, or in the lake region, where the
first principles of practical education
arc so neglected. There is probably
no" a teacher on the prairies who would
not be ashamed to graduate pupils in
su< h ignorance of spelling and gram
mar.
Elocution is something of which the
pupils in our schools know nothing.
The teachers are graduates of our high
schools. They were never taught spell
ing, grammar or elocution, and hence
they cannot teach what, they do not
know. Therefore it is that our boys
and girls do not know how to read well.
If asked ;o read a column or a para
graph from a newspaper they stammer
and stumble over it like children in the
infant classes.
Instead of teaching arithmetic as it
slioi'Jd be taught, the children are given
lessons whicu they may learn or not,
according to their home influences,
and when they have been graduated
they are unfit for any business requir
ing computation. Hundreds of them
do not know the multiplication tables,
and yet they have diplomas setting
forth that they have completed their
educations.
It is all right for such, young men as
Henry Clay. Abraham Lincoln or James
A. Garfield to ca»ve out educations for
themselves ana attain the highest
scholastic excellence by tneir own ex
ertions, and it is equally all right for
the sons of wealthy men to be carried
through the schools ami colleges. Hut
the sons of rich men seldom amount to
much, and the Clays, Lincolns and Gar
ilelds are but few and far between. The
common schools and high schools
should lie conducted for the purpose of
giving practical education to the mil
lions who will soon be men and wom
en, bearing upon their shoulders, minds
and hearts the burdens of the repub
lic, and they should be well grounded
in the first principles of education.
In all of the grades of our public
schools the teachers are required, will
ingly or otherwise, to make excursions
into the hills and woods surrounding
this city, taking the children with them
with the alleged purpose of studying
botany and geology. The days thus
spent are picnic days, and they come
quite often. The children are obliged
to pay their own car fare, no matter
how poor their parents may be. This
is as unfair as it is unwise. The chil
dren do not need botany or geology, nor
will they ever have need of knowledge
of those branches in after life. But all
of them will have need of knowledge of
1 n v=Q
; V !I]
TRYING TO WRITE SHORTHAND.
reading, writing, spelling and arith
metic. And those studies are not
taught them.
Business men need not less than 2,000
words with which to express their
ideas fluently and freely. The average
high school graduate in this <?ity does
not know more than 1,000 words, and
does not know how to spell more than
half of those words accurately. And
when they come to work for men in
journalism, or other literary pursuits,
these high school graduates are help
less, because they do not understand
the words spoken to them, any more
than they would understand the words
of a foreign language. These extreme
statements are made as a result of per
sonal experience in dealing with the
graduates of these schools.
Inasmuch as the boys and girls are
not taught to be accurate in their spell
ing, they carry through life with them
j tlovenly intellectual habits. Some of
! them study law and medicine, but they
do not know how to spell the technical
terms used in their professions. One of
them, now a practicing physician, re
cently gave a receipt to a patient, for
"fourty-nin dolls." Another, a young
lawyer, wrote to a client: "Pleas cal
son as possble."
Young men so educated cannot rise.
Scholarly men know exactly where to
place half-educated men. Hut the men
of limited or slovenly education never
can understand the completely educat
ed men about them, llenee the high
school graduates of this city seldom
know how to choose a profession, or
how to succeed in one. It is an imcon
troverted truth that no man ever made
an ill figure who understood his own
talents, nor a good one who mistook
them.
The highways and by ways of history
are strewn with the wrecks of the iives
of men who mistook their callings, or
who were not well equipped educa
tionally for any calling. Many a youth
who would have been a first-rate me
chanic is forced into a learned profes
sion, and "with all his blushing hon
ors thick upon his vacant head" set
tles down to kill people scientifically,
pouring drugs,of which he knows little,
into bodies of which he knows less.
"Tompkins forsakes his last and awl
For literary squabbles;
Styles himself poet: but his trade
Remains the same—he cobbles."
Thus it appears tii«.t scores, if not
hundreds, of men and women become
teachers in the public schools, who
might better be in trade of some kind.
Thus it appears that there are superin
tendents or members of school boards
who know little about teaching, but
have power to employ teachers who
know less. Consequently our public
schools are in need of competent su
pervision. which will result in com
plete reformation of method and of
means for giving practical education to
our young people.
Upon whom to flx the responsibility
for the deplorable condition of our pub
lic schools the writer does not know. It
is enough for the present to state the
facts. The congress is the lawmaking
body of this city, and the facts herein
presented will be laid before the con
gress by a body of leading citizens,
and legislation will be asked requir
ing the public schools of the District
ol' Columbia to teach reading, spelling,
writng and arithmetic in the first, see
and third grades. After that, if chil
dren require higher education, they
may be taught something of the sci
ences, and maybe of the dead lan
guages. Hut reform must be wrought
in our public school system.
SMITH D. FRY.
A Fnrreone Conclusion.
( holly Weally, Mabel, 1 didn't mean
what I said at all. In fact, I spoku
without thinking.
Mabel <th, I never doubted that fora
moment. —N. Y. Journal.
Cot Wlmt II)- Ankcil For.
Ca-cy—See here! thot dollar ye liul
me yisterday wuz a countei feit.
Cussidy Well. Casey, didn't ye saj
ye wanted it bad? —Judge.
CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 1900
EIGHTY YEARS OLD.
Miss Susan B. Anthony Has Reached
the Four-Score Mark.
InltraKlila Will Observe February
IS, lIHIII, a m ■ Day on Which to l'»f
Tribute to 'l'liel* UimlnKulaheil
l.ead-vr's Work.
The National American Woman Suf
frage association will celebrate tlia
Wghtjeth birthday of their great lead
er. Susan li. Anthony, in a manner
befitting her grand work for human
ity. A committee appointed for tin*
purpose is making preparations for a
public meeting in honor of the event,
which will take place on February 15,
in Lafayette opera house, Washington,
D. C.
In the evening of the same day there
will be a card reception for Miss An
thony, at which she will receive with
members of the birthday committee.
The occasion will be one of interest in
many ways. Those having the ar
rangements in charge are:
Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt, chair
man; .Rachel Foster Avery, secretary;
Harriet Taylor Upton, Ohio; May
Wright Sewall, Indiana; Mary I?. Clay,
Kentucky; Emily M. Gross, Illinois;
Mrs. Senator liurrows, Michigan; Mrs.
Senator Warren, Wyoming; Lucy E.
Anthony, Perinsylvania, and Harriet
Stanton Blatch, of England.
Prominent women representing all
phases of woman's work and experi
ence will present to Miss Anthony
their greetings, and express their
sense of recognition of what her la
tors have meant to their respective
efforts. There is not a woman to-day,
no matter what her position, who hag
touched any of the really vital issues
of life, who has not been helped to
some degree by the efforts of Miss An
thony and her compeers.
This celebration will follow the close
of the National Woman Suffrage con
vention, which will be in session In
Washington from February 8-15.
When Miss Anthony began her work
woman was a chattel in the eye of the
law; shut out from all advantages of
SUSAN 13. ANTHONY.
(For Fifty Years Leader of the Woman's
Suffrage Movement.)
higher education and opportunities in
the industrial world; an utter de
pendent on man; occupying a subordi
nate position in the church; restrained
to the narrowest limits along social
lines; an absolute nonenity in politics.
To-day American women are envied
by those of other nations, and stand
comparatively free individuals, with
the exception of political disabilities.
During the 50 years which have
wrought this revolution. Miss Anthony
is the one woman in all the world who
has given every day of her time, every
dollar of her money, every power of
her being, to secure these results. She
was impelled to this work from no per
sonal grievance, but solely through a
deep sense of the injustice which, on
every side, she saw perpetrated against
her sex, and which she determined to
combat. Never for one short hour has
the cause of woman been forgotten
or put aside for any other object.
Never a single tie has been formed,
either of affection or business, which
would interfere with this supreme pur
pose. Never a speech has been given,
a trip taken, a visit made, a letter
written in all this half century of her
efforts that has not been done direct
ly in the interest of this one object.
There has l>een no thought of personal
comfort, advancement or glory} the
self-abnegation, the self-sacrifice have
been absolute —they have been unpar
alleled.
Future generations will wonder
what manner of people those were
who not only permitted this woman to
labor for humanity for 50 years almost
unaided, but also compelled her to beg
or earn the money with which to carry
on her work. Too often these facts
are forgotten or ignored by those who
have been most benefited by her la
bors. They see glory in the fact that
money is entirely their own now to do
with as they please, but do not know,
or will not admit, that the statutes
which guarantee this independence
were passed by the efforts of Miss An
thony and her compeers.
That they may express in some small
degree their appreciation of Miss An
thony's life of self-sacrificing labor, in
their behalf, the women have arranged
this celebration to take place upon her
eightieth birthday.
Women >lnl, lnif Uniform*.
Over 1.000 women are at present mak
ing uniforms for English soldiers.
Khaki is a dyed cotton, but what it is
d.yed with the government officials
themselves do not know. The firm
that discovered it keeps the secret very
much to itself. To guard against mis
fits the English army clothing stores
make the uniforms in no less than 30
different sizes.
Hot Water for llcmluclicn.
Ordinary headaches almost tilwnv*
yield HI I lie simultaneous application
of hot water lo the feel and back of the
neck.
RAILWAY TRUST.
A Gigantic Combine of Trunk
Lines Is Planned.
Hallway 'lumiuli* ure Kald to be
Working oil a Scheme to < lilte the
(•real Itoad* of tin- Country
Into the ol All I
<1 iistrlul < oimoIl<latlon».
Chicago, Jan. 19.—The Tribune
says: In order to carry out their an
ti-commission agreement it is propos
ed jow to combine all the railroads in
the country in a big passenger pool
and operate it in such a way that each
road will get an agreed percentage of
the earnings, liy such action no pos
sible profit can accrue to any of the
roads from ignoring the agreement.
Each road is to be allowed to carry
all the passengers is can secure, but
any road that should manage to get
more than its allotted proportion
would have its labor for its pains, as
the profits would goto the competing
roads which have failed to carry their
proportion of the business.
The eastern roads have all voted in
favor of this scheme and a committee
of western railroad executive ollicials
is now at work to get nil the western
lines into the combination.
The railroad magnates do not admit
that the formation and maintenance
of a passenger pool would constitute
a violation of the law. It has always
been the contention of the railroads
that the section of the inter-state
commerce act forbidding pools relates
only to freight traffic and does not
affect passenger business in any way,
anil it now seems to be their determi
nation to act and fight it out on this
presumption. The fact that President
Felton, of the Alton, is chairman of
the committee insures the co-opera
tion of the Alton and I'nion Pacific
railroads, have been opposed
to pools heretofore. The Great North
ern, which always has been a .stum
bling block in the way of pools and
steadfastly refused to join the combi
nations of that kind, is said to have
been won over.
The Chronicle says: As a result of
the recent consolidations and agree
ments among the owners of the great
trunk railways east of Chicago the en
tire transportation system between
the Mississippi river and the Atlantic
seaboard is to be reorganized, involv
ing the following changes: The aban
donment of the city ticket offices of
all the roads in the syndicate in Chi
cago, New York, Philadelphia, Bostou,
Buffalo, Haiti more, Washington, Pitts
burg. Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit,
Indianapolis, Peoria and St. Louis and
the substitution of joint offices In
each city. The discharge of all city,
general, traveling and district freight
and passenger agents and solicitors 'jf
the eastern roads i,i all parts of the
United States, Canada, and Europe.
This will affect nearly 50,000 men.
The abolition of fell forms of com
missions heretofore paid for the sale
of tickets over these roads will affect
the incomes of 10,000 agents and elim
inate the scalpers.
A number of through fast passenger
trains putin service during the past
few years as the re.suft of sharp com
petition will be abandoned, together
with all fast freight trains.
All the big competitors of the big
systems are in with the combining
movement and stand readv togo into
any deal that will maintain rates and
reduce expenses. Several small inde
pendent roads in the west and north
west are to be purchased. The fail
ure of congress to legalize pooling Is
given as the cause of the consolida
tion, as the owners are determined to
poo I if the purchase of ever'- railroad
in the country is uecessarv to obtain
that end.
THE CABLE BROKE.
Two Men Killed and Three Kiidly In
jured l>) an Kit-valor Accident.
New York, Jan. 1!). —Two men were
killed and three possibly fatally in
jured in the falling of an elevator yes
terday in the storage warehouse of
OMJeiily Pros. At the time of the ac
cident the elevator v\as at the ninth
floor of the building and had just been
loaded with five wheelbarrows tilled
with firebrick. There were five men
on the elevator, .lust as the elevator
started downward one of the cables
broke, letting the elevator loose, and
it went down to the basement with
frightful rapidity. The total distance
of the fall is 140 feet. The elevator
was crushed to splinters. On the way
down it fore out the brick partitions
and did so much damage that the iron
counterbalance weights were loosened,
allowing them to fall on top of the el
evator. The weights killed the men
in the elevator. The dead men were
crushed in a frightful manner.
The injured men bore no marks on
their bodies, nor were any of their
bones broken. They were all uncon
scious. however, and were removed to
a hospital. They are in a precarious
condition. The superintendent of the
building. Thomas Perry, was arrested,
lie claimed that the elevator was reg
ularly inspected by licensed inspectors
and that no warninir was given of the
parting of the cable.
A Ileiiiarkable Ca*e.
Baltimore, Jan. 19.—The post-mor
tem examination of the body of
Charles I'. Seeberger, the electrician,
who was shot last Saturday night it
Brunswick, Mil., by Conductor Swart
ly, and died Tuesday, revealed the
fact that Seeberger lived 60 hours
with a bullet hole through the center
of his heart.
A Street Car Dynamited.
Sprinirfiehl. 111., .Tail. 10. A car of
flic Consolidated Street liailwav Co.
was dynamited last night in the busi
ness portion of the city and near po
lice headquarters. The fore trucks
of the ear were broken and several
windows and the track torn up.
Smallpox ii: Indiana.
Indianapolis. Jan. 19. The state
board of health has received word that
15 new cases of smallpox have appear
ed ill Clav county. .Nine new cases
were reported yesterday from Vander
burg count I '. T he disease prevails in
14 counties of the state.
ASKS FOR AN INJUNCTION.
niMuurl'a Attorney t.nirral Ht-qiioati
tin' Sii|iri'ini' 4 onrt ti> Stop llii' Oper
ation* of the t lil< a:;o
Washington, .lan. IS. — The state .>1
Missouri by its attorney general, K.
li. Crow, has made application in the
euprome court and asked leave to lilt
a bill praying for an injunction
against the state of Illinois aiul the
city of Chicago to restrain them from
operating the recently opened drain
age canal. The court took the mo
tion. but did not indicate when action
would be taken.
The principal ground of objection
raised by the bill of complaint filed by
Mr. Crow is that the sewage from the
canal will pollute the water of tin;
Mississippi river. It is set forth that
there are several cities and towns 011
the Mississippi below the mouth of
the Illinois river which derive their
water for drinking and other purposes
from the Mississippi and that these
waters are "indispensable to the life
and health of thousands of inhabi
tants of the state." It is contended
that Lake Michigan is the natural re
ceptacle of the drainage of Chicago,
and that unless diverted it would find
its way into the lake instead of the
Mississippi river.
Mr. Crow also represents that not
only will the current filth of 1.500,0(10
peonle be turned into the Mississippi
through the canal, but also that which
has accumulated on the banks of the
Chicago river for years past, amount
ing daily to about 1,500 tons of "poi
sonous and noxious matters." If this
is permitted he says the waters of the
Mississippi "will of a certainty be
poisoned and polluted and rendered
wholly limit and unliealthfnl for
drinking and domestic uses;" also
that it will render useless the various
waterworks plants on the Mississippi
below the entrance of the Illinois. On
this account it is urged that the,
health and lives of the people will be
endangered and their business inter
ests irreparably injured, lie asks for
both a temporary and permanent in
junction.
Lock port, 111. 4 .Tan. IS. —The bear
trap dam separating the drainage
canal from the Desplaines river was
lowered by the sanitary district trus
tees with the consent of the canal
commissioners and fiov. Tanner yes
t< rdav and 200,000 cubic feet of water
per minute rushed into the Desplaines
river on its way to the Gulf of Mexi
co. The bear trap dam is the largest
of its kind in the world. It is 100 feet
in width and has an oscillation of 17
feet.
Chicago. Jan. IS.—Attorneys repre
senting the city of St. Louis yesterday
made application before Judge Kohl
saat, of the United States district
court, for an injunction to restrain
the board of trustees of the sanitary
district, from turning the sewage of
the Chicago river into Desnlaines
river. Judge Kolilsaat set January'2o
as the date for hearing arguments 011
the question.
RAILROADERS GET MORE PAY.
Tile It. A O. ami IMIIKIIII rji A l.akr ICrlc
Koatl* Advance the of (em
ploye*.
Pittsburg, Jan. IS. —Firemen anil
possibly conductors and engineers all
over the Baltimore & Ohio railroad
system proper are to be the subjects
of a substantial wage advance dating
from January 1. The advance will be
close to 10 per cent. It will vary, i f
is understood, 011 different parts of
the system so as to equalize the scale,
and for the most part the advance will
be about 8 per cent. It goes to all
firemen, however, the men of the
yards and the men of the road.
The Pittsburg & Lake Erie manage
ment sent out notices yesterday to the
various division headquarters an
nouncingl what will be a sharp ad
vance to all its yardmen. This is also
in the nature of a readjustment of
wages, the plan being to advance as
near to a common standard the men
of all the yards. In general the ad
vance averages about 10 per cent. All
yardmen, including conductors, engi
neers, firemen and switchmen of the
yards, will be paid the advanced scale
from January 1.
It is understood that the new scale
will fix the wages for the men of the
local yards of the Pittsburg & Lake
Krie as follows: Day conductors 25
cents an hour; night conductors 20
cents an hour; day brakeinen or
switchmen 19 cents an hour; night,
brakeinen or switchmen 20 cents an
hour: engineers 29 cents an hour.
KILLED THEIR JAILER.
Two lninati'N ol a lllsmiuri liaNtlln
.tlurilrr llx < uMoillan and liH'ape,
West Plains, Mo., Jan. IS.—County
Jailer Alfred llenry, while feeding the
prisoners in the Howell county jail
yesterday, was overpowered and kill
ed by two prisoners, Men Kichardsou
and Ed < i rail v. Kichardsou was un
der sentence to the penitentiary for
burglary and is an escaped convict,
from the Tennessee penitentiary.
Henry had gone to the jail to feed
the prisoners and. not returning home
at the accustomed time, his wife be
came anxious and sent a neighbor in
search of him. His Ixuly was found in
a pool of blood 011 the jail Door. The
prisoners had escaped and locked the
door sifter them. A posse was organ
ized and is scouring the woods. A re
ward of SI,OOO is offered for their cap
ture. A report by telephone announc
ed their appearance two miles south
of here, headed for Arkansas. Intense
excitement prevails and talk of lynch
ing is freely indulged in.
Tin* "Uherty Alliance."
Chicago. Jan. IS.—The Times-llerald
says: A movement which is being
carried on in the name of the Liberty
Alliance to give aid to the lioers has
bi en 011 foot in ( hieago for ten days.
Associated with it. are a number of
well known citizens of ( hieago. Si".-
oral Cnited States senators, it is said,
have signified their intention of giv
ing the organization support. When
asked if the allianc. was recruiting
for service in S.iuth Africa, one
cf ;he promoters said. "No." lie a,Ul
cil that the organization was merely
"colonizing" for the Transvaal.
A ROTTEN_MESS.
A Few Samples of Putrid Pol
itics in Montana.
A PUGILISTIC PREACHER.
lie Gives Racy Testimony in the
Clark Bribery Case.
A LAWYER DEFINES A LIE.
■ I<- IdentlficM a Letter \V rllH-ii It} lllm
and 'l'llAdmit., Iha I Kverj' Stale
iiu-nt4 ontuiucdTlicrt-Ui wan a False*
hood.
Washington, Jan. 20.—The hearing
yesterday before tin- senate commit
tee on elections in the ease of Senator
Clark, of -Montana, developed four
new witnesses. They were Represen
tative Cooney, T. E. ISutler, a preach
er named Warren, who was ehapla'ii
of the Montana house of representa
tives. and a lawyer named Cason.
Mr. Warren said that he had resign
ed his ministry in the Methodise
church after giving Ins testimony be
fore the Montana supreme court be
cause of scandalous reports that were
putin circulation about him, lie
said that previous to going to Helena
he had had a difficulty at Sweet (irass.
"A man called me a had name," he
said, "and I knocked him down and
gave him a thrashing."
"Isn't it a fact," asked Mr. Faulk
ner, "that you were charged by mem
bers of your congregation with em
bezzlement and fornication?"
Mr. Warren Replied in the negative,
saying there had )>een no official
charge. He said that the stories cir
culated after he had given liis testi
mony charged him with drunkenness,
embezzlement and immorality.
Z. T. Cason, an attorney at liut.te,
told how he had been sent for to come
to Helena to use his influence with
Representative Marcey, of Custer
county, and that when he went there
he saw Senator Clark, who told him
he would like to have him see Marcey
and talk with him and that Mr. Mar
cey had not been approached; that
service being left to him (Cason), as
he could handle him better.
"He authorized me to say to him
that he would pay him SIO,OOO for his
vote for him (Clark) for the United
States senate," said the witness.
Mr. Cason said he had seen Marcey
several times and after satisfying
himself that Marcey would vote for
Clark, had so reported to him. He
had not. however, made any sugges
tion of a money consideration to Mr.
Marcey. Afterward Marcey had voted
for Clark and on February' 4 he (Ca
son! had received a letter from Mr.
Clark enclosing a check for SSOO for
"professional services." This letter
was produced and identified and Mr.
Cason snid that the only services he
had rendered Mr. Clark were in con
nection with the senatorial race.
Mr. Cason identified a. letter he had
written to Albert (i. llall. of Wash
ington. I>. C„ a brother-in-law of Sen
ator Clark, who had originally intro
duced him to the senator. This letter
thanked Mr. Hall in profuse terms for
Cason's introduction to Mr. Clark and
spoke of that gentleman in the most
eulogistic terms.
Mr. Cason identified the recanting
letter he had given to a Mr. Root. It
covered three pages of foolscap ami
r,as read by the witness amid roars of
laughter by all present, this laughter
being to the abject character of the
language used.
"l)o you pretend to say that when
you wrote that letter you knew : t was
not true?" said Mr. Faulkner.
"Why, certainly," responded the
wit ncss.
"Then you confess here to having
written and signed three pages of lies
in that letter," said Mr. Faulkner.
In his reply the witness gave the
second unique definition of a lie that
the hearintr has brought out.
"No, I do not." he replied. "I con
fess to writing the letter, but I don't
think any statement is ever a lie which
is made With the understanding that
it is false."
■''amine Confront* 1a, 000,000 People.
Calcutta, .lan. 20. The council yes
terday considered the famine situa
tion. The official estimates show that
the cost to the government of the te
lief works to the end of March will be
40,000.000 rupees. About 22,000,000
persons are now affected in British
territory anil about 27,000.000 in the
native states. The viceroy. Lord Cur
zon. said that the famine area had ex
panded. surpassing the worst fears
and thev were now facing a cattle,
water and food scarcity of a terrible
character. Aboul :i.2.">0.000 persons are
now receiving re lief.
Killed lli« Family and Knlcldcd.
North Urookfield, Mass., Jan. 20.
Martin liergen, the catcher of the
Iloston baseball team of the National
leap'iie, killed his wife and two chil
dren and committed suicide at his
home Friday. An ax was the imple
ment used in taking the life of Mrs
liergen and one of the children, while
a razor was employed to out the
throat of the other child, a little girl,
and of the man himself, it is thought
the action was due to insanity.
I'ayiic'* Frt-e Trade Hili.
Washington. Jan. 20. Kepresenta
tive l'avne. of New York, chairman of
the ways and means committee, has
introduced a bill in the house to ex
tend the customs laws to I'ort > Ki<*o.
The effect of the enactment of this
bill into law would be free trade be
tween the Cnited States and I'orto
Rico.
Itroad'M Victory.
New York, Jan. 20. "Kid" I'.road,
of Cleveland, defended Joe I'ernstein,
of this city, in a hard fought battle
of 25 rounds before the I*roadway
AUiLtia club last ndglu.
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