THE HOLIDAY SEASON How It Is Kept by Both Rich and Poor in Chicago. WORK OF SOCIAL SETTLE ME NTS Salvation Army Provide* Chrlnlwni Cheer for Mirny ThouxHiidn—The Public .Mutt' the Turkey—l-'en tivltles ot Middle CllltiHeH. Chicago.—As the holiday season draws near interests in the social settlements and the missions of every large city in creases among the ill missions that, thou mas festivities and even undertake to provide Christmas ——presents especially Miss Jans Addams f()r , he chil(lren> and Christmas dinners, either at home or at the settlement houses for the families. At practically all of the social settlement houses no discrimination is made so far as creed is concerned, and all are given an equal welcome without having any special religious teachings forced upon them. The same is true in the majority < 112 mission churches and Sunday schools, 1 hough at times one will find ono that is narrower than the general rule. An instance of this kind may be cited In the poor district of the South side. A wealthy Michigan avenue congregation maintains a mission there attached to which is both a kindergarten and a sew ing class as well as a Sunday school. The pastor of the church objects to any child receiving the benefit of the kinder garten who does not attend the Sunday school, or any mother receiving any benefit from the sewing circle who is not a regular attendant at the mission church. At this mission a Christmas en tertainment is to be given, but it is for the members of the Sunday school only, and the other little waifs and strays of the neighborhood will not be permitted to view the festivities. T'Hull llouxe. In the Ghetto district of the West side IT nil House is the great rendezvous of the poor at Christ- __________ I mas time. Miss Jane Addams ex erts a wider influ- 112 rtt\ C^) ence among the ( . poor of Chicago \jj than any other one /|jLO «01l person engaged in / c r s J philanthropic work in the city, but she ufvzT frTl 3S does nothing that Jj fi P is not practical for i|j[niJ IHD- D3J them. Every Christmas ar- ~ rangement at Hull " House is devised for practical pur- * poses, and though Huli Hou * e the charities distributed through this great institution at this time of the year are manifold they are not indiscrim inate. Hull House as it stands to-day, with its commodious buildings, its far reaching influence, is a growth of a lit tle more than 14 years. It is the product of an European trip by Miss Addams and Miss Ellen G. Starr. On that trip they studied conditions among the poor of Europe, and determined to do some thing for the poor of Chicago. They had nothing to start with but their own in domitable courage, but they rented ona floor of a building—a ramshackle affair erected by Charles Hull in 1859, and in 1889 used by sweat shop proprietors, old clothes and old rag men—and here be gan attracting about them the poor and outcasts of society who needed the guid ance of a stronger personality than their own to help them upward. Miss Addams explains its object and its methods in this way: "It must be grounded in a philosophy whose founda tion is on the solidarity of the human race, a philosophy which will not waver when the race happens to be represented by a drunken woman or an idiotic boy." With such a foundation it is small wonder that Hull House is one of the bright lights of the Chicago holiday sea son. TIIO Salvation Army, Of all the many organizations which work in His name for the poor of the city none are more i appreciated or ac i complish greater ' results than the ? ' Iraf . Salvation Army. W For ' lays past a S Salvation Army JillWki"' ft ■ lassie has stood on every corner of the Jill downtown streets W 1 K,A{ holding a stick I I ! from which was 1 <*l suspended an arti- J j \ ficial turkey, into &// JgejuL, which the public were invited to drop 1 heir spare 1 change as "stuff- ing." The artifi- S«ouring Stu'f n,: [or the { . ial turkey was em blematic of the use to which 'he money collected was to be put—the purchasing of a Christmas din ner for 10,000 or more of Chicago's poor. Nor is the dinner all that is to be given. The sad-laced child, into whose life Christmas festivities do not come, Is made happy by the present of a small toy. The thinly-clad boy or girl or man or woman is provided with some article of suitable clothing. This is the one time in the year when the Army gives without demanding something iu return. The rule of com pensation for the assistance given at other times is dispensed with during this'one day. It is a Christmas present in the full sense of the term that is re ceived. It was some five years ago that the Christmas dinner idea was first at tempted on a large scale by the Army. At that time they undertook to feed 20.- 000 people in New York, and fed instead 50,000. From that the idea grew to a na tional effort, and las', year it fed 300,000, ranging from 200,000 in New York to a few hundred, or even down to a few dozen in the smaller cities and towns. Families are provided with basket dinners. Into each basket must go a turkey, cranberries, mince meat, flour, fruit, and in fact everything that goes to make a Christmas dinner. In cases where it is needed, the fuel to cook the dinner is supplied, and even the car fare needed to come and get the dinner is pro vided. The basket dinner idea is grow ing, and its growth is encouraged by the army. It not only provides a eheeful ness in an otherwise dreary home for the day, but it helps to maintain a feeling of self-respect on the part of the recipient as well. For the homeless, including the newsboys and other street waifs, the great public dinner, with its after enter tainment, is one of the bright spots of the year. ClirlHl til an Plenxnrea. The Christmas festivities of those not dependent upon the charitable organiza tions for their share of seasonable P" T ...... i cheer is varied. In the wealthy homes it is becoming more and more a day de- W tSjflMiSSgk voted to Ihe ehil- •{ dren. The Chicago c Bay* millionaire is a V fv \ home lover, a fam- 11 IS. \ 11 y lover. On J V Christmas day the children and grand children are gath ered about the 'V' home fireside, and / *-* the little ones are '' made happy with an over-abundance I—— of cos 11 yto ys. ° Ltd ° or Chr.stmM . . , , P.easurjs With this class the day is typical of the farm Christmas in many ways—it is a family reunion day. The middle classes take to the thea ters in the afternoon and evening. The Christmas matinee is one of the most profitable performances of the year, and for the evening every house is sold out days ahead. Church entertainments provide amusement for thousands of others, and still others, especially the younger element, turn to outdoor sports. Should Jack Frost fail to cover the park lakes with a heavy coating of ice it would spoil the Chrislmas pleasure of thousands. This is the most popular of outdoor winter sport in Chicago, because it is the most practical. There are no hills for coasting, though in some of the parks artificial toboggans are built. The middle classes are «ot owners of horses and sleighs, and the supply at the liver ies are both limited and costly. To no other city in America probably has the country contributed so large a percentage of the population, and back to the country go thousands for the holi day season, there to find a mirth and en joyment that is not possible in the city, and in the foreign settlements the Christmas festivities are patterned after those of the fatherland. Chicago I'rovlnclnliam. Chicago provincialism was illustrated to a Harvard man, direct from the ef fete east, during — ~~~the recent stock a}-T : 7Tr s^ow a( - the stock :•«' i J£>rds - " was tll€ £jreasterner's first jp&j J <i r visit to Chicaeo, v\i J ant * ' ie came to be - i IJJ A "< ve most any thing of the woolly ©♦PI 1 west. Of course, |p§ij| IJ I I he visited the riHK I stock show, and tiffs ~if\ Til white there met IPSMA twoor three friends college days, ~ no w prominently connected with the packing industries ~^r— —————'of the city, A Bit 0. Chicago Pro- "Let all Of US go vinc.alism , , in over here and have a drink together for the sake oi college days," said one of the Chicago friends, pointing to a small saloon across the street. It was not a commodious place, and there was nothing for it but to line up against, the bar and drink. "What will it be?" asked the Chl cagoan. "Is it possible to secure an old-fash ioned cocktail?" asked the Harvard man. with trepidation, after looking about the place. "Whisky can't go in this crowd," re tured his friend. "Champagne isn't half good enough. Give us a quart of it, Mike." The bartender opened up the bottle just as though he was used to it, and ho is, and the trio disposed of two or three of them before quitting, but the Harvard man pronounced that the lilit when he told me of it. "Drinking champagne, of genuine French vintage at that, over a stock yards bar," said he. "Why, I wouldn't have believed it, even of Chicago, if 1 hadn't been there myself. Such a pro ceeding is wilder and woollier than any thing I ever dreamed of." But drinking champagne over a bar Is an every day occurrence in Chicago. WRIGHT A. PATTERSON. CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1903. | The Making of a New 9 j Gity of Galveston | How ih". Water Gateway of the Southwest I£to Be I Protected From the Ravages of Storm and Tide. €ALVESTON will within the next three years bt in a posi tion to bid defiance to the ' worst storm and tidal wave which the Gulf of Mexico can kick up. The 17-foot sea wall facing the gulf side of the city has been about completed, and the work of rising the grade of the city to the level of the top of this barrier is to begin, according to the terms of the contract, within the next CO days. The board appointed by the governor has awarded the contract for this work. The plan which the con tractors propose is to construct a canal 20 feet deep from the bay inside and about 200 feet from the sea wall. They estimate that it will take 11,000,000 cubic yards of filling to raise the city to the level of the sea wall. This gigantic en gineering feat will, when completed, take its place as one e>f the nine wonders of the world, and will cost the county under the contract price of 18% cents per cubic yard nearly $2,000,000, for which the city will issue bonds. At the time of the awful catastrophe of September, 1900, when the city was almost wiped out of existence and 6,000 residents perished, the prediction was quite generally made that thecity would never be rebuilt; that the thriving me troplis had received a blow from which she would never recover. Industrious newspaper men and magazine writers under such captions as "The Solving of Galveston's Problem,'' "The Lessons of Galveston's. Flood," etc., told how Gal veston's site might be abandoned for a safer location. La Porte, the only ele vated point on the Texas coast, being 35 to 40 feet above the mean sea level, was picked out as the probable location of the new Galveston. Twelve members of the rivers and harbor committee of congress, with Chairman Theodore F. Burton, of Ohio, at its head, inspected La Porte. A ship canal was projected I 1 * 30 O" «l ' J ° f' fi /70 ~r> f—l I fi /112 /ft TKctte H WI9OO , N —A ; i \ ! ?' T ? rMcHtV ' i7f 'EL 9OeiT*fNtHiV/t4f 1 _ - ]j «- <r'C>>, </'£•So -j , P/LES V'O" CroC IOVC ruOIA/A i. 2FTP 30FT Lohg. J J* I IRAN VERSS SECTION OF THE GALVESTON SEA WALL. which was to be 25 miles long and from 20 to 22 feet deep. Over eight miles of the canal had been completed at that time and the construction was being pushed. It was proposed to establish a dry dock and naval station at La Porte which would cost from $8,000,000 toslo,- 000,000. But Galveston refused to be pushed off the island, or be run out of business by a little thing like the Gulf of Mexico. Something of the Chicago spirit possess ed her. If Holland's 1,000 spare miles of territory, much of it below the sea level, and which supports 1,000,000 souls, could be protected by .'OO miles of dikes along the Zuydtr Zee, surely Galveston's few miles, five to 17 feet above the level of the sea, need not be abandoned be. cause once iu its history the water had risen to a height of 15 feet and the wind, the fiercest known to annals, had blown 120 miles per hour. The protection of Holland, the elevation of large portions of Chicago, and of nearly the whole of Sacramento, Cal., proved that the Gal veston problem was merely one of engi neering detail. Never for a single hour, even during the darkest period of the awful storm, has Galveston entertained the thought that the city would be wholly or in part abandoned. Eight days after the stearin vessels were loading at the wharfs. The local papers never missed an issue, al though for a few days their editions were single sheets, the size of hand bills, run off on job presses. The banks opened for business on the' third day. Me ra diants ordered new stocks of goods as soon as the telegraph lines were opened. It had been saidthattherebuildingofthe railroad bridge would take two months, but in 12 days trains were running regu larly into the city. Galveston is the natural water gate way to the southwest. The city is built on a narrow strip of sand 30 miles long and one to three miles wide. It has been well said that the city was born of geo graphy and commerce and that she can not die while there are a great west and ships that goto sea. The economic causes which made Galveston the fourth general export port of the country still exist. The year's business following the storm showed substantial increase over the year preceding. Cotton re ceived to August 31,1901, was $2,177,983; that received to August 31, 1900, was $1,710,203. The grain exports for 1900- 01 were 14,010,378 bushels, that for the year before the storm, 1899-00, were 13,- 531,839 bushels. At least $5,000,000 has been spent in repairs and restoration of the city since the storm of 1900. But the all-absorbing problem has been the protection of the city from fur ther Inundation. In 1902 $1,715,217 were spent for permanent protective improve iixeyts. The appropriation made by con gress lor deepening and widening the channel in theinnerharborwas?3oo,ooo; for repairing the jetties $750,000. In the fail of 1901 a board of engineers was appointed to study the problem and re port on the best method for protecting the city. This board reported in April, 1902, and work was soon after begun on the sea wall.' This wall is built of con crete and is to protect the east and south sides of the city, with a levee to pro tect the city on the west. The work on the sea wall and levee has progressed far enough to permit the beginning of the work of rising the grade of the city. The sea wall is 3Vi miles long with its top 17 feet above mean low water. This wall is founded on piles and protected from undermining by sheet piling and riprap. The sea face of the wall is curved so that its upper portion is ver ticle and its rear face is to be filled be lli- * by an embankment, the top of which will be paved with brick for a width of 35 feit and planted with Ber muda grass for a further distance of > J feet. The levee portion of the protec tive barriers of the city is to be 300 feet wide with side slopes of one feet in 25 feet, and is intended to be built upon. In brief, the city will be surrounded on three side.- by a structure whose top is higher than the high water in 1900. The fourth or unprotected side is that facing Galveston bay, and here the city is high er than the highest water ever recorded previous to 1900. The diagram produced herewith show? a transverse section of the sea wall and is self-explanatory. The total cost of the work undertaken will be f3,505,040, of which sum $1,294,- 755 was for sea wall. Special machinery was made for the building of the sea wall, and by the end of last year the work was being actively prosecuted. Dur ing this year this work has been prac tically completed. Galveston now lies behind a massive stone wall, but gradu ally as the skill of engineers is exerted, the city will rise lip, up, up until her streets are on a level with the broad. Hat top of the seawall. Future genera tions will listen with absorbed attention to the stories of how Galveston used to be Hooded by the encoraching waters of the gulf, of how in the terrible storm of 1900 the city was nearly swept from its foundations and washed into the biiy, but they will never see Galveston's streets rushing rivers of water, they will never know the horrors of the cat astrophe of 1300. A new Galveston—a monument to the triumph of man over nature and nature's elements. This new Galveston, rising grandly and confident ly above the ruins which the raging waters of the gu' left behind them, was not so much as reamed of before the eventful year of,» 900. Frequently the city had previous to tlia year been un der water, but her people had simply waited lot* the waves to roll by, and then went oil doing more and more business, as the great southwest tievelo,. her inexhaustible resources. But when the 13-foot tidal wave swept in upon the city the inhabitants awoke to a sense of the danger which confronted them, and the prophecy made over 70 years ago came true. Stephen F. Austin, t?ie Virginia pio neer, who led the firit American colony into Texas, rode across the coast plain a few feet above the level of Galveston, and saw far inland a stranded schooner. Tho vessel had been carried there by some great storm wave e>f the gulf and had been left a strange and hopeless wreck upon the prairie. "Some day," said the founder of Texas, "the elements which did that will sweep over this coast again." And they did. There was no meteorological station In those days to record the highest of the water and the velocity of the witui, but the waves which bore upon their crest the great schooner far inland and then abandoned it to the lonely stretches of the prairie waste may have been as high and mighty as those that rolled on Galveston in 1900. If that thriving commercial city resting so dangerously near to the level of the waters of the bay could only have realized the full meaning of Austin's prophecy, perhaps years ago, the build ing of the sea wall and the raising of the grade of the city would have been un dertaken. If it had been seen what would have been saved? Six thousand precious lives, and property valued at $17,000,000, enough treasure to cover the cost of the present improvements five times over. Hut it is true always and everywhere that individuals and cities and nations provide adequately against catastrophes only after a crowning disaster lias fal len. Then treasure boxes are opened and energies set in motion which brins; about some such transforming scenu as that which is being enacted at Gal veeton, j j j ' jl' if'' .!*> mil Ml"'!! I'l 1 111 mill 1 111 I llllF I To Attempt to Make Soldiers of the Chinese Army of the Empire to Be Reorganized - What It 8 Now Consists Of —Quaint Body of Soldiers. Two things serve to arouse at least a passing interest in the military capacity of China. First is the warlike situation in the east with Japan and Russia seem ingly drawing nearer each day to a con flict in which China will be vitally inter ested, and for which that empire must furnish the battle ground. Dispatches from the orient tell of China's depend ence upon Japan for the ousting of the bear from Manchuria, and the preser vation of the ompire. Under such condi tions China would naturally become an ally of Japan in the struggle for eastern supremacy. These tilings make our sec ond reason for evincing an interest in military China of still greater im portance jUian it otherwise would be, and this second reason is the expressed inten tion of the Chinese government to re organize and modernize its army. Even before Caleb Cushing carried President Tyler's letter to Pelting and negotiated the first treaty with China in 1841!. the possibilities of the mailed fist had become a bug-a-boo to the people of the western nations. So long as China slept there was no danger; but China was awakening, and what the awaken '' *** ' . I II ■ V CANDIDATES FOR OFFICE IN THE CHINESE ARMY. ing might bring, what ambitions the eastern giant might evince, were serious questions in both Europe and America. More than half a century has passed since Caleb Gushing negotiated our first commercial treaty with China, and our first fears seem no nearer realization than they were then. In a general way, the Chinese soldier is a nonenity so far as fighting qualities are concerned, though there have been exceptions to this general rule. During the Taiping rebellion, the greatest of the many civil wars China has known, the English Gen. Gordon proved that the coolies were not cowards when prop erly led. His "ever victorious" force of less than 10,000 men, put to route rebel armies ten times its size. Gordon's force was officered by foreigners, and had a sprinkling of foreigners in its ranks, and it was the fearless example set by thege men which made heroes of the coolies. A stranger force was never mustered A CHINESE REGIMENT PRACTICING AT BATTLE EXERCISES." _ under military banner than this of Gor don, r.or seldom a more heroic one. Soldiers of fortune from practically every nation of Europe and America, men who were fighting merely for the adventure and pay the service promised, yet the power of one man not only made heroes of them, but heroes of the Chi nese coolies as well. It was an experi ment that proved possibilities under right conditions. Of callable military leaders China de veloped but few during the Taiping re bellion, or since that time. Of the few Gen. Ching, who served with Gordon, after his desertion from the rebel forces, was a notable character, and of great military ability. During the several petty foreign wars in which China was engaged down to the time of the out break of the war with Japan, no char acter of anything like equal ability was tieveloped, nor did the more important conflict with Japan bring to the front a leader of such worth as to be classed with him. This lack of military leaders would seem to place China as a non-mil itant power of whom the world need have no fears. It takes training to make perfection, and the training of the Chinese soldier is the one great essential lacking. Through all its defeats administered since the days of the coming of the white man, the empire has never felt the need of remodeling its system of training. In fact, the soldier in China is held more in contempt than esteem. The men who are entrusted with the destinies of the army must prove their efficiency in the sacred writings of Confucius rather than in the science of war. The officer.-; of the army are drawn from those who suc cessfully pass the civil examination, the training for which is useless not only from the military standpoint, but the administration of civil duties as well. Aside from these examinations the oi-ly other test required is intended to prove efficiency with bows and arrows, a relic of antiquity scarcely to be imagined outside the wilds of Africa. Even with such a force it might be pos sible to accompii sh something as has been shown by the success of Gen. Gordon, were they given any practical training. One of the prominent features of the drill of the army consists of teaching the recruit to assume an attitude and ex pression to frighten his opponert. At the time of the opening of the war with Japan, and.in fact, ai the present time, much of the armament consists of hal berds, pikes, bows and arrows and long smooth-bore muskets, while practically one-half the men in each regiment are banner bearers and not armed at all. Of methods of commissariat nothing is known, nor is there such a thing as hos pitals or medical service. The reasoHS for this state of affairs lie, in a great, measure, to the fact that funds appro priated for the army have been misap plied, and gone to enrich boodling offi cials. The Manchu army, which is practical ly the only imperial army of CiTina, numbers from 80,000 to 100,000 men; though on paper it boasts of 300,000. Of these about 40,000 are stationed in gar risons in Manchuria, and some 6,000 in Peking. This army is the support of the Manchu dynasty, and is recruited al most. exclusively from the Manchus and the Monguls. The provincial army, called the Green Flags, consists of 18 corps, one for each province. These various corps are un- ' tier the command of the governor of the ! different provinces, «jid there is no co operation between them. This fori» numbers less than 200,000 men,.tfiougli | its paper strength is more than 500,000. j This makes the total army of China num | ber about UOO.OOO men on the present peace footing, with a paper strength, or | war footing, of close to 1,000,000. I That the Chinese arnjy as it now ex | tsts, with all its crudeness and super • stations, is useless, or even worse, was proven by the war with Japan. That it is possible to make a soldier of no mean ability of the Chinese coolie was proven ; by Gen. Gordon, but China will have to I take a long step forward and forget the j superstitutions of centuries before she can do in a large way what Gen. Gordon did with a small force. With militant j Japan as a drill master, it is possible ] t hat the army of the empire may be made | into a formidable foeman for Russia, but it cannot be done if war conies quickly. I China, with its 400,000,000 people, ' could easily dominate the east, and pre- I vent her own disintegration, if she suc ! reeds in making soldiers of her raw ma j terial, but to do so must be the growth of ; generations and not the work of a day or j official edict, and the chances are th« modernized army will not come in tin.e j to save the empire. DANIKL, CLEVERTO.N.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers