THE ' PITTSBURG- DISPATCH, SUNDAY, JANUARY 26, 1890. 15 "FBOM ARK TO LINER. History of the Development of Eapid Transit on the Sea. RODE CRAFT OF TBE AKCIENTS. Application of Steam Through Paddles, Screvrs and Twin-Scremj. 10WEEIKG THE ATLANTIC BECOED IS a long way back to the time of that old ship-builder Noah, hut we are going that far, if not farther, to be cin at the be ginning of this wholly true chronicle. Noah was a gentleman, it is said, and en good authority, too.but it wonld be hard to con vince the pres ent generation that he was a scholar or he would have hesitated before casting him self adrift on an illimitable sea in a vessel lacking both steering apparatus and motive power. At this late day, however, there is le.illy no good reason to condemn his action inasmuch as he and his menagerie landed safe eventuallr.more as a result of good luck than management, it is generally believed. "Whether it is perfectly proper or not to assnme that the ark was the best thing in the way of a ship that conldbe constructed at that day we have no means of knowing beyond question, hut the supposition is that it was, and were it so it is certainly no se vere reflection on the knowledge of the time, when it is remembered that up to within very recent times sea-going vessels were built on nearly if not quite as unique lines as those of Noah's craft. And it may even be asserted that there has been as great an advance made since the introduction of steam as there had been in all the thou- With Sails and Oars. sands of years required to develop steam vessels from log-rafts and coracles. IN THE BEGINNING. "What a curious and interesting develop ment that was, too. One can, in the mind's eye, almost see the pre-historic man at work coustructingstranger.nd wondrous craft from various woods, skins, etc. The first diffi culty when finished, most probably, was in getting these affaire to float; then came the necessity of propelling power, which was formed in a plain, ordinary, every-day stick, or punt-pole, as it would be called nowadays, and then eventually came the nrst rude sail, the virtue of which was as like as not chanced upon. Time goes on and the ever progressive human gradually increases the size of his boats till the sails and oars are not able to move them; then, no doubt, addition after addition was made to the size of the sails and oars, till the boats could not carry them, and then it took an other long while to strike a happv medium. Century lollowed century and still the ship builders made no progress if we ex cept the adoption of rude forms of art in their shapes and decoration. To this there appeared to be no limit Previous metals and jewels were lavished upon them. The most splendid silks of Sidonion looms were made up into sails, and drapings of the most precious cloths and broidered JONATHAN HUX.X.S' works covered all that was likely to offend the eye of the fastidious and grandeur lov ing ancients. Ivory in untold quantifies was used for benches, the oars, when they used them, were made of the "oaks of Bashin," the masts of "cedar of Lebanon." 0er all, fantastic forms were given to the craft itself by the artist ship builder, rang ing trom the graceful swan head of Cleo patra's sumptuous gondola to the fierce dragon-headed war ships of the followers of Eric: Seventy ells and four extended On the wave the vessel's keel; High above It, gilt and splendid, Koc tbe figure bead precious, "With its crest of steel. THE BOATS OF MYTHOLOGT. "Was it any wonder that to people who, observing the properties of the sail, could not understand the cause or source from whence that power came, should weave around the bird-like boats a supernatural agency. "Why should not the gods have wondrous storm boats to cross from Asgard to Jotunheims? TJgalfar, a boat that had neither rigging, helm nor oar, but, like Hia watha's canoe, understood men's speech. Skidbladnir, another, that could hold all the Teutonic Olvnipers and afterward be lolded up and carried in the hand like a garment; or EUide, one that grew bigger of itself to hold good men and trne, and moved withont regardto wind or current. Thus it was that the ship became an honored factor in the religions of old. At the time of the great Panathenaic festival in Athens the ship of the goddess Athene, patron of the Cttv of the "Violet Crown, was carried in solemn state to the temple. In tbe worship ot Isis a vessel, often ot great size and laden with the first fruits of the year.was borne to the shrines of tbe coddess, and in some parts of Catholic Europe, even at the present time, the ship, or a vessel symbolical ot it, is carried in honor of the Virgin. As to woo were the first shipbuilders, Charnock, whose "History ot Marine Archi tecture" is universally accepted as an au tnority, very intelligently observes that "it would be a fruitless attempt to investigate not merely the first inventor of marine architecture, but even the country or quarter ot the world from whence the science de rived its birth or origin. It may be con jectured that the spirit of enterprise dis played itself at one and the same time in a variety of quarters and districts." THE EGYPTIANS AND PHOENICIANS. The first use of ships or vessels of more pretension than the primitive raft or coracle seems to have taken place among the Egyptians, who improved their small Nile boats, made of acantha or Egyptian, thorn, ill ""Nii until they were enabled to navigate the Mediterranean and reach the western coast of India. The Phoenicians were als o among the first to improve their shipping, but the most rapid advance of all was made by the people of Tyre, who, to counterbal ance the unproductiveness of the soil of their country, laid the seas and the sur rounding nations under tribute. However, the best of ships or this time were quite small and continued to be so for many cen turies; so small, indeed, were they that it was, the general custom to beach them every winter, and early writers speak of the sail ors as debarking from the largest vessels in water only breast high. As in most cases of progress, necessity 'urnished the incentive for vast improve ment in ships. The Norsemen, who had the wild Atlantio seas to contend with, made their vessels smaller than those of other countries, but theywere stoutly constructed. In these the hardy men of the North made longer and more venturesome voyages than had ever been known before, and this ibility joined to their well-known ferocity made them the terrors of the seas. They mailed boldly into the unknown Polar seas; they reached", it is believed, the shores of the New World, and at every opportunity made the inhabitants ot the coasts visited by them pay dear tribute for their visits. Well the English leared the bold viking - zJSffJ- THE MODEEN buccaneers that followed Sweyn, the Raven of the North. NO ATTENTION TO SPEED. But, during all this time but little atten tion was paid to rapid navigation, the sea man being perfectly satisfied if their wretched old tubs remained on top of the water, and in fair weather made progress in some way or another, lor it was not uotil the middle of the fifteenth century that the bowsprit that invaluable addition to the sailing power of a vessel was invented. Prom that time on the history of ship build ing resolves itself into a history ot discovery of thb various individual parts that added so much to the sailing power and speed of vessels. In Henry VIX 's reign the cum brous and practically useless lourth mast was done away with; then the high bows and sterns fell gradually into disuse, as it was found that they were impediments to rapid sailing and of little use in rough seas. In the sixteenth century cutter-rigged vessels were in use on English waters, and still greater and more rapid progress was made during the following 100 years; but it was not until the introduction of steam and con struction of iron vessels in the present cen tury that the science made its most wonder ful progress. It must not be understood from the above that steam as a motive power was as yet un discovered. Its possibilities were known to the ancients and its practical application described by Hero 130 B. C. Boger Bacon experimented with it as earlv as the four teenth century, and Blasco de Garay con structed a rude steamboat at Barcelona in 1543, as did also a little later Papin in Ger many, whose craft awakened such supersti tion that it was destroyed by the populace. FIRST IN ACTUAL PRACTICE. Jonathan Hulls, of Liverpool, seems to have been the first to reduce the steam en gine to actual practice. As early as 1737, he published a pamphlet describing his stern-wheel boat, accompanying it with an engraving, here produced. As will be ob served, his idea embodied, that of a stern wheel boat, although the virtue of the screw propeller was known early in the history of steam. The actual inventor is not known, although he who first reduced the invention to practice should be given the credit, and that man was John Stevens, of Hoboken, N. J., who built a steam propeller two years before Fulton, who has the credit ot invent ing steam navigation in his paddle-wheel boat the Clermont, the idea ot which he is said to have borrowed from Symington's steamer Charlotte Dnndas. However, the first practical demonstration in the way of a thorough steam vessel was the Savannah, which made the trip across STERNTTCIEELEE. the Atlantic under command of Captain Stephen Bogers in 1819, the passage from Savannah to Liverpool occupving 22 days. But it must not be inferred irom this that steam navigation, so far as rapid transit was concerned, had any advantage over the sail ing vessels, for it must be said that in those days the packet lines had reached such per fection in the construction ot their vessels that the speed of the steam vessels was olten surpassed. Then the great difficulty in the way of fael storage had to be met with, as for example, the famous old steamship La fayette, registered 3,000 tons; her machinery weighed nearly 1,100 tons, and she required upward of 1,000 tons of coal, so it may be imagined how much space was left for the cargo. THE SCREW PROPELLER. But genius was already at work. In a short time afterward the screw propeller and compound engine were adopted; the lormer giving greater speed with a given power, and the latter vattly greater power with far less fuel. At the same tlmo iron began to be almost universally employed in the construction of steamships, which must also be considered as an important element in bringing forward the enormous speed of steam navigation on the seas. John Erics son was the first to bring ont the fall es- tn- -lk y X.kiy "t " -. - ---t,7 In Egyptian Beat. pacity of the screw propeller, although as before stated, it had already been in use. England, however, was so far behind that upward of 40 vessels of this kind were plying American waters before that country became aware of the ad vantage ot the new propulsive power. The Robert P. Stockton, which crossed the At lantic in 1839, was the first screw steamer to make the venture; while to-day not a single paddle-wheeler crosses that ocean. In the meantime the paddle-wheel vessels had re duced the time required in crossing materi ally, the Sirius and Great "Western both do ing it in 15 days in 1838, and the vessels of this kind continued to improve as well as the screw propeller. The last one worth men tioning was the Scotia, which made the At lantic passage in 8 days and 28 minutes in 1870, but from 14 to 16 days was the average lor a number ot years, which was reduced gradually in the '50's to about 11 days. DOWlf TO NINE SAYS. Suddenly the magnificent Cunarder, Per sia, appeared on the scene, and with its 3,600 horse power engines smashed the rec ord down to 9 days and 21 hours. This time continued to be improved upon until the Inman steamer, City of Berlin, reduced it in October, 1875, to 7 davs, 15 hours and 48 minutes. Then the Germanic, of the "White Star Line, dropped it 31 minuses, and the Brittauic, of the same line, in Octo- GBETHOUND. ber of the following year, made it in 2 hours and 50 minutes less than that again. Then the Germanic came again with a record ot 7 days, 11 hours and 37 minutes, followed once more by the Brittauic, on August 10, 1877, in 7 days, 10 hours and 53 minutes. This remained the record for nearly two yeirs, when the Guion liner, Arizona, cut it to 7 days, 9 hours and 23 minutes. This was lowered by the Alaska, of the same line, during March, 1881, to 7 days, 6 hours and 43 minntes. This was the record until September 12, 1882, when the Alaska fairly took the breatli of nautical men by recording the marvelous time of. 6 days, 18 hours and 37 minutes. This in its turn was the record for about two The Venturesome Horsemen. years, when the same company brought out the ill-f. tid Oregon. This vessel leit Queenstown on Saturday, April 13, 1884, and her passengers spent the following Saturday night in New York City, having made the run in 6 days, 10 hours and 10 minutes. Then the Cunard Company brought out the TJmhria and Etruria, the first named crossing in 1888 in 6 days, 2 honrs and 22 minntes, and the Etruria in half an hour less. But faster vessels than they were being completed. The Inman liners, City of New York and City of Paris, are now the ocean greyhounds. Both are famous ships, and are worthy of special at tention, because they mark a new era in fast shipbuilding. THE TWIN SCKEW IDEA. The idea of twin screws is as old as steam navigation, bnt these two ships are the first applications of the principle to ocean packet service. The Citv of Paris was the first to demonstrate its ability. Leaving Queens town on July 25, 1889, she arrived at Sandy Hook in 5 days, 23 hours and 10 minutes. It can be imagined what a great stir this performance made, bnt this was not the very best that this wonderful ship could do, for, going back to Qneenstown, she started again lor New York like a whirlwind, pounding the record down to 5 days, 19 hours and 18 minutes. This great voyage was completed on august 20, looy, and remains the record. There are many of the opinion that these fast ships are dangerous. This is a great error. The truth is that the swiftest vessels are the safest, as it is possible for them to have a hole punched in the engine room or bulkheads and still float. Therefore, if Apostoloff, the Bussian engineer, or anyone else, can make the wonderful vessels claimed by them, they will find many ready to run the risk of a voyage, secure in the belief which has held good in the past, that there is less danger on the sea than there is in shore traveling. "W. G. BLaufmann. AFTER DINNER BEER. A Coroner Find a Case Where It Wonld Have Bnved Life. Newcastle (Eng.) Chronicle. Dr. Ohurton, of Chester, held an inquest at Nantwich workhouse, yesterday, on George Berfington, an aged inmate. The evidence showed that Berrington ate a very hearty Christmas dinner, and next morning was found dead in bed. In reply to the Coroner, the master of the workhouse stated that the guardians had passed a special res olution refusing beer or other alcoholic stimulants to the inmates on Christmas Day. The Coroner said it was quite unnecessary to pursue the inquiry further. For reasons best known to themselves the guardians had departed from the usual arrangement al lowing beer to the Christmas dinner. His own impression was that instead of doing harm, a little alcoholic Stimulant was beneficial in assisting to get rid of a heavr meal. In his experience he had known many mistakes made by persons who held extreme views on the use of stimulants. "What were the good things of earth sent for unless to be enjoyed in moderation? Did they mean to tell him that a glass of wine or beer would hurt any living man? Certainly not. In fact, stimulants, he knew from a very long experience, had been the means of saving thousands or lives. Tbev were especially beneficial in cases of weak" action of tbe heart. He had known teetotalers who were inordinate eaters. He remembered a case in Nantwich where a man, a teetotaler, went home at night and ate an enormous supper. Next morning he was found dead in bed. The enormous quantity of food had filled the stomach, pressed upon the heart, and prevented an upward flow of blood. Because in that case he (the Coroner) expressed the opinion that a glass ot beer wonld have saved the man's life he was " severely criticised. Extreme men carried this kind of thing sadly too far. Verdict: Death from natural causes. H0 TO MAKE WILLS. Bessie Bramble Rejoices in the Re cent Conrt Decision. REFORM OF BARBAROUS LAWS. Straggles for the Eights of Married Women as to Property. DIVISION OP THE W. C. T. P. W0EKEES rwErrnx tob thx dispatch.! The recent decision of the Supreme Court on thn disputed will of Mrs. Harriet Knox, of this city, shows a state of affairs in law which indicates that a quiet, yet sure, revo lution is going on or perhaps we should call it a result of evolution a process of growth or development from the barbarisms of the past. Making a will has been here-, tofore considered, by most people, as a most serious and momentous affair. Host men shrink from it, neglect it, and put it off until the time comes when the approach of death urges them to its performance, Many others regard making a will with supersti tious fear, as though writing what they de sire to have done with their property when they themselves no longer need it, or can control it, is to invite the presence of the Grim Reaper, whose name is Death, with his inevitable and dreaded sickle. Others drive away all thoughts of the future will not think of what may happen when they have left their old familiar haunts and cherished friends and dismiss the thought with the remark that tbe State makes a good enongh will for them. Most of the dislike, neffleot and deferrincr of this important matter comes, it is likely, from a feeling against going through the forms andlegalities supposed to be essential the ridiculous phraseology and absurd verbiage as to "whereases," and "afore saids," and "herebys," long and intricate sentences impossible for the ordinary mind to follow, and a lot ot Latin words and sen tences that the common man knows nothing about. The willmaker, in such muddle of law, imagines that the expert, deemed neces sary on the occasion, will make it in accord ance with his wishes, but the facts are quite olten the other way. Even those profoundly learned in the law men who have achieved great reputation in its practice have not been able to write their own wills m such consonance with the laws that their testa ments cannot be broken, as witness the late Samuel Tilden. IT MEANS A GREAT REFORM. But the late utterance ot the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has made it clear that a reform has been instituted an ad vance in public opinion has been made that the removal ot a mass of ancient rub bish has begnn and that the judges of to-day are guided by the light and knowledge of the present, rather than by the prejudices and limited intelligence of the past. This decision seems to affirm that people with IJiufti.j hu ucviac uccu uuk uccessariiy sumn mon a lawyer nor call upon witnesses, norcjTg through all the legal forms and confusinfl verbiage hitherto by many deemed essential, but they can, in the quiet of their rooms and the clearness of their own reason and wishes, make a will in their own language that will stand as well in court as it it oc cupied whole pages of legal paper and had been drawn up by the best and most expen sive of lawyers. The will of Mrs. Knox, signed "Harriet." and signifying what she wished to be done with her real and personal property has been decided by supreme authority to be as valid and lawful as though it had been written by the most learned lawyer, with two good witnesses to the signature, and full of formulas and legal terms and intricacies in which the profession seem to take snch delight. This decision, it is said, has wor ried some of the lawyers a good deal, but there seems to be no'evil result in sight to be apprehended. BEFOItMS COME SLOWLT. Although abuses of the law are so many, and are admitted by the most eminent mem bers of the profession, and lawyers disagree with as much acrimony, and perhaps as lit tle knowledge and common sense as do the doctors on tbe cure of disease, it is surpris ing how little they do in the wav of reform ing what they know to be unjust and iniquitous. "Law and equity are two things," says Colton, "hich God hath joined, but which man hath put asunder." Judging by the length of time it takes a re form to materialize as a law, it would seem as if the legislators and lawvers had no time to think of equity. It is related by Lord Campbell that the English law debar ring prisoners in capital cases from the privilege of counselors for defens while in the smallest of money cases they were permitted took nearly two centuries to re form, and be was ashamed to say that the last opponents to its repeal were almost all of the judges, who predicted all manner of evils from this daring innovation. It is a still more remarkable fact, as related by Herbert Spencer, that the most brutal and unjust legislation as to marriage and wives, which disgraced the statute books of English law for 10 or 12 centuries, was not reformed until within the last 20 years and, it may be said, there is plenty mo"re leit to reform in England yet, to make things fair and square. RIGHTS OF A MARRIED WOMAN. But with all of England's boasted law yers, profound Judgesj grand chancellors sitting in all their dignities of woolsacks wigs, and gowns with all her wealth of learned men and philosophers, and throngs of famous clergymen and saintlv bishops and eminent poets, writing, thinking, preaching, poring for centuries over the rights of humanity, the promotion of justice, the common good it yet remained for the State of New York to pass the first law that permitted a married wbifian to hold nron- erty in her own right, and be invested with the power to make a will.' In a late history the story of this piece of .legislation and the tremendous evils predicted of it by many mournful opponents is told. It seems that in that State there were many among' the old Dutch aristocracy who had a vast amount of wealth to devise in the shape of lauds and personal property, and as dissipation was then more common than at present, and married women were not allowed to hold either property or children under the law, they were constantly facing the fact that the fortunes they had so carefully accumu lated might, through a daughter's marriage, fall into the possession and under the con trol of dissipated husbands.and be subjected to the risk of being wasted in riotous liviDg, with the evils of poverty in reserve for those loved ones who were best entitled to its use. Some flagrant cases of just such doing ex cited much thought and talk, and the care ful old fathers, with wise selfishness, turned in with the reformers, and poshed the bill of '48 to a successful conclusion. A JUDGE FATHERED THE BILL. To tbe credit of the profession ot the law, Judge Pine, a member of the bar, who had occupied the bench, and had a daughter to protect, was notas oblivious to justice as tbe army of English bigwigs. He was the father of the bill, and was determined to push bis radical and extreme measure, even if it shook up the old system from the foundation stones. Odd to relate, the strong est opponent was a lawyer of matured years and wide learning, but he had never had a wife. Tbe bill went through, and ever since the old Blackstone code, as regards women, has been gradually undermined. Pennsylvania was not much behind, with Jane G. Swisshelm's pen to portray a special case, saying nothing of her own. She does not give names in her history, but says a young German merchant of East Lib erty married the daughter of a wealthy farmer, who was furnished by her fathe'r with a splendid trousseau for those days and the furnishment of the house. She died very soon after marriage, and, not knowing they were not hers, bequeathed these to her sister, who had nursed her through her illness. Bat the husband claimed everything, and then was no law to prevent it. He put all the things up at "vandue," as tbe country folks called a public sale, in order to turn them into money although her father had offered to pay for them privately, as her family wished them as souvenirs. The case stirred up the people, and roused pub lic opinion, and with the same reason existing and being promulgated all over the State as actuated the people of New York, a law to the same effect was passed in the same year in Pennsylvania. History re cords that here in Pittsburg and other parts of the State such serious opposition came from the bench and bar that Mrs. Swisshelm was herself frightened. But the first one to congratulate and cheer her was a young lawyer named Edwin "W. Stanton, who be came the great "Iron" Secretary of "War in the Rebellion. THE HISTORIAN'S GRIEVANCE. Mrs. Swisshelm's own grievance was that her mother had bequeathed her some prop erty, and that it was the intention of her husband to turn it into money to use as he pleased. This the law gave him the right to do. The money he intended to put into improvements upon his mother's estate at Swiss vale, while his wife would not be per sonally benefited to tbe extent of a dollar. But there is much yet to be done in this country to secure justice, and it behooves women to move in this matter for them selves, as did the radical sisters in 1848. Even in New York, which took the lead in this first great reform, it is yet true, as Mrs. Devereux Blake related at the International Council, that an honorable wife has no legal claim upon her own child that her husband can will it away from her before it is born, if he chooses. This seems incredible, but it is a matter of legal fact. A man who is a tyrant may take just such means to make his wife wretched under sanction of law. It has taken a long fight in the Massa chusetts Legislature to secure to a widow the right to a place in the family burial lot. Although a woman's place is asserted con stantly to be at her home, yet, under Mrs. Blake's study of the legal disabilities of women, she found that in more than half the Slates a wife has no lecal home, and has only the right to remain "40 days" after her husband's death in his home without being charged with rent by his estate. At the same council she related that it took the strong-minded women of Massachusetts 11 years of hard work to secure to married women, in that enlightened State, the own ership of their own clothes. CHANCE FOR IMPROVEMENT TET. These instances show that while in the earlier centuries of the Christian era it took hundreds of years to secure reform in legis lation, yet even in these days of widely diffused knowledge and intelligence it takes time and work, and a vast deal of both, to move legislatures to consider equity in their enactments, and to weaken the opposition of those who by virtue of brains and capacity should be most likely to discern their justice. The good man who claims that tbe State makes a good enough will for him is cer tainly not familiar with the law, and tbe fact that upon very many widows its hard ships and grievances fall with a crushing weight at a time when sorrow makes them least able to bear them. In numberless cases, especially where estates are small, the law is positively inhuman. However, let us think upon our present mercies, and urgently search for more with persistent effort. For many of the sisters the promotion of temperance leads all other labor in tbe line oi reform. This is a noble and arduous work, to which they have de voted all of their energies, moral support and the power of organization. THE W. C. T. U. TROUBLE. But in this grand body, working for a common cause, it seems sad that secession should arise on the most vital point. The seceding element sets forth its undying de votion to the complete prohibition ot tbe liauor traffic and opposition to politics; bnt now tnts is to be enected without legislation, which means politics, they do not say. The workers intend to press earnestly for the adoption of a local option law. To' do this how are they to keep out of politics? They want the counties to give a popular vote against license. How are they to secure that popular vote when only half of the citizens are permitted to vote? They propose to work for temperance ex clusively, and refuse the use the very weapon that would be most effective. What they most especially need is to go into politics, aud go in with might and main. Every cause needs to go into politics in a represent ative government. No reform in laws can be effected without politics not in the narrow sense of the Use of that expression but in the broad principle of free republi can government which recognizes that the establishment of equity is the business of every citizen of a community for the safety, honor, and welfare of all concerned. Bessie Bramble. IS IT A MORTAL MISTAKE? More Deaths Than Alarrlntrea Alvrnji Re ported to the Newspaper. Albany Evening Journal. 1 To judge from the column of marriages and deaths in the daily newspaper where the law does not compel publication, it would ap pear that the race is fast dying out. There are generally a dozen or so deaths to a mar riage, and as for births, they are indeed like angels' visits in more respects than one. Can it be that the happy grooms of nowa days are ashamed to publish to the world the fact that they have joined the Benedicts? (That is the regulation expression, but it may, perhaps, be better to say "followed the example of Father Adam.") It really does look as though bride and bridegroom were both desirous of concealing a transac tion which each has the strongest reasons for publishing. The official record and this, indeed, is often lacking through carelessness is often difficult to find, and a wife's record of her marriage, or an heir-at-law's record of birth is often depending entirely upon the publi cation in a newspaper. Not only should the law, as it now does in many States, compel the publication of marriages, births and deaths, but one would naturally think that the parties most interested would be as particular to publish the facts of their mar riage and the birth of their children as they are to publish the more unhappy circum stances of a death. It is a curious fashion, if it is a fashion, this omission of marriage and birth notices, and not one that reflects very much credit upon "the way we live now," as Trollope would say. DRESSING THE KECK. A Man Hasn't Much Trouble With the Best of Hln Body. St. Louts Post-Dlspstch.l The man who wants to dress well, and can afford to pay good prices for his clothes, has always more trouble ith his neckties and his shirts than any other article of his ap parel. He pays his shoemaker ?9 a pair for bis shoes, and that tradesman sees to it that his customer's feet are trimly and comforta bly booted. He goes to the hatter's, pays $5 for the latest style Dunlap or Knox hat and walks away, knowing that he has got the best thing obtainable. He strolls into the tailor's where his measure is, selects a piece of cloth that strikes his fancy, and thinks no more about it until the suit is sent to him. But the cravats and shirts, and even the collars, are quite a different thing. He usually spends as mnch money on these things as for all the rest, and he doesn't get half as much satisfaction from his outlay. Where Lnngnnge Fall". Language is hardly strong enough to ex press my admiration of the merits of Cham berlain's Cough Kerned)-. It is the best remedy for croup and whooping cough I have ever used. Daring the past 18 years I have tried nearly all the prominent cough medicines on the" market, but say, and with pleasure, too, that Chamberlain's Cough Bemedy is the best of all. Thomas Khodes, Bakersfield, CaL Mr, Rhodes ii a prominent attorney at Bakersfield, zxaa OYER TEE CHANNEL. Reciprocal Feelings of Contempt in France and England. MORAL BALANCE OF THE NATION. Brains Count for More in Paris Than Lon don Social Circles. JOURNALISTS IN FRENCH POLITICS iconmsFOimxKCE ot tot dispatch.! New York, January 25. Coming across the Atlantic I read a book recently pub lished in London in which certain manners, customs and habits of two great nations are compared with the spirit of justice that is unusual in these days when the English are given to talking of the immorality of their French neighbors, and the French are dis posed to ridicule everything that John Bull indulges in. Mr. Hamerton, the author, seems to have had as his aim the showing to both nations that in spite of appearances they have many points of resemblance, and alter reading his Inquiry into the intellec tual and intelligent condition of the two people, their ideas, their ways of thinking, of lovingand of lying.theirmannerol making themselves more or less disagreeable to their neighbors, and of misunderstanding virtue outside their own country, I am bound to confess that I think he has made out a very fair case, and the book is worth reading on that account. He deals with the religious question fairly, and admits that it is a com mon habit for English people to consider France on the high road to perdition, be cause her people do not keep tbe Sabbath as it is kept in the United Kinedom. and in stating this he says an Englishman reads his Bible, sings hymns and psalms, and though the quiet ot Sundav is fenced in with vigor ous and subtle rules, manages to get drunk and be abusive more frequently than is the case in any other land. According to the way I look at things, the beautiful edifice of piety that has been con structed in the "old country" is all facade, for the wind or current of unbelief that has got snch a hold on the continent has not spared Great Britain. There are many En glish people who pray only with their lips, who have worse books than those of Zola, and who have come to think with Matthew Arnold that the dogma of tbe Trinity might well be described as "a fairy tale of three supernatural persons." In" politics both countries are passing through a revolution ary period, and the author Is a bit sarcastic when he says that the French reactionaries are in tbe habit of considering England as a model of stability in all things. He does not, however, admit that as to the matter of morals, England is rather hard on France, for I can say withont pretending to be angels, the people of this latter country are men, not monsters. The moral balance be tween the two countries is pretty equal, and there is certainly a great deal less of hy pocrisy in France than there is in England. The French are frank and open in their ex pressions, while the English try to dis semble, and call themselves virtuous, though really vicious. Which is the better way is a question of taste, race or latitude. PATBIOTIO TO HATE EACH OTHEB. It is strange how deeply the national spirit of England is imbued with contempt for the manners and customs of the French, a contempt which the dwellers on the Con tinental side of the channel reciprocate in a most hearty way. Each nation has long considered that in hating the other it is doing a meritorious and patriotic act I know Parisians who believe that beef is al ways eaten raw in London, and that En glish lords and gentlemen pass most of their time in getting drunk and boxing. But the English are quite as stupid in their ideas of my friends, tne French people, A French marquis or a Paris cook is always repre sented on the English stage by the thinnest member of the companv. and invariably fnrnishes tbe comio or the criminal element of the piece, while four out of five Johnny Bulls firmly believe that vegetable soup and fried frogs are the staple articles of food with the whole French nation. For a long while the belter thinkers of both countries have been trying to eradicate these ideas, and it is, perhaps, true that these two neighboring nations are beginning to look on each other with more friendship and are finding out that there is something worthy of imitation on either side ot the channel. English dandyism seems to have taken a pretty good hold on the younger generation of Frenchmen, and the Paris fashions, like Paris actors, cross the channel with frequent and prompt regularity. The hereditary hostility is changing, and while warm friendship may not grow up, it will be necessary soon to descend to the lower ranks of society to find any dregs of the old hatred once so very bitter. MANY POINT3 OP DIFFERENCE. Bnt though the two nations may no longer he hating each other, they are still far from resembling each other, and I may say without exaggeration that in nearly everything they are exact opposite. The besetting sin of the Jinglish is money, that of tbe French is vanity. In France a riot is a spontaneous affair, in England the anger of the masses can be purchased with gold. In the most tumultuous elections of Great Britain there is much of the farcial, and those who shout the loudest to-day for the Liberal candidate, will, to-morrow, shout just as loudly for the Conservative candidate if the agent of the latter opens his purse strings more freely. An English man will never consent to incur a great dan ger for a small reward, and riots in London never pass beyond certain limits fixed in advance. A London rabble content them selves with pillaging, tbe rabble of a French city slaughter without pity. In France the amour propre of the populace burst forth in 1789 and led to a duel to the death between the people and the aristocracy. The original sin of a French gentleman is affectation, that of an English nobleman is haughtiness. The one wishes to bppear Kind, the other powcnui. An .Englishman wants to be supposed rich, and the French man hopes he will be considered witty. In France a respectable man is a man who has a right to be respected; in .Loudon a re spectable man is a man who has made a for tune. When wealth becomes the standard of merit, it is easy to fix a man's rank, and that is why social position is so much more vague in France than it is in England. LIBERTY AND EQUALITY. Both nations have bad their revolutions, hut the fruit ot the English revolution was liberty and that of tbe French revolntion equality. In England fashion is pompous; in France it is irivolous. In one country it is a matter of etiquette, in the other of amusement. Fashionable life is made up in England of anxious pride, low vanity and useless prodigality. It is a constant ex change of mortifications received and re turned, and its arrogance aud its pedantry render English society exceedingly dis agreeable to strangers when they first make its acquaintance To form a good opinion of the English, it is necessary to have lived in their country some time and to have penetrated into thefamily life of the nation. Genius and wit do not arouse any enthusi asm among the English people. They pre fer, to a poet or an author, a savage or a Hot tentot. Buffalo Bill had more success as a lion in London salons than ever M. Pasteur could, but not more than Barnuni. In France Hume, Gibbon, Franklin achieved thebighest social success iu their day, and their company was sought alter by the court, and the most brilliant salons of the capital. It is so up to the present day. Men of brain have just as high standing as those who can boast centuries of bloov in their veins. But vanity hss led to more than one crime in France. Richelieu set a house on fire in order to kidnap a woman whom he did not love. A COLS-BLOODED BBITON. Still in England egotistical calculations hare produced the mostodlousresulu. One day a number of children were playing near a frozen pond. A young man appeared with a pair of skates in his hand, but fearing the ice might not be strong enough, he scattered pennies on the surface'and sent the children out to scramble for them. The ice broke under their weight and they were drowned. He went off to look for another pond, and the law was powerless to punish him. Suspicion and self-interest form the basis of English society, while French society gives forth a constant desire to please and to be admired. The English are, perhaps, more sincere, but their sincerity destroys much of the most charming illusions of so cial life. A literary man occupies a widely uinerent position in the two countries, xn London he is a nobody, whom society does not wish to know, except to read him. In Paris he mixes freely with the best people, and a man of letters, a novelist or a special correspondent is considered an ornament to a salon. He has rank equal to that of the highest nobleman, and he can make him self just as much of a favorite with the pub lic In England the intellectual power gives place before political power, and a lit erary man occupies a false and equivocal position. Fashion sometimes gives to him passing pre-eminence, but he is soon lost agaiu,in the crowd, like a carnival king de throned by the arrival of sack cloth and ashes. THE PEN AND THE PBESS. It is easy to see the great part that French writers have taken in all social movements. In the eighteenth century a galaxy of elo quent and bold writers threw themselves into the arena; they have been cursed as the propagators of a sensual and dangerons morality, but it is also admitted that their writings produced much real kindness of feeling, and are inspired by a profound philanthropy to which humanity is deeply indebted. Newspaper men of the present day occupy positions of prominence and political power under tbe French Bepublic, such as no En glish journalist has ever known. There are at least 60 men of letters in the new Cham ber ot Deputies, and several Senators are also of our profession. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Spuller, is an editor on the Sepublique Francaise, and he makes an excellent Cabinet officer. I could name scores of journalists who deservedly occupy high positions in Franca, and most of them are welcome guests to the highest society. All would be welcome were it not for poli tics. JOURNALISM IS PERSONAL. The strength, the excellence, the promi nence which members of tbe press have achieved in France is owing to the fact that over there journalism is pertonal. Very rarely, indeed, do you see an article in a paper nut signed by some name, and tbus, while gaining money for his work, he gains increased reputation. The one is just as needful as tbe other. Personal journalism makes French journalists stand up for eacb other. Brethren of the French press do not abuse their confreres; for, aside from the prospects of an affair of honor, there is an esprit de corps which induces them to stand by each other under all circumstances. Fire-eating Paul Cassagnac will thunder against Henry Maret in the Chamber of Depnties, and will call him badnames only as a politician; the session over they meet as friends in the lobby, for each is proud of the other as a distinguished journalist. Henby Haynie. A BALLOONIST HAED LUCK". He Landed In a Farmer's Yard and Paid Damage, Philadelphia Recorn.I "I used to make balloon ascensions in con nection with "Warner's Circus," said an old and retired aeronaut the other day, "and one day I went up from Pekin, 111. The balloon was new and light, and I got a much longer ride than what I expected. I finally de scended in a farmhouse yard about ten miles away, my anchor having caught in a cherry tree. The farmer was an old fellow, about 60 years of age, and he sat reading on his doorstep as I came down. He removed his glasses, put them in their case, put tbe case in his pocket, and then came forward and carelessly observed: " 'That a balloon?' " 'Yes. Help me pull it down.' " 'Are you a ballooner?' " 'Yes. Pnll hard.' "We got the air-ship down, and I wanted him to take me to town in his wagon. He had none, and I had hired a rig of a neigh bor and was about to depart, when the old fellow stepped forward with: " 'I have a little hill here, sir. "'Bill! "What for?' '"Damage to cherry tree, 2 shilHn'sjskeer ing my poultry, CO cents; skeerine my old woman, the same; services of myself, $1. Total, $2 25, which is mighty cheap, con sider! n' the times.' ' "But I won't Day it,' I protested. ' "Oh, yon won't? "Well, I'm a Justice of tbe Peace, and I'll issne a warrant. My naybur is constable, and he kin serve it. The old woman is out of her fit by this time, and she'll be witness, an' I sort o' reckon I'll fine you about 25 fur disturbin' the peace an contempt of this courtl' "And I was made to realize that the best way out of it was to come down with the amount of his bill, and luckily I had it, with a quarter to spare." THE OIL KING'S MANSI05. fill Little Purchase Una Nothing to Do With the World's Fair. Hew York Trlbune.l "William Rockefeller has sold his country place at Greenwich, Conn., in exchange for land, improved and unimproved, in Con vent avenue, near One Hundred and Forty fifth street, valued at 100,000. He has no specific plans as to the use he shall make of his Harlem property. "My buving land in Harlem has nothing to do with the "World's Fair," he said, laughingly, to a Tribune reporter. "It is not situated where tbe fair would benefit it much, although the fair will probably in crease the value of all the land in Harlem." In reference to his Tarrytown property, Mr. Rockefeller said that there wonld be no radical departure in the architecture of the new house from that of the Aspinwall homestead, which it will closely resemble in many respects, it being Mr. Rockefeller's design to reproduce that old mansion, but on a larger scale. THE SHAD AND THE 0EANGE. A Blodern Fable Without Anything bnt a Po- lltlcat Moral. New York Trlbnne.1 It is a great pity that the shad, a justly esteemed fish, could not dispose of his bones as considerately as the naval orange disposes of its seeds. Tbe seeds of the naval orange are not distributed through the fruit, bnt are all massed in one corner, where they can occasion no inconvenience to the orange eater. Ob, if it could be tbus with the shad's bonesl We forget whether or not, in any of his connty fair speeches. Governor Hill ever suggested that the naval orange should be gra ted on to the shad, or tbe shad on to the naval orange, with a view to reforming the shad in the particular mentioned. But if the thing can be done it onght to be. Go to the naval orange, thou boneful shad, con sider its ways and be wise. A FODE-IEAU-OLD'3 THREAT. Not a Terr Terrible Oar, Yet It Silenced tbe Profenor. Pnnxsutawney Splrlt.1 Birdie Dougherty may be only a miss of four summers, but in repartee she does not propose to even let the principal of our schools get the best of ber. Miss Birdie was visiting Prof. Pattison's school a few days ago, when the professor in a joking way said : "Birdie, you must be a good lit tle girl or I will send you borne." r "If you send me home "TepHed Birdie, "when yon come to see my sister I'll tend you home." As a matter of course after that Birdie remained. A CHAT WITH HOLMES: The Autocrat of the Breakfast Tabla in Bis Boston Home. HIS PEN-HOLDER OF SWAN'S QUILL. The Chambered Nantilns He Considers Hid Best Prodnetion. FAILINGS OP THE MODEEN WBETEES rwarrrat ran the dispatch. : A fev days ago, ou invitation, I knocked! at the doorof Dr. Oliver "Wendell Holmes. On being admitted, I at once saw in the hall a slight but attractive-looking old gentle man, dressed in black and with rare taste, leaning with his back to tbe baluster of the) stairway, drawing, on a pair of slippers. There was no difficulty in recognizing tha qhainf, pleasant face as that of Dr. Holmes. He informed me that he had jnst returned from his usual walk. The doctor alka long distances, always with his back to ths wind to avoid pneumonia, returning on ths street cars. We were soon speaking of Ann Arbor, which I suggested might sometime hecomo the literary center of tbe country. "Yes, possibly," returned the doctor; "and again it may be Milwaukee; yet, in a coun try so large as ours, where culture is becom ing more and more general, there can be no snch thing as a literary capital. At one time Boston was the seat of the ripest schol arship in this country. Of course this is many years ago, before people in general were given to reading and making literature, as at the present time. New York is seek ing recognition as the literary capital, bnt in vain, for its real interests lie almost wholly in the direction of commerce and money-getting. Why, take Bryant himselft what did he ever write after going to Newr York which made him a greater poet? grant be did write some fine poems after leaving Massachusetts; but after all his) real fame was the result of such poems as 'Thanatopsis,' 'Lines to a Water-Fowl, his earlier work, produced before going over there." de. holmes' libbaby. , The "Autocrat's" library, or study, is on the second floor ot his residence. It is a large) room, and from tbe large bay window, day after day, the doctor can look out upon tha broad, fair Charles river and across to Cam bridge in the distance. The "Autocrat's" library is just such an one as anybody might expect him to possess. All the hooks have) fine bindings, and are systematically ar ranged on handsome shelves, occupying' nearly or quite the entire four high walls of the large room. But, as the doctor mlormed me, tbe books which here find a place are by no means all that he possesses. Books ara to be found everywhere throughout tha house, amounting to some six thousand volumes. .Near the center of the library stands tha doctor's commodious and attractive writing desk, on which may be seen on its burnished Test, beside a crystal inkstand, the gold pen with its swan's-quill bolder, with which tht poet wrote "Elsie Venner" and the "Auto crat" papers, and in fact nearly all tbe now famous poems and prose papers which have made their author dear to so many thou sands ot people everywhere. The other fur nishings of the study in the way of carpet, chairs, pictures and bric-a-brac, are all that any mortal could possibly desire. But as Dr. Holmes is a man ot exquisite tastes ia everything, the same will account for all the beautiful appointments herein described, ESTIMATE OT HIS POEMS. I ventured to ask the doctor which: of his poems he valued most highly, "I think much of 'The Chambered Nauti lus,' which is also my most finished poem," he answered. "Bnt then I am also partial to The Voiceless,' and 'My Aviary,' com posed, by the by, at the window there: (pointing); 'The Silent Melody,' and 'Tha Last Leaf,' which Poe liked very much." "Has The Chambered Nautilus' any his tory connected with it?" I asked. "None whatever." "But 'The One Hoss Shay this has a histnrv, has it cot?" .No. it was merely a random lanoy or mine, such as often comes to me, and in this particular instance I made use of it." "How came vou to write the 'Autocrat of the Breakfast Table?' " I inquired. "It was soon after the Atlantic Monthly came into existence, and Mr. Lowell had been selected as thi editor, that he came to me one day and asked me if I would con tribute a series of articles to tbe magazina on some subject of my own selection. At his urgent request I consented to do so, and the 'Autocrat' papers were the outgrowth of the contributions in Question." WBITEKS OF THE PBESE2TT. "Do you think, doctor, that on the whole, the work of the present generation ot writers has the lasting qualities of the old school to which Cooper, Irving and Hawthorne be longed?" "I rarely ever read anything in the way of I for it, but am very much disposed to favor . tha nlrlai. vrvif..i Tn fliair npj.iaf tin . Cooper and Hawthorne have no equals. As lor Irving, however, while a finished writer, I never felt to appreciate him as the majority look upon him. In deed, I think the 'Sketch Book' an, overrated affair pleasant reading to ba sure, but the best thinginitby far is 'Rip Van Winkle.' Much ot his other work to me seems rather common place. But this is only my judgment, remember." "Do you think that tbe present demand for light fiction on the part of thepubliois to be permanent?" "No. The people will become surfeited after a time, and will want a change. Thera may be a return to poetry: it is not improb able, I think. The trouble is, the most of tbe poetry which is offered to tbe world is entirely artificial, and does not satisfy. To all young writers of verse and song I would say, if you would reach the ears of ths people, sing from the heart, and you will ba heard gladly." TAME EEST3 OH QUALITY". "Many writers are disposed to writs too much. Take the case of Hood. His fama rests almost wholly on much less than a dozen poems; yet the nnmber which ha wrote is very large. I think Burns him self overdid the matter. Tbe trouble is with writers, especially after reaching a certain point, they unconsciously write drivel. Wo shall be remembered by only a very few thinss, and those, perhaps, the ones wa reckoned least on. Among my poems X rather think that such lyrics as 'Old Iron sides,' 'My Aviary' and 'Dorothy Q. will live as lougas any." "George Newell Lotejot." DEESS FOE PROFESSIONS. Men Are Getting: Tired of Being Branded! Wltb Their Avocatloni. St. LonlsPost-Dlipatcb. The old custom of dressing oneself into a. walking advertisement of onj'r profession is fast becoming obsolete. Some of tha loudest dressers are lawyers and doctors who have grown tired of being branded with their avocation. I don't mean to say that ministers, too, are getting to be loud dress ers, but even they are making concessions that were not dreamed of ten years ago. , There is a wide margin for artistio and ' tasteful dressing outside of black, and a . wide range of handsome and wholly desira- ble fabrics other than broadcloth," doeskin and farmers' satin, even for professional men to choose from. It's not so much tha color or the cut of the garment that makes it quiet or Iond, but the way it is worn. Bad TJablU. Habitual constipation gives rise to piles anal to other dangerous and paintnl affections, all of which may be cured by ths use of Himbnr Figs, fruit laxative which even children like. 25 cents. Dole, one fig. Mack Drug Co.. N York. xran
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