'l mBm mp r -.Ta,SK-Kr31Sff3!n . . '-f- THE PXTTSBUKG DISPATCH, SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 1892L -15 , .- STOeiES0 ELKINS, It "Was a Case of Mutual Lore at First Siglit When. He Met James G. Blaine. HOW IT GAME ABOUT. The New Secretary's First Ten Dollar Bill Easily -Earned. A FEE OF $10,000 FOE IN HOUR. His Monej-Getting Faculty Exemplified in Land Purchases. CHAIRMAN B. F. JOXES CAMPAIGN OF 'S4 fcOHl YMjgnz ill rconKEsro:fDE,CE op the ssrvrcn.i "Washix gto-, March 12. NE of the biggest, broadest and brain' iest men at Wash ington is Stcpben B. Elkins, the new Secretary of "War. He is known to the world largely as a business man and as a politician, but he is in reality a man of broadviews, great cnllure and remarkableability. He is one of the best talkers in Entrance to JOTW Wash- "Washington, is an (naton House, eloquent speaker, and his business sense is such that at 50 he is prospectively one of the richest men in the United States. He owns hundreds of thousands of acres of valuable land in New Mexico and else where. He is interested in mines, railroads and other things in the far "West, and the estate which he and his father-in-law, ex Senator Henry G. Davis, own in "West "Vir ginia is a principality in itself. They haTe in that State hundreds of thousands of acres of fine timber land, thousands upon thou sands of acres of great beds of coal, and they build their own railroads and ship their coal and coke over these by the hundreds of thousands of tons every year to the markets of the world. Employ Men by the Thousand. They have in constant employ on their "West Virginia property nearly 5,000 men end the number of their employes is in ci easing every year. They are adding to their estate here right along by the pur chase of new land, and within the past few weeks they have bought more than 12,000 acres. It is almost impossible to calculate the value of these lands. The 60 miles of coal land along their railroad which they own is a fortune in itself, and parts of these coal beds are 14 ieet deep. It is estimated that one foot of coal will produce a thou sand tons to the acre and a 14 foot vein will produce 14,000 tons for every acre. Only one of the "West Virginia veins measures as much as 14 feet, but the 50 miles of coal lands which Secretarv Elkins and Senator Davis own, contain many millions of tons, and they have it so lo cated that it can be made easily available by their railroads. This coal is noted tor its fine coking dualities, and thev now have many hundreds of great ovens for the making of coke along the lines of their railroads. Secretary Elkins tells me that at no distant dav they expect to have thousands of these coking ovens in operation, and he is enthu siastic as to the possibilities and the pros pects of "West Virginix Knoira Itest as Blaine's Friend. Secretary Elkins" home in "West Vir ginia is one of the finest in the United States. It contains over 00 rooms and is one of the wonders of modern architecture. He has also a house in New York, and he lues here at "Washington in Senator Pal mer's big brown-stone mansion within a stone's throw of the "White House and not far from -Secretary Blaine. Mr. Elkins has been s-o closely associated with Blaine that he has gotten to be known moie as Blaine's friend than as Stephen B. Elkins. He is a great personality in himself, however, apart from Blaine, and during several long chats which I have recently had with him I have been surprised at his breadth of thought and originality of idea and expres sion. Let me tell vou how he looks. He is one ol the biggest men I have ever known. Standing over G feet in his stockings, his iiroad shoulders are well padded with mus eular flesh and his big arms make you think of those of Samson, and his legs are firm and strong. He is not fat, but his mrssive frame has no angles, and he is the personification of energetic health. He has a great, big, round bead, which is fastened to his stout shoulders by a strong, well made neck, and his face "shines with the rosy iron of pure blood, and his clear, blue eyes look out from under broad, open brows, siron; bnt Pleasant Facial Lines. He has a strong jaw, but there are pleas ant lines about his mouth, and his short, strong, white teeth are often shown in way of laugh. His hair is now white. It is cut short and you can see the rosy scalp show ing through its frosted silver strands. Sec retary Elkins' face is smooth-shaven and its mobility is shown in the changes of expres sion winch pass over it as his thought turns from grave to gay as he talks. His face impresses you with its cleanliness and his u ords are as clean as his skin. He never uses slang or profanity, and he once told me that he had never in all his life uttered a word which he would be ashamed to repeat in the presence of the purest woman he knew. There is nothing snobbish or tanctimonious however in his talk. He is pcrlectly frank and open. He is as outspoken as a boy, and he makes me think more than anything else of a good boy grown up. He is a man of wide read ing and classical training. He entered the University of Missouri at 14 and irraduated at IS, and he has been a student all his life. A Collego Hoy's Motions Upset. He had for a time, the college boy's idea of man's mission in the world, and thought that study and reading was the chief end of man. He got over this, however, when he jumped into active life in his law practice in Xew Mexico, and found that brains and force were exerted with great effect without the aid of Greek or Latin, and where he supplemented his education by fighting legal and business battles in the most ttirring parts of the "West. Secretary Elkins was born in Ohio within a short distance of where General Sheridan was born, and not far from the birthplace of Jeremioh Kusk. There are now four mem bers of the Cabinet and the President in this administration who were born in Ohio. Secretary Noble was born in Columbus, Foster came from Fostoria, Harrison was born in North Bend, and Jeremiah Busk came from Morgan county, O. "When Sec retarv Elkins -a as quite young his parents emigrated to Missouri. "Vou were in the army during the war, Mr. Elkins?" said L "i'es," said the Secretary of "War, "I was only a boy and I had iust gotten through school, but I was made tho captain of a militia company and I served under Gen eral Tom Ewing. My father and mother sympathized with the South, and my father and some of my brothers were in the South ern army. I don't know why I went with the North, but I had an intuition that the Union ought not to be destroyed. The Meeting With Sehofield. "An incident occurred daring my serv ice," continued Mr. Elkins, "that was rather curious in the light of my present position. It was my first meeting with General Sehofield. 'He was snrrounded by orderlies in gay uniforms, and he dazzled our eves with the gold lace, brass buttons and the fine clothes of a Major General and his staff. He was as straight as an arrow. His eyes were sharp and command ing, and as "he sat there upon his horse among his soldiers he seemed to me the very incarnation of martial warfare. As I looked I thought: 'Well, this ends it! "What fools the rebels are to think they can beat such soldiers as these! If they could only see our armv they would throw up the struggle at once."' "Well," Mr. Elkins continued, "I did not see General Sehofield to sneak with him from that day until I met him here as Secretary of "War, when he came as General of the Army to pay his respects to me as his superior officer. As I shook his hand I said: 'General Sehofield, I have met you before. I paid mv respects to you when you w ere a Major General at 31 in Missouri, and I thought then that you were the great est general the world had ever made. I was a boy captain of militia and you were a hero in my eyes, and it seems strange that we should' meet strain after nearly 30 vears and stranger that I, by the fates, should1 be placed over you. Practicing Law In New Mexico, "After the war," continued Mr. Elkins, I decided to so "West. "We went in wagons and had tinJ large trains with military escorts to keep off the Indians. We traveled over that great American desert day after day until our eyes were sore and our souls were sick with its bleakness and barrenness. I traveled to the town of Mes silla, near El Paso, and there began the practice of the law. "I had been studying SDanish," con tinued the Secretary, "while we crossed the plains. All the courts were in Spanish, the government proceedings of all kinds were in Spanish, My first case I tried in broken Spanish, and I remember I got $10 for it. It took me about five minutes, and it was the first money I had ever made. I remember looking at it and thinking I had made it very easy and feeling proud of it. I soon got plenty to da My Spanish im proved and I was made a candidate for the Legislature, where all the proceedings were in Spanish. I first attempted to speak through an interpreter, but I did so poorly at it that I dismissed the interpreter and begged the pardon of the Legislature for my broken Spanish, and made iny speeches as well as I could. I was well grounded in Greek and Lat'n, and I soon found that I had mastered the language, and to-day I can speak Spanish fairly well. Learning the Value of Money. 'The lawyers of New Mexico then trav- ciate the honor of having the chance to be the first Republican Governor of the South ern States. I could not well be the candi date." "Do you think that "West Virginia will be Republican in the next Presidental elec tion?" '1 think there is a fair fighting chance for it," was the reply. "How about the general prospects?" "I believe that President Harrison will be the candidate of the Republican party, -and that he will be elected." "Mr. Elkins, you have for the past 15 years been closely associated with the man agement of party politics. You have been on the National Committee and have been one of the" managers of .Presidental cam paigns and you must know all about the in side workings of such things. I want to know whether there is much corruption in politics and whether we are not growing worse as we grow older." Chairman Jones Ban a Pare Campaign. "I am not a politician," replied Mr. Elkins, "in the usual sense of the word and I have only been connected with politics as the friend of the Republican party and as the friend of Mr. Blaine and of President Harrison. I have nothing to do with poli tics outside of the national campaign, and as soon as these are over, I go right back to business. I think that party politics and party management grow purer and purer as the country grows older. Congress tb-day is run on a higher plane than ever before, and public opinion demands a higher poli tical morality every year. "I don't believe'there is as much corrup tion in Presidental campaigns as the people suppose. The buying of votes which is sometimes charged would, I think, be a very dangerous thing. The laws are such that the people would not dare to do it, and I don t think they want to as much as is charged. "When I was connected with the Blaine campaign, in 1884, 1 said to Mr. B. F. Jones, who was the Chairman of the committee, that I did not want to go into the campaign without we could go into it on a pure, honest and high-toned basis, and we then and there agreed that we would allow no money for corruption of any sort. "We demaned vouchers for everything that was spent, and we could to-day show our books to the world without a blush." How Elkins First Met Blaine. ""When did you first meet Mr. Blaine?" I asked. "It wa3 when I came to Congress from New Mexico in 1874. The day after Con gress opened I was sitting at the table in the front of "Welcker's dining room, arid Mr. Blaine came and took a seat at a table in the back of the room. I can see his fig ure to-day in my mind's eye as he looked then. Tail, straight and bold his whole personality was that of the aggressive pop- IE CAME MM APES; A London Physician's Observations in Support of Darwin's Theory LINES ON THE SOLES OF THE FEET And tho Bemarksble Power of Infants to Cling" by the Hand. FIELD FOR SCIENTIFIC! THOUGHT ' yT5FJ""'V M STErHEX B. ELKISS, SECRETAET OF VTAK. eled in a curcuit, going from one court to another and taking what practice came to them at the various county seats. I was asked by some of the lawyers to make the circuit with them at the close of' my legis lative term and I did so. I found I had plenty to do and at some places I msde very good fees. The result was that when I got back to Santa Fe, I was $1,600 ahead. I went on with the lawyers through the cir cuit to Messilla, and there had a good practice and in a short timo found to my surprise that my savings amounted toSlO, 000. Money was then bringing from 20 to 30 per cent a year, and when I found that this money would bring me in an income of from ?2,000 to $3,000 a year, and that it was so easilymade, I saw this was better than 1 could possibly do in St. Louis, where I would probably have to starve for years be fore I made a competency and I decided to stay." "I suppose, Mr. Elkins, it was then that you found money was a good thing?" "Yes," replied Secretary Elkins, "though I don't think I ever grew fond of money as money, nor have I ever cared for the mak ing of it with the idea of hoarding it Degan to Deal In Land. "It was at this time Jhat I thought I dis covered that I had in me to a certain extent the power to make money, and I began to buy land. I could see, it seemed to me, that railroads must come through the Terri tory, and I tried to buy as near as possible along the lines where the roads would proba bly run. You could get lands then for al most nothing. I was a lawyer and I knew all about the land laws. I examined the titles of such property as I purchased, and I bought a great deal. I had at one time 600, 000 acres of land, and though squatters and others have fought me I have always been able to show that my titles were good." "I suppose you still stuck to the law?" said I. "Yes." replied the Secretary. "I con tinued to practice and soon became pretty well known. I was the only young Amer ican -among the lawyers who could speak Spanish fluently, arid as I had good habits and wa free from the vices which many of the older lawyers of the "West had, I got plenty to do. Before I was 30 I was making 517,000 a year at the law. Made Ten Thousand In an Bonr. "I remember I had for atime $7,000a year as a regular salary from Maxwell, who owned the big grant The Maxwell grant had been sold and the title of it was dis puted. Carl Schurz was then the Secretary of Interior and I presented the case to him. The fee was partially a fixed one and par tially a contingent one. It took me a little over an hour and I got $10,000 for it" "You did not go back to New Mexico after leaving Congress?" "No," replied Mr. Elkins, "I remained in "Washington for a couple of years. The first year I made $30,000 from my law busi ness alone, and the second year I did equally welL I decided, however, to leave "Vasfi ington and go to New York, and found plenty to do. I got into business in rail roads and otherwise, and I have been there ever since. Of late years, however, I have been concentrating my energies in "West Virginia, and Senator Davis and myself are doing all we can to develop that State and its resources. "We believe it is one of the best States in the Union, and it has a coal area larger than Pennsylvania and larger than the combined coal areas of England, France and Germany." "West Virginia In 1S93. "I see, Mr. Elkins, you are the prospect ive Governor for West Virginia?" "No, I am not a candidate," replied Sec retary Elkins. "My business" arrangements are such that I could not remain at Charles ton for four years, though I would appre- ular leader of men. He had a wonderful magnetism, and, as I looked, his eyescaught mine, and I rose and went oyer to him and said: " 'Mr. Speaker, I hope you will pardon the presumption of a young and unknown man in addressing you without an introduc tion. I am the new Delegate from the Territory of New Mexico, and this is mv first term in "Washington. However well I may be known at home, I am not at all known here, and I feel that I need the ad vice and counsel of wiser and more expe rienced heads than mine in my course in Congress. I want some one to whom I can go to nsk counsel, and if it is not too much X would like to ask you now and then as to what I should da' "Mr. Blaine grasped my hand as I came over to him. He made me sit down and he told me that he knew who I was and that he had noticed me when I had answered to my name. He asked me what I wanted to know and when I told him that I waDted a general adviser as to my actions from time to time he said he would do all he could to help me and that I could call upo.1 him at any time. A Case of Love at First Sight. "He then turned the conversation to our big ranches in the West, and drew me out to tell him all about my little successes out there. I could not see how he could be so interested in such a person as me, but I told him and felt greatly flattered at bis inter est I saw him after that several times be fore his family came from Augusta. He lived then in the next block above me, near Chamberlin's restaurant, and when the family returned 1 was often at his house. Soon I became one of his enthusiastic followers." "How about Blaine's letter of declination during the present canvass, Mr. Secretary?" I asked. "Does it take him out of the race tor the nomination and is it sincere?" "I think there is no doubt of its sin cerity," was the reply, "and I do not think that Mr. Blaine will'be a candidate. "Can you give me an estimate ot Blaine, Mr. Elkins7" said L "Wherein consists his strength?" "Mr. Blaine," replied Secretary Elkins, is the most remarkable man I have ever known. He is a great, big, broad genius, packed full of the most wonderful amount of knowledge upon the widest range of sub jects, and possessing a wonderful capacity for reoeiving and absorbing information. Blaine's Power of Intellect. "He has the power of receptivity in a greater degree than anyone I have ever known. You may talk to him, and the idea you wish to convey may not be developed in your own mind. You give him an ink ling of it and he grasps it in all its pbssibil ities, and with his master mind brings from it products you did not dream of. He has a most wonderful memory. He forgets noth ing, and his capacity for work Is herculean. Take his Twenty Years in Congress.' He wrote some of that book at the rate of eight pages a day. It was too much for any man to do, and I told him it would break him down if he kept it up, and I think he shows the strain of ft to-day. "I fcnew Mr. Blaine in his young days. What a man he was and what a moral cour age he had. He was afraid to tackle noth ing if he thought it was right, and how he fought for his convictions! He has. how ever, grown more conservative as he has frown older and in proportion as responsi ilities have been forced upon him he has become cautious, and I look upon him as one of the conservative publio men of to day. He is now at the maturity of his powers, and his chief aim is the success of bis reciprocity scheme which he formulated when he was In President Garfield's Cab inet and which he has muck to ever alncd." Fbank G. OabfzxTeb. WB1TTIH- FOB THI DISPATCH.! GOOD many people outside the classes es pecially devoted to the pursuit of physical science are interested in the question raised by Darwin's teaching as to man's origin, and all evidence for or against either of the two pre vailing theories is certain to be eagerly can vassed wherever put forward. In this article I propose briefly to discuss a few facts that have recently come to light which seem to have an important bearing on the controversy. The question raised may briefly be put thus: 'Is man to be considered as having appeared primarily as a ready-made article who sprang. into being somewhat after the fashion of the old foe of Miles Standish, "the brave Wattawamot," or has he been slowly developed and molded by the machinery ot circumstances out of the baser stuff? If the latter view he accepted, does he bear upon him any traces of the earlier stages of the process, or marks of the mill which has made him what he is? It is with the desire to throw light unon this last question that I entered upon the researches into the characteristics of infants, some of the results of which have been pub lished in various medical and scientific jour nals in England and on the Continent and kindly republished by Tee Dispatch, of Pittsburg, Pa. Man's History In Fleshy Tablets. The paleontologists, and especially Prof. O. C. Marsh, have shown us the continuous chain which links together many living ani mals and ancient beasts of very different structure and habits, which lived in epochs too far remote to be "connected with the present by any unit of time measurement such as we use to-day. Every day the rocks are yielding up fresh chapters of their story whenever the earth's crust is opened, and each quarry or mine or railroad cutting has become a historical record to be read by those versed in deciphering the strange in scriptions there revealed. As yet the fossil history of man is toobroken and incomplete to be of much use in explaining his origin. We have, however, graven in the "fleshy tablets"of his body the material for a won drous and true chronicle of his upward struggle from brutedom. It is strange that this vehicle, mutable and perishable to a proverb, should have re tained the markings of time and nature, like a phonographic tracing, when eyed the un changing Tocks have failed to keep it We are but just beginning to comprehend the characters and language of the record, but already the relations have been of a strange and startling kind. The little that has hitherto been put forward in my published papers is but the beginning of a long and ever-growing series of new facts and hints of revelations yet to come. A Prehensile hat Invisible Tall. My purpose in this paper is to deal with man after he has made an entry on the world's stage. Having once got tiim here the sooner we take him in hand to read the chequered palimpsest of his little pink hide the more we shall learn. For he is a new arrival from the realms of the,, un known and it is.well to question him before the traces of the past which he brings with him have become obscured or obliterated by new experience. : That he trails (comet, like) "clouds of glory" behind him is doubtless true, since Wordsworth has said so and thousands have echoed him; but I am by no means sure that this poetic and celestial nimbus does not envelop a more material and mun dane core in the shape of a prehensile tail. But as both clouds and tail are invisible to the ordinary unimaginative eye, I shall not further discuss them, but proceed to points which can be more easily seen and appie ciated. I have likened the skin of an Infant to an ancient parchment covered with successive superimposed writings, and this comparison can be justified without difficulty, in spite of the deceptive appearance ot absolute newness which the dormal envelope of the little nascent mortal exhibits. Evidence on the Soles of the Feet. Let us look first at the soles of the feet Even at the first glance it is evident that we are observing a palmar rather than a plantar surface. The feet of kittens or pup pies are like those of their full grown parents, and present no wrinkles or creases; but the foot of the new-bom babe is as I Darwin has pointed out that the fine, icarce W visIKIa IibIm whilt AAV h llmtis Am arranged just like those of the higher apes, and that on the arms their direction ii toward the elbow. He goes on to show (he utility of this arrangement of the hair in the anthropoids. In man no such uses exist, yet the strange similarity remains. I have taken it as a general principle to work upon, that if any habit or structure, which is still existent, but of no apparent use, is generally present in all animals of a class, we shall find that It was at one time often in the very distant past of essential service in the struggle for existence. The "Survival ofthe Fittest. It will be easily understood that if some habit essential for maintaining the. exist- as that of the young partridge, to crouch and hide itself on the approach of danger, is operative through many generations, it becomes thoroughly ground into the nature of the creature possessing it When the hawk hovers over the brood it would always be the chick which is least successful in concealing itself which would be pounced upon and devoured. . Every one which had not the instinct of concealment, or the physical qualities to render such a ruse uccessfuL-would be RIDING IN A TUfflEL. Murat Halstead Tries London's Un derground Electric Eoad. DANGER 0NLT IN IMAGINATION. Hon Blowing in Europe Is as Disgusting as Our Tobacco Spitting. FACTS ABOUT THE FOGS OF IMJXJIT jffiXK2 fMHiJ CiC?-TiWK fVAUlfJa- mmm wm ii,j m& i mj k Feet op arjr &rd Hoot of &"v A,JC: eliminated in each generation. The habit, therefore, becom'es impressed in an ever increased intensity upon the survivors until it becomes a part of their very nature. Our domestic fowls have, in most' localities, been free from the attacks of birds of prey for many generations, vet I have seen a lit tle bantam chick in a London back street crouch and cower in the gutter when a large piece of brown paper came drifting and flapping from the window of a high factory close at hand. Prehensile Grasp of Babes. It occurred to me that we might find some ,!.. f ..If .1 r " ,,., i vi Dcii-jjrcBcivtniuu ui a parallel cnar acter and of equal importance to this among the yonng of the arboreal apes; and if, when found, traces of the same character istic were shown to be obviously persistent in man, and serving no useful present pur pose, it would give considerable support to the Darwinian theory of human descent The habit was found in th'e extraordinary disposition and ability exhibited by very young apes to cling to the parent when, in times of danger, she is obliged to use both arms to climb swiftly out ot reach of an ap proaching foe. t Wallace, Du Chaillu and many other traveling naturalists have observed this, and the former gives in his book on the Malay Archipelago a most interesting ac count of an infant orang-outang, which, though in all other respects as helpless as a human babe, had such a power of srasn that he had to appeal for help when once it had hooited its finefprs in Inn hnrfl Tf i. ri. dent.that for hundreds and thousands of iiSii lIEvf much marked out in lines as the hands. These lines show the old creases which were essential when the foot was a true 'grasping organ. If the bottom of the foot at the point of the juncture of the great toe and the' rest of the sole is gently irritated, the toe are bent downward to an extraordinary extent, as if trying to close themselves around some object Often, the great toe, which in adults has a limited up and down move ment only, is bent inward across the sole, beneath the other toes, after the fashion of a thumb. At the same time the creases which cross the sole are rendered more ap parent, just as those on the hand are when half closed. Now if we regard the foot merely as a part of the machinery of locomotion, these lines are unexplained and have no raison d'etre whatever. No animal which uses its feet for progression only, and whose habits in this respect do not differ from those of its ancestors, presents this, peculiarity. It follows, therefore, that the human foot is but a hand whioh has been 'modified as the environment of the owner changed so as to be used as a chief means of locomotion on the ground. , Infants Basin to Walk aa Apes. Prof. Bomanes has told ma that the habit of the anthropoid? apes of walking on the outer side of the foot and curling the toes inward is still observable in infants when, as Moses says, they begin to "feel their feet," that is when they show an inclination to use their lower limbs to bear their own weight This entirely accords with my own observations, and can be noticed in any nursery when a young child la taken out of its bath and its wet feet are just allowed to touch the floor. The foot print thus formed shows traces of the outer edge of the foot nnH 4T.A mrlu .in. 4lw,a nt tk.A.v &M.r...l. To take, a further survey of the skin, generations every young ape which failed irom any cause to exercise this power in times of danger would fall and perish, and only those which employed it effectu ally would live to perpetuate the race. A Well Established Fact This then seems a habit or characteristic which should be projected forward into the far future, and I determined carefully to ob serve to it hat extent it existed in the'human infant And it is well to remember that not only may the instinct be expected to con tinue, but also some measure ofthe capacity to employ it with success. Anatomists have many times remarked the surprising develop ment of the shoulders and arms of infants compared with the lower limbs, but until lately no rational explanation of this salient fact had been advanced. The power and inclination of the new born babe to grasp a finger, or. anything else it could seize with its hands, had also been noted, and Dr. O. W. Holmes in his excel lent little book, "Mechanism in Thought and Morals" (which I am ashamed to say is out of print in England), quotes the words of Mr. Kenthck in the "Luck of Boaring Camp:" "He wrestled with my finger the little cuss" to show that the fact was well enough authenticated to be used for dramatic purposes by the novelist, I carefully experimented on a large num ber of infants of under a month old, and found, to my astonishment, that in consid erably over 100 cases not one failed to exhibit it, and that in all but two instances the children were able to hang by their hands to my finger or a small stick and bear their whole weight for periods varying from five seconds to over two minutes and a half. Tried It on Bis Own Sob. It may interest some among this latter etass also to learn that the very last of my experiments was performed a few days ago upon my infant son, Maurice (in the pres ence and with the full sanction of his mother and nurse) before ever he had un dergone the first change from a state of primitive nature into that chrysalis condi tion of incipient civilization, known as "long clothes;" and this youngest expo nent of the Darwinian philosophy hung placidly from my forefinger for 15 seconds. Now no one can assert that this extraor dinary prehensile power is of any material use to the human infant To understand its phenomenal development we must con sider the general placidity and feebleness of the muscular system in yonng babies (strictly excepting of course the muscles which work the howlintr apparatus') and also the fact that an untrained, strong adult will find hanging to a horizontal bar lor three minutes a pretty severe test 1 have asserted, and hitherto have met with no contradiction, that this sumrisincr gift of grip can only be explained as a ves tige of that power which for thousands of generations was the means of saving our arboreal ancestors from destruction. In conclusion I will quote the words of Darwin on the expression of a feeling which may possibly be called forth in some by what I have already written; for it is likely to proxe useful and edifying to the debaters on both sides: "He who rejects with scorn the belief that the shape of his own teeth is due to our early forefathers bavin? been .provided with these formidable weapons will probably reveal by sneering the line of his descent, for although he no longer in tends or has the power to use these teeth as weapons, he will unconsciously retract his 'snarling muscles' (so called by Sir a Bell) so as to expose them ready for action like a aog preparea to ngnt" Louis Bobutsoh, M. D. Loxdok, England. THE GESKS 07 LOCKJAW. rWBITTEN TOR TBI DISFATCB.l Latter Ko. 10. I have inspected with the keenest interest the electrical railway in London, which has been recommended strenuously to large American cities, especially New York, as the solution of the rapid transit difficulty. You enter a solid structure marked "Elec trical Hallway," purchase a ticket, pass an iron gate and enter a room that is declared on the wall to hold 0. persons. As you en ter mysterious stairways, by which descents to regions unknown are made, are revealed. After a few minutes a servant of the com pany in uniform appears, closes the gates, that are of the prison pattern, and turns a lever. The alleged lift descends ponder ously about two good stories, the gates are opened with a clink, and lot here is a tube of white glazed brick or tile, with a track at the bottom, and a train of low, narrow cars scoots along, is stopped abruptly, and you step on, finding everything clean and snet and neat, and even glistening, and the sounds are hollow, and there is a sharp suggestion of unreality. In a moment away you go; and you know by the map that you are passing under the Thames, though it is clear you couldn't say anything about it to the purpose if you should find yourself in a balloon on the way to the moon, or engaged in an excur sion, like that told of by Jules Verne, to the center of the earth. About half the passengers in the car seem to be there from 'motives of curiosity, and in a state of nerv ous agitation. The motion of the train is an unpleasant swaying, a severe rocking, and the noise is that shrill, savage shrieking of wheels that the walls of a tunnel echo with so much effect The stoppage is quiet People rush in and out. There is a railroad movement The ascent to the street may be made by stairways or by the lift, and you emerge at an incredible distance from the place of entrance. It Is a Very Good System. The structure of the road is as firm as it can be made of the best materials. The in tention is manifestly to secure permanencv. to provide against all accidents and win the confidence of the people. 'J.he amount of the investment must be excessive. There is nothing alarming about this mode of travel, and the nervous shuddering at the noise of the literally lightning expresses is in part the result of the indulgence of the imagination.' Such roads may answer many purposes, and the effect of personal ex amination is to dispel prejudices against the system. Eepeatedly, in my run through Europe, I have been surprised by the developments of electricity in common use. The most strik ing example of the utilizatiou of the tele phone was, in the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool. Each room has a telephone, with printed instructions that you must send all orders through the office. This includes fires; water, hot and cold; calls for the porter or chamber maid. You touch the button, and unhook the ear and mouthpiece a very solid and neat combination and give your directions. It is a surprising help. The servant who answers the call is the right one, with what you want If you have friends in the house, you can talk with them from your room by connecting through the office; or you can talk all over town, without leaving your room. I am not aware of it, if there is the equivalent of this convenience in America. within the last quarter of a century the Americans have invaded Europe .with many of their notions, and there are some traces, of their conquests. They have not done many things more remarkable than the tri umphant introduction of ice water; The American is no longer regarded as an idiot and treated with derision when he wants a pitcher of ice water to cool his stomach withal when he goes to bed, and even in the most benighted lands the American idea that water is sometimes good to quench the thirst of meu as well as norses makes way. - The Habit of Blowing; the Nose. There is consolation occasionally for the consciousness of some American bad habits in observing that Europeans are not in a supreme sense polite, careful cleanly and considerate always. I admit, with com punction and horror, the American habit of expectoration the fearful spitting, the frightful cuspidors, the scattering tobacco juice and yet there are public nuisances along the best streets in French and Italian towns that surpass all the spattered spit toons I have seen in the marble halls and on the stairs of the National Capitol, and to bacco juice is not quite as dinuve as the rank: odors ot the continental cigar or the K& m m WBITTEX FOE THE DISPATCH BY MARK TWAIN, . Author of "Innocents Abroad," "Tom Sawyer," "Huckleberry Finn, Etc., Etc SYNOPSIS OP PKEVIOCS CHAFTEBS. Lord Berkeley, ostensibly Earl of Bossmore, has a son who has studied the claims of one Simon Leathers of America to Cnalmondelny Castle and the vast estate, and becoming convinced that he and his father are usurpers, starts to America, to make his own fortune. He is imbued with democratic ideas. His father declares the son Is stark mad, but he starts to America nevertheless. In Washington he narrowly escapes death at a hotel flre,. and having been reported burned in the newspapers, adopts Howard Tracy as his name. At tho flre he accidentally gets the clothes of One-Armed Fete, a cowbov, who is also re- Sorted bnrned. In tho poote ts Is a sum of money which Traceyputsln bank, ne fails to nd work and drifts to a cheap boarding house. The habits of the boors is tbe worst trial he haa had to bear. Finally he becomes a hero by thrashing tbe bully of the house. Tho latter leave, taking Tracy's money with him. The landlord Insults Tracy for not paying bis board. Dlsooirased, he telegraphs his adopted name to his father, expecting help. Tbe announcement that he expects a cablegram from his father, who is an English Earl, con vinces the boarding house folks that his failure to get work has set him crazy. .AC last Tracy gets a cablegram. It reads simply, "Thanks." Despondent to the last dejree, Tracy finally takes up with an old sailor and a German who paint abominable pictures. Hebe gins to make money for tbe first time since he came to America. Simons Leathers and his brother get killed ata log rolling out West, and Colonel Mulberry Sellers, the central char acter of the story, becomes tbe American claimant to Cbalmondolay Castle. He and bis old wile, with a.sprigbtly daughter, live in T tnmbled-down house In Washington, which now becomes Bossmore Towers. He mourns the young Lord as dead, and came near send ing the old Lord a basket of ashes from the hotel fire as his son's remains. He is always full of chimerical schemes, among them a Figs-In-Clover puzzle.whlch at the instance ot his Wild Western friend, Washington Hawkins, he sells to a Yankee at 5 cents for each puzzle sold. One-Armed Fete Is wanted for a crime and a Toward Is offered. Sellers and Hawkins de termine to get the reward. After the hotel fire they get a glimpse of Tracy in tbe cowboy costume and prepare to capture him. Sellers thinks he has the power of materializing the dead. One day Tracy, wandering about Washington, sees tbe emblems of hid honse on Sellers' residence. The latter takes him for the dead cowboy's materialized spirit and goes through wild gesticulations to draw him to the residence. Tracy comes, attracted by curiosity, not Sellers' imaginary power. Sellers and Hawkins set Tracy to retouching chromos while they discuss the rewards offered for the cowboy. GwendoUn and Tracy im mediately fall In love. CHAPTER XXLT. Dinner was kept waiting for awhile for Miss Thompson, but as Gwendolen had not delivered the invitation to her the waiting did no good, and the household presently went to the meal without her. Poor old Sellers tried everything his hospitable soul could devise to make the occasion an enjoy able one for the guest, and the guest tried his honest best to be cheery and chatty and nappy for the old gentleman's sake; in fact all hands worked hard in the interest of a mutual good time, but the thing was a fail ure from the start Tracy's heart was lead in his bosom, there seemed to be only one prominent feature in the landscape, and that was a vacant chair, he couldn't drag his mind away from Gwendolen and his hard luck; consequently his distractions allowed deadly pauses to slip in every now and then when it was his turn to say something and ot course this disease spread to the rest of the conversation, wherefore, instead of having a breezy sail in sunny waters, as an ticipated, everybody was bailing out and she made of it? He felt a good deal put out. It vexed him to think that this Eng lishman, with the traveling Briton's ever lasting disposition to generalize whole mountain ranges from single sample grains of sand, would jump to the conclusion that American girU were as dumb as himself generalizing the whole tribe from this single-sample, and she at her poorest, there being nothing at that table to inspire ,her, give her a start, keep her from going to sleep. He made up his mind that for the honor of the country, he would bring these two together again over the social board before long. There would be a different result another time, he judged. He said to himself, with a deep sense of injury. "He'll put in his diary they all keep dairies he'll put in his diary that she was miraculously unin teresting dear, dear, but wasn't she I never saw the like and yet looking as beautiful as Satan, too and couldn't seem to do anything but paw bread crumbs, and pick flowers to pieces, and look fidgety. And it isn't any better here in the Hall of Audience. I've had enough; I'll haul down my flag; the others may fight it out if they want to." Frenchmen Have Isolated Them and May Be Able to Prevent the Disease. Two Italian savants, Profs. Tizzoni and Cattani, have recently isolated germs of lockjaw and have, not only rendered guinea pigs and rabbits immune from tbe disease by injecting a poison derived from them, but have cured six human beings attacked by the complaint by means of inoculation. As is well known, lockjaw has hitherto been considered almost inevitably fatal. The germs of the disease seem to be found in the surface soil, so that immense num bers of them may exist in anybody's garden. Bats can be given lockjaw by simply mix ing a little garden earth with their food. That is the reason why a wound from a rusty nail is apt to communicate the trouble. It is not the rust that is responsi ble, at is commonly thought, but a rusty nail ' is a dirty one, and presumably has been lying on the ground. It hat lockjaw trat pn it. and theyinoculate the. vicuip. The disease is one of the nervous system. British pipe; and I grow dizzy with a sense of responsibility when I say that American spitting does not exceed, in aggregate ca pacity to disgust, the European custom of blowing the nose, especially during the prevalence ofthe plagueAif in'fluenzx Oncc upon a time, a year or two ago, there was a crusade in the most scintillant of our New York newspapers against the Ameri can hog the human animal who infests our country and in public places makes a dis play of brutal greed and selfish vulgarity. The displays most noticed were those in railway cars. The European hogs are as voracious of space and privileges as those of our own continent One ot-the highest examples in our country is that of a man occupying in a crowded train twice tbe room he has paid for. 1 have seen a pair of them in Europe remove the property of others placed to secure seats and take as much space as sufficed for four other per sons, doing it with cold-blooded impudence and ostentatious indifference to the con venience of ladies; and the pair of hogs had a lunch basket, from which they stuffed themselves, using the whole compartment as if it were their exclusive dining room. Next to his clubs, 'shawl-strapped to rugs, the English traveler has a foot bag, that he rolls up and securesiwith two buckles. I beheld a British statesman get into his foot bag. It was lined with coonskins and cov ered his hips. This, with an overcoat that was caped and fur-collared, made him proof against the grim blasts of January. Fogs Worse Than Pittsburg Knows. London has suffered from fogs this winter in such a degree that they may be said to be a burning question. That is, at last there is so much smoke in the air that there is a great deal of fire in the public purpose. There is no help except a revolution as to fires. Instead of burning raw coal, the coal must be converted to gas and brought to tho metropolis in pipes; and that- would be to abolish one of the greatest luxuries of the English their open, abundant, glowing fires. In winter time, certainly those fires are worth the cost of a narrow and smoky horizon. It is more important to have in doors bright ana cosy ana happy than out ot doors brilliant and spectacular. . Such was the state of the London skies srxE is Kissrjro ru She was content now: and ont from her j : ii j t i ii n ii... tt- :.,.. .' . .... . . .: uuriug mo ojL uBjra x was in uie euy mm. J-1 nappy eves mere went a ugnc mat tola a never saw an object half a mile distant Sit ting before my coal fire, however, unstinted coals blazing with, fervent heat, I felt recon ciled to the external conditions. It was a shock, though, walking a clammy street about 11 o'clock A. M.,to breathe th'e bitter, smoky air, behold the' houses vanishing in vapor two or three blocks away; catching occasionally a view of what seemed to be phantom towers and domes; to hear the greeting! of friends thus: "A fine morning, sir." "A bright day, sir.' Idid not won der at American exclamations to the effect that they wanted a dose of American sun shine, even if it had a nipping and eager frost in it and a blizzard, behind it. , Mubax .Halstead. praying for land. What could the matter be? Tracy alone could, have told, the others couldn't evenainvent a theory. Meanwhile they were having a similarly dismal time at the Thompson house; in fact, a twin experience. Gwendolen was ashamed of herself for allowing her disappointment to so depress her spirits and make her so strangely and profoundly miserable; but feeling ashamed of herself didn't improve the matter any; it only seemed to aggravate the suffering. She explained thai she was not feeling very well, and everybody could ee that this was true; so she got sincere sympathy and commiseration; but that didn't help the case. Nothing helps that kind of a case. It is best to just stand off and let it fester. The moment the dinner was over the girl excused herself, and she hurried home feeling unspeakably grateful to get away from that house and that in tolerable captivity and suffering. "Will he be gone? The thought .arose in her brain, but took effect in her heels. She slipped into the house, threw off her things 'and made straight for the dining room. She stopped and listened. Her father's voice with no life in it; presently her mother's no life in that; a considerable vacancy, then sterile remark from "Washington Haw kins. Another silence; then, not Tracy's, but ner lamer s voice again. "He's gone," she said to herself, despair ingly, and listlessly opened the door and stepped within. "Why, my child," cried the mother, "how white you are. Are you has anything-" "White?" exclaimed Sellers. 'It's gone like a flash; 'twasn't serious. Already she's as red as the soul of a watermelon. Sit down, dear, sit down goodness knows you're welcome. Did you have a good time? "We've had great times here im mense. "Why didn't Miss Belle come? Mr. Tracy is not feeling well, and she'd have made mm forget it secret toariother pair of eyes there, and got a secret in return, in jost mat innniteiy small fraction of a second those two great confessions were made, received and per fectly understood. ' All anxiety, apprehen sion, uncertainty, vanished out of these young people's hearts, and left them filled with a great peace; Sellers had had the most confident faith that with the new reinforcement victory would be at this last moment snatched from the jaws ot defeat, but it was an error. The talk was as stubbornly dis jointed as ever. He was proud of Gwen dolen, and liked to show her off, even against Miss Belle Thompson, and here had been a great opportunity, and what had J He shook hands all around and went off to do some work which he said was pressing. The idolators were the width of the room apart, and apparently unconscious of each other's presence. The distance got short ened a little now. Very soon the mother withdrew. The distance narrowed again. Tracy stood before a chromo of some Ohio politician which had been retouched and chain-mailed for a crusading Kossmore, and Gwendolen was sitting on the sofa not far from his elbow artificially absorbed in ex amining a photograph album that hadn't any photographs in it The "Senator" still lingered. He was sorry for the young people; it had been a dull evening for them. In the goodness of his heart he tried to make it pleasant for them now; tried to remove the ill impression necessarily left by the general defeat; tried to be chatty, even tried to be gay. But tha responses were sickly, there was no start ing any enthusiasm; he would give up and quit it was a day specially picked out and consecrated to failures. But when Gwendolen rose up promptly and smiled a glad smile, and said with thankfulness and blessing "Must you go?" it seemed cruel to desert, and he sat down; again. He was about to begin a remark when when he didn't "We have all been there. He didn't know how he knew his conclud ing to stay longer had been a mistake, ho merely knew it," and he knew it for dead certain, too. And so he bode good night, and went mooning out, wondering what ha could have done that changed the atmos phere that way. As the door closed behind him those two were standing side by side, looking at that door looking at it in a waiting, second-counting, but deeply grate ful kind of way. And the instant it closed they flung their arms about each other' necks, and there, heart to heart and lip to lip "Oh, my God, she's kissing itl" Nobody beard this remark, because Haw kins, who bred it only thought it, he didn't utter it He had turned the moment he had closed the door, and had pushed it open a little, intending to re-enter and ask what ill-advised thing he had done or said, and apologize for it But he didn't re-enter; ha staggered of! stunned, terrified, distressed, Five minutes later he was sitting in his room, with his head bowed within the circle of his arms on the table final attitude of grief and despair. His tears were flowing fast, and now and then a sob broke upon the stillness. Presently he said: "I knew her when she was a little child and used to climb about my knees; I lova her as I love my own, and now, ob, pootr thing, poor thing, I cannot bear it she's gone and lost her heart to this mangy ma terializee. "Why didn't we see that that might happen? But how oould we?"Nobodyv could. Nobodv could ever haTe dreamed at ' ' m A S A A i 'i'
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers