The horse ami the mile, as long as
rati >iii ami transportitiou aro a no
c ssity, will oatinue to bo a prima
factor :n war.
In Flanders 'he name of the ante
mobile is "snelpaadelzooiisderspetroo
leijing," anil the Flemish people keep j
out of its way.
The United States government has J
to pay a royalty for the use ot' most |
ox the telescopic sights now employed
01 the seacoast and field artillery
guus.
The solitary ju'.or at Wilkesbarre,
Pa., who held out for 10 days against
the verdict which his colleagues wanted
to bring in probably thought that they
were the most unreasonable set ol
men that he had ever met.
Tl/o lie v. Dr. Edward Everett Ha'e ,
told a Boston atidieu-e the o.her night j
that lien amiu Frankliu was boru on j
Hanover street, in that city, and now I
the curious are in piiring what is tht
meaning of a tablet on the old Post j
building iu Milk street declaring that ;
his birthplace was there.
The principal steam railway system ;
iu Frame is about to substitute elec |
trie motors for steam locomotives in !
the suburban service between Ver
sailles aa<l Paris. The largest powei
station in France will be erected mid
way between the two places to supply
the necessary current lor the opera- 1
tion of trains.
Siberia became a pjnal colony iu the j
middle of the seventeenth century, j
Under Nicholas I nearly 50,000 Pole? I
were transported there. Duriug the j
nineteenth century it is estimated that j
nearly if not quite 700.000 men, wom
en an-.l children were sent into Siberian
e .ile, for Bussian despotism was lie
respecter of person, ses, condition oi
age.
Spain has institute 1 a reform in the
carrying out of the death penalty.
Executions will be no longer public and j
criminals will not be exposed to view j
iu the prison chapel for 24 hours be- j
fore being put to death, as in the past, j
The ob;ect.of this custom was to ena- 1
ble the criminal to prepare for death
and to allow the public to join in pray* j
iug for his soul.
I* the New Jersey courts a novel I
wjiy of punishing juvenile ofi'euders is I
in vogue. The parents are summoned !
to the bar of justice to indict the sen- j
tence of the court, which is generally j
a severe spanking. It is said the i -
novation works well, inasmuch as it
saves the child from the disgrace of j
imprisonment and impresses upon the ,
parents the necessity of restraining 1
their offspring.
Social and economic conditions, a°.
they are reported to exist in Guam,
seem almost idyllic. Almost every
one owns laud, and lives happy in
cultivating it; and ouly meu do that
necessary work, for the women re
main at home, engaged iu more ap
propriate duties. No man's necessi
ties constrain him to work for an
other. He is liis own capitalist and
hired ma.i; consequently there ara no
strikes, no lockouts—no "labor prob
lem," in fact, to perplex and disturb.
Since there is no "effective demand"
Sor what the people do not produce
themselves, they do not need money.
There is neither store nor market ou
the island in which household neces
saries may be bought by exiles
from the outside world, and according
to Lieuteuant Safford, vice governor,
upon whose authority the more essen
tial facts stated above are based, "You
have to beg people to sell things."
Obviously, modern progress and mod
ern ideas have a wide Held in Guam.
"Linen underwear for all seasons
of the year" i3 a slogan which is
ori>ging a host of followers to the
'.andards of Father Kneipp and his
ather advocates of hvgieuic dress.
Among the chief objections urged
against the wearing of woolen next to
the skin is the fact that woolen can
not be easily sterilized. Linen or
cotton can be boiled. Not so wool.
Woolen underwear can only be
sterilized by washing in naphtha
or strong disinfectants, which is never
done save by doctors who have been
attending infectious diseas?. A wool
en garmeut will absorb germs much
more readily than linen or cotton as it
hangs on the Hue in the process of
drying. Wool next to the body is apt
to be irritating to the skin and it is
relaxing to the blood vessel*. While
it is true that wool is absirbent, it is
also a matter of fact that wool con
taining some oily substance has not
the absorbent qualties of linen or
cotton. A parson who wears wool
next to the skin cannot have as clean
a skin as a pecscu who wears linen or
cotton.
A recent compilation cf statistics
shows that last year American dealers
bought more than 8500,00'J worth oJ
foreign cosmetics and perfumes.
Another case of an American girl
marrying a title ouly to find that it
may cover a multitude of sins. And
in this case they were thought to be
happy; oh, so liapjiy !
It has been found in tho Maine
cities which adopted a curfew ordin
ance that an increased police force was
needed to enforce it, and rather than
pay the costs of a larger force, the
law has become more or less of a dead
letter.
The Boston Journal sadly admits
that the johnnycake, once a glory and
a joy of tha Yankees, "is rapidly be
coming only a memory." The beauti
ful, tender, mellow johnnycake, light
er than gossamer and more delicious
thau the drink of gods! The great
johnnycake makers are no more.
Diamonds of file quality have beeu
found near the Orinoco liver, in the
identical region where Sir Walter Bal
eigh sougnt vaiuly for El Dorado cen
turies ago. bir Walter's ghost will be
regarded as wholly harmless if it walks
the margin of the new diamond fields,
bitterly wailiug that the favors of for
tune are unequally divided.
It has been said that France looks
to the patronage of exhibitors aud
visitors from this country to make a
success of the l'aris exposition. And
while the truth of this assertion is
not denied, the value of our co-oper
ation is made the more apparent by
the recent loan of $15,000,00J made
to France from New York bankers,
wherewith to supplement the gold ou
which the exposition enterprise will
necessarily draw.
The peculiar value of electrical
power for the operation of the moun
tain railroads is now becomiug recog
nized. It is probable that soon the
trolley system wiil be the only one
used for mountain climbing, thus ef
fecting the saving of the weight of
locomotives, water and fue'. The
overhead trolley has been adopted for
the Jungfrau, and a similar system
will be used on the projected rack
railway between Chamboii aud the
Montauvert.
England buys (30 per cent, of the
products which the American farmer
sends abroad, says Consular Agent E.
L. Harris at Eibenstock in a report to
the state department, and the British
colonies present the greatest field for
our manufactured products. In the
fiscal year 18'J8-'.)9 Eng'and bought in
round numbers $73,000,000 worth of
our principal products or 79 per cent,
more thau all the rest of Europe com
bined. M-. Harris also calls atten
tion to the fact that (ireat Britain has
never shown the enmity toward our
products which has been evident in
other European nations.
11l several western states have
sprang np discussions of the proposi
tion that burglary should be punish el
by deatb. The average burglar, ap
preciative of the li.sks of his ] rofes
sion, is prepared to kill, if need be,to
effect his escape. To that extent he
is a murderer in premeditation. He
is therefore a doubly dangerous crim
inal, a despoiler of the and is
usna'ly hardened past the reform
stage. Old experts at the business
have testified that the confirmed bur
glar seldom change* his trade. In
spite of these considerations, how
ever, capital punishment for b.irglary
is not likely to be established. The
modern tendency is away from the
death penalty. Sentiineut is sparing
the lives eveu of dastard criminals—
to what effect penology and its kindred
sciences have vet to show.
Tbe proverbial foible of tunny per*
sons for concealing or misrepresent
ing tbeir ages is proved by tbe census
to be a realty. Careful scrutiny of
the returns of population according
to age? in successive census years
shows lhat there is a widespread tend
ency among boys and girls to report
themselves older than they are, as if
to anticipate manhood a'id woman
hood. Among those who are ap
proaching mi '.die age the tendency is
in the opposite direction, r.amely to
report themselves younger than they
are. Finally, in the case of tbe very
old, there is an inclination to add to
their years. They seem to take pride
in every year they have lived since they
c mid boast that they we e octogen.
nrians. It is a litt'e strange that this
weakness of human nature should be
so widespread, and that both men and
women should be so s>jusitive upon
the subject of th.'ir age?, seeing lhat
there is no condition or circnmstan e
of life for which the individual is leas
responsible than his ace
LIFE.
■First you're horn, an' fer a while Such is life—first you are kep',
Dadiiv's pelf Then you keep.
Keeps vou goin'. After that— You're awake a little while-
Keep y'rself. Then you sleep.
Then, unless the lady picks you ' Here's a laufjh, 'n' there a tear—
Fer a "brother," Or a sigh—
Fer another little while you So you putin year by year-
Keep another. Then you die.
—ltaltimore American.
S The Duty Soldier. i
Colonel Jemmett took a chair oppo
site his hostess, who was toasting her
obviously pretty feet by the tire.
They bad first met when ne was 33
and she 15; they had not seen each
other since he had turned 40, and she
had availed herself of her majority to
marry foolishly, bo their early rela- I
tious, if familiar, were unromautic. ;
Thanks to the line of forbears wearing j
iu succession the wig of jurisprudence, j
he had beeu already bald and serious ;
when she had cast her child's glance
upon him; and now, a quarter century j
later, her widow's serutiuy found him j
much the same, save that the frame
of his baldness, like his moustache, 1
was gray, aud the seriousness of his
face become gravity,almost sternness, j
If he had changed not very greatly,
in the shaded light of her own strategi- !
cally planne I drawing room she j
seemed to him to have aged not at
all. The girl was grown full woman,
aud, indeed, a widow of 40 cannot i
properly affect ingenuousness; but her j
weeds were rather becoming to her
beauty thau illuminative of her sor- i
row.
They were alone, and would, inten- I
tionally,remai i alona; for the game of
hide aud seek of chastened hearts is j
not to be played in company.
"You are looking well," she ob- j
served. "Better than when I saw you
last."
The occasion to which she referred \
was her wedding breakfast, anil cer- j
tainly the then captain wf foot was j
not looking his best that day.
"Thank you," sail he, nodding !
stilly; "I'm pretty fit. And you—i
you're as well as ever, I suppose?"
She smiled at the awkward speech.
"You are as ironical as ever, I per
ceive. "
"Me ironical! ' he blurted—"not I!
But 1 thought yon seemed so well, and
1 remember you always seemed well.
Were you not always well?"
She was silent, with lire cast eyes,
before she answered: "Yes,when you
knew me I wa< well." A little pause.
".Since theu I have not always felt so
very, very well." Another brief pause.
Then, as the eyes traveled gayly from 1
the lire to his face, to fall demurely on
his watch chain: "But you see lam
quite myself again."
Colonel Jemmett was entranced;
wrinkles of 2> years' standing faded
from his countenance, and he tried to
recall speeches imagined before the 1
wrinkles came; but the futi.ity of the i
phrases crushed him now, aud he said,
with a very little emotion: "So you
misse 1 grandpapa, after all?"
"Used 1 to cail you grandpapa?" ;
she asked; she really had forgotten it.
"Why should I have called you grand- j
papa?"
His right hand ascended to his
crown. "I think, at first, it was be
cause of that," he said.
She stared. "Because of what?" 1
she begged.
Colonel Jemmett writhed in his j
chair. "Because of not having any
hair on the top of my head. I wasn't
so very old, don t you know?" be an
swered.
Laughter rippled from the widow.
"You are avenged," she said; "mvown
hair is growing thin now, and I'm
only 39."
In spite of himself, he started; he
had just ordered a bracelet to be given !
her on her 4lst birthday.
!">he saw she had made a slip, and
hastened to recover her balance. "Don't
tell me you know better," she rallied
liim "since my birthday is in Febru
ary I may be forgiven for keeping it
only in leap year. But truly, I shall
veiy soon have less hair than you.
Don't you believe me?"
He shook his head incredulously.
She deliberately loosened some lialf-
pins aud took from the centre
of her coiffure a plait of not very great
proportions. "It is my own," she re
marked incidentally. "It was cut off
whon I was very—not very, very well
I had it made up. . . . Now,
come and look at my bald spot."
As ouo who approaches a shrine.
Colonel Jemmett did her bidding.
Two of her long lingers diving into
her hair discovered to him a perfectly
bald disk, certaiuly not bigger thau a
sixpenny piece; perhaps it had beeu
once tenanted by a contumacious patch
of gray.
"Can you give me nothing to make
it grow auain':" she asked pitifully.
Colonel .Temmett's heart fluttered as
be stooped and kissed the place, but
the kiss itself was reverential. The
widow's surprise was divid d evenly
between his gallantry aud his anster
itv. She wondered what lie would do
next.
"I hope you are not offended with
me," he said.
"Ob, no! dear grandpapa." she an
swered, with a trace of' malice. ".Sit
down and tell me all about yourself;
about your exploits iu the East. 1
want to hear paiti nlarly about them,
for the newspaper reports are so stu
pid I never can understand them."
"Exploits!" said the colonel; "I
never bad one to my name."
"Don't le modest with au old
crony," she returned. "I heard of
what yon did iu the Plack mountains
—or were iliev Blue?—although 1
confess I could not make out exactly
what it was."
"upon my honor," declared th»
colouel, "I never diil anything at all."
"What?" exclaimed the widow.
laughingly. "You never marched ;
from some place to the relief of some
other place, carrying your guns over ;
a snow mountain?"
"Ah! I know what you're thinking i
of," said the colouel. "It was a man
called Whippett did that. A splendid
chap he is, too; you leally ought to ]
know him."
"There was a confusion in the
names, Jemmett aud Whippett. Whip- i
pett said nothing about it, but it was
corrected as soon as possible."
"I don't see that Jemme 1 and j
Whippett sound at all a:ike, ' pro- ;
tested the widow.
"No, but on the telegraphic code ,
they're much the same."
"How stupid of these horrid news- ;
papers!" the widow ejaculated dis- j
gustedly.
"Well, it really was not so stupid," j
the colonel argued. "For it might, |
in a sense, have been I, instead of I
Whippett, that did it."
"How do you mean?" asked the
widow sharply.
"Well, you see," replied the col
onel, a trifle nervously, "Aii Pindab, j
where was Ben Williamson, who had
to be relieved, was at the apex of an
isosceles triangle of which a line
drawn between Fort Dufferin, where
Whippett was, aud Fort Nicholson, j
where I was, would have been the j
base."
"That conveys no idea to me," re- i
turned the widow pettishly. "Can't
you use plain English?"
"1 mean to convey," said the colonel
desperately, "that Whippett and I
were e juidistant from Ben William
son, and it was a toss up which of us
made a dash for him."
"And why were you not the one to
do it?" queried the widow.
"You know 1 never was a dashing
fellow," answered the colonel humbly.
"You don't mean to say you were
afraid?" she sai 1 after a little while.
The colonel noddel his head. "I
was afraid."
She waited yet awhile before deliv
ering what she meant to be a taunt; I
"1 cannot understand why you did
not follow your father's profession."
"I ha 1 not enough brains for it,"i
he said simply. "Besides, I am at
tached to my own trade—so attached
tiiat Ido not know what will become
of me af'er another year."
"What ha >i ens theu?" she asked,
without interest.
"I shall be retired," he told her.
"The age clause falls heavily on a man
like me who has never had a chance to
distinguish himself."
"I thought you had Whippett's
chance," she cut at him.
For a moment he stared at her stu
pidly, then said without bitterness,but
reprovingly as a father to a child: "1
see you have not understood me. Yor
have perhaps forgotten that your bus
band's nickname for me was 'The
Duty Soldier.' "
"Yes," she retorted,without weigh
ing her words, "and he defined it as
oue who is afraid of God aud man, and
for his own skin."
Her teeth closed ou her tongue as
she said the last word, for Colonel
Jemmett arose au 1 shook himself. "1
see that my call has been an intrusion
on you; I shall not repeat the indis
cretion. Good by."
".ioodby!" s're repeated mechan
ically, and touched the bell. She felt
powerless to detain him, but looked
wistfully at the door when it had
i closed behind him.
Ten days later she had a letter
from him bearing the Southampton
| postmrak. "1 am leaving for the
Tirah," he said, "to command a b i
gade. If I had done what you wished
in the Black mountains I should
j have risked the lives of 500 » men,
women and children. I was afraid to
do this. Perhaps iu this new busi
ness I may be able to present the
Duty Soldier in a better li_>ht—at
least, iu one which you can see."
"Afterall, Le can be ironical," the
widow said, and wondered if he could
I escape retirement. She thought she
i might write to him.
Colouel (local Ma'or-General) Jem
mett received the widow's letter the
mo:uingof the day his brigade was
to attack the enemy's position. It was
the first battle in which li 9 found him
self his own commande' 1 , and such a
time is uot the best for reading a
j woman's particularly a beloved
woman's—letter. He was a duty sol
dier, and though the touch of it
burned his lingers, he put it in his
left b east po ket unopened.
It was good, he thought, to have
her writing next his heart; but he al
most reproached himself for thinking
al out it at all. Things were not going
so well iu this campaign that any man
: could afford couside:atiou of his pri
vate affairs. < )ue, byname Winter,
he who commanded the brigade at
the other side of the big hill yonder,
by thinking of his chances of winning
aC. B. had sacrificed the better part
of a battery of ill spared artillery. If
Jemmett wero to follow his example
the welfare of a thriving district would
be jeopardized. As it was, he would
have to make head acainst a very su
perior force if \\ inter's disaster were
to be retrieved. His secoud iu com
mand had observed to him that Win
ter's imprudence was good, inasmuch
as he, Jemmett, would be sure of a
C. B. now if he could counteract tko
effects of it.
In reply, Jemmett did whet be sel- |
dom did; he snubbed the second in '
command.who went away and laughed !
at bim, and then damned an aidi-de- j
camp up hill and down dale for doing
the same.
Thee iemy ha 1 brought two of the 1
four captured guns into action against j
Jemmett, and the second in command I
was for opening the tight in the or- j
tUodox way by knocking these off
their carriages with a round or two;
but Jemmett would not hear of it.
"No, no," said he; "we must have
these back intact. Tell Captain Max
well to burst bis shells behind and
around them, so as to clear away the
supporting infantry; but we must j
tnke our chance of a bit of a blasting
from them until we get near enough i
to pot the gunnes. They're fighting j
very slowly, they're ranging badly, I
thev'ie not setting the fuse-; properly, i
and they have only one limber's sup
ply."
The second iu command was a lines- j
man, and when oue of the hosti'e
shells, the first which did happen to j
burst properly, carried off a bugler |
and six men, a giowl escaped him j
about waste o l ' life.
Jemmett, who saw with half au eve '
that things were going as he wished j
them, leaned from his saddle to pat ,
his subordinate on the shoulder. ".My j
friend," said he,"it may be inliu- j
mane, but 1 should not call it waste j
of life, though 20 more and myself !
were togo, if we win the day and get j
back those guns while a man as good ;
as you remains to take my place."
"I beg your pardon, general," said !
the second iu command; "but I wish
you'd get off your horse, for I'm not I
big e:iough to do your work, however
pleased 1 should be to try."
And just then another fragment of
shell—the last the enemy fired that 1
day plumped against Jetumett'e .
knee and brought his charger down ;
with a broken back. Jemmett fell
heavily on his head.
"You know what to do," said Jem
mett to the second in command, as he
recovered au hour later fiomthe stuu
ning effect of his fall.
"it has been done," auswered the
second in command. "The Rifles
have cleared the ridge, we've got the
guns safe and sound, and the guides
are chivying the beggars down the
valley."
"That's A1!" dec!a ,- ed the colonel.
"And how long have I to live?" he
aske 1.
"Bless my soul! How should I
know?" returned the other. "Twenty
years, 25, anything up to 150. Long
enough to bury the brigade,anyhow."
"What's happened tome.' 1 thought
I felt my leg go."
"Yes, a chuuk of it went.
I'm afraid you'll limp a bit,old chap."
"ion mean it must come oft'?"
''So, it's not so bad as that—it
only wants absolute rest—and there's
the C'. 15., don't you know."
"I'm too old to care about that, but
I suppose they'll hardly retire mo
now."
"Make you a field marshal more
likely,' said the second in command.
Then Jemmett dictated a ten-line
account of the action to the second in
command,and when the latter had de
parted to send it off, and to attend to
nis proper work, bethought himself
of the widow's letter.
It was very long, for the widow.and
it made Jemmett forget the limp on
oue side and the C. B. on the other.
It ended with the words: "dive me
a definition of a duty soldier to take
the place of the stupid cynicism he
taught me."
.. emmett put the letter into the en
velope and the envelope back in his
pocket, and, his heart full of pride,
tried to think out the desired defini
tion.
His cogitations were broken by the
re-eutrauce of the second iu command,
just a trifle flurried. "That ass Winter
has been at it again," he said. "He
heliographs down that he's iu the
deuce of a mess, and can you get hiin
out of it."
"What does he want?" asked Jem
mett, taken aback.
"He says he's surroundel,and can't
cut a way through without a big loss."
Jemmett was a wee bit angry. "It's
a shame," said he. "My men must
be dog tired. I hardly know what to
do."
"I know what! should do," snapped
these ond in command.
"What would you do?" the general
inquired.
"Let him goto the devil his own
way."
"Yon forget yourself," said Jem
mett. "That's not business. We
must do what we can to help him."
"If you send ouo man you must
send the lot,"said the second in com
mand. "And you lose the fruits of
your victory."
"Better that," returned Jemmett,
"thau suffer a defeat."
"Better for Winter, perhaps,"
growled the other, "but not for us."
Then Jemmett learned that a mile's
journey in a dhoolie would spell cer
tain death, and he felt himself falliug
from the highest peak of happiness to
the lowest depths of despair, for his
was a commonplace mind,that did not
feel heroism as an ecstasy, but all he
said was".Sound the assembly."
"How many mm shall I take with
me?" asked the secoud iu command.
"Every living one but myself," said
Jemmett.
"Eh?" said the second in command;
he thought his chief had forgotten the
meaning of Afghan war.
Jemmett smiled. • 'lt'll be all right,"
he said. "The doctor's given me a
sleeping draught. Have you got a
pencil aud an envelope?"
When the second in command gave
Jemmett his last handshake ho carried
away with him the envelope. It was
addressed to the widow, and inside it
was her own letter, with these words
j encilled at the foot of it: "My dear
child, a duty soldier is oue who is
afraid only of failing in his duty.—
j Grandpapa."—Pall Mall Magazine.
THE GEEAT UESTKOYEI!
SOME STARTLING FACTS AE3OL
THE VICE OF INTEMPERANCE.
File Man With file I'tiU—Atnntic Wotni
the Drluli Hal>lt In lUpldlv on the I
crcaseWTlilß Indicates a I)«gcnrra
Tendency That. U Alarming.
0 I ain't got any giuunmar, and I ain't u
on trie rules \
That are noosed to >V> great leather fc
the principals of schoiyjs,
Hut that there won't cut no .figgcr wl
they come to pass on me, ,
For J always buy my liquor of a leai
school trustee!
I ain't much on education,
liut I'll get the situation.
For I've got a pull that's pretty, dc
you see!
1 can mis a dandy cocktail and put ui
poos eaffay!
I can give you all the records of the fig
ers of the day!
I control the ward I live in; all the vot
bow to me.
And 1 always buy my fine cut of a lea
school trustee!
I'll take no examination.
But I'll get the situation —
You just keep your optics on me a
you'll see!
There are others who are after this lit
job I want to land.
They can write and reel off grammar ai
such rot to beat toe band;
They can figger without pencils, they c;
spin out ljistoree,
Hut they don't go buyin' nothiif from i»
leadin' school trustee!
They are long on education.
But they ain t got no relation
On the board to help 'em get there, dor,
you see!
Why do people keep on dumpin' in the
• axes, anyway,
If the boys that gets the vote out aii
allowed to draw the pay?
1 ain't never done no teachin'. but I nc
the salaree.
Which the same I've went and mcntioi
to a leadin' school trustee!
I'll take no examination.
All I want's the situation.
And I've got the pull to land it —wait a
see!
—Chicago Times-Herald.
Women anil Intemperance.
From extensive reading, observation ai
experience in my line of work, writ
Margarita A. Stewart, _M. 1).. S.iperi
tendent of Heredity, New York < oun
W. 0. T. U., I am convinced that t
drink habit is rapidly on the increa*
and that the ratio oi increase is create
among women. 1 do not i onfino tl
charge to any particular locality or soci
class. The stimulant habit is a ia ■■
scourge, a degenerate tendency which i
manifesting itself to an alarming extei
in our present civilization.
This curse is being handed dow
through the law of heredity, from gener
tion to generation, aiM is gathering m
men turn as it descends, till the whole
Christendom is suffering.
A French scientist, who has studied t !
history of Eurore for the last half ce
tury, declares that the scourge of a!<
holism threatens the civilized world. I
own nation is consuming an extiaordina
amount yearly. He says:"The lonsun
tion has increased from three pints |
I capita in 1851 to twenty-eight »ints |
cajiita in 1898. Of this, especially in Ni
mandy, the women drink even more th
the men."
Other European countries show sitnil
i alarming conditions. Lady Henry So
[ crset, speaking for England, says:
"There can be no doubt that the gre
problem before the temperance tieople
i this country is how to arrest the alarnii,,
increase of inebriety among women. We
stand in the unenviable position of a na
tion that has a drunken womanhood."
I In our own country we find that statis
tics show a per capita increase from 38<
gallons in ISSO to 14.53 gallons in lbflO.
I The figures of 1900 promise togo far be
yond that, because all observers agree
. that the noticeable/increase in the drink
lial.it among women in thin countrv lias
[ taken place within the last deca lc\ par
j tieularly within the last five years,
j I have it upon good authority tiiat with
j in the last live years, in the shopping
j districts of this city, the demand for
| liquors has caused to be fitted up in the
saloons accommodations for women al
most equal in extent to those for men. I
learn, too, that the drug stores, with their
| soda fountains, are doing qiTite a thriving
I trade in spirituous liquors, solu to women,
as are the saloons.
A down-town business man writes me:
"All any one needs to do to verify your
1 statements regarding the increase of the
| drink habit among women is to visit any
J of the public concert gardens anv even
ing."
| But not only in the great centres of
i population is this conceded to lie a grow
jmg evil. From the smaller towns lias
Pome the same cry that the drink habit
i is growing upon our American woman-
I hood.
lhis condition is one for deep concern,
I and one for which a vital cause exists. 1
| believe that the strength of this curse is
I revealed in the law of heredity,
j It is claimed by some scientists that in
I the working of this law daughters are
I more prone to inherit the father's eliarae
j teristics, and vice versa. If this be true,
' do we not here find the scientific explana
| tion of the increase of the drink habit
S among women?
We have to-day the most highly organ
| ized physical and intellectual man the
I race has ever produced, and consequently
I the most sensitive to the degenerating
poison of alcohol.
When such a man gives way to drink Irs
i child is born with a lowered vital consti
| tion. which craves the stimulant. Doubly
j terrible are the results when the mother,
the source of life, has fallen under the
spell of the deadly habit.
I It is only by the study of the laws of
j life and the understanding of the power
of heredity that men and women can be?
".wakened to their responsibilities and
check this rising tide of intemperance
which threatens to engulf the race and
destroy our civilization. New York
World.
Oeneral Holier!* on Temperance.
At the annual meeting in London of the
British Army Temperance Association.
(General Sir George White, the hero of
Ladysmith, presiding, a letter was read
from Lord Roberts, who wrote:
"There never was a more teinnerate
army than that which marched under my
command from the Modder kivcr to
' Bloemfontein. Nothing but good can le
suit from so many soioierg beinu brought
together in an arduous campaign when
they see how splendidly our temperance
men have borne tip against the hardships
and dangers they have had to face."
The Cru»! '« In lirief.
Australasia has al nut 550 lodges of (! jod
Templars, with 20.000 members.
Olnev, ill., is without saloons for tin
first time in forty-four years. Crawford
County is now entirely under local prohi
bition.
The nation holds open the front door
of the saloon while the devil tends the
hack door that leads to the gutter, the
brothel and hell.
A Christian Prohibition League hat
been organized at Sioux Falls. S. I), it;
motto is: "The church solid for prohibi
tion: when the church says go, and vote»
no, then the saloon will go."