“Extensive educational reforms are
projected by the Madrid ministry.
The war demonstrated the need of
teaching the Spanish young idea how
to shoot.
Since July last 990 bicycles have
been stolen in Chicago, and the po-
lice of that city give out the opinion
gravely that some bike burglar is try-
ing for a ten-century record.
The shade of Christopher Columbus,
in the Elysian Fields, must smile with
amusement to see his countrymen of
today carrying his brother’s dust to
and fro upon the earth under the
pious fiction that it is his, while his
own rests undisturbed by the side of
the rusting fetters he once wore.
One of the first acts ef General
Wood at Santiago de Cuba was to re-
form and vastly improve the school
system. General Kitchener’s first act
concerning Khartoum since his con-
quest of the place is to raise $500,000
for the establishment of a college
there. That is what Anglo*Saxon
conquest means today—the building
not of fortresses to enslave people, but
of schools to educate and elevate
them.
The Massachusetts Socialists are
highly elated by the showing which
they made at the recent election in
Massachusetts, having a total of 10,-
000 against 6301 a yearago. This will
entitle the party next year to a place
upon the official ballot as a regular
political party, and they are greatly
encouraged by the success in Haver-
hill of James F. Carey and Louis M.
Scates, who were elected tothe Legis-
lature on ‘the Socialist-Labor ticket,
and will be the first Socialists to hold a
seat in any legislative body in the
United States, it is said.
The advantages of ancestry and
family are worth little in themselves
to a young man save in our oldest
communities. In the newer parts of
the country the day laborer, provided
nature has gifted him with brains and
energy, may cherish any ambition.
Lincoln was a day laborer. General
Miles was a clerk ina dry goods store.
Blaine taught a country school. Gar-
field drove mules on the towpath.
McKinley practised law in the insig-
nificant little town of Canton, Ohio.
Many of our millionaires began as
workmen. Other men who are drudg-
ing for wages today will be the mil-
lionaires of twenty-five years hence.
Birmingham, England, is frequently
referred to as the best governed city
in the world. Whether or not that is
true, Birmingham certainly has made
greater progress in municipal social-
ism than any other city. Almost
everything is municipalized. It was
a pioneer in municipal tenement
houses, markets, slaughterhouses, mu-
seums, art galleries, libraries, indus-
trial schools, public laundries and
baths, street-car lines, gas plants, elec-
tric lighting, and draws most of its
revenues from business blocks erected
by the city upon the ground which
was formerly covered with the slums,
and was purchased in order to eradi-
cate them. Municipal sanitation is
probably carried to greater perfection
in Birmingham than in any other city
in the world, and the common council
is now spending $2,000,000 in the
purchase of a farm upon which the
sewage of the city may be utilized as
a fertilizer:
7 %
One of the greatest drawbacks to
arming in this country, and espe-
cially in the New England states, is the
difficulty of keeping the boys upon
-the farm. Fifty girls have taken up
the study of scientific farming in the
Minneapolis college of agriculture.
The progress of these young women
will attract general attention, and if
the results are practical the innovation
will naturally spread to other states,
and thus in the end work a reform in
farming matters that will not only give
a new impetus to the industry, but
also rehabilitate many of the now
abandoned New England farms, and
furnish profitable, healthy and even
congenial employment to the super-
abundant female population of those
states. With scientific ‘methods, in
conjunction with the labor-saving ma-
‘chines now in vogue, farming is not
accompanied “by the drudgery that
necessarily attended the work in the
years gone by. There is nothing in
* the whole routine of farm labor that
cannot be accomplished by the aver-
age woman, and in no instance need
she unsex herself in ifs performance.
It is to be hoped the movement start-
ed by the Minnesota women will re-
sult in a reformation in farm matters
that will not only increase the quanti-
ty and quality of the product, but also
render the home of the farmer attract-
ive to the young men of the family.
~ A LULLABY FROM THE WEST.
Hey, baby! Ho, baby! what 's all the row?
Close up them peepers an’ go to sleep now!
Pappy 's here with him an’ no un ’ll hurt—
If there is, some galoot -'s got to eat dirt!
Jumpin’ Jehosophat! hear how he yells!
Worse'n a herd that's stampeded corralls!
Sounds like Apaches a-huntin’ a muss—
Hey, baby! Ho, baby! dry up yer fuss!
Hey, baby! Ho, baby! look out down there!
That's yer Pap’s six-shooter—better take
care!
Baby ’s too little to handle a gun;
When yer in trousers yer Pappy 'll get one,
Learn ye to shoot it, too. Bully fer you!
Yer a true son o’ West, through an’ through!
Look like a tenderfoot yet, but ye ain’t—
Hey, baby! Ho, baby! sleep like a saint!
Hey, baby! Ho, baby! Gosh! see him screw
Up his kid face worse 'n coyotes ‘ll do!
Dry up that noise, er yer Pappy ’ll shoot,
Thinkin’ he ’s trapped by a band o’ Piute!
Mammy ll come in a minute! Now quit!
anthers fer yellin’ ain’t in it a bit!
What! hev ye quit? put an end to yer fuss?
Hey, baby! Ho, baby! cute little cuss!
—Roy Farrell Green, in Puck.
3 ABIIAH BLAISDELL'S HEN.
3 tt Was Not the Widow Who Gave Way.
BY SUSAN BROWN
“
0090900000000 00000000000660
“‘3he’s the most remarkable hen in
the country. I know she doesn’t look
it. No,she’d never take a prize at the
cattle show. She ain’t, so to speak,
pure blooded. Some folks would even
call her mongrel, but Ithink it's more
respectful to refer to her as a compos-
ite. Why,she knows more than some
men. and most women,” and Abijah
would gaze admiringly at his solitary
fowl. :
‘“You’d think she’d be lonesome,
would you? Well, how about me? O,
no! we keep each other company. I
don’t want any better companion than
Belinda, and she:never finds a bit of
fault with me.
*‘Did I ever tell you how it came
about that she was left here all alone?
You know I used to keep hens. I had
those three houses full. They didn’t
do well,somehow,and one winter when
grain was extra high and the hens
didn’t lay an egg, I got disgusted and
vowed I'd sell off the whole lot of
them.
“Well, a hen man came dlong, and
he and I went out and, 6 caught the
hens, and an awful squawking and
dust they made, too. When the man
had paid me and gone off, I felt pretty
good.
“But just as I turned to go intothe
house I heard a little noise, and there
came Belinda picking along as nice as
you please. I was mad, and I told
her then and there that she needn’t
think she could get the best of me
that way, and just as soon as I'd eaten
up a mess of corned beef I'd just got,
I’d kill her and have a chicken pie.
‘‘She looked up at me and craiked,
the way she has. She gives two or
three craikes like an ordinary hen,
and then her voice kind of Dbreuks in
a long, pitiful wail. It sounded just
as if she said ‘0,0,0, don’t!’ if you’ll
believe me, I said out loud to her, ‘All
right, I won’t.
‘‘Since then she’s had things about
her own way. I was going to tear
down the henhouses, but Belinda she
likes to use all of em, so I didn’t.
She always lays in the first one. The
second one she has for a dining room
and living room, and she sleeps in the
third one. :
*‘Yes, it’s some trouble to take care
of them all, but as long as Belinda is
satisfied I don’t find any fault.
“Lay? You never saw a hen that
would lay as she does. She hasn't
missed a day in six months.
“And it’s a funny thing, too. My
aunt Nancy came here on a visit and
stayed a month. Now, she hates hens,
but she likes eggs. Well, what do
you think? All the time she was here,
Belinda didn’t lay a single egg! But
she began again the very day aunt
Nancy went away. She knew what
aunt Nancy was just as well as I did,
and she wanted to spite her.
“Why, I don’t know but I should
have got married before now if it
badn’t been for Belinda, but I don’t
suppose she’d like to have any other
woman around.”
Thus would Abijah Blaisdell run on
about his hen, as long as any one
would listen to him.
The widow Millett, Abijah’s next
door neighbor, talked a good deal
about the hen, but in a different strain.
She addressed her remarks to herself
or to the hen, so no one was the
wiser. She hated hens in general,
and Belinda in particular,
“If you’d mind your own business
and keep on your own side of the
fence, I wonldn’t say a word, but I
won't have you in my flower beds.
Shoo! scat!” and she would shake her
skirts at the intruder, and with a
frown on her usually placid face, chase
the hen off her premises.
‘It isn’t alone that you are a hen,”
she would say again, as she sat at her
window and looked over across at
Abijah’s yard where Belinda could be
seen. ‘But it’s your being his hen,
and making him the laughing stock ot
the neighborhood. He acts just as if
you were a person, and he seems to
have forgotton my existence. :
“To be sure, he never did take
much notice of me, but there was a
time when I thought—’’ here she
would break off and blush a little;
‘‘well, any way, I should think you'd
berashamed to make a grown man act
so silly.”
As time went on her hatred of Be-
linda increased. There seemed to be
an irresistible fascination for the bed
in Mrs. Millétt’s garden, and nearly
every day, found her scratching there:
“I never did see a hen that knew
anything,” the widow would say
wrathfully, ‘and I believe you know
the least of any of them.” :
She spoke to Abijah about keeping
his hen at hothe, and he fixed up the
fence with that object in view, but
fences were nothing to Belinda. She
ROBBINS.
394609004 ¢
on
“was Tight of weight, and could fly over |
anything constructed of laths.
One day the widow found the hen
busily digging a large hole in the
midst of her pansy bed. Thereupon
in the heat of her anger she gave vent
to dire threats.
“If I find you over here scratching
again, you, Belinda Blaisdell, I shall
kill you. Do you hear? You think I
wouldn’t do it, but I just would. I
bave had to kill hens before now and
I didn’t like the job, but I almost
think I'd enjoy killing you, you mean
old thing. Now remember! I'm a
woman of my word and I shall keep
it, if I have to ehase you all the way
home to catch you.”
As she went into the house, she be-
gan to repent of her threats. *‘I sup-
pose I should hate to kill her,” she
soliloquized, ‘‘but I =aid I would,and,
yes, I will, if she scratches any nore,
But I'll keep a close wateh of her and
keep her away so that I won’t have to
doit. AndTI’ll get Abiiah to build his
fence bigher.”’
After that Belinda was on Mrs. Mil-
lett’s mind most of the time. She
was driven home many times a day,
and never got a chance to have a good
scratch.
But this thing could not go on {for-
ever. As cold weather came on,
and the frost had taken most of her
flowers, Mrs. Millett’s vigilance began
to relax, and one day Belinda came
over and found a nice sunny place in
a grassy banking, where she scratched
and dusted to her heart’s content for
half an hour before she was dis-
covered.
There she lay her feathers full of
dirt and her eyes blinking sleepily,
when Mrs. Millett came along and saw
her.
The widow pounced upon her, but
Belinda was too quick for her. There-
upon began a chase which only ended
in the middle house, which Belenda
had always used for a dining room
and living room.
The uext day there was news for
the gossips. Abijah Blaisdell had lost
his hen.
“You see, I was away from home all
day,’ he said, ‘‘and I didn’t get home
till dark. But I'd left feed enough for
Belinda’s dinner and supper, so I
didn’t worry about her. I went outand
shut the door of the third house, be-
cause I supposed she’d gone to bed,
but I didn’t look in, as I was in a
hurry to get to my supper.
“Well, this morning I went to let
her out, and she didn’t come. The
house was empty. The other two
houses were empty, too, but in the
second one there were some feathers.
Now, Isuppose for some reason she took
a notion to sleep in the second house,
and as I didn’t shut that, some var-
mint got in and caught her. 2 was a
fox most likely.”
For a day or two ADbijah was low
spirited, but he was of a philosophical
mind, and he decided to make the best
of it, so he began to tear down the
henhouses, as there was no further
use for them.
It was the fourth day after Belinda's
disappearance that Abijah went to do
some whitewashing for Mrs. Millett.
““You’d better stay to dinner,’”’ she
had said, ‘‘then you can work longer,”
and Abijah had agreed.
The widow was up early that morn-
ing and had her dinner started be-
times. Only a few minutes before
Abijah came she removed the cover
of a kettle which was singing on the
stove and looked in anxiously.
“I expect you'd a-been as tough as
a biled owl if T hadn’t kept yon so
long,” she said. ‘‘As it is, I guess
yowd better boil pretty steady till
noon.’
Abijah worked busily and cheer-
fully, and as the savory smells from
the kitchen came to him, his spirits
rose and he whistled his favorite
tunes.
When dinner was announced he
dropped his brush instantly and came
without delay.
He enjoyed his dinner immensely,
and as he took a second helping of the
central dish he said, looking across at
the widow.
‘I believe this is the best chicken
pie I ever ate.”
“I'm glad you like it,”’she answered,
and he noticed that she blushed at his
coupliment.
They say that the ‘way toa man’s
heart is through his-stomach. Tf this
is true, that chicken pie must have
been the entering wedge in the case
of Abijah Blaisdell.
Be this as it may, he and the widow
were married last June,-—Boston
Herald.
A Dog Stops a Runawav,
A butcher boy in Chicago, four
years ago, taught a Great Dane pup
to sit on the seat of the delivery
wagon, hold the reins in his mouth
and pull back on them if the horse
started while the boy was away.
It was a pretty trick, and has
been the pride of the butcher boy
even after he got a shop of his own
and had other boys to deliver for him.
A few days ago, as the Great Dane
was trotting beside the wagon, the
horse shied so violently as to throw
the driver from his seat. The horse
then ran away up the street, the reins
dragging on the ground. The dog
was puzzled for ten seconds. He
looked at the boy scrambling to his
feet, half dazed. He looked at the
runaway horse tearing down the street.
He looked at the dangling lines and
he decided something was to be done.
Sprifting after the runaway he caught
him in a block, seized the reins, which
were luckily buckled, in his teeth, and
settled back, an animated, scratching.
bouncing anchor. The horse was not
so very badly scared, after all, and the
dog was a big dog to carry on the bit.
The horse stopped presently, the
Great Dane grunting with joy of the
struggle, and the boy came up. All
which shows the value of early edu-
cation.—New York Commercial Adver-
tiser.
MORE THAN A BILLION.
EXPORT TRADE THE LARGEST
OUR HISTORY.
IN
The Year 1898 Beats All Previons Recs
ords in Sales Abroad of Domestic
Products, While the Imports Are the
Smallest Since tlie Year 1885.
The manner in which our national
wealth is being increased as the result
of an economic policy which stimu-
lates the use of domestic products
while at the same time enabling the
producers of the United States to
reach out after foreign markets is set
forth in the figures furnished by the
Treasury Department Bureau of Sta-
stitics. From these figures itis cer-
tain that the calendar year 1898 will
be a record breaking year in the mat-
ter of export trade. Only twice in
our history have the exports in a cal-
endar year passed the billion dollar
line; in 1898 they will be a billion and
a quarter. During the eleven months
of 1898 ending with November they
are greater than in any full calendar
year preceding, the total for the eleven
months being $1,117,681,199, and it
is apparent that the December state-
ment will bring the grand total for the
year above $1,250,000,000.
vember exports were $129,783,512,
the largest in any month in the his-
tory of our commerce.
Of breadstuffs the exports for the
eleven months ending with Novem-
ber, 1898, are the largest in our his-
tory, being $277,136,341, against
$223,211,617 in the great exporting
year of 1892; provisions are for the
eleven months $148,417,850, against
$125,297,007 in the eleven months of
1892. Cotton for the
amounts to $192,323,391,
slightly below that of 1896,
a figure
thongh
the total number of pounds exported |
by far exceeds that of the correspond- |
ing months in ‘any preceding year, |
being for the eleven months 3,436,-
032,504, or, measured in bales,
722,283, a larger total in bales or
G.-
pounds than that of any full calendar |
year preceding.
Equally gratifying is that portion of
the showing which relates to the
largely diminished purchase of articles
of foreign production and the corre- |
spondingly increased consumption of
domestic products. It is herein that
the American policy becomes effective
in piling up national wealth to figures
so vastias to startle the financiers of
Europe, who are growing more and
more- solicitous as to the enormous
credit balances which are being accu-
mulated by this country.
The import record of the year 1898
will be as remarkable as that relating |
toits exports, but for opposite reasons,
the total imports for the year being
less than those of any calendar year
since 1885. Tor the month of Novem-
ber they were $52,109,560 only, which
was slightly less than those of Novem-
ber, 1897, and less, with three excep-
| tions, than those of any November
since 1885. For the eleven months
ending with November they
$579,844,153 only, while those of the
corresponding months of 1897 were
$691,089,266, and those of the eleven
months of 1896, $622,598,896. It is
thus apparent that the imports for the
full calendar year 1898 will not exceed
$640,000,000, a sum less than that of
any calendar year since 1885, and
fully a hundred million dollars less
than that of the calendar year 1897.
The year 1898 will naturally show
the largest balance of {rade in our
favor ever presented in any calendar
year. The figures for the eleven
months show an excess of exports over
imports amounting to $537,837,046,
and the December figures will bring
the total excess of exports for the
calendar year above the $600,000,000
line, making an average excess of ex-
ports for the year more than $50,000,-
000 a month, The highest excess of
exports in any preceding calendar year
was $357,090,914 in 1897 and $324,-
263,685 in 1896.
The gold imports for the eleven
months ending with November are
$149,396,370. No full calendar year,
save 1896, ever reached the hundred-
million-dollar line, and in that year
the total for the twelve months was
$104,731,259. The effect of this large
importation of gold, in conjunction
with the increased production from
our own mines, is plainly visible in
the increased circulation of that metal.
The gold in circulation on December
1, 1898, was $658,986,513, against
$544,494,748 on December 1, 1897;
$516,729 ,882 on December 1, 1896.
I'he total circulation on December 1,
1898, was $1,8806,879,504, against
$1,721,084,538 on December 1, 1897:
$1,650,223,400 on December 1, 1896,
and $1,509,725,200 on July 1, 189G.
They Have Not Changed.
Will the people of this country ever
return to Democratic party policies?
They will if they ever vote the Demo-
cratic party into power again. The
people thought when they elected
Grover Cleveland that the Democratic
party had changed; that it had pro-
gressed, and a Democratic President
and a Democratic Congress could be
elected without bringing national ruin.
A fair supposition is that Democratic
leaders believe in Democratie prin-
ciples, and just as often as the Demo-
cratic party is voted into power Demo-
cratie policies will prevail. —Bingham-
ton (N. Y.) Republican.
An Effective Combination.
President Ritchie, of the London
Board of Trade, notes as a fact regret-
able from the English point of view,
that since 1891 United States exports
have increased eighteen per cent.,
while those of Great Britain have
fallen off five per cent, Protection of
industries and expansion of trade go
well in conbination.—Troy (N. Y.)
Record.
The No- |
eleven months |
were
STRICTLY JEFFERSONIAN.,
The Patron Saint of Democracy Advo-
cated Marine Protection,
In the early days of the republic at-
tention was directed to the building
of ships to strengthen the commercial
enterprise of the country. A develop-
ment of shipbuilding and shipowning
followed, that rapidly increased the
tonnage of American shipping in
foreign trade. When Thomas Jeffer-
son was Secretary of State in the ad-
ministration of President Washington,
he, at the request of Congress, made
during the third session of the first
Congress, prepared a ‘‘report on the
privileges and restrictions of the com-
merce of the United States,” which
was written after careful study of the
question and when his mental powers
were in their very prime. His com-
mand of the English langnage was
such as to enable him to express him-
self with precision and felicity, which
is a delight to study. In that mem-
orable report, he said, in part:
“If particular nations grasp at un-
due shares of our commerce, and
more especially if they seize on the
means of the United States to convert
them into ailment for their own
| strength and withdraw them entirely
| from the support of those to whom
they belong, defensive and protective
measures become necessary on the
part of the nation whose marine re-
sources are thus invaded, or it will be
disarmed of its defense; its produc-
tions will be at the mercy of the na-
tion which has possessed itself exclu-
sively of the means of carrying them,
and its policies will be influenced by.
those who command its commerce. If
we lose the seamen and artists whom
it now employs, we lose the present
means of marine defense, and time
| will be requisite to raise up others,
| when disgrace and losses shall bring
| home to our feelings the disgrace of
having abandoned them.”
It is thus clearly shown that the
question of being able to build and
own our own ships was not with Jef-
'ferson a purely economic one; indeed,
it was essentially a national, a defen-
sive, a military one. Those consid-
| erations were of value in Jefferson’s
| day; they are evem more so to-day,
when the present commerce of the
United States has become of wonder-
ful importance and the future pre-
sents a view that is encouraging in
the extreme. —Buffalo Express.
The Explanation.
| In a report to the State Department,
Commercial Agent Stern, at Bamberg,
predicts that the United States will
| soon surpass England in the value of
exports of machinery to Germany.
The present year shows even a fall-
ing off in the case of England, while
the imports of American machines
show an increase of seventy-five per
cent. over last year’s figures. In 1895
the imports of the United States of
these goods into Germany did not
amount to the sixth part of the amount
of the English imports, while to-day
they are equal to sixty per cent. of the
latter.
This increase is due vot so much to
price as to quality. An American
made machine is recognized as the
best the world over. The explanation
is ready and simple. It is found in
what the London Ties calls “‘intelli-
gent labor highly paid.” In other
words, the fruits of protection.
Tt is High Time.
We are still paying $200,000,000 a
'year to foreign shipowners to carry
our surplus produce to foreign mar-
kets. This is' because American ships
and shipping have never been proper-
ly encouraged and protected. We
have wonderfully developed all our
industries by properly protecting
them. It is high time we should de-
velop our foreign commerce in the
same way. One-half of what we pay
to foreign shipowners annually for
freightage would make our own mer-
chant marine equal to England’s in
ten years and then we would put the
$200,000,000 into the pockets of our
own people which the foreigners now
get. Let Congress at once enact laws
giving our commercial marine proper
encouragement. Next to a bill as-
suring the continuance of sound
money a good bill protecting our com-
merce should command the altention
of our legislators.—Bedford (Penn.)
| Inquirer.
Jack—*‘‘That’s. an awfully big build-
ing your father is putting up over
there.”
Grace— ‘Yes; papa says they haven’t
room enough in the old place, the busi-
ness has grown so rapidly since pro-
tection came.”
In the Hands of Foreigners.
We must own our ships. We are
making ten times as much as we can
carry, and there is no reason why we
should give one of the most produec-
tive lines of business in which any
country can engage into the hands of
foreigners.—El Paso (Texas) Herald,
’ Should Be Let Alone.
The Dingley bill is proving itself a
revenue producer despite smaller im-
portations and irrespective of the war
tariff. The conclusion from which is
that it should be let discreetly alone.
—Chicago Evening Post.
MINES AND MINERS.
Notable Decrease of Some of Great Britain's
Mines--Coal Operators Fear a Strike.
The copper mining of Great Britain
Is a decaying industry. The output of
lead ore is also declining. Last year
it was only 35338 tons, being the
smallest recorded during the last half
century. She produces only one-half
the amount of lead ore she did twen-
ty-five years ago, and the same re-
mark applies in the case of tin ore,
while the values in both cases have
decreased to one-fourth. Her output
of zinc ore—19,278 tons—does not reach,
the average of the last quarter of a
century ago, although this is the
same that it was in 1896.
Coal dealers at Cincinnati
for some time no Pittsburg coal of
consequence has been. received and
that the stock of Pittsburg coal is
very low. This, the dealers say, is
because the Pittsburg operators are
accumulating a large stock on hand in
anticipation of a strike after the Mon-
day’s conference between operators
and representatives of the miners’
unions at Pittsburg, at which they be-
lieve a disagreement inevitable.
Coal operators at Cleveland believe
there will be another strike of the
miners in the spring as a result of the
failure of the operators and miners to
agree at their meeting in Pittsburg.
The shippers are getting ready for the
strike. Coal in large quantities is be-
ing stored in lake vessels in the har-
ber. It is estimated that 60,000 tons
at least have been put away already
arid more is coming every day.
According to a dispatch from New
York the tidewater prices of anthrac-
ite coal have been” advanced 25 cents
a ton there, and now range as follows:
Stove, $3.75 a ton; nut, $3.50; chestnut,
$3.75; egg, $3.50; grate, $3.25: buck=-
wheat, $1.85 to $1.95, and pea, $2.00 to
$2.15. The advance has been expected
for some time, in view of the demand
for hard coal for domestic use and the
unusual severity of the winter. The
snow storimi of Saturday night is ex-
pected to curtail shipments from the
mines very materially, and no difficul-
ty Is anticipated in securing the new
prices.
The copper deposits
county, North Carolina,
ing considerable attention in Boston,
and a company composed principally
of Boston and North Carolina parties,
it is understood, intend developing
them on a large scale. Samples of ore
from the deposits which have been
analyzed show that silver and cop-
per are both to be found. In some
cases the veins contain 60 per cent. of
copper. The Boston & Carolina Cop-
per Mining Co., which has been organ-
ized to develop the deposits, it is stat-
ed, controls about 1,300 acres of land.
R.. WW. Lassiter; of Oxford. N. C.; is
one of the promoters of the corpora-
tion. ‘A number of Boston capitalists
are preparing to visit the mines.
The Wellston, O., coal mines
running full time and the city was
never before in so prosperous condi-
tion. The miners are not contemplat-
ing any strike the first: of the year
and are most scupulously avoiding
any intermixing in the state office
seekers’ contest.
The Warwick & Justus Coal com-
pany, of Wellsville, O., is opening two
new mines. The Bremkamp company
has also commenced work on a new
mine. Other local operators have
purchased extensive territories in the
vicinity of West Lebanon, the new
Massillon district field, and by this
time next year at least 10 additional
mines will be in operation in this viec-
inity.
The Worthington Coal & Coke Co.,
of Morgantown, W. YVa., has pur-
chased the Colson coal lands, compris-
ing 500 acres, located near Enterprise,
in Harrison county, W. Va.
A strong effort is made in Penn-
svlvania and Ohio, in connection with
our negotiations with Canada, says
the Boston Herald, to have Bitumin-
ous coal put upon the free list. The
coal miners of Western Pennsylvania
and Eastern Ohic supply the. Domin-
ion with coal from a point slightly
west of Montreal to a distance of hun-
dreds of miles beyond Winnipeg.
A strawboard manufacturing - plant
at. Anderson, ind., will hereafter use
soft coal instead of gas, owing to the
scarcity and unreliability of that class
of fuel at present.
Coal discoveries have been made at
Mt. Baker. Wash, Thomas Tyler, of
New Whatcom, has been exploring in
this vicinity and reports great crop-
pings of hard coal.
The miner's pick will
way in digging of coal,
ine. The latest developed machine
cuts a block of coal twenty feet long
by six feet deep in from seventeen to
twenty-two minutes. The block of
coal would weigh . twenty-four tons,
and would require to excavate it with
a pick the labor of one man = eight
days.
Robert Gilliham, general manager
of the Kansas City, Pittsburg & Gulf
R. R., says:—‘ There will be completed
within ninety days in the coal . field
near Poteau, on the line of our rail-
way, extensive new mines and five
hundred coke ovens the manufac-
ture of coke for Mexico. The ovens
will produce twenty thousand tons of
coke per month, or equal to about for-
ty carloads per day.”
say that
of Granville
are attract-
are
have to make
to the mach-
for
THE LABOR WORLD.
The bootblacks of Louisville,
a union of eighty-five members,
The theatres and music halls of London
give employment to about 100,000 persons.
The wages of shoeworkers at Nashville,
Tenn., have been reduced one-third during
1898.
The Central Labor Union of Terre
Haute, Ind., has a library consisting of
1300 volumes.
British. printers have instructed their
officials to invest their surplus funds in co
operative institutions.
The Grand Trunk Railroad of Canada
has agreed to recognize the Brotherhood
of Telegraphers and averted a strike.
Bakers in Newark, N. J., are preparing:
to go ou strike to enforce a ten-hour work=
day and compliance with New Jerssy’s
sanitary bakeshop law.
The call for the tenth convention of the
Bakers’ and Confectioners’ International
Uniov, to be held in Chicago during the
week of March 6 next. has heen issued,
A general strike in the bituminous coal
region of Pennsylvania is looked for on
April 1, at the close of the term of the
interstate ngreement between the miners
and the operators.
Kansas and California barbers are work-
ing for the passage of State mensures pro-
viding for examinations of barbers on
much the sanie plan as dentists are now
examined and licensed.
Factory Inspector Elkhoff, of Michigan,
reports the enforcement of the factory
Inws of that State has volduesd the number
of children employed in factories from
4000 in 1891 to 1900 in 1893.
The proprietors of the eizht shoe fac-
tories in Marlboro, Mass., invoive:dl in tho
general strike of the shoe workers have be-
gun a united attempt to condnact their es-
tablishments without the interference of
the unions.
Ky., have
The average height of clouds is
rather over a mile.