Freeland Tribune Established IBSB. PUBLISHED EVKItY MONDAY AND THL'KSDAY, BY THI TRIBUNE PRINTINu COMPANY, Limited OIVKE: MAIS STREET ABOVE CENTRE. FREELAND, PA. SUBSCRIPTION KATES: One Year $1.50 Six Months 75 Four Months 50 Two Months The date which the subscription Is paid to Is on the address label of each paper, the change of which to a subsequent date be comes a receipt for remittance. Keep the figures in udvunce of the present date. Re port promptly to this office whenever paper is not received. Arrearages must be paid when subscription is discontinued. Make all money orders, check.", etc,,payabU' to the Tribune Printing Company, Limited. The German emperor fs getting pos session of a lot of islands whose lan guage is so peculiar that he cannot tell whether lese majeste is being com mitted or not. During the year 1898 American builders sent 580 locomotives to for eign countries. This record proves that if others will pay the freight the Yankees will show them how to haul it In a search for a name for the "elec trically propelled self-contained vehi cle for roads and streets," the Elec trical Review lias chosen "Electronic bile" as the best of the thousands suggested. A writer in the American Cultivator says: "A descendant of the Puritans informs me that his aged mother al ways resented the modern slang of calling every active little child a kid. Her own babies, she insisted, were precious lambs, and if they lived would grow up and be sheep, to he God's especial favorites, while, she said a young kid could never be any thing but a goat. Rut,whatever their reasons, the Puritans never took kind ly to the goat. They preferred to grow sheep." Only the other day, in the terrible wreck at Waterloo, la., the arm of a traveling man was caught between im movable and relentless beams. The only seeming relief was the loss of the arm, and with that loss were counted 99 chances of death to one of life. He accepted the one chance and died, only whispering with his last breath, "Break it to her tenderly." He was en route to his own wedding. There are heroes and heroes, and it is not always the one who wins the dis tinction in front of belching canuoi), sputtering musketry, Hying shrapnel and bursting shells that most deserves the honor. The petroleum output in Southern California now amounts to about 45,- 000 barrels a day, and it is all consumed apon the Pacific coast. It was dis covered about ten years ago, and has been in use for about five years. A lank Hteamer runs regularly between Santa Barbara and Sau Francisco, carrying refined petroleum to the lat ter market. The Southern I'acitic runs its local trains by oil, and it is >lso consumed as fuel iu several man ufacturing establishments in this sec tion. There is no smoke and no cin ders. The locomotive tenders ou the Santa Fe road are big tanks, nnd the engineer feeds the fire with a key. The "literary fellers" to whom the late Hon. Zachariah Chandler applied an epithet suggesting that they were already dead aud worse, seem now to be specially appreciated by our gov ernment for public and particularly diplomatic service. In former times Ir ving, Hawthorne and Motley were regarded as exceptional instances of men of letters deemed lit for consular or diplomatic place. Now the rule seems to run along the lines of the old exception, as is easily seen by a reference to the just published mem bership roll of the Authors' club of New York city. There are only 152 members of the club. Y'et the list includes John Hay, late ambassador to England, and now secretary of state; Horace Porter, ambassador to France; Andrew D. White, ambassa or loGermany; OscarS. Straus, minister to Turkey,and Arthur Sherburne Har dy, late minister to Persia ud aow minister to (■ ) The Inr at Tea. In an address at Fall River, Mass., Captain gigsbee, of the Texas, told the following story illustrative of the fact that rtaval men made no pretense at being orators: "It is a very difficult situation for mo," said Captain Sigsbee, "to be re quired to make a apoecb. and I am in the situation of the old sailor who was very fond of tea, und was devoted to the people who served it. Rut this old sailor had no society manners, and had never attended an afternoon tea. He was afraid of the ladies, but In some way he was forced to an afternoon tea. He went almost in despair, nnd when he got back to his ship his mates said: " 'Brown, did you go to the tea?' " 'I did.' " 'How did you feel there?* "'I felt like a sperm w hale doln* crochet work." MANHOOD. stan<l3 tho test where souls aro tried. And truest honor flnds, Who conquers, manfully, the pride That rules In feobler minds; Who seeks not rest in life's curoer. Nor yet beyond the grave; Whose heaven Is duty's noblest sphere- Not that which idlers crave. 110 covets not the lordllng's place. Nor vainly strives to scan The Master's mind, but asks for grace To do tho best he can. His peace not torpor of the soul, But harmony within— Renouncing self to reach tho goal And triumph over sin. ORIGINAL OIRL. G Romance of weather is tf 1 always prayed for VL I on "steamer day" at Nassau. If Nas \ j\ . sau, like most oth "r c ' v *'' ze( l places . InUTM m in the nineteenth ! Mil™inl century, had tele .l /3Bjlif?ll/lu K ni ph, or even iU daily mail commu —Zs3|BgaKßi3| nicatiou with the 1 —rest of the world, "steamer day" ik' would not mean so much as it now does to its inhab itants and visitors, j The passengers land. Waiting i friends rush forward to greet some; others walk through a row of curious faces ou either side aud up toward the hotel. Small native boys rush about and besiege them with all manner of requests: "Carry your bag, boss?" "Drive for you, boss?" "Does you want a boy, lady?" By noon the excitement had moder ated, and we strolled down to the wharf and pitched silver coins into the clear water thirty feet deep, to see small boys dive aud bring them from the white sand bottom, where they lay clearly visible. I strolled away from my compan ions, and, passing several small , schooners laden with sponges, lying along the wharf—each with two or three ragged children, a native or two, | and perhaps a sallow-faced, scrawny \ white man, lounging or chewing ! sugar cane—l came to one cleaner looning than the rest. She was built as all the Bahama schooners, with line clipper bows, a rounded stern, nnd small masts aud spars. Sho was \ neatly painted, and on her stern were i the words "Lillian," with her home port, "Watliugs Island." i As I stood looking at her, suddenly a young woman came up the compan ion way and said: | "Good-day." "Good-day," I answered. "You've come some distance have you not?" "Yes," she replied, "from the furthest of tho out-islands. I sup pose you're from across the sea?" To my affirmative reply she, to my surprise, said: "And how was Irving's Faust? I should so dearly love to seo Ellen Terry as Marguerite." After a moment's pause, during which time I vainly sought to fathom in my mind how a woman on a Bahama Island schooner could have followed ! London theatrical matters so closely, | I gave her my unbiased opinion of the matter. She was then silent, and I meanwhile had an opportunity to study this Bahama curiosity. | She was about tweuty-six years old, I and was neatly dressed in an inex j pensive light material. Her luxuriant hair, of a dark brown color, was tastefully arranged, aud she wore a j large-brimmed, but not unbecoming, straw hat, which had evidently seen better days. Although much burnt, ; I could see licr skin was fair and her j hands delicately formed. Her expres sion was one of demure sadness, and after my study I came to the conclu sion that she was a more than ordin arily handsome woman, I decided to continue the conversation. "May I come aboard?" I ventured to say. "Certainly," was the reply. "John's gone out to the steamer and I'm keep ing watch for him. I shall be glad to have you tell me the news. We get little except when we come to Nassau." [ "Who is John?" I wondered, "and j how much news can people get who only lely on Nassau for it?" i I stepped ou board, however, and I my fair hostess, excusing herself for fa moment, stepped down into the cabin and returned a moment after | with two small chairs, which *he placed under a small awuing which shaded half the cockpit. She motioned for me to he seated, I and I obeyed. There was silence for a moment after we sat down and then [ my hostess said, speaking very slowly ! and with evident effort: j "You must think it very strange • that I spoke to you and have allowed you to talk to me, but I saw you were I a gentleman, aud I do grow so lonely and so anxious to see and talk with someone from the great world now aud then. The ladies up at the hotel, if I jgo up there, I do not know, and I ] suppose i seem queer to them, for they look askauce at me, and I haven't tho courage to speak to them. John doesn't seem to care for anything but sponges and salt and wrecks." "Sponges and salt and wrecks?" I asked myself. "What maunerof man may John be?" "Yes," continued my hostess, "it's very lonely on Watlings. You see there are only G7speople on the whole island, and of these only about 300 are white, while I don't suppose there are forty I know. We're 180 miles from Nassau, and although I'm teasing John to bring me over there, he won't* come but three times a i ear, unless there's a wreck." , Once on the plow Ms hand he layi, His eye ne'er backward turns; Fortune he seeks in virtue's ways. 111-bought success bo spurns. Looking his fellow in tho face * He sees Clod's image there; Whate'er may help to lift the race. His hand is quick to share; Meekly he takes life'# daily tasks As part of heaven's great plan; This boon—aught else denied—he asks. To be a manly man. Angels attend on such an one. And stars their courses move To light his pathway to the throne And garnish it with love. —John Troland, in Springfield Republican. "A wreck?" I asked. "Yes," she went on nonchalantly, "we don't have much luck now-a days. "Wo haven't had a good wreck since the big Spanish steamer went down on Eleuthera three years ago." The situation dawned. My fair friend was the wife, daughter or sister of a Bahama wrecker—perhaps pirate. "What's the mattor? You seem disturbed." I murmured ia a rambling way something about wrecking being a pleasant occupation. "Oh, I see," and she laughed, and a wonderfully musical laugh it was, too. "You are shooked at John's be ing a wrecker. John doesn't really wreck ships. He merely helps to strip them when they are wrecked." I felt relieved, but dire memories of childhood tales of false lights and murdered crews would come iu my mind. "And who is John?" I asked. "Ah, John is the dearest, sweetest, noblest fellow living—that's John. I'm sore you'd like him." I tried again. "Were you born ou Watlings?" "Oh, dear, no. I was wrecked there. Wasn't it romantic to be wrecked on the island Columbus first landed on?" I mildly remarked that I had been taugbt Columbus first landed on San Salvador or Cat Island. "Oh, my, no. You're quite wrong. It's been proved he first came ashore at Watlings. Why, I often, on fine mornings, get John to drive me over to the southeastern point of the island where it is thought ho came ashore. There's tho loveliest white beach there, aud the broad blue ocean stretches out and away before you as you look eastward. I make John go away, for John isn't romantic, you know, and then I sit down and close my eyes and I see the queer old fashioned ships with their woru sails, their high stern and the royal ban ners waving, tossing at anchor be yond the reef; I seo the line of boats with flashing oars advancing; I see the dusky Indian forms standing at the edge of the wood, and just above where the surf breaks on the beach I see the old mariner kneel under the banner of Spain, his sword uplifted aud his eyes raised to heaven. "Oh, it's a glorious picture, and I never tiro of calling it forth. Life ou Watlings, you see, has its compensa tions." As tho woman told thig story, she unconsciously acted it out, rose from her chair, aud with flaming eyes and cheeks, a now and fair Columbus led a fancied band. I had grown deeply interested aud I determined to know her history. "Tell mo ahout yourself," I said, "aud how it comes that you, with your evident education and accom plishments, choose to live on a plaoe so remote and lonely as Watlings Island." She blnslred a little, was silent a moment, and then in a low voioe said; "Well, I don't mind telling you. It's not a long story. I see I've given you a wrong impression, for, indeed, although it is lonely at times, I'm really very happy and I wouldn't change places with any woman. lam an English woman, and I was born near London. My father was a civil engineer in good oircumstanoes, and with a twin sister I had every possible advantage of education. My mother died when I was about fifteen, and as we had no near relatives we were much with our father. We were near enough to London to run in of an evening to the theatres and the opera; we had a pleasant society of our own; we read much, sang and played a good deal, and rode oontinnally. "Ten years ago last autumn my father met with a sudden busiuess re verse. He was offered a remunerative post in California, and decided to go there. A ship belonging to a friend of his was just about to sail for the Isthmus; we werooflered a passage on her at a low rate, aud in threo days' time found ourselves at sea. I needn't tell you of the voyage. It was all new and strange to us, of course, and we two girls were the pets of tho ship. "I Baw with relief my father, who had broken mnch under his losses, im provo iu health and Hpirits, and as we neared the tropics the glowing snuset skies were emblematic of our hopes of life in the new world. "We had been out some thirty days when one afteruoon as the sun set iu a dark bonk of clouds aud the air was close and sultry, I noticed tho captaiu looked anxious and heard him Hay something about the 'Bahama reefs' to the mate. "That night a hurricane struck us, and for hours wo were in what seemed a dull gray cavern of water and sky. Tho ship plunged madly before the gale, and with our father we sat in the oabin, clasped in each others arms. "The morning broke scarce less dark than the night. Suddenly the wind shifted and the ship righted and seemed to stand quivering, like an over-driven horse. A few minutes passed when, with a wild roar, the storm was on us onoe more, and we drove madly in another direction. There was a sudden crash, my father sprang, half dragging us toward the compr.uionway. X saw a huge wall of water rolling down upon us—it fell and ail grew dark. I remember a sen sation of sinking, of being whirled around, a dull, booming noise in my ears, and I opened my eyes to find myself lying on a sandy beach, two rough men looking down on me, while a third and youugcr one, kneeling be side me, was chafing my hands. Fright ened, but too weak to scream, I feebly said: " 'Where am I?' " 'On Watlings Island, Miss,' said the young man. " 'Yes,' said one of the older men, 'nnd a narrow squeak you had for it, too. If I hadn't thought it was mighty queer Beaweed washing in over yon reef, you wouldn't have been talk ing now.' " 'Where's my father?' I said. " 'With all the rest,' was the reply. " 'Hush!' said the younger man, 'see how weak she is?' "Then I fainted. "I awoke to find myself on a rude cot in a small cottage, tended by a native who only spoke a Spanish patois. The wreckers, for such they were, had carried me there. The sun was shining brightly and the storm was over. Days passed, and when I could go about I learnt that I had been the only one saved of the entire bark's crew. The wave that had en gulfed her and drowned all but my- Belf had washed me over the coral reef on which the bark had struck. The wreckers on the shore had seen me, and daring the waves, high even be tween tho reef and the shore, had rowed out. and rescued mo just as J was sinking. "Utterly crushed as I was, I did not at first realize my position. Xwas told I could go to Nassau on a schooner in about a month, but I felt no inclination to do auglit but stay where fate had thrown me. The young wrecker was very kind to me. "Meanwhile I grew well and strong in the soft warm air and under the tropic skies. I learnt to like the wild life, and the few white people and all the natives half worshiped me. One day a schooner brought some papers; and I read our bark had been given up as lost and my name was among those drowned. These papers recalled me to myself and I determined I would go to Nassau, and, if I could, thence to England. "I told the young wrecker, who had become my firm friend and companion, and whom I had taught to read, of my decision. " 'Well, Miss,' he said, 'if you feel it is so, I suppose you're right, but I hate to think of losing you.' "This and his evident sorrow touched me, and made me think whether in the world to which I was returning J would find such simple, loyal devo tion as had here been mine. When the day came for my departure all the inhabitants turned out to bid me fare well. A queen could not have had a more loyal leave-taking than the 'Eng lish Miss,' as they called me. The young wrecker went with me. He said he had business in Nassau. That night—a night so soft and sweet it seemed as if storms had never brooded there, the Southern Cross blazing low on the horizon—the wrecker came to where I sat on the deck of the little schooner. " 'Miss,' he said, 'I am nothing but a "Conch," a poor ignorant Bahama native, but I can't bear to have you go away. We al l love you, and I more than all. I nui-.t tell you. You know our life is poo- and rude, that we are far away from the world, but if you won't blam j me for even daring to hope, Miss, you know I have the handsomest schooner of the Watlings fleet and the best cottage on the .island. I am sure I'd do my best to make you forget your troubles, Miss, and the sponge fishin* is better, Miss, and there's a good many wrecks yet, Miss —and I love you, Miss." Here sho stopped and checked her self and blnshed. "Of course you spoke kindly to him," I said, "and told him you were sorry, but he musn't speak again " "Of course I didn't. You're like all men. What's the name of this schooner?" "Lillian," I replied wonderingly. "Well, that's my name, and here," as a tall, broad-shouldered, roughly dressed young man appeared on the wharf, a bunch of ro3es in hi 3 hand, and eyed mo curiously, "hero's my wrecker, and his nam? is John." A llnro Church OfTcrlnu. An offertory bag in an English rural church was recently found to contain a very rare specimen of a seventeenth century token made of copper, which had apparently been dropped into the receptacle in mistake for a farthing. The curio was valued by a locnl dealer at $3.50. A description of the article and the circumstances under which it was found were affixed to the church porch, but the donor seemed ashamed to turn up and explain matters. A few days afterward tha clergyman re ceived a typewritten letter from an ad dress a long distance from the church, stating that if the token were sent to "X. Y. Z.," care of the householder, a remittance of $2.50 would bo received in exchange. It was duly sent in a registered letter, and a postal order arrived in return. Inventors Itafll<l. At the beginning of every summer the wonder is renewed and increased that, with all our modern improve ments, jsome one does not invent a practicable scheme for regulating the temperature of our houses as effec tively in the hot months as in winter, —Providence Journal. GOLD AT ITS WORST. i RUINS OUR FOREICN COM MERCE IN EXPORTS. I Gives to Sllver-I .In Countries n Vast Advantage—Something About Value us Related to Money Pointers for Producers* ! 1 "In the trade of silver-using coun tries among themselves there is still a standard of values of remarkable sta i blllty, but the value of gold coin has I become so unstable, both In com- I modities and silver, that there is no longer a standard worthy of the name for gold-using countries or the world at large. This may be good for gam blers, but means loss and sorrow for men of business."—Toledo News. There is no one point involved in the silver controversy quite so unaccounta ble as the idea which is lodged in many minds that the gold standard is based upon this fundamental error. The color of a gold dollar is always the same, its weight the same, the marks upon it the same, the number of cents in it the same; and therefore the illogical and absurd conclusion that its value is always the same. Time and again the mistaken and even ridiculous character of the claim has been exposed, and in almost every imaginable way, only to have it re peated whenever the silver question is the subject of debate. The difficulty is to get people to understand that, commercially speaking, "value" is merely a term of relation or exchange. The "value" of a thing is what it will exchange for. Whether the article be a gold dollar, a pound of putty, or a bushel of clams, makes no difference. Its value is what it will exchange for in other things. A man can take 3 pound of gold to the mint, have it stamped into coin, and get in return all the dollars that it will make, but this proves nothing with reference to the value of gold. He simply gets the same thing back in a different form. Or the mint may give him other coin, already struck, for his gold. In such case he exchanges one pound of gold for another pound of gold, and hence It throws no light upon the question of its "value." If the government should establish public bakeries and stand ready to bake all the wheat flour offered into bread, without delay and without charge, it is perfectly plain that 100 pounds of flour would be equal in value to all the bread it would make, but it would give no in dication whatever of the value of either flour or bread compared with pork or beef. That would depend upon how much flour there was, how much of the other things, and the relative demand for each. Just so it is with gold. The government coins it free of charge, and a pound of crude gold is for that reason of the same value as the same gold in the form of coin. But how much It is worth of other things depends upon how much there is of it, compared with the quantity of other things to be exchanged for it, and the strength of the desire for each. If there were only a thousand gold dollars in the world, any one will admit that a gold dollar would buy or exchange for more of other things than it will now. If gold should be come as plentiful as coal, 28 8-10 grains of it would still be worth a "dollar," because it could be coined into a dol lar, but It would require a great many of them to buy a hundred pounds of flour. A "dollar" is purely the creation of law. Law makes the dollar, and de termines the material of which it shall be composed. But after it is made its exchange value depends upon the law of supply and demand, the same as other things. It is the cir cumstance that money is always ex pressed in fixed denominations that mystifies so many people and leads them to the conclusion that when the prices rise or fall the change is in tho commodity alone; that the money stands still. They overlook the sim ple fact that an exenange of money for goods involves exactly the same principle as any other exchange. No matter what kind of money may be in use, this idea is'always prevalent. Iu greenback days the paper note was the universal money, except on the Pa cific coast. At that time gold and silver were regarded as doing all the fluctuating, and were always quoted at a premium. But in California, where gold and silver were used exclusively, the greenback was said to be at a "discount." Every silver-standard country today regards gold as being at a premium—that is, as having ap preciated—and there can be no ques tion of the correctness of that view. Their silver money will buy as much as it ever would of most thlng3, while gold will buy twice as much. The ex tract given at the head of this araicie states the situation as it actually is. Gold ha 3 fluctuated wildly, but always with a general upward movement, un til it has doubled in value, thus cut ting prices in two, doubling the bur den of the long-time debtor, ruining the producer for the benefit of the annuitant and interest gatherer, and giving silver-standard countries, with their stable measure of values, an in calculable advantage in the world's commerce. When the masses of the people come to understand this sim ple proposition, they will be perfectly amazed at their stupidity in not get ting their eyes open sooner. Not only this, but they will see that the mone tary question in the United States is by far the most economic and indus trial issue that ever confronted any people. Griggs find the Trusts. From the Chicago Chronicle: Gov ernor Sayers of Texas wishes it to be understood that there is nothing partisan about his Invitation to the governors and attorney generals of the states to attend an anti-trust confer ence In St. Louis on the 20th of Sep tember. He states that the plan of a conference of this kind occurred to him when he read the letter of the at torney general of the United States to a Philadelpbian, In which he said that the general government had not the power to make and enforce effective legislation against trusts. He made up his mind that if such were tho case the states would have to deal with the subject, and that they could not take it in hand any too quickly. But he perceived that state legislation, in order to be effective, must be enacted by a large number of states, and must be as nearly uniform as possible. Hence the necessity for conference In order to secure something like con certed action. Having reached this conclusion, he addressed his letter to the governors of all the states, irre spective or their party affiliations. He wrote his letter on the sth of June, and before the jJOth he had received • sixteen replies," of which nine were wholly favorable, four were noncom mittal, and only three were positively averse to the proposed conference. Among the noncommittal governors were Busknell of Ohio and Roosevelt of New York, both of whom, however, promised to lay the matter before the attorney generals of their respective states. Governor Dyer of Rhode Is land was the only one who expressed any doubt that trusts were an evil. That Republican statesman said: "The subject is one in which I am deeply interested, but I am not prepared to say that I consider it a great evil to the country." The most remarkable deliverance on the subject was that of Goyernor Rogers of the young state of Washington. That statesman ex pressed doubts as to the sincerity of many of those who were advocating state legislation against trusts, and suggested that they were merely con structing a craft to carry them safely through the next national campaign. He also expressed his belief that state legislation which would really curb the power of trusts would be declared unconstitutional by the United State 3 supreme court. His ground for this belief was that most trusts were cor* porations, and the courts would hold that corporations, like individuals, have a right to buy whatever is of fered for sale in the market —to buy all that is offered for sale if they please, and so secure a monopoly, and obtain the power to fix the price. He did not say this as a champion of the trusts, by any means, but because he holds a special social and economic theory, as appears when he says: "I can see no remedy for the trust evil save public ownership. This new question of the trusts is really the old one of capital vs. labor, or, stated differently, the attempt of the al mighty dollar to gain supremacy in the affairs of men. There is in all this an irrepressible conflict, which will not down at the bidding of any state legislature." More Money untl LCRH Taxes. From the Democracy (Nashville, Tenn.): Representative Champ Clark of Missouri says that nearly the en tire theory of Democracy as to the financial conduct of the government may be condensed into the short, terse phrase: "More money and less taxes." | Champ Clark is right. There Is more than that in the Chicago platform on the subject of finance, but not very much more. The Chicago platform de clares for an income tax. The propo sition is: More money and less taxes; taxes to be levied upon surplus wealth instead of upon the needs of the poor. An overwhelming majority of the vot ers are for that proposition. Only the bosses of the Republican party, who are controlled by the great moneyed interests, are opposed to it; and those bosses, and their newspaper organs, do not dare to openly oppose the in come tax doctrine of the Chicago plat form Democrats. The following, from a Republican paper, is about the way Republicans handled the question in congressional debates: "Whatever may be said as to the abstract merit of an income tax, it cannot be had without an amendment to the constitution, and that is a very remote possibility." Well, what obstacle is there to a constitutional amendment, except the Republican party? The people will not hesitate to destroy the Republican party, if that is the only way of get ting what they want. Another and easier way out is to elect a Demo cratic president, who will appoint un plutocratic justices of the United States supreme court. Next year will ; be a good time to try this plan. Double-Edged Censorship. From the New York World: It if 1 now in evidence that the administra-1 tion has been and is operating two J "censorships"—one at Manila for sup pressing the truth in newspaper ca bles, the other at Washington for in- j jecting into garbled official dispatches such false and misleading sentences a", "situation improving daily" and "signs! of insurgent weakness more and more! apparent." As we have possession of! the only telegraphic outlet to the Phil- j ippines, as the insurgents could not possibly benefit by any news which' might be cabled from Hongkong and sent by boat from there, the two cen- j sorships can have but one meaning: j If the truth about the conditions in tho i Philippines were laid before the Amer- j ican people the outcry would be so tremendous that the administration would be compelled to repudiate its policy and to repudiate itself. No; the censorship at Manila, the falsifications at Washington, were not established and are not in operation to keep newi from the Filipinos, but to keep th ! truth from the American people. ODD FEDERAL EXPENSES. UNFAMILIAR PURPOSES FOR WHICH THOUSANDS ARE PAID ANNUALLY. Expends a Hundred I>ollarfl a Year to Suppress the Slav.* Trade—Cost of American Convicts In Foreign Prisons —Use of the Secret Fund. The United States Government pays out annually thousands of dollars for purposes which not one citizen in a thousand knows anything about. Ap propriations for some of these pur poses have been regularly made for years and will probably continue to be made for many more to come, says the Sun. Although slave trading is generally supposed to bo a thing of the past, the Government does not think so. This is shown by the faot that this country contributes annually SIOO as its share of the expense of keeping up at Brussels an institution known as the International Bureau for the Re pression of the African Slave Trade. Uncle Sam is deeply interested in ascertaining the size of the earth over which he recently stretched out his mighty hand. With a view of gaining the desired information he pays SISOO annually, through the American Em bassy at Berlin, as his quota as mem ber of the International Geodetic As sociation for the Measurement of the Earth. The records do not show what progress the association is making toward reducing the size of this planet to cold figures, but the SISOO is paid every year. In Brussels there is an International Bureau for the Publication of Cus toms Tariffs. It costs money to main tain the bureau, and the United States pay sl3lß annually as their propor tionate share of the expenses. More expensive still is the annual member ship fee of the United States in an other institution with headquarters in Brussels. Every year $2270 is paid by this Government as a contribution to the maintenance of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures. It costs tho United States no less than $14,000 annually to provide prisons for American couviots in for eign countries. These prisons are nnder the jurisdiction of the consular officers in various cities in China, Corea, Japan and Turkey. They are seldom used, but they must he main tained, nevertheless. The locations of the prisons with the coßt of rent and salary of keepers are as follows: Bankok, $1000; Shanghai, $1550; Yokohama, $1550; Turkey, SIOOO. For keeping and feeding such prison ers as may from time to time be con fined in these prisons S9OOO is set aside every year. The Secretary of the Treasury would doubtless experience no difficulty in finding plenty of mon about Washing ton who would, without remuneration, spend a day watching the destruction by macerntion of United States secur ities. But to save the Secretary any possible embarrassment, Congress has provided that he may pay the repre sentative of the publio, who the law says shall he one of a committee, to witness the reduction of the securities to pulp, $5 a day for each day he may be so employed. On the coast of Morocco, at Tau giers and Cape Spartel, mariners used to experience great difficulty in avoid ing disaster on account of the absence of warning night signals on the shore. Lighthouses were sadly needed, and as the Government of Morocco would not provido them, tho great powers took the matter in hand. Lighthouses were established and the powers are assessed so much annually for their maintenance. The share of the United States in this expense is $325. It is sometimes necessary for the United States to bring hack to thiß country from abroad persons charged with crime. It is rather expensive work, and for it there is an annual appropriation of SSOOO. This Government is over grateful for any service rendered to its oitizens in case of marine disasters by people of foreign countries. Such services are usually substantially remembered and there is a special provision for them. An annual appropriation of $4500 is made for "expenses incurred in the acknowledgment of the services of masters and crews of foreign ves sels in rescuing American seamen and oitizens from shipwreck." The Gov ernment also pays SSOO a year toward maintaining hospitals in Panama in order that American sailors may en joy the benefits of those institutions whenever necessary. The people of Alaska, who inhabit the islands of St. Paul and St.George, receive special consideration at the hands of the Government. Congress authorizes the Secretary of the Treas ury to furnish them food, fuel and clothing, and for this purpose $19,500 is appropriated. The Washington Monument comes in for a good-sized appropriation every year. In order that it may be kept open to the publio and receive the necessary repairs, Congress allows the AVar Department an annual appropria tion of $11,520. The same department receives $547,275 annually to be ex pended in providing artificial limbs for soldiers, and an additional sum of S2OOO is appropriated for surgical ap pliances for the veterans. The State Department has a secret fund which is used for diplomatic pur poses. The publio knows absolutely nothing about this fund, and every thing concerning it is surrounded with the greatest air of secrecy. Out of it are paid the bills for entertaining for eign visitors who may be the guests of the Government from time to time. High cheekbones always indicate great force of character in come direc tion. Projectiles for modern big and rapid fire guns require about half their weight in powder to fire them.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers