DEPEW ON IMPERIALISM.
HOW HE ASSAILED M'KINLP.Y'S PR£S
ENT POLICY IN ILSB.
Ills Vigorous Picture of tlio Folly and
the Crime of Keeping tlio Philippines
and of the Awful Consequences to
Cs—Means Centralization.
In the Chicago Times-Herald on May
22, 1808, Senator Chauncey M. Depow
had the following Interview, obtained
and signed by George Grantham Bain
and copyrighted:
When I asked Mr. Depew what he
thought should be done with the Phil
ippine Islands he drew in his breath
and said: "That's a pretty big ques
tion." Then he pushed back his chair
from his desk and swung around until
he half faced me.
"If we should keep the Philippine
Islands," said Mr. Depew. "we would
reverse the traditions of this Govern
ment from its foundation. We would
open up a new line of policy.
"Let us see what that would mean.
In the first place it would mean the
establishment of a military govern
ment over possibly ten millions of peo
ple 0000 miles away from us; it would
mean the increase of our navy to the
proportion of the navies of Europe."
"Not to the proportion of England's
navy," I suggested.
"To the navy of France and Ger
many," said Mr. Depew. "It would
mean the increase of our army to 150,-
©oo—more likely to 200,000 men. It
would menu the increase of our annual
expenditures to double what they are
now. It would mean that the United
States Government would be brought
in closer contact with the people than
ever before in the history of this coun
try.
"We have known that there is a
Federal Government only as represent
ing our flag, our nationality and glo
rious traditions, but we have not felt
the burden of its support or been con
fronted with the possibility of the pay
ment of an enormous annual mllitury
tax. except during the Civil War. In
Europe, where great armies and navies
are maintained, the people are taxed
directly for their maintenance. Our
revenues have been obtained hereto
fore by indirect taxation, with the ex
ception of a slight tax on whisky.
"But with the increase of our expen
ditures by 100 per cent, the taxes to
support the Government would be felt
in our homes and in our offices. We
would feel them in both the necessa
ries and luxuries of life—in our houses,
in our tools, in our food, in our cloth
ing, in our carriages and in our wag
ons, in our c.tecks and notes and bonds
and transfers of property—in every
transaction of our every-day business
life. For if we are to maintain great
armies and navies like the powers of
Europe we must raise the revenue for
them by the means mentioned, and
also by a stamp tax that will face us
at every turn.
"These conditions are contrary to
our present form of government. To
day we know that the customs collec
tor exists. He sits in his office at the
custom house and few of us ever think
of him—fewer still have ever seen him
or felt the taxes collected through him.
Under the new regime tnx collectors
would necessarily be excise men with
offices everywhere. They would be
known not only in New York and the
other great centres of commerce, but
in every town, village and hamlet in
tile United States. Our people respond
with patriotic alacrity to every bur
den, sacrifice or tax for the successful
carrying on of war. Whether they
would with equal cheerfulness do the
same for the new policy of the colo
nial empire furnishes food for consid
eration.
"What also does a world-wide policy
mean to us? It means a centralization
which would change materially the re
lations of the United States to the
Federal Government. The control of
those populous colonies would be cen
tred at Washington, and we should
have a centralization of power far be
yond what the old Federalists ever
dreamed of. You cannot have empire
without all its attributes, and that
means a practical revolution of our
form of government and an abandon
ment of tile beliefs which tile fathers
held when they established tlds Gov
ernment in 1770."
I asked Mr. Depow if it was not pos
sible to derive from these proposed col
onies a revenue greater than the addi
tional expenditure which their posses
sion would involve.
"How," said Mr. Depew, "by taxa
tion? Every time you attempt to col
lect a tax from these people they
would rise, and you would have to call
on your military force to suppress
I them. And suppress them for what?
For doing what John Hancock did?
They might quote ngaiust us our im
mortal declaration 'that taxation with
out representation is tyranny.'"
Are There No Trusts?
Are there no' trusts? Ask the men
who used to work in the rolling mills.
Are there no trusts? Ask the men who
used to work in the bicycle factories.
Are there no trusts? Ask the inde
pendent manufacturers or the small
merchants, or anybody, in fact, except
M. A. Hanna.
No trusts, indeed! The woods are
full of trusts und every one is a men
ace to labor. But, there's away to
get rid of 'em and that way isn't by
voting the Itepubllean ticket, either.—
Toledo Bee.
A l!elutc<l Discovery.
Chairman Hanna should have made
his discovery that there are no trusts
in the United States before the lie
publican platform was constructed and
before President McKiuley had writ
ten his letter of acceptance. It would
have saved the platform makers and
the President much anxious thought.
THE "FULL DINNER PAIL" FAKE.
An Insult to tlio Intelligence of tho
American Workman.
The Kepublican campaign argument
entitled "The full dinner patl" is at
once a fraud and an insult to the in
telligence and the morality of the
American workingman.
A fraud, because in spite of nil that
a subsidized press and a "porsonally
conducted" corps of enmpaign speak
ers can say, the administration of Will
iam McKiniey has not meant unlimit
ed prosperity for the American work
ingmen.
Tlio thousands of unfortunates who
have walked the streets of all our
great cities through the long cold
months of every winter, willing to
work, but with no work to do, and
therefore no food, save the dole of
charity, and no shelter, save the po
lice station, are a terrible flaw in the
picture of general prosperity.
The thousands of farmers of the
Eastern States who sell the products
of their hard toil to-day for the same
price that they commanded four years
ago and pay lor the necessities of life
an increased price, are not sharers
in prosperity.
The hundreds of thousands of men
in our great cities whom intolerable
wage conditions have forced to try
the terrible remedy of strikes and
who have found themselves beaten
and baffled by the combinations of
enpltal against which they fought, and
who face the coming winter, impov
erished by a summer of enforced idle
ness, know that the story of prosper
ity is a deceit and a snare.
The great armies of miners who
are even now in revolt against con
ditions that made their lives only pro
longed starvation, while the corpor
ations they served fattened on the
product of their toll, know that the
"full dinner pail" is a fraud.
But we said that the "full dinner
pail" argument is an insult to Ameri
can woi'kiugmen, and it is. A brute,
a beast, can be tolled with a dish of
fodder to any slavery, but n man, an
American freeman, whether lie wears
broadcloth or Jeans, knows thnt there
are higher interests than those that
are represented by so much bread and
meat A Government has not done all
that it ought to for the people whose
interests it is supposed to serve when
it has given them food, even in plen
ty; and the Itepubllean party when it
seeks to cover tho gross immoralities
of its four years of power with a din
ner pail; when it says to the working
men of America,"Fill your bellies with,
fodder and, like beasts, forget that
there are weightier considerations
than something to out," insults every
honest man.—New Voice.
How tho Trusts Stcul Saving**.
"I earn the same wages I did two
years ago. I have no new expenses.
I am more careful than ever about
my expenditures. Yet I find that
where I had two or three dollars of
my wages left at the end of the week
two or three yers ago I have nothing
left now."
That paragraph expresses the
thought of many a workingman. He
wonders why it is that he saves noth
ing now, even with greater economy,
when he had a little balance left in
his pocket at the end of the week
heretofore.
The explanation is thnt given by the
Anthracite Coal Miners' Union. Liv
ing expenses, they assert, have "in
creased fully thirty per cent, in two
years." The trusts make the differ
ence. By artificially enhancing tho
cost of living they draw from the pock
ets of the workingman the little bal
ance encli week that formerly swelled
ills savings. Many a workingman
wonders why the wage that formerly
supported his family runs short now.
The answer Is the same. A trust made
Incrcnse of the cost of living, "fully
thirty per cent," means the loss of
his savings to one workingman and
pinching and debt to another.
A Puzzle.
If the people of the Philippine Isl
nnds are incapable of managing tlieir
own affairs and must be shot into sub
mission—
Why does Mr. McKiniey apply this
principal to the Christian population
which wishes to set up a republic un
der American protection;
And refuse to apply it to Sulu, where
lie lias granted autonomy under Amer
ican protection to a Mahometan des
pot, lias guaranteed polygamy and
slavery and has granted subsidies to
the royal harems?
Why treaties and subsidies for Ma
hometan polygamlsts and slave-hold
ers? Why fire and sword for enlight
ened Christians?
The MnHk l'ulletl on*.
Tlio effort to hide Imperialism in tills
campaign has failed at every point.
Imperialism taxes l'orto lllco without
her consent; it imposes military rule
on Cuba long after Cuba should have
had her own chance; it loots Cuban
revenues; it carries on a war of sub
jugation and extermination in the Phil
ippines. The mask is pulled off, nud
President McKiniey could not say to
day, "Imperialism is impossible."
Sheltered by tlio Till-In'.
Talking about trusts, there are fifty
or sixty very obnoxious ones that
would have to go out of business if
the tariff shelter under which they rob
should ho taken away. There is no
honest opposition to trusts thnt does
not go to the root of the evil by In
sisting upon tlie repeal of all legisla
tion which encourages their formation
and fosters their growth.
By tlio Trusts, For the Trusts.
President McKiniey entered into a
government by the people, of the peo
ple, for the people. He closes his first
term as the chief operator of a Gov
ernment of the people, by the trusts,
for the trusts.
TRUTHS ABOUT TRUSTS.
PROTECTED BY REPUBLICAN CON.
CRESS AND ADMINISTRATION.
An Article Which Shown How Silly !i
Ifuimu's Assertion Thut "Thero U No!
u Trust In the Entire United StutcH"
—A "liefluitlon" For Depcu*.
Senator Hanna says "there are no
trusts. Senator Deiiew calls for "a
definition."
The name was originally given to a
number of Independent corporations
combined to create a monopoly and
vesting their power of action In a sin
gle trustee. It was decided by the Su
preme Court thut corporations could
not lawfully combine in this way. and
so they adopted the device of merging
their existence and identity in one
great corporation.
The name changed. The thing con
tinued. lustead of a trustee acting for
separate corporations there Is a presi
dent and board of directors represent
ing the several corporations woided
into one. In either case the aim and
the result are the same—the creation
of a private monopoly. If anything,
the cohesion is now more perfect—the
power is greater.
The Anti-Trust law of 1800 declares
that—
"Every contract, combination in
form of trust or otherwise, or conspir
acy In restraint of trade * * * is
hereby declared illegal."
Judge Barrett, in his decision in the
famous sugar case in New York State,
thus defined a monopoly:
"A combination, the tendency of
which is to prevent competition in its
broad and general sense, and to con
trol and thus at will enhance prices,
to the detriment of the public, is a
legal monopoly. ... Nor need it
be permanent or complete. It is
enough that it may be even tempora
rily and partially successful."
There are hundreds of such monopo
lies in the country to-day, and neither
the Republican Congress nor Adminis
tration has done anything to prevent
or to punish them, but both have done
much to promote and protect them.
The history of the window-glass In
dustry for twenty years has been a
history of a succession of pools, lock
outs, agreements fixing prices and
rates of wages on the one side, and on
the other of strikes and their accom
paniments.
On account of our natural facilities
we ought to be making the best glass
in the world, but we make poor glass
for which the consumer pays double
price.
The American Glass Company was
formed In 18!)5. It was a selling agent
for eighty-five per cent, of the factor
ies. It was succeeded in October,
ISO!), by the American Window-Glass
Company. The capital of this corpor
ation is $17,000,000. The value of the
property represented by this capital is
about $0,000,000. Since 1895 the prices
of window-glass have been about
doubled.
It is stated in a glass manufacturers'
periodical that the pool made $700,000
in 1890, $1,750,000 in 1807 and $2,000,-
000 in 1808.
The glassmakers take the full bentflt
of their enormous protection, and as
foreign glass costs more in the interior
than on the seaboard by reason of the
cost of transportation, consumers of
American glass in the interior pay
more for the domestic article titan do
consumers on the const. A box of
glass, for example, costs at Pittsburg
fourteen cents more than the Boston
price.
. The duty on glass is between eighty
and 100 per cent.
Besides this groat trust we have the
following trusts in the glass industry:
Tlie Pittsburg Plate-Glass Company,
with a capital of $10,000,000. It has
about doubled prices in the Inst two
years. It pays very low wages—from
$1.35 to SI.BO per day.
The National Manufacturers' Asso
ciation lias advanced its prices ten to
fifteen per cent.
'The National Glass Company is new.
It is a combination of makers of table
ware and has $-1,000,000 capital.
The Macbeth-Evans Glass Company
owns about half the producing capac
ity of lamp-chimney plants.— New
York World.
Freedom of DIHCUSHIOII.
Tlio suspension of freedom of dis- 1
cussion Is oni? of the strongest signs
of the imperialism which seeks to
mftke itself permanent.
Republicans make objections to a
discussion of the Philippine question
pending the suppression of an alleged
rebellion.
They object to Mr. Bryan's criticism
of the Philippine policy because he
supported the ratification of the treaty
which removed Spanish sovereignty.
If the treaty had not been ratified,
then a state of war would have ex
isted, pending which criticism would
still have been denounced as "stab
bing the army In the back."
Take it what way we may, discus
sion seems to be out of order. Will
the organs kindly Inform us when lib
erty of speech will be In order again?
—Atlanta Constitution.
An KxpoMure.
Some months ago the Republicans
were boasting of .the thoroughness with 1
which they had established the gold
standard. Now even Secretary tinge
is ambitious to prove that the Repub
lican enactment is so flimsy that It
could be easily destroyed by a Demo
cratic Secretary of the Treasury.
Very liicoii.letont.
The Republican papers whieli are in
sisting in one breath that Mr. Bryan
stands no chance whatever of being
elected President are discussing in
their next breath Mr. Bryan's proba
ble cabinet appointments after he is
inaugurated.
INSTINCT.
When you were but an infant,
Whatever you might find,
You tried to put into your mouth;
Such is the childish mind.
A lump of coal, a rattle,
Your fists and e'en your feet
Would move you to inquiry:
"Now, is that good to out?"
And Inter, when ambitions,
With years, began to grow,
You dreamed sweet dreams of glory,
But had to work, you know.
You labored at your duty,
And asked, when 'twas complete,
Not: "Is the thing ideal?"
But: "Will it help me eat?"
—Washington Star.
HUMOROUS.
fc Hoax—There's a proof that our days
are numbered. Joax—Wbut? Hoax—
The calender.
Nell—She doesn't show her age.
Belle—Show it? I should say not. She
won't even tell it
He—Would you be mad if I kissed
you just once? She—Yes; I would.
The idea—only onee!
"Misfortune always travels fast"
"That's right; the more rapid the pace
a fellow goes the quicker it overtakes
him."
"Aha," exclaimed the heavy trage
dian. "The plot thickens." "It's
about time," cried one in the audience.
"It's been pretty thin so far."
Nell—He looks like a until who has
been disappointed in love. Belle—He
is. He advertised Cor a girl with $5,-
000,000 and didn't get a single reply.
She—l didn't know you had a sister,
Sir. Smart. He—Oh, yes; I've got
nine of thorn. "You haven't really?"
"Yes; one by birth, and eight by refu
sal."
Trump—Can you oblige me with a
little help, lady? Lady—l'm afraid
not. My help all left this morning.
It's very hard to keep servants In the
suburbs.
"What are you up so early for?"
asked the old hawk. "O, Just for a
lark," replied the young bird, using
one claw for a toothpick; "and I got
him, too."
"Ah!" cried Mr. Algo when she re
fused him; "I con never love another."
"No," she said; "I realized there was
no room in your heart for any one
but yourself."
"I saw Miss Gabbie talking to you
this morning. I don't suppose she
gave you so much as a chance to open
your mouth." "O, yes. I yawned
quite frequently; she couldn't prevent
that!"
Iler Father—So you want to marry
my daughter, eh? The youth—Yes,
sir. "Well, young man, do you think
you could support a family?" "Gra
cious! You're not all going to come to
live with us, are you?"
"No, sir," said the man who had
been asked for alms; "I can give you
nothing. You are a professional beg
gar aren't you?" "I used to think so,"
replied the otlier as he sadly pulled
two copper cents and a collar button
from his pocket; "but I've come to the
concussion that I am only un ama
teur."
THE LITTLE LADY OF PEKIN.
from tlio Chlnnman's Poinl oT View 111,
Kuiprcna Is Perfection.
"The Chinese Empress does not meet
completely the Anglo-Saxon demand
for female beauty," writes I'oultney
Bigelow in the Woman's Home Com
panion "but then the Chinaman is not
wholly satisfied with our type, and on
sound democratic principles the Celes
tial has some color for his opinion,
seeing that he is one of 400,000,000,
while our ideal represents but 75,000,-
000. Personally, it is hard for me to
appreciate the beauty in one who is
short and fat; whose feet are the size
of salt-cellars; whoso flesh has the
modeling of a bolster; whose eyes are
oblique, and whose natural skin is
overlaid with white and red paste.
Yet what I am pleased to consider my
taste is, from tho Chinaman's point
of view, merely outlandish prejudice;
and on the standards prevailing in
Pekln the Dowager Empress is easily
one of tlie handsomest women, exer
cising a personal fascination which en
titles her to rank with such heroines
as Catherine of Russia or Queen
Louise of Germany. And as to un
tiquity of pedigree the Romanoffs and
Ilohenzollerns are mere upstarts in
dynastic enterprise compared with the
power in Peltin, which draws its au
thority directly from Celestial sources
in prehistoric eras.
"Let us then admit at the outset
that in the matter of birtli, beauty and
political power the Dowager Empress
of China eclipses not merely anything
of its kind in Europe, but throws into
the shade anything dreamed of in this
fair country of ours, whose boast it is
that we have set the standard for
'sovereign woman.' Tlie Chinaman in
general is completely convinced that in
all that constitutes higher civilization
lie is the superior of tho white man.
lie has invented more different kinds
of mechanical improvements than all
tlie rest of tlie world put together; his
wise men were masters of science
when Europe was a howling wilder
ness; no other country lias held togeth
er so long as this huge empire, and its
subjects not -unnaturally conclude that
such grand results must have sprung
from institutions whose excellence is
unrivaled elsewhere. Of these insti
tutions the highest exponent is the
Dowager Empress and her party."
Proper Precaution.
He—l'm going to shave myself here
after.
She—Won't you cut yourself?
"No; I won't have any razor sharp
enough for that." '
A Farewell.
My i. J rest child, I have no song to give
you;
No lark could pipe to skies so dull
and gray;
Yet, ere we part, one lesson I can leave
you.
For every day.
Be good, sweet maid, and let who will
be clever;
Do noble things, not dream them,
all day long;
And so make life, death and that vast
forever
One grand, sweet song.
—Charles Kingsley.
Ant'a A nut Gives Picnic.
The ant's aunt had to give a picnic,
because she had been invited to so
many places by all her relatives, and
she thought it was time to pay back
some of the invitations.
"But it will be such a bother/' said
the ant's uncle, when he heard about
it.
"Don't be foolish, now," replied the
ant's aunt. "We cannot go in society
without going to some trouble."
So the ant's uncle said that it would
be all right, for he always said some
thing of that kind when his wife talk
ed about giving a party.
He was sleeping early the next
morning, when his wife woke him and
said: "Benjamin, Benjamin, did you
remember to get the lemons and the
sugar?"
"No," replied the ant's uncle, as he
rolled over again In bed. "The gro
cery store was closed."
"Then you will have to go into the
kitchen of the man's house and get
as much as you can carry before the
cook gets up."
"The last time I was there," mut
tered Benjamin, "I nearly got blown
up with the kerosene can."
By the time the ant's uncle got back
to his house he found more than a
hundred ants of all kinds walking up
and down and carrying all kinds of
provisions.
"You arc very late," said the ant's
aunt. "What did you do about the
swing, Benjamin? Did you stop and
see the spider about it?"
Benjamin had forgotten all about
the swing, so he had to go back to
where the spider kept a shop, and he
came back after a while with a wheel
barrow loaded down with rope. The
ant's aunt was lame, and she had to
walk with a cane. She was at the
head of the picnic party, and Benja
min, the ant's uncle, came last of all
with his wheelbarrow filled with rope
and baskets and sugar and lemons and
tubs and glasses and everything which
might be used on a picnic. The ants
went to Deacon Jones' woods, and as
they got nearer they heard all kinds
of strange noises. All the animals and
all the birds came out to see the picnic
go by. The ants walked on until they
came to a bare spot in the middle of
the woods, and there they stopped and
put down their bundles and baskets.
"This will be a nice place to set the
table," said the ant's aunt. "Now,
Benjamin, while 1 am doing all the
work, suppose you go and put up the
swing for the children."
The ant's uncle said something un
derneath his breath and then took the
rope and the boards and things and
put up 153 swings. He hurt his knee
and sprained his hack and cut his fin
gers. He also stubbed his toes.
"You needn't feel so badly about
hurting your toes," said a centipede,
who was going fast, "suppose you had
toes on 100 feet to stub, then you could
afford to talk."
The ant's uncle returned to the place
where the table was being set. He
threw his hat over on the grass and
sat down, saying. "I am very tired
and a litle rest would do me a great
deal of good."
"Why Just see what Uncle Benjamin
did," cried all the small ants at once.
"Benjamin, Benjamin," cried the
ant's aunt, "how could you do such a
thing?"
"You ought not to be so careless,"
replied Benjamin, "how was I to know
that it was a custard pie? I thought
it was a nice cushion you put there for
me."
The ant's uncle started to get his hat
and walk away. He had not gone very
far before he became red in the face
with anger.
"Get off my hat," all the ants heard
him say, "how dare you sit on a poor
ant's hat like that. Haven't you got
any manners?"
"What is the matter, Benjamin?"
asked the ant's aunt, picking up her
cane and hobbling toward her hus
band.
"This miserable man," yelled the
ant's uncle, "has had the impudence to
sit down on my hat and he won't get
up."
The man looked in the direction of
Benjamin and then yawned and got
up and walked away.
"Benjamin, Benjamin," cried the
ant's aunt, a few minutes later, "little
Betsy Ann has come back and she says
that nearly a dozen of the children
started to climb a mountain, and the
mountain got up and walked away.
Won't you please go and try and find
them?"
The ant's uncle jammed his crushed
silk hat down over his eyes, picked up
a big switch and went to find the chil
dren. He walked and walked until ho
came to a place where a whole lot of
men and women were sitting in a cir
cle while the raosquitos ate them. The
men and women were eating pickles
and dry sandwiches and trying to look
happy. Uncle Benjamin hurried down
the middle of the tablecloth and call
ing, "Children, children," at the top of
his voice. Everywhere he went he
met some of those miserable little chil
dren who had run away from their
own picnic. He found them sitting on
the edge of a sponge cake dangling
their feet and kicking holes in the
icing. They were perched on loaves
of bread and utf on top of a plate of
sliced ham, they were playing hide and
seek. Some of them had climbed up
into a great big tin reservoir. There
were all their clothes on the edge and
they were having a swim.
"Didn't I tell you not to go near the
water?" asked Uncle Benjamin, shak
ing his cane. "Now, where do I find
you?"
"It isn't water," said all the chil
dren ants; "it's lemonade."
It took the ants' uncle more than an
hour to get all the children together.
"Why don't. you -come away from
here?" he said. "Don't you hear all
the men and women talking and say
ing that it would be such a delightful
place here if it were not for those mis
erable ants?"
"They didn't say a word," replied
the children, "until you came."
This made Uncle Benjamin so angry
that he swung his cane and chased all
the children before him back to the
place where the table of the ants' pic
nic had been spread. Way over to one
side was the ants' aunt all alone. She
had her handkerchief to her eyes, and
was crying as though her heart would
break.
"Why, what's the matter?" asked
Uncle Benjamin. "What in the world
has happened?"
"Why, can't you see?" replied the
ants' aunt. "A miserable man came
this way and stepped right on the ta
ble and when he lifted up his foot
everything was ruined."
"Come on, children," said Uncle
Benjamin. "Let us all go back to the
men's picnic. After he has treated us
this way, he deserves that we should
tease him and all his family."
That is the reason that, when men
and women give picnics, all the anta
in the neighborhood go and plague
them.
Fishing with Itlrds.
In this country the fisherman is a
man who uses hook and line or the net
in following his profession, and folks
would stare with wonder to see him
start off with a flock of birds to help
in catching fish. Yet this is done in
China. There the Chinaman may be
seen in his sampan surrounded by
cormorants, which have been trained
to dash into the water at his order,
seize the fish and bring them to the
boat. Should a cormorant capture a
fish too large for it to carry alone,
one of its companions will go to its as
sistance and together they will bring
it in.
If the Chinaman wishes to catch tur
tles he will do so with the aid of a
sticking fish or remora. The fish has
on top of its head a long disc or sucker
by which it attaches itself beneath
moving objects such as sharhs, whales,
and the bottoms of ships rather than
make the effort necessary to indepen
dent movement.
The fisherman fastens the remora
to a long cord tied to a brass ring
about its tail and when he reaches the
turtle ground puts it overboard, tak
ing care to keep it from the bottom of
the boat. When a turtle passes near,
the remora darts beneath hio and fas
tens to his shell. Struggle as he will
the turtle cannot loosen the grip of
the sucker and the Chinaman has on
ly to haul in on the line, bring the tur
tle up to the boat and take him aboard.
The Sin-Eater.
Many customs arc still practiced at
less and less frequent intervals in the
remote parts of Great Britain of which
we have little ken. A good example of
this is the sin-eater, who plays such an
important part in the Gaelic funeral
of the old sort.
His task is to consume all the sins
resting on the soul of the dead, there
by enabling the corpse to rest peace
fully in its grave.
In view of the responsible and not
altogether enviable nature of his of
fice, it is not surprising that the sin
eater is invariably some poor and un
forunate person; for happier circum
stances would naturally incline him
to avoid such a profession, which is
taken by himself and everybody else
with the utmost seriousness. As a
symbol of the sins committed during
the lifetime of the deceased, a loaf of
bread and a jug of beer are laid upon
the corpse. The sin-eater is then in
troduced and proceeds with much cere
mony to eat the bread and drink the
beer. Naturally enough he goes
through the ordeal with a certain
amount of zest, for he is not infre
quently hungry, though the possessor
of a well-developed taste for malt
liquors.
What proves that a led horse has
spirit? A le(a)d horse must be a horse
of metal (mettle).
What part of a boat is the product
of a mine? The oars (ores).