The Commoner.
nlatlon of the speed of automobiles In all parts of
the world.
7
Affg. 39, 190a ,
certain brains In such a way as to produce
cerebral disorders which may be likened to those
produced by poisons upon the stomach and intes
tines. Even superficial knowledge, such as is im
parted in primary schools or absorbed from a
newspaper, he declares, is sufficient to cause minor
crevices in the gray matterwhich are responsible
tor many yet uncatalogued forms of lunacy. Dr.
Solners concludes that this world is getting too
complicated and that its complication is made
too constantly present to every mind by conver
sations, books, newspapers and spectacles of the
busy modern life. -
IN THIS SAME PAPER DR. SOLNERS PRE
sented a list of the abnormal happenings of
the preceding weok which happenings he claimed
demonstrated his theories. The doctor cited these
cases: An American woman, aged forty, suddenly
became insane whilo looking at the engines of the
ocean liner Lorraine. A farmer in the course of
an innocent controversy mowed off both the legs
of his oppdnent with a scythe, A school teacher,
fascinated by revolving knives, jumped into a
huge clay mixer in a porcelain factory and was
chopped up like sausage meat A miller, suddenly
seized with an insane frenzy while watching the
swift-moving flour rollers, precipitated into the
machine his own five-year-old child, whose legs
were ground before the belt slipped owing to the
choking resistance. Two Russians, man and wife,
were riding in an automobile -down a steep moun
tain along a precipice, when the woman ex
claimed: "What if we should swerve!" Her com
panion, before he could resist the impulse, obeyed
some insane suggestion provoked by the remark
and whirled the machine abruptly into an abyss,
where he was killed and his wife was severely
Injured.
ACCORDING TO THE 'WORLD'S CORRE
spondent Dr. Solners mentioned many other
instances, from which he argued that the human
Tace now is composed mostly of latent lunatics,
whose Individual lunacy may remain Inoffensive
until death or may break loose suddenly under a
combination of conditions not yet scientifically
determined.
SINCE THE PALL OF THE CAP ANILE THE
public has been treated to many descrip
tions concerning the foundation of Venice. The
London correspondent to the New York Times
made the statement that "the Capanile, like all
Venetian buildings, was "built on wooden poles
driven into the mud." A reader of the New York
Times writes to that paper an interesting correc
tion of its London correspondent's statement. Ac
cording to this reader Venice is not built in the
mud; it is built on as solid foundations as our
own city; New York is built on Islands; so is
Venice; all her houses, palaces, and churches
are built on 117 islands, three of which are large,
!(not, however, as large as Manhattan); the sea
encircles these islands, forming a network of
lagoons, 150 in number, in which the tide rises
and falls daily. The islands are connected by 378
bridges. The whole group forming the city proper,
about seven miles in circumference, is entirely sur
rounded by the sea. A railway bridge two and a
half miles In length connects it with the mainland
on the north side. Many of the houses rise sheer
from the water's edge, notably those on the Grand
Canal, but many are set back, leaving -broad quays
in front, such as the Nlva degli Schlawin, and the
Canareygio; these have water gates at the back.
Every house in Venice has a water gate. There
are also many squares, among them the Square
(Piazza) of St Mark and the Square of St. Moses.
"A small square Is called a campo.
SINCE THE AUTOMOBILE ACCIDENT IN
which Charles L. Fair and wife lost their
lives the Paris papers are united in a demand for
treatment of what one of them calls "speed mad
ness." The Journal des Debats says: "The first
sentiment is one of sympathy and compassion for
those who are at once the authors and victims of
automobile accidents, but this does not prevent
the public, on second thoughts, from Insisting upon
more drastic regulations for automobiles. Scarcely
a day passes without an automobile accident, due
to the" temerity or inexperience of the amateur
chaffeurs. At first it was possible to believe that
th.ese accidents were due to a few dare devils
twho attached as little importance to their own
Jives as to those of other people, but theyfilave
Increased in such proportions that one is forced
to the belief that the most rational man has diffi
culty In defending himself from a species of
vertigo when he possesses a machine of colossal
"horsepower and can burn space merely by letting
' it go." . It is prpbable that the result' will be reg-
THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE BECOME
quite familiar with Fair will contests. It
seems that they are to be treated to another con
test of this character, resulting from the death of
young Fair and his wife in the automobile acci
dent in Paris. Mrs. Fair came from a poor fam
ily in New Jersey. Fair's relatives aro all mil
lionaires. Young Fair's estate Is estimated to bo
worth $10,000,000. The question rests upon whether
Fair or Mrs. Fair died first If young Fair was the
first to die Mrs. Fair's relatives in New Jersey will
obtain at least the widow's share in tho wholo
estate, but jf,;Mrs. Fair died first tho New Jersey
family will -rflcejvo only a certain sha.ro of the
property that'was in Mrs. Fair's name. The pros
pect is for a long struggle in the courts. It will
be difficult for either side to establish its claim
from the simple .fact that tho witnesses to tho ac
cident are unablu to provide tho desired informa
tion; death was instantaneous with both.
THE DIFFICULTY WHICH WILL CONFRONT
the lawyers in the Fair case was illustrated
in another famous proceeding. Wallace C. An
drews, a New York millionaire, together with his
wife and Mrs. St. John, his wife's sister, died In a
fire In April, 1899. Mr. Andrews had made a will
by the terms of which one million dollars was set
aside for tho purpose of founding a college for
girls at Willoughby, O. Other bequests wore made,
including one to Mrs. St John. Norman C. An
drews, a brother of the dead millionaire, was not
mentioned in the will. This brother instituted
proceedings to test the validity of the document
He insisted that if Mrs. St John did not survive
Mr. Andrews the legacy to Mrs. St. John would
abate and as to that sum Andrews would have
died intestate. In that event tho brother claimed
that he would be entitled to a share of the money.
Unless Mr. Andrews died before his wife did it
was claimed Aiat his bequest for charitable pur
poses was valid only to tho extent of one-half
of the estate- the excess of this amount would
then go to the heirs, of whom the brother was
one. This question Is yet In the courts and the
point at issue, has not yet been determined.
PRESIDENT JOHN TYLER'S DAUGHTER
has expressed the hope that in the improve
ments now being made at the White house, tho
old chandeliers and candelobra will be spared.
Mrs. Semple says: "They were selected by Presi
dent Monroe. He was minister to France before
he was elected president, and both he and his
wife had excellent taste, as all of tho furnishings
which they selected show. The chandeliers I
speak of have been made to suit old lamps, candles,-
gas and electricity. In my father's time can
dles were used, and it took twenty-four boxes for
one evening only. It was the most becoming il
lumination in the world, and the whole expense
of it, which was considerable, as you may imagine,
came out of the president's salary, which was
only half at that period what it is today."
ACHILLICOTHE, MO., NEWSPAPER RE
lates an Interesting story of an old man
who Is spending his last years on the farm of
J. H. Felt, near that place. The old man, who is
known as "Colonel Charley," is, it says, a nephew
of Lafayette, and fought seven years in the French
army, went through all the Mexican war with
Uncle Sam's army and through the civil war on
the union side. He is 80 years old, and has heart
failure. Like-ithe last of "The Three Guardsmen"
he lives in his memory and can tell many stories of
great interest about his exciting experiences. His
tales of the French revolution are the most in
teresting and his personal knowledge of the great
and only Napoleon is extensive.
THE KANSAS CITY JOURNAL, COMMENT
Ing on this tale, says these stories are truly
remarkable especially so when one considers that
the French revolution occurred about thirty years
before "Colonel Charley" was born; that the bat
tle of Waterloo was fought seven years before he
was born, and that "the great and only Napoleon"
died on St. Helena when he was but 4 years old.
His "personal knowledge" of these things must be
very accurate and his stories as interesting as
veracious. The ojd fellow may suffer from heart
failure, but there is nothing the matter with his
imagination.
A BROWN UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE HAV
ing charge of the John Carter Brown library
.of Americana, recently had under consideration
the proposition to purchase a certain map at the
immense cost of $50,000. The offer was not made,
however, because those 'having the map In charge
would not guarantee that the sum named would
be accoptcd. It Is said that this map would sell
for much more than $50,000 in London. Tho Kan
sas City Journal gives this description: It is the
first mnp ever published that contained tho word
America as a name applied to our Western con
tinent, and it was issued in Gormany in 1507 by
a geographer named Waldseemullor. For a cen
tury or more it had been lost, but about two years
ago it was found in an old folio In the privato li
brary of Prince Waldonburg of Wurtemburg. The
prince's agent approached the ..Brown univorslty
authorities with referonco to tllu map, but ho is
believed to bo seeking offers on which to bas
negotiations for a much higher prico from the
Gorman government
IN THE BUJJIAL REGISTFR OF WHITE
chapel under the year 1619 is the' following
entry: "June 21st, Richard Brandon, a man out
of Rosemary Lane. This Brandon Is held to be
the man who beheaded Charles ti?. First." It Is
said by a writer In t Harper's Magazine for Sep
tember that a less distinguished candidate for the
infamy was one William Howlott, actually con
demned to death after the Restoration for a part
he never played, and only saved from tho gallows
by the urgent efforts of a few citizens who swore
that Brandon did the deed. Brandon was not
availablo for retribution. He had died in his bed,
six months after Charles was boheaded, and had
been hurried ignomlnlously into his grave in
Whitechapel churchyard. As public executioner of
London, ho could hardly escape his deBtiny; but it
Is said that remorse and horror shortened I1I3
days. In his supposed "confession," a tract wide
ly circulated at tho tirao, he claims that ho was
'fetched out of bed by a troop of horse," and car
ried againBt his will to tho scaffold. Also that he
was paid 30, all in half-crowns, for the wprk.
and had "an orange stuck full of cloves, and
handkerchief out of the king's pocket" The
orange ho sold for 10 shillings in Rosemary Lane.
DR. G. STANLEY HALL,nA NOTED EDU
cator, declares that "slang aids tho boy or
girl of fourteen to nineteen years to acquire flu
ency." It is difficult to follow Dr. Hall!s argu
ment Slang always runs in set phrases and these
phrases aro repeated with parrotiliko .frequency.
Content with a few slang expressions tho boy or
girl does not seek for other phrases and the re
sult is a limltod vocabulary instead of a larger one.
Slang phrases aro often expressive and more eas
ily understood than more grammatical phrases,
but more often thoy aro silly and impertinent
An exchange commenting on Dr. Hall's view re
marks that slang is not respectable, and offers
as proof of tho statement tho fact that when slang
becomes respectable it Is no longer slang.
THE WORKINGS OF THE HUMAN MIND
are wonderful, and despite the advance in
psychic research remain a deep mystery. Tho evi
dence of this Is found In a recent railroad wreck
in Iowa. With signals set against him, without
orders and in tho face of tho fact that tho station
agent told him that another train was coming to
ward him on the "block," the conductor of a con
struction train took his train out. A collision oc
curred in which a dozen men lost their lives. The
erring conductor is expected to die, but although
conscious ho cannot offer any explanation of his
conduct. He knew that he should not proceed
without orders, he knew that the signals told him
to remain on tho siding until tho other train had
passed him, and ho knew ho sb d have heeded
tho warnings of the station agent, yet ho took tho
train out. Perhaps tho Society for the Prpmotion
of Psychical Research may be able to offer an ex
planation of the conductor's actions.
m ' "'
I7VER SINCE BRIGHAM YOUNG LED HIS
L, people into Utah and effected a settlement
the Great Salt Lake has been, a great resort for
tourists. Grave fears are entertained now that
the lake is doomed. It has no outlet and depends
for its water supply upon tho mountain snows. Ir
rigation has become extensive in the Utah val
leys and the snows of the Wasatch mountains are
being diverted from the lake to the ditches. A
few years ago a mammoth pavilion was built on
the beach eighteen miles from Salt Lake City, and
the bathing rooms were built out over the water.
Three years ago the water under the pavilion waa
four feet deep; today it is barely six inches deep.
Bathers must be content now with paddling around
in a depth of one foot or eighteen inches. Diver
sion of the mountain snow water and evaporation
threaten this great inland sea with extinction life
less something is done to renew the supply, and
there is talk of artesian wells for this purpose.
The lake is very shallow arid a fall of two
or three feet more will bring it down to a mer
pond in size.