Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 1904)
JWjFlPWpwrv. -. SEPTEMBBR' , flM.48?V The Commoner. 5 v5v","lu-ir rCuRReNT tr MWEYMARCK, tho noted French satlstlclan, writing in the St. James Gazette, says that the number of French citizens possessing estates exceeding 2,000,000 Is under thirty, while those possessing estates over 500,000 but under 2,000, 000 in value is about 100. Between 500 and 600 persons possess fortunes averaging from 200;000 to 400,000. Some 4,000 persons in France pos sess fortunes of between 100,000 and under 200,--000. About 13,000 French citizens are "million aires" in the French sense of the word namely, possessing over 40,000 and up to 99,000. Going lower down the scale, it is estimated that 262,000 Frenchmen possess a capital of between 2,000 and 4,000, and 1,648,0JK) hold between 400 and 1,000 each. A WISCONSIN paper published as a "problem," the following: "A banker on his way home found a ten dollar bill, took down the number of it; put it in his pocket, and went on his way re- joicing. "When he reached home the butcher was there with a meat bill of ten dollars. The banker paid the butcher the ten he had found. The butcher paid the same ten to the printer and the printer to the grocer and the grocer to the banker. He noticed that it was the same bill which he had found, and at the same time noticed that it was a counterfeit. -Who was the loser?" EVIDENTLY this was no problem for the editor of the Milwaukee Wisconsin. That editor without shedding a drop of perspiration, solves the "problem" in this way: "No one was the loser, to be sure. But who was the gainer? The story does not represent the banker as insolvent, and it is to be presumed, he was not dependent upon the accident of finding the bill in the street for ability to pay his butcher. Had he paid the butcher in genuine money, the butcher would have been enabled to. pay the printer, and the printer to pay the grocer, and'the grocer to pay the, bank er, so that in that event the chain of accounts vould have been liquidated just the same. No body was any richer for the finding of the counter feit, for it returned to the hands of the one who had Innocently placed it in circulation, and in coming to him it wiped out a claim which he held against another as large as the claim against him to satisfy which he had paid it out. Had the finder of the bill been a dishonest or irresponsible man, the counterfeit might sooner or later have wrought injury. The accident of its Teturn to the banker, who, of course, retired it from circulation when he found out its real character, brought its career to a harmless conclusion, leaving the banker and everybody else no richer and no poorer, than they would have been if the medium employed in squar ing the series of accounts had been a gsnuine bank' note. But the anecdote illustrates nothing in particular, 'unless it be that honest people won't cheat." ANEW YORK paper recently printed the follow ing news story; "Charles Rankin, who said he was one of the members of the negro cavalry regiment that saved the day at San Juan hill, was held in $1,000 bail for trial in the Jefferson Mar ket court on a charge of burglary. The complain ant, Francis Oliver of West Thirty-second street, said Rankin pried open the door of his home with a 'jimmy' and stole $150 worth of household goods. 'I know Roosevelt well Rankin said. ' I was with him that day at San Juan, and if it hadn't been for the negro troops on that occasion he wouldn't be alive today.' OMMENTrNG upon this- story and writing to the Buffalo, N. Y., Times, "a soldier" says: 'Now, Charles Rankin may know Roosevelt well, and he may have been with him on 'that day;' but neither he nor any other negroes could have saved Roosevelt's life on San Juan hill for two very good reasons. First, Roosevelt's life was not In danger that day,' and secondly, he was not in the fight at all on San Juan hill. It Is astonlshirig to find to what extremes this myth will go. San Juan hill was assaulted and captured by Gen. Sam Hawkins and Col. Wyckoff the latter being killed in the attack and Mr. Roosevelt had no more to do with it than the .Buffalo baseball team. Col. Bacon in his review of the mitltary operations in Calm, In the August number of the Army and Navy Critic, exposes finally and for all time Roosovolfs claim to military glory from the San Juan episode. After San Juan had been captured Roosevelt decided that it was time for him to charge something, so he marched his men frantically up Kettle Hill. Ket tle Hill derived its name from tho fact that an old kettle was. found on top of it. It was not for tified. It contained no intrenchments. It held no Spaniards.. Col. Bacon says that it nevor had held any Spaniards, and that the American troops had passed by it without a thought of marching upon it, because there was nothing on top to march for. Roosevelt charged it purely for the bencilt of his press bureau, and Col. Bacon states positive ly that during tho engagement 'that day' Col. Roosevelt never saw a Spaniard, unless he was able to look through Kettle Hill." NEWS- has reached London of the death at Mombasa of a remarkable African native who accompanied Bishop Hannington ou his ill fated journey to Uganda. The London Telegraph says: "This is the Rev. W. H. Jones, a member of the Yao tribe, who, having been rescued in early life by a British cruiser from an Arab slave ship, was sent to Bombay. Here he learned the trade, of blacksmith, and just forty years ago again set foot in Africa, where he became the first native clergyman of tho East African mission. Indeed, his knowledge of the English tongue and great intelligence generally afford a striking, though "not solitary, example of tho high state of cultivation attainable by the African mind under tho influ ences of civilization. Mr. Edun, who accompanied tho Alake of Abeokuta to this country, was an other, while, in more distant times, a third in stance was furnished by the case of Ignatius San cho, the literary negro, and tho subject of one of Gainsborough's pictures. After the bishop's mur der, Mr. Jones, who had , been left with part of the caravan in Kairrondoj led the rtion the whole 500 miles back again to the coast, jtlie guide car rying aloft the blue flag, so familiar a feature at missionary exhibitions, inscribed with the word 'Ichabod' in white characters." IN THIS day of cures and cures, a New York dispatch to the Chicago Tribune, relating to the strangest cure of all is interesting. The Trib une's New York correspondent says: "Senor Eusebio Santos, a Spaniard living in Brooklyn, thrives on a diet of grass alone just plain, ordi nary grass, which he plucks in the park with his own hands. His only drink Is water. His story is corroborated by the people with whom he lives. He himself accentuated his tale by eating about a quart of fresh grass for the "gentlemen of the press' out of a two quart soup tureen 'Senor,' he said in Spanish, taking a mouthful of what re mained in the large tureen, 'I am a Spaniard. I went to Cuba from Spain fifteen years ago. Before I was long in the island iny health gave out. "Starve yourself," said my physician. "Eat pota toes," said he; "eat potatoes." I grew sick of potatoes. "Then chew grass," said the doctor; "nice clean grass, and drink water." So for six months my diet has been nothing but grass. Now I am in perfect physical condition. I never all, I feel strong, and warm, and fresh, and I have forgotten what it is to. have a headache.'" IT IS said that Col. Prentiss Ingraham of Chi cago, who recently died, has contributed to English fiction 46,000,000 words, or a dally average of more than 3,700 words during the thirty-four years that he made a living by his pen. A writer in the Chicago Tribune says: "One thousand novels or novelettes is the estimate given by the family and friends of Colonel Ingraham as his life's work. For years he wrote a novel every two or three weeks. Not all of these were published in book form, though many of them were, having first been given to the public as serials In maga zines or weekly papers. Quantities of them were published under a pen name in the form of dime novels or 'libraries.' Comparatively few were copyrighted. Reduced to the number of words, the basis on which a writer's capacity is often esti mated Colonel Ingraham's output was something like this- 600 novels, averaging 70,000 words each, 42 000 000 words; 400 novelettes, averaging 10,000 DPICSJW v? -r... -x - usysfj words oach, 4,000,000 words; annual output, 1,353, 944 words; dally output, 3,706 words; hourly out put, 154.7; capacity per mlnuto, every hour of the day for twonty-four yearn, 2.24 words. The fore going does not Include verses, magazine articles, newspaper sketches, and miscellaneous matter that might oasily havo brought up Colonel Ingraham'B dally average to 4,000 words." THE republican campaign text book for 1904 devotes several pages to what it calls "the be. Louis-Esopus episode." In this book It is said (hat tho telegram Hcnt by Mr. Parker to Mr. Shce han at St. Louis, July 9, was prearranged. The Brooklyn Eagle says that It Is in a position to affirm and to maintain by proof that Judge Parkor wrote the famous gold tolegram Saturday morn ing, July 9, at 11 o'clock; that ho wrote the dis patch on his own initiative without consultation or communication with anyone and that the dis patch was not written and sent in pursuance of a prearrangemont and that those who were devoted to the Parker cause in St. Louis had no fore knowledge of- it. AN IMPORTANT decision was rendered In tho federal court at St. Louis by Judge John Rogers in the case of Lee Won Ton, a Chinaman, against whom a deportation case was brought Judge Rogers held that Lee Won Ton could legally remain in this country. The SL Louis Post-Dispatch explains: "Tho decision establishes a pre cedent in determining the legal status of a China man who changes his occupation while in this contury, Judge Rogers' opinion being the first ever handed down on the subject. The Chinese ex clusion act grants merchants the privilege of com ing into the United States. It excludes laborers. Leo Won Tong entered tho country as a merchant, and remained a merchant for several years. He then became a laborer, and the customs depart ment sought to deport him, holding that as a laborer he had no right to enter this country and therefore had no right to remain. The China man contended, and Judge Rogers' decision sus tains him, that he came into the country legally, and once here, the government had not the right to deport him." '' THERE is one illusion about Japan to which a writer in the London Spectator directs at tention. This writer says that the notion can not be got rid of that tho island empire is but a little state whhih in a very short time must bleed to death. This writer adds: "It is not very easy to trace the origin of this belief, unless It be the habit of expecting great size in all Asiatic empires, or-of comparing the area of Japan with that of China or of Russia itself. So compared Japan Is of course, a little place, which looks on the maps almost insignificant. Compared, however, in a more sensible way with the other Island empire which has so long been one of the great powora of the world, Japan is by no means small. Its total area, without counting Formosa, is by 27,000 square miles greater than that of the British isles, and as large a proportion of it is fertile and thickly populated. That population again is 44, 000,000, or 3,000,000 greater "than our own (1901), 6,000,000 greater than that of France, and almost equal to that of Austria-Hungary." IF THE word "little" refers to strength for war, according to the Spectator writer, that strength is in many respects superior to the Brit ish strength. The Spectator writer explains: "W6 could probably destroy the Japanese fleet, but the Japanese fleet has destroyed that of Russia, and could, if allowance Is made for position, main tain a contest with that of France or Germany which would not be absolutely hopeless. As re gards soldiers Japan has a conscription, and the conscription obviously works. Within the last six months the country has sent out six armies, each nearly equal to either of the forces that con tended at Waterloo. We thought we had dono a great thing when we sent 80,000 men to India in 1857, and an extraordinary one when we trans ported 200,000 men to South Africa in 1900. But Japan has transported more than 400,000 men across the sea, and is now defying the Russians at Liao Yan and Port Arthur with armies great- .1 J . ",U-i'H&