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The Commoner.
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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-
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