.MARCH 8, 1007
The Commone'r.
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which projected from tlie side of his cage. Im
mediately upon sustaining the injury the queer
creature went to a corner and selected a handful
of clean sawdust to place until the bleeding
stopped', which was in but a few moments. The
sawdust was saturated with blood, which had
dried and formed a most excellent coating for the
wound, protecting it until entirely well, it should
be mentioned that the dog's medical instinct does
not halt at the saliva treatment. He is a physi
cian as well as a surgeon. The dog tliat goes
searching around in the Held with apparent aim
lessness and finally settles down to chew up some
unattractive and unpalatable green is taking a
prescription, taught him by nature. The blades he
eats are those of the couch grasswhich your
physician would probably designate on his pre
scription blank as triticum rcpens and it perform
the offices of a purgative. Instances could be re
cited at length of animal display of the medical
instinct. Horses, and even the less intelligent
mules, eat clay when they are afllicted with a
stomachic disorder, commonly designated by the
veterinarian as 'sours.' Cattle suffering with
eczema have frequently been known to plaster an
affected hoof and joint with mud. Dr. Weir tells
of a cow which deliberately broke the ice on a
pond in the winter and treated her itching joint
to a bath of mud. The" fondness of the domestic
qat for catnip is not a condition of mind attendant
upon the enjoyment of abs lute health, for it Is
only when the feline is feeling somewhat 'under
the weather' that it will seek the solace of the
soothing properties of this vegetation. Under such
circumstances cats have been known to travel
miles to get the catnip."
O
NOT the least remarkable of all the achieve
ments in tlie line of surgery and medicine 'ire
those of the birds. The Advertiser writer says:
"Dr. George M. Gould cites instances of wood
cock killed, which, when examined, were found
to be recovering from previous wounds inflicted
by hunters. Such wounds, made by small shot
in the body of the bird, were neatly dressed with
down plucked from the steins of feathers and
deftly arranged about the injured place. Tills
w,ork was evidently done with the beak of the
bird. The skill of members of the feathered tribe
in building their dainty nests is testimony to their
ability in accomplishing ..work of this character
with 'neatness and dispatch.' Of the success of
this .work Dr Gould boars, witness in the state
ment that the woodcock were found to bo con
valescent from old wounds. The same authority
tells of cases of bone-setting by birds, which would
be beyond belief if man was not already familiar
with the marvelous intelligence of the lower
creatures. Birds, which have fallen into the hands
of naturalists and which had previously sustained
serious wounds on the legs, were found to have
actually reinforced the dressing of down with
small straws or twigs just as a doctor would set
a broken limb in splints before applying band
ages
- ENERAL FREDERICK D. GRANT is on the
VX defensive because of some remarks attri
buted to him. General Grant is quoted as having
said: "And I am sorry that the time has come
when the president of the United States has to talk
and argue with the Indicted mayor of a city as to
whether or not the United States will carry out
the provision of a treaty with another country."
It was further reported that General Grant said
that such a tiling could not have possibly taken
place between March 4, 1S09, and March 4, 1877
the period during which his father was president.
General Grant has Avritten a letter to the presi
dent denying that he criticised him.
O
JOHN HURLEY, the Litchfield Gaelic student
who recently announced that Virgil and
Shakespeare wore of Irish descent, now declares
,that President Roosevelt and Jonathan Trumbull,
the revolutionary war governor of Connecticut,
had a common ancestry and that ancestry was
Irish. According to the Associated Press Mr.
Hurlev says the Irish family of Barnalls, Barn
walls, Barnewells. etc., were descendants of Bier
nal or Bernard 6'Bierne, but the names became
mixed with French forms. The family was
named alter St. Barnard, hence Barne, Bearne,
Birne, Barney, O'Beirnaugh, Barnes, Burns, Bar
nel, Barnell, etc. Some of the Barnewells became
barons of Thimblcstown and Viscounts Kingsland
and were variously named Trimble, Trumble,
Trimbleston, Trtmblestone, etc. Trimblestown
and Trimblestown river are in County Meath, Ire
land. One of the Irish ancestors of President
Roosevelt, so .Mr. Hurley declares, was named
Barewall.
says: "The speech was delivered during the ses
sion of the legislature to re-elect Mr. Elkins.
The democratic solon, naturally enough, could not
display any great amount of enthusiasm over the
re-election of Senator Elkins. He wanted to see
a democrat don the senatorial toga. But he could
not see where Senator Elkins was to lie congrat
ulated, so he made a speech along those lines.
The eloquent peroration according to the Wash
ington version, was something after the follow
ing: 'Stephen B. Elkins is a fortunate man; he
should be a happy man, and I doubt not that he
is. lie looks at the rugged hills and mountains of
West Virginia, with all their hidden treasures,
and on the sun-kissed and fruitful valleys of this
great state, and a smile of ineffable contentment
illumines his face. And why shouldn't he smile?
He owns them. He looks on the great railroads
that span the state, with their freight trains laden
with the products of a busy people, and again ho
smiles. And why shouldn't he smile. lie owns
them. lie looks on the legislature, met hero to
elect a senator of the United States, and once
more he smiles. And why shouldn't ho smile?
He owns it"
E,
H. HARRIMAN, head of the1 Union Pacific
r DjiHiuiii, umjwiruu uuioru me iiiiersuuc com
merce commission, told some interesting things
and failed to tell some other things which in tho
opinion of attorneys for the government would
be equally interesting. Mr. Kellogg, attorney for
the government, sought to show that there had
been an enormous inflation of stock securities and
liabilities of the Alton; that the Harriman syndi
cate had taken unfair profits by declaring a div
idend of 30 per cent from the proceeds of the
first sale of bonds, amounting to $40,000,000; that
the syndicate had sold itself the bonds at an un
reasonably low figure only to resell them at enor
mous profit; that the Harriman syndicate had in
the Alton capitalized the loss of former stockhold
ers in the road and the money which had been"
spent by the old management for betterments
over a period of ten years and already charged
to operating expenses; that the books of the com
pany had been doctored and that for an increase
of stock and liabilities from about $40,000,000 to
$110,000,000 there was nothing to show except an
expenditure of .$22,000,000 in improvements on
the property.
MR. HARRIMAN denied all of these charges.
He declined, however, to answer many ques
tions concerning his stock transactions. He told
some things concerning the deal in the Alton road
stock, and Mr. Kellogg for the government said:
"In other words you capitalized the $39,000,000 of
the Alton stock for $02,000,000?" Mr. Harriman
replied: "That is as you put it." On the second
day of his examination Mr. narriman charged
that Stuyvesant Fish was deposed from the presi
dency of the Illinois Central because of miscon
duct as to the funds of the company. He per
sistently refused to answer questions relating to
stock transactions. He declared that railroads
should be allowed to. combine "under government
supervision."
A CONCURRENT resolution has been intro
duced in flic Missouri legislature providing
for the proper pronunciation of the name "Mis
souri." The following section explains just how
it should be pronounced: "That the only true pro
nunciation of the name of the state in the opinion
of this body is that received from the native In
dians, and that it should be pronounced in three
syllables, accented on the second syllable. The
vowel in the first syllable is short 'i,' in the second
syllable long double 'o' (o or oo), in the third short
I; 's in the two syllables in which it occurs lias
the sound of 's' and not 'z.' It will be remem
bered that twenty-five years ago the legislature
of Arkansas decided that the name of that state
should be pronounced Ar-kan-saw."
ACCORDING to the Washington correspondent
for the Chicago American, a democratic
member of the West Virginia legislature delivered
a speech which is just now giving Senator .Elkins
all sorts of trouble. The American correspondent
THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMIS
sion suggests that a law be enacted authoriz
ing an onicial investigation of railroad wrecks,
and the Railroad Gazette makes this comment:
"News of a killing railroad disaster comes by tele
phone and telegraph to five authorities the rail
'road stafT; the coroner; the district attorney; the
state railroad commission, and the newspapers.
While the railroad officers and men are caring for
the hurt and dead, clearing the wreck, rebuilding
the line, and searching for the cause, the four
higher authorities are competing in independent
investigations. The evidence is not collated, It
is separated. The coroner arrests suspects, seizes
broken parts and holds them as 'exhibits,' halts
the officers in charge of removals, arid is apparent
ly within the law in enforcing any order. The rep
resentatives of the district attorney and the com
mission are also lawfully entitled to get and keep,
if they- can, .evidence for .their own consideration.
The newspaper men need no legal enactment for
support In their work. They are not to be gain
said. The establishment ljy congressional action
of a bureau for investigating and making public
the causes of important train accidents seems to
bo Inevitable, and, if it is wisely planned and offi
cered, should bo not only Inevitable but benefi
cent." IN HIS ADDRESS' to the students of Harvard
college Mr. Roosevelt said that he hoped Har
vard would not "turn out Mollycoddles Instead Vf
vigorous men." Defending football Mr. Roosevelt
said that It is "simple nonsense, a mere confession
of weakness, to desire to abolish a game because
tendencies show themselves or practices grow up
which prove that the game ought to be rofornied.
There Is no real need for considering the
question of the abolition of the game." College
authorities should make "thelrntorfaronce as lit
tle officious as possible." Mr. Roosevelt added:
"We cannot afTord to turn out of college men who
shrink from physical effort or from a little physical
pain. In any republic courage Is a prime necessity
for the average citizen If he is to be a good citi
zen, and he needs physical courage no less than
moral courage, the courage that dares as well as
the courage that endures, the courage Unit will
fight valiantly alike against the foes of the soul
and the foes of the body. Afiilctics are good, es
pecially in their rougher forms, because they tend
to develop such courage."
MR. ROOSEVELT Is now being reminded by
various publications that President Eliot of
Harvard is, under tho Roosevelt definition, a
"mollycoddle." For instance, tho New York Even
ing Post reminds us that in one of ids annual re
ports President Eliot said: "The game of foot
ball has become seriously Injurious to ratfona'l
academic life in American schools and colleges."
He mentions among minor objections tne 'extreme
publicity,' the physical Injury of the players, 'the
absorption of the undergraduate mind in the sub
ject,' and' 'the disproportionate exaltation of the
football hero.' His main objection, however, is
against its 'moral quality,' as resulting from 'im
moderate desire to win intercollegiate games'.
President Eliot enumerates:
The profit from violations of" rules.
Tlie misleading assimilation of the game to war
as regards Its strategy and its ethics.
President Eliot adds: "Civilization has long
been in possession of much higher ethics than those
of war, and experience lias abundantly proved
that tlie highest efficiency for service and the finest
sort of courage in individual men may be accom
panied by, and, indeed spring from, unvarying
generosity, gentleness, and good-will."
SPEAKING on the Smoot resolution in tlie sen
ate Mr. Tillman said: "We have all Heard
that in the last presidential election an under
standing was readied by those who had charge
of the campaign that if the Mormon vote went a
certain way a certain colleague of ours would be
cared for. And we have Heard It talked tod that
the chief executho, who was the beneficiary of
that vote thougTi lie did not need it lias exerted
himself to the utmost to carry out that agreement,
and is using Ids influence to stave off a vote and
protect in every way lie could the senator from
Utah. These bargains are not conducive to th
public welfare. I am sick and disgusted with tills
disposition on tho part of the senate, and with
congress actually surrendering everything into the
keeping of the executive."
SOME LEARNED MEN are discussing tlie
origin of the aurora borealis. A reader of the
New York World writes to that paper to say that
there is no mystery about this, adding: "The nec
essary conditions, for tlie production of an aurora
are a cold, dry, crisp night, with a swirling wind
to take tlie dust from the earth up into the air.
Some ten years ago several people, Including the
writer, were standing on the corner of Alexander
avenue and and Southern Boulevard, Bronx, when
we witnessed the formation of an aurora. Cloud
after cloud of oust was taken up into the air, and
when It readied the height Of the house-tops it
suddenly produced the weird light of the aurora.
An electrician in tlie party explained how tlie dust
became charged with electricity, thus producing
the light I may add that the said electrician was
greatly elated as he said: 'That is light without
heat, and if certain dielectrics properly prepared
were placed in a vacuum and subjected to a high
electrical potential, artificial daylight would bo
tlie result.' The electrician shortly afterward filed
an application for a patent, but the wise men in
the patent office evidently thought he had buzzing
In his brain, as his application was summarily re
jected. Surely others must have observed the
formation of the aurora, and I should be pleased
to have them confirm the above."
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