"'" vmi w"mww in
The Commoner.
NOVEMBER 27, 1008
9
eary to run for office again, but I will not at
tempt to decide that question until the timo
comes to act. I do not seo any necessity to Bay
more on the subject." Jn answer to the direct
question, "Will you run for the presidency again
if conditions arise to warrant it?" William J.
Bryan tonight dictated the foregoing statement.
Regarding the future of the democratic party,
ho said: "I am not at all discouraged as to the
future of the democratic party. There must ho
a democratic party in every country, and 1 want
our party to be democratic f and I have no doubt
that the country will see the necessity for the
adoption of the reforms advocated by the demo
cratic party. It is already a great educational
force, and I have no doubt that conditions will
so indicate the party as to make the voters turn
to it as the best instrument for the accomplish
ment of the necessary reforms." "Will you
allow yourself to be elected United States sen
ator from Nebraska?" he was asked. "Ne
braska does not elect a senator this year," ho
said with a smile. "But it does wo years from
now," ho was reminded. "You have my state
ment regarding my future so far as I care to
say," and he refused to discuss the subject
further.
NEWSPAPEP circles were greatly agitated
recently by the announcement that Wil
liam R. Hearst had paid a visit to Theodore
Roosevelt at the White House and had received
a most cordial welcome. Referring to that
visit the New York World was unkind enough
to say: "We wonder if Mr. Roosevelt mqde
this social function even more joyous by recit
ing any of the 'following extracts from the
speech delivered by Secretary Root at Utlca,
November 1, 1906, when Mr. Hearst was a can
didate, for gpyernqr of New York: 'I say to
you with his (Rpbsevelt's) authority that he
regards Mr. Hearst as wholly unfit to be gov
ernor, as an insincere, self-seeking demagogue
Who is trying" to deceive the workingmen of
New York by false statements and false prom
ises; I say to you with his authority that he
considers thatt Mr. Hearst's election would be
an injury and a discredit alike to honest labor
and to honest capital and a serious injury to
the work in which he is engaged of enforcing
just and equal laws against corporation wrong
doing. President Roosevelt and Mr. Hearst
st,and as far as the poles asunder. Listen to
what President Roosevelt himself has said of
Mr. Hearst and his kind. In President Roose
velt's first message to congress, in speaking of
the assassin of McKinley, he spoke of him as
inflamed 'by the reckless utterances of those
who, on the stump and in the public press, ap
peal to the dark and evil spirits of malice and
greed, envy and sullen hatred. The wind is
sowed by the men who preach such doctrines,
and they can not escape their share of respon
sibility for the whirlwind that is reaped. This
applies alike to the deliberate demagogue, to
the exploiter of sensationalism and to the crude
and foolish visionary who for whatever reason
apologizes for crime or excites aimless discon
tent.' I say, by the president's authority, that
in penning these words, with the horror of
President McKinley 's murder fresh before him,
he had Mr. Hearst specifically in his mind. And
I say, by his authority, that what he thought
of Mr. Hearst then he thinks of Mr. Hearst
now.' "
ARRESTED, TRIED, convicted and sentenced
to the penitentiary, all within less than
four hours, is tho finale of the story of Peter
Van Vlissengen of Chicago. Van Vlissengen,
for years a real estate dealer in Chicago, and
tanked among the most prosperous and repu
table business men of that city was, during all
that time, doing a fraudulent business. Imme
diately after his arrest he was arraigned be
fore the court and tearfully confessed that for
eighteen to twenty years he had been securing
money through the sale of forged documents,
and though he had bought back many of these
spurious Instruments without detection, at least
twenty-five people would lose an aggregate f
?7 00,0 00 through the paper which he has not
yet redeemed. In forging notes he declared
he had perfected a unique device. This con
sisted of a plate glass desk top so arranged that
by an electric light thrown up from beneath he
could readily trace from the original forged sig
natures onto worthless paper. Throughout his
arrest and sentence the prisoner made no effort
to defend himself, but only requested that his
punishment be speedy. Asked if -he had any
thing to s& before sentence Was imposed van
Vlissingon bowed his head and roplied: "Only
that 1 bo given my punishment at once." His
term in the penitentiary Was fixed at indeter
minate from one to fourteen years.
SPEAKING OF tho "irony of fate," perhaps
tho story that comes from North Carolina
is about tho best'cxamplo of it that has come
to public notice for some time. Tho Greens
boro Industrial News is tho only republican
daily newspaper published in North Carolina.
Taking this fact in connection with its name it
seems strango that the Industrial News should
bo in financial straits. But recently, since elec
tion, creditors mado application to Judge James
E. Boyd of tho United States court for the ap
plication of a rcceivor. Judgo Boyd granted
tho application and appointed W. L. Underwood
receiver. Mr. Underwood announces that tho
publication will bo continued and the vice presi
dent of tho Industrial Publishing company de
clares that the business will be re-organized and
put upon a sound basis.
NOW THEY ore quarreling over the author
ship of "Littje Drops of Water." Tlio
New York Times? says: "The announcement pf
the death of the author of the jingle beginning
'Little drops of water, Little grains of sand'
must have caused a good deal of surprise, That
such a famlllai4 rhyme had an identifiable author
has not; been generally known. Even now we
have doubts as- tor Mrs. Carney's clalni o au
thorship of the flfrst stanza of her moral poem.
One of tile 'torjes" is that she wrote it off with
out thjnking,' atf k stenographic exercise, and
afterwards added' the other utterly commonplace
stanzas. Not 6nly is the" authorship of the poem
claimed for Mrs, Carney by her friOnds, but the
date of its composition is announced as 1840.
Does it seem possjbie that people who lived be
fore 1845 did Hot know 'Little drops of water,'
that Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster and Bur
ton tho comedian 'did not learn it in the nursery?
It has the juvenility, the utter simplicity of folk
lore. It seems to have been handed down from
tho ages. Yet We are asked to believe that a'
Boston primary school teacher wrote it with no
intent to perpetuate it, when she was twenty-two
yearg old and studying shorthand, that it came
to her 'all of a su'dden.' Is it nbt a fairer in
ference that she had heard the jingle In her
infancy, and, finding it new to tlu cultured Bos
tonains of her vicinage, was tempted to elaborate
it? Shakespeare, Spenser and the other great
ones thus adiipted the unidentifiable trifles 'f
their era."
THE KANSAS City Star says: "Attention has
already been called to the fact that the
next president will have appointments to make
to the supreme court. That the majority of tho
justices may change in tho next four years has
not, however been generally Understood. Jus
tices are permitted to retire at the age of 70
on full pay. Of the nine members of the court,
five are now above 70 and one will attain that
age before 1913. Their present ages are as
follows: Chief Justice Fuller, 75; Justice Har
lan, 75, Justice White, 73; Justice Brewer, 71;
Justice Peckham, 70; Justice Holmes, 67. The
next president may therefore determine the
tendencies of the supremo court, not merely so
far as personal fitness is concerned, but toward
certain broad questions. Pre-eminent among
these is that of nationalism as contrasted with
state rights. This involves the ability of the
federal government to regulate the corporations,
a matter of the greatest importance to the republic."
IT HAS ALWAYS been tho general Impres
sion that strong wind is a bad thing to
have about when a fire is raging, but in this
iconoclaBtic ago we are no longer surprised to
have old ideas overthrown. It remained for
some quick-witted but unknown genius to turn
the evil of a heavy wind to good advantage in
case of fire. For several weeks a drouth has
raged in somo sections of Pennsylvania, and
this drouth was especially hard at Indiana, in
the Keystone state. The drouth was so severe
that the city's water supply was exhausted, and
when a fire broke out in a row of houses at
Iselin, a mining suburb the water pipes wero
empty and it seemed certain that the entire
suburb would be destroyed. But a quick witted
man bethought himself of something, and im
mediately proceeded to put his idea into prac
tice He had the water mains connected with
tho compressed air pumps at the mfnes and
started working ns hard as possible. Then tho
volunteer firemen turned tho compressed nir
upon the flro and literally blew it out. Tho
damage wub confined to tho one Iiouho In which
tho fire originated. At any rate this Is tho story
told lava djspatch to the Pittsburg Dispatch
IT HAS BEEN Boveral yoars mIiipo the "thumb
print" craze ravnged (ho country as a re
sult of Mark Twain's "Puddln'head Wilson," but
it bids fair to be revived by a recent offer pro
mulgated by Secretary Garfield. The Associated
Prcas report recently carried tho following In
teresting story under date of Pawkunka, Okla
homa: "Secretary Garfield and tho Interior
department have officially Indorsed tho thumb
print as a signature concerning tho transactions
of the Osage Indians. Indian Agent Millard,
located here, has been notified that hereafter
the thumb print of each Indian shall ho affixed
to his receipt for the payment of annuity money,
and wijl also bo recognized by the department
in signing leases and other instruments In writ
ing. Records will ho taken of tho thumb prints
of the various membors of the trjbo, about
2,200 in all, and preserved for reference."
THE INTERSTATE commerce commission han
recently Issued its casualty roport fOr0tho
Hsiial year ending Juno 30, 1903. H the tfst
of dead and wounded wan that of somo. battjo
tho whole world would stand aghast, but as It
is mer'ely tho list of killed and wounded In. tho
industrial field it Will result only in odltqrlnl
comment for a few weeks and thon vtlll como
fdrgetfulncss. In the mcanwfilo the terrlhlo
slaughter will continue with practically no abate
ment. During the year ending Juno 30, 1908,
there wero 3,704 persons killed and C8,99, 'In
jured in railroad casualties In the United State's.
Bad as these figures appear they are better than
the figures of the year before, showing a de
crease Of 1,230 in the number of killed and
3,297 in the number of injured. Commenting
upon tills record of slaughter tho Wall Street
Journal says: "Many a war fills pages in, the
world's history with a less number of human
beings killed and maimed than make?, tip (ha
annual record of slaughter and mutllatipn on
American railroads."
AN INTERESTING psychological experiment
that is soon to bo mado is described by an
Associated Press dispatch from New Yprk Jn
this way: "Attracted by the $5,000 offered, by
the Metropolitan Psychological society of this
city to the person who can count a number of
oranges without seeing them, a man In Oakland
City, Ind., comes forward with tho assertion
that he is ready to make good by auto-suggestion.
Dr. L. S. Trusler of the Indiana town has
written to the society telling of the claims
of tho nlan for whom ho stands sponsor, saying
that he is ready to count the oranges when In
formation as to their location is supplied.
Where they are makes no difference to the mys
terious man, it is said, but he must have them
located before proceeding. To add interest to
tho test he proposes to do the counting while
asleep. Tho society has replied to the offer,
requesting that a number of preliminary testa
be gone through to determine the subject's pow
ers and good faith in the matter. Hundreds of
offers to try for the ?5,000 are received by the
society daily."
DR. L. FRANK Derby Pierce of West Rox
bury, Mass., Is responsible for an "animal
story" that certainly deserves the earnest In
vestigation of Theodore Roosevelt when that
strenuous enemy of the "nature fakirs" goes
to Africa. A special dispatch from Chicago
to tho New York World gives Dr. Pierce's story
as follows: "Monkeys and the large gray squir
rels that overrun tho jungles of Africa are their
own dentists. They fill each other's teeth with
consummate skill and often kill an aching nerve.
At least this Is what Dr. L. Frank Derby Pierce
Of West Roxbury, Mass., says, and ho is going
to lecture before Chicago dentists on the sub
ject. Dr. Pierce, who spent several years in the
jungles of Africa, says that monkeys and squir
rels have discovered a blue clay, much the
samo color as that which covers the diamond
fields, and in this clay is a large percentage
. of creosote. When the animals have the tooth
ache they plaster this clay into the cavity as a
remedy. The creosote often kills the offending
nerve.
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