KOBERT GOOD Editor and Prop
VALENTINE - NEBRASKA
If there is one real failure passible
in life It is the failure to be true to
the best one knows
A New York physician says he can
give directions for living a hundred
years Well anyone can do that
The reason a woman is in no hurry
to die is that she wishes to sweep into
heaven after everybody else is seated
Pride is never so effectually put to
the Tlush as when it finds Itself con
trasted with an easy but dignilied hu
mility
A Paris dispatch says M Sauverin
was scratched in a duel fought early
this morning Heavens The women
have begun it now
That the Prince of Wales is 5G years
old of course lessens his possible period
as king However hes supposed to
have had a royal time as it is
A Boston asylum advertises for gra
tuitous contributions of perused litera
ture for eleemosynary distribution
The Bostonese have such a charming
way of putting things
New York has sent sixty women in
bloomers to civilize the Klondike re
gions If they reach their destination
at all it is pretty safe to wager that
they will be civilized by the miners
New England farmers have organ
ized co operative hog killing clubs Un
til a national organization is establish
ed however the person who sprawls
over two seats in a crowded railroad
car need feel no uneasiness
A New Jersey training school for
nurses has refused a diploma to a
young woman who writes poetry This
is rather rough on the young woman
but just think how unpleasant she
would niaSe tilings for an invalid
Miss Augusta Main of New Berlin
Conn charged with an assault Avith
intent to kill declared in court that
there were two things in the world she
hated and they were men and dogs
I never see either she said but
what I ache to kill them How un
womanly in her not to love dogs
Mrs McKinley mother of the Presi
dent has been informed that she is
one of the heirs to the rich estate of a
relative who has just died in Scotland
With the Presidency of the United
States and a fortune in Scotland things
are breaking nicely for William Mc
Kinley and his venerable mother
Science and sanitation not only ought
to drive yellow fever out of the United
States but it ought to drive out all
other filth diseases We talk about
the dirt of the Digger Indians and yet
we are dying by the thousands all the
time from dirt The unpardonable sin
of civilization is its daily death rate
from dirt
The British lion is now maintaining
two wars against uncivilized tribes
Both are being waged by the tribes in
an attempt to maintain or regain inde
pendence of which Great Britain has
robbed or is seeking to rob them The
sun never sets upon the British empire
and it never runs its daily course but it
sees blood spilled by British bayonets
Germanys foolish hostility to Eng
land as voiced through her monarch
naturally gives offense to Austrian and
Italian statesmen and to that extant
weakens the tie between the three na
tions Thus far the net result of the
Kasiers freaks in his efforts to isolate
England has been the creation of a dis
trust toward himself among his friends
which may if his pranks are persisied
in isolate Germany
The scheme of autonomy proposed
for Cuba by the new Liberal ministry
goes farther than previous projects of
the kind If it were carried out Cuba
-would have its own legislature chosen
directly by the people and this legisla
ture would have control over taxation
the tariff public instruction and all
matters of internal administration
There would be a ministry appointed
by the Governor General from this
legislature and responsible to it The
Governor General appointed by Spain
would have a veto upon legislation
xhe unspeakable Turk it appears
has taken his medicine in the case
of the Asia Minor officials whose dis
missal was demanded by the Austrian
Government for outrages perpetrated
against Austrian subjects The result
shows that the Sultan knows how to
ctrine down gracefully when circum
stances over which he has no control
require and in this Instance he seems
to have had no control over the Aus
trian Government The latter Is en
titled to great credit for solving a prob
lem which has puzzled European cab
inets and diplomatists alike in the
past Why cannot the powers use
the hint contained in this little incident
to advantage when their requests are
insolently disregarded by the Sultan
in future Action on this line a year
or two ago might have saved Great
Britain France and Russia from the
charge of virtual complicity in the
Armenian massacres
It has been predicted that Africa
would be the theater of the great strug
gle between European powers in the
next century as America was in the
last two centuries Bishop Hartell of
the Methodist Episcopal church after
gi close observation of the situation in
dorses the opinion There are already
signs of the coming trouble Germany
is watching British progress in Africa
ith a jealous eye and only wants a
pretext to interfere in order to stop
that progress The French are contin
ually encroaching on the sphere of Brit
ish influence and though the French
Government disowns the acts of over
zealous French officers still the Gov
ernment holds whatever they acquire
Africa is a rich prize and English Ger
mans and French to say nothing of
Italians will all seek to gain as large a
slice of the continent as possible It re
quires no prophetic powers to predict
that England will outstrip all her rivals
In the race She has a firm foothold
now bot h in Egypt and South Africa
and every year is acquiring additional
territory England is the great col
onizer of the age and her great naval
power will give her an immense ad
vantage in the coming struggle
The Chilians the yankees of South
America are moving in the matter of
railways and the Chilian government
is considering an offer from a German
syndicate of 35000000 at 4 per cent
to be expended in building lines The
offer is a stroke of enterprise not mere
ly as an investment but because of
the foothold it will give Germany in
South American industries In a
mountainous country like Chili 33000
000 will not build many miles of road
especially since the first effort will
probably be to scale the Andes and es
tablish communication with the Atlan
tic States but it will build so much
that more must be had in order to make
the first available In the end it is
most probable the sum will amount to
100000000 or more besides which
many other millions will have to be in
vested in equipment and Germany
will be in a favorable position to fur
nish all that is required If properly
conducted the movement will be profit
able to both Germany and Chili and
though the United States may regret
to see such an alliance between a
South American State and a foreign
nation the United States will have
nothing to say in contravention of it
The Monroe doctrine does not cover
such a case
According to the annual report or
the commissioner of the general land
office at Washington the United States
government still owns nearly G00000
000 acres of land in addition to the
300000000 acres embraced in Alaska
This land is in twenty five States and
Territories Montana stands at the
head of the list with 71500000 acres
There are still 1000000 acres of public
land in Kansas 500000 acres in Mis
souri and 10500000 acres in Nebras
ka The greater part of the govern
ments possessions consists of arid
lands and mountainous districts which
are unfit for agricultural uses Though
without much value at the present
time many million acres of this great
public domain is destined at some fu
ture time to support a large population
by means of cultivation with the aid
of irrigation and the present growing
sentiment in favor of experiments in
government operation of industries
will probably result before many
years in the construction of vast irri
gation systems in the arid regions by
the United States government There
is an excellent opportunity there to
test some of the popular Socialistic
theories without a disturbance of the
existing industrial and social condi
tions and without any chance of se
rious loss to the government There
are many people in the United States
who are inclined to approve a good
many features of the single tax idea
for example but who are too conser
vative to advocate an application of
the theory to lands already controlled
by individuals Such persons would
welcome some experiments with the
theory in the regions now owned by
the government which can be made
arable by irrigation and it is not at all
unlikely that a well considered plan for
developing these lands and putting
them into use with the government as
a great landed proprietor and the peo
ple as lessees or renters majT be adopt
ed by Congress before inany years In
times these lands will be a source of
great wealth to someone and as they
are now owned by the government and
there is a strong sentiment in favor of
launching the nation into an experi
ment of that sort there seems to be no
good reason why the government
should not undertake by irrigation to
put large bodies of arid lands in condi
tion to yield the treasury a substantial
revenue and at the same time make a
test of the effects of such an enter
prise on the social conditions the in
dustry and the enterprise of people
who are anxious to take part in such
an experiment
John Bull Sizes Himself Up
England to day says a London news
paper is what Carthage was in times
of old We are ruled by a hungry
greedy aristocracy which In its turn
is ruled by loan mongers and by com
pany mongers Honor and honesty
under this regime are derided as old
fashioned superstitions The minister
who can steal any teritory whose in
habitants are too weak to resist us is
acclaimed as a hero The company
promoter who can build a palace by
appropriating the savings of his fel
low countrymen is worshipped as a di
vinity When we mow down Africans
with Maxims we glory in this proof of
our bravery When at the bidding of
kings and emperors we shell Euro
peans struggling to free themselves
from the suzerainty of some wretch
who claims their allegiance we glory
in our shame And while we swagger
and boast of our might we are in such
abject fear of being attacked that we
heap up armaments on armaments be
cause no matter what we spend we
sttl Avould spend more to make us
secure
A long pedigree doesnt prevent a
hora Xrojn ljeins the last of his race
HiE PADllONE SYSTEM
FLOURISHES IN CHICAGOS ITAL
IAN SECTION
Miacrablc Children Held in Bitter
Bondage and Mutilated So as to Create
the Sympathy of the Public Fiend
ish Cruelty and Greed
White Slavesi
The horrible padrone spstem flourish
es in the Italian section of Chicago and
Innocent childhood is held in a thrall
dom far worse than the slavery that
existed In the South before the war
Recently a newspaper man with sev
eral police officers made a tour of the
I
Li
1
AF11AID TO GO HOME
Italian quarteis and the result is a
story of bitter bondage of fiendish
cruelty and of most rapacious greed
The first stop says the reporter was
made at a tumble down two story
house on Ewing street near Des
plaines No lights could be seen from
the outside but the noisy gabble of
voices told of a lively commotion
among the inmates Here on the up
per floor In one squalid room lives a
frowns upon the padrone system but
thinks It merely a matter of good
health to keep his mouth shut This
matter of sullen retention of knowl
edge is one of the hardest things the
police have to cope with Murderous
affrays are common among the Ital
ials but it Is exceedingly difficult to
make an arrest or secure a conviction
because even the victims refuse to give
information The stiletto is ever ready
for the Informer
On Forquer street not far from
j ferson lives a padrone who is waxing
fat off the pickings of twelve little chil
dren in various stages of productive
ness Some travel about with wheezy
concertinas others peddle newspapers
others sell chewing gum and others
get money in questionable ways But
they all bring grist to his financial mill
every night or they go supperless to
fced and feel the weight of a stick as
well
From this den the party made its
way through a dark alley cluttered
with refuse to the rear of a black forbidding-looking
building on Desplaines
street A sudden yanking open of the
door by the combined efforts of the
four officers revealed a crowd of des
perate men huddled In a small room
On the faces of all was plainly written
the fear of arrest and the assurance
that nobody was wanted seemed to
give relief to all of them This build
ing is the one from which Capt Wheel
ers officers in December last took a
padrone named Mosielli and his wife
Lucy on the charge of having delib
erately burned out the eyes of three
children for begging purposes When
the children were first found they re
fused to say a word against the pa
drone and it was not until they were
given to the care of a reputable Italian
woman and tenderly treated that the
terrible story was coaxed out of them
Capt Wheeler who made a personal
investigation of the case was satisfied
that Mosielli would be sent to the peni
tentiary but at the trial the same old
difficulty of securing testimony was
I I Ml
11
nrn r r t i i
TIIE PADRONE EVIL IN CHICAGO
fHelpIcss children held in bondane forced to beg and steal and punished by their Italian masters
If tney do not briug In the money required of them J
man with fifteen children ranging in
age from 5 to 10 years None of these
belong to him by parental ties they
hav been bought or leased from inhu
man mothers and fathers or stolen
outright As the party groped its way
up the dark stairs there was the sound
of a hard slap and a mans voice ut
tered some harsh reproof in Italian A
faint gleam of light came from under
the door of the room but the door it
self wras barred they always are in
that part of the town where unexpect
ed visits by the police are not welcome
Officer Birmingham laid his hand on
the knob lightly and the lamp was at
once extinguished It took long rap
pings and repeated assurances in mon
grel Italian to convince the man that
no harm was intended or in other
words that he was not to be arrested
and finally he consented to open the
door part way while inquiry was made
after a supposititious neighbor The
timely striking of a match revealed a
room bare of furniture with the excep
tion of a rickety cook stove a rough
pine table a couple of chairs and some
pallets of straw on the floor On these
latter children were sleeping just as
they had come In from the street
Walls coiling and floor were filthy with
dirt and the stench was stifling
It is only at night that the Italian
quarter can be seen at its worst There
are the same dirt and bad smells in the
daytime but the men and children are
then mostly absent the former at
work and the latter on the down town
streets begging stealing and in other
ways trying to scrape together the
amount of money which the padrone
has named as the stint in most cases
this is 50 cents for each child Those
who bring this sum back with them at
night get some kind of food and shelter
and escape punishment those who fail
are starved and beaten
Ewing street from Canal to Des
plaines is full of padrones dens and
most of them are counterparts of that
first described One room dark
filthy and devoid of the commonest
kind of sanitary conveniences will
house half a dozen people The man
who rents two rooms is looked upon as
a sort of Vanderbilt or a crazy profli
gate Tony Masoh is the swell of Ew
ing street because he has a suite of two
rooms in the Garibaldi Building a
great rambling structure with many
devious and confusing passages
through which no stranger could possi
bly make his way unpiloted Masch is
one of the law abiding Italians who
encountered and the man escaped with
a year in the bridewell As subsequent
events proved the case was not an un
usual one among the padrones Other
instances were found in which children
had been deliberately mutilated in var
ious ways so as to excite the sympathy
of charitable people and make sure the
giving of alms but in no case has it
been possible to get the evidence neces
sary for a conviction
Back from Mosiellis old den the
party traced its way through a maze
of blind alleys and Ill smelling garbage
boxes to Mather street where the offi
cers arrived at a house just in time to
prevent a man from beating a boy with
a club Even then the youngster was
sullen in his misery and refused to give
the policemen any information and
the old rascal of a padrone actually
laughed at the officers in contempt
Outside this place the party lingered
some time in the hope that a renewal
of the attack would give them excuse
for making an arrest but the padrone
was too sly to be thus captured Late
as was the hour many of the little
THK STILKTTO FOR THE IKFOKMEK
while slaves were just returning home
to report to their masters and hand
the financial results of their days
k Through streets and alleys they
came silently like rats those who had
money pushing along carelessly while
the unfortunate who had failed in their
task hung back dreading to encounter
the fierce padrone and yet afraid to
remain away longer than the appoint
ed time It was a mournful sort of
procession this return of the child
chattels and even the stolid policemen
inured to countless repetitions of the
scene could not forbear from com
menting upon it
In this manner the parry tramped
about the padrone quarter for nearly
three hours looking into all sorts of
miserable holes few of them fit to
shelter a self respecting dog and yet
all Inhabited by human beings Cellars
and garrets alike were crowded with
men women and children of varying
ages from the wee mite of a boy just
large enough to scrape a few notes out
of a wheezj violin to girls just merg
ing into womanhood In every place
some one man was in supreme con
trol and none disputed his authority
as boss If there was any talking
done with the officers it was the boss
who acted as spokesman and the oth
ers maintained an inquisitive silence
alert to what was going on but never
speaking a word
Suddenly emerging from a dark al
ley Into Halsted street the glare of the
gaslights blinded for a moment even
the veteran officers and they nenrly
stumbled over a poor wretch of a girl
sitting on the curbstone and shivering
with cold Unlike the other unfortu
nates she was rebellious in her deter
mination and willing to talk a willing
ness which was increased by the gift
of a quarter and the promise of police
protection
Fraid to go home said the girl in
broken English Got no money and
padrone beat me Must have 50 cents
No money no supper no bed get lick
ing to night Then to morrow no
breakfast must bring in dollar to mor
row to make up for to day
Postage Stamps
The design of the stamp is engraved
on steel and in printing plates are
used on which 200 stamps have been
engraved Two men are kept busy at
work covering these with colored inks
and passing them to a man and a girl
who are equally busy printing them
with large rolling hand presses Three
of these little squads are employed all
the time After the small sheets of
paper containing 200 printed stamps
have dried enough they are sent Into
another room and gummed The gum
made for this purpose Is a peculiar
composition made of the powder of
dried potatoes and other vegetables
mixed with water After having been
again dried this time on little racks
fanned by steam power for about an
hour they are very carefully put be
tween sheets of pasteboard and press
ed in hydraulic presses capable of ap
plying a weight of 2000 tons The1
next thing Is to cut the sheets In two
each sheet of course when cut con
taining 100 stamps This is done by a
girl with a large pair of shears cut
ting by hand being preferred to that
by machinery which would destroy
too many stamps They are then pass
ed to another squad of workers who
perforate the paper between the
stamps Next they are pressed once
more and then packed and labeled and
stowed away to be sent out to the
various offices when ordered If a sin
gle stamp is torn or in any way muti
lated the whole sheet of 100 stamps is
burned Not less than 50000 are said
to be burned every week from this
cause The greatest care Is taken in
counting the sheets of stamps to guard
against pilfering by the employes
Ashton Recorder
Shaker Relic Discovered
In the old shaker settlement at Son
yea N Y a peculiar relic has been
discovered It consists of a stone about
21x4 feet and four inches thick which
is covered with inscriptions though
most of them are so badly defaced that
they cannot be deciphered But the
words The Lords Stone and the
date 1847 are sufficient to Identify
the stone as connected with the wor
ship of the Shakers It was found by
workmen in excavating for a building
that is to stand directly on the site of
the Shaker meeting house The stone
is supposed to be a sort of kissing
stone It has been turned over to the
Historical Society of Mount Morris
and will be preserved in a glass case
No doubt some process can be devised
by which Its inscriptions can be de
ciphered more fully The character
istic reticence of the Shakers has made
Information in regard to them difficult
to obtain and anything of the nature
of a historical relic will be highly
prized
Tapestry of an Empress
A Paris correspondent writes Tne
Gobelins are engaged on a tapestry for
the Empress Alexandra which they ex
pect to finish by May 1 1900 It rep
resents the original painting of Marie
Antoinette and her children that hangs
at the Elysee The painter wras Mme
Vigee Lebrun The young empress was
greatly struck by its beauty and
thought It deeply interesting
M Faure made a note of this and
asked the fine arts minister to consult
with the director of the Gobelins as to
the best means io secure a good copy
Three of the best artist weavers were
set to work last February They work
alternately so as to be busy only two
days in the week and thus keep their
eyes fresh They are now at the fig
ures The dyeing and sorting of the
wools was a tedious and troublesome
work
Cementing Leather to Iron
To cement leather to iron cut the
leather roughljr to shape allowing
about one inch per foot in the width
of the pulley Then soak the leather In
water until it is wet through Now
stretch it well in the direction of the
circumference of the pulley and cut It
k exact shape and length It should
next be sewn up butt to butt with a
shoemakers awl and thread and the
leather having been stretched in the
direction of the circumference only
will as it gets dry have a tendency
to resume Its former shape thereby
shortening in circumference and clip
tc the pulley A shallow groove might
be made for the stitches to sink in
The Rise of Cities
Europe has four times as many cities
as it had in 1831 and the United States
fourteen times as many
jKw
English Blmctallists
English gold advocating newspapera
are not any more honest than those
of the United States Tney congratu
late the people on the fact that a
death blow has been struck to tho
bimetallic craze in the face of facts
which prove the contrary Tne elec
tion of a bimetalllst to Parliament from
Lancashire has already been noted
here but a brief resume of the plat
form on which he was elected Willi
throw some light on the situation
The man who was chosen answered
in the affirmative the following ques
tions
1 Are you in favor of a return to
the monetary system under which the
trade of the world was practically con
ducted until the year 1S73 the ratio
tbetween gold and silver money to bo
ifixed by international agreement
2 Are you if not prepared to sup
port the adoption of the bimetallic
standard for the United Kingdom pre
pared to recommend as our contri
bution to an international agreement
with France and the United States
a the opening of the Indian mints
to the free coinage of silver b the
holding of one fifth of the reserve of
the Bank of England in silver as is
allowed by the bank charter c tho
abolition of the half sovereign d tho
Increase of the amount for which sil
ver is legal tender in the United King
dom
3 Are you prepared to Insist on the
government keeping their pledges to
do all in their power to secure a stable
monetary par of exchange
4 If elected will you vote in favor of
the United Kingdom joining in an in
ternational conference for the purpose
of restoring the joint use of gold and
silver as full legal tender money
The efforts of the subsidized En
glish press to show that a death blow
has been struck to bimetallism aro
quite as ludicrous in view of the facts
presented as like efforts on the part
of the gold advocating press in the
United States
Too Mnch Money
The gold clique has discovered what
Is the matter with the currency system
of the Uuited States There is too
imich money in circulation
The wage earners in the coal pits who
average 750 a month will at once seo
the wisdom of this announcement and
will join heart and soul in giving their
support to a plan for reducing this per
nicious plethora There can be no
doubt in the minds of these men that
there is altogether too much money
floating around loose
Labor Commissioner Carroll D
Wright is an optimist on the question
of wages and yet when his statistics
are sifted down to correct figures it ap
pears that the average annual wage
per man in the United States is 247
Those who earn this magnificent sun
and support a large family will at once
joyfully accept the theory that money la
altogether too plentiful
The Secretary of the Treasury Is
deeply impressed by the menace to tho
public credit occasioned by the con
tinued use of a large volume of demand
liabilities and he proposes to strength
en the credit of the nation by an unim
portant reduction in the objectionable -form
of liabilities
By all means let there be a contrac
tion of the currency As the National
Bimetallist truly remarks We knew
all the time something was wrong but
we never dreamed that the great mone
tary stringency of present years was
caused by a superabundance of money
Silver in 1000
The decision of the English cabinet
not to comply with any of the requests
of the bimetalic commission makes the
United States the battleground for sil
ver
Academic discussion of the money
question has its value but no reform
can result until political action is taken
The issue is now made for the cam
paign of 1900 and the contest is to be
a struggle between gold and silver The
hypocrisy of the Republican party In
Its pretended advocacy of international
bimetallism has at last been fully ex
posed No longer can the friends or
free silver be diverted from their ob
ject by false promises and futile hopes
The Secretary of the Treasury even
goes so far as to suggest selling the sil
ver bullion now in the treasury vaults
The price of bullion has been hainmer
ed down by the gold men aided by the
superintendent of the mint andmill
ions of the peoples money are to be
sacrificed if the gold clique Is allowed
to have Its way
Fortunately the Senate Is so consti
tuted that such an outrage upon the
people cannot be perpetrated butcher
culean efforts will be made by the Re
publicans to change the complexion of
the upper house so as to forge theet
ters of gold on the hands of industry
The great political battle will be con
tinued next year and the final struggle
will come in 1900 Silver men should
be on the alert The army of gold is
determined desperate and dangerous
J L Hebrahu the German archae
ologist has just completed an explora
tion tour through the State of Chiapas
Mexico where he reports having found
another ancient buried city in the-depth-
of a trorcal forest about sixty
miles west of the Guatemalan border
He brought away with him a number
of relics of the place and says that he
will go to the United States and thence
to Germany where he will organize
an expedition for further researches
in Chapas
I