Y V - A V r A gig - THE ISSUES While the Presidential campaign is about two years off it is not a difficult matter to tell in advance the Issues up on which it will be fought In 1S9U the Republicans carried the country on a platform virtualy of high tariff and the gold standard The people were told that a grave peril confronted the eminent and that the Republican party waslheontydeliverer standing between prosperity and ruin They were told that if the Republicans were placed in power the mills would be opened the -wages of labor -would be raised confi dence would be restored and an era of unprecedented prosperity would set in Well the Republicans have had prac tically a free field and what has been the result In spite of profuse prom ises five cent cotton is the rule in the South -wages have been reduced throughout the mills of New England and thousands of workingiuen in that section are out on a strike Now these things indicate the utter failure of the Republican program of gold allism and high tariff Nor are the peo ple blind to this failure The elections everywhere show th t they have dis covered the Republican game and are convinced of the insincerity of that party and the hollowness of its prom ises The shouting and the tumult of the Presidential election hardly died out before Garter Harrison a staunch advocate of free silver -was elected Mayor of Chicago by one of the largest pluralities ever given in that city Nearly all tlie municipal elections in the Western States showed a like change of sentiment Tammany Hall odorous as it is has beeu restored to power in Now York City and New York State lias gone Democratic re- cently by about GO000 majority There are no indications of faltering allegi ance on the part of the South and West to free silver In Kentucky which was carried by the Rpwicans in 1S9G y Jzii their teeth there has Jei1irevulsion of sentiment the gold standard Democrats have been blotted out and the Democracy lias again ob tained control of the State Every where the drift of opinion is toward free silver and a revenue tariff and Democrats may as well prepare to line up for these two issues The Republi can party will be committed to gold monometallism and high protection and the Democracy will be found fight ing valiantly for free silver and a rev enue tariff On this platform the Dem ocratic party would to day without any preparation canvassing or speech making sweep the country Memphis Commercial Appeal Fraud on the Farmers The McKinley administration poses ns the particular friend first of the protected industries and secondly as the champion and knight errant of agri culture It treats the farmers of the United States as ignorant mendicants whom the Government should supply with essays on the tape worm in poul try grape cuttings strawberry plants pamphlets on the diseases of domestic kine hog cholera serum primers on the art of packing eggs for market bovine tuberculin garden seeds and dissertations upon the contents of crows stomachs The Department of Agriculture is be ing used as a stalking horse behind which wily and unscrupulous politi cians hide themselves while they fling their nets and snares to catch bucolic balots The extravagance of the po litical sports who thus hunt for votes Is seemingly without limitation Walk ing delegates who are put on the pay roll of a department merely to give employment to partisan bummers and heelers and sent abroad neither reflect credit upon the Government that sends them nor confer benefit upon the tax payers who are bled to sustain them There are special agents and special agents now promenading the globe from this Department of Agriculture at Government expense Their per Hems and salaries are liberal in the extreme Their daily expenses are generous if not extravagant And Uncle Sam pays all Some of these utilitarians are looking for leguminous plants adapted to American soils and climate Just as though the enterprise of the seedsmen of the United States had not already ransacked the earth for these things at their own expense Other perambulating patriots under this paternal system are looking for new varieties of apples berries and pears All of these special agents are a fraud upon the people and the Gov ernment If they are not why is not it published to the world when they are sent out and the pay which they are to receive and the expense which they are allowed frankly stated to the citi zenship Avhich pays them all Is it not true that the expenditures of the Department of Agriculture are constantly increasing and that de jnands for more appropriations for it and the weather bureau are constantly being made without any commensu rate benefits becoming visible to the public eye Republicans Held Responsible The Republican organs had a lot to about the little surplus the Ding ley bill scraped up in December but their silence on the January deficit of -7000000 is most profound This would indicate that they dont even find the outlook encouraging for an occasional shortage is not a thing to be discouraged over Touching on the prospect the Albany Argus says It is still regarded as improbable that the Dingley tariff can in a full normal year produce enough revenue from customs to make up the amount re quired for the expenditures of the Gov ernment The Treasury statements show that for the first seven months under that law the deficit was 43 Sr4791 so that a gain of more than 10000000 a month will be required for the next five months to overcome the deficit The Republican party will be held responsible for this failure and its political effect will be apparent in the Congressional elections It is noted however that the Republicans have already begun to bring their phil osophy to bear on their expected defeat in the Congressional elections They Would Save the Party To vindicate American honor to avenge murdered American seamen to deal swiftly spiritedly and justly with the Spanish power that does not as sure safety that gives to destruction an American war vessel riding at anchor in a Spanish harbor open to the world has beeu roundly denounced by organs of the administration as jin goism AVhoso in his fervid indignation pre maturely offered his personal service to the military arm was held up by these organs to laughter fleers and jeers It was ridiculous to wave the American flag It was presumptuous in a free American citizen to speak his sentiments with force and directness until a supine administration at Wash ington gave him permission Let the trumpets and the drums of American war spirt remain silent The baton of the great national leader would not per mit patriotism to become vocal Wait Be calm Be cool Be patient But the organs discover of a sudden that war is patriotism Not a war in vindication of American honor not a war of vengeance upon the murderers of Americans that would be jingoTsm but a war to save the Republican UyG elect Iajor McKinley and keep in office the administration of the mediocrities The war whose pretext is to be Cuban misgoverument and whose alleged object Cuban indepen dence since our business interests are to suffer as long as there is Spauish attempt to establish Spanish rule in the island is to be fought not by the pa triotism and intelligence of the country but by the cankers of a calm wor d and a long peace the host of unem ployed who if not given work may in their discontent plump their ballots this fall against the Republican party and so sweep the country We must have war not for the de struction of an enemy but for the sal vation of McKinleyism We must no longer wait no longer remain cool or patient War with a respectable pur pose is condemned as the device of the unspeakable jingo But war to save McKinley and Wall street and a so called sound currency must at once be entered upon as a holy crusade But straggle as McKinleyism may Repub licanism is doomed War or no war Democracy will sweep the country this fall Chicago Chronicle One Year of McKinley At the close of the first year of Presi dent McKinleys term it may be said with absolute truth that only those are blessed who expected nothing for they have not been disappointed The rec ord is almost a blank in so far as good deeds are concerned The promised era of prosperity has not yet arrived for the working masses the burning tions of the time have not been acted on and the treasury deficit has not come to an end although the Dingley tariff whs passed specially for that i pose The country is no more prosperous to day than it was a year ago when Mc Kinley took the oath of office the finan ces of the nation are not in better shape and the outlook for the future has not improved On the other hand the trusts and monopolies which con tributed so liberally to the Republican campaign fund which had so much to do to put the present administration in power have been duly rewarded and Mark Hanua is a greater man than he was on the 4th of March of last year He has been placed in the United States Senate by one of the most contemptible tricks known to our history the crowd ing out of poor John Sherman and forc ing him into a position in which he is a mere cipher and he is of so much consequence that special accommoda tions have to be provided for him in the White House To Republicans avIio sincerely believ ed that the McKinley administration would rise to the high level of its oppor tunities the performances of its first year must appear particularly mortify ing As for the Democrats they anti cipated nothing else than the flat stale and unprofitable showing that has been made New York News This Legislature Named Hauna Whispers -which may develop into open charges of corruption and bribery are now heard in Columbus It is in timated that the legislation f the House is controlled by certain mem bers who are willing to pass or defeat pending bills for a consideration Cleveland Leader One of the Forgotten Planks Just as an evidence of good faith wouldnt it be well for Congress to read that little section in the last Republican platform about Guba before announc ing that everything that stands in the way of adjournment has been attended to Louisville Times CARRYING MAIL IN CANADA Dogs Drag Sledges Two Thousand Miles Over Snow and Ice One of the most romantic and pictur esque mail services in the Universal Postal Union is that of Northern Can ada Of the several long mail routes penetrating the great wilderness lying between Canadas northern frontier and the Arctic ocean there Is one that runs almost due north a distance of 2012 miles beyond the railroad termi nus It is the route from Edmonton Alberta to Fort McPherson on Peel river near the Arctic coast The win ter mail for Fort McPherson is known as the Mackenzie River packet With the exception of 170 miles by horse sleigh it is hauled the entire distance on sledges drawn by dogs On that route as on most others there are only two mails a year The summer pack et is taken down the Athabasca Slave and Mackenzie rivers on steamers own ed by the Hudson Bay company The route next in length is that from Sel kirk a few miles north of Winnipeg to York Factory on Hudson bay be ing G80 miles The winter packet is hauled by dog train In summer it goes about 300 miles by steamer and the re mainder of the distance by canoe The Peace river packet is carried in a sim ilar manner over a distance of G20 miles from Edmonton to McLeods Fort in the Rocky Mountains The Moose Fort packet runs- between the nudsou Bay companys post on Lake Temiscamingue and Moose Fort on James bay covering 420 miles In sum mer the mail goes by canoe in winter it is hauled on a toboggan drawn by men The mail matter to and from points north of the Government postoffices in Canada is placed in charge of the Hud son Bay company and delivered along with the companys mail Their packet arrangements are such that every post in the northern department is period ically communicated with The mail is usually contained in a box 2y feet long by 1 feet high the width where she painted a miniature ol the Prince of Wrfes in the costume that he wore at the famous ball given by the Duchess of Devonshire The privillege of painting tfos would have been in It self honor enough for most artists but in addition the Prince sent the artist a diamond heart pin which represented Persimmon the Princes horse in dia monds with the jockeys colors done in enamel After the fact of the presenta tion became public the price of her minatures went up to 1000 and per sons are wondering if the influence of the Prince oi Wales patronage wilf be strong enough to have the same effect in New York New York Sun MADE HIM FAMOUS Bright Wife of the Doctor Had Some Schemes of Mer Own Know him asked one of the two men talking at the corner as he nodded toward a handsome old gentleman just passing by No Well sir thats Dr Blank the noted surgeon I have known him ever since we used to fre quent the same swimming hole Just how long that was before the war Im not going to say He beat me in the race for the girl that he married and if he hadnt the chances are that the doctor would still be driving night and day over a little back country attend ing to a practice that couldnt pay if it wanted to When they were back there in the woods and he was performing opera tions that no other member of the pro fession had thought of undertaking she gathered from the talk of friendly doc tors in the same section that he was original daring and successful Sho begged him to advertise his abilities but he sternly rebuked her for asking him to transgress the ethics of the pro fession But you know how it is wlien a bright woman sets her head The doc tors office was a shabby little den without carpet window shades pic tures or anything else but the plainest ill Sitilf 0 MAIL SERVICE OF NORTHERN CANADA of the sledge Into this a surprising amount of postal matter is pressed The box is lashed to the tail of the sledge the fore part being packed with blan kets flour tea and pork for the trip pers and white fish for the dogs It is the custom of the Hudson Bay com pany never to send less than two men with the mail One of them the tracker goes a considerable distance in advance to break a triil which the train of four dogs follow while the driver brings up the rear The trip pers average 30 miles a day At night they bivouac on the snow with nothing but a blanket between them and the aurora borealis while the thermometer may fall to GO degrees below zero At each Hudson Bay company post the mail is transferred to a fresh relay of men and dogs In former years so jealously was all excess in mail matter guarded against that the carriage of newspapers was disallowed with the exception of an annual file of the Montreal Gazette which was forwarded to the companys headquarters at Fort Garry for general perusal Now however newspapers and magazines comprise the bulk of the Inward bound packets In 1833 the col onists organized a monthly mail service between Fort Garry now Winnipeg and Fort Ripley Minn then the most advanced of the United States post offices The building of the Canadian Pacific railroad has put an end to the greater part of the old packet in North western Canada In the illustration the numbers refer to the following subjects 1 the Moose Fort packet nearing Abitti ti House 2 York Factory packet descending the latitude for form great scope for vari ety of gear harness and trappings They are generally rather of the swan outline the sleighers sitting in the layes river 3 interior of postoffice at Hudson Eay post 4 an ox express nound for Manitoba House and 5 the Mackenzie river packet traveling due jorth 2012 miles beyond the railway vHminus An American Artist Most of New Yorks noted society beauties have been painted by a wo man whose miniatures long ago be came famous and she was noted as the most successful and fashionable artist in that line that New York possessed Now this fortunate artist is in London furniture He resisted all her efforts to change this One evening he came home from a thirty-six-hours stay with a patient to find that office so transformed in velvet carpet tapestries and pictures tftiat he flatly declined to enter it His wife was away on a visit Men had been there done the work and disappeared There were no bills the home merchants j knew nothing and the doctor was so mad that he advertised everything for sale The thing was told in the local pa pers as a huge joke and incidental- there were related some of the stories of how he took people apart and put them together again City papers copied and city doctors ridiculed This riled Blank he proved that he had worked greater wonders than were credited to him and he was famous The means and the end were the work of the little woman who had figured them out before giving a secret com mission to furnish that office Detroit Free Press A Curious Island One of the most curious islands in the world is Merken in the Zuyder Zee Horses arid trees are unknown to the natives as also is drunkenness The island produces one crop a year viz hay and the women manage the grow ing and harvesting of this Honors of War Honors of war is the privilege al lowed to the enemy on capitulation of being permitted to retain their arms This is the highest honor a victor can pay a vanquished foe Home of the Cigarette Nearly every man woman and child in Egypt is a smoker of cigarettes and a pipe is hardly ever seen in the mouth of a native We have noticed that since the wom en wear silk petticoats it takes loss provocation than formerly to make them kick So far the doctors have persuaded people to have everything else cut out but their tongues The men who used to start newspa pers are now starting lodges It is seldom difficult to appear nat oral if you have no object in view WIDELY KNOWN PREACHER Dr Palmer of New Orleans Kcccntly Celebrated His 80th Birthday Rev Dr Benjamin Morgan Palmer of New Orleans who recently celebra ted the SOth anniversary of his birth Is one of the most widely known and deeply beloved clergymen in the South He is pastor of the First Presby terian Church of New Orleans one of the most beautiful of the churches in the Crescent City For years he has stood at the head of Presbyterianism in the South Dr Palmer in his prime was one of the most gifted of the pulpit orators of this country He won in ternational fame as a preacher and by many was considered the superior of even Beecher Just before the war Dr KEV DR FALMKK Palmer was in the full tide of his power as an orator and it was said that it was his words that set the South on fire The story of his life is told in a pretty little book which was pub lished a few years ago and which is called The Broken Home Year by year he has seen all his loved ones de part and he is now alone in his old age Dr Palmer is considered as part of New Orleans The celebration of his birthday anniversary recently was an affair in wJich the whole city was in terested ABOVE HER GRAVE This Acd Husband Erected a Home Over His Wifes Tomb Col Elisha De Board one of the old est and most prominent citizens of Gil mer Couuty Ga lias recently hada Binall but beautiful eight sided resi lience erected above his wifes grave The old man has passed the four score year mark and during the past five years his only solace has been in al most constant visits to the grave of her who for fifty years of life was a de voted wife and companion From the early hours of morning on till the last beam of daj had faded he would sit and fancy the inanimate form moldering away beneath the grass and flowers was once more quick with life and sharing again the facilities of home When the weather would permit he COL DE nOAKD AXD XIS EW nOJIE would often spend the evening hours it her graveside never quitting the place until the shades and dampness of night had come on But this was aot satisfying and so the structure shown in the illustration here was built that the old man might more con veniently assuage the sorrows of his closing days It is only a short distance from her rave to the old well furnished man sion where they dwelt for half a cen ury together But when she was gone the place had lost its charm The halls vere lonely and the fireside desolate Nothing could satisfy the old mans longing In the new structure small md circumscribed though it may be here is at hand that which alone to nim in life is dear Here he can read ir sit alone and think or tend the flow ers that adorn her tomb At night he 5nds repose and rest within touch of the grave he loves so well The Fetich Diamond The South African native it seems Is not always decorated with the mere trumpery of the traders wallet or of nis own purveyance It has become an attested fact that excellent diamonds and diamonds better than that are possessed by chiefs and hoarded by them not so much in intelligence of their value as in a firm fetichism The stones have come to their hands by the good old fashioned method of stealing them from the Kimberley mines years ago before the present minute watch against gem thieving was systema tized Diamond stealing at present is practically impossible under the pecu liar methods of its prevention Before the rigid examinations of workmen and visitors began to be enforced native laborers often were under a secret compact with their tribal rulers not to come back from the mines without a good sized stolen diamond for thoj chiefs use hence a great many su j perb gems are in the dark unfatlrymcdi caves of a Kafiir headmans establish- ment Within a few years ing traders have made special tions and palavers for diamonds so hidden with the result of successful bartering for them Liquor and guns have been found useful In some in stances the superstition of the chiefs stood in the way of traders recoverlngr valuable stones but on the other hand a small company working on this line of acquisition is credited with hav ing obtained within four months not less than two hundred thousand dol lars worth of diamonds One ngent succeeded in buying of a chief six stones of more than two hundred karats each WITH THREADS OF METAL Tinsel Fabrica and the More Costly Brocades of Gold and Silver Tinsel fabrics are the lower priced oC the cloths into which gold or silver threads have been woven In tinsel fabrics the gold threads are of brass or copper gilded and the silver threads are of white metal These threads of metal originally line wire are rolled flat and burnished and they glisten In the fabric wherever the pattern brings them to the surface Tinsel fabrics arc made about three fourths of a yard im width and they sell at 75 cents to 250 a yard They come in various colors and many of them are beautiful and artistic in design Some are copies of old Venetian tapestries Tinsel fabrics are used for church and for theatrical purposes and sometimes for gowns and for decorative purposes The costlier fabrics with Interwoveni metal threads are called gold and sil ver brocades In these the gold threads are of silver gold plated and the silver threads are of pure silver the body of the fabric is of silk The brocades aroj all beautiful and many of them are er j ceedlngly so These fabrics are made about five eighths of a yard In width and they sell at various prices up toi 25 and sometimes as high as 50 aj yard The costliest of these fabrics arei very rarely imported into this country 1 brocades at 10 and 12 a yard being about the highest priced used here Ifj more elaborate fabrics are required they are usually imported to order The finer fabrics with metal threads aret made in France the commoner kinds in Germany Gold and silver brocades are here used almost exclusively for church poses and chiefly for vestments They are imported in red violet and greeni and also in black with silver threads the black and silver being for mourn t ing Gold and silver brocades are also used to a limited extent for decorative purposes Such fabrics and gold embroidery often of the costliest description are far more commonly used in Europo than here both for church and for mill- tary purposes New York Sun Nelsons Wonderful Feat Writers of historical reminiscences1 have to be masters of a certain amount of accurate information about their heroes if thej wish to avoid mistakes if they are not they are sure to get things mixed Not long since a reviewer in the Lon don Times writing of a book named Roving Commissions related on his own account r wimi mnr episode of - - a - Nelson the great admiral While in chase of Villeneuves French fleet he was informed of the enemy heaving in sight at which in- formation Nelson evinced the highest satisfaction and gleefully rubbed his hands As a correspondent of the Times points out this incident occurred in 1S05 Nelson lost his right arm in the i attack on Santa Cruz Teneriffe in 1707 eight years prior to his pursuit of Villeneuves fleet It would have been therefore a difficult matter for him to rub his hands in 1S05 Cogitation -3 The gentlemen of the bar who not in frequently have to take rebukes from the bench greatly enjoy a charge to make a legitimate retort against the court The story is told that a certainj judge who during the plea of a raiher prosy lawyer could not refrain from gently nodding his head in sleep- was caught at this by the lawyer who- looked significantly at him Perhaps said the judge testily and prevarieatingly the counsel thinks the court was asleep but he may he as- sureutnatxne court was merely cogita ting The lawyer talked on Presently the judge again overcome by his lence nodded off and aroused himself with a little sudden snorting snore If it please your honor said the lawyer I will suspend my plea until the court shall have ceased to cogitate audibly You may go on said the judge andi he did not fall asleep again Remarkable Telegraph liine Among the most remarkable works in Australia is the overland telegraph from Port Darwin to the south of the continent which was completed im 1872 Almost the whole 2000 miles of its length was through uninhabited country much of it a waterless desert The wooden poles were prepared at the nearest available places but some had to be carried 350 miles while the iron poles were taken an average distance of 400 miles by land Over 2000 tons--of material had to be carried into the interior and the total cost was 1S50 000 The Remains of Babylon Two wealthy Hebrews of Bagdadj now own all that remains of the an cient town of Bajiiylon The Bible says it is more blessed to give than to receive All righfy you give well receive