i U lie nhniim emacrnt wTtROBERT OODf Editor and Prop Valentine - Nebraska Prophet Totten says AH great -events occur in even years Thata odd Whether in a nation or an individual mpty pride is at least as bad as an empty pocket Theres nothing in it Even four hundred years ago when dt ran up against America Spain hadnt any idea it -was the great country it is Abdul Hamid isnt saying a word nowadays The Spanish atrocities in Cuba evidently liave shamed him into silence Whats the use of sending an expedi ttion out to search for Andree Why not ask a Key West correspondent where Andree is A contemporary asks Whom are missing Without attempting to an swer this question we will wTager that the list includes Lindley Murray A New York paper says that a man in that city has three wives living under one roof That fellow apparently re gards matrimony as a sort of three ring circus We have no doubt that Laureate Austin would accomplish much better results if he would furnish the subjects only and hire somebody else to furnish the verse making The Russian Emperor thinks Cuba a jvery small plat to fight over He breaks j off a chunk of the Chinese empire that 3s larger than the suffering island about once a week and adds it to his territory It is announced that thirty one wom en have signified their willingness to anarry General Cassius M Clay Be fore these negotiations proceed further the general ought to do a little busi ness in divorce court The booksellers of Paris ordered 63 00 copies of Zolas Paris in advance of publication The subsequent expe riences of the great painter of the woes of the poor and the injustice of the un thinking rich will not ultimately lessen the number of his readers The infelicity of ending a sentence with a preposition is pre eminently pardonable in this note addressed to a collector of customs Find ten dollars which the -writer defrauded the United States of The English of sincere penitence is above criticism Arbor day is the antidote for the flood disasters in the Ohio and Missis sippi valleys It will take many de cades to make -good the havoc of the woodmans ax but persevere and even tually equilibrium of nature may be re stored and the devastations of the flood withheld A Boston girl who has been trying to find out why her bicycle often runs into objects she tries to avoid thinks she has solved the problem at last She says 4It is hypnotic influence of concentrated attention rendering the movements in-co-ordinate so that the rider becomes the victim of perverted reflexes of pur poseless effort and the abject subject of an optical delusion And perhaps she is right The hoisting of the Russian flag over Port Arthur and Tai-Lien-Wan un doubtedly marks the beginning of the end of the oldest empire in the world Up to this time China while passing through many vicissitudes as modern progress had crowded upon its ancient conservatism has preserved its integ rity and its sovereignty It has beea forced in some degree out of its seclu sion but it has remained a national entity To day it is regarded as the prey of European powers and its par tition among the earth hungry West ern nations has already begun Scraping the lining of a chimney to get gold and silver is a form of mining which the books do not recognize but it may be profitable under certain con ditions The chimney -of the Assay Of fice in Wall street New York is near ly two hundred feet high A new lin ing of fire brick has been put in it The old lining over forty years old yield ed almost fifteen hundred dollars There were fifty two ounces of gold and eight hunod and sixty ounces of silver in the scrapings Smoke which lias a market value through deposits of precious metal it makes ought to be treated with great respect A Wyoming stock raiser dissatisfied with his surroundings and in haste to be rich recently sold his land and start ed for the Klondike A few months later a French mineralogist discovered near the despised ranch a mine of co balt a rare and valuable metal The whole district promises to become a new center of wealth It was upon - land sold to enable the former owner to start for the gold mines of California that the great oil wells of Pennsylvania were afterward found and both these Incidents acentuate the fact that we are continually within reach of import ant discoveries and great opportunities missing them by a hairs breadth of im patience failure to observe or lack of preparation Why does not this great country have a national air Not something borrowed or paraphrased from abroad but an air of its own original characteristic stir ring full of life and motion What we want is something simple bold a swing a dash a clear shrill peat tratiag clarion note that rings like u wild bell in the night and turns men pale with fervor Why can we not have a battle song of our own Why must we content ourselves with tepid messes borrowed from abroad with dressed up pious lamentations with dis mal chants and dirges We are young we are strong we are full of virility and fire Give us something that speaks for our splendid palpitating national itysomething that jumps with our free stride and passionate ambition The career of Blanche K Bruce Reg ister of the Treasury who died recent ly was one of singular vicissitudes Born a slave in Yirgina fifty seven years ago and obtaining in his boy hood only such education as he could get by stealth few things could have seemed less likely than that he should enter the United States Senate at the age of thirty four only four years above the minimum age fixed by the Constitution Yet lie did this in 1S75 as a Senator from Mississippi Soon after the completionof his term in the Senate he was appointed Register of the Treasury by President Garfield the same office which lie has held un der the present administration Mr Bruce s native ability and his traits of character won for him the respect of his associates in public life Something entirely new in qualifica tions for suffrage is about to be given a trial in Louisiana The provision finally adopted not without opposition requires an educational test for suf frage but makes an exception where the illiterate voter possesses property or his wife has property Exception is also made in case of a foreigner nat uralized prior to the first of this year and in the case of an illiterate voter whose father or grandfather was a voter iu Louisiana or some other State previous to Jan 1 1SG7 With voting where suffrage is granted because of the electors garden patch or his wifes mules we are familiar for sev eral States have similar property quali fications But the plan of permitting a man who cannot read and has no mules to vote simply because his grandfather was a voter more than thirty years ago is a decided innova tion The proposal would be amusing were it not so serious In business life young men frequently bank on the credit of their fathers and in social life there is a tendency to rely on grandfathers or more distant ances tors This however is the first sug gestion of a hereditary qualification for suffrage in any American State It certainly is not a suggestion of the surviving grandfathers for few of them would care to continue voting in definitely through illiterate descend ants This strange suffrage qualifica tion is of doubtful validity A majority of the delegates opposed it but accept ed it as a compromise Both of the United States Senators from Louisiana have declared it unconstitutional from a Federal standpoint and a number of other Senators consulted denounce it If it is finally tried and sustained what new and strange suffrage qualification may we not expect from the next constitution-making body In Japans new Cabinet are several young men who have imbibed much of the commercial spirit of the age They fellows who are are aggressive young committed to the developing of the ma terial resources of the Empire Prime Minister Ito who for the third time is at the head of the Cabinet is disposed to give his young colleagues wide lati tude in which to carry out their policy of building up the industries of the country Last year over five hundred miles of new railway were constructed in Japan and this year it is proposed to build even a greater mileage All told there are two thousand miles of rail way in Japan and in order to make them pay they must be fed with the traffic that springs out of commercial activity These railways belong both to the government and private corpora tions and connect the principal cities of the Empire In order to stimulate manufactures the new Cabinet de sides to negotiate a commercial treaty Germany has been selected as one of the countries which will be invited to enter such a treaty The Japanese ar gue that Germany manufactures ma chinery which they need and con sumes the products which they manu facture Therefore a commercial treaty with Germany is looked upon as a desirable acquisition This eagerness on the part of the Japs to secure a commercial treaty under which the products of the two countries thereto may be advantageously exchanged ought to attract the attention of our government Germany produces no machinery that we do not produce and she consumes no Japanese products that we do not consume We can se cure the trade of Japan if we go after it on terms that will be acceptable to the new Cabinet but we cannot get it if we remain inactive and silent while Germany is pursuing the prize We ought to furnish the Japanese the greater part of their railway iron and their rolling stock but we furnish them only a small fraction of what they use We ought to furnish them the machin ery they use in their cotton and silk mills but we do not furnish any to speak of We ought to have a market there for our machinery agricultural implements etc but the foreigners od the other side of the Atlantic enjoy a monopoly of what we ought to share The Japanese like us They are trying to make their system of government analogous to ours so far as it is possi ble to make a monarchy resemble a re public In view of this we ought to compete with Germany for the trade of the Japanese and if necessary make such concessions as would secure for us a continuing market for our staples and the products of our mills and fac tories which now glut the channels of home consumption Japan wants to trade with the outside world why not have her trade with this country 7TlTiTTitfr irii1i CLIMATE AND CROP BULLETIN Farm WorlcKetarued by Cool Weather and Moisture The United States Department of Ag riculture issued the following climate and crop bulletin for the past week The week has been too cool for best re sults in New England the central val leys and east Gulf States while exces sive moisture has retarded farm work generally in the States northward of the Ohio river and in the east Gulf- States In the middle and south Atlantic States Texas the Dakotas generally through out the Rocky Mountain region and on the north Pacific coast the weather con ditions have been more favorable No rain has fallen in California during the week and consequently the severe drought previously reported continues un broken Drought also continues in Flor ida though partially relieved in locali ties in the northern portion of the State The hulli Of the com crop is planted southward of the northern boundaries of Arkansas Tennessee and the Carolinas but northward of this line except in Kan sas slow progress has been made owing to excessive rains and the cool weather None has yet been planted in Indiana but planting has begun in portions of Ohio Virginia Maryland and Pennsylvania A little planting has also heen done in Ne braska Poor -stands are reported from the South Atlantic States and but light growth has been reported generally in the Southern States In southern and central Texas however the crop is growing and is now receiving its second cultivation Over northern Texas the crop is late and ir regular The winter wheat crop con tinues in promising condition in the prin cipal wheat States in the central valleys Further improvement is reported from Ohio and in Michigan the crop has been benefited by recent rains In the South ern States it is now heading As a re sult of the severe drought in California the grain crop has been injured beyond recovery except iu the northern coast counties aad in some of the foot hill re gions and over the southern portion of North Dakota Seeding is well advanced over the northern portion of North Da kota and in Montana In Oregon seed ing is complete but considerable is yet to be done in Washington The early sown over the spring wheat region is coming up and is generally in promising condi tion Slow progress has been made with oat seeding where unfinished in more northern States In the central and southern portion of the country the crop has made favorable progress during the week In Alabama the early sown is nearing maturity The general outlook for fruit in the Northern States continues promising and the pros pects in the middle and southern sections appear more favorable There is abun dant supply of tobacco plants Trans planting continues in South Carolina and has commenced in North Carolina Tobacco is suffering from drought in Florida BIG POWDER MILLS BLOWN UP Twenty Persons Believed to Have Been Killed in California At 515 Tuesday afternoon Santa Cruz Cal was startled by a tremendous ex plosion Buildings were shaken as though by a violent earthquake and the first thought was that one had occurred Hard ly had the rumblings died away when the second shock occurred not so violent as the first and soon small boughs from redwood trees shingles bits of powder cans and other debris began falling in the streets of the city They cleared up all doubts as to the cause of the shock The California powder works had been blown up The second shock was follow ed by a third and then a fourth more vio lent than the others Between fifteen and twenty people mostly young boys employed at the works were killed and as many more were injured The first explosion occurred in the gun cotton works This was followed by the destruction of the nitroglycerin house and then a number of buildings used in the manufacture of smokeless powder for the Government Then the inside powder magazine blew up with a terrific roar Although considerable powder was stored there the amount was small in compari son with last week as over 100 tons were shipped to Chicago Sunday last to fill the order of the Government Nothing is known as to what caused the explosion but it was probably due to spon taneous combustion There were many wild rumors afloat to the effect that Span ish sympathizers did the work but the stories are probably based on the fact that a number of persons of Spanish de scent live in the vicinity of the works F1ESH BEEF FOR THE KLONDIKE Two Tbrmsand Steers Will Go Over tne Dalton Trail in June Two thousand beef steers are being gathered in Montana for shipment to Dawson in June over the Dalton trail They will comprise two expeditions in which fully 300000 will be invested A Tacoina dispatch says C W Thebo backed by Butte Mont men has ship ped 1300 steers to pastures here where they will be fattened until May 20 Jack Dalton is arranging to drive 700 more steers over the same trail Each hun dred steers will be in charge of six cow boys each cowboy being provided with pack and saddle horse the two expedi tions employing 120 cowboys and 240 horses Thebo has chartered the big barge Skookum to carry 900 steers and 3000 tons of freight to Pyramid Har bor landing there in June The balance of his band will be shipped from Van couver on a barge now building The steers will be driven by easy stages to Fort Selkirk whence they will be rafted to Dawson arriving in July His cat tle will cost 130000 landed at Pyramid Harbor the feed equipment and wages bringing the cost of the expedition to 200000 The Daltons expect to receive 25 cents per pound live weight on the Klondike which should make their re ceipts over SO000O leaving 500000 profit Men have been sent to watch the Dalton trail the indications being that it will open early State Items of Interest Fessenden N D has 300 inhabitants and four newspapers J P Marcsh a pioneer business man of Denison Texas dropped deau at his place of business Senator Morrill of Vermont celebrated his Sth birthday anniversary in Wash ington a few days ago Hugh Fraser charged with murder was acquitted at Bessemer Ala Fraser was with Thomas Collins when J L Howell was shot in the Bessemer prison in Dcrember last M wweeissS3S32SR p Recently Speaker Reed wished to see a man on some pending legislation and telegraphed for him to come to Wash ington The man took the first train available but a washout on the road made it impossible for the train to pro ceed farther toward its destination Going to a telegraph station he sent this dispatch to the speaker Washout on the line Cant come When Reed read the message he sent back this re ply Buy a new shirt and come any way Some years ago Edward E Rice was presented to Von Bulow at a club din ner in Boston It was just about the time that all Europe was talking of Mme Von Bulows flirtation with Verdi who had taught the pianist almost all he ever knew about music I want you to become acquainted with Mr Rice said a friend he doesnt know anything about music but he has com posed several operas Delighted I am sure murmured the great pianist with a sarcastic smile he reminds me of a man I knew at home his name is Verdi The following is an exact copy of a letter received by a young lady who possessing a piano and being about lo move to a small country town adver tised for room and board with a family musically inclined Deare Miss we think we kin sute you with room and bord if you preefer to be where there is musick I play the fiddel my wife the orgin my dotter Jule the akordion my other dotter the banjo my son Hen the gittar my son Jim the floot and koro net and my son Clem the base drum while all of us sings gospell himsin which we would be glad to have you take part both vocal or instrumental if you play on anything We play by ear an when we all git started there is real musick in the air Let us know if you want to come here to bord When Secretary of the Navy Long visits his old home way down in Maine his reception is hearty but very democratic and the people do not at all appreciate the fact that the ruler of Uncle Sams navee occupies a very different station from the boy they knew years ago The Waterville Mail tells this story While at his home in Buckfield this summer ex Gov Long employed a woman in the neighbor hood to do the family washing One day as he was driving by the place lie called to see if the washing was ready The man of the house came to the door in response to the secretarys knock Is our washing done inquired Mr Long The man turned and bawled td his wife Maria Maria is John nies washing done And Johnnie forbore to smile in the presence of his kindly old neighbor President McCosh of Princeton was accustomed to lead the morning exer cises in the chapel every day and dur ing the exercises he gave out notices to the students One morning after he had read the notices a student came up with a notice that Professor Karges French class would be at nine oclock that day instead of half past nine as usual Dr McCosh said it was too late but the student insisted that Professor Karge would be much disappointed if the notice were not read The exer cises went on and the doctor forgot all about the notice He started to make the final prayer He prayed for the President of the United States the members of the Cabinet the Senators and the Representatives the Governor of Now Jersey the Mayor and other of ficials of Princeton and then came to the professors and instructors in the college Then Professor Karges notice came into his mind and the assembled students were astonished to hear the venerable President say And Lord bless Professor Karge whose French class will be held this morning at nine oclock instead of half past nine as usual An enthusiastic admirer of Miss An thony says I shall always remember a maneuver of Miss Anthonys which X saw at a meeting at which she pre sided three years or so ago She called upon several of what she called her girls to address the audience The girls were exceedingly well bred well educated and well dressed women They were logical They were witty They were in short the very cream of women public speakers When the last one had finished Miss Anthony rcso Rnd with what I am sure was a twinkle In her eye said Now well hear from one of my boys Thereupon a Con gressman from a new Northwestern State mounted the platform He was uncouth He was uncultured His English was painful to hear his man ners painful to see He ranted He argued in stump speech fashion He had neither good taste nor logic The contrast between the holder of the franchise and the gentlewomen who had preceded him was marked Dear simple man that he was he could not see that every man in the audience was ashamed of hini He did not see that ne was an object lesson for the suffrage movement but I am quite sure Miss Anthony saw it I cant help thinking she meant it too The Romance oFthe Great lakes In the St Nicholas W S Harwood writes of The Great Lakes Mr Harwood says There is much of thrilling interest mucli of romance much of daring sur runding the shores of these lakes much in a study of the early periods of their history t for the historian or the novel ist A long time ago so long it seems like ancient history to us the first white man probably about the middle of the sixteenth century saw the iv j lakes It is not so easy to fix a date for this event but we know that as early as 1530 to 1540 the French priests the voyageurs and the coureurs de bois the trappers and adventurers of the day visited the eastern lake region on the north They came with two mes sages one bore tidjngs of the cm merce and proved that the French -nation was alive to the value of the ntiw country the other told the story of the Christian religion It were well per haps to mention another message a more or less baleful one brought by the adventurers for there were adven turers among these early discoverers men who had no other motive than tc seek the strange and the exciting and to spend their days in the alluring and profitless occupation of seeing how many hair breath escapes they could en joy in how many scenes of pillage and robbery they could take part Those who have written so graceful ly and elegantly of the early history ol the regions surrounding the northern portions of the Great Lakes have but begun to tell the tales which will be told with more and more freedom oi invention as the writers of the future come to appreciate more and more what a splendid storehouse of materia1 lies in this Northland JOURNALISTIC DIFFICULTIES The Work of the Censor and the Press in Austria There is a censor of the press and apparently he is always on duty and hard at work A copy of each moraine paper is brought to him at 5 oclock His official wagons wait at the doors oi the newspaper offices and scud to him with the first copies that come from the press His company of assistants read every line in these papers and inarfc everything which seems to have a dangerous look then he passes final judgment npon these markings Two things conspire to give to the results a capricious and unbalanced look his assistants have diversified notions as to what is dangerous and what isnt he cant get time to examine their crit icisms in much detail and so sometimes the very same matter which is sup pressed in one paper fails to be damned in another one and gets published in full feather and unmodified Then the paper in which it was suppressed blandly copies the forbidden matter into its evening edition provokingly giving credit and detailing all the cir cumstances ina courteous and inoffen sive language and of course the cen sor cannot say a word Sometimes the censor sucks all the blood out of a newspaper and leaves it colorless and inane sometimes he leaves it undisturbed and lets it talk out its opinions with a frankness and vigor hardly to be surpassed I think in the journals of any country Ap parently the censor sometimes revises his verdicts upon second thought for several times lately he has suppressed journals after their issue and partial distribution The distributed copies are then sent for by the censor and de stroyed I have two of these but at the time they were senr for I could not remember what I had done with them Mark Twain in Harpers Maga zine Horace Greeley as an Orator Mr Greeley was not an orator in any scholastic sense He had a poor and somewhat squeaking voice he knew nothing of gestures and he could not take an orators pose which adds saich emphasis sometimes to the matter and argument to be set forth Not all his years of practice on the platform and on public occasions ever changed his habits and methods as a speaker and he end 2d as poorly equipped in the re spects named for the vocation as when he began But he -had one prime qual ity without which all the others are exploited in vain He invariably had something to say and he said it in such clear and wholesome English with such sincerity that he was an orator in spite of all the rules To state it briefly of all the eminent speakers I have introduced and more than once there was not one who gave better satisfaction different and nota ble as they were than Horace Greeley As a consequence he came to me often est and wore the best We might or might not agree with some of his pe culiar premises as when he says The moment a drop of alcohol is received into the human stomach that moment the stomach recognizes a deadly ene my but he set his audience thinking and illuminated his theme Harpers Magazine Two Remarkable Feats Henry Wolfsohn recalled yesterday a remarkable feat of memory by Signor Gore who traveled as conductor with a concert company organized by Cam panini The music trunk not having arrived in time for a concert Signor Gore accompanied from memory on the piano the entire third act of Faust at the same time transposing the music half a tone An interesting story is told of Mas cagni the composer of Cavalleria Rus ticana One of his friends had cas ually said that there was no work of any of the six most famous composers whose names were mentioned which Mascagni could not play faultlessly from memory The statement being ridiculed asmpossible Mascagni reluc tantly consented in order to settle the dispute to make the effort A number of musical experts were invited to at tend the recital each one in turn se lecting a composition for performance In vain they tried to baffle the com poser who not only answered the chal lenge brilliantly in every instance bat filled up the intervals with delightful improvisations of his own New York Herald Wasps as PlyJestroyers Tno best fly destroyer in the world Is a common or garden wasp An expert says he has known one wasp to kill 1000 flies in a day ajj jftagaa jfa traastja uTjt o aw HEROES OF THE PALL ROOM Remarkable Instances of Bravery Dia played There by Dancinjc Men The men who frequent dancing rooms are not bj any means so effeminate as some scornful members of the stronger sex would have us believe Scented dandies are capable of courage in emer gencies and brave deeds are occasion ally performed even in the enervating atmosphere of the ball room While in the act of snatching a kiss froin an attractive girl under the mis tletoe a young masher felt a breath of hot air on his face and in glancing up saw that the evergreens on the large chandelier had caught fire and were blazing away merrily A quick look around the room told him that the other dancers were unaware of the catastrophe so he drew back a pace measured his distance and with one gigantic spring managed to catch hold of the chandelier Hanging oh by one hand he rapidly pulled down the burn ing evergreens and cast them to the floor scorching his arms terribly in the process but never once flinching Not until he was satisfied that every bit of inflammable material was safely accounted for would he relinquish his hold Beyond a doubt his ready re source prevented a conflagration but he suffered so much that one of his hands had to be amputated His beau tiful mustache of which he was inor dinately proud wasalso frizzled up by the fire A somewhat similar feat was per formed by a conceited but daring young coxcomb in a crowded ball room last winter Several ladies had fainted for want of air and as the ventilator in the roof would not answer to its pul ley the young dandy volunteered tc scramble up the fragile rope and see what was amiss This was the only practicable method of obtaining relief for some larking guest had locked the- door of the room on the outside and it was impossible to break it open The young fellow cut his hands al most to ribbons before he reached the ventilator and even when he got up found it impossible to open it Unde terred by this though he unhesitating ly banged his head through the thick glass and then slid to the ground where he fainted from the loss of blood During a dance in a Spanish ball room a heavy plaster cast fell from a bracket and would certainly have in jured one of the hosts daughters had not her partner warded it off with his arm The accident frightened the girl a little for she was extremely nervous but the gallant who was dancing with her insisted on continuing the waltz and assured her that he was not in the least hurt Accordingly the couple kept up to the music for fifteen minutes or more antE their consummate dancing drew ad miration from every one in the room The girl was the first to plead fatigue so her partner led hor gracefully to seat and went off ostensibly to get re freshments but really to find a doctor for his arm was broken in two places and his shoulder was dislocated With remarkable endurance he had refrain ed from mentioning the injury which the plaster cast had done him and had suffered acute agony for fifteen min utes rather than alarm the sensitive daughter of his host Tit Bits TRUMPET CALLS Ranis Horn Sounds a Warninj s rT yXiMF1 I Agp0 JL Note to the Unredeemed RAINING is the art of gaining Quietness is the- magnet of peace Patience is the barometerof faith Good works are the voice of faith Influence is the magnet of char acter Capability i s the polestar of revolution Discipline is the crucible of responsi bility In forgiving a fault we may inspire a virtue The man who stands for God is safe to stand alone The gospel means not law over men but love in them Temptation is the balance where character is weighed Conscience makes cowards of only those who fail to obey it Emotional Christians like jelly fish float with the tide To put works against faith is to con trast the tree with its roots To define is to limit a finished theol ogy would make God finite Love has emulation without strife unity without uniformity Ones faith shows less what he is thaai what he is trying to be Beware of prosperity luxury was the death knell of Romes vigor Knowledge and wisdom make a strong team when hitched togerher Those who worship wealth will bow in adoration before good clothes Record ot a Russian Hospital Moscow has a hospital large enoughs to hold 7000 persons It was founded in 17G4 and at present takes in children at the rate of forty a day or about 15 300 a year There are twenty six physi cians and about 000 nurses During the first century of vzs existence the hos pital received and brought up no fewer than 4G85G0 childen On his retreat from Moscow in iS12 Napoleon gave special orders that this building should be spared The counterfeit coin may be lead but its hard to push A man may be fast asleep but rather slow when awake - fiJ t T 1 X n 1 i i i I i i I i in