. , f , JHlifrft . - /
,
Conservative 13
to the liiHt stop cannot bo oitocl in rccont
uuuuls except perhaps the first part ol
Moltko's cunipuign against the French
The achievement was a great one , but
its political consequences are likely tit
bo greater. The only justification of war
is that it sometimes opens the way for
a more certain advance of civilization
That has boon done by Kitchener Pasha
The tenacious clutch of the self styled
khalifa and his dervish hordes on the
upper Sudan has been for many years
the impassable barrier , across whose
/ouo there was no passage north or
south.
Now the march of progress is opened
to the great African lakes , and the
dream of that empire builder , Cecil
Rhodes , has become practicable. The
newly cemented friendship between
Germany and England makes the ad
vent of railway and telegraph across the
eastern middle belt an assured thing ,
and the opposition by the Portuguese in
the Zambezi region can bo brushed away
without trouble. The connection between
tween South Africa and Egypt by steam
and electricity has made a giant stride
in the success of Kitchener Pasha , and
the next score of years will probably see
through travel between Capo Town and
Alexandria. Political obstacles removed
ed , the physical obstructions to bo over
come are not to be compared with those
conquered by the engineers of the Si
berian railroad. The dramatic feature
of the great victory atOmdurmau flows
out of its association with the lamented
Gordon , who full pierced iu Khartun
by a dozen lances 14 years ago this
mouth. Its true significance is that it
has demolished the last absolute barrier
in the march of civilization on the dark
continent.
Nurses at the sick beds of dying sol
diers relate the same story full of the
deepest pathos of human nature. In
their dying delirium it is not the eweot
heart whose name is called , but "moth
er , mother , mother. "
To enjoy reading is a perpeUml in
surance against being bored. This is
because wo have such a wide variety of
friends to ohooso from. One can always
drop an intellectual acquaintance with
out giving offense.
In spite of the dominance of steam a
the motive power of ships , the sailing
vessel is still an important factor in
commerce. This has como abou
through the value of labor saving in
volitions which enable one man to d
the effective work of two. Some of th
crews iu these big ships , which reach
occasionally 4,000 tons burden , are
not numerous enough to form more than
two watches , yet they are not as help
less iu nasty weather as the bigger
crews of an early period. They.are fit
ted with a great multiplicity of skillful
d * 'ieea , the more important among
thorn buing automatic methods of furl-
mg and unfurling sails , reeling , hoist
ing the anchor , steering , handling the
canvas and sheet ropes in all exigencies
likely to befall , and loading and
unloading cargoes. For the most part
built of steel and of great beauty of
model , many of these ocean carriers
look like exaggerated yachts. They sail
with extraordinary speed and offer oven
more comfort to the crows than the
steamships. The largest will spread
10,000 yards of canvas to a fair breeze.
The day of the sailing ship is not yet
numbered.
It is said that some of the Now York
merchants who promised clerks who enlisted -
listed their positions when the war
should be over now retract their pledges.
The ground taken is that they meant
the tirno to moan the actual fighting ,
not the detention in northern camps
waiting for discharge. Do these patriot
ic traffickers of their own honor expect
their old clerks to desert ?
The National Irrigation congress ,
which recently mot at Ohoyonuo , dis
cussed many important problems in
volved in the subject matter of its pur
pose with its usual zeal and knowledge.
The facts that the region needing irri
gation makes a body of laud roughly
aggregating 1,800,000 square miles ;
that this laud , which can bo made im
mensely fertile by water , mostly belongs
to government , and that most of the I
naturally desirable farming laud is al
ready taken up lifts this public ques
tion to immense importance. Plow the
irrigation problem can be successfully
solved , however , is a baffling crux , just
as it is iu the Mississippi river question.
There are immense difficulties in the
way. If it were possible to use the sur
plus volume of the Mississippi flood to
irrigate the western deserts , it would
happily kill two birds with one stone
Louisiana and Arizona would congratu
late each other with true southwestern
forvor.
The merest trifle sometimes is the
secret of great results or of the absence
of them. Pascal wisely said that if
Cleopatra's nose had boon shorter the
face of the whole world would have
boon changed.
Throe men have boon mistaken for
deer and shot in the Adirondack this
year. But then the deer season has bare
ly opened. It will show a bettor bag by
the end of October.
There was a certain republican sim
plicity amid all the splendor of Queen
Wilhomina's coronation which gave its
pomp an added dignity Salt as well as
sugar wout to the making of the cere-
niouial.
Habitunl gravity of demeanor is a
stratagem to conceal poverty of mind.
The most highly gifted uaturos are
streaked with gayety as quartz with
gold.
TIMELY ANNIVERSARIES ,
Koine Current Selections From His
tory's llroad Pnge.
September 1C.
1500-Philip of AiiHtriu , father of Charles V ,
died.
1770 Now York city captured by the British.
At the beginning of the war the British
hold the harbor , nnd in August , 1775 , the
forts at the lower end of the city wcro
evacuated. The disastrous hattlo of Long
Island lost the city to the patriots.
1780 James Fcnhnoro Cooper born at Burling
ton , N. J. ; died 1851.
18130 Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester
railway , the first in England. Forflriu
Diaz , Mexican Holdior , statesman and pres
ident , horn in Ouxucu.
1862 Surrondci of Harper's Perry and death
of the commander , ColonelDixon H. Miles ;
the most important Union hurrcndcr of
the war.
September 10.
1780 Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit , noted for
thermometers , died in Amsterdam ; Lorn
1080.
1812 Moscow set on lire Ly the Russian gov
ernor ; over 30,000 buildings destroyed ; Ions ,
$150,000,000. The lire lasted many days.
Napoleon's soldiers vainly attempted to
suppress the Humes. The French begun to
leave Oct. 10 , on that march which de
stroyed them faster than great battles.
This disaster is considered the beginning
of tl.o end for Napoleon. His army never
recovered from it.
1804 Captain John Banning Spcko , the famous
African oxplorcr , accidentally killed by the
discharge of his fowling piece while hunt
ing at Noslon park , England.
1800 The palace of the Alhuinbrn , in Granada ,
Spain , damaged by lire to the extent of
$250,000.
1893-0,000,000 acres opened to settlers in the
Cherokee strip.
September 17.
1575 Henry Bullingor , Swiss
reformer , died at Zurich.
1748 Jean Antoine , marquis
do Condorcct , mathemati
cian and friend of Benja
min Franklin , was born in
Pieurdy ; died by poison ,
self administered , while
imprisoned by Robo-
spiorro , 1701.
1783 Samuel Prout , famous I.ANDOH.
painter in water colors , died in London.
1802 Battle of Antiotam , the bloodiest single
day's battle over fought on American soil.
As a result the Confederates abandoned the
invasion of the north and retired to Vir
ginia , and out of gratitude for the victory
Lincoln made his proclamation of cmnnoi-
pation. The struggle was between the Army
of Northern Virginia , xinder Leo , and the
Army of the Potomac , under McClollan.
1804 Walter Savage Lander , scholar and poet ,
died at Florence ; born 1775.
1371 Mom Cenis tunnel opened.
Remarkable naval battle in the Yalu river
between Chinese nnd Japanese. The Jap-
uneso forced the lighting. Their llcot num
bered more ships than that of the Chinese ,
nnd they were swifter and carried more
rapid llro gunn. The Chinese had heavier
battleships than their enemy and heavier
gun . The contest llnally narrowed down
to a desperate struggle between two Chi
nese battleships and live Japanese vessels.
It ended in a draw , although the Chinese
rut i cat ml.
September 18.
1402 Columbus , 400 leagues west of the Ca
naries nnd moving rapidly before a
breeze , noted the great purity of the air.
1507 Founding of St. Augustine , Flu. , the old
est town in the United States.
1772 The first partition of Poland , Russia tak
ing 4,157 square miles , Austria 1,800 nnd
Prussia 1,0(30 ( ; in 1703-5 they took the rest.
1703 George Washington laid the cornerstone
'of the original capital nt Washington ; com
pleted 1801.
1873 Financial crash In Now York ; beginning
of great pnnio and five years of "hard
times. " . .
-WAKE IT
