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About The Nebraska advertiser. (Nemaha City, Neb.) 18??-1909 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 1905)
OPINIONS OF GREAT PAPERS ON IMPORTANT SUBJECTS THE HUMAN FACTOR. TT 1b . rerr ffooil nen that thn rnllrnnil Afllpnn nnrl mnn- Iagera themselves aro much exercised over the Interstate Commerce Commission's appalling ahowlug of railroad accident for the past fiscal year. It Is a still further good sign that, in discussing the matter, the railroad men are very generally admitting that the fault Is the railroads', and not that of the public itself, or of Divine Providence, r the infernal powers. Lucius Tuttle', president of the Boston and Maine Rail road, mukea the mlleago system, which puts undue pressure vpon the men, primarily responsible. And in an interview with on Evening Mail reporter W. C. Brown, third vice president of the New York Central, aald yesterday that in almost every case Included In the report of the Interstate Commission the accident was the result of carelessness or fqrgetfulness on the part of one or more employes. Mr Brown apparently thinks that mechanical safoty ap pliances have gono almost as 'far as they can go. Elec trically locked switches may render tho operation of fast passenger trains Bufcr; but the rest depends on the em ployes He wants the cxtremeat care exorcised to get "only men of natural intelligence and fairly educated" for tlds responsible and rao3t exacting service. Itnilroad men should certainly be intelligent and fairly educated. But the most Intelligent man cannot bo alto gether depended on If ho understands that speed Is the llrst requirement and safety only a secondary one, or if his faculties are so strained by long hours or by Intense pressure that his Impressions become confused and his per ceptions dulled. " Rails sometimes spread and wreck trains under an un usual strain. The human brain Is liable to u similar col lapse under similar conditions. It is to be noted that, ac cording to the Interstate Commission's accident bulletin. the gravest disasters reported In tho last year were the results of blunders of "experienced men." Now York Mull. Peary's Latest PJan. COMMODORE PEAKY, In his speech at New York, before' the International Geographical Congress, out lined the one most rational attack upon the polo yet proposed. Now that the narrow circle still sealed about tho North Pole has been approached from all quarters It has grown clear that the final achievement of reaching the North Pole will turn upon one of three methods; a vessel strong enough to stand drift, a vessel powerful enough to breast the Ice, nnd a dash with Blcdges across tho pack. Commodore Peary proposes to uulte all three, nis new vessel, about the size of the English Antarctic Discovery, will bo built upon the lines and have all the strength of Nansen's craft, which sur vived the long pressure of moving Ice through the Arctic night. Instead of being, like that vessel, the mere sport of the elements, it will be strong enough to push its way through moving Ice. For this purpose It will be provided with tho heaviest engines which have ever been sent north of the Arctic circle. Its screw will be calculated for pressure rather than for speed. Its structure will be made, not for mere ramming, but for that steady, continuous pushing, which, applied to the largest Ice floe weighing millions of tons, will gradually move it, as tho experience of whalers in warping during the Melville pack demonstrated years ago. Tho fashion in which ono of these vessels, by the steady pressure or wmuiass, wouia grauuany tnreau its way through an Ico Hoe square miles in extent, which gradually yielded to steady, continuous pressure applied along its -leads, can scarcely be believed. Lastly, having these two requisites of a vessel both strong and powerful, Commodore Peary proposes at the last stage of hl3 campaign to use the Ice slc"h;c and a dash across the pack from a base as far north as can bo secured. A northern base. Eskimo helpers and a miuglirig of all the various tools which other explorers have employed are three factors by which Commodore Peary proposes to re solve that geographical surd, the North Pole. The open door toward tho greatest northing for his base la Smith Sound and the waterway which runs west of Greenland. I'he winter through, and much more in summer, this chan nel Is full of moving ico, through which a vessel such as Commodore Peary now proposes can be forcbd to a point north of Greenland, probably a very considerable distance if the season chances to bo open over the water which separates tho most northern part of Greenland from the pole. Philadelphia Press. Enormous Loss by Tire EVERY now and then writers on economic subjects direct attention to tho terrlblo losses cauBed by lire. Ono of the most vigorous summaries of this vast modem waste Is offered by tho Wisconsin State In surunco Department, which remarks thut tho waste by Ore in tho United States during the tweuty-flvo years ended Dec. 31 last hus averaged 9130,000,000 a year, if condi tions remain normal during the fraction of 1901 yet re maining that Is to say, if no other serious conflagration occurs the lire bill for this year cannot be less thau $300, 000,000, a tax rate equal to 3-100 of the national wealth. When it is remembered that this Immense sum Is absolute ly wiped out of existence, eternally removed from the use of mankind, tho seriousness of the problem which con fronts us may bo appreciated.' Insurance Engineering has been considering the same subject, and It attributes the wasto largely to the over prevalence of wooden buildings. It Is said that In Chicago more than half of tho buildings are of frame construction. In Newark, a town with n population of a quarter of a million, two-thirds of the buildings aro frame. Even in Boston the frame buildings are more than two-thirds of the whole. In San Francisco more than nine-tenths are frame. Insurance Engineering gives a list of about sev enty towns In which frame construction predominates so greatly that, to use its words, they have a "kindling wood outlook." The same remark the New York Sun thinks might be made of about all tho -13S towns enumerated in the census bureau's computation of the urban population. The next era in our material progress should bo known as tho Ore-proof age. Pittsburg Press. T!:o Cost of War. USSIA, as well as Japan, Is beginning to count the cost of a long war. Count Okuma, as we have seen, reckons Japan's military expenses at half a billion dollars a year. Tho financial agent attached to the Russian embassy ut Washington estimates the war expendi ture of Rpssla up to the end of tho year at nearly the same 3um 0."O,00O,CO0 rubles being equivalent to a little over .?o00,000,000. It Is not likely that either estimate Is too high. Think what a billion dollars might have done for the peaceful development of Manchuria. And these figures do not include the loss to tho country that Is fought over. Russia, of course, has vastly greater resources than Japan. While the remoteness of the war Is a military dis advantage, It leaves tho country Itself practically undis turbed, and tho drafts for military service make little im pression upon the enormous population of the empire. Japan, on the contrary, must be sending an appreciable pro portion of lier productive hands Into the war, and the bur den of their support falls on a relatively limited territory. Russia has u particular advantage at this time also In the great horde of gold that has been accumulated in the country as the basis of an excellent currency system, which has thus far suffered no disturbance. Japan has likewise managed her currency issues successfully as yet, but they are on a small scale, and when the public outlay rises in tile hundreds of millions It is questionable If tho system Is adequate to stand the strain. In the shock of battle, victory Is likely to rest with the strongest battalions. In the wear and tear of a long war, the advantage Is with the largest exchequer. Japan's best hope Is In an early and decisive success. Russia's reliance is still in her unlimited powers of endurance. But the wanton waste of a billion dollars a year Is the least part of the awful cost of war. Philadelphia Ledger. The Wood Crocs of tho Far North huve a groat itwpect for their "Illtlj brother," makwa, tho bear, and the braves array themselves for a bear hunt In their finest dress of ceremony. In "Tho Silent Places," Stewart Ed wurd White describes an attack on n bear by a party of Indiamj, as wlt uessH.i by two woodsmen. Dick and Sam perceived a suddyn excitement In the leading canoes. Hnukeutah stopped, then cautiously backed uulil well behind tho screen of the poinl. "It's a bear," said Sam, quietly. "They've gone to get their war paint on." In a abort time the Indian canoes re appeared. The Indians had Intercept ed their women, unpacked their bag guge, and arrayed themselves in buck skin, elaborately embroidered with beads and silks in thn flower pattern. Ornaments of brass anil silver, sacral skins of tho beaver, broad dashes of ochor and vermilion on tho naked skin, twisted streamers of colored wool all added to the barbaric gorgeousucss. Phantom-like, without apparently the slightest directing motion, the bows of tho canoes swung like wlnJ vunes to point toward a Uttio heap of drift logs undor tho shadow of an elder bush. Tho bear was wallowlag in the cool wet sand. Now old Uaukeninh rose to his height In the bow of his canoe, and began to speak rapidly in a low voice, in tho soft Crco tongue. "O makwa, our little brother," he said, "we come to you not in anger, nor In disrespect We come to do you a kindness. Here are hunger and col l and enemies. In the Afterlaad Is ouly happiness. So If we shoot you, O ir.akwu, our little brolhor, be not an gry with us." With the Bhock of a dozen little bul lets the bear went down, but was Im mediately ufoot again. He was badly wounded and thoroughly enraged. B3 fore the astonished Indians could baok water, he had dasVed into the shal lows and planted his paws on tin bow of old Haukemah's canoe. Hnukemah stood valiantly to the do fense, but was promptly upset and pouncetl upon by the enraged animal Dick Horron rose suddenly to his feet and shot. The bear collapsed into the muddled water. Haukemah and his steersman rose, dripping. Tho Indians gathered to r: amino In respectful admiration. Dick's bullet had passed from ear to ear. CARAVAN ROAD 5,000 YEARS. Bcunet Alone One of tho Most Auclcnt Highways in tho World, The road from Horns to llama run.- almost due north, a straight white lino cutting across the green fields. It Is one of tho oldest routes in tha world. Caravans have beeu passing along It for at least Ave thousand years, just as wo saw them long strings of slow-moving camels, with their bright-colored bags of wheat. Ono could almost imagine that Pharaoh was again calling down the corn of Hamnth to fill his garments against the seven years of famine. Rut even hero the old things are pass lug. Just beyond tho long line of camels was a longer lino of fellah women, their dirty blue robes killed above their knees, carrying upon their shoulders baskets of earth and stone for tho roadbed of tho new French railway. The carriage road is French, too; and a very good road Is It. Some men were repairing it with a most In genious roller. It was a groat round stone, drawn by two oxen, and having its axle prolonged by a twenty-foot pole, at the end of which a bare legged Arab was fastened to balance the whole affair. If the Btom had top pled over the picture of tho Arab dangling at the top of the sbnder flag staff would have been worth watch lug. All along the ride we were reminded of the past, it is a fertile f.o'.l, but the very wheat fields are different from ours. Only n few yards in widlh, they are often of tremendous length. I hesitate to commit myself to figures; but it Is certain that the thin, green fields would stretch nway in tho dis tance until lost over some little eleva tion. At one place the road was cut through a hill honeycombed with rock tombs, which the linj said were Jew Ish. Every now nnd thn wo passed a toll, or great hemispherical mound, built up of the rubbish of a dozen ruined towns; for even as Jato as Roman times this was a well cult! vatcd and populous country. There U now no lumber available for building purposes, and in n number of villages the houses are all built with conical roofs of stone. Where the rock hap pens to be of a reddisli tinge tho houses remind one of nothing so much as a collection of Indian wigwams: where the stone Is white, as at Tell ol-RIsch, it glitters and sparkles like a fairy city cut out of loaf sugar. Serlbner's Magazine. I OLD- 1 And Yet It In Never Advertise!. Wiggles What is your favorite breakfast food? Waggles Ham and eggs. Somer vlile Journal. FAVORITES f I;.i;ii;..i.jj..j...jj...,j....j..;.,j,,.j..j...,... Uhiucu on tho Klihic. A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Al geria ; Thcro was lack of woman's nursing, thero was dearth of woman's tears; But a comrade stood beside him, while IiIb life-blood ebbed away, And bent with pitying glance to hear what he might say. The dying soldier faltered as he took that comrade s baud, And he snid: "I never more shall see my own, mr native land. Take a message and a token to some dis tant friends of mine; For I was born at Bingen nt Bingrn on the Rhine! Tell my brothers and companions, when they meet and crowd a round To hear my mournful Htory, In the pleas ant vineyard ground, That wo fought thu battle bravely; nnd when the day was done Full many a corpse lay ghastly pale be neath the setting sun. And 'midst tho dead and dying were some crown old in war. The death-wounds on their gallant breasts the last of many scars; But some were young, and suddenly be held life's morn decline; And one had coma from Bingen fair Bingcu on tho Rhine! 'Tell my mother that her other moiim shall comfort her old age, For I was still a truant bird that thought his homo a cage; For my father was a soldier, and even as a child My heart leaped forth to hear hhu tell of struggles fierce and wild; And when ho died, and loft us to divide his ecanty hoard, I let them take whate'er they would- but kept my father s sword; And witii boyish love I hung It where the bright light used to whine On the cottage wall at Bingen calm Bingen on the Rhine! "Tell my sister not to weep for me, and sob with droopmg head. When the troops come marching home again with glad aud gallant tread. But to look upon them proudly, wlt.i .i calm and steadfast eye. For her brother was a sol.iur. ton. i.i:d not afraid to die; And If a comrade seek her Invo, l m her in my name To listen to him frankly, without regret or shame, And to hang the old sword in its pluce, my father's sword and mine, For the- honor of old Bingen dear Bin gen on the Rhine! "There's another, not n nlator; iu tho happy days gone by You'd have known her by tho merriment that sparkled in her eye; Too Innocent for coquetry, too fond for Idle scorning; O friend, I fear the Hghtctit heart makes sometimes heaviest morning. Tell her the last night of my lifo (for ere this moon be risen My body will be out of pain, my soul be out of prison), I dreamed I stood with her, aud saw the yellow sunlight shiua On the vine-clad liills of Bingen fair Bingen ou the Rhine! "I saw the blue Rhine sweep along; I heard, or seemed to hear, Tho German songs we used to sing, In chorus sweet and clear; And down the pleasant river, and up the slanting hill, Tho echoing chorus sounded through the evening calm and still; Aud her glad blue eyes wero on me as we passed, with friendly talk, Down mauy a path beloved of yore, nnd well-remembered walk, And her llttlo hand lay lightly, confid ingly in mine; Bnt we'll meet no more at Bingen loved Bingen ou the Rhine!" His voice grew falat aad hoarse his grasp Was childish weak; Ills eyes put on a dying look ho sighed, and ceased to speak; Ills comrade beat to lift him, but the spark of Ufa had fled; Tho soldier of tho Legion in a foreign land was dead! And the soft moon rose up slowly, and calmly sho looked down On tho red sand of the battlefield, with bloody corpses strewn. Yea, calmly on that dreadful bcouu her pale light seemed to shine, As it shouo on distant Bingen fair Bin gen on the Rhine! Caroline E. Norton. DIGS CYCLONE CELLAR. Differences Between tho Ilabltn of u Hure uud u Rabbit. Tho difference between u hare and a rabbit la, the former lives on the sur face of the ground, while the latter digs a cyclone cellar and uses it as a reception room, writes Thomas A. llerndon In the Washington Post. Thero are about 30 species of rab bits and hares in the world, aud all countries except Australia originally possessed some specimens, but even Australia cannot now complain that she Is without representatives of a spe cies that make themselves a power in the earth. The polar hare, tho Eskimo of its species, dwells amid the snow and ico of that desolate region, and nature has so arranged that tho color of his clothes harmonizes with his surroundings,! South America Is poorest In having but one species. Lopus callotls Is tho name which sci ence gives to n species of this wonder ful animal, that when danger threatens knowH so well what to do with Its foot, but in common vernacular, and for business purposes, ho is kuown as tho Jackass rabbit, or Jack rabbit. Ho de rives his euphonious name- from ou: great American mocking bird, thu Jack ass, from the supposed resemblance of their long ears, aud tltc Jack rabbit n:i far excels all of his species In speed as his namesake docs In strenuous song. Jack rabbits aro the largest of nil the hares, ( being 25 inches In length, while the ordinary rabbit, or cotton tall, Is 17 Inches. Tltc hind legs and ears are long, color above yellowish gra3, sides and back of neck lighter, below white, tall sometimes black, but In the north entirely white. Llko nil hares, they do not burrow, but build a nest on the top of the ground. In northern climates the rabbit turns pure white In winter, while farther south the change is partial, or docs not occur at all. Their homo Is iu tho boundless west, from Texas to Min nesota and westward to California. The two big front teetli of tho upper Jaw are the sign of tho rodent, but behind these are two llttlo teeth, which; do not reach far enough down to aid in the gnawing, aud scii'tillsts havo agreed that those little teeth aro to the rabbit what the appendix is to a man a perfectly useless piece of fur niture, a grandfather's clock, so to speak, onco useful to his ancestors, but now outlawed by more recent discov eries and Inventions. But those llttlo teeth prove that the rabbit's ancestors had four instead of two largo teeth, us at present. On account of the peculiar anatomi cal structure and arrangement of the bones of tho forelegs, a rabbit cannot turn them Inwardly and use them as hands, as can tho squirrel and other todcnls when feeding; but tho forelegs neem licj.Igncd to be used in running or the curious stamping in which rab bits Indulge when angry or excited. Jack rabbits are not believers in or ex ponents of race suicide, and at tho close of each season they cAn point with pride to I he Increase in the uum- -v o.' their ; tjiily. Unlike kittens, tho yuung nuoi!H cume iMti this sinful world it'i Lhclr eyes wide open, and whoti a we.:; old they are active and wt-'.l able t'i lake i:are of themselves ami lo-ik ar.tv their own safely. At tho ci.il a mouth or two they aro wcunod and Me t.oon ready to set up housekeeping for themselves. I.. ..........! J1...I- I.... I jlii ii milium siuiu u 11:11 inn uudi; la hold in check by the scarcity of food, but when the fnrmer produces enough food suited to their taste they fed it la their moral duty to produce enough young rabbits to eat It. Tho eagle and hawk frequently kill Jack rabbits, es pecially the young, but their most de structive Iocs, next to the great assass in, man, aro the wolves and foxes. The coyote is said to bo an exp -it on the sub. ect of rabbit hunting, and He considers it an unlucky day when ho docs not carry In his inside pocket tho left hind foot of a rabbit. During tho autumn and winter Jack rabbits aro hunted and killed in great numbers. Tho most popular method Is shooting them from wagons or buckboards, with the assistance of dogs, who start tho Jades from their cover. One man will sometimes kill dozens of the rabbits iu a day. But the jjTeat oat number, however, are killed in drives. An urea of several miles In extent is beaten over by men on horse back and on foot, who close in an they advance, driving the game before them -into some kind of an luclosure or cor ral, from which there Is no escape. The number of rabbits taken In this manner runs from a few hundred to several thousand. Thcmost sportsmahlikc wayof buhl lug tho Jack rabbit is by coursing u ltli greyhounds, ufter tho manner In an cient hunts In Europe, nnd tho speed of tho rabbit does not allow any loaf ing on tho part of the greyhound, and If the rabbit Is not off his training ha will give the greyhound his money'! worth In tho prelinilnary spin. If the Jack rabbt has a fair start lo the raco he can outdistance tho grey hound and does hot turn or double' un less closely pressed, but then he takei advantage of every trick or turn which ho has learned In the school of expert enco, and the greyhound that beats bin! . fairly must not be a "tenderfoot," but to the manner born. . Miutu an Impression. Flrsst Bee I don't believe that small boy will Lother us tiny more. Second Bee Do you think he under stands that his presence Is not wanted? First Bee Well, I gave him a strong pointer to that effect. Detroit Free Press. lllHlllUUtiltU. "There's no use trying to do good1 things In this world. They aren't an-' pruciatud." "How do you know?" Cleveland) Plain Dealer. Old ago can dye its whiskers, but old age can't look young.