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VOL. II.
LINCOLN, NEBUaSKA, SATURDAY, AUGUST 10, Iy0.
NO. 9.
aM6
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4.
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notice to Subscribers.
EXPIRATIONS.
As te easiest and cheapest meti of noti-
Cmg subscriber of the data of their xpira
ni wa will mark this notioe with w blue or
Md pencil, on the data at which their ub
faription expires. We will tend the paper
twe weeka after expiration. If not renewed
r tat time It will b discontinue.
A Farmer Speaks.
Written for the Farmers' Aixiance by Mrs.
AdellaL, C.
Twas just about corn plantin' time, ten years
aro last spring, '
Old Ball face fell and broke her leg, she was a
clumsy thing. r?
But strange and true for alio that, she'd
pull right with the best.
She was my father's grift to roe before I went
out west.
Nowso'sto buy another horse, and bu ild a
pasture fence,
I'd bargained for a harvester and been to
some expense.)
I had to have a little cash , not thinking- any
harm,
' To give security I put a mortgage on the farm.
The new colt was skittish like, a big high
stepping roai;
She ran away with little Joe and broke his
collarbone.
She smashed the wagin all to flints, the har
ness strung apart.
I tell you I felt pretty blue, but Mother, bless
her heart!
She said we ought to thank the Lord the boy
wa nt killed outright.
But doctor's bills and fixin Up, and hirin' of a
hand,
Ail cost so much I could'nt raise the mortgage
frou the land.
" But never mind." says Mary Jane, " next
year we'll do as well."
We didn't raise mor'n half a crop, and what
we had to sell.
We almost had to give away, grain was so
pesky low.
We couldn't keep the interest up, and it be
gan to grow.
I'm sure that "we worked hard enough all
through the summer heat;
The Interest worked hand over hand, a thing
we couldn't beat.
It kept right ou through hall and rain, and
when a blizzard come.
It took the best chair in the house and made
itself at home.
It set right down among us there, and with a
fiendish grin.
It opened up its awful mouth and bid us
shove thiDgs In.
We gave it our potatoes, and our corn and
oats and wool;
It gobbled down the sheep 'mselves, and still
it was not full;
It took the porker from the pen, the butter
from our bread,
C And every race I run with it the thing ceme
out ahead.
Ses I at last to Mary Jane, one scalding Au
gust day.
We'll have to let the old farm go, there aint
no other way.
We're growing old and gettin' gray long years
before eur time.
I say let's turn that mortgage out, if we don't
' save a dime!
; We'll have te have an auction sale and sell
off every thing;
We'll look the world square in the face and
then commence agio.
And filch a sale! We posted bills a week or
two ahead.
An a m an won't miss au auction unless he's
sick in bed.
1 Mother fried some doughnuts up, and made
dried apple pie.
xtmade 'em feel good natured, and I tell you
th ings went high.
Them as could give security I give 'em tlme,
becase
A man '11 buy most anything when he can
run his face. "
I sold the notes and paid my debts, and had
enough besides
To buy some tools and furniture where farm
ers are supplied.
I'd joined the Farmer's 'Liance, so got my
goods half price;
(For when a good thing is going round I'm
bound to have a slice.)
. We rented a small plot of ground with build
ings, pretty cheap.
They're only sod, but-even sod beats none at
all a heap.
We don't have any tax to pay, and no small
item that, , v.
For all the live stock that we saved was Rover
'and the cat. '
I'm going to work out by the day for them as
wants a hand,
And soon wc hope to have enough to buy a
little land.
We're taking sugar in our tea, we didn't for a
spelL ,
We're going to have a Sunday pie, and make
. a little jell.
So mother ses, and bless her heart! before
the snow flakes fly,
She'll have a new print dress or we will know
the reason why!
Tve voted for high tariff for twenty years or
more,
The very thing with usury that drove me
from my door.
The railroad ringsters lent a hand my votes
helped to elect.
" They worked for their own Interest, what
more could we expect?
Their promises were fair and fine, they left
'em all behind, .
When they packed their grip for Lincoln.
- How blind we've been! how blind!
But, brothers,there is hope ahead, with better
days begun.
We've tolled for others long enongh, " hur
rah for number one !"
Repudiating the Frontier County Farmer.
Indianola. Neb., Aug. 9, 1890.
" Resolutions passed by Centre Point
Alliance No. 962, Frontier county, ssett.
Whereas, Mr, A. G. Harlan, of Curtis,
Neb., has been in the habit of publish
ing extracts from republican papers
without comment, said extracts . advo
eating republican sentiments; and
Whereas. He has unjustly attacked the
character of the people's candidate for
congress, and given the influence of his
paper (the Frontier County Farmer) to
Mr. Harlan, the republican candi
date for congress, thereby failing
. , - r i.1 A 1 1 r
to vindicate ine principles oi ine Alli
ance: therefore be it
Resolved. By Centre Point Alliance
No. 962 that we disapprove of Mr. Ha
lan's paper as the official organ of
Frontier Countv Alliance, and we do
hereby respectfully request the Frontier
County Alliance, at its next regular
meeting, to rescind its action making
the Frontier County Farmer its official
organ. MCLkan uoddard, sec.
P. D. Asmstrokg, Pres.
AN EVENTFUL NIGHT.
vrrrcten for the Tribune.
The years of a lifetime are too few
to efface from memory a scene in
which I was an active participant one
night more than twenty years ago in
the wilds of East Tennessee." The
speaker was an old volunteer officer
who served through the war in an Ohio
regiment. He had seen a great deal of
war in all its phases, and had been
once severely wounded. At this time
he was one pf a small company of
friends who were talking of those stir
ring events. Being pressed to tell the
story of the night in question he con
tinued: "I belonged to the old Fourth
corps, army of the Cumberland. When
Uncle Billy-' Sherman laid Atlanta in
ashes and pulled out with five corps
for Savannah, he sent back the Fourth
and Twenty-third, under 'Old Pap
Thomas, you remember, to take care
jof Hood, who, by a wide detour to
the north and wes, had turned up on
the Tennessee river and was threaten
ing Nashville. The repulse ot Hood
at Franklin, followed, two weeks
later, by the magnificent victory of
Thomas at Nashville, almost destroy
ed the confederate army. From the
day those demoralized remnants re
crossed the river we never again look
ed into the muzzle of their muskets.
I have said all this so that you may
understand how it happened that we
were away up among the mounta:ns
of East Tennessee.
"Late one evening there came to us
news that threw the camps of the va
rious brigades and divisions into the
wildest uproar. No language of mine
can convey more than a faint con
ception of the reality. Nobody ever
saw or heard anything lik? it before
nor, probably, ever will again. I
suppose you want to know what it
was all about. It was near the middle
of April. Darkness had settled down
over the great bivouac. " The bugles
had sounded the tatoo. The grizzled
veterans who had been squatting
around the camp-fires, talking over
the scenes of the past and wondering
when the war would be over had
knocked the ashes from their pipes
and crawled within their little 'pup'
tents, or their shelters made of boughs.
AU was still, save the measured tread
of the 3entinels as they passed to and
fro upon their beats around the sleep
ing army.
"Suddenly then came rattling
through the clear night air a sound
that aroused every soldier in an in
stant. We had often herrd it before,
and it always meant business.
It was the long roll at division
headquarter;?. And such a long roll
as it was! The drummer handled his
sticks as if he were pounding for his
very life. When a soldier hears the long
roll he never waits for orders. It is an
alarm that has but one meaning. His
duty is to get his 'traps' on and take
his place in line, and to be very lively
about it, too. The drums at the
headquarters of each brigade took up
the sound and the piercing blasts of bu
gles joined in the chorus. Started from
their sleep the soldiers kicked off their
blankets and it wasn't a minute till the
companies were formed, every man
with his accoutrements buckled
on and his musket at a 'shoulder,'
in response to the 'Fall in!'
of the orderly sergeants. Again
drums and bugles sounded, the com
panies marched to the color line and
the regiments were ready for action.
It was a moonless night and the dark
ness of the oak woods was but feebly
dispelled here and there by the flicker
ing light of the smouldering fares.
"Everybody inquired of everybody
else what the matter was. We had
hot supposed there was any consid
erable force of the enemy within a
hundred miles of us. But such
alarms had always betokened some
great emergency and the soldiers
thought of nothing but a night attack
upon the camp. Every ear was strained
to catch the rattle of shots on the
picket-line. No sound was heard
save the bustle oi the assembling
troops and the voices of the officers as
they gave the necessary command. It
was one of those moments of anxious
suspense that test the courage of the
bravest veteran.
"An orderly from brigade headquar
ters daahed an and handed a nanerto
the colonel of our regiment. A bit of
candle was found, and by its spatter
ing light the colonel glanced at the
message. Jumping about four feet in
the air he gave one wild, piercing yell,
that an Apache chief might strive in
Tain to rival, We all thought for the
moment - that he had gone crazy.
When he came down he handed the
paper to the adjutant, letting off an
other yell, and told him to read
it to the regiment. It was a copy
of a telegram From Secretary Stanton,
announcing the surrender of Lee's
army. The scene that followed no
words can adequately describe. The
colonel and adjuntant swung their
hats and danced around and fairly
howled. Every officer and soldier in
the regiment, and in every other regi
ment, did the same thing. We bad
heard shouting and yelling before, and
had done our full share of it on occa
sion, but never anything like that
which greeted the reading of this dis
patch. From one end of the camp to
the other the confusion and uproar
were prodigious. Men laughed and
danced and hugged one another, and
rent the air with every kind of noise
possible to the human voice, pitched
in its highest key. It was as if the
inmates of a score of lunatic asylums
bad been turned loose in those Ten
nessee woods.
"When the yelling had in some de
gree subsided, from sheer vocal ex
haustion, the soldiers began to cast
about for other means to make a
noise. It didn't matter what it was
the more discordant the better, only
so that it helped to swell the awful
din. Meanwhile, all the brass bands
were playing though nobody could
tell what the tunes were the shriek of
ftfes and rattle of drums were heard
on every hand and the buglers strain
ed to make themselves heard until it
seemed as if they would blow their
heads off. Then the artillery opened.
Gun after gun joined in the mighty
chorus until every battery in the corps
was sending forth its thunders toedio
among the mountains. Regiment after
regiment began to fire their muskets.
The men took the cartridges from
their boxes, poured in the powder,
jammed in the paper for wadding and
blazed away. The balls they throw
upon the ground; there was no fur
ther use for them. Perhaps you can
imagine the din; but it's more likely
you can't. When the soldiers bad
shot away their cartridges they hunt
ed up all the camp kettles and tin
pans and beat them furiously with
sticks and stones, still yelling and
shouting as fast as they co.uld gather
breath enough to do so. The camp
was a literal pandemonium. Heaped
with wood the fires blazed high, and
the forest was aglow with light.
"Did the generals try to stop the
riot? Not a bit of it. They felt just as
hilarious and yelled as loud as any
body else. There was no 'rank in
camp that night. Officers and men
joined in the appalling racket, vying
with one another m producing the
most startling effects. Half an hour
after the trouble began an orderly
from headquarters brought around
an order. It said:
'Regimental commanders will issue a
ration of whiskey to each officer and man.'
" 'P. S. Give 'em a double ration.'
"The army was not exactly a tem
perance society, pledged to total
abstinence, and you may well be
lieve this order was received
with great enthusiasm. It was
not long till the 'commissary' was dis
turbed, each man receiving his portion
in his canteen or tin cup. An Illinois
colonel mounted a stump and, as he
h?ld up his canteen, declared that a
man who wouldn't get drunk that
night didn't deserve to have a country;
and if any man of his regiment should
be found sober in one hour by the
watch he would be tried on the spot
by drum -head court-martial. He
then set an example by emptying h:s
cant pen at a single pull while the boys
cheered with tremendous vigor.
"Under the exhilarating influence
of the liquor the . din . became
simpl infernal even that word
seems weak and meaningless
to describe such a scene. There
was no violence, no fighting, every
body had had enough of that. It
was simply a happy drink all
round. Thousands of voices joined
in sinking the old army songs 'Battle
Cry of Freedom,' 'Red. White and
Blue,' 'Tramp, Tramp,' 'John Brown's
Body' and the rude parodies of 'Dixie'
and 'Bonnie Blue Flag.' If harmony
was lacking the deficiency was made
up a hundredfold in the "vast volume
of sound. Now and then somebody
would start up the doxology 'Praise
God From Whom AH Blessings Flow'
to the tune of 'Old Hundred,' and
those leather-lunged veterans would
sing it as it was never sung before.
There wasn't a thought of irreverence
about it, either. They sung it 'with
the spirit and with the understanding
also,' as truly as ever did the worship
pers at a Methodist camp-meeting.
"Men did all sorts of grotesque and
ridiculous things. They climbed trees
and yelled from among the branches;
they made heroic speeches from logs
and stumps; they turned their clothes
inside out; they rode one another on
poles they did everything that great
fertility of resource in this direction
could suggest. At the headquarters
of our brigade a horse bucket full of
egg-nog was made, and the general and
his staff indulged in copious libations.
After several 'rounds' they sallied
fort' and seized the instruments of the
band, and formed for a parade
through the camp. The general head
ed the procession with the bass drum,
which he pounded so furiously that he
broke in one of the heads. The
staff officers, with horns, blew the
most wildly discordant blasts. Ad
they marched hither and thither, reg
imental and company officers, and
hundreds of soldiers feel in behind the
general and his staff, until the col'
umn of howling lunatics was a quarter
of a mile long.
"Now there are, no doubt, in this
present year of our Lord, many most
excellent people who will say that the
soldiers of the Fourth corps aid a
very reprehensible thing in getting
drunk that night. While, perhaps,
agreeing with them on general princi
ples, I will say that no human being
unless he has 'been there' can rise to
the frill comprehension of such an oc
casion, it was before the days of the
temperance crusade, and the provoca
tion was extraordinary. If there was,
since the world was created, an excuse
that would hold water for a tempora
ry lapse from sobriety, it was then
and there. Four years of toiling and
suffering such as others know not; of
weary marches and vigils by day and
bv niffhtrthroueh fierce heat and beat
ing storm; of facing the pitiless bullets
and screaming shell, a ainst awful
scenes of death and human anguish;
long months and years that had thin
ueu regiments Of alhou3and men down
to a hundred all were past, the end
had come, and before the eyes of
those scarred and war-worn veterans
arose, in a moment, blessed pictures of
peace and home! Do you wonder that
hey indulged in those wild and ex
travagant demonstrations of joy?
Added to these were the glad feeling oi
victory at last, after all the blood
and wretchedness and the patriotic
rejoicing over a nation saved by their
valor and sacrifices. Let me ask if
you wouldn't have been very likely to
make a fool of yourself for the time
being if you had been there? Let us
hope the recording angel veiled he
face thatnlzht."
A Boy's Idea of His Father,
At ten years of age a boy thinks
his father knows a great deal; at
filteen , he knows as much as his
father; at twenty he knows twice as,
much; at thirty he is willing to take
hies advice; at forty he begins to
think his father knows something
after all; at fifty he begins to seek his
advice, and at sixty, after his fathei
is dead, he thinks that he was the
smartest man. that everUvedv--Atchison
Globe. A
Nationalism and Marriage
By Laurence Gronlund in The Nationalist.
Look at the mournful procession of
women of the town, created by our
wicked social order! For either the
woman is pushed toward the pit by her
small pay under the wage-system, or
she is tempted by the incontinent vaga
1 IJJI.. .1
bonds from our middle' classes, which
this social order keeps unmarried, or
both. I ,
In our lare manufacturing cities and
villages great numbers of operatives of
both sexes more than half of them
young women are gathered together.
Here they are thrown in each others'
company rather rudely in their work;
the boarding houses where most of them
spend their nights and Sundays afford
them none of the restraints of home;
their evenings are Ttont to find them in
the streets and cheap places of amuse
ment. The wages of these operatives,
especially of the females, are ludicrously
small. They muiti pay out of it for
board and room, washing and clothing.
What a pinching life this must be! The
moral fruits of this herdisg together
and exposure to strong-temptation are
a very poor outfit for ahappy married
life. Most of the present deterioration
of family life is due to these industrial
conditions, and to the necessary flitting
of the operatives from place to place.
The relation of the sexes is certainly
the deepest root of human well-being;
it is therefore no wonder that women
call a chaste man " moral," though, of
course it is an almost ridiculously narrow
and selfish view of things. It is by the
avenue of sexual love that man comes
forth from his mere personality and
learns to live in another, while obeying
his most powerful instincts. If a man
cannot love, it is looked upon as a moral
misfortune, if not as a moral fault; for
a man absence of a beloved form is the
finest thing in life missed; he grows
selfish, heartless, materialized this is
not a good state for him nor a natural
one for society. Instinctively we think
of Rome in the age of Augustus. On
the other hand, when he does love suc
cessfully, it is held that his whole nature
has burst into, blossom. That woman's
nature perhaps with very few excep
tions is to. love is admitted on all
hands. )
The chastity of a nation, from any
point you look at it, intimately depends
upon the fact, that the men marry when
young. Nothing is more natural, in our
present social order, than to look upon
marriage without sufficient means of
subsistence with horror; or when one's
standing in society, or the prospects of
children are threatened.- Hence a con
stantly increasing disinclination of men
to marry, and the necessary consequence
is our frightful prostitution that places
us in a more degraded state than that
of the cities of the plain. Appetites and
passions never exert a controlling and
therefore a degrading influence, until
they have been rendered fierce by some
foolish asceticism or-accidental starva
tion. But as has been said, "reduce the
appetites to a famished condition, im
prison them as you do a tiger, and of
course you infuse into them a tiger's
form and ferocity." Normally the nat
ural appetites and passions are a solace
and a refreshment to our mental facul
ties rather than a burden; and normally
sexual passions are a source of divine
unity and of heavenly innocence and
tenderness. The first healthy influence
Nationalism "will have on sexual love is,
that it will enable every loving couple
to marry young.
Next, Nationalism, by conferring
upon . woman the power of earning her
own living by suitable work, will enable
her to refuse to marry for a home or
for maintenance. There is a loud com
plaint of the frequency of divorce, but
this is simply the effect of something
else. Happily married people do not
seek divorce. The trouble is, that the
preceding marriage ought never to
have been entered into, unfortu
nately, our economic system, mark!
turns marriage into a commercial insti
tution, xoung women form a matri
inonial market regulated by ' demand
and supply, and enter into matrimony
to gain a-support. What our law al
lows to be marriage is often a very
nasty thing. It is not I, but Henry
James, Sen., who says, "the law of
every so-called Christian country per
mits one to sell his daughter if but the
clergy gild the transaction to any un
clean wretch whose pecuniary reputa
tion is good. What an annual sacrifice
is, in consequence, offered up by Christ
endom to the merciless moloch of our
civilization ! What a sacrifice of myri
ads of innocent young ones ! What
sort of purity follows ! Let our popu
lar newspapers answer, with hints to
clandestine commerce, with enigmatic
notifications"of adulterous meetings and
advertisements of abortionists." Our
conventional legal marriage, instead of
being a means for the highest possible
human ization of the parties, becomes a
hopeless degradation.
..nationalism, lastly, will greatly ele
vate the marriage institution itself.
Roman marriage differed from the
Greek; Catholic marriage, again, dif
fered radically from the former. These
modifications have not come to an end,
and all TrfiCfdinir modifications will nroV
gressively develop the form.
Marriage is a great end in itself, but
is still more important as the grand
avenue that leads to the organic unity
of all men. The former is the highest
possible humanization of the parties;
but much more we ought to look upon
the domestic life as the miniature of
and school for our social lif e : the filial
relation as the source of reverence for
ancestry and sympathy with the historic .
past; the parental as throwing a like
enthusiasm into the future; the frater
nal as the practising ground, for all re
ciprocal social sentiments.
Marriage must be elevated from its
present degraded state, where it is pop
ularly believed that only the legal sanc
tions keep it in honor and that it is des
titute of internal bonds. Yet its bonds
are the strongest possible : chaste pas
sion and the most profound friendship.
To give these free play we must leave
the institution more in woman's keeping
and less in man's, make her most an
swerable for its honor who is most in
terested in its stability. This again, is
accomplished by Nationalism, by invest
ing the wife with the potentiality of eco
nomic independence of her husband, to
be realized every time she sees fit.
First, then, just as it is in the animal
world, the female sex should control
the male in all matters pertaining to
sex, declining and successfully rejecting
the advances of the male, when not reciprocated-
Unfortunately.remarks Les
ter F. Ward, " woman has lost her scep
tre and surrendered herself to his con-
1 S a 1 1 1 . S - .
trui msieau oi, as sne snouia. ruiinr him I
i by reason of his passion and the Isivor;
which she aloue can coufer." Love al-1
hors nothing more than the license
which even our best conventional con
jugality permits. Yet it is true that sat
isfied affection means aversion; affec
tion in proportion to its tenderness
seeks a perpetual gratification, that is,
desires to be unsatisfied.
When woman has resumed her scep
tre, then, what is very important, the
pastimes, recreations, and pleasures
will be shared by both; the present
separate spheres of recreation tend to
render desire for association with each
other prurient.
Secondly, mvrriage ought to be in its
essence an interior friendship, a profound
bosom fellowship between man and
woman. No other association can be
so intimate as this which causes a com
plete fusion of two natures in one. It
ought to be, but, alas, how rarely it is !
It is precisely the absence of this friend
ship that makes marriage now a failure,
in the many cases where everything
else conspires to make it a happy rela
tion. The husband really holds his
young wife dear, but his love is at bot
tom nothing but admiration for her va
rious charms, and no sooner does he
find her person legally made over to him
than this admiration dies out. He should
associate her in his affairs, his ideas,
his aspirations, make her co-operate, in
her sphere, with him in his; their na
tures are precisely constituted for that
purpose: he is a master in specialties,
she has aptness for general ideas. To
will, to think, to enjoy, to suffer to
gether shat would be true marriage !
But, unfortunately, as yet, she cannot
be his friend. She has not been edu
cated and trained for that. It is the
nationalist commonwealth that will
train her properly. Later on we will
have more to say of friendship.
Notice of Remission of Dues.
Nebraska. State Alliance, )
Secretary's Office, v
Lincoln, Aug. 13, 1890. y
Notice is hereby given that the execu
tive order remitting the payment of
dues for the quarter ending Sept. 30 is
extended to the quarter ending Dec. 31,
1890. This does not apply to initiation
fees, which will be forwarded as usual.
Alliances so disposed can use the
fund thus left in their treasury in ex
tending educational work, political or
otherwise.
Alliances in the eastern part of the
state will be called upon to relieve their
brothers in the west, where the crops
are nearly a total failure. This fund
can be appropriated for that purpose
if thought best.
J. M. Thompson, Sec.
J. Burrows, Ch'm Ex. Com.
Special Editions of "The Alliance."
We are now prepared to furnish spe
cial editions of our paper, with such an
amount of local matter as may be desir
ed, at a very low price. Localities hav
ing no local orgau to fight their battles
can secure a paper in this way at a
much less cost than in any other man
ner. These editions will be furnished
in single thousands or any greater num
ber. They will be sent by express, or
mailed direct from this office, as may
be desired. The work will be done at
prime cost, we being willing to accept
our compensation in the increased cir
culation this will bring us.
.To establish new papers is costly and
precarious; and yet a paper is necessary
to successfully conduct a campaign.
We hope our friends will avail them
selves of this offer.
Public vs. Private Management.
The Mayor of Chicago comes out
strongly in favor of the assumption by
municipal governments of services pub
lic in their nature. He is evidently a
Sractical nationalist. Nationalism is
estined to find a rapid and healthy de
velopment in the fertile soil of the vig
orous West. In a message to the city
council Mayor Creigier says: " Chicago
supplies her citizens with water. She
provides channels of drainage. It is
equally proper that this city should fur
nish her residents with light for house
hold purposes as well as for public
use. Nor should we stop here.
To furnish heat, power, and intramural
transportation are not only within the
scope of legitimate legislation, but the
practical establishment and operation
of such under municipal control would
prove a source of economy an4-eonven-lence
to the entire community."
Chicago's grand success in the estab
lishment of its municipal electric light
ing plant is proving a valuable object
lesson that cannot fail to be widely
heeded. Milwaukee, Chicago's nearest
neighbor in the way of a great city, is
considering a nroiect to establish an
J electric-lighting system, owned and op-
! 1 - "a. A. A A A A A
eratea oy me city, to cost, at me outset
$600,000. The Boston Post, in comment
ing on this, brings forward the thread
bare old objection that such steps are
unwise because the science of electrici
ty is making such rapid strides that the
apparatus of today is liable to be out of
date in a very few years, and to keep up
with the state of the art is a condition
precedent to success " This," it says,
" a business corporation can do, but a
municipality, as a matter of fact, seldom
does it, and should Milwaukee go into
the business with the best plant it can
buy today and get its lights at cost, it
would be more than likely to find, in the
course of a few years, that, owing to its
antiquated outfit, its lights were costing
more than other cities were paying to
corporations which, with later and more
economical devices, were doing a pros
perous and remunerative business, and
furnishing a more satisfactory result."
An ounce of fact is worth a pound of
assertiou. If the Post would rub its eyes
and awake to what is really the case it
might learn something valuable. Now,
who pays the cost of renewing worn-out
. . m 3 J T1T1 A.1 1
or annquateu ue vices t v uy, iub puu
lic, of course! And in the case of pri
vate corporations it roundly pays the
cost, plus a profit on a capitalization al
ways large and frequently "watered."
Where the municipalitv or the nation
renders the service, the only expense
fallintr on the public is that of renewal
It is almost universallv the rule that
miblic administration of services of
the kind is more economical, enlight
ened, and efficient than private oae.
The telegraph and telephone monopo
lies hlthis country earn huge profits Jin
watered stock, ami hae long either
suppressed or refused to employ valua
ble improvements on those devices in
which influential parties in the compa
nies are pecuniarily interested. On the
other hand, the best managed water
works are those owned by municipali
ties, and the great economies and dis
coveries in the utilization of by-products
of gas-works, formerly wasted, were
made in the municipal plants of En
glish cities, and not in those of private
corporations. If some of our leading
newspapers would pay more attention
to practical problems demanding solu
tion at home, instead of assuming the
interesting though thankless task of
instructing Lord Salisbury and other
European premiers from day to day,
they might better fulfill their mission of
mentors-to the public. Their attitude
in opposing public control is usually in
consistent, as the Post itself betrayed a
few days ago, when it complained of the
inefficienty of street-watering by pri
vate contract, and demanded in the in
terest of the public health the assump
tion of the work by the municipality.
Nationalist.
The Surplus.
The feckless manner in which the
present congress has appropriated mon
ey has been the subject of much com
ment through the press and among the
people. This feeling of late has inten
sified to such an extent that a halt has
been called in order to ascertain the
amount of appropriations already made,
those that must of necessity be made,
and the probable amount of revenue to
meet them. Investigation on that point
shows that up to the present time the
appropriations so far provided by con
gress and approved of by the president
amounts to $230,101,000 in round num
bers. In addition to this sum $109,800,
000 have passed either the Senate or
House. There are other appropriations
not yet considered that must be provid
ed for such as the miscellaneous ap
propriation of about $5,000,000 for de
pendent pensions, $45,000,000 more for
the sinking fund, and interest on the
public debt at least $100,000,000, and a
deficiency of about $6,000,000, making
a grand total of about $505,000,000.
Even this enormous sum does not in
clude the subsidy expense or the cost of
operating Federal election bill, which
taken together will doubtless require
$20r000,000 more. Taken altogether this
congress has planned for an expendi
ture of fully $525,000,000. To meet this
vast expenditure is the public revenue,
which the highest estimate puts at
about $450,000,000. These figures dis
close a deficit of $75,000,000. But when
this revenue is calculated on the basis
of. the McKinley tariff bill, with the
rider concerning the national bank de
posits, was an acknowledgement of an
expected deficit; nothing else would
have induced congress to pass such a
bill. It further shows that congress con
sidered bank notes without any redemp
tion fund fully as safe as United States
notes with a redemption fund of 33J
per cent.
For many years the secretary of the
treasury has kept constantly on hand
$100,000,000 in gold to redeem $300,000,
000 in United States greenbacks that
no one wanted redeemed, and consid
ered this policy as absolutely necessary
for, public safety. Now by the provis
ions of this bill about $60,000,000 of
money is covered in the treasury that
has been held heretofore to redeem na
tional bank currency that is being re
tired. This leaves fully $00,000,000 of
national bank bills outstanding which
the law says shall be redeemed, without
one dollar as a fund for their redemp
tion. This whole legislation is a scheme
to squander all available funds, and
thereby force the government to fund
the debt which matures in 1891, and
through this refunding perpetuate the
national banking system. Exchange.
Reciprocity as a Sop.
Chicago Herald.
Two years ago the national convention of
protect d mill owners and railroad attorneys
that nominated Benjamin Harrison for pres
ident declared that rather than surrender any
part of the protective system the taxes on
whiskey and tobacco should be repealed.
That immoral pronouncement shocked the
country, but in spite of it, and with the aid of
an enormous corruption fund, the candidates
who stood upon it were elected and are now
in oBtee.
The monopoly platform of 1888 went too
far. It was the indiscreet work of men who
believed the people to be ig-norant, and who,
for the first time under the protective system
were daring enough to throw off all disguise
and avow themselves open and defiant advo
cates of privilege and monopoly. Many of
these politicians have slnoe seen their mis
take, and, under the leadership of Mr. Blaine.
as clever an agent of corporate and capitalis
tic greed as the world ever saw, they are now
vociferously advocating the quack remedy of
reciprocity as a cure-all for the manifold
evils that bear so heavily upon the people of
this country.
As urged by these masqurading agents of
the protected barons,reciprocity is the veriest
humbug, and the superficial arguments with
which it is sustained are of so little conse
quence that no one of intelligence should be
deceived by them for a minute. The whole
scheme is a tub to the whale and nothing
more. It is intended to divert the people, to
make them believe that something is really
to be done in their behalf, and to intrench
still more impregnably behind the barriers of
privilege and monopoly the favored interests
that have grown powerful on the plupderof
the people.
Every utterance of these new converts to
reciprocity during the last twenty years shows
them to be enemies of free unfettered com
merce. . They do not now favor reciprocity
in quarters where it would be of service to
the people and injuiious to the monopolists
who keep them in place. They have selected
the poorest markets on earth with which to
establish reciprocal trade, and they Ignore
wholly all those markets in which so large a
portion of the agricultural produce of this
country must find purchasers. How not to
do it is their motto. To fool the people is
their aim.
Frightened politicians and hysterical edi
tors who .have seen and perhaps felt the
wrath of the people, are hurrying hither and
thither in an agony of apprehension urging,
begging, threatening, In behalf' of the foolish
reciprocity I fad, as though that alone was
sufficient to placate the plundered masses.
but . the average republican congressman's
face is turned toward the tariff god and he
sees and hears them not. The spectacle is
amusing and in some respects pitiful, yet it
can deceive no one who is apable of distin
guishing between right and wrong, it is er
ror's last ditch. Wrong tiers a sop to right.
With courage and perseverance justioe must
soon triumph all along toe une.
A wine glass is never right" side up
until it is upside down. -t '
DKHTKUCXION Oi' POKRSTtt.
n4
BaTeeU mt This V..dlU mm
Cllaate of the Country.
Floods, cyclones, and droughts
to the same family.
The axe is father of them all. Ill
stupidity is their mother. Natasw is bs
more te blame for them than Is the blhvl
earth which the digger undermines CH
it falls on him.
Ine axe kill trees. With the tree
killed the snows of winter melt more
quickly under the rain and snow of early
spring. With the tree killed, swamps,
fallen logs, and leaves that onoe told
back the water for months no longer
act The waters rush to their natural
outlets without opposition, The rapid
transit of the waters clogs the great nat
ural channels, and they overflow iato
new ones, carrying devastation wherever
they rush. The more the axe is
the higher rise the waters Bad
to wene. The end no human wit
foretell.
The destruction of the forest kes
eliminated the principal factor in mod
ifying the movement of the air currents,
according to the Cleveland iVeea Like
the trade winds on the ocean, the air
currents over sections denuded of forests
flow freely and persistently for long
periods without change. As ohaage Is
necessary in the movements of the air
in order to have change in the rainfall
It follows that persistency in air omr
rents caused by forest destruction means '
long "spells" of dryness at one period
and long "806118" of wet at another.
Thus floods are sometimes aggravated
as much by unusual wet "spells" as by
the rapid transit of the waters to their
natural channels in consequence of con
ditions just mentioned. When both
causes conjoin terrible floods are inevit
able. Destructive droughts must follow
excessive rainfalls, for the average rain
fall varies but little from year to year la
a given locality. An excess at one time
means a scarcity at another.
So, too, cyclones, like simoons, are
only possible where enormous areas ef
country unbroken by forests exist The
winds gather force as they go, or rather
freedom to move easily, whioh mease
that they will go quicker than if ob
structed. A point of refraction means
that the surrounding atmosphere will
rush ia to restore equilibrium. If there
is nothing to oppose the oncoming air It
will move rapidly. The forest is the
greatest of modifiers to wind storms,
holding them back and check! ag them,
and, doing so, tend to modify suddesi
and rapid cases of rarefaction.
The flood, drought, and cyclone ad
monish the people of the United States
to be wise. If they heed not the admoni
tion they must pay the penalty. The
spectacle presented in the valleys of the
Mississippi and its tributaries and along
the track of the cyclone that devastated
Louisville should be enough to cause
some serious thinking. These spectacles
can be excelled. Give the axe time and
bribe it to do its uttermost and horrors
now seen will be mercies compared with
horrors that will inevitably follow.
Edison' rtemoeratle Vav
Edison is a count, a millionaire, and
the most famous living inventor. His
present wealth, which amounts to many
millions, is as nothing compared to what it
will be iu the next few years ; but he still
work away in his laboratory, and comes
forward to greet you in just such a suit
of clothes as he wore twenty year ago.
As compared with Edison's dingy little
shop of 20 years ago, out at Menlo Park,
in which he used to eat his bread and
cheese seated on an old packing box,
talking over the work in hand with his
two. or three workmen, the present sur
soundings are fabulously luxurious. Ev
ery thing shows unbounded means, whioh
may be the case, when we remember
tliat his famous laboratory costs $200,000
a year to maintain. But the master
mind is still the same. When he works
it means work for his men. In the old
days at Menlo Park it was no uncommon
thing for him to remain at the bench for
48 hours at a stretch, Bending one of the
boys for crackers and oheese when he
felt hungry, and not giving up until his)
assistants had actually fell asleep stand
ing up. To-day he is just as interested.
Pittsburg Dispatch.
He ytmm Bnldmd and IMi
Traveling through Alabama recently
and stretching my legs on the platform
of a station, while the train was waiting
"twenty minutes for dinner, " I eeked est
old negro if there was muoh buJdocing
and intimidation at the eleotaone la thed
section.
"You don't live round yere, dojro,
boss?" was his answer.
I admitted that I did no&
"I knowed you didn'A ease .yem
wouldn't ax me no such aY rueetioa
Buldozin en 'timerdation - yom dnm
know what dey is tell yer see er 'leottom
down ye re!"
I asked him if he was ever intimidated.
"Now you talkm boss! I bin 'timer
dated and buldozed. Hit's outdacsxwsa,
da'swhutl"
"How did they do it ?" I inquired.
"Huh! How? Go long, now! Don't
you know how dey do it? Dey puts me
en de rock pile fer ten days, caze a ma
gin me a dollar to vote fer him fer tax
o'leotor Da's how! Black man ain' got
no show yere 'lection times, an you
know it!" Pittsburg Dispatch.
A Nlc Younar Lady.
A young lady resident of a Wester
city, not engaged to be married, and un
mistakably fancy free, stated with a
air of the most charming ingenuousness
that she prayed every night for her hoe
band, "Because, you know, if I am to be
married my husband is living somewhere
in this world, and I pray always that he
may be delivered from all temptations
be kept in good health, and be euooeee
ful in whatever path of business he has
chosen. " "And is this all you pray for
in reference to him ? " was asked. "Oh,
no, " and she blushed a little as she made)
this admission: "I pray that we maw
soon be brought together!"
She Preached the Wrong; Doetrlae.
Mother Yes, Willie, if you are a good
boy you will go to heaven when you die
and have a gold harp to play on.
wiiiie l aon't want a. narn. I want
a cioytue ana baseball. (Areoma
trd,
v
