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About The Loup City northwestern. (Loup City, Neb.) 189?-1917 | View Entire Issue (May 26, 1904)
Loup City Northwestern J. W. BURLEIGH, Publisher. LOUP CITY, - - NEBRASKA. Loss is sometimes gain—as when Adam lost that rib. A strong point in Knropatkin’s favor is that 1 is name doesn’t sound like a sneeze. The prospect of the czar dictating peace in Tokio seems to have been jarred out of plumb. An eminent, physician sava that there is no such thing as brain lag. What does he call it? It appears that Patti’s backer said farewell to about $40,000 when she said farewell to America. A man never feels so flattered as when a woman tells him he is the only man who ever could understand her. % * Approximately speaking, how long do you think it will take John L. Sul livan to ,run through with that $4,000? i A real count lias become a real monk in Bohemia. More often they make monks of two syllables of them selves. Possibly those good people who are moving to make wars less terrible are unintentionally moving to make wars more frequent. Heave a sigb for the late Old Mose, the'biggest grizzly of the Rockies. He was a wrhole beef trust in himself, but he never denied it. A Boston paper refers to the present spring as ‘‘a climatical cataclysm.” Is it any wonder that Boston is some times .astonished at itself? There i6 a great deal in this theory that music may arouse even the feeble to manifestations of intense activity. Take "Bedelia,” for instance. The New Jersey justice of the peace who married six persons in .33 minutes Tuesday has almost equaled the record of South Dakota for di vorce. An article in one of the monthly magazines says that some dining room papers cause indigestion to sensitive people. It took a bright mind to think of that. If it is a fear of Peru that causes the Chileans to hesitate in annexing an other slice of territory to their do main it must be a fear of recent! growth. — That Albany centenarian who -isj growing a new set of teeth and new ] hair should sell the exclusive rights I to himself to some patent medicine! company. A Russian cartoon represents a big Cossack spanking a little Jap. Doubt- j less the Cossack is saying: “I hate, to do this, for it hurts me more than it does you.” Prof. Sparks of Chicago university says the American people no longer possess originality, hut very likely he has in mind the Chicago university brand of originality. The Japanese have invented an in extinguishable combustible for use in their business, and the Russians! are now casting about for an incom bustible extinguisher. Again the price of diamonds has been advanced, and another increase is not impossible. This should show the young man who is planning to get engaged the peril of delay. It’s a question whether the Histori cal Society of Pennsylvania, which has just secured a copy of “Poor Richard's Almanac” for $5G5, hasn’t paid too dear for its whistle. The sultan is very much pleased with his new cruiser. He has had occasion from time to time to inspect so many visiting war ships that he ought to know a good one when he sees it. A man found praying for Russell Sage in front of Russell’s house in New York has been adjudged insane, but, of course, this doesn’t indicate that Uncle Russell is regarded as past praying for. An Albany, N. Y., man who fought in the war of 1812 is cutting new teeth and getting a new crop of hair on top of his head. He has not gone so far. however, as to put on a Peter Tomkins waist. Now that a rich New Yorker has placed an order with M. Santos Du mont for an elaborate flying machine for his personal use, it looks as if an other of Edward Bellamy's dreams were coming true. A St. Louis judge has decided that the young woman's father has a right to go downstairs after 11 o’clock and interrupt the proceedings, either by force or otherwise. He evidently thinks he cun be re-elected without the boy vote. The “Thumbnail edition” of the Bi ble. which is so small that it cannot he read without the aid of a micro scope, is in great demand in England. It has not been discovered, however, that there has been any increase in the.sale of microscopes. A German surgeon now declares that It is possible to open up the lungs. If he can now evolve a process to shut them up, there are several persons In this country upon whom the operation might be performed with entire satisfaction to the country at large. A Springfield, Ohio, man who is the father of twenty-four children is said to be finding it necessary to solicit aid for their support. Evidently he has had poor luck in selecting wives Sriih proper earning capacity. PREPARATION FOR TRAVEL. “There is one thing which is of great importance if one wishes to benefit by travel,” says Rev. Minot J. Savage in the Four-Track News. “One should make sure what he is going to see before he leaves home. The story Ls told of Humboldt, the great and w’onderful traveler, that on a certain occasion, he was talking to a friend who had just returned from Palestine. As the great scientist talked about the points of intereset, mentioning buildings and streets and ruins in the most familiar way, his friend asked him when it was that he had been there. He replied that he had never been there, but on a certain occasion he had expected to go and had read up in regard to it by way of prepara tion. In London, for example, or Paris, there are many streets, build ings, monuments, pictures, historic spots to be visited, that no man can expect to be otherwise than lost as in a wilderness, unless he has read and studied beforehand and knows what ne wishes to see.” THE BLESSING OF FREE LABOR. The highest development and the widest distribution of wealth have been secured where labor was free, and the least where slavery prevailed. The efforts that are being made by organizations of work people to load themseh;es with despotic restraints are the result of wild dreams that they can impose their restrictions upon others and leave themselves free. Such a state of things can never be realized. Even if the socialistic no tions could be carried to the extent of securing for the whole people con trol of all the machinery of produc tion, and a distribution of all wealth, the conditions of equality would not last a fortnight. In e. very brief time there would arise a class that was fast monopolizing the wealth and ex ercising all the public power of con trol.—New’ Orleans Picayune. THE PRICE OF FAME When one considers how much the people love to be humbugged, it is surprising that there are not more people engaged professionally in the business. A man with a very brilliant mind may make a brilliant address before a brilliant audience, and there the brilliancy stops; but a man with a mind about the size of a shriveled walnut, may talk a lot of nonsense to an audience of no—or of average or unusual—intelligence, and immedi ately he becomes famous. An educa tor in a recent religious meeting told a fairly intelligent audience that danc ing was the closest approach to Para dise, and to-day his name and theory is known from Maine to California. A University of Chicago professor tells wherein Rockefeller is superior to Shakespeare, and while the oil mag nate modestly protests, the professor's mail is overwhelmed with requests for photographs and locks of his hair. A Harvard professor, who teaches Slavic literature, and who is a native of Russia, expresses the hope that his fatherland will be defeated in the Eastern war, and he gets half a col umn of attention, where his sensible utterances had never won him more than very moderate Etttention. And so, if a man must simply be foolish to become famous, is it any wonder that i almost everybody to-day is famous?— Baltimore Herald. * SUBATOMIC ENERGY. The disintegration of a gram of uranium, or thorium, or radium, sets free at least a million times as much energy as that which is represented in any known chemical change taking place within a gram weight of any known compound substance. The ex periments of the last eight years have then marked a remarkable advance in science, in that they have proved the existence of an immense store of sub atomic energy. It seems highly im probable, however, that this energy can ever be utilized on the earth to serve man’s economic needs, for thus far we know of but three substances which are disengaging it, and these are changing so slowly that the rate of evolution of energy is almost Infin itesimal. Radium may possibly prove to be of some practical value in the cure of disease, although it Is too early yet to assert even this with cer tainty. But even if no practical appli cation of these discoveries should be found, radio-activity will nevertheless have served one ot the most useful of all ends, namely, that of enlarging man’s knowledge of the ways of na ture and of deepening his insight into the constitution of matter.—Prof. R. A. Millikan, in Popular Science Monthly. THE REPUBLIC OF CANADA. Twenty years ago 20 per cent of the people of Canada would have wel comed the annexation of the Domin ion to the United States. Ten years ago only ten per cent of the men who think thought seriously of such a move, and to-day no one ever men tions the matter at all. Twenty years ago only a few dreamers dreamed of the Republic of Canada. Ten years later 10 per cent of the people were in favor of it, and to-day 20 out of every 100 Canadians would welcome the news that Canada had cast off the cable that moors her to the Motherland and had blossomed out as a nation. The relations between the people of the United States and of Canada will grow more friendly and pleasant as the years go by, because of the whole sale swapping of citizens now going on. Millions of Canadians have gone to the States, and in the next decade millions of Americans will have cross ed into Canada. We shall like eaci other better as we see eaeh other more, for we North Americans are the people—all of us.—Leslie’s Monthly. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. The Decalogue is as good a labor platform as any. Law has always failed to adjust wages. In practical religion we find the highest form of solution yet offered.—Carroll D. Wright in a public address in New York. It is an old thought that if employ ers, instead of thinking how low wages they could pay, would think how high wages they could pay, and if employes, instead of thinking how high wages they could get. would think how low wages they could take, there would be no room for dispute. Each side would then be doing its best for the other. Human nature, however, is selfish, chiefly because all men think that they are better than other men. Therefore they demand larger shares of the earth’s fruits and of their great er ability as men, but because they think they are better than other men as men. Those who wish to live in the world will, of course, have to keep on dealing with humau nature as it is made by this universal delusion, at least until the millennium comes. As the millennium is universally deemed desirable, it is evident that the quick est way .to bring it in is to endeavor to overcome this delusion by every man’s doing his best to treat very other man as not inferior to himself, but as just a man like himself. The “practical religion’’ which Dr. Wright, after years of study, finds “the highest form of solution yet offered” is merely the gospel of the Man of Nazareth.—Chicago Inter Ocean. OUR BAD COLLEGE SPELLING. Much is said in the papers about college English, says Leslie's Weekly. The people within and without college walls declare that students write bad ly. But there is a thing more funda mental than their poor English style; it is the matter of their spelling. Many college men, as proved by their es says, cannot spell. They frequently make the mistake of transforming writing into writting, and of dining into dinning—an echo probably of the noise of a college dining-room. But poor spelling is not confined to college students. College professors are not free from the blame. A let ter lies before the writer in which the distinguished head of a most im portant department in an American college declares that a certain can^i date, whom he has recommended, is ccmpetant. A New England college professor has recently said that in making application for a place in Eng Iish, several candidates wrote of the salery. Of course, also, a man may lack culture and spell correctly. Spell ing is more or less a matter of an arbitrary bit of knowledge. But what ever may ‘be the psychological rcla tions of the art, the schools should teach boys and girls to spell. By in correct spelling the higher ranges of learning are rendered less impressive A STRIKING SUGGESTION. In a very interesting table showing the accumulations of monthly savings of one dollar to twenty dollars, when interest is compounded semi-annually at the rate of 3 per cent per annum, it is shown that a monthly saving ol only five dollars a month for ten year? amounts to $t>99.a8. In ten years ten dollars saved monthly amounts to $1,399.38, and twenty dollars to $2, 798.98. Thrift is not one of the American virtues. Most American families throw away enough food to keep a French family, for example, in health and comfort. Nor is it characteristic of Americans to save money. We have about us so many instances oi great wealth rapidly acquired, the country is so prosperous and money so easy to get, that we do not count the pennies or the dimes, but scattei them right and left in the serene though insensate confidence that we shall find dollars growing on the trees at the next turning in life’s path way. Our habits, too. are luxurious. We all buy things continually tor which we have only a momentary desire and no need whatever. Do we not all know of at least five dollars we have wasted every month? It is not necessary to argue as tc the folly of this national w'eakness, for its folly is self-evident. Nor is it necessary to point out the advantages of thrift and economy. It Is suggestive enough to call at tention to the fact that self-denial tc the extent of a very few dollar* a month will in a short time fortify a man against the sudden assaults oi adverse fortune.—Chicago Journal. A NEW GERM. And now a prominent physician it Wisconsin, after long study, says h« has discovered the germ of append! citis and that the disease is conta gious. He started out with the theory that there was no way to account for the rapid multiplication of the disease ex cept on the germ theory. The only question is whether he hat actually discovered such a germ. I) the disease is of microbe origin wf shall soon know it, although it doer not seem so evident how the germ car be transferred. But the germ hunters have doutt less done much to solve the riddle oi contagion. In this case the doctor ii convinced that there is an epidemh of appendicitis in the country, whicl only a antitoxin will eradicate. W« shall see.—Boston Globe. * . Milesians the First Spinners. Tradition has it that the Milesiam first brought from Egypt a knowledgi of the cultivation of flax, also of spin ning and weaving, introducing thes« arts into Ireland about 1200 B. C. «kcBs**pr [NVeNTlgN. Compass That Makes Records. In tne last number of the Bulletin de la Societe Industrielle de Marseil les we find described an apparatus invented by M. ^leit which automati cally registers, minute by minute, the direction of the compass, so that by consulting the chart which is the re sult it is possible to determine what the route was that was followed at a given moment cf the passage. The commander of a vessel Indicates to the helmsman the route which the vessel should follow, but he does not know whether this route is followed unless he is continually observing the compass. The Heit apparatus gives this information, registering every change in the position of the vessel, every move made by the helmsman and the exact time at which such changes occurred.—Public Opinion. Ear Trumpet in the Hat. Years ago. when a man was afflicted with blindness or deafness, it was sel dom that he was cured of his trouble or benefited by treatment, even if any effort was made to alleviate his affliction. It was generally taken for granted that the case was incurable, at least by the local physicians, and unless it could be placed in the hands of some skilled specialist, who was usually miles away, there, could he Need Not be Carried in the Hand. nothing to hope for. But now the specialists are not only more numer ous, but they have the advantage of all the latest scientific apparatus to aid them in the examination and treatment of the patient. In many cases of deafness which only a short time ago would have been considered incurable the physi cian has been enabled to find some mechanical appliance which would make it possible at least for the man or woman to catch many sounds which were entirely inaudible before. Of cburse these aids to the hearing have been carried about in the hands, as a rule, but the trouble is generally slight in comparison with the advan tage gained. Now, however, even this is unnecessary, as the latest appliance of this kind is designed to be carried in the hat, without assistance from either hand. The sound-receiving bells are located in either side of the head, and the tubes which convey these sounds to the ears project downward through the rim of the hat, as illus trated. The connecting tubes are capable of adjustment as to length, and the whole arrangement is scarcely noticeable, at least in comparison to the old style ear trumpet or metalic fan formerly used. Thomas W. Messenger of Quorn, South Australia, is the inventor. A Cane-Umbrella. There lives in the little town of Simpsonville, Tex., a young lady whose name may be inscribed on a roll in the hall of fame some day, and all because she has solved one of the great popular problems of the day. One of the most aggravating experi ences of modern civilization is to go out with an umbrella believing that there is to be rain, and after lugging the thing about ail the morning, or all the afternoon, or perhaps all day, come home without having even a suspicion for using it. Generally we profit by this experience the next time it is cloudy by leaving the um brella at home and receive as our re ward a good drenching. The lady in question has invented an umbrella cane. This is a contriv ance embodying the two in one. Tae umbrella is roiled tight and fitted snugly in a long tubular receptacle, which is surmounted with a pretty handle and makes an admirable cane. No one, of course, objects to carry ing a cane while walking, and if it insures protection from rain its desir ability is increased immeasurably. Nugget Jewelry. There are tew things under the sun that are of any value that have not been so successfully imitated in cheaper articles that the bogus one cannot be distinguished from the gen uine except by experts. It is fitting, therefore, that an imitation gold nug get should be designed by a citizen of Colorado, and if his nuggets pass muster in that clime where nuggets are on close terms of acquaintance with everybody who Is anybody, then his nuggets ought to be able to shine in society elsewhere. So much does the Inventor think of his scheme that he has had it patented at Washington and proposes to put the product upon the market— at no moderate rates, of course. His method consists of reducing genuine gold into a molten state, “and dropping the same while still in a molten state upon an tmeonflned mass of material reduced to small pieces, where the whole of the exterior of the metal is caused to assume a form simulating a natural nugget/’ Finsen Rays to Remove Scars. A special dispatch from London in forms us that that city has a new scientific surgical sensation in the ap plication of the Finsen rays—which are apparently allied to the Roentgen —for the removal of scars, following wounds, whether inflicted in war or by the surgeon’s knife. Lately quite a number of British subalterns have sought out the “light-curer” for the removal of face wouuds received in South Africa. The Mule’s Placid Smile. "Is that your mule?” asked the pan who was going fishing. “Yassir,” said the colored man. who was sitting on a log by the road. “Does %e kick?” ' “ ’Deed, mistub, he ain’t got no cause tx> kick. He’s gittin’ his own way right' I’m de one di.t’s havi.:’ de rr' lifflcultj.’* * PLAN FOR SMALL BARN. Will Accommodate Team of Hor«e% and Five Head of Cattle. S. L. H.—Please publish a plan c/t a barn 20x30 feet to accommodate one team of horses and five head oJ cattle. " I The accompanying plan shows ho* to lay out a basement 20x30 feet foi Floor Plan for Small Stock Barn, horses and cattle. The five cows stand with tents toward the banyard in stalls 3 feet wide; the two horse stalls are five feet wide, with passage from the feed room to the space be hind the cattle and horses. — Curing and Smoking Bacon. J. W.—1. How is a good brine made? 2. What wood is best for smoking and how long should the smoking be continued? 1. Pork to be pickled in brine should be wrell rubbed and sprinkled with salt, then filled into a clean barrel, salt being sprinkled between the lay ers, using no brine for forty-eight hours; then fill the barrel with a brine of salt and water strong enough to bear an egg. 2. Oak or hickory chips, or corn cobs, make good smoke for meat, but they should be green or kept moist so as to prevent blazing. Hardwood saw-dust is also sometimes used for smoking meat. Such soft woods as pine, cedar, mulberry, etc., are not suitable for this purpose. Con stant smoking for one week is recom mended by some authorities, or the smoking may be done half a day at a time for two or three weeks, accord ing to the fancy as to color. Salting Cattle—Oat Hay. G. R.—1. Is it well to have salt be fore cattle continuously? 2. Is it wise to feed oat hay every day to cows due to calve in spring? 1. The most careful cattle raiser* prefer to have salt before their ani mals all the time, or at least onc6 daily. WThen cattle are salted only at intervals of a week or longer, as is often the case, the animals invariably take more than is good for them, which has a more serious effect than is generally supposed. The ill effect is caused by overtaxing the kidneys-, producing undue thirst, and unduly exhausting the body of flesh-producing materials. When animals have access to salt each day they take only as much as their systems require, which : does them good without injury of any kind. 2. Unless oat hay is affected with smut or mold there is no objection to j feeding it to pregnant animals. It is | not considered safe to give fodder af fected with either of these fungi to cows soon due to calve. Vetches for Hog Pasture. L. B. W.—How would it answer tc sow vetches on clay land along with timothy and clover seed, and* how many pounds of seed should be ap plied per acre? 2. Would it be advis able to sow a small field of vetches i for hog pasture? 1. Vetches would not be a good crop to seed down with if they are to be allowed to mature, because they, like peas, are apt to fall down and smother the young seeds. They may, however, be sown with advantage along with clover to be pastured off by hogs. After the vetches are all pastured off, the young clover will forge ahead and make good fall pas ture for the animals. 2. Vetches alone make very good hog pasture, as they are much relished, very nourishing and produce a good growth which comes up repeatedly after being eaten off. Vetches should be sown at the rate of about one bushel to the acre. _ Hen Manure and Fertilizers. A. A. G.—Cabbages are gross feed ers and generally give a good re sponse to heavy applications of fertil izers, though too much available nitro gen very early In the season may do harm by causing an undue develop ment of leaf at the expense of the “head,” which, under such circum stances, does not form normally. We would, therefore, delay the application of the nitrate of soda until after the heads have begun to form, and then use it as a top dressing at the rate of j 100 to 200 lbs. per acre. It would prob- j ably be found profitable to apply a certain amount of potash with the hen manure before planting out the cab bages. Wood ashes answer admirably for this purpose, but if not obtainable, muriate of potash at the rate of 100 I lbs. per acre may bo used. __;_ Radium Water. The possibility of using radium to convert ordinary rain and well water into a mineral water more highly medicinal than any known natural mineral water has been demonstrated at the University of Michigan, in a serioR of experiments covering some ten week.4. In searching for a method by which radium eould bo applied to the interior of a cancer without any dan ger of the terrible radium or X-ray burns, it was demonstrated that the immersion of a sealed tube in pure, distilled water for twenty*four hours produces radioactive water of power ful effects. Injected into cancer, this water stopped pain in ten minutes. Feeding a Brood Scwv. N. T.—What kind of food should ! give a brood sow that will give birth in two months? A pregnant sow should not be hear ily fed; her food should be bulky and easily digested. Until pasture comes she should have a liberal quantity ol raw roots. In addition she should have table scraps and a small quan tity of mixed chop, bran or shorts. It is important that she should have plenty of exercise. If she appears to be getting fat, the grain ration should be reduced. S»he should be tn fait flesh at the time of parturition, bo* fatness should be avoided. . The Old Story. By the pleasant paths- we know All familiar flowers would grow. Though we two were gone; Moon and stars would rise and set. Dawn the laggard night forget. And the world move on. Spring would earol through the wood, idle be counted sweet and pood, Winter storms would move tneir might, While the seasons sped; Winter frosts make bold to bite, Clouds lift overhead. Still the sunset lights would plow, Still the heaven-appointed bow In its place be hung; ' Not one flower t lie iess would bloom. Though we had had met our doom, No song less be sung. Ch.,er lovers though the dew Would go. loitering, two ond two. When the day was done; I.ips would pass the kiss divine. Hearts would beat like vours and mine, Hearts that beat a« one. — Mary N. Prescott. NEWS CF THE LABOR WORLD, Items of Interest Gathered from Many Sources. The Order of Railroad Telegraphers will celebrate its twentieth anniver sary June 9. The House judiciary committee by a vote of 10 to 5 postponed action on the anti-injunction bill until next De cember. The call has been issued for the second annual convention of Georgia State Federation of Labor to meet in Rome Wednesday, June 14. The board of directors of the state prison at Leavenworth, Kan., have decided to permit the establishment of an overall factory in that institu tion. The Building Trades Council of Cin cinnati at a recent meeting took the initiatory step to form and maintain a large defense fund of not less than $50,000. Owing to dullness the International Mercantile and Marine company cf Philadelphia has decided to lay up a number cf ships and make a cut in its pay roll. The first organized fight against the closed shop is in progress in San Francisco. About 3,000 men, includ ing 2,400 car men, will be in strike there this week. It is proposed to have a conference among the labor -leaders at the St. Louis fair with a view to starting an agitation for the eight-hour day in eyery part of the country. The five cotton thread mills in Paw tucket, R. I., owned by the J. & P. Coats Company, limited, went on a schedule of five days a week. The plant employs 3,000 hands. Union men, whose wages have been reduced, are deserting the steel mills at Irondale, which are controlled by the International Harvester company. The plant employes 500 men. Boilermakers employed by the Bos ton-and Albany railroad have a griev ance and a strike will be ordered unless certain discharged men in the Springfield shops are reinstated. Secretary Haywood of the Western Federation of Miners is preparing a miniature of the “bull pen” at Tellu ride. Colo., to place in the labor ex hibit at the St. Louis exposition. Frank H. McCarthy of Cigarmakers* Union 97, the newest elected presi dent of Boston Central Labor Union, is considered one of the ablest men in the labor movement in New Eng land. Since Dec. 21, 1903, 4.000 members of the International Glove Workers' Union have been locked out in Glov ersville, N. Y., for refusing to accept individual contracts with the open shop clause attached. Marine and transport workers are 1 on strike at Honolulu because of the discharge of several members of the union. Japanese at fifteen cents a day are being hired to take their places according to advices from that dis tant isle. New York, New Haven and Hart ford railroad officials declare the com pany has conceded the demands of the men as regards reduction of hours and overtime, but cannot grant the in crease of pay demanded. A committee of four weavers of the Bourne Cotton mills at Tiverton, R. I., with their union secretary, called upon Governor Garvin and called his atten tion to alleged violations of the state flfty-eight-hour labor law. Inquiry was promised by the governor. Machinists employed by the Chi cago and Northwestern Railway com pany, numbering 1,000, signed a new working agreement and wage scale yesterday. Work on a revision of the wage scale of the machinists on the Illinois Central Railroad will begin to morrow. Labor leaders and employes In Kan sas City assert that they look for no new disagreements. The absence of increased demands on the part of the unions can be attributed, it is said, j to the summary way in which the truck drivers there were defeated in their strike. The strike of woodworkers in the employ of the Cable Piano company at Chicago which has been on for two weeks, has been settled. A compro mise agreement was entered into be- | tween the company and the members j of the Amalgamated Association of I Woodworkers of America. Between 5,000 and 6,000 carriage and wagon workers belonging to the Carriage and Wagon Workers’ union decided to go on strike in New York and vicinity unless, a new contract submitted to the employers, embrac ing a new' wage scale and recognition of the union, is signed at once. There is less trouble in labor cir cles in Cincinnati at present than in a decade. The usual strikes in the building trades have been avoided, and no-big strikes are in sight in the clothing and notions trades. A con servative estimate is that there are less than 1,000 workmen out in that city. Several hundred miners quite work at Burnett. Ind., because their pay envelopes were on the basis of the new scale for the entire month of April. The operators held that the annual wages contract dated with April 1 and that, although not finally signed until after the first of the month, applies for all the saining done In April. In contrast to one year ago. v. fct a 43.600 workmen were in a strilr » Chicago, there are but 15.000 men. ap proximately, out at the present tin: Demands of various kinds, including increased wages, have been made 75,000 union men, and in some in stances negotiations are ur.d r way for a settlement. The total amount of ben*‘its pa ! by the cigarmakers’ union i t amounted to $374,068.03. a * he total receipts from dues, a; and initiation fees reached : r.• - :• i i $751,942.56. Since the union a the beneficial system tv. r.ty !<>••• years ago it has paid out in the enormous sum of $5.93" ■ 'I The French rrans-Atlautic -» an ship line officials say there s n . j. 1 sibility tnat the strike of i.ffi* • . r the merchant marine at Mar-i : ; will extend to trans-Atlar.tr- ii, .■<. mainly because all the ofli' er- of f:.* tranc-Atlantic steamers are a- < to the French navy and ther-fm not subject to the agitations of the rntr chant marine. Despite the immense building oper ations in Baltimore and consequent groat demand for labor, the situation at present is said to be more a: -fac tory than it has been for years. All the builders are in thorough arc I with the unions, the only matter -t..l lacking final settlement being ti “card” system. It Is believ.-d ti;. ; system will be generally adopted. When the British trade unions adopted the superannuation benefit there were many who ridiculed the idea, and said it could not he paid. In surance men said that it might - > f r a few years, but it would eventually swamp the unions. It has not done so, however, for none of the unions adopting it have defaulted on a sing!* claim, and the amounts in their treas uries have been kept up, in spite <f the drain.—Chicago Inter Ocean. Several of the unions in Philadel phia are asking for increases in wages, but the demands are not ac companied by a strike ultimatum. In the building trades the principal skilled branches are under agree ments, which were signed some months ago, and will in some in stances last through 1905. The mas ter builders’ advisory board rteclar a that its stubborn fight of last ye ar . against strikes, and particularly the sympathetic strike, has had a salu tary effect. Labor leaders throughout the eruic try are optimistic in their views of the labor situation at the pro. • :.t ‘.n • and with the annual May day d< n a : of the unions and the sigui:vz < i n<- v agreements less trouble is ex; ecr i than on any May for years. With costly lessons learned from p. ' strife and a more conciliatory fueling pr - vaiting among employers a; d em ployes. students of the labor situation look forward to a year fraught with less friction and loss on bo'. sides, and of great benefit to thos; affec-d directly and indirectly by lab r con troversies. The local lodge of Locomotive Kire* men at Lafayette, led., has outgrown its headqarters and is to ha v a in w home. The union has been initiating new candidates regularly and rep rs that a number of the firerv ?n 1 ave been promoted to the other : ■ i the cab and have gone into tit Broth erhood of Locomotive Engine rs. 1 cal No. 3G is one of the best lnd_- cf firemen in the state of Indiana. Tr. * members have just received an in crease on battleship type engines from $2.30 to $2.50 per 100 miles and on the Atlantic type of engines from $1.90 to $2.05 per 100 miles. The convention of the International Brotherhood of Bookbinders which will open in St. Paul. Minn., on June 14. promises to be one of unusual in terest. It will not only be of interest to the bookbinders of Pittsburg, who expect to bring the next convention there, but also to the general trade in this country. Great Britain and other countries. In England and Ger many. where unions exist and where shop conditions in some respects are much better than in America, steps may be taken to form an international agreement between these countries respecting traveling cards and -other matters from which great benefit to the trade may result. Ralph Smith, M. P„ recently made In New York the best defense of unionism ever made there, says an ex change. He concluded by telling his hearers a story of John Burns, M. P.. who once took a part in an importaut cricket match at one of the large asylums in the city of London. Some 3,000 lunatics under the control of half a dozen guards were present to wit ness the game. When the sports were over the chief warden conducted Mr. Burns around the institution. Ix>ok ing upon a large crowd of patients strong. robust men as they were—Mr. Burns remarked: “Are you not afraid that these fellows will organize almost any day to kill you?” ”No." said the chief warden, "lunatics never organize. That is Impossible. We have nothing to fear from that point of view. Men must be capable.” said he, “of thought and the importance of united action to organize. Lunatics are always com pletely disunited.” Were Amateur Bull Fighters. A peculiar accident happened recent ly at a bull fight in Bordeaux. The matador stabbed the bull with a sword that did not penetrate, whereupon the infuriated animal tossed the weapon in the air and attacked a toreador. The sword fell among the sp<jctators. injuring Commander Caldron, on offi cer of the Spanish navy, who was present at the fight as a guest of tho Bordeaux organizers of the spectacle. The wound was very serious and the seaman had to be carried off to the hospital. After this the onlookers became exasperated and began to throw chairs, benches and stools into the ring, taunting the bull fighters with being cheats and knowing noth ing about their business. Do not bring your golf sticks to the factory.