Loup City Northwestern J. W. BURLEIGH, Publisher. LOUP CITY, - - NEBRASKA. Rain tniy keep people away from ihurch sometimes, but from the cir cus—never. The California orange trust Is about to dissolve. What good does that do at this time of year? Speaking of fish, there must be some redeeming feature about the German carp. What is It? ‘ The man that beta on the races is an idiot,” says Charles T. Yerkes. Mr. Yerkes seems to be a hard loser. Just to satisfy plain curiosity, will somebody kindly report how work is progressing on The Hague palace oi peace? The discovery that the empress crown jewels are bogus is about the worst blow' yet to Japanese nationa. confidence. Those Boston girls who broke th< record as high jumpers will cause come of us to revise our notions ol Boston dignity. The General Federation of Women s Clubs has officially thanked Gov. Odell for saving Niagara falls. We stand right beside the ladies. Richard Strauss says Boston stands as high in musical taste as any city of Europe. Boston will call tha« damning with faint praise. A Zion City dentist claims that hr and his wife can live on $1.68 a week. It is to be understood, of course, thai he doesn't use an automobile. The government is going to try to reclaim 100,000 acres of arid lane ir. Washington. Determination will do almost anything, and we have the sand. The New Jersey judge who has ruled that a. boy's life is worth twice as much as a girl’s has probably changed his opinion since he was twenty. A St. Louis preacher now declares that Santa Claus is a myth. Some clerical iconoclast will be calling sa tan a figment of the popular fancy be fore long. There are 13,000,000 children en rolled in the Sunday schools of the country, and the parents of most ol them buy oil from young Mr. Rocke feller’s father. -— — ^ .- , Now that the season for thundei showers is open, remember how calm ing the statistics are, and make up your mind firmly that this year you won’t be scared. Of course it is more or less annoy ing to the emperor of Korea to have the Japanese take possession of his country, but then, he's used to trou ble. He has 100 wives. “Chicago presents no immoralities tc the visitor,” says Anthony Comstock, who is spending a few days in the Windy City. Certainly not. She chaiges an admission fee. It is to be hoped that, when the Jap anese get hold of Port Arthur, they won’t feel it necessary to change the name. It’s about the only one of the lot that’s at all pronounceable. We wonder whether the Yale wait er who, although he carried a rab bit’s foot, refused to wait on thirteen students at his table, is superstitious enough to refuse a tip of 13 cents. We doubt the authenticity of this story that Gen. Kuropatkin is carry ing his coffin around with him. His martial cloak would answer,all prac tical purposes and sound much better in the poems. A London court has held that a man is not liable for his wife’s dress making bills. Doubtless some soulless ?reature will now stamp himself with the mark of the beast by bringing a test case over here. A pitcher that is 2,000 years old is being exhibited at the St. Louis expo sition. We know of several ladies who would like to obtain the address of the girl whq worked for the familj that owned the pitcher. A Chicago woman was granted a divorce in just thirty-six minutes after filing her application. But if the thing has to be done, why delay? In some places the courts dawdle over thest matters for an hour or two. It’s as natural for a girl’s shoe strings to keep coming untied whet she has on fancy open-work stocking? as for a man to speak with a careless familiarity of his rich friends whet they are out of the country. A press agent story says that an en thusiaatic audience threw real jewelrj at an opera singer. The practice should be followed with care. The most avaricious person would object to having an eye put out, even with a diamond tiara. The Princess of Wales is one of the *?,ost expert typewriters in England She can rattle off 100 words a min ute. If anything ever happens tc make the British people quit support ing their royal family the princess needn’t worry. A manager has docked a grand op era prima donna’s salary because she did not do all the singing called foi by her contract. Expert opinion leans to the theory that this manager is entitled to the benefits of Mr. Car negie’B hero fund. After twenty years of blindness, Mrs. C. M. Kirk of Lansdale, Pa., re gained her sight when her three sons, whom she pictured still as little chil dren, called unon her. This is not the first time that grown boys \ ha\ a opened their mother’s eyes. THE AGE OF ALUMINUM. Ever since the separation of the metal* aluminum from its ores—and every daybank is an aluminum mine —inventors have dreamed of an “alu minum age,” whose mechanical mar vels should leave as far behind the present “age of steel” as we surpass the “age of stone” of the primitive man. Here was a beautiful metal that was only a third as heavy as iron; and what limit could there be to the won ders its use would make possible. The long-awaited airship was to become a reality and a revolution was to come at once in shipbuilding, railroading and automobiling. L'ut little can be done with a metal so soft that to secure the same strength as much aluminum in weight as of iron must be used. If only some way of tempering it could be found! Now the announcement comes from Germany that this problem has been solved. “Meteorlt” is a simple alloy of aluminum and phosphorus, and for it is claimed that it is six times as strong as aluminum itself, is noncor rosive, highly polishable, and may be soldered and galvanized with nickel or copper. If all that is claimed for it is true, then the “age of aluminum” may not be far distant.—Boston Globe. SUBMARINE WARFARE i Aa gunpowder eliminated the heav ily armored knight, so the rapid de velopment of submarine explosives points to the disappearance of great armored ships, which must always be defenseless under the water's surface. It is merely a logical development of the inventive genius of the race that so vulnerable a point in war ships should finally be yielded up to the inevitable assault of any enemy. Even now, with torpedo boats numerous enough and with crews of sufficient persistence and daring, the battle ships have met their match. In the future it seems certain that the tide of scientific progress will be on the side of the still imperfect submarine. There is but one possible outcome in such a struggle.—Springfield (Mass.) Republican. THE CRAZE FOR MONEY. At the bottom of all the too preva lent corruption, commercial and politi cal, is the prevailing idea that suc cess consists in the gaining of money. Joseph R. Burton of Kansas, the first United States senator to be convicted of crime while in office, testified that he used his official influence In con sideration of a salary of $500 a month from the Rialto Grain and Securities companies of St. Louis, because he needed the money. Those convicted of fraud in the postoffice department at Washington perpetrated the frauds in order to make money. Almost ev ery act of corruption in office is done to get money; and the money that is paid to induce official corruption is paid to obtain wrongful opportunities to make more money. All the dishon est bargains between business men and corporations are merely attempts to make money. People who have no need of more money keep on trying to make money, because that is their only ideal of success. Those who have more money than they can count or use in any way, try to add to it be cause they are lured on by the idea which has been burned into their minds that making money is success and nothing else is success. Corrup tion thrives on this false ideal, and will cease only when this false idol is thrown down from the high pedestal on which it stands before the minds of the American people.—Boston Watch man. BRAVE MEN ON BOTH SIDES. The fact Is frequently and pleasant ly observed that the soldiers on both sides in the Asian war are displaying valor. The Russians find in that some consolation for the grievous losses they have suffered. Their seamen at Chemulpo and their soldiers at the Yalu were beaten and perished, but at least they fought bravely and fell like heroes. The Japanese find in the same circumstance an added cause for exultation over their victories. Their seamen eagerly enlisting for a death errand at Port Arthur and th<*r sol diers storming intrenchment? -Jththe bayonet at the Yalu have ' Jed new lustre to the fame of Samurai hero ism. Nor is that all. Each side has learned to recognize the valor of the other and to pay it the tributes which are its due. Whatever may have been their opinions of each other before the war, these last three months have in spired them both with the respect which brace men feel for each other the w’orld around.—New York Trib une. LATIN-AMERICA. It is a curious fact that the Latin American countries have so little dip lomatic intercourse with one another. This does not tend to confirm the alle gation made every now and then that the Central and 3outh American na tions have a consuming jealousy and dislike of the United States and are Inclined to form combinations to re sist the assumed “aggression" of the Yankees. The Mexican Herald notes that there is but one diplomatic rep resentative of Latin-American govern ments at the capital of our nearest southern sister nation, and that Is the minister of little Guatemala, a next-door neighbor. Mexico has lega tions in the Argentine Republic. Bra zil, Chile, Peru, and in fact all the other countries on the isthmus and In South America, but there Is no re ciprocity, , for the habit of keeping ministers at the respective seats of government is more honored in the breach thfan in the observance. If the Latin-Americans are not thus friendly among themselves they are not likely to combine against the United States.—Troy Times. STATISTICS OF INSANITY. A bureau at Washington has pre pared some interesting statistics of the distribution of insanity through out the United States. In the whole country one person of every 528 is crazy. In New England, one in every 359; in New York and Pennsylvania, one in 424; in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan. Maryland, Virginia, Ken tucky and Tennessee, one in 610; in the Middle West, one in 750; in the Southern states, one in 935; in the Reeky mountain states, one in 1,263; in the Pacific states, one in 387. It will be seen that madness is more prevalent in New England than any where else, with the Pacific states a close second. The sanest part of the country is in the mountain region of the west, and the south comes next. In Kansas one person out of every 560 is crazy, and Missouri has one for every 602 of population. Some waiter, in commenting on these facts, says that if anyone can construct and de fend a theory to account for the va riation, he is welcome to the oppor tunity. Still, the report gives some basis for speculation as to causes or reasons. For example, it is shown that the proportion of insanity among foreigners is double that among na tives, and that the negro is only half as susceptible to madness as his white brother. This will account for the low rate in the south and the high rate in localities largely peopled by foreigners, but how are we going to account for the big rate in New En gland and on the Pacific coast?—Kan sas City Journal. EVIL TO HAZER AND HAZED. There is a sincere bgiief In the minds of some very intelligent men that hazing has good effect and if not carried too far is “good for the cub” and there is basis for this belief. But it is not easy to see how any good to the lads hazed can compensate for the evil almost inevitably done to hazers. Practically without exception the vic tim of hazing is helpless in the pres ence of superior numbers and strength. In other words, the action of the hazers is essentially cowardly. Their motives, if not so deliberately bad as sometimes represented, are in no sense good and to maltreat those who have nothing like a fair chance to resist and almost no chance to in flict injury on their tormentors is not manly, not gentlemanly—is, in fact, cowardly and cruel.—New York Times. WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY IN WAR. 'The question of the value of .wire less telegraphy in war has already Deen considered. Now it is supple mented by that of its legality. The Russian government has practically served notice that it regards it as il legal. At any rate, the use of such a device at the seat of war will be treated as a breach of neutrality. Cor respondents telegraphing without wires will be shot as spies, and ves sels equipped with wireless tele graphic apparatus venturing near the scene of war will, if caught, be con nscated as contraband of war. So far as correspondents accompanying the Russian army are concerned, we may unhesitatingly concede the Russian right of censorship. That is a matter of course. A belligerent power has the undoubted right to decide whether it will permit correspondents to ac company its army at all, of course, prescribe what matter may be sent through the lines, and how. Similarly, It may exercise a censorship over new vessels entering its territorial waters, or the waters implicated in the sphere of belligerent action. But a general outlawing of wireless tele graphy in that part of the world would be a much more extreme mat ter.—New York Tribune. PRECEPT AND EXAMPLE. Thinking to make an impression on the boys of London, the Times recent ly published a manifesto carrying an enormous show of great names, such as the duke of Fife, the archbishop of Canterbury, the bishop of London and eleven leading lords of the realm, se verely enjoining all religious teachers to discourage cigarette smoking among the young, as it was rapidly sapping the vitality of the kingdom. It is to be feared that this method still lacks the power of example suf ficiently, for the greatest men in Eng land still smoke. The priests of In dia and Japan all smoke and the champion smoker of the world is prob ably the king of Portugal, who smokes forty cigars a day. Dean Swift used to smoke throughout his whole ser mon. What might not the boys quote as to great names?—Boston Globe. WORTH OF CHEERFUL WORK That which may truly be said of Americans is that they have not yet learned to rest from their labors be times, to *go upon a holiday in due season, to “loaf and invite their souls,” as Whitman counseled them to do. All work, not less than all play, makes Jack a dull boy or man. Work regularly, intelligently, no matter how energetically done, is rather more likely to promote health than to im pair it, or to prolong life, rather than to shorten it. The idle man, who lacks employment of body and mind, is more likely to suffer from nervous depression, or to discover, as Car lyle says, that he has within him that “infernal machine, a liver,” than is the man who has serious work to think about, and who, by doing it, keeps his physical organs in nbrmal condition. Indeed, the secret of health ful living seems to be a plenty of work cheerfully done—the maximum of inspiriting labor and the minimum of dull care.—Philadelphia Ledger. A good man is a man who knowa I how bad he ia. Central America; the Negro’s Eldorado A Country where the Black Han Knows No Sorrow and Free dom Reigns. By Frank A. Harrison, Special Staff Correspondent. jBelize, British Honduras, May 26. Tnis old English coion;, is a won derful place for a Nebraskan to be hold. Situated in the tropica, on low ground, and surrounded by all the lux uriant tropical vegetation, its climate is tempered by a steady breeze from the Caribbean sea, making it one of Ihe healthiest oi Central American towns. It contains about 8,000 inhab itants, three-fourths of whom are col ored. Belize w’as the principal port for the cuttera of logwood, mahogany and oth er valuable woods a hundred years ago, and was an important shipping point for the English trade. Still ear lier it was a rendezvous of the buccan eers and pirates that infested the Cen tral American coasts, and it is said many of the pirates settled here when their business was broken up and that they eventually became good citizens tfnd left many descendants of various colors. It is now a quiet, law-abiding place, and if the restless blood of the piratical ancestors affects the present population there is sufficient diversion in the handling of the hundreds of boats which carry the coast and river trade. The English have made Belize the mosf^progressive and best of the Cen tral American cities, and it is prob able that they have only been pre vented by the Monroe Doctrine from civilizing other parts of the country. One can not but think that the cele brated “doctrine" is wrong if its pur pose is simply to prevent progress in this part of the world. If the idea is to sometime Americanize the whole continent, then the doctrine is right, but the progress is long delayed. Here there are good stores, and pret ty homes. The harbor is full of ships and small craft and the river is crowd ed with boats. There is a bustle ap parent everywhere, and an evidence of constant contact with the outside ‘■world. There are five Protestant churches, and on Sundays the build ings are crowded- with the Sunday school pupils reciting the lessons and singing the songs that are familiar in the United States. In the matter of trade there is a closer observance of Sunday here than I have ever seen. The business houses are all closed except the restaurants, and the latter sell only ice cream. They would not sell lemonade, gum or can dy. Ice cream is termed a “necessary article,” and small cakes are served with it. The inhabitants will sell noth ing at their homes except strictly eat ables. All efforts to buy cocoanuts or fruit which hung in abundance in every yard were unavailing. They all said: “We sell nothing today. Come tomor row.” There is a wonderful public garden here, where all the tropical plants and ; fruits are grown, and It is probably | one of the most complete gardens In the world. It is cared for by colored gardeners, and is guarded by colored police. On,e notices here that the colored people who have grown up under the English rule are different from those in the United slates. They are more quiet and business-like. They have no recollections of “slavery days." and therefore do not find it necessary to go to any extreme to “show that they are free.” Many here are from Jamai ca and the Barbadoes, also English colonies. Most of them are able to read and write. They find it easy to make a living, and they dress mostly in white clothes, which are especially fresh and dean on Sundays. We see just enough “greasers” or Mexicans here to see how superior to them are j the English speaking colored people. It becomes plain to a visitor that there is plenty of room in Central America for all the colored people in America, that in any of these republics they would enjoy more social and political equality than they now do in the Unit ed States; that they could make a liv ing with one-half the work and worry, and that they would be a civilizing in fluence in any part of the rural coun try from the Rio Grande to Panama. Wholesale emigration south would solve the “Negro problem.” The money question which is such a mathematical study and constant worry In all the Spanish American republics, is no worry here. British Honduras silver stamped on ono side as it is with the profile either of Queen Victoria or King Edward, passes for its face value in gold, and American money circulates freely on the same basis. And in the surrounding repub lics with their depreciated silver and hopeless fiat paper money, the money of both the United States and British Honduras is called “gold,” and a sil ver dollar will buy two dollars and a half stamped by the other countries. Near here is a large coral reef, and boat loads of the coral are brought, to the city to be broken up for ballast on the swamp roads and streets. When broken up the coral looks like chips of porous marble. In the largo round chunks in its natural state it would sell for a hundred dollars a barrel in the United States as curios, as most of it is of very beautiful pattern. From here It is one day’s trip to Porto Cortez, in Spanish Honduras, the great banana port and the natural entrance to the country which is soon est to feel the civilizing influence of “How did they get into society?” “Oh, they were arrested three times ono morning for running their automo biles too fast.” _ It’s absolute proof to a woman that she is a good mother to her children when their uncles and aunts tell her that she is spoiling them. One swallow of bock beers doesn’t make a summer, but a sufficient num ber of them has been known to make u fall. When a man asks a girl to go to the theatre with him she goes around telling everybody that she has had an other proposal. Unless a, man is his own master he can’t master others. Little Tommy—Mamma, may I go over and play with Mrs. Nexdoors’ children? Mother—You have never cared to pj*y with them before. Little Tommy—But my ball went over into their yard, and they threw it back to me, and it was all sticky. I guess they’ve got some candy. tbe United States. The rush there now is constant because of the banana, cof fee and rubber plantations, and of the mineral possibilities in the mountain ous interior, already tapped by several paper railroads. Porto Cortez. Honduras. From a distance Americans are ’in pressed with the idea that the people and the governments are the piinclpal features of Centra! America, but hero on the ground on-? is impressed most by the -animal and plant life. The immensity and constantly changing forms of tropical growth is a cause tor continual astonishment. Here in Honduras, on the level land of low altitudes, the palm frees re cm to have at some time crowded out the other plant^. These palms now pre sent trunks of about a foot in diame ter, with long fern-like leaves branch ing out about fifteen feet from tho ground. These ’eaves are each at out thirty feet in. length un