| “SHAKESPEARE OF THE SLVMS” f
T Old Sam Starsandstripes Explains Mat- i
I ters About Decoration Day. |
| Like Belisarios of Ancient Rome He Reviews P
| the Heroic Memories of the Patriotic Dead J
> Who Nobly Fought and Died That the Nation 1
| Might Live. S
S "Shoulders His Crutch and Shows How Fields Were Won.” |
"You see, my boy, I lag behind, I'm growing very old,
Just let me lean upon your arm, and hear an old man scold.
Old Father Time has thinned my thatch and left it grizzly gray.
But all the same I’ll meet the boys on Decoration Day!
\
"They call me a ‘Back Number’ now, I guess I’ve lost my grip,
My old-time friends av^id me, as the rats desert a ship,
I am a good "Old Has Been” and 1 haven’t far to go.
But lend an ear and you shall hear how Hogan trimmed the foe.
"Have patience with an old recruit, bear with me for awhile,
And spare me all your shallow slang, and drop that pitying smile.
Sometimes I prattle like a fool; I know not what I say.
That’s when I hear those rumbling drums on Decoration Day.
"This old gaffer’s kinder slouchy and he’s somewhat out of place,
You youngsters make the running now and set too swift a pace,
But in these piping times of Peace, you front no frenzied foe,
Just hark ye to the old man’s tale of forty years ago!
"Slow up a bit, don’t walk so fast; you still have lots of time.
I like to hear the children’s songs, yon belfry’s aerial chime;
I like to see ‘Sam Starsanstripes' stalk by in soldier way.
You see, they yield the old man place on Decoration Day.
"I like to see those striplings pass with supple, panther stride.
Ah! youth has all the right to walk with careless, haughty pride.
I like to see some pure-eyed girl strew flowers upon the dead.
It seems to me it does ’em good and soothes their coffined bed.
"Pull up a bit, for don’t you see, my starboard leg is lame,
’Twas punctuied by a boy in grey—confound bis deadly aim!
The Southern soldier® fought us well, though vanquished in the fray.
Stanch Robert Lee and Stonewall kept us many a month at bay.
And when we clashed and grappled we shook the grassy plain.
Our cannon forged the thunderbolt that brought the gory rain.
The silvery saber’s sanguine sweep that bared the flashing steel,
The neighing steeds, the headlong charge that made the foeman reel.
I took the field with Mulligan, the first to reach the front.
We heard the coughing of the guns, the cannon’s ugly grunt.
On the green fields of Virginia, the Rangers laid him low.
‘‘Oh, save the flag and let me be and charge again the foe!”
I like to see Old Glory bare her beauty to the breeze;
Facing in pride the lordly sun and trailing o’er the trees.
I like to see yon little lass strew flbwers o’er each tomb,
And dewy roses sigh their soul in rich and rare perfume.
The dead sleep sound beneath the turf, they have no grief or pain,
They’ve reached the harbor port at last, through life’s tempestuous strain,
Across Fate's surging sea they’ve sailed, like pilgrims gaunt and gray,
They’ve fought the fight, and kept the faith and conquered in the fray.
Of Mulligan’s Brigade, my son, I guess I am the last,
The sole leaf cn an Irish oak, scourged by the wintry blast.
The Irish soldiers fought full well, for they were built to stay,
Their fierce delight was stubborn fight, the rapture of the fray.
'Neath alien skies our heroes sleep near Rappahannock’s roar,
Under the dark and bloody ground, their soldier bivouac o’er.
And some lie snug in Calvary in sw’eet and dreamless rest,
Like tired children who at night still seek the mother nest.
And pretty girls are strewing flowers upon each soldier’s grave.
The tribute blushing Beauty pays—that heroes only crave.
Rosemary for remehihrance, and rue for fond regret,
Our heroes live in memory and we will not forget.
«
Old times, old friends, where are you now? This mist has blurred my eves
Perhaps you are all mustered out beyond the sapphire skies; ’
Perhaps you hold your camp fire and hear reveille blow,
In some soft clime you conquer time and spurn the surly foe!
JAMES E. KINSELLA
Registry Division, Chicago Postofflce.
In Perfect Brotherhood.
That millions of men of every de
gree of life and station should for for
ty years be bound together by the com
mon bond of brotherhood Is not only
worthy of admiration, but also of im
itation by the members of this repub
lic.
Charity, or love, is the greatest
thing in the world, and love is the key
to every department of life, the foun
, datlon of patriotic teaching, the safety
of the country, the home and the in
dividual.
Loyalty to their comrades, their or
ganization, their country, and their
God has been fittingly illustrated in
the lives of these boys in blue.
This trinity of principles, if copied
by our eighty millions of citizens,
would make us the greatest nation on
earth. v
Graves of the Unknown Dead.
Nearly 300,000 of those who wore
the blue are buried in national ceme
teries. and almost half of these are
counted among the unknown dead.
In 1880 there were graves of 158,302
known Union soldiers, and 142 §gg
graves of unknown Union soldiers in
seventy-nine different national ceme
teries. It was at the cemetery on the
field of Gettysburg, on Nov. 19 igfit
where 3,560 Union soliders were bur’
ied. that Lincoln delivered that a,i
ZTf 266 ”'°rds- ln “"orance
brief, but in power mighty, and as a
classic immortal.
First in Patriotic Duty.
The G. A. R. has been in existence
forty years. During that time it has
been ever active for patriotic duty it
has caused the flag to be hoisted over
every school house in this broad land
It has caused a day to be set apart to
decorate the graves of the dead sol
diers, and the citizens of all classes
have followed the example of the G.
A. R. and now decorate the graves of
their loved ones as never before. Me
morial day cervices are full of patri
otic speeches and the singing of patri
otic songs, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific, the people of all ages taking
part in the exercises, never to be for
gotten.
TH’t MODERN FARMER.
How He Lives, as Compared Wi’.h
Fifty Year* Ago.
he farming life of
to-day, as con
trasted with that
of fifty years ago,
is a paradise of
Qomfort and con
venience. Tho
lonely lcghouse,
remote from mar
ket and devoid of
advantages that a
half cycle cf timo
> has madu possible,
would sc ircely ap
peal to the pres
ent day farmer.
The twentieth*
century soil tiller has practically ah
the modern comforts. His mail is de
livered daily. He has telephonic con
nection with the buying and selling
world, affording the best opportunities
for marketing to advantage. His
home is of recent architecture, con
structed of wood, brick or stone, and
well furnished. He has modern plumb
ing and modern heating, and with tho
advent of acetylene gas, he has mod
ern lighting. At night his home is as
attractively illuminated as that of his
city brother, for it is a suggestive fact
that "acetylene for country homes”
has so appealed to the farmer, that of
the 80,000 users of acetylene gas in
the United States, the farmer is one
of the largest of all classes. Ever
seeking the best, he has not hesitated
in availing himself cf this new light.
The continued grow’th and progress
of this great country, ever a cause of
wonderment, has no greater exempli
fication than evolution on the farm.
Already the farmer is becoming the
most envied of men—the freest, the
healthiest, the happiest!
Being dissatisfied with your job i;
a poor way to show that your pay
ought to be raised.—Chicago Record
Herald.
RAILROADS AND PROGRESS.
In his testimony before the senato
committee on interstate commerce at
Washington on May 4, Prof. Hugo R
Meyer of the Chicago university, an
expert on railroad management, made
this statement:
“Let us look at what might have
happened if we had heeded the pro
tests of the farmers of New York and
Ohio and Pennsylvania (in the 70’s,
when grain from the west began pour
ing to the Atlantic seaboard), and
acted upon the doctrine which the in
terstate commerce commission has
enunciated time and again, that no
man may be deprived of the ad
vantages accruing to him by virtue
of his geographical position. We could
not have west of the Mississippi a
population of millions of people who
are prosperous and are great con
sumers. We never should have seen
the years when we built 10,000 and
12,000 miles of railway, for there
would have been no farmers west of
the Mississippi river who could have
used the land that would have been
opened up by the building of those
railways. And if we had net seen the
years when we could build 10,000 and
12,000 miles of railway a year, we
should not have today east of the
Mississippi a steel and iron produc
ing center, which is at once the mar
vel and the despair of Europe, because
we could not have built up a steel and
iron industry if there had been no
market for its product.
We could not have in New England
a great boot and shoe industry; wo
could not have in New England a
great cotton milling industry; wo
could not have spread throughout New
York and Pennsylvania and Ohio man
ufacturing industries of the most di
versified kinds, because those indus
tries would have no market among
the farmers west of the Mississippi
river.
And while the progress of thi3
country, while the development of
the agricultural west of this country,
did mean the impairment of the ag
ricultural value east of the Mississippi
river, that ran up into hundreds of
millions of dollars, it meant incident
ally the building up of great manu
facturing industries that added to the
value of this land by thou.-ands of
millions of dollars. And, gentlemen,
those things were not foreseen in the
’70’s. The statesmen and the public
men of this country did not see what
part the agricultural development of
the west was going to play in the in
dustrial development of the east. And
you may read the decisions of the
interstate commerce commission from
the first to the last, and what is one
of the greatest characteristics of those
decisions? The continued inability to
see the question in this large way.
The interstate commerce commis
sion never can see anything more
than that the farm land of seme farm
er is decreasing in value, or that some
man who has a flour mill with a pro
duction of fifty barrels a day is be
lng crowded out. It never can see
that the destruction or impairment oi
farm values in this place means the
building up of farm values lu that
place, and that that shifting of values
is a necessary incident to the indus
trial and manufacturing development of
this country. And if we shall give
to the interstate commerce commi
sion power to regulate rates, we shall
no longer have our rates regulated
on the statesmanlike basis cn which
they have been regulated in the past
by the railway men, who really have
been great statesmen, who really liavo
been great builders cf empires, who
have had an imagination that rivals
the imagination of the greatest poet
and of the greatest inventor, and who
have operated with a courage and dar
iug that rivals the courage and cor
ing cf the greatest military gen?ral.
But we shall have our rates regulated
by a body cf civil servants, bureau
crats, w no e hi setting sin the world
over is that they never can grasp a
situation in a large way and with the
grasp cf the statesman; that, they
uever can see the fact that tin > are
confronted with a small evil; tha
that evil is relatively small, and that
It '-annet be corrected except by the
creation of evils and ahu es which
ere infinitely greater than the on.
that is to be corrected.”
A woman’s tor~ ’s ri a ler the
a man’s strong right a-r*a.
I
The Indian mail to hand brings us
vivid and pathetic details of the death
of Major Carnegy during the lien
shooting exploit in the Gir forest dis
trict. The major, of course, was the
political officer of the viceroy, says
the London Pall Mall Gazette, and the
expedition had been arranged by Lord
Lamington on the site of the lion hunt
prepared for Lord Curzon five years
ago, but never fulfilled. It is believed
there are sixty or seventy linons in
the Gir, and the major, having spent
the last couple of years in the vicini
ty, knew the Juuagadh better than
any one.
On March 9 a tracker arrived who
had been attacked by a lion while rid
ing into camp, and while he dropped
his weapons and escaped it was only
by abandoning Ii is pony and seeing
the animal carried off.
The “shoot” was divided into three
parties with the major in the second,
and it entered the jungle to a depth of
about ten miles. The major and his
two friends, Mr. du Boulay and Capt.
Foljambe, selected a tree, each rang
ing along a nullah, and the two latter
fired at a fine lion, wounding him high
in the right shoulder. The major also
hit a lioness. The natives also fired
their old-fashioned guns, and it was
thought safe to descend the trees for
a consultation and search for the
wounded quarry.
The lioness appeared and ran for a
shikari, but the major fired and drop
ped her head. Then there was a pause
for drinks, and the party commenced
to follow the lion’s trail down the
nullah for a mile or so. Now and then
the men ascended trees to keep a look
out, and at last the party came into
a clearing with waist-high grass in
stead of trees.
Suddenly there was a roar and the
lion dashed out, making straight for
the major, who fired one shot, just
grazing the beast. Simultaneously
there was a struggling cloud of dust,
in w’hich the natives say they saw
the lion beat the major down with a
blow of his pawr. Capt. Foljambe fired,
Mr. du Boulay ran up and fired point
blank at the lion’s heart, a native
fired into his hind quarters, while oth
ers clubbed it with a ricfle-butt and
swords. The major was found to be
dead. He must have died instantan
eously. The body was carried on a
charpoy by torchlight and conveyed
back to Rajkote by special train, and
the shock caused by the news through
out the Junagadh district was inten
sely felt.
It is added that the lion measured
11 feet from tip to tail. The others
shot were two lions rather less, and a
lioness (the major’s) of 9 feet.
Defects of the Japanese
I
An English merchant resident for
many years in China recently visited
Japan. He makes the following in
teresting comparison between the
natives of the two countries: “As a
nation I cannot think that the Japa
nese have the permanent staying
qualities of the Chinese. They are
physically inferior, and have the mis
fortune to inhabit a country of active
volcanoes and frequent earthquakes,
whose terrors destroy or threaten.
Yeddo was wrecked and 100,000 peo
ple killed by an earthquake in 1855,
and you must remember the devasta
tion of the one in 1891. The average
is 500 shocks, great and small, every
year. There have been two eruptions
and several shocks since I’ve been
here and the peerless mountain. Fuji
yama, sometimes gives threatening
signs and may suddenly spread wide
cast ruin. This dread of earthquakes
has restricted the architecture and
household arrangements of the whole
country.
“Chinese are employed by the for
eign banks, merchants and hotels here
for most responsible positions, eom
pradores, godown keepers and head
servants. The general testimony is
that Japanese are untruthworthy for
such positions and that native mer
chants have not much commercial
honor. Moral responsibility appears
to rest too lightly upon all of his
class, which may be partly caused by
the facilities afforded by the numer
ous temples for the remission of sins.
A coin thrown into a box, a bell rung,
a devout attitude and a short formal
prayer quickly brings the sinner into
favor again with his gods.
“Making allowance for the small
stature of these people, their children,
especially the thousands of school
boys I’ve seen, appear puny and weak
and they are tame and girlish in their
sports. The small size and frequent
hollow chests of the men detract from
their appearance as soldiers and po
lice; physique and disposition will
always prevent the Japs from realiz
ing our ideal of a soldier—a man of
good size by our standards, well de
veloped. erect, smart and brisk. The
troops I saw marching and drilling
lacked these soldierly qualities, moved
in a slouching way, their arms and
equipments appearing too heavy for
them.”
Life V iewed by Pessimist;
Man is born into the world. He is
at once attacked by nettle rash, croup,
measles and the whooping cough. He
has the colic before his first teeth are
cut and when he is swindled we say
he is getting his eye teeth cut.
If he scapes the scarlet fever and
the mumps, he finds directly in his
way the scarlet rash and the seven
year itch. If he is not carried off in
a hearse before he is too large for
short pants he still stands a show of
cuttiflg off one of his toes, being kick
ed by a mule or getting shot with a
target rifle in the hands of a boy that
“didn't know it was loaded.”
He gets his feet wet. runs at the
nose and Is scolded by his parents for
going in swimming on Sunday. He
goes to the circus, rides on the merry
go-round and hits the dignified old
gentleman in the back of the head
with a snowball before he is well in
his teens.
He now reaches the stage where he
gathers watermelons in the light of
the moon, eats green apples and lays
out of nights. The fuzz begins to
, grow on his upper lip and he blushes
when he sees a girl, until his hair
scorches. He next develops into a
"smart Alec,” and his parents are un
decided whether to shoot him for
smoking cigarettes or turn him over
to an asylum manager as a confirmed
lunatic. Man is subject to typhoid
fever, pneumonia, spinal meningitis,
smallpox and his own intemperance.
He is beset by disease, indebtedness
and breach of promise suits until it is
a wonder that any of us are able to
score three score and ten. If he es
capes a famine, pestilence and war,
he does his best to shorten his days
. by keeping his boiler overloaded with
| inferior booze. He is subject to sick
headache, lumbago and inflammatory'
rheumatism until he cries aloud that
his last stage is worse than his first.
He wears false hair, false teeth and
goes to jail for getting money under
false pretenses.
Yet when he has finally run the
gauntlet and passes off the stage of
action, the heavy Ananias for the
country paper says: “It is well.”—
Nevada Post.
The Slaughter at Baku
One of the editors of a newspaper
published in Baku. Transcaucasia, on
the shores of the Caspian sea. wrote
the following description of the mas
sacres that took place in that city in
February: “From the windows of our
office we overlook the feverish move
ments of the crowd to the accompani
ment of deafening discharges of fire
arms. Wreaths of light smoke issue
from the windows of the Tartar ho
tel. and shot after shot whizzes into
the crowd. On the opposite pavement
an Armenian is running for his lire.
He falls, gets up. and runs on again.
More shots from the hotel. We hold
our breath and keep our eyes fixed on
the scene] A picket of Cossacks are
standing fifty paces away. A posse
of soldiers approaches. We expect to
see them surround the hotel from
which the shots proceed. But no;
they march away, while the Cossacks
remain where they were.
“What is that movement in the dis
tance? Men running. On they come,
all Tartars, brandishing berdans, re
volvers and swords. They pass close
to the pickets of Cossacks, who never
stir. They fire ,on every unarmed
Armenian they can see, shouting 'hur
rah'—so they pass out of sight. Close
on these come a crowd of their fellow
countrymen armed to the teeth. They
approach the Cossacks, enter into
friendly conversation with them and
then follow in the footsteps of the
first band. More reports and more
victims rolling over in sight of the
Cossacks. We wonder where we are.
Is this our Russia?"
Hundreds of people lost their lives
in that massacre and these victims
were Armenians and among the lead
ing citizens of the town. The Arme
nians are at the head of Baku’s com
mercial interests and these are con
siderable. The city has a population
of 112,000, having increased seven
fold in the last forty years. Baku is
a railway center, a great port on the
Caspian sea, and its petroleum indus
tries are among the greatest in the
world. The petroleum output was
more than 9,000.000 tons in 1899.
Baku's history goes far back into the
eighth century and maybe beyond.
On the Snow-bound Train
The sun that brief December day
rose in the old familiar way; but not
so brilliant were its beams, as some
sweet summer sunrise seems. A
silence fell along the streets, and the
blizzard came in sheets—a storm that
gave us real pain—and I was on the
eastboucd train. Another morn broke
cold and clear, and many a soul was
racked with fear, and many a drum
mer paled and said, "we're up against
it, on the dead,” for snowdrifts clus
tered mountain high, seeming to touch
the leaden sky, and still the wind as
fiercely howled as when at first the
blizzard growled; small wonder that
we were appalled, because we knew
the train was stalled.
A man who ‘raveled selling soap
remarked. “I gjess thera ain’t nc
hope for no one getting through to
day—this is an awful storm, but say,
it ain’t no marker to a blow that we
was in two years agxj;” and then ex
claimed the man that sold enlarged
pictures. “Gee, it's cold!” Long hours
rolled by, and then—oh, John! a din
ing car \>iiS coupled or—a blessed
dining car, I swear, it seemed like an
oasis there. And all that morn and
afternoon I gave instructions to the
coon. Alas for him who never sees
a dining car in times like these, who
in the smoker snores away, waking up
row ard then to pray that there will
be no more delay; who has not learn
ed in cafe cars the truth to emi
grants unknown; that tables are as
good as bars—that is—as good to let
alone.—“Travel ”
1 BLOT ON STATE’S GOOD NAME I
f Unsanitary Condition in Prisons and Slum Dis- i
£ tricts a Crime.
Since tut attention of the Chicago
authorities was so forcibly called to
the conditions oresent in the peniten
tiary other states have been investi
gating.
The rapid growth of tuberculosis
among prisoners in the Joliet, 111., pen
itentiary, attended by a marked in
crease in the prison death rate, has
aroused the officials to action. An in
vestigation and reform is to be insti
tuted by the State Board of Health.
The members of this board do not
deny that under the present conditions
all efforts to combat the disease are
hopeless. Better general sanitary con
ditions must be established or it will
be impossible to prevent the spread of
tuberculosis tc all the present prison
ers and to all who may be so unfortu
nate as to be sentenced later.
This is another instance of the state
forcing its citizens to live under con
ditions which mean almost sure death.
It is surprising in this day of enlight
enment that the state should allow its
citizens to live, voluntarily, in unsani
tary homes. Yet it does. The resi
dents of the slum and tenement dis
tricts are dying from faulty sanita
tion and bad hygiene. But more— the
state forces some others to spend
from one to ten years in a dark cell
from which they so often come, strick
en by the great ‘white plague”—
wrecks of their former selves and a
continual expense to the community.
With the message of “prevention
and cure” of consumption in every
paper let the state not forget its pris
oners who must silently suffer what
ever fate is decreed for them.
“Fashion” Notes.
Don’t wear thin-soled shoes at any
season of the year. One may take
cold from chilling of the feet as the
result of wearing thin-soled shoes in
walking over a cold pavement, even
when the pavement is perfectly dry.
Don’t adjust the clothing to suit the
season of the year only, but adapt it
to tfc# ' 'eather conditions of each par
ticulai oy.
Don’t •R-ter high-heeled shoes, nor
pointed shoeL nor narrow-soled shoes,
nor tight shoes, nor low shoes. Don't
wear slippers, exoept in the house.
Shoes must have broad, reasonably
thick soles, plenty of room for the
toes, low heels. Rubber heels are a
great comfort.
Don’t support the clothing by bands
tight about the waist.
Don’t constrict the limbs by means
of elastic bands to support the stock
ings. Support all clothing from the
shoulders, not by bands, but by a
properly constructed waist free from
bones, on the "union” plan.
Changed Its Mind.
As mamma was preparing her boy
for breakfast she said: “How many
cakes can Eugene eat for his break
fast this morning?”
“I can eat four. Mamma.”
Seated at the table, his appetite
seemed to have materially diminished,
for he ate only one of the cakes.
"Mamma thought you were going to
eat four cakes this morning. What is
the matter?”
"Well,” said the five-year-old, “my
stomach changed its mind.”
It occurs to us that the wise man’s
stomach often “changes its mind," as
in this case, but too often that much
abused organ is so pressed upon as to
be convinced against its will, though
of the same opinion still, and, yield
ing to the demands of an abnormal
appetite, finds itself wishing the real
man had been master over the lust of
the flesh.
A Centennial Celebration.
The people of Fayette, Ohio, recent
ly showed their appreciation of the
favor conferred on them in having in
their community a fine old lady who
has rounded out the full measure of
her hundred years. The centennial of
Mrs. Amelia DuBois was celebrated
by hundreds of people who met to do
ler honor. The public schools were
c'osed, that the children might join
in ’he celebration. In charge of their
teachers, they marched to the home
of Mr. *nd Mrs. DuBois and escorted
them to the opera house, where an in
teresting program, in which many
prominent people of the neighborhood
took part, was carried out.
One pleasing feature was the pres
entation by the children of a quantity
of flowers the money for which had
been collected among themselves.
The interest shown in the occasion
by the people of Fayette and surround
ing towns is evidence of the high
esteem in which this remarkable old
lady is held. Every faculty of her
mind is alert and responsive, and her
brown eyes still retain their attract
ive sparkle. She is an accomplished
needlewoman, and still spends much
time in preparing dainty gifts for her
friend3. Mr. DuBois, to whom Mrs.
DuBois was married sixty-one years
ago, is no less remarkable than his
wife. The unusually healthy and ac
tive old age of this fine couple is a
testimony to the value of their simple,
natural, peaceful life of activity. Com
inenting upon this, the Fayette Review
says:
“One’s relation to the ALL are so
simple that it is not necessary for
anyone to transgress. Instinct, that
mysterious principle that protects and
preserves all creatures, would protect
us if we did not bury it under an av
alanche of a:tificialities. Our falling
away from nature is what kills. Our
getting back to it will revivify, and
this principle of ‘sticking to' nature is
what one sees so distinctly in these
grand old people.”
To Prolong Life.
The British Medical Journal recent
ly devoted eight pages to a discussion
o^ the best means for the prolonga
tion of life. The greater part of this
space was occupied by a lecture re
cently delivered by Sir Herman Web
er, D. D., F. R. C. P., before the Royal
College of Physicians of London, and
the main points of his advice were as
follows:
Moderation in eating, drinking and
physical indulgence.
Pure air out of the house and with
in.
The keeping of every organ of the
body as far as possible in constant
working order.
Regular exercise every day in all
weathers; supplemented in many
cases by breathing movements, and
by walking and climbing tours.
Going to bed early and rising early,
restricting the time of sleep to six
or seven hours. (We question the
wisdom of this teaching. Most people
require eight hours’ sleep; some,
more.)
Daily baths or ablutions according
to individual conditions, cold or warm,
or warm followed by cold.
Regular work and mental occupa
tion.
Cultivation of placidity, cheerful
ness and hopefulness of mind.
Employment of the great power of
the mind in controlling passions and
nervous fear.
Strengthening the will in carrying
out whatever is useful, and in check
ing the craving for stimulants, ano
dines and other injurious agencies.
Hothouse Plants.
The following abstract from the
Cincinnati Lancet-Clinic in regard to
one of the worst evils of modern child
life is very timely:
‘•Refinement in matters of social
life proceeds hand in hand with re
finement in other lines as civilization
advances. From the standpoint of the
physician and of the anthropologist,
it is a question whether the physical
side of mankind is improving or de
generating.
The method of bringing up chil
dren, especially in the families of the
well-to-do, is too often a serious men
ace to the child’s health and develop
ment. Too much indoor life, too
much supervision, too little freedom
of motion and will is undoubtedly the
cause of the many weaklings seen in
the families of the wealthy. Such chil
dren have the characteristics of hot
house plants.
The remedy is, of course, to do away
with the surplus care and attention
bestowed on the child, to let the child
do more for itself, have more free
dom, more fresh air, more play with
other children. Foods and medicines
are only temporary helps for child
weakness.
Nature is its own best doctor, and
in the end can take care of “hothouse
children” if fond parents will only
give her the chance.
A Wholesome Medicine.
“A wholesome medicine Is Cheer.
And Hope a tonic strong;
He conquers all who conquers fear.
And shall his days prolong.
*‘A happy heart, a cheerful lip.
Contagious health bestow
As hom*v-bees their sweetness sip
From fragrant flowers that blow.
"Let cheerful thoughts prevail among
The sons of men alway,
And sighs shall change to Love's sweet
song.
And night to golden day.”
Rejected Candidates.
It in reported that at a recent ex
amination of candidates for admission
to the Naval academy at Annapolis
only eleven out of twenty-five were
found sufficiently sound physically to
be admitted. The whole twenty-five
passed the mental examination, but
fourteen of them were unable to pre
sent the necessary physical require
mnts. This fact is a fair index of the
rate at which the physical decadence
of the American people is progress
ing. Insanity, idiocy and epilepsy are
all increasing at a very rapid rate—
three hundred per cent within the past
fifty years.
Had Something Left.
“I was buying apples in Pennsyl
vania,” said the commission man. “and
one day I got around to inspect a lot
which an old farmer had been writing
to me about. He had them in his barn
and a cold snap had come on and
frozen every apple as hard as a stone.
I round him almost in tears about it
and. while I could not buy hi3 frozen
apples, I did think to chirk him up a
bit. In thi3 I succeeded after a time
and, wiping away the last of his tears,
he observed:
«‘Yes, as you say, it might have
been fur, fur worse.’
“ ‘Of course it might. For in
stance—’
“‘For instance, my daughter Pally
might have been stolen away from
me.’
“ ‘Yes, Sally might have been called
hence.’
“‘But while the apples has friz.
Sally is still left to me and she’s got j
a suit for breach of promise agin a
feller and is bound to get a verdict of
$5,000 and lend me half of it, and I
just reckon I ought to shet up and be
thankful to Providence that I hain't
a busted man!’
Willing to Economize.
Little Willie, the attractive child of
the washerwoman who has «een If.
ter days, was taken to dinner hy a
kindly disposed patron of his mot - -
He had the teast of his life, rrd- ng
almost everything on the bill of f ire
and was finishing when he anroum ed
that he wanted more. Rer-vn >
not appeal to Willie, and aft *.*v.
eral peremptory “Why*? * fro n h
his hostess gave ~n excuse which she
thought he could understand
“It costs too much.” she said
“Oh. well, then.” sa!d Willie tr .a
loud and cheerful voice which pern
trated the rcom, "let's have gome
more ice water. That doesn’t c <*
anj thirg. does it?”—New York pr. >
Cn thp Mississippi.
On a trip of one of the upner v;s
sissippl river packets a young la'v
asked the pilot several cueat . * *
abc”t the boat, channel and shores
"* sttppose you krow every ro k
reef, bar ami obstruction in tira
river?” she asked.
“Yes.” he replied. Just then .i,- 1
packet ran on a ssnd bar. “There a
on* now!” he exclaimed.
