MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP IDEAS DYING OUT Delegates to Annual Convention Dis gusted at Repeated Failures of System. Chicago, 111.—When the American League of Municipalities, at its annual meeting in Chicago last week, refused to indorse the principle of municipal ownership of public utilities, it sounded the death knell of the remnants of the municipal ownership fancy in the west, where it was once so strong, but where repeated failures of the fad have caused the steady, strong characters of the descendants of the frontiersmen to revolt at the idea, which had its origin in the socialistic minds of a certain class of long-haired immigrants from Europe. And the fact that the Chicago meeting failed to indorse the idea is significant that not in the west alone is the idea of municipal ownership dying out, but since the delegates to tnat meeting came from all portions of the country, it is indicative that other portions of the country, as well as the western sections, have seen through the fallacy and have decided that there is nothing in munici pal ownership that can really benefit the rank and file of the people. The cities and towns of the west were the first of the country to undertake, on a large scale, the ownership of water works, gas companies, electric lights, street cars, railroads, etc., and it is note worthy that the same cities and towns were the first to repudiate the fad and to return to the American system of competition, where the business man and the skilled engineer can have charge of the public utility systems, to the exclu sion of the politician and the ward heeler. I While ail the delegates to the Amer ican League convention were not opposed to the city ownership of semi-public cor porations. yet it was conspicuous that where that system had been tried most, the delegates w^re stronger in their op position than in those cities where mu nicipal ownership was yet a theory and not a condition. Many of the delegates from those cities where the fad had been tried argued something like this: “You people where thi3 idea has not been tried think you know something about it, and theoretically you probably do, but we who have given municipal ownership a thorough trial know of the dozens of little things that theory does not provide for, but which, when they arise, knock f supposition and hypothesis all to pieces and make of your theory a practical un success and. a failure." Around the hotel lobbies when the con vention was not in session, the delegates gathered and talked “'shop, theories and fancies.” Many who were not delegates, but who were interested in municipal questions, mixed with them, listened to their talk and gave and took opinions and stories. And some of those stories which came out had to do with munici pal ownership. From New YTork came the story of the failure of the municipal Staten Island ferry boats—a scheme good for those living on Staten Island, but very bad for the taxpayers of New York who had to foot the bills. It was shown that while the actual price of the ferry fare had been reduced a few cents, that the service was bad and that the ferries were running behind at the rate of several hundreds of thousands of dol lars every year. Wages had been raised “out of sight" on the city owned boats, but instead of the workmen being of the honest class, most of them were the hangers-on of the ward politicians and “pull” was necessary in securing a "job,” while worth and ability counted for nothing. And the number of employes •had been increased almost 100 per cent, an each boat. Southern Indiana had a dozen failures to report. That at Muncie was one of the most notable. At that city the mu nicipality. which had for years owned Us electric light plant, this summer had entirely abandoned its own plant and had gone back to a private contract, where it was possible to get better serv ice cheaper than the city itself could furnish. Richmond-was another town from that state which had grown tired of the fad and its mayor, who has held office three times on u municipal owner ship platform, has publicly backed down and declared that he no longer believes In his platform. He recommended that Richmond sell its electric plant, and make a contract with a privately owned ompany Marion, Logansport and a number of other Indiana cities also told stories of the same kind and result. From the middle west came the story of Waterloo. Iowa, which had refused, at a general election, to construct a munici pal waterworks plant; from Omaha, where there is a mess of the waterworks leal by which the city is liable to be forced into buying a $3,000,600 plant at a price of 16,000,000, and where two other attempts at municipal ownership have been practical failures; from Denver, where the biggest election fight ever known in the state has gone against municipal ownership: and from various other cities and towns, where the falla cies of the “fad" have been exposed and the taxpayers have decided that they Jon't want any more of it. The reasons given by the delegates for their opposition to municipal ownership were various. These delegates, in many cases, were men who have studied for years and years the effects of municipal ownership in both Europe and America, and the conclusions reached by therh may be considered as the opinions of ex perts in their lines. One of the opinions heard most often was that the municipal ownership system fastened upon the city a most pernicious political ring of graft -rs ami saloon-politicians who were con tinued in power from year to year by their control of the utility company. And in order to continue in this control, these rings appointed their henchmen to the positions, leaving the deserving workmen and competent craftsmen out altogether. "You vote for the machine or you lose your Job.” was the motto. And the machine, in turn, grarted at the expense of the public. Another reason was that the Idea was. simply a branch of socialism and was being used by socialists to extend their beliefs in other directions. In fact, so cialists boasted that municipal ownership was to be the entering wedge which would lead to their other “isms” being accepted. Some of the delegates opposed it be cause it increased taxes, not to the rich man, but to the mechanic and to the everyday man. who was forced to pay higher rents and everything else when prices went up. Still others declared in dividual effort availed nothing under that system and that a young man anx ious to work and to rise in the world stood absolutely no chance with the po litical grafters who controlled things, in fact, the reasons put forward by those who had studied the “fad" were so numerous and weighty, and were so well grounded on common sense that many of the delegates who came ardent admirers of the system, went home thor oughly disgusted with municipal owner ship in every form. Treasures for the Louvre. [ Attention 13 called by the Travelers' Gazette to recent acquisitions by the Louvre, notably of a life size bust in chalk, primitively colored, of the her mit king of the eighteenth dynasty, Akhoumalon, or Amenophis IV., one of the strangest figures in the long line of the Pharaohs. The bust is a re markably fine specimen of the art of the period, and is well preserved. Be sides this, there are four sepulchral urns in blue porcelain from the tomb of Rameses II. In these urns was found, besides funeral linen, certain organic matter, which is being chem ically examined. More Than Society Butterflies. These are the days when women of national celebrity vie with each other in housewifely accomplishments. Mrs. Philander C. Knox has just dis patched to Mrs. Roosevelt a firkin of butter, made with her own hands, at the Valley Forge farm. Mrs. Roose velt has sent deliciqus brandied cher ries to her intimates, and lo the Epis copal Home for Old People in Wash ington. Mrs. Bonaparte, wife of the secretary of the navy, has preserved some toothsome mangoes. Anotner International Exhibition. An international exhibition of fine arts and horticulture will be opened at Mannheim, Germany, on May 1, 1907, on the occasion of the third centenary of the foundation of that town._ Few men can do two things at once, but any girl can chew gum and talk atmultaneou8ly. A FOOL FOR LOVE By FRANCIS LYNDE AUTHOR 0? “THS GRAFTERS." ETC. (Copyright, UK, by 4. P Lippisoou Co.) CHAPTER IX—Continued. Bat another member ol the Rose mary group had more courage—or fewer scruples. When Miss Carteret let herself out of the rear door. Jastrow disappeared in the opposite direction, passing through the for ward vestibule and dropping catlike from the step to inch his way silent ly over the treacherous snow-crust to a convenient spying place at the other end of the car. Unfortunately for the spying pur pose, the shades were drawn behind the two great windows and the glass door, but the starlight sufficed to show the watcher a shadowy Miss Vitginia standing motionless on the side which gave her an outlook down the canyon, leaning out, it might be, to anticipate the upcoming of some one from the construction camp below. The secretary, shivering in the knifelike wind slipping down from the bald peaks, had not long to wait By the time his eyes were fitted to the darkness he heard a man coming up the track, the snow crunching frostily under his steady stride, Jastrow ducked under the platform and gained a view point on the other side of the car. The crunching foot falls had ceased, and a man was swinging himself up to the forward step of the Rosemary. At the instant a voice just aliove the spy’s head called softly: “Mr. Winton!” and the newcomer dropped back into the snow and came tramping to the rear. It was an awkward moment for Jastrow: but he made shift to dodge again, and so to be out of the way when the engineer drew himself up and climbed the hand-rail to stand be side his summoner. The secretary saw him take her hand and heard her exclamation, half indignant, wholly reproachful: “You had my note. I told you not to come!” “So you did, and yet you were ex pecting me,” he asserted. He was still holding her hand, and she could not —or did not—withdraw it. “Was I, indeed!” There vras a touch of the old-time raillery in the words, but it was gone when she added: “Oh, why will you keep on coming and coming when you know so well what it means to you and your work?” “I think you know the answer to! that better than anyone,” he re joined, his voice matching hers for earnestness. “It is because I love you; because I could not stay away if I should try. Forgive me, dear; t I did not mean to speak so soon. But; you said in your note that you would be leaving Argentine immediately— that I should not see you again; so I had to come. Won't you give me a word, Virginia?—a waiting word, if it must be that?” Jastrow held his breath, hope dying within him and sullen ferocity crouch ing for the spring if her answer should sic it on. But when she spoke the secretary’s anger cooled and be breathed again. “No; a thousand times. No,” she burst out passionately; and Winton staggered as if the suddenly freed hand had dealt him a blow. CHAPTER X. For a little time after Virginia’s passionate rejection of him, W’inton stood abashed and confounded. Weighed in the balances of the after thought, his sudden and unpremedi tated declaration could plead little ex cuse in encouragement. And yet she bad been exceedingly kind to him. “I have no right to expect a better answer,” he said, finally, when he could trust himself to speak. “But I am like other men; I should lik» to know why.” “You can ask that?” she retorted: “You say you have no right. What have you done to expect & better an swer?” He shrugged. “Nothing. I suppose. But you knew that before.” “I only know what you have shown me during the past three weeks, and it has proved that you are what Mr. Adams said you were—though he was only jesting.” “And that is?” “A faineant, a dilettante; a man with all the God-given ability to do as he will and to succeed, and yet who will not take the trouble to perse vere.” Winton smiled, a grim little smile. “You are not quite like any other woman I have ever known—not like any other in the world, I believe. Your sisters, most of them, would take It as the sincerest homage that a man should neglect his work for his love. Do you care so much for success, then?” “For the thing itself—nothing, less than nothing. But—but one may care a little for the man who wins or loses.” He tried to take her hand again, tried and failed. “Virginia!—is that my word of hope?” “No. Will you never see the com monplace effrontery of it, Mr. Win ton? Day after day yon have come here, Idling away the precious hours that meant everything to you, and now you come once again to offer me a share in what you have lost. Is that your idea of chivalry, of true man hood?” Again the grim smile came and went. “An unprejudiced onlooker might say that you have made me very wel come.” “Mr. Winton! Is that generous?” “No; perhaps It is hardly just. Be cause I counted the cost and have paid the price open-eyed. You may remember that I told you that first evening I should come as often as I dared. I knew ^hen, what I have known all along; that it was a part of your ancle’s plan tc> delay my work.” - “His and mine, yon mean; only yon ■■ *■' »- ■ ■■___;_r_3_ are too kind—or not quite brave enough—to say so.” ‘‘Yours?—never! If I could believe you capable of such a thing—” “You may believe it,” she broke in. “It was I who suggested it.” He drew a deep breath, and she heard his teeth come together with a click. It was enough to try the faith of the loyalest lover. It tried his sorely. Yet he scarcely needed her low-voiced: “Don’t you despise me es I deserve, now?” to make him love her the more. “Indeed, I don't. Resentment and love can hardly find room in the same heart at the same time, and I have said that I love you,” he rejoined quickly. She went silent at that, and when she spoke again the listening Jastrow tuned his ear afresh to lose no word. “As I have confessed, I suggested it. It was just after I had seen your men and the sheriff’s ready to fly at each otl^r’s throats. I was miserably afraid, and I asked Uncle Somerville if he could not make terms with you in some other way. I didn’t mean—” He made baste to help her. “Please don’t try to defend your mo tive to me; it is wholly unnecessary. It is more than enough for me to know that you were anxious about my safety.” But she would not let him have the crumb of comfort undisputed. “There were other lives involved besides yours. I didn’t say I was spe cially afraid for you, did I?” “No, but you meant it. And I thought afterwards that I should have given you a hint in some way, though the way didn’t offer at the time. Ah, Well, It’s O11I7 One Hore Fool for Love.” There was no danger of bloodshed. 1 knew—we all knew—that Deckert wouldn’t go to extremities witfi the small force he had.” “Then It was only a—a— “A bluff,” he said, supplying the word. “If I had believed there was the slightest possibility of a fight, I should have made my men take to the woods rather than let you witness it.” “You shouldn’t have let me waste my sympathy,” she protested, re proachfully. “I’m sorry; truly, I am. And you have been wasting it in another direc tion as well. To-night will see the shale-slide conquered definitely, I' hope, and three other days of good weather will send us into Carbonate yards.” She broke in upon him with a lit tle cry of impatient despair. “That shows how unwary you have been! Tell me: Is there not a lit tle valley just above here—an open place where your railroad and TJncle Somerville’s run side by side?” “Yes, it is a mile this side of the canyon head. What about it?” “How long is it since you have been up there?” she queried. Winton stopped to think. “I don’t know—a week, possibly.” “Yet if you had not been coming here every evening, you or Mr. Adams would have found time to go—to watch everj- possible chance of inter ference, wouldn't you?” “Perhaps. That was one of the risks I took, a part of the price-paying I spoke of. If anything had happened, I should still be unrepentant.” "Something has happened. While yo.u have been taking things for grant ed, Uncle Somerville has been at work day and night. He has built a track right across yours in that little val ley, and there is a train of cars or something, filled with armed men, kept standing there all the time!” Winton gave a low whistle. Then be laughed mirthlessly. “You are quite sure of this? There is no possibility of your being mis taken?” “None at all. And I can only de What is to be done?—but stop; you her, and he was left alone on the square railed platform. In the gathering-room of the private car Virginia found an atmosphere sur charged with electrical possibilities, felt it and inhaled it, though, there was nothing visible to indicate it. The Rajah was buried in the depths of his particular easy-chair, puffing his cigar;* Bessie had the Reverend Billy in the tete-a-tete contrivance; and Mrs. Carteret was reading under the Pintsch drop-light at the table. It was the chaperon who applied the firing spark to the electrical possibili ties. “Didn't I hear you talking to some one out on the platform, Virginia?” she asked. “Yes, it was Mr. Winton. He came to make his excuses.” Mr. Somerville Darrah awoke out of his tobacco reverie with a start. "Hah!” he said, fiercely. Then, in his most courteous phrase:* “Did I undehstand you to say that Misteh Winton would not faveh us to-night, my deah Virginia?” “He could not. He has come upon —upon some other difficulty, I be lieve,” she stammered, steering a peril ous course among the rocks of equivo cation. “Mmph!” said the Rajah, rising. “Ah—where is Jastrow?” The obsequious one appeared, imp like, at the mention of his name, and received a curt order. “Go and find Engineer McGrath and his fireman. Tell him I want the en gine instantly. Move, seh!” Virginia retreated to her stateroom. In a few minutes she heard her uncle go out; and shortly afterwards the Rosemary’s engine shook itself fret of the car and rumbled away west ward. At that, Virginia went back to the others and found a book. But if waiting inactive were difficult, read ing was blankly impossible. “Goodness!” she exclaimed. “How hot you people keep it in here! Cousin Billy, won’t you take a turn with me on the station platform? I can’t breathe!" (TO BE CONTINUED.) Power of Sweet Laugh. A woman has no natural gift more bewitching than a sweet laugh. It is like the sound of flutes on the water, and the heart that hears it feels as it bathed in the cool, exhilarating spring. Sometimes it comes in the midst of care, or sorrow, or Irksome business, ringing through the room like a silver bell, with power to scare away the evil spirits of the mind. How much is debtor to that sweet laugh! It turns praise to po etry; :t flings showers of sunshine over the darkness of the wood in which weary feet are traveling; it touches with light even tired sleep, which is no more the image of death, but is consumed wjth dreams that are the shadows of immortality. fend myself by saying that I didn’t} know about it until a few minutes ago.l needn’t tell me. I am not worthy of your confidence." “You are; you have just proved it. But there isn't anything to be done. The next thing in order is the exit of one John Winton in disgrace. That spur track and engine means a cross-* ,ing fight which can be prolonged in definitely with due vigilance on the. part of Mr. Darrah’s mercenaries) I’m smashed. Miss Carteret, carefully and permanently. Ah, well, it’s only one more fool for love. Hadn’t we better go in? You’ll take cold stand ing out here.” She drew herself up and put her hands behind her. “Is that the way you take it, Mr. Winton?” The acid laugh came again. “Would you have me tear a passion to tatters? My ancestors were not French.” Trying as the moment was, she could not miss her opportunity. “How can you tell when you don’t know your grandfather's middle name?” she said, half crying. His laugh at this was less acrid. “Adams again? My grandfather had no middle name. But I mustn't keep you out here in the cold talking genealogies.” His hand was on the door to open it for her. Like a flash she came be tween, and her fingers closed over his on the doorknob. “Wait.” she said. "Have I done all this—humbled myself into the very dust—to no purpose?” “Not if you will give me the one priceless word I am tbirstipg for.” “Oh, how shameless you are!” she cried. “Will nothing serve to arouse the better part of you?” “There is no better part of any man than his love for a woman. You have aroused that” “Them prove it by going and build ing your railroad, Mr. Winton. When you have done that—” He caught at the word as a drown ing man catches at a straw. “When I have w-on the fight—Vir ginia, let me see your eyes—when I have won, I may come back to you?” “I like men who do things. Good night.” And before he could reply she had made him open the door for Gossip from Washington President Resumes Work at White House After His Summer Va cation—Death Calls Col. “Ike” Hill—Special Attorneys to Fight Trusts. WHITE .HOUSE1; | T rtofrur j WASHINGTON.—President Roosevelt, sun burned and in fine health from his vacation, is again at his usual round of duties at the White House. The day after his return from Sagamore Hill he was at his office about nine o'clock and be gan work while a procession of laborers were1 pushing wheelbarrows filled with gravel up a gangway to the White House roof and dumping it almost over his head to be used in roofing the west wing of the building. Although a small army of men has been working on the building since July it is not yet fully repaired. The president weighs over 200 pounds but his flesh is firm and hard from outdoor living and exercise. He was in the best of spirits and be fore the cabinet met he received numerous vis itors. Among these was Admiral Cali, of the Italian warship Fieramosca. and two of his offi cers, accompanied by the American naval aid at the White house, Lieut. Commander Keys. The president greeted the Italian officers cordially, told them he knew the history of Italy and greatly admired the king. Members of congress were scarce, owing to the fact that the new rate law compels all to pay fare. Usually the Roosevelt children return from Oyster Bay with a proces sion of new pets. This time they brought only the old ones, including Rollo, the big Newfoundland dog; Skip, the bear dog, and the horses. Slippers, the six-toed cat, passed the summer in Washington and was greatly rejoiced at the family’s return. PASSING OF A NOTABLE CAPITAL FIGURE. In the death of Col. Isaac R. Hill, known for generations back as “Ike-Hill, of Ohio,” the house of representatives has lost its most unique char acter. Col. Hill had been a unique figure in national and Ohio politics for two decades. Al ways a stanch Democrat, he associated himself actively with its party history, more especially in his home state. For years his peculiar per sonalty of form and vernacular have impressed the delegates to nearly every party copvention, both national and state. He came to Washington originally when John G. Thompson, of Columbus, was made sergeant-at-arms of the house of rep resentatives, and has been attached in some capacity to the lower branch of congress ever since. Many are the stories that have been printed about “Ike” Hill. In fact, so constantly has he been in the public eye that there are really few good ones that remain untold. In conversation Hill was as picturesque in the use of language as he was dignified in dress and carriage. He was original and quaint in his remarks, as witness the expression, “mark my words, young fellow, before next grass,” etc., when he meant to say something would occur before springtime. A new preacher had come to Newark at the time Col. Hill was a candi date before a primary and the colonel never tired of telling how he made the acquaintance of the gentleman of the cloth. “I was walking down to the polls," he said, “when I came up to this stranger. He says to me: ‘Good sir, I'm a newcomer to your bustling town. I have always felt it to be my duty to interest myself in the political affairs of the community in which my lines have been cast. I am the new minister of (naming the church) and am on my way to the primaries. I understand there is a candidate named Ike Hill, who is unregenerate, a gambler, liberal in every sense, and in every way unfitted to receive the suffrages of a sovereign people. What do you know about him?’ "I didn't waste no words, but said to this immaculate gentleman: ‘Sir, I am the identical son of a pirate,’ or words to that effect.” For years no political convention in Licking county or in Newark was complete without Hill. He took a hand in state politics, too, and was for years state central committeeman in the Seventeenth Ohio district for the Democrats. Though Col. Hill from the age of 20 was always in politics, yet he never ran for office but once, and then he failed. This was away back in the early i Os. in Licking county, when there were ten candidates for the office of county sheriff. ' Ike" Hill stood next to the top of the list, but was beaten by Ed illiams. He made a vow then never to “run” for another office, and he kept it. ODD HISTORY IN OFFICIAL FILES. There is some queer history locked up in the files of the various government departments. A few days ago the appointment clerk of the treas ury department unearthed a letter written by Horace Greeley in 1865 recommending Cornelius Vanderbilt for appointment as a member of the cotton claims commission. The photographer of the treasury department has a negative made of Gen. Grant when the lat ter was beardless. It requires a second look to detect any of the familiar features of the silent soldier. In the bookkeeping division of the office of the auditor for the post office department is a record and all the correspondence relating to the shortage in the accounts of Abraham Lincoln as postmaster at New Salem, 111. Mr. Lincoln's shortage was not large and was promptly paid. On hie in the treasury department is an application for promotion filed while John Sherman was secretary of the treasury. It bears the following indorsement from Secretary Sherman: “Promote this man $200 a year, as he was useful to me in my race foi the senate.” In another department Is a copy of a land warrant'and a receipt attached in the handwriting of Lafayette acknowledging the donation of land and money made by the United States on the occasion of his visit to this country following the revolutionary war. “TRUST BUSTERS” TO BE REWARDED. Attorney General Moody, under authority of the statute permitting the hiring of special assist ants at salaries not exceeding $7,000 to help him in the prosecution of trusts is building up a cor poration of trust breakers that promises to be responsive to popular sentiment in every judicial district ip the country. These special places will be the rewards for bright district attorneys or as sistant district attorneys who show the attorney general how to do things to the trust magnates. Until Knox became attorney general the con nection between the United States district attor neys and the attorney general was nebplous. Sometimes the attorney general called upon them to do something other than prosecute moonshin ers and counterfeiters, but not until Knox came into office were any of them intrusted with any thing worth while. Moody . continued the utilization of the dis tr!. ■ented to persona not engaged in business and to women whose corre spondence is large, and to give a reference. It has not been found that this •ule is oppressive or obnoxious to any person who dees not desire to use" the >ox for an improper purpose, but it has been found that it shuts out a great nany persons who wished a box for illegitimate purposes. “The private letter box should be abolished and the attention of con jxess ought to be called to its abuse in large cities. It is often impossible to locate persons engaged in conducting fraudulent and unlawful correspondence Ihrough the mails. For a small sum these individuals can rent a box in some itore, usually a cigar or stationery store, through which to receive letters ad tressed to them, instead of having them Addressed and delivered to their places of residence from the city post office.” State of