6 Commoner. I i h- 1 9 r H' d ni Current topics v I THERE ARE MANY MEN IN THIS COUNTRj. enjoying high reputation who object to mu nicipal ownorshlp. it la true that the municipal ownership idoa has grown in the United States at a rapid rate during recent years and yet the posi tion of antagonism en tuo part of influential men in various communities throughout the country has provonted tho municipal ownership plan be ing very generally established in tho United States. A largo number of towns in England have adopted municipal ownership and tho London Times re cently bogan a vigorous campaign against tho plan. The London correspondent for the New York Evening- Post says that the Times is being laughed at for Its pains. According to this cbrr.v spondont: "Roturns published show howprbvin cial towns are securing better sorvico3 as regard's gas, water and markets by municipal management, while they are also relieving their rates out of "tho profits. Darlington, after six years of municipal enterprise, has made a net profit of $350,000, re lieving the rates of each familj in the town to an average amount of $7.50. Birmingham's profits in flvo years are $G18,G40; Bolton's $1,002,325; Leed's $872,015, Nottingham's $02u,000, Manches ter's $2,210,000, while the water rate also has boen reduced from 5d to Id in tho pound. The Times is beating the air when it seoks to indnoo tho ratepayers who thus benefit from their owi municipal enterprises, to hand themselves ovor to the kindly mercies of American trusts, lest the sacred cause of industrial freedom be injured." IN A RECENT INTERVIEW MR. BRISTOW, fourth assistant postmaster general, declared that from now, henceforth and forever Kansas will be reliably republican. But the Kansas City Journal, a republican paper, provides Mr. Bristow with a warning. The Journal points out that in 1888 the republican candidate for governor re ceived a plurality of more than 73,000 and a clear majority of 37,000. In the election of 1890 the re publican candidate for governor had a plurality of 8,000 and the opposition combine had a majority of G3,000 over the republican party. Subsequently this plurality was wiped out and Kansas was lost to the republicaivparty. The Journal says that this change was not entirely due to the farmers' alliance. The Journal says it was due to a general feeling of dissatisfaction with republican admin istration and it explains: "The politicians at the head of the republican party in Kansas had weak ened their organization by paying more attention to spoils than to principles, and when a new party sprang up it carried away some 60,000 re publican voters with very little trouble. Mr. Bristow would be among the first to admit that this is a true picture of Kansas conditions in 1888 00. Indeed, ho belonged to the anti-spoils wing of the republican party and frequently protested against tho methods of tho professional politi cian who were In charge of things. And wo may be assured that on second thought he would qualify his recent utterance with respect to re publican rule in perpetin.y would admit that no party can long sustain itself in Kansas unless it practices decent politios, obeys the will of tho -people and keeps its spoilsmen down." THE ATTENTION OP THE ATTACHES OP A hospital in Philadelphia was recently at tST;? to Peculiar association of names. Miss Death was brought to the hospital to be operated SSSShtSrfatoendl?lt?", Th0 patIent was the 2 i? an-under,taker. A Philadelphia paper says: "The surgeon's name who was chosen to perform the operation was Dye-Dr. Prank Hack ett Dye. When the operation was over Miss Death was placed in charge of two nurses. Miss Payne is the day nurse; Miss Grone is the nlcnt nurse. 'The patient is recovering rapidly, and in a week or so Miss Death will bid good-bye to Dr. Dye, Miss Payne and Miss Grone." & a? TN A MAGAZINE ARTICLE DESCRIBING 1 Gladstone's home life, the writer says that soon after his marriage tho Grand Old Man sug gested to Mrs. Gladstone that she was either to know nothing and thus bo free of all responsibilitv or to know everything and bo bound to secrecy. Fifty years later Gladstone said, "My wife haa known every political secret I evor had " and the writer declares that "this remark points to the choice-' Mrs. Gladstono made and also illustrates her discretion." THE PASTOR OP THE METHODIST CHURCH at Trenton, Mo., spent his last vacation in a way that was at once profitable and instructive to his congregation. Tho name of this clergyman ia Rev. J. O. Taylor. Tho roof of the church re quired shingling and assisted by one of his flock, Mr. Taylor, who, by the way, weighs 225 pounds put. a now roof on tho church building." i & a? MISS WADSWORTH OF BOSTON RECENT ly lectured in Kansas City. Miss Wads worth's subject was "Shakespeare and the Bible." The lecturer announced her desire to establish two points, one being that Shakespeare Was fa miliar with the Bible and the other that he firmly belloved in tho doctrines that It teaches. The Kan sas City Journal report of Miss Wadsworth's ad dress says: "To, sustain the first point, she read first from the Bible and then from Shakospeare passages that showed marked similarity in both thought and expression. In reference to this part of her lecture Miss Wadsworth said the ministers before whom she had read the lecture had fre quently stopped to ask which passages were those from tho Bible and which were Shakespeare's. To sustain the second point she read portions of ' Shakespeare's will, which, she said, reveal true be lief in tho orthodox Christian religion. In her ' introductory remarks Miss Wadsworth said that ' Hall Caino takes his situations from the Bible. ' Milton and Bacon make frequent allusions to" Scripture and that Goethe drew his inspiration from the Good Book. She cited the case of Fanny Kerable who said that the profession of acting had more pitfalls for humau beings in it than any other but that she, in times of temptation, had strengthened her soul with texts she had learned in ctiildhood. And in her old age the actress was accustomed to quell her rebellious servants by quoting from Shakespeare and the Bible. Miss Wadsworth believes that Shakespeare learned the Bible thoroughly in his youth and that he depend ed largely upon it for inspiration for material to draw the great lessons of life and for consola tion in the sorrows tnat 'ame to him." THE ORGANIZATION OP A COMPANY TO ' control the peppermint and essential oil crop " of- the world is reported from Kalamazoo, Mich. The name of thi, concern is the A. M. Todd com pany. This company is said to have secured con trol of 95 per cent of this ctop. A dispatch to tho New York American says: "The price of pepper mint oil, which a month ago was $2.50 a pound, Is now $5. As the total crop this year is about 190, 000 pounds, the total value will be $900,000, and the advance amounts to nearly half a million. ' New York speculators have kept down the prices and the gf owing of the essential oil plant has been unprofitable. Tod, says that under the new ar rangement the growers will reap profits. The crop of the present sermon Is only two-thirds as large as usual. The heavy rainfall has produced the smallest crop in ten years. NEEDLES AND PINS ARE VERY INSIGNIFI cant articles, so far as appearance is con cerned and yet what would the world do without needles and pins? It is strange that the people know but little of tae manufacture of many of the things so necessary to heir convenience. A writer in the Chicago Chronicle throws some light on this particular subject Accoraing to this writer, the mills of the United States practically supply the whole world with pins in 1900 the 75,000,000 peo ple in the United States used 6t,000,000 gross of common pins which is equal to 9,500,000,000 pins, or an average of "about 126 pins for every man, woman and child in the country. During 1900 the total number of pins manufactured in the United States amounted to 68.S89.260 gross. There are in this country 43 pin factories with 2,353 em ployes. The 'business ha- grown rapidly during the last twenty years, for, although there were forty factories in 1880, they produced only half so much, employed only about half the capital and only 1,077 hands. There has been a considerate increase in the number of women and children employed in pin factories oi late years, which is an indication that the machinery is being im proved and simplified and that Its operation does, not require so high an order of mechanical skill. AMONG THE BY-PRODUCTS OP PINMAKING are hooks and eyes, and according to this same writer these, are produced at most of the fac tories from material that cannot be used for, pins. The output of hooks and eyes in 1900 amounted to 1,131,824 gross. This same writer describes the Vrt.aNo.44. process of manufacture in this Interesting wav ' ' x ins and hooks and eyes are turned out by aul tomatic niaehinos, in such quantities today that the cost of manufacture U practically limited to the ' valje of the brass wire from which they arc made A single machine does tho whole business. Coils of wire, hung upon reels, are passed into ma chines which cut them into proper lengths and drop off into a receptablo and arrange themselves in the line of a slot formed by two bars. Whoti they reach tho lower end of the bars they are 1 seized and pressed between two dies, which form the heads, and pass along into the grip of an other steel Instrument which points them by pres sure. They are then dropped into a solution of sour beer, whirling as they go, to be cleaned, and then into a hot solution of tin, which is also kept revolving. They here receive their bright coat of metal and are pushed along, killing time until they have had an opportunity to harden, when they are dropped into a revolving barrel of saw dust, which cools and polishes them at the same , time. Because of the oscillation of the bran they work gradually down to the bottom of the barrel, which is a metallic plate cut into slits just big enough for tho body of the pins, but not big enough for the head to pass through. 'Thus they are straightened out into rows again, and, like well-drilled soldiers, pass along toward the edge of the bottom, and slide down an inclined plane, still hanging by their heads, until -they reach strips of paper, to which they are introduced by a curious jerk of the machine. The first they know they are all placed in rows, wrapped up and on their way to the big department stores, where they are sold at from o cents to 10 cents a gross. A machine is expected to throw out several thou sand gross an hour. Needles are made by a sim ilar machine. In 1900 there were made 1,397,533 gross of machine needles, 212,689 gross for shoe making, 324,476 gross for ordinary household sew ing machines, 307,426 gross for knitting machine and the rest for other kinds of sewing and knit ting machinery, generally for factory use. We im- ported $418,004 worth of ordinary needles, most of them from England. Hairpins and safety pins and ; other kinds of pins are manufactured in a similar manner. We made 1,189,104 gross of hairpins lx 1890. Both needles and hairpins are manufactured to a greater extent in Europe than plain pins. Safety pins, however, are decidedly. American and of these we make on an average l.OOO.OOOgross a -year. fug AN INTERESTING FEATURE PROVIDED Bi' the Chicago Inter-Ocean is the publication in the form of a cable dispatch from London of interesting remarks made the preceding week by public men. In a recent issue the London cor respondent of the Inter-Ocean presents "some of the bright remarks made by public men during tne week," as follows: "The greatness of a nation is made by its greatest men." Colonial Secretary Chamberlain. "Unless a nation is morally,, healthy as well as physically, there is but little hope for its future." Sir William Blake Richmond, the ' painter. "Uneducated nations like uneducated in- dividuals must be content to do tho rougher work and take the lower places in the" world." Lord Avebury, president Central Association of Bankers. -"Education has been from the beginning to the people of the United States their greatest interest -, and most productive and happy investment." Joseph Choate, American ambassador to England. . "Landlordism in Ireland must go'-r-Thomas Wal lace Russel, unionist M. P. for Tyrone. "Drunken ness should be treated primarily and throughc 't as a sin." Sir Thomas Barlow, King Edward's physician. "I think precedent has been the curse of this country." Lord Rosebery. :? & "WJIIY THE DEAD SEA IS DEAD," IS THE VV problem which a writer in the Chicago Record-Herald undertakes to solve. Scientific obser vations, according to this writer, justifies the esti mate that the dally average of 6,500,000 tons of water is received 1 j tae Dead sea from the Jor dan and other sources during the year. During the rainy season the amount is very much groat ; during the dry season, It is, of cc rse, very much less, but this average will be maintained year af ter year. There is no outlet anu the level Is kept down by evaporation only, which is very rapid because of the intense heat, the dry atmosphere and the dry winds are constantly blowing down the gorges between the mountains. This evapora tion causes a haze of mist to. hang over the lake at all times, heavy clouds form and thunderstorms sometimes rage with great violence in the pockef between the cliffs, even in the dry season. A flood of rain often falls upon the surface of the sea when the sun is shining ami the atmosphere is as dry as a bone half a mile from the shore. The moiin- I -w a; ,U ft, v ?1 XI VT 1 V JS - o.