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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 28, 1902)
,.. 'mmni.wiS';iJfli I . it w. " til 4 & & it ' a T. - The Commoner. e& Vl. a, N.4& t l I 'V Rfift. .'. ' - Current tldnks mmmfmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmammmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmammmmmmmmmmmmmmmamm MZUOMTO, THE JAPANESE EDITOR OP i tho only newspaper in Japan printed in Englishand known as the Japanese Times, recent ly delivered a lecture In London. A writer for tho Westminster Gazette, describing this lecture, says that there is not a town of ton thousand people in Japan which does not possess at least one news paper, that two or three cheap popular papers in tho capital have circulations running from 100,000 to 150,000. Obtaining his information from M. Zuomto's address, the Gazette writer explains: "Apart from liability under the libel law, the fullest freedom is permitted, except when the coun try is on the verge or at war, when the reasonable intimation is conveyed that news as to the move ments of ships and troops must not be published. Fiction Alls the most important place in editorial policy; but a fair proportion of space is given up to telegraphic news, including cables from eastern ports and Europe and America. The most success ful and prosperous journals are so-called 'yellow journals,' and there was much hypocritical denun ciation concerning these, people who denounced them buying three copies to one of the grave and accurate journals which they professed to support. But when these 'yeiiow journals' ventured to med dle in affairs of state they experienced severe re buffs. Seven weeks previous to tho official an nouncement of tho Anglo-Japaneso alliance one of these journals published in commanding type a re port that it had been arranged, but 'thanks to its well-established reputation,' 'what was really a big "scoop" attracted no attention.' " 3? 3? THE FIGHT FOR THE SPEAKERSHIP OF THE republican house is practically at an end al though the friends of Mr. Dalzell of Pennsylvania yet show signs of life. Recently Representative Babcock, who is the chairman of the republican congressional committee, withdrew and the Wis consin delegation, of which he is a member, pledged Its support to Joseph G. Cannon of Illi nois. It is announced that Mr. Cannon has the support of Msrlc Hanna. Mr. Littlefield of Maine has practically withdrawn from the contest. Mr. Sherman of New York; announced that he is not a candidate. Mr. Sereno Payne of New York, while being undoubtedly in a receptive mood, disclaims any intention to go in search of the prize. At the present writing it cannot be doubted that Mr. Can non lias decidedly the best of the race and it will not be in the least surprising should tho Illinois statesman become the nominee of" the republican caucus by acclamation. PROF. BURT G. WILDER OF THE NEUROL ogy department of Cornell university has re cently become conspicuous because of a demand he has made for tho fulfillment of a promise alleged to have been given by the late Elizabeth Cady Stan ton. It is reported that Professor Wilder claims-' that several years ago Mrs. Stanton became inter ested In the collection of the brains of eminent men and women made by Cornell university and that she promised Professor Wilder that she would i oc clude in her will a clause authorizing that her brains should be added to the Cornell collection. Mrs. Stanton's relatives object to the fulfillment of the alleged promise, but Professor Wilder insists upon compliance with the pledge. The collection of the brains of conspicuous people is said to be Pro fessor's Wilder's hobby and tho news dispatches report that this gentleman is greatly disappointed because of the refusal of Mrs. Stanton's relatives to comply with Mrs. Stanton's pledge. A HOSPITAL FOR THE EXCLUSIVE TREAT ment of infants has been established in New ork city. The promoters of this institution wer Influenced by the claim that out of 10,000 hospital beds in Gotham, In 1887, only 27 were devoted to children under one year of age. At that time it was reported that 26 per cent of the total death rate in New York city occurred among children under twelve months and 34 per cent occurred among children under two years of age. Because of these facts the "babies' hospital" was estab lished and its promoters appear to be highly grati fied because of tho results so far attained. IT IS NOT UNUSUAL TO HEAR REFERENCES to the "Wild Man of Borneo," and it was recently reported that two men of science were ex- ploring tho island of Celooes In order to prove the existence of such a being. Tho story of tho ex perience of these scientists is told in the Chicago Tribune of recent date In this manner: "When tho two scientists landed at Macassar they heard stories of tho existence of tho wild men, and these they thought to bo merely myths. It was said that a typo of primitive man was extant and to be found in the unexplored wilds. Their in iormants said tho wild men were so shy and un tamable that it was almost impossible to get near to them, even to catch a glimpse of them. The stories wero not generally believed tin Macassar, and tho explorers thought at first that escape! criminals had taken, to the mountains and" hai Irightened the natives into believing them to be wild. Upon furthor Inquiries they loomed that the wild men, or 'wood men,' wore confined to a cer tain district and wero subject to a rajah. They proceeded to this district bearing gifts to the po tentate. Under the influence of a wise distribution of presents tho explorers so -worked on the rajah that he agreed to show them certain types of the wood men who were held in captivity. Ho had a man, two women, and a child brought before the scientists, who decided at a glance that they be longed to a primitive race of man. These speci mens, however, were half tamed and had been in captivity so long that they had lost many of the characteristics of their race. The rajah added that the real wild men lived in the mountains. Pro tected by nature to a large extent, they live in the fashion of men of the stone age, without many . of the accomplishments of gentlemen of that period. They defend themselves with stones, not even having learned the art of making the stone hatchet, which Indicates that they are consider ably behind the state of civilization in which our ancestors of the stone age lived. They are cave dwellers, not having learned to build shelters and probably not caring to. They are monogamous. Culture is at such a low ebb with them that they cannot even count, and they do not know how to tell a lie. -They are in such a primitive state that they havo to tell the truth. Possibly their vocabulary is not sufficiently developed. Thesa stories of the. rajah have interested the scientists, and they are now in the mountains trying to find , the real 'wild man of Borneo.' " THE ONLY WOMAtt VETERINARY SURGEON In the world is found In the person of Mrs. Mignonne Nicholson, a native of New York. It Is said that Mrs. Nicholson has always displayed a love for animals, and has spent much of her time in the study of her four-footed friends. Having leisure time on her hands she began to amuse her self in treating the sick pets of her neighbors, and 1 in this way she began the study of the science that has now become her lifework. She is, at present, a student of the Chicago Veterinary col lege from which place she will graduate in March. According JLo tho Chicago Tribune Mrs. Nicholson explains the feeling she has for her animal suo jects In this interesting way: "I do not feel as free with horses as with cats and dogs. Dogs and cats never bite or Scratch me, and I can do any thing with them. I have yet to see the dog, for instance, however large, sick, or powerful, that I could not soothe and calm into quietude and, quiescence by taking him off by himself." HUMANITY IS CURSED WITH MANY ILLS and diseases, but without doubt the most loathsome and dreaded of all is the disease called leprosy. According to a Paris publication Dr. Filaretopoulo, professor in the faculty of medi cine at Athens, has for the past six months been studying this disease in its hotbed, which is the island of Crete. The Paris publication says that it. is too generally believed that the leper has dis appeared, if not from the world, at least from our own land; but it is not necessary to go very far to find him, and this suffices to justify all, the measures which are taken, against him. These measures are of general interest, more general than one thinks, for it is nearly certain that lep rosy is but an aggravated form of tuberculosis and that that which destroys the one will surely lessen the other. Dr. Filaretopoulo has coma with his figures, and he tells us that at present there are 300,000 lepers in the world. This figure is very much lower than the actual number for it represents drily the certain cases, and the statistics for the orient, where the disease has full sway, are of doubtful accuracy. IT IS FURTHER STATED BY THIS AUTHOR Ity that "leprosy is hereditary and probably contagious, and however great the restrictions tho lepers contaminate others. It is ths contagion which it is first necessary to do away with. Dr. rFilaretopbulo states that the danger proceeds from want of care in the'pest houses wherein the lepers " are kept; they go out when they so desire, beg in f the villages, tend sheep, and sometimes marry healthy persons. Although Dr. Filaretopoulo has noticed some cases in which tho patients improve, there, does not seem at tho present time any posi- ' tivo cure. At the same timo it is necessary t6 state, with scientific brutality, that this particular point has only a relative importance, .for when the house burns It is better to protect the movables close by than to attempt to save some broken- . legged chairs. Tho leper is to bo pitied, he is to bo ,. cared for, if ho can be helped one-should not heRi tate to do so, but every effort should be directed to establishing around those infected a rigorous do fensive cordon; for if in the present state of scionce It Is not possible to uproot the evil,-we, . must prevent Its germ from spreading.' AVERY DEPRESSING ITEM OF NEWS CpMES from London in tho form-of a cablegram to the Chicago Chronicle. It is said that bacon at breakfast is as elemental ah institution in Eng-. land as the monarchy. Britishers are now com pelled to forego their favorite food owing to tho operations of the American trust, which is stead ily sending the price above what the average man can afford to pay. Alphonse Daudet attributed tue stolidity of the British character to" the dyspeptic effects of the perennial bacon and eggs for break fast. Nevertheless the race Is wedded to the dish and grumble loudly "because it is placed beyond ' . reach. Bacon is 25 per ce.nt dearer than it was ;i " year ago and the price is rising every month. Thiq is really the form in which American competition is most bitterly resented, as it strikes home in . every household and provokes animosity every- where. . J ' - C C ' THE ONLY NEWSPAPER PRINTED BELOW the (level of the sea is said to be the Jndio Submarine, which is a little ,four-pnge weekly. . The New York World is authority for the story of this interesting newspaper which is situated la the midst of the most formidable desert in Califor nia, nomely, the Colorado desert, which is in the. same county as the city of San Dingo Some time'' ', ago the editor of this paper removed his plant from Indio to Coacholla, and made the following ex- . planatlon tp his readers: "Inducements of a flat tering character having been offered the. nWb-r'i Usher, in the way of a 'bonus we have n;'omoved our printing office from Indio to Coachella, a ells'- tnnce of three and onehalf miles. We have dropped from twenty-two feet below sea-level Fo ' seventy-six feet below sea-level. We hit Coachella with a dull yet raucous thud. The low rumbljirp. noise you heard last Tuesday was caused by our printing office making the drop. It may be truly said that the Submarine Is the lowest down, or ' the lowdbwnest, or the most low down newspaper on earth. As nearly as we can compute the (lis?-,, tance, hades is about 212 feet just below our new . office. The paper will continue to advocate the in terests of all the country below sea-level, and we want you to fire in all the'news you know." , Si fl1 "' " THE HONOR OF CONSTRUCTING TPTE RAITP- road farthest north belongs to. a Swedish-. -company, according to a writer in the Chicago""" Chronicle. It is said that at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, in northern Sweden, is tho port of Lua. a town of almost 5,000 inhabitants, distin guished as the southern terminus of a railroad which runs to a point fifty-two miles inside of tho " arctic circle. Nome is almost 200 miles south of this; White Horse over 450 miles. Tins Swedish . railroad Is a well-kept, wll-bnilt line of tho stand ard Swedish, gauge, which is'the same as our own, : and it carries Iron ore to tbp gulf from the mines at Malmberget in Swedish Lapland. From Luoa to Malmbp.rget the distance by rail is about -100 mils through a country verv sparsely inhabited, with almost continuous woods of light gmen, stunted evergreen trees, with their limbs slanting down instead of upward because of the long burden" of snow they bear. Malmbergot is far enough north so that It has the midnicht sun In June, and even In August tho sun just barely dips under tho hills at 11 p. m., and then the crimson sunset trav els through a short ellipse and becomes sunrlscJ In the east at 2 In the morning, without losing a trace of its beauty in between. There are two through trains daily in each direction between Lulea and the northern termini at Golllvare and Malm herget and the running time is not far from seven hours, including stops. The trains are made up of second and third class cars, the second class being quite clean and comfortable and very exclusive, since .travel as luxurious as this is seldom Indulged In In Swedish Lapland, Besides the through traffic, - 'J ' i. ) ' . v "A ' l ..' .0 . .' u- .. U-5.' -v V -u-" it n .JBrtt Ef-.' '