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FEBRUARY 61903.'
The Commoner.
largo plate glass windows In said store occupied by
the plaintiff were blown in and broken by said
wind, deflected as aforesaid, on Sunday, November
23, 1902, and again on Friday, December 5, 1902."
COMMENTING ON THIS PECULIAR SUIT,
the attorney for the owners of the build
ing says: "We have received a complaint from
Mr. Vincent's counsel. We refused to pay for the
damage, declaring we could not admit any such
liability. The owners of the 'Flatlron' cannot con
trol tho wind, and certainly are not responsible
for its pranks. Owners certainly have a right to
build on their own property, and there is no limit
to the height they may see lit to go. The windows
in Mr. Vincent's store, perhaps, were not ilrmly
set." Mr.. Vincent's attorney expects to produce
the testimony of other tenants in the block, and
also that of policemen who, he says, have seen
persons blown down at this corner.
THE AUTHORITIES OF MICHIGAN, CON
fronted with the sparrow problem, provided
a bounty of 2 cents per sparrow. A resident of
Carson City; Louis Gorsline by name, devised a
method for capturing the outlawed bird.' Gors
line soaked wheat and millet seed with a prepara
tion of his own and this p-eparatlon completely
disabled the bird and it fell into tho Gorsline trap.
It is said that so far more than $14,000 have been
paid to Mr. Gorsline and now the authorities of
Michigan are turning their attention from the
problem of the sparrow to the problem of Gorsline.
THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THECOMMIS
sioner of Indian affairs shows that up to
1890 the United States government had expended
$845,000,000 in controlling the Indians and $240,
000,000 additional for the education and care of
Indian children.
SAGASTA, THE GRAND OLD MAN OF SPAIN,
is to retire from public life. He is now seventy-five
years of age and his retirement is due
to illness. The Madrid correspondent of the Chi
cago Record-Herald, referring to Sagasta, says:
"History will say of him that no other Spaniard
did so much for modern Spain. Liberalism will
suffer heavily from Sagasta's retirement when it
is an accomplished fact The party, although in
power, has been deteriorating rapidly. It is split
into three or four groups. The most compact is
headed by Senor Moret, whom Sagasta regards as
his national successor. As matters stand, one of
these groups will not follow Moret in his Catalon
ian program, while the third suspects him,pf a
plan to carry Spain into the franco-Russian al
liance. Moret, however, is Incomparably the
strongest man in the liberal ranks after Sagasta,
and liberal ascendancy can scarcely be main
tained unless under his leadership. He is the only
liberal whose debating skill can cope with the
leaders of the conservative" groups, particularly
Silvela, who has been charged by the king to form
a conservative cabinet"
MANY FORMS OF INSURANCE UNKNOWN
to our own country prevail in England. Per
haps the most novel form is that undertaken by an
English company which takes risks upon tho
skill of surgeons. Commenting upon this plan of
insurance, a writer in Harper's Weekly says:
"It would seem as if the time was near when so
cieties for insurance against specialists might be
profitably organized in the larger American cities.
Tho specialist has come to be a very important
indeed, an indispensable institution, especially to
families in which thero are children. Tho office
of the family doctor has now become simplified
to tho task of coming in and telling tho patient
which specialist to go to. It is not that specialists
charge too much, for their honorable services are
above price. It is" that landlord, butcher, baker,
grocer, milkman, coalman, dentist and trained
nurse do not leave you money enough to pay
them appropriately. To subscribe a considerable
sum annually and have all the repairs and desir
able improvements made in one's family without
further disbursement would be a comparatively
simple way out of a troublesome predicament"
THE REMAINS OF CHRISTOPHER COLUM
bus were recently placed in the Cathedral at
Seville. Referring to this fact, the Seville corre
spondent of the Chicago Chronicle says: "It is
especially appropriate that Christopher Columbus
'should lie in oeville cathedral, it being the last
resting place of Ferdinand ... of Castile, who
sent the discoyerer forth to sail to India, and
the Italian's son also named Ferdinand. This Is
the sixth time that the body of Columbus has been
. buried. He died at Valladolid, in Spain, and his
remains found a resting place there. In 1513 they
were dug up again and carried off to Santo Do
mingo, In Cuba, and' onco more committed to the
earth. The year 179G saw them disinterred again,
to be placed in the cathedral at Havana, and 100
years later they were exhumed once more and
brought back to Spain."'
THERE ARE NOW ONEXHIBITION IN LON
don, according to Public Opinion, 157 vol
umes described by the owner, Mr. Wilfred Voy
nich, as "lost and unknown books." Public Opin
ion says: "Of course it is not easy to afilrin that
any book once published is really unknown or
positively Jost Yet some books onco known or
believed to have existed have so utterly disap
peared that the most patient soarch has been
unable to discover them. The special feature of
Mr. Voynich's collection is that so far as he has
been able to learn no other copies of these 157
volumes exist" It will occur to a great many
people that the fact that 157 books have been lost
is not nearly so strange as the fact that several
thousand other books that have been palmed off
upon the public have not entirely disappeared from
sight Doubtless it may be true that the books in
Mr. Voynich's possession were well worth the sav
ing, but it would be well if the list -of lost and
unknown books could be largely Increased.
A WRITER IN THE LONDON LANCET AD
vances an interesting explanation for the
prevalence of the malady known as appendicitis.
This writer attributes this disease largely to tho
widespread use of glass ware on our tables. Ho
suggests that water may have an imperceptible
dissolving effect on the glass and tho absorption
of these minutes particles by the vermiform ap
pendix leads to inflammation.
$r a
THE POSTMASTER GENERAL RECENTLY
issued an order that women clerks that
' married must report the fact to their department
and that in tho future they would not be reap
pointed December 1 was the date fixed for this
order to go into effect and before that time
there was a hurry and skurry on the part of tho
women darks :to retain their positions while at
tho same time enjoying the Inalienable right of
marriage. It is said tht on tho day after this
order had been issued nine women clerks were
married and that every day since then uprto De
comber 1 ten or twelve women took advantage of
the opportunity.
IT IS RELATED THAT PRIOR TO THE DELIV
ery of his annual message, Mr. Roosevelt
called Senators Hoar, Hanna, and Piatt of Connec
ticut into his consultation room. The subject of
trusts was under consideration. Senator Hoar ad
vised tho president to wait. Senator Piatt said:
"We should go no further now." Senator Hanna
said: "Trust legislation of any sort is likely to
work as much harm to the business interests of
the country as the tariff legislation would." The
Chicago Record-Herald, 'a republican paper, refers
to the attitude of these senators as "senatorial
conservatism toward trusts.1" Tho Record-Herald
says: "This is the kind of statesmanship that
is sometimes described as a wise conservatism
because it has reached the profound conviction
that in a time of apparent prosperity you cannot
make a change of any sort that will not be fatal.
Everything bad and good is a beneficent cause of
the existing conditions, which, according to this
line of reasoning, may be attributed with equal
plausibility to a balloon ascension, an earthquake
or to any fact or statute that preceded the time
under consideration. But while so mflch appears
from each of the senatorial chunks of wisdom
the offering of Senator Hanna is undoubtedly tho
most illuminating of the three. For it shows how
closely allied tho sympathy for an excessive tar
iff is with a sympathy for trusts. Mr. Hanna de
serves this credit that he Is frank enough not to
attempt to discriminate between something that
is intensely unpopular everywhere and something
that has at least a sectional support But the
value of his tariff opinion may be judged by his
trust opinion, and it is fair to assume that if
others believe that the tariff has nothing to do
with the trusts ho does not. In his eyes they
are both desirable institutions and mutually help
ful." AN INTERESTING STATEMENT RELATING
to the cost of living is contributed to the
Chicago Record-Herald. W. A. Croffut of Wash
ington, D. C, in an article written in the Rec
ord-Herald, said that a man could support his
family for $G a week and that not since tho revolu
tion havo food and goneral merchandise been as
cheap as in tho last ten years. Emily A. Bruner
of Cedar Rapids, la., takes issuo with Mr. Croffut
and presents nn abstract from an old account
book dated from 1837 to 1844 and prepared at Co
lumbus, O., as follows: 183720 lbs. pork, $2.50;
6 tea plates, 25c; 1 peck potatoos, 6c; 1 peck ap
ples, Cc; 1 pair suspenders, 13c; 8 oggs, Gc; 1 bon
net, $1.50. 1839 G candles, 13c; G lbs. green cof
fee, $1; l ounce camphor, 13c; iy, lbs. woolen
yarn, 50c; 3 lb. sausage, 20c; 20 lbs. buckwheat
flour, 20c; 2 lbs. raisins, 25c; 1 barrel apples, $1.50;
1 cord wood, $1.38; 8 dbz. eggs, 50c; 5 lbs. veal,
25c; 1 lbs. butter, 14c; 4 lbs. beef, 25c; 5 lbs.
pork, 38c; 9& lbs. ham, $1.00; 1 pair boots, $1.75;
1 turkey, 38c; 2 chickens, 25c. 1840-2 10 lbs.
lard, $1.15; 10 lbs. pork, 70c; 3 chickens, 25c;
half bu. cornmeal, 15c. 18445 qts. blue plums,
25c; half bu. peaches, 10c; 1 pock beans, 25c; 1
chicken, 8c. This writer adds: "I have given an
item here and there out of many. I also find
on Juno 1, 1832, an account of a suit of broad
cloth, clothing trimmings and making, for $21.
In thoso days clothing was made for wear; now
it is made for money making. Compare these
prices with the present ones and no further ar
gument Is needed."
A CHARMING STORY RELATING TO MRS.
Roosevelt is told by Harold Mahin in a
Washington letter to tho Muscatine Journal. Mr.
Mahin says: "After a number of distinguished
guests had been received by Mrs. Roosevelt, a
woman, beautifully gowned and conducting her
self with an air of distinction, was presented.
After tho usual formalities tho lady passed on to
join a group of ladies whose husbands were in
the same circlo as her own. A frigid nod from
one and a haughty reply from tho other made it
all too plain that she was. unwelcome, for some
one had recognized her as a former saleswoman in
a largo store in New York, an establishment
where prior to her father's death she had been
one of tho most valued and esteemable patrons.
With consummate grace she withdrew from the
circle and was about to 'leave tho parlor when
Mrs. Roosevelt, with her characteristic tact and
discernment, stepped to her side and extended
her hand and said: 'I think wo hardly need to be
introduced as we aro such old friends. I am so
glad to meet you hero," and placing her arm
.around tho young woman who had so often snp
, plied her wanta at the New York store, Mrs.
Roosevolt led her to a sofa and chatted with
jher for fifteen or twenty minutes in the charming
manner which is Inherent in the wife of the
prosident of tho United States and which has en
deared her to the people of the country."
PERHAPS NO VERSE IS MORE FAMILIAR
to the children of the long ago or to the
children of today than "Little drops of water, lit
tle grains of sand, make the mighty ocean and th
pleasant land." This little poem has been cred
ited to Mrs. Frances S. Osgood, but the Critic
claims that the real author is Mrs. Julia A. Car
ney who now lives at Galesburg,Ill. The Critic
says that Mrs. Carney wrote this poem more than
fifty years ago when she was little more than
twenty years of age.
REPORTS RECENTLY MADE TO THE WAR
department by David P. Barrows, chief of
the bureau of non-Christian tribes in tho Philip
pines, says that while the majority- of the Philip
pine population is of Malayan origin tho abor
iginal race of the archipelago is the dwarf ne
groes. According to Mr. Barrows, some of these
people average four feet in height, but the larger
number are un'der three feet and inquiry showa
that there are 30,000 of these dwarfs in "our new
possessions." . .tAdSk
A CABLEGRAM UNDER DATE OF ST.
Petersburg, January 10, and sent by a cor
respondent of the Chicago Chronicle, provides this
interesting information: "One of the best gov
erned communities in the Russian empire, the in
terior minister reports, Is that of Nikolskoye, in
the district of Rybinsk. The men of tho place
are air employed in the factories of large cities
or in business in Moscow and St Petersburg. The
women run the affairs of tho community, meet in
council, elect officials and, according to the In
terior minister, do It splendidly. Other communl-
ties managed by women aro conducted in a satis
factory manner, but they do not come up to ths
Nikolskoye standard."
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