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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (May 29, 1903)
m-mm'fSmiPwfr wr!n?SSr " 'fynrtmv inqpwrt$. . fmiiMpivu-39 -"" V " MAY 29, 1903.v k Rome cablegram-to tlio Chicago Tribune saya that "until the last few years Italy "was tho only" .country In Europe showing an excess of males over females. Tho fact that females are now iu xcess is attributed to emigration. Tho census of hose kndwing how to read and write is not en couraging. In 1872- tho average was 31.2 per cent In 1877 the law for compulsory education - .was put into effect, and yet tho census just com pleted .shows that only 48.5 per cent of tho Ital ians are able to read and write. Newspapers la ment the difference between tho results and the 'largo sums spent for education and advise k stricter application of tho 'law. THE SUPERINTENDENT OF THE STEPHEN son county, Illinois, poor farm, James Eells by name,, says that after a careful investigation 'lie has concluded that paupers are longer lived .than other people. In a conversation with a rep resentative of the Chicago Tribune, Mr. Eells said that ho has in his charge thirty-four people whoso ages aggregate 2,387 years. The ages of one party of seven people footed GOO years, ine average be ing a fraction over 88 years. Another party num bered seven, and their ages aggregated 527 years, ,the average being 75. There is still another par ty of from eighteen to twenty persons, whose ages average between 60 and 70 years, and the average of the whole bunch is over 70 years!" IT IS ALSO STATED BY THE TRIBUNE writer1 that Superintendent Keyes of tho Kane county, Illinois, poor farm, has a large contingent of old people. Some of them are so old that it is impossible to fix their age to certainty. Some of them moyo about over the premises, a few being helpless. There is one col ored woman who Mr. Keyes says i3 at least 125 years of age. bno Is an inveterate talker and singer, was born a slave, and nerved different masters in Dixie. She talks continually of plan tation days, imagines that she is In a cotton field harvesting this great staple of the south land. (From her disconnected talks one is able to take up the threads of some of tho most interesting .epochs of ante-war days. She is tractable and gives less troublo than many others of lighter color. Op HAT THE HEART OP THE LUMBER BELT t in the United States has moved westward theni interesting fact presented by a writer in at theLw Roviews. This writer says that 'entire wo'&P111 of tlie last century, almost tho touched foresOTPty came from thQ then un Mai'ne. As the wothe Penobscot river region of of the wood the indiimpn cut deep into the hec.rt fields from which to dramas forced to find other sin forests of thd south and 'Supply, and the vir ting on the great lakes were cue states border- ' ithese regions are by no means afPj Although the Pacific coast is rapidly becoming ti&d today, he lumber trade. And what wonder, foVart of jthree states of California, Oregon and Washthe , Jon there Is at least one-third of the entire sup ply of standing timber in the United States. In figures it amounts to more than 600,000,000,000 feet of uncut wood. The forest reserves and na tional paries set apart by tho United States gov ernment within the limits of these three states aggregate an area of 32,428 square miles, or more than 22 per cent of the total wooded area of tho Btates. In the state of Oregon alone, where a careful examination has been made, the national 'census officials havo estimated tho standing tim ". ber on these reservations at 55,000,000,000 feet, or one-fourth of the state's total suply. WHILE IT IS NOT UNCOMMON FOR SO called conscience money to be returned to . he United States government, the Washington correspondent of the Des Moines Register 'and Leader says that when a man has once secured a pension, it is tho rarest thing in the world to find him willing to forego it It is thus that Pension Commissioner Ware regards the follow ing letter of sufficient unique interest to give it to the public. At the pension department at ' Washington the following letter has been re ceived: "Philadelphia, Pa., May 3, 1903. -To tho ..Commissioner of Pensions. Dear Sir: I would ask you to please remove my name from the list of applicants for a pension by request. I am working at my trade now and making a living. I am Improving right along and do ot wish to be a burden to the government, and don't think I will ever be in need of a pension. Respectfully, John L. Rlegler." The Commoner. AN INTERESTING EXPERIMENT IS BEING made by a Marion, Ind., merchant, A. F. Norton by name. Tho Marion correspondent of tho Chicago Tribune says that Mr. Norton, who is conducting a number of grocory stores "as ho believes Christ would conduct them," has de cided to establish a department store in a build ing that long has beon used by tho Presbytorians as a church. Tho old church was sold and. tho congregation is now erecting a structure a few blocks away. Mr. Norton, it is said, will rent tho old church. Ho will hang a boll in ths steeple and when tho storo opens in tho morning will have it proclaimed over tho city. The building will be cleared of all its present fur nishings and the different departments will be established on tho first and second floors. Tho proprietor will hold to his rule that .ho will not try to get rich, and will pay his employes every evening. He will not employ ae many clerks a3 other merchants, as he does not beliovo in keep ing an eye on people to prevent shoplifting. Ho holds that if a man is trusted ho will not betray his trust, and for this reason only a few clerks will be necessary. Tho goods will bo placed on counters and tho customers will havo tho priv ilege of waiting on thomsolvos and then go to tho cashier and pay for whatever articles they may wish to carry away. THE METHODS EMPLOYED BY HELEN Keller in tho preparation of her book on titled "Tho Story of My Life," is told by a writer in the San Francisco Chroniclo in this way: First of all, Miss Keller puts down her ideas "in Braille," as tho blind express it; that is to Bay, in tho system of "points" raised on paper by means of a stylus and slate devised to aid tho blind; these "points" being read afterward by passing tho sensitive fingers over them. When all of this Braille work has been completed Miss Kel ler goes to her typewriter and uses these notes as a guide to the rewriting of the story. As soon as a page of matter is typewritten it is, bo to speak, lost to Miss Keller, who has to depend upon her faithful teacher, Miss Sullivan, to re peat it to her by spelling out each sentence by, means of the hands. It is a tedious task, espe cially as some of tho pages have to be read again and again, with changes hero and there, before .Miss feller is satisfied. Then when tho proofs .are sent to her, all this slow process of spelling word- after word has to bo gone through once more, so that each word that Helen Keller writes goes through her flngors at least five times. It will be a satisfaction to everybody to know that the book promises to bo ono of the most suc cessful biographical writings of the year, and Miss Keller is likely to reap substantial rewafdu for the extraordinary ability and patience which she has shown in her work, SOME ONE HAS BEEN SEARCHING IN THE writings of old and new authors and he has been rewarded by the discovery of somo peculiar mistakes. The result of these investi gations is told in the "Children's Visitor," in this way: In "ivanhoe" Sir Walter Scott makes a knight of Richard I. converse with a contempo alK of William tho Conqueror, who was Rich tho wcrandfather. The new moon appears In comes vm,sky and sets from tho moment it be Waltor BesaL but in "The Children of Gibeon" east at 2 o'clocwused a new moon to rise In tho one of his charactettie. morning. Trollope makes up tho street with a yly Scott, como whiBtling man must have had a won in his mouth. Tho to smoke while whistling. U .grip in his lips Sancho continues to ride on hiiDon Quixote" having lamented the animal's deatiakey after Reign of Law," by James Lane Allen, Ga "Tho characters refers to a book which was not the Hshed for ten years after the time the referent was said to have been made. Hamlin Garland wrote In 1896 "Tho Rose of Dutcher's Coolly," and one of the characters in the novel is given three different names. Jacob Riis tells in "The Making of an American" that while a young reporter, in. giving the particulars of a river's overflow, he described a stono floating on the wasto of wa ters. But that was not more wonderful than tho case of our old friend, Robinson Crusoe, who, after taking off bis clothes to swim to tho wreck, took the precaution to fill his pockets full of biscuits. Neither was it more surprising than the discovery by a Paris reporter, who found in the Seine "the nude corpse of a man with ten sous in his waistcoat pocket" THAT IT REQUIRES CONSIDERABLE MON ey to maintain a strenuous president is a fact presented "by the Washington correspondent for tho Chicago American. This correspondent presonts a fow items that Mr. Roosevelt has ex pended for luxuries and travel as follows: Spe cial trains, service, etc., $250,000; revamping and changing Whito houso, $475,445; prlvato tennis court, $2,000; new executivo office, $C5,196; In crease in Whito houso running expenses, $25,000; now fittings and furniture for tho Mayflower, pres ident's yacht, $100,000; keeping craft in commls Bl0Q two0o motIlB laBt y' 115,105; repairs last ycar' E3S'33; 08tlraated cost of repairs thla year, $30,000. Thus it will bo seen that Roose velt has cost $986,043.33 In extras to the peoplo Binco ho has been in office. GENERAL NELSON A. MILES HAS WRIT tcn to tho Army and Navy Journal a letter in which tho general says that ho went to tho rhlllppincn not as a tourist, but In an official capacity, and that tho Instructions addressed to him as lioutonant general commanding tho army, camo from tho president in which Gonoral Milea was directed to givo special attention to "tho In struction, discipline and supplies of tho army." Referring to his much discussed official report of tho Philippines, General Miles says that "no ono can havo a more sacred regard for tho honor cf tho army than myself;" and referring to tho cruelties in tho Philippines, General Miles says: "It is not Idle to assumo that campaigning in tho Philippines has conditions that warrant resort to medieval cruelty and a departure from tho honorable mothod of conducting warfare and that such departure's as havo existed should bo over looked and condoned. It Is most gratifying that tho serious offenses have not been committed by tho soldiers unless they were under tho direct orders of certain officers who were responsible. Soldiers havo withheld flro when ordered to shoot prisoners, protested against acta of cruelty, and written to relatives at homo urging them to tako action to put a stop to thoso crimes. It wlli over be ono of tho glories of tho army that such deeds, committed by whatever authority, are ab horront to tho American soldier. Tho officers who are responsible for using tho cruel Macca bobees do not by any means constitute tho Amer ican army, and there must bo an unmlstakabls lino drawn between tho great body of honorable and faithful officers and brave soldiers whoso rec ords have been commendable and those of-whatever station whose acts have received and should receive the earnest condemnation of all honor able men." AN ENGLISH EXPERT OFFERS THE IN formatlon that the supply of coal yet re maining to bo mined in tho United Kingdom amounts to 80,684,000,000 tons, which at the pres ent rate of mining, would last 370 years and that therefore Great Britain Is likely to be a competi tor of tho United States In tho world's coal market for some time. This expert gives tho to tal output of coal In the v.orld In 1900 as 767, 636,204 tons, of which Great Britain produced 229,000,000 tons, or 30 per cent, and tho United States 245,000,000 tons, leaving a balance of about 35 per cent for tho rest of tuo world. THE FIRST FULL BLOODED INDIAN TO EN list in the navy is doing duty on the Min neapolis. Referring to this Indian, the Now York Tribune says: "He Is known in the Crow tribe, of which he is a member, as Great White bear, and is descended "from the Indian chief of that name. Whitebear, as ho is called at tho navy yard, enlisted as a landsman. Ho was edu cated at the Carlisle Indian school, and has a brother who formerly served In tho United States cavalry. 'I have been here two days, and tho officer has placed me in charge of a squad,' said the Indian Jackie, with great pride, when asked w lie liked his experience so far. 'I felt when for Carlisle, that I would like to do something to me. ojjntry, and tho life of a sailor appealed can of yon enlisted. They make a good Ameri and training ortirllsle. I believe the discipline Carlisle graduates, ayy wni be a good thing for follow my example i h0pQ other Indians will yearaold, and is a fine sptear is twenty-threo bood." n 0f physical man- c" THE LARGEST INDIVIDUAL LI., ance policyholder in the world, excetwgxjR King of England, is Rodman Wanamaker, sw,p John Wanamaker. Young Wanamaker recent? obtained a policy in the sum of $1,000,000, tha premium on this policy alone being $30,000 a year. He already carried policies aggregating $1,000,000 and his policies now amount to $2,000,000.