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4GC.640; operating expenses, $1,257,538,852, an in
crease of $141,290,105; "net earnings $643,308,055,
an increase of $33,170,535. income from other
sources than operation, $205,687,480; net income
available for dividends or surplus $296,376,045.
Total casualties 86,393, of which 9,840 represented
the number of persons killed and 76,553 those in
jured. Aggregate number of locomotives in ser
vlco 43,871, increase 2,646; cars in service 1,
753,389, an increase of over 113,000 during the
year.
A SINGULAR fact incident to the struggle be
tween Russia and Japan is chronicled by the
London Press as a thing not dreamed of by the
Japanese when they forecountcd the costs of war.
Referring to this fact, the Washington Post says:
"Since the iirst of the year Japan has exported
some $30,000,000 in gold in payment of military
equipment purchased abroad. Nearly all of this
money, it is stated, has found its way into Russia's
war chest, and is being used in the operations
against the power that unwittingly supplied the
wherewithal. For a people to have their gold
come back to them through the cannon's mouth
is not a pleasing experience, as we are assured
by the London editor."
THE process which made it possible for St.
Petersburg to draw the gold shipped from
'loklo was, according to the Post, simple enough.
,Tho Post explains: "The gold was shipped from
Japan to San Francisco, thence to New York in
transit to London. As Paris was at that time '
drawing heavily on London for gold with which
to take up the Russian war loan, the Japanese
gold was deflected from its primary destination
and sent direct to Pajis from New York, in
vested in Russian bonds, and sent on to St.
Petersburg. The 'fortunes of war' have seldom
or never furnished the parallel of this transac
tion, but the anomalous uovelopment of the hos
tilities will not long continue, as the $50,000,000
Japanese loan recently floated in New York and
London will end the necessity of drawing upon
Japan's modest stock of treasury gold in oraer to
liquidate her foreign indebtedness. This con
, summation will permit the solicitous British to
cease from troubling over the boomerang-like re
sults of their ally's purchase of arms abroad,
though at this distance they appear more con
structive and sentimental than real."
PAUL KRUGER, former president of the Trans
vaal republic, died at Clarens, Switzerland,
July 14. The cause of his death was pneumonia.
He was 78 years of age. His daughter and son-in-law
were with him at the time of his death. For
sevoral weeks Mr. Kruger has been confined to
his room and after being stricken with pneu
monia ho gradually failed. The Clarens corre
spondent for the Kansas City Star says that Mr.
Krugor's friends have made application to the
British government for authority to transfer the
body to the Transvaal for burial. The Star cor
respondent says: "Mr. Kruger was staying at
the Villa duo Bolchet. He had been gradually
failing for a long time, but he was able to at
tend to affairs, read the newspapers and receive
visits until Saturday. A change for the worse
set in Sunday. Ho became unconscious Monday
and remained so until his death. Besides the
Eloffs, Mr. Krugqr was tended by his own physi
cian, Dr. Heymann, and by his secretary, Mr.
Redol. On several occasions Mr. Kruger had ex
pressed a "desire to bo burled beside his wife,
in his own country."
C CABLEGRAMS from Paris announce that the
J death of Mr. Kruger. has aroused widespread
regret at the French capital, owing to the well
known French sympathy with the Boor cause, as
well as on account of the strong personal admira
tion for Mr. Kruger. The Paris cablegram says
that when Mr. Kruger left Mentone recently his
health was gradually failing from old age and
throat trouble which threatened to extend to his
lungs. Mr. Kruger, howovor, was very confident
that his physical powers were not failing and ho
had made arrangements to roturn to Mentone
noxt fall. It has, howovor, beon generally un
derstood by his friends that his health was grad
ually and certainly failing. A Paris correspondent
for the Kansas City Star, roforring to Mr. Krug
er, says: "Visitors described him as bTJing a
pathetic figure of calm ondurance. His eyesight
had dimmed, but he sat much at times with his
Bible open before him, muttering well known
passages. Ho avoided reference to the Boer war
hut when it was occasionally mentioned ho showed
no resentment and expressed tho belief that Prov
idence would eventually render justice to the
Boer cause."
The Commoner.
TH E Pretoria correspondent for the Associated
press, under date of July 14, says: "General
.Louis Botha, the former commander-in-chief of
the Boer forces, today received a cable message
announcing Mr. Kruger's death. The announce
ment called forth general expressions of regret,
especially because the ex-president died among
foreigners. The flags on all the government
buildings are at half-mast Mr. Kruger will be
buried beside former presidents of the Transvaal,
unless his will has provided otherwise. Memorial
services will be held July 17 in all the Dutch
churches. General Botha has ordered that all
the Boers shall wear mourning until alter tho
funeral, which, It is expected, will be attended
by representatives of every district of the Trans
vaal." THE British authorities have persistently de
nied applications by his friends that the
lormer president of the Transvaal be permitted
to return to his own home. They feared the ef
fect of his presence upon his old comrades, al
though, of course, they did not imagine that Mr.
Kruger had either the disposition or the ability
to stir up a new revolution. It is generally be
lieved that tho British government will permit
tho Kruger ashes to be buried in South African
soil.
MR KRUGER escaped from the Transvaal
through Portuguese East Africa to a Dutch
man-of-war in October, 1900. He then went to ,
Europo where he sought the intervention of the
powers, in the hope that he could save the South
African republic. His mission failed, and he re
mained an exile. It is not at all difficult to accept
the claim made by his friends that he died from
a broken heart.
LONDON dispatches say that leprosy must
now be added to the other scourges which
afflict South Africa. A London cablegram to the
Indianapolis Sentinel says that until recently the
fact that leprosy was prevalent in South Africa
was little known, and that tho fact that it ex
isted in the Transvaal was unknown and yet the
health officer of tho Transvaal reports that where
as there were 1,009 cases in his charge in 1893,
there are now over 2,000. Dr. Turner adds the
remarkable fact that no one knows how many
lepers the're are in the Transvaal. He says that
a medical officer who has been In charge of the
lepers and had taken much interest in the mat
ter, asserted that there were at least 3,000 in 1900.
The disease is also defying the most heroic effoi ta
at its extermination in Cape Colony, while it is
also spreading in Basutoland and elsewhere, the
worst afflicted being the Hottentots. The Kaflirs,
with the exception of Europeans, are the least
afflicted.
THE theory that the eating of fish not suf
ficiently cured is the chief cause of leprosy
has been advanced hy Dr. Jonathan Hutchinson.
Dr. Turner, after investigating, declares that he
cannot subscribe to tho Hutchinson theory. He
declares that returns show that 70 per cent of the
total amount of iisii in tho Transvaal comes to
Johanne3ourg and that nearly all of this is con
sumed by whites. The Sentinel correspondent
adds: "Until December there was not a single
European in the Johannesburg leper hospital.
Then a man who was born in Europe was ad
mitted. He was a member of a largo family, all
of whom are living in the Transvaal and none of
whom are ai.fiic.ted with the disease. In Dr. Tur
ner's opinion his disease was clearly the result
of contagion as he habitually associated with a
leper. Of Dr. Turner's 210 patients 44 per cent had
eaten fish. Only 17 per cent of the fish was cured
Among the white lepers 95 per cent had eaten
fish, 45 per cent of which was cured. Among the
colored patients who made up four-fifths of the
total, only U per cent ever tasted fish, and only
10 per cent nad eaten cured fish. Dr. Turner is
convinced that contagion is the most usual means
of the spread of leprosy. He treated a few cases
in which it was impossible to assert that ILs
origin was hereditary, but practically none in
which contagion could be excluded and several in
which, contagion was the sole explanation. He
believes it Tvlll eventually be proved that some
vermin is tne cause of the infection."
FO R some time past the government scientists
have been experimenting with a view to dis
covering, if possible, what foods are really nutri
tious and what are merely health foods. The ex
periments were made upon soldiers and the dta
covery made that borax is an unsafe sublancL
for the preservation of meats and other Cls
The human appetite rejects borax and hnS
acid after a while, and notifies the subject to gS
"VOLUME 4, NUMBER 27.
and eat fresh meat and vegetables before ho haa
really been affected by these substances actua
poisons. That is, the palate rebels before hi
stomach is affected. If continued, the use of T,r
served beef causes distress in the diKestim,ni
tract, congestion in the head, nausea and loss ni
weight. It is advised by the experimenters tin?
the use of borax in preservatives be discontinued
or, at least, that embalmed food be plainly marl o i
and sold as such. Paraffin is worse, and that alVn
should be excluded. Why not recommend that ill
foods and drugs be pure?
TH French government has offered to con
Ter the grand cross of Legion of Honor upon
becretary of State Hay. The Washington corre
spondent for the Chicago Record-Herald says that
this offer is an event of the highest international
political significance and adds: "It means much
more than a mere courtesy extended by the gov
ernment of the greatest republic of the old world
to the greatest republic of the new world. It has
something more attached to it than usually at
taches to the conferring of a decoration by tho
head of a state on the foreign minister of a power
with which that state enjoys cordial relations.
Officially the motive for this unusual action on
the part of the French government is, to quota
from the letter of the French ambassador to Mr.
Hay informing him of the purpose of his gov
ernment, recognition of the services rendered by
Mr. Hay during the last six years toward the main
tenance of the peace of the world, and, although
this is unquestionably the animating motive, there
is every reason to believe that it was not the solo
motive."
TH E diplomacy of Mr. Hay, according to this
same authority, has won the admiration of ev
ery chancellor of Europe. This correspondent ex
plains: "It was the influence of the United States,
which in, its last analysis means the genius of Mr.
Hay, that saved China from herself during those
critical days of the Boxer rebellion; it was the
strict, but traditional neutrality of the United
States that gave no encouragement to the other
powers to throw in their lot with the Boers dur
ing the South African war; it was Mr. Hay who
induced all the world to pledge themselves to
the recognition of the 'administrative entity' of
China immediately after the declaration of war
between Russia and Japan, when a single false
move on the part of. any of the great powers would
have involved all of Europe In war. Mr. Hay has
been the consistent friend of peace, and although
his voice has always been raised in the interests
of peace ho has not paid too high a price for it.
He has kept the peace and has made the United
States respected; in the midst of peace the United
States has become one of the most important
members of the family of nations."
TH E story of the so-called surplus at the close
of the last fiscal year is told by a writer in
trie Louisville Courier-Journal in this way: "The
treasury report for the last fisqal year shows that
the receipts, in round numbers, were $541,000,000,
against $560,000,000 in the preceding year. The
expenditures were $538,000,000, as compared with
$506,000,000 in tho preceding year. Receipts from
customs decreased $22,000,000, those from inter
nal revenue increased $2,000,000, and miscellaneous
receipts over $1,000,000. The net result is a de
crease of revenue of about $19,000,000. Expendi
tures increased $22,000,000. Yet a surplus of over
$13,000,000 is figured out. The surplus is obtained
by leaving out some large expenditures. The sums
paid for the Panama canal and the loan to the
Louisiana Purchase exposition are kept out of
sight in this statement, as not being ordinary
expenditures of the government. However, this
money is gone, "never to return, except the small
loan to the exposition, and the fact is that ex
penditures exceeded receipts by $41,000,009. rnat
makes the deficit in the revpnuo for the past nscai
year, and when the political exigencies of the da),
which are supposed to demand another statement,
have passed, It will so appear in the reports, it
is considered good politics at this time to framo
a pretended surplus, although the fact cannot po
concealed that there was a real deficit.
Two highwaymen in silk hats, white km
gloves and evening dress sandbagged wiiwuu
Gaffney, a wealthy contractor, in Tremont ae
nuo, the Bronx, N. Y., and robbed him of w
a diamond pin and a gold watch and chain, i
men were driven to a hotel in Tremont avenue m
a stylish carriage hy a coachman in liveiy '
there met Gaffney, They induced him to go w
them a few steps from the hotel, where they
robbed him and left h,im unconscious.
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