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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 23, 1904)
i"vstffsfsiw "i The Commoner. SEPTEMBER 23, 1904 iMta fCURReNT Topics 'izmm. '2s! mr-irt "fiT"- yiiTy7iTrr 'l lltl. !! I l I I Ml i , - ! II 1"! y tm " -- m-wrrr 'fT . :..:.i0?. THE town of Bolvldere, N. J., is Buffering from a "pumpkin plague." A Belvidero correspond ent for the New York American tells the story in this way: "Asher Brands, a huckster, who has a patch two miles up the Delaware" river from here, experimented last year with a new variety of pumpkin, which grow as large as sugar barrels. Ho had them all ready for harvest, when tho memorable freshet of last October came along, uprooted his vines and washed the frufl down the river. "By a curious action of the current, the fruit was washed into tho lower section of this town. Most of the pumpkins were smashed to pieces, and tho small portions and tho seeds were strewn in the most inconceivable places. "Early this summer the seeds took root and vines soon sprung up. The fruit has now grown to its full size, and the scene presented is a won derful one. In every direction great yellow pump kins can be seen, and in some quarters it looks as though a county fair was being held. Out of every conceivable nook and crevice can be seen a vine bearing fruit. The public streets are full of them, as are also the door yards, gardens and cellars of the citizens. "Some vines sprang up in Josiah Ketcham's coal bin and he had a bin full of fruit now. The, yard in the rear of the Warren Journal office looks as though a score of delinquent subscribers had been in settling up their subscription accounts. "Sharpie Mellick has a couple of vines running up the side of his house, and the parlor window is a resting place for two pumpkins, either of which will weigh thirty pounds. "Pumpkin pie is the latest thing in Belvidero now, and housewives are putting up enough stewed pumpkin to last for several years." ' THERE are seven schools in Germany devoted, to the training of iocksmiths and black smiths. A writer in the Dubuque, Iowa, Tele graph says that these schools are in the cities of Burgstadt, Grossenhain, Frankenbcrg, Meissen, Glauchau, Rosswein and Zittau. Only graduates of public schools are admitted. The course of in struction in three of the schools lasts three years; in three of tho others it is shorter. To the school at Rosswein are admitted such, students only as have completed a course in one of the other six schools, and the curriculum is highly advanced, covering physics, chemistry ' and electricity, with particular reference to practical construction of machinery. The schools are supported by the blacksmith and- locksmith guilds, aided by sub ventions from the government of Saxony and pri vate beneficence. HENRY DUNANT, the founder of the Red Cross society is dying friendless and alone in a hospital at Geneva, Switzerland. A writei in the Sioux City Journal says: "For several years ho has made his home in a poor little cabin, a de pendency of the pauper farm belonging to the village of Heiden, Appenzell, Switzerland Henry Dunant was born March 8, 1828, in this city. Htf came of a noble family, who for two centuries held important positions under the state. He read with great interest of the wonderful work accomplished by Miss Florence Nightingale in the Crimean war." A few years after Dunant visited Italy, and in 1849 was at Solferino, where he as sisted in taking care of the sick and wounded sol diers. "In 1853 Dunant published his famous book, "A Souvenir of Solferino," in whick ho drew a vivid picture of the suffering endured by the soldiers in ihat war. He therefore proposed that. a society should be formed which should take care of tho wounded in battle. Later on he laid his plan be fore Gustavo" Moynier, of Geneva, president of Hie 'Society of Public Utility of Switzerland,' Dr.. Louis Appia, a distinguished physician who died reoontly, and a number of other well known resi dents of this city. These' men held a number of conferences, and the outcome was tho famous Geneva convention, when the Red Cross was established. Dunant had no connection with the Red Cross society after that time." DUNANT spent three-fourths of his immense fortune furthering his philanthropic ideas and according to the Journal he gave up the woman he loved and tho hope of raising a family, arguing that "for their sake ho would havo to rob hu manity." Tho Journal wrltor adds: "While work ing for tho public good he had to lcavo tho caro of his finances to others, and, as usual in such cases, lost all ho possessed. Twenty-two years ago he woko up one morning to find himBoif a beggar but the discovery gave him no uneasiness. His work was done, he could afford to retiro, no one would miss him. "As ho was a vory sick man at the time, he went straightway to tho poor farm at Heiden and has . been there ever since. Once out of it, the world soon forgot Dunant, and it was the merest accident that the empress of Russia granted him a paltry pension of a few hundred francs a year in 1S9G." PARIS dispatches announce the death of Louis Deibler who for twonty years directed tho gullotine at Paris. Deibler died at the age of 81. During recent years ho has been confined, to his bed, being succeeded as chief executioner by his son Anatolo Deibler. A Paris dispatch printed in the Sioux City Journal says: "Deibler was one of tho quaint figures of the city, owing to tho large number of executions he had successfully . conducted. He came from a family of execution ers, succeeding his father, who was chief execu tioner, and then surrendering the office to his son Anatolo Deibler. "Louis Deibler began his career as executioner in Algiers. Later he became chief executioner in the provinces, and finally, in 1S79, chief execution er of Paris. His guillotine was usually erected on the square fronting the prison La Roquette, in the suburbs of the city, where, vast crowds fre quently assembled. Deibler had no expression of fierceness. Ho appeared to be a simple man of tho middle class. He took pride in his work and had expressed the hope that the government would re ward his faithfulness by bestowing on him a dec oration. Deibler, who was retired and pensioned six years ago, lived quietly in considorablo com fort with his son and successor, Anatole. Among the persons Deibler executed were four anarchists, Lieut. Anasty and scores of criminals. "Louis Deibler, or, as ho was generally termed, 'Monsieur de Paris,' when he retired in Decem ber, 1898, in favor of his son, gave as his reason for so doing that he was getting too old, that his hand trembled when he was called to execute a criminal and that his long" and extensive services gave him the right to rest. "During thirty-nine years of Service Deibler guillotined 327 criminals, and ho boasted that he never had a mishap. At an execution at Nancy, however, he came near bungling owing to tho violent struggles of the criminal. It was said of Deibler that he exercised a strange, almost su pernatural power over his intended victim, and it rarely happened that he met with any resist ance." A BULLETIN recently issued from the census office shows that there were 1,750,178 or 18.2 of all children between 10 and 15 years old regu larly employed in gainful occupations during tho year 1900. An Associated Press dispatch says: "This is an increase of 2 per cent, over tho child labor in 1890, when there were 1,118,350 children " employed, or 16.8 per cent, of all tho children in tho United States. Alabama has the highest percent age of child labor, 27.2 per cent, of all the child ren under 12 years old being employed in that state Massachusetts, with 5 per cent, is tho lowest In all the southern states the percentage of child labor is high, and in all the eastern states it is low The percentage of children only 10 years old is 8.1. Boys predominate among the employed chidren." THE bureau chiefs in all the departments of tho federal government have been forbidden, ac cording to the Washington correspondent for tho New York Herald, to give out any information concerning the estimates they will send to Con g?ess?o?gthe fiscal year beginning July 1 1905. The World's correspondent claims that such se crecy in public affairs has never before been ra ised by a president and it is claimed that these SrPPutions have been taken because of Judge Parser's speech in which he .dwelt upon the ox fravagance and corruption under republican rule. THE groat growth of thu West Is pointed out by a writor In tho Dcs Molnoa Register and Leader whon ho says: "It has required but two decades to shift tho central of population from Ohio to Indiana, tho ccntro of farm values from Eastern Indiana to Western Illinois, tho centre of tho farm income to tho western banks of the Mississippi and tho contro of farming area from Eastorn Illinois to Central Missouri. Two contrca havo already crossed tho Mississippi and two moro decades will bo sufllciont to advance anothor across tho Father of Waters." IT IS related by a writor in .tho London Truth that throughout tho Franco-Prussian war, uismark "grumbled at tho princes," who com manded undor' Prussian leadership. "Tho princes havo taken all tho comfortablo lodgings," "tho princes drink up tho fine wines," "tho caterers for tho princes carry off tho host joints from tho butchers and tho best vegetables and fruits from the greou grocers," "tho princes are a cause of constant friction and embarrassment." Tho writer in Truth adds: "Princo Leopold of. Hohenzollern's baggago as described In a Kronen paper reminds me of Blsmark's growls. His Royal Highness, who is brother-in-law of tho German Empress, wanted to tako to the Farthest East 500 colls or trunks, bales mostly bulky and weighty. "Princo Khllkoff, director of railways, is said to havo turned palo on rccolvlng a letter from Prince Leopold's secretary In his embarrassment he applied to the czar for guldanco, reminding respectfully His Majesty that Russian officer could only tako a single box and a hand bag. "After an oxchange of telegrams between St. Petersburg and Berlin, tho Emperor William de cided that his cousin could do with fifty boxca and bales. Members of the Imperial Japanese family are on tho samo footing as other officer and put up with the eternal rice cako and handful of dried fish." THE World has never behold such a combination of incongruous elements as tho Russian em piro presents today, according to a writor in tho London Times. This writer says: "The educated classes includo some of tho host Informed tho most highly polished men and women in Eu rope, many of whom openly express Ideas of an advance Libcr.il typo. They include also an In tellectual proletariat which has embraced, with all the ardor of the Slav nature, the. wildest and most dangerous theories of French and German So cialists. These men havo the tastes and the am bitions which education brings, with no reason able prospect of gratifying either. Beneath la the dumb peasant order, permeated here and thero with the new ideas which tho villagers who have migrated to the newly established manufacturing centres or who havo come Into contact with the artisans and the urban workmen in tho army bring home with them. Over all the bureaucracy and the police exercise what Is too often in prac tice an irresponsible sway. The church in her own sphere is as intolerent and as -unenlightened a the state. Most ominous of all, the economic con ditions of nobles, of manufacturers and artlsana and of the agricultural masses appear to be be coming moro and more grievous. The most en lightened men of the empire deplore tho evlla they daily witness and recognize that profound constitutional reforms arc indispensable to rem edy them. Yet they are acutely conscious of tho danirers which such reforms must almost neces sarily bring, and they have so far failed to deviso any known project which promises to effect the transition from tho half-Oriental, half-mediaeval state, which Russia now is, to conditions essential for tho development of modern life and civiliza tion." CHINA Is tho great slave country of the world. A writor in tho Chicago Journal points out "Of a population of 400,000,000 people, there are slaves to the number of 10,000,000. Every family of means keeps its girl slaves and man's position Is usually guaged by the number ne Keeps. At any age from three to fifteen girls are sold, seven or eight being the ago at which most change hands. The girls are purchased to do housework, i .. i -" " jfc aMtit.