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DECEMBER 2, 1904
The Commoner
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FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE, the heroine of .ho
Crimean war, is living in Loudon in her quiet
old house in Park Lane. Although she is very
old, she is wonderfully active and spends a great
part of her time in reading. Her home is near
ly always filled with the choicest flowers from ad
miring friends. In an interview recently, Miss
Nightingale, pointing to her flowers, said: "You
see that the people of England have not quite
forgotten an old woman who tried to do her duty
as she saw it In fact, sometimes I really wish
that they would forget me once in a while, for
reading of the hundreds of letters which come to
me every day is sometimes more than my eyes
will stand." Miss Nightingale is still very much
interested in nursing and follows the war in uie
far east with great interest. She says: "I should
like to meet, before I die, Mme. Stoessel, the wife
of the hero of Port Arthur. She is a true heroine,
and when I read of her suffering and of her tireless
work among the poor Russian soldiers I often feel
like crying. War is an awful t-ing, and I do not
see why England and the United States do not at
once put an end to the terrible bloodshed in Man
churia and Port Arthur. T had ; Vays hoped ILat
I should have been spared the sight of another
war.'
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THE Westchester Gazette contributes an inter
esting article on the different kinds of post
age stamps used by the nations of the world. That
paper says: "According to the 'Universal Stand
ard Catalogue of the Postage Stamps of the World'
the total number of all known varieties of postage
stamps issued by all the governments of the world
up to the present time is 19,24. Of this number
205 have -een issued in Great Britain, and 5,711
in various British colonies and protectorates, leav
ing 13,326 for the rest of the world. Dividing the
totals among the continents, Europe issued 4,uj;
Asia, 3,623; Africa, 4.005; America, including the
, West Indies, 6,095, and Oceania, 1,425. Salvador
has issued more varieties of pdstage stamps than
any other country, the number being 450. Poland
and Wadhwan have each found a solitary specimen
suffice for their postal cards."
SOME interesting statistics are given by a writ
er in the Review of Reviews, upon the occu
pations of the Italian people. This writer says:
"In the Riforma S'ociale (Rome), Professor G. Fer
roglio sum- arizes the economic condition of the
Italian people. He draws his information from the
census of 1901, by which the population of Italy is
estimated at 32,000,000. Of these, 16,883,881 exer
cise a profession, 9,666,467 are occupied in agricul-
ture and the varied industries, 3,980,816 are en
gaged as artisans, while 3,227,598 "can not be in
cluded in the agricultural and kindred classes and
the varied industries. In these 3,227,598 must be
comprehended the commercial classes, various em
ployees in banks, insurance companies, hotelkeep
ers, dealers in real estate, who make up a total of
1,196,741 persons, of whom 1,025,839 are men and
170,905 women. This leaves 2,030,854, to whom
belong the classes devoted to intellectual and lit
erary purs"us ra well as those engaged in domestic
and other service. Besides these are people of
capital and independent means, who are estimated
in the census as 511,279, of which 272,720 are
women and 239,259 are men."
OF THE people who e 'age in an occupation not
included in the preceding classes, this writer
says that the army and navy, numbering about
204,012 persons, must be reckoned, and adds: "To
the same class belong those occupied Jn the service
of religion, who number 89,329 men and 40,564
women, giving a, total of 139,893. After these
classes comes the teaching population. In the
profession of teaching, 62,873 are -vomen and S9,
559 are men. In the medical profession, in the
widest sens3 o the terms, including nurses and
midwives, there are 69,913 employed, of which 49,
030 are men and 20,883 women, 1 ,000 of the latter
being midwives. The legal profession absorbs 33,
' 746 persons. Engineers, land surveyors and ac
' countants make up a total of 22,775. The artistic
classes number only 39,877 persons, of which 33,487 .
are men and 7i370-are women. In the profession dfc
painting and sculpture, artists and their models
number 13,857 persons, of which only 790 nro
women. Belonging to tho musical and dramatio
stage, including circus performers, etc, there aro
26,020 persons, 20,420 being men and 5,600 womon."
MODERN day surgery, apparently, has no limi
tations. Recent experiments iudicato that
not only physical but mental diseases can bo cor
rected by its use. A writer in tho Boston Trans
cript, referring to the uso of surgery to euro mental
illness, gives this interesting Instance: "Tho story
is told of Jesse Beard, a lad 15 years of age, who
manifested a violent temper and criminal propen
sities. He was disobedient to his parents, an!
detested the discipline and instruction of tho
schools. He ran away from homo and whon up
braided threatened to kill his mothor and sistor.
Ho showed tendencies somewhat similar to those
that gave Jesse Pomoroy his unique notoriety;
but fortunately science took him in hand beforo
those tendencies had expressed themselves to the
samo deplorable extent Finally ho wag brougnt
by his parents beforo tho juvenile court as an In
corrigible. Tho chief probation officer was a wom
an, and very likely a mother. At any rate she took
an interest in what seom"! a desperate and hope
less case, and had the boy taken boforo an export
for examination. Investigation disclosed tho fact
that when 3 years old ho had fallen Into a trench,
his head striking some timbers, after which ho was
quite ill, and was threatened with brain fever.
Following this lead the surgeons located the old
injury, and trephined tho Bkull at that point, dis
closing a fracture and brain depression, with
chronic inflammation of the brain covering. Tho
pressure was removed and the brain restored to
Its normal condition, since which time tho sub
ject has shown an entirely different disposition. He
has become kind and obedient and anxluus to
make up for the opportunities he had previously
thrown away."
THIS writer, concluding his Interesting article,
says: "There may bo a belated and uninten
tional recognition hero of the claims upon which
phrenology Is based. There are cases of crlmo in
which it might be more just and moro humane to
turn the offender over to the expert surgeon than
to the executioner. The last hanging in Connecti
cut, we believe, was of a boy 18 years old, who had
committed murder for no reason that ho could jive
or any one else imagine. Yet along tho line of
his ancestry, for two generations at least, epilepsy
and habitual drunkenness woro the distinguishing
characteristics and he had manifested merely here
ditary traits; but tho law had made no provision
for these, and ho was hanged all the samo. Prob
ably the Indianapolis boy would sooner or later
have come to a similar end had ho missed the
good fortune to attract fie attention of those with
more advanced ideas and velior sympathies than
the common. Tho suggestion opens up a great field
for science, philanthropy and humanity."
THE railroad locomotive will be a thing of the
past within two or three generations, if the
experiments with electricity upon railroads prove
successful. A writer in tho Philadelphia Inquirer
says "Five years ago r. commission of expert
railway men and electrical engineers carefully con
sidered the question of using electrical power on
railways, and it was generally agreed that for tho
time no sucn change could be made. Since then
there have been new 'inventions and discoveries
and new engineering processes, and the application
of electricity to a limited extent on tho present
steam roads is practically an accomplished fact
The entire Long Island railway is to adopt elec
trical power, and the New York Central will use
this, motive force for thirty miles north of its New
York terminals. The Pennsylvania will install t
exclusively on its new tunnel lines into New
York."
VrHE same writer says that this may be consid-
1 ered enly a beginning, adding; 'All the el-.
forts by physicists the world over to,.s6curo a
Mgtier potential from coal, or An. otherwords,; to
conserve moro of tho SO or 90 per cent of heat
that la now wasted, havo had in vlow stationary
engines. It has seemod Impossible to makq any
saving on a locomotive. Whon tno latent heat
of coal can ho used to hotter advantage It will
malco electricity a much cheaper force than now,
and in tho end steam will bo relegated to such
roads as can not sccuro cheap electrical power.
Already there aro outside of tho cities about 15,000
miles of electric trolley lines and thousands of
moro miles aro either under construction or pro
jected with promise of construction. Tho result of
olcctrlcal development on steam roads will bo a
great gain to all concorncd. It will mako travel
ing swifter, safer and moro comfortable Tho urat
oloctric locomotlvo built for tho Now York Central
goes sovonty-flvo miles an hour without difficulty,
and it Is not of tho most poworful typo. Thoro
aro olcctrlcal engineers who hold that Insido of a
decado it will bo possible to opcrato 30,000 miles of
road from Niagara falls. Our grandchildren may
come to look upon tho locomotlvo of today with
tho samo archaeological intorcst that wo do on
tho stage coach of tho past"
A WRITER in tho Chicago Nows gives somo rc
markablo instances of tho onduranco of ani
mals. This wrltor says: "It is questionable whoth
or those who delight to storo talcs of feats of on
duranco In animals will accopt tho latest claimant
to noticethat of tho dog who had Just been dug
out alivo from a rabbit hole In tho Scllly Isles,
after having been lost for a fortnight. Instances
of remarkable endurance among tho animals, how
ever, are numerous. Several years ago, a man In
England fell into a deop crovassc. With him,
whon he was last seen, was his favorlto dog. Six
weeks elapsed botween tho date of his disappear
ance and tho dlscovory of his romains. Thero
was but tho skeleton of him. Bcsldo tho bones
was tho dog, alive and flourishing."
APPARENTLY trivial ills often causo death,
even among tho ctrongest animals, for it Is
said: "Whales, elephants and eagles come at tho
head of tho table of creatures which longest sur
vive tho ills to which they are uslr. Yet a whalo
has been found dead from a dislocated jaw; an
elephant has died from gangrene In one of his
feet, sot up by a gunshot In a Scotch deer for
est not long ago a stalking party como across a
magnificent eagle, dead caught in a fox trap. Ho
had been caught by tho center claw of one foot anl
had died of exhaustion In attempting to escape. By
his side were two grouso.and a partly eaten haro
which other eagles bad brought to sustain him in
his fight for life. If a rat had been caught by his
leg In a trap either he cr his comrades would havo
bitten off tho Imprisoned limb and released him.
The poor despised toad Is not built to stand phy
sical violence, but ho would fatten on Imprison
ment Toads imprisoned in rocks for years no
ono knows how many come to light from time to
time, fat and well. Unless microbes carried to
them through tho pores of imprisoning rock havo
been their fare, It Is certain, according to natur
alists who ouaht to know, that they have eaten
nothing for an unthinkable period."
THE Kansas City Journal says that the Chero
kee Indians are becoming cocaine fiends. The
Journal says: "A little investigation shows that
druggists are disposing of a great deal of this drug,
but what is more startling still, is that thero are
a lot of persons who havo been going Into tho
country and selling cocaine to the Indians. It Is a
new vice for Indians, but it is wonderful how It
13 taking hold on them. It is said that the drug
Is being bootlegged as it has been the custom to
bring In liquor. The authorities will start an in
vestigation." SOME men, many of them lawyers, havo shown
most remarliable powers of retention, even
in advanced ago. A writer In the Saturday Even
ing Post, commenting on this fact, cites this in
teresting Instance: "Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst,
born in Boston, Mass., liyed to ninety-one, and was
brimming with mental energy to the last Hla
memory was so tenacious that, in speaking atth
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