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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 9, 1904)
-Tf ww.fnpijn tmm wr.fly-y-w aBi.-'lfni DECEMBER 9. 1001 The Commoner. 3 8NT "OPIGS J " IPW!-"! NJfc. mm TJmrJm7.kK A f7 - , -- , - SO VIVIDLY interesting to the "whole world has been the siege of Port Arthur, that considerable comment has been aroused concern ing famous sieges. The Memphis Commercial-Appeal recounts two memorable sieges as follows: "Before the Christian era, Greece camped nine years on the Trojan plain before she 'burned the topless towers of Illium.' Homo, with her primi tive battering rams and wooden weapons, pricked ten years at the walls of Veil before her eagles were triumphant. And her splendid legions were held at bay for two years before Sclplo at last stood as conqueror among the ruins of Carthage. During those two frightful years the women of the city in mortal terror of the 'wolves from the Tiber worked shoulder to shoulder with the men Id the trenches. In more recent years the slego of Sebastdpol in the Crimean war easily taice3 precedence for daring and picturesque achieve ment. For eleven months the smoke of battle hung like a halo over the Redan and the Mala koff, those supposedly impregnable forts." THE .same writer mentions the siege of Luck now which took place in 1857. He says: "Tho year 1857 was made memorable by the siege of Lucknow. Here in this city of glittering Oriental beauty 300 English soldiers, with the indomltablo spirit of the Anglo Saxon, beat back tho hordes ot Sepoys that swarmed about tho residency, whllo the women, knowing their fate if surrender came, prayed every hour for death or rescue. Four months of this slow torture went by, and despair began to settle on the garrison; defeat seemed inevitable, when one day a new sound mingled with the noises, the garrison already knew, and a Scotch lassie, with her ear to the ground, recog nized the new note and cried out tho rescue to m cut! uiuoia. ll xa iuo ijiuiuuuo j tuc mguiuuuciai K We are saved; we are saved!' And to tho music I Ul CI1UOU llllJVO UUUl, &U11CVUI, UUUU Ul OUUIU uuu English cut their way to their starving country men, leaving behind a path of blood thickstrewn with Sepoy dead. In the Franco-Prussian war, Paris held the enemy back for 132 days; yielding at last not to assault, but to save her children from the horrors of starvation. Then there is Plevna. Here the Turks, under Osman Pasha, intrenched themselves against the Russians, and in the 142 days of siege that followed 70,000 men gave up their lives. Then the pasha capitulated. The siege and capture of Plevna make interesting reading for the student of military tactics." POINTING out that sieges in the history of our own country are rare, this writer says: "There was the so-called siege of Boston; the twenty da;-s at Yorktown, which closed the revo lution, and in the civil war the siege of Vicks burg which city held rut against Grant for some seventy days. During much of this time the peo ple of the town lived in their cellars or burrowed into the bluffs and cliffs to, escape the bursting shells of the asailants. Here in Memphis was heard the detonation of that fierce bombardment. During the Spanish-American war there befell tho siege of Santiago, too familiar for more-than a mention. During the Boer war in South Africa, people all over the, world asked for 118 days: "What is tho news from Ladysmith." for during that length of time Ladysmith was holding out against the beleaguering oo." IN AN article entitled "Freakish Mintage," a writer in the Washington Star contributes this bit of Interesting information: "There are a number of valuable gold coins, some of them being what we term freak'sh mintage, struck for members of congress and other officials, and not intended for circulation. One of the most freak ish of these is the $4 gold piece, authorized by the coinage committee of the house in 1878. Thero were Issued 450 of thecr, and they were paid for by members and senators and other officials. There was the gold dollar and the metric dollar, also which were freaks and only issued as iou venirs. Lots of time and postage stamps have been wasted by people -who" want to know about these .issues. If you haveva $5 gold piece of 1822 almost iiny numism'atistwill give you -?20, coin of tho realm for it Of these then aro threo known to bo in existence. Coin collectors don't hnnker after gold coin very much." '. WHAT la probably tho oldest lottcr in tho world Is one that has recently como to notice. A writer in the Chicago News says that this letter was discovered in somo excavations being mado In tho provinco of Attica, Greece. This writer adds: "M. Wllhelm, scr.otary of tho Aus trian Archaeological institute u ero, who liar, suc ceeded in deciphering it asserts that it was writ ten four centuries before Christ. It is engraved on a leaden leaf, folded In two, and It boars on the outside the following address: 'To tho porter of tho market at Potls, to bo dollvorod either to Nausias or to Thraslcles, or to their sons.' Tho text of tho letter is as follows: 'Mnesiongos sends his greetings to thoso in tho houso and informs them that he is in good health. Please send mo a blanket or somo sheepskins, if posslblo of tho ordinary kind, without ornaments. As soon as the occasion offers' I shall return them." ACCORDING to tho Kansas City Journal, Ar gentina is tho only South American country that produces cereals for exportation. Tho Journal lays: "Thirty years ago it imported cereals from tho United States, from Chill, and even from Turkey, but In 1902 the value of tho quantity ox ported was $65,000,000, and according to all cal culations it will exceed $100,000,000 In 1904. Ar gentina, with nearly 250,000,000 acres of land suit able for agriculture, has not even 10 per cent thereof under cultivation. It has been calculated that in'1902-3 tho area f land cultivated was 20, 782,000 acres, distributed as follows: Wheat, 9,066, 900; linseed, 3,222,000; malzo, 3,700,700; other grains, 247,100; alfalfa, 3,261,900? peanuts, 59,000; sugar cane, 113,700; grapes, 108,700; tobacco, 31, 400; other crops, 904,000 " WHY does a woman take the name of her hus band when she Is married? Tho St. Louis Republic explains In this way: "Tho custom which makes It proper for the wife to assume tho namo of her husband at marriage is involved In much obscurity. A recent authority advances tho opin ion that it originated from a Roman custom and became common after the Roman Occupation of England. Thus, Julia and Oqtavia, married to Pompey and Cicero, were called by tho Romans Julia of Pompey and Octavia of Cicero, and In later times tho married women of most European coun tries signed their names in the same way, but omitted the 'of.' In spite of this theory It is a fact that as lato as the sixteenth and the begin ning of the seventeenth century a Catharine Parr signed her namo without any change, though sho had been twice married. We also hear of Lady Jane Grey, not Dudley, and ArabeMa Stuart, not Seymour. Some think that the custom originated ' with tho scriptural idea that the husband and wife are one. This was the rule of law as far back as 1268, and it was decided In the case of Bon vs. Smith, in the reign of Elizabeth, that a woman by marriage loses her former namo and legally receives the namo of her husband." ACCORDING to a writer in the Minneapolis Journal, a queer cut torn p evaiis in Denmark and parts of Switzerland, whereby parents ex- ' change their children. Danish children aro ox changed for the holiday season through tho me dium of newspaper advertisements. This writer continues: "The youngsters from tho villages go into towns and become the smarter for their knowledge of City life. The placo of tho young 'hayseeds' on the farms Is taken by tho little city folks, who come back to town, after a spell in the fresh country air, with rosy cheeks and robust constitutions. In Switzerland parents ex change their children for a much longer period sometimes for a year or two. Tho object is to improve the children's education. Three langu ages aro spoken in the wiss cantons German, French and Italian. A child born In a French r canton will-be-sent. In due course of, time, to live successively In the German" and -Italian- cantons and vico versa; so tlyit practically overy Swiss speaks tho thrco languages of his country pcr fectly. Ho usually speaks English, too." SPEAKING on tho subject 'Insurance on Wora on," a writer In tho Mlnncaooliu Journal Buys: "it is a toss-up sinco tho last policy was takon out, which woman carries tho heavier llfo insurance, Mrs. Lelnnd Stanford of California or Mrs. James Dunsmuir of Toronto, Tho odds aro in favor of Mrs. Stanford, for sho now Is rated a insured for 'ovor $1,000,000, whoreos Mrs. Duns muir Is put down at an oven million. Thero Is no question they aro tho most heavily Insured woraon on tho Amorlcan contlnont, and far ahead of any of their sisters in tho east Tho next nearest Is Mrs. Basil N. Duko of Durham, N. C, who has policies amounting to $385,000. In New York thero is no policy on tho lifo of a woman for moro than one-tenth of that carried by Mrs. Dunsmuir. Mrs. Gage E. Harboll Is Insurod for $100,000. Mrs. Henry C. Aloxandor carries a policy for a similar amount, and so does Mrs. Robert IC Stafford. Tho total in Now York, howovor In policies of moro than $50,000 each is not much greater than tho Insurance on the llfo of the widow of th California multimillionaire." WHILE It may sound ridiculous that some person owns a volcano, a writer In tho Sioux City Tribune, declares Uiut Mount Vesuvius is held in communal ownership. This writer says: "Four communes Roslna, Torre dol Greco, Bod coo Trecasso and Ottagano aro compotlng for its overlordshlp and havo gono to law about' it Tho dispute will not mako any difference with tho mountain. Pompeii and Herculaneum may havo had a similar one for all that is known. Vesuvius, like Nlacara and tho Yosoralte and a fow other natural features of unusual , sublimity, belongs to tho great world and to time, and ran admit no other possession. Farmors may own tho farms, as Emorson says, but none among them nor all together can own th6 landscape. Tho Ve suvian villages ar6 pushing too ambitious a claim, and might almost as well extend it to tho sky overhead, which, indeed, Is flno enough to Justify covetousness if that could be of any avail." COMMENTING upon tho statement that Amer ican consuls are underpaid, tho New York Independent says: "It. goes without saying .hat they ought to be able 4o return their hospitality ia a suitable manner, but few American consuls can do so unless they have a private income. 'When we deprive our consuls of tho necessary means to enter tho social circle to which they properly be long, wo reduce them to mere ciphers,' said- Pres ident Monroe. It is very true, but there has been little improvement in this respect since Monroo'h day. ' 'It Is not sufficient to havo ou- representa tive living abroad as cheaply as ho can afford to exist,' said Senator Sumner, 'because his social position is an important factor In his power to be useful.' Vet it is tho regrrttablo fact, as a consul wrote somo time ago, that 'thoro Is hardly a consulate In tho world where the Amorlcan rep resentative Is not tho most shabbily housed, poorly served and poorly paid among his consular asso ciates.' " THE Andro monument, which was erected by the lato Cyrus W. Field at Tappan, N. Y has .been sold for non-payment of taxes. Referring to this, tho New York Herald says: "The monu ment stands upon Andro hill, Just over tho spot where the British officer was buried after his death by hanging. Since the death of Mr. Field his family has neglected to pay taxr3 on tho plot of ground, 100 feet square, within which the memor ial shaft stands. This property was one of several pieces recently offered for sale by tho treasurer of Rockland county, and when it was put up for sale there were no bidders. The amount of taxes duo was $6.38, and for this sum tho ground and tho monument were bought in by the treasurer for tho county. If It is not redeemed the shaft and land upon which It stands will pass out of the hands of tho Field family and .become th - permanent possession -of Rockland county." i u. ijAn iiliiwwiii nMHHuhmfliafc-- fcJwfafafa.il..r.-v nfcw.j -- v, J. -i JtaoA. , L. a a.. ,iUttM