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"I left tho Shenandoah valloy Juno, 1854, to come
to Louisville to work. Tho drouth in that famed
valloy Jhad already caused much apprehension, on
account of tho growing corn crop. I came to
Wheeling, and thero hoing no railroad crossing tho
stato of Ohio at that time, I took passage on a
small stern wheel boat (tho river being very low),
and by that was brought to Cincinnati, whore I
was put on tho Alvin Adams, a fine steamer of
those days, and on that arrived at Louisville. I
noticed the wharf was very deep with dust, and
was told there has been no rain for a month or
more. From that day, Juno 30, 1854, until August
27, 1854, I saw little or no rain. Sunday, August
27, was the date of the storm that carried down
the Presbyterian church, corner Thirteenth and
Walnut, killing about thirty persons, and ' that
storm ended the drouth. That drouth was during
tho spring and summer unlike the present one,
which is a fall drouth. The first one caused great
loss of crops, and many persons thereafter thought
its effects helped to bring on the great panic of
1857, which was a tornado compared to the storms
of 1873 and 1893. No doubt this drouth will cause
much loss to tho farmer, by the seed wheat failing
to germinate, and loss of stock and pasturage, but
I can't think it will entail th,o loss, the former.one
did."
TWO hundred years have elapsed since tlte
capture of the Rock of Gibraltar by the
British. A writer in "Tho Nineteeth Century and
After," says that the capture of this fortress was
an' accident and that it became a British posses
' sion in the first instance because at a time when
we happened to bo at war with one of tho rival
claimants to tho Spanish throne our admiral in
the Mediterranean happened to have no particular
objective in view, and, having failed in his only
enterprise of that year, was unwilling to return
home with a fine fleet that had done nothing for
the honor of the flag. S'o he thought he might
as well make an attack on Gibraltar as do any
thing else. Nevertheless, his action has to be
reckoned among the notable "deeds that won the
empire," and one that on its vi-centenary deserves
to bo had in remembrance.
THIS writer also says: "The fact that through
out the eighteenth century when so many
conquests in both hemispheres .changed hands
backward and forward n successive wars and nn
der successive treaties, Gibraltar remained per
manently in the keeping of England might seem
to prove that British sentiment with regard, to
it was from tho first the same as it is today. But
this is far from having been the cause. For, al
though at tho end of two hundred years of our
possession of the fortress, at a time when tho
imperial instinct of Englishmen has become more
consciously developed and more deeply ingrained
than ever before; and at the same time more in
telligently appreciative of the true meaning "of
sea power and alive to tne strategical require
ments of it& maintenance, tho retention of the
key of tho Mediterranean has become an essential
article of our political creed, it was a considerable
tirao before the immense value of -the acquisition
was fully realized by British statesmen."
MME. JANAUSCHEK, the tragedienne, who
died recently in Now York, had a wide per
sonal acquaintance in the United States. She was
at one time associated with John McCullough, Ed
win Booth and other tragedians. A writer in the
Kansas City Journal, referring to Mme. Janaus
chek, says: "Her art was so broad and penetrating,
her sweep so grand and wide, her force so intense
and emphatic, and her character so cracked and
careened that she demanded all tho favors and
forced the great stars to side step, as it were, or
bring out their best qualities, or else be domi
nated by tho feminine role. Actors, male and
fomale, can not tolerate this, and therefore theso
ireat alliances did not cohere long. Among tho
moot notable performances of Janauschok were
Deborah,' which Augustin Daly produced, and
tho dual roles of Hortense, the Fonch maid, and
Lady Dedlock. in a dramatization of Dickens'
'Bleak House.' Just before retiring, twenty years
ago, she portrayed Meg Merrilles, an astonishing
performance, which, singularly, was her last part
on the mimic stage.. Some years ago Janauschok
came out ofthe obscurity of solitude and, for a
brief space, flashed across the theatrical horizon.
It was a sad sight, this, of an old woman, once the
tragic queen of two continents, playing before
small audiences, many of those present ignorant of
who she was. 'Meg Merrilles' was the vehicle
which she rode in this farewell tour. On this'
V
The Commoner
final tour, which bankrupted tho famous actress,
tho real tragedy of her life was enacted. Ono could
not help contrasting it with tho farewells of Gar
rick, Macready, Cushman and a score of other emi
nent bay-crowned actors. Janauschek was en
feebled; her voice was weak; her movements
slow."
INTERESTING reference Is made by tho Jour
nal writer to the conditions under which other
great actors died. This writer says: "Garrick re
tired gracefully and with well-stored larder, tho
pride of his friends and tho pet of his nation.
Edmund Kean ended his meteoric career by sud
den death in the limelight, and in his beloved
son's arms. Charlotte Cushman died in plenty,
but in pain. Others enjoyed the fruits of their
labor until transported to Elysfan fields. But not
so Janauschek, as great as any of these. Home
less, in a foreign land, the poorhouso awaited
her. Ono of her creditors proposed to sell her
wardrobe and jewelry. She said: "That man will
not sell my costumes and' jewels; because he can
not. I would like to see him do so withoutvauth
ority from me. He has no such authority, and
will not get it. I suppose he thinks he will get
the few dollars I owe him if ho sells the tatters
of Meg Merrilles, or the nightdress of Lady Mac
beth,, or the royal robes of Marie S'tuart or Mario
Antoinette.' To the last clinging to the tatters
and nightdress and royal robes of her mimic
kingdom. This is the irony of existence; this tho
foible of an unnatural life."
AST. PAUL, Minn., dispatch, under date of
November 29, and printed in tho Louisville
Courier-Journal,, says; . ' A woman inmate of one
of the stato insane hospitals has won a prize of
fered by a Boston magazine for the solving of a
rebus and a short essay on an assigned topic. Tho
prize was a trip abroad or $250. Sho has applied
to the state board of control for permission to
make the trip, but the board does not deem it
safe to allow her to go, The board, however,
will endeavor to secure the $250 for her."
AN INTERESTING analysis of the annual, re
- port of the American Federation of Labor
is given 'by a writer in 'ine Wall Street Journal,
from which the following extract is taken: "The
total membership of tho American Federation this
year is 1,676,200, which makes it one of the most
important organizations in the United States. This
is 2 per cent of the entire population of the coun
try. It is 8 per cent of the entire number of males
of voting age in 19uo. It is nearly 6 per cent of
the nunlber of persons, male and female, engaged
in gainful occupations in 1900. The vote for Pres
ident Franklin Pierce, who swept the country La
1852 was less than the present membership of
this great, industrial organization. The vote for
Abraham Lincoln in 1860 was only slightly greater.
Not only is the membership immense but the
growth in membership has been nothing less than
marvelous. Since 1901 it has increased 113 per
cent and since 1897 it has increased nearly 540
per cent. It is safe to say that no other organiza
tion in the country has had so rapid a growth as
that."
THE following table gives by years the "voting
strength" of the affiliated unions, the total
membership, and the annual percentage of in
crease since 1896: x
Voting Total P. Ct. of
Strength. Membership. Increase.
1896 2,806 272,315
1897 ; 2,747 264.825 2.7
1898 -2,881 278,016 6.0
1899 ....;. ":3,632 349,422 26.5
1900 5,737 048,321 56.7
1901 8,240 787.5C7 43.6
1902 ;.". 10,705 1,024,399 30.0
-1903. . ..'.. .: . 16,238 1,465,800 43.1
1904 :..... ,17,363 1,676,200 14 5
Decrease.
TT IS' pointed out by the Journal writer that in
only one year, from 1896 to 1897, was there
a decrease. Tho most notable growth was from
1899 to 1900 over 66 per cent. From 1902 to 1903
tho increase was 43 per cent; while in the past
year the percentage of increase was only 14 5 nQr
cent, yet actually 210,000 new members were ob
tained. -
THERE are more than. 140 national and inter
national affiliated unions in the American
Federation. The Journal- writer says: "These
MABEL VILLAS,., a little Massachusetts girl,
has recovered her power of speech in a
most astonishing manner. The New York World,
describing her case, says: "By hiding her play
things and teasing her almost into desperation, a
nurse in the North Adam3 (Mass.) hospital has
restored to Mabel Villas the power of speech.
The little girl at last cried out in hor rage, 'I know
where it is!' and the nurse had done what doctors
had despaired of doing. The little gir fell from
a piazza and fractured her skull from ear to ar.
For weexta her recovery was considered impossi
ble. The surgeons removed much of tho skull and
slowly the child began to mend and showed every
indication of returning mental faculties hut sho
was voiceless. Lip language was practiced and
articulation of words was tried daily without re
sult. The surgeons were about to discharge her
as a mute for life when the nurse tried her experi
ment. When her voice was restored the child
showed that she had been cognizant of everything
that had bean going on about her. She knew 1.0
names of the nurses and he surgeon, and aston
ished the house doctor by bidding him good morn
ing when he arrived."
THE X-ray will soon have a ciose rival in a
"fluorescible solution' discovered hy Dr.
"William James Morton of St. Loijis. Speaking of
this new light a writer in the New York Ameri-,
can says: "To turn a spot light upon the liver,
lungs or any other organ of, the human bod
and illuminate it so clearly that a physician can
examine it as easily as thou:' it were removed
and placed upon the operating table is believed
to be one of the possibilities of tho use of tho
fluorescible solutions now being 'ntroduced into
medical practice by Dr. William James Morton of
St. Louis. Dr. Morton's most recent achievements
have made possible the illumination of those "
cesses of the human body never boforo brought to
light except under the operating knife of the sur
geon or the anatomical demonstrator at the slao
of the dissecting table. Not only do these fluor
escible solutions cause a glow of violent light . .0
emanate from the interior of the body, but tney
are said to exercise the same curative effect tnw
has beeen observed in a greater degree in tne
use of radium. The fluorescible solutions which sei
up the fluorescent glow within tho body myoj
introduced in several ways. Quinine swalioweu
in solution and then subjected to exterior excu
tion by means of radium sets up a glcv wmcu
very. intense and of a deep violet color. Under iu
treatment the stomach gleams like an opaii
the man who has become tho subject of tnis
perimont looks for tho time as though ne
swallowed, a handful of fireflies."
- VOLUME 4, NUMBER 4,
subordinate organizations are comnnOA, .
dreds of local unions.'' aj I it H?? of hun'
dally the American Federation ? ?: Finan
income in 1904 was $220 IM and l Vms'
$203,991, and its balanc Ton hand witf n3
urer is $103,017. There are ninSv Ji? le treas'
to whom $83,242 wasJd d&SJ
defense fund for local trade and feueraf 1?
unions is $81,14G. It is notable that the d iff r Z
organizations belonging to the wSrtlSftu
in the past year in death oneflts $782189. in.1
benefits, $756,762; in traveling bS in ! ?
mssr m and in wS
WRITING in "The Engineering Magazine" for
December, F. W. Haskell discusses rail
road accidents. Referring to this article the New
nTuZ'J.. tU 0lt Mr. Haskell I
vv, u4x nwuimy. no says that the worst
accidents happen on the roads which have the bei
equipment for preventing them, and where the
rules for running trains are practically perfect
His explanation of the circumstance is that encl.
neers often run by block-signals knowingly, trust
ing to luck to escape harm. From experience they
learn that the train whose presence in the bio 4
ahead is indicated by tho signal will probably be
out of the way before the following one can over
take it Having a realizing sense of the need of
keeping on-time, they take charces. It is further
asserted that the higher officials of the railway
companies arq familiar with- the practice and do
not discourage it sternly. Mr. Haskell declares
that a violation of the rules is not always pun
ished, and that thus a certain demoralization
among railway employes results. The chief re
sponsibility, therefore, is placed xm the 'men higher
up.' " b
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