1 itMWtttftttaMMMMH
if, JpBPPfPiWWf ! UW
-1 '-rr, - 'w;jpfljli ) fflJJiiyjl,i.itnf
m
6
for I shall put 100 gamecocks In tho Plain Dealer
'and sell the whole lot of them for five cents.' And
ho redooniod his word."
THE Underwriters Review takes Mr. Bryan to
task for suggesting that a maximum limit bo
flxel upon the business that can bo done by insur
ance companies, but Collier's Weekly in a recent
editorial says "possibly it might bo well to set a
limit even in amount, say of five hundred millions,
so that less attention should bo paid to acquiring
new business and more attention to getting good
returns for the policyholders already in. Now
the big insurances companies sacrifice old policy
holders to now Ohcs by such devices as giving tho
first' year's insurance free, so that men will be
led into largo companies by this temporary bribe
where they might, in the long run, be better off in
the smaller companies. Why should not the
amount of business be limited? Why should an
insurance company bo allowed to grow to pro
portions that make it u menace to the welfare of
tho country."
THE history of wheat corners is referred to in
an interesting way by a writer in the New
ark News, who says: "So far as known to date
the only really successful corner in wheat (re
ferred to in scriptures as "corn ) was that by
Joseph when ho presided over tho destinies of
Egypt, but it will be recalled that he had more
than human aid In estimating the size of forth
coming harvests. When domestic vheat crops
were much smaller and facilities for transport
ing and storing them at I'istributing points were
much less efficient, perhaps thirty years ago, there
were several so-called successful minor corners in
wheat and corn, but the only successful corner in
wheat within twenty years was that engineered
by Hutchinson at Chicr o in 1S88, when he put
the price up to $2 a bushel, and made the short3
settle at that. Records of similar attempts include
Keeno's loss of $2,000,000 in wheat in 1879, Han
dy's similar loss of $1,500,000 in 1881, Harper's
dropping $4,000,000 on the cereal in 1887 and young
Letter's parting from $7,000,000 in his attempted
wheat corner of 1898. In addition to these there
were failures to corner lard by McGeoch in 1883
and Cudahy in 1893, in which each lost, it was said,
Tlie Commoner.
about $2,000,000, and Deacon White's memorable
corner in corn in 1892, in which ho lost a million,
which he subsequently paid with interest."
GEORGE GOULD'S reason for resigning from
the Union Pacific directorate, follow closely,
'according to a writer in tho New York Evening
Post, the ethics of directorship as laid down by
his father. Jay Gould, while a director of the
Union Pacific in 1879, had bought control of tho
Missouri Pacific, and was planning to extend it
into Union Pacific territory by means of the Kan
sas Pacific. Previously, however, he had given
his approval to a consolidation of the Kansas Pa
cific and the Union Pacific, and although (accord
ing to his own assertion) he offered $1,000,000 to
bo released from this approval, other Union Pacific
directors held him to it. In the investigation of
these conditions by the Pacific commission, Mr.
Gould was asked: "According to the ethics of
Wall street, do you consider it absolutely within
the limits of your duty, while a director of the
Union Pacific, to purchase another property and
to design an extension of the road which would
perhaps ruin the Union Pacific?" "I don't think
it would have been proper," Gould replied; "that's
the reason I let it go." The Post writer adds:
"Cynics who refused to believe in the white-souled
financial integrity reflected by this reply always
asserted that Gould had 'worked off' his Union Pa
cific stock at the current high price, while buy
ing up Kansas Pacific stock for 7 and 8 cents on
the dollar, and arranging to exchange it for Union
Pacific, worth ten or fifteen times as much, on a
share-for-share merger basis. The upshot of the
affair was Gould's return to the Union Pacific di
rectory, not very long afterward, in absolute con
trol of the property. The present instance will
hardly duplicate that part of the family history;
but it may be recalled that, even in 1879, Wall
street said Gould had 'quarreled' with the Union
Pacific people, and on that assumption they broke
the market."
VICE PRESIDENT FAIRBANKS rather turned
the joke on former Senator Chandler. The
Washington correspondent for the Brooklyn Eagle
says that Mr. Chandler in-his mirthful moods jol
lies aspirants for the presidency, and on a recent
.VOLUME 5, NUMBER lg
occasion penned and triplicated a letter in these
words:
"My Dear Mr. Secretary Shaw: I desire to in.
form you that it seems to me you ought to be tho
next president of the United States. Your loim
devotion to the principles of the republican
party, with your eminent fitness for the position
high integrity, and the faith and confidence which
the people of the country repose in you, muko
you the logical presidential candidate of the party
of which you are today the most distinguished
leader. Yours very sincerely,
WILLIAM E. CHANDLER.
"P. S. No. lI have written similar letters to
.Vice President Fairbanks and Senator Foraker,
"P. S. No. 2. Please don't forget me.
"W. E. C."
Mr. Shaw and Mr. Foraker answered in kind
but the correspondent avers that Mr. Fairbanks
replied in this dignified fashion: "He sincerely
thanks ex-Senator Chandler for his cordial en
dorsement .and promise of support, appreciating
thoroughly what this meant at the hands of a man
possessing the great influence of the New Hamp
shire republican. He then added: 'I am also
pleased to learn that you have informed Secretary
Shaw and Senator Foraker regarding your attitude
toward me and the -presidential nomination.'" The
Eagle correspondent adds: "Mr. Fairbanks may bo
be as solemn and serious minded as charged, but
the last quoted sentence shows considerable clev
erness in turning the joke on the author and
rivals."
A FEDERAL statute requires live stock in tran
sit to be unloaded, fed and watered at in
tervals not longer than twenty-eight hours. It is
agreed that it is cruel to keep animals longer than
this without food and water, and that their meat is
not so healthy if they are feverish and hungry
when killed. The Chicago Tribune, referring to
this law, says: "Investigations by Secretary of
Agriculture Wilson :eveal that the law has been
broken 400 times in three months. Like manv
other enactments, state and national, for the regu
lation of railroads, it is habitually violated. Where
obedience to a law is inconvenient or expensive,
the law is disregarded.
THE HIGHER TESTS OF HANHOOD
Tho philosopher who asked "take away ambi
tion and vanity, and where will bo your heroes
and patriots?" might have learned something to
his advantage had he lived to read from the pen
of tho good Quaker poet:
"Dream not that helm and harness are signs of
valor true;
Peace hath higher tests of manhood than battle
ever knew."
For every ounce of evil in this sorry old world
there are several pounds of good. For every act of
meanness there are several deeds of love'.
In this day when the world hears so much to
the discredit of men, it will do it no harm to bo
reminded that, "the evil that men do lives after
them; the good is oft interred with their bones."
It will do men and women no harm to have their
attention distracted from the dark pictures of
cruelty, of passion and of man's inhumanity to
man to the' brighter view where sacrifices are
made, where burdens are borne, where mighty
obstacles are ovorcome- in many instances by
frail men and delicate women and all done in the
name of that love that "passeth all understand
ing." Charles Reade described the experiences of
tho thoughtful observer when he said "Not a day
passes over the earth but men and women of no
note do great deeds, speak great words and suffer
noble sorrows. Of these obscure heroes, phil
osophers and martyrs, the greater part will never
be known till that hour when many that were
great shall bo small and the small great "
One need not go beyond the borders of his
own town to find those who keeping "the noiseless
tenor of their way" and unknown even to many
of their neighbors, meet the higher tests of man
hood. Po nting out that "heroes in history seem
to us poetic becauso they are there" one writer
has reminded us that "if wo should tell the simple
like oetrSO f UP neighbors lt would sound
Regular patrons of a certain street-car line
in a western city frequently observed a mother
nnlni prom,aturely Sy by he burdens, carry
on and off tho cars, to and from Adoctor's office
a girl, in the neighborhood of eighteen years of
ago, who had been stricken with pMiyste For
years this mother hoped against hope and trying
first one experiment and then another was, after
years of painstaking devotion, finally rewarded
by her daughter's restoration to health. - Those
who remembered how that good mother carried
in her arms the daughter, then grown to woman
hood, even as she had carried her when a babe,
must have felt their hearts beat a little faster
when they were permitted to see that mother and
daughter walking side by side, the one restored
tc health and the other happier and prouder be
cause of the sorrows she had endured and the
sacrifices she had made.
A man in a clerical position met with a ter
rible accident. A large family was dependent
upon him for support. A fellow-employe, who was
himself dependent upon wages and who had
passed his sixty-fifth year, joined with other em
ployes of the office in an agreement to do the
work of their fellow in order that those dependent
upon him might obtain his salary. Every night
in that office some men were engaged in working
overtime and several nights during the week this
aged man was contributing his portion in this
labor of love. He overworked himself and brought"
on an apoplectic stroke. For several weeks he
lingered between life and death, but, to the gratifi-'
cation of all who have the honor of his acquaint
ance, he is now well on his way to health. Who
will say that on the roll of heroes the name of
this man does not occupy a conspicuous place'
A young physician was called to attend a
woman who was at that time perhaps nineteen
years of age. Although the disease with which
this girl was stricken had been pronounced incur
able by other and older doctors, the young phy
sician devoted himself to the case. So attentive
was he to his patient that he secured one of the
rooms in her mother's house as his office that ho
might be conveniently situated to respond, day or
night to ca s from the invalid. On pleasant days
he carried the delicate woman to his phaeton for
a drive. Before the second year had passed be
knew that his fair patient loved him He kept
his own love for another locked within his big
heart. For fourteen years the patient lingered
and finally .passed away. Within a year the doctor
had married the woman of his choice, who, evi
dently understanding the heroism of the man, had
never married, although it was currently reported
she Jhad many opportunities. Intimate friends of
those concerned in this romance know the facts
as related. The doctor and his wife are still living
and they keep refreshed the memory of the poor
invalid as well as the grass and flowers about her
grave.
There are everywhere girls of tender years
engaged in laborious tasks and using their all too
small income for the purpose in some cases of
lifting mortgages, in others of providing bread for
the family. There are boys, pushed before their
time to the line of manhood's duties, who have
taken the places of fathers dead, have become pro
tectors for their brothers and sisters and pro
viders for their widowed mothers. There are
parents struggling to conceal, and finally to cure,
the waywardness of a son or daughter. There are
wives bearing in silence the grief that husband's
shame has brought upon them and concealing, for
their children's sake, the hideous skeleton in their
nE5?J!' are husbands who, to spare their
?mnSl g T6' Sleel their hearts aeainst the first
S?a f ma1n1Il00d t0 destroy and close their
7rtn . Ve?C e,f ness of wives- TIiere are chil-
fiwa Vu h0Jding Up their heads amonS their
52 7?L al1thoug1h a Parent has brought disgrace
S?vm f household- There are men and women
wXitTYej l0Bt ground' battlInS with their
eTerv t?linhef aml With every struggle and with
ZnZ Swf mpressed-as those who may not
SS I?a' !Jsto strugglG th one's self can
St th i?e fact that "he wii ieth W3
nil greater than he who taketh a city."
thn innrSerUS !ve and the tender sympathy,
th?t ahmSS f ?Hfice aml the migllty endeavor
- t th?n nnn thiS Y,0rld today need to be brought
tetnS1011, f those wh0 seeln& so much of
nelr to?S??i "I?' may be movlng dangerously
n a ne of cynicism.
thit mi We are the exception. It is natural
and q2L5d Wmen be g00d and d0 god- Love
vmt watVy ?re part of tlie dIvine Plan. "That
from nWeWUich mlds a tear and -Ma's, it trickle
snZri i0UrC;e,"tllat law Preserves the earth a
spheie and guides the planets in ihejr course."
RICHARD L. METCALFE.
- .
. XtoMJ.lf,- -
