f Ughe faletifine democrat SUCCESSOIl TO CHERRY COUNTY INDEPENDENT ROBERT B GOOD - Editoh Viiop VALENTINE NEBRASKA A Xew York clergyman who recently conducted a Sunday morning service on Black wells Island learned that there are at present fifteen college graduates wearing the stripes In that penitentiary Twenty two turkey gobblers at New Brunswick X J attacked a tramp who had entered their lnclosure with felonious intent and when he got away he had no turkey nor as much clothes or cuticle as when he started in There is no royal road to wealth ana there is no way to shoe a horse except to nail on the shoe So says a black smith and in proof of his assertion he states that while nearly 200 patents have issued for horseshoes and 6000 paid into the patent office at Washings ton not one of the inventions has ever been used Nearly everybody learns to do some thing nowadays The man or woman of fashion usually plays on some musi cal instrument or recites The newest thing however is the mastering of the art of the prestidigitateur Many of the swell men have become adepts and entertain their guests with tricks of conjuring To do this well a quick eye a dextrous hand and a ready tongue ara necessary The sending of cotton from the Soutn to San Francisco for reshipment thence to China and Japan is one of the anom alies of commerce Cotton for the Ori ent has hitherto been shipped entirely from New Orleans and Mobile but the demand has increased so enormously In the last year that those ports alone can no longer supply it and it has been found necessary to send vast quantities overland by rail to California At Philadelphia a wagon loaded with gasoline collided with an electric car The wagon was demolished and the oil flooded the street The accident attracted the attention of a motorman of another car who ran his car up to the scene Seeing the oil running under his car he turned on the current to get away A spark from the wheel im mediately ignited the gasoline fumes and instantly the street was ablaze Four pople were injured one seriously and one horse was burned to death It is the practical aspect of civil serv ice reform that makes it unassailable Great as its benefits are to the public service they might not be able to pro tect it against a combined attack in Congress if the spoils system were really as it was once thought to be a strong tower of defense for the poli tician He has learned that it is the weakest point in his armor He in self defense is now ranged with the friends of good government on the side of civil service reform Hale the victorious cyclist not only broke the wheeling record but the diet ary score also On the first day his con sumption of food by wight was 34 pounds on the second 59 pounds and the total weight in six days was 162 pounds TMs goes beyond the perform ance of the Zulu Kaffir who makes nothing of consuming Jif teen or twenty pounds of baked -elephants foot at a sitting but who follows up his feast with a fast of considerable duration not trying to iive the pace for a week together as Hale succeeded in doing without apparently incurring any inr jury One of the largest nuggets of pure gold of whieh record has been made that was ever found in either North or South America is says the New York Sun now in the office of Carter Hawley Co William street and Ex change place It was found on a placer mine in Dutch Guiana on the north coast of South America in No vember last It is in the shape of an Irregular honeycombed triangular plate that is about ten inches long on the base line by six and a half inches high to the apex and an inch and a half thick It weighs T5G4 pounds troy and seems to be pure enough to sell for 20 an ounce or 375360 for the wholf mass Senator Davjs of Minnesota says that the country has never experienced such hard times as in 1S57 Money was not only scarce but there was no money in circulation none to be had anvwhere Along the Chippewa Black Mississippi and other rivers were legal tender In faet everything that possessed any sort of value passed as token money Up in Northern Wis consin copper was mined and copper cents were minted and issued by pri vate Individuals The general store keepers issued their own scrip and it passed for money many a time We had every kind of toen money except wampum We get quite that far back to the primitive method and me dium of exchange A Boston woman who has lately re turned from England brought witft her among other curiosities collected dur ing a long residence abroad a piece of fancy work which was pur chased at a fashionable charity bazar in London It is a knitted shawl about half a yard square and its color is pink The ex ecution is indifferent the usefulness or the beauty of ibis article is nol yet the present possessor values it v beyondprce it js the handiwork of - tine Queen of England and sent by her io the bazar where itwasraflled for TWs royil band made shawl a guaranteed clstorette attached and though not signed by the Lord Cham berlain or the Prime Minister there is a real Countess not to mention the original owner to swear to the genu ineness of the document going with the article A coffee merchant in Brooklyn hau the impudence to go Into the business of sugar refiping and thus become a competitor of the sugar trust But he is about to be well punished The sugar trust has bought a tbig coffee factory and will sell the product at a price which this Brooklyn merchant cannot meet And as soon as the Brooklyn merchant is crushed the price of coffee and sugar will be raised and the trust will make good its loss and will take a million or so in addition as payment for the trouble this impudent fellow gave it There is entirely too much imper tinent criticism and rebellion against these monopolies The independent business men and the people generally need to be taught their place It is earnestly hoped that the monopolies will be even more severe in the future Put the screws on hard The break wUl come the sooner The Spanish news smiths at Havana have a serious rival in the man who is forgiug dispatches from the seat of war in the Philippine islands He has even a harder task to manufacture victories for the Spaniards than the Havana men have but he gives his stories a much neater turn His report of the three at tacks upon Noveletas reads very much like the account the editor wrote of the encounter he had with a war like vis itor We inserted our nose he wrote by an adroit movement into our antag onists mouth and suddenly throwing ourselves upon our back drew him down upon us with great force He attempt ed to strike us several times but we cleverly caught the blows upon our eyes and mouth and when we had tired him out we allowed him to rise from his un comfortable position This is how the Spanish troops treated the Philippine rebels A taxidermist at Northwood N Y has been making experiments as to the effect of light reflected in a birds eye A glass seven or eight inches in diam eter has been fonud most serviceable The antics of blue jays are remark able when the light strikes them as they sit in the shadow of an evergreen tree They jump to another branch and try to look into the light but they have to turn away as the light dazzles them Then they fly around the re flector but after practice one is able to keep the light always on them and the birds not infrequently come within reach of a mans hand A ruffed grouse gives a startled look when the light strikes it Then it jumps and away it goes Hawks too are usually star tled or annoyed so that they fly off Woodpeckers dont seem to mind it at all Rabbits blink and stare at a glass1 for a while then go around a stump and sit up again as if waiting for the light to play tag with them In Kentucky even lynching is done in so courteous a manner that the subject is left nothing to desire For instance the vigilance party at Owensboro did not violate the sanctity of Christmas day by their act but considerately waited till 230 next day before ad dressing themselves to the disagreea ble but necessary task Even then great consideration was shown for the religious needs of the prisoner The re port says that he was given ample time to pray But when he had fin ished his petition the lynchers proceed ed resolutely and he was strangled to death Even during the operation of choking the alleged murderer to death no disturbance occurred The dispatch states that the lynching was the most quiet and orderly perhaps ever con ducted in the State and few persons save those having business on the pub lic square at the time knew anything of it Here again we see that delicate Kentucky consideration for the feel ings of others Instead of whooping and howling about and awakening those who did not take part in the ceremonies the participants conducted themselves in a quiet and orderly manner thus setting an admirable ex ample for others A bright young Chicago man nas written an entertaining book of South American travel which wins praise from more people than his friends but even the author must smile to read in a Chicago Sunday newspaper the following finale to a review of his book How much do any of us know of South America How many of us ever heard that Venezuela meant originally Little Venice and was so named by a Euro pean Young Mr Morris deserves the thanks of a public either too busy to in- form itself about its own sphere or too indifferent If the vaior boy or mailing clerk who wrote this enthusiastic review ever went to school he would have known that Ven ezuela Little Venice is popularly sup- posed to have been so named by a Eu ropean and not by an Australian bush- man or an inhabitant of Mars as the naive statement of the reviewer might indicate He would also know that the average American citizen is tolerably well acquainted with the history and geography of South America and can distinguish between Simon and Patsy Bolivar The reviewer should send toi Washington and get the handbooks of the bureau of American republics Thea when the elevator shift is ehang i ed lie can read p on a heap of things he is iSeemingly unaware of Dreadful how ts bicycle is run- ning oats out of the jnarket Isnt iti Yes it iff but the crap of wild oats seems to be coming ajoflg about as usu al Chicago News H0RR0ES 01 FAMINE APPALLING CALAMITY THREAT ENS THE INDIAN EMPIRE j Iilliousof Human Beinfrs May Pcnsh as in 1S77 78 of Huncer and Pesli lerce The Peoples Misarable Con dition Measures of Kclief Revised Ghastly Records or the Past The famine prevailing in the north and northwestern parts of India is according to the best information available one of the most appalling calamities which has over visited the great peninsula The dis trict affected is many thousand square miles in extent and the failure of the crops has been almost complete The mill ions of India live from hand to mouth and when from any cause even a single crop fails the effect is at once apparent in widespread suffering With 1250000 people on the verge of starvation in the Deccan alone and the gloomiest prospects in other great agricultural provinces the civilized world may be shocked by a re currence of the unspeakable horror of such famines as those of 17G9 and 1877 7S when people died not by the thousand or the ten thousand but by the million The population of British India is now estimated at 240000000 people twice as many as the Roman empire had as its period of greatest strength Nearly all these millions are laborers living from hand to mouth and the giving such sur plus as they produce to support the Brit ish imperial establishment and their own priests and hereditary rulers Indias Pitiable Condition At best their condition is utterly mis erable from any standpoint an American can occupy in looking at them These strange people living in the hotbed of na tions speak a language which in some of ine the great leveller brushes away dis tinctions like cobwebs In the agonies of hunger they forget the religion which made them apathetic and meek and in great crowds they throng around the headquarters of the local governments demanding bread with a fierceness which gnawing hunger can inspire even in a Hindoo the mildest of all slaves During the famine period of 1877 7S the British Government spent 40000000 in attempts at relief but in spite of air it did in relief work there were 1550000 deaths in a single year in the single prov ince of Madras Horror of Pestilence But famine is not the worst or per haps it is truer to say the most formida ble to the spectator for with it comes pestilence At his best the Hindoo is really half starved and in a famine year he is inevitably a victim of the horrible diseases of his condition and climate The Tli Qrs r i i 223sa DVING FKOU HUXGEK ground parches under a sun which bakes it until it is dust with no drop of moisture anywhere to make even a cooling dew The brooks vanish The rivers become mere threads or dry up altogether The pools of water on which the villages chief ly rely are foul at best but in a prolonged drought the water in them evaporates until it is of the consistency of slime And this slime foul with animal and vegetable putrefaction the people must drink as the horrors of thirst are added to those of hunger Up from the dry tmmm 111 wmMi pftswaaKi sii it mWIml MmmwmmmPWim 111 HORDES OF STARVING PEOPLE SWARM THE ROADS IX INDIA its dialects is so strikingly like our own that there can be no doubt of their blood relationship to us Yet they seem to be utterly without the race impulses which force the European into ceaseless activity Given a thatched hut with a little rice or grain enough to make a cake on the heat ed stones of the hearth aud they do not care for the future The jungles near which they make their villages are full of fierce quadrupeds and yet more deadly reptiles Tigers kill and devour them cobras sting them to such an extent that the deaths from this cause alone run into the thousands every year The deadly miasma of the marsh and the jungle saps their vitality until they are STARVING X aHVES AT TUBULPORE never more than half alive at best Yet they live if not happily still with an apa thetic content unknown to the Caucasian In the best years they drag their ema ciated bodies back and forth from their work seemingly with no other use in the world than to figure iu statistics illus trating the greatness of the British em pire to whose far distant seat of power their surplus grain is shipped while they live on as they have always lived from hand to mouth in the most literal sense of the word With little or no clothing except a cot ton rag with hardly enough to eat in a week to keep an American laborer alive for a day they are still peaceful un complaining and seemingly contented as long as they can manage to barely exist Famine Levels All Castes From year to year they barely exist until the monsoon on which they depend for rain fails them Then cornea famine with pestilence in its train The streets of the cities are filled with the cries of women begging a morsel of food for their starving children High bred gentlemen and ladies of the Grahman caste who dread thus breaking of caste laws worse j than any ordinary death mingle in the streets wjth pariahs and outcasts j gles and the parched fields come dust clouds laden with the seeds of death in many forms and among them that swift est and most dreaded of all forms of death in Asia cholera Whole villages weak ened by hunger are swept away by it Father mother and children die together There is no one to bury the dead Houses in the outlying villages are filled with corpses and the gaunt wolves and jack als from the jungles are emboldened to enter the deserted streets in search of the food which famine though it has made them lean in the beginning supplies them in superabundance in the end BLEACH THEIR OATS An Illecral Practice Attributed to Chicairo Grain Dealers Considerable interest has been aroused over the discovery that oats bleached with sulphur have been handled in the Chicago market It is against the law of the State to use such a process but the poor quality of the present oats crop has proved too great a temptation to certain mixers who have brightened up the oats with sulphur to help out poor lots The fact became generally known when in surance inspectors made a complaint to two or three concerns and raised the in surance on certain buildings Later all the large concerns handling oats were questioned as to whether they were using sulphur Most of them denied it em phatically The innocent ones in the trade are highly incensed at the use of the process by others as it is claimed it will hurt the reputation of Chicago oats Told in a Few Xines The question of a century celebration of the death of Edmund Burke is being mooted in Ireland Because he was out of money and had nothing to live for Henry Miller also spelled Mueller who was formerly a prosperous butcher in Chicago shot him self iu the left lung at San Francisco and is now dying Ahlwardt the notorious Anti Semitic agitator and member of the German reichstag who recently came to the Unit ed States to organize a crusade against the Hebrews in this country is said to have deserted his family in Germany The Pope has issued an order forbid ding priests not belonging to the Roman diocese to dwell in Rome under penalty of suspension It also threatens measures against the resident clergy who are seen on the streets after the religious curfew bell The premises of the Russian Oil Com pany at Purfleet Eng have been burned doing immense damage Cataracts of burning oil were poured into the Thames illuminating the rirer from Greenwich to Gravesend The Purfleet powder mag azine and the Anglo American Oil Com pjiny adjacent were saved by the efforts of the fire brigade NEW PLAN 0E FINANCE WORK OF THE CONFERENCE AT INDIANAPOLIS Declares for Gold for the Retirement of Treasury- Notes for Freer Bank ing and for a Monetary Commission to Suggest lief or ms The Pcheme in Detail The work of the monetary conference at Indianapolis is finished After all the States had submitted plans for reforming the currency it was clear that there was no substantial agreement as to what should be done and that there was considerable difference of opiuion as to the proper mode of procedure The committee on resolutions composed of one delegate from each State examined care fully all the manuscripts filed with it and after a session of twelve hours the following resolutions were unanimously recommended This convention declares that It has be come absolutely necessary that a consistent straightforward and deliberately planned monetary system shall be inaugurated the fundamental basis of which should be 1 That the present gold standard should be maintained 2 That steps should be taken to Insure the ultimate retirement of all classes of Uni ted States notes by a gradual and steady process and so as to avoid injurious contrac tion of currency or disturbance of the busi ness interests of the country and that until such retirement provision shall be niaile for a separation of the revenue and note issue departments of the treasury 3 That a banking system be provided which should furnish credit facilities to ev ery portion of the country and an elastic cir culation especially with a view of securing such a distribution of the loanable capital of the country as will tend to equalize the rates of Interest in all parts thereof For the pur pose of effectually promoting the above ob jects Resolved That fifteen members of this convention be appointed by the Chairman to act as an executive committee while this convention is not in session with the full powers of this convention The executive committee shall have the power to increase its membership to any number not exceeding fort3 five and five members thereof shall at all times constitute a quorum of said com mittee The Executive Committee shall have spe cial charge of the solicitation receipt and disbursement of contributions voluntarily made for all purposes shall have power to call this convention together again when and whore it may seem best to said commit tee to do and said committee shall con tinue in office with power to fill vacancies until discharged at a future meeting of this convention Itesolved That it shall be the duty of this Executive Committee to endeavor to procure at the special session of Congress which it is understood will be called in March next legislation calling for the appointment of a monetary commission by the President to consider the entire question and to report to Congress at the earliest day possible or falling to secure the above legislation they are hereby authorized and empowered to se lect a commission of eleven members ac cording to the rules and plans set forth in the suggestions submitted to the convent010 by Mr Hanua of Indianapolis as follonvs Article 1 The commission snnW eleven members to be named by ft Fxecu tive Committee appointed by ttirt ftnven tion The Executive Coram If te sufiRWiave power to fill vacancies In th Ccmiteiona3 they may occur Art 2 The first meeting the commis sion shall be held at a time nd place to be designated by the Executive Committee of this convention in a call f be Issued there for and at such meeting the commission shall organize by the elec Joa of such officers and the adoption of sucn rut s and by laws for its own government as may be agreed by a majority of its merfs and thereafter it shall be governed 1 snclr ruIes and by laws subject to these Articles Art 3 All raids an by laws of the com mission and all Its proceedings shall be di rected toward the accniplishment of the ob ject of Its creationTTUIch Is to make a thorough investigation of the monetary af faire and needs of this country in all rela tions and aspects and to make appropriate suggestions as to any evils found to exist and the remedies th6refor and no limit is placed upon the scope of such inquiry or the manner of conducting the same except ing only that the expenses thereof shall not exceed the sums set apart for such purpose by the Executive Committee Art 4 The Executive Committee of this convention shall use so much of the volun tary contributions made to it as may be avail able for that purpose to defray alf necessary expenses of the commission and shall notify the commission from time to time of the amount so available in order that It may regulate its expenditures accordingly and no liability shall attach to said committee or to this convention beyond the amount so notified Art 5 When the labors of this commission have been completed so far as practicable the Executive Committee if it deems it ad visable shall issue a call to bring this con vention together again at a time and place designated in such call and at the meeting so convened the commission shall make re port of its doings and suggestions in such manner and form as it shall deem best adapted to present to this convention and its members for action and if legislation is deemed impossible shall accompany such re port v ith a draft of such bill or bills provid ing for such legislation Itesolved That all resolutions and com munications as to methods of currency re form which have been presented to this con vention be referred to such commission when formed This plan was put together by TV B Dodge of Minneapolis M E Ingalls of Ohio Rufus B Bullock of Georgia X- E Fletcher of Michigan and Charles I Lib bey of Maine In committee there was a long debate J H Walker of Massachusetts chair man of the Committee on Banking and currency of the national House of Rep resentatives attacked the plan He de- nothing more to say The previous question was demanded Congressman Fowler seeing that the con vention was against him withdrew his proposed amendment to the report of the committee and the committee report was adopted Cigar Box Cedar Scare There is said to be a scarcity of CV ban cedar for cigar boxes since the out break of the revolution in that country A good substitute and one often used however is cumber wood which la dyed to the popular color It requires only the necessary cir cumstances to make any man a liar SLAUGHTER IN CUBA Despratc Battle Takes Place inc Which Jlany Itfen Arc Lost The- Xew York Press claims to have re ceived news through private channels that y Gen Maximo Gomez stormed and cap- F tured the important city of Santa Clara on Tan 9 and is now moving on Havana with 8000 men The famous cavalry leader Quiutin Banderas was mortally wounded according to the Press and1 Gen Luque commanding the Spanish was also wounded The news received said that the losses were Spanish esti mated killed and wounded 000 prisoners 700 cannons captured IS battle stand ards 4 rifles in the Spanish arsenal 5 000 with plenty of ammunition Cubans killed and wounded 1500 which is GOO more than the Spanish loss The Press quotes Carlos Roloff as saying the report is credited A Havana dispatch to the World says couriers who have slipped through the Spanish lines in Matanzas province bring the news that Gen Gomez is un doubtedly marching on Havana slowly but surely and that his advance guard is laying in waste the country as they proceed In less than a week the ad vance guard of Gomezs army has destroy ed by fire twenty one of the most valuable estates in the province of Matanzas and the work of destruction continues as the army moves along The people of Ha vana are at last becoming thoroughly alarmed at the situation and all who pos sibly can have already left the place Those who have been detained are mak ing preparations to leave with all possible haste Many of those who have been out wardly loyal to Spain have lost all confi dence in Gen Weylers ability to handle the insurgents and they now actually fear for the safety of Havana Skir mishes occur every day in Pinar del Rio The insurgents are under command bT Ruis Rivera EXPORTS AND IMPORTS FOR 1896 Statement Relating to Merchandise Gold and Silver Issned The monthly statement of the exports and imports of merchandise gold and sil ver for the month of December liJOG and for the twelve months of the calendar year 1S9G shows as follows Exports of domestic merchandise during December 10128334 and for the year 0SGS71 23G This is a gain of 2o02000 for the month as compared with the December 1S93 and a gain for the year of S179 12S000 The imports of merchandise during December amonnted to S579oG 009 and for the yeir GS055G223 Of the amount for theyear 321951526 was free of duty and 358 6047wtr hiir be- The azfwifc ine month is about S4 and the loss for the year about T121 113000 The exports of goldduring December amounted to 403S5G and the imports to 25722J1 For the vear the exports aggregated 5G742844 and the imports 102700438 The silver exports during December amounted to GS19545 and the ipports to 1279S01 During the year the exports amounted to G3 029336 and the imports to 12504577 - 59v Oil Out in San Francisco that Durant case still continues to hang while Durant him self doesnt Cincinnati Commercial Bul letin The murders of 1S9G exceed those of 1S95 but then last years comic songs certainly were a good deal more irritating Cleveland Plain Dealer It appears that there is an impression among some persons that they canTiake good bank officials of themselves by Com mitting suicide Xew York Journal Xow Xew York has begun a war on the tall church bonnet This loks very like a movement against feminine piety in its most popular form Boston Herald We are sure that this Mr Angel who wants to come to the Senate from Idaho would feel very much out of place on the roll call of that body Washington Post Georgia is unable to see why such a pother should be made over Kentuckys six lynchings in six days Georgia some times has nearly that many on one limb at a time Kansas City Journal Recent events in Western banking cir cles are likely to increase the popularity of the stocking heel and the chimney as places of safe deposit for people of a sav ing disposition Xew York Press It was very thoughtful in the makers of Xew Year calendars to have the figures so large and black Hang one of em on the wall and you can tell when a note falls due without getting out of bed Atlanta Constitution xne delights of holiday buying have now been followed by the equally keen pleasures of nost holidiv hnrninhnTit clared that but for this convention Con- ing and the soul of the shopping woman gress would have come forward with j is full of energetic peace and joy Bal- some scheme for the reformation of the currency system Congressman Fowler of Xew Jersey de clared that any commission appointed by the convention or at its suggestion would seem to the Committee on Currency and Banking and the Senate Finance Commit tee as bearing the assumption that the members of those committees are not able to draw a bill for bringing about the re form sought The members of Congress are not absolutely ignorant said he and al the wisdom of the country is not out side J H Rhodes of Massachusetts sustain ed the plan in a speech that charged Con gresses for ten years back with indiffer ence to petitions appeals and popular demand timore American China is establishing schools for the teaching of English It is not surmised however that the demand for teachers will interfere to any considerable extent with the laundry business in this country Houston Post Mayor Pennoyer of Portland Ore de cided that his salary was too large and so he offered to give back one half of it There are various degrees of this malady but it is not very often elected to office Baltimore American White Ghost a Sioux chief has gone to Washington to collect a little bill of 200- 000 said to be due his tribe If he is cessful in his errand it will not be sarv for this Ghost to walk h ipfc fnr inrlr There was uproarious applause from all f car fare Xew York Press parts of the hall When it had subsided Frederick Starr professor of Mr Walker said If this sentiment is to pology at the Chicago University an- be applauded in this convention I have nounces that the American Deonle are de- j generating into Indians This theory ac- counts for the increasing popularity of the college yell Chicago Journal j One of the most sublime and ridiculous attributes of human nature is the peren nial assumption that if a few men will meet and pass a law against an evil that evil will at once get scared and flee to parts unknown St Louis Republic I It is reported that a woman in Philadel phia who has been a kleptomaniac has been permanently enred by a surgical ope ration The surgeons have not yet re ported the nature of the operation but if it simply involves the amputation of her j fingers the cure Is not a discovery worth I mentioningIndianapolis Journal K t i 1 v ri i t j H