i i s1 f t s t i i i awaAyyaiggfi V 5 ukntine wocrit ROBERT JOOD Editor and Prop VALENTINE - NEBRASKA Tlie announcement or a stamp collec tor that lie lias for sale about 20000 worth of the original unused issue of the Columbian 2 stamps at 175 each looks as if Uncle Sam had got the bet ter of this little speculation The Alabama statesman who has brought In a bill forbidding women to -wear any article resembling masculine clothing including bloomers tights di vided skirts and shirt -waists is rather an iconoclast than an old fogy so much have times and fashions changed Women axe going ahead in Prance The Minister of Fine Arts has submit ted to the Chamber of Deputies a pro posal to admit women on terms of equality with men to the Beaux Arts as they are already admitted to the Sorbonne and to the law and medicaj schools Prof Arlo Bates of the Institute of Technology addressing the grammar school teachers in Boston Friday ex pressed a solid truth when he said the literature best for adults is the litera ture best for children This is just being rediscovered says the Springfield Republican The old school readers were all made up of masterpieces of literature A Baltimore minister has declared that all ministers who are spiritually alive must denounce from their pulpits dancing card playing theater going and bicycle riding This pastor is evi dently pained at the sight of seeing oth ers happy We think it was Macaulay -who said that the puritans abolished bear baiting in England not because It hurt the bears but because it gave pleasure to the spectators Hen Altwald a member of the Ger man Reichstag was an interested arid enthusiastic visitor to the pig sticking establishments in Kansas City Mo the other day But when he looked into the Government offices and saw a number of young -women examiniug with microscopes pork which was to be exported to Germany he grew strange ly silent and evidently thought that some sort of a joke was being played on him Many colored persons have held ofhce from time to time in Boston but proba bly the first colored woman to be so honored is Mrs Josephine St Pierre Ruffin The municipal convention of the silver wing of the Boston Demo crats headed their ticket for school committee with her name She is well known in Boston where she has taken great interest in educational matters She is well educated and has done much toward elevating the condition of the people of her race in Boston She is said to be possessed of practical ideas of school work and would be a valua ble addition to the school committee It is the third generation that suffers most for the sins of progenitors Latest Massachusetts insanity statistics show that in 3S3 instances or 21 per cent of alL the intemperance of the person led to his insanity In very few cases could the insanity be traced to the in temperance of parents but in 354 cases where the facts as to grandpa rents could be learned 1S4 cases were found where the intemperance of grandparents was considered to have led to the insanity of the person These are discouraging figures for grandchildren but may help them to guard against the tendency to mental disease The man who knows the hab its of his grandfather will know wheth er or not to take especial care of him self A very curious point has been sub mitted to the Derbyshire Football As sociation for decision It is as to wheth er artificial limbs are to be permitted in the play It seems that the Buxton Football Club had several members of its team severely injured in conse quence of a member of the Matlock eleven having played with an artificial arm It was reported that in Derby shire alone there are a number of foot ball players who owing to the loss of an arm use artificial limbs They are described as regular terrors on the football field since when once they gel on to the ball they swing their dum my arms around with such force as to either fracture skulls or cause concus sion of the brain It has now been de termined by the association that arti ficial limbs are henceforth to be barred in all football games The New York Sun states that A new appointment has been made from Waterf ord to the chair of professor of Gaelic in Maynooth College Ireland The new appointee is a member of the Gaelic League of Dublin and was the ifirst editor of the Archeological Journal -of Waterford The opinion is very general that Gaelic is an extinct lan guage or one nearly extinct and the labors of the Gaelic Society in New 3Gork to revive its use have lent some color to that opinion Nevertheless as Jigures show the Gaelic tongue is most tenacious and according to the last -reports is spoken though not exclu sively by 1000000 persons in the Brit ish Isles C00000 in Ireland 350000 in Wales and 220000 in Scotland Thougia English is the official language of all these countries the popularity of English increases slowly despite the disadvantage under which those who use Gaelic labor that of having no es tablished grammar and no recognition Jn an official way Gaelic fulfills the colloquial requirements of the farmers and fishermen in tfie counties remote from the large cities somewhat as the j Basque language continues to be popu lar In the northern provinces of Spain In this country Gaelic has made little headwaj though many patriotic Irish men have by various methods en deavored to acquaint others less patri otic with Its advantages While the use of most European languages has about doubled In seventy five years five times as many persons speak Eng lish as did In 1820 The Boston Watchman publishes interesting information regarding For mosa from the Rev John L Dearing Among other Improvements proposed are those with reference to the condi tion of the cities Chinese cities are proverbial for their uncleanllness Within a few weeks the government has had the condition of most of the larger towns examined yy foreign and native experts with reference to pro viding a water supply and sewerage system and the report has been most favorable and it is likely that at once steps are to be taken to make the con ditions more healthful and -cleanly In one case they propose nothing less than to build a new city of Taiwan in South Formosa The new city has been properly laid out and water sup ply and drainage arranged for and now it is intended that the old city with its crumbling mud walls its filth and abominations shall be left If Japan succeeds in removing from her Chinese cities in Formosa those fea tures which are a disgrace to every city of China Pekin and Tien tsin not excepted she will deserve praise An interesting problem is at least on her hands One of the strange things about tne collecting habit is that which some book collectors have of gathering all the editions of the Bible rendered rare or curious by misprints or errors due to imperfect translation There are said to be nearly -a hundred such Bibles Among them are the breeches Bible in which our first parents are repre sented as sewing fig leaves together to make themselves breeches the vin egar Bible wherein that word is sub stituted for vineyard in the parable the placemakers Bible where that word takes the place of peacemaker the wicked Bible which omits not from the seventh commandment and the bug Bible in which we find this phrase in the ninety first psalm Thou shalt not need to be afraid for any bugges by night This in reality does not mean insects as at first supposed but bogies or terror as it was later translated This edition which is mem orable for more than the modern mis conception of the Avord referred to was first printed in 1549 at Antwerp and reissued in 1551 Another curious thing is the sixteenth century idea of family discipline exemplified in the translation of the first epistle of St Peter And if she the wife be not obedient and helpful unto him the hus band endeavoreth to beat the fear of God into her head that thereby she may be compelled to learn her duty and to do it The determination of several leading theatrical managers to stop poster ad vertising and depend wholly upon the newspapers to reach the public has re vived the question of the relative mer its of the poster and the newspaper for advertising purposes The subject of the relative merits of the two is hard ly debatable because in this age and country of universal newspaper read ing the superiority of the newspaper to every other form of advertising will be readily admitted As a medium of ad vertising the ordinary poster on the wall or the fence compares with the newspaper about as the old mail coach compares with the express train as a means of transportation The truth is the crude lithographs belong to the childhood of civilization They appeal to curiosity and credulity In their raw est forms To ascribe any great influ ence to the colored portraits of players and prctorial representation of impos sible figures and scenes which make up the bulk of poster advertising is to reflect on the intelligence of the people There has been happily some effort to improve poster art and the work of a few artists has developed a standard which is having a wholesome effect on all poster artists and printers But the high art poster is still something of a curiosity and its cost will bar the way to the general use of the best work of artists and printers in that line The question whether there is any value at all in poster advertising is one that the atrical managers have not yet settled but there is a very general impression that it is obsolete in cities at least and that it is a somewhat unnecessary supplement to newspaper advertising which offers all the opportunity need ful for the enlightenment of the public with regard to theatrical wares They Will Know the Rest Congressman Joseph Washington of Tennessee wants to get through Con gress a claim for 100000 made by the Methodist Publishing House of Nash ville whose building was destroyed by troops during the war Speaker Reeds policy against morgaging the next ad ministration with large appropriations s well known Mr Washington had pleaded several times for recognition in vain and the speaker had listened at tentively Finally Mr Washington said Mr Speaker what can I tell my constituents to show that I am doing something in their behalf V The speaker looked at the genial Tennessee member for a moment and drawled Joseph just tell them that you saw me Argentinn Growing Argentinas population according to the census recently taken is 4090000 nearly double its population In 1SG9 the date of the first census The city of Buenos Ajtgs has GG3850 inhnhi tants r r DAY WITH MKINLEY PRESIDENTS BUSY LIFE IN THE WHITE HOUSE One Day Would Make Many a Man Crazy Every Moment of His Time Occupied Has Xess Time than He Who Digs Sewye Lreads a Busy Life Washington corresponaence The office of the President of the United States is no sinecure It is one of the hardest in the gift of the nation to fill as a sample day lived by President Mclin ley will suffice to show President McKinley rises at 7 oclock and breakfasts with his family at 830 For half an hour after breakfast he lounges around with the family a half hour which is probably the pleasantest of all the day By 10 oclock the President gets into his office His special mail is all laid out for him to glance over Here is wnere the secretary of the President Mr Porter gets in his fine work He gets to his desk at least an hour before the President and with the stenographer goes through the three or four hundred letters tl at are the advance guard of the avalanche that comes during the day The President does not see much of that mail however It is carefully culled applica tions for office going into the proper bu reau political tirades into the waste bas ket begging letters crank letters and let ters of unsolicited advice are all consign ed to the same cavernous maw which yawns for them handily It would doubt less astonish the writers of this class of letters to know that the President never sees one of them In the nature of things he could not because life is short and time is fleeting The Raid of Visitors From among the hundreds yes thou sands of letters that come to the White House bearing the name of the President ill WM IOOKIXG OVEK 11IS MAIL perhaps a dozen or two are found worthy of his special attention and these are on his desk for his perusal He also finds a lot of documents ready for his signature These disposed of he talks for a few mo ments with the private secretary about the business of the day and by that time the gieat American public is clamoring to be turned in on him At 10 oclock the raid begins The waiting room is a study at this time There are legless and arm less veterans in faded blouse of blue and in the nattiest of spring attire but the bit of bronze button on the lapel of each is often associated with a tiny knot of ribbon which means a medal of hon or man There are cranks who have inventions that they want the President to see and recommend There are other cranks who have presents for the Presi dent which they desire to present in per son There are myriads of curious peo ple who want to shake hands with the President in his own office instead of performing that ceremony down stairs in the East room as they would have an op portunity to do each afternoon The women have schemes all their own It is not often that they are after office though some women who want postoifices prejudice their chances by coming to make a special plea of the President because they are women Many of them have sons whom they want appointed to cadet ships at West Point or Annapolis Doz ens of them have schemes for raising money which they are sure will go like hot cakes if the President will just in dorse them Others work the charity racket They have concerts or fairs or plays or something equally as frivolous which they desire the President and his wife to patron with their names Jeirions of Office Seekers Among the waiters will be found as pirants for foreign consulships and the under offices those who are seeking pre ferment in this country and those who come to give timely protest against cer tain appointments Each and every one of them has an ax to grind and they use the Presidents nerves for a grindstone This Seuator has a candidate for a berth abroad and he rings the changes on his right to have this appointment day in and day out day after day while his col league who is at his heels urges some other man with just as much persistency for the very same place Here is a po litical boss who wants to place one of his lieutenants in political work He talks and argues and all but tries to brow beat the President into appointing the ward heeler There is an all around good fellow who has friends everywhere to all of whom he feels under obligation and he comes in with pockets and hands filled with recommendations for half a dozen or more He urges the claims of each and in effect tells the President that his place in the House or Senate as the case may be depends upon his getting just these particular offices For two long hours this sort of thing keeps up the President listening always listening nev er talking much except to ask a few point ed questions and then at noon the com mon herd is run through irfto the secre tarys room and from there is cut out in bunches and corraled in the Presidents room where he gives a few moments to each This is perhaps the most trying hour of all Among the cranks who slip in at such times are women who are slaving them selves to death to pay off the mortgage on the homestead so they inform the Presi dent and they haye come to him as he is rich because he draws such an enormous salary and ask him to give them a hun dred dollars or fifty or five as the case may be toward that desirable end Others want him to indorse notes for them The autograph fiend is always there in force and the hunter is omnipresent One hour is given up to this class of call ers and at 1 oclock the President goes to lunch with his wife One hour is giv en to lunch and to family gossip then he goes back to his desk At 4 oclock promptly he flings care and business aside and goes out for an hour Sometimes he walks sometimes he rides a horse sonietimes goes in a carriage On returning the President glances over the daily papers and rests until dinner time Dinner is served at 7 oclock promptly and the President dons evening dress for it He often invites friends to this meal in formally and it is very seldom indeed that the President and his wife sit down to a meal by themselves After dinner if there are men to entertain the President takes them into the little room off the hall where they smoke and tell stories Theres No Let np In the evening there is very often music at the White House and music of the best character and there are always call ers It would seem as though public men might respect the evenings of the Presi dent and leave him to his family unless specially invited but they dont They invade his home life and talk consulships secretaries ministers revenue collectors appraisers commissioners and so on through the list till 10 oclock or after when they go and leave the President to go to his office to look nt the bushel of telegrams the two bushels of letters the half a ton of documents to sign all of which must be cleaned up before he goes to bed else one days work would soon cover another and he would never get through By the time the last paper is at tended to the President is as tired as though he had been working in the har vest field all day Three days in the week he gives an hour to shaking hands with the general public in the East room This time is 3 oclock and it is a motley assembly that greets his eyes There are old men and young ones old women and young ones all colors classes and conditions of humanity and little children make a large contingent Two days a week are given over to cab inet meetings from 11 to 1 and it is then that affairs of national importance are considered These days are particularly hard upon the President because he must consider conflicting interests and harmon ize them he must keep his finger on the pulse of the people through all TTjs cab inet officials and decide firmly and wise ly the questions that are brought to him All this work is crowded upon the Pres ident and he has one state dinner a week to say nothing of the dinners he must at tend the state receptions and other so ciety functions which demand the time and presence of the President with bills of Congress to read and sign and mes sages to write it will be seen that the man who digs cellars has much the best of it as to time he works eight and the President nearer eighteen hours of the twenty four WRECKED BY BANK PRESIDENT JReports Received at Washington on the Logansport Failure Reports received at the Treasury De partment tend to show that the failure of the State National Bank at Logans port Ind was caused by the dishonesty of John F Johnson the president of the institution who it is claimed appropri ated not only the capital stock of the bank 200000 but also the undivided profits amounting to 100000 more and falsified the records so that the extent of his peculations cannot be determined at present The bank examiner in charge believes that 100000 can be realized for JOHX F JOHXS02T the benefit of creditors from the sale of property which Johnson has surrendered The directors of the bank do not seem to have taken any interest in the manage ment but permitted the president to con duct the business to suit himself The liability on deposits is reported at 300 000 but an examination is necessary to determine whether an assessment will be made on the capital stock Johnson was taken to Indianapolis and now occupies a cell at the jail He went in the custody of United States Commis sioner Funk and Deputy United States Marshal Clark In the afternoon Mr and Mrs George W Prescott of Torre Haute father-in-law and mother-in-law of the prisoner arrived They were ac companied by Mr Johnsons 9-year-old daughter who was visiting them when the crash came and who does not yet know of her fathers disgrace Johnson was taken to jail at 0 oclock in the even ing and there parted with his wife Both were perfectly self possessed even to the point of exciting comment Johnson will plead guilty to some of the charges against him but others he will fight Com missioner Funk says that if the Logans port bank is promptly reorganized it will be able to pay out Telegraphic Brevities The president of the British Iron and Steel Institute in his annual address call ed attention to the remarkable growth of American competition The Agricultural Department has sent out 10000 pounds of beet seed to farmers in various parts of the country and the supply is now exhausted Cardinal Camillo Siciliano di Rendi archbishop of Benevento is dead at Rome He was born in 1S47 and re ceived the red hat in 1SS7 The Spanish Government has made an other loan of 50000000 from the Bank of Spain to pay troops in Cuba Foreign financiers refused to lend President Errazuris of Chili and the Chilian minister to Rio Janeiro declare that though the Chilian populace wants war with Argentina the better classes in Chili are opposed to ffY - - WORK OF C0NGEESS THE WEEKS DOINGS IN SENATE AND HOUSE A Comprehensive Digest of the Pro ceedings in the Legislative Cham bers at Washington Matters that Concern the People Lawmakers at Labor The Senate Monday pasted a measure appropriating 50000 for the relief of American citizens in Cuba in accordance with the suggestion contained in a mes sage from President McKinley Sev eral members of the House insisted upon amending to incorporate a recognition of Cuban belligerency and the matter was hung up temporarily The House re sumed consideration of the Indian appro priation bill The Senate was occupied Tuesday chiefly by the Cuban question Mr Ma son spoke in favor of the Morgan reso lution and Messrs Hoar and Hale op posed The debate was bitter Among the bills passed by the Senate were those authorizing the construction of bridges across the Missouri River between its mouth and the mouth of the Dakota or James River and across the Illinois and Des Plaines Rivers between the mouth of the Illinois and Toliet 111 and to pre scribe the character location and dimen sions of the same also for a bridge across the Red River of the North at Drayton N D The conference report on the In dian appropriation bill was presented and agreed to The House did nothing of im portance Another stirring debate on Cuba oc curred in the Senate Wednesday The main speeches of the day were made by Senators Foraker Cannon Lindsay and Hoar Mr Foraker spoke in favor of a reference of the resolution to the commit tee but on the general question declared his purpose of supporting the resolution recognizing Cuban belligerency when it should be reported by the committee Mr Cannon was bitter in his denunciation of Spanish atrocity Mr Lindsay declared if the information furnished by United States consuls was so shocking as to sub ject them to danger of assassination if their names were disclosed it was time to send warships to Cuba and to terminate all diplomatic relations with that coun try It was developed in the course of a colloquy between Senators Foraker Mor gan and Vest that the State Department had withheld the names of United States consuls reporting on the serious condition of affairs in Cuba because it might lead to their murder No action on the resolu tion was taken The Senate Thursday passed the Morgan-Cuban-belligerency resolutions by a vote of 41 to 14 after a most exciting de bate in which Messrs Mason Morgan Gallinger Hall Fairbanks and Hoar par ticipated In the House the resolution appropriating 50000 for relief of desti tute1 American citizens in Cuba passed without a dissenting vote An attempt to incorporate the Morgan resolution iiuieu out rue aeuate was sharp and ex citing Both houses adjourned until Monday BOYS PLUCK SAVES HIS LIFE Fred Lawson Five Years Old Clings to the Ties of a Railroad Trestle Fred Lawson 5 years old the son of a resident of Edgewater Park 111 was crossing the Northern Pacific railroad bridge at that point the other day when the sharp whistle of an exnress trnin enns ed him to stop short in alarm Turning A BOVS XAT5BOW ESCAPE his head he beheld a swiftly moving train approaching the ties beneath his feet quivering as the engine thundered on to the trestlework Escape seemed impossible and for a second the boy was stricken with the ter ror of impending death Acting upon sud den impulse however he threw himself flat upon the ends of the ties outside the rails and clung desperately to the pro jecting timber The whole bridge vibrat ed as the train sped on its way but the child clung to his position until the last car had passed Spectators of the inci dent were horrified at the boys peril for the projecting gear of the car axles almost brushed his back as he lay upon the ties The danger passed they came to his as sistance and led him in triumph to his home Told in a Few Lines Spain has in the last two vears sent 272282 soldiers to Cuba The French brigantine Croisme went ashore near Lamaline Newfoundland The crew was rescued with the greatest difficulty Major Henry McNamara prominent in Fenian and circles kill ed himself at Kansas City rather than suffer the disgrace of being sued for 0 debt A corps of the most skilled detectives of continental Europe are already in London to watch anarchist refugees from their respective countries during the jubilee celebration The American Ticket Brokers Associa tion is holding its nineteenth annual con vention at Pittsburg About 200 of the 500 members in the association are in at tendance The battleships Maine and Indiana and the cruiser Brooklyn will be sent to Eng land to represent the United States at the queens jubilee Rear Admiral J N Mil ler will command The gossip about the State Department is that Assistant Secretary of State Rock hill who is soon to be sucfeded by Judge Day may be nominated for minister to China to succeed Minister Denby DANGERS FROM GAS Its Poisonous Natnre Should Be3Ior Generally Known f Gas for heating or lighting is known rV to almost everybody who inhabits or visits large towns or cities but it is not as generally known as it should be that gas Is sometimes very poisonous Natural gas derived very much as well water Is from natural subterra nean reservoirs though not good tx breathe is not especially poisonous The same is true of gas derived from oil including gasoline and also of that common variety of illuminating gas made by simply distilling soft coal and known as coal gas But there is another common kind called water gas which is exeeeding i ly poisonous This is made by passingi water vapor steam over hard coalj previously raised to a white heat In this case the white hot coal carbonj first decomposes the steam water into Its elements oxygen and hydrogen and then unites with one of them oxygen t to form a deadly gas known as car bonic oxide When coal is burned in a stove with an abundant air supply it unites freely with the oxygen of the air to form car bon dioxide or carbonic acid gas Bub IE the air supply is for any reason in sufficient the far more poisonous gas carbonic oxide may be formed instead and we read occasionally of cases of poisoning from this coal gas which has escaped from stoves This form of coal gas is not an illuminating gasr and is really more like the water gasi than it is like the coal gas above de- scribed It is formed only accidental ly never like the other gas of the same name intentionally or for sale It can be avoided in stoves and fur naces by making sure that the draughts are good and the air supply abundant The important dangerous substance in all these gases is the carbonic ox ide which has a peculiar action on the red blood cells of the animal body It is the duty of these red cells to carrj oxj gen from the air to every nook and corner of the body Carbonic oxidel turns out the oxygen within the cells and rides up and down the sets in its stead But carbonic oxide cannot feed the tissues and so a kind of internal suffocation takes place lead- ing if continued to the death and de struction of the body The most remarkable cases of gas- poisoning are those in which persons in houses not supplied with gas have been found dead or dying the gas which killed them having worked its way from a leaky main in the street into the cellar and thence upward through the house It is also believed by physicians that many headaches and other ailments of obscure origin are due to small and unnoticed leaks of gas long continued So long as any kind of gas remains in the pipes or is completely burned on its escape from a burner it can do no harm but unburned gas whether from leaky pipes in the house or street or from defective fixtures or escaping from a burner after the flame has been- - accidentally or intentionally blown out is exceedingly dangerous to hu man life Youths Companion John Sherman as a Business 3Ian This is a business mans adminis tration and John Sherman is a busi ness man He has been very fortu nate or very skillful in his business ventures The only unsuccessful one which is recorded of him was away back in the early days of Ohio when he avus a boy of fifteen He had been working with a party of surveyors dur ing the summer and winfo m on he took it into his head to go and1 see his brother Sampson who was at work on a Cincinnati paper He had not much money a failing common to most heroes in their youthful days and as a means of paying for the trip he bought a barge and loaded it up with barrels of salt and apples thinking that before the river froze over be would get to Cincinnati and sell his saJt and his apples at a good price Salt was dear in those days and the price went up like a rocket after the river froze so that if young Sherman had reached Cincinnati before the oth er boats were detained by the ice he would have realized several hundred per cent on his investment But he didnt He got caught In the ice and had to wait for the Januarv thaw so that when he and his salt reached Cin cinnati the price of the latter was away down and the cargo sold at a loss of 100 One of his fathers friends how ever seemed much pleased with voung Sherman expressing the opinion that if the boy had the pluck and the per severence to go into such an enterprise and carry it out it did not so much mat ter whether he made anything on it or not In this he was probably ri ht But for a long time after that when he seemed to be embarking in some wildcat scheme the family would re mark John that is one of your salt speculations Washington Capital The Greatest Mnrderess Aqua Tofano the poisoner who lived In the latter part of the seventeenth uuu ot tne uuguiumg eighteenth cen turies was probably the greatest mur deress the world has ever known It is estimated her victims numbered near ly 700 mostly men The poison was a colorless liquid devoid of taste and put up in small bottles bearing the im age of St Nicholas a martvr who is said to have been boiled in oil The illness produced by the poison resem bled cholera Among the noted vic tims was Pope Clement XIV In 170 the arch poisoner was arrested and it was given out that she had been secret- Iwv d Ut SOme histrians insist that she lived until the year 1730 the her abilities as a poison maker J caking himseifof7bad habit a man usually accumulates the had habit of boasting about it L Wi wi 1 J a i H i I o 3 i I N m j