, & * & * * & * &h $
THE MODERN COWBOY ON THE TEXAS RANGE.
William Linger.brJnk of St. Louis is on one of the great cattle ranches
of Texas , the L. S. Ranch , near Tascosa. He has sent 'to V. ' . L. S. Snchtle-
ben of St. Louis letters and photographs descriptive of life on the ranch.
The L. S. Ranch is one of the largest in Texas. Its pastures are fenced
Into fields twelve miles long and six miles wide. It counts its hundreds of
'thousands of hoofs. Twenty cowboys ride in its roundups. It brands 5,000
calves at a single fire. Four times a year its cattle are rounded up once for
vaccination against blacWeg ; once for shipment to market , and once every
rpring and fall for branding the calves. Each of these iroundups requires
from two to four weeks. The ropers arc out at 3 o'clock in the morning and
ride constantly unlll 3 in the afternoon , a twelve-hour race which requires
for twenty men 140 fleet , sound and sure-footed ponies.
This Is a new era In Texas cattle
raising. It is possibly less picturesque
than the old era , "andin some respects ,
less strenuous , but it is not without
its interests and charms.
In the olden days the cattle were
turned loose on the plains to shift
lor themselves and were rounded up
twice a year , in the spring to brand
and in the fall to ship to market. Now
the pastures are inclosed with wire
fencing ; water is provided for the
stock by sinking wells or by building
flams and reservoirs to hold the over-
How ; fence riders are daily riding
among the herds to see if any animals
need attention ; salt , in troughs , is dis
tributed along the water courses ; hun
dreds of tons of prairie and lake hay
are cu tevery summer and fed in win-
te rto such animals as require help.
The plains country is admirably adapt
ed for the cultivation of Kaflir corn ,
sorghum , millet , maize and Johnson
grass , while the bottoms will grow
three cuttnigs of alfalfa a year with
but little cultivation or irrigation.
This change in the cattle business
notes the disappearance of the old-
time cowboy , and bronco-buster , he
of the wild and woolly kind , the man
with the long hair and six-shooter , the
chap with an unquenchable thirst and ,
a love for faro , and with the bad hab
its of shooting up the town when oc
casion aJTorded. The cowboy of today
has different work before him. He not j
only needs to be a rough rider , to be
able to throw a steer or brand a calf , c
but must be somewhat o a granger
as well.
The average pay of a cow-hand is
525 per month with "grub , " the man
to furnish his own bedding and saddle.
The foreman's pay runs from ? 50 to
$100 per month , while a managers' sal
ary runs from $1,500 to $3,500 per year.
In former days the cowboys were al
lowed to take their pay in cattle in
stead of cash , if they chose. As this
ivas in the days when cattle were
cheap they were enabled by thrift to
acquire quite a bunch in a few years ,
as cattle increase rapidly and their
keep was aothing. At the present time
few If any ranchers allow their men
to run cattle , and few of the boys stay
at it Jong enough to save a thousand
or two thousand dollars to enable '
Ihem to buy a bunch of their own.
The "roundup" is about the only
relic that is left of the oldtime cattle
business. Life on one of the large
ranches in the spring is indeed a w ,
strenuous one. The foreman will get idi i
OUR future wars are we likely sic
IN to arm the thousands of Filipinos sicI
at our disposal and put them in dei
the field against our enemies of the gn
onoment ? em
This possibility has been discussed exl
-with intense interest since Great Brit- str
ain has .set the fashion of arming her pai
foreign subjects. has
One of the most important an- sut
nouncements that have been made in am
the British parliament for many a fro
year past was the declaration of Col- the
theI
onial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain
that the English government will not tiro
hesitate henceforth to employ in Eu- kos >
lope or elsewhere her Indian and the
African troops. ma
Jt Is an announceznent of the most eve
profound interest to the United States , me
Russia , France and Germany , which 6ac
have millions of semi-barbarous races of
subject to their rule. nifi
Uncle Sam alone has some S.OOO Pill- poi
pinos in whom the military instinct is tha
most strongly developed , the males the
preferring war to industry , and with a dlei
characteristically original disregard [
for death or injury and almost incred- tha
ible powers of endurance would sooner
moi
flght than work. jec
Indeed , the Philippine isiands might bee
furnish- the United States a practi- tha
tally inexhaustible recruiting ground aro
for its army , now that the compact of
which has hitherto existed between ven
civilized nations against the use of and
Oriental or African troops in civilized bar
warfare is to be broken by Great in
Britain. B
- Curiously enough , the peace confer- Chi
tnce at The Hague two years ago , thei
when the 'rules of war were subjected troc
to a revision , carefully avoided any war
reference to the matter that is to say , to
In , the shape of any steps toward a the
specific agreement by treaty to refrain cuss
from the employment of Asiatic and mos
African troops In civilized warfare.and engi
the only action taken by the delegates the s
that can be considered as in any way 33
bearing upon the question was the
fleclaration of their adhesion to the unj
"accepted laws of warfare among civ- :
Sized nations , " which comprise a re-
strictkm "prohibiting the use of bodies
f troops composed of individuals of cou
savmge or semi-savage races. " De
Neither England nor Russia , nor yet agai
France , was desirous of binding itself post
to abstain for availingitself of the whi
services of Its dusky . soldiers In the use
event of war In which its national ex- < Jhr
Jslence waa likely to be at stake , and ; and
the matter , therefore , was by a sort pow
f ffreement kept .out _ pf the discus- mat
together his men , about twenty in all ,
good riders alland ropers every one of
them , prepare his "chuck wagon , " hire
a cook , and away they go on their
branding trip. Two men are detailed
to wrangle horses , one a day herder
the other a night herder. About seven j j i
horses are required to the man besides j
the eight mules for the wagons , thus
thus making quite a respectable bunch
of 150 head.
Camp is pitched where water Is'con
venient , tents put up and beds unroll
ed. The following morning the actual
work begins. The boys are roused out
at 3 o'clock sharp by the cook's sten
torian call , "come and get it" ( break
fast ) , which consists of black coffee ,
hot rolls , bacon and oatmeal. By this
time the night ranger has brought in j
the "remuda" ( horses ) close by , and ! !
no time is lost in roping and saddling
the required number , a r.ingle lariat
rope held around the bunch is as ef-
fective 1 as a high board fence.
The foreman now divides the squad
into 5 twos and threes , and rushes them
off to the different corners of the pas- j
tures. < As each enclosure is twelve
miles longby six wide , or seventy-two
square miles to be scoured over , some
hard riding has to bo done. The boys
on reaching the far end , gather all
cattle and drive them slowly to an j
appointed place , being careful not to
lose the calves from their mammas.c
This done , fresh horses are saddled
and the cutting out of cows with their
alves commences. They are then driv
en to the corrals and branded. The
branding itself requires some skill and
a. great deal of hard work. A big leg
fire is started and the irons are well
heated. Then two mounted men ride a
d
in amongst the herd , lasso a calf and
drag it to the fire , where two other s
men put on the brands and another
clips the ear with the owner's partic
ular mark. Speaking of earmarks , it
remarkable how many different ear
marks can be made by cropping and a
splitting the ears. There are thou
sands in use in Texas today. Each
brand must be recorded , and no two
alike.
At 10 o'clock the men are ready for .
( ;
3inner , and while the horses are be
ing brought up the cook lustily calls of
'chuck away" ( dinner ) . By the time
fresh horses are brought up the"men
ire off again to the corrals to finish
aranding the morning's gather. Three
j'clock in the afternoon sees the day's n :
vork done , it not being advisable to
Irive cattle during the heat of the
ft * * * S44SS * * * * * & > .a * AS4S&a * 4 * * S > S | { 01
I The Filipinos as U , S Soldiers , | l wa :
ons at The Hague.
It has until now been generally un-
irstood , however , by these three Vii
reat powers that if native troops were
an
nployed it would be in
only the last fot
stremity , and this view has been fotA
rengthened by the
extraordinary vill
tins which the English government wo
is taken to prevent the warlike Ba- alo
ito tribes , who are under British rule box
id most loyal to the British flag ,
pa
om taking part in the war against thr
e Boers.
In : the war of 1S70 the French at one
Mn
ne brought a few regiments of Tur- wh
s from Algeria , but so great was ! SOI1
e outcry raised , not only from Ger- he
any and elsewhere * in Europe , but by
en in France , against their employ- ed
ent : that they were hastily shipped edW
.ck to Africa long before the close .
g.ar
the war , although they were magse '
Rcent figliters and , from a military
int : of view , of much greater value ure
an the untrained levies of'mobiots , "
y
e majority of whom had never han-
e
id a gun before in their lives.
t is to Japan in a great measure Me
at must be attributed the recent re- boi
val of the prejudice. For the ob- of
Jtion < to semi-civilized warriors has vis
en based altogether on the belief to
at when their passions have been fro
oused by the excitement and turmoil tte.
ett1U
battle It would be impossible to pre- 1U
nt them from Indulging in savagery all
d cruelty which , while natural in she
rbarous races , should be repulsive whl
the < extreme to white peopls. the
Jut during the recent campaign in vol
ina the Japanese distinguished wor
jmselves among all the other allied elin
tops by their humane methods of the
theM
.rfare and by their indignant refusal M
participate In any of the rapine , first
cruelty and the altogether inex- ippi
sable barbarity which disgraced al- ed I
st all of the European contingent rule
raged in the military operations in and
Celestial Empire. thai
England's , example , unless checked COUl
an international conference , will Am
ioubtedly be followed by other to > 1
at powers possessed of Asiatic and LK
rican dependencies , and thus an al- rem
rether new element , of which no ac- is d
int , has been taken until now , will han
introduced Into modern warfare dres
linst civilized nations. In fact'it is barl
ssible that in the course.of time the her
ite races may eventually come to slve
none but their dark-hued , non- hun
ristian lieges for fighting purposes , the
that in this way continental great she
svers of Europe , such as France.Ger- nen
ny , Busaia , etc.fmty be relieved cmL
ir
day. In the cool of the evening a beef
is killed , generally a fat. off-color calf
or yearling , which furnishes sufficient
meat for two or three days , when an
other is sacrificed to afford a constant
supply of fresh meat for the camp.
Riding all day and wrestling with
calves gives a man a wonderful appe
tite. This round-up lasts from two to
three weeks , and has to be done from
four to five times a year. Twice for
branding the calves in the spring and
fall , once for vaccinating and weaning
and again for shipping to market. Vac
cinating is something new. Thou
sands of cattle die yearly of blackleg ,
which is most fatal to animals from
six months to two years old , after
which they are practically immune , the
loss , if any , being small. The pnly
practical way of contending the rav
ages of blackleg is to vaccinate every
animal. The government is engaged
in making extensive experiments , and
is lending valuable aid to the cattle
men in stamping out this disease.
* The aim of the ranch owners is to
dispose of their increase as calves or
yearlings.sellifcg the steers and replac
ing and increasing the breeding herd
with heifers. The increase of beef pro
duction in Texas will be not so much
an ' increase in numbers as in the
quality of the beef. The best quality
and consequently highest priced beef
is made on grain. Noi-thern grass 1'ed
cattle bring good prices , but Texas is
essentially a breeding country. There
the ranchman is able to grow cattle at
far less cost than obtains amongst thP
farmers. When eqiially bred the ranch
cattle are equal to eastern stock , but
,
it takes the "feed-lots" of the corn
belt to put flesh and fat on them and
make "good beef. "
Just a few figures to show the ex
tent of the cattle business. The re
ceipts at Chicago alone average over
e
three and a half million a year , which
are worth at a low valuation $100,000.-
000. The 1900 census shows tha Texas
supports 4,352,541 cattle , valued at $77-
735,334. The cattle business is a staple
one , and is constantly improving. But
there is still room for more , and an
actual need for more. The demand to
day for good beef is ahead of the
supply.
A correspondent writing from Sau- .
"
gatuck , Conn. , says that in that town
were born , and lived until quite re an
cently , three brothers , triplets , who
all lived to be about 75 years old. They
were named Frederick , Franklin and on
Francis Sherwood and were known as ty :
the three F's. They looked so much coi
alike that they were often taken the en
cne for the other. All followed the raiI
sea and were for a long time masters
vessels. we
rai
llrs. William Gregory , widow of kil
Sovernor Gregory of Rhode Island , has ill
become the incorporate head of the illI
mill business which the
governor con
to
: o
ducted for a great many years in a tome
most successful .
manner.
the
that compulsory military service
n-hich ie such a drawback to trade ers
ind industry.
till
wo
TALK ABOUT WOMEN , - : An
wo '
woA
Mrs. Indiana Williams has left her .
n
Virginia home , 1,500 acres of land and *
+
endowment of $700,000 , for the
'ounding of a school for girls. .
ti
An association of women in Hones-
dol
Pa. , number among their good
tha
vorks the building of a retaining wall
Ho
ilong the river , constructing a river _ „
CUa
oulevard , a bridge , a fountain and a
boa
ark , where once a dumping ground
hreatened public health.
bur
A singular library was collected by -US1
Ime. Kaissavow of St. Petersburg ,
left :
rho has recently died. It consists of
ome 18,000 volumes , all of which were ,
t
work of feminine brains. No book
T
a masculine author was ever allow- .
In the library.
Mrs. Frances Tallmadge of Sheboy-
, Wis. , is said to have in her pos-
ession ; what is supposed to be a gen-
ine portrait of Louis XVI. The pic-
was presented to her ancestors
Eleazar Williams , who claimed to
,
the real Louis XVI.
Mrs. . Wilder P. Walker of Kennebec ,
. , has in her possession the punch
owl that was ordered by the town
Salem to be used when Lafayette som
isited : that city during his first trip wer
America. The first glass served Fall
rom : the bowl was handed to Lafay- inte
. It is of old Dutch blue China. sort
Mme. Patti says the most prized of dive
diveTl
her autographs is the one which Tl
received from Queen Victoria , follj
rtiich reads : "If King Lear spoke havi
ti'Uth when he said that a sweet ban
olce was the most precious gift a stoo
oman can possess , you , my dear Ad- who
ina , must be the richest woman in the
world. " mar
Miss Albertine E. Ridley , one of the mos
American girls to go to the Phil- coul
iplnes as an army nurse , has return- bet ?
to \ California , She says American aero
has infinitely bettered sanitary In tl
other conditions in Manila and wou
the natives.in that city are very
mrteous and considerate to the * iav
merican < girls who are administering vorc
the sick and wounded soldiers. Sout
Lady Charles Beresford is quite as
the
tnarkable a woman as her husband
h
distinguished as a man. Dark , and
Ing
indeome , with her own taste in
horn
which sometimes verges on that
wan
-rbaric which she so much loves in
Dak
favorite Cairo with a geen , inci-
reall
speech and a marked sense of
theit
amor , she is extremely advanced in
e
general trend of her opinions , but
detests everything in the shape of Th
womanhood. . She is very xnuii-
| * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * & & & * * ! & * * * 44 * * * * * A
j j THE IMMENSE VALUE OF THE AMERICAN HEN.
3U
U
I The Great Value of the Chicken Industry |
as Shown By the Census Bureau. I
& 3399999999&39Q&$9&9 X $ ' '
The United States Census Bureau has just made up its statistics of
the chicken industry in the United States. The results are so astounding
that the American hen must be proclaimed the greatest of birds , now and
forevermore.
The chickens of the United States in the year 1900 weighed 921,715 tons.
To appreciate these figures it must be known that all the big and. little
fighting ships in the United States navy weigh 133.54-1 tons. The number of
these chickens was 284,000,000 , and they laid 10,000,000,000 eggs. The weight
of these eggs was 625,033 tons , and their bulk was forty times that of the
earth. The value of these eggs would have paid every cent of the expenses
of the United States war department for the year.
Missouri is the first state in chickens and eggs. In the year 1900 the
hens of Missouri laid more than $5,000,000 worth of eggs beyond the need
of their owners , the egg crop bringing the women of Missouri as much cash
as the wheat crop brought the men.
The American hen is the greatest of
birds. Plain , plump and possessing no
gorgeous plumage , she is still the real
bird of paradise , creating a heaven on
earth for men.
The wonderful hen of the United
States earned more money in the year
1900 than did the United States postal
system , though the one had the aid of
a great government and the other did
her own cackling and feathered her
own nest. She receives no handicap
over any other institution in the coun
try , being strictly a scratch contest
ant.
ant.WJien
WJien the census bureau gets all its
reports together it promises figures
and facts about this diffident creature
and her staple product that will make
a lot of United States treasury depart
ment figures look literally like thirty
cents , for that is the proportion some
of the biggest items in the budget will
bear as compared with the value of the
beW
work of the American hen.
In ] the last year she has laid enough
eggs to pay the expenses of the entire
war department from top to bottom.
She ha's changed the balance of trade
m eggs. She has earned more with
her quiet endeavor than the entire
postal system did. All the vessels
built in the country in the last year
do not weigh as much as do the eggs
that she laid.
The American hen is a bird.
There are enough of her in the coun-
tn to feed our entire standing army
foi eleven years , giving each soldier
ind officer one chicken a day.
anI
If all the chickens in the country
vere to conceive a passion for roosting
inly on railroad trades , there are plen-
y of them to block every line in the
ountry , for'there would be one chick-
n to every three and a half feet of
railway.
If each locomotive in the country
vere to kill one chicken a day , the
ailroads woul ? have to keep up the
tilling for twenty years to annihilate
the chickens.
If all the chickens of the country had
be transported on any one day , al-
nost all the 1,328,084 freight cars in
he United States would be needed * for
he work.
It is lucky that hens are not drink-
of alcoholic liquors. If they were ,
Jlthe bourbon and rye whisky dis-
illed in the United States in 1900 t
rould be drunk in no time by the n
Lmerican hen and the American tank t
/ould have to go dry.
All the distilled spirits made in 1900 t
the whole United States would last n
hem only a few days. ti
Tne eggs laid by the American hen
1900 amounted to enough value in
ollars to pay , the entire expenses for n
hat year of the United States Marine11
lospital service , the United ! States
oast and geodetic survey , the steam- ;
oat inspection servicethe running ex-
enses of forts and fortifications , the
ureau of labor and the department of
istice , and then there would be plenty h ;
ft to pay 95 per cent of the total apaJ
ropriations for 1901 for invalid and
ther ( pensions.
The inhabitants of New York City cc
lone ate enough eggs in the year to ec
/c ARK TWAIN said he would like en
1 to make a little visit to hades , th
because he wanted to meet So
ne of the entertaining people that scr
re there. In the same way , Sioux
11s is not a good place , but mighty pr
cresting for those who like that of
t of thing. For it is the greatest "sp
orce colony in the United States. wa
'he young men who married thro * are
iy ; the young women who would not
e been good wives to other husInt
ids < ; the middleagerswho had jou
od their spouses half a lifetime , but for
o could not go another step ; and wh
old roues who never should have tin
rried at all , are all there , and A
stly at the same hotel. What yarns plic
Id be swapped on that hotel piazza ; is
ween the women boarders , and sin
oss the little round , polished tables the
the cafe , if the guests of that hotel tioi
jld only loosen up and talk. ma
ome of the rich easterners , who bee
'e learned that one can get a diwoi
ce after seven months' residence In vor
ith Dakota , with a codicil on the a d
ree to be used as a license for antra .
er marriage , pay seven months' T
rd at the hotel , thereby establisheve
their residence , and live * back pap
je. These absentee residents are and
ned in clarion tones by the South "j
tota < press that they had better son
lly live in thestate ( and unwlre It
greenback bales ) lest , when they abh !
new spouses they discover sudshoi
ly they are bigamists. met
he law was made with the frank nun
wal that it would attract "spendjust
pay for another Brooklyn bridge.
Getting away from finance and en-
tering the realm of physics , the cal
culations become still more bewildere
ing.
For instance , all the eggs laid in 1900 ,
if combined in one vast body of pro-
portionate dimensions , would make a
planet forty times greater in diameter
than the earth , five timec greater than
that of Saturn and four and one-half *
times greater than that of Jupiter. But
it would be an impossible and flimsy
planet so flimsy that it could not hold
together , but would burst and fill the
planetary system with a novel mete- a
oric shower of yolk. a
In weight the eggs of the year com
bined would not make a big body com tlhi
hi
pared with the earth. A diagram
IS
showing the earth as a globe two feet
in diameter would have to show the irib
b
globe made by the eggs with a mere
dot. i But the eggs would make a huge tlei
body i all the same , even-if judged by ei
weight alone.
hi
So huge a body would be made of
all the eggs laid by the American hen in
in 1900 that if it were to be dropped of
from j the sky on the entire American
navy the 13 battleships , all the cruis tr
ers , all the gunboats , all the monitors st
and torpedo boats and converted craft of
and colliers and supply vessels and .
tugboats , and even the launches and th ;
whaleboats the mighty egg would an ea
nihilate them all in an instant. If it ta
were to lie on the sea alongside of the as
navy , that one grea't composite egg lo
would hide the ships , for in tonnage loye
it would be far more than they all are ,
combined. 18
All the chickens in the country com ,
bined in one vast fowl would make a
bird so huge that the Atlantic ocean
would be only a puddle for it. It could ac
peck out battleships as the present 10
real hen pecks np bits of gravel and cr
stone to help in her digestion. That su ;
mighty composite fowl would not find be >
room enough on the earth to strut. It sp
could reach half way to the moon , PO
and if it were put into a gigantic go ;
scale almost one-fifth of the entire ;
merchant marine of the country would tig
have to be put in the opposite side to
balance it.
The eggs of 1900 weighed more than
/
four times as much as our entire do
mestic produce of wool , three and ,
three-quarter ] times as much as our do- .
f
mestic produce of cane sugar , more
than : two times as much as the cop-
per output of 1900 , more than two and
three-times ! as much as the tin plates fie
manufactured during the year and 30
times as much as the whole output of i
poi
The value of those eggs at the lowest em
market price was more than one-half ly ,
the total income derived by the United St
States in 1900 from the customs rev- the
2nue.
thf
If all the banks of the country had thffi
been called on suddenly to pay the fi
lvalue of the eggs in specie It would
mve required more than one-third of E
the specie held by the 3,871 national yoi
janks. tiff
There are so many chickens in the me.
country that , If they were divided
squally among the populations ( leaving de
spe >
Where Divorces Flourish. vor at loo : ]
sor >
brot
s" to the state and
thereby increase are
ie volume of current circulation of hea ;
> uth Dakota. Its effect Is thus de- and
ribed by the Sioux Falls Journal : apai
"The divorce colony as a whole is a shaj
etty good thing for the merchants
this city. They are all money De
enders , and those who have the coin
v ne
ant the best there Is going. They
f
e naturally a restless lot , having
tied >
thing in particular with which to ,
5
terest themselves during their so-
urn here , and arc naturally ready -
t- e
r anything that will pass the time , .
lich accounts for some of them get- . .
ig reputations" for being gray. " .
A. peculiarity about the women ap-
m
cants for single blessedness which
r
constantly noticed Is that every
igle ; ( or would-be single ) one of ty
UE
sm .is good looking. The explana- ,
m has never been satisfactorily j - t
5
ide , but a number of them have
fortv
en attempted. One is that a plain
A
iman gets so many causes for di-
er he
rce at home that she can easily get
DrotJ
decree any time without having : to _
t
i.vel clear to the cow country.
that
The male colonists , however , are not
COD
in good looking. The Sioux Falls
per says of them with some warmth ?
much truth : * .
'
Among the male divorces there are
sed
ne : that certainly need to be caged ,
would undoubtedly be a disagree-
e experience'for them if they Chi
mid be riding in the country and the ;
et some fanner lad who was out Herb
ntingr. The farmer lad would be toget :
tified in thinking be saw some new it ha
out Kawaiians ) , each human being in
the United States and the dependencies
with him
would have to carry around
to be exact , 3.7-J
three chickens , or ,
chickens. And each human being :
would be entitled to 141 , or to eb ex
act , 141.352 eggs a year.-
The estimate is that In 1900 the Unit
ed States contained in round numbers
that the total
and
284,000,000 chickens
output of eggs was 10,000,000.000.
The value of the eggs at 16 cents a
$138,000,000 in round num- ,
dozen was $ , ,
bers.
These round numbers are well unde * .
the sums that are reached by close figr ;
uring. They-are given because they ,
are not only modest , but easy to re
member. "
For the mathematical person who
loves to pore over figures it may b
interesting 1 to know all the exact fig
ures.
Assuming that the increase in chick
ens in the past ten years had kept in.
pace with the population , we would-
have 312,712,613 chickens in the coun
try for 1900. On the basis of the egg
exports : , however , still allowing to each
chicken only the average of 37.993 eggs
cla year , shown in the fieures for 1890 ,
the total number of chickens in 1900
would be only 263.183,653. To be well
within the facts , it has been considered
safe to assume a mean figure of 283-
635,605 chickens for 1900. That tills Is
6Ja
very moderate estimate is shown by
all ! the statistics that have been stud
ied. For instance , in assuming1 that
the average annual number of eggs
has not been increased largely since
LS90 , there is probably an underesti
mate of fact , for the farmers have
been < devoting more study and time to
the egg producing qualities of chick
ens in the past few years than they
jver did before. Again , no allowance
tias been made for the known increase
hatcheries and the natural ratio
increase in production of fowls.
The record of suicides in this coun-
iry during the past year tells a sad
story. In 1901 7,245 persons "shuffled
ff this mortal coll , " as compared with
J.755 in 1900. The steady increase in
he suicide habit , largely due to the
ase with which poison may be ob-
ained , this being the most common
igency employed , is shown by the fol-
owing record of cases in a series of
rears : In 1890 , 2,040 ; 1891 , 3,531 ; 1892 ,
1,860 ; 1893 , 4,436 ; 1894 , 4,912 ; 1895 , 5,759 ;
896 ! , 6,530 ; 1897 , 6,600 ; 1898 , 5,920 ; 1899 ,
1,340 ; 1900 , 6,755 ; 1901 , 7,245.
The action of the United States in
icting on the principle that tubercu-
osis ! is contagious , has been strongly
iriticised by Dr. S. A. Knopf , the con-
umptlon expert. He holds that tu-
erculosis is not contagious If tha
putum is correctly collected and dis-
losed of. He recommends that the
overnment appoint a commission to
ive the matter an exhaustive inves-
igatlon.
The London Times in a recent issue
iublishes three papers which it says
/ere secured from the Chinese gov-
rnment by Dr. Ular , a prominent
cholar , and which show the existence
a bargain between Russia and LI
lung Chang , by which Russia was to
ccupy Manchuria and in return would
rotect the dowager empress against
eastern powers.
From Manila comes the startling re-
ort that breakdowns of government
mployes have been frequently recent-
including members of the United
tates commission. They are feeling :
effects of overwork. A meeting : of
commission will be
held to con-
der the matter and a Saturday half
will be inaugurated.
Brooklyn Life :
Judge What ar
jur grounds for divorce , sir ? Plain-
My wife married me to reform
and after we settled down didn't
ive sense enough to give up the
. Judge Granted.
ecies of something and take a shot
it. Then there
are the female di-
rcees , nearly all of whom are gooS
oking. Some are quiet and demure
of individuals , and have their
others ( ? ) with them , while there
others who are trying to turn th
ads of some of the traveling men
gay members of this
city
, and ar
arently succeeding In pretty good
"
lape.
Detroit Journal : A St. Louis di
, Rev. Charles
L. Kloss , pastor of
fashionable church in that city.star-
his congregation recently by eay-
in his pulpit that he advised the
ung women to propose
marriage to
young men. It Is not known yet
aether Mr. Kloss was safely married
fore he made that
. statement or
lether he is one of the shy youngr
that is too timid and modest to
himself to a
young woman , or It
be there
are so
many lovely
ung women in his flock that he can-
decide on one. Whatever
it is , h *
so declared
himself , and hence-
he will be the "dear pastor , "
as he never was
before. Wheth-
< can withstand the
avalanche
< *
posals he will probably
receive or
remains to be seen , it
may b *
marriage fees were slow ln his
igregation and he wanted to hurry
? P\Jt Is sald that his tt y i
men refuse
to
propose t *
STirls , the latter will be
to marriage.
folcago Tribune "
: "Amelia "
, faltere *
young man , "I
iove you" "OK
rbertrshe said , clasping hei hand ,
"
ether
"What a long , ion ,
taken you to say so. "
f-