Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, April 11, 1909, HALF-TONE, Page 2, Image 18

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    Jap
anese
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WIIjDERNESS
(Copyright. 1909, by : Frank O. Carpenter.)
OBE (Special Correspondence of
K The -Bee.) If you want to see
I how wide awake the Japanese
tic-, n 1 1 17 Willi Ilio U1IIA mnc m
look at the Kanegafuchl cotton
"milt, which lies on the outskirts
of HIoro. It is the biggest spinning estab
lishment of the empire, aAd it belongs to
a company which has a capital of 7,0m),000
gold dollars and paid last year a dividend
of 22 per cent.' The company has alto
gether nineteen mills In operation and In
course of construction. It has already
more .than 200,000 spindles at work; and
the four new mills, now building, will add
to this 98,000 more. It Is putting up mills
for' weaving as well as foe spinning; and
when all are completed It will still have
1500,00 worth of working capital to go on.
The company began its work twenty
years ago by erecting a spinning mill at
Tokio. It has now two there and is build
ing a third. It has silk mills at Kyoto,
which are rapidly approaching completion,
and It will soon have 16,000 spindles In
operation there.
Japan's Blearest Cotton Mill.
Of ail the establishments of this big
corporation tlu one here at Hiogo Is the
largest. It covers many acres and em
ploys 4.000 hands. Its works run day. and
night, and they turn out cotton yarn by
the thousand of bales annually. Much of
the product is consumed here In Japan,
but .a great deal goes to the rapidly de
veloping market of China, where it com
petes .with' that from our country.
, 'Hlogo Is the native city for which Kobe
la -tho port. It has, all told, more than
300,000. people; and in going to the cotton
mill, our jlnrtkishas take ua through sev
eral miles of Japanese stores, over the
bridge which crosses the river and almost
Into the country. We can see the great
mokestack. It rises high above the low
warehouses and spinning mills, and its
dense .volume- jf black smoke poisons the
air. The : smokestack Is made af iron, in
stead of brick, aa in the United States.
This Is that It may the better withstand
the earthquakes which occur here every
few days, and which at times are so great
Uhat they might send a tall brick stack to
Ahe ground.- For the same reason the large
nlls are almost all one story. They are
built of brick and are so walled with glaaa
that they are splendidly lighted.
I do not know the acreage, but I went
through a wilderness of moving pulleys,
.whirling spindles, cotton opening machines
And other works of various kinds, which
toqk more time than a Sabbath day's Jour
ney. Single buildings seemed to reach on
and on till one could hardly see. the end,
and In all was the busy hum of machinery
and the Japanese men, women and chil
dren working away.
I have seen many pf our great mills In
the United States, but none In which the
cotton Is more rapidly and efficiently han
dled than here. I doubt If we have any In
which the work Is done with less labor.
The finest of up-to-date machinery Is em
ployed, and when It wears out It goes to
the scrap heap. In some rooms, covering
an aore, ho more than. two score men were
at work, and one little girl was tending to
every machine. In the spinning and reeling
rooms there were more, and In some I saw
hundreds of girls and women at work.
"team Engines, Homemade.
I asked whence the machinery came and
was told that some was from the United
States, but that more came from England.
Japan lias, not yet begun to manufacture
cotton machinery, although It is experi
menting with work of all kinds. For In
stance, the engines which run these big
works were constructed at Tokio. One of
tliera Is of 1,(00 horsepower, and it Is as
flno.as any engine of the kind anywhere.
-Connected with the establishment Is an
experimental weaving mill, which will soon
be Increased to 400 looms. ' As it Is now,
the cotton comes Into the mill In bales,
being Imported from China, India and the
United States, and It goes put In smaller
bales of cotton yarn, ready for weaving.
In ths near future much of It will go out
In the shape of cotton cloth for the mar
kets or Japan, Cores, Manchuria and
China.
During my visit I went through twelve
great cotton warehouses which are packed
full of bales, from the ground to the
roof, and ths manager tells mo that at
certain times in the year he has as much
aa $3,000,00 worth of raw cotton on hand.
The greater part of the cotton used cornea
from India, although much is from the
United States. Kobe, 'which is one of the
chief porta of the empire, lands about
140.000,000 worth of cotton every year; and
of this. tiO.OOO.OOO from China and over
110,000,000 from , the United Statrs. Our
cotton Is the best; but the Indian product
Is cheaper, anil the two are mixed in the
making of these yarns. The manager com
plained to me about the bad packing of
our American, bales, and showed me some
of. them ,sJ1e by side with bales from
Bombay. . The latter were beautifully put
up and so wrapped that no 'cotton could
be lost. 'Our bales were broken and torn
and the lint Was. falling' out.
-4-
Win the Cotton liana.
. As' I walked through the mills I asked
as to wages, and hours of work. There
are two shifts, one during the day and
the other at ' night. Tie hours of actual
work ar tan, and there axe rest hours at
I a. nv, at noon and S p. m. Ths rest times
consume about two hours, and with them
the working day Is twelve hours long.
This company does not work Its haods on
Sundays, aa Is common with many of ths
Industries of Japan. It believes In night
work, lu- manager tells ma that almost
.
--
Spinning
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OF WHIRLINO SPINDL.EB.
all the cotton mills work both day and
night, and that this custom is a great
benefit to the spinning Industry. As It is
now, the demand for cotton yarns Is so
great that night work Is a necessity, but
In times of depression it is possible to stop
the night work until the demand requires
It again. By this double work the Japan
mills are producing twice as much, per
capital ond machinery, on mills of other
countries where day work only is used.
This fact may be one of the reasons for
the big - dividends which nearly all the
companies are now paying.
1 asked as to wages of the mill hands
and was told they are from twenty
two to sixty seA a day. This means from
eleven to thirty cents of our money, or
from a littlo ' more than one to three
cents for each working hour. . At that
they are higher than In some other mills,
the general wage of cotton spinners
throughout this district being about twenty
one cents for women, thirty cents for
men and six cents for children.
As I went through the mills I saw a
great many children at work and many
of the child workers were under fourteen.
I had a photograph made of myself stand
ing beside 'some little almond-eyed tots
who could not have been more than ten.
According to the government Teports,
there are now three hundred and twenty
five thousnnd hands In the textile fac
tories, and of these almost two hundred
and ninety thousand are females. There
are also twenty-six thousand girls and
two thousand boys who are under four
teen years of age. This Is not a large pro
portion of children and the number grows
less from year to year.
Girls1 Dormitories. .
The Kanegafuchl company is about the
most advanced of all In a pan aa to its
methods of handling Its employes. It
has tenement houses which It enta out
at low rates, and also dormitories for men
and dormitories for women. I visited one
of the latter buildings. It was a two
storied structure surrounding a beautiful
garden. Its walla were of framework cov
ered with paper, with outer walls of pine
wood. It had accommodations for 800 girls
sleeping In Japanese- fashion on the floor,
with several girls In each room. As the
night shift was sleeping, I was not able
to look at many of the rooms, but the few
I saw were carpeted with the whitest of
mats and warmed by hi bach Is or Japanese
fire boxes. Outside this, they had prac
tically no other furniture. The bedding
consisted of futons, or thick-wadded com
forters, which were packed away in cup
boards when not In use. The girls have
Helena Modjeska's Wonderful Career
ELENA MODJESKA. actress and
patTlot, had a larger acquaint-
ance In Omaha than almost any
other woman on the state In her
time. This was partly because
early in her career on the Amer-
H
lean stage she made here some warm
friends, and partly because her son, Ralp
Modjeskl, practically began here the engi
neering work which was to lead him to a
position as eminent In his profession as
his mother occupied In hers.
Thus it came about that Mme. Modjeska
always stayed aa long in Omaha as her
engagement would permit, and while her
son was living here for two years, his
mother came at times when she was not
actively engaged in dramatic work,
Modjeska was not a young woman when
she first came here, and neither was she so
old In this year 1909 as many would have
thought. She was born In 1844, In Cracow,
Foland. At that date this portion of her
country had not yet been absorbed by
Russian, and Mme. Modjeska, born a free
Pole, remained one in spirit all her life.
She first saw Omaha In 1878, the year of
her first trip across this country as an ac
tress, and-It was upon the occasion of this
first visit that she and the lata Edward
Rosewater became acquainted and formed
a friendship which lasted until his death.
Mme. Modjeska was an actress of renown
in Europe before she came to America. It
had been an amateur theatrical experiment
which first directed her toward ths stage.
In the year 1861 she was visiting In Bochlna,
In Austrian Poland, and with some friends
essayed a little play In behalf of charity.
She herself took the stellar role. It was a
successful venture, eminently so, and tha
little company decided to turn professional.
In three years Mme. Modjeska was engaged
to play the leads for a new theater in
Cracow, and It was now that the European
world began to know her.
For eloven years the Polish woman con
tinued to play In Warsaw and Cracow
and her fame spread all over the conti
nent. Meantime her husband, the brilliant
M. Chlapowskl, had become persona non (
grata to the Russian government through
taking part in the Ill-starred revolution of
lMKt and was forced to suspend labor as a
newspaper man. Ills wife, torn by sor
row fqr her native land and worry at the
enmity of the government toward her hus
bund, at length broke down.
Just at this time a little band of enthu
siastic, restless souls conceived tha Idea of
finding a refuge In the United States. It
mas plamirj along the line of Brook Farm
of New tiigland memory, although none
of the Poles had heard of this first ex
periment In communism. Two men were
sent to the United States, one of them
being he who later has risen to eminence
as the author of "Fire and Sword" and
"Quo Vadls." Slencklewlcs and his com
panion pitched on a spot in southern Cal
ifornia known as Anaheim. It la near
' ' ' THE OMAHA ' RTXDAY TSEK: APRIL 11. 190f. P
i l L I
Mills Are Paying Big Dividends to Stockholders
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AUDIENCE
neither bedsteads, tables nor chairs, and
they sit and sleep Japanese fashion upon
the floor.
Two-Cent Meals.
Front here I went to one of the large
dining rooms. which the company has es
tablished for Its employes. Here several
hundred men and boys were eating with
chopsticks steaming rice, vegetables and'
fish. They were enjoying the meal and
were apparently satisfied. As I looked the
manager told .me that they furnished
board at a little less than cost price, and
that the men were given three meals for
6V4 cents per day. This Is not quite 2 cents
per meat, nevertheless they ' work all day
and grow fat. The manager told me that
they lose about 2 cents per day on each
man In thus feeding them, and when I
asked whether the food was uniformly
good the reply came quickly: "Of course
It Is, and we have to keep It so or we
should soon hear from the men."
The company has also a store where
it furnishes its . employes such merchan
dise as they wan.t at cost price. This
store handles all sorts of Japanese goods,
though' the men may buy else where If
they will. It has food, clothing, notions
and everything that appeals to the taste
of such people.
.Well Treated Workmen.
This company is anxious to keep its men
in a good humor. It trains its employes
for its work and does all it can to make
them loyat to the establishment. It takes
great pride In the fact that it has some of
the best workmen in Japan, and leaves no
stone unturned to Increase Kb reputation
In this regard. Among the special Insti
tutions at the mills is a theater with a
large stage and a full equipment of scenery.
The house' will seat, I should say, about
1,000, the audience Bitting on white mats
on the floor. There are galleries with
similar, seats, and the floor rises under
them, so that tho people can be uniformly
well. The company brings actors and lec
turers here at Its own expense, In order
to amuse its employes.
There is also a two-storied school build-,
lng in the works, a large part of which
Is given up to a kindergarten for the
little children' whose mothers are employed
In the mills, and there is a technical school,
where picked boys are taught the scientific
theory of cotton spinning and practical
mill work under competent teachers. This
Is with the object of supplying intelligent
overseers and foremen for the future.
Another institution which all the Kane
gafuchl mills have Is a first-class hos
pital with a corps of pnysiclans and nurscB,
who attend the sick without charge. Tho
Log Angeles. Then they returned to Po-
land. Some of the enthusiasm had de-
parted, tut Mme. Modjeska, her son Ralph
and Chlapowskl, her second husband, were
among those faithful to the original plan,
The party sailed to New York, visited the
centennial exposition In Philadelphia, and
then sailed' for California, going by way
of Panama.
The colony proved a failure in a brief
time. Its career was not even as long as
that of Brook Farm. It was now that
Mme. Modjeska determined to return to
the stage. For six months she applied her-
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IIELE MODJESKA
(From an autographed portrait preeotd t Edward Rosewater la 1300.)
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m'' L- ..- " .,KKaKitUw'..,. ...... - f J ) , s.
OF GIRLS AT FREE THEATER FOR MILL HAND6.
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EOMB OF THE
hospitals have spring beds and are thor
oughly ventilated and lighted. The one
here had a laboratory connected with It
for the itudy of microbes and the investi
gation of special diseases. The company
proposes to build a sanitarium at Taka
sago, one of the seaside resorts, for Its
convalescent operatives; it has appropriated
$15,000 for the building, and this Is now
under construction.
In addition to the above, these mills have
a pension fund which now amounts to
$142,000, a fund for the welfare of the em
ployes of more than $100,000 and a sanitary
fund of $25,000. The workmen have also
societies organized under a company for
mutual relief and for the promotion of tho
general interest of .the members. One of
these societies has a large Income from Its
members' fees, including a subsidy from
the company, and another has a capital of
$100,000.
I am told that all the cotton mills of
self to the study of English, and at tho
end of that time secured, after sumo dif
ficulty, a hearing at the California thea
ter In Sun Francisco. "Adrlenne Lecouv
reur" was the vehicle and Mme. Modjeska
scored as instantaneous and complete a
success as she had on first appearances in
Warsaw and Cracow.
She was immediately engaged for an ap
pearance In New York and at the Fifth
Avenue theater in December, 1877. she re
peated her California victory. After that
her career was one of unbroken successes.
She made twenty starring tours across
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CHILD WORKERS.
Japan are doing well. . In addition to the
establishment which I have described there
are many others which work day and night
and which propose to Increase their ca
Vaclty and to extend their trade through
cut the far east. They look upon China
as their especial market and say that
they have the advantage of all other peo
ples In understanding tho written charac
ters used In the languages of the two coun
tries, and also In their general knowledge
of tho Chinese people and their customs.
There are now Japanese going over China
investigating the markets for cotton; and
there are utoamshlp lines which connect
Kobe with the big cities on almost all the
Chinese rivers. The demand for cotton
goods at home is steadily Increasing, and
there a great effort will be mudo to push
the trade In Corea and Manchuria.
At present there are 118 mills In the coun
try devoted to spinning alone; and these
have more than l.BOO.Ow) spindles. They
on the Stage
the cour.try in the course of which she
played fifteen Shakespearian roles Juliet,
IRosamond. Viola, Beutrlce, Portia, Imogen,
Ophelia, Julia, Ilesdemona, Lady Constance,
Queen Catherine, Hermione, Isabel und
Lady Macbeth. It Is of course as the last
named that she is best known, but it was
not her favorite part. Best of all she liked
to play Mary SUuart in the "Schiller drama.
One of her children she named for the
Queen of Scots.
It is asserted that Modjeska was the first
who played Ibsen in America. Certain it
Is at any rate that she put on "The Doll's
House" under the name of "Thora" in
1&S3-4. It met with a cool reception. With
Suderman's "Helmath," given as "Magda,"
she had better luck and kept It In her
repertory for some years.
Illustrious as Mme. Modjeska was pro
fessionally, sl.t will be longest remembered
by those who knew her best for her noble
oharacter In private life. A never-falling'
spring of energy and inspiration In a pro
fessional way to her assoclutes on the
stage, she was by these and other friends
beloved as few men or women In any age
for her kindliness and thoughtfulness.
Her son, Ralj h Modjeskl (his name ends
with the masculine "I") was sent to Paris
to study at the Ecole des ponts et
Chausses. He graduated at the head of
his class and soon came back to America
to practice engineering. His professional
work, begun in Omaha, has served to place
him In the very front rank of civil en
gineers who devote themselves to bridge
designing. His work in Omaha lasted
through 1885 and lm. It had to do with
the widening of the Union Pacific bridge.
Assistant engineer of the Union Pacific
at that time, he rose rapidly thereafter.
He became consulting engineer of the Illi
nois Central and hus since designed among
others the gnat bridge at Thebes. III., the
Willamette bridge over the Columbia In
Oregon, which will take the Northern Pa
cific Into Portland, und a great suspenslpn
bridge at Iiulsville, Ky. Two honors have
come to him recently of the highest rank.
One Is his appointment as a member of
the international commission of three to re
build the bridge over the St. Lawrence at
Quebec. The other is his selection as
consulting engineer for tho new structure
to replace the Willlumsburg bridge across
the East river at New York.
During his two years in Omaha Mr.
ModJ.-tki occupied a residence on liurt
street Hear North Tw.-nly-thlrd. In later
j ems he became a warm friend of Clement
Chuse of this city, whose wife hut been a
friend of Mine. Modjeska from beforu the
time that woman her made her debut In
Adrlenne Lecouvreur. Mr. and Mrs. Mod
jeskl and Mme. Modjeska have been fre
quent guests of the Chases In Omaha and
the actress always stayed at the Chase
home when her company played here. Mr.
and Mrs. Chase named on of their daugh
ters after tha Polish woman.
'aa Mm t. mi
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BREAKINQ COTTON AT THE ICANEOAFUCHI MILLS.
make almost 1,000.000 bales of cotton yarn
annually; and have a profit therefrom of
$9,000,000 or $10,000,000. I have before me
figures showing some of the dividends paid.
In 195 every cotton mill In Japan paid from
10 to 40 per cent, and in 1306 there were ten
companies which paid all the way from 16
to 45 per cent. In 1907 there were two
which paid 50 per cent; and the Tokio
Grand Yarn company has pnld ns high as
70 per cent Nearly all these compnnies
sre adding to their surpluses and are
charging off good amounts to the deprecia
tion of their buildings and machinery.
Cotton Weaving:.
So far tho Japanese have not done a
great deal In weaving cotton, but they are
now making enough sheeting every year
to carpet a road as wide as Pennsylvania
avenue. In Washington, for a distance of
60.000 miles. Such a carpet wnuld reach
twice around the world at the equator and
leave more than enough over to cover a
similar pathway through Its center. There
aro now a number of large mills with
something like 10,000 looms. They grew
rapidly during the war with Russia, for
the army needed quantities of goods, and
the prices roso. The cost of blankets went
up 100 per cent, and some of the mills were
kept busy making kahki. Of what the war
required It Is estimated that Japan supplied
70 per cent and only imported 30 per cent.
In addition to the work of the weaving
factories, an enormous amount was done
In the houses on hand looms. There are
now almost 1,000,000 homes in which weav
ing is carried on, and there are hundreds
of thousands of people who work these.
The number was more than 1,000,000 ten
years ago, but It Is gradually decreasing
and more and more of the work is being
done in the factories. It Is this housewcav
Ing Industry which consumes a great part
of the cotton yarn manufactured here, and
it is on the hand looms that most of that
which Is exported to China and Korea Is
woven. Many small mills are springing up,
some worked by steam and others by water
puwer and electricity. The center of tho
weaving industry Is about Osaka, which is
also tho center of the spinning industry.
That city has more than 20,000 houses In
which weaving Is done. It has scores of
largo factories und the smoke from their
stacks makes the town seem more like
Pittsburg than any In Japan. Osaka Is
now us big as Philadelphia, and It has
grown greatly within the past few years.
Japanese Matting-.
This region Is the center of the matting
Industry. There are many factories about
Osaka bay and here In Kobe which make
millions of mats for home consumption,
millions of mats for name consumption.
The Japanese do not uso matting like that
exported to the United States. The most
common carpet here is made up of white
straw woven into mats an inch thick, a
yard wide and two yards long. These mats
are the unit of surface measurement for
Quaint Features of Life
That Was Going- Some."
TTIRED in underclothing, two
A
pairs of trousers, a heavy outside-flannel
shirt, stockings and
rubber boots, Ervin I.eonard
was working about a revolving
shaft In his Farmington saw
mill, near Westfleld, Pa.
Suddenly he was picked up by the belting,
whirled around the shaft many times and
hurled many feet. He was nude save for a
littlo strip of underclothing around one
wrist and one ankle.
Companions who ran to pick up his
lifeless body were amazed to see him t pen
his eyes and hear him say:
"Gee whiz! but that waa going some."
Ills hlrs were dislocated and he received
numerous bruises, but with theso excep
tions he Is us good as ever. The space be
tween the top of the shafting and the beam,
which he was crowded through. Is not
more than twelve Inches high.
Wife May -ag nt Home.
It may be very unpleasant for a husband
to listen to the nagging remarks made by
his wife. She may accuse him. of all sorts
of things, but as long as she confines her
remarks to tho four walls of their hoino
the husband cannot sue for a divorce. That
is the opinion, at least, of Judge Hacker
of the circuit court of Bartholomew county,
Indiana. He was called on to decide a de
murrer In the divorce case of Aaron Wild
man, and ho sustained the demurrer to the
complaint.
Wlldmun declared In his complaint that
he had been treated In a cruel and Inhuman
manner. Then he specified thut the treat
ment consisted In Ii la wife muking nv-an
remarks to him, accusing him of unfaith
fulness, wishing him bad luck und all that
sort uf thing. He did not all-ge that she
had ever struck him or used uny sort of
violence except with lier tongje.
If the remarks made by the wife had
been mailo In public. Judge Ilai ker mid
that they might be construed to show that
Wlldmun had suffered from the treatment
Obliged the Tornse.'
An emi.ty coffin rented .on u trjik on the
Atchison d pot piutforin one d:iy this week,
reiutes the Kansas City Jouinil. (Jut oi
mischief one of the einploeu In the bag
gage room crawled Into the coffin box and
drew the lid down. No sooner was lie con
cealed than a young colored man with a
Jaunty swagger and tuneful whlutlu came
along and wishing to rest settled comfort
ably on the casket.' He fell asleep and was
awakened by a distressing moan. The moan
was repeated, and then somebody said:
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almost everything. The rooms of ths
houses are rectangular and their sites nr
estimated at the number of mats it takes
to cover them. When a man orders a
house built he directs that It be one of so
many mats, and the cost of construction
is based upon that estimate. These mats
are bound with black cloth, and, as they
fit closely, tho floor Is covered with a
number of these white rectangles sur
rounded by hlaek. Japan uses over 14,000.
0"0 such mats every year, and also S.OOO.CHiO
or 4.CW.00O pieces of ordinary matting of
the same shape. The value of tha whole is
several million dollars.
As to the matting for export, the manu
facture of that began less than twenty
years ago, and It now brings in something
like $"i,000,000 a year. Almost the whole of
this export Is to the United States, our
purchases of Japanese matting annually
amounting to something like 20,000.000 yards.
The most of this Is cheap and coarse, but
other varieties are aa fine as a Panama
hat. They are now making new patterns
with raised figures. I have Just ordered
a roil sent home, which looks like brocaded
silk woven of straw.
This matting is made out of a reed
which grows about here. It has no knots
and is much like rice, although its seed
has no value. It is planted and cultivated
in the same way, and is well dried and
bleached before It Is sold. The matting i
dyed with anallne colors. It is woven like
cloth, but ail the pieces have to be put
in by hand. The work is tedious and of the
finer varieties two men and an assistant
can make not more than three rolls per
month.
The Japanese are now weaving beauti
ful straw rugs in flowers and other pat
terns, and these are exceedingly cheap.
I have bought some about six by ten feet
in size at 50 or 60 cents each and the high
est price I have paid for any matting Is
less than 20 cents gold per yard.
Native Cottons,
The most beautiful cottons made here are
intended far native consumption. They ara
not much more than a foot wide and ara
artistically printed In designs far different
from the loud figures used on the goods
Intended for the United States markets.
The cotton crepe for home use is beautiful
and It would have a big sale In the United
States for curtains if it were sent there.
The Japanese use it for their e very-day
summer kimonos.
Another Interesting manufacture of cot
ton is that which the native people employ
hero for toweling. These have gay figures
printed In white and blue. Every firm has
Its own design and not a few of the native
hotels give away towels of this kind to
their guests. Within the last few years
quite a crazo has sprung up among the
foreign ladles visiting Jaran to make col
lections of these towels, and I know many
who buy pieces of them for use as fancy
tablecloths and napkins.
FRANK Q. CARP ENTER.
"Oh o-o! Please get off my dead body."
Tho nergo grunted the request at once.
With a blood-curdling yell he leaped Into
the air and sped away. He attempted to
cross the bridge, but Cy Smith, fearing that
In his frenzy he would leap into the watery
depth below, blocked the way. Unable to
cross the river, the colored man sprinted
to the railroad yards, and when last seen
was passing the coal mine and still going
cuuth.
Itoosevelt's Macaolayaa Memory.
Somewhere In the White House flics is a
hater from Senator Lodge, relates Collier's.
The senator had been dining at the White
House, and the letter refers to the talk
of the night before. It begins:
"You are so deplorably exact ubout dates
that when you said Hlero was a century
after Alexander I simply climbed down
and wondered how I cumc to make such a
blunder as to put him before Alexunder.
Looking the matter up,I find my excuse.
There were two Hieros. lllero I reigned
478-467. It wus his date I had In my head.
Hlero 11 was born before DUO, not very far
away, but he had a long reign, and lived to
an enormous ugi'."
Someone Introduced Edward Clarke to the
president.
"Oh," said Roosevelt when he heard the
name, "you wrote a monograph on the
'prothonotary warbler.' You studied him
in the Kankakee River country."
lOIertrlral K fleet In Water.
The elect! leal Installations at the Alaska
Yukon exposition are so far advanced as
to permit triul illuminations. One of these
Just held proved thut the cascades, which
are tha central feature of the exposition,
will constitute a most beautiful spectacle.
The cascades extend for u lenuth of bM
feet through the central court of the ex
position grounds. They tarry 4-i.ftiO gal
lons of water a mi:n:te, and when this
trcrrrtndous volume plunges ever them It
Is broken Into millions of rainbow frag
ments by submerged electric lights. The
Hui n;ertr d lights are protected by heavy
heads of rolured tlai-y, so airanaed that
they sr.aie from lighter t mes to the center
of the stream to dar! r eo'nrs ut the outer
eiij.e. As trc ttrei m plunges ever the
serlts of dams In Its downward course, It
takes on the varied c oins of the lights.
The cascade end In Geyser Basin, where
the "Old Faithful" Geyser of tha Yellow
stone Is reproduced, spurting jets of water
1T0 feet In the air st Intervals of a minute.
The basin, like the cascades. Is Illuminated
by submerged lights which maka of tha
Jets of water thousands of trldaacaat aprajs.