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4 THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, JULY 22, 1913. ; w 4 * THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL A7EANTA, GA., 6 NORTH FORSYTH ST. Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mall Matter ol the Second Class. JAKES X. GRAY, President and Editor. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months • 750 Six months - • Three months The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tuesday and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes for early delivery. It contains news from all over- the world, brought by special leased wires Into our office. It has a start of distinguished contributors, with strong department* of special value to the home and the farm. Agents wanted r.t every postoffice. Liberal com mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R* BRAD LEY. Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have arf J. A. Bryan, R. F. Bolton. C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kim-, brough and C. T. Yates. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above named traveling repre sentatives. NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS. The -label used for addressing your paper shorys the time your subscription expires. By renewing at least two weeks before the date on this label, you insure regular service. In ordering paper changed, be sure to mention your old, as well as your new address. If on a route please give the route number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with back numbers. Remittances should be sent by postal order or registered mall. Address all orders and notices for this de partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL. Atlanta. Ga. An Essential Feature Of Tax Reform. For the same reason that there should be a board of tax equalization in each county, there should be also a central board for the State as a whole. If a county board is necessary to assure the just and uni form payment of taxes by individuals, then certainly a State board is necessary to assure an equable return of taxes by counties. There must be equality of tax ation among communities as well as among citizens, if the sorely needed reform of Georgia’s fiscal system is tg be adequate and vital. Otherwise we shall be attenuating, as it were, to play “Hamlet” with Ham let left out. It is regrettable that the Ways and Means com mittee of the House has not more distinctly recog nized this principle in the measure of tax revision which it has recommended for adoption. It has ap proved the creation of county boards but has re jected the all-important provision for State-wide direction and control. Its plan Is admirable so far as it goes but it leaves the problem only half solved. Makeshift measures will hot suffice the needs of a State whose • financial condition is so critical and confused as Georgia’s is today. When the same kind of land is returned in some counties at fifty dollars an acre and in neighboring counties at only three, when property, real and per sonal, is returned in one county for sixty per cent of its valuation and in an adjoining county for only ten, it is evident that some means of establishing a fair and uniform basis of tax assessments through out the State is imperative. And until this Is done, Georgia’s treasury will remain impoverished and her public institutions will continue to be stinted in their needs and checked in their development, de spite the fact that she is naturally one of the richst commonwealths in all the Union. It Is this glaring lack of fairness and uniformity in the tax returns of counties as well as of indi viduals that is chiefly responsible for the State’s present inability to pay its teachers and to support those Institutions and enterprises which make for our common progress and prosperity. Let this one great defect of our governmental machinery be cor rected, and we shall have ample funds for all the State’s college as well as its common schools and lor the development of many other important fields of endeavor which now must go neglected. , Furthermore, an equalization of taxes will reduce the burden upon the average taxpayer, for, when all citizens meet their obligations as they should, then every citizen’s share of government’s expense will be lighter. Indeed, the policy of equalization and uniformity is advantageous whether we view it from the standpoint of the individual, the county or the State in its entirety. It means justice to all per sons and all interests concerned, that justice which is the only guarantee of enduring prosperity. The members of the present Legislature have shown so steady a purpose to deal with this question frankly and efficiently that we may hope for a meas ure of fiscal reform more thoroughgoing than that which the committee has recommended. It seems, indeed, that members of the com mittee have been convinced on a sober second thought that the process of tax equalization should extend to the State as well, as to the separate coun ties. That is the policy of practical wisdom which should prevail. Senator Smith’s Address. Senator Hoke Smith’s recent address to the Geor gia Legislature, delivered in response to an invita tion from both Houses, was an impressive account of his own stewardship and masterly review of the great work that national Democracy is accomplishing. The position of distinctive leadership which the Sen ator’s colleagues have accorded him enabled him to speak with rare insight and from abundant observa tion of the constructive program in which Congress and the Wilson administration are -so earnestly en gaged. His message was that of one laboring in the forerank of those who are building a freer and better order of American government; and, so, his confident prediction of the passage of the tariff bill and of the success of efforts to reshape the currency and banking system to the country’s business needs were unus ually significant and cheering. Senator Smith’s own record of service is so clear and distinguished as to call for little comment. Since entering the Senate, he has been notably iden tified with the larger undertakings of that body. His advocacy of educational measures, his stalwart re sistance of pension increases that were unjust to the South and to the country at large, his bills for agri cultural extension work and kindred enterprises to upbuild farming interests, his untiring labor on im portant committees and his far-sighted counsel both in the party caucus and on the floor have been not only a credit to himself but an honor to Georgia and the South. The Red Roll of the Balkans. It is doubtful that in modern times there have been any battles so tragic in their human sacrifice as those of the Balkan war. The opposing armies have fought with savage fierceness, seemingly un tempered by those common ideals which civilization is supposed to engender. A writer in the Boston Transcript calculates that Bulgaria alone, while she was still in alliance with Greece and Servia, “sus tained a loss in killed and mortally wounded al most equal to one-third of the similar losses in curred by the Union army in the four years of the Civil war.” This is but a fragment and the beginning of the red roll, for, the fighting among the Allies them selves during the past few weeks has been even more ruthless than when they were engaged in a common campaign against Turkey. Reports from the various fields are naturally : ger and incom plete but military ...orities reckon that the num ber of killed and wounded on all sides since the Greeks and Serbs bpened fire on Bulgaria is not •less than fifty thousand. Much of this loss is doubt less due to the barbaric course of the Bulgars in massacreing defenseless villagers, though a great por tion has evidently been sustained in actual battle and it is all chargeable to the spirit of war. “The magazine rifle and the rapid fire gun,” says an observer of the Balkan ctrife, "have not hei*3to- fore wrought the havoc that was expected of them. It has been found difficult to bring troops into close action and each side has begun firing at long range.” But in this war “line has been hurled against line,” the bayonet has been driven to its mark, the fight ing has frequently been hand-to-hand with all the cruelty and terror of which we read in the ancient historians’ account of the battles between Rome and Carthage. In addition to the staggering human loss which the Balkan wars have entailed, their devastation of property is beyond calculation. It will require long years for the peninsula to recover from the crushing blows of this far-flung conflict. Cities have been battered into dust, fruitful. regions have been laid waste and in some instances the very means of liveli hood have been destroyed. Had the Allies paused after their victory against the Turk and devoted their combined genius and resources to the upbuilding of - -e country they had won, had they planned and worked together for the good of the peoples they had emancipated, their war would have gone —to history as one of the splendid struggles of civilization against barbarism. But in turning upon one another, they have largely neg atived the blessings that might have issued from their brave campaigns against Turkey. Their fu ture is today a matter of dismal surmise. The Greeks Servians have, to he sure, mani fested a high orde of courage and press dispatches would indicate -at in the recent battles they have refrained from such savagery as has stained the Bul garian course. The part of Greece has been partic ularly valiant and impressive. Her army and navy rendered invaluablf service in the earlier campaigns. Without her vigorous attacks upon Turkey’s flanks, It is doubtful that the conquest of Adrianople could have been effected. Her claims to Saloniki seem well founded and her present resistance of Bulgaria’s selfish policy is natural and justified. It is to be hoped that means will be found by the larger Powers to terminate this wasteful and terrible war on a basis of justice to all concerned. Diplomacy could render no greater or more imperative service. A Prudent Policy Toward Mexico. Soberly interpreted, the news dispatches of the past few days in no wise indicate that our Govern ment should swerve from its well-considered policy of caution and self-restraint toward Mexico. That conditions in that unfortunate country are very grave is undeniable; but so they have been for many seasons past. Foreign investors naturally long for a return of orderly government but hasty or violent action on the part of the United States would ban ish rather than bring nearer their hopes. Europe is naturally concerned ever the continuous warfare, but there is no reason to believe that any Old World na tion has threatened actually to intervene unless the United States does so; nor is it likely, as one ob- j r or remarks, that any of them "have gone beyond courteous diplomatic sounding” of what our future attitude toward the Mexican situation will be. Thus far the United States has shown practical wisdom In declining to recognize the Huerta govern ment. That regime has no legal basis. It was es tablished in a night by means of treason and murder. It has little or no popular support and only a scant military support. Far from crushing the rebellion, Huerta has seen it spread from State to State; and today he is no stronger but on the contrary weaker than when he stole into the Presidency through the .betrayal of Madero. With the exception of a narrow zone about the .capital, the Huerta administration commands no obedience or respect. The masses of the Mexican people are either indifferent or openly rebellious toward this makeshift government. Indeed, there Is today no responsible power in Mexieo which the Uni ted States could recognize, if it would. President Wilson shows a purpose to move deliberately and, before taking any decisive action, to have all the facts before him; and it is to that end that he has summoned ou» Mexican ambassador to Washington. The New York World states the_ case cogently when it says; “Bad as conditions are, rashness on our part might easily make them infinitely tcorse for our selves and Europe also. Mexico is working out its own problems in blood, in suffering, in hu miliation. It will have a sort of election in Oc tober, the result of which may justify a change of policy on our part. In the mean time there is no call for intervention and there is nothing in the Monroe Doctrine that oblige us to make war in response to the pressure of anybody.” President Huerta apparently doesn’t like the prospect of these recall elections. The trouble with that Pittsburg bank was that there were too many waterworks—and probably too much water. 1 he Teachers, First. There can be no doubt that the public sentiment and public judgment of Georgia demand a fair deal for the teachers of our common schools. In every part of the State, good citizens and repre sentative newspapers are insisting that the Legisla ture devise without further delay some effective plan whereby the teachers may be paid promptly instead of being -ipelled, as now, to wait for their salaries long months after their services havt been rendered. The people are naturally concerned over a question that bears so vitally upon their homes and their common interests. They realize that the slipshod policy, if continued, will inevitably undermine the usefulness of the schools and sacri fice the progress and well-being of the entire common wealth. They lo<' to their repr sentatives in the Legislature for protection and relief. It is evident tnat the permanent remedy for this grievous injustice to educational affairs lies in a thorough reform i the State’s fiscal system, and to that end a well considered plan of tax equalization must be provided. When the taxes of every prop erty owner and of every county are returned on a fair and uniform 1 -sis, there will not only be ample funds for those public institutions and enterprises which now are beggarded or forsaken but the aver age tax burden will be appreciably lighter. The fruits of such a reform, however, will ripen rather slowly, whereas the problem of teachers’ sal aries demands the earliest possible solution. When we reflect that up to the middle of June, 1913, not a penny of the tv. - million, five hundred and fifty thousand dollars appropriated to common schools had been paid and that this great gap between duty and performance is growing continually wider, we must perceive the need of instant action. While looking to a better fiscal system as the ultimate cure, we must bestir ourselves to find some imme diate relief for the Ills that are constantly becom ing worse. The most advisable plan yet proposed for this urgent need is the levy of a special school tax for a period of two years. A bill providing that a con stitutional amendment to this effect be submitted to the people is now before the Legislature, having been introduced by Mr. McMiehael, of Marion. It contemplates the assessment of one mill for the first year and, for the second year, whatever frac tion of a mill .may then be necessary to meet the improved situation. We believe the voters of Geor gia will heartily indorse such a proposition, for, without imposing any appreciable burden, it will enable the State to deal. justly with the teachers and at the same time it will tend to relieve the pressure in other departments of public need. Certainly, the G meral Assembly should give the people a chance to avail themselves of this praise worthy and feasible plan, if they will. The failure to pay teachers’ salaries when due has given rise to problems we dare not longer neglect. The State must either meet its responsibilities in this regard, or suffer a woeful decline in its educational inter ests and, indeed, in every other sphere of its com mon life. A Missouri Idea. The Governor of Missouri has conceived the bril liant plan of calling out three hundred thousand patriotic citizens who will give two days’ work to the construction and improvement of Stale highways. Thus, he hopes, a vast network of good roads will spring up in a twinkling and with scarcely a dollar’s expense. it would be an inspiring sight for this grand army of Missourians to sally forth from farms and shops and office buildings, all in the midsummer sun and in a ringing crusade of two brief days achieve what slower and less ingenious States require yeai-s to accomplish. An inspiring sight indeed! But what of the quality of the work thus performed? Some waggish skeptic remarks that when the first rainstorm comes along, it will be well for the Gov ernor to call his three hundred thousand citizens back .into service to hold umbrellas over their new roads in order that they may not ije washed away. Some such safeguard would, indeed, bo necessary, for few tasks require more care in their preparation or more skill in their execution than that of road building. Money or labor spent in the hasty or ill-consider ed construction of roads is wasted. Highway build ing calls for as much knowledge and supervision as house building. It must be conducted In accordance with a farsighted plan and with careful judgment In the selection of material. Each road, In order that If may render its due measure of service, must be a link in some great chain of roads. Hence the need of engineering skill and oversight in all such under takings. The Missouri'Governor’s plan is admirable in re spect to the enthusiasm It seeks to arouse but other wise it would prove costly and disappointing. It is necessary, to be sure, that piibMs sentiment be awak ened and stirred to the importance of good roads be fore anything can be accomplished in that great cause. It is this sentiment which makes possible the issuance of bonds and the employment of prac tical means for highway construction and mainte nance. But after a good roads campaign has been launched and has stimulated a county or State, it must be followed by steady, scientific methods if its fruits are to ripen and continue. Three hundred thousand citizens, convinced of the need and the value of good roads, would, how ever, accomplish marvels by turning their conviction to account at the polls and through legislative in fluence. The New Haven’s Policy. Attorney General McReynolds expresses the hope that the resignation of Charles S. Mellen from the presidency of the New Haven railroad indicates “a desire on the part of the road to come more closely within the law than it has.” Whether this wish is to be realized peacefully depends upon the interests that have dominated the New Haven throughout the Mellen administration and which will continue after he has retired. Close observers declare that the physical and financial de cline of this great property was due not to any lack of ability on the part of President Mellen, for, he is recognized as one of the country’s really masterful railroad npbuilders, but to an insatiate desire to monopolize the field of transportation without re gard for the rights of independent enterprises and in defiance of both State and federal law. Had President Mellen confined his efforts to the railroad business proper, or had he been permitted to do so, the road would doubtless have escaped its present entanglements. The intrusion of over-am bitious or reckless finance into railroad interests is as unfortunate for the railroad as for the public Poisoning the Child’s Min : BIT DR. CSAITB. (Copyright, 1913, by Frank Crane.) One of the recent discoveries in the art of healing is the therapeutic value of suggestion. That is to say, the physician, by suggesting to the patient, particu larly the patient suffering from nervous disorder, sano and help ful thoughts about himself, can work a cure better oftentimes than by the use of drugs. The force of mental suggestion is so great tttat many fads, and even new religions, have arisen which ar e based upon it. If the influence of good sug gestion be so great, the influence of bad suggestion is even greater. I wish to call attention to one form of character poisoning of which parents are frequently guilty. * Perhaps the worst misfortune that can happen a person is to b e infested with germs of fear, to lack decision and self-confidence, to be a prey to the terrors of morbidity and doubt of self. Who can tell the mortal pain, shame and self-torture of the innumerable victims of chronic iear? Frequently parents are responsible for this. A boy,’ for instance, develops some inborn trait of wayward ness; he is untruthful, will not apply himself, Is care less, disobedient, or persists In keeping bad company; the parent naturally tells him of his fault, and. as it seems to do no good, drops into a constant practice of scolding. Over and over the boy is reminded that he is "bad,” that he will never amount to anything, and so on- This finally filters in the child’s subconscious ness, and then the irretrievable damage; for when he comes to believe in his sub-mind that he is bad, he is bad. Why not try to find the CAUSE of your child’s de fects and remove it. When you KNOW that blame and reproof do no good, why go on? We do not realize that it is a CRIME to say to any child, under any circumstances, that he Is bad, weak or vicious. When you do that you are planting a seed of damage in his mind. Many a woman has been wrecked because her life was poisoned when she was a child by unceasing men tal suggestions from her mother that she was naughty, wicked, unreliable or untruthful. Many a man Is a weak failure In the struggles of mature life simply because the cult of failure was carefully Instilled Into him by his parents. Dwell upon and encourage the good that is in your child. Ignore his defects as far as possible. Learn how to shut your eyes. Above all, do not tell him he is wicked. Show him his faults, but never in public, but In sacred intimacy. Show him the consequences of wrongdoing; but enlist his aid in opposing his bad traits. Persistently suggest to him that he is good, brave, strong and truthful. In after life this belief of yours In him will tone up his self-respect and give him strength in his hours of crisis. Nationality and the Shape of the Head The study of heads reveals some interesting: facts. One is that the left side of the head is almost always larger than the right, due, it is said, to the universal practice of using the right hand more than the left. Another curious point is that nationality considerably affects the shape of the head. It would surely be an interesting subject for a biologist to explain why it is that the nearer the equator a race resides the rounder their heads become. No one needs reminding of the round, bullet-shaped skull of the negro, but the hatter will assure us that a Frenchman’s head is rounder than an Englishman’s, and similarly an Englishman’s rounder than a Scotsman’s. The average Scot’s head tapers considerably toward the front, narrows at the temples, and becomes square and prominent at the fore head. German heads, on the average, are rounder than English, and broader at the back. Irish heads, in gen eral, are long, like the Scotch, but scarecly as narrow. The Slavonic head is narrow in front and very broad at the back. When the recent peace conference took place in London a few months ago, the first thing that the delegates of the Balkan States did on arrival was to call on Messrs. Heath with a demand to be imme diately fitted out with the top hats that their new position necessitated; and that famous firm was well- nigh nonplussed to provide, at instant notice, hats of so totally unusual shape.—From “A Study in-Hats" in the August Strand. Clever Men and Big Heads Many clever men have big heads, says Gertrude Ba con in the August Strand, but so have many lunatics and Imbeciles. The weight of the brain Is a surer guide to Its quality than the size of the head. Other things being equal brain weight corresponds with Intel ligence. The average weight for a man Is from forty- six to fifty-three ounces—of a woman from forty-one to forty-seven (a bitter fact for advocates of the supe riority of the fairer sex). The heaviest human brains known were t>r. Abercrombie’s, which was sixty-two and a half ounces, and Cuvier’s, the great Franch naturalist, an ounce and a half heavier. It falls to the lot of but few geniuses, however to have this test ap plied to them. The brain of a man, on the whole, la about one-fortieth of the weight of his body. Of a dog, but one hundred and twentieth. Only two kinds of animal, the whale and elephant, have larger brains than man, but In both these the proportion to the weight of the body is greatly less. Dog Days in British Politics. British politics grow seasonably warm again. The House of Lords has refused for a second time to accept the Irish Home hill which the Commons have passed at two successive sessions; whereupon the Liberal ministry renews its' threat, and more definitely than before, to take measures for the abol ishment of the upper chamber. The Conservatives on the other hand defy the Government to submit the Home Rule plan to a popular vote, Insisting that this is the only fair and reasonable method of set tling so momentous an issue. The Liberals retort that this is simply a political strategy, designed not to test public sentiment on the question of Home Rule but to provoke a partisan demonstration against the parliament. It is only necessary for tfte Liberals to remain in power a year longer in order that Ireland may secure her right to local self government. The Home Rule bill has been adopted in the House twice and, though rejected by the Lords each time, it will auto matically become a law if it passes the lower House once more; for, under the new parliament act the Lords may suspend but not, as in years gone by, ulti mately defeat a measure which is passed thrice in succession. Keen interest, therefore, attaches to the prospect of the Liberals’ continued power or overthrow. In recent by-elections, their majority has been notably reduced and in some instances converted into a vic tory for the opposition. Mr. Lloyd George’s compul sory insurance law seems to have bestirred much discontent among workingmen as well as employers. For all that, however, It is considered likely that the Liberals will retain for a year to come at least a sufficient majority in the Commons to press the Home Rule bill to conclusive success. The opposition is without efficient leadership and has little to the country’s constructive thought. The Liberals, de spite errors, still stand as tie party of progress and action. POISONS IN FOOD BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. He who gave a stone when asked for bread has been for ages a type of the heartlessly wicked, but what shall be said of him who selles poison when an ,would buy food? Many -v- j**oducts oh the market are Actually poisonous—they contain, arsenic, copper, coal tar products and other drugs that are intro duced as preservatives or dyea. or that may be present as « result of a method of preparation. Even raw vegetables may be contami nated by the necessary spraying that protects them from insect enemies. The grocer who sells the food usually is quite inno cent, the manufacturer often does not know that his food is poi soned. The buyer seldom has any particular knowledge. It is manifest, therefore, that extreme care is necessary, 'care upon the part of the consumer as well as upon the part of the producer and distributor. • * • The dangers arising from the use of celery which has been sprayed with a Bordeaux mixture to prevent its decay have led the department of agriculture to make a special investigation with the result that a warning has been issued to ho&sewives recommending them to wash most thoroughly all celery purchased in the open market. The Bordeaux mixture is composed of a solution of lime and copper sulphate, and it is claimed that its use is absolutely necessary in the cel ery industry of Florida, as without it the celery can not be sent to market in an unwilted condition. • • • The bureau of plant industry of the department has made some experiments which indicate that the spraying apparatus used by many celery growers is not operated at a sufficiently high pressure to make a fine spray or mist which should be confined princi pally to the leaves and non-edible portion of the plant. Because of faulty apparatus, the Bordeaux mixture is applied in a number of fine streams and these, instead of settling upon the leaves as a mist and destroying the insects which cause the celery to wilt, run down between the stalks of the plant. In this way the poi sonous mixture accumulates at the base of the plant and is not washed out by the rain. Sometimes this gives the celery a greenish tint which buyers have at tributed to Paris green, but it is due simply to the presence of copper stained lime. The department of agriculture, as a result of this investigation, has is sued a circular to celery growers requesting that all spraying of celery plants with Bordeaux mixture should be done with an appartus working under' pres sure of a hundred pounds or more and that the spray ing should be stopped as soon as a mist accumulates under the leaves, before the moisture has collected sufficiently to run down the stalks. • • • The tests made upon four different samples of celery purchased by the chemists Indicated that after washing by hand and with a brush there was only 3.9 to 9 parts of a million in the outside stalk and from 1.4 to 3 parts per million in the inside stalks or heart, so that if properly washed the danger of eating celery purchased in the market is infinitesimal. The house wives can take this necessary care and the efforts made to induce the growers still further to reduce the dan ger by a greater care in the spraying system will doubtless prevent any further poisoning from this cause. • • • The old saying that poison exists in everything we eat is doubtless true In a certain sense and always will be. The efforts of the department of agriculture fof the past few years have been to reduce the quantity of poison to the minimum. Arsenic is a substance espe cially apt to be found in all kinds of manufactured! food products and it has been decided by the depart-' ment that 1 1-2 parts of arsenic in a miu.on shall be sufficient to condemn a food. The cases of arsenic poisoning upon record are of such grave consequence that stringent regulations are essential regarding this matter. The famous beer poisoning case at Birming ham, England, a few years ago was perhaps the trag edy needed to call public attention to this matter. Over 1,500 persons were poisoned within a few days, a large number of whom died as the result of the ar senic, used in some of the chemical processes of beer making, having impregnated the liquor to an unusual degree. • • • One of the foods to which attention has recently been given is gelatine as, owing to the means by which this substance is procured from bones and other ani mal matter, the possibilities of arsenic poisoning have been great. During the past two years eight men, under the direction of the chemical laboratory of the department of agriculture, have been giving their at tention to gelatine and its methods of manufacture, including the coloring of certain prepared gelatine products which are sold under various commercial names. Several of th© articles most widely advertised were found to contain arsenic in poisonous quantities. In most cases a little care upon the part of the manu facturers, when they realized that the pure food regu lations were to be enforced, was sufficient to absolute ly eliminate the arsenic, thus making gelatine a de sirable food product, even when highly colored. • • • The increased use of coloring matter in prepared foods has given opportunity for the use of many poi sonous substances. Among the tests made in investi gating highly colored candy sold to school children was the analysis of a bright colored piece sold for a penny which contained enough coloring matter to dye a child’s stocking a bright pink. This color was found to contain arsenic in sufficient quantity to seriously menace the health of a normal child. Many of the col ors used for tinting foods are derived from analine, a coal tar product, which is in itself a powerful nar cotic poison. The different tints are secured by com bining analine with other chemicals, including nitric acid, bichromate of potash and others. • * • While arsenic poisons are the most frequent In food products, others are often encountered. Lead poisoning has been known to come from certain kinds of cans in which prepared food has been stored, and the introduction of antimony into food may develop by placing it in cheap enameled ware such as is found in many kitchens. The possibility of poisoning from this latter source is almost as worthy of consideration as is that of copper poisoning which was not infre quently used as a cooking utensil. While leaden uten sils are not to be found in many kitchens, the action of certain acids upon a leaden spoon has been found in exceptional cases to have produced poisoning. * * * The pure food laws have done much to protect the public from poisoned food, but their enforcement must of necessity rest largely with the public. The print ing of the formula upon many food packages is a pro tection to the buyer who will take the trouble to read them. The danger from coloring matters has been largely overcome by the certification of a list of col ors and dyes which have been tested by the department of agriculture and found to be absolutely harmless, The dyes which are not included upon this list may contain arsenic and other poisonous matter injurious '•* human health. minted Paragraphs Blessings come disguised, but so does ptomaine poisoning. * * * And the less a man is abused the more he doesn’t amount to. • * * A yard of rope is worth half a mile of sympathy to a drowning man. ... Honesty is the excuse a layman has for being poor, but it is worn threadbare now.