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4 THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., SEPTEMBER 1913. THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL ATLANTA, GA., 5 WORTH PORSTTE ST. Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mall Matter ot the Second Class. JAMES It. GXAT, President and Editor. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve months 7 Be Six months • ■ • .. •». ••••••••• ••••••• 40c Three months — 25o 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 staff of distinguished contributors, with strong departments of special value to the home and the farm. Agents war ted ot every postoffice. Liberal cons* mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R. BRAD LEY, Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are 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 shows 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 mail. Address all orders and notices for this de partment to THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL* Atlanta, Ga. A Good Roads Example From North Carolina. The North Carolina Good Roads Association is mustering all its influence for the establishment of a State highway commission. So important does it consider this enterprise that it will hold a special meeting tomorrow at Raleigh, when the Legislature convenes in extra session, and directly urge upon that body the need of State aid and supervision for roadway work in the various counties. The South ern Good Roads magazine, published at Lexington, well says in commending this effort that many thou sands of dollars are wasted in North Carolina each year “because of the lack of a central road building organization, equipped to give engineering assistance to the counties and to direct the expenditure of road funds.” That is equally true of Georgia and, indeed, of every State that has provided no competent system through which indivic.ual endeavors in highway im provement may be co-ordinated for common progress and efficiency. Each county realizes that road build ing and road mair.tenace must he conducted as a public, not as a private enterprise and that if the roads are to be adequate and durable all parts of the county must co-operate under a single well-considersd plan. Otherwise no county system of roads worthy the namff would be possible. For the same reason, it is essential that the counties themselves work to gether for the development of a State system of roads; and to this end some form of state aid and supervision is indispensable. The example of North Carolina’s good roads cru saders should best • Georgia to due action. In this State the separate counties are earnestly trying to improve their highways but as conditions now are they must act without a common understanding and many of them must act without the advice and help of competent engineers. Much energy and money are thus wasted; and the State gets no nearer that ill important end—a well connected system of roads. The suggestion by Judge Patterson, of the State Prison Commission, that the Commission employ four skilled engineers whose services would he at the dis posal of the county authorities wil'. go far, If adopted, to meet the needs of the situation in Georgia. It will enable the counties to build better roads at less lost and it will also furnish a basis for efficient 3tatewide co-operation. The Rise of the Peanut. Once regarded as a symbol of insignificance, the peanut is now earning a respectable place in the country’s commerce and agriculture. Millions of dol lars are invested in plants for the manufacture of its oil and other food products, which are an important item of merchandise, and hundreds of acres, partic ularly in the South, are given over to its cultivation. \ Texas correspondent of the Manufacturers’ Record writes that more and more fanners in that State are Being convinced ot the value of the peaniU crop and ire using it not only to fatten their stock and enrich heir soil but also as a source of direct income. The Texas crop sold last year n.t an average price ot eighty-five cents a bushel and this year, owing to a shortage throughout America, it will bring consider ably more. The average acre yield of peanuts in ltexas is said to be from forty to fifty bushels and, under favorable conditions, even seventy-five bushels. With these figures as a basis, the correspondent draws an interesting comparison between the certain profits of the peanut and the rather capricious prices of cotton. “It takes about five hundred pounds of seed cotton," says he, “to make a third of a bale, or, say, one hundred and sixty-six pounds of lint. There is a cost of five dollars for picking alone, and even at fifteen cents a pound for cotton on the market, there is but fifteen dollars an acre to re coup the farmer for rent of land, interest on his investment, cost of seed and labor. At present prices, the peanut crop is worth fifteen to twenty dollars with a modest yield per acre. Planting and gathering his crop will cost only a few dollars an acre instead of ten or more for cotton." It is pointed out furthermore that in a dry sea son when, cotton cannot be made, peanuts will thrive. ‘Practical experience in this connection has brought conviction to many farmers, and they now devote a part of their land to peanuts and fatten stock instead af relying exclusively on cotton.” This is in line with that wholesome movement, now observable in progressive Southern States, to make the farm pro duce as many different things as conditions will allow. A peanut crop is a great aid to the raising of livestock. It restores the plant sustenance of the coil and it can be cultivated without hindrance to ether harvests. The Texas movement is paralleled in ■ eorgia, where many farmers this year have planted peanuts with markedly profitable results. The coolness reminds us that the orange harvest is near. President Wilson will be known to history as a man of few joy rides about the country. Will Steak Cost a Dollar a Pound? The president oi the American'Meat Packers’ As-' sociation dolefully predicts that within the next ten years beefsteak will cost a dollar a pound. Perhaps the thought was fathered by a wish, though it is hard to see how the average consumer’s purse could bear prices very much higher than those already pre vailing. Certain facts would seem to indicate, how ever, that the coming decade will appreciably change t o conditions and tendencies that have marked the past and that prices will resume a more normal level. / The greatest factor for cheaper beef must be, of course, the production of more cattle. So long as population steadily increases while the feed supply remains almost at a standstill, the cost of living will be burdensome. This has been true of nearly all necessaries and especially true of beef. But there is evidently an awakening to the importance of cattle raising. The larger ranches of the west are said to be disappearing hut in the South the live-stock in dustry is gaining a firm hold. In Texas and Louis iana, cattle ranges are developing on rather extend sive plans; in Georgia, agricultural education is somewhat slowly but none the less surely arousing the individual farmer to his opportunities in this re gard; and in most other States of this section, the same sort of influence is at work. In time such de velopment will be bound to tell upon conditions the country over. The new tariff law, by opening United States markets to foreigr beef, should have an ultimate effect on prices. England produces a negligible part of the beef its people consume, but steak sells .in London anywhere from twenty-five to a hundred per cent cheaper than in many American cities. The difference is due largely to the circumstance that England levies no import tax on food products. A similar policy should yield similar results in this country. Though w,e may not expect a great and immediate decline in the price of meat and othar necessaries, we may at least believe with good rea son that within th' next few years considerable re lief will be forthcoming. Certain, it is that those artificial causes which have heretofore contributed t_i the exorbitant cost of living will be removed. Plans for Developing Alaska. ”'he idea that true conservation means far more than mere preservation applies just now with pecu liar force to the natural wealth of Alaska. It is well fo the national government to save the mines and forests of this territory from absorbtion and control by a few special interests; but that is not enough. It is equally important that these resources be developed for the welfare of the common interests. The policy of locking them up like a miser’s hoard so that they b mefit no one is as undesirable in its way as that of leaving them to the abuse of monopoly. The great dv.ty and problem of the Government is to provide a method and means whereby Alaskan treasure may be wisely used for the upbuilding of that particular re gion and for the good of the common country. Secretary Lane cf the Department of the Interior believes that one safe means to that end will be tne building of a railroad to connect the country’s inland with its ports and with the highways of commerce in the States. This road, he thinks, should be built and controlled, though not necessarily operated, by the federal government. Its operation may be left to pri vate enterprise but the ultimate policies of such a road should be securely within public jurisdiction. “Under this plan,” says Mr. Lane, “Alaskr, will develop most safely and speedily and the resources of the country will be .most speedily available to the people as a whole.” “There is but one way to make any country a real part of the world and that is by the con struction of railroads into it. This has been the heart of England’s policy in Africa, of Russia’s policy in western Asia and it is the prompting hope of the new movement in China. Whoever owns the railroads of a country determines very largely the future of that country, the character of its population, the kind of industries they will engage in and ultimately the nature of the civili zation they will enjoy.” A bill embodying this policy has been introduced i the Senate and will be urged for passage at the beginning of the regular session of Congress in De cember. It is said to have the approval of the Presi dent and of conservation leaders in all parties. It is especially welcomed by the people of Alaska who insist, and justly so, that they should be given a chance to utilize and enjoy the abundant but now bur ied resources of the country in which they are doing the work of pioneers. Perfecting the Tariff Bill. Through the pressure of wholesome public opin ion, two unwise amendments to the tariff bill have been, eliminated. One of these sought to weaken the restrictions which the House had thrown around the importation of wild-bird plumage; it was dropped in the Senate caucus. The other proposed a duty of twenty-five per cent on art objects; it has been lib erally modified by the tariff conference committee. There remains a third amendment, that which levies a burdensome, if not prohibitive, tax on all cotton sold for future delivery, which is more pernicious than either of the others and which, it is to be hoped, the House and Senate conference will discard. The proposal to tax art importation was little short of barbarous. It was roundly denounced by everyone who Is interested in- the cause of aesthetic education. The committee has placed etchings and engravings on the free list and has reduced to fif teen per cent the duty on pastels, pen-and-ink draw ings and paintings in oils. Paintings a hundred years old are to be admitted duty free. “The advocates of free art,” says the New York Evening Post, “were successful on every important point and the thanks of all art lovers the country over should go to Chair man Underwood for his brave and enlightened stand upon this matter.” These concessions were won largely as the result of intelligent public protest. There is reason to hope that the same influence will impel the committee to strike out or revise properly the dangerous cotton tax. That is the one objectionable feature to the tariff bill as it now stands; it has no logical place in that splendid measure; it would hurt the entire country and especially the South; by all means let it be dropped. It is easy for a girl to have a good time if she has a healthy imagination. HOW WE GO AWAY BY DR. FRANK CRANE. (Copyright, 1913, by Frank Crane.) Somewhere, a long: time ago, I read a poem in the German about Going Away. It began: "I should like to go away as the Twilight goes.” (Ich moechte hingeh’n wie das Abendroth.) Max Mueller quotes It in his Reminiscences. Some time each of us who reads this must Go Away. I wonder the day of the year, I wonder the hour of the day. Some day we shall shake hands and say cheerful good-by, and never again look upon each other’s face. Some night we shall fall asleep, and there shall be no waking. Some moment, it is all written in the Book of Des tiny, the precise date, we shall step out of this strange experience we call life, step out. Go Away, and of us no more forever. Since to Go Away is decreed for us all we should like to make our exit in dignity and order. Our Pass ing snould have the naturalness of our Coming; should indeed be as joyous an event as Birth, and as full of sweet celebration. I should like to Go Away as the Evening Red, soft ly fading, through lesser riches of beauty, into the night universal. x I should like to Go Away as the Morning #iar, swallowed up in the slow flood of white in the sky. I should like to Go Away as the perfume of flow ers, wafted from the vase in the window, dying in sweetness throughout the house. I should like to Go Away as the Sound of the Harp, struck by the Great Harper, moving and perishing in beauty among listening souls; thus to cease in melody. I should to Go Away as the Dew upon the grass, when the sun rises am’. with his glance draws up its life. If I must Go Away, and if from the Place of my Going must come back only the bitterest of wind- words, “Nevermore,” murmuring among the souls of them left behind who love me, as the summer wind moans among the pines, why cannot my Going be with that gentle comeliness that fits the close of so beautiful a thing as Life? * But I shall not Go Away as the Evening Red, nor as the paling Morning Star, nor as the wafting of the Perfume of Flowers, nor as the dying viDrations of tne Harp, bor as the Morning Dew languorously giving up the ghost under the warm wooing of the sun. Hearts when they go must break. Lives, however full of laughter, must Go Away in tears. Tragedy stands sullen 1 at the end of the human comedy. The candle of Love is quenched at last in bitter ness. Why? Eve asked the question as she held the head of the dead Abel in her lap and lifted her red eyes to an unanswering heaven. The last woman of the race will cry opt against the cliffs of fate the same question— Why? And for answer there shall come back the echo —Why? Jhe poem referred to by Dr. Crane is by Herwegh. It fvx'ows: STROPHEN AUS DER FREMDE. Ich moechte hingeh’n wie das Abendroth, Und wie der Tag mit seinen letzten Gluthen— O’ leichter, sanfter ungefuehlter Tod! Mich in den Schoosz des Ewigen verbluten. Ich moechte hingeh’n wie der heitre Stern, In vollstem Glanz in ungeschwaechtem Blinken; So stille und so schmerzlos moechte gern Ich in des Himmels blaue Tiefen sinken. Ich moechte hingeh’n wie der Blume Duft, Der freudig sich dem schoenen Kelch entringet Und auf dem Fittig bluethenschwangrer Luft Als Weihrauch auf des Herrn Altar sich schwinget. Ich moechte hingeh’n wie der Thau im Thai, Wenn durstig ihm dep Morgens Feuer winken; O wollte Gott, wie ihn' der Sonnenstrahl, Auch meine lebens muede Seele trinken! Ich moechte hingeh’n wie der bange Ton, Der aus den Saiten einer Harfe dringet; Und, kaum dem irdischen Metall entfloh’n, Ein Wohllaut, in des Schoepfers Brust verklinget. Du wirst nicht hingeh’n wie das Abendroth, Du wirst nicht stille, wie der Stern, versinken, Du stirbst nicht einer Blume leichten Tod, Kein Morgenstrahl wird deine Seele trinken. Wohl wirst du hingeh’m, hingeh’n ohn Spur, Doch wird das Elend deine Kraft erst schwaechen; Sanft stirbt es einzig sich in der Natur, Das arme Menschenherz muss stueckweis brechen. Our Remarkable Commerce With Mexico Despite tumult and war, Mexico continues to do business with the United States at a steadily increas ing figure. The federal bureau of foreign commerce announces that during the last fiscal year the trade between the two countries exceeded all records. Im ports were some twenty million dollars greater than in 1911 and both imports and exports showed a mark ed advance over 1912. These figures are contrary to what might have been expected and emphatically so to the assertions of those excited individuals who cry that American interests in Mexico are being ruined. For several years past that country has been almost completely demoralized so far as government is concerned. Con ditions were bad enough under the brief presidency of Madero, though they were beginning to mend. With the usurpation of Huerta, all semblance of just and orderly control disappeared. Excepting the country immediately within the sphere of the capital, the dictator has won no allegiance. In northern and southern Mexico, revolution has gone forward un- c'.ecked. , In these circumstances it might be supposed that all industry and trade would come to a standstill. Yet, It must be remembered that a mere fragment of the Mexican people are actually engaged in the fac tional war. They all suffer from its effects but the majority of them continue to follow their ordinary pursuits as best they can. They buy and sell, and as far as conditions will permit, they farm and manu facture. It is to this great citizen class that the increases in our Mexican commerce are due. They look to the United States for their market and their supplies. It is in their interest' that the United States is seeking to restore constitutional government in Mexico by friendly counsel and peaceful means. “Rebels dynamite a train; 80 killed.” Still, Mr. Huerta insists Mexico is peaceful. Why They Never Married "Why did you never marry, Tom?” inquired the young benedict of the old bachelor. “Well, you see," replied the single one, “when I was quite young I resolved that X wouldn’t marry until I found an ideal woman. I was difficult to please, but after many years I found her.” “Lucky beggar! And then—” "She was looking for the ideal man,” replied the bachelor sadly. T0P1C3 r CoHoocra wjroii&vrHjrixTO* NURSES FOR YOUNG CHILDREN. According to promise, I will further comment on the recommendations of the Georgia state board of health which are of first importance to mothers who feel obliged by necessity or of choice to hire nurses for their young children. Four rules are laid down by the Georgia board of health, by which a girl or woman must be judged be fore she should be employed to take care of a baby. They are as follows: The nurse must be healthy. The nurse must be neat and clean about her own person. The nurse must be of good moral character. The nurse must have Intelligence. Don’t employ anybody to take care of your baby unless that person comes up to these four require ments, says the state board. Consider to begin with the importance of the first qualification—health. Suppose a nurse girl, who may seem to be in good health, comes from a home in which there is tuberculosis or some other contagious disease? Suppose the nurse has been exposed to smallpox or is tainted with some dangerous conta gious disease? A very great many negroes are. Sup pose that through your thoughtlessness you have em ployed as a nurse a woman suffering from any of these diseases? Think what- a terrible risk your baby is running. Assure yourself, first of all, that the nurse you employ is healthy. The second rule relates to cleanly person and ap parel, and it is remarked that a tiny baby, perfectly helpless, is peculiarly susceptible to whatever injury that may result from close contact with the person of the dirty or diseased nurse. * If the nurse is so dirty that you notice it your self, though only coming in close contact with her oc casionally, thing how terrible it must be to your poor baby whom she handles daily, and who on account of its helplessness and inability to protest, is really the victim of your carelessness. If your nurse has an odor about her, says the state board, tell her how to get rid of it, and if she does not do it, then get rid of her. The third rule as to moral character is as needful as all the four put together. The third thing to consider is the nurse’s moraj character. This is important not only because an hon est, respectable girl is always the most faithful, trust worthy and reliable, but also because by the time the baby has become two or three years of age its little mind is like a highly sensitized photographic plates powerfully influenced by everything it sees and hears. A nurse of vile language a.nd loose moral habits may, without even meaning to do so, teach a child evil ex pressions and immodest actions which it will take years of later training to counteract. The fourth consideration is the nurse’s intelli gence. This does not mean that the girl who has had the most schooling necessarily makes, the best nurse, but It does mean that a good nurse must have practi cal common sense. If it is important to haye an intelligent gardener to bring your plants and flowers to perfection, how much more important it is to have an intelligent nurse to rear your baby. I have abbreviated as much as possible the full and exhaustive report made by the state board of health. As I see the situation, I would prefer to nurse the baby (if I was th© mother) and hire out other work. * « • A GOOD LETTER. Dear Mrs. Felton: Greetings to you, my old friend. I’ve just been reading what you had to say on the Mexican situation. It looks like, with all of our president’s wise and peaceful policy, trouble with that revolution cursed country is inevltlfcle. I was ten years old when Gen eral Scott Invaded that country and compelled them to terms agreeable to Uncle Sam. I wa^ an humble ac tor in our Civil war, and we have been engaged in war with Spain since then. What a train of evil fol lows the wake of war! Sickness, suffering and death in hospitals; on the battlefield, increase in the public debt and pillage, and graft in government contracts everywhere. I hope a war with any country can be avoided. I noticed a reference in one of your late letters to your long service with The Journal. I offer my congratulations and hope it will be spared many more years to interest and instruct your many friends throughout the south. I’ll enter by seventy-sixth year the 13th of next October. I begin to* feel the weight of years as I approach the sunset of life, but my general • health is good. The seasons in this section (Baldwin county. Ga.) has been very dry. Have been about eight weeks without rain and still dry. Corn about 60 per cent of a crop, and cotton about 60. It has been too dry for good hay or peas. Sugar-cane short, so with ground peas and field peas. Sweet potatoes, if we could get late rains, would be a fair yield. While on the list of agricultural products, I must mention one never referred to in crop reports or farm essays. That’s the much ridiculed and almost obsolete gourd. In my early days they were an essential article in many country homes. There was the soap gourd, the salt gourd in the house and at the spring. Besides they were used to carry water to the hands in the field. Sometimes they were used to hold eggs and a recep tacle for garden seed. I have been raising a few of late years for the sake of old association and their novelty, for they are In reality a thing of the past. I have a vine planted near a ditch in the branch bot toms that, notwithstanding the long drouth here, has six matured gourds on it, four of which will hold a bushel each. They ar e the round, flat variety with shells one-half inch thick. They will soon be mature. I have one. raised some years back that holds three pecks of grain. After they are dry I scrape the out side and varnish a mahogany or some other color, and they look nice. I know a lady who keeps her darned hose in one I gave her. Would you like one? If so, let me know. I have another variety, very long with handles to them. Perhaps one of those would suit you best. I hear from my sons occasionally out in Montana. Been very dry out there, and crops very short. Had a killing frost there the night of Septem ber 8. Think of that, Georgians, and be glad that you live in a land of long seasons, though we have short crops. T. J. H. Would be delighted to have a gourd and some seed also. MRS. FELTON. • » ■ GALLIVANTING AFTER DARN. I heard one of the most distinguished men in Geor gia lamenting the many divorces and the murders which fill the columns of the daily papers growing out of domestic unhappiness, and also the white slave crimes that all newspaper readers are familiar with, and he asked this question: “Why is it that parents are so lax in home discipline as to allow their girls to go about so frequently with young men after dark? “Don’t they know that girls are exposed to many evil influences which would not prevail If their beaux were required to visit them in their homes, and if these girls were not allowed to gallivant so constant ly after dark? Don’t they know that there would be fewer betrayals and much less sorrow for them selves?” asked he. Some one remarked that girls of the present time were not kept busy at home and their idle habits had a good deal to do with their restless ways, and their time was occupied in fixing up new style toggery and they felt obliged to go abroad in the evenings, be cause the young man were busy in the daytime, and had only the evenings to gallant the young women and girls about, to visit soft drink resorts and take long walks or indulge in joy rides. I only drop a hint to mothers who are in the habit of allowing their young daughters to stroll with young men or take joy rides or drink soft concoctions (may be some of them doped) and I ask them to consider what is being said about this buMnesw. WEIGHTS AND MEASURES I.—THE CRUSADE AGAINST FRAUD. BY FREDERIC J. BABKIN. The committee appointed to draw up regulations for the enforcement of the new federal net weight law will begin to hold hearings In New York on June 8. when manufacturers, dealers and others Interested in the pro visions of these regulations will be examined. The law was signed on March 3, the last day of the Taft administration, and is to go into effect eighteen months after that date. It re quires that the quantity of the contents of all food packages shall be plainly marked on the outside in terms of weight measure or numerical count It Includes the provision that rea sonable allowance shall be made for tolerance and exemption. • • » Upon the proper interpreta tion of this last provision rests the real value of the law. The act that "a reasonable variation from the stated weight Is per missible provided this variation is as often above as below the weight or volume stated. This variation shall be determined by the inspector from the changes in the humidity of the atmosphere, from the exposure Of the package to evaporation or to absorption ot moisture and reasonable variations which attend the filling and wdghlng of packages.” The committee authorized to make the regulations governed by this provision include representatives of the secretary of commerce, th e secretary of agriculture and the secre- tary of the treasury. • • -• The secretary of commerce, through the bureau of standards, has the authority to determine the Justice of the weights and measures used. The representative of the department of agriculture must fix the meas- U i re ° f variati ° n in the weights and measures of food stuffs according to laboratory tests conducted by ex- perts upon th samples furnished for that purpose by the manufacturers of the various products. The treas- ury Is represented because of the duties imposed upon imported food stuffs which come under the jurisdic tion of the law and also because, until the establish ment of the bureau of standards under the department of commerce, the matters regarding weights and meas ures were all under the direction of the treasury de partment. ' * * I - The new law is designed primarily to protect the public from loss by Insufficient weights and measures, but it is not intended that anjl injustice shall be done to dealers and manufacturers. Such circumstances as a cheese shipped from Wisconsin to Colorado losing several pounds In weight from the^ change In temper ature and atmospheric conditions will form the basis of some of the claims presented by manufacturers at the hearings beginning in New York this month. Con sideration will also be given to a reasonable variance in the weights of packages and wrappings. • • • Previous to the hearings in New York hearings were conducted In Washington on the problem of the capacity of bottles and jars manufactured by the glass blowers for the handling of liquor products. The dis crepancies In these articles were a surprise to the members of the committee as they demonstrated that few of the bottles had a capaoity for the content they were supposed to carry. The thickness of the glass, the presence of air bubbles, the quantity of glass taken up by the blower and Its heat, all enter Into the problem of manufacturing bottles which will be uni form in their capacity. The bottles tested were from the hand blowers. The manufacturers of machine blown bottles clalgi a greater uniformity for their products, but the test has not yet been r..ade to prove this assumption, although it will be Included In the, work of the weights and measures committee. • • <* There is no subject more closely in touch with the daily life of every man, woman anC child In the coun try than that regarding weights and measures. This nation has »-een almost criminally lax in this direction. While the people have had protection from menaces of every other kind, they have as yet had no protec tion from short weights and measures and their annual losses from this neglect are Incredible. The Investi gations made regarding the high cost of living point clearly to the losses from this cause and a crusade for protection from such loss Is sweeping over every community In whlclv the matter has been brought Into public notice. , • • • The population of the United States is nearly 95,- 000,000. At least two-thirds of this number can be fairly considered as buyers of some commodity. If each of these were to suffer from even the daily loss of a mill, the tenth part of a cent, the amount would approximates $26,000,000 in a yea \ Yet the investiga tions conducted by experts in all parts of the country indicate that the average loss is many times a mill each day and has been steadily upon the increase for the last twenty years. • • • Those who have given attention to the improvement of city governments now recognize the importance of the department of weights and measures and definite plans for the establishment of such a department can readily be secured. This department should have ab solute supervision and control over all thi different measuring devices in use in that city. For a city with a population of 100,000 this deparament should include a chief with four assistants, one each of the latter be ing responsible for the measuring of (1) gas meters (2) water weters, (3) electric meters, and (4) of weights, scales and measures. This last assistant, who may be known as the city scaler, should be required to have an inspection made every three months of all the scales and measures used in the trade and should be furnieh.l with seals for marking those which are of the required standards, and authority for compelling the destruction uf those which fall short. • • * The discrepancy in the measures between the differ ent states is one of the matters causing trouble alike to dealers and individual purchasers throughout the* country. The United States standard bushel contains 2.150.42 cubic inches, but this is not required by all of the state laws. The difference between liquid and dry measure is not generally recognized and it is the basis of millions of dollars of loss to the American consumer each year. The quart, dry measure, should contain 67.20 cubic inches, being one thirty-second part of a bushel. Yet the average dealer sells most articles supposedly for dry measure by the liquid quart which contains only 57.75 cubic inches, a differ- , ence of nearly 15 per cent. It is estimated that upon beans alone the public loses over $1,000,000 each year by the substitution of liquid measure for dry and as yet, in mosj: states, the dealers doing this ar© quite safe from any legal penalty. • Every Trade Has Distinctive Dress At Coutts’ bank the clerical assistants must all wear frock coats and no one in the employment of the bank is allowed to go about with his trousers turned up. At Hoare’s bank, it is the custom of all those employed to wear white ties. This idea has been followed for nearly 250 years. Members of the legal profession observe the etiquette of their calling by abstaining from the wearing of light or fancy colored clothes and always wear silk hats. The beadles of some Presbyterian churches in England wear dress suits instead of tho Anglican cassock. Some brewers’ workmen and draymen wear scarlet knitted wool nightcaps. In fact, nearly every trade and profession has its own conventions and unwritten laws concern ing the dress of its members.—London Globe. And now come the cheerful tidings that there is prosperity among the Eskimos. Now that the Chautauqua season is over, maybe Mr, Bryan’s critics can also rest.