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THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1913. THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL ATLANTA, QA., 6 NORTH FORSYTH ST. Entered at the Atlanta Postoffice as Mall Matter of the Second Class. JAMES R. GRAY, President and Editor. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE Twelve montha * Six months 40c Three months 2Rc The Semi-Weekly Journal Is published on Tuesday and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest route* 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 department* of special value to the home and the farm. Agents wanted i:t every postoffice. Liberal com 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, G*. The Convention of Vital Importance to the South. The fifth annual meeting of the Southern Commer cial Congress which is to be held at Mobile, Ala., from October the twenty-sevent. to the thirtieth will be the most important and the most interesting event in the history of that useful organization. In former conventions the Congress has stressed the need and thd opportunity of developing the South’s material re sources, its soil and forests and streams and mines, ' and of upbuilding its educational interests. In the forthcoming convention particular emphasis will be given to the question of practical means for utilizing 'the trade advantages soon to be offered the South by the opening of the Panama canal. Other subjects of current interest will be dis cussed. President Wilson will deliver an address on rural credits and several members of his cabinet will speak. The American Commission of Agricul tural Co-operation, which spent several months this year in Europe studying farm methods and partic ularly farm economics, will make a report. The mat ter of chief consideration, however, and about which other topics will be,grouped, is the relationship of the great canal to Southern industry and commerce. The Congress will thus have a definite bearing upon the one great practical issue in which every State and every city of the South are now peculiarly concerned. From its deliberations there will doubt less evolve some adequate plan under .which all parts and all interests if this section can co-operate for their common advantage in the new commercial era that is at hand. It need scarcely be added that every Southern city should be well represented at the Mo bile convention and also in the subsequent trade expe dition to Latin American countries which will be con ducted under the auspices of the Congress. The South must prepare for the opening of the canal, if it is.duly to enjoy its share of opportunity; and the Congress offers direct means for united, effective preparation. Ex-President Taft hasn’t reduced* his weight so much that he can’t give a lusty Yale yell. ! In Colonel Roosevelt the South Americans will find a man who likes the idea of a revolution. The Three Candidates in Mexico. The voters of Mexico will have at least a variety of candidates to choose from in their forthcoming presidential election. Frederico Gamboa, the nominee of the Catholic party, is seasoned in statecraft and di plomacy, a man of honorable record, of unquestioned - ability and singularly free from the old factional intrigues. Manuel Calero, head of the Liberal ticket, is said to be in high favor among the followers of former President Madero, though lacking the support of the army. His party holds a large majority in the Chamber of Deputies and is distinctly progressive in its temper. The third candidate is Felix Diaz, a nephew of the famojjp dictator whose return to Mexico has lately been rumored. Diaz is nominally the stand ard bearer of a so-called Labor party but it seems doubtful that he represents more than personal am bition. His role in the betrayal and death of Madero was anything but admirable. He is implacably hated by the friends of the former president and by Liber als at large. Students of the political situation in Mexico think that the contest lies between Gamboa and Calero, with the balance of advantage slightly in favor of the former. Gamboa is backed by a well systematized and well financed organization. He has the tacit ap proval, or rather he has not the disapproval, of Pro visional President Huerta. Calero, however, enjoys considerable popularity among the rank and file of citizens, particularly among those who resent Hu erta’s usurpation. Oae significant fact, so far as the United States is concerned, is that Huerta will not he a candidate. He has realized the folly of attempting to maintain a regime that is distasteful, if not abhorent, to this Government. His elimination attests, the force of the Wilson policy and presages happier relationships be tween the neighboring republics; we may hope, too, that it bodes better times for Mexico. Carrying Education to the Farmer. Everyone interested in the improvement of farm methods and the increased production of food wel comes the announcement of Senator Hoke Smith’s de termined purpose to secure the earliest possible pas sage of the agricultural extension bill. This measure has been truly described as one of the most valuable pieces of constructive legislation that has been before Congress in the past fifty years. It provides ample means for ea/rying directly to the farmers of every State and every county those educational advantages whic.i are now limited, for the most part, to students at agricultural colleges; its aim Is to put into prac tical dally use the wealth of scientific knowledge that has been garnered through long years of professional study and research, but which is now available to comparatively few. The pending bill’provides among other things for a fixed appropriation from the federal treasury of ten thousand dollars a year to every State and further for conditional appropriations, beginning with three hun dred thousand dollars a 'year, to be appropriated among the various States on a basis of rural popula tion, this latter fund to increase annually by the sum of three hundred thousand dollars until a maximum of three million dollars is reaches. In order to re ceive its share of the larger appropriation, each State must contribute to the same purpose an amount equal to that offered it by the federal government. These funds will be spent in each instance through the State College of Agriculture. It is required that “at least seventy-five per cent of the money be used for actual field demonstrations; of the remainder, twenty per cent may he used either for household economics or for further demonstration work.” Tjie enactment of such a bill would put into oper ation educational forces that would advance the ag ricultural Interests of this country beyond reckon ing. It has been said that if half the present store of knowledge concerning the soil and its cultivation were turned to definite account, it would soon revo lutionize our system of farming and add incompar ably to the nation’s wealth. The great problem is to utilize what has already been learned, to give the rank and file of farmers the country over the imme diate advantage of scientific data and businesslike methods in their workaday tasks; and the surest, the speediest means of doing this is through a plan of regular demonstration conducted in each agricul tural county. President Wilson stressed the need of such an enterprise when he said: “The farmer has not been served as he might and should be. We have set up and liberally supported agricultural schools, horticultural schools, schools of poultry raising and others, and they have done excellent work. Our support ' of them should be hearty and generous; but a more effective way still has been found by which the farmer can be served. Lectures and experi mental farms attached to schools are, like labor- ■ atories, excellent but they do not and cannot of themselves push their work home. The thing that tells is demonstration work. The knowl edge of the schools should be carried out to the farmers themselves. When the farmer does fully take science Into partnership and becomes his own master and fortune builder, the day will, be gone for once and for all when he can be taxed and ignored.” The farArs’ interests In this regard are the com mon interests of the entire American people. Most problems, in their final analysis, are problems of the soil. The pressure of the high cost of living has arisen largely from the / fact that the production of food has not kept >ace with the increase in popula tion. When the government of the United States turns its intelligence and resources to the develop ment of a truly scientific system of national agricul ture, as the leading governments of Europe have, many difficulties and dangers that are now alarm ing will melt away. The agricultural extension, to which Senator Smith is devoting particular effort, will mark an im portant stride In that direction. It is one of several kindred measures now before Congress, all of which are meritorious and which should be passed. But the need of adequate farm demonstration work, adapted to the peculiar problems and opportunities of each county, is so urgent that it should be sup plied without delay. There is good reason to hope that when the currency bill, which now overshadows all other legislative work, lb disposed of, Congress will act promptly and favorably on the agricultural extension measure. To do so will he a distinctive credit to the Democratic party and an inestimable boon to the nation. OU^TRY The Superlative Bacilius BY DB. PRANK CRANK. (Copyright, 1913, by Frank Crane. It’s easy for a bride to imagine her husband is a saint—until she gets acquainted with some of his fool friends. No matter how much men rail at marriage, some of them are just a litle bit envious of the late Mr. Solomon. Don’t Walk On Railroad. The loss of fourteen lives in a wreck would loom forth as a national horror; yet, statistics show that there is an average of fourteen deaths every day caused by the dangerous custom of walking on rail road tracks or otherwise trespassing on such prop erty. It is estimated, indeed, that in this manner occur more than half the fatalities incident to rail roads in the United States; and the majority of the persons thus killed are not tramps but children and valued citizens. The time has come when the public should take serious note of this record with-its grim warning to all who are accustomed to use railroad tracks as a common highway. The transportation companies are exerting themselves to end this peril and the Inter state Commerce Commission has spoken to the same purpose. After all, however, it is upon the individ ual that responsibility must rest; it is popular sen timent and popular judgment that must correct this evil. Five thousand lives a year is a terrible sacrifice to carelessness. It can be reduced and prevented only through individual recognition of the great risk in walking on a railroad track. This matter should now be of peculiar concern to the South where railway traffic is fast increasing. In Georgia and neighbor States many more trains are in operation today than ten, or even five years ago and their number is continually multiplying. The danger to pedestrians who venture on the tracks is accordingly more and more serious. It is far better to stick to the muddiest highway or the roughest woodland path than to take the deadly chance of following a railroad track simply because the latter affords easier walking. Much emphasis is now laid on the need of greater caution in the traffic of crowded cities but it is scarcely less Important to remember that in rural districts and in the open country there lies a con stant jeopardy of life to everyone who walks on a railroad track. After a man has loafed around a while waitinf for his ship to come in he is willing to compromise on a schooner. Ayp TlNHlLJ OME T0PIC5 CONPOCTED BrjOHS-imytUOA NEW SUBSCRIBERS ASK FOR CONSUMPTION CURE I have published Dr. Hoff’s cure several times, but when several new subscribers to The Semi-Weekly Journal beg for it and appear to be in sore need of a consumption remedy, I cannot refuse another publica tion. I do know that old subscribers cut it out and save it. It will be well for the readers of The Jour nal to clip this reprint and preserve it. Hardly a week passes that I am jiot requested to send the cure. A CURE FOR CONSUMPTION. The distinguished Dr. Hoff, of Vienna, has made public a remedy for consumption. It is the result of years of practical investigation and is fortified by his experience in the treatment of the disease according to the formula he has recently proclaimed. We here give this formula, or prescription, as he has communi cated it to the world through the medium of the Cen tral News Agency: “Acid, arsenic, 1; kal, carbon, dep., 3: aqua cinna- mylic, 3; aqua destill, 5; coque usque ad perfectam so- lutionem; deinde adde cognac, 2.5; extralaudan, aqua, 3; quod in aqua destill, 2.5; solution ^et deinde filtra- tum friiit.” Converted into plain English the formula runs as follows: “Arsenic acid 1 part, carbonate of potash 2 parts, cinnamyllic acid 3 parts, aqjl distilled water 5 parts; heat until a perfect solution is obtained, then add - parts of cognac and G parts of watery extract of opium which has been dissolved in 25 parts of water and filtered.” And next comes Dr. Hoff’s statements and speci fications: "Dr. Hoff’s directions are: At first take six drops after dinner and supper, gradually increasing to 22 drops.’ “He states that he has tried the remedy on 200 pa tients from the lowest classes, who had been long un der observation. “Mild cases wer e quickly cured, and partial cures were soon brought about in several cases. The appe tite and weight were increased steadily, the fever lowered, night sweats, insomnia, and asthmatic symp toms lessened, cough decreased, and rattles stopped. The patients are asked only to keep the kidneys in order. “The duration of the treatment depends upon the condition of the patient. Mild cases are cured in two months, but the more severe require a year or two. “Dr. Hoff says he does not claim for the solution the power'of a magic wand, which cures at touch, but he can state this—that one of his patients had cavities in the lungs big enough to put one’s fist into, yet he was cured in about two years. It is absolutely neces sary that the solution should be taken after eating, when the stomach is full. “The treatment must not be forced by increasing the doses. As long as tile patient shows signs of improve ment the dose should not be increased. It is some times beneficial to reduce the dose.” Evidently, Dr. Hoff is not a quack with a nostrum to sell or a prophylactic to exploit. H e is a professor of medicine, recognized as high authority in medical circles. I am glad always to oblige Journal readers. MRS* FELTON. HOW STEEL FENS ARE MADE. There are more than 200,000,000 of steel pens made and used in the United States annually, if statistics are reliable. Twenty years ago this computation gave twelve pens to each man, woman and child in Great Britain. Notwithstanding the invention of the type writing machine and fountain pens, the sale of steel pens shows a steady increase. Even the operator of typewriters is obliged to scribble, and children con tinue to graduate in greater numbers every year. Steel pens were first introduced into this country in 1832, more than eighty years ago. They were not popular at first and the Bank of England continued to use quill pens for fifty years afterwards. In 1836 the great fire in New York consumed more than a million goose quills, and then steel pens be came more popular. There is great variety in steel pens, and I find some pens write much more easily and legibly for me than others. Although a pen is so small a thing and apparently so simple to make, it takes at least ten days to execute a firstclass steel pen, according to scientific reports on the manufacture of pens. This is mainly due to the frequent heatings and polishings. Pens can be made out of eight metals— steel, brass, copper, gold, silver, platinum, amalgum and aluminum. Aluminum pens are a considerable nov elty and are said to be durable. In my long experience I remember that all early school teachers were supposed to be expert pen mak ers in my childhood. We children carried goose quills from home and the teacher cut the pens, was a delicate task because it was easy to spoil a quill, and I can well remember the sorry things that I had to use in my early efforts at penmanship. The teacher was in the habit of sticking his own pen above his ear, just as lead pencils very often appear nowadays. Steel pens were a # welcome Introduction, and a good gold pen was worth having. A CAUTION TO TOBACCO USERS. Mrs. W. H. Felton, Cartersville, Ga. Respected Madam:—Allow me to beg of you to write a few articles to the press of Georgia on the evils of tobacco and all its constituent parts. When people were more honest and the gjreed for money making was not so great, The growers and producers of tobacco for commercial trade used labor to remove insects and woyns from * 1 * * * * * * * 9 the tobacco from plants to maturity. Now they are using thousands of tons of crude arsenic as insecticides to rid the growing crops of such insects as above stated. Arsenic in its crude state such as Paris green, Lon don purple, death dust, etc., are all mineral poisons that are not soluble in water or the elements; hence, it is largely taken up by the rough leaf, tobacco stalks and plants, and is thereby sold to the tobacco manu facturers of this county, thereby giving to all con sumers a de'adly poison, causing mouth and throat diseases of all kinds. Tobacco and snuff is the curse of many common people, especially factory and shop girls and boys of all ages. The habit of using snuff has become so great that it is often eaten and swallowed for its ex- hilirating effects, and when impregnated with crude arsenic from the stalks and stems of tobacco, of which all tobacco snuffs are made, its use is conducive to vice and prostitution withxboth the old and the young of all ages. The use of snuff and the cheaper grades of tobacco is the prime cause of more vice * in the southern states than all the white slave traffic of the union. Crude arsenic has only been used as an in secticide within the last few years; hence, the grow ing vices of the common people is largely on the i- crease. Crude arsenic is being used on various vege tables as an insecticide; hence, the much dreaded cab bage snake. It is to be hoped that vour pen, always in the in terest of our people and social system, will influence some of our legislators to remedy the great evil. By putting all tobacco products under the control of the pure food and drugs laws of the United States 1 and at the same time the use of crude arsenic on to bacco and vegetable products should be prohibited. In the interest of the young girls afid boys addicted to the use of tobaccos in all their forms, I trust that you will write a few articles on the foregoing sub ject that will, in a measure, have the effect of de stroying the evil that is dragging and driving many into vice and prostitution beyond conception. I am, dear madam, most respectfully WILLIAM C. R. A CHEERFUL LETTER. Tennille, Go., Oct. 1, 1913- Dear Mrs. Felton—J always read with interest every thing you write for The Journal. If I have only time to read one thing it is sure to be what “Sister Felton” has to say. If our young people would only - hoed your wise Max Nordau is after a new microbe- He calls it “superlativism.” I clip from a Dayton, Ohio, paper: “There are two kinds of people who have a ten dency to this language of excess,” says Dr. Nordau. “They are either madmen or charlatans. And while it is only in extreme cases that the tendency gets be yond control, thousands of people go about every day in the incipient stages of this malady.” Thousands is a poor guess. In this country alone we have steen thousands of girls in high schools, boarding schools, finishing schools, and business schools. Almost without exception they have been bitten by the superlative mosquito and show a con stant high fever of overstatement. Maine says she has “waited hours” for you (exact time eight minutes), that she was sur.e (fancied, possi bly) that you had been run over by an automobile, that she is simply starving (mildly hungry), and that she is as tired as two dogs (tired as one impatient little lady). In any given clump of school girls two-thirds of them in seventeen minutes by th e watch will declare that upon such and such an occasion they “simply died,” or that upon certain supposed contingencies they would “surely die.” “Simply dying” seems common among young ladies of Hie ginger beer age. The bacillus superlativus, however, is not confined to “backfish,” as the Germans call girls in their en thusiastic teens. We all have it. Did you ever hear a professional singer talk about herself or himself? (No, not you, Josephine, nor any of those present. I mean others.) Did you ever hear a traveling man tell of his sales? Did you ever listen to the siren song of the poet who is describing to you the new 1914 Spoopendike he wants to sell you? Have you hearkened unto the lay of the candidal for political office and have you read the glorious plat- * forms of the various parties? Have you heard the lover moaning forth whoppers into his mistress’ ear? Hav^g you heard a mother tell of the precocities of her darlings? Have you seen the railway booklet describing the charms of Lake Wayback and the delights of travel over the B^ U. M. and P. road? We all do it. But Nordau is wrong. Superlativism is not a disease. It is a sign of surplus steam. There is one thing more boresome than to be with the person who always exaggerates—it is to be with the person who always states things with distressing precision. Far deadlier than the bacillus superlativus is the bacillus statisticus. THE SMILE GIVER Some envy you your millions, some envy you your fame, Some envy y<ou the buildings great on which is carved your name; Some envy you your luxuries and some your great - success, And some the force for doing things which you today possess. But I—I saw a young man gaze at you as you passed by And O, I envy you the look that lit that youthful &ye. S I do not envy you your chance to give in large amounts When all is said and done it’s not the size of gifts that counts I do not envy you because you own this building fine. I might not be a better man today if this were mine. But did a young man look at me in such a grateful way As I have seen one look at you, I’d happier be today. I do not envy you your wealth, I might gain that and more And still not have one single friend come smiling to my door; A man might climb the topmost heights of fame and stand apart The cleverest one of all the age—and be a cad at heart. I envy no man’s skill, but Oh, I’ll say to you tonight I envy you the grateful look that made that boy’s eyes light. I envy you his smiling face, his kindly thoughts of you. I envy you the splendid deeds that some day he will do; For in his eyes, I read of you, not sordid gifts of gold For which, so oft, the taker finds his manhood he has sold * But kindness in a larger sense, above all place and pelf. I envy you the chance you gave that youth to help '' himself. Dedicated to C. W. Post by “A Pal.” counsel what a chanjge for good it would bring about. But, alas, they heed not, till sometimes it is too date. But I hope you may never cease the good work of your mighty pen till God shall call you up higher where you will then get your just reward kept for His faithful servants for “well done.” I’ve only once had the pleasure of looking into your sweet face and that when you lectured in Milledgeville, Ga., then my home. But I have kept in delightful touch with you by your writings. I read in The Journal September 26 a letter written to you from “T. J. H.,” of Baldwin county. If you don’t mind and have that right will you please give me the name in full with the address? I, like you, want one of those large gourds or some of the seed. 1 am not 100 years old, but I love old people, and old- time things, especially the old-time flowers and the gourd. I raise some every year and have them put up for the martins to build in, as I enjoy their cheerful chatter, and besides, they scare off the hawks which would otherwise trouble my young chicks in the spring. I live on the farm, but I try to have my home and its surroundings as cheerful looking and as attractive as the town homes nearby. But I want country things; hence, my desire for gourds, etc. Hoping that God may spare your useful life many more years and that your last days may be your best days, I am One of your many lovers, MRS. J. R. D. NOTE.—The name and address you desire is: Dr. T. J. Howard, Merriwether Postoffice, Baldwin county, Georgia. THE SHADOW ON THE ROYAL THRONE. The story that comes from Spain, where two of the children of the king and queen of that country are dis covered to be deaf and dumb, is truly sad in its indi cations and misfortunes. Children who do not hear 9 —are mutes. It is an object lesson for ambition and pride of place. Queen Victoria was an ambitious mother and grandmother, and her granddaughter and namesake, the child of her favorite Beatrice, was proffered to the boy king Alfonso because she might thus be called a queen. Questions of state and the urgings of personal am bition contributed to the match. There are children in plenty, but the blight on their lives seems to be something, tragic. Of the ®ix already here, one-third are deaf mutes. The oldest, puny from birth, soon sickened and died. The young mother narrowly escaped a bomb and assassination before she was a week-old bride, and more than once has Alfonsb been shot at in an attempt to kill him in the streets of Madrid. The mother is said to be devoted to them, and the father, himself a posthumous child, has developed won derfully in many clever ways despite The fact that his Austrian mother married his father to be able to call herself queen of Spain- He was a sickly child and undersized, but contrived to live to manhood and as sume royal prerogatives. Had he been a dwarf he would have been a marriageable catch, but this heavy blight of deafness and dumbness has descended upon the children. Their parents would gladly pay out great sums of money to remove this blight. The child of the poorest workingman in Spain who has been born with speech and hearing has no reason to envy these stricken infants of royal birth. CROP FAILURES III.— GREAT FAMINES OF HISTORY. BY FRFDFRIC J. BASKIN. The record of terrible seasons of hunger begins early in the world’s history, and the terrific toll fam ine has taken of human life can only be approxi mated. Some famines were due to drouths, some to deluges, a few to war, and some to isolation, any of them could never occur under present methods of com munication and transportation, and it seems certain that the widespread distress and the great death lists of the past can never recur. No land was exempt from them in the first fifty centuries of human history. ... The nineteenth century, especially the first eight decades of it, probably showed a greater death list from famines than any other two centuries together. It was during this century that the Irish potato fam ines started the tides of Irish immigration toward American shores, and demonstrated that truly it is an ill wind that blows .no good. And it was also during this century that India and China had the worst vis itations in all their history. / • • • The Bible frequently speak o' famines in Palestine and its neighboring countries, and the seven lean years of Biblical Egyptian history are said to have begun in 1708 B. C. There is evidence pointing to the fact that this period of starvation extended also over the whole of Palestine. From that time to the end of the nine teenth century there were nearly 400 famines exten sive enough to be listed in the literature of hungry people. ... Rome, early in its history, felt the pangs of hun ger. In 436 B. C. there was a famine so sore in the Eternal City that thousands threw themselves into the Tiber to escape the pangs of starxy *ion. In 192 A. D. Ireland was the scene of so great a famine that “lands and houses, territories and tribes wer-s emptied." Thousands left their native Erin, and this is said to be the first time in history where a great wave of emigration was forced upon a people by crop failures. A century later England suffered the same sort of a visitation, and the people are said to have become so famished that they gnawed the bark from trees like rabbits. Within a generation another famine overtook England, and it is said 40,000 people starved. • • • In 331 A. D. Antioch was visited by a famine so serious that a bushel of wheat brought 300 pieces of silver, and a hundred years later Italy was the scene of a scarcity of food so great that unany parents ate their children. In the years immediately preceding 700, England and Ireland suffered a fate as terrible as that of Italy, and Scotland and Ireland in turn suf fered a like fate, while at another time the r~ouhd of Wales was "covered with dead bodies of men and beasts,” starved to death. • • • The seven years of the lean kine of Egyptian his tory told about in the Biblical stoi c Joseph, find a counterpart in the famine of Egypt in 1064, A. D., when the overflow of the Nile failed for seven years to put in its annual appearance. Two provinces were entirely depopulated, and half of the people of several other provinces were carried away by death or emigra tion. Bread went so high that only the very rich could afford it. The poor resorted to cannibalism aft er the supply of rats and other vermin was exhausted. People on the streets were kidnaped by men dropping down huge fish hooks attached to ropes from windows, and catching them under the chin or by the clothing. • • • In 1262 England was the victim of a' drouth in which no rain fell from Whitsuntide to autumn, arqi the prices of foodstuffs rose to unprecedented heights. O.-.ly six years later the country was again stricken, this time as a result of cold north winds in the grow ing season. Many thousands starved, and fifty ship loads of foodstuffs were procured from Germany. Cit izens of London were prohibited from dealing in this food, in order to prevent any one from taking advantage of the extremities of the people, in spite of the leg-) iElative efforts that were made to hold down the pries of food, wheat sold for more than *6 a bushel as long as- there was any-to sell anfi in the end, some 20.000 people starved to death In London* alone. • • a . » iti One of the longest famine® in the history of the; race was during the last part of the thirteenth cen tury, when, for twenty years together there was an unbroken chain of crop failures, of prices that were all but prohibitive to the poor, and of hunger throughout the length and breadth of England. Parliament,, at the end of this lean era, passed a law regulating prices, and a royal proclamation was made forbidding the manufacture of beer. • • • In 1321 England had what is regarded by most au thorities as the last of its serious famines. But this was the beginning of a series of great crop shortages in Ireland. In 1332 wheat sold for $10 a bushel there. A half century later there was a famine of three years in England, which was attributed to the hoard ing of corn. The mayor and citizens of London took out of the orphans’ chest in their guild hall money to buy corn and other foods beyond its seas, and pro vision was made whereby the government sold food to the poor at appointed prices, where they were able to pay for it, and took notes payable several years hence, where they were not able to pay cash. The English Poor Law dates from 1686 when Queen Elizabeth "observing the general dearth of corn ami other foods, resulting partially from drouth but prin cipally from the greediness of the corn masters, issued a proclamation requiring government reliet . tended by the justices of the peace to ...e poor of their communities.” . . . One of the frequent complaints in England was t- i too much grain produced there was -'■id abroad. Penketham says that, in 1796, "some apprentices find other young people about the city of London, being pinched of their victuals more than they had been accustomed, took butter from the market folks, paying but 3 pence a pound when the owners could not af ford to sell It under 5 pen le* x pound; for which dis order the said young men were punished on the 27th of June, by whippb.g, the pillory and long imprison ment.” It was about this time that England became very severe on all people who gave short weight, or otherwise took advantage of the buyers of food. • • m There were numerous famines in the seventeenth century, beginning with one in Russia, in which a half million people died. Wars caused famines in Ireland and in India during; this century. In 1796 occurred the first of the great famines of India of which*we have record. It is estimated th»* 3,000,000 people died during this famine, and the chronologers of the period say that the air was so infected by the odors of decaying bodies that it was scarcely possible to go abroad without perceiving it and without hearing, also, the frantic cries of the victims of the famine who were seen at every stage of sufferir - and death. V» hen the new crop came forward in August in many ses it had no owners. • * • With the rapid growth of population during the nineteenth century and the slow development of trans portation facilities, there were demands for fo$d that could not be met. India and Ireland were the worst sufferers. Ireland’s first great potato famine oc curred in 1822, and was repeated at intervals up to 1846. During the latter year it was supposed that a quarter of a million people died. Parlikment advanced nearly $50,000,000 *or protecting the masses from star vation. More than a million Irish left for America to escape the starvation and the pestilence which fol lowed. That was the last of the great famines of Ire land. Editorials in Brief Or^e pretty girl will inspire more feminine envy than a dozen clever ones. * • • How happy the average married man would be If he were only half as well satisfied with his wlffe as he is • ith himself! r /