Newspaper Page Text
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MAGAZINE SECTION.
THOMASVILLE. GEORGIA, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1905.
PAGES 1 TO 4.
THE STATEHOOD QDESTION.
LIKELIHOOD OF THE AD!i
OF OKLAHOMA AND IND,
TERRITORY.
Disposition to Grant Them Statehood
Irrespective of Arizona and New
Mexico-New Congressional Align
ment on Question.
The assembling of congress will
bring new blood In both the Boose
ai)d Senate. There Is promise of a
long and very Important session.
New policies are to be discussed and
material changes In existing economic
conditions are to be proposed. Coming
upon the eve of a congressional elec
tion. the session will feel the effects, to
a certain extent, of political conoid-
c rations.
The admission of new states to the
Union will be one of the hold-oTer
questions to occupy the attention of
the new congress. It appears now
that there will be a decided shifting
of position on the statehood problem,
some new lights having dawned since
statehood was discussed at the last
of Oklahoma and Indian Terrltoi
Difference of opinion does exist as
whether the two territories should be
admitted as one state or whether
they should be admitted as separate
states, but on the main proposition—
the preparedness of these two terri
tories for statehood—there la little
dissenting opinion. In fact, the pre
vailing view Is that statehood has
already been too long delayed In the
case of Oklahoma and Indian Terri
tory. It Is almost disgraceful, well-
informed public men are saying, that
these two progressive territories
should be held back simply because
of disagreement as to whether those
unprepared territories, Arizona and
New Mexico, should be admitted. It
is high time, many men declare, for
congress to cut loose from the Ari
sons and New Mexico proposition, no
matter what form It may take, and
admit .Oklahoma and Indian Territory.
To MAM TWAIN AT SBYEHTY,
THE HUMORIST ENTERTAINS
GROUPS OF AUTHORS AT
BANQUbT.
At Three Score and Ten He is Hale
and Hearty-CIves Views on How
to Live—Nevec Smokes or Drinks
While Asleep.
Msrk Twain, that prince of humor
ists has reached the limitation of life
as laid down by the Scriptures—three
score years and ten. And yet he Is
still able to give us gems of bumor
and wit—such gems as attained fame
for him years ago when Huckleberry
Finn, Tom Sawyer and Innocents
It Is understood that the committees
on territories of both Bouse and Sen-
ate are Inclined to stand by the old
program of creating two states out of
the four territories, but It frill not be
a surprise. If this program falls to
meet the approval of a majority of the
republican senators and representa
tives. Since the question of state*
hood for these four southwest terri
tories' was brought Into congress
many senators and representatives
have personally Investigated tbe exist
ing conditions In the territories, and
the result Is that public sentiment
among public men la crystallizing In
favor of tbe plan of admitting Okla
homa and Indian Territory to state
hood and, if necessary, letting Arizo
na and New Mexico watt
There seems to be few dissenting
Voices against tbe proposed admission
The Royal Crown otEngland. .
“Uneasy Is the head that weans tbe
crown." The crown of England Is a
costly toy and Is better to look upon
than to wear. Around the circle there
are twenty diamonds, worth $7,500
each, two large center diamond^ $10,-
000 each; fifty-four smaller ones at the
angle of the former, $500 each; four
crosses, each composed of twenty-five
diamonds, $^u,000; four large dia
monds at the top of the crosses, $20-
000; twelve diamonds contained In the
fleur-de-lis, $50,000; eighteen smaller
ones In same, $10,000; pearls, dia
monds, etc., upon the arches and
crosses, $50,000; also one hundred and
forty-ono small diamonds, $25,000;
twenty-six diamonds In thn upper
cross, $15,000 and two circles of pearls
about tbe rim, $15,000. Tbe cost of
the precious stones alone Is nearly.
half a million dollars.
Here lies my wife’s nearest relative.
All my tears cannot bring her back.
Therefore I weep.
MARK TWAIN, TODAY.
Abroad were first given to us. On De
cember 6th be was tlio guest of honor
ut a dinner In New York, to celebrato
his seventieth birthday. The guests
were confined closely to writers
of Imaginative literature, and about
170 authors were present, nearly hait
of them women. Every guest received
as a souvenir a bust of Mark Twain,
half-life size. Naturally Mr. Clemens
was the principal speaker; be took as
his text, “How to get to bb seventy
and not mind It." Ee said:—
"Tho seventieth blrtbdayl It Is the
time of life when you arrive at a new
and awful dignity; when you may
throw aside the decent reserves which
have oppressed you for a generation,
and stand unafraid and unabashed
upon your seven-terraced summit and
look down and teach—unrebuked. You
can tell tbe world bow you got there.
It Is what they all do. You shall never
get tired of telling by what delicate
arts and deep moralities you climbed
up to that great place. You will ex
plain the process and dwell on the par
ticulars with senile rapture. I uave
been anxious to explain my own sys
tem for a long time, and now at last
I have the right
Regularly Irregular,
‘T have achieved my seventy years
In the usual way—by sticking strictly
to a scheme of my life which would
kill anybody else, it sounds like an ex
aggeration, but that Is really the com-,
mon rule for attaining to old age. i
We have no permanent habits until
we are forty. Then they begin to har
den, presently they petrify, then bust-
i begins “ - • -
Intend to take any. Exercise Is loath*
some. And It cannot be any benefit
when you are tired; I was always
tired.
“I have lived a severely moral life.
But It would be a mistake for other
people to try that, or for me to rec
ommend It Very few would' succeed.
You have to have a perfectly colossal
stock of morals, and yon cannot get
them on a margin; you have to have
the whole thing and put them in your
box. Morals are an acquirement—like
music, like a foreign-language, like
piety, poker, paralysis—no man Is bom
with them. I wasn’t myself. I start
ed poor.
WHAT A STRIKE COST.
Chicago Obliged to Divert Money
Needed For Improvements Into
Payments For Police Service.
It will never he known definitely
just what the recent strike of the
teamsters cost the people of Chicago.
That the total would run well Into
the millions, however, Is a conserva
tive estimate, judging from the single
Item of the expense to the municipal
ity for extra police protection.
Some time ago It was discovered
that the city could add $5,000,000 to
Its bonded debt, and the people au
thorized an Issue of bonds to this
amount for specific public improve
ments, The end of the teamsters' strike
.found $2,000,000 of these bonds still
unsold and an emergency strike debt
of some $355,000. To pay this bill the
council has retired the $2,000,000 of
bonds and ordered their reissue In such
form that they may be used for general
iroorate dutdoscs.
Thus $305,000—or the estimated
cost of lowering the two river tun
nels—goes to pay extra policemen for
defending the lives of citizens and pro
tecting their property while a supine
city administration practically gave
license to the striking tsamstsrs to
make the ordinary business of peace-
ful citizens fhU of turmoil and has-
ard.
Money that the people Intended to
go Into sorely needed permanent im
provements has been diverted to meet
the cost of lawlessness that never
should have gone to the extent it did.
The cost of this one strike is the
$365,000 tbe city pays for-extra police
service, plus what the county has to
pay for special deputy sheriffs, plus
the loss to merchants, railways, man*
ufacturcrs, etc., In business; plus lost
assaults on citizens, of the killing of
citizens.
It Is a tremendously expensive thing
to fight a labor war In a great city.
• '4 Ring tor a Throne.
Miss Josephine Strong, who was
;>rivate secretary at Washington for
longressmsn Hawley, has a diamond
ring that was once owned and worn
by Louis Phillips, king of France.
The ring has a peculiar history. It
S ll be remembered that Phillips lived
this country when he was an. axils.
He lived one winter In Zanesville,
Ohio, and spent another winter With
AMERICAN LAND NONOPLY.
IS BEING FOSTERED BY OUR PRES
ENT SYSTEM OF LOOSE
LAND LAWS.
Homestead Commutation and Desert
Land Act, Supposed to Encourage
Settlement-Largely Utilised for
Land Grabbing.
Land monopoly is a black cloud of
dread from which Ireland Is just
emerging,'and we applaud England's
act, while we may yet possibly be a
little skeptical, In providing a plan
whereby free Ireland may become a
fact
Yet we ourselves are as rapidly ap
proaching land monopoly In America
as it i« possible to do, considering
vast extent of territory. Land mono
oly brings with It more state evils
than can be recounted In any single
article. It retards every Internal de-
vclopmcnt, it smothers Individual ef
fort and enterprise and finally It
transforms the stem and fiber of r
Individual citizen from that of a s
stantlal, self-reliant supporter of free
government to a supine, Indifferent
and passionless Individual, lacking In
mental and moral poise and in those
sturdy and heroic qualities which
have made America the greatest name
In history, .
•■Land monopoly, did you sayt’*’
says tbe American land grabber.
“Why, there la enough land for the
ohlldren of the .nation for generations
If not centuries to oome. The gov
ernment owns In the West alone near
half a billion acres and how can
ere be any land monopoly when this
vast area Is always open to free entry
undecour various land lawst”
Half Billion Acres Remaining.
It Is true that there are valuable
lands In the West yet remaining open
to entry, or at least land which will
be valuable when it shall have been
furnished water for Irrigation, but
what Is the general description of this
halt billion acres yet remaining under
Uncle Sam’s control T Is It reasonable
to suppose thst the shrewd land oper
ators, living on the ground, have not
skimmed the cream of this land, and
are not doing so today—the fertile
valleys snd the rich plains, where
water can be applied—and leaving the
great bulk of the land to their pos
terity, land composed of mountain
tops and Impassable canyon sides
wages to the strikers, plus a dozen which will probably forever remain In
other items that It would be difficult tho hands of the government and at
to enumerate. And Ahls' only em
braces money cost It takes no ac
count of Inconvenience to citizens, of
government
least can never support life. Glance
at a physical map of Colorado, just
for an Instance, and note the.vast
preponderance of mountains. There
are many fertile valleys In Colorado,
for the map Is on a much reduced
scale, but from Its appearance you
would think the entire State was com
posed of nothing but chain upon chain
and range upon range of nntlllablo
mountains.
Denounced by Commission.
This question of land monopoly In
the West, as it Is fostered through the
use of the commutation clause of the
homestead act and tbe desert land act
has been studied by the President’s
Public Lands Commission, and t^elr
report, the third installment of wf
THE CHINESE MINISTERS DAUGHTER.
Visitors to the Chinese Legation atrperlence. At home they would not
dare.
Washington have often been attracted
to a tiny little figure perched at the
head of the grand stairway. It 1s al
ways there when a dinner party Is go
ing on or when Sir Cbengtung Liang
Cheng, the Chinese Minister, Is giving
a reception. It never falls to appear,
and the uninitiated have been beard to
remark In undertone that It Is a queer
little figure which guards tbe head of
the stairway.
However, it is a very animated some
body after all, for It Is no other than
the young daughter of the Minister,
Miss Liang, who, though barred
through the custom of her country and
her youth from taking actual part In
these entertainments. Is, nevertheless,
determined to see as much of them as
she possibly can. Perhaps her father,
the Minister, does not know she Is
there and perhaps be does, but nobody
knows, for no mention of the fact has
ever been made to him, and Miss T ’
continue! to enjoy these many
affairs from afar.
This dainty little Chinese maid has
been in this country ever since-her fa
ther was delegated to represent his
emperor at Washington. She is just
seventeen years old, and until she came
to America she did not know what it
was to be allowed to go out unat-
tended. •
Over In China the women never show
their faces on the street, but with the
appointment to Washington of Wu
Tin? Dang, former Chinese Minister,
members of tho legation, and especially
the women, were given greater free
dom and now they go about with never
a thought as to the propriety of the ex-
Soclety is eagerly awaiting the ex
pected announcement that Mlss'Llang
will be formally presented this season.
She has learned to speak English ex
ceedingly well and Is a familiar figure
In a box . at . the theatres on Monday
nights. When she wishes to go shop
ping she 'does so unhesitatingly, and
her carriage Is frequently seen stand
ing In front of some of the fashionable
“*10ps.
Fewer girls; especially among those
.who have not been presented to so
ciety, are more popular than this
charming daughter of the Chinese Min
ister.. She has made friends with
every girl In Washington society, snd
her chief delight Is to jump In her car
riage In the afternoons and drive
about, calling on her young American
friends. They are all delighted to see
her, and no matter what Is on the pro
gramme It must wait if the attractive
little Miss Liang happens to calL She
is so piquant, and appreciates an
American joke as well as any of her
American associates.
.Miss Liang is the constant compan
ion of her father and accompanies him
on all his driven They are great
friends and apparently enjoy every
minute of their time together. The
Minister is very proud of his daughter’s
progress In learning American cus
toms, and It Is not unlikely that before
many more years are past the Chinese
Legation will be enjoying even to a
greater extent the American freedom
In living which makes the assignment
of Washington a diplomatic plum for
which many hands are always ready.
Since forty I have been
regular about going to bed and getting
up, and that is one of tbe main things.
I have made It a rule to go to bed
when there wasn’t anybody left to sit
up with, and Lhave made It a rule to
get up when I had to. This has result
ed in an .unswerving regularity of Ir
regularity. .
“In tbe matter of diet—wbleh is
another main thing—I have been per
sistently strict In sticking to tbe-thlngs
which didn’t agree with me until one
or tbe other of us got the best of It
Until lately I got the best of It myself.
But last spring I stopped frolicking
with mince pie after midnight; up to
then I bad always believed It wasn't
loaded. For thirty years I have taken
coffee and bread at 8 In the morning
and no bite nor sup until 7A0 In the
evening.
“I have made It a rule never to
smoke more than onp cigar at a time. I
have no otbor restriction as regards
smoking. -1 do not know just when. I
' smoke;. I only know that It
> s . lifetime, and that
He passed from this
life early In 1817, when I was a shade
past eleven; ever since then I have
smoked publicly. As an example to
others, and not that I care for moder
ation myself, It has always been my
rule never to smoke when asleep, and
never to refrain when awake.
’As for drinking, I have no rule
about that. When, the others drltu I
otherwise I rei
main dry,
and preference. This dry-
hurt me, but. It could
like
by bal
ness does fiot _
easily hurt. you, because you are
different You let It alone.
First Standard Oil Trust.
‘‘Stnee I was seven years old I have
seldom taken a dose of medicine and
have still more seldom needed one.
But up to seven I lived exclusively on
allopathic medicines. Not that I need
ed them, for I don’t think I did; but It
was for economy. My father took a
drug store for a debt, and It made cod
liver oil cbeaptr than the other break
fast foods. I was the first Standard
Oil Trust. I had It all.' By-tbe time
tbe drug store was exhausted my
health waB established, and there baa
never been 1 much tbe matter with me
I have never taken any exercise, ex
cept Bleeping and resting, and I never
A&OVPLE OP
&tfoafmw the
^WE$T.
Gen. Morgan Neville, a rich pioneer,
and taught the district school. Hp had
word from France that there wu a
chance to regain the Bourbon throne
There Is a class of people who have
apparently lost sight of the fact that
the federal land laws, from the home-
stead law down, and even before the
homestead law, were enacted for the
g urpose of - fostering the making of
omes for the nation; they seem to
think, and It must be confessed that
they have successfully put into prac
tice their belief, that the laws are to
be construed Into paulng on the title
from the government Into, private
hands with absolutely no regard to
homemaking. They argue that when
the public domain goes Into private
ownership It becomes taxable property
and this helps the country and the
State, and the question Is Ignored as
to whether men and women go upon
that land and make homes and rear
families.
'The following part of tHb report of
the Public Lands Commission shows
that the commutation clause at pres
ent Is a farce and that land can be
entered under it and almost Immedi
ately added to already large individual
holdings. The Commiulon recom
mends that the period of residence
be extended from fourteen months to
three years and that the residence be
actual and not constructive, as it Is
at present With such a law strictly
enforced the evils of the commuta
tion clause would be largely obviated.
It Is, however, highly Improbable that
If a man:actually resided and im
proved his homestead for three years.
if he coul<r but get to Paris, but he
had not money enough for tbe trip
Gen. Neville lent the prince the money,
something like $500, and the prince
gave In pledge the ring that Miss
Strong now wears. * Going to New Or
leans by boat,' Phillips got to France
and the rest Is history. Hb regained
bis throne and the money lent by Gen
Neville made It possible. The king sent
back the amount of the loan, told thd
general to keep the ring and asked him
to visit him at tbe royal palace. The
ring Is a pear shaped diamond, set In
black enamel and Is naturally highly
prized.
Into the'Earth’B Bowels.
At Bendigo, Australia, there Is a
gold mine 3,900 feet deep, or only 60
ect short of threequarters of a mile.
This Is . said to be the deepest gold
mine in the world.
Is published In these columns, com
ments upon these two land laws.
The commutation clause, originally
provided that alter eight months of
residence on a homestead claim a
man could “commute” Uy paying to
tho government $1.25 an acre and get
Immediate title to his land. After a
number of years of operation It was
conceded that this clause had openr ”
the door for much land acquiremc
without settlement, and amid a great
blare of trumpets, Congress, In a
spasm of virtue, extended the time to
fourteen months. What has .been the
result of this amendment? The op
ponents of the repeal of the commuta
tlon clause have presented specific
reasons why .this law should not be
touchedr that the jentryman needs to
“prove up” and get title to his land
-so that he can mortgago his property
and with the money buy groceries,
tools, etc., with which to work his
fhrm, which may sound well, but the
fact seems to remain that the great
bulk of the oommuted homesteads are
not to-day homes.
he would be unwilling to pay $L25 an
acre for immediate title, when by an.
additional two yearn’ residence, he
could nave this amount
The provisions of the desert land
act and the recommendation for the
amendment of which la Included lu the
following report will be discussed In
next week’* article.
Commutation Clause of the Home
stead Act.
In the preceding report a state
ment waa made that our Investiga
tions respecting the operations of the
commutation clause of tbe homestead
law were still In progress. We were
not at that time prepared to recom
mend it* repeal. Investigations car
ried on during the paat year have
convinced us that prompt action
should be taken In this direction and
that, Itj tho Interest or settlement, the
commutation clause should be great
ly modified.
A careful examination of tbe dis
tricts where tho commutation clause
Is put to the moat use shows th-t
there has been a rapid Increase of the
uso of this expedient for passing
public lands Into the hands of cor
porations or large landowners. Tbe
object of tho homestead law was pri
marily to give to each citizen, the
bead of a family, an amount of laud
up to 1G0 acres, agricultural In char
acter so that homes would be created
In the wilderness.. Tho commutation
clause, added nt a later date, was
uudoubtely Intended to assist the
honest settler, but llko many other
well-intended acta Its original intent
has been gradually perverted until It
la apparent that a great part of all
commuted homesteads remains unin
habited. In other words, under the
commutation clause tbe number of
patents furnishes no Index to the
number of . new-homes.
To prove. this statement It la only
necessary to drive through a country
where the* commutation clause baa
been largely applied. Field after
field Is passed without a sign of per
manent habitation or Improvement
other than fences. The homestead
shanties of the commuters may bo
(Continued on next page.)
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