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MAGAZINE SECTION
THE STATEHOOD QUESTION.
LIKELIHOOD OF THE ADMISSION
OF OKLAHOMA AND INDIAN
TERRITORY .
m-
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 House
and Senate. There is promise of a
long and very important session.
New policies are to bo 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 consid
erations. A . ..
The admission of new states to the
Union will be one of the hold-over
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
session.
It is understood that the committees
on territories of both House and Sen
ate are inclined to stand by the old
program of creating two states out of
the four territories, but it will not be
a surprise if this program fails 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 the exist
ing conditions in the territories, and
the result is that public sentiment
among public men is crystallizing in
favor of the plan of admitting Okla
homa and Indian Territory to state
hood and, if necessary, letting Arizo
na and New Mexico wait.
There seems to be few dissenting
voices against the proposed admission j
|miiaßi
DK ‘'xß&sßf't ~r . . ,/z^
THE CHINESE MINISTER’S DAUGHTER.
■ « it. VI /it
Visitors to the Chinese Legation at
Washington have often been attracted
to a tiny little figure perched at the
head of the grand stairway. It is al
ways there when a dinner party is go
ing on or when Sir Chengtung Liang
Cheng, the Chinese Minister, is giving
a reception. It never fails to appear,
;«(! the uninitiated have been heard to
tffVark in undertone that it is a queer
figure which guards the head of
■Wijw'-'er, .• is a very animated some
mmj after ah, for it is no other than
voung daughter of the Minister,
■Rise' Liang, who, though barred
Khrough the custom of her country and
Rer youth from taking actual part in
en ertainments, is, neverthfdess,
determined to see as much of them as
she possibly can. Perhaps her father,
the Minister, does not know she is
there and perhaps he does, but nobody
knows, for no mention of the fact has
ever been made to him, and Miss Liang
continues to enjoy these many social
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
Ting Dang former Chinese Minister,
members of the 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
She llrnttiunmuii
of Oklahoma and Indian Territory.
Difference of opinion does exist as to
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 is 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
l 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
zona and New Mexico proposition, no
matter what form it may take, and
admit Oklahoma and Indian Territory.
The Royal Crown of England.
“Uneasy is the head that wears the
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 diamonds, $lO,-
000 each; fifty-four smaller ones at the
angle of the former, SSOO each; four
crosses, each composed of twenty-five
diamonds, $,,0,000; four large dia
monds at the top of the crosses, S2O
- 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-one small diamonds, $25,000;
twenty-six diamonds in the upper
cross, $15,000 and two circles of pearls
about the rim. $15,000. The 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.
I Therefore I weep.
■ perience. At home they would not
dare. . .
Society is eagerly awaiting the ex
pected announcement that Miss Liang
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 i 3 frequently seen stand
ing in front of some of the fashionable
shops. ..
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, and
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 drives. They are great
friends and apparently enjoy every
minute of their time together. The
Minister is very proud of his daughters
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.
MOUNT VERNON, GEORGIA, THURSDAY, DECI-'.MHER. -JS. H»OS.
MARK TWAIN AT SEVENTY.
THE HUMORIST ENTERTAINS
GROUPS OF AUTHORS AT
BANQUET.
At Three Score and Ten He Is Hale
and Hearty—Gives Views on How
to Live—Never Smokes or Drinks
While Asleep.
Mark Twain, that prince of humor
ists lias 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 humor
and wit—such gems as attained fame
for him years ago when Huckleberry
Finn, Tom Sawyer and Innocents
■nesaa | i ■'TT —j~l
S' m ..4H
MARK TWAIN, TO-DAY.
Abroad were first given to us. On De
cember sth he was the guest of honor
at a dinner in New York, to celebrate
his seventieth birthday. The guests
were confined closely to writers
of imaginative literature, and about
170 authors were present, nearly bail!
of them women. Every guest received
as a souvenir a bust of Mark Twain,
half-life size. Naturally Mr. Clemens
was the principal speaker; he took as
his text, “How to get to be seventy
and not mind it.” He said: —
“The seventieth birthday! 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 the world how 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 nave
been anxious to explain my own sys
tem for a long time, and now at last
I have the right.
Regularly Irregular.
“I 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.
We have no permanent habits until
we are forty. Then they begin to har
den, presently they petrify, then busi
ness begins. Since forty I have boon
regular about going to bed and getting
up, and that is one of the main things.
I have made it a rule to go to bed
when there wasn’t anybody left to sit
up with, and I have made it a rule to
get up when I had to. 3 his has result
ed in an unswerving regularity of ir
regularity.
“In the matter of diet—which Is
another main thing—l have been per
sistently strict in sticking to the things
which didn’t agree with me until one
or the 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 had 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 7.30 in the
evening.
“I have made It a rule never to
smoke more than one cigar at a time. I
have no other restriction as regards
smoking. Ido not know just when I
j began to smoke; I only know that it
1 was in my father's lifetime, and that
1 1 -was indiscreet. He passed from this
i life early in 1847, when I was a shade
; past eleven; ever since then I have
smoked publicly. As an example to
I others, nnd not that I care for moder
lation myself, it has always been my
| rule never to smoke when asleep, and
j never to refrain when awake.
“As for drinking, I have no rule
1 about that. When the others drln.. I
like to help; otherwise I remain dry,
bv habit and preference. This dry
ness does not hurt rne, but it could
<-asily hurt you, because you are
different. You let it alone.
First Standard Oil Trust.
“Since T 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 cheaper than the other break
fast foods. I was the first Standard
Oil Trust. I had It all. By the time
the drug store was exhausted my
health was established, and there has
never b*en mueh th* matter with me
. since.
“I have never taken any exercise, ex
jeept sleeping and resting, and I never
intend to take any. Exercise is loath
some. And it cannot he any benefit
when you are tired; 1 was always
tired.
“1 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 you cannot get
them on a margin; you have to have
the whole tiling and put them in your
box. Morals are an acquirement—like
music, like a foreign language, like
piety, poker, paralysis—no man is born
with them. 1 wasn’t myself. 1 start
l'd poor-
WHAT A STRIKE COST.
Chicago Obliged to Divert Money
Needed For Improvements Into
Payments For Police Service.
It will never be 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, la 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 boml3 still
unsold and an emergency strike debt
of some $365,000. To pay this bill the
council has retired the $2,000/100 of
bonds and ordered their reissue In such
form that they may be used for general
corporate purposes.
Thus $365,000—0r 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 teamsters to
make the ordinary business of peace
ful citizens full of turmoil and haz
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 the city pays for extra police
service, plus what the county lias to
P&y for special deputy sheriffs, plus
the loss to merchants, railways, man
ufacturers, etc., in business; plus lost
wages to the strikers, plus a dozen
other items that It would be difficult
to enumerate. And this only em
braces money cost. It takes no ac
count of inconvenience to citizens, of
assaults on citizens, of the killing of
citizens.
It Is a tremendously expensive thing
to fight a labor war in a great city.
A Ring for a Throne.
Mis 3 Josephine Strong, who was
private secretary at Washington for
Congressman Hawley, has a diamond
ring that was once owned and worn
by Louis Philllpe. king of France.
The ring has a peculiar history. It
will he remembered that Philllpe lived
in this country when he was an exile.
He lived one winter in Zanesville,
Ohio, and spent another winter with
-
Gen. Morgan Neville, a rich pioneer
and taught the district school. He had
word from France that there was a
chance to regain the Bourbon throne
if he could but get to Baris, but he
had not money enough for the trip
1 Gen. Neville lent the prince the money.
; something like SBOO, and the prince
gave in pledge the ring that Miss
Strong now wears. Going to New Or
leans by boat, Phillipe got to France
' and the rest, is history. He regained
1 his throne and the money lent by Gen
■ Neville made it possible. The king sent
1 back the amount of the loan, told thd
general to keep the ring and asked him
t to visit him at the royal palace. The
1 ring is a pear shaped diamond, set in
I black enamel and is naturally highly
• prized. •
I >
Into the Earth's liowels.
’ At Bendigo, Australia, there is a
* gold mine 3,900 feet deep, or only 00
i feet short of tbree-quartors of a mile
- This Is said to be the deepest gold
r I ifflne In the world.
AMERICAN LAND MONOPLY.
IS BEING FOSTERED BY OUR PRES
ENT SYSTEM OF LOOSE
LAND LAWS.
Homestead Commutation nnd Desert
Land Act. Supposed to Encourage
Settlement— Largely Utilized tor
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 wo ourselves are as rapidly ap
proaching land monopoly in America
as it is possible to do, considering our
vast extent of territory. Land monop
oly brings with it more state evils
than can bo recounted in any single
article. It retards every internal de
velopment, it smothers individual ef
fort and enterprise and finally it
transforms the stem and fiber of the
individual citizen from that of a sub
stantial, 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 say?"
says the American land grabber.
"Why, there is enough land for the
children of the nation for generations
if not centuries to come. The gov
ernment owns in the West alone near
ly half a billion acres and how can
there lie any land monopoly when this
va.,t area is always open to free entry
under our various land laws?"
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
bo valuablo when it. shall have been
furnished water for irrigation, lint
what is the general description of this
half billion acres yet remaining under
Uncle Sam’s control? Is it reasonable
to suppose that the shrewd land oper
ators, living on the ground, have not
skimmed the cream of this land, and
are not doing so to-day —the fertile
valleys and the rich plains, where
water can he applied—and leaving tho
great bulk of tho land to their pos
terity, land composed of mountain
tops and impassable canyon Hides
which will probably forever remain in
the hands of tho government and at
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 tho map is on a much reduced
scale, hut from its appearance you
would think tho entire State was com
posed of nothing but chain upon chain
aud range upon range of untlllablo
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 the desert land act
has been studied by the President's
Public Lands Commission, and their
report, the third Installment of which
in published in tnese columns, com
merits upon these two land luws.
The commutation clause originally
provided that after months of
residence on a-homestead claim a
man could "commute” by paying to
the government |l.2a an acre and get
immediate title to his land. After a
number of years of operation It was
conceded that this clause had opened
the door for much land acquirement
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
tion clause have presented specific
reasons why this law should not be
touched; that the entryrnan needs to
"prove up” and get title to his land
so that he can mortgage his property
and with the money buy groceries,
tools, etc., with which to work his
farm, which may sound well, but the
fact seems to remala that the great
bulk of the commuted homesteads are
not to-day homes.
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 lor the
purpose of fostering the making of
homes 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 passing 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 reaf
families.
The following part, of the 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 Commission 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
a
FREDERICK 11. NEWELL
Chief Engineer of the C. s. Iteclaniutlon Ser
vice ami Member of the Public Lauds
Commission.
ho would be unwilling to pay $1.25 an
acre for Immediate title, when by an
additional two years’ residence, ho
could save this amount.
The provisions of the desert land
act, and the recommendation for the
amendment of which Is included in the
following report will he discussed In
next week’s article.
Commutation Clause of the Home
stead Act.
In the preceding report a state
ment wns made* that our Investiga
tions respecting the operations of the
commutation clause of I lie homestead
law were si 111 In progress. We were
not at tlmt time prepared to recom
mend Its repeul. Investigations car
ried on during the past year have
convinced us that prompt action
should be taken in this direction and
that, In the Interest or settlement, the
commutation clause should lie great
ly muddled.
A careful examination of the dis
tricts where the commutation clause
Is put to the most use shows that
there has been a rapid Increase of the
use of Ibis expedient for passing
public lands Into the hands of cor
porations or large landowners. The
object of the homestead law was pri
marily to give to each citizen, the
head of a family, an amount of laud
up to Uk) acres, agricultural in char
acter so that homes would he created
la the wilderness. The commutation
clause, added at a luter date, was
undoubtely intended to assist the
honest set tier, hut like many other
well-intended acts its original Intent
has been gradually perverted until It
is apparent that u great part of all
commuted homesteads remains unin
habited. fn other words, under the
commutation clause the number of
patents furnishes no index to the
number of new homes.
To prove this statement It Is only
necessary to drive through a country
where the commutation clause has
been largely applied. Field after
| field Is passed without a sign of per
manent habitation or Improvement
other than femes. The homestead
shanties of the commuters muy be
(Continued on next nage.)
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1131-33 BROADWAY
! Room 10 New York, N. Y.
PART TWO,