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SUNDAY MCRNINC. ON A HOSPITAL SHIP mHE hardest, medical practice In the world is in swing [eaixj' l again. While most of us are dreaming of hammocks and cool drinks, only a few days’ sail from our northern Atlantic ports a little steamer Is rolling and tumbling through great seas and fields of Ice floes. And never castawiy sailor saw delivering ship approach with such prayers of gratitude as rise from men’s lips when the hospital ship Strathcona Is sighted working her way along the terribie coasts of Labrador. Men and women and litlie children —white, Indian and Eskimo—are straining their eyes seaward while you read this, looking for the only help that ever comes to them in their soli tudes, where ice and gale lock them away from ail their human kind. Scat tered along more than one thousand miles of coast, fishing smacks, crowd ed not only with men but with women who are driven by need to fish for a living, hail the little ship as the only place of refuge for any who become ill or maimed in the hard calling. There is no spot on the globe where life is harder or serious accidents of all kinds are more frequent than along that stormy stretch of coast from St. John's, Newfoundland, to Cape Chii dey at the opening into Hudson strait. The intense cold, far below zero for the greater part of the year, raises in numerable eases of frost-bite, that, with no surgical help, soon develop into gangrene. Every year there is a lack of food, and starvation weakens the people un til they are easy prey to typhoid, con sumption and inlestinal diseases of almost all the painful kinds known to medical science. The only methods for obtaining food are seal hunting, whaling and fishing. Generally they are carried on in poor craft, and frightful Injuries, from broken bones to gunshot wounos, are necessarily frequent. For nowhere is the pursuit •f either animals or fish so fraught with difficulty and peril. Yet, although the barren land Is In habited by nearly twelve thousand per sons, while from tewenty to twenty five thousand sail to It every year In June and July to fish for cod, there was not a single doctor to be found in all its thousand miles until ten years ago, when the Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen sent a little 97-ton sailing vessel, the Al bert, there under Dr. Wilfred Gren fell. Month after month the little Albert worked her way through lee and snow and gale, through hundreds of miles of uncharted and unlighted waters, over reefs pounded by mountain seas, seeking out whom she might succor. When her sail was seen men came i skin kayaks, in birch canoes. In all sorts of craft, crazy or stanch, bear ing their sick and wounded to the visitors. Too often the visitors were too late to do more than ease the dying mo ments of some poor wretch. They found whole settlements that had been wiped out by diphtheria. In one place 'they saw the rude graves, scooped into the hard Laurentian rocks, of twenty nine persons who had died absolutely without any attempt at saving them. They found one man whose little A fiAXO-J r rcfjf7- /"" J -A t PATtewj-. j one had frozen both her feet. There was nothing in the whole settlement with which to help her, and before long both feet begjlkn to gangrene. And when the Albert returned to St. John’s she carried back the terrible story of how the unhappy father had been forced at last, being in utter despair and knowing that It was the only hope of saving the child from a death of torture, to take a hatchet and cut off both the little oue’s feet. With such knowledge as this to sustain him, Dr. Grenfell and his band of doctors and nurses—Drs. A. O. Bobardt and Eliot Curwen and the Misses Cecelia Williams and Ada Car wardine —fought their way through the long seasons on the coast, and then, on their brief visits to civiliza tion, fought to arouse men to help them in their efforts. Bit by bit they obtained assistance. First they got a rowboat. Then somebody else helped them to buy a steam launch. Finally another sailing vessel was added to their tiny fleet. But still they knew that ail this was merely a scratching at the outside of a moun tain of misery. And they fought on until now they have the little but beautifully equipped steamship Strath cona, given largely through the efforts of Ix>rd Strathcona. while two hos pitals are established on >h coast, and one is open In rurlhem New foundland, where the conditions of life are almost as hard. Yet, still the service can only reach a percentage of these who need it. For through the winter months even the brave hearts on the Strathcona cannot force her through the ice that girdles the coasts as with an iron ring. Then the doctors must sally out in dog sledges to pay their sick calls, and often they go for a hun dred miles to find their patient. From Nov. 11 to .March 2!) Dr. Mac pherson of the Rattle Harbor hos pital traveled 1,833 miles by sledge, snow-shoes and boat and paid 6SO visits. He micsed scarcely a hut or a tenut on the whole coast from Paul’s river, above the Straits of Belle Isle, to Itigolet, under latitude 55. He found twenty-six dying persons, some of whom he saved, while he made the last hours at least easier for the rest. He found a woman who had been walking around for two weeks with a broken and unset arm. He stitched up the foremarm of a fisherman who had been in agony from a great gasi made many weeks before that never healed. Scurvy, another affliction that curses the dwellers on the inhospitable coast, was found in many places. One case had gone so far that it had produced Internal hemorrhage and required ex tensive operation. A crippled girl was found and rant by uog team to the hospital, where sac was cured suf ficiently to enable her to ipove around freely. A woman was treated who was dying from cancer. She had never been seen by a doctor or indeed by 1,1 Hard Sledding. any one except poor, Ignorant persons like herself, who had not tried to do anything to relieve her agony. TRANSPLANT FISH IN LAKES. Experiments in Wisconsin—Canvas backs Driven Away by Carp. The Wisconsin Fish Commission has experimented largely in the mat ter of transplantation and while its work has been highly valuable it has met with many failures, particularly in the way of Pacific Slope trout, both of the ordinary and steelhead varieties. Rainbows have been brought over, Dolly Vardens, the Mount Shasta trout, which, in its native water is a very vicious steel head indeed, Montana trout and other sorts of salmonidm, but. nothing has been put into Wisconsin water yet which is as good as the native brook trout. Moreover the state has many ama teur pisciculturists who put fish into the water with beneficial intent, and leave other folk to have trouble with them. Some of them are In the class with men who brought English spar rows to this country, the Sail Jose scale, the Russian thistle and such things. Some time ago one of these well meaning persons put a lot of German carp Into Lake Koshkonong. Kosh konong live years ago was the great est inland water for canvashack ducks in the world, since it was matted with wild celery and the big fellows came to it from a thousand miles afar. The carp have eaten all of the celery, as well as forty million tons of mud, and loaf about, rotund, sleepy, happy and worthless, but there are no canvasbaeks. Played Joke on Kitchener. Years ago Kitchener was in com mand of raw Arab troops at Korosko. on the Nile. There with a few other English officers he schooled in civil ized warfare Sheik Arnold and his wild tribesmen throughout the long summer months. And during the schooling someone put' up a joke upon the Arab chieftain and taught him and all his men to heave a harm less and unwitting insult at their dis tinguished leader. The whole baud, yelling wildly, used to dash down to ward the Nile bank, on which was Kitchener’s tent, and halting sudden ly used to salute in those words: “Kitchener damfool! Kitchener muf fin man.” It was a harmless imbecil ity, and its object was as much amused by it as any one, though, of course, the salute had to be altered Lord Roberts in Fiction. A character called Lord Roberts, and representing the British Com mander-in-Chief, is the villain of a ro mance entitled “Gold Fever," now run ning in the Neues Wiener Journal of Vienna. Here is a specimen passage: “Lord Roberts went suddenly paie, almost sallow. He knew that everything de pended upon the successful carrying out of his plans; but in spite of this he soon regained his composure. Only an extremely careful observer would have noticed the evil flicker of his beast-of-prey-like eyes.’’ Needless to say “Lord Roberts’’ is hopelessly in love with the heroine, for whom he plays the piano. THE BRUNSWICK DAILY NEW’S THE OLD HOME . To one forespent with stress of trade Anil schemes of gain in city marts. There comes a breath of country hay, Wafted from passing carts. Fades the long line of brick and stone. The street's rude tumult dies away, From money-getting for a space His soul cries holiday. Frightful Conditions Under Which Children Work in Southern IViills. The writer in going through cotton mills in the South has constantly en countered children of less than twelve years of age, and those who are only seven or eight are so numerous as to cause no particular comment. 1 have myself talked with several who are six years old only, and Miss Jane Ad uams reports having found a child of eight doing night work in a South Car olina mill. Mrs. Irene Ashby-McFay den reports having talked with a boy of seven years of age who worked for forty nights in an Alabama mill, and a child not 9 years old who for three yearß had been doing night, work 11 months in the year. The question of wages is of the very least importance, although throughout the South mill Meat Cutters a-nd Butcher Workmen Hold Most Successful Convention. The recent, convention of the Amal gamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen, held in East St. Louis, was the most successful in the history of the organization. A number of im portant resolutions were introduced, one of them being to divide the or ganization so as to admit only skilled workmen to membership. This was overwhelmingly defeated, as the ma jority of the delegates believed it was necessary to have the unskilled men organized to properly protect the interests of the skilled workmen. Another resolution to increase the monthly per capita tax was defeated, the delegates arguing that they had no power to raise the dues without Report on German Branch of International Typographical Union. The twenty-ninth annual report of Hugo Miller, second vice president of the International Typographical Union, covering the German branch of the organization, has been issued. The consolidation of German news papers in this country, he says, re sulted in a slight decrease in the membership. Only one strike occur red during the year covered by the report, and that wus won. Judging from the document the financial con dition is in good shape. Benefits to the amount of over SII,OOO were paid, and make a most excellent showing for so small a membership—997. President Gompers Lectures on Relations of Capital and Labor. Many thousands of persons greeted Samuel Gompers, president of the American Federation of Labor, who delivered an address before the Chautauqua assembly on Labor and Capital—the Workman's Side of the Story-. President John Mitchell of the United Mine Workers of Ameri ca, who was also to have spoken, was unable to bo present because of the serious situation in the anthracite fields. God’s Temples Places of Uplifting Aspirations exnd Ennobling Hopes. Writing on "The Church and the Young Man.” the Rev. Francis E. Clark. D. D., says; "The church is more to every man than the meeting house, whether it be of hewn stone or unhewn logs. It is the treasure house of noble traditions, of high ideals, of great memories, it is the dwelling place of uplifting aspirations and en nobling hopes. It is made holy by the worship of innumerable multi tudes." Over the door of the great Buddhist temple at Kamakura. Japan, The Joy in Heaven Over “One Sinner That Repenteth." There was a minister of the gospel once, a faithful and loving man. whose work seemed to be very unsuccessful. After twenty y ears’ labor he was only known to have , brought one soul to Christ. So said his congregation. Poor worker in the trench! His toil was not seen by men. but the eye of God rested upon it. To him came one day a deputation of his people, represent ing that, as it had not pleased God to bless his labors there, it would be bet Southern Labor Organizer and Member of Georgia Legislature. J. L. Kilburn, who has just been elected president of the Georgia Fed eration of Labor, is a member of the Macon Typographical union. As dis trict organizer for the American Fed eration of Labor. Mr. Kilbourn organ ized seventeen unions in Macon in fourteen months. For several years he has been president of the Macon Centra! Labor Union. Mr. Kilburn has long been recognized as one of the most prominent organized la bo* Decide Aga.in.st Piece Work The convention of the National Boilermakers and Shipbuilders' asso ciation in Baltimore discussed the question of piece work, the sense of the convention being that it is far less satisfactory than day work. The report of Grand President McNeill showed that the organization has 266 lodges, with a total mmbership ot And with him drawn the orchard path. Past spring-house and the pasture wall. Her spirit walks who taught her child Of the Love that is o’er all. The vision vanishes, and straight The street’s rude tumult in his cars; But In his heart a heavenly strain, * And in his eyes, sweet tears. —Charles Francis Saunders, in Harper’s. wages are on a pauper scale. Adult labor is paid 60 cents to $1 a day, with but few of the workers receiving more than 75 cents. Child labor is paid from 10 to 40 cents a day. The hours that these children must keep are such a? no worker in a northern mill w-ould for a moment tolerate. The customary day’s work is from 5:45 o’clock in the morning to 6:30 in the evening, hut the system of benevolent paternalism maintained in the mills, which is un qualified by any interference by labor unions, and which affords the finest illustration of a man managing his own business to suit himself, frequent ly adds two hours more to the sched ule.—Hugh Cavanaugh in the Pilgrim for August. the instructions from their local unions. The proposition, however, was sent to a referendum vote of the members. The purpose in raising the per capita tax was to provide sick and death benefits for members by the national organization. A local union of women was organized In East St. Louis during the convention, and it is proposed to place a woman organizer in the field shortly. The convention donated SSOO to the strik ing miners, and the local unions are also contributing liberally. Michael Donnelly was unanimously re-elected president, as was Homer I). Call o 1 Syracuse. N. Y.. secretary-treasurer. The salary of the president was in creased S6OO a year. I There seems to be a desire for still ■ greater benefits, regarding which he j says: “There is a movement now | going on in our ranks to add to the i several benefits we are already pay | itig our members (such as out-of work, si<k and traveling benefits), to incorporate an old-age or invalid benefit iti order to protect our mem bers against being compelled to go to the poorhouse when they are thrown out on the street for the reason that they cannot compete with the younger men any longer. But up to date I cannot state whether or not such a plan will be adopted by the German branch.’’ Mr. Gompers declared that the labor of young and Innocent children is the great evil that needs reforma tion. "Many states, particularly in the south, have no law whatever to prevent the practice. Men get rich," he declared, "from the labor of children whose bones are ground into tho almighty dollars. it is a sad commentary. Men walk the streets in idleness in the textile districts while the mills are filled with busy children. is this inscription, said to have been placed there by Sir Edw'n Arnold: “Stranger, whosoever thou art and whatsoever thy creed, when thou en terest this sanctuary, remember thou treadest upon ground hallowed by worship of ages. This is the temple of Buddha, and should be entered with reverence." 1 always take off my hat in a heathen temple as well as in a Christian church, for ii. too, has been hallowed by the worship of devout hearts. ter for him to remove to another place. They told him plainly that only one sinner had been converted under ills ministry. He might do well else where. "What do you say?” said he. "Have I really brought one sinuer to Christ? "Yes,” was the reply; “one, but only one.” “Thank God for that!" cried he. "Thank God! Now for 20 years’ more labor among you! God sparing me. perhaps I may be the honored instrument of bringing two.” men in Georgia. He is at present a member of the Georgia legislature, and was renominated at the recent Democratic primary for a second term, which nomination is equivalent to an election, vHe is also a promi nent member of the Elks, Knights of Pythias and Red Men. Mr. Kilburn is considered one of the safest and most conservative ad visers in the laboring ranks of the state. 21,000. Resolutions were adopted ex tending thanks to Congress for the “prompt and justifiable action in re gard to building warships in govern ment navy yards.’’ It was decided to pay each of the six vice presidents a salary of $1,200 per year, in order that they might devote all their time to the brotherhood. TRAMPS HAVE SIGNS common or roadside I tramp is not a popular or in i„ ■ teresting person. His ap pearauce is usually unprepos sessing, his honesty is fre quently not above suspicion, and his distaste for work has passed into a proverb. Police and public alike eye him with suspicious dislike, as he slouches along the highroad. The tramps, thus cut off by a har der of dislike from communion with fT“" n ' —- “No Good to Call Here." their more respectable fenow-crea tures, have been forced, in sheer self defence, to aid and assist one an other. There is no particular bond of sympathy between tramp and tramp; but the necessity for self preservation compels the members of this strange fraternity of wayfarers and work-haters to co-operate to a certain extent. One of the most in teresting forms which this co-opera tion takes is the silent, but none the less powerful, medium of a sigu-lan guage. whereby any member of the brotherhood, following in the steps of a pioneer, may icarn what fate has in store for him in the way of good or bad luck at the various places he visits. The writer was recently priv ileged to have this curious sign-lan guage explained to him by a venera ble and grizzled member of the tramp fraternity—an interesting old ruffian who confessed that he had been tramping the high-roads and by-ways for the last forty years, during which period he had done about a fortnight's honest work. The signs have the merit of being easily made: a niece of chalk or whiting and a handy wall or fence are all that Is required. When made they are quite unintelligible to the layman, and tool; very like the mean ingless scrawls of school children, who have purloined a fragment of the teacher's chalk. marks are not meaningless, however, will be abundantly proved by the following illustrations, which were prepared un der the supervision of my tramp friend. The members of the fraternity not being, aka rule, artistically gifted, the marks are distinguished by their absolute simplicity. There is no sign which cannot be drawn in an instant by the most unskilled hand. Take, for instance, the first sign we repro duce here. This shows a simple cir cle. drawn on a wall, and yet it con veys to the eye of the initiated tramp the unwelcome information: “No good to cal! here.” Some other tramp has happened along this-way, has called at this farm house with a modest re quest for food or money, and has been repulsed. Therefore he has left be hind him a warning to any fellow tramp who may be on the same road. And Weary Willie gives the inhospita ble dwelling a wide berth. We have seen that a plain circle “People Here Will Give You Food." is an omen of evil to the tramp, in dicating a stony-hearted refusal of his gentle pleadings and the possible “firing-out” of himself from the farm yard by some indignant owner. If, however, a large cross be inserted in the circle, then the sign tells a very different story—a story which sends Its travel-stained reader hurrying up the path to the back door. For now it reads: “The people here will give you food." And your genuine tramp never declines food that is to be had for the asking—unless it be a pie made by the newly-married diplomee of the cookery school. The tramp is not always allowed to approach and leave a house or (arm in peace. As I have before re OCTOBER 19 marked, his appearance Is usually dis tinctly against him, and some of the species have an awkward habit of annexing little unconsidered trifles which come in their way. Moreover, farmers suspect them of an unhappy “penchant” for sleeping in stacks and accidentally setting them on fire. Hence it is that poor Weary William i3 as often as not forcibly ejected from the premises or else driven off by some ferocious watch dog. When this fate happens to a tramp he is in duty bound to do bis best to prevent his comrades from walking into the same trap. Therefore, if circum stances permit and no pursuit is at tempted. he affixes to the farm a sign setting forth the facts. At certain times of the year, how ever, particularly at such busy sea sons as seedtime and harvest, farmers can ofte-n do with the temporary ser vices of unskilled men, aud when tramps offer themselves they are fre quently taken on. A tramp who has fallen upon a place of this sort sketches on some convenient fence a sign, which means, practically, “Food and money here if you care to work.” As many tramps have a rooted objec tion to manual labor, it is not all of them who hail this sign with joy. Money, by the way, is usually indi cated in the sign-language by tiny circles, but as tramps do not often receive money the sign is not much used. if anything could dash a tramp’s hopes it is the sign we have just di3- cribed. For this sign tells the foot sore tramp that his journey has been more or less in vain; that be will meet with nothing tut unkindness in the village; and that the best thing he can do is to drag his tired limb> onwards to some other and more bos pitable hamlet. For the pioneer tramr tells us here: “Get out of this village as soon as you can; there is nothing any good to be got here.” What rout: , . . -- . (J* L. * i ■■■— r■ -I “Get Out of This Village as Quickly as You Can." be more depressing after a long day’s journey? There are several other signs in the tramp language, most of them more intricate than the foregoing and some of them not well known, but we have contented ourselves with telling about the signs most common ly used by the fraternity of the road. Wrecked by Magnetic Sand. “In the district of Stavanger, in the southwestern part of Norway, there is a place called Jaederen. a flat strip of coast less than a mile long, which is notorious for shipwrecks,” says Gar tenlaube (April 22). "Now- a Norwe gian physicist has discovered that the sand of Jaederen is stronfclv magnetic, owing to an admixture of magnetic iron ore. He found, also, that at a distance of three miles from the shore a ship's compass showed a deviation of a whole degree from its true posi tie® The cause of the numerous ship wrecks, therefore, is obvious.” The writer suggests that this effect on the compass may have originated the old stories of the destruction of vessels by magnetic mountains, although these stories seem to have been current be fore the compass was in common use. Couldn't Tell All. "Harold,” she said, “the letter you wrote me while you were away was beautiful. I was proud to receive it.” “Were you?” he responded, his eyes glowing with pleasure. “Yes. And yet—l could not help feeling that it was not from yourself.” “Didn't you recognize the handwrit ing?” “Yes. But I felt that you were not speaking to me just as you felt—that there were things in your mind which you did not say?” “O—er —of course. It was certainly clever of you to discover that. You see. I couldn't tell you all that was in my mind. I wrote that letter with a fountain pen.” Easy Enough. Mr. Harry de Windt, in his book. "Finland As It Is,” tells of a mot of Andree, the Arctic explorer. Just be fore bis last voyage be was driven to distraction at a dinner-party by a talkative neighbor. “But how will you know, professor, when you have really crossed the North Pole?” was one of many silly questions. “Oh, that will be simple enough, madame,” replied Andree, with his well-known dry humor. “A north wind will become a south one!”