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seven years before was dancing “Pos sum up the gumtree” in the chimney corner of his father’s kitchen. Nick had entered the counting room of a merchant in Charleston some five or six years before; had been sent out as supercargo of a vessel to Bordeaux, and, while the vessel was delivering one cargo and taking in another, had contracted a wonderful relish for French music. As for myself, I went home in con vulsions, took sixty drops of laudanum and fell asleep. I dreamed that I was in a beautiful city, the streets of which intersected each other at right angles; that the birds of the air and the beasts of the forest had gathered there for battle, the former led on by a Frenchman, the latter by an Italian; that I was looking on their move ments towards each other, when I heard the cry of “Hecate is coming!” I turned my eye to the northeast, and saw a female flying through the air towards the city, and distinctly recog nized in her the features of Miss Crump. I took the alarm and was making my escape, when she gave command for the beasts and birds to fall on me. They did so, and, with all tk ) noises of the animal world, were in the act of tearing me to pieces, when I was waked by the stepping of Hall, my roommate, into bed. “Oh, my dear sir,” exclaimed I “you have waked me from a horrible dream. What o’clock is it?” “Ten minutes after twelve,” said he. “And where have you been to this late hour?” “I have just returned from the party.” “And what kept you so late?” “Why, I disliked to retire while Miss Crump was playing.” “In mercy’s name!” said I, “is she playing yet?” “Yes,” said he; “I had to leave her playing at last.” “And where was Jenkins?” “He was there, still in ecstacies, and urging her to play on.” “And where was Truck?” “He was asleep.” “And what was she playing?” “An Italian ” Here I swooned, and heard no more. BALDWIN. n * * LET NATION HOLD ITS COAL LANDS. So Roosevelt Urges In Message to Con gress. LEASING SYSTEM FAVORED. He Urges Congress to Enact Legisla tion by Which Coal and Other Fuel Resources on Public Lands May Be Conserved. Washington, D. C., Feb. 13. —Presi- dent Roosevelt today sent to both houses of congress a long message calling attention to what he terms the urgent need of legislation affecting the different phases of the public land situation in the United States. He advocates the conservation of coal and other fuel resources on lands still be longing to the government, saying that henceforth the nation should retain its title to its fuel resources, urges gov ernment control of the western public land pastures with a system of small grazing fees, etc., and asks for an appropriation of half a million dollars immediately available in addition to present estimates, to aid in detecting and preventing land fraud. He con tends for a sytem of government leas ing of its mineral lands, and for treat ing these fuel lands as public utili ties. The president points out that it would have been better if some eas tern coal lands had been left under government control, and suggests pro vision In the west “against recurrence of the conditions we deplore in the east.” Citing 2,300 cases in public land in four districts mentioned, the president says non-compliance with the law was found in over half of them, and deliberate fraud in very many cases. The Leasing System. The message, in part, says: “Sir a leasing system as that pro posed represents by no means an un tried policy. In the Australian coun tries during the last fifteen years coal has been mined under a system of government leasing. In all the great coal producing European countries, ex cepting Great Britain, leases are granted almost entirely by private land owners, but there, as in other countries, the surface culture and mining operations are conducted inde pendently of each other. In Nova Sco tia, British Columbia, Indian, and oth er British colonies, a government leas ing system has been adopted, and is working satisfactorily. In the United States, although conveyance of the mineral rights with the surface has been common practice, the separate development of the two interests is in creasing; and in the eastern and mid dle states a large part of the coal is being mined under a system of pri vate leases. It is gratifying to note that in these states, these two great industries, agriculture and mining, are conducted within the same boundaries, and the country thus attains its high est dual development without conflict of interests. Indeed, the mining in dustry, and the factories using these fuels, create large local markets for the products of the farm. “In our own western states and ter ritories the scarcity of both water and forests has rendered necessary their preservation of public utilities, and the preservation of the forests for the pur pose of conserving both the waters and the timber supply has come to be rec ognized as the wise and proper policy of the federal government. The quan tity of high grade mineral fuels in the west is relatively much smaller than that of the forests, and the proper conservation of these fuels is a matter of far-reaching importance. We have a right to the proper use of both the forests and the fuel during our life time, but we should not dispose of the birthright of our children. If this gov ernment sells its remaining fuel lands they pass out of its future control. If it now leases them we retain control, and the future congress will be at lib erty to decide whether it will continue or change this policy. Meanwhile the government can inaugurate a system which will encourage the separate and independent development of the sur face lands for agricultural purposes, and the extraction of the mineral fuels in such manner as will best meet the needs of the people, and best facil itate the development of manufactur ing industries. Objections to System. “I am aware that objections to this system are being urged. It is claimed that so large a part of the coal in systems in some western states have already passed into the possession of certain large corporations, that those endeavoring to operate under a lease system other coal deposits would be unable to compete with these corpora tions and therefore that the fuel de posits still belonging to the govern ment should be allowed to pass into private’ ownership, presumably into the hands of the same or other large corporations. It is also claimed that reservation of the fuel supplies still belonging to the government would raise the price of coal in the west, and as an argument in favor of this con tention it is claimed that the reserva tion of the natural forests is raising the price of lumber in the west. It should be remembered that the best and most accessible bodies of timber in the west passed into private hold ings before the forest reserves were THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN. established; that while the price of timber has advanced in the west it has advanced still more in the east, where there are no forest reserves; that sup plies of timber are today being ship ped from the west to the markets of the Mississippi valley and even to for eign countries. To secure cheapness of timber and fuel for the moment at the cost of ruin to our own children would surely be a suicidal policy. It may be fairly claimed among the ad vantages of the leasing system that: “1. It will facilitate the working under favorable conditions of coal de posits for local markets by miners without large capital, as no land pur chase money would be required and the small royalty charges would be paid out of the earnings; “2. It would facilitate larger opera tions, as the leases could be made suf ficiently liberal in the matter of time, area and other conditions, to induce healthy competition and meet all real demands; and yet in all cases the general supervision of the government could be such as “3. To prevent waste in the extrac tion and handling of these fuels; “4. The system can be operated in such manner as to prevent the evils of monopolistic control; “5. It will permit the government to reserve from general use fuels espe cially suitable for metallurgical and other special industries, and “6. It will enable the government to protect the public against unreasona ble and discriminating charges for fuel supplies. Private Control of Coal Lands. “Already probably one-half of the total area of the high grade coals in the west has passed under private control. Including both the lignite and the coal areas, these private hold ings probably aggregate not less than 30,000 acres of coal fields. With the remainder of the lands containing min eral fuels reserved and leased by the government there will be ample op portunity to determine, in the near future, which of the two systems— private ownership or the leasing sys tem with general government super vision—will best protect the interests of the people and thus promote the permanent development of the west. “In planning such a leasing system by the government the question of rev enue, beyond that necessary to cover the expenses of administration and ex ploitation, need not be seriously con sidered. The spirit of generosity which the country as a whole has shown in connection with the disposal of its public lands and the use of the proceeds from the sale of these lands for the further development of the west through the reclamation service and in other ways, is of itself a suf ficient guarantee that in the admin istration of both the forest reserves and the national coal lands this gen erous policy will be continued. It is safe to believe also that federal super vision of both the coal lands and the forests will be reduced to a minimum, and that in the future then more than in the past this supervision will be limited to that necessary to carry out the policy of conserving these national resources in such a manner as will best permit the permanent interest of the people, and, above all, of the wes tern people or the people in the neigh borhood of the mines and the forests, which we seek to preserve for the public use. “The necessity for care in the future management of these fuel supplies is further illustrated by the rapid rate at which the use of such fuels is in creasing in the United States. I can not too emphatically say that all laws which merely seek to prevent monopo ly or the mishandling of the public by forbidding combination are likely to fail of their purpose. Our expert (Continued on page 10.) 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