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Let Us Be Quiet
Ey Winifred Elack.
HE Dressmakers’ Union has issued an ultimatum against the
gossiping dressmaker.
Score one for the Dressmakers’ Union!
Now, if the Amalgamated Society of Human Beings would
only get together and put a ban on the gossiping demon,
life would be quite worth living.
I wonder if the gossip fiends have the faintest idea what
nuisances they are! I know a dressmaker who is clever,
awfully elever. She can take a few yards of ordinary ma-
B gj
terial and make you look as if you had just come from Paris; but she talks.
Shuddering nerves, how she does talk!
She’ll tell you all about the Blanks’ breakfasts and the Somebody's din
ners, and the Nobody’s luncheons, before she’s cut the lining out; and by the
time she is ready for the first fitting, she knows all about everything in your
own house, who-gets up late, who comes in late, and why, and has it all
stowed away in her memory, ready to tell to the next person she Intends to
afflict.
Sift was making me a simple little house dress a week or so ago, and
right in the very midst of it I grew so desperate under the clap of her never
ceasing tongue, and the spark of her gimlet eye, that I told her she needn’t
finish the dress, and sent her home in a perfect flutter of glorious excitement.
I suppose she’ll tell her next customer that I am a morphine subject or some
thing, to pay me up. But I don’t care; I’m so glad to be rid of her that
nothing matters now.
I’m going to make my little girl learn to keep still, absolutely and com
pletely and entirely still, for an hour a day every single day; I want her
to learn to be a blessing.
Most women tally too much, too often, too loud, and too fast.
It is the hardest work in the world to get anything done in a house
where there are two women. They have to stop and talk everything over
and over and over again, till the very air reverberates w'ith the never-ending
din.
What a rest the silent person is!
And I’m going to make my little girl fold her hands and keep her feet
■still and stop biting her lips, and I shan’t let her raise even an eyebrow dur
ing her repose hour. If she can learn the Chinese habit of calm, self-refresh
ing rest by that hour’s discipline in a day, some man and a score or so of
women are going to rise up some day and call me blessed.
Sh-sh, sisters, we talk too much; let’s be quiet for a little while.
The Ox’Motor
Sy Charles D. Stewart.
N the choice of motive power, allow me to suggest the ox.
The horse leans forward to pull an<^ even helps himself
along by bobbing his head; he jerks a load out of a hard
place by plunging bodily against the collar, stopping and
lunging again; he strains through a hard place, and then
starts suddenly forward at his release; he works himself
into a lather; and you, if you are the right kind of a person,
cannot help feeling for him and assisting him with inward
stress and strain.
111
WW WWW
The ox does not bob a horn. He simply journeys, and the load goes
along. When he comes to a tough place his pasterns do not bend down; he
does not squat to pull; he does not pinch along on the toes of his shoes;
he seldom blows, and he does not know how to sweat. He does not exert
himself at a patch of woven soil and then hurry up when he is past it. The
chain'becomes stiffer and the yoke sits solider to his neck, and that is all;
there is no sign of effort. The earth may grit its teeth and crunch as it
sallows the plough, but the ox stalks on his way. With the share deep or
shallow, or lifted entirely and hanging from the axle, —whether he is plough
ing earth or air—it makes no difference to him. His most ponderous task
is still himself, and he heeds no incidentals.
He is out for a stroll; he does not allow work to interfere with the even
'tenor of his way. His tendons are rigged to his outstanding rump bones like
so much spar and tackle, and he goes along by interior leverage; inside his
old-woman hulk is the necessary enginework, and he will neither go slower for
this thing nor faster for that. There is much about him besides his dispo
sition that is self-contained; he is the antithesis of the automobile. To ride
on his back is a cure for the indigestion; to ride behind him is a rest for the
mind; a course of ox is an antidote for the ills of the times.—The Atlantic.
How Germany Builds a
Navy [
By Sidney Graves Koon, M. M. E.
HILE preparations for the United States navy have been
more or less buffeted about in committee and on the floors
of the Senate and House of Representatives, we have had
in recent years a very conspicuous example of the benefi
cial results accruing from a continuous and regular naval
ship-building policy, such as that at present under way in
the German empire. Beginning with 1898, the Germans
have been acting on a definite program worked out for sev
eral years in advance. It has been known far ahead of the
w
time of beginning construction just how many vessels of the various classes
were to be laid doWn”each year, although later acts have much increased the
numbers and sizes; The act of 1898 contemplated the acquisition of a navy
including twenty battleships, eight coast defenders, twelve large and twenty
nine small cruisers, besides six destroyers to be laid down annually. This to
tal included a number of ships already in existence, and work was prosecuted
on the others at the rate of two ov three large ships each year. In 1900 a
supplementary act increased the battleships to thirty-eight, the large cruisers
to fourteen, and the small cruisers to thirty-eight. In 1906 the lage cruisers
• were increased to twenty, and the destroyers to be laid down each year were
raised from six. to twelve. In 1907 the active life of all vessels was declared
decreased to twenty years, after which new construction would fill the place
of each vessel so retired, without such construction being included in the
regular list for additions to the navy.—Leslie’s Weekly.
| Sunlight Can Be Weighed 1
1 By Waldemar IQaempffert. ?
ITH the aid of instruments that feel what our hands can
never feel, and see what our eyes can never see, the modern
physicist has critically analyzed the radiation that beats
upon this earth from the distant sun. He has cast the solar
effulgence into mighty mathematical scales, and has found
that the earth sustains a light-load of 75,000 tons. Startling
as this intellectual achievement may be, it has been out
done by the ingenuity of the experimental scientist. In
struments have been devised that enable even our imper-
pw"
feet retinas to note the pressure of light,—instruments which offer that con
vincing objective evidence demanded by the scientifically uninformed man.
him in the industrial rank and file, to subject him to the new feudality.
Old customs and old usages will perish; where the white oxen went afield
the steam-harvester will rumble and snort; in the meanttime Pierre and his
farm are typical of France.—From “The French Peasant in His Fields,” in
The Outing Magazine.
the convoy.
»|awg|Bg^
—Week’s cleverest cartoon, by C. R. Macauley, in the New York World.
CAPTAIN TELLS OF THE WRECK
Ship Sank Under Him and He Was Rescued From the Sea
Williams, the Second Officer, With Him ’to the End —
Fished From the Water Fifst, He Directed the Search
For the Captain —Praise For All the Ship’s Men.
New York City.—Captain William
I. Sealby, of the wrecked White Star
liner Republic, told the. story of the
disaster. One thing he did not tell
was why he had elected to stay with
his ship until it sank. Being an offi
cer of the Royal Naval Reserve and
a commander for the White Star,
Captain Sealby presupposed that this
act needed no explanation.
“Before 6 o’clock on Sunday night
we knew that the Republic would
never live to reach Martha’s Vine
yard,’’ was the way Captain Sealby
began his tale. “By 7 o’clock she
was way down irCthe stern, and wal
lowing with long, painful rolls, that
meant there was very little more life
left in her. Williams (R. J. Will
iams, the second officer) and I stood
on the bridge and kept our eyes
ahead on the lights of the Gresham
and Seneca, which were towing. The
ship was so low in the stern that the
waves were breaking over her at.that
point and the water was swashing
clear up to the ladder of the saloon
deck aft.
“I think it must, have been just
about 8 o'clock when we both saw
that she was going to drop under us
within a very few minutes. First
thing we did was to prepare a Holmes
distress light, which burns when it
touches water. This we left on the
bridge with us so that when we went
down the men on the revenue, cutters
could be directed to the spot where
the Republic went down. While we
were working over the light Will
iams, who has a bit of sporting blood
in him, joked about our situation.
“ ‘What do you make of It, Will
iams?’ I had asked him.
“ ‘I don’t think it will be a lon£
race to the bottom,’ he laughed.
‘When you are ready let her go and
we’ll make a sprint of it.’
“Before we had finished with the
Holmes light we began to hear a roar
ing and cracking of the deck seams
back of us. It was the air driving
out ahead of the advancing water.
That is the last call of a sinking ship.
I directed Williams to burn two blue
lights, the signal to the revenue cut
ters that we were going down and for
them to cast off. Then I let loose
five shots with my revolver.
“We were going down steadily
then and pretty fast. I yelled at
Williams to make for the fore rig
ging. We both dropped down the
ladder to the saloon deck, each carry
ing a blue light in one hand. By the
time our feet touched the saloon deck
it was at an angle of nearly thirty
degrees, wet and slippery. We could
not keep our feet, so we grabbed the
rail and crawled. The water was
rushing up on us from behind and
the explosions and rending of the tim
bers from ’midships told us that al
ready the stern was under water.
“We had reached the forecastle
head when Williams slipped to the
deck and grabbed a post of the rail
with his elbow. That was the last I
saw of him until after it was over. 1
managed to get forward to the fore
mast and to climb the rigging as far
as the forward running light, about
100 feet up. Below me about half
of the ship was visible and she was
tipped up like a rocking chair about
to go over backward.
“My blue light would not burn be
cause it had become wet. I fired one
more shot from my revolver, the last.
Then everything dropped and I was
in the water with the foremast slip
ping down beside me like an elevator
plunger.
“There was a boiling, yeasty mass
of water about me and a great roar
ing. I went under, but came up
again, for the air had gathered un
der my greatcoat and buoyed me up.
I guess I went around spinning for a
time; then I hit a spar. From the
spar I managed to get to a hatch cover.
Things were flying around in the wat
er and I came near being badly
banged up before I managed to pull
my body up on the hatch cover and
Jie there all spread out with nothing
but my head and shoulders above the
waves.
“IE was very cold. I saw the
No Refuge On Earth Now For
Embezzlers and Defaulters.
Washington, D. C.— The last haven
of refuge on earth for American bank
wreckers, embezzlers, defaulters and
other criminals of that class was re
moved when the Senate ratified an
extradition treaty with Honduras.
It is believed that under this treaty
Honduras may be persuaded to sur
render many old offenders who have
taken up residence there, although
that country has found them desira
ble because they always had ready
cash.
searchlights on the Gresham and Sen
eca trying to pick me up, but they
went around and around and missed
me. I managed to load my revolver
again and it went off, although it had
had a ducking. Soon after that a
boat manned by four of the Repub
lic's crew and four sailors from the
Gresham commanded by Gunner’s
Mate Johnson slid up near me. I
waved a towel I had picked up out of
the water. They saw me and came
and picked me up. I was weak and
cold —quite finished. Williams was
in the boat when it picked me up, I
was glad to see. He was quite done
up, too. We were quite back on our
feet again after the men on the Gres
ham had ministered to us. I cannot
speak too highly of the work of the
revenue cutters that were trying to
tow us; it was magnificent.’’
Captain Sealby had a word to say
about his officers and crew.
“I have nothing but praise for the
actions of the officers and crew of the
Republic both at the time of the col
lision and subsequently during the
very trying task of getting the pas
sengers transferred to the Florida.
The success of this maneuvre 1 at
tribute to the remarkable discipline
and cohesion between officers and
•crew. The passengers themselves
aided greatly by their conduct. There
was absolutely no panic among them
and the women behaved splendidly.”
The Republic’s commander also
paid a generous compliment to Binns,
the wireless operator, who had stuck
to his key although part of the wire
less cabin on the boat deck had been
carried away by the Florida’s prow.
Second Officer Williams told of his
experiences after he had become sep
arated from his superior on the slant
ing deck of the Republic. He said:
“When I fell down on the saloon
deck on .the port side I hung onto the
rail with my elbow. In three minutes
it was all over. I felt her lift straight
up in the air and saw the prow right
over my head; then she just slid
down. I felt the stern strike bot
tom, for there was a jar and then I
felt something give. I believe she
broke in the middle where she had
been rammed by the Florida.
“I was pitched off the deck before
the last of her dropped out of sight.
I just caught a glimpse of the keel
dropping past me as I hit the water.
I tread water for a second to get my
balance, then I struck out for about a
dozen strokes before the boil of the
water got me.
“A grating hatch hit me and I held
on. I couldn’t climb onto it because
the seas rolled me off every time I
scrambled up. I was getting tired of
trying when another grating came
along. I grabbed it with one hand
and held on between them. I guess I
was in the water almost half an hour
when the boat from the Gresham
came along and pulled me out. I di
rected the men where to look for the
captain and we found him in another
five minutes.”
Williams saved a brier pipe and a
pocketpiece out of the wreck and that
was all.
Jack Binns, the wireless operator
who flashed the news of the Repub
lic’s ramming to ^Siasconset wireless
station and who subsequently kept at
his place communicating with the
ships hastening in relief, seemed to
believe that the loss of 500 cigarettes
he had with him when the Republic
left New York on Friday was one of
the most serious features of the
wreck.
“Part of the wireless cabin was
torn away in the crash,” said Binns,
“but the instruments were not hurt.
As soon as the captain heard what
the damage was he sent-me orders to
send out the distress signal. I found
that the instrument was dead. The
electric motors had gone bad with
the flooding of the engine room. I
knew where the accumulators —stor-
age batteries you call them—that
are carried for emergencies just such
as that one were kept, and I groped
for them in the dark. When I got
them coupled up I tried the key and
found that the spark was right.”
Virginia Railroads Dose
Two-Cent Case Again.
Richmond, Va. —The right of ap
peal to the State Supreme Court of
Appeals in the two-cent rate case was
refused to the railroads. The roads
now have two courses open to them.
They can either go into the United
States Circuit Court of Appeals and
have the case heard at length, or they
can go to the Corporation Commission
and make application for a revision
of the rates on the ground that the
roads are losing money. Meantime
the two-cent rate prevails.
HALLS OF CONGRESS. A
One session of the Senate was de
voted to memorial addresses upon the
late Senator Proctor.
Senator Tillman insinuated that
some Federal Judges were on the
payrolls of corporations.
The House Naval Committee was
defeated in its efforts to replace ma
rines on board warships.
The urgent deficiency bill was
passed and the postal savings bank
bill was considered in the Senate.
A bill to pension the widow of
Rear-Admiral Coghlan at the rate of
SIOO Instead of SSO a month was de
feated.
District of Columbia business be
ing considered, it was voted to allow
the use of the Pension Bujlding for
the inaugural.
Five hundred pension bills were
passed in the House, as was a reso
lution for an inquiry into the investi
gation of frauds against the Govern
ment.
Congress heard that President
Roosevelt is preparing a message at
tacking the lawmaking body, to be
delivered March 3, when it is too late
for retaliation.
The President appointed a national
council of arts, consisting of eminent
architects, painters and sculptors,
under whose direction national
works will be planned and erected in
the future.
After futile efforts to obtain legis
lation for the restoration of marines
aboard ships an amendment was
agreed to prohibiting the purchase
of powder “manufactured and sold
in violation of” the Sherman anti
trust law.
A debate on increasing salaries of
Federal Circuit and District Judges
ended with the result that the com
pensation of the twenty-nine Circuit
Judges was increased from S7OOO to
S9OOO, and that of the eighty-four
District Judges from S6OOO to SBOOO.
NEWSY GLEANINGS.
The steamer Celtic distributed sup
plies sent from America along the Si
cilian and Calabrian coasts.
A Philadelphia man sued, for di
vorce, charging that his wife told him
she had a soul mate in another pla
net.
A conference on methods of eating
for dependent children was opened
at the White House, with an address
by President Roosevelt.
Diplomats at Washington heard re
ports that the American fleet was
withdrawn from Pacific waters prac
tically at the dictation of Japan.
Mayor McClellan asked the Bank
ers’ Association to use its influence
with the Legislature to have New
York City’s debt limit increased.
The decision of the Austrian Gov
ernment placing the location of the
new Italian University at Vienna, not
at Trieste, has caused a Cabinet cri
sis in Rome.
It is reported at St. Petersburg
that Baron Rosen will be appointed
envoy to Italy and that M. George
Bakhmetieff will succeed him as Rus
sian Ambassador at Washington.
At Riga, Russia, several deposi
tions were made to the. effect that
Jan Pouren, arrested there last year,
was a criminal and not a revolution
ist, the witnesses including Pouren’s
wife.
Emperor William, at Berlin, con
ferred the decoration of the order
“Pour la Merite” on J. S. Sargent,
the American artist, and James
Bryce, the British Ambassador to the
United States.
The will of the late Anson R. Flow
er, offered for probate at Watertown,
N. Y., disposes of a $1,000,000 estate,
the widow being made residuary lega
tee, following bequests of $215,000
to relatives and servants.
(At.6-'O9)
The Youthful Pessimist.
The Big One —Oh, why do you cry?
There’s nothing to cry about.
The Little One—There’s lots of
things to cry about, and when I get
through crying about this, I'm going
to start on the next. So there! —
Harper’s Monthly.
DIDN’T KNOW
Coffee Was the Cause.
Many daily habits, particularly of
eating and drinking, are formed by
following our elders.
In this way ill health is often fast
ened upon children. A Ga. lady says:
“I had been allowed to drink cof
fee ever since I can remember, but
even as a child I had a weak stomach
which frequently refused to retain
food.
“The taste of cqffee was in my
mouth all the time and was, as I
found out later, the cause of the
stomach rebelling against food.
“I now see that it was only from
following the example of my elders
that I formed, and continued the mis
erable habit of drinking coffee. My
digestion remained poor, nerves un
strung, frequent headache, and yet I
did not suspect the true cause.
“Another trouble was a bad, mud
dy complexion, for which I spent time
and money for creams, massaging,
etc., without any results.
“After I was married I was asked
to try Postum, and would you believe
it, I, an old coffee toper, took to Pos
tum from the very first. We made It
right—according to directions on the
pkg. and it had a most delicate fla
vor, and I at once quit coffee, with
the happiest results.
“I now have a perfectly clear,
smooth skin, fine digestion and
haven’t had a headache in over two
years."
“There’s a Reason.”
Name given by Postum Co., Battle
Creek, Mich. Read, “The Road to
Wellville,” in pkgs.
Ever read the above letter? A new
one appears from time to time. They
are genuine, true, and full of human
interest. . _
■ - J. .- .’>>-.-44 J
A Stitch in Time.
Three years ago an “object lesson”
road was constructed near Lansing,
Mich., under the supervision of Com
missioner Earle, at a cost of about*
S4OOO a mile. It is reported that the
road must now be improved at an
estimated expense of SIOOO per mile,
and some of the people In that local
ity are complaining about the good
roads movement as being too costly.
A certain prominent gentleman is
reported to have said recently: “I
do not believe that if the first cost
is going to be S4OOO per mile, and
that at the end of three years it will
require. another SIOOO per mile for
repairs, that the average property
owner and farmer will stand for the
big addition to their taxes.”
If State Highway Commissioner
Earle built an “object lesson” road
at Lansing, or anywhere else, it Is
perfectly safe to presume that that
road was constructed in the best
possible manner for the amount of
money expended—-that is Mr. Earle's
record in office and reputation with
the people of his State.
The statement quoted above sug
gests, however, the peculiar view that
people in many places take of an $1- •
proved road. They seem to regard it
as “permanent.” The wise farmer
“.turns under” clover and uses fer
tilizers on his soil; he paints his
house and barns every few years; he
keeps his horses properly shod, and
occupies his time on rainy days in re
pairing his machines and wagons.
The only thing that he seems to think
will never wear out or need repair,
is an improved road, when as a fact,
there are few structures which de
mand more constant attention.—<
Good Roads Magazine. _ __ ’
. -—■— "
For Better Roads.
Many Americans who live in on
near large cities would be surprised
to hear it stated that the United
States has the poorest roads of any,
civilized country in the world. Never
theless, the statement is declared by,
all who have had opportunity to learn
by experience to be. unquestionably,
true, when the roads of the whole
country are considered. Lately there
has been much criticism bf the auto
mobile as being destructive of good
roads. The damage is so great that
in France the Government has been
forced to take up the matter, and is
even now studying preventive plans.
In the United States, however, it may
be that the automobile will yet prove
a powerful influence In better roads.
The American Automobile Associa
tion has recently held a two days’
good roads convention in Buffalo, at
which provision was made for practi
cal demonstrations of the best meth
ods of road building and repairing,
and for experiments looking toward!
the discovery of a binding material
for surfacing roads which will not be
sucked out by the pneumatic tires.
There are signs, too; says Youth’s
Companion, that the old policy of
throwing upon the towns the burden
of building the roads and keeping
them in repair is to be superseded by,
the more sensible plan of having the
State do it. The towns will, of
course, care for their own streets, but
the main highways should be built
and cared for by the State, as they
are in France, Germany and Switzer
land. The National Government has
decided to send the director of the
Department of Roads to the interna
tional good roads convention, which'
will open in France in October, and
at which the problem of the automo
bile and the roads will receive es
pecial attention. .
Roadless America in Transformation.
From the maledictions scattered
broadcast in the mire of roadless
America by despairing bicyclists
fifteen years ago hopes of better
things have taken root. So writes
C. F. Carter, in the Technical World
Magazine. No gift of prophecy is
now required to; foresee a time when
these hopes will have so far material
ized that a team, if it is a good one,
will be able to haul an empty wagon
over the gumbo roads of the Missis
sippi Valley in the spring, and the
public highways of the South will be
so well buoyed that light draft auto
mobiles may navigate them in com
parative safety.
From every part of the country
comes the same encouraging news.
Sixteen States now have highway
commissions that are Vying in var
ious ways to supply the greatest need
of the Nation, which is good roads.
At one extreme is, New York, which
in 1905 voted to expend $50,000,009
in building roads. Under the plan
adopted the State will build and
maintain 3332 miles connecting the
principal cities, and pay one-half the
cost of 4700 miles of local roads to be
-built by the counties.
At the other extreme is lowa, the
third State in the Union in extent of
road mileage, where the use of the
public highways is so vast that if
teams enough-could be assembled to
do in one day all the graveling done
in the State in a year the line would
reach once and a half around the
earth, which doles out an annual ap
propriation of SSOOO to defray the ex
penses of the State College faculty
while acting in the capacity of high
way commission.
British Honduras is short of labor
for its increasing fruit growing and
is trying to get coolies from Indifi.