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riirf TTVT^TT rTTTTTTTTl^'n'TTTTTTTJTTTTi YOL. 17. NO. 4. ^BOAHSB: 1It aims to publish all the news possible. SIt does so impartially, wasting no words. SIts correspondents are able and energetic A A A A A.t..t^*^t.A^l.A .t.A A A. v,. TTTTTTTTTTTTVTTTVVTTTi" 07/"N SPITE of the fact that alcohol in large amounts is a dangerous stim 11 ulant and a slow poison, it-cannot be swccessfuHy denied that In small, amounts it is a food, for it has some what of the chemical composition of starches, sugars and fats, and bourns ap in the body, producing heat and other forms of energy. The amount that can. oxydized in one day is very small, a mere ounce or two, and as an -equivalent energy may be obtained from a generous slice of bread and butter, we are justified -vin ignoring it a^'a. food.^fliid^^jQwaUia.rY, circumstances. The war now being waged over the theory as to "whether or not At is a food, is a tempest in a teapot, of no practical utility. Man, Jibe ail otheT ani mals^ must adhere zo the foods by means of which he attamed his present zoolog ical position. He was an intelligent, ac tive and powerful being long ages be fore he knew of alcohol, and it is .no more logical to suppose thai "he can safely change to alcohol than to suppose that we can feed meats to horses. Discussions of alcohol are thus nar rowed down to its use as .a stimula-.it. Wherever man poes he finds a stimulant necessary if he is co live long and work well, and the stimulant which has sur vived the test of many centuries is caf feine. Some use it i* coffee, others iu tea or cocoa, and its use is almost univer sal in civilization. Even among the most rabid antagonists of all stimulants, its use may be so excessive as to be harm ful. Its moderate use seems to All all tha needs of existence ot normal men In nor mal surroundings ami makies .any .other stimulant unnecessary. "W are thus stall further limited in our .discussion, to th use of alcohol as a stimulant for abnormal men or for all men in abnormal surroundings. For one clajss of abnormal men, the diseased, its use in sueh a fixture of the soundest medical practice that it is a waste of tim$ to discuss it. It is a medicine classed with strychnine, digitalis and all other stimulants, and in the hands of in telligent physicians saves so many lives that we cannot dispense with it. The very small number of physicians who are opposed to its use are so illogical in their argument that we can safely ignore them. When life flags and needs a whip and a push we do exactly what an engineer does when he wants his engine to put forth an extra exertion. He uses an easily burned fuel. Alcohol likewise fur nishes energy for the human machine, just when it is most needed, for it is more easily oxydizetl than a.?r"tther food, and it is the whip at the same time. No other stimulant can take its place. Another class of men who need alcohol consists of those who, though not abnorr mal, have passed their prime and are on the downward path to the grave. There does not seem to be_ any reasonable doubt that they are better off, work better and live longer, if they help the machine along a little. A toddy in the afternoon helps to repair the damage of the day's work, aids digestion and other'vital processes, and certainly preserves good men for many years of useful work. We all know old men who woi ld do better work if they were not so constantly feeble and exhausted from depending on their own tailing powers. The next class consists of abnormal frail men who in former ages invariably perished before Maturity. Modern science and civilization save them as babies develop them as adolescents and keep them alive as adults. Without help they are a prey to all disease producing bac-1 teria and other enemies. They fill our clinics, hospitals, asylums, almshouses and jails. Whether they ought to be helped to survive and keep the race de teriorated is a foolish discussion for such family lines die out as a rule and the species purifies itself. Yet in the number arc men of extreme value to the nation and to the world, men, for instance, with big brains, but a tendency to consumption -who couid.be preserved by a little alcohol judiciously administered. Men once lived in the open air and that is still their normal existence, for housing is fatal. City life is particularly deadly and cities i-re called "consumers of population," which comes in streams from the country. This unnatur.il, unwholesome existence is so bad and vitality is so reduced that artificial food and stimulants are needed in more cases and much sooner than in the country. The liquor traffic is a neces sity of modern deadly city life. Now soldiers do not belong to any 5 the above classes, for they are absolutely healthy, normal young men so .carefuKy selected that three-fourths of the appli cants are rejected*. At home they lead a healthy outdoor country life. Under normal peace conditions, alcohol is no more necessary for them than it is for horses. Once upon a time the soldier was given whisky every day, but that was & time every gentleman was expected to get drunk before bedtime. Nothing can De more certain than that the u~ Issue of whisky to young men who did not need it led to drunkenness and ruined many a promising life. The practice was sc vicious that when the whisky ration watat abolished* and moire food issued In lieu of it, a grand thing was done for the army. I.^: The.usefulness of alcohol for soldiers is theri1'rertrict,a^tQ haustlo such- times, as they need it as a result, of, abnormal conditions. The chaef occasion is when exhausted from overwork and insufficient food in the field. Though the commissary de partment ^furnishes every conceivable practicable article of food which human ingenuity can suggest, it is not possible for them to supply everything which a man should have to keqp him in health, and the law will hot permit them to supply enough of the. articles composing the ration. The law does not give the roldier enough to eat, our ration being one of the least liberal in the' world. ID garrison we have means of getting ad ditional'' supplies which the-"government is too niggardly to pay for. In the field these means fail and if the soldier cannot buy extras he is hungry, underfed and exhausted, and instincti-oeiy turns to alcohol for support. If the exhaustion continues, he acquires chronic alcoholic craving and sinks into drunkenness just -1J., iperiodical, y- 4W nervous, men the ongenital weaUt being the ehjef suf ferers. In soldiers it is a result of ex haVistlng work \in the line of duty Charitable forebearance to drunken vet erans, ruined by t^eir sacrifices for th -ta,,,,,. j.. ._i *ZZb f' a 2'_ exLta ^^jewrt&atfWR* '^^^^^^^m^^^^m^^- Min Mipnetota Historical Society I HE APPEAL STEADILY GAINS DAILY GROG FOR OUR TROOPS (By Capt Charles -E. Woodruff, assist-i, The tremendous consumption or aiconoi fcnt surgeon, United Stares-army, Fort Hi Icy, Kan.) in our Civil War and the huge crop of drunken veterans', many of whooa subse quently recovered under home feeding, were directly traceable to the exhaustion of overwork and starvation. Every civil ized nation in the world except ourselves combats this field exhaustion by issuing spirits at the proper times. They prevent drunkenness, but we prefer ii "reform" the drunkards after the damage is done. The temperance agitation, which has been of such inestimable benefit in check ing that frightful drinking habit of the last century, has.been so strong in Amer-" prived the soldier of a much-needed sup port in the. field. There can be no ques tion that, whisky should be restored to the commissary stores for. use in condi tions of exhaustion. The. surgeon is the only man in the army "who can. give gov ernment liquor to exhausted men, and there is no reason for changing this cus tom but I do think it very illogical to tell the surgeon, "Yom may stimulate men in hospital' exhausted by the typhoid bacillus, but you must not stimulate those out of hospital exhausted by fatigue Land starvation." The 'ast abnormal -condition affecting tho soRier is the heat of the tropics. It causes increased tissue change in the same manner as the hot baths of Arkan sas, t* which we send cases whose body chemislry is too sluggish and need5 stim ulation. The first effect of the tropica then is increased mental activity and feel ing of well-being, so that newcomers are generally delighted with the climate, write home enthusiastic letters, and even cable that the climate Is perfect. In ac cordance with Jaw. this excessive activ ity results in exhaustion, which shows itself in every conceivable waymjascu lar, nervous and mental exhaustion, low-" erlng of all vital processes, rapid aging of men past their prime, feeble resistance to disease and slow recoveries. The only logical conclusion is to treat such cases exactly as we do at home. Once upon a time doctors starved their exhausted pa tients but they killled so many that a great genius who started the reform was so proud of his discovery that he asked that these words be engraved on his tomb: "He fed fevers." Nowadays we resort to the' same treatment for every exhaustion, no matter where we find it, in the hospital, asylum, sanitarium or in the tropicsfeeding. But food is not enough. We must stim ulate them or the nourishment is too much for the feeble digestion and the alqohcl supplies energy just when it is needed. Hence a whisky ration ia an essential for troops in the tropics, and though I would not issue it indiscrim inately, yet it shouhi- always" be oh hand with the bacon and hard-tabk, ready for use on the recommendation of the regi mental surgeon. As a rule the maxi mum amount should not exceed four ounces a day, and some men will need much less and some will not need any. A naval surgeon has recently advo cated a ration of whisky for men after they have had exhausting work in the hot fire-rooms of warships. His recom mendation is considered safe for it cre ates no comment, but this same recom mendation as to soldiers exhausted by the constant and therefore more terrible heat of the tropics, has created very un reasonable opposition. Is the exhausted soldier less worthy of being saved from illness than the sailor? Let the mothers answer the fanatics who would prefer the soldier to come home starved into living skeletons by bur ration in the tropics rather than help' them with alcohol. The horrors of Mont,auk make no impressions en such warped minds. Regiment after regiment arrived at the place with the men so emaciated and enfeebled by the army ration in Santiago that they could not walk 100 yards without a halt for a rest. Is there a sensible man on earth who would dare to refuse stimulants to such enfeebled men? Alcohoi in larger amounts~than we have mentioned is a poison except when given ie special cases of disease. Its deleterious effects are so well known that it Is useless to discuss the*n here. We need only mention that onfc of these ef fects Is more exhaustionand this is the cause of death in many cases of acute al coholism. Hence there is no reason to doubt that in the iropics this double ex hatistion makes excessive drinking more deadly than at homean apparent con tradiction of the statistics which show that the deaths from alcoholism increase as we go north, though the per capita consumption of alcohol is less. In the cool, bracing North few people feel the need of alcohol, and only those who are weak from congenital defect or other cav.se have great desire and these are the very ones most prone to excess. As we go south more of the normal- people feel the need of stimulation to counteract the effects ofv the heat, until we reach lands where every one drinks moderately. This has been going on many ages and some writers believe that the weaklings have been, killed off long ago and through the survival of the fittest the subtropical civilized races are immune to alcoholism. Whether this is true or not, we must accept the facts that in hot countries all civilized people drink alcohol, though far less of them die than in the cooelr re 'gions. Moderate drink'/iig Is not only less deadly In the tropics than we were once taught, but is necessary to combat the exhaustitons. These views, which I formulated over a-year ago, after a most unwilling acceptance of the facts, I see no reason for changing. As long as we have to keep men in.the tropics we might as well face the facts at once. The nervous system of children is un stable and easily poisoned, so that stim ulants are always harmful, but at what age th*ir use can be safely begun depends upon the race and climate. In southern climes they feed alcohol to children at an age fatal to those of the Northland in the tropics tea and coffee can be used before iti safe for us. Racial immuni ties may even reverse rules, for the opium habit so fatal to the nervous sys tem of whites is beneficial to that of the peoples of Southeastern Asia. It is prob able that for-normal men under normal outdoor conditions north of Mason and aa civilians do, for this condition, whether i _.. ww ana s, i Dixon's line teasl and coffee had betterr steady or isunstable a symptonTbf ex- a A ^t''" "e] p-n* ica as to swing the pendulum of public opinioii,,t0!i.faiisln,-abolishing thr, wr.l.fiLeaaant--Ea^gT~amusemeflt awl -biiliard- than useless daily grog, it has also de-' rooms, gymnasia and lunch counters, all on the plan, of -the Young Men's Christian association buildings, we could not keep coffee early as fifteenmoderate or of at twent* any apredablof harm ^'Ts-r5*rw5.fi3i *rf excesses so certain to happen in young drinkers. It is more of an ethical than a scientific question. But boys will be boys in spite of all our efforts to make them act like old men. They think it- "smart" to drink occa sionally ,even to excess, and unless they are guarded they are gathered in by the rumseller. They^ will fly off the track when they first leave home, as many a college town could testify. In the army we try*to guard our "boys".from harm, always thinking of the dear old anxious' "mother" at home. If we could secure a law that no rum shops should e^ist within ten miles of an army, post, we would be very happy. Unfortunately, the rurnvSunds follow the soldier, camp on Ms trail, surround every army post and have a tremendpus political influence. To foil them the/'"canteen" or "exchange" was started to see if, by giving the mert the "boy" from the sharks. To secure those vh drank we were compelled to allow beer in a different part of the ex change, separated from the rest The resultsreduction of drunkennesshave been superb beyond our highest expecta tions. The "exchange" has become an Indis pensible instrument for. enhancing disci pline, and its profits are partly used in feeding the soldier. At this post the sol diers eat one-fifth more than the ration, the excess being thus purchased: The government, instead of being too liberal, Is contemptibly mean, as it depends for .paf't of the soldiers' food upon the profits of the sale of beer, profits taken out of the soldiers' pockets. Unfortunately, the rum dealers fight the canteen because it reduces drinking, and the temperance folk fight it because of the way it reduces drunkenness. We perfectly agree with the temperance folk that, as a matter of pure ethics the soldier should not have beer when he is under normal conditions and given plenty to eat, but we. believe it is good practice to allow a little and thus substitute a tiny evil for a great one. We have thus abolished many of the low groggeries around some of the army p^sts from which vile drinks for merly ruined young men fresh from home. The greatest opposition to the canteen comes from people who do not know what it is, and many of them are of the same class which condemned Christ for making wine from water and denounced him as a winebibber. Statistics can prove anything, and al^ though English life insurance companies show that moderate drinkers (Uve the longest," total abstainers less, heavy drinkers still less and drunkards the shortest, we are justified in slightly mod ifying this order. The class of total ab stainers contains many unstable, short lived men who cannot stand any alcohol and who abstain from self-preservation. Young moderate drinkers surely injure themselves by occasional lapses. We are then safe in classifying young, vigorous civilians as to their vital powers in the following order: Abstainers, moderate drinkers .and heavy drinkers. We should expect that when we take these, three classes to the tropics the first would stand the climate the best, the second le?~ and the third, being most damaged, beforehand, furnish the most cases of collapse. This is said to be a fact, but that does not alter the other fact that they all need a little alcohol when they are exhausted. Men accustomed to alco hol- are even said to fare badly in the tropics if they abstain and thus upset a .habit, bad though it be.. We are safe In predicting that as the men on coming home find the cool air In describably refreshing and stimulating, they will not crave alcohol as they did In the tropics, and we will riot have near ly the large percentage of drun' there were among the veterans of Civil war. 's--0 In the tropics a long, long time ago people were* advised not to look upon the wine when it was red, and were %ld thai nc drunkard could enter the kingdom heaven. Tne apostle i*aui,. rrom nis ex perience in the tropics, wrote this ad fipe to Timothy: "Drink no longer water, but'use' a little wine-for'thy stomach's ake and thine often infirmities." Thus -correct ideas upon the use and misuse of alcohol are probably as old as the knowl edge of alcohol. Recent scientific knowl edge has added little or nothing to the practical rules in use for two thousand years.- s,- UAU oetie be. withheld, unti nervous maturity twenty-five years of age, and alcohol until after full mental maturityforty years of age. In spite of these theoretical rules, there are no data from which we can proveProducese that th usalcohol -iScriptare Explained. Teacher (trying to Inculcate a moral) Now, children, why is it the lions would not touch Daniel? Johnny whose father is a politician) 'Cause dey was *frai%o* gettip',thettvaii ^*7.-*j8ftf-. 3,- 4H- 4 SAINT PAUL AND MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.. SATURDAY JANUARY 26, 1901. EASY WAY TdBljtX sis ir~ i tfeiv Yorker Who Wanted to Meet a Bunko Man Is 3$Qvr Satisfied. A New Yorker who^ike niany another, has often expressed tf .desire to ba' up against a real bunk^ganie in order to turn the tables upon ^operator, had his opportunity on a trap when it made a ten^minute stdp at ^'Chester on Satur day night of last week, but he isn trying to find what: stilf :#w,rit" wrong i his calculations. The New .Yorker st^pd^in the vestibule of the sleeper reading, but*was conscious that a tall, well-dressed man of about S O was then passing quickly from one car to another in obviou? anxiety. On his second hurried pilgrimage the man paused before the New Yorker and said in anxious tone's: A "I beg your pardon.'Biic are vou travel ing on mileage?" The New Yorker was not, but perceiv ing the tall man's anxious bearing asked what the tfouble wfcs. \3jn iepl'y the stranger said: 1 '^IT' -Ywu^e^trolfr^e^^to^^aren't you? Being assured thati hisn surmise was correct, he. proceeded to explain hurried "My mother and sister are in this car indicating the rear car, "ahd my wife is in this one, and we have run out of mile age. It's quite my fault, and I am mest embarrassed. We are the. Wildens, of Madison avenue ancB Forty-third street and while it may not-, be a very delicate thing to say. we'certainly have all we oould wish for there, and it is trying to be unable to reach anything here It means that unless I can raise this mile age in a minute practically my mother and sister must get out here and pa-s the night till I can telegraph home ror lunds, and my mother is not at all well We have been awayjon account of her health." The New Yorker's* sympathies were aroused, and upon inquiring how much the stranger needed,., was assured that $12 would buy the two tickets. This seemed a reasonable tory, and vet ain memories of games of all kinds pa'ssci through his brain, and in order to secure himself he said to the tall stranger: "How do I know ^ou are not alone and are not merely trying to impose upon me?" The itranger was equal to this, for he said, -Certainly, hercs my wife in. this car.* Rushing in, he went directlv to lower berth x, and parting the curtains, thrust Ms head in, and to all appearances was telling his wife that.be had found a bene factor,. Upon drawing.his head out. the head of a woman quickly followed, ana a hand clutched the curtains close to her chin for a moment, while the stranger stepped forward to the New Yorker and half whispered, "Of course I cannot pre sent you under the circumstances, and another thing, I don't know your name." The New Yorker retired in perfect sat isfaction, feeling that at least h oould keep his eyes on his companion in any event. So. passing the $12 over to the stranger, he saw him rush off to g*~ the -tickets. The train started, and the New Yol:e A Study of American Civilization. lookea over tne grouna to see tnere was a weak point anywhere. The strang er nad evidently gone to his mother and lister in the other car. for he did not re turn to his "wife." The New Yorker won dered if this was not a chance that the party might' be getting off at some point before reaching New York. So. calling the porter, he inquired where the woman in lower berth six was going. Being as sured that she was going to New York the New Yorker added that he had iust assisted the hueband in a little transac tion. This seemed to make no impression then on the porter, but presently, with a puzzled look, he went to the New Yorker and said: "I wonder did that lady ever see that gentleman before, for I think her hus band is In lower seven?" Upon Inquiry of the occupant of lower berth six/at-was learned, that she had never seen* the stranger before, that he had.thrust his heed through*the curtains of, the berth at a blind venture, and had mumbled something about looking for some one, but had made a mistake, and the woman's curiosity had induced her to thrust her head out. which action was taken by the New Yorker to be In response to a request by her husband." A search of the train naturallv fal'ed to reveal the tall stranger, but when the victim told the conductor the latter was overcome for a moment. Sitting down hard in one of the seats, he exclaimed: "Well, I here been in this business a long titne, and I have seen a- heap of slick. games,i -ut this^s the-best yet?'-" And when, the New Yorker asked if he had suddenly become "easy," and If hs was to be called a jay. the conductor as sured him that no gentleman could have done differently. A careful description was sent to Roch ester and to the detective force of the road. Mr. "Wllden" was about thirty three, five feet ten inches tall, with a clean shaven face. He wore a long, gray overcoat, and spoke with aJ slightly Southern accent, and,if the New Yorker ever meets him he may be sure of a really cordial reception, for any man who can do anything so well is entitled to admiration.New York Sun. COLLEGE OF COURTSHIP. Orlfftaal Plan of m. SehoolnuMter for Development of an Ideal Race^ Great Eros! think of I A school for courtship! An institution where the man and the maid may -be so trained in the way they should go &a ta result in the upspringing-of a new race, a race of in tellectual and physical giants! A univer sity of examination into character, with the experta of the,faculty passing upon the. peculiarities of the students and as* signing to each his or her affinity! The wondrous-twentieth -century' is looked-for to produce undreamed of" pos sibilities, but it is safe to Bay that the projected establishment of a college foi courtship. will not take the least rank among coming novelties. When the plan materialises the young man untutored in the--wave of love, divinely Ignorant of those personal ottsllties which are ever a mystery to the Individual ana an open book to the rest of the world, may make journey to the university Mhere rc. to be contained all the Knowledge of ail the ages, claim, admittance and learn tu know himself. Here he will be met' by the trained^ delvers into, character. Here he will bi studied .even as under the microscope tr-e scientist studies a* rare find whose dis section is to benefit all the worlds, here the young man will be informed of his defects, mental, moral,. physical and of his stronger capabilities. Here he will learn to ascertain in others the advan tages lacking in his own composition. Here he will be furnished with a diploma declar.ng him eligihle to a life partner ship witn some young person of the op posite sex whose character having "been determined as most suited to blend witn his own. As E result of tlils system there are to be no more unhappy marriages, because there efte to be no mismated couples. Consequently there are to be no mort separations of the once wedded, and the occupation of the divorce lawyer, that of Othello, will be gone. The world is to be distinctly bettered by this grand plan, and the demorr of discord is to be exorcised from the pleasant land. The father of this scheme for the world's regeneration is T. I. Brooks. Mr. Broks is a resident of Atwood. Chances are, the average reader has never hear.-l of Atwood, but Mr. Brooks purposes to make the name of the obscure little Ten nessee town go thundering down the ages as the birthplace of mankind's re aemption. Mr. Brooks has dipped deep into the mysterious pool known some times as "the new thought." He is in many ways a remarkable man. His au tobiography is terse and characteristic of the man. Here it is: Born Oct. 17, 1S70. Paternal grandfather came from Ireland. Reared on a farm. Lived there most of the time. Teach school and meddle in politics. Blonde. Temperament bLious and san- gUine compound. Unmarried. Perhaps no better explanation of the idea can be conveyed than by quoting an expression of purpose which its orig inator has made for the' Herald: "How came you in this world? Are you not what you are and who you are as a result of a train of circumstances which brought your parents together in wedlock? Are you not concerned"'about whatever was left you by them as a "her itage? Are you not concerned about whft vou leave as a heritage to vour pos terity? ""Would you give your brains, or any part of themany part of vour accom plishment, or any part of your physical health and well beingfor anv legacv of wealth? A sound and vigorous physical and mental inheritance is the greatest legacy man can hold in fee. A mated pair, a young couple of sweethearts, are the happiest souls a'ive. "Jf scientific" courtshia and DroDaeat.ion were established there would be a race of people reared up in two generations as far superior to the present race as the present race is above the Bedouin. The application of scientific principles to courtship and propagation will mark the grandest epoch in the progressive evolu toin of the human race since th emorning stars sang together. "It is horrible think of the haphaz ardness of past and present methods of mtachmaking. "Every marriageable man and woman should have the X-ray of science turned upon him or her... and the. physical and mental makeup of each indicated on tab ulated charts, and the character of the person suited' for a life companion made known. A heavy penalty should be at tached t6 the fraudulent use in any way of these charts. The milleninum will never come at a bound. It must be devel oped. "Guided and directed by competent ex perts In the science of human character, every one fit to marry could select with certainty a better half and posterity be dowered with a legacy of health and brains. There would thus be no divorce courts, or miserable, mismated homes." "T. J. BROOKS." New York Herald. TWO WOMKS KNIGHTED, They Earned the Honor by Gallantry During: tne Slefce of the Legation*. i In the list of honors proposed by the French foreign office, and just signed by he president of the republic, arc" the names of two ladies, Mme. lieutier and Mme. con Rosthom. The two new femi nine Knighte of the Legion of Honor have both been decorated for gallant conduct In China. The former is the lady superin tendent of the French hospital at Fel Tang, the latter the wife of the charge d'affalrs of Astro-Hungary at Pekln, who has been made an officer of the "Le- gion of Honor. M. and Mme. von Ros thom,. after the destruction of the Aus tro-Hnngarian legation, sought refuge In the Srenchv residence,- where both' aus band and wife helped in the:defense of the besieged bmlding with untirrag en ergy. iLeut. Darey describes- a fierce straggle which took place on June 28 and in which M, and Mme. von Rosthorn displayed great bravery, the lady heme badly wounded about the face and hands while assisting her husband: in setting fire to a* Chinese barricade by throwing handfuls of ignited straw saturated "with petroleum on. the structure. Mme. von Rosthorn is the second woman of foreign nationality upon whom the French.gov ernment has bestowed the cross of th Legion of Honor. The first was a- Belgi- an, Marie Jeanne Shellinck. who fought in the wars of the first revolution, under Dumouriez. and of the empire under Na tleon, taking part the battles o? Jem npes, Arcole, Austerlitz and Jena. Tn J, when she left the army, at 6 yeai age, with the rank xf sub-lieute&g^, M&- 1 the north pole? How is he to find his way back home? is another. It would take a scientific man and considerable space to answer. But here is an odder proposition. Sup pose an explorer actually makes his .way to'where'the.north pole ought to be, and when he gets, there finds that it has moved. Yet this is precisely what science says will happan him. Then, too, the pole moves in a most mysterious way. There are no wagon tracks to show the direc tion It took no trail to follow. And in order to catch up with it the man on the scene must know exactly where the pole was on such and such a date, and where it ought to be on that particular day that he hopes to overtake it. In other words, the pole is not a fixed but a constantly varying point on the earth's surface. Prof. S. C. Chandler of New Haven, Conn., Is the man to whom the credit is due for having demonstrated not only that the poles are in motion but for de termining after a long series of mathemat ical calculations the direction of the movement and' the law by which it could be approximately predicted. For his won derful study of all available observations Prof. Chandler was awarded the gold medal by the Royal Astronomical society. Columbus university observatory to at picoL... ugbie,_vj impjriaiii cjutlrmu tory observations, which were to have been completed May 1 this yea:-. The work has been extending over si and one-half years. The observers are Pro fessors Reesw anodr Jacoby and Dr. H. S. Congress may be obliged to take action regarding the boundary between the United States and Canada, for assuming the maximum annual movement to be forty feet a strip of land on the north ern boundary of the United States be tween these two countries containing many thousands of acres may become dis puted territory. The boundary between British America and Alaska will also be affected. The exact boundaries will have to be redetermined and fixed by natural landmarks, as latitude and longitude are no longer accurate methods of boundary definition. Determination of longitude will cer tainly be exceedingly awSward to make, inasmuch as the basis of the worlcT's longitude,, the meridian of Greenwich, Is not spared the uncertainty, as its position is oscillating around the observatory at Greenwich, England, wiiich is by defini tion the zero longitude of the world. But the odd circumstance is that points on the earth's surface may at times be eat and at other times west of the town of Green wich. Another difficulty which has arisen Is that astronomers must revise their tables, as the Inaccuracies thus discovered per meate all previous catalogues of stars, nebulae and constellations. Further more, the variations of the axis of the earth's rotation unquestionably affect the moon's motion, Introducing irregularities which must not be lost'sight of in ac curate determinations. Another consequence is the change in the sea level due to the same causes as the polar instability. Following an in genious suggestion of Prof. Newcomb of Washington, that changes would be found in. the height of the mean sea level due to theie causes. Dr. A. S. Christie of the tidal division of the coast survey ex aminedthe records of this department for thirty-five yearfr back, and a steady change in the mean sea level was dis covered such as would be expected If the variations of latitude actually took place. Notwithstanding the natural distrust of measurements as fine as this, the har mony between tidal and astronomical obT servations can hardly be due to chance. This change in sea level affects the entire coast line of the world, and while amount ing to but a couple of inches in a decade, !s still sunlcient to be taken account of for accurate computations. As to the cause of the motions of the* poo? opei i. H1STQRIGAU HE APPEAL MPS IN FRONT BECXlTSE: 4It is the organ of ALL AfrorAmericans. 6Ijtin not oontrolled by any ring or oliqtte* 6It asks no support but the people's. zenitx tel Clty Th escope used throughout this work was made by Waunscaff of Berlin for,this spe cial purpose. Up to the present time measurements have been made upon 0,518 pairs of stars, and the observed epochs correspond to.the computed time very closely. R. H. Tucker of the Liek observatory oh Mount Hamilton has made a provis ional determination of the amount of lat itude change at the location of that ob servatory, and fixes it at one-tenth of a second latitude yearly. The International Geodetic association is undertaking, a systematic study and accurate determination of the movements of the poles at six specially selected ob servatories strung along the thirty-ninth parallel of north latitude around the world. Important results may be expect ed from their hearty co-operation in the investigation. Prof.' Charles Doolittl'e of the Folwer observatory at the University of Penn sylvania, as the resultrof. his most care ful research in this "direction^ concludes that at Philadelphia the movement of lat itude amounts to at least forty feet an nually. The strange aspect of the mat ter, however, says the- Chicago Times Herald, is that it is varying in rate of Tiovement, due to causes which have not been yet discovered. Furthermore, the motion may increase its speed- at any vt5me. VXhe consequences of this discovery are far-reaching. The sea level is changing, and even the motion of the moon is af fected by the displacement of the earth's axis and the resulting uneven rotation. The longitude and latitude of all points are fluctuating, and this method of fixing position on the earth's surface may have to be superseded or much modified. The instability of the pole and the shifting of latitude wiy. disconcert the geodetic sur veyors, raise legal complications and con troversies over deeds and descriptions of land, and may upset state and national boundaries to some extent, and require many adjustments not now foreseen. The northern boundaries of the states of our Union are given in terms of latitude, and the discovered vacillation of latitude will unsettle the exact boundaries and virtu ally alter their legally established posi tions. This will throw into confusion nearly 9,000 miles cf state boundaries. A man living this year in the dominion of Canada may find himself in the United States next year, or vice versa. AAAAAAAAAAAAJ. _m. ,^_ TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTI 0 THE NORTH POLE.WOBBLES HEN one stops to think of It the search for the north psle is one of the funniest things imaginable. The question has been asked, How is a man to know when he has reached earth's axisL the aberration oi the poi^s, and consett(pnt variation in latitude, the Miccussio^r tanWE.opea and will certaJ-nly newed enetgyj Then fo7dweTa series^ .40 PER YEAR. awaken much controversy in the near I future. Scientific men are already busy proposing theories. Dr. N. Herz suggests a rather improbable electrical explana tion, involving the opacity of the earth to the electrical rays' from the sun. Cer tain perturbations, others say, are al^o caused by the varying attraction of the moon, due to the earth's uneven rota tion. Rainfall and spring freshet- from melting snow might add to the general efftcc, while Prof. Newcomb of Washing ton calls attention to the discovered changes in sea level mentioned above as a coincident phenoniiaon. Periodic higli tides, ccea-ii currents, and the movements of the atmosphere unquestionably play important parts in complicating the move ment. Another and very interesting thecry cames from Prof. Vito Volterro, the famous Italian mathematician, who is able to account for the observed motions by assuming permanent currents in the molten interior of the earth. Special attei-tion has been drawn to the still more positive factor in the pheno menon, namely, the unequal distribution of land in the northern hemisphere, as well as its uneven massing around the earth from cast to west. Prof Newcomb hints at a possible com-' bination of all these causes operating to produce the observed fluc.uations. If thist is a fact, it might easily happen thati they might at some future time all oper-1 ate in conjunction in the same direction and produce a great increase in the velo-i city of motion of the poles which could' not at present be predicted, but which would seriously affect geographical posi tions and boundaries determined in terms} of latitude and longitude. Prof. Chandler's results showed a great need for a more widely extended series of observation,claimed especially for this! purpose. In twenty-nine series of observ-l ations, made at eighteen different sta tions, Prof. Chandler has tested hisi theory thoroughly at three different, langitudesthat of Kasan, that of Ber lin and that of Bethlehem, Pa.and in.' each case the results have been con firmed. Perhaps the most '"igid test of his con clusions was his willingness to rent his theory Upon the accuracy of his predic tion of the movement of the pole through sever-jl years. Already the correspondence I.* found to be remarkable, and in spite of the slight discrepancies not yet accounted for. the observations confirm the pre dictions so remarkably as to "cut the ground from under the feet of those who wish to put aside the variation of lati tude as empirical or not proved." The evidence lor its existence and for the general truth of the law formulated by Prof. Chandler is already overwhelming, and new abs.eriya4uas*pjttly add to it. The International Geodetic association has prepared an elaborate scheme for th systematic observation of these variations of latitude. The same general form of i zenith instrument will be used in all the obsejkatorics, and the best for the pur pose. Although three stations could have determined the polar motion with con siderable accuracy, yet for the sake of greater precision six stations have been selected. The work is now in progress, and the following are the official observa tories co-opera'ing in the investigation: 1. Torre di San Vittorio, Carloforte, in the Island of San Pietro, near the coast of the Island of Sardinia. 2. A place nine kilometers north of Charjui, on the Amu Daria. The observatory at Mizusawa, in the valley of Kitakami, Japan. 4. The observatory established espe cially for this work at Ukiah, Cal. 5. The permanent observatory of the University of Cincinnati. 6. At Gaithersburg, Md., a station on the Baltimore & Ohio railroad, about thirty miles northwest of Washington. The work of observation has been in augurated, and reports are already being received at Potsdam from Carloforte, Charjui and Cincinnati. It is intended that the observations shall extend through a period of five years. Deduc tions of the observations will be made at tbA Potsdam observatory. The possibility of a variation In latitude was first raised by a German astronomer named Leonard Euler, who some years ago was studying the mechanics of ro tating bodies, with special reference to the movements of the earth. He came to the conclusion that theoretically the axis of rotation of the earth could not be per fectly fixed, because of the unequal dis tribution of the land masses, the land areas being massed In the northern hemi sphere. The^ earth was "topheavy" and would probably show some gyrations like a tcp. As a result he predicted that the axis of the earth's rotation would be found to be unstable. This he believed to be theoretically true, but although the most precise methods of observation of his day were turned upon the subject, yet only negative results were obtained. The great mathematician, Leplace, be lieved, on the contrary, that the earth's axis was fixedthat Is, that latitude would never vary. It is now known that at his time Instrumental precision had not reached a point where the existing per turbations could have been detected. At any rate, Euler's idea was laid aside, and? down to the time of Kustner, Fergola and Chandler asf.'onomers have worked on the supposition of the stability of the poles. ^The first attempt to test Euler's theory, "however, whs by C. A. F. Peters: of Pulkowa observatory In Russia.' Noth ing came of the work the results were negative. The ot servations at Washing ton yielded no evidence, nor did the re search work of Clerk-Maxwell and Down ing upon data provided by the Greenwich observatory. Finally, upon a suggestion of Kustner, who noticed certain errors in previous observations, the Geodetic asso ciation adopted new method?, which met with immediate and conspicuous success. Prof. Chandler, to whem the greatest, credit is due,. made the most raa?tedy study of all available data, and himselt conducted a series of observations during thirteen months, with an instrument es pecially designed for this work, called tne -aimueanter.v which rereaied a pro- ?r*3ive change in the value .if the lati tude as given by this instrument. He was unable to refer this to any defect in his instrument, but he says later' that he henitated to ascribe it to a real change of latitude without further study. HI* hesitancy induced him to lay aside tb work for six years, 4.t the end of wWchi time the publication of the work of Kust ner, which corroborated bis own, prompt ed him to undertake the study with rer -"y 4i i CD (Q