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TO SING IT IN SCHOOLS
"The Golden Corn," a New
National Song, May Be
Introduced.
AS SUNG IN EASTERN CITIES
School Directors Interested In
Placing" It Before the
Children.
The Board of Education will be asked at
its next meeting to introduce into the
schools a new national song, "The Golden
Corn," which has been sung for some time
past in the p*ublic schools of Boston and
New York. Some members of the board
have heard the son g and are highly pleased
with the proposition to have the school
children sing it and make them familiar
with the national emblem, and some in
fluential ladies interested in it have
received assurances of support from those
directors.
When the national convention composed
of members of Congress met in Washing
ton the corn was selected above all flowers
and plants as the emblem of America.
Professor Carlos Troyer, Composer of
"The Golden Corn."
[From a photogi aph.]
Edna Dean Proctor wrote an anthem in
Boston on the subject which she poetically
called the ""("'olden Corn" in the following
beautiful and inspiring strain:
Tin". GOLDEN CORN.
Blazon Columbia's emblem.
?'he bounteous golden corn.
Eons ago ot the exeat sun's clow
And the joy of he earth 'twas born.
From superior's shores to 'bile,
From the ocean of dawn to the West.
With its banners of preen and its tasseled
sheen
It sprang at the sun's behest.
And by dew and shower from its natal hoar
With honey and wine 'twas fed.
Till the gods were fain to snare with men
Such a perfect feast outspread.
For tl.e rares' boon to the land hey loved
Was the corn so rich and fair;
"Neither star nor breeze o'er the farthest seas
Could find its like elsewhere.
Hnil! our national emblem,
In dazzling splendor bora.
Behold in embrace all its verdure and grace,
As it bursts forth '-The Golden Corn.''
O'er ragged Hints and valleys.
O'er i he far- spreading plains to the sea.
In its beauty and stately grand stands
Tin- emblem of the free.
In its hear: of gold there is wealth untold.
The corn of I be glorious west.
In the radiant light of the sun 'twas horn.
It was jorn at the sun's behest.
There is none so fair, none can compare,
With our emblem of ; he free.
'Tis Columbia's pride, both far and wide.
From pole to tropic sea.
The song was set to music by Professor
Carlos Trover of this city, who, as well as
being a musician and composer of high re
pute, has been an officer of the Academy
of Science and an ardent student of science
for many years past. His Zuni songs are
the only satisfactory interpretation of
Zuni melodies as sung by Professor Frank
H. dishing, and consequently tire on tile
in the United States Bureau of Ethnology.
"The Golden Corn" is a song well adapted
to festive and National occasions, and
lias already received a widespread recogni
tion throughout the Fast in colleges, public
schools and choral societies. The music is
original in conception, and though bearing
a classical cast it has the true ring of a
National song, reflecting the beauty and
sublimity of Edna Dean Proctor's poem.
The melody is of easy range for voices of
medium compass. It is arranged in two
forms — as a solo or concert song, with a
brilliant and graceful accompaniment,
while the second arrangement leads the
melody by a richly modulated harmony to
be sung as a chorus or as a quartet for
mixed voices. Its martial rhythm renders
it serviceable also as a march song.
The composer claims originality for this
National -one. He gays that "The Star
spangled Banner" is simply "Anacreon in
Heaven," which was sung in English
churches 100 years ago; that "America" is
an English national air, and "Hail Colum
bia" can be found among the melodies of
the ancient Irish bards.
WEBSTER ON POTATOES.
A "Lecture to a Party of Traveling Com-
panions.
It was in the year 1849, the year of the
gold fever, that I was on a train returning
to Philadelphia from Harrisburg, Pa., and
Daniel Webster was in the same car.
Every one on board not only felt the influ
ence of Webster's overpowering person
ality but the majesty of his thoughtful
look and speech, as well as that grandeur
of simplicity in the familiar ease shown
toward some plain but intelligent farmers
whom he was entertaining, while they at
tentively listened to his agreeable talk
upon the subject of the simple and unam
bitious potato. Others upon the train
hearing of Mr. Webster's presence on
board, before his talk was over he had an
audience of nearly a earful of people. Said
one of the farmers from Lancaster: "Have
you noticed how the Meshanocks and the
Mercers tire losing their foothold and be
coming shockingly bad and tasteless?
They are not dry and mealy, as they were
a few seasons ago. I believe they are run
ning out." Then some one remarked that
it was almost time for new varieties to
appear.
Mr. Webster at this point took a modest
hand in the talk, apologetically excusing
himself, and told his listeners how he had
worked upon his father's farm in his
youth, and also upon his own at Franklin,
N. H., and he had had some experience
with the potato; knew something about it,
although perhaps not enough to hurt, but
he considered himself the better from hav
ing had some agricultural experience.
Having gained their attention, he now
launched into a pleasant little potato his
tory and held their interest in the subject
until the end. Mr. Webster went back to
the remote times of the close of the fifteenth
century, when the potato was a scrub
plant and the crew of the Pinta, with
Columbus, had landed upon the Western
continent, and found comfort in it as an
article of food; how it • was afterward
carried to Europe by the Spaniards and
cultivated with the tomato, merely as
a garden curiosity; how Sir Francis
Drake, Hawkins and* Raleigh in 1553 trans
planted it in Ireland and England, ail the
time undervaluing its merit, and how
long a while it took to awaken within the
public mind a knowledge of its worth;
how finally a confession was extorted from
European high authority that the potato
and Indian corn were the two greatest
blessings America ever gave to the world;
how, notwithstanding all this, they were
still used as food for cattle and horses,
though in a pinch it was thought they
might help bridge over a starving people
who had met with failure in the crop of
cereals.
Mr. Webster related that even in Wash
ington's day the Father of his Country
had proclaimed loudly against the vile
"and vulgar horse food," as he called it,
known then and now as corn meal, and
which was not considered good enough for
the soldier. Mr. Webster spoke of the
German and French people, who wouldn't
eat either of these articles of food; that
when Antoine Parmentier, a philan
thropist; had helped on and improved
their cultivation and urged their daily use,
Johnny Crapaud would not listen to him.
Finally the Government felt the need of
aiding this business, and the gendarmes
were placed around the potato field, plenti
fully planted with them, as if to guard
highly precious commodity, and Louis
XV ordered the potato blossom to be
worn by the ladies of the court. This done
the tide turned in favor of the poor, perse
cuted potato, and under the loftier name
of pontine de terre it came out of the fire
of opposition cooked, as it is now said to
be by the French cuisine, in some 300 dif
ferent ways. By this compulsory recog
nition it now holds an honored place upon
the table, an indispensable adjunct. In
terrupted occasionally, but respectfully,
however, /by some questions his hearers
now and then put to him, Mr. Webster
cheerfully continued his potato talk for
nearly ah hour, and it was an admirable
help to lessening the monotony of the trip,
I can assure you.— Baltimore American.
ANTARCTIC EXPEDITIONS.
The Cost Held to Be a Small One Coin-
paratively.
The naval point of view which Mr.
Clements Markham took in his address at
the Royal United Service Institution re
viewed an Antarctic expedition under
three of its aspects. The first was with
regard to its naval history, from which it
appeared that every adventure into the
frozen south has been taken under the
auspices of our navy ; the second, with re
gard to its effect on the service; and the
third, with regard to its expense. Its his
tory is thrilling and worthy of the best
naval traditions, and some of the adven
tures of Sir John Ross with the Erebus
and tne Terror might have inspired a
Stevenson to give us something as memor
able as his accou-t of the great gale at
Samoa, says the London Graphic. "- !
The advantages to the service are best
summed up in Mr. Mar-ham's own words.
"An Antarctic expedition," he said, '"is,
then, a training squadron of great value to
the navy; a training squadron with double
ay and' promotion and openings for gain
ing credit and distinction. It will supply
training in all those qualities which are
most valuable in time of war. while en
couraging a spirit of enterprise and stimu
lating zeal for the credit of the navy and of
the country.
"As Anson's circumnavigators became
the foremost naval commanders during the
Seven Years' War, so we may expect our
future Antarctic navigators to return to the
regular service invigorated by new experi
ences and fresh energy.and more ready than
ever for anything that may befall. '' Mr.
Markham was sanguine on the score of
expense. At the most it would cost
£90,000 — the cost of two ships like the Alert
and Discovery as a matter of fact we
should have two serviceable ships for use
elsewhere when the expedition came to an
end. For instance, in the cases of the
Alert and Discovery, the Arctic expedition
in which they assisted had the use of them
only for eighteen months.
"But since then the Alert has been in
constant use, doing valuable service in Ma
gellan Strait, in Hudson Bay and else
where during the following twenty years.
The Discovery has been incessantly used
for dockyard "work during the same period
and is still in use. Consequently
the expedition ought only to be charged
with about a twentieth of* the £90,000, or
£ ; 00, divided over three years in the case
of an Antarctic expedition, or £1.500 a year
for the ships. The same applies to scien
tific apparatus of all kinds. It is mislead
ing to charge the whole cost to the expedi
tion ; the estimate should only be for the
wear and tear during three years. When
the estimate is fairly and 'honestly pre
pared, it will be found that the real cost is
about £20,000 a year — mere trifle com
pared with the great value of the scientific
results, and with the other benefits to the
navy and to the nation, that will be de
rived from the Antarctic expedition."
AEE THE SENSES IDENTICAL?
It Is Claimed That the Power to Taste
- and Smell Have the Same Source.
The man who smoked in the dark one
night and discovered that when he couldn't
see the smoke all the pleasure of burning
tobacco was lost is not more remarkable
than the individual who has now discov
ered that the senses of taste and of smell
are identical. This gentleman advances
the theory that the sense of taste depends
upon the number of minute tentacles
which constitute the surface of the tongue,
and he says that some men have three
times as many of these as others. The
latter never become gourmands, and their
sense of smell is, says the observer, de
ficient.
In proof of these assertions it is said that
when you have a bad cold you almost lose
both these senses ; that you can neither de
tect delicate odors, like that of perfume,
otherwise so noticeable, nor identify the
flavors of different kinds of food and
drinks. The smoker who has a severe cold
finds that his cigar or cigarette yields but
little pleasure, and he finds that his glass
of claret or champagne at dinner is almost
as fiat to the taste as so much water. ..
Brillat-Savarin, who lifted cooking from
the Kitchen to the library and made gas
tronomy a fine art, said that of all the
senses in their natural state taste procures
us the greatest number of enjoyments.
For this he gives six reasons, as follows:
Because the pleasure of eating, taken in
moderation, is the only one that is not
followed by fatigue.
Because "it is common to every age, time
and condition.
Because it must return once at least
every day, and may during that space of
time De easily repeated two or three times.
Because it can combine with all our
other pleasures, and even console us for
their absence. *".-..__ '.- '••■'*'
Because its sensations are at once more
lasting than others and more subject to our
will.
Because we have a certain special but in
definable satisfaction, arising from the in
stinctive knowledge that, by the very act
of eating, we are making good our losses
and prolonging our existence.
These are the reasons advanced by this
eminent writer to prove that taste is the
most important of the senses. He was also
one of the first to suspect the identity of
the senses of taste and smell, and he, said
that of two guests seated at the same ban
quet one may have delicious sensations
while the other seems to eat only because
compelled, the reason being that the latter
has tongue and nostrils only poorly fur
nished for enjoyment. It is thus that the
empire of taste has its blind men and its
deaf. New York World.
Enjoying Unearned Glory.
The boa constrictor who some months
ago astounded humanity by swallowing
alive his seven-foot mate, digesting him as
complacently as if he had been an oyster,
died at the Zoological Gardens on Tucsdav.
Another snake has been transferred to his
case, and is accepting without explanation
the admiration bestowed upon him, in
ignorance of the fact that he is not the
hero of the memorable incident.—
Truth. ':4-f.A'A"i
Peof. Haines, chemist to the Chicago
Board of Health, says he has found the
Royal Baking Powder the purest and
strongest, and superior to all others in
every respect.
THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 1895.
DRESSMAKING IN SCHOOL
How the Girls at the Franklin
Grammar Stitch, Darn
and Buy.
PRINCIPAL KENNEDY'S SUCCESS
One of the Most Interesting Prac
tical Features of the Public
Schools.
The Franidin Grammar School may be a
little bard on the dressmakers and on
smart shopkeepers who want' to make
extra profits, but it affords a magnificent
illustration of what practical education
may be in the public schools.
There are 226 young girls becoming ex
pert with the needle on scientific prin-
THE SEWING CLASS IN SESSION.
ciples down there on Eighth street, near
Bryant, and those sewing-classes are one
of the most interesting features of the
special work being done in the public
schools. A comprehensive exhibition of
the sewing work done there, with accom
panying statistics and other information,
would excite interest among educators
anywhere.
Sewing is slowly being added to the
work of some other schools, but it is not as
extensive as cooking, though it may be
come so. The first sewing, as well as the
first cooking, in the public schools, was
done in the Franklin Grammar School
nearly three years ago, as a result of the
efforts and ideas of Principal James G.
Kennedy, who believes in practical educa
tion as well as in culture. It was largely
the success of Mr. Kennedy's experiment
that led to extending. the work to other
schools along with the other features of the
manual training work that is steadily
growing. In only one other school has
there yet been employed a special teacher
of sewing.
A visit to the Franklin Grammar School
would remove tiny one's doubts as to tbe
propriety oi teaching girls in school how
to use needles as well as fractions. The
location of the school in a community of
working people adds to the interest. The
instruction is given by Mrs. Kennedy, the
principal's wife, who is employed as a spe
cial teacher of sewing. Sue is a cultured
lady, who has had several years' successful
experience as a regular teacher, and these
qualifications have been very important
factors in her success with the sewing
classes. Such a teacher should be much
more than an expert needlewoman.
A large, light, neat classroom is devoted
to the sewing. Thirty-live low chairs sur
round a number of low tables. The black
boards are used to illustrate every variety
of stitch, the way to cut patterns, ways to
do patching, how garments should hang,
decorative ideas, etc. There is one sewing
machine, but it is little used. There is a
good supply of needles, thread, scissors,
tapes and other working materials. The
instruction is given now to the tirst four
grammar grades, and in the two higher
grades attention is devoted to cooking.
Each girl spends about three-quarters of
an hour in the sewing-room twice a week,
the different classes going to the sewing
room by turn, and Mrs. Kennedy has sev
eral different classes before her each day.
The course has been extended to cover
three years of school work, so that with
SAMPLES OP STITCHES ILLUSTRATED ON THE BLACKBOARD.
the two years of cooking the Franklin
Grammar School girls study domestic econ
omy for five years. Some of the classes
will be found doing elementary stitching
and some making dresses.
The little girls learn stitches first, and
there are more kinds of stitches shown in
working drawings and samples of work than
most people have heard of. Basting scraps
together comes first, and the basting the
girls soon do looks too pretty to undo.
Jwo short stitches and one long one are re
peated as though done by machinery. The
girls advance to the simple running stitch,
and then on to overcasting, backstitching,
hemstitching, felling, overhanding, button
hole working and all the rest of the pri
mary operations of a needle. They learn
just how to put in gussets and facings, and
pretty Boon they enter the great domain of
mending.
That is where the work soon tells. Mrs.
Kennedy allows no torn or buttonless
clothes among the gills of that school. The
girls mend their own clothes in the class,
and bring all sorts of mending from home.
They are especially encouraged to bring to
school any hard jobs of repairing, such as
a mother torn silk dress or a torn lace
curtain. The girls learn to put on patches
that can hardly be seen, and to darn rents
with exquisite deftness. Stocking-darning
is made of special importance, and they do
work that few of their grandmothers could
match.
From repairing the girls go to making
undergarments and then handkerchiefs,
aprons and almost everything made of
cloth belonging to a home, and they learn
how to cut them and make them well and
pretty. Finally dresses are reached, and
most of the dresses that the girls now
wear were made by themselves. So far
they have been taught only how to select
patterns and cut from them, but, a system
of dress-cutting will soon be taught. There
is plenty of material to work on besides
scraps of goods, for the girls. bring from
home every kind of material to make up.
Names of materials are among the many
things taught constantly besides the work
with the needle. From'the first day every
scrap and piece of goods is named, studied
and criticized, and now most of the Frank
lin Schoolgirls are experts on cloths. They
learn where the different kinds of cloth
come from and how they are made.
They can tell just how much cotton,
wool, silk or linen is in a sample, just
about what it ought to cost, how . likely it
[From a photograph ly Vnson.]
is to fade, how much it will shrink and
how it will wear. The girls are encour
aged to do the shopping for themselves
and their families, and they are most of
them now keen and intelligent shoppers
that small, sharp storekeepers do not get
ahead of for a cent. Sometimes a girl
brings in some starched muslin that was
bought for linen, or some other evidence of
a petty swindle, but no girl in that class
will ever get fooled again that way. The
girls discover and discuss bargains with as
much interest and probably as much in
telligence as any of their mothers.
IN THE DRESSMAKING DEPARTMENT.
Good taste is constantly developed. The
girls are taught what kinds and colors of
goods are best and most appropriate for
different uses. They are taught harmony
of color and the artistic appropriateness of
figures in goods, and of buttons and trim
mings on a dress. Personal neatness is
rigidly insisted on.
Embroidery and other decorative work is
f riven as a reward, and the girls take a de
lighted interest in every step of the course.
Few are taught to sew, even crudely, at
home, and most would grow into woman
hood hardly able to do more than sew on a
button. Before the work was begun many
of the girls would come to school with torn
and dirty clothes, buttons off shoes and a
careless appearance, or would dress nicely
with no display of taste. Now every girl
in the school looks neat and bright, wears
an apron she made herself and would be
ashamed of a rent or a missing. button.
The influence of the sewing classes has
been felt in the homes of the children in
many ways, practically and morally.
Every idea gathered and every bit of skill
acquired will be of constant use 1 through
life, and many homes and lives will be
substantially bettered.
During the first six months of the pres
ent school year, besides all the purely
practice work done, there were worked in
the classes 1200 button-holes,' 446 stockings
brought from home were darned, and there
were made 100 undergarments, 63 aprons.
93 handkerchiefs, 39 stocking-bags, 6 wrap
pers, 4 petticoats, 8 suits, 8 dress skirts, 8
tidies and a lot of pillow-shams, cushions,
splashers, doll dresses, etc., Since the
work began 8733 garments have been made.
Most of Franklin School girls must soon
go to earning a living. Since the sewing
class was started eight of the girls have
had to quit school and go to sewing. Dress
makers require of apprentices six months'
service without wages, and tailors and mill
iners will pay a girl nothing, as a rule, for
a good while. Of five of the girls who
went to work at once for dressmakers but
one had to work two weeks without re
ceiving wages, so delighted were their em
ployers with their unexpected skill with
the needle. Two, who went into a millin
ery-shop, got wages at once. One, who
went into a tailor-shop, was paid after the
first month. >
Some time ago Principal Kennedy ad
dressed 300 letters to mother;*, asking if
the instruction in sewing had been of
assistance to 'their daughters in the per
formance of household duties; if it had
developed habits of neatness and order in
them, and if the mothers addressed fav
ored teaching sewing in the public schools.
But one negative reply was received to any
question. Every reply testified to the ap
preciation of the mothers. Some wrote
that the work made their daughters neat
and orderly; others that it made them
helpful at home; that they had no time to
teach their daughters themselves ;*that the
girls took more interest in sewing at school
than at home, etc.
The value of this educational work in
practical life cannot be measured, but it
will be great. A great number of houses
will be more thrifty, tidy and full of com
fort because of the sewing classes in the
Franklin Grammar School, and many lives
will he brighter and better.
A BOUGH SHAVE.
The Natives of Jamaica Use Broken
Bottles for Razors?
The natives of Jamaica have no need to
buy soap, for the woods abound with
plants whose leaves and buds supply very
well the place of that indispensable article.
Among these is the soap tree, so called,
though it is more a bush than a tree. Its
bulb, when rubbed on wet clothes,
makes a beautiful lather, which smells
much like common brown soap.
The Jamaica negroes, some of them
who are great dandies in their way,
make a soap ont of a cocoanut^ oil
and homemade lye; and a fine soap it is,
smooth and fragrant. This cocoanut-oil
soap is used for shaving. When a man
wishes to shave he starts out with his
cocoanut-shell cup and his donkey-tail
brush and bottle.
It is never any trouble to find an empty
bottle in Jamaica, even in the mountains,
says a writer in Pearson's Weekly. At
least twenty generations of thirsty people
have lived there, and thrown away the
empty bottles. The man carries no mirror,
because he litis none to carry. Not one
negro cabin in a dozen has a cheap looking
glass. But nature supplies the mirror as
well as the soap. The man goes to a con
venient pool in the mountain stream,
where the water is still, and there is his
mirror. He breaks his bottle on a stone,
and picks out a good sharp piece. Then
he lathers his face profusely and begins to
scrape away with his piece of glass, which
works almost as well as a sharp razor.
The men rarely cut themselves in this
operation. "At first," says a writer, "I
trembled for them, but afterward I tried
the method for myself, and soon became
almost an expert at it." -'
A NEW WAY TO DINE.
The Jolly Fellow Who Invites Himself
and Then Disappears.
I happened to be one of a party of six
dining the other night at an uptown res
taurant. Most of us were strangers to each
other, having met only in the afternoon in
the course of business. They were a
banker, a politician, a lawyer, a theatrical
manager and a something else, I do not
yet know what, in that company. The
something else made himself exceedingly
agreeable. He was, in fact, the life of the
party. He was politeness itself, and his
wit and epigrams were fetching. After
dinner he rather suddenly and mysteri
ously dropped out of sight and was missed,
says a writer in the New York Press.
"Who was the gentleman?" I asked of
the theatrical manager.
"I'm sure I don't know," he replied. "I
thought he was a friend of yours."
"No, I never saw him before. I sup
posed he was a friend of yours," I said.
Chen I put the same question to each of
the others and found that the man was un
known to any of the party. He had simply
invited himself to dine with us, behaved
like a jolly good fellow and disappeared at
the right moment. The only thing we
have against him is that he forgot to pay
his bill. , ; "'- ?,' ■''■
The Royal Baking Powder avoids all de
composition of the flour as caused by yeast
rising, thereby saving a large percentage
of its most nutritive elements, making the
flour go one-fourth further. "- .
PAINE'S CELERY COMPOUND
Best Spring Remedy in the World-
It Makes People Well.
There is one true specific for diseases arising from a debilitated nervons system,
and that is Paine's ceiery compound, so generally prescribed by physicians. It is
probably the most remarkable remedy that the scientific research of this country has
produced. Prof. Edward E. Phelps, M.D., LL.D., of Dartmouth College first prescribed
what is now known the world over as Paine's celery compound, a positive cure for dys-
pepsia, biliousness, liver complaint, neuralgia, rheumatism, all nervous diseases and
kidney troubles. For the latter Paine's celery compound has succeeded again and
again where everything else has failed.
The medical journals of this country have given more space in the last few years to
the many remarkable cases where the use of Paine's celery compound has made people
, well than to any other one subject.
TEA AS AN INTOXICANT.
Tipplers Who Find in It a Substitute
for Alcohol.
No longer, it appears, may we speak of
tea as the cup which cheers, but does not
inebriate, says the New York Tribune. It
may, indeed, still cheer. It certainly does
inebriate with most deplorable effects;
ranking, as an intoxicant, a good second
to alcohol itself. Many lay observers have
long suspected that such was the case.
Their suspicions are now confirmed by pro
fessional authorities in a manner so start
ling as to make it seem desirable that con
certed action should be taken to check the
evil. To some, perhaps, the idea of a tem
perance crusade against the teapot will ap
pear grotesque. Yet, in all seriousness,
that very thing is urgently needed. ,
According to statistics recently furnished
to the Medical News by Dr. James Wood
of Brooklyn, of all the patients applying
for treatment at the chief dispensary of
that city no less tnan 10 per cent are tea
drunkards. They are not aware of the
fact. No one asks to be cured of what we
may call theamania. But the symptoms
of their cases point unmistakably to over- j
indulgence in tea and that presumption on >
inquiry is confirmed by their confessions.
They suffer from headache, vertigo, in
somnia, palpitation of the heart, mental \
confusion, nightmares, nausea, hallucin- |
ations, morbid depression of spirits, and j
sometimes from suicidal impulses, surely
a formidably list of symptoms. These
patients are of both sexes and all j
ages, and ■ confess drinking from I
a pint and a half to fifteen pints of tea
each day. Another interesting fact is that
nearly one-third of them are of Irish birth,
and it is safe to assume that of the nearly !
two-thirds of American birth a large pro- |
portion are of Irish parentage. For in Ire- j
land itself tea-poisoning has long been rec
ognized as a widely prevalent evil, con
tributing largely to the number of inmates
of insane asylums, and here, as most
housekeepers "know, the most inveterate j
and inordinate tea-drinkers are the domes- I
tic servants of Irish origin. It is an inter- j
esting question, worthy of investigation, j
whether this prevalence of tea intoxication
among that race is because they use tea |
more freely than other people, or because j
their nervous temperament is more sus- j
ceptible to its effects.
The evil of tea-drinking is due, however, !
not only to the amount consumed, but also j
to the manner in which it is prepared. An
unmeasured quantity of the leaves, says
Dr. Wood, is thrown into the teapot and
an unmeasured quantity of boiling water :
added. In any time from ten to thirty j
minutes this infusion is used. Then new
leaves are thrown in with the old, which
have been left to soak, and more water is j
added, and so on. Sometimes leaves are I
thus kept soaking for a day or more. The
result is that the decoction is loaded, not
only with them, but with from 7 to 17 per I
cent of tannin, and with other even more j
deleterious substances. This form of prep- i
aration is almost universal among kitchen j
servants and among shop and factory girls, j
who also are great tea-drinkers, and is too !
often practiced among other people of
small means, who do not wish to waste a
single leaf so long as there is any "strength"
in it. • . '...■•'-; '-■"-'■ :
Against this particular phase of the evil
j a crusade may well be directed. Tea
i drinkers sho*il<i be , taught how to prepare
the beverage properly, so that it will be
comparatively innocuous, and should be
warned that such decoctions a» they are
making are nothing else than rank poisons.
Physicians doubtless give such advice to
their patients whom they find suffering
from tea intoxication. But the mistress of
the household should give it to her domes
tics and enforce it upon them, too; and the
city missionary and dispenser of charity
among' the poor should make the ; same
facts known to all whom they visit. This
is no light matter. There is serious reason
to believe that many cases of suicide and
insanity are directly due to tea-poisoning,
while the number of chronic invalids from
the same cause in this city alone are to be
reckoned by thousands. It is high time
for the evil to be recognized and checked.
Begged a Thousand Pardons.
A charming young woman, who lives on
the West Side, and her young man found
the Summit-street cars packed to the doors
last Friday evening when they started
home from the Auditorium. • Nothing
daunted. Miss West Side sought a place
upon the step of the platform. She had
barely room for one foot, and, as the car*
lurched and heeled, she clung to Charley's
big, strong . hand. Occasionally, under
cover of the darkness, she squeezed it ten
derly, because— well, because she and Char
ley are engaged.. And so she held on to
the hand for many blocks.
."Charley," said* she, "aren't you about
worn out holding me on the car with your
one, poor, tired hand?"
"What?" cried Charley, in a horrified
tone.
Mademoiselle looked up and then dropped
the hand frantically. She had been hold
ing to ami squeezing the hand of an entire
stranger, a young fellow with black mus
tache and a pleasing eye.
"I beg a thousand pardons!" gasped
mademoiselle.
"Don't mention it," replied the stranger.
."You-, were entirely welcome."— Kansas
City Star.
' There are five miles of shelving in the
new Boston public library.
HOW SHE GOT THE PIN.
The Story of a Second Husband and
a Tailor.
"Oh, what a perfectly adorable diamond
pin!" cried the young woman with the
violet bonnet.
. "Yes, and my husband gave it to me of
his own accord," replied the young woman
with the black silk gown.
"You mean he thought he did."
"I mean nothing of the kind. I'll die
if I don't tell somebody, and it might just
as well be you as anybody else but don't
tell your husband."
"I won't. I'll let him think your hus
band gave it to you out of pure generos
ity — he hates to have anybody get ahead
of him."
"I know. Well, my new gown came home
a ruin, an absolute wreck, and, to tell the
truth, I took most of my race out on An
tonius, because I wasn't afraid of him, and
1 was of her. A day or two Liter his new
suit came home from the tailor. It was a
perfect tit, except that the coat sleeves
were half an inch or so too long. I told
him that it didn't really matter much, for
they could easily be shortened. He replied
that he wasn't afraid of his tailor if I was
of my dressmaker."
"Humph ! He would be if his tailor was a
woman. ■■*■*■'-*" '"' *< * ■ * •■#"-
"M'iim. He said he would go right
down and give him a piece of his mmd —
that he'd tell him he wasn't fit to make a
pair of .bicycle bloomers. Indeed, he used
such awful language that I was really
alarmed. That made him more ferocious
yet. and I trembled for the consequences."
"Oh, well, you know it takes nine tailors
to make a man."
"So Antonius remarked. I tried to calm
him by reminding him that the poor man
was probably a weak, nervous creature,
with a large family depending upon bim,
but he refused to" listen and rushed off
downtown." ' ,\; '
"Then he sent a messenger with the coat
and a polite note saying the sleeves were
too long."
"Nothing of the kind. He came back in
a cab an hour or so later with his overcoat
torn, a piece of court plaster on his cheek,
and, oh, such an eye!''
"How cross he must have been !"
"Oh, not as much so as you might imag
ine. I didn't lose my presence of mind. I
just cried out:
" 'Antonius Bittersweet, I hope you
didn't quite kill that poor tailor?' "
"And he got you the pin the first day his
eye was fit for him to go out? Well, I'm
sure you are a remarkable woman."
"On, well, not as remarkable as you
might think," modestly replied the young
woman with the black silk gown. "You
must remember that Antonius is my sec
ond husband."— Chicago Tribune.
HOW WOMEN LUNCH
When They Are Downtown on Shop-
ping Excursions.
"I suppose no man ought to complain of
• that which puts money in his pocket," re
i marked a well-known doctor to me the
other day, "and therefore it is not a matter
| that I am going to move heaven and earth
! to reform, but at the same time I don't
I mind giving anybody the benefit of my
| opinion that the lunch parlors that have
sprung up in the shopping districts have
\ been productive of much dyspepsia among
j women, especially that class whom I might
: call 'chronic shoppers.' But that such is
I the case is, of course, purely the fault of
; the women themselves, who persist in
I gorging themselves on pies and cakes and
meringues and creams and puffs, and all
manner 'of concoctions that are prepared
with an eve single to their capacity for
tickling the palate, without regard to
their digestive qualities. '-."_',
"It is a fact which has brought many
dollars to my pocket that when it comes to
ordering what they call a light lunch most
women will order the very things that
they ought most to avoid. Instead of the
plain and wholesome they will choose the
variegated and bilious. They are much
worse sinners than men in this respect.
Where a man would take a ham or tongue
i sandwich, a woman, nine times out of ten,
i would select, by way of a starter, a cream
puff or a tart! or some indigestible com
pound with a ' highfalutin' name. Though
at home they feed with some regard to the
eternal fitness of things, when on these
' luncheon orgies,' as I call them, women
' seem to abandon themselves to a reckless
desire to gratify their tastes, utterly re
gardless of the pains and penalties which
it entails on their stomachs. Everything
goes— sweet and sour viands, hot and cold
fluids, light and solid compounds, without
any regard to natural order and precedence.
''There is something coming, too, that is
going to make matters worse. That is the
'rapid transit lunch,' for women in the
shopping district, as we have it in the
downtown business districts for men.
Then when women have simply to stretch
out their hands to get whatever tempts
their appetites most, and in an at
mosphere where fast feeding is conta
gious, many will soon fall to wonder
ing what makes them so cross and ir
ritable, and their husbands will be racking
their brains for excuses for staying out
late more frequently. Bui as a doctor with
a keen appreciation jj of the good things
that money will buy, 'the prospect is one
that I can at least regard with philosophi
cal resignation."— New York Herald.
