Corvallis gazette. [volume], September 28, 1900, Supplement to CORVALLIS GAZETTE, Image 5

About Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909

Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR

                
Supplement
COll VA LLIS GAZETTE.
KJ1IIJAY. SKH'EWBKR 2M. 1IMM.
HO FALTERING UNDER
THE NATION'S DOTY.
Silver and Expansion Are the
Paramount Issues.
M. E. Ingalls, a Llfe-Loog Sound Money
Democrat, Writes of the Neces
sity for Assuming a Larger
National Life.
One of the most successful, distin
guished and popular railway presidents
to the United States is the Hon. Mel
Tllle B. Ingalls of Cincinnati. From the
very ground of railroad construction he
has worked his way up to the presidency
of the Chesapeake and Ohio and Big
Four railway systems, among the most
prosperous of our great trunk lines. Mr.
Ingalls is one of the people, and is prac
tical in every idea. He is a lifelong Dem
ocrat, and from the September issue of
the North American Review the follow
ing extracts are made from Mr. Ingalls'
Advice to Gold DeuJocrats:
What has happened since November,
1886, to warrant a reversal of the judg
ment which the American people then
pronounced at the polls? Under what
conditions have we entered on the pres
ent presidential campaign, and what, in
this regard, is the duty of patriotic citi
zens, independent of partisan affiliation?
To the Democrat who voted for Palmer
and Buckner, as .well as to the Democrat
who voted for McKinley four years ago,
the situation to-day presents peculiar
embarrassments. Preferring to act with
his party, when possible, the patriotic
Democrat must, nevertheless, answer the
call of duty, no matter in what direction
It leads him.
The second and supreme trial of the
great financial issue, which never should
have beeu dragged into partisan politics,
will be made at the polls in November,
1900. This test will, I believe, be con
clusive. What are the conditions under
which it is to be made?
There Is in the United States at the
THR PATENT LAWS
DREED MONOPOLIES.
A Drummer Continues His Chats
on Trade Changes.
Reorganization of Employing Companies
Affords Larger Opportunities to the
Men Expansion Gives Drummers
New Fields.
(Concluded from last week.)
Monopolies in this country are due
more to the patent system than any oth
er cause; the average trust could not mo
nopolize its product, and it will not try.
If it does, there is the same old remedy
which we free American citizens, who
.are supposed to have something to say
in the election of our State legislatures,
can apply. We can pass State laws for
the regulation of those monopolies. And,
y the way, speaking of politics, the Re
publican national platform declares
against monopolies and would propose
national legislation against them.
Grv. Roosevelt, a singularly clear
headed public man on civic questions, let
me tell you, sees the point. lie would
legislate against monopolies. I firmly
believe that this legislation will come,
and with it other laws intended to regu
late industrial corporations, a good deal
ss railroads and banks are regulated now.
Whyvnot? When the trusts really get to
going so that they themselves know what
they can do, and so that they won't be
ashamed to show in what a cheap, prim
itive, experimental stage most of their
methods now are, then, like the banks
and the railroads, they ought to be made
to "show down," and they will be.
Then the Wall street investor for
.whom we don't care anything in particu
lar will be protected from making bad
Investments, and the unwary investors,
the widows and the orphans, whom cer
tain sand-bagging plutocrats like to tell
us abont with so many tears, will be
doubly protected. Moreover, the em
ployes of the trusts, the clerks in the
offices and the hands in the mills, can buy
trust stocks, and they will want to.
I spoke about the Wall street investor.
He hasn't been making so very much
money in industrial stocks of late. He
got caught lots of times. Perhaps yon
recaH the case of the bicycle trust. The
promoters of that seheme went to cer
tain bankers in New York on an eighty
million dollar basis. It wouldn't go. Tt
wasn't worth the money. There wasn't
the property in plants, good will, etc.
Abont a year later the promoters, the
same promoters, no doubt, who had learn
ed a good deal in the meantime, came
hack with the bicycle trust proposition on
a forty million dollar basis, and it went
at that; could earn dividends on the forty
millions. It is probably true that the
American Bicycle Company is not fully
satisfied with every single one of the mill
ion details of its business, but doubtless
it win get there. Other manufacturers,
and big manufacturers, in the bicycle
business will also get there; and other
big trusts in the bicycle business are
bound to get there, too. You can't keep
a good man down or a good proposition.
You can't corner all the capital and
brains in the country. Remember that.
Bat I was speaking about the investor,
the wary one, not the widow or the or
phan. He has suffered on account of the
present day unparalleled prosperity, in
which every citizen has a right to share.
If any citizen is prevented from sharing
in that prosperity, he is the victim of
conditions which cannot be righted by
the election of Bryan, strongly as he may
be tempted to trust in that remedy. Un
der the gold standard we have become
the leading creditor nation, and we are
financing the world. We have produced
three great crops in succession, and we
are feeding Europe. We have had three
years of unexcelled manufacturing in
dustry, and we are finding a prompt and
generous market all over the world. The
American farmer, the Americau laborer
and the American business man were
never as prosperous as they are to-day.
It is by their suffrages that this presiden
tial election must be decided. In what
direction do their interests lie? '
The American farmer is selling for
3Yi cents a bushel corn which it costs
him 15 cents to produce. His wheat and
cotton, his beef and pork are selling at
profitable prices. He is spending his
money in luxuries and enjoying himself.
He is riding in railroad trains, and, as he
looks from the car windows over the
bountiful harvests, he is taking a new
view not only of his native land, which
was never fairer or happier, but is also
thinking of his new markets and new
"possessions" across the seas.
The laborer is to-day receiving more
wages than he ever received before, and
he is receiving tbem in a currency that is
good all over the world. In many in
stances, undoubtedly, there must be a
readjustment of wages, and the sporadic
strikes now reported, in various manufac
turing centers point probably to the be
ginning of this readjustment. In my opin
ion, these and kindred difficulties will be
safely and speedily settled.
Now, can any sane man tell me how
the laborer wjil help his condition, or the
solution of the problems so vital to him,
by voting to debase our standard of value
and thereby reducing his own wages?
What has labor to hope from Bryan,
ostensibly the friend of the dissatisfied,
the champion of the aggrieved, and the
chosen candidate of all the long-haired
reformers in the United ..States? Does
not the supreme salvation of labor de
pend, afterall. upon preserving our
standard of value, upon the non-partisan
regulation of trusts, and upon the appli
cation to those great commercial aggre
gations, which are so peculiarly a pro
duct of this age, of a system of license
and taxation? Is it not idle to denounce
the trust as an evil, a menace to the na
tional welfare? Is not the trust a nat
ural and essential development of our
time? A quarter of a century ago the
word "corporation" implied au inherent
reproach in the minds of exactly those
citizens who to-day regard the trust,
which is the incorporation of corpora
tions, with the same disfavor. Vet it is
to the solution of the trust problem that
the American business man, as well as
stock-watering evil along with the trust
"maguate" and the promoter. He is get
ting down on the earth again. Some of
the trusts in which he invested have even
gone to pieces. They were badly con
ceived and badly managed. They couldn't
hold together. They didn't "do business"
on a business basis.
There was no reason why they shoulil
expect to hold together. Perhaps there
were' too many purely ornamental per
sons in the offlees with high salaries.
Perhaps there were too many sons and
nephews of "the president," who sat
around looking handsome and thinking
that there was no other task of impor
tance connected with their job. What
ever the cause, the badly organized and
badly managed trust has gone to pieces
or is going. Nothing can help it, if it
can't help itself. So, too, the people are
realising that the problem is economic
after all, that no person, nor any party,
is to blame for this condition of things;
nor, in fact, that any person, or party,
or policy can prevent the good ones from
succeeding, can prevent the bad ones
from failing.
That suggests another thing. I spoke
of the more or less handsome nephew of
"the president." He has got to be up to
his job or he can't stay. It isn't enough
for him to succeed in his new position in
doing the same old things that he used
to do in the old one. There is new study
for him, new problems; buying, handling
the labor situation, selling the product
at a profit, studying the world's mar
kets. All this he has got to do because it has
got to be done; and if he hasn't the in
clination or the brains to do it, you can
wager your last dollar at the risk of
walking from Kokomo to Knnkakee that
neither the "President" nor any one else
will keep him in. That is why it is the
worst kind of fol-de-rol, unworthy of
anybody as intelligent as the Great
American Traveler, to pretend that there
are no opportunities in manufacturing
and trade now, aud especially none for
young men.
Fudge!
There was never so good a chance for
brains, and good health, and sobriety,
and acumen, and vitality. Have these
things and capital must have you. And
if it must have you it must pay you. The
larger the corporation, the more impor
tant in it is the man. There are just as
many large corporations now as there
were small ones before. As many big
meu are required as there were small
one's required before. What these so
called magnates waut is somebody who
can do the work. Price is no object if
they can depend upon you. You can't
strike a $10,000 position all at once. Yon
have.got to show that you are worth $1,
000, or $2,000, or $3,000. It is the same
old climb as it always has been; there is
the same old ladder to go up by, and the
same old persimmon when yon get to the
top round and the same old persimmons,
too, all the way np at all the rounds.
All this seems pretty long unless it
also seems to have some bearing upon
the drummer question. I don't knotw
whether you ever thought of it or not,
but many different causes have been op
erating in the last few years to throw
commercial travelers out of work. Man
ufacturers have sought to eliminate com
mission men, who must have laid off a
good many of their travelers. The cata
logue houses, so-enlled, those doing busi
ness direct with the consumer by means
of catalogues and other printed matter,
have grown enormously. They have laid
off drummers if they ever had them; and
one of thet reasons why they can sell so
cheaply to the consumer is that one ele
ment of selling expense, the drumming,
is eliminated. Any house that corre
sponds extensively, that takes care with
its correspondence, by just so much
makes the selling easy; and if the pro
cess were kept up long enough, this
the American farmer and laborer, must
addre? .mself. And in the solution of
that ... .lem he will find the present goal
of patriotism.
The-business man who does not inquire
into the politics of his bookkeeper is
asked by the supporters of Mr. Bryan to
allow partisan politics to be injected into
the circulating medium through which he
carries on his business. He refused in
189G, as he will refuse, I believe, in 1900,
Mb impute either Democracy or Republi
canism to the dollar. He will say that
it is not a political question, and that it
should not be made such. Asking him
self where he shall seek guidance in the
casting of his ballot, he, like the laborer
and the farmer, looks out upon prosper
ity unprecedented. He sees trade follow
ing the flag all around the world, and
new markets opening to him under new
national responsibilities. He realizes, as
a business man, that these responsibili
ties must be grappled with and adjusted
on a business basis. No policy of evasion
or retreat can commend itself to him.
Yet, into the field of partisan discussion
he hnds these responsibilities dragged,
like the dollars, from his counting room,
by the politicians who seek his vote. And,
like the farmer and the laborer, he finds
his next national ballot invested with
unique importance.
What will be the reply of the American
patriot, who Is now asked to believe that
his home and his pocketbook are staked
on the next turn of the ballot, that a
wrong decision spells ruin, and that he
must decide issues of such moment as
were never before submitted to the Amer
ican electorate?
Bryan's election appears to
me impossible. Good citizens,
irrespective of party, should vote for Mc
Kinley in November. That it is the duty
of patriots to do so I have no doubt.
The safety of the American republic is
not menaced by a bogey, crowned with an
imperial diadem of straw. The cry of
imperialism is simply a pretext of the
Democratic leaders to save themselves
from the fatal blunder they made in
1890, the blunder of dragging the dollar
to the polls and endeavoring to degrade
it. Imperialism is not the paramount
issue, despite all efforts to make it so.
Now. as in 189!!, the real issue is the
Silver Danger. That is the peri! threat
ening this country, not the imaginary
evils attendant on the acquisition of new
territory, which was the inevitable re
sult of a war for which the shriekers
against imperialism we're largely respon
sible. The only peril now threatening
the United States is ruin and retrogres
sion under silver, the turning back of
the wheels of progress and prosperity
to the standards of China and Mexico,
and the abandonment of our position as
the greatest country in the civilized
world.
Shall we go forward or shall we turn
back? That is the question for the vot
ers in November. Under McKinley we
would cause drummers to lose their
places.
Then consider that millions and mill
ions of dollars are spent in this country
for advertising purposes, not merely in
the newspapers and the magazines, but
on the fences and the bill boards, in
signs, in distributions of printed mat
ter, and what not.
What is all this money spent for?
To sell goods.
And the study of hundreds of the
brightest men in the country is devoted
to making advertising more and more
effective, so that a given expenditure will
result in greater and greater sales at a
lower and lower expense. Why do the
advertisers want to sell more and more
cheaply? So that they can beat their
competitors by giving the consumer bet
ter things for the same money, or just
as good things for less money. All this
effort to sell things cheaper means that
drummers are going to be laid off if they
by their methods have been selling things
more expensively.
There is another thing that we owe it
to ourselves to look fairly in the face.
Many drummers in the past have consid
ered that the business that they helped
their houses to do belonged to them and
not to the houses. Others, surely all the
houses, used to take a contrary view;
and of late years they have resorted to
the various more or less direct methods
of selling in order to get their business
back into their own hands. No doubt
about it! No doubt about it!
One of the things which a trust aims
to do is to reduce its selling expense. If
four manufacturers makiug the same ar
ticle ore drumming Indiana, and their
four able and persuasive representatives
light into Indianapolis some day, they
all go around among the trade doiug lit
tle except neutralize one another. About
four times the talk, nerve force and
money are spent to sell only as many
goods as Indianapolis wants that day,
as needs be spent. This is one of the
many things that the trusts hare found
out that they knew Lefore they started
in.
Now, it is inevitable in the very econ
omics, in the very natural law of the
situation, that some of those drummers
must go some lime; they may be sent
into new territory! they may be recalled
to work in the office at home, or they
may be dismissed entirely. Just so much
of their work as has been unnecessary
will surely be dispensed with in time.
Competition does that, and we couldn't
have any better illustration of the fact
that competition is always active. Here
it is potent, actually. In the ease of the
glucose trust that was afraid to encour
age too much competition (of other capi
tal and brains) by making more than sev
en per cent, it was active potentially.
It is preposterous to say that fifty
thousand commercial travelers, or thirty
five thousand, have been thrown out of
work by the trusts. There are probably
not sixty thousand of them in the whole
country. Besides, if ten per cent of
hem have been thrown out of work by
the various changes in producing and dis
tributing that have come about in the last
few years, other causes have probably
contributed equally with the combination
movement. Even so, and putting the
case at its very worst, the genera! im
provement in business, the wide expan
sion of trade at borne and abroad, which
all of our producers, manufacturers and
traders have helped to bring about, and
by which they have all inevitably profit
ed this has put all of those commercial
travelers back into places just as good,
or better, or will do so. It is inevitable.
More people were employed after ma
chinery was introduced simply because
the wants of the human raoe became
greater and wider every year, and these
wants had to be supplied, aud could be,
because things were so much cheaper.
We hav taken over Porto Rico, Ha-
go forward, under Bryn" we torn back.
The coming test of silver question
at the polls must, in ull human proba
bility, be the final one. The will of tha
voters twice registered will not be the
third time disputed. Each year that we
preserve our present money standard
gives it additional security. The Amer
ican people do not like experiments with
their currency, their school houses, their
churches or their savings banks. A re
versal of the popular verdict of 1896
would mean a reversal of all the achieve
ments that make up our national pros
perity. Bryan's election would mean that
the sovereign people had decreed that our
laborers shall be paid in silver, while
our foreign debts must still be paid in
gold.
Convinced as I am that the financial
question is the paramount issue in No
vember, 1900, as it was in November,
1896, it is worth while for Democrats
who supported McKinley, as I did, four
years ago, to ask what are the issues
upon which our party could have appeal
ed to the American people with fair pros
pects of success, and what we can con
tend for in future contests, after this
economic and financial question is finally
settled. To my mind these define them
selves as reform in governmental admin
istration, economy in governmental ex
penditure, the taxation and regulation of
oppressive trusts and combinations, and
the immediate enactment of a just and
honest scheme of colonial government.
These would have been issues upon which
every patriot could have been honestly
asked to vote. Why should we not set
fairly about a reform in our old system
of taxation, and, at the same time, initi
ate a departure which might well result
in throwing the cost of government upon
those who can best afford it?
The silver problem solved once for all, as
it will be in November, the colonial probJ
lem at once becomes paramount. We
must either give up Hawaii, Porto Rico
and the Philippines, haul down our flag,
and shamefully abandon the righteous;
fruits of our prowess by land and sea,
or we must prepare to govern these dis
tant additions to our country fairly and
honestly and capably. A per-
petual, constitutional barrier must be.
erected against the statehood of all our:
non-contiguous possessions. That su-'
premely important problem is to be metj
and overcome, not by cowardly evasion)
or disgraceful retreat, for the Americanj
people will tolerate no such course. We
mnst institute honestly and wisely andj
administer economically an American co-; !
lobial system, worthy alike of our new
possessions and of their mother country
TVe nre nnt inenimhla nf trnverninj? them."
We are, as a nation, incapable of nothing.;
I fully believe in the future of the' i m mn f- lina 80 overbalanced our ae
Ainerican republic, and that we are wise, ! eouDt tliat 1 felt ' imperative to make
and brave enough to bear the burdens; ! UP a better check than usual that week
and fulfill the task Providence has allot- i on the daily paper upon which I earned
ted us. Let us not falter at the threshi j my dally bread,
old. M. E. INGALLS. j So I was hard at work.
' But my wife had been bard at work,
waii and the Philippines, and have some too. She had been to Paul Jones' sale
interest in Cuba; and I venture to say j lt was "remnant day" -and she had got
that the increased and increasing busi- j few mte thj wUich dear a
ness in those distant islands has already j . , , . . . . ,, .
more than absorbed the work of all the 8 0,11 tel- had ave besides a few
drummers in the country who have lost ! luore Jl,lte indispensable tnfles for her
their positions through industrial com- ' self all of them "dirt cheap" She had
binations. If that is true, and I believe j been forced to confess, however, that
it is, consider what a chance there is for
ten per cent of our commercial travelers,
or for fifty per cent of them, in time in
foreign lands or at home here, helping
their new employers, or their old ones,
to meet all the numberless new aud iu
creasiug demands of our prosperous and
proud American men, women, sweet
hearts, wives, cousins, aunts and chil
dren, and all the countless millions, who,
as we can be certain, are going to want
our American products more and more'
because the counted millions that we
know of have begun to take them now
almost faster than we can supply them, j
That is expansion.
You cannot stop it in a million years!, j
It has been going on since the world
began, aud it will coutinue to go on,1 i
faster than ever, I guess, to the end of j
time. It happens when a people fairly
bursts its manufacturing and commercial,! sight of the end at last, when a voice
bounds. There must be an outlet for the! on the stairs, shouting. "I know my
products of our farms and factories, for ! way," made me swear a gentle oath
the capital and talents of our business . under my breath before the door open
men and hustlers. ed an(J oue per(.y Patmoutn stood be-
Sometimes tuis expansion of new ! fofe me
strength, which amounts to an explosion TT - . - , .
of new strength, must be preceded bv a He was a co,,ege f'"iHl-one of those
battleship, even by a part ot a standing! : who always prevent oue from working,
army, or a permanent garrison, as iu l)ut t0 whom one is never able to say
Porto Rico or the Philippines. At other j "ay. ,
times the battleship and the standing1 I smiled sickly smile of welcome
army, or a part of it, just enough to hold
niir own and make no doubt of
must j
follow.
The missionaries (who typify in a way
the advaace of civilization into heathen
lands, as we call them) are best of all the !
daring forerunners of the commerce and !
tho progress that have to get there too
The human race, especially the Anglo
Saxons, are always wanting more and
better things; they are climbing, climbing,
climbing, always upon a higher plane of
living. These things they work for, and
fight for, and die for. So long as that
restless, world-conquering sentiment ex
ists, there wiil be expansion. So long,
too, the races of the earth which have
found themselves, and are still finding
themselves, unequal to the trading, and
selling, and fighting, and civilizing capac
ity of the Anglo-Saxons, must step aside;
they must learn to fight and to trade, and
to trade and to fight, much better; that is
all.
I try to say these things thoughtfully,
as a drummer, notorious as he is for talk
ing, may sometimes do. This expansion
that I speak of is what we optimists
mean by destiny; we are not afraid of it,
we welcome it. We have done in the last
three years a hundred years of work
which, however, we couldn't have done,
if we hadn't been prepared, if we hadn't
been that kind of people.
There is not a true American man in
these United States that is not better off,
in his patriotism or his pecuniary pros
pects, for the tasks-of war and of states
manship that have been undertaken and
discharged in the last three years. You
are better off. whoever you are, and I am
better off. Even if I' had not been nec
essary to my employer in the field and
had not been kept on the pay-roll, then
there would have been ten times the
freedom ot opportunity, which is all any
good man can want. There is freedom of
opportunity for everybody; but opportu
nity won't come looking for us. We must
go running for it, watching every open
ing, looking for improvement, looking for
the way which our employer must find if
we do not make his capital and his ef
forts pay him a little better. In that
way our efforts, which are our capital,
will pay us better and better.
A DRUMMER.
THE COMING MAN.
A pair of very chubby legs
Incased -in scarlet hose;
A pair of little stubby boots
With rather doubtful toes;
A little kilt, a little coat,
Cut as a mother can
And lo! before us strides in state
The future's "coming man."
His eyes, perchance, will read the stars.
And search their unknown ways;
Perchance the human heart and soul
Will open to their gaze;
Perchance their keen and flashing glance
Will be a nation's light
Those eyes that now are wistful bent
On some "big fellow's" kite.
That brow where mighty thought will
dwell
In solemn, secret state;
Where fierce ambition's restless strength
Shall war with future fate:
Where science fromnow hidden caves
New treasures shall outpour
'Tis knit now with a troubled doubt,
Are two, or three cents, more?
Those lips that in the coming years
Will plead, or pray, or teach;
Where whispered worlds on lightning
flash
From world to world may reach:
That, sternly grave, may speak command,
Or. Sli:ilinf win pnnrrn
Are now for gingerbread
n un ait a baby s soul!
Those hands those little busy hands
So sticky, small and brown;
Those hands whose only mission seems
To pull all order down
Who knows what hidden strength may lie
Within their future grasp.
Though now 'tis but a taffy stick
In sturdy hold they clasp?
Ah, blessings on those little hands
Whose work is yet undone!
And blessings on those little feet
Whose race is yet unrnn!
And blesings on the little brain
That has not learned to plant
Whate'er the future holds in store,
God bless the "coming man."
Eimira Telegram.
PERCY.
I
was at work.
We had been furnishing my wife
and I. We thought we had done it
cheaply, but a few charming things in
the bric-n-hrac line, added at the last
the week's housekeeping money had
been severely encroached upon, and I
am afraid I was not enthusiastic over
the Jones sale.
In fact I took some credit to myself
for my silence both over the Interrup
tion and over the advisability of the
purchases; I did not even endeavor to
stop her when she had quickly gather
ed up all her little soft parcels and had
deprived me of her presence.'
Instead of chasing the passing cloud
from her sweet eyes as I knew how to
do I had even heaved a sigh of relief
as the door slammed after her. But,
there, the bills were hanging over my
head, aud 1 had written one para
graph! So I was hard at work, and within
and pushed the cigarettes toward him,
bat even as I did so I forgot his offense
in sudden alarm at his appearance.
His face, that was wont to be fresh,
f. nnlr.n, nnrl .... ..... . I - .
WP uuu ",J' ,uat
waB a,Ha-s """ "as uu" uu u"wu"
"What's the matter, old man?" said
I. "You're down on your luck." .
It took him some time to bring the
trouble out, even to me. But at last be
managed it. He was In love.
"Is that all?" cried I cheerily. "Well,
don't be alarmed. I assure you, when
you have got over the beginning it
Isn't bad at all."
"It isn"t that," said my friend gloom
ily, after a pause.
"Isn't what?" I asked.
"It isn't that I mind being In love."
he explained, "but how am I to keep
a wife?"
My chair spun around again of itself.
"You!" I cried, almost fiercely. "Why,
haven't you got $2,500 a year of your
own?" and a vision of the weekly
books and the monthly bills swam be
fore my eyes and made me run my fin
gers wildly through my hair. "You're
a nice one to talk!"
Percy smiled sarcastically.
"Two thousand five hundred dollars!"
echoed be. "Why. it wouldn't keep her
iu frilled underwear and short silk pet
ticoats!" I looked grave instantly. "O!" I mur
mured. "And it wouldn't keep any of them,"
said my friend, rising and throwing
his cigarette away as he warmed to his
subject. "And one wouldn't wish that
It should. 'What man cares to see his
wife looking a' frump, and dowdier
than other women? And it isn't only
the clothes; It's the house, and the fur
niture, and the servants, and every
thing. Dinginess is out of date. Peo
ple don't cover up their carpets with
washing drugget now, or let their
wives go about in linsey-wolsey gowns
and dust the knick-knacks, or give
their friends herring and mutton ettopm
for dinner. Ca ue se fatl pins, and yon
know it"
I sighed. Yes, I did know it more or
less.
"If I were to marry on $2,500 a year,"
continued Percy emphaUcally,"I should
be in debt two months, and my wife)
and I would have quarreled forevet."
Why didn't I smile? 1 had been mar
ried more than two months, and.
though I bad certainly been iu debt
most of the time, my wife and I had
not quarreled yet.
But a vision of pouting mouth aDdl
tear-dimmed blue eyes rose uncomfort
ably before me; instead of sin Ming U
was I now who sighed.
Perhaps my wife bad not brought
home small, soft parcels enough from.
Jones' sale instead of as I had meanly
supposed that morning too many.
"But a man can work," said I, a
bravely as I could, drawing my papers
toward me.
"Work!" echoed Percy, bitterly.
"That's all very well if you've got
brains. I have no qualifications for
earning money, and love in a cottage
isn't good enough nowadays."
Somehow this speech restored me to
my balance.
He smoked another clgaret, and then
took up his hat, and I breathed a sigh
of relief.
"It's a devil of a mess for a fellow to
be in," he said, gloomily.
"Yes," said I, I'm afraid you'll have
to find a wife who ean work on her
own account. There are a good many
of them about nowadays."
He looked at me doubtfully. "O, I
hate that sort," he said. "A girl with
money's better, but that won't help me
just now."
"So I supposed," said I. And 1 let
him out. I had sworn at his entrance,
but be had brought me tuclr.
The words literally flew from my
pen when I sat down again; there wa
something spurring me on there was a
goal in sight that I knew of.
Aud when I had put my name to the .
last sheet and was free I sought lt.
Upstairs in the nursery my wife sat
beside the cradle; she had our child la
her arms and was lulling him to sleep.
Her eyes shone as she looked up at me,
her face was fresh, and she was as
dainty as any man could wish In a,
plain, white frock ready to weleome
me to dinner after my work. As I bent;
down to kiss her I said gayly: "Fve
made up a splendid week, darling; so
yon needn't worry about the pur
chases." Aud she laughed, saying: "There
weren't so many after all, you know..
Only a few dollars' worth. Bat I
shouldn't have interrupted you while
you were making tbem!"
And then we went together to the
dainty meal of her frugal ordering, and
I was sorry that I had not been able to
explain to Percy what lt was that
made It "good enough." Exchange.
ARTIFICIAL TREE INDUSTRY.
Factory-Made Palms of Life- Like For
mation Arc Now Numerous.
This is the age of things artificial. A
palm manufactory has recently opened
a salesroom on Upper Broadway, and
a huge sign lower down on the same
thoroughfare notifies the mob that an
other store of the same sort will soon
be ready for business. The artificial
tree industry is comparatively new and
It must be profitable. All over town
one sees counterfeits. Many of the
large stores, and most of the more .
prominent hotels of this city, includ
ing some of those that are most taste
ful iu their decorations, now have huge
palms in their halls or entrances, and
even in private bouses it is not uncom
mon to find plants with removable
leaves.
The prepared palms, such as are used
to-day, are infinitely more real In ap
pearance than the old artificial plants
of a few years ago. Many are so close
in their resemblance to the live plant
that it is hard to detect them as imita
tion without close scrutiny. The leaves
are real leaves, and not constructed out
of enameled tin, like the old kind, and
the fiber on the trunk is real fiber. It
is only on approaching them and ex
amining them that the leaves are seen
to be painted and the stalks inserted
into, but not growing out of, the stem.
The price of the manufactured article
varies from 50 cents to $25 for the or
dinary specimens, but some of the
larger and finer ones amount to $50,
or even $100. A small fern palm sprig
of some fifteen inches high is sold at
half a dollar; a tree, such as those that
are seen iu the halls of hotels, measur
ing, say, nine feet high, and with about
eighteen removable leaves, will cost
$17. The sago palm is a more expen
sive variety, a tree of five feet selling
for as much as $20. Wo may rail
against humbug to our hearts' content,
but, somehow or other, the laugh is sel
dom on the fellow who fools us. Pitts
burg Dispatch.
Work's Great Work.
The movement in G. A. R. circles to
erect a monument over the grave of
Henry Clay Work, at Hartford. Conn.,
revives the fact that his father was
once confined in the Missouri peniten
tiary on the charge of aiding slaves to
escape from the State of Missouri to
Illinois. When the elder Work was re
leased, one of the conditions of his par
don b;ing that lie should return to the
State of Connecticut, whence he came
originally, and remain there for the
rest of his natural life. This obliga
tion he faithfully kept The son, Hen
ry C. Work, was born at Middletown,
Conn., and saw the end of American
slavery while thousands of soldiers and
citizens sang "Nlcodemus," "Ring the
Bell, Watchman," and "Marching
Through Georgia."
The Czar's Scepter.
The Russian scepter is of solid gold,
three feet long, and contains among ita
ornaments 268 diamonds, 300 ruble
and fifteen emeralds.