HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1896-6-25, Page 3.9999 ;999.49
THIS CANADA OF OURS.
BY G. W. JOHNSON.
We have made us a Dominion
In this region of the West;
.And this Canada of ours •
Is the land we love the best;
For our homes are halls of plenty,
We have peace on every hand,
.And our people are as noble
As the lords of any land.
We have m any little Edens
Soattered up and down our dales;
We've a hundred pretty hamlets
Nestling in our peaceful vales;
Sere the sunlight likes to linger
And the summer winds to blow,
Here the rosy spring in April
Leapeth.laughing from the snow.
We have springs of healing waters;
We have everlasting rills;
Thet enoirole in their journey
Self a thousand happy hills.
Tell the oppressed of every nation—
Him that digs and liim that delves—
If they'll oast their lot among us
We will make them like ourselves.
For the west shall be a garden,
And its glories be unfurled,
Till its beauty is a by word
With the peoples of the world;
♦nd the east ghall bring us shipping
That shall whiten every sea.
And the boast of this Dominion
Shall be British liberty.
And if foes too strong oppress us,
On a little island shore
Dwells a lion that oan shield us
By the terror of his roar;
For its flag that rules the ocean
Is the monarch of the shore—
It has braved a thousand battles
And oan brave a thousand more.
°Reath its folds, in silent sorrow,
We will wrap our fallen brave,
But we'll wave it high in triumph
Over every coward's grave;
Till, in spite of foe and traitor,
By the world it shall be seen
That we pride in our Dominion.
Love old England and her Queen.
And our fathers up in heaven
in the leal land far away
Looking down with pride upon us
To each other then shall say:
These our children emulate us,
Tread the righteous path we trod
Live in peace and hnnest plenty -
1,070 their country and their God.
CANADA AND ITS FUTURE.
BY THE HON. GEO. W. ROSS.
The very name "Canada" suggests a
history reaching back three hundred
years to the explorations of adventurers
from across the Atlantic, who threaded
their devious way up our lakes and rivers
Or through our forests primeval in search
of El Dorados, always expected but never'
found. It suggests the settlement of the
early pioneer, who, fearless of danger
and privation, planted the institutions
of his native land in our virgin soil. It
suggests bitter struggles with the forces
of nature, and still anoro terrible confiiots
for the possession of the territory which
is called by its name. It suggests a great
heritage of immense extent and re-
sources, set apart by a bountiful Provi-
dence to be the home of a free and pro-
gressive people. It suggests our own
QUEEN VICTORIA.
land, "beautiful for situation," as the
Psalmist said of Jerusalem, "the joy of
the whole earth," the birthplace of many
of us—the object of the most affectionate
regard of all its citizens.
Let us walk about this Canada and take
its measurement, that we may realize, if
possible, more accurately its extent. Ter-
sitor]'ally, it is nearly equal in extent to
the continent of Europe, and contains
over one-third of the area of the British
Empire, or 480,783 square miles° more
than the area of the United States, leav-
ing out Alaska. We could find room
within its borders for England, Ireland
and Scotland (and usually it isadvisable
to give Irishmen and Scotchmen plenty
of room), France and Germany, Portu-
gal and Spain, •Soandinavia and Den-
mark, Belgium, Holland, Italy and Tur-
key, and still leave many thousand acres
to farmout to Czar Nicholas III. and
his Siberian exiles. Were its lands divided
lif per capita among its inhabitants every
man, woinan and child would be the
proud possessor in fee simple of about
,,, 400 acres of real estate.
Ontario alone is almost equal to France
or Germany in geographical extent, and
about one and a half times as large as
Great Britain And Ireland. Or, °waver -
War ourselves with other provinces, On-
tarf;:.is ten times as large as Nova Sco•
tea, about eight times as large as New
Brunswick, and one hundred times as
large as Prince Edward Island. Or com-
paring ourselves with our neighbors to
the south, Ontario is larger by 40,000
•square miles than the North Atlantic
states, Maine, New Hampshire, Ver-
enont, Massachusetts, RhodeIsland, Con-
neotiout, New York and Pennsylvania.
Even our inland lakes are greater than
many of the kingdoms over which Euro-
pean monarchs rule, and when we con-
sider the , majestic sweep of such rivers
as the St. Lawrence on our southern '
boundaries, with its oonnections 2,884
miles long; or the Saskatchewan, that
ploughs our prairies midway a distance
of 1,712 miles; or the Mabkenzie, drop-
ping into the Arrctio Ocean after flowing
itti distance of 2,400 rniles through Cana-
an territory, a slight, idea may be
. vastness ofDominion.
a
ormed of thest s our
We have mountains grander than Alpe
or Apennines -mountains. that can look
down from their serene heights upon the
eternal snows of Mount Bl4no, Were all
the classic mountains of Greene—Olgm-
pus,Ossa and. Pelion—piled one upon an-
other they would be as pigmies in the
presence of the smallest of the Sierras
that buttress our western boundary.
We have forests that the avaricious eye
of the lumberman has not yetseen, and
wihoh no reporter has yet described; and,
we have mineral resources, the value of
whioh no assayist has yet been able to
determine. Our agricnitural wealth is
only limited by the demands of human-
ity for the staff of life, and our "har
vests of the deep," as McGee called them,
by the courage and industry of aur fish-
ermen. So generous has our great pat-
roness, Nature, been that there is little
or nothing whioh the human heart could
desire that she has not bestowed upon
us. It remains for us to show that we
are worthy of her bounty.
And here one might reasonably ask:
Has this vast estate of "forest, field and
flood" passed to our hands simply that a
geographer, in preparing a map of North
America, might have a naine for every
LORD ABERDEEN.
part of it, or does the possession of it
call for any act on our part to make our
title indefeasible? To exercise dominion
over a great territory might be a very
laudable ambition—an ambition by
which, at one time or another, almost
every nation of the world was moved.
POPULATION WANTED.
The average population of the Dominion
is but 13fi persons to a square mile. On-
tario, with all its wealth and progress,
has but 10 persons to a square mile,
while the United States bas 21, the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, 312, France 187, Germany 237,
and Belgium 485. The average of the
British Empire and all her colonies is
88. If we attained the density of popula-
tion now possessed by the United States,
or even the lower average of Ontario of
10 persons to the square mile (and there
is no reason why that should not be at-
tained in the next century), the Domin-
ion would contain over 30,000,000 of peo-
ple. At the opening of this century the
population of the United States was only
8,800,000; now it is 65,000,000. What
the nineteenth century did for the United
States we fondly hope the twentieth cen-
tury may do for Canada.
But whatever may be our regret with
respect to the tardy settlement of the
country, when we come to consider what
we have accomplished towards its com-
mercial development, we cannot charge
ourselves with want of enterprise. We
have expended for the improvement of
inland navigation and the construction
of canals the sum of $61,151,330, thus
enabling ocean-going vessels to reaoh the
very heart of the continent—a distance
of 2,384 miles from the seaboard. We
have a merchant marine consisting of
7,010 vessels, with a tonnage of
1,054,214 tons. This gives us the fifth
place commercially among the nations
of the world—Great Britain, the United
States, Sweden and Norway and the Ger-
man Empire being in advance of us,
while France, Italy, Russia and Spain
are our inferiors.
We bare invested $872,156,476 he the
construcesen of 15,320 miles of railway,
or more, according to our population,
than the United States or the wealthiest
nation of Europe Our pities are all sup-
plied with abundant facilities for rapid
transit, and by means of our postal and
telegraph system the remotest part of the'
Dominion has easy and quick communi-
cation with the great commercial centers.
We drill•annually for the defence of
the country 15,000 of the bravest of our
sons. We have erected 10,480 churches as
a counterpoise in which upon every
Lord's Day is proclaimed the Gospel of
peaoe.
We have built 16,154 public sohools,14
universities, 41 colleges, and over 800
high schools, and expend annually about
$12,000,000 to prepare 1,000,000 boys and
girls for future citizenship. We endeavor
THE LATE SIR JOIIN A, MACDONALD.
to inform ourselves as to the world's do-
ings by means; of 75 daily newspapers,
8 tri -weeklies, 14 semi-weeklies, 587
weeklies, 17 semi-monthly magazines,
147 monthlies, and 4 quarterlies; in all
552 visitors of varied politics and modes
of thought. We sharpen . our intellects
upon 3,000,000 volumes from our public
libraries, and we import annually for lit-
erary purposes $1,208,506 worth of hooks
and stationery.
We may discount our promissory notes
(when we oan find an endorser) in 89
different banks, having a paid-up capital
of $69,009,846.
This brief summary of the efforts made
for the development of the country, Oona-
rnercially and educationally, is unmis-
takable testimony of Canadian energy,
What if we have not yet subdued all our
waste land and peopled every aore of our
illimitable prairies? What if we have not
delved into every hillside for the mineral
treasures which it contains, who but NEARER AND MORE NEAR COMES
the very pessimist in the face of these feats THE DAY OF VOTING.
would despair as to the future? Even
had we the golden touch of Midas what
more could we have done? By the strong
hand of the hardy pioneer great forests
have been turned into wheat -fields and
gardens. By the enterprise of the capital-
ist, steamships and railways carry our
produce to the ends of the earth, Where
the Indian shaped his arrow -head in
a rude wigwam sixty years ago,
cities "compactly built together" with
teeming thousands are now to be found.
The refining influences of religion,
education and journalism pervade every
home, and the sweet privilege of sitting
under his own vine and fig -tree, none
daring to make him afraid, is within
the reach of every citizen.
CANADA'S FUTURE.
But it may be said, although Canada
possesses half a continent of her own,
though she has the most ample facilities
for the transportation of her commerce
by land and by water, though she bas
banking capital fully adequate for all
business purposes, though she has latent
resources which the neoessities of centur-
ies to come are not likely to exhaust, yet
her future is a matter of the greatest
doubt and uncertainty. I repudiate this
timorous suegestion. I, for one, have no
fear as to the future of Canada, and I
shall tell you why. Canadians represent
a generous admixture of the mist pro-
gressive and energetic races on the globe.
For instance • about 80 per cent., or
1,400,000 of our population, are of French
origin, whose frugality, are
and
morality have been accredited by the
experience of over throe centuries; 60
per cent., or about 2,800,000 are of good.
old British stook, of whom about 1,100,-
000 are of Trish descent, 950,000 of Eng-
lish descent, 740,000 of Scotch descent,
and 10,000 Welsh. We have, in addition,
300,000, or about 7 per cent., of a Ger-
man population. The remaining 3 per
cent., for my argument. need not be con-
sidered.
But, you will say, this variety of race
is our weakness. If we are to succeed we
must be homogeneous. I answer not so as
A 'LET 1 LR x do not wish to be taken les saying that.
I read history. Where among the other
nations of Europe will you find a greater
variety of racial types than you will find
in Great Britain? --so great that very few
of us oan tell whether the Saxon, the
Norman, the Danish or the Celtic strain
predominates in his own case. And yet
who will dare question the virility of the
British race or their title to the sover- !
eignty of the world? On this continent,
too, the most powerful nation is also the
TXW LATE IYON. ALEX. RACSENane.
most varied racially, but, in spite of it
all, the dominant force of the American
Republic is the good old British stock,
begotten of Puritanism and Anglo-Saxon
independence—the same stook that fought
the battles of the Revolution and laid
the foundations of the Republic a little
more than a century ago.
I like the Saxon word "brede," which
means to grow—to develop. Given a good
stock, trained through generations in
the habit of self-government, hardened,
it may be, by centuries of struggle for
existence, conscious of its ability bo grap-
ple with and overcome difficulties, self-
reliant enough to assert its rights, and
courageous enough to ; defend them if as-
sailed, and you need no other guarantee
as to the future of a nation. That is our
position in Canada, and no nation has
been and no nation can be a failure
where its ruling forces are composed of
such stalwart elements. The racial forces
which govern Canada govern the whole
world. They control its commerce, com-
pose its armies and its navies, legislate
for its millions in 'popular assemblies of
varied kinds, and there is none to ques-
tion their behests or challenge their su-
premacy. And are we to suppose that,
having demonstrated their power by con
turies of achievement, having founded
and colonized the empires, they world
drop from their nerveless grasp the scep-
ter of 'conquest when they touch our
shores, and content themselves with a
future of idleness; and obscurity? Nay,
verily. Then what have we to fear?
I haveoonfldence in the future of Can-
ada because our constitution is so 'elastin
as to permit the fullest expression of the
popular will. It is a happy combination
of the diffusion of power and central
control. As an instance of diffusion, we
have in Ontario alone about 6, 0001imited
monarchies in the form of sohool boards;
we have 900 limited monarchies In the
form of municipal corporations; we have
45 limited monarchies in the form of
County Councils; we have 7 limited
monarchies in the form of Provinoiai
Governments; we ']have 1 limited mon
archy, which we fondly call the Domin-
ion of Canada; and over all presides I3er
Majesty—thee embodiment of the best
limited monarchy whioh the world ever
possessed. This constitution, with its
multiplex adaptations, is our own crea-
tion. On the one hand, it represents the
idea of local control to the verge of so-
oialism; on the other hand, that concen-
tration of power essential to the solidar-
ity of national interests.
As a Canadian I want that constitu-
tion, modified as the growing wants of
the country may require, to be for us an
abiding hope—a sure and steadfast an-
chor. I. know of no privilege compatible
with public morality which it does not
permit mo to enjoy. I know of no as-
pirations for the future of the country
whioh it compels nue to restrain, and I
want any ohildrens and my children's
children to cherish ib as they would cher-
ish the precious memories of their child-
hood and the hallowed associations of
their home. •
Both Leaders Confident -The Trade Ques-
tion Secondary -A. Remarkable Cam-
paigu-hiultirarious Issues• -A Curious
xperleuco.
What shall be said of the campaign, of
the political warfare now raging? As
nearer and more near comes the day of
voting the task of the writer of an inde-
pendent letter becomes more delicate. It
boots not that he may have no political
feeling. The incidental word, the super-
fluous adjective, at this time may offend
the reader who in ordinary time has no
marked political feeling. Ib is only when
an election is imminent that tho ordi-
nary citizen develops an interest in poli-
tics. It is a good thing. When the voting
is over. and when one side has lost and
the other has won, we, who have to earn
our daily bread, fall back into the ordi-
nary routine of life. The inflammation of
the elections is nearly done; the candidate
for whom we have worked knows his
fate; the game, in so far as we are con•
cerned, is finished. It is a good thing
for Canada that these election times
come only every fifth, or at most every
fourth year.
Both Leaders Confident,
Confidence is not wanting in the lead-
er of either political party. Wilfrid Lau-
rier assures us that his cause already is
won. And the ,Primo Minister has little
cause for fear, he says. On Sunday last
he talked to a Toronto newspaper re-
porter. Sir Charles assured hie inter-
viewer that the Conservatives were sure
of victory. Never, be said, had he seen
such unanimous sentiment on the part
of the electors of Canada. Which was all
part of the game. Both Sir Charles and
Mr. Laurier, I aua assured, have certain
feelings of trepidation. The tertium quid
—the third man—D'Alton McCarthy, is
the only man who bas nothing to fear.
This political free lauce has been most
careful in his prognoetioabions, He knows
that at most he may expect only six or
eight supporters in the next House of
Commons. His antagonism to the Gov-
ernment is as strongly marked as ever.
You read in this correspondence two
weeks ago how he told a Brandon audi-
ence that he would do anything or
work with anybody to defeat the Tupper
Government. It was here in Ottawa the
other day that I met ;lir. McCarthy. His
certainty of a Ministerial defeat was in no
wise impaired. He esteems the Adminis-
tration to be fighting a losing battle.
"But," I ventured, "supposing Mr.
Laurier to be returned, what will you
do?"
"I shall do nothing," answered Mr.
McCarthy. "I shall wait and see what he
does. If he bring in a remedial bill he
will have just as strong opposition as Sir
Charles ever has bad from ono,"
The Trade Question Secondary.
The trade question seems tahave taken
a s000ndary position in the conflict. On-
tario Conservatives, men who should
know their subject, assure us that we
have seen' the last of the Remedial bill.
They prophesy that, with the Conserve
tive Government once more in power in
Ottawa, Thomas Greenway, Premier of
Manitoba, will bow to the inevitable,
and will become complaisant as to the
question of the schools. The obstinate
Greenway, these gentlemen declare, will
be obstinate no longer when he sees Sir
Charles once more installed in the seat
of the mighty. Against this we have the
assurance of Greenway that his decision
and the deoision of the legislature of
Manitoba is irrevocable. He made a
speech at Morden the other night in
which he said that no power on earth
could alter the determination of the peo-
ple of Manitoba to have but one system
of schools. In this speech I see little en-
couragement for the leader of either
party. Truth to tell, Thomas Greenway
is much more of a Greenway man than
he is a Liberal. He likes power, even
the limited power that is enjoyed by the
Premier of Manitoba, with its scant two
hundred and twenty -fide thousand souls.
The time was when Greenway might
have found it advisable to be an Oppor-
tunist. Now he has the mandate of the
people of Manitoba, delivered to him at
the provincial elections in January last.
He is a bitter enemy of Archbishop
Langevin, who, to tell the truth, has
made few friends since his induation to
the archiepiscopal see of St. Boniface.
His Grace is, comparatively speaking, a
young man. His judgment is not of the
best, and his chief adviser, John S. Ew-
art, the counsel for the minority of Man-
itoba, bids fair to become a monomaniac
on the question of separate sohools. The
case that the Roman Catholics had was
strong enough constitutionally. The
means that Mr. Ewart took to implement
this case were not ordinary. His fre-
quent letters to the newspapers; his grat-
uitous pamphlets; his many public
speeches, have done the pro -remedial cause
no great good. Should there be no re-
medial legislation at the next session of
parliament. John S. klwart will be as
sorry a man as Archbishop Langevin
will be.
A Remarkable Campaign.
Not since the days when these scat-
tered provinces first were embodied
in a federal union has Canada seen such
a remarkable campaign. We have the
spectacle of a dissident member of the
Cabinet fighting as lustily as any Liberal
against the Goverment. We have an-
other ex Conservative—for McCarthy is
a McCarthyite now—doing his best to de-
feat the, Administacation. We have an ex -
president of an independent club run-
ning as a Conservative candidate, and
we have a prominent Liberal telling us
that the Freneh Canadians would not
fight for the Flag under whioh they live.
It was in the county of Vereheres, the
other day, that Mr. do Montigny, made
this statement: He brought up, the Biel
question, and trotted out the race and
revenge plank. He said he had ]eft the
Conservatives when the Government
brought a patriot to the scaffold, and
that Sir Charles Tupper's allusion to
Hon., Air. Laurier's attitude on the Riel
issue was an insult to every French-Can-
adian in the province of Quebec. He con-
demned the purchase of arms, and said
that the English-speaking people of Can-
ada might be interested in the volunteer
movement, but the French wore not To
which' L. O. TailIon, the Postmaster-
General, lodged a ;truing objection. "Do
you mean to tell me," he said, "that if
an American invasion of Canada were to
take plane as the result of trouble with
the Dominion or Groat Britain, out peo-
ple would fold.' their arms and allow our
homes and our .country , to be ,devastated
by the; foe? No, a hundred times no. Our
people would respond to the country's
call, as they have done before." Now,
Mr, de Montigny in any way expreeeed
the sentiments of the French-Canadians..
Chrysler's, Farm and Chateauguay have
shown us differentiy. But the fact re-
maine, that the ordinary politician will
do anything; will say anything, to score
a point. The story was spread broadcast
that Wilfrid Laurier would not . attend
the nomination 'meeting in Quebec East,
his own constituency, because he feared
the heckling that might be bis after his
tour in Ontario. The gentlemen • of the
Liberal press, not to be at • a loss for a
rejoinder to this charge, accused Sir
Charles Tupper of having desecrated the
Sabbath by having passed the day in.
consultation with a number of his Tor-
onto friends,
MTultifariogs Dares.
Wetly, the issues that have come up
have been multifarious. In one section
of the country causes that would be of
no importance fifty miles away may
make or mar a candidate's chances. in
Muskoka the other night David Weis -
miller, the defeated of West Huron, was
stumping on behalf of McCormick, the
Conservative candidate. A Liberal.
stomper accused Mr. Weismiller of being
a member of the P. P. A. To which Mr.
Weismiller replied briefly by announcing
that the Liberal stumper was a liar.
Then occurred what original reporters
call "an animated scene." Mr. Weis -
miller wanted to fight; his opponent
wanted to fight; the audience, who had,
come out for an evening's solid enjoy-
ment, wanted to see a tight. But there
was no engagement, The trouble quieted
down, and the meeting went on. In a
score of constituencies, if we only knew
of the faot, similar scenes have .been
enaoted.
A Curious Experience.
Down in Montreal on Monday last Sts
Oliver Mowat bad. ourious experience.
He had journeyed eastward to aid Mr.
Laurier, and he was greeted by au audi-
ence of six thousand persons, of whom
not more than two hundred knew Eng-
lish. Sir Oliver began to speak in the
only tongue—save broad Scotch—that he
knows. Whereupon our French fellow -
countrymen sent up a shout of "en
Franoais, The uproar went on until Mr.
Laurier had to appeal to Frenoh polite-
ness to give Sir Oliver a hearing. The
appeal was heard, and the six thousand.
listened attentively to words that they
did not understand.
Cps and Downs.
Joseph Alderie Ouimet, ex -Minister of
Public Works, has been given a judge-
ship. To Sir Adolphe Caron has been
accorded nothing more than the heart-
felt sympathy of the men who were his
partymates for so many years. In Rim-
ouski Sir Adoiphe's old county, he would
have no chance of success. He induced
the Conservatives of Dorchester to accept
him as their candidate. His success was
short-lived. Dr. Vaillancourt, the Liberal
who sat for the constituency in the last
parliament, stole a march on Sir Adolphe
by signing an agreement to support the
Government if it should bring in a re.
medial bill. Hearing of this arrangement,
Sir Adolphe once more had to drop out.
Tho ex -Postmaster -General is in evil
case. In the height of his power he
possessed a capacity for spending several
times as much as he made. When the
crash came he went out of office a poor
man. Unlike other Ministers, he bas
saved nothing since his entry to the Cab-
inet. George Eulas Foster, who has been
a Minister for nine years, has saved. fifty
thousand dollars. But Mr. Foster does
not like horses, nor cigars, nor costly
wines. He likes money much more than
any of these, And, if things go right he
will die a rich man. I do not mean to
say that be will not get his money abso-
lutely honestly. The fact is that he can
live comfortably on half of another man's
yearly expenditure.
The Fiercest hlghtingNow On.
By the time this letter Is in the hands
of my readers the fiercest fighting of the
whole oampaign will be on. The oppor-
tune roorback will arrive in the nick of
time; the dead and gone personal charge
will have been resurrected. The candi-
dates will be lying awake at nights, and
their agents will be using threats, ent
treaties, blandishments to bring in every
possible vote. Down at Ottawa on Tues-
day night Sir Charles will hear his fate,
while, at Montreal Wilfrid. Laurier will
scan with eager face, the messages that
will show whether he is to attain power,
or is to linger for another five years in
the enjoyment of exemption from re-
sponsibility in the cool shades of Oppo-
sition.
The Discovery of Quinine.
In a company of prominent physicians
each was asked to write the six remedies
Pet he would take on board ship for a
voyage around the world if his life were
to depend on the number who should
return alive.
The first entry was "opium," unani-
mously endorsed. At the second entry
the vote was a tie between "mercury" and
"quinine," and now that the bichloride
of mercury has been found to be the
mast efficient of microbe killers, proba-
bly that would have second place unani-
mously, and the third would be unhesi
tatingly given to the various extracts of
the bark of the several varieties of the
cinchona, of which the most favored is
quinine, a name derived from that used
by the Peruvian Indians, who called
the trees kina. The ofd -fashioned method
of ac]rninistration was by macerating the
"quills" of bark in wine, and the great
tonic in the early part of this century
was "bark and wine," and as in the
later days it has been demonstrated to
be directly fatal to the bacillus malaria
we oan easily understand what a boon it
was to the "settlers" in the undrained
and "fever -and -ague" regions of this
country when new. At last, by the ad-
vance of chemical skill, the secret of ex-
tracsing its alkaloids was found, and of
these no less than thirteen are known
and used, and some of them produce a
valuable anedieine at a less cost than
quinine itself:
In 1854 the Dutch Government under-
took to raise the trees in the Island of
Java, and now theyhave• most prosper-
ous plantations, but the most extensive
and sttocessful of what may be called,
intelligently conducted plantations are to
be found on the slopes of, the Himalayas
and in British Burmah. In South Arner-
ica .the bark is obtained by first stripping
the trunk, then felling the tree, but un-
der English botanists in India a way is
found of partially stripping thetrnnk and
then surrounding it with moss,' causing
fresh bark to bo produced. The botanists
have even found a way of malting the
bark fuller of the desirable alkaloids.
Great Bit.
Masson—I see that they have estab-
lished
stablislred a Graeco-Roman wrestling pro-
fessorship at Vassar.
Bilton-Heavens! what cinches the
graduates will have on bargain day.
THE BOYS' " RUN BACKS."
A Neat Little Story which Carries Its Owa
Moral.
The little lamplighter came zig-tag,
ging down Burnt avenue. The gas jets:'
popped into flame, first on one side of
the street and then 011 . the other, as he
pursued his god -like mission.
".Flow do you like your job?" I asked,
as he trudged along with hie' ladder over
his shoulder and his torch iu his hand,
a Prometheus in embryo.
"They always give the meanest jobs to
the little fellows," he answered.
"How can one job be worse than an-
other, when the lamps are all of the
same height and equally far apart91 I
inquired..
"Oh, but they give us all the 'run
backs,' " he replied.
"And what in the world is a `run
bank'?"
"Why," said the boy, "they are little, a
short side streets, down which we have
to go and run back, with nothing to do
on the return trip."
"Little man," said I, "don't com-.
nience to kick about having all the hard
jobs and 'run backs' before you aro out
of your knickerbockers. The longer you
live the more `run backs' you will have.
There is not a job in the whole wide
world which isn't full of them."
" Why, there's the Mayor, now. He
don't have any."
"Don't he?" I replied. "I reckon by
the time he gots through with all his
work and the office seekers, and creeps
off to bed, he thinks the whole job is a
"run back.' "
"Well, how about a preacher?" he in-
sinuated. "Let that pass my boy," I an-
swered. "I would rather you thought I
had no troubles than to have you remem-
ber me as complaining about them. But
just lean your ladder against that lamp-
post tend sit on the third round, so that
your head will be on a level with mine..
There, that is good. Now, listen.
"There are drawbacks in every career.
You call thele 'run backs.' It is all the
sante. All along the pathway of life there
are toll gates, where the travelers have
to pay a fraction of their time, their
strength, their money, their very life, for
the privilege of continuing on their jour-
neys.
"Those who travel over one road and
never see the toll gates on the .other, and
the mean ones are forever fretting and
stewing because they have to pay so
much more than any one else. It is bad.
enough to hear an old mac moaning over
the drawbacks of his life, but it is intol-
erable to hear it from a little boy. If you
want to make every one despise you just
keep repeating this complaint you have
made to nue.
"If you want everybody to love and
honor you—yes, if you want to achieve
success—take your 'run backs' without a
murmur.
"When the good God gives us our med-
icine there is always a little bitter with
the sweet, and we must not always be
making wry faces over it.
"Keep your torch full of oil, light every
gas lamp on ynur route, whistle merrily
while you snake your 'run backs,' carry
your wages hone to your mother, be a
good boy and you'll be a noble man.
Good night."
Things Found in. Amber.
In many museums may be seen in the
most perfect state of preservation in arn-
ber fossilized remains of plants and ani-
mals. The science of Egypt, in its high-
est development, did not succeed in dis-
covering n method of embalming so per-
fect as the simple process taking place
in nature. A tree exudes a gummy,
resinous matter in a liquid state. An.
insect accidentally lights in it and is
caught, The exudation continues and
envelopes it completely, preserving the
most minute details of its structure. In
the course of time the resin becomes a,
fossil and is known as amber. The bis -
tory of fossil insects is largely due to
the fly in amber. And to the preserv-
ing properties of amber we owe, like-
wise, our knowledge of some of the
more minute details of ancient plant
structure.
The coasts of the Baltic are, and have
been from the days of the Phoenician
traders, the great source of the amber
commerce. It occurs in rolled fragments,
in strata known to geologists as oligo -
cane. These are tertiary rocks of a date
little more recent than those of the Lon-
don basin and equivalent to the younger
tertiary series of the Isle of Wight. The
fragments of fossil resin were washed
down by the rivers from the pine forests
of the district along with sediment and
vegetable debris. In them are found
most perfectly preserved remains of the
period, as well as of insect life. Frag-
ments of twigs, leaves, buds and flowers,
with sepals, petals, stamens and pistils
still in place occur. Pollen grains have
likewise been found. A recent genus,
dentzia, has been recognized by its
characteristic stamens; the valves of the
anthers of cinnamon are seen in
others. In one sPecimen the pendent cat-
kin of a species of oak is seen as dis-
tinctly through the clear amber as if it
were a fresh flower. And besides the in-
sect and plant remains thus sealed up in
amber, stray relics of the higher fauna
of the forest have also been met with.
Fragments of hair and feathers have
been caught in the sticky resin and pre-
served. Among others, a woodpecker
and squirrel have been recognized in the
Baltic amber.
Autographs.
Mr. James Ellsworth, of Chicago, an
intimate friend of Paderewski, gave him
a dinner a short time ago, says the San
Francisco Argonaut, and each person
who came was obliged to perform some
feat by which he could earn his Jiving,
provided his u:rual resources were taken.
away. Paderewski had many hard tricks.
handy. Theodore Thomas, with . bis
hands tied behind his back, by some
miraculous management,, unbuttoned his.
waistcoat and, took it off With his hands
still tightly fastened. The guests then
asked for autographs, and Mr. Ellsworth
remarked. "I nave Paderewski's 'auto-
graph, which he wrote on my'shirt front
same time ago," and thereupon the valet
brought the garment into the room, and
behold! the shirt bosom: bore the signa-
ture of the maestro written across the
front. At once eaglt manly chest was pre-
sented to
resented:to Paderegski
who,with pencil
in hand, signed his manic onthe starched
linen. As a result, eleven shirts have
been permanently retired from circula-
tion, so to speak.
A. Loudon Ceremony.
Seventy-seven deserving 'old men and
as many old women, the number repre-
senting the years of ;Queen Victoria's
age, received the . Queen's Maundy at
Westminster Abbey this year. Eaeh man
received $11.25 and each 'woinan $8.75;
then red and white purses were given to
im
them, the red containing a sovereign in
gold and 30 shillings, the white as many
peneo, in silver as the ' Queen is years of
age.
eelee