Mexico weekly ledger., 1898-07-14
GOSSIP FROM The EAST.
A NUMBER OF INTERESTING SUB
JEOTS TOUCHED UPON By
COL. R. N. WHITE.
Wreck of the French Line Steamer
The Nicaragua Canal War
Gosslp-Dr. Schenks
Theory of Sex.
EDITORIAL Correspondence of the Ledger

Ineory OF Sex.
Editorial Correspondence OF the Ledger.
SOUTHAMPTON, LONG ISLAND, N. Y,
July 9.-While we are rejoicing at the
of the Spanish feet news
of the terrible wreck of a passenger
steamer with a fearful loss of life
reaches us. The details are even more
than the report of a battle.
There were 716 passengers on board
the Bourgogno when she went down.
Out of 300 women just one was
Out of 1853 people who escaped "a
were passengers and the rest were
and members of the ships
crew.
There were many children on board
the ship and not one child was saved.
It is a little unfortunate that these
things should nave happened on board
a French steamer and that the names
of the men who saved themselves and
let women and children die like help
less kittens should be undeniably and
Enthusiastically French.
Our navy is proving it's value. We
must strengthen 1t at once. We will
not need a big standing army, but
must have the best navy that sails the
IA
The Nicaragua Canal should be
completed as soon as possible; its i'm
portance is self-evident. Our navy
should be enlarged and maintained In
a high state of efficiency. The devel-
opment of the national schools at West
Point and Annapolis SO as to provide
for a much larger reserv force of
officers than heretofore, should be
urgently pressed upon the considera-
ton of Congress.
1t does ser az though the war
would soon close. We are crowding
the enemy hard and furiously.
The people who thought they could
carry on the war better than President
Mckinley have become remarkably
quiet of late. Hostilities have been
going on for two months and a half,
and we have destroyed two Spanish
fleets, occupied parts of three Spanish
colonies and surrounded a Spanish
army, all without other loss to our
selves than the unavoidable casualties
among troops taking strong intrench-
ments by storm.
That is pretty good work. No other
country in the world could have done
much better. If we had possessed the
British navy and the German army
we might have landed a force in Cuba
the first day of the war, but as it was
we had to create an army and gain the
command of the sea by suppressing a
hostile navy which, on paper, was
nearly as strong az Jul own.
Within thirty days after the out
break of war President Mckinley had
organized an army of 1Oo, 900 men. He
has one now of a quarter of a million:
with a navy of 2s5 vessels. And how
gloriously both are doing their work
The President has taken time enough
to make sure that there shall be nc
reverses, and not a day more. Tha
means a war that will always fill
brilliant page in American history.
Despite of the val excitement, Prof
Schenk, who claims to be able to con
troll the sex, attracts a great deal o.
attention in the Eastern papers.
Professor Schenk's discovery brings
US within a mathematically comparable
distance of the extinction of the human
race. While it is true to say that girl
as babies, to say nothing of theil
superior attractions in later life, arr
In every way preferable to boys-tha'
they cry less, destroy less furnitur.
and bric-a-brac, fall down fewer stairs
break their heads less often and make
smaller demands on the endurance o
a household-the Illogical fact remain
that boys " more generally desired
than girls. The ace is kept up by tn,
existing uncertainty. Nature, wisel!
intent on the perpetuation of tn,
species compels the players to stay il
the game by keeping them guessing
about the whereabouts of what the,
foolishly regard as the prizes.
If three-fourths of the human rae
want only boy babies, which is Ger
tainly a moderate estimate, then tn
universal dissemination of Professo
Schenk's secret will les that onl.
half of one-fourth of the births will b
those of girls. Thus only o%ne-fourtl
of the population in each generation
can marry, and the numbers OF tn
race will decline by three-fourth a
each stage. Assuming the population
of the earth to be 1900, 900, 900 in 1906
it will be only $40, 000, 900 in1930, 90, 75o,
900 in 1860, 23,437, 500 in 1890, $685.
in 1920, 1,464,s44 in 2o50, 366,211 i
20s0, IL 1862 in 2110, 22,44s In 2140, 5,61
in 2170, 1,403 in 22Oo, PSI in 223O, Iss i
2260, % in 229O, and six, at the outside
in 1920. In this last forlorn, grou
there will be only one woman. VIVA
an epitome of all literature-of tn
romances and tragedies of all the age
will there be In the rivalries Of th
five surviving men for the monopol
of that one remaining ray of huma
sunshine in the dark cave to which th
dying remnant of our race will hav
~retreated before the encroachin
!. beasts and reptiles that will hav
assumed the empire of which tn
meteoric human episode in the life I
our planet for a moment has deprive
them! And as the last man closes h
eyes in signal to the waiting vultui
that all is ready how heartily his blu
lips will frame the aspiration, "Curt
: DIR. Schenk, etc." r. NJ. WHITE.
A Serious Fight.
Hugh Davis is lying at his hon
near Rush Hill in a ~precarious cor