The Opelousas courier., 1898-09-10
n%anularitY. Most of the BICYCLES sold

| IN Norway are from Gernl1ry and the
United States. This duty u cycles is
80 kroner tSS.04) each. ThaSe is no
differential duty favoring cycle mani
%facturers in other countries. Cana
dian bicycles with wood rims, mud
guards and other American improve
ments are advertised ana sold as
American wheels.
It is an unquestioned fact that every
being and everything has its day Of
usefulness. The farmer today is the
most useful and prominent industrial
subject and consequently the most sue
c~essful, remarks the Agricultural Epi-
tomist. The products of his industry
have the greatest call and demand Of
the many industries of our United
States, nearly all of which are most
actively engaged at this time. While
1t is true he has encountered many set
backs and depressions for several
years past, yet at the same time he
has experienced less hardships and en-
joyed more privileges and freedom
than any other calling, and now that
the brightest days of his existence are
staring him in the face no one can help
but realize his greatness and independ-
ence.
H. c. Fischey who has just retired
from his postum as comptroller OF the
central teleprEgh office in London,
says he has a1ively recollection, when
superintendent of the foreign depart
ment, of the tremendous excitement in
England at certain momentous crises
in the American Civil War. 1t was in
those daysllooked upon as a piece Of
exceptional enterprise that several OF
the newspapers, in order to be the first
to obtain news from America, hired
tenders to intercept the mai steamers
when approaching Cork harbor. Then
would follow a race to be first at the
| Roches Point telegraph office, whence
the messages were telegraphed to the
old foreign gallery, and subsequently
sent out. sheet by sheet, for publica-
ton in the special editions of the Lon
don papers. This was, Of course, be-
fore the laying Of the first Atlantic ca
BILE. The war ended in April, 1865,
while the laying of the first Atlantic
cable was not completed until July %,
1866. The first cabling done owe the
line was somewhat expensive, 500 be-
ing charged for twenty words. This
| rate was reduced about three months
afterward to $50 for twenty words, and
the following year it was looked upon
as comparatively cheap cabling that a
man could send ten words for S26.
That was thirty years ago. The rate
now is % cents a word
There is no knight-errantry in Eur
ope today. Don Quixote is dead even
in Spain. Europe is engaged with
very practical and ever prosaic prob
lens. How best to sell two boxes of
merchandise where hitherto but n
| has been sold engages more attention
than all matters Of mere sentiment
| combined. Hence the attention being
paid to the Far East, where China
alone, with four hundred million pos
sible customers, is rapidly yielding to
the spell of the persuasive drummer,
with samples in n hand and a sword
in the other. But if knight-errantry
were in the meridian Of it's activity
Spain could not hope for a really capa-
BILE champion. Nobody Of consequence
would ride to the relief of an old vira-
go. Spain is not a winsome damsel
in distress, but a termagant who has
at last Justly been brought to book for
the offenses she has committed against
her own household. She is despised
both by her own and by her neighbors,
and as Prince Bismarck has said in his
blunt and direct way, "She deserves
her fate"
Until 1915 it was the custom of the
United States government on the ad-
mission of each new state into the
union to signalize the fact upon the
nations flag, not ol3F by increasing
the number of its stars, but also by
increasing the number of it's stripes.
But in the year mentioned, when five
new states were admitted into the
union at one time, it Became apparent
that eventually this process of redupli-
cation would result in disfiguring the
nations flag; and, accordingly, the
matter was referred to joint commit
tees of the house and senate with the
direction that some definite plan be re-
ported. While the matter was under
warm discussion, Captain Samuel G..
Reid, one of the heroes of the wal of
1912, suggested that, instead of chang
ing both stars. and stripes whenever
new states were admitted into the
union, it would be much better to fix
the number of stripes at thirteen, rep
resenting the original thirteen states,
and to make the number of stars alone
variable. This suggestion met with
unanimous approval, and in due time
the design agreed upon was reported to
congress. Without opposition, the de-
sign received the cordial Endorsement
of congress-; and on April 4, 1918, the
measure setting forth the formula
which has ever since been observed in
changed conditions of the union re-
ceived the signature of President
James Monroe. just at this time,
when the nations flag is so strikingly
in evidence and when the whole coun-
try, without regard to past differences,
is solidly united underneath its folds,
it is not amiss, remarks the Atlanta,
(Ga.) Constitution, that the foregoing
Renaissance connected with its early
days should be revived.