The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-11-02

Kentucky. He then dwelt briefly on
the various forms and features of the
government of this country, the ma
tional, state, county, city and township
divisions and the various phases of the
great question of civil government
which they present.
! In conclusion the doctor again hinted
( that he was an expansunist by refer
! ring to the cry being raised against
/ imperialism. He said there was no
/ such thing and couldn't be any such
thing under our form of government.
When the afternoon session opened
at 1880 Professor Watkins continued his
remarks on the teaching of singing and
led the teachers in singing several
selections.
The first speaker was DR.. Schmucker,
who delivered lecture on the MEAN
ing of a Flower" and to say that it was
interesting is putting it mildly, pre-
senting as he did some wonderful facts
about nature that to the average lay
mind appear almost impossible to be-
Ieve.
In opening he told of the noble les-
sons to be drawn from a flower the
beautiful sentiments, but above all,
the wonderful complexity and wisdom
of arrangement perfected by a Divine
hand.
PROCESS OF REPRODUCTION.
He then told of the process of repro
duction in the flower by which the
seeds which are to produce other flow
ers ad inhnitum are themselves pro-
duced. The pollen or fine dust in the
pf fha 1r;t
ovu or egg and new life is created
But the best seeds are produced where
the pollen of one flower is united with
the ovu Of another.
The doctor said that undoubtedly one
OF the most wonderful things in all
nature is the manner in which this
pollen is transferred from flower to
flower, the medium being the common
honey bee. The upper portion of the
bodies of all of these insects are COW
cred with hair and the flowers are con-
structed in such manner that in or
der for the bee to obtain the nectar he
must reach way down into the centre
thereby collecting on this hair large
amount Of the pollen.
He then flies to another flower and,
as the doctor wittily remarked. like
| IlOSl men, IlOl utSlIlnS To IlllN lllllkS,
he goes to the same flower. The pollen
on his body when it rubs against the
pistil becomes detached ana drops in
to the flower, thus allowing fecunda-
tion between the pollen and the one of
two different flowers.
He spoke of wonderful, orchids which
have a trigger attachment which dis
charges the pollen on the body of the
bee when he reaches out his tongue for
the nectar. The doctor said that he had
tried experiments with his flower and
had found that it threw the pollen Il
distance of over four feet when dis,
turhed.
Miss Jessie Meade, of Clarl's Green,
next recited "Old Ironsides," after
which Dr. Mowry spoke on THE Slave
Power and the Free States"
THE SLAVE TRADE.
He told Of the beginning Of the slave
trade about the middle of the eigh
teenth century when sixteen negroes
We're brought up the James river in
Virginia and sold as slaves. The prac-
tice rapidly grew until the great
statesmen of the country trembled
with fear at the thought of the final
end Of it all.
He told how the northern states
gradually forsook the practice and how
slavery became concentrated in the
south. He then described how the
sOuth's safety lay i'm the senate where
each state had two senators without
respect to the population Of each and
how in the first years of congress
there We're eight slave and eight free
ait
Then a state from the north would
be admitted and the south ever jeal-
Gus of her interests would insist upon
the admittance of southern state to
maintain the balance of power This
counterplay was kept up for years
until finally the south realized that
1t must have more territory if it want
ed more states and Sam Houston es-
tablished a republic in Texas and then
raped at the door of the United
States for admission and was admit
ted
Then came the war with Mexico and
the discovery of gold in California in
1S49, and in 1850 the admission of Cali
fornla as a state once and for ever
overturning the balance OF power ir
the senate and giving the free states
an unshakable majority. Then begar
the plans which eliminated ten years
iH.ar in the gigantic Civil war one OF
the greatest contests ever waged In
the history of the world.
CALIFORNIA OF THE PAST.
The doctor, in conclusion, came
back to San Francisco and told OF the
wonderful transformation in the city
and state since then. He said tina,
| In 1910 M ana nnnnld rninAn,n.. l.. Il