The Republican., 1899-04-13
SOME QUEER SCHEMES.
Odd Enterprises Recently Projected
by Visionary People in
England.

Many societies with the most out
andish objects have from time to time
oeen founded. Here are a few cases of
recent growth in London and else
where.
A lady of means living in a large
provincial town quite recently founded
| select society for providing the work.
ing classes with cheap, moral litera-
ture." That the specimens of work
turned out by this society are moral
there can be no question; that they are
cheap must be conceded, for they are
given away; but that they are litera-
ture may be open to grave doubt.
The really extraordinary feature of
this society appears in the fact that
not only is the literature given away,
but the articles Of the society provide
that all profits accruing from the sale
of the societys pamphlets are to be de-
voted to the founding and mainten-
ance of a society for the protection of
domestic servants"
Thus one thing leads to another, or
would lead if the moral literature"
SOlIs -Ac II 10, II IL lllNINlN bls slllbuNNN
to small tradesmen, who wrap "ha'-
porths of tea and sugar in the pages
for the moral elevation of their Gus
toners. Every week a fresh budget of
the "literature' from the pen of the So
ciety's founder is distributed free
among the tradespeople round about.
Another society has been formed by
IaJiac ha Of
providing boys over the age of 13 with
boxing gloves. The object sounds
belIicose, but really it was most pacific
the society being impressed with the
belief that if street boys were given
more facilities for fighting with their
fists the use of knives and granite
stones would eventually be numbered
among the dead arts.
Therefore, to encourage fighting with
fists and at the same time to minimize
the facial damage which results from
bare fsticutfs, the society suggested
the distribution of the softest and most
innocent of boxing gloves. Numerous
meetings of the society were held, but
it never got beyond suggestions, and so
grand boxing contests at street cor
ners are still things of the untamed fu-
ture.
The courage of some people is really
stupendous! Fancy a sweet little So
ciety of eight mortal beings having for
its object compulsory arbitration in
international Disputes Yet, such a
society was actually founded, and with
no intention of being funny, either.
The society had a fund, too, amounting
to something like e15O.
What this fund was for cannot be de-
cided. but it was probably intended foi
buying off claims made by one nation
against another.
1t was unfortunate that the society
became extinct before the outbreak OF
war between America and Spain. 1t
would have been interesting to watch
whether the society would have
bought Cuba from Spain and have pre-
sented it to America, thus preventing
the war.
If you take an acorn and pass through
it a thread by which it can be balanced
in water. the acorn will shoot in time
and little oak tree will grow out OF
the acorn-in more time. Well, char
itably inclined lady, the widow of
clergyman, recently set on foot
movement to supply medicine bottles
and acorns to dwellers in the slums OF
London. that they might have in thei1
abodes the refreshing and elevating in
fuence of oak trees growing out of the
necks of bottles.
There were many favorable points
about the scheme. The members of the
society would be interested in collect
ing Gcorns and suitable bottles: the
poor receivers of these miniature for
ests would be edited by the progress of
their acOrns. and until the acorns be-
gan to shoot. they would have long
and excellent lesson in patience.
4 hundred bottled acorns were dis
tributed in the East End by the So
ciety's workers, but for lack of reason
able support and cooperation the
scheme died down when, like one of its
own acorns, it was just beginning to
show some results.-London Mail.