The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1899-01-28
NEWS HND COMMENT

q
! anecdotes, among them this one told by
| the Washington correspondent OF the
! New York Sun: MIR. Garland was very
| fond OF practical jokes and during his
| term of service In the senate frequently
| turned the laugh on his colleagues. SEN
ators Voorhees, and Vest with whom ne
was very friendly, finally determined to
| turn the tables. Mr.. Garland had habit
like Voorhees, of munching candy, ana
| Vest and Voorhees, made 1t up between
| them to take advantage of his fondness
| for sweets to play their trick. They had
somo tempting-looking chocolate caramcls
| prepared, with the Interior filled with
! brown soap. These they took to the sem
ate chamber and Voorhees, placed them
on his desk The lid being off when Mr..
| Garland sauntered down the aisle, he no.
| tlced them at once.
What have you there, Dan?' he in
quired
| VOORHEES, looked up carelessly from his
writing and responded, "Caramels; help
yourself"
Garland needed no second invitation,
and picking up two or three placed one
! in his mouth. Steadily he chewed away,
| his face hetraying no sign of the conflict
| within him. This alarmed Voorhees,, who
went to Vests desk and said:
Hes eating them, Vest. What shall
we do? The stuff will kill him, sure
! ocutllOT vest repleN Inal IL COulu uO Jlo
more than make him sick. Garland swal-
! lowed the stuff. although he was foam
ing at the mouth from the soapsuds. He
| related the incident afterward with great
| gusto, and said that he would have swal-
| lowed it if it had killed him.
Here is o bright bit from Congressman
| Delivers eXtemporized but effective re-
! ply to Congressman Johnson's recent at
| tack the nrpSIdpnt'Q DliliDpinp nO1ipV.
when we come to a question of national
| duty, I do not propose to allow myself
| to be narrowed by the view presented by
the gentleman from Indiana. He says
! the highest duty of a nation IL to take
care of itself. J want the American re-
| public to take care of itself; but | do not
| recognize that that is the highest type Of
manhood which simply takes care OF it.
| self. If a man does that, providing for
himself and for his family, you say, when
| ne dies, That was a fairly good man,
a good citizen | like a man rather who
! IL able not only TO take care of himself,
| but to do something for the unfortunate
| ana unhappy families that surround him
| in this world, and when you bury a man
like that, you do not call him a man, you
call him lover of mankind, and you
build monuments to him in the streets
or your great cities. | say that a. nation
in that respect is like a man. It is the
highest output of political science that a
nation is a moral personality in the ex-
act sense in which a man is moral
| personality, and il is true OF nations as it
is of individuals that no man liveth TO
himself alone. Therefore l feel that the
American republic has got into a position
where it can afford to do little some
thing for the human race"
Representative IIoch. OF Berks county,
I t,,fN Il,
Will interest merchants. 1t provides that
! each vendor or dealer in goods, wares
and merchandise at retail shall pay an
nually for the use of the commonwealth,
as a mercantile license tax for each sep
I arate store or place of business one mill
on the dollar of sales made in the pre-
ceding calendar year, and further that
each vendor of or dealer in goods, etc. by
wholesale shall pay a tax of one-half of
one mill on each dollars worth Of goods
sold during the year. An analysis of the
proposed measure made by the Philadel-
phia Press shows that retail merchants
who sell goods to the value OF $1,000 a
year would have to pay mercantile tax
of 81 a year; on sales of $25,O00 per an
mum, s25, or 500 tax to sell 500 900; 81 go
on sales OF $l,O00,00 and so on. The
present mercantile tax is s. on sales of
$1,000 and less than 5000 per annum: $40
on sales Of $4,000 and less than $50 go;
$40 on sales of $4,000 and less than $50. 900;
500 on sales Of 100000 and less than
$20O,OO0 Sales to the amount of 81, 900 900
call for a mercantile tax of $3.50, and On
&.OO0O00 the rate is $500, etc. The adop-
tion of the proposed substitute for the
present mercantile tax law. therefore,
bears more heavily on the larger lines
OF business. The bill is likely to become
a law.
The Philadelphia North American. the
| Oldest daily paper in the United States,
has been sold by Clayton McMichael &
Sons TO a syndicate represented by X. f.
Dorr The outgoing publishers in an
nouncing the change make this announce
ment: In closing our business rela tiOns
with this newspaper-a connection began
by Clayton McMichael in 1859 and con-
| tinued on his part from that date until
the present without considerable alb
sence except during periods of his active
participation in the military or the civil
service of the United States, Of the com
monwealth. or of the municipality-it is
our privilege to record that in cash DIS
bursements aggregating many millions { {
dollars for the wages of labor and for the
purchase of merchandise there has never
been a single instance of refusal or of
postponement of The payment OF any
claim when presented and justly due. In
settlement, without exception, of every
controversy or difference between our
selves and those we have employed or
with those from whom we bought equip
ments or supplies, there has never been
resort to litigation or arbitration outside
of this office" May the new publishers
be equally successful
Reckoned on the basis of Greenwich
meridian Manila is thirteen hours east of
Washington. When 1t is a, m. at Wash
ingtOn 1t is 10 .. m. at Manila. In this
connection a curious fact is noted by the
Washington Star which points out that
the Philippine islands were discovered
by Spanish voyagers sailing westward
around Cape Horn, BOrneo, a short dis
tance to the west, was discovered by the
Portuguese going around Cape of Good
| Hope eastward, Consequently for many
| years these two regions, so close in ac-
tual distance and yet separated by
almost the circumference OF the globe as
| regards time, had different schedules, and
| the Philippine islanders held their Sun
| day on the day that was Monday to the
| inhabitants OF Borneo. Recently this err
Ior was corrected, and these two con-
| ti8uous countries are now on the same
| time basis. Were IL NOT for this corrfc-