The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1900-12-25

same way. Drafts on London are. Ii
pounds sterling. Ordinary accounts il
the sto IS in Shanghai are Kept Id Mex
icaq desiars.s The commercial business
Is adonc mostly In taels.E AS the price O.
silver yai'ies@every day the transfer O.
dollars into pounds, pounds into taels
and taels into Mexicans is bewildering
Usually the tael is worth $1.4O in Mexi
cans. @ s,# tste
Until recently China has resisted al
schemes for the establishment Of
mint as understood in western coun.
tries. Yet it is said that China coined
iron money 1900 years before Christ
under the reign of Huang Til 1 This
coin has been replaced by a copper
piece called CHEN. because it originally
weighed a mace (one-tenth of a taeD.
This and lump silver are the only pub
lie signs of value Of products and the
only instruments ofyordinary barter e.
cept some Mexican dollars recently
coined. The popular name of this coin
is cash"
The monetary system as affecting sill
yer is arranged on the principle of
weight, and the divisions have the
same names-taels, mace. candareen
and cash. The computation is decimal.
Each cash should weigh, as Williams
states, So grains troy, Or 1913 grams.
but there are in various localities
smaller cash in circulation, and the
rate of exchange varies in different
parts Of the land from 500 to 1900 for
Z silver dollar. There are big cash and
little cash. The Picking cash passes 5
for l silver cent, or 500 for 81. Taking
into consideration the immense popula-
ton Of China and the poverty of the
people, a good argument may be for
mulated to sustain the legislator who
created cash" If there was to be but
one coin, it had necessarily to be the
smallest. M.sr4l:
1t is a proof Of the genius which is
universally accorded to Sarah Bern
hardt that her manner has undergone a
constant modification corresponding to
the development in her own conception
Of dramatic art, which has become in
creasingly NOR elevated and compre-
hensive, writes Henri Fouquier in
Harper's Magazine for December. In
her youth she was a very pretty wom-
an, with a fair complexion and a
charming countenance, at one sweet
and expressive. She possesses that
musical voice which has been called la
voix dor and which a poet in speaking
Of her once described as ''une voix
blonde" Her physical advantages are
all made subservient to her ends. She
acts, as it is the fashion to say. with all
the forces of her being, but her gifts,
which were very evenly developed in
her education at the C~onservatoire.
have made her as great in tragedy as
in comedy, or, to speak more exactly,
she ignores those limitations Of genius
to which custom and precedent confine
the artists Of our day. limitations
which only result in an excessive re-
striction Of talent from overspecializa- |
ton.
Sarah Bernhardt, then, is by nature an
interpreter of the French classics and
in particular Of the works of Racine.
The phrase psychological STAGE is
modern. but the conception is very old.
dramatic art is limited in Incl
dent and is satisfied with very simple
but it excels all others in it's
marvellous analysis Of the emotions and
of the struggles to which they give rise
In the human soul. Sarah Bernhardt's
genius, in my opinion, found the essen
tials Of it's evolution in the study Of
this particular authors dramatic art.
At the beginning Of her career she was
comedian, led thereto by her natural
gifts, by which, however, she was. as
happens in such cases, very lit
tie governed. She developed into a
and accomplished actress,
possessing psychological insight in the
highest degree and manifesting it in
complete detail at the same time that
she depicted sentiment and passion in
all their delicacy or violence and inva-
riably sustained the character Of the
or Of the hero whom she repre-
! have heard Of so many plans for
novel Christmas entertainments. Peo-
pie seem to have grown tired of the
tree. even If it Is lighted
BY electric light, writes Anna Went
worth in the December Woman's Home
Aunt Laura always has a
tree. and this year it is to be all
white. She will have the, draped
n white cheesecloth and wreaths Of
holly and pine hung over 1t. The base
)f the tree will he hiddan nv ootton
wool to look like snow. and on the tree .
will be only white ornaments and ;
white candles, crystal and glass. Gilt :
ering white tinsel will be showered all
>ver.
The idea that Alice Clark has evolv- .
d is more original still. Her Christmas
entertainment is going to be Japanese :
n character. For the tree she will !,
ave M Of the stunted pine trees that .
RR1vrU M -~~-- -" 1 Il