The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1900-06-23

Golden and Diamond Weddings
were celebrated by GA couples in
Prussia in 1899, and the state dis
tributed jubilee medals to each hus-
band and wife. In Berlin and the
province of Brandenburg the number
Of these couples was 10.
Several hundred people from Illinois
will visit Maine during the summer
while the clans are ripening. The
people who compose the excursion are
grandsons and granddaughters Of peo-
pie who went to Illinois from Maine
before the praries were ploughed-
young folks who never saw the sea
nor hill as high as their heads.
An experimental pneumatic street
railroad is being constructed in the city
of Toxic. Japan. 1t will be twenty
miles long. Forty cars will be Oper-
ated on it, If it is a success other
lines will be built and equipped. All
the material used in the structure and
its equipment comes from the United
States.
1t Is estimated by the United States
Engineer Corps that the conversion of
the Chicago drainage canal and its
connections with the Mississippi Riv-
er into a navigable waterway for YES
sells drawing less than eight feet Of
water can be accomplished at q cost
Of $40, 100000.
When William Waldorf Astor reads
that the estate of the late George
Smith. former Chicago banker, who
recently died in London, had to pay
five million dollars inheritance tax to
the British government, he will prob
ably conclude that it will be cheaper
to come back to the United States to
die, although it may not be quite SO
stylish as to pass away in England.
The Ameer Of Afghanistan, who has
been the bulwark of India against
Russian aggression, has served notice
on Great Britain that the building Of
railways and telegraphs on the Afghan
territory would mean the ruin of
Afghan isolation, and must be pre-
vented if the Anglo-Afghan alliance is
to be continued. Thus England,
which claims to be seeking the civili-
cation of South Africa, is asked to re-
sist the civilization of Northern In
dia.
In Minnesota there are 1G cooper
ative township insurance companies,
limited by township lines and devoted
almost exclusively to farm insurance.
They carry $111,OOOOOO of insurance,
and the entire cost of operation, plus
losses, last year was only about $2O4,-
900; and it is estimated that the far
mers of the State saved S352,OOO on
their year insurance. There are in
about 24OO townships, of
which 1901 are organized for town
ship mutual insurance.
Soup-kitchenS were a perfectly prop
er method of charity in 1905 when this
oldest of Philadelphia charities was
started, just rs it was then the juSti-
fable thing to treat diphtheria with
syrup and flannels instead of antitOxin.
There are now eleven sOup-houses in
Philadelphia supplying $4,000 persons,
with total of 100000 quarts of soup
and $50, ,O0O loaves of bread OF course,
it is paupcrizing charity. A late can
vass shows that of 24S families sup
piled only eleven could, by the most
liberal construction of rules, be record
ed as needing the aid.
1t has been proposed in New York
to prohibit by law the publication Of
matter found on the per-
sons or in the possession of suicides
)r of those who have attempted sui
eide. This would be good. thing to
10. Persons who take their own lives
Ire often insane. If not actually
leranged. their minds are in so morbid
/ condition as to unfit them for calm
md accurate statement. 1t often hap
pens that. with the intention of cX-
blaming their act, they leave a letter or
scrap of paper which reflects cruelty |
lpOn the character of one or more |
living persons. The newspapers print |
he letter under prominent headlines,
md the injured person has no redress.
\ mere denial counts for little, and /
here is no defence against the caluu-
lies of the dead.