Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1900-06-07
THE NATIONAL CAPITAL
Chinese Minister'S Keen Interest
In the Census.
A HUNTERS DANGEROUS TASK.


Bears For the Government-Use
of Automobile. Increasing - Many
Servants Needed at White House.
The census authorities have had some
| difficulty. not in enumerating the Chi
| nese in the United States, but in CLASH
| flying them and in fixing their ages, the
| latter trouble being caused by the diff
| ference between the calendar used in
| this part of the world and that of the
| Chinese, which has the lunar months
| giving some OF the years u, some Is
months, says the Washington CORE
| spondent OF the New York Tribune.
While every Chinaman so far inter-
| viewed knows the month. day and hour
| of his birth, the information is useless
| to the bureau unless converted into the
| time adopted here. As an aid in secur-
| ing the proper dates Director Merriam
| has had a table made by an astronomer
| showing the corresponding dates in
| both calendars for the last 100 years.
Hearing of this, Mr.. WI, the Chinese
minister who is one of the most ami
able and public spirited men, sent his
own calendar. which was compiled by
a Roman Catholic missionary in China.
as n guide. The tables prepared for
the census were carefully compared
with the minister's table, and several
mistakes were found and corrected.
In all the work of the census Mr..
WI has shown the same lively interest
evinced by him for all American insti-
tutions and has been helpful to its Of
fcials whenever opportunity offered.
Among other things he prepared a
lo,r Pill r1tn Cd
under his official seal in all localities
where there are Chinese residents, ex-
planning the scope and purposes of the
census and calling upon his compatri-
OTIS TO give freely and frankly all the
information wanted and TO aid the emu
merators in every possible way. The
minister proposes, too, to follow the
initiative taken by some of the other
foreign governments and send repre-
sentative to study the methods and
workings of the present census.
DIR. Frank Baker OF the Smithsonian
institution has sent Elwood Hofer, a
guide and hunter of the Yellowstone
park, to catch some of the monster
bears on Kadiak island. in the gulf of
Alaska, for the National Geological
IN.
ington correspondent. These bears are |
of the polar breed, perfectly white, |
with long, heavy fur, and at full |
growth are twice as large as the ordi- |
nary black bear of the Rocky noun |
tains, weighing from 2,400 to 5000 |
pounds and standing as high as an or
binary cow-thc biggest carnivorous |
animals living. The tracks they leave |
tn 4l,n how of |
inches long and 10 inches wide. They |
are very savage and fight desperately |
when attacked Several have been
killed, and the skins have been brought
to the United States. but no Kadiak
bear was ever captured alive. DIR. Tar
Teton II. Bean, the fish expert who is
in charge of the department of fisheries
at the Paris exposition. while making
an exploration of the fishing resources
Of Kadiak island last year, saw Il good
many of these bears and describes
them in graphic terms. He says that
while climbing rocky hill one day he
saw a large drove of them near the
coast running about and playing like
so many lambs. There must have been
$50 or 200 in the bunch, he says, and
some OF them were enormous.
The use of the horseless carriage is
becoming quite general in Washington,
especially among the pleasure seeking
class, says the Chicago Record. The
Chinese minister was one of the first to
adopt the automobile as I substitute
for the carriage and has used nothing
else all winter. The Austrian minister
and his wife; the French ambassador,
Colonel Lee. the military attache of the
British embassy, and other members of
the diplomatic corps are to be seen ey-
cry day on the streets in automobiles,
the German ambassador still
sticks to his horses and Lord Paunce-
fote TO his tricycle.. Mile. Cassini,
daughter of the Russian ambassador,
is the only woman in the diplomatic
corps who handles her own autOmo-
bile, and she rides at pace that causes
among her friends. She
has costume designed especially for
mobile riding. 1t has skirt of cream
colOred cloth with white silk waist
and one of the new Ladysmith hats.
1t takes quite a retinue of servants
to keep the White House in the pre-
sentable shape in which it is always
seen. There are employed about the
place seven colored men, five colored
a housekeeper Mrs McKin-
ey's maid, five ushers and nine police
men inside, while in the stable are a
white boss, three coachmen and two
hostlers. says the Chicago Tribune's
correspondent. For the
asst year the cooking has been done by
4 colored woman. and she has proved a
HAVING nf
ne for the state dinners. Nearly all