Gilpin observer., 1901-07-25
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
4 4 WASHINGTON LETTER.
! From Our Regular Correspondent
Washington, D. c., July %, 1901.
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.

! nave IdllGu III lnelT ellOllo W oSo'S SAAS
postmaster general into Withholding his
orders more clearly defining the law
regulating second class mail, and the
orders have been issued. They do not
go outside of existing law, but provide
for more strict enforcement. They do
not shut out all papers or periodicals
that offer premiums, but they require
every publication to show that 1t has a
! list of bona fde subscriber ers-subscribers
who have paid for the publication, and
not for premium-half as great as the
entire circulation through the mail in
order to enjoy the privilege of second
class mail and to open their subscription
books to postal officials whenever there
is doubt. Many publishers who have
grown rich by circulating fake period
icals at one cent pound will now have
to choose between paying eight cents
pound or gong out of business, and it
will be good thing for the legitimate
publishers of the country.
Colonel John S. Mosby of Civil war
fame, who has claimed California as his
home since his return from China, where
he was appointed to U. S. consulship
by President Grant and remained a
number of years, has been appointed
spicial agent of the general land office
and assigned to duty in Nebraska. Col.
Mosby is getting along in years and the
world has not been kind to him in
financial way.
Hon. Charles S. Francis, widely known
in the journalistic world as the editor of
the Troy, n. Y. Times, and now United
States minister to Greece, Roumania
and Servia, is in Washington on leave of
absence. He brought with him the
draft of an extradition treaty with
Roumania, which this government has
been trying to secure for some years.
As he was secretary to his father when
that gentlemen was minister to Greece
some twenty-five years ago, MIR. Francis
observations on differences between then
and now have practical value. He
said: There is marked difference in
the treatment accorded to all Americans
in the Levant now from what there used
to be. The people of Southern Europe
at present seem to have much greater
respect for the citizens of the United
States than they had in the 7Os, the
American goods are rapidly finding mar
kets in that section of the world, which
many years ago was closed to them.
There is one great need, however, and
that is a line OF steamships between
ports in the United States and ports OF
the Mediterranean. believe that there
is an excellent opportunity for the in
vestment of capital in such steamship
line, and my conviction is that it would
result in largely increasing our trade,
as well as enable US to secure the lowest
possible freight rates. American agri-
cultural machinery is finding ready sale
in Southern Europe. Almost every ves-
eel which now departs for ports in the
Mediterranean carries some. At pres
ent, however, all this carrying trade, or
most of it, is dore in foreign bottoms.
The scientists connected with the
government do not believe in the exist
ence of such thing as petrified hu-
man body and the investigations they
are constantly called upon to make OF
alleged petritied bodies, have all up to
this time served to confirm their belief.
The latest investigation was connected
with the discovery, in New Jersey, by a
young geolvgist connected with the
chronological bureau of what he an
nounced as a sure.enough petriied man.
The young man was ordered to forward
the find to Washington, and ten minutes
after the case containing it was opened it
was shown to be only limestone boul-
der, curiously fashioned into features
resembling those Of man, and another
dissapoiu tment was recorded. Prof. w.
J. McGee said on this subject: mo such
thing as human petriiication has ever
been discovered, but that is no reason
that it cannot exist or has not existed.
1t may be possible. / doubt it, and
everybody else who has inquired into
the matter at all doubts it. The human
flesh has never been known to become
petrifled, but, nevertheless, any case re-
ported to us is, of course, inquired into"
That human bodies petrify sometimes
has long been a popular belief, aud
there are few neighborhoods in which
local stories of petrfled bodies are not
told and believed. But these scientists
have never found one.
United States Consul Diordcrich, at
Bremen, in report to the department
OF state, takes very gloomy view of
industrial conditions in Germany. He
says that the laboring men are barely
keeping body and soul together, while