The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-09-02
MOODY IS ACTIVE
Secretary of the Navy Is Stirring Up
the Wheels Of the Watch
With q Jack Knife.
Gen, Corbin Makes Good With the
Powers That Be-Salt Lake
Problems.

From Tho Journal BnreuNs Room. 81 Posi-
BuiIdi,,o. Warrington. ~ -~e
Washington, Sept. 2.-The new secre-
tary of the navy is not so very popular
with the personnel Of that department.
The officers do not like his efforts at
strenuosity. 1t is the old trouble, they
say, which is bound to result from putting
a man in charge of a business he knows
nothing about. He arrives; he looks about
him for something to do. He wants to
demonstrate his efficiency. He Is anxious
to reform something, to see material evil
dences Of the fact that he is in command
So he goes to work to stir things up
Now a vigorous stirring UP Is sometimes
a good thing; then again 1t isn't. II 1t
happens to be stagnant water or cobWeos
1t is likely to prove beneficial; but II the
wheels of a watch and the stirring is done
with a jack knife in the hands Of a Wig
orous small boy, it is different. Mr.. Moody
has come in and, not knowing a collier
from bilge-keel has evolved the bril-
liant theory that all officers who have been
on shore duty are due to go to sea, and
all seasoned salts are due to come to
Washington and plunge into the 1ntrica-
cies Of naval engineering and the niathe-
MATES of four dimensional space. In the
cause Of economy he has discharged three
char women and two nine-hundred dollar
clerks; and he Is preparing to overdraW
his allowance for private power by $780,
000. lie IS just SLlrflnS things up lNelS'
A Vigorous Figure.
Congressman Woous of California is
given to vigorous modes of expression, and
one Of his favorite "reminiscences relates
to a sermon he once heard in a church
In border camp IN the earlier days. The
subject was eternity, and the preacher
was attempting in his feeble way to i'm
press upon his SHINING hearers what they
might expect in the duration of the pun
ishment that was coming to them. He
asked them to imagine an English spar
| row, standing on the shore of the Atlantic
ocean and dipping it's bill into its waters.
He begged them to think Of that sparrow
hopping on one foot with its bill-full of
water to the Pacific, and there deposting
| the water. Then they were to picture to
| themselves the same sparrow hopping
back to the Atlantic for more water, and
| repeating the operation until it had
emptied the waters of the one ocean into
that of the other. "Then what is accomp-
lished?" said the preacher. 1T will be just
the beginning Of sunrise in hell
corbIn Popular With Rulers.
Whatever may be thought of General
Henry c. Corbin in other respects, he
must be credited with an ability to i'm
press men who happen to be in the White
House or the office Of secretary Of war
with his usefulness and ability. He has
made good with Roosevelt. And he has
had to do it in the face Of a considerable
handicap for when Teddy was a strenu-
Gus Rough Rider. ana Corbin was vice
gerent on earth Of Alger and Mckinley,
there were certain passages between
Teddy and Corbin which were not cal
culated to foster any Damon and Pythias
relationship between the two In fact
Corbin was to Roosevelt as sandpaper to
a match.
The first time Corbin had occasion to
call on Roosevelt In his newly acquired
official capacity, Corbin was given time
to cool his heels in the outside corridor
But that is now past chapter IT. is the
same old thing that 1t was when MCKINLEY
was president and Alger was secretary
It is Corbin this, and Corbin that, and he
can have key to the cabinet room II he
wants 1t. Corbin knows the army forward
and back, and if there is anything to be
done he is the man that can do It.. Some
how or other that seems to suit his SUI
periors, and he now gets all the pleasant
junkets.
Salt Lake Problems.
The railroad which Senator w. A. CLARK
IS building between Los Angeles and Sail
Lake City has reached a point where it is
crossing the famous Salt Lake. The den.
sity of the water has caused some new
problems for the engineers. The right Of
way runs across the lake nearly nine
miles at one place. The water Is not very
deep and it was decided to fill and buil6
a trestle. For filling it is found that the
sand has to be confined in sacks. These
are carefully dropped from RATS until they
rise above the surface, when stringers are
stretched and tracks are laid on which
cars are run out filled with rock filing
The men work in water waist deep, anC
almost everything floats in the dense