The Western news., 1902-04-30


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So many false reports have been
given out concerning the purpose Of
Prince Henry's recent visit that the
truth should be stated. He came neither
to purchase the Philippines nor to ask
consent to station fleet in the Carib-
bean Sea. What he came for was this:
TO make cash offer of $3.50 for Alas
ka To ask for German coaling sta
ton at Cape Cod. To contract for VIE
nerwurst and extra pale keg export for
the Prussian army. To explain to Ad-
miral Dewey that the German vessels
in Manila Bay We're merly putting up
practical joke. To ask for an "open
door, treaty at Sabine Pass and Port
Arthur To find out how J. Pierpont
Morgan does it. To visit Camp Alger,
the tomb of William Patterson and 9TH
er points of historical interest.
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A strange bit of money reached the
hands of conductor on the Atlantic
Coast Line Railway the other day. 1t
was a prosperous-looking tive-dollar
bill, little the worse for wear, and
across it's face was written: Last Of
a $4,000 inheritance. Wine, women
and cards caused it ALL" How easy it
is for man to dump his failures onto
other shoulders, to mistake moral weak
ness for evident misfortune. Wine and
women of the kind that are generally
associated with reckless drinking and
riotous living. and cards, can do very
little harm in this world alone. There
always has to be a fool to be plucked;
a plunger, who lacks the sand and cour-
age to live right; an individual who
pays a high price for sorry pleasure.
The text on the five-dollar bill doesn't
inspire much sympathy. The man who
can burn up $4,000 in qualification
is selfish. ignorant, unfair to himself
and to those who are dependent on him.
and has wasted not only dollars, but
days and nights and weeks and months
and a chance to be useful and honor
able and decent. Don't waste heart
throb on the man who wrote that fare
we'll to his fortune. Rather should he
have written: Last Of a $4,000 inner
itance, wasted by one who would not
withstand temptation and who lacked
the courage to be a man."
Microbes in whiskers. microbes In
kisses, microbes on the communion
| cup, microbes in the handshake, mi
crobes everywhere-that is the burden
of the twentieth century song Of sani-
tation. We have been boiling the babys
toys, sprinkling our kisses with car
bolized rose water, bathing our whis-
kers in connections of eucalyptus, and
adopting every precautionary measure
suggested by the bacteriologists, but
the microbe fourishes and wakes fat.
Bait him to death with the latest anti
septic shower bath at one point and he
reappears somewhere else in increas-
ing numbers and vigor. Feed him
knockout drops to-day and he bobs up
tomorrow ready to renew the attack
upon our frail anatomy. And now
comes the stern, unsentimental sani-
tartan with his ak and chops all the
poetry out of the dear old song of our
childhood, THE Old Oaken Bucket" "
In recent number of The Engineer
ing News he shows that the moss-cov-
cred bucket was "slimy with organic
matter" and filled to the brim with
microbes of every form and color. The
writer recalls 'the malarious farm, the
wet, fungus-grown Wildwood" the
"scum-covered duck pond. the pigsty
close by it," and other pestilential spots
in the vicinity of that well. Instead OF
being a fount of sparkling health and
refreshment the bucket, according to
this sanitary authority. was 'reekins
with nitrates and nitrites," with rottina
wood fiber and oxid Of iron. And thus
is rudely smashed by the cold DEGREES
of science one of the prettiest illusions
of our boyhood days. We find that in
stead of being thing of beauty tht
moss covered bucket was as full Of i'm
purity as a problem play. Instead Of
raising it to our lips and drinking II
its pestilent drafts the water shoult
have been treated with potassic per
manganate. afterward boiled, filtered
through charcoal and gravel. then dis
titled and strained. And yet the big
sturdy. robust young country boys wh'
drank from the moss covered buckle
several times day were strangers t,
the stealthy microbe that is burrowin:
in our anatomies to-day. They ma.
have had an occasional chill. but the.
went right on raising corn and pota
toes and laying foundations for tn
physical vigor that was finally to b
consumed in the building Of the mod
ern microbe-infested cities.
American Precious Stones.
nrOminent gem eynert thus sum