The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1903-03-31
CLIPPINGS FROM OUR EXCHANGES.
CURRENT COM MENT.

Twenty negroes, the entire colored
| population of Webrum, were driven out
of town the other day. In the south ?
No, Pennsyvania.-Staunton Spectator.
| Can't our strenuous president abolish
a postoffice or do something else to
punish the lawless people OF Webrum,
who do not only shut the door of
hope" but the doors of the negroes
own homes in their faces.-Newport
News Press.
SO many cases of skin grating occur
from time to time hat it is not unlike
| ly we soon shall have human skin as an
article of commerce.. The perfect mate
rial is difficult to obtain. Recently a
| western surgeon paid So for sufficient
pure skin to put on the limb Of a child
that had been badly burned. Usually
relatives and friends cheerfully con-
tribute skin for grating, but there is
no reason why healthy men and women
should not sell the article. A man in
sound condition might lose twenty
square inches a month without suffer-
ing. In a few years he would grow an
entirely new cuticle, and, perhaps, be a
changed man. The prices that have
been paid average about so cents a
square inch.-New York Press.
The general trend Of press comment
indicates hat the strike commission
is strikingly in harmony with public
opinion. Neither side in the great con-
troversy had unqualified popular in
dorsement in all phases of the dispute,
and it is quite refreshing to learn that
the aggressive leader of one of the
mighty forces to the industrial conflict
takes a broad-minded view Of the YER
dict and declines to bubble. If Mr..
Mitchell continues to display the desire
to keep abor interests in harmony with
public opinion he will undoubtedly be
a most influential leader in the indus
trial world. He is justified in claiming
recognition of the power and influence
of his organization, and hat power and
influence will be maintained as long as
its demands are just and it observes the
dictum of justice.-Baltimore Herald.
When Mrs. Burdick, of Buffalo, comes
to look over her work, she will concede
probably that she a made a pretty
complete job of wreckage. Her own
home, of course, is destroyed and left
uIluSI lie SlduoN OIL oil tIIuuEllS us
grace; her husband has been murdered;
the other nan in the cas- and his wife
went over a bluff together and both are
dead. The newspapers are full of de-
tails which show about as much de-
moraliZation and complication, sensa-
ton M shame as the most fervid imag
ination could achieve. And all the work
Of one woman who apparently did not
amount to very much in beauty or
brains or force of character OF social
graces. We do not recall when more
general disaster has resulted from a
more insignificant cause. 1t is a kind
Of miniature siege of Troy with a poor
apology for a Helen.-Richmond News
Leader.
In it's anxiety to protect the sugar
trust and to prevent all democratic ef-
forts to reduce the tariff taxes, the re-
publican party, as represented in the
senate, n with the full approval of
the republican president, laid aside the
Cuban tariff bill, which passed the house
at the first session of the f~ifty-seventh
congress-, and negotiated the Cuban re-
ciprocity treaty now pending before the
senate. This has been draWn so as to
prevent the adoption Of a provision
striking off the differential on refined
sugar which gives the sugar trust its
power to rob the people and also to
eliminate the possibility of amendments
| to other features of the present tariff
law. The indications are that this trea-
ty will be ratified, but not without an
amendment providing that it will nc
become operative until its provisions
!, are embodied in an act of the congress-
That such an amendment should be
| placed upon the treaty has the indorse-
ment of all of the great writer's who
have e~Xpounded the constitution. The
| power ito lay and collect taxes, duties
impoSts and excuses is lodged by the
constitution in the congress-" and il
is further provided hat "all bills fol-
raising revenue shall originate in the
house of OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
| Constitution.
The constitution of Rhode Island is al
most as unrepublican and anti-demo'
cratic as that of Connecticut, and there
Is even less prospect Of reform in thu
former than in the latter state. Will,
each OF the two commemorative prCb.
ably meets the requirement of the fed
eral constitution, "a republican fern
of government both are probably de,
icient in the spirit of republicanisn
and contemptuously defiant of the spiri
of democracy. The Posts readers are
or ought to be familiar with the Con
necticut mOnstrosity, but much les
publicity has been given to Rhode Is
land's. In the latter state each cit,
and township. regardless of population
has one member of the senate. Thi
was Tot very equitable sixty Years ago
J and it has come to be an abominatiol
through the growth of cities. It's injus
tice is illustrated by such facts as these
Twenty townships, with 40. 1898 inhabi
tants and $500 voters, elect twenty GU
of thirty-eight senators. Eight cite
and towns. with a population of go 90