The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1904-05-27
WASHINGTON LETTER.

have been in town this week fixing ul
their respective band wagons and tuning
up the musical instruments for the cam
paign. Senator Fairbanks and Elihu
Root do not conceal their fear that the
riotous quarrels in Illinois and Wisconsin
may spell defeat. They especially bewail
the brawl in Illinois, for that is one of the
pivotal states which must be carried.
Among the visitors of the week at the
White House have been Elihu Root,
Senator Lodge, Senator Platt, and
Senator Elkins, who have been coaching
Mr.. Cortelyou for his duties as manager
of the campaign. Ex-Governor Black oil
New York has also been here, consulting
with the president as to what he had
better say in his nominating speech at
Chicago.
The President will visit Gettysburg on
Decoration Day and make speech. He
declares that this is the only one he will
make till next winter. Acting Secretary
of War Oliver has gone to Gettysburg and
taken the British Ambassador Durand as
his guest. They will make strategic
study of the battlefield. Captain Cowles,
having locked the injured battleship,
Missouri, at Newport News, is among the
arrivals of the week at the White House.
~ /
Mr.. Thomas A. Edison, the great in.
ventor, has just made his annual kick at
the U. S. Patent Office. Every once in a
while he manages to tell the public
through the press that the Patent Office
is unfair and that he is going to boycott
it. He owes his immense fortune to the
patent system, to the liberality of the
patent laws and to the intelligence and
appreciation of the learned examiners in
the Patent Office who under the authority
of the Commissioner of Patents investi+
gate and allow patents for his inventionss
sHe has taken out hundreds of patents
and probably has twenty applications for
other patents now pending. But because
an examiner refuses to grant him some
thing that he does not think him emit;
tied to, he is seeking extra judicial relief
The Patent Office is perhaps the fairest OF
all Government Offices. The examiners
are specialists of education, many of them
holding degrees as lawyers and doctors, q
large majority of them capable of filling
the Commissioners chair. Mr.. Edison is
a spoiled. child of genius and of fortunei
~
There was great excitement at the State
Department last week over the violent
kidnapping of prominent and wealthy
American named Perdicaris at Tangier,
Morocco, directly opposite Gibraltar. He
and his step-son were seized in his palace,
which is famous for its entertainment OF
American, tourists, and were hurried to
the mountains around Fee. Thirty years
ago knew Perdicaris we'll in New York
City. He was rich and dashing young
Jerseyman, having spent the first twenty
five years of his life in Trenton. He was
not only heir to fortune of millions but
he was an artist of repute, and an am
bilious playwright. He had married an
attractive English widow who had two
beautiful daughters, and he was every
where welcomed in the cultured society
ofthe metropolis. never have spent a
pleasanter week than my sojourn at his
mansion near the Delaware. A few years
later his father, Greek revolutionist and
exile, died and Ion left with his family
to spend his life on the Mediterranean.
He bought magnificent palace, the home
of former sultans, on slightly hill back
ofTangier, and there for many years he
has dispensed lordly hospitality. Now,
while in the midst of banqueting friends,
he is suddenly seized by an indolent
banditti and held for great but indefinite
ransom.
What will be done about iii? The Sec
rotary of the Navy has telegraphed to
Admiral Chadwick at the Canaries to push
on at once to the Morocco seaport. He
has four war vessels with him. / called
at the Navy Department and tried in vain
to get copy of the despatch to Chad
wick. No; it could not yet be made pub
lie. What is it The man in the White
House is said to be strenuous. Will he
do what France or Great Britain would do
under the same circumstances Morocco
is the only part of Northern Africa that is
now ruled by native chiefs. Spain wants
it; but the conceit has been taken out OF
her during the last few years, and her
remonstrance against our demand for
reparation would not be likely to take a
violent form.
~
Arguments were heard in the Federal
District court last week on the applica-
ton of Juan Rodrigues to be employed in
the Washington Navy Yard, his admis-
sion having been refused on the ground
that he was not citizen. The Supreme
Court recently decided that Porto Rican