The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-25
1--we TOPICS ABOUT TOWN.

hearts Of the New York Office Of a Chicago
steel firm last week. The order came
from Agra. On the surface it seems I'M
romantic enough, but beneath it is as full
OF the romance of the mysterious East as
anything that Haggard ever did, for
those ten tons of steel rings are to be made
into chain armor.
Chain armor h in heavy demand all
over the Orie mt. The East Indian swells
prefer their chain shirts to order, but they
send abroad for the material because they
can't make the hardest steel so conom-
ioally as can Western ironmaeters. Eng
land used to have the monopoly, but the
the trade our way. A steel ring ~corselet
for a middle weight man weighs eighteen
pounds. The steel is mixed with a little
tungsten to make it tough and the formula
is the one used by the old makers Of
Damascus blades.
1t is not always that the man behind the
gun writes as straight as he shoots. A
marine stationed at the navy yard got two
weeks leave and went to Maine on a visit.
When his two weeks had almost gone he
wrote back asking to have his "furlong"
extended. The letter was referred to
Admiral Coghlan.
Wants his 'furlong' extended, does he?'
said the Admiral. All right, tell him we'll
extend it to a mile
They were talking about the stars, past
and present, Of the prize ring, when one
said:
Il remember when Peter Maher went
down to the Post Office building to take out
his naturalization papers. Peter took some
of his friends along, and altogether it was
a great occasion. In answering the usual
questions in such cases he got along pretty
we'll until the Commissioner said:
well, Peter, how about the Constitu-
tom
1.-THE constitution said Peter, pro-
truding his chest, sure, that's all right. 1
niver felt foiner in me loife,'"
An Englishman who wished to dispose
Of a certain commodity declined to adver-
tise it on the ground that 1t would be too
much trouble to answer all the letters he
would be sure to get.
Il have had occasion to advertise twice
since coming to this town, he said, and
each time it took me three whole days to
clean up the correspondence.
PIT you don't mean to say that you
answered all the letters you received?'
said a bewildered friend.
Il certainly did" returned the English
man. What else could a gentlemen do?
Those people had been kind enough to
write to me-. and even though most OF the
letters were worthless they represented
time and labor and expense, and common
courtesy demanded that | reply to tell the
writer that l could not see my way clear to
transact further business with him"
ooh, of course" grumbled the sceptical
friend, "if you hold that view Of business
I cannot urge you to advertise often
The Englishman shook his head sadly.
you do not seem to appreciate my point, y"
he said. "You Americans are 80 impolite
in business affairs.
@Do not tell me New York men lack gal
lantry. said the woman clearly past thirty
to the man who had been criticising the
manners OF New Workers. The other morn
ing while waiting for an express at the
Fourteenth street station in the subway
| dropped my umbrella on the track-a new
one, with a mother of pearl h~andle-and,
of course. screamed.
Two waiting passengers spranR forward;
zach armed with an umbrella. They dropped
on their knees and with the crooked handles
of their own umbrellas deftly and quickly
rescued my umbrella by either end. Neatly
done? Why. I was proud of them. 1t was
all over by the time the platform man and
the express arrived. simultaneously.
Pooh" answered the Western man,
scornfully. that was not politeness. 1t was
Just the New York mans natural love OF
| danger, risking his neck"
THE lack of originality shown by the
BUYERS of gifts for after Faster brides gets
me. said the department store manager.
Fool man thinks he can consider only cut
glass. china or a clock, ana then he has us
send cut glass. and women are not much
| more imaginative. The way to make the hit
of your life With the bride is really simple
send something essentially feminine in its
Use. a gift for the bride alone. don't want
to start an avalanche of any particular kind
of gift. but let me mention fans, for IN
sta nee. A ten dollar note, or even half that
| amount, will buy a gauzelike affair with
~ .aa ~ GftnEE Uhiph Will sta nd ont
among gifts ten times as expensive and Will
make the blLshing recipient call you a
| blessed genius. Try it-and save m oney.'
1If John Bunyan were alive to-day and
| could receive royalties on the sales OF his
books he would have much to thank Presi-
dent Roosevelt for" said a downtown book
seller Yesterday,
The Tepeated reference by the news
| Dapers TO a character in a story always
| causes a demand for the story, itself, and
in the last few days we've had dozens OF
calls for Pilgrims Progress. Many OF
will be disappointed before they go very
deem into the religious classic, but never
theIess the sales demonstrate the efficacy
of newspaper advertising. Thousands who
had never before ever heard OF the tinker
{ preacher VIII now read his 'allegory."
|" A veteran school"principal aid the other
day that while progress was recorded in our
day by pupils in other studies no con-
! siderable advance was noted in the matter
of arithmetic. Fifty per cent" said
this public employee. sin mathematics is
|. the ruling average in class work nowadays
ali along the line Of education. The fault lies
in the present system of preferring imprac-
tica knowledge to figures. The abstract
method of tea ching arithmetic does not begin
TO correspond in effectiveness with the old
nlan. AT a recent meeting of instructors
It was generally agreed that Of all the waste
time fads now in vogue in public school
training the worst is the fancy way Of put
ting two and two together
ats surprising how well this naturaliza-
ton bureau holds the mirror up to political
events in Europe" said Naturalization
! Clerk J.. L.. Donovan in the Federal Build
ing, "By noting the rise and fall In the num-
Der of ar plicants for, citizenship of each
nation atty you can judge pretty accurately
whether things are .prospering or going
badly in each ones fatherland. Take the
late troubles in Hungary, for instance.
A few days after Emperor Franz Joseph
closed the Hungarian Parliament with his
soldiers and began to reduce Hungary
TO an Austrian province Hungar nan APP
plicants for American citizenship began to
inoraase daily. From the fourth among