The National tribune., 1908-01-02

easily De mace 1Or Il very COIupTeuel-
sive Departmental investigation.
= RS
Rear-Admiral Brownson is preparing
to visit South Carolina On a shooting
and fishing trip. rs.
Naval circles are much interested in
the proposition to create the Office of
and the general impression is that Con-
gress will take early action, SO that
the Commander-inLChief may have the
| higher rank before his fleet touches
any port in the Pacific. at least.
| Secretary Of State Elihu Root re-
Gently purchased an automobile. which
he uses in his daily trips to and from
the Department and for all other busi-
ness in connection with his Department.
The machine is his personal property,
and the chauffeur is in his private en-
ploy.
This is quite an innovation among
| Department heads and other Govern
ment officials, who usually carry their
drivers on the pay rolls of the Depart
ment, and also use the allowance made
| them for a team on the auto. Secre-
tary Root did not do this, however. and
the carriage allowed him has not been
in use since he purchased the auto.
| Two OIL the lew surviving persons III
the United States who witnessed the
hanging of the four Booth conspirators
in Washington in 1865 met unexpect-
edly last week in the Peoples Mission,
80 Pennsylvania avenue, after a sep
aration of AZ years. They were John
c. Collins. Of New Haven, Conn.,, secre-
| tary and treasurer of the Friends of
Boys, National organization devoted
| to the cause of bad boys. and the Rev.
| w. E. Patterson, of White Springs.
Fla, who is here visiting his son, J. M.
Patterson, of 1407 New Jersey avenue,
| one of the directors of the Peoples
Mission.
| Mr.. Collins and the Rev. Mr. Pat
terson were members of Co. F of the
regiment that captured Booth and his
companions, and both saw the hang
| ings Each others identity was thru
relation of his experiences during the
war by Mr.. Collins.
| Hard times have made their home
in the very heart of the United States
| Treasury, according to Representative
Tawney, Chairman of the House Com
| mittee on Appropriations, who has is
sued an estimate of the revenues and
| expenses of the Government for the
| fiscal year.
According to this estimate, the Gov
ernment will have in its Treasury only
a deficit at the end of the year. and
that deficit will amount to $4,000, 900.
| The estimate is as follows:
Estimates for next fiscal year, $780,
949.2S8.
Increase over estimated expenditures
for last fiscal year, S1OO.9SS.645.
| Estimated total revenue next fiscal
year. $S7S.123,011.
Actual revenue Gncluding postaD
last fiscal year, sS46,725,239.
| Naf Of
over estimated revenue, next fiscal
year. sS3.0OO,000.
| Therefore, it is the .ayowed intention
! of Mr.. Tawney and his committee,
| which organized for WORK few DAYS
ago, to cut all Government estimates
to the bone, and to retrench on ex-
penditures wherever possible.
George r. Peck. of Chicago. attorney
for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul
Railroad, is in Washington on a busi-
ness trip. While noncommittal on the
subject of railroads and rates, Mr. Peck
said: ''t
Speaker Cannon is my choice and
| the almost unanimous choice of the
people of Illinois for the Presidency.
At present he is being talked of quietly
among his friends. a1tho there is a great
| amount of enthusiasm slumbering
among all the Republicans of the State.
AS soon as he announces his candidacy,
IL he intends making a run for the
office. you will see the whole State of
| Illinois behind him. and he will be a
hard man for anybody to defeat"
A strange link with the historic events
of the past is recalled by the announce
ment of the death. in California, re-
Gently, of Col. Robinson, u. s. A. re-
tired. On the night that President Lin
l fI In
| nson who saved the life of William
II. Seward, Secretary of State Col.
| Robinson's death seems to bring back
| these tragic events with distinctness
and mis- death removes one of the very
few remaining figures in that startling
tragedy. For his services on the night
| of the assassination Col. Robinson re-
ceived the thanks of the American peo-
pie thru Congress- and was awarded a
gold medal. He was IS years old when
| he died.
a curious case relating to the mus
| ket has been called to the attention of
| the Ordnance Department of the Army
| by the commanding officer of the. Ma
Mia Ordnance Depot. A rifle was dis
covered from which a bullet had been
fred in the regular way, while a sec
| ond, with its point to the rear, was
! found lodged in the bore of the barrel
| about eight inches beyond the cham
Der. 1t was thought by ordnance Off
GERS that this condition had arisen due
| to accidental double loading of a
cartridge case with two bullets base to
| base.
Experiments were accordingly con-
! Quoted at the Frankford Arsenal, Phil
adelphia, for the purpose of duplicat-
| ing the condition reported from Ma
Mia 1t was found that, if bullet were
! inserted in the disk of the loading
machine in an inverted position and
| the regular loading operation then per-
| formed, the conditions obtained in the
| Philippines We're practically duplicated.
| That such conditions have been ex-
| tremely rare in the past is evidenced
| by the fact that of the millions of
rounds of ammunition fired from the
service rifle but three or four such
cases have ever been reported How
ever as this has happened in a few
isolated cases, the loading and weigh
ing machines at the Frankford Arse
nal have been altered SO as to make
impossible a repetition of such an ac-
| cident.
A fond mother living in a northern
/ Michigan town has written to Coy
Warner, of that State, to say that Prov
idence had blessed the family with trip-
lets, and that her neighbors all say she
is entitled to something from the Gov
ernment" The letter was forwarded
to Washington.
| She writes to say that she thinks she
and her husband is Woodworking
n