The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1908-02-28


1t should be remembered that the
naval strength of Britain is not only
its war vessels, asserts the New York
American, but the great swarm Of
swift and very large steamers of the
merchant marine built to carry bat
teries and calculated to transport
troops. In that respect the United
States is. notably deficient.
The question was recently asked in
a newspaper, what is the most dis.
NAL of professions?" Among those
that occurred to the British Medical
Journal as having a claim to be con.
sidered We're grave digging, scaveng.
ing, listening to Parliamentary ora.
tons through an all-night sitting and
the writing Of poems-or articles
that nobody reads. The washing of
dishes may be made interesting If
done scientifically.
Readers fond of studying statistical
tables can find figures more cheering
than those given out by the experts
on nerve strain and grip. Scientists
also have found that disease in gen.
eral is decreasing and that the period
of life is growing longer, observes
the New York Herald. II one must
study vital statistics why not the op.
timistic ones?
Only a few years ago no respectable
restaurant allowed a MAN to smoke
in the main dining room, recalls the
New York Journal Whenever women
were at table men were supposed to
get along without blowing smoke
into one another's faces. But that
idea went out some time back. OF
late years, to eat in the public res
taurants means to absorb with your
dinner part of the various kinds of
tobacco that modern men may hap
pen to be blowing into the faces of
the modern women with them
It is not so much the gun as the
nan behind the gun that determines
the issue, protests the Scientific
American. 1t is not so much the
cruising radius of the ships, or the
judicious implacements of their bat
teries, or their handy maneuvering
qualities, that determine the issues of
a campaign, as it is the efficiency,
prudence, dash and all-round genius
of the officers who fight the ships.
New York has 1,51S,450 acres of
timber reserve, mostly in the Adiron.
dacks, and in his message Governor
Hughes recommended that the State
purchase a large amount more. The
value of reserving wooded tracts has
been impressed upon the people OF
New York, declares the Bridgeport
Standard. and If the present begin
ming is followed up the State will
have a mine of wealth and the source
of great income in few decades
Then If properly taken care of the
thing will be easily perpetuated and
enlarged.
The legend in Mexico is, or was not
many years ago, that no human be-
ing had ever scaled the ultimate PIN
nacle of Popocatapelt 1t is not i'm.
possible that this achievement may
have been consummated at some
time in the past. But when we are
asked to believe buoyant press re-
port to the effect that two young Ia
dies, presumably daughters of this
astounding nation, have just attained
the actual summit of Popocatapetl,
leaving their guides behind and airily
conquering every old fashioned diff
ficulty, insists the New York Sun,
we respectfully but firmly balk The
story is pretty. 1t reads trippingly
enough. But it has been told too Of
ten and too fluently to be true.
In the Mississippi Valley, says the
New Orleans Picayune, is situated
nearly the whole of those Indispensable
natural treasures. coal, iron, petroleum
and timber In this vast and fertile
region extending through twenty de-
grees of the earth's latitude, embrace
ing every desired climate from sub
tropical to subtemperate, and reach
ing east and west through twenty
five degrees of our globes longitude,
is the worlds granary and the cotton
supply of all nations. Into this mag
nificent region teeming with natural
wealth will soon be gathered the
great body of the American people,
with room for hundred millions.
Here win be assembled the great fac
fnrinc " which tho inaYhonCfihIn
stores of raw material are found, and
here will be the homes of the people
because their food supply will be at