Part 2

The poor unhappy woman and her five helpless children have brought this message from the dead, and hope, with its aid, to convince this government of the wrongs she has suffered, and make them demand from Spain money to take care of her helpless family.

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The election of Mr. McKinley has brought the filibustering parties no better luck.

It is said that much greater care is to be taken to prevent any such parties from leaving our shores.

The _Texas_ has been ordered to join the _Montgomery_ off Florida, to watch for filibusters, and the President seems determined to maintain a strict neutrality.

* * * * *

Matters in the Philippines look just about as gloomy as they do in Cuba, from the Spanish point of view.

The same story of badly paid and starving soldiers comes from Manila that we got from Cuba, the same distress from fever and disease.

The general in command is asking Spain for money and men, just as Weyler is asking. He says he cannot conquer the rebels without a larger force.

With great reluctance Spain is sending a small force out, but it is understood that she can send no more men, and no money.

The insurgents are gaining ground, and are said to fight with great steadiness and bravery.

* * * * *

The only news from the Transvaal is that England has sent a very determined message to President Krüger, demanding that he shall give the English-speaking people in the Transvaal what they are pleased to call their rights.

It is said that some of the British ministers feel sure that war with the Transvaal must come before long, and that they are only too willing to have it come as quickly as possible.

The ministers have decided that in the case of war being declared, a force of twenty thousand men will be quite enough to send out from England to conquer the country.

It is understood that President Krüger is kept informed of all that goes on in England in regard to his country, and is quite undismayed at the prospect of an invasion by the British.

* * * * *

State Senator Lexow has made his report to the Legislature at Albany, as to the Trusts which he investigated, and the people generally are not satisfied with it.

Mr. Lexow declares that Trusts are dangerous things, that they kill competition, help monopoly, dodge taxes, and make enormous profits.

Having said this, he declares himself powerless to prevent any of the evils which he deplores. He thinks an amendment to the Constitution will be the only real means of remedying the evil, because the Trusts manage their business so cleverly that they avoid doing anything that breaks the law so openly that they can be punished, while all the time they are contriving to disobey and set the laws aside.

One member of his Committee was, however, of opinion that the Sugar Trust had not been fairly dealt with. He presented a report of his own, in which he tried to show that this Trust was of great benefit to the State.

A member of the Albany Legislature has, however, found out a way to stop Trusts.

He has offered a bill making it a crime for a Trust to give any money, property, or thing of value to help any political campaign, or to attempt to bribe Congressmen to vote for its bills. The penalty for doing this will be a very heavy fine and the breaking up of the Trust.

While we are on the subject of Trusts, we must mention a very interesting case which came up the other day.

An action was brought by a workingman against the Knights of Labor, sometimes called the Labor Trust.

The workingman, an engineer named Charles Curran, was employed by the Miller Brewing Company in Rochester.

He was a clever workman, and had a steady job, and good wages.

One day the Knights of Labor called on him, told him that he must join their society, pay the necessary fees, and allow himself to be guided in future by their rules.

They told him that, if he refused, they would see that he was discharged, and make it impossible for him to get further employment.

Curran did refuse, and the Knights of Labor went to his employers and demanded that he be dismissed.

The Brewing Company had an agreement with the Knights of Labor to employ only members of the association in its works. They dared not refuse the request for fear of a strike being ordered, so they discharged Curran.

True to their threat, the Knights of Labor watched Curran, and prevented him from getting work in the city of Rochester.

He finally was forced to go to another town, but he soon found that he was a marked man. Word was sent from one branch of the Knights of Labor to another to follow Curran, and prevent his getting work.

From being a prosperous, well-to-do man, he became very poor, and finally suffered for food.

Then he went to the courts and asked for help.

His case has been before different judges for seven years, but at last it has been decided in his favor.

The Court of Appeals, the highest court in the State, has decided that it was not lawful for the brewers of Rochester to make a contract with the Knights of Labor, agreeing only to employ members of the society in their works. Further, that it was not lawful for this contract to be used as a means of depriving a man of the opportunity to earn a living.

The Court ordered that Curran should be given money for the damage he had sustained through the loss of his work, that the Knights of Labor should pay him this money, and should besides pay all the expenses of the trial.

This Labor Trust has been one of the most dangerous of all the Trusts, because the members of it have made it a practice to force every workman to join it, or else treats them as it treated Curran.

Up to the present time men have been afraid to disobey the orders of the Knights, but now that this very important case has been settled in favor of a man who is not a member of the Trust, it is to be hoped that workingmen will have the courage to seek the aid of the law against the Labor Union, when it treats them unjustly.

* * * * *

President McKinley has chosen the various gentlemen who are to be his advisers for the next four years, and his Cabinet is now complete.

On Wednesday, March 5th, the day after his inauguration, President McKinley sent word to the Senate that he had a message for it, and almost immediately after word was brought that he had chosen the men whom he would like to have for his Cabinet officers, and would be glad if the Senate would confirm his appointments.

The names of the Cabinet officers are as follows:

Secretary of State, John Sherman.

Secretary of the Treasury, Lyman Gage.

Secretary of War, Gen. Russell A. Alger.

Attorney-General, Joseph McKenna.

Postmaster-General, James A. Gary.

Secretary of the Navy, John D. Long.

Secretary of the Interior, Cornelius N. Bliss.

Secretary of Agriculture, James Wilson.

The Senate confirmed the President's nominations, and the matter of the Cabinet was settled.

* * * * *

A very exciting account of a trip down a lumber flume comes from Pomona, California.

It seems that in the lumber regions on the Pacific Coast, flumes are built for the purpose of carrying the lumber from the camps in the mountains to the sawmills in the valleys below.

These flumes are a kind of V-shaped trough, about three feet deep, and are built on trestles after the manner of the elevated roads. The height of the flume from the ground ranges from twenty to one hundred and twenty feet, and they are fifty to sixty-five miles long.

The logs are floated down on water that is turned into the flume from the mountain streams. The time taken to make the trip is from two to three hours.

A party of three men was invited to go up to a lumber camp and take a trip down into the valley by one of these flumes.

All three of them were accustomed to tobogganing, and thinking it would be only a toboggan slide on a huge scale, they decided to go.

They spent the night at the lumber camp, and were roused up very early in the morning, so that they might get down to their business in the valley betimes. After a hearty breakfast, they wrapped themselves up as warmly as they could, and prepared for their trip.

They had left warm weather in the valley, but here in the mountains the snow lay thick, and it was bitter cold.

They shivered (not altogether with cold) when they caught sight of the little boat that was to take them their fifty miles.

The boat was a very rough-looking thing, nailed together without much care, and did not look over-strong.

However, as none of the three was willing to be the first man to give in, they stepped into the little craft, and gripping the seats firmly, in obedience to the orders of the lumbermen, were pushed off.

For the first few minutes their experience was something terrible. They were going at such a frightful rate of speed that they could hardly catch breath; they seemed to be falling down the side of the mountain, and every moment the speed of their fall increased.

They flew past snowy mountains and ice-bound rivers, and had no time to see anything.

Each man remembered all the dreadful stories he had heard about accidents in flumes, and at every curve and turn expected to be dashed to pieces in the cañon below.

So they sped onward, past rocks and cliffs, down, down, down, until they flew out of the regions of snow and ice over hillsides clothed with vineyards. Still down, past orchards, the trees in full bloom, down and still down, until their fear had passed, and they were able to enjoy the novelty of their position.

Suddenly a curve in the flume brought them into a wide stretch of water, and they had reached their journey's end. The little boat, still propelled by the force it had gathered in its journey down the mountainside, cut its way through the water, and reached the wharf,--only two hours having been taken for the trip.

It must have been a wonderful ride. What a clever and yet simple device for bringing the lumber down from the mountains with so little trouble and expense!

* * * * *

Some people have been complaining that Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, the President of the Board of Police, has been giving the men, who want to join the force, such a severe examination that it is almost impossible for half of them to answer the hard questions that are asked.

Mr. Roosevelt declares that it is necessary that policemen should be intelligent men, and have some slight amount of education. He thinks they ought to know a little about the history of this country, and of the laws which they are called to uphold.

He says the questions were only such as a fairly bright child could answer with ease, and that the men who cannot answer them have no business on the force.

To prove the truth of this, he prints a few of the answers made by the rejected policemen, and asks the people who complain to read them, and then let him know whether they would like to have such ignorant men as guardians of the law.

One question was: "Name five of the New England States."

One man wrote: "England, Ireland, Scotland, _Whales_, and Cork"; and another, "London, Africa, and New England."

To the question: "On what instrument is the Government of the United States founded?" one answer was:

"On paper."

"Into what three branches is the Government of the United States divided?" puzzled them sorely.

"Republicans, Dimulcrats, and Popperlists," seemed the favorite answer.

"What is the highest department of the United States Courts?" also worried them badly.

"The Fire Department," was written by several.

Others suggested, "Sir Pream's Court."

"Why July 4th and February 22d were made legal holidays?" was quite beyond their understanding.

"The day on which George Washington landed and crossed the Delaware";

"The day on which the President takes his seat"; and

"July _Forth_ was the end of the _warre_," were three of the brilliant suggestions.

I think we ought all of us to be very much obliged to Mr. Roosevelt for preventing such ignorant men as these from being set in authority, and having the difficult duties of the police to perform.

GENIE H. ROSENFELD.

LETTERS FROM OUR YOUNG FRIENDS.

DEAR EDITOR:

I have been taking THE GREAT ROUND WORLD for two weeks, and think it fine.

I thought I would ask you a few questions, as I knew you would be glad to answer them. Is England in favor of Turkey or Greece? and will United States ever help Cuba?

Yours respectfully, LEONARD O. SOMERVILLE, MASS.

DEAR LEONARD:

You have asked us the two questions that are puzzling the wisest heads of Europe and America.

Europe wants to know what England will do, and with whom she is siding; and all America wants to know whether we are going to help Cuba.

THE GREAT ROUND WORLD only claims to tell its readers what has happened. The Editor does not profess to be a prophet, and able to foretell events.

We are glad to answer any questions that we can, but you have given us two difficult conundrums that we cannot solve. Better luck next time.

THE EDITOR.

INVENTION AND DISCOVERY.

NEW ROAD TO ELECTRICITY.--A paper was read recently before the New York Electrical Society on the subject of a new method of producing electricity.

The discoverer of this process is Mr. Willard E. Case. He has been working for ten years on this subject, and recently showed the results of his labors to the scientific men assembled to hear him.

Mr. Case claims that his discovery, when it is worked out to its conclusion, will mean a new motor or driving force to do the world's work, in place of steam, and he insists that the new force will be much cheaper than any now in use.

Mr. Case has found a means of generating electricity without the use of heat. It has long been known that there was a terrible waste of electrical energy through the use of heat. The method of producing it by galvanic batteries was impossible for large electric plants, because the zinc that had to be used was too expensive.

The great point of Mr. Case's discovery lies in the fact that he has succeeded in doing with carbon, and without heat, what the galvanic battery does with zinc.

He is very modest about his invention, and says that at the present moment it has no practical value whatever; but that to scientists a way has been opened which will lead them into a new field of thought; and that, when his discovery has been worked out, and applied to practical methods, tremendous results will be achieved.

* * * * *

A BIG PYTHON.--A story comes from St. Augustine, Fla., of the capture of a huge python by Walter Ralston, a young man who was employed in the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.

Some weeks ago a story was told of the wreck of a ship carrying a circus, and that the big python had escaped, and was in Rock Key, off the Florida coast.

Mr. Ralston determined to go and catch the horrid reptile, so he went down to Florida and tried to secure guides.

He had great difficulty in doing so, for the whole country was in terror of the snake, and no one wanted to take the risk of hunting him.

At last Mr. Ralston found men, and landed at the Key.

They found the snake coiled up on the body of a small doe he had caught. The Indians immediately ran away. But Mr. Ralston was not in the least afraid, and, boldly approaching, tried to put a bag over the python's head.

The reptile avoided the bag, and struck at him, catching its fangs in his coat, and in a moment had twisted its tail around him, and was crushing him to death in its horrid folds.

He shouted for help, but the Indians were at first too scared to come to his aid. At last one ventured near, and laid hold of the serpent's tail; and the others helping, they succeeded in unwinding the reptile and getting Mr. Ralston out of its clutches. He was more dead than alive, but even then would not give up the chase. As soon as he was sufficiently recovered they started after the python once more. And two of the Indians managing to engage the creature's attention, Mr. Ralston slipped the bag over its head, and it was caught.

It struggled desperately for a long time, frightening the whole party nearly out of their wits lest it should get away. But at last they had it safe; and binding it tightly they carried it off.

G.H.R.

BOOK REVIEWS.

Charles Scribner's Sons, Fifth Avenue, New York, have sent us one of the most fascinating books to write to THE GREAT ROUND WORLD boys about.

_Dan Beard's American Boy's Book of Sport._

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We cannot say all that we would wish to in this short space, but you can find out all about it by writing to Mr. Moffat, care of Charles Scribner's Sons. Ask him for a full catalogue. This will be sent free to any reader of the GREAT ROUND WORLD.

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Copies of the very interesting Röntgen or "X Ray" photographs can be obtained now from _The Great Round World_.

These famous photographs are mounted on cards, size 11 x 14 inches, and are from selected negatives made by

PROF. M.I. PUPIN, of Columbia University, New York,

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A selection of 39 different subjects is offered.

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