Chapter 2

They declare that the new law, under which their business methods are to be looked into, is not in accordance with the Constitution of the country, and that they will not submit to it until the State has proved that the law is constitutional.

This new law, which was made after the Lexow investigations, only came into existence on the 7th of May, 1897. It provides that the price or the supply of an article shall not be controlled by any one, and that an attempt to assume such control is unlawful and shall be punished.

It also adds that the Attorney-General may order witnesses to come before a judge, and may ask them any questions he chooses about their business methods, and that he may also examine the books and accounts of their business whenever he has a mind to.

Finally, the law states very clearly that witnesses must answer all the questions put to them, and that if they refuse to answer they shall be punished for contempt of court.

The Coal Barons say they are quite willing to answer any questions, because they have been carrying on their business in a perfectly proper way. They are, however, most unwilling to have the Attorney-General go over their books. They insist that the personal liberty of a citizen is interfered with if this law is carried out, and so they are determined to fight it.

The modern method of mining coal is very interesting, and especially so when we understand that from the mine to the cellar the coal is handled almost exclusively by machinery.

The miners go down the shaft and blast off the coal. They shovel what has been loosened by the blast into wagons, which hold about two and a half tons.

These wagons are hoisted on the elevator to the mouth of the mine, and from the moment the coal sees the daylight, the work in connection with it is done by machinery.

The wagons dump their loads into a chute which sends the coal sliding down into the breaker. This machine breaks up the large lumps in which it is brought out of the mine, and divides the coal into the various sizes, nut, stove, egg, etc.

From the breaker the coal is carried to the washer, and then back to the breaker ready to be sold.

As soon as the coal is ready to be loaded a train of trucks is brought up in front of the breaker, a lever is touched, and the coal comes pouring down into the trucks. A whole train can be loaded in ten minutes by this process.

From the breaker the cars carry the coal to the canal-boats that are waiting for it. The cars run on a trestle, and discharge their loads through chutes into the boats, without a shovel having touched it since the miners first blasted it out of the earth and loaded it on the wagons.

Professor Winchell, in his "Sketches of Creation," gives a very interesting description of a coal mine. He says:

"Armed each with a miner's lamp, and clad in a miner's garb borrowed for the occasion, we step upon a platform, or "cage," six feet square, suspended by iron rods connected with machinery moved by an engine, and, at the word, begin to sink into the darkness beneath us. This perpendicular hole, perhaps eight feet square, is called the shaft.

"Continuing to descend, we perceive the bed of coal underlaid by clay, with abundant grass-like shoots and occasional stems of vegetation.

"We hang before the portal to a long avenue excavated in a deeper-seated bed of coal. In some of the dark and dusty chambers which open here the miner's pick is heard, and now and then the muffled report of the miner's blast comes echoing through the vaulted aisles.

"But this is not the station where we are intended to stop. Our car moves on, and we plunge through two hundred feet more of the rocky rind of the earth. Above us the mouth of the shaft seems narrowed into an insignificant hole; before us opens a dark street, over which, on a tramway, mules are hauling carloads of coal, which is starting on its way to the surface. Miners with picks are moving to and fro; the sound of hammers is heard, the signs of busy life are about us.

"In the seam of coal, passages are cut about eight feet wide and about five feet high. These are shored up with timber or iron, to prevent them giving way.

"A main gangway may be half a mile or a mile in length. From this, at suitable intervals, passages are quarried out, running at right angles with the main gangway.

"These chambers cross and recross one another, and make a network of passages like the streets of a city.

"Along the principal passages tram-rails are laid to carry the coal to the shaft. The trams are moved over the track by mules, which often spend their lives underground. They are stalled and fed in side rooms cut out of the coal.

"By the feeble light of the miner's lamp we enter one of these aisles. The whole thickness of the coal seam is exposed along the walls.

"Here and there a white shell projects, showing us that the products of the sea are suspended over our heads.

"Then a very different sight will greet our eyes. The rocky ceiling will be ornamented everywhere with the most delicate tracery, faultless representations of the delicate fronds of ferns.

"We remove a scale from the rock, and behind is still another picture. The whole mass of the shaly roof is a portfolio of inimitable sketches. The sharpest outlines and the minutest serratures are clearly traced. Buds, woody stems, cones, fruits, grasses, rushes, club mosses, all are by turns pictured on the dusky ceiling."

In another portion of his book, Professor Winchell speaks of very curious things that have been found in many instances by miners in the heart of a coal mine.

These are the trunks of trees, which are found standing upright as though still growing.

Mr. Winchell says:

"These tree-trunks are from one to five feet in diameter, and are sometimes sixty or seventy feet in height.

"In many instances they have been found standing erect, and have evidently been buried by accumulations of mud and sand.

"In the excavation of a bed of coal these petrified trees are not unfrequently cut off below, when the slight taper of the trunk permits them to slide down into the mine.

"These 'coal pipes' are much dreaded by English miners, for almost every year they are the cause of fatal accidents."

* * * * *

The tailors of New York are striking for better wages and shorter hours. They want laws to protect them, for they complain that their wages are often left unpaid.

Several of the Unions in neighboring cities have joined the New Yorkers, and it is expected that the strike will be a long one.

This strike is peculiar in one sense, for, while the workmen are really fighting the contractors, these same contractors are heartily in sympathy with them, and hope that they will win.

The contractors are the people who make the garments for the large wholesale houses, and they declare that the low prices the wholesale houses pay for the clothes is the cause of all the trouble.

Formerly the contractor was able to get $1.25 for making a coat, now the manufacturers will only pay 75 cents.

As the manufacturers' prices went down, the contractors had less money to pay their hands with, and they were obliged in turn to reduce the wages of the workers.

When the wages were as low as the contractors dared make them, they increased the day's task, and forced the workers to make more coats in their day's work.

For the first time in six years all the branches of the tailors' trade have joined in the strike.

The leaders from all the various organizations have had meetings, and consulted as to the scale of wages to be demanded from the contractors, and the terms on which the strikers will return to work.

It is hoped that they will be able to hold out until the end of June, when the busy season for making winter clothes begins, and when the wholesale houses will be obliged to consent to pay higher prices for the garments or lose their winter business.

A great deal of sympathy is felt for the strikers. The President of the Police Board actually went to one of their meetings and addressed them.

He told them that he believed their cause was a proper one, but warned them that they would ruin themselves if they used any violence.

He said that he had been told that some of their number had begun to get restless and grumble, so he had dropped in on them in a friendly way, to ask them to be careful, and not do anything to bring them in contact with the police.

So far there has been no rioting or violence.

The contractors have offered to take the men back and pay them the wages they ask, on the "piece" system, which means that they will give a certain sum for each garment they make.

The leaders of the strike will not consent to this. They think that paying by the piece will make it possible for the sweating system to come into use again, and this they say is a much worse evil than the one they are now trying to cure.

* * * * *

A surprising discovery was made at West Point the other day.

The quartermaster suddenly discovered that four of the cannon captured in the Mexican war by General Scott's army had been stolen.

These guns had been lying for years in Fort Clinton, which is an earthwork overlooking the Hudson River, and only about four hundred feet from the row of brick houses occupied by the officers of the post.

One of these guns was particularly valued by the War Department, as it had been captured at Monterey.

The cannon had been in the fort for many years, and as it was never supposed that they would be stolen, there had been no special guard placed over them.

No one had the slightest idea how the guns had been stolen. Every attempt was made to discover the thieves, and at last Colonel Ernst, who is the commander of the post, obtained a clue which may lead to the discovery of the miscreants.

It seems that a carter, who has been going back and forth to West Point for a very long time, carrying packages and supplies, is the suspected person.

He has lately taken to lingering around the post until after dark.

The sentries have stated that on several occasions it was quite late when he drove past them.

He always gave a good excuse for his delay, and being a well-known character at the Point, he was allowed to pass.

Colonel Ernst thinks that the cannon have been carried off one by one by this man, and sold to some junk-dealer as old metal.

It is supposed that he must have had some accomplices to help him lift the cannon into his cart, and that he carefully steadied them so that they would not rumble and betray him, covered them up with tarpaulin, and drove out with them, under the very nose of the sentry, returning to fetch another at the next favorable opportunity.

Word has been sent to every junk-dealer, in hopes of finding the Monterey cannon before it has been put into the melting-pot.

GENIE H. ROSENFELD.

LETTERS FROM OUR YOUNG FRIENDS.

DEAR EDITOR:

Is it asking too much of you, or is it out of your line of work to give your readers some information in regard to the old library at Tel-el-Amarna; and something about the present reigning family of Egypt, as to its origin and its political relations to the European powers?

If you have not room for a note on these, where could I obtain best account of them?

(Mrs.) A.H.B.V.

MINNEAPOLIS, MINN., May 7th, 1897.

DEAR MADAM:

Tel-el-Amarna is the ruin of a residence of Amenophis IV. in Central Egypt. In the winter of 1887-88 there were discovered there about three hundred clay tablets, covered with cuneiform inscriptions which have since been deciphered.

They contain the diplomatic correspondence of Kings of Babylon, Assyria, Palestine, and other countries of Western Asia with the Egyptian court.

The word library applies not only to books, but is often used to indicate a collection of inscribed tiles or bricks.

2. Mehemed Ali was made Viceroy of Egypt and Pasha of Three Tails in 1806.

He resigned in favor of his son Ibrahim Pasha in 1849.

Ibrahim died the same year, and was succeeded by Mehemed Ali's favorite grandson, Abbas Pasha, who died in 1854, and was succeeded by his brother Said.

In 1863 Said died, and was succeeded by his nephew Ismael, who promoted the Suez Canal.

In 1866 the Sultan of Turkey, who is the nominal ruler of Egypt, made this family hereditary Viceroys of Egypt.

In 1879 Ismael abdicated in favor of his son Mohammed Tewfik, who died in 1892 and was succeeded by his son Abbas.

Under this family, Egypt, though nominally tributary to Turkey, has enjoyed all the advantages of an independent kingdom.

EDITOR.

DEAR EDITOR:

Will you be kind enough to answer the following questions in an early issue of your Magazine, and greatly oblige.

1. Is a Japanese born in this country a citizen?

2. When may a United States Senator have two votes upon one question?

A SUBSCRIBER.

BURLINGTON, IA., May 4th, 1897.

DEAR FRIEND:

In reply to your inquiries.

1. Article 14 of the Amendments to the Constitution of the United States says:

"All persons born ... in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States, and of the State wherein they reside."

2. For the answer to this question we applied to the highest possible authority, namely, to the Hon. Thomas B. Reed, Speaker of the House of Representatives. He has very kindly favored us with the appended reply:

EDITOR.

SPEAKER'S ROOM, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. WASHINGTON, D.C., May 22d, 1897.

Your letter of inquiry has been received. A United States Senator may have one vote only at one time on any question. On questions like the ratification of a treaty, where two-thirds are required for affirmative action, one vote in the negative counts for as much as two in the affirmative. Very truly,

T.B. REED.

DEAR EDITOR:

My teacher subscribed for your paper for our school. I like it very much, as we learn a great deal about the world and what is going on in it. I wish the powers would keep their hands off the Cretan trouble, as they have had a time of it under the Turkish rule. I hope the Cubans will gain their freedom, don't you? Your respectful reader,

JOHN H. SALEM, OREG., April 10th, 1897.

DEAR JOHN:

The Cretan matter seems nearer solution now, and it is to be hoped that all the trouble may result in better conditions for the people of the island.

I certainly do hope the Cubans will gain their freedom, for I think their cause is a just one.

EDITOR.

DEAR EDITOR:

Mrs. B---- takes your paper and she reads it to me every time it comes. I hope you will have more about Cuba this week coming than you did last week. I hope that Spain won't get her $40,000,000. I also hope that next time when the Greeks retreat from some place they will do it better than at Larissa. I wish that there were some more about the big Python. It is nice that Mr. Havemeyer has got a Little Venice on Long Island. At the Tennessee Centennial it must be fine fun to go up in those cars! I hope that Mr. Mayer will get out of Germany before he will go into the army. Do you think that America can get him out? I hope so. I wish that your paper would come two or three times a week instead of only once. I hope to get one or two subscribers next winter, for I am going to school, and I will ask the boys there. Please put this letter in your newspaper. I hope Mr. McKinley will send some American men to Cuba, and I do hope that Spain will have lots of Carlist troubles and South Africans too. I hope that you will get _lots_ of subscribers.

Wishing you very good luck to your paper, I am ever

Your interested reader, H.T.

DEAR H.T.:

Our country promises to take care of all her citizens, and so we have not the slightest doubt young Mayer will be properly looked after.

As soon as our Ambassador in Germany has given the German Government satisfactory proof that young Mayer was born in this country, there is very little doubt that he will be excused from serving in the German army.

You are a very good little boy to be so full of sympathy for Cuba, but you must not wish any harm to Spain--for that is _not_ good of you. You must remember that there are always two sides to every question. If we could look at the Cuban war from Spain's point of view, we should perhaps think that the Cubans were a rebellious, tiresome people who had cost Spain much money; and the lives of many brave men. We might perhaps think that they deserved punishment, and that General Weyler was only trying to do the best he could for his country, and was not punishing the Cubans more than they deserved.

I say, we might think this if we were Spaniards, and the war was taking our dear friends away from us and making us poor besides.

As we are neither Cubans nor Spaniards we are able to look calmly at the whole affair, and judge it without any personal feeling creeping in to prejudice us. We have decided that Cuba ought to be free, and that hers is the righteous cause, but for all that we must not wish harm to Spain.

Spain believes she is in the right, or else she would not be willing to make the terrible sacrifices she is making.

As long as she believes she is right we should not call her hard names and wish her ill. We ought instead to pray that the good God may show her the right way, and give her the courage to walk in it.

EDITOR.

DEAR EDITOR:

I want to ask you about the seals; do you think the seals will be killed any more? I want to ask you where the seals are caught besides the Bering Sea? And don't you think the bicycle car will be in Baltimore? I am afraid it will be no good. I want to know how a car with one wheel that they call a bicycle train runs. Yours truly,

CHARLES C.G. BALTIMORE, MD., May 14th, 1897.

DEAR CHARLES:

The seal question has puzzled many wiser heads than ours; and no one has arrived at a proper solution of it yet.

We tell you in our paper this week of a new plan that has been suggested to prevent the mothers and puppies from being killed.

Seals are found in nearly all waters, but the seal whose fur is so valuable to us is found only in the North and South Pacific oceans, and not in the Atlantic.

Seals are found in the Mediterranean Sea, the Caspian Sea, along the European shores of the Atlantic; off the coast of Greenland, and off the Atlantic coast of the United States, but these seals have not the under fur we described to you in THE GREAT ROUND WORLD, and are of little market value compared with the Pacific Ocean seals.

We do not understand your question about the bicycle car. Explain it more fully, and we will do our best to answer it.

EDITOR.

DEAR EDITOR:

I am very much interested about Spain and Cuba and the Philippine Islands, and about the elephants that live in India. I have lately taken your paper, which comes every week. I have read the first paper over and I like it very much.

Yours truly, J.S.F.

Many thanks.

DEAR EDITOR:

I am very much interested in your little paper. It has a great deal in it for such a little paper. I give it to my teacher. I do not write many letters so far away as you are, as I live on the other side of the Great Lakes. I like most of all to hear about the wars, and hope that Cuba and Greece will win.

I think I had better close now.

Yours truly, ALWINA S. MANKATO, MINN.

DEAR ALWINA:

Do not think that you must not write to us because you are far away. For that very reason there must be numbers of things going on around you which would be strange to us, and which we would much like to hear about. Write often, and let the kind post-office show you that you are not so very far away, after all.

EDITOR.

DEAR EDITOR:

Being much interested in your paper, THE GREAT ROUND WORLD, with its clever and helpful articles, I write to obtain some information about the "Jingoes." What does the name mean? Where did it originate, and what have they to do with Cuba?

Your earnest reader, PRUE. TARRYTOWN, N.Y.

DEAR PRUE:

You will find Jingoes and Jingoism described in the article on the passing of the Morgan resolution in this number.

EDITOR.

DEAR EDITOR:

I have read in THE GREAT ROUND WORLD about the little singing mouse and was very much interested with it.

We have not heard much of the Cuban war lately, and the first account of it that you get please put in the paper.

Yours truly, EDMUND M. BROOKLYN, N.Y., May 20th, 1897.

DEAR EDMUND:

We will give you the Cuban news whenever there is any to tell. You will find much to interest you about Cuba in this number.

EDITOR.

* * * * *

=Revised List, with Prices, of School-Books that will be taken in Exchange for Subscriptions to "The Great Round World."=

ARITHMETICS

Sheldon's Complete 20 Stoddard's Mental 5 " Intellectual 10 Thomson's New Practical 15 " Commercial 30 Wentworth's Mental 10 " New Practical 20 " High School 30 White's New Elementary 15 " " Complete 20

ALGEBRAS

Boyden's Elementary 20 Bradbury's Beginners' 20 Brooks' (red cover) 25 Milnes' First Book 20 " High School 35 Ray's New Elementary 25 Robinson's New Elementary 35 Wells' Academic 35 " College 50 " Higher 35 Wentworth's First Steps 20 " Elementary 25 " School 30 " Higher 40 " College 40 " Complete 40 White's New Algebra 40

BOTANY

Apgar's Trees 30 Bessey's Elementary 25 " Briefer 35 " Large 50 Dana's Wild Flowers 50 Gray's How Plants Grow 25 " Revised Lessons 30 " " Manual 50 " " Lessons and Manual (1 vol.). 65 Vine's Botany 75 Wood's Botanist (red cover) 50 " Class Book " " 75

LATIN and GREEK