College Men and Russian Exiles
Elbert Hubbard concludes, from a college alumni society bulletin, that that society is "intent on smokers, basket-ball, football, and the silly trifles of life, all in the holy name of education, but as far as the microscope can detect, absolutely without education; and, moreover, with no interest in it even as a theory or hypothesis." He says further: "The average college man is a victim of arrested development. He is not a thinker—not a student. Something has ironed the zeal out of mind and sterilized his soul. And I think it was college that helped. . . . The business college that has to struggle for an existence and make good or die is far in the lead of any classic concern when it comes to effectiveness and manhood." The awful tortures of Russian exiles in Siberian prisons have driven many to commit suicide. The prisoners are crowded together in cold, filthy cells, are insufficiently clothed, and are almost starved. The hardest labor is imposed upon them, and being unable to perform it, they are knouted almost to death, and the women subjected to gross insults. A letter of one of these unhappy creatures which reached the outside world reads: "And yet our tormentors will not let us die. They always stop short of killing us outright, for they know we pray for death as the greatest boon that could come to us." By the simple method of putting edibles in cold storage instead of delivering them to the market, the so-called "food trust" is caught in its own trap. People have curtailed their purchases in cold-storage foods, and as a result these wholesalers in a year or two found their warehouses full and no demand. As a consequence it is reported that millions of pounds of cold-storage butter, eggs, cheese, and poultry will be thrown on the market and sold for whatever they will bring. Mexicali, in Lower California, Mexico, has suddenly been captured by a band of 100 armed revolutionists led by an American. The custom-house officers were compelled to surrender, and $200 was taken. Imprisoned revolutionists were liberated from the jail, and joined the Insurrectos. Many people, anticipating trouble, have carried their valuables across the border line into the United States. Government troops have been despatched to quell the insurrection. Several members of the California Legislature are in receipt of a letter from Dr. David Starr Jordan, president of Stanford University, in which he urges an anti-liquor bill to curb the drink evil. In it he presents the following: (1) Exclusion of women from saloons and drinking places; (2) Prohibition of all public drinking places outside of incorporated towns; (3) Local option, to have the question of license decided by popular vote. And why not? The California Senate Committee on Judiciary reported favorably a constitutional amendment providing equal suffrage for women.11 Coal-Mine Fatalities.—Four hundred miners have been entombed and forty instantly killed in a coal-mine explosion at Sosnowice, Russia. Failure of the mine owners to install safety devices was responsible for the disaster, and their arrest has been ordered by government officials. January 20, the same date, six men were reported killed and many injured in a colliery explosion near Richmond, Virginia. To eliminate frequent disasters of this nature in the United States, which country has the largest death-rate from such causes, the Government proposes to acquire a coal-mine, and stage actual convulsions, for the benefit of operators and lawmakers, and to prove that the dust of bituminous coal will explode. One of the largest seizures ever made in the history of opium smuggling was at San Francisco, when custom officers boarded a vessel and brought from clever concealment 733 five-tael tins of opium, worth $29,320. This capture has given conclusive evidence that much opium smuggling is backed by wealthy white men. This raises the value of one year's seizure of the drug to more than $60,000. The casket containing the body of Mrs. Mary Baker G. Eddy, founder of the Christian Science Church, has been removed from the tomb where it has rested since the funeral, and lowered into a grave in Mount Auburn Cemetery. A complete set of the founder's works rests on the coffin, and both are enclosed in a vault of concrete and steel. An Ugly Record.—According to the reports of R. G. Dun & Co., defaulted liabilities of the first nine months of 1910 were greatly in excess of the same time in previous year. The defaulted liabilities of the first three quarters of 1909 were $116,135,871; for the same period in 1910 they were $154,417,304. It is a bad showing. That bread tickets instead of money were used to bribe voters at the "wet and dry" election in Danville, Illinois, is an allegation now brought before the county court. Bread tickets were afterward redeemed, it is said, for $1.00, $2.00, and $5.00 each. Investigation is pending. Simultaneously with two prolonged earthquakes, the volcano Taal in the Philippines belched forth lava and stones to a height of 3000 feet. Many were prostrated by the awful explosion, and the island upon which the volcano is located sank two feet. A Presbyterian Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, is to have a church nursery, in charge of experienced kindergarten teachers, where babies may be left while their mothers attend the morning services. Japanese dentists pull teeth with their fingers. It is said that an apprentice in Japanese dentistry is not considered proficient until he can draw nails from the hardest wood without moving it. The last contract has been signed between the Marconi Telegraph Company and the government of India for the construction of a number of wireless telegraph stations in that vast empire. A statue of Jefferson Davis is to be erected in New Orleans. The dedication will take place February 22, the anniversary of his inauguration as President of the Confederate States. A bill has been introduced into the Nevada Legislature providing penalty for the selling or giving of cigarets or materials for making them to any person in the State. Three hundred sailors who participated in the recent mutiny at Rio Janeiro, Brazil, are reported to have been executed and their bodies consigned to the sea. Upon the discovery of black smallpox in Philadelphia, 2600 persons have been quarantined in that city. Eleven were killed and forty-two hurt in a railroad collision in Wales. A curious accident occurred in San Francisco when a Chinese boy's curiosity to know what made the cable-cars go, led him to kneel down and peep through the slot between the rails. As he did so his cue dropped into the opening, and the next minute he was taking a cable ride that attracted much attention. A near-by policeman prevented what might have been serious injury to the lad by severing Ow Ling's cue. Abounding in wealth, New York City abounds in poverty. An average of one person in nine receives charitable assistance. Relief societies number 571; institutions and homes, 147; hospitals, 389; for preventive social work and delinquent adults, 393; for the defective, 69. The cost of the city's charity a year is estimated at $35,000,000. What a stigma on modern civilization! A unique thing occurred in New Jersey the other day. A woman, the retiring governor's private secretary, filled the governor's chair of New Jersey from 12 midnight till the next day noon, the constitution of that State making no provision for the period of time when an outgoing governor retires and his successor takes oath. She is not a suffragist, nor was she in politics.