American Bible Society Endowment
By Editor
The American Bible Society has been able to raise $500,000 to meet the offer of Mrs. Russel Sage of a similar amount, the whole to be used as an endowment for the society. It ought to be a cause of rejoicing on the part of all Bible lovers that this has been raised. Surely if there are any organizations on earth which have done good work for God and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible societies have been among them. They have opened great gates, have broken down mighty bars, and have carried the Word of God through trouble and persecution to those who were in darkness. May God's blessing rest upon them. One of the worst things in connection with the New York Stock Exchange gambling, is what are called "wash sales." It is said that 60 to 80 per cent of the transactions on the Stock Exchange are wash sales, in which there is no real sale at all; in which there are bogus sales for the purpose of creating a false idea of prices. In a word, the purpose is to swindle somebody else. The New York Stock Exchange has as one of the articles in its constitution, "To maintain high standards of commercial honor and integrity among its members, and to promote and inculcate just and equitable principles of trade and business." Surely that is high-sounding, and looks well; but it certainly does not tally with the questionable dealings constantly manifest. (One Eastern paper remarks: "Confidence men who operate elsewhere than in Wall Street are pursued by law; usury elsewhere is prohibited; gambling contracts elsewhere are not enforceable in the courts. Why should they be in Wall Street?") Leslie M. Shaw, former Secretary of the Treasury, says that Japan can — he does not say that she will, but can — put 200,000 soldiers in Hawaii in thirty days without firing a shot; that Japan can land a fleet at Seattle in a foggy day without so much as causing the barking of a dog; that she can march her troops down the Coast and take every excuse for fortifications which we have on the Coast without opposition, for not one of the forts is protected from the rear; and further, that if every powder-mill in the United States was to make powder twenty-four hours per day for thirty days, the product would last our present navy but two hours. He further declares that these are not state secrets; everybody knows them except ourselves, and still we go on building battle-ships; but battle-ships without colliers and transports are absolutely worthless. He declares that he did not predict war, as he was wrongly reported, but he did predict what we would wake up to in case of war. Sunday Seventh Day.—A Springfield (Ore.) paper gives a sample account of what comes before many town councils. It reads: "Moved by Rivett, and seconded by Kestley, that the town attorney be instructed to draft an ordinance entitled 'Sunday Closing,' wherein card games, pool and billiard-rooms, baseball, and bowling-alleys, shooting-galleries, near beer joints, and electric theaters be prohibited running on the seventh day of the week, commonly known as Sunday." The Springfield Council of Oregon better read up from the calendars. A Portland (Oregon) man is said to have discovered the lost Egyptian art of preserving vegetable and animal matter indefinitely. He has taken roses withered for months, and brought them back to their original freshness and color. Vegetables were similarly demonstrated. Corn on the cob a year old was restored by being placed in water over night, so that it not only looked but tasted fresh; and he contends that the process is so simple that a child may apply it to the product which is to be preserved, when the secret is learned. A news item in the New York "Evening Telegram" of March 23 declares that to win a prize of $25.00 in a Marathon dance, four girls between the ages of 17 and 18 collapsed after an hour and a half. One of them had to be taken home in an automobile. Sixteen participated; and others kept on in their giddy whirl while their companions were lying helpless on the floor. What a senseless thing it was! If such exertion as this had been put forth in any useful way it would have been called insanity. The Full Loaf.—A San Francisco supervisor is making a strong struggle for pure and full weight bread. A one-pound loaf is the standard, but the bill permits larger and smaller. We hope the measure will carry. Polonium is said to have about 5,000 times greater radio-activity than radium. It takes several tons of pitchblende to obtain only one tenth of a milligram, equal to .0154 of a grain. The pope has bestowed his blessing upon Mr. John D. Rockefeller on account of his princely gifts.