WE sincerely regret that there has been a change of postal rates between this government and Canada. There is no use of our giving the long article upon which this is based. The order of the government is that commencing on the 8th day of May, 1907, the postal rate applicable in the United States to second-class matter addressed for delivery in Canada shall be one cent for each four ounces or fraction of four ounces, calculated on the rate of each package, and prepaid by means of postage stamps affixed. Papers go now for one cent a pound to all parts of the United States. Formerly this was the rate to Canada; therefore we could furnish the SIGNS to our subscribers in Canada at the same rate as in the United States. But now the postage which we must pay to Canada is four times that which we must pay on papers in the United States; and, therefore, in order that we may not lose—a thing which we are sure our subscribers in Canada will appreciate—we must raise the price of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES to $1.75 a year. We are bound, we feel, to fill all the unexpired subscriptions at the old rate, unless our subscribers themselves wish to make a donation of what we may lose; but all subscriptions taken hereafter must be at the rate of $1.75 a year, $1.25 in clubs. Will all workers, agents, and subscribers please make note of this. We hope that we shall be able to make the paper so good that our subscribers in Canada will not leave us. We are asking them only about one-half extra of what it means to send the paper to single subscribers.
Evils of Gambling
Evils of Gambling.—In the April Century, Jacob A. Riis gives us his observations in connection with this fearful evil. He tells us that twenty years of his life were spent at the New York police headquarters, and that he has seen the thing work “from the time the office boy caught the contagion and swiped stamps from the table to bet at the pool-room down to the time when he was sent to Sing Sing for stealing his employer’s thousands.” Respectable men he has seen win a small bet and from that very day were ruined men. He declares that horse-racing now serves no good purpose, whatever it once did, and that spirit which ever seeks to get something for nothing is corrupting in its very nature, and he asks how much that has to do with graft, which District Attorney Jerome says is universal; how much it has to do with the bribe-giving and bribe-taking that is our national curse and peril. This evil thing, he declares, is gripping us tighter every day and corrupting the morals of the young; it is laying a heavier mortgage on the future of our people than any nation can well stand. And this is but one of the many disintegrating evils manifest in the national life of the world, tokens in the light of the Scriptures of the near-coming of Christ.
Sunset Magazine Articles
The May number of Sunset has some well-written articles on "The Use of Forest Reserves," by E. A. Sterling, chief forester of Pennsylvania Railway, late of the United States service, finely illustrated; "The Development of the Mechanics' Institute of San Francisco," by the secretary, Mr. J. M. Cumming; "Nature's Drug Store;" "The Upbuilding of the West;" "A Nob Hill Anniversary," a year after the earthquake; and others. Price, 15 cents.
The Circle Home Magazine
One of the finest home magazines is the Circle, only five months old, but most excellent, and growing better. It has a "circle" for every one in the largest of families. It is helpful, instructive, and refining. Funk & Wagnalls Company, New York, publishers; price, 15 cents.
