1 8 <»'.> 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
839 
Events of the Week. 
DOMESTIC.—A longshoreman died in the Long Island 
College Hospital at Brooklyn, N. Y., November 14. of 
malignant anthrax, caused by -handling fore'gn hides. 
The victim had a scratch on his neck, through which the 
anthrax bacillus entered the system. . . An attempt 
was made to wreck a Lake Shore train near Conneaut, 
O., November 16. Masked robbers broke open the ex¬ 
press car but were driven off without securing any booty. 
. . A trolley car leaped from the track and fell 10 feet 
into a brook at Passaic, N. J., November 16; six persons 
injured. . . The Postmaster-General issued an order 
November 11 extending the domestic rate of postage to 
the Philippines. All the new possessions except the 
Hawaiian Islands are now included in the domestic rates. 
. . The steamer J. W. Taylor arrived at New York from 
Santos, Brazil, November 18, with two cases of bubonic 
plague on board. One person died of the disease during 
the voyage. The steamer is quarantined, but there is 
no fear of the disease spreading here. . . A coal famine 
prevails in southwestern Kansas, portions of Colorado, 
and No Man’s Land. Should a blizzard occur, it will 
cause frightful suffering. The railroads say that they 
cannot get cars. It is said that cowboys are organizing 
to seize coal where it can be found, if the railroads do 
not distribute it. . . The fall of an aerolite during the 
star shower November 16. wrecked a house near Crescent 
City, Ind., causing a panic. . . The Georgia House of 
Representatives has adopted resolutions calling for the 
election of United States Senators by direct vote, and 
free silver at 16 to I. . . Admiral Dewey has trans¬ 
ferred the house presented to him in Washington to his 
new wife. Much criticism is aroused by this, as Mrs. 
Dewey is a wealthy woman, and those who subscribed 
to the fund for the house desired it to pass from the Ad¬ 
miral to his son, the only child of his first marrage. The 
house was transferred by Mrs. Dewey the following day 
to the Admiral's son, George Goodwin Dewey. . . At 
Humboldt, S. D., six railroad laborers were killed and 
four injured November 19, the casualty being caused by 
a construction train backing down upon a hand-car. . . 
D. V. Rieger, former president of the Missouri National 
Bank, which failed in 1896, owing depositors over $1,500,000, 
has been found guilty of misappropriating the funds of 
the bank. . . For some time ill-feeling has existed be¬ 
tween colored troops stationed at Fort Ringgold, Tex., 
and white citizens of Rio Grande City. November 20, 
the troops and citizens exchanged shots for nearly two 
hours. The attack was so savage that finally the post 
commander was forced to use a Gatling gun. Cavalry 
has been hurried to assist the garrison. . . Vice-Presi¬ 
dent Garret Augustus Hobart died at his home in Pater¬ 
son, N. J., November 21, of angina pectoris. He was 
born on a farm near Long Branch, N. J., in 1843, was 
admitted to the bar in 1866, and entered political life in 
1871. He is survived by a widow and one son. . . A 
woman at Passaic, N. J., recently found a diamond pin 
worth $100 in a turkey she was cleaning . . A horse, 
stolen in Newark, N. J., November 17, was traced to a 
sausage factory, the proprietor having paid $4 for the 
animal, though it was worth $100. . . The Marconi 
Wireless Telegraph Company of America was incorpor¬ 
ated in New Jersey November 22, with a capital of $10,- 
000,000. . . Hazing at the Lawrenceville (N. J.) School 
resulted November 22 in the death of a 12-year-old Prince¬ 
ton boy. 
CUBA.—There was a sharp earthquake shock at San¬ 
tiago November 1. . . A number of towns in the Prov¬ 
inces of Matanzas and Santa Clara have joined in a pro¬ 
test against a civil governor for the Island. They con¬ 
sider that military rule is preferable. . . It is reported 
that the Cuban wreckers working on the wrecked Span¬ 
ish cruisers near Santiago have recovered nearly $19,000 
in gold, and $120,000 worth of brass and copper. It is the 
general opinion among practical wreckers that the 
American Government inspectors who examined the 
wrecks made poor recommendations, as none of the ves¬ 
sels is in position where salvage is impossible. 
PHILIPPINES.—All parts of the Sulu Islands outside 
of the American jjossessions have been ordered closed to 
commerce. . . Recent orders from Aguinaldo, seized in 
the trenches, instruct the insurgents to burn all villages, 
and to fall back without opposing the American advance, 
separating into small bands. . . Major John A. Logan, 
only son of the late Gen. Logan, was killed at San Jacii* 
to, November 11. . . A force of 200 insurgents was cap¬ 
tured near Tarlac November 20. Some of the insurgents 
have escaped to the mountains. 
GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS.—The Austrian Lloyd 
steamer Bernice, from Santos, Brazil, for Trieste, re¬ 
ports from the Cape Verde Islands November 5, that they 
had the plague on board, three cases being fatal. The 
disease is present at several Brazilian towns, besides 
Santos and Rio Janeiro, and continues at Lisbon and 
Oporto, Portugal. . . Guatemala has imposed an export 
tax on bananas, cleaned coffee, rubber, hides, deer and 
sheepskins. . . November 15, a British armored train 
was ran off the track near Frere Station by ambushed 
Boers, and shelled. A number of British were killed and 
captured, after a brave resistance. The Boers are blow¬ 
ing up railroads and bridges with dynamite. . . De¬ 
tails of the fighting at Ladysmith November 9 were re¬ 
ceived November 19. The Boers were repulsed with a 
loss estimated at over 706. Another heavy battle was 
fought at Ladysmith November 15, the Boers being again 
defeated. . . President Kruger has refused to allow 
United States Consul Macrum to exercise the powers of 
British Agent at Pretoria and he will not be permitted 
to send messages or obtain information relative to Brit¬ 
ish prisoners. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—The annual meeting of the 
Indiana Horticultural Society will be held at Indianapolis 
January 3-5, 11*00. The secretary is James Troop, 
Lafayette, Ind. 
The Elmira Poultry Association will hold its annual ex¬ 
hibition at Elmira, N. Y., December 4-8. Secretary, Judd 
If. Johnson, Elmira, N. Y. 
The Iowa State Dairy Association opened its annual 
session at Mason City November 15. There was a large 
butter exhibit. 
The Illinois Live Stock Breeders' Association met at 
Springfield, Ill., November 14. Governor Tanner made an 
address of welcome, to which L. H. Kerrick, of Bloom¬ 
ington, responded. President A. P. Grout, Winchester, 
John Cownie, South Anna, Iowa, and Prof. W. A. Henry, 
of the Wisconsin Agricultural College, were among the 
speakers. 
Gov. Richards, of Wyoming, has issued a request to 
the governors of the arid States and Territories to hold 
a meeting at Salt Lake City, December 14, to formulate 
plans for legislation to be submitted to Congress, looking 
to leasing grazing lands of the West to stockmen and 
ranchers, the rentals to be devoted to building irrigation 
works for the reclamation of the lands susceptible of 
cultivation. 
The Winter dairy school of the Vermont Experiment 
Station (Burlington) will open January 2, 1900. The ses¬ 
sion lasts for four weeks, and the class is limited to 50. 
The course is free to Vermonters, both men and women. 
The Dairymen’s Association of Peoria, Ill., recently sent 
a delegate to the local trades assembly, but he was ruled 
out, on the ground that a dairy association is not a 
regularly-constituted labor union. Some feeling has been 
aroused by this ruling. 
Robert F. Dulaney, of Bowling Green, Ivy., is touring 
that State in the interests of good roads and the forma¬ 
tion of county agricultural societies. Arrangements are 
being made for the increase of farmers' institutes in Ken¬ 
tucky. 
Leather and hides all over the country have taken a 
sudden jump in price, because of the scarcity of both 
raw and manufactured material. For three days during 
the week ending November IS, No. 1 belting leather rose 
one cent per pound a day. 
The annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Dairy Union 
will be held at West Chester December 5-6. Harry Hay¬ 
ward, State College, is secretary. 
November 20, three-year-old Texas Short-horns sold in 
the Chicago Stock Yards for $6.75 per 100 pounds, said to be 
the highest price paid for Texas cattle since 1882. West¬ 
ern range cattle brought $5.70 per 100 pounds. 
PRIVA TE BUSINESS AND PUBLIC FUNCTIONS 
A Plain Discussion of a Plain Case. 
The Country Gentleman is writing the local cor¬ 
respondents of farm institutes in New York State, 
and offering them rewards for distributing at the 
meetings its printed circulars, prepared with a view 
to misrepresent the position of The R. N.-Y. on a 
public question. The facts are as follows: The 
publishers of the Country Gentleman have demand¬ 
ed the exclusive privilege of advertising space on 
the programmes of the farmers’ institute meetings. 
For several years all that this privilege has cost 
them is the mere printing of the programmes. In 
addition to the advertising on them the Country 
Gentleman has had its private imprint on the first 
page, and the programmes have been issued as offi¬ 
cial papers. The American Agriculturist, the New 
York Farmer, and The R. N.-Y. took the matter in 
a quiet, businesslike way to the State officials, and 
insisted that the State ought not to give a private 
concern a valuable privilege of this kind, but that 
if advertising was to be placed on the programmes 
at all, the privilege should go to the highest bidder 
for it, and should not be monopolized by one con¬ 
cern without any adequate compensation to the 
State for the privilege. The State officials agreed 
that this was fair, and withdrew the benefits from 
the Country Gentleman as an official paper. The 
publishers of the Country Gentleman were told that 
they could print and distribute programmes to their 
heart’s content as a private business, but they were 
told that the paid officials of the State would not do 
the work for them, and the programmes must not be 
printed as official papers. The Country Gentleman 
refused to furnish these programmes except as 
official papers, for it wished to keep up the appear¬ 
ance of receiving public endorsement from the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture of the State. If that paper 
is by right entitled to this privilege, then the State 
officials have erred, and the Country Gentleman 
ought to attack them, and not the other publishers. 
The inconsistency of the Country Gentleman is 
shown by the fact that it formerly objected to the 
use of these programmes by the New York Tribune. 
It recently rejoiced over the fact that Hamilton Bus- 
bey could no longer use a public position to secure 
business for his paper, but it forgot to give up its 
own little monopoly until forced to do so. It has 
bitterly attacked ex-Governor Hoard, of Wisconsin, 
and had a representative at Boston last month fight¬ 
ing his re-election to the presidency of the National 
Farmers’ Congress, on the ground that he is a pub¬ 
lisher of a farm paper, and would benefit by his 
position, though the Congress is not supported by 
public money. It criticised Prof. Bailey, of Cornell 
University, for publishing a bulletin instructing 
teachers and children in the cultivation and care of 
school grounds, alleging that he thus put the Sta¬ 
tion in competition with the Country Gentleman. 
One would hardly expect that a paper with this rec¬ 
ord would itself demand and insist on retaining a 
private benefit from a public function, yet that is 
just what the Country Gentleman has been doing. 
We feel like apologizing to our readers for trou¬ 
bling them with this matter. Controversies with 
other publishers are distasteful to us. Our readers 
have no interest in them. They have troubles 
enough, no doubt, of their own. We did not expect 
to reply to the editorial attack of the Country Gen¬ 
tleman. But since they have endeavored to circu¬ 
late their misrepresentations at farmers’ meetings 
through circulars, we thought that a public state¬ 
ment of the matter was due our friends, who may 
mistake our passive silence during such a petty pro¬ 
ceeding for consent to the statements made in the 
Circulars. Since they have made it a public affair, 
we desire our position to be clear and plain. We 
ask no help from the State in the conduct and man¬ 
agement of our business. We think that the State 
is abundantly able to pay its own bills. We are 
perfectly willing that the Country Gentleman, or . 
any other firm, should prepare and print any amount 
of programmes, or other respectable matter, and dis¬ 
tribute it at institutes, or wherever they please, pro¬ 
vided they do it at their own expense, and do not 
take the name of the State to obtain advertising 
which they have not paid for. To put our position 
in a single sentence, we protest against any at¬ 
tempt of private business to steal a free ride on the 
back of a public function. 
THE PROBLEM OF TUBERCULOSIS. 
It is evident that we are on the eve of an outbreak 
of tuberculosis legislation. From the earliest days 
consumption has been regarded as a scourge from 
which there is no respite, but since the demonstration 
of the tubercle bacillus by Prof. Koch, scarcely a 
dozen years ago, both scientific and popular Interest 
have been greatly aroused, and in the hope that means 
can be taken to diminish this great evil, some very 
radical measures are likely to be urged. Koch’s 
famous tuberculin cure has been abandoned as a 
remedy, and the dairymen know to their sorrow that 
a test so essentially delicate works more injury than 
benefit, as now applied to their herds. While floods 
of matter have been written on the communicability 
of bovine tuberculosis to humans, it is safe to say 
that not an atom of valid evidence has yet been ad¬ 
duced to support the contention that it is so com¬ 
municable by natural means. The contagious nature 
of human tuberculosis 'is no longer seriously doubted. 
jl ne discovery of the bacillus has been a real boon to 
humanity, as indicating a possibility of diminishing 
the danger of infection, and public feeling has been 
so worked up by discussions of the subject that it 
may be regarded as certain that laws will soon be 
passed in many States abridging the liberty of pro¬ 
nounced consumptives, and bringing them under pub¬ 
lic sanitary control. 
California and Colorado already clamor for legisla¬ 
tion prohibiting the 'immigration and colonization of 
tuberculous invalids from other States at their vari¬ 
ous “health resorts,” and Florida is about to join in 
the cry. Considering the extravagant claims made 
for the “glorious climates” of some of the States 
named, by the earlier settlers, it may seem rather 
cheeky to quarantine at this date the very class of 
invalids that was so strenuously solicited a decade or 
two ago, but experience has amply demonstrated that 
the greater number of consumptive persons going 
west and south in search of a favorable climate, are 
already beyond a reasonable hope of benefit from 
tbe change, and are not only likely to spread con¬ 
tagion far and wide, but in many cases, liable to be¬ 
come a charge on the community in which they may 
locate. Other States, such as New York, are con¬ 
sidering the feasibility of establishing sanitariums 
for the tuberculous, to be conducted by the Common¬ 
wealth as public 'institutions, where all cases of con¬ 
sumption can be oared for from their incipiency. 
Bills to such an effect were presented at the last 
session of the Legislature, and were very favorably 
entertained; only considerations of political economy 
prevente'd their coming up for passage. 
This 'is all in the line of modern tendencies, to dele¬ 
gate to the public the charge of the ineffective and 
unfortunate, but when the enormous prevalence of 
tuberculosis is considered, amounting to a very sub¬ 
stantial per cent of the whole population, some idea 
of the projected interference with home life can be 
imagined. The public is certain soon to demand the 
quarantine and isolation of advanced cases of con¬ 
sumption, and a general supervision, if not entire 
State care, for all suspected persons, and we may aa 
well get reconciled to the idea, but there is no reason 
why a stampede of ill-considered legislation should 
be tolerated. We have lived and associated inti 
mately with consumptives from the time the disease 
first affected man, and have gotten along tolerably 
well, though many succumb to the destroyer who 
would escape under a good sanitary system. We 
should reform and endeavor to stamp out the evil, 
now that it is recognized, but the problem should be 
approached in a cautious manner. 
