986 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
August 7, 1915. 
EVENTS OF THE WEEK 
DOMESTIC.—A report received at the 
Navy Department July 23 shows that the 
recent fire on the battleship Oklahoma, 
now building in the yards of the New 
York Shipbuilding Company, at Camden, 
N. .T., caused great damage and that as a 
result the delivery of the ship to the gov¬ 
ernment will be delayed at least two 
months. 
President Wilson announced July 23 
that he had accepted the resignation of 
James M. Sullivan of New Jersey as Min¬ 
ister to Santo Domingo. This announce¬ 
ment has been expected for two months, 
ever since Senator Phelan of California, 
completed his investigation of charges 
against the minister. The charges 
against the minister to Santo Domingo 
extend over a period almost equal to his 
tenure of office. They begin within a 
few days after the man who was Bald 
Jack Rose’s prize-fight press agent in 
Waterbury and his counsel in the Becker 
trial, landed in the republic on Septem¬ 
ber 21, 1913, and demanded of W. W. 
Vick, receiver-general of customs, who 
preferred the charges against him. that 
the receivership funds be deposited in the 
Banco Nacional, and continue until he 
left Santo Domingo on last June 21. Sul¬ 
livan’s nomination was confirmed by the 
Senate on August 12, 1913, after Mr. 
Bryan had appointed him. 
The home of the foreman of a saddlery 
concern at Dallas, Texas, which has a 
$500,000 order for the British army, was 
dynamited July 26. He and his son were 
badly injured. The dynamiter is sup¬ 
posed to be “Pearce,” the alleged part¬ 
ner of Frank Holt, who shot J. P. Mor¬ 
gan. The police later discovered two 
hambs at the home of J. D. Padgitt, pres¬ 
ident of the saddlery company. The 
bombs were discovered before they ex¬ 
ploded. 
July 24, 1,217 persons -were drowned 
when the. steamer Eastland capsized at 
her pier in the Chicago River. It was 
the annual outing of the Western Elec¬ 
tric Company, and 7.500 persons were go¬ 
ing, on five steamers, across the lake to 
Michigan City, Ind. So sudden was the 
overturning of the boat that none on 
board had a chance to escape. Within 
five minutes of the first noticeable list, 
the vessel snapped the hawsers that held 
her to the pier, or dragged up the piles to 
which they were fastened, had drifted 
slowly a few yards out into the river, 
turned on her beam ends and settled to 
the bottom in 25 feet of water. Panic 
seized the passengers when the boat be¬ 
gan to turn over. The best accounts of 
witnesses agree that the steamer rolled 
slightly twice, then turned further, and 
that hundreds of screaming, struggling 
men, women and children slid across the 
sloping decks, fought for room and 
clutched at companions, deck chairs or 
any other object that came to hand. 
Women and children by hundreds were 
caught below decks. The Eastland had a 
bad reputation for some defects in con¬ 
struction. A Congressional investigation 
is probable. The chief complaint directed 
against the Federal authorities in connec¬ 
tion with the disaster is that the Govern¬ 
ment should have permitted the continued 
operation on the Great Lakes of a vessel 
said to have been unsafe and even sanc¬ 
tioned the operation of the craft in the 
excursion service. It is pointed out that 
on account of the large crowds of excur¬ 
sionists, a majority of whom were women 
and children, permission to employ the 
steamer for excursions put her faults to 
the severest possible test and made it in¬ 
evitable that the slightest mishandling of 
the vessel would result in disaster. 
American Red Cross doctors and 
nurses will he withdrawn from the Eu¬ 
ropean battlefields on October 1 because 
of lack of funds to maintain them longer 
at Qieir stations. It is possible that the 
two units in Belgium, where the greatest 
need exists, will be continued, but the 
other 14 detachments will return to the 
United States. The Serbian Sanitary 
Commission and other work supported by 
special contributions, will go on as long 
as those contributions are available, but 
the general fund collected in the United 
States, amounting to $1,560,000, will be 
exhausted on October 1. 
Fire of mysterious origin broke out 
July 24 in the hold of the British freight 
steamer Cragside while her holds were 
being loaded with sugar at West Twenty- 
third Street, New York. In the com¬ 
partment where the fire began were 24,- 
000 bags of sugar, each weighing 100 
pounds and valued at about $5. Practi¬ 
cally the entire lot was destroyed by 
flames or water. The damage to the ship 
was estimated at $10,000, and as some 
water spread to hold No. 3 and damaged 
part of the sugar there the entire loss 
was estimated at $150,000. United States 
Secret Service agents will investigate the 
origin of the blaze. It has been estab¬ 
lished that some of the bombs found in 
British and French freight steamers sail¬ 
ing from this port were concealed in bags 
of sugar. 
The Alaskan Engineering Commission, 
which is to build the government rail¬ 
road from Seward, on the Pacific, 471 
miles to Fairbanks, in the interior, has 
received a permit from the Forest Service 
to cut 85.000,000 feet of timber in the 
Chugach National Forest for construc¬ 
tion use. The timber will be cut in des¬ 
ignated areas along the right of way of 
the proposed railroad, which runs through 
the Chugach National Forest for several 
miles. The cut will be the largest ever 
felled in Alaskan forests in one operation, 
and is worth approximately $145,000 on 
the stump. 
Fire July 25 destroyed the D. W. Wil¬ 
bur Company coal and lumber yards, the 
coolers and meat plants of Armour & Co. 
and Nelson Morris & Co. and the paper 
warehouse of Forsyth & Davis, at Pough¬ 
keepsie, N. Y. The loss is estimated at 
$175,000, on which there is partial in¬ 
surance. 
Foreclosure suits against the defend¬ 
ants in the famous Danbury hatters’ case 
were filed July 26 in the United States 
District Court at Hartford, Conn., by 
Daniel Davenport and Walter Gordon 
Merritt, as counsel for D. E. Loewe & 
Co. This action is taken because of the 
failure of the 250 defendants to pay the 
judgment of $252,130.90 returned against 
them in November, 1912, and means that 
the men in Danbury, Bethel and Norwalk 
who boycotted the products of Loewe & 
Co. at the instance of the United Hatters 
of North America will lose their homes 
unless the union comes to their rescue. 
The report of the court of inquiry 
which investigated the situation at the 
Naval Academy at Annapolis growing 
out of the recommendation for the dis¬ 
missal of seven midshipmen on the ground 
of cribbing examination papers was re¬ 
ceived at the Navy Department July 26. 
It is a document of 5.000 pages and is in 
the hands of the Judge Advocate General 
for review and recommendation to Secre¬ 
tary Daniels. There is reason to believe 
that the court finds in favor of the dis¬ 
missal of the seven original defendants 
and several others subsequently involved 
in the charges of having had guilty ad¬ 
vance knowledge of the Spanish examin¬ 
ation paper and of having made secret 
visits to the building from which papers 
and records were stolen. 
Three persons were killed and three in¬ 
jured at Coney Island, N. Y., July 27 
when a scenic railway car left the rails 
and hurled the victims 30 feet to the 
street below. 
The arrest in Chicago July 27 by post 
office inspectors of Charles Siefert, Jr., 
in connection with charges of using the 
mails to defraud, led to the disclosure 
that a swindle has been worked by means 
of duplicate State canal bonds on which 
interest charges have been paid. It is 
said that thus far collections have been 
made on duplicate securities amounting 
to $25,000. The bonds were duplicates of 
bonds owned by John D. Rockefeller. The 
Federal officers assumed that the dupli¬ 
cate coupons came from genuine sheets 
that had been discarded because of im¬ 
perfections or possibly they were made 
from stolen plates. Siefert was arrested 
after he had mailed to the bank six spur¬ 
ious coupons from St. Louis, purporting 
to have been cut from the bonds of the 
Erie, Oswego and Champlain Company, 
and asking that the interest thereon be 
paid. 
Eight men were killed and 15 badly 
burned in a gas explosion at one of the 
entrances of the Moderwell mine at Chris¬ 
topher, Ill., July 27. 
FARM AND GARDEN.—Mrs. M. V. 
Polton, wife of a prominent farmer, near 
Iowa City, Iowa, has died as the conse¬ 
quence of an attack made by an infuri¬ 
ated hog in her barnyard. 
The smuggling of aigrettes through the 
parcel post was brought to the attention 
of the Attorney-General of the United 
States July 23, as a part of the fight that 
is being made by T. Gilbert Pearson of 
New York, secretary of the National As¬ 
sociation of Audubon Societies, for the 
protection of the egret. The protection 
of the egret, the plumage of which is said 
to be worth twice its weight in gold, has 
been one of the most difficult of the pro¬ 
tective phases of the association’s work. 
The association is paying half of the sal¬ 
ary of the wardens on the Florida game 
preserves and in other ways protecting 
the egrets, but in spite of every effort the 
colonies are X'aided and wardens have 
been killed while opposing hunters in 
their efforts to secure this valuable plu¬ 
mage. 
The Gladiolus Society of Ohio will 
hold its third annual show at the IIol- 
lenden Hotel, Cleveland, O., August 13- 
14. 
The Indiana Horticultural Society will 
hold its fifth annual apple show at In¬ 
dianapolis. November 6-13; manager, 
Frank I. Odell, La Fayette, Ind. 
Pears for the Hudson Valley. 
I propose setting out about 1,000 pear 
trees next Spring, and would like any sug¬ 
gestions in regard to varieties best suited 
from a commercial point of view to my 
locality. My land is situated in Colum¬ 
bia County, N. Y., among the Berkshire 
hills. The altitude is about 1,500 feet 
above sea level. The soil is clay loam. I 
want varieties which would ripen at dif¬ 
ferent periods to extend the time of har¬ 
vesting. What varieties are good pollen- 
izers for Kieffer, Sheldon and Bartlett? 
Is Sheldon a good commercial variety; 
should it be grafted on quince stock, and 
what are its principal disadvantages? If 
any of your readers have actual experi¬ 
ence in this matter I would greatly ap¬ 
preciate their suggestions. T. M. j. 
R. N.-l r .—We would like suggestions 
from experience. 
If a Giant Cut the Wires 
Suppose all telephones were 
silent, and that for forty-eight 
hours you could not even call a 
telephone exchange anywhere 
in the Bell System to ask what 
the trouble was! 
Imagine the confusion which 
would prevail—with personal 
visits and messengers substi¬ 
tuted for direct, instant com¬ 
munication; with sidewalks, 
street carsand elevators jammed; 
with every old-fashioned means 
of communication pressed into 
service and all of them com¬ 
bined unable to carry the load. 
The instant contact of mer¬ 
chant with customer,of physician 
with patient,of friendwith friend, 
would be severed; the business 
man and the housewife would 
lose the minutes and hours the 
telephone saves them. The eco¬ 
nomic loss would be incalculable. 
There would not be time 
enough to do the things we are 
accustomed to do, and social as 
well as business life would be 
paralyzed. 
Such a condition is almost in¬ 
conceivable. The Bell System has 
developed telephone service to 
the highest degree of usefulness 
and made it so reliable that its 
availability is never questioned. 
It has connected cities, towns 
and the remotest places from 
coast to coast, and has taught 
the people the advantages of 
nation-wide telephone facilities. 
Plans are made, buildings 
built and businesses run with 
Bell Service taken for granted, 
and yet we have to imagine what 
it would mean to be entirely 
without telephones before the 
great value of this ever-present 
service can really be appreciated. 
American. Telephone and Telegraph Company 
Anq Associated Companies 
One Policy One System Universal Service 
THE FREDERICK COUNTY 
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Main Office, Dopt. O 16, BALTIMORE, MD. 
DOMESTIC JUNIOR 
The Engine for all Small Farm Jobs 
The Junior has the same superior quality as 
the larger, higher-priced Domestic Engines. 
Orchardists and farmers find It most economi¬ 
cal and labor-saving. Runs pump, cream 
separator, churn, spray pump, grindstone, 
corn-sheller and all other machines requiring 
light power. Our catalogshows and describes 
"The Quality Line ” of Domestic 
Engines, Pumps, and 
Power Spraying Ma¬ 
chines. Write for It. 
Domestic Engine and Pump Co. 
Box 503, StvDoensburg, Pa. 
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ED - - —.- =[U 
New York State Fair 
Agricultural and Industrial Exposition 
Syracuse, September 13-18, 1915 
Represents Greatest Interests of Empire State 
ENTRIES CLOSE 
Horse Show 
Farm Horse 
Cattle. 
Sheep. 
Swine. 
Poultry. 
September 1 
.. August 28 
_August 25 
...August 25 
... August 25 
.. .August 25 
Dogs. 
Farm Products 
Fruits. 
Flowers. 
Domestic. 
Dairy. 
September 1 
September 4 
September 4 
September 4 
September 4 
... August 28 
Attractions Highest Class in the World 
Conway’s Concert Band Grand Circuit Races 
World-Renowned Aviator Largest and Best Horse Show 
Saturday’s Feature—Steeplechase over 3-mile course 
Write for Prize List 
