9 POLO CL OBERCE LEAL LIMOS POLLS BRD GO es Fs 
i Our Weekly Letter From : f 
i st g Washington 
r 
Special to the North Shore Breeze 
Washington, August 4—The 
quality of the United States Consular 
service has improved greatly in the 
past five or six years. Political ap- 
pointments are now seldom made. 
Applicants for appointment must 
now secure the approval of the 
State Department to their candidacy, 
and then they are given examina- 
tions both written and oral, to test 
their fitness for the positions which 
they wish to occupy. In this way 
the service is gradually being re- 
eruited from a class of well-edu- 
cated, intelligent, energetic and am- 
bitious young men, who are raising 
the standard of the service and mak- 
ing it one of the best in the world. 
One very important result will be 
the extension of our foreign trade. 
At the same time, the consuls are 
giving close attention to the interests 
of American citizens abroad. The in- 
troduction of the civil service idea 
into the foreign service is doing 
much to elevate it and make it a 
career upon which even the most 
ambitious may well seek to enter. 
Many years ago, with the dis- 
covery of oil in California, where 
coal was scarce and very expensive, 
the railroads there adopted it for 
fuel in their locomotives. There was 
an immediate benefit in the direction 
of economical operation. Moreover, 
travel was given an added delight 
because of the absence of cinders 
and smoke, Incidentally, there was 
such a large decrease in the number 
of grain and grass fires due to the 
absence of the flaming cinders which 
started many fires, that the Santa 
Fe railroad found in the saving by 
fewer damage suits from farmers 
and others, reason enough in itself 
for converting all locomotives on its 
Pacific coast lines into oil burners. 
_ The example of the western roads 
might well be followed by those in 
the rest of the country where there 
is a sufficient supply of oil to insure 
the steady and economical supply of 
that fuel. Anyone who travels on a 
road where coal is used, as for in- 
stance on the routes between Wash- 
ington and New York, will wonder 
why the use of oil fuel is not 
adopted. The smoke and cinders 
from the locomotives render travel 
on such roads in the summer time, 
when windows must be kept open to 
insure enough fresh air to prevent 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
55 
D. J, Flanders, P.T.M. 
suffocation, a positive burden. Prob- 
ably some enterprising railroad will 
meet this issue before long, and 
equip its locomotives with oil burn- 
ers, thereby winning both the grati- 
tude and the patronage of a long 
suffering public. 
Many persons are aware by this 
time that the United States possesses 
a tropical valley away down in the 
southwestern part of the country, in 
what was one time a portion of the 
‘‘back country’’ of San Diego, but 
which has somewhat recently been 
cut off and modelled into a new coun- 
try called Imperial. Only a few years 
ago this was a portion of the famous 
desert region where  sidewinders, 
chuckawallas and gila monsters re- 
sented the intrusion of the prospec- 
tor. The heat reached 120 degrees 
sometimes in the shade, if there was 
any shade, and it was thought that 
the region was worse than useless. 
However, an enthusiastic engineer 
had an idea that irrigation would 
turn the desert into a garden, and 
although he was jeered at and 
the es Public 
IS A SIGNIFICANT FACT THAT INSURES 
THE SATISFACTION ENJOYED BY THOSE 
WHO TRAVEL VIA 
ue BIG MAIN LINE, 
jel] From BOSTON roa 
— WESTERN POINTS 
Modern Equipped Through Trains, Electric Lighted Pullman 
Sleeping Cars, Parlor and Through Tourist Cars, 
Excellent Dining Car Service. 
The Scenic Route Through 
THE GRAND DEERFIELD VALLEY 
Detailed Information, Tickets and Reservations may be 
easily arranged through principal Ticket Offices 
of the Company or Gen. Pass. Dept., 
BOSTO N C. M. Burt, G.P.A, i MAINE 
tie? delights 
Boston 
Raitroap 
HOUSE CLEANING MADE EASY. 
House cleaning is robbed of half 
its terrors by the use of the Santo 
Vacuum Electric Cleaner. No more 
taking up earpets. Attaches to any 
electric light fixture and so easy of 
operation a child can use it. All 
draperies as well as carpets can be 
cleaned. I rent the machine for $2 
a day and the cost of operation is 
trifling. Try it once and you will 
never regret it. A postal or tele- 
phone eall will bring it to your door. 
G. A. KNOERR, Electrician, 
Central Square, Manchester. 
hooted at he persisted until at 
leneth, out of his efforts, it came to 
pass that a dam was built, ditches 
dug, and water conveyed from the 
river to this sandy desert. Then the 
magical transformation took place, 
and the desert began to bloom. Now 
the first Paitliied of the season 
comes from Imperial valley, the in- 
troduction of cotton has resulted in 
the planting of 16,000 aeres this 
year with no pests to annoy the farm- 
ers, the cottonwood grows to the 
dimensions of a saw log in three or 
