BUSINESS AND FINANCE

The Business Situation Selected and Condensed for PUBLIC OPINION THE GENERAL SITUATION

Bradstreet's, New York

A number of favorable circumstances and events present themselves this week. Perhaps the most notable of these are the renewed activity and confidence in the iron and steel market, accompanied by prompt and even rapid advances in several grades of crude pig iron and steel and the advance in the price of raw cotton, long predicted but unrealized until the present week. What might be regarded as a minor feature in the business situation, though at the same time conveying much that is hopeful to the interests involved, is a quite general improvement in distributive trade and demand in the central west and in the south, where spring trade is reported opening in good shape. Less favorable features of the week are the slowness of spring trade in drygoods to develop at New York and other eastern centers, except Boston, and the mild weather in the northwest, rendering it likely that retailers' stocks carried over will be larger than earlier expected. Although the advance in cotton has been claimed to be too rapid, it has undoubtedly imparted a much more cheerful tone to the southern business situation, and with the advance in iron and steel has done much to add to the confidence with which the trade outlook for 1898 is regarded. Advances in prices have not been limited to iron and raw cotton. Wheat, corn, and oats are all higher, partly on speculation, as are also lard, pork and beef, sugar and lead. Some makes of woolen men's-wear goods are slightly higher. Firmness is a feature in the price of flour, coffee, copper, and printcloths, while some other makes of cotton goods affected by the strike restricting production are more firmly held. Raw wool is quieter, but firmly held in sympathy with foreign markets. Prices of lumber, boots and shoes, and tobacco hold recent advances.

RAILROAD EARNINGS

That the railroads are sharing to the full in the prosperity ruling throughout the country is proved by the returns of leading companies for the month of Janu

ary.

Good as the showing was for the last month of 1897, that for January is an even better one, and with the sole exception of November, 1897, that for the month just closed, in percentage and in number of gains, ranks as the best for any month since before the panic of 1893. The total earnings of 124 companies, operating over 99,000 miles of road, amount to $44,124,000, a gain over the same month of 1897 of 15 per cent, comparing with a gain of 13 per cent in December and of 21 per cent in November over the corresponding periods of the preceding year. The good showing made by the Pacific roads, their earnings increasing 37 per cent over January a year ago, is, of course, a partial reflection of the activity growing out of Klondike business, but it is to be noted that the grangers show a gai nof 21 per cent and the southwestern system of more than 17 per cent. The trunk lines and the central-western roads each report 13 per cent increase. In spite of the depressed condition ruling in the cotton business at the south during the month, the southern roads report a

gain of 6 per cent. Large gains by individual roads are a feature of the month's returns, the Northern Pacific and the Illinois Central reporting the heaviest increases, but it is further to be noted that 102 out of 112 systems report gains of a larger or smaller amount as compared with last year, and also that the decreases are confined entirely to two groups, the central-western and the southern roads. Net earnings for December and for the calendar year 1897 make a very good showing. The gain in net earnings for December on leading roads was 13.8 per cent on a gain in gross earnings of 12 per cent, while for the calendar year there is a gain shown of 10.6 per cent in net on a gain in gross of only half that proportion.

BANK CLEARINGS

Bank clearings continue to point to an immense business doing in the country at large, in a total aggregating for the week $1,434,000,000, less than 2 per cent smaller than last week, 52 per cent larger than in the corresponding week last year, 58 per cent larger than this week in 1896, 74 per cent larger than in 1895, 82 per cent larger than in 1894, and 6.3 per cent larger than this week in 1892.

WHEAT EXPORTS

Wheat exports fall slightly below last week's reduced total, aggregating for the week 3,419,504 bushels, against 3,635,000

bushels last week, 2,051,000 bushels in the corresponding week of 1897, 2,718,000 bushels in 1896, 2,572,000 bushels in 1895, and 2,005,000 bushels in 1894. Corn exports show a gain, amounting as they do to 4,508,000 bushels, against 4,104,000 bushels last week, 4,169,000 bushels in this week last year, 3,143,000 bushels in 1896, and 562,000 bushels in 1895. Wheat rose only a fraction for January, but 24 cents for May, while corn rose nearly 1 cent.

THE MONEY MARKET

Although the banks lost money to the treasury this week, a plethora of funds continues to be the feature in the New York loan market. Call money is, if anything, easier and bankers' balances at the stock exchange have ruled at 14@11⁄2 per cent, with some transactions at I per cent. Large amounts of money are offered on time at 2@24 per cent for sixty to ninety days and 22@3 per cent for four to six months, the inquiry being on a limited scale. In commercial paper a fair amount of business is in progress, but the buying demand quickly absorbs all acceptable offerings. City institutions are taking considerable amounts of paper, and the quoted rates are 3@32 per cent for doubles and best names.

FAILURES

Business failures continue to make favorable comparisons with previous weeks and years, the total for the week just ended being 278, against 295 last week, 301 in the corresponding week of 1897, 381 in this week of 1896, 296 in 1895, and 288 in 1894.

THE RISE IN COTTON

New York Tribune

Cotton manufacture is not largely responsible for the rise last week to 64 cents, many mills remaining idle, while the demand for goods has but moderately improved. The idea became current that measures to reduce acreage were going to be effective this year, and speculative buying on that basis drove a large short interest to cover. How much the next crop may be reduced is a question which depends greatly upon the peculiar state of the industry in regions where ready cash can be had for cotton only, where

|

small farmers have nothing else with which to pay for necessaries, and where a great number of farms are mortgaged on terms requiring payment of so many bales of cotton instead of so much money. But the quantity not yet marketed at the south seems likely to prove greater than at this season for many years. Already 9,000,000 bales have come into sight, 8,959,089 on Friday, against 8,248,240 from the largest crop ever grown before, and receipts in February have been 387,368 bales in eleven days, against 317,483 bales in fifteen days from that crop. Exports have been about 9,000 bales less than in February, 1895, southern consumption 1,000 bales more, and takings by northern spinners 20,305 bales more. Spinners' stocks in Europe were 729,000 bales February 1, against 570,000 last year, and weekly consumption was only 2,000 bales larger.

Cotton Seed and Corn

M neapolis (Minn.) Tribune Mr. C. Wood Davis, the well-known crop statistician, has an explanation of the continued low price of corn, notwithstanding the advance in wheat, which seems plausible. He attributes it to the fact that the by-products of the cotton fields-as, for instance, cotton-seed oil and cotton-seed meal-have taken the

place of lard and of corn for feeding. Every pound of cotton-seed grease substituted for lard effects an economy of one-fifth of a bushel of corn for feeding purpose in the fattening of the hog, and the cotton-seed meal takes the place of the corn directly in feeding all kinds of

Cheerfulness

Any day, wet or cold, hot or dry, is pleasant to the thoroughly healthy man or woman. We have within ourselves the power to make our days cheerful or disagreeable. We do not depend upon the condition of the sky or atmosphere, for when one is perfectly poised, physically and mentally, the days go by as a dream of comfort, whether they be dark or sunny. Our goal should be health. Mental health is a strong element to bring about physical health, but ill health can be, and is, set up by the use of elements contained in food and drink that do not conform to the wants of nature.

We are inclined to the use of narcotics and stimulants for their temporary deadening or quickening of the nervous system and the heart, but these unnatural things bring about serious conditions; for instance, the pulse of the coffee drinker or tobacco user shows derangement (either little or great) of the heart. This trouble is ordinarily coupled with stomach and some other difficulties.

The ones who see clearly the advantage in business, home, and society of a perfect condition of mental and physical health will not require urging to have them abandon articles of food or drink that prevent the accomplishment of the desired end.

The leaving off of coffee for ten days and the use of Postum Food Coffee in its stead I will demonstrate the value of the above suggestion and the fact that Postum furnishes brain and body with well-selected food elements which go to rebuild the daily disintegration, while at the same time Postum furnishes a delicious beverage if one be particular to know that after boiling commences it is allowed to continue boiling fifteen minutes. This is necessary to obtain the food elements and the proper taste. *

Postum is the only Cereal Coffee yet discovered, with a coffee taste, that is pure and free from low-grade coffee or other drugs.

stock. Mr. Davis submits a series of figures which go to show that the displacement effected by the utilization of cottonseed-which formerly went to wasterepresent the average yield of 9,250,000 acres of corn. Thus it happens that, while the acreage of corn in this country has not kept pace with the growth of population, the average price of corn and of hogs has diminished from year to year. Since 1887 our domestic consumption of maize has fallen three bushels per capita, and the average number of swine has decreased one-tenth, although in the same time the human population has increased by 20,000,000. Mr. Davis says: "Had

swine increased in the same ratio as population, we should have had more than 60,000,000 in January, 1897, instead of 40,000,000, as shown by the department of agriculture."

This state of facts adds point to the advice recently given by the secretary of agriculture and by many experts in the trade, to American farmers, to devote their efforts to raising a leaner hog than the one heretofore in vogue. Objection is frequently made in foreign markets to American bacon that it is too fat, and the

leaner Canadian product commands a better price. Fat hogs try out more lard than lean ones, and thus come into more direct competition with the cotton-seed oil. But the cotton-seed oil cannot compete with the portion of the hog that is used for meat. Smaller and leaner hogs and more of them will help, at least partially, to solve the problem of better corn and pork prices.

Growth of Suretyship

Financier, New York

The growth of surety companies in this country during the past decade has been something little less than phenomenal. These corporations are bound to occupy a much more important place in Ameri

can finance than they have filled heretofore. Their field is practically still uncultivated, and as they appeal for business on arguments which are almost unanswerable, their sphere of usefulness is unlimited. In fact, the spread of their importance will measure pretty accurately the transition of business from a lower to a higher and much more satisfactory level. To begin with, the day of individual surety in this country is rapidly passing away. Why this is the Financier has gone to some trouble within the past year to explain, but the fact that over ninety per cent of the bonds filed in the courts of this country are of a private character shows the need of popular education on the subject. Probably within ten years the figures will be reversed. It is to be hoped that they will.

There are, in the United States, nine leading companies engaged in the work of furnishing surety bonds. Only four of these concerns made reports as far back as 1893, and at that time their income was $3,547,436. The losses paid were $1,237,574, and their surplus was $1,004,018. At the end of 1896 the total income of the nine companies was $7,618,130, they had paid during the year over $1,500,000 of losses, their surplus was in excess of $3,360,000, and they carried a reserve for reinsurance (50 per cent of premiums) of $2,668,850. The total resources of seven of these companies were above $16,000,lated out of a very small fraction of pas000. As these holdings were accumusible business, the future of the corporations seems reasonably secure. The fact that their shares are selling, with one or two exceptions, at a high premium, indicates the faith in which they are regarded by careful investors. The banks of the United States alone should furnish them with business sufficient to warrant the continuance of high dividends, for the banks are beginning to realize that a surety bond is to be desired above the individual surety, which has caused so much trouble and litigation in the past.

The Flaxseed Trade

Oil, Paint and Drug Reporter, New York The fact that domestic flaxseed has advanced to a parity with foreign laid down here has led to rumors of considerable engagements of the latter by seaboard crushers, and this is construed as a feat

ure of the situation likely to depress the

market. Investigation, however, fails to show that there has been any foreign seed bought by crushers here beyond the purchases of Calcutta necessary to meet the demand for that oil which is to be reckoned on throughout the year. The position of seed abroad, or, more especially, of the Indian crop, would justify engagements for some time ahead at current quotations at the primary markets, and

so far as we are able to learn, the business has been limited to purchases on this

account. Confidence in the maintenance of prices on flax is not sufficiently pronounced to lead crushers to buy linseed

in competition with domestic as yet. The

present net cost of Calcutta seed laid down here would be but little above that of domestic on an all-rail freight rate, and in view of the greater yield from the imported seed, the oil would probably cost no more than that made from flax on a basis of the extreme quotations of the past week. At the nominal quotations made for Argentine seed, the latter could be laid down here below the cost of flax,

Address Mission Committee, 3 Berkeley Place, Cambridge, Mass.

the crushers, and the cost of oil is therefore predicated, as it has been for some months, upon a lower basis for seed than

exists to-day. For that reason there is no incentive to buy foreign seed except, as already stated, to meet the regular demand for Calcutta oil.

Argentine seed is not in favor with American crushers, and would not be taken on an even basis with domestic; hence there would be little likelihood of its importation except to meet a positive deficiency in the supply of the latter, or in the event of speculation driving the price of domestic beyond the import cost. The latter is not a sufficiently probapie contingency to merit serious consideration, except in connection with a greater shortage in the supply of domestic than can now be foreseen. While the crop has evidently been below 10,000,000 bushels, the consumption has not made the inroads upon old stocks of oil or the supplies of seed in crushers' hands that might have been expected to occur before this date. Reasonable anticipations for the trade of the next six months indicate that the new crop will come in with very little seed or oil on hand, but there is no actual famine yet in sight, and until one is imminent there is little likelihood of crushers turning their attention to foreign supplies. It is quite apparent from the foreign crop reports, however, that should this country prove to be a market for any larger quantity of Argentine or Indian seed, prices abroad would respond very promptly and a higher basis of values would re

sult over the world.

Various Topics

The Pennsylvania railroad has issued a schedule of rates showing the passenger tariff to a number of cities in Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina via the Seaboard Air Line. These rates include the allowance of a differential which has been conceded to the Seaboard Air Line. This differential makes a difference of as much as $3 to some points. The claiming of

The germs of consumption are everywhere.

There is no way but to fight them.

If there is a history of weak lungs in the family this fight must be constant and vigorous.

You must strike the disease, or it will strike you.

At the very first sign of failing health take Scott's Emulsion of Cod-liver Oil with Hypophosphites.

It gives the body power to resist the germs of consump

tion.

50c. and $1.00, all druggists SCOTT & BOWNE, Chemists, New York

(Trade Mark Registered.)

GLUTEN FLOUR

For Dyspepsia, Constipation, Diabetes and Obesity. Unlike all other Flou, because it contains no bran and little starch-which cause acidity and flatulence. Nutritious and paltaben bghest degree Unri. valled in America Europe.

PAMPHLET AND SAMPLE FREE. Write to FARWELL RHINES, Watertown, N..

this differential was one of the features of the Seaboard's position in its recent fight with the Southern railway. This controversy is settled, with the differential remaining in force.

Several trade journals point out that the importations of machinery by Japan are among the evidences of its surprising growth in industrial enterprises. Its manufactures have increased in ratio with these importations, and till comparatively independent of foreign-made machinery, the demand is more likely to increase than decrease. For locomotives, electric machinery, engines, boilers, steam vessels, iron rails, wire rope, and spinning machinery, the demand has been of a continuous nature. For machinery alone the value of imports for one year amounted to $25,000,000. It is worthy of note that American enterprise in this trade is meeting with marked success.

The drygoods market is showing increased activity at Boston as the season advances and cotton fabrics are firmer. Medium count fine-yarn goods, such as are made in New Bedford, are quoted 5 to 10 per cent higher on account of the strike, while printcloths are stronger and have met with recent large sales. Printed fabrics are meeting with a liberal distribution for spring, while a steady business in ginghams is also in progress. Dress woolens are meeting with a good jobbing demand, while some duplicate orders for spring fabrics are being booked by mill agents. Men's-wear woolens continue in excellent demand for fall, and some mills have further advanced prices 22 cents to 5 cents this week.

Enameline

The Modern STOVE POLISH.

Produces a JET BLACK enamel gloss. Dustless, Odorless, Labor
Saving. 5 and 10 cent boxes. Try it on your Cycle Chain.
J. L. PRESCOTT & CO., NEW YORK.

Chi. M. & St. P..
Chic. Ter. Tr....
Chi. Ter. Tran pr...
C., L. & W..

C., L. & W. pr...
C.. C., C. & St. L.....
Col. Fuel & Iron..
Col., H. V. & Tol.
C., H. V. & T. pr.
Consol'd Gas...
Del. & Hudson
Del. Lack & W
Den. & Rio Gr.
Den. & Rio G. pr.
Erie......

Erie 1st pr....
Erie 2d pr
Gen. Electric..
Hawaii Sug. Co..
Illinois Central..
Iowa Central pr.
Illinois Steel...
Kansas & Tex.
Kan. & Tex. pr.
Kans., C. P. & G..
Laclede Gas..
Lake E. & West

Here and There

"Poor Timmie! Foive years in Sing Sing. I do feel shorry for him." "Bedad, an' yure shympathy's t'rowed away. He's surrounded by frinds."-Harlem Life.

Isaacstein (pathetically)-Ach! mine friendt, ven I sell you dot suit for fife tollars I'm losing moneysh on it. Farmer-You be? Isaacstein-Yes, mine friendt-it's inzured for more dan dot !-Puck.

Frances (aged six, who loves her kitty)-Are you happy, mamma? Yes, dear. Why? Frances (listening)-I don't hear you purr!-Harper's Bazar.

To lubricate the chain and sprockets of your bicycle use Graphitoleo. Send 15 cents for sample, to Jos. Dixon Crucible Co., Jersey City, N. J.

"What do you mean," asked the city editor, "by comparing the air to frozen quinine?" "I mean to say, said the new reporter, with proud humility, "that it was bitter cold."-Indianapolis Journal.

SUFFERERS FROM COUGHS, SORE THROAT, etc., should be constantly supplied with "Brown's Bronchial Troches." Avoid imitations.

Smithers (just returned from Europe)-Waiter, gimme some of that fromage de Brie cheese and a small cup of demitasse. Waiter-Noir? SmithersNo, black.-Criterion.

A seed catalogue is a handy index to gardening. Bridgeman's book of vegetable, farm, and flower seeds is sent free. Address 37 E. 19th St., New York. Baron Munchausen was angry at the officials of the Styx National Bank. "They refused to open an account with me," he said with a great show of indignation. "That's natural," said Boswell. "You have such a way of overdrawing your account, you know."-Harper's Bazar.

Drunkenness is a disease, whether superinduced by whisky, opium, morphine, cocaine, or the vile cigarette habit, and is treated as a disease_by_the Colbro Remedy Co., of Cincinnati, O., who offer $100 reward for any case they cannot cure. Write them if interested.

39

22%

43

Lake E. & W. pr...

18/2

17

75

Lake Shore

73

191%

Long Island

192

45

Louis. & Nash.

47

594

116/2

Michigan Cent...

1152

Minn. & St. L..

CLOSING

PRICE

M. & St. L. Ist pr..

26/2

861/2

February 7 February 14

M. & St. L. 2d pr.

85

56/2

138

Minn. Iron

564

1384

642

89%

Missouri Pacific..

632

91

404

38/2

Mobile & Ohio.

3334

3258

138

Nat. Lead...

324

3178

13

32

31/2

Nat. Lead pr...

36/4

35

108%

Nat. Linseed Oil..

1084

18

74

29

117

N. Y. C. & St. L. 2d pr..

14

39

544

N. Y., N. H. & H.....

Chic. & E. I....

248

N. Y., S. & W

194

234

Chi., Ind. & Lo...

592

N. Y., S. & W.,

14.4

pr..

Chi. & Gt. W'n...

Chi., Ind. & Lo. pr...

92

Norf. & W. new

35

361⁄2

9

332

3134

Ch. Gt. W'n pr. A..

14

13%

North. Pacific

5

5%

Ch. Gt. W'n pr. B..

35

263

Nor. Pacific pr........

26

Ontario & West

76/4

18

Oregon Sh. Line..
Pacific Mail..
Penn. R. R..
Peo., Dec. & Ev..
Peo. Gas & C. Co...
P., C., C. & St. L...

16%

P., C., C. & St. L. pr. Pullman Pal. Car..

452

70

1797

314

66 1844

50/2

592

232

938

Arnold Constable &Co

Cloths

Faced Cloths, Venetians, Meltons, Chitrals Scotch

Tweeds and Serges

In New Mixtures and Checks.

Covert

Cloths and Tweeds

with fancy backs, for Wheeling and Golf

Suits.

Broadway & 19th st.

NEW YORK.

NEWS OF THE WEEK

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 8 DOMESTIC.-Two companies of United States troops will be sent to Dyea and two companies to Skaguay to preserve order and protect life and property.... William W. Thomas, the new United States minister to Sweden and Norway, was received by King Oscar and presented his credentials....Ambassador White has cabled the state department that fresh American fruits not infected are freely admitted to Germany; importation of live plants is prohibited.... Ex-Gov. Horace Boies, in a speech at Fairfield, Iowa, outlined a plan for bimetallism which he believes would settle the financial question. FOREIGN.-The British parliament opened and the queen's speech was read; Lord Salisbury gave pacific assurances as to affairs in China....The Spanish government says there is no intention of tampering with the Cuban customs tariff in order to benefit Spain or injure foreign powers....China is said to have abandoned the idea of raising a loan in London or elsewhere....General Pando, the Spanish commander of forces in Cuba, has returned to Havana.... Great Britain, France, and Russia have agreed to guarantee a Greek loan jointly.... There were disorderly scenes at the Zola trial in Paris.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9

DOMESTIC.-A letter written by the Spanish minister, De Lome, and containing insulting references to the president was published....The agricultural department states that the domestic merchandise exported in 1897 amounted in value to $1,082,007,608, of which $689,753,193 was agricultural products....The health department of the Greater New York completed a census of the city, which shows a population of 3,438,899....A quarantine convention of the South Atlantic and gulf states assembled at Mobile, Ala., to consider general regulations for keeping out infectious diseases....A state constitutional convention, which is expected to restrict suffrage in Louisiana, began at New Orleans.

FOREIGN-It is announced that Russia has abandoned the candidature of Prince George of Greece for the governorship of Crete, and will not allow any increase in the number of Turkish troops in Crete or be a party to any coercion of the Cretans....In the libel suit of M. Reinach against Henri Rochefort, in Paris, the latter was sentenced to five days' imprisonment and to pay a fine of 3,000 francs....Gen. D. Jose ma Reyna Barrios, president of Guatemala, was assassinated in San Jose, Guatemala....Captain-General Blanco has returned to Havana from his unsuccessful campaign against the insurgents.... Paul Krüger has been reëlected president of the South African republic.

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10 DOMESTIC.-The Spanish cabinet accepted the resignation of Señor Dupuy de Lome, Spanish minister at Washington; the first secretary has been intrusted with the conduct of the current affairs of the legation....The administration is fully satisfied with the prompt acceptance of Señor de Lome's resignation by the Spanish cabinet; the Canalejas letter is expected to have an important effect on the Cuban question....The New York assembly voted to censure United States Senator Murphy for voting in favor of the Teller resolution....Eleven lives were lost and property valued at $1,500,000 was destroyed by fire in Pittsburg....Baron James A. Harden-Hickey, known as the

prince of Trinidad, committed suicide in El Paso, Texas.

FOREIGN.-Japan has given notice to China that she intends to keep the naval station of Wei-Hai-Wei permanently; Chinese ministers abroad have been informed that in consequence no foreign loan is required.... President Cuestas of Uruguay carried out his threatened coup d'etat and dissolved the Uruguayan assembly; a provisional government, with Cuestas at its head, has been formed.... The house of commons rejected amendments to the address in reply to the queen's speech relating to Irish distress and countervailing duties on imports.... The trial of M. Zola continued in Paris, the court rigidly excluding all testimony relative to the Dreyfus affair.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY II DOMESTIC.-The war department made public the advices it had received from Capt. Ray as to the conditions in the Klondike; these reports indicate a serious state of affairs, and that trouble is threatened at several points....Señor Louis Polo Bernabe has been chosen to succeed Dupuy de Lome as Spanish minister in Washington....Two fires in New York caused about $1,000,000 damage.

FOREIGN.-John Redmond, in the house of commons, moved two amendments to the address in reply to the queen's speech, both touching upon Irish affairs....The general relations between Germany and the United States were discussed in the reichstag.... China has consented to the British demand for a railway from Burmah to Yunnan, and has granted other points to France and Germany....The passenger steamer Marbella was sunk in collision with the British warship Galatea in Hull Roads....Two Russian Nihilists were convicted in London of inciting the assassination of the czar....Col. Picquart went on the stand in the Zola trial in Paris; he discredited his superior officers who conducted the Dreyfus case in the eyes of the spectators, and showed that he had been persecuted after his honest effort to probe the truth began; there was rioting in the streets of Paris.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12 DOMESTIC.-Customs receipts for the first twelve days of February were upward of $7,000,000....The government has abandoned its purpose to ask for postponement of the sale of the Kansas Pacific railroad, the reorganization committee having offered to pay the entire principal of the lien....At the dinner of the Marquette club, in Chicago, ex-President Harrison spoke on "Lincoln," and Secretary Gage on "Government and Finance"....The American line steamship St. Louis arrived at New York with 212 persons who had been rescued from the Holland-American line steamer Veendam, early on Monday morning last....The attorney-general of Missouri has ruled that it is a violation of the state law to have the pupils recite the Lord's Prayer or for the teacher to read the Bible as a part of the opening exercises in the public schools of the state.

FOREIGN.-Two Spanish cabinet ministers, Señores Gullon and Moret, expressed the opinion that the De Lome incident is closed....A request by defendants' counsel for the secret documents mentioned by witnesses at the Zola trial was refused by the court; further exciting scenes characterized the day's proceedings....The British cruiser Rainbow arrived at Port Arthur....A London newspaper says that Mr. Gladstone is suffering from necrosis of the nose, or, his

Without Macbeth lampchimneys, you throw away money and comfort. But get the right one for your lamp. The Index free.

Write Macbeth Pittsburgh Pa

friends fear, cancer.... The Canadian government will attempt to make the preferential tariff apply to Great Britain only ...The Norway ministry resigned.... Ensign J. C. Breckinridge was swept from the torpedo-boat Cushing while on the voyage from Key West to Havana and drowned.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13 DOMESTIC.-Fifty-five representatives of textile unions of New England met in Boston and unanimously voted to recommend that all unions call out the operatives in every cotton mill in New England....The Democratic state central committee of Oregon has issued an address to the people of the state advocating fusion with the Populists and free silver Republicans at the coming election ....The federal court in Texas has issued an order restraining three Texas railways from carrying into effect a boycott of the Lone Star line of Gulf steamers between Galveston and New York.

FOREIGN. A demonstration of thirty thousand people against the torturing of anarchists in Montjuich prison was held in Barcelona....King Oscar of Norway and Sweden has intrusted ex-Premier Steen with the task of forming a new ministry.... Great Britain is negotiating with China to open Yuen Chau Fu as a treaty port, and is negotiating also on the subject of the navigation of inland waters.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14 DOMESTIC.-The Republican congressional campaign committee perfected its organization, Representative Babcock re-elected being chairman....Captain Tuttle of the Bear reported the landing of the expedition for the relief of the icebound whalers....The Democratic congressional campaign committee in Washington elected officers and adopted a declaration in favor of fusion of the free silver forces....The Russian government has awarded to the Carnegie steel company a contract for sufficient Harveyized nickel-steel armor for two battleships; the price is $500 per ton.

FOREIGN. The Spanish cabinet decided to appoint Señor Louis Polo Bernabe to ister to the United States....The Dutch succeed Señor Dupuy de Lome as minminister at Peking is trying to arrange a Chinese 5 per cent loan of £4,000,000.... The steamship Moana sailed from Sydney, N. S. W., for San Francisco, carrying $1,500,000 in gold....The trial of M. Zola was continued, the testimony being generally favorable to the case of the defend

ant.