THE IRISH

have always been mighty interesting people, and nobody knows them better than Justin McCarthy. He knows their past as thoroughly as he does their present, and when he tells all about both in his book "Ireland and Her Story," he makes a story which the critics unite in pronouncing "as fascinating as a novel." One might add that this brilliant little history is much more fascinating than many novels, and better yet, it is true. The price is only $1.00, postpaid.

THE IRISH AGAIN, are celebrated for

their rollicking humor and keen wit. Good stories of them are always welcome. Certainly when one of the cleverest of Irish storytellers brings out a book it can not fail to make a hit. Seumas MacManus is the present-day Prince of Irish Storytellers, and his book "The Red Poocher," has been greeted everywhere with such superlatives of praise that it is useless to try to quote them. May as well let every reader invent his own exclamations of delight when he closes the book. It can be had for 75 cents, postpaid.

ONCE MORE, are lov

THE IRISH ers through and' through.

When we want an ideal love story, we pick out a gallant, poetic, passionate. Irishman and his blue-eyed colleen, and we are pretty sure to develop a love story fit to set to music or put upon the stage. There are always novelty, humor, tenderness, passion, and sometimes tragedy in them. Anna MacManus, sometimes known as Ethna Carbery," the wife of Seumas MacManus, was endowed with a rare insight into the character and nature of these people-her people. With the pen of an artist and a great love in her heart, she has written six beautiful, throbbing, magically appealing Irish love stories which now appear in the book "The Passionate Hearts," a treasure for any one. The price is 75 cents, postpaid.

In this column, to decide questions concerning the correct use of words, the Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary is consulted as arbiter.

"E. G.," Cananea, Sonora, Mexico. "What do the following words mean? (1) 'grote'; (2) Adna.""

(1) "Grote" is the Middle English form for groat," a former English coin; in more recent times the term has been applied to fourpence as a unit of account. (2) Adna" is a Biblical name signifying "pleasure."

"J. J. W.," San Francisco, Cal.-" (1) In referring to the words 'billion' and 'trillion' a writer uses the following sentence: 'Apparently these words were introduced into England at a later date, but their original meaning was retained and has never been changed there.' Should not the words in italics be used in the plural? (2) Who was Swammerdam?"

(1) The words "billion" and "trillion" have distinct meanings, and hence the italicized words should be plural. (2) Jan or John Swammerdam (1637-80) was a prominent Dutch naturalist, who was very skilful in the dissection of insects.

"M. M. H.," Manhattan, Kan.-"Which is the correct form of expression, Hens hatch eggs,' or hatch chickens'?"

Hens

Both forms are employed in ordinary usage.

"F. J. M.," Philadelphia, Pa.-"Is there any rule for the spelling of words ending in 'ise' and 'ize,' also words ending in 'able' and 'ible'?"

such words is rendered useless by the great Any rule covering the orthography of all number of exceptions and would require a very extensive knowledge of the foreign elements in our language to be at all useful. Their employment is more or less governed by usage, some authorities giving 'ize" as the variant form of "ise." The Standard generally prefers "ize" to "ise."

"

แ

C. J. A.," Staunton, Va.-"The word 'only' seems to be a difficult one to put in just the right place to express with precision its intended meaning. The sentence I only told him to go away' can bear four different interpretations. It may mean I only told him; nobody else did,' or, I only told him, but did not compel him,' or, "I only told him, and nobody else,' or, "I only told him to go away; I did not tell him to do anything else.' Is there some rule for putting the word 'only' in just the right place in a sentence to show what idea it is meant to limit or emphasize?"

of legend, folk-lore, and mythology. The wonderful doings of their ancient kings and warriors read like fairy tales, and such indeed they are in large part. Magic swords, spears, and armor; the miraculous "quicken-tree," grown from a fairy seed; the fairy fleeces; the wonderful whistler whose flute-like notes charmed his enemies into fateful sleep; the superhuman prowess of the old-time heroes; the devotion of friends and the relentless hate of enemies-all play important parts in the legendary past of this picturesque people. Anna MacManus, author of "The Passionate Hearts," has given us nine stories of Irish adventure, legend, and mythology in her new book "In the Celtic Past." The stories glow with warm color and throb with chivalrous action and exciting adventure. The price of "In the Celtic Past" is the same as that of "The Passionate Hearts," 75 cents, postpaid. FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Pubs., NEW YORK

12 Corn Killing Plasters. CORNO removes corns. Builds new skin. A heavenly relief. SEND QUARTER Now. No cure, money back. CORNO REMOVES CORNS Sample 2 cent stamp. BEST SUPPLY CO., Sole Mfrs., Dept. 27, JOLIET, ILLS. Also Drug and Shoe Stores.

The Standard Dictionary (p. 2,271, col. 3) be given, is to place the word 'only' next to the word or phrase to be qualified, arranging the rest of the sentence so that no word or phrase that the word might be regarded as qualifying shall adjoin it on the other side." In spoken language the stress and tone would indicate the relation of 'only' to the other parts of the sentence; but, in writing, the principle of rhetorical construction must be followed in order to avoid ambiguity. The sentence "I only told him to go away ambiguous because the word "only" may refer to either "I" or to "told," hence it would be better to write, "Only I told him" (i.e., nobody else told him), if this is the meaning intended. "I told only him to go away" would imply that he alone was told, and "I told him to go away only" would clearly express the thought that nothing else was required but that he should go.

is

"E. G. D.," College Point, N. Y.-"Who was the philosopher who went abroad with a lantern looking for an honest man?"

The Greek Cynic philosopher Diogenes, who lived between 412-323 B.C.

of public utilities has become a leading issue in the present New York mayoralty campaign. It is a question that vitally concerns the voters of New York as well as the citizens of every other municipality in the United States.

What

?

are the facts have been the experiments are the results Full and reliable information on many sides of this great question will be found in

The Encyclo

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Social Reforms

Edited by W. D. P. BLISS

With the cooperation of the highest authorities in England and the United States.

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Municipal Ownership of Street Railways has been tried in the

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POPULATION, PERSONS TO ACRE, DEATH RATE, ANNUAL EXPENDITURES PER CAPITA, TAXES, MUNICIPAL GAS, MUNICIPAL WATER WORKS, MUNICIPAL RAILWAYS, TENEMENT IMPROVEMENTS, ETC.

What Eminent Critics Say "It will stand in years to come to an epitome of social and economic conditions and the state of human progress in the last decade of the nineteenth century." -Col. Albert Shaw, Editor of Review of Reviews. "I have read through many of the important articles, and am struck with their excellence and completeness. The plan adopted of setting forth the case from both sides has been admirably carried out."-Benjamin Kidd. "The work is one of very great value, filling a place hitherto unoccupied. A great many topics have been treated, and, on the whole, successfully and ably."Franklin H. Giddings, Columbia University School of Political Science.

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Publishers New York

VOL. XXXI., No. 19

POST-OFFICE ADDRESS.-Instructions concerning renewal, discontinuance or change of address should be sent two weeks prior to the date they are to go into effect. The exact post-office address to which we are directing paper at time of writing must always be given. DISCONTINUANCES.-We find that a large majority of our subscribers prefer not to have their subscriptions interrupted and their files broken in case they fail to remit before expiration. It is therefore assumed, unless notification to discontinue is received, that the subscriber wishes no interruption in his series. Notification to discontinue at expiration can be sent in at any time during the year.

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A

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

SECRETARY TAFT'S WAR ON MACHINE

"

POLITICS IN OHIO.

VERITABLE sensation seems to have been created in the political world by the speech whidSecretary Taft delivered at Akron, Ohio, on October 21. As the Pittsburg Gazette (Rep.) remarks, “it injected a new thrill into the Ohio gubernatorial campaign.' Before its delivery indications were generally looked upon as showing a situation encouraging to the Republicans, but now the Philadelphia Record (Ind.-Dem.) exultingly exclaims that "the sporting fraternity do not know whether to bet that Governor Herrick will be elected by 100,000 majority or that he will be defeated." And a no small portion of the press agree with The Record's estimation of the confusion wrought by Secretary Taft, and so from a political point of view are condemning him for making a grievous blunder. "The effect of his speech is considered very injurious to the machine which is running Governor Herrick, and it can not well be otherwise," says the Springfield Republican (Ind.); and the New York Press (Rep.), in its news columns, asserts that "Taft has made Herrick's reelection absolutely impossible, and has sounded the death-knell of the old Hanna machine in Ohio." The Louisville Courier-Journal (Dem.) concludes that "the impression made by the speech seems to indicate that Governor Herrick's chances were not improved by his coming, ," while the Brooklyn Eagle (Dem.) is inclined to look upon Mr. Taft as a "brash and candid reformer" whose kindly services were a little too awkwardly rendered to be of much value. This point is humorously illustrated in the following fashion:

"The late George T. Lannigan, fabulist and humorist, once wrote a fable for the New York World about to this effect: A benevolent elephant, forcing his way through a dense jungle, scared a partridge from the nest in which she was trying to hatch out other partridges. Filled with compassion and good intentions, the elephant determined to hatch out the young himself. The consequence of his sitting on the nest needs no statement. Perceiving the total disaster he had unwittingly wrought, he pulled himself together, stalked on and mournfully remarked, according to Lannigan: 'What is home without a mother?' Secretary Taft,

WHOLE NUMBER, 811

whose mental sincerity and physical magnitude are universally known, has rivaled in the nest of Ohio Republicanism the rôle of the benevolent elephant in the Indian jungle."

This much-discussed speech was made upon the request of Governor Herrick's friends, with the hope of aiding him in his fight for reelection. Mr. Taft worded it so as to make it appear (as has usually been his practise everywhere) that he was expressing the personal sentiments of President Roosevelt as per positive instructions. The main features of

the speech were the answer, almost hostilely framed, to the stand taken by Senator Foraker on railroad questions; and the bold and defiant opposition declared against the Republican machine which dominates Cincinnati and Hamilton County, and counts Governor Herrick, Senator Foraker, and other prominent politicians among its strongest advocates. The boss of this machine is the famous George B. Cox, a full account of whose life and character can be found in Henry C. Wright's recently pub lished book on "Bossism in Cincinnati." Mr. Taft, after first praising the "executive talent and political sagacity" of Mr. Cox, and giving him due credit for the valuable work done for the Republican party in the State for fifteen or twenty years," says:

GEORGE B. COX,

Republican "boss" in Cincinnati. "The power secured by the boss and his assistants," says Secretary Taft, "has undoubtedly inured to their pecuniary benefit," but "how their money was made has not been disclosed."

But the power secured by the boss and his assistants under the machine has undoubtedly inured to their pecuniary benefit, and it is seen in the large fortunes which they now have. How their money was made has not been disclosed. The large public utility corporations seem to regard the boss as a conserving influence, and are content to have the control of the machine continue as it is, because they regard themselves as thus insured, against disturbance in their franchises. . . . If I were able, as I fear I shall not be, because public duty calls me elsewhere, to cast my vote in Cincinnati in the coming election I should vote against the municipal ticket nominated by the Republican organization and for the State ticket."

The independent spirit which illumined these sentences and permeated the entire body of the speech leads the Philadelphia Public Ledger (Inn.) to believe that Mr. Taft purposely "threw down the gage in Ohio to the Foraker-Cox machine"; and the Pittsburg Post (Dem.) ventures to predict that the people of Cincinnati "will prefer to accept Secretary Taft's denunciation of Cox and his machine as affording further reasons why they should defeat the candidate for Governor supported by both." But the Pittsburg Dispatch (Ind. Rep.) is not so sure as to this point, and recalls that when "reform was a local issue in Missouri" the State cast its vote

for Roosevelt, but elected Folk, and that in a somewhat similar way Massachusetts Republicans voted for Douglas and Roosevelt, in a combination that certainly could not be termed a vote against the national Administration." The Philadelphia Record (Ind. Dem.) also doubts that Mr. Taft's speech must necessarily damage the Republican State ticket in Ohio. The Record credits the Secretary with being a "pretty shrewd man," and says:

"The probability is that Mr. Taft knew perfectly well what he was about. Herrick has lost the temperance voters, he has lost a great part of the independent vote through the State on account of the action of the organization in abolishing spring elections, and he is encumbered by the support of the Cincinnati machine and is charged with entering into a deal with Cox to secure its support. The case looks as tho Mr. Taft, realizing the probability that the Democratic candidate would be elected, endeavored to save some of the independent and the decent Republican vote for him by attacking the Cox machine. Taft was trying to get Herrick out of the bad company he was in."

This is also the opinion of many other papers, which see in Mr. Taft's speech, not a purpose to create faction in Ohio, but simply that irrepressible spirit that is inspiring the Administration and other good citizens, irrespective of politics, to fight graft and corruption in every form and wherever they exist. Thus the New York Times (Dem.) observes:

"Just now a lot of this is being done, and in high quarters. Mr. Roosevelt is engaged in it in a general way. Secretary Root engaged in it very specifically when he was called in to investigate the ring in Philadelphia. Governor Folk, of Missouri, took a hand in the same fight in that city. Mr. Secretary Bonaparte, ably and gallantly seconded by his political opponent Senator Rayner, is doing it in Maryland. In each party in various States real leaders, leaders of real standing in national affairs, are cutting the ties between themselves and the local 'bosses' and calling the voters to follow their consciences and their judgment. Cynics will say that it is a 'spasm of virtue,' and will lead to nothing. But it will amount to a good deal. The force of public sentiment in a democracy almost inevitably moves more or less spasmodically. In the usual course of affairs people are absorbed with private matters;

their own affairs, and so firm has been their confidence in the ability of the plagued city to control the epidemic, that neither has paid adequate tribute to the bravery and determination with which New Orleans" finally conquered the dreaded foe. This calm assurance with which the public and the press, as mentioned by The Constitution, took for granted that the Crescent City would hold yellow fever in check and succeed in stamping it out this time, was in marked contrast with the wild alarm excited by the visitations in previous years, and is explained on the ground that the people now have a better understanding of the nature of the disease, and thoroughly appreciate the value of the sanitary measures which have been devised for its prevention and suppression. During the plague, says The Picayune, the city lost only 25 per cent. of its trade. And in the light of the present experience, the New Orleans Times-Democrat, in speaking of the future says:

'The people of the South, and of the nation generally, have been afforded a demonstration that will not have to be repeated. Never again will the fear of the fever, within or without, cast a somber cloud over this section, cripple its industries, make émigrés of nervous citizens, and work damage in a hundred other ways. The lesson has been taught, and taught in a style that makes reiteration superfluous, that the simplest precautions, the exhibition of a bit of saving common sense, will render the fever as powerless as the gentlest zephyr of the dale. The erstwhile mighty statue of terror has feet of crumbling clay, after all. A persistent enforcement of sanitary regulations as to cisterns, tanks, and pools-regulations that should be enforced for the general comfort, even were there no question of fever-will leave the Stegomyia fasciata not a place to lay her head-or her eggs. The breed can be exterminated quickly in every community. And when that species is banished, or so reduced as to be inappreciable, a community is absolutely exempt from danger of yellow-fever infection. . . . As we glance back over the magnificent fight made in New Orleans and elsewhere against the fever, it seems plain that the results gained are not unworthy of the price paid. It is worth something to a section, a community, to be able to front the future without a fear of what was once its bane."

This fight which The Times-Democrat looks back upon with so

"

much justifiable satisfaction has lasted a little over three months. The first case of fever to be discovered and diagnosed as such was reported on July 21. But The Interstate Medical Journal, of St. Louis, and other professional authorities claim that the disease must have been in the city several weeks before its detection, and in proof of this assertion they point to the terrible headway it had already made by the time its appearance was a recognized fact. On July 25 there were 154 reported cases, and by the end of the month these figures had increased to 304, and by the time that the work of its eradication was well under way there were 616 dead and prostrated victims and an unknown number of foci. This condition made the task of combating the plague "the most stupendous of this kind ever before attempted," says Dr. Joseph H. White, of the United States Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, who was placed in charge of the situation for the Federal Government, and who is credited by the Cleveland Leader and other papers with bringing order out of chaos, and directing the campaign that ended in such a signal victory.

The statistics of the yellow-fever visitation for the entire South this year, as gathered by Dr. White, up to October 15, are 8,453 known cases and 924 known deaths. Of this grand total Louisiana had 7,370 cases and 802 deaths; New Orleans had 3,286 cases and 423 deaths; Mississippi had 700 cases and 70 deaths; Pensacola had 383 cases and 52 deaths. A few sporadic cases were scattered around in other neighboring States. These figures are not given by Dr. White as absolutely correct. They are, however, a fair approximation, which has been only slightly added to since the compilation. The cost of the suppression of the plague in New Orleans, as estimated by William M. Steel for The Picayune, was upward of $320,000, four-fifths of which was subject to Dr. White's order. Of tliis fund $100,000 was contributed by the State, $60,000 by the city, and $160, 000 was raised by private citizens. Besides this expenditure of State and local moneys, were the salaries and expenses of the Federal officers, which amounted to about $50,000. The local press consider the cost insignificant in comparison with the good results that have been gained. The TimesDemocrat thinks that the cleaning-up of the city would have been worth the amount expended, even if there was no fear of yellow fever, and

says:

Never has New Orleans been in better sanitary condition, never cleaner, never freer from all the conditions that breed disease. The screening of cisterns, cleaning out

Copyright by Pach Bros., New York.

42.75 per thousand. It is to-day, as shown by the last figures of the Board of Health, 19.36 per thousand, or less than half as much. If we can keep the new record up iou year it will mean the saving of over a thousand lives that swell the mortality of the city and help to propagate and spread disease. There is no mystery about it. No negroes have fled New Orleans because of the fever, and the latter, we have discovered, are subject to it and die of it, altho .a former generation told us this was impossible.

'The sanitary work done in the negro districts-and seldom if ever done there before-the practical lectures on the subject of sanitation, in which the clergy took so prominent a part, designed. to show the negroes the importance of keeping their houses clean and in good condition, fumigating when necessary, screening cisterns, draining off all standing water-sanitary work and sanitary teaching where they were most needed-have had the same effect here as in New York and wherever else they have been tried. The low mortality of New Orleans to-day is no accident, no phenomenon, but the result of the hard work and good work done this summer."

MISS ROOSEVELT'S EMBARRASSING

THE

PRESENTS.

HE Trojan who feared the Greeks most when they brought him gifts is thought to have a modern sympathizer in a President's daughter, who is finding her gifts a source of considerable embarrassment. Miss Alice Roosevelt, who has just reached

home from her trip to the Far East, will have to pay from $25,000 to $60,000 duty, so the newspapers reckon, upon the costly presents given her by the Sultan of Sulu, the Empress of China, the Philippine “dattos," and other potentates of the Orient. "She could not with propriety have refused the presents, and she can not abandon them now without putting a slight upon the givers," says the Kansas City Journal: and the Washington correspondent of the Philadelphia Public Ledger feelingly remarks that "if she had I wanted to pay out $25,000 in custom duties, she probably would have preferred to make her own choice of the articles she was to bring back," as "many of the gifts were not only unsought, but undesired." The infant American industry of manufacturing oriental curios and antiques must be protected, however, as the Baltimore Sun hints, and her father, subordinating pleasure to duty, so to speak, has declined to ask any remission of the law. Most of the papers close their editorials at this point with a few well chosen words of commendation for the President's Spartan resolve to ask no favors; but the Philadelphia Press reminds him that it is the oriental custom to exchange gifts, not merely to receive them, and it remarks that "every datto' who gave a gift to the President's daughter undoubtedly confidently expected that the future would bring a return' present' as much bigger and better than his, as the President is bigger than a datto," a thought that opens up an interesting vista of additional expense. "The Roosevelts are not rich, and are spending a great deal of money yearly in keeping up the necessary social end of official life," says the Washington correspondent of the New York Times, and a few. foreign

and filling of lots, destruction of insects, fumigation of houses, have removed conditions that encouraged if they did not propagate disease; and there has been such an improvement, such a reduction in diseases born of damp or filth or neglect, and in the deaths therefrom, as to more than offset the twenty deaths or so a week from yellow fever. As a consequence, in spite of the presence of that disease, the number of deaths per day and week in New Orleans is less than it was before yellow fever presented itself here.