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Show CURRENT TOPICS. Among the poweis which will help build the Panama Canal is the Young Men's Christian Association, which with the appioval of President Uoose-elt Uoose-elt and the officials concerned, has sent fie secretaries to Panama to take chaige of the go eminent reel re-el cation buildings for employes. One of our cities is cleaner than it used to be. On the waste-barrels which stand on the streets is painted, instead of the bald injunction, "Throw rubbish here," .i winning request, " Please help us to keep the city clean." Citizens have been seen to read that sign and walk back half a block to pick up a banana skin. The American government has been keeping house for Cuba while the mistress of the house was sick. Now that the temporary caretaker is preparing to leave, it has been decided de-cided that Cuba will have to pay the r expenses of the American occupation. Since Cuba is poor, however, there will be no unneighborly haste in collecting col-lecting the bill, which will amount to two or three million dollars. Even if corporations have no souls they arc sometimes curiously involved with spiritual problems. The work of the Pennsylvania Railroad in New York City involved the destruction of St. Michael's Church. According to contract, the railroad company has built on a new site a reproduction of the old church. The memorial windows win-dows and the facade have been moved bodily and incorporated in the new structure. M Hundreds of thousands of range cattle in the West starve to death every winter. When the snow is deep the number increases. The fatalities fa-talities were unusually large during the past winter. The cattle run wild and no provision is made by their owners for feed or shelter in the cold mouths. The American Humane Association As-sociation is attempting to secure such a strong protest against the neglect of the cftttlc as to force the owners to change their method of doing business. - When Prince Fushimi, the cousin of the Emperor of Japan, visited English waters with a small fleet, "the British mvyal bands on one occasion of welcome played selections from the con o opera, " The Mikado." Upon learning the fact, the Admiralty, Admiral-ty, with equal tactlessness, issued orders, and made tlicnt public, that the bands must not do so any more. But the Japanese, who politely protested pro-tested that they were not at all disturbed dis-turbed by the matter, since they quite understood the humor of the opera, may avail themselves of a delightful revenge. When next the British fleet visits the Mikado's waters the Japanese Japan-ese bauds can greet them with airs from " Pinafore." The United States Geological Stir- H cy is suffering fioni a scarcity of H competent men of science. The stir- jflj vey was engaged last year in mak- vBJ iug an investigation of metalliferous . BJ ores. In sumuiaiiiug this woik the ( BJ director says the efficiency of it has J been seriously hampered by th; in- creasing exodus of members of the M economic force of the survey, in con- , BJ sequence of their employment by A M laige mining organisations at salar-. BJ ies much greater than they have been .BJ receiving fiom the government. "It BJ is only by yeais of practical cxper- BJ icuce in the field," he adds, "that the BJ geologist, however, excellent his pre- BJ liminary training, becomes conipe- BJ tent to carry on independent work BJ in investigating a mining district; BJ and the loss of trained men in this j BJ work is, for a time, irreparable." Is BJ there not a hint here for ambitious J boys who like an out-door liife? J m It is rattier remarkable that while BJ Virginia is celebiatmg its threc-hund- BJ redth birthday at Jamestown, the BJ states of Massachusetts and Rhode jBJ Island have given no heed at all to a ninc-huudredtli anniversary which IBJ they might have marked. It may not ,. J be generally" known, indeed, it may I J not be the fact, that the first person ' H of European blood to be born in jjJ America, one Master Snorri Thor- ;BJ finu, by name, was born in the ycat AB 1007, near Mount Hope Mr Thor- B finu senior, so say the Icelandic re- BJ cords, was a wealthy merchant of BJ Iceland in the fish business, per- BJ haps. In 1006, partly through love ot BJ travel and partly, perhaps, with a BJ view to establishing a branch house BJ he visited Greenland. There he met BJ Mrs. Gudrida, the widow of ail Ice- BJ laudic adventurer, and married her jM For a wedding trip they just ran over BJ to America, with three ships and one BJ hundred and sixty men. The tcgiou BJ about Narragansctt Bay pleased them BJ so well that they stayed three years J and while there a sou was born to J them. Supposing the story to be ,J true, if Snorri were living now he BJ would be nine hundred years old, and M would very likely make himself disa- ' greeablc by telling how different iJ things used to be when he was a boy. iJ pH It has been proposed probably not BJ for the first time that the 'forty-five BJ governors of the states unite in a na- jjH tioual board to exchange views and IBJ promote unity of legislation. The 9BJ plan is not likely to be carried out, B there arc physical difficulties in the BJ way of effective meetings fully at- 3BJ tended, and there is still a disposition 9H on the part of the different states to 1H regard state business as local, indc- H pendent, self-sufficient. But the sug- H gestion appeals to the imagination 1H Confcicncc broadens and multiplies BJ ideas. At the present time there IBJ seems to be no dearth of good ideas; SH the trouble lies in the old-fashioned, B everlasting difficulty of making the fJBj simplest good ideas prevail. Youth's (H Companion. H ., .. . . .JB |
