NEGROES IN CHICAGO
Conditions Out Of Wblcb Race Friction
Has Grown.
* POLITICS HELPED* HAKE TROUBLE
# |
Soma Drifted to Great Metropolis,
Others Were Brought There?More
Vicious Classes Allowed Full Play?
Better Class of Whites Do Not
Welcome Them as Neighbors.
F. Frank Gardiner in New York Times.
Exploitation of the negro in Chicago,
by politicians is regarded by many as
the chief underlying cause of the race
riots in that city. The bestowal of
political preferment, and the license
under which "everything went" in the
Black Belt of the second largest Ameri
Inflommohlp nftrt Of
UlU WOO uic I
the tinder which Anally set the city
ablaze.
. x The lnAux of thousands of negroes
from the south in the last three years
was a contributing factor. Their arrival
in an already congested district made
expansion necessary. Steadily the
Black Belt, which stretches for Ave
miles through the heart of the densely
populated south side of Chicago, bulged
out into what a few years ago was
a choice residential district. This
continuous encroachment aroused protests
and bitter feeling.
The advance guard of the colored
race which moved Into white neighborhoods
was the better class of negro
families, who sought to escape the
steady encroachment of the undesirable
element of their own race. They
had no desire to antagonize their white
neighbors. Their relations had always
been friendly. But they were between
two Ares. Pressing always behind
them was the lnAux of a lawless element
of their own race. Few of the
newcomers brought negro women with
them, and some Chicago observers
hold the absence of home life among
them partly accountable for the present
trouble.
Political Power.
The second ward in Chicago is the
heart of the Black Belt. Eighty per
cent, of the voters in this ward are
black. White men represented this
ward in the city council until 1915, but
now both aldermen are negroes.
Two men control most of the negro
rote in Chicago. They are Congressman
Martin B. Madden of the First
Illinois District and George F. Harding,
former alderman, later state senator,
and now city controller.
It was the balance of power held by
the negroes and swung by Harding
that grave William Hale Thompson,
more widely known as a pro-German
than for his kindnesses to negroes, the
nomination for mayor of Chicago in the
spring of 1915. Harding bad represented
the second ward in Chicago for
several years. He retired and permitted
Oscar De Priest, a negro, to be
elected. In return for this favor the
negroes swept the mayoralty nomination
Into Thompsons' lap. Thompson
won the nomination by a margin of a
few hundred votes.
De Priest became one of the chief
floor leaders in the city council for the
Thompson administration. His public
career was cut short by his indictment
In connection with the alleged collec*'
* 11??? - T-?i?i. n-n k..i f
lion 01 iriDuie in me diu.uk. dcu, uui
? he was later acquitted. Another negro
succeeded him. Then the second
ward negroes grew bolder, demanded
both seats In the city council, and got
them.
In his campaign for the nomination
and election In 1915 Thompson catered
to the negro voters. After his election
he rewarded many of their leaders
with jobs.
So openly did the Thompson crowd
treat with the negroes that somebody
dubbed the city hall "Uncle Tom's
Cabin." One man caused handbills to
be printed, setting forth a complete
cast of characters, which included
Mayor Thompson and other city hall
jobholders, white and black. It got a
big laugh, which Is Chicago's usual
good-natured way of disposing of her
problems.
Lid Off The Black Belt.
Thompson had been mayor only a
short time when evidence was apparent
that there was no lid so far as the
Black Belt was concerned. From other
sections of the city white men and
women of the old underworld, who had
experienced some long, lean years,
flocked to tbe neighborhood. White
men bought saloons and cabarets, and
pushed negroes to the front as their
ostensible owners. Soon the Black
Belt became known as the district
where everything "went."
All-night cabarets were jammed
with whites and blacks until the morning
sun streaked the sky over Lake
Michigan. In other parts of the city
salopns and cabarets closed at I a. m.,
but automobiles lined the curbs for
blocks all night in the Black Belt, and
late comers stood in line for hours putside
some of the more nptoripus "black
and tan" cabarets waiting for a chance
to get inside. Jazz bands filled the Mr
with syncopated sound, while in the
cabarets white and blacks Intermingled
in carousai. 11 was nere mat tne
"shimmy" dance is said to have originated.
The rattle of dice and the click of
poker chips were seldom stilled in the
heart of this district. Gambling was
conducted on a business basis. A
"syndicate" was formed, and no independent
could' operate successfully in
that district without its approval.
These gambling houses were run under
the name of clubs, but a fat bankroll
gained easy admission to them.
"Bill" Lewis, noted for years as a
gambler, conducted a game TTi Thirtyfifth
street near State street. So brazen
was the conduct of this gambling
house that for a long time Lew^s did
not bother to pull the curtains down,
and the games could be watched from
the platform of the elevated railroad
station near by. Finally, put of seem
ing consideration for the feelings of
the police, the shades were drawn.
Condition* Centrally Known,
The newspapers of Chicago repeatedly
exposed conditions in the Rlaok
Belt. Members of the city council
sometimes denounced it. Reformers
visited the all-night cabarets and wrote
long reports about them. Numerous
complaints were made to the police.
Conditions finally became so notorious
that the all-night cabarets were closed.
For a few weeks the Black Belt was
comparatively quiet, except for the
gambling games, which were seldom
molested.
Then came vice In a new forrft; in
the shape of chubs, which were in reality
dance halls. These new places had
no liquor licenses, although most of
them sold intoxicants, and they didn't
open their doors until midnight or 1
a. m. They caught the crowds which
surged out of the cabarets at the closing
hour and held them until sunrise.
The old Pekln theatre at 2,700 State I
street, for years one of the leading c
negro amusement houses In the country.
became one of these dance halls, i
They were openly conducted for a long e
time without being molested, but early $
in 1918 the city council passed an anti- r
cabaret ordinance which put a damper i:
for a time on the night life of the city, e
Last spring, however, the mayoralty t
election came around again. Mayor a
Thompson was a candidate for re-elec- e
tion and was re-elected. The Black g
Belt did its duty. ?
When the primary campaign opened e
the lid was tossed overboard. Resorts n
which had been closed re-opened. The
Black Belt became again the centre of
night activities. $
With the elections over in April and b
prohibition looming up in the near d
future, the hearts of the city authori- o
onWuriui onH thfi llfi staved a
tico ncic ovt^vuvut V*MV> ?? - - ? ? ?
off. In the last few months conditions P
In the Black Belt have been almost b
unprecedented. Men who have travel- P
ed the country over say that nowhere c
In the United States have they wit- n
nessed such scenes as ':hey saw in the P
notorious "black-and-tan" resorts on h
the south side in Chicago. b!
State Attorney Maclay Hoyne of
Chicago a few days ago laid the blame
for the race riots at the door of the *>
politicians, who, he said, taught the a
negroes disrespect for the law. b
"The police department," said Mr. P
Hoyne, "has been demoralized to such d
extent by the politicians, black and h
white, on the south side that they are
afraid to arrest and prosecute men s
with political backing or who claim to b
have political influence."
Others have issued similar warnings
from time to time in the last two or b
three years. ?
Municipal Judge Harry M. Fisher, v
after sitting for a time in the morals p
court, where the larger per cent, of the R
offenders were negro men and women, P
said: n
"My opinion, based on observation in
this court, is that crime conditions V
among colored people are being deliberately
fostered by the pixsent city
administration. Disorderly cabarets,
thieves, and depraved women are allowed
in the section of the city where S
colored people live. They have an ex- c'
presslon, 'the law is around tonight,' v
as a warning to behave, so seldom -is
v. , , j , a
ine law eiuurtm
Chicago's Lesson.
When Chicago began to come out of
the nightmare of rioting last Friday, it r
is probable that the smiles which v'
greeted that "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
parody had worn off, never to return.
The city's roster of dead was 32, of
whom 14 were white. The total of in- 10
jured was given in press dispatches as
300, with the probability that perhaps C(
200 others had been injured without hi
making any ceport to the police and il
hospital authorities. Governor Lowder, 84
had sent 6,000 troops to guaid the city 1(
and quell the mobs, under the direction
of Adjt. Gen. Dickman, and ap- n'
parently quiet had been restored. t
For five days the district affected by e<
the rioting had been without fresh
meats or vegetables. City Controller tl
Harding, who owes his political pre- 01
ferment in large measure to his influ- ^
ence in the Black Belt, sent 2,000 bot- bl
ties of milk into that area and the te
movement of supplies in that direction
was initiated at the same time. Negro n
undertakers began to prepare for the t(
burial of the dead. During the dls- 11
turbance there had been no funerals
in the Black Belt.
Presumably Chicago has learned a T
lesson such as she rievei- drew from a
the numerous surveys of negro condi- n
tions in that city, or from warnings. K
Whether other American citieB will ?
take the lesson to heart remains to be ^
seen.
p
Chicago's negro population is dif-.
flcult to estimate. The estimates run 11
from 50,000 to 175,000. There is no 0
authentic information of recent date
on the subject, The United States n
census taken in 1910 reports a population
of 44,103 negroes in Chicago. In is
the last three years, however, the in- a
crease has been enormous. The col- ^
Ol
ored population has grown more rapidly
in proportion to its numbers than
any other part of the city's population. ei
Junius B. Wood of The Chicagq 11
Dally News, who made an extensive a
survey of the negro problem in Chi- f<
cago, estimated the colored popula-.
tion in 1916 at 75,000. The steady in- ^
flux of thousands of negroes from the is
south and the continuous spread of ^
the colored section of the city indicates a
that the population is more than 100,000
at present. It is a difficult popu- 'a
lation to count. Probably more than e'
ov per cent, are loagers.
Chicago's Black Belt & an average c
of half a mile wide, although it flares s
to one and two miles in width at cer- 3
tain points. From Twenty-second "
street it runs south beyond Sixty-third
street. South State street Is the backbone.
The south side elevated railroad "
runs through tjie heart pf the district
its entire length. The South State
street surface car line is patronized
almost exclusively by negroes. Most
of the other surface car l'nes connecting
the "loop," Chicago's business dis- n
trict, with the south side, run through u
part of the negro district.
The eastern edge of the Black Belt f<
is a handsome residential district, on n
which the negroes have encroached 11
steadily for years. Its western boundary
is a railroad and industrial dis- c
trict. There are other colored sections s
in the city, two on the south side and
one on the west side, but they are
restricted in area.
Advantages of Negroes. *
For years negroes lived in Chicago
without friction and without disturb- ,J
anccs of any kind. Leaders of the race ^
held positions of trust. Thousands of
them bought homes, ifany of them
achieved success as lawyers, physl- ^
cians, and In business. Their children
went to the publjc schools with wbite
children. There was po segregation, j
Some negroes held public office, both
elective and appointive. Twelve negroes ^
have served in the Illinois state legislature,
It has been said that churches prob- ^
ably wield more power among negroes ^
than with any other single class in the
United States. The colored people In r
Chicago have sixty churches, which
had a membership in 1916 of 31,870. x
Their membership is probably much
larger now. They are financially pros
perous and most of the? larger ones 2
maintain employment agencies. Many *
of them conduct day nurseries where
children are cared for while their '
mothers work.
Chicago has two institutions con- *
ducted by colored peop'e for members *
of their own race, which are models of ^
their kind. One is the Provident Hos- <
pltal, at 16 West Thirty-sixth street, t
which has figured prominently in the t
day's news concerning the rioting, t
The other is the Wabash Avenue de- 1
partment of the Young Men's Christian ?
Association, at 3,763 .South Wabash
I
tvenue, conducted exclusively for coined
men.
The Provident Hospital is the leadng
institution of its kind in the Unitd
States. With the Nathan M. Freer
30,000 home for nurses, the plant repesents
an investment of $125,000, and
s free of debt. Its affairs are conducted
xclusively by negroes, and about onehird
of the sufferers cared for there
re charity patients. Money for the
stablishment of this institution was
:iven by Philip D. Armour, Marshall
Meld, and George M. Pullman, deceasd,
and H. H. Kohlsaat, a retired
lewspaper publisher.
Negro Institutions.
The Y. M. C. A. establishment cost
185,000. It has more than 1,600 memers,
and 150 young men live in its
ormitories. The negroes havfc their
wn stores and theatres, and there is
bank conducted by a negro and
atronized almost exclusively by memers
of his race. Many newspapers are
ublished by and ror negroes in uniago.
Some are local, but others Hkve
ational circulation. The Defender,
ublished by R. S. Abbott, has the
irgest circulation of Its kind in the
Tnited States.
In Chicago, as elsewhere, negro
imilles of the better class have always
een ambitious to get into better homes
nd better surroundings. This has
een one of the chief causes of comlaint.
The entrance of colored resients
into highclass white neighboroods
has always been met with pro?sts,
and sometimes with threats,
ometimes real estate operators were
ack of these invasions. They hoped
3 profit by affecting real estate value.
A study of the negro housing prob;m
in Chicago made by the Chicago
ichool of Civics and Philanthropy reealed
that colored tenants paid dlsroportionately
higher rent for their
partments, which, as a rule, were in
oorer repair than those of their imllgrant
neighbors.
VHEN HELL BLEW THE LID OFF
remendoua Volcanic Eruption That
Occurred In Java Recently.
Official advices just received by the
tate Department report that the reent
eruption of the Klot (or Kalut)
olcano in Java cost 40,000 native
ves, destroyed twenty thousands of
cres of crops, principally rice, by its
ow of hot mud, and did millions of
ollars worth of damage by the fall
ig aoiico til i vgiviio uutoiuc int uoastated
districts.
In this connection the National
eographic Society has issued, from
s Washington headquarters, the folding
bulletin:
"Volcano-made in the first place, and
instantly being remade by them, Java
as more volcanoes than any area of
s size in the world. Estimates of the
:tlve and extinct craters range from
)0 to 150. Everywhere in Java, in
le huge crater lakes, in fissures that
ow are river be^s, even in ancient
imples, half finished when interruptI
by some fiery convulsion, are eviences
of cataclysmic forces?such
lrbulent forces as now are in continu18
hysteria in the Valley of the Ten
housands Smokes in Alaska and
reak their crusted surface cage inirmittently
in Java.
"The 'treacherous Klot', as the
atives call it, all but wiped out tne
>wn of Britar. but even its devasta
on, as reported to the State Departlent,
was mild compared to the vioint
upheaval of Krakatoa in 1883.
hen Mother Nature turned anarchist
nd planted a Gargantuan infernal
lachine on the doorstep of Java,
[rakatoa Is a little island In the
unda Strait, between Sumatra and
ava. Australians, as far from the
xplosion as New York is from El
aso, heard the terrific detonation,
lore than half the island was blotted
ut, parts of It were flung aloft four
mes as high as the world's highest
lountain, and to touch bottom below
tie water's surface where most of the
iland had been, henceforth required
plumb line twice as long as the
eight of the Washington monument,
kyscraper waves flooded adjacent ismds
and rolled half way around the
arth. Every human ear drum heard,
tiough it may not have registered, the
ir-waves as they vibrated three or
aur times around the earth.
"Krakatoa levied a smaller toll in
uman life than Klot, because of its
jolation, and many of the 35,000
eaths from Krakatoa's eruption were
t far distant points by drowning.
"An eruption anywhere on the ismd
means disaster. For Java, about
qual in area to New York state, suports
a population greater than ihe
ombined populations of the Empire
tate and the four other most populous
tates in the union?Pennsylvania,
llinois, Ohio and Texas.
"Naturally the native religion is
italistic, A free translation of an
.wv> was Ul? VIVA Will V# 1 UilO.
" 'What is the use of living, of kissing
lovely flowers,
If, though they are beautiful, they
must soon fade into nothing.'
"In the native folklore are innulerable
stories of the earth opening
p to swallow a dancing girl.
Such tales betoken another physical
mature of the island fraught with humn
tragedy. Not only has its streamig
vents, spouting geysers, sulphur
ikes but great chasams open find
lose, and they have been known to
wallow villages."
Higher, Higher, Higher!?"Do you
now, last night they got into the'rocer's,
broke open his safe and took
3,000."
"He should worry! He'll get that
ack in a few days."?New York
Yprld.
/OLONEL BECOMES CONSTABLE.
trthur Ritchings Is Again A Cop In
His Little Welsh Town.
Everybody has heard of the Englishman
who went Into the war a
irivate soldier and came out a Brigaller
general. A case even more remarkable,
however, Is reported from
Cardiff, Wales, and has c.eated somelilng
more than local stir?though
Cardiff Itself appears to have taken the
natter with entire calmness.
Before the war Arthur Ritchings
vas a police constable in the town. He
inlisted in the army in 1914 and servsd
in the ranks in that critical year
ind the two years following. In N'o'ember,
1917, he was promoted second
icutenant on the field, by February,
918, he was a captain, a little later
te was major, and the en 1 of the war
ound him a lieutenant colonel. In
hat time he had been six times
vounded, he had won the decoration
>f Chevalier of the Legion of Honor,
he Croix de Guerre with palms, ai\d
he military cross, having been menloned
three times In dispatches and
laving proved himself a gallant sollier
and able officer.
Not long ago Lieut. Col. Ritchings
left the army?the war being fought
and won?and quietly resumed his
place as a common policeman pounding
a beat in Cardiff. The chairman
of the municipal bench made a point
of saying he was glad to see him back,
and even went so far as to congratulate
Constable Ritchings publicly upon
his military record. In fact, it seems
there was a sort of ceremony of welcome.
So the lieutenant colonel with four
years of active military service to his
credit and field rank, won at the front,
displaying the ability to command
3,000 and odd men, modestly undertook
to take charge once more of
- - a ii iM
casual arunKs ana omuruciucB m mm.
busy Welsh mining town.
Somebody wrote an indignant letter
to a London paper about it, otherwise
apparently the incident would have
passed if not unnoticed, at least as not
more than ordinarily noticeable. As a
consequence the Watch Committee of
Cardiff, equivalent to our police commissioner,
took the ex-lieutenant colonel
off his beat, and gave him a Job
of training the police aw!:ward squad
of recruits in the proper bearing and
behavior of a constable. The lord
mayor when pressed for information
whether there was any intention of
appointing the distinguished officer to
a higher and more responsible position
on the force went to the length of admitting
that he thought he might say
all the members of the Watch Committee
were sympathetic with this
idea, and that he had no doubt that
when the opportunity occurred Colonel
or Constable Ritchings would be given
a chance such as he deserved.
It was also said in authoritative
quarters (to quote the British press
account) that Lieut. Col Ritchings
himself "recognized as. every rightthinking
man would that he had a
moral obligation to return to the Cardiff
police force for the reason'that
tho ratpnnvprs had been contributing
during his absence to the support of
his dependents at home."?New York
Times.
SAINT HELENA
Description of Island Where Allies
May Send Former Kaiser.
"St Helena, the island whose specialty
is the entertainment of deposed
monarchs, has good economic reasons
for its reported desire to have the
kaiser for a prisoner," says a bulletin
from the National Geographic Society's
Washington headquarters.
"Napoleon was its most famous and
best paying 'guest,' though not the only
one- Dinizulu, Zulu king, was a more
recent exile; sent there after he led i
a rebellion against the British during
the Transvaal in 1899. While Napoleon
was at St. Helena, 'profiteering*
at the expense of the Bonaparte
household and the numerous members
of the garrison sent to guard
him, was reduced to a fine art by
the island citizens.
"In fact it was the high cost of
St. Helena living which created part
of the friction between Napoleon and
the British governor of the island,
Sir Hudson Lowe. Instead of living
within the 8,000 pounds sterling allowed
for maintenance of Bonaparte
and the half hundred members of
his entourage the bills for a year
mounted to three times that sum.
Upon complaint of the governor,
which Napoleon resented, the exmonarch
executed a bit of 'play to the
galleries' by ordering his silver sold
and his bed broken up for wood,
which, when reported in England,
created so much criticism of the governor,
already none to popular, that
further remonstrances were not made.
"Nappleon's wants were few. His
principal luxury was books; his diversions
chess playing and digging
in his garden. Like the former
kaiser, he spent many hours with
the Bible. He professed no piety,
however, frankly admitting that hei
was making a study of certain Old 1
Testament books to show that monarchies
had divine sanction, and hej
also spoke of wanting to write a|
monograph on 'The Campaigns of
Moses.'
"Since St. Helena la some 700 miles
from the nearest land, Ascension
island, and 1,200 miles from the nearest
African port, the extreme precautions
taken by Lowe to prevent
the escape of the man who once had
ruled half of Europe, created considerable
amusement. Sir Hudson was
greatly disturbed one day to find a
newly arrived Corsican priest riding
horseback in a coat similar to Napoleon's,
believing the compatriot involved
in a plot to deceive the guardsThe
French commissioner complained
that the sight of a passing dog
was enough to induce the governor
to plant a new sentinel on the spot;
but perhaps the most extreme of the
many amusing stories of Lowe's solicitude
was the occasion of his protest
acainst Napoleon's planting some
white and green beans, sensing in
this combination of colors a subtle
allusion to the white flag of the
Bourbons and the distinctive green
uniform of the general.
"Living almost wholly within two
rooms and his garden, Nhpoleon insisted
on all the pomp and eeremoBV
possible in such cramped quarters,
{since his companion* necesstri'v were
much in hit presence his insistent*
upon their standing sometimes brought
them to the point of fainting. None
[ might speak unless spoken to and
all became extremely bored 'with court
life in a shanty nlvolving all the burdens,
without any of the splendors,
of a palace.'
"At first the exile rode horseback,
but soon abandoned that rather than
have an English guard along. His
seculsion is best attested by the fact
that for five of his six years' stay
he did not exchange a word with
the governor; and of the three commissioners?Russian,
Austrian and
French?sojourning there by the provisions
of a treaty 'to assure themselves
of his presence' one saw him
through a telescope once, a second
looked into his face for the first time
when he was to be buried, and the
third saw him not at all.
"Napoleon's days at St. Helena
were not wholly devoted to killing
time. He dictated his volumlnuus
memoirs, and military commentaries,
while a number of his associates
later added to these diaries, conversations
and memoirs of their own,
inaccurate or deliberately misleading
in large part. Now this activity would
be called propaganda. It was highly
effective propaganda, too. Though
Naponeon's escape was prevented
by vigilance to an absurd degree,
and though the effect of his winning
personality was guarded ugalnst by
forbidding visitors to see him, his
writings and those of Montholon and
Les Cases resulted in the royalistic
'flareback' that put his nephew on the
throne of France. It was to Napoleon
III, that Queen Victoria presented,
'Londwood,' where Napoleon
lived and died while at St. Helena.
~ "Geographically St. Helena is peculiarly
fitted for an Island prisonIts
volcanic formation accounts for
a half circle of mountains which
permit only one landing place, that
at the Island's single port and city,
Jamestown. Uninhabited when discovered
ten years after Columbus sailed
for-America, the island was settled
by British, Dutch and Portuguese.
In the days of sailing vessels and before
the Suez canal was opened the
Islanders thrived by providing suppiles
for passing vessels. With the
passing of this market for their
meats and vegetables, the island's
principal industries waned and the
inhabitants dwindled until there are
now only about 3,500 persons, as
compared with twice that many residents
thirty years ago. The island
belongs to Great Britain and is administered
directly by tlifc^arown."
EPIRUS
Greece Lay* Claim To A Moat Historic
Province.
"The eastern shore line of Adriatic
Sea which continues southward as the
eastern shore of the Ionian Sea, the
exit of the Adriatic, has been a seething
cauldron of radical strife from the
time of the Persian and Roman empires
to the peace conference Of 1919,"
says a bulletin of the National Geographic
Society.
The bulletin calls attention to the
fact that the subsidence of the controversy
between Italy and the new
kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes
over Flume, seems merely to
transfer the center of interest southward
to the historic Epirus, now a part
of Albania, which Greece wishes restored
to her domain.
"Five centuries before Christ Epirus
was set off like a little island, apart
from Alexander's vast domains, with
Macedonia and Hellas and the Ionian
Sea as its boundaries," the bulletin
continues. "The name, meaning 'mainland'
was given it to distinguish it
from the Grecian islands which fringe
Ita r?nnnt llnp
"Corinthians, Athenians and Spartans
looked upon the Epirotes as barbarians,
though Aristotle believed
Epirus the original home of the
Hellenes. Today the major portion of
the ancient area is comprised in Albania,
among the youngest and least
known of all the states of Europe.
"An oracle and a woman won for
Epirus wide renown in the ancient
world. From prehistoric times messages
of the gods were received at
Dodona through the rustlings of the
leaves on an oak tree where Zeus was
supposed to lurk; and from Epirus
came Olympias, mother of Alexander
the Great, whose son's renown does not
overshadow her own major part in the
history of her times.
"Ruins of the Dodona temples were
discovered within the last half century
a few miles southwest of Janlna. According
to local tradition the first
message was delivered by a dove
speaking with a human voice from a
tree top. Priestesses were called Peleaides,
or doves. v
"Rivalry between the oracle of Zeus
at Dodona and that of Apollo at Delphi
became keen. Priestesses of the former
invented new ways of receiving
messages, including interpretations of
fka murmurs nf a. brook, and the
sounds of a metal-tipped whip as the
wind drove it against a bronze tripod.
"Croesus was supposed to have consulted
the Dodona oracle about his
proposed campaign against Cyrus, king
of the Persians. He acted upon the
more flattering prophecy at Delphi
which promised he would 'destroy a
great kingdom.* The prediction was
verified; the kingdom destroyed was
his own.
"Few biographies of women are more
fascinating than that of Olympias.
She was the daughter of a king of
Epirus who traced his ancestry to a
son of Achilles. She married Phillip
II, of Macedon. Her character betrays
an amazing compound of the devoted
mother, the barbaric passion of a
Cleopatra, and the astute statemani
ship of Maria Theresa. Plutarch gives
a vivid description of her fantastic
snake dances. Estranged from Phillip
because of his infidelity, she was suspected
of having a part in his murder.
"Pyrrhus, descended from Alexander's
aunt, waged a war with Rome
and made Epirus a power in world
politics for a brief period. A century
and a half after his death the Romans
annihilated the forces of Perseus at
Pydna and the punishment meted out
to Epirus for its part in the war was
the destruction of 70 of her principal
cities and enslavement of 150,000 of her
citizens. The kingdom never recovered
from that blow.
"Epirus is extremely mountainous.
From ancient times to the present day
its cattle and horses have been noted
and it was famous for a peculiar breed
of dog, the Molossian."
TURKISH ATROCITIES.
.Greek People Subjected to Most Terrible
Cruelties.
Charges that Turkish officials decimated
the Greek, population along
the Hlack Sea Coast, 250.000 men, women
and children living between Sinop
and Ordu, without the shedding of
blood, but by "parboiling" the victims
in a Turkish bath and turning them
out half clad to die of pneumonia or
other ills in the snow of an Anatolian
winter are made in a letter from Dr.
George E. White, representative of the
American Committee for Relief in the
Near East, made public recently.
The worst of the crimes laid to the
Turks, according to Dr. White were
committed In the Winter of 1916 and
1917 when orders were issued for the
deportation of the Greeks along the
Black Sea Coast. The people, he
wrote, were crowded into the steam
rooms of the baths in Chodum under
the pretense of "sanitary regulations"
and after being tortured for hours
were turned out of doors Into snow
almost knee-deep, and without lodging
or food. Their garments, which had
been taken from them for fumigation,
were lost, ruined or stolen. Most of
the victims, ill-clad and shivering,
contracted tuberculosis and other pulmonary
diseases and "died in swarms"
on the way to exile, the letter declared.
Dr. White said that in the province
of Hafra, where there were more
than "9.000 village Greeks, now less
than 13.000 survive and every Greek
settlement has been burned. The number
of orphans, including some Armenian
ami Turkish children, in the entire
district, it was said aggregated 60,000.
Since the armistice the doctor wrote
many of the deportees have been returned
to their ruined homes.
DEPARTMENT OF HIGHWAYS
Big Idea Now Being Agitated in Congreat.
Establishment of a department of
federal highways and definite trunk
line roads across the United States,
together with an appropriation of $1,700,000,000
for the work are the chief
provisions of a bill introduced in conpress
recently by Representative Osborn
of California.
She measure, which is urged by the
Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce,
differs to some extent from the Town
I send bill, which provides for a federal
highway commission. Mr. Osborn's bill
definitely states the number of trunk
lines to be established, specifically
names the officers and their salaries,
and Increases the appropriation covering
seven 'years from (45,000,000 to
$1,700,000,000. It also grants the power
to appropriate highways anywhere in
the United States by condemnation so
that the federal government will not
be dependent upon the individual
states for assistance in development
of the highways.
The department of federal highways,
as proposed, will have a secretary with
cabinet ranking. Not less than three
main line roads from the Atlantic
ocean to the Pacific ocean, and not less
than four main truck line roads from
the northern to the southern boundary
of the United States, are provided for.
The plan includes also not less than
two main truck line roads in each
state, together with intersecting roads
connecting the entire national highway
system.
An appropriation of $100,000,000 is
advocated immediately, with $200,000,000
per year for the seven succeeding
fiscal years.
The system will not include any
highway in a place having a population
of 5,000 or more except where the
houses are more than 200 feet apart.
The construction, maintenance, repair I
and Improvements, together with the|
selection of these highways, will be
the duty of the secretary of the department.
Provision is made so that any lands
in the United States may be appropriated
as right of way for the highway,
either by contract or condemnation.
The secretary of war is authorized
to turn over such equipment as
may be necessary for construction and
maintenance.
The bill also includes amendments
for the federal road act, one of which
strikes out the maximum pf $10,000
which is allowed per mile for payment
of roads and which would leave the
act without a definite maximum sum
specified. Bond issues may be made
[ under the provisions each year . for
the an\ount of the appropriation.
ICELAND
Illuminating Sketch Dealing With The
"Greece Of The North."
In connection with the recjgnltion
of the full sovereignty of Iceland, reT
cently accorded by l5enmark, by which
the island enters the Danish federation
on equal terms with Denmark, the
National ueograpmc society nas issued
from its headquarters tho following
bulletin:
"Geographically and geologically
Iceland is a part of?a continuation of
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the British Isles, for It Is situated on
the same submarine ridge, stretching
from southeast to northwest across the
North Atlantic," says the bulletin,
which is based on a communication
from Jon Stefansson.
"Iceland is not a bleak,'arctic region,
embedded in thick-ribbed ice, though
its northernmost peninsula, Rifstangl,
projects a mile north of the Arctic
circle.
"No country on earth of equal s^ze
contains so varied and wonderful
pnenoraena. me glaciers 01 Switzerland;
the fjords, salmon rivers, and
midnight sun of Norway; the volcanoes,
grottoes, and solfataras of Italy, on
a grander scale; the mineral springs
of Germany; the geysers of New Zealand;
the largest waterfall, next to
Niagara, in the world?all are here.
Nowhere has nature been so spendthrift
in giving a geological lesson to
man. If there be sermons in stones,
volumes lie unread here. Here we see
her titanic forces at work building up
a country. Nowhere Is it possible to
study so well the geological conditions
prevailing toward the close of the
Glacial Epoch in Europe.
"Iceland baa another and greater
claim to one's interest It is, as William
Morris said, 'the Greece of the
North.' It produced in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries a literature unparalleled
after Rome before the golden
age of England and Prance, in
character drawing, in passionate
dramatic power, in severe, noble simplicity,
in grim humor. All the
characters of the Sagas live and move
today. Every hill and headland and
valley in the island is full of their
presence. The Icelander of today
knows them by heart. It is as if
every Englishman, from pauper to
1.1 OU.1.. A 1. ui-l 1 1
mug, Mitrw outLKf sptiare a nisiunutii
plays and could retell them more or
less In his or her own words. It has
kept the national spirit alive through
evil times. It has preserved the language
almost untouched by time and
foreign intercourse.
"Yet this literary people still live in
a pastoral and Homeric civilization,
which is a modern lesson of the health
fulness of human life lived in close
contact with the free, wild life of nature,
such as would have delighted the
heart of Rousseau or Thoreau.
"For four hundred years Iceland was
an aristocratic republic, ruled by the
great families of the early settlers,
among whom was a Norse Queen of
Dublin. A fourteen days' open-air
parliament of all Iceland met annually
in June at Thingvellir, and the speaker
of the law (log-soguman) used to
recite from memory the whole of the
unwritten, elaborate laws of the country
to the assembly. In 1262-1264 Ice
land was united to Norway, and in 1S80
with Norway to Denmark. The Danish
rule ruined the island economically,
but since the granting of self-government
and the re-establishment of the
old parliament, in 1874, at Reykjavik,
great progress has been made."
The Two Essentials.?"Tommy,"
asked the Sunday-school teacher, who
had been giving a lesson on baptism,
"can you tell me the two things necessary
to baptism?"
"Yes'm," Tommy answered immediately:
"water and a baby."
. >. " :? '
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their
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of 40 billion cUanttos a
States last year, 30 bill
t-Carollna tobacco. That t
appetising taste of Vird
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If you want to relflab Um
iioke Virginia- Carolina tc
ke It In a cigarette ma
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TheVirginia-Cara/ir
dmc
SOVEREIGN
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/
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IRON with other blood and nerve products.
You will be surprised and delighted
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Your druggist sells It or can get It
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Sent by mall or receipt of price.
Sovereign Remedy Co.
1215 Filbert 8L, Philadelphia, Pa.
II GOOD HOUSES AT LOW
COST. WHY? T ? ? ?
I BECAUSE?We do a large
| amount of work with Special
| Modern Machinery instead of I
I by hand, and building in large
| quantities as we do, we ellml|
nate the expenses of plans and
| specifications.
I BECAUSE?We get lumber
I from the Forest, and other
| supplies in carlots, and we are
| satisfied with a Reasonable
I Profit'
I YOU CAN HATE A HOME
RIGHT NOW lit
I We make a variety of sixes
I and styles of ready to put up
I houses at prices from $200.00
up.
| Write or 'phone us for our
I Illustrated free Catalogue, or
Come to SEE US.
DIXIE HOUSE CO.,
CHARLESTON, 8. O..
1 1 I
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