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?.*- ?.?* ??* .V VC ?V ?.t- A ?V. ?t, ??? - ?S? ? ?4? ?|? ?t? ?,?. ... -1 * The Southern Farmer Tries * * Cooperative Marketing * >Z? %T? ?cV ?Jt* ?JU ?** . %i* %t? ??? -i* v n* ?<* t? BY SYDNEY D. FIUSSELL. "Airrerica's . greatest liberty-lover. America's greatest gambler. America's, gamest loser, the man who endures hardship, debt, and isolation in order to think himself the monarch of all he surveys upon his own few acres, and clings at any sacrifice to his little Kingdom?the Southern farmer?is waking, from a dream. .- For a generation he. has dreamed he was the most independent man on earth, ex-en through the. hard year? that have been relieved by rare flashes of prosperity. In the su?den fi?re of high prices for cotton and tobacco, and with the first sweet taste of prosperity hitherto unknown, when war demands brought 40 cent cotton, dollar tobacco was common, thousands of cortoa-plantersiand tobacco-growers "approached a standard of living on the Southern farms whieh might compare with the advantages of city dwell ers. -- In the fall of 2 919 cotton-fields held fortunes, the .log tobacco ^barns became the owners' treas ure houses, filled with golden weeds which yielded from $500 to $1,000 for a curing, and the South ern farmer, thinking he had come into his own at last, spent, money "like a drunken sailor." Tour ing, cars supplanted-.horse and buggy. Thousands who had gone afoot or "mule-back" began to race upon the roads in new and shining Fords. Meanwhile a solid-gain was made in thousands of Southern homes toward higher living levels than had hitherto been reached by the great majority of cotron and tobacco farmers. Houses were paint e.d.. .varcls improved-: children were taken out of :^pffXon fields and log tobacco barns and sent to school on lime, while thousands of tenants pulled themselves by one crop into the owner class. Prosperity had come, but only like a passing dream, and Southern farmers soon felt again such losses as 10-cent cotton and 25-cent tobacco brought when produced with the high cost of la bor and fertilizer which followed boom times. A Itiule Awakening. Wiihn a year after the crash of prices cotton planters and tobacco-growers looked about and found themselves staggering under crop mortgages again, and laboring to meet their debts. In des .?eration thev took account of stock. The Southern farmer found the independence, which he had made ^fetish, a pitiful delusion. The rampant individualism which he boasted as his one inalenrable right, he sees today as his most glaring" fault. I la the game he called a gamble, and where he look his losses like a ."sport," the cotton-planter or Lobaceo-grower found the dice were loaded, and that the stakes for which he played went four times out -of five to others who are organized to win. Common to every cotton and tobacco market ? in the South, where growers dump their products down at public auction and take whatever price the speculative buyers may give, are the following cases which recently occurred in Georgia and North Carolina: | A farmer selling a pile of tobacco on the Wilson market rhis fall Was offered 31 cents a. pound. Dis satisfied, he asked a Wilson resident to sell ic in Iiis own name. The tobacco, tor which 31 cent? j was bid when first offered, brought 67 cents the same day on the same market when offered by.an- j other man. The market mentioned is the largest bright tobacco, market of the south, but similar instances could be multiplied Ly the thousand, and occur daily throughout the cotton and tobacco belt: A recent letter to a leading xarm journal of North Carolina shows clearly why the growers wish to change the cotton-selling game: About May 1st learned a bale of cotton lo town to sell. .We have four buyers here. I stopped at the first one that .Ijdught. He had a new man to grade, it for him. He showed the sample to the grader and bid me seven and a quarter cents for ; it. I grabbed the sample away from him and went j to the next one. He insisted that I tell him what ? I had been bid. I told hlrn while he looked at it. Then he said it was worth eight cents all right. I went lo the' other one. He looked at it and said he ..would give me ten and a half cents for iL I sold it to him. Now for the rest' of my experience. The man who bought ray cotton at ten and half cents threw it on, his platform, and that evening sold it to the b-.yer who first bid on it. and who only offered me seven and a .quarter cents. I don't know what the last 'man got-for it, but I have no idea that he lost any money on it. For years the Southern farmer l?oastk-d of his ?kill in playing a lone hand, but looking back he see* - that . he has always paid the profits to the groups that are oombned against him in the game. He sees that he has pur his children in the game, has called his wife to help him win. has worked from dawn to dark, from year to year, and sadly smiled at losses when he let the other fellows who . j have put their heatdgTtogether make the rules and take the winnings. Sooting: the Way Out. j . Tu Virginia and flu- Carolinas, with more than half the cotton ami.tobacco farmers carrying crop j mortgages, the growers met in desperation ai. the opening of the markets in the fall of 1920 when the-"prices of their product were cut in half or to a third. At many places in. the south gins were burring, warehouses closing, while farmers were mobilis ing in almost every.'-county in the cotton and to *jaeeo belt throughput the fall of 1920. With angry protests, futile plans and confused counsel, the farmers who gathered in mass meet ings seemed hopelessly befuddled. Slowly, but with increasing clearness, some big ideas loomed through .the mu>s of confusion and discourage ment in which tnc farmers met and groped for Taelu in every Southern State. For the first time, the cotton-planter clearly saw he could not play the lone hand and survive. The tofcaceb-grower saw that his donation to the gpecirlator. manufacturer and middle man of 90 cents out of every dollar paid by the consumer was j too high a price for such untrammeled individual ism as had brought his family to th?- verge of pov erty. A Light in the Clearing. Hearing that the Danish farmer kept close to 90 cents of the consumer's dollar in his fist, while to bacco-farmers of Virginia and the Carolinas let all but 8 or 10 cents slip away, the planter of th" old tobacco belt began to see a light. Promising themselves that speculators should *yot meet them with the eld excuse of over-pro duction lo.ooo tobacco-planters of Virginia pledg ed to out their crop a third. Outposts of organ ization sprang up through Virginia and the Caro linas. Although rhe planters kept tin :r pledges, and < ut their crops a thiui. the leaders in the old tobacco belt were certain that no rope of sand, like the eo-calk-d "Genriemen s Agreement" to reduce their acreage, could give more than temporary rebel to growers. With mobiliza tion of cot ion and toba co growers in the lower and upper South, growers' association* taking form in every state, and local units spring in" uo in almost every county, u new hope reached The termers ol\ the south. That hope was spelled Cooperative Marketing. . The Story of the California Cooperative Market ing Associations reached Virginia and the Carolinas. Khere independence is held precious even at the price pf poverty. Tlit* Worker of Cooperative Miracles. Tlie peanut-growers of Virginia and North Car olina, who had suffered heavy losses by a sudden drop in prices, mobilized to save their industry, and called on Aaron Sapiro, counsel for fourteen California cooperative exchanges, to draw up their plan of organization in the fall of 1920. No sooner was the campaign of peanut-growers well under way toward a majority of signers, than leaders in the tobacco growing industry of Virginia and the Carolinas called the Western worker of co operative miracles to a conference of growers. The representatives of the Carolina and Virginia growers met with Aaron Sapiro in Richmond, Vir ginia, on December 10, 1020. Mr. Sapiro pointed out the fact that tobacco, like cotton, is in some respects more easily adapted to cooperative market ing than the raisins, prune; and apricots by which the California growers have risen to prosperity from a debt-ridden condition, similar to that in which the majority of Virginia and Carolina grow ers find themselves today. After painstaking consideration of the task of signing up a half of all tobacco-growers in the most conservative and oldest industry of Virginia and the Carolinas, and the large problems of warehousing, storage.' finance and distribution involved in handl ing a crop of several hundred million pounds, the leaders called a mobilization of representative to bacco-growers in each state. County delegates from most tobacco growing counties of Virginia met at Lynchburg early in 1921; State leaders there outlined the plan of marketing tobacco by cooperative sales. The growers of Vir ginia faced Aaron Sapiro and were asked why they persisted in the worst marketing system in the world. Asked why they dumped tobacco on the warehouse floors and were wiling to accept the grades nnd prices set by speculators, instead of marketing their crop like business men. through an association of the growers, they saw the need for change. Told that 2 per cent, of California farmers car ry crop mortgages today, while (JO per cent of all tobacco-growers in Virginia labor under them, the. growers of Virginia heard how Calif ort? ia farmers had bridged the gap between the country and the city, by maintaning such prosperity, Ly coopera tive markets, as the Virginia growers had tasted only once of late, and lost again. When Aaron Sapiro told the growers of Virginia that they could stabilize their industry within a single year by marketing a majority of the crop of the old tobacco belt through cooperative sales of a marketing association, the growers of Virginia took him at his word, and forthwith planned their task of signing a majority of growers in their state to the five-year marketing contract to sell their crops through the Tobacco Growers1 Cooperative Associa tion. . After similar mats meetings at Raleigh, North Carolina, and Florence, South Carolina, a similar program was adopted for both cotton and tobacco farmers, each group organizing by commodity. ? Backed by the extension divisions of three states, endorsed by the State Bankers' .Associations of Vir ginia and North Carolina, the cooperative move ment in those states has made amazing progress. Virginia has already signed up 17.<?00 out of her 29.-000 tobacco-growers. North Carolina a major ity of her cotton-growers, and South Carolina has made rapid progress in the movement for cooper ative sales. A Prophecy Fulfilled. The cotton-growers of Oklahoma. Texas, and Mis^i.ssippi. with a majority of cotton adfirned In each state, are now selling cotton through their market ing associations. Aided by a loan of $10.000,000 from the War Finance Corporation; upon a half mil lion bales of cotton under five-year contract, the Texas cotton-growers, merchandising their cotton instead of dumping it upon the speculative mar kets, are now assured of a reasonable return by selling in accordance with the world's demand. Oklahoma growers, with a loan of $<>.000,000, Mississippi growers with a loan of f 3,000.000. handl ing the majority of cotton in their states, through expert managers and salesmen, have fulfilled the prophecy of Sapiro, and have stabilized their in dustry within a year. Big Business Takes Notice. Now that the farmers of the South are organiz ing in strong business associations throughout the cotton and tobacco belts, and the succes- of the ooperative marketing movement seems inevitable, a miracle of change is taking place. The Federal Reserve Board, with a sudden change of heart, passed recent resolutions promising lib eral rural credits to enable growers to move and market crops. The War Financ* "orpnration has agreed to lend millions of dollars to efficient mar keting associations, and New York bankers are. preparing to stack million for million along with some of the state banks which are backing the or ganized farnn-rs of the cotton belt. The farmer in the marketing association can now talk business, and big business s'ts up and takes notice of the farmer, when at last he holds the majority of his state's cotton or peanuts, rais ins, prunes or tobacco in Ids hands, and under con tract for five .vents'. California Looks Backward and Goes Forward. During this year the prune-growers' contract in California expired. Instead of tigr.ing a five-year contract for marketing their prunes through their cooperative association, the growers made a con tract for seven years with their association. In stead of signing CO or 70 per cent, of the prune growers of California, their association gained 90 per cent, for the entire state. T. S. Montgomery, president of the Garden City Bank of California, wrote of this Cooperative Mar keting Movement in his section' '"The perpetua tion of the California Prune and Apricot Growers' Association is the very foundation of our future prosperity. Its discontinuance would be a calam ity. Any grower who is too short of vision to look forward should look backward, and profit by ex perience." Looking backward in California means -look ing backward from prosperity to stieh debt-rid den bond.ige as Virginia tobacco-growers?tin per cent, of lhem loaded with mortgages?now labor under, and such losses as the cot ton-growers have sustained of la*;-. By means of the loans obtained upon hundreds of thousands of bales of cotton, the cotton-growers who have organized their business can now "eat their cake and keep it too." Upon delivery of bis cotton, every grower in the marketing associa tions which are organized from business receives cash payment for from ,">?? to GO per cent, of the value of each load delivered, and can be certain that the cotton will be merchandised with skill, where it will bring the l>< si obtainable returns. The Way Back in Prosperity. With 20 cent cotton now in sight, with the as surance of an orderly; skilful sale of his year's crop, with a state-wide organization to protect him from the glutted markets and the eoccukitive system which has proved his bane, the eofton-ferower who has signed the marketing contract can feel that he has fairly won his independence. While the cotton-growers through organization and cooperative effort have 1? t ~o their u\\ u i>.un straps, and pulled together out from the depths of despondency caused by 10-cetit cotton, up to th* level of L'"-e, M cotton, with the hope of belter days ahead, tic- organized i.obacoo-growers of Virginia. Kentucky and the Carolinas look forward to a bet ter day. Jn the ii::> of cotton from !" to 20 cents, ihr state-wide organizations of farmers have not play ?d the least important part. Successful at lirsi in reducing rheir crop, they are new meeting tin a I success in marketing it by organization; From 7 1-2 cents last July on the South Carolina markets t? cejits in September on the Virginia markets is a considerable rise lor tobacco. The grower's of South Carolina wore poorly organized in .Inly. 1>ut the tobacco-growers in Virginia had attained ;i ?o per cent sign-up in September, and in this connection a well-known warehouseman has said: 'Tobacco prices are being battered because of the Cooperative Marketing Movement." Virginia planters are already reaping the fast fruits of victory in the success of the pool of the sun-cured belt, which was formed In advance of the Tri-State Growers' Cooperative Association. Those growers who marketed their tobacco by cooperative and orderly sales gained an average' of IG 1-4 cents a pound, as against the 9-cent average of those who dumped their product on the warehouse floors for acut ion Kale. Cooperative Marketing in a Nutshell. Dr.'Ol?Yenee Poe, whose journal, the Progressive Farmer, has consistently advocated cooperative markets' in the Carolinas, has aptly sum* u->rized the advantages of cooperative marketing by the fol lowing comparison: Under the present system we now (1) ignorantly, (2) individuality, (3) helplessly, (4) dump farm products C5) in piddling quantitlee, (C) without proper grading, (7) without modern s?.ientio fin ancing, tS) selling through untrained producers. By cooperative marketing we will (1) Intelli gently; (2) collectively, ?3) powerfully, (4) mer chandise farm products. (5) in large quantities, (ft)* with proper grading. (7) with modern scien tific. (S) selling through the most expert selling agents. There in a nutshell is en explanation of the movement which has stirred thousands of homes from Virginia, through the Carolinas, to the Geor gia line, and has roused the great southwest with hope of h prosperity that will not waver with the fluctuating rise and fall of markets. where the growers arc but pawns in the great speculative game of cotton and tobacco. More than 15(1,000 sou them farmers who raise cotton, peanuts, or tobacco have now signed the. contract which they call their Declaration of In dependence. Both capitalist and laborer, indomitable conser vative, and individualist, the farmer of the south, ttung into the. knowledge of his power, and catch ing up at last with modern weapons of organiza tion, in the struggle for existence, na- reached the turning of the road. *?? ??? ?Je ? ? ?** ?*? ?? j1? iH ~/z * Bhopal: Where the Begum * Rules * -'- ?U ?t? .?, _i. J, a. j. -4? '.? -.? ... ... . Washington. Feb. 20.---The Wali of Kalat. the Jair} of Uas Bela, the Oaekwar of Baroda and the Begum of Bhopal. These are not countersigns for secret societies nor characters in the latest, musical com*dy hit. but flesh and blood rulers whose names turn up in the hews now and then to make weary editors tear their hair. : Upon the latest to break into the. front pages?the Begum of BhopaJ. who has just enter tained the Prince of Wales?some light is thrown by a . bulletin on. Bhopal issued by the National Geographic Society. ? Only Woman Ruler in India. ??F;hopa,l upsets ? ^food man> ' cherished Wes tern ? heniijiphert' notions of the East, and it? cus toms." . says , the- bulletin. . "The country- is. ruled by. Mohammedans in. whose eyes women are pop ularly sunposV'd to. be inferior brings existing for man's pleasure, and \yho must be kept carefully se cluded from the world. Yet Bhopal has the only woman ruler in India. Sultan. Jahan Begum, and site is actually (he .power in the land, ruling It ac tively. Moreover she,-is not an exception in a long line cr masculine rulers, as.was Queen Victoria, but is the third successive Begum to rule the country. Her Queer title, incidentally, is roughly ihe feminine equivalent of Nawab and Rajah. One Western con ception she does, live up to. Though.she appears constantly in public she is always veiled. Few are her subjects indeed who know the appearar.es of the face that rules thein. "it is confusing, too.-to the Westerner unfamil iar with India's hodge. podge of religions to find that though Bhopal is the second most important Mohammedan country-in India, its population is 73 per cent..Hindu ami only 13 jut cet. Ntohamtnme dan. Jts present ruling.-family was founded by an Afghan soldier of fortune who leased .some ad joining territory fr.ora. the Mogul empire in lTt.'-S, took Bhopal by force o: arms and declared himself a idndepehdent nawab. Picturesque Lake-side Capital. "Bhopal is in almost the exact center of India It if; slightly smaller titan tin*, state of New Jersey and has a population of close to three-quarters of a millon. It 'is largely a plateau region with considerable areas of fertile soil and large expanses of grass-covered downs which support cattle. In the patches of jungle leopards and tigers find cov er, ami an abundance of wild fowl makes it a haven for the hunter. '?Bhopal city, the seat of the Begum, is one of the most picturesquely situated of the. Indian capi tals. Its sttrroundings testify io a high order of en gineering ability on-the part of the Indians when medieval Bxrropeans were doing little, to harness nature's forces or to modify the face of the earth. With quaint lerraced streets the city is built up the side of a ridge 5t'0 feet in height and its lower edge, is bathed by a large artificial lake impounded by a massive dam. ..fust beyond this lake is a second large, bodv of water held by a greater dam which is believed to have been built in the eleventh cen tury at the latest and perhaps much earlier. The dam creating the larger lake also separates the two lakes, -and near i; is a great pile of white palaces. From the palaces a spacious flight of steps leads, through a huge gateway, to the water's edge. The city is about the size of St. Joseph, Mo. An Artificial Sea. "Not far from Bhopal city are the ruins of tin even more ambitious engineering project? dams which 1.000 years ago created a lake 250 ?j-iuare miles in extent which i* said to have materially modified the climate in Its neighborhood. The dams were destroyed nearly 100 years before Co lumbus crossed the Atlantic, and the old bed of Ihe lake, whose soil is exceedingly rich, now ; i - duees a good part of ihe opium which Bhopal ? * ports.' "Famine laid a heavy hand on Bhopal in IS:V? li'00 and the population at. the following census showed a reduction of 30 per cent. Even today in many of the villages of ihe country abandoned houses are to be seen in various stages of decay. The country is progressive in many ways and dates much of its progress from its energetic tits*. Begum, Slkartdar, who introduced reforms which have been carried on by her daughter and granddaughter." Dame Fadiion advises women to uncover their ears. The dears be careful: they rr.Tght bear some of the Ibings 'hat are ::iid about uncovered knees. Arkansas Gazette. Another difference between "president and ' v ice president" is: Wim knows Coolldge's dog'* name? Wichita B? aeon. i We may expect very little accomplishment of the Genoa conference". The Russian ballet has ;-one there.??t. i'aul Pioneer-Press. THE EAST INDIES: Holland's Stake in the East Washington. Feb. 20.? "The Dutch East Indies ?a great colonial empire which give* the Nether lands one. of the biggest stakes of all these held by non-Asiatic nations in the Tar Bast?tni-Ju he con sidered as exerting the force which brought the world to know itself," says one of t4u- bulletin* is sued by the National Geographic Society In regard :o the lands that will probably he involved in" tha discussion of Par Eastern questions. "Its spices, known only to have originated in a mysterious land to the. east, spurred the imagination and cupidity as well as tin-, appetite of Europe. They were the magnets that drew Vasco du Cum? around Africa. Columbus to .North America, and Cabral to Brazil, opening up the. way to vast un known regions. And the other voyages of explor ation which this quest for the 'Spice Islands' ini taied let eVeniually tu the. discovery of Australia, the third unknown continent whose di>eov?-ry may be credited ro the lure of condiments. Its Spires Gilded Venice and Lisbon. "The East Indies were of economic imponanoe to Europe even when they were little more than a tradition. Their spices, trickling through Arabia to Venetian traders, were transmuted into the beauty and power of Venice. Later this wealth went to build up Lisbon at its greatest: and for the past few centuries it has been poured into Bruges and Amsterdam. '?The Dutch possessions in the Far East, unlike those of England are concentrated in a single area. Many of the islands are small, hut included in whole or in part are some of the largest islands in the world. Holland owns half of New Guinea, the larges' island outside polar waters; three-quarters of Borneo, second largest island: and all of Su matra, fourth in size. Sixty Times Size of Netherlands. "From the latitude of central Burma to that of Tokio, this great colonial empire of Holland stretches: largely below the equator, but in parr astride it. Though much of ibis area is sea. there is not a single mile of the three thousand from central New Guinea to the western tip of Sumatra in which a north and south line would not cut Dutch land. The breadth of the Dutch zone is near ly 1.000 miles at its greatest and the land area is more than 771,000 square miles?60 times that of The Netherlands, if this great archipelago were spread out in the western hemisphere, it would ex tend from Kan Francisco across the. United States and out in the Atlantic to the Bermudas, each of its Larger islands covering groups of our States. ? "Java, fiifth in si2e of the Dutch islands, is prob ably best known, and for good reason. Enthusias tic observers have, called it "the garden spot of -.he world.' Its soil is constantly enriched by active volcanoes, it is well watered, and four out of ev ery rive acres of its surface are cultivated. Even mountain peaks 10,000 feet high are girdled by un broken lields up to half their height, above which forest? ?tili hold sway." World's Most Crowded Land. "Java, with its 50,000 square miles of area, has a populations or' about US,000.000?one-third that of itet; l.'nitert Scales which is TO ? limes us lar^e. Compared with other geographical units of its size, ir is probably the most populous as well as the most prosperous region in the world. Most-of the inhabitants live in villages. Altough it has only four cities as large or larger than Reading, Pa., the density of population for the island as a' whole is close to 700 per square mile?greater than thar of Belgierin, the most crowded country in Europe, or Shantung the most heavily populated province in China. "Tho other islands of the Durch Fast Indies form a contrast to Java. Sumatra, three iirnes as largo has a population of little more than 4.000,000; and though closer to India and Europe-, does not show anything like the same degree of development and prosperity. Only the fringe of Borneo and New GMnea have been touched, and development has not been carried far, in comparison with Java, in many of the smaller islands. Quite a number of the small islands are uninhabited, and in many ?Ubers the population is sparse-. This is a result of the picturesque but destructive pirate empires of Ternate, Tidore. Boni and Gowa. which flourished in the eastern part of the archipelago, growing rich on spoils from the sea trade around the Malay Peninsula.- Gradually the Dutch closed in on these pirate strongholds; and when steam gunboats and sie;im la lunches came into use, ended their ae il cities. ??Dciuiiuretl" Mohammedanism. "Holland's Far Eastern subjects arc mostly of Malayan stock: but situated at the 'gate- of a great world highway, it is natural that they have received a considerable admixture of other blood. The in habitants" of New Guinea are negroid peoples and traces of their blood are found in other of the east ern islands. Other strains arc the Polynesian. Mon golian, Portuguese. Hindu and Aral). Most of the natives are nominally .Mohammedans but they lack the fanaticism and strictness of many of that cult. Holy days are not observed strictly, pork is widely consumed, and there is little seclusion of women. "In governing her colonies Holland leaves na tive rulers in nominal charge, bur places them un der the control of Dutch officials. Conditions in .lava, which was not affected by the pirate empires, furnish a good measure of the success of Dutch control. Two centuries ago there were but 2,000. 000 people in the island. Since that time the popu lation has increased seventeen fold, and still the people are prosperous." The ease is simple. Watson. One handkerchief has "M" and another "S." "Ms"?a manscript killed Taylor A man who loses his head easily isn't out much. It mav be true he never told a lie; but George didn't have to make out an income tax blank. Suspender makers live nmsrly on the fat of the land. _ ?Monkevs have the mos; sense after men." say* a turner.' This is an awful slain at women alter men. A ).tlegger is being sued by former custom er's \\ a1ou. The modern pirl always gels mad when her fel l,,u steals a kiss?unless it l*fn>m her. A senator wants to raise the postage again Bet Pome Pon*k lay in a suppl> of stamps whde the> .n e . heap._ A little earning is a dangerous thing also. Ashe v ill*- Tim-.-. _ i h?, trouble With eivili/at ior. is tha. it will stand considerable strain.?Syracuse Herald. Some of the members of the farm bloc are re garded as more skilled in blocking than in farm tog.?Washington Star. Wash Day by the Tub of Babel Washington. February 20.?"Rub-a-dub-dub is The litany of the tub, supplanted in part by the antiphony of washing machine in the modern American home. In Italy and Sardinia you may greet your linen being-, washed in public troughs along the streets, and in Normandy your clothes are dipped in flowing; streams, placed on rocks, and pounded with paddies until you have visions of your little pearl buttons floating back to the mol lusks whence they came," says a bulletin of the National Geographic Soeiety from its Washing ton, 1?. <'., h<adouarters. ?Tht* round little Dutch woman's wash-tub is to be found almost anywhere you turn. Along the canals, at the water troughs and boat landings the roly-poly, pink cheeked mother washes the pink and blue cottons of her Adolf and Wilheimina in rhese stationary dish-pans and wash-tubs ot hers. "Blue Monday1! Once a Year. 'There is only one "blue. Monday' a year in Abyssinia, and then the women don't do the work. Both the women and men wear a robe, of cot ion wrapped about them, the former over a sort of night-gown and fhe /atlor over loose knee-trousers. On tht: Eve of St. John the man do the small fam ily wash for the year. Th. y dig a hoie in the ground by the ;ide of a si ream and spread a piece of leather over the bottom of it. They put the clothes in. sot inkU thorn with a powder made from a fruit reseia??i?ng the Corinthian grape, a ad till the hole with ?v <.?./. Then' th-y treai bad-: .??.-1 f.n tb upon the ciotlijcs for an ho*r or >o working up a white foam which the powder has generated. The wet garments, which are said to be as white as snow, are rin ;< d it rce flowing stream. ?'In some remote parts of Switzeeland wash-day comes but twice a year. The Alpine peasant wo- * man is too busy working the crops and tending the.cattle in the summer to do the washing, and in the winter it is too cold, so she does it in bulk in the spring and .fall. She takes her turn * for several days arqong the other women of the. neighborhood at the community tub. which is filled with water piped down from a glacier. Nearby big copper kettles are sizzling over fires built on the ground in order that she may have hot water to help loosen the dirt wdiicb, in most cases, is thor- - oughly ground into the garments. They do no: rub the clothes but, after soaping, throw them against an inclined board; Laundry a Scmi-Annual Event. "In parts of Germany the same system i? prac ticed. Long lines of boats may be seen comng down the streams looking for a suitable spot where the semi-yearly accumulation of soiled clothes may be:made wearable again. There is usually at the top ~ of the houses of these people an aired loft in which the clothes are stored" pending the coming of wash day and where lines are hung to dry them when the deed has been done. "At intervals along the banks of rivers and ? streams in France one may see the peasant women washing their clothes on stones, and beating them ' with wooden paddles. In.Paris along the Seine there are the 'bateaux lavoirs' or large covered boats where the washerwomen go to do their work. In the city streets there are everywhere the "lawoirs l>ii??li?]iies' which are private establishments where. for a sMali sum, housewives can use the tubs, the hoi water, the wringer, and the drying room..; A veritable army of waslierwomen camps out along the River Paillon at 'Nice, and having learned that the. visitors to the resort require that their clothes, be white, they use strong soaps and acids, and pound them with stones. He Who Runs May See. "Italy seems ro have.its washing out everywhere. Intimate garments greet the visitor on the road ways and along all the streams and some of the cities always have the appearance of being decorat ed for a gala occasion. "The Norwegians follow the same plan thai the Germans use'of letting the clothes accumulate for months in an air loft and then have a siege at the * job. But they distinguish themselves when it comes to the ironing. They, use a long box on rollers filled with .stones, and by placing one woman at one end of a board and one at the other they roll this weighted press over the clothes. "Eat h little village in Inda has its public pool where the natives wash their clothes. The faith ful of the Hindu faith plunge into the Ganges and the Jumna and other rivers of varying degrees of sanctity* for salvation. They wftsh their bodies. - their lips and tongues and rear their clothes away wet in order to preserve their 'purity' as long as possible. ? - V ??Gleaning up" Haiti. "American manufacturers have been doing their best to 'clean up' Haiti. Numerous shipments of washing machines have been sent to that country. Women in Egypt dip their 'duds' Into the waters of 'Father Nile.' jmft as they have d>ne sine tha days, of Barneses. ' > "England is typically conservative about display ing her wearing apparel to public view, but there are many public wash-houses in rhs large cities just as there are in this country. The sanu is true of Ireland. "The sampan dwellings on the rivers of China are covered with flags of family belongings which have been dipped in the dirty streams." Edison lias a book printed on thin sheets of nick el. Ah. a nie]. - 1 novel. Some think salvation is free; others think it costs a dime a Sunday. "Where are the farmers' whiskers?" puzzled their Washington meeting. This country now has near ly ^O.OOn women barbers. A boy baby with a rich uncle never has any trou ble getting named. Anotba r expensive air mail service .consists of windy letters sent out by law-makers free. * "Woman's force is passiv?'" ? -psyeho-analysis. Surely not passive voice. Tomorrow may never come, hut its bills do. The best thing between us and foreign countries i? two oceans. One employer is so enthusiastic over the future he even predicts penny slot machines will be work Chorus gi Is in a Paris show wear one feather only. About 10,00ft Americans arc wintering in Paris. "St. Louts store builds garage for customers to park"?news item. At other stores they will con tinue parking in fhe middle of the aisles. i Golf halls lost during one month at a well known club are estimated at 1,04)0. Dogs are be ing trained to search for them. Kissing is said by some experts to be largely responsible for the spread of dental ailments.