SKETCHES fROM AMERICA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2805, 18 December 1907, Page 77

SKETCHES fROM AMERICA.

- * ' Bt Maorilanda.

'*';•;'■'... /'. ,;,1^ o r'tKe;Wiine«s.}'. ""^ I' ', ; * '* '".#t tb#r,presenjt mpmenV America, is th& ~ ifceadquarters of: several <sf"th€Pfiicet famous' ' "First, among" them, comes JSeneral Boojth^ jw.fao., in his old age is makj&g . what,, he. ..declares? to f *his fare- , Well tour and his last great effort to-; j. wards bettering the -world and' saving souls. .Meanwhile, Dr R. A. Torrey is ' ■£<lK>l4rag forth" in a~hug© tent, "irhicii is ' 7 daily and: nightly filled to "its capacity "of , 5000, arid at every service sqme .converts. '' find their way to the "Mqurnens' Bench." ■[ '&*&>? General ixioth,. people wait for • nouns in the streets in the hope of being ' '. able to crowd into: the halls and theatres ' X .where his are ' delivered. ' The ' magic of his name* draws many ; the per- j eonality of the man and the knowledge ' , of bis achievement, others. The methods of, the Salvation Army may be spectacular , ' In some ways, but it does not advertise , '. as does. Torrey/. His tent - has - been i .- steam-heated, and a series of evangelistic ' meetings are to ' be held throughout the " . Iwinter, acording 'to the bill-posters • adorning the streets, the display adver- ' tjsements in the railway stations and ' street cars, and tEe blotters and window cards that have been scattered about with a liberal hand. Over 200,000 invitations end 106,000 prayer leaflets have been issued in the course of the present cam- ' ipaign, which it is hoped will be one ' of the greatest, in point of result, which ' lias ever been held in the States. General ' 'Booth was obliged, to come to America by . ?»»y -of Canada, as the steamers were so crowded that he found it impossible to get a' passage to New York. ' j America is always ready to welcome any new religious exponent or to i listen to preachers who strike out in new paths. ,' .Original, methods are. encouraged. ' At -present two clergymen." are attracting a' '■ considerable .amount of attention in their - own Stater — one by making a specialty f 'bf*sermons concerning modern plays; the. * other seeks inspiration in novels, and has ■ even read from the pulpit chapters from ■ ventures of bis own in the realm of Action. , L - <•. It is. a somewhat curious anomaly -that ->fls the very time when there is a hint {' . that a religion* revival may sweep the j [ cqunfoy' tlie *ir"_is\filled ,with the. plaints of 1 'clergymen of various denominations wbo l imve been forced, from the ecclesiastical - Tanks by the exigencies of living, the cost ' of which has been steadily on the in- j crease for the past ten years. .Even in ■ the last twelve months some' assert that ' Ahe price of all necessaries has gone up \ .05 per cent. At the various conferences ' held of late this has been pointed out, [ and there is a general feeling, that lOOOdol ', ](£200) should be the minimum salary offered , to any^ pastor.. At, present many < ate struggling along somehow' on 400dol. j Small wonder is it that defections from ' the ranks are numerous and that the , roeed of the clergyman's family often ' force* him .to give up his chosen work and enter commercial life. I v If it has done nothing else, the pro- , * je'ctfsd cruise. of. the American navy j 4ias' at; least' checlje^ - Cne outrageous num- j *;her< of, [desertions from, that service. The. , ftnlfets;. tooyl ha<ve since the J ' scheme . was mooted,- till last month, double 4he< average number of 1 nwn applied at the recruiting stations.- The' system .up to date has been to keep the ships almost •within sight of land. It was a rare thing ipr them fr> be. at sea-ifetr more than a :-few days continuously, as .-they i were perpetually putting in; at the ■ near-by American ports. ' This being %o, all the disadvantages of a seaman's Ffe were experis enced. without the compensating variety, jwhile no duties lasted long enough to become accepted as part of the ordinary routine. It meant, too, that practical ; 'Americau navy men had absolutely 'no .'knowledge of the- fleets or harbours of jother nations except what could be gleaned j ! jfrom books. The to the ( Pacific is ' , likely to be accepted as a precedent. '< So> far President Roosevelt's bear hunt ■ -fcaft not been, a success. None have been ■ shot, or even sighted, and some are regret- ' ling that the wag who set out to poet the > 1 amitation brume (known- in America as j "Jfleddy bea*s) about the woods wae captured. |jy the secret service men belore the joke j ' was perpetrated. The spot selected as ' President Roosevelt's camp has a history. At the time of the investment of Vicks- ' tmrg • in the civil war " General Grant selected it to .bivouac his army upon. Be- " fore that it was the lair of one of the boldest bands of pirates and freebooters ; over known in- American history. From : it they dominated that section of the Mississippi, and few escaped without paying toll to them. j A narrow escape from what might have ibeen a serious accident to the President startled a good many people who took jpart in the water procession upon the '•Mississippi: ~Hi course, everyone desired to be. near. the boat carrying_tbe President, and eequallyy y of course, there was a noticeable disregard of the, rules of the "aiver. Two steamer*?4he,--jHartweg and , f'lfche Alton — attempted to jo'ekey for the : Seared posdtibtt, jcerrytng on a veritable . /•race. The end came when the bow of 1 . jthe Hartweg, in nosing out the ' Alton I < tftpd going" full, speed ahead/ nearly rammed . •ijthe " President's vessel amidships. It ■■ lasted dangerously. President Roosevelt's Sbst action on getting ashore was to tele'igtAph a request that the license of the Sailing master - guilty of such culpable ■^negligence should be immediately revoked Sot 9Q . da-y& After investigation the fauthorities' doubled the punishment meted '.fcut by the President. People have hardly '; flared to think what a little greater force prould bave meant".' Some doubt has been expressed of late in

official circles as to whether the officers at certain American forts were paper soldiers or were fit for regular warfare should th«^ be needed. As a test a geneisl ■=■ -\ r'-sw** issued directing all field officers in the de- • -partment "of : the 'lak«£ J to?repbrt a'trEort Sheridan' on "a cirtaH 1 Sate'^iSfhei©,"' whit appears 'farcical ( test had been . determined upon.. Every : man, ,afterj,iinc[ergoing a. physical examina- ' *»<"?. wafis it^> go on a fifteen-mile ride. A ; lieutenant-colonel who had recently been „ pn.AIQO-niile.joupejfifrom post: to poet f was eicused. He 'superintended the departure of the column, and welcomed his brother officers upon their return. As a of;' tie occasion he presented each with a small bottle of vaseline decorated with t yellow . ribbons — the regimental colours ! ... Xt is expected that a great fight will be waged in Congress this winter concerning j the right of individual States to turn the i stream . of immigrants according to their j desires. The dearth of labour in -the I ■ southern States is such that in many lo- i calities as high as 20 per cent, of the cotton spindles are standing idle, while in • other directions industry is practically ) paralysed. Lumber camps are deserted. ' coalmines half worked. This condition has been brought about by the refusal of the negro to do more than is actually neceseaxy to enabk him to keep body attd sool together; yearly he is inclined to do less, haying the further lost the habit of work, while the need for his service has, of course, raised the offered wage yet higher. Now two days' work in the week will suffice. Meanwhile a million immigrants are flowing into the coniaested northern cities annually. Some little time since the southern States took matters into their own hands, aniK collected contributions from those of patriotic spirit, and sent forth State agents to endeavour to divert the stream. In some cases the passages ) of jrroups of the better class workers, such as Belgian* cotton operators, were actually paid by the State. It was held that this did not conflict with the Labour law of the United States, because no individual arrangements were made with the immigrants, and they were free to "gang their am gait" when once they had reached {he south. When, a short time since, trouble with the Japanese seemed imminent and the desire of every good American was to exclude the Mikado's subjects from the ,- States, an- Immigration BUI that had been* ' deadlocked in conference was hastily re- ( . SHScitated and . put through, the southern | Senators being easily satisfied that it • would not interfere in any way with their ". efforts to . obtain labourers. Now the ; Attorney-^general^ Mr ' Bonaparte, hai . handed down, his interpretation of the new I act, which bars admission to "those peri sons who have been induced or incited . to migrate to this country by promises of . employment or in consequence of agree- , ments, oral, written, or said, expressed I implied, to perform labour in this country ,of any kind, skilled or unskilled. And," ' adds the Attorney significantly, "it is evident that there must be some promise of employment on the part of the agent of a State to induce an emigrant to go direct to that State rather than, as is more usual, to , New York, Boston, or some other of the congested North' Atlantic cities." Hence the efforts of the southern States (which | had just begun to bear fruit) are held to be illegal. The indignation of the south) l : and the iury of the southern repreeenta- ' tives, who in the belief that the bill was aimed solely at the- exclusion of the Japanese allowed it to pass, can be imagined. The cry is, "Trickery !" People are somewhat* tired of San Francisco'a affairs, land they run a danger-' of being forgotten^ However, they are -none the less exciting than they were six monies ago The last incident of moment was an attempt to kidnap Fremont- Older, managing editor of the Bulletin, one of the, best-hated men in the city by those! averse to the showing-up process. While on_ his way to keep an appointment he was captured by armed men, flung "into an auto., and, with one of his captors holding a revolver against his side, rushed through the city to the railway station, where he was forced into the last Pu l!man section of a train for Los Angeles The reason for his arrest was ostensibly a warrant issued by an obscure Los Angeles lawyer charging the editor with' criminal libel. Older, knowing he had enemies and feeling doubtful regarding, the authenticity of the telephone message that had summoned him to the appointment, had left word where he was going, and when he could not be traced his friend and rbo-worker, Rudolph Spreckels, the million1 adre, through whose efforts Schmitz and Ruef were undone, took the matter up, ! and obtained a writ of habeas corpus deI sanding Older's release from whosoever held him. This was served by several policemen and' half a dozen deputy sheriffs when the train reached Santa Barbara. ; Several of the men were armed with axes ' to break into the car in which Older was imprisoned if any resistance were ofliered. However, they succeeded in getting' pos- ; session of him without .a display of force, rushed him to the courthouse * for a hearing, and secured his instant release on i a 2000dol bail. The object of the plot > is supposed to have been to d : stract at- | tention and secure a delay in a bribery trial now on. Schmitz, the ex-mayor, eighteen months ago the hero of the hour in San Francisco on account of his resourcefulness at the ' time of the earthquake, was seen in court a few days since. He looks like a travesty of himself.

Mr L. P. Williams, manager Times and Star, Westport, "N.Z., writes :—" While on a visit to Ohristchurcn, I was attacked with a severe bout, of dysentery, and wag unable to leave the hotel. Had some medicine sent in from a chemist, but it gave me no relief. Having seen in the papers what others had said about Chamberlain's Colic. Cholera, and Diarrhoea Remedy, I decided to try it and sent out for a bottle. The result was most satisfactory, for after taking two doses I was free from all pain and was soon completely cured." Eor sale everywhere. ,