5 PACES 9-12 The Daily British Whig | {9 PACES YEAR 82 NO. 179 PRINCIPAL SKETCH Late Queen's Principal in Writing About Sir Sandford Said As Steel. Compared Him to Caesar, Who Made Campaigns and Wrote Their History---"'Always Yielding But Never Yields"---His Brain Surely Like Steam Engine. The late Principal M. Grant of Queen's University in "1888 wrote the following sketch of the late Sir Sandford Fleming in The Week: like a good many other distin- guished Canadians, Sir Sandford Fleming is a Scotchman. As he lived in Scotland for only the first eighteen years of his life, and has since given forty-three years of Sruit- ful work to Canada, leaving his im press on the whole Dominion, and A tA rs sg arn } {came to Fleming. GRANT'S OF FLEMING He Was As True Worked Strongly and win says, "it's dogged as does it." During these years of waiting he was educating himself, the only educa- +tion, let it be well understood, that is worth anything. Without this, constant cramming and examinations are worthless. So far as these re press the desire or capacity for self. educatjon they are a curse The educational system that does not en- courage study, after school days are over, is a bad system; and because of its failure to lead to this, a school system characterized by rigid uni- formity and increasing centraliza {tion does not commend itself to thoughtful men who have given | thought to the subject. In 1852, the tide in affairs that comes to every man who is ready to see and take it He was appoint. ed third engineer on the staff of the Northern Railway That was kis opportunity. When the railway was constructed the directors appointed {him chief engineer, and before long he was pushed to the front of the profession. From that time his his- KINGSTON®* ONTARIO, FRIDAY, JULY 23, From left to right: Lieut. C. J. G. Holliwell, of the 1st Batt in petion; 1 Cmmissioners gave way, but the ma Jority stood firm. The matter was again brought before the Govern- ment, and an order-in-counci] passed affirming their decision, 'I'he engi neer agam wrote to the Premier, and in the following month to the Com missioners, asking a delay of ten days for some.work in progr 50 that the matter could be reconsider ed. C. J. Brydges, the leader of the Commissioners, then addressed a | communication to the Privy Coun- | cil, in which, among other rash state- wents, he declared that in his _expe rience of eighteen years as a rail- way manager, he had known no in- stance of a wooden bridge having been injuriously affected by fire. The engineer, in his reply, cited two in stances of bridges on the Grand! Trunk, under the management of Mr, Brydges, having been destroyed by | fire a few weeks before the date of | the statement! This was the last | straw, The Commissioners agreed | that all bridges over sixty feet span should be built of iron. Would he tory is part of the history of Can- ada. Difficulties As Engineer . With two great public undertak. | ings, important in a political as well |as engineering sense, his name will |always be connected. Fortunately {he has written enough to enable us | to form Same. opinion of the difficul. | ties he had to encounter as an engi- LATE SIR SANFORD FLEMING fem -------- identifying "himself With its best. in- terests in every possiblé way, he-- Just as truly as Sir John A. Macdon- ald or Alexander Mackenzie--may be called & Canadian. - By birth he belongs to Fifeshire, the fair county which proudly calls itself "the king- dom." 'His native place was "the lang toon of Kirkcaldy," best known to the world by having had Edward Irving and Thomas Carlyle as school- masters. At the time, doubtless, any one of the bailies thought him- self more important than both, or than all the dominies in Scotland put together, Sweet are the bonds that unite us to the dear natal soil; and therefore when in 1882 Mr. Fleming was presented with the freedom of the Kirkcaldy Burghs, doubtless in the tarditional gold snuff-box, and about the same time had the honor of LL.D, conferred on him by St. An drew's University hard by, depend upon it his pulses quickened much more than when the Duke of Newcas. tle appointed him the representative of the 'mperial Government on the survey for the Intercolonial, or when he learned that the Queen had be- stowed on him the honor of a C. M. G., In recognition of his services Having 'studied. mathematics, sar- veying and engineering in his natice town, he came to Canada at the age of eighteen, believing that there would be more room in a new than in an. old country. He found that there were no openings for young men like himself in Canada. Fond parents assure us that every avenue for boys ig now crowded, and that it | is impossible to make the fortunes that formerly were made, They are iistaken in both points. In those days there was no avenue but the farms, and it farming means a hard life now it was much harder then. Fleming showed the stuff of which he was made hy doing whatever his hands found to-do, and doing it with his might, Of course he .was disap- pointed for the country was not what it had been painted. Only his strong, dogged will kept him from returning to Scotland, where he was informed that he could secure an ap- pointment without any difficulty. He bad faith in himself and in the eoun- try, and baving no extravagant hab- 1s he could live on little. Without grumbling or looking to the Govern- ment, he worked on and waited. Even when young he did not think himself a genius, but he knew that he could work, and the quantity to be done never appalled him. It was worse when there was no work, but then be looked for it and took what of. fered. He had always a great ca- pacity for silence, is to this day a bet- ter Iislener than talker, and when he does talk, it is never,about him. self or his doings. When he took , up his quarters in Toronto he at once Joined the Mechanics Institute, and taught night classes in pure and ap. plied mathematics free of charge to all who came to them. Eager for the general good and fer the ad- vancement of the hounds of science, he with a few others originated the Cennding Institute. 1 have been told by one of the fgends of this ex- cellent and now vigorous Institute that it owes its existence to Flem. ing." When we reflect that he was then young, a stranger, without mo. ney, without a stake in the country, without a salary we have a striking ustration of the value of brains Truly, as Dar- |neer and a public servant. We can | see, too, hem his character came out, and how he impressed himself" |on the works that link the provinces | of the Dominion together by steel rails Some writers have recently | made the discovery that Canada con- | sists of four or five geographical sec- tions, each of which nature intended to belong to a corresponding section {in the United States; and they en- large unweariedly on the folly of having built a railway between the Maritime Provinces and Old Canada, ' or between the Upper Ottawa and | the Pacific. Well, it need only be {said that the main features of our | geography were understood fifty | years ago as well as they are now, !and that none the less the people went forward. They were deter- | mined to build up a nation on this northern half of the continent, with the country and the materials that {they had. Almost from the day {that the first passenger railway was | opened in England, the idea took pos- | session of the minds of men in all the provinces, that an Intercolonial | Road was a necessity. Again and |again the Legislatures of Nova Sco- | tia. New Brunswick and Canada pass- ed resolutions to that effect, offered | money with extraordinary liberality, and entered into degotiations with each other and with the Mother Country to bring it about. Flem- ing had written an able pamphlet on the importance of connecting the Red | River Settlement with Canada by a Colonization Read, although at the {time Red River was as completely {out of the ordinary horizon as the | Mackenzie or the Yukon; and the in- | habitants of the far-away Lone Land {had requested him to plead their {cause with the Imperial Government. | His interviews with the Duke of New- |tastle as their envoy led to his ap- | pointment subsequently as sole engi- { neer to survey a line for the Inter- | colonial, Statesmen are on the | lookout for competent and reliable | men, and when ne turns up they feel | that something of the difficulty con. [nected with every proposed work is {over. With Oonféderation, the long [talked of Intercolomial got into the {region of practios] politics, It was | undertaken as a Government work, {and put into the hands of Fleming {and four. Commissioners--men of | Brent local and railway knowledge {an Sreater political influence. i One bit must be given from the published history of the Intercolo. nial as. iHustrating his character. {as it 'came out in a controversy with {the Commissioners. It may teach {& lesson of public duty, and may sug- gest to those who can read between the lines the cost to oneself at which Such duty must be done. The Com. {missioners had resolved to make the { bridges on the road of wood instead of iron and stone. as recmmended by the Chief Engineer.' No argument that he could advance had the {east weight with them. Instead of ac- quiescing, as most men in the circum. | stances would have ¢ he appeal. ed to the Premier, answered {his letter in the ordinary back-stairs | way. Of course the decision of the Commissioners was sustained, but a | 30p was thrown to the engineer. Five | of the bridges should be built as he wished. The unreasonable man was [mot satisfied. We said ; nothing, but the following year he pre ng i 'prepared a i statement for submission 10 "'Parlia- ment, in which he that the not let them have that much, were | it only as a small rag with which to | cover their nakedness? No. He quietly demonstrated that any excep- tions would be bad At last, near ly two yéars and a half after his first | appeal to the Premier, an order-in | council] was passed giving authority to 'have them constructed as he had proposed. He had gained that for which in the public interest he had contended. But such a man will never be: popular with commissioners or contractors, people or liticians. He will not be made M. P. or Sena- tor, and he need not expect to be re- tained in the public service one day after he can be dispensed with. So much the worse for the public In 1876, thirteen years after his appointment at the commencement of the survey, the Intercolonial was opened for trafic. At that date the capital account showed a total] ex penditure of twenty-one and a half millions on all services, including branch lines and rolling stock, or lit- tle more than a million in excess of the original estimates; and the work | was pronounced by all authorities to be, in the essentials of a railway, second to none on the continent, Building of the C. P. R. Meanwhile the Government had undertaken to build a rajlway from ocean to ocean, about as lightly- -to | use Lord Dufferin's phrase--as if it, had been "to throw it across a hay- field." Fleming was called upon to survey a route and begin the Werk. Everything was against him. he Intercolonial was on his hand, and it was a heavy handful Canada had at that time no corps of trained en- gineers and contractors such as it; now has. No one knew anything of the region back of Lake Superior any more than if it had been Cen- tral Afriea, except that all existing waps had on them, written in very large letters, "Impracticable for a Railway." Captain Palliser, who had been in charge of the only engi- neering party that had explored the passes of the Roeky Mountains, had reported: "The knowledge of the country on the whole would never lead me to advise a line of communi- cation from Canada across the conm- | tinent to . the Pacific, exclusively, through British territory. The time has forever gone by for effecting such an object." But the chief en- | gineer put a stout heart to the stae SOME | triend CANADIANS WHO WERE a A At tet al lA Att ttt Att NE tm i ta party, neither will count uonjuale SII ® lays Consequently, sooner later, the time will come when will find it wise. to resign lime came in 1880, after the really heavy work in connection with the survey and much of the construction aad been completed or arranged for. When he resigned he refused an of- fice with equal salary and nominal work. him as a '1e1dsoy or he I nave always held (1) that as the | C. P. R. was a national undertaking it should have been built and oper ated by the Government, like the In- tercolonial; (2) that the route by the Yellowhead Pass was and is the best | known, Mr. Fleming as engineer, with a board of commissioners se- lected equally from both parties, | would have had the confidence of the | public; and it can be shown easily that a company cannot built or work such a road more economically than a government of construction by a company, and the public--either from distrust of the party system or from the somewhat immoral and mistaken fancy that the work might somehow be built and operated at other peo- ples expense--clamored for a com- | pany, and seemed to feel as happy-- the people of Winnipeg in particu- lar---when the great contract was ra- | tiied, as Mr. Micawber was accus- tomed to feel when he paid his debts with a note of hand. They ara not quite so jubilant now, although the Government was wonderfully fortu- nate in the personnel of the com- pany, of whom nothing but praise can be said, and the future will show still more clearly which policy was the wiser. However, even if a mis- take was made, it is no use Crying over spilt milk. Certainly the coun. try got the road in one-half or one- fourth of the time in Which it would have been built as a government work. Whether that was wholly an advantage or not, the fact is un. doubted. Chancellor of Queen's. Since 1880, Mr. Fleming has lived as busy and useful a life as ever, and | lie has now the satisfaction of be- ing able to devote himself to conge- | nial work without the worry and | pressure that is always connected With the public service and politi- cal exigencies. He has received honors in abundance from all quar- ters. Last year Columbia College aud University, New York, bestow. ed on him the Degree of LL.D. in connection with the celebration of its Centennial. In 1880 he was clected Chancellor of Queen's by a majority vote; in 1883 he was re. elected unanimously, a second candi- date withdrawing before the day of | election; in 1886 no one else was proposed for the office, and so far no one else has been spoken of for 1889. In 1884 he was appointed to repre- sent the Dominion at the Internation. al Prime Meridian Conference called by the President of the United States | There, the | to meet at Washington, representatives of the civilized world adopted the views which he had been long pressing on learned societies with regard to cosmic time and a prime meridian for all nations, For many years he had devoted thought and money to the question of cable communication between the Mother Country and the Australias That | But both political | parties were committed to the policy | profound | {through Canada, and at the great | conference held last year in London {of the representatives of the Moth- jer Country and all the colonies that brae, Overcoming innumerable dif. ficulties he succeeded in getting a line surveyed by the Yellowhead Pass, with grades and curves actual- ly no heavier than those on the In- tercolonial, a feat of engineering which every 'one will appreciate who knows anything of all the = other transcontinental lines. It should | be noted here that the, Yellowhead | had a special advantage then over | other lines, which it ceased to have | when Burrard Inlet was chosen as | the terminus. It was a | common point, equally suited for any | of the 'proposed termini, and these | extended all the way north to Fort | Simpson; if not further. The chief | engineer devoted his whole time and | strength to the work til} his health gave way. He then asked for and 4 year's leave of absence, but In the course of the year had to be and again for con- Sain ated Progress re- ports comstitute a mine into which every one must dig who would form a correct. idea of the task which A n imposed on him. served hae I of Sir John A. onaid, then under Mr. Macken- again under Sir John. Nei. party, their cost for 'irom 'be little more {than the cost for weod. Two of the are under vcesponsible government, he had the best possible opportunity of entering into details on the sub. ject, and of pressing it on the atlen- tion of the public- men of the Em- pire. Sir Alexander Campbell and himself were the representatives of Canada, and on the 6th of May last the Conference agreed to these two Rl "That the oon- nection recent ormed through Cdnada, from the Atlantic 6 the Pa. cific, by railawy and telegraph opens & pew and alternative lne of Impe.- rial communication over the high seas and through British possessions which promises alike in naval, military, commercial, and political aspects. 2adly. That the connection of Canada with Aus. tralia by direct submarine telegraph Across the Pacific isa project of high Jmportance to Se Empire, and ev. ery as ts practicabili should without delay be set mt ree <3 thorough and exhaustive sur- to be of great value | PROMOTED. A. V. McCormack, of the 3rd Batt., promoted to rank of temporary captain; Lieut. «+ whose promotion to the rank of temporary captain is gazetted after his & deut. W. Mavor, of the 15th Batt., who is promoted 40 the rgnk of temporary captain, math "ra {ably noticed by all the best reviews, It, and the History of the Intereolo- nial, are good specimens of his liter- ary work, [-have left mysell np space to speak of Mr. Fleming as a man, and it is just as well. While we live, the public is entitled to see only one side of our nature and lives. It is enough to say that those who know him best trust him most. They rely both on his character and. his judgment. His brain takes time to work, but it works strongly and Sure- |ly as a steam engine. Listening re- spectfully, never dogmatizing, "he is {always yielding but never yields," as a shreyd judge of character once remarked. He is true as steel to | the country and to those whem he believes worthy of friendship, and my faith is that Canada and the whole English-speaking race has yet |something more to gain from his | abilities and his thoroughly unselfish devotion; WILSON BY ACCLAMATION No Opposition In Convention, Says Leading Democrat. Chicago. July 23.--Roger C. Sulli- van, Democratic leader of the State of Illinois, made the flat-footed state- ment that President Wilson will be | unopposed for the presidential nomi- | nation when the Demoeratic Nation- al Convention meets in 1916. Inas- much as Mr. Sullivan is credited with having been a material factor in bringing about the HOHMNALION of Mr. Wilson at Baltimore, his state- ment to-day is regarded as signifi- cant as indicating Democratic senti- ment not alone in Illinois, but throughout the country. "Wilson by acclamation as Democratic nominee (for re-election" is the terse way in which Roger Sullivan put it. He then went on to say: "There: will be no opposition to President Wilson {at the Democratic National Comven- tion. His name will go before the convocation unopposed. The Harni- son people, when they passed resolu- tions endorsing him, knew this. But they have been out of line a long time, and the evident intention of | their last action in endorsing the President is to try to get in right at last." ENGINEER TO THE RESOUE C: P. Ry Man Stopped Train and Got Women Out. East Berkshire, Vermont, July 23. --Seeing Mrs. B. N. Caswell atd her daughter Aleta, of Gardiner; Mass., struggling in the Missisquol River an engineer on a Canadian Paeific freight train stopped his engine and | with t aid of the train crew brought' the women ashore Mrs. Cas- | well and her daughter were driving | along the river when the bank gave | way and the horse and carriage with | its occupants went into the river. { The horse, a valuable racer, was drowned. CIVIL SUIT LAUNCHED. | To Recover Money Alleged Improper- ly Paid. Winnipeg, July 23.--Acting on be- half of the Province of . Attorney-General Hudson filled a statement of claim in the ci suit instituted against Thomas ily. Lawrence Kelly and Charles Kelly, contractors under the name of Thos. Kelly and Sons, to regover meney alleged to have been improperly paid out in connection with the erection of the Parliament Buildings here. The Pope Is Disappointed. Rome, July 23.--Pope Benedict is keeping in close touch with the Ger- man-American situation and 18 Kéen- ly disappointed over the failures of diplomatic exchanges thus far to bring about a satisfactory seftiement of the controversy arising over the sinking of the Lusitania. If was re-| ported here to-day that the sev- eral days ago semt a Vatican repre- sentative to Berlin to learn the exact attitude of Germany. The emissary is expected, to return to Rome before the end of the week. Oheese Markets. Peterboro, July 21.--2,404 cheese were boarded; all sold at 1 . Woodstock, July 21.--1,750 boar- ded; highest bid, 12%e¢. : | "Madoe, July 21.395 | sold at 13%e. : # . SECOND SECTION" --_---- LL - and Udine, July 22.--Old fellowers of Garibaldi, veterans of the war of In- depenndence, and historic descrip- tions of that campaign, in which the |father and grandfather of General Cadorma participated, do not record anything so obstinate and bloody as the battle which for four days has been waged on the eastern side of the Isonzo. General Cadorna, who loves his soldiers as though they were his chil- dren, although being chiefly concern- ed, has not a moment's hesitation in saying that to-day's sacrifices are in- dispensable for the inevitable success of to-morrow, which is giving the Italians - the mastery of Tolmino, Goritz and the Carso Mountains, will enable them to. possess Trieste with- out their enemies having positions from which they can threaten the Italian flank and rear. Moreover, once these points are taken, the. Istria Peninsula will be practically at the mercy of the Ital- ians, who then will have cut off the land. While desperate fighting continues on the Sie of the Isonzo, reports from unofficial sources show that General Cadorna, with customary Austrian fleet at Pola by sea and | TALUANS BOUND TO WIN TRIESTE To Hold Which Tolmino, Goritz And the Carso Mountain Positions Must Be Taken First. This Would Mean the Tieing Up of the Austrian Fleet, For - Control of the Istria Peninsula Cuts Off Pola, Aus- tria's Great Naval Base, by Land Sea. | specifically defensive devices of the enemy to' make these works and trenches as fmpregnable as anything to be found in Flanders and in North- ern France, General Cadorna took exactly one month preparing for the advance, his attacks starting on July 4th, with the object of discovertng the enemy's disposition From that time he gave his opponents no repose at one | point or other of the line until 'the "morning of the 18th, when the at- tack became general. Then it de- veloped on three points. -- all suc- cessful | The most important advantages thus far gained are positions on the plateau and the triangle formed by Forts Sam Micele, Monte die Busi And Dobergo. For two days and two nights the Italians gradually took the enemy's tremches, which were covered by supporting trenches dug into the terraces forming the natural defensive conformation of the pla- I teau. Messages from Udine, where de- | tails of the great battle are now be- coming known, speak highly of the | efficiency of the artilleby, the action | of which must have Been wonderful- ly precise to keep in check the line caution, has not erred on the side of | of the Austrian rear lines of trenches magnifying the substantial results al- | while the Italian infantry successful- ready achieved. The Italians had |ly captured and consolidated those possibly laid" seige to the "Austrian trenches 'when Gemeral Cadorna jre- ported that the difficult country fa- cing With on' the lsunzo was fornitd- ably entrenched and strongly held by troops supported by machine guns and heavy artillery. Seven days la- ter the 'commander emphasized the ---- 5 drinking. Too Nervous » To Drive a Car ? Oo Ve a Lar ! That's too bad, old man, but you know-nervous- ness is largely due to wrong habits of eating and If you would quit tea and coffee and use Postum your nerves would steady up. Postum has a delicious, snappy flavour and | trenches forming the Austrian posi- | tion. | Encouraged by the success of their first attacks, and copscious of hav- ing got the measdf¥ of the 'enemy, despite their strong positions, the Italian troops overcame all obstac- les. there's no drug in it--that's where it's got tea and coffee beat a mile. Sound advice. More and more,. people are waking up to the harmful effects of caffeine--the drug in tea and cof- fee--a frequent cause of nervousness, heart flutter, dizziness, headache, and other ailments. the soluble form of the original Postum Cereal. level teaspoonful of the erystaline powder in a cup hot water makes a delicious food-drink instantly. - 30c and 50¢ tins. - Instant Postum is seen at a The eonvenierice of glance, but some prefer the original Postum Cereal oroughly boiled--15¢ H which must be th oteted; "i and 25¢ pack ages, + (frocers sell both kinds and the wk cup is about the same, ° A change from tea or coffee to Postuiitfias been good thing for thousands. Sher i a -