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"I .,, ,:.,.. -. ti My NOTES AND COMMENTS In order to do away with the evils of “sweated industries" and to remove the temptation to the abuse of child la- bor it is proposed in England to es- tutablish, mininum wage 'fl'tandards _ in lthe industries that have fallen under the sweating system. create special and mixed boards to exercise the duty of applying the legal standards, and in- trust the enforcement of the board's orders to the factory inspectors. The bill which has been introduced in the house of common-s to effect these re. forms is not a, government measure, and perhaps there is no expectation of its passage at this session of parlia-' meat, which will be a busy and'crowdv ed one in any case, owing to the num- ber and character of the hills which the ministry has promised to put through. But it is interesting to learn that “there was nothing like serious opposi- tion" in the commons to the minimum wage principle as applied to the sweat- ed industries. Radical labor men and socialists alone have heretofore advo- cated the minimum wage remedy for “parasitic' and “anti-social” industries; to the average liberal or tory it has Seemed a revolutionary interference with the freedom of contract and pne- perty. ‘ Possibly a sort of precedent for this bil‘. was found in the Australian “new protection" law of 1906, which provides that all manufacturers of agricultural machinery shall pay excise duties equal in the tariff rates on foreign machinery unless they satisfy the court of arbi- tration. that the wages they pay for labor are “fair and reasonable." The idea that underlies this remarkable act is that the employer is entitled. to pm- tection only if he actually shares with labor the advantages thereof. Cases tried under this not have aroused great interest in Australia and Great Britain, especially in view of the detsrmination of the government to apply the same principle to a large number of other manufacturing industries. The court of arbitration recently fixed a schedule of wages for the "makers of agricultural machinery which was declared to con- form in all its forty-one items to “the standard appropriate to the normal needs of the average employs, regarded as a human being, living in a civilized Community.” The manufacturers who have not paid such wages as the decis- ion li-xed must return to the govern- ment the profits which they are assum- med to have realized from the tariff not. In England the friends of the / minimum wage doctrine are concerned not with the question of equalizing bene- fits conferred but with that of enforc- ing decent standards of living, of rescu- ing certain industries from degrada- tion in the interest of the physical and moral welfare of the workers and of the nation at large. â€"â€"-â€"â€"â€"â€"_,x4 The Britons are jubilant over Prof. Bottomely, who‘ls said to have made one of the most important discoveries of recent years. It generally is known that the growth of plants depends to a. great extent on the action of bacteria. Those are of all kinds, some acting up- on the roots and some upon other por- tions of the plants. Of these the most important group'have the power 'of ex- tracting nitrogen from the air and trans mitting it to the plant. Much research work recently has been done at Kings college, especially with nitrogen extract- ing bacteria. By watering the roots of strawberries, wheat, or barley or cats ' with a bacterial solution he has increas- ed their growth about one-third. More- over, such bacterial treatment acceler- ates the maturity of plants, and as a result of using bacterial solutions bean-s have been sold six weeks after the seed were sown. By inoculating all seeds of luccrno and clover several crops have been increased 25 per cent. on barren ground at an approximate cost of 12 cents an aere, and it is claimed that the roughest moorland now can be turned into agricultural land bearing rich crops ' “flâ€"‘rh DEGREES OF WRATII. “Do you think the dog that bit you was mad?” “1 don:t know that he was mad, but he certainly was a little peevish." qr â€"â€"â€".â€" ‘ It's better to work for nothing than to play a losing game. {hLots offinzfn would be worse than cy are to ' r I 3mm it. y only knew how to go The man who makes a good livian «for his family seldom of much us:- _ around the house. Not a. Day Passes But That We Realize That Men Cannot Live By Bread Alone. ‘ “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings."'â€"Isaiah, ML, 7; The church stands in the commuâ€" nity as the special organization and agency of religion. What has a man a right to expect from the church? It takes its place among the world’s in- stitutions, every one of which must jus- tify its existence and. its demand for support by showing the contribution it is making to the world's good. If we are thinking of the Christian churches then they stand in the com- munity avowedly to do the work of their founder. They are to be the com- munity's spiritual leaders. This is the first thing we have a right to expect of a Christian church, indeed of any church, that it shall speak to our inner selves and lead us into eternal truth. But leadership is a larger matter than teaching or doctrine. Spiritual truth has to do with our own selves, with our natures and developing or dwarf- ing lives. Our need is for guidance and inspiration, for one who goes be- fore and illumines the path for our half- ing, doubting steps. The great need that drives us to church, and unsatisfied there. may turn us from its doors forever is this need of the inner life. If all the churches can do is to give lectures on literature and art, to render concerts, and pro- vide entertainment we would rather look for those things to those WHO CAN DO THEM BETTER. Man wants to look above himself; he would see beyond the clay; he would catch visions of those high ideals that have moved the race in days of old, have turned peasants into heroes, have made the weak strong, the cowardly valiant in fight, the mock to be the glowing martyrs and masters of man- kind. He wants clear answers to the deep questions that rise in his own heart and conscience. In the glut of material things there is felt deep and'keen the hunger for love and truth, for treasures that moth and rust cannot corrupt and thieves cannot steal from us. The-re never will be any question as to the place of the church that meets these deep needs and longings of men. If, like her master, she has learned the secret of the life that consists not that sets not its heart on silver or gold, if she has learned the lore of life su- preme over all passions, the love not of her own life alone, but of the full- ness of life for all men, she will not need to ask for any other authority or potency among us. The world'waits for inspiration, for the passion of great faiths, for visions that stir men to noble endeavor. Even our most practical concerns fall flat and barren unless they are animated by some great hope or dream. Relig- ion is the passion that makes life worth while, that reveals its inner values, that enables every man to bear his cross and do his part for the sake of the life of all. Often we criticize the church because she does not go into reforms, because she seems to do SO LITTLE PRACTICAL W'ORK. She does not need to go into such things as if no other could do them; she must be the force pushing the men out into their own service, the power that com- pels us to do the work we ought to do for the worlds salvation. But what is a church after all'but the socialized expression of the relig- ious life of a group of people. We our- selves determine what such anoxpres- si-cn shall be. if the church fails is it not because we have failed to put our lives into her service? It is folly to sit down and talk of her sins; we are only condemning our own sloth. To say, too, that we have no concern with the church simply is to say that we have no part in the social religious life of the community; we cxtradite ourselves from the higher, the spiritual communal life. We have a right to expect help and inspiration from the church only as we make it a means of help and inspiration to others. Every man has in him some message for all other men, each of us has his share to give of the world’s illuminaâ€" tion and inspiration. is it not our busi- ness to pool our spiritual possessions, to bring together every high thought and rich hope and through the asso- ciation and gathering of men for mutual inspiration and help make the best It the abundance of things possessed, W_â€"â€" good of all? HENRY F. COPE. ILLS ariaâ€"1min, HOW Tl] [HIRE THEM There is no medicine can equal Baby's Own Tablets for the cure of such ills of babyth and childhood 'as consti- pation, indigestion, diarrhoea, colic, Simple fever, worms and teething trou- bles. When you give this medicine to your little ones you have the guarantee of a government analyst that it is per- fectly safe. Mrs. 'l‘hos. Mills, Ethel, Ont., says: “I have used Baby’s Own Tablets for my little boy and find them just the medicine'needed to keep babies healthy. They are easy to take and a‘fâ€" ways do good." Sold by medicine dea- lers or by mail at 25 cents a box from The Dr. Williams" Medicine Co., Brock- ville, Ont. â€"â€"â€"â€"' eâ€"â€" unwanp vu. as A FARMER. m..â€" lle is One of the Most Successful in England. The rich crop of prizes which the King's cattle and sheep have won at the Bingley Hall show. Birmingham, is the latest demonstration of his Majes- tv"s success as a farmer. of which he is so deservedly proud, says the West- minster Gazette. When the-King be- gan breeding nearly forty years ago the Sandrin-gham farm lands were in an almost hopeless condition, barren and barely capable of cultivation. To- day, according to Bid-er Haggard, “it is a wonderful farm. for nowhere is there so much high-bred stock to be seen on the same area.‘ But probably nowhere will you' find such an array of plates and cups won at shows as that which Sandringham boasts. At a Single exhibition his Ma- Icsty once won no fewer than fourteen first priZes. In 1903 he captured five first prizes and cups, in addition to numerous seconds and thirds; in 1904 his prizes numbered twenty; in 1905 he won a champion plate, a challenge cup and eighteen other prizes, includ- ing four firsts, while last year he took “brood” cups and plates, six other prizes and several “highly commend~ cds," and every prize-winner he has bred himself. . .’_.___._>X<â€"._.__.. CHEFS FOR THE NAVY. â€".. Every Warship to Have Staff of Trui'ned Cooks. No longer is the bluejackct to have his digestion spoil-ed by dinners ofvhis own preparing. The British Admiral- ty announced recently that it had been decided to provide every worship with a trained staff of rocks. For generations it has been the cus- tom on board ship of entrusting the preparation of food to individual mom. bers of the ship‘s company, told off to act as cooks of the mosses. Each man in each mess was cook by rotation, whether he .had any culinary talent or not. Now this is to cease. A paymaster who has done a month’s draining at the National School of Cookery in Lon- don will supervise the ship's cooks, and in order to ensure that the latter do their work satisfactorily a lieutenant is to be sent round the moss deck at dinner time to discover whether there are any complaints. This is an 31d- established army practice, but ls new to the navy. The chief ships' cooks will be re- quired to pass a. qualifying examina- tion, under which they must prove their ability to take charge of the galley and bakery in ships' complements of 500. With the introduction of the new sys- tem is to come more varied menus, comprising soup, fish, entrees, joints, and sweets. It. has ireen found possible to do this where general messing ap- [)IlIeS. __.._.z.___ TIIE MEAN THING. His wife (writing)'â€"Which is proper, “disillusioned” or “disillusionizcdr'. llcr Husbandâ€"Oh. just say "married," at the Smilhfield show ten firsts, nine. and let it go at that. Because your eeeeeceeeeeeeceeeeeeeg. That hacking cough continues system is exhausted and your powers of resistance weakened. - Take Scott’J EmulJt'on. prepared that it is easy to take and easy to digest. ALL DRUGGISTS: 50c. AND $1.00 ' é. g': Q! It builds up and strengthens your entire system.‘ 3 £9 £9 @ '5' g It contains Cod Liver Oil and Hypophosphites so ‘5’ ‘59 9% oceeeeeeecceeeeececeeesee: good of each to become the common led, then asked questions. [was not so big as the missing crown THE PLACE, OF THE CHURCH “M0”? “0:5 “Am” IS IT RESPONSIBLE FOR DISASTER TO ITS O\VNER? Tragedy Enough Surrounds Its History to Almost Warrant Such Conclusion. Ridicule the fancy that would endow a crystal of carbon with sentient qua- lities, or believe in the occult power of jewels to curse or bless, one must own that in the careers of ‘lhose who have been so fortunate or unfortunate as to possess the great blue stone they call the Hope diamond there have been death and disaster enough, and more than enough, to make a peg on which to hang a tale of imprisoned evil reach- ing out to blight whom its baneful rays may reach. Hid in the lost lore of the oldest East ii: the earliest chapters in the great gem's story. Imagination might run riot in tales of lust and blood with the blue stone for their motif. Fancy might imbedjt in the epllod of Prester John or gather it into the treasure board of . Genghis Khan, but behind a modern, tangible date, the day when Andre Ta; vernier toiled overland back from the Orient with jewels enough, if not for a king’s ransom, at least for the price of a barony, in his wallet, any attempt to trace its history lies in the realm of pure speculation. Cunning in traffic was Tavernier. “the King’s jeweller.” More than once he went out from Paris to the East and. matching the clever Orientals at their own game, returned with spell of gems and gold to grace a crown or garnish 3 mitre, King and Cardinal. bourgeois and Bishop; Richelieu, Colbert or Mme. de Mainlenonâ€"thesc were the custom? ers of 'l‘avernier, the jeweller. He knew the goods he could sell. So when Tavernier came to the gate of Paris on that day in 1688 he knew that he had with him what, in spite of the outpouring of royal treasure in the invasion of the Palatinale, would cap- ture the royal fancy and win him not only gold but that which he had long covetedâ€"the title that would place him on the plane of those he dealt with and lift his children from the bourge. oisie to the nobility. Twenty-five dla-' _n‘.ondsâ€"â€"nothing elseâ€"were in the lea- ther pouch that, strapped under his arm, next to his skin, never left his possession night or day. But among them was the gem of gemsâ€"the great blue diamond, still in the rough, but even so a jewel that overshadowed every gem that Christendom then knew. JEW’ELLER MADE BARON. It must have been an interesting spec- tacle, the bargaining and dickering beâ€" tween the jew-cll-er and Louis XIV. over the handful of stones. The end of it was that the royal treasury was enrich- cd by the addition of the entire collec- tion and impoverished to the extent of 2,500,00f. in gold coin, and in addition 'l'avernier left the royal presence no longer plain Andre Tavernier, jeweller and traveller, but Baron d’Aubonne, with the right to hold his head as high as any nobleman in Paris. Rough and unshapcd as it came into the possession of the French King, the Tavernier diamond weighed 112% car- ats. it was badly formed, and when it went to Amsterdam, where then as now the diamond cutters held sway, they had to chip and trim it into shape until only 67% carats were left. But what a gem it was when they finished their work! Of a deep sapphire'blue. it sparkled and gleam-ed resplendent from every facet, vhile a great triangular projection they had left in ils centre seemed to multiply the flashes. No diamond so blue and so large had ever been seen before. in the quarter century and more that remained of the reign of the Grand Monarque the great blue diamond flash- ed over many a glittering scene. On state occasions Louis wore it suspended from a blue ribbon about his neck, and ambassadors and princes saw it and envied. Louis died and another Louis reign-ed, and the chronicles of eigh- teenth century France tell -here and there of the royal gem, monarch of all the jewels of the crown. Then came another Louis, sixteenth of his name, and with him and his tragedy it would seem the evil power of the blue dia- mond began to be effective. Nothing but tragedy can bc told of Louis XVI. and his reign, and when at last he went to the guillotine in 1703 and the sansculottcs sacked the royal treasure house they took the blue dia- mond with the rest. Who was the man and what his fate into whose hands this most precious gem of all fell NO LIVING MAN KNOVVSn and it is not likely any written record will ever tell. The rest of the crown jewels were deposited in ,the Gardc Meublc. Not so the Tavernier dia- mond. Where it went, through what VlClSSlIlIdC‘S it .passcd, no one knows. It had brought a royal hcad to the axe and one might almost fancy it hiding in ambush, waiting for another oppor- tunity to strike. Men were born and married and founded families and died before the great blue diamond was heard of again. Then in 1880, one day in llaton Garden, the jewel mart of England as it is now of the world, appeared Daniel Ellason, a thrifty dealer in precious stones and such like, and in his hand he held a blue diamond. llis follow dealers gasp. jewel of France, but it was the biggest diamond that had been seen in that market, and the biggest blue diamond any of them had ever seen. It weighed 44% carats, and except for the absence of the triangular projection or born that the cutters had left on the Taver- nier stone, it was almost of the same shape and size as the famous gem. To the question, “Where did you get it?" Mr. Eliuson told one and all the same storyâ€"he had bought the stone from a stranger and had asked no ques- tions. There was the stone; its price was so much; did they want to buy? Curiosity was efliectually bafllcd by this businesslike rebuff. It needed no stretch: of the imagination, however to identify; this mysterious gem with the Taver- nier diamond, and its fame was speed- ily noised abroad. - To the cars of Henry Thomas Hope,; I: banker who had amassed wealth un-j ll! be was tired of saving, came the: news that there was in the market a: diamond the like of which was never; seen before in England, and to this; gossip added it was once a crown jewelI of France. The banker saw the dlaâ€", mond, bargained with Mr. Eliasoa and finally bought the stone. Neither buyer nor seller told the price paid., but the busy tongue of rumor placed: it at £13,0(l'1â€"365.000 it wuld be to-dayu “And cheap at the price," added ruâ€"g mor. STONE MAKES OWNER FAMOUS. As the Hope diamond, the blue stone leaped into fame. Perhaps the fame of_ the stone was reflected to its ownerâ€", perhaps that is just what the banker was calculating on when he bought ’t.;- At any rate. Henry Thomas Hope soon: became as famous as his diamond, and when his daughter, Henrietta Adela, married the sixth Duke of Newcastle; in 1861, besides the millions in gold from her father's treasure chest she took with her as dOwry the Hope dia- mond. Of her two sons, one became Duke, the other got the diamond. Of the. troubles of Lord Henry Francis Hope, PelhamJClinton-Iâ€"lopwa special royal: warrant gave him the right to add hiss grandfather's surname in honor of the diamondâ€"much has been written. l-lis‘ a sensation throughout the English speaking world. The great Hope dia-. mond graced the tirra of the former concert hall singer on more than one‘ occasion during the brief duration of their married life. Fortune dealt so adversely with Lord Francis Hope that in 1800 he tried,I to sell the diamond to satisfy the mcstj urgent of his creditors. His family ob-; jected, and he appealed to the courts.{ At that time the gem was estimated: to be worth about $125,000. It was not until late in 1901, only a few months? before his divorce from May Yohe‘, that! he finally was permitted to dispose of the stone. Whether or not he ever, blamed his marital and financial dim- critics on the diamond, they ended simultaneously with its passing from his possession. Simon Frankel, of New York, bought the stone.‘ As on the occasion of its last previous sale, the amount involv- ed was not made public. Rumor got busy again, and placed the price at £020 a caratâ€"$148,800 for the stone. Whatever the price, Mr. Frankel; brought it to New York. and here it has remained since. lionaire has looked at it, discussed its purchase and almost bought itâ€"â€"thcnt turned away. leaving it in the hands-of, the merchant. Formore than six years‘ it has lain in a vault, eating up inter-. est on the purchase money at the rate of $7,500 a year. Just lately came the news of the fin- ancial difficulties of the Frankels. prominent among whose assets is the big diamond. held at a quarter of a' million and so listed on their books,‘ While there is every reason to bclicvc’ the affairs of the diamond dealers are] not badly involved, as was at first rc-‘ ported, and that they will be soundly, on their financial fcct again before, long, there are those who say they- willfi never regain their old position of su-r premacy in their trade so long as the; Hope diamond remains in their owner-x ship. ' Other fragments, or what are believed; to be other fragments, of the Tavornier stone have had a less eventful history.‘ Speculation as to what had become of; the pieces cutoff when it was reduccdl from the size it bore in France to that, it had. when sold in London were partly, set at rest by the disclosure in 1874,; at the sale in Geneva of the effects of' the Duke of Brunswick'of a diamond: of identically the same sapphire blue, color weighing 10% carats, and some time later Edwin Slroeter, of Iondon,‘: bought a blue stone of the same qua-L lity weighing about one carat for $23, 500. The Brunswick diamond ICICthj only $3,400. Taken together, these twofi and the Hope diamond, allowing for, waste in cutting, would just about maka| up the weight of the Tavernier diamondl cf the French crown. Records of valuable gems are more carefully kept to-day, and it is not so easy for a famous gem to disappear as it was in'the troublous times of the past. Future history of the Hope dla. mond may be more easily noted. ____.»1.._..__ COULDN'T I‘IELP IT. Insurance Officialâ€"“Of what com- plaint did your father die?" Applicantâ€"“The jury found him guilty." .3-â€"â€"â€" No mancan think well of himself who does not think well of others. Love may- make the world go round, The star. but it takes a little joalousy to accelev rate its speed. Millionaire after mil-i . Is