A Check For One Cent.

POSTMASTER MCCROSKERY, of Newburg, N. Y., owns a check on the National Bank of Newburg for the sum of one cent. And this is how he became possessor of it: A drop letter in the Newburg postoffice, to go to a person in another State, had on it a one cent stamp instead of a two cent stamp. The person to whom the letter was addressed received a letter from Postmaster McCroskery, which informed him of the holding of the letter in accordance with the postal laws for the additional one cent postage. In response the person advised sent a money order for one cent through the Postal Telegraph Company, and wired the postmaster that he had sent it. The postmaster then sent the letter on to the person to whom it was addressed. At the telegraph office the one cent was refused until the postmaster called in a friend to identify him. This he did, and then a check for one cent on the Newburg National Bank was made to the order of the postmaster, and the person called in to identify him signed both the telegraph book and the check before it was delivered to Postmaster McCroskery.

The check will be framed as a curiosity and kept to show the "red tape" now necessary to do business. The receiver of the letter expended $1.25 for telegraphing and the money order to get the letter, and all because the sender neglected to put on a two cent instead of a one cent stamp.

Earthquakes of Pacific Coast.

DISCUSSING "the Great Sierra Nevada Fault Scarp," in the Popular Science Monthly, H. W. Fairbanks speaks of its earthquakes. He says:

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The most severe earthquake of which we have any record on the Pacific coast of the United States was due to the movement along this fault. On March 26, 1872, nearly the whole of California and Nevada was violently shaken. The loss of life, however, was confined to Owen's Valley. At Lone Pine, near the foot of the valley, out of a population of about three hundred people, twenty-three were killed and sixty injured. Goodyear has described in detail the effect of this earthquake. After the event an examination showed numerous fault lines, extending as a general thing parallel to the base of the Sierras. Local areas sank, and in addition to the vertical movement there was a horizontal one amounting in some instances to from twelve to eighteen feet. Owing to the slight rainfall, the fault scarps left by this earthquake may still be seen. They indicate either a depression of the valley or an elevation of the Sierras to the extent of several feet, Russell mentions a fault cliff near Mono Lake of fifty feet which he thinks may date from this disturbance. It is clear

that an equilibrium has not yet been reached, and there is no telling when the shocks may be repeated. These things forcibly remind us that geological processes are going on today as in the past.

Origin of American Indians.

THIS ever interesting subject is considered by Major John W. Powell (formerly in charge of the Government's Geological Survey) in The Forum. The conclusions he reaches are negative. After an examination of the claim that the Indian tribes are of Oriental origin, based on the similarity of their myths and customs and arts, Major Powell concludes as follows:

"There is no evidence that the tribes of the Occident have ever commingled with the tribes of the Orient. Thus we are forced to conclude that the occupancy of America by mankind was anterior to the development of arts, industries, institutions, languages, and opinions; that the primordial occupancy of the continent antedates present geological conditions, and points to a remote time, which can be discovered only by geological. and biological investigation. In the demotic characteristics of the American Indians, all that is common to tribes of the Orient is universal, all that distinguishes one group of tribes from another in America distinguishes them from all other tribes of the world. Mankind was dispersed over the habitable earth anterior to the development of demotic characteristics.''

MOVEMENTS IN THE RELIGIOUS FIELD. PERSECUTION of all other religious bodies than the State Church (the Orthodox Greek) has continued the rule in Russia. The Emperor Nicholas (1825-1855) declared that it was the Russian program to realize the ideal one language, one church, and one government." The Evangelical Alliance has sent committees to the Czar asking for a more liberal treatment of nonconformists, but to no avail. The Protestants of the three Baltic provinces and the Catholics of the Polish districts have alike suffered. A religious journal of Berlin, "Das Reich Christi," says the persecutions do not avail. "" Many millions of the adherents of the orthodox church," it says, have in recent years severed their connection with the official church of the country. Not only the Stundists, who number millions, have done so, but other and similar movements have spread with great rapidity, some independently of the Stundist movement and others in connection with it, and most of them of an ascetic and pietistic character, and morally superior to the State church type of religious life." The Stundist propaganda is the most serious.

"

It is now proposed by the Government to send "missionaries" among the " heretics," and at a recent conference at Kazan the church authorities decided that their property ought to be confiscated, and their children taken from them.

M. M. BINFORD writes for the American Friend, under the caption "Three Present Day Worthies," appreciative and sympathetic sketches of Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler, F. B. Meyer, and Frances Willard. Dr. Cuyler is the veteran Presbyterian minister and temperance advocate of Brooklyn, now in his seventy-seventh year. M. M. Binford found him in his study. He spoke of the Friends: There upon

John G. Whittier was my personal friend.

the wall before thee,' for the doctor fell at once into the thee and thou,' 'hangs the letter I received from Whittier upon his eightieth birthday. I have framed it that it might be constantly before me. So the Friends now have pastors? Well, I am glad of the progressive movement among them. The foundation for it was laid in the work of Stephen Grellet and Joseph John Gurney. Does thee know anything

of Richmond, Ind.? That, I take it, is the great center of western Quakerism.'

THE sketch given by M. M. Binford of Dr. F. B. Meyer (who is a prominent English evangelist and minister, having a church, the Regent Park Chapel, London) is of interest, as it takes occasion to dwell upon the point of " holiness," the thought which has been so prominent among the western Orthodox'' Friends, and in other religious bodies, including the Methodists. He describes Dr. Meyer as saying that "the preaching of holiness was not new, that George Fox did it, though his language was not the same, the early Moravians, John Wesley, etc.''

"Dr. Meyer does not insist upon the emotional phases of the second experience, nor upon a definiteness of time, but more upon a definiteness of fact as to the reception of the Holy Spirit, either in a flood or by constantly increasing inflowing, and for the three purposes of inward sanctification, anointing for service, and attendant power in preaching or He does not believe in the absolute deteaching the word. struction of the sinful element in man, but in its being kept in the place of death, and as a matter of fact the practical difference is not great." He "places great emphasis on the conformity of the believer's life to that of his Lord by the indwelling power of the Spirit.

THE official "Year Book of the Church of England shows that the salaries of the English clergy were diminished by $65,000 between 1895 and 1896, and that the decrease is continuing. The Churchman, commenting on this fact, says:

"Nobody knows what ought to be done. Perhaps it is but another phase of a general economic situation, the rise of a clerical proletariat, the problem of the ecclesiastical unemployed. Perhaps it is but another in the series of hard facts which is forcing the problem of church unity as a practical question upon the attention of thoughtful people. The Christian minister is poor because there are more Christian churches

than the community can afford to support. And there are more churches than the neighborhood needs, because small differences, ecclesiastical or temperamental, have been exaggerated into reasons for separation. The poverty of the clergy must compel a more effective study of our present divisions. Evidently, it does not occnr to the Churchman that the solution of the trouble is to be in the direction of a diminution of professional clergy.

CURRENT EVENTS.

THE strain of the war danger has continued. There has been the utmost activity in naval and military preparations. A number of small steamships, tugs, etc., have been bought in this country by the Government. The principal event has been the report of the Court of Inquiry in the Maine disaster. This reached Washington on the 25th, and was sent to Congress, with a brief message by the President, on the 28th. The report is to the effect which had been foreshadowed-that the wreck of the ship was caused primarily by an external agency, believed to be a submarine mine, which was placed nearly under the ship; that a second explosion, inside the ship, was thus produced; that the disaster was in no way due to those on the ship; and that the Court has been unable to fix the responsibility on any person or persons.

It is announced from Washington, at this writing, that the President some days ago made a peremptory demand upon Spain to put an end immediately to hostilities in Cuba, to release the "concentrados," and to permit them to return to their homes, and resume their occupations unmolested. The Madrid authorities are now considering their reply to this demand. A conference was held at Madrid, on the afternoon of the 29th, between the Premier, Sagasta, two of his ministers, Moret and Gullon, and United States Minister Woodford. It was adjourned "for forty-eight hours,'' and the dispatch says that "then there seems no kind of doubt that the Ministry will give to the world a peaceful and honorable solution of the whole question of Cuba. It is uncertain, however, whether this means the withdrawal of the Spanish troops from Cuba, or is a proposal for an armistice. The latter, the Cuban insurgents will not accept, as they say it would only give Spain time to collect her forces for fresh efforts. It is said France is ready to tender its good offices as mediator between the United States and Spain, if any intimation is conveyed by this country that such offices would be acceptable.

DISPATCHES from Washington, on the 29th and 30th represent that there is a strong dissent by probably a majority of both Houses of Congress from any policy granting Spain more time in Cuba. Fifty-six Republican members of the House, in favor of "" vigorous action" of some sort, held a conference on the evening of the 29th, and adjourned to meet again next day. One object is to convince Speaker Reed that he cannot control the House in favor of a policy of delay. It is probable that the answer of the Spanish Ministry will be waited for, but that further diplomatic negotiations will cause vehement protests.

It was understood to be the President's intention to send to Congress on the 29th, following upon the communication of the Maine report, a message asking for an appropriation of at least $500,000, to purchase supplies for the starving people in Cuba. The message, however, was not sent. Many Congressmen declared that they would not vote supplies in this manner, without intervening in the war. Clara Barton, who returned to this country from Cuba, a few days ago, will go back, it is now stated, and continue her work of distributing relief. A. M. Parker, who accompanied Senator Proctor in his recent visit to Cuba, is quoted as saying that some of the relief supplies fall into the hands of the Spanish soldiers, instead of the " reconcentrados."

MUCH interest attaches to the action of Spain in reference to her naval activities. Her fleet of torpedo boats, which are considered very threatening, left the Azores Islands last week

for Porto Rico. They will be then in striking distance of the American ships. A steel yacht, the Giralda, has been sold in England to Spain, for $300,000. A warship building in France for Spain, and uncompleted, has been ordered to be brought, as it is, to Ferrol, in Spain, for completion there. Another ship is about completed in France, and it is said that when the two are added to the Spanish fleets they will be equal to, if not greater than the naval strength of the United States.

VIOLENT fluctuations have taken place in the stock markets, following upon reports regarded as favorable to peace or war. A New York dispatch, 29th, says: "The gold imports are exceeding all expectations. Thirty millions was the estimated top figure, but that has already been exceeded by ten millions. To-day import engagements amounted to $3,425,ooo, making the total since February 25 consigned to eastern cities about $34,000,000, which, with the amount drawn from Australia by San Francisco, makes a grand total of about $40,413,000.

PHILADELPHIA has had a further financial sensation in the collapse of the Guarantors' Finance Company and the People's Bank. The latter is a State institution, and has been known for many years as a political concern. The cashier, John S. Hopkins, committed suicide. James McManes, the president, has agreed to make up out of his private pocket the sum needed to pay depositors in full. Richard F. Loper, manager of the other concern, the Guarantors' has been arrested and put under bail. It is alleged that excessive loans to him, some $700,000, by Hopkins, caused the wreck of the bank.

MUCH dissatisfaction exists in the British governmental circles over the loss of prestige and influence which it is felt has been sustained in China. The surrender of Port Arthur and Ta-Lien-Wan by the Chinese to the Russian troups was accomplished on the 28th ult., and the Russian flag was hoisted over both places. A dispatch from London, 28th, says it is reported that England, seeing the partition of China to be inevitable, will acquiesce, and merely strive to get her share. "It is deemed improbable that Japan, single-handed, or still less in conjunction with China, will combat the policy of the European Powers." The British fleets are again to rendezvous in the Gulf of Pe-chi-li, to support the diplomatic efforts of the British minister at Pekin. It is said that the old statesman, Li Hung Chang, will resume power in China.

THE disclosure by Councilman Stevenson of bribery in the Philadelphia City Councils, in connection with the Schuylkill Valley Water Company ordinance (mentioned two weeks ago), has been followed by other events. Smith, whom Stevenson charged with the corrupt offer ($5,000), was indicted by the Grand Jury on the 25th ult., and plead not guilty on the 28th. His trial was fixed for the 29th. An investigation was also begun by District Attorney Graham, before Judges Gordon and Bregy, and Select Councilman Louis J. Walker confessed that he had been paid $500 in money for helping a favorable report from committee for the Water ordinance, and had been offered $5,000 more for his vote on the measure. He said the money was paid him by Councilman Charles Seger, and the bribe offered by Select Councilman Byram. The scandals attending this attempt to plunder the public may, it is now hoped, be uncovered. The investigation was adjourned to

the Ist instant.

PETER C. TOMSON, of Philadelphia, has left his residuary estate in trust, the income to be applied to the care of sick and worn-out employes of his spice factory.

DON'T spend too much money in trying to get something for nothing.—Chicago News.

AGE," remarked the observer of men and things, "makes us wise and others obstinate."-Detroit Journal.

A MAN asks his wife what she has been doing all day and then reads his newspaper while she is trying to tell him.Chicago News.

THE largest creamery in the world is located near St. Albans, Vt., converting the milk of 12,000 cows into 10,000 pounds of butter daily.

THREATENED by a tramp in her kitchen, Miss Gisella Bond, of Chicago, Illinois, clapped a pan of dough on his head, and the vagrant fled in terror.-News Item.

A SHIPMENT of "pasteurized" cream was recently made from Appleton, Wis., to Liverpool and back. The cream returned thirty days after shipment and proved perfectly sweet and fresh.

THE famine in India has cost the government $6,000,000, and the friends of suffering humanity have contributed to relief funds nearly $9,000,000. And yet vast numbers have died of starvation and disease.

ARGENTINA'S farmers, encouraged by the improved prices for wheat, increased their acreage enough to have 40,000,000 or 50,000,000 bushels of wheat to sell this year, an increase of 75 to 100 per cént. over recent years.

EGYPT is the only country in the world where there are more men than women. The male sex in the dominions of the Khedive exceeds the female by 160,000.

HALF PRICE

No reason in the world for selling these Overcoats at a loss to us except that they were made to sell last Fall. Just as good for many purposes.

tion of Egyptian women knowing how to read and write is one woman in every 200.

INTERESTING experiments have recently been made at Cornell University by Prof. Atkinson on the effect of the X-rays on growing plants and seedlings. The results

to order.

an exposure to the rays of many hours, were entirely unharmed.

THE lonely little island of Tristan d' Acunha, in the South Atlantic Ocean, which has a population of about sixty persons, has regular postal communication with the rest of the world only once a year. The island, owned by England, is under the protection of the governor of Cape Colony. He arranges that a postal courier shall visit it annually.

SPEAKING of Audubon reminds me of

1338 Chestnut Street.

birds here (Mississippi) during the last decade. Mocking-birds are actually becoming scarce on this coast, where a few years ago they were more numerous, perhaps, than in any other part of our country. Wood-thrushes and brown thrushes are hard to find; bluebirds, once SO abundant in winter, are rarely seen; and the same scarcity is to be noted of all the other song-birds.—Maurice Thompson.

NEWS AND OTHER GLEANINGS.

THE illness of W. E. Gladstone is announced as critical. One report is that he is suffering from a cancer of the nasal passages. A London newspaper, the Westminster Gazette, 28th, says: "It is no news, we fear, to say that Mr. Gladstone's illness must necessarily be fatal in a comparatively short time. Mr. Gladstone is fully informed as to his own condition. He asked the doctors to tell him the truth, and he was thankful when informed that he had no chance of recovery. of mind is one of complete happiness."

His state

-Sir William Van Horne, president of the Canadian Pacific railroad, calculates that from 200,000 to 300,000 persons will be taken into the Klondike country the present year, and that on an average each person will take along $1,000 in supplies and money. That would be a total expenditure of $200,000,000 or more, and if one-tenth of that amount of gold is brought back within two years most expectations will be surpassed.

-A few days ago President McKinley planted an oak tree in the White House grounds, re-establishing a custom begun a good many years ago, but broken by President Cleveland. The tree planted is a small scarlet leaf or red oak. The president shoveled the dirt in the hole after placing the sapling. There was no ceremony, although the incident was witnessed by a number of people.

-The elections for the popular branch of the Spanish Cortes have passed off quietly. The indications are that the Sagasta Government will have an enormous majority, estimated at 300 of the 432 seats in the Congress. As heretofore said, such elections are merely formal, the people having little real choice.

—As a result of the discovery of wholesale bribery and corruption, 100 dock-yard officials and officers of the Russian Black Sea fleet have been arrested. Admiral Kopyloff, Commander of the fleet, has been dismissed.

-Owing to the disorganization in financial affairs, there is great distress among the people of Hayti, the cost of provisions being very high.

-The Supreme Court of the United States, in an opinion by Justice Gray, on the 28th ult., confirmed the citizenship of persons born in the United States of Chinese parents.

-Judge Campbell of San Francisco, has decided that a cat is not a domestic animal and cannot therefore be claimed as the property of any one.

-In the rural districts of England one policeman for every 1,150 of the population is found sufficient to preserve order ; in the boroughs one for every 697 is required, and in London itself one in 312.

Publisher's Department.

*** A Friend, (not a native of this country), in the West, who has been a subscriber to the INtelligencer for sometime, writes that he is about to remove to a distant part of the world, and says:

"As it seems best to only continue subscription to one American publication of Friends, I have decided that one shall be the INTELLIGENCER.”

*** A discovery made in modern times is that wheat, which, more than any other article of food furnishes all the elements and in the right proportion required to nourish the body, loses a valuable part of its content when ground in the ordinary manner. In bolting the flour to make "white flour," four-fifths of the gluten, the very most nutritious part of the grain, is taken out. The Entire Wheat Flour, made by the Franklin Mills Co., Lockport, N. Y., is made by a process which simply denudes the wheat kernel of the then outside silicious covering, and then grinds into fine flour all the digestible elements of the grain.

Please mention FRIENDS' INTELLIGENCER, when answering Advertisements in it. This is of value to us and to the advertisers.

-Sheldon Jackson, acting on behalf of the War Department, has sold 200 head of the reindeer herd that was bought for the Yukon relief expedition to private parties. It is underThe stood that the government received about $100 a head. buyers were P. C. Richardson, an Alaskan mail carrier, and W. A. Brooman, who is connected with an Alaskan transportation company.

-A current news item says: "Garfield University, in Wichita, Kan., has been sold to James M. Davis, a wealthy Quaker of St. Louis, for $50,000 by Edgar Harding, of Boston, Mass., who purchased it under foreclosure. Mr. Davis has. presented the building, with 300 lots facing the campus, to the Society of Friends, who will establish there a national university.'

-Large quantities of seed potatoes, brought from New York and other States have been sold at public sale in this section of Pennsylvania, within a few weeks. At Ivyland, Bucks county, two sales, one of 4,000 bushels, and one of 1,800, are reported, the average prices being 97 and 98 cents per bushel. They included They included "choice varieties.

-J. William Cox, of Escondido, California, mourns the loss of a thoroughbred Guernsey cow worth a hundred dollars which somebody stole from his pasture a week or two ago. It was a portion of the herd that Mr. Cox took to California with him when he moved from East Marlborough a few years ago. —Kennett (Pa.) Advance.

-The war between the Sugar Trust and the Arbuckles is assuming such a desperate character, a current item says, "that the big wholesale grocers throughout the West are preparing to throw off the yoke of the Trust and assert their rights to go into the open market for the purchase of their sugar."'

"at

-A notable centenarian is Adam Adamcek of South Chicago, who recently celebrated his 115th birthday, with an home," being assisted in receiving his guests by his second wife, aged 88, and his eldest daughter, Miss Pauline, aged 92. Adamcek is a Pole, born in 1783.

-The richest institution of learning in Maryland is now the Jacob Tome Institute, which receives $4,000,000 by Mr. Tome's will. Johns Hopkins University never had so much wealth, even with the Baltimore and Ohio stock rated as it was at Johns Hopkins's death.

-There are three Tennysons of the late poet laureate's family and generation still living-two sisters, the younger in her 81st year, and Arthur Tennyson, nearly 84.

-Wisconsin will celebrate the semi-centennial of her admission to statehood in a few weeks, and California is making preparations for a like event later on.

L

CORNELL Buffalo. KENTUCKY Louisville.

We feel that we have just reason to be proud of the lines of Women's Shoes which are now here grouped for the pleasure of our customers. Never any lack of care in the selection, as we fully appreciate the necessity of having well-appearing,wellfitting, and comfortable Shoes at reasonable prices.

Hand-made French Shank Shoes, for which the women's bootmaker would require $9.00, are here with every touch of elegance which he could give them, and At $6.50 a pair.

Dressy Street Shoes, of French Patent Calf, in the mannish effect so much desired by well-dressing women, with round toes and low sensible heels, buttons or lace, and these

At $6.00 a pair.

Then, at a popular price, we show a great variety of fashionably-shaped Women's Shoes, with all the different widths and styles of toe from the narrowest now in vogue to the extremely broad ones. All sizes and widths are here, and every conceivable condition can be met.

These at $5.00 a pair.

Our customers are beginning to ask for the Low Shoes already. We thought they might, and so we have an exceptional variety now ready for the showing. We have them either in welts or in the thin turned soles, and in all grades. The prices.

$2.00 to $5.00 a pair.

Mail orders receive prompt and

accurate attention

Address orders to "Department C."

Strawbridge & Clothier,

PHILADELPHIA

YOUNG FRIENDS' ASSOCIATION ROOMS,

140 N. FIFTEENTH STREET. re-opened

NINTH MONTH 27TH, 1897.

The rooms are open daily, except First-days, from 8.30 a. m. to 9.30 p. m., and Friends are cordially invited to avail themselves of the facilities afforded, those from without the city and young Friends boarding in the city being particularly desired to do so.

The rooms are designed to be

A CENTRE FOR INFORMATION ON ALL FRIENDLY MATTERS.