EVERYBODY AWHEEL ALL OTHER TRADES SUFFER FROM THE WHEEL. The Most Startling, Sudden and Powerful Commercial Influence Ever Known. ‘ Over $100.000,000 Estimated to Have Been Diverted from Other Business. “In all the Wonder story of commerce and money dealings from the day of Phoenicians there is no chapter so as- tounding as that which tells of the bi- cycle,” says the New York Journal. It has overturned the trades of- nations within the compass of five fleeting years. Serious people laughed at it and called the folk who rode it ‘feather brains. Today these same serious people have recalled their capital from world wide enterprises and started it anew in the bicycle business to save themselves from commercial shipwreck. The whirring of these cobweb wheels has been like the spider’s spinning—si- lent. wonderful. Fortunes have been made as if by magic. Men who five years ago had not the price of a mass for their souls’ sake, nor any apparent means of getting it, count their riches now in seven figures. Every luxury this world knows is theirs for the wish mg. ' There have! been South Sea bubbles and fevers of gold, and coal and oil. But all this history of money manias shows no parallel to the bicycle fever. It has set civilization by the ears. Trade to-day is 'hodge podge, and no man, if all men are to be believed, is making money except the man who makes the bicycle. Moreover, no man can tell where at last it will end. The facts and figures are appalling. Commerce, for all, its keen vision, can not read them aright. Five years ago in this whole wide country. not 60,000 bicycles were made or sold, and the soild, stolid business men made mock of the ‘playthings.’ . Mark the change, In this year of grace and pneumatic tires. four-fifths of a million of wheels will be marketed . in the United States alone. The leaders in the bicycle trade say that an average price for these machines is $80. Multiply. There will have been $66,000,000 spent this year in the United States alone, for bicycles. The world is bicycle mad. Here is $66,000,000 deflected from; the ordinary channels of trade and into the bicycle pocket. Man, Woman and child—the population Christendom—is awheel. ‘Business hours’ are only the intervals now, that must elapse between trips upon the wheel. Honest debts have no élaim on attention. The bicy- cle is a preferred creditor to every man, rich and poor. The butcher, the baker. and the candlestick maker may whistle for their pay so long as the bicycle ven dor is well reckoned with. Firms which for a century have weathered financial gales have stopped, dead, in a twinkling now. The money that used to flow into their cofilers goes for bicycles. ' The church? It sis forgotten. The Sabbath? A cycling day. The theatre? Old fashioned fun. The horse? Token and companion of gentlemanhood, a hack, browsing on the highway. Jew- els? Clothing? The men who carried on those industries have turned their machinery to the making of rubber tires and ball bearings. Tobacco has been forsaken. Wine is a mocker mocked at. Wheels and gin- ger pop. That is the order of the day. Railroad dividends are decimated. Pol- itics have become merely a catering to the wheelman’s wishes. There was talk, once, of a railroad lobby in legislatures. Where is it' no w‘: Read the history of the Armstrong bill at Albany. The bicycle had force there which made the railroad lobby look like a puling infant. And more remarkable than the mere fact that it has all been done in five short years, is this, that the bicycle, in addition to deflecting money from all the legitimate channels of trade, has kept people from spending money that they were able to spend, would have spent, in other ways of luxury, That is the marvel of the sport. That is its keynote. «6 ' The horse and livery business is es timated to lose by reason of the bicycle $20,000,000, and other trades and pas times, such as pleasure vehicles, har- ness and saddles, pianos, tailoring, ci- gars, jewelry, confectionery, dress goods, millinery, watches, Street rail ways, whisky and larger. railroads, ex cursions, and theatres, enough more to bring the grand total to $100,000,000. anks’ Heavy Hand in Armenia. A '1 American woman from Marasl. 3 ~ the following statement: --..ving made arrangements with charitable persons at Constantinople for homes and, an education for forty fiVe orphans of Marash and Odrfa, I pre pared to bring them to Constantinople. The Turkish authorities absolutely re- fused to allow them to move, saying. ‘Give us their names and we will look after them.’ " It was only with the greatest diffi- culty that I obtained permission to bring my own three children, as the ol ficials said that being born in Turkey they were Turkish, although both their parents were Americans.” ' Can This Be So. Bacon—I see they’ve put up a sound i703 board back of the minister’s pulpit. What do you suppose that’s for? Egbert—Why, it’s to ‘throw out the ' sound. “Gracious! If you throw out the sound there wouldn’t be anything left in the sermonl”—Yonker's Statesman. Grieved. “Aanes said she didn’t enjoy the play at all.” “I wonder why?” “She says you borrowed her big hat and then went andhgotfi seat in front of her.” ’ ...": -..» ...—1.....- w—.—_— I MARK A. HANNA, CI-TAIRMAN. the New Head of the National Republi- can Committee is a Heavyweight. .Mark A. Hanna, the astute manager of McKinley’s campaign, is an iron manufacturer of Cleveland; Ohio, and a millionaire several times over. He is a warm personal friend of Maj. Mc- Kinley. which fact is said by his friends to be his chief motive in working with M ARK A. HANNA. all his might and spending money lav- ishly in behalf of the latter, though of course a protective tariff would benefit his business. Mr. Hanna is 'a very large man, weighing nearly 250 pounds. He was a personal friend of Gen. Gar- field, and had a hand in ,bringing about his nomination for the Presidency. The accompanying picture is a good like- ness of Mr. Hanna. The Decline of Patriotism in Washington “There is something the matter with" our people of late years,” said Mr. W. H. Jones. “Here it is June, and not a word has been said or anything been done about a. Fourth of July celebration. To the old resident, who looked upon the fireworks. in the White Lot on the even- ing of the glorious Fourth, as the great event of the year this seems strange. Speak to any of the members of the Oldest Inhabitants’ Association and he will surely agree with me that our Fourth of July celebrations, day and night, of thirty, forty or fifty years ago were, indeed, glorious events, and I would be happy if they should be re- stored, so that our grandchildren could for once see how we did things in our day. "Our best fireworks were made in the old arsenal, at the foot of Four- and~a-half street, and cost from $500 to $1.000, and were paid for by an appro- priation by Congress or city councils. We gave as much attention-to the figural as do the peeple of the New gland towns, and had parades, brass bands, and a general celebration, Every one enjoyed it, and it made us feel more patriotic. It may be we are wrong, and that the modern way :of celebrating the glorious Fourth, by tying up two or three sandwiches in a paper and jumping on abicycle and riding out in the ,country on dusty roads in the boiling sun, is the more pa- triotic, but the old inhabitant cannot see it that way. There are many changes as time passses along, but, like many other old people. I re- gret that we forget the glorious Fourth and do not publicly celebrate it any more. Daniel Was There. A rich old speculator imagined that he knew about art, whereas he was an ignoramus in regard to everything, in fact, except in making money. This old fraud determined to make a valu- able present to his son-in-law, who was a preacher. It was suggested to him that an oil painting representing “Daniel in the Lions’ Den” would be very appropri- ate, so an order was given to a painter to produce the work of art. It was almost finished when the old specula- tor was called to inspect it. It repre- sented a cross section of the den with Daniel walking about among the lions. When the old man saw the picture he refused to take it. He insisted that if Daniel was in the den neither he nor lions could be seen, and the artist h d to cover the lions and Dan with a thic coat of black paint. When the son in-law was presented with the picture he was somewhat dazed to know what it represented. “It represents ‘Daniel in the Lions’ Den,’ ” replied the art critic. “But I don’t see either of them.” “That makes no difference. They are in there. I saw ’em myself.”—Youth’s Companion. THE CANDIDATE. . ... Mr. Boozer (with a lamp chimney in his hand)—Queer-~hic—can’t get—hie —this glass filled with water. —New York Herald. The correct way to drain an umbrella is to stand it handle down. If put the other way the dampness remains in the centre, where all the water collects and very soon rots the covering. _ PRESIDENT WILLIAMS 0N SILVER. If Successful Mankind \Vill Stand Aghast at the Ruin. The Chemical National Bank of New . York is regarded in financial circles as the most solid monetary institution in the United States. Its accumulations are such that its stock is now selling at something like' $4,000 for a $100 share. President George G. Williams gives his views of the proposed change in the basis of our currency as follows: It admits of no dispute that there is at present a difference in the market price of gold and silver. Any discus- sion of the silver question must begin with this fact admitted, and thence go on to inquire how it has come about. If it has been the result of natural causes. the situation must be accepted, and the wisest use made of the facts. It is agreed that. with a little difference in the ratio both had circulated together in this country for nearly one hundred years and up to 1873. It will be accept- ed as fact that up to that year the amount of silver dollars coined was but a little over eight millions. From that date to the present time nearly five hundred millions have been injected in- L0 our currency. Can it be disputed that there can be any other cause for the change of value than the great pro- duction of our own mines and of those of other countries? The consequence has been, not that this country and Germany and France and the Latin Union, and later on India, clasing their mints to the coinage of silver has been the cause of its decline, but excess of production of the article itself has ne- cessitated the action of these countries. Such aproceeding may have precipitat- ed its fall, but was not its cause. silver coinage had been continued, gold would have been driven to a pre- mium, and there would have been two prices for all articles—one of gold and the other of silver. If now, this is the fact, let it be ac- cepted, and the reductions made there- from. Is it honest to do otherwise? Let ""‘K‘MVIV v the silver advocates not only be fair minded, but let them be honest. It cannot be right, in view of these facts, to say that a fraud has been perpetrat- ed in which all these nations have united. What. now, is to be done about it? Shall all values be changed in order to give a fictitious value to an article de- preciated by over- production? Never. If silver is to circulate, let it do so, for what it is worth in the markets of the world. This can be done by changing the ratio or by issuing certificates upon it redeemable in silver bullion at its market value, but not in standard dol- lars coined at 16 to 1. There would in this be safety and stability, but the Government would have to stand in the breach if silver goes down, but would profit by it if silver advances, It would seem that there is an alarm- ing lack of honesty in the purposes of the silver advocates. Many at the South say: “Give us a silver basis, for we could then sell our cotton for gold. and pay our laborers in silver worth fifty cents on the dollar.” Where is honesty in this to the laboring men? Again, at the West, it is said: “Give us a silver standard, and we can then sell our wheat for gold and yet pay our workingmen in the legal money worth one-half its real value.” Is such logic worthy of an honest man, and can its advocates be honest? And will not the wageearner see through the deception when he has to pay double for every- thing he buys? The truth is, that change from a gold to a silver standard will unsettle all values for a time, cause a loss greater than all the value of silver in the coun—' try, and require years for prices to be adapted to the new standard. This whole silver craze is wicked beyond the power of language to express. It has, for twenty years, been the great black cloud which has threatened enterprise. It is responsible for the panic of 1893, and all the losses resulting therefrom and now it seeks to cut in two the pur- chasing power of the dollar of every wage-earner in the land, and the salary of every minister and missionary, of ev- ery judge or clerk, and of the lifelong savings of every investor or savings bank depositor, and to derange the bus- iness of sixty-five millions of people. If the silver men succeed, mankind will stand aghast at the ruin they have ac— complished. GEORGE G. WILLIAMS. Whata Spider Consumes. Sir John Lubbock caught a large gar- den spider, weighed it carefully and then closely observed its eating habits and the amount of food the creature consumed in a given length of time. He sums up the whole as follows: “At asimilar rate of consumption a man weighing 160 pounds would requirea whole fat steer for breakfast, asteer and five sheep for dinner and for supper two bullocks, eight» sheep and four hogs. This would hardly suffice for the 24 hours, so just before retiring, he would call for and consume nearly four barrels of fresh fishl”—Pittsburg Des- patch. Aman might never become a fence even were he continually a-railingw— Detroit Free Press. I d swnEKnYANORWALKrGAan DAME. NATURE’S EDAINTY LACE. Beautiful Garments Made from .the Bark of a Tree. The Department of Agriculture, For- estry Division. at Washington, has a collection of rare trees and palms only second to that belonging to the famed Kew Gardens, London, says the Pitts- burg Dispatch. A recent addition to this dendrological museum is a i‘lace- bark tree” from Jamaica. The inner bark of this queer tree is composed of many layers of fine and intricately wov- en fibers which interlock with each other in all directions. Caps, ruffles, and even complete suits of this curious vegetable lace have been made. It bears washing with common laundry soap, and when bleached in the sun acquires a degree of .whiteness sel- dom excelled by artificial laces made of cotton, linen and silk. The intricate web of this unique bark makes it com- pare favorably to the last-mentioned productions for both beauty and dura~ bility. Recognition. “Darling,” he cried, throwing aside all reserve, “do you not know me?” The girl flung herself upon his bosom. “Your face is familiar,” she sobbed, “although I can’t quite recall your name.”—Detroit Tribune. Returns Not in. “I congratulate you, Wiggington, on having your three daughters married off.” f‘Just wait a while, Hopkins; I can’t tell yet whether I have three daughters married 03‘ or three sons-in-law mar- If ‘2 ried on.”—Chicago Record. Intellectuality. “Quimberly, what is your idea of an intellectual woman?” “Well, she’s a woman who has sense enough to spread a stepladder so that it won't shut up and leave her hanging to the top shelf of a closet. ’—Chicago Record. The Tar and the Countess. After the Countess of 'Warwick had made an address at a meeting held in the interest of some British sailors re cently. one bronzed old tar stood up in the uu-lience, bowed to her and remark< rd; "Lined-by, Countess. We did not mink that the likes of you took any semi e: we likes of us.” Diversion. “loaf: 2::usquitoes nearly worry the ...: 119.5. u. .-.-)L'.'." ‘ o... i.::; LII-0y generally sleeps with -..... '—-ci..caoo rice-0rd. An easy way to remove spots of pain: .lOill glass is to make a strong solution .1 :OLl'cl. in hot water water and wash the lids: WIIll a flannel dipped in.this. chcilel'—-\Vh0 was the wisest man? ’l‘ommy—Noah. ' ‘N 03.11?" “Yes’m. He was the only man who anew enough to come in when it rained.”—1ndianapolis Journal. i. In Doubt. Ella—Did Fred propose last night? Stella-J really don’t know; I fell isleep about 1 o’clock—Town Topics. IRII‘IK , HATHIIIIIl SPRING WATER FOR THE Stomach, Bo wels, Liver and _, Kidneys. FOR SALE BY hehhhlnrlhhdtl Chl1t0_l_l_ Paint, Every gallon of paint made by the Chilton Mfg. Company is mixed and ground in pure Linseed Oil. All shades are mixed and ground by machinery seven times, making them uniform and even. Compare the size of cans and weight with the cheaper makes. You get an honest gallon. Give it a trial and you will be convinced. H. H. WILLIAMS 17 Main St. PLYMOUTH ROCK ICE. Stores and Families Supplied. Lowest Rates. SPECIAL SALE ——OF—-——— ‘ Sailor Hats ' Now READY, lInIrimmed, lilo and IIpwards, Trimmed, 50:: and Upwards, FAWAGTETTS. ' 3 was. Street, Norwalk ' / I elevate €3§¥§§lt SIEAWI some new catalogue. San Francisco, Cal. 0 is known throughout cycling as a. light, staunch, stylish, speedy mount. There’s a best in “every- thing; the ' 96 Stcarns is a veritable edition dc luxc among bicycles. Finished in black or orange. Stearns riders are satisfied riders, and always proud as kings of their mounts. Your address will insure receipt of our hand~ E. C. STEARNS 5: (30., Makers, Syracuse, N. Y. ' the Yellow fellow ' Buffalo, N. Y. Toronto, Ont. YOUR FRIENDS ARE USING PLMSTED’S CDUGH REMEDY AND RECOMMEND 11' S USE Get a Bottle .it once. 25 and 50 Cents. ALL DRUGGISTS. manor, AMES, IJGHT, «ooLumous, HORSMAN, nonunu, IHANA, .. ’ ' » ‘— I m D 0| ng It If you Don’t believe it, Come and See $|00 BICYCLES FOR $65. ‘ -D' “dis-7’" \ - _V A?“ I J We; .9 WE ARE NOT IN Latest ’96 PaIIern. Built to Sell al Top Price. Full Guarantee. Easy Terms. THE COMBINE. a SSW; ‘ —' For Terms and Lease of Norwalk Fair Grounds, apply to LUTHER M. WRIGHT, Carriage Factory and Repository, Franklin & Madison 81s., So. IIorwaIk. Branch Shops at Broad River and Darlen. If you are able to pay non for a May. cle, why be content with aanut a STANDARD. OF should mean much to any $100 I 'PRIVATE won. #70 That you can save money by buying your Meats and Fish at F. W. SMITH’S, 55 Main Street. Everything First Class. OPEN EVENING-S Nineteen years of reputation for building the best bicycle, backed, f: , b the certainty of quality assured Y buyer of a. bicycle. Columbia quality—one Columbia price—- TO ALL ALIKE. ' 1 Art Catalo e of Columbia and Hartford Bicycles is free if you call upon any Beautifu Coluxgi‘llaia Agent; by mail from us for two 2-cent stamps. - POPE MFG. CO., Hartford, Conn. Branch Stores and Agencies in almost. every city .and town. If Columbia: are not properly represented in your Vicmity, let us know. icyclej THE WORLD. by our scientific math There is but one Instructions given in BOXING at the pupil’s home. CLASS, ' Now forming, and ap-- plicants desiring " to. join should apply at once to ' Prof. Geo. Yoerger, ‘ [South Norwallc. or at this oflice.
Norwalk Chronicler