Life — September 5, 1901 — page 4: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

“ While there is Life there's Hop VOL. XXXVIIL SEPT. 5, 1901. 19 West Turxty-First St., Ni devery Thursday. $5.00 a year in ad. ratage to foreign countetes in the Postal O46 a year extra. Single current copier, 10 cents. “Rack numbers, after three months: ate of publication, 2 cents. No contribution twill be returned unless accompanied by stamped and addressed envelope. The illustrations in Live are copyrighted, and are not to be reproduced without special arrangement with the publishers, Prompt notification should be sent by sud- scribers of any change of address. ron! THE missing millions have been found. Experts have at last mado up their minds that Europe-visiting Ameri- cans are the persons responsi- ble for the millions of foreign money which should come to us to pay the balance of trade in our favor, and which we never seem to receive. In all the statistics there has been made a certain allowance for this item, but, lacking any other possible explanation, the experts have been forced to conclude that the allowance was far and away too small. In a general way it may cause a fecling of regret to see so many millions that might be kept at home ssing into the pockets of aliens, but it isa state of affairs we cannot remedy by legislation, and which, on closer ex- amination, is not without its brighter aspects. For instance, if persons who made their money in America were not allowed to spend it where they please, Mr. William Waldorf Astor and the Bradley-Martins might still be domiciled in this country. Such an embargo would prevent many of our newly rich from going abroad to get their first coats of culture. It would sadly interfere with the sport of title- chasing. It would do aw with all the fun of the custom-house officials who rummage through the wearing apparel of returning touris Wo would have to invent our own fashion- *LIPE* able follies instead of copying those of the foreign nobility. This transfer of wealth abroad is bound to grow less when times get worse, and eventually is bound todiscontinue entirely. When Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan has bought all the best pictures and statuary in Europe, and Mr. Rockefellers Chicago University has captured all of the older country’s most learned professors, and Mr. Carnegie’s endowed libraries have filled themselves with the best books in the world, there will be no need to go abroad for culture. In due season all the titles in Europe will have been captured by American heiresses, and that incentive to travel will be removed. It won't be long before Americans will know all the European follies and vices and will not be obliged to go abroad to indulge in them. Give us a few more years of good crops, let our industrial prosperity continue a little longer, and we may buy the whole of Europe, move it over and plant itin the Gulf of Mexico or some other convenient place for future reference. Meanwhile, Uncle Samuel is not worrying overmuch about the few surplus millionsor billions his extrava- gant offspring are buying candy with. aad ARB a al GREAT many ladies who have “ been in the habit of wearing birds’ wings upon their hats have re- pented of their ways and turned aside from their evil practices, which has been due, more or less, to the influence of an enlightened public sentiment. Now the men need to be dealt with, and perhaps more summary measures can be used with them than with the erring ones of the fair sex. Every man who is caught shooting birds for the public fun there is in it, when clay pigeons answer just as well, ought to be duly labeled and turned loose on thecommunity. “Iam a bird shooter. I shoot all the birds I can wantonly, just for the fun there is in it,’ would not be an inappropriate legend for these “gentry ” to display. Inthe fall there will doubtless be some agitation of the question in Albany, and if a law can be passed which will have some effect upon this particular cruelty, it will be at least one creditable thing for the coming Legislature, aa CHE bold front of indelicacy seems temporarily to have left Asbury Park and Ocean Grove, and painted the topography of other resorts which have been supposed to be immune from prudery. Recently the manager of the bath- ing beach at Narragansett Pier had occasion to take kindly but firmly the hand of a young damsel who was too scantily clothed to suit even his callous eye, anda few days after Rockaway Beach rose from temporary obscurity through a similar incident. Asbury Park has not this year been heard from. The wave of reform, reaching its maximum height during the recent visit of Mrs. Carrie Nation, has evi- dently had its effect. HERE seems to be no doubt that the final conquest and extinction of the mosquito is a matter to look for- ward to with some degree of hope, and the rise of real estate in certain locali- ties is a reasonable future actuality. We know now what the mosquito can do, and how he does it ; or, to be more accurate, how she does it, for it has been demonstrated that the female is the one really to be feared. She not only lays her eggs in “the still waters,” but she is by far hardier than the male, having been known to live incrusted in solid blocks of ice, and her bill is the stronger. The male seems inadequato to probe the human cuticle, but the female makes up in penetration the deficiency of her weaker half. Nothing is known to kill them, says Dr. L. O. Howard, but crude oil. As for tho ability of the mosquito to carry disease, this has been conclusively demon- strated recently in Havana, by experi- ments with yellow fever patients. Any general experiments on human beings will not, however, be likely. Public opinion is against them.