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one of the comedy stars on the fraud order stage. The advertisement reads: THE GREAT SECRET. How you can make your lover or sweetheart love you; they just must love you; they can't help themselves. This secret is based on scientific principles

and cannot fail. Send 25 cents in silver to Prof. A. H. Thole, McCook, Neb.

The proposed secret is thus divulged: Your letter of recent date at hand, and in reply will say that to win the woman you love you must constantly think with your whole soul's intensity that you want her to love you; in addition to that you must not drink. Keep clean and neat in your dress. Be polite and attentive to her. Be generous, for women hate stinginess in men, but dearly love generosity. Be brave, for women hate cowards and love bravery. Be firm; women hate triflers. Walk with your head and shoulders well thrown back; be dignified; be courteous, and every inch a gentleman. Flattery goes a long ways to win a woman, but don't overdo it. Don't be bashful, as women hate bashfulness in men, but love bold men. Yours for suckers, Prof. A. H.

Thole.

A few years ago an advertisement appeared in religious papers that the writer, a minister, on his visit to the Holy Land, chanced upon some seeds of Jonah's gourd of Bible fame, and secured a few to bring back with him. These few he desired to distribute among Bible students, and on receipt of a dollar would send one. Among the thousands of orders was one from a well-known Connecticut authoress. She wrote the seller that she had tried the seed, but feared the severe climate was accountable for its failure to grow, and so she sent another dollar, hoping she might be successful with the second one. It was sent her with the remark that, true to the Bible description, it "came up in a night and perished in a night," and probably escaped her observation. was advised to watch this one closely. Investigation developed that the story of the alleged minister was entirely false, and that pumpkin seeds, boiled so as to deprive them of their germinating power, were sent. A scheme, the converse of this, was to advertise "A Book for Gamblers, $1.00," and send a Bible. One individual claimed to send directions and material for drawing a tooth without pain for fifty cents. Paper and pencil were sent, with instructions to draw the tooth on the paper,

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Home-work schemes, appealing to needy widows and the infirm, are in favor with swindlers. A great many of these operating in New York City were suppressed last spring. The Majestic Lace Company advertised that $15 could be earned weekly by working at odd times at home. An order for $50 worth of medallions was sent, but the applicant was required to remit $2 for a machine which cost thirty-six cents. The company offered two cents a medallion; it was, however, impossible to make over three an hour. The result was that, out of 1,250 persons remitting the $2, only $150 was received by them as recompense, the victims becoming tired of their work soon after starting.

Twenty dollars per thousand for copying letters at home is another inducement. A dollar must be remitted for the outfit, which consists of a pen and penholder worth five cents. Not until remitting is the person enlightened as to the letter, and it then appears to be of such a nature that no one would care to copy it, or is much longer than represented. Mushroom-growing has been advertised in a similar manner. Remittances of $4 are required for spawn costing about ten cents, and their cultivation, pictured by the company as being very easy, is found a tedious task.

Numerous advertisements appear in all kinds of publications offering a premium of a "rifle, a solid gold brooch or ring with genuine diamond, a gold watch or sewing-machine for a few hours' work" in selling a dozen boxes of pills for twenty-five cents each. When the $3 from the sale of the pills is received by the company, it sends a letter saying the person could not have read the advertisement correctly, as it is necessary to sell a hundred or more boxes to secure the premium desired. The task disgusts the duped person, and the company, having received $3 for the goods, hears nothing further from him.

To a limited extent the Department can protect the public against fraudulent mining and oil companies, and has issued a number of orders against such concerns in the last year. But the extreme difficulty of procuring sufficient evidence,

and the fact that such evidence as can be obtained consists largely of opinions, mitigates against action.

A number of alleged brokers in Wall Street who claim to finance corporations, float bonds, etc., have been investigated by the Department and their fraudulent methods found to be the cleverest met with.

An old scheme has been to secure amounts of from $5 to $50 as "good faith" money for outfits to be used by agents employed, the agency being pictured in rosy colors by the company. The outfits and agency would be found to be worthless, so that the work, if begun at all, would soon be abandoned. Another plan successfully operated by a number of New York concerns is to send a letter expressly or impliedly stating that the recipient is entitled to a prize or premium by virtue of some contest entered into by him, and that, upon receipt of a dollar or so to cover boxing and packing charges, the article won, which is stated to be a silver dessert set or fruit-dish, gold watch or diamond

God's

ring, will be sent. To complete the deception, the signature of the party, obtained from letters purchased from concerns conducting prize or premium contests, is inclosed. The so-called prize or premium is a cheap article on which the company makes a large profit.

Numerous articles have appeared in the press relative to the Department's action against patent medicines. Most of these have been greatly exaggerated and are without foundation in fact. Last winter a constantly increasing tendency was noticed to cover the pages of newspapers and periodicals with offensive and obscene advertisements of alleged cures for lost manhood, vitality, etc. It was a growing abuse, and the Department directed its attention to their suppression. It developed that these were mostly quack medicines of the worst type and that good administration demanded that fraud orders be issued. Of course each case has been treated separately. Eighteen orders have been issued in the last year in these cases where fraud clearly appeared.

Gift, the Air

By Richard Burton

Now, is there anything that freer seems
Than air, the fresh, the vital, that a man
Draws in with breathings bountiful, nor dreams
Of any better bliss, because he can
Make over all his blood thereby, and feel

Once more his youth return, his muscles steel,
And Life grow buoyant, part of God's good plan!
Oh, how on plain and mountain, and by streams
That shine along their path; o'er many a field
Proud with pied flowers, or where sunrise gleams
In spangled splendors, does the rich air yield
Its balsam; yea, how hunter, pioneer,

Lover and bard have felt that heaven was near
Because the air their spirit touched and healed!

And yet-God of the open-look and see

The millions of Thy creatures pent within
Close places that are foul for one clean breath
Thrilling with health and hope and purity;
Nature's vast antidote for stain and sin,

- Life's sweetest medicine, this side of death!
How comes it that this largess of the sky

Thy children lack of, till they droop and die?

T

By the Rt. Rev. James Heartt Van Buren, D.D.

Missionary Bishop of Porto Rico

HE population of Porto Rico is 953,000, but there are probably not more than two thousand Americans on the island. Of these perhaps fifteen hundred are in or near San Juan, the seat of government. Others are scattered over the island in the capacity of crop-growers, merchants, missionaries, teachers, physicians, lawyers, and Government officials.

I think I may say, without fear of contradiction, that no State or Territory in the Union is more wisely, patiently, and efficiently governed than the island of Porto Rico. I am glad to pay this tribute to the men who are administering the United States Government there; for I have many warm friends among them. I believe they are men of honesty and integrity, representing a high order of American citizenship. One day a Republican party leader came to Mr. Garrison, the auditor of Porto Rico, and said: "Mr. Garrison, you do not seem to care whether a man is a Federal, a Republican, or what he is, whether he has a pull or whether he has not, whether he is white or black; all you want to know is whether his claim is right, fair, and just. We are not accustoined to that kind of dealing, but I want you to understand that we appreciate it."

Some of the officers are appointed, including the Governor and six American members of the Executive Council; the other five members of the Council, also appointed, are native Porto Ricans. Governor Taft's idea about Canada and the Philippines-that is, to make the Philippines a little Canada-seems to be exactly right; but in Porto Rico I think territorial conditions should lead to real Statehood. It should become a State ultimately, but along the lines of the merit system and civil service, whereby every official of proved integrity and ability finds himself in the line of promotion. Our duty is to encourage the Porto Ricans to look forward to

this end, so that the highest offices may be filled by their own people instead of by Americans, and thus remove any sources of irritation. What the citizens of Porto Rico seem to want is more election and less appointment. In other words, they want no office to which a native Porto Rican may not aspire, and I think that is right from the American standpoint. It must be galling to a sensitive people to see the principal offices held by strangers. On the other hand, the Porto Ricans show, by the quality of their officials in municipal life, where the offices are elective, that they have much yet to learn before it would be safe to intrust them with entire autonomy. Americans have few tricks of politics in which the Porto Ricans cannot give them higher education. They know all the tricks of the worst type of ward politics; and I am told that Porto Rican business men are up to all the things that are necessary for a man in business to know in order to be successful. However, my relations with them have led me to regard them as honorable, straightforward, gentlemanly business men, and I have had considerable to do with them, having bought real estate, and having had builders and many workmen in my employ.

There is a good deal of poverty in Porto Rico. It is largely attributable to (1) the depression of the coffee industry, which throws many people out of employment; (2) the absent Spanish landowner, who holds his property by means of an agent and spends his income in Spain; and (3) the general commercial depression which has arisen partly from the change of currency, and partly from the fact that American capital does not seek Porto Rican investment.

The coffee depression would be ended if Americans should learn to like Porto Rican coffee; and they would,like it, too, if they made it in the Porto Rican manThat is to say, give it what is called the high roast, roasting it until it

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is on the point of burning, then grind it very fine and put it in a flannel bag in the mouth of the coffee-pot and pour boiling water through it; thus obtaining drip coffee, which is perfectly black, and which is thinned with boiling milk or cream. This "high roast" burns out the deleterious properties, and the coffee is then an article of food rather than a stimulant, and may be taken three times a day or oftener with impunity. Americans owe it to Porto Rico to cultivate a taste for Porto Rican coffee. Not only is it the best coffee in the world, as President Roosevelt has said, but we have partially closed the Spanish market, which used to take a good deal of it. While free trade exists between Porto Rico and the rest of the United States, yet the United States does not buy very much Porto Rican coffee. It has a losing fight in competition with the cheaper grades of coffee from Brazil.

Aside from coffee, the principal products of the island are tobacco and sugar. Tobacco has had a hard time because some Americans have gone there and, trading on the reputation of Porto Rican tobacco, have flooded the United States market with an inferior grade of cigars. But there are fine cigars to be had in Porto Rico-as fine as can be found anywhere—and I think in time the tobacco market will recover. I can buy a very good cigar for $2.80 per hundred. Of course they can be bought for a far lower sum, but I would not encourage any one to smoke the cigars sold at $1 per hundred. Porto Rican cigars brought into the United States must pay 30 cents per hundred as internal revenue tax; but even with this tax added, a very good cigar can be bought for a low figure.

The sugar industry ought to be encouraged, but of course it requires considerable capital to carry that on profitably. We ought also to be able to raise cotton in Porto Rico in a paying way. We have a good agricultural station, established and maintained by the United States for the dissemination of information and for experimental work; and men in the cotton business there say that the staple is fine and as good as can be grown anywhere in the world.

As to the amount of property held in Porto Rico by Spaniards, a statement was made in the San Juan "News" last winter to the effect that sixty per cent. of everything in Porto Rico worth owning was owned by Spaniards. Every merchant on the island, with the exception of a few American commission merchants, is a Spaniard, and he brings his clerks with him from Spain-he does not care to employ Porto Ricans. This, of course, closes one avenue of industry to the native. Furthermore, Spain exerted a repressive power amounting to tyranny in refusing to allow certain industries to be carried on, as, for instance, the raising of grapes (for which the island is admirably adapted) and the fishing industry. The native Porto Ricans live on rice, codfish, and beans. While they do raise some rice, they import their codfish and their beans from Cape Cod and Gloucester. Yet, according to the report of the Fisheries Commission, the fishing industry might be carried on with great profit in Porto Rico. New industries such as cotton-raising and the culture of pineapples, oranges, and other native fruits to send to the New York market are being introduced, and there will be returns later. This should be especially true of the lumber-mill industry. Nearly all the lumber in Porto Rico is imported and is very expensive. For instance, for flooring I paid $80 per thousand; in America it would cost about $17. The great obstacle to the lumber-mill industry is the bad roads, which make it difficult to bring lumber from the highlands to the seacoast. The Board of Public Works is doing everything it can in this direction, but it cannot do everything at once. say here, however, that since the American occupation more good roads have been built than were built in four hundred years previous. The Spaniards had one splendid highway, the famous military road, eighty-eight miles long, from San Juan to Ponce. That was their one engineering feat of any importance. Though a remarkably well built road, it needs constant care; it would be impossible for any road to withstand the torrents without some repair,

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The island is self-supporting. It does not cost the United States anything. The internal revenue raised by taxation on property and by direct taxation is about two million dollars a year; of this one million is spent for the running of the insular government, and the other million for roads, schools, and other public works.

The island's great need is for more and better school accommodation. This is not appreciated by the so-called higher class in Porto Rico. They are Spanish in their sympathies, and their idea is, in regard to the lower classes, "What is the use of educating these people out of their station? If you do, they will not make good servants, and they can never be ladies and gentlemen. So you are turning out a set of loafers." Our answer to that is to compare the conditions of the country where ignorance prevails with the country where intelligence prevails. Now, in providing new school buildings, American energy has not always been wisely directed. Public school buildings should be object-lessons of architectural beauty, not extravagant or unnecessarily expensive, but at least good to look at. Most of the American public school buildings in Porto Rico are blemishes on the face of nature. They are as distasteful to the eye as any shoe factory two stories high, with fireescapes for stairs. The Normal School building is an especially cheap-looking affair. With a large open space and a splendid opportunity for a quadrangle and fountain in the center and flowers to be had for the picking, the Americans in charge have put up a great ugly structure, the only hope of which is that vines and foliage will ultimately succeed in hiding it. A specially glaring case where an American architect has overlooked his opportunities is in the town of Caguas, one of the dirtiest, most Godforsaken places in the island; and yet the school-house has three windows facing this miserable town, whereas on the other side, where there is a charming view of beautiful country, there is not one window. Cultivated Porto Ricans note all these things, and shrug their shoulders. When, in 1898, the American troops landed in Porto Rico, there

were 25,000 children in the schools. Of these schools, one-half were public and the other half were parochial or private schools. We have been in Porto Rico six years; and the last report shows 70,000 children in the public schools. To this number must be added the pupils of parochial, mission, and private schools, so that it is probably safe to say that to-day 100,000 children in Porto Rico are receiving school instruction, as against 25,000 six years ago. But, gratifying as this is, it is not a point at which we may rest satisfied, for the reason that there are 350,000 children of school age without educational facilities.

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In our schools not only reading, writing, and arithmetic are taught, but English also. Besides the primary schools we have agricultural, manual training, cooking, and industrial schools. normal school is under the control of American teachers of a very high order; they are inspiring Porto Rican teachers with American ideas, and teaching them the American language and literature. Four hundred teachers spent some months at Harvard and two hundred at Cornell last summer. Coming up on the steamer they sang one evening in English the words of the national hymns of many nations, although there was not a book in the crowd.

We need to develop the university idea in the Normal School, but we need far more to spread primary education throughout the land, and especially to increase the facilities in manual training. In 1898, at the time of our occupation, four-fifths of the Porto Ricans were illiterate. There are still 250,000 children of school age for whom no provision has been made-altogether too large an amount of ignorance to add to the ignorance which we already possess on the mainland. As a measure of self-protection, the American Government should make an appropriation to increase the amount of educational facilities over and above what the island can supply out of its own resources. Looking at the matter from the standpoint of self-preservation, to say nothing of philanthropy, I am confident that this is just. A friend of mine once said: "If the United States is a missionary society, then your point

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