Our Esteemed Contemporaries

A terrible balance sheet is thus referred to by the Chicago ínter Ocean: One half the saloons in every city aml towu in ihe land are supported by the torced labor of vromen and children. The jtilded trappinys of two tkoúsálid bars of Chicago weie paid lor by stinting i lio families of ten iliousand hornea of comforts and necessaiieg of Mfe. Add to thls the oost tothe public and the crimes wliich have come directly f rom drunkenness, and tbe balance sheet shows fearful figures agalngt the saloon. E very Siiturday, of Detroit, las about the rlfcht of it: When yon henr dudes and popinjars refer in contemptuous terina to farmers as "dod hoppen" and otherwlse verbully abuse the tilléis of the soil whose labor produce the food that lreeps Ufe in the aforetald uselesa semblances of humanity, just bear in miiid that notonly havesouje of our ftblest leglslators and statesmen graduated from the farm, but women who have made a mark in the world of art have dalighted in a knowledge of the practical details of agriculture, as in the case of Miss Annie Whitney, sculptor of the Ilarriett Martillean status ut Boston, whoowns a farm of 17ö acres and pays close attentlon to its worklnjfi. A ray frotn the Stockbridgo Sun: "The editor of the Stockbridge Sun is said to be the handsoraest man In Michigan. The editor of the übserver has not entered for the prize. "-Obsercer. Yes, we have long known that ours is of that peculiar type of beauty, which sooner, or laier, was gure to be appreciated. As a limb of the WasCbnaw eounty bar, a collection of gentlemen long famous for their bewitching beauty, our type was so niuch above tlieirs, that we we re ¦ ruled out of the contest for laurels. and we bung our graceful head and "bloomed, and wasted our friigrance on the air" for five long, weary, anxious years. Then carne Oscar Wilde, thatgloriousapostle of our long-suffering sun-flovver, and then it was that we took courage, clmnged In a measure our vocation, and entered the reaims of newapapèrdom; and got np among the Pattisons, the Overackers, the Bowers Allisons, and a lot .nore of the 2.10 class, we stond a good show; and lo, we have Bucceeded, and rest now npon our hard-won, but well-mertted laurels. O, life! thou hast thy discouragenients, but Ihy triuinphs, also! The E.iton Rapuls Journal gives a Chapter on wheat and the charges for iis transportation and storage: Althongfa, owin? to the improvements En maehinery and otlier causes, wheat is produced at conetderably lees cost than even a quarter of a cenüiry airo, still it is conceded on all hands that the figures at which it i at present selling are below the average cost of production. The low prices are due to over-production or under-consnmption; the dulluess of tbc manufactuiing industries tlie world over, which reduces the purchasiiig capacify of the masses, and the unduly high charges of those who handle the erop on its way from the producer to the consumer. Actingonthe principie of charging "whftt the tiaffic will bear," when prices were good the railroads charged high rates of transportatioil - rates f ar above those that would have afförded a fair prolit - now that pnces are bad, they no longer apply their usual rule to freight charges, which are little if anything less than in past years. TUus they extort an unjust shire of the profits of the prod'icer, but refuse not ouly to share, but even ligiiten Iii3 losses. But the elevator monopolist, cspecially those of Chicago, are more extortiouate than even the railroad companies. It cost 15 cents a buthel to carry any kind of gram a year in a Chicago elevator. This is a ánade less than 20 per cent. oi: the present price of wheat; 53 per cent. on the average price of corn, and 60 per cent on the average value of oats. With these exhorbitant' eb traes the. elevators pay their owuers 20 per cent. annually on the capital iuvested.