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THE PRESIDENT’S CABINET.
It l» Fashionm! After the Old Privy
Council of England.
In the sense in which “cabinet”
is used in American politics the
word has a curious origin and his
tory. It goes back to the time of
King William III. and Queen Mary,
his wife, in England, from which
country it was brought to America.
But in Great Britain a custom as
forceful as law keeps the sovereign
out of the cabinet meetings. This
usage began by accident.
The word itself is French in de
rivation and originally meant the
diminutive of “cabine”—a little
room. When George I. was king he
could not take part in the delibera
tions of his own privy council be
cause he knew no English. British
statesmen did not speak German.
So the ministers who served this
first of the Hanoverian sovereigns
of the United Kingdom used to
meet in the king’s private room or
cabinet while he was absent. After
ward they informed him of the re
sult of their discussions. At that
time, as well as earlier in British
history, much use was made of
French words and phrases in court
life and state affairs.
It followed naturally that the
part of the privy council which was
supposed to be in particular favor
with the king, and especially close
to him, came to be spoken of as
his cabinet council, although there
was never any such legal distinction
made between some of the ministers
of state and the others.
To this day there is no official
recognition in Great Britain of a
cabinet. No record is made of its
meetings or discussions or of the
resolutions offered there and voted
down or adopted. Members of the
cabinet or inner council of minis
ters are careful to keep secret all
of its proceedings, even after they
retire from office.
wnen ueorge wasnmgion esiau
lished the practice of having the
heads of great government depart
ments meet with him for considera
tion of public business it was nat
ural that these gatherings should
be spoken of in the English fashion
as meetings of the cabinet. In that
manner the name became firmly
rooted in the political life of the
United States, and the importance
of the cabinet itself has grown with
the expansion of the country’s offi
cial business.—Philadelphia Ledger.
Colors to the Blind.
“Have you any conception of col
or?” a friend asked a blind man.
“What idea have you when you hear
colors mentioned?”
“A person blind from birth, as I
•have been, can have no possible
proper conception of color,” was
the reply. “To me color is sound,
or, rather, music. When I hear the
word red, for example, I instantly
think of a high piercing note of
music. Blue is to me a delicately
sounded note, fairly high and pleas
ing in tune. Green is a soft tone
and rather low, quiet and restful,
while yellow is lively, quick little
notes rapidly sounding and causing
pleasure almost to laughter. Black,
alas, is the only color we can realize,
for we are told that that is the ab
sence of all light, and we know only
too well what that means.”
Spinal Column Words.
Some words could well do with
a little abbreviation—“antidisestab
lishmentarianism,” for instance,
which contains twenty-eight letters
and thus ranks as the longest word
in our language. It contains only
ten syllables, however, and in this
respect is beaten by “honorificabili
tudinity,” which contains eleven.
Then “disintellectualization” and
“incircumscriptibleness” are not the
sort of words to be lightly tackled
at the end of a convivial evening.
We have no thirteen syllabled
words in English, but across the
German ocean we find plenty of
these, such as “6uelpaardelooszon
derspoorwegpetroolyting,” which is
the Dutch for “motorcar.”—Lon
don Spectator.
Scotch Division.
At a school north of the Tweed
the teacher was instructing his class
in the rudiments of simple division.
“If,” he said to one of the boys,
“I had twenty marbles and I want
ed to divide them, Willy, between
you and Macgregor, how many
would you get?”
“Ten, maybe,” said the boy.
“Why 'maybe ?’ ” asked the mas
ter.
“Because, Bir, Macgregor wouldna
gie me ten unless you were standing
by.”
A Lasting Impression.
“Well, Bertha, I hear you met
Mr. Cooke yesterday. Did you like
him?”
“Do you know, dear, he made an
impression upon me that nothing
will obliterate.”
“Really! How—what did he say ¥*
“It wasn’t what he said; it was
what he did. He spilled a oup of
tea over my new wlute silk dress.’'
AN ARCHITECTURAL PUZZLE
Curious Problem of tho Trembling Pil
lar at Rheime.
The “trembling pillar” at Rheims
presents a curious problem to archi
tects. The Church of St. Nicaise is
surrounded with pillars constructed
to prevent the walls from straining.
At the entrance of the church is a
bell tower. On one of the bells in
this tower the phenomenon of the
trembling pillar depends. When
this bell is rung or even touched
the top of this pillar sways.
It goes and returns about seven
inches on each side, although the
base of the pillar is immovable, and
the stones are so firmly cemented
that it seems like a solid piece of
stone.
One authority, after a careful
study of this peculiarity in explana
tion of which no satisfactory solu
tion is offered, states that what is
most singular about the pillar is
that, although the four bells are
about the same distance from the
trembling pillar, only one of them
has any effect upon it. The others
may be rung singly or all together
without moving it.
In 1775 a little window was made
in the roof of the church opposite
the pillar. A board was placed on
top of the pillar and on it were put
two glasses of water. Then the bell
was rung. Immediately the pillar
began to sway, and at the fifth
stroke of the bell the two glasses
were thrown off.
The ringing of this bell has no
effect on the pillars between the
“phenomenal” one and the tower,
nor on any of the others. But for
merly it was the first pillar which
swayed, then it became immovable,
and some years ago the one next to
it became the eccentric one.—Har
per’s Weekly.
Tom Corwin’s Education.
The father of Tom Corwin, the
famous Kentucky statesman, ora
tor and wit, felt that he was too
poor to make a scholar of more
than one child of his large family,
and so the elder brother, Matthias,
was kept at school and Thomas
placed at hard work on the farm.
The breaking of a leg proved a
happy incident in the life of the
boy, as the enforced confinement
gave him time for devotion to his
beloved books, and he committed
a Latin grammar to memory. Upon
his recovery he again importuned
his father to send him to school
and, meeting a refusal, deliberately
broke his leg a second time that he
might have leisure to study. His
heroic determination to learn re
sulted in his being placed in the
same institution attended by his
brother, where his natural ability
and great industry gathered a thor
ough knowledge of the best English
literature and a fair acquaintance
with the Latin classics.
Why He Was Glad.
Uncle Kastus was employed en a
farm in Virginia where there was a
prize bull that became so ferocious
that the owner was compelled to
send for a veterinary surgeon and
have his horns cut off. Uncle Kas
tus viewed the proceeding with evi
dent satisfaction from a safe place
in the stable, and when the sharp
horns had been rendered harmless
he rushed up and seized the veteri
narian’s hand.
“I’s cert’ly glad, doctah,” he
gratefully exclaimed, “dat yo’ hab
done gone an’ cut offen dat bull’s
ho’ns!”
“You are, are you?” jestingly re
plied the veterinarian. “Why are
you so glad about it ?”
“It am jes’ dis way, doctah,” ex
plained Rastus with considerable
feeling. “I’s too old to climb trees,
an’ I’s too young to die.”—Phila
delphia Telegraph.
Long Drawn Out Dinners.
If you think that you are unable
to stand a dinner which lasts for
three or four hours because of the
frightful boredom of it all, keep
away from China. For there at a
fashionable dinner you might be
called upon to remain at the table
anywhere from twenty to thirty
hours. For they do have dinners
there that sometimes reach that
length. State dinners have been
known to begin at noon of one day
and last until evening of the next.
Foreign envoys bring back tales of
sitting sometimes thirty hours at a
stretch and being served with 140
different courses and 150 different
dishes. Chicago Tribune.
An Economical Last.
A Scotchman wishing to know
his fate at once telegraphed a pro
posal of marriage to the lady of his
choice. After spending the entire
day at the telegraph office he was
finally rewarded late in the evening
by an affirmative answer. “If I
were you/ suggested the operator,
when he delivered the message, “I'd
think twice before I'd marry a girl
that kept me waiting all day for an
answer.” “Na, na,” retorted the
Scot. “The lass who waits for the
night rates is the lose for ms.”
A. M. Dieringer
Valdez Transfer
Company
General Trucking and Freight
ing to all interior points
LIVERY ar d FEED STABLE
STORAGE
Teaming of all kinds'
Positively no coal delivered
unless paid (or In advance
CITY EXPRESS
MEETS ALL BOATS
When in a hurry call on me.
“QUICK ACTION”
it my motto.
Phone 82. J. A. SPENARD, Prop.
PROFESSIONAL
Dr. H. COCKERILLE
Graduate of National University
^Washington, D. C.
DENTIST
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Office ini Whaling building VALDEZ
Next to cable office
DR. GERMAN
Phone ,9 THE DENTIST
Office rooms over Owl Drug 9tore. Office hours
9 a. m., to 6 p. m.. 7 p. m.,to9 p. m. Sundays
by appointment All work guaranteed
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C. E. BUNNELL
ATTORNEY-AT-LAW
Offices Wall Street
Phone 31 VALDEZ
E. E. RITCHIE
LA ft’YER
pjpoxis 136 Valdez, Alaska
L V. KAY
ATTORNEY AT LAW
SEWARD, - ALASKA
MINING ENGINEER
F. BUTTERWORTH
Civil Engineer and
U. S. Deputy Land and
Mineral Surveyor
Blue Printing Rns. Phone, isa
L. W. STORM. E. M.
Valdez. Alaska j
Reports or Mimes
Patsrt Surtsts
Qerebel Miming Engineering
Phone No. ioe
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VALDEZ, ALASKA
Valdez I/Odge
No 168.
Free and Accepted Masons
Regular Communications first Wednesday in
each month in McKinley Ball Visitors always
welcome.
James B. Patterson,,W. M
C. C. Reynolds. Sec
FOE
VALDEZ AERIE No. 1971
Meet every Friday. 8 d. m. Eagle Hal
CAMP VALDEZ No. 10
Meet every Tuesday evening at 8 o'clock in
Muriel Bill. AD members are requested t*
Mend. . B. McnIECE. Arctic Chief