The rain and snow were falling fast,
As through a down-east village passed
A youth who chalked with great display,
Upon a barrel in his sleigh,
“Pickles to sell.”
His cheeks were blue, and red his nose,
His ears and feet were nearly froze,
And tears of cold bedimmed his sight.
But still he yelled with all his might,
“Pickles to sell.”
As on he went, a maiden bold
Came out and asked him what he sold;
The youth looked up with winning smile,
And said with voice as soft as ILE,
“Pickles.”
“Oh, tell me!” cried the maid divine;
“Say, tell me are they in the brine?”
“Nay,” said the youth, “that sort don’t pay,”
Quite vexed, he heard the maiden say,
“Such Pickles!”
That one so sweet should speak so tart
(The word went deep into his heart);
That she should crush his hopes so flat,
And scorn his smiles, or worse than that,
“His Pickles.”
Away he drove, through wind and rain;
They tried to stop his course in vain.
By asking what he had to sell;
He wouldn’t stop but only yelled,
“Pickles.”
“Don’t drive so fast,” an old man said;
“That worn-out nag is nearly dead.”
“His shoes are off,” another cried;
With shout of scorn the youth replied,
“Oh, Pickles!”
“For mercy’s sake don’t cross the creek!
That wooden bridge is awful weak!”
The youth dashed on his headlong way.
And only turned his head to say,
“Oh, Pickles!”
The night was dark, the wind was cold,
The pickle boy was brave and bold;
He never stopped or checked his flight,
And soon the sleigh was lost to sight,
Pickles and all.
Next morn, two little wandering Jews
Came into town and brought the news;
Down in the drift a corpse they found,
While far and near were scattered round,
The Pickles.
_Old scrap book._
✷ ✷ ✷ ✷
“FR-R-RAISH PEANUTS.”
Who is this man of mighty voice
Who bids all human kind rejoice—
Who visits bleacher and grand-stand
With roasted rapture in his hand?
“Peanuts! Fr-r-raish peanuts!”
Who, when the umpire shouts: “Play ball!”
Hears with disdain the feeble call.
And whose own stentor-modeled lungs
Drown out the noise of many tongues?
“Peanuts! Fr-r-raish peanuts!”
Who stirs the circumambient air
And moves his optics here and there
To find the man who cries: “Here, boy.
Give me one sack of roasted joy”?
“Peanuts! Fr-r-raish peanuts!”
Who hastens onward with his wares
While every individual glares
Who lacks the necessary price;
Who cuts a mighty slab of ice?
“Peanuts! Fr-r-raish peanuts!”
And when we seek our restless beds
With goober goblins in our heads,
What is the awful cry that seems
To be the burden of our dreams?
“Peanuts! Fr-r-raish peanuts!”
_Baltimore News._
Relative Power of the World’s Navies.
In the Matter of Tonnage the United States Occupies Fourth Place on the
List, Being More Than a Million and a Quarter Tons Behind Great
Britain—Ships Now Building Will Give Us Third Place.
The navies of the world represent a tremendous amount of money as well
as power. It now seems to be generally admitted that being prepared for
war is the best way of insuring peace. If this is true, there would seem
to be very little likelihood of war among any of the great nations of
the world. They are all pretty well prepared to back up any arguments
which they may find themselves forced into by a display of force.
Our own latest appropriation includes thirteen and a quarter millions of
dollars for a battle-ship and three torpedo-boat-destroyers, with a
million’s worth of “subsurface, submersible or submarine boats.” The
battle-ship is to be of the British Dreadnaught class—a monster of
nineteen thousand tons displacement.
Japan is building one of thirteen thousand one hundred and fifty tons,
and Germany has increased the tonnage of some of her ships heretofore
authorized to eighteen thousand each.
Commenting upon this the New York _Sun_ says:
The Russian-Japanese War convinced the naval experts of the world that
the big battle-ship must be the principal weapon of marine combatants,
and the effects of the lesson may be seen wherever national ships are
building.
Leaving out of consideration all vessels more than twenty years old,
except such as have been rebuilt or rearmed, all vessels authorized
but not begun, all transports, colliers, repair ships, torpedo depot
ships, converted merchant vessels, yachts, vessels of less than one
thousand tons, except torpedo-boats, and all torpedo-boats of less
than fifty tons, the tables prepared at the office of naval
intelligence show the strength of the eight greatest marine powers
last fall:
GREAT BRITAIN.
Tons. Tons.
Built 1,673,338 Building 234,660
FRANCE.
Built 619,675 Building 181,283
GERMANY.
Built 466,084 Building 121,978
UNITED STATES.
Built 388,519 Building 313,278
JAPAN.
Built 321,131 Building 106,740
ITALY.
Built 266,728 Building 73,700
RUSSIA.
Built 244,601 Building 131,094
AUSTRIA.
Built 122,756 Building 21,200
Were the vessels now in course of construction all completed, the
order in which the powers stand in this table would be changed by the
transposition of the positions of Germany and the United States and of
those occupied by Russia and Italy.
Comparing the personnel of these navies, it is shown that the United
States, with one thousand three hundred and seventy commissioned
officers of all ranks in the sea-going corps, has actually fewer than
any power except Austria, which has eight hundred and fifty-one, and
in proportion to tonnage stands at the bottom of the list, having only
1.95 commissioned officers to each one thousand tons of her war-ship
tonnage built and building.
Great Britain has 2.52 officers to every one thousand tons, France
3.58, Germany 3.48, Italy 4.60, and Austria 5.91. It is not
practicable to give the proportions for Russia and Japan, owing to the
conditions created by their recent struggle.
In midshipmen and cadets the United States leads all the nations save
Great Britain, both absolutely and relatively, with one thousand and
fifty-four in the service, or 1.49 to each one thousand tons.
In nothing is the tremendous size of the British navy shown more
impressively than the figures of her enlisted men. Of these, exclusive
of marines, she has ninety-five thousand two hundred and sixty-three,
but there are only 49.93 men to each one thousand tons, while the
United States with thirty-seven thousand men has 52.70, Germany with
thirty-five thousand one hundred and thirteen has 59.71, and France
with fifty-two thousand one hundred and fifty-three has 65.10.
Great Britain and the United States are the only powers that maintain
aboard ship enlisted men other than bluejackets, and it is the
intention of Great Britain to replace all her marine officers
gradually by naval officers. No navy has a grade corresponding exactly
to the British and American warrant officer, the nearest approximation
of it being the chief petty officers of the other navies.
The United States has no engineer corps, and Great Britain is
amalgamating her engineer corps with the line. The other nations all
maintain the distinction which existed in our navy until the adoption
of the Roosevelt personnel law.
Neither Japan nor Italy maintains chaplains, and many British
chaplains are naval instructors.