T

THE CAREER OF THE TOBACCO TRUST. HERE is a good account of the extraordinary growth of the tobacco trust by Earl Mayo in the March Frank Leslie's. Mr. Mayo thinks the achievement of Mr. James B. Duke, the head of the tobacco combination, in bringing the bitterly antagonistic competing firms together was in some respects even greater than Mr. John D. Rockefeller's in founding the Standard Oil Company, because the latter had the advantage of starting his plans in the infancy of the industry. No trust except the Standard Oil Company exercises so complete a monopoly as the tobacco combination. Like Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. Duke's start toward his present imperial position in the tobacco trade was made from very small beginnings, and the Duke firm's entire output could be carried in a handbag in 1865.

After the Philadelphia Centennial, the growth of cigarette manufacture in the United States was very rapid, and by 1890 had grown to a product of two billion a year. W. Duke & Sons were one of the largest manufacturers, but there were half a dozen struggling neck-andneck for supremacy. The most lavish advertising and premium schemes were used. "At one time the competition had reached a point where a coupon, a colored reproduction of a photograph, and a card bearing a representation of a flag, done in colors, were all given away with a five-cent box of cigarettes." Notwithstanding the bitterness of the antagonism, Mr. Duke succeeded, in 1890, in forming the American Tobacco Company, and brought into it all the large rival concerns. From cigarette manufacture, Mr. Duke went on to capture, by the hardest fighting imaginable, the pipe-tobacco and chewing-tobacco markets. In establishing the fame of the "Battle-Ax" brand of chewing tobacco, $4,000,000 was sunk, but since then $12,000,000 has been earned.

To-day, there are two great manufacturing corporations, the American Tobacco Company and the Continental Tobacco Company, the first making cigarettes, the second plug tobacco, and dividing the pipe tobacco between them. A subsidiary company, the American Snuff Company, makes 15,000,000 pounds of snuff a year.

THE TOBACCO WAR IN GREAT BRITAIN.

Mr. Mayo describes the Homeric battle in England of the American Tobacco interests, led by Mr. Duke, against the Imperial Tobacco Company, composed of the leading British houses, hastily organized to repel the American invader. This fight culminated in Mr. Duke's offer to give to the retail dealers all the profits of his company for four years and $4,000,000 be

sides, without even exacting that the dealers should refuse to handle his rival's wares. Immediately after this curious proposal, the American and British interests "got together," and there was much jubilation in England over the defeat of the invader; but Mr. Mayo says that the net result of the agreement was that the Imperial Company surrendered the entire foreign market to the Americans and gave them an interest in its own business as the price of peace

THE RETAIL TRADE.

Finally, the great combinations under Mr. Duke had got practical mastery of the manufacture of tobacco in all its forms. Now people are asking themselves if the trust is determined to be its own retailer as well, because an ominous new concern, the United Cigar Stores Company, has appeared on the horizon. No less than. $500,000,000 worth of tobacco is sold every year, a trade prize worth working for. The Cigar Stores Company has started four hundred stores in the best locations, and is constantly expanding. The officials say they have nothing to do with the tobacco trust, and that they are simply trying to bring the business of cigar and tobacco selling to an orderly and economical basis. But the retail dealers are sure the trust is trying to swallow them through this new mouth. Where the retail dealer will not be bought out, one is apt to see a magnificent shop of the United Cigar Stores Company opened up next door. If sumptuous fittings do not capture the trade, the big store may sell some favorite brand of fifteen-cent cigar for six cents apiece, and these tactics, of course, will soon see the small dealer's end.

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THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR.

O the second January number of the Revue des Deux Mondes, M. de Fonvielle contributes an interesting paper on the disasters which have happened to various aëronauts, and also on the progress which has nevertheless been made concerning the conquest of the air. He explains at great length the difficulties which confront any one who tries to photograph objects on the earth from any considerable height in a balloon. This is a matter which has long occupied the attention of the French ministry of war, and it is easy to see how essential it might be, in the course of a campaign, to obtain a negative which would be sufficiently large to enable men, horses, guns, etc., to be clearly discerned, without relying upon any subsequent enlargement, for which there would be probably no time. Apparently, the clouds floating below a

balloon always intervene in the most annoying manner, and insist upon being photographed in place of the more interesting surface of the earth.

AN ENTHUSIASTIC AERONAUT.

M. de Fonvielle says that he has made so many ascents that he forgets the exact number; but never, except perhaps on one occasion, did he attempt to decide, before starting, on the place where he intended to alight. Indeed, as he says himself, as a rule, all that he asked of Eolus was not to drop him down into the empire of Neptune! Both the experiments and the tragic fate of Severo naturally interested him profoundly. His enthusiasm for the magnificent sights which are unrolled before the aëronaut in the upper regions of the air reaches quite a lyrical pitch, and we even find him regretting that Victor Hugo never went up in a balloon. Certainly, this idea suggests a new method of furnishing our popular novelists with some amount of imagination.

To M. de Fonvielle, aëriel navigation has become a physical necessity; and he finds that if he goes for some time without his air cure, as he calls it, he becomes languid and nervous. He greatly regrets that the attention of French inventors has been so exclusively concentrated on the construction of steerable balloons, to the exclusion of artistic, scientific, and sporting aëronautics; and he looks forward to the time when the establishment of a really scientific meteorology will enable us to make use of the wind, and to travel by its aid. This, he says, would be preferable to inventing machines which are designed to overcome the wind's powerful resistance. Nevertheless, he pays a warm tribute to M. Santos-Dumont, and considers that the world owes him a larger debt of gratitude than it is now willing to admit.

TWO WAYS OF BORING THE ALPS.

THE

HE longest tunnel in the world, the St. Simplon tunnel, is the subject of an admirable sketch by Mr. H. G. Archer in Cassell's Magazine. When open for traffic in May, 1904, it will be 124 miles long, the St. Gothard being 94, the Mont Cenis 74, and the Arlberg 64. Perhaps the most pleasing feature in the sketch is the witness it bears to the vastly greater care taken of the workmen in this than in any of the preceding bores. Strange to say, one of the most formidable dangers to the health of the navvies is the intense heat of the tunnel, the temperature having risen as high as 123 degrees Fahrenheit. A valuable illustration of the progress of civilization is supplied by the contrast

which Mr. Archer draws between the arrangements at St. Simplon and the arrangements at St. Gothard :

THE INHUMAN.

"At the latter, the workmen were miserably housed in wretched wooden shanties. Profess

ors described the tunnel itself as a veritable hell, continuous labor in its pestiferous atmosphere being almost certain death for the young. Owing to the air, vitiated by the perpetual ex-· plosion of dynamite, the smoke from hundreds of reeking oil lamps, and the exhalations from the bodies of men and horses, being insufficiently renewed, together with the entire absence of sanitary appliances, 80 per cent. of the miners suffered from a form of trichinosis consisting of microscopic worms in the intestines. During the eight years the tunnel took to make, no less than four hundred lives were lost, either from 'tunnel worm' or from pneumonia, the latter originating through the sudden change from the hot galleries to the cool Alpine atmosphere outside, while another two hundred were killed or maimed by explosions and passing trucks.

THE HUMANE.

Things were managed better at the Arlberg, but it has been reserved for the Simplon directorate to inaugurate, with their refinements, a new era in the history of social science. To obviate the risk of pneumonia, large dressing-halls are provided at either entrance. On emerging from the galleries, the men are compelled to enter these halls, which are ready-heated for their reception at the temperature which they have just left, and to stay therein for half an hour while the temperature is gradually cooled down to that prevailing outside. The men are conveyed into and out of the tunnel in trainloads, and the space between the tunnel exits and the platforms where they alight is roofed over and boarded in, so that no chill may be contracted on this short portion of the journey. The halls are equipped with baths, hot and cold douches, etc., and here the men take off their mining clothes, which are at once hung up in heated rooms to dry, ready for the next day's work. Adjacent are canteens, under official control, and selling nothing but the best food and liquor at nominal prices. Excellent hospitals have been provided, in case of accident or illness; and, lastly, in order to minimize the risks of accident inside the tunnel, the trains are run by time-table and protected by signals, while the narrow guage contractors' track is laid at one side, thus leaving plenty of room for pedestrians."

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IN

MOTORING AT NINETY MILES AN HOUR. N the Badminton Magazine, Charles Jarrott describes how he won the Ardennes automobile race. To do this he had to cover 321 miles in 353 minutes, along fifty-three miles of road literally filled with ninety other cars. The danger was very great, from the high speed at which the cars traveled, and most of all from the dust raised all along the route. Mr. Jarrott says:

"In the open stretches, where the wind was able to take effect on the dust, the road was clearer; but in the pine forests, where the dust was unable to escape, the air was more like a November fog in London than anything else I can describe. It was of no use slackening speed, however, and on and on we went, with no other means of knowing we were on the road than an occasional glimpse of the tree-tops on either side.

"The trouble of passing other cars was a very apparent one. The hooter was quite useless, human lungs soon gave way, and the only thing left to do was to watch for a favorable piece of road, take the opportunity, and rush by. That troubles were being experienced by other competitors we could see, as evidenced by the state, of their cars, many of which were completely smashed up on various parts of the course."

Mr. Jarrott made two stoppages to replenish his supply of petrol and water, and on one of these occasions lost seven minutes. Starting No. 32, there being a two-minutes' interval between the starting of each car, he nevertheless finished first of all the competitors on his 70 horse-power Panhard. His most exciting experience he describes as follows:

"It was soon after this that I caught up Mr. W. K. Vanderbilt, Jr., and then came some of the best racing I have ever enjoyed. With the two cars going wonderfully well, both of us taking all legitimate (and a good many illegitimate) risks, neither of us able to gain an advantage over the other, for over ninety kilometers we ran wheel and wheel; but I eventually succeeded in getting by at the corner at Longlier."

His sensations during the race are also given : "Many times have I been asked the question as to what incidents I met with during this race. Beyond the one or two I have mentioned, it is quite impossible to remember any. If one were able to recall at the moment each episode as it occurred, it would probably in itself make a complete little story. The passing in the dust of each individual car is an exciting business in itself; but, having once got by, it is lost to memory, the one idea being to keep on faster and faster till the next car is passed, and so on until the end."

HOW THE TROLLEY COMPETES WITH THE STEAM RAILROAD.

IT

T is one of those many facts "not generally known" that the number of passengers carried on American steam railroads is less to-day by over twelve millions than it was seven years ago, notwithstanding the remarkable prosperity of the country. An explanation of this apparent paradox is supplied by the rapid growth of the trolley. At least, that is the hypothesis adopted by Mr. Samuel E. Moffett, writing in McClure's for March, and the data embodied in his article seem to justify his position.

Commenting on the falling off in steam passenger traffic and on the accompanying increase in the average passenger haul, Mr. Moffett says:

"Of course, people are not really traveling less frequently than they used to, nor are they journeying longer distances. More passengers by hundreds of millions are traveling than ever before, but the steam railroads are not carrying the increase. The growth in the length of the average passenger haul on those roads means that they are steadily losing the short-haul business, which a younger and more vigorous rival is claiming for its own.

A RIVAL OF THE LOCOMOTIVE.

"Inch by inch, the field is contested, and slowly, sullenly, the locomotive is giving way before the insistent trolley. A dozen years ago, it was only the car horse and the cable in the towns that were threatened by electric traction. Then the trolley poked an inquiring tentacle over the city limits into the suburbs. The results were satisfactory, and swiftly the electric lines flung their spider filaments from town to town, until now great sections of the country are cobwebbed with them. The trolley map of eastern Massachusetts looks as complete as the steam-railroad map. If you have a little time to spare, you can go on an electric car to almost any part of southern New England that you could reach by a locomotive, and to a good many parts that you could not.

"In Massachusetts, last year, four times as many passengers were carried by electric cars as on the steam roads. Of course, that was due chiefly to the dense city traffic; but still, the city street-car systems were pretty complete seven years ago, and the trolley passenger business has doubled since that time, while the steam passenger business has actually declined. The electric mileage of the State has increased from 9 to 18 per cent. every year since 1894. In 1901, the increase was 242.7 miles. In the same year, the length of steam lines was reduced by 1.39 miles.

"In Connecticut, where there are no very large cities to inflate the trolley figures, and where one great steam-railroad system is supposed to be the feudal proprietor of the entire State, there were 20 per cent. more passengers on the electric lines in 1900 than on the steam roads. And that is the way the tide is running everywhere.

"In its early development, the trolley had four advantages. It could run separate cars at frequent intervals; it could take on and let off passengers anywhere along the road; it could take people near their homes and offices, and it could pay a profit at nominal fares. Per contra, it had the disadvantage of less than railroad speed, not because there was any difficulty in making an electric car that could go as fast as a locomotive, but because the trolley track, as a rule, was laid on the surface of the public highway, crossed all intersecting roads at grade, and was a thoroughfare for vehicles, pedestrians, and domestic fauna. These characteristics still prevail over most of the electric mileage of the country, but as the trolley lines have grown longer and the need for sustained high speed has become more urgent, the tendency has developed to build the roads on private rights of way and to operate them by steam-railroad methods.

MODERN OPERATING METHODS AND HIGH SPEED.

"Go, for instance, to Indianapolis, and take a spin of fifty-three miles to Muncie over the lines

of the Union Traction Company. You do not have to calculate your train time by a nautical almanac. You can go at any hour of the day. You will travel in a car as large and heavy as a standard railway coach, over a track built almost entirely upon the company's own ground. It will take you two hours to make the run on an express car, or two and a quarter on a car making all stops, but of that twenty-five minutes are lost within the city limits of Indianapolis, where the through cars have to accommodate themselves to urban traffic on the local tracks. The fastest limited express train on the parallel line of the Big Four covers the same distance in one hour and thirteen minutes. The local trains take ten minutes less than two hours. The electric cars cover part of their schedule at the rate of a mile a minute. Each car is driven by motors of three hundred horse-power. Imagine three hundred horses galloping in a procession a quarter of a mile long, with a street car trailing along behind, and you can begin to realize a little of the meaning of the electric revolution. To keep this power under control, there are air brakes, with independent motor compressors. The track over which you skim on this Indiana road is as well graded, as solidly constructed, and as thoroughly ballasted as the Pennsylvania Railway. Instead of a starter' to turn the cars loose and leave their subsequent fate to Providence, there is a regular train-dispatcher, who keeps watch of every one as carefully as if it

were the Empire State Express. Only, instead. of sending his orders by telegraph, he uses the telephone. At every switch, the wires come down to a box, from which instantaneous connection can be made with an instrument at the motorman's elbow. There is no ringing up Central. The train-dispatcher is always at the other end of the wire, and a simple 'Hello' will get his attention.

"This is a fair example of the modern interurban roads in actual operation to-day. On the Buffalo & Lockport line, the present cars go, in places, at the rate of fifty miles an hour, with an average outside of Buffalo of thirty-three miles, but the General Electric Company has submitted estimates for machinery to develop a schedule speed of seventy-five miles an hour. If that rate could be kept up, it would carry you from New York to San Francisco in less than two days. If a track were laid around the world on the eighty-fifth parallel of latitude, a car going at that velocity from east to west would keep up with the earth's rotation and beat Joshua's miracle by holding the sun in one place all summer."

THE TROLLEY AS A FREIGHT-CARRIER.

The development of the trolley freight business is also outlined in Mr. Moffett's article. The managers of many of the trolley lines that have made a specialty of carrying freight seem to have made it a point to look after the interests of patrons in every way possible.

"The electric freight service is as flexible as an elephant's trunk, and as adept in picking up little things. It grows rich off the crumbs of business that a steam road would despise. It is always ready to go out of its way to accommodate the special needs of its patrons. The lemongrowers along the Los Angeles Pacific Railroad,

"There is no troublesome red tape about the trolley freight system. The Cleveland & Eastern Railway, for instance, handles milk on its forty-mile line at a uniform rate of two cents per gallon for any distance. The farmer buys packages of tickets at that rate. When his milk is shipped it pays its fare like a passenger. A twenty-cent ticket is handed to the conductor for each ten-gallon can. The conductor punches the tickets, and passes them on to the office. The company returns the empty cans free."

PRIO

THE SOUTH AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. RIOR to the Civil War, Southern Democrats had a preponderating influence in the leadership of the Democratic party, and through that leadership in the direction of national policy at Washington. That influence has largely disappeared, but the fact that the South, with the border States, still sends one-third of the delegates to every national Democratic convention has caused more than one Southern Democrat of the present day to raise the question, Why does not the South regain her old-time supremacy in the party councils? As a sort of exhortation to the leaders of the Democratic party in the South to unite on a platform of principles likely to command the assent of Northern Democrats, Mr. Thomas F. Ryan contributes to the North American Review for February a noteworthy article on "The Political Opportunity of the South."

That this appeal is really addressed to the gold-standard element of the party is made evident in the following extracts:

"In determining what shall be the policy of the next Democratic National Convention, the action of the South will be almost decisive, if the conservative men of that section exert themselves to resume their old influence in the party. It is high time that the Democrats of the South realized that they have nothing to gain by co quetting with Populism, or by following vagaries which have excited the distrust of conservative and thoughtful men everywhere, and which, during the last six years, have too often united against the Democratic party all who had a dollar to lose by the debasement of the metallic standard, or whose success was to be sought by the