On page 531 of this number we have commented upon the recent passage, in various States, of new laws for the better protection of children from the evils of employment at a tender age in factories and mills, and in other laborious occupations. The cartoon at the top of this page is a painful one, but the facts in hundreds of instances justify it. There is ample evidence that many small children are wearing their lives out at hard work to support lazy and dissipated parents.

Several weeks ago, President Castro, of Venezuela, resigned in a dramatic fashion, only to reconsider, upon a vote of confidence. Hence the amusing cartoon below. President Roosevelt would enjoy Bush's allusion, also on this page. The President, in the Yellowstone Park, calls Mr. John Burroughs' attention to a sign

·A· Rogers.

which tells the visitor that the geyser spouts every minute, and confesses himself beaten.

The one subject of agitation in Mexico is the question whether or not President Diaz is to run for a sixth term. This is the Mexican presidential year, the election occurring next November. The cartoon at the top of the opposite page shows representatives of a new Liberal Union party who waited on Diaz early last month to inform him of their purpose to keep him in office. The next picture represents Diaz conquering the convention of the radical party, which declares for his reëlection. The third represents the neighboring republic of Guatemala, which has a boundary dispute with Mexico, and is said to have been pleading in vain for arbitration of the question.

THE DAILY PRAYER.

AUSTRALIA: "Give us this day our daily bread." GUNNER BARTON: "Not if we know it. Foreign flour must not be allowed in these ports! Ha! that shot went home. We'll sink her yet!"

[The price of wheat in Australia is 6s. 3d. per bushel; the price in San Francisco is 3s. 10d. per bushel. San Francisco wheat could be landed in Melbourne at a cost of 4s. 6d. per bushel if there were no duty.]-From Punch (Melbourne).

(The British Lion lay idly stretched out digesting his bloody feast of South Africa, when high in the air he saw the German Eagle, who in a jolly spirit of carnival was flying in zigzag lines hither and thither. The Lion, filled with jealousy to see the Eagle so gay, spat at him angrily. The shot fell back and hit the Lion in the eye. "It is unheard of the way in which this common bird pelts me with dirt," said the Lion then.)-From Simplicissimus (Berlin).

AUSTRIAN AGRICULTURE.-From Wahre Jacob (Berlin).

"THE

HE Louisiana Purchase was the greatest real estate speculation the world has ever seen." How speculative the transaction appeared at that time is shown by the dismal forebodings and dire prophecies of those opposed to it. It would depopulate the East; it would disrupt the Union; the incorporation of the region in the federated States would be the greatest curse that could befall us ;" and "even supposing that this extent of territory was a desirable acquisition, fifteen millions of dollars was a most enormous sum to give."

To me," said Josiah Quincy, "it appears that this measure would justify a revolution; . . . if this bill passes, the bonds of this Union are virtually dissolved," etc., etc.

The question of the extent of the Louisiana Purchase has been fully discussed; and while there was at the time of the sale a confessed indefiniteness as to its boundaries, it appears to be settled that it did not include any of the area east of the Mississippi or the region west of the Rocky Mountains. Our title to those lands rests upon other bases. As thus properly restricted, the Louisiana Purchase has added to the United States the whole or the greater part of fourteen States and Territories,-Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Kansas, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Louisiana, the Indian Territory, and Oklahoma

Territory. It covers 875,025 square miles, or 560,016,000 acres. A more vivid conception of what these figures mean may be derived from Mr. Binger Hermann's comparisons: "Its area is more than seven times that of Great Britain and Ireland; more than four times that of the German Empire, or of the Austrian Empire, or of France; more than three times that of Spain and Portugal; more than seven times the size of Italy. . . . It is also larger than Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy combined."

The region now has a population of 15,000,000, with an assessment, in 1900, of $6,616,642,829, which, of course, is far below the real value of the property. A very satisfactory return for the original investment! It must be remembered that the interest has not been compounded; it has been drawn year by year to support the growing millions of population.

It was a great purchase, unparalleled in the history of real estate deals; but in its political significance it is even more noteworthy. It is impossible to conjecture what fierce and prolonged conflicts were thus averted, what waste of life, what destruction of property, what retardation of progress, what harassing political complications.

Next to the Declaration of Independence, which made us a nation, the Louisiana Purchase

is the greatest event in American history; and there is no other that can compare with it except the close of the Civil War, which made us again one nation, with one flag, one motto, and one Constitution,-and that forever freed from the blot of slavery. So for more than sixty years to come, there can be no centennial anniversary that can equal in its significance and import this approaching celebration of the Louisiana Purchase. According to the magnitude of the event should be the manner of its commemoration and

the majesty of its memorial. As the place for holding this festival of rejoicing, both sense and sentiment point to St. Louis, the portal and the metropolis of the vast region; and wisdom and propriety unite in declaring for a magnificent exposition, where all the nations of the earth will gather to show their best achievements, to teach and to learn from one another, to note the advances made even in the decade since the Columbian Exposition or the shorter period since the Paris Exposition, and to see with their own eyes this most optimistic object-lesson,-how a single century of free institutions and unfettered enterprise can transform a wilderness into populous, rich, and progressive commonwealths. Great was the historical event; and great will be the pageant, the panorama, the

world-epitome that is to mark its hundredth anniversary.

A complete comparative table of the world's fairs from 1851 on, together with the four sectional American fairs, would be interesting and instructive, but space forbids. A few comparisons must suffice. At the first world's fair, in London, in 1851, there were 21 acres under cover; the Philadelphia Centennial had a covered area of 56 acres; Paris, in 1900, had 125 acres : Chicago, in 1893, 200 acres ; St. Louis will have 250 acres, while the whole area included within the exposition fence will be 1,180 acres, of which 600 acres lie in Forest Park, and the rest on leased ground, west of the park. This is twice as much as was included in the site of the Chicago Exposition. There still remain 771 acres of Forest Park outside the fair grounds, furnishing a beautiful background and surroundings.

The St. Louis fair has a broader financial foundation than any of its predecessors, starting with $17,000,000 in hand, or available as soon as needed. Of this. $5,000,000 comes from the individual subscriptions of St. Louis citizens. $5,000,000 from bonds voted by the municipality, $1,000,000 voted by the State of Missouri, and over $6,000,000 from the United States Government. Thus far, forty-two States have voted