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WHEN WELSH AND IRISH RULE

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geance against the House of Lords, and determined to carry out his threat. He encouraged them by saying the House of Lords was unpopular with the country, and on this question the third election was fought. Asquith announced that unless he got a suitable majority, leaving him free and independent, he would not take office. He not only failed to get such a majority, but the Tories as a party elected the most members, and the Liberals as a party were in a minority. The moment the elections were over, Asquith bolted. No one knew where he had gone, but as all English ministers, when they are tired out, make for the Riviera, Lloyd-George started in pursuit, missing his shot by a hundred miles.

The Welshman arrived at Genoa, and learned he was on the wrong trail. Then came the celebrated motor ride along the coast; a breathless journey, for time was of the utmost value. He must see the Premier before the latter could make his intention public. He ran down the discouraged Asquith at Cannes.

Of all men on earth that Asquith did not want to see at that moment, LloydGeorge was the person. Asquith, with the most magnificent majority a Premier ever possessed, bequeathed to him by the departed Campbell-Bannerman, had been dragged down by the impetuous LloydGeorge, until he now stood the head of a minority party. Of course, a compact, ready-made majority was at his disposal, if he made terms with the Irish Nationalists, but the price of that majority was home rule, and Asquith had been all his life an anti-home ruler. Besides, his word was now pledged to the English electorate that he would not accept office in the humiliating circumstances.

Of course, I was not present at this momentous meeting, which one man had tried to avoid, and the other, with his amazing energy, had chased across Europe to accomplish, therefore what I state now is heresay, from those supposed to be "in the know."

"I cannot stultify myself," said Asquith. "I cannot be the English Premier to force a home rule bill through the House of Commons."

"No need for that," answered LloydGeorge. "Take things in their order.

abolish the veto of the House of Lords." Asquith admitted that to be the case. "Very well, if you give up now, it will be the Tory Party that will deal with the Lords, to their own satisfaction. You stand by your guns till the Parliament bill is passed. I'll see that you have a majority. Obtain from the King a promise that the necessary number of peers will be created to overcome the Tory majority in the Lords."

Asquith demurred at this attempted coercion of the King, but Lloyd-George, not Asquith, knew the Lords.

"You will never need to go so far as to use the King's prerogative," he said, confidently. "The Lords will back down," which, sure enough, they did. "When the Parliament bill is on the statute book you will have accomplished the task you set out to do, and to show you have no ill-feeling against their lordships, you can resign and join that honorable body. I'll take the premiership, and carry home rule through.'

The

So the chances are that the next Premier of England will be the Right Honorable David Lloyd-George, the most remarkable man in Great Britain. No sooner had he nullified the Lords than he set out to show the House of Commons how little it really amounted to. closure, popularly known as the guillotine, a deadly implement not possessed even by the enlightened legislature of Canada, invented by the Tories, is now a potent weapon in the hands of LloydGeorge, and with it, he forced through the Insurance bill. The House of Commons has been silenced as effectively as the House of Lords.

Can he hold on? I do not think so. He has made the mistake that nearly all Liberals make when power is in their hands, of getting too far ahead of slowmoving popular opinion. Prince Rupert was the best general that Charles I possessed, but he ruined the cause of the King by his headlong impetuosity, chasing the enemy too far afield, gaining victory always in front of him, but leaving defeat in his rear.

The historian Froude said: "There is no such despot as a Liberal when raised to authority."

The career of Lloyd-George proves

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ESKIMOS OF VICTORIA LAND. WHO HAD NEVER BEFORE SEEN A WHITE MAN. They dress in caribou, wolf, fox, and bird skins.

NEW RACE IN THE FROZEN NORTH

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By

LILLIAN E. ZEH

NEW race of people of the North, who have never before seen a white man, are now introduced for the first time to the civilization of the temperate zone by the American Museum of Natural History, New York.

For the first time in their lives the new peoples have faced the camera, and it may be for the last, as far as these individuals are concerned who are seen through negatives developed on board. the schooner Teddy Bear far North in the regions where stretch endless wastes of snow and ice.

The expedition is in charge of Dr. R. M. Anderson and Mr. V. Stefansson, both experienced explorers, who have studied the

habits of strange tribes and peoples in latitudes where chill winds blow and ice packs on the wind-swept tides.

The explorers

came in contact with several tribes in the neighborhood of Cape Bexley, and in the middle of Dolphin and Union Straits they met a charming and courteous race. One of their guides started the greetings wrong by approaching the party with his hands at his side and was nearly knifed for so doing. The Eskimos in that region extend their hands in front of them as a peace signal and carrying one hand at the side is interpreted as a gesture of defiance. They proved to be the A-ku-li-akat-tag-mi-uts.

Neither they nor any of their forefathers as far as they knew had ever seen a white man, an Indian or an Eskimo from the west. They believed by tradition, however, that the Indians were very bad; that the Eskimos of the west were none too estimable, and that the white men, the Kablunat, as they called them, were good and could be trusted.

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ESKIMOS "SKIPPING THE ROPE,"

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By

EDWARD I. PRATT

REENHOUSE flowers, forced by growing in an electric field, yield double; their quality is greatly improved, their stamina increased, disease is checked, at a cost for current for three months' experiment on two eighty-foot benches, of eight dollars. This in a few words is what has been accomplished by a Chicago greenhouse specialist, Richard Gloede.

"Electric chrysanthemums," so the greenhouse man called them-sturdystemmed, with great round yellow blossoms, that fairly beamed on you, clustered gracefully high above a big crock on the packing room floor.

The stems were so long and the tops so big that visitors to the florists could lift them up without stooping. And yet these chrysanthemums were average samples of a great long bench of culls. At least they were culls before he could

give them the name of "electric chrysanthemums."

This Chicago florist had read of the experiments of Sir Oliver Lodge and other scientists in the growing of field plants with the aid of electricity. He reasoned that, as the greenhouse man has the same difficulties as the field crop culturist, and many additional ones besides, due to temperature, crowding, disease, etc., the same idea could well be applied to his benches.

His first complete experiment under practical commercial conditions was with two benches of chrysanthemums, made up as follows: from one big lot of shoots, half of the plants-all the best oneswere set out in one bed, while the balance, culls and inferior stock, were set out in another parallel bed. Both of these received the same amount of light and heat and were prepared exactly alike except for the electrical equipment.

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THE PROPAGATING BED IN THE HOT HOUSE, SHOWING WIRING, CROSS-ARMS AND INSULATION.

The maturing was hastened by their growing in this electrical field obtained by high-tension currents. The conductors. consist of a single heavy galvanized ground wire embedded in the center of the dirt, parallel to the sides of the bed. About three and a half feet above the bench are six parallel wires, hung lengthwise from the insulators on wooden crossarms. Cross-wires every twelve inches form a network covering the bed. From these wires, light chains hang at intervals, reaching down half way to the soil.

The overhead and ground wires are connected to a transformer which steps up the voltage to about 250,000 volts. This apparatus is connected to the local light and power company's lines, whose power is 110 volts, 60 cycles. The current from the line first passes a frequency changer which raises the frequency to about 600 cycles. The plants, being directly under the influence of the electrical field, are acted upon by the high tension current.

The two benches of chrysanthemums were, in all other respects, started and cared for in exactly the same way as many other beds in the greenhouses supplying the Chicago markets.

The bed of culls which had the electric equipment was the first to mature, blossom, and be cut.

The power is turned on for at least six hours a day during the growing period. The expense of the current for three months is given as eight dollars, although in the perfecting of the equipment, it is

believed a greater economy will be pos

sible.

Early in the experiment it was found that the electrically treated bed was soon rid of all fungus growth, that the stalks were unusually strong and heavy. Ordinarily, with greenhouse flowers of this type, having long stems and grown close together in the bed to save space, the stems are weak and breakage resulting in harvesting and marketing is quite an expense item.

The "electric chrysanthemums" showed a rapid growth from the start. The tops had to be "pinched back," as greenhouse men say, several times to prevent too high a growth. Another feature of the electrically treated flowers was that the maturing was as vigorous and rapid on the shady side of the bed as with those plants most exposed to sunlight.

In the propagating benches, also, the results were startling. In an ordinary planting, often but one-third of the seed germinates, constant watering and attention being needed. In these same benches wired, the seeds germinated uniformly, and with no fungus growth, less watering and loss.

This first harvest showed twice the average number of blossoms. None of these plants in this greenhouse are "forced" in the popular sense of the term, as the temperature is kept down to 55 Fahrenheit, the idea being that much sturdier and hardier plants result.

As soon as possible the wiring will be placed over all benches and the plan is

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