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is not muen room to doubt that a new era in the development of the State is now dawning.—Pioneer-Press, August 8.EVENA practical joke was played nearly 30 years ago at a cocking-main in Havana by some sailors belonging to an American mftn-of-war. The sailors had been betting and losing day after day at the cockpit, which was the amusement that they most affected, until they were all left without a cent. In that plight the sail-lors were when the man-of-war was ordered off to San Francisco. A number of months afterward the vessel returned toDeduction No. 1, for twenty years before beginning, 73,000 days; remainder, 18,250 days. Out of thisremainder you have to deduct one-third, at a blow, for one item, sleep.Deduct No. 2—12,170 days.*Once more De Quincy says, on account of illness, of recreation, and the occupations spread over the surface of life, it will be little enough to deduct another third. In the*case of the minister it will be more, rather than less, for, as I understand him, the time occupied in public speaking comes in here—but call it one-third. Deduction No. 3-remainderNo. 3--4,060 days, laaves-8,110 days.Finally, he says, for the item whichHavana, and the Jack Tars had fully matured a scheme for vengeance. Draw-ing all their pay, and borrowing all the j the Roman money they could in addition, at the first i phrase “corput curare,shore-leave they started for the cock-] t, carrying with them their gold and a bag, about which they preserved a great dealof mystery,Some of the ship’s officers surmising that something was in the wind, but not even to them was the sailors’ secret divulged. Scarcely had they reached the pit when an excited Spaniard into the little arena, where a battle had just ended.Under his left arm he carried a magnificent game-cock; in his right hand he flourished a bag of doubloons, and he yelled forth a challenge on behalf of his bird against anything that wore feathers.' attondance upon the animal necessities—eating, drinking, washing, bathing and exercise—deduct the smallest proper amount from the last remainder of 8;110 days, and you will have less than 4,000 days in a long life, left for the direct developement of all that is most august in the nature of man. After that comes the night, when no man can work.Government and the £Iglit*liottr Law*The United States Supreme CourtNo other challenge could have been Uolds that the Act of June 25 1868,1-#- rt w/il f A fn A rm 1 ArD TAJ1 f\ 111*1 T\Ct Iwhich declares that eight hours shall constitute a day’s work for all - laborers, workmen and mechanics employed by the Government, does not prevent the latter from making arrangements with laborers by which the day’s labor may be more or less than eight hours. Under this interpretation, contracts fixing or prescribing a different length of time as the day’s work are legal and binding upon the persons making them ; moreover, the eight-hour law does not prescibe the amount of compensation to be paid for the labor of eight hours, or of any other time. Government officers in charge of public work are therefore instructed to make their contracts and have the work performed upon the basis of ten hours to a day’s work, and all persons who desire to work eight hours, will be paid proportionately for that number of hours only.half so welcome to the sailors, for during their former unhappy experience he had been their bete noir raking in their gold pieces almost as fast as they could hot them. His verbose and grandiloquent defiance was promptly accepted, themoney was staked, and the Americans shook their champion out of the mysterious bag.A nondescript creature he was, with a great solid body, roughly covered with chicken feather and tar, its wings and tail clipped, its head broad and adorned with a keen curved beak, with long, sharp talons at the ends of its toes, instead of gaffs upon its legs. Despite its strange half-disguise, the officer recognized it at once as an American eagle. But the Spaniards knew nothing about it, and the one who had. made the match was furious deeming himself insulted by the pitting of such a miserable looking creature against his splendid fowl. The alcalde ordered, however, that the fight should take place according to the terms of the challenge, and the senor tossed his bird into the pit. It was ready to fight, of course, for a game-cock of good blood would not hesitate to attack a bird as big as the fabled roc. So, the first notice the American game-chicken, as the sailors had christened their bird, received of thepresence of the enemy was a fierce attack.lie looked calmly down upon the gamecock strutting threatingly before him. The sailors were not without anxiety lest the keen gaffs might settle their eagle before he got warmed up to his work, but fear was quickly dispelled. The gamecock dashed forward again. In less than a second the Spaniards witnessed an astounding sight. The ‘ American chicken’*placidly stretched one great claw, seized his antagonist by the head, drew him up, and applying the other claw to his body, tore his head off with a single pull.Then he proceeded to eat him. A stormof imprecations and shouts of astonishments rent the ajr, but the sailors were to well armed and too numerous for the Spaniards, and so they got their money and returned aboard the ship, laden with more gold than they ever before had, and carrying their champion in triumph.—ExFIBE IN WISCONSIN.A fiery disaster occurred in the town of Eaton, Brown county, last Monday afternoon. All during the late drouth fires prevaled throughout that section, and many localities were hourly in fear for life and prperty. The fires raged with particular severity in the town ofEaton, and Monday crowned the workof destruction by sweeping the houses ofmany settlers. One settlement of Poland-ers, twelve miles from Green Bay, suffered severely. About thirty familes were rendered homeless and suffered loss ofcrops, farming tools, clothing and every tiling they possessed, Tliev barely es-with their*lives, being compelled to force their way through a line of fire about two miles. On one tract of brokeu ground where they hnddled for protection many were severely burned in the face, and insome cases their eyesight was impaired. Many animals perished, lying in heaps where they crowded together in fanciedsafety. Some portions of the town are not heard from yet. Heavy showers yesterday and.this morning, and no proba-bilitiy of further damage.LATER—THE LOSS.A Green Bay special says reports of ravages of fire at Eaton, Wis., have not been overdrawn. Over thirty familieshave been burned out and in many in stances the entire crops destroyed. Theloss is estimated at$l 3,000. No lives lostPioneer Press.Central American Trade.An American, long a resident of Nicaragua, and familiar with the resources ot Central America and thehabits and customs of the people, has lately contributed a series of interest-ng letters, setting forth the benefitsthat would accrue to the UnitedStates by making a ship canal acrossNicaragua. He claims that such athoroughfare would make New York the central commercial city of theworld, and make San Francisco her associate. Besides this, he says, itwould giye American planters, mechanics and merchants an immediate and near field to create another India in place of that which is rapidly forestalling even our domestic products. Last year, it is stated that India sent nearly 3,390,000 cwt. of wheat to England—one sixth as much as the United States, and one-third as much as Russia. The British revenue from India is $250,000,000 a year, or nearly the total cost of operating the United States Government. The Britisharmy in India employs and subsists200,000 of her Majesty’s subjects and controls 240,000,000 human beings. They make a commerce of $500,000,-000 a year—Cotton, Jute, Rice, Teaand Indigo leading. They give employment to 29,000 vessels, and to 6,-000 miles of Indian railroad, in which$500,000,000 finds profitable investment. In Spanish America, which repeats nearly every natural production of Indias and adds many othersexclusively its own, there are lessthan 30,000,000 people more than two-thirds of whom live on the Pacific slope ; they are weary of revolutions, ripe for orderly government, hospitable to strangers, and frugal.With the help of Yankee organizingpower and machinery, the writer thinks this region might be made vastly productive and remunerative.The Arithmetic of Life*Rev. Dr. Henry Smith, in address-ng the senior class of Lane Seminary)u commencement day, gave this graphic view of the opportunities of ife :Do you remember the inexorableogic of that remarkable arithmetical ipeech which Thomas De Quincy uade to himself and some imaginary riend, when standing precisely where rou are standing to-day, at the beginning of his work of life: “My riend, you make very free with your lays ; pray, how many do you expect o have? What is your rental as regards the total harvest of days which his life is likely to yield? Let us :onsider.” Then follows his arith-uetic, which I give without his language. Seventy years of life yield 15,550 days. Remember now thatwenty years have gone before begin-ling—before having attained any kill or system, or any definite pur-tose ip the distribution of time.A Boy's Truthfulness.Johu Brougham, in his “Birds and Poets,’, tolls the best storv illustra-* • mftive of a boy’s proneness to tell and his confidence iu the power of a lie,we ever read. A teacher, after longand patient watching, catches a boyeating an apple in school,, a misdeed he had frequently committed and as repeated lied about it. “Ah, ha,’’ exclaimed the teacher, you at it this time.” at what?” asked the boy, in conscious innocence. “Eating that apple.” “Ain’t eating no apple.” The astonished teacher compelled the boy to open his mouth, and a great slab of apple was extracted therefrom. “Didn’t know it was there,” sturdily as serted the boy.‘T caught“Caught mePREAMBLE AND RESOLUTIONSAdopted at the meeting of Working-4men held Monday, Aug. 29.Whereas, The recent alarming development p,nd aggressions of aggregated wealth shows, that, unless checked, it .Will inevitably lead to the pauperization and Hopeless degradation of the toiling masses, and renders it imperative, if we desire to enjoy the blessings of the government bequeathed us by its founders, that a check be placed upon the powers of capital and unjust accumulations, and a system adopted which will se-cure to the laborer the fruits of his 1 toil; andWhereas, This much desired object can only be accomplished by the thorough unification of labor—by the united efforts of those who seek to ; obey the divine injunction: “In thesweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread;” andWi iereas, We recognize that whilein the ballot-box is an agency by which wrongs may be redressed when other means fail; yet the great need of the hour is the organization, consolidation and co-operation of theproducing masses, as a stepping-stone to that education which will lead to more advanced action through whichthe necessary reforms can be effected; andWhereas, While we fully recognize the power and efficiency of Trade and Labor Unions, local and international, as now organized, in regulating purely trade matters, yet upon all questions appertaining to the welfare of laboras a whole, the influence of these organizations without closer union must prove comparatively futile; therefore,ResolvedI, That we submit to the people of the city of Minneapolis the obje ts sought to be accomplished by the Workingmen’s Union, viz :First—To bring within the folds ofthe organization every department of productive industry, making knowledge the standpoint for action, andindustrial, moral and social worth (not wealth) the true standard of individual and national greatness.Second—To secure to the toiler an equitable share of the wealth which he helps to create, more of the leisure that rightfully belongs to him, more social advantages, or more of the benefits, privileges and emoluments of the world ; in a word, ailthose rights and privileges necessaryto make him capable of enjoying, appreciating, defending and perpetuating the blessings of Republican institutions.Third—To arrive at the true condition of theprodue ig masses, in their educational, moral and financial condition, we demand from the State and National governments the establishment of Bureaus of Labor Statistics.Fourth—The establishment of cooperative institutions, productive anddistributive.Fifth—The reservation of the public land, the heritage of the people, for actual settlers,—not another acre for railroads or speculators.Sixth—The abrogation or amendment of all laws that do not bearequally upon Capital and Labor, and the adoption of measures providingfor the health and safety of thoseengaged iirindustrial pursuits.Seventh—The substitution of arbitration for strikes, whenever andwherever employes and employersare willing to meet on equitable grounds.Eighth—The abolition of the system of contracting the labor of convicts in our prisons and reformatory institutes.Ninth—The reduction of the hours of labor to eight per day, so that laborers may have more time for socialenjoyment and intellectual improvement, and be enabled to reap the advantages conferred by labor-saving machinery which their brains have created.Tenth—The prohibition of all advertising for immigration under false pretenses, for the purpose of cheapening labor.Eleventh—Law and order, peace and tranquility, justice and righteousness should be supreme, and we deprecate anything and everything that will prevent it, and stand*ready to give our labor and our lives in thedefence of the inherent rights of man.[A constitution was then framed in the usual form, and the Union electedFrom the Labor Standard.THE BEGINNING OF A REVOLUTION1.The occurrences during the lasfc portion of July, 1871! will, in the future history of this country, be designated as the beginning of the second American Revolution, which inaugurates the independence of Labor from Capital. The struggle which is to achieve this independence, may lasfc a number of years; but the war is declared, the parties engaged can no more leave the field without a final decision, and all compromises are henceforth impossible. It is of the utmost importance for the working-peo-to understand this state of things, because our adversaries have given evidences that theyunderstand and act upon it.The best of all this is that the ring of monopoly has done our cause a great service for which we need not thank them. It is henceforth impossible that our worktng-people should ever forget of what power they are capable in the defence of their righteous cause, provided they are a unit as against the only enemy the country has now, and a closely organized unit, too. The next best thing is that ourenemy is, in the consciousness of heretofore undisputed money power, furious at his partial defeat, and wifi unremittingly use his legislative and arbitrary power to stamp out this uParis Commune on American soil,” so as toremind every workingman of his duty; this will present a drastic illustration of the “harmony that ought naturally to prevail between capital and labor, ” sothafc even the most indolent thinkers among our workers must become aware of the nonsense of this harmony theory, and of the fact that, no less than in Europe, out workers must organize for economic interests and against legislative despotism, unless capitalism is to crush out liberty, culture aiul hnmauity. This will teach American workmen a heartfelt sympathy with their internationally organized fellows of Europe, who even now, at the first telegraphic notice of our great railroad strike, began to collect funds for our strikers—expressing their sympathy for our workers, telegraphically. Our struggle against the idolatry of Mammon is the common strug gle of intelligent Labor the world over.We will here for once give sound advice to our capitalistic class, though we dare not hope they wTill heed it.Your legislation in respect to labor was alto gether borrowed from England, beginning with the conspiracy laws, and ending with your latest laws against railroad employees. Almost all this policy was restrictive. But you havenot borrowed from England any laws that would redound to the benefit of labor, such as the law for honest inspectors of manufactures, the law for a normal workday, the law tor labor statistics and sanitary inspection and control of workshops and workers' abodes, and some more. In this country the disinherited workman has no other right of resistance, when insufficient wages are offered him, but to refuse and to—starve or become a tramp, a beggar or criminal. If his self-help goes any further than to beg other starving workmen not to fill his place, he is liable to be clubbed down by the police, shot clown by the militia, or sentenced by judges to prison. He is not even allowed to obstruct sidewalks and sidewalks and passages while defending peacahly his right to live by honest labor. The law which does not prevent upstart capitalists and soulless corporations from taxing him, subjugating him and his rights by bribed egislation, and from wallowing in luxuries without work, the same lav/ has clogged every resistance of an efficient kind with which he may defend his and his family's daily bread. Do not, therefore, be surprised that the sympathy of the masses, nay of cultured people, is on the side of the ‘daw-breakers, when they act in self-defence from starvation, despotism, and blood-thirst.Nay, blood-thirst, we say it deliberately. Many a one of your exponents of opinion among the daily papers have in these mpjnen -tons days spoken out your hearts desire, to imitate the massacres perpetrated on the workingmen of Paris and other European cities. We shall not forget that, be sure of it,TEW, ENTERPRISING AND UK LIABLE!r .BRUSH CO.Have opened aPHOTOGRAPH GALLERYCor. Washington Avenue and Third Avenue South, over O. C. Merrill's Grocery Store, where we will make all kin da of PICT ERMA uiL O IV E U J' R t (' M /-lt;.than any gallery in the city.AND GUA RANTEK THEM TO PLEASE.Call and satisfy yourselves.BRUSH CO.L.D. WHITESEEDSMAN,GOODGOODS!During the fifty-eight years which have passed since American Odd Fel-oooooowards of $22,000,000 have been expended for the relief of those entitled to it. Some 720.000 brothers have been aided.the followingOFFICERS :]Pres.—C. W. Curtis.First Vice Pres.—P. H. Swenson.Sec’d Vice Pres.—C. H. Trueworthy.Third Vice Pres.—Henry Schaffer.Recording Sec’y.—Thos.A. Clark.Financial Sec’y.—D. W. Ahern.Treasurer.—Isaac White.Directors.—T. H. Merrithew, E. A.O’Brien, J. H. McNally, John O’Donnell, Andrew Peterson, and the Pres, i City Markete.r, officio.rThe Mirror was declared the official.paper of the Union, “until the next meeting.”We give, also, the first two articles of the constitution, and will, when the organization is fully completed, give the constitution and by-laws in full.ARTICLE I.Section 1. This organization shall be known as the Workingmen’s Union, of the city of Miuneapolis.ARTICLE 11Section 1. This Union shall be camposed of persons who are directly interested in the advancement of labor, and who, as workingmen, earn at least a portion of their subsistence bythe labor of their hands; shall be admitted as prescribed in the By-Laws, and shall sign this constitution and comply with its provisions.F LOU 1ST,AND DEALER INCOUNTRY PRODUCE.No. 22 A 2:LOWPRICES!GOODS DELIVERED FREE.RAIK SON,Dealers inFLOUR, FEED, OAT MEAL, PEARL BARLEY and CORN MEAL,Have removed from their ohl standto No. 219, First Ayenue,Curtis Block, Wliei’e they hope to see and greet alltheir friends and customers.
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Minneapolis Free Flag
Minneapolis, Minnesota, US
Thu, Jul 26, 1877
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