A BOLD POLITICAL EXPERIMENT.

Waikato Times, Volume XX, Issue 1709, 19 June 1883, Page 4

A BOLD POLITICAL EXPERIMENT.

The Berlin correspondent of an Australian contemporary writing of the Chancel* lor of the German Empire, says :— lt seems that the idea of State .Socialism as flic only governing nostrum suitable to Germany's com plaint, has grown upon IVince Bismarck to such an extent that lie cm think and talk of nothing else. I have heard this lately from persons who have to do with him daily, and their accounts of his present "view" are cuiiously confirmed by the circumstance that tiie Xorddcittsehe Allgememe Zcituiig, a semi official journal receiving inspiration direct trom himself, selected his bitthilay morning to publish a "first leader," printed in what is hero called "fat type," sotting forth Socialism as the only possible principle upon which to base a righteous and durable regime, and signalising the Hohenzollem family motto, " Snitm riiiquo trtbuito," as the device of all others w hich Socialists should hasten to inscribe upon then* political flng. Its present emblematic use is to sui round the Jewel of the Black Eagle, Prussia's most exalted order of chivalry, and from that distinguished position the German Chancellor's journalistic mouthpiece would transfer it to the flag of the Communards. Such an anomaly is sufficiently startling to monopolise public attention, especially during the "off" political season, and I am bound to say that It does so. The 11 humour of it " is that Prince Bismarck all the while is at heart the struin chest of Tories, His enthusiasm for Socialism is entirely due to a conviction on his part that Socialism, dexterously manipulated by his own master-hand, may be utilised as an instrument of power. To dominate tlm seemingly untameablc monster— the only foe the new German empire has any need to fear — break it in, harness it, so to speak, to the State coach, and diive it whithersoever he pleases, is an adventure teeming w ith temptations lor so daring a political entrepreneur as the German Chancellor, and anyone well acquainted with him can icadily understood his undertaking it. But I cannot biing myself to regaiditas anything more than an experiment, of which, should it not answer his expectations, he will one day get w eary. He ha 3 tried so many, and not one, as yet, has even enabled him to secure a woikinu majority (in the Get man House of Commons) upon which he could reckon to pass three successive Government measures in one session ! Nor is there the least probability that he will achieve this particular desideratum by the aid of the Socialist faction, which every other Parliamentary paity in Germany, including even the Progressists, looks upon as the. common foe — fiobtn /uon'iiu qruc -is. But his temporary adoption of Socialism as a " governing principle" may tutu out a successful bid for populai ity, and is at lenst an ingenious expedient foi propitiating the disciples of Petroleum and Dynamite, who are alarmingly "to the front " just now throughout Euiope. One cannot help feeling a little CUUOU3 to know what the good old Kaiser — one of the few Sovereigns living who still believes in rule by Divine light — thinks of it all. Pcihaps nobody tells him anything likely to annoy him, in which case, as he never by any chance reads the papeis hiimelf, he may be cntiiely unawaie that his trusted Ministeis Press or»an lias been making hot piopagjand.i foi apolitical ciecd, which proposes, as a primary observance of its tenets, to abolish monaiehs, property, religion, and family ties. I cannot help thinking that it would somewhat surpiise His Majesty to learn this, as well as to hear that his family device was regarded by the Bisnnrck-inspircd jomnnl as .111 adinuably teise and complete exponenccof the Social-Democratic articles of faith. Tin? Pan'Ama. Ca^vl — General Foo'e, Unitid Stat<s Minister t<> C-nei, Ims recently be»n on a mis-ion to Panama, and after inspecting the canal he rrporN that a considemblo amount of woik hns been dono. The Hirfiwe of the gtound on the line of the canal has been removed from ocean to ocean. The Company has a lanre number of digging machines at woik, and the eiuth i.«< being rapidly cut awH} r , But them has been great sickness and mortality umong the workmen, who are principally Janimca negroes, Aukkioan Nicknames.— The following aic the nicknames by which the States in the Ameiicau Union are designated in tlio familiar political vocabulary of Aineiica :— Alabama, lizards; Arkansas, toothpicks ; California, gold hunters ; Colorado, rovers ; Connecticut, wooden nutmegs ; Delaware, blue hens' chickens ; Flotida, fly-up-the-cieeks ; Geoigia, crackers ; Illinois, auckeis ; Indiana, hoosieis ; lowa, hawk eyes; Kansas, jayhaw keis ; Kentucky, coin crackers; Louisiana, cieolcs; Maine, foxes; Maiylaiul, ciaw-thumpeis ; Michigan, wol\dines; Minnesota, gophers ; Mississippi, tadpoles; Missomi, pukes; Nebraska, bug-eateis ; Nevada, stage hens ; New Hamijshiic, giamte boys; New Jersey, blues or clam-catchers; New Yoik, knickeihockeis ; Noith Coiolina, tarboileis and cuckoos; Ohio, buckeyes; Oiegon, web-feet and hard casps ; Pennsylvania, leatherheads and Pennanites ; Rhode Island, gun-flints ; South Carolina weasels ; Tennesee, w helps ; Texas, beefheads ; Vermont. Green Mountain boys ; Vhginia, beadles ; and Wisconsin, badgers.— Pali Mall Gazette. JuVENILIJ P.I'EUOS THE OsTBICH. — A Arab chief was lyin a sleep on day wen he was woke up by feeling somethin in his trousers pockets. He saw it was »n o-tneh, and lay still to ceo wot it wude do. First it took out his peg top and laid it on one side. Then it took out hix kite sti ing:, which was wound on utick, and put it with the top. 'I h^n all his m»rbleB was took out and laid away too. Then some cotton reals, and some pieces of cole, and two slate pencils, and a lump of chok, and a brass button, and some toffy, and a tack hammer, and a handfle of nails, and an oyster shell, and a rubber bol, and a steel pen, which it piled up to one side ; and then the last thing it found was a jacknife with 32 blade-*. When j it had got everything it could find m the chief's pocket it went and stood over the pile, and et one thing after another till it had everything but the jacknife, when it see the chief a settin up a wntchin it. So it took the jacknife and turned it over and over, and tasted it, and put it down, and picked it up ajrain, and at last brot it to the chief and laid it down a little way off, and stood back and looked wishful. Then the chief, he said, " Oh, I see how it is ; you want it peeled." So the chief he opened all the blades of the knife and laid it down, and then the ostrich come up and swallered it, and smiled and licked his bil, like it said wot a delisbous knife ! And the chief felt aluioce as if ho cud taste it hi.-solf . The secretary of an Indian gold mine having sent an imperative demand to a certain shareholder for the payment of a "call, "received the following " crushing"' reply : Dear Sir I have your letter of this date, and note that your directors propose to proceed against me. Your prospectus stated that one of the objects of your company was to 'seek, win, and work geld in India and elsewhere. 1 Tilings not turning out well in India, your directors apparently consider it their duty to seek, win, and work gold ' elsewhere,' — i.e., out of me. I can assure you, however, that I am not in an auriferous vein ; the. only lode I possess is a load of debt, and as a gold mine I shall be a failure. Your prospectus estimate d a yield of one ounce of gold per ton on 3000 tons of quartz crushed per annum — £10, 500 stealing per annum. You may ' crush me,' but you will find I t will not yjeld nearly so much. My person (which for the purpose of t^his calculation may be considered quartz, weighs, roughly speaking, tea stone, and If crushed immediately I estimate that it would yield asunder : Gold, nil f ; jsilver, 3s ; copper, 4£ ;-3s 4£d.. Deduct cost,, of crushing, saya £Q 08,wY<>iirsj i^thi fully, — ," , .;,\| \\ „