(11) The seller must be polite, give the liquors asked for without delay, and in case any change is due, give it back with exactitude, not keeping back even a part of a copeck, under the excuse that he has no small change.

(12) If the seller is sick or absent from his shop, he must leave it in charge of some trusty person, not younger than twenty-one years of age, for whom he shall be responsible.

(13) The purchasers of liquors are required to take off their hats. when they come into the shop, to behave decently, not to open wine bottles, not to drink in the shop, not to smoke, and not to remain longer than is necessary for making the purchase.

(14) The purchasers are not permitted to go into the lodgings of the seller, and are required to obey the foregoing rules.

(15) In case the purchaser disturbs quiet and order in the shop, or violates the existing laws concerning the sale of liquors, or the rules here given, the seller must immediately notify either the excise inspector or the local district curator of public temperance, who shall make out a complaint and bring the accused to answer the charge.

The official statistics in regard to the sale of spirits show that the present distillery season began with a surplus of 15 per cent. from the stock of last year. On the 1st of August last this difference amounted to 18.8 per cent. On September 1, 1896, the whole of the registered stock of spirits amounted to 7,665,071 vedros (20,749.347 gallons), against 5,987,572 vedros (16,208,357 gallons) in 1895-96, i. e., 1,667,499 vedros (4,513,920 gallons), or 27.8 per cent.

more.

The movement of spirits in European Russia during the first two months of the last two seasons was as follows:

Description.

Production

Stocks at the

beginning

Vedros. Gallons. Vedros. Gallons. 189,604 513,258 191,279

517,792

A BENIGNANT AUTOCRACY.

EXTRAORDINARY POWERS OF THE NEW YORK BOARD OF HEALTH IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST.

The extraordinary power of the Board of Health which is used from time to time in the interests of the public, when purely sanitary questions do not seem to be involved, is conferred by two sections of the consolidated act which have been made a part of the Greater New York Charter. One of these sections, under which the Board of Health has been acting for years, gave to the Board authority to make laws regarding the health and comfort of the people of the city, and expressly declared that such authority was not limited to matters of health. The other section gave to the Board authority to abate public nuisances "dangerous to human life or detrimental to health." Such sweeping provisions of, law give to the Board of Health almost unlimited power to protect public health and life in the city, and it has been one of the traditions of the Health Department that the power should be used carefully, without favor and with no motive of oppression.

There has been no more striking example of the use of such power in recent years than the action of the Health Board which compelled the Metropolitan Street Railway Company to stop the danger at Dead Man's Curve by the use of an improved grip. Public clamor and indictment by the Grand Jury had failed to move the railroad company, but when the Health Board passed a resolution forbidding the company from running cable cars around curves at a dangerous rate of speed there was immediate action. An amusing incident connected with the introduction of the grip which allows the cable cars to be run slowly at the curves was a conversat'on held between one of the railway officials and a prominent sanitary official just after the public became aware of the improvement. The railroad man said the company really was not afraid of the Board of Health, and the use of the improved grip had been intended for many months.

"We should have used the new grip without an order from your Board," he said.

"Then I can't understand why you kept on killing people so long and wanted so much to get a slice of Union Square," said the sanitary official.

Only a few days ago there was added to the Sanitary Code a section which forbids any railroad company from using cars in the city which are not under absolute control on curves, and also forbids a gripman or motorman from sending a car around a curve at a rate of speed which is dangerous to life or detrimental to health.

NOT ALWAYS MADE PUBLIC.

Sometimes the Health Board uses its power in the interests of public comfort without having its action made known to the public. Complaint was made several weeks ago that one of the largest corporations in the city was allowing a nuisance which was annoying to many residents of a fashionable part of the city, although it was difficult to show that the nuisance was a danger to health. Sanitary experts which were sent to make an investigation presented reports which made the nature of the nuisance clear, and they were placed on file. Then an official of the corporation was. politely requested to have the nuisance abated, being informed at the same time that the Health Board would grant a hearing before proceeding to issue an imperative order. In a few days the nuisance was abated entirely, and the hearing was not needed.

What may happen when a corporation refuses to obey an order to abate a nuisance was shown a few years ago in the case of a gas company which continued to allow drips from its gas retorts to flow into the East River after it had received positive warning to desist. The action of the Health Board was taken after calm deliberation, and after several hearings, in which the gas company had been allowed to make all sorts of explanations and raise all possible objections. Thousands of poor people living in tenement houses near the river had suffered from the effects of a sickening odor that came from the water at times. Sanitary inspectors had made investigations and had discovered that the water at such times was covered with a thin film of scum, and the chemist had made sure that the scum was caused by the gas drips which were allowed to flow into the river when the retorts were cleaned.

Lawyers in the pay of the gas company declared that there was no way of preventing the flow of the drips into the river, and that the supply of gas would be cut off if the operations of the company were stopped, but the Health Board issued the order to stop the nuisance. The company failed to obey at first. Sanitary policemen were sent to arrest the officers of the company, and the sanitary officials' were about ready to declare the gas works a publicnuisance and close them down when the company surrendered.

The nuisance was abated then, and it has not been allowed to begin again.

The New York Steam Company's smoke nuisance was abated several months ago by order of the Health Board. Tall chimneys of the company's plant had been sending out dense clouds of black smoke and soot, which were blown against high office buildings. The smoke entered open windows and annoyed occupants of offices. Layers of smudge from the steam company's chimneys were deposited on desks, books and papers. The trouble arose from the burning of large quantities of soft coal in the furnaces of the steam plant. There was a loud protest, which the sanitary officers were compelled to hear. New York would be converted into another Pittsburg if the nuisance was not abated, it was said. Sanitary experts made investigations, took photographs of the smoke and made reports upon which a hearing was ordered, and then the order went forth that the nuisance must stop. It was stopped.

TROUBLE WITH THE MILK SUPPLY.

The trouble with the milk supply in this city lasted many years. In spite of frequent raids by the milk inspectors, the destruction of large quantities of skimmed or watered milk and the heavy fines which were inflicted upon the dealers who persisted in selling such milk, the trouble continued until President Wilson of the Health Board recently hit upon the plan of compelling all milk dealers to take out permits. Special legislation by the Board accomplished a decided reform. The milk dealers were obliged to tell the source of their supply and give other information of value to the department before receiving their permits, and then the Sanitary Code was amended so as to allow the revocation of permits and the driving of milk dealers out of business if they failed to comply with the requirements for the sale of pure milk. The result has been most satisfactory. The dealers have been careful to comply with the law, and the information gained from them has enabled the inspectors of the Health Department to inspect the cows and cause the destruction of cows which were afflicted with tuberculosis, thus removing a great danger from the milk supply. For the first six months of this year there has been not only a lower death rate from diarrhoeal diseases among children than ever before, but with all the increase in population the number of deaths from those diseases is less by about two thousand than in the same period of 1896. This increase in health is believed to be largely due to the improved milk supply.

Within a year the Health Board has ordered the destruction of 108 old rear tenement houses in the city which had become dangerous to the health of the people. Most of those houses have been torn down. The Board acted under the provisions of the Tenement House Law in ordering the destruction of the houses, but the work of needed reform could not have been performed so speedily except by the use of the extraordinary power previously lodged in the Board. It has been said sometimes that the Health Board has more power than the Supreme Court in dealing with the owners of tenement houses who are unwilling to keep the houses in a condition fit for human habitation. In many cases, when such owners have failed to make improvements or repairs demanded for sanitary reasons, the Health Board has sent a policeman to drive all the tenants out and keep the houses vacant until they were repaired.-New York Tribune.

SITTING DOWN.

It would seem at a glance that there is nothing profitable to be said about sitting down. The humorist by trade could manuiacture some jests out of attitudes and movements, no doubt; his ingenuity works up less promising materials. But what is there for serious debate? Sitting down "comes natural"-like eating. Persons not hasty to grant that a thing must be fashioned by Providence for the use to which we put it may willingly allow that the thigh bones are padded in order that we may sit upon them without discomfort. Until lately, indeed, another purpose was assigned to those cushions. Our forefathers proved the manifest destiny of children to be whipped by the same anatomical arrangement; but logicians might call this a second cause. Anyhow, it has passed out of use. But if the operation be natural, all human creatures must sit down-and there is an end of the theory, for they do not. Reviewing, in fact, the population of the globe, it seems likely that the men and women who sit are less than ten per cent. To begin with, the millions of China and India must be excluded. Only the hundreds there turn the cushions to their destined use, so that more than one-half of mankind is excepted at a stroke! But that is not nearly all. Japan follows, with the lands and isles of the far East, Asia in general, the most part of Africa, the Indian territories of America, from the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn. When we, look