ivate marks are added to
prevent imitation. The headquarters of the International Committee is at
Geneva; the president of the society is M. Gustav Moynier.

In 1882, Miss Clara Barton was delegated by the President of the United
States to represent this country at the Congress of the Red Cross
Committee, and was made a member of the International Board of Managers
when the United States signed the international treaty.

It was decided that the work of the Red Cross Society should not be
confined to times of war, but that in case of disasters and calamities,
which were always to be apprehended, the organization was to provide
aid. During the past seventeen years the American Red Cross Society has
served in fifteen disasters and famines, and Russians, Armenians, and
Cubans have received aid from this society.

* * * * *

Friday, June 3d, Samuel Plimsoll, known as the "sailors' friend," died
in England. Plimsoll was the originator of the famous "Plimsoll mark,"
and this is what caused him to be called the sailors' friend. Many
years ago it was the custom of unprincipled ship-owners to send their
vessels to sea very much overloaded; this was done to save the expense
of a double voyage, for in those days there were few steam merchantmen,
and sailing-vessels oftentimes took months for their voyages. The
Plimsoll mark is painted on the vessel to indicate how much cargo she
should carry. When a vessel has her full cargo the Plimsoll mark is at
the water-line; laws were passed making it illegal to load vessels so
deeply as to sink this mark below the surface of the water, and in
consequence sailors' lives are not risked in overloaded vessels.

* * * * *

Some very interesting questions have arisen in reference to the
difference of time between Manila and New York. The difference between
Manila and New York is about eleven hours; when it is five in the
morning in Manila, it is four in the afternoon with us. In order to
change Manila time to our time we must deduct about eleven hours. This
is all very simple so far as hours are concerned; but when we try to
find out what day it is we run against a more complicated matter, for
there is a certain place, or rather a certain mysterious line, which the
great nations have agreed upon as the international date line. This date
line is supposed to be the 180th meridian longitude reckoning from
Greenwich; but this meridian