Every European country has stringent laws on the composition of beer. I wonder how long American beer which rots the shoes of the bartender, and brings paralysis to his right hand, would be tolerated in Germany or Britain? At the Buffalo Exposition, in the government display, was one sample of "peach brandy," the formula of which was forty gallons of proof spirits, one-half pound of an essence, one quart of sugar syrup, and a sufficient amount of coloring matter. The "bead oil" on the same shelf, it was claimed, was a solution of soap intended to produce a "bead" on liquors, and thereby give the appearance of age. Could anything better prove the need of a government standard than the above, or the further facts that one man is now in the penitentiary for fraudulent use of the United States mail in advertising ground soapstone as a flour adulterant, and that fifteen cheaper oils are now used to adulterate pure olive oil? If I were a young college woman I would go in for chemistry, and make myself a food specialist for grocers, exporters, and importers. I would make my home in some large institution where the food question as to what nutriments the body needs, and what will produce best results at the least cost, could be tested scientifically. I would take the cook and her helpers into a loving partnership to improve the dietetics of the establishment, and yet reduce expenses. There is a new business now ready for earnest college women. XX DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR THE Department of the Interior was created by act of Congress in 1849. When the names of its subdivisions are enumerated, it will readily be seen that no adequate description of it can be given in one or two chapters. It comprises the Patent Office, the Pension Office, General Land Office, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Education, Commissioner of Railroads, and the Office of the Geological Survey. Each office is managed by a commissioner or director, who has under him a large force of officials and clerks. In the chief building of the Department of the Interior, fronting on F Street, and extending from Seventh to Ninth, and from F to G Streets, may be found the Patent Office of the United States. No other department so well reveals the inventive genius of the most inventive people on earth. Once at a table in Paris a Frenchman said to me: "The Americans are inventors because they are lazy." "Well," I said, "I have heard many surprising charges against my countrymen, but that excels all. How do you make that out?" "Well, I am a manufacturer. I set an American boy to keep a door open; before half an hour he has invented a machine which will open and shut it, and I find my boy playing marbles." [Illustration: Photo by Clinedinst THE PATENT OFFICE ] "Sensible boy! Yes, with that view of it, maybe we are; we certainly do not care to do by hand that which a machine can better perform."