Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

Washington. Mr. I TaE NATION’S PROGRESS. Nimxo, Chief of the Bureau of Statis tics, Sums Up the National Ad vancement of the Past Year. Mr. Nimrno, Chief of the Bureau of Statistics of the Treasury Department, addressed to Rev. I)r. Theodore S. 'Wynfcoop, pastor of the W stern Presbyterian church of Philadelphia, •the following letttr, which is made public: “Yesterday you asked me to give you such statistical and other facts as might be of str /ice to you in the preparation of your Thanksgiv ing sermon. In reply I cheerfully give you such data as I have some what hastily prepared. “The Depnr.ment of Agriculture es timates the corn crop of this year at 1,680,000,(01) bushels, as against 1,194,- 3)16,009 bushels in 1881. The latest estimate of the wheat crop of the sea son of 1882 is 500,000,000 bushels, as against 38 ),280,(9J bus-iels in 1881. ‘‘The value of our domestic expor ts during the fiscal year ended June 30, 18S2, was $733 239 732, as against $883 - 5925 947 during 1881, a haling oil of $150,686,215. This, however, was due almost entirely to the failure of the crops of the country during the season of 1881, a result attributable to the drought and other unfavorable mete orological influences which prevailed so extensively throughout the country during that season. In view of the fact that on the average about 80 per cent, of our exports abroad consist of products of agriculture, it is evident that an unfavorable season must vtry much diminish the value of our ex ports. But, notwithstanding the fact that the season oi ISM was one of the most unfavorable ev r known, we still l ©no’ugii and t> spare, and besides a large quantity of ct t on* for export. The value of our export of bread and breadstufls during the year ended June 30,1882, the same being the product of the crop of 1881,amount ed to $182,679,528. The value of our exports of cotton was $198,812,644. We also considerably increased the value of our exports of manu faotured artic les. The foregoing facts indicate the exuberance of our soil and the vigor of our industrial enterprises. Our im ports during the year ended June 30, 11882, amounted to $724,639 574, being larger than during any previous year the history of the country. •‘Notwithstanding the decrease of tr exports, owing to the cause above eferred to, and the increase of our im ports, the balance of trade in our favor was nearly $26,000,000. “But the foreign commerce of the country is of small value in compari son with the value of our internal ommerce. Railroads are now the mnclp&l highways of transportation in our internal trade. The number of tons Jranspi lfied on fifteen leading trunk railroads of the United States during the last fiscal year, of which returns can be obtained, amounted to 596,663,160 tons against 84,199,344 tons duriq crease road mileage of the United Sates on the 1st of January, 1882, was 104 813 miles. There were built in the United States during the year 1881, 9386 miles of main line, or nearly twenty-six miles of railroad per day. “Already we have two completed lines of railroad stretchftg across the continent. U elder date of October 17th, T. F. Oaks, Vice-Presidc-ut of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company, informed me that the line will be completed by the beginning of Sep tember, 1883, and Mr. C. P. Hunting- ton, of the S cithern Pacific Railroad Company, informed me, uuder date of October 3, that the line of the Atlan tic and Pacific Railroad Company, intermediate between the Union Pa cific and Southern Paoitic Railroads, would be completed In about twelve months from date. We shall tl have four lines of railroad across the continent. “The consumption of coal, the chief motive power of commerce and of in dustry, is one of the best indices of the condition of the oouutry. The quan tity of coal marketed during the year 1881, the latest year for which we have statistics, amounted to 79,905,000 tons as ag&Aust 69,200,934 tons during g year. ease of the facilities for constitutes another iu- The Western Uuion, hioh o wns the princl- telegraph lines of the noreased its number of from 288,581 Jin 1880 to ! 374,^94 in 1882. The wires operated I by that company would reach fifteen times around the world. The popula tion of rhe United States w»s, in 1870, 88,558,371 and in 188), 50,155,783 ; an increase of 11,597 412. “S.uce the world began there has not been seen in any other country a material development so grandly com pliant. with the Divine edict, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it.’ “In view of all the cheering evi dences of development and of prosper ity to which I have referred, every American whose heart swells with lie spirit of thanksgiving may ex claim : ‘I have a goodly heiitage.’ “it strikes me. however, that the commercial view of cur reasons for thanksgiving is, comparatively speak ing, a lev one. My friend, Professor John Eaton, Commissioner of Educa tion, has, however, furnished me with s uuething rather more elevated in ch tracter. He states that the number of pupils enrolled in public schools in 1680 was 9,781,52 >, constituting 63 per cent, of the total school population of tlieUuited States in 1880. The total number of pupils enrolled in colored public schools in the receat slave Spates in 1880 was 784,709, and consti tuted 44 per cent, of the total colored tchool population in those States. Tins ie a pretty fair showing, I think, for a population which lately came out of slavery with its absolute illiteracy, into freedom. It is also creditable to the States ot which tbe enfranchised race are now citiz :us. I think there are many cheering evi- d ncea of the fact that the colored peo- p.e in the Soutuern States are advau- cing as citizens and as workers. “I am unable to give you just now any further indications of our social progress or any facts touching the still higher q lestion as to Low far our resources of soil and of mine, oar in dustrial activities, our transportation facilities, and the advantages afforded by the agency of steam and electricity haye tended to elevate the moral status of the people of this country and have fruited in character. You are better able to supply information of that scrl,.”—Philn. Record. l^jre present fiscal year, an in- el^Sjearly 15 per cent. The rail- Build on Hard-Pan. The Rev. Robert Collyer delivered an address t > the students at Easton College, in the course of which he re marked that he had worked on a farm, carried a hod, shod horses, broke stone on a turnpike, reaped and cra dled grain, dug a well, eut wood, and preached sermons that nobody wanted to hear. His wonderful success had been achieved by pure grit and honest industry. You must dig down to hard- pan, he said, to lay a foundation to fame and fortune. The reverend gentleman seems to have drawn most of his inspiration from Poor Richard’s Almanac. His aphorisms may be grouped as follows : Work is good medicine. A man’s best friends are his ten fin gers. Society says one thing and nature says another. Any kind of an honest job is better than no job at all. Take a dollar a day tor your wor£ if you can get no more. Have a reserve force that will come out when you need it. The honest man who dies poor is rich if he only holds his own. Only those who make clean money and do clean things win success. A good day’s woik at what you can bent do is tflie hard-pan to which all must come. When country boys come to the city, if they can hoi i on the old sweet ways they can defy the world. Sleep eight hours out of the twenty- four, cat three meals a day, and walk on the sunny side of the way. Keep your grip on the hard-pan of principle and good conduct, and you will be men of good name and good fortune. When a boy fills a house with bugs he is all right, provided he don’t run after humbugs. He has the making in him of a great naturalist. A good farmer is better than a poor doctor, and a good horse slioer is better than a bishop who preaches sermons that nobody wants to hear. When evil days come, as evil days will, no man deserves the title of gen- tlemau If he does not take honest work to do regardless of social in fluences. She shipped film : A lawyer rec< ntly lost a bride in a peculiar way. He appeared at the wedding,but, on being oalled to the ceremony,from sheer force of habit protested that he was not ready to proceed and demanded delay. And so the bride got mad and shipped him. Slipshod Knowledge. Ia a debate during the last agitation for reform Mr. John Bright compared a certain clique iii the House of Com mons to the occupants of the “Cave of Adullam.” A reference to the news papers of the time will sh >w that by many persons the allusion was sup posed to be classical ( ioubtleas from the appearance of the phrast), and tiie fact that it was scriptural dawned but slowly on the public mind Tim is one example of many inst mces of the slipshod nature of public knowledge Many quotations which have become “old sayings” are attributed to the Bible or to Shakespeare, according to the likeness they bear either to the expressions of Holy Writ, or to the writings of tbe great dramatist, and the supposed connection has been so often reiterated that it has become generally accepted or taken for granted, few persons ever thinking of doubting the relationship, anti fewer still ir uibling to inquire into the mat ter. “God tempers toe wind to the shorn iamb” was long attributed to the “Psalms of David, uulil oft-re peated corrections have convinced people that the sentiment belongs to Maria, in Laurence Sterne’s “Senti mental Journey.” The epigram, “Spare the rid and spoil the cnild,” is still often quoted as one of the prov erbs of S ilomon, and is rarely at tributed to its author, Butler (^ee Hundibras, Part II., canto 2, line 84)). The nearest approach to any such phrase to be found in the Bible is tiie tex : “He who spareth the rod hateth his son” (Prov., xiii.: 24) The refer ence to “pouring oil on troubled wa ters” is often supposed to be Scriptural, though the Bible does not make any such allusion. “Man wants but little here below” is an expression no older than Goldsmith’s “Hermit,” though it is generally quoted either as Scrip ture or as a Hue from an ancient hymn. “Manslensof the blest” are mentioned iu the Revelations, not of Sc. John the Divine, but to the Monk of Eve sham (A. D. 1496). The critic who complained of “Ham let” that it was “too full of quota tions,” did not generalize more errone ously in attributing to others what be longs to S lakespeare than do those who attribute to Shakespeare what belongs to other writers. “Richard’s himself again,” and “Oft with his head, so much for Buckingham,” are cer amly to be found in “R chard IIr,” but tlaey are iu Coll y Cibber’s play, not in Shakespeare’s ; while on the other hand, “A horse, a horse ; my kingdom for a hi ne,” so often quoted as Colley Cibber’s, was actually written by Shakespeare. The instances of this inexactness are very numerous. r lhe Bfble is credited with many things written by Pope; many of the utter ances of Sancbo Panza are put down to Shakespeare ; while the galaxy of epi grams in Stephen G ussen’s f-chool of Abuse (A, D. 1579) are attributed to almost every onw but the author of them. Pnonics are a fruitful source of error. The sound of a word often leads astray those who acquire knowledge in a slipshod fashion. People have long been familiar with the cocoanut or fruit of the palm-tree; but it is only within the last few years that they have become acquainted with the bev erage obtained from the cocoa shrub. The result has been that the word “cocoa” is used for the product of both plants, and many people think that both tiie nut and the “nibs” have the same source ; tnus similarity of sound causes a complete misapprehension. A more serious err >r is in regard to the etymology of the word “Bombay.” To those acquainted with the Ro manic languages, the word has cer tainly the appearance of meauing “good hay,” or “good harbor.” It can have been nothing hut this ap- petrauce which led so careful a writer as Harlet Martineau.as well as Oiitram ami many other writers, to gravely as sure us that the Portuguese, on discov ering the place, and observing ttie fine haven iu front of it,exclaimed : “Buou Bahia!” (“good hay”). Tne state ment, however,is quite erroneous. The name dates from a pet iod anterior to the anival ot the Portuguese iu India. By ttie natives the name is still writ ten Mauibe, and very often Bambe. In the E ist the initials “B” and “M” are frequently used promiscuously. In tiie Koran, Mecca is written of as Iu Pipy’s diary the word is l Bombaiu,and soon after Pepy’s it became Bombay. Tbe name is Srived from Mambe, and the piaoe is^> called beoause there was on the and a temple dedicated to that god- Another instance of an error in. the phrase “setting the Tiaames on fire.” The substitution of the name of a river for the correct word entirely deprives the expression of any meau ing, and so general has the errer be come that, foolish though the mistake is, it is perhaps useless to attempt to restore the true signification of the saying, which, like many others, is traceable to the domestic pursuits of our forefathers before machinery did so much of their work. Many year, ago, before machinery was introduced into flour mills for the purpose of sift ing flour, it was the custom of tie miller to send it .away unsifted. The process of sifting was done at home, thus : Tne temse or sieve, which was moved with a rim that projected from the bottom of it, was worked over the mouth of the barrel into which the fl mr or meal was sifted. The active fellow, who worked hard, not unfrs- quentiy wet the rim on fire by force of friit on against tbe flour barrel ; so that this depar ment of domestic em ployment became a standari by which to teat a man’s wdl and capacity to work hard. Tnus of a lazy fellow, nr one deficient in strength, it was said he “will never set the temsa on fire.” Tiie word is still in common use in Lincolnshire to signify the sieve used by brewers to remove the hops from the beer. The errors in history and geography arising from a slipshod method of ascertaining facts are so numerous and widely spread that they are to be found even In text books and standard primers. Almost every schoolboy will djelare that Mont Blanc is in Switzerland, and will produce his “school hook” iu priof of his asser tion. A reference, however, t) a stand ard boon o i geography (Keith Johu- ston’s Gtography, 1880), or to a good atlas, will show that Mont Blanc Is iu France. Again, tbe introduction of tobacco into England, usually cod. sidere 1 one of the main events in the life of Sir Walter Raleigh, will he found by those who care to inquire into the sui j *ct to he due to Sir John Hawking about the year 1565, For the irnpor ation of the narcotic in quantity, and for the knowledge of how to smoke it, we are indebted to Captain Ralph Lane. After this the reader will not be surprised to learn that the aueodote which records how Raleigh’s servant threw a jug of beer over her master, uuder the impression that he was on tire when he was only smoking a pipe, is a pure fiction, not associated with Raleigh’s name until 1726. The story is told of a Welshman in the Irish Hxbbub, or the English Hue and Cry (A. D. 1619), as follows: “A certaine Welshman comming newly to London, and beholding one to take tobacco, never seeing the like before, and not knowing the manner of it, but perceiving him vent smoke so fast, and supposing bis inward parts to be on fire, cried out: “Oh, Jhesu, JlieBU, man! for the passion of G)d hold, for, by Goo’s splud, ty snowt’a on fire! ” and, having a bowle of beere in his hand, threw it at the other’s face to quench his smok ing nose.” A similar story is related of Tarlton in Tarlton’s jests (A. D. 1611). All anecdotes of great men should be received with caution. The person who declared that his religion was the religion of all sensible men, aud on being asked : “What is that ?” replied : “All sensible men keep tnat to themselves,” is said to Talleyrand, Thackeray aud a host of othtrs. Auother error in history to be found in many hooks even pretendiug to au thority iH that trial by j ary was es tablished by Kmg Alfred. A refer ence to Green s “His ory of the Eng lish People,” Section 8, will show that it was not in existence until the reign of H«nry the Second. Again, even standard works declare that William the*First was surnamed the “Con queror” beoause lie conquered Eug- land ; but according to the greatest authority on English law this circum- stmee was at best hut tbe penultimate cause of the title given, to the Norman warrior. Blackstoue 'explains in his chapter on “ Title by Purchase” that “Purchase, perquisitis, taken in its largest sense, is defined the possession of lands aud tenements, which a man hath by his own act or agreemeut,and not by descent. . What we call purchase the feudist oalled cou- qutst, both denoting any means of ac quiring an estate otherwise than by inheritance. Hence the appellation given to William the Norman, signi fying that he was tbe first of his family who acquired the crown of England. This is tne legal signification of the word purchase.” l literal history and in geography tiie state o knowledge among the general public is anything but exact. I might be shown that in every other department of knowledge the same feature obtains. There Is a work on “caulking” which shows that the author does not know how to spell the name of the thing he is writing about, for a reference to Caambers’ Dictionary, or auv other similar standard work, will ehow that Hie “u” iu “caulk” is as much out of place as it would be in chalk, talk and walk. Even men wher think themselves educated still imagine that thunder- holts exist, iu fact, instead of merely in ihe imagination of the ancients, as is recorded in Homer that Jupiter had His triple thunder and his bolts of Are. In comparing the soldierly qualities of Wellington aud Napoleon it is often forgotten that they only met once in battle—viz , on the fi fid of Waterloo. Lord Btaconsfield was jeered at by his opponents and admired by his friends for the use of the phrase “Peace with honor,” while, as a mat ter of fact, it was first used not by him hut to him in a civic address at Dover, when his lordship landed there on his return from Berlin. Up to this day it is often said tnat J. 8. Mill styled the Conservatives the “stupid pnr:y,” though what the gr.iat philosopher actually said was : “Show me aatupid man and I will show you a Conserva tive.” Surely even a dull man can see that Mr. Mill might think that all stupid men were Conservatives with out believing that all Conservatives were stupid. “Double entendre,” used as a noun by so many English people, is a sim ple barbarism, the correct expression being “double entente,” as every French scholar is perfectly aware. A serious error often made, both in Par liament aud the press, is in the state ment that the demand creates the supply, and on the basis of the false theory numberless fallacies are erected. Students of Adam Smith know well enough that although demand affects supply it does not create it. On the other hand, it is supply that creates demand. There was no demand for stockings or steam engines until they were invented—that is, until there was a supply of them.—All the Year Round. Pious Gems. Plant blessings and blessings will bloom ; P ant bate an J hate will grow ; You can sow to-day—to-morrow shall bring i he blossom that proves what sort of a thin Is the seed—tae seed that you sow. In your temptations go to the pro ises. They are the branches the L has hung over the water, that his drowned children mav take a gr them, without which they will g bottom. Home Is more near, O, Lord, by every passing day ; Home is more dear By every prayer I pray. Science is but a mere heap of facts, not a golden chain of truths, if We re fuse to link it to the throne of God. » All—all is turned to fair, Aye! to a scheme of ordered happiness, So soon as we love God, or rather know That God loves us! A Christian’s experience is like rainbow, mafile up of drops of th grief of earth, and beams of the blis of heaven. O God, my sins are manifold; against my life they cry, And all ruy guilty deeds foregone up to Thy temple tly, Wilt Thou release my trembling soul, that to despair Is driven ? “Forgive !” a blessed voice rtp’.led, “and thou shall be forgiven.” All things work together for good. This is a Jacob’s stall in the hand of faith, with which we may walk cheer fully to the Mount of God. What will satisfy or give content, if this will not? The expression, “Work together,” re fers to medicine. Several poisonous iugredieuts put together, being tem pered by the skill of the apothecary t make a sovereign medicine, aud work together for the good of the patient. So all God’s provideuoes, viuely tempered and sanctified; work together for the best, sainta. He who loves God, a oalled according to his purpose, rest assured that everything world shall be for his good. Thi Curistiau’s cordial, which may him—make him like Jonathan, when he had tasted the noney end of the rod, “his eyes wti lightened.” Why should a Christ destroy himself ? Why should he himself with oare, when all thl shall sweetly conour, his good.