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THE WORLD'S BIG GUNS.
Some of the Monsters Built for the
ami Forts of foreign Powers.
The progress of thirty years in
strut ting heavy guns has been
dinary. The largest pieces found on
vessels in 1800 threw a ball weighing
pounds, with an initial velooity of
feet per second, and an energy of
foot tons. Now initial velocities in
power guns have l>een increased to
feet; projectiles at the maximum
as much as 2,000 Tjounds, and in
cases are propelled by charges of nearly
half a ton of powder, while the 110-ton
guns of the Beiibow reach an energy
alxait 00,000 foot tons.
Passing over the triumphs obtained by
intermediate calibers, which were remark¬
able; in their day, we find that the largest
French steel guns, such as are used
the armament of the Terrible, completed
at Brest; the Requin, built at Bordeaux;
the Indomitable, built at L’Orient, and
the Caiman, finished at Toulon, weigh
each about 70 tons. They deliver a pro
jectilc, weighing 1,710 pounds, with a
muzzle velocity of 1,789 feet per second
and a muzzle energy of 80,000 foot tons.
The guns are rifled breechloaders. The
French have other powerful guns, those
constructed on the Bange system being
well known.
The Armstrong guns now mounted for
service in the Italian armor clads Duilio,
Dandola, Italia, and Lepanto, weigh 100
tons each, and throw a projectile of 2,000
pounds. 11 lose have long been familiar,
but the later breech loading guns are
improvements over the early muzzle
loaders. The most powerful of them
take a powder charge of about 772
pounds, and have an initial velocity of
1,835 foot per second, and a muzzle en
orgy of 51,000 foot tons. Guns of 105
tons have also been made at Elswick for
the Francesco Lauria, the Andrea Dona
and the Morosini. In these tho weight
of the charge is 900 pounds, tho weight
of the projectile 2,000 pounds, themuz
zle energy 50,547 foot tons. These will
undoubtedly prove most formidable
weaj tons.
The largest ICrupp gun weighs nearly
119 tons. It is over 40 feet long, has a
caliber of 15 3-4 inches, and fires a shot
weighing 2,814 pounds, with a muzzle
velocity of 1,800 feet. The maximum
elevation gives it a range of nearly 7 1-2
miles. Its power of penetration into
wrought iron is estimated at alxiut 41
inches at tho muzzle, 81 inchesatthe dis¬
tal ice of 1,100 yards and 30 inches at 8,000
yards. At the distance of three miles its
striking average is still about 28,000 foot
tons. The Italians have two of those guns
mounted in a shore battery, for which
purpose they are intended.
The English 110-ton gun, manufac¬
tured at Elswick, is about 44 feet
long, ami its actual weight 247,795
pounds. The screw block, removed in
loading, weighs 2 1-4 tons. The projec¬
tile is a bolt weighing 1,800 pounds, and
10 1-4 inches in diameter. With 850
pounds of powder the actual muzzle
velocity attained was 2,078 feet, and the
muzzle energy 34,000 foot tons; so that
with 950 pounds, which the gun is con¬
structed to use, an energy on the projec
tile of 02,700 foot tons is expected. The
recoil of the gun is very small. The
British also have a powerful new gun in
their 63-ton steel breechloader, which
will lie carried on the Rodney. It is ex
pected to throw a 13 1-4-inch shot, of
1,250 pounds, with a powder charge of
580 pounds, and to attain 2,100 feet
muzzle velocity. Should these expecta¬
tions be realized, this gun, though much
lighter, will be more destructive than
the 80-ton gun of the Inflexible, which
takes a projectile of 1,700 pounds, with
a cartridge of 450 pounds, reaching a
muzzle velocity of 1,000 feet.
It is said that the next step attempted
in heavy gun construction will be that of
a 150-ton monster, this project being at
tributed to the Essen works It would
throw a shell six feet long, weighing a
ton and a half. There are also some guns
un<Ter construction which are expected
accomplish groat results on
new theories, as in the case of (he one
manufactured for Col. Hope. This is
take an enormous powder charge, and
j have correspondingly great penetrative
effect. But without going into the pos¬
sible successes of the future, those which
have already been achieved are suffi
ciently astonishing.—New York Sun.
Advice to Pall Bearers.
When a man is asked to act as a
bearer at a funeral, he ought to seek out
the other pall bearers before they assume
; their crape and their mournful air, and
practice the lockstep with them for fin
hour or so, or at least until he can
; confident that they are going to keep
i when they lift the coffin and start off
with it. I was a pall bearer recently,
and my arms and knees pain me now
with the recollection. When a party of
pall bearers take up a coffin and step out
of time, the weight comes principally
upon the two end bearers, and it is no
j easy thing for two men to sustain by the
sharp handles of a coffin the weight of
the casket itself and the corpse within.—
Globe-Democrat.
Christine Nilsson’s Apartments.
Christine furnished’ Nilsson, the wife of Count
Miranda, and decorated her
apartments in a stylo that is the talk of
the town. The dining room presents a
most original appearance. The walls are
papered throughout with hotel bills, set
tied by the diva on her professional tours,
The Tlio drawing drawingroom room is is decorated, decorated, in in lieu lieu
G f paper hangings, with the faded leaves
G f all the wreaths ever received by the
artiste, arranged in the form of scales,
The ceiling is entirely covered with gilt
foliage. The walls of the boudoir are
from floor to ceiling with the
musical score and the text of all the airs
which Mme. Nilsson is accustomed to
sing,
The bedroom of the countess is fur
nished with extreme simplicity, out the
walls are completely hidden from view
by Swedish landscapes which three
French artists have received a commis
sion to paint for the songstress, who has
left her country never to return. The
billiard room of the master of the house
testifies to the anxiety of the prima pnma
donna to convince her husband of her
great abilities; for here you see affixed to
the walls thousands of reports in all lan
guages, cuttings from all the newspapers
in the world.—Detroit Free Press.
Washington's Land Advertisement.
Dr. Alfred, of Ocala, Fla., has a copy of
The Baltimore Advertiser and Journal,
dated Aug. 23, 1773. In it is a graphic
land advertisement by George Washing
ton, offering 20,000 acres of the finest
and richest land in the world and situ
ated in the Kanawha valley, W. Va.
The doctor purchased it at the sale of
the library of ex-Governor Winslow, of
North Carolina, thirty-seven years ago,
and prizes it highly. He has refused
several flattering offers for it by relic
hunters.—New York Tribune.
“Taking” Conversation.
You will be surprised to have me tell
you that I think stenographically; that
} R > when you say a word I at once imag
uie the character that I ha ve used so long
to represent it. Conversaiion is one of
the things that no honest stenographer
will pretend he can take correctly. You
can’t indicate the breaks, the flashes of
thought and feeling that make up half
of it.—Col. E. B. Dickinson.
The Longest River.
According to the latest authorities the
Missouri-Mississippi river is not only the
longest in name, but the longest in extent
of stream in the world—4,382 miles.
The next longest is the Nile—4,000 miles
—and the next in order the Amazon and
Congo.—Brooklyn Eagle.
——
During the past year the national debt
of England was decreased $29,199,518.
THE FUTURE OF CHICAGO.
A Prophecy by \Y. H. II. Murray—Can*
nda’s Future Population.
Chicago is the commercial center of a
surrounding country {00,000,000 destined, within a
lifetime, to contain of indus¬
trious, thrifty, and luxury loving people.
The population of London is to that of
England and Wales as four to twenty-six.
And should the population of Chicago
ever hold the same relation to the popu¬
lation of the ten great states that encircle
and are commercially tributary to her as
London holds to England and Wales her
census will, as surely as the sun rises
over the prairies, show the enormous
total of 20,000,000 of souls. Nor is this
to be vastly wondered at when one con¬
siders that she is the queen city, the cen¬
ter and outlet of such an agricultural
area as can nowhere else be found on the
globe; that she is already the third man¬
ufacturing city of the continent; that the
total value of her trade is more than $1,
000,000.000 per year, and that 15,000
vessels arrived at and sailed from her
wharves last year, with a tonnage of
nearly 5,000,000.
Very well. Now, over the line which
is the boundary between Minnesota and
Canada is a section of country as large as
eleven lllinoises, whose soil is the best on
the earth, and over which si lines a most
productive sun. Here is richness of soil;
here is plenty of moisture; here is a most
growthful climate; here is the last unoc¬
cupied, and, perhaps, the most productive
wheat belt on the continent. What else
is wanted? One thing. Give me one
thing more and I will predict that, in
this great Canada and the west, within
the length of a healthy human life will
be found eleven geographical divisions,
as large, as prosperous and as rich as is
the great state of Illinois today. What
is that one thing? you ask. I answer:
Coal.
In Illinois two feet in every three of
her entire area are underlaid with coal.
A poor man in Illinois can get his coal at
$3.50 a ton. If there had been no coal
there, then could there be no population,
or next to none. Coal was wanted as a
prime condition of the Canadian future,
as measured by the populational possibili¬
ties of this vast area of hers, and coal,
coal in abundance, has been found. That
solved the problem of the size of Canada’s
future population, for it left it contingent
only on climate and soil, which are both
perfect. The best wheat bearing belt,
now unoccupied, on the continent; a
healthy climate, popular government and
cheap fuel, these are the auspicious con¬
ditions which, joined in happy conjunc¬
tion, make an otherwise dark and uncer¬
tain future suddenly flame with the
splendor of a summer sunrise when it
comes to the flowers :md grasses of the
vast prairie land of which I am speaking,
for they surely and on the instant en¬
larged the possibilities, nay, the certain¬
ties, of Canada as to her future popula¬
tion being beyond any fixed measure¬
ment.
The question may be asked, whence is
this great Canadian population to come?
How is the real Canada to be peopled?
But the Canada that has been, nay,
that is today, is not the real Canada.
Americans should not forget this. The
real Canada of the future lies not east
and north, but west of Ontario. Winni¬
peg, and not Montreal, is the geograph¬
ical center. Its commercial center is not
Toronto, but Chicago. North and west
of Lake Superior lies a vast area of terri¬
tory as productive as to the nature of its
soil, and as attractive to civilization as
any equal extent of territory on the face
of the globe. lrom it eleven states as
large as the great state of Illinois can be
carved. Here more than 20,000,000 of
people will, in a few years, compara¬
tively, find their home.—W. H. H. Mur¬
ray in Chicago Herald.
Steel framed cabs are now being manu
factured in England, with a view to light
ness and greater durability than if wood
were used for Lie » arpodc.
A Counterfeit 8500 Bill.
As an example of slight differences be
tween the spurious bills and the
as to tax to its utmost even a
eye, the following description of a
terfeit $500 is cited:
t 4 Unquestionably one of the most
gerous counterfeits in existence.
engraving and workmanship nearly
to the genuine; the lathe work is
lent, numbering of the work fair
color good. The star on the right of
treasury number is somewhat
The portrait of J. Q. Adams is
but the lobe of the ear is very indistinct
In the counterfeit, the button upon
coat nearest the lapel is almost
in the genuine it is round. The vignett
of the figure of Justice is finely engrave* J
with the exception of the following points*
As the scale is held aloft in the left liam
the upright holding the beam is crooked
and is larger in the counterfeit than in
the genuine—in the genuine the uprigli
shows only to the lower part of the hand
second while in finger the counterfeit from the base; it shows the to whitl th]
curve genuine, in the while arm in is the a counterfeit perfect oval it in is not! thj
The left foot of the vignette, as it extendi
from the garment, in the counterfeit, presents a clubbed while tlJ ajJ
pearancc cl
toes are short and not half the length
the genuine. The parallel ruling is exl
cellent; tlio note is printed on fiber papej teiQ
and is signed John Allison, Register,
F. E. Spinner, Treasurer. Bankers anq
others should receive these notes witl
great care, as it is only by a comparu
son with the genuine that the majoriti
of experts can positively decide as to till
genuineness of a note of this class. ’ ’ I
No one will doubt the last statement in
tion the above to whether description. have When $500 the in ques]
as you yoiu
pocket, or a fifty cent chromo, depends
on the somewhat distinctness of a star,,
the shape of a button, or the indistinct¬
ness of an ear, matters are being drawn
pretty fine.—Chicago Herald. {
Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
The original of this is written
common official paper, and is in the hand
of President Lincoln, save the
and third paragraphs, which are printed.
Tho printed paragraphs were cut
the previous proclamation of Sept. 22
and pasted upon the sheet by Mr.
coin himself, to save the labor of writing
them. The attest is in the hand of
Secretary Seward—a handwriting
greatly unlike that of the president,
that it is larger and rather more regular,
When the secretary of state started
pen the attest there appears to have
a raveling in his pen, for as far as
sixth word, ‘‘hereunto,” the lines
heavy and partly blurred. The signature
of the president is more tremulous
the body of the document, and
pears poor as a specimen of
among the straight lines of Mr. Scwarjjj
firm hand. The tremulousness was^M
not to nervousness, signed l ut to proclamatio^| the fficBJlf
Mr. Lincoln the
New Year’s day, after having shaken
hands By with singular several incident hundred there people. feall ^
a
exists today two original copies df th
emancipation proclamation. Th/C iua
dent consists in the fact that Mr.
coin, at the request of the British
museum, made, with his own hand. Thisjj aJ
second copy of his great paper.
unlike that the that attest preserved is filled out at Washington^ by hanilJ
a
that of either the president or the s9
of state. The paper used -warn
parchment about twenty™
thirty-six inches. It is now elegant
and may be seen hanging in oi
the library rooms in the Biitii
News.
High, But We Must Have It.
The old man sat by the sea alone
And scanned the hotel bill, so stiff,
And sighed as he said, “I've bought ozonq
At the rate of £2 a v.-hiiT.'*
—Washington critic.
