Newspaper Page Text
Ohio has declared election day by
law to be a legal holiday.
Sir Charles Russell says the keynote
of reform in England is “one man,
one vote.”
The scheme to number the hours ot
the day up to 24, instead of 12 and re¬
peat, seems to be gaining popularity,
especially among railroad managers.
It is said that the Jocks on the gov¬
ernment vaults in Washington are so
weak that most any burglar could pick
thorn
While the debt of Great Britan has
been reduced nearly $12,000,000 in
three years, Germany’s has increased
nearly $95,000,000.
The Comte de Bizernont or the
French Geographical Society says
Frenchmen have no sympathy for Ex¬
plorer Stanley, and would not do him
honor.
During the last eignt years the
United States have increased prodigi¬
ously in population and business, but
during that period the amount of
money in circulation has shrunk sev¬
eral hundred millions of dollars.
Mr- Ozaki, a Japanese editor, who
tias lately visited Europe, has contrib¬
uted to the Japanese magazine a paper
entitled, “Value of Men Returning
Home from the West,” in which he
says that the majority of Japanese who
travel are a disgrace to Japan.
There is a dissatisfaction in Cuba.
People are leaving the island for
South America. High taxes have
caused 400,000 farms to be seized. It
costs $14,000,000 a year to support the
military and naval establishment, and
Cuba foots the bill.
Artesian wells are being put down
In great numbers in the district of
Riverside, in California, and owing to
them, this district, which v/as pre¬
viously uninhabited on account of the
scarcity of drinking water, ha6 now a
population of 7000.
The New Orleans Picayune asserts
that In northern Michigan there are
many counties without a church of any
denomination, and thousands of men,
women and children g/ow up in the
towns and in the woods who never
have heard the word of God or seen a
church.
“We may not produce the greatest
philosophers or theologians,” moralizes
the Chicago Herald,“but we can claim
the proud distinction of using the most
soap. For every 100 pounds used in
the United Stales, England uses 85;
Germany, 83; France, 85; Sweden,
70; Italy, 37; Bulgaria, 35, and Mex¬
ico 27.”
According to the laws of Italy, fath¬
ers are responsible for their sons’ re¬
turn when they leave the country, and,
should they not return to do the mili¬
tary duty required of them, are put in
prison. A young Italian, who had
been living in Waldoboro, Me., re¬
turned to his native land recently, to
save his father from a term of im¬
prisonment.
One of the greatest hardships of the
grain growers of Russia is the want of
adequate means for storing and trans¬
porting their produce, At certain
periods cfjhe year 6uch quantities are
brought to the railways that a sufficient
number of wagons for transport is not
to be had, nor are the railways pre¬
pared to store it. Piled up in sacks in
the open air, exposed to rain and
mow, much of it becomes damaged
and worthless.
A great many stories are told about
the parsimoniousness of Tamagno, the
great Italian tenor. Although receiv¬
ing $2,000 a night for singing he al¬
ways stopped while in America in
second-class hotels. lie cooked spag¬
hetti in a chafing-dish in his room, and
rather than pay 20 cents a bottle for
beer in the hotels he would send out
and get 10 cents’ worth in a pitcher
from the nearest saloon. Coming
back from Mexico he had a special
stateroom in a Mann car, along with
the other artists. He had an alcohol
cooking stove on board, and he actual¬
ly brought live chickens into the car
and killed and cooked them right
there as a means of economy. And
Tamagno is worth in cold cash five
hundred thousand dollars.
It is singular, muses the Chicago
Herald, that Great Britain is the only
country in Europe where the doctrines
•f Mormonism can be promulgated in
the public streets. Elsewhere it is a
punishable offence for an elder to be
found “on the stump” at a street
corner.
William L. Scott, the Pennsylvania
coal magnet, recently said that he
would give his $20,000,000 for good
digestive apparatus, and it is now r said
of John D. Rockfeller, the richest
man in the United States, that he looks
as though in ill health and his face is
almost ashy. It is the face of a man
who is never free from worry and re¬
sponsibility. His brow has eett.ed
into a permanent frown. The poor
multi-millionaires are having a tough
time.
It seems strange and unreal, declares
the San Francisco Chronicle, to read
that Mrs, Amelia Bloomer,who created
so great a sensation by her peculiar
costume, is still alive in Iowa. She
fondly imagined over forty years ago
that women would soon be emanci-
pated from skirts, but she has probably
discovered before this that the fair sex
is very conservative, and that the one
thing which the genuine woman
never wants to do is to look or act like
a man.
Missouri is a great state, and one o
the best evidences of the fact, in the
estimation of the Picayune, is to be
found in the magnificent provision it
makes for public education, The
amount expended on its public schools
last year vnis $4,999,842. It kept
9087 free schools in operation, fox
which were enrolled 611.541 pupils,
and in which were employed at liberal
salaries 13,654 teachers, The expen-
diture for school purposes this year
will exceed $5,000,000 considerably.
Some time ago the Wisconsin legis¬
lature enacted that in counties of 150-
000 inhabitants the estates of deceased
persons if valued at more than $3,000
and iess than $500,000 should be taxed
one half of 1 per cent., and if valued
at more than $500,000 on the excess
six-tenths of 1 per cent. The supreme
court of the state has just declared
this enactment unconstitutional.
Probably the ground of the decision
is that the constitution requires the
rule of taxation to be uniform, and
does not sanction any rule of “pro¬
gressive” taxation, At all events
that is a sufficient ground on general
principles, “Progressive” taxation
amounts to a sort of confiscation, and
it is a fine imposed upon thrift, inven-
tire genius, and business capacity.
The Chicago Sun says: “Notwith
slanding the fact that a larger amount
of business is now being done in the
United States than ever in our history
there are thousands of business men,
manufacturers, farmers, miners and
workmen who are in narrow straits,
and see very little prospect for relief.
Averaging up the entire country we
find that business is of extraordinary
proportions; that money is fairly
abundant; that failures are not in¬
creasing ; that more money- than ever
is seeking employment in new direc¬
tions; that manufacturing capacity in
almost every direction is on the in¬
crease, and that new enterprises, com¬
mercial, manufacturing, mining and
farming, are growing in number more
rapidly than last year, or, in fact, any
other year.”
Last year 2,000,000,000 bushels oi
wheat were raised in the world, so far
as records show; of this, Uncle Sam
furnished 490,000,000 bushels, or
about one-fourth. It is rather a re¬
markable fact that the little country
of France came next with 306,000,000
bushels. The reason is, that French
agriculture is in such a high state of
development that its results are a mat¬
ter of surprise to American farmers.
Great, big India comes next with
237,000,000 bushels; Russia follows
with 188,000,000 bushels; but includ-
ing Poland, a wheat raising country,
the figures are 300,000,000. Italy fur-
nishes 100,000,000; Portugal comes
poking along with 9,000,000; frozen
Denmark turns out 5,000,000. They
find enough land in Switzerland tc
raise 2,500,000 bushels. Bpain fur-
nishes 73,000,000 bushels; Germany,
S4,000,000 bushels; Hungary, 95,-
00o,000 bushels; Asia Minor, 37,000,-
000. Away off in Persia the yield it
22,000,000 bushels.
LICK OBSERVATORY.
IT CONTAINS THE GREATEST TEL-
ESCOPE IN THE WORLD.
Ite Eccentric Founder’s Bomantic Leva
Affair.
The traveler who visits California
should not fail to go to San Jose and
take the delightful ride up Mount
Hamilton, There he will 6ee the
famous Lick Observatory, with its
great telescope, the largest in the
world. From San Jose to the top of
the mountain is a distance of twenty-
seven miles, but the easiest mountain
ride I ever had the good fortune to
take.
James Lick bequeathed $050,000 for
the building of the observatory. It
stands on the top of Mount Hamilton,
the rock summit of which was leveled
down over 200 feet to give suitable
standing room for the necessary build¬
ings. The diameter of the great dome
of the observatory proper is seventy-
five feet. It is made of steel plates
and weighs 130 tons, yet by the turn¬
ing of a little wheel the dome is noise¬
lessly moved 60 that its window opens
to any part of the sky that is desired.
The telescope i6 fifty-six and a half
feet long and weighs twenty-four tons,
yet is so poised that it can be moved to
point in any direction by the turning
of a wheel or by placing your hand on
the lower end of the telescope. The
entire floor of the observatory can bo
lowered or lifted n distance of seven-
teen feet, so that the observer may sit
in his wheeled chair and follow the
moving telescope from the zenith to
the horizon.
l nder the massive iron pier sup-
pouting the telescope James Lick is
buried. There is a little romance and
“a woman in the case” that brought
James to this magnificent resting
place. Below him stretches the beau¬
tiful valley of Santa Clara, inclosed 011
the west by a range of low hills cov-
ered with orchard and vine and be¬
yond the great ocean; to the east and
southeast the snowy tops of the Sierra
Nevada range glitter in the sunlight,
although they are over 140 miles
away.
James, when a boy, worked in a mill
in Pennsylvania, and fell in love with
his employer's daughter, lle asked
for the hand of his beloved, but was
informed by the stern father that $18
per month w as far below his daughter’s
ambition.
Jpmcs replied that if the girl would
have him they would marry without
his consent, but after time for reflec¬
tion the girl came to her father’s view
and Janies left in disgust, assuring
the old gentleman that he would yet
ow T n a mill, the hopper of which should
cost more than his entire plant.
James went to South America;
made $40,000 in mining; came with
his money to California in 1846;
bought land in San Francisco and else¬
where in the state and became one of
the first and greatest of California’s
millionaires.
Part of his property was a mill of
the greatest magnificence, with a hop¬
per made of every variety- of expen¬
sive wood, highly polished and inlaid.
He had the mill photographed, ex¬
terior and interior, but especially the
hopper, and sent copies to his former
employer. His lady- love had married
in the meantime, but James remained
single and left all his millions to edu¬
cational and charitable purposes.
Let me give you a few figures that
will show the relative size of the
great Lick telescope. The “light-
grasping power” of the four largest
telescopes in the world as follows:
Washington telescope, area 551 square
inches,
Vienna telescope, area 573 square inches.
Russia telescope, area 706 square inches.
Lick telescope, area 1018 square inches.
The width of the great lens in the
telescope is thiry-six inches;
tliat of t,ie Kussia telescope is twenty-
ecven inches. I had supposed that in
grinding of one of these powerful
lenses the most perfect evenness of
graduation would be secured, but, on
tbe contrary, there are in ’the great
Jens * n telescope places where
depressions of one-eight of an inch are
ma de to counteract the differing dens-
ot the glass, which could be de-
te rmined only by the eye of the finish-
er ’ who uses the hand and the eye al-
tcrnately.— [Detroit Free Press.
The Profils of Anlhorship.
A New Y ork letter in the Philadel¬
phia Press says: 1 caught one of our
best-known authors in a confidential
mood recently, and his comments on
the revenue of authorship, which he
gave me permission afterwards to
print, carry interest with them. 1
may add that the name of this author
is one of the most widely known in
American literature to-day. “Seven
years ago I chose between law and
literature. I had every opportunity to
succeed at the bar, for, through hard
study and my connections, a lucrative
practice seemed open to me. But I
turned to authorship. To-day I am
what the world calls a successful au¬
thor. My last novel was bid for by
three publishers, and my royalties, I
am told by my publishers, are higher
than those of the majority of their
writers.
“I have the pleasure of hearing my
books and name hawked on the trains
when I am travelling, the newspapers
give me from a quarter of a column to
a column and a half reviews. But
what has literature brought me in
money? Let me open my vest pocket
to you. Here is my actual revenue
for 1889, and includes, as you see,
royalties on six of my novels, maga¬
zine articles, etc., and everything is
collected. Here is the total—$2170.40.
Compare these actual figures to the
paragraph recently circulated in which
I am reputed to earn $10,000 from
mv pen. Is it any wonder that the
unsophisticated enter literature with
false hopes? Yes, print these facts if
you wish; only, of course, withhold
my name and identity.” I reproduce
liere tlie facts and figures as they were
given to me. I only wish it were
possible, for the sake of those who
think that literature is a bed of roses,
t0 give this author’s name.
Protecting Lincoln’s 3Ionument.
A stout iron fence has been pul
around the Lincoln monument at
Spting.ield, III., and nobody will be
allowed inside the enclosure except
during certain hours in the day. Tills
step wa* decided on at a meeting of
the Lincoln Monument Association,
the object being to prevent the monu¬
ment from being mutilated by relic
hunters. Heretofore there has been
no fence of any kind immediately sur-
rounding the monument, and when
the custodian was not on the ground
it was left to the mercy of visitors.
Within the last few months two of
the groups of statuary on the monu¬
ment have been badly mutilated. The
sarcophagus in which once reposed
the body of Lincoln is in the catacomb
o:i the north side of the monument,
only a few feet from the entrance,
where there is simply an iron grating.
A short time ago, some visitor, dur¬
ing the absence of the custodian,
reaching in between the gates with a
heavy cane, knocked a piece of garble
from the sarcophagus, raked it out and
carried it off Similar acts of van-
dalism have been quite common for
years, and it has been found necessary
to provide 6ome means for the protec¬
tion of the monument.—[Commercial
Advertiser.
A Fortune in Asparagus.
“On a spur of Lake Tohapekaliga,”
Bays the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel, “six
miles by water and about nine by land
south of Kissimmee, is the already
famous asparagus plantation of Mr.
F. Goblet, who went there about a
year ago from Charleston, S. C.,where
in ten years preceding his departure
he amassed a fortune in the cultivation
and sale of asparagus, which was
chiefly shipped to Northern markets,
and it i* his main purpose to giow it
here on an immense scale, the design
being to plant fifty acres of it. It is
argued that it can be placed on the
market at a season when there is no
competition, as the time of planting
in South Carolina and Georgia is in
March, while here it is in January,
giving a crop two months earlier. The
colossal experiment will be watched
with intense interest by the agricul¬
turists of Florida.”
An Electrical Churn.
The Count of Assata, in Italy, has
connected his dairy plant with an elec¬
tric motor of twelve horse-power. This
drives a churn with a capacity of some
400 quarts at the rate of from 120 to
160 revolutions per minute, producing
butter of the finest quality in 30 or 35
minutes.—[Trenton, (N.* J.) Ameri¬
can.
Ti;c Harper.
Tbe harper woke end sung his songs
As God and Nature taught him-
Tbe busy world passed by besoughth^ in throngs
And with rough words
To leave his craft, an idle choice,
To those of rarer Land and voice.
•
The harper slept. The scales fell 0 ff
Blind eyes, and ears grew sharper;
Praise rang from lips all-used to scoff;
“A great man was our harper!”
And round the sleeper's name and tomb
Is wreathed the laurel with its bloom
—[Emma C. Dowd, in Youth’s Companion,
HUMOROUS.
Meet and drink—Old cronies.
Little things that tell—Small broil
era.
A pawnbroker is deserving of
pathy. He is a loan creature.
“How are you coming on?” j,
quired the man of hi* wet boot.
Tailors 6ay that the fast man is go
crally pretty 6low about paying up.
An early crop—The one that is <jji
tended by the proverbial early worJ
How the tobacco habit is spreadij
—even horses smoke after a hard huskiJ ruj
The queen of all bees is the
bee. You can distinguish her by J
red ear.
Sometimes tbe lover who is fiJ
with passion for the daughter is pi
out by the father.
It’s funny that the blind boy eaJ J
even see his father, although the
man is always a parent to him.
The only thing that really intereJ
the average hired man is someihiJ
that he is not paid for attending to. I
“Yes,” said Fogg, “as a success I
have always been a failure, but as I
failure 1 have been an unqualified sol
CG8S. i
“There is no smoke without soi
fire,” sadly remarked the young m
who was informed that he would 1
discharged if he didn’t quit using cij
arettes.
“Can you show mo the grub t
makes the butterfly?” she inqui
sweetly. “Buckwheat’s the grub,
tain't in season,” answered the
ignorant grocer.
A New York editor is trying to
cide which is proper. “I saw
opera” or “I heard an opera.” If
sat behind* the regulation size
the latter term is correct.
Officer—“Well, Anton, how's
master today?”
captain, he’s no better yet.
just now to 6hy his boot at my
but hadn’t the strength to do it!”
Mrs. White—“Have you heard
news? Dr. Jalop’s daughter
eloped with a Pullman car
Isn't it awful?” Mrs.
and she always has 6aid that
has no attraction for her, the
elite!”
A man in a village of Holland n
seen one day- painting a heavy bla
line on the gable-end of his house,&
attaching to it a date, say Novcmi
18, 1882. Asked what he was aboi
he said: “I am moving my hid
water mark up to where the boys ca^
scratch it out again, I am sick
their pranks.”
An Indian Robin Hood.
Jhunda, the dacoit, who was
cently killed in an encounter with
Indian police, appears from the
counts of his life given by the
to have been a kind of Indian
Hood. He began his career in
native army, but soon left the
for the more congenial occupation
robbery. In 1874 he was
and sentenced to fifteen years’
prisonmeut. After breaking
in an attempt to escape he
Meerut goal till 1888, and became
most expert carpet weaver in
prison. On his release he
band, which soon became the
Meerut and the adjoining
His usual course of operations
pounce upon a village and call
the local 6hroff, or banker, to
his bonds and receipts, which
then publicly burned, while the s
himself was plundered. This
proceeding made Jhunda popular
the indebted classes, who form a 1
proportion of the rural
and by their aid he succeed in
the police for the lasttwo years.
bis English prototype, he is also
have been charitable to ihe
There was at first some doubt idea®
he was actually killed; but his
i6 now placed beyond question.