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It is estimated that discoveries, inven¬
tions, and compounds patented each
year in the United States and never
amounting to anything cost $3,000,000.
The largest amount of land held in the
United States by an alien corporation is
that owned by the Holland Company in
New Mexico. It embraces 4,500,000
acres.
The hardwood production of the coun¬
try in 1887 was 25 per cent, greater than
in 1886. The hardwood trees of the
United States are being rapidly ex¬
hausted.
A soap mine has been discovered near
Pine Ridge, Wyoming. At all events,
if it isn’t soap it’s something that resem¬
bles it very closely, being yellow in
color, and capable of making a good
lather and removing grease from hands
and clothing. The supply seems to be
unlimited.
California is proud of her record foi
1887. Three hundred miles of new rail¬
road were laid, the assessed value of
property increased $132,000,000, the
wine and brandy product was large,
50,500,000 pounds of tanned goods and
35,000,000 of green fruit were shipped,
and there never was such a year for
tourists.
Au effort to suppress bull-fighting’has
been made in Mexico. An attempt to
make the powers of Europe disarm would
be as likely to win success, sarcastically
observes the New York World. Take j
bull-fighting from Mexico and there
would l.e nothing left save a little
pulque, some red pepper and the halls of
the Montczumas.
Speaking of Mrs. Cleveland, a Wash
ington correspondent says: “Her red
denceof a year and a half in Washington
has not taken the edge off the curiosity
of the people living right here at the
capital. When she goe3 shopping the
clerks and customers at any < tore she
may visit drop everything to look and
listen. When she takes a scat in a box
at the theater the performers lose Half
the attention of the audience, and when
she gives a reception at the White House
the men and women pass in line before
her and then eagerly rush around to the
corridor, where on tiptoe there is some
chance of catching another glimpse of
the fascinating hostess.”
“Australia,” says the New York Times,
“ has received a set-hack by the refusal
of the mother country to join her in the
plan of contributing $25,000 each for an
Antarctic expedition. But the objection
made by tho British Government, namely,
that the amount proposed is too small to
be of service, is a very easy one to cure,
if Australia wishes. Still, it is not im¬
probable that any increase in the sura
devoted to such an expedition would be
so much additional money thrown away.
While discoveries within the Arctic circle
have been pushed to a distance of only
a little more than six and a half degrees
from the pole, the furthest advance in
the Antarctic region is still nearly twelve
degrees from tho South pole. Practically,
nothing of importance has been discovered
in that direction for nearly half a cen¬
tury, or since the triple successes achieved
between 1840 and 1843 by Sir James
Ross, our American Wilkes, and the
French Dumont d’Urville. Ice and snow
perpetually cover latitudes correspond¬
ing to those in which at the north fiour
i-hing vegetation, many quadrupeds,
and even permanent populations are
found. To suppose that any. commercial
advantage could come of another at¬
tempt to penetrate these prodigious ice
barriers is preposterous, and there is only
a slender chance of deriving scientific
knowledge of importance from the
fpiest.”
The number of women in the French
capital wlio use tobacco is somewhat on
the increase, for there are three or four
establishments in the city of pleasure
devoted exclusively to the manufacture
of ladies’ cigarettes—and they do, it is
said, a roaring trade. An inquisitive
journalist, however, has ascertained that
the cigarettes solely made for the ladies
contain a soupcon of opium, which is de¬
cidedly a bad thing for the health and
nerves of tiiosc who use them, and
who thus may be said to doubly narco¬
tize themselves.
The Mexican International R. K. has
been completed to I.erdo, on the Mexican
Central line, thus closing the gap be¬
tween I.erdo and Eagle Pass, the Ameri¬
can terminus of the International Hoad.
This completes the second all-rail route
to the City of Mexico, and shortens the
distance from the Texas border over 200
miles, as against the El Paso route, while
the tot ill shortening of the distance from
the interior of Mexico to New York and
the East is about 700 miles. The Inter¬
national line is part of the Southern
Pacific system, and gives San Antonio
direct communication with the City of
Mexico. The distance is 1, PiO miles.
The Philadelphia Time s says it “has
been authorized to invite free suggestions
from the multitude as to the best public
use that could be made of a gift of $50,
000. The authority comes from a gen¬
tleman of large fortune and large philan¬
thropy, and it is his sincere desire to re¬
ceive intelligent suggestions to guide him
in applying that sum in any line of pub¬
lic charity or beneficence to produce the
best results to society. The money is
ready, and will be given as soon as it
slia'L be made clear how it can be made
productive of the greatest good. It is
not intended that individual or family
suffering should be embraced in the list
0 f causes presented.”
A Monster Bridge.
At n meeting of the American Professor Society
of Civil Engineers, Gustav
Lindenthal read an exhaustive paper on
“The North gigantic River Bridge scheme Problem.” for It
outlined a construct¬
ing a suspension bridge across the Hud¬ and
son Twenty-eight at a point between for Fourteenth the of
streets, purpose
bringing ali the great railroad lines into
this city. The plan of the bridge con¬
sisted of two wrought iron towers distances on
sunken stone at
from either shore, with three suspension
spans, the Tho middle one single being 2,850 feet de¬
long. signed largest day span is that ever be¬
up to the present
longing Scotland. to abridge now being is construct¬
ed in Its length 1,700 feet.
The width professor of the river argued has made that the engiueers great
rather favor a tunnel than a bridge, ow¬
ing to the many difficulties involved in
the construction of the latter. Still a
bridge with six tracks, which would ac¬
commodate all of the railroads desiring
to enter this city, could be constructed
at a much smaller cost than the number
of tunnels that would be required for the
same purpose. Besides, it would be
much safer. A bridge built according to
his plan, he said, would be capable of
transferring 50,000 passengers an hour in
one direction, and would thus meet the
demands for at least fifty years. The
cost of construction for the bridge alone,
including anchorages and abutments,
would not exceed $15,000,000. This
estimate did not include the outlay which
would be involved in the purchase of the
necessary amount of laud at cither ap¬
proach, the termini.— nor for tho tracks York Observer. and stations of
New
A New Beverage.
Kaffce-thce or coffee tea, is the name
of a new beverage prepared from the
roasted leaves of the coffee tree. Ac¬
cording to a late report of Gche, the
Malays prefer this tea to coffee, as it is
suppose to contain more of the‘ bitter
principle decoction and looks to be more nutritious. The
like coffee, smells like
tea, and tastes like a mixture of both. As
the leaves contain 0.5 to 0.7 per cent, of
caffeine, this new product may become
the important of as an caffeine article of food as well as
source .—New York Market
Journal.
WILL BREAKERS.
FIERCE LEGAL STKIGGI/ESPOK
DEAR MEN’S WEALTH.
Lawyers Who Feed Fat on 15itr
Estates in Litigation — Divert¬
ing Millions From the Pur¬
poses Its Owners Intended.
A New York correspondent, writing
(o the Pittsburgh JDUpate/t, says: Sur¬
before rogate Hollins had 384 wills contested
him in his throe years’ term. He
admitted all but fifty of them. It would
be impossible to estimate the amount of
money involved in these contests, but
$500,000,000 would not over estimate it,
for they include the estate of Samuel J.
Tilden, the $10,000,000 of James Hokes,
the $11,000,000 of Jesse Hoyt, the
5000,000 of Louis Hamersly, the $5,000,
009 of Sarah Burr, and the $3,000,009 of
Reran Steven, besides the great fortunes
of A. T. Stewart and his widow.
Twenty-five, men are paid by the city to
look after the proper distribution of
dead men’s estates, according to their
wishes, but Surrogate Hollins said there
ought to be 100 employed in the work,
growing Scarcely greater every day.
half a dozen wealthy men, or
women either, for that matter, have died
here in the past ten years without leav¬
their ing a heirs. legacy of The endless litigation among
late William If. Van¬
derbilt. and Miss Catherine Wolfe are the
only exceptions I recall at present. Even
Miss 'Wolfe, though, had to make the
terms of her will in such explicit and
iron clad terms that it was plain that she
fcarqd fore the humiliation of a contest be¬
the Surrogate. 3 n fact, it has grown
to be the prerogative of kinship to grab
for other people’s money, and the flimsiest
pretext serves the purpose, even if it only
results in bagging a few thousands for
hush money and counsel fees.
What a revelation there would be'for
the rich men of the land if they could
come back to’earth and listen to the fight
over the results of their toil! Here’s A.
T. Stewart, the greatest dry goods mer¬
chant this city ever saw, pictured as
mentally incapable of disposing of the
millions he had gathered; his widow is
in hep grave less than a year before two
dozen heirs are pounding on the doors of
the law courts to upset her bequests;
Jesse Hoyt’s $11,000,000 have opened
the doors of his family closet, and the
skeleton stalks out in the glare of
publicity; Sarah Burr died four years
ago, but her $5,000,000 were made the
object of hitter litigation, and her ec¬
centricities paraded before the world.
Samuel J. Tilden, keen lawyer as he
was, made a will that his nephews are
determined to break, and his great
scheme for a free public library here is
thus and baffled.
The Paran Steven3 ease was only settled
permanently litigation a short while ago after 15
years of and personal abuse of
the worst sort from the widow to her son
in-law, and vice versa. Paran Stevens
was one of our great Bonifaces, and his
estate still holds an interest in the Fifth
Avenue and Victoria Hotels here and
similar property in Boston. He died in
I860, leaving his widow, a married
daughter, and son-in-law !o manage his
estate and divide the property among
about twenty heirs. Mrs. Stevens and
her son-in-lawnever did get on together,
and the breach widened after the old
man died. Early in 18 i 2 she denounced
him and began suit to have him removed
as executor. Mrs. Stevens, it will be
remembered, created a sensation at New¬
port last summer by entertaining the
Duke of Marlborough. Her fight to oust
her son-in law cost $250,000 at least.
Who of those who knew Daniel H.
Lyddy would have thought that he
would be put forward by his brothers
after death as a subject of undue influ¬
ence? He was as sane as any many that
ever lived, and yet he was hardly in his
grave before his brothers—the ones who
made themselves notorious by accepting
$12,000 his widow from Sharp—declared his The war ludicrous upon
for estate.
part of the story married is that Liddy hadn’t a
penny until ho Madame Con¬
nolly, the famous dressmaker here, who
not only owned all the Long Branch
property but had a good sized bank wealth ac¬
count as well. Of course that
greatly increased under Mr. Biddy’s
shrewd management, hut where would
he have been if he had not married
thousands? Now his brothers have be¬
gun a fight to keep those thousands on
their side of the house, and they declare
the will bogus that gives back to the
widow the property that was originally
hers.
An array of high-priced legal talent
has begun a long contest over theWidow
Stewart’s estate, which ex-Judge Hilton
lias rightfully or wrongfully appropri¬
ated. Mrs. Stewart's niece is not satis
lied with her $30,000,but wants the will
set aside as having been fraudulently ob¬
tained ; one of the nephews, a brother of
the present contestant, entered suit for
the same purpose, though on different
grounds, six months ago. It would not
surprise many people if the two Stewart
wills were still in litigation after Judge
Hilton’s death, for he is getting on jn
years now. Meanwhile the big white
marble mansion at Fifth avenue and
Thirty-fourth street is closely curtained
and shuttered, and no one goes in or out
but the old butler. It is literally ahouse
of death—a marble grave. How every
dream of A. T. Stewart’s later days hus
been dissipated. His marble mansion is
nothing ing but a gloomy tomb, the work¬
women’s home that he planned and
set afloat thousands for has been turned
into a fashionable hotel,in which a single
meal costs as much as he meant to charge
for a full week’s board. His scheme for
a grand cathedral Garden seat and educational
centre at City is ail but a flat
failure, and the dry goods house that
he made known the world over is now
merely a reminiscence. Kvcn his bones,
weary after a lifetime of drudgery, are
hidden no one knows where.
There is rest in the grave for the
weary, but not for the wealthy.
A Frightful Position,
Ur. Robinson, late of the Ouion steam¬
ship Liverpool Arizona, who has returned from
to settle in New York, reports
a most the singular accident which occurred
on great steamer on her last outward
trip.
Among the passengers was an amateur
ventriloquist,whoseantics-served to help
pass the time very pleasantly for those
who were not afflicted with the horrors
of a first day’s sea-sickness. The steamer
had hardly passed Sandy Hook when the
engineers heard terrible shrieks coming
from the direction of the engine-room
pit. A thorough search finally convinced
them that they were tire victims of the
ventriloquist’s search. jokes and they stopped
On the second day out, while the sec¬
ond engineer was inspecting the machin¬
ery, he noticed what seemed to beasaek
lying pit- directly the’ under the eccentrics in the
of engine room. The great ec¬
centrics were whirling over the object at
the rate of sixty revolutions per minute.
On closer examination the sack proved
to be a man lying oqhis hack. The en¬
gines were stopped, the Arizona came to
a standstill and with the aid of a rope
position. tlie man was dragged from his perilous
He was still but his left arm was
crushed to a jelly by the terrible blows
from the eccentrics. lie had crawled
into the engine-room before the steamer
left her dock and lay there facing death
for trics fully forty-eight hours. within The eccen¬ eight
inches came of whirling his face down and the slightest
movement in any direction meant certain
death. So he lay there while the power¬
ful eccentrics continued to mash his arm
with clockwork regularity.
The man gave liis name as Henry
Smith, from New York, but refused to
say anything further about himself. left Dr. of
Robinson amputated what was
his arm.
The first man to leave the ship at
Liverpool was the stowaway, who, with
his smiled bundle hearty under good-by his remaining the doctor, arm,
a at
saying he was the going to a hospital. and lost Ho
passed the crowd.—New over gang-plank York Journal. was
in
The Wily Red Man.
Near Montour, la., is an Indian reser¬
vation, where a large number of the Sac
and Fox tribes find a home. Last
Thursday thousand their dollars annuity in was gold paid.
Fifteen was
distributed—each member of tho tribe
receiving exactly $39.99 as his or her
share. In order to avoid tho trouble of
making change a proposition was made
to some of the chiefs to pay them $10
and for them to return the odd penny.
This they refused to do. Thoy are ex¬
ceedingly and suspicious demanded of the the exact Government change.
agents suspicion to be mutual, for the
The seems
agent, instead Indian of paying out after the money, which
gave each a check,
he was escorted to a bank, whero the
exact change was handed to him. This
was done to prevent the wily Indian
from getting two annuities—the strong
family resemblance making that trick
good once before .—New York Graphic,
