Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1891 — Page 3

AGRICULTURAL VALUES

SOME STATISTICS OF FARM MORTGAGES. .What la the Matter with the Farmer?.Protection as a Factor in Agricultural Depression—The 1 armer the Universal Burden Bearer. There has been much controversy of late about the amount of farm mortgages in the United States. The Bankers' Magazine makes the statement that the farm mortgages of Kansas amount'to $235,S 00,000; those of Indiana, $640,000,000; aS lowa, $567,000,000; of Michigan, $500,000,000: of Ohio, $1,431,000,000. At .6 per cent.. $200,000,000 would be required to pay the interest on these mortgages, as the total in the five States is $3,431,000,000. The grand total of mortgage indebtedness on farm property in only five States exceeds by $1,846,000,000 the entire national debt, principal and interest, as reported at the close of the fiscal year ending the 3th of last June. Statistics of the Agricultural Bureau of Illinois show a decrease in the value of farms an J farm property in the State during the past year of $4,000,000. Governor Campbell, who is a farmer, says the depreciation of the same kind of property in Ohio, in the past ten years aggregates $80,000,000. Hugh McCulloch, the great Republican financier, who was Secretary of the Treasury under two administrations, declares that while rents in cities and large towns are steadily increasing, agriculture has become so depressed that good farms offer no inducements to tenants to hire them at a rental of 6 per cent, on one-third of their assessed value. In the face of facts like these there are still some Republicans left in the country who vainly try to make the farmer believe that he is in a prosperous condition. They fight against the evident fact that our system of tariff taxation bears with undue weight upon the farming class. In order to escape the acknowledgment of that fact some deny that there is any agricultural depression. A Republican orator has even claimed that farm mortgages, instead of being evidences of distress, are to be taken as p.xiofs that the farmers are prosperous and happy. But when a man feels pain he does not need a doctor to convince him that nothing hurts him. The pain makes itself felt and can be seen in the agonized expression of the features. No theories of any kind and no so-called proof can remove it for a moment from the consciousness of the sufferer. The best evidence that the farmers are less prosperous than they were is to be found, not in figures of farm mortgages, but in the fact that this lack of prosperity is universally recognized by the farmers themselves. In nearly every corner of the country there is a singular and pain-* lul unanimity on that point. While the causes of this depression are several, there can be little doubt that the main cause is to be found in the protective tariff system. Nothing can be clearer than the fact that the duties on farm products have, in almost every case, no effect whatever in raising the ! trices of those products, since we are arge exporters of nearly every form of farm produce, and our imports from Canada and other countries are so insignificant as to have no effect whatever in reducing prices with us. It is equally clear that the boasted advantage to the farmer of protection’s home market is more fanciful than real; for this same home market pays not one cent more for farm produce than the “worn-out and effete nations of Europe” pay, and the farmer seldom even knows whether he is selling for consumption in the home market or in foreign markets. But protection to manufacturers and miners costs this country an enormous sum every year. Who foots protection’s bills? Who but the consumer? But the farmers constitute the largest class of consumers in the land; and when we say that protection is a burden upon the consumer, it is the same thing as to say that the farmers bear the greater part of this burden. Moreover, the burden which protection lays upon the great masses of the people who are neither farmers nor manufacturers and mine owners is itself largely shifted to the farmers and laboring people. The burden which protection lays upon the physician for medicine and for implements of surgery is shifted back upon his patients. In this way the rate of ultimate profit to the non-protected classes, who are not able to shift their back upon others, is largely reduced in directly by protection, and the former does not know what struck him. Let not the farmer be deceived bj the insincere rubbish about protection causing home competition to bring down prices of manufactured articles. The bull-dog tenacity with which the protected manufacturers fight for their duties, and flock to Washington at great expenditure of time and money to get them, is a suflficent answer to such nonsense. Our blessed tariff is levied on what a man spends, and the farmer spends all he makes. The tariff, therefore, lays a much greater burden proportionately upon him than upon the prosperous citizen who lays by half of what he makes. Again, the farmer does not buy much of those things which are not affected in price by the tariff. Very few buy wheat, flour, corn, pork, or beef. They all buy clothing, machinery, and tools, crockery, furniture, and a hundred forms of manufactured articles. The farmer needs only to investigate prices in the markets of the world to discover what the tariff is doing to promote agricultural depression.

Free Trade with Brazil.

The Republican press everywhere is rejoicing in the fact that we are to have partial free trade with Brazil: It is a delightful sight'to behold the men who have been denouncing free trade as a . wicked British device for ruining American industry now facing about under the enchantment of the “shrewd and weatherwUe navigator” of the State Department, and praising absolute free trade with Brazil as a thing highly beneficial to our farmers and manufacturers The foreign market, which they have been laboring in season and out to prove worthless, unprofitable, uncertain, far away, expensive, and cursed with pauper labor, suddenly looms up as a thing of "beauty. McKinley wanted to know only last May “what peculiar sanctity hangs about foreign trade,” and already the sanctity is discovered. There is to be an attempt to find “a foreign market for another barrel of pork and another bushel of wheat. ” Of course the treaty with Brazil will ne a good thing, so far as it will go, out •our farmers must not expect it to go too far. The.duties on farm products which Brazil will remove on the first of April *xe very small at present. What thou

duties are may be seen from the following statement from a commercial company in New York: “Wheat, free; wheat flour, 10 per cent ad valorem on a fixed valuation of 10 reis per kilogramme: corn, 10 per cent ad valorem on a valuation of 5 reis per kilogramme; corn flour, 30 per cent ad valorem on a valuation of 120 reis per kilogramme; rye, 10 per cent, ad valorem on a valuation of 20 reis per kilogramme; potatoes, beans, and peas, 10 per cent ad valorem on a valuation of 5 reis per kilogramme; pork, 10 per cent ad valorem on a valuation of 40 reis per kilogramme; dry fish, 10 percent, ad valorem on a valuation of 20 reis per kilogramme; canned fish, 30 per ceht ad valorem on a valuation of 300 reis per kilogramme; turpentine, 10 per cent ad valorem on a valuation of 40 reis per kilogramme; rosin, 10 per cent, ad valorem on a valntion of 5 reis per kilogramme. “The old duties on the articles reduced by 25 per cent were chiefly as follows: Lard, 20 per cent, advalorem on a valuatiyn of 120 reis per kilogram; cotton clothing, as high as 30 per cent, ad- I valorem per 1,000 reis; stockings, 30 per | cent upon a valuation of 2,000 reis per dozen; shirts, 30 per cent., upon a valuation of 8,500 reis per dozen. On some dry goods the duty was as much as 30 per cent, oiya high valuation, while on different qualities of oil, machinery and naval stores it was very heavy. “The method of calculating these reductions of duty will now be not to take off 25 per cent of the dutiable rate, as for instance 16 instead of 20 per tent, upon lard, but to lower the valuation by 25 per cent, and calculate lard, for instance, at 20 per cent, on a valuation of 96 reis per kilogram instead of on a valuation of 120 reis. A reis isabouha half

But, alas' It's buried so deep and the corp a e is so dead and the ground is frozen so hard that it's simply an awful job for the poor little manikin. “Dead for a ducat,” he moans. — Chicago Herald.

cent., and a kilogram is two and twotenths pounds.”

THE CYCLONE OF FEAR.

REDUCED WAGES IN PROTECTED INDUSTRIES. McKinley’s Promise and the Manufacturers’Performance—How tiie Workman Is Failing to Get the Tariff Spoils—How Labor Strikes—Figures of Strikes and Lockouts. No one of the many supcrstitioiJl in the whole system of protection is being so much damaged by the light of experience and fact as the superstition that protection raises wages. It was shown in the last Presidential election that this old stand-by of protectionist catch-words was losing its power among the workingmen in factory towns. In nearly all of the manufacturing centers of New England, where the “European pauper labor argument” was used persistently by the protectionists, the Democrats made gains in that election. “The cyclone of fear” which had been predicted by Chauncey M. Depew as the thing that was going to sweep the country was not realized among the working people. If the cry of high tariff and high wages failed then much more is it doomed to become a derision and a jest to-day. The McKinley tariff la'w went Into operation on Oct. 6 last year with higher duties and the promise of higher wages. What has been the result on wages thus far? In two or three unimportant cases higher wages have been reported, but in a very large number of eases reductions have been made. Here is only a partial list of reductions of wages, nearly all of which have been made since Jan. 1:

Brooke Iron Company. Birdsborough, Venn., closed Feb. 2, and 4"0 men thrown out of work because they refused to accept a reduction of about 7 per cent. Ellis <fc Lessig Steel and Iron Company, Pottstown, Penn., closed Feb 2; 700 men out of work because a reduction of 12}* per cent, was rejected. Hopedale Fabric Mill, Hopedale, Mass.: wages of weavers reduced 2J* cunts a yard. Silk mill at Warehouse Point, Conn.: w:,ges of winders and doublers reduced fre.-n $1.37 to SI per day. A.tuttcvant Blower Works, Jamaica Plain, Mass.; reduction of from 10 to 30 per xent. Pjttstown Iron Company, Pottstown, Pena.; reduction of about 7 per ceht. Bethlehem Iron Company, Bethlehem, Pen it.; reduction of 10 per cent. Feb. 2. PeAnsylvan : a Steel Company, Steelton, Penn ; reduction of from 8 to 10 per cent Feb. 1. Lacjcawanna Iron and Coat Company, Scranmn, Penn.: an average reduction of 20 cents a day on Jan. 1. Homestead Steel Works, Carnegie, Fhippt&Co.; 10 per cent., by agreement. Pulljnan Palace Car Company’s works; new st ale, making a reduction of about 10 per cent., brought forward Jan. 1. Otis iron and Steel Company, Cleveland, Ohio; reduction of 30 per cent. Coal mines, Duquoin, HL, reduction from 69 to «0 cents per ton. Ribbon weavers in Paterson, N. J.; reduction of 15 per cent

Coal mines, near Leavenworth. Kan.; reduction or 11 per cent Cocheco Manufacturing Company, wages of weavers reduced 4 per cent Manufacturers of pottery, Trenton, N. J.; wages of sanitary ware pressers reduced 22 per cetyl. Merrimac Mills, Lowell, Mass; wages of mule spinners reduced 3 cents per hundred. Buckeye Mower and Reaper Works. Akron, Ohio; reduction of from 30 to 60 per cent, reported on Feb. 3. Saxony Knitting Mill, Little Falls, N. Y,; reduction of about 20 per cent.. Southern Steel Company, Chattanooga, Tenn.; reduction of 10 per cent. The official statistics of strikes and lockouts for the six years, 1881-86, as published by United States Labor Commissioner Carroll D._ Wright in his third annual report, afford a striking commentary to the oft-repeated assertion that protection raises wages and insures steady emnloyment. In the whole country there were dur ing these six years 22,304 strikes and 2,214 lockouts. Of the strikes, 9,439 were for increase of wages, 4,344 for re duction of hours, 1,734 against reduction of wages, 1,692 for increase of wages and reduction of hours, and so on to the smaller classes in which some special form of the wage question was under dispute. Of the 2,214 lockouts, 314 were against demand for increase of wagesand 229 to enforce reduction of wages. Does protection then guarantee steady employment? Does it keep wages up to a point which satisfies the laborer? Is it not the height of folly to make claims about what protection can do in raising wages in the face of the evident fact that it does not give the laborer such wages as will keep him from striking?

BENNY THE RESURRECTIONIST.

As the laborer is compelled to contest every inch of ground he gains by trades unions, by strikes, and by other means, it will be difficult to persuade him that protection is a good thing for him.

The talk about higher prices has broken out again. Some prices, after rising when the McKinley law was first imposed, have fallen to the old figure, and the protectionist organs are quick to point out this fact and to claim it as our first benefits of the McKinley law. But there is another side to the matter. The New York Dry Goods Economist, itself a supporter of a mild form of protection, now points out how some of these lower prices have been brought about. It says it is by lowering the quality of the goods. “So in imported hosiery,” says the Economist, “we still have what is known in the trade as the ‘25-ccnt stocking,' but in quality and workmanship it is slightly inferior. It has been adroitly cheapened. The customer gets the article at the old price, but it is not as good, and nb advertising lies can make it as good. ” The cheapening of the stocking is not the only case of the kind. The Economist says that the same thing “has been done in many cases. ” And so under the reign of McKinleyism cheap and nasty go together.

As winter advanced the distress grew deeper and fiercer. It was a hard winter, cold rains and snows alternating. To famine and fever was added cola. Hundreds of cabins in County Cork had nothing on their earth floors save a few rotten bundles of straw—not a blanket, “not a stick of furniture.” Neither could the j eople afford in many cases even the cheap peat fires. The men tramped barefoot through the snow to the relief works. Their rags hardly covered theifi bones. It was the commonest thing in the world for men to be “struck with the cold,” and die in a day or two. All over the country men and women could be seen “redigging the potato grounds, in hopes of finding some few remaining.” They were bending over the fields which the sheep had deserted, trying to find turnip roots. Families were known to have lived for weeks “on the flesh of horses that had died.” A Skibbereen man -with a family of five had nothing for them to eat from Saturday to Thursday except eleven and one-half pounds of potatoes and a head of cabbage. He walked several miles, to the works, and the superintendent gave him a piece of bread; he tried to swallow it and dropped dead. —Octave Thanet, in Century.

The starch trust was organized nearly a year ago, and has already for months kept the price of starch fully a cent per pound higher, than before the aombine was made. They have raised the price by about one-third. At the recent meeting pf the trust dividends were declared on three kinds of shares. The protective duty on starch is prohibitory.

McKinley Prices Again.

The Winter of '47 in Ireland.

FROM LAKE TO RIVER.

THE BUSY HOOSIER IS MAKING A WEEK’S HISTORY. Discovery of a Cave in Harrison County— Drowned With His Team—Died of Hydro-phobia-Sudden.Deaths. —Population of Indiana, 2,192,404. —New Castle has nine churches and a Salvation Army. —Montgomery County country schools closed for measles. , —A canning factory will be located at Tipton at an early day. —Martin Heaton, Walosboro, fined 833 for dynamiting White River fish. —Sam Peek,, Evansville, bad inan, locked up for fighting his mother-in-law. —Crown Point is mad at Hammond \ause it wants to be county seat of Lake. —A four-foot vein of eoal. at a depth of forty feet, has been struck at Greenwood. —Christian H, Stein has been appointed Clerk of the State Board of Printing. —C..I. Griggs, of Covington, aged 57, and tired of life, sent a bullet through his brain. —There is a child at Waynetown, who is two weeks old aud weighs only one and a half pounds. —W. W. Smiley, Thorntown, has a silver dollar, issue of 1795, for which he refused 8400. —Alonzo Goff, residing near LaPorte, stepped off a moving train and was fatally injured. —George Jetter, a wealthy farmer near Hortonville, was killed in a railway accident in Texas. —The making of the transcript in the W. F. Pettit murder case, at Crawfordsville, cost $748.50. —Alfred Mabury, the Clay County hermit, who has lived twenty years in the woods, if dead. —Elizabeth Mullen, of Now Albany, aged 72, walked out of a second-story window and was killed. —Five persons wore seriously burned by a natural-gas explosion at Lafayette. Three have since died. —Charles E. Morris, of Utica, stumbled over a chair and broke several ribs while walking in his sleep. —Oliver O’Neal, of Greencastle, was sent to prison for two years for attempting to murder his step-child. • —Charles Gaylor, Knightstown, sues the Panhandle for $20,000; injured In their employ last September. —Plans are being made for sixteen business blocks to be conssructed in Kokomo the coming summer. —South Bend’s Humane Society is on the search for men who whip their wives and make them start the morning fires. —Mrs. James Wallace, of Kokomo, was struck in the stomach by a stone thrown by an unknown hand, and fatally injured. —Prof. W. W. Borden, New Albany, collector of relics, has a powder horn used by William Pettit, Indian tighter, in 1808. —Kokomo police are making it hot for the gamblers. The Mayor has proclaimed war, and the officers are raiding the dons right and left. —Mrs. Nancy Douthit, of Hobbs, was found dead in bed, due to heart disease. She was aged 76, and one of the pioneers of Tipton County. —-John Frawley, the alleged leader of the mob that tried to lynch George Bennet at Lafayette, has been indicted for riotous conspiracy. —William L. Moore, of Martinsville,, sold eighteen stall-fed cattle for the European market for which he received $1,4(10. The cattle averaged 1,555 pounds. -r-Owing to a case of hydrophobia the Mayor of Franklin has issued an prder to the City Marshal to kill all dogs running at large unmuzzled within the. next thirty days. —Mrs. Lizzie Wilson, Muncie, put a big turkey under a tub two days before Christmas; never thought of it again till the other day; found it alive after fortylive days’ fast. —Edward Kirkwood, while returning from Carbon to Perth, was assailed by two highwaymen, whom he succeeded in driving off after a desperate fight. He was seriously injured. —Edward W. Jackson hanged himself in his barn, at his home near Lawrenceburg. A recent decision of the Supreme Court had invalidated his title to his farm, and brooding over this trouble caused his suicide. He was formerly a member of the Legislature. —While Napurn Pedlar, of Rosedale, employed by the Park County Coal Company, was engaged in dropping loaded cars from the dumps his foot caught and he was dragged some distance and crushed to death. He was a man of family and prominent in Methodist Church and Pythian Lodge circles. —Henry Humphrey, a coal minor, near New Goshen, died from hydrophobia. He was bitten in the lip six weeks ago by a tramp dog that was fighting with his dog. The Terre Haute madstone was applied, but wouid not adhere. Humphrey’s dog was killed, but the tramp got away. Humphrey was taken ill and the disease developed into unmistakable hydrophobia. He leaves a widow and two children. —John Miller, a young man residing near Abingdon, bad a desperate fight with a burglar in his mother’s house, and finally drove him away. —A Green County girl is going to be sued for breach of promise by an “unknown correspondent” whom she promised to marry and then wouldn't. —James B. Thompson; a prominent young man of Waldron, on his return, from a ball, tell through a cow-pit and broke hi> jaw and received dangerous Injuries.

—J. J. Moran, a guard at the Prisoi North, was assaulted and terribly beatei by Thomas Hartman, a convict. —Mrs. Whittenberg. Knightstown locked two children in, the house an< went to call on a noigabor, house cauglv fire, 2-year-old baby burned to death, —A few days ago a resident of Morgar County gave a mortgage on fire acres a land, for the sum of $lO. The fee foi recording a mortgage is $1.25, while at attorney generally gets $2 or $3 for draw ing up the papers in such cases. This is the smallest mortgage over recorder on a piece of land tn that county, am probably in the State.

—Policeman Kahle,tn attempting toar rest two colored tramps who. were stealing a ride on the west-bound Vandalia trail at Brazil, was shot near the heart bi one of the number. The would-be mur derer fled, but again boarded the trait as it was lead ng. He was arrested a' Terre Haute. He gives his name a; William Buggs. Kahle will recover. —Thomas Coflield visited the home o Mrs. Behringer, at Lafayette, demand Ing something to eat. After his want! had been supplied he left the house oply to return and attempt an assault Ho was convicted in the circuit court and was sentenced to twelve years' imprisonment. He was Identified as v former inmate of the Ohio penitentiary —At Williamsport a freight train or the Wabash struck George Mong, 84 years of age, and instantly killed him. The right leg, between the ankh and the knee was broken, the right forearm broken, the chin was split it) two and one deep cut was made ovoi the right eye, and a scalp wound inflicted on the right side of the head. The body, by the force of the blow, was thrown twenty feet. —A ease of hydrophobia has been reported near Tipton. The 17-year-old daughter of Gi*een Rayls was bitten by a dog three years ago, and nothing serious was thought of it at that time. To the surprise of her friends, the latter part ol last week she was heard snarling and snapping. Medical aid was at once summoned, uud after carefully diagnosing the ease it w'as pronounced hydrophobia from the cause above stated. —Jacob Freundlich, a driver for the Cook Brewing Company, Evansville, drove a team of fine horses into the Ohio River for the purpose of washing the mud from the animals. They became entangled in a wharfboat's ropes and began plunging in the-water. Freundlich attempted to save them, and in the struggle all were drowned In the presence of hundreds of people and within ten feet of shore. The deceased leaves a family.

—The Oil Well Supply Company, of Pittsburgh, Pa.,have located their branch house In Montpelier, and will build a warehouse for the purpose of storing their heavy supplies in. The city is full of oil men and are making preparations for a boom in the oil business. The Tewksbury well, two miles east Of towp, was drilled in, and Is flowing seventy barrels daily. There have been contracts lot for one hundred derricks, and drilling will commence at once. —A strange woman has been "working” the druggists at Crawfordsville by selling them large quantities of a face preparation. She gave the druggists the names and addresses of a large number of ladles who, she claimed, had agreed to purchase the preparation. The druggists sept postals to the ladies where names had been handed in and they soon found that the ladies hud never agreed to purchase the preparation. Thp woman, however, had departed and the druggists are out several dollars. —William Hendricks, a farmer of Harrison County, on making a trip through a piece of timber land on his farm,found that a large portion of earth had fallen into a vacancy. He and his neighbors proceeded to explore the hole. They found that the cave wa*s miich larger at the bottom than at the top, and had a perfect floor, with no outlet, and though the. walls were not perfect, they boar the resemblance of having been sealed years ago. Skeletons of human beings and a large number of flint tools were unearthed.

—Wliiie Lon L’lrick, at Tipton machinist, was working on the inside of a large, boiler he narrowly escaped a most frightful death. A jet of natural gas iiad been turned iuto the boiler for lighting purposes, and when the machinist had finished his work he instructed one of his helpers to turn the gas off. This assistant turped the key the wrong way, and a large volume of gas shot into the boiler, and before the mistake was discovered L’lrick was severly burned about the body, his clothing bAing nearly consumed. S t —Hiram Terry Rush, aged 78 years, formerly a wealthy citizen of Detroit, wbo has resided at Mishawaka for the past four years, finally fell ill and has been unable to work for the past four months, says the Mishawaka Enterprise. Two sisters in Cleveland and a step-son in Detroit were notified, but refused to render assistance„and. Landlord Curtis, who was already out over forty dollars, was compelled to send him to the Poor House. When informed ol the dire necessity, the poor old man wept like a child.

—Bryan Goins, farmer near Evans' ville, dead and ready for burial, startled watchers by raising up in his coffin coughing. He was hurriedly put into bed and restoratives applied, lived a few hours but did not speak. —Sharpsville, an enterprising town of 600 inhabitants, has organized a stock company for a canning factory, with a capital stock of 810,000.. Work is to commence on the building at once, Sharpsville is located in one of the beat gas regions in Indiana,

INDIANA LEGISLATURE.

Twe only measure that got throngfi the Ker ate, February 5, on its the statute books was Senator Shoekney’s bill looking) io the breaking of pools and trusts. Ravine seen absent several days on account of sickness, the Senate asked unanimous eonlent to consider the measure, which was dveft, and ft was read the third time by' lections. The main provisions are that alt rusts, pw-li and combinations tending to* prevent full and free competition in the production, manufacture or sale of any artilie produced in any State or country, that seek to regulate the production of price, of uiy commodity, or tend in any way to create- a monopoly, are'declared to be conspiracies to defraud the public, unlawful, against public policy and void. Any person entering into such combination as principal, stockholder or agent is made guilty of conspiracy :o defraud, and upon conviction shall lie fined not less than SI,OOO nor more than SltkOOO. It is provided that if any corporation or any officer or stockholder, as such, becomes a member of any pool- or trust, such corporation shall forfeit its charter. It is further provided that any person or corporation damaged by any pool' or trust may bring suit and recover twicedie amount of the damage sustained. The following bills were passed by the Rouse: Reducing the charge for transcribing short-hand notes in criminal cases from ten cents to U cents per one hundred words*, and providing that, where a litigant is unable to pay for this service the court may;. In its discretion, direct the work to be done, the county to bear the expense; providing; lor the change of venue in all civil actions;. For the better protection of miners, regulating the weighing of coaL and providing for Uniform screens; to prevent persons not bo entitled from wearing budges of tho Grand Army, Loyal Legion, Union Veterans and Sons of Veterans, and imposing a fine of not 'tore than S2O for such offense. Thkke was such a slight attendance of Doth houses. February 6. that no business of importance was transacted.

Mb. McGinnis’ bill to extend tho operation of the metropolitan police law to all cities in the State having a population of 20,000 or more, came up for a second reading in the Legislature Feb. 9. The committee on cities and towns recommended that the bill bo amended so as id make the law applicable to all cities having above 14,000 children enrolled in their public schools. Several senators, especially Mr. Hubboll, were curious to know why such an amendment was proposed, and what the number of school children had to do with the police law. It was brought by successive questions that Terre Haute wants the law, but Fort Wayne doos not, but that each has more than 29,000 inhabitants, lu this predicament the committee, with a desire to please everybody, cast about for some means of giving Terre Haute, with 31,000 people, the law It wanted, and at the same time making it Inapplicable to Fort Wayne, with 35,000. The following bills were Introduced: To require building and loan associations to file statements of their condition semjannually with the Auditor of State; to abolish the office of State Librarian and place the library in charge of tho custodian of public buildings; providing for boards of health of, throe members in cities of 15,000 inhabitants or over. This bill is very long, and was prepared by the medical society or tho faculty of the Indiana Medical College; fixing the salaries of w ardens of State prisons at $2,>OO, and deputy wardens at $1,200 per tnnum.

Mr. Ewing’s bill to abolish the State Board of Agriculture and establish In Its place a "State Agricultural and Industrial Board” was a special order for 11:30 9’clock, but it was again postponed. In tho Senate, Feb. 10, bills were introduced for the creation of board of highway engineers. Bills passed authorizing boards of trustees of Incorporated towns to erect workhouses; making it unlawful to enter a horse to compote for a prize under an assumed name. Bill permitting paupers to select their own phy-, sfclan Indefinitely postponed. In the Honso the boiler inspection bill was defeated. Bill prohibiting tho shooting of ducks between sunset and sunrise passed; also bills to prevent the dealing In margins on farm products; to punish persons for bringing into tho State stolen goods, etc. In the Senate, Feb. IT, the Terre Haute metropolitan police bill was passed. Appellate Court bill engrossed. The House went into committee of the whole on tho fee and salary bill. Twentyfour sections out of seventy-five considered. No changes made except Deputy State Auditor and Law ’ Librarian which have been increased to $1,500* each.

How Do Big Birds Hung in the Air?

I once had a very unusual opportunity of observing accurately the flight of buzzards from the summit of AeroCorinthus. As this unique natural fortress rises sheer from the plain, on the side toward Attica, to the height of 1,800 or 1,900, a group of these birds,, hanging above the surface, were thus brought in a line with the eye. I could! detect the minutest movement of the wings or tail. Again and again therewere considerable intervals of several seconds’ duration during which one bird and another would hang, with pinions horizontally outstretched, absolutely motionless, neither descending nor drifting, but as if his balance in the air was one of delicately-adjusted equiEoise. And- when, by a just-percepta-le movement of wings, he stirred again, it seemed rather f to be to change his position than that he needed any kind or degree of effort to maintain it. There was no wind. No doubt, of necessity, there was some upward current of air from the sun-wanned surface of the ground by which the birds profited; but if all sufficient to sustain them, actual gravity when in that position and so willing it (by which I mean nothing so absurd as that gravitation can be counteracted by the via vitce, but that by inflating its lungs and perhaps suspending its respiration, the bird may have the power* at will of lessening its comparative weight in the air) must be very near to that of the atmosphere around and underneath them.— Nature. We are indebted to Herodotus for the discovery of the pigmies, and secondly, to Andrew Battel, of Leigh. The Moffat and Livingstone introduced ns to the bushmen of South Africa. But the earliest knowledge of the pigmies of Central Equatorial Africa was given us by Sehweinfurth and Piaggia. who had traveled to Niam-Niam and Monbutta laud, which countries are situated bn the northern end of the Great Forest. - Too many papers keep in hot water ' with their ’steemed contemporaries.