Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1892 — OUR FIRST BATTLE-SHIP. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OUR FIRST BATTLE-SHIP.

The Magnificent Oregon, Now Building in San Francisco. The first great modern battle-ship of our new navy, to be known as the Oregon, is now under construction at the Union Iron Works of San Francisco. This is a monster, beside which ships like the Chicago and Newark will look small. She is one of the three largest ships yet planned by the Government. t The Oregon is to have a displacement of 10,000 tons and will be 348 feet long, 69 feet 3 inches wide, and 42 deep. She will cost, exclusive of her armament, about $4,000,000. Her minimum speed is to be not less than fifteen knots. The hull is of unsheathed steel. Her framing will be on the bracket system, and she will have a double bottom extending from armor shelf to armor shelf and forward and aft. The sides, from armor belt to main deck, will he protected by not less than five inches of steel armor. Her armament will aggregate 631 tons. It includes four 13-inch breechloading rifles, weighing sixty tons

each, with their mounts, shields, and equipments; four 8-inch breech-load ing rifles; four 0-inch breech-loading rifles; sixteen 6-pounder rapid-firing guns; six one-pounder rapid-firing guns, and two Gatlings, will all necessary mounts and shields therefor. It will require 306 tons of ammunition to complete the vessel’s fighting outfit. The Oregon will carry twelve torpedoes. There will be seven abovewater torpedo tubes—two forward, one aft and two on each side.

There is only one real remedy for the weak and wavering mind that finds it so difficult to meet the ever recurring questions of life promptly and decisively, and that is continual practice. He who is conscious of this infirmity of purpose may do much to cure it by strict self-discipline. Having weighed the arguments on each side, or compared the advantages of different courses for a reasonable time, let him compel himself to choose one and refuse the other without longer delay. If he does this regularly and constantly, in small things as well as in great, it will gradually become, more and more practicable, and what once appeared to be a herculean tasic may at length become natural and easy.

Frequent burglaries alarmed the residents of a Japanese village, as no clew, whatever could be obtained regarding the perpetrator. An ingenious fellow', whose home had been plundered, proposed that each villager should write the name of the man he suspected on a slip of paper and put it in a ballot-box. ' On the votes being examined, it was discovered that fifteen named one man, and the rest were blanks. The robber was so astonished at the result of the balloting that he actually confessed his identity. ’

A man never steps outside the door without first putting on his hat, but a woman will stand for hours in the cold with her arm' rolled up in her kitchen apron, and nothing on her head. Since men have the doctor’s bills to pay, here Is another instance in which the women need regulating. Ths city of big things. Chicago, ii about to erect an apartment house which will contain 707 rooms.