Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1892 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The interesting experiment of introducing and acclimating the reindeer in Alaska, according to Captain Healy of the revenue stem&tc Bear, has been so far eminently protiT.Bing. The reindeer that were left at Unalaska last year have prospered and will in time stock the island, while during the past season many more were carried over from Siberia to the American coast. There was at one time a prejudice among the Siberian natives against parting with an animal that is so essential to them, but this has happily been overcome, and there is now no difficulty in securing all that are desired. There is no doubt that the reindeer will be quite as serviceable to the Alaskans as to their opposite neighbors, and that they will be an extremely important means of alleviating the hard conditions of the long Arctic winter in those regions. A successful issue of the experiment will put an important achievement to the credit of the revenue marine service. The proposition to turn the waters ot the Colorado river into the great Salton plain or desert and make it a fertile tract as of prehistoric times is not yet taboo in a country that prides itself on its practicality. The cheapest internal improvement perhaps ever suggested to accomplish wonderful results is that of reopening the old canals and channels of this lower Colorado valley and irrigating it from end to end. What the red citizens of a long-extinct semi-civilization could do the -white citizens of an advanced civilization surely may do. The Colorado river itself has pointed out how easy the task is by breaking into the desert and leaving in the valley the seeds of vegetation and the water and soil necessary for its germination and growth. The problem is very different from that presented elsewhere in the far west—the great river solves the difficulty at small outlay of capital. Whether there will speedily be a war in Europe is a question that no cue can answer, or rather one in regard to which no answer is worth the paper on which it is written. At no period since the era of the great Napoleon have there been such vast armies in Europe, and either the Continental powers must reduce their forces or they will soon, one and all, be ruined. The richest country is France, but there the taxation is enormous. Both Austria and Germany are comparatively poor; Russia’s credit is only maintained by the French being ready to buy its bonds; Italy is practically bankrupt, already, and, notwithstanding this, all these countries are engaged in an insanestruggle to compete with each other in amassing the material to wage a successful war. The rapid growth of the industrial applications of electricity has placed the study of electrotechnics on a footing with the older branches of engineering, if, indeed, it has not already outstripped them. Statistics show that the number of students who choose the electrical studies at our large universities and technical schools is yearly increasing. At Cornell University, for instance, the number has increased from 28 in 1881 to 250 in 1892; and this is only a specimen of the continued growth in other institutions. Evidence is not wanting that the coming year will be no less a prosperous one in this respect for the universities than the preceding ones.

The Hungarian Government does not sell any part of its forests, but buys more each year. In some parts of the country, as in the eastern region of the Carpathians, woods are found of several thousand acres in extent, consisting for the most part of red beech. This is used for firewood, carriages, staves and agricultural implements, and in the manufacture of bent wood. There are few fires, and they seldom permanently damage the woods. There are large resinous forests in Transylvania; but they are not very accessible, and there are also some in the district of Marmaros, in the northeast of the country. Cycling of all kinds has become very popular in this country, but the love for “wheels” has not yet become a craze, as it has in some parts of Europe. In London long tandem bicycles, capable of seating eight or more passengers, have been introduced, and one is now being used as a rival to the tram or street cars. The owner of the vehicle occupies the front seat, collects the fares and steers, but the passengers have to provide the motive power, and if they don’t move their feet freely very poor time is made on the journey. It is said that in London the seats are booked and paid for a week in advance. Professor Edward S. Holden, the astronomer, and Director of the Lick Observatory in California, is not very hopeful about the present investigations of the planet Mars. “When we come to an examination of the particularities of Mars’ surface we find dissimilarity and not likeness to details of the earth’s,” he says in the Forum. “Under these circumstances, and so long as such widely divergent views can be advocated by competent observers, it appears to me that the wise course is to reserve judgment and to strive for more light.” Filial respect in the Orient presents some features unique enough to attract attention. For instance, a Japanese young man, having decided to adopt the profession of burglary, attempted to strangle his aged mother that a knowledge of his calling might not pain her. His solicitude was futile, for the police caught him administering the solace prescribed by his conscience and checked his career as a dutiful son. An English newspaper has discovered an extraordinary thing that happened in a small town. An old lady has just died there in her hundredth year. At the time of death she was not in possession of all her faculties! Along the west coast of Africa there are now 200 churches, 35,000 converts, IQO,OOO adherents, 275 schools and 30, 030 pupils. Some knowledge of the gospel has reached about eight millions of benighted Africans. The population of Greenland has increased five per cent, in the last ten years. It is a curious fact that the women outnumber the men very greatly, especially in South Greenland.