Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1893 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

> A hew marine light which will soon we in place near Havre will be the most powerful in the world. It will be visible at sea a distance of from twenty-two to fifty-two miles, according to the condition of the weather. Great Britain, with 35,000,000 people spends as much for intoxicating beverages as the United States, with 05,000,000, But her bequests for religious, educational and charitable purposes, exclusive of Braon Hirsch’s benefactions, reached $15,000,000, as agamst $7,000,000 in the United States. Blind Chinese have now a chance at literature. It is touching to think of the work of the one-armed Scotch missionary, W. H. Murray, who has reduced the 4000 symbols representing syllables of the Chinese language to 408 characters representing sounds. The miserable condition of the blind in China has made Mr. Murray’s long task a labor of love.

Ink stains are so frequent that everyone at times desires something to remove them. To remove them from linen rub the spots while wet (if stains are old wet with water) with tartaric acid; to remove them from silk, saturate the spot with spirits of turpentine; after a few hours rub the spot, and the ink stain will crumble away without injuring the fabric.

One of the interesting exhibits of the World’s Fair, will be that of Col. George L. Gillespie, of the Engineer Corps, U. S. A., who is in charge of the defenses of New York harbor. He proposes to display a collection of models showing the harbor and river improvements of recent yqars. At this time, when general interest is being manifested in river and harbor improvements and inland transportation facilities, this will be a very instructive exhibit. The statistics of electric railways are expanding at a great rate. About five hundred street railroads in the United States and Canada are operated by electricity, a gain of nearly two hundred in two years, and fully equal to oue half of the total railway system of America. The investments in these roads have passed the $200,000,000 mark, but give no indications of falling off to a lower rate of increase. In February, 1891, the investments were estimated at $50,000,000, and in 1887 there were only thirteen electric roads working throughout the entire country.

In answer to a question as to whether, in view of the fact that he had some connection with the Boston Cremation society, he intended to have his own body cremated, President Eliot, of Harvard, recently said: “No, I shall not be cremated. 1 subscribed for a share in the corporation, but it does not follow from that that I shall be incinerated. I have purchased a lot in a certain burying ground and shall be interred in the usual manner. Still, I believe that cremation is a good thing, especially in time of an epidemic, and encourage the movement.”

Mr. Cramp, the ship builder,has many interesting things to say in the New York World with respect to the Gould yacht. It has been reported that the vessel cost $350,000. Mr. Cramp, who built it, says it cost $200,000. That is about as near as popular rumor usually come to exact figures. But there is some costly furniture on board with a history. One piece was carved to order. The bill for the carving was $30,000. It was presented timidly, in expectation of wrath, but Gould quietly drew his check for the amount and then drew another check for $5,000 and handed it to the maker of the furniture without a word. The moral of this story seems to be that even Jay Gould had occasional spasms of liberality when the game had gone his way in Wall street.

Few people who have not kept house in Germany or Austria-Hungary know what a solving of the transportation problem it is for the post to deliver C. O. D. packages. The Postal Union does this throughout the countries mentioned. For farmers and the dwellers in town and village it is a great blessing. The post takes almost everything; for instance, one orders poultry, hams, honey, butter, fruit (in baskets), fresh fish, etc., from localities as far apart as the Black Forest, the North Sea and the middle of Hungary. The cost of transportation is usually 15 cents, never over 20. One sees the haudy yellow wagons in nearly every street of all the towns and cities delivering parcels,; in the village it is a yellow hand-cart, ind among the mountains the uniformed post-man is loaded with bundles. TnE, latest news ol the cholera in Europe shows that the danger of an invasion from it next summer is by no means chimerical and that the precautions taken or urged on this side are not objectionable on the score of being unnecessary. New cases and deaths continue to be announced in Hamburg in number great enough to render that port an object of vigilant scrutiny. The Russian returns of the epidemic are surprising by their magnitude. Statistics are not well kept in Russia, nor is the standard of medical knowledge high. The distinction between “European” and “Asiatic” cholera in the reports is very possibly without foundation. In any case, the total of 205,700 deaths is appalling. It behooves us, warns the New York Times, not only to take every means of keeping cholera out, but to make sure that it shall find no convenient breeding places even if it gains admittance.

Convict labor on state roads is advocated by Mr. Charles F. C. Smith, a leading citizen of Leavenworth, Kans , who thus outlines his plan: He proposes that the labor needed for the permanent improvement of roads shall be furnished by the convicts in the penitentiary at Lansing. His plan provides for a roadengineer, who shall make specifications for a road system which makes all State roads uniform in character. When all is in readiness for labor, the convicts are to be divided into squads of such size as seems practicable. They will then be taken to the section of the State where roads are to be built and housed In temporary barracks erected for the puipose. They will work on the roads in the spring, summer, and fall, when they ■will be returned to Lansing and employed in manufacturing clothing and the implements needed in the road work. Mr. Smith would make all roa d taxes payable in money and have them turned over to the State to be used in defraying the expense of guarding and feeding the convicffe.

For Leanness. —Leanness is generally caused by the lack of power in the digestive organs to assimilate the fat-pro-j (lucing elements of food. First restore digestion, take plenty of -sleep, drink all tie water the stomach will bear in the morning on rising, take moderate exercise in the open air, eat oatmeal, cracked wheat, graham mush, baked sweet apples, roasted -and broiled beef, bathe * daily and cultivate jolly people.