Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1893 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

A VLiL-KxowN Episcopal Bishop from a Western State was in New York a short time ago, and during his visit ran across a young English curate walking the streets foot-sore and weary. “I came over to America,” he said, “just to get a bit of experience, don’t you khow, and am hoping to find a small parish with a vacancy.” “Just come right along with me,” said the Bishop. “I am going away out into the Southwest and will give you a chauce to get all the experience you want.” The young curate gladly availed himself of the opportunity and shortly afterwards arrived at the scene of his- future labors. That very day the Sheriff of a neighboring county came in with a six-footer who was jailed on a charge of triple murder; there was a freight, collision “up the road;” the police raided the “Half Acre;” a crapshooter slashed another with a razor; there was an alarm of fire and a suicide. To add to the young curate’s “experience,’’ the local paper that night apologized for the lack of local news, saying that there wasn’t much going on of a sensational character and police circles were unusually quiet. But the curate will remain and thinks he has struck a field where he can do good work. The great Yukon River of Alaska is soon to be made a highway of commerce by the establishment on it of a regular service of side-wheel steamers. The first boat of the proposed line, now building, will run from St. Michael’s Island, fiftyfive miles from the mouth of the Yukon —at which point it will connect with Norton Sound steamers—over 2,200 miles up the river. The fact that Alaska has the third—possibly the second—largest river in North America is not often remembered. The new steamer, the P. B. Weare, will establish trading posts along the river, will trade in all kinds of merchandise, and the returns will b& in gold dust and furs. It will carry a complete assaying outfit aud everything that a miner requires in taking out and testing valuable mineral. It will also take along a sawmill to cut timber for trading stations. The frame of the Weare was laid and fitted at Seattle, and she will be put together at St. Michael's Island. She will be 178 feet long, 28 feet beam, and 4 feet deep. The Yukon is only navigable during July, August, and September, and it is thought that for the pres ■ ent probably but three or four trips a year may be made. Ax interesting feature of the report of the Connecticut Bureau of Labor Statistics is the part showing the growth of mutual benefit societies among working men and women in that State. The largest increase was in the group for aiding sick members and burying the dead. There is similar evidence of growing forethought and provision among the laboring classes of other States. It is well, however, warns the New York Press, to look into the character of the societies which promise benefits. “Where the prominent feature is speculative there is danger ahead. Losses to investors through associations whose promises of return have far exceeded the legitimate results of investment or other accumulation have beeu too frequent during the past year.” It seems rather incredible to speak of the candle power of search-lights as in the millions and hundreds of millions, but according to the Electrical World, this is warranted by facts. The lamp itself does not give a very high candlepower when measured in any one direction, but when a magnifying lens is used, which collects all the light, as it were, and throws it in one direction, the intensity of the light is enormously increased. For instance, in the search-light which is being experimented with upon the World’s Fair grounds, the candle-power of the arc light, alone is only 150,000 candles, the carbons being I*2 inches long aud 1 3-10 inches in diameter. When this is surrounded by a reflector four feet in diameter, the candle-power is multiplied to the somewhat startling figure of 460,000 candles.

They arc trying what they call a Good Will Farm in Maine, with a considerable degree of success. Bad boys are sent to it instead of to reform schools. On the farm they are separated, as far as possible, into groups, in a number of qottages that have been erected. The idea is that in this way the boys may be subject to the beneficial influences of home life. The household work in each of these families is divided up among the boys, who also work on the farm or in shops. The same thing is to be tried in Massachusetts also. A farm has been bought in Danvers, on which it is proposed to care for 500 homeless and destitute children. Its distinctive feature, the cottage system, might well be tried on a larger scale in other States, in place of the great institutions in which so many boys and girls are huddled together. Tiierb is a rush of gold hunters to the new diggings in the San Juan country, Colorado. Claims have been staked out on the San Juan River for seventy-five miles from its mouth, aud for twenty-five miles up the Colorado River. Men are pouring in from all the adjoining regions, and from Utah and Arizona. They are staking claims over each other, and lively trouble is looked for. Living is enormously high. Supplies cannot be obtained anywhere in the vicinity; those persons who brought supplies won’t sell, and those who didn’t are suffering. Few, if any. took tents, there is no material at hand with which to build houses, and the prospectors are sleeping under ledges of rocks-and wherever a little shelter can be found. Some are making money now, a few gaining as much as sls a day panning out dirt, but much of the ground can be worked only at great expense.

Olive growing, olive pickling, and the manufacture of olive oil have become a highly important industry in California. This year the industry has a remarkable boom, and the dealers are entirely unable to meet all the orders they have received. This is especially the case in the Pomona Valley. Everybody engaged in the olive trade—growing, making oil, or acting as broker—is making unusual profit, aud there is a demand for five times the amount of the crop. One order that could not be tided came to Pomona last week from a New York grocery house for 20,000 gallons of pickled olives. Many orchardists have made $250 an acre from olives this season, and some have .made a clear profit of $350 an acre.

During 1891 about 450 more persons were killed by wild beasts in India than during the preceding year. The number killed in 1890, however, was very low, still the figures for 1891 are about 250 in excess of the mean. The yearly average of persons killed by wild beasts in India is between 2,500 and .3,000. The mortality from snake bites is much greater, varying from 21,000 to 22,000 annually. In one district of Bengal, Hazaribagh, no fewer than 205 deaths were due in 1891 to a single brood of man-eating tigers. Pirn. Armour, according to the Chicago papers, has a hundred dollars placed

on his desk every morning, which he distributes in charity during the course of the day. His bill for luncheon often runs up as high as 40 cents, while some of his clerks spend nearly a dollar. But then they don’t have to drop a hundred dollars a day in charity. A North Carolina genius proposes a novel scheme for providing an endowment for a college in his vicinity. He suggests that the trustees insure the lives of fifty men, between the ages of 40 and 50, for SIO,OOO each, and as the insured die off and the amounts of the policies are turned in convert the money into a fund for the college. This would mean an endowment of $500,000 at some time or other. «