Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1893 — NOTE AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTE AND COMMENTS.

The discovery was made the other day that the only authentic copy the coat-of-arms of the State of Pennsylvania had disappeared from the walls of Independence Hall. An investigation was made, and then it came out, although no one had noticed the omission, that the copy h6d been missing for several years from among the shields of the various States that may be seen hanging side by side. Capt. Ilauson, a member of the Pennsylvania Board eff World’s Fair Managers,' who wanted to have a duplicate made lot use at Chicago, can explain the disappearance only in this way: “In 1874 or thereabouts the Legislature appropriated #3OO for the express purpose of correcting certain defects which were said to exist in the coat-of-arms used on official sea's. To accomplish this work a committee, consisting of the Governor, Attorney-General, and Secretary of State, was appointed and empowered to act. So far as I know or can discover this committee has never reported. It is possible that the Committee appointed by the Legislature removed it in 1875 to have copies made, and that it now lies hidden in some painter’s shop or in some one’s attic or cellar.”

According to a Belgian gentleman now in this country, the territory of Moresnet, lying between Belgium and Germany, is the smallest Government in the world. It has a population of nearly 2,003. The people are entirely to the tin mining industry. T’here is no military service, and election 1 days are things they never hear of. There is a Senate of ten members who are appointed by the Mayor. He gets a place by being appointed by two delegates, one from Germany and one from Belgium. The police force consists x>t one man. He is paid out of the annual revenue, which is about 1,200 francs; this algo pays for the maintenance of the roads and the schools. The territory was made independent in 1815. to settle a dispute. Germany and Belgium both wanted it on account of its tin mines, but neither of them got it. The territory contains a trifle over two square miles of ground. There are twenty well-built towns in Kansas without a single inhabitant to waken the echoes of their deserted streets. Saratoga had a #30,000 operahouse. a large brick hotel; a #20,000 school-house, yet there is nobody even to claim a place to sleep. At Fargo a #20,000 school-house stands on the side of the hill, a monument to the bondvoting craze. A herder and his family constitute the sole population of what was once an incorporated city. This is a sad commentary on unhealthy booms. Those Kansas towns, like Wichita, advertised themselves as phenomenal boom cities. For awhile “everything was lovely,t’ but at last dry rot took hold of the boom towns and killed them.

The rural prophets say that the yield of maple-syrup will be unusually good this spring. According to one of them: “It is well known to those engaged in the business of sugar-making that a good season always follows a severe winter. The maplc-san then furnishes.a larger percentage of sugar. Not only that, but the trees yield a larger quantity of sap then than they do after a winter of frequent thaws. The snow in the interior counties is very deep, and unless remarkable warm weather should come it will be on the ground until w r ell along in April. Sugar-making will not commence until late in the season, but when we get at it we shall make more of the toothsome sweet than we have made before in years.” . The experience of the man who recently sold his interest in a large manufacturing concern near Boston for over a million of dollars, a large part if not the whole of which he invested in Western lands and Nova Scotia gold mines, and who a few days ago found himself so much impoverished by his transactions that he was unable to meet a note for #702, and had to go to jail; should be a warning to other men who are not satisfied with the constant and legitimate profits of a good business, but who wish to wake up Goulds or Vanderbilts after the sleep of a single night.

Tub cold lias been excessive in St. Petersburg, and for weeks wood fires have been burned in the squares and streets of the city in an effort to make necessary outdoor business endurable. The streets have, however, been practically deserted. The double windows in the stores and houses are mostly iced over, and frozen up. From north and central Russia a temperature of thirty to thirty-nine degrees below zero is reportedj which is twenty-seven degrees below the average. In Siberia it has fallen to forty-five degrees below zero. The severity of British justice was well illustrated at Northampton recently, where a trial for murder was in progress. The jury having been permitted to partake ofalunch in their room, one of their number profited by the opportunity to step out of doors and post a letter. The judge to whom this act was reported, promptly gave the offending juror a sharp lecture and fined him $350. He dismissed the jury and a new one was impaneled. The Refuse Disposal Company, London, has lately published a pamphlet on the question as to the practical means by which the dust refuse of towns can be utilized for electric lighting purposes. The company claim that 20,000 tons of house dust, if treated as they suggest, and burnt in suitable boilers, might be made to produce as much as 5.600,000 indicated horse power working for 4,734 hours, for electric lighting.

Presidents seem to be horn Nimrods. Harrison has relieved the tedium of official duties by knocking down sandsnipe and canvasbacks, while Cleveland has slaughtered ducks when the temperature necessitated a stove in the boat to keep the huntsmen warm. President Dias, of Mexico, has the same propensity for cannonading, and just the.other day bowled over a bear, a wildcat and other beasts of prey that he happened to encounter. HerrJlabxtcht of Gotha has satisfied himself that there is a distinct connection between the number of icebergs carried into the Gulf Stream and the character of the subsequent weather experienced in Europe. Dr. Gatling is getting even more fastidious in the matter of guns than he used to.be. He has harnessed to a new one an electric motor that gives a result of 3,000 shots a minute, according to his own claims. Mexico has 6,770 miles of railroad, which are largely responsible for the increase of her revenue from a little over $17,000,000 in 1877 to nearly $38,000000 last year. Princess dresses of pink bengaline artistically trimmed with pink chiffon of the same shade, are worn by bridesmaids with large picture hats of black velvet, with pink tips and rosettes«of the pink velvet.