Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1893 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The annual report of the Boston Fira Department attributes the cause of a number of fireoin that city to “smoking in bed,” and it has a subdivision in which the origin of the fire is set down to “ oareless smoking in bed.” Where the line can be drawn is not obvious to the ordinary mind. An Ottawa correspondent estimates from the Canadian census of 1891, compared with that of 1881, that the Province of Quebec has lost over 100,000 French Canadians and more than 40,000 English speaking people in ten years. Most of them are credited with having come to the United States. Tub most remarkable work in Australia is the overland telegraph from Port Darwin to the south of the continent, which was completed in 1872. Almost the whole 2,000 miles of its length was through an uninhabited country—much of it a waterless desert. The wooden poles were prepared at the nearest available places, but some had to be carried 360 miles, while the iron poles were taken au average distance of 400 miles by land. Over 2,000 tons of material had to be carried into the interior, and the total cost was £370,000.

A novel idea has been put into operation at Whissendine, a village in Lincolnshire, England. A piece of land adjoining the parish schools has been cut up into small allotments for the elder boys of the school, and a.professional gardener has been employed to inspect these allotments. In his report he speaks highly of the manner in which the boys are cultivating the land. Jambs Moos by, of the Ethnological Bureau in the Smithsonian Institution, is one of the leading authorities on the North American Indians. For twenty years he has been traveling among them and living with them, studying their characteristics. His work, indeed, antedates the ethnological work of the United States Government. Mr. Mooney and Miss Alice Fletchsr arc said to be the only whites in whom all the Indians throughout the West place implicit confidence.

Does anyone know that we have no such thing as a “national holiday” in America? Not even the Fourth of July can claim that title, although it is a legal holiday in all the States. The President issues a proclamation oalling upon the people to keep Thanksgiving Day, but he cannot make it a legal holiday outside of the territories. A special proclamation must be issued by the Governor of each State, else the banks could not close, although business might be suspended by general consent. Quinnemorb. formerly chief of the Occur d’Alene Indians, has a fine farm of 167 acres on the south Bide of the Spokane river, about a dozen miles above Spokane, Washington, and the other day the tax gatherer thought it would be a very proper and desirable thing to tax It a good round sum. So he came smilingly with his bill. But Quinnemore was prepared for him even on such an unexpected mission. He brought forth a paper which in part read thus: “This Satent is issued upon the express conition that the title hereby conveyed shall not be subject to taxation of any character, but shall remain inalienable, and not subject to taxation for the . period of twenty years from the date hereof, as approved Jan. 18, 1881.” The assessor apologized and withdrew, not smiling.

Reports from Illinois indicate at least the partial success of recent attempts to replace prairie chickens and quail with other game birds. Two years ago Mr. George Simpson of Alexis, Warren county. 111., liberated in a small park a few pair of Chukor partridges and pheasants. The former were imported from India and the latter from China. The first two nests, of twenty pheasant eggs each, hatched thirty-eight birds. The pheasants like the open country, ar.d their flight is short and quick to the nearest oover. Fleetness of foot and ability to hide are more depended upon for safety than the wing. The adult male is two feet tall and twenty inches long. The female is a quarter less in size. The experiment, says the owner of the pheasants, “now depends for success solely on the protection and forbearance of hunters for the next few years.” The Chukor partridge has not done as well as its Chinese comrade.

In the lifetime of a man, philosophize! the American Dairyman, many things that were in their youth sincerely believed to be facts, have been proven, always by the scientist, to be myths. William Tell shooting the apple off his son’s head, and Sir Walter Raleigh introducing tobacco to Europe are instances. Another scientist has written a book, in which he takes the chemist to task for not deciding the question whether milk is an acid or an alkaline. Incidentally he tells that milk as such does not exist. That is, the various variable liquids composing this fluid ia only milk. That owing to circumstances that affect its nature the thing that was milk in the morning may not be such at noon, and this change in turn may be the result of the age or breed of the animal. And thus the thing we know as milk is not milk at all, but is sometimes an acid, and then again it may be an alkaline. This is the dictum of a French savant, but all the same we shall cling to the good old Dame of milk for the fluid that the cow gives for the benefit of the world and its people. A p arty of Americans will start next spring to explore a portion of the Arctic regions that has never been visited before. The expedition will be led by Robert Stein of the United States Geological Survey, and its purpose will be to trace the west coast line of EllesmereGrinnell land as far north as possible. A great mass of land faces the northwest coast of Greenland, and is separated from it by the narrow waterways of -Smith Sound and Kennedy and Robeson Channels, says the New York Sun. The eastern coast of this land has been fairly well mapped by the explorers, who have pushed along its edge toward the North Pole. The southern Coast has been followed through Jones Sound, and the northern coast was traced by Aldrich, of the Narez expedition. But no one has ever seen the western coast except Lockwood and Brainard of the Greelv expedition, who looked out over the sea from the west shore of Grinnell land and discovered the great fiord penetrating far inland, which they nam»a after their leader. It is surprising that in aU the many efforts that nave been mad£ in this part of the Arctic world to reach a high northing and, if possible, tp attain the pole, nobody seems seriously to have considered the idea of passing through Jones Sound and traveling north along the west coast of this unknown land. Distinguished Arctic experts have long maintained that the best route to the far north is along a western shore line extending toward the pole. There is little doubt that this unknown coast offers the desired conditions, but no explorer hot ever tried the route.