Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1893 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Thebe is a man in Shepherdstown, W. Va., who could be a veritable Brutus, if the occasion ever arose. He is the Mayor of the town, and the other day he fined himself for allowing his cow to run at large, in violation of the town’s ordinance.

Of every 1,000 clergymen between the ages of 45 and 65 it is found that only 15.93 die annually. But of every 1,000 doctors between the ages of 45 and6s no fewer than 28.02 die every year. That is to say, tho mortality of medical men is almost double that of clergymen, and the rate is increasing. A bill before the English Parliament aims, by a somewhat singular method, to prevent drunkenness. According to its provisions, any party convicted of drunkenness twice within a year shall not be allowed on the premises on which liquor is licensed to be sold. A licensed vendor who breaks the restriction imposed in such a case shall be liable to a penalty. The bill in question is not to apply to centers of population with more than 20,000 inhabitants. Ravenstein. the noted statistician, has just published the result cf a series of interesting calculations, which are that the earth cannot nourish more than 6,000,000,000 people. At present the population of the earth is estimated to be 1,467,000,000 souls, and according to Ravenstein’s ingenious combinations the 6,000,000,000 mark will be reached in 180 years, so that the day is not very far off when the earth can no longer maintain her children, unless by that time beefsteak and potatoes can be chemically made from air, earth and water. Of cities with more than 100,000 population England has thirty, Germany twenty-four, France and Russia each twelve, Italy ten, Austria-Hungry six, Spain five, Belgium, the Scandinavian States, Roumania ami the Balkan Islands each four, the Netherlands three, Portugal two; the total in Europe being 116 great cities. Asia has 105, China having fifty-three and British India thirty. In Africa there are seven, in America forty, of which the United States have twenty-six; South America nine. Australia has only two large cities

“Faw persons,” says a railroad man, “have any idea of the enormous cost of rolling stock. The price of a single car ranges from $15,000 down to S3BO. The former is the price of a first-class Pullman car, while the latter is that of what is known as a flat car, such as are used to haul gravel and dirt. A common flat-bottomed coal car costs SSOO, while a car with a double hopper-bottom is quoted at a hundred more. A refrigerator car costs $550. A combined baggage and mail car costs $3,500, and a first-class coach is valued at $5,500.”

Perhaps the quaintest and quietest little settlements within a hundred miles of New York are those built at the foot of tbe Palisades. The fishermen who live there appear to be as far from the madding crowd as though they were alone on the prairie. The tall cliffs and agged rocks about them cut them off from the rest of the world, and they have few visitors. There is not a horse or wagop among then; and no road to drive 6h. Sprihgs of good water are found within a rod of the salt Hudson, but beer and groceries are a long way off, unless one takes a boat and crosses the river to the metropolis that swirls and roars on the other bank.

John Robinson, who now lives at Cincinnati, is probably the oldest survivor of the oldtime circus. He is over eightytwo years of age, and was actively engaged in the business from his boyhood up to just before the war. He says that in those days the regular charges in the South were fwenty-flve cents for whites and thirty-seven and one-half cents for slaves. Spanish coins were plentiful, and a dollar could be split up in nearly any way desired. The slaves were charged the higher price in order to, in a certain measure, restrict their patronage. It was nearly as easy to get thirtyseven and one-half cents as it would have been to get twenty-five cents. The slaves came in droves generally, accompanied by some member of their owner’s family or in charge of a trusted slave. In the North twenty-five cents was the usual price, but business was not so good as in Dixie. A queer story comes from Ashland, Kan. In common with the rest of the country, the people of this town have been feeling the pinch of hard times. They therefore determined to economize. The town is not very large, but it has seven settled ministers, and it was determined that one would suffice until better times came. So a vote was taken on the question which of the seven should be retained. TlifTfoll showed a plurality of votes for the Methodist minister, and therefore the other six were discharged. It is proposed that other towns in Kansas, especially those suffering from drought, shall adopt the same plan, and that the money thus saved shall be given to the needy. This is a practical movement in the direction of Christian unity that will hardly be pleasing to the discharged clergymen, however strong may be their theoretical belief in Christian unity.

In many ways the United States have educated the world in politics, and I, for one, do not hesitate to say that their scheme of government is the best that has ever been established by a nation, says London Truth. But in nothing do we owe more to Americans than for their having afforded us the great object lesson of a State pursuing the even current of its way, without that meddling in the affairs of other States which have been the bane of European powers. Here we have a country, rich, powerful, industrial and commercial, yet never troubling itself with what happens outside its frontiers, or annexing foreign lands on the plea of philanthropy, or on the ground that in some centuries its area will be too small for its population, or in order to create markets for its goods. And what is the result? No one dreams of attacking the United States or of picking a quarrel with them. The lesson to be learnt is that a State should rest satisfied with promoting the wellbeing of her own citizens and leave it to other States to promote the well-being of theirs. Can anyone conceive the United States annexing jungles in the center of Africa in the wild expectation that the inhabitants of the jungles will be civilized and then cover their nakedness with American cotton goods and cook their food in American pots and pans? There are, according to the recent official reports, fifty derelict vessels floating in the Atlantic Ocean that are regarded as dangerous to navigation. The large number of these abandoned hulks are in the sailing route of the equator, and the record of their movements shows that they cross and recross the track. Some of them have made long journeys since they were deserted by their crews, who took refuge in some passing vessel when their own craft

threatened to sink or had become hopelessly unmanageable or waterlogged and uninhabitable. Some of these travel so hear the regular ocean lanes that an almost unbroken record of their wanderings is reported and sketched on the Atlantic pilot charts. One of the latest of these well-known ocean wanderers heard of is the bark Ocean, which originally appeared just north of the southern track of the western bound steamers in September. It has since been reported at periodical invervals and has gradually drifted south, almost to the sailing route from the equator. The last reports previous to its recent bailing was in March, since which time it has taken a northwesterly course toward the Bermudas, and was seen in about longitude 60 and latitude 30 on May 30. Some of the abandoned vessels have valuable cargoes of lumber, and could they be towed to port would prove rich booty. One of the most notable of the derelicts, whose journeyings were well recorded, was the Maine schooner W. L. White, which, after being abandoned off Delaware Bay in March, 1888, after ten months and ten days, arrived off the northwest coast of Scotland and went ashore at Stornoway, having traversed 5,000 miles of ocean and been reported forty-five times by passing ships.