Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1894 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Daylight robbery has become so frequent in Chicago that the newspapers suppress the news for fear the town will suffer in reputation. To the Hartford Journal “As Yow Like It” philosopher, the thrilling stories of the escapes of animals from circus menageries are unfailing signs of spring. Miss May Philbrook is the first woman to apply for admission to the bar of New Jersey, and the justices over there are so bothered with the problem that the whole Supreme Court of the State will consider the question. The popular feeling in England against Russia must be regarded as the reason for the large audiences which gathered to hear George Kennan lecture on Siberian prison horrors. The English fear Russian designs on India more now than for many years, hence there is great popular curiosity about the Czar's domain. One of the strongest features of the Midwinter Fair at San Francisco, and undoubtedly that in which the greatest interest centres, is a small village of cabins and similar enclosed exhibits which is supposed to represent the Golden Slope in the days of *49. A few placer-diggers, numerous saloons, and by no means a few dance halls, represent this era of El Dorado America. The timber line in the Rocky Mountains runs as low as 9,500 feet and as high as 12,400. It has been, observed that on the south slope of Mount McClellan, in Colorado, pines. 2 feet in diameter and 80 feet high live and increase in size at an elevation of 12,400 feet. The winter at that elevation is long, the cold is intense, and the snowstorms are of terrific violence. There is a curious divergence of opinion among those who profess to know as to the percentage of adulterants In the food supply of this country. Two or three years ago an optimist estimated that only two per cent, of the food product was adulterated, and that ninety per cent, of the adulterants used were not injurious to health. Other students of tha subject placed the proportion of adulteration at something between five and fifteen per cent, of the whole food product consumed. There is a pretty general agreement that the percentage of positively dangerous adulteration is not large. The old geographical division of Tennessee into east, west and middle still holds, but the mountainous east Tennessee is growing in relative wealth and population. The counties that properly constitute west Tennessee now have a population of about 500,000; those of middle Tennessee have 800,000, and those of east Tennessee have 500,000. Civilization first broke into Tennessee from the east, when Daniel Boone passed through the mountain wall on. the eastern boundary. The rugged character of the country delayed ite development, but its mineral wealth has of late years brought population and many material Improvements. During 1892, 4,587 aliens were naturalized In France, and it is of some interest that 279 of those were Germans. A thousand persons from Alsace-Lorraine acquired French nationality during the year, and 954 Italians, 726 Belgians, and 88 Russians. Seven thousand and eightyeight children of alien parents, born on French soil, were counted in as of French nationality, without choice or option of the parents by virtue of the new legislation promoted to check, the foreign element in France and to> work up an increase of the population which tho native element fails I to maintain. Altogether, France ao- ! qulred in one way and another 22,--898 citizens during the year 1898. The peasantry in the northern region of European Russia pre in a pitifully impoverished condition, which is daily becoming more acute. The region most affected covers an. area of not less than 875,000,000 acres. While the imperial government is formulating plans for the commercial and industrial development of this region by the building of railroad systems, the local governors are appealing for assistance to keep the people from actual starvation. The people have not enough for bread to last them through the winter. They are four years in arrears with their taxes, and are hopelessly indebted to the crown for advances made during and since the late famine. The United States Government is doing what it can by precept and example to bring order out of the chaos of geographical names in this country. One source of confusion in the South is the not uncommon custom of giving a county seat two names. One may be anything, the other is usually the name of the county, with C. H. for Court House, attached. It grew up, doubtless, in times when the county seat consisted solely of the Court House. The United States Government seeks to drop the initials C. H., and to adopt one or the other name alone in the cases of such county seats. It would be a pity, however, to alter in any way the historic Culpeper Court House. An official report of the instantly available battle-ships of the six great powers shows that of first-class vessels England has 15, France 9, Russia 8 and the Triple Alliance 10, of which 9 are Italian andl German. All tho English vessels steam 16J kneta and upward, 2 being 18|; none of thsFrench is over 16.2 knots; while 2 of the 8 Russians are under 16, the third reaching 17.8. In second-class ships England leads with 12, France has 9, Russia 4 and the Triple Alliance 11, of which Germany owns 7 and Austria 4. Here there is no such superiority of speed on the English side, threebeing under 18 knots, while noFrench vessels goes so low as that figure and all the Russians steam 14 knots and over. It is alleged that on the island of Leri, in the Gulf of California, not more than sixty miles from the Mexican mainland, there are remnants of a race of giant cannibals. This startling discovery was made early in 1891, and has since been affirmed by bo¥i United States and Mexican explorers. —[Goldthwaite’s Geographical Mage azine.