Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1894 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

“The Americans are the only people who can speak English correctly,’* observes General Booth, the head of the Salvation Army. England has the advantage of us in the safety of railroad travel. In 1893 not a single passenger of the 40,000,000 conveyed during the first six months of the year was killed while traveling on the triins. The experiment of enlisting Indians as soldiers appears to have been unsuccessful. Of the fifteen Indian troops and companies five have been disbanded. The great obstacles to the plan are the restlessness of the Indians under restraint and their inability to understand and speak English. More than half the world’s supply of tin is mined in the Strains Settlejnent, at the tip of the Malay peninsula. The output in 1891 was 36,061 tons out of a total of 57,551 tons; 12,106 tons came from the Dutch East Indies, chiefly from the island of Banka, leaving only 8,384 tons for the rest of the world. Camels are now in general use throughout Australia. Within twen-ty-five years, by scientific breeding, a race has been produced larger in frame, sounder in wind and limb, and able to carry more weight than the Indian camels originally imported. A quarantine for imported animals is established at M Port Augusta, 260 miles northwest of Adelaide, where they are carefully guarded for three months, during which time they are subject to a destructive mange, which carries off most of them, but to which they are no longer liable when once acclimatized. There are. 10,000 camels at work, which not only transport loads upon their backs, but are trained to draw wagons, yoked in teams of eight, like oxen. Some of the forty or fifty State agricultural colleges make special provision for students wishing to work their way through college. Such students work daily on the experimental college farm and receive current wages. There are many free scholarships in these colleges, and board and lodging are cheap, so that a working student finds that his labor goes far toward paying his way. Tutoring pays better, however, and very clever men sometimes earn from SI,OOO to $1,500 per year in helping through their duller fellows. Such opportunities, however, are found only in the great colleges, and are few. At one of these institutions one successful young lawyer, of New York City, is said to have earned $2,000 in a single year tutoring while yet an undergraduate. The bicycle for army purposes finds enthusiastic recommendation in the annual report of General McCook, commander of the new department of Colorado, to Secretary of War Lamont. General McCook’s chief signal corps officer, Captain Glassford, wants to have the signal sergeants provided with wheels. The report states that the use of the bicycle for military purposes has passed the experimental stage; most, if not all, of the European armies have adopted it for certain of their forces, and, while the question seems unsettled whether troops mounted on bicycles can successfully take the place of mounted infantry or cavalry, the consensus of authoritative opinion is that, as a substitute for the horse, for the men engaged in signalling and the allied duties of reconnoitering and keeping communication open, the bicycle is an eminent success. As a mount it has the special advantage that it requires no feed or water and little or no care; it is noiseless in its movement; it is no more, but rather less, likely than a horse to get out of order; it can average double the distance in a day that a horse can - __ , The monthly rate of wages for London policemen is $35.