Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 May 1895 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Prof. Hiram Forbes, of the , Stevens Institute of Technology, says that in fifty years from now twoth'rds of the work now done by men and women will be taken off their hands by electricity. Steel shipbuilding for the traffic of the great lakes is in a highly prosperous condition. The size of lake vessels steadily increases; two ships of 6,000 tons burden are now on the stocks in South Chicago. In the five years ending April 2, 1900, there will be 180 retirements in the army. The list includes one lieutenant general, two major generials, seven brigadier generals, forty- | four colonels. seventeen lieutenant colonels, twenty-five majors and thirty-four captains. According to an English writer, who has made a recent football game played near London by feminine elevens an excuse for discussing the running powers of women, “even the most athletic of them can never rise beyond a compromise between a scuttle and a scamper.” This phrase is certainly ungallant; if numberless legends, ancient and modern, are to be trusted, it is also untrue. Very few people understand the enormous scope of the operations of a modern railway company. There are now probably nearly 900,000 persons employed directly by the railways of the United States, and if any account is taken of the families dependent on many of these employes it will be seen that possibly 2,000,000 of the residents of this country derive their support from these companies. A great international exposition of industries and fine arts, authorized by the federal government of Mexico, will be Inaugurated in the City of Mexico on April 2, 1896, and will remain open for a period of at least six months. This will be Mexico’s first exposition. The exposition is to include all kinds of industrial, scientific, commercial and artistic productions, and to embrace, in fact, the whole range of human activity. The English journals are concerned about the state of the Queen’s health and are advising her to restrict her diet. Truth recommends her to give up tea, to eat as sparingly as possible of meat and fish, and to make luncheon her heaviest meal of the day. Queen Victoria has long been threatened with loss of the use of her logs, and as she is unable to stand erect at times without support, her attendants find it hard to dross her. Sales of postage stamps by the Postoffice Department have long been regarded as furnishing a reliable indication of the condition of the business of the country. Official figures for the last three months of 1894, which have just been given out, show that more than $19,405,000 worth of stamps wore sold, this being the greatest amount over sold in any quarter year. The officials regard this as irrefutable evidence that trade is rapidly recovering from the recent depression, and as good cause for general rejoicing. There are nt present in round numbers 180,000 miles of steam railroads in operation in the United States, but neither this fact nor the remarkable growth of the electric systems can be taken as meaning that the construction of steam roads In this country has approached anything like a termination. When the vast area of the country is taken into consideration, affording as it does ample room and the necessity for almost countloss miles of new roads, and when, also, the demands for the transportation of heavy and varied traffic are not lost sight of, it will readily be seen that the construction of steam railways is in hq ‘linger of being discontinued, but that, oh the contrary, there is a bright and profitable future for all those engaged in the industry, provided, of course, that the long delayed revival in general business may be counted upon with any degree of certainty. To bring the products of the West to the Atlantic Ocean and send them across to Europe as cheaply as possible is always being studied by wealthy men and companies. The latest plan Is to build a ship canal from the great lakes to the Atlantic, using on the way the waters of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. These bodies of water will be joined by wide canals twenty feet deep, which will have a steady flow to the Hudson, as the lakes are higher than the river. Beside carrying freight the company will supply towns and villages along the Hudson with pure water. Every year there are shipped 60,000,000 tons of freight from the West which could be taken through the canal. When the canal is in use ships will be loaded in Chicago and sent direct to foreign countries, saving the cost of loading cars and then unloading again into ships at New York. The canal might also be useful in tiiho of war. A highly interesting study of what a hundred years of war have cost France in human life has just been made public by Dr. Lagneau, member of the Academy of Medicine of Paris, and is found in the Lancet. When the revolution broke out France’s effective army was only 120,000 men. For the wars waged during ten years in Belgium, on the Sambre, the Meuse, the Rhine, the Alps, the Pyrenees, in the Vendee, and in Egypt, there were called out 2,800,000. At the census made in the ninth year of the republic there remained of these only 677,598. In killed and in dead by disease the wars of the first republic cost'France 2,122,402 men. From 1801 to Waterloo 8,157,898 men scarcely sufficed to fill the blanks which, in an incessant war against combined Europe, France incurred at Austerlitz, Jena, Auerstadt, Friedland, Saragossa, Eckinuhl, EsslTng, Wagram, Taragona, Smolensk, Moscow, Lutzen, Bautzen, Dresden, Leipzig, and Waterloo. Under the restoration Louis Philippe, and the Second republic, in s>pite of the war in Spain (1828), the conquest of Algiers (1880), and the taking of Antwerp, France passed through a period of comparative calm. The army numbered about

T ! 218,748, and the mortality averaged 122 per 1,000 In 1853-5 commenced 1 the epoch of the great wars—the Crimea, Italy (1859-60), China I (1860-1), Mexico (1862-5), and the I disasters of 1870- In the Crimea, ; out of 800,268 men 95,615 succumbed; in Italy, out of 500,000 there died 18.678; in China 950, and in Cochin China, 48 per 1,000. The Second empire cost France about i 1,600,000 soldiers. According to I Dr. Lagneau s demographic tables the i century from 1795 to 1895 witnessed ' the death in battle or by disease of | 6,000,000 French soldiers. It is understood that the effort which was made toward the close of the last session of Congress to secure a new international commission for the consideration of the seal question, and with the view of preventing the I entire annihilation of the species, I will be revived at the beginning of the next session, when it is believed that Congress, having more time for considering the matter, will be favorably disposed toward action. It was urged when the bill was before Congress last session that there was great danger if the present regulations were allowed to remain in force another year there would be very few of the saals left to protect, but this view is not pressed now, and the opinion is expressed that even after this year’s crop of pelts shall have been harvested there will be a sufficient nucleus remaining to allow a rapid increase in case those left are sufficiently protected. The experts on the question estimate that there yet remains about 800,000 seals in the American herd, and they expect it to be reduced at least one-third during the approaching season. This estimate allows for the killing of 100,000 of these seals in 1895. This is in excess of the number of American seals known to have been killed last year by about 44,000, but there are reasons for believing that the British sealers will enjoy some privileges this season which they did not have In 1894, and It is also surmised that they will make special effort to increase the catch, In view of the possibility of gre’ater restrictions In the future.