Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1895 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

There are at present 850 electric railways in tlie United States, operating ever 9,000 miles of track, and 28,000 cars, rep; resenting a capital investment of over $400,000,000. Shanghai. China, papers report .a ghastly incident at a recent execution. Just at the moment of the execution the victim’s hands nervously grasped the garment of the executioner and held on after decapitation. Before the grip could be loosened the executioner died of fright. Three-wheeled vehicles are the rage. The latest carriage invention is a threewheel affair. The newest cycle has the same number of wheels. Each seats two persons and threatens to unseat the reason of a lot of people who already have too many wheels. If a man is a pessimist be is sure to grumble continually at the weather. The optimist, on the other hand, always sees the bright side of the subject. If it rains with him it is “ good weather for ducks,” and if it’s so sultry he can’t sleep nights, he consoles himself with the thought that at any rate it's •* good corn weather." The war department has just granted a medal of honor to Alonzo 11. Pickle, sergeant of Company B, First Battalion, Minnesota Infantry, for saving the life of an officer who fell desperately wounded between the lines in a battle of the late war. Mr. Pickle ought to be thankful that he lived long enough to give the government sufficient time to find out that he had done a heroic deed.

The Belgians are careful of their historic souvenirs. In the front of a house situated in the Faubourg de Shaerbuch, in Brussels, there is to be seen, half buried in the plaster, a cannon ball which was fired from a Dutch cannon at the period of the revolution of 1830, and has ever since been permitted to remain. Recently it was determined to restore and refront the house, and it was decided to make the repairs without disturbing the canon ball. At the recent Sloane-Burden wedding, two of the richest families in America were united—the Vanderbilts and the Burdens. The guests represented $800,000,000. Quite $1,000,000 was spent in wedding arrangements. The bride’s trousseau cost $40,000; the wedding presents were valued at $700,00; 180 carriages were placed at the service of the guests, and the largest hotel in Lennox, Mass., was chartered for their use. In 1894 the railways killed 7,828 of their employees, or 904 less than in 1893, and injured x 8,422, dr 8,807 less than in 1893. The passengers killed numbered 824, an increase of 25, and the injured numbered 8,034, a decrease of 195. This commendable saving in lives and lunbs of railway employees is ascribed by the Interstate Commission in part to the decreased number employed and in part to the increased use of automatic appliances that have rendered railway employment much less dangerous. Among 178 babies exhibited at the recent New York baby show, 14 bore the name of Dorothy. Next in favor came Marjorie, Helen, Katherine and Marie. It would appear, then, that Dorothy is the fashionable name just now, at least in Gotham. This matter of baby-naming should be carefully considered. Supposing Miss Trilby Trotter in the year 1930 is sensitive about her age. She will have hard work convincing the wise ones that she was not born during the Trilby craze of 1895. The current number of Harper’s Weekly contains a particularly interesting article by Mr. Edward Atkinson on “ The Cost of Our Government,” in which lie analyzes the figures of revenue and expenses for the last fifteen years, and shows the average cost of different branches of the public service and the expense for pensions and clearing off war debt. In 1880 | the revenue per head was $0,825 and the I expense $5,298. In 1888 the revenue was $7,587 and the expense $4,910. In 1890 ' the same items were respectively $0,577 and $4,749, and in 1894 $4,455 und $5.340. If you want to know the character of your friends, just study their thumbs. The conditions are simplicity itself. The weak man’s thumb is weak and pendent; the strongman’s thumb is strong and erect. The parallelism is so marked that you can I tell from a glance at a man’s thumbs whether he is an aimless thinker or a man who carries his ideas or somebody else’s into action. Men should mark well the thumbs of the women of their choice. If a girl’s thumb, be it ever so prettily rosy, has a tendency to stand at right angles to the hand—well, the gray mare will need a bit, that’s all, while if it lies flat or I droops a little you cun count on marital I submission to the master mind, and that’s the sort of domestic paradise all you sons of Adam are looking for, isn’t it ? With the waning of the powers of frame und brain comes the depression of the thumb, and whether in senility or idiocy the thumb is always turned in. And then, when you turn your face to the wall and know no more summer’s heat nor winter’s cold, those that stand about you and say: Well, poor old chap, he’s gone at last,” will find that you have tucked your thumbs away in the shelter of your hands, just as you had them wdien you were a little baby. The business men of Boston have been giving attention of late to the conditions which surround the foreign and domestic commerce of that port. There has been some talk in the newspapers of Boston’s “ decaying commerce.” and it was perhaps the sling of this unwelcome phrase which led the Chamber of Commerce to consult concerning possible means of improving the harbor, and induced the Boston Advertiser to make a cureful conpurison of the city’s foreign shipping with the murine traffic carried on from other principal ports. The Advertiser claims that Boston’s commerce is not decreasing, but is, on the other hand, showing an aunuul rate of increase more creditable than can be claimed by New York, Baltimore. Philadelphia, New Orleans, or San Francisco. Reviewing the facts collected and givihg comparative results, the Advertiser says: “ Boston, which had an annual commerce of $80,000,000 in 1875, shows $110,000,000 for the first ten months of the last fiscal year, and $113,000,000 for the corresponding period for the present fiscal year, or 50 per cent, more than the annual total of twenty years ago. Even New York, the only other port to show any increase of commerce since 1894, can suow but 10 per cent, increase over its 1875 totals. On tr«e other hand, Baltimore can can show but 35 per cent., Philadelphia 30 per cent., New Orleans a decrease of 12 per cent.. and San Francisco an increase of about 6 per cent., as compared with the annual totals for 1875, and if an earlier ,«ate were taken, the showing would be still more creditable to Boston.” There does not seem to be a scientist living to-day who can tell why the hair precedes the beard and mustache in grayness or whiteness, or vice versa. In the case of persons of blonde or demiblonde complexion, who have hair and beard of light brown or sandy hue, the process of growing gray seems to proceed

pari passu, but with the brunettes it is an even chance whether the hair or the beard ana mustache first show the signs of advancing years. There must lie some scientific reason for three or four things which we cannot have failed to notice. What causes baldness ? Why does the hair turn gray or white sooner in one place than another ? Why does one man’s head turn silver white, wlrtle another’s remains only grizzled ? Why are there eo many more bald-headed men than women ? Why, of two brothers, should one be equipped w’th a full, strong, permanent head of hair, and the other become bald almost before reaching years of manhood ? These questions may not be vital to the human family, but they are certainly of interest, and they should be capable of scientific answer and solution. A head of hair is a crown of whether to man dr woman, and there ought to be formulated definite scientific rules under which the hair may be preserved in its natural state. To make hair grow on a bald head is deemed practically impossible, but to preserve the hair in a healthy scalp or on healthy cheeks or chin and to make it retain the most of its natural color should not be impossible. We have specialists in every other ment, why not encourage the education and development of specialists in the department of crinosity ? There should at least be money in the business of hair preservation.