Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1895 — NOTES AND COMMENTS [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS

Japanese statistics show that “the whole number of men lost in battle in the war with China is 623.” It was a lucky thing for the Japanese army it did not run up against a foot-ball team, a Fourth of July or a Brooklyn trolley car. The Supreme Court of Nebraska has just declared unconstitutional the law requiring railway engineers to whistle at every highway, and imposing a fine of SSO for every failure to do so, half of which went to the informer. For years the farmers along the railways have made considerable money by bringing suits under this law. The Union Pacific Railroad recently had to pay 13,500 to one man alone. Preparations are making to include an exhibition of aeronautical apparatus in the Paris Exposition in 1900. The exhibit promises to be of unusual interest. It will include samples of balloons of various designs and all kinds of flying machines and soaring apparatus. A number of prizes and medals will be awarded or the most successful designs, and all foreigners will be able to compete upon equal terms with French inventors. The trained dogs of the German Army seem to be a valuable acquisition. At a recent exhibition in Dresden the animals carried dispatches from one part of the field to another a mile distant in one or two minutes; transported cartridges in pack-saddles to points of need, and assisted men who feigned being wounded, some dogs signaling the spots of the fallen by loud barks, and others dragging the bodies to the rear. Apropos of the agitation for good roads, the Detroit Journal says: “The thing to do is to encourage the spirit of road reform, and cause it to spread into all the States.” Certainly that is a good thing to strive for, but it is not enough, comments the New York Tribune. Something more than the spirit of road reform is needed. There must be a practical demonstration of the advantages of first-class highways to encourage any community to undertake this work. A few miles of good road are worth more than theories on the subject covering reams of paper. There has been a notable revival in the mining industries of the pacific coast States and Territories of late, according to reports recently gathered by the San Francisco Chronicle. Many old gold and silver workings are being reopened and new discoveries developed, and there is also’ a greatlj' increased activity in the working of the many other valuable mineral deposits of the region in addition to the precious metals. The utilizing of water to generate electric power for running mining machinery is a new factor that gives promise of greatly extending mining operations all over the Pacific coast and the Northwest. The desert of Sahara is not all a desert. In 1892 more than nine millions of sheep wintered in the Algerian Sahara, paving a duty of 1,763,000 francs (.$352,000). These sheep were worth twenty francs ($4) apiece, or in all 175,000,000 francs. The Sahara nourishes also 2,000,000 goats and 260,000 camels, paying a duty of 1,000,000 francs. In the oases palms, citrons and apricots abound; there are cultivated also onions, pimentos and various leguminous vegetables. The oases contain 1,500,000 date palms, on which the duty is 560,000 francs. The product of a date tree varies from 8 to 10 francs; these of the desert give about 15,000,000 a year. New York CFrv is in the midst of a building boom that recalls the flush times of 1889. In fact, there is more money being put into large commercial structures and office buildings on Broadway alone from the Battery to Fourteenth street than at any time previously. The march of improvement, which for so many years was steadily northward, has turned back on its tracks, and twenty-four extensive improvements are in process on that portion of the great thoroughfare indicated. Old and cheap buildings that have for many years been eyesores are being replaced by towering palaces of steel, marble and granite. Eight million dollars is a conservative estimate of the value of the Broadway buildings now going up. On the upper west side, in the territory north of Fiftyninth street and taking in the Morningside Park district, no less than one hundred high-class apartment houses are building. A church has been organized in Bollinger Ccunty, Mo., with Ida Deckard as chief divinity. She is young, fair-haired and given to seeing visions. Her neighbors, rude, unlettered, superstitiously devout, believe her to be an angel in human form. They worship her as such, and tho “church” is based upon their faith in her. The girl is apparently single-minded and sincere. From her trances she awakens with messages for the faithful, messages claiming sometimes to be from the Deity himself, guiding them as He guided the patriarchs of old. Also, she brings word from the blessed dead In Heaven— according to the belief of her followers—and from lost souls in Hades. Her communications are listened to by these primitive people with all the reverence due to anointed sainthood. The “new church” of the mountains has now a membership of about one hundred—a centurian band of mountaineer neighbors, firm and ardent in their remarkable faith. They propose from now on to “proselyte” for their church, and to spread their belief throughout the world. The flocking of the rural population to the cities, its results and how to counteract them are problems that yearly become more serious, In the United States there has been a steady growth in the urban population during the last hundred years. In 1790 the percentage of the total population which lived in cities was 8.35. In 1890 it half increased to 29.12. It has grown more than 7 per cent, in the last decade. England’s percentage of urban population is the highest in Europe—4B per cent. Thrifty Holland la next in the list,

for 88 Oat of every hundred of net inhabitants lire in towns. Belgium's percentage is 34.5 and France’s but 24. It is in Sweden and Russia that the rural population is the largest in proportion. In each of these countries 91 persons out of every hundred live outside of the towns. Norway, Greece, Switzerland and Germany, in the order named, have the next largest percentages of urban dwellers. Every schoolboy knows that one of the signs which foretold the crumbling and downfall of the Roman Empire was the gathering of the country people in the towns. At Rome there were 100,000 poor who lived on alms. The fields were deserted, and agriculture fell into such a deplorable state that in 198 A. D. the exemption from taxes for ten years was decreed for every person who should till the uncultivated fields of the empire. Commander McGiffen, of the late lamented Chinese war fleet, gives in the Century the best account yet published of the battle of the Yalu. From the account and from the comment the reasons for the Japanese victory are apparent. The two fleets were of about the same tonnage, rather over 35,000 in each case, but the Chinese had two big armored warships, while the Japs had noneat all. The Chinese had also many more heavy guns. On the other hand, the Japanese excelled in rapidfire guns, and with them made it so hot for the Chinese gunners that they couldn’t do as much damage with their big guns as in theory the* ought against unarmored or light armored vessels. The Japanese fleet had also the advantage in speed, which was a great benefit. After all is said, one comes back to the personality of the fighters. Two of the Chinese ships ran away, and, although the others fought bravely, their strategy was inferior to the Japanese, and their formation was broken up. The supplies and ammunition furnished to the Chinese fleet were inferior, owing to the knavery of thievish contractors. Nor was the defeat, at the worst, conclusive. From all these circumstances the New York Recorder is tempted to wonder what would have been the result of the battle if the opposing forces had swopped fleets a month before it began.