Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 November 1895 — Page 6

COVETED BY ENGLAND

THE FLOURISHING REPUBLIC OF VENEZUELA. A Country of Immense \\ ealth—ForP e«ts with Kvery Kind of Precious Wood, Mines of All Valuable Metals —Unlimited Agricultural Resources. Bulldozed by Britain.

>. JJ. OR the last fifteen r years readers of the press have heard now and then of the progress made by Great Britain in extending her rule (H(m from the indefinite boundary line of British Guiana over ' a considerable por{Snail* tion of Venezuela. rTV It was vaguely un- ' derstood that the

Monroe doctrine was being disregarded; that a weak little nation was being despoiled. and that the United States was nsing up reams of paper in diplomatic correspondence on the question. Yet so well did John Bull prosper in the acquisition of land on American soil that in 1887 the British official publications announced that British Guiana contained 109,000 square miles. Just the year before the official record, and the authorized records of all civilized countries, gave the area as 70,000 miles. Where did the South American colony of Englnnd get its increase? No new survey had been made; no territory had been gained by cession or accretion from the sea, or by a new adjustment of boundary lines. England had got 33,000 square miles of land, an area as large as the State of Indiana, and Venezuela had been robbed of that much. The astonishing part of the whole affair was that no one entered a protest loud enough to be heard. The world accepted the usurpation, new maps were made of the territory. By 1890, in spite of the diplomatic correspondence, the report of the International Conference contains two maps of South America, both of which agree that there is no dispute about boundaries between Venezuela and British Guiana, and that the latter contains all the area latest claimed for it in 1887. The new boundary is accepted by the United States, a boundary made by England and protested against by Venezuela. The scale upon which England’s continued encroachments have been prosecuted is shown by the map. Cuyani line is as far to the westward of the Schomburgh line as that is from the Esequibo River—the legitimate boundary (according to Venezuela) of British Guiana. This Is rapid progression. Within six years Great Britain has acquired a territory nearly as large ns the State of Illinois,

WHERE BOLIVAR IS BURIED.

without war or cession or purchase. The process is instructive. The boundary dispute recently called tip has had the effect of greatly interesting the people of the United States in the residents of a country, which, ulthough separated from us by thousands of miles 6f sea and land, is yet brought near by the ties created by a similar form of government. Although a small and weak power, Venezuela is a large country, having a length from east to west of more than 900 miles, a breadth from north to sduth exceeding 700, and an area of over 51)4,000 square miles. Roughly speaking, therefore, it is about as long as from St. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico and about as wide as from St. Louis to the Atlantic Ocean. If a line were drawn direct from St. Louis to Washington, and from St. Louis to the Gulf, the territory lying to the south and east of these lines would approximate in extent that of Venezuela. It is over twice as large as either Texas or France, nearly twice as large as Germany and ten times as large as England. In so extensive a territory even under a tropical sun, there is ample room for almost every kind of climate, and Venezuela can boast of more climates than any other land on the American side of the world, excepting Mexico. The innumerable varieties, however, reduce themselves to three species: the intensely hot, the moderately hot and the temperature, or, as a recent traveler expressed the idea, “One is hot enough to cook an egg in a minute, the second takes ten minutes and the third is cool enough to keep an egg fresh for a couple of days.” Along the seacoast and especially round Lake Maracaibo, the thermometer frequently stands at 110 degrees in the shade all day long; a little further inland, on lands somewhat elevated above the marshes, the mean temperature is about 80, while on the elevated tablelands of the interior a very moderate climate prevails most of the year, with occasional flurries of snow in the winter. From the diversity of climate it might be supposed that Venezuela is capable of growing any sort of agricultural product that is known anywhere else in the world, but this is not thecase, for the elevated plateaus of Venezuela, unlike those of Mexico, are by no means fertile, and large portions, comprising thousands of square miles, are quite unfit ;for cultivation, even of the primitive kind «aoßt popular among the Venezuelan Indians. But there is plenty of room for the farmer in the less elevated regions of the republic, for it is estimated that

throughout all Venezuela only one acre in 800 is cultivated, so the two and a quarter million*. Of population have ample non to spread and it is not likely that

for a good many years to come Venezuela will be over-crowded. It i» the best watered country on the globe. Within its limits there are over 1,000 rivers of navigable size, besides in numerable creeks and smaller streams, and nearly all this vast number have their rise within the boundaries of the republic, springing from the mountain ranges that divide, in almost every direction, the territory of Venezuela from that of her neighbors. With so great a number oi rivers, Venezuela ought to be one of the best known and best explored countries on the globe, but it is not, from the fact that the luxuriance of nature is such that the rivers flow through almost unbroken and impenetrable forests. Everywhere trees in closest array, the branches interlacing and forming an archway over the stream; everywhere a network of creepers and vines, through which it is impossible for the traveler to make his way. Yet these forestß themselves, which now stand as a barrier in the path of civilization, are destined, in the future, to form one of the principal sources of the national wealth. At the National Exposition of Venezuela, held at the capital in 1883, there were exhibited 2,070 different varieties of wood, composing 000 distinct species and embracing every kind of wood used in the arts and architecture. There were several kinds of rosewood, mahogany, cedar and other ornamental woods, with oak, pine and others which are found in equal or greater abundance elsewhere. But not for their wood only are the forests of Venezuela valuable, for the forest products may become an almost equal source of revenue. Thousands of square miles are covered with the trees that produce rubber, thousands more with cinchona forests that have never been touched with the ax. while plants useful in medical art and practice are numbered

by the hundred. If Venezuela had nothing but forests the State would be wealthy; but there is reason to believe that the mineral products are equally rich. Gold has been found in every portion of the republic, from the desert steppes of

GOVERNMENT BUILDINGS.

the highlands to the marshes of Maracaibo. As is very well known, the richness of the gold mines in the territory near the British line has induced the En-

THE TERRITORY IN DISPUTE BETWEEN VENEZUELA AND GREAT BRITAIN.

PRESIDENT JOACHIM CRESPO, OF VENEZUELA.

glish to claim land to which they have not a shadow of title; and no doubt is felt that when the mines of Venezuela are properly worked the world’s output of precious metal will be largely increased. Some of the mines now worked produce seven ounces to the ton, and the labors

of prospectors have discovered others that will be quite as rich. Silver is almost as plentiful as gold; copper is found in quantities so large and in situations where the metal is so easily worked, that the copper of Venezuela is already competing in Europe with that from other countries. Iron ore is found

in inexhaustible quantities; lead and tin exist in great abundance. Asphaltum enough to pave the streets of all the cities in the w'orld is found in the marshes and islands of the coast, and petroleum and coal enough to light them is near at hand. Extensive deposits of salt and soda exist in various places along the coast, while many other minerals of more or less value are to be found in various parts of the republic. In short, there is as much wealth below the roots of the Venezuelan forests as can be found above them. The fertility of the Venezuelan soil, when the forests can be subdued and native vegetation checked to a sufficient extent to permit the growth of cultivated crops, is said to be almost incredible, and so many stories are told of the quantities of food products raised on a single acre thit imagination is fairly staggered at the narratives. Of course, the greatest production is in the line of tropical plants and fruits, and, no doubt, when plans are devised to transport ripe tropical fruits long distances without impairing their quality, a new source of wealth will be added to the State. At present the richest fruits grow almost spontaneously, while the cultivation, even in the careless fashion common among the Indians, of garden vegetables brings princely returns. The staple productions are coffee, cocoa, cotton, sugar, corn, tobacco and wheat. It is estimated that about 400,000 acres are now planted in coffee trees, and us the quality of Venezuelan coffee is excellent, and by some persons

the bean is preferred even to that oi Java, the acreage is annually increasing More coffee is produced in Venezuela thai in any other country of the new world except Brazil. Besides coffee, however Venezuela has another source of wealtl in the cocoa tree. The cocoa belt, or re

A COLLEGE IN MARACAIBO.

gion, in which the tree best flourishes it comparatively restricted, and a large pari of the region most favorably adapted to the grow th of this tree lies within the limits of Venezuela. The urban population of Venezuela is not large; though there are many small towns and villages. Only two cities are of considerable size. In the marshy regions the Indians live in huts elevated on poles above the water, and it was this peculiarity of habitation that gave a name to the State, Little Venice, it being so called by the early Spanish explorers. The capital, Caracas, and La Guayra, the chief seaport, are the most important cities from either a social, political or commercial point of view. The former, only seven miles in a direct line from the latter and the sea, is over twenty miles distant by the stage route, for a range of rugged mountains intervenes between the capital and the sea, and only recently has a railroad been constructed that enables a shorter line to be taken. The city is beautifully laid out in the center of a beautiful valley, and has all the appointments of-a modern city. The population, according to the census of four years ago, is 70,000, only 20,000 more than it had at the beginning of this century, but besides going through the horrors of a merciless war with the Spaniards, it was almost utterly destroyed in 1812 by an earthquake, that, coming without notice, prostrated nearly every house in the city. How many lives were lost on that occasion will never be known, for the living were too few to bury the dead, so the bodies w’ere gathered in heaps here and there and burned. A volume would not do justice to the

flourishing republic that Great Britain now seeks to dismember, much less an article.

Some boys were asked the other day to define “editor.” Here are some of their definitions: “An editor is a man who handles words.” “An editor makes his living out of the English language.” “An editor is somebody who does not do anything himself, and when somebody else does, goes and tells other people all about it.” “An editor is a man who has the industry of a beaver, the instincts of a bee and the patience of an ass.”—Book Buyer.

The Atlantic takes its name from Mount Atlas. Numerous are the people who have “builded better than they knew.” A small boy in one of the public schools was asked to define a demagogue. “A demagogue,” he said, “is a vessel that holds wine, gin, whisky, or any other liquor.”—Bangor News.

LAKE DWELLINGS.

An Editor.

So?

INDIANA INCIDENTS.

RECORD OF EVENTS OF THE PAST WEEK. Well* County Farmers Get Big Royalties—Detective Morgan la in Lack —Noah Bloaaer Gives Hie Old Neighbors a Surprise Pari y. Standard Oil Royalties. Notwithstanding the pretensions of other counties, it is the Wells County oil operators who get the biggest monthly check from the Standard Oil Company, and it is the Wells County farmer who draws the largest hunk of royalty. Last mouth this county had fifty new wells drilled, with a production of 1,20(1 barrels the first twenty-four hours. For the same time Blackford County reported eleven wells, with 225 barrels; Jay County eighteen wells, with 400 barrels: Adams, nine wells, with 3(15 barrels; and Grant, seventeen wells, with 400 barrels. Wells County farmers in the oil field south of Bluffton are becoming wealthy. Many Years Mourned as Dead. Twelve years ago, Noah Blosser left his home, near Dunkirk, and was supposed to be dead until a day or two ago, when he once more turned up, safe and sound, and but little changed. When he left it was supposed that he had gone to Ohio to work, and a few- days afterward there was an accident on one of the railroads leading out of Limu, in which a man was killed. His body was mutilated beyond recognition, but in one of the pockets of the dead man’s clothes was found a paper bearing the name of Noah Blosser. The conclusion was at once reached that the body was none other than his, and it was buried as such. Those who knew him in former days were greatly surprised when he reappeared. A Detective Earns SI,OOO Reward. Detective Silas Morgan, of Logansport, has been instrumental in running to earth the three surviving members of tlje gang who perpetrated the train robberies -at Allegan, Mich., and Kessler, Ind., and who killed Detective George W. Powers on Aug. 22 last. They are “Zip” Brown, “Poe” Smalley, and Tim Taylor, who was captured in Oklahoma. Morgan obtained his first clew from a friend in Pond Creek, 0. T. He will receive SI,OOO for his services. Brown has made a full confession to the authorities at Allegan. Declining a Subsidy. John Wilhelm und his associates, of Hartford City and Bluffton, entered into an agreement to build a large steel casting works at Converse on receipt or guaranty of a subsidy. A contract was drawn, an addition to the town was laid out and lots in the same sold, the proceeds going to the subsidy. Now Wilhelm declines to accept the conditions of the contract, and has relensed all the purchasers, agreeing to build the works without a subsidy if the contract is not enforced against him. A Disastrous Freight Wreck. There was a disastrous freight wreck on the Lake Erie, la-tween Mulberry and Dayton. Train No. 135, east-bound, broke in two and came together again in a cut. Eleven cars were piled up, and almost completely demolished, while several others were badly damaged. No one was injured, but the regular trains were compelled to use the Big Four and Vandalia tracks to Frankfort to get around the wreck.

All Over the. State. Rollin Stibbins, of Kokomo, is dead, the result of a full from a roof. William Colvin, of Jefferson County, has been sentenced to five years’ impris*onment for horse stealing. His accomplice, Donohue, was convicted last spring. The public schools have closed at Williamsport because of diphtheria, and religious services in the churches are forbidden. The cholera lias appeared among the hogs south of Marion, and is carrying them off by the hundreds. With the price of corn at 18 cents, and hogs dying of cholera tin- farmers are in bad shape. After an extended bicycle ride, in which he became very much heated, Frank Hackleman, of Cpnnersville, plunged into a cold bath, and his heart’s action was almost stilled in less than five minutes. It was three hours before the physicians pronounced him out of danger. Mrs. Thanie Nicholson, 75 years old, near Salem, was attacked by a vicious sow, and before she could be rescued her fingers were broken, her lip and chin were torn, and she was bitten and bruised about the hips. She was also hurt internally. After a hard night’s fight the citizens and the Pennsylvania Railroad section men succeeded in checking the marsh fire which threatened to sweep the villages of Hammond and Davis. A half dozen people were badly burned, but they will recover. The damage is estimated at $15,000. The body of Alex. Pallot, a well-known young farmer south of Grantsburg, was found lying beneath the body of his dead horse. Mr. Pallot had gone in search of his' milch cows, riding a spirited horse, which is supposed to have stumbled and broke his own neck, killing his master at the same time.

Mr. It. C. Welty, a prominent farmer of Carrollton Township, near Delphi, had his right hand torn off in a corn-shucking machine. It was found necessary to amputate the injured member at the wrist. This is the fourth hand that has been torn off in Carroll County this year by corn shuckers. Edward L. Schell, of Fort Wayne, taken .to Peru to answer a charge of perjury preferred by Horace S. Barnard, growing out of the trouble between these gentlemen at Knightstown and Ilushville, was held by Justice Fulwiler for Grand Jury action. An affidavit was lodged against Barnard at Peru some weeks ago, the affiant registering as E. E. White. It is the claim of Barnard that Schell and White are one and the same. All the Welshmen in the mills of the National tin-plate factory at Anderson went out on strike. One cause is said to be the employment of Americans. The company denies this, and says that the mills will soon be started again. William Waltman, ex-prosecutor of Brown and Bartholomew Counties, owns an orchard of fiftyncres in Brown County, part of which is old enough to bear. From seven acres this season he has picked 2,000 bushels of apples, which he sold to a Michigan buyer for thirty-five cents per bushel, thereby realizing SIOO per acre. Auditor George Pence, of Bartholomew County, who is making a collection of pictures of men who were prominently identified with the early history of that county, hfts secured a painting of Gen. Bartholomew, in whose honor the county was named. The painting was executed in; 1820. Adam Wunderlich, a South Bend, sa-loon-keeper, who was shot three times by Ephraim Brick in a saloon fight, died Friday morning. The fatal shot struck him in the abdomen. The men quarreled over a broken window, and Wunderlich refused Brick a drink. Wunderlich used a club. Brick, who was released oh bail, has been roarrested.

WORLD’S WICKEDEST WOMAN.

Jane Cakebread, Who Haa Been Arretted 289 Times. All London is laughing Just now and all at the expense of Lady Henry Somerset. Some time ago she took upon herself the reformation of Jane Cakebread, the “wickedest woman In London,” or, as some say, “in the world.” Poor old Jane has a record of which she is very proud. She has been arrested,

JANE CAKEBREAD.

up to the time when Lady Somerset took her in charge, 288 times. Kate was not bad at heart, she was not cruel, she had never wilfully harmed a human being. She was merely drunken and immoral—drunken because she liked drunkenness, immoral because she lived by Immorality. Take away the temptation to drunkenness and the Incentive to immorality, thought good Lady Henry, and there you are. , So she prepared for Jane a nice, com-j sortable little cottage and the gentlest) of supervision down In the bracing air of Surrey. Jane was touched by the kindness of her would-be patroness, but she took time to revolve In her mind whether she should accept this scheme for her sobriety and comfort. Finally, she yielded. At her urgent entreaty, however, she was granted a day to say god-by to her old friends before beginning her new life. The farewells were celebrated in the good old style to which she had long been accustomed, and the result was that by nightfall Jane Cakebread had achieved her 289th arrest and gotten a month of hard labor In Cambridge prison. And that is why London Is laughing.

A HORSE-POWER PUMP.

It May Be Used to Force Water to Any Height. The illustration represents a simple, strong and highly efficient horse power and pump, which has been in general use on the Pacific coast for the past eight years. It Is described in the Scientific American. The flanges of the entire casing are bolted to timbers over or at one side of a well, and the large gear or master tv heel as it revolves sets In motion the pinion shaft and large chain gear which runs the pump, a sectional view of which is shown in the small figure. It comprises a pair of corrugated cams working together in an oval

HORSE-POWER PUMP.

case, the ends of long teeth being packed with blocks of metal inserted in grooves and pressed out by springs, insuring a perfect vacuum and taking up wear. The water enters at the botton by suction, the stream dividing and filling the chambers made by the long teeth as the cams revolve, and discharging at the top. The rotary motion is steady and continuous, there being no dead points, and the pump may also be used as a force pump to force water to any height or distance from the pump.

When Did They Live?

One of the most interesting questions relating to the early history of Switzerland is that of the probable length of time that has elapsed since the people called the “Lake Dwellers” occupied the curious houses whose remains are now found, there. A fresh examination of this question has lately been undertaken by Monsieur Vouga. The earliest of the Lake Dwellers belonged to the Age of Stone, and they were succeeded by others who made weapons and implements of bronze. Monsieur Vouga thinks that the people who made the stone implements lived during only one, or at most two, centuries on the shores of the Swiss lakes, and that for some reason, perhaps because of an inundation, they suddenly deserted their homes. Then for three thousand years the waters continued to deposit a slowly thickening layer of mud upon the sites of the abandoned villages. At the end of that time another people, who had acquired the art of making bronze, appeared upon the scene, the lakes having in the meantime, perhaps, sunk to their former level. These people remained there for two or three centuries, and then in their turn disappeared, and another layer of mud, occupying three thousand years more in the process of deposition, covered the remains of their dwellings and the relics of their art and industry. The muddy bottom of a lake forms a strange record-book for human history, ( but it is better than none at all. Friend—Why didn’t you ever marry? Maiden Lady—Because by the time my relations thought I was old enough to marry the men thought I was too old.— New York Weekly.

The Cream of Current Humor

On chilly days the maiden grieves Though dressed in garments new; She can’t display her silk waist'* sleeves And heavy Jacket’s, too. “He said I was bis life’s sunshine.” I guess you will find that all moonshine.”—Boston Courier. “Professor, how does the hair-cut suit you?” “The hair is altogether too short—a little longer, please.”—Fiiegende Blaetter. “What would you do, miss, if I should attempt to give you a kiss?” “I should certainly set my face against it, sir.”— Richmond Dispatch. “Tell me, guide, why so few people ascend that ■ magnificent mountain.” “Because no one has ever fallen off it" —Fllegende Blaetter. “It may be weakness,” said the dying editor, “but I can’t help but feel grateful to this town.” “What for?” “Fof life enough to leave it.”—Atlanta Constitution. “That whisky Is fifteen years old. 1 know It because I’ve had v it that long myself.” The Colonel—By Jove! sir, you must be a man of phenomenal selfcontrol.—Life.

“Now that we are married, Penelope, and have nothing to conceal from each other, how ” “I’m 29, George. How much did you give the preacher?”— Chicago Tribune. Tommy—Paw, why is it the good die young? Mr. Figgs-They don’t die young because they are good, but they stay good because they die young.—lndianapolis Journal.

He (waxing serious)—Do yon believe in the truth of the saying, “Man proposes; God disposes?” She (archly)— It depends upon whom man proposes to.—Brooklyn Life. Oh, Peary, please now settle down, While you with life are blest; And give yourself, the world at large, And poor north pole a rest. —Boston Courier. Slobbs—Jenkins told me Miss Beaconstreet was an old flame of yours. Blobbs—An old flame? Impossible! “Why impossible?” “She’s from Boston.”—Philadelphia Record. “Oh, boy, I’ll give you a dollar to catch my canary bird.” “He’s just caught, ma’am.” “Where—where Is the precious pet?” ♦'Black cat up the road’s got ’im."—Chicago Record. “I reckon,” said Mrs. Corntossel, “that these politicians says a good many things they’re sorry for.” “Yes,” replied her husband, “an’ a good many more thet they orter be.”—Washington Star. “It’s a cold day when I get left,” said the pawn broker, as he hung up the SGO overcoat on which he had advanced $4. “It’s the other way with me,” aptly remarked the overcoat.—New York Herald. “Do you think,” he asked, “that your father would consider my suit favorably?” “Really, Herbert,” the merchant’s daughter replied, “I couldn’t say. Did you buy it at his store?”— Washington Star. Oh, legislators, while you strive To remedy our ills, If you would keep us all alive, Pass some ten-dollar bills! —Atlanta Constitution.

“Did you like the matinee?” said Mabel to Blanche. “No. I couldn’t see the stage.” “Your seat was well toward the front, wasn’t it?” “Yes; but a foot-ball player sat directly in front of me.”—Judge. A.—“ When I see you I always think of the proverb: ‘To whom God gives an office, to him he gives understanding.’” B.—“ But I have no office!” A.— “Well, don’t you see how that fits?”— Fliegende Blaetter. Husband —“I have made all sorts’ of sacrifices for you. Now, what did you ever give up for me?” Wife—“ What did I ever give up for you? Well, I never! Why, I gave up half-a-dozen of the nicest young men in town.”— New York Weekly. '“Years ago,” said Mr. Barnes Tormer, the eminent tragedian, “I started out to be the architect of my own fortunes, but in the school of experience I have learned that a successful architect ought to be able to draw good houses.” —lndianapolis Journal. The black-bearded* pirate, with a knife between his teeth, boarded the passenger ship. “Throw up your hands!” he shouted. The passenger hanging over the rail smiled feebly. “I think I did, not less than an hour ago,” he said, gaspingly.—Cincinnati Enquire;:. “Are all these young men anxious to become surgeons?” asked the visitor. “They are,” replied the lecturer upon surgery. “But how can so maify expect to make a living?” “Easily, sir; easily,” answered the lecturer. “Think of the effect of the present bicycle craze.”—Chicago Evening Posh In reply to the cry for assistance, the professor said: “If I Could help’you, I couldn’t help helping-you. It is because I cannot help you that I cannot help refusing to help you.” And the mendicant darted around the corner, with terror in his eyes and cries of “Help!” in his mouth.—Boston Transcript

The Watch Still Going.

A singular incident took place she other day on Damariscotta Lake Maine, which shows the voracity of the bass in that lake. A party from the Kennebec were fishing from a boat when one of them caught the end of his fishpole in his watchguard and flung his gold watch overboard Into forty feet of water. About an hour .afterward, and a mile and a quarter distant, they caught a six-pounder, and, noticing his fullness and peculiar appearance, he was opened, and there was the watch, still going.