Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1896 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Japanese Government has just placed ordera-for 18.000 watches, not to cost more than $2.50 each. They are to be distributed among the ofticers and men who distinguished themselves in the late war. and are to take the place of the medals usually awarded at the close of national hostilities. Already Alfred Austin, England's custom-made Laureate, is paying the penalty of greatness. His maii is enormous, and the autograph tiend is after him in force. One of the curious features of the case is that Mr. Austin receives as many requests for his signature from the Fnited States as he does from England. Oiney and Lodge should look into this matter^ Benjamin D. Silliman, ofaßrooklyn. becomes tbe oldest living Vale graduate by the death of Charles L. Powell, of Alexandria. Va. Mr. Powell was born in 1804. aud was graduated from Yale in the class of 182,”,. For several years his name has appeared first in tbe list of living Yale graduates. Below his name, in the class of 1824, was that of Mr. Silliman, who was born just one year after Mr. Powell. There seems to be little doubt that John B. Robinson, of South Africa, is the richest man in the world. His fortune is estimated at $350,000,000. In 1878 Robinson was in debt. He had kept a grocery store in the Orange Free State, but he could not make both ends meet. lie and ids wife begged their way for 300 miles to Kimberley. Here Robinson laid the foundation of his enormous fortune by piekiug up a rough diamond worth $1,200. His ambition now is to be worth a billion. Electricity is likely to be an important factor in the agriculture of the future, according to tbe Italian Professor A. Aloi, who lias collected evidence showing that both terrestrial and atmospheric electricity are favorable to the germination of seeds and the growth of plants. M. Bonnier has found in tbe course of Ids experiments with continuous electric light on plants, that Alpine plants, cultivated under constant light, present points of structure identical, with those of Arctic plants, which grow under the midnight sun.

A general, simultaneous census of the world for the year 1900 is asked for by the International' Statistical Institute. It can be taken if slight modifications in the time of their regular censuses are made by the chief countries of the world. Portugal, Denmark, the United States, Germany, Austria. Switzerland, Belgium, Hungary and Sweden will regularly take their censuses on different days of 1 lie year litOO, Holland on the last day of 1899, Norway on the first day of 1901, and Great Britain, France and Italy later in that year. Prof. Becker, of the United States Geological Survey', who has just returned from the Alaska gold fields, states that although the precious metal abounds in different parts of Alaska, gold seekers should take into account the hardships and chances of ill-for-tune that they will encounter. Food and other necessaries are very expensive. Notably rich mines already developed are the Treadwell, on Douglas Island, which produces $500,000 worth of ore yearly, aud the Apollo mine, near Delaroff Bay, with a yearly output of $300,000. Henry M. Stanley states that within the last ten years France lias acquired of Equatorial Africa about 300,000 square miles, in which there are only 300 Europeans; Germany, 400,000 square miles; Italy. 547.000 square miles, and Portugal lias a defined territory extending over 710,000 square miles. France, moreover, lias been active farther north, in tbe Sahara and in West Africa, and claims rights over 1,(500,000 square miles; while Germany, in Southwest Africa aud the Cameroons, assert her rule over 540,000 square miles. France is stil much troubled over the found that Paris is not a city of Parisians. if even of Frenchmen. Only 36 per cent, of its inhabitants were born within its walls: and 75 in every 1,000 were born outside of France—a total of 181,000 aliens. Of these latter no less than 26.8(53 are Germans, while in Berlin there are only 397 Frenchmen. While Paris lias 75 foreigners to the 1,000, London lias only 22, St. Petersburg 24, Vienna 22 and Berlin 11. Perhaps, though. These figures are not so alarming to France as they are significant of the comparative attractiveness of file cities in question. One unexpected but by no means unimportant result of Dr. Jameson’s Transvaal raid has been to cast serious doubt upon the value of machine guns in civilized warfare. Those engines were certainly of little use in the Krugersdorp fight. It is to be remembered that in. the Franco-German war of 3870-71, the famous mitrailleuse was a failure, and to this day the German military authorities put little faith in such devices. Against savages, the machine gun is of the greatest possible value; but there is - evidently reason to doubt whether such will he the case against civilized combatants.

Our Baltimore contemporary, the Manufacturers’ Review, prints a full review of the business advancement of the South during the last year. We learn from it that, in the year, the southward movement of population was of unprecedented magnitude; that cotton-mill building in the South was “phenomenal”; that there was a remarkable revival in the iron business; that the output of coal was heavier than in any previous year; that several Southern shipyards made large contracts; and that, in short, the year was one of marvelous success in all branches of industry. After surveying the field, our Baltimore contempora says with pride that iu the year ISM “a solid, substantial foundation was laid for growth greater than any ever before seen in the South, if not in any other part of the country.” A new chapter lias been thus opened in the industrial history of the South. Speaking of the quaint city of Kingston, Canada, a correspondent of the Chicago lEvening Journal says: "It would not be easy to find a family in Canada within 100 miles of Kingston in which there belong a half a dozen children, where one or laore of the children were not living in the United States. A great portion of those who

have left the country are farmers’ sons, and they are found filling situations all over the State of New York. Bnt more significant than all this is the retard of the graduating classes of the Royal Military College, the West Point of Canada, picturesquely located at the foot of the slope between old Fort Henry and the river. The college was opened in 1876. The course of study is four years, the same as at West Point, the chief instructors are regular officers detailed from the British army, and the curriculum is of the most exacting order. It is a school that Canada is justly proud of, but of its annual graduating class only the four highest are eligible for commissions in the regular army. Over 50 per cent, of all of the graduates are filling positions in the United States, chiefly as civil and mechanical engineers.”