Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1896 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Free Cuba will be prosperous and progressive Cuba. Spanish Cuba Is never likely to be either prosperous or progressive, seuteutiously observes the New York World. A chorus of 4,000 voices is now in process of organization at Washington to form the leading musical feature of the National Christian Endeavor Convention there in July. This chorus is to be known as “The ’O6 Convention Chorus.” Newspaperdom is fairly well represented in the United States Congress—by those engaged in makng law as well by those whose duty it is to report the proceedings of the lawmakers. There are twenty-seven editors, nine who have been engaged in the profession at one time, and tour others who followed the printer’s calling in former days. As soon as it seemed likely that the newly discovered Rontgen rays might prove to be of value to the medical profession experiments were begun by many physic-inns and photographers with a view to determining the uses and limitations of the rays in surgery. The results in many cases have shown that the profession will reap great benefit from the X rays, especially in the direction of surgical diagnosis. The French Government's new budget shows that a step has been taken in the direction of State socialism. Six hundred thousand fraues have been voted to societies for the sick and aged, and 400,000 to societies for the relief of children. This foots up a million francs, the same sum voted to the missions that will represent France at the coronation of the Czar, as the previous vote of 975,000 francs has been increased. The followers of Mcnelek, King of Shoa, while not so large as the llereo Zulus are about the toughest wurriors in the world. They do not know physical fear. A New York Press writer has seen a man jab a burnt stick several inches in his flesh without wnclng. This apparent insensibility to pain Is accompanied with a religious frenzy In battle that renders the soldiers unconscious of bodily harm. They have no fear of death and their happiness Is to kill. A curious application of the Rontgen rays has been made in France by Professor Buguet, of Rouen, and the chemist, M. discard. They took true and false diamonds for the experiment, and obtained entirely different results. When tlte rays were applied to the false diamonds only indistinct images appeared on the photographic plates. The real diamonds, however, allowed the rays to pass, and as a result, much darker pictures were produced on the plates. Thus a certain method of discovering the quality of diamonds is assured. The attempt of the Italians to get possession of Abyssinia is not colonization at all, even if it succeeds, but conquest. It may not succeed. The population is only about three or four millions, but when a population of that size puts 100.000 fairly armed troops into, the field in tlieir own country, they’re hard to beat. The Abyssians live in the mountains and love liberty. The height of their land keeps it cool and healthy, even under the equatorial sun. They are racially mixed. Some of them are descended from the old Coptic kings and from the Phoenicians, who once ruled all the Mediterranean. Others are the ordinary Ethiopians. According to the New York Times, which prints a partial list of them, with tlic names of their owners, the number of their occupants and their street numbers, so far as they have any right to have such a number, there are about 2,500 rear tenements in New York city, occupied by over 50,000 people. These, snys City und State, are peculiar breeding places of disease aud crime. The law now forbids the building of any more of these rear or back lot houses, but the real problem is how to get rid of those now In existence. They are a terrible menace to the health and well-being, physical and moral, of the great city wherein they are found.

“A good many of the ignorant country people in Spain,” says The Boston Transcript, “are very much more courteous to Americans than to English people, for the curious reason that they consider them subject also to the crown of Spain. It lias been found in out-of-the-way villages near Gibraltar especally, where the English occupation of that fort is still looked upon as a temporary and offensive intrusion of foreigners on Spanish soil, that the whole .tone of the people will change when it is found that a tourist Is not English but American. ‘Ah, I have a brother in Havana,’ a grim-browed villager will say, with an inflection that implies that his American interlocutor must of necessity be from Cuba too.” Never let y-our passions get the better of your judgment. The following story will explain the propriety of this advice; A German farmer took a load of potatoes to the city to sell them. The Jobbers offered him seven cents a busheL That made him mad. So he drove down to the river front, backed his wagon into the water, pulled out the back board and dumped the whole load Into the stream. Now, while this relieved the farmer of his wrath, likewise his team of their load, and made it unnecessary to haul the potatoes back many miles to his farm, the act of depositing vegetable matter in the river was in violation of a city ordinance. The farmer was arrested and fined sls and costs, and wont home a wiser man. Dr. W. 11. Dali, a member of the party of scientific men recently sent to Alaska to investigate the mineral resources of the country, has prepared a report on the subject, which will soon be published by the Geological Survey. Dr. Dali says that many valuable and extensive seams of coal exist about the harbors in Cook’s inlet and elsewhere, so that it is easy to mine enough to run a steamer In a few minutes. The Alaskan coal is what is known as the brown variety. Its color is not brown, but when scratched it exhibits a brown streak. The finer qualities of tbls coal are much like anthra-

cite and the broken edges are brilliant. The difference between the brown coal and the anthracite is that the former has a larger per cent, of volatile matter. Dr. Dali says that there Is a great Held for a mining company, for the cost of transportation from the mines to the steamers would be very small on account of the nearness of the mines to the coast. The seventy-two races inhabiting the world communicate with each other in 3.004 different tongues, and confess to about 1,000 religions. The number of men and women is very nearly equal, the average longevity of both sexes being only thirty-eight years, nlxiut ouetlilrd of the population dying before the age of seventeen. Moreover, according to the most careful computation, only one person in 100.000 of both sexes attains the age of one hundred years, and only 6t07 in 100 the age of sixty. The total population of the earth is estimated at about 1,200,000,000 souls, or whom 32,214.000 die annually—l. e., an average of 98.848 a day, 4,020 an hour, and 07 a minute. The annual number of births, on the other hand, is estimated at 30,792,000—1. e., an average of 100,S00 a day, 4,200 an hour, and 70 a minute. Generally, taking the entire world, married people live longer than single, and those who have to work hard for their living longer than those who do uot, while also the average rate of longevity is higher among civilized than uucivilzed races. Further, people of large physique live longer than those of small, but those of middle size beat both. The amount of money handled by the Post Office Department in its money order business last year amouuted to nearly $325,000,000. The Government allowed postmasters fees aggregating $450,<X)0 on domestic and $3,000 on international business, and their incidental expenses were $148,000. The Government lost $14,000 through lost remittances and burglaries and SIB,OOO through bad debts. And still the money order business paid a uel profit of $812,000. Twenty-two million people bought domestic money orders, and nearly a million people bought Internationa* money orders. The people of New York State shipped $13,000,000 through the Post Office department the people of Pennsylvania, $10,000,000; the people of Illinois, nearly $11,000,000. The people of the United States shipped more than $4,500,000 to England through the Post Office department; and more than $2,500,000 to Germany. Altogether the people of this country sent nearly $13,000,000 abroad by postal order, and received less than $0,000,000 through the same channel. But It Is worthy of note that we sent nearly a million dollars less abroad last year than we did tne year before.