Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1896 — NOTES AND COMMENTS, [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS,

Two-thirds of all the letters which pass through the postoffices of the world are written by and sent to people who speak English. George E. Faw, a leading wheat shipper of California, says that a single rain storm that occurred recently was worth $2,000,000 to the Salinas Valley farmers and ranchmen alone. “This,” remarks a contemporary, “should prove encouraging to the would-be rain makers.” Another man comes forward with the pleasant theory that people by living properly may attain the extra ripe age of 200 years. The trouble with theorists of this class is that in exploiting the beauties of their belief they generally talk themselves to death before having even reached the youthful prime of three score and ten. '1 lie telephone, according to the Electrical Engineer, lias got a footing in Iceland. It is said that an American is laying a line between Reykjavik and j Akureyri, at a cost of 100.000 kr. ($27,- j oom. It is also reported that an Eng- ; lishman has submitted to the Althing j a proposal for a telegraph cable be” tween Iceland and the Shetland Isl-1 a nds. Horses decreased in number in this country 4.8 per cent, during 1895 as compared with the previous year, and also decreased 13.3 per cent, in value, according to Department of Agriculture statistics. Electrical street railways and bicycles are doubtless responsible tor much of the decrease. Among every 1000 bridal couples in England in 1894 there were 40 bridegrooms and 54 brides who were unable to write their names.

There are two things in connection with the new cure for consumption practiced by Dr. Cyrus Edson, of New York, which recommend It above other similar inventions. One is its perfect simplicity—the other the fact that its inventor has given the formula freely to the world, thus making it possible for sufferers everywhere to have the benefit of its properties immediately, and also for the widest experiment under all conditions and in all climates. The Czar has delighted all classes of Russians by commanding that for the future all petitions shall be jyesented to him personally. The aide-de-camp on duty will accept them from the petitioners and place them before the monarch without delay. The reason for this is that it has come to the Czar’s knowledge that hitherto countless petitions have been “lost on the way,” and he intends to render such malpractices impossible for the future.

Great efforts are being made by Japan (writes a correspondent) to wrest from Great Britain a share of the carrying trade of the world. The line to Bombaj’ is alreadj' arranged, and the P. and O. Company must expect severe competition. The line to Australia is not yet opened, but in March the TosaMaru, a fine steamer of 5000 tons, leaves for Europe. Captain McMillan has left for England t$ place orders for six vessels of similar capacity to the Tosa-Maru, and when finished these vessels will be placed on the European line. Some startling statistics of the decay of the Russian nobility are given in a list of mortgaged estates furnished by the British consul at St. Petersburg. At present more than 100,000 estates, or 41 per cent, of the entire area owned by nobles, are burdened by mortgages, and the amount of money advanced on them has reached $632,500,000, of which $586,000,000 remains unpaid. The Nobility Land Bank, created bj’ the government to make loans to stranded landlords, has advanced nearly its entire capital of $250,000,000. and received but little in return. The Emperor of China, Kuang Hsii, cannot appear in public. When he goes abroad it is usually in a sedan chair, with guards along each side of the road to prevent intruders from gazing at his sacred person. He lives in a great palace, surrounded by a wall, through which nobody but the court officers ever penetrates without special permission. He was kept in the strictest seclusion throughout his youth, the Dowager Empress acting as Regent. He had in his palace yard miniature models of men-of-war, a train of cars which was an exact model of the first railroad train run in China, and every toy that science could invent or money procure. But he has never seen one of his own men-of-war or ridden in a real steam car. He learns as much that goes on in the world as his Viceroy sees fit to tell him. The youthful Emperor is of frail physique and in very delicate health.

The city of Worcester, Mass., has a poor farm, which, according to the Spy, is well managed both for the inmates and the taxpayers. The leading feature is the raising.of swine on city garbage. OVet two thousand animals are kept, and about one thousand feet in pasture, the feeding grounds being changed from time to time and ploughed in. About eight hundred of the hogs are butchered in the fall, and their sales make the scavenger department self-supporting to within .S7OO. Worcester claims to have set the pace for other American cities in the disposal of sewage and of garbage. There has also been some profit from the sales of surplus farm produce. The leading products have been: 1256 bushels potatoes, 406 of onions, 319 of beets, 206 of beans, 75 of peas, 76 of tomatoes, 17 of Lima beaus. 80 of currants, 101 of pears, 475 of apples, 1200 baskets field corn, 1002 dozen sweet corn, 5266 cucumbers. 400 melons, 711 pounds rhubarb, 863 quarts strawberries, 14 tons squash, 500 bunches celery, 6040 cabbage, 348 dozen eggs. Shelbyville, Ind., is one of the many places west and south where the war of rates is on between the Bell Telephone Company and its new and less powerful rivals. The Shelbyville Company is winning thus far, perhaps because it was shrewdly conceived as a mutual company with a great number of stockholders. It has a fifty years’ franchise from the city, and both it and

the old company are renting telephone* at $1 per month, which is thought to be ! the cheapest rate enjoyed by any town ;in the country. One result is to increase the number of telephones in use , five-fold. The demand for telephones at the cheap rate has extended from the I city to the little country towns, near by, and even to the isolated farms. To meet this demand three men, with little I capital, but with enough to buy some wire, cut holes in their own wood lots, and doing their own construction, soon I had connected eleven villages with i Shelbyville. They hope soon to have every village in the southern half of i their county in their circuit. It is deI scribed as the cheapest telephone sys- \ tem in the country. Notwithstanding the one hundred I and fifty jiatents issued to inventors of I horseless carriages, to be propelled by i electricity, steam, gas, gasoline, hot i air. springs and perpetual motion, the • Live Stock Journal thinks none of I them are practicable, and their onlj’ use , thus far is to frighten farmers into selling off their horses before the “horseless age” comes. City horse dealers have worked this notion so strongly that they have bought thousands of horses of frightened farmers at less than it cost to raise them, and shipped them East and to Europe at two to four times the price. Now that the supply of good horses is exhausted, and prices advancing in city markets, those who kept their courage and their horses find eager buyers for good draught and coach horses. Horses must be used in Cities to draw heavy loads and fine carriages, and on the farm to plough, plant and reap. Farmers who have been frightened off from breeding good horses now find they have lost three years of valuable time, and must start iu at the bottom, with the best mares gone, and but few good stallions* to reestablish our once proud and profitable horse-breeding industry.