Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1896 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The death rate from tuberculosis In Massachusetts is reported by the State Board of Health to be higher then in any other part of the world except certain restricted localities in Anstria and Bavaria. The Japanese have again given evidence of their practical ideas. Instead of presenting medals to the soldiers who especially distinguished themselves In the late war with China, the government has purchased 18,000 watches, at |2.50 each. In Switzerland, which will be given to the brave fellows. Anthropologists and other scientists are deeply interested in a discovery made recently near Dickinson. N. D. A number of well-diggers, while picking away at a depth of forty feet below a solid four-foot vein of coal came across a human skull hi an excellent state of preservation. How it came there and to what race It belonged are the questions to be decided. The recent report on the National Soldiers’ Homes of the country, seven In number, shows that the average number of inmates In the different branch homes last year was 1t1.477. The number of needy applicants increases about 800 a year. Congress appropriates about $2,500,000 for the maintenance of these homes and the fund is Increased by private contributions. The average cost for each inmate Is about sllß a year. M. Fincher, a French physician, has recently come to the conclusion that civilized man does not know how to have his bed made up. The idea of allowing the head to be higher than the feet is the radical defect, and this produces, according to this authority, Insomnia and all its attendant .woes. The condition of affairs should be entirely reversed, and Dr. Fischer advises that pillows should be placed under the feet, or some other device used to make them higher than the head. Andrew Carnegie, the millionaire steel manufacturer.authorized the trustees of the Carnegie Art Gallery of Pittsburg, which is widowed by him, to offer SB,OOO in prizes for the two best oil paintings by American artists produced before November 3, 1890, when the exhibition is to be opened. The first prize is $5,000, the second $3,000. The successful pictures are to become the property of the Carnegie Art Gallery. The only other stipulation is that the two best shall be of sufficient artistic merit to properly represent the best American art of the year. Some of the Chicago churches are arranging to check bicycles, so that cyclists may attend sendee on Sunday and be sure that their wheels are safe from harm. “The idea is not new,” says the Rev. Joseph Rushton, secretary to Bishop McLaren (Episcopal), “but it should be popular. The bicycle is a godsend in the rural districts—it brings the people to church. I can see no objection to coming to prayers on a wheel, any more than to coming in a carriage. Of course, the machines should be cared for. if the rector has to have an assistant to do the checking.” The Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution proposes to erect in Washington a magnificent building which shall serve the double purpose of headquarters for the society aud a fitting place where relics may be preserved. If the present plan is carried out, a $250,000 building of granite will be erected in one of the most fashionable parts of the city. It is to be “the finest building ever owned by women,” and is to be called Continental Hall. Mrs. Adlai Stevenson, wife of the vice president, is at the head of the society and is working hard for the success of the project. An estimate of the losses sustained by the Italian troops in the disastrous battle of Abba Carima, in Abyssinia, has been made. There took part in that engagement five Italian generals of whom two were killed. Da Bonnida and Arimondi, one was taken prisoner, Abbertone and two returned to headquarters, Baratieri and Eliena. Two of the seven colonels engaged were killed, one was captured and four “retreaded,” Fifteen out of the twenty-four commanders of battalions were killed. The total number of Italians who went into action was 9.500, of whom only 3,000 have returned, many of them wounded, while only 400 are prisoners. On the battlefield 5,600 Italians were left dead or wounded. With the 4,400 native troops similarly accounted for, the total loss in killed of the white and black regiments engaged in the battle reaches 10.000 men. /

The plague of rabbits in California is growing constantly more serious, according to recent advices, and .it now threatens to become almost as big a nuisance as it is in Australia. In one county alone last year the farmers lost $600,000 by the rabbits and though repeated round-ups have been held, at which nearly half a million rabbits hare been killed, the pests only increase in number. The Australian government, after expenditures of $1,500,000 in attempts to exterminate the all-devour-ing rabbits, has about given up hope. The only remedy thnt has been found at all successful is to build a strong wire netting around the infested district to confine the rabbits. There is one fence that is 407 miles long, and another 346. As is well-known, Australia’s rabbit plague is the result of the introduction of a few English rahbits into that country. Ex-Senator Henry L. Dawes, of Pittsfield, Mass., has been delivering a course of lectures in Hanover, N. H. In his last lecture, which was on “Interoceanic Commerce,” he spoke of the importance to the United States of the Nicaragua Canal. “Lake Nicaragua,” he said, “will become a naval station of the power whose capital builds this canal and one of the most formidable character on the globe. It can float the largest navy in the world, and lies midway between and i ss than twenty-four hours from the entire commerce of the United States on both the Atlantic and Pacific. It would be to the United States what Gibraltar is to the British Empire. It would l>q an act of the blindest foil, if not of the most humiliating cowardice, for this nation to quitely fold its arms, and permit this, the grandest of naval stations, to pass out of our control, compelling every ton of our coastwise commerce, already exceeding the ocean tonnage of ail Europe, to pass under the guns of a foreign power, as it is transmitted from port to port on our own coast.” As an Instance of the prevalence of

betttaff M •wuts of the tnrf among the English working-classes, some statistics, given in evidence by a detective the other day In the Liverpool Police Court, are very significant The accused person was a very young man who had carried on business as a bookmaker on an extensive scale in bets of small amounts, taken on operatives on some waste land adjacent to the Edge Hill station, Liverpool. On the first day the detective saw him receiving cash from 110 men. 9 women, 30 boys, and 12 girls, between the hours of 12:20 p. m. and 2 o’clock—the dinner interval. On a subsequent day, this youth was seen making bets between 12:20 p. m. and 1 o’clock, with 54 men, 5 women, 18 boys and 8 girls. On a third day he was detected booking bets between 12:45 p. m. and 2 o’clock, for 112 men, 4 women. 13 boys and 10 girls. On a fourth day he was watched doing similar business between l”sJ0 p. m. and 1:45 p. m. with 98 men, 7 women, 22 boys and 1 girls. He was fined SIOO for his enterprise. There appears to be no reason for doubting the accuracy of the police figures. In the Forum appears an article by Mr. M. A. Mikkelsen on the “Cultivation of Vacant City Lots,” which is an interesting and valuable illustration of the efficacy of this mode of relieving the unemployed. In the case of New York, where the experiment was very successful, he presents the following statistics: The highest yield of potatoes—the principal crop—was 412 bushels on one acre. On the assigned plots, aggregating 7114 acres, besides lettuce, onions, radishes and fodder corn, the following crops were raised: potatoes, 6,235 bu.; peas, 817 bu.; beans, 1,259 bu.; beans for seed, 50 bu.; toinaitoes, 530 crates; corn, 1,000 doz.; turnips, 1,400 bu.; carrots, 93 bu. The total value of the crops on the assigned plots was SB,803.51; the expense incurred by the committee, $3,801.98. The quality of the crops may be inferred from the fact that the exhibit of the Vacant Lot Farms took the second prize at the New York Live Stock Show. Part of the product was consumed by the planters as it matured, part was stored away for the winter, but a great deal was sold, many of the planters peddling their produce from house to house. One man, on a plot of 8 acres, earned $408; another, on 4 acres, earned $336.20; and still another, on 3(4 acres, $216.05. One of the plot holders—a stonecutter—kept a record of his time. He worked 50 hours, and earned $120.23. Of the 84 plots assigned, the largest was 8 acres, the next largest 4, the smallest onequarter of an acre. The average size was six-sevenths of an acre. The largest receipts obtained were S4OB. Twen-ty-two plotholders took over SIOO each from their individual holdings. The smallest receipts were $5.50. Three plotholders earned nothing at all. The average earnings- were $61.08.”