Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1896 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oyoßng is Dot a very dangerous recreation after all, as is proved by statistic*. In England only thirty deaths were produced by cycling in twelve months. On comparing this number with the total number of the highway and street accidents through England aod Wales, it will be found that barely two per cent, of them were caused by cycling. It is coming to light that the Chinese population of our cities, notably of San Francisco and New York, where the Chinese quarters are distinct sectons, is gradually growing smaller. San Francisco has about 15,000 of the 50.000 that she had five years ago. The exclusion law is weeding out the present Chinese population and almost prohibiting immigration. So much has been heard about the possibility of the invasion of England that the newspapers suggest that England’s militia, upon which the brunt of the defense would fall, be put into a better state of efficiency. At present this force drills foe only about three weeks in the year, and has the whole of the rest of the year to forget whait it has learned in that time. The experiment station attached to the Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College at Starkville has done a great work in encouraging the growth of hay in that State. When it began its work in the premises the average yield in the State was but .83 of a ton per acre, whereas, last year, it was 1.95 tons, being 144 per cent above the average yield of the northern and central States of the Mississippi valley. Reports from the Pacific Coast say that never in the history of the West have so many people taken passage on the steamers for Alaska. The discovery of gold in certan parts of the faroff Territory is, of course, the attraction for many of the visitors; but the increased facilities for transportation and the possibility of seeing some of the grandest scenery in the world have induced many tourists to choose Alaska rather than Europe as their objective point. "Sweden,” soys a native of that country who lias just been visuting it, “is building railroad, telegraph and telephone lines everywhere. Every farmer who has 100 acres or more of land has a long-distance telephone. . It is the most magnificent telephone system I ever saw, and is very cheap. News of great import is flashed over these wires from the urban to the rural districts, and the average citizen is better posted on the current events of the day than in probably any other country in the world. I was in Sweden all winter, and only two inches of snow fell during the whole time.”

This country, to people who have not looked into the matter, does not figure as a large owner of floating property outside of war vessels and those attached to the revenue and lighthouse service; but a recent careful estimate shows that on one part of the Mississippi Riiver the nation owns over one thousand craft of different kinds. That is the stretch between New Orleans and Cairo, and the value of the vessels and their outfit for riprap, revertment and levee work does not flail much below $6,000,000. When work is rushing there are at times 10,000 men employed on the vessels and in connection with the tasks assigned them. From the census recently completed in Massachusetts it is shown that the females constitute more than 50 per cent of the population in each of the cities, except Gloucester and Quincy. The highest percentage is in Northampton, where it reaches 55.61, and the lowest in Gloucester, 42.37. The difference in Gloucester, where the males are considerably in excess, is said to be due to the peculiar character of the city, as the centre of the fishing industry'. Ten years ago there were five cities in which the male population was in excess of the female; but the census also shows that the percentage which the females constitute of the whole population has declined in all but seven cities since 1885. “In the Choctaw Indian Nation,” says E. L. Craighead, of Ardmore,. in the .Washington Star, “there is no jail for convicted murderers. When I first went to the Indian Territory I settled in the Choctaw Nation, and hearing that a certain Indian was an excellent hand on the ranch, I hunted him up and asked him if he would work for me. ‘I will work until the 20th of next month,’ he said. ‘Why not longer?’ I inquired. ‘I am to be hanged the 21st,’ was his reply, in an unconcerned way. I hired him, and upon inquiry learned that what he said was true. But one man has ever failed to return for hanging after he has been sentenced, and my Indian did not prove an exception to the rule. On the day before the execution was to take place he left as calmly as though going on a visit, and the hanging took place at the time appointed. Notwithstanding his approaching doom the Indian made one of the best ranchers I ever saw, and I regretted to lose him.” Some of our famous athletes may think republics ungrateful when they compare their treatment to that of the Greek who won the recent footrace from Marathon to the Stadlon. “Nothing,” says the correspondent of the London Chronicle, “illustrates the character of the modern Greek so much as the extraordinary attention shown to the winner of this race. He has been treated as a sort of demi-god. All his sayings are duly reported, he has been escorted in a carriage by a detachment of troops; when he walks the streets crowds of respectable men and women follow, and the King of Greece has not only shaken hands with him, but both he and his father have been invited to the palace; private individuals have given him large sums of money; winedealers, grocers and numerous other tradesmen have off er Al to supply all his requirements for a year free of cost, and a barber has been reported as having offered to shave him and cut his hair for the period of his lifetime free of cost.” Speaking of the country’s growth the Philadelphia Ledger says that in 1800 only the country between the Atlantic and the Mississippi belonged to the United States. Since r that the Louisiana'purchase in 1803, the Florida in 1821, the Mexican acquisitions in 1840,1850, and 1853, and Alaska in 1867 have been added. The Increase, ex-

eluding Alaska, has been from 827,844 to 3,025,600 square milea, or three and five-eighth*, but the growth of population baa been from 5,308.483 to 62,622,250, or nearly twelvefold. In 1800 the inhabitants were a Mttle lees than 7 to a square mHefin 1790 they had been less than 5; in 1890 they were over 21. The place where the population ia densest is the District of Columbia, which has 3839 to the mile; the next is Rhode Island, 318; then Massachusetts, 278; then New Jersey. 193; Connecticut, 154; New York, 125; Pennsylvania, 110; Maryland, 105. The other States and Terfttories ran below 100, down to Montana, Wyoming, Arizona. Nevada, which have less than 1 inhabitant to the mile. The Census Commissioner notes that in Rhode Island and Massachusetts the density of population is as great as In many of the most densely settled European States, and that the entire North Atlantic division, pre-em-inently the manufacturing section, has an average of over 100 inhabitants to the square mile. But it may be a surprise to some that among the old States Maine has only 22, New Hampshire 41, Vermont 26.

It appears from the well-informed Railway Age that for eight years the mileage of annual railway construction in the United States has been steadily decreasing. From nearly 13,000 miles of track laid in the wonderful year 1887 the totals have gone down by thousands and hundreds, until 1895 touched the lowest round for twenty years by adding only 1803 miles to our railway system. But this does not mean that the demand for railways is nearly supplied and that construction will continue to decrease. On the contrary, there is room, and will be need for additions far greater than the entire present mileage of the country. We have now something over 181.000 miles of road. To equal Great Britain in its ratio of railway mileage to square miles, we should have a total of 492,000 miles; to equal the abundant supply of Illinois we must have 522,000 miles; while if Massachusetts with its mile of railway to every four square miles of territory be the standard, the United States will eventually boast 772,000 miles of lines. That there is much railway building yet to be done the records prove beyond a doubt. When it will be done depends on condition yet to be developed. A considerable amount of work is already under way. During the first three months of this year 253 miles of track were laid on twenty lines, and including these our books already show sixty lines on •which it seems reasonably certain that 1750 miles of track will have'been laid by the end of 1896, with a possibility of much more. It ail depends on the times, not on the question of finding room, or of demand for more railroads.