Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1896 — NOTES AND COMMENTS. [ARTICLE]

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

No fewer than five systems of law are in use in Germany. In moving from one place to another tourists are often greatly puzzled when they find that an act perfectly allowable in one State is a crime in another. A still greater confusion often results when the right of property is considered. The professors of agriculture in French colleges throughout the country are being put to practical use by the government, in consequence of the failure of the hay crop. M. Mt-llne has ordered them to proceed to the rural districts, where they will try (o |>ercuade the farmers to sow vetches, corn, and other fodder to make up for the hay, and to make use of oil-cake, straw, bran, and corn. This is an extraordinary flag year, says The Philadelphia Record. Since March 1 flag factories all over the country have been running on double time. The pattern of the flag Includes oue new star—for Utah—aud by an old law of Congress the star of a new state can only bo added to the flag on the Fourth of July following Its admission. Theat* new flags have lx*en distributed to every Government building in the Nation, to the warships, the military posts, and they will first see the light of day on Saturday next. The new regulation Government flag Is 5 feet 0 Inches loug by 4 feet 4 Inches wide. The field Is 2 feet 6 Inches long by 2 feet Ruches wide. We have all heard of the bicycle face, anil now It Is said there Is a new ailment resulting from devotion to the silent steed. This Is known os the bicycle eye, and the oculists ure rubbing tbelr hands lu glee at the prospect of a rich harvest lu fees. The “scorcher” who humps himself, with spinal eolumu elevated and nose down at the handle-bars, naturally has to use his eyes, as well as the rider who sits straight In his saddle. In order to accomplish this feat a severe strain Is placed upon the optic nerves, and nu unnatural condition of the eye ensues. Experts claim that It fakes about two yeurs to develop n case of bloyle eye, and the disease* Is rapidly Increasing, Cecil Rhodes und Barney Barnato, the South African mining kings, are said to have turned their attention to the newly discovered gold fields lu the region lying west aud southwest of Lake Kootenai, In British Columbia, Just north of the International boundary line. They have sent experts to Investigate the prospects. These experts declare the richness of the Ilossland and Trail Creek mountain regions far surpasses anything South Africa ever dreamed of. This report, it Is thought, will be followed by the Investment of a large amount of capital In that sectlou by those mining magnates and other wealthy Englishmen who follow their lead lu such enterprises. Gnme is to be preserved lu central Africa. Major von Wlssmnu has set aside a portion of German East Africa, within which no shooting will bo allowed without u license from the Governor of tin* colony., A license to shoot elephant or rhinoceros costs S(H) rupees a year for a native; females and young elephants with tusks weighing less than six pounds must not lm shat ut all. White men will pay 100 rupees for the first clephunt shot und 250 rupees for every other, 50 rupees for the first two rhinoceroses, and 150 rupees for all ufter them. Monkeys, beasts of prey, boars, and birds, except ostriches and secretary birds, may be killed without a license.

At the recent National Council of Congregational Churches it committee was appointed to meet a committee from the National Conference of the Christian denomination und consider the subject of a confederation or union of the two denominations. The feeling betweeu tlie two bodies is very cordial. One of the colleges conducted by the Christian churches, Elou College, of North Carolina, has just conferred the degree of doctor of divinity upon the Rev. Frank H. Child, pustor of the Congregational Church in Fairfield, Conn. This Is a pleasant recognition of the friendliness of relations between Congregutlonalists and Christians. Mr. Child hus spoken on various public occasions In Massachusetts, Virginia and Ohio on the subject of Christian union, Htid lms come Into personal contact with many of tlie loading men lu the Christian denomination.

Punctuality in woman has been attained under hypnotic suggestion, in a remarkable set of experiments recently reported to the Society for Psychical Research. A young person of nineteen, who had never shown any capacity for calculation, and who was in good health at the time, though her nerves had been unstrung for a year before, was hypnotized and directed to do certain simple things at specified times, writing down the time when she thought she did them. The Intervals suggested varied from a few hundred to over 20,000 minutes, und sometimes as many us six suggestions starting at different hours were working on her at once. The experiments read like the painful examples In the mental arithmetic. At 4 o'clock one day she was asked to do something In 10,000 minutes, beginning at 10 the day before. In fifty-five experiments there were only two failures. On awakening the subject had no recollection of the suggestions made to her. A Yucatan' correspondent of The Philadelphia Record describes a large cocoanut plantation of a New England man down there. “On a tract of 1,000 acres (purchased from the government at the rate of four cents per acre) lie has set out 4,000 trees, and expects in due time to make a princely fortune therefrom. It requires six years for the trees to begin to yield returns; and It is estimated that in ten years from the time of planting the grove will be worth at least 51, 000,000, on which it will yield an annual income of 10 per per cent. A full gi*\vu cocoanut tree will mature from 00 to 100 nuts every year. Another American is experimenting in this neighborhood on ramie, or vegetable silk, and declares that its .cultivation is to become an important factor in cloth-making materials. Ramie is a member of the bromella family here known as ‘silk grass,’ and grows wild in the hot sands of the coast. To-day it is worth 35 cents in Manchester, England, where the de-

mand for it is immensely ahead of tb« present supply. A writer in Appleton’s Popular Science Monthly asserts that the exliedition to Jones Sound,, planned fog 1807, is intended to initiate a system of continuous Arctic exploration, irs object is to be the scientific researvh above Indicated. and to this all else will be subordinated. Special attention will lie paid to geology. Disasters having iieen plainly due to lack of a secure and always accessible base, the first object will be the establishment of a base at the mouth of Jones Sound, which Julius von Payer calls ‘The one spot most suitable for such a base.”' Being in assured annual communication tlyough the Scotch and Newfoundland whalers, a well-housed and wellprovisioned party, with some Eskimo families, will be as safe there as anywhere* on earth, ami will have before it n field unequalled in richness and extent. To the north, the west coast of Ellesmere Land and Grlnnell Land are to lie explored; to the northwest, the triangle between those coasts and the Parry Islands is to be rescued from the unknown; to the west, the Interior of North Devon is an Interesting problem; to the southwest. Prince Regent Inlet may present an avenue to the magnetic pole; to tlie south, Baffin Land—with its Eskimo settlements, its herds of reindeer, Its wealth in fishes and birds. itH fossils and minerals—offers a tempting field, larger than the British Isles. Even Greenland may not be beyond tlierapliere of that strategic point.