Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1896 — Page 5

KILLING THE BUFFALO.

UNPRECEDENTED SLAUGHTER OF THIS AMERICAN ANIMAL Upward of 6,000,000 in an ’lncredibly Short Space of Time. Not Over 1,000 Now Running Wild in North America. William T. Hornaday, the Superintendent of the National Zoological Park, at Washington, a student and hunter of the buffalo in the old days has interested himself in the question of preventing their extermination, and has done what he could to bring the matter to the attention of Congreve. Unfortunately, all attempts at legislation for the protection of this animal have been in vain, and the result is that upward of (5,000,000 were slaughtered in an incredibly short space of time—r arly 4.000.000 killed in three years—until now there are not over 1,000 of these animals running wild in North America. Such a wanton destruction of a valuable beast, purely and distinctively American in its character, is unprecedented in the history of the world. The familiarity of the Americans with the buffalo seems to have bred contempt, for the great number of these animals lias led the people to think of them as animals which were valuable only for what their skins would bring in the market. But owing to the vast destruction of the herds, and the fact that the reduced number has increased the price of the skins and the other products, there lias come a revulsion of popular sentiment in regard to them, and they have become very valuable in the eyes of the general public, and. it is needless to say, in the eyes of those surviving among the old hunters who can now get large sums of money for the robes and skeletons. Of all the quadrupeds that have lived upon the earth, Mr. Hornaday says that probably no other species has ever marshaled such innumerable hosts as those of the American bison. It would have been as easy to count or to estimate the number of leaves in the forest as to calculate the number of buffaloes living at any given time during the history of the species up to 1870. Eveij in South Central Africa, which has always been so prolific in great herds of game, it is probable that all of its quadrupeds taken together on. an equal area would never have more than equaled the total number of buffaloes in this country forty or fifty years ago. To the African hunter such a statement might seem incredible, but Mr. Hornaday says that it is fully warranted by the literature of both branches of the snbject. Mr. John Filson, in 1784, wrote of the Blue Bicks in Kentucky: “The amazing herds of buffalo which resort thither by their size and number fill the traveler with astonishment and terror, especially when he beholds the prodigious roads they have made from all quarters, as if leading to some populous city.” In 1770, where Nashville now stands, were immense numbers of buffaloes and other wild game. The country was black with them. Daniel Boone found vast herds of buffaloes grazing in the valleys of East Tennessee, between the spurs of the Cumberland Mountains. Between the Rocky Mountains and the .States lying along the Mississipppi River and the west from Minnesota to Louisiana, the whole country was one vast buffalo range, inhabited by millions of buffaloes.

A volume could be filled with the records of plainsmen and pioneers who penetrated that vast region in the early part of the century, and who were astounded by the number of buffaloes they observed. Col. Dodge described a herd which he saw on the Arkansas River. According to his recorded observation, the herd extended along the river for a distance of twenty-five miles, which was in reality the width of the vast procession that was moving north and back from the road as far as the eye could reach on both sides. At a low estimate, the ground visible from the road where Col. Dodge was driving, which was covered by the herd, extended for a mile. This would give a strip of country two miles wide and twentyfive long, or a total of fifty square miles covered with buffaloes, averaging, at Cal. Dodge’s estimate, from fifteen to twenty to the acre. Bj- the lesser number, fifteen, it is found that the number actually seen on that day by Col. Dodge was in the neighborhood of 480,000. If the advancing herd had been at paints fifty miles tn length, as it was known to have been in some places, by twenty-five miles in width, and still averaging fifteen head to the acre, it would have contained the enormous number of 12,000,000 head, but, judging from the principles which governed their periodical migrations, the moving mass probably advanced in the shape of .« wedge, which would leave about 4,000,000 as a fair estimate of the actual number of buffaloes in the great southern herd. It is no wonder, therefore, that the men of the West of those days, both white and red, thought it would be impossible to exterminate such a mighty multitude. The Indians of some tribes believed that the buffaloes issuel from the earth continually, and that the supply was inexhaustible; and yet, in four years that southern herd was almost totally extinct. “With such a lesson before our eyes,” said Mr. Hornaday, “confirmed in every detail by living testimony, who will dare to say that there will be an elk, a moose, caribou, mountain goat, mountain sheep, antelope, or black-tail deer left alive in the United States in a wild state fifty years from this date, or even twenty-five?” If in the earlier days before the buffalo’s almost complete extermination, the people had realized the immense money value of the great herd as it existed in 1870, the slaughter could probably have been stopped. At that time, 500,000 head of bulls, young and old, could have been killed every year for a score of years without appreciably diminishing the size of the herd. At Mr. Hornaday’s estimate these could easily have been made to yield various products, worth $5 each, as follows: Robe, $2.50; tongue, 25 cents; meat of hind quarters, $2; bones, horns, and hoofs, 25 cents; total, $5. And the amount annually added to the

wealth of the United States would have been not less than $500,000 on all the robes taken for the market, say 200,000. The (Government could haw? collected a tax of 50 cents each, which would have yielded a sum doubly sufficient to have maintained a force of mounted police fully competent to enforce the laws regulating the slaughter. The American people, it seems, have not yet learned to spend money for the protection of valuable game, and by the time they have learned it. there will be no game to protect. Even despite the enormous waste of raw material that has been shown in the utilization of the buffalo product, the total cash value of all material derived from this source, if it could only be reckoned up would certainly amount to many mill ions of dollars, perhaps $20,000,000 as told.—New York Times.

THE FLYING MACHINE.

How the Successful Air Ship Will B» Built, It is an old story uow that the aeronauts of the day have abandoned the search for light materials :Atd buoyant gases in attempts on aerial navigation. The flimsiness and large area of exposure that attend the use of such means place the aeronaut at the mercy of the elements. Their hope now lies in the principle of the oyster shell which boys sail to such gratifying distances with comparatively small muscular effort, and the laws which account for soaring birds like the buzzards. Professor Langley. Mr. Maxim and Herr Lilienthal are one in their reliance on this aeroplane theory. The mechanical peculiarity of the aeroplane’s motion is similar to the gliding of a rapid skater over thin ice—the faster he goes the less danger is there of sinking. So Professor Langley has used in the building of this last and most successful machine substances actually a thousand times heavier than the air which promised to support them, and he relies entirely on the extensive area of the planes, shaped something like the wings of a hawk, and their angle to the currents of air, to achieve buoyancy. The oyster-shell analogy affords luminous explanation to every man who remembers the ecfitacy of seeing the white disc soar awtay and up Jk>ng after the -earth should, by all experiences of stonethrowing, have claimed her own. The flatter and thinner the shell within the limits of weight, the more astonishing the flight that resulted, unless, indeed, the edge of the missile were inclined downward instead of slightly upward. In the former case the shell darted instantly to earth, and the throw fell as much short of the average heaving of a pebble as the more scientific skim would have exceeded it.

Illuminated Birds.

Stories of luminous birds have been related by sportsmen occasionally, but, as far as I know, exact facts and data have never l>efore been obtained on this most Interesting and somewhat sensational subject. A friend in Florida told me that he had distinctly seen a light moving about in a flock of cranes at night, and became satisfied that the light was upon the breast of the bird. Another friend informed me that on entering a heron rookery at night he had distinctly observed lights moving about among the birds. That herons have a peculiar possible light-producing apparatus is well known. These are called powderdown patches, and can be found by turning up the long feathers on the heron’s breast, where will be found a patch of yellow, greasy material that sometimes drops off or fills the feathers in the form of a yellow powder. This powder is produced by the evident decomposition of the .small feathers, producing just such a substance as one might expect would become phosphorescent, as there is little doubt that it does. The cranes and herons are not the only birds having these oily lamps, if so we may term them. A Madagascar bird, called kirumbo, has a large pifteh on each side of the rump. The bitterns have two pairs of patches; the true herons three, while the curious boatbills have eight, which, if at times all luminous, would give the bird a most conspicuous, not to say spectral appearance at night. Some years ago a party of explorers entered a large cave on the island of Trinidad that had hitherto been considered inaccessible. To their astonishment, they found it filled with birds which darted about in the dark in such numbers that they struck the explorers and rendered their passage not merely disagreeable but dangerous. The birds proved to be night hawks, known as oil birds, and in great demand for the oil they contain, and it is barely possible that these birds are also light-givers. The powder-do,wn patches of the oil birds are upon each side of the rump.—Philadelphia Times.

The Murder on the Brig Mariner.

Almost the only case known where an officer was killed by a member of the crew and the murderer escaped punishment is that recorded of the little brig Mariner, which was on a sugar voyage from St. Thomas to this port in the same year that the Thayer mutiny occurred. J. C. Lewis, the first mate, and Frank Jakileta. a Russian seaman, had a quarrel which developed into a fight in which the sailor had the better part until the mate promised to let him alone. As soon as he was released from the grip of the Russiar, Lewis grabbed a belaying pin a:id rushed at the sailor, who made a motion as if to draw a knife. Bang came the belaying pin over Jakileta’s head. Then out came the knife. There was a swish and a slash, and Lewis, with his jugular vein severed, fell to the deck, dead. The struggle was over before the rest of the men could interefere. Jakileta was disarmed, but, as the vessel was short-handed, he was compelled to keep at work. Mrs. Wharton, the wife of the captain, John Wharton, of Portland, read the burial service, and the body of the mate was buried at sea. On the arrival of the brig in port, Jakileta was at once taken before ’Commissioner Shields, and, as the Grand Jury was in session, the case was quickly disposed of. The prisoners stray was corroborated; the plea that he acted in self-defence was accepted, and he was set at liberty.— New York Tribune

UNCLE SAM— “Not much, John. We are going to have a new deal."

—Denver News.

ABOUT CHEAP DOLLARS.

We hear a good deal from the MeKinleyites about the wickedness of paying debts in 53-cent dollars, as if the Democratic party really proposed doing such a thing. That the bullion in the present silver dollar is worth only about 53 cents measured m gold is true enough, but the whole silver contention is tha<. the price has been forced down by the demonetization of the white metal by act of Congress In 1873. In that year the silver in a dollar was worth one dollar and three cents in gold, and it has gone down to its present Value steadily since The hope and the expectation of the silver men is that when silver can be again taken to (he mints and coined as it was before 1873 the price will again go up to near, if not quite, where it was. Silver has been mined In greater abundance of late years than It was formerly, but in nothing like the quantity to justify the fall in its value as compared with gold. Twenty years ago there were produced in all the world 67,000,000 ounces of silver, while last year the total was about 160,000,000 ounces—considerably more than double. Gold production has increased alsz>, however, from 5,000,000 ounces la 1876 to probably close on to 7,000,000 ounces this year. This is not so great an increase as the increase in silver production, but it is much more valuable and goes a greater way. By ceasing to use silver on an equality with gold as money, this country alone has decreased the demand for silver by many millions of ounces which, of course, had to be sold in the world’s markets and which forced the price down to its present figure. Let the demand be restored and the price is sure to go up again, and money will be more plentiful, for we sha.l not have to depend entirely on our gold supply to keep our credit good.

What Their Grievance la. The real reason for the Bourke Cockcan meeting in New York City, for the Indianapolis gathering, and for the defection of a few newspapers from the Democratic party, may probably be recognized in the following resolutions, which are part of the Chicago platform upon which Mr. Bryan stands before the American people; We are opposed to the policy and practice of surrendering to the holders of the obligations of the United States the option reserved by law to the Government of redeeming such obligations in either silver or gold coin. We are opposed to the issuing of inter-est-bearing bonds of the United States in time of peace, and condemn the trafficking with banking syndicates which, in exchange for bonds, and at an enormous profit to themselves, supply the Federal Treasury with gold to maintain the policy of gold monometallism. Congress alone has the power to coin and issue money, and President Jackson declared that this power could not be delegated to corporations or individuals. We therefore demand that the power to issue notes to circulate as money be taken from the national banks, and that all paper money shall be issued directly by the Treasury Department, be redeemable in coin and receivable for all debts, public and private. This, it will be perceived, Is pure Jeffersonian doctrine. It Is a demand for the preservation of their rights to the people, instead of the wholesale bestowal of them upon money lenders and rag barons. It is a claim of government for the benefit of the masses, and a denial of the trafficking in legislation by which corporations and individuals grow rich, and the people grow poor. At the Madison Square Garden oration of Mr. Cockran there were two thousand bankers and money lenders present. They were there to join in the protest against punty in government, and against the rights of the people I New York News. Belongs to John G. A correspondent asks the New York Recorder; “Who first invented the phrases, ‘Crime of 1873’ and ‘Conspiracy against silver’?” We cannot say positively, but we think the honor belongs to Hon. John G. Carlisle, the present Secretary of the Treasury. Speaking in Congress in 1878, Mr. Carlisle denounced the movement to destroy silver money ms “a conspiracy,” and, further, as “the most gigantic crime of this or any other age.” We know of no earlier use of these pet phrases of the free silver men, and believe Mr. Carlisle first put them in circulation. American Silver in Canada. The opponents of silver are making much of a recent of the Montreal street railway companies against the acceptance of United States silver coins in the payment of fares. This order, however, cannot be construed as an attack upon the credit of this country. Our own railways and poetoffices have

long refused to receive Canadiap silver coins, not because of any doubt that the Dominion Government would redeem them at their face value, but because of the trouble and expense attendant upon sending them home for redemption. So with the Montreal railways. A large amount of United States coin is taken into Canada by tourists, and the reason above given sufficiently accounts for thg recent order.—Youngstown Vindicator? Silence Is Golden. It is announced by Mr. Hanna that Major McKinley will not speak again during this campaign. The gentleman shows good judgment. In the speech which he recently made he passed over the subject of silver and devoted himself to the tariff—as to which he observed that were it amended so as to accord more closely with the McKinley act, it would raise the price of all commodities. This is the cold idea that a true American, if he put his soul in the work, can lift himself up by the waistband of his breeches. No wonder Mr. Hanna put a seal on the Major’s mouth. In order to conciliate the manufacturers, whose contributions to the campaign fund are essential, a plank was put in the platform at St. Louis indorsing protection. But practical politicians knew that this was merely pro forma. It would be impossible to-day to get an audience to listen to a speech in favor of Republican protection. That gabble has had its day. Time was when it helped to carry elections, but that time has passed. Every Intelligent American now understands that the revision of the tariff is a scientific question to be effected according to the rules of economical science, without regard to the exigencies of party. When Congress has the leisure and is in the humor to recast the tariff in a shape which shall be a finality and shall Impart stability to trade, the subject will be intrusted to a committee embracing members of all parties, distinguished for their familiarity with economical problems. The report of such a committee would probably provoke little controversy, and the propositions embraced in it would not be considered party questions.—San Francisco Examiner. To Use the Government's Option. William Jennings Bryan will not have been in the presidential office a week before he will have Issued an order directing the executive departments to use the option resting with the Government to redeem bonds and Government paper in silver or gold. Thus with one blow will be dispatched the, gold bond python that is crushing the life out of the country’s credit.—Wheeling Register. Hanna’s Third Ticket Scheme, It is hardly necessary for Mr. Hanna to announce that he is in favor of the third ticket movement, which some have started. It does not need a Yankee to guess as much. Anybody can see that It is a little device to help McKinley and the syndicate to which he belongs. Hanna need neither tell anybody that he proposes to use some of the syndicate’s money to help along this third ticket scheme, nor need he take the trouble of denying that he is doing so. The people understand his rela-

How the people of McKinley’s town greeted the Democratic Presidential candidate as he passed through on his way to New York City. The picture is a reproduction of • drawing made from the car platform.

tions to It quite well. No true Democrat will be deceived by this third ticket scheme, and Hanna presumably does not expect that anyone can be. He doubtless merely intends to give employment to the professional orators who are always willing to espouse the cause of the highest bidder, but whjm he cannot very well employ to talk for McKinley direct. Hie plan is to keep these gentlemen under his thumb, and if they can keep the Bryan and Bewail vote down even a little bit, so much the better. Not Fair Play and Bad Politics, The efforts of certain New York papers to drag Mrs. Bryan into politics, as bossing her husband's views and utterances, is discreditable to fair pray, and decidedly bad politics.—Philadelphia Item. Hanna Onght to Blnsh. So they are “frying the fat" out of the poor day laborers In B. F. Jones' Iron works. With millions on millions to draw on, even Hanna ought to blush at that.—Winona Herald. la the Major Afraid? So Major McKinley proposes to do all his speech making In his own front yard. Can ft tie that he is afraid to go away from home and Hanna?—Boston Globe. Small Shot. Bleeding Kansas refuses to be bled for Wall street any longer. Eckels Is for McKinley. Thus do the hopes of little Napoleon fade day by day. Dick Blahd says Bryan’s New York speech was a winner and what he says goes. Some of the Chicago bicyclists are forming McKinley dubs. It’s a bad case of wheels. Chicago is a good storm center. Besides, Governor Altgeld lives there, and in an emergency he is worth several ordinary men. Mr. Thurston might learn a valuable lesson from his compatriot, J. Pound Sterling Morton. Morton hasn’t said anything for several days. The single standard people are fast reaching that point of forgetfulness where they refer to 1802 as a year when the land flowed with milk and honey. McKinley will never undertake a joint debate with Bryan. It’s all very well to say his friends won't let him. None of them are holding off any harder than he is. If the Wall street bankers can keep the gold reserve up for nothing during a Presidential campaign, why should they receive 120,000,000 for the same service at other times? Judging from the columns devoted to showing that Mr Bryan’s Madison Square speech was no good, we judge that it was one of the most effective addresses ever delivered; The American people don’t like a campaign of cowardly Insinuation. They will maka it react against its originator. Consequently we hope Mr. Thurston will keep on talking about Bryan. The New York World says Bryan has made it clear “he stands squarely on the Chicago jlatform.” He is the kind of man the people have been looking for. They know where to find him.

BRYAN AT CANTON, OHIO.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

While there is some uncertainty as to the Dumber of warships which Japan may contract for in this country, it Is denied that these will be of the Charleston cruiser class, says a Washington corresjiondent. The Japanese government already has several vessels of this type.the Charleston, lu fact, being a duplicate of the Japanese cruiser Nani Ka Wan. which was constructed about a year before its American prototype. It would appear from rejwrts which reach lie re from Tokio that Japan, like the United States, does Uot tlnd these vessels as satisfactory for all-round service as those of the gunboat class, which are equally well adapted for carrying the flag and for the performance of iwliee duty. But neither would be especially effective in time of war. It is likely, therefore, that the new vessels of the Japanese navy will be more distinctively of the armored cruiser and battleship type. In noting the retirement from the army of Major George E. Robinson, the Washington papers recall the fact that lie saved the life of Secretary Seward on the night Lincoln was assassinated. Major Robinson was an enlisted man in the Army during the war. He was soon afterward transferred to the hospital corps, with station at Washington City. When Seward was thrown from his carriage and so badly injured that he required the services of a professional nurse, Robinson was assigned to look after him. On the night when Booth shot the President and Payne made an attack upon Seward. Robinson was in the secretary's room. The assassin, on entering, was seized by Robinson, .but he succeeded In attacking and wounding the secretary. But for Robinson's presence Mr. Seward might have been killed. A gold medal was given to Robinson by Congress for his servlet's, and when Hayes came to the White House he was made a major and jsiy master In the Army. It is noteworthy that, though in each of the American crematories more men than women have been cremated, the movement abroad was practically begun by women, Lady Dllke, of England, mid n German woman having been cremated at Dresden. When efforts were made In the years 1873-74 on the Continent of Europe, In England and In the United States, in favor of the cremation of the dead, Lady Rose Mary Crawshay was one of Its prominent advocates. A number of well-known women In this country have expressed themselves decidedly in favor of cremation. Among them are Olive Thorne Miller, Mrs. Lippincott, Mrs. J. O. Croly, Mrs. Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Mrs. Alice 1). Le Piongeon, the late Kate Field, Rose Elizabeth Cleveland and Edith Thomas. At n public meeting Mrs. Bullington Booth referred to the time when her body should be carried to the crematory. The total number of cremations in the United States from 1870, when the first crematory was established, to the close of 1805, was reported to be 4,047. Nearly 1,000 persons wort' cremated In the last year in twenty-one crematories. In the crematory at Fresh Pond, N. Y., eighty-five boys and sixtyalx girls were incinerated. The number of men cremated In New York is more than double the number of women.

Mr. George G. Brown has been the faithful efficient secretary of the Brooklyn Board of Education for neveral years. Ho satisfactory have his services been that recently the Committee on Finance agreed to recommend an Increase of SI,OOO a year in bis salary. To the surprise of the public at large, if not of that of his friends, Mr. Brown has put a veto on this proposal, saying that “In view of the problems In financial and monetary matters with which the city Is confronted, this is not the most suitable time for such action." This Is said to be the first time a Brooklyn official ever refused a proffered increase in salary. The Incident is rare enough, at nil events, in municipal history to warrant more than an Incidental notice. It is ne<*diess to say that Mr. Brown’s suggestion has been heeded and the committee's recommendation “withheld for the present.” A special commission has declared impracticable the construction of a ship canal between the Atlantic ocean and the Mediterranean, across the territory of France. The scheme was originally suggested as a means of evading Gibraltar for the transit ofwar vessels to and from the Bay of Biscay and 'Toulon. The London correspondent of The* Manchester Courier publishes a remarkable acount of a new illuminant, which, if all that is said of it is true, will push both gas and electric light very liard. For its production no machinery is required save that contained In a portable lamp neither larger nor heavier than is used with colza oil or paraffin. This lamp, ft is declared, generates its own gas. The substance employed is nt present a secret, jealously guarded by some Inventive Italians. The cost Is declared to be at most one-fifth of that of ordinary gas, and the resultant light is nearly as bright as the electric light and much whiter. The apparatus can be carried about as easily as a candlestick and seems both clean and odorless. In the 22,000 electoral colleges of Mexico the vote of last month for the re-election of Porflrio Diaz to the Presidency was unanimous. Never in any previous Presidential election in Mexico. or, perhaps, In any other republic, was there a result so remarkable. Pennsylvania papers tell of a man who Is swindling farmers by means of a double-end fountain pen, one end of which he uses in drawing up contracts for harvesting machinery, and the other he presents for the farmers to use in putting their signatures to the documents. The ink of the contract fades, and a promissory note is written in over the signature. A New York Surrogate has decided that George Gould earned the $5,000,0000 left him by his late father Jay Gould. The State Controller tried to show that the money was subject to the collateral inheritance tax as a gift, but the Surrogate says that the younger Gould earned it by his services to his father for twelve years be-

fore Jay Gould died. This is at the rate of about $417,000 a year. Among the various quiet but useful works which Gerald Balfour is carrying out for the benefit of Ireland, the encouragement of horse breeding occupies by no means the least place If is understood that the government bl contemplating the issue of a royal commission to inquire into the whole subject and that the chairman will probably be the Earl of Dunraven. According to the records for 1800 the amount of sugar cane produced by the leading countries of the world was: Cuba. 530,000 tons; Java. 320.000 tons; Jamaica, 210.000 tons; India. 220.000 tons; Brazil. 230,000 tons; Manilla, 180.000 tons; Mauritius, 120,000 tons; Guiana. 120.000 tons; China, 100.000 tons; Guadeloupe. 100.000 tons; United States. 100.000 tons; Porto Rico, 80.000 tons, and Honolulu. 00.000 tons. A political camimign has a multitude of side effects, besides important civic consequences. Yet few probably think of the influence of a campaign upou literature. Every political contest creates or particularly applies various expressions which thereafter are practically ruined for soberer use. Adverting to tills point, the Bookman culls attention to the astonishing part played In every campaign by )H>liti<al "gags" which stand to nine votes out of ten in the place of any tiual and detlnite opinions upon great questions of national policy. Sometimes these terse expreaaloni* embody iu a compact form a distinct principle, but often they are mere senseless flings nt a candidate which prove nothing but the vacuity of the minds that utter them. In every campaign "some phrase or adjective or epithet is worked to death by campaign orators and afterward by the newspapers. It Is. in the first place, generally uttered in a serious way. because It is supposed to be pathetic or striking or ('specially vivid; but after it has been used by ten thousand stump speakers and twenty thousand editors, It Is reduced to the level of a ludicrous bit of political slang." The Bookman contends that this sort of thing has Its serious side, for indiscriminate use of these current political phrases results in the vulgarizing of "some of the finest and most expressive words In the language, thanks to the poverty of the reporter's vocabulary." There are words that must be allowed to lie fallow for perhaps years after a Presidential election, because of the ' over-telling which they received In the course of the campaign. What all the people have once laughed at can not for a long time Is* profitably used again In a serious relation.

Under Blankets.

When, In tin* old days of trouble between the English and the French, then* was talk of sending Admiral Hawke to sea to keep wutch over the enemy's fleet, there occurred a notable Interview. It was November. The weather was stormy and dangerous for vessels, and the government was not agreed as to sending him out. Mr. Pitt, who was in l>ed with gout, was obliged to receive those who had business with him In his chamber. This room had two beds and no tire. The Duke of Newcastle came to see him so consider the sending out of the fleet, and hud scarcely entered the room when he cried out, shivering all over with cold: “How's this? No tire?” "No,” said Mr. Pitt. “When I have the gout I cannot bear one.” The duke, wrapped In Ills cloak, took a seat by the Invalid’s bedside and began talking; but he found himself unable to endure the cold. “Pray allow me," he exclaimed suddenly, and without taking off bls cloak he,buried himself In the other bed! and continued the conversation. He was strongly opposed to risking the fleet in the November gales. Mr. Pitt was as absolutely resolved that It should put to sea, and both argued the matter wUb much warmth. It was the only warmth, Indeed, In the room. "I am positively determined that the fleet shall sail." said Mr. Pitt, accompanying his words with the most lively gesticulations. “It Is Impossible! It will perish!” said the duke with equal emphasis. At the moment the discussion waxed hottest another dignitary of the realm came In and found it difficult to keep his countenance at the sight of two ministers deliberating on a matter of so grave Importance from such a novel situation. The fleet did put to sea, and Mr Pitt’s judgment proved to be right. The enemy jvas crippled and a singular advantage gained.

Killing the Trees.

In France great care is taken in locating the wires that carry high-ten-sion electric currents, whether used foo light or for power, but in America the thing is done more simply, says Cosmos. No one bothers himself about what is to be found at the side of tho wire and ft passes among the branches of trees and across thickets unconscious of the damage that it may do. Now, ln»many towns it lias been remarked that the trees crossed by the current dwindle and die. It has also been observed that the death of these trees invariably follows the rainy season; the leaves, being soaked with moisture become good conductors and lead the current down into the tree from the wire. The wires to be sure, have l>een insulated, but the protective layer has been quickly destroyed by the friction of the branches and the line becomes bare, producing thus results that it would have been well to avoid. And the electricity is the only thing that can be accused of this. 1» suffices to convince one's self to compare the conditions of the trees travby the wires with that of neighboring trees. It has often l>een noticed that in a storm all the trees through which wires pass die in a few hours, while the surrounding ones are not touched. This is a very serious source* of complaint and causes somp lawsuits. An experienced farmer asserts that ft one-half of the fruit of a heavily laden tree is removed by picking, the remainder will be of better quality. The product'will also be as many bushels, as though all of the fruit had remained on tbetre