Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 April 1898 — A Transformed Empire. [ARTICLE]

A Transformed Empire.

Nothing is more wonderful than the difference between the Austrian Empire that wtas and the Austrian Empire that Is. I knew it above forty years ago, says a correspondent of London Truth. Then It was one of the cheapest countries in Europe, now there is no country dearer. In this it has kept pace with Germany. Bohemia is probably the wealthiest state of the Austrian Empire. The people there have always been comfortably off, and now they are well off. I never came across a village where the houses are not far better built than the English farm bouses and cottages. If there is no great luxury, there seems to be no want. But agriculture is not the sole industry. Factories are springing up everywhere. In all parts one sees tall chimneys. They are not picturesque, but they mean energy and the creation of wealth. The emperor is really a remarkable man. Practically and only the foreign affairs of his empire are in his hands, but so thorough is the belief in his honesty and good sense that he may be said to keep the empire together. He is no longer a young man, and whether the empire will fall to pieces after him is a possible contingency. The heir is a young man, whose health is so bad that he is not likely to live to Inherit the crown. His brother has only one specialty. He is, by the way, one of the best horsemen in the empire, bnt this is hardly a gift calculated to keep the various component and antagonistic parts of It in harmony. Recent investigations by Dr. LindenKohl have shown jbat the principal source of the Gulf stream is not the Florida channel, but the region between and beside the" Islands of the West Indies. At Blnienl the volume of this warm water is sixty times as great as the combined volume of all the rivers in the world at their mouths. The largest gasometer in the world is at East Greenwich. When full it contains 12,000,000 cubic feet of gas. It weighs 2,200 tons, Is 180 feet high, 300 feet in diametw. requires 1,200 tons of coal to fin u wltto g««, ana co»t vmdr