Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1899 — CURRENT COMMENT [ARTICLE]

CURRENT COMMENT

Cables from South Africa report that a balloon has been seen high in the air passing oat towards some of the Boer strongholds. If the report be true the balloon is probably one of those sent out some time ago for use by the English forces. These war balloons have each 10,000 cubic feet capacity and are filled from steel cylinders containing the necessary gas under pressure. In addition to the balloon corps for observation purposes the English authorities have made arrangements for the rapid erection of high observation towers, from the top of which, it is hoped, the hiding places of the Boers may be spied out. The purchase of a large number of horses in the United States for the use of the English army in South Africa is made necessary by the fact that even with the elaborate horse registration system in force in Great Britain it is impossible to secure all the animals needed for immediate service at home. In time of peace the military establishment of England requires for its use a total of 13,500 horses. In time of war this total jumps at once to 28,749. Horse buyers for the army are now at work, not only in this country bnt also in Canada, in Australia and in Austria. A new problem is pressing for solution on the Pacific coast. It promises to become even more serious than the “Chinese question.” According to the census of 1890 there were at that time 2,039 “Japs” in the United States. Since then the immigration has steadily increased until the total number of Japanese who came to the United States in the fiscal year 1899 was 3,395. To-day, according to the estimate of the Japanese consul at San Francisco, there are no less than 20,000 “Japs” in this country, most of them on the Pacific coast. In one way, and that a financial one, the Dreyfns trial at Rennes was a direct benefit to France. AH the telegraph and telephone lines in the republic belong to the Government, and the great demand for news of the trial increased the receipts from telegrams $120,000 and from telephone messages $60,000 while the case was on. The popular idea that ail South Africa is not far removed from savagery Is contradicted by the fact that in Cape Colony alone atkere are 6,009 miles of telegraph poles, carrying many times that number I of miles of wire. v