People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1893 — TO CORRESPONDENTS. [ARTICLE]

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

All coaunonicatioa* to* Mpcrsboald tw *econ» part ot tW» writer. Write o*ly on one side of the paper. Ba partlCTilariy careful in rt vin* names and dates *o hare tee letters and figures rtftjn and distinct. Proper names are often difficult to dsxTpher, because of tee careless manner in which they are written.

Th eek were thirty-two failures in the iron trade in this country during the first six months of this year, which is the most disastrous record in that industry in our history. The Navy department buys annually about 125,000 pounds pure natural leaf tobacco for Jack Tar. It is bought under contract, and accepted only after it has been fully tested for purity and strength. Chulalongkorn, the King of Siam, is said to be the most enterprising man in his kingdom. He has 100 wives, 1,000 elephants and an income of §10,000,000. His trouble with France is over the boundaries between Siam and French possessions. Queen Victoria made her will in 1876. It is engrossed on vellum, quarto size, and it is bound as a volume, secured with a private lock. Several blank pages have been left at the end of the book for codicils, some of which have already been added. Twenty thousand watermelons are to be cut in one day at the World’s fair when the state of Washington’s building is opened, in September. It is estimated that the melons, which are to be of Washington growth, will make one million good-sfized slices. Mrs. Crook, widow of the Indian fighting general, has attracted more attention recently than most other feminine visitors to the World’s fair. She is a very fine looking woman, with snowy white hair that is in striking contrast to her youthful spirits. Arrangements have been made for excursions of colored people from the South to the World’s fair, and it is expected that 250,000 will thus be added •to the attendance. The first excursion will be August 21, from Nashville and intermediate points in Tennessee and Kentucky. The famous whaleback steamer, Charles W. Wetmore, of which such great expectations were entertained as a new success in marine architecture, was sold at auction in San Francisco the other day for §2BO and her cargo of 8,000 tons of coal for §6. Ship and cargo now lie buried in the sand near Coos bay, on the coast of Oregon. Of every one thousand clergymen between the ages of forty-five and sixtyfive it is found that only 15.93 die annually. But of every one thousand doctors between the ages of forty-five and sixty-five no fewer than 28.02 die every year. That is to say, the mortality of medical men is almost double that of clergymen, and the rate is increasing. The kingdom of Siam forms the chief territorial division of the Indo-Chinese peninsula, the southeast point of Aisia, and with its dependencies of Laos, Cambodia and Malacca, has an area of 250,000 square miles—about five times the eize of Ohio —and a population of about 12,000,000. It has an extensive coast line and several good harbors, of which that below Bangkok is the chief.

A departure from old ways has been made by Marietta’ (0.) college. The trustees announce that a college for women will be opened in September. The qualifications for entrance, atid the ■course of instruction provided, are the same as for men in the classical course. In modern languages and literature the changes made are to meet the special requirements of women in general. I i j i-JJLL 1 The Pamurikey Indians, who dwell on a reservation about twenty-five miles from Richmond, Va., which they hold on condition of paying a certain annual tribute to the state, have sent a delegation to the World's fair to invite other civilized Indians to come and settle. on their reservation and amalgamate with their tribe. The Pamunkeys have fine lands, and are in prosperous circumstances, but they have intermarried so long that the tribe is in danger of extinction. Bangkok is a very curious and interesting city of 500,000 inhabitants, 100,000 of whom live in houseboats on the river. The larger part of the city is uninhabitable by Europeans on account of filth, especially during the dry season. The tide sets back far enough to make the river Menam brackish, and it is sluggish at all times, and for months together rotting carcasses and vegetables almost choke the current. The natives drink it without clearing, and when a cholera season comes they die by tens of thousands. ——————— Philadelphia is to have something to wake her up soon. It is a trial as to the possession of the body of a dead wife. The disputants in the case are the newly-made widower and an undertaker. It seems the undertaker had presented a bill for services as embalmer and payment was refused. At once he took a lien on the corpse and the widower sued to replevy. The issue will be decided on the 7th of August. Meantime a great deal of Philadelphia legal talent is to be retained for both sides, while the corpse in dispute calmly reposes in the possession of the undertaker. Within fifty years, says the Cincinnati Times-Star, a utilitarian age will make the present waste of sewage in nearly all the large cities of the country seem almost criminal. When there are millions of acres of starving land Id this country within easy reach of markets that could be made as productive as can tl e virgin soil of the prairies if the pnormous sewage wastes were but saved and applied to them, to suffer this waste to continue when it is a constant menace to human life, dependent upon running streams for a water supply, the waste even now is reckless and deplorable.