Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 July 1890 — TOPICS OP THE TIMES. [ARTICLE]

TOPICS OP THE TIMES.

•‘Oar Country's Dangers and Defences” was tiie subject of thaßev. Dr. B. F. De Costa's sermon at the Church lof St. John tiie Evangelist yesterday paorning, says the N. Y. Sun. The moral dangers, he said, to which the (country is subject, if not so evident as the physical dangers, should be just as much a source of alarm. The low type of morality end the prevalence irreligion among the American people fwere the most vital dangers of the taation. * “We are now passing,” said the preacher, “from an age of force to jan age of reason, and we must distinguish between the real and false defence for our nation. Physical force as a false defence, for it is already overreaching itself by the perfection to which firearms have attained in the last few years. Naval contractors and (speculators raise a cry of alarm about -our- 8,000 miles of undefended sea (coast. We need a navy only for police duty on the high seas, for the oth,er nations know our fighting ability and would not dare attack Us. Our (Statesmen are calling for steel cruisers land all that kind of trash and nonsense. We shall need a museum Agherewe can store away Aheasessruisprs, which will soon become as useless as the stage coach of the past.” Dr. De Costa declared that justice to foreign nations and to our own people would be a sufficient defence, and concluded with an appeal for a pencion for all soldiers of the late war.

, People who live in trees or employ them as places of refuge are apt to be particularly miserable specimens of (the human family, for their choice of ia home invariably implies that they tore not strong enough to meet their enemies on the level. The tree village recently discovered by Sir William j&f&cgregor in New Guinea is the most remarkable that has been reported in a long while. Some ways inland be found a wretched, half-starved remnant of the Velburi tribe. In one of their settlements all the villagers live jta a single enormous tree, on whose wide-spreading branches four houses, pvith two stories each, had been con. Btructed. Wide platforms are built in (front of the bouses on which are piles k>f stones, kept to hurl at Intrusive (persons. This wretched people are in E recess of extermination by a powerful nd warlike neighbor. The most numerous tree villages that have been found are along the [Dua branch of the Mangala River, north of the Congo. The explorer who discovered them last year says jthe natives are the poorest and most (wretched people he has seen in Africa.

Mr. Stanley b»,s now told his story pt the Stain relief expedition, and the two other stories remain to be published. These are the stories of Emin himself and of the Rear Guard, for both of whom Stanley has some sovere (criticisms. Rose Troup, one of Stan* ley’s officers, whom he left at- Yamjbuya, has had his story of the Roar Guard in type for more than a year, and would have published it months (before we knew where Stanley was if Aho Emin Relief Committee liad not invoked the law to prevent him. It is (understood that a book by Herbert Ward will appear as sooft as he is at liberty to speak, and the wealthy relatives of Major Barttelot are anxious to vindicate his memory by publishing extracts from his diary, showing what a pickle he was in at Yambuya. They will all have a chance in October, when the pledge of silence ceases to bind them; and as soon as Stanley’s book gets into the hands of Emin it will not be surprising if that accomplished linguist expresses himself with great vigor and in at least twentylanguages.

Russian notes range in value from one ruble—about 60 cents—to ope hundred rubles. The different denominations are of different color, and as the notes advance in value the size increases until the one hundred rublo note is about eight inches long by four broad, They are all of them very neat, and some of them contain fine portraits of the rulers. * * * The city of St Petersburg, Russia, is, perhaps, the most admirably governed municipality in the world. The cityhas a population of over one million, The streets are kept as clean as a floor, and the water, which comes from the river Neva, is as clear as crystal. They have a splendid system of lighting, some of the streets being lighted by electricity, but the wires are all under ground. The poles on which the lamps are placed, and the telegraph poles, are all ornamental and of the same height. Wood is burned and the city Is free from smoke, as the manufacturing establishments (use anthracite coa\ which is brought from England. T&e winters are long and very cold. They do not mind it 'much, however, for they dress warmly In furs. The houses are all of brick, covered with white porcelain, and in , order to keep out tb6 cold the walls are made from one foot to one fo6t and a half thick and the windows are all double. The summers are shock but very warm. They have plenty*of .strawberries, but Indian corn cannot be raised. There are not over a dor.Cn American families in the whole city The publication of patent medicine advertisements in Russia is combined .with great difficulties, and tooth powider, cosmetics, medicated- soap and (similar preparations are comprised (within the category of patent medicines. The article must first be submitted to the examination of the medical authorities. If they approve of It they place the manufacturer under bonds that he shall make bis prepara-

tions for the market precisely according to the sample they have examined. Hereupon they give him a certificate which must be deposited with the medical censor. The latter again gives him a certificate which must be presented to the general censorship bureau. If the General Censor has no objection to the wording of the advertisement it may go into the pajiers. If one and the same advertisement is tobe published in twenty different papers it must go through this process from the medical commission down to the oensorship bureau for twenty different times. The name of the paper in which it is to be published must be specially mentioned, and the wording and size of the advertisement designated in the original application and approved by the various authorities. Now, in order to do away with this laborious process, or at least with the repetition of it in the case of each publication, the Medical Council or the Minister of the Interior proposes to have each authenticated advertisement of this kind published in the Praviteljßtvennig Yiestnik, the general Official organ of St. Petersburg, and to allow all other papers to copy it verbatim ad liberatim from that paper without extra revision. Of course the publication in the first, as in all the subsequent instances, must be made at the expense of the advertiser.