Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 June 1877 — FACTS AND FIGURES. [ARTICLE]

FACTS AND FIGURES.

It costs England SSOO a year to support a soldier, while Austria supports one for $235. The Philadelphia signers of the Murphy I total abstinence pledge now number 35,000. The money loss to Savannah by last year’s yellow fever visitation is estimated at $7,000,000. There have been 251 iron vessels of all sizes built in tbe United States since 1868, having u, total tonnage of 197,500. Some amiable individuals in England have subscribed for the shipment of 2,000 plum-puddings to the nearest attainable section of the Turkish Army. The puddings were sent in hermetically sealed cans. A dangerous amusement is that of the juveniles with fire-crackers, on Independence Day. Attention has been called to it by the National Board of Underwriters, in New York, who show that within the last ten years, conflagrations produced by these explosives, have destroyed more than $10,000,000 worth of property. It is recommended that their use be strictly prohibited, and that no more of them be imported. Safety requires of youngsters that this sacrifice be made, and that no more amusement be drawn from this source. —American Manufacturer. The population of the Indian Territory is about 77,000. * The wild Indians by blood,<called “blanket” Indians, who do not cultivate the soil, are the Osages, Cheyennes, Arapahoes, Eiowas and Pawnees, and number 20,000. Those mixed with the whites and partly civilized, are the Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles, Choctaws aud Chickasaws. A white mau marrying a squaw becomes a “white Indian,” and a white woman marrying *an Indian becomes a “white squaw.” There are also a lot of “ black Indians,” who are negroes. Altogether these number 55,000. Beside these there are 6,500 “ negro citizens of the United Slates,” formerly slaves of the Chickasaws. They do not rank as Indians, while the “black Indian” does. The Journal Offlciel states that the steam engines in France now give an aggregate of 1,500,000 horse-power, representing a force of 4,500,000 horses, or 31,000,000 men—that is to say, ten times the valid industrial population (the industrial population of France now amounts to 8,400,000 inhabitants—women, children and old people included, among whom can be reckoned only 3,200,000 active workers). The first engine which appeared in France came from Boulton & Watt’s works, at Birmingham, in 1789, and was used for distribution of water to the city of Paris. It was not until 1824 that large works for the construction of steam engines were begun. Some idea of the great comparative progress of the last thirteen years may be had from the fact that in 1852 there were 6,000 fixed steam engines in France, representing 45,000,000 horse-power; in 1863, 22,500, representing 618,000 horsepower ; the number at present being as stated above.