OUR CURIOSITY SHOP. (continued 4)

ORIGIN OF THE CAUCUS.

Chicago, Ill.

Can you tell us the origin of the American caucus?

John Allen.

Answer.—The origin of the term “caucus” is traced back to the Caucus Club, Boston, of revolutionary days. This club was composed mainly of persons engaged in ship-building. It was one of the most radical opponents of British oppression. It and the Merchants’ Club of the same period, used to meet before elections and agree on candidates for town and provincial offices. “Caucus” is believed to be a corruption of “caulkers.”

THE YORK SHILLING.

Chicago, Ill.

To settle a dispute please inform us through Our Curiosity Shop whether the United States ever issued a coin called the “York shilling?” Was there not a coin of some kind called a York shilling?

Reader.

Answer.—The United States certainly never did mint any such coin. Neither did New York itself before the adoption of our present Constitution, under which individual States are not permitted to coin money. Most of the original thirteen States had issued bills of credit during colonial times, which had depreciated in the several colonies in different degrees, according to provisions made for their redemption and other incidents. In New England, after the adoption of the Federal decimal system, the pound in paper currency was worth only $3.33⅓ and the shilling 16⅔ cents, equal to six shillings to the dollar. This standard prevailed also in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. In New York the paper currency pound was worth only $2.50, and so the shilling was reckoned but 12½ cents, equal to eight shillings to the dollar. This last is the “York shilling,” a money of account. The only coin that ever passed by that name is the Spanish real, known along the Ohio and Lower Mississippi as “a bit,” which, until a few years ago, was current through the country at 12½ cents, the value, as above shown, of the New York paper currency shilling of the olden times. In Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland the pound was worth $2.70, making the shilling worth 13½ cents, or 7s. 6d. to the $1. In Georgia and South Carolina the pound was worth $4.20, and the shilling 21-3/7 cents, or 4s. 8d. to the dollar. Such was the force of habit that, long after the old colonial paper money passed out of use, people continued to buy and sell and keep accounts in pounds and shillings; and schoolboys were required to familiarize themselves with the rules for reducing the several State currencies to Federal currency.

THE GREAT NAPOLEON’S DEFEATS.

Chicago, Ill.

1. Was Bonaparte repulsed at Acre? 2. Was he forced to leave Egypt? 3. Did he make a disastrous retreat from Moscow? 4. Did the Duke of Wellington suffer defeats parallel to those endured by Napoleon Bonaparte?

Thomas Wilson.

Answer.—1. In 1799, after laying siege to the stronghold of Acre, Syria, for sixty-one days, Napoleon Bonaparte resolved to raise the siege and return to Egypt, where his presence was demanded by the threatening state of affairs, which culminated at last in the great battle of Aboukir, in which he defeated Murad Bey, for the second time, with great slaughter. There is no doubt that, although victorious over the Ottoman and Egyptian armies, the almost utter annihilation of the French fleet by the English and Turks in the famous naval battle of the Nile, some months before this, and the menacing state of affairs in France, made it prudent for Napoleon to take advantage of the prestige of this victory to retire from Egypt, leaving the government of the country he had conquered to General Kleber, who soon after this totally defeated the Ottoman army, 70,000 strong, before Heliopolis. Not until after Kleber was assassinated and months of the unwise administration of his successor, General Menou, did the insurrection fomented by the English, and finally assisted by an English naval and land force, compel the French under Menou, to withdraw from Egypt, nearly two years after Bonaparte himself had returned to France. Taken all in all the French expedition into Egypt, planned by Napoleon Bonaparte, although distinguished by several brilliant exploits, must be regarded from a political and military standpoint as a failure. 3. So was the expedition to Moscow, which, after a succession of victories, ended in a disastrous retreat in midwinter, forced upon the French, not by arms, but by threatening starvation and other results of the burning of Moscow. 4. The Duke of Wellington, although several times compelled to retreat before French armies during campaigns in the Netherlands and in Spain, never suffered any disasters comparable with those inflicted on Napoleon; neither did he ever exhibit, even at Waterloo, where, with the allies, he had double the strength of the French army, such marvelous generalship as made Napoleon Bonaparte for many years more than a match for all the powers of Europe combined, the arbiter of all their thrones.

FUNDED AND FLOATING DEBT DEFINED.

Iroquois, D. T.

Explain the terms “floating debt,” “funded debt,” and “sinking fund.”

Querist.

Answer..—“Funded debt” is government or corporation indebtedness in the form of bonds or other evidences of money stipulated to be paid at stated intervals, and usually bearing interest payable annually or oftener. “Floating debt” is indebtedness, such as unsettled accounts, scrip in the nature of due bills, etc. not funded. A sinking fund is money set apart out of taxes, earnings, or other income, for the redemption of government or corporation bonds or other specific tokens of indebtedness.

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION.

Fayette, Iowa.

I am very anxious to learn how to make an incubator, or have one made, for hatching chickens by artificial means. Will you oblige myself and other readers by giving such minute directions that a carpenter can make one by following them?

E. J. Allcott.

Answer..—Similar requests are made by C. A. Brace, Esq., of Persia, Iowa; L. R. S., Cameron, Neb.; Q., of Elk Grove, Wis., and several others, some of whom desire to know what success has attended experiments in artificial incubation with modern apparatus. Conflicting reports as to this latter question, together with the fraudulent methods taken by some persons engaged in vending pamphlets that cost the publishers not to exceed 8 cents a copy, containing directions for making apparatus of this sort, at the extortionate price of $2, and selling ready-made incubators at exorbitant prices, has made caution advisable in treating this subject. Reports received within the past six weeks from twenty different persons, who have experimented with incubators, indicate that in about twelve cases out of twenty the average success is encouraging, and in the cases of the others the average results are quite discouraging. It is very certain that in a climate incident to such sudden and extreme changes as ours success demands skill and constant attention. None but absolutely fresh eggs must be selected, a temperature hardly varying from 103 deg., and a proper degree of moisture must be maintained, with sleepless vigilance. Let the eggs be chilled even for a few minutes and the consequences are disastrous. For a comparatively inexpensive incubator make a box 4 feet long, 3 feet wide, 6 inches deep, outside measurement, with a tight board lid and a zinc bottom; using boards 1¼ inches thick, nailed or screwed together. This is the heater. Of the same kind of boards make an egg-drawer 4 feet long, 2 feet 11½ inches wide, 5 inches high, outside measure, and 4 inches deep on the inside, with slats nailed in crosswise, instead of a board for the bottom. The slats better be of inch-thick lumber, not more than 1 inch wide, and set one inch apart. Over these slats on the inside tack a piece of coarse sack the full length and width of the box. Draw it tight and tack it securely to the slats and the ends of the box. Next make a frame 3 feet 7 inches long and 32 inches wide, using inch-square strips for the end pieces and inch-wide strips of half-inch thickness for the sides. Strain stout muslin over this frame and tack it firmly. Lay this, muslin side down, on the coarse cloth in the egg drawer. This is to support the eggs. Next bore twenty half-inch holes in each side of the egg drawer, 1¾ inches apart, and as close to the frame with the muslin bottom as can be done and yet allow this frame to slide easily underneath twenty slats a half-inch square each, which must be run through the box from hole to hole, to keep the eggs in position. Arrange the eggs between these slats, resting on the muslin of the muslin frame. It will be seen that by moving this frame about two inches backward or forward the eggs can be turned half over. Make a box of precisely the same length and breadth as the heater, but eight inches deep instead of six. Nail on a tight bottom of inch flooring stuff; bore twelve half-inch holes in this bottom, into which insert as many tin tubes of the same diameter, seven inches long, for ventilators. Fill all the space between the pipes with sawdust to within about an inch of their tops. Next set the egg drawer on top of this ventilator box, and set the heater, the first box described, on the top of the egg drawer. Take common inch-boards, one foot wide, and nail one on each side and across one end of this pile of boxes, driving the nails along the lower edge of each board into the ventilator box, and along the upper edge into the heater box; raising the latter off of the egg-drawer barely enough to let the latter slide easily back and forth between the heater and ventilator.

As the incubator stands now, the egg-drawer is protected from the cold, underneath, by the ventilator box with about six inches of sawdust: but it must be similarly protected on the sides and top. Set this nest of boxes, as now arranged, on a couple of trestles made of pieces of scantling, four feet eight or ten inches long, with short legs eight inches long, and build another box 27 inches high (outside) around them, long enough and wide enough to form a sawdust chamber 8 inches wide along both sides and the back end of the incubator, and rising 8 inches higher than the top of the heater. Next get two tin pipes, 12 or 13 inches long and about 2½ inches in diameter, seamed together, as solder melts; also get two such pipes about 6 inches long, and two elbows. Bore a 2½-inch hole through the sawdust-box and the heater-box entering the latter about 9 inches from the front and 2 inches below the lid, and slide one of the longer pipes through these holes. Attach one of the elbows and one of the 6-inch pipes outside. Put the other pipe into the heater from the opposite side, about 9 inches from the back end of the heater. Two kerosene lamps, set on brackets, on the outside of the sawdust box, with their chimneys thrust up into the short pipes, will supply all the heat that is required for hatching the eggs. If the lamps smoke, drop them low enough to admit a little air to enter between the chimneys and the inside of the pipes. Opposite where each of these tin flues enters the heater, bore three three-quarter-inch holes through the top of the heater, nine or ten inches apart, in a line about three inches from the side. Slide six tin tubes of the same diameter, fifteen or sixteen inches long, through these holes to within a half-inch of the zinc bottom of the heater. Now fill the sawdust chamber around the incubator and on top, putting earth instead of sawdust just around the hot-air flues, to avoid fire. As the zinc directly under where the hot-air flues enter the heater is apt to get overheated, it is best before covering the heater with sawdust to lay a piece of zinc or tin, about a foot square, on the zinc bottom as an equalizer of the temperature. Keep a thermometer in the egg drawer to test the temperature. This drawer will hold about 250 eggs.

This is the incubator; directions for using it will be given hereafter.

M. A. Bevard, Derby, Iowa—General Hull took part in the revolutionary battles of White Plains, Trenton, Stillwater, Princeton, Saratoga, and Monmouth. 2. Aaron Burr died on Staten Island.

INTEREST ON NOTES.

Washburn, Wis.

1. Will a promissory note draw interest if it is not so specified in the note? 2. Will a note made payable one year after date, with interest at 7 per cent, draw interest after the note becomes due?

A. E. R.

Answer..—1. Such a note will not draw interest until after due and payment has been demanded. It will draw legal interest from date of such demand. 2. Such a note will continue to draw interest at the same rate if payment is demanded at maturity and payment is withheld.

NEW YORK IMMIGRATION COMMISSION.

Barnard, Ill.

Who was the first to propose Castle Garden for the benefit of foreign immigrants? Is the board of management a National or a State organization? How did it originate?

Anna Sierle.

Answer.—The pitiable condition in which immigrants were landed in New York, the cruelties inflicted upon them in many cases in overcrowded emigrant ships, the extortions and downright frauds practiced upon them when they were put ashore like so many cattle, and left to shift for themselves in a strange city, without language to make their wants known, began to attract the attention of humane public officers and merchants of that city at an early day. The outrages multiplied, and the importance of providing some remedy grew with the rapid increase of foreign immigration, which swelled from 22,633 for the whole United States in 1831, to 104,565 in 1842. The Legislature of New York State was appealed to, and on May 5, 1847—in which year the rate of foreign immigration more than doubled upon that of 1842, the total number received rising to 234,968—it created the present Board of Commissioners of Emigration of the State of New York, which has been in successful operation ever since, and has proved one of the most beneficent institutions of the land. It consists of nine members, six of whom are appointed by the Governor with consent of the Senate, while the other three are the Mayor of the city and the Presidents of the German Society and the Irish Emigration Society. All of these serve without compensation. The law makes it their duty to provide suitable quarters for the reception of alien passengers arriving at New York; to care for the sick and helpless among them; to protect them from extortion, fraud, and impositions of any kind; to aid those who wish transfer to the railways and other transportation routes to the interior of the country; to assist such as wish to remain in the city to obtain work, and, in general, to give them trustworthy information and advice, and guard their interests. For this purpose they were authorized to collect of vessel owners $2.50 for each passenger, until 1871, when it was reduced to $1.50.

In 1855 the city of New York leased Castle Garden to the Commissioners for an immigrant landing depot, and it was opened for this purpose in August of that year. It occupies the extreme southern point of the city at the junction of the North River, or Hudson, with the East River. A more convenient, healthy, an every way desirable station could not have been selected. The immigrants are brought here directly from immigrant vessels, in tugs or barges, and received into rooms properly heated, lighted, and ventilated. Bath-rooms, lunch counters, with provisions at reasonable prices, suitable sleeping quarters, and other conveniences are all found within the building, and are conducted under strict superintendence. The names of such as have money, letters, or friends awaiting them are called out. Clerks stand ready to write letters for them in any European language. There are railway offices where tickets are sold them by thoroughly responsible clerks, who can talk with them in their native tongues. Responsible brokers exchange their foreign coin and currency at par market value. There is an employment bureau to find work for those who do not care to go any farther. A physician is in attendance, and the sick are properly cared for in a temporary hospital until they are transported to the immigrant hospitals on Ward’s Island.

In view of the fact that about two-thirds of all the foreign immigration to the United States land at New York, it is, indeed, a noble institution that meets these strangers with such generous provisions for their wants. According to an article in “The American Cyclopedia,” of the 5,033,392 immigrants arriving at New York between May 5, 1847, and Jan. 1, 1873, for whom commutation money was paid by the vessel-owners, “all of whom received protection, advice, and information from the commissions, 1,465,579 were provided and cared for out of the immigrant fund, for a greater or less period during the five years subsequent to their arrival; 398,643 received treatment and care in the institutions of the commissioners; 449,275 were temporarily supplied with board and lodging and money relief in the city of New York; 349,936 were provided with employment through the labor bureau at Castle Garden; 53,083 were forwarded from Castle Garden to their destination in the United States, or returned to Europe at their own request; and 214,642 were relieved and provided for in various parts of the State of New York,” all out of this immigrant fund. In 1872-3 bills were introduced into Congress to supersede this New York Emigration Commission by a National bureau, but the movement excited great opposition, not only in New York, but in other quarters, and it ended in failure.

DERIVATION OF SIRLOIN.

Galena, Ill.

Is it true that an English king knighted a roast of beef as Sir Loin, and that this was the origin of the name sirloin for a certain cut of meat?

A Subscriber.

Answer.—It is true that the great lexicographer, Dr. Johnson, gave credence and currency to this etymological nonsense, and that subsequent lexicographers, down to Webster and Worcester, parrot-like repeated it. But both of our distinguished lexicographers rejected this popular tradition of a silly freak or pun of James I. or Charles II. as of no etymological value, and agree that sirloin, which appears in Johnson’s dictionary for the first time with this orthography, is derived from the French surlonge, that is, “upper loin.” In the old English dictionaries, such as Ainsworth’s and Cotgrave’s, the English word was spelled surloin, and both Webster and Worcester, while giving sirloin as the usual orthography, recommend surloin, and authorize it as the preferable spelling. Skeats’ Etymological Dictionary, Oxford, 1882, vocabulates this word thus: “Sirloin, an inferior spelling of surloin, q. v.;” and under surloin says: “Frequently spelled sirloin, owing to a fable that the loin of beef was knighted by one of our kings in a fit of good humor.” The king was naturally imagined to be the merry monarch Charles II., though Richardson says (on no authority) that it was so entitled by King James I. Both stories are discredited by the use of the original French surlonge in the fourteenth century. Indeed, Wedgewood actually cites ‘a surloyn of beef’ from an account of expenses of Henry VI. But Richardson had the authority of Dean Swift for referring the pun on surloin to James I. In “Polite Conversation” Swift says: “But, pray, why is it called a sirloin? Why, you must know that our King James I., who loved good eating, being invited to dinner by one of his nobles, and seeing a large loin of beef at his table, he drew out his sword and in a frolic knighted it.” Which Swift, in all probability, intended to be taken as a legend, and nothing more.

NORTH CAROLINA GOLD MINES.

Give us some information in regard to the extent of mining for the precious metals in North Carolina.

Malcolm McManus.

Answer.—There was a time when gold mining in North Carolina was an important industry. The earliest record at the United States mint of gold produced in this country was in 1804. In that year a deposit was made at the mint of gold found in North Carolina. Small amounts, not exceeding an annual average of $2,500, were received from 1804 to 1823, after which there was a steady increase, as follows: In 1824, total amount received at mint, $5,000; in 1825, $17,000; in 1826, $20,000; in 1827, $21,000; in 1828, $46,000; in 1829, $134,000. During this last year $2,500 was received from Virginia and $3,500 from South Carolina. A Southern “gold fever” set in, and hundreds of people went to prospecting all along the Appalachian Mountains, so that in the next year, 1830, the mint received $212,000 from Georgia, $204,000 from North Carolina, $26,000 from South Carolina, $24,000 from Virginia, and $2,000 from Tennessee and Alabama. The total amounts of precious metals from the mines of the South, deposited at the United States mint from 1804 to 1881, was as follows:

From Virginia $ 1,689,797.00

From North Carolina 10,750,468.64

From South Carolina 1,429,751.55

From Georgia 7,869,282.60

From Alabama 220,892.25

From Tennessee 86,511.61

Total $22,046,703.65

Various causes conduced to the decrease of mining in the South before the discovery of gold in California, but this latter event drew away the best miners and most experienced, most enterprising capitalists engaged in the business, so that the gold product of this region became insignificant. A revival of mining has set in in North Carolina, yet the products of the Carolinas and Georgia in 1881 was only about $275,000.

MEERSCHAUM—SEA FOAM.

Gilman, Ill.

Is meerschaum a product of sea foam, as some persons declare?

W. C. Duckham.

Answer.—Meerschaum is a German word, compounded from meer, sea, and schaum, foam. It is the name of a fine clay composed of magnesia, silica, and water in equal parts. When fresh from the pit it is soft and makes a lather like soap, which gave rise to its name. After being molded into pipes, these are boiled in oil or wax and baked until hard.

STATE GOVERNORS.

Zanesville, Ohio.

Please give the names and politics of all State and Territorial Governors. Also, their salaries and dates of expiration of their terms.

A Subscriber.

Answer.—The following is a full list of Governors of the several States and Territories, with their salaries and the times when their terms end. The politics of Governors is indicated by running the names of Republicans in Roman, and of Democrats and Fusionists in italics:

STATE. Governor. End of term. Salary.

Alabama Edw. A. O’Neal Dec. 1, 1884 $3,000

Arkansas James H. Berry Jan. 2, 1885 3,000

California George Stoneman Jan. 4, 1887 6,000

Colorado James B. Grant Jan. 9, 1885 5,000

Connecticut Thos. M. Waller Jan. 3, 1885 2,000

Delaware Chas. C. Stockley Jan. 31, 1887 2,000

Florida Wm. D. Bloxham Jan. 6, 1885 3,500

Georgia H. D. McDaniel Nov. 3, 1885 3,000

Illinois John M. Hamilton Jan. 12, 1885 6,000

Indiana Albert G. Porter Jan. 12, 1885 5,000

Iowa B. R. Sherman Jan. 14, 1884 3,000

Kansas George W. Glick[7] Jan. 9, 1885 3,000

Kentucky L. P. Blackburn Sept. 5, 1883 5,000

Louisiana S. D. McEnery May 19, 1884 4,000

Maine Frederick Robie Jan. 7, 1885 2,000

Maryland W. T. Hamilton Jan. 2, 1884 4,500

Massachusetts Benj. F. Butler[8] Jan. 2, 1884 4,000

Michigan Josiah W. Begole[9] Jan. 1, 1885 1,000

Minnesota L. F. Hubbard Jan. 7, 1884 3,800

Mississippi Robert Lowry Jan. 5, 1886 4,000

Missouri T. T. Crittenden Jan. 12, 1885 5,000

Nebraska James W. Dawes Jan. 8, 1885 2,500

Nevada Jewett D. Adams Jan. 2, 1887 6,000

N. Hampshire Samuel W. Hale June 3, 1885 1,000

New Jersey Geo. C. Ludlow Jan. 15, 1884 5,000

New York Grover Cleveland Jan. 1, 1886 10,000

No. Carolina Thomas J. Jarvis Jan. 1, 1885 3,000

Ohio Charles Foster Jan. 14, 1884 4,000

Oregon Zenas F. Moody Jan. 1, 1887 1,500

Pennsylvania R. E. Pattison Jan. 18, 1887 10,000

Rhode Island A. H. Littlefield[10] May 29, 1883 1,000

So. Carolina H. S. Thompson Dec. 30, 1884 3,500

Tennessee Wm. B. Bate Jan. 15, 1885 4,000

Texas John Ireland Jan. 15, 1885 4,000

Vermont John L. Barstow Oct. 4, 1884 1,000

Virginia W. E. Cameron[11] Jan. 1, 1886 5,000

West Virginia Jacob B. Jackson March 4, 1885 3,700

Wisconsin J. M. Rusk Jan. 5, 1885 5,000

Territories—

Arizona Frederick Tritle Feb. 6, 1886 2,600

Dakota Neh. G. Ordway May 22, 1884 2,600

Idaho John B. Neil July 12, 1884 2,600

Montana J. S. Crosby Aug. 4, 1886 2,600

New Mexico Lionel A. Sheldon May 5, 1885 2,600

Utah Eli H. Murray Jan. 27, 1884 2,600

Washington Wm. A. Newell April 26, 1884 2,600

Wyoming William Hale Aug. 3, 1886 2,600

FOOTNOTES:

FIRST FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW.

Cedar Falls.

Tell us who brought forward the first fugitive slave law.

P. G. Klock.

Answer.—In the constitutional convention of 1787 Mr. Pierce Butler, a delegate from South Carolina, moved the adoption of clause 3, section 2, article 4 of the Constitution, which reads: “No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.” The first law to give effect to this constitutional provision was prepared by a committee of the Senate appointed in November, 1792. This committee was composed of Mr. Johnston, of North Carolina; Mr. Cabot, of Massachusetts, and Mr. Read, of Delaware. In December Mr. Johnston reported a bill which was not entirely satisfactory. Mr. Taylor, of Virginia, and Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, were added to the committee. On Jan. 3, 1793, Mr. Johnston reported a bill, which, after several days’ consideration, was passed without a single dissenting voice. On the 4th of February following, this bill passed the House by a vote of 48 to 7. We cannot give the text of it, but it gave slave-masters and their agents summary power to seize, hold, and return fugitives from slavery to their former bondage, whatever laws the States in which they were found might pass to the contrary, the matter being one under jurisdiction of the United States courts.

THE WORLD’S PRINCIPAL TIN MINES.

Altona, Ill.

Where are the principal tin mines, and of what is this metal composed?

Jonathan Trexlar.

Answer.—Pure tin is an elementary metal, as much so as lead, iron, silver, or gold. The principal tin-producing country is England. The Phœnicians traded with England for tin 1,100 years before the Christian era. There is reason to believe that they got tin from Spain also; but England was depended on for nearly all the tin used in Europe until this ore was discovered in Germany in 1240. It was discovered in Northern Africa, in the Barbary States, in 1640; in India in 1740; in New Spain in 1782. Tin was mined in Mexico before the Spanish conquest, and used in T shaped pieces for money, and in a bronze composition for sharp tools; the principal mines being at Tasco. Peru has valuable mines of this metal, so have New South Wales, Australia, and Banca, and Malacca in the Malay peninsula. Tin has been discovered in Pennsylvania, Missouri, California, and other States of the Union, but not in quantities to tempt capital to engage in mining it. The chief tin-producing countries are the following, arranged in the order of importance: England, about 10,000 tons a year; Malacca, about 8,500 tons; Australia, about 6,000 tons; Banca, about 4,000 tons, and Billiton, about 3,000 tons. Both of these last-named places are islands of the Dutch East Indies.

THE ZERO POINT OF THERMOMETERS.

O’Kane, Neb.

Why was not zero on thermometers placed at the freezing point instead of 32 degrees below?

M.

Answer.—Zero is placed at freezing point on some thermometers, although this is not the case on the Fahrenheit scale, the one in common use in England and the United States. When Fahrenheit graded his thermometer he supposed that there was no greater degree of cold than had been observed in Iceland, or discovered by experimenting with freezing mixtures. This point he marked zero; i. e., empty or nought, as denoting the absence of all heat. It is 32 degrees below freezing, and corresponds to the cold produced by a freezing mixture composed of snow and salt, or sal-ammoniac; from which it has been inferred that this was the test used by Fahrenheit, the instrument-maker of Amsterdam, who introduced this scale into common use, and after whom it is named, but who never actually divulged the secret of his process. It is now known that this is an arbitrary point, far above the lowest temperature in the polar regions and several hundred degrees above the greatest cold produced by artificial methods. In the Reaumer thermometer, generally used in Germany, and the Centigrade thermometer, commonly used in France and by scientists of all nations, zero marks the freezing point of distilled water at the sea level, or under an atmospheric pressure of 14.73 pounds to the square inch. To reduce Fahrenheit to Centigrade, subtract 32 and multiply by 100/180, or 5/9. Conversely, to reduce Centigrade to Fahrenheit, multiply by 9/5 and add 32.

THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

Riverside, Cal.

I noticed in the Century for December, 1882, page 172, that Chief Justice Rutledge was “President of South Carolina from 1776 to 1778.” What form of government had South Carolina at that time?

J. M. Baher.

Answer.—In 1776 South Carolina, in a Constitutional State Convention, of which John Rutledge was a member, took on the form of an independent republic, and soon after Rutledge was made President and Commander-in-chief of the State forces. He held this office until 1778, when he was succeeded by Rawlins Lownds. The constitution was modified March 19, 1778, and thereafter the chief State executives were known as Governors.

OLD-TIME FALCONRY—HAWK’S BELLS.

Pana, Ill.

In Barnes’ History of the United States, in the narrative of the discovery of Cuba, it is stated the natives bartered their valuables for “hawk’s bells.” Please explain the term “hawk’s bells.”

A Subscriber.

Answer.—Falconry, or hawking, was a favorite sport with the nobility and gentry of Europe down to the first half of the seventeenth century, when the introduction of fowling pieces of a light and elegant pattern and the art of shooting flying gradually replaced it. Hawks were trained to mount and pursue game and bring it to their masters and mistresses, coming and going at the call of the latter with marvelous docility. The hawks were tricked out with gay hoods and held until ordered to pursue “the quarry,” or game, by leathern straps fastened with rings of leather around each leg, just above the talons, and silken cords called “jesses.” To each of these leathern straps, or “bewets,” was attached a small bell, shaped in most cases like the nearly closed sleigh bells of the present time. In a flight of hawks it was often so arranged that the different bells made “a consort of sweet sounds.” Bells of this description, but of the cheapest kind, were among the most popular trinkets used by the early explorers and traders in bartering with the natives of America.

SOURCES OF BRITISH REVENUE.

Sycamore, Ill.

As England receives little or nothing from a tariff, where does the money come from to pay the expenses of the government? Who are taxed and who are not?

R. A. S.

Answer.—It is a mistake to suppose that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland derives “little or no revenue from tariff” or custom dues. The following table shows the sources of the national revenue for the year ending March 31, 1882:

Customs £19,287,000

Excise 27,240,000

Stamps 12,260,000

Land and house tax 2,725,000

Income tax 9,945,000

Postoffice 7,000,000

Telegraphs 1,630,000

Crown lands 380,000

Interest on advances and Suez Canal shares 1,219,262

Miscellaneous 4,136,019

Total £85,822,281

Here is the sum of £19,287,000, or almost $100,000,000, received from customs, as against $220,410,730.25 collected from the same source in the United States. 2, The inland revenue, composed of “excise, stamps, and taxes,” is so distributed as to touch pretty much everybody.

KANSAS GOVERNORS AND SENATORS.

Sherman City, Kan.

Please give the names of all the Territorial and State Governors of Kansas, and the names of Senators from the first.

Inquirer.

Answer.—The Territorial Governors of Kansas were A. H. Reeder, 1855; (John L. Dawson, appointed but declined), Wilson Shannon, 1857; John W. Geary, 1856; R. J. Walker, 1857; J. W. Denver, 1858; Samuel Medary, 1858. The following is a full list of the State Governors:

Charles Robinson 1861

Thomas Carney 1861-1864

S. J. Crawford 1864-1869

James M. Harvey 1869-1873

Thomas A. Osborne 1873-1877

George T. Anthony 1877-1879

John P. St. John 1879-1883

George W. Glick 1883-1885

The several Senators in Congress have been or are:

James H. Lane 1861-1866

Samuel C. Pomeroy 1861-1873

E. G. Ross 1866-1871

Alexander Caldwell 1871-1873

Robert Crozier 1873-1874

John J. Ingalls 1873-1885

James M. Harvey 1874-1877

Preston B. Plumb 1877-1883

Senator Caldwell resigned March 24, 1874, during investigation for bribery, in securing his election, and was followed by Robert Crozier, appointed by the Governor to fill the vacancy. Senator Crozier was succeeded by James M. Harvey, elected by the Legislature for the remainder of Mr. Caldwell’s full term.

REPUBLICS AND PRESIDENTS.

Barnard, Ill.

Is President the title of the highest officer in every republican government?

Anna Sierle.

Answer.—Yes, unless we take into account the pigmy republics, or semi-republics, of San Marino and Andorra, the former a rough, craggy mountain among the Appenines, with a total area of 21 square miles and a total population of 7,816 persons, and the latter an isolated valley in the Eastern Pyrenees, shut in between the two great, jealous powers, France and Spain, with an area of about 300 square miles, and a population variously estimated at from 4,000 to 12,000. Andorra is governed by “the Sovereign Council” of twenty-four members, which elects one of its members to be Syndic for life, the chief executive of the State. San Marino is governed by “the Sovereign Grand Council,” composed of sixty members, of whom one-third are nobles. There are two heads of this mammoth republic, called, “Captains Regent,” one chosen from the nobles and the other from the “bourgeoisie,” or common people, each holding office for only six months.

THE TAY BRIDGE HORROR.

Mount Vernon, Iowa.

Were there ever any bodies found after the disaster of the great bridge over the Frith of Tay? How long had the bridge been built, what were its dimensions, cost, and particulars of the calamity?

C. N. Warren.

Answer.—The enormous but ill-constructed bridge across the Tay at Dundee, Scotland, was authorized by an act passed in 1870. Work was begun in June, 1871. It was much injured by a gale Feb. 4, 1877, but was pushed forward and declared to be completed Aug. 30, 1877. It was tried on the 25th of the following month, and opened for business on May 31, 1878. Twenty lives were lost in its construction, and it cost £350,000, or about $1,750,000. It was 10,612 feet long, and rested on 85 spans, some of which were 90 feet above low tide. At about 7:15 p. m. on Dec. 28, 1879, less than seventeen months after it was first opened to traffic—while a North British mail train was crossing in the midst of a fierce gale—the structure gave way, leaving a gap of 3,000 feet. The train plunged into the surging sea, and not one of the ill-fated passengers escaped. There were between 75 and 90 persons on board; exactly how many was never ascertained. Forty-six bodies were recovered up to April 27, 1880. After the official inquiry Mr. H. C. Rothery declared that “the bridge had been badly planned, badly constructed, and badly maintained.” A new bridge, of a much more substantial character, is now in process of construction.

CAN A SOLDIER ENTER A HOMESTEAD.

Fort Pembina, D. T.

Can a soldier in the regular army take up a homestead or pre-emption claim, and get some other person to make the improvements required by law on either of said claims? By answering this question you will settle a dispute and greatly oblige,

Henry Brown, Serg’t Co. B, Fifteenth Inf.

Answer.—Soldiers now in the regular army may perform certain preliminary acts relating to homestead entries, but they cannot perfect title to such land until their terms of service have expired. See instructions in “Copp’s Land Owner,” vol. 2, p. 133, and case of Charles Harris, “Land Owner,” vol. 6, p. 190. The soldier or his family must reside on the land at least one year, under any circumstances, before he can acquire title.

POPULATION OF PEKING.

Chicago, Ill.

Please state what is the population of Peking, China, and settle a dispute.

David McGowan.

Answer.—According to the “American Almanac,” which in turn refers to the famous “Bevolkerung der Erde,” of Gotha, edited by Messrs. Behm & Wagner, the population of Peking in 1880 was 500,000. Until within a comparatively recent date the estimates of the population of that city never ranged below 1,000,000. Cyclopedias generally estimated it at 1,500,000, and some of them as high as 2,000,000. Messrs. Behm & Wagner have carefully revised their former statistics of China, and have reduced their estimate of the total population of the country fully 55,000,000. The Almanach de Gotha gives the population of Pekin as uncertain, estimates varying between 500,000 and 1,650,000.

HEBREW NOT A LIVING LANGUAGE.

Rapid City, D. T.

A Jewish gentleman and myself have had an argument, he asserting that Hebrew is a spoken language at the present time. I am of the impression that Hebrew ceased to be a spoken language during the seventy years’ captivity in Babylon, while he declares that he has seen a Jew, directly from Jerusalem, who could talk nothing but Hebrew. Can you give us any light on this subject?

H. H. J.

Answer.—Hebrew, like Latin and classic Greek, is a literary, and not a colloquial language. The precise time when Hebrew ceased to be the living, vernacular language of the Jews is not known. Some learned Hebraists maintain that they lost the living use of the Hebrew during the Babylonish captivity, but the weight of argument is in favor of the belief that they retained the partial use of it for some time after their return to Palestine, and lost it by degrees. No decisive evidence, however, shows exactly when it became a virtually dead language; although there are satisfactory reasons for declaring that it gave place to a corrupted form of the Aramaic language, a mixture of Syrian and Chaldean or Babylonish speech called the Syro-Chaldaic dialect, several hundred years before the Christian era, and that more than a century before this era it ceased to be used even as a written language and was thenceforth studied only as the language of the sacred books, by the learned.

ABANDONMENT OF HOMESTEAD.

Owatonna, Minn.

To settle a dispute, please state whether a person who has “filed” on a quarter section of public land, under the homestead laws, and has let it go back to the government, can make another homestead entry?

Old Subscriber.

Answer.—According to “Copp’s Public Land Laws,” as the law allows but one homestead privilege, “a settler relinquishing or abandoning his claim cannot thereafter make a second entry; but where an entry is canceled as invalid for some reason other than abandonment, and not the wilful act of the party, he is not thereby debarred from entering again, if in other respects entitled, and may be allowed credit for fees and commissions already paid, on a new homestead entry.” Such a claimant must be prepared to show that he did not voluntarily abandon his first entry.

PHARMACY LAWS AND TRAINED DRUGGISTS.

Hodges Park, Ill.

What States have pharmacy laws, and what is the proportion of trained druggists in this country?

A Subscriber.

Answer.—Probably all the States have pharmacy laws; that is, laws regulating the compounding and sale of drugs, but these are loosely administered in most States, the laws themselves being radically defective. Most prescription clerks pick up their knowledge of pharmacy between errands and “by practice,” as it is called, without even an elementary knowledge of chemistry or any systematic course of training. There are in all fourteen schools of pharmacy in the United States; 1 in San Francisco, 1 in Chicago, 1 in Louisville, 1 in New Orleans, 1 in Baltimore, 1 in Boston, 1 in Ann Arbor, Mich., 1 in St. Louis, 2 in New York City, 1 in Cincinnati, 1 in Philadelphia, 1 in Pittsburg, 1 in Nashville, and 1 in Washington. All told, they had only 1,347 students in 1880, of whom they graduated but 186. There are 284 retail drug stores in Chicago, and it is estimated that there are more than 1,600 in the State and about 25,600 such stores in the United States with twice that number of persons compounding medicines; so that it is a clear case that comparatively few druggists and prescription clerks are properly educated for their duties.

AGNOSTICISM.

Arthur, Ill.

Be so good as to define the word “agnosticism,” as used in theological or religio-scientific discourses. I have examined several dictionaries and one encyclopedia, and have failed to find the word.

E. J. A.

Answer.—Agnosticism is a sort of supernatural knownothingism. It is true that this word is not defined in either Webster’s or Worcester’s unabridged dictionaries, except in the supplements to the latest editions, and does not appear in the regular order of subjects in the popular encyclopedias. It is derived from a Greek word that signifies “to know not.” Agnosticism then, as used by Herbert Spencer and his disciples, is the doctrine that, professing ignorance of the supernatural, neither asserts nor denies the existence of a personal Deity, and claims that such doctrine can be neither proved nor disapproved, because of the insufficiency of the evidence furnished by rational and material nature to warrant a positive conclusion: or, as others say, because of the necessary limits of the human mind. Agnosticism is opposed both to the positive assertion of the skeptic, who denies the existence of a personal God, and the opposite declaration of the Christian church, or dogmatic theism, affirming such existence.

PTOLEMY PHILADELPHUS.

Give a brief sketch of Ptolemy Philadelphus, a celebrated King of Egypt, often referred to in books and lectures.

F. F. Sloat.

Answer.—He was the son of that able general of Alexander the Great who, after the death of that monarch, became King of Egypt under the title of Ptolemy I. Ptolemy II., surnamed Philadelphus, was distinguished for his love of learning, patronage of men of letters and artists, and encouragement of trade and all the arts of peace. He founded the famous library of Alexandria, the greatest treasury of ancient learning, and through his efforts the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek by seventy eminent Hebrew scholars. This is what is known as the Septuagint version of the Holy Scriptures. He reigned from 285 to 247 B. C., a period in which the Egyptian Kingdom reached the highest point of military glory, prosperity, and wealth.

AN INCUBATOR SUCCESS.

Vesper, N. Y.

For the benefit of readers of The Inter Ocean I will give my experience with an incubator that I built last June, the materials of which cost $5.50. It holds 234 eggs at a hatching. It took me three days to build it. As a test trial, about the 15th of June I placed nine dozen of eggs in the incubator, and in due time I obtained 86 per cent of chicks as the result, which I considered extremely satisfactory. About the 10th of July I made another trial, using this time eleven dozen of eggs, and the result was 87 per cent of chicks. About 6 per cent of the eggs from these two trials which did not hatch were found on examination to be unfertile, leaving 7 per cent with dead chicks in the various stages of maturity. These two trials proved satisfactory, even beyond my most sanguine expectations. On the 15th of January I procured 204 eggs from the farmers, and placed them in the incubator for my third trial, but, owing to the extremely cold weather during the time the eggs were laid, they had become chilled before being gathered, and, as the result, I only succeeded in getting forty chicks, or a little less than 20 per cent. To avoid a second failure, I determined to wait until the cold weather was over before securing eggs for my next hatching.

D. A. Rowland.

NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILWAY.

Santa Barbara, Cal.

How far west of St. Paul are the cars now running on the Northern Pacific Railroad? What is the name of the present western terminus? How many miles are completed from the west end? When is it expected to be completed?

E. S. Sheffield.

Answer.—The company is now running trains with Pullman sleepers and dining-room cars to Livingston, 1,030 miles west of St. Paul. It is also running trains from Portland to Second Crossing, 527 miles. From Livingston to Second Crossing passengers are carried by stage as follows:

From Livingston to Bozeman, 25 miles, 4 hours.

From Bozeman to Helena, 108 miles, 18 hours.

From Helena to Missoula, 130 miles, 22 hours.

From Missoula to Second Crossing, 80 miles, 16 hours.

The total distance from St. Paul to Portland is 1,900 miles, and the time 180 hours. The fare from St. Paul to Missoula by rail and stage is $47.10. The road is to be completed this year.

AMERICAN LITERATI.

Oconto, Mich.

What literary characters has our country produced during this past century?

Carrie Stroud.

Answer.—There is space here to mention only a few of the most prominent American writers of this century. First in poetry stand Bryant, Prentice, Sigourney, Willis, Holmes, Longfellow, Whittier, Morris, and Miller. Among the most conspicuous historians are Irving, Sparks, Lossing, Bancroft, Cooper, Motley, Prescott, Parkman, Parton, Ramsay, and Greeley. Among novelists, Cooper, Irving, Hawthorne, Holland, and Mrs. Stowe hold the front rank, although there is a legion just behind them, some of whom press close upon them. In the field of essayists, literary, political, theological, and metaphysical, the catalogue of noted names is too long to admit of personal designation.

THE ASHTABULA HORROR.

Cottage, Iowa.

Was there anything in the death of Mr. P. P. Bliss in voluntarily remaining with his wife at the time of the railway accident at Ashtabula that justifies the charge that he committed suicide? Give particulars.

M. L. Percival.

Answer.—Mr. P. P. Bliss, the popular composer of sacred lyrics, and evangelistic vocalist, perished at Ashtabula, Ohio, in the terrible railroad disaster consequent on the fall of the Ashtabula bridge on the night of Dec. 29, 1876. Two engines and eleven cars, with about 160 passengers, were precipitated into the creek, seventy feet below. The wreck immediately took fire, and before help could reach the scene more than a hundred persons had perished through the fall or the flames, or were so badly injured that they afterward died. A terrible snowstorm and intense cold added to the sufferings of the survivors. In the midst of this scene of horror and distraction Mr. Bliss and his wife both lost their lives. It is by no means certain that Mr. Bliss could have escaped if he had abandoned his wife. If he could have done so, but perished in the effort to rescue her, such an act was heroic, and none but an idiot would class him with suicides.

STATESMEN AND MARTIAL HEROES.

Oconto, Mich.

Name five of the greatest American statesmen of early times, and as many or more of their greatest successors; also name the principal military and naval heroes of our country, and oblige several readers.

Carrie Stroud.

Answer.—Five of the greatest American statesmen concerned in the founding of this Republic were Washington, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, and John Adams. Seven of the most distinguished successors of these grand men were DeWitt Clinton, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, William H. Seward, Abraham Lincoln, Thaddeus Stevens, and Charles Sumner. Twelve of the ablest generals this country can boast are Washington, Gates, and Green, of the revolutionary war; Jackson and Harrison, of the war of 1812; Scott and Taylor, of the Mexican war, and Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, and Meade, of the war for the Union. Ten of our greatest naval heroes are Paul Jones, of the revolutionary war; Perry, MacDonough, Porter, Decatur, Hull, Bainbridge, and Chauncey, of the war of 1812, and Farragut and Porter, of the last war.

PUBLIC LANDS IN WASHINGTON TERRITORY.

Glorieta, N. M.

Is there any government land open to pre-emption or homestead in Washington Territory. If so, is any of it suitable for agricultural purposes?

Montezuma.

Answer.—Out of an estimated area of 44,796,160 acres of public lands in Washington Territory in the beginning, only 17,757,033 acres, or about one-third, had been surveyed up to June 30, 1882, and a considerable part of this third is still open to purchase or entry under the general or special land laws. In Washington Territory, California, Oregon, and Nevada there are great areas of timber and stone lands for sale under the law of June 3, 1878, at $2.50 per acre. The “Desert Lands Act” of March 3, 1877, provides for the sale of certain lands which can be cultivated only by artificial irrigation, at 25 cents an acre. After deducting these tracts, mineral lands, coal lands, and saline lands, there are still millions of acres of lands in Washington Territory subject to pre-emption and entry under the homestead law, and much of this land is well adapted to agriculture and grazing.

OLDEST SETTLEMENTS IN THE UNITED STATES.

Parkersburg, Iowa.

1. What was the first European settlement made in the United States, and what was the name of the first child of European parents born in this country? 2. What is the length of the Niagara River, and what large islands are there in it?

Homer L. Forbes.

Answer.—1. The oldest permanent European settlement within the present limits of the United States was made at Saint Augustine, Fla., in 1565. Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, Captain Francisco de Coronado, and Don Antonio de Espejo, explorers of New Mexico, occupied, temporarily, various points in that region between the years 1540 and 1583. The latter of these took possession of a native pueblo, or town, called Tuoas, or Taos, in the latter year, or thereabouts, and named it La Ciudad de Santa Fe, which was identical in site with the present capital of New Mexico. Forts, colonies, and missions were established in various places in New Mexico by Juan de Ouate, who was sent there for that purpose between 1595 and 1590. The next at Jamestown, Va., in 1607, and the next at Albany, N. Y., in 1614. It is not known who was the first child of European parents born within the United States. 2. The Niagara River is thirty-three miles long. There are no large islands in it except Grand Island and Goat Island, but there are numerous smaller ones.

THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS.

Chicago, Ill.

What was the seat of government during the revolutionary war? Who took the place of President, as head of the government?

Jane Evans.

Answer..—There was no permanent seat of government. The articles of confederation provided that “Congress shall have power to adjourn at any time within the year and to any place within the United States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space of six months.” When suffered to have its own way Congress sat, during the war, in Philadelphia, but the “red coats” were as keen to go to Congress as the average modern politician, and the patriots, to avoid a row over contested seats, adopted a sort of methodistic itinerancy, minus the method. Congress was in session at Philadelphia in December, 1776, when, seeing that the British were likely to force themselves upon the hospitality of that city, it adjourned to Baltimore. It returned to Philadelphia, but after the American defeat at Brandywine, Sept. 11, 1777, it adjourned to Lancaster, and then to York, Pa. From the first session to the last the Continental Congress met as follows: At Philadelphia, Sept. 5, 1774, and May 10, 1775; at Baltimore, Dec. 20, 1776; at Philadelphia, March 4, 1777; at Lancaster, Pa., Sept. 27, 1777; at York, Pa., Sept. 30, 1777; at Philadelphia, July 2, 1778; at Princeton, N. J., June 30, 1783; at Annapolis, Md., Nov. 26, 1783; at Trenton, N. J., Nov. 1, 1784; at New York, Jan. 11, 1785, which continued to be the seat of Congress until the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. There was no executive head of the United States under the articles of confederation. These provided that Congress should have authority to appoint a “Committee of the States,” to consist of one delegate from each State, to sit in the recess of Congress. The President of Congress came the nearest to being an executive chief, but he and the above committee, the “Board of War,” and certain other special committees or boards were each charged with the execution of law according to specific provisions in the act itself. Of these Presidents of the Continental Congress the following shows the names and the time of their election:

Payton Randolph, of Virginia, elected Sept. 5, 1774.

Henry Middleton, of South Carolina, Oct. 22, 1774.

Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, May 10, 1775.

John Hancock, of Massachusetts, May 24, 1775.

Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, Nov. 1, 1777.

John Jay, of New York, Dec. 10, 1778.

Sam Huntington, of Connecticut, Sept. 28, 1779.

Thomas McKean, of Delaware, July 10, 1781.

John Hanson, of Maryland, Nov. 5, 1781.

Elias Boudinot, of New Jersey, Nov. 4, 1782.

Thomas Mifflin, of Pennsylvania, Nov. 3, 1783.

Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, Nov. 30, 1784.

Nathaniel Gorham, of Massachusetts, June 6, 1786.

Arthur St. Clair, of Pennsylvania, Feb. 2, 1787.

Cyrus Griffin, of Virginia, Jan. 22, 1788.

FIVE SUNDAYS IN FEBRUARY.

Chicago, Ill.

In 1880 February had five Sundays. When will this occur again? This question was asked in one of the Chicago dailies recently, and received several different answers, none of which were right, or I am in error.

Inquirer.

Answer.—Usually this event occurs every twenty-eight years, or at the close of each solar cycle of twenty-eight years; but owing to the fact that the year 1900 will not be a leap year (for reasons explained in Our Curiosity Shop not many weeks ago), it will be forty years before February contains five Sundays, or not until the year 1920.

FORMING STATES OUT OF OTHER STATES.

Fairfield, Ill.

Can a State be formed out of part of another State? If not, how was West Virginia organized within the original limits of Virginia?

Byron.

Answer..—Article 4, section 1, clause 1, of the Constitution of the United States declares that “No new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, without the consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.” The erecting of West Virginia into a State was an incident of the late war. While the convention in session at Richmond resolved to take Virginia out of the Union, the Unionists of West Virginia called a convention that assembled at Wheeling May 13, 1861, composed of delegates from twenty-five western counties of the State. This convention passed resolutions denouncing secession and providing for a convention of all the counties of Virginia adhering to the National Government. Delegates representing forty counties convened in Wheeling on June 11, repudiated the acts of the rebel convention, and on June 20 elected Francis H. Pierpont Governor of what they denominated the “reorganized State of Virginia.” A Legislature was elected, which met in Wheeling on July 2. This body elected two United States Senators to take the place of the Virginia Senators which had gone over to the Confederacy. It also provided for an election, to be held on the 24th of the following October, to decide upon the formation of a new State, the eastern part of the State being in possession of the rebels. The people, by a large majority, declared in favor of a new State, and, at the same time, chose delegates to a convention to meet at Wheeling Nov. 24, which convention framed a State Constitution, which was ratified by the people May 3, 1862. May 13 the Legislature—which claimed, it must be remembered, to represent the whole State of Virginia, as it certainly did represent all the loyal part—approved the formation of the new State under the name of West Virginia, and Dec. 31, 1862, provided for its admission to the Union. It was held by distinguished jurists that the government at Richmond having placed itself outside of the Constitution by the treasonable act of secession, the only legal legislative body within the State was the one in session at Wheeling, which consented to the organization of the new State, and that the terms of the Constitution contained in the clause above quoted had been met. When Virginia was reconstructed she was admitted on the understanding that West Virginia was a separate State.

A BRIBE-PROOF PATRIOT.

Havana, Mo.

Who was it who, when the British tried to bribe him, said: “Poor as I am, the King of England is not rich enough to buy me?”

Florence Wyatt.

Answer.—It was General Joseph Reed, a delegate from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress. When approached by one of three British commissioners, Governor Johnstone, with an offer of £10,000 and the most lucrative office in America, if he would use his influence to reunite the Colonies to Great Britain, he answered: “I am not worth purchasing, but, such as I am, the King of Great Britain is not rich enough to buy me!”

MASON AND DIXON’S LINE.

Granger, Mo.

What is Mason and Dixon’s line, and what were the provisions of the Missouri compromise? Who were responsible for its repeal?

R. E. Glover.

Answer.—Mason and Dixon’s line is the concurrent State line of Maryland and Pennsylvania. It is named after two eminent astronomers and mathematicians, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who were sent out from England to run it. They completed the survey between 1763 and 1767, excepting thirty-six miles surveyed in 1782 by Colonel Alex. McLean and Joseph Neville. It is in the latitude of 39 deg. 43 min. 26.3 sec. Missouri was admitted to the Union only after a long protracted and violent discussion, growing out of a provision in the State constitution sanctioning slavery. A compromise was finally effected by which the new State was admitted with slavery, with a solemn agreement that there should be no more slave States formed out of territory north of the parallel of 36 deg. 30 min., the southern boundary of Missouri. In political discussions Mason and Dixon’s line was understood to mean both of the above lines and the Ohio River, or, in other words, the boundary between free and slave territory the country through. When Kansas was thrown open to settlement the Southerners were determined, despite the Missouri compromise, to try to make Kansas a slave State. Their Representatives in Congress, with the exception of a few Whigs, united in favor of a repeal of the compromise. With the help of the Douglas Democrats in the North and several pro-slavery Whigs, they carried their point. The consequence was the bloody struggles between the free-State and pro-slavery men in the early history of Kansas, which was practically the inauguration of the war of the rebellion, although the latter did not burst into full flame until after the election of President Lincoln and the secession of the Southern States.

RATES OF INTEREST COMPARED.

Freeport, Ill.

Please give your readers a comparison of the rates of interest in England and the United States for several years back.

A. Borrower.

Answer.—Of course rates vary greatly in this country with locality. Where opportunities for profitable investment are in excess of capital, as in the Western States, rates are higher than at the great money centers. The following statement of the average rates of interest in New York City for each of the fiscal years from 1874 to 1882, inclusive, is taken from the report of the Comptroller of the Currency:

Call loans, Com’l paper,

Years. per cent. per cent.

1874 3.8 6.4

1875 3.0 5.8

1876 3.3 5.3

1877 3.0 5.2

1878 4.4 5.1

1879 4.4 4.4

1880 4.9 5.3

1881 3.8 5.0

1882 4.4 5.4

The average rate of discount of the Bank of England for the same years was as follows:

Per cent.

Year ending Dec. 31, 1874 3.69

Year ending Dec. 31, 1875 3.23

Year ending Dec. 31, 1876 2.61

Year ending Dec. 31, 1877 2.91

Year ending Dec. 31, 1878 3.78

Year ending Dec, 31, 1879 2.50

Year ending Dec. 31, 1880 2.76

Year ending Dec. 31, 1881 3.49

Fiscal year ending June 31, 1882 4.01

MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.

Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Are there any lady members of either House of Parliament? How many members are there in each House, and what are their titles?

J. A.

Answer.—There are seven peeresses in their own right entitled to seats in the English House of Peers. These are the Baroness Emma Harriet Tyrwhitt; the Baroness Augusta Mary Elizabeth Cavendish-Bentwick; the Baroness Angela Georgiana Burdett-Coutts; the Countess Anne S. Leveson-Gower (Duchess of Sutherland); the Baroness Mary Elizabeth Boscawan; the Baroness Susan North; the Baroness C. E. H. D. Willoughby. Besides the ladies the House of Peers contains in all 509 members, viz.: Six princes of the blood; 3 archbishops; 20 dukes; 18 marquises; 114 earls; 26 viscounts; 24 bishops; 225 barons; 16 Scottish representative peers, elected for each Parliament; 28 Irish representative peers, elected for life. There are also 10 minor peers, who will be entitled to seats when they attain their majority. The House of Commons is composed of 639 members, of which 489 are representatives of counties, universities and towns in England and Wales; 60 are Scottish and 103 Irish representatives. The title of honorable is given to members of the House. Some of them have titles in their own right, as Lord Elcho, Earl Bective, Viscount Galway, Right Honorable Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, and so on.

BONE DUST AS A FERTILIZER.

Almond, Wis.

How are bones treated before being used for fertilizing purposes? For what crops is bone-dust most used, and on what soils?

Subscriber.

Answer.—First, they are generally boiled for the oil and glue or gelatine in them, which do not materially affect their value as fertilizers. They are then ground or crushed, without being previously burned. In this state this fertilizer is known as bone dust, and is sown broadcast at the rate of 50 to 100 pounds to the acre, as a rich manure for pasture, turnips, and small grain lands. In Cheshire, England, where the fine red sandstone loam had become comparatively sterile before the first of this century, through deficiency of phosphoric acid in the soil, caused by constant pasturage in dairy farming, they resorted to the use of calcined bone and bone dust, with the effect of doubling the product the first year. There they often lay on a half ton to a ton to an acre, which serves as a good dressing for sixteen to twenty years. The best way to ascertain whether a soil needs bone dust is to experiment for a year or two with a small plat of ground. The result will determine better than a chemical analysis whether a bone dust dressing will pay.

THE AGE OF SANTA FE.

Atchison, Kan.

Is Santa Fe the oldest of American cities, as the Santa Fe papers claim?

A Subscriber.

Answer.—Cabez de Vaca, a Spanish adventurer, was in New Mexico with his shipwrecked party as early as 1535. General Coronado, with a large military expedition, conquered the Zuni and Moqui towns, or pueblos, in 1540-41, and kept a journal, still in existence, which identifies the regions he overran as undoubtedly a part of this Territory. Don Antonio Espejo left Zacatecas in 1581 according to some authorities, but late in 1582 according to others, and visited what is now Santa Fe County, New Mexico, in July of 1583. He gave a fuller report than had ever been given before of the pueblos of this region, in which he estimated the population of the province of Taos as 40,000. The principal pueblo in this province was Tanos, afterward known as Tegra, and still later as Santa Fe. As an Indian town Santa Fe may be older than any other town in the United States, but as a European settlement St. Augustine, Fla., still carries the palm of antiquity, having been founded in 1565.

JOAQUIN MILLER’S REAL NAME.

Chicago, Ill.

What is “Joaquin” Miller’s real name, and what were the real and assumed names of his divorced wife? The Chicago Herald says his name is Henry F. Miller, which I think is incorrect.

A. Steele.

Answer.—The real name of “Joaquin” Miller, author of the “Songs of the Sierras,” is Cincinnatus Heine Miller. His divorced wife’s maiden name was Minnie Theresa Dyer, and her literary pseudonym was “Minnie Myrtle.” It is said that the name “Joaquin” was given to Mr. Miller by “the boys” in his early California experience, when he was “roughing it,” from a real or fancied resemblance to a noted Spanish highwayman, and he adopted it as a pseudonym.

THE BLACKHAWK WAR.

Battle Creek, Mich.

Who was the commander in the Blackhawk war? State some of the chief facts as to that war.

V. H. Lucas.

Answer.—By a treaty made with certain chiefs of the Sacs and Foxes at St. Louis in 1804, the Indians ceded all their lands in Illinois to the United States for the paltry annuity of $1,000 and goods to the value of $2,234.50. In a treaty made in 1822, covering various matters, a clause was introduced confirming the cession of 1804. Still the government did not demand actual possession of these lands. In 1830, Keokuk, Black Hawk’s rival, negotiated a treaty in which the government recognized him as the head chief of the Sacs and Foxes, and in which he clearly ceded all the lands in question. Black Hawk, who had always opposed any cession of territory to the whites, was not present at this convention, and he and his followers, constituting a minority of the tribe, but really representing the portion most concerned, the actual occupants of the great village at Rock Island, protested against the validity of this and the previous cessions. Black Hawk declared that the treaty of 1804 was made by only four chiefs, that they signed it under the influence of liquor, and had never been authorized by the tribe to cede lands. It was not so easy to explain away the clause in the treaty of 1822, but he characterized it also as a fraud, signed without full understanding of its intent. As to the convention of 1830, he denied the authority of Keokuk’s band to deed away the lands east of the Mississippi.

Returning in April, 1831, from the winter’s hunt in the North, Black Hawk’s band found that their chief’s former friend, an Indian fur-trader at Rock Island, had purchased of the government the ground on which this ancient village stood, in the forks of the Mississippi and Rock River, and with his associate speculators were preparing to cultivate the Indian field of some 700 acres adjoining the village. It seems marvelous that Black Hawk could so far restrain his people as to persuade them to submit to a compromise by which they yielded possession of half this field for the season to the speculators. But the latter were not satisfied, and both parties soon grew irritated. Governor Reynolds, of this State, was asked to interfere. Soon after the militia were called out. On the 7th of June General Gaines, of the regular army, commanding at Fort Armstrong, on Rock Island, summoned the Indians to a council, when he commanded them to leave the east side of the Mississippi. Black Hawk refused; but as the State militia, to the number of about 1,600, under command of General Joseph Duncan, drew near, he saw that his few hundred warriors would be overwhelmed, and on June 24, during the night, the Indians deserted their village, which the Americans a few days later utterly destroyed. On June 30, Black Hawk and his party signed a treaty by which for the first time he individually joined in the relinquishment of the lands in dispute. The next winter found him and his band in a destitute, starving condition, owing to their being driven from their cornfields at a season when it was too late to plant elsewhere. In the spring, in defiance of the treaty, he and 368 warriors with their families, crossed the Mississippi and passed up Rock River, to plant corn, as they said, in the Winnebago country, in Southern Wisconsin. General Atkinson, in command of the regular troops at Fort Armstrong, warned them to return. Governor Reynolds again called out the militia, and placed them under command of General Samuel Whiteside. Nothing serious occurred until the 14th of May, when the rash conduct of a party of 275 volunteers under Major Stillman provoked a fight with some sixty of Black Hawk’s warriors, near the mouth of the Kishwaukee a few miles south of Rockford. The whites were panicstricken and fled with the loss of eleven men. So slow had been the movement of the militia that already their time of enlistment had nearly expired, and, not liking this taste of Indian war, they became mutinous, and had to be discharged. General Atkinson could do little with his mere handful of regular troops, so he intrenched his company at Dixon and remained there, while Black Hawk’s followers, re-enforced by a few Winnebago, Ottawa and Pottawatomie braves, roamed over the country committing outrages on defenceless settlers, a number of whom were killed. Affairs grew serious. Governor Reynolds called for 2,000 militia. In July the regulars and militia, all under the chief command of General Atkinson, drove Black Hawk up Rock River and across to the Wisconsin River, where General James D. Henry, the chief hero of this war, in command of a brigade of Illinois militia, overtook him at Wisconsin Heights, and inflicted the first serious punishment the Indians had suffered. Over fifty warriors were killed, and the entire body of them was badly demoralized. Escaping across the Wisconsin with great loss, they fled, leaving their dead and dying, and abandoned articles along their trail. The whole army followed in hot pursuit, and on Aug. 2, General Henry again struck their main force and drove them into the Mississippi at the mouth of the Bad Axe. Here the regulars and the rest of the army joining in, soon cut them to pieces. General Winfield Scott took command five days later, on Aug. 7, 1831, and not long afterwards negotiated a treaty of peace. Black Hawk and two of his sons, with several of his principal warriors, were held as hostages for a time. After detention at Fortress Monroe until June 5 of the next year, he was released. During his captivity he was taken to all the principal cities, where his fate elicited a good deal of sympathy. After his return he lived peaceably with his tribe in Iowa until his death, Oct. 3, 1838, in the 70th year of his age. He was buried at Iowaville, Iowa.

THE BERMUDAS.

Geneseo, Ill.

Please give a concise history of the Bermuda Islands.

Mrs. M. H. Pierce.

Answer.—The Bermudas were discovered successively by Juan Bermudez, a Spaniard, in 1522; Henry May, an Englishman, in 1593: and Sir George Somers in 1609; the discovery in each case being due to the shipwreck of the discoverer. Sir George established the first settlement shortly before his death. In 1612 these islands were granted to 120 persons, an offshoot of the Virginia Company, sixty of whom, led by Henry More, and followed by fugitives from the civil war in England, commenced the cultivation of the soil, which soon yielded rich crops of tobacco. Later the salt lagoons furnished the chief article of commerce. The government consists of a Governor, appointed by the crown, and a privy council of nine members, appointed by the Governor. The House of Assembly is composed of thirty-six members, elected by the people. The acts are revised from time to time, being passed for a limited period.

LIVE QUESTIONS FOR DEBATE.

West Pilot, Iowa.

Will you please give some live questions for debate in a lyceum?

Willie G. Springer.

Answer.—Should an international copyright system be established? Should the government establish postal savings banks? Should literary ability be acknowledged and encouraged in this country, as in England, by grants or pensions from the government? Should the election of President and Vice President be by direct popular vote, instead of through the electoral college?

GIVE FOWLS GOOD FOOD AND EXERCISE.

Nebraska City, Neb.

What is the matter with my fowls? They do not seem to be sick, but they are languid and do not lay or seem to have any ambition.

Amanda.

Answer.—Perhaps it is because they are too closely cooped and have not sufficient exercise. Give them plenty of sunlight; keep them dry; bury a share of their grain in their dusting-place so that they will have to scratch for it; scatter the rest of their food so that they will have to exercise in order to get it and can not eat too fast; give them a variety of dry and cooked food, including cooked meat and vegetables in the morning and grain at night; and the probability is that you will see a marked improvement.

THE SULLIVAN-HANFORD MURDER.

Chicago, Ill.

When did Alexander Sullivan shoot Francis Hanford, the Chicago school principal? When did his trial take place and before what Judge? Was the Judge impeached for his course on that trial? Is it certainly so that this is the same Sullivan who is now at the head of the Irish National League of America? One friend says it is and another says that this latter Sullivan is a New Yorker.

Inquirer.

St. Helena, Neb.

Is the Alexander Sullivan, of Chicago, elected President of the Irish National League, recently organized in Philadelphia, the same man who some years since killed Francis Hanford, the Chicago school principal? Why was that Sullivan acquitted?

John Martin.

Answer.—Alexander Sullivan shot Francis Hanford, Principal of the North Side High School, Chicago, on Aug. 7, 1876, under the following circumstances: In an anonymous paper read that afternoon in the City Council it was charged that Mrs. Alexander Sullivan had procured the appointment of her husband, as Secretary of the Board of Public Works, through undue influence over Mayor Colvin. It was also charged that she was the moving spirit in a corrupt ring that dictated the management of the public schools. Mr. Sullivan was told that the author of this paper was Mr. Hanford. At 7 o’clock that same evening, himself, wife and a younger brother drove up in front of the Hanford residence as that gentleman was sprinkling his grass plat, while Mrs. Hanford sat on the door-step looking on. Sullivan demanded an immediate retraction; after a few words he knocked Mr. Hanford down. A scuffle ensued which ended in Sullivan’s drawing a revolver and shooting Mr. Hanford dead in the presence of his family. He afterward claimed that during the fracas, when Mrs. Sullivan came up to separate them Mr. Hanford had struck her. On the trial the prosecution claimed that if this were so, the blow was not directed or intended for Mrs. Sullivan, but came about in Mr. Hanford’s efforts to protect himself from Sullivan’s attack. The first trial of Sullivan began Oct. 17, 1876, and ended Oct. 27 in a disagreement of the jury. The public was greatly exasperated, and, believing that the disagreement of the jury was due to the rulings and charge of Judge McAllister, there was a loud call made by the most respectable citizens of all classes for his resignation. When the news reached the Board of Trade such a scene was witnessed as seldom occurs in such a place. By unanimous consent all business was suspended. In ten minutes a petition was prepared, asking Judge McAllister to resign at once. In half an hour it had received 500 signatures, and by night there were 1,200 names appended, all of members of the board. The Judge treated this petition and the unanimous condemnation of the press with silent contempt. Sullivan’s second trial opened Feb. 26, 1877, before the same judge, and closed March 9 with a verdict of acquittal. Judge McAllister was never impeached before any legal tribunal; but at the bar of public opinion he suffered the condemnation of the intelligent, order-loving element of the entire country. This Alexander Sullivan is now the President of the newly organized Irish National League of America.

SECURITY OF NATIONAL BANKS.

Downsville, Wis.

Are the notes and deposits of the National Banks well secured? What is the rate of loss suffered through these banks?

S. S. C.

Answer.—The currency issued by National banks is amply secured by the deposit of registered bonds of the United States with the Treasurer of the United States. The Comptroller of the Currency makes frequent inspections of these institutions, and whenever the market value of the bonds thus deposited falls below the amount of the circulation issued for the same, he is authorized to demand additional security in United States bonds or money to the amount of such depreciation. National bank notes are all printed by the government, and furnished to the banks only in such quantities as they are authorized to circulate. As a consequence there can be no over issues. In case of the failure of a bank to redeem its circulating notes, the holders may present them for payment at the Treasury of the United States, where they will be redeemed. The government is protected against loss by holding a first lien on all the assets of such banks. Depositors in cases of failure do not always realize the full amount of their claims, but the history of banking shows no parallel to the excellence of this system in respect of the small proportion of loss suffered by depositors. The loss to all creditors of the United States National banks from the passage of the act of Feb. 25, 1863, to Nov. 1, 1882, amounted to only about $400,000 per annum on an average capital of $450,000,000, and annual deposits averaging $800,000,000, so that the average loss to depositors during a period of nearly twenty years was but one-twentieth of 1 per cent per annum.

GOVERNORS OF IOWA.

Anamosa, Iowa.

Please give a full list of the Governors of this State from the organization of Iowa Territory, with the years that they were in office.

Subscriber.

Answer.—The Territorial Governors of Iowa were:

Robert Lucas 1838-41

John Chambers 1841-46

James Clark 1846-46

Iowa was admitted into the Union as a State Dec. 28, 1846, since when its Governors have been:

Ansel Briggs 1846-50

Stephen Hempstead 1850-54

James W. Grimes 1854-58

Ralph P. Lowe 1858-60

Samuel J. Kirkwood 1860-64

William M. Stone 1864-68

Samuel M. Merrill 1868-72

Cyrus C. Carpenter 1872-76

Samuel J. Kirkwood 1876-78

John H. Gear 1878-82

Buren R. Sherman 1882-

The above does not give the names of the Governors of Missouri, Michigan, and Wisconsin Territories at the dates when what is now Iowa was attached to those Territories. After Missouri became a State, in 1821, Iowa was left without any civil government. From 1834 to 1836 it was attached to Michigan Territory, then embracing Wisconsin, Stevens T. Mason, Governor. In 1836 Wisconsin Territory was organized, including Iowa, and the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature was actually in session at Burlington, Iowa, when news came from Washington that Iowa had been constituted a separate Territory. Of course there was nothing left for the “Badgers” but to pack their carpet bags and decamp for their own Territory, which they did instanter. Henry Dodge was Governor of Wisconsin while Iowa was joined to it.

STEEL AND STEEL RAILS.

Marion, Ind.

Please explain how steel rails are made.

Alpha.

Answer.—Steel is a carburet of iron, rendered as free as possible of all foreign matter, such as sulphur, phosphorus, etc. It may be produced by working pig iron, which contains 4 or 5 per cent of carbon, in a suitable furnace until the amount of carbon is reduced to about 1 per cent, the average carbon in good steel. This is a decarbonizing process. In the other process, which is directly opposite to this, iron bars, freed of carbon, are heated in contact with charcoal until they have absorbed the necessary per cent of carbon. The steel, in the form of ingots, is brought to a proper heat and welded together in proper quantity to make a rail of given length and weight. This is then rolled into proper shape by immense rollers, grooved so as to give the right shape to the rail. Bessemer steel rails can be cast in molds.

SETTLEMENT OF THE CAROLINAS.

Burlington, Iowa.

When and by whom were the States of North and South Carolina settled?

Americus.

Answer.—A company of Huguenots, many of them soldiers and men of rank, with Ribault as their leader, while on an exploring tour, entered a harbor, which they named Port Royal, and being much pleased with the country, thirty were chosen to begin a colony. Their object was to search for gold, but failing to discover any they built a rude ship and put to sea in it. In 1650 a settlement was started upon the Chowan River by emigrants from Virginia and England, which was afterward called Albemarle County Colony, and another settlement near Wilmington, made by planters from Barbadoes, was named Clarendon County Colony. In 1670 a colony settled upon the banks of the Ashley River, but ten years later it removed to the present site of Charleston, S. C. These three colonies were similar in origin and under the same Governor until 1729, when the two Carolinas were erected into distinct provinces.

THE GREATEST OF VALLEYS.

Brighton, Cal.

Is there any valley in the world larger than the Mississippi Valley?

C. C. Harris.

Answer.—The Valley of the Amazon is larger than that of the Mississippi, the former river draining 2,330,000 square miles, the latter 1,244,600 square miles. The Amazon drains a greater area than any other river on the globe.

UNITED STATES MINTS AND ASSAY OFFICES.

Farragut, Iowa.

How many mints are there in the United States, and where are they? What are assay offices, and where are they?

Ada A. Hall.

Answer.—This government has coinage mints in Philadelphia, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Carson City, and a mint at Denver used at present merely as an assay office. This last and the assay offices at Boise City, I. T., Helena, M. T., and Charlotte, N. C., are limited by law to melting and assaying gold and silver bullion and paying for the same from Treasury funds. There is an assay office at New York for the testing of foreign coin or bullion bought by the government to be coined or recoined. All the precious metal purchased for mintage is computed at the value given it at these assay offices. The single letters, O., S., C., etc., stamped under the eagle on American coin indicate where the pieces were minted.

POLITICAL AND GOVERNMENT TOWNSHIPS.

Windsor, Ill.

Is there any difference between political and “government” townships? If so, what is it?

A Subscriber.

Answer.—1. A full township, according to the United States Government land survey, is six miles square and contains thirty-six sections. This is often called a “Congressional township,” sometimes a “government township.” Along the borders of large lakes and navigable rivers, and particularly next to State boundaries, fractional Congressional townships are common. For purposes of township government, fractional townships are in many cases united with adjoining townships, or two full townships may be joined under one town organization. In other cases three or more Congressional townships organize under one or two political town governments, according to the convenience and wishes of a majority of the inhabitants. 2. For an explanation of the United States Government Land Survey, including definition of base lines, ranges, and names and location of all the principal meridians, see Our Curiosity Shop of last year.

INTRODUCTION OF POSTAGE STAMPS.

Hortonville, Wis.

When were postage stamps first used, and by what Nation?

P. G. M.

Answer.—The use of postage stamps, one of the great reforms advocated by Rowland Hill, was introduced into England through his efforts May 6, 1840. They began to be used in this country in 1847.

TIMES THAT TRY MEN’S SOULS.

Rockford, Ill.

Who was the author of the expression, “These are times that try men’s souls?”

E. D. H.

Answer.—Thomas Paine, who professed to believe that men had no souls. During the Revolutionary war, soon after the British captured Philadelphia, and when the cause of independence was shrouded in gloom, Paine, who was certainly one of the most spirited, brilliant, and effective knights of the pen that championed independence, wrote in “The American Crisis,” “These are times that try men’s souls.”

WHO BURNED MOSCOW?

Alma, Wis.

Did Napoleon burn Moscow, or was it burned by the Russians on his approach?

Inquirer.

Answer.—It is not certain that Moscow was set on fire by official order. If so, it was by command of Count Rostoptchin, who claimed that honor after he saw the result, the forced evacuation of the city by Napoleon and the French army, which had taken possession of it on Sept. 14 and 15. Some say that it was fired by Russian fanatics when they knew that Napoleon had taken up his headquarters in the Kremlin, which they regarded as sacred. The French endeavored to extinguish the conflagration, which was ruinous to them, as it was their reliance for winter quarters.

GRADES OF BARLEY.

Oostburgh, Wis.

1. What constitutes the difference in grades of barley? 2. Wherein does the color of barley affect the quality of the grain? 3. How, except to gouge the farmer, did the custom of making fifty pounds of barley for the bushel originate, the legal standard being forty-eight pounds? 4. Are farmers under obligation to conform to board of trade rules, contrary to law?

Quiz.

Answer.—1. The following are the rules governing the State inspection of barley in Chicago: “No. 1 barley shall be plump, bright, clean, and free from other grain. No. 2 barley shall be sound, of healthy color, bright or but slightly stained, not plump enough for No. 1, reasonably clean, and reasonably free from other grain. No. 3 barley shall include slightly shrunken and otherwise slightly damaged barley, not good enough for No. 2. No. 4 barley shall include all barley fit for malting purposes, not good enough for No. 3. No. 5 barley shall include all barley which is badly damaged, or for any cause unfit for malting purposes, except that barley which has been chemically heated shall not be graded at all.” 2. The color of barley is an indication of its age and condition in several respects. 3. The legal bushel by weight is different in different States. In California and Nevada it is 50 pounds; in Wisconsin and most other States it is 48; in Pennsylvania, 47; in Oregon, 46; in Louisiana it is only 32. Boards of trade make rules for themselves, one object being uniformity for the whole country. 4. As a rule, statutes fixing the weight per bushel of various commodities specify that this is to apply only in cases where contracts fail to specify the weight to be given. When grain is sold on ’Change the rules of the board determine the weight to be delivered. Since seller and purchaser are presumed to be acquainted with these rules, it is hard to imagine how either can justly complain of being “gouged.”

HERODOTUS.

Cromwell, Iowa.

Please give a short sketch of Herodotus, the father of history.

Frank Smith.

Answer.—Herodotus, called the “Father of History,” was born at Halicarnassus, a Dorian city of Asia Minor, B. C. 484. In his youth he became disgusted with the tyrannical rule of Lygdamis, and abandoned his home for the island of Samos, upon which he acquired the Ionic dialect, which he used in writing his history. After remaining there some time he began his famous travels, visiting Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, Babylon, and Northern Africa. Returning to his old home he assisted in the expulsion of Lygdamis and the establishment of a new ruler. The latter, however, became nearly as tyrannical as the former, so that Herodotus again looked abroad for a home. Hearing that a colony was about to leave Athens for Italy, he joined it and settled, B. C. 443, at Thurrii in that peninsula. At that place he lived the remainder of his life, writing the history which has been a lasting monument to his name. It is not known in what year he died; but it is supposed that he lived to be a very old man.

A PENSION QUERY.

Iola, Ill.

Please answer the following: A soldier applies for a pension because of a disease contracted while in the service, but dies of said disease before action is taken by the department, leaving no wife but one child, a daughter, under 16 years of age, who dies before the claim is allowed; who, if anybody, is entitled to the pension?

J. Robinson.

Answer.—Section 4,718 of the Revised Statutes of the United States reads as follows: “If any pensioner has died or shall hereafter die; or if any person entitled to a pension, having an application therefor pending, has died or shall hereafter die, his widow, or if there is no widow, the child or children of such person under the age of 16 years shall be entitled to receive the accrued pension to the date of the death of such person. Such accrued pension shall not be considered as a part of the assets of the estate of deceased nor liable to be applied to the payment of the debts of the said estate in any case whatever, but shall inure to the sole and exclusive benefit of the widow or children; and if no widow or child survive no payment whatsoever of accrued pension shall be allowed, except so much as may be necessary to reimburse the person who bore the expenses of the last sickness and burial of the decedent in cases where he did not have sufficient assets to meet such expenses.” According to Section 4,707 pensions may be granted to relatives who were dependent upon the disabled soldier, but these are limited to the mother, father, or orphan brothers and sisters under 16 years of age, named in the order of precedence.

SPORTING FEATS.

Champaign, Ill.

Please answer the following questions: 1. What is the fastest time in which dashes of 100, 150, and 200 yards and one mile have been made by athletes? 2. What is the greatest record for running long and running high jumps without weights or spring-boards? 3. What is the longest base-ball throw on record? 4. What is the longest foot-ball kick?

S.

Answer.—The fastest time for a dash of 100 yards was made by George Seward, an American, at Hammersmith, England, Sept. 30, 1844, say 9¼ seconds; the fastest 150 yards was run by George Forbes, at Providence, R. I., Dec. 20, 1869, say 15 seconds; the fastest 220-yard dash was run by L. E. Myers, at New York City, Sept. 15, 1881, say 22½ seconds. The fastest mile run on record was made by William Cummings, at Preston, England, May 14, 1881, say 4 minutes 16⅕ seconds. The fastest mile run in this country was made by W. G. George, at New York City, Nov. 11, 1882. 2. The longest running long jump, without artificial aid, was made by J. Lane, at Dublin, Ireland, June 10, 1874, say 23 feet 1½ inches; the greatest running high jump in Great Britain, 6 feet 3¾ inches, was made by P. Davin, at Carrick-on-Suir, Ireland; the greatest in America, 5 feet 11 inches, was made by E. W. Johnston, Belleville, Ont. 3. The longest base ball throw on record was made by John Hatfield, at Brooklyn, N. Y., Oct. 18, 1872, say 133 yards 1 foot 7½ inches. 4. The longest foot-ball “place kick,” with a run, is 187 feet 10 inches, made by R. Young, at Glasgow, Scotland, July 2, 1881.

THE COLOSSEUM.

Lamoni, Iowa.

When was the Colosseum at Rome built, and for what purpose? What were its dimensions; what is its present use, and who owns it?

E. B. T.

Answer.—The Colosseum, or Coliseum, as it is sometimes spelled, was a colossal amphitheater constructed by the Emperors Vespasian and Titus. It was in the form of an oval, the longer diameter being 612 feet, the shorter diameter 515 feet, and the height of the walls from 160 to 180 feet. It contained seats for 87,000 persons, and standing room for 15,000 more. The arena, or oval in the center, where the gladiators fought and the deadly conflicts with wild beasts took place, was 281 feet by 176. The walls were of marble, the external face consisting of four stages, or offsets, adorned with engaged columns of the three orders of Grecian architecture, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The lowest three were arcaded, having each eighty columns and as many arches. Statues, sculptures, figures of chariots, metal shields, and other embellishments adorned the niches and salient points. What was the internal structure of this vast building is not fully understood. The tiers of seats above referred to only rose to one-half the height of the stupendous walls. Whether there were hanging galleries above these marble seats is now only a matter of conjecture. Over 2,000 wild beasts were killed in the dedicatory service. There were means by which, when the combats were ended, the immense arena could be filled with water for the exhibition of sea fights. During the various persecutions of the early Christians, many of these were thrown to the wild beasts in this amphitheater. One of the first of these was St. Ignatius, who was torn to pieces by lions. In the sixth century, when Christianity gained the ascendency, the church put an end to the use of the Colosseum. It still stood entire in the eighth century, but subsequently large quantities of the marble was used in the construction of public and private buildings. Pope Benedict XIV., in commemoration of the martyrs who had suffered within its walls, consecrated the Colosseum as a monument to them, erected crosses and oratorios within it, and so put an end to the process of destruction. Ever since it has been regarded as sacred to the martyrs and subject to the church.

WARMING ARCTIC DWELLINGS.

Johnsonville, Ill.

Do inhabitants of the Arctic regions use fire as a means of heating their ice or snow-block houses, and for cooking? If so, what kind of fuel do they use?