OUR CURIOSITY SHOP. (continued 8)

OMAHA INDIAN RESERVATION.

Boone, Iowa.

Isn’t it about time that the Omaha Indian Reservation was opened for settlement, under the act of Congress approved Aug. 7, 1882?

Granger.

Answer.—The same question, substantially, comes to The Inter Ocean at least once a week from one part of the country or another. In reply to an inquiry, the Acting Commissioner of the General Land Office recently wrote as follows:

Washington, Aug. 4.—Editor of Inter Ocean: In reply to your inquiry of the 17th ult., I have to state that this office is unable to say what time will elapse before the Omaha Indian Reservation, in Nebraska, will be open to settlement. The requirements of the act of Aug. 7, 1882, as to appraisement, have not yet been fully complied with, and these lands are still under the jurisdiction of the Office of Indian Affairs. Yours respectfully,

Luther Harrison, Acting Commissioner.

The substance of the act above referred to is given in Our Curiosity Shop for 1882, pages 113 and 128.

FIRST AMERICAN FREE SCHOOLS.

Douglass, Kan.

Where and in what year were free schools first established in this country? Who was the first advocate of them? When did they become general?

Henry Butler.

Answer.—A law was passed in Massachusetts in 1649 requiring every township to maintain a free school, and every town of 100 families to maintain a grammar school to “fit youths for the university;” and it is recorded in 1665 that a free school was then supported by each town in New England. The Connecticut, Plymouth, and New Haven Colonies soon followed this good example of Massachusetts, either in whole or in part. The first public school in Pennsylvania was established in Philadelphia by the Quakers, in 1689, free to those who could not pay. In 1694 Maryland enacted that every county should have a public school, and every parish a free library of at least fifty volumes. A free grammar school was established in New York by an act passed in 1702, but a system of free common schools was not inaugurated in this State until after 1795, in which year, on the recommendation of Governor Clinton, the Legislature appropriated $50,000 to encourage the establishment of common schools—not wholly free. It was years after this before the system of schools free to all (except colored children) went into general operation in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. The Southern States waited until after the war before adopting the free-school system even for white children. Their common schools were free only for the children of confessed paupers. Who was “the first advocate” of free schools it is now impossible to determine positively. Several of them came over in the Mayflower, as there were a few free schools in Massachusetts before the above enactment of 1649, making it obligatory on every town to have them, the chief argument then being that “every child must know how to read the Bible.”

CORDOVA, MEXICO.

Union City, Iowa.

My regiment was stationed at Cordova, Mexico, at the close of the Mexican war. How old is that city, by whom was it founded, and what is its present population?

M. W. V.

Answer.—Cordova, situated about fifty-seven miles inland from Vera Cruz, Mexico, is now a city of 6,500 to 7,000 inhabitants. The district around it is very fertile, and the tobacco, sugar, coffee, and cotton produced here foster an increasing trade. Its streets are regularly laid out and well paved; most of the houses are built of stone, and the fine cathedral is much admired for its interior architecture and decorations. The city was founded by the early Spanish adventurers and missionaries on the site of an old Aztec town, and named in honor of the forerunner of Cortez, Francisco Fernandez de Cordova, the discoverer of Yucatan and the southeastern extremity of Mexico, in the year 1517. The date of the first Spanish settlement is uncertain.

MARSHAL KEITH.

Fairmont., Neb.

Who was Marshal Keith, “the noble exile,” killed at the battle of Hochkirchen?

W. P. Jacks.

Answer.—He was Francis Edward James Keith, a Scotch nobleman, born at Inverngie Castle, Aberdeenshire, in 1696. He and his elder brother, the Earl Marischal, espoused the cause of the “Elder Pretender,” as he is called, James Francis Edward, son of the deposed James II. of England, in the insurrection of 1715. That affair ended in speedy disaster, and being attainted of treason, he fled to France. Here after some two years, spent for the most part in study at the University of Paris, he took part in the disastrous expedition of the Pretender to the highlands of Scotland in 1719. Escaping again to France, he lived in obscurity and want, first at Paris and then at Madrid, until he received a colonel’s commission in the army of the King of Spain. Here his Protestantism stood in the way of his promotion, and he soon took a recommendation from the King to Peter II. of Russia, in whose service he soon rose to the rank of general. In 1747 he entered the service of Frederick the Great of Prussia, who made him a field marshal, accounting him one of his ablest generals. Quick to discern the military exigencies and opportunities of the moment, and prompt to avail himself of them, “sagacious, skillful, imperturbable, without fear and without noise, a man quietly ever ready,” as Carlyle describes him, he had the full confidence, and even won the affection, of Frederick, who was wont to place him in the most responsible positions. He was killed Oct. 14, 1758, in the battle of Hochkirch, in which Frederick the Great suffered one of the most terrible defeats of that bloody war at the hands of the combined Austrian and Prussian armies.

SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN ALL THE WORLD.

Salmon City, D. T.

Please give the origin of the Sunday school, where and by whom first started, and the number of such schools in this country, and, so far as known, in the whole world.

W. H. Andrews.

Answer.—The following statistics of Sunday schools were reported by Mr. E. P. Porter to the Robert Raikes Centennial Convention held in London, England, June 28, to July 3, 1880. They comprise only those of the “Evangelical denominations,” and are incomplete even for this class of schools. Full returns, including the enrollment in schools of denominations not classed by Mr. Porter as Evangelical, probably would increase the above aggregate by from 20 to 25 per cent.

Countries. Teachers. Scholars. Total.

Europe 550,001 5,332,813 5,882,814

Asia 1,772 38,000 39,772

Africa 300 15,000 15,300

N. America 931,740 6,974,454 7,906,194

S. America 3,000 150,000 153,000

Oceanica 17,800 170,000 187,800

Total 1,504,613 12,680,267 14,184,880

The numbers reported for the United States, at the above convention, were as follows: Schools, 82,261; teachers, 886,328; scholars, 66,233,124. Your other questions are all answered with great care on pages 58 and 96 of Our Curiosity Shop, in book form, for 1882; price per mail, 25 cents.

SCHOOLS OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

Miles, Iowa.

How do the public school privileges of Ireland compare with those of England?

H. G. Bryant.

Answer.—The total population of Ireland in 1881 was 5,159,839. The total number of national schools in 1880 was 7,590, with 1,083,020 pupils, aided by a parliamentary grant of £722,366, or about $3,611,830. The population of Great Britain proper—England, Wales and Scotland—was 29,703,859 in 1881, and the number of public schools inspected in 1880 was 20,670, with an attendance of 3,155,534 pupils. The parliamentary grant amounted to £2,468,077, or about $12,340,385, so that the parliamentary grant in aid of primary education in Ireland is about 70 cents per capita of the total population, while for England, Wales and Scotland it is only about 41 cents. The above figures cover only the national schools for elementary instruction, in addition to which there are hundreds of parochial, or denominational and private schools in both countries. In Ireland, in 1880, there were 158 workhouse schools under the superintendency of the National Board, with an enrollment of 16,945, and an average attendance of 8,880. There were fifty-two industrial schools in 1879, with 4,979 inmates. There were in 1880, ninety-four school farms, nineteen school gardens, and a large number of agricultural schools under local management. The total number of pupils who entered the examination in agriculture in 1880 was 33,648, of whom 15,652 passed. The statistics of industrial schools in England, Wales, and Scotland are not conveniently obtainable.

SUNLIGHT OVERFLOWS THE HEMISPHERE.

Happy Hollow, Ill.

The sun being so much larger than the earth, does not a little more than one-half of the earth’s surface receive its rays at the same time?

W. C. Colgrove.

Answer.—A little more than half of the earth’s surface is illuminated by the sun at any given moment. There is a very slight extension of the area of illumination for the reason you mention, and beyond that an extension of from thirty-five to forty miles all around on account of horizontal refraction. If you put a silver coin into a bowl, then stand back until the edge barely hides the coin, and while you keep this same position another person fills the bowl with water, you will see the bottom of it seem to lift until the coin comes into sight. This is because the rays of light reflected from the bottom of the bowl are bent out of a straight line in passing through the water and out into the thinner medium, the air. This is called refraction. The rays of light from the setting sun are bent downward in a similar manner as they enter the earth’s atmosphere, and so the sun appears to be above the horizon a little more than two minutes after it has actually dropped below the true horizon. A difference of two minutes in time corresponds to a distance of thirty miles on the earth’s surface.

THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT.

Sandusky, Iowa,

1. Does Parliament serve the same purposes in Great Britain as Congress does in the United States? 2. How is Parliament constituted?

A. C. Starin.

Answer.—Like the Congress of the United States, the British Parliament legislates for the whole nation. But, in addition to this, it takes the place of the separate legislative bodies that used to exist in Scotland and Ireland, and makes local laws for England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, such as in this country can only be made by State Legislatures. As regards the Dominion of Canada, the Australian Provinces, and other colonial possessions, with legislatures of their own, the powers of Parliament are somewhat analogous to those of Congress over the States. 2. Parliament is composed of two houses, the Lords and the Commons. The House of Lords consists of peers who hold their seats either by virtue of hereditary right; by creation of the sovereign (who is unrestricted in his power of creating peers); by virtue of office, as the English bishops; by election for life, as the Irish peers; or by election for duration of Parliament, as the Scottish peers. This House, in the session of 1882, consisted of 516 members, of whom 5 were peers of the blood royal, 2 were archbishops, 22 were dukes, 19 marquises, 117 earls, 26 viscounts, 24 bishops, 257 barons, 16 Scottish peers, and 28 Irish representative peers. More than two-thirds of these hereditary peerages have been created within the present century—over one-third of them by the present sovereign, which marks one of the strongest factors of the power of the Crown. In the same year the Commons consisted of 639 members, classified as “knights of the shire,” or representatives of counties; “citizens,” or representatives of cities; and “burgesses,” or representatives of boroughs—all of whom hold office by election. The qualifications of electors were given in an article published in Our Curiosity Shop a few months ago. The total number of these electors in 1882 was 3,134,801.

REMOVAL OF ARTHUR FROM CUSTOM HOUSE.

Milwaukee, Wis.

Why did President Hayes remove Chester A. Arthur from the New York Custom House? Was he charged with dishonesty?

S. J. Smith.

Answer.—There was no official charge or imputation of dishonesty against Chester A. Arthur when in the New York Custom House. His administration of that office was a great improvement on any preceding one for many years back. He had effected great reforms and ousted officers who had fattened on corruption under his predecessors. President Hayes distinctly disclaimed any want of faith in Mr. Arthur’s integrity as a cause for replacing him, and the official reports of Secretary Sherman bore unequivocal testimony to the efficiency of the Collector’s administration of his difficult office, and clearly recognized his personal integrity. Mr. Arthur did not approve certain changes which Secretary Sherman wished to make, and he was known also to be in sympathy with Mr. Conkling and others not favorable to Secretary Sherman’s aspirations for the Presidency. It is generally believed that the above were the chief reasons for the Secretary’s desire to supersede Mr. Arthur, which finally prevailed.

ROGER BACON.

Melvin, Ill.

Please tell us something of the life and works of Roger Bacon.

A. Buckholz.

Answer.—Roger Bacon was an English monk of penetrating intellect, who by his scientific investigations and writings greatly advanced the cause of science in a time when the study of nature had been supplanted by the theological disputations and philosophical speculations of the “schoolmen.” He was born near Ilchester, England, in the year 1214, of a respectable family. He graduated at Oxford and Paris, and, entering the order of Franciscan monks, settled at Oxford, where he devoted himself to the study of physics. His discoveries were looked upon as wonderful by the ignorant, and were made the means by his clerical brethren of bringing him into disfavor with the Pope, who deprived him of his professorship. He was imprisoned for some years, until the elevation of Clement II. to the Papal throne. Despite the Franciscan interdiction, Clement requested Bacon to send him his writings, and, in answer, John of London became the bearer to the Pope of “Opus Majus” and two other works. For ten years Bacon was at liberty, but in 1278 he was again imprisoned, and the reading of his works forbidden. Through the intercession of many influential English noblemen, his release was granted shortly before his death, which occurred in 1292 or 1294. He wrote much, but several of his works have not been printed. Chief among his inventions was the magnifying glass, and his superior knowledge won for him the title, “Doctor Mirabilis.” He sought to know nature through the study of mathematics and by investigation. He pointed out the errors in the calendar, growing out of the old style of reckoning, long before Pope Gregory instituted the present calendar. As a Latin writer, his style was elegant and forcible; as a scientific scholar, he was fully two centuries in advance of his age; as a man, his character was pure and noble.

THE SPHINX—GUNPOWDER.

1. Is the Sphinx made of one solid block of stone, or is it built of mortar and brick? 2. Who invented gunpowder?

A. L.

Answer.—1. The “great Sphinx” at Gizeh, Egypt, only 300 feet east of the second pyramid, was hewn out of the natural rock where it stands. It measures 172 feet 6 inches long by 52 feet high. 2. Nearly all authorities agree in referring the invention of gunpowder to China or India, the weight of evidence being in favor of crediting it to the former.

COUNTIES LARGER THAN STATES.

Columbia, D. T.

Is it true that Brown County, D. T., contains a larger area than Rhode Island? Please give the exact figures.

R. A.

Answer.—Brown County, D. T., contains forty-eight Congressional townships, or, disregarding fractional sections, 1,728 square miles; whereas the area of Rhode Island is but 1,250 square miles. There are several counties of Dakota that are larger than Delaware, which contains but 2,050 square miles; such, for example, as Grand Forks, Pembina, and Burleigh. Some of the unorganized counties are as large as Connecticut. It will not be long before, following the practice in the most thickly settled parts of the Territory, these undergrown but over-extended counties will be subdivided into smaller ones of sixteen to twenty townships, the ordinary size of an Iowa county, each about half the size of “Little Rhody.”

LORD BYRON.

Garnavillo, Iowa.

Please give a sketch of Lord Byron.

William A. Kregel.

Answer.—George Gordon, Lord Byron, was born in London in the year 1788, and at the age of 11 succeeded to the title and estate of his grand uncle, William, Lord Byron, near Nottingham. In 1807, two years after entering Trinity College, he published his first volume of poems, entitled “Hours of Idleness.” Stung by the sarcastic criticism on these poems by Lord Brougham in the Edinburgh Review, he soon after wrote “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,” a scathing satire, and at once sailed for Turkey and Greece. “Childe Harold” and a few shorter poems were written between the years 1812 and 1818. After a year of riotous living in Italy he sailed for Greece in 1823, and took a conspicuous part in the struggle for Greek independence. In this he succeeded so far as to restore comparative order to the disorganized army, but his health soon began to fail, and exposure to a storm induced a fever which terminated his life, April 10, 1824. His body was interred in the Huckwall church-yard, being denied admission to Westminster Abbey. Byron undoubtedly possessed great genius and wrote many beautiful and ennobling poems, but his restless and passionate temper and the immorality of his life tainted most of what he wrote and debarred him from the list of really great English poets. In descriptive power, fervor, imagery, and melody his powers were marvelous, and many passages in his writings are unsurpassed in these respects by anything in the English language.

TIN AND TARIFF.

Beloit, Wis.

What is meant by “tin and terne plates,” and what is the gist of the demand of the “American Tinned Plate Association” for an increase of the duty on these plates?

Subscriber.

Answer.—“Tin plates” are plates of sheet-iron or soft steel, coated with tin, used chiefly for making household and dairy utensils, and for cans of all sorts. “Terne plates” are iron or soft steel sheets, coated with mixed lead and tin, used for roofing and similar purposes. About 95 to 98 per cent of these products are iron or steel, the tin and lead coating constituting the remaining 2 to 5 per cent. Soft steel is used chiefly now, because the quality required can be made cheaper than in iron, is more homogeneous and solid, and less liable to blister in the tinning processes. The association above named claims that the British plates imported to this country are “of poor quality, meanly coated, and, if low priced, are wasteful in the end.” That if home manufacture of such plates were encouraged by as heavy a tariff as is put upon other forms of finished iron—say 50 per cent, instead of only 15 to 30 per cent, as at present—American competition would act in this case as it has done in other classes of “protected industry,” to improve the qualities and ultimately to reduce the actual cost of the goods. But it is not only in these respects that it would benefit the country, says this association, but in bringing out the buried resources of our own mines and increasing the home market for American goods and American labor. The extra cost of American labor is, after all, accounted for mainly by the better manner of living of American laborers; their earnings are distributed among the American consumers of their wares, instead of being sent abroad to pay foreign laborers, while the native products utilized are so much clear gain. The tin, a small percentage of the sheets as above shown, would be imported to this country directly from Australia or the Dutch East Indies and “Straits Settlements,” but aside from this the materials used would be American products. In 1882 there were 480,596,480 pounds of British tin and terne plates sold in the United States, valued at $18,000,000 at Liverpool, and costing about $2,000,000 more for transportation. For this tin the American consumers paid about $30,000,000. To produce this in the United States would cost about as follows:

Tin (to be Imported), lbs 25,000,000

Tallow, home product, lbs 10,000,000

Sulphuric acid, lbs 30,000,000

Lead, lbs 5,000,000

Iron ore, tons 850,000

Limestone, tons 300,000

Coal, tons 1,500,000

Pig iron, tons 300,000

Charcoal, bu 5,000,000

Labor $12,000,000

Interest on $30,000,000, capital invested in machinery 1,800,000

Cost of repairs 1,000,000

Oils and lubricants 100,000

Insurance and taxes 1,000,000

The whole of this amount, excepting the cost of the 25,000,000 pounds of tin ore, or “block tin,” would be produced and the money involved kept at home. Such is the substance of the arguments used by the American Tinned Plate Association to induce Congress to increase the tariff on “tin and terne plates.”

DEATH RATE OF CITIES.

New Orleans, La.

Will you state the death rate in the principal cities of America and Europe?

E. C.

Answer.—The following represents the number of deaths per annum in the United States out of 1,000 inhabitants, according to the census of 1879: New York, 25.82; Boston, 19.80; Philadelphia, 17.20; Chicago, 17.20; St. Louis, 18.19; New Orleans, 21.60. The deaths per 1,000 in the following European cities were as follows: London, 22.83; Berlin, 27.81; Paris, 22.04.

A STANZA FROM MRS. BROWNING.

Pontoosuc, Ill.

The lines quoted in the inquiry of “A Reader” in The Weekly Inter Ocean of Aug. 30 are from the pen of that grand Christian poetess, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and may be found in the fifth verse of the beautiful poem, “A Woman’s Shortcomings.” One of the lines is a little different from what your questioner has it. I will give you the whole verse:

Your correspondent has the fourth line, “With the breath of heaven between you.”

Millard E. Little.

CORN IN DAKOTA.

Pierre, D. T.

I notice that in The Weekly Inter Ocean of Aug. 23, in answer to W. K., Chicago, you say that corn is generally conceded to be a hazardous crop in Southern Dakota. That theory is like the one of olden time, that Dakota is a vast wilderness where only the sagebrush and wild buffalo abound. Both theories have been exploded by actual demonstration, and it is no longer an experiment. Corn ripens in South Dakota in from 90 to 100 days from date of planting, which is 10 to 15 days shorter time than it takes in Northern Illinois or Iowa. It is the soil, the long days and short nights that do it; and there are numerous farmers here who can testify to the fact.

W. B. Steere, M. D.

A GULLED ENGLISHMAN.

Capron, Ill.

In reply to the inquiry of one of your correspondents, referred to me, as to whether there is “any truth in the statement made in a book published by some returned English tourists, to the effect that an itinerant lecturer advertised to give an entertainment at Capron, Ill., and at the close of the lecture shoot himself dead; that the home was crowded at $1 a head; and that, true to the programme, at the conclusion of his speech, this peripatetic orator actually committed suicide,” I would say that there was such a story written by a barber here, which was published in the county paper. It was false. The lecture never was given; at least the funeral never came off.

Alexander Vance, P. M.

SAINT SIMON, THE SOCIALIST.

Danville, Ill.

Who was Saint Simon, and what were his principles?

John Short.

Answer.—Claude Henri, Saint Simon, was a French nobleman, who was noted as a social philosopher and the founder of the sect named for him Saint Simonians. He entered the American army in 1778, at 18 years of age, and served therein with distinction and honor. While returning to his native land he was captured by British seamen and carried to Jamaica, where he remained until 1783. When at length he reached France he won many disciples to his socialistic views, and before his death, in 1823, he wrote several works upon philosophy and social reform. His greatest work was the ‘Nouveau Christianisme’ (New Christianity), in which he embodies his final and complete design for the amelioration of the poor and the preservation of society. He advocates a social hierarchy, controlling and regulating the choice of vocations, the fixing of salaries, the division of heritages, whose chief aim it shall be “to make the labors of each conduce to the good of all;” and to aid his projects he advised the union of France and England.

DIXON AND ELGIN BRIDGE DISASTERS.

Blendon, Kan.

Please state the date and the occasion of the Dixon bridge disaster, with the number of killed and wounded.

Subscriber.

Answer.—This calamity occurred on Sunday afternoon, May 4, 1873, resulting in the death from drowning and injuries of over forty men, women, and children, and the serious injury of nearly forty others. Its immediate cause was the overcrowding of the bridge by spectators of an immersion service of the Baptist Church of that city. The real cause was the faulty construction of the bridge, which was an iron structure, known as a Truesdell truss. It was a wagon and root bridge of five spans, each about 120 feet long. Both shore spans fell into the water while the three middle ones, resting entirely upon stone piers, remained suspended by the wrought-iron members of the main cords from six to eight feet below their proper place, dropped down between the piers. The number of persons on the first span that went down was variously estimated to be from 150 to 200, representing a weight of not more than 30,000 pounds. A Truesdell bridge, erected over Fox River at Elgin, fell in December, 1868. This was rebuilt by Mr. Truesdell. On Monday, July 5, 1869, a crowd of about 300 persons gathered on the bridge to witness a tub race, when the east span, 68 feet in length, fell, precipitating about one hundred men, women, and children into the water. Fortunately the stream was but about four feet deep at this time, and no persons were drowned and but two or three deaths followed from injuries received.

CONGRESSMAN GEORGE W. JULIAN.

Neodesha, Kan.

Was the Hon. George W. Julian a Republican? Describe in brief his life.

E. K. Krone.

Answer.—George Washington Julian was born in Centerville, Ind., May 5, 1817. After receiving a common school education he was admitted to the bar in 1840. He was chosen a member of the Legislature in 1845. From 1849 to 1851 he represented his district in Congress. The Pittsburg convention nominated him on the Free Democratic ticket for Vice President with John P. Hale for President. In 1856 he was prominent among the organizers of the Republican party. In 1861 he was re-elected to Congress, where he continued to do excellent service for several terms.

GEOLOGICAL DIVISIONS OF TIME.

Please give the geological divisions of time, beginning with the present, and a brief explanation of each.

N. Jay Deems.

Answer.—The divisions of time established by geologists are based upon the formations of strata and the advents of different forms of animal life. The history of the earth is divided into five “eras,” seven “ages,” twenty-two “periods,” and the last two periods are subdivided into seven epochs. These divisions, proceeding from the fifth downward to the first, are as follows: 5. Psychozoic era, age of man, human period, and recent epoch. 4. Cenozoic era, age of mammals—embracing the quaternary period, which comprehends the terrace, Champlain, and glacial epochs, and the tertiary period, which comprehends the pliocene, miocene, and eocene epochs. 3. Mesozoic, or middle, era, the age of reptiles, the cretaceous, jurassic, and triassic periods. 2. Paleozoic era, the carboniferous age, or age of acrogens and amphibians; the Devonian age, or age of fishes; the silurian age, or age of invertebrates, or mollusks—the names of the fourteen periods into which these ages are divided are not in common use. 1. Archaean, or eozoic era; the archaean age, and the Huronian and Laurentian periods. For an explanation of the terms used in this division consult Webster’s or Worcester’s unabridged dictionaries, and study the clear illustration accompanying the word “Geology” in the former work.

SUBMARINE CABLES.

Evergreen, Iowa.

How many telegraph cables cross the Atlantic, and where? How many ocean cables are there in all?

Guy Smith.

Answer.—There were in 1879 seven telegraph cables between Europe and America—five from Ireland, one from France, and one from Portugal to Brazil. Since then a new cable has been laid between New York and Flores, in the Azores, from which one extension runs off to France, England, and Holland, and another to Fayal, San Miguel, and Lisbon, embracing in all 7,300 miles. The longest line before this latter was the French cable, 2,585 nautical miles. There are now some 225 ocean cables in all parts of the world, of the aggregate length of over 68,000 miles.

“I” AND “WE” IN JOURNALISM.

Dayton, Ohio.

1. What is the rule of The Inter Ocean as to the use of the pronouns “I” and “we” in the office and in editorial correspondence? 2. What is your rule respecting a contributor’s using “we” when referring to himself?

J. W. H.

Answer.—1. The use of the word “we,” under all circumstances, is deprecated. Senator Conkling once said: “Only three classes of people are allowed to say ‘we:’ Kings, editors, and men with a tape-worm.” In this office “The Inter Ocean” is used instead of “we.” 2. Correspondents use “I,” when necessary, but are instructed to be as impersonal as possible. “Your correspondent” is preferred.

PROVIDENCE SPRING—ANDERSONVILLE PRISON.

Gilman, Iowa.

Is it true that in the Andersonville prison pen, during the late civil war, at a time when the water in the creek had become very scarce and foul and the captive Unionists were dying from this cause, a spring suddenly burst out of the hillside? If this is a fact, state some of the particulars, giving the date of the occurrence.

H. W.

Answer.—It is a fact, and, whether it was a “special providence” or not, as most, if not all, of those wretched prisoners believed, it served all the purposes of one, as much as the miracle in the desert of Sinai, when Moses smote the rock, and the waters gushed forth which saved the thirst-stricken hosts of Israel. Of the origin of this spring John McElroy, who spent fourteen months in Southern prison pens, gives substantially the following account: “Toward the end of August, 1864, the water in the creek was indescribably bad. Before the stream entered the stockade it was rendered too filthy for any use by the contaminations from the camp of the guards, situated about half a mile above. Immediately upon entering the stockade its pollution became terrible. The oozy seep at the bottom of the hillsides drained directly into it all the filth from a population of 33,000. Imagine the condition of an open sewer through the heart of a city of that many people, and receiving all the offensive products of so dense a population into a shallow, sluggish stream a yard wide and five inches deep, heated by the burning rays of the sun at the thirty-second parallel of latitude.’ The prisoners dug wells in the swampy earth with their pocket-knives to a depth of 20 to 30 feet, pulling up the earth in pantaloon-legs. But a drought came on and these wells, which at the best were not free from pollution, began to fail. To approach too close, even by a hair’s breadth, to the “dead-line” on the west side of the stockade, where the creek entered, in the effort to get water as free from filth as possible, was to sign one’s death warrant, which the whizzing bullet of the heartless guard executed instantly. “More wicked and unjustifiable murders were never committed than those almost daily assassinations at the creek,” says the historian. Sickness had multiplied in this horrible prison-pen until the wretched victims of such barbarism sat face to face with despair constantly. At this awful extremity what was the astonishment and gratitude of the camp one morning, when it was discovered that “during the night a large, bold spring had burst out on the north side, about midway between the swamp and the summit of the hill, and pouring out was a grateful flood of pure, sweet water, in an apparently exhaustless quantity.” This was the morning of Aug. 13, 1864. The overjoyed Union prisoners christened it “Providence spring,” the fitting name by which it is still known.

CATTLE IN THE UNITED STATES.

Jetmore, Kan.

State the total number of cattle in the United States, and what percentage of them are milch cows.

C. E. Boughton.

Answer.—The statistician in the Department of Agriculture estimates the total number of cattle in all the States and Territories in January, 1882, as 35,891,870, of which number 12,611,632, or a little more than 35 per cent, were milch cows. This estimate, so far as the number of cattle in the Territories, Colorado, and Texas are concerned, is largely conjectural.

JULES SANDEAU AND “GEORGE SAND.”

Mendota, Ill.

Who was Jules Sandeau, who is said to have given Madame Dudevant the now famous nom de plume of “George Sand?” Why did she take that name?

Alice.

Answer.—Leonard Sylvain Jules Sandeau, a French novelist and dramatic writer of some distinction, was born at Anbusson, France, Feb. 19, 1811. He studied law in Paris, but subsequently turned his attention to literature. In 1831 he became acquainted with Madame Dudevant, who lived with him in three small rooms in the Quai Saint Michel at a yearly rental of 300 francs. She it was who induced him to enter upon a literary career. In 1832 they produced together “Rose et Blanche,” a novel in five volumes, signed “Jules Sand.” It was received by the public with encouraging favor. Before she returned to Nahant she conferred with Sandeau respecting a new romance, each of them to write half of it. Fearing that he would neglect the work when she was not at hand to spur him to his task, she wrote the whole of “Indiana,” published the same year, in which her splendid genius rose far above anything in “Rose et Blanche.” Returning to Paris, she found that Sandeau had not written a line. Handing him her manuscript, she exclaimed: “Read that.” He did so, and declared it to be such a masterpiece that he could not review it. She wished to retain the name of “Jules Sands,” but as he had taken no part in the work, he positively declined to allow it. Appealing to their mutual friend, De Larouche, he advised her to take for a Christian name the name of the patron saint of the day, St. George, retaining the name “Sands,” a piece of advice which she instantly adopted. M. Sandeau afterward produced numerous novels and dramas, conspicuous among which are “Mdlle. de la Sergliere,” in two volumes, 1848, dramatized in 1851—generally esteemed his best novel; “La Maison de Penarvan,” 1858, dramatized in 1858; “Le Gendre de M. Poirier,” written in connection with Emil Angier, 1854—his best comedy. In 1853 he became keeper of the Mazurin Library, and in 1858 was elected a member of the French Academy, one of the highest distinctions to which a Frenchman can aspire. He died April 24, 1883.

MAXIMILIAN AND CARLOTTA.

Corning, Iowa.

Please give a short biography of the Empress Carlotta and the late Emperor Maximilian of Mexico.

Lillian Eldridge.

Answer.—Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, Archduke of Austria, younger brother of Francis Joseph I., the present Emperor of Austria-Hungary, and now generally referred to as the Emperor Maximilian I. of Mexico, was born in 1832. He was liberally educated, with a mind enriched by extensive reading, wide travel, and intercourse with many of the leading spirits of Europe. In 1857, on July 27, he married the sister of the present King of the Belgians, Charlotte Marie Amelie, born June 7, 1840. This amiable, beautiful, and highly intellectual lady was reared by her father, Leopold I., of Belgium, the most progressive of European sovereigns, with the greatest care, until she adorned every court she moved in. In 1861, taking advantage of the troubled condition of Mexico and the civil war in the United States, France, Spain, and Great Britain commenced hostilities against Mexico, ostensibly to enforce certain pecuniary claims. But in 1862, when the real purpose of the French manifested itself, the British and Spanish forces withdrew, and the French declared war, proclaiming the intention to liberate the Mexican people from the tyranny of their President, Benito Juarez. They overran the eastern and central part of Mexico, captured the capital—receiving more or less support from the clerical party among the natives—and finally set up a provisional government, headed nominally by General Almonte, but really under dictation of the invaders. An “Assembly of Notables,” so called, convened at Mexico, July 10, 1863, decided by a vote of 281 to 19 in favor of a “limited hereditary monarchy,” with a Catholic prince for sovereign, under the title of Emperor. At the instigation of Napoleon, who had already begun to realize the folly of his undertaking to subdue the whole of Mexico and hold it in subjection to his own will, seeing that the Republicans of Mexico were still organized and were continually harrassing the usurpers, the scepter of this new government was proffered to Maximilian. Not until all but the four northern provinces were in possession of the French forces and their Mexican recruits did he accept this uneasy crown. On May 29, 1864, the Emperor and Empress landed at Vera Cruz and on June 12 they made their public entry into the capital amid a brilliant military and civic display, accompanied by many signs of popular welcome. Before winter the Imperialists had gained possession of all the chief places in every State in the so-called empire. However, the fugitive President of the desperate republic still maintained a species of guerilla warfare in various places, and the sympathies of the people of the United States were with them. No sooner was the great civil war in this country ended than this sympathy began to make itself felt very sensibly. On Nov. 6, 1865, Secretary Seward directed the American Minister at Paris to represent to Napoleon III. that the presence of the French army in Mexico was a “cause of grave reflection to the government of the United States,” and that the latter could on no account allow the establishment of an imperial government, based on foreign aid, in that country, or recognize there any other than republican institutions. This increased the unpopularity of the war in France. Napoleon took warning, and in the summer of 1866 withdrew his forces. Deserted by his European allies, Maximilian’s empire hastened to a most melancholy end, so far as himself and the Empress were concerned. Charlotte went to Europe to enlist aid, but in vain. Her husband’s perilous position, added to the bitter disappointment and mortification of her failure, at last dethroned her reason. Maximilian refused to leave with the last French detachment, though urged to do so. He felt bound in honor to remain and share the fate of his Mexican supporters. At the head of 10,000 men he made a brave defense of Queretaro against the republicans under General Escobedo. On the night of May 14, 1867, the stronghold of his position was betrayed into the hands of his foes by the Emperor’s most trusted friend, General Lopez. Even then he refused the opportunity proffered him by his immediate captor to escape in civilian’s dress, lest it might compromise this generous foe. Along with Generals Miramon and Mejia, he was tried by court-martial, and on the 19th of July the three were shot. “Poor Carlotta,” as she is sorrowfully called, has never fully recovered her reason, although cared for with the greatest tenderness by her royal brother.

BOSS COINS OF AMERICA.

Galesburg, Ill.

Our Curiosity Shop has given a list of American silver coins that command a high premium; now please give a list of high-price copper coins of the United States, and colonial pieces. At least name all the “boss” coins, silver and copper.

Numismatist.

Answer.—As shown in the table of United States silver coins now obtainable only at a high premium, which has already been given in Our Curiosity Shop, the “boss dollar,” the rarest of all, is that of 1804, price $400 to $500, according to condition; the “boss half-dollar” is that of 1796, with sixteen stars, price $20 to $27.50—although that of 1796, with only fifteen stars, and that of 1797, each command nearly the same premium; $20 to $25. The “boss quarter-dollars” are those of 1823 and 1827, each quoted at $15 to $25. The “boss dime” is that of 1804, quoted at $4 to $6. The “boss half-dime” is that of 1802, worth $25 to $40. The “boss cent,” the rarest of all the cents, is that of 1799, quoted at $4 to $6; a higher rate of premium even than that of the “boss dollar.” The “boss half-cent” is that of 1796, worth $5 to $8, or from one thousand to sixteen hundred per cent more than its face.

The following are the United States cents that are worth 50 cents apiece and upward:

Year. Description. Good. Fine.

1793—Cent, wreath, stars, and bars on edge $2.00 $3.50

1793—Cent, with chain ameri 2.75 5.00

1793—Cent, chain, America on the reverse 1.75 3.75

1793—Cent, clover leaf under bust 1.50 2.50

1793—Cent, liberty cap, rare 3.00 6.00

1793—Cent, dot after date, and legend “Liberty” 3.00 5.00

1795—Cent, thick planchet, edge lettered 75 1.00

1799—Cent, the rarest of the cents 4.00 6.00

1804—Cent, very rare 3.00 5.00

1839—Cent, over date of 1836 75

1855—Pattern cent, flying eagle, copper 60 70

1856—Nickel cent, flying eagle 1.50 2.00

1858—Nickel cent 50

1873—Two-cent piece 50 75

Next we give United States half-cents, valued at 50 cents and upward:

Year. Description. Good. Fine.

1793—Half-cent, rare $1.75 $2.50

1793—Half-cent of smaller planchet 1.50 3.00

1794—Half-cent of several varieties 40 50

1795—Half-cent, lettered edge 75 1.00

1795—Half-cent of thin planchet 40 60

1796—Half-cent, the rarest of all 5.00 8.00

1797—Half-cent, several varieties 50 75

1802—Half-cent 50 75

1811—Half-cent 60 75

1831—Half-cent 2.50 3.50

1836—Half-cent 2.50 3.50

1840 to 1848 inclusive—Half-cent 2.50 3.50

1849—Half-cent, small date 2.50 3.50

1849—Half-cent, large date 05 10

1852—Half-cent 2.50 3.50

The coins minted by any of the American colonies and now at a high premium are as follows:

Year. Description. Good. Fine.

1786—Cent, Vermontensium Respublica $0.40 $0.68

1786—Cent, Vermonts Respublica 30 50

1788—Cent, Nova Cesarea, horse head to left 75 1.25

1788—Mass. half-cent, 40 65

1787—New York “Excelsior” cent 2.00 3.00

1783—Chalmer’s Annapolis shilling and sixpence 2.50 3.00

1652—Oak Tree shilling and sixpence 3.00 4.00

1852—Pine Tree shilling and sixpence 3.00 4.00

1722—Rosa American half-cent 60 75

“A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME.”

Chicago, Ill.

A friend says that the saying “A little bird told me so,” is in the Bible, but she don’t know where. Is she right? If so, please explain it.

One of Your Girls.

Answer.—This mild expression for “I won’t betray my informer,” is not a literal quotation, but is undoubtedly borrowed from Ecclesiastes, chapter x, verse 29: “Curse not the King, no, not in thy thoughts: and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.”

METEORIC STONES.

Wyoming, Wis.

When and where did the largest meteoric stone, of which there is any record, fall? Please give a description of the meteoric stone that fell in Iowa a few years ago.

William Yale.

Answer.—An immense aerolite, or meteoric stone, fell near Ægospatami, in Asia Minor, in 467 B. C., which was described by Pliny as being as large as a wagon. There is a remarkable one in the Smithsonian Institution, weighing 1,400 pounds, which fell in Mexico about A. D. 1500. The largest meteoric masses on record were heard of first by Captain Ross, the Arctic explorer, through some Esquimaux. These lay on the west coast of Greenland, where they were subsequently found by the Swedish Exploring Expedition of 1870. One of them, now in the Royal Museum of Stockholm, weighs over 50,000 pounds, and is the largest specimen known. Two remarkable meteorites have fallen in Iowa within a few years past. On Feb. 12, 1875, a very brilliant meteor, in the form of an elongated horseshoe, was seen throughout a region of at least 400 miles in length and 250 breadth, lying in Missouri and Iowa. It is described as “without a tail but having a sort of flowing jacket of flame. Detonations were heard, so violent as to shake the earth and to jar the windows like the shock of an earthquake,” as it fell, at about 10:30 o’clock p. m., a few miles east of Marengo, Iowa. The ground for a space of some seven miles in length by two to four miles in breadth was strewn with fragments of this meteor, varying in weight from a few ounces to seventy-four pounds; the aggregate of the parts discovered being about five hundred pounds.

On May 10, 1879, at about 5 o’clock p. m., a large and extraordinarily luminous meteor exploded with a terrific noise, followed at slight intervals with less violent detonations, and struck the earth in the edge of a ravine, near Estherville, Emmet County, Iowa, penetrating to a depth of fourteen feet. Within two miles other fragments were found, one of which weighed 170 pounds and another 32 pounds. The principal mass weighed 431 pounds. All the discovered parts aggregate about 640 pounds. The one of 170 pounds is now in the cabinet of the State University of Minnesota. The composition of this aerolite is peculiar in many respects; but, as in nearly all aerolites, there is a considerable proportion of iron and nickel.

A SKELETON IN EVERY CLOSET.

Madison, Wis.

What gave rise to the expression, “There is a skeleton in the closet,” and just what does it mean?

Alice.

Answer.—There is an old story that a soldier once wrote to his mother, who complained of her unhappiness, asking her to get some sewing done by some one who had no care or trouble. Coming in her search to one who, she thought, must be content and happy, this lady took her to a closet containing a human skeleton. “Madam,” said she, “I try to keep my sorrows to myself, but know that every night I am compelled by my husband to kiss this skeleton of him who was once his rival. Think you, then, I can be happy?” The inference is certainly too clear to need interpretation.

FINANCES OF CONFEDERATE STATES.

Ames, Iowa.

What was the amount of the Confederate debt at the close of the war? Was their currency a legal tender for all debts? How much did they issue? How much, if any, remained in the Confederate treasury at the close of the war?

Casey and Underhill.

Answer.—1. According to the “Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government,” by Jefferson Davis, the foreign debt of the Confederate States at the close of the war was £2,200,000, or about $11,000,000. Besides this, the debt at home, on the books of the Register of the Treasury on Oct. 1 1864, amounted to $1,147,970,208. Davis estimates that balances in the hands of absent officers would have reduced the total public debt to $1,126,381,095, of which $541,340,090 consisted of funded debt and the balance unfunded debt, or treasury notes. What further debt was created between Oct. 1, 1864, and the downfall of the Confederacy in April, 1865, it is not easy to ascertain. Judging from the expenditure of the six months next preceding Oct. 1, 1864, the debt must have been increased at least $450,000,000. Davis says: “The appropriations called for by the different departments for the six months ending June 30, 1865, amounted to $438,416,504,” which, taken together with the amount of unexpended appropriations and the small proportion raised by taxation, confirms our estimate, so that the total home and foreign debt of the Confederacy at the close of the war, omitting any claims for advances made by individual States, must have been about $1,587,000,000. 2. The treasury notes of the Confederacy were made receivable for all public debts or taxes except export duty on cotton. The terms of at least one issue, as given by Mr. Davis, “receivable for all debts or taxes except the export duty on cotton,” would constitute them a legal tender. 3. In December, 1863, this currency in circulation in those States amounted to “more than $600,000,000.” A considerable part of this was funded in Confederate bonds, but new issues or reissues swelled the amount again to about the old figures before the war closed. 4. Just how much specie remained in the hands of the Secretary of the Confederate Treasury when Johnston surrendered is not known, but it must have been a trifling sum; for when Jefferson Davis committed the treasury chest to General Joe Johnston’s safe-keeping, according to that officer’s statement on pages 408 and 409 of his “Narrative of the Rebellion,” it contained but $39,000 in silver, a considerable part of which he took and divided among his troops. The fleeing members of the Cabinet, no doubt, got away with the most of the gold and foreign bills.

SAN FRANCISCO TO AUSTRALIA.

Osceola, Neb.

Will you please state the distance and rates of fare between San Francisco and Sydney? If not too much trouble give the same for all the principal ports in the Sandwich Islands, New Zealand, and Australia.

J. M. Logan.

Answer.—The following table gives the distances and rates of fare for all ports in Sandwich Islands, Australia, and New Zealand touched at by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company’s steamers:

Miles. San Francisco to Cabin. Steerage.

2,100 Honolulu $75.00 $30.00

6,050 Auckland 200.00 100.00

6,625 Wellington 230.00 120.00

6,795 Lyttleton 235.00 122.50

7,000 Port Chalmers 240.00 125.00

7,200 Sydney 200.00 100.00

7,740 Melbourne 210.00 105.00

7,650 Brisbane 220.00 110.00

7,500 Rockhampton 235.00 117.50

8,245 Adelaide 223.75 117.50

7,600 Hobart Town 232.00 118.00

THE DEMOCRATIC ROOSTER.

Chicago, Ill.

Give the origin of the rooster as a Democratic emblem.

A Reader.

Answer.—We are indebted to Mr. W. F. Slater, of Hyde Park, for the following reply to this inquiry: During the Jackson and Van Buren administrations the party used the hickory pole and broom as a Democratic emblem of victory. In the memorable campaign of 1840 the Indianapolis Sentinel (Democratic) was published, with Mr. Nat Bolton as editor, and George Pattison as assistant. In the town of Greenfield resided Mr. Chapman, life-long Democrat, and at that time the postmaster, but no connection with the Chapman that subsequently published the Sentinel. Mr. Chapman wrote a desponding letter to Pattison, and Pattison, in his answer, endeavored to encourage his fellow-townsman, and wound up his letter with, “Crow, Chapman, crow!” The letter fell into Whig hands and was published in the campaign paper of the Whig party, The Spirit of 1876. In 1842 and 1844, when the Whig party met with defeat, the rooster came into universal use as the Democratic emblem of victory.

TO CHINA AND JAPAN.

Marshalltown, Iowa.

Please supplement your answer of last week giving distances and rates of fare from San Francisco to the Sandwich Islands, Australia, and New Zealand, by giving the distances and rates of fare to Japan, China, and East India ports.

Iowan.

Answer.—The following table shows the distance, fares in American gold, etc., per Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company’s vessels, from San Francisco to points named:

Miles. San Francisco to— Cabin. Steer’ge Chinese

4,800 Yokohama, Japan $250.00 $85.00 $51.00

5,100 Hiogo, Japan 268.00 75.00 58.00

5,500 Nagasaki, Japan 285.00 111.00 63.50

6,000 Shanghae, China 305.00 125.00 71.00

6,400 Hongkong, China 300.00 100.00 51.00

7,850 Singapore, India 380.00

8,250 Penang, India 400.00

9,900 Calcutta, India 450.00

Children under 12 years, one-half rates; under 5 years, one-quarter rates; under 2 years, free. Servants accompanying their employers, two-thirds of cabin rate, without regard to age or sex. Round trip tickets, good for twelve months, 12½ per cent from regular rates.

CORN CROPS OF ILLINOIS AND IOWA.

Ayr, Neb.

To settle a dispute, please tell which State raises the most corn—Illinois or Iowa.

J. A. Sullivan.

Answer.—Illinois leads all the States in the amount of corn raised. In 1882 the Illinois crop was 187,336,900 bushels, and the Iowa crop was 178,487,600 bushels. According to the same authority, the Statistician of the Agricultural Department, the average annual corn crop of Illinois for the five years ending with 1879 was 260,230,740 bushels, and that of Iowa was 163,789,120 bushels. The corn crop of Illinois in 1880, as given in the census, was 325,792,481, and that of Iowa was 275,024,247 bushels.

BEE-SWARMING.

H. J. Dunlap, Esq., of Champaign, Ill., who has made bee-culture a study, after a few words of comment on the brief answer given to “Topsy’s” question on the swarming of bees, published in Our Curiosity Shop three or four weeks ago, gives us his own views on this subject as follows:

New brood is hatched early in the season—in case of plentiful stores before the earliest blossoms—while the first swarm may not leave the hive until July, or even later; the condition of the honey flowers in bloom having much to do in determining the time. [In the Southern States it often leaves in April or May, and in this latitude usually in May or June.—Ed]. The first swarm is composed of old and young bees indiscriminately, and of drones. In from six to ten days a young queen is hatched. Sometimes several hatch at the same time, but all are destroyed except one, the queens engaging in deadly combat in which one or the other is the victor. The bees destroy the remaining queen cells as soon as a queen is hatched. In a day or two the virgin queen flies out to meet the male, or drone, and after copulation returns to her hive, where she usually remains until the next season, when she leads out a swarm. In some seasons, when honey is plenty, she may go out with a swarm, and even third swarms are thrown off, but such seasons are almost certain to be poor ones for honey, the swarms becoming so depleted in number that they are unable to avail themselves of the later blossoms, even if these are well-stored with honey. The second swarm thrown off will necessarily be composed mostly of young bees, but the inference that swarming continues so long as there are young queens to lead them out is erroneous.

DEATHS FROM CONSUMPTION.

Please tell what States furnished the largest percentage of consumptives, according to population, and settle a dispute.

B. F. Feather.

Answer.—The following table shows the total population of States reporting the greatest number of deaths from consumption in the last census year, and the number of deaths per 10,000 inhabitants:

Died of No. per

States. Population. consumption. 10,000.

New York 5,082,871 12,858 25

Pennsylvania 4,282,891 8,073 19

Massachusetts 1,783,085 5,207 30

Ohio 3,198,062 5,912 18

Illinois 3,077,871 5,146 16

Tennessee 1,542,259 3,767 24

This shows that whereas the deaths from consumption in the census year were 16 for every 10,000 inhabitants in Illinois, they were 25 per 10,000 in New York State, and 30 per 10,000 in Massachusetts, the highest ratio in the country. Maine stood next with 29 per 10,000, while Rhode Island lost 25, New Hampshire 25, New Jersey 23, Connecticut 21, California 21, Virginia 20, North Carolina 15, and Michigan the same as Illinois, 16, while Florida lost not quite 10, and Minnesota not quite 11 per 10,000.

RAILROAD RELINQUISHMENT TO SETTLERS.

Melrose, M. T.

Two men had a hearing about a claim within the limits of the railroad land grant, and the General Land Office decided that neither could hold it. One of the parties procured from the Northern Pacific Railroad a relinquishment, which was sent to the General Land Office, and a patent was issued to this person. Now, had the Northern Pacific Railroad the right to relinquish its title in this way? Please give the law.

David Evans.

Answer.—By an act of Congress approved June 22, 1874, according to the statement of “Copps’ American Settler’s Guide,” it is provided that in the adjustment of all railroad land grants, whether made directly to any State for railroad purposes, or to any corporation, if any of the lands granted be found in the possession of an actual settler, whose entry or filing has been allowed under the pre-emption or homestead laws subsequent to the time at which, by the decision of the Land Office, the right of said road was declared to have attached to such lands, the grantees, upon a proper relinquishment of the lands so entered or filed for, shall be entitled to select an equal quantity of other lands in lieu thereof from any of the public lands not mineral, and within the limits of the grant, not otherwise appropriated at the date of selection. And any such entries or filings thus relieved from conflict may be perfected into complete titles as if such lands had not been granted. Lands so relinquished are rated at only $1.25 per acre. An inducement is thus offered to railroad companies to relinquish in favor of the settlers, and receive other lands in lieu of those surrendered. Not only this, but when the superior right of the company is ascertained, and it is found that the claim of the settler is such that it would be admitted were the railroad claim extinguished, the General Land Office will, in all practicable cases, direct the attention of the officers of the company to the fact, and request an explicit answer whether or not the land will be relinquished. At the same time it is well for the party interested to seek for himself the relief indicated, by direct application to the railroad authorities, and thereby aid in securing a speedy adjustment.

DEATHS FROM ACCIDENT.

Chicago, Ill.

About how many persons die from injuries by railroad collisions and other accidents every year? Also, give the number of suicides.

Cripple.

Answer.—The total number of deaths due to accidents, violence, suicide, etc., as reported for the last decennial census, was 35,932, divided as follows:

Burns and scalds 4,786

Exposure and neglect 1,299

Homicide 1,336

Injuries by machinery 120

Railroad accidents 2,349

Suffocation 2,339

Sunstroke 557

Drowned 4,320

Gunshot 2,289

Infanticide 40

Suicide by shooting 472

Suicide by drowning 155

Suicide by poison 340

Suicide, other causes 1,550

Deaths by other injuries 13,980

From the above, it appears that the total number of deaths from suicide, 2,517, exceeded the total from railroad accidents, and that the latter amounted to 65 in every 1,000 deaths from accidents and violence.

SUBMARINE TORPEDOES.

Harper, Kan.

How are torpedoes, for blowing up vessels, constructed and used?

Charles G. Boone.

Answer.—There are several kinds of naval torpedoes. They may be classed, as fixed—submarine mines—and locomotive. Of the first sort there are two classes, viz., the self-acting and those which must be exploded by the electric battery operated from the shore or some other means of direct ignition.

An example of the self-acting sort may be described as follows: Take a hollow iron cone; fill this in part with gunpowder, say 150 to 250 pounds, but not enough to overcome the buoyancy of the cone. In the top of this charge of gunpowder bury an iron case containing lime, and in it a thin glass tube filled with sulphuric acid. Connect this tube or vial with an iron rod running through the top of the torpedo cone, up to within a short distance of the surface of the water. From this upright rod let other rods, called feelers, extend horizontally in every direction; let the whole be anchored in the channel to be defended, so that these feelers will be so near to the surface that passing vessels will be likely to come in contact with one or more of them; in which case the shock will break the frail glass tube containing the sulphuric acid, which latter, acting chemically on the lime, will instantly generate sufficient heat to explode the charge and destroy the vessel. For a sample of the other class of fixed torpedoes, imagine a submarine magazine filled with gunpowder, or—better still for this purpose, gun-cotton, because water does not injure it—planted in a channel, connected with the shore by an insulated copper wire attached to a battery. Let a small piece of wire be soldered to the metal case of the torpedo, and unite this, in the priming chamber, with the shore wire by a fine piece of platinum. The moment the operator on shore connects the wire with the battery the current, meeting the resistance of this contracted bridge of platinum, heats it to incandescence and explodes the charge. By planting several parallel lines of such torpedoes across a channel, at no great distance apart, in such a way that the mines in one row stand opposite the open spaces in another, it is rendered extremely hazardous for a hostile vessel to attempt to pass. Of the locomotive submarine explosives, one of the most formidable is the Whitehead fish torpedo, the construction of which is more or less a secret, sold by the inventor to the English, Austrian, and Russian navies. The shape of the case is, as the name implies, that of a fish, and it is propelled by a screw driven by compressed air. From a peculiar carriage on shore, or more frequently on board a vessel, it is discharged in a direct line for the enemy’s ship, and is exploded by impact. It is a terribly destructive engine when it happens to strike, but its aim is uncertain. The American torpedo, of similar description in many respects, Harvey’s, is believed to be a more reliable and effective engine.

Finally there is the torpedo used to such good advantage in several instances during our late war, particularly in the case of the sinking of the rebel ram Albemarle. It is rigged on the end of a spar carried in the bow of a launch, and sometimes on outriggers on either side, and is exploded by contact with the vessel to be destroyed, at some point several feet below the water-line.

ANCIENT VIRGINIA.

La Junta, Col.

What were the original boundaries of Virginia, and how did it get its name?

J. P. Granger.

Answer.—There is no good ground for dispute over the question as to how Virginia got its name. This name was given by Queen Elizabeth at the request of Sir Walter Raleigh to the region discovered in 1584 by persons sent out by him. It was applied to what is now North Carolina, and was extended, with the progress of exploration, over the country northward as far as the present city of Bangor, Me., or to the 45th degree of north latitude, and southward to the 34th parallel. One colony after another was carved out of the original Virginia until it was reduced to the boundaries it had at the time of the Revolutionary war. It claimed jurisdiction over all the Northwest territory by virtue of its first charter, made to the London company, and by conquest from Great Britain during the war; but it ceded all its rights to the Federal Government in 1787, reserving only 3,709,848 acres to reward Virginia troops.

AMERICAN TREATIES WITH CHINA.

Chebanse, Ill.

How long before the passage of our infamous anti-Chinese immigration law was it that our government forced its way into China at the cannon’s mouth?

A Subscriber.

Answer.—The first American treaty with China was made at Wang-hia, a suburb of Macao, July 3, 1844, by the Hon. Caleb Cushing, Minister Plenipotentiary for the United States, and Commissioner Ki-ying, on the part of the Chinese. It was soon after the close of the Anglo-Chinese war known as the “Opium war,” because it grew out of the persistent smuggling of opium into China by the East India Company, and resulted in the agreement of the Chinese Government to admit opium as an article of legitimate commerce. It also resulted in the opening of five ports to English trade. Thus the forcing of the Chinese “at the cannon’s mouth” was done by the English, against a sincere desire of the former both to keep out opium and to have nothing more to do with Europeans that they could possibly help. The negotiations between Mr. Cushing and Ki-ying were amicable and highly creditable to both nations from first to last. Strange to say, to the utter astonishment of the English, Mr. Cushing, with the arguments of reason only, gained many important concessions not contained in the British treaty, besides all that was conceded in that instrument. The next treaty between the United States and China was signed at Tientsin, China, June 15, 1858. It contained a number of important additional concessions, all obtained without any violence or serious warlike demonstration on the part of our own government, but coincident with the English and French treaties extorted from the Chinese by the bloody war that had been waged for the two preceding years. Had not the English and French waged that war it is quite certain that neither they nor the Americans would have gained any new concessions, and they might have had to yield some of those granted in the old treaties. But having been forced to make concessions to their hated foes, it must be said that the Chinese Government yielded to Americans equal rights and privileges in a manner which showed plainly that they had no desire to withhold anything from a friendly power which they had granted to their enemies. The first article of the treaty recites, among other things: “There shall be, as there always has been, peace and friendship between the United States and the Ta-Tsing (Chinese) Empire, and between their people respectively. They shall not insult or oppress each other,” etc. The next, known as the Burlingame treaty, was negotiated at Washington and ratified by the United States Senate July 16, 1868, when Mr. Anson Burlingame was here at the head of the first Chinese Embassy to this country. It was negotiated on the highest plane of American statesmanship, and breathes throughout the spirit of true republicanism, the spirit of the highest Christian civilization. It is sad to think that it was too high for the majority of our politicians to stand on, and has been lowered and narrowed to accommodate them in the present treaty, negotiated in 1880, at the dictation of Denis Kearney and the Sinophobists of California.

CATTLE IN UNITED STATES.

Ellsworth, Kan.

Will you please tell how many cattle there were in the United States, according to the last census; also, the number for four years past?

Wm. Ashmead.

Answer.—The census gives the number of working oxen in the United States in 1880 as 993,841; the milch cows as 12,443,120; other cattle as 22,488,550; total, 35,925,511. The Statistician of the Agricultural Department gives the numbers for the past four years as shown below:

Jan. 1, 1879—

Milch cows 11,826,400

Oxen and other cattle 21,408,100

Jan. 1, 1880—

Milch cows 12,027,000

Oxen and other cattle 21,231,000

Jan. 1, 1881—

Milch cows 12,368,653

Oxen and other cattle 20,937,702

Jan. 1, 1882—

Milch cows 12,611,632

Oxen and other cattle 23,280,238

THE GERMAN PATRIOT, BLUM.

Mazomanie, Wis.

Tell us something of Robert Blum, the German statesman, who was shot in Vienna in 1848.

Carl Fehlandt.

Answer.—He was born at Cologne in 1807. He was well educated, served for a time in the army, which he left in 1830 to connect himself with the theater at Cologne, of which he became in time a director. Much of his time was given to literature and politics. In the latter he espoused the cause of liberalism. This was particularly the case after he moved to Leipsic, where he was first a director of the theater, then a bookseller and publisher. Here he founded the Schiller Society of Leipsic, was connected with the German Catholic movement, and was finally elected Vice President of the Provisional Assembly at Frankfort in 1848. In the National Assembly he became leader of the Left, or Radicals. He joined the popular movement in 1848, took a prominent part in the insurrection that broke out at Vienna at the time of the struggle for Hungarian independence, headed by Kossuth, and, being arrested, he was summarily shot, Nov. 9, 1848.

SIR JOHN FRANKLIN’S LAST RECORD.

Chebanse, Ill.

When, where, and by whom was the cairn discovered in which was the last record of Dr. John Franklin?

A Subscriber.

Answer.—The cairn containing the written record left by the Franklin exploring party was discovered at Point Victory on the coast of King William’s Island. This discovery was made in 1859 (fourteen years after Franklin’s death), by Lieutenant Hobson of the British yacht Fox, purchased and fitted out by Lady Franklin, and commanded by Captain Leopold McClintock. The principal facts stated in the record are that her Majesty’s ships Terror and Erebus spent the winter of 1845-6 at Beechey Island, off the southwest coast of North Devon, having ascended Wellington Channel to latitude 77 deg., and returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island. Lieutenant Gore and Charles F. De Voeux had left the ships with six men, on an exploring expedition, May 24, 1847, and on the 28th left this written statement of their journeyings. Franklin had sailed westward to longitude 98 deg., then up Wellington Channel—the course specially commended to him, but upon trying to reach the American coast he was prevented by the masses of ice sweeping southward through McClintock Channel. The record concludes with these words, in the handwriting of Captain Fitz James: “April 25, 1848—H. M. ships Terror and Erebus were deserted on 22d April, five leagues n. n. w. of this, having been beset since 12th September, 1846. The officers and crews, consisting of 105 souls, under the command of Captain F. R. M. Crozier, landed here in lat. 69 deg. 37 min. 42 sec. n., long. 98 deg. 41 min. w. Sir John Franklin died on the 11th June, 1847; and the total loss by deaths in the expedition has been to this date 9 officers and 15 men.” Captain Crozier added the important statement: “We shall start on to-morrow, 26th April, 1848, for Back’s Fish River.” This record proved the identity of Sir John Franklin’s party with a party seen by the Esquimaux pressing southward along Fish River to reach the settlements of the Hudson Bay Company. Later many skeletons were found on the south and west coasts of King William’s Island. It is certain, according to the recent reports of Captain Hall and Lieutenant Schwatka, that all of the party perished from hunger and exposure.

STEPHEN GIRARD.

James White, Fairfield, Pa.—Stephen Girard was born near Bordeaux, France, May 24, 1750; took to a seafaring life, became master of a sailing vessel, then owner of several ships in the American coasting and West India trade, in which business he amassed a fortune, the greater part of which was left to found and endow Girard College for Orphans, near Philadelphia, and other charitable institutions. He was regarded, at the time of his death, as the wealthiest man in the United States, although, compared with the money kings of the present time, he had but a moderate fortune, probably not to exceed $9,000,000. No one knows what William H. Vanderbilt or Jay Gould is worth, but it is safe to say that it is not less in either case than $150,000,000, and some say more than $200,000,000.

ELEVATION OF WESTERN SIGNAL STATIONS.

Fairmount, Ill.

Please give in Our Curiosity Shop the elevation above sea level of Huron, D.T., St. Paul, Minn., Madison, Wis., and Chicago.

E. Halladay.

Answer.—The best we can do is to give the elevations of the barometers of the United States Signal Service above sea-level at the several points specified, as computed for that service. That these are not certainly exact is admitted by the Chief of the Signal Service, who says, on page 1,178 of his report for 1881: “When the elevations of these planes above mean sea-level have been determined by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, it is expected that we shall be able to greatly improve on the elevations at present adopted.” The Signal Service barometer at Huron, D. T., stands at 1,300 feet above mean sea-level—marked (?) or doubtful. The barometer at St. Paul is 810.9 feet, at Madison 949.2 feet, at Chicago 660.9 feet, above sea level. The elevation of these barometers above the ground varies between thirty and seventy-five feet. As to your other question you are mistaken; Huron still appears in the “Weather Reports” printed in The Inter Ocean.

VALUES OF FOREIGN COINS.

Houghton, Mich.

Can you not oblige us with a list of foreign coins and their values in this country?

William J. Wren.

Answer.—The following table gives a list of foreign coins and their values, as proclaimed by the United States Treasury Department for the guidance of Custom House officers:

Countries. Standard monetary unit. Value in U. S. cur.

Austria Florin, silver .40.6

Belgium Franc, gold and silver .19.3

5,10, and 20 franc coins.

Bolivia Boliviano, silver .82.3

Brazil Milris of 1,000 reis, gold .54.5

Canada Dollar, gold 1.00.0

Central America Peso, silver .83.6

Chili Peso, gold .91.2

Condor, doubloon, and escudo.

Denmark Crown, gold .26.8

10 and 20 crown pieces.

Ecqaudor Peso, silver .82.3

Egypt Pound of 100 piasters, gold 4.97.4

5, 10, 25, and 50 piastres.

France Franc, gold and silver .19.3

5, 10, and 20 franc pieces.

Great Britain Pound sterling, gold 4.86.6½

Sovereign and half sovereign.

Greece Drachma, gold and silver .19.3

5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 drachmas.

German Empire Mark, gold .23.8

5, 10, and 20 marks.

India Rupee of 16 annas, silver .39.7

Italy Lira, gold and silver .19.3

5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 lire.

Japan Yen, gold and silver .99.7

1, 2, 3, 10, and 20 yen.

Liberia Dollar, gold 1.00.0

Mexico Dollar, or peso, silver .89.4

Dollar, 5, 10, 25, and 50 centavo.

Netherlands Florin, gold and silver .40.2

Norway Crown, gold .26.8

10 and 20 crowns.

Peru Sol, silver .83.6

Portugal Milreis, 1,000 reis, gold 1.08.0

2, 5, and 10 milreis.

Russia Ruble of 100 copecks, silver .66.9

Ruble, ¼, and ½ rouble.

Sandwich Islands Dollar, gold 1.00.0

Spain Peseta of 100 centimes gold and silver .19.3

5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 pesetas.

Sweden Crown, gold .26.8

Switzerland Franc, gold and silver .19.3

5, 10, and 20 francs.

Tripoli Mahbub. 20 piasters, silver .74.3

Turkey Piaster, gold .04.4

25, 50, 100, 250, and 500 piasters.

United States of Colombia Peso, silver .83.6

THE SOUTH AND PROTECTIVE TARIFF.

Jonesboro, Ark.

How is the South, and, particularly, how are Southern farmers, benefited by the tariff?

S. W. Morehead.

Answer.—Just as other American farmers are. First, by escaping direct taxation for the support of the General Government, a form of taxation that always bears on farmers and the other industrial classes heavily, as illustrated in direct taxation for State and county purposes. The Southern politicians who framed the Constitution of the Southern Confederacy, a majority of them, ignored the protectionist policy of Washington, Madison, Clay, Lowndes, Bell, and other Southern statesmen of different political parties, and, as Jefferson Davis puts it, in his “Rise and Fall of the Confederacy,” “protective duties for the benefit of special branches of industry were altogether prohibited.” A tariff for revenue only, export duties, and direct taxation were relied on to supply the exchequer of the Confederacy. What does Mr. Davis say of the result as regards the last of these sources? On page 495 of Volume I. he writes: “Within six months after the passage of the war tax of Aug. 19, 1861, the popular aversion to internal taxation by the General Government had so influenced the legislation of the several States that only in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Texas were the taxes actually collected from the people. The quotas of the remaining States had been raised by the issue of bonds and State Treasury notes. The public debt of the country was thus actually increased instead of being diminished by the taxation imposed by Congress.” Where did most of the money come from that was raised by the Confederacy? Off the agricultural products of the South. As to the foreign loan, Davis says: “Each bond, at the option of the holder, was convertible at its nominal amount into cotton at the rate of sixpence sterling for each pound of cotton—say 4,000 pounds of cotton for each bond of a hundred pounds sterling.” The farmer was paid for the cotton in Confederate currency or bonds, as a rule, and any other cotton exported from the country was compelled to pay an export duty to help pay the interest on the foreign bonds. But not only does the policy of American protection tend to keep the amount raised by direct taxation down to a minimum (as now, when, except the internal revenue tax on whisky and tobacco, nearly the entire revenue of the Federal Government is collected off of imports), but it levies the tariff mainly on such articles as can be produced in this country, so compelling consumers of Southern cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco, etc., to pay better prices for these articles, or foreign competitors to reduce their profits when selling to American consumers; while it admits, coffee, tea, and other home necessities that we cannot produce, free of duty. It lays a duty on iron and other ores, and so encourages the Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama miner to delve for the wealth beneath his feet. It taxes cotton goods, and so holds out an extra inducement over all that nature has done to encourage the South to erect cotton factories. The same is true in a thousand other lines of manufacture. In general, it attracts capital into the South to engage in mining and manufacturing; it keeps money at home; it builds up home markets; it develops natural resources; it quickens the inventive genius of the nation, and it diversifies industries, and so provides occupations adapted to the various talents of different persons. This last is what the South needs more, in proportion, than any other section of the Union. Diversity of occupation, like diversity of crops, is essential to the realization of the best results. In many cases the most expert mechanics would make inferior farmers. The girl who “loves dearly to attend cotton-looms” (as a female operative in the weaving department of the Southern Exposition at Louisville lately exclaimed) would not stay on a farm. Diversity of industry affords opportunity for every worker to make the most of his abilities. It is the safety-valve of labor, which prevents any one occupation from being overgorged with laborers. It is the great equalizer of wages. The South is only beginning to realize the importance of home manufactures. Georgia is alive to this matter; so are some portions of Kentucky. Other Southern States are awakening to it. If it be true that in some parts of the North the manufacturers are strong enough to stand without protection, it is not yet true of the same industries in the South, and the latter should demand that the tariff be maintained until she has acquired like strength. She has the cotton, iron, sugar, cheaper labor, and on account of the climate it costs the laborers less to live there than in the North. Why should she not rival France, of similar climate, in manufactures? Capitalists are asking “why not;” and capital is pouring into the South faster than ever before. It would be suicidal to drive this capital back. The South will be stupid if she exerts herself to keep her children shut up to agricultural pursuits and continues to spend more than half the value of her surplus products in sending them to market and bringing them back in a manufactured condition (as she always has done) instead of manufacturing them at home.

I AM DYING, EGYPT, DYING.

Evanston, Ill.

Who was the author of the touching poem commencing, “I am dying, Egypt, dying?” It is said that he was an army officer.

J. H.

Answer.—It was William Haines Lytle, who was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1826. He belonged to a cluster of brilliant young writers whose early ambition was to build up a school of Western literature, but who were drawn into the whirl of more active life, which left little time for courting the muses. On the breaking out of the late war he went into the army, serving as a Colonel in Western Virginia in 1861. He was wounded at Perryville, Ky., in October, 1862, was promoted for gallant services, and, finally, was killed at the battle of Chickamauga, Sept. 20, 1863. He was greatly beloved by his fellow officers for his noble social qualities as well as for his martial bearing; and nothing could be more unjust, according to the testimony of those who knew him well, than the story recently started by a flippant penny-a-liner, that he wrote the poem above referred to, properly entitled “The Death of Mark Antony,” on the walls of a guard-house in St. Louis, in which he was held under arrest over night for disorderly conduct on his way home from the theater, where he had seen Booth in Shakespeare’s great drama of “Antony and Cleopatra.” That the poem was suggested to him by witnessing Booth’s representation of this play is probably true: and it is asserted by some that he had written it, in part at least, some time before the eve of his death, but the following version of the peculiar circumstances under which this greatly admired lyric was completed and transmitted to the world corresponds with the traditions of the army, and is probably true. John M. Balthes, of Clifton, Ill., who was once a fellow-townsman of General Lytle, at Zanesville, Ohio, writing to a fellow-soldier of that gallant officer, says:

“I send you the following beautiful lines, written by him in the middle of the night, just before the next day’s battle, in which he lost his life. The General being strongly impressed, or having a premonition that he should lose his life in the battle that was so soon to open, sat absorbed and alone in his tent, when an officer coming in admonished him that he needed rest before the serious business planned for the next day. Thereupon General Lytle handed him these verses, remarking that they would be the last he should ever write.” This poem was published in The Sunday Inter Ocean of Oct. 7, almost precisely as given by Mr. Balthes, and as it appears in “Famous Single and Fugitive Poems,” by Rossiter Johnson.

SPECIAL PARTNERS—CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS.

A. D. Bird, Tecumseh, Neb.—1. In limited partnerships the special partner’s liability for the indebtedness of the firm is limited to their total interest in the firm, whereas the other partners are each liable for the whole indebtedness of the firm. In corporations “limited” stockholders are liable only to the total amount of their stock, or some specific amount over that. For a fuller answer see page 87 of Curiosity Shop for 1882, in book form. 2. The twelfth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which terminated the old rule that the candidate receiving the greatest number of votes for President should be President, and the one receiving the next greatest number for President should be Vice President, and requiring electors to name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and, in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President, was adopted in 1804.

SILK FROM OSAGE-ORANGE LEAVES.

Galesburg, Ill.

Will silk-worms fed with the leaves of the Osage orange thrive as well and produce as fine a quality of silk as if fed on the leaves of the white mulberry?

Farmer’s Wife.

Answer.—They seem to thrive well, and they produce fine-looking cocoons; but as to the value of these latter compared with those produced from mulberry leaves, it is not yet time to speak positively. The strength, fineness, and other elements of value have not been fully tested and pronounced upon by experts. Miss Nellie Lincoln Rossiter, of Philadelphia, who has written a little hand-book on the raising of silk-worms, says that there is no apparent difference between the silk crops from morette, a species of white mulberry, and Osage orange leaves. It would be well for persons interested in this question to correspond with the Woman’s National Silk Association of Philadelphia. An interesting experiment in raising silk-worms has been successfully carried on the past season by the Misses Sarah Dewey and Alice Coykendall, at Canton, Ill. They procured the eggs from Philadelphia, with instructions for the management of them, and an exchange says: “They now have 3,500 worms in all stages of development, from those just hatched to those which have their cocoons fully formed. They are kept in an upstairs room on perforated paper, over which fresh leaves of the Osage orange are spread each morning. The ladies are enthusiastic over their success, which certainly seems assured. They will be able to find a ready market for their cocoons at Philadelphia at remunerative prices.”

AMERICAN KNIGHTS—SONS OF LIBERTY.

Minneapolis, Minn.

Give some of the facts as to the origin and acts of the disloyal orders known during the war for the Union as “American Knights,” “Sons of Liberty,” etc.; and of the trial of Dodd for conspiring against the government.

Jas. Brewster.

Answer.—The treasonable organization known during the late war, at one time as the “Mutual Protection Society,” again as the “Circle of Honor,” or the “Circle,” or “Knights of the Mighty Host,” but more widely as “Knights of the Golden Circle,” first developed itself in the West in 1862, about the time of the first conscription, or draft of troops, which it was designed to obstruct and resist. An association under the last of these names had existed for some years at the South being one of the chief means used to foment the rebellion before the outbreak. Because of some exposures of the signs, rituals, etc., of the Knights of the Golden Circle, Sterling Price, the Confederate general, had instituted as its successor in Missouri a secret political order, known as the “Corps de Belgique,” in honor of his chief coadjutor, Charles L. Hunt then Belgian Consul at St. Louis. Its special object was to beat up recruits for Price and otherwise co-operate with him in his design of overrunning Missouri. This was afterward merged into another secret order, called the “Order of American Knights,” commonly known as the “O. A. K.,” organized in the autumn of 1863 by Clement L. Vallandigham, of Ohio, and P. C. Wright, of New York. It is believed that it was founded by Vallandigham in consultation with Jefferson Davis and other arch-rebels at Richmond, during his banishment within the rebel lines. At least, members of the order in Indiana boasted that the ritual was prepared by Davis himself, and Mary Ann Pitman, at one time attached to General Forrest’s command as a rebel spy, declared that Davis was a member of the order. In Indiana, in May, 1864, owing to the names of some of the leaders and the signs and passwords of the order having got into the possession of the Federal authorities, its name was finally changed to the “Order of the Sons of Liberty,” or “Knights of the Order of the Sons of Liberty,” and a ritual was instituted. These soon became general. Local branches of the organization used other names outside their lodges, such as “Peace Organization” in Illinois, “Star Organization” in Kentucky, “American Organization” in Missouri, “McClellan Minute Men” in New York, “Democratic Invincible Club” in Chicago, “Democratic Reading-room” in Louisville, and so on.

This order had a Supreme Council for the United States at large, of which the chief officers were a Supreme Commander, a Secretary and a Treasurer. There was a Grand Council for each State, whose chief officers were a Grand Commander, a Deputy Grand Commander, a Grand Secretary, and a Grand Treasurer, and a certain number of Major Generals, one for each of its “military districts.” There was also a “Parent Temple” in each county and subordinate temples in townships. The constitution of the order declared that “the Supreme Commander shall be Commander-in-chief of all military forces belonging to the order in the various States, when called into actual service.” There were four Major Generals in Indiana, each commanding “a military district and its army.” In Illinois, where its organization was at one time very complete, the members in each Congressional district constituted a brigade, under a “Brigadier General.” Those of each county a “regiment,” commanded by a “Colonel,” and those of each township a “company.” In Indiana companies were subdivided into “squads.” The McClellan Minute Men of New York were similarly organized.

The first Supreme Commander was P. C. Wright, editor of the New York News, who was subsequently incarcerated in Fort Lafayette, New York harbor, when he was succeeded by Vallandigham. Robert Holloway, of Illinois, is said to have acted as Supreme Commander in the latter’s absence in Canada. Charles L. Hunt, Grand Commander for Missouri, Charles E. Dunn, Deputy Grand Commander, and Green B. Smith, Secretary, being placed under arrest, divulged facts confirmatory of the above. H. H. Dodd, the Grand Commander for Indiana, was arrested and tried at Indianapolis before a military commission “for conspiring against the government,” “violations of the laws of war,” and other charges. He was finally turned over to the civil authorities and liberated.

Vallandigham declared in a speech at Dayton, Ohio, in the summer of 1863, that the order numbered 500,000 men; others claimed 800,000, and some still more. Statements of its officers at different times, represented its numbers in Indiana as 75,000 to 125,000; in Illinois as 100,000 to 140,000; in Ohio as 80,000 to 108,000; in Michigan and New York as about 20,000 each, and so on. In March, 1864, it was represented that the total force capable of being mobilized for effective service was 340,000. Green B. Smith and other witnesses testified to having purchased and shipped arms to various points to arm the order. Another witness, once a member of the order in Indiana, testified that there were 6,000 muskets and 60,000 revolvers, besides private arms in possession of the order in that State.

The members were bound by the most rigorous oaths. Its “declaration of principles” declared that it was the imperative duty of its members to resist the functionaries of the Federal Government, “and, if need be, expel them by force of arms.” The witnesses, former members, testified that the duties of members were: 1. To aid soldiers to desert and harbor and protect them. 2. To discourage enlistments and resist the draft. 3. To circulate disloyal and treasonable publications. 4. To communicate and give assistance to the enemy. 5. To recruit for the Confederate army. 6. To furnish the rebels with arms and ammunition. 7. To co-operate with the enemy in raids and invasions. 8. To harass loyal men and destroy their property when so ordered to do. 9. To assassinate officers of the government when so directed to do. 10. To establish a Northwestern Confederacy.

The above statements are compiled from the reports of the Hon. J. Holt, Judge Advocate General, to Secretary Stanton on “Secret Societies,” and other State papers. Unusual space has been given to this question because it has been asked repeatedly, and our attention is called to the fact that it is not treated in the popular cyclopedias and histories.

CHIEF CITIES OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND.

Rushville, Ill.

What is the population of each of the principal cities of France?

James P. Clarke.

Answer.—The population of each of the principal cities of France and England in 1881 is given in the “Statesman’s Year Book” as in the table below:

Paris 2,269,023 London [12]4,764,312

Lyons 376,613 Glasgow [13]647,095

Marseilles 360,099 Liverpool 552,425

Bordeaux 221,305 Dublin [14]418,152

Lille 178,144 Birmingham 400,757

Toulouse 140,289 Manchester 393,676

Nantes 124,319 Leeds 309,126

St. Etienne 123,813 Sheffield 284,410

Rouen 105,906 Edinburgh 236,002

Le Havre 105,867 Bristol 206,503

Rheims 93,823 Bradford 180,459

Roubaix 91,757 Salford 176,223

Amiens 74,170 Wolverhampton 164,303

Nancy 73,255 Hull 161,519

Toulon 70,103 Oldham 152,511

Angers 68,041 Newcastle-on-Tyne 145,228

Nice 66,279 Dundee 140,239

Brest 66,110 Brighton 128,407

Limoges 63,765 Portsmouth 127,953

Nimes 63,552

FOOTNOTES:

LIQUID GLUE AND CHINESE CEMENT.

Black Oak, Mo.

Please tell us how to make “Spaulding’s prepared glue” or some substitute for it.

D. P. Stublefield.

Answer.—The formula for making Spaulding’s prepared glue is not available. The following (Dumoulin’s) is quite as good: Take soft water, 1 quart; best pale glue, 2 pounds; dissolve in a covered vessel by the heat of a water bath or in a vessel immersed in boiling water; cool, and add, gradually, of nitric acid (specific gravity 1.335) 7 ounces; when cold put it into bottles. It is very strong and does not gelatinize.

The following formula, known as “Chinese cement,” produces a cement for porcelain, glass, fancy work, jewelry, etc., so strong that wood or porcelain can be joined together so firmly that they will break anywhere else rather than where cemented: Take of finest pale orange shell-lac (broken small) 4 ounces; strongest rectified spirits 3 ounces, and digest them together in a corked bottle in a warm place until dissolved. It should have about the consistence of molasses.

THE MAN OF ROSS.

Greenville, Ill.

Who was the “Man of Ross?”

Ida E. White.

Answer.—The “Man of Ross” is a title given to John Kyrle, of Ross parish, Hereford County, Eng., because of his remarkable spirit of enterprise and great benevolence. Although only an untitled, private gentleman of moderate fortune, he did far more for the good of his community than many a wealthy lord of the manor. Pope appreciated the true nobility of Kyrle, and has done full honor to him in the third epistle of his “Moral Essays,” “On the Use of Riches.” Coleridge, too, has paid a beautiful tribute to his memory in the lines:

EASTERN CENTRAL ARKANSAS.

Clarendon, Ark.

Seeing an Inquirer, in the Curiosity Shop, asks information in regard to Arkansas, I will say that the Eastern Central portion of the State is nearly level, and very fertile. All fruits, vegetables, cereals, tobacco, cotton, sorghum, sweet potatoes—in fact anything one may plant—gives large returns. Owing to this locality lying in the great cotton belt, and to the large quantities of cotton produced, the usual price per bushel of Indian corn is $1; oats, 90c, and oats will yield from forty to sixty bushels per acre, with the rude implements and tillage here in vogue—a one-horse cast-iron plow, and a small tree top for a harrow. After oats and wheat are harvested the same land is frequently planted in corn, or sown with millet, or Hungarian grass, thus producing two crops a year. Land here is cheap, water is soft and pure, and timber abundant. The rivers abound in fish, and the immense forests in game. I came from Indiana. I have lived here twelve years. Have never seen a case of consumption in the State.