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AIR SHIPS. Problem of Their Construction Receiving Great Attention. Vessels of the Future That Will Sail the Aerial Sea. The problem of air navigation is re ceiving more attention now than ever before. Nor is it “cranks'* only who are working at it. Mechanical engi neers of ability and reputation are de voting time and thought to its solution. That some one wilt work it out at a ■ not very distant day is not at all impos sible, nor even improbable. It is sim ply a question of increasing power with out increasing the weight of the appa ratus by which the power is developed. Just how much the ratio of power to weight must be increased we do not venture to say, but there are no suffi cient grounds for asserting that such increase is impracticable. The solution of the problem may be found in im proved engines and boilers, or in new fuels, or in storage batteries, or in some yet unexplored part of the field of elec trical force. It would be rash to pre dict just how success will be reached, but it would be much more rash to insist that it never will ba reached. The successful airship will, it is safe to say, be a large structure, very light weight compared with its strength, but yet many times heavier than the air which it displaces. The mechanical skill which ha) produced that marvel of lightness and strength, the modern bicycle, will not find the task of design ing such a structure too difficult. Attempts to navigate the air by means of gas-inflated receptacles have been persisted in through a hundred years, but no real success has been reached. Such devices, in spite of all the efforts to make them dirigible, are but as feathers in the wind. All such at tempts are in the wrong direction. A bird can fly—not because it is compara tively light in weight (for it is not) but because it is strong. Its breast muscles by which its wings are operated, are cf immense proportionate size, and the rapid circulation of its blood supplies these muscles with abundant stores of energy. Of all living creatures the vital energies of the bird are the most in tense, and it is, therefore, able to pro- V.ducc the power required to sustain its body in and propel it through the air. A Western inventor proposes to solve the problem by means of an immense cylinder 500 feet long and 100 feet in diameter, from the inside of which the air is to be exhausted in order to lighten w it. The plan will not bear investiga- air in such cylinder would ,about 150 ._C.steiuiin.fc would bo (theoretically) pump out about 200 the cylinder itself, made of quarter- inch steel without any internal bracing, would weigh at least 1,200 tons. Com pared with this the weight of the air is insignificant—hardly more than that of the food in a pigeon’s crop compared , with the weight of its entire body. And as to exhaust the air from the cylinder would at once subject it to a pressure of considerably over 3,000,000 pounds from the outside atmosphere the scheme appears rather wild. Much less open to adverse criticism is the plan suggested by Mr. E. C. Stcdman years ago in the then Scribner's Monthly Mag azine, which was to fill all the hollow spaces in the proposed air ship with hydrogen gas. This gas, at normal pressure, would sustain the pressure of the atmosphere, while its weight is only one-fourteenth that of air. The notion that aluminum, because of its lightness, may make aerial naviga tion possible, is a mistaken one. That metal has only about one-third the strength of steel and no special advan tage could be gained from its use. The successful air ship will not be a bag of gas nor an exhausted receiver, but a structure having the strength of steel and carrying machinery of compar atively little weight, but capable of de veloping enormous power. It will lift itself from the earth anl hold a level flight through space because of the tre mendous force with which the air is beaten by its huge whirling oars, or the blades of its swiftly revolving screws. It will be able to maintain its course against those currents of the aerial sea, the wind. And it is not unlikely that the first successful voyage through up per air will mark the farthest limit of man’s achievement in his struggle of the ages to subdue the realm of nature and bend to his own uses its most un tamable forces. There will then be no new field for the mechanical engineer to conquer.—Railway Master Mechanic. Facta Regarding Babies. In the course of a lecture delivered in few Orleans the other d iy a distin- ;uished female physician said that the nability of a baby to hold up its head vas not due to the weakness of the leek, but to the lack of development of ts will power. The act of standing vas instinctive and initiative, while acial expression and gesture were due dmost wholly to imitation. A baby’s mile, she said, was the most misunder- tood thing in infancy. A real smile nust have an idea bahind it, but the expression resembling a smile, which is io often seen on a very young baby’s lace, was without an idea, and was due :o the easy condition of the stomach or to socte other physical satisfaction. The smile with an idea does not appear earlier than the fourth week. So, too, with the crying of a baby. The con tortion of the features is due to physi cal causes. The baby sheds no tears, because the lachrymal glands are not developed for several weeks after birth. The chief pleasure of all children is to change from one ccmdition to an other by their own efforts. This is the beginning of the development of the will power, and is often attested in what has been called the “imperative intention of tears.” This is not dis closed until after the second or third month. A baby tests everything by its mouth, its sense of taste being the surest and most reliable guide it has. The atten tion of all young children is difficult to attract, and they m ist attain considera ble age before they begin to notice. Then colors and sounds are most poten tial. Fear has been known to be mani fested by a baby only three weeks old, and in all cases the sensation is pro duced by sound more than by sight. Children of luxurious and carefully guarded homes are almost wholly with out fear, but the children of poor and exposed parents always manifest it. Jealousy and sympathy begin to mani fest themselves in the second year. Cu riosity also begins to develop here, and proves to be a self-feeder throughout childhood. A little later the ego be gins to appear, and the baby has the first consciousness of itself. The ego first appears as a muscular sense, and the infant gradually learns to distin guish itself from surrounding objects. It is fi:st the hand that is distinguished and then the foot and finally the whole body. Memory does not appear before the child is two years of age. All the rea soning of children is primitive and ele mentary, and develops slowly. Darwin noted an association of ideas in the mind of his child when it was only five months of age. The lecturer related experiences of babies with the first view of mirrors, and showed that their actions under the new conditions were similar to those of anthropoid apes and dogs under like conditions. Bibtcal Relics in Damascus. Damascus is so fortunate as to possess the tombs of three of Mohamet’s wives and of Fatimah and the tomb of Saladin, which Nicolas of Russia in 1867 found in a bad condition and re stored at a cost of $16,000. But no name is connected with Damascus of equal importance in history with that of Saul of Tarsus, who on his journey to the city saw the “brightness above the midday sun,” and underwent the mirac ulous transformation from the persecu tor to the earnest advocate of the Chris tian faith. The street called is uuny lev* BITOV mu—revei' present thdroughfare of that naife, which is the straightest avenue I saw in any Eastern city.' The house of Ananias, the house of Judas, the very fountain where Paul was baptized and the place where he was let down from the wall, in a basket, are shown, but hardly satisfy the critical or roman tic interest of the tourist. The Christ ian population in the city is about 12, - 000, most all of which belongs to the Greek communion. The Catholics have some flourishing schools and five build ings. Excellent Protestant schools are conducted by the British Syrian Mission and the Mission of the Irish Presbyter ian church. The Rev. M. Phillips, of Ireland, and a missionary for twelve years in Damascus, told me that the Mohametani would be accessible if the espionage and opposition of the govern ment were withdrawn. As it is there are groups who study the Scriptures in secret.—Mail and Express. Alaska Currents. The dried currant-like fruit frequently referred to by travellers in Alaska as gathered by the Indians in immense quantities, is not a true currant, but the berries of the Shepherdia argentea, a large shrub known in our Northern States and Territories as the Buffalo berry. A correspondent residing at Fort Wrangle, Alaska, writes us that this is about the only native edible fruit of the country, and the Indians appre ciate it so highly that they gather and dry it for winter use, the berries not only serving as an agreeable acid sauce, but no doubt adding much to the health of the consumer. While this handsome and prolific shrub is a native of the colder regions of the Rocky Mountains from New Mexico northward to Alaska, it also thrives in the gardens of our eastern cities and their suburbs, where it has been sparingly cultivated for the past half century, and perhaps for a longer time. SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS. Wot balloons are being made in Eng- 1 land for the French army. Parachutes have been adopted in Ger many for campaigning purposes. An average of five feet of water is es timated to fall annually over the whole earth. An Italian engineer has successfully presented the incrustation of steam boilers by the use of sugar. There is quite an agitation on this side the water in favor of metal ties in stead of depleting our forests year by year. The electrical treatment of sewage bids fair to give sanitary engineers one of the most valuable improvements sub mitted to them in a long time. English authorities have concluded that dynamic cooling, if not the sole cause of rain, is at all events, the only cause of any importance, all other causes being either inoperative or relatively in significant. Worcester, Mass., has a factory for the manufacture of corrugated steel barrel hoops, lately invented, which are said to be elastic, and hug barrels oi 1 packages tightly. They are welded in two seconds. It is pointed out that when much dust is present in the atmosphere the heat of the sun is greatly absorbed, hence it seems probable that dust particles may aid in the formation of fogs in another way than by acting as nuclei. Professor Elisha Gray remarks that electrical science has made a greater ad vance in the last twenty years than in all the 6000 historic years preceding. More is discovered in one day now than in a thousand years of the middle ages. A Lewiston (Me.) paper says: “A method of distinguishing the mushroom from the poisonous toadstool is said to be by sprinkling salt on the under side. If it turns black the mushroom is good; if yellow, it is poisonous. Time should be given the salt to act. ” It has been noticed that a jet of com pressed gas inflicts upon the body an injury of the same nature as a burn. Dr. B. W. Richardson has accordingly suggested the use of compressed gas— carbonic acid as most convenient—as a cautery, with advantages in removing warts, etc. The fastest locomotive employed in carrying the Scotch mail, where the highest rate of speed in England is at tained, has three cylinders, a new de parture in locomotive building, and a seven-feet driving wheel. It has been made specially for high speed with heavy trains. The wiring of the ' Parliament Build ing in Vienna has been quite ingeniously accomplished, the princij > mngn^|MflBHHHHIH3f>y'ventilat- through ing the maom^^^Bii^ftons on the walls to remain uninjured. An artesian well in North City, a suburb of St. Augustine. Fla., is said to have the largest flow of any artesian well in the world. It is an eight-inch well, and its flow exceeds the highest expectations. From a measurement made by Dr. J. E. Rainey, the flow ex ceeds 8000 gallons per minute, or over 11,500,000 gallons every twenty-four hours. While we expect to find the ears upon the head in the larger animals, we look in vain for tho same arrangement in the lower invertebrate creatures. Many of these, like the scallop, have no head; others, like crabs and lobsters, have no ears placed on their horns or attennse; others, like the green grass hopper, have the ear on the foreleg; others, like the fresh-water shrimp, have it on the tail. A Safety Coffin. One of the most curious inventions of 1868 was that of a safety coffin, intend ed to obviate the results of premature burial, and invented by M. Ycster, a German. The coffin was made larger than required by the size of the body; it had at the head a movable lid, com municating with the open air by means of a square trough from the bottom of the grave. The arrangement was such that a person might thus readily escape from the tomb. Tne inventor proposed to place refreshments in the coffin as a prudent precaution against starvation! Mettlesome. “I showed ’em the mettle I was made of.” 4 *What did you do that for? Hadn’t they ever seen brass before?” Effects of Meat. How is it that so far higher a temper, ature of air can be borne by the human body than of water? When the body is exposed to a very high temperature the amount of exhalation from the sudorif erous ducts is immensely increased, and it is on account of the rapid evapora tion which takes place that persons have been able to endure for several minutes a temperature greatly exceeding that of boiling water. The amount of vapor that is lost from the body under these conditions amounts to from two to four pounds an hour. A much greater ele vation of temperature can be tolerated with impunity in dry air than m moist. A familiar instance is that of the Rus sian vapor bath (moist air) and the Turkish bath (dry air). In the former a temperature of 130 decrees Fahren heit is almost unbearable, while ia the case of the latter a temperature of ICO degrees to 200 degrees can be boine without danger. A hot-water bath of 110 degrees to 150 degreei would be absolutely unsafe, and would tcud to scald, the pores of the skin being nuable to properly fulfill their evapora ting functions in water of this tempera ture. Tiilett record; an instance where a young girl remained in an oven for ten minutes without inconvenience at a temperature of 324.5 degrees. Dr. Blagden found that 211 degrees could bj easily borne. Chabert, who exhibited as the “Fire King,” is said to have entered ovens at from 400 degrees to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. In such cases as these the body is protected from the radiated heat by ^ifaiing; the air is perfectly dry, and the animal heat is kept down by the excessive exhalation from the surface of the skin. PEARLS OF THOUGHT. ; The sting of reproach is the truth of it. \ Vows made in storms arc (forgotten ia calms. Envy shoots at other^-Aind wounds herself. \ Youth and white paper so)m make an impression. / Zeal without knowledge? is like fire without light. A goosequill is more dangerous than a lion’s claw. Beware of a silent dog an$ a wet rat. I What we call time enough always proves little enough. History is not fable agreed upon, but truth disagreed upon. Remember impertinence isn’t wit, any more than insolence is brilliancy. A little seeing saves much looking; a little speaking saves much talking. He who waits to do a great good at once will seldom do anything at all. Gratitude is the music of the heart when its chords are moved by kind ness. Fortunes are made by taking oppor tunities;. character is made by making them. Don’t indulge in the luxury of strong opinions in the presence of your elders and betters. If young men will not believe in themselves, no man or woman can be lieve in them. Edison's Home Life. Thomas A. Edison, the great inven tor, while in Pittsburg recently, was interviewed by a Dispatch reporter, to whom he revealed some of the charac teristics of his mode of living: Yes, I am a hard worker. I hardly ever sleep more than four hours per day, and I could keep this up for a year. Sometimes I sleep ten hours, but I don’t feel well when Ldg, If I could sleep eight hours, as most men do, I would wake up feeling badly. My eyes would hurt me, and I would have a tough time to keep awake. I inherit this from my father. He is a remark able old man, eating little and sleeping less. I have often known him, when I was a boy, to sit up all night talking politics with a friend or swapping sto ries. I eat about a pound a day, and my food is very simple, consisting of some toast, a little potato, or something of that kind. You know when I am work ing on anything I keep at it night and day, sleeping a few hours with my clothes on. I never take them off; don’t even wash my face; couldn’t think of such a thing, dad in this .condition I take my meals. IFSf werq^o remove niv 1 ay den in myself in re morning to work Isis all the ts of fun in e ago I had n the incan- building. I feeling out of sha{S to go to work. 4 6” the laboratory, am. I there and hu;tle. I sleep from 1 to 6 in and then 1 jump up and again as fresh as a bid. sleep I need. But I tell you we hve the laboratory. Son* til 42 men working with me descent lamp in the »ig hired a German to plar an organ for us all night and we worked 1 y the music. About 1 o’clock a farmer brought in our lunch and wo ate from a long table. At first the boys had some difficulty in keeping awake and would go to sleep under stairways and in the corners. We employed watchers to bring them out, and in time they got used to it. After awhile I didn’t need forty-two of them and I discharged six of them. Well, do you know, I couldn’t drive them away. They stayed there and worked for nothing. Oh, we enjoy this kind of life! Every now and then I hire a bigj schooner and we go down the bay, my men and my- self, to fish for a few days. Then we come back and buckle down to it again. The True Eating Banana. The true eating banana^or “madura, ” is said to be unknown in Northern coun tries, the varieties we import being sim ply those which are used in the land of their growth for cooking purposes. Many varieties of the madura are recog nized, each of which is distinct in flavor; the smaller are the more deli cious, and’ the smallest of all, the so- called “lady-finger banana,” with a skin hardly thicker than paper, is the moijt highly prized. Green cooking bananas are peeled and roasted in the ashes and eaten with butter; partially ripe ones are boiled for a few minutes with the skin on and eaten with syrup or honey; and ripe ones are sliced lengthwise and fried in olive-oil or but ter. Seeing the Wind. Take a polished metallic surface of two feet or more, with a straight edge; a large hand-saw will answer the pur. pose. Select a windy day, whether hot or cold, clear or cloudy| only let it not rain or the air be miurky—in other words, let the air be jlry. Hold the metallic surface at righjt angles to the wind, i. e., if the wind is north, hold your surface east and west, and incline it at an angle of abojit forty-five de grees, so that the wind jstriking, glances and flows over the edge. Now sight carefully over the edge : at some minute and clearly defined object, and you will see the a»r flow over as water flows over a dam. The World-Old Question. Joy, shame, disaster, passion, love and grief— Pray what are these to him who stands alone Within the desert of a shadowy world, And marks the shadow of his own life fall Across the sands that hold no footprint yet? To him. that shadow is so great, it fills The widest margin of the earth and sky; And yet he questions: Is he grain of sand. Or shadow vague, amii the shadows there, And all the grains of sand? —David A. Curtis in Drake's Magazine. HUMOROUS. There is one good thing about a pig. He noses business. Even the golden rule is only electro plated in these days of sham. ‘•Uncle,” said a sweet girl of eighteen, “is love blind?” “Yes, my dear, when the other party is rich, ” an swered he. The base-bal 1 player has no fear of his cheek. That is hard and durable. He puts on the muzzle to save his nose and front teeth. Prudent Lover: I have a vital secret to confide in you, which you must promise to forever hold sacred. Kind Parent: What is your secret? Prudent Lover: I want your daughter’s hand in marriage. Kind Parent: I shall never give it away. It is wonderful when you think of it what a large number of men have start ed out into the world without a penny and have worked their way up so that they are now nearly as well off as when they first started out. Husband—‘ ‘Well, my dear, what did the magnetic physician say to you?” Wife—“He says I am a sick woman, and that my nervous system is not in equilibrium. He says I am too posi tive.” Husband—“Humph! I could have told you that and saved a couple of dollars.” FROK FAR Aim MR. Unusual Occurrences in Tarions Parts of the Country. Haymaking in Finland. A curious way of making hay is very generally adopted by tho Fins. Poor men who own no meadows have long been accustomed to cut what grass they can find in the forest glades and other waste lands. Owing to the lack of roads and farmsteads the hay was stuffed among the branches of neighbor- ing trees to await the winter frost and snow, when it could easily be carried off by sledges. After a wet season some farmers noticed that this was actually better in quality than that which they themselves had made from much better grass. The wild crop, so to call it, had dried much better in the tree branches exposed to a free circula tion of air than the rich herbage which bad laid long on the sodden ground. Hence it occurred to them to make tghich their own dried. * " 1 ■ >riment was attended by such success that the plan has been widely imitated, and bids fair entirely to sup plant the old-fashioned methods. After the mowing is done a number of poles about ten feet in length, and provided with long transverse pegs, are set up at intervals, and the grass is loosely heaped upon them. The result is said to be excellent. Even in wet weather only a small portion forming the outside of the pile is discolored, while the inne r portions, exposed to the air beneath and protected from the rain above, are dried in perfect condition. Mowing can be carried on in spite of wind and rain, and when once the grass is placed upon the drying poles it may be left without fear of serious damage until the weather changes.—Mark Lane Express. The President Lays the Comer Stone of a Veteran’s Monument. A dispatch from Indianapolis, Ind., says: A crowd of 50,000 visitors surged into th« Hoosier capital, the occasion being the dedi cation of the Soldiers’ and Sailors' Monument of Indiana. Such a jam of .curious, pushing and hungry people had never been known be fore in this quiet city. Gay bunting, flags and streamers lent a true holiday aspect to the scene. The pub lic buildings and the downtown business blocks were arrayed from roof to sidewalk fn fantastic colors. ‘ The parade was the finest ever witnessed In the city. The column began to move at one o’clock and was composed of members of the Grand Army of the Republic and local military organizations. About five thousand men were in line. One of the most imposing features was the cavalry escort of 1000 men. The procession was very compact, taking ;just forty-five minutes in passing. ' Thousands thronged the line of march. They waited patiently, however, until the hacks bearing, the Presidential party and State officials came in sight. In the carriage was seated the Chief Ex ecutive, accompanied by Governor Hovey .and Mayor Denny. The President occupied jtberear seat alone. Behind the President came a carriage bear ing Secretary Rusk, Attorney-General Mil ler, Private Secretary Halford and Mr. (William B. Roberts, the Governor’s private secretary. ! It was nearly three o’clock when the head of the procession reached the monument. After addresses by the President of the Monu ment Association and others, several volumes of war history and reports and divers medals wore deposited in the corner-stone, and pat riotic hymns were sung, j Governor Hovey, as presiding officer of the occasion, made a brief address, and he was (followed by General M. D. Manson, of Crawfordsville, and General John Coburn,of Indianapolis. At the conclusion of the latter’s address President Harrison was in troduced to the assemblage, and after the applause which greeted him had ended he made a brief response. i At the conclusion of the President’s speech General Rusk, Attorney-General Miller, and (Private Secretary Halford spoke briefly. , The monument will be built of light gray volitic limestone from the Stinesvule. Ind., quarries. When completed it will be 268 feet high. On the north and south sides will be wide steps of stone, seventy feet in length, leading to the platform of the terrace, from which the interior is reached by big bronze doors. Above these doors large tablets will be placed, bearing inscriptions commemora tive of the part borne in the war by the dif ferent counties. ’ The monument Is being erected in Circle Park, in the exact geographical centre of the city, and when completed is expected to be the most magnificent and imposing structure of the kind in America. The President held a reception at the Deni son Hotel next morning, and shook hands with fully 5000 people. The Presidential party left for Deer Park on the next afternoon at 3 o’clock. Harrison’s old regiment, the Seventh Indiana, gave him a reception in the morning. Opening the Chippewa Reservation. It is learned upon inquiry at the Interior Department in Washington that the success of the Chippewa Indian Commission, which has just been announced, will result in the opening to settlement of about three million acres of land in Minnesota. The Indians hav ing signed the agreement accepting the termS of the act of January 14, 1889, cede to the United States all the lands comprised with in the following-named reservations, contain-! ing in all 734,934 acres: Leech Lake, 94,440 acres; Lake Winuibagosish, 320,000 acres; MUle Lac, 61,014 acres; Fond da Lac, 100,121 acres; Grand Portage, 51,840 acres, and Bois Earthjrese MCr; ■ reservations as may not Fort, 107,509 acres. / In addition to the reservations named, commission is empowered to secure r< quishment of ’ such parts of Red Lake White. - “ 1 - jwsemm their 2,250,000 acres. The agreement as signed by the Indians must first be approved by the President before it becomes operative, and when so approved the lands may be opened to settlement by Executive proclamation under such terms aud conditions as are pro scribed in the act of January 14, 1889. Three More Eiffel Towers. The idea of building three more Eiffel towers and then turning the four into the legs of a huge platform whereon a sanitarium can be built above the smoke and stir and dust and noise of cities, whither invalids could ascend in search of pure air and seclusion, is being discussed with every appearance of sincerity in Paris. The notion is cer tainly a big one aud worthy of the age which tackles such big undertakings as a Panama Canal aud Channel tunnel, but it will not fall to the lot of invalids of this generation, I fear, or of the next, either, to avail themselves of the aerial sanitarium which is suggested. Death Pilots the First Train. The rear coach of the special excursion train, the first run over the road, conveying the city officials and invited guests over the Knoxville, Cumberland Ga] and Louisville Railroad, jum] during the morning at Term., causing an accident persons were killed, two fatally and several others seriously injured. The coach went over a trestle twenty-five feet in height. Those killed were: George Andrews, ex- Judge Supreme Court: 8. T. Powers, mer chant; Alexander Reeder, ex-sheriff. The rear coach jumped the track on a road crossing fifty yards from the tressle and ran over the ties to the middle, where it turned over and fell to the bottom of the creek, twenty-five feet. The scene was horrible. Country people and physicians did all they could to alleviate the suffering, as well as those of the party who were not injured. The dead and wounded arrived in Knox ville, Tenn., at seven p. M., and were con veyed to their respective homes. THE LABOR WOBLD. “ Bricxlaykrs in London are prospering. Ths Paris Carpenters’ Union is 600 year* aid. A knittixo mill is to be built at Madison, Fla. Ths fire-brick makers in the West are vary busy. Nsw York painters get $3.50 for nine hours. Bostoh councils appropriated $1000 for La bor Day. California bricklayers work nine hours and get $5.50. Ths canal payroll of New York State con tains 1200 names. Harvest hands in Oregon demanded $3 a day and board, and got it. Ths Cambria Iron Company,of Johnstown, Penn., has 3500 men at work. Laborers are arriving in large numosrs to work on the Nicaragua CanaL Ths national convention of brewery em ployes is to be held in Cincinnati Thhre isa great depression in the clothing making trade among the workers. There are 1500 oo-operative unions is Eng land, containing 992,428 members. Floods have interfered with manufactur ing operations all over the country. Farm hands in France earn a little over a dollar a week and manage to save oat of it. Cuban planters are straggling for good field hands. The wages demanded are very high. . * More than 10,000ConneUsviUe (Penn.) ooke ovens are now being worked under the nsw scale. Thsrs are indications that the centraliza tion of American labor organizations will be effected. The 10,000 washerwomen of Paris have formed a union. They will demand seventy- five cents a day. Ths demand for sailors is brisk just now,) able seamen getting $20 and ordinary sea men $15 a month. p Thirty thousand persons, mostly foreign ers, are employed in manufacturing tobacco In New York city. Ten years ago Indianapolis bricklayers made twenty-two cents per hour; to-day they make forty-five cents. i The Labor Conference which was to iiavo been held at Berne, Switzerland, has been postponed until next spring. “ The mining troubles in Illinois and Indiana! are far from being settled. Great distress continues among the operatives. i Nearly every strike of recent occurrence has been of short duration and has ended in. the virtual victory of the strikers. ) Chicago skilled hardwood finishers make from $2.25 to $3 per day. Painters get from twenty to thirty-five cents per hour. The workmen in some parts of the country are combining and employing physicians to attend them at so much per 100 or 1000 families. The tailors of Salvador, South America,; have signed a petition requesting the Govern ment to prohibit the importation of ready , made clothing. The Chicago City Council has authorized the Commissioner of Health to employ flvai female sanitary police to inspect factories and tenements. It is estimated that there are in London 314,000 persons wholly dependent on casual labor, and nearly 1,000,000 who never go in side of a church. Ths National League of Musicians is about to adopt an insurance system, under which the heirs of each deceased member shall be entitled to $500. Thomas Dklwort’h, a colored American Who was once a slave in the Southern States,. Is now President of the Builders’ Laborers of St. Catharines, Canada, i In a good many tailoring shops In New York and Boston, persons work from four teen to eighteen hoars a day. A good many earn only from $2 to $3 per week, i Georgia and South Carolina have between them 126 cotton mills, 873,728 spindles, 21,30$ . This is by 130,000 more spindles and i more looms than the entire South con tained in 1880. At Glenarm. on the coast of Country Antrim, Ireland, there are \ whiting mills which give employment to Pearly half ths population. Whiting is imslacked lime ' dovfe and cleansed> The wages at -^1 A Breathing' Well. A breathing well has been discovered near Eagle Flat Station, 110 miles east of El Paso, Texas. It is an abandoned artesian well, 800 feet deep. bu<, the tubing is still intact in it. For twelve hours each day a furious gu;t of air ru hes into the tubing, and the next twelve hours an equally strong gust rushes out. This occurs with the ut most regularity, aud, so far. no break has been noticed in the regular occur rence. Smallest Church in the World. The smallest church in the world is said to be the Catholic church at Tadousac, Canada, at the mouth of the Saginaw river. Its extreme capacity is not more than twenty people. This church is supposed to have been ro anded by Jacques Cartier. Ingenious. “Ah, madam,” said the tramp, 4, I haven’t had a mouthful for two days.” “Why, I gave you a whole pie yes terday!’’ “So you did, mum—so you did. But the two days I refer to are today and to morrow, mum.”—Bazar. Met Death in a Tunnel. A terrible accident was reported from Buck ley’s Mills, Russell County, Va. A railroad tunnel is being carried through a big hill ai that point and a large number of men art employed. On this fatal day a blast con taining eighty pounds of giant powder wai fired, but the charge failed to explode. A gang of men went back to the blast and started to drill the tamping out; In order to insert a new fuse. While thus engaged the charge exploded and an eighteen-foot drill was hurled through the Skull of one of the men, killing him instantly. The dead were: Michael Dance, head blown off; Joseph Moore, right side and shouldei torn away by rock. The injured, two of whom were likely t« die, are: William Kunz, terribly lacerated by flying rocks; Andrew Martin, leg broken off at the knee; John Ramsey, lost both hands. Mrs. Maybrick’s Sentence Commuted. It is officially announced that the sentence of Mrs. Maybrick, the American lady whe was sentenced to be hanged at Liverpool England, for poisoning her husband, has beer commuted to penal servitude for life. The Home Secretary’s decision is based or the conflict of the medical testimony given ai the trial upon the point whether the quantity of poison administered by the prisoner tohei husband was sufficient to kill. The lawyers and tho judge whom Mr. Matthews consulted were unanimously of the opinion that it wai Mrs. Maybrick’s intention to commit mur der. It is announced from the Home Office that this decision is final, and that no further ap peals for the prisoner’s release, or for th» further mitigation of her punishment will b« entertained. NEWSY G] m. mg England StiO) A Mine Disaster. A terrible explosion of gas, which had ac cumulated after a recent cave-in in the Oly phant mine at Scranton, Penn., was heard early in the morning. General Mine Super intendent Andrew Nicol, Jr., of the Dela- ware and Hudson Canal Company and fom workmen, whose names are Daniel Williams, Richard Mason, John Gavin aud John Jonef were killed. • Engineer and Fireman Killed. A train on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railway was wrecked nine miles south of Moberly, Mo., at five o’clock in the morn ing by running over a steer. Engineer Frank Ritter, of Hannibal, and Fireman George Bennares were killed, and their bodies horri bly mangled. Canada has a population of 4,972,101. The Southern States owe $100,000,000. The big gas wells show no signs of giving wdt. ' Denmark produces 110,000,000 eggs in a year. . Stanley is still nearing the Zanzibar coast. Martial law has been proclaimed in Crete. The gauva crop in Florida this year will be immense. Kansas will produce an enormous crop at peanuts this fall. M. Eiffel makes $8000 a day out of his wonderful tower. The present crop is the heaviest we have had for fifteen years. British millions are still flowing into American enterprises. Heavy losses of peaches are reported on the Delaware Peninsula. The Pennsylvania Company are expending $3,000,000 on freight cars. Georgia has pensioned a colored Confeder ate soldier named Eli Pickett. Carriage horses, only fairly in Buenos Ayres bring $5000 a pair. The average daily production of coal l» 415,335 tons, or 2,492,010 in one week. Wyoming and Idaho will soon ask Congress for tickets of admission to the Union. The damage to the potato crop has been very common through New England. The Centennial at Philadelphia cost $7,000,- 000; the total receipts were $5,000,000. Germany is bent on conciliating in the matter of African exploration. There are 33.000,000 teachers and schol ars in the Sunday-schools of the world. Southern California estimates her honey crop at 2,000,000 pounds for this season. Last year 5000 more vessels went through Long Island Sound than the year before. The first Mahometan mosque ever built in England has just been completed in Lon don. Within the past two months over $38,000,- 000 of specie have been exported from New York. A tunnel is to be pierced through tho Simplon Mountain, between Switzerland and Italy. Seventeen out of the twenty-three surplus graduates from West Point Military Acad emy still await vacancies. The Eiffel Tower at the Paris Exposition was struck by a thunderbolt during a violent storm. No damage was done. During the floods at Salt Lake. Neb., a baby was born while the water was within a couple of feet of the mother’s bed. There were many railway accidents in England, during the summer, said to be due to the increase in the number of excursion trains. A projected canal across tho upper part of Italy, connecting from the Adriatic to the Mediterranean, would take six years to build and cost $125,000,000. Rev. Abram Martin died recently at Beartown, near Lancaster, Penn., aged nine ty-one years. He was the oldest Memionite minister in the country. The Scotch-Irish Society of America, has accepted the invitation of the Scotch-Irish people of Pittsburg, Penn., to hold its next annual congress there next May. It is stated by one of the guides at the Capitol in Washington that fifteen brides an hour is the average number of visits to the statuary hall each day of the year. A serious boat accident lately occurred on the Indus. A party of sixty native when were drowned. Killed Himself and Wife. ’ Emanuel Brooks shot and fatally wounded his wife at Shawnee town, HL, ana then shot himself twice in the head. He then ran 10$ yards and jumpe.l into the Ohio River and wa* drowned. The Statistician of the Department of Agriculture estimates the total value of oxen and other cattle—as contrasted with dairy stock—in the United States to baA14,513,70B lees than the value of the same stock at tha time of closing his report last year. Dairy stock has maintained its value. m m