editors, and reporters. It is still considered unprofessional by most who adhere to a high standard of professional ethics, for lawyers to attempt to influence the bench by procuring the publication of editorials affecting pending litigation; yet this has been done of late by many who occupy high positions at the bar, and profess an exalted standard of morality. If a return to contempt proceedings is deemed too harsh a remedy, why should it not be made indictable to publish any comments other than a fair report upon proceedings pending in the courts? Yet, when we remember the infrequency of convictions for criminal libel, it seems unlikely that many public prosecutors would push such an indictment to trial. A more efficacious remedy is, perhaps, a direct appeal to Caesar. Ye potentates who rule us with your quills, continue to pillory judges and jurymen whose decisions do not meet with your approval. We do not even offer a remonstrance at your then caricaturing the advocate who has done his best to save an unpopular client. But, while a case is on trial and before it has been decided, stand off and confine your strength to the enforcement of fair play. Without your aid no judge can secure it for the accused.-Excerpts from an article by Roger Foster in the North American Review for May. SULTAN ABDUL HAMID.-The Sultan is thirty-eight years old, about the medium height, with dark hair and eyes, swarthy complexion, prominent nose, and slender figure. The lower part of his face is covered by a full, black beard. He is not handsome, but has an intelligent expression. He is progressive for a Turk, and wishes to introduce some of the useful inventions that are known in more civilized countries, but in this he is opposed by his ministers. He has been much struck by the extraordinary progress of the United States in wealth and population in so short a time, and wishes to improve the material interests of Turkey by building railroads and making other internal improvements. At present there are not five hundred miles of railroads in the whole of Turkey. He is contemplating a line from Constantinople to the Persian Gulf, in order to bring to Constantinople the rich products of the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, as well as the valuable commerce of the East Indies, thus making his capital the great distributing center of Europe and Asia, and raising the city to the position which its unrivaled situation gives it on the map of the world-the mistress of the East. Abdul Hamid lives in Oriental seclusion. He is an inveterate smoker, and shows his European taste by smoking cigarettes instead of Turkish pipes. His palace surpasses in beauty and magnificence the rich descriptions in the "Arabian Nights." Passing through a marvelously beautiful gate of green and gold, halls, chambers, and apartments succeed one another, ach and all displaying an airy grace and undreamed-of splendor. The Hall of Jewels contains a dazzling collection of rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and other precious stones, heaped in large basins, while diamonds of great size and pearls of rare loveliness are as plentiful as green peas in June. While the Sultan lives in all the magnificence of Eastern luxury, the people are wretchedly poor. Beggars infest the streets of Constantinople by day, and thieves by night, and, as the city is miserably lighted and the police very indifferent, the robbers have every opportunity to ply their vocation with success and impunity. The salary of the police is nominally $6 a month, but, as even this small amount is seldom paid, they divide the plunder with the thieves. The immense army of ooks, attendants, and others required to keep up the Sultan's large household is a constant drain upon the people. Abdul Hamid's personal expenses are 60,000,000 francs ($12,000,000) a year. His favorite attendant, Kishlar Agra, the Black Eunuch, receives 240,000 francs as his salary, with many rich perquisites. He bears the high-sounding title of Gardien de la Porte de la Felicite. I was in Constantinople on a Friday, on which day, according to an immemorial custom in the East, the Sultan went through the ceremony of going to the mosque. It is called the Mavload, and is attended by all the splendid display so pleasing to the Oriental imagination. A glittering guard of 10,000 picked soldiers, horse and foot, surrounded the Sultan's sacred person, followed by a splendid retinue of ministers, grand viziers, pashas, etc. The Sultan rode a beautiful horse, and passed through the streets, looking neither to the left nor the right. When he arrived at the mosque he descended and entered the vestibule, where he put on the sandals which are required of all who enter a Turkish temple, and passed in. He remained inside about twenty minutes while passages from the Koran were read. He then remounted his horse and returned to the palace. This custom of visiting the mosque is carried out that the people may see for themselves that their emperor is alive and has not been secretly assassinated. This is the only occasion that the Sultan shows himself to the people, and it is a sight which every stranger makes a point to see at least once during his visit to Constantinople. Sultan Abdul Hamid is a true Moslem, and he views with jealous eyes the slow but certain encroachments of Russia upon the Turkish dominions in Europe. He keenly feels the present declining condition of his country, remembering those days when the haughty Grand Vizier of Soliman the Magnificent kept the ambassador of Charles V in his antechamber a whole week waiting for an audience; and when the army of Mahomet II, the conqueror of Constantinople, made all Europe tremble. The most glorious associations of his race are connected with Constantinople. The city is filled with gorgeous mosques built by the piety or pride of his ancestors, and the banks of the beautiful Bosphorus are lined with stately palaces where his illustrious predecessors lived in Oriental luxury. Yet, he knows his position is very insecure, the dagger of a hired assassin may any moment reach him even in the secret recesses of his palace, as was the fate of his uncle, the late Sultan Abdel Aziz; or, that a combination of the great powers of Europe may deprive him of his rich inheritance. So the son of the prophet has a crown pierced with many thorns.-Eugene L. Didier, in the Epoch. THE MISERIES OF LIFE.-The social problems that confront us for solution become more serious as civilization advances. An English writer, Mr. Arnold White, has lately published a book on "The Congested City." It is full of minute investigation and analysis. It reveals to us, in the light of a most painful research, the dark side of life in London. It unveils a fearful picture of human degradation. Proportionately to population, less men and women die annually in London than they did 100 years ago. But the death rate of St. Pancras, an overpopulated district, in 1882, reached 70.1 per 1,000, the average rate for all England being 19.6. Congenital diseases, the adulteration of food, ill ventilation, and crowding in tenement houses, and the curse of strong drink are, Mr. White contends, physical health of a once sturdy people. Baroness Burdett-Coutts has among the festering evils which are destroying the moral stamina and given away over $20,000,000 in charity; but to-day, in England, 800 000 paupers are supported by the state, while 500,000 are begging for alms, and many are dying of starvation. High life is not without its misdemeanArtisans are without work, and the leaders of the ignorant laboring classes are propagating socialistic ideas which, to a pessimistic view, presage a more deplorable condition of affairs. But worse than this, tainted constitutions and brains charged with subtle mischief are, in our author's opinion, "transmitting a terrible inheritance of evil to the next genera tion, there to taint once more a whole community." But we draw the veil. ors. Unquestionably the tragic element in life is real. Optimism cannot supinely blink the fact. We do not see a great deal of the misery of the world, it is true. The webs of poverty, perhaps, are not entangled in our own lives. We naturally shrink from scenes of suffering, and avoid the haunts of poverty and vice. We have our own sorrows, burdens, and cares, which neither the possession of wealth, nor the security of a home, enables us to forego. Human nature is more prone to share its miseries with the world than its riches and gifts. Both selfishness and charity differ in degree and kind. Philanthropy is an easy virtue to practice on a full stomach. The rich man who has dined off a fat capon will not refuse the bones to a starving beggar, or invite him to a Barmecide feas. We live remote from the meaner classes. We select an easy field of labor, and often neglect our public duty in minding our own business. Indeed, we fear the average mortal enjoys too much of what Mr. Arnol White calls "the bovine content" of the English middle classes, and spares himself all that is disagreeable in ministering to the comforts and well-being of the masses. If by any chance he hears the cry of distress which is daily ascending to heaven, he solaces himself with the reflection that, in providing for the wants of those who are nearest him and are dependent on his bounty, he is doing his full duty, and that it is the lanthropists who have leisure and taste for missionary labors to alleviate business of the state to provide for its indigent poor, and the duty of phitheir sufferings But it may be predicted as a hopeful sign that more pure, devoted, noble-minded Christian men and women are engaged in the good cause to-day than in any previous period of the world's history, Their number is increasing. Asylums, hospitals, homes for the aged and indigent, missionary and Bible societies, churches and schools which are flourishing around us, attest the potency of the divine, omnipotent, Christian idea, whence, through struggling ages, was derived the light and the life of our civilization.-Harold van Santwoord, in the Interior. FINANCE AND COMMERCE. A DEMOCRATIC SOLUTION OF THE INDUSTRIAL PROBLEM.-In a conversation with the San Francisco correspondent of the New York Tribune, Senator Leland Stanford explained the subject of the bill introduced in the United States Senate with reference to the formation of the co-oper ative associations. Senator Stanford is one of the wealthiest men in this country, and as a successful business man he may be supposed to take a practical view of that great industrial problem which becomes more and more important with the development of modern civilization. It is, therefore, reassuring to find that he believes neither in the necessary servitude and poverty of the workingman, nor in any form of communism as a remedy for existing evils. He would, no doubt, be quite ready to admit that the plan he proposes is by no means free from difliculties; but the same may be said of every scheme devised by human wisdom in the interest of the masses, and his has at least the recommendation of having been sug gested by experience and observation. Senator Stanford holds that as labor and capital stand to each other as cause and effect, their essential relation is one of harmony and not conflict. All capital is produced by labor, and all remunerative capital employs labor. Hence the capitalist is perforce a benefactor. The majority of men do not and never have originated employments for themselves. The employers have always been a comparatively small class; but this contribution as to the general welfare is of real and immense value. They supply the plant, the raw material, and requisite foresight and skill in management. It is true that from the association of capital and labor the capitalist derives more profit than the laborer does; but it is fair that in addition to the inter est upon his investment he should receive something for the attention render government weak and inefficient; and a weak government, placed in the midst of a society controlled by the commercial spirit, will quickly become a corrupt government. In these three important respects laissezfaire fails. Therefore, the principles for state interference which Professor Adams lays down are three, one corresponding to each of the above evils: 1. The state may determine the plane of competitive action; 2. The state may realize for society the benefits of monopoly; 3. Social harmony may be restored by extending the duties of the state. To use the author's own language,This essay may be regarded as a plea for the old principle of personal responsibility as adequate to the solution of all social, political, and industrial questions; but it is at the same time urged that this principle must be accepted fearlessly, and applied without re[Monopolies], it is claimed, should be controlled by state authority, and it is suggested that the American theory of political liberty will lead men to rely as far as possible upon the efficiency of local governmen's in the exercise of such authority" (pp. 84, 85). In some particulars we find ourselves to differ with the author, both as to principles and as to applications; but his argument is clear and straightforward, and we bear cheerful testimony to its ability and its candor.--Science. serve. . . . GREATER PROSPERITY THAN EVER BEFORE.-At the present time the average rate of wages in the United States in nearly every art which is of any material importance is higher than ever before; higher even, with very few exceptions, than at the worst period of paper money inflation in 1865, '66, and '67. On the other hand, the prices of the necessities of life are lower than they have been since 1840. If we compute wages both in rate and in purchasing power, men of special skill and aptitude who are now occupied as foremen, overseers, or in the very highest departments of the mechanic arts, are 100 per cent. better off than at the date named, for comparison, to wit: 1865-67. The average mechanic or artisan is 75 per cent. better off. The common laborer is 65 per cent. better off. There has been a short period during the last five years when a good many common laborers were out of employment owing to the sudden cessation of railway building between 1882 and 1884. In the same period a very small portion of the operatives in iron works and other artisans · found it difficult to obtain work. The number unemployed was, I think, much exaggerated. That period has gone by. There is work now waiting to be done for every industrious man or woman who will accept the conditions on which it is offered; and those conditions are, as a rule, better than they ever were before, the exceptions being in some of the most crowded parts of a few large cities. If, then, there is want in the midst of plenty, it may neither be imputed to institutions, to an undue share falling to capital, nor to obstructive statutes in any great measure. It is due in most cases either to physical disability, accidental misfortune, or to mental incapacity, or unwillingness to undertake the kind of work that is waiting to be done. Undoubtedly there are many forms of wrong which are now sustained by National or State legislation which tend to a distribution of product which is not equitable, and the wasteful taxation of cities is a prime cause of city pauperism. The common undertaking in order to remedy these wrongs is to promote additional legislation. We might go on in this way, as they did in Great Britain, until at one period in the early part of this century there were 2,000 acts unrepealed on the statute books of Great Britain for the regulation of trade, commerce, industry, and labor. Then came the true remedy, which led Buckle to say something like this: That the greatest progress in human welfare, which has been made in modern times, had come by the repeal of statutes for the regulation and direction of industry, much more than by the enactment of others directed to the same purpose. What is needed is a basis of fact either for the enactment or the repeal of laws. Had the true financial relation of this country to others been fully comprehended at the beginning of the civil war, and had the ability of the people to bear taxation been fully considered, the country might have escaped all the vicious results of the legal-tender act, and, in such event, would doubtless have been free from debt at the present time. Is it not unreasonable to compute the cost of the depreciation of the substitute for true money issued under the name of legal-tender notes at the full amount of the outstanding unpaid obligations of the United States?-Eduard Atkinson, in the North American Review. RELATION OF THE STATE TO INDUSTRIAL ACTION.-Professor Adams has given us a pamphlet that is not only critical but constructive, and it is the ablest monograph that the economic association has yet issued. It is not altogether new, for its substance was read some time ago as a paper before the Constitution club of New York city, and published by the club with the title "Principles that should control the interference of the state in industries." In its present form, however, the argument is both revised and extended. The author's plan of procedure is simple and suggestive. He first takes up the laissez faire theory, analyzes it, and finds it inadequate as a guide in constructive economics, and then develops his own principles for the regulation and limitation of state interference. Professor Adams finds himself unable to follow Mill's dictum that every departure from laissez-faire, unless required by some great good, is a certain evil. He finds the presumption against state activity an insufficient principle upon which to base constructive efforts. He, moreover, regards the modification of the English system of economics for which Professor Cairnes is largely responsible as no improvement. "In its original form, it [English economics] was conclusive as an argument though based upon an erroneous premise; in its modernized form the error of its premise has been corrected, but its conclusiveness as an argument has thereby been destroyed" (p. 25). As modified, the doctrine of laissez-faire cannot lay claim to scientific pretension, and amounts to nothing more than a declaration in favor of the wisdom of conservatism. In seeking to displace this now-discarded principle, Professor Adams finds come obstacles, owing to the general failure to distinguish clearly between laissez faire as a dogma and free competition as a principle. "The former is a rule or maxim intended for the guidance of public administration; the latter is a convenient expression for bringing to mind certain conditions of industrial society" (p. 32). Over against the prevailing English maxim with its presumption in favor of the individual on the one hand, and against the prevailing German maxim with its presumption in favor of the state on the other, the author brings forward this principle, distinct from both, as the starting-point for constructive study: "It should be the purpose of all laws touching matters of business to maintain the beneficent results of competitive action while guarding society from the evil consequences of unrestrained. competition" (p. 35). Unrestrained competition, Professor Adams argues, results in important evils of three sorts. First, it tends to bring the moral sentiment pervading any trade to the level of that which characterizes the worst man who can maintain himself in it. Secondly, it renders it impossible for men to realize the benefits that arise, in certain lines of business, from organization in the form of a monopoly. Thirdly, the policy of restricting public powers within the narrowest possible limits tends to THE SENTIMENT AGAINST STRIKES.-Unmistakably there is a very strong sentiment against strikes. The history of strikes proves this. Public sentiment has not sustained them, however plausible the cause—a sentiment not opposed to labor, but against the doubtful means employed to attain that which, in certain cases, might have been properly considered a justifiable end; and it is not out of place here to remark that the means employed often render obscure and doubtful the end sought-opposing the means often mystifies, if it does not actually prejudice public sentiment against the end desired. The whole of this may be unjust-it may be placing a wrong where a benediction is deserved, yet it is a law governing human actions and the thought that impels action that cannot be overlooked. The popular mind is active and aggressively opposed to idleness. It is always at work and linked, in sentiment, to the working. The active brain and brawn outnumber by far the 1,304,000 which we are told are in idleness. No one will accept the statement that they are in "enforced idleness." The active form in themselves a force favoring effort. The idle excite by their idleness a sentiment opposing idleness and favoring employment. Thus the negative force, which is the unemployed, contributes to the positive force, which is employed energy. Idleness weakens its own cause and strengthens the force which it, in a measure, seeks to oppose. Oppression in any form is intolerable. It is, in the very spirit of things, to be condemned. That there are cases in which it can be complained of is true. This power, whatever monopoly it may consist of, is slowly but surely working its own ruin. There is no one industry, no combination, corner, or pool that can stand against the popular demand and free competition in answer to that demand. An equal adjustment of these unjust conditions is not the idle dream of the economist, not the Utopian vision of the statesman. It is a possibility attainable through the natural order of things-through the proper employment of equitable means and potent and justifiable agencies. There must be a unification of interests, a pacific adjustment of conflicting claims, and the establishment of a brotherhood that is not selfish and clannish and narrow. A broad philanthropy is possible, because it is politic and right. A union of effort and interest and sentiment is possible because it is mutually beneficial. A genial reciprocity is so commendable that it must, in time, appeal to all alike and effect what neither strikes nor oppression have yet accomplished. This does not mean the millennium. It means the reign of common sense-nothing more. The theories of the economist are practical and useful so far as they are based on this. The capitalist who wants the burden wholly cast on labor is wrong and must yield. The socialist who wants labor relieved by a distribution of wealth is pursuing an idle and delusive phantom. Capital, without the strong agency of labor, would be helpless. Labor, without capital, would go hungry and naked. Their interests are mutual, and their advancement will become so when there is a closer union of efforts and affections.-The Current, Chicago. AN ENGLISH VIEW OF AMERICAN FINANCES.-The law requires the banks to lodge in the Treasury of the United States an equivalent amount of legal-tender money of the United States, and this money is held by the Treasury for the redemption of the notes which have not been surrendered and cancelled, and cannot be paid out again. In this way a considerable contraction of the United States currency has been going on. But now a more serious danger still is threatened. For some time past the Treasury has been redeeming bonds at the rate of about $10,000,000 every month; and, if this is continued, the last redemption of the three per cents will be effected on the 1st of July. Then there will remain the fours and the four-and-a-halves-the latter not redeemable until 1891, and the former not till 1907. If, therefore, these bonds are to be paid off immediately, they must be bought in the open market. Both, however, are quoted in the market at a high premium, and it is evident that the Secretary of the Treasury must hesitate before buying at a high premiumwhich would become higher if he appeared as a buyer-bonds which will in the one case become redeemable at par in four years and in the other in twenty years. If, however, the Secretary does not buy in the open market, he has no means of getting out of the Treasury the surplus revenue paid in. For the financial year beginning with July next, the expenditure fixed by the appropriation act is nearly $17,000,000 less than the expenditure of the year to expire in June-that is to say, the ordinary outlay will be lower even than in the current year. But the income is almost certain to be considerably larger, because of the great trade improvement and the high duties upon so many art cles imported. Thus there will, at a moderate estimate, be a surplus revenue in the Treasury upon the year of $100,000,000—probably of considerably more—and until the Congress, which meets in December next, decides upon passing some act for getting this surplus out of the Treasury, there will be no legal method of paying out unless the Secretary goes into the open market and buys at a high premium bonds which by-and-by will be redeemable at par. It will, therefore, be seen that there is grave danger of such an accumulation of money in the Treasury of the United States as will denude the money market of its supplies, and possibly may bring on a severe crisis. A crisis may, of course, be avoided, but it will be so only by a drain of gold from England to the United States; and therefore, unless the Secretary of the Treasury discovers some means not now known for relieving the money market by preventing the accumulation of funds in the Treasury, it is very probable, indeed, that before the summer is out there will be a very rapid rise in the value of money in New York, and probably a severe drain of gold from Great Britain. Under these circumstances it would be well for those who are engaged in the money market not to count too confidently upon a long continuance of cheap and abundant money, and it would be especially advisable for the directors of the Bank of England to seize every opportunity to increase their stock of gold and provide for a contingency which may be looked for as extremely probable.-Saturday Review, London. THE EXPENDITURE OF PROFITS.-Edward Atkinson's address on the "Margin of Profits," made before the Central Labor Lyceum of Boston, He figured before his hearers contains considerable food for reflection. the profits of a cotton mill, with a capital of $1,000,000, making cloth The returns to the owners Mr. annually to the value of $1,100,000. Atkinson found to be $60,000, or 6 per cent. on their money. And the question which he asked his hearers was whether what might be called this u. just proportion of the earnings would conduce more to the welfare of society at large if it were divided equally among the laborers to expend. Assuming that the three owners of the mill would spend one-third of their income, or $20,000 altogether, for needless things-luxuries and indulgences-Mr. Atkinson estimates that this would support, wholly or in part, 170 persons, servants, tradesmen, artists, teachers, gardeners, modistes, and the like. Suppose, said the speaker, you take all the profit and divide it among the 950 mill operatives; then who will support, or help to sup port, the people who profit by the "waste" or "extravagance" of the owners, with their $20,000 income? And this was his deduction: When you take away the profits from the owners and managers of the mill, then all the makers of fine cabinet work, of pianos, of fine paper hangings, all the carpenters and masons who build the better kind of houses, and all the skilled mechanics, of whom there are probably a good many here, who now work for the owners of the mills, and all the teachers and musicians who are employed by them, would be obliged to find some other kind of work. They must either go upon the farms to make more food, or go into the cotton mills to make more cloth. There is food enough and cloth enough already. What should we do with what these men made? In other words, you can't have more than the cat and her skin. Labor now gets the cat, and the owner gets the skin. That's about the end of it. If the wages paid the operatives are all that the business can afford, this reasoning is sound. But if the margin of profits is reduced by extravagant salaries and commissions, or other needless expenditures, it is not ethically right to make 950 men work at prices which barely sustain a meagre existence in order that the "waste" of three men may, in administering to their pride or luxury, help to support 170 others. If nobody had more than $500 a year to spend, or if all the property in the country were equally divided, giving every inhabitant some $275, this would be a very much harder place for workingmen to live in than it now is. A land without accumulated capital is a land which can know neither enterprise nor progress. But this is no reason why labor should not be given a fairer share of the profits of production than some of the workers now receive.-New York World. SOME ALIEN LANDLORDS.-Another immense body of land has been bought in the South by foreign capitalists for speculation. An estimate of the amount of land held by aliens in large bodies was made not long since, and the following list prepared: An English syndicate in Texas...... Holland Land Co., New Mexico..... Sir Ed Reed, syndicate in Florida.. English syndicate in Mississippi...... Marquis of Tweedale....... Phillips, Marshall & Co., London German syndicate...... Anglo-Amer. syndicate, London........ British Land Co. in Kansas........................ ........................... .................. ........................... ..................... Bengamen Neugas, Liverpool. Lord Houghton in Florida...... 2,000,000 1,800,000 1,750,000 1,300,000 1,100,000 750,000 700,000 422,000 320,000 310,000 300,000 530,000 247,000 120,000 100,000 Lord Dunraven in Colorado....... ........................... ........................... ........................... .................. ........................................... A. Peel, M. P., Leicestershire, England... ....... A. Boysen, Danish Consul, Mil....................... ........................... ......................... Missouri Land Co., Edinburg..... for. ....20,777,000 -Albany Courier. CO-OPERATION AND WOMEN'S WORK.-To endure, the co-operative system must rest upon merit and the unbidden consent of its promoters. If a member's talent and services are worth to the institution five thousand dollars a year, pay him five thousand a year; if five hundred dollars a year, pay him five hundred dollars a year. Otherwise talent will seek elsewhere for a proper remuneration for its efforts. Let not the institu tion seek to hedge itself in by special privileges and laws. The rights of man demand equality for all; indeed, the truly brave and noble ask simply for justice, not for advantage of a fellow-citizen in the struggle for bread. The proposition, "To secure for both sexes equal pay equal work," is sound to the core. To impose less favorable conditions upon feeble woman than upon robust man is the greatest refinement of barbaric cruelty. Humanity blushes at so great a wrong; yet the world in all ages has been guilty, is guilty, of the outrage. Society as constructed pampers man, bestows upon him the fat of the land, licenses his will to go unbridled, and smiles with complacency upon his follies and wrongdoing, while it awards woman but a crust for her toil, sets spies upon her footsteps, and pronounces her an outcast for stepping in her need over the prescribed line. It is high time that such an umpire shall "step down and out." Where much is required, let much be granted. If respectability in all things is required of woman, then in the name of all that is just and sacred grant her the means of maintaining that respectability. If favoritism is to be shown to sex, let it be to the weaker, never forgetting that it is the sex of our mothers and sisters, wives and daughters. Poverty is one of the great sources of crime. Let not, then, starvation wages be any longer a cause of female poverty, the stepping stone of female hoodlumism.-Irvin M. Scott, in the Overland Monthly. RIBBONS.-It is known that the manufacture of ribbons was fairly HOW THE TARIFF AIDS THE NATION.-This policy of encouragement to OUR SUBTERRANEAN WEALTH.-The subterranean wealth of the United States is becoming absolutely fabulous. When our country was first settled there was very little thought of the wealth beneath the surface. Farmers were content with their grass, their crops, and their forests. It is gradually becoming as common to dig far below as on the surface for the treasure which God yields to man for his labor and the sweat of his brow. It was twenty years after the Constitution of the United States was formed before the anthracite coal on our hundreds of millions of acres was used for general fuel purposes; and it was seventy years before the discovery of petroleum, which is making our country the veritable illuminator of the world. Now we have gold and silver and iron and copper and salt and marble and granite without measure; and, finally, we have discoveries of gas wells which are so fabulous in their value and their possibilities that the mind stands aghast at the future wealth of the| United States.-Milwaukee Wisconsin. NOTES. Great Britain, it seems, has determined to furnish Canada and Australia with navies of their own, independent of the regular imperial navy, but the colonies named will each have to pay about $600,000 per year for ten years as their share of the expense. A bill has been introduced in the Illinois legislature limiting the amount any person or corporation may take by descent or will. The limit is fixed at $500,000 in money or 1,500 acres of land each to a surviving wife, child, or corporation. Any surplus goes to the State. One branch of the New York legislature has passed a bill prohibiting the use of car stoves in passenger trains after the 1st of January, 1888. This will give time, if the measure becomes a law, for all the railroads in the State to make the necessary changes before the prohibition takes effect. The Rhode Island legislature has already passed a similar law. The most hideous industry in this country is a snake farm near Galton, Ill. The proprietor raises snakes of various kinds, but makes a specialty of rattlesnakes. A firm in Philadelphia has given a standing order for all the rattlesnakes the farm can produce. They are worth $2.25 each when they attain a length of four feet. These snakes are bought to be stewed into an oil which is advertised to cure rheumatism. There is now little doubt that 1887 will be the biggest building year that this country has ever known in railroads, factories, and other houses. It is now estimated that 21,000 miles of new and 19,000 miles of old railway track will be laid this year-thus affording the iron furnaces and steel rolling and rail mills an abundance of work. The cost of these railroads The Philadelphia Press says: "If a sharp contraction had been shown by last week's return there should have been alarm. As it is, and joined to the favorable showing of the Treasury made last week, there is nothing in the situation beyond the suggestion that a busy and speculative season is absorbing all the loanable capital available, and that general business has absorbed the very large additions made to the currency in circulation during the past eight months." So low were the funds in the public treasury of the United States at the close of 1789 that the attorney-general and several congressmen were indebted to the private credit of Alexander Hamilton, their Secretary of State, to discharge their personal expenses. President Washington was obliged to pass a note to Tobias Leer, his private secretary, to meet his household expenses, the note being discounted at the rate of two per cent. per month, and Members of Congress were paid in due-bills. The conveyance has at last been executed of all the residuary estate of Samuel J. Tilden to the Tilden Trust. It conveys probably over $5,000,000. The Tilden Trust undertakes in the same instrument to apply the property so conveyed to the purpose of the establishment and maintenance of a free library and reading-room in the city of New York, and to reserve a sufficient sum out of the property to secure against loss any of the other trusts appointed by the will from any shrinkage of securities. It is reported that the present condition of the Western loan business has prevented Western capitalists from making further investments in these securities, and that money is being gradually withdrawn from the companies negotiating these loans. The business has undoubtedly been overdone, and the inevitable results must follow. Legitimately continued, however, there is no doubt concerning the consideration to be given these securities; when the investor is protected legally the investment can be safely and profitably made.-Augusta (Me.) Journal. By his employes Mr. Geo. W. Childs is fairly idolized; yet he demands of every man the full measure of his duty, but he pays the best of wages. His rule is that every man should receive more than enough for a livingreceive a compensation enabling him to lay something by for a rainy day. He encourages thrift and providence among all in his employ. He surrounds them with every comfort, introduces for their benefit every appliance conducive to health, and annually, at Christmas-time, every person in his employ is substantially remembered.-Washington Craftsman. Of the thirteen islands constituting the Hawaiian group, eight are inhabited. The population of the islands has so steadily decreased in the little more than a century since Captain Cook visited them that it is now estimated at about 80,000. Of these about one-half are natives of the islands, the balance being made up of 17,000 Chinese, 2,000 Americans, 1,300 English, 10,000 Portuguese, and handfuls of other nationalities. The trade of the kingdom foots up about $13,000,000, $9,000,000 being exports. More than ninety per cent. of the trade of the islands is with the United States. In ten months the exports of wheat and flour have amounted to 130,000,000 bushels. Much will depend on the next report of the Agricultural Department as to condition. Of the current cotton crop, eight months have seen 6,254,000 bales come to market against 6,286,000 fast year, so that the crop will not vary greatly. Of this amount there has been exported 4,134,000 bales; taken by the Southern mills 331,000 bales, and by the Northern mills 1,438,000. This is an increase for the Southern mills of 50,000 bales, and a decrease for the Northern of 145,000. The revenue of the United States for 10 months is $27,000,000 in excess of that for the same period last year-$20,000,000 from duties and $7,000,000 from miscellanceous sources, the internal revenue holding about the same. The decrease of the debt during April was $13,000,000, and for 10 months was nearly $84,000,000, and will considerably exceed a round $100,000 for the fiscal year. The tide of immigration pouring into the country is immense, and probably the increase in the miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury is due to increasing land sales.—Springfield Republican. When will the English delusion about the redemption of Confederate bonds come to an end? The committee of the English holders tells its constituents that "public opinion in the United States is now favorable to a considerate discussion of the Confederate debt, and a footing of incalculable importance has been obtained in the United States Congress." This would be important if true, which it is not. The United States will never burden itself with the debt of the defunct Confederacy. The South does not love the lost cause well enough to raise a subscription to pay the debt, and it really is under no obligation, moral or legal, to do 80. The continued payment of the interest and the ultimate redemption of the bonds were expressly stated to be contingent on the establishment of the independence of the Confederacy.-Boston Transcript. It is expected that Germany will be a large purchaser at the auction of the French crown jewels. Germany is now noted in Europe as the most liberal purchaser of gems and curios for its museums, which it is constantly enlarging. The Parisians are rather nervous over the prospect of Bismarck getting diamonds to be exhibited marked "Crown Jewels of France." The French Government reserves all jewels which, though kept with the regalia, were personal property of monarchs. Napoleon the Great was a steady investor in diamonds. He believed in them. In the strong vaults of the Government were quite recently $120,000 worth of diamonds he bought and put aside against a rainy day. The offer of Mayor Hewitt, of New York, to the workmen employed at his Trenton foundry differs from the various co-operative and profitsharing plans that are being attempted elsewhere. If the proposition is accepted, the development of it will form an interesting chapter in the labor problem that is now arousing such general interest. Its fundamental idea is that capital, as well as labor, is entitled to its recompense, and so he proposes to turn over the establishment to the workmen on a guarantee of six per cent. interest upon the amount of capital so put in their hands. It is, in one sense, a loan to them of the means to enable them to carry on business for themselves, and yet is even better for them than the loan of that amount of money, since the value is in the materials, tools, and machinery that are needed for the prosecution of the work, and also puts in their hands an established business, with a certain amount of already-acquired custom.-Baltimore American. SCIENTIFIC. THE UPRIGHT POSITION IN MAN.-Dr. Guy Hindsdale of Philadelphia has carried out a suggestion of Dr. Weir Mitchell's to a very interesting conclusion (American Journal Medical Science, April, 1887). The suggestion consisted in the desire to record accurately the swaying to and fro and from side to side which every one feels himself involuntarily making when trying to stand perfectly still. Placing the heels and toes together, with the hands hanging from the sides, the head erect, and the eyes directed to a fixed object, a silk thread was attached to the forehead, passed over a pully, and was connected with a rod moving vertically and carrying an index. The index recorded on the smoked surface of a 'revolving drum. A fall of the line on the drum indicated a forward move ment of the head, and an upward line a backward movement. The lateral movements of the head were similarly resolved into the downward and upward tracings of a second index. A third curve recorded the respiration, and a fourth marked seconds. Another method of recording the sway consists in placing a flat piece of cardboard with a smoked surface upon the subject's head, and have him stand under an index free to move up and down in a fixed line. The resulting tracing shows the continuous movements which occurred. This method is coarser than the other, but has practical points of interest for clinical purposes to which it has already been applied. Without exception, all persons, including the most healthy, swayed both forward and backward and from side to side. The first movement is generally the more extensive, and is, on the average, one inch, while the lateral sway averages about three-quarters of an inch in normal adults. The first movement is almost invariably forward, with a counterbalancing movement backward with a tendency towards the right. The rate of the movement shows a rhythmical tendency of about fourteen per minute, with a respiration of about twentytwo per minute. The significance of this rate has not yet been ascer tained, and its constancy suffers many deviations. An interesting observation is the common tendency of falling forwards and towards the right, which at once suggests all the problems of bilateral asymmetry. The suggestion is borne out by further trial; for, while right-handed people almost invariably are inclined to tilt over to the right, of twenty-two lefthanded people, twelve inclined towards the left. This agrees well with the observations that the right arm is heavier and larger than the left, and thus brings the center of gravity on the right side. That this is coordinated with an increased development of the left brain is well made out, and receives its final confirmation in the fact recorded by Flechsig, that more fibers cross over in the pyramidal decussation from the left brain to the right side than vice versa. That the eyes are used to correct these swayings is well proved by the fact that, with the eyes closed, the sway is increased by about fifty per cent. So, also, absence of fixation of the eyes, reading aloud, removal of the shoes and stockings, materially increase the sway. Children sway absolutely more than adults, and there is greater equality in their case between the antero-posterior and the lateral sway. Twenty-five girls showed an average lateral sway of 106 inclres, and an antero-posterior sway of 1.08 inches, which was increased by about forty per cent. when the eyes were closed. Thirty-nine blind persons gave an average lateral deviation of 1.4 inches, and an anteroposterior sway of 1.07 inches, which is about the same as that of seeing persons with closed eyes, thus suggesting that the years of experience have been of no avail in making the blind keep a truer equilibrium than seeing persons momentarily deprived of sight. In deaf-mutes the lateral sway was .93 of an inch, and the antero-posterior .85, which averages became 1.18 and 1.31 with closed eyes. All except two of these (all were right-handed) swayed towards the right. (Incidentally the observation of Professor James, that deaf-mutes were less liable to dizziness than normal persons, was confirmed.) From the clinical side it was found that ether exaggerates the normal sway considerably without producing other peculiarities. In locomotor ataxia (characterized by unsteadiness and uncertainty of the gait) the sway with the eyes open in several cases was observed to vary from 2.26 to 3.75 inches on the antero-posterior line, and from 2.50 to 3.25 laterally. Six observations with the eyes shut show a lateral sway of from 3 to 6 inches, and an antero-posterior sway of from 3 to 7 inches. A case of spastic paralysis showed the deviations almost entirely in the antero-posterior line, while in chorea the difference between the deviations in the two directions is marked, and both are exag gerated (lateral, 1.45 inches; antero-posterior, 235 inches). Dr. Hindsdale justly claims for these observations considerable suggestiveness for physiological research and direct clinical utility.-Science. IS THE PASTEUR METHOD A FAILURE?-On the whole, it seems almost settled that M. Pasteur has not succeeded in finding a cure for hydro phobia after the patient has been bitten, though in such cases, through the effect of his treatment, death may ensue perhaps by the milder, paralytic, instead of by the convulsive or raging form of the disease. That he has communicated a variety of hydrophobia new to the human system we may conclude to be only an opinion, more or less pious, and we ought to add that Dr. Lutaud's opinions expressed in his paper, the Paris Journal de Medicine, of M. Pasteur are by no means pious, but extremely hydrophobia shall be conclusively established it cannot be said that M. violent and partisan. Unless this communication of a deadly form of Pasteur's method is altogether a failure, since the strictly prophylactic use of it may be of great service. It ought to require many years of observation to determine the value of it for this purpose, because time must be allowed for the practice of preventive inoculation to become general, as for small-pox, and the instances of bite by mad dogs are few. For instance, by way of partial illustration, the average number of deaths per annum from bydrophobia in France since the year 1850 is only 30. These are the official figures. M. Pasteur makes it 76, a higher figure than that given officially for any one year, the highest being 66, in the year 1864, alleging the very probable reason that the cases are but imperfectly reported. We are, therefore, unable to account for M. Pasteur's already established confidence as expressed in one of his letters which we reprinted from Science on Tuesday. It seems, however, that the British Royal Commission shares this confidence, as reported in our London letter printed on April 19, and among the members of the Royal Commission are Sir Henry Roscoe, Sir William Jenner, Sir William Gull, Dr. Quain, Mr. Victor Horsley, &c. Our correspondent, it may be remembered, said that Mr. Horsley, as secretary of the commission, "has visited Paris and minutely observed M. Pasteur's method and result. The commission besides have had before them other sources of information, direct and testimonial, and have applied to it the most rigid tests of scientific proof. Their report is not yet printed. It has not, I believe, assumed its final written form. But the commissioners have unanimously come to a positive conclusion. They have convinced themselves that M. Pasteur has made a genuine discovery, and that his method of inoculation is a real cure for hydrophobia. More than this, it is a prophylactic." This sounds conclusive, yet the doubt which M. Pasteur's own letter, above-mentioned, creates is like Banquo's ghost. "I am confident," said he, "the future is ours. The prophylactic treatment of rabies continues to do well. Very, very rarely are there failures, and all in cases where exceptional circumstances appear. There has been but one failure since the 1st of January, and more than five or six hundred cases treated, a multitude having been most severely bitten." "More than five or six hundred" is a strangely unscientific phrase; and if there are so many cases in three months (M. Pasteur wrote on April 1) of persons "snatched from a certain death" by his treatment, how is it that his own estimate of the number of deaths from hydrophobia annually in France, for a generation before his treatment was known, is no more than seventy-six? From this question alone it may be seen how the mystery persists, and how M. Pasteur remains "grand, gloomy, and peculiar, wrapped in the solitude of his own originality." And the whole subject continues involved in mystery and uncertainty. M. Pasteur himself, and Prof. von Frisch; Dr. Lutaud and the Royal Commission symmetrically contradict each other, until the only refuge for plain people would seem to be with those other authorities who deny that there is any such disease as hydrophobia.-New York Evening Post. NEW WAYS OF USING ELECTRICITY.-The history of electricity is being made every day. Invention and discovery are comparatively quiet, and no great advance, like Franklin's proof of the identity of lightning and electricity, or Edison's perfection of the electric lamp, has been recently recorded. On the other hand, there is a wonderful activity in the work of extending the uses of electricity. The improvement of methods, the refinement of machines and appliances, and the bringing of science down to daily work and business moves on so swiftly that the new machine, or the new one of a year ago, is already old. The reduction of refractory ores in electric furnaces, where immense carbons fed by the largest dynamos in the world, give a heat never used before, excited world-wide wonder only a few months since. The welding of metals by electricity, first performed in Boston this last winter, is already half forgotten in the advance of the science in still other directions. Even the very recent railroad accident in Vermont has created a demand for storage batteries for lighting lamps in cars that is so active that every railroad shop in the land is examining new accumulators. Never in the history of any business was there such an eager desire to obtain new machines, new tools, and new methods as in the manufacture of electrical apparatus. |