"THE KNIGHTS ARE BREAKING up."

The Journal of United Labor, July 16.

THIS prophecy so long deferred of fulfillment approaches its realization: "The Knights are breaking up" at last. The Philadelphia Chronicle, in a late issue, notes the approach of their dissolution without one word of sympathy or regret. Others of our esteemed contemporaries seem just as callous to our approaching dissolution, and watch the coming of the fatal moment of the fleeting breath with the same degree of insensibility. It is true, the Knights are breaking up. We are at last forced to acknowledge the truth so long, so stubbornly resisted. We are breaking up— breaking up as the ploughman breaks up the soil for the sowing of new seed. We are breaking up old traditions. We are breaking up hereditary rights, and planting everywhere the seed of universal rights. We are breaking up the idea that money makes the man and not moral worth. We are breaking up the idea that might makes right. We are breaking up the idea that legislation is alone for the rich. We are breaking up the idea that the Congress of the United States must be run by millionaires for the benefit of millionaires. We are breaking up the idea that a few men may hold millions of acres of untilled land while other men starve for the want of one acre. We are breaking up the practice of putting the labor of criminals into competition with honest, industrious labor and starving it to death. We are breaking up the practice of importing ignorance, bred of monarchies and dynamite, in order to depreciate intelligent, skilled labor at home. We are breaking up the practice of employing little children in factories, thus breeding a race deformed, ignorant, and profligate. We are breaking up the idea that a man who works with his hands has need neither of education nor of civilizing refinements. We are breaking up the idea that the accident of sex puts one-half of the human race beyond the pale of constitutional rights. We are breaking up the practice of paying women one-third the wages paid man simply because she is a woman. We are breaking up the idea that a man may debauch an infant girl and shield himself from the penalty behind a law he himself has made. We are breaking up ignorance and intemperance, crime and oppression, of whatever character and wherever found. Yes, the Knights of Labor are breaking up, and they will continue their appointed work of breaking up until universal rights shall prevail; and while they may not bring in the millennium they will do their part in the evolution of moral forces that are working for the emancipation of the

race.

Boston Post (Dem.).

GENERAL MASTER WORKMAN POWDERLY replies with a play upon words to the published report that the Knights of Labor, as an organization, is breaking up through the withdrawal of members and assemblies. He says it is "breaking up as the ploughman breaks up the soil," and in various other ways, which he states at considerable length and with great sarcasm. If the report were worth noticing at all it should have been treated in a different manner. It would be quite possible, if the secession of one-half the membership of the Knights of Labor is not a fact, for Mr. Powderly to give the figures and confound his detractors. That he avoids this, taking refuge in a sort of stump speech of vague generalities will lead to the inference that he cannot deny the statements that have been made. Too much rhetoric has been the bane of Mr. Powderly's organization. In a case so serious as this, he should have replied, if at all, with something more substantial than a pun.

Springfield, Mass., Republican (Ind.).

MR. POWDERLY'S proclamation about the way the Knights of Labor are "breaking up" other things was more ingenious than truthful, according to other sources of information. Not half-the local assemblies voted on the recent changes in the constitution, and it is claimed that even in the vicinity of Philadelphia the attendance is falling off and the members do not pay their dues or observe the boycotts. District assembly No. 126, of Pittsburgh, has issued a general circular to all the assemblies, attacking the general executive board for its treatment of them, and bitterly reviewing the quarrel with district assembly 49 over the Higgins carpet workers.

Boston Transcript (Ind.).

PERFECTLY natural causes have wrought the decline of the Knights of Labor. The order had a strong and prudent man at its head, but his very strength and prudence created opposition among the numerous ele ments in the order who had no conception of what prudence meant. Its fusion of all sorts of workers in a common mass produced many conflicts of interests. This was inevitable, for the advantage of one set of workers was often the injury of another set. The cigar-making walking delegate, with his orders to carpenters and bricklayers, whose interests he knew nothing about, to drop their tools and "go out," became at last as great a nuisance to the workers as he was to the employers. The aggrieved trades began to slough off from the order; the dry-rot that Mr. Powderly's sagacity had kept out of sight began to break out, and a disintegration that was visible set in. The new Federation of Labor is organized on more scientific principles than the Knights of Labor, but it carries within it the seeds of the same disease. It may flourish and become as conspicuous as the Knights of Labor, but it is extremely doubtful whether any organization of diverse and conflicting interests will ever succeed in completely making "the injury of one the concern of all," or of creating a monopoly of labor.

TOIL, THRIFT, TEMPERANCE. Milwaukee Wisconsin (Rep.).

THESE are well said to be three T's which should be engraved on tablets of brass and placed prominently before the members of the Anti-Poverty Society if they desire to better their condition in this life. As wealth can be accumulated only by labor, men who toil honestly and earnestly are in the only path to independence. Thrift means that they shall not squander their earned money on non-essen ials, so that no matter how small may be their earnings, they will save a little, and thus gradually accumulate a handsome surplus. But to toil and thrift they must also add temperance. It is a recognized fact that the people of the United States spend annually $750,000,000 for drink, in the form of whisky, beer, and wine. Of this vast sum it is estimated that the laboring men expend $700,000,000, and to that must be added at least $50,000,000 for tobacco. So long as the laboring men continue to spend such vast sums for the gratification of those appetites they must expect to be shorthanded. Most of them attribute their poverty to the monopolists and capitalists, whereas it is the ogre of intemperance which devours their weekly wages and frequently their little homes. It is a curious feature that the economic orators who are the most popular with the workingmen scarcely ever allude to the three T's as essential to make life more successful to the laborer. Even George, McGlynn, Schilling, and Grottkau never press upon their hearers the fact that the corroding cancer of intemperance is keeping their followers poor and abject. They seem to be afraid to touch this subject, because it contravenes the sensual tastes of man. No possible legislation or division of lands can drive poverty out of the world. But toil, thrift, and temperance in this land of freedom will do more than all things else to banish poverty from the household. An influential Catholic priest in this city has frequently remarked that in his parish the only cause of destitution and suffering in the families of workingmen is intemperance. He could not find an impoverished family in which it was not discoverable that nearly all the earnings were devoted to whisky, beer, and tobacco. The observations of this priest are confirmed by clergymen of every denomination throughout the United States, and by the criminal judges who have cognizance of breaches of the peace caused by drunkenness and disorderly conduct. When workingmen bind themselves together to carry out the three T's no Anti-Poverty Society will be needed throughout our broad land. And we might add that the three T's are essential to an honorable success in any of life's professions or pursuits.

CIVIL SERVICE PENSIONS.

Rochester Post-Express (Ind.).

AMONG the resolutions passed by the national educational convention at Chicago was one summarized in the telegraph report as follows: "The adoption of some plan whereby meritorious teachers, after long service, may be honorably retired." This means, we presume, some plan for pensioning teachers. It is to be regretted that the policy of granting pensions in the civil service is growing so much in popular favor; and though teachers be more than any other class entitled to the charity of government, we could wish that their representatives had shown less selfishness in this matter, and more zeal for the general good. A teacher, not less than every public servant, should be liberally paid; but beyond granting generous compensation government should exercise no more care for the security of teachers than for that of ordinary citizens. They should learn to live within their means and provide for their own future. Like policemen, judges, and other officials, whom it is now the fashion to pension, they enter the public service as a matter of choice. They find their position honorable and their compensation better than they could command in other business. The fact that they have entered the public service is in itself regarded as an advantage, and they should make such use of the advantage as to become independent and self-supporting through life. Not only should the policy of creating civil-service pensioners be stopped at once, but every civil-service pension already granted in the country should be abolished or commuted. If this monstrous humbug of pensioning people in the civil service of the Federal Government, the States, or municipalities is to be adopted, then some provision should be made for the "honorable retirement," at the public expense, of laborers, mechanics, shop-girls, and all other hard-working people.

THE SUM OF ALL VILLAINIES.
Memphis Appeal (Dem.).

THE Appeal says once for all that neither the people nor the State nor the public officials of Mississippi have been adversely painted or described in these columns. We have published the report of the Hinds County grand jury, giving an account of the most shocking, inhuman, barbarous, and cruel treatment of the leased convicts of Mississippi, and we have commented on that barbarity as it deserved, and said the shame of it would cling to the State unless the legislature when it meets abolises the brutality by abrogating the leases. Any attempt to raise the dust "of the whole State" in any guise, under cover of which the convict lessees may try to escape their responsibilities, will fail and fail utterly. The people of Mississippi are opposed to the barbarity, and mean to wipe it out. The Democrats of Washington County have spoken to this effect, and they will be followed by others,

nent army officers, what was termed a court of honor was appointed by the military officials, with the result that the court recommended to the war office that the major's name be struck from the army rolls, and that he be prohibited from using the military title, although he was allowed to retain the decoration that he had won. The reason for this action was that the officer in question carried his case into court and did not challenge his opponent to mortal combat. It was in vain that it was pointed out that to send a challenge to fight a duel was a criminal offense which would have subjected the ex-major to years of imprisonment. The military critics asserted that that was something they had nothing to do with; that if an officer or an ex-officer did not defend his military reputation in this manner he was unworthy of holding either an actual or honorary title in the army-a decision which was confirmed by the war office at Berlin. This will seem to most persons to be a very curious construction to put upon the duties of army officers, as it is certainly a direct incentive to them to disregard the laws of the government they are supposed to be appointed to sustain.-Boston Herald.

PRACTICAL DARWINIANISM.-Is the chimpanzee the coming man? The thought of Superintendent Conklin of the Central Park Museum at New York has a cast of that hue. He is deeply interested in the possibilities of the development of intelligence and culture in the chimpanzee race, and doubtless his dreams go far beyond the daring of his spoken hope. "Mr. Crowley," a somewhat noted and remarkably intelligent specimen of this exalted race of monkeys, has long adorned the museum, and recently a helpmeet for him has been imported. Dr. Conklin believes that their offspring will inherit their sagacity, and with two or three generations of careful training the least he expects is "a chimpanzee accustomed to wearing clothes, able to stand and walk erect, capable of being taught the meaning of simple commands, and docile enough to obey them." In the fifth or sixth generation, the doctor thinks he shall have chimpanzees able to perform to a limited extent the duties of servants. Following out the idea, the doctor foresees a gradual improvement in their features and eventually a possibility that they may grasp the meaning of words and phrases. This is surely a very practical experiment in Darwinian evolution, and though it may seem funny, it is by no means ridiculous. If horses and dogs may be trained and taught why not monkeys? And how much more useful would an intelligent trained monkey be by reason of his capacity to grasp and handle things? The story comes from South America that chimpanzees are already employed there in picking cotton in place of the emancipated slaves. We hail Dr. Conklin's experiment as at least an effort toward the solution of several vexing problems, for a chimpanzee that could grasp orders given him and didn't feel too independent to obey them would find vigorous avenues of usefulness in this working world and would by no means be a dead head in the enterprise of advancing the world's progress.-Springfield

Union.

FINANCE AND COMMERCE.

THE ARGUMENTS, FACTS, AND CONDITIONS ARE BULLISH.--In considering the arguments in favor of higher prices, it may be broadly stated that business, at present, in almost every department of trade, is prosperousmore so than for a number of years past. Going more into details, we find, 1. That the traffic of the railroads is remarkably good. The earnings are far in excess, not only of last year, but of years preceding that. The Chronicle last week published the earnings of 113 roads for the month of June, showing a net increase of 13 per cent. over 1886, while that year made nearly equally heavy gains over 1885. This heavy increase in railroad traffic is not ephemeral; it has existed for more than a year past, and a careful consideration of its causes inevitably leads to the conclusion that it must continue for an indefinite period. It is only the natural result of the general proposition with which we started out-that there has been a very decided improvement in trade generally. This improvement in earnings is also not confined to any particular section of the country, but applies to trunk lines, feeders, roads leading to the East and West, North and South, and, in short, everywhere. 2. Behind this, and as one of the primary causes of the improvement in traffic, nearly all branches of the iron trade are in healthy condition. The production of pig iron in the United States during the first half of the current year was considerably over 3,000,000 tons, or within less than 1,000,000 tons of the total production of 1885; the total production of pig iron for the year promises to exceed largely that of any preceding year in the history of the country. Prices of iron and steel have advanced to figures which now invite competition from foreign countries, especially England, and the imports of those articles during the past six months largely exceeded any corresponding period for a number of years past. 3. The coal trade was never before in so satisfactory a condition as at present. The production of anthracite for the first six months of the current year equaled the total output for 1878, and yet the visible supply is little, if any, in excess of the average of previous years. A much larger output for 1887 than ever before known is assured. 4. The wheat harvest, except in the extreme Northwest, has been gathered and a good yield is assured, while the corn crop gives abundant promise of being the heaviest ever known. Our exports of wheat and flour during the past twelve months were larger than for any corresponding period since 1883, and, with two exceptions, were the largest in the history of the country. 5. Latest reports from the South indicate that the cotton crop will be among

the largest, if not the largest, in the country's history, and the manipulation of the market, by which abnormal prices have been maintained, gives unmistakable signs of weakening. A little lower quotations than those now ruling would be followed immediately by heavy exports. In a word, the cotton trade for the coming year promises to be large and profitable. 6. The disbursements by the Government are now heavy, and it is the expressed opinion of the officials of the Treasury Department that the disbursements for some time to come will at least equal the revenues. In other words, there will be little or no increase in the accumulation of money in the Treasury vaults. Up to this time the payments have largely exceeded the receipts. With an increase of over $90,000,000 in the currency of the country during the past twelve months, reasonable rates for money are probable the coming months. It is likely that the capital of the country will be much better employed than for several years past. 7. These are only examples of the general prosperity that it to be found everywhere. With a few exceptions there is at the same time a noticeable absence of such wild speculation as properly comes under the head of a boom, and which inevitably carries prices up too rapidly to permit the advance to remain permanent. It is this general prosperity without a boom that inspires confidence in the future.The Stockholder.

GROWING OPPOSITION TO ORGANIZED LABOR.-It has been observed that while employer and employee might readily agree upon a question of wages, the matters of detail involved in the conduct of any business enterprise have frequently furnished points for disagreements no less acrid than those concerned directly with the rewards of labor. It is with these incidental considerations, indeed, that the employer of labor usually has to deal after disputation has lapsed into formal disagreement. A question of wages is usually a problem of elemental simplicity, of which the data are easily accessible. Every manufacturer and every man of affairs knows just what wages he can afford to pay, and through familiarity with the conditions of production the just share of labor in the product may be determined to a nicety. But it is not so with the petty exactions and multifarious requirements with which workingmen in numerous branches of trade have thoughtlessly sought to harass their employers. These demands have no absolute connection with the relations of employer and employed, and must be dealt with on considerations widely different from those which govern the plain question of how much wages shall be paid. The employer is in many cases compelled to ask himself how much vexation, annoyance, and interference he may endure without being driven out of business, and upon his answer frequently depends the fate of important ventures. It is not human nature to submit without protest to a condition of things so subversive of business principles and business enterprise, and as a consequence there appears to have arisen of late among employers an opposition to organized labor which, under other circumstances, might not have been developed. If there shall be a steady and stubborn insistance on the part of organized labor upon its assumed right to regulate the conduct of business enterprises in which men have adventured their capital and their knowledge, but one result can logically follow. The employers will themselves be forced into secret combinations, and in their efforts to protect their own interests those of the workingmen will naturally and inevitably be neglected or disregarded. With such a spirit developed among manufacturers, any future triumphs of organized labor would be purchased at a heavy cost and be of short duration.-Philadelphia Record.

AROUND THE WORLD.-The Russian Government has decided to enter upon the work of building a line of railway across Siberia, from the borders of European Russia to the Pacific Ocean, the probable eastern terminus of the line to be the port of Vladivostok, on the Japan Sea. It is estimated that it will require five years to complete this line, but that at the end of that time it will be possible to travel from St. Petersburg to the Pacific Ocean in fifteen days. This will materially reduce the time now required to make a circuit of the globe. It is possible now to improve on the once sensational assertion of "round the world in eighty days," in consequence of the greater rapidity of water transportation. But by the short cut suggested above, assuming that regular connections could be made, it is not unlikely that a traveler, who was willing to go on without stopping for occasional rests could make this circuit in approximately fifty days. That is, starting from New York, it would require seven days to go to London, three days from London to St. Petersburg, fifteen from there to the Pacific, nineteen days for crossing that ocean, and six days from San Francisco to his starting point. While at present there is no connecting line on the Pacific with Vladivostok, the distance from that point to the trade centers of Japan is relatively short, and if a transSiberian railway is built, one may be sure that a line of swift steamers will run across the Japan Sea in connection with it, and in this way the regular steamers plying across the Pacific could be readily reached. Indeed, if the speed of these Pacific steamers could be increased so as to equal that of the fast steamers that now cross the Atlantic Ocean, the allowance of nineteen days given for passing from continent to continent might be appreciably reduced. We are beginning to realize that our globe is but a small place, and in a generation or two more there will not probably be any part of the earth's surface, if we except the polar regions, that will not be quite as accessible to the inhabitants of this city, for example, as what is now Chicago was to the residents of Boston two generations ago.-Boston Herald.

THE CURSE OF WORKINGMEN. Of the vast aggregate of $750,000,000 said to have been expended last year in this country for strong drink a fright

fully large share was taken from the hard-earned wages of the working classes. There is no other country in which skilled labor and labor of all sorts is so highly paid as in this. But there is no other in which discontent more widely prevails among workingmen, and the chief cause of this discontent is that so large a part of their earnings, instead of being husbanded against a rainy day and invested so that the legitimate fruits of their toil may be at length gathered in a permanent improvement of their condition, is squandered in drink and in the transient dissipations in which drink constitutes the chief enjoyment. It is a curious and a sinister fact that the labor reform agitators, who make loud professions of a desire to improve the condition and elevate the character of the workingmen, hardly ever think it worth their while to even raise a voice against this bane and curse of the operative classes. It would require more honesty and courage than most of them possess to tell them the plain truth, that the only way to effect any genuine or permanent improvement in their condition is by the practice of those old, homely and sterling virtues of industry, temperance, and frugality, which have been the foundation of all private and public prosperity since the dawn of civilization; and that before striking for higher wages or shorter working days they should strike against the master evil which debauches, corrupts, and impoverishes so many workingmen-debases their manhood, destroys their physical and moral fiber, and consumes their substance. When we have more temperancein drink among workingmen we shall probably have more temperance in speech and moderation in action.St. Paul Press.

THE BUSINESS SITUATION. The general testimony of our trade exchanges is, that while the volume of new business in progress is not large, and the principal merchandise markets are rather dull-a condition of affairs that is always to be expected at this season of the year-yet that the ordinary requirements of consumption are steadily absorbing large supplies and that the distributive movement going on is still comparatively large. This is a good indication of mercantile prosperity, as it shows that the relations of supply and demand are in a healthy condition. Railroad earnings continue to show an encouraging increase. The improvements that have taken place in some departments of trade are progressive and bid fair to continue. The New York Commercial List, as an instance in point, calls attention to the fact that the production of pigiron in this country the past six months has increased about 430,000 tons, as compared with the similar period last year, while supplies are now nowhere excessive. With scarcely an exception the legitimate trade of the country has been conducted upon conservative principles, and it is for this reason that recuperation has been so rapid in the case of the recent collapses of speculative bubbles. But comparatively few failures have occurred during the week, notwithstanding the stringency in the money market, the number being much less than at the corresponding period last year. This gives further evidence of the substantial footing upon which general business rests, and is significant of its healthful condition.-Boston Advertiser.

NOTES.

An eminent English statistician, Mr. Giffen, of the Board of Trade, has compiled tables which show in part the enormous sums sent back to the United Kingdom to the relatives and friends of emigrants who have gained homes in the United States. From 1848 to 1885, both years inclusive, there was forwarded from America through certain banks and mercantile houses $155,092,935, a large part of which eventually passed into the pockets of Irish landlords. In the last six years covered by the tables the contributions were greatly increased, the annual average being $7,425,174. Of course the statement is incomplete, for certain bankers declined to furnish the required information, and a great deal of money has reached Ireland from America without going through the hands of bankers. The average annual amount remitted from Australian colonies since 1875 has been only $289,000.-Frank Leslie's.

An International Exhibition is to be held at Glasgow during the sum mer of 1888. The guarantee fund already exceeds £240,000, and is being increased. The objects of the exhibition, as stated in the prospectus, are "to promote and foster industry, science, and art by inciting the inventive genius of our people to still further development in arts and manufactures; and to stimulate commercial enterprise by inviting all nations to exhibit their products, both in the raw and finished state." Promises of support have also been received from America, India, the Canadian, Australian, Cape, and other colonies. The site, which has been granted by the Glasgow corporation, extends to sixty acres, and the buildings will cover about ten acres.

The financial statement of the Dominion of Canada, to July 1st, shows that the receipts of revenue during the past year were $33,830,149, and the expenditures $31,373,713-the balance, however, being liable to a material reduction by accounts yet to be paid. The public debt is stated at $270,200,373, against which there are various items of asserted "assets," amounting to forty-five millions and a fraction, leaving the net debt admitted two hundred and twenty-five millions of dollars. This is an increase of nearly two millions, "which will be enlarged when the total figures are made up." The ordinary estimate of the Dominion debt is two hundred and fifty millions of dollars, which is apparently about correct.

The contract for the use of the telephones at the White House and in the Government offices expired on the 1st instant, and the President, after consulting with the members of his Cabinet, has decided not to renew

the contract unless at a reduced rate. The present rate is $100 a year for each telephone. Letters have been addressed to the telephone company from the heads of the several departments stating that they would order the telephones out of the departments unless the company reduced the price to $80 a year. An officer of the telephone company said that they had no idea of reducing the rate to the Government, and would prefer to have their telephones removed rather than do so.

The total production of spirits of all kinds in Kentucky during the season ending June 30, 1887, is estimated by leading trade authority at 19,284,812 gallons, as against 20,572,132 gallons in the year 1885-6. A decrease is here shown of 1,287,320 gallons. The first six months of the 1885-6, but since January 1, this year, the decline has been steady and 1886-7 season witnessed a production larger than the same period in heavy. On July 1 the total amount of 1886-7 whisky in bond was estimated at 14,715,991 gallons. The total crop of straight Kentucky whiskies for the season just closed is placed at 12,715,000, against 16,750,000 gallons in 1885-6.-Bradstreet's.

ployed, except that the woolen industry still lags; and the reduction in All branches of manufacturing appear to be well and profitably emthe price of raw cotton, together with the excellent promise of the new crop, is welcomed by manufacturers at home as well as abroad. In the iron and steel industry demand has to some extent revived within a week, and a prosperous business for the second half of the year seems assured. Current business being so good, the crops are looked to for a determination of the character of business for the coming season and year, and so far the indications are all favorable.-New York Eveniny Post. In nearly every department of legitimate industry greater or less improvement is observed in comparison with the like number of many spicuous for their steadiness through the usual season of mid-summer preceding years. Lumber, coal, petroleum, and cotton fabrics are condullness. Railroad earnings gained 15 per cent. in June, and fifty roads show an increase of 12 8 per cent. for the first week of July. Money has become more plentiful at the metropolis, but the daily dealings in Wall street are small and quotations sag upon the slightest provocation.Chicago Inter-Ocean.

Attorney Grinnell's office in Chicago as to the amount of money stolen A careful estimate has been made by officials connected with State by the Cook county thieves in the two years from September, 1884, to September, 1886. Not less than $480,000 was stolen in 1884-'85, and fully $520,000 in 1886-'87. The total is estimated at $1,000,000 for the two years. The tax levy for county purposes for the same period was $2,500,000-$1,200,000 for 1884-'85 and $1,300,000 for 1885-'86. The stealings, according to the estimate, amount to forty per cent of the levy in both years.

Bradstreet's has a unique statistic in the presentation of its strike record for six months, from which it appears that at various times during the first half of the year laborers have been on strike to the total number of 234,734, against 363,895 for the same period last year. The number of strikes was 523 to 200, so that the strikes have been more numerous, but have involved much fewer numbers than last year. The number of employes in the building trades who have been on strike is 63,000, in transportation service 51,000, in coal mining 18,000, in boots and shoes 17,000.

The falling off of exports in raw cotton from the United States during the past three month, coincident with an advance in the price, has given rise to some superficial generalizations as to the cause of the reduced movement. Notwithstanding speculation and higher prices the export movement for the season is still ahead of last year. When the shorter crop is taken into account it will be seen that the late export movement really exceeds that for the like period last year, notwithstanding the price

differences.-Bradstreet's.

It is announced that by September 1 the International Company of Mexico will have established a line of new steamships between San Diego and twenty Mexican and Central American ports, which line will ultimately be extended to South America. Negotiations are now in progress for the landing of the New Zealand and Australian mails at San Diego, It is also for transportation across the continent by the Santa Fe trail. said that clipper ships are to ply between New York and San Diego.

The Galveston News is authority for the statement that in 1880 there were only about 500 miles of railway in Mexico, while by the close of the present year there will be over 3,600, with a capital of about $120,000,000 invested. Of the total mileage 2,700 miles are owned and operated by Americans. An idea of the value of railway construction to Mexico may be obtained when it is stated that the revenues of the country have increased from $17,800,000 in 1879 to $33,000,000 in 1886.

One of the largest wheat fields in the world is that of ex-Congressman C. F. Reed, of Stanislaus County, California. It consists of 10,000 acres in one unbroken stretch along the bank of the San Joaquin River, and much of the land is protected by levees, as the stream is higher than the shore. The grain this year is as high as the back of a horse, and it is estimated the yield will be forty bushels to the acre. This will give 400,000 bushels, which will load ten large vessels.

Nelson Morris, the little Austrian who is, next to Phil Armour, the greatest handler of dressed beef in the world, is one of Chicago's lions because of his peculiarities. The wearing of a fur cap every year until the first of August is one of these; and another is that although several

times a millionaire, Mr. Morris has never learned to appreciate a good cigar, and hands out to his friends something in the line of a smoke that is described as uniquely horrible in flavor.

The Shoe and Leather Reporter says that strikes in the shoe trade during the last year have cost in wages from $5,000,000 to $6,000,000. Nearly half this sum is said to have been lost in the five months' strike in Worcester county, Mass. The Wilmington strike of morocco workers lasted seven months and cost $225,000. The strikes at Salem and Peabody, Mass., entail a loss of $3,000,000 in wages. Lesser strikes bring up the total. It is ten years since James Lick, the San Francisco millionaire, died, leaving the bulk of his large fortune for charitable and scientific purposes, yet the most practical of his bequests-the training-school in the trades for young lads-has never been begun. In their first ten years of management the Lick trustees spent $150,000 for legal fees.

The exports of produce from the port of New York for the week ending Tuesday were valued at $7,218,259, against $6,812,761 last week, an in*crease of $405,498, or about 6 per cent. The exports since January 1 were valued at $164,527,848, against $164,386,100 for the corresponding period last year and $178,665,620 in 1885.

The British telegraph service, which is part of the post-office, does not pay expenses since the rate was reduced to sixpence per message, or about 12 cents. The deficit for the past year was £223,000 on working expenses and £326,000 for interest on the working capital-in all £550,000, or $2,

750,000.

The ancient and famous city of Damascus, which was a place of importance 1,900 years B. C., is busy with plans for laying railroad lines through the streets. Street cars in a city said to have been founded by Abraham would be a startling novelty. The place has 120,000 inhabitants.

Those three prosperous Kansas cities, Atchison, Topeka, and Wichita, are growing very rapidly. The land for a distance of five or ten miles around each of them is held at $5,000 to $10,000 an acre. It is estimated that the corn crop in Kansas this year will be about 250,000,000 bushels. By the latest returns of the Agricultural Department, the leading farm products of the country amount to $4,014,000,000 yearly. That alone, independently of manufactures, fisheries, &c., represents an average income of $70 a year for every man, woman, and child in the country.

The San Francisco Bulletin describes the Columbia River salmon fisheries as in an unfavorable condition. Nor is the scarcity of fish casual. There used to be runs in April, May, June, and July. This year there was no run in the first three months mentioned.

It is said that Ex-Assistant Secretary Charles E. Coon, while in London recently, succeeded in placing a loan of $750,000 for a Southern railway company, and that before his return to this country he was offered a managing position in a London bank.

New York 3 per cent. bonds to the amount of $3,000,000 were placed the other day at 1031 per cent., for nearly all the loan. As the bonds are for a short term, this places the credit of New York city somewhat above that of Great Britain.

In 1884 Great Britain sent 602,328 gallons of spirits to Western Africa, and Germany sent 7,136,263 gallons. At the same time America sent 921,412 gallons.

The Pope's envoy to Ireland is engaged in investigating the industrial

and social condition of the tenant class.

SCIENTIFIC.

THE SUN'S HEAT.-At a Royal Institution lecture, Prof. Sir William Thomson expounded the latest dynamical theories regarding the "probable origin, total amount, and possible duration of the sun's heat." During the short 3,000 years or more of which man possesses historic records there was, the learned physician showed, no trace of variation in solar energy; and there was no distinct evidence of it even, though the earth as a whole, from being nearer the sun, received in January six and one-half per cent. more heat than in July. But in the millions of years which geology carried us back, it might safely be said there must have been great changes. How had the solar fires been maintained during those ages? The scientific answer to this question was the theory of Helmholtz that the sun was a vast globe gradually cooling, but as it cooled shrinking, and that the shrinkage-which was the effect of gravity upon its mass-kept up its temperature. The total of the sun's heat was equal to that which would be required to keep up 476,000 millions of millions horse power, or about 78,000 horse power for every square meter-a little more than a square yard; and yet the modern dynamical theory of the heat shows that the sun's mass would require only to fall in or contract thirty-five meters per annum to keep up that tremendous energy. At this rate the solar radius in 2,000 years' time would be about one hundredth per cent. less than at present. A time would come when the temperature would fall, and it was thus inconceivable that the sun would continue to emit heat sufficient to sustain existing life on the globe for more than 10,000,000 years. Applying the same principles retrospectively, they could not suppose that the sun had existed more than 20,000,000 years, no matter what might have been its origin-whether it

came into existence from the clash of worlds pre-existing or of diffused nebulous matter. There was a great clinging by geologists and biologists to vastly longer periods, but the physicist, treating it as a dynamic question with calculable elements, could come to no other conclusion materially different from what he had stated. Sir William Thomson declined to discuss any chemical source of heat, which, whatever its effect when primeval elements first came into contact, was absolutely insignificant compared with the effects of gravity after globes like the sun and the earth had been formed. In all these speculations they were in the end thought what became of all the sun's heat-what is the luminiferous driven to the ultimate elements of matter, to the question-when they ether that fills space, and to that most wonderful form of force upon which Faraday spent so much of the thought of his later years-gravity.Scientific American.

milk and its products has received much attention from medical and DANGERS FROM THE DAIRY.-The subject of purity and healthfulness of sanitary authorities during the past year, and some very remarkable results of investigations are now being made public. It has been found that milk may be the vehicle of very serious contagion, and that the diseased condition of the cow may so affect its milk as to make it the disseminator of acute disease. Within the last few years a number of outbreaks of disease have been traced with great certainty to dairies as they have originated special popular names for the sicknesses thus occathe center of contagion. So well proved have these cases seemed, that sioned. Thus milk typhoid, milk scarlatina, and milk diphtheria have come to be recognized. In a number of accurately recorded cases, an outbreak of some specific disease has been noted. The general history in all was identical. The spread was limited to a certain number of families. The medical officers found that all the families thus affected were supplied with milk from the same dealer. Then, on examining the stables or dairy whence the milk came, the source of contagion was manifest. A case of scarlet fever would be found in the family or among the employes, or some of the residents possibly had diphtheria. In a number of instances such conditions were established. At the present time the English health authorities consider these cases proved. They form the basis for a somewhat disquieting suspicion affecting our milk supply. The result of some of the more recent observation is that cows may themselves become affected with a sickness resembling scarlet fever, and that such cows may, by their milk, cause the true scarlet fever to be developed in human beings. Examination of them showed the prestions, and a visceral complaint resembling that occurring in scarlet fever ence of disease, whose symptoms included sores upon the body, ulcerain the human being. The outbreak had, from other data, been limited to these cows as a source. The examination by bacterial analysis was entered into, and confirmed these suspicions. The same micrococcus was found in the blood of scarlet-fever patients and in the affected cows. The action of the human microbe on animals was identical with that of the vaccine one. This investigation, a full outline of which it is needless to give, clinched the proof. Succeeding occurrences investigated in the same general way gave identical results. It may be considered as clearly proved that milk can be a serious source of danger to health or life. The remedy is a simple one. By heat the micrococci are destroyed. If the milk is heated to 185 degrees Fahrenheit, it will be rendered safe. Any infectious microbes present will be killed. But while this disposes of the milk, it does not touch the disposal of milk products. Butter, cream, and cheese are all uncooked. Butter represents raw fat, or uncooked oleaginous matter. It cannot be heated to a high degree without injury. One of the methods of freeing it from casein was to melt it, but the process was found to cause deterioration. Butter must be uncooked. Several cases of ice-cream poisoning have been noticed. As it is necessarily made from a raw product, and as freezing is so well endured by bacteria, it is possible that bacterial infection, quite unsuspected, was the cause.-Scientific American.

HOW TO GAIN AND LOSE FLESH.--No doubt excessive corpulence is more inconvenient to the victim, and more in the nature of disease, than leanness; and this is perhaps the reason why one constantly sees articles in the papers on the Banting system and other methods of reducing one's weight, whereas the lean are left to shift for themselves and to pick up a pound of flesh wherever they can. Nevertheless, in these regions, leanness is much more common than corpulence, and if the remedies for it were more widely known and adopted, there would be a perceptible increase in the number of beautiful women and handsome men.

Mr. Higginson, in his "Common Sense about Women," is very angry with the "physiological croakers" who represent the American woman of to-day as having lost the plump form and robust constitution of her grandmother. He quotes a French tourist in America, the Abbe Robin, who wrote in 1782 that "at twenty years of age the women have no longer the freshness of youth;" and another, L. F. de Beaujour, who wrote that "at the age of twenty-five their form changes, and at thirty the whole of their charms have disappeared." Mr. Higginson is convinced that the physique of American men and women to-day is better than was that of their grandparents who lived in this country; and be attributes this improvement to "the great increase of athletic games; the greatly increased proportion of seaside and mountain life in summer; thicker shoes and boots of women and little girls, permitting them to go out more freely in all weathers," and the increased habit of dining late, which secures the professional and mercantile classes more time to digest their principal meal,-The Epoch.