The Scranton tribune. (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, April 29, 1896, Page 9, Image 9

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    IV.
THB FCBANTON TMBUNE WEDNESDAY MORNING, APRIL 29. 1898.
9
AS 10 CREAJl KE7 im
Ityadcrfal Tfciigs About .the Sccoid
4 T Clt j of ifcc WorkLi '. ?
SOME OP ITS BIG ADVANTAGES
Its Thrss MillioM of Popalatioa, Blllloma
of WMltk. sad Aeooamodatloaa for
the Coiimih of tko World.
In Its joy over the successful consum
mation of the Greater New York
cheme, the Bun recently save some de
tails as to the consolidated city's sise
which will Interest most readers, and
especially Scrantonlans who feel in
' some degree related to Gotham. The
new municipality, according to Brother
Dana's pawr, will be of the world's
urban centers the second city In area,
the second city in population, the city
with the BTcatest length of railroads,
the city with the greatest number of
ferries, the city with the greatest ex
tent of wharfage for commerce, the
city with the greatest warehouse ca
pacity, the greatest manufacturing
city, the city with the greatest number
of office buildings and oltlees. the city
with the greatest area of public parks,
the city with the greatest area of primi
tive forests, the city with the best sum
mer resorts, the city with the greatest
length p cobble-stone pavements, the
city with the greatest length of dirt
roads, the city with the finest fishing
grounds, the city with the greatest va
riety of wild animals and birds living
la their natural state, and the city with
the finest and greatest extent of oyster
beds not to mention many other fea
tures of ore-eminence.
In elaboration of these points our
luminous contemporary says that If all
of the surface and elevated roads with
in the limit" of the Greater New York-
were strettfhed out in a single line mey
would reach a long way beyond Chi
cago, the actual length of track, as
taken from Poor's Manual,- being no
" less than 1,100.68 mUrs. Of elevated
. roads alone the mileage Is sufficient to
' run a lint- beyond Albany and almost to-
' the foothills of the Adirondack, for
the distance to Albany is but MS mile.
. while the length of the elevated tracks
is 155.08 miles. Nor Is nhe length of the
Kast Klver bridge tracks included In
this estimate. No exact calculation has
been made of the length of time need
ed to travel over all of these lines of
railroad, but since they include cross
town horse cars as well an electric and
steam roads a speed of bIx miles an hour
Is' all that could be hoped for on the
average, the legal limit on, most of the
lines even In suburban regions being
eight miles an hour; so. If the traveler
put In ten hours a day on the rail he
would require a few hours ovyerelghteen
AS TO TRANSPORTATION.
The expense of such a journey would
be comparatively small, and here We
come to the almost unique features of
the city. The Greater New Yirk has
extraordinarily cheap rates of 'trans
portation. There are routes In Brook
lyn fifteen miles long which may be'
covered for fi cents. There are routes
in New York from ten to thirteen miles
long at the same price. On the other
hand, . the Coney Island passengers
have to pay by some routes a price that
Is extremely high, considering the ser
vice rendered, but after all this is
considered a cent a mile on the rail
roads will pay the bill. The next In
teresting feature of this Journey of ex
' ploratlon Is to be found in the variety
of methods of transportation. Kail
roads are so common that the traveler
is not likely to consider the variety
found in them that horses, steam
motors, rabies and electricity are all
UBed, and that the varieties in the
steam and electric motors would alone
furnish an Interesting course of study
lasting several months.
The moment one leaves the railroads
the expense of the journey increases.
A public carriage costs $1 an hour, per
haps $5 fo a day of ten hours. wuld
serve. The ferries are cheap enough at
1 cent to 5 cents a trip, but it costs 10
cents to go to Staten Island and 25
cents for the outside passage to Coney
Island, and more yet to Rockaway
Beach, while any ordinary traveler
would h ve to put up at least $26 for a
tug whlcn would enable bim to explore
the mysteries of the Erie basin and the
Gowanus canal.
AS TO POPLATION..
In geographical extent the. Greater'
New York from Mount St. Vincent to
Tottenvllle is not. far from, thirty-five
miles long as the crow Hies. Its width
from the North river at West Four
teenth street to the inlet between Far
Rockaway beach and Shelter island Is
' a trifle over nineteen miles. Its area
' Is about 360 square miles. When com
pared with other great cities It Is
found to be the second In size. London
has 688, Paris 2.97, Berlin 242, Chicago
189 and Philadelphia 129 square miles.
The resident population of the city by
( census reports Is 2,985,422 souls, but that
Is by no means a fair Statement of the
population from a commercial point of
view, for the reason that thousands of
people who have their business Inter
ests In New York city live In New
Jersey or beyond the city limits, while
they come to New York every week
day to attend to the affairs of life. No
accurate estimate of the number of
these people can be made, but here are
some figures which will give one a
general idea of the number; figures
that show how many passengers are
brought to the city by the railroads on
an average business day:
Pennsylvania railroad .'. 80,000
N. Y.. S. & W. R. R 2.0D0
Jersey Central railroad ; S8.000
I).. It. & W. R. R ... 23.000-
Efle railroad , SS.O0O
West Shore railroad '. 2,(100
N. Y.. N. H. & H. R. R. a,M
New York Central railroad 40.000
New York and Northern railroad ... 10.000
iMiig isianu rauroau 13,000
Total 226,000
The proportion of this number who
come regularly every day Is very great,
as any one. can see who watches the
ferry lines and the Grand Central sta
tion In the morning and evening hours;
very likely 100,000 will be found to be
moderate estimate of the number of
people who, for commercial purposes,
are citizens of New York, though legal
ly residents beyond Its limits. No one
is likely to doubt that the copulation
on an average business day, could every
soul- within Us limits be counted, is
i.zuu,wu.
The figures are so stupendous that
one can scarcely realize the number,
but if the people were to form In line,
grasping hands, and allowing comfort
able shoulder room, they would extend
just 1,000 miles across the country. They
would form a double rank In marching
order, from the Grand Central station
along the New York Central railroad
clear to Buffalo.
Of the cosmopolitan character of the
population little need be said; but. be
cause one hears occasionally ill-natured
remarks about some of the "foreign"
characteristics of the metrorjolls. it is
perhaps worth while recalling the fact
tnar it irom tnis population ail for-
rtKners were eliminated, there would
still remain enough American citizens
to outnumber any other American ur
ban populationwlthltsforelgnerscount-
ea in. Moreover, n was not in the
metropolis that the Anarchists dvna-
mlted the police, nor here that the cit
izens lynched the members of the Mafia,
. AS TO BUSINESS.
. Turning the population to business
one will find the most striking feature
in the extraordinary capacity for com
mercial transactions.- The capacity of
the harbor has been often mentioned In
print, but perhaps not a few readers
.. are ..unaware of the . real extent of
wharfage to be found here. For tha
l sakscXoomoarisonn should be said that
por wiin tu griactsc length of
wharfage of any In the world. Liverpool
was second. Liverpool, counting ootn
sides, of the Mersey, has thirty-five
miles of wharfage. Old New York alone
had nrty-flve miles, to tnis mum ww
be added all that great extent of piers
and wharves beginning at Long Island
City and extending down to South
Brooklyn, not to mention tne eiaien
Island wharfage. After considering the
facta a man familiar with the com
mercial facilities of the Greater New
York said that the space actually ready
for ships was not less than seventy-five
miles long. And that is to say that
no fewer than 1.000 ships of more than
average ocean-going sise might find
berth room at the completed piers and
wharves of the Greater New York.
Having a safe harbor, with a moderate
rise and fall of the tide, the wharfage
facilities of the Greater New York may
be expanded indefinitely with the de
mands of commerce- It Is only a ques
tion of demand when the new city will
have 530 miles of wharfage where the
old one had but 65.
As to the growth of the business
transacted on shore within the me
tropolis, one who has known the city
for say ten years has only to recall
facts within his own memory to gain
a fair Idea of what has occurred. For
instance, there was the erection of the
office building by the late George Jones
facing the City Hall park. It was
counted a most lofty structure, but
the American Tract society building,
recently completed, is so much higher
that were a man to leap from its roof
to that of the lower building he would
as Inevitably have the life crushed out
of him as if he fell clear through the
twenty-three stories of height to the
street. A good many years ago, when
the erection of an eight-story building
was counted a great piece of work.
Harper's Weekly had a cartoon on the
last page, one week, showing buildings
that towered above Trinity church
steeple.' Underneath the picture was a
legend to the effect that if the erection
of taller buildings went on. then some
thing like the cartoon would be seen.
People laughed at the idea as a joke,
but the buildings that are loftier than
Trinity steeple are here, and they are
full of tenants who pay profitable rates.
And more of the lofty structures are
going up, and loftier ones still are in
contemplation.
Within a month or so the plot of
round at 41 and 43 Wall street sold for
$230 a square loot, it was purcnaseu
seven years ago for about half that. It
Is occupied by a little ten-story buna
lng. What will It bring when, ten
vcars from now. some one wants to
erect a building of thirty stories there?
Klsewhere real estate that was wortn
tut $200 for a vacant lot ten years ago
Is now selling for $1,000. and even more.
One has only to go into the outer dis
tricts of the new city to hear Buch
strange, true stories of growth of values
as must astonish even the boomers or
the plains of the southwest. The
growth In rapid transit facilities
throughout the city nas woricea sum
wonders in this respect as to almost
surpass the belief of the uninformed.
MUNICIPAL ADVANTAGES.
Of the future growth In the business
centerof the metropolis one can scarce
ly hazard a guess, for the reason mat
the piling up of office buildings has
even now created a congestion in the
lower streets that at certain hours is
becoming unendurable. The available
transportation facilities for passengers
are loaded to the last gasp already. The
transportation of freight through
down-town Btreets Is already greatly
hamiered. How. much longer this
hampering may be endured is a ques
tion not easily answered. For time out
of mind, the citizens of old New York
have been watching the growth of
population upon the island. There are
plenty or men living wno rememDer
when Lafayette place and Bleecker
street were centers of aristocratic resi
denceswhen the city, hall was some
where near the center or tne city, w ltn
the building of the elevated roads and
the. annexing of the. Twenty-third and
Twentyfourth wards the center of the
city leaped away north .until One Hun
dred and Twenty-fifth Btreet was very
near the geographical center. A more
remarkable effect has been produced
by the last union of the municipalities
of the metropolitan center, for now the
geographical center or. the metropolis
Is at the head of the cycle path and
Boulevard, one block south of Prospect
park
A rough estimate of the cash value of
the new city may be had by reference
to the tax rolls.- New York city real
estate is assessed at $1,646,028,655 on a
basis of 0 per cent, of its cash value.
Brooklyn real estate is assessed at $540,-
S08.J46 on a basis of. 70. per cent, or its
cash value. New York is assessed $370,-
919.007 on personal estate and Brooklyn
$28,627,446. But when one considers how
much personal property escapes the as
sessor it is not a very extravagant
statement to say that the actual value
of the Greater New York real estate Is
$5,000,000,000, while the personal prop
erty should double this sum.
...In view of the wealth and intelligence
of this" metropolitan center, it is an
Interesting fact that we have In Brook
lyn and New York alone 269.62 miles of
cobble stone pavement tnat ror rugged
simplicity and destructive tendencies In
the matter of wheeled transportation is
not to be matched outside the gorges of
the mountains of the Interior. Of
asphalt pavements in the two larger
municipalities there are but 96.07 miles,
However, there are some hundreds of
miles of dirt roads that make very good
bicycle trails In the summer after a rain
has laid the dust
If the system of street paving Is not
a matter of pride there are a number
of bridges within the metropolis well
worth the study of the engineer and
the attention of the lover of the pic
turesque. No city In the world has
such exhibits as those afforded bv the
East river suspension bridge and the
steel arches of the Boulevard bridge
over the Harlem. Nor are the stone
arches of High bridge over the Harlem,
Macomb's Dam bridge, and the ther
small bridges across the Harlem to be
omitted in a mention of engineering
works. Moreover, these are but the be
ginning of a vast system which within
a couple of decades will be found here.
One of the chief arguments of the ad
vocates of union was that "consolida
tion means more bridges more facil
ities for travel."
. . . .. THE WATER SUPPLY.
And then there are the sytems by
which this vast urban population Is
suppled with potable water. The huge
tunnel which was needed to bring the
Croton water to the city is one of the
engineering wonders of the world,
while' the curious system of driven
wells by which Brooklyn has hitherto
drawn at least one-third of her water
supply from the earth Is at least
novelty, and a remarkable one at that.
That a city could be suppleld by driv
ing tubes less than three Inches in di
ameter into the earth at Intervals of i
few feet and connecting them with
pumps is 'not Infrequently supposed to
be an impossibility by the uninformed
when the matter Is mentioned. One of
the Improvements In administration
which is certain to be effected by the
consolidation is putting an end to the
waste of water in Brooklyn. The sup
ply runs up to eighty gallons for "each
head of population there, but because
of waste there are often complaints of
a famine.
The report of the factory Inspectors
for 1894 contains a most interesting
table for the citizen of the Greater New
York. In that year the inspectors vis
lted 1,647 separate factories on Long
Island and Htaten island, or which
practically all were within the Greater
New York. In these were employed
69,790 hands. In old New York the
number of factories visited was 6,294
and the number of hands 171,943. This
was not the total number of factories
by any means, but it gives an Inkling
of the number ir not tne variety or in
dustrlM that flourish in the metropolis.
While on the subject of Industries it
may be worth while to recall the fact
that New York was ones a great ship
building center. It would be now but
for the fact that strikes Inaugurated
fifty years ago or so drove the industry
away, while the fear of them keeps it
away. No place, not even the Dela
ware river, is naturally better suited
for ship building, while the natural
commerce that demands the ships and
the repairing of ships is here. That a
great American liner had to go to the
Delaware not long ago for an overhaul
ing is a matter that ought not to be
overlooked. The fact should be men
tioned that enormous dry -docks are
to be found In the Erie basin.
Naturally every citizen is proud of
the metropolis as a center of literature
and arc Frenchmen do not come here
yet to complete their education as art
ista New Yorkers do go to Paris or
Rome. But no New Yorker despairs
of the future of the city In this respect.
The growth of knowledge among the
whole people In this matter must be
apparent to every one familiar with
the facts. Some- people of the west
have occasionally derided the metrop
olis for a lack of what they call public
spirit. It may be admitted that New
Yorkers do not lie awake at night to
devise new schemes for advertising and
booming the town. Nor do they arro
gantly ostracize one who criticises
features of the city and its lire. But
they rejected the Heine monument.
So, too, people are proud or the
schools from Columbia college down to
the lowest grade of the primary school.
but this docs not prevent their seeing
that he schools are inadequate In num
ber, space and facilities. And then
there aie the private schools and col
leges. The people of Spanish America
send their sons to New York, and es
pecially to the schools of theology, med
icine and law. It is reasonably certain
also that as a school In politics the
Greater New York under Professors
Piatt and Croker can give points to any
other school of the kind on earth. '
PLEASURE RESORTS.
As a summer resort and as a place
for an outing, curiously enough, the
second city of the globe surpasses all
other cities of any sise whatever. Other
cities have bathing beaches within easy
reach, of course. New York has Coney
Island and Rockaway Beach within its
borders. Nor should the resorts else
whereBowery Bay on the Sound arid
South Beach on Staten Island be ig
nored. To these places the people re
sort by tens of thousands every day In
the season. Very likely more than 175,-
000 people go to them on a hot day In
August, while the quiet nooks and
gardens throughout the wide suburban
belt that extends from Spuyten Duyvil
around to the east and south and west
and across Gravesend Bay to Staten
Island furnish rest and recreation and
beer to tens perhaps to hundreds of
thousands more,
One laughs at the Englishmen who
have now and again landed in New
York with rifles loaded ready for buf
falo, deer and grizzlies. But the cock
neys were mistaken only in the choice
of weapons. A good Birmingham shot
gun was the weapon they needed. It
Is a curious fact that out of 800 and odd
birds found within the limits of the
whole nation nearly a half are set
down as residents or migrants within
the limits of this where the papulation
In the world a city where the popula
tion averages 8.298 plus to the square
mile. In the lagoons back of Rocka
way Beach may be found in the season
ducks in great variety sometimes in
great numbers even redheads and can
vasbacks. More interesting still, the
Canada goose honks low above those
meadows, and the brant comes to the
decoys. There are shore birds that
.-Vt among the frozen deserts of the
ft north and pass their winters south
otyie torrid zone that call by the way
to give sport to the hunter who lies
In wait within the limits of the Greater
New York. There are quails, too, and
English snipe and woodcock a whir
ring host for the upland shooter who
konws where and how to look for them
There are owls In the common varieties
the screech and the barn and the
short-horned owls, of course, but more
Interesting still Is the great hoot or
great horned owl, who, with his silent
flight, comes when the shadows of night
deepen, and carries off the unwary fowl
More remarkable still, the great snowy
owl he who lives ordinarily beyond the
Mohawk and delights In nothing more
than snatching speckled trout through
a hole In the Ice over an Adirondack
stream he has been known to come
within the limits of the American met
ropolis,
' There are hawks, too the sparrow
nawa ana tne coopers, and the sharp-
SKineu ana tne duck hawk fierce
winged robbers, that grow fat on met
ropolltan birds of weaker mould, and
even the bald eagle Is sometimes seen.
That the fish-hawk comes is a matter
or course.
And then there are the wild hnt
The buffalo, the elk, the deer, and the
antelope are, of course. Been only In the
munagene, dui or small mammals there
are not a few. . An observer of long
experience has seen four kinds of bats,
two kinds of moles, and the red, the
gray, the black, and the striped squir
rels running wild. The kangaroo mouse
may be found; so can the woodchuck;
so can the skunk and the muskrat. The
fox has not yet. been exterminated, nor
has the weasel. More remarkable still
the sly mink still peers with his black
bead eyes from the haunts along the
streams as he searches for metropolitan
wild fowl and fish, while the hair seal
has been Been rearing his head from
metropolitan brine within recent years
For fishing let the angler try the
waters back of Rockaway Beach, when
the sheepshead run or the blue-fish are
coming In, or he can cast his hook over
the grass' Into the lagoonB when the
bass are biting,, or he may go for the
bass to Hellgate or to other resorts In
the head of the Sound. He can try for
nun in n variety or places In the
bay try with success, and there are
men of experience who will recommend
personal friends to try a day at Prince's
Bay. In spite of market llshing there
Is no end to the sport that may be had
with hook and line within the limits of
New York. But one who knows the
trout of the Adirondacks cannot recom
mend the fat and lazy, if beautiful
Bpeckled fellows that .Inhabit the too
warm streams of the second city of the
world.
OTHER POINTS.
No traveler In the metropolis should
fall to examine the farms. One reads
of the products of the farms of the Irri
gated west; reads with pleasure, too;
but the farmers of southern California
and of Arizona and of Idaho ought to
see the farms of the metropolis If they
wish to learn how to get the greatest
product from the smallesf area of land.
California may excel us In the matter
of oranges and grapes,, Arizona In the
matter of prunes, and Idaho In wheat,
oats, and alfalfa, but when It comes to
garden truck, one must search far and
wide to find any one who can begin
hoeing earlier or gather a crop later
and get more money for the crop when
It Is lu market than the farmer living
In Greater New York. And lest this
seem to be vain glortgus let the fact be
cited that these fanners, have land
worth $1,000 an acre, but are neverthe
less able to pay taxes, earn Interest, live
well, and lend money on western mort
gages all out of their garden truck.
More Interesting still Is the farm land
under water. Here the farmers plant
oysters bought In Connecticut and
brought to their farms In tiny sloops
and schooners. One hundred dollars an
acre Is a fair annual yield of these under-water
farms, and the owners do not
have to work too hard to get It, either.
From the year 1613 to the year 1886
Is a far cry. The site of the Greater.
New York was In 1613 first settled by
the thrifty Dutch. It was a wilderness
that echoed only to the howl of the wild
beast and the shout of the aborigines,
buf.as Henry Hudson said, It was "the
handsomest and most pleasant country
that man can behold." In the 283 years
that have passed, the quaint little
homes that the Dutch erected with
brick- and tiles brough from the old
country have been replaced with struc-
JAMES
C.
tures that tower twenty times higher
In air, and are built of steel dug from
the hills of the new country. The queer
old ships with but two or three sails to
the mast and a cargo capacity of a
hundred tons or so, ships that required
months for a passage across the west
ern ocean, have been renlaced with
steamers that could carry Hudson's
ship on deck and 6,000 tons of cargo be
sidesships that can cross the ocean
In days where the old ships sometimes
required months. The handful of
Dutch traders. In fear of their lives
from assaults of ill-used wild men have
Increased to a city of 3.000,000 souls liv
ing in security under the flag of free
dom In "a mart of nations. the
crowning city, whose merchants are
princes, whose traffickers are the hon
orable of the earth."
THE SLOW KILLING.
Sentsnees of Death Arc Too Long De
ferred In This Country.
Munsey for April.
Civilized society has always been
more or leBS puzzled to know what to
do with Its deadliest criminals. It fears
to let the convicted murderer live; yet
It hesitates to take his life. A killing,
even under the warrant of law. Is a re
volting thing. Even the strongest sup
porters of capital punishment In theory,
acknowledge It to be shocking and
awful In practice.
Stoning, crucifixion, and burning were
the methods of bygone ages; and hid
eous Is the chanter they make In the
dark history of man's Inhumanity to
man. Modern penology, far less piti
less, has sought to make the criminal's
ending as free from torture as possible.
Yet every new form of capital punish
ment is made more horrible, at least for
a time, by its very novelty. So It was
with the terrible "little lady" of the
French Revolution, though It was as a
merciful Improvement on the gallows
that Dr. Guillotine suggested the ma
chine which has made his name immor
tal. So It was a few years ago with the
electric chair, when first Introduced In
to New York state. A failure to kill the
first victim Instantly was loudly taken
up by the press; yet it Is safe to say
that had the gallows been a new thing,
and had the first hanging been marked
by such horrible Incidents as have oc
curred again and again at hangings
such an occurrence in February at an
execution In St. Louis, where the rope
broke and the agonized victim had to
wait nearly an hour for another the
public outcry would undoubtedly have
been a thousand times more emphatic.
If It had not gained acceptance from
Its long use, hanging would be regarded
as about as brutal and disgusting a
form of capital punishment as could be
devised. The Ohio legislature Is now
considering various substitutes of It.
None of them is pleasant, yet it is prob
able that any one of them Is more civil
ized than the gallows.
But the most hideous of all tortures Is
one that is too common In this country
the torture of delay, of hope. One of
the most exquisite devices of the medie
val Jiiller was to leave his victim's dour
unlocked, his cell apparently unguard
ed. The thought of escape owuld Hash
through the wretch's mind, With Infin
ite pains he would creep noiselessly
along the dark corridor Into his keep
er's arms! 'And that Is the torture' we
Inflict upon criminals whoso cases are
dragged from court to court, prolonged
by appeals, stays and every form of
legal deluy to end In death when legal
Ingenuity can no longer defer the exe
cution o? the awful sentence. ...
"?''- . r-'AYmuf ;.
Trie sun shone warmly. "
"Oh. I'll take a fall out of you," he ex
claimed, addressing' the months of Ootn.
br, November and the firm few days of
December. Detroit Tribune,
The Nickel Plate Road runs along
the . shore of Lake Brie and through
Erie, Cleveland, Fostorla and Fort
Wayne . .
40,624,012
OVER
FORTY
MILLION
DOLLARS
of Surplus is back of the Guarantees
in the new Guaranteed Cash Value Pol
icy of the Equitable. Many important
new features, privileges and guarantees
and all of them embodied in the policy
and guaranteed by a Society with a
Surplus of
OVER
FORTY
MILLION
DOLLARS
Energetic men of ability and character are Invited to negotiate regarding agency posi
tion trith the undersigned,
THE EQUITABLE LIFE ASSURANCE SOCIETY
OF THE UNITED STATES,
120 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
V. ALEXANDER, Vice President HENRY B. HYDE,
i
L RICE, General Agent. a W. MILLER, District Manager, Scranton,
Bmsiiniess
AN ADVANCE LIKELY. It Is not
unlikely that anthracite coal prices will
be advanced almost immediately
twenty-five cents a ton at tide, and
further advances may be expected in
the more or less near future. The an
thracite coal combination Is apparently
In excellent working order, and proml
lsea to give a good account of Itself. All
parties now recognize that In union Is
Btrength, and the rnore union the more
strength. Every ton of coal produced
and sold below a reasonable price Is a
waste to the producer, who not only
loses on the sale of the ton, but by rea
son of the depreciation of the value of
his mine. The Reading company has
already Issued notice of a 25-cent ad
vance. II II II
SILVER COINAGE Tlii laano of
'standard silver dollars from the mints
ana treasury offices for the week end
ing April 25 was $3:16,108, and for the
corresponding period last year was
$344,700. The shipment of fractional sil
ver coin from April 1 to 25 aggregated
$612,898.60.
II II II
LESS PASSENGER TRAVEL. Dur
ing 1805 the Pennsylvania Railroad
company carried 90,177,980 passengers
between New York city, Chicago and
St. Louis. This is a falling off, as com
pared with previous years, of nearly 6,
000,000, which decrease Is accounted for
by the severe competition of the trolley
lines. The trolley system parallels the
Pennsylvania lines In many places, and
the drain won so great Upon the local
travel of the company, that early In the
year reductions were made In fares to
a number of the suburban points. The
decrease in passenger traffic, Is almoet
universal, as all the trunk lines have
suffered In the same manner. The
Philadelphia and Reading railroad also
suffered from the trolley competition,
although when Its travel began to fall
off. It made a big cut In the passenger
rates to local points, which brought
considerable of Its local trade back to
It In 1895, this company carried to
and from the Terminal station, Phila
delphia, 17,996,380 passengers, while In
the previous year It rarrled 19.041.293.
In 1893, when the business was divided
up between Ninth street and the Read
ing Terminal, 20,715,111 passengers were
carried.
II II II
BRITISH LIQUOR TRADE. The
British Medical. Journal gives some In
teresting figures, showing a steady In
crease lit the revenue the British gov
ernment derives from the liquor trade.
In 1893 the amount of beer on which
excise duties were collected was 30,
594,350 gallons; In 1894, 31,745.462 gallons:
and In 1895, 32.225,743 gallons, equivalent
to 480,281 gallons more than in 1894.
Of srilrlts consumed there were In 1894,
37.535,615 gallons, and In li)b, 39,082.783
gallons, equivalent to nn Increase over
1893 of 1,547,168. Of wine there were In
1894, 13,846.299 gallons, while In 189." the
amount rose to 14,835,568 gallons, show
ing an increase over 1894 of 789,209 gal
lons. The entire revenue from this
source In 1894 was 31,32:1,000. which In
creased In 1895 to 32,214,000, an advance
of 891,000. Thus there has been nn all
around and larire Increase In the con
sumption of Intoxicating liquors.
II II II
FACTS ABOUT GOLD. The average
annual gold exports from this county
for the ten years from 1886 to 1895 In
clusive, were $60,175,156, and the aver
age Imports $31,781,431, or an average
annual net loss of $28,394,725. In two of
the years 1886 and 1887 the ImportB
exceeded the exports by $35,770,832. The
net loss to this country for the ten
years was $283,947,250. The amount of
gold produced, in the United States In
the ten years was $858,450,000, giving us
an Increase In gold stock of $74,502,750.
The largest production for any one year
Brevities.
in our history was $65,000,000 In 1852; the
smallest since that date was $31,800,000
In 1885. The production in 1895 was
about $50,000,000, being $10,600,000 great
er than In 1894. Enlarging the field of
observation, it is estimated that the
production of the world was $205,000,
000 In 1895, the largest yield ever re
corded. The distribution of the world's
production of $180,626,000 In 1894 shows
Australasia at the head with $41,761,000,
followed by Africa with $40,271,000. the
United States with $39,500,000. Russia
with $24,133,400, and South America with
11,164,800, no other country contributing
as much as $10,000,000. The approxi
mate stock of gold money in the world
In 1895 was $4,086,800,000, of which France
held the largest amount ($850,000,000),
Germany $625,000,000, the United States
$618,100,000, the United Kingdom $500,
000,000, Russia $480,000,000, and Austria
Hungary $140,000,000. On April 9, 1896,
the bank of England held about $284,
000,000 gold, the bank of France $389,
600,000, and the bank of Germany $219,
920,000, aggregating about $3.0(K,000
greater than on April 11, 1895. Russia
has been steadily accumulating gold
of late. On March 16, 1896, the bank of
Russia held $426,080,000, an increase of
nearly $115,000,000 over the amount in
Its vaults one year before. The great
banks of these four European nations
hold the prodigious amount of $1,279,
600,000 gold, or nearly 15 per cent, of the
total production of the world since 1792.
The total gold production of the world
since the discovery of America Is cal
culated at about 425,000.000 ounces, val
ued at about $8,700,00M06T
MINOR GLEANINGS:
London employs 500,000 clerks.
Japan boasts 1,000 newspapers.
New Zealand has fifty-three dally a
pers. French railroads employ 25,000 wo
men. Value of the world's diamonds, $1,000,
800,000. Argentine received 58,000 Immigrants
Inst year.
The south has 197,146,420 acres of
timber land.
The New York state canals will be
open to traffic about May 4.
At least $720,000,000 worth of British
property Is always on the sea.
In Great Britain the yearly loss In
wages through ill-health Is 11,000,000.
Six hundred eggs is a good record for
a hen during an average lifetime. More
fowls fall below than exceed this figure.
It Is now seventy years since the first
railway In the world was finished, and
now some 400.000 miles are In existence.
A newspaper published In Madrid Is
printed on linen, which may be washed
and used afterward as a handkerchief.
It Is said that out of 28,000 Hebrews
In the city of Amsterdam, 10.000 are
occupied in the trade of dlumond deal
ing. The dromedary parcel post service In
the. German territories of southwestern
Africa has given better results than
were expected.
The longest artificial water course In
the world Is the Hn,inl canal, In In
dia, 900 miles; the next Is Erie, 3C3. Each
cost nearly $10,000,000.
The Canadian parliament has passed
a resolution grnntlttg a subsidy of $50,
000 for a fortnightly steamship service
between Canada and France. i
The quantity of tallow produced In
New South Wales during 1894 wart 1,
089,100 hundredweight, of which 847,236
hundredweight were exported,
Cuba furnishes practically all the
timber for making cigar boxes, it Is a
very fine grain of cedar, which retains
the aroma of the cigars. American
cedar has never been found available
to any great degree.
It costs about $4,760 per shot to lire
one of Krupp's 130-ton steel guns. The
gun costs $195,000, and It can only be
fired, at the most, 60 times. The gun
President.
Pa.
has a range of fifteen miles, and the
projectiles weigh 2,600 pounds.
At the present time there are owned
and controlled by the railroads and pri
vate car companies of America nearly
1,250,000 freight cars, or, In other words,
enough cars to make two continuous
trains reaching from Boston to San
Francisco, with an engine for every
forty-five cars.
The number of vessels built In the
United States during the first quarter
of this year Is given at 124 vessels at
18,170 tons, as compared with 128 ves
sels of 29,336 tons built In the previous
quarter. Fifty-nine of the new vessels
were steam and 65 sail. The steel
steamers built were nine of 12,349 tons,
of which two, of 7004 tons, were built on
the great lakes.
PENSIONERS IV THE SOUTH.
Colonics of Veterans Settling In Mlldr
Climate.
The time may not be distant when
a third, and perhaps half, of the pen
sion money paid out by the government
will be distributed in the south. The
movement of members of the Grand
Army of the Republic, particularly of
thos who receive pensions, to the south
ern Btates Is now so large as to attract
general attention, and It la steadily
growing In volume. The reason of this
is that the old soldiers of the north suf
fer from the effects of wounds received
or diseases contracted In the war, and
are anxious to pass their declining years
In a milder climate. The long and se
vere northern winters are thinning
their ranks rapidly. They believe they
would live longer and would have better
health In the south. That Is why so
many of them are settling In North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Ala
bama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana
and Texas.
In a dispatch published last Thurs
day, giving an account of the move
ment of Immigrants from the west to
Alabama, It was stated that at present
about $7,500,000 of federal pension money
Is paid out In the south annually, and
that it Is estimated that $15,000,009 will
be paid out next year. If this estimate
should not prove erroneous it affords
good ground for saying that the time
Is not distant when half the money will
be paid to northern veterans living In
the south,
CROWS HINT A VOX.
And Reynard llnd a Very Uncomfortable
Time of It with Lively Enemies.
Ira Stone, of Taylorsvllle, Va., recent,
ly witnessed a most curious combat.
While crossing a field he saw a number
of crows lighting furiously with some
thing. As he neared the scene of the
conflict he saw that the object of at
tack was a large gray fox. The fox
would rush open mouthed upon his an
tagonists, but they would dodge and
peck viciously at his back. Once when
the fox sought escape by running, the
birds formed a solid wall before him.
Reynard immediately changed his
tactics. He threw himself on the
ground nnd began to roll quickly over
in the direction of his foes. ThlB ruse
proved effective, for the crowa simply
widened the circle they had drawn
around him, and ns he came tumbling
toward them attacked him with re
doubled energy. Tho fox would in all
probability have been vanquished had
not the Hlght of Mr. Stone put all tht
combntants to flight. Evidently froii
the many tufts of fur found on th'
ground, the fox suffered considerably.
When Baby was sick, ws gars her Castor!,
When she was a Child, sho cried for Castorla.
When she became 11 to, she clutig to Castorla,
When the hod Children, iu gars tbtia OUtorta.
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