are therefore not so efficacious in allaying thirst as water. "So plentiful is nutriment," he adds, "that the very last place where we should seek that quality is the drink which accompanies the ordinary meal." In this respect. at any rate, Sir Henry Thompson is at one with the vegetarians.-All the Year Round. NOTES.-Tobacco blindness is becoming a common affliction. At present there are several persons under treatment for it at one London hospital. It first takes the form of color blindness, the sufferers who have smoked themselves into this condition being quite unable to distinguish the color of a piece of red cloth held up before them. Sometimes the victim loses his sight altogether. Although smoking is to a large extent the cause of the malady, heavy drinking is also said to contribute to the result. -Says the Herald of Health: Many think that by cutting the hair short they increase its growth. But this is doubtful. Women rarely become bald; yet they never cut their hair off, as do men. May not their immunity from a shining pate be partly due to the fact that they do not patronize the barber, nor wear tight head-gear? If, in early life, our young men would look after their scalps, even while they do not appear to need attention, it might save them the trouble of looking after them in sorrow at a later period, when it will not do much good. If they do not, the time will come when we shall have a race of human beings without hair.- -A Philadelphia physician says that a great deal of what passes for heart disease is only mild dyspepsia, that nervousness commonly is bad temper, and that two-thirds of the so-called malaria is nothing but laziness. Imagination, he says, is responsible for a multitude of ills, and he gives as an instance the case of a clergyman who, after preaching a sermon, would take a teaspoonful of sweetened water and doze off like a babe, under the impression that it was a bona fide sedative.The statistics concerning rabies in animals during 1885 has just been published. They show that in Paris, or rather in the Department of the Seine, the number of rabid animals was 518. Of these animals, 503 were dogs; 13, cats, and 2, borses. Nineteen persons have died of rabies. It should be remarked that the number of cases of rabies in animals was much larger in 1885 than in 1884-518 instead of 301, an increase that is not easily accounted for.In remarking upon the saying by Carlyle, that "dyspepsia kills poetic ambition," the Boston Post says: "If dyspepsia would only get its work in more constantly, it would be for the comfort of the world generally." -At the last meeting of the Patuxent; 1,234,000 to the Rivanna; 390,000 to the Accokeek creek; 389,000 to Aquia creek; 1,270,000 to the Rapidan; 391,000 to the North Anna; 1,070,000 to the Rappahannock; 1,282,000 to the Little Falls of the Potomac; 1,586,000 to the Hudson, and 1,000,000 to the Colorado. All of these fish are not, of course, counted and numbered. They are measured in the jars. It is known by actual count how many eggs are necessary to fill a jar to the depth of an inch. A quart, it is estimated, will hold 28,000 eggs. Academie de Medecine M. Vidal presented a horn taken from the head of a woman by one of his confreres in the south; it measured ten inches in length, and was twisted on itself. M. Vidal considered it was the longest epidermic production signalized, and added that the section must have been insufficient, as he was told -M. Pasteur has now treated 1,100 that reproduction of the horn was taking place.. persons to avert hydrophobia. M. Pasteur has received a telegram from the Russian doctor who accompanied to Paris nineteen Russians who were wolf bitten, stating that all his patients are now in perfect health. The subscriptions to the Pasteur Institute have reached the sum of $200,000.—————A safe and sure hypnotic, according to Dr. K. Gunzberg, of Moscow, is chloral hydrate in doses of one gramme, given diluted per anum. WHAT A HORSE can Drag On Different ROADS-In a communication to the Engineers' Club of Philadelphia, made by Rudolph Hering, he stated that if one horse can just pull a given load on two iron rails, it will take one and two-thirds horses to pull the same load upon an asphalt pavement, three and one-third upon good Belgian blocks, five upon ordinary Belgian blocks, seven upon good cobblestone, thirteen upon ordinary cobble-stone, twenty upon an earth road, and forty upon sand. A modern compilation of engineering maxims states that a horse can drag3 times as much on the worst earthen road, as he can carry on his back. on a good macadamized road, on a plank road, 33 54 on a stone track way, A horse can drag with the force of 120 pounds continuously and steadily at a walk; hence it can draw at a walk on a level stone road 120 pounds X 34=4,080 pounds, or I ton 16 cwt 48 pounds. The traction of a carriage is to its weight on a stone pavement as 1:68; on a good macadamized road, 1:49; flint foundation road, 1:34; on a gravel road, 1:15; on a sandy road, 1:7.-Railway World, June 12. CARRYING CAPACITY OF A TEN-TON CAR. STATISTICAL. [Translated expressly for PUBLIC OPINION.] THE GERMAN ARMY IN 1886.—The book published annually, by Lieut.-Col. Rose, on the military muster-roll of the principal foreign powers, has just appeared, and affords us exact information in regard to the German army in the spring of 1886. It is scarcely necessary to state that, in Germany, every man comprised in the contingent of the active army must pass three years under the colors; he is afterward assigned to the reserve, in which he is reckoned during 4 years and 6 months, at the end of which he enters into the landswehr to remain in it 5 years. After these 121⁄2 years of service he is inscribed in the landsturm, in which his service is due, until the age of forty two, and at which all the young men are equally included from the age of seventeen, completed, up to the moment of rollcall in their respective class. Now the annual valid contingent being 315,000 men (deduction being made of 5,000 men assigned to the naval forces) Germany, in case of a general mobilization, would have at her disposal 25 classes of 315,000 men, more or less qualified for service. In calculating the decrease resulting from death, invalidation, &c., we should find as the ensemble of these 25 classes a grand-total of 6,059,000 men, And if we take into account only men trained, or in course of acquiring military instruction, we arrive at the respectable figure of 21⁄2 millions of soldiers, subdivided (losses deducted) in the following manner: 2,762,000 From the Courrier des Etats-Unis, June 10. SHAD FRY.-The output of shad hatched by the United States Fish Commission up to the present time has been 12,000,000. These have been sent away as fast as hatched to various streams, and deposited: 356,000 have gone to the Cheat river at Grafton; 370,000 to the Chattahoochee, Georgia; 626,000 to the Chickahominy; 329,000 to the Dan; 758,000 to the Mattapony; 385,000 to the Pamunky; 1,110,000 to the Occoquan; 757,000 to the Shenandoah; 380,000 to the James; 379,000 to the Appomattox; 603,000 to the Monocacy; 609,000 to the THE SCIENTIFIC COMMISSION REPORT.-The commission is of opinion that the administrative part of the bureau is well conducted and with economy and care, and discloses excellent administrative and business ability on the part of its chief. The commission expresses no opinion as to the plan of the survey as delineated by the director, as it does not regard itself charged with this duty, nor is it competent to express an opinion on a subject involving so difficult a scientific question. This, in the judgment of the commission, must be left to the criticism of those who are able to do so more intelligently than can the commission, with its limited means of knowledge. The commission has no doubt of the wisdom of a geological survey of the whole country, and considers the question as to the propriety of its being done by the general Government as settled by existing legisla tion. In treating of the coast survey, the commission gives an outline of its history from its inception in 1807 until the present time. The report treats at length of the feasibility of transferring the survey to the Navy Department, and shows that only a small part of its work is of a kind with which naval officers are legitimately concerned. It also speaks with favor of the geodetic work of the survey, sees no occasion for any other legislation than can be incorporated in the appropriation bills, and concludes that the Secretary of the Treasury can make all necessary regulations governing it. The report on the signal service will disappoint all who have been dissatisfied with General Hazen's management. It recommends no legislation changing the general administration of the office, unless the proposed abolition of the "study-room" and of the school at Fort Meyer be considered such. The commission says that any intelligent young man of good education can learn every thing necessary to the practical work of an observer in six weeks, and sees no occasion for so elaborate a scheme of instruction as that provided. It is not, however, intended to dispense with the services of the able meteorologists who have been employed by the office. On the question of the military control of the meteorological service, the report is extremely mild. It is found that the work is in no sense military, and that military discipline and law are not necessary to its efficiency. If the question were a new one, whether a civilian bureau with a civil head should be established rather than an extension of a military bureau, the commission would recommend this rather than a military organization. As the matter stands, the commission is equally divided on the question of leaving the service in its present hands. Three do not see why it can not be as well managed by the Chief Signal-Officer of the army as by a civilian head; three think such a head necessary to its efficiency. All, however, are in favor of cutting down the military staff as it now exists. As with the other bureaus, the commission does not find that Congress can advantageously define the operations of the signal office by other legislation than such limitations as may be imposed on expenditures in framing the appropriation bills. The principal minority report is signed by Senator Morgan and Representative Herbert. It consists largely of severe criticisms upon the work of both the coast and geological surveys. The topographical system of the coast survey is strongly condemned on the score of extravagance in delineating minute features of no use whatever to the navigator, and of little or no use to any one else. It favors the transfer of the office to the navy, and would abolish entirely the further prosecution of other geodetic measurements than are necessary to map-making. Such are the main points of the report. Comment is unnecessary, because there is no reasonable chance of legislation on the subject. The surveys will be left, as they have heretofore been left, in the hands of the appropriation committees. It is expected that the House committee will sympathize with the minority rather than the majority, so far at least as the coast survey is concerned, and will therefore be disposed to reduce the appropriations to the lowest limit, and, perhaps, cut down the force also.Science, June II. NOTES. A recent photograph of the Pleiades shows 1,421 stars, while a carefully drawn chart, prepared with about the same instrumental power, gives only 625. Many small objects seen in the photograph do not appear in direct eye observations. The importance of the accurate photographic method of star-mapping is indicated by the fact that the hand-drawn chart gives ten stars which have no existence.- -The Marquis of Lorne, president of the Royal Geographical Society, presented a medal to Signor Guidor Cora for distinguished services, and awarded the Back grant to Sergeant David L. Brainard in recognition of the effective services rendered by him during the various explorations carried out by the American Arctic expedition of 1881-'4. During his address the president said he considered himself most fortunate in that it was his duty to present to Mr. Phelps, as the representative of America and of his distinguished countryman, Major Greely, the Queen's medal for this year. It was the sixth occasion on which a president of that society had greeted the achievements of a citizen of the United States with that honor. In the year 1855 it was accorded to Dr. Kane, who had charge of the expedition generously fitted out by the Republic to search for Sir John Franklin. Again, in the year 1867, Sir Roderick Murchison, then president, was able to place in the hands of the American minister the gold medal given to another of his countrymen, namely, Dr. Hayes, who had reached a more northern point of land than any before attained. Dr. Hayes had himself been the companion of Kane, and was the discoverer of that very land, named after Henry Grinnell, of New York, which had been the scene of the explorations of Major Greely. The Murchison grant for 1886 was awarded to the brothers F. and A. Jardine for their remarkable journey overland to the settlement of Somerset, at Cape York (Queensland), from May, 1864, to March, 1865, during which they solved the question of the courses of the northern rivers emptying into the Gulf of Carpentaria, and defi. nitely ascertained the area of the York Peninsula adapted for pastoral occupation. .A -The National Museum has sent its chief taxidermist, Mr. William T. Hornaday, on a hunting tour through the far West for the purpose of obtaining specimens of the buffalo before this animal becomes extinct in this country.- The town of Montdidier, in the north of France, has recently held a series of festivals in honor of Parmenties, who introduced the potato to France.- -The School of Religious Sciences attempted in Paris is not a success, and has had to be abandoned.spring balance for measuring terrestrial gravity was exhibited at a late meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The apparatus is so sensitive that it will indicate a variation of a forty-thousandth part in the force of gravity.- -The statement is made that all the varied machinery of Great Britain now operated by steam-power is capable of performing more work, and hence producing more products, than could be produced by the labor of 400,000,000 able-bodied men-a greater number than all the able-bodied men on earth.- -The provincial assembly of San Paulo has voted an appropriation equivalent to about $25,000 to begin a geographical and geological survey of that province on the plan adopted by the United States.- -The distinguished mechanical engineer, Adolphe Hirn, has been decorated with the Order of the Rose by the Emperor of Brazil.- -The Royal Acad. emy of Sciences at Turin has announced the grand Bressa prize of twenty-four hundred dollars, to be awarded at the close of 1889 for the most meritorious work or discovery in the physical or natural sciences produced during the years 1886–29. The prize is open to the world.According to a letter received from Baron Schwerin, the well-known Swedish geographer, who is at present on a scientific mission to the Congo for his government, he observed the great November meteor stream on the 27th of that month, at 8 p. m., off Cape Palmas, on the Guinea coast (lat. 4o 29' 9' N. and long. 7° 44' 16" W.). He describes it as the most magnificent spectacle he ever beheld, "the whole sky being furrowed from nearly north to south by falling stars, looking like gigantic fireworks, in which thousands of 'star-rockets' were burnt off.". -The Cointe Observatory, attached to the University of Liege, has been founded at the instigation of M. Folie for the purpose of affording instruction to the students in astronomy and geodesy, as well as of furnishing original observations.- - If all the trees which shade the avenues and streets of Washington were stretched out in two rows, they would form an "unbroken vista to Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, and nearly half-way to Boston." EDUCATIONAL. SCHOLARS IN POLITICS.-Napoleon did not think much of scholars in politics. His opinion was, in thought at least, about identical with what Simon Cameron expressed when he heartily cursed "them d-d literary fellers." There is a basis of truth in this estimate. Men who are technically scholars generally fail in practical statesmanship. Scholars who dip into statesmanship generally have strength of intellect. Their motives are apt to be pure and their aspirations high, so that their influence and example is of substantial value; and yet a long list of historical failures goes to prove that seclusion with books does not fit men for practical affairs. A strong bias for literature seems to unfit men for practical affairs as much as a strong bias for music; or, as has been said, Hugo would not have ruled France well nor Wagner, Germany. The literary faculty, when highly developed, is seldom associated with a genius for administration of practical affairs, and the exceptions are so few on both sides of the water as to prove the rule. Gen. Chamberlain, of Maine, president of Bowdoin College, scholar, soldier, and governor, seems to be our only notable exception, while Gladstone, who is a scholar, a financier, a great debater, and an impassioned orator, is the only illustrious exception in Europe. The list of failures includes Bacon, Milton, Fox, Burke, Sheridan, Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Hugo, Castelar, Grote, Mill, Macaulay, Kinglake, where the peculiar faculty of literary genius or scholarship has been tried and found wanting in practical politics. Some of these men, like Burke and Fox in England, and Madison and Calhoun in our own country, were men of genius as philosophical and learned statesmen, but all lacked large executive talent-the kind of capacity displayed by Cromwell, Clive, Richelieu, Frederick the Great, Cavour, Bismarck, Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, DeWitt Clinton, Morton, Stanton, Andrew, who did not debate but could govern. If your scholar in politics is an orator, too, he is still less likely to shine as an executive. Tilden was no orator, but he was a vigorous executive. Garfield shone on the stump, but he lived long enough as President to show that he was not a man of administrative or executive genius. Many silent men have the faculty to govern well. Indeed, as a rule, the men who have talked the least have governed best. Cromwell could not make a coherent speech; Washington could not think on his legs, but he generally knew what he wanted to do and how to do it. Lord Clive could conquer an empire for England in India, but when assailed by a pack of orators he could only swear and call the roll of his great services to the state. Eloquence was all there was of Patrick Henry. Wendell Phillips, the peer of Webster in oratorical genius, was wild as a hawk on finance. Charles Sumner could not draw a bill that would stand fire as a law; neither could Edward Everett, and Choate was as destitute of executive powers as that accomplished scholar in politics, Carl Schurz. With all his genius, Phillips could not have safely and satisfactorily governed a State. The very quality of splendid imagination that made him so glorious an orator would have crippled him as a governor. He would have seen affairs idealized by the light of his fine poetic imagination. Grant, destitute of imagination, was a sounder soldier than brilliant, picturesque-minded Sherman. Lord Chatham is the only great orator we remember who was also a great war minister, a splendid man of practical affairs, until we come to Gladstone, who can charm a senate always, no matter what subject he touches with his tongue. He is fairly described as an essayist, a critic, a Homeric scholar; he knows art, music, and old china; he is a theological polemic; he is a political economist, a financier, statesman, and orator, and with all these various talents and accomplishments he is "a practical administrator, whose gift of mastering details has hardly ever been equaled." Mr. Bright has spoken at times even more eloquently than Gladstone, but Mr. Bright can neither contrive nor explain a financial budget that Gladstone can dissect with fascinating discourse.— Portland Oregonian, June 5. HATTIE, BESSIE, and Mamie-Hattie, Bessie, and Mamie were the Christian names given by three of the nine young women upon whom the degrees of Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Letters were conferred at the commencement of Rutgers Female College last Thursday. Of course it is of no use to expostulate with these girls for allowing themselves to be described by their pet nursery names even in so formal a document as a college diploma. We might as well attempt to reason them out of obedience to the dictates of a passing fashion in dress-to induce them to reduce the height of their hats or the heels of their boots. They prefer their own taste to ours, and think that Hattie, Bessie, and Mamie are much prettier and far more elegant names than the homely old-fashioned Harriet, Elizabeth, and Mary. None the less it seems very incongruous, and it is very incongruous, to give a scholastic degree to a young woman who is spoken of only as if she was a baby who had not yet mastered the pronunciation of some of the consonants, and who changed the construction of words to suit the limitations of her infantile vocal organs. In the domestic circle such nursery names have sweet and tender associations, but they sound quite silly when they are read out at a college commencement as the serious appellations of young women who are deemed worthy of grave scholastic degrees. Suppose that when Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes was given an honorary degree in England, the other day, he had been described as Ollie Holmes or Noll Holmes. These three young women allowed Dr. Samson and Dr. Burchard to address them before a large audience as if they were little girls in pinafores waiting for a present of a doll or of sweetmeats, instead of young ladies about to receive diplomas certifying that they had mastered studies within the ability of maturity only. They and their friends were not in the least indignant at the familiarity, but took it as altogether nice, pretty, and proper. Among the other recipients of degrees were two Marys and two Elizabeths, who were so-called in their degrees, but Mamie and Bessie probably looked on them as the victims of the prejudices of old-fashioned and unreasonable parents. Yet we can never think of Mamie and Bessie and Hattie as dignified young women so long as they put those baby names on their cards. But, as we have already said, we protest in vain. They like baby names better than the names they received in baptism, and are utterly indifferent to what we say on the subject. So we must write down Hattie and Mamie and Bessie as Bachelors of Arts and of Letters, and not three pretty little girls to whom Dr. Burchard and Dr. Samson gave rewards of merit for good conduct in the infant class of a Sunday school.-N. Y. Sun, June 12. EDUCATION IS THRIFT.-Miss Agnes Lambert gives in a late Nineteenth Century some account of the work which has been done in England and upon the Continentespecially upon the Continent-in thus promoting thrift among children. Her article shows that our public schools are, in this important respect, very far behind the times. In France, since 1874, over 23,000 school savings banks have been opened, with nearly half a million depositors, and with deposits amounting to two millions and a quarter of dollars. Where these school savings banks have been established they have soon become popular, and where they have become popular they have produced a marked effect in lessening the squandering of pocket-money on decayed fruit and adulterated candies. "I have known," said Miss Lambert, "a poor mother rejoice that she had not to take her children to the dispensary or physic them half so often since they had joined the school savings bank and had no money left for the sweet-shop." Nor is this the only advantage. The moral influence of the savings bank extends to the parents, as illustrated by the following pathetic incident: "A short time after the establishment of school banks in Hungary, Madame Schròtér noticed that one of the poorest children brought two-pence every day to the school bank. She was all the more surprised at this because the child's mother a few weeks previously had begged for a pair of shoes in order to be able to send the child to school; a request that Madame Schròtér firmly refused, because she knew that the husband was earning two francs a day. The mother said it was quite true, but that her husband spent it all at the public-house, and that she could scarcely keep herself on the few pence she earned at washing. Under these circumstances Madame Schròtér sent for the mother to ask where the child got the money from. With tears in her eyes, the poor woman told how one day her husband, being in a good humor, had given the child a half-penny to buy an apple. Whereupon the child had said, 'No,' she should put it in the school bank. And then, in her childish fashion, she explained the working of the bank to her father. It took the man's fancy, and he told the child to go every night to the workshop that he might give her two-pence as soon as he got his wages. And,' added the poor woman, 'I am very careful to see that she goes. Sometimes when it was late he has brought our little one home himself, and he has not gone out again, but given me hils wages to buy some supper. You may be sure I try my hardest to get a good one. And only yesterday. he told me that, after all, he thought it was better than the public-house. And a little while after he said that as soon as we had got things a little straight, we should begin to save too, for it was a shame for the child to go without an apple whilst he was drinking up his money.'" France appears to have taken the lead in this matter; but England, Hungary, Belgium, and even Brazil are far in advance of the United States. In Brazil savings banks have been established in connection with emancipation, under the law providing for gradual emancipation. The slaves are permitted to work a certain number of hours for themselves, and the wages so earned are put in savings banks and reserved for their future use. When the wages so saved amount to a certain sum, the State or Province completes the sum necessary for ransom out of an emancipation fund. In England, board school banks are established in connection with the post office savings bank system. They are managed by the teachers without difficulty, and for the most part without objection. Even in Japan arrangements have been made in connection with the post-office system to take deposits of very small sums from pupils for the purpose of stimulating in them the habit of saving their pocket-money.-The Christian Union, June 3 (Kobu-Daigakko), these institutions having ceased to exist. The university comprises five colleges, each with its own director; and at its head is the president, Hiromoto Watanabe. The secretary is Kiuichiro Nagai. The directors of the different colleges are: College of law (Hoka-Daigaku), the president (ex-officio); College of medicine (Ika-Daigaku), Prof. Hiizu Miyake; College of engineering (Koka-Daigaku), (acting) Prof. Dairoku Kikuchi, M. A. (Cantab.); College of literature (Bunka-Daigaku), Prof. Masakazu Toyama; College of science (RikaDaigaku), Prof. Dairoku Kikuchi, M. A. (Cantab.). RELIGION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.-Catholics do not object to State schools because they are State schools, nor do they object to the teaching of religion in the public schools. On the contrary, they object that not enough religion is taught in them. Teach the Bible, teach catechism, teach religion say Catholics. Make these an essential part of the school exercises. Do not hide or minimize religion; thus leaving the child to infer that religion is of little value, or a thing to be ashamed of. Catholics object neither to State schools nor to religion in State schools. However, they do object that any other than the Catholic religion be taught Catholic children. They also object to be taxed to support schools from which, for conscience' sake, they can derive no benefit. They further say, let the public schools be so constructed that they, in common with their fellow-citizens, can have the religion of the parent taught the child. It will be said that owing to the mixed state of our society and the great diversity of religions amongst us this cannot be done and maintain a system of State schools. To this I answer, it is done in England, France, Germany, Austria and Canada. I say further, what others can do we can do. If there be a will there will be found a way. Once admit the necessity of religion in education, and good will, backed by our far-famed American ingenuity, will find a way.-Bishop Gilmour. COLLEGE CHEERS.-Fresh-water colleges have some peculiar cheers. Among others are the following: "Cornell-I yell—I yell Cornell!" Rah! Rah! Rah! Ham-il-ton-zip-rah-boom!" "Rah! Rah! Rah! Syra-Syra-Syra-Syra-cuse!" "Rah! Rah! Rah! U-n-i-o-n-Hika! Hika! Hika!" "Rah! Rah! Rah! M-a-d-1-s-o-n Rah! Rah! Rah!" "Hip Hobart! Hip! Hip! Hip! Ho! Hip Hobart!" Occasionally the Cornell boys add to their cheers: "We're the stuff No flies on us." NOTES.-The total reported donations and legacies by individuals in-aid of education amounted during eighteen months, from January 1, 1883, to July 1, 1884, to $11,270,236.-There are from four to six millions of text-books published to give "methods" of teaching made by the ablest educators of this country -Germany and published without regard to expense in illustration and binding.has no college papers. -Brown University, will hereafter admit ladies.-Of 365 colleges in the United States, 150 publish papers.-There are 30 colored students in the freshman class at Yale.- -James Russell Lowell has resumed his position as professor of modern languages at Harvard.-- -The University of Pennsylvania has established a limited number of unannounced post-graduate fellowships in practical science and history, with unusual opportunities for the advanced study of political economy, civil government, political and constitutional history, constitutional and mercantile law, and political science.- -The Chicago News suggests that CHINA AND BABYLONIA. The tendency amongst modern Oriental scholars is to trace the origin of Chinese arts, sciences, and civilization to Babylonia. The theory, however, is not accepted by many of the most eminent Chinese scholars. In the last number of the China Review, Dr. Edkins, of Pekin, gives his reasons for assigning a Babylonian origin to Chinese astronomy and astrology. Amongst these are the following: Both peoples divided our day and night into twelve hours; the sun-dial is a Babylonian invention, and reached China at a very early date; the intercalary month belonged to the Accadians, and is found in the first sections of the Chinese Book of History. Geminus states that it was the dwellers on the Euphrates who discovered that, after 223 lunations or eighteen years, eclipses of the moon recur in the same order. The early use of the intercalary month by the Chinese implies that either they, or those from whom they derived it, knew this fact about lunations. Early Chinese astronomy, Dr. Edkins thinks, is too good to come from the Chinese of those days, and, on various learned grounds which he states, he concludes that the double hour, the astrolabe, the dial, the intercalary month, and the knowledge of the length of the year were all communicated from Babylon to China at different periods by land or by sea between about B. C. 2200 and B. C. 820.-Nature. THE IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY OF JAPAN (Teikoku-Daigaku), founded by imperial decree of March 1, 1886, includes the two institutions formerly known as the Tokyo university (Tokyo Daigaku) and the imperial college of engineering "If an S and i and an o and an u, with an x at the end, spell 'Su,' And an e and a y and e spell '1,' pray what is a speller to do? Then, if also an s and an 1 and a g and a h e-d spell 'cide,' There is nothing much left for a speller to do but to go and commit Siouxeyesighed." -The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is to have by far the largest entering class in its history the coming year, and it promises to be as large as the freshman class of any institution in the country. Examinations of candidates are held this year at Montreal, New York city, Philadelphia, Washington, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Paul, St. Louis, Denver, and San Francisco, while the number of applicants at Boston alone is far beyond the expectations of the most ardent friends of the school.- -In Boston, for every school they have seven saloons. There is annually spent for liquor $9,000,000 more than for their schools.--A teacher in the Lawrence street school, Newark, N. J., gave to her pupils lowest grammar grade the following words to be used in statements: Livelong, squirrel, agile, haughty, wholly. In less than ten minutes Nellie Honeyville (colored) presented the following: "The shepherd works the livelong day attending to his sheep; The squirrel, so agile at his play, has seldom time to sleep; The haughty butterfly doth say, 'These flowers are wholly mine;' The bees make honey all the day, and never stop to dine." -Seventy of the American colleges now in existence were founded between the years 1838 and 1880.Since Dr. McCosh has been president, $5,000,000 have been donated to Princeton.- The college which has the most graduates in Congress is the University of Virginia. Harvard stands second and Yale third. FINANCE AND COMMERCE. THE BUSINESS SITUATION. STOCKS rose last week, grain fell and the great merchandise and manufacturing staples remained stationary in price. This is a stable condition of affairs. It means, in brief, that the general business of the country looks prosperous enough to warrant a belief in increased railroad business, that the crops are large enough to render the continuance of cheap food-which is the raw material of labor-probable, and that the great raw materials of our manufacturing industries, cotton, wool, jute, silk, iron, copper and the rest, show no sign of advancing, thanks to a large product or a large output. These are the conditions of prosperity, and, from the advertising columns of the Press outward, there appear at all points signs of brisker business and an improving temper of the public mind. The wheat crop is now generally placed at 450,000,000 bushels. In our own judgment this is an underestimate. We consider it likely that it will come nearer the highest point of the past, 525,500,000, say 480,000,000 bushels. But even current estimates indicate 100,000,000 bushels more than last year's crop, and of this increase nearly all is grown between Pittsburgh and Kansas City. At a low estimate, without paying a penny more for interest, wages or taxes, the farmers in the States between will be $50,000,000 to $60,000,000 richer next September than last. This is a good deal of money, and the increase in wheat which brings it is not due to a larger acreage. Just as much of everything else will be grown. The enlarged yield is a gross addition to the agricultural resources of the winter wheat States. There is a chance, also, of reduced crops abroad, which may advance prices, for while the crop is larger, the stock left over is smaller by about the same amount, and the surplus for export will be no larger. The cotton crop shows a larger acreage and the conditions favor as great a yield as last year, low as was the price at which cotton was sold. While fully a fifth more cotton from last year's crop has been worked up by our mills than in any recent season, the stock of cotton goods was scarcely ever lower. The same thing is true of wool-that is, more wool has gone to mills and there are fewer woolen goods in stock. The result in wool is a slight advance, trifling as yet, but of value as an indication of the future in cotton. Pig iron is unchanged in price, but the output steadily grows. June 1 the capacity of the furnaces in blast had reached the remarkable total of 119,256 tons per week. It is significant also that charcoal furnaces have begun to show an increase after their long depression, which began years ago. The increase in domestic production has been accompanied by an increase in imports, as usual. Even this is on a scale few realize. Imports for the first four months of the current year have been : The relative size of these imports is of more consequence than their amount. The New York bank reserve rose last week from a remarkable addition to the legal tender reserve, for whose increase no reason clearly appears. The export of gold grows less likely with enlarging exports, but still remains possible. In this, as in so much else, better times breed a hopeful spirit.-Philadelphia Press, June 14 WAGES IN GERMANY.-The wages earned by the laboring classes seem here a mere pittance. The men who keep the streets clean in Stuttgart-and they are brilliantly clean-receive fifty pfennig a day; that is, about twelve cents. The fireman receives three marks nearly seventy-five cents. My coachman thinks himself munificently rewarded with something less than fifty cents a day, and for this he undertakes some duties about the house and boards himself. I had a letter one day from a manufacturer on this side, who, in writing of his affairs, told me that he had 110 men in his employ, and mentioned his salary list. I learned a few days subsequently that the salary list of a manufacturer in Stuttgart who dealt in similar goods, but who employed 2,200 hands, was about the same. The consequence is that German manufacturers are turning out marvellously cheap goods, and underselling everybody in the markets of the world. Germany is to-day the Cheap John of nations. She has cut into England terribly. Why, there is a firm of corset manufacturers in Stuttgart, Ottenheim & Co., who turn out corsets at twenty cents apiece. At least their invoices say so.-Celia Thaxter. WISCONSIN LUMBER.-Reports received show that the lumber industries of the Northwest anticipate an active and profitable trade for the season which has just commenced, and this in the face of the large surplus of lumber on the market in connection with the low prevailing prices. It appears, however, that the lumbermen in Wisconsin started out late in the fall with the determination of largely curtailing the log cut as compared with the cut of former seasons. It seems, however, that despite their efforts the log cut of 1886 averaged nearly as much as that of the seasons of 1884 and 1885. The total cut of last winter for the districts of Eau Claire, Chippewa, Black River, St. Croix, Wisconsin, and Red Cedar is said to have amounled to 1,533,000,000 feet of logs. This output, as compared with that of 1885, represents a decrease of very little more than 15 to 20 per cent. It seems that the strikes which threatened to occur at the saw mills in this region have not taken place, and that a harmonious feeling prevails among employers and employed-Bradstreet's. NOTES.-Parnell's brother is called the Peach King of America. He has 150,000 peach trees; employs 100 men, women and children to attend to them, and nets an income of $10,000 to $12,000 for his trouble.The Savannah Times says a Florida house is shipping 2,500 bird skins a month to Newark, New Jersey, to be used in hat decorations. The birds killed for that purpose are the jay, lark, snipe, crane, hawk, and black and other species.- -A peculiarity of most of the Paris papers is that they rent out the financial column by the year to anybody who wants it. A well-known banking house pays the Figaro 160,000 francs a year for the use of its financial column, and puts in whatever it pleases. It has a ten years' contract. -An indication of a rather important commercial movement is given by recently published figures from the Bureau of Statistics, showing that the imports of merchandise into the United States in March, 1886, amounted to $60,081,077, as compared with $52,976,345 in March of the previous year. Nearly two millions of this increase were in the one item of woolen goods.At the last meeting of the directors of the Marblehead, Mass., gas company, the president offered the proposal of presenting the men in the employ of the gas company with a gift of 22 per cent. on the dividend earned during the last six months. The directors were unanimous in favor of the proposal, and at once decided to divide a share of the profits of the company among their men.There are only four nations in the world to-day that are paying their way. England generally manages to make ends meet, and shows a trifling surplus of $2,000,000 $3,000,000 to be applied to the reduction of its enormous national debt; the United States, in spite of Congressional extravagance, puts by nearly fifty times as much, and Holland and Belgium keep about even. With these exceptions, every nation in the civilized world shows an annual deficit. -There are nearly 2,000 men em. ployed in the bread-making business in Chicago.- The announcement is made that a company has been organized in New York to make a thorough experiment in jute-raising in the South. The company has leased thirty thousand acres of land in Madison county, Alabama, and will plant it in jute and ramie; it will also establish a factory for preparing the fiber for market. -The financial losses of New York incident to the strike of street-car employes the past season are estimated at a million of dollars, of which the employes lose $250,000 in wages.Some interesting figures have been put together showing the enormous extent to which the Panama Canal Company has been the purchaser of machinery. There are at the present moment either at work, en route, or in course of coustruction no less than 200 European locomotives of 19,200-horse power, 60 American locomotives of 4,800-horse power, 116 excavators, 28 large tugs, 144 steam pumps, 97 traction engines, and a vast number of other steam appliances, amounting in all to 57,400-horse power.-The Steelton Reporter, of May 29th, says: There was a broad smile on the countenances of all the employes of the Pennsylvania Steel Works last Saturday when they received their pay envelopes. It was occasioned by a ten per cent. advance on their wages, and was the more acceptable to them from the fact that the increase had not been asked for by the employes. The furnaces are all working first-class.- -The amount of capital invested in potteries in this country is now $8,000,000, and the value of last year's product was about the same. growth of the industry has been materially increased by the manufacture of jars and pots for decoration by young women with the art craze. RAILROADS. The EADS' SHIP RAILWAY.-Eads' ship railway enterprise has received a very encouraging lift from the Senate committee of Congress. In its report, presented by Senator Conger, the committee says: Many of the most distinguished engineers, naval constructors and ship-builders of the world concur in the opinion that the project is in every way practicable and that the largest ships, with their cargoes, can be safely carried upon a properly constructed railway over moderate grades. From these opinions the conclusion is irresistible that the project is a practicable one. * * * From the surveys it is apparent that the route is entirely practicable for the construction of the proposed road; that there is no swamp land encountered upon the line and that the harbors are of a character suitable to the wants of the commerce of the world. The committee is of opinion, from a careful study of statements deemed to be reliable, showing the extent of the commerce which would be likely to use a transit way across the Isthmus, if constructed, that the net annual revenue of the road will be in excess of the amount guaranteed by Mexico and the United States. It is possible that for the first few years there may be some deficiency to be made up by the two governments, but such deficiency would be likely to be small, and after the first few years the committee is of opinion that none would exist. It is not at all probable that the aggregate amount ($7,500,000) will have to be advanced by the Government. If the road is made an engineering success it will ensure such an enormous saving in distance that commerce will certainly avall itself of it. The committee estimates, assuming that the tonnage will amount to 4,000,000 tons and that the average charge for transporting it upon the railway will be $2.50 a ton, that the gross revenue of the road will amount annually to $10,000,000. One-half of this will constitute the net revenue, and if this amount is earned neither our Government or that of Mexico will be required to pay anything under their guarantee. Regarding the payment of the loan the report says the provisions of the bill give assurance to the Government against loss, and that it is not probable that the Government would have to wait for ten years for a repayment of any advances that it might make. The committee is of the opinion that an Isthmian transit way is absolutely necessary.—The Railway Age. NOTES. A French statist gives the following as the proportionate number of persons killed annually on the railways of the respective countries: France, one in every 2,000,000; England, one in every 5,250,000; Belgium, one in every 9,000,000; Prussia, one in every 21,500,000.- -At the scale works of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, Pottstown, Mr. J. A. Merrill, the scale inspector, is having an immense scale built. It is 123 feet in length, and in its construction 20,000 feet of lumber, besides a large quantity of iron and steel, will be consumed. The scale will have a capacity of 150 tons, and will weigh 12 coal cars at once, while in motion. The scale has a grade of 17 5% inches.- -Mr. Blanchard, in an article which appears in this week's Railway Age, says "Watt's puff of steam has materialized into the vastest energy of the age; " and again, "lands distant from markets have been ploughed and tilled as much by the locomotive as by the immigrant." -The Train Despatchers' Association held its third annual convention at Chicago this week.- --Senator Hale has introduced in the United States Senate a bill making the impeding or obstructing of railroads, except by legal process, a crime punishable by fine, and imprisonment.- The New Orleans business men who reside at country seats outside the city have had constructed a luxurious car, which they have named the Beauvoir, after the home of Jefferson Davis. It runs morning and evening between the city and their residences. -A bill has been introduced in the Senate by Senator Beck to prohibit Members of Congress from acting as railroad attorneys.- -The Senate has passed a bill for the taxation of railway grant lands.- -The master car builders held their twentieth annual convention at Niagara Falls, June 8.A dispatch from the city of Mexico reports that a careful estimate for the fiscal year ending with this month shows that the earnings of the Mexico Central Railway will be slightly more than $4,000,000, and the running expenses will be about $2,400,000, leaving a net income of $1,600,000, or about 4 per cent. on the capital. JOURNALISM. AMERICAN NEWSPAPERS.-The wonderful growth of American newspapers is shown by a comparison between the directories published in 1776 and in the present year. The one contains in its sixteen small pages a list of 37 newspapers which were published in this country one hundred and ten years ago. The other is almost as large as an unabridged dictionary, and in its two thousand pages contains the names of 14,160 newspapers and periodicals of all classes. Of this large list, only seven were found in the directory of 1776. The net gain of the year has been 666. The daily newspapers number 1,216, a gain of 33. There are. about 1,200 periodicals of all kinds which presumably enjoy a circulation of more than 5,000 copies. The increase in the rural weekly press, comprising about two-thirds of the whole list, has been most marked in States like Kansas and Nebraska. Kansas is also accredited with the greatest gain in daily newspapers. In Massachusetts the weekly press is growing, but magazines and monthly publications are losing ground. The tendency of this latter class seems to be toward New York city, as at least 23 monthly periodicals have been established here dur ing the year. Among the many newspapers published in this country, almost every social movement and industrial interest finds expression. A glance at the long list reveals many curious facts. There are about 700 religious and denominational newspapers, nearly one-third of which are published in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and Chicago. New York is far ahead in this respect, while it will be a surprise to many to know that Boston is behind Chicago. Three newspapers are devoted to the silkworm; six to the honey bee; thirty-two to poultry; eighteen to dentistry, and nine to phonography. There are three publications issued in the exclusive interest of postage-stamp collectors, and one of dancers. The Prohibitionists have 129 papers, and the liquor dealers 8. The organs of women's suffrage number 7, of candy makers 3, of gastronomy 3, and gas 2. Of the foreign newspapers, there are about 600 in German and 42 in French. New York, New Orleans, and Worcester, Mass., each has four French publications. Two dailies are in Bohemian. Besides these, there are papers in the Swedish, Finnish, Polish, and Welsh languages. There is one publication in Gaelic, one in Hebrew, one in Chinese, and one in the Cherokee language.-Scientific American. A COLLEGIATE Degree for NewSPAPER MEN.-At the very moment that an important branch of journalism-the American branch par excellence is fiercely assailed in a Paris journal by a Parisian journalist, an American journalist--the editor of the Rochester Democrat-comes forward with the suggestion that American colleges confer a special degree upon graduates who have taken a special course with a view to becoming "newspaper men." This would be a very pretty compliment to a much-abused profession. But "newspaper men" are the most practical, the least reverent of men; and the college graduate who had taken the degree of Bachelor of Journalism, as proposed by the Rochester journalist, and should ingenuously append the initials B. J. to his usual signature, would be laughed out of the profession in a fortnight. A young man can undoubtedly be fitted at college for a journalistic career, but it will be by obtaining a broad general education, rather than by taking a special course of studies. Let him take the special course by all means, if he wishes to; he can learn nothing that will not be of use to him as an editor or a contributor to the press; but whether Bachelor or Benedict, let him forego the use of the alluring B. J., and content himself with the customary A. B. and A. M. of the college graduate.-The Critic. ART. A fine copy of a sum of £5,000 may be granted annually to Sir Frederick Burton, as trustee, for A NEW PAINTING FOUND AT POMPEII.-An important painting has been found at Pompeii, and was recently placed in the Naples Museum among the Pompeian frescoes. It represents the "Judgment of Solomon," and is the first picture on a sacred subject, the first fragment either of Judaism or Christianity, that has been discovered in the buried cities. The picture is 5 feet 6 inches long, and 19 inches in height, and is surrounded by a black line about I inch in width. The scene is laid upon a terrace in front of a house adorned with creeping plants, and shaded with a white awning. On a dais (represented as being about 4 feet high) sits the king, holding a sceptre, and robed in white. On each side of him sits a councillor, and behind them six soldiers under arms. The king is represented as leaning over the front of the dais toward a woman in a green robe, who kneels before him with disheveled hair and outstretched hands. In the centre of the court is a three-legged table, like a butcher's block, upon which lies an infant, who is held in a recumbent position, in spite of his struggles, by a woman wearing a turban. A soldier in armor, and wearing a helmet with a long red plume, holds the legs of the infant, and is about to cleave it into with his falchion. A group of spectators completes the picture, which contains in all nineteen figures. The drawing is poor, but the colors are particularly bright, and the preservation is excellent. As a work of art, it is below the average Pompeian standard, but it is full of spirit, and drawn with great freedom. The bodies of the figures are dwarfed, and their heads (out of all proportion) large, which gives color to the assertion that it was intended for a caricature directed against the Jews and their religion. This may be so, but my own impression is that the artist was anxious to develop the facial expression, and, to do this, exaggerated the heads. There is nothing of caricature about it in other respects. Mr. E. N. Rolfe to the Times. THE THREE GRACES.-There has been another remarkable discovery in the gardens of Sallust, where excavations are going on relative to the process of establishing and building up a new quarter of the city. It is no less than a colossal marble group of the Three Graces, evidently a work executed in the palmy days of ancient sculpture, and of rare merit. It is in a wonderful state of preservation, except the unfortunate loss of all three heads, which, it is hoped, may yet be unearthed. If these be found, it will be one of the most important revelations that this mania for progress and the rebuilding of Rome has yet given us.-London Paper. DRAMA. THE CLERGY AND THEATERS.-We called the attention of our readers the other day to a recent sermon by Mr. Scudder, of Minneapolis, on the theater, as one embodying more good sense than is often heard on this subject from the pul pit. We now find similar views forcibly put by the Rev. H. R. Haweis, the wellknown English clergyman and author. He declares that the remedy for bad plays is not to denounce all plays, good and bad alike, but to support the good and stay away from the bad; he indicates that he is not quite sound on the doctrine of "total depravity" by saying that virtue is more attractive than vice, and that good actors know it; he illustrates this hopeful position by asserting that the most popu lar music is the "Messiah;" the most popular play, "Hamlet" (doubted); and the most popular of books, "Pilgrim's Progress." He advises the clergy to go to the theater before condemning it, because they will thus know what they are talking about; and he makes the following point, which is new in this discussion, threadbare as that discussion is: NOTES-Madam Chenevard has bequeathed three millions of francs to the Paris Ecole des Beaux-Arts for the foundation of scholarships.-The first prize of $2,000 in the competition for the memorial of General Robert Lee, at Richmond, has been awarded to Mr. Niehaus, sculptor, of Cincinnati. Mr. Ezechiel has gained the second of $1,000.- -Mr. Hoar introduced in the Senate last Tuesday a bill in regard to a National Art Commission. It provides for a non-salaried commission of fourteen members, four of whom are to be sculptors, four painters, three architects and three men of other employments who have a knowledge of art. The purpose is to prevent the Government from being imposed upon in the purchase of works of art, and also to prevent the disfigurement of cities by the erection of ugly public buildings.- -At a reception of the American Art Galleries on Wednesday evening medals of honor were presented to the successful exhibitors at the recent Prize Fund Exhibition.. -The Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts is preparing a petition for presentation to the British Government praying that "We, the clergy, should be very careful how we speak of actors. The clergy owe & debt to the actors for their forbearance. The stage in England has always, with hardly an exception, treated the cloth with respect. The few clerical touches in The Rector,' 'The Sorcerer,' and elsewhere have been inoffensive. The Vicar of Bray'-a play which I can not recommend any one to see is certainly in bad taste; it just gives a hint of what the actor might do if he chose to treat the clergy on the stage as the clergy have treated him in the pulpit The clergy offer a fine field for satire, and the novelists have not failed to see it. I sometimes wonder at the forbearance of the playwrights." The argument, however, is not all on one side; and when one reflects on the character of the average traveling theatrical company in the United States-and it is only the average traveling company that the church or ministry has much to do with, outside of a few large cities we can not wonder that the ministry generally hesitate to take the responsibility of advising their young people to support the good plays and stay from the bad; in truth, this counsel in respect to such companies would be generally equivalent to advising them to stay away altogether; and no wonder that seems to the minister the simpler form in which to give it. Still, we think he is mistaken in giving it in that form.-The Christian Union, June 3. CRITICS OF THE THEATER.-Religious people who object to the stage and its habits are freely criticised as bigoted and narrow. But they are certainly more consistent than those patrons of the theater who do not hesitate to treat the profes sion of acting as if it were at least vulgar. An evening journal, not at all remarkable for its fastidiousness, observes: "To write and be read is a greater thing than to act and be seen, and a much nicer occupation for a refined woman," etc. Is this a revelation of the real feelings of those who are most devoted to dramatic entertainments? Religious moralists who object to the ballet are considered prudish by the world of fashion. But fashionable ladies would resent the idea of their own daughters appearing in the ballet. For poorer girls they have no such delicate consideration.-The Interior, June 10. -The NOTES. Miss Maud Banks, the daughter of Gen. N. P. Banks, is to start out August 28 as a theatrical star, playing in " As You Like It," "Ingomar," "Pygmalion and Galatea," "Lady of Lyons," and similar pieces.- -Mr. Joseph Jefferson contemplates another revival of old English comedy before taking final leave ofthe stage.. -Mr. Stockton is dramatizing his novel "The Late Mrs. Null."first serious attempt to give London an open-air theater was recently made at the Albert Palace, Battersea. In the grounds attached to the Palace a spacious theater has been erected, where the entertainments will consist of operatic selec tions and spectacular pieces, and elaborate ballets.- A young scenic painter named Mazzovitch died last week.Like old John Brown's body, Lotta's fortune is marching on. The latest estimate puts it at $1,000,000.—The dramatists are at work on President Cleveland and the late Miss Folsom. From New York alone a dozen orders have been sent to the Librarian of Congress to copyright the titles of dramas concerning the recent romantic marriage. "Grover's Bride," "The Lady of the White House," "America's Queen," "Our Country's Darling," 44 |