RELIGIOUS.

THE WORK OF PROPAGANDA.-The vast extent over which the Christian and civilizing influence of Propaganda is exercised is seen in the first annual account of this institution, just published under the title, "Missiones Catholicæ Ritus Latini cura S. Congregationis de Propaganda Fide, descriptæ in Annum, MDCCCLXXXVI."

China, that vast empire which, in the opinion of Baron de Hubner, is destined, perhaps, before the end of the century to "play a part still more considerable than that which the Ottoman Empire played during several centuries," occupies the first place in this report.

The descriptive table of the state of the missions in China, which follows the particular account of the origin and progress of each district, sums up the present State of Christianity in that empire.

The numerous provinces of China now contain a sum total of 483,403 Catholics, 2,429 churches or chapels, 471 European missionaries, 281 native (or Chinese) priests, 1,179 schools, with 25,219 scholars, 33 seminaries, with 654 students. In the countries adjoining China-Corea, Japan, Manchooria, Mongolia, and Thibet-the number of Catholics is 77,254; churches or chapels, 227; and Christianitates, or stations, 416.

In the Indo-Chinese peninsula, with its divisions of Birmania, Cambodia, Cochin-China, Siam, and Tonquin, the number of Catholics is 631,276; schools and orphanages, 1,107; scholars in these, 21,166; European missionaries, 290; native priests, 373; and churches or chapels, 1,644.

In India, or Hindostan, and Ceylon the Catholics number 1,185,142; the churches or chapels, 2,677; the stations, 417; elementary schools, 1,566, with 64,357 scholars; seminaries, 16, with 444 students; European missionaries and native priests, 1,089; orphanages, 73, with 4,828 orphans. Persia has only 150 Catholics of the Latin Rite, but of the Chaldaic Rite there are about 7,500, with 4 stations, I Administrator Apostolic, II priests, and 20 Sisters of Charity.

In the Turkish Empire in Asia there are 74,930 Catholics, 143 churches and chapels, 55 stations, and 199 schools and colleges. In Arabia there are 1,100 Catholics, 4 churches and chapels, 4 stations, and 2 schools, with 50 scholars.

The missions in Africa, under the direction of Propaganda, contain about 382,000 Catholics, 251 stations, 280 chapels or churches, 537 priests, 884 educational institutions, and 57 charitable institutions.

In Greece the number of Catholics is 31,410; churches and chapels, 131, priests, 114; seminaries, 2; schools, 50; and pupils, 1,924.

The Balkan peninsula has 646,755 Catholics, 597 priests, 537 churches or chapels, 163 educational institutions, 23 charitable institutions, and 7 seminaries. The German missions depending on Propaganda have 111,468 Catholics, 73 churches and chapels, 108 priests, 77 schools, and 8,435 pupils. Holland and Luxemburg have 1,646,843 Catholics, 70 diaconites, 1,242 parishes, 2,735 priests, II seminaries, 1,197 students, and 1,337 schools. England has 1,353,574 Catholics, 2,252 priests, and 1,252 churches. Scotland, 325,334 Catholics, 308 churches, 319 priests, 139 schools, and 2 seminaries.

Ireland has 3,788,165 Catholics, 2,403 churches and chapels, 1,073 parish churches, and 3,227 priests. As returns from some of the Irish dioceses were not complete, these numbers are less than the actual numbers of Catholics.

British North America has 1,955,325 Catholics, 1,803 churches and chapels, 2,129 priests, 3,609 educational institutions, 109 charitable institutions, and 17

seminaries.

The United States have 7,410,478 Catholics, 7,306 priests, 6,772 churches, 1,047 chapels, 2,596 parish schools, 492,919 scholars, and 451 charitable institu

tions.

[We are convinced, from careful estimates, that the number of Catholics in the United States here given is largely under the correct total.-Ed. Pilot.]

The missions of Antilles and Guiana depending on Propaganda have 297,562 Catholics, 146 priests, 148 churches and chapels, and 127 schools.

Australia has 484,470 Catholics, 767 churches and chapels, 388 priests, 477 schools, with 64,325 scholars, and 2 seminaries, one in Melbourne and the other in Bathurst. Returns are wanting from the diocese of Victoria. In the islands of Oceanica the number of Catholics is 147,845; of churches and chapels, 473; priests, 229; educational institutions, 271; and 8 charitable institutions.

Many places of minor importance, though possessing a considerable number of Catholics, are omitted in this brief summary of the "Missiones Catholicae." There is, however, sufficient given here to show the vastness of the task entrusted to Propaganda. It is, as the Jesuit Werner says, "the immensity of the globe, the universality of the human race, which is the domain and the auditory assigned by the Master to His disciples. Daily new apostles set out, cross the seas, and, spreading through boundless empires, approach the most distant shores and spare no pains to extend the frontiers of the kingdom of God.-P. L. Connellan, in the

Pilot.

as they did in their own times. It is so in every age. The true prophet is never a universal favorite, and the temptation to unfaithfulness is, therefore, very great. And yet no worse woe can befall the human race than a false prophet; a man who comes to his fellows under the authority of a divine sanction, but instead of proclaiming the whole truth of God, becomes the panderer to public opinion and a coward under the menace of popular disfavor; a man who consents to error, and is dumb in the presence of wrong, because he fears that an independent utterance of God's truth will cost him something in public favor, and possibly in money. A sneaking pulpit is an offense in the sight of God and a curse to mankind.-The Western Christian Advocate.

NOTES. Thirty-five years ago it was the crime of high treason in Italy to possess -The crowd a Bible. Now Bible depots are established in every Italian city. which attended the ceremonies in the Basilica on the Feast of St. Peter was more -At least half of the enlisted men of the numerous than during several years.United States army and navy are Catholics, and many of the commissioned officers are of the same faith.- There is to be held from July 24 to August 9, at Lakewood, on Chautauqua Lake, an assembly called the Lakewood School of the New Theology. It is expected to become the center of the new theology movement.

-Captain Bray, of the Morning Star, has resigned to become secretary of the Y. M. C. A. of Oakland, Cal.-Rev. Thomas Williams, attending the jubilee of the Wesleyan Mission, writes from Levuka, December 19, in the Wesleyan Missionary: "I passed a night at my old and horror-crowded station, Somosomo, where, with the brethren Lyth, Hunt, Cross, and Hazlewood, and our noble wives, I endured sufferings of no common kind. But they are passed, and on the ground where once I walked among the slain, amongst open ovens and devil-temples, I have addressed a neatly attired and attentive audience in connection with the celebration of the jubilee of the Wesleyan Mission in Viti.”- -Albany's anniversary found its first official celebration in the Beth-El Emeth Synagogue on Saturday, when Mayor Thatcher and other civic dignitaries listened with interest to Rev. Dr. Schlesinger's historic address.- -The Jews living in the Moldavian portion of Roumania are leaving that country in large numbers.- -A large number of Austrian-Jewish families have been expelled by the authorities at Wolocyska, and conveyed across the frontier. Further expulsions are expected, and it is believed that the Russian authorities are about to put into force, all along the line, an old law forbidding foreign Jews to settle near the frontier.It is reported that young Count Muccioli, the Noble Guard of the Pope, who brought the Zuchetta to Cardinal Gibbons, will prolong his stay in America, and will have a business training in one of the large banking houses of New York.- -A European steamer arrived at New York a few days ago bringing 436 new converts to Mormonism.—Dr. Elliot Coues, the " theosophist," declares that theosophy is a "most terrible and most dangerous form of spiritual potency."- -This from The Banner of Light: "Col. Ingersoll declared that he hoped there was a world to come, but did not know it. Spiritualism knows it, and spiritualists are already in communion with those that have entered the spiritual world."

MEDICAL.

SUICIDES AND THEIR CAUSES.-One of the sensations of New York last week was the suicide of Adrian Crucy and his sister Lucy, aged, respectively, fifty-one and sixty years, who quit life together, after eleborate preparations, by shooting themselves. All the circumstances of the case were peculiar, and invest it with an extraordinary interest. "They were very nice people to work for," say two persons who knew them well, "because they seldom went out, and had very few visitors." Adrian Crucy is described on the Produce Exchange as a man whom "all the members knew generally, but none of them intimately." They were not in immediate pecuniary distress, though not over-prosperous. They were religious and of pure, calm lives. None of the usual motives to suicide appear. was no insanity, no known suffering, and they enjoyed fair health. Why, then, did they agree together to end their lives, after living so long, serenely, quietly, and, so far as could be seen, happily? In dying they publish no complaint, but assume that the reasons which moved them are their own affair, not ours. Though of the Catholic Church, their final defiance of its known teachings indicate that their allegiance to it must have been qualified, not implicit; social, not spiritual.

There

Those who, in death, could thus wrap the mantle of self-imposed seclusion about them, not even manifesting a desire to be understood, must in life, we may readily believe, have preferred isolation to society. Yet that this isolation could scarcely have arisen from peculiar or exceptional views, is shown by their final expressions of satisfied adhesion to the church in which they unquestionably desired to die while defying its precepts. Their isolation must, therefore, have been merely social, not intellectual.

Perhaps this very social isolation was the key to their suicide. Perchance they found a deeper and profounder social tie in dying as they had lived, together. Possibly the fear that one of them might die, and leave the other to live on, alone, and to lapse into greater loneliness and poverty, harrassed them until they thought it, in all but the form, more social, and even more brotherly and sisterly, to go, in their old age, as they had gone when children into some garden of flowers, hand in hand

into the silent land.

The antidote to suicide is society--not the mere pretense of society-not

"Midst the hum, the crowd, the shock of men,
To see, to hear, to feel, and to possess,
And roam along, the world's tired denizen,
With none to bless us, none whom we can bless,"

for this is the deepest of all solitudes--but that unbending of mutual reserve and breaking down of intervening self-will and pride, which causes men to feel for and act with each other. Had these unfortunate suicides thought more of others than

of themselves, and engaged in those philanthropic works which develop the best human sympathies, the suicidal intent would not for a moment have found lodg. ment in their natures.

Religion, war, amusement, literature, science, philosophy, and politics in unlike ways compel men to unbend and be social. But what shall be done for the large mass to whom none of these bring any melting force, zeal, or burning and creative fire? Perhaps they think of religion as something like insurance, which they have attended to, and that is the end of the matter. There are no grand conflicts of nations which interest them. Amusements pall or cost too much. Books are dead, and they find only fraud in sects and parties. Science is too deep and laborious. Life is often a burden to the mind which feels that it can attain to nothing new; that it is a mere spent ball. The possibility of novelty is with many the key to happiness.

For twelve years past the growth of suicide has been rapid, and confined to no class. When Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jr., shoots himself because he has only five millions, we say it is crackbrained dissipation. When a Cleveland iron-maker worth seven millions takes his own life because his fortune has shrunk ten per cent., we can not charge it upon dissipation. When a Presbyterian doctor of divinity in Chicago shoots his wife and himself after an adverse vote on his retention by his church as its pastor, we can not charge the suicidal tendency to irreligion, especially since millions of irreligious men manifest the most stalwart love of life. All shades of faith, from the Catholic to the agnostic, and all conditions, wealthy and poor, learned and ignorant, now and then furnish suicides. But it is seldom that a downright, heartily genial man, who welcomes a reasonable number of his fellow-men to his house and heart, and who is concerned in healthful work for others, takes his own life. It is not good for man to be alone. Unsociability, which is selfishness incarnate, whether arising from pride or sensitiveness, is more invariably the cause of the crime than any other. Now, who is the apostle that can successfully preach down unsociability?-Frank Leslie's Illustrated Paper.

AMERICAN DENTISTS IN GERMANY.-The excellence of American dentistry is nothing new to Europeans, but it is not often that such tangible testimony is borne to it as is involved in the establishment of a German journal as the express opponent of the thought and interests of German dentists educated in America. Such is the function of the "Journal fur Zahnheilkunde, Vereins-Organ der deutchen Vereinigung in Amerika graduirter Doctoren der Zahnheilkunde," the first number of which has just reached us. The new journal, which is to be a quarterly at first, with the prospect of more frequent publication in the future, is edited by Dr. Erich Richter, and published in Breslau. The initial issue is handsome in appearance, and is filled with excellent matter. We have no doubt of its prosperity, and we wish it the fullest measure of success, quite as much for its own merit as out of gratification at the implied honor to our country.-New York Medical Journal.

NOTES. The total amount subscribed to date to sustain the Pasteur Institute in France is $113,719. The sultan has presented Pasteur with the grand order of Medjidie and $2,000, and will send a commission to Paris to study his methods of rabies prevention. -Sixteen of the wolf-bitten Russians who were treated by Pasteur have reached Smolensk on their way home, and, being in perfect health, have telegraphed their gratitude to their preserver.-In order to settle the ques

tion as to the proper treatment for persons who have been frozen, Dr. Laptchinkski has made a series of very careful experiments upon dogs. He found that, of twenty animals treated by the method of gradual resuscitation in a cold room, fourteen perished; of twenty placed at once in a warm room, eight died; while twenty put immediately into a hot bath recovered quickly and without accident.

-Sorne

-The new method of execution by electricity proposed for the State of New York is described as follows: The condemned person would be placed in an ordinary chair with his head resting against its back. A wire would be run from the electric light works to the prison, and entering an insulated substance, such as glass or rubber, would constitute a positive pole. The man's feet, placed upon a metallic plate, would form a connection with the pole, and, arrangements being complete, at a given signal a switch in another room could be turned, and the current, entering the base of the brain—that is, the center of the nervous systemwould pass through the man, who would instantaneously cease to exist.prominent Dublin physicians, after careful experiment, have concluded that the bicycle and tricycle offered the most economical means of using the human muscles -The Jewish hospital at Wuerzburg, which was opened two years ago, and whose assets do not reach 20,000 marks, received a bequest of 65,000 marks from the deceased Dr. Ohlesheimer.- -Mrs. Julia Nathan lately died at Dover, England, in her 100th year. Her parents lived to the ages of 96 and 104. She leaves six daughters, thirty grandchildren, forty-eight great-grandchildren, and eleven great-great-grandchildren.M. Lessenne claims that a certain sign of death is the permanent gaping of a wound made in the skin by puncturing it with a needle. If the person be living, blood will usually follow the withdrawal of the needle, but whether it does or not, the wound will close at once. The puncture made in the skin of a dead person will remain open, as if made in leather.

SCIENTIFIC.

SCIENTIFIC EXPErts as WitnessES.-Let us look at this question as it presents itself to men of science, alike to the chemist, the physicist, the mechanician, the geologist, the physician, and the microscopist, though certainly not to the astronomer, who is in no danger of being called, as such, to give his testimony. The expert occupies a totally anomalous position in court. Technically, he is a mere witness; practically, he is something between a witness and an advocate, sharing the responsibilities of both, but without the privileges of the latter. He has to instruct counsel before the trial and to prompt him during its course. But in cross-examination he is the more open to insult, because the court does not see clearly how he

arrives at his conclusions, and suspects whatever it does not understand. The late Dr. R. Angus Smith complained of being "contemptuously compelled to herd with thieves and scoundrels in a witness-box." He adds: "I have seen barristers speaking to a scientific witness in such a way as to show that to them a witness was always an inferior person." Surely, every person who has been present at a technical trial, or has had to appear as an expert in a poisoning, a patent, or an adulteration case, will be able to confirm this from his own observation and experience. Now, it may, perhaps, be cynically hinted that men of science should be willing to bear all this annoyance for the public good. But is it for the public good? In the first place, not a few of the most eminent men in every department of science distinctly and peremptorily refuse to be mixed up in any affair which may expose them to cross-examination. “I will investigate the matter, if you wish it, and will give you a report for your guidance, but only on the distinct understanding that I am not to enter the witnessbox." Such, in substance, is the decision of not a few men of the highest reputation and the most sterling integrity. Certainly it is not for the interest of justice to render it impossible for such men to give the court the benefit of their knowledge. Further, the spectacle of two men of standing contradicting or seeming to contradict each other in the interest of their respective clients is a grave scandal. Men of the world are tempted to say that "science can lay but little claim to certainty, and is rather a mass of doubtful speculations than a body of demonstrable truth." To us, at least, there is nothing more saddening than to read the trial of a notorious poisoner, or the report of a great patent case, especially if taken along with the comments of the press and of society on these occasions. Here, then, we see that our present mode of dealing with scientific evidence is found on all hands unsatisfactory. The outside public is scandalized; experts are indignant; the bench and the bar share this feeling, but, unfortunately, are disposed to blame the individual rather than condemn the system. But we fear that this unanimity of dissatisfaction will vanish as soon as a remedy is seriously proposed. To that, however, we must come unless we are willing to dispense with scientific evidence altogether. As it seems to us, the expert should be the adviser of the court, no longer acting in the interest of either party. Above all things, he must be exempt from cross-examination. His evidence, or rather his conclusions, should be given in writing, and accepted just as are the decisions of the bench on points of law.-Chemical News.

VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS IN JAVA.-Herr Fennema, a mining-engineer at Buitenzorg, in Java, has made some observations on the recent volcanic eruptions in that island which are of interest, as setting at rest a matter on which some doubt has existed. On the authority of Junghuhn, the general belief has been that in historic times all the volcanoes of Java (and of Sumatra, it may be added) had thrown out solid matter only, and never those streams of lava which are so characteristic of most eruptions. But a careful examination of Smeru and Lemongau, during the catastrophe of April last year, show that the notion must be abandoned as incorrect. The former is not only the highest, but also the steepest in Java. From 700 to 1,400 meters the slope is about 60, up to 2,100 it is 200, and from 2,100 to 3,671 meters it is more than 300. For a considerable way from the summit the striking cone consists wholly of the detritus thrown out regularly by the almost uninterrupted activity of the crater. Up to April, 1885, the existence of torrents of lava was unknown. On the 12th and 13th of that month a stream appeared on the southeastern side and forced the residents on the plantations lower down to fly. The stream increased for several days, until it reached a height on the mountainside of about 2,100 meters from the level of the sea. The loss of life was due to the avalanche of stones sent down the steep sides of the mountain by the stream. Similarly, at the same time, Lemongau threw out a lava stream, but there was a curious difference between this and the one issuing from Smeru-the latter was andesitic in its character, while the former was basaltic.-- Nature.

ELECTRICITY AND VINEYARDS.-A California vine-grower, in a region where once in a great while the temperature fell a few degrees below the freezing point, thus endangering his crop, rigged up an electric alarm system which signaled to him when the temperature out in the fields had fallen low enough to require the lighting of fires to prevent frost. A neighbor, more fond of his ease, immediately improved on this apparatus. He fixed his brushwood ready for firing, and then arranged his electrical apparatus so that when the temperature fell to thirty-two degrees a current should be sent through a platinum wire in some fine combustibles and light the fires, instead of signaling him to do the work himself. The apparatus is cheap and more reliable than hired men, so that it is likely to be adopted in the parts of the State exposed to inopportune frosts.—Philadelphia Ledger.". HABITS OF THE EMU.-The curious case of the emu is described in a letter from Mr. Alfred Bennett, who had an opportunity of watching the habits of this bird, which was, during several seasons, successfully bred by his father in Surrey. The hen bird, says Mr. Bennett, begins to lay about the end of October or beginning of November, and as each brood consists of twenty eggs or more, laid at intervals of two days, the process takes about six weeks. Before it is completed the cock bird begins to sit. The eggs laid subsequently are deposited by the hen by the side of her mate, who puts out his foot and draws them under him. As soon as the eggs begin to hatch it is necessary to isolate the hen, as she fights furiously with her mate, and would, to all appearance, kill the chicks if she were allowed to get at them. The whole of the tending of the young is performed by the male bird.— Nature.

NOTES. It is believed that the immense tower, one thousand feet high, that is to be erected in Paris, although principally built as a matter of curiosity and to draw people to the coming exposition, will render important services to the cause of science. Observations can, it is reasoned, be made at this height that have hitherto been impracticable.- -English scientific journals are going to considerable pains to show the impracticability of attaining a speed of forty knots an hour in ocean-going steamships, as has recently been declared practicable by some writers on the subject. Engineer says economical objections alone would be fatal, to

say nothing of engineering impossibilities.- -A regulation as old as the French Academy of Sciences has just been broken through in Paris. Women have hitherto been excluded from the sittings of the Academy, but at the meeting of the 28th ult., the interdiction was raised in favor of Mdlle. Sophie Kowleska, professor of mathematics at the University of Stockholm, and daughter of the eminent palæontologist. Admiral Jurien de la Graviere, who presided, welcomed her in graceful terms, and said that her presence should be a cause of pride and pleasure, not only to the mathematicians present, but to the whole Academy. As she entered, the whole of the members rose to salute her. She took her place between General Fave and M. Chevreul.—It is stated that the explorations for coal conducted by Dr. Warth in the salt range in the Punjab have proved so satisfactory that the government is now arranging for the practical working of the seams. Warth estimates that over one million tons are underlying the plateau of Dundote. The coal is not of the first quality. It contains iron pyrites and is very friable.A telegram from Zanzibar, of the 30th ult., states that Dr. Fischer had returned there. He has not succeeded in rescuing Herr Junker, the African traveler, who, -A machine for shearwhen last heard of, was in the region north of Uganda.

Dr.

ing sheep is said to be in successful operation in Victoria. It is made of brass, in the shape of a small trowel, and is actuated by a turbine wheel, about three inches A comb serves as a in diameter, geared into a wheel, on which is fixed a cutter. guard against cutting the skin. The steam is conveyed from the boiler by an Indiarubber tube, which is double, having one inside the other. The inner one is the -An interesting experi injection, and the space between the two the ejection.ment, showing the influence of electricity on the growth of roots, has been made in Germany by Professor Hodefieiss. Plates of copper were thrust upright into the earth, and connected by wire with similarly placed zinc plates, about one hundred feet distant, an electric battery being thus formed with the earth between the copper and zinc in the circuit. Both potatoes and beets, planted between such plates, gave an increased yield-beets fifteen per cent., potatoes twenty-five per -A writer in the Bee cent.-as compared with other parts of the same field.Journal says that bees have a strong antipathy to dark-colored objects. A brood of chickens ran about his hives. The bees stung one of the dark ones to death, and did not molest the light-colored ones. He says that a man with a black plug hat -Several rarely gets stung, the bees devoting their attention to shooting the hat.kinds of quadrupeds in the London Zoo suffer from corns on their feet, due to the hard floors, and these produce boring ulcers, which may extend clear through the -Mr. Graber has recently foot. Hernia also occasionally afflicts the monkeys.described, in the transactions of the Vienna Academy, the result of observations indicating that eyeless animals are sensible to light. In a box divided into compartments, and each furnished with two openings, he distributed equally a number of earth-worms. One of the openings in each compartment he obscured or concealed, and exposed the box to the light, examining the worms from time to time, and adding new ones every four hours. By repeated observations he found that they showed a decided tendency to withdraw to the darker parts of the compartments, only forty out of a total of two hundred and fifty remaining in the light. He also studied the influence of different rays upon them, and found them susceptible to the different colors. When the openings were covered with blue or red glass, they manifested a marked preference for the red light.has attempted to estimate the number of seed found upon a single specimen of some of the most obnoxious weeds of this country. For shepherd's purse he makes the number 37,500 per plant; dandelion, 12,108; wild pepper grass, 18,400; wheat thief, 7,000; common thistle, 65,366; camomile, 15,920; butter weed, 8,587; rag weed, 4,366; common purslane, 388,800; common plantain, 42,200; -Experiments were made recently with a telephone between burdock, 38,068.Vienna and Brunn, a distance of one hundred and fifty kilometers. Although the -The deepest artesian well in weather was very bad, the results were successful.

-A botanist

the world is that now being bored at Pesth, for the purpose of supplying the public A depth of 951 meters (3,120 baths and other establishments with hot water. feet) has already been reached, and it furnishes 176,000 gallons daily, at à temperature of 1580 Fah. The municipality have recently voted a large subvention, in order that the boring may be continued to a greater depth, not only to obtain a Professor Long, of larger volume of water, but at a temperature of 1670 Fah.— "Takthe Illinois State Microscopical Society, after repeated experiments, says: ing all things into consideration, I am forced to believe that we have no absolutely certain method of distinguishing between butter and some of its substitutes, and that, of all methods proposed, the microscopic are, perhaps, the least reliable.

STATISTICAL.

SPARROWS.-Presuming that the sparrows were introduced into this country in the year 1870, the following figures will show what the increase would have been from a single pair of sparrows let loose in the spring, giving 6 pairs as the annual increase, and the parent birds dying at the end of each year: November, 1870, the increase would have been 6 pairs; November, 1871, 36 pairs; November, 1872, 216 pairs; November, 1873, 1,296 pairs; November, 1874, 7,776 pairs; November, 1875, 46,656 pairs; November, 1876, 279,936 pairs; November, 1877, 1,676,616 pairs; November, 1878, 10,077,696 pairs; November, 1879, 60,466,176 pairs; November, 1880, 362,797,056 pairs; November, 1881, 2,176,782,336 pairs; November, 1882, 13,060,694,016 pairs; November, 1883, 73,364,164,096 pairs; Novem ber, 1884, 470,184,984,576 pairs; November, 1885, 2,821,109,907,456 pairs.

Philadelphia Ledger.

4,862

10,315

2,700,281

555

58,407

858

17,422,316

298

45,186

1,109

20,383,794

451

16,801

2,984

6,846,913

407

6,701,475

354

8,525,355

349

2,487

20,167

$74,921

352

578

25,836,392

298

-The Stockholder.

RAILROADS.

EXCESS IN RAILWAY BUILDING.—That railway building has gone forward at a rate beyond the commercial needs of the country is a proposition that every one accepts, yet the real disproportion between the means of internal transportation and the business to be accommodated can only be guessed at or approximated. It, perhaps, would be of but little practical service were it possible for the exact amount of road necessary for the purpose to be shown. There are a few leading articles of production—viz., grain, cotton, coal and iron-that illustrate the growth of trade and the relative requirement of means of transportation. An application of this test shows that the building of railways has advanced at least three times faster than the average increase in production. It is admitted, however, that this method of comparison, in this country, where railroads are built in advance of and for the development of traffic, is not a definite test of actual requirement. In any of the burdent capital and embarrass trade. In this country, roads are built in hochis countries of Europe, the liberal railway building of the United States would overconfidence that a development of traffic will follow, and results show that this practice is not often a mistake. Should railway building cease from to-day, the time would come when every railroad in the country would be taxed to its full capacity in moving the traffic that would naturally grow up. As an illustration of this, and of the too rapid progress of railway building, we compile the following

figures showing the production of grain-all classes of cereals-cotton, anthracite coal, total imports and exports of iron, and miles of railroad in operation at the end of each period of five years from 1850 to 1885:

871

Railroad miles.

9,021

30,635 35,085 52,900 74,096 93,349 129,852

1,339

As representative of the growth of leading industries, coal and iron are reckoned as holding a leading place, and these two articles have had the largest ratio of increase in production. But when compared with the increase in railway mileage, it is seen that the means of transportation have increased about twice as fast as the growth in production of these commodities. When compared with the increase in production of grain and cotton, the increase in railway mileage has been four times more rapid, and as compared with the growth of foreign trade the railway development has been more than four times as great. Were the question, however, put to-day as to what roads could be closed up or their use dispensed with, causing loss and inconvenience to trade, it would be found that scarcely a single mile would be surrendered without protest. Railway building may have proceeded too fast, but there is not a mile as yet built, comparatively speaking, that will not in time find full and profitable occupation.-The Stockholder.

NOTES.-The Pennsylvania Railroad Company has inaugurated a series of lowrate excursions to seaside and mountain resorts. The result proves not only extensive patronage, but a satisfactory revenue, and an ever-increasing popularity of the line. The passengers are carried in their luxurious coaches a distance of nearly 500 miles for the sum of $200. It is claimed that no company in the world, besides this, does this as a regular and legitimate part of its business. The local business of this road, this season, has been unprecedented over the entire system, and the managers have been obliged to contract for the building of no less than 2,000 passenger cars. -The Canada Pacific Railway Company has fitted up a number of cars with baths for the use of travelers.- -A railroad official who, for twenty-five years, has kept a record of accidents at railroad crossings in this country, states that of 30 cases where accidents have proved fatal, in 22 the parties driving the teams run into were under the influence of liquor at the time of the accident.- -A single locomotive recently drew 141 cars in a single train across Louisiana, at an average rate of ten miles an hour.- -The Lake Shore & Michigan Southern road has added three elegant new dining cars to its passenger traffic. The cars cost $14,000 each.- -Twenty-five million people cross the New York and Brooklyn bridge in a year. The receipts from tolls about equal the cost of maintenance and betterments, but there is scarcely anything left to go toward paying interest on the vast cost of the bridge.. -Another railroad official, who has kept a careful record of accidents on his road, states that 60 per cent. of the wrecks of freight trains on their road have been directly traceable to overloading cars. But a few days ago a freight car broke down and wrecked a train, doing fully $1,500 damage to equipments, and investigation showed that, although the car was rated at 30,000 pounds, the car, when it broke down, was carrying 53,000 pounds.A New South Wales expert on bridge building says the whole secret of the success of American competition is this: In England there is an absence of system from first to last, while in America bridge building has been reduced to a system, worked out on sound scientific and commercial principles.- -Mr. A. Sanson, in an article in a recent number of the Revue Scientifique, states that, from a comparison of animal and steam power, in France at least, the former is the cheaper motor. In the conversion of chemical to mechanical energy, ninety per cent. is lost in the machine, against sixty-eight in the animal. He finds that the steam horse-power, contrary to what is generally believed, is often materially exceeded by the horse. The cost of traction on the Montparnasse-Bastille line of railway he found to be, for each car, daily, fifty-seven francs; while the same work, done by the horse, cost only forty-seven francs; and he believes that, for moderate powers, the conversion of chemical into mechanical energy is more economically effected through animals than through steam-engines.- -A Philadelphia paper says: The Pennsylvania Railroad Company has recently been quietly making experiments to ascertain whether or not it would pay for a big railroad corporation to observe Sunday, by cutting off more or less of its Sunday traffic. A great many of its excursions and several of its regular passenger trains have been discontinued. The freight trains, excepting those carrying live stock and perishable goods, have been ordered off from 8 o'clock Saturday night till midnight Sunday, and all repairing work on Sunday has been stopped. To make the opportunity still further beneficial, freight engineers are allowed the use of their locomotives to take themselves home for the day. The results have thus far proved so satisfactory that the directors are now arranging to make these experimental changes permanent and to extend them. The men are found to be worth more, and the liability to accident is lessened.

Exports Imports

'80-1. '81-2. '82-3. '83-4. '84-5. '85-6. $902 $750 $823 $740 $742 $679 642 724 723 667 577 635

The difference here between the business done in the first year and the last is only too apparent. It is of even more serious consequence that, while in the case of exports both value and quantity are greatly reduced, the imports show a great increase in quantity, while the total value is little below the average of recent years. The practical result is that, while the value of our exports in 1885-6 is a much smaller reward than in 1880-1 for the labor expended and the capital employed in producing the cereals, provisions, cotton, and petroleum exported, the imports now represent a much sharper competition with the labor and capital en. gaged in the production of like articles at home than six years ago. At the same time, the competition of the South and West with the manufactures of New England and the Middle States is steadily increasing. It is noticeable, for instance, that the demand made for a reclassification of domestic dry goods by the trunk line pool is based upon the fact that the competition of Western mills renders the high first-class freight rate a prohibitory tariff on the products of Eastern mills. The trifling changes in the returns of the New York city banks, shown by the aggregates published Saturday, the sluggish changes in price, and the absence of any striking trade changes during the last week all reflect the dullness of a midsummer week. For the present, the immediate record of trade shows no serious change.Philadelphia Press, July 26.

PROSPECTS OF THE FRUIT BUSINESS.-There is at the present time a feeling of doubt among orchard planters, as well as with nurserymen who supply the trees, whether raising fruit for market is to continue a profitable business. Prices generally have become much reduced. Instances have occurred the present season where in large cities the price of strawberries has been less than the wages for picking them, not counting the cost of raising, expense of shipping, and fees paid for commission. Orchardists will remember when the best pears readily brought five times the sums now paid for them. Some of the leading sorts sold by the quantity on the trees for three dollars a bushel, which now will not bring more than fifty cents. The best-grown specimens of the Anjou then were readily disposed of in Eastern cities at twenty dollars a barrel. During the past abundant pear season thousands of bushels were allowed to decay for want of a ready market, and in the preceding year a still greater waste was allowed to take place with a portion of the enormous crop of apples. Evaporated fruit for a time brought satisfactory prices, but these prices have been much reduced. Apples were more extensively planted long years ago, and, as a matter of course, prices continue nearly the same. All these facts bring a shade of discouragement over the minds of those who are engaged in the business, or who are about to enter it. There are ample reasons, however, why this discouragement should not be felt. Most of the changes which have taken place in prices are the single result of natural causes. We can well remember when, of the great multitude of the people at large, not one in a hundred ever tasted some of our finest fruits, much less had a regular supply of them. The few who first raised them, therefore, found a strong demand when they were placed before the public-the demand then greatly exceeding the supply and they went, at high prices, into the hands of wealthy purchasers Men of moderate means had to go without. These high prices stimulated over-production in quantity at the expense of quality. There was much heedless planting, without adapting the supply to the probable demand. Hence the surplus in some directions, while a want still remained in others. Insects and diseases discouraged many planters, and discouragement is always a fruitful source of careless treatment and inferior quality. Another drawback was a want of careful assorting in packing for market, and still another was a deficiency in system in shipping. That all these difficulties and drawbacks may be substantially overcome is shown by the fact that there is now, during the present year, more money received for fruit than at any previous period. The fruit sales during the past year in some of the western counties of New York amounted to more than half a million dollars, and in one county to almost a million. This was owing to the great increase in quantity. The reduced prices placed the supplies in the hands of a vastly augmented number of purchasers. The costly dainties of the few in former years became the