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9
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Items of Interest. -
At the equator tho snow lino is over 15,000
feet above sea level.
. Chicago is the third largest German city and
the third largest Bohemian city in the world.
English residents haVo 111,000,000 pounds
sterling invested in mortgages in foreign coun
tries. The great Austrian violinist and musical
genius, Kubelik, will make a tour of America
during the coming winter.
In tho one week ending August 6, the canner
ies on the lower Puget Sound packed 265,100 cases
of salmon, worth $1,272,800.
Tho largest match factory in tho United
States is located at Barberton, O., and has a capac
ity of 100,000,000 matches per day.
According to a special report from Ambassa
dor White, Germany buys more products from
America than from any other one nation.
There were 280,000 native German-speaking
people within the United States in 1801. Now
there is more than that number in a single city of
our country.
In proportion to population there are fewer
houses in Italy and Spain and more in Argentine
Republic in Uruguay than in any other countries
of the world.
The Canadian government lobster hatchery at
Caribou, Nova Scotia, has put out 100,000,000 lob
sters this season on the eastern coast of the
Dominion.
For the flrst time since 1860 the white, pop
ulation of Louisiana exceeds the colored popula
tion. By the census of 1900 the whites have about
75,000 majority.
It is 'stated that the 'King- ot Italy received
26,000 congratulatory telegrams after the birth of
his daughter, and 20,000 requests for money in
honor of tho event.
Of the 267,800 Indians in the United States
33,900 earn their own living by farm work. Tho
total value of their farm products for the past
year amounted to $1,408,865 over and above the
expense of living.
The reward of $500,000 to Lord Roberts for his
services in England's behaif in the South African
war carried in parliament by a vote of '281 to 73.
The gift Vi as advised by the king in a message to
the house of lords.
A national convention of negro bankers, tho
first of its kind ever held in this country, is helng
arranged tc. be held at Buffalo September 26. The
prime mover of this undertaking is John Clayton,
president of the First Colored Bank, north of Phil
adelphia. According to a recent report of the United
States geological survey Pennsylvania and Illinois
rank first and second for coal production In the
United States. West of the Mississippi river Colo
rado ranks flrst and Iowa second.
The State Federation of Woman's Clubs at
South Dakota, at a meeting recently held at Hot
Springs, decided to provide a home for indigent
eld ladies whose education and birth has been
such as to make them desirous of a different en
vironment to that obtainable at the various charit
able institutions of the state.
In the matter of per capita Interest paid on
national debts, the United States ranks well. Each
year the Australian pays per-capita in interest,
$10.14; France, 6.28; Spain, 4.46; Italy, 3.58; Bel
gium, $2.93; United Kingdom, $2.76; Canada,
2.u5, while the United States pays annually only
.44 cents per capita in interest.
A new magazine pistol lias been adopted by
the board of ordnance, the cost price being, about
$15 in lots of 1,000. The standard weapon of tho
The Commoner.
array up to the present time has been the Colt's
revolver, which had a firing record of only 40
shots per minute. The new weapon is moro ac
curate and can bo fired 116 times per minute.
The United States geological survey shows
the total production of petroleum in this country
in 1900 to have been 63,362,704 barrels, having a
valuo of $75,752,691. Of this amount Ohio pro
duced 22,363,730 barrels, West Virginia 19,195,675
barrels, Pennsylvania 13,258,202 barrels, Indiana
4,874,382 barrels, California 4,099,484 barrels, New
York 1,300,925 barrels, Texas 836,039 barrels.
Lord Kitchener has issued a proclamation
that permanent exile will be the fate of all Boers
found in arms in Orange Colony or in the Trans
vaal after September 15. Not only aro all in arms
on that date to be permanently banished from
South Africa, but "the cost of the maintenance of
the families of all burghers in the field who have
not surrendered by September 15 shall be recov
ered from such burghers and shall be charged on
their property, removable and immovable, in tho
two colonies."
The advent of railways in Asia is leading to
rar-:h speculation as to tho future of that conti
nent. There are about 470,000 miles of railway
in the world and only 34,000 miles of this vast
amount is in Asia, a continent containing about
one-third of the earth's landed area and moro
than one-half of the earth's population. Europe
has a mile of railway for every 2,400 inhabitants,
the United States has one mile for every 400 in
habitants, while Asia has only one mile of rail
way for every 28,000 inhabitants.
A table giving interesting statistical informa
tion concerning the national debts of the world
was written for the August number of tho North
American Review by O. P. Austin, chief of tho
United States bureau of statistics. According to
Mr. Austin, the per capita debts of the principal
nations in 1900 stood as follows:
Countries Debts. Per Capita.
Amount of debts
China $ 287,123,500 .72
India 1,031,603,705 4.67
Japan 206,799,994 4.73
German Empire 557,626,622 9.96
Mexico 168,771,428 13.36
United States 1,107,711,257 14.52
Sweden : 85,154,320 16.71
Denmark .".. 55,795,724 24.15
Russia 3,167,320,000 24.56
Austria 642,194,000 24.89
Austria Hungary .... 1,154,791,000 25.80
British Colonies (ex
cept India, Austral
asia and Canada).. 265,541,000 26.43
Turkey 726,511,195 29.25
Brazil 480,985,000 33.56
Chile 113,240,000 36.41
Roumania 280,136,991 47.37
Hungary 904,941,000 "'47.75
Canada 265,494,000 50.59
Egypt 500,402,729 53.61
Greece 168,548,444 . 69.25
United Kingdom .... 3,494,000,000 74.83
Belgium 504,459,540 75.63
Italy 2,583,983,780 81.11
Netherlands 466,419,294 90.74
Sp-in .1,727,994,620 95.53
Argentina 509,604,444 128.85
Portugal ...., 670,221,374 . 143.82
Uruguay ...: 124,374,189 148.06
France 5,800,691,314 150.61
Honduras .-. 89,376,920 219.60
Australasia 1,183,055,000 203.90
A writer in the Philadelphia Record has the
following to say concerning the health of girls
working in department stores: "I have under mo
about 150 girls sales-girls, wrappers, and clerks.
All o them aro healthy looking, and yet I noticed
that they got sick a tremendous lot. The other
day I had occasion to go to their cloakroom) and
there I saw a sort of roster neatly typewritten on
one wall. 'Mondays it said, 'Miss Brown, Miss
Smith, Miss Jones; Tuesdays, Miss Bell, Miss
Willing, Mica Grey.' And so on. I wondered what
It meant, and then all of a sudden the scheme
dawned on me. I took a copy of it. With that
copy I can now tell boforehand what girls will
plead illness on any particular day of the week.
A wonderful thing, wasn't it? But it Isn't in
operation any longer. Tho goneral health of ray
department Is much better than it was."
The magnificent organization of trade and
technical schools In Germany is three generations
old. Our competitors are not content with what
exists. They are Incessantly employed in perfect
ing their practical equipment. How can wo ex
pect to compete with a country where thousands
o apprenticed clerks, the business directors and
commercial travellers of the future, attend their
continuation schools for two hours in the morn
ing from 7 o'clock to 9? Then they go to their
offices, and long before attaining their majority
they ai2 proficient in at least a couple of living lan
guages, have a thorough grasp of the whole theory
and practice of foreign trade, and, above all, in
their own special line have got qulto to the bottom
of their business. Between fifteen and nineteen
with us the stato knows next to nothing of its
youth, though that is tho vory period In which per
manent character and faculty aro shaped. The
thousand boys who might have become technical
experts or commercial travellers as-fluent and per
suasive as their continental rivals In as many
tongues, would bo worth a million of the ele
mentary Instructed, who retain little more on tho
average than a strong taste for cheap fiction. Our
expenditure upon education is largely a colossal
vaate, and our failure to provide a secondary sys
tem such as can alone bring the seed to harvest is
a national disaster and a national disgrace. Lon
don Telegraph.
Abuse of Judicial Power.
Tersey Justice has been discredited by the Pat
erson, court that sent two striking workmen to
jail for talking with a non-union man, who ad
diessed them flrst and walked along- the street with
them. Because they admitted that they were doing
picket duty the recorder convicted them of dis
orderly conduct and sentenced them to thirty days'
imprisonment. Such abuses of judicial power
may be tolerated for & time, but not forever.
Usurpation of authority has gone to lengths never
dreamed of by the founders of this government,
and the courts have assumed to exercise, powers
that are denied to the makers of laws. The limita
tions put upon personal liberty by officials like the
Faterson recorder are in violation of the spirit of
free government and indefensible from any point
of view. Philadelphia North American.
Sparks of Humor.
Probably the man whose wife owns a pug dog
has the sympathy of the dog.
If a husband and wife are unable to go away
for Lie summer they can start a quarrel at home
and have a little outing.
There Is one redeeming feature about a folding
bed: even the most timid female doesn't have to
look under it before retiring.
A financial journal publishes rules for discov
ering counterfeit bank notes. What the average
man wants is a few simple rules for discovering the
genuine article.
Said an Irishman: "If a Yankee was cast
awayon a desolate island he'd get up early the next
morning and sell every inhabitant a map of the
place."
