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The Commoner.
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I A.
t)yne has compiled a volume of 400 pages con
taining all tho decisions of the state and national
courts and of tho state department bearing on
the mattor of determination of citizenship. Tho
Washington correspondent for the Now York
Tribune says: "The volumo is to be placed in tho
hands of United States consuls, immigrant in
spectors and other ofllcials who pass on ques
tions of citizenship. Tho publication of the work
Is deemed essential because the subject has in
creased in importance in the United States with
tho development of the nation as a world power
Tho greut extension of commerce which has
marked the last decade and tho recent additions
to tho torntor; of the country have made inevit
able, it is held, a broader compact with tho na
tions of the world, and have complicated the rela
tions with the governments and Citizens of other
countries."
THE BIBLE STORY OF JONAH AND THE
whale has been subjected to many critl
Libins and discussion in years gone by and it
seems that the authehticty of the story of Noah's
Ark Is now to be tested. Many questions in re
gard to the possibility of the construction of such
a vessel and as tp its dimensions have been raised
recently and so the editor of The Syren and Ship
ping has undertaken to answer these questions
and to lay for all time any doubts as to whether
the writer of tho story of tho deluge was ignorant
of the subject of shipbuilding. According to the
Now York Tribune,- this editor says: "Within
tho last ten years the general dimensions of' the
ark have been closely followed by cargo steam
ship builders for deep sea and the American
Great Lakes service. According to the Bible, the
ark was 480 feet long, 80 feet wide and 48 feet
deep". Her tonnage was 11,413, and she had
plenty of room for pairs of all the distinct species
of animals that are .classed by Buffon 244 and
she could have accommodated a thousand per
sons; and then have plenty of room for the stor
age of supplies. In the?' seventeenth century
Peter Jauson, a Hollander, built a vessel of' tho
exact proportions of the ark, and she was success
ful as records of the times show, in .malting
money for her owners. Noah, 'the father of naval
architecture,' is held in profound respect by naval
architects of today, who know how immeasurably
tho Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans and - all
other shipbuilders fell short of the excellence of
tho type of the ark as a commodious, safe and
economical vessel."
IT IT .
SOME REMARKABLE EXPERIMENTS IN NA
vrfl gunnery are about to be instituted by
the French admiralty. A writer in the New York
Tribune, referring to these experiments, says:'
"They are to be conducted by the warship Conde,
from the ocean which borders the great gun
ranges near L'Orient, to an armored barbette tur
ret dismounted from the ship to the ranges. The
distinguishing feature of these tests is that the
turret will be occupied -by the iusual fighting
complement of officers and -men while under fire..
The shell of a" C 3-4-inch quick firing gun will be
used. The tests will supplement those recently
conducted on board tho Sulfren, when sheep were
in the .turret. The. latter tested the, indirect effects
of modern shells upon living organisms. , Those
of the Conde will test the effects, of concessions
oiLthp turret itself and on human, beings
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NEWSPAPER READERS WL REMEMBER
the question recently appearing in the news
papers of the country in regard to the age of a
person known as Ann, atf this question seems
destined to play a more or less conbpicuous part
in the fortunes of a -Kansas school teacher. Ac
cording to the Now YOrk Tribune, "this teacher s
on probation and In grave danger of losing his
situation, because he insists, that Ann is eighteen
years old- andf the trustees know better. The
teacher gayo. the problem to the pupils and dem
onstrated clearly by algebra and plain arithmetic
that Ann must be eighteen. Tho children took
the prpblem homo and oner of the trustees discov
ered that Ann was twelve couldn't be anything
eliieV fie called the other trustees in council and
convinced them of the correctness of that conclu
sion. Likewise, the .school teacher was proved
to be, if not an idiot, an ignoramus, unfit to
teach anybody's children. The truntees put the
alternative of resignation before the teacher if ho
could not reduce Ann's age by six years. But the
teacher refused to change his figures, and appealed
to the county superintendent to keep him in hla
position. There the question bang at present.
The teacher is stiff-necked and unaccommodating.
Ho should consider the wiso adaptability of tho
pedagogue who said ho had no prejudices and
would teach that the earth was round or flat as
tho school trustees preferred.'
I? tf
ACCORDING TO A BULLETIN RECENT
ly issued by the Railway Age, a publication
devoted to the Interests of the railroads of the
country, "tho year 1903 takes the palm for tho
smallest record of foreclosure sales in every re
spect, number of roads, mileage, bonded debt aud
capital stock. Since the year of tho greatest ac
tivity In bringing bankrupt roads to the block,
1890, when tho sales included fifty-eight roads,
with 13,730 miles of line, and $1,150,000,000 of
bonds and stocks, the decrease in foreclosures has
been constant and remarkable. In 1903, the to
tals were thirteen roads, mileage 555, bonds and
stocks, $15,885,000."
VT IT
AN ARABIAN MATHEMATICIAN IS SAID
to have written the first algebra and his
works were translated into Latin, but these trans
lations with one or two exceptions were lost. Re
cently, however, some of these translations have
been found and one was discovered in the Colum
bia university library. Tne New York World
says: "In examining some old manuscripts re
cently Prof. David Eugene Smith came upon a
document of very ancient appearance. It proved
to be a translation of the work of Mohammed ben
Musa al Khowarizmi, the most celebrated mathe
matician of the Bagdad school which flourished
under Mamun, Haroun al Raschid and Almansur.
The manuscript came to Columbia in a large con
signment of old books and papers uought in tho
second-hand shops of Europe, Its presence was
unnoticed until Prof. Smith made a careful ex
amination, le immediately reported his find to
Librarian Canfield, who verified the authenticity
of- the document. The Arabian mathematician of
whose work this is a translation wrote the first
treatise bearing the name 'Algebra. It was wide
ly known in Europe by two translations, one in
English by Rosen (London, 1831), and tho other
an ancient Latin translation, published by Libri.
In 1871 a curious Latin translation, made by t
Robertus Castrensis" In the year 1145, was acci
dentally., discovered irr tho Vienna library. No
other copies of this translation have ever been
mentioned by writers On the history of mathemat
ics, and it was supposed that none was in ex
istence until the discovery of the text at Colum
bia Librarian Canfield is highly elated over the
find. Of Castrensis, the translator, it is only
known that-he was a contemporary of another
Arabic scholar, Adelhard of' Bath. Prof. Smith
also discovered in we Columbia libiary a manu
script, contemporary with fhe one just mentioned,
of the work of Jordanus Nemorarius, entitled, De
Natis Numerorum.' It was written about 1200
A. D., and is Unique because of the use of the
Arabic numerals in the -commentary."
TT$& NAVAL HOSPITAL CAMP RECENTLY
'" 'established' by the' United States authori
ties at the Pensacola (Fla.) navy yard is in a
fair way to be of much .advantage to the patients
assigned to that place for treatment. The Wash
ington correspondent for the New York Tribune,
speaking of this hospital camp, says: "it was
not long ago "when an pfflcer, stricken with con
sumption was prpmptly retired, and an enlisted
man was discharged with a pension, on the the
ory that such cases were hopeless and beyond
medical aid.. Since the army has been operating
a hospital in "New Mexico it has been found that
patients prosper under the special treatment and
the favorable climatic conditions, and the navy
has lately been sending officers and sailors to
the army hospital with such profitable results to
individuals that it has now been determined to
establish under tho navy department certain
means of treating consumptives. 'There are now
five or six patients In the experimental camp at
Pensacola, and the reports received of the first
month's results are most gratifying to the medi
cal authorities. The patients will live out of
doors day and night, being sheltered In tents and
a part of the treatment will be numerous meals
each day, with the requirement that the patient
shall consume a maximum amount of nourishing
food. While it has been decided to establish a
naval resort for this class of patients, u may not
bo located at Pensacola, as Surgeon General
Rlxey intends to investigate other localities one
on the Pacific coast and another in tho east' fur
ther north. When the experts decide on the' best
place congress will bo asked to make an appro
priation for the establishment and maintenance
oi an open air hospital, it is believed that the
money will be prompty forthcoming as a hurnanu
tarian measure, and that the station win con
tribute much of importance to the fund of liv
gienlc information." a or a5"
AMONG THE QUEER WAYS MEN HAVE OP
making a living is that of rat and roach
catching at the steamer wharves and on ocean
liners. Speaking of this novel occupation a
writer in the New York Tribune says: "A good
living they make of it, too; not less than $10 000
a year, and sometimes more. Rats are every
where on tho wharves, but roaches have a special
liking for rope lockers, and here they swarm by
tens of thousands, unless owners of the piers have
a contract with the rat and roach catcher. Before
men went into the business of rat and roach
catching, cats were kept to look aiter the rats,
and the sailors had the job of keeping the ship
clear of roaches. The sailors' favorite way of
catching roaches was to put a 'cob of bread on lop
of a coil of rope. In a very few minutes it would
be covered with, hungry brown bugs; and tnose
they knocked into a well-greased biscuit pan. The
grease kept the roaches from crawling up Hie
side of the pan, and the sailor was poor at the
business who did not hnvo four or five inches of
roaches when he. was through. Then in a few
days he could begin and do it all over again.
Now the professional roach catcher takes one
night to do the work for a year. On this side of
the Atlantic roach catching is the more import
ant business, while on the other sine the wharves
are almost as full of rat catchers as the ships are
of rats." T
BOSTON IS AFFLICTED WITH A' NEW DIS
, ease. According to Boston pjysicians, tins
ailment is known as hnmeritis, ' or "Boston
shoulder," and is duo to strap hanging in.the sub
way cars. Speaking to a .correspondent for Mie
Chicago Jnter.-Ocean a Boston physician ex
plained: "A large majority of men ou meet ou
will find are lop-sided with the right shoulder a
trifle higher than the left. Persons who travel
long distances on the L trajns or"he crowded
subway cars almost -always develop this Inequal
ity in their shoulders, and tho face is growing
more noticeable every day. Tennis players, base
hall players, fencers, lamplighters, sign puintcrs,
and those who use their right arm and shoulders
in an elevated position are also prone to the dis
ease. The ligaments of the right shoulder be
come stretched permanently after twenty min
utes to an hour daily of this strain. The unnat
ural strain, especially from strap-hanging, not
only weakens the joints and muscles of the shoul
ders, but also weakens the heart action, and af
fects the brain centers, sometimes producing
chronic neurasthenia in women."
A MEETING WAS HELD AT BIRMINGHAM,
England, on the evening of Nqvembei 11,
in opposition to the fiscal program- of- Joseph
Chamberlain, the meeting being addressed by Lord
Cecil and Winston Churchill. An audience of
5,000 or more had assembled to hear the ad
dresses and if is estimated that the crowd sur
rounding the hall during the meeting numbered
40,000 people, many of whom were in sympathy
with Mr. Chamberlain's views, as was evidenced
by the precautions taken by the police of the city
to prevent demonstrations against the speakers.
Mr. Churchill devoted his speech to denunciation
of Mr. Chamberlain's propaganda and urged the
continuation of the free trade policy of Great
Britain, which, in his view, has done more to
maintain the peace of the world than all the ef
forts of statesmen and government officials for
the last half century. Lord Cecil made a speech
In a similar vein to that of Mr. Churchill, A res
. olution denouncing the proposed protective tariff
and admitting the right of the government to im
pose retaliatory duties in special cases was car
ried by a large majority of the audience.
RECENTLY J. PIERPONT MORGAN WAS
interviewed by tho Newark, N. J., corre
spondent for the Philadelphia" Publio Ledger and
said: "A few men in this country are charged
with the terribly offense of being very rich The
fact is that the wealth of this country Is less
. 'bunched' than at any time in its history,- I mean
that the wealth is more equally distributed over
sections of country and among the people than
ever before. The west now has money and few
mortgages compared with former years. Tho south
has never before been in such a healthy financial
condition. I guess they will come to New Yoik,
however, from these districts when they are
badly in neqd of money."
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