Conservative.
and are allowed to construct their own
standard types , can so successfully com
pete with the world in locomotive
manufacture. "
With regard to the consumption of
coal by the various types of engines ,
Lord Oromer reports as follows : "It
is , however , in respect to the relative
consumption of coal that the recent
trials are of special value. The most
scrupulous care was taken to render the
trials fair. On this point Mr. Trevi-
thick says : 'These comparisons have
been carried out under exceptionally
favorable circumstances , inasmuch as
the locomotives employed were typical
of their respective countries in design
and manufacture , and the results con
jointly signed by a representative sent
out by the American builders , and a
locomotive inspector of the Egyptian
Railway Administration. ' "
Trials were made with both goods and
passenger engines. It was found that ,
in the case of goods engines , the Ameri
can consumed 25.4 per cent more coal
than the British engine , while the lat
ter was drawing 14.2 per cent more
load. In the case of the passenger en
gines , the American was 50 per cent
more than the British consumption ,
with the same average load. This lat
ter difference , represented at 84s. 2d.
per ton , ( the average price paid last
year by the Railway Board ) an additional
cost of 400 pounds sterling per engine.
Major Johnstone , in reviewing these
figures , says , speaking more especially
of the passenger engines : "The con
trast between about 20 Ibs. of coal per
mile in the best runs of the British en
gine , and over 60 Ibs. in the hardest
runs of the American , is quite extra
ordinary. On the whole , the superior
ity of the British type is fully estab
lished ; but it is clear that the passenger
engine is a bad example of American
practice. " Lord Oromer concludes his
memorandum as follows : "The general
conolusiou to bo drawn from these
trials is , I think , that in respect to
price , British manufactures can well
hold their own where special designs
have to be executed ; that in respect to
quality they turn out work equal to , or
superior , to that of American or Bel
gian competitors ; that in consumption
of coal they have decided . superiority
over American , and that- the British
weak point is the time required for ex
ecuting orders. "
CLEVELAND AND ROOSEVELT.
It is little more than five years since
Grover Cleveland retired from the Presi
denoy. Yet so swift is the course o
events in this country that we are fas
reaching a remove from that perioi
which allows us to anticipate the ver
diet of history upon the man's record.
*
! - , Indeed , we already find his political op
ponents paying tributes to his states-
Vl
manship and courage as unreserved as
are rendered to Abraham Lincoln by
hose who were' once his earnest antag
onists. In reporting from the House
Committee on Banking and Currency
e bill to maintain the gold standard
and improve the currency system , its
Republican Chairman and spokesman
for the majority , Representative Fewer -
er of New Jersey , discussed the great
services rendered to its country by the
Bank of France during and after the
war with Germany ; contrasted with
; his record "the stupendous waste due to
Government operations and a consequent
quent depreciated currency suffered by
our own country during the civil war ,
and the humiliating spectacle in later
years of the United States Government
liring for a stipulated sum a syndicate
of bankers to come to its rescue and save
its credit from utter and everlasting
dishonor ; " and then added these strik
ing words :
"But Grover Cleveland was a patriot ,
and did his duty , and that act alone
should make his name immortal. The
shame was in the ignorance , or political
cowardice , or both , that rendered such
a condition possible. "
Theodore Roosevelt has been a keen
student of American history. He knows
the records of our Presidents. He has
the capacity to rise above considerations
of partisanship in estimating the careers
of those who were his contemporaries.
One hazards nothing in saying that Mr.
Roosevelt will endorse this judgment of
Mr. Fowler upon Mr. Cleveland that
when a great emergency confronted him
he "was a patriot , and did his duty , "
and that the action "should make his
uame immortal. " New York Evening
Post.
WHAT THE MICROSCOPE HAS DONE
I remember that in the year 1860 ,
says Prof. John Trowbridge in the
May Atlantic , a man who occupied
himself witn a microscope was smilec
at as a blear-eyed , narrow specialist ,
who had little interest in the large
affairs of humanity , in the important
questions of the time , such as th e
anti-slavery cause , the question of
the Turk , the problems of free trade
and. the tariff. It was supposed that
the microscope was a perfected in
strnmont , and that little more could
be done with it than in studying
lower forms of life , which were in
teresting to the naturalist , but hac
little to do with humanity. At that
time the death rate from diphtheria
was over sixty per cent , and more
than five per cent of women died ii
childbirth. Today , owing to im
provements in the microscope , the
death rate in diphtheria has been re
duced to less than ten per cent , and
the mortality in lying-in cases to one
twentieth of one per ceifft
CONCERNING THE GULF STREAM.
Ever since discovery of the gulf
stream by Ponce do Loon in 1518 i t
las been the subject of scientific in-
nstigation and the latest theory of
ho American hydrographio office is
itit it is merely the overflow of the
water heaped up by the trade wind
drift in the Caribbean sea and the
Jf of Mexican. This most cele
brated of all ocean currents starts be
tween the northern coast of Cuba and
the Florida reefs and oven at the
surface is throughout a considerable
lortion of its extent either independ
ent of the wind or only slightly
affected thereby.
It is at the point of emergence from
e Bernini straits between the coast
of Florida on the west and the
Bahama bank on the east that the
stream reaches its maximum strength.
Between Fowoy rocks and Gun Cay
light it attains a breadth of thirty-
eight m'les ' , an average depth of 239
fathoms and a daily velocity of fifty
miles. On occasion , however , the
velocity approximates 100 miles a
day. In its journey north there is a
notable increase in breadth and a
diminution of velocity. While in its
northward course along the United
States coast the western edge of the
stream follows closely the 100-fathom
curve the line of greatest velocity
varies with the declination of the
moon , being eight miles nearer shore
at high moon than at low. In color ,
the gulf stream is a deeper blue than
that of the neighboring sea , the
greater depth of color being attribut
able to the stream's higher percent
age of salt.
The almost tropical temperature of
the gulf stream is due to the rapidity
with which it passes from tropical to
northern latitudes. Frequently it
reveals a temperature from ten to fif
teen degrees higher than that of the
neighboring water. In the latter
years of the eighteenth century the
chronometer , the invention of Harri
son , was still an experiment and the
determination of longitude largely
guess-work. We are told that nauti
cal people hailed with delight the
suggestion of Benjamin Franklin ,
that observance of the temperature of
the surface water would enable the
master of a vessel to determine the
moment of his entrance into the gulf
stream and his approximate position.
At Hatteras the stream veers from
the coast in a east-northeast direction
and shortly after crossing the 40th
parallel ceases to bo a current run
ning independently of the winds. It
then becomes part and parcel of
the general easterly drift character
istic of the waters of the ocean north
of the 85th degree --The California ! ! .
