igloos, or winter huts, is a large basin of oil furnished with moss
wick. These basins are scolloped from soapstone or similar material.
The oil is the product of the whale, seal, or other fish, or of the
white bear, but usually the former. Igloos are huts usually a half
or more underground, and finished above ground with stones, bones,
turf, and moss, and finally with ice and snow. Sometimes they are
constructed of blocks of ice and compact snow, with transparent ice
windows. The igloo is reached by a long tunnel-like entrance, is
unventilated, and soon after the great lamp is lit the heat from this
and the warmth from the bodies of the inmates render the mephitic air
almost suffocating. These people, generally, eat their food raw or
but half cooked.
GOTHAM.
CHICAGO, Ill.
Why is New York City called “Gotham?” What is the origin and
meaning of Gotham?
J. C. STARR.
_Answer._—In “Salmagundi,” a humorous work written by Washington
Irving, his brother William, and James K. Paulding, this name
is applied to New York, to suit the purpose of the authors in
representing the inhabitants as given to undue pretensions to wisdom.
Of course, the allusion is to the inhabitants of Gotham, a parish in
Nottinghamshire, England, who were as remarkable for their stupidity
as for their conceit. All the follies of English wiseacres were
attributed to them. Fuller says: “The proverb of ‘as wise as a man of
Gotham’ passeth publicly for the periphrasis of a fool; and a hundred
fopperies are forged and fathered on the townsfolk of Gotham.” It was
said that when King John was about to pass through Gotham toward
Nottingham he was prevented by the inhabitants, who thought that the
ground over which a king passed became forever a public road. When
the King sent to punish them they resorted to an expedient to avert
their sovereign’s wrath. According to this, when the avengers arrived
they found the people each engaged in some foolish occupation or
other, so that the King’s messengers returned to court and reported
that Gotham was a village of fools. In time a book appeared, entitled
“Certain Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham,” compiled in the reign
of Henry VIII., by Andrew Borde, a sort of traveling quack, from whom
the occupation of the “Merry Andrew” is said to be derived. Among
these tales is the story of “The Three Wise Men of Gotham,” who went
to sea in a bowl. The book had a wonderful sale. Walpole attributed
it to Lucas de Heere, a Flemish painter, resident in England in the
time of Queen Elizabeth, but the weight of evidence is in favor of
Borde’s being the author, or compiler, it being mostly a compilation
of popular legends even then from four to five hundred years old.
ST. PETER’S AND COLOGNE CATHEDRAL.
FOX LAKE, Wis.
Which is larger, St. Peter’s Cathedral or the cathedral at Cologne?
Please give the dimensions of both.
ELLA LYLE.
_Answer._—The dimensions of St. Peter’s at Rome, the largest
cathedral in the world, are as follows: Length of the interior, 613½
English feet; of transept, 446½ feet; height of nave, 152½ feet; and
the diameter of cupola, 193 feet. The height of the dome from the
pavement to the top of the cross is 448 feet. Cologne cathedral is
511 feet long, and 231 feet broad. The towers are 511 feet high. This
famous building, founded by Archbishop Conrad, designed by Architect
Gerhard von Riehl, and commenced Aug. 15, 1248, was not completed
until Aug. 14, 1880. It was solemnly opened with august ceremonies,
Oct. 15, of the same year.
ORIGIN OF CHESS.
FARMINGTON, Minn.
Please state the origin of the game of chess.
O. H. BAKER.
_Answer._—Chess is such an ancient game that its origin is unknown.
Many of the most learned Oriental scholars have written upon the
subject, appealing to history and philology to support their
theories. It has been ascribed to a Chinese mandarin by the name
of Han-Sing, who, it is said, invented it as an amusement for his
soldiers when in winter quarters, about 174 B. C. They call it “the
play of the science of war.” Sir William Jones, the great Sanscrit
scholar, claimed that Hindu traditions, the names of the pieces,
and other particulars indicate that chess was played in India in
the earliest times. He writes that a learned Brahmin assured him
that it was mentioned in several of the oldest books of India, where
it was declared that it was invented by the wife of one of the
most ancient kings of Ceylon to amuse that monarch while Rama was
besieging his metropolis. This, by their reckoning, was 2,000 to
3,000 years before the commencement of our era. On the other hand,
several later scholars of Sanscrit think it was invented in India
by Buddhists some time between the third and ninth centuries, A. D.,
a theory inconsistent with the unwarlike nature of Buddhism and the
fact that the Hindu name of the game, “chaturanga,” is a military
name, signifying the game of armies, corresponding with the Chinese
name for chess, given above. Others have ascribed this game to the
Babylonians, Persians, Scythians, Egyptians, Jews, Greeks, or Romans,
according to their several theories, but the weight of evidence is in
favor of its being of Indian or Chinese origin, and this is now the
generally accepted belief.
STATE SECRETARIES.
CHICAGO, Ill.
Oblige us with a list of the names of Secretaries of State for the
principal Western States.
B.
_Answer._—Since the names of the Secretaries of State for Texas,
Oregon, and Washington Territory are called for by another
correspondent, and such information is not within convenient reach
of most persons, we give below a full list of Secretaries of all the
States and Territories. Persons wishing information in regard to
State inducements to immigration, State resources, taxation, etc.,
can usually obtain it by writing to the Secretary of State, who will
transmit the question to the proper officer for the reply called for.
Alabama—Ellis Phelan.
Arkansas—Jacob Frolich.
California—T. L. Thompson.
Colorado—Melvin Edwards.
Connecticut—D. Ward Northrop.
Delaware—William F. Cansey.
Florida—John L. Crawford.
Georgia—N. C. Barrett.
Illinois—Henry D. Dement.
Indiana—William R. Meyers.
Iowa—John A. T. Hull.
Kansas—James Smith.
Kentucky—James Blackburn.
Louisiana—William A. Strong.
Maine—Joseph O. Smith.
Maryland—James T. Briscoe.
Massachusetts—Henry B. Pierce.
Michigan—Henry A. Conant.
Minnesota—F. Von Baumbach.
Mississippi—Henry C. Meyers.
Missouri—Michael K. McGrath.
Nebraska—Edward P. Roggen.
Nevada—J. M. Dormer.
New Hampshire—A. B. Thompson.
New Jersey—Henry C. Kelsey.
New York—Joseph B. Carr.
North Carolina—Wm. L. Saunders.
Ohio—Sames W. Newman.
Oregon—R. P. Earhart.
Pennsylvania—Wm. S. Stenger.
Rhode Island—J. M. Addeman.
South Carolina—R. M. Sims.
Tennessee— ——.
Texas—Thomas H. Bowman.
Vermont—George Nichols.
Virginia—Wm. C. Elam.
West Virginia—Randolph Stalkner, Jr.
Wisconsin—Ernst G. Trimme.
Arizona—George H. Hand.
Idaho—Thomas F. Singiser.
Montana—L. D. McCutcheon.
New Mexico—Wm. G. Ritch.
Utah—Arthur L. Thomas.
Washington—N. H. Owings.
Wyoming—Elliott S. N. Morgan.
CONGRESSMEN-AT-LARGE.
NEWTON, Iowa.
Explain what is to be understood by “Congressmen-at-large.”
INQUIRER.
_Answer._—The act of Congress of February, 1882, provided for a
reapportionment of the membership of the House of Representatives,
based on the census of 1880, provided that in the cases of States
entitled under this apportionment to additional representation, the
additional members in the Forty-eighth Congress might be elected on
a general State ticket; also, that in all cases where the number of
representatives was reduced, as in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont,
the whole number for such State should be elected at large, “unless
the Legislatures of said States have provided or shall provide before
the time fixed by law for the next election of Representatives
therein.” Kansas, for example, which is entitled by this act to
four additional representatives, did not redistrict before the last
Congressional election, and so she elected four Congressmen at large,
viz., Edmund W. Morrill, Lewis Hanback, Samuel R. Peters, and Bishop
W. Perkins. Maine did not redistrict, so all her representatives were
elected at large, instead of by districts.
CONTESTANTS OF SEATS IN CONGRESS.
BLOOMINGTON, Iowa.
To settle a dispute between me and a Greenbacker, who claims that
when a seat is contested in Congress the contestant doesn’t draw
any pay if he fails to get the seat, except his expenses, while
I contend that both draw pay until the contest is decided, state
which is right.
JOHN TAYLOR.
_Answer._—Section 2 of chapter 182 of “Supplement to the Revised
Statutes of the United States,” par. 15, says: “That hereafter no
contestee or contestant for a seat in the House of Representatives
shall be paid exceeding $2,000 for expenses in election contests; and
before any sum whatever shall be paid to a contestant or contestee
for expenses of election contests he shall file with the clerk of the
Committee on Elections a full and detailed account of his expenses,
accompanied by the vouchers and receipts of each item, which shall
be sworn to by the party presenting the same.” Nevertheless it
is customary for Congress to vote compensation to contestants by
appropriations in the nature of “relief bills,” where each case is
presumed to stand on its own merits.
BALLOONS AND THEIR PERFORMANCES.
AUBURN, D. T.
Please give some facts as to the capacity of balloons; what is
used to fill them, and what are some of the greatest balloon
performances?
L. J. SWARTZ.
_Answer._—The buoyancy of a balloon depends on the weight of the gas
with which it is inflated compared with the weight of common air,
bulk for bulk. Hydrogen is the lightest of all known substances.
A cubic foot of atmospheric air at a temperature of 34 degrees
weighs 527.04 troy grains, while a cubic foot of hydrogen is about
fourteen and a half times lighter than this. Coal gas is about two
and a half times lighter than air. If a balloon would contain 1,000
pounds of atmospheric air at temperature of 34 degrees Fahrenheit,
but filled with coal gas would weigh, all told—covering, gas, and
appendages—600 pounds, it would rise with a force equal to the
difference of these two numbers, or 400 pounds. Mr. Glaisher, not
long since, constructed a balloon containing 90,000 cubic feet of
coal gas, that carried 600 pounds, and rose to the unsurpassed height
of 7½ miles, where the barometer, which stands at about 30 at sea
level, sank to only 7 inches, showing an atmosphere of only about
22 per cent of the weight at sea level. The longest balloon trip on
record is that of the late Professor J. Wise and Mr. La Mountain.
Starting from St. Louis for New York City, they traveled 1,150 miles
in a little less than twenty hours, when, being caught in a contrary
current, they were compelled to desist. Mr. Lowe’s mammoth balloon
was said to contain 700,000 cubic feet of coal gas and have a lifting
power of 22½ tons; but it was badly constructed and accomplished
nothing remarkable. In some 10,000 recorded ascents made since the
Montgolfiers invented their famous balloons, just 100 years ago this
year, there have been but fifteen deaths among 1,500 aeronauts; which
indicates less danger in this business than is generally supposed.
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
FERRY, Mich.
1. Give a short biography of Jefferson Davis.
G. F. PAGE.
_Answer._—Jefferson Davis was born in Kentucky in 1808; first became
prominent in politics as a member of the House of Representatives,
and later as Senator from Mississippi. He served in the Mexican
war, having been educated at West Point. During President Pierce’s
administration Davis was Secretary of War, and was said to rule both
President and Cabinet. In 1857 he was returned to the Senate, where
he remained until chosen President of the Confederacy in 1861. This
office he held for four years. In 1865, after the fall of Richmond,
Davis was captured and imprisoned in Fortress Monroe for two years;
was released on bail in 1867, and finally liberated by the general
amnesty, Dec. 25, 1868. He is still disqualified from holding any
office of honor or emolument under the General Government.
GOVERNMENT PUBLIC LAND SALES.
SHELDON, Iowa.
I have heard on good authority of the sale, by officers of
public land offices, of timber claims at public auction to the
highest bidder for cash. Is there any authority of law for such a
proceeding?
C. H. COTTLE.
_Answer._—Where large bodies of land are to be sold, a proclamation
is issued in the name of the President, describing the tracts, and
specifying the time and place of sale. When only a few isolated
tracts of land, not embraced in the regular proclamations, are to
be disposed of, notice is given in a local newspaper. The land is
then sold to the highest bidder for cash only. Purchasers are not
compelled to reside on or cultivate such lands. As the present
policy of the government is to encourage pre-emption and homestead
settlement and timber culture there are now few public land sales.
Lands that have been offered at public sale but not sold may be
bought at any time thereafter at the local land office if not
withdrawn from market. This is called a private sale or entry.
MAGGIE MITCHELL.
VICKSBURG, Mich.
Please give a short biography of Maggie Mitchell. What is her present
age?
S. C. VAN ANTWERP.
_Answer._—Maggie Mitchell, one of the best-known of American
actresses, was born in New York City in 1832 of Scotch parents, in
very humble circumstances. When very young she was employed in simple
child parts in the old Bowery Theater, for a pittance, which went
to help support the family. When not more than 19 years of age, she
had advanced to playing parts of some importance, and about this
time, 1851, she made her first appearance at Burton’s Theater as
Julia, in the “Soldier’s Daughter,” which was her first capital
success. Soon after this she went on a “starring tour” that proved
profitable and widely extended her reputation. She made her first
appearance in Philadelphia at the Chestnut Street Theater on March
20, 1854, as Constance in “The Love Chase.” Up to 1862 Miss Mitchell
was content to appear in amusing characters, earning the reputation
of a clever comedienne, but about this time she got hold of a clumsy,
heavy dramatization of George Sand’s popular novelette, “La Petite
Fadette.” She applied herself to the animating and popularizing of
this play, and the result is her now famous drama “Fanchon,” many
of the most charming and pathetic parts being entirely of her own
creation. Since June 9, 1862, when she first produced “Fanchon” on
the stage at Laura Keene’s Theater, New York, it has maintained a
living interest which never fails to draw a house. Other plays of her
composition or dramatization have followed, including “Jane Eyre,”
“The Pearl of Savoy,” and “Mignon,” a stage rendering of an episode
in Goethe’s “Wilhelm Meister,” but none have equaled, in popular
esteem, Fanchon. Miss Mitchell was married Oct. 15, 1868, to Henry
Paddock, of Cleveland, her present popular stage manager. Although
she is now 51 years of age, she impersonates the girlish characters
of her repertory with all the sprightliness and youthful vivacity
that won the hearts of her auditors twenty years ago.
ARCHBISHOP LAUD—WHY BEHEADED.
Please give an account of the life, character, and death of
Archbishop Laud.
C. P. B.
_Answer._—William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, the son of a
Berkshire clothier, was born in 1573. He was ordained priest in
1601, and became vicar of Stanford in 1607. From this position he
rose rapidly in power, by his executive ability and manifestation
of hatred of Puritanism, until in 1628 he was appointed Bishop of
London. Early in his career he had won the favor of the King, who
thought he saw in him a powerful advocate of the doctrine of the
divine right of kings, though Laud was really more interested in
maintaining the divine right of Episcopacy. In 1617 he attempted,
with the aid of King James, to establish the Episcopacy in Scotland,
but in vain. In 1630 he was made Chancellor of Oxford, the center of
high-church loyalty, and, according to the wish of his sovereign,
attempted to repress Puritanism by slitting noses, clipping ears,
fines, branding, and imprisonment. In the high-commission and
star-chamber courts his power was almost absolute. But gradually he
won the bitterest hatred of the English people, until in March, 1640,
seven years after his appointment to the Archbishopric of Canterbury,
he was imprisoned in the Tower by order of the House of Commons. He
was brought to trial in the House of Lords, Nov. 13, 1693, on charge
of treason and other crimes, of which they acquitted him; but they
soon afterward gave their assent to the ordinance for his execution,
passed by the Commons. He had lived until the Puritans, whom he had
despised and persecuted, had come into power, he had made the Scots
his implacable foes, and nothing less than his blood would satisfy
them. Despite of a royal pardon, by an act of arbitrary power on the
part of Parliament, overriding all constitutional precedents, he was
beheaded Jan. 10, 1644.
VICTORIA’S CHILDREN AND CHILDREN-IN-LAW.
BATTLE CREEK, Mich.
Please name Queen Victoria’s children and their husbands and wives,
and stations in life.
BELLE SHIPMAN.
_Answer._—The eldest child of Queen Victoria is Victoria Adelaide
Maria Louise, Princess Royal, married to the Crown Prince, Frederick
William, of Germany, Jan. 25, 1858. Her eldest son, the second
child, is the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, heir-apparent to the
throne; married to the Princess Alexandra, eldest daughter of the
King of Denmark, March 10, 1863. Her third child was Alice Maud Mary,
married to Louis IV., Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, July 1, 1862;
died Nov. 15, 1878. Her fourth child is Alfred Ernest Albert, Duke
of Edinburgh, married Jan. 23, 1874, to the Grand Duchess Maria of
Russia. Her fifth is Helena Augusta Victoria, married July 5, 1866,
to Prince Frederick Christian, of Schleswig-Holstein. Her sixth is
Louise Caroline Alberta, married March 21, 1871, to John, Marquis
of Lorne, present Governor General of Canada. Her seventh is Arthur
William Patrick Albert, Duke of Connaught, married March 13, 1879,
to Princess Louise Margaret, daughter of Prince Frederick Charles of
Prussia. Her eighth is Leopold George Duncan Albert, Duke of Albany,
married April 27, 1882, to the Princess Helen, daughter of the Prince
of Waldeck. Her ninth is Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodora, still
unmarried. We are not prepared to publish their pictures.
ROUTE TO SINALOA, MEXICO.
BALDWIN, La.
What is the route from here to Sinaloa, Mexico? Is the Northern
part of that State good for the culture of sugar cane? To what
market would one ship from there?
M. D. G.
_Answer._—The most direct route from New Orleans would be via the
Southern Pacific and Sonora Railways to Guaymas, 353 miles southwest
of Benson, on the Southern Pacific, where one can take steamer about
the 15th or 16th of each month for Mazatlan, the principal port
of Sinaloa, on the Gulf of California. Sugar cane, oranges, figs,
and other semi-tropical and tropical fruits flourish in Sinaloa;
particularly in the Valley of the Rio del Fuerte. Mazatlan furnishes
a market for the products of the country, or one can ship to San
Francisco or New York direct, via the California and Panama steamers.
FUSIBILITY OF ALLOYS.
HUDSON, M. T.
Why does it takes a hotter fire to melt pewter than lead?
J. B. L.
_Answer._—Pewter is an alloy, composed of tin and lead, sometimes
with a little copper or antimony or bismuth, combined in different
proportions, according to the purposes it is to serve. Plateware,
which has a bright, silvery luster when polished, is composed of
100 parts of tin, 8 parts of antimony, 2 parts of bismuth, and 2 of
copper. Brittannia ware is said to be an alloy of equal parts of
brass, tin, antimony, and bismuth. Now it is characteristic of alloys
that they are always more easily fusible than the least fusible
metal entering into their composition, and some of them, strange to
say, are more fusible than the least fusible of their constituents.
For instance, although bismuth alone requires a heat of 476 degrees
Fahrenheit to fuse it, lead 600 degrees, and tin 442 degrees, an
alloy of these metals composed of five or eight parts of bismuth, two
or five parts of lead, and three of tin, melts at 198 to 200 degrees;
and an alloy of sodium composed of sodium and potassium in certain
proportions melts at 80 degrees, although sodium alone requires 194
degrees and potassium 124 degrees to fuse them. The explanation is
not fully determined, but it is to be found in the laws of chemical
affinity. Different metals expand at different rates in the same
degree of heat, which tends to separate the atoms; and electrical
currents are produced which magnify the heat applied externally.
AUTHOR OF SCHONBERG-COTTA FAMILY.
LAKE CITY, Iowa.
Who is the author of “Schonberg-Cotta Family?” Give a short sketch
of the same, and tell the correct pronunciation of Schonberg-Cotta.
AGGIE.
_Answer._—The authoress of “Schonberg-Cotta Family” is Mrs. Elizabeth
Rundle Charles, only child of the late Hon. John Rundle, member
of Parliament for Tavistock. She was born about 1826; received a
liberal English education; was encouraged in literary work by her
father; and has written a number of works of fiction of high moral
tone, including the two historical fictions “Schonberg-Cotta Family”
and the “Diary of Kitty Trevylyan,” intended to recall the early
struggles of the two great reformers, Luther and Wesley. Among her
other works are “The Martyrs of Spain and Liberators of Holland.”
It is almost impossible to denote the German pronunciation of “o”
in Schonberg without oral illustrations. Webster says that to utter
this sound one must place the organs in the position for o long and
then try to utter the sound of e in met. All the other syllables in
the compound word, Schonberg-Cotta, are to be pronounced nearly as in
English, except that the e in berg is almost like a long.
GOLD AND SILVER IN THE SEA.
PEORIA, Ill.
Is the expression, “There is gold in the sea,” only a poetic
fiction or is it true? As a friend says that there is gold and
silver in some kinds of sea water?
A CONSTANT READER.
_Answer._—Sea water is impregnated with certain chemical salts,
including chlorides, sulphates, bromides, iodides, and carbonates,
some of which have the power of dissolving gold and silver or holding
them in solution. The chemist Sonstadt has recently shown that sea
water contains nearly one grain of gold to the ton of water, held in
solution by iodide of calcium; and it has been known for some years
that the old copper stripped from the bottoms of ships is often so
rich in silver taken from the sea that it pays a profit on the cost
of smelting it. It is estimated that the ocean holds in solution
at least 2,000,000 tons of silver. Assuming this to be the metric
ton of 2,204.6 pounds, the above total is equivalent in weight to
77,448,000,000 American standard dollars—nearly seven times the total
silver product of the world from the earliest times to the close of
1879, or $11,315,000, as estimated by that eminent statistician,
the Russian councillor, Otreschkoff. A large discount might be made
from these estimates, and yet there would be enough left, aside from
all the treasures of sunken Spanish galleons and oriental argosies,
to demonstrate that the saying, “There is gold in the sea,” is not
merely a poetic fancy.
FRENCH POOLS—PARIS MUTUALS.
CHICAGO, Ill.
Kindly explain “French pools,” or “Paris mutuals,” as used in
horse-racing circles.
R. L. K.
_Answer._—“French pools” are sometimes called “Paris mutuals.” This
system of betting consists of selling tickets on each horse at a
certain price. On the race-courses of this country the “mutuals” are
$5 each. When the race is started the tickets are all added up in one
large pool, and those who hold tickets on the winning horse divide
the total pool, less 5 per cent to the pool-seller. For example, in a
Paris mutual, tickets in the pool were sold as follows:
Horse. Tickets. Price. Total.
No. 1 10 $5 $50.00
No. 2 9 5 45.00
No. 3 4 5 20.00
No. 4 7 5 35.00
No. 5 8 5 40.00
———————
Total $190.00
Less 5 per cent 9.50
———————
Net amount for winners $180.50
Here there is a net amount of $180.50 to be divided equally between
holders of tickets on the winning horse. In this case, if horse No. 3
wins, each of the four ticket-holders receives $45.12.
THE WIVES OF COLUMBUS.
CORTLAND, N. Y.
When was Columbus married and whom did he marry?
B. S.