riots that were so prevalent throughout the country, commencing
with the terrible outbreak at Pittsburg, Pa., in July of that year.
Prominent citizens of Chicago observed that nearly all the actors
in the gangs of rowdies and loafers that entered manufactories and
other business places, commanding employes to stop work, were youths
under 20 years of age. An investigation of the causes of juvenile
depravity was instituted. They learned that of the 28,035 persons
arrested for crime in Chicago in the year 1877 no less than 6,818
were under 20 years of age, and that 1,782 of these were committed
to the Bridewell. They also learned that in that year the arrests
of minors had increased 720, and the commitments of minors to the
Bridewell had increased 200 over the number in the preceding year.
With a view of verifying these figures and learning the causes of
this wholesale demoralization of the young, they made extensive
tours of observation through the city by day and by night, and they
soon satisfied themselves that it was the liquor and beer saloons
that were transforming the youth of Chicago into vagrants and
desperadoes. They found scarcely a saloon in which there were no
juvenile customers, while in one of them they found 78, in another
93, and in another 147 children, patronizing the bar like adults.
Subsequently detectives were posted at the doors of six prominent
concert saloons on the same evening, with instructions to count all
the people who entered them between 7 p. m. and midnight. At one
door there were counted 1,680 males, 290 females, total, 1,979; at
another, 1,423 males, 58 females, total, 1,741; at another, 2,609
males, 254 females, total, 2,863; at another, 2,658 males, 148
females, total, 2,806; at another, 1,657 males, 163 females, total,
1,820, and at another, 1,591 males, 94 females, total, 1,685. It
was found impracticable to make a separate count of the minors who
entered these places on that evening, but it was plainly seen that of
these 11,618 male and 1,007 female customers an astonishingly large
proportion were boys and girls. And as there were at that time about
3,000 saloons in the city, it was estimated that not less than 30,000
of the children of Chicago were their regular patrons. The police
confirmed this estimate and asserted that, in face of State laws and
city ordinances positively prohibiting the sale of beer and liquor to
minors, which were regarded as dead-letter laws, there were saloon
keepers who made a practice of tempting children into saloons and
making them drunk. The first overt act of the league was the arrest
of one of these monsters named Baker Born, who had been guilty of
enticing into his saloon nine little boys, who were on their way home
from Sunday school, and making them drunk. He was arraigned before
Justice Daniel Scully and promptly fined $25 and costs. The league
drew great inspiration from the public indignation which Born’s crime
excited, and from the promptness with which he was punished; and from
that time to the present it has gone steadily forward, increasing
every year in activity, influence and popularity. The following table
contains a succinct statement of its operations (prosecutions and
outlay) for the first four years of its existence;
—————————————————+——————+——————+——————+——————+——————
| 1878.| 1879.| 1880.| 1881.|Total.
—————————————————+——————+——————+——————+——————+——————
Saloon-keepers | 241| 166| 96| 233| 736
To Grand Jury | 81| 90| 50| 60| 281
Fined by Justice | 83| 85| 13| 83| 264
Annual Outlay |$1,400|$1,600|$1,240|$1,542|$5,781
—————————————————+——————+——————+——————+——————+——————
During the first five months of 1882, 500 saloon-keepers were
prosecuted. Of this number, 40 were sent to the Grand Jury, 294 were
fined by justices, and 35 held for trial.
The effect of the operations of the league on the morals of the youth
of Chicago was instantaneous and permanent. In 1876 the arrests of
minors increased 960, and in 1877 they increased 720; but in 1878,
the first year of the league’s existence, they decreased 1,418, and
in 1879 they decreased 139. And although they have increased slightly
in the last two years, the increase is amply accounted for by the
policy of the city government and the increase of the population,
which increased 204,208 in the last decade, against 188,004 in
the previous decade. But notwithstanding both of these adverse
influences, there have never been as many minors arrested in Chicago
in any year since 1877 as there were in that year. The reduction in
the commitments of minors to the Bridewell was even more marked.
In 1876 these commitments increased 192, and in 1877 they increased
255. But ever since the league was organized they have constantly
decreased. They decreased 211 in 1878; 324 in 1879; 23 in 1880; and
17 in 1881.
For a pamphlet containing an address detailing the origin,
operations, and successes of this league, and a copy of its
constitution and by-law, address the Citizens’ League of Illinois,
127 LaSalle street, Chicago.
HOW TO SECURE A COPYRIGHT.
CHICAGO, Ill.
I desire to copyright a play. How shall I proceed? What length
of time will it require, and what will it cost? State any other
particulars that are important.
U. R. AKERSTROM.
_Answer._—Every applicant for a copyright must state distinctly the
name and residence of the claimant, and whether right is claimed
as author, designer, or proprietor. A printed copy of the title of
the book, map, chart, dramatic or musical composition, engraving,
cut, print, or photograph, or a description of the painting,
drawing, chromo, statue, statuary, or model or design for work of
the fine arts, for which copyright is desired, must be sent by
mail or otherwise, prepaid, addressed, “Librarian of Congress,
Washington, D. C.” This must be done before publication of the book
or other article. Publication in this connection means the giving
to the public or vending of the article. A fee of 50 cents for
recording the title of the book, dramatic composition, or other
article must be inclosed with the title and application, and 50
cents in addition for each certificate of copyright under seal of
the Librarian of Congress, which will be transmitted by early mail.
One certificate being all that is usually needed, $1 is the total
necessary inclosure. Within ten days after publication of the book
or other article, two complete copies must be sent prepaid to the
Librarian of Congress, to perfect the copyright. Without the deposit
of these copies, not only is the copyright void, but a penalty of
$25 is incurred. No copyright is valid unless notice is given by
inserting in every copy published the following words: “Entered
according to act of Congress in the year 18—, by ——, in the office
of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington;” or else the words:
“Copyright, 18—, by ——.” The law imposes a penalty of $100 upon any
person who inserts the above words or others of the same import, in
or upon any book or other article before he has obtained copyright.
Each copyright secures the exclusive right of publishing the book or
article for twenty-eight years. Six months before the end of that
time, the author or designer, or his widow or children, may secure a
renewal for the further term of fourteen years.
NIHILISM.
ATHENS, Tenn.
What is the true meaning of Nihilism?
S. C. BRUNER.
_Answer._—There is no authoritative definition of Nihilism. Certain
of their leaders define it very differently from others. All of
them seem to be pretty well agreed that society as now constituted
is utterly wrong from foundation to turret, and most of them are in
favor of overturning existing governments, casting to the winds the
prevailing conceptions of individual, family, and social rights, and
returning to a state of anarchy, if need be, to begin the work of
reconstruction anew. _Nihil_ is a Latin word signifying _nothing_,
and the name Nihilists is applied to these radical revolutionists by
the world at large as indicative of the tendency of their doctrines
and political operations, including as they do the assassination of
rulers, the springing of mines, and the firing of palaces, government
offices, and even towns and cities, in the effort to annihilate all
existing doctrines and systems of government. Communism and Socialism
were defined in these columns but a week or two ago.
CLYDESDALES AND NORMANS.
OSKALOOSA, Iowa.
State the origin of the Clydesdale and Norman breeds of horses, and
whether it is proper to call them thoroughbreds?
T. J. CASTO.
_Answer._—The Norman horses are named from Normandy, France, and,
although distinguished by different names, are probably all of one
blood, the names only being of local origin. James M. Hiatt, in the
“National Register of Norman Horses,” maintains that the Percherons
are derived from the Boulonnais and the Breton horses, the former
of Bourbourg, France, and the latter of Bretagne. The Clydesdale
horse takes its name from a district on the Clyde, in Scotland,
where it was introduced by one of the dukes of Hamilton, who crossed
the native Lanark mares with fine heavy Flemish stallions. It is
proper to speak of “thoroughbred Norman horses,” or “thoroughbred
Clydesdales,” but when the term thoroughbred is used without any
qualifying word it is understood to refer to horses bred for speed,
with undisputed pedigree in the Stud-book.
DESERT LAND ACT.
RAPID CITY, D. T.
Is there a “Desert Land Act” under which our government disposes of
public lands? If so, please explain it.
A. F. COFFEY.
_Answer._—Desert lands are such as will not produce crops without
artificial irrigation. The act of March 3, 1877, provides that
persons may make entry of such lands in the States of California,
Oregon, and Nevada, and the Territories. The applicant for such land
must file a declaration that he is a citizen, that he intends within
three years to reclaim the said tract of desert land by conducting
water thereon. It must be shown by two witnesses, in writing, that
the tract comes within the statutory description of desert lands. At
the end of three years, on proof that the land has been reclaimed by
irrigation, a patent will issue for it on payment of 25 cents an acre.
REDUCTION OF THE NATIONAL DEBT.
VALLEY CENTER, Kan.
At the present rate of reduction how long will it take to
extinguish the public debt?
W. W. TURNER.
_Answer._—There never has been any uniform rate of reduction of the
National debt. It varies with the changes in the revenue laws, the
business of the country, and appropriations from the Treasury for
other purposes. The pension arrears act has already retarded the
payment of the debt by over $100,000,000, and will continue to be a
heavy drain for years to come. The recent reduction of the tariff and
internal revenue taxes will reduce the National income greatly. The
total debt at the highest point, Aug. 31, 1865, was $2,844,649,626;
on Aug. 31, 1880, fifteen years later, it was $2,105,386,267. This
shows an average reduction of nearly $50,000,000 a year. For the two
years ending June 30, 1882, the reduction was $202,103,376, or over
$101,000,000 per annum. With the recent reductions of the tariff and
internal revenue and the heavy drafts for pensions it is not likely
that this rate of debt reduction will be maintained, a rate which
would extinguish the whole debt by the year 1900. It is proper to add
that, deducting cash in the Treasury August 31, 1865, amounting to
$88,218,055, the net debt at the highest point was $2,756,431,571.
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHING.
KANKAKEE, Ill.
When, where, and by whom was the first electric telegraphing done?
A. B. DALE.
_Answer._—Professor Morse sent the first message by the electric
telegraph, from Washington to Baltimore, May 27, 1844. The printing
telegraph was suggested in 1837 by Alfred Vail, and a model was made
by Wheatstone four years later, but this process of telegraphy has
never gone into general use.
NORDENSKJOLD, THE DISCOVERER.
HOLLAND CITY, Mich.
Please give a short sketch of Professor Nordenskjold, giving date
of his discoveries in the Arctic regions.
SUBSCRIBER.
_Answer._—Adolph Eric Nordenskjold (born 1832), was educated at
the University of Borgo, and afterward studied at Helsingfors, an
important naval station on the Baltic. After teaching mathematics
for two years, he was cashiered for his political opinions in 1855,
but returned in the following year only to be again driven from
the country. In 1858, however, he was appointed State Mineralogist
at Stockholm, and in 1867 he married Countess Anna Mannerheim, a
Finnish lady—an event that led him to seek an appointment to the
chair of Mineralogy and Geology at Helsingfors, but the government
again refused for political reasons. Nordenskjold now obtained
naturalization papers as a Swedish citizen, and entered Swedish
politics. He sailed in the Vega, to find a northeast passage, July 4,
1878, and reached Yokohama, via the discovered passage, in September,
1879.
COMMUNISM AND SOCIALISM.
ATHENS, Tenn.
What is the meaning of communism and socialism as used in the
newspapers?
A READER.
_Answer._.—Communism is the doctrine that society should be
reorganized on the basis of abolishing individual ownership of
property and control of wages, and most of the now generally admitted
rights of individuals in their private and domestic relations, and
substituting therefor community ownership and control of every person
and everything. Socialism is a sort of limited communism. It would
not entirely abolish individual rights of property and personal
self-control, but seeks to force a more equitable distribution of
property, and level the present extreme distinctions between men
of various classes. To effect their purpose radical socialists
have rendered themselves obnoxious to many who would accept most
of the principles laid down by their great leader, Saint Simon, by
advocating resort to revolutionary methods of the most reprehensible
kinds, including in some places the use of dynamite and the
assassin’s dagger.
BISHOP FALLOWS.
EARLVILLE, Ill.
Please give a brief outline of the life of Bishop Fallows.
S. C. HILTON.
_Answer._—Samuel Fallows, D. D., born in England in 1835, was in 1859
ordained to the ministry of the M. E. Church. During the civil war he
was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General. He was for seven years
Regent of Wisconsin University; later President of Illinois Wesleyan
University, and, while editor of the _Appeal_, was chosen Bishop
of the Reformed Episcopal Church, July 1, 1876, of which he is now
recognized as one of the ablest prelates and most eloquent orators.
MUSHROOM AND TOADSTOOL.
RAVANNA, Mo.
What is a mushroom, and what is the difference between it and a
frogstool? Give a description of each.
A READER.
_Answer._—A mushroom is a genus of fungi, including many species,
edible and poisonous. It grows in marshy places during the warm
months. Often the name is restricted to the species used as food,
which is regularly convex, fleshy, dry, and white, with a tinge of
brown or yellow. It is smooth or scaly on the upper surface, never
warty; on the under side the gills are pink when young, and later
turn brown. Toward the top of the fleshy stem is a white, membraneous
ring. The plant is best for food when young, being then in the form
of a ball, covered with a thin membrane. The toadstool (“frogstool”)
resembles the mushroom, but the top is shiny, white, or dark red, and
the gills are perpendicular. This species is poisonous.
STATE SECURITY FOR UNITED STATES LOANS.
MOULTRIE, Ohio.
Was there a time in the history of our General Government when its
credit was so low that it was necessary for one or more States to
go security for a loan made by it?
S. R. ROOSE.
_Answer._—There has been no such time since the adoption of the
present Constitution. The nearest the Federal Government ever
came to such a humiliation was in 1860, when, through the cutting
down of the tariff in 1857 and the outrageous expenditures during
President Buchanan’s administration, the National debt had swelled
to over $64,000,000, and money could not be raised on United States
Treasury notes at less than 10, 11, and finally 12 per cent interest.
Then John A. Dix, who succeeded Cobb as Secretary of the Treasury,
about the close of 1860, found the public credit so low that, in
desperation, he recommended to the Committee of Ways and Means that
the States be asked to secure the repayment of money which the
government should borrow, by pledging the repayment for this purpose
of the public deposits received by them in the distribution of the
surplus in the United States Treasury in 1836. However, Congress did
not adopt this recommendation.
During the revolutionary times, before and under the old Articles
of Confederation, Congress had no authority to levy and collect
taxes and customs dues, as it has now. Various plans for raising
money were discussed, all dependent on the sanction of the several
colonial or State Legislatures. The first plan resorted to for using
the credit of the General Government was to issue paper money. Three
modes of doing this were considered: First, “That every colony should
strike for itself the sum apportioned by the Continental Congress;
secondly, that the Continental Congress should strike the whole sum
necessary, and each colony become bound to sink its proportionable
part; thirdly, that the Continental Congress should strike the whole
sum, and apportion the several shares to the different Colonies,”
every Colony becoming bound to discharge its own particular part,
and all the Colonies to discharge the portion which any particular
Colony should be unable to pay. The views of the delegates were
widely divergent, but Congress decided, June 22, 1775—more than
a year before the Declaration of Independence—to issue bills of
credit, not exceeding 2,000,000 Spanish milled dollars, pledging
the faith of the twelve Confederate Colonies for their redemption.
The sum was subsequently increased to $3,000,000, and apportioned,
on the basis of population, among the Colonies that had joined the
confederation—not then including Georgia—as follows:
Colonies. Amount.
New Hampshire $124,069.50
Massachusetts Bay 434,244.00
Rhode Island 71,959.50
Connecticut 48,139.00
New York 245,139.00
New Jersey 161,290.50
Pennsylvania 372,208.50
Delaware 37,219.50
Maryland 310,174.50
Virginia 496,278.00
North Carolina 248,139.00
South Carolina 248,139.00
Each Colony was to pay its respective quota in four equal annual
installments, commencing on the last day of November, 1779; and for
this purpose each was to levy and collect taxes. But, though from
first to last the States insisted upon retaining the power to tax,
and Congress was obliged to trust wholly to them for funds raised
in this manner, they did not tax themselves, as they were in duty
bound to do, and neither contributed as they should have done to
sustain the National Government, nor raised much to sustain their own
organizations, civil and military. “Throughout the entire period from
1774 to 1789,” says Bolles, “only very small sums flowed into the
general treasury from the State treasuries.”
In the spring of 1780 Congress resolved, after a great many
whereases, “to receive silver and gold in payment of the quotas
assigned to the States, at the rate of one Spanish milled dollar in
lieu of $40 of the bills then in circulation.” Subsequent loans were
made, and the debt apportioned among the several States; but the
latter paid but a trifling part of their assessments, as shown by
the following table, giving the assessment on each State on account
of the requisition of Congress for $8,000,000 in November, 1781, and
the amount actually paid to the end of 1783, as given in “Bolles’
Financial History of the United States,” vol. I.:
State. Assessment. Am’t paid.
New Hampshire $373,598 $3,000.00
Massachusetts 1,307,596 247,676.66
Rhode Island 216,684 67,847.95
Connecticut 747,196 131,577.83
New York 373,598 39,064.01
New Jersey 485,679 102,004.95
Pennsylvania 1,120,794 346,632.98
Delaware 112,085 .........
Maryland 993,996 89,302.11
Virginia 1,307,594 116,103.53
North Carolina 622,677 .........
South Carolina 373,598 344,301.57
Georgia 24,905 .........
—————————— —————————————
$8,000,000 $1,486,154.71
On the other hand, in justice to the “Fathers,” it should be stated
that the several States expended large sums on their individual
accounts, for sustaining the common cause against Great Britain,
aggregating, it was estimated, about $25,000,000; $18,271,786,47 of
which Congress assumed in 1790, after the States had surrendered to
the Federal Government the right to levy and collect all tariffs on
foreign imports. The indebtedness incurred by the States for the
Revolutionary cause and thus assumed by the United States is shown in
the following table:
New Hampshire $282,595.51
Rhode Island 200,000.00
Massachusetts 3,981,733.05
Connecticut 1,600,000.00
New York 1,183,716.69
New Jersey 695,202.70
Pennsylvania 777,983.48
Delaware 59,161.65
Maryland 517,491.08
Virginia, including Kentucky 2,934,416.00
North Carolina 1,793,803.85
South Carolina 3,999,651.73
Georgia 246,030.73
——————————————
$18,271,786.47
The foreign loans made by the United States during the revolutionary
war pledged the faith of all the States. These amounted in toto
to $150,000 from the Spanish Government; about 8,000,000 guilders
by subscription in Holland, and 18,000,000 livres from the French
Government, besides the free gifts of the French King, “forming an
object,” wrote Franklin, “of at least 12,000,000 livres, from which
no returns but that of gratitude and friendship are expected. These,
I hope, may be everlasting.”
ORIGIN OF JOURNALISM.
PARIS, Texas.
1. Were any newspapers or periodicals published before the
invention of printing? 2. Give a short sketch of the advancement of
journalism.
FRANK LEE.
_Answer._—1. At a very early period daily news letters were
circulated, concerning public and official acts, in Rome, Venice, and
China. 2. The first printed newspaper was the _Gazette_, published
in Nuremberg in 1457, and the oldest paper extant is the _Neue
Zeitung aus Hispanien und Italien_, printed in the same city in 1534.
Other countries followed Germany in issuing printed newspapers in
the following order: England in 1622; France, 1631; Sweden, 1644;
Holland, 1656; Russia, 1703; Turkey, 1827. The progress of journalism
has been most rapid in America. The first American newspaper
consisting of three pages of two columns each and a blank page, was
published in Boston, Sept. 25, 1690, under the name of “Publick
Occurences, both Foreign and Domestic,” but it was immediately
suppressed. In 1704 the Boston _News Letter_ appeared, printed on one
sheet of foolscap paper. It flourished for seventy-two years. The
following data will show the advancement in the United States:
First printing office in 1639.
First newspaper in 1690.
First political newspaper in 1733.
First daily paper in 1784.
First penny paper in 1833.
First illustrated paper in 1853.
In 1880 there were published in America (United States and Canada)
10,131 newspapers and periodicals—899 dailies, 8,428 weeklies,
tri-weeklies and semi-weeklies, and 804 monthlies and semi-monthlies.
More than 6,000 of this number belong to the United States, and the
annual circulation is about 1,500,000,000.
WHO VOTE IN GREAT BRITAIN.
GLENVILLE, Minn.
What class of persons are allowed to vote for members of Parliament
in Great Britain?
T. W.