Commissioner of Pensions for services in the several wars before the
year 1855. No warrants are issued for services during the war for
the Union; but soldiers can be credited on homestead entries for the
terms of their enlistments, up to four years of the time of residence
required as a condition of title in cases of ordinary homesteaders.
These warrants call for 40, 60, 80, 120, or 160 acres of land, as the
case may be, and being assignable can be located by any purchaser.
They should be bought only of responsible dealers, with a written
guarantee that, in case of error or defect, the settler will not lose
anything thereby. The market price of such warrants is from $1 to
$1.20 per acre. There is no reason why these cannot be used in paying
for public lands in Oregon as well as in other States or Territories.
Applications must be made as in cash cases, but accompanied with a
warrant duly assigned as payment for the land. Yet where the land
is $2.50 per acre, as the warrant pays only for land at $1.25 per
acre, the remaining $1.25 per acre must be paid in cash. However, a
tract of eighty acres, rated at $2.50 per acre, for example, can be
paid for by two eighty-acre warrants without any cash, except fees
chargeable by land officers, as follows: For a forty-acre tract, 50
cents each to Register and Receiver; for sixty acres, 75 cents each;
for eighty acres, $1; and so on.
NOON BY CLOCK AND BY SUN-DIAL.
SUN RIVER, M. T.
The following rule will enable any one to determine the true
difference between noon by clock-time and noon by the sun-dial or
noon-mark; which seems to be a vexing question with some of your
correspondents: Rule: From any almanac take the time from sunrise
to 12 o’clock and from 12 o’clock to sunset. Half of the difference
between the two is the number of minutes which the dial shows
wrong, either plus or minus. This is called the equation of time
and varies about fifteen minutes either way, at its highest.
JOHN KERLER.
THREE AMERICAN AUTHORESSES.
ENGLEWOOD, Ill.
Please name the author of “The Lamplighter”—an old book, but a good
one—and who wrote “The Wide, Wide World.”
E. O. G.
_Answer._—The author of “The Lamplighter” was Maria S. Cummins, born
in Massachusetts in 1827; died in 1866. The writer of “The Wide, Wide
World,” of which there were 500,000 copies sold in the first ten
years, and of “Queechey,” is Susan Warner, born in New York in 1818.
Her sister Anna is the popular author of “The Fourth Watch,” “The
Other Shore,” and other works published under the pseudonym of “Amy
Lathrop.”
BONANZA FARMS—U.S. MARINE.
PLEASANT PLAINS, Ill.
1. Who owns the largest farm in Dakota and how many acres does it
contain? Which is the largest in the United States? 2. How many
ships has the United States engaged in commerce?
ALBIN C. DEMARY.
_Answer._-The largest farm in the United States is the estate of
the late Dr. Glenn, of California, over 60,000 acres. The largest
farm in Dakota is the Grandin Farm, covering about 50,000 acres, and
requiring the labor of 150 men at seed time and 250 at harvest. The
largest cultivated area under one control is the 28,000 acres farmed
by Oliver Dalrymple. 2. June 30, 1880, the shipping of the United
States was classified as follows: Sailing vessels, 16,830; steam
vessels, 4,717; barges, 1,930, and canal-boats, etc., 1,235; total,
24,712, measuring 4,069,035 tons. In 1882 (June 30) the commercial
navy of this country numbered 24,368 vessels, of 4,165,933 tons.
WHERE POSTAL SERVICE IS SELF-SUPPORTING.
LONGMONT, Col.
In what States is the United States postal service self-supporting.
C. WATSON BROWN.
_Answer._—In Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine,
Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New
York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Alaska, in
which States and Territory the excess of receipts over expenditures
in the year ending June 30, 1882, amounted to $6,951,696, while
the excess of expenditures over receipts in the rest of the Union
amounted to $5,114,930, leaving a surplus, for the first time in
several years, amounting to $1,836,765.
THOMAS NAST, THE CARICATURIST.
ASHKUM, Ill.
Give a short biographical sketch of Thomas Nast, the great
“caricaturist.”
C. K. LANGLEY.
_Answer._—Thomas Nast is a Bavarian, having been born at Landau,
Sept. 27, 1840. At six years of age he came to the United States with
his father, and at 15, with six months instruction from Theodore
Kaufmann, he began to furnish illustrations for newspapers. His
reputation, by the caricatures he made, was won during the civil war.
MAXIMILIAN I.
URBANA, Ill.
Please give me a short biography of Maximilian I., of Germany.
NETTIE AYERS.
_Answer._—Maximilian I., one of the greatest German Emperors, was
born in 1459, and at the age of 19 married Maria, daughter of Charles
the Bold. This union led to war with Louis XI. of France, who tried
to seize some of Princess Maria’s possessions. In 1486 he was
crowned King of the Romans, and in 1493, at the death of his father,
Maximilian became Emperor of Germany. Later he married the daughter
of the Duke of Milan. He was led to war with the Swiss, Venetians,
and French. He died in 1519.
ORPHAN ASYLUMS.
CARTHAGE, Ill.
Is there an asylum for orphan children in Illinois? If so, where is
it?
H. L. RAND.
_Answer._—The only State orphan asylum in Illinois is the Soldiers
Orphans’ Home at Normal. There are several orphan asylums in Chicago
and vicinity, sustained by churches or by private benefactions.
Among these are the Chicago Protestant Orphan Asylum, 2228 Michigan
avenue; Chicago Nursery and Half Orphan Asylum, 855 North Halsted
street; German Orphan Asylum, at Rose Hill (Havelock Postoffice);
St. Joseph’s Orphan Asylum, Douglas avenue, corner of Lake; and St.
Mary’s Orphan Asylum, 2928 Archer avenue; Uhlich Orphan Asylum. There
are others of similar nature in other parts of the State, as the
German Evangelical Lutheran Orphan Asylum, at Addison; Orphan Home,
Jacksonville; Asylum of St. Casimir for Polish children, LaSalle;
Home for the Friendless, Peoria; Woodland Home, Quincy. Besides these
there are in Chicago several houses for foundlings.
LANGUAGES AND TONGUES.
CHICAGO, Ill.
What is the difference between a language and a tongue? How many
languages and tongues are now spoken?
J. G. SMITH.
_Answer._—Language is a term that is applicable to any mode of
conveying ideas, whether by speech, writing, hieroglyphics, or a
system of gestures or pantomime. Even the deaf and dumb have several
languages, but cannot be properly said to have “tongues.” Tongue
is an English term for the spoken language of a particular people,
as the French tongue, the German tongue, and so on. The number
of languages of all the kinds above designated or the number of
tongues in all the world is not known. There are over 6,000 known
languages and dialects: how many more will be discovered when we have
thoroughly explored Africa and Central and Northern Asia is still a
matter of conjecture.
AMERICAN VESSELS SOLD.
SHEBOYGAN, Wis.
What proportion of American shipping was sold to foreigners during
the civil war? How much was sold last year?
SUBSCRIBER.
_Answer._—During the four years, 1861 to 1865, inclusive, the tonnage
of American vessels sold to foreigners, mainly to escape capture,
or because it could not be profitably employed while exposed to war
risk, compared with our total merchant marine as follows:
Years. Total tonnage. Tons sold.
1861 5,539,813 26,649
1862 5,112,164 117,756
1863 5,155,056 222,199
1864 4,986,400 300,865
1865 1,579,994 133,832
———————
Total tons sold 801,301
As the laws of the United States interdict the re-enrollment of any
of these vessels, and restoration of the privileges of our flag, this
was a permanent loss to the tonnage of our merchant marine, although
it is certain that many of them continued to be the property in fact
of American citizens, sailing under foreign colors. The sale of
American vessels to foreigners in 1879 amounted to 43,312 tons, and
in 1880 to 26,883 tons.
QUEEN VICTORIA’S SURNAME.
PANORA, Iowa.
Having noticed in Our Curiosity Shop what is said in regard to the
surname of the Queen of England, I send you the following extract
from the _Whitehall Review_ on this subject: “At dinner the other
night the conversation lapsed, as it sometimes will lapse with
the best, into questions hardly distinguishable from conundrums.
A celebrated historian was present, and I put a question to him
which I know has puzzled a great many people at different times:
‘What is the surname of the royal family?’ ‘Guelph, of course.’
That is the usual answer, and it was the historian’s. I ventured
to suggest that although the royal family are Guelphs by descent,
her Majesty’s marriage with Prince Albert of Saxe-Cobourg must have
the effect which the marriage of a lady has in all other cases, and
that the surname of the present house must be the Prince Consort’s.
But what is the surname of the Prince Consort’s family? Simple, but
staggering. No one knew. All guessed, and all were wrong. I happened
to have looked up the subject a few months ago, so I knew that the
name was ‘Wettin.’ Of course no one had heard it before. Every one
smiled at the horrible idea of the Guelphs being reduced to Wettins!
The point was referred to Theodore Martin. ‘You are quite right,’
said the graceful biographer of the Prince Consort. ‘Wettin is the
family name of the house of Saxony, to whom the dominion of Saxony in
the year 1420. The king of Saxony and the minor princes of the house
are, therefore, all Wettins; or, German, Wettiner.’” [Nevertheless,
the fact remains that none of the royal family sign either of the
names, Guelph or Wettin, or are addressed by either name in any form
of address, oral or written.—ED.]
MRS. H. R. BRYAN.
NATIONAL, STATE AND LOCAL WEALTH AND DEBT.
SIOUX CITY, Iowa.
Tell us what is the total public indebtedness of the United States
of all kinds, National, State, county, city, township, district,
etc. Also what part of the Union, the East, West, or South, owes
the most. Finally, give the wealth per capita East, West and South.
DISPUTANT.
_Answer._—According to statistics in “The West in 1880,” since
confirmed by the census returns, the local indebtedness of the
several States (consisting of county, city, town and district
debts, bonded and floating) added to State indebtedness, aggregated
$1,117,821,671, or $22.28 per capita; and the wealth, measured by the
assessed valuation, amounted to $336.89 per capita, distributed by
States and Territories as follows:
Per Wealth
States and Territories. Debt. capita. per cap.
New Eng. States $178,654,977 $44.54 $661.27
Mid. States 488,638,655 41.57 473.55
South. States 204,887,805 13.43 155.29
West. States 243,984,183 13.17 333.63
Territories 1,656,051 2.73 211.29
—————————————— —————— ———————
Total $1,117,821,671 $22.28 $336.89
In some States local indebtedness has diminished since 1880, while in
others it has increased. Assuming that the total local indebtedness
is about the same, we may add to the above $1,117,821,671, the
National debt at close of June 30, 1883, say $1,884,171,728, and
it appears that the total public debt of this country is about
$3,001,993,399.
PERVERSITY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
OPDYKE, Ill.
Seeing that the earth’s diameter at the equator is greater than at
the poles, and Lake Itasca is nearer the center of the earth than
the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, why isn’t it proper to say that
the Mississippi River runs up hill?
HARRY.
_Answer._—This notion that the Mississippi, in order to accommodate
itself to theories as to the shape of the earth, is performing the
remarkable feat of running up hill, is sufficiently prevalent to
lead to the iteration and reiteration of the above question as often
as once a week at least. Of course we cannot reiterate answers so
frequently, and hence generally pass the question unnoticed, as
correspondents have passed our by-gone replies. A lengthy answer
will be found in Our Curiosity Shop of last year, page 95. Here and
now we will merely say that the United States Hydrographical Survey
flatly contradicts the notion that Lake Itasca is lower than the Gulf
of Mexico. It gives the levels at numerous points between that lake
and the mouth of the Mississippi, and, surprising as it may seem,
considering that the equator has “got the bulge” on all the rest of
the world, this survey demonstrates that this old-fashioned river,
following the custom of other rivers, with unyielding perversity,
is running down hill; in some places at the rate of twenty-five
feet and more per mile, and in others at the rate of only several
inches. Perhaps this all comes of its never having been “to high
school,” or a gymnasium. In fact its education has been totally
neglected, except down South, where it has been trained into a bad
habit of climbing levees. Whatever the shape of the earth—whether
its equatorial diameter is twenty-six miles greater than its axial
diameter, or more or less; and whether the waters of the ocean are
or are not drawn toward the equator by the centrifugal force of
the earth’s diurnal motion, until they stand several miles higher
there than they would if the globe had no diurnal motion—one fact is
established beyond all equivocation, and that is, that tide level
at the mouth of the Mississippi is about 1,575 feet lower than Lake
Itasca; which entirely relieves this grand old son of Neptune of any
necessity for waging war with the laws of nature and fighting his way
up hill to revisit the halls of his father, the “Trident-bearer,”
in the briny chambers of the sea. Probably if the earth’s motion on
its axis were to cease there would be a reflux of waters from the
equatorial region into the Gulf of Mexico, up the Mississippi Valley,
across into the Red River of the North and the Mackenzie, submerging
the greater part of North America. Let us hope that the earth will
continue to spin on its axis at about the same rate as now, at least
until we have sold out all our farms and corner lots and moved to
equatorial America, where land will then be considerably higher than
it is at present in more senses than one.
FIRST CHAPLAINS OF CONGRESS.
LEIGHTON, Iowa.
When was the first prayer offered in the Congress of the United
States and by whom? Is there any official record of the matter? If
so, where can it be found?
H. CLEW.
_Answer._—The first chaplain of the Senate of the United States was
the Rt. Rev. Samuel Provoost, of the Episcopal Church, Bishop of New
York. The first chaplain of the House of Representatives was the Rev.
Wm. Lynn, D. D., of the Presbyterian Church. Both of these officiated
in the first Congress organized under the present Constitution in
the spring of 1789. The Congressional proceedings of that time are
preserved in the “American State Papers,” selected and edited under
authority of Congress.
THE HARMONICA.
UNION CITY, Ind.
Please give a history of the harmonica.
FORD A. CARPENTER.
_Answer._—The original harmonica consisted of drinking glasses,
played with moistened fingers. We read that about 1750 Mr.
Packeridge, an Irish gentleman, was noted as a player upon glasses,
whose pitch was regulated by the amount of water contained in each.
Benjamin Franklin greatly improved the harmonica by making the
glasses revolve about a spindle and fixing the pitch by the size of
the glass. He also adopted a different color for each note in the
scale, and moistened the rims by passing them through water. Miss
Davis, a relative of Franklin, became a celebrated harmonica player,
and performed at concerts with great credit. The mouth organ, which
is now commonly called the harmonica, is a toy in which the sounds
are produced by the vibration of metallic reeds, moved by the breath.
Reed instruments essentially similar have been in use in China,
Germany, and Holland from very early times. The inventor is unknown.
OREGON AND WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
ALTA, Iowa.
Please inform your readers about Northern Oregon and Washington
Territory. Is any part of them safe from Indian depredations? Is
the land mainly government or railroad grants? State chief facts as
to soil, climate, and the various kinds of grain raised.
R.
_Answer._—The Indians in Oregon and Washington Territory are all
gathered into reservations, and are now peaceable. They are not so
fierce and restless as the tribes on this side of the Rockies, being
more inclined to pastoral life, farming, and fishing. Little trouble
is to be apprehended from this source, particularly in Oregon, the
Indian population of which is not large. There are great bodies of
public lands. The railroad land-grants are not so extensive as in
the Missouri Valley States. There are immense quantities of fine
timber lands open to purchase at the minimum price of $2.50 per
acre under the “timber lands act” of June 3, 1878, which applies
only to such lands in Oregon, Washington Territory, California, and
Nevada. There are also wide sections in these States for sale at 25
cents an acre under the “desert lands” act of March 3, 1877. Great
bargains have been made in lands passed under this description which
are capable of easy irrigation, and are then remarkably productive.
Oregon is divided into two parts, differing essentially in climate
and productions by the Cascade Range of mountains, running nearly
parallel with the Pacific coast, with an average breadth of 50 to 60
miles, and an average elevation of 8,000 feet. The portion of the
State west of this range, constituting about one-third of its total
area, is well watered, is generally very fertile, and, for the most
part, covered with forests of valuable timber. The eastern two-thirds
of the State, with the exception of the broad, fertile valleys of the
Colombia and Wallawalla Rivers, is mainly made up of elevated plains,
with insufficient rainfall for agriculture, except in districts where
artificial irrigation is practicable.
The description of Washington Territory corresponds in the main
with that of Oregon. The Territory is similarly divided, as regards
climate and productions, by the Cascade Range. The rainfall is even
greater in the western portion of Washington Territory than in the
corresponding portion of Oregon, ranging from 70 inches in the
south to the remarkable measure of 125 inches in the north, where
it borders on Puget Sound. In this same region the temperature is
remarkably equable, varying but 27 degrees during the year between
the lowest and highest points. East of the Cascades a narrow strip
on the north is mountainous and covered with forests, but south of
this lies the Great Plain of the Columbia. Along the western border
of this vast region, next the Cascade Range, it is claimed that the
rainfall is sufficient for good cereal crops. The same is asserted of
its eastern edge, bordering the Coeur d’Alene Mountains of Idaho; but
the rest of it, like the southern extension of the same plain into
Oregon, is fit only for grazing, except where irrigation is possible.
It resembles very much the western portions of Kansas and Nebraska
and the western parts of Colorado and Wyoming. In both regions
the nutritious, self-curing bunch grasses, which form the chief
reliance of the herdsmen east of the Rockies, abound. The grazing and
agricultural interests of Oregon and Washington are increasing with
great rapidity. The census of 1880 credits Oregon with 500,000 cattle
and 1,250,000 sheep, and Washington with 250,000 cattle and 200,000
sheep, and since then the increase has been nearly 100 per-cent. The
wheat crop of Oregon, according to the census, was 7,480,010 bushels,
the oat crop 4,385,650 bushels, and the barley crop 920,977 bushels.
At the same time in Washington Territory the wheat crop was 1,921,322
bushels, the oat crop 1,571,706, and the barley crop 566,537 bushels.
Undoubtedly the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad this year
will open an era of marvelous growth in the State and Territory above
described.
WILLIAM COBBETT, THE AGITATOR.
ALDER GROVE, Neb.
Who was William Cobbett? He is spoken of as a reformer.
J. M. K.
_Answer._—He was an English political writer of the latter part of
the last and the first third of the present century. Born at Farnham,
Eng., in 1762, the son of a farmer of moderate means, he acquired
habits of industry and self-dependence. Not liking rural pursuits,
he went to London and engaged as a copying clerk. Soon tiring of
this occupation, he enlisted in the British army, where he rose by
merit to the rank of Sergeant Major. His spare time in barracks was
given to self-education, and on obtaining his discharge, in 1791,
he married and emigrated to Philadelphia, where he entered upon his
after career as a political writer under the pseudonym of “Peter
Porcupine.” At this period he satirized American democracy and
French republicanism, attacking the inconsistencies and political
fallacies of the time in terms of scorn and bitter denunciation. He
was denounced by the American press, particularly by the Democrats,
or “Republicans” of those times, as a Tory aiming at reviving the
royalistic element in this country, not then completely eradicated.
Not pleased with the reception of his political diatribes he returned
in 1800 to England, and in 1802 began the publication of his _Weekly
Political Register_, now famous, which he continued to his death,
June 18, 1835. At first Tory, the _Register_ gradually changed its
politics until it became the most fierce and unrelenting opponent of
the government, then conducted by Pitt, and the foremost champion
of English Radicalism. He advocated the abolition of flogging in
the army, and for strictures on the government and satires and
charges claimed to be libellous against certain high officials, he
was condemned to imprisonment for two years in Newgate Prison, and
to pay a fine of £1,000. He attacked the six acts of the British
Parliament for the suppression of free discussion, pouring vials of
abuse on the leaders of the government party; and to escape pecuniary
embarrassments and the dread of again going to Newgate, he once
more came to America, where his change of politics had raised up
many friends. He virtually edited his _Weekly Political Register_
from this side the Atlantic until some years later when he returned
to England. Radicalism had made great strides, and he found himself
one of its recognized champions. In 1829-30 he delivered political
lectures in several of the principal towns of England and Scotland,
and was everywhere met with enthusiastic welcome as the boldest
and most powerful advocate of the people’s rights. In 1832 he was
elected to the first reformed Parliament as the member for Oldham.
He was re-elected in 1834, and continued in this relation until his
death the following year. Among his many popular works may be named
“Cottage Economy,” “Rural Riches,” “Advice to Young Men and Women,”
“The Emigrant’s Guide,” “Parliamentary History,” and an “English
Grammar.”
CONCRETE OR GROUT HOUSES.
FOUNTAIN, D. T.
Please describe the method of building houses with concrete walls.
What should be used to make the concrete, and in what proportions?
Will common lime answer, or must Portland cement or water lime be
used? The former comes high here.
WM. M. FISK.