following reply to this inquiry: During the Jackson and Van Buren
administrations the party used the hickory pole and broom as a
Democratic emblem of victory. In the memorable campaign of 1840 the
Indianapolis _Sentinel_ (Democratic) was published, with Mr. Nat
Bolton as editor, and George Pattison as assistant. In the town of
Greenfield resided Mr. Chapman, life-long Democrat, and at that time
the postmaster, but no connection with the Chapman that subsequently
published the _Sentinel_. Mr. Chapman wrote a desponding letter to
Pattison, and Pattison, in his answer, endeavored to encourage his
fellow-townsman, and wound up his letter with, “Crow, Chapman, crow!”
The letter fell into Whig hands and was published in the campaign
paper of the Whig party, _The Spirit of 1876_. In 1842 and 1844, when
the Whig party met with defeat, the rooster came into universal use
as the Democratic emblem of victory.
TO CHINA AND JAPAN.
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa.
Please supplement your answer of last week giving distances
and rates of fare from San Francisco to the Sandwich Islands,
Australia, and New Zealand, by giving the distances and rates of
fare to Japan, China, and East India ports.
IOWAN.
_Answer._—The following table shows the distance, fares in American
gold, etc., per Occidental and Oriental Steamship Company’s vessels,
from San Francisco to points named:
———————+————————————————————+————————+——————————+———————
Miles. | San Francisco to— | Cabin. | Steer’ge | Chinese
———————+————————————————————+————————+——————————+———————
4,800 | Yokohama, Japan |$250.00 | $85.00 | $51.00
5,100 | Hiogo, Japan | 268.00 | 75.00 | 58.00
5,500 | Nagasaki, Japan | 285.00 | 111.00 | 63.50
6,000 | Shanghae, China | 305.00 | 125.00 | 71.00
6,400 | Hongkong, China | 300.00 | 100.00 | 51.00
7,850 | Singapore, India | 380.00 | |
8,250 | Penang, India | 400.00 | |
9,900 | Calcutta, India | 450.00 | |
———————+————————————————————+————————+——————————+———————
Children under 12 years, one-half rates; under 5 years, one-quarter
rates; under 2 years, free. Servants accompanying their employers,
two-thirds of cabin rate, without regard to age or sex. Round trip
tickets, good for twelve months, 12½ per cent from regular rates.
CORN CROPS OF ILLINOIS AND IOWA.
AYR, Neb.
To settle a dispute, please tell which State raises the most
corn—Illinois or Iowa.
J. A. SULLIVAN.
_Answer._—Illinois leads all the States in the amount of corn raised.
In 1882 the Illinois crop was 187,336,900 bushels, and the Iowa
crop was 178,487,600 bushels. According to the same authority, the
Statistician of the Agricultural Department, the average annual corn
crop of Illinois for the five years ending with 1879 was 260,230,740
bushels, and that of Iowa was 163,789,120 bushels. The corn crop of
Illinois in 1880, as given in the census, was 325,792,481, and that
of Iowa was 275,024,247 bushels.
BEE-SWARMING.
H. J. Dunlap, Esq., of Champaign, Ill., who has made bee-culture
a study, after a few words of comment on the brief answer given
to “Topsy’s” question on the swarming of bees, published in Our
Curiosity Shop three or four weeks ago, gives us his own views on
this subject as follows:
New brood is hatched early in the season—in case of plentiful stores
before the earliest blossoms—while the first swarm may not leave the
hive until July, or even later; the condition of the honey flowers
in bloom having much to do in determining the time. [In the Southern
States it often leaves in April or May, and in this latitude usually
in May or June.—ED]. The first swarm is composed of old and young
bees indiscriminately, and of drones. In from six to ten days a young
queen is hatched. Sometimes several hatch at the same time, but all
are destroyed except one, the queens engaging in deadly combat in
which one or the other is the victor. The bees destroy the remaining
queen cells as soon as a queen is hatched. In a day or two the virgin
queen flies out to meet the male, or drone, and after copulation
returns to her hive, where she usually remains until the next season,
when she leads out a swarm. In some seasons, when honey is plenty,
she may go out with a swarm, and even third swarms are thrown off,
but such seasons are almost certain to be poor ones for honey, the
swarms becoming so depleted in number that they are unable to avail
themselves of the later blossoms, even if these are well-stored with
honey. The second swarm thrown off will necessarily be composed
mostly of young bees, but the inference that swarming continues so
long as there are young queens to lead them out is erroneous.
DEATHS FROM CONSUMPTION.
Please tell what States furnished the largest percentage of
consumptives, according to population, and settle a dispute.
B. F. FEATHER.
_Answer._—The following table shows the total population of States
reporting the greatest number of deaths from consumption in the last
census year, and the number of deaths per 10,000 inhabitants:
States. Population. Died of No. per
consumption. 10,000.
New York 5,082,871 12,858 25
Pennsylvania 4,282,891 8,073 19
Massachusetts 1,783,085 5,207 30
Ohio 3,198,062 5,912 18
Illinois 3,077,871 5,146 16
Tennessee 1,542,259 3,767 24
This shows that whereas the deaths from consumption in the census
year were 16 for every 10,000 inhabitants in Illinois, they were 25
per 10,000 in New York State, and 30 per 10,000 in Massachusetts,
the highest ratio in the country. Maine stood next with 29 per
10,000, while Rhode Island lost 25, New Hampshire 25, New Jersey 23,
Connecticut 21, California 21, Virginia 20, North Carolina 15, and
Michigan the same as Illinois, 16, while Florida lost not quite 10,
and Minnesota not quite 11 per 10,000.
RAILROAD RELINQUISHMENT TO SETTLERS.
MELROSE, M. T.
Two men had a hearing about a claim within the limits of the
railroad land grant, and the General Land Office decided that
neither could hold it. One of the parties procured from the
Northern Pacific Railroad a relinquishment, which was sent to the
General Land Office, and a patent was issued to this person. Now,
had the Northern Pacific Railroad the right to relinquish its title
in this way? Please give the law.
DAVID EVANS.
_Answer._—By an act of Congress approved June 22, 1874, according to
the statement of “Copps’ American Settler’s Guide,” it is provided
that in the adjustment of all railroad land grants, whether made
directly to any State for railroad purposes, or to any corporation,
if any of the lands granted be found in the possession of an actual
settler, whose entry or filing has been allowed under the pre-emption
or homestead laws subsequent to the time at which, by the decision
of the Land Office, the right of said road was declared to have
attached to such lands, the grantees, upon a proper relinquishment
of the lands so entered or filed for, shall be entitled to select
an equal quantity of other lands in lieu thereof from any of the
public lands not mineral, and within the limits of the grant, not
otherwise appropriated at the date of selection. And any such entries
or filings thus relieved from conflict may be perfected into complete
titles as if such lands had not been granted. Lands so relinquished
are rated at only $1.25 per acre. An inducement is thus offered
to railroad companies to relinquish in favor of the settlers, and
receive other lands in lieu of those surrendered. Not only this, but
when the superior right of the company is ascertained, and it is
found that the claim of the settler is such that it would be admitted
were the railroad claim extinguished, the General Land Office will,
in all practicable cases, direct the attention of the officers of the
company to the fact, and request an explicit answer whether or not
the land will be relinquished. At the same time it is well for the
party interested to seek for himself the relief indicated, by direct
application to the railroad authorities, and thereby aid in securing
a speedy adjustment.
DEATHS FROM ACCIDENT.
CHICAGO, Ill.
About how many persons die from injuries by railroad collisions and
other accidents every year? Also, give the number of suicides.
CRIPPLE.
_Answer._—The total number of deaths due to accidents, violence,
suicide, etc., as reported for the last decennial census, was 35,932,
divided as follows:
Burns and scalds 4,786
Exposure and neglect 1,299
Homicide 1,336
Injuries by machinery 120
Railroad accidents 2,349
Suffocation 2,339
Sunstroke 557
Drowned 4,320
Gunshot 2,289
Infanticide 40
Suicide by shooting 472
Suicide by drowning 155
Suicide by poison 340
Suicide, other causes 1,550
Deaths by other injuries 13,980
From the above, it appears that the total number of deaths from
suicide, 2,517, exceeded the total from railroad accidents, and that
the latter amounted to 65 in every 1,000 deaths from accidents and
violence.
SUBMARINE TORPEDOES.
HARPER, Kan.
How are torpedoes, for blowing up vessels, constructed and used?
CHARLES G. BOONE.
_Answer._—There are several kinds of naval torpedoes. They may be
classed, as fixed—submarine mines—and locomotive. Of the first sort
there are two classes, viz., the self-acting and those which must
be exploded by the electric battery operated from the shore or some
other means of direct ignition.
An example of the self-acting sort may be described as follows: Take
a hollow iron cone; fill this in part with gunpowder, say 150 to 250
pounds, but not enough to overcome the buoyancy of the cone. In the
top of this charge of gunpowder bury an iron case containing lime,
and in it a thin glass tube filled with sulphuric acid. Connect
this tube or vial with an iron rod running through the top of the
torpedo cone, up to within a short distance of the surface of the
water. From this upright rod let other rods, called feelers, extend
horizontally in every direction; let the whole be anchored in the
channel to be defended, so that these feelers will be so near to
the surface that passing vessels will be likely to come in contact
with one or more of them; in which case the shock will break the
frail glass tube containing the sulphuric acid, which latter, acting
chemically on the lime, will instantly generate sufficient heat to
explode the charge and destroy the vessel. For a sample of the other
class of fixed torpedoes, imagine a submarine magazine filled with
gunpowder, or—better still for this purpose, gun-cotton, because
water does not injure it—planted in a channel, connected with the
shore by an insulated copper wire attached to a battery. Let a small
piece of wire be soldered to the metal case of the torpedo, and unite
this, in the priming chamber, with the shore wire by a fine piece of
platinum. The moment the operator on shore connects the wire with
the battery the current, meeting the resistance of this contracted
bridge of platinum, heats it to incandescence and explodes the
charge. By planting several parallel lines of such torpedoes across
a channel, at no great distance apart, in such a way that the mines
in one row stand opposite the open spaces in another, it is rendered
extremely hazardous for a hostile vessel to attempt to pass. Of the
locomotive submarine explosives, one of the most formidable is the
Whitehead fish torpedo, the construction of which is more or less a
secret, sold by the inventor to the English, Austrian, and Russian
navies. The shape of the case is, as the name implies, that of a
fish, and it is propelled by a screw driven by compressed air. From a
peculiar carriage on shore, or more frequently on board a vessel, it
is discharged in a direct line for the enemy’s ship, and is exploded
by impact. It is a terribly destructive engine when it happens to
strike, but its aim is uncertain. The American torpedo, of similar
description in many respects, Harvey’s, is believed to be a more
reliable and effective engine.
Finally there is the torpedo used to such good advantage in several
instances during our late war, particularly in the case of the
sinking of the rebel ram Albemarle. It is rigged on the end of a spar
carried in the bow of a launch, and sometimes on outriggers on either
side, and is exploded by contact with the vessel to be destroyed, at
some point several feet below the water-line.
ANCIENT VIRGINIA.
LA JUNTA, Col.
What were the original boundaries of Virginia, and how did it get
its name?
J. P. GRANGER.
_Answer._—There is no good ground for dispute over the question as
to how Virginia got its name. This name was given by Queen Elizabeth
at the request of Sir Walter Raleigh to the region discovered in
1584 by persons sent out by him. It was applied to what is now North
Carolina, and was extended, with the progress of exploration, over
the country northward as far as the present city of Bangor, Me.,
or to the 45th degree of north latitude, and southward to the 34th
parallel. One colony after another was carved out of the original
Virginia until it was reduced to the boundaries it had at the
time of the Revolutionary war. It claimed jurisdiction over all
the Northwest territory by virtue of its first charter, made to
the London company, and by conquest from Great Britain during the
war; but it ceded all its rights to the Federal Government in 1787,
reserving only 3,709,848 acres to reward Virginia troops.
AMERICAN TREATIES WITH CHINA.
CHEBANSE, Ill.
How long before the passage of our infamous anti-Chinese
immigration law was it that our government forced its way into
China at the cannon’s mouth?
A SUBSCRIBER.
_Answer._—The first American treaty with China was made at Wang-hia,
a suburb of Macao, July 3, 1844, by the Hon. Caleb Cushing, Minister
Plenipotentiary for the United States, and Commissioner Ki-ying,
on the part of the Chinese. It was soon after the close of the
Anglo-Chinese war known as the “Opium war,” because it grew out
of the persistent smuggling of opium into China by the East India
Company, and resulted in the agreement of the Chinese Government to
admit opium as an article of legitimate commerce. It also resulted
in the opening of five ports to English trade. Thus the forcing of
the Chinese “at the cannon’s mouth” was done by the English, against
a sincere desire of the former both to keep out opium and to have
nothing more to do with Europeans that they could possibly help. The
negotiations between Mr. Cushing and Ki-ying were amicable and highly
creditable to both nations from first to last. Strange to say, to the
utter astonishment of the English, Mr. Cushing, with the arguments
of reason only, gained many important concessions not contained in
the British treaty, besides all that was conceded in that instrument.
The next treaty between the United States and China was signed at
Tientsin, China, June 15, 1858. It contained a number of important
additional concessions, all obtained without any violence or serious
warlike demonstration on the part of our own government, but
coincident with the English and French treaties extorted from the
Chinese by the bloody war that had been waged for the two preceding
years. Had not the English and French waged that war it is quite
certain that neither they nor the Americans would have gained any new
concessions, and they might have had to yield some of those granted
in the old treaties. But having been forced to make concessions to
their hated foes, it must be said that the Chinese Government yielded
to Americans equal rights and privileges in a manner which showed
plainly that they had no desire to withhold anything from a friendly
power which they had granted to their enemies. The first article of
the treaty recites, among other things: “There shall be, as there
always has been, peace and friendship between the United States and
the Ta-Tsing (Chinese) Empire, and between their people respectively.
They shall not insult or oppress each other,” etc. The next, known
as the Burlingame treaty, was negotiated at Washington and ratified
by the United States Senate July 16, 1868, when Mr. Anson Burlingame
was here at the head of the first Chinese Embassy to this country.
It was negotiated on the highest plane of American statesmanship,
and breathes throughout the spirit of true republicanism, the spirit
of the highest Christian civilization. It is sad to think that it
was too high for the majority of our politicians to stand on, and
has been lowered and narrowed to accommodate them in the present
treaty, negotiated in 1880, at the dictation of Denis Kearney and the
Sinophobists of California.
CATTLE IN UNITED STATES.
ELLSWORTH, Kan.
Will you please tell how many cattle there were in the United
States, according to the last census; also, the number for four
years past?
WM. ASHMEAD.
_Answer._—The census gives the number of working oxen in the United
States in 1880 as 993,841; the milch cows as 12,443,120; other
cattle as 22,488,550; total, 35,925,511. The Statistician of the
Agricultural Department gives the numbers for the past four years as
shown below:
Jan. 1, 1879—
Milch cows 11,826,400
Oxen and other cattle 21,408,100
Jan. 1, 1880—
Milch cows 12,027,000
Oxen and other cattle 21,231,000
Jan. 1, 1881—
Milch cows 12,368,653
Oxen and other cattle 20,937,702
Jan. 1, 1882—
Milch cows 12,611,632
Oxen and other cattle 23,280,238
THE GERMAN PATRIOT, BLUM.
MAZOMANIE, Wis.
Tell us something of Robert Blum, the German statesman, who was
shot in Vienna in 1848.
CARL FEHLANDT.
_Answer._—He was born at Cologne in 1807. He was well educated,
served for a time in the army, which he left in 1830 to connect
himself with the theater at Cologne, of which he became in time a
director. Much of his time was given to literature and politics. In
the latter he espoused the cause of liberalism. This was particularly
the case after he moved to Leipsic, where he was first a director of
the theater, then a bookseller and publisher. Here he founded the
Schiller Society of Leipsic, was connected with the German Catholic
movement, and was finally elected Vice President of the Provisional
Assembly at Frankfort in 1848. In the National Assembly he became
leader of the Left, or Radicals. He joined the popular movement in
1848, took a prominent part in the insurrection that broke out at
Vienna at the time of the struggle for Hungarian independence, headed
by Kossuth, and, being arrested, he was summarily shot, Nov. 9, 1848.
SIR JOHN FRANKLIN’S LAST RECORD.
CHEBANSE, Ill.
When, where, and by whom was the cairn discovered in which was the
last record of Dr. John Franklin?
A SUBSCRIBER.
_Answer._—The cairn containing the written record left by the
Franklin exploring party was discovered at Point Victory on the coast
of King William’s Island. This discovery was made in 1859 (fourteen
years after Franklin’s death), by Lieutenant Hobson of the British
yacht Fox, purchased and fitted out by Lady Franklin, and commanded
by Captain Leopold McClintock. The principal facts stated in the
record are that her Majesty’s ships Terror and Erebus spent the
winter of 1845-6 at Beechey Island, off the southwest coast of North
Devon, having ascended Wellington Channel to latitude 77 deg., and
returned by the west side of Cornwallis Island. Lieutenant Gore and
Charles F. De Voeux had left the ships with six men, on an exploring
expedition, May 24, 1847, and on the 28th left this written statement
of their journeyings. Franklin had sailed westward to longitude 98
deg., then up Wellington Channel—the course specially commended to
him, but upon trying to reach the American coast he was prevented
by the masses of ice sweeping southward through McClintock Channel.
The record concludes with these words, in the handwriting of Captain
Fitz James: “April 25, 1848—H. M. ships Terror and Erebus were
deserted on 22d April, five leagues n. n. w. of this, having been
beset since 12th September, 1846. The officers and crews, consisting
of 105 souls, under the command of Captain F. R. M. Crozier, landed
here in lat. 69 deg. 37 min. 42 sec. n., long. 98 deg. 41 min. w.
Sir John Franklin died on the 11th June, 1847; and the total loss
by deaths in the expedition has been to this date 9 officers and
15 men.” Captain Crozier added the important statement: “We shall
start on to-morrow, 26th April, 1848, for Back’s Fish River.” This
record proved the identity of Sir John Franklin’s party with a party
seen by the Esquimaux pressing southward along Fish River to reach
the settlements of the Hudson Bay Company. Later many skeletons
were found on the south and west coasts of King William’s Island.
It is certain, according to the recent reports of Captain Hall and
Lieutenant Schwatka, that all of the party perished from hunger and
exposure.
STEPHEN GIRARD.
James White, Fairfield, Pa.—Stephen Girard was born near Bordeaux,
France, May 24, 1750; took to a seafaring life, became master of a
sailing vessel, then owner of several ships in the American coasting
and West India trade, in which business he amassed a fortune, the
greater part of which was left to found and endow Girard College
for Orphans, near Philadelphia, and other charitable institutions.
He was regarded, at the time of his death, as the wealthiest man in
the United States, although, compared with the money kings of the
present time, he had but a moderate fortune, probably not to exceed
$9,000,000. No one knows what William H. Vanderbilt or Jay Gould is
worth, but it is safe to say that it is not less in either case than
$150,000,000, and some say more than $200,000,000.
ELEVATION OF WESTERN SIGNAL STATIONS.
FAIRMOUNT, Ill.
Please give in Our Curiosity Shop the elevation above sea level of
Huron, D.T., St. Paul, Minn., Madison, Wis., and Chicago.
E. HALLADAY.
_Answer._—The best we can do is to give the elevations of the
barometers of the United States Signal Service above sea-level at
the several points specified, as computed for that service. That
these are not certainly exact is admitted by the Chief of the Signal
Service, who says, on page 1,178 of his report for 1881: “When the
elevations of these planes above mean sea-level have been determined
by the Coast and Geodetic Survey, it is expected that we shall be
able to greatly improve on the elevations at present adopted.” The
Signal Service barometer at Huron, D. T., stands at 1,300 feet above
mean sea-level—marked (?) or doubtful. The barometer at St. Paul is
810.9 feet, at Madison 949.2 feet, at Chicago 660.9 feet, above sea
level. The elevation of these barometers above the ground varies
between thirty and seventy-five feet. As to your other question you
are mistaken; Huron still appears in the “Weather Reports” printed in
The Inter Ocean.
VALUES OF FOREIGN COINS.
HOUGHTON, Mich.
Can you not oblige us with a list of foreign coins and their values
in this country?
WILLIAM J. WREN.
_Answer._—The following table gives a list of foreign coins and their
values, as proclaimed by the United States Treasury Department for
the guidance of Custom House officers:
Countries. Standard monetary unit. Value in
U. S. cur.
Austria Florin, silver .40.6
Belgium Franc, gold and silver .19.3
5,10, and 20 franc coins.
Bolivia Boliviano, silver .82.3
Brazil Milris of 1,000 reis, gold .54.5
Canada Dollar, gold 1.00
Central America Peso, silver .83.6
Chili Peso, gold .91.2
Condor, doubloon, and escudo.
Denmark Crown, gold .26.8
10 and 20 crown pieces.
Ecqaudor Peso, silver .82.3
Egypt Pound of 100 piasters, gold 4.97.4
5, 10, 25, and 50 piastres.
France Franc, gold and silver .19.3
5, 10, and 20 franc pieces.
Great Britain Pound sterling, gold 4.86.6½
Sovereign and half sovereign.
Greece Drachma, gold and silver .19.3
5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 drachmas.
German Empire Mark, gold .23.8
5, 10, and 20 marks.
India Rupee of 16 annas, silver .39.7
Italy Lira, gold and silver .19.3
5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 lire.
Japan Yen, gold and silver .99.7
1, 2, 3, 10, and 20 yen.
Liberia Dollar, gold 1.00.
Mexico Dollar, or peso, silver .89.4
Dollar, 5, 10, 25, and 50 centavo.
Netherlands Florin, gold and silver .40.2
Norway Crown, gold .26.8
10 and 20 crowns.
Peru Sol, silver .83.6
Portugal Milreis, 1,000 reis, gold 1.08.
2, 5, and 10 milreis.