Ruble, ¼, and ½ rouble.
Sandwich Islands Dollar, gold 1.00.
Spain Peseta of 100 centimes gold and silver .19.3
5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 pesetas.
Sweden Crown, gold .26.8
Switzerland Franc, gold and silver .19.3
5, 10, and 20 francs.
Tripoli Mahbub. 20 piasters, silver .74.3
Turkey Piaster, gold .04.4
25, 50, 100, 250, and 500 piasters.
United States Peso, silver .83.6
of Colombia
THE SOUTH AND PROTECTIVE TARIFF.
JONESBORO, Ark.
How is the South, and, particularly, how are Southern farmers,
benefited by the tariff?
S. W. MOREHEAD.
_Answer._—Just as other American farmers are. First, by escaping
direct taxation for the support of the General Government, a form
of taxation that always bears on farmers and the other industrial
classes heavily, as illustrated in direct taxation for State and
county purposes. The Southern politicians who framed the Constitution
of the Southern Confederacy, a majority of them, ignored the
protectionist policy of Washington, Madison, Clay, Lowndes, Bell,
and other Southern statesmen of different political parties, and, as
Jefferson Davis puts it, in his “Rise and Fall of the Confederacy,”
“protective duties for the benefit of special branches of industry
were altogether prohibited.” A tariff for revenue only, export
duties, and direct taxation were relied on to supply the exchequer of
the Confederacy. What does Mr. Davis say of the result as regards the
last of these sources? On page 495 of Volume I. he writes: “Within
six months after the passage of the war tax of Aug. 19, 1861, the
popular aversion to internal taxation by the General Government
had so influenced the legislation of the several States that only
in South Carolina, Mississippi, and Texas were the taxes actually
collected from the people. The quotas of the remaining States had
been raised by the issue of bonds and State Treasury notes. The
public debt of the country was thus actually increased instead of
being diminished by the taxation imposed by Congress.” Where did
most of the money come from that was raised by the Confederacy? Off
the agricultural products of the South. As to the foreign loan,
Davis says: “Each bond, at the option of the holder, was convertible
at its nominal amount into cotton at the rate of sixpence sterling
for each pound of cotton—say 4,000 pounds of cotton for each bond
of a hundred pounds sterling.” The farmer was paid for the cotton
in Confederate currency or bonds, as a rule, and any other cotton
exported from the country was compelled to pay an export duty to
help pay the interest on the foreign bonds. But not only does the
policy of American protection tend to keep the amount raised by
direct taxation down to a minimum (as now, when, except the internal
revenue tax on whisky and tobacco, nearly the entire revenue of the
Federal Government is collected off of imports), but it levies the
tariff mainly on such articles as can be produced in this country,
so compelling consumers of Southern cotton, sugar, rice, tobacco,
etc., to pay better prices for these articles, or foreign competitors
to reduce their profits when selling to American consumers; while
it admits, coffee, tea, and other home necessities that we cannot
produce, free of duty. It lays a duty on iron and other ores, and so
encourages the Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama miner to delve for the
wealth beneath his feet. It taxes cotton goods, and so holds out an
extra inducement over all that nature has done to encourage the South
to erect cotton factories. The same is true in a thousand other lines
of manufacture. In general, it attracts capital into the South to
engage in mining and manufacturing; it keeps money at home; it builds
up home markets; it develops natural resources; it quickens the
inventive genius of the nation, and it diversifies industries, and
so provides occupations adapted to the various talents of different
persons. This last is what the South needs more, in proportion,
than any other section of the Union. Diversity of occupation, like
diversity of crops, is essential to the realization of the best
results. In many cases the most expert mechanics would make inferior
farmers. The girl who “loves dearly to attend cotton-looms” (as a
female operative in the weaving department of the Southern Exposition
at Louisville lately exclaimed) would not stay on a farm. Diversity
of industry affords opportunity for every worker to make the most
of his abilities. It is the safety-valve of labor, which prevents
any one occupation from being overgorged with laborers. It is the
great equalizer of wages. The South is only beginning to realize the
importance of home manufactures. Georgia is alive to this matter; so
are some portions of Kentucky. Other Southern States are awakening to
it. If it be true that in some parts of the North the manufacturers
are strong enough to stand without protection, it is not yet true of
the same industries in the South, and the latter should demand that
the tariff be maintained until she has acquired like strength. She
has the cotton, iron, sugar, cheaper labor, and on account of the
climate it costs the laborers less to live there than in the North.
Why should she not rival France, of similar climate, in manufactures?
Capitalists are asking “why not;” and capital is pouring into the
South faster than ever before. It would be suicidal to drive this
capital back. The South will be stupid if she exerts herself to keep
her children shut up to agricultural pursuits and continues to spend
more than half the value of her surplus products in sending them to
market and bringing them back in a manufactured condition (as she
always has done) instead of manufacturing them at home.
I AM DYING, EGYPT, DYING.
EVANSTON, Ill.
Who was the author of the touching poem commencing, “I am dying,
Egypt, dying?” It is said that he was an army officer.
J. H.
_Answer._—It was William Haines Lytle, who was born in Cincinnati,
Ohio, in 1826. He belonged to a cluster of brilliant young writers
whose early ambition was to build up a school of Western literature,
but who were drawn into the whirl of more active life, which left
little time for courting the muses. On the breaking out of the late
war he went into the army, serving as a Colonel in Western Virginia
in 1861. He was wounded at Perryville, Ky., in October, 1862, was
promoted for gallant services, and, finally, was killed at the
battle of Chickamauga, Sept. 20, 1863. He was greatly beloved by his
fellow officers for his noble social qualities as well as for his
martial bearing; and nothing could be more unjust, according to the
testimony of those who knew him well, than the story recently started
by a flippant penny-a-liner, that he wrote the poem above referred
to, properly entitled “The Death of Mark Antony,” on the walls of
a guard-house in St. Louis, in which he was held under arrest over
night for disorderly conduct on his way home from the theater, where
he had seen Booth in Shakespeare’s great drama of “Antony and
Cleopatra.” That the poem was suggested to him by witnessing Booth’s
representation of this play is probably true: and it is asserted
by some that he had written it, in part at least, some time before
the eve of his death, but the following version of the peculiar
circumstances under which this greatly admired lyric was completed
and transmitted to the world corresponds with the traditions of the
army, and is probably true. John M. Balthes, of Clifton, Ill., who
was once a fellow-townsman of General Lytle, at Zanesville, Ohio,
writing to a fellow-soldier of that gallant officer, says:
“I send you the following beautiful lines, written by him in the
middle of the night, just before the next day’s battle, in which he
lost his life. The General being strongly impressed, or having a
premonition that he should lose his life in the battle that was so
soon to open, sat absorbed and alone in his tent, when an officer
coming in admonished him that he needed rest before the serious
business planned for the next day. Thereupon General Lytle handed him
these verses, remarking that they would be the last he should ever
write.” This poem was published in THE SUNDAY INTER OCEAN of Oct.
7, almost precisely as given by Mr. Balthes, and as it appears in
“Famous Single and Fugitive Poems,” by Rossiter Johnson.
SPECIAL PARTNERS—CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS.
A. D. Bird, Tecumseh, Neb.—1. In limited partnerships the special
partner’s liability for the indebtedness of the firm is limited to
their total interest in the firm, whereas the other partners are
each liable for the whole indebtedness of the firm. In corporations
“limited” stockholders are liable only to the total amount of their
stock, or some specific amount over that. For a fuller answer see
page 87 of Curiosity Shop for 1882, in book form. 2. The twelfth
amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which terminated
the old rule that the candidate receiving the greatest number of
votes for President should be President, and the one receiving the
next greatest number for President should be Vice President, and
requiring electors to name in their ballots the person voted for as
President, and, in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice
President, was adopted in 1804.
SILK FROM OSAGE-ORANGE LEAVES.
GALESBURG, Ill.
Will silk-worms fed with the leaves of the Osage orange thrive as
well and produce as fine a quality of silk as if fed on the leaves
of the white mulberry?
FARMER’S WIFE.
_Answer._—They seem to thrive well, and they produce fine-looking
cocoons; but as to the value of these latter compared with those
produced from mulberry leaves, it is not yet time to speak
positively. The strength, fineness, and other elements of value have
not been fully tested and pronounced upon by experts. Miss Nellie
Lincoln Rossiter, of Philadelphia, who has written a little hand-book
on the raising of silk-worms, says that there is no _apparent_
difference between the silk crops from morette, a species of white
mulberry, and Osage orange leaves. It would be well for persons
interested in this question to correspond with the Woman’s National
Silk Association of Philadelphia. An interesting experiment in
raising silk-worms has been successfully carried on the past season
by the Misses Sarah Dewey and Alice Coykendall, at Canton, Ill.
They procured the eggs from Philadelphia, with instructions for the
management of them, and an exchange says: “They now have 3,500 worms
in all stages of development, from those just hatched to those which
have their cocoons fully formed. They are kept in an upstairs room
on perforated paper, over which fresh leaves of the Osage orange are
spread each morning. The ladies are enthusiastic over their success,
which certainly seems assured. They will be able to find a ready
market for their cocoons at Philadelphia at remunerative prices.”
AMERICAN KNIGHTS—SONS OF LIBERTY.
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.
Give some of the facts as to the origin and acts of the disloyal
orders known during the war for the Union as “American Knights,”
“Sons of Liberty,” etc.; and of the trial of Dodd for conspiring
against the government.
JAS. BREWSTER.
_Answer._—The treasonable organization known during the late war, at
one time as the “Mutual Protection Society,” again as the “Circle of
Honor,” or the “Circle,” or “Knights of the Mighty Host,” but more
widely as “Knights of the Golden Circle,” first developed itself
in the West in 1862, about the time of the first conscription, or
draft of troops, which it was designed to obstruct and resist. An
association under the last of these names had existed for some
years at the South being one of the chief means used to foment the
rebellion before the outbreak. Because of some exposures of the
signs, rituals, etc., of the Knights of the Golden Circle, Sterling
Price, the Confederate general, had instituted as its successor in
Missouri a secret political order, known as the “Corps de Belgique,”
in honor of his chief coadjutor, Charles L. Hunt then Belgian Consul
at St. Louis. Its special object was to beat up recruits for Price
and otherwise co-operate with him in his design of overrunning
Missouri. This was afterward merged into another secret order,
called the “Order of American Knights,” commonly known as the “O.
A. K.,” organized in the autumn of 1863 by Clement L. Vallandigham,
of Ohio, and P. C. Wright, of New York. It is believed that it was
founded by Vallandigham in consultation with Jefferson Davis and
other arch-rebels at Richmond, during his banishment within the rebel
lines. At least, members of the order in Indiana boasted that the
ritual was prepared by Davis himself, and Mary Ann Pitman, at one
time attached to General Forrest’s command as a rebel spy, declared
that Davis was a member of the order. In Indiana, in May, 1864, owing
to the names of some of the leaders and the signs and passwords of
the order having got into the possession of the Federal authorities,
its name was finally changed to the “Order of the Sons of Liberty,”
or “Knights of the Order of the Sons of Liberty,” and a ritual
was instituted. These soon became general. Local branches of the
organization used other names outside their lodges, such as “Peace
Organization” in Illinois, “Star Organization” in Kentucky, “American
Organization” in Missouri, “McClellan Minute Men” in New York,
“Democratic Invincible Club” in Chicago, “Democratic Reading-room” in
Louisville, and so on.
This order had a Supreme Council for the United States at large, of
which the chief officers were a Supreme Commander, a Secretary and
a Treasurer. There was a Grand Council for each State, whose chief
officers were a Grand Commander, a Deputy Grand Commander, a Grand
Secretary, and a Grand Treasurer, and a certain number of Major
Generals, one for each of its “military districts.” There was also a
“Parent Temple” in each county and subordinate temples in townships.
The constitution of the order declared that “the Supreme Commander
shall be Commander-in-chief of all military forces belonging to
the order in the various States, when called into actual service.”
There were four Major Generals in Indiana, each commanding “a
military district and its army.” In Illinois, where its organization
was at one time very complete, the members in each Congressional
district constituted a brigade, under a “Brigadier General.” Those
of each county a “regiment,” commanded by a “Colonel,” and those
of each township a “company.” In Indiana companies were subdivided
into “squads.” The McClellan Minute Men of New York were similarly
organized.
The first Supreme Commander was P. C. Wright, editor of the New York
_News_, who was subsequently incarcerated in Fort Lafayette, New York
harbor, when he was succeeded by Vallandigham. Robert Holloway, of
Illinois, is said to have acted as Supreme Commander in the latter’s
absence in Canada. Charles L. Hunt, Grand Commander for Missouri,
Charles E. Dunn, Deputy Grand Commander, and Green B. Smith,
Secretary, being placed under arrest, divulged facts confirmatory
of the above. H. H. Dodd, the Grand Commander for Indiana, was
arrested and tried at Indianapolis before a military commission
“for conspiring against the government,” “violations of the laws of
war,” and other charges. He was finally turned over to the civil
authorities and liberated.
Vallandigham declared in a speech at Dayton, Ohio, in the summer of
1863, that the order numbered 500,000 men; others claimed 800,000,
and some still more. Statements of its officers at different times,
represented its numbers in Indiana as 75,000 to 125,000; in Illinois
as 100,000 to 140,000; in Ohio as 80,000 to 108,000; in Michigan
and New York as about 20,000 each, and so on. In March, 1864, it
was represented that the total force capable of being mobilized for
effective service was 340,000. Green B. Smith and other witnesses
testified to having purchased and shipped arms to various points
to arm the order. Another witness, once a member of the order
in Indiana, testified that there were 6,000 muskets and 60,000
revolvers, besides private arms in possession of the order in that
State.
The members were bound by the most rigorous oaths. Its “declaration
of principles” declared that it was the imperative duty of its
members to resist the functionaries of the Federal Government,
“and, if need be, expel them by force of arms.” The witnesses,
former members, testified that the duties of members were: 1. To aid
soldiers to desert and harbor and protect them. 2. To discourage
enlistments and resist the draft. 3. To circulate disloyal and
treasonable publications. 4. To communicate and give assistance to
the enemy. 5. To recruit for the Confederate army. 6. To furnish the
rebels with arms and ammunition. 7. To co-operate with the enemy
in raids and invasions. 8. To harass loyal men and destroy their
property when so ordered to do. 9. To assassinate officers of the
government when so directed to do. 10. To establish a Northwestern
Confederacy.
The above statements are compiled from the reports of the Hon.
J. Holt, Judge Advocate General, to Secretary Stanton on “Secret
Societies,” and other State papers. Unusual space has been given
to this question because it has been asked repeatedly, and our
attention is called to the fact that it is not treated in the popular
cyclopedias and histories.
CHIEF CITIES OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND.
RUSHVILLE, Ill.
What is the population of each of the principal cities of France?
JAMES P. CLARKE.
_Answer._—The population of each of the principal cities of France
and England in 1881 is given in the “Statesman’s Year Book” as in the
table below:
Paris 2,269,023
Lyons 376,613
Marseilles 360,099
Bordeaux 221,305
Lille 178,144
Toulouse 140,289
Nantes 124,319
St. Etienne 123,813
Rouen 105,906
Le Havre 105,867
Rheims 93,823
Roubaix 91,757
Amiens 74,170
Nancy 73,255
Toulon 70,103
Angers 68,041
Nice 66,279
Brest 66,110
Limoges 63,765
Nimes 63,552
London [12]4,764,312
Glasgow [13]647,095
Liverpool 552,425
Dublin [14]418,152
Birmingham 400,757
Manchester 393,676
Leeds 309,126
Sheffield 284,410
Edinburgh 236,002
Bristol 206,503
Bradford 180,459
Salford 176,223
Wolverhampton 164,303
Hull 161,519
Oldham 152,511
Newcastle-on-Tyne 145,228
Dundee 140,239
Brighton 128,407
Portsmouth 127,953
LIQUID GLUE AND CHINESE CEMENT.
BLACK OAK, Mo.
Please tell us how to make “Spaulding’s prepared glue” or some
substitute for it.
D. P. STUBLEFIELD.
_Answer._—The formula for making Spaulding’s prepared glue is not
available. The following (Dumoulin’s) is quite as good: Take soft
water, 1 quart; best pale glue, 2 pounds; dissolve in a covered
vessel by the heat of a water bath or in a vessel immersed in
boiling water; cool, and add, gradually, of nitric acid (specific
gravity 1.335) 7 ounces; when cold put it into bottles. It is very
strong and does not gelatinize.
The following formula, known as “Chinese cement,” produces a cement
for porcelain, glass, fancy work, jewelry, etc., so strong that wood
or porcelain can be joined together so firmly that they will break
anywhere else rather than where cemented: Take of finest pale orange
shell-lac (broken small) 4 ounces; strongest rectified spirits 3
ounces, and digest them together in a corked bottle in a warm place
until dissolved. It should have about the consistence of molasses.
THE MAN OF ROSS.
GREENVILLE, Ill.
Who was the “Man of Ross?”
IDA E. WHITE.
_Answer._—The “Man of Ross” is a title given to John Kyrle, of Ross
parish, Hereford County, Eng., because of his remarkable spirit of
enterprise and great benevolence. Although only an untitled, private
gentleman of moderate fortune, he did far more for the good of his
community than many a wealthy lord of the manor. Pope appreciated the
true nobility of Kyrle, and has done full honor to him in the third
epistle of his “Moral Essays,” “On the Use of Riches.” Coleridge,
too, has paid a beautiful tribute to his memory in the lines:
“Richer than miser o’er his countless hoards,
Nobler than kings or kings’ polluted lords,
Here dwelt the Man of Ross. O, traveler, hear!
Departed merit claims a reverent tear.”
EASTERN CENTRAL ARKANSAS.
CLARENDON, Ark.
Seeing an Inquirer, in the Curiosity Shop, asks information in regard
to Arkansas, I will say that the Eastern Central portion of the State
is nearly level, and very fertile. All fruits, vegetables, cereals,
tobacco, cotton, sorghum, sweet potatoes—in fact anything one may
plant—gives large returns. Owing to this locality lying in the great
cotton belt, and to the large quantities of cotton produced, the
usual price per bushel of Indian corn is $1; oats, 90c, and oats will
yield from forty to sixty bushels per acre, with the rude implements
and tillage here in vogue—a one-horse cast-iron plow, and a small
tree top for a harrow. After oats and wheat are harvested the same
land is frequently planted in corn, or sown with millet, or Hungarian
grass, thus producing two crops a year. Land here is cheap, water is
soft and pure, and timber abundant. The rivers abound in fish, and
the immense forests in game. I came from Indiana. I have lived here
twelve years. Have never seen a case of consumption in the State.
DR. H. C. YOUNG,
Formerly Surgeon U. S. N.
PSEUDONYMS OF AUTHORS.
AUBURN, Ill.
I should like to have a list of the noms de plume of modern authors
of reputation.
CHARLES HERSHMAN.
_Answer._—The following is as long a list as there is room for here;
although it contains but a small proportion of the over 5,000
pseudonyms known to literature:
Pseudonyms and real names. Born. Died.