Amy Lothrop—Miss Anna B. Warner 1825
An American Girl Abroad—Miss Trafton
Artemus Ward—Charles F. Browne 1836 1867
Barney Cornwall—Bryan Waller Procter 1790
Boz—Charles Dickens 1812 1870
Christopher Crowfield—Mrs. H. B. Stowe 1812
Chrystal Croftangry—Sir W. Scott 1771 1832
C. L. I. O. (Clio)—Joseph Addison 1672 1719
Cornelius O’Dowd—Chas. Jas. Lever 1806 1872
Country Parson—The Rev. A. K. H. Boyd 1825
Currer Bell—Charlotte Bronte (Mrs. Nichols) 1815 1855
Diedrich Knickerbocker—Washington Irving 1783 1859
E. D. E. N—Mrs. Emma D. E. (Nevette) Southworth 1818
Edward Search (2)—Abraham Tucker 1705 1774
Edward Search (1)—Wm. Hazlitt 1778 1830
Elia—Chas. Lamb 1775 1834
Eli Perkins—Matthew D. Landon
Elizabeth Wetherell—Susan Warner 1818
Ellis Bell—Emily Bronte 1819 1848
Ettrick Shepherd—James Hogg 1772 1835
Fanny Fern—Sarah Parton 1811 1872
Father Prout—Francis Mahony 1805 1866
Figaro—Mariano Jose de Larra 1809 1837
Gail Hamilton—Miss Abigail Hamilton Dodge 1838
Gamaliel Smith—Jeremy Bentham 1748 1832
Gath—George Alfred Townsend 1833
Geoffrey Crayon—Washington Irving 1783 1859
George Eliot—Mrs. Mary Ann (Evans) Lewes Cross 1820 1880
George Fitzdoodle—Wm. Makepeace Thackeray 1811 1863
Georges Sand—Mme. Dudevant 1804 1876
Grace Greenwood—Mrs. Sara J. Lippincott 1825
Horace Hornem—George Gordon, Lord Byron 1788 1824
Hosea Biglow—James R. Lowell 1819
Ik Marvel—Donald Grant Mitchell 1822
Jean Paul—Jean Paul F. Richter 1763 1825
Jedediah Cleishbotham—Sir W. Scott 1771 1832
Jennie June—Mrs. J. C. Croly 1840
John Chalkhill—Izaak Walton 1593 1683
Jonathan Oldstyle—Washington Irving 1783 1859
Josh Billings—Henry W. Shaw 1818
Joshua Coffin—Henry W. Longfellow 1807 1881
Junius—Probably Sir Philip Francis 1740 1818
Laertes—G. A. Townsend 1833
Launcelot Langstaff—Washington Irving 1783 1859
Launcelot Langstaff—William Irving 1766 1821
Launcelot Langstaff—Jas. Kirke Paulding 1779 1860
L. E. L.—Letitia Elizabeth Landon 1802 1839
Little Thomas—Thomas Moore 1779 1852
Luise Muhlbach—Mme. Clara Mundt 1814 1873
Malachi—Sir W. Scott 1771 1832
Malachi Malagrowther—Sir W. Scott 1771 1832
Malakoff—Samuel Johnson, LL. D. 1709 1784
Marion Harland—Mary V. (Hawes) Terhune 1835
Mark Twain—Samuel L. Clemens 1835
M. Quad—Chas. B. Lewis
Mrs. Partington—B. P. Shillaber 1814
Old Bachelor—George W. Curtis 1824
Oliver Optic—William Taylor Adams 1822
Owen Meredith—Edward R. Bulwer, Lord Lytton 1831
Paul Creyton—John T. Trowbridge 1817
Parson Lot—The Rev. Charles Kingsley 1819
Saxe Holm—Miss Rush Ellis 1858
Theophilus South—Edward Chitty 1807
Timothy Titcomb—J. G. Holland 1819 1881
CHICAGO NEWSPAPER CIRCULATION.
AURORA, Ill.
To settle a dispute, state which of the Chicago newspapers has the
largest circulation.
CONOVER.
_Answer._—The only criterion of newspaper circulation which there
is absolutely no means of successfully disputing is the amount of
postage paid on papers sent to actual subscribers. Below is given the
amounts of postage paid on such circulation by each of the Chicago
newspapers here named during the fiscal year ending June, 30, 1882:
THE INTER OCEAN $19,609.30
The _News_ 7,289.14
The _Times_ 6,581.10
The _Tribune_ 5,644.54
The _Herald_ 1,443.68
For circulation of papers outside of the mails there is nothing that
can be regarded as an impartial standard of comparison; nothing which
affords the reading and advertising public such unequivocal testimony
as the above, but every intelligent person will naturally conclude
that the proportions of circulation through the mails and outside of
the mails will not differ very greatly.
TO POLISH SEA-SHELLS.
CRESTON, Iowa.
Please inform us through Our Curiosity Shop how to polish
sea-shells and prepare them for sale.
SUBSCRIBER.
_Answer._—According to Cooley, one of the highest authorities on
processes employed in the arts and manufactures, the surfaces of
certain shells which have a natural polish should be first cleansed
by rubbing with a rag dipped in hydrochloric acid (obtainable at any
drug store) till the dull outer skin is removed. They must then be
promptly washed in warm water, dried in hot sawdust, and polished
with chamois leather. But shells destitute of natural polish may
be either varnished or rubbed with a mixture of tripoli powder and
turpentine, applied by means of a “wash-leather” (split sheepskin
dressed with oil), and afterward with fine tripoli alone, and finally
a little olive oil, the surface being brought up with vigorous use of
the chamois leather. But there are shells which must first be boiled
in a strong solution of potash, then ground on wheels, sometimes
all the way through the outer stratum, to show an underlying one,
after which they are polished with hydrochloric acid and putty
powder. This last process better be left to men who make a business
of shell-grinding; for it is said that “shell-grinders are almost
all cripples in their hands,” owing to the dangerous nature of this
operation.
STATES WITH COMPULSORY EDUCATION.
STECOAH, N. C.
Name the States and Territories which have compulsory education
laws; and show how their attendance and non-attendance compare with
the same in other States and Territories.
J. L. CRISP.
_Answer._—Arizona, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia,
Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New
Jersey, New York, Ohio, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming have
compulsory education laws, requiring every male child between certain
years—usually 8 to 14—to attend school not less than a specified
period—usually twelve weeks each year. The Illinois law did not come
into effect until the present school year, and in several other
States these laws were not passed in time to affect the statistics of
1880, so the following table gives the total number of children of
school age in none but such States as had compulsory attendance laws
before 1880. It gives not the average daily attendance, but the total
enrollment of pupils in the public schools:
Children of
States. school age. Enrollment.
California 215,978 158,765
Connecticut 140,235 119,694
Massachusetts 307,321 309,777
Michigan 506,221 362,556
New Jersey 330,685 204,961
New York 1,641,173 1,031,593
Ohio 1,043,320 747,138
The table below gives the corresponding statistics for an equal
number of States not having such laws, as nearly adjacent as possible:
Children of
States. school age. Enrollment.
Oregon 59,615 37,533
Maine 214,656 149,827
Rhode Island 52,273 44,780
Pennsylvania 1,370,000 937,310
Delaware 35,459 27,823
Indiana 703,558 511,283
Iowa 586,556 426,057
This comparison sheds very uncertain light upon the question as to
the effect of compulsory attendance laws, because the school age
period is different in different States, and it does not show the
number of pupils in private schools. It would be far more interesting
in this connection if it included only all children of the ages
within the compulsory period in each State, and gave the number of
such children enrolled in schools of any sort before and after the
passage of the law. Nevertheless, these tables do indicate plainly
enough that such laws are not strictly enforced in any State, and
are, comparatively speaking, a dead letter in others.
BASHFULNESS WORSE THAN FEAR.
OREGON, Ill.
What brave man was it that said he had suffered far more from
bashfulness than from fear?
SUBSCRIBER.
_Answer._—It was “John Brown, of Ossawatomie,” the hero of the
Harper’s Ferry plot to emancipate as many as possible of the slaves
of Virginia and Maryland, and lead them on an exodus into Canada.
Being asked, on the way to the scaffold, if he felt any fear, he
replied: “It has been a characteristic of me from infancy not to
suffer from physical fear. I have suffered a thousand times more from
bashfulness than from fear.”
CHOKE-BORE SHOTGUNS.
PECATONICA, Ill.
Please explain the difference between “full choke” and “modified
choke” shotguns.
SPORTSMAN.
_Answer._—In a full choke shot-gun the bore is a perfect cylinder to
within a few inches from the muzzle, where it swells inward slightly
all around, and then opens out in the last six or seven inches to
about the same diameter as in front of the choke. In a “modified
choke” gun the barrel tapers from the shell chamber to the choke
curve. In a “taper bore choke” the barrel tapers regularly from the
shell chamber to the muzzle.
NIGHT GLASSES.
HARPER, Kansas.
What is a night glass? Is it true that a person can see as plainly
with one of these, in fair weather, at night, as he can without one
in daylight?
C. G. BOONE.
_Answer._—A night glass is simply a small terrestrial telescope,
or spy-glass, ordinarily in the form of a large opera-glass, with
an unusually large lens in the end toward the object to be viewed,
called the object-glass, which serves to concentrate a large amount
of light, and so render objects seen at night much more distinct than
when viewed by either the naked eye or an ordinary spy-glass. Since
it is a principle in optics that “it is impossible, by any optical
arrangement whatever, to obtain an image whose brightest part shall
surpass the brightest part of the object,” it is obvious that nothing
seen through a night-glass, even in the clearest night, can appear as
distinct as in daylight.
AMERICAN HISTORIANS.
WANDA, Ill.
Will you please publish a list of the principal American historians?
S.
_Answer._—Assuming that by “American historians” you mean historians
born in America, we give the following list, naming first those
who wrote chiefly of our own country, and afterward those who have
written mainly of other countries: J. S. C. Abbott, b. 1805; d. 1877;
George Bancroft, 1800; Richard Hildreth, 1807-1865; C. E. A. Gayarre,
1805; Francis Parkman, 1823; John C. Ridpath, 1840; John D. G. Shea,
1824; Jared Sparks, 1789-1866; James F. Cooper, 1789-1851; Hubert
H. Bancroft, and Thomas H. Burton. W. H. Prescott, 1796-1859; John
Lathrop Motley, 1814-1877, and Royal Robbins, 1788-1861.
SANDPAPER.
SHENANDOAH, Iowa.
Please describe the process of making sandpaper.
H. S. GALT.
_Answer._—Common window glass—that having a green tint is best—is
powdered and sifted through sieves of varying fineness, for coarse
and fine sandpaper. Then any coarse paper is covered with thin glue
and the powdered glass is sifted upon it. After standing a day or
two, the refuse sand is shaken off, and the paper is ready for use.
ALABASTER.
CLINTON, Ill.
Where is alabaster quarried and manufactured?
OLD PILGRIM.
_Answer._—Alabaster, or plaster of paris, is made in large quantities
at Grand Rapids, Mich., where there are extensive beds of gypsum, the
stone from which it is produced. Vases and other ornamental articles
can be cut from the finest quality of this stone; but generally such
articles are produced in Europe, where labor is cheaper and the
class of workmen accustomed to this branch of art is numerous. The
chief supply of European gypsum for fine arts is obtained at Sienna
and other places in Tuscany, and manufactured at Florence, Milan,
Leghorn, and Volterra.
RAILROADS ENTERING CHICAGO.
CHICAGO, Ill.
Please state the total number of railroads entering Chicago on
their own tracks or others, and oblige
SEVERAL READERS.
_Answer._—Hardly two persons would agree as to “the number of
railroads entering Chicago on their own tracks or others,” for the
reason that one person would count all the distinct roads named
in the several coupons of every through ticket from any part of
the United States, Canada, or Mexico to this city, while others
would count only the roads chartered in Illinois and adjacent
States running under separate managements, and entering Chicago
over their own traces or leased right of way. The latter number
about thirty-eight, the former amount to several hundred. There
are twenty-seven great railway systems centering at Chicago and
controlled mainly from this point, which embrace about 25,000 miles
of track.
HARVARD, YALE, COLUMBIA.
WEST LEBANON, Ind.
Please give a comparison of Harvard, Yale, and Columbia Colleges in
wealth, number of students, and number of graduates.
A SUBSCRIBER.
_Answer._—According to the report of the Bureau of Education for
1880, these institutions compare, as regards wealth, as follows:
Productive Income Income
Colleges— funds. from funds. fr. tuition.
Harvard $3,959,556 $236,889 $122,835
Yale 1,293,078 79,943 102,912
Columbia 4,816,257 320,565 24,200
Besides the above, there is a scientific school connected with each
of the above colleges with property, as follows:
Prod’tive Income Income
Scientific Dept.— funds fr. funds fr. tuit’n
Lawrence Scientific
School (Harvard) $729,623 $46,482 $2,505
Sheffield Scientific
School (Yale) 265,775 28,157 15,850
School of Mines
(Columbia) 36,500
As respects students enrolled and graduates of all departments, in
the year above given, these institutions compared as in the totals
below:
Number of Number of Degrees
Colleges— Students. conferred.
Harvard 974 264
Yale 952 232
Columbia 577 415
The degrees enumerated were all conferred “in course,” honorary
degrees being omitted from this statement.
THE MAID OF THE MIST.
DANVILLE, Ill.
Are you not mistaken as to the time when the Maid of the Mist ran
through the great whirlpool in the Niagara River? Can you not give
a fuller description than appeared in Our Curiosity Shop of Aug. 16?
SUBSCRIBER.
_Answer._—The date here called in question is the one given for
this feat in Clemens Petersen’s article on Niagara in “Johnson’s
New Universal Cyclopedia,” but in THE DAILY INTER OCEAN of Sept.
1 we gave an account from the lips of DeWitt C. McMurtry, now of
Philadelphia, who claims to be the only survivor of that perilous
passage. He says the trip was made June 29 1859. He gives the
dimensions of the stanch little steamer at “about 150 feet over all
and 16 feet beam.” She was a side-wheeler, with new and powerful
engines, usually carrying 125 or 130 pounds pressure of steam, but
set at this time to blow off at 228 pounds. The run was made to
evade the payment of a mortgage held by Judge Addington, of Buffalo,
and under an offer from some Toronto parties to pay $25,000 for the
Maid of the Mist if delivered at Queenstown, on the Canada side,
at the mouth of the river. Joel Robinson, the captain, was offered
$500, the engineer, a Mr. Jones, and the fireman, Mr. McMurtry, each
$100, to undertake this task. The captain had himself lashed in the
wheelhouse, and the other two were shut in below under battened
hatches. The distance from the last landing above the whirlpool
to Queenstown is just five miles, one mile of which is through the
whirlpool-torrent. This distance was made in seven and three-quarter
minutes, only two of which were spent in the rapids. The boat was
dashed about at a terrible rate. “When she first struck the rapids,”
says McMurtry, “our boat leaped downward perhaps thirty feet. Then
she was hurled clear out of the water. Down she would go, as if she
would never stop, when suddenly she would right herself and, with a
bound which seemed almost human, leap out of the water. The current
runs forty-five miles an hour and the waves are twenty feet high.
Jones and I were almost killed by the quickly succeeding shocks. I
felt my strength rapidly oozing away as I clung to the hand-rails
for dear life. There was barely time to catch my breath between
concussions. Suddenly the current struck her sideways, she swung
around, and shot down the stream. We had escaped the whirlpool. When
I got out at Queenstown the water was waist high, the boat had been
so racked and wrenched in her passage.” Jones died soon afterward.
Robinson survived several years longer. According to this witness no
one perished in the passage, as is stated in some narratives of the
affair.
FEMALE SUFFRAGE IN NEW JERSEY.
CHICAGO, Ill.
What State was it that permitted women to vote ninety years ago?
J. M. SNOW.
_Answer._—It was New Jersey; which organized as an independent State
two days before the declaration of independence, with a constitution
that allowed universal suffrage, male and female, without regard to
color. This constitution was not altered until 1844, when, among
other changes, the suffrage was restricted to males; largely because
of the apathy shown by women, especially those of the better class,
in regard to the exercise of the ballot.
UNION AND REBEL PRISONERS
SWAN, Iowa.
Give the number of prisoners taken on both sides during the late
war. State how many died while prisoners; and, if possible, tell
how many Union soldiers once in Southern prisons still survive. How
many graves in National Cemeteries?
A PRISONER OF WAR.
_Answer._—The number of Union soldiers captured by the Confederates
during the late war was 212,608. The number of Confederate prisoners
taken was 476,169. The number of Union soldiers who died while
prisoners was 29,725, or little more than one in seven of all
captured. The number of Confederates who died while prisoners was
26,774, or very nearly one in eighteen. The total number of graves
in the National cemeteries is 315,555, only 172,409 of which have
been identified. There is no means of learning how many who were once
Union prisoners still survive.
BATTLE OF SOLFERINO.
CAMBRIDGE, Wis.
In what war was the battle of Solferino fought; and what gave this
place so much importance?
R. D. THOMPSON.
_Answer._—The battle of Solferino was fought in 1859 between the
French, under the Emperor Louis Napoleon, and the Sardinians, under
Victor Emanuel on the side of the victors, and the Austrians, the
oppressors of Italy, led by the Emperor Francis Joseph. Solferino is
a place of no importance in itself, being but a village of some 1,400
inhabitants, situated in the province of Brescia, North Italy. Its
position, with its famous tower, called the “Spy of Italy,” because
it commands a view of the whole broad plain of Lombardy, gives it
great strategic importance; and in this war, which was, in fact, for
the independence and unity of Italy, the battle of Magenta, twenty
days earlier, in which the Austrians were driven from the field with
a loss of 9,713 killed and about 11,000 wounded and missing, and this
decisive victory at Solferino, in which the allies lost about 18,000
killed and wounded and the Austrians 20,000, besides 6,000 prisoners
and 30 cannon, resulted in the treaty of Villafranca, ceding Lombardy
to Sardinia and virtually terminating Austrian interference in
Italian affairs; so paving the way to the ultimate unification of
Italy, which quickly followed.
RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENT.
BLAIR, Neb.
Was the acts for the resumption of specie payments a Republican or
Democratic measure? Please give the vote on the passage of the bill.
C. C. D.
_Answer._—Resumption was advised by the Secretary of the Treasury
under President Grant, was earnestly recommended in the President’s
message, was brought forward in Congress by a Republican, was
reported with the recommendation that it pass from the Finance
Committee of the Senate, by its Chairman, Senator Sherman, Dec.
21, 1874, when a majority of the Senate and the committee were
Republicans; and passed the Senate the same day, by a vote of 32 to
14. All who voted in the negative were Democrats, except Tipton and
Hamilton, of Texas, both Independents. The bill passed the House
on June 7, 1875, by the following vote: Yeas, 136; nays, 98; not
voting, 54. The nays were all Democrats, except Clarke, Crutchfield,
Dawes, Field, Gooch, Hagans, B. W. Harris, J. R. Hawley, E. R. Hoar,
G. F. Hoar, Lawson, Niles, L. C. Parker, M. Sayler, H. J. Scudder,
Sherwood, W. A. Smith, W. Townsend, C. W. Willard, and Woodworth, in
all 20, Republicans. All who voted yea were Republicans.
ORIGIN OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
TURNER, Ill.
When did the Democratic party originate, and what were its
principal doctrines when it was in power?
L. S. M.
_Answer._—We first read of a Democratic party in 1807, with such
men as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison for its leaders. It is
sometimes referred to by historians as the “Democratic Republican”
party, and its adherents were quite as frequently termed Republicans
as Democrats. Not until the first Democratic convention, in 1832, did
what is now generally understood as the simon pure Democratic party
assume positive shape. Thence forward it rapidly developed into the
defender of slavery; the opponent of National banks and protective
tariff; the advocate and administrator of the doctrine, “To the
victors belong the spoils,” or rotation in office; first vigorously
espoused and put into practice by General Jackson; and finally the
champion of State sovereignty and apologist and abettor of secession.
For a synopsis of the present political salmagundi, or olla podrida,
denominated Democracy, and for the doctrines of the Republican party
see Our Curiosity Shop for 1882, page 134.
WILL CARLETON, THE POET.
JUNCTION CITY, Kan.
Please give us a sketch of Will Carleton, author of “Farm Ballads,”
and other poems.
LADY READER.
_Answer._—Will Carleton was born in Hudson, Mich., Oct. 21, 1845.
His parents, John H. and Celeste E. Carleton, were of English
descent. They removed to Michigan from the East at an early day,
where the father cleared the farm upon which he afterward lived
for forty years. He was a man of great natural force of character,
with a talent for extemporaneous speaking, and he soon became a
man of influence, filling many offices of trust in the community,
and contributing powerfully to the rapid success of the Methodist
Church in Southern Michigan, of which he was a devoted member. He
died in 1872. The mother is still living and resides with her son
in Brooklyn, N. Y. She is a woman of decided force of character and
sweetness of heart, and is beloved by all who know her. Her only
other son having died on his way home, after a long imprisonment in
the South during the late war, and her daughters being dead, the
subject of this sketch is the only one of her five children now
surviving. The boyhood of Will Carleton was passed in farm labor and
study. At the district school he was particularly fond of grammar,
and manifested a spirit of criticism that at times got him into
discussions with his teachers which disturbed their serenity of
temper. Frequently when the day for “speaking pieces” came around
he would surprise his fellow pupils with original bits of humor,
which, although intended for good-natured satires, ended more than
once in schoolboy fights. Later he walked five miles daily to attend
high school in town. At 16 he taught a country school of fifty-two
pupils, and any allusions he makes to “boarding ’round” are born of
experience. He graduated at Hillsdale College in 1869 with the degree
of A. B., and for two years devoted himself to editorial work, being
during the last of the two editor of the Detroit _Weekly Tribune_.
He then returned to Hillsdale to reside, while giving more time to
preparations for a literary life, and occasionally filling lecturing
and reading engagements.
What may properly be called Mr. Carleton’s first literary success
was a political satire entitled “Fax,” written during his junior
vacation in the summer of 1868, at Aurora, Ill., and delivered before
literary clubs during the political campaign of that year. Several
thousand copies of it were published and widely circulated. His
graduation poem, at Hillsdale, the next summer, was entitled “Rifts
in the Clouds;” afterward incorporated in “Farm Legends.” Among his
other early poems is one read on Decoration Day, 1870, entitled
“Cover Them Over,” which was copied extensively at the time, and has
since been recited on many other such occasions. The poems which
first brought him into general notice throughout the country and
abroad were his “Farm Ballads,” which having first, many of them,
appeared in _Harpers’ Weekly_ and other periodicals, were published
by Harper & Bros., in 1873. “Farm Legends” followed, in 1875; “Young
Folks’ Centennial Rhymes,” in 1876, and “Farm Festivals,” in 1881.
In 1878 he visited Europe, spending much time among the peasantry
of England, Ireland, and Scotland, and visiting the continent. The
same year he removed to Chicago, making that the center of a large
lecturing circuit, covering most of the Western States. Wherever he
went large audiences received him with cordial welcome and tokens of
approbation. In 1880 he removed to Boston, and in 1882 to Brooklyn,
N. Y., his present home, near the center of the Eastern lecture
circuit. Mr. Carleton contributes to several periodicals, lectures
from two to five evenings a week, and is meanwhile preparing another
book for the press, which will appear soon. His former volumes have
sold to the extent of over 200,000 copies, and the demand is well
maintained.
NUMBERS IN VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS.
PARSONS, Kan.
Give the different occupations of the American people, and numbers
engaged in each.
I. J. UZZELL.
_Answer._—It will take too much space to name all the occupations
designated in the United States census of 1880; the following are the
principal ones:
In Agriculture—
Farmers and planters 4,225,945
Agricultural laborers 3,323,876
Dairymen and dairywomen 8,948
Gardeners, nursery and vine-growers 51,482
Stock-drovers 3,449
Stock-herders 24,098
Stock-raisers 16,528
Florists 4,550
All others 11,617
—————————
Total in agriculture 7,670,493
In Manufacturing and Mining—