Chapter C: S. Holley

_Answer._—It is useless to waste words on men so ignorant or politically mendacious as “elderly Democrat.” The following memorandum is for the benefit of younger and fairer minded men. First of all there is the series of acts ending in the preservation of the Union and the emancipation of 4,000,000 men who were so far from being “monopolists” or holders of corporation shares that they were slaves; as they would be to-day had the Democrats remained in power. It would take columns to enumerate the laws brought forward by Republicans and enacted since they came into power which have immensely benefited the people at large, and not “only monopolies,” as you express it. Among these are the laws which have brought cheap postage and rapid postal transportation; the homestead and timber culture acts; the establishment of the only thoroughly secure national paper currency and general banking system this country has ever enjoyed; the resumption of specie payments in the face of Democratic and Greenbacker opposition; the maintenance of the public credit against rebellion in the South and the Democracy in the North, re-enforced subsequently by the Greenback party, both clamoring for total or partial repudiation; the abolition of all duties on tea and coffee; the establishment of State schools of agriculture and industrial science, endowed by government land grants; the promotion of American inventions, manufactures, and mining, until it is considered that this country leads the world in useful inventions, and the capital invested in its factories is nearly three times as great as it was in 1860, when the Republicans came into power—the number of hands employed being 2,738,885, or more than double as many; the amount paid in wages, more than two and a half times as much; the value of farms, forest, mine and other materials consumed (nearly all American) about three and a third times as much; and the value of the product almost three times as great. As some of the consequences of the above industrial legislation, the public lands are passing into the hands of the people in homesteads and timber culture claims alone at the rate of 8,000,000 acres a year; and the twenty years from 1860 to 1880 added as many farms to the cultivated domain of the country as all its previous history. Gold, notwithstanding all the products of our fields and mines, not only stopped flowing out of the country, as it had done during all our former history, but began to pour in from other lands, millions on millions. While throughout all the vast interior of the country, notwithstanding the marvelous multiplication of farms, farm products are higher than in 1860, and nearly all manufactured goods that enter into general consumption are lower. In the same brief period the assessed taxes on real estate and personal property have mounted from $12,084,560,005 to $16,902,993,543.

EARTHQUAKES.

LAY, Col.

Please tell us the cause of earthquakes. Are they due to internal
convulsions of the earth or to atmospheric disturbances?

JACOB SLONEKER.

_Answer._—According to that eminent physicist, F. W. Rudler (see his contribution to the Encyclopedia Britannica on “Earthquakes”), “even at the present day, after all that has been written on the subject, but little is known as to the origin of earthquakes.” The general opinion of investigators is that these agitations proceed from within outward, and are not of atmospheric or other external origin. True, Professor Alexis Perry, of Dijon, France, thought he had discovered relations between the ages of the moon and these recurrences, which seemed to sustain the theory of Zantedeschi, that the liquid nucleus of the earth responds to the moon’s attraction in tides, somewhat as the ocean does: but the theory that the earth has a liquid nucleus covered with only a thin, solid crust, is losing adherents continually. The theory of vibration communicated by meteoric impact has been advanced as accounting for some earthquakes. Another theory is that earthquakes are caused in some instances by steam from water rushing into the bowels of volcanoes, or from explosions of pent-up gases, generated by chemical decomposition of minerals. Others believe that many of these phenomena are due to magnetic disturbances, following eruptions in the sun. The prevailing opinion still is that whatever their origin, whether of one cause, or various causes, the vibrations of every earthquake can be traced to a focus within the earth, and that this lies directly beneath the point of greatest disturbance on the earth’s surface. After the great shock at Naples in 1857, Mr. Mallet, aided by the Royal Society, by determining the wave paths of the shock at twenty-six different stations, was able to locate the focal depth of the earthquake at about five and a half miles; and Dr. Oldham, by observations on the wave effects of the earthquake which occurred at Cachar, India, on Jan. 10, 1869, found that the focus of disturbance must have been about thirty miles below the surface. This is very near the maximum depth at which any earthquake is likely to originate, if we accept the reasoning of that most eminent of all investigators of this class of phenomena, Mr. Mallet, of Dublin, Ireland. There are credible records of between 6,000 and 7,000 earthquakes between 1606 B. C. and 1842 A. D. Professor Fuch’s more careful observations of recent years show that there were probably many times that number of unrecorded ones, since he registered ninety-seven during the year 1875 and 104 during 1876. In view of this fact this subject appears to be one of the most interesting problems of nature and is attracting growing attention, which, it is hoped, will presently lead to definite, satisfactory conclusions.

SOUTHEASTERN DAKOTA.

PLANKINGTON, D. T.

Having seen questions in THE INTER OCEAN inquiring about Dakota, and seeing no answers from this county, I concluded to write and tell what I know of it. Aurora is the fourth county from the eastern boundary and the third from the southern. It is considered by all who have traveled over it as one of the finest in Southern Dakota. The county is forty-eight miles long and twenty-four miles wide. In the northwestern portion are situated the “Wessington Hills.” These extend from northeast to southwest as far as the Missouri. Among them are beautiful broad valleys and lakes of clear water. The climate is all that can be desired. Last summer the days were warm and the nights invariably cool, so that after a hard day’s work you could lie down and rest sweetly. The past winter here, as in all other parts of the Northern States, has been very cold and stormy. One month, however, would take in all of the very cold weather. One foot would cover all the snow that we have had this winter. The soil is a black loam, varying in depth from one to six feet. The shallowest we have found on our land is eighteen inches, and the deepest four feet. It is very productive. Last year the crops yielded as follows: Corn from 25 to 60 bushels per acre, wheat from 20 to 40 bushels, oats from 50 to 80 bushels, barley from 30 to 60 bushels, rye from 40 to 60 bushels, flax from 7 to 22 bushels, buckwheat from 10 to 30 bushels, potatoes from 100 to 300 bushels, and all other vegetables yielded enormously. The way this county is filling up is wonderful. One year ago last fall there were only about 150 people in the county, and to-day there are between 450 and 500, and scores more coming on every train. If emigrants continue coming as they have done for the last eighteen months, this county will soon be filled up. Spring has already opened out with us, and farmers are putting in their wheat and barley. Plankington, our county seat, which hardly had a name eighteen months ago, is to-day a fine little village of over 700 inhabitants. With early and deep planting this country will grow almost anything.

THOMAS JACKA.

INCOME OF THE CZAR.

FORT WAYNE, Ind.

Will you inform us through Our Curiosity Shop from what source the
Emperor of Russia receives his income of $25,000 a day?

S. S. COLEMAN.

_Answer._—The annual income of the Czar of all the Russias probably averages a great deal more than $25,000 a day. The crown domains comprise more than a million square miles, covering an area exceeding that of all our New England, Middle, and Southern States. These include cultivated lands, pastures, and forests in different parts of this vast empire, which embraces in its despotic arms more than one-sixth the entire land surface of our globe. Besides the revenue from the above estates, the Czar derives a large income from gold, silver, copper, and other mines in Siberia. The actual total of his immense revenue from all these sources is not stated in the government budgets or finance accounts, the crown domains being considered the private property of the imperial family. In a British consular report of 1867 the total income of the imperial family is estimated at £2,450,000 sterling, which is an average of about $33,500 a day. The imperial contributions to charities, schools, theaters, etc., are estimated by the same authority at about £450,000, leaving a net sum of £2,000,000 a year to “keep the family.”

GETTYSBURG AND WATERLOO.

RED OAK, Iowa.

What was the most destructive battle of the late civil war; and how
did it compare with the battle of Waterloo as to numbers engaged
and loss of life?

INQUIRER.

_Answer._—The heaviest losses suffered by either side in any single battle of the late war were at Gettysburg. The numbers engaged and the losses are stated differently by different writers. Before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, General Meade, the Union commander, said: “Including all arms of the service, my strength was a little under 100,000—about 95,000.” Understanding this to include General French’s 7,000 men, who were by a blunder kept idle at Frederick, and about 4,000 more of French’s force, who had been detailed for special service—none of whom were brought into this battle—it would appear that Meade’s force at Gettysburg was about 84,000 men of all arms. This corresponds very nearly with General Humphrey’s statement that the Army of the Potomac in this action comprised 70,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, with an artillery force of 300 guns. Of the Confederate forces, General Humphrey says that General Lee entered Pennsylvania with 85,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry, and a due proportion of artillery. Greeley’s “American Conflict” says: “Lee’s army, carefully counted by two Union men independently, as it marched through Hagerstown, numbered 91,000 infantry, with 280 guns and 6,000 cavalry, while not less than 5,000 cavalry under Stuart advanced into Pennsylvania without passing through Hagerstown.” The Union loss was 23,190, of whom 2,834 were killed, 13,713 wounded, and 6,643 missing. The Confederate loss is not officially stated. It is estimated by one writer (in the American Cyclopedia) at 5,000 killed, 23,000 wounded, and 8,000 unwounded prisoners—a total of 36,000, which is evidently an exaggeration. Greeley’s “American Conflict” estimates Lee’s loss at 28,000, of whom 18,000 were killed and wounded, and 10,000 were unwounded prisoners; while J. Watts de Peyster, in Johnson’s Cyclopedia, estimates Lee’s loss at 31,600—18,000 killed and wounded, and 13,600 missing, which includes the unwounded prisoners in our hands. In the battle of Waterloo, the French army under Napoleon I. (according to P. Nicholas, in Haydn’s Dictionary of Dates) numbered 71,947 men and 246 guns, and the allies 133,661 men of all arms and 260 guns—English, under Wellington, 67,661; Prussians, 66,000 men. The loss of the allies was 22,976: of whom 4,206 were killed, 14,539 wounded, and 4,231 missing. The French loss was 18,500 killed and wounded, and 7,800 prisoners, total 26,300; but other accounts, including some French writers, make their loss about 30,000, the figures given in most English and American cyclopedias.

FRAUDULENT HOMESTEAD AND TIMBER CLAIMS.

LACROSSE, Wis.

Is it not the intention of the pre-emption, homestead, and
timber-culture laws to encourage actual settlement and improvement
of the country, and are not these laws constantly used to encourage
fraudulent speculation, to the disadvantage of bona fide settlers?

CITIZEN.

_Answer._—Undoubtedly the laws mentioned were enacted for the benefit of actual settlers, and not for the enrichment of speculators. The following communication from Samuel Huckins, Esq., of Hartford, D. T., just received, may be taken as an expose of the actual use made of the laws in thousands of instances: “I have been a reader of your worthy paper from the first year of its publication, and as I live away out here in the far West I take a great interest in the doings of Congress in regard to the public lands, of which THE INTER OCEAN has so much to say. Now my theory and belief is, and always has been, that the public lands should be given to those who will cultivate and improve them—actual settlers who will make for themselves and their descendants a home—and not throw this munificent gift of the National domain into the hands of land-sharks and speculators. Every person taking a claim, and those now holding claims under any of the different acts of Congress, should occupy and cultivate such lands according to the spirit and intent of the laws granting them the same. I think Congress made a very grave error in giving persons who had filed their entries of land under the homestead act the privilege to pay $1.25 per acre for it instead of residing on the land five years, thus giving those who never occupied the land, and probably never will, a great advantage over the first settlers on homestead land, who, in order to hold their claims, had to make the required improvements and have an actual residence. I believe from my personal knowledge that three-fourths of the land acquired under the above act passed into the hands of capitalists and speculators. The bogus homesteader would go to some money lender and get enough money to prove up on his land—say $200 for 160 acres and $50 or $100 besides—giving a deed or mortgage on the same as security. In this way the poor, honest home-seeker is cheated out of the land. There are a great many claims out here, especially timber claims, held by persons who have not fulfilled the requirements of the law, but as the law is now administered they can hold them with impunity. A great share of the land now covered by timber-culture claims on file is in reality far more effectually covered with rank weeds than with growing timber. Under the present system this law is of little value, and keeps off the sincere home-seeker, who would improve the land and help to build up schools and churches, and make for himself and family a much needed home.”

ASSASSINATED ON GOOD FRIDAY.

CHICAGO, Ill.

Please decide whether President Lincoln was assassinated on Good
Friday, and settle a dispute.

CONTESTANT.

_Answer._—President Lincoln was assassinated on Friday, April 14, 1865, which was Good Friday.

THE DISCOVERY OF MEXICO.

CRAB ORCHARD, Ill.

Who discovered Mexico?

FELIX M. BURDETT.

_Answer._—The first knowledge of Mexico that reached the Spaniards otherwise than by vague and uncertain stories of natives of the West Indies came through two expeditions fitted out by Diego Velasquez, who made the first European settlements in Cuba. The first of these, under the command of Cordova, sailed from St. Jago de Cuba, Feb. 8, 1517, and landed on the shores of Yucatan and Campeachy. The second, commanded by Grijalvo, landed at various places on the coast, but returned without penetrating into the interior or making a settlement. It carried back such reports of the high civilization and great wealth of Mexico, learned through the natives, as served to intensify the determination of Velasquez to explore, and, if possible, conquer the country. He fitted up a fleet of eleven small vessels and placed them in command of Fernando Cortez, who set sail from Cuba, Feb. 10, 1519; landed near the present city of Vera Cruz, on March 4, and became the first actual explorer of the country, and the founder of the Spanish dominion in Mexico.

TITLE OF PRINCE OF WALES.

HEBRON, Neb.

1. What is the origin of the title of the Prince of Wales? 2. Who
pays the cost of the dinners given at the White House, and what is
the annual expense on this account?

JAMES KNOX.

_Answer._—1. On the conquest of Wales by Henry III. of England, he bestowed the principality of Wales and earldom of Chester on his son, afterward Edward I., as an office of trust and government. In 1343 Edward III. invested his son Edward, the “Black Prince,” with the principality, and from that time the eldest son of the reigning King has borne the title of Prince of Wales. 2. The President pays the expenses of entertainments given at the Executive Mansion out of his annual allowances, and the amount so expended is a private matter.

J. C. CALHOUN—WHIG PARTY.

VOLGA CITY, Iowa.

1. Why did John C. Calhoun resign the office of Vice President? 2.
Who was his successor? 3. What caused the death of the Whig party?

H. C. DAVIS.

_Answer._—1. Calhoun aspired to the Presidency at the end of President Jackson’s first term. This led to a personal alienation and final violent rupture between the two. Calhoun was elected Vice President along with Jackson in 1828, but he resigned the office in 1831 for the above reason, and in order to accept the United States Senatorship vacated by Mr. Hayne when the latter was elected Governor of South Carolina. 2. Martin Van Buren, of New York, succeeded Mr. Calhoun. 3. The growth of the Free Soil and Abolition parties in the North killed the old Whig party.

GREAT FIRES OF HISTORY.

FREDONIA, N. Y.

How did the loss of lives and property in the great fire in Chicago
compare with the losses in what are distinguished as the great
fires of London and Moscow? Give a list also of the other principal
fires recorded in history, and oblige

A CONSTANT READER.

_Answer._—The loss of life and property in the willful destruction by fire and sword of the principal cities of ancient history—Nineveh, Babylon, Persepolis, Carthage, Palmyra, and many others—is largely a matter of conjecture. The following is a memorandum of the chief conflagrations of the current era:

In 64, A. D., during the reign of Nero, a terrible fire raged in Rome for eight days, destroying ten of the fourteen wards. The loss of life and destruction of property is not known.

In 70, A. D., Jerusalem was taken by the Romans and a large part of it given to the torch, entailing an enormous destruction of life and property.

In 1106 Venice, then a city of immense opulence, was almost wholly consumed by a fire, originating in accident or incendiarism.

In 1212 the greater part of London was burned.

In 1666 what is known as the Great Fire of London raged in the city from Sept. 2 to 6, consuming 13,200 houses, with St. Paul’s Church, 86 parish churches, 6 chapels, the Guild Hall, the Royal Exchange, the Custom House, 52 companies’ halls, many hospitals, libraries, and other public edifices. The total destruction of property was estimated at $53,652,500. Six lives were lost, and 436 acres burnt over.

In 1679 a fire in Boston burned all the warehouses, eighty dwellings, and vessels in the dock-yards; loss estimated at $1,000,000.

In 1700 a large part of Edinburgh was burned; loss unknown.

In 1728 Copenhagen was nearly destroyed; 1,650 houses burned.

In 1736 a fire in St. Petersburg burned 2,000 houses.

In 1729 a fire in Constantinople destroyed 12,000 houses, and 7,000 people perished. The same city suffered a conflagration in 1745, lasting five days; and in 1750 a series of three appalling fires: one in January, consuming 10,000 houses; another in April destroying property to the value of $5,000,000, according to one historian, and according to another, $15,000,000; and in the latter part of the year another, sweeping fully 10,000 houses more out of existence. It seemed as if Constantinople was doomed to utter annihilation.

In 1751 a fire in Stockholm destroyed 1,000 houses; and another fire in the same city in 1759 burned 250 houses with a loss of $2,420,000.

In 1752 a fire in Moscow swept away 18,000 houses, involving an immense loss.

In 1758 Christiana suffered a loss of $1,250,000, by conflagration.

In 1760 the Portsmouth (Eng.) dock-yards were burned, with a loss of $2,000,000.

In 1764 a fire in Konigsburg, Prussia, consumed the public buildings, with a loss of $3,000,000; and in 1769 the city was almost totally destroyed.

In 1763 a fire in Smyrna destroyed 2,600 houses, with a loss of $1,000,000; in 1772 a fire in the same city carried off 3,000 dwellings, and 3,000 to 4,000 shops, entailing a loss of $20,000,000; and in 1796 there were 4,000 shops, mosques, magazines, etc., burned.

In 1776, six days after the British seized the city, a fire swept off all the west side of New York city, from Broadway to the river.

In 1771 a fire in Constantinople burned 2,500 houses; another in 1778 burned 2,000 houses; in 1782 there were 600 houses burned in February, 7,000 in June, and on Aug. 12, during a conflagration that lasted three days, 10,000 houses, 50 mosques, and 100 corn-mills, with a loss of 100 lives. Two years later a fire, on March 13, destroyed two-thirds of Pera, the loveliest suburb of Constantinople, and on Aug. 5 a fire in the main city, lasting twenty-six hours, burned 10,000 houses. In this same fire-scourged city, in 1791, between March and July, there were 32,000 houses burned, and about as many more in 1795; and in 1799 Pera was again swept with fire, with a loss of 13,000 houses, including many buildings of great magnificence.

In 1784 a fire and explosion in the dock-yards, Brest, caused a loss of $5,000,000.

But the greatest destruction of life and property by conflagrations, of which the world has anything like accurate records, must be looked for within the current century. Of these the following is a partial list of instances in which the loss of property amounted to $3,000,000 and upward:

Property
Dates. Cities. destroyed.

1802 Liverpool $5,000,000
1803 Bombay 3,000,000
1805 St. Thomas 30,000,000
1808 Spanish Town 7,500.000
1812 Moscow, burned five days;
30,800 houses destroyed 50,000,000
1816 Constantinople, 12,000
dwellings, 3,000 shops .....
1820 Savannah 4,000,000
1822 Canton nearly destroyed .....
1828 Havana, 350 houses .....
1835 New York (“Great Fire”) 15,000,000
1837 St. Johns. N. B. 5,000,000
1838 Charleston, 1,158 buildings 3,000,000
1841 Smyrna, 12,000 houses .....
1842 Hamburg, 4,219 buildings,
100 lives lost 35,000,000
1845 New York, 35 persons killed 7,500,000
1845 Pittsburg, 1,100 buildings 10,000,000
1845 Quebec, May 28, 1,650
dwellings 3,750,000
1845 Quebec, June 28, 1,300
dwellings .....
1846 St Johns, Newfoundland 5,000,000
1848 Constantinople, 2,500 buildings 15,000,000
1848 Albany, N. Y., 600 houses 3,000,000
1849 St. Louis 3,000,000
1851 St. Louis, 2,500 buildings 11,000,000
1851 St. Louis, 500 buildings 3,000,000
1851 San Francisco, May 4 and 5,
many lives lost 10,000,000
1851 San Francisco, June 3,000,000
1852 Montreal, 1,200 buildings 5,000,000
1861 Mendoza destroyed by
earthquake and fire,
10,000 lives lost ....
1862 St. Petersburg 5,000,000
1862 Troy, N. Y., nearly destroyed
1862 Valparaiso, almost destroyed
1864 Novgorod, immense destruction
of property .....
1865 Constantinople, 2,800 buildings
burned .....
1866 Yokohama, nearly destroyed
1865 Carlstadt, Sweden, all consumed
but Bishop’s residence,
hospital, and jail;
10 lives lost .....
1866 Portland, Me., half the city 11,000,000
1866 Quebec, 2,500 dwellings and
17 churches ......
1870 Constantinople, Pera suburb 26,000,000
1871 Chicago, 250 lives lost, 17,430
buildings burned, on
2,124 acres 192,000,000
1871 Paris, fired by the Commune 160,000,000
1872 Boston 75,000,000
1873 Yeddo, 10,000 houses ......
1877 Pittsburg, caused by riot 3,260,000
1877 St. Johns, N. B., 1,650 dwellings,
18 lives lost 12,500,000

From the above it appears that the five greatest fires on record, reckoned by destruction of property, are:

Chicago fire, of Oct. 8 and 9, 1871 $192,000,000
Paris fires, of May, 1871 160,000,000
Moscow fire, of Sept. 14-19, 1812 150,000,000
Boston fire, Nov. 9-10, 1872 75,000,000
London fire, Sept. 2-6, 1666 53,652,500
Hamburg fire, May 5-7, 1842 35,000,000

Taking into account, with the fires of Paris and Chicago, the great Wisconsin and Michigan forest fires of 1871, in which it is estimated that 1,000 human beings perished and property to the amount of over $3,000,000 was consumed, it is plain that in the annals of conflagrations that year stands forth in gloomy preeminence.

LOSS OF THE LADY ELGIN.

CRETE, Ill.

When was the Lady Elgin lost, on Lake Michigan and how many persons
were lost, and saved?

JOHN MILLER.

_Answer._—The steamer Lady Elgin was cut to the water’s edge by a sailing vessel named the Augusta, heavily loaded with lumber, which struck her amidships, during the night, Sept. 8, 1860. She sunk almost immediately. Carrying an excursion party from Chicago to Milwaukee at the time, she had about 400 passengers on board. The disaster occurred about twenty-two miles north of Chicago, nearly off Glencoe. Many of the passengers and crew got on rafts and portions of the wreck, and drifted toward the land. Some of these came ashore between Glencoe and Evanston; but the most of them, after getting within hail of the beach, despite the best efforts of citizens and students of Evanston and Winnetka to assist them, were swallowed up in the breakers and carried out into the lake by the terrible undertow. Men with ropes around their chests plunged into the breakers, seized exhausted, drowning men and women, and were dragged in by main strength of men at the lines. Conspicuous among these noble men was Mr. Edward W. Spencer, of Rock Island, Ill., then a student at Garrett Biblical Institute, who saved fourteen or fifteen passengers, persisting until he was utterly exhausted; an example of heroism which was suitably commemorated afterwards by the presentation of a memorial watch and chain, given him by citizens of Chicago and Evanston. Of the total list of passengers only about one-fourth were rescued; 297 perished.

AUSTRALIA.

COLMAR, Ill.

What are the area and principal natural features of Australia, and
the nationalities and chief occupations of its population?

CHARLES L. BRICKWELL.

_Answer._—Australia, often spoken of as an island, is about ten times the size of Borneo, the largest island of the world properly so called, and is nearly half the size of South America. To be more specific, it measures about 2,500 miles from east to west, and 1,950 from north to south, containing an estimated area of 3,000,000 miles. This is about the same as the entire extent of the United States, exclusive of Alaska. Along the east and west coasts the country is broken, rising at no great distance from the sea into a succession of mountain ranges; but the vast interior is almost as level as a gently undulating ocean-bed, which it evidently was at no very distant period—geologically speaking. It seems to be for the most part a great sandstone basin, rising toward the coast in nearly every direction. The mountain range in the southeast, known as the Australian Alps, rises to a height of 7,000 feet; the granite and syenitic mountains on the west coast range from 800 to 3,000 feet in elevation, and those along the coast of Queensland, and along the greater part of the north coast, from 1,000 to 4,000 feet. There are immense quantities of coal in Eastern Australia, rich gold mines, some silver, and an abundance of iron, copper, and tin. The broken and much of the mountainous regions are well wooded, but the interior is comparatively naked, and much of it wears a parched look, like the dry, treeless plains of Eastern Wyoming and Colorado, which are available for flocks and herds the most of the year, but not cultivable with profit without artificial irrigation. There are millions of acres of fine agricultural and grazing lands without entering this interior basis to any great distance; and the governments of the several provinces are offering liberal inducements to settlers. Few of the rivers of this vast country are navigable to any great distance, although several of them may be made so for a large part of the year by slight improvements of the channels. Conspicuous among the latter are Murray River, 1,100 miles long; the Roper and the Victoria. The regions beyond the seaboard are not likely to develop rapidly until means of transportation are extended. The railroad mileage of Australia is only a little over 4,042 miles, or about the same as that of Minnesota, which is thirty-six times smaller in area and began to be settled much later. The telegraph lines measure over 30,000 miles. The climate of the Southern half of Australia is quite similar to that of Southern Brazil or Cuba, and that of the greater part of the rest of the continent is a good counterpart of that of Southern Europe. The total population of the five provinces of Australia, by the census of 1881, is as follows:

New South Wales 751,468
Queensland 213,525
South Australia 279,865
Victoria 862,346
Western Australia 29,708
—————————
Total 2,136,912

The above does not include aborigines, estimated to number 80,000. The increase by immigration is not rapid. The population is mostly of British origin, but it embraces also nearly 10,000 Polynesians and 25,000 Chinese. The chief occupations are agriculture, grazing, mining, building, and commerce. Manufactures do not flourish, the colonies being dependent almost entirely upon the United Kingdom for manufactured goods. The chief exports are wool, hides, preserved meats, copper, lead, coal, and gold. The total quantity of gold mined in Victoria alone, from the discovery in 1851 to the end of 1880, amounted to 49,500,000 oz., valued at $990,000,000. The government of the several provinces is similar to that of the provinces of the present Dominion of Canada before their union.

ALDERNEYS AND JERSEYS.

SCOTT, Ind.

What is the difference between Alderney cattle and Jerseys, if any?
Where did the breeds originate? Your answer will settle a dispute.

A SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—Alderney, Jersey, and Guernsey are small islands in the British Channel, just off the coast of Normandy, France; from which the first, an isle of about four square miles in area, is separated by only a very narrow strait. Jersey, about sixteen miles off the coast, is a much larger and more fertile island, being about eleven times the size of Alderney. While the cattle of the three islands are all believed to have come from one common Norman stock, and pass under the common name of the Alderney breed, the Jersey cattle have been greatly improved by careful in-breeding, and are better milkers as to quantity, though not as to quality, than the native cattle of Alderney. Few cattle are exported from the latter island, while a considerable number of Jersey cattle are exported to England and this country, where nearly all the representatives of what is known as the Alderney breed are Jerseys. It would not be correct to speak of Alderneys and Jerseys as distinct breeds.

LOTTERY MATTER UNMAILABLE.

SHELL ROCK, Iowa.

Is it unlawful to send letters to lottery companies and lottery
agents through the mails?

A SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—Postal regulation 674 declares “No letter or circular concerning lotteries, so-called gift concerts, or similar enterprises, offering prizes,” etc., “shall be carried in the mail. Any person who shall knowingly deposit or send anything to be conveyed by mail in violation of this section shall be punishable by a fine of not more than $500 nor less than $100, with costs of prosecution.” Section 674 instructs postmasters and employes of the railway mail service to withdraw letters and third class matter addressed to lottery companies or agents from the mails and refer them to the proper officers for prosecution of the person mailing the same.

THE HIGH SEAS.

UNION GROVE, Wis.

1. What is meant by the “high seas” in article 1, section 8, of
the Constitution of the United States? 2. Are the Great Lakes
regarded as high seas? 3. If a crime were committed on any of the
Great Lakes, where would the criminal be tried—in what court? 4.
What persons are meant in the first clause of the ninth section of
article 1 of the Constitution?

ROBERT ROBERTS.

_Answer._—1. By the “high seas” is meant the open sea: that is the waters outside of the civil jurisdiction of any country, which the law of nations limits to one marine league, or three geographical miles from shore. 2. The Great Lakes are regarded, beyond the limits above designated, as high seas. 3. In the event of crimes committed on the high seas, parties charged therewith are subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal or United States courts in the district which the vessel first enters after the commission of the crime, or in the district where the offender is found. The courts of States bordering on the great lakes have jurisdiction concurrent with that of the United States courts where it can be shown that the crime was committed within their limits, which extend to the central line of the lakes bounding them. 4. In the clause of the Constitution which reads: “The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808,” etc. The word “persons” was understood to mean African slaves. This form was adopted to avoid the use of the word slave in the Constitution, the very thought of which was repugnant to Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and other fathers of that instrument, whether from North or South. The slave trade, in conformity with the above clause of the Constitution, was promptly abolished in 1808.

UNIMPROVED LANDS—IMMIGRATION.

GANGES, Mich.

What proportion of the areas of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois,
Iowa, and Nebraska is still unimproved Also, please state the
number of immigrants arriving in this country in 1882.

H. H. H.

_Answer._—1. The census of 1880 gives the following statistics of improved lands embraced in farms in the several States above named, opposite which we place the total area of each State in acres:

No. of Improved Total
States. farms. acres. acres.

Ohio 247,189 18,081,091 26,278,400
Michigan 154,008 8,296,862 37,705,600
Indiana 194,013 13,933,738 23,264,000
Illinois 255,741 26,115,154 36,256,000
Iowa 185,351 19,866,541 35,856,000
Nebraska 63,387 5,504,702 49,187,200

From this it appears that nearly one-third of Ohio, more than three-fourths of Michigan, about two-fifths of Indiana, a little more than one-fourth of Illinois, about three-sevenths of Iowa, and almost nine-tenths of Nebraska remained unimproved as farm property at the time of the last census. In settled States, the number of acres included in cities, towns, and villages, in roads, lakes, and navigable streams, will reduce the proportion of “unimproved acres” by about 2 per cent of the total area. The statistician of Indiana computes that there were in 1879, 249,686 acres, or 1⅛ per cent of the total State area, embraced in roads outside of cities and incorporated towns. 2. The total immigration into the United States in 1882 numbered 788,992.

LAW AGAINST CRUELTY TO ANIMALS.

ROSCOE, Ill.

Please publish in Our Curiosity Shop in condensed form the law
of this State to punish cruelty to animals. A person in this
neighborhood, remonstrated with for cruelly beating his horse with
a pitchfork, retorts that “a man has a right to pound his own
horse.” Let us know the law for such cases.

A SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—Chapter 38, section 50, of the Revised Statutes of Illinois says: “Whoever shall be guilty of cruelty to any animal in any of the ways mentioned in this section shall be fined not less than $3 nor more than $200, viz.: By overloading, overdriving, cruelly beating, tormenting, mutilating, or cruelly killing any animal; by cruelly working any old, maimed, infirm, sick, or disabled animal; by failing to provide any animal in his charge or custody with proper food, drink, and shelter; by abandoning any old, maimed, infirm, sick, or disabled animal; or by causing or knowingly allowing the same to be done.”

EMANCIPATION IN JAMAICA.

SHULLSBURG, Wis.

In what year and by whom were the slaves of Jamaica emancipated?
Also state the circumstances under which they gained their freedom.

RICHARD IVEY, M. D.

_Answer._—In 1807 the British Government abolished the slave trade in all British vessels and in British waters. The agitation against slavery was kept up in Parliament from that time, growing more and more irresistible every year, and spreading out into the farthest provinces, until in 1832 the negroes of Jamaica revolted, under the belief that emancipation had actually been decreed and that their masters were holding them in slavery against law as well as against natural right. The atrocities to be expected in a servile insurrection ensued; hundreds of lives and millions of property were destroyed. When the terrible tidings reached England it added new fuel to the emancipation agitation, already at white heat, and in 1833 the famous English emancipation act was passed. The government apportioned £6,161,927 among the owners of the slave population, of 309,338 persons; and after four years apprenticeship all of these former slaves became absolutely free.

BARNBURNERS AND HUNKERS.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.

How and when did the political nicknames “Hunker” and “Barnburner”
originate in the State of New York?

J. H. P.

_Answer._—The Democratic party within New York State became badly divided soon after the inauguration of Mr. Polk, in 1845, owing to the slights put on Governor Silas Wright, of that State, to whose immense popularity Polk really owed his election. Wright could not carry all his friends over to Polk, as is shown by the fact that he was elected Governor by 10,030 majority, while Polk carried the State by 5,106. This, however, decided the electoral count in his favor. Polk was really a weak man, and showed it in nothing more than in his jealousy of Wright and annoyance at the general ascription, of his election by the organs of both parties, to Wright’s influence. He tendered Wright the choice of places in his Cabinet under constraint of the general wish of the party, and knowing that this statesman felt bound to retain the high office to which the people of New York had exalted him. Wright declined, but asked that Azariah C. Flagg, of New York, be made Secretary of the Treasury, and he understood the President to promise this; yet afterward the latter declined to make the appointment, and gave the portfolio of Secretary of State to ex-Governor Wm. L. Marcy, of New York, who was by no means friendly to Wright. The Collectorship of New York, it was understood, would be given as Governor Wright and ex-President Van Buren should request, but here again the President disappointed them. All this reminds us forcibly of the divisions in the Republican ranks in the same State, due to the Garfield-Conkling feud. The trouble rankled, and the Democratic party became divided into two pronounced factions before the election of delegates to the next gubernatorial convention. There were the administration Democrats, calling themselves Conservatives, and the “sore-heads” of those days, stigmatized as Radicals, because, among other things, they were affected with anti-slavery, or “free-soil” sentiments; whereas the administration party was strongly pro-slavery. In the Democratic State Convention, held at Syracuse early in 1847, the latter faction, by political manipulation, secured the organization of that body, and decided nearly all the contested seats in their own favor and made the State ticket and the State Committee to suit themselves; in other words, “carried off the hunk,” and fairly won the nickname of “Hunkers.” The other faction, led on by Governor Wright’s friends, Mr. Van Buren, Colonel Samuel Young, Michael Hoffman, and others, refused to support the ticket, and as a consequence the Whigs carried the State by over 30,000 majority in the gubernatorial election. One of the Hunker orators likened the Wright and Van Buren faction to the Dutch farmer who burned his barn to rid himself of the rats, and thenceforward the name Barnburners was fastened on them, and the two nicknames, Hunker and Barnburner, were bandied back and forth until after the latter joined with the Liberty party, in 1852, to support Mr. Van Buren as the Free Soil candidate for the Presidency. There is no difference of opinion as to the origin of the term Barnburner as above given, but Webster’s dictionary defines hunkerism as hostility to progress: “Bartlett’s Americanisms” defines “Hunkers” as a name given to a faction of the Democratic party because of devotion to old principles, from the Dutch “honk, place, post, home;” while others insist that the term grew out of the triumph of the administration faction at the Syracuse convention referred to above, which led them to imagine that they were “all hunk,” as the New York boys exclaim in certain games when they have reached their goal or “home” without being intercepted by the contestants on the other side of the game. Hunk, in this sense, is evidently a corruption of the Dutch “honk” or “home,” handed down by the Dutch children. As the Hankers did “carry off the hunk at Syracuse, did imagine themselves all hunk,” and were “hostile to progress,” either or all of the above explanations may be accepted without doing violence to history, whatever the consequences to philology.

COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE.

CLINTON, Mich.

What is meant when it is said “the House went into committee of the
whole?” Please explain the whole subject.

SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—Messages from the President and other matters of great importance are usually referred to a committee of the whole House, where general principles are digested in the form of resolutions, which are debated and amended until they get into a shape that meets the approbation of a majority. These resolutions, after being reported and confirmed by the House, are then referred to one or more select committees, where they are reduced into the form of bills or joint resolutions. It is found that the sense of the House is better learned in committee, because in all committees everyone speaks as often as he pleases. No gag law can be applied in committee by moving the previous question. The form for going from the House into the committee of the whole is for the Speaker, on motion, to put the question that the House do now resolve itself into a committee of the whole to take into consideration such a matter, naming it; to which the deliberations of the committee must be confined. If determined in the affirmative, he leaves the chair and takes a seat elsewhere, as any other member, and the person appointed chairman seats himself at the clerk’s table. The Speaker usually appoints a chairman, but the committee has full power to set him aside and select its own chairman. In case of the committee’s getting into violent disorder the Speaker, who is clothed with authority to call in the Sergeant-at-arms, if necessary, to enforce order, may take his chair, and at the tap of his gavel every member is required to take his proper seat, such action having the effect to dissolve the committee. Cases of this kind are rare. Usually when the committee is ready to rise the chairman rises, the Speaker immediately resuming the chair; if the business is unfinished, the chairman of the committee reports progress and asks permission for the committee to sit again, which the House may or may not consent to. If the business is finished the chairman tenders his report.

SAMUEL ADAMS, THE GREAT ORGANIZER.

CARBONDALE, Ill.

Give a short biographical sketch of Samuel Adams, of revolutionary
times.

CHARLES L. H.

_Answer._—Samuel Adams was one of the very first who organized measures of resistance against the encroachments of Great Britain on the rights of the colonies. He drew up the famous petition of the General Court of Boston to the King, in 1764, against taxation on trade. He was elected a Representative in the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1765, was chosen Clerk, and served in that body ten years. It is said that he was the first to suggest the congress of colonial delegates that assembled in New York in 1765, and was the father of the non-importation agreement of 1789, intended to check the use of British manufactures and other foreign imports and foster home manufactures and, still more, a spirit of independence. He was Chairman of the committee that waited on the Royal Governor and Council in 1770, on the day after the Boston riot and massacre, and demanded the removal of the troops. He was one of the signers of the declaration of independence: was one of those who matured the plan of the Continental Congress, to which he was a delegate from Massachusetts from 1774 to 1782, and signed the articles of confederation, which were the constitution of the country until replaced by the present Federal Constitution. He was Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts from 1789 to 1794, and Governor from 1794 to 1797. He was born in Boston Sept. 27, 1722, graduated at Harvard in 1740, and died in Boston Oct. 2, 1803.

ORIGIN OF THE CAUCUS.

CHICAGO, Ill.

Can you tell us the origin of the American caucus?

JOHN ALLEN.

_Answer._—The origin of the term “caucus” is traced back to the Caucus Club, Boston, of revolutionary days. This club was composed mainly of persons engaged in ship-building. It was one of the most radical opponents of British oppression. It and the Merchants’ Club of the same period, used to meet before elections and agree on candidates for town and provincial offices. “Caucus” is believed to be a corruption of “caulkers.”

THE YORK SHILLING.

CHICAGO, Ill.

To settle a dispute please inform us through Our Curiosity Shop
whether the United States ever issued a coin called the “York
shilling?” Was there not a coin of some kind called a York shilling?

READER.

_Answer._—The United States certainly never did mint any such coin. Neither did New York itself before the adoption of our present Constitution, under which individual States are not permitted to coin money. Most of the original thirteen States had issued bills of credit during colonial times, which had depreciated in the several colonies in different degrees, according to provisions made for their redemption and other incidents. In New England, after the adoption of the Federal decimal system, the pound in paper currency was worth only $3.33⅓ and the shilling 16⅔ cents, equal to six shillings to the dollar. This standard prevailed also in Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. In New York the paper currency pound was worth only $2.50, and so the shilling was reckoned but 12½ cents, equal to eight shillings to the dollar. This last is the “York shilling,” a money of account. The only coin that ever passed by that name is the Spanish real, known along the Ohio and Lower Mississippi as “a bit,” which, until a few years ago, was current through the country at 12½ cents, the value, as above shown, of the New York paper currency shilling of the olden times. In Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland the pound was worth $2.70, making the shilling worth 13½ cents, or 7s. 6d. to the $1. In Georgia and South Carolina the pound was worth $4.20, and the shilling 21-3/7 cents, or 4s. 8d. to the dollar. Such was the force of habit that, long after the old colonial paper money passed out of use, people continued to buy and sell and keep accounts in pounds and shillings; and schoolboys were required to familiarize themselves with the rules for reducing the several State currencies to Federal currency.

THE GREAT NAPOLEON’S DEFEATS.

CHICAGO, Ill.

1. Was Bonaparte repulsed at Acre? 2. Was he forced to leave Egypt?
3. Did he make a disastrous retreat from Moscow? 4. Did the Duke
of Wellington suffer defeats parallel to those endured by Napoleon
Bonaparte?

THOMAS WILSON.

_Answer._—1. In 1799, after laying siege to the stronghold of Acre, Syria, for sixty-one days, Napoleon Bonaparte resolved to raise the siege and return to Egypt, where his presence was demanded by the threatening state of affairs, which culminated at last in the great battle of Aboukir, in which he defeated Murad Bey, for the second time, with great slaughter. There is no doubt that, although victorious over the Ottoman and Egyptian armies, the almost utter annihilation of the French fleet by the English and Turks in the famous naval battle of the Nile, some months before this, and the menacing state of affairs in France, made it prudent for Napoleon to take advantage of the prestige of this victory to retire from Egypt, leaving the government of the country he had conquered to General Kleber, who soon after this totally defeated the Ottoman army, 70,000 strong, before Heliopolis. Not until after Kleber was assassinated and months of the unwise administration of his successor, General Menou, did the insurrection fomented by the English, and finally assisted by an English naval and land force, compel the French under Menou, to withdraw from Egypt, nearly two years after Bonaparte himself had returned to France. Taken all in all the French expedition into Egypt, planned by Napoleon Bonaparte, although distinguished by several brilliant exploits, must be regarded from a political and military standpoint as a failure. 3. So was the expedition to Moscow, which, after a succession of victories, ended in a disastrous retreat in midwinter, forced upon the French, not by arms, but by threatening starvation and other results of the burning of Moscow. 4. The Duke of Wellington, although several times compelled to retreat before French armies during campaigns in the Netherlands and in Spain, never suffered any disasters comparable with those inflicted on Napoleon; neither did he ever exhibit, even at Waterloo, where, with the allies, he had double the strength of the French army, such marvelous generalship as made Napoleon Bonaparte for many years more than a match for all the powers of Europe combined, the arbiter of all their thrones.

FUNDED AND FLOATING DEBT DEFINED.

IROQUOIS, D. T.

Explain the terms “floating debt,” “funded debt,” and “sinking
fund.”

QUERIST.

_Answer._.—“Funded debt” is government or corporation indebtedness in the form of bonds or other evidences of money stipulated to be paid at stated intervals, and usually bearing interest payable annually or oftener. “Floating debt” is indebtedness, such as unsettled accounts, scrip in the nature of due bills, etc. not funded. A sinking fund is money set apart out of taxes, earnings, or other income, for the redemption of government or corporation bonds or other specific tokens of indebtedness.

ARTIFICIAL INCUBATION.

FAYETTE, Iowa.

I am very anxious to learn how to make an incubator, or have one
made, for hatching chickens by artificial means. Will you oblige
myself and other readers by giving such minute directions that a
carpenter can make one by following them?

E. J. ALLCOTT.

_Answer._.—Similar requests are made by C. A. Brace, Esq., of Persia, Iowa; L. R. S., Cameron, Neb.; Q., of Elk Grove, Wis., and several others, some of whom desire to know what success has attended experiments in artificial incubation with modern apparatus. Conflicting reports as to this latter question, together with the fraudulent methods taken by some persons engaged in vending pamphlets that cost the publishers not to exceed 8 cents a copy, containing directions for making apparatus of this sort, at the extortionate price of $2, and selling ready-made incubators at exorbitant prices, has made caution advisable in treating this subject. Reports received within the past six weeks from twenty different persons, who have experimented with incubators, indicate that in about twelve cases out of twenty the average success is encouraging, and in the cases of the others the average results are quite discouraging. It is very certain that in a climate incident to such sudden and extreme changes as ours success demands skill and constant attention. None but absolutely fresh eggs must be selected, a temperature hardly varying from 103 deg., and a proper degree of moisture must be maintained, with sleepless vigilance. Let the eggs be chilled even for a few minutes and the consequences are disastrous. For a comparatively inexpensive incubator make a box 4 feet long, 3 feet wide, 6 inches deep, outside measurement, with a tight board lid and a zinc bottom; using boards 1¼ inches thick, nailed or screwed together. This is the heater. Of the same kind of boards make an egg-drawer 4 feet long, 2 feet 11½ inches wide, 5 inches high, outside measure, and 4 inches deep on the inside, with slats nailed in crosswise, instead of a board for the bottom. The slats better be of inch-thick lumber, not more than 1 inch wide, and set one inch apart. Over these slats on the inside tack a piece of coarse sack the full length and width of the box. Draw it tight and tack it securely to the slats and the ends of the box. Next make a frame 3 feet 7 inches long and 32 inches wide, using inch-square strips for the end pieces and inch-wide strips of half-inch thickness for the sides. Strain stout muslin over this frame and tack it firmly. Lay this, muslin side down, on the coarse cloth in the egg drawer. This is to support the eggs. Next bore twenty half-inch holes in each side of the egg drawer, 1¾ inches apart, and as close to the frame with the muslin bottom as can be done and yet allow this frame to slide easily underneath twenty slats a half-inch square each, which must be run through the box from hole to hole, to keep the eggs in position. Arrange the eggs between these slats, resting on the muslin of the muslin frame. It will be seen that by moving this frame about two inches backward or forward the eggs can be turned half over. Make a box of precisely the same length and breadth as the heater, but eight inches deep instead of six. Nail on a tight bottom of inch flooring stuff; bore twelve half-inch holes in this bottom, into which insert as many tin tubes of the same diameter, seven inches long, for ventilators. Fill all the space between the pipes with sawdust to within about an inch of their tops. Next set the egg drawer on top of this ventilator box, and set the heater, the first box described, on the top of the egg drawer. Take common inch-boards, one foot wide, and nail one on each side and across one end of this pile of boxes, driving the nails along the lower edge of each board into the ventilator box, and along the upper edge into the heater box; raising the latter off of the egg-drawer barely enough to let the latter slide easily back and forth between the heater and ventilator.

As the incubator stands now, the egg-drawer is protected from the cold, underneath, by the ventilator box with about six inches of sawdust: but it must be similarly protected on the sides and top. Set this nest of boxes, as now arranged, on a couple of trestles made of pieces of scantling, four feet eight or ten inches long, with short legs eight inches long, and build another box 27 inches high (outside) around them, long enough and wide enough to form a sawdust chamber 8 inches wide along both sides and the back end of the incubator, and rising 8 inches higher than the top of the heater. Next get two tin pipes, 12 or 13 inches long and about 2½ inches in diameter, seamed together, as solder melts; also get two such pipes about 6 inches long, and two elbows. Bore a 2½-inch hole through the sawdust-box and the heater-box entering the latter about 9 inches from the front and 2 inches below the lid, and slide one of the longer pipes through these holes. Attach one of the elbows and one of the 6-inch pipes outside. Put the other pipe into the heater from the opposite side, about 9 inches from the back end of the heater. Two kerosene lamps, set on brackets, on the outside of the sawdust box, with their chimneys thrust up into the short pipes, will supply all the heat that is required for hatching the eggs. If the lamps smoke, drop them low enough to admit a little air to enter between the chimneys and the inside of the pipes. Opposite where each of these tin flues enters the heater, bore three three-quarter-inch holes through the top of the heater, nine or ten inches apart, in a line about three inches from the side. Slide six tin tubes of the same diameter, fifteen or sixteen inches long, through these holes to within a half-inch of the zinc bottom of the heater. Now fill the sawdust chamber around the incubator and on top, putting earth instead of sawdust just around the hot-air flues, to avoid fire. As the zinc directly under where the hot-air flues enter the heater is apt to get overheated, it is best before covering the heater with sawdust to lay a piece of zinc or tin, about a foot square, on the zinc bottom as an equalizer of the temperature. Keep a thermometer in the egg drawer to test the temperature. This drawer will hold about 250 eggs.

This is the incubator; directions for using it will be given hereafter.