The inter ocean curiosity shop for the year 1883

Chapter M: A. Bevard, Derby, Iowa—General Hull took part in the revolutionary

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battles of White Plains, Trenton, Stillwater, Princeton, Saratoga, and Monmouth. 2. Aaron Burr died on Staten Island.

INTEREST ON NOTES.

WASHBURN, Wis.

1. Will a promissory note draw interest if it is not so specified
in the note? 2. Will a note made payable one year after date, with
interest at 7 per cent, draw interest after the note becomes due?

A. E. R.

_Answer._.—1. Such a note will not draw interest until after due and payment has been demanded. It will draw legal interest from date of such demand. 2. Such a note will continue to draw interest at the same rate if payment is demanded at maturity and payment is withheld.

NEW YORK IMMIGRATION COMMISSION.

BARNARD, Ill.

Who was the first to propose Castle Garden for the benefit of
foreign immigrants? Is the board of management a National or a
State organization? How did it originate?

ANNA SIERLE.

_Answer._—The pitiable condition in which immigrants were landed in New York, the cruelties inflicted upon them in many cases in overcrowded emigrant ships, the extortions and downright frauds practiced upon them when they were put ashore like so many cattle, and left to shift for themselves in a strange city, without language to make their wants known, began to attract the attention of humane public officers and merchants of that city at an early day. The outrages multiplied, and the importance of providing some remedy grew with the rapid increase of foreign immigration, which swelled from 22,633 for the whole United States in 1831, to 104,565 in 1842. The Legislature of New York State was appealed to, and on May 5, 1847—in which year the rate of foreign immigration more than doubled upon that of 1842, the total number received rising to 234,968—it created the present Board of Commissioners of Emigration of the State of New York, which has been in successful operation ever since, and has proved one of the most beneficent institutions of the land. It consists of nine members, six of whom are appointed by the Governor with consent of the Senate, while the other three are the Mayor of the city and the Presidents of the German Society and the Irish Emigration Society. All of these serve without compensation. The law makes it their duty to provide suitable quarters for the reception of alien passengers arriving at New York; to care for the sick and helpless among them; to protect them from extortion, fraud, and impositions of any kind; to aid those who wish transfer to the railways and other transportation routes to the interior of the country; to assist such as wish to remain in the city to obtain work, and, in general, to give them trustworthy information and advice, and guard their interests. For this purpose they were authorized to collect of vessel owners $2.50 for each passenger, until 1871, when it was reduced to $1.50.

In 1855 the city of New York leased Castle Garden to the Commissioners for an immigrant landing depot, and it was opened for this purpose in August of that year. It occupies the extreme southern point of the city at the junction of the North River, or Hudson, with the East River. A more convenient, healthy, an every way desirable station could not have been selected. The immigrants are brought here directly from immigrant vessels, in tugs or barges, and received into rooms properly heated, lighted, and ventilated. Bath-rooms, lunch counters, with provisions at reasonable prices, suitable sleeping quarters, and other conveniences are all found within the building, and are conducted under strict superintendence. The names of such as have money, letters, or friends awaiting them are called out. Clerks stand ready to write letters for them in any European language. There are railway offices where tickets are sold them by thoroughly responsible clerks, who can talk with them in their native tongues. Responsible brokers exchange their foreign coin and currency at par market value. There is an employment bureau to find work for those who do not care to go any farther. A physician is in attendance, and the sick are properly cared for in a temporary hospital until they are transported to the immigrant hospitals on Ward’s Island.

In view of the fact that about two-thirds of all the foreign immigration to the United States land at New York, it is, indeed, a noble institution that meets these strangers with such generous provisions for their wants. According to an article in “The American Cyclopedia,” of the 5,033,392 immigrants arriving at New York between May 5, 1847, and Jan. 1, 1873, for whom commutation money was paid by the vessel-owners, “all of whom received protection, advice, and information from the commissions, 1,465,579 were provided and cared for out of the immigrant fund, for a greater or less period during the five years subsequent to their arrival; 398,643 received treatment and care in the institutions of the commissioners; 449,275 were temporarily supplied with board and lodging and money relief in the city of New York; 349,936 were provided with employment through the labor bureau at Castle Garden; 53,083 were forwarded from Castle Garden to their destination in the United States, or returned to Europe at their own request; and 214,642 were relieved and provided for in various parts of the State of New York,” all out of this immigrant fund. In 1872-3 bills were introduced into Congress to supersede this New York Emigration Commission by a National bureau, but the movement excited great opposition, not only in New York, but in other quarters, and it ended in failure.

DERIVATION OF SIRLOIN.

GALENA, Ill.

Is it true that an English king knighted a roast of beef as Sir
Loin, and that this was the origin of the name sirloin for a
certain cut of meat?

A SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—It is true that the great lexicographer, Dr. Johnson, gave credence and currency to this etymological nonsense, and that subsequent lexicographers, down to Webster and Worcester, parrot-like repeated it. But both of our distinguished lexicographers rejected this popular tradition of a silly freak or pun of James I. or Charles II. as of no etymological value, and agree that sirloin, which appears in Johnson’s dictionary for the first time with this orthography, is derived from the French surlonge, that is, “upper loin.” In the old English dictionaries, such as Ainsworth’s and Cotgrave’s, the English word was spelled surloin, and both Webster and Worcester, while giving sirloin as the usual orthography, recommend surloin, and authorize it as the preferable spelling. Skeats’ Etymological Dictionary, Oxford, 1882, vocabulates this word thus: “Sirloin, an inferior spelling of surloin, q. v.;” and under surloin says: “Frequently spelled sirloin, owing to a fable that the loin of beef was knighted by one of our kings in a fit of good humor.” The king was naturally imagined to be the merry monarch Charles II., though Richardson says (on no authority) that it was so entitled by King James I. Both stories are discredited by the use of the original French surlonge in the fourteenth century. Indeed, Wedgewood actually cites ‘a surloyn of beef’ from an account of expenses of Henry VI. But Richardson had the authority of Dean Swift for referring the pun on surloin to James I. In “Polite Conversation” Swift says: “But, pray, why is it called a sirloin? Why, you must know that our King James I., who loved good eating, being invited to dinner by one of his nobles, and seeing a large loin of beef at his table, he drew out his sword and in a frolic knighted it.” Which Swift, in all probability, intended to be taken as a legend, and nothing more.

NORTH CAROLINA GOLD MINES.

Give us some information in regard to the extent of mining for the
precious metals in North Carolina.

MALCOLM MCMANUS.

_Answer._—There was a time when gold mining in North Carolina was an important industry. The earliest record at the United States mint of gold produced in this country was in 1804. In that year a deposit was made at the mint of gold found in North Carolina. Small amounts, not exceeding an annual average of $2,500, were received from 1804 to 1823, after which there was a steady increase, as follows: In 1824, total amount received at mint, $5,000; in 1825, $17,000; in 1826, $20,000; in 1827, $21,000; in 1828, $46,000; in 1829, $134,000. During this last year $2,500 was received from Virginia and $3,500 from South Carolina. A Southern “gold fever” set in, and hundreds of people went to prospecting all along the Appalachian Mountains, so that in the next year, 1830, the mint received $212,000 from Georgia, $204,000 from North Carolina, $26,000 from South Carolina, $24,000 from Virginia, and $2,000 from Tennessee and Alabama. The total amounts of precious metals from the mines of the South, deposited at the United States mint from 1804 to 1881, was as follows:

From Virginia $ 1,689,797.00
From North Carolina 10,750,468.64
From South Carolina 1,429,751.55
From Georgia 7,869,282.60
From Alabama 220,892.25
From Tennessee 86,511.61
——————————————
Total $22,046,703.65

Various causes conduced to the decrease of mining in the South before the discovery of gold in California, but this latter event drew away the best miners and most experienced, most enterprising capitalists engaged in the business, so that the gold product of this region became insignificant. A revival of mining has set in in North Carolina, yet the products of the Carolinas and Georgia in 1881 was only about $275,000.

MEERSCHAUM—SEA FOAM.

GILMAN, Ill.

Is meerschaum a product of sea foam, as some persons declare?

W. C. DUCKHAM.

_Answer._—Meerschaum is a German word, compounded from _meer_, sea, and _schaum_, foam. It is the name of a fine clay composed of magnesia, silica, and water in equal parts. When fresh from the pit it is soft and makes a lather like soap, which gave rise to its name. After being molded into pipes, these are boiled in oil or wax and baked until hard.

STATE GOVERNORS.

ZANESVILLE, Ohio.

Please give the names and politics of all State and Territorial
Governors. Also, their salaries and dates of expiration of their
terms.

A SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—The following is a full list of Governors of the several States and Territories, with their salaries and the times when their terms end. The politics of Governors is indicated by running the names of Republicans in Roman, and of Democrats and Fusionists in italics:

FIRST FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW.

CEDAR FALLS.

Tell us who brought forward the first fugitive slave law.

P. G. KLOCK.

_Answer._—In the constitutional convention of 1787 Mr. Pierce Butler, a delegate from South Carolina, moved the adoption of clause 3, section 2, article 4 of the Constitution, which reads: “No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due.” The first law to give effect to this constitutional provision was prepared by a committee of the Senate appointed in November, 1792. This committee was composed of Mr. Johnston, of North Carolina; Mr. Cabot, of Massachusetts, and Mr. Read, of Delaware. In December Mr. Johnston reported a bill which was not entirely satisfactory. Mr. Taylor, of Virginia, and Mr. Sherman, of Connecticut, were added to the committee. On Jan. 3, 1793, Mr. Johnston reported a bill, which, after several days’ consideration, was passed without a single dissenting voice. On the 4th of February following, this bill passed the House by a vote of 48 to 7. We cannot give the text of it, but it gave slave-masters and their agents summary power to seize, hold, and return fugitives from slavery to their former bondage, whatever laws the States in which they were found might pass to the contrary, the matter being one under jurisdiction of the United States courts.

THE WORLD’S PRINCIPAL TIN MINES.

ALTONA, Ill.

Where are the principal tin mines, and of what is this metal
composed?

JONATHAN TREXLAR.

_Answer._—Pure tin is an elementary metal, as much so as lead, iron, silver, or gold. The principal tin-producing country is England. The Phœnicians traded with England for tin 1,100 years before the Christian era. There is reason to believe that they got tin from Spain also; but England was depended on for nearly all the tin used in Europe until this ore was discovered in Germany in 1240. It was discovered in Northern Africa, in the Barbary States, in 1640; in India in 1740; in New Spain in 1782. Tin was mined in Mexico before the Spanish conquest, and used in T shaped pieces for money, and in a bronze composition for sharp tools; the principal mines being at Tasco. Peru has valuable mines of this metal, so have New South Wales, Australia, and Banca, and Malacca in the Malay peninsula. Tin has been discovered in Pennsylvania, Missouri, California, and other States of the Union, but not in quantities to tempt capital to engage in mining it. The chief tin-producing countries are the following, arranged in the order of importance: England, about 10,000 tons a year; Malacca, about 8,500 tons; Australia, about 6,000 tons; Banca, about 4,000 tons, and Billiton, about 3,000 tons. Both of these last-named places are islands of the Dutch East Indies.

THE ZERO POINT OF THERMOMETERS.

O’KANE, Neb.

Why was not zero on thermometers placed at the freezing point
instead of 32 degrees below?

_Answer._—Zero is placed at freezing point on some thermometers, although this is not the case on the Fahrenheit scale, the one in common use in England and the United States. When Fahrenheit graded his thermometer he supposed that there was no greater degree of cold than had been observed in Iceland, or discovered by experimenting with freezing mixtures. This point he marked zero; i. e., empty or nought, as denoting the absence of all heat. It is 32 degrees below freezing, and corresponds to the cold produced by a freezing mixture composed of snow and salt, or sal-ammoniac; from which it has been inferred that this was the test used by Fahrenheit, the instrument-maker of Amsterdam, who introduced this scale into common use, and after whom it is named, but who never actually divulged the secret of his process. It is now known that this is an arbitrary point, far above the lowest temperature in the polar regions and several hundred degrees above the greatest cold produced by artificial methods. In the Reaumer thermometer, generally used in Germany, and the Centigrade thermometer, commonly used in France and by scientists of all nations, zero marks the freezing point of distilled water at the sea level, or under an atmospheric pressure of 14.73 pounds to the square inch. To reduce Fahrenheit to Centigrade, subtract 32 and multiply by 100/180, or 5/9. Conversely, to reduce Centigrade to Fahrenheit, multiply by 9/5 and add 32.

THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

RIVERSIDE, Cal.

I noticed in the _Century_ for December, 1882, page 172, that Chief
Justice Rutledge was “President of South Carolina from 1776 to
1778.” What form of government had South Carolina at that time?

J. M. BAHER.

_Answer._—In 1776 South Carolina, in a Constitutional State Convention, of which John Rutledge was a member, took on the form of an independent republic, and soon after Rutledge was made President and Commander-in-chief of the State forces. He held this office until 1778, when he was succeeded by Rawlins Lownds. The constitution was modified March 19, 1778, and thereafter the chief State executives were known as Governors.

OLD-TIME FALCONRY—HAWK’S BELLS.

PANA, Ill.

In Barnes’ History of the United States, in the narrative of
the discovery of Cuba, it is stated the natives bartered their
valuables for “hawk’s bells.” Please explain the term “hawk’s
bells.”

A SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—Falconry, or hawking, was a favorite sport with the nobility and gentry of Europe down to the first half of the seventeenth century, when the introduction of fowling pieces of a light and elegant pattern and the art of shooting flying gradually replaced it. Hawks were trained to mount and pursue game and bring it to their masters and mistresses, coming and going at the call of the latter with marvelous docility. The hawks were tricked out with gay hoods and held until ordered to pursue “the quarry,” or game, by leathern straps fastened with rings of leather around each leg, just above the talons, and silken cords called “jesses.” To each of these leathern straps, or “bewets,” was attached a small bell, shaped in most cases like the nearly closed sleigh bells of the present time. In a flight of hawks it was often so arranged that the different bells made “a consort of sweet sounds.” Bells of this description, but of the cheapest kind, were among the most popular trinkets used by the early explorers and traders in bartering with the natives of America.

SOURCES OF BRITISH REVENUE.

SYCAMORE, Ill.

As England receives little or nothing from a tariff, where does
the money come from to pay the expenses of the government? Who are
taxed and who are not?

R. A. S.

_Answer._—It is a mistake to suppose that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland derives “little or no revenue from tariff” or custom dues. The following table shows the sources of the national revenue for the year ending March 31, 1882:

Customs £19,287,000
Excise 27,240,000
Stamps 12,260,000
Land and house tax 2,725,000
Income tax 9,945,000
Postoffice 7,000,000
Telegraphs 1,630,000
Crown lands 380,000
Interest on advances and Suez Canal shares 1,219,262
Miscellaneous 4,136,019
———————————
Total £85,822,281

Here is the sum of £19,287,000, or almost $100,000,000, received from customs, as against $220,410,730.25 collected from the same source in the United States. 2, The inland revenue, composed of “excise, stamps, and taxes,” is so distributed as to touch pretty much everybody.

KANSAS GOVERNORS AND SENATORS.

SHERMAN CITY, Kan.

Please give the names of all the Territorial and State Governors of
Kansas, and the names of Senators from the first.

INQUIRER.

_Answer._—The Territorial Governors of Kansas were A. H. Reeder, 1855; (John L. Dawson, appointed but declined), Wilson Shannon, 1857; John W. Geary, 1856; R. J. Walker, 1857; J. W. Denver, 1858; Samuel Medary, 1858. The following is a full list of the State Governors:

Charles Robinson 1861
Thomas Carney 1861-1864
S. J. Crawford 1864-1869
James M. Harvey 1869-1873
Thomas A. Osborne 1873-1877
George T. Anthony 1877-1879
John P. St. John 1879-1883
George W. Glick 1883-1885

The several Senators in Congress have been or are:

James H. Lane 1861-1866
Samuel C. Pomeroy 1861-1873
E. G. Ross 1866-1871
Alexander Caldwell 1871-1873
Robert Crozier 1873-1874
John J. Ingalls 1873-1885
James M. Harvey 1874-1877
Preston B. Plumb 1877-1883

Senator Caldwell resigned March 24, 1874, during investigation for bribery, in securing his election, and was followed by Robert Crozier, appointed by the Governor to fill the vacancy. Senator Crozier was succeeded by James M. Harvey, elected by the Legislature for the remainder of Mr. Caldwell’s full term.

REPUBLICS AND PRESIDENTS.

BARNARD, Ill.

Is President the title of the highest officer in every republican
government?

ANNA SIERLE.

_Answer._—Yes, unless we take into account the pigmy republics, or semi-republics, of San Marino and Andorra, the former a rough, craggy mountain among the Appenines, with a total area of 21 square miles and a total population of 7,816 persons, and the latter an isolated valley in the Eastern Pyrenees, shut in between the two great, jealous powers, France and Spain, with an area of about 300 square miles, and a population variously estimated at from 4,000 to 12,000. Andorra is governed by “the Sovereign Council” of twenty-four members, which elects one of its members to be Syndic for life, the chief executive of the State. San Marino is governed by “the Sovereign Grand Council,” composed of sixty members, of whom one-third are nobles. There are two heads of this mammoth republic, called, “Captains Regent,” one chosen from the nobles and the other from the “bourgeoisie,” or common people, each holding office for only six months.

THE TAY BRIDGE HORROR.

MOUNT VERNON, Iowa.

Were there ever any bodies found after the disaster of the great
bridge over the Frith of Tay? How long had the bridge been built,
what were its dimensions, cost, and particulars of the calamity?

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The inter ocean curiosity shop for the year 1883Chapter M: A. Bevard, Derby, Iowa—General Hull took part in the revolutionary

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