Chapter M: W. V

_Answer._—Cordova, situated about fifty-seven miles inland from Vera Cruz, Mexico, is now a city of 6,500 to 7,000 inhabitants. The district around it is very fertile, and the tobacco, sugar, coffee, and cotton produced here foster an increasing trade. Its streets are regularly laid out and well paved; most of the houses are built of stone, and the fine cathedral is much admired for its interior architecture and decorations. The city was founded by the early Spanish adventurers and missionaries on the site of an old Aztec town, and named in honor of the forerunner of Cortez, Francisco Fernandez de Cordova, the discoverer of Yucatan and the southeastern extremity of Mexico, in the year 1517. The date of the first Spanish settlement is uncertain.

MARSHAL KEITH.

FAIRMONT., Neb.

Who was Marshal Keith, “the noble exile,” killed at the battle of
Hochkirchen?

W. P. JACKS.

_Answer._—He was Francis Edward James Keith, a Scotch nobleman, born at Inverngie Castle, Aberdeenshire, in 1696. He and his elder brother, the Earl Marischal, espoused the cause of the “Elder Pretender,” as he is called, James Francis Edward, son of the deposed James II. of England, in the insurrection of 1715. That affair ended in speedy disaster, and being attainted of treason, he fled to France. Here after some two years, spent for the most part in study at the University of Paris, he took part in the disastrous expedition of the Pretender to the highlands of Scotland in 1719. Escaping again to France, he lived in obscurity and want, first at Paris and then at Madrid, until he received a colonel’s commission in the army of the King of Spain. Here his Protestantism stood in the way of his promotion, and he soon took a recommendation from the King to Peter II. of Russia, in whose service he soon rose to the rank of general. In 1747 he entered the service of Frederick the Great of Prussia, who made him a field marshal, accounting him one of his ablest generals. Quick to discern the military exigencies and opportunities of the moment, and prompt to avail himself of them, “sagacious, skillful, imperturbable, without fear and without noise, a man quietly ever ready,” as Carlyle describes him, he had the full confidence, and even won the affection, of Frederick, who was wont to place him in the most responsible positions. He was killed Oct. 14, 1758, in the battle of Hochkirch, in which Frederick the Great suffered one of the most terrible defeats of that bloody war at the hands of the combined Austrian and Prussian armies.

SUNDAY SCHOOLS IN ALL THE WORLD.

SALMON CITY, D. T.

Please give the origin of the Sunday school, where and by whom
first started, and the number of such schools in this country, and,
so far as known, in the whole world.

W. H. ANDREWS.

_Answer._—The following statistics of Sunday schools were reported by Mr. E. P. Porter to the Robert Raikes Centennial Convention held in London, England, June 28, to July 3, 1880. They comprise only those of the “Evangelical denominations,” and are incomplete even for this class of schools. Full returns, including the enrollment in schools of denominations not classed by Mr. Porter as Evangelical, probably would increase the above aggregate by from 20 to 25 per cent.

Countries. Teachers. Scholars. Total.

Europe 550,001 5,332,813 5,882,814
Asia 1,772 38,000 39,772
Africa 300 15,000 15,300
N. America 931,740 6,974,454 7,906,194
S. America 3,000 150,000 153,000
Oceanica 17,800 170,000 187,800
————————— —————————— ——————————
Total 1,504,613 12,680,267 14,184,880

The numbers reported for the United States, at the above convention, were as follows: Schools, 82,261; teachers, 886,328; scholars, 66,233,124. Your other questions are all answered with great care on pages 58 and 96 of Our Curiosity Shop, in book form, for 1882; price per mail, 25 cents.

SCHOOLS OF BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

MILES, Iowa.

How do the public school privileges of Ireland compare with those
of England?

H. G. BRYANT.

_Answer._—The total population of Ireland in 1881 was 5,159,839. The total number of national schools in 1880 was 7,590, with 1,083,020 pupils, aided by a parliamentary grant of £722,366, or about $3,611,830. The population of Great Britain proper—England, Wales and Scotland—was 29,703,859 in 1881, and the number of public schools inspected in 1880 was 20,670, with an attendance of 3,155,534 pupils. The parliamentary grant amounted to £2,468,077, or about $12,340,385, so that the parliamentary grant in aid of primary education in Ireland is about 70 cents per capita of the total population, while for England, Wales and Scotland it is only about 41 cents. The above figures cover only the national schools for elementary instruction, in addition to which there are hundreds of parochial, or denominational and private schools in both countries. In Ireland, in 1880, there were 158 workhouse schools under the superintendency of the National Board, with an enrollment of 16,945, and an average attendance of 8,880. There were fifty-two industrial schools in 1879, with 4,979 inmates. There were in 1880, ninety-four school farms, nineteen school gardens, and a large number of agricultural schools under local management. The total number of pupils who entered the examination in agriculture in 1880 was 33,648, of whom 15,652 passed. The statistics of industrial schools in England, Wales, and Scotland are not conveniently obtainable.

SUNLIGHT OVERFLOWS THE HEMISPHERE.

HAPPY HOLLOW, Ill.

The sun being so much larger than the earth, does not a little more
than one-half of the earth’s surface receive its rays at the same
time?

W. C. COLGROVE.

_Answer._—A little more than half of the earth’s surface is illuminated by the sun at any given moment. There is a very slight extension of the area of illumination for the reason you mention, and beyond that an extension of from thirty-five to forty miles all around on account of horizontal refraction. If you put a silver coin into a bowl, then stand back until the edge barely hides the coin, and while you keep this same position another person fills the bowl with water, you will see the bottom of it seem to lift until the coin comes into sight. This is because the rays of light reflected from the bottom of the bowl are bent out of a straight line in passing through the water and out into the thinner medium, the air. This is called refraction. The rays of light from the setting sun are bent downward in a similar manner as they enter the earth’s atmosphere, and so the sun appears to be above the horizon a little more than two minutes after it has actually dropped below the true horizon. A difference of two minutes in time corresponds to a distance of thirty miles on the earth’s surface.

THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT.

SANDUSKY, Iowa,

1. Does Parliament serve the same purposes in Great Britain
as Congress does in the United States? 2. How is Parliament
constituted?

A. C. STARIN.

_Answer._—Like the Congress of the United States, the British Parliament legislates for the whole nation. But, in addition to this, it takes the place of the separate legislative bodies that used to exist in Scotland and Ireland, and makes local laws for England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, such as in this country can only be made by State Legislatures. As regards the Dominion of Canada, the Australian Provinces, and other colonial possessions, with legislatures of their own, the powers of Parliament are somewhat analogous to those of Congress over the States. 2. Parliament is composed of two houses, the Lords and the Commons. The House of Lords consists of peers who hold their seats either by virtue of hereditary right; by creation of the sovereign (who is unrestricted in his power of creating peers); by virtue of office, as the English bishops; by election for life, as the Irish peers; or by election for duration of Parliament, as the Scottish peers. This House, in the session of 1882, consisted of 516 members, of whom 5 were peers of the blood royal, 2 were archbishops, 22 were dukes, 19 marquises, 117 earls, 26 viscounts, 24 bishops, 257 barons, 16 Scottish peers, and 28 Irish representative peers. More than two-thirds of these hereditary peerages have been created within the present century—over one-third of them by the present sovereign, which marks one of the strongest factors of the power of the Crown. In the same year the Commons consisted of 639 members, classified as “knights of the shire,” or representatives of counties; “citizens,” or representatives of cities; and “burgesses,” or representatives of boroughs—all of whom hold office by election. The qualifications of electors were given in an article published in Our Curiosity Shop a few months ago. The total number of these electors in 1882 was 3,134,801.

REMOVAL OF ARTHUR FROM CUSTOM HOUSE.

MILWAUKEE, Wis.

Why did President Hayes remove Chester A. Arthur from the New York
Custom House? Was he charged with dishonesty?

S. J. SMITH.

_Answer._—There was no official charge or imputation of dishonesty against Chester A. Arthur when in the New York Custom House. His administration of that office was a great improvement on any preceding one for many years back. He had effected great reforms and ousted officers who had fattened on corruption under his predecessors. President Hayes distinctly disclaimed any want of faith in Mr. Arthur’s integrity as a cause for replacing him, and the official reports of Secretary Sherman bore unequivocal testimony to the efficiency of the Collector’s administration of his difficult office, and clearly recognized his personal integrity. Mr. Arthur did not approve certain changes which Secretary Sherman wished to make, and he was known also to be in sympathy with Mr. Conkling and others not favorable to Secretary Sherman’s aspirations for the Presidency. It is generally believed that the above were the chief reasons for the Secretary’s desire to supersede Mr. Arthur, which finally prevailed.

ROGER BACON.

MELVIN, Ill.

Please tell us something of the life and works of Roger Bacon.

A. BUCKHOLZ.

_Answer._—Roger Bacon was an English monk of penetrating intellect, who by his scientific investigations and writings greatly advanced the cause of science in a time when the study of nature had been supplanted by the theological disputations and philosophical speculations of the “schoolmen.” He was born near Ilchester, England, in the year 1214, of a respectable family. He graduated at Oxford and Paris, and, entering the order of Franciscan monks, settled at Oxford, where he devoted himself to the study of physics. His discoveries were looked upon as wonderful by the ignorant, and were made the means by his clerical brethren of bringing him into disfavor with the Pope, who deprived him of his professorship. He was imprisoned for some years, until the elevation of Clement II. to the Papal throne. Despite the Franciscan interdiction, Clement requested Bacon to send him his writings, and, in answer, John of London became the bearer to the Pope of “Opus Majus” and two other works. For ten years Bacon was at liberty, but in 1278 he was again imprisoned, and the reading of his works forbidden. Through the intercession of many influential English noblemen, his release was granted shortly before his death, which occurred in 1292 or 1294. He wrote much, but several of his works have not been printed. Chief among his inventions was the magnifying glass, and his superior knowledge won for him the title, “Doctor Mirabilis.” He sought to know nature through the study of mathematics and by investigation. He pointed out the errors in the calendar, growing out of the old style of reckoning, long before Pope Gregory instituted the present calendar. As a Latin writer, his style was elegant and forcible; as a scientific scholar, he was fully two centuries in advance of his age; as a man, his character was pure and noble.

THE SPHINX—GUNPOWDER.

1. Is the Sphinx made of one solid block of stone, or is it built
of mortar and brick? 2. Who invented gunpowder?

A. L.

_Answer._—1. The “great Sphinx” at Gizeh, Egypt, only 300 feet east of the second pyramid, was hewn out of the natural rock where it stands. It measures 172 feet 6 inches long by 52 feet high. 2. Nearly all authorities agree in referring the invention of gunpowder to China or India, the weight of evidence being in favor of crediting it to the former.

COUNTIES LARGER THAN STATES.

COLUMBIA, D. T.

Is it true that Brown County, D. T., contains a larger area than
Rhode Island? Please give the exact figures.

R. A.

_Answer._—Brown County, D. T., contains forty-eight Congressional townships, or, disregarding fractional sections, 1,728 square miles; whereas the area of Rhode Island is but 1,250 square miles. There are several counties of Dakota that are larger than Delaware, which contains but 2,050 square miles; such, for example, as Grand Forks, Pembina, and Burleigh. Some of the unorganized counties are as large as Connecticut. It will not be long before, following the practice in the most thickly settled parts of the Territory, these undergrown but over-extended counties will be subdivided into smaller ones of sixteen to twenty townships, the ordinary size of an Iowa county, each about half the size of “Little Rhody.”

LORD BYRON.

GARNAVILLO, Iowa.

Please give a sketch of Lord Byron.

WILLIAM A. KREGEL.

_Answer._—George Gordon, Lord Byron, was born in London in the year 1788, and at the age of 11 succeeded to the title and estate of his grand uncle, William, Lord Byron, near Nottingham. In 1807, two years after entering Trinity College, he published his first volume of poems, entitled “Hours of Idleness.” Stung by the sarcastic criticism on these poems by Lord Brougham in the Edinburgh _Review_, he soon after wrote “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,” a scathing satire, and at once sailed for Turkey and Greece. “Childe Harold” and a few shorter poems were written between the years 1812 and 1818. After a year of riotous living in Italy he sailed for Greece in 1823, and took a conspicuous part in the struggle for Greek independence. In this he succeeded so far as to restore comparative order to the disorganized army, but his health soon began to fail, and exposure to a storm induced a fever which terminated his life, April 10, 1824. His body was interred in the Huckwall church-yard, being denied admission to Westminster Abbey. Byron undoubtedly possessed great genius and wrote many beautiful and ennobling poems, but his restless and passionate temper and the immorality of his life tainted most of what he wrote and debarred him from the list of really great English poets. In descriptive power, fervor, imagery, and melody his powers were marvelous, and many passages in his writings are unsurpassed in these respects by anything in the English language.

TIN AND TARIFF.

BELOIT, Wis.

What is meant by “tin and terne plates,” and what is the gist
of the demand of the “American Tinned Plate Association” for an
increase of the duty on these plates?

SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—“Tin plates” are plates of sheet-iron or soft steel, coated with tin, used chiefly for making household and dairy utensils, and for cans of all sorts. “Terne plates” are iron or soft steel sheets, coated with mixed lead and tin, used for roofing and similar purposes. About 95 to 98 per cent of these products are iron or steel, the tin and lead coating constituting the remaining 2 to 5 per cent. Soft steel is used chiefly now, because the quality required can be made cheaper than in iron, is more homogeneous and solid, and less liable to blister in the tinning processes. The association above named claims that the British plates imported to this country are “of poor quality, meanly coated, and, if low priced, are wasteful in the end.” That if home manufacture of such plates were encouraged by as heavy a tariff as is put upon other forms of finished iron—say 50 per cent, instead of only 15 to 30 per cent, as at present—American competition would act in this case as it has done in other classes of “protected industry,” to improve the qualities and ultimately to reduce the actual cost of the goods. But it is not only in these respects that it would benefit the country, says this association, but in bringing out the buried resources of our own mines and increasing the home market for American goods and American labor. The extra cost of American labor is, after all, accounted for mainly by the better manner of living of American laborers; their earnings are distributed among the American consumers of their wares, instead of being sent abroad to pay foreign laborers, while the native products utilized are so much clear gain. The tin, a small percentage of the sheets as above shown, would be imported to this country directly from Australia or the Dutch East Indies and “Straits Settlements,” but aside from this the materials used would be American products. In 1882 there were 480,596,480 pounds of British tin and terne plates sold in the United States, valued at $18,000,000 at Liverpool, and costing about $2,000,000 more for transportation. For this tin the American consumers paid about $30,000,000. To produce this in the United States would cost about as follows:

Tin (to be Imported), lbs 25,000,000
Tallow, home product, lbs 10,000,000
Sulphuric acid, lbs 30,000,000
Lead, lbs 5,000,000
Iron ore, tons 850,000
Limestone, tons 300,000
Coal, tons 1,500,000
Pig iron, tons 300,000
Charcoal, bu 5,000,000
Labor $12,000,000
Interest on $30,000,000, capital
invested in machinery 1,800,000
Cost of repairs 1,000,000
Oils and lubricants 100,000
Insurance and taxes 1,000,000

The whole of this amount, excepting the cost of the 25,000,000 pounds of tin ore, or “block tin,” would be produced and the money involved kept at home. Such is the substance of the arguments used by the American Tinned Plate Association to induce Congress to increase the tariff on “tin and terne plates.”

DEATH RATE OF CITIES.

NEW ORLEANS, La.

Will you state the death rate in the principal cities of America
and Europe?

E. C.

_Answer._—The following represents the number of deaths per annum in the United States out of 1,000 inhabitants, according to the census of 1879: New York, 25.82; Boston, 19.80; Philadelphia, 17.20; Chicago, 17.20; St. Louis, 18.19; New Orleans, 21.60. The deaths per 1,000 in the following European cities were as follows: London, 22.83; Berlin, 27.81; Paris, 22.04.

A STANZA FROM MRS. BROWNING.

PONTOOSUC, Ill.

The lines quoted in the inquiry of “A Reader” in THE WEEKLY INTER
OCEAN of Aug. 30 are from the pen of that grand Christian poetess,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and may be found in the fifth verse of
the beautiful poem, “A Woman’s Shortcomings.” One of the lines is a
little different from what your questioner has it. I will give you
the whole verse:

“Unless you can muse in a crowd all day,
On the absent face that fixed you;
Unless you can love as the angels may,
With the breadth of heaven betwixt you;
Unless you can dream that his faith is fast,
Through behooving and unbehooving;
Unless you can die when the dream is past—
Oh, never call it loving!”

Your correspondent has the fourth line, “With the breath of heaven
between you.”

MILLARD E. LITTLE.

CORN IN DAKOTA.

PIERRE, D. T.

I notice that in THE WEEKLY INTER OCEAN of Aug. 23, in answer to W. K., Chicago, you say that corn is generally conceded to be a hazardous crop in Southern Dakota. That theory is like the one of olden time, that Dakota is a vast wilderness where only the sagebrush and wild buffalo abound. Both theories have been exploded by actual demonstration, and it is no longer an experiment. Corn ripens in South Dakota in from 90 to 100 days from date of planting, which is 10 to 15 days shorter time than it takes in Northern Illinois or Iowa. It is the soil, the long days and short nights that do it; and there are numerous farmers here who can testify to the fact.

W. B. STEERE, M. D.

A GULLED ENGLISHMAN.

CAPRON, Ill.

In reply to the inquiry of one of your correspondents, referred to me, as to whether there is “any truth in the statement made in a book published by some returned English tourists, to the effect that an itinerant lecturer advertised to give an entertainment at Capron, Ill., and at the close of the lecture shoot himself dead; that the home was crowded at $1 a head; and that, true to the programme, at the conclusion of his speech, this peripatetic orator actually committed suicide,” I would say that there was such a story written by a barber here, which was published in the county paper. It was false. The lecture never was given; at least the funeral never came off.

ALEXANDER VANCE, P. M.

SAINT SIMON, THE SOCIALIST.

DANVILLE, Ill.

Who was Saint Simon, and what were his principles?

JOHN SHORT.

_Answer._—Claude Henri, Saint Simon, was a French nobleman, who was noted as a social philosopher and the founder of the sect named for him Saint Simonians. He entered the American army in 1778, at 18 years of age, and served therein with distinction and honor. While returning to his native land he was captured by British seamen and carried to Jamaica, where he remained until 1783. When at length he reached France he won many disciples to his socialistic views, and before his death, in 1823, he wrote several works upon philosophy and social reform. His greatest work was the ‘Nouveau Christianisme’ (New Christianity), in which he embodies his final and complete design for the amelioration of the poor and the preservation of society. He advocates a social hierarchy, controlling and regulating the choice of vocations, the fixing of salaries, the division of heritages, whose chief aim it shall be “to make the labors of each conduce to the good of all;” and to aid his projects he advised the union of France and England.

DIXON AND ELGIN BRIDGE DISASTERS.

BLENDON, Kan.

Please state the date and the occasion of the Dixon bridge
disaster, with the number of killed and wounded.

SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—This calamity occurred on Sunday afternoon, May 4, 1873, resulting in the death from drowning and injuries of over forty men, women, and children, and the serious injury of nearly forty others. Its immediate cause was the overcrowding of the bridge by spectators of an immersion service of the Baptist Church of that city. The real cause was the faulty construction of the bridge, which was an iron structure, known as a Truesdell truss. It was a wagon and root bridge of five spans, each about 120 feet long. Both shore spans fell into the water while the three middle ones, resting entirely upon stone piers, remained suspended by the wrought-iron members of the main cords from six to eight feet below their proper place, dropped down between the piers. The number of persons on the first span that went down was variously estimated to be from 150 to 200, representing a weight of not more than 30,000 pounds. A Truesdell bridge, erected over Fox River at Elgin, fell in December, 1868. This was rebuilt by Mr. Truesdell. On Monday, July 5, 1869, a crowd of about 300 persons gathered on the bridge to witness a tub race, when the east span, 68 feet in length, fell, precipitating about one hundred men, women, and children into the water. Fortunately the stream was but about four feet deep at this time, and no persons were drowned and but two or three deaths followed from injuries received.

CONGRESSMAN GEORGE W. JULIAN.

NEODESHA, Kan.

Was the Hon. George W. Julian a Republican? Describe in brief his
life.

E. K. KRONE.

_Answer._—George Washington Julian was born in Centerville, Ind., May 5, 1817. After receiving a common school education he was admitted to the bar in 1840. He was chosen a member of the Legislature in 1845. From 1849 to 1851 he represented his district in Congress. The Pittsburg convention nominated him on the Free Democratic ticket for Vice President with John P. Hale for President. In 1856 he was prominent among the organizers of the Republican party. In 1861 he was re-elected to Congress, where he continued to do excellent service for several terms.

GEOLOGICAL DIVISIONS OF TIME.

Please give the geological divisions of time, beginning with the
present, and a brief explanation of each.

N. JAY DEEMS.

_Answer._—The divisions of time established by geologists are based upon the formations of strata and the advents of different forms of animal life. The history of the earth is divided into five “eras,” seven “ages,” twenty-two “periods,” and the last two periods are subdivided into seven epochs. These divisions, proceeding from the fifth downward to the first, are as follows: 5. Psychozoic era, age of man, human period, and recent epoch. 4. Cenozoic era, age of mammals—embracing the quaternary period, which comprehends the terrace, Champlain, and glacial epochs, and the tertiary period, which comprehends the pliocene, miocene, and eocene epochs. 3. Mesozoic, or middle, era, the age of reptiles, the cretaceous, jurassic, and triassic periods. 2. Paleozoic era, the carboniferous age, or age of acrogens and amphibians; the Devonian age, or age of fishes; the silurian age, or age of invertebrates, or mollusks—the names of the fourteen periods into which these ages are divided are not in common use. 1. Archaean, or eozoic era; the archaean age, and the Huronian and Laurentian periods. For an explanation of the terms used in this division consult Webster’s or Worcester’s unabridged dictionaries, and study the clear illustration accompanying the word “Geology” in the former work.

SUBMARINE CABLES.

EVERGREEN, Iowa.

How many telegraph cables cross the Atlantic, and where? How many
ocean cables are there in all?

GUY SMITH.

_Answer._—There were in 1879 seven telegraph cables between Europe and America—five from Ireland, one from France, and one from Portugal to Brazil. Since then a new cable has been laid between New York and Flores, in the Azores, from which one extension runs off to France, England, and Holland, and another to Fayal, San Miguel, and Lisbon, embracing in all 7,300 miles. The longest line before this latter was the French cable, 2,585 nautical miles. There are now some 225 ocean cables in all parts of the world, of the aggregate length of over 68,000 miles.

“I” AND “WE” IN JOURNALISM.

DAYTON, Ohio.

1. What is the rule of THE INTER OCEAN as to the use of
the pronouns “I” and “we” in the office and in editorial
correspondence? 2. What is your rule respecting a contributor’s
using “we” when referring to himself?

J. W. H.

_Answer._—1. The use of the word “we,” under all circumstances, is deprecated. Senator Conkling once said: “Only three classes of people are allowed to say ‘we:’ Kings, editors, and men with a tape-worm.” In this office “THE INTER OCEAN” is used instead of “we.” 2. Correspondents use “I,” when necessary, but are instructed to be as impersonal as possible. “Your correspondent” is preferred.

PROVIDENCE SPRING—ANDERSONVILLE PRISON.

GILMAN, Iowa.

Is it true that in the Andersonville prison pen, during the late
civil war, at a time when the water in the creek had become very
scarce and foul and the captive Unionists were dying from this
cause, a spring suddenly burst out of the hillside? If this is
a fact, state some of the particulars, giving the date of the
occurrence.

H. W.

_Answer._—It is a fact, and, whether it was a “special providence” or not, as most, if not all, of those wretched prisoners believed, it served all the purposes of one, as much as the miracle in the desert of Sinai, when Moses smote the rock, and the waters gushed forth which saved the thirst-stricken hosts of Israel. Of the origin of this spring John McElroy, who spent fourteen months in Southern prison pens, gives substantially the following account: “Toward the end of August, 1864, the water in the creek was indescribably bad. Before the stream entered the stockade it was rendered too filthy for any use by the contaminations from the camp of the guards, situated about half a mile above. Immediately upon entering the stockade its pollution became terrible. The oozy seep at the bottom of the hillsides drained directly into it all the filth from a population of 33,000. Imagine the condition of an open sewer through the heart of a city of that many people, and receiving all the offensive products of so dense a population into a shallow, sluggish stream a yard wide and five inches deep, heated by the burning rays of the sun at the thirty-second parallel of latitude.’ The prisoners dug wells in the swampy earth with their pocket-knives to a depth of 20 to 30 feet, pulling up the earth in pantaloon-legs. But a drought came on and these wells, which at the best were not free from pollution, began to fail. To approach too close, even by a hair’s breadth, to the “dead-line” on the west side of the stockade, where the creek entered, in the effort to get water as free from filth as possible, was to sign one’s death warrant, which the whizzing bullet of the heartless guard executed instantly. “More wicked and unjustifiable murders were never committed than those almost daily assassinations at the creek,” says the historian. Sickness had multiplied in this horrible prison-pen until the wretched victims of such barbarism sat face to face with despair constantly. At this awful extremity what was the astonishment and gratitude of the camp one morning, when it was discovered that “during the night a large, bold spring had burst out on the north side, about midway between the swamp and the summit of the hill, and pouring out was a grateful flood of pure, sweet water, in an apparently exhaustless quantity.” This was the morning of Aug. 13, 1864. The overjoyed Union prisoners christened it “Providence spring,” the fitting name by which it is still known.

CATTLE IN THE UNITED STATES.

JETMORE, Kan.

State the total number of cattle in the United States, and what
percentage of them are milch cows.