Chapter C: G. Boone

_Answer._—A night glass is simply a small terrestrial telescope, or spy-glass, ordinarily in the form of a large opera-glass, with an unusually large lens in the end toward the object to be viewed, called the object-glass, which serves to concentrate a large amount of light, and so render objects seen at night much more distinct than when viewed by either the naked eye or an ordinary spy-glass. Since it is a principle in optics that “it is impossible, by any optical arrangement whatever, to obtain an image whose brightest part shall surpass the brightest part of the object,” it is obvious that nothing seen through a night-glass, even in the clearest night, can appear as distinct as in daylight.

AMERICAN HISTORIANS.

WANDA, Ill.

Will you please publish a list of the principal American historians?

S.

_Answer._—Assuming that by “American historians” you mean historians born in America, we give the following list, naming first those who wrote chiefly of our own country, and afterward those who have written mainly of other countries: J. S. C. Abbott, b. 1805; d. 1877; George Bancroft, 1800; Richard Hildreth, 1807-1865; C. E. A. Gayarre, 1805; Francis Parkman, 1823; John C. Ridpath, 1840; John D. G. Shea, 1824; Jared Sparks, 1789-1866; James F. Cooper, 1789-1851; Hubert H. Bancroft, and Thomas H. Burton. W. H. Prescott, 1796-1859; John Lathrop Motley, 1814-1877, and Royal Robbins, 1788-1861.

SANDPAPER.

SHENANDOAH, Iowa.

Please describe the process of making sandpaper.

H. S. GALT.

_Answer._—Common window glass—that having a green tint is best—is powdered and sifted through sieves of varying fineness, for coarse and fine sandpaper. Then any coarse paper is covered with thin glue and the powdered glass is sifted upon it. After standing a day or two, the refuse sand is shaken off, and the paper is ready for use.

ALABASTER.

CLINTON, Ill.

Where is alabaster quarried and manufactured?

OLD PILGRIM.

_Answer._—Alabaster, or plaster of paris, is made in large quantities at Grand Rapids, Mich., where there are extensive beds of gypsum, the stone from which it is produced. Vases and other ornamental articles can be cut from the finest quality of this stone; but generally such articles are produced in Europe, where labor is cheaper and the class of workmen accustomed to this branch of art is numerous. The chief supply of European gypsum for fine arts is obtained at Sienna and other places in Tuscany, and manufactured at Florence, Milan, Leghorn, and Volterra.

RAILROADS ENTERING CHICAGO.

CHICAGO, Ill.

Please state the total number of railroads entering Chicago on
their own tracks or others, and oblige

SEVERAL READERS.

_Answer._—Hardly two persons would agree as to “the number of railroads entering Chicago on their own tracks or others,” for the reason that one person would count all the distinct roads named in the several coupons of every through ticket from any part of the United States, Canada, or Mexico to this city, while others would count only the roads chartered in Illinois and adjacent States running under separate managements, and entering Chicago over their own traces or leased right of way. The latter number about thirty-eight, the former amount to several hundred. There are twenty-seven great railway systems centering at Chicago and controlled mainly from this point, which embrace about 25,000 miles of track.

HARVARD, YALE, COLUMBIA.

WEST LEBANON, Ind.

Please give a comparison of Harvard, Yale, and Columbia Colleges in
wealth, number of students, and number of graduates.

A SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—According to the report of the Bureau of Education for 1880, these institutions compare, as regards wealth, as follows:

Productive Income Income
Colleges— funds. from funds. fr. tuition.

Harvard $3,959,556 $236,889 $122,835
Yale 1,293,078 79,943 102,912
Columbia 4,816,257 320,565 24,200

Besides the above, there is a scientific school connected with each of the above colleges with property, as follows:

Prod’tive Income Income
Scientific Dept.— funds fr. funds fr. tuit’n

Lawrence Scientific
School (Harvard) $729,623 $46,482 $2,505

Sheffield Scientific
School (Yale) 265,775 28,157 15,850

School of Mines
(Columbia) 36,500

As respects students enrolled and graduates of all departments, in the year above given, these institutions compared as in the totals below:

Number of Number of Degrees
Colleges— Students. conferred.

Harvard 974 264
Yale 952 232
Columbia 577 415

The degrees enumerated were all conferred “in course,” honorary degrees being omitted from this statement.

THE MAID OF THE MIST.

DANVILLE, Ill.

Are you not mistaken as to the time when the Maid of the Mist ran
through the great whirlpool in the Niagara River? Can you not give
a fuller description than appeared in Our Curiosity Shop of Aug. 16?

SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—The date here called in question is the one given for this feat in Clemens Petersen’s article on Niagara in “Johnson’s New Universal Cyclopedia,” but in THE DAILY INTER OCEAN of Sept. 1 we gave an account from the lips of DeWitt C. McMurtry, now of Philadelphia, who claims to be the only survivor of that perilous passage. He says the trip was made June 29 1859. He gives the dimensions of the stanch little steamer at “about 150 feet over all and 16 feet beam.” She was a side-wheeler, with new and powerful engines, usually carrying 125 or 130 pounds pressure of steam, but set at this time to blow off at 228 pounds. The run was made to evade the payment of a mortgage held by Judge Addington, of Buffalo, and under an offer from some Toronto parties to pay $25,000 for the Maid of the Mist if delivered at Queenstown, on the Canada side, at the mouth of the river. Joel Robinson, the captain, was offered $500, the engineer, a Mr. Jones, and the fireman, Mr. McMurtry, each $100, to undertake this task. The captain had himself lashed in the wheelhouse, and the other two were shut in below under battened hatches. The distance from the last landing above the whirlpool to Queenstown is just five miles, one mile of which is through the whirlpool-torrent. This distance was made in seven and three-quarter minutes, only two of which were spent in the rapids. The boat was dashed about at a terrible rate. “When she first struck the rapids,” says McMurtry, “our boat leaped downward perhaps thirty feet. Then she was hurled clear out of the water. Down she would go, as if she would never stop, when suddenly she would right herself and, with a bound which seemed almost human, leap out of the water. The current runs forty-five miles an hour and the waves are twenty feet high. Jones and I were almost killed by the quickly succeeding shocks. I felt my strength rapidly oozing away as I clung to the hand-rails for dear life. There was barely time to catch my breath between concussions. Suddenly the current struck her sideways, she swung around, and shot down the stream. We had escaped the whirlpool. When I got out at Queenstown the water was waist high, the boat had been so racked and wrenched in her passage.” Jones died soon afterward. Robinson survived several years longer. According to this witness no one perished in the passage, as is stated in some narratives of the affair.

FEMALE SUFFRAGE IN NEW JERSEY.

CHICAGO, Ill.

What State was it that permitted women to vote ninety years ago?

J. M. SNOW.

_Answer._—It was New Jersey; which organized as an independent State two days before the declaration of independence, with a constitution that allowed universal suffrage, male and female, without regard to color. This constitution was not altered until 1844, when, among other changes, the suffrage was restricted to males; largely because of the apathy shown by women, especially those of the better class, in regard to the exercise of the ballot.

UNION AND REBEL PRISONERS

SWAN, Iowa.

Give the number of prisoners taken on both sides during the late
war. State how many died while prisoners; and, if possible, tell
how many Union soldiers once in Southern prisons still survive. How
many graves in National Cemeteries?

A PRISONER OF WAR.

_Answer._—The number of Union soldiers captured by the Confederates during the late war was 212,608. The number of Confederate prisoners taken was 476,169. The number of Union soldiers who died while prisoners was 29,725, or little more than one in seven of all captured. The number of Confederates who died while prisoners was 26,774, or very nearly one in eighteen. The total number of graves in the National cemeteries is 315,555, only 172,409 of which have been identified. There is no means of learning how many who were once Union prisoners still survive.

BATTLE OF SOLFERINO.

CAMBRIDGE, Wis.

In what war was the battle of Solferino fought; and what gave this
place so much importance?

R. D. THOMPSON.

_Answer._—The battle of Solferino was fought in 1859 between the French, under the Emperor Louis Napoleon, and the Sardinians, under Victor Emanuel on the side of the victors, and the Austrians, the oppressors of Italy, led by the Emperor Francis Joseph. Solferino is a place of no importance in itself, being but a village of some 1,400 inhabitants, situated in the province of Brescia, North Italy. Its position, with its famous tower, called the “Spy of Italy,” because it commands a view of the whole broad plain of Lombardy, gives it great strategic importance; and in this war, which was, in fact, for the independence and unity of Italy, the battle of Magenta, twenty days earlier, in which the Austrians were driven from the field with a loss of 9,713 killed and about 11,000 wounded and missing, and this decisive victory at Solferino, in which the allies lost about 18,000 killed and wounded and the Austrians 20,000, besides 6,000 prisoners and 30 cannon, resulted in the treaty of Villafranca, ceding Lombardy to Sardinia and virtually terminating Austrian interference in Italian affairs; so paving the way to the ultimate unification of Italy, which quickly followed.

RESUMPTION OF SPECIE PAYMENT.

BLAIR, Neb.

Was the acts for the resumption of specie payments a Republican or
Democratic measure? Please give the vote on the passage of the bill.