Part 18

_Answer._—The ordinary means of lighting and warming Esquimaux igloos, or winter huts, is a large basin of oil furnished with moss wick. These basins are scolloped from soapstone or similar material. The oil is the product of the whale, seal, or other fish, or of the white bear, but usually the former. Igloos are huts usually a half or more underground, and finished above ground with stones, bones, turf, and moss, and finally with ice and snow. Sometimes they are constructed of blocks of ice and compact snow, with transparent ice windows. The igloo is reached by a long tunnel-like entrance, is unventilated, and soon after the great lamp is lit the heat from this and the warmth from the bodies of the inmates render the mephitic air almost suffocating. These people, generally, eat their food raw or but half cooked.

GOTHAM.

CHICAGO, Ill.

Why is New York City called “Gotham?” What is the origin and meaning of Gotham?

J. C. STARR.

_Answer._—In “Salmagundi,” a humorous work written by Washington Irving, his brother William, and James K. Paulding, this name is applied to New York, to suit the purpose of the authors in representing the inhabitants as given to undue pretensions to wisdom. Of course, the allusion is to the inhabitants of Gotham, a parish in Nottinghamshire, England, who were as remarkable for their stupidity as for their conceit. All the follies of English wiseacres were attributed to them. Fuller says: “The proverb of ‘as wise as a man of Gotham’ passeth publicly for the periphrasis of a fool; and a hundred fopperies are forged and fathered on the townsfolk of Gotham.” It was said that when King John was about to pass through Gotham toward Nottingham he was prevented by the inhabitants, who thought that the ground over which a king passed became forever a public road. When the King sent to punish them they resorted to an expedient to avert their sovereign’s wrath. According to this, when the avengers arrived they found the people each engaged in some foolish occupation or other, so that the King’s messengers returned to court and reported that Gotham was a village of fools. In time a book appeared, entitled “Certain Merry Tales of the Mad Men of Gotham,” compiled in the reign of Henry VIII., by Andrew Borde, a sort of traveling quack, from whom the occupation of the “Merry Andrew” is said to be derived. Among these tales is the story of “The Three Wise Men of Gotham,” who went to sea in a bowl. The book had a wonderful sale. Walpole attributed it to Lucas de Heere, a Flemish painter, resident in England in the time of Queen Elizabeth, but the weight of evidence is in favor of Borde’s being the author, or compiler, it being mostly a compilation of popular legends even then from four to five hundred years old.

ST. PETER’S AND COLOGNE CATHEDRAL.

FOX LAKE, Wis.

Which is larger, St. Peter’s Cathedral or the cathedral at Cologne? Please give the dimensions of both.

ELLA LYLE.

_Answer._—The dimensions of St. Peter’s at Rome, the largest cathedral in the world, are as follows: Length of the interior, 613½ English feet; of transept, 446½ feet; height of nave, 152½ feet; and the diameter of cupola, 193 feet. The height of the dome from the pavement to the top of the cross is 448 feet. Cologne cathedral is 511 feet long, and 231 feet broad. The towers are 511 feet high. This famous building, founded by Archbishop Conrad, designed by Architect Gerhard von Riehl, and commenced Aug. 15, 1248, was not completed until Aug. 14, 1880. It was solemnly opened with august ceremonies, Oct. 15, of the same year.

ORIGIN OF CHESS.

FARMINGTON, Minn.

Please state the origin of the game of chess.

O. H. BAKER.

_Answer._—Chess is such an ancient game that its origin is unknown. Many of the most learned Oriental scholars have written upon the subject, appealing to history and philology to support their theories. It has been ascribed to a Chinese mandarin by the name of Han-Sing, who, it is said, invented it as an amusement for his soldiers when in winter quarters, about 174 B. C. They call it “the play of the science of war.” Sir William Jones, the great Sanscrit scholar, claimed that Hindu traditions, the names of the pieces, and other particulars indicate that chess was played in India in the earliest times. He writes that a learned Brahmin assured him that it was mentioned in several of the oldest books of India, where it was declared that it was invented by the wife of one of the most ancient kings of Ceylon to amuse that monarch while Rama was besieging his metropolis. This, by their reckoning, was 2,000 to 3,000 years before the commencement of our era. On the other hand, several later scholars of Sanscrit think it was invented in India by Buddhists some time between the third and ninth centuries, A. D., a theory inconsistent with the unwarlike nature of Buddhism and the fact that the Hindu name of the game, “chaturanga,” is a military name, signifying the game of armies, corresponding with the Chinese name for chess, given above. Others have ascribed this game to the Babylonians, Persians, Scythians, Egyptians, Jews, Greeks, or Romans, according to their several theories, but the weight of evidence is in favor of its being of Indian or Chinese origin, and this is now the generally accepted belief.

STATE SECRETARIES.

CHICAGO, Ill.

Oblige us with a list of the names of Secretaries of State for the principal Western States.

B.

_Answer._—Since the names of the Secretaries of State for Texas, Oregon, and Washington Territory are called for by another correspondent, and such information is not within convenient reach of most persons, we give below a full list of Secretaries of all the States and Territories. Persons wishing information in regard to State inducements to immigration, State resources, taxation, etc., can usually obtain it by writing to the Secretary of State, who will transmit the question to the proper officer for the reply called for.

Alabama—Ellis Phelan. Arkansas—Jacob Frolich. California—T. L. Thompson. Colorado—Melvin Edwards. Connecticut—D. Ward Northrop. Delaware—William F. Cansey. Florida—John L. Crawford. Georgia—N. C. Barrett. Illinois—Henry D. Dement. Indiana—William R. Meyers. Iowa—John A. T. Hull. Kansas—James Smith. Kentucky—James Blackburn. Louisiana—William A. Strong. Maine—Joseph O. Smith. Maryland—James T. Briscoe. Massachusetts—Henry B. Pierce. Michigan—Henry A. Conant. Minnesota—F. Von Baumbach. Mississippi—Henry C. Meyers. Missouri—Michael K. McGrath. Nebraska—Edward P. Roggen. Nevada—J. M. Dormer. New Hampshire—A. B. Thompson. New Jersey—Henry C. Kelsey. New York—Joseph B. Carr. North Carolina—Wm. L. Saunders. Ohio—Sames W. Newman. Oregon—R. P. Earhart. Pennsylvania—Wm. S. Stenger. Rhode Island—J. M. Addeman. South Carolina—R. M. Sims. Tennessee— ——. Texas—Thomas H. Bowman. Vermont—George Nichols. Virginia—Wm. C. Elam. West Virginia—Randolph Stalkner, Jr. Wisconsin—Ernst G. Trimme. Arizona—George H. Hand. Idaho—Thomas F. Singiser. Montana—L. D. McCutcheon. New Mexico—Wm. G. Ritch. Utah—Arthur L. Thomas. Washington—N. H. Owings. Wyoming—Elliott S. N. Morgan.

CONGRESSMEN-AT-LARGE.

NEWTON, Iowa.

Explain what is to be understood by “Congressmen-at-large.”

INQUIRER.

_Answer._—The act of Congress of February, 1882, provided for a reapportionment of the membership of the House of Representatives, based on the census of 1880, provided that in the cases of States entitled under this apportionment to additional representation, the additional members in the Forty-eighth Congress might be elected on a general State ticket; also, that in all cases where the number of representatives was reduced, as in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, the whole number for such State should be elected at large, “unless the Legislatures of said States have provided or shall provide before the time fixed by law for the next election of Representatives therein.” Kansas, for example, which is entitled by this act to four additional representatives, did not redistrict before the last Congressional election, and so she elected four Congressmen at large, viz., Edmund W. Morrill, Lewis Hanback, Samuel R. Peters, and Bishop W. Perkins. Maine did not redistrict, so all her representatives were elected at large, instead of by districts.

CONTESTANTS OF SEATS IN CONGRESS.

BLOOMINGTON, Iowa.

To settle a dispute between me and a Greenbacker, who claims that when a seat is contested in Congress the contestant doesn’t draw any pay if he fails to get the seat, except his expenses, while I contend that both draw pay until the contest is decided, state which is right.

JOHN TAYLOR.

_Answer._—Section 2 of chapter 182 of “Supplement to the Revised Statutes of the United States,” par. 15, says: “That hereafter no contestee or contestant for a seat in the House of Representatives shall be paid exceeding $2,000 for expenses in election contests; and before any sum whatever shall be paid to a contestant or contestee for expenses of election contests he shall file with the clerk of the Committee on Elections a full and detailed account of his expenses, accompanied by the vouchers and receipts of each item, which shall be sworn to by the party presenting the same.” Nevertheless it is customary for Congress to vote compensation to contestants by appropriations in the nature of “relief bills,” where each case is presumed to stand on its own merits.

BALLOONS AND THEIR PERFORMANCES.

AUBURN, D. T.

Please give some facts as to the capacity of balloons; what is used to fill them, and what are some of the greatest balloon performances?

L. J. SWARTZ.

_Answer._—The buoyancy of a balloon depends on the weight of the gas with which it is inflated compared with the weight of common air, bulk for bulk. Hydrogen is the lightest of all known substances. A cubic foot of atmospheric air at a temperature of 34 degrees weighs 527.04 troy grains, while a cubic foot of hydrogen is about fourteen and a half times lighter than this. Coal gas is about two and a half times lighter than air. If a balloon would contain 1,000 pounds of atmospheric air at temperature of 34 degrees Fahrenheit, but filled with coal gas would weigh, all told—covering, gas, and appendages—600 pounds, it would rise with a force equal to the difference of these two numbers, or 400 pounds. Mr. Glaisher, not long since, constructed a balloon containing 90,000 cubic feet of coal gas, that carried 600 pounds, and rose to the unsurpassed height of 7½ miles, where the barometer, which stands at about 30 at sea level, sank to only 7 inches, showing an atmosphere of only about 22 per cent of the weight at sea level. The longest balloon trip on record is that of the late Professor J. Wise and Mr. La Mountain. Starting from St. Louis for New York City, they traveled 1,150 miles in a little less than twenty hours, when, being caught in a contrary current, they were compelled to desist. Mr. Lowe’s mammoth balloon was said to contain 700,000 cubic feet of coal gas and have a lifting power of 22½ tons; but it was badly constructed and accomplished nothing remarkable. In some 10,000 recorded ascents made since the Montgolfiers invented their famous balloons, just 100 years ago this year, there have been but fifteen deaths among 1,500 aeronauts; which indicates less danger in this business than is generally supposed.

JEFFERSON DAVIS.

FERRY, Mich.

1. Give a short biography of Jefferson Davis.

G. F. PAGE.

_Answer._—Jefferson Davis was born in Kentucky in 1808; first became prominent in politics as a member of the House of Representatives, and later as Senator from Mississippi. He served in the Mexican war, having been educated at West Point. During President Pierce’s administration Davis was Secretary of War, and was said to rule both President and Cabinet. In 1857 he was returned to the Senate, where he remained until chosen President of the Confederacy in 1861. This office he held for four years. In 1865, after the fall of Richmond, Davis was captured and imprisoned in Fortress Monroe for two years; was released on bail in 1867, and finally liberated by the general amnesty, Dec. 25, 1868. He is still disqualified from holding any office of honor or emolument under the General Government.

GOVERNMENT PUBLIC LAND SALES.

SHELDON, Iowa.

I have heard on good authority of the sale, by officers of public land offices, of timber claims at public auction to the highest bidder for cash. Is there any authority of law for such a proceeding?

C. H. COTTLE.

_Answer._—Where large bodies of land are to be sold, a proclamation is issued in the name of the President, describing the tracts, and specifying the time and place of sale. When only a few isolated tracts of land, not embraced in the regular proclamations, are to be disposed of, notice is given in a local newspaper. The land is then sold to the highest bidder for cash only. Purchasers are not compelled to reside on or cultivate such lands. As the present policy of the government is to encourage pre-emption and homestead settlement and timber culture there are now few public land sales. Lands that have been offered at public sale but not sold may be bought at any time thereafter at the local land office if not withdrawn from market. This is called a private sale or entry.

MAGGIE MITCHELL.

VICKSBURG, Mich.

Please give a short biography of Maggie Mitchell. What is her present age?

S. C. VAN ANTWERP.

_Answer._—Maggie Mitchell, one of the best-known of American actresses, was born in New York City in 1832 of Scotch parents, in very humble circumstances. When very young she was employed in simple child parts in the old Bowery Theater, for a pittance, which went to help support the family. When not more than 19 years of age, she had advanced to playing parts of some importance, and about this time, 1851, she made her first appearance at Burton’s Theater as Julia, in the “Soldier’s Daughter,” which was her first capital success. Soon after this she went on a “starring tour” that proved profitable and widely extended her reputation. She made her first appearance in Philadelphia at the Chestnut Street Theater on March 20, 1854, as Constance in “The Love Chase.” Up to 1862 Miss Mitchell was content to appear in amusing characters, earning the reputation of a clever comedienne, but about this time she got hold of a clumsy, heavy dramatization of George Sand’s popular novelette, “La Petite Fadette.” She applied herself to the animating and popularizing of this play, and the result is her now famous drama “Fanchon,” many of the most charming and pathetic parts being entirely of her own creation. Since June 9, 1862, when she first produced “Fanchon” on the stage at Laura Keene’s Theater, New York, it has maintained a living interest which never fails to draw a house. Other plays of her composition or dramatization have followed, including “Jane Eyre,” “The Pearl of Savoy,” and “Mignon,” a stage rendering of an episode in Goethe’s “Wilhelm Meister,” but none have equaled, in popular esteem, Fanchon. Miss Mitchell was married Oct. 15, 1868, to Henry Paddock, of Cleveland, her present popular stage manager. Although she is now 51 years of age, she impersonates the girlish characters of her repertory with all the sprightliness and youthful vivacity that won the hearts of her auditors twenty years ago.

ARCHBISHOP LAUD—WHY BEHEADED.

Please give an account of the life, character, and death of Archbishop Laud.

C. P. B.

_Answer._—William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, the son of a Berkshire clothier, was born in 1573. He was ordained priest in 1601, and became vicar of Stanford in 1607. From this position he rose rapidly in power, by his executive ability and manifestation of hatred of Puritanism, until in 1628 he was appointed Bishop of London. Early in his career he had won the favor of the King, who thought he saw in him a powerful advocate of the doctrine of the divine right of kings, though Laud was really more interested in maintaining the divine right of Episcopacy. In 1617 he attempted, with the aid of King James, to establish the Episcopacy in Scotland, but in vain. In 1630 he was made Chancellor of Oxford, the center of high-church loyalty, and, according to the wish of his sovereign, attempted to repress Puritanism by slitting noses, clipping ears, fines, branding, and imprisonment. In the high-commission and star-chamber courts his power was almost absolute. But gradually he won the bitterest hatred of the English people, until in March, 1640, seven years after his appointment to the Archbishopric of Canterbury, he was imprisoned in the Tower by order of the House of Commons. He was brought to trial in the House of Lords, Nov. 13, 1693, on charge of treason and other crimes, of which they acquitted him; but they soon afterward gave their assent to the ordinance for his execution, passed by the Commons. He had lived until the Puritans, whom he had despised and persecuted, had come into power, he had made the Scots his implacable foes, and nothing less than his blood would satisfy them. Despite of a royal pardon, by an act of arbitrary power on the part of Parliament, overriding all constitutional precedents, he was beheaded Jan. 10, 1644.

VICTORIA’S CHILDREN AND CHILDREN-IN-LAW.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich.

Please name Queen Victoria’s children and their husbands and wives, and stations in life.

BELLE SHIPMAN.

_Answer._—The eldest child of Queen Victoria is Victoria Adelaide Maria Louise, Princess Royal, married to the Crown Prince, Frederick William, of Germany, Jan. 25, 1858. Her eldest son, the second child, is the Prince of Wales, Albert Edward, heir-apparent to the throne; married to the Princess Alexandra, eldest daughter of the King of Denmark, March 10, 1863. Her third child was Alice Maud Mary, married to Louis IV., Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt, July 1, 1862; died Nov. 15, 1878. Her fourth child is Alfred Ernest Albert, Duke of Edinburgh, married Jan. 23, 1874, to the Grand Duchess Maria of Russia. Her fifth is Helena Augusta Victoria, married July 5, 1866, to Prince Frederick Christian, of Schleswig-Holstein. Her sixth is Louise Caroline Alberta, married March 21, 1871, to John, Marquis of Lorne, present Governor General of Canada. Her seventh is Arthur William Patrick Albert, Duke of Connaught, married March 13, 1879, to Princess Louise Margaret, daughter of Prince Frederick Charles of Prussia. Her eighth is Leopold George Duncan Albert, Duke of Albany, married April 27, 1882, to the Princess Helen, daughter of the Prince of Waldeck. Her ninth is Beatrice Mary Victoria Feodora, still unmarried. We are not prepared to publish their pictures.

ROUTE TO SINALOA, MEXICO.

BALDWIN, La.

What is the route from here to Sinaloa, Mexico? Is the Northern part of that State good for the culture of sugar cane? To what market would one ship from there?

M. D. G.

_Answer._—The most direct route from New Orleans would be via the Southern Pacific and Sonora Railways to Guaymas, 353 miles southwest of Benson, on the Southern Pacific, where one can take steamer about the 15th or 16th of each month for Mazatlan, the principal port of Sinaloa, on the Gulf of California. Sugar cane, oranges, figs, and other semi-tropical and tropical fruits flourish in Sinaloa; particularly in the Valley of the Rio del Fuerte. Mazatlan furnishes a market for the products of the country, or one can ship to San Francisco or New York direct, via the California and Panama steamers.

FUSIBILITY OF ALLOYS.

HUDSON, M. T.

Why does it takes a hotter fire to melt pewter than lead?

J. B. L.

_Answer._—Pewter is an alloy, composed of tin and lead, sometimes with a little copper or antimony or bismuth, combined in different proportions, according to the purposes it is to serve. Plateware, which has a bright, silvery luster when polished, is composed of 100 parts of tin, 8 parts of antimony, 2 parts of bismuth, and 2 of copper. Brittannia ware is said to be an alloy of equal parts of brass, tin, antimony, and bismuth. Now it is characteristic of alloys that they are always more easily fusible than the least fusible metal entering into their composition, and some of them, strange to say, are more fusible than the least fusible of their constituents. For instance, although bismuth alone requires a heat of 476 degrees Fahrenheit to fuse it, lead 600 degrees, and tin 442 degrees, an alloy of these metals composed of five or eight parts of bismuth, two or five parts of lead, and three of tin, melts at 198 to 200 degrees; and an alloy of sodium composed of sodium and potassium in certain proportions melts at 80 degrees, although sodium alone requires 194 degrees and potassium 124 degrees to fuse them. The explanation is not fully determined, but it is to be found in the laws of chemical affinity. Different metals expand at different rates in the same degree of heat, which tends to separate the atoms; and electrical currents are produced which magnify the heat applied externally.

AUTHOR OF SCHONBERG-COTTA FAMILY.

LAKE CITY, Iowa.

Who is the author of “Schonberg-Cotta Family?” Give a short sketch of the same, and tell the correct pronunciation of Schonberg-Cotta.

AGGIE.

_Answer._—The authoress of “Schonberg-Cotta Family” is Mrs. Elizabeth Rundle Charles, only child of the late Hon. John Rundle, member of Parliament for Tavistock. She was born about 1826; received a liberal English education; was encouraged in literary work by her father; and has written a number of works of fiction of high moral tone, including the two historical fictions “Schonberg-Cotta Family” and the “Diary of Kitty Trevylyan,” intended to recall the early struggles of the two great reformers, Luther and Wesley. Among her other works are “The Martyrs of Spain and Liberators of Holland.” It is almost impossible to denote the German pronunciation of “o” in Schonberg without oral illustrations. Webster says that to utter this sound one must place the organs in the position for o long and then try to utter the sound of e in met. All the other syllables in the compound word, Schonberg-Cotta, are to be pronounced nearly as in English, except that the e in berg is almost like a long.

GOLD AND SILVER IN THE SEA.

PEORIA, Ill.

Is the expression, “There is gold in the sea,” only a poetic fiction or is it true? As a friend says that there is gold and silver in some kinds of sea water?

A CONSTANT READER.

_Answer._—Sea water is impregnated with certain chemical salts, including chlorides, sulphates, bromides, iodides, and carbonates, some of which have the power of dissolving gold and silver or holding them in solution. The chemist Sonstadt has recently shown that sea water contains nearly one grain of gold to the ton of water, held in solution by iodide of calcium; and it has been known for some years that the old copper stripped from the bottoms of ships is often so rich in silver taken from the sea that it pays a profit on the cost of smelting it. It is estimated that the ocean holds in solution at least 2,000,000 tons of silver. Assuming this to be the metric ton of 2,204.6 pounds, the above total is equivalent in weight to 77,448,000,000 American standard dollars—nearly seven times the total silver product of the world from the earliest times to the close of 1879, or $11,315,000, as estimated by that eminent statistician, the Russian councillor, Otreschkoff. A large discount might be made from these estimates, and yet there would be enough left, aside from all the treasures of sunken Spanish galleons and oriental argosies, to demonstrate that the saying, “There is gold in the sea,” is not merely a poetic fancy.

FRENCH POOLS—PARIS MUTUALS.

CHICAGO, Ill.

Kindly explain “French pools,” or “Paris mutuals,” as used in horse-racing circles.

R. L. K.