Part 21

New Hampshire $282,595.51 Rhode Island 200,000.00 Massachusetts 3,981,733.05 Connecticut 1,600,000.00 New York 1,183,716.69 New Jersey 695,202.70 Pennsylvania 777,983.48 Delaware 59,161.65 Maryland 517,491.08 Virginia, including Kentucky 2,934,416.00 North Carolina 1,793,803.85 South Carolina 3,999,651.73 Georgia 246,030.73 —————————————— $18,271,786.47

The foreign loans made by the United States during the revolutionary war pledged the faith of all the States. These amounted in toto to $150,000 from the Spanish Government; about 8,000,000 guilders by subscription in Holland, and 18,000,000 livres from the French Government, besides the free gifts of the French King, “forming an object,” wrote Franklin, “of at least 12,000,000 livres, from which no returns but that of gratitude and friendship are expected. These, I hope, may be everlasting.”

ORIGIN OF JOURNALISM.

PARIS, Texas.

1. Were any newspapers or periodicals published before the invention of printing? 2. Give a short sketch of the advancement of journalism.

FRANK LEE.

_Answer._—1. At a very early period daily news letters were circulated, concerning public and official acts, in Rome, Venice, and China. 2. The first printed newspaper was the _Gazette_, published in Nuremberg in 1457, and the oldest paper extant is the _Neue Zeitung aus Hispanien und Italien_, printed in the same city in 1534. Other countries followed Germany in issuing printed newspapers in the following order: England in 1622; France, 1631; Sweden, 1644; Holland, 1656; Russia, 1703; Turkey, 1827. The progress of journalism has been most rapid in America. The first American newspaper consisting of three pages of two columns each and a blank page, was published in Boston, Sept. 25, 1690, under the name of “Publick Occurences, both Foreign and Domestic,” but it was immediately suppressed. In 1704 the Boston _News Letter_ appeared, printed on one sheet of foolscap paper. It flourished for seventy-two years. The following data will show the advancement in the United States:

First printing office in 1639. First newspaper in 1690. First political newspaper in 1733. First daily paper in 1784. First penny paper in 1833. First illustrated paper in 1853.

In 1880 there were published in America (United States and Canada) 10,131 newspapers and periodicals—899 dailies, 8,428 weeklies, tri-weeklies and semi-weeklies, and 804 monthlies and semi-monthlies. More than 6,000 of this number belong to the United States, and the annual circulation is about 1,500,000,000.

WHO VOTE IN GREAT BRITAIN.

GLENVILLE, Minn.

What class of persons are allowed to vote for members of Parliament in Great Britain?

T. W.

_Answer._—The “Commons of England” consists of the representatives of shires or counties, representatives of cities, and representatives of boroughs. For representatives of boroughs every man is entitled to vote who is of full age and not subject to any legal incapacity, provided he is on the last day of July in any year, and has during the whole of the preceding twelve months been an “inhabitant occupier,” as owner or tenant, of any dwelling-house within the borough; has during the time of such occupation been rated (or taxed) “as an ordinary occupier in respect of the premises so occupied by him within the borough to all rates made for the relief of the poor in respect of such premises,” and has paid the said rate; or has occupied as a lodger in the same borough separately, and as sole tenant for the time above designated, “a part of one and the same dwelling house, of a clear yearly value, if let unfurnished, of £10 or upward.” For representatives of counties any man may be registered as a voter who is of full age, and not subject to any legal incapacity, who shall be in possession at law or in equity of any lands or tenements, of copyhold, or any other tenure whatever, except freehold, for his own lifetime or for the life of another or for any larger estate of the clear yearly value of not less than £5 over and above all rents and charges, who is on the last day of July of any year (and has been during the preceding twelve months) the occupier as owner or tenant of lands or tenements within the county of the ratable value of £12 or upward, and has paid all poor rates rated to him. The qualifications of city electors are not materially different from those above given. Of the 487 members for England and Wales, 187 represent counties, 295 cities and boroughs, and 5 represent the three universities.

The qualifications of electors in Scotland and Ireland are somewhat different. In Scotland, the burgher franchise is given to every man of full age who has been for twelve months an occupier, as owner or tenant, of any dwelling, and has paid his poor rates, and not been in receipt of parochial relief during that time. The lodger franchise consists in the permission of any lodger to vote who has occupied in the same burgh separately, and as sole tenant for twelve months, a lodging worth £10. In the counties the ownership franchise requires the property to be worth an annual net rental of £5, and a residential qualification of six months. In Ireland the borough franchise requires a lodging of the value of £4, where in England it must be at least £10, the other qualifications being similar to those required in England.

TYPE-WRITERS.

CHAPIN, Iowa.

What are the advantages gained by the use of type-writers? By whom were they invented, and where?

G. W. ADAMS.

_Answer._—Perhaps the earliest form of a type-writer is a rude machine invented in England in 1714, without any practical fruits. M. Foucault, sent to the Paris Exposition of 1855 a writing machine for the blind; but the first of what are now popularly known as type-writers was patented in 1868, by C. L. Sholes, of Wisconsin. This has been improved until now it is possible to attain a speed of seventy-five to eighty words a minute in writing with this machine, which is fast enough for reporting speeches. The principal advantages gained are rapidity of execution and legibility. A type-writer can write with both hands and several fingers in instant succession, every letter being made with a single light touch instead of requiring from three to seven distinct strokes and dots, as in ordinary script.

NOT ONE CENT FOR TRIBUTE.

EAU CLAIRE, Wis.

By whom and when was the remark used: “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute”?

JOHN J. MAGINNIS.

_Answer._.—An ill-feeling grew up between the United States and France soon after the breaking out of the great French revolution, near the close of the last century. France seemed determined that our government should take active part with it in hostilities against Great Britain. Washington and the Federal party insisted on strict neutrality. The French Minister, Citizen Genet, encouraged by the strong French sympathies of the Republicans of those days and the almost universal ill-feeling toward Great Britain, undertook to set President Washington’s proclamation of neutrality at defiance by an appeal to the people, encouraged the organization of secret political societies opposed to the administration, and even instituted recruiting for the French army on American soil. His course became so obnoxious that Washington demanded his recall. M. Fauchet was sent to succeed him, but the ill-feeling rather increased than diminished. In 1796 Charles C. Pinckney, of South Carolina, one of our revolutionary heroes, was sent to France as United States Minister, charged, among other matters, to negotiate a settlement of all differences, on the basis of American neutrality. The French Directory treated him with an incivility almost unbearable, and finally ordered him to quit the country. He withdrew to Amsterdam for a time, but, on some change of affairs in France, returned in the early part of 1797, when Talleyrand, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, declined to treat further until his government had received a payment from the United States in the nature of a present or tribute, and threatened war as the consequence of a refusal. Thereupon Pinckney gave utterance to the patriotic exclamation, “War be it then; millions for defense, sir, but not a cent for tribute.” These words were caught up by the administration party at home and echoed and re-echoed throughout the land until, in 1798, Congress was nerved to provide a strong naval armament. Later Washington, who had been succeeded in the Presidency by John Adams, was called to the chief command of the army, several French vessels were captured in reprisal for damages inflicted on American citizens, and an open declaration of war was daily looked for, when Napoleon I. came into power, and France, satisfied that the United States was in stern earnest, made overtures for reconciliation, which resulted in the treaty of 1800, honorable to all concerned.

RAINFALL OF THE UNITED STATES.

MASON, Ill.

Please give the rainfall in different portions of the United States.

T. M. TRIPLETT.

_Answer._—There is a small circle in Central Florida where the annual rainfall ranges from sixty to seventy inches. There is a belt covering Western Alabama, Eastern Mississippi, also Southern Louisiana for fifty to sixty miles on either side of the Mississippi River, where it measures from sixty to sixty-four inches. But the heaviest rainfall in the United States is in Alaska, where it is over eighty inches, and along the western coast of Oregon and Washington Territory, between the Cascade Range and the Pacific, increasing from sixty-eight inches south of the Columbia River to eighty inches on Puget Sound. In Central Georgia and South Carolina it is fifty-two to forty-eight; in Central North Carolina and Virginia, diminishing northward, it is forty-eight to thirty-six. Along the Atlantic coast, for about seventy-five miles inward, it ranges from forty-four inches at Savannah to forty in Connecticut, and thence increases to forty-four in Northern Maine. Along both flanks of the Alleghanies and Blue Ridge it is nearly uniform at 40. In most of the region south of the Ohio and Missouri, from Eastern Tennessee to Eastern Texas, it ranges from 48 inches in the south to 44 in the north, and the latter is about the average for Southern Indiana and Southwestern Ohio. The average for Illinois and Northern Indiana and Pennsylvania is about 40. For Western New York, Northern Ohio, lower Michigan, Wisconsin, Southeastern Minnesota, and most of Iowa it ranges from 40 to 32, diminishing toward the great lakes. West of the Missouri it ranges from 30 inches in Eastern Kansas to 26 in Dakota, and diminishes toward the Rocky Mountains. In Southern Texas it ranges from 48 near the southeastern corner to 28 on the Rio Grande, and diminishes to 34 in the northeastern, and 29 in the northwestern corners. In California the rainfall ranges from 60 inches on the northern coast to 9 or 10 in the south, and diminishes inland to 8 or 10 in the mountain districts, and still less in the desert regions. As for the greater part of the region embracing all the Territories except Alaska, Washington, and Southeastern Dakota, all of Colorado and Nevada, the western parts of Kansas, Nebraska and Dakota, and the eastern portion of Oregon, the rainfall varies between 10 inches and 22. Here and there within this region there are districts almost rainless. This is most common in Northern Arizona and Utah.

PESTALOZZI AND FROEBEL.

DUNLAP, Iowa.

Please give a short sketch of the lives of the three noted educational reformers, Pestalozzi, F. Froebel, and Horace Mann.

JOHN KEITGES.

_Answer._—Pestalozzi, the famous Swiss educator, was born at Zurich Jan. 12, 1746. In his youth he was evidently undecided as to what profession to follow. He was first a theological student and then a law student. Having purchased some waste land, he turned from the law to farming, where he became interested in the welfare of the masses and devoted himself, during the intervals of his work, to promoting their elevation. Convinced that a rational system of education would remedy many of the evils of society, he converted his own house into an orphan asylum, and strove, by judicious blending of industrial, intellectual, and moral training, to illustrate his theory of a sound system of national education. The great idea at the basis of his system of instruction was the necessity of teaching by object lessons. Objects themselves, and not lessons about objects, were the means that he used to develop the observing and reasoning powers. He gave special attention to the moral and religious training of children, as something distinct from mere instruction in morals and religion. For two years Froebel, the father of the kindergarten system, was his pupil and assistant teacher. He died at Brugg, Switzerland, in 1827. Friedrich Wilhelm A. Froebel, to whom reference has just been made, was born at Ober-Weissbach, Germany, April 21, 1782. When sent to school he was so dull that his father, growing discouraged, took him from study and sent him to work among the wood-cutters in the forest. Here he became a student of nature and advanced, as Pestalozzi, upon his farm, to the idea of teaching from nature. In 1799 he went to school again, but falling into debt, was imprisoned by his creditors. Soon after his release he became a pupil and assistant of Pestalozzi, remaining with this great master from 1807 to 1809. He then began the study of the natural sciences, but was interrupted by the German and French war of 1813, in which he enlisted for fatherland. On the restoration of peace he became curator of the Museum of Mineralogy, under Professor Weiss, at Berlin. A few years later he began his life as a teacher, which, in 1826, the year previous to the death of Pestalozzi, he varied by publishing a work entitled “The Education of Man.” In this book he declared that man’s life was a succession of stages, each of which should be progressive. He was especially impressed with the importance of the first years of childhood as the period in which to give shape to all their after development. In 1837 he established the first kindergarten school, at Blankenburg. Having noticed the restlessness of children, and tendency to finger everything, he took advantage of these traits to arouse in them a spirit of intelligent inquiry and investigation. Much of his time was given, in schools of Germany and Switzerland, to training primary teachers. In the latter part of his life he gave special attention to the training of young female teachers, believing them to be best calculated by nature for the care and management of young children. During the revolutionary period of 1848, at a time when, through the influence of the great Middendorff, who had become interested in his kindergarten work, he hoped to enlist the support of the German Parliament in his system of teaching, he and his brother Karl were charged with socialistic tendencies, and an edict was issued forbidding the establishment of schools “after Friedrich and Karl Froebel’s principles” in Prussia. This blow utterly disheartened the veteran educator, and he died in June, 1852, at Marienthal.

A sketch of the life of Horace Mann will be found in Our Curiosity Shop for 1882.

GENERALS A. S. AND JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON.

BLAINE, Iowa.

Please give a brief outline of the lives of General A. S. Johnston and Joseph E. Johnston.

READER.

_Answer._—Albert Sydney Johnston served honorably in the United States army in Mexico and Utah, and at the outbreak of the civil war was appointed General in the Confederate army. He was killed in the battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862, at the age of 59. His native State was Kentucky. General Joe Johnston was born in Virginia in 1807, and, after completing the course of study at West Point, fought in the Seminole and Mexican wars. Receiving the position of Major General in the Confederate army, he proved himself a dangerous foe in the Peninsular campaign, in Tennessee, and Carolina. He surrendered to General Sherman April 26, 1865.

COLD IN DAKOTA.

CHICAGO, Ill.

In the interview with Mr. Geo. B. Armstrong, Register of the Government land office at Huron, D. T., recently published in THE INTER OCEAN, he asserts, substantially, that it is colder in Chicago with the mercury 5 deg. below zero than it is in Huron with the mercury 35 to 38 deg. below. A number of us, who swear by the Curiosity Shop, have got into a dispute over this statement and all agree to leave it to the editor of “the shop” to decide the matter. The question is: Is it as cold in Huron, D. T., as in this city, on the average?

G. H.

_Answer._—In one sense of the word, it is unquestionably colder in Huron than in Chicago. But Mr. Armstrong has not left our readers in doubt as to his meaning. He distinctly says: “With the mercury in the thermometer as low as 35 and 38 degrees below zero, we do not suffer so much as the people in Chicago with the thermometer at 5 degrees below zero. The air is dry and comfortable.” Here he clearly discriminates between the cold of the atmosphere and the sense of cold experienced by human beings. There is no ground for dispute as to the comparative average winter cold of the climate of Southern Dakota in and about Huron, and the same at Chicago. The thermometer shows that the former is several degrees greater than the latter. But taking cold in the second sense of the word, “the sensation produced by the escape of heat” from the body; “chilliness or chillness”—see Webster’s second definition—every one knows by actual experience that this depends to a considerable degree upon the dryness and stillness of the atmosphere and the state of the body. Exposed to a high wind in humid atmosphere not more than 5 or 6 degrees below zero, a person may freeze to death, when he would endure 35 or 40 degrees below zero in a dry, still air without serious suffering. Such air is classed among the poorest of all heat conductors; it belongs rather to non-conductors. The sensation of cold is due to the conduction of heat from the body more rapidly than the vital forces can replace it. Moist air in rapid motion carries off heat with great rapidity. When the skin pores are open a considerable part of the fluids of the body exudes through them, dampens the garments, and so renders them better conductors. The cold and wind evaporate this moisture in the garments. Evaporation is a cooling process; so when the pores are not kept almost sealed up by steady cold the body suffers loss of temperature both by increased conduction and evaporation. Observations of the United States Signal Service denote that the atmosphere of the region of Dakota under consideration is dryer, stiller, and less subject to extreme changes than that of Chicago; so that it is possible that, while in one sense of the word cold, it is certainly colder in Huron than it is in Chicago, in the other sense it may be no colder or not so cold there as here. This is plainly a question of personal experience, and the best that Our Curiosity Shop can do to settle this dispute is to give the above facts, and add that the testimony of many credible witnesses who have tried both climates is to the effect that, taking the winter through, one feels the cold there no more, or not so much as here. If a wager turns on our decision, taking the word cold in its first sense, the answer given above is definite and positive; taking it in the second sense, it is indecisive; a case for “a draw.”

ANCHOR ICE.

LAPORTE CITY, Iowa.—In the Curiosity Shop for June 14 I see a correspondent asks an explanation of ice forming at the bottom of rivers and remaining there. I saw this ice for the first time three years ago the past winter, at Waterloo, in this State, where business kept me most of the time. It excited my curiosity, and I studied it until satisfied of its origin. The Cedar River runs through the city, and a dam is built across it giving a power of about eight feet fall. A short distance below this is a bridge over 600 feet long. The space between the dam and the bridge is a rock-bottom rapids. Having occasion to cross the bridge frequently I noticed this ice attached to the rocks under water after the weather became cold, but not cold enough to form a solid sheet of ice on the pond. It disappeared and came again as the weather changed to warm or cold, but ceased to be formed after the pond was covered with a solid cake of ice, always forming at the beginning of cold weather. I concluded it was caused by the formation of fine crystals of ice on the pond not yet frozen together, which, as they were carried over the dam, were mixed in the surf below and driven against and stuck fast in the fine moss covering the rocks, always attached to the side of the rock facing the fall, the first crystals presenting points to catch the next, and so the mass, which appeared like water-soaked snow, grew under the water by accretion, the water being as cold as the ice itself could not thaw it. I think if the correspondent will examine he will find anchor ice is formed in rapids or at the foot of falls draining a smooth expanse of water before the water becomes covered with a solid sheet of ice, and always on the up-stream side of the rocks in the bottom.

T. A. KELLETT.

CHIEF RULERS OF THE WORLD.

WINDSOR, Ill.

Please give in “Our Curiosity Shop” the names of the principal rulers of the world, with the countries over which they rule.

M. J. S.

_Answer._—The following table embraces the chief rulers of the world:

Crowned or Countries. Rulers. inaugurated

Great Britain Queen Victoria 1837 Germany Emperor William I 1871 France President Grevy 1879 Denmark Christian IX 1863 Sweden Oscar II 1872 Spain Alphonso XI 1875 Portugal Luis II 1861 Russia Alexander III 1881 Turkey Abdul Hamid 1876 Austria-Hungary Francis Joseph 1848 United States Chester A. Arthur 1881

PASSION FLOWER.

BURLINGTON, Iowa.

Why is the passion flower so called?

FLORA.

_Answer._—It was called by this name by the Spanish settlers of the West Indies and South America, its native region, because they fancied it to be a representative of Christ’s passion or sacrificial death. According to this fancy, the leaf symbolizes the spear that pierced the Savior’s side; the anthers, the marks of the five wounds made by the spear; the tendrils, the cords or whips with which He was secured; the column of the ovary, the upright of the cross; the stamens, the hammers; the three styles, the nails; the filamentous processes, the crown of thorns; the calyx, the glory or halo; the white tinge, purity; the blue tint, heaven; and the fact that it remains open three days typifies his three years’ ministry.

ASBESTOS.

ABERDEEN, D. T.

What is asbestos, where is it found, and what valuable properties has it?

H. T. MCLANE.