Part 23

_Answer._—A description of Washington Territory was given in answer to another subscriber a week ago. In Arkansas the land gradually rises from the Mississippi westward, reaching its greatest elevation in the Ozark Mountains. Unlike the Eastern portion of the State, which is alluvial in character, the country near these mountains is high and the climate is healthful. Throughout the State the soil along the river “bottoms” is rich and deep, producing large crops of corn, wheat, cotton, and tobacco. The river surface is 540 square miles, and the area covered by lakes and ponds 265 square miles. The temperature varies in the southern part from 20 degrees to 94 degrees; in the north from 10 degrees to 92 degrees. The rainfall in the south is 48-56 inches; in the north 42 inches. Below we give the average prices in Oregon, being unable to obtain them in Washington Territory. In Oregon the average price per bushel of Indian corn is 82 cents; of wheat, 78 cents; rye, 82 cents; oats, 40 cents; potatoes, 59 cents; hay, $12.14; horses, $56.22; milch cows, $21.17; oxen and other cattle, $13.72; sheep, $1.46. In Arkansas corn is 49 cents; wheat, $1.02; rye, 86 cents; oats, 53 cents; potatoes, 74 cents; hay, $11.50; cotton, 10 cents per pound; horses, $49.36; milch cows, $14.56; oxen and other cattle, $10.11, and sheep $1.48. 2. The effects of climate depend largely upon individual peculiarities, but, generally speaking, the heavy rains of Western Washington and the malaria of Eastern Arkansas are about equally injurious. Western Arkansas and the Eastern part of Washington Territory are favorable to consumptives.

DR. KANE, THE EXPLORER.

NORMAL, Ill.

1. Please give a sketch of the life of Dr. E. K. Kane. 2. Are any members of his expedition still living?

F. A. WALKER.

_Answer._—1. This celebrated explorer was born in Philadelphia in 1820. When about 25 years of age he visited China, India, and the East Indies as surgeon in the navy, and later traveled through Arabia, Egypt, Greece, and Western Europe. He acted as surgeon, naturalist, and historian to the first Grinnell expedition, in 1850, which led to the discovery of Grinnell Land, and in 1853 himself commanded the second expedition in search of Franklin. Returning home in 1855 he published the account of his travels, and in the following year went to England for his health. Thence he sailed to Cuba, where he died, at Havana, Feb. 16, 1857. 2. Dr. Hayes, who subsequently commanded another American Arctic expedition, died in New York Dec. 17, 1881. Several of the men are still alive.

RESTORING THE FLAG ON FORT SUMTER.

GALVESTON, Texas.

On what occasion was the flag of Fort Sumter restored to its place, and how?

SUBSCRIBER.

_Answer._—General Sherman, on his march to join General Grant near Richmond, captured several rebel strongholds, and among them Charleston, which was evacuated by the rebels on Feb. 17, 1865. On April 14, 1865, the identical Union flag which had been hauled down at the time of the surrender, exactly four years before, was formally restored with befitting ceremonies.

THE OLDEST AMERICAN MINE.

CHICAGO, Ill.

What is the oldest mine of any kind in the United States?

C. D. ADAMS.

_Answer._—It is generally conceded by those who are read up in the history of mining and metallurgy in this country that the oldest mining enterprise of the United States, still active, is the Mine La Motte, in the lead district of Eastern Missouri, opened about 1720 under Renault, of Law’s notorious Mississippi Company. It was named after La Motte, the mineralogist of the expedition. It has been worked at intervals ever since it was opened, and is in successful operation now. There are silver mines in New Mexico and Arizona, some of which may have been opened by the Spanish adventurers of the latter part of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth. Some of these ancient mines were operated by the Toltecs and Aztecs years before the Spanish invasion, but it is not easy to identify them. So there are copper mines in the Lake Superior region in which the tools and mining marks of ancient miners of pre-historic times were found by the pioneers of the present American mining companies. Where the first colonists of Virginia got the ship-load of “fool’s gold” which they sent back to England, to the great disgust of the London company, is not certainly known; but it is known that at the same time, in 1608, they shipped a quantity of iron from Jamestown, which yielded seventeen tons of metal, the first pig iron ever made from American ore. There are diggings in North and South Carolina and Georgia, now overgrown with forests, which are supposed to have been excavated by the followers of De Soto and his immediate successors between 1539 and 1600. The first recorded account of the discovery of coal in the United States is contained in Hennepin’s narrative of his explorations in the West, between 1673 and 1680, when he saw the coal outcrop in the bluffs of the Illinois River, not far from Ottawa and LaSalle; but coal was first mined in the Eastern States in the beginning of this century.

LAWYER PRESIDENTS AND CONGRESSMEN.

WILMINGTON, Ill.

What per cent of our Presidents and representatives in Congress have been professional lawyers? Is it growing more or less common to elect lawyers to these places?

L. F. HAZELTON.

_Answer._—Of the Presidents, John Adams, Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Jackson, Van Buren, Tyler, Polk, Fillmore, Pierce, Buchanan, Lincoln, Hayes, and Garfield were lawyers; and Arthur was a successful legal practitioner until appointed Collector of the Port of New York by President Grant. Washington was a surveyor until he entered the army. Madison was studying law when elected to the Virginia Convention of 1776, after which he became absorbed in political life. Monroe studied law under Jefferson, but did not really enter the profession, being called off into military and political affairs. Harrison entered military and political life early, and was kept in it most of his days. Taylor and Grant rose to the Chief Magistracy by distinguished military services. Johnson was a tailor until he got into political life. As to Congress, its membership has been too numerous for a full investigation. The proportions indicated below will hold good, in all probability, for the whole of the last or Forty-seventh Congress. The two Senators and six of the eight Representatives from Alabama, both Senators and three of the five Representatives from South Carolina, one Senator and seven of the nine Congressmen from Virginia, both Senators and all the four Representatives of Arkansas, in that Congress were lawyers, or, at least, had been admitted to the bar; so were both Senators and twelve of the nineteen Representatives from Illinois, the two Senators and six of the nine Representatives from Iowa, both Senators and eight of the eleven Representatives of Massachusetts, one Senator and sixteen of the thirty-three Representatives of Pennsylvania. The South is more given to the practice of choosing lawyers, or persons with a smattering of the law, to represent them in Congress and the Legislature than the North. Planters, who never seriously expected their sons to practice, educated them in the law formerly, as one of the qualifications for political life. The olden prestige of the law as one of the learned professions, and the one that led most directly to political promotions, had its influence on the sons of the wealthy and their sires, not in the South only, but in the North; nor on them only, but on the people. There is some rational force also in the popular conception that lawyers are or should be peculiarly fitted to be law-makers. The tendency in the North for some years past, as indicated by the above statistics, is to choose fewer lawyers and have commerce and the great industries of the country represented by their conspicuous leaders.

SCHOOLS FOR THE COLORED RACE.

GONZALES, Texas.

How many institutions of learning for the colored race are there in the United States, and how many persons attending them?

JOHN CRAWFORD.

_Answer._—According to the report of the Commissioner of Education, for 1880, the educational institutions for the colored race in the United States were then in number and attendance as follows:

Class of Institutions. Schools. Enrolled.

Public schools 17,081 806,106 Normal schools 44 7,408 High schools and academies 36 5,237 Universities and colleges 15 1,717 Schools of theology 22 800 Schools of law 3 33 Schools of medicine 2 87 Schools for deaf, dumb, and blind 2 122 —————— ——————— Total 17,205 821,570

Besides this there are a number of colored public schools in States that fail to report them separately from the white schools; and there are many colored children attending the same schools with the whites.

THE WYOMING MASSACRE.

CHICAGO, Ill.

To settle a dispute, please give the particulars of the massacre of the Wyoming colonists during the revolutionary war, together with the names of the military commanders and Indians, and oblige

A CONSTANT READER.

_Answer._—In the summer of 1778 the beautiful valley of Wyoming, Penn., was invaded by a band of tories and Indians, and in the battle that followed, on July 3, the American patriots, commanded by Colonel Zebulon Butler, were defeated with horrible slaughter. Then followed a general massacre, which some escaped by fleeing to the mountains, while a few took refuge in Fort Forty (now Wilkesbarre). This fort was besieged the morning of the 4th by the tories and Indians under Colonel John Butler, and ordered to surrender; and being without any means of defense, Colonel Dennison yielded to the entreaties of the women and children to enter into articles of capitulation. It was agreed upon the surrender of their arms, and the destruction of the fort, the inhabitants of the valley should return peaceably to their homes, but no sooner was the fort surrendered than the Indians fell upon the houses, which they plundered and burned, killing all the women and children who had not escaped to the mountains. The entire village of Wilkesbarre was burned to the ground.

THE ILLINOIS BLACK LAWS.

WESTERN SPRINGS, Ill.

What were the “black laws” of Illinois?

J.L. WELLS.

_Answer._—Under the Territorial laws of Illinois persons were allowed to bring slaves into the Territory under the name of indentured servants. As such they might be held in bondage for a term of ninety-nine years or less. This was in direct violation of the spirit of the ordinance of 1787, which interdicted slavery or involuntary servitude in all the territory north of the Ohio River. The first State constitution, adopted in 1818, prohibited the further introduction of slaves, but did not abolish this species of slavery by liberating the victims of the barbarous Territorial enactments. Thus slavery existed in Illinois in defiance of the ordinance of 1787 until the adoption of the constitution of 1848, which contained the following provision: “There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in this State, except as a punishment for crime.” After the adoption of the constitution of 1818, the first Legislature re-enacted the wicked law “respecting free negroes, mulattoes, servants, and slaves” of Territorial times. No severer law was to be found in any slave State. It forbade negroes or mulattoes to settle in the State without certificates of freedom. No person was to employ any negro or mulatto without such certificate, under a penalty of $1.50 for each day. To harbor any slave or servant, or hinder the owner in retaking a slave, was made a felony, punishable by restitution or a fine of two-fold value, and whipping not to exceed thirty stripes. Every black or mulatto without a proper certificate was subject to arrest as a runaway slave, to be advertised for six weeks by the sheriff, when, if not reclaimed or his freedom established, he was sold for one year, after which he was entitled to a freedom certificate. Any slave or servant found ten miles from home without permit was liable to arrest and thirty-five stripes, on the order of a justice. For misbehaving to his master or family he was punishable with the lash. Indeed, punishment with the lash to the number of thirty-nine and forty stripes was prescribed for each of a long list of offenses, real or of legal construction. Even after the adoption of the constitution of 1848, which required the General Assembly at its first session to pass such laws as would effectually prohibit free persons of color from immigrating to, or settling in this State, and prohibit the owners of slaves from bringing them here for the purpose of setting them free, the Legislature passed an act, Feb. 12, 1853, which imposed on every such colored person a fine of $50. If the fine was not paid forthwith, he was to be advertised and sold to any one who would pay the fine and costs for the shortest period of such person’s service. A case under this law was carried up to the Supreme Court, and decided so late as 1864, to be valid. Other provisions of these enactments were almost equally detestable. Such were the infamous “black laws” of Illinois, which were continued, with slight modifications, from Territorial times down to 1865, when by act of Feb. 7, of that year, they were repealed. Had it not been for these black laws the census of Illinois would not be blotted with an enrollment of “168 slaves” in 1810; 917 in 1820; 747 in 1830; and 331 in 1840—the last census that carries such a stain. Fortunately, the masters and people at large were better than their laws. The horrors of Southern slavery would not have been tolerated here. During the last twenty-five years of their existence the black laws were practically a dead letter, being retained upon the statute book more out of opposition to abolitionism, and deference to the pro-slavery sentiment of the dominant parties than for any other reason.

FIRST EXPLORERS OF THE FAR WEST.

KILL CREEK, Kan.

Is it a fact that early French explorers were the first to cross the continent through the northern part of what is now the United States?

SAMUEL RITTER.

_Answer._—No French explorers, known as explorers, traveled farther West than Minnesota, but doubtless the French trappers reached the head waters of the Missouri, if they did not go even farther. These, however, have left no record of their wanderings, and we know nothing of what they discovered. To Lewis and Clarke who in 1804-5 ascended to the head waters of the Missouri and descended the Columbia to the Pacific Ocean, belongs the honor of having given the first written account of the far West.

PENNSYLVANIA WHISKY WAR.

PRAIRIE CITY, Ill.

Did the distillers of Pennsylvania at one time create an insurrection on account of certain excise laws? If so, please state the facts, and what means was used by the government to quell the disturbance?

S. T. YOUNG.

_Answer._—In 1791 a tax was imposed upon domestic liquors. This created especial dissatisfaction in Western Pennsylvania, where, in 1794, the distillers rose en masse and refused to pay the duty. But upon the approach of militia sent by Washington, they yielded.

GAY-LUSSAC—BALLOONS.

PAWNEE ROCK, Kan.

1. Who was Gay-Lussac? 2. Who invented balloons? 3. Why was Sir Walter Raleigh executed?

STEPHEN J. WILLARD.

_Answer._—Louis Joseph Gay-Lussac was one of the most eminent chemists of this century. He was born at St. Leonard, France, Dec. 6, 1778. He distinguished himself as a student in the Polytechnic College, Paris, and was selected to become the assistant of the great French physicist and chemist, Berthollet, who was so impressed with his originality and skill in research that on a certain occasion he exclaimed: “Young man, it is your destiny to make discoveries. You shall be henceforth my companion. I wish—it is a title of which I am sure I shall have cause to be proud—I wish to be your father in science.” While investigating terrestrial magnetism he was led to make a balloon ascent, on Aug. 24, 1804, when he reached an altitude of about 13,000 feet. Not satisfied, he procured a greater balloon, and on Sept. 16 of the same year rose to an altitude of 23,000 feet, a height never before reached in a balloon, and seldom exceeded since then. He made many valuable observations before descending. Together with the famous Alexander von Humboldt, he made the discovery that hydrogen and oxygen unite in the proportions of two of the latter to one of the former, by bulk, to form water; also that when gases combine with one another, either by weight or by volume, they do so in very simple proportions, as 1 to 1, 1 to 2, 2 to 3, and so on. He analyzed many chemical compounds, proved the elementary nature of several substances, such as iodine, to which he gave the name it now bears, and he formed by chemical combinations many valuable compounds. The French Academy elected him a member of that distinguished body of savants; the French Government honored him with important and highly honorable appointments; he became a member of the Chamber of Deputies in 1831, and in 1839 was made a peer of the realm. He devoted himself to scientific research to the last, and was associated with the distinguished scientist Arago, in the editorship of the Annals of Chemistry and Physics. He died in 1850. 2. Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier, of Annonay, France, a town about forty miles from Lyons, were the inventors of hot air balloons, just one hundred years ago, and the same year two brothers of the name of Robert made and charged the first hydrogen gas balloon, under the superintendence of Mr. Charles, a professor of natural philosophy, in Paris. 3. Sir Walter Raleigh was executed under a trumped up charge of conspiracy against the life of James I., of England; but really at the instigation of certain rivals and to gratify the king of Spain, toward whom he had always manifested the greatest hostility.

QUARTER SECTIONS, SHORT OR LONG.

ORLEANS, Neb.

There is a case in dispute here in regard to the government survey. They say that the government surveyor who ran the section lines here started at the Kansas line from the wrong corner, and, running north, made one tier of sections fifteen or twenty rods too narrow and the next tier as much too broad. Now, after twenty years, when the land is all occupied and more or less improved, can the line be moved? All the old corners are plainly defined and recognized as government corners.

B. F. POLHUMUS.

_Answer._—In the case of Peder O. Aanrud (see Copp’s Land Owner) the Commissioner of the General Land Office made the following ruling: “The term ‘quarter-section’ is used to designate a certain legal subdivision of the public land ascertained by official survey. It generally contains just 160 acres; but, through unavoidable inaccuracy of surveys in adjusting meridians etc., it often exceeds or falls below that amount. It is still, however, the technical legal quarter section defined by law and ascertained by official survey. A homestead settler may enter 160 acres in legal subdivisions lying contiguous to each other without reference to the quarter-section lines, or he may enter a technical quarter-section as such, in which case he can take the amount of land contained therein, as shown by the official survey. In entering a quarter section he cannot depart from the ascertained lines, but must take 160 acres, more or less, as the case may be.” The case stated in this question is extraordinary, and may not be fully covered by the above ruling, but it is almost certain that in all cases where patents have issued and owners have been in undisturbed possession for sixteen years or more the titles cannot be disturbed.

ATCHISON, THE BORDER RUFFIAN SENATOR.

TISKILWA, Ill.

Kindly inform us who Dave Atchison, of Kansas and Missouri notoriety, was.

G. S. BATTERY.

_Answer._—He was a politician of the desperado order, who figured in an unenviable light in the early days of Kansas. Born in Fayette County, Ky., in 1807, he removed to Missouri in 1830. In 1841 he was appointed by the Governor to fill an unexpired term in the United States Senate, of which, through re-election, he continued a member until 1855. For some time he acted with the Benton wing of the Democratic party, which accepted the Jacksonian doctrine as opposed to pro-slavery radicalism. In time, however, he adopted Calhounism, including the doctrine of secession, and during the early Kansas troubles devoted himself to making Kansas a slave State. In 1854-56 he encouraged and abetted the outrages committed by the bands of Missouri border ruffians, who repeatedly invaded that Territory, taking an active part in driving free-soil voters from the polls and instigating the bloody attacks on Lawrence and Ossawatamie, and in other villainies of those terrible times preceding the triumph of the Free State party in Kansas.

MURDERS AND SUICIDES.

MELROSE, Wis.

Give, if you can, the number of murders and suicides in the United States in the course of a year.

IRA JONES.

_Answer._—According to the census for 1880 there were 1,336 cases of homicide, or murder, and manslaughter, and 2,517 cases of suicide, of which 472 were by self-shooting, 155 by drowning, 340 by poison, 1,550 by other means.

RAINFALL IN NEBRASKA.

VAN CLEVE, Iowa.

What part of Nebraska has the greatest rainfall? What parts have the second and the third largest average rainfall? In what month is this fall the greatest?

J. W. JOHNSON.

_Answer._—During the ten years from 1869 to 1879 the average annual rainfall in that part of Nebraska lying between the Missouri River and a line drawn to where Blue River crosses the Kansas-Nebraska Line, was thirty-eight inches. In the extreme southeastern corner of the State, near the Missouri River, it was nearly forty inches. West of the line above described to a line starting from the Missouri River a little south of the mouth of Bow River, running with a slight eastern curve to Kearney and then southwesterly to the State line, the average rainfall was thirty-two inches. From this last line to another starting near the mouth of the Niobrara, curving southwesterly to a point a little east of North Platte, and thence curving slightly to the southwest to a point a little west of Culbertson, the rainfall averaged twenty-six inches. Between this last line and another starting on the State line at the mouth of the Keya Paha and running southwesterly to a point on the Kansas-Nebraska line, midway between Culbertson and the southwest corner of the State, the average was nineteen inches. West of this section the rainfall is not well determined, but it diminishes from nineteen to less than seventeen inches. The heaviest rainfall is in June.

THE SIRENS.

I have an engraving representing a lady about to go into a boat, or a sailor about to land. It is entitled, “The Siren.” What is the story?

BACHELOR.