Part 39

In answer to H. H. H., of Chicago, who asks in Our Curiosity Shop which is the oldest lake craft now in service, I will say: The oldest lake craft now in service is said to be the Racine, built at Cleveland in 1844; the next is Genesee Chief, 1846. Among some of the other old-timers still in service are the barge Seminole, 38 years old; Pilgrim, 35 years; Two Brothers, 37 years; Reindeer, 35 years; schooners Arcturus, 30 years; Cascade, 30 years; Elbe, 30 years; Sonora, 29 years; Clipper City, 29 years; Vermont, 30 years; Pilot, 35 years; Harriet Ross, age unknown. The oldest American vessel now coasting on the ocean is the bark Amethyst, built in 1822. The following will prove of interest to old Chicagoans, who will no doubt recollect the circumstances: The first craft built in Chicago was the sloop Clarisa, 1836; the first steamboats, James Allen, 213 tons; G. W. Dole, 162 tons burden, built in 1838. The first sail arrival at Chicago was the schooner General Tracy, from Detroit, in 1803. The first steamer arrival was the Superior, with United States troops, in 1832. The first tugboat in Chicago harbor was the Archimedes, a side-wheeler, exploded in 1852. The schooner Illinois was the first sail craft to enter the Chicago River over the bar, July 14, 1834. The schooners La-Grange, United States, Oregon, and Illinois were some of the pioneer packet vessels sailing between Buffalo and Chicago in 1830, carrying passengers and freight. The little steamer called Chicago plied on the river, and in 1836 carried the Governor and party up to Bridgeport, where the first shovelful of sand was dug for the canal.

In connection with the above, to show what a vessel can do in her time, I will mention as an example: The old packet ship Great Western, built over forty years ago, plying between New York and Liverpool, 1,800 tons burden. This vessel sailed twenty-nine years in the packet line without losing one of her crew; also during 116 trips she never lost a sail or spar. She has carried 30,000 passengers from Europe to America; 200 marriages, and 1,500 births occurred on board of her. Ten years ago she was sent to the Pacific Ocean, being a very successful craft. She caught fire and burned to the water’s edge in San Francisco during the past summer. For marine history of United States, see my articles in THE DAILY INTER OCEAN, May 10, 1882, July 28, etc.

CHARLES BURMEISTER.

TO POSTMASTERS.

FAIRMOUNT, Minn.

What is the object of the little patch of leather, open at the top, riveted to the inside of some of the United States mail-bags, not far from the top? I have inquired of several persons, including postmasters at one or two places, but none of them seem to know. Only about one in three or four mail-bags have it.

A FRIEND.

_Answer._—The small pouch you refer to is a pocket for any memorandum the postmaster may wish to send with the bag. In case a mail-bag anywhere in the Northwest needs repairs it should be sent to the Chicago Postoffice, which has a repair shop connected with it. The postmaster sending such a bag should put in this pouch a memorandum showing from what office it is sent. This is but one of many instances in which it serves a good purpose. It is to be found only in the new mail-bags.

STRONG DRINK OF THE HEBREWS.

VICTORIA, Neb.

We read that in the time of Samuel there were people who drank no wine or any strong drink. Are we to suppose that they had any stronger drink than fermented wine? Had they any distilled spirits?

READER.

_Answer._—By “strong drink” in the Old Testament we are not to understand distilled spirits, for alcohol was not discovered until the present era. The term refers to three beverages of the Jews—date honey, date or palm wine unfermented, and palm wine rendered intoxicating by fermentation, or by the admixture of stupifying ingredients while boiling. The latter was preferred, as fermentation made the wine bitter and harsh.

THE FATHERS ON PROTECTIVE TARIFF.

DAVENPORT, Iowa.

On what authority does Our Curiosity Shop class Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and, still more strange to say, General Jackson with the advocates of protective tariff?

FREE TRADER.

_Answer._—The first Congress that assembled under our present Constitution passed the first tariff. In the preamble to that act it is expressly affirmed that such tariff was necessary “to pay the public debt, provide revenue, etc., and for the protection and encouragement of American manufactures.” The necessity of such protection was urged in the messages of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison James Monroe, John Q. Adams, and Andrew Jackson. In his annual message of Dec. 15, 1802, among other proper objects of government, Jefferson enumerates the following; “To foster our fisheries as nurseries of navigation and for the nurture of man; and to _protect the manufactures_ adapted to our circumstances.” In his annual message of 1806, apprehending a surplus revenue, he says; “To what other objects shall these surpluses be appropriated, and the whole surplus of impost after the entire discharge of the public debt? Shall we suppress the impost (or tariff) and give that advantage to foreign over domestic manufactures?” He then suggests that on a few articles the impost might be wisely suppressed, but in regard to the great mass of them he says; “The patriotism of the people would prefer its continuance and application to the great purposes of public education, roads, rivers, canals, and other objects of public improvement.” In his message of Nov. 8, 1808, after referring with gratification to the increase of “internal manufactures and improvements,” he expresses the hope that such establishments of manufacturing industry “formed and forming, will, under the auspices of cheaper materials and substance, the freedom of labor from taxation with us, and of _protecting duties_ and _prohibitions_, become permanent.” Says President Monroe, in his inaugural address of March 5, 1817; “Our manufactures will likewise require the systematic and fostering care of the government. Possessing, as we do, all the raw materials, the fruit of our own soil and industry, we ought not to depend, in the degree we have done, on supplies from other countries. It is important, too, that the capital which nourishes our manufactures should be domestic, as its influences in that case, instead of exhausting, as it may do in foreign hands, would be felt advantageously for agriculture and every other branch or industry. Equally important is it to provide at home a market for our raw materials, as by extending the competition it will enhance the price and protect the cultivator against the casualties incident to foreign markets.”

In his message of Dec. 7, 1830, General Jackson says: “The power to impose duties on imports originally belonged to the several States. The right to adjust these duties, with the view to the encouragement of domestic branches of industry, is so completely incidental to that power, that it is difficult to suppose the existence of the one without the other.” He proceeds to say that the denial of the right of the Federal Government “to exercise this power for the purpose of protection would he to present the anomaly of a people stripped of the right to foster their own industry, and to counteract the most selfish and destructive policy which might be adopted by foreign nations. This surely cannot be the case. This indispensable power, thus surrendered by the States, must be within the scope of the authority on the subject expressly delegated to Congress. In this conclusion I am confirmed as well by the opinions of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe, who have each repeatedly recommended the exercise of this right under the Constitution, as by the uniform practice of Congress, the continued acquiescence of the States, and the general understanding of the people.” In a letter to Dr. Coleman, of North Carolina, dated at Washington City, April 20, 1824, General Jackson wrote: “If we omit or refuse to use the gifts which Providence has extended to us, we deserve not the continuation of His blessing. He has filled our mountains and our plains with minerals—with lead, iron, and copper—and given us a climate and soil for the growing of hemp and wool. These being the great materials of our National defense, they ought to have extended to them adequate protection; that our manufacturers and laborers may be placed in a fair competition with those of Europe, and that we have within our country a supply of those leading and important articles so essential to war. I will ask what is the real situation of the agriculturist? Where has the American farmer a market for his surplus produce? Except for cotton he has neither a foreign nor a home market. Common sense at once points out the remedy. Take from agriculture in the United States 600,000 men, women, and children and you will at once give a market for more breadstuffs than all Europe now furnishes us. In short, sir, we have been too long subject to the policy of British merchants. It is time we should become a little more Americanized, and instead of feeding paupers and laborers of England, feed our own, or else in a short time, by continuing our present policy, we shall be rendered paupers ourselves.” In consonance with these sentiments, Jackson, together with Martin Van Buren and Silas Wright, the leaders of the Northern Democracy, and the great mass of the Jackson representatives from the free States, voted for the tariff of 1828, the highest protective tariff ever levied in this country before the war of the rebellion. In the next subsequent decade the Democratic party, led by the cotton States, and determined to defeat the Whig party led by the great Protectionist, Henry Clay, espoused free trade.

DON CARLOS.

KINGMAN, Kan.

Who and what was Don Carlos?

A READER.

_Answer._—1. There was a Don Carlos in the sixteenth century. He was the son of Philip II., of Spain; was born at Valladolid in 1545, and recognized as heir to the throne in 1560. But owing to his dullness at school, and distaste for study, the King deemed him unfit to reign over his subjects, and invited the Prince’s cousin, the Archduke Rudolf, to Spain, intending to educate him for the throne. Jealous of this usurper, Don Carlos conceived a strong dislike to all the King’s counselors, whom he plotted to destroy. But having foolishly divulged to his confessor that he intended to murder some one, that some one was suspected to be the King. The stupid Prince was tried and convicted of high treason, and left to the mercy of the King. Philip declared that he could make no exception in favor of such an ungrateful son, but there is found no formal record of any sentence of death. Don Carlos died soon afterward, at the age of 23. 2. The Don Carlos who has of late years been causing so much trouble in Spain, as a pretender to the throne, is the eldest son of the brother of King Fernando VII. His wife is Princess Marguerite, of Bourbon, daughter of Duke Carlos III., of Parma. He is a brother of the ex-Queen Isabella, and uncle to the present King.

EDUCATION AND CHRISTIAN BENEVOLENCE.

WEXFORD, Mich.

What proportion of the benevolent and educational institutions in the United States are built and operated by Christians, and what by infidels?

F. J. HALL.

_Answer._—In the report of the United States Commissioner of Education for 1880 the following statistics of schools in the United States not under State control are given: One hundred and sixty-two commercial and business colleges, generally self-supporting, and unconnected with, or not dependent on, Christian or other benevolent organizations or private benevolence. There were 232 kindergartens, most of which were private schools and self-supporting. Such as were charity schools, like the free kindergartens of certain cities, were supported, for the most part, by Christian benevolence. There were 1,264 “schools of secondary instruction,” such as seminaries and academies; 355 asylums for orphans, 142 theological schools, and 227 “institutions for the superior instruction of women.” Most of all four classes of schools were and still are under the direction of Roman Catholics, Protestants or Hebrews. Of the 364 universities and colleges, only eighty are marked non-sectarian, and to these institutions are attached nearly all the 310 theological, law, and medical schools. There are forty-nine schools of science, (mining, engineering, agriculture, etc.), endowed with the National land grants, apportioned to the several States under act of 1862, the States providing in nearly every instance the grounds, buildings, apparatus, etc., and supplementing the income of the endowment fund. Even many of these schools, such as Purdue University, Indiana, Illinois Industrial University, and others, are indebted to private individuals, or county and city subscriptions for handsome contributions in money, lands, etc. Then there are thirty-five schools and collegiate departments of science not endowed by the National land grants or State grants, but almost wholly the product of private benefactions, the benefactors in nearly all cases being pronounced Christian philanthropists. The benefactions to educational institutions of the United States, (mostly denominational), in the years ending with 1880, amounted to about $60,000,000.

If by “infidels,” you intend persons who disclaim all faith in Christianity, then it is doubtful if any of the above institutions were founded or are sustained to any degree worthy of mention, by an infidel. Even Girard, the founder of Girard College was not an out and out atheist or deist, though he was bitterly opposed to all existing sects, and had a strong aversion to the clergy of every denomination.

GENERAL E. R. S. CANBY.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.

Tell us something about General Canby.

A. B. D.

_Answer._—Edward Richard Spriggs Canby LL. D., was born in Kentucky in 1807, graduated at West Point in 1839, and spent the remainder of his life on the warpath. His first post was in Florida (1839-42), but he was little known until the war with Mexico, when he fought with such valor at Cherubusco and the City of Mexico as to win the brevets of major and lieutenant colonel. From 1849 to 1861 he served on the Pacific coast, in Washington, and Utah Territory, and against the Navajoes, and at the outbreak of the civil war took command in New Mexico, where he was brevetted brigadier general at Valverde. Two years later he was commander of the expedition which captured Mobile, and there won the title of brevet major general. Soon afterward Generals R. Taylor and E. K. Smith surrendered to him. In 1866 he was made a brigadier general in the regular army.

In 1869, having served in several important commissions, and being worn out, he voluntarily consented to take charge of the Department of Columbia; and there he was treacherously shot by the chief “Jack,” April 11, 1873, while trying to arrange for the removal of the Modocs from Northern California.

“PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOXES.”

BLUNT, D.T.

Please explain in the Curiosity Shop the meaning of the expression “Precession of the Equinoxes,” and how the climate of the earth is affected by this phenomenon?

ARTHUR SNOW.

_Answer._—As the plane of the earth’s orbit crosses the equator at an angle of about 23½ degrees, the attractive force of the sun, moon, and planets, constantly exerted upon the earth, has a tendency to tilt the pole away from the sun and to draw the equator toward it. As a consequence, the sun crosses the equator each time a little farther west than the point where it crossed the last time preceding, and where it would have crossed on its return if there were no disturbing force. Originally it was said that the equinoctial point, or place of crossing, went forward to meet the sun, and hence this phenomenon was called the precession of the equinoxes. But, from the fact that the equinoctial point really falls backwards on the celestial equator, toward the west, each time about 50 seconds of a degree, it is now very frequently termed the recession of the equinoxes. In consequence of this recession the seasons begin a little earlier each year, and it is estimated that in 12,800 years they will be reversed, our summer occurring when the sun is in the constellation that he now traverses in winter time. It requires about 25,000 years for the sun to complete one circuit of precession of the equinoxes.

COMET OF 1812 AND 1813.

LAKE FOREST, Ill.

Is it true that the comet now coming into view is the same as the one of 1812? When will it become plainly visible to the naked eye, and when will it be nearest the sun?

STAR-GAZER.

_Answer._—It is generally admitted that the comet discovered by Professor Brooks on the 5th of September last, and now visible, with the aid of a good opera or field glass, in the constellation Draco, between the “Great Dipper,” in Ursa Major, and the “Northern Cross,” in the Constellation Cygnus, is identical with the comet of 1812, which was believed by the superstitious to prognosticate our last war with Great Britain. It will reach perihelion, or the point in its orbit nearest the sun, Jan. 25. It will increase in brightness rapidly from the first of December, and be plainly visible to the naked eye by the middle of that month. At its brightest it will be brighter than in 1812, but it will not equal at any time the magnificent comet of 1882. The period, as calculated in 1812, was 70.6 years. As the interval between its perihelion time, Sept. 15, 1812, and its perihelion passage, Jan. 25, 1884, will be but 71.5 years, it is not strange astronomers—considering the imperfections of astronomical science and art then as compared with the state of astronomy now—are not surprised at this small error in this comet’s calculated orbital period.

LONGEVITY OF THE CIRCASSIAN RACE.

_Garden City_, Kan.

Is it a fact that the longevity of our race is on the increase? If so, what are the data from which this conclusion is reached? Is our physical strength on the increase, and what is the evidence? It has been agreed to leave these questions to you. One of the parties to the dispute is an ex-judge of the Supreme Court of one of the greatest States in the Union.

J. W. HOLMES, M. D.

_Answer._—The above questions having been referred to one of the highest medical authorities in the West, a member of a State Board of Health, he replies as follows:

“It is a fact that the longevity of our race [i. e., the Caucasian or white race] is on the increase. Statistics published by the British Registrar show that during the last 150 years the average length of human life in the British Islands has been increased by nearly one-third. It is also true that the physique of the race is improving. I am sorry that I have not time to look up references for you; but any reasonably well-equipped life-insurance agent should be able to furnish them readily for the first question; and the _Journal of Anthropology_ would supply evidence enough for the second. Dr. Nathan Allen, of Lowell, Mass., has made the subject a special study.”

RAILROADS IN ILLINOIS.

COOPERSTOWN, Ill.

How many companies are there owning railroads in Illinois?

E. P. R.

_Answer._—According to the commissioner’s report for 1880-81, there were during the year fifty-four railroad companies operating roads in Illinois. Poor’s “Manual” gives the names of sixty-five companies operating roads in the State in 1882. It is difficult to state how many companies own these roads, for every year many of them change hands by lease or sale. There are more companies owning roads than there are operating companies. For instance, during the years 1880-81 six railroads were merged into the Wabash system, another was purchased by the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Company, and still another was leased for an indefinite period by the Cincinnati, Indianapolis, St. Louis and Chicago. Probably the next annual report of the Railroad and Warehouse Commission will show exactly how many proprietary companies are still in existence. We have no data for an answer to your other question.

FOREIGN IMMIGRATION.

MOUNT VERNON, Iowa.

From what countries is most of the immigration to the United States? What proportion of the immigrants can read and write? Are any of them well educated? What was the immigration last year?

F. P. F.

_Answer._—During the sixty years included between 1820 and 1880, the following countries were represented in the immigration to the United States, as here shown:

England 894,444 Ireland 3,065,761 Scotland 159,547 Wales 17,893 Netherlands 44,319 Poland 14,831 Portugal 9,062 Russia 38,316 Austria-Hungary 65,588 Belgium 23,267 Denmark 48,620 France 313,716 Germany 3,002,027 Greece 385 Spain 28,091 Sweden and Norway 306,092 Switzerland 83,709 Turkey 619 Italy 70,181 All other countries 1,161,875

Most of the immigrants from Sweden and Norway, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Netherlands, and Scotland, are able to read and write; the majority of the others are illiterate. Many are very well educated, having enjoyed college privileges, and the advantages of travel. The total number of immigrants during 1882, was 788,992.

BASE OF THE METRICAL SYSTEM.

OMAHA, Neb.

Is it true that the unit of the metrical system is exactly the ten-millionth part of a quadrant of the earth, measured on a meridian? Please answer and settle a controversy.

AARON.

_Answer._—It is not true. After all the pains taken by scientists to obtain the exact measure of a quadrant of a meridian of the earth, it is now conceded that this problem is still unsolved. In the latter part of last century, certain French astronomers and geodetic surveyors persuaded the French Academy of Sciences that they had succeeded in measuring so much of such an arc as enabled them to accurately determine the whole arc by geometrical calculations. In this belief what is now known as the metric system of measures was constructed, and under the French Republic, in 1795, the existing standards of French measures were adopted, based on the meter, the ten-millionth part of the earth’s meridian quadrant as thus computed. According to this a meter is 39.368 American inches, or 39.37 English inches. But while later surveys have failed to determine the quadrant with absolute certainty, it is conceded that they have demonstrated the inaccuracy of the earlier surveys and computations, and what is now generally accepted as a very close approximation to an exact measure shows that the standard French meter falls short of the ten-millionth part of the earth’s meridional quadrant by its 1-5,400 part. That is, according to the progress of more extended geodetic measurements, brought down to 1875, the earth’s meridional quadrant exceeds 10,000,000 meters by about 1,850 meters. Nevertheless the International Bureau of Weights and Measures very wisely adheres to the original standard meter, represented by the platinum meter of the French archives as the fundamental unit of the metric system.

EXECUTING FOR WITCHCRAFT.

OSHKOSH, Wis.

Will our Curiosity Shop please tell us the facts about witchcraft at Salem and elsewhere. Respecting Salem witchcraft, give causes, number killed, cruelties practiced, and names and characters of the men upholding the persecutions?

H. F. FEHLANDT.