The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-09 00:00:00

Miscellaneous American News.

A partial classification of the Congress now in
session shows that it contains of lawyers, 112 ;
merchants, 8 ; farmers, 6 ; manufacturers, 6 ;
bankers, 5 ; editors, 4 ; physicians, 2 ; 1 clergy-
man, 1 teacher, 1 professor, 1 printer, 1 lumberman.
The railroads in America employ 200,000 men,
and at least 1,000,000 men, women, and children
depend wholly for their support upon the railroad
interest.

AMERICAN COLONY AT JAFFA.—The newspapers
have made frequent reference of late to this colony,
but few are aware of its real character and origin.
It in fact, one of those singular religious
delusions that are constantly arising, of which
Mormonism is the most striking and familiar
example. Some four years ago a man named
Adams came to Rockland, Maine, and delivered
several lectures on the Jews. He was a tall, bony
man, with a wild look in his eye, a rapid flow of
words and immeasurable assurance. From lectur-
ing he went to preaching, giving himself out at
first as a spiritualist, and gathering that class about
him. Gradually he announced a peculiar system of
his own. He was sent by God to establish the church
of the Messiah. The principal doctrines of this
new church are Universalism and the restoration of
the Jews. After baptizing a few converts at Rock-
land, Adams went to Addison, Jonesboro', and
there succeeded in attaching a number of followers
to himself. Believing that the Jews are soon to
repossess Palestine, and that all the elect are to be
gathered there, Adams and his followers have gone
forth to secure the best places and be ready for the
rebuilding of Jerusalem. They will probably return
in a year or so—those, at least, that survive—wiser
and poorer men and women.
A SUMMER ExcunsioN.—Some gentlemen of
New York and Brooklyn propose to charter a first-
class steamer, capable of accommodating at least
150 cabin passengers, to leave about June Ist, for
an excursion to the Holy Land, Egypt, the Crimea,
Greece, and intermediate points of interest. It is
expected that the voyage will occupy from four to
five months, and the price of the passage is fixed at
$1,250 currency for each adult passenger. Appli-
cations for passage must be approved by the com-
mittee before tickets are issued, and can be made
to Charles C. Duncan, 117, Wall-street, New York.
It is understood that Rev. Henry Ward Beecher
and family will join the excursionists.

FARM IVAGES IN THE UNITED STATES.—The
February official report on agriculture contains an
elaborate compilation of the statistics of the wages
of farm labour throughout the country. The ave-
rage rate of wages for white labour, -without board,
is made $2B per month ; $l5 50c. per month with
hoard. The average rate of freedmen's labour is
$l6 ; with board furnished, $9 75c. The highest
rate for States is in California, which is about $45.
Massachusetts pays the next highest, $3B. The
average rate for the Eastern States is $33 30c. ; in
the Middle States, $3O 7c. ; in the Western States,
$2B 90c. ; in the Southern States, for freedmen,
$l6. The increase in the price of labour since 1860
is about 50 per cent. ; since 1835, upon Carey's
estimate, 70 per cent. The rate of wages, with
board, of the States forming the belt from Peon-
sylvania to lowa varies but 24c., ranging from Bsl
72c. to $lB 96c.
The Times correspondent says that a curious suit
has been begun in Boston against a firm of that
city, by a Miss Charlotte Ilough, an actress, for
money due to her for cotton speculations during
the war. She claims that she was employed by this
firm during the war to buy cotton in the Southern
States, and to manipulate Government employes
so as to secure its passage iu safety through the
military lines. General Butler is one of her coun-
sel, and she alleges that the firm made $lOO,OOO
by these speculations through her agency, and
they now refuse to " divide." This case gives au
excellent chance for some of the Congressional
"investigating" committees now perambulating the
country to do some useful work.
Some curious statist has found that since 1821
Mexico has bad 23 Presidents, seven Dictators, two
Emperors, one Vice-President, and one General-
issimo, or an average of one ruler every 16 mouths.
Maximilian has had the longest reign of any of

Norwich (Connecticut) has a couple of steam fire
engines, just completed, which have just been con-
structed to throw salt water equally well with
fresh.

One of the New York papers gives some statistics
as to the production of valentines to supply the
vast and growing demand. A single firm, we are
told, has a capital of $50,000 at least invested in
this manufacture, and this year produced 1,000,000
comic valentines at 3c., 1,270,000 sentimental
valentines at from sc. to 25c., 209,000 at from 30c.
to $l, 2,570 at $1 50c., 4,500 at $2, 1,500 at $3,
1;200 at $4, 500 at $7 50., 400 at $lO, 100 at $l5,
50 at $2O, 30 at $25, 30 at $5O, 10 at $75, 2 at
$lOO. This gives a total of over two-and-a-half
million valentines, ranging in price from 2c. to
$lOO, the whole value of which, as sold at retail,
is more than $300,000. And this is the production
only of a single firm.
The Salt Lake Vedette speaks of Colorado and her
prospects in the following glowing terms :—" Eight
years ago the first handful of white settlers sank their
picks in the sands of Cherry Creek, in Colorado, and
to-day that great and growing Territory commands
a civilisation second to no State in Old New Eng-
land. Its mines and mining enterprises have at-
tracted millions and millions of American and Eng-
lish capital. Its free schools are respectable among
the average in the Republic, and its scores of hand-
some churches are a glory to the great Far West."
There are such wonderful natural resources in the
country, such boundless wealth, only asking for the
capital and industry of men to make it acceptable.
The stream of emigration is still settling westward,
and the Pacific Railroad, a scheme of continental
greatness, is being pushed forward with wonderful
rapidity. The valley of the Platte, through the
plains is the natural highway across the continent;
it is on the line of our great cities and our great
industries east and west, and it is the lortgest and
most continuous route in the country.
The Iron Age observes " that the United States
has thrown off another shackle that has heretofore
bound it to England. Bessemer steel rails of
American manufacture, and of the best quality,
way now be purchased of the Cambria Iron Com-
pany and the Pennsylvania Steel Company, two of
the most vigorous and substantial manufacturing
firms in the Union. The Cambria Iron Company
owns the well known establishment at Johnstown,
and has now the largest capacity for producing rails
of any mill in the country, and employs some 3,000
men. The Hon. Daniel J. Morrell is the able ma-
nager. The Pennsylvania Steel Works have an
extensive establishment near Harrisburgh, Pa., and
are represented by such men as S. M. Felton, the
eminent railroad president and financier, and Dr.
Lamborn, who is personally known to many of our
readers among iron and steel men. The high
character of all parties connected with the new ma-
nufacture, and the vast resources at their command
are ample guarantees for its vigorous prosecution
and the excellence of the article they offer the public.
It also says:—The " Free Traders " object to every
addition to the Tariff, as necessarily involving au
addition to the cost of manufactured goods, and
increasing, as they allege, the burdens of the
farmers. We have again and again exploded the
fallacy of this position, and shown that the certain
effect of seeming to the domestic producer his own
market will be to stimulate such a home competi-
tion as will necessarily reduce the price of com-
modities to the lowest point at which they can be
made. But it is all in vain ; experience and facts
are of no account in the estimation of these pro-
British theorists, and in spite of all the evidence
we have given of the falseness of their position, they
still continue to maintain it. _ .

The Y Washington Star has the following :
The meeting of Conservative Republican Con-
gressmen, friends of the President, and promi-
nent Southern gentlemen now here, at the Metro-
politan Club Room, seems to have been of a con-
versational character, and intended to ascertain if
by some slight mutual concessions, not amounting
to any sacrifice of principle, a measure of recon-
struction could not be agreed upon that would

meet the views of both the Legislative and the
Executive branches of the Government. The com-
parison of views expressed served to cause the
belief that the interview may lead to practical results
hereafter, though no definite steps were taken last
night.

The water during the recent freshet in Vermont
rose as high as the second storey of a hotel in West
Hartford, and a daughter of the proprietor Was
drowned. The wall of a paper mill at Greenville,
Connecticut, was undermined by the freshet and
fell into the river on Tuesday. The damage by.the
heavy rains in the south-eastern portion of Connec-
ticut is estimated at $200,000.
Cambridge has appropriated $12,000 for the erec-
tion of a fire alarm telegraph in that city.
In lowa the rain storm was furious to the west of
Dubuque, flooding the prairies and breaking LIP
rivers. A long bridge at Dyersville has been swept
away. The loss is very heavy.
A race for a distance of seventy-five yards and
a wager of $lOO was run at Cayuga Lake, New
York, the other day, between a man on skates and
a man without skates. Two thousand people saw
it, and bets ran high in favour of the skater, who
was a " champion," but the skateless man Won by
ten feet.

The bark Pioneer, the first steam vessel that ever
engaged in the whaling fishery, is refitting at Nov
London, and will leave on her second cruise about
the middle of this month, under command of Capt.
Ebenezer Morgan, of Groton.
The winter fishing along the coast has been un-
usually good. this season. Some of the fishermen
have realised as high as $65 for a single day's work.
From St. John's, Newfoundland, we hear that,
owing to the partial failure of the fishery, and the
almost entire loss of the potato crop, great destitu-
tion prevails.
' There were 46,608 barrels of mackerel inspected
in Maine last year ; 8,000 less than in 1865.