The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1877-02-22
CURRENT PARAGRAPHS.

GEN. JAMES SHIELDS, the new adju-
tant general of Missouri, was shot
through the body with a grape shot at
the battle of Cerro Gordo, during the
Mexican war, and large silk handker-
chief was drawn through his body to
clean the wound. He afterward served
term as United States senator from
Illinois, and then as a major general dur
ing the civil war in the union army.
Mr. RUSSELL SAGE, since the death Of
Commodore Vanderbilt, becomes more
prominent as Wall-street magnate. He
began life as a porter, made his way to a
higher position, was elected alderman
and member of congress, and then retired
from politics TO devote himself to bust
ness. His wealth is estimated at S.
900, 900, which the New York Tribune
says is more likely to be under than over
thetruth.
THE New York Herald says that the
success which has attended the impOi-
tant work at the mouth of the Missis-
sippi river reflects great credit upon
Capt. Eads, and encourages the hope he
entertains of securing a channel thirty
feet deep fer the largest vessels. With
such a channel New Orleans will take
her place among the chief commercial
ports of the United States, and a new
era of prosperity opens for the Missis-
sippi valley.
A WIDESPREAD association, under the
name of Federation and Liberty" has
been discovered in Moscow, whose aim
it is to make Russia a federal republic
The empire is to form five separate
states, united by a federation. The
dynasty is to be set aside, the aristocracy
abolished, and communal and republican
institutions to be introduced on the
most democratic basis. Numerous ar
rests have consequently been made in
Moscow.
IT is a striking fact that new south
Wales is trying to induce the emigration
thither Of laborers, skilled and otherwise,
from this country, which has long been
itself the destination of the great mass
Of European emigrants. The agents Of
the government Of new south Wales Of
fer transportation to Sydney at greatly
reduced rates, and free transportation
thence into the interior. Wages are
about the same as here. The cost Of the
voyage, forty dollars, added to the long
distance and the new and Wntried con-
ditions Of life, prevents much success in
the effort to get the desired emigrants.
THE most gigantic schemeOf tunneling
ever preached is the project of a Madrid
pamphleteer to tunnel the straits Of
Gibraltar, which it is asserted is even
more practicable than the proposed
submarine tunnel across the channel
between England and France. The sub
marine portion of the straits of Gibraltar
Tunnel would be little more than one
third the distance across the stats of
Dover, but as the maximum depth of
the sea is five hundred fathoms, and as
it is proposed TO leave three hundred feet
of rock between the sea bottom and the
tunnel, the tunnel of approach on each
side would have to be nearly six miles
long in order to make the decent Prac-
ticable. The cost is estimated at $2O,-
O00,0OO, and it is proposed to use it in
connection with the strait of Dover tun-
mel TO make an overland railway through
route to India without break of bulk
If such an enterprise should ever be con-
summated, and it is quite within The
bounds OF probability, it would be a
stupendous manifestation Of mans
ability to overcome the material OBJ
stacles of nature.
Al