Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1878-06-13
Educational Column.
OUR CHIP-BASKET.

eighteen feet, and a width on top Of
fifteen feet. Every few hundred
yards there is a tower twenty-four
feet square, and from twenty to forty
feet high, The foundation of the
wall is Of solid granite. In building
this immense stone fence to keep out
the Tartars, the builders never at
tempted to avoid mountains or
chasms 20 save expense. For 1900
miles the wall goes over plain and
mountain, and every foot of the foun-
dation is in solid granite, and the
rest of the structure solid masonry.
In some places the wall Is built
smooth up against the bank, or can
ons, or precipices, where there is a
j sheer descent of 1000 feet. Small
streams are arched over, but in the
larger streams the wall runs to the
waters edge, and tower is built on
each side. On the top of the wall
there are breastworks, or defenses,
facing in and out, so the defending
force can pass from one tower to an
other without being exposed to an
enemy from either side. To calcu-
late the time of building or cost OF
this wall is beyond human skill. So
far as the magnitude Of the work is
concerned, it surpasses everything in
ancient or modern times of which
there is any trace. The pyramids OF
Egypt are nothing compared to it.
UPAs TREE.
Upas is the Malay word for poison.
The real name of the celebrated
upas tree is the autjar tree. From
the milky juice of this tree, mixed
with black pepper, ginger, and the
juice OF galanya root. the natives
make a poison for arrows, which is
quick in its work, and fatal. The
story, however, that there is a poison
vale in Java. where the upas tree
alone lives, and with its exhalations
kills all other life, animal or vegeta-
BILE, is untrue. There is a deadly
vale In Java where nothing can live,
but this is from carbonic acid gas,
sent up from the ground, and there
are no upas trees in that valley. The
tree grows in forests, without doing
any injury to the adjoining trees; and
the flesh of animals killed by the
upas poison is untainted. and can be
eaten with perfect immunity.
COMMANDERS IN CHIEF.
The United States army has had
fifteen COMMUNICATIVE chief, viz:
George Washington, June 10, 1775-
Dec. %, 1888.
Josiah Harmar, Sept. 17S9-March 1901.
Arthur st. Clair, March 1791-March
1892.
anthony Wayne, March 1792-Dec. Is,
1896.
James Wilkinson, Dec. 1796-July 179S,
George Washington, July 179S-Dec.
IA, 1893.
James Wilkinson, June 1S00-Jan. 1912.
Henry Dearborn, Jan. 1S12-June 1915.
Jacob Brown, June 1S15-Feb. "a, 1928.
Alexander Macomb, May 182S-June
1S41.
Winfield Scott, June 1541-Nov. 1861.
George B. Mcclellan, Nov. /, 1861
March IL, 1862.
Henry w. Halleck, July II, 1862
March IL, 1864.
-
March 4, 1862
William T. Sherman, March s, 1869.
New York does not receive its
name OF the Empire State from the
fact OF its being the largest State in
the Union. There are seventeen
States, every one OF which contains
more square miles than New York
does. 1t Is called the Empire State
because it contains a greater popula-
ton, has more wealth, trade and CON-
merce, and exerts more influence
than any other State. California is
three and a half times larger than
New York, and Texas Is nearly six
times as large, but the entire popula-
ton OF either OF those States is not
equal to that OF the city OF New York
alone.
QUADRUpLEx SYSTEM OF TELEGRAPHY.
The old system OF telegraphy al
lowed a single Morse wire, In live
circuit, to average per hour about
forty messages, Of twenty words each.
A message going one way or the 9th.
or, occupied the wire, to the exclu
sion of every other message. The
duplex system was inaugurated by
the Western Union Company few
years ago. This doubled the capacity
Of the wire, and allowed two messages
to be sent over simultaneously, in
creasing its capacity to an average Of
eighty messages per hour. That is,
forty messages could be sent from
Chicago to Fl. Wayne, and forty from
Fl. Wayne to Chicago, within an hour,
messages being dispatched and re-
ceived from each end OF the single
wire at the same time. In October,
1874. the quadruplex system was put
into operation between New York
and Boston, and was found to work
admirably, whereby two hundred and
thirty seven messages were sent and
received simultaneously over a single
wire, making an aggregate Of above
four thousand words.
The opinion now held by biologists
Is, that the vegetation from which
coal of the csrboniferous age origin
ated, was similar to that Of the past
boys now found In many parts OF the