Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1879-10-23
TIMELY TOPICS.

TIMELY TOPICS.
Cabul, the capital Of Afghanistnn,
where the massacre of Cavagnnri and
the English embassy took place, il not
city whose palaces and public institu-
tions would allure the sightseer to any
heightened stay in its vicinity, for with
out exception a more neglected or tum-
blcd-down collection Of houses, without
the slightest pretcnce to sanitary
arrangements, can hardly be found i'm
Asia. The only shops OF any interest are
| the leather and iron workers and others
dealing in skins and stuifs peculiar TO
Cabul. The fruit stalls in the autumn
are crnmmcd from the ground TO the
roof with every kind Of both ripe and
raw fruits.
The \ club is n society ofsnine dis.
| tinguishcd Britons-Sir John Lubbock.
| Mr.. Herbert Spencer, Sir Joseph Hooker,
! Prois. Tyndall. Frankland. Busk. Hux-
! ley and Hurst, and Mr.. VILLA m Spott-
iswoodc. The invitations to the club
meetings are very odd. displaying mere
| ly the letter Y linked 10 the date of
meeting, thus: "X-g." Somctimcg-
but rarely-thc wives Of the members
are permitted TO grace the feast. and
then the card reads: "XxYVS-g."
Prof Huxley and Mr.. SpOttswoode are
reported TO be- the life and soul Of these
| hilarious meetings, the only member who
! approaches them in yiyacity being Mr..
Herbert Spencer.
We may yet travel by lightning ms
| wellas send our messages by that agency.
! They have an electric railroad in Berlin
that works wonderfully well. and many
| scientific people think the electric loco
motive may yet pull real trains along
/ our present railroads. The Berlin loco
motive draws three carriages. Each
! carriage holds from eighteen 10 twenty
| persons, and all three are drawn in from
one To two minutes round the circular
railway Of three hundred meters in
! length. The locomotive was originally
made for the purpose OF drawingup coal
out Of the pit. Nevertheless its per-
| formances are very remarkable, and rem
| der ii certain that there are many cases
/ in which electric locomotives may be
employed with advantage.
One OF the novelties at an Idaho fair
were exhibits made by the Indians on
/ the NCz Perce reservation at the IApwai
! Agency. Exquisitcly pointed ar
!
broidercd scalps, does one surmise? Not
at all. The exhibits consisted Of choice
vegetables. corn of large grain and but
! ter actually gilt-edgcd butter. This
/ year the Indians around lapwai have
| harvested 10, 900 bushels OF grain from
! LOO acres, an average of over thirty
| six bushels TO the acre. 3,l7O acres Of
/ land are cultivated by them. most Of the
/ land being along the creek bottoms,
! where there IL "A very rich loan. The
| vegetables this year will be about as
/ three 10 one Of last years tillagc in
/ quantity and the reservation agent il
| ticklcd that his red men are self-sus-
/ tanning.
The first gold bullion from Alaska
recently left Sitka in the steamer Cali
| fornia for the San Francisco mint. For
many months 1t has been known that
gold existed throughout various por-
| tions of the territory in paying quanti-
ties, and various explorations for IL have
been conducted. During the Russian
occupation Of Alaska the Indians from
the interior frequently brought 10 the
frontier trading posts specimens of pure
native gold. and the explorations OF the
country as have since been made have
resulted in substaniiating the opinion
that the country was Ticn in placer
mines and probably in quartz mines.
The placer mines are said to he extraor-
dinarily rich. and certain indications
lead TO the belief that discoveries equal
10 those in Australia during the earlier
periods ofthe gold excitement there will
ere long be made in Alaska.
The great importance which ostrich
f.v, I.u - A -.
may be seen from an ostrich auction re-
Gently held at Middleburg, Cape Liant
The lowest price paid for one pair #
thcsc birds was $500. and several paI
fetched Si.i25. a few years ago o.
trichcs were obtained by hunting only,
and nj that time a good bird could 'p
caught for menageric or n zoologi al
garden at a moderate price. But since
their domcstication and The development
of ostrich-farming as ~ industry. their
AsS.gisen enormously. At present
ea3t Garden in London owns
III ostrich. From the Cape
Ari - 2.2g7 pounds Of ostrich
|lbf ~ exported in 1850. at a
Vf05, but in 1873 the expor-
tati5y& Fe ben 20 1851 pounds. at a
value on "a 395. and recently bunch
Of picked bloods were sold at Port
Elizabeth for s337 60 n pound, that is.
about $500 feather.
The disproportion between the cost Of
collecting the United States internal
revenue and the customs revenue is very
great. Some interesting facts appear
! from study of the amount of revenue
! derived from customs and from inter-
/ nal revenue and the cost of collecting
| the same respectively from the year 1893
Ia 1878. Thus during the closing years
of the war, when the internal revenue
service had just been organized. the cost