The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1879-06-04
TIMELY TOPICS.

TIMELY TOPICS.
The average price paid per day for
convict labor is as follows: In Iowa, 43
cents; New York. "a; Indiana, As; Ne
braska, IS to 40; Kansas, As; Michigan,
40; Maryland, 40; Illinois, 40; West
Virginia, IS; Missouri, 40; Vermont, So;
Rhode Island, 40; Connecticut, 40; Ohio,
Asst; Pennsylvania, 40; Minnesota, 40;
California as and so.
Perhaps the most paying thing in this
country is the New York Elevated RAILROAD.
In L recent interview, its president says
"This road carries 100000 passengers a day
bringing in $1,000 every t%wenty-four hours
to the company" If this rate keeps up ali
the year, and the president thinks the road
is only in its infancy yet, it will bring in
considerably over $4,000 900 a year, and a
the road only cost $4,000 600, this rate can
not but be profitable.
"a dog fancier" takes exception to Pro-
fessor Huxley's assertion that lone OF the
most curious peculiarities of the dog-mlnd
is it's inherent snobbishness, shown by the
regard paid to external respectability. The
dog who banks furiously at a beggar will let
a well-dressed man pass him without oppo'
%sition." He says that the facts are that
only the dogs OF well-dressed persons act So
Dogs accustomed to men in rags bark not al
beggars but at persons clothed in sleek
broadcloth.
Russian princes seem to be very peculiar
kind of people. Not long ago Prince Yus'
supoff, one of the richest men OF the country,
was first fined and then sentenced to three
months Imprisonment on account OF the
fearful amount OF dirt which he had allowed
to accumulate in his palace, and which
poisoned the atmosphere of the whole neigh
borhood. Now, the St. Petersburg papers
announce that Prince Sergii Michaelowitz
Galizyu died in Odessa Of starvation. he
lived in a dark damp room In a basement
80 small that there was not room for the
coffin, and for several months he had had
nothing to eat but bread and a little fruit.
Meanwhile, his mother lives in the grandest
style in Moscow.
The electric light is said to have a partic'
ular fleet on patients suffering from cata-
lepsy and other nervous complaints. Pro-
lessor Charcot, of the Salpetriers, Paris,
after making experiments with the electric
light on historical subjects, found that a
patient placed before a very bright electric
light fell into an anesthetic condition. The
subject of this treatment stands as if fascln-
ated, motionless, and with fixed, staring
eyes. The limbs are stiff, but not so rigid
that they cannot be moved, and they pre-
serve whatever position may be given TO
them. The patients neither see or hear. In
vain the operator speaks to them or makes
signs: all communication between them and
the outer world seems to be at an end.
Meanwhile the features take the expression
of the gestures. Give to the patient a men
acing or tragic attitude, and the eyebrows
become knitted; close the hands as if in
prayer, and the eyes assume q meek and re-
signed expression.
The largest bridge in Europe will be
completed next year. 1t will cross the
FVolga in the government Of Samarla,
Russia, on the Siberian railroad line.
The Volga, at the point of the bridge, is
about four miles wide in the spring sea-
son and in autumn is 1882 feet. The
bridge will be supported by twelve
piers eighty-fve feet high, with ice-cut.
tiers thirty-five feet high at a distance of
every 1854 feet. The ice-cutters are COW
cred with granite. A temporary colony
is established for w%orkingmen employed
on the bridge; it occupies about fifty
five acres, and has s%ixty-nine different
buildings, insured at loo, 900 roublcs.
Two thousand men are employed, and
among them are 100 italian masons.
Three steamers and seventy barks are
used constantly for forwarding wood,
stone, iron and other materials. The
bridge will cost 4.63O,0 600 roubles, or
about So, 500, 900.
The Philadelphia Inquirer, in an elab-
crate article upon the subject OF the
great and rapidly increasing destruction
of property by fire, concludes by saying:
ut is becoming plain to the least in
telligent observer that we have got to
make up our minds to one OF two things
we must either burn up less property
or pay mole for insuring it." On which
the Cincinnati Commercial RerteV re-
marks: I'm this conclusion the H.
quircr makes the ommon mistake that
insurance repairs all the damage and
loss by fire, forgetting that the value of
property burned, whether insured or
| not, is lust so much of the wealth of the
country annihilated. We must burn
less property. We must exercise more
a in the construction of buildings.
must be more careful about exposing to
fire, must use every appliance for the
prevention and prompt eXtinguishment
of fires, and must promptly and severely
! punish inccndiarism. If we burn less
property. as we should do, there will be
, no necessity for paying more for inSur-
ance.
The English sparrow was introduced into
the United States less than twenty years
ago, and now arises Il cry for the extermin-
alton OF the bird from many parts OF the
country. The Scientific American says on the
subject: "These birds, which have now
proved such 4 nuisance to America, seem 10
have no friends at present except those lew
persons who were instrumental in introduce
ing them. The English themselves warned
us against the pest. Not long ago a great
cutlery was raised against them by the farm
ers in Algeria, and o we have the same
evil report OF them from the kingdom of
! Saxony: 4 recent English paper says that
the Council Of Agriculture of the latter
country has decided to petition the govern
ment to repeal the law which makes it all
offence to destroy them. Indeed the feeling
against sparrows has become 20 strong in
some parts that the inhabitants have decided
! to, destroy them in deiance'of the law 1t is
asserted that a microscopical examination
of their crops proves that sparrows live
upon grain during eight or nine months OF
the year, and are only insectiyorous when
reduced to it by necessity. 1t is the same
cry from far and near, from America and
Australia, where the 'dissolute, unmusical
rover has been introduced and protected
by stringent enactments, in return for which
he was expected to eat a great many insects
and very :ittle else"
An article going the rounds of the
press on the use Of the "heliostat," or
signaling by sunshine, in the Zulu wal.
recalls some facts and experiments which
have come under the notice Of a cores
pondent of the New York Evening Post.
Tie saws: "The distance to which these
signals may be sent if the glass, no mat
ter how small, is only adjusted ut the
proper angle. is almost incredible, and,
indeed, is only restricted by the dip of
the horizon. During the work of the
Coast Survey some years ago signals