The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1879-09-25
TIMELY TOPICS.

were exhibits made by the Indians on
the Nez Perce reservation at the Lapwai
Agency. Exquisitely pointed ar
heads, beaded moccasins and en-
broidered scalps, does one surmisep Not
at all. The exhibits consisted of choice
vegetables, corn of large grain and but
tcr-actually gilt-edged butter. This
year the Indians around Iapwai have
harvested 10000 bushels OF grain from
], 100 acres, an average of over thirty
six bushels to the acre. 3,170 acres of
land are cultivated by them, most of the
land being along the creek bottoms,
where there is p very rich loan. The
vegetables this year will be about as
three to one of last years tillage in
quantity and the reservation agent is
tickled 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 it has been known that
gold existed throughout various por-
tions of the territory in paying quanti-
ties, and various explorations for it have
been conducted. During the Russian
occupation of Alaska the Indians from
the interior frequently brought to the
frontier trading posts specimens of pure
native gold, and the explorations of the
country as have since been made have
resulted in substantiating the opinion
that the country was rich in placer
mines and probably in quartz mines.
The placer mines are said to be extraor-
dinarily rich, and certain indications
lead to the belief that discoveries equal
to those in Australia during the earlier
periods ofthe gold excitement there will
ere long be made in Alaska.
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 1863
to 1878. Thus during the closing years
of the war, when the internal revenue
service had just been organized, the cost
of collection ranged only from O.l6 to
0.29 per cent. for amounts increasing
from $37 $40, 1877 to S209, AGA, ,2l5, while
the cost OF the customs revenue was
from 400 to 500 per cent. in collecting
from S69, ,059, $40 to $l02, 1916, 152. Then
the cost of collecting the internal rev.
enue rose as high as $50 per cent. in
1871, but fell afterward to 2.99 and 2.96
per cent. for 1877 and 1878, the amount
collected being $500, ,4O7 and SllO.-
$751; ,624 respectively. Meanwhile the
cost of collecting the customs revenue
has for the last five years ranged be-
tween All and 4.96 per cent, while the
amount collected each of the last two
years has been about $3.50, 900.
Russia is at present under state O
siege from St. Petersburg to Moscow and
Warsaw, from Kieff to Kharkoff anC
Odessa. An army of porters about
$4,000 strong, watch the streets of tho
capital, day and night, and policemen
are set to watch the watchers. General
Gourko, the crosser of the Balkans, who
is now Vice-Emperor, is invested with
unlimited powers, in the place of the dis.
heartened Gar The very Grand Dukes
are under his orders. Arrests among
officers of the army have been the immc.
diate consequence of General GourRo' S
satrap rule. In several cases compro.
missing letters and prints were discov'
cred, and executions both of officers
like Lieutenant Dubrovin, and of pri
Yates, have followed. The gallows are
in permanent activity. But perhaps tn,
most significant feature-and promis
ing one tools the order issued, undcl
court-martial law, that in all the bar
racks list of the soldiers arms is to b,
drawn up and to be handed over to tin
police! This is the strongest sign of
suspicion against the army itself; and OF
the army the whole power of Czardon
reposes.
In an article on the Russian advanc
eastward, the Cologne Gazette estimate
that IL 600 Russians are every year ban
lshed to or sentenced to penal servitud
in Siberia. Peasants from the centri
and western provinces, who from vari
GUS causes find life in their own home
unbearable, quit tine latter to migrate +
the Dorado beyond the Volga, .wher
they have been taught by the traditions
of their forefathers that they will fin,
free land and a free life. Arrived a
their destination, however, these emf
grants only find themselves exposed t
bitter disappointment. There is Ian
enough to support thousands upon thou
sands of families, but it has been for tn
most part bought up, often at merel
nominal prices, by officials and speculs
tors, and the emigrant, on arrival, cor
sequently finds himself compelled to bu
or pay high rent for the ground h
would cultivate. The result is tha
everywhere beginning has been made
are to be found in the middle of forest.
and here and there, in otherwise vast
and desolate districts, settlement ha
been made and a chapel has been bui
by a party of dissenters. Beyond thi,
| 10 ha. do