The Sentinel., 1880-07-24
TIMELY TOPICS.

1t is said that more than three mil
lions of women in England and Wales
are earning living-or trying to earn
onc-in the various trades and indus
tries. But their wages are SO low that
six years ago society-the Women's
Protection and Provident League-was
organized to raise them.
The emigration received at the port
of New York during the first six months
of 1880 shows larger total, by $4,000,
than the same period in 1879, which,
until now, had stood as the highest
figure OF the past twenty five years.
The total for the past six months is
l77,OO0, or more than three times the
number of those who came during the
same period of last year.
A Pekin (China) correspondent says
that the number of suicides increases
almost daily. Bodies of those who have
drowned themselves are frequently
found by the banks of the rivers and on
the beach. These lamentable occur
rences are said to be caused by the dear
ness of rice, which produces great dis
tress and suffering, and the authorities
are adopting measures calculated to
relieve the wants of the poor and put a
stop to the further sacrifice of life.
According to the United States fish
commission, the world is indebted to a
woman for the discovery that the oil of
the menhaden" fish has much COM
mercial value. About the year 1850
Mrs. John Bartlett, of Blue ..Hill, near
Mount Desert, Me-, while boiling som
fish for her chickens. noticed thick
scum of oil on the surface of the water.
Some of this she bottled, and when on a
visit to Boston soon after, she carried
samples to some of the leading oil meI-
chants of that city, who encouraged her
to bring more. The following year the
Bartlett family industriously piled their
gill nets, and sent to market thirteen
barrels of oil, for which they were paid
at therate of $ll per barrel, in all $l43.
Emperor William is described as look
ing better than he has done for years,
and wearing robust and hearty air.
He regards himself at Ems as soldier
on leave of absence. He seldom wears
his customary uniform, but generally
appears in plain dress, which is, how
ever, less becoming to him than his
well-krown regimentals. His mode o.
life at Ems is rather monotonous. He
rises early, visits the Brunnen," takes
his constitutional walk on the prone
made, and then sets to official work.
Any distinguished trequenters Of the
famous Spa may be sure of an invitation
to his majesty's ever hospitable board.
The evenings are usually spent at the
Royal theater, in the Kurhaus, where
he sits among the audience without any
particular box being set apart for him.
He delights in listening to comedies and
farces, whose wit never fails to evoke a
smile or arouse his laughter, which,
ringing with unaffected pleasure, is
always tt eat for the whole house.
The connection between the Atlantic
and the Pacific oceans has been for
years subject of interest to the Ameri-
can people, and one which has con-
stantly attracted the attention of scien-
tifc men and capitalists, but which, up
to this time, has baffled all attempts to
ioin the oceans. The three large under
takings in this particular are now
making fine headway, if those who have
them in charge are to be believed. On
the contrary, however, equally as dis
couraging reports are given by the op-
posing lines, and one is at loss to know
what to believe concerning the success
or failure of the different enterprises, so
defamatory are the reports each makes
of the other. First in magnitude of
difficulties is the Panama canal, the pet
of De Lesseps, which requires forty
miles of cutting through the hardest
hills in the world. Then up in Central
Americai is the Nicaraguan undertaking,
by which it is proposed to dig canal
from Greytown, on the gulf coast. to
Lake Nicaragua, and then from the lake
to the Pacific coast. The third enter
prise is the Tehuantepec Inter-ocean
railroad, to be built by American capi-
talists under a grant from the Mexican
government. This route extends from
Coatzacoalcas, on the gulf side, to the
harbor of Tehuantepec opposite.