The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1880-08-18
TIMELY TOPICS.

TIMELY TOPICS.
The well.known writer of books or
adventure and travel, Captain Mayne
Reid, has been engaged the past three
years in experimenting with seed pota.
toes, with view to escape the blight
which has been so disastrous to the
potato crop in England and Ireland.
AS the result of his experience. tho3e
brought from Mexico alone showed not
spot of blight, all the other kinds hav.
| ing been found to be diseased in greater
or less degree. The Mexican potato,
he claims, also will yield almost double
as many bushels to the acre, and sug:.
gests that the government take in hand
the importation OF the seed in large
quantities.
The Chicsgo fire of 1871 burned Q, 900
acres and destroyed $3.50, ,000, 900 OF
property. The Boston fire burned over
sixty acres and destroyed over $40, 900,
600 of property There Isl. now on forty
acres in the dry goods district, between
Chamber street and Canal street, and
Broadway and West Broadway, New
York city. more value of merchandise
than was burned in Chicago and Boston
at their great fires. The average loss
per acre III Chicago was S57, 500; in
Boston, 81, ,l68, ,667. The value per acre
in New. York Is S6, 900, 600. Distributed
In stores, twenty feet front BY 200 feet
deep, each store would contain 5000,
900 worth of goods. Twenty-Five stores
Of the size above named contain as
much in value as the whole amount fo
property destroyed in Chicago by the
great fire.
The wrath of Englishmen against any
act of injustice under the forms of law
is easily excited, and this wrath has
J lately broken out in q very explosive
way. a woman whose husband was in
house of detention, feloniously and o1
malice aforethought carried to him con.
cealed in pie quarter Of an ounce Of
tobacco. For this ofense one MIR. Bar.
stow, a magistrate, sentenced her to
twenty -one days imprisonment at hard
labor, but took off the hard labor when
he found that she was in delicate state
of health. This was enough to set Mr..
Bull and his wife to writing Indignantly
to the newspapers, and letters on the
subject appear signed "An Angry
Woman, IAN Indignant Mother" "a
Halter of Petty Tyranny" Magistrate
Barstow, who has won an unenviable
reputation by the severity of his SEN
tences, now finds himself unpleasantly
mentioned in the house of commons ;
and large public meetings were to be
held to denounce him in London, when
the home secretary thought it best to
order the release OF the woman.
One of the things which they order
better in France than in many other
countries is the treatment of men re-
sponsible for railway accidents. The
disaster at Clinchy on the third CT Feb
ruary last may be recalled by our read
ers. when train of the Northern COM
pany ran into one of the Western line,
killing sixteen per persons; ana wognainS SI11n1s
the conductor of the first train, who
had neglected the use of fog signals,
and the engineer of the second, who
had run through the fog too rapidly,
were killed, but guard and two
switchmen were sent before the crimi-
nal tribunals for neglecting the precau-
tions which it should have occurred to
them to take in view of the weather
and the proximity to each other OF the
trains. All three men bore good char
acters, which was lucky for them. as
one was acquitted and the other two
cot off with sentences of four months
Imprisonment and ten dollars fine, be-
sides the costs, but the Western COM
pany was declaref ..civilly responsible
for all consequences OF their negligence.
The new volume OF "Poor's
Manual" gives q very encouraglng z
view OF the railroads of the United
States. The most conspicuous feature
which appears from study of the
statistics is the great increase Of busl.
ness and the reduction in the cost OF
carrying freight. There were at the
close of 1879, SO, 497 miles OF railroad IN
operation, an increase OF 4.72l miles
over the previous year. greater growth
than in any year since 1873. The gross
earnings Of all these roads were four
hundred and tWenty-nine millions,
against four hundred and ninety mil
lions in 1873. But, as has been said,
this increase in gross receipts repre-
scnted much greater increase in traffic;
Thirteen leading lines which IN 1873
carried 1855, ,O02 tons of freight. on
which the charges amounted to $ll2,-
O04, ,648, an average rate of LIT cents per
ton per mile, carried in 1879 67,092, $40
tons, and received Sll6,3ll,452, or at
the rate of only LOO cents per mile, AS
the report says, 1.-THE rate per mile at
which the railroads now carry freight
would have been considered impossible
five years ago." and yet the statistics
further show that the business is
conducted at a substantial profit. If
the dividends are smaller they are more
securely earned, and a larger amount OF
the earnings than ever before has gone
into permanent improvements and
reserve funds.