Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1881-09-15


The deeds of the notorious James boys, of
Missouri, have been eclpsed in daring by an in
dividual in the mountains of New Hampshire
Within mile of the Glen House, in the White
Mountains. a carriage just ahead of the regular
coach was stopped and the owner of the We
hicle relieved of his valuables. The daring high
wayman attempted to stop the stage for the
purpose of going through the passengers. but
the driver warned by the fate of the carriage
ahead of him, put whip to his horses and es-
capped the clutches of the road agent. The ex-
ample of car loads of passengers surrendering to
half dozen men. and of stage loads of men
tamely submitting to be robbed by one indi-
vidual is apparently having an evil influence
upon the rascals throughout the country Men
who live by rascality are beginning to believe
that it is only necessary to surprise travelling
party with command to ''halt and throw I'D
your hands to have them submit to robbery If
one or two plucky men Will answer the next
command Of this character with fatal shot or
two it will have the effect of destroying the illu
sion that single highwayman can take the road
anywhere and rob as many people as he chooses.
For the fiscal year 1880 81 the report of the
British postmaster general shows that the total
number of letters, postal cards, circulars, book
packets. and newspapers delivered amounted
to 1,6S1 AS, 800, or nearly seventeen hundred
million, against 2,215, 16S, 1874, or little over
twenty-five hundred million delivered by the
post office department of the United States dur
ing the last year. The English department de-
lvered 116, 423 600 letters. an average of "a
for every man, woman and child. in the United
Kingdom; the United States Post Office depart
ment delivered SOC, 500. 572 letters or an aver
age OF sixteen per capita. Our department de-
liyered 216, 446, 7O6 postal cards. to 122 SS4 900
by the British department and for mails carried
65, 175, 64 newspapers, to 1873 1876 100 carried by
those of Great Britain. The gross receipts of
the British department for the year were
Is, 1O0,0Sl, and the expenses g.. $40 506 leaving
clear profit of E3,O71 ,525, or more than
$4,000. COO The telegraph system of Great
Britain. it must be remembered, is part of its
postal system, and returns large share of this
profit Since 1871 the number of messages sent
per annum by the British postal telegraph sys-
TEN has increased from $3.50. III to 30 966, 965.
II is said that the oil wells of Pennsylvania are
falling. ana IN support of the statement statis-
ties are presented showing a steady decrease in
production Since July, 1880, there has been a
steady falling off in production. and the number
OF wells now in operation is 12S less than at that
time In connection with this information it is
plainly intimated that the stock Of crude oil in
the oil region will be held more firmly and the
range OF prices must be permanently higher
One OF the organs of the petroleum interest pre-
diets that the decline in the gross product will
continue. unless very productive new basin is
discovered, which it does not consider probable
III Is more than likely that these statistics of de-
cl:nMs oil wells are put forth now more withthe
view of raising the price Of petroleum than OF
anything else. However, there is no occasion
just yet for petroleum panic The production
will probably keep up with the demand for some
years TO come; especially as according to report
there have been late discoveries of oil wells on
mammoth scale in Russia
The latter part of the cotton season was Z