Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1883-11-22


The surplus in the United States
treasury over the national expendi-
lures was $37, 100000 in 1866; it was
only 100000 in 1874; in 1881 it was
over $100,000,00O; in 1882, over $145,-
100000, and 1883 it was $139,000,000.
This gives aper capita wealth of $3.50.
A French inventor, who has pat
ented a machine for the use of con-
centrated solar rays as general mo-
tive power, has set up three of his
machines in Algeria for the French
government. He is now carrying on
experiments at the island of Porque-
ROLES, near Hyeres, in France, where
he is threshing Indian corn and rails
ing water by the action Of the suns
rays.
Indiana has Jay Gould in the per-
son of E. Ii. Shirk Of Peru, who owns
seventy-three farms in Indiana that
are all in a high state of cultivation.
He also owns thousands of acres in
Texas, Arkansas, Michigan and Iowa,
nine residences, business blocks with
out number, some of them being situ~
ated in Chicago and indianapolis, three
banks, several stores, and as many
mills, which he conducts himself.
It's conjectured that the "bad lands"
of Dakota may owe their condition to
a process which may now be seen 60,
ing on in the region between Bismarck
and the Little Missouri river. Over q
tract some two hundred feet square
the air quivers with the heat, sulphu-
roas vapors make crystalline deposit
on the edges of crevices in the soil,
and reddish glow is given out. This
results from the combustion of coal
beneath the surface. and it was going
on when the region was first visited
by white men.
An Illinois woman named Margaret
Robbins, wife of a well-to-do farmer,
got mad at her husband ten years ago
because he lost some money she brought
him, went to bed, saying she would
never get up or do a stroke of work,
and has been there ever since. She
felt tired three years ago, started to
go to the breakfast table, fell and
broke her ankle, and has not left the
sheets since. She is as cross as a bear,
scolds everything an inch high, keeps
a broom handle to pound the patient
daughter who waits on her, and knows
every bit of gossip and scandal going
within thirty miles.
An organ which has just been built
In Germany is believed to be the largest
in existence 1t counts one hundred
AMI seventy-four registers, and is
worked automatically by gasmotor of |
four-horse power. Its height is twenty |
metres, its width eleven, and its depth |
ten. Its largest wooden pipe is ten |
metres long, and of cubical capacity |
of two thousand litres. The instru-
ment is to be set up in the cathedral at |
Riga For the st. Stephens cathedral |
of Vienna the same builders are soon to |
construct still larger organ. The we'll
known organs of Boston, Ulm and St. |
Petersburg were built by the same
men.
A railroad superintendent has given
the San Francisco Call an estimate of |
the cost of an average train on a first
class railroad For an express train
locomotive, $4,000; baggage car,
s12O0; smoking car, $4,000; dining
room car, $4,000; five first class Pull,
mans, $4,000 each total, $4,000.
The ordinary express train represents
about $85,00O Some Pullman cars
cost $4,000 each. The average value
of freight train is still greater than
that of passenger train if the rolling
stock and value of property are in.
cluded. Sometimes the through freight
trains aggregate in value from $3.50.
300 to 100000.
The bird population of Wisconsin is
estimated at sixty-six per square mile,
Or 1866, 900 for the State. Each bird
is assumed to eat fifty insects day, or
5000 for the summer. Hence, all the
birds will consume 21,384, 100000 in
sects year. Add to this amount the
work which these birds do in their
Southern homes, and we have a low
estimate of the influences they exert
)ver insect life. Multiply these figures
1y forty-eight, for the States and Ter
'itories, and we arrive at the con.
,lusion not only that our bird popu-
alton is pretty large, but also, that,
our bug population would