The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1883-01-05
FACTS AND COMMENTS.

The "rOaSt beef OF England evident
" bellies its name. With $4,000 head of
live cattle yearly, 1000 quarters
weekly from Chicago, and 1000 car
casses weekly from one firm in New
York going to the London and Liver
pool markets, it is plain that the roast
beef of America is comingto the front
on English dinner tables.
General Lew Wallace, United States
minister to Turkey, accepted com
mission mt the close of the civil war in
the republican army of Mexico, with
view to organizing a legion of Ameri-
can soldiers to aid in driving out the
Emperor Macmillan. The legion was
not raised, but Wallace rendered
efficient service. for which he got no
pay, because the Mexican treasury was
drained. His claim for pay, however,
has been pushed, and he has recently
received $4,000 in gold in full Of ac-
count.
"Illiteracy, as shown by the census
of $780," was the subject of recent
address by Mr.. John Eaton, United
States commissioner of education, in
the hall of the Union League club in
New York. He said that in 1880
there were 100000 white persons and
100000 colored persons in the United
States who could not write. He
thought that it behooved the nation
to become the patron for educating
the 100000 children who do not at
tend school. 1t would take $1,1O0,-
600 and 10000 teachers to start the
work.
According to Professor Sargent, of
Harvard college, Michigan and Wis
consin will some day find rivals in
Massachusetts and other New England
States in the production of white pine,
which is second growth in those
States. The product sawed in Mass;l-
chusetts in 1880 was worth 81 100000
Vermont and New Hampshire pro-
duced 100,000,000 feet, and Maine as
much more. This, of course, to a Mich
igan or Wisconsin lumberman of to-day,
is trifling affair, but in the future,
when the pine resources of that region
are exhausted,it may seem quite import
ant.
An appeal in behalf of the starving
goats of Michigan may be looked for
shortly. A Detroit man has built a
furnace in which refuse tineware, such
as oyster cans, fruit cans, etc, may be
treated in such manner that the
solder is restored to commerce and the
sheets of tin, being rerolled, are avail
able for binding the edges of wood
trunks. From five hundred pounds of
old cans he obtains about thirty-tive
pounds Of lead and solder, and from
old boilers, pals and other tin dishes a
considerable amount of wire and other
iron, all of which can be sold at a fair
price.
Vermont is said to produce more
marble than any other State in the
Union or than any country except
this. The business has expanded with
marvellous rapidity since 1870, when
comparatively little Vermont marble
was to be tound in the market. The
aggregate amount of the States pro-
duction the present year is 100000
cubic feet, valued at over $2,O00,0O0.
The number of men employed in the
quarries and mills exceeds 1890, and
it required 10000 cars to carry the
marble away. Nearly $1,000,000 was
paid for the labor of workingmen by
the quarry owners.
A sorrowful story comes from Louis
vile, Ky. The wife of the late Chief
Justice Hardin, of Kentucky, has been
found living on the fourth floor of
tumble-down rookery in absolute want.
Her only companion is her seven-year-
old daughter the rest of her family of
five children being scattered through
the world, the whereabouts of two of
the children being unknown to the
mother. Mrs. Hardin lives in one
room, and when found by the reporter
was without fire or food. The poor
woman has been struggling for years
to keep herself and little child from
starving to death, and has barely sue
ceeded.
In the natural course of events the
eleven general officers will retire from
active service as follows: General Sher-
man, February 8, 1884; Lieutenant
General Sheridan, June, 1894; Major
General Hancock, March, 1888; Ma jor-
General Schofield. November, 1895;
Major-General Pope. July, 1886; Briga-
nier-General Howard, June, 1895
Brigadier-General Terry, 1892; Briga-
dier-General Anger, August, 1885
igadier-General Crook, July, 1898
Brigadier-General Miles, July, 1895
rigadier-General Mackenzie, August,
1894. This will prove interesting to
the arlny;;as the records of the ages of
officers are guarded as sacredly at the
war department as if they were jewels.
Among the various uses to which
electricity may be put there is one
of very practical nature, which prom
Uses tn effect "A great SavinO of nro,,