The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1883-09-01

a Flourishing City-The Multicharge Can
non-The Arthur Boom-A Divorce Del
use-Pension Thieves Exp osed-An Am
bilious Celestial, etc.
PHILADELPHIA, August H. 1888.
EDITOR CHIEF:
Reading, Pennsylvania, is one of the
most promising cities of the North. It
claims about $4,000 inhabitants-has in
creased ten OR twelve thousand in ten years.
It is beautifully located among the hills,
which are not rugged, but well adapted to
farming, and the lands are so rich that the
farmers are quite satisfied with their re-
turns. Railroads too have built it up. 1t
has quite variety of manufactures, but its
chief industry is iron. l had the pleasure
of talking with the manager of one of the
largest iron works=-the Scott foundry. He
says he does great deal of work for New
turned out that big gun that has attracted
SO much attention of late. That monster
of destruction is called the Lyford- Haskell
multicharge gun, and was designed as a
SICdt Iip1ofCil1CIG LII Cil Wdl1dIC.
Although the cannon was invented O0years
ago, this is the first deviation from the old
principle of placing powder in the breech.
1t has four pockets underneath, each of
which holds twenty eight pounds of pow
der, while the breech itself holds eighteen
pounds. Thus the force of at least one
hundred pounds of powder is concentrated
on the projectile-one pocket after another
rapidly discharging its contents. Mr.. Has
kell's idea is, that there will be no waste of
powder. He says it was designed for naval
and harbor defense and will shoot from
twelve to fifteen miles. The projectiles
with which is is loaded weigh from 100 to
$50 pounds. It was manufactured at the
cost of $4,000, is twenty-five feet long,
weighs twenty-f five tons and was two years
in process of construction. To make it
doubly strong it is steel lined and is ex-
pected to send a projectile through solid
piece of iron twenty-four inches thick. Mr..
Haskell, who personally supervised this
gun, can think and talk of nothing else and
aWd1lS Will every NERVE Ill a LTomOr IOf Ll6
test which will take place soon at Sandy
Hook, in the presence of leading officers of
the army and navy of the United States and
foreign countries. If it fails to stand the
test, the study and toll of years will be
thrown away-if it succeeds, his fortune will
be made and his name will be inscribed
alongside of the great inventors of the
world. A company with a capital of S10,-
100000 has been organized, it is said, for
the manufacture of this gun, and ex-Gov.
Cornell and ex-senator Platt are among the
interested parties.
4 few months ago Arthur's name would
not have had mention at all as one of the
possible candidates for the presidency
now, so much of the prejudice of faction
has passed away that he looms up above all
others. The Arthur boom is fairly under
way and the general opinion is that if he
keeps quiet, doesn't kill himself before the
presidential convention of 1884, he will ride
in on the crest of the nomination wave:
and more-that if the convention were to
meet to-day, his nomination would be a
dead certainty. The welcome which he re-
ceived III Chicago the other day on his first
visit since his nomination three years ago,