The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-12-13
INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE.
ABOUT BRAZIL.
Two Repnblics.


World and over three -sevenths of South Amer
lea Its area is 1881. 21S square kilometers, with
a seaboard of ,920 kilUmeters. The country Is
divided into twenty-one provinces, and IN distri
button of SOIL timber and water will compare
favorably with the United States. The country
bordering the northeastern coast for many miles
is almost impenetrable mangrove, but is easily
cultivated when cleared and will raise anything
imaginable-sugar coffee rice, tapioca, maize,
plantains, fruits, vegetables. Some 100 or 200
miles inland from this belt you strike the
plateaus generally consisting of welcovered
prairies, and for foreign settlers more pretera-
BILE country to reside in, albeit not quite so rich
Cocoa, from which cocoa chocolate and other
substances are extracted, hourishes on the
plateaus; also, coffee, maize, fruits, manloc a
root which furnishes tapioca, cotton ndtobacco
The forests abound with the India rubber tree
(siphonia elastical, logwood, which supplies mad
der mahogany, cajoon and cocoanut palm, nam
NEE apple, mango, tamarind, bread fruit tree
(ceratonia sibiqna cinchona and immune rable
others.
WORD OF CAUTION ABOUT THE THK-PENcu4
New York Times.
We have TO utter word Of caution about the
ink-pencils which have come so much into vogue
lately. most useful implement to the business
man, this ceutlooking pencil can be easily
converted into treacherous friend and on no
consideration should it be used to write the sig
nature OF any one The composition Of the pen
Gil is peculiar combination, highly poisonous in
itself. and-herein lies the danger to signature
WflVefS-COlHpeIenb 10 give OH Two UT InOT0
pressions on damped paper-not tissue paper, be
it understood, but ordinary writing paper. Our
attention first directed to this popularity by
an astute official of the Bank of New Zealand
and subsequent experiments proved the easy
practcability of making clear copy of the fill
ing of check with this ink pencil. First the
writing of the check is transferred-upside down,
of course,-to slip of damped paper, and from
that transferred-right side up-to another slip
of damped paper. We tested this recently in
the case of a check written with the ink pencil
and sent in from the country, and by simple
hand pressure obtained very perfect copy of
the transferable parts of the document
THE GREcIAN SPONGE FISHERIES
Brooklyn Eagle
Returns from the sponge fisheries belonging
to Greece show that there are at present ITO
boats engaged in this trade Twenty-Five Of
these boats belong to the island of Egina and
the remainder to the islands of Kalymnos and
SINH Each of the boats, which are supplied
with diving bells, has a crew of from eleven to
fifteen, while the others manned by only
four sailors, so that the total number of men
engaged in the sponge fisheries may be put down
at about 200 They took last year more than
280 tons of spOnges of different qualities, the
total value being 1890 900. Sponges of the finest
quality are sold on the spot at from So TO $3.50
"a pound and the second qualities for rather less
than 81 80 The fishermen have to pay tax of
TO per cent. on the gross value of their takes.
The cost Of a diving apparatus is 81, 100,
and each vessel makes four trips year The
QlVerS remain uDOeF water hours d uay NueH
they are fishing and it is said that many of
them die of suffocation and that great number
of them lose their hearing after few years of
this work
AN1LINE IN JELLIEs
DR.. Cyrus Edison, New York.
Few persons know to what extent aniline is
used to color jelies and preserved fruits such
as are sold in the markets. The dealers who
use aniline in that manner are guilty of COM
mercial fraud, but they cannot be punished I'M
49,, NTo- T5p hapV
suit from the practice if the dealers were careful
to use only pure aniline, but some use the drug
adulterated with arsenic. Thus the appearance
of the fruits and jellies is improved by the aid
of poison. OF course the amount of poison in a
can of jelly would not be great enough to cause
immediate sickness, but the constant reception
of the poison into the system OF any person will
work mischief finally. The laws against adul-
terations of foods ought to be more stringent in
order to protect people against those manufact-
urers who would risk the lives of their fellow
men in order to make money
ITALIANS IN CALIFORNIA.
San Francisco But etin.
The Italian population of California has grown
to be very important both as to numbers and as
TO wealth and intelligence. There are now 1900
Italians in San Francisco. In other parts of the
State there % 600 and in other Pacific States
and Territories, 9,500 Altogether there are 49,,
900 Italians the Pacific coast. From 1849 to
1862 the emigration was composed almost entire
" of single men, but since the latter date fami-
lies have predominated Nearly all come di-
rectly from Italy, the coast furnishing fisher
men and the rural districts farm gardeners and
farmers. They born among vineyards,
olive and orange groves They are, therefore,
naturally experienced and practical orchardists
AN ECCENTRIC RIVER.
The Reese River valley in western Nevada is
about $50 miles long, but the river itself is very
much longer The valley evidently not in
tended to fit the river but the river to fit the
valley. In fact, that eccentric stream
and about the valley, up and down, sideways and
all other ways, considerably on the surface, but
frequently taking a dive and disappearing
through some subterranean channel for miles at
a stretch. The stream runs in continuous Sc
ries of bold curves and angles, without one
straight section of dozen yards in its whole
length. If pulled out straight it would be forty
times as long as the valley
HONEY IL CALIFORNIA
Philadelphia News
In the neighborhood of Lompoc, CAL about
$50 tons of honey will be stored by bees this
winter yet not one-twentieth of the bee range
there is utilized. There are thousands of acres
of sage brush land that will never be cleaned of
this peculiar brush; hence agriculture is destined
to become more and more one of CALIFORNIA;
chief industries, and one in which men of small
capital can embark. There are lands on the
Santa Rita and Purisima ranges for sale at not
to exceed two dollars per acre, which are COW
cred with heavy growth of sage and other
towering shrubs from which bees extract
honey
COFFEE FROM BRAZIL.
Salvador de Mendonca, Brazilian Consul general.
The reason that Rio coffee is not quoted high
in this market is that ouly the lower grades Of
Brazilian coffee are called Rio coffee The best
coffee from Rio de Janeiro is called Java, {"
Mocha" etc You see the planters send their
coffee to Rio and there it is all mixed together,
the good and the bad, in order to get an average
price. When it gets here it is taken to large
coffee houses where the work done in Rio is un-
done, the coffee being sorted out into different
grades and vario1s names given it. The lowest
grade is called Rio AS matter of fact some
Of the best coffee we get comes from Brazil
THE MULBERRY TREE.
Philadelphia Press.
Mulberry trees three and four years old will