Weston weekly leader. [volume] (Weston, Umatilla County, Or.) 1878-189?, 1885-02-20
IrEAs OF INTEREST.

debts of the werld have increased from
sl3 .00O, 100000 to S2S, 600, ,00O, 900.
This is apart from municipal and corpo- i,
rate indebtedness, which. during the ,
last quarter of century. haye been add
ed to prodigiously. The only nations
that have succeeded in getting rid of /,
any part Of their Indebtedness are the
United States and Great Britain.
There are, it seems. $40, 900, 900 in se-
curities and money iu the treasury Of
the United States that no one claims. 7!
In times gone by sundry persons have
bought government securities which
they have lost or which have been de-
stroyed: hence the twenty millions of
unclaimed bonds in the treasury. There
are savings banks in New York which
have in their vaults large sums that
will never be claimed. They belong to
poor people who have died or moved
away, or forgotten that they had ever
any money in the bank. There are sup
posed to be some eighty million dollars
of unclaimed money in banks and trust |
companies throughout the country.
Despite the ill-success and loss of life
of former polar cxpeditious, a Russian
enterprise is now projected to reach the
North Pole. They expect to start with
sledges and dogs from the New Liberian
Islands, which are nine hundred nauti
cal miles from the North Pole. Geog-
raphers insist that Arctic exploration
has more than paid expenses. 1t has
enabled US to improve our maps, and
the blank spaces of sixty years ago are
now filled with large islands, archipela-
goes and vast seas. New whaling and
sealing grounds have been found, and
also cryolite, mineral of great CONNER
cial value.
One fifth of the habitable globe is un-
der the sway Of Queen Victoria. Her
subjects number 3l5, ,0O0,0 600, and Aus
tralia and Canada have room for 2O0,-
0OO, 900 more. The annual revenue of
the empire amounts to Sl,0lS, 900, 900.
Local taxes swell this sum S3C5. .OOO, 900
more, so that the entire cost of govern
ment is about $3.50 per capita annually.
These are impressive figures; but our
own country is rapidly overtaking Great
Britain in wealth and population. Our
relative increase is much greater. In
the pregnant words of Mr.. Gladstone,
) "The United States are passing England
at q canter."
) London is the greatest city the world
ever saw. Babylon, Thebes, Rome
were never so populous, while the great
est city of India at the present time con-
tains less than one-fourth the inhabit-
, ants. Within the borders of the metro
f politan police districts, a circle of fif.
teen miles, it is computed there are at
t the present time upwards Of four mil.
lion persons. London is three times
9 more populous than St. Petersburg,
!, twice as popuIous as Constantinople.
i with two.thirds more people in it thar
9 Paris, and more than even the hivine
nultitudes of Pekin. All Scotland bu
equals it in the number of its people
and half as many Yorkshire men agair
;, as are numbered in their own county
could find accommodation within its
circle. Every eight minutes Of every
day of every year soul goes out of Lor
don, and in every FIVE minutes of every
day a new mortal enters upon this scene
of its probation. 1t is at once the court,
= the seat of government, the center OF
: fashion, the home of all the charities,
and the general rendezvous Of all crimi
nal and desperate characters of the
United Kingdom.
The deepest sea-sounding ever made
says the Scientific american, was made
in the Pacific Ocean near the entranc'
: to Behring's Sea. The bottom wa
struck at 4,655 fathoms. The cast wa
T. made from the United States school
"a ship Tuscarora. The shallowest waite
in the middle of the Atlantic, 73l faith
8, oms, shows the subsistence of mountain
e. 1856 feet.
America is the scene of many notabl
railway enterprises. One of the mos
e difficult feats is to get to the top of
- mountain in steam car. This ha
y, ~ been accomplished frequently, howevel
and by different devices. The railwa
at Mount Washington climbs the W
On rise, advancing forward like cat climl
TO ing tree. The iron clamps or claw
sh are advanced and the train of cars al
D. pulled up by main force. The metho
is entirely different at Central Cit.
" Colorado, the cars moving forward. the
le backward, bnt each change switcht
n them off to higher elevation. 1t
ed now proposed to build railroad
Pixies Peak, the summit of which
bs IA, 900 feet above sea level, and is s, ,0(
or feet higher :han Mount Washington.
Ill
~. The following is an account OF tt
famous "Great WALL" made to obstru
the incursiens of the Tartar: The wa
:. is l,72S miles long, Is feet wide ar
"a Is feet thick at the top. The found
:. tion throughout is of solid granite. Il
remainder Of compact masonry. At {
interval of between 200 and 300 yar
" towers rise up % to 80 feet high al
"a feet in iamster. On the top of Il
'o' wall and on both sides of it are maso
ry parapcts to enable the defenders
pass unseen from one tower to anc the
er' The wall itself is carried from point
1ut Dojnt in a perfectly STRAIGHT line apro