Connecticut western news., 1885-04-15
NOTES AND COMM ENTS.

AOllLD ANb OOIl M IlN 1Ds A NEW ENGLAND preacher says that the Chinese students who have returned to this country after a two years ab- sence in China have great difficulty in remembering the English language, which they were supposed to have | learned so well.
 THERE are 20 persons in the United States whose gifts to colleges aggregate over S23, 100000. Three of these rich men-Stephen Girard, John Hopkins, and Asa Packer-gaye over S14, 900, 900. Henry F. Durant gave to Wellesley College about S1, ,000, GOO.
 THE inhabitants of St. Petersburg consider themselves fortunate in having had an average winter death rate of only 35 per 1000 of population. In London, where the rate has been recently 19. 8, this would be thought epidemic. The usual rate for the Russian capital is 40 to 45.
 THE Government of Canada has re- ceived all sorts of offers of service. One comes from a retired navy officer, who places his long experience in seaman ship at the disposal of his country at the present crisis. This local paper insists is very severe on the sloughs of the prairie roads.
 WHEN Proctor Knott made his fanci. ful Duluth speech fifteen years ago, the humor of the thing tickled the entire continent. No one dreamed that Duluth would ever amount to anything, and when Knott called her 'the paragon of cities" everybody laughed. Still this town is third in the list of grain. receiv- ing points, beating Milwaukee, Toledo and St. Louis.
 THE St. Mary's (Md.) Enterprise re, lates that few days ago a buggy oc- cupied by gentleman and lady caught fire from brick that was heated for the benefit of the iady's comfort, and, owing to the wind being in their faces, it was not discovered till the bottom of the vehicle was almost consumed by the flames. Their wrappings were very much damaged, but no personal injuries were sustained.
 KNOW the Isthmus well, says Col. Haywood, of the Marine Corps, and know it will be no easy job to protect thirty-five miles of railroad against the natives, who are very much like Indians in their style of fighting, and will be popping at our men from behind trees and rocks. Then one can never be cer- tain who the Governor of the place is. saw four of them elected and put in in prison in less than a month.
 Ar Queen Victoria's last drawing room there were some splendid Eastern costumes, and an Indian lady having kissed the Queens hand, offered hei Majesty an Oriental salaam as she re tired, to the great amusement of the circle. This lady wore a quaint but very becoming Asiatic> dress of white, with overdress richly embroidered with gold and regular Eastern veil round the head. She blazed with diamonds.
 AN officer who has lived in the North. west for years says As an old soldier, judge the half breeds to be the best ir- regular light cavalry or infantry in the world. They are well trained in skir. mishing and outpost duty. Their cir. cumstances made them born soldiers. They are deadly marksmen; not shot will be wasted. The position of affairs is much more serious than the people of eastern Canada appear to imagine.
 DR. A. 0. MATTHEWS, of Elberton, Ga, lost pair of gold spectacles few days since, and they were picked up by negro man in town against whom the doctor held note for $50. On learning that the negro had found them the doc. tor called on him to get them. The negro claimed a reward for finding them, and the doctor finally agreed to give him the note in satisfaction of his claim, but the negro would not consent to take it unless the doctor would give him chew of tobacco also.
 THE mouth of the Mississippi has cost millions from first to last. It is greedy mouth and will swallow greenbacks about as fast as they can be printed. With all the money spent on this great stream it appears that there is now i'm minent danger of the dehection of the river into Bayou Atchafalaya, by which it would reach the Gulf very much sooner than at present. This would ruin New Orleans. leaving her high and dry as an inland town, and some of the richest territory of Louisiana would also be permanently submerged.
 IN Chattanooga, Tenn, the negro death rate is more than double that oi the whites, and the same is true oI Memphis, and yet the census shows that the negroes are increasing more rapidly than the whites. The explanation oi this is in the difference between the birth rates of the two races. A given number of whites have six children born to them in a year, of whom two die before reaching the age of self'sup- port. The same number of negroes, il is said, will have ten children born in @ year, and lose five before they reach tho age of self-support. The negroes thus lose two and half times as many chil dren as the whites, and yet gain upor them in the census figures.
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