News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-31
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

| IHE cost OF copper TO consumers mas
advanced more than 100 per cent. since
the organization of the great Interna-
tional Copper Trust.
The chief increase il the books pub
lished in England last year was in
novels. The number of poetical and
dramatic publications was twice as great
as in 'S7. There were altogether
1850 books published during the year.
The new ocean steamship Teutonic,
which has just been launched, marks
another advance in naval architecture.
She is nearly six hundred feet long, and
an eighty-yard footrace could be rnn on
her promenade deck without any
trouble.
The crowned heads of Europe are be-
coming so literary that q magazine is
proposed to which only those of royal
blood shall be allowed to contribute. No
advertisements will be taken, and crit
icisms of each number will be furnished
to the papers by the librarian of each
| court.
proposed Nicaraguan canal, while
much longer from ocean to ocean than
the Panama passage, will be much easier
TO construct by utilizing the channels OF
Lake Nicaragua and the San Juan
River, so that the length of the canal
proper will be only thirIy-nine miles
against forty seven at Panama.
THEY are still pegging away at the
Cape Cod Ship Canal, which was begun
nine years ago. The contract requires
the work to be finished by June 90 1891.
| but as there are seven miles yet to be
| dug, and as during 1888 there was only
about seven-eighths ola mile opened, the
prospects are not good for the fulfilment
| Of the contract.
VEsUvIUs has lately been very active.
1t has been rapidly throwing up q new
cone of eruption about thirty to forty
yards to the southwest of the original
one, and the fissure across the crater
| plane toward the west-southwest is in
creasing in size and is richer in acid
emanations. It is possible, therefore,
that an eruption may take place soon on
that side of the cone, since the vent
| tends to shift along the tissure pointing
in that direction.
A PETITION is being circulated among
the residents of Yorktown. n. Y, ask
| ing the President to retire Postmaster
Lewis Purdy from active service and
| grant bim q liberal pension for the re-
to be the oldest postmaster in the Uni
| ted States, both in years and service,
| having been appointed postmaster of
Shrub Oak by President w. ii. Harri-
son in 1871. Mr.. Purdy is now ninety
| three years of age, and receives and dis
tributes the mail twice q day, and has
never been absent from his post one day
since he has been in the service. His
only assistant is his wife, who is ninety
years of age.
CHARLES B. HOLMES. of Chicago, who
is one of the syndicate now owning the
Walsh street car lines of st. Louis, is
the President of a syndicate owning all
of the street car lines in indianapolis, is
President of the Chicago Railway Com
pany, with 900 cars, and is as well the
head of another syndicate which owns
the street car lines of Rock Island, Day
export and Moline, on the Upper Mis-
sissippi, and is understood to be the
head of syndicate which has lately in
vested nearly 81 100000 in cab'e lines
in Los Angeles, Cal. He probably con-
trolls more street car lines and miles to-
day than any man in the world. He be-
gan, says the Gl0Je-Dem0crat, the street
car business in Chicago in 1878, being
then called to the management Of the
Chicago company. He is now fifty
years of age.
The vaudal is beginning to leave his
mark on the Washington Monument.
His name is written on the wooden win
dow frames at the top, in sundry cor
ners, on the inner face of the shaft, on
the memorial tablets, and on the base
outside. There have been several ar
rests, and many would-be offenders,
caught just as they were preparing to
write their names, have been given
warning and elected from the monu-
ment. As yet no damage has been done
since the opening of the shaft to the
public beyond the scribb.ing OF some
pencil marks that can be rubbed off, but
there has been continual tendency to
attempt to deface the monument on the
part of large number of visitors. 1t is
quito evident that larger force OF watch
men, both at the top and in the interior
of the shaft, is needed 10 take proper
care of the structure.
SENATOR HALE's bill 10 reorganizo and
equalize the rank and pay OF the per-
sonnel of the navy is attracting a great
deal of attention. 1t provides that the
active list of line officers shall consist of
one admiral, one vice-admiral, ten rear
admira s, fifteen commodOres, forty-tive
captians, ninty commanders, 100 iieuten-
ant-commanders, 325 lieutenants, 300 en-
signs and the number of cadets now al
lowed by law. The medical corps will
consist of fifteen inspectors, fifteen
directors, 100 surgeons and forty-fiv as
sistant surgeons, ranking from captain to
ensign; the pay corps of thirteen direc-
tors, thilteen inspectors and 100 pay
masters, ranking from captain to en-
sign; the engineer corps of 100 chief en-
gineers, fifty-five passed assistant en-
gineers and 100 assistant engineers,
ranking from captain to ensign; twen-
ty-four chaplains in rank ranging from
captain to lieutenant; twelve professors
of mathematics, with rank from captain
to lieutenant; thirty naval constructors
and ten civil engineers, representing rank
from caption to lieutenant. The pay of
the officers runs from Sl3, 900 for admir-
nj to 5000 for cadets at the academy,
and 81 200 for cadets after leaving An
uapolis. Increase of pay for long terms
of service up to 40 per cent. extra is pro-
,ilel, and for 20 per cent. extra while
in commissiol. RI tired officers are to
have IS per cent. of their highest sea
pay, and officers may be retired after
thirty years service.
Of 26, 900 criminals arrested in Paris
in the course of the year-the figure it.
self seems incredibly large -16, 900 had
not attained the age of twenty. There
is Just now an epidemic OF crimes of vio-
Ience perpetrated by young men, and if
the thieves and assassins at present con.
fne1 in French prisons were sorted ac-
cording to the age, it would be found
that the very large majority we're made
mp of Youths between sixteen and twenty.
These statistics were supplied by the
counsel in the last judicial -
sensation that has come before the Paris
courts and the course of tho trial sup
piled the explanation of the fact. 1t
was q murder case OF extraordinary bru-
tality. The victims We're an old woman
Of seventy and her lodger, the or
yanist of the parish church, an old man
If seventy. The criminal was the son
0f tho parish beadle, and the motive for
he murder was mere theft. The house
was broken into at night, the old man
struck down and left for dead on tho
staircase, and then the old Woman bru-
ally murdered. The hoardings of both
"A few hundred francs s--wero carried
,ff, and the thief arrested in bed the
;ame day with the money in his posses
ion, and his clothes stained with b.Ood. l.
At the trial it was proved that a long
career of crime eliminated IN this hor-
'ible and mercenary outrage the evil l.
lence was convincing, and the jury found {
he murderer "Guilty with extenuating