Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1889-10-03
NOTES AND coMEIEN4 S.

facilities for the largest of our memo
war, or of those of foreign powers likely
to visit our ports. The need Of such
docks has grown with the modern vessel
of greater length and wider | am. and
congress appropriated q sum 1flicient
to construct one ut Norfolk, anc ther mt
League Island, and n third at the
Brooklyn navy yard. The policy of
placing shipbuilding plants in our other
navy yards will necesSita the construc-
ton of similar docks elsewhere. They
are built of timber, instead of granite,
and ut less first cost, and with far
less outlay for expenses are found as
durable as the older granite docks.
New gate appliances, and more power
full pumps for emptying them when once
filed, place the new docks on par Wi Ii
the best possessed by any maritime NO.
tion.
A GOVERNMENT report published re-
Gently, gave the mineral output Of tie
United States for the year at consider,
ably more than $500, 900, 900, placing it
far ahead of any other country in the
world. Following upon that Professor
Fernow, of the forest div sion of the De
partment of Agr culture, reports an
enormous consumption of timber
throughout the Un on during the year,
and estimates the value OF tho forests
cut down at 800, 600, 900 thus it may
be seen that the United States drew up,
on its natural resour, es in those two
lines alone i'll twelve months for 81,
200,000,000.
A REMARKABLE fact is the change
which the recent storm has wrought in
the New-Jersey coast line. For centu-
ries its beaches have been gra lually
succumbing to the force OF the waves.
Sc entific observers place the average
loss at twelve feet year along tho
whole coast. In the southern part Of
the State the wear is especially marked.
Sandy Hook, ON the contrary, has eX-
tended itself mile and n haf within
the last hundred years, and is still gain
ing from accumu ations but at Bane-
gat the loss has been 300 yards in forty
years. The recent great storm has
greatly helped this destruction.
THE New York Medical Journal ex-
plains the physical degeneracy Of Amer
lean women by saying that household
utensils are all too big for women to
handle with comfort. But this is an eX
planation that doesn't explain. For the
greatest evidences OF ply Steal degener-
acv are the women who never under any
circumstances handle these heavy
household utensils While, on the other
hand, the women who do handle them
are, as rule, well developed physically.
Perhaps the physical degeneracy of so
many women is due to the fact that they
don t handle household utensils enough.
The Senate commit ee invest eating
the question of reclaiming arid lands by
irrigation held a meet ng at Denver,
Col. Testimony was taken to the effect
that the entire eastern portion OF the
State could be irrigated by the reser-
voir system and hundreds Of thousands
of acres of land now worth !css converted
into the best agricultural land that
the storage system was undoubtedly the
most practical and if one-half the water
which went to waste every year was
stored, there would be more than suilic.
lent to reclaim every acre Of land in the
State.
THE oldest officer in our army in age
and by entry into service is Second
Lieutenant Michael Moore, of the re-
tired list. He was born in Brooklyn,
n. Y, in 1896, and enlisted at Govern
or's Island in April, 1872. He enlisted
as drummer in tho Thirteenth Infan.
try. From 1S4l until 1869 he was in
charge of the music boys on Governors
Island, where all infantry recruits We're
sent in those DAYS. He was appointed
Second Lieutenant in the Ninth Hnfan
try in 1869. He was retired for age in
1870. He lives with "a married daughter
II Brooklyn.
The Boston Courier says that the re-
markably high death rate in that city
this last summer is mainly due to the i'm
pure water which the citizens are COM
pclled to drink. Nearly all the residents
of one districtare drnkinga liquid which
the Courier says, sis nothing more than
the dillution of large part of the sew
age of another city and of ono or two
towns"
The largest county in the United
States is Custer County, Mon ana,
which contains $4,000 square miles, be-
ing larger in extent than the States of
Vermont, Massachusetts,, Connecticut,
Delaware and Rhode Island. One
tenth of our present population could
find means of livlihood in this one
county, and then it would not be so
populous rs Belgium.
TIE successful trial trip Of the new
cruiser Baltimore, on which she made
speed of almost twenty knots an hour
and developed about 1 300 hose power
in excess of the 5000 con ntrac cd for, in
sures our having cruiser second to
none of her class afoa!. The fine quail
itics displayed in heavy seas have
proven her staunoh and powerful ycs-
sci in every respect.
A KANSAS City editor was recently
killed, so every one supposed, by a
stroke of lightning 1t has since been
learned that he died of surprise. He
found man who admitted his inability
to run newspaper better than the