Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1890-10-16
NOTES AND COMMENTS,

1854. In that year its business amounted
to $40, 900. II now does a yearly bust.
ness of $23, 750, 900.
The worlds annual production OF
iron-ore is placed at So, 2s9, 900 tons,
that of coal 482, 900, 900 tons, that of pig.
iron "a, S69, 600 tons, and that of steel
~, ,5l3, 600 tons. The worlds produc-
tion OF pig-iron has increased 20 per cent.
since 1878, and its production of steel
has increased in the same period PAS per
cent.
IT has been discovered that swallows
are even more swift and reliable for the
transmission OF messages than carrier
pigeons. A bird of this variety, sent
from Paris to Bordeaux, made the dis
tance-3OO miles-in two hours. and re-
turned to Paris the same evening in the
same time. If swallows may be used in
this way, perhaps the same line of bust
ness is open to that dissolute and ill bred
bird, the English sparrow. With any
thing like the speed of the swallow, the
sparrow would be great improvement
on the average messenger boy.
THE scarcity of rubber the past year is
not due to the revolution in Brazil cutting
off the supply. The demand has lately
greatly increased, and though new local
tiles are opened for supplying the raw
gum, yet the supply does not, nor is it
likely to, increase in the same ratio. 1t
is inevitable that this staple article must
ere many years become a cultivated pro-
duct, and the primitive methods of
gathering rubber from trees growing wild
in forests will give way to more lntelli-
gent plans. Unless this is done India
rubber must become increasingly scarce,
as the demand for it is steadily growing.
ApRoPos of his visit this year to the
United States on lecturing tour Stanley
tells good story about his former visit
here. On his last lecture tour in this
country one of the dignitaries at Amherst
wrote to him expressing the hope that
while in Amherst Stanley would be his
guest. He was panied and puzzled at
receiving from Mr.. Stanley's secretary a
curt reply to the effect that the gentle
man need have no fear, as Mr.. Stanley
was always a gentleman. The lecturer
did not accept the invitation, and later
it came out that the gentleman's invita-
tion to "be my guest while in Amherst
had been read ''be gerry quiet while in
Amherst"
A NATIVE paper of India has this to
say about Christian missionaries: "We
must not fear the missionaries because
they have white faces, or because they
belong to the ruling class. There is no
connection between the government and
Christianity, for the Queen Empress pro-
claimed neutrality in all religious mat
ters in 1858. We must, therefore,
oppose the missionaries with all our
might. Whenever they stand up to
preach let Hindu preachers stand up and
start rival preaching at distance of
forty feet from them, and they will soon
flee away. Let caste and sectarian differ
ences be forgotten, and let all the people
join as one man to Danish Christianity
from our land. All possible efforts
should be made to win back those who
have embraced Christianity, and all
children should be withdrawn from mis-
sion schools.n
THE commission appointed to consider
the question of coal-waste in the state of
Pennsylvania has sent out a circular of
inquiries on topics relating to the inves-
tigation it has undertaken. The ques-
tions come under three categories-of
geological and statistical waste, waste of
producing and marketing, and utiliza-
tion of coal waste. Under the first head
are questions relating to the amount, an
nual production, and natural wastes of
the coal beds. The second heading in
cludes the waste incurred in preparing
fnr 81 rot "a r.
etc. The third head embraces the Bri-
quette system of preparing the waste for
use, the appliances by which it is util-
lied without mechanical preparation,
and the Classifying processes and use in
the destruction of garbage or cremating
work, and its agricultural experimental
ton.
A BELGIAN chemist is said to have de-
viscd method of rendering fabrics
proof against the ravages of decay for an
indefinite period. Noting the fact that
resin played an important part in the
wonderful preservation of Egyptian
mummies, he made numerous experiments
with substances extracted from birch
bark, to which the peculiar aroma of
Russia leather is due. He found that
the green tar which is left over after the
oil used in tanning has been extracted
from the white bark of the birch tree
yields neither acid nor alkaloid, and that
in solution with alcohol it forms liquid
of remarkable fiuidity, which has the
power of resisting when dry the action of
even alcohol. 1t is claimed that this
preservation possesses the property of
uniting with the most delicate and bril-
liant colors and rendering them apparent
ly imperishable.
ACCORDING to the report of the Cali
fornia state mining bureau the impression
that the gold mines of California are
depleted below the point of profitable
production is a mistaken one. The gold
taken out has exhausted but little of the
auriferous wealth of the state, and the
annual production has not heretofore
much exceeded what it may be reason
ably hoped to reach and maintain in the
future. Besides its gold fields and silver
bearing lodes, California possesses the
more common petals and materials in
great variety. There is hardly county
in the state but has valuable mineral de-
posits of one kind or another, and the
distribution of these products is pro-
nounced remarkable. Fourteen of the
fifty-three counties make notable pro-
duction of gold, and twelve of gold and
silver; five produce quicksilver, two
borax, two salt, four asphaltum, two
petroleum, three copper, etc. We're
California even poor in the precious met
ais, it would yet become great mining
state. 1t is asserted in the report that
gold-mining has not yet reached even the
stage of sturdy infancy.