Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1890-08-28
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

ONE evidence OF the economy prac.
ticed by American railroads during the
past year is that the percentage of the in.
crease of steel rails in the track was less
in that year than in any year since 1886.
THERE is prospect that somebody
will make mint of money out of Stan
ley's lectures in America. The lecturer
and his wife will be carried from point
to point in palace car now building for
that special purpose.
ONE of the most amusing of the many
grotesque blunders which English news
papers continually make in commenting
upon foreign matters occurred recently
in the Spectator, of London. 1t spoke
of "Mr. John De Quincy Adams"
Mrs. MARY MILLION, of Madison
County, KY, was the first woman in that
State to be elected County Superinten-
dent of Public Schools, and her admins
tration was so successful that at the re-
cent election there was no candidate in
the field against her. Her example had
proved somewhat contagious, as there
were at that election women candidates
for that Office in eleven counties in the
State.
EIGHTEEN words have come into the
language probably temporarily, most OF
them-to denote the act or state of elec.
trio killing They are are as follows:
Electromort, thanelectrize, thanatelec
trize, characteristics, electrophon, clec.
tricise, electrotony, electrophony, elec,
troctony, electroctasy, electricide, elec-
tropenize, electrothenese, electroed,
electrocution, fulmen, voltacuss, and
electrostrike.
THE announcement that machine has
been invented which will gather cotton
balls from the plant is causing great
deal of talk among New Workers who
deal in the Southern staple. Some of the
members of the Cotton Exchange believe
the machine will do the work success
fully and supersede hand labor. If the
hope of the inventor is realized, the cost
of preparing cotton for the market will
be wonderfully diminished.
AN Iowa judge has given an interest
ing decision. A man was brought be-
fore him charged with drunkenness, and
five witnesses swore to the truth of the
seen the prisoner an hour and half be-
fore the time at which he was said to
have been drunk and he was not drunk
then. The judge rendered the remark
able decision that an hour and half was
not time enough to get drunk in, and
the prisoner was therefore discharged.
THE Shah of Persia became father at
the age of sixteen years, and all his chill
dren are we'll advanced in life. He has
eight daughters, all married. His eldest
daughter is called the Glory of the Kings,
the second the Light of the Empire, No.
8 is the Pride of the Empire and No. 4
the Purity of the Empire. All these
daughters have married rich husbands,
and the Shah has promptly seized the
possessions of his sons-in law, with one
exception This son-in-law is chief
priest of the Teheran, and he holds his
avaricious father-in- law in check through
religious influences.
ACCORDING to gentleman who has re-
Gently spent some time abroad, the two
Americans best known outside their own
country are Mark Twain and DR.. Tai
mage. EVERY sermon Talmage preach
es," said he, ''is published in journals in
Scotland, England, South Africa, Austria
liza and New Zealand. You meet very
few people in those countries who haven't
heard of the doctor and who don't take
a great interest in anything you can tell
about him. Mr.. Clemens is even better
known. His books are to be found in
all the libraries and in all the bookstores,
and any information you can give regard
ing the man is listened to eagerly"
Mrs. MARY L. BEAsELEY, of Philadel-
phia, is the happy inventor and patentee
of barrel-hooping machine which gives
her an income OF $780, 900 a year; her
machine, it is claimed, being capable of
hopping twelve hundred barrels day.
1t is not, perhaps, generally known, says
Harper's Bazaar, that the invention of the
cotton-gin, which revolutionized the
cotton trade, and established African
slavery on so firm foundation in the
United States, was really due to wo-
man. the widow of the famous General
Greene, at whose house Eli Whitney was
visiting when she explained her idea to
him, and showed him how to make the
model on which to claim his patent.
BRUssELs, not content with having
more beautiful public buildings than any
other European city save Paris, has now
determined to rival Paris itself. King
Leopold has just laid the foundations OF
an Arch of Triumph one-third larger
than the celebrated one in Paris, and il
is announced that this gigantic work will
be completed by the close of the century.
,t, al I.a
tai courthouse in all Europe-a magnifi-
cent pile, which cost vast sums of money,
and which contains some superb halls.
The Paris Triumphal Arch cost two mil
lions of dollars; that of Brussels is to
cost three millions. 1t will be richly
ornate with sculptures, some of which
will be of gigantic proportions.
THE reign of William Tell as an his
torical character must now be considered
at an end, he having at last succumbed to
the vigorous attacks of the iconoclasts.
By order of the Cantonal Government Of
Schwyz, he is henceforth to be religious
ly excluded from all school histories pub
lished by authority, and it is officially
proclaimed that the Tell stories are
neither more nor less than fanciful, il
patriotic, legends of German origin. The
despair of the Swiss who kept and ex
hibited Tells chapel, pointed out the
exact spot where he made his famous
shot at the apple, and who owned anc
navigated the steamboats, that brought
credulous travellers to the shrine, may b,
imagined.
THE gross debt of counties has de
creased since 1870, but increased sine,
1880. Throwing tables aside, it is found
that the Middle States show decrease
of debt of per cent, the Southern