Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-08-21
NOTES AND COMMENTS.


AN agitation is going on in London
for equality in sleeplessncss. This
sounds singular. and it would be a
strange thing indeed in the United
States, but there is nothing peculiar
about it in London. 1t appears that
under the laws that govern the British
metropolis, there are few streets in
habited by the aristocrats on which
vehicles are not allowed TO pass after |
o'clock at night These streets are closed
at one end by bar, and after that hour
at night great calm reigns. People
living on the streets can get into them IN
a vehicle. but no vehicle can pass
through. II has TO go out the same way
it comes in. The agitation IS for the
removal of the barriers and for placing
all the people of the metropolis on an
equality. Lord Roseberry is one OF those
who favors this reform. He says that II
is necessary to go back to 1.-The time OF
the Pharaohs OF Egypt. when the
children of Israel were RELOCATED to q
part of that country which was shut on
by bars and gates at fixed hour OF the
night from any communication with the
outer world" to find precedent for SO
wonderful a state of things.
THE industry of the little busy bee
seems to lose force as a moral example,
when the profitless and unnecessary toll
of lot of Kentucky bees is considered.
The home of these bees was bluff 10
feet high near Franklin, and for
number of years they had been seen TO
emerge from a assure near its top. IL
recently occurred TO farmer that the
bluff might be full of honey, and, in
company with a number of neighbors,
he undertook to find out. A hole
bored into the bluff completely corroDo-
rated his theory. 1t disclosed one OF the
most remarkable finds of honey ever dis
covered. Everybody for miles around
has filed a barrel or two, and the farmers
are supplied with honey enough to spread
on their biscuits for years to come.
But the industry for which bees are
Landed by the novelists, seems TO have
been instructed in this case. They pro-
duced an enormous surplus of honey
which they could not use themselves and
which they intended nobody else should
use, only to be robbed of it in the end.
"PooR's Manual of Railroads" for the
current year shows that there were 161,-
396 miles of track laid at the close of
the fiscal year ending December 81, 1889.
Increase of mileage in the calendar year
1889, 5,751 miles; increase of mileage in
the fiscal year, 0,26S miles. The total
assets of the companies amount to Sl0,-
2O5, 493, 050 dtotal liabilities, 50, 931, 453,-
146; excess of assets over liabilities,
$274, 039, 904. The total train mileage
was 723, 77e, 149; passengers carried,
495, 124, 767; tons moved, 619, 137, 237;
total gross earnings. $500, $50, s56; oper-
ating expenses, 1914, 731, 517; net earn
ings. $3is, l25, $50; other income, $685.
S04, 14S; total available revenue, $780,
929, 49,; total payments for interest,
dividends. rental and miscellaneous items,
1916, 400, e67
CAPTAIN f. A. BoUrELLE, Superin-
tendent of the Yellowstone Park, in his
first annual report TO the Secretary Of the
Interior, speaks Of the danger to the park
from forest fires, and suggests measures
OF protection against these fires, any of
which might greatly mar the grandeur
of the Grand Canon and destroy the
beauty of Yellowstone Lake BY destroy
ing the fringe of forest surrounding
them. The protection of the wild
ANIMALS in the park during the past few
years, Captain Boutelle says, has been
perfect, aud, as a consequence, they have
greatly increased in numbers. Buffalo
beyond enumeration abound, and the
number Of elk in the park is something
wonderful, herds Of from two to three
thousand having been seen last winter.
EVEN the historic Sevres porcelain
Imanufactorv is threatened with being
gobbled by an English syndicate, said
to include some of the more important
china makers of Great Britain OF late
years the product of the Sevres works,
which always have been under the direct
control of the French government. has
been steadily running down in public
esteem. The mandatory has received
an annual subsidy Of something more
than 100000, but commission has
reported in favor of abolishing that.
The annual sale of porcelain produced
at Sevres now scarcely exceeds $4,000.
THE Baroness Klara Won der Decker,
of Tifiis, has sent a circular letter to
the beautiful women of the world, ask
ing them to forward their photos to her.
These photos will be examined by a COM
mittee of artists, and those approved of /
will be placed in an album to be en-
titled, "Types of Female Beauty of the
Last Years of the Nineteenth Century,
which is to be placed in a museum at !
Moscow for preservation. Women of |
all classes and countries who can lay /
claim to beauty are to be represented /
in the forthcoming album.
THERE are thirty-tive widows drawing
pensions from the Government, because
their husbands were soldiers in the
Revolutionary War. The oldest of them
is Mrs Nancy Rains, of Knoxville,
Tenn, the widow of John Rains. She
IS now in her ninety-eighth year. On
of her great age, she receives a
naneion of G2O a month which l. mora