Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-09-11
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

rvai oil Chicago from 1845 to 1850. 1t
was considered the future greaty city
OF the West, but of recent years it has be-
gun to decay, and at present it contains
only 5000 people, though it once had
$1,000.
THERE will be only half crop Of APP
pies in the famous Annapolis Valley of
Nova Scotia, and less than half crop in
the apple belt of the lake region. The
apple belt of Western New York gives
almost no promise. In Missouri and
Kansas only will the crop be fair.
Ex GOVERNOR PRocToR KNOTT, of
Kentucky, was lately an honored guest
OF the city Of Duluth, Mimi, and found
that the facts Of her existence were
almost as glorious and prideful as he
had In fancy painted them twenty
years ago in his famous speech in Con-
gress.
DURING the year ending June 80, 1890,
5,823 people were killed by railroads in
the United States, and 26, 800 injured
477, III, 343 passengers were carried, so
that the chances of each passenger being
killed are to 1, 523, 1873, the chances of
being injured to 1900 On English
roads the chances are only about third
as great.
SOME interesting figures have been pre-
pared by the Census Bureau regarding
the Indebtedness of the several States of
the Union. The net debt of al the
States for the decade ending June, 1890,
was $132, 1886, 6S9.44, as against $780,
500, 674. 40 for the decade ending June,
1870. This is total reduction of $685.
000, 900 in ten years.
AFTER missionary work for years in the
Northwest territory it must be aggrava-
ting to the Canadian authorities to find
the Mormons undoing all that has been
accomplished in the way of discouraging
polygamy among the Indians. The ell
ders found apt pupils among these saw
ages, who formerly limited their wives
only by their ability to pay for new
spouses.
TRAIN robbers in Cuba do not take the
risk of robbing passenger trains, from
which they would get little money, but
they force laborcrs on the road to tear
up rails, and then calmly sit down and
wait for the freight train to come along.
The great difficulty in dealing with these
brigands is that the natives shelter them
and the soldiers also sympathize with
them. What the Spanish authorities
should do is to hire soldiers of other
races, as the British engage Sikhs for po-
lice duty in the Chinese cities.
HUMANITARIANs and Legislators on
both sides of the Atlantic are now direct
=. a.. h. g ooffla
on board ship. That the subject needs
attention no one who has been on cattle
ship can question, but whether cruelty to
the animals can be prevented without en-
tirely abolishing the business of export
ing live cattle is not certain. Mr.. Sam
uel Plimsoll, of London, Member of
Parliament, and known all over the world
as the sailors friend, has taken up the
matter, and an appropriate bill has been
introduced in the British Parliament.
A CURIOUS discovery, which perhaps
may eventually be a valuable one, has
been made in learning that swallows can
be trained to carry messages as well as
pigeons, and with much greater speed
and over a greater distance. A trained
swallow was dispatched from Paris, and
flew to Bordeaux in two hours, returning
to Paris the same evening If this can
be relied on as a precedent for the future
travelling of these birds, they will soon
supersede pigeons entirely. The distance
from Paris to Bordeaux is 300 miles, max
ing 600 for the round trip.
ONE of the things that astonished ex-
Governor Ames, of Massachusetts,, on his
trip abroad was the passion for pool
selling on the ocean steamers. There
were pools sold on about everything on
his steamer, and when the contribution
box was passed around among the pas
sengers on Sunday pool was started on
the amount of money that would be col
lected, the person coming nearest to the
amount in the box to take the pool. Mr.
Ames is inclined to think this is carrying
pool-selling little too far, and there are
not wanting people who will agree with
! him.
HERE is a good name for the hero of a
Western dialect yarn, which is taken
from an Oregon newspaper: ''The Her
NIT of hummer gulch, at the head of the
left hand fork of Jump-off joe" The
hermit. it seems, has lived for thirty
years in hummer gulch, and in this time
has gradually bought the claims of all
the miners who became Disguised with
the dlggings. He is now, like Crusoe,
monarch of all he surveys, and he does
just enough work to keep him in food
and clothes. 1t is evident that the her
nit is philosopher who has solved many
of the problems that perplex.
THE New Hampshire Commissioners of
Agriculture, charged with the work OF
securing occupants for abandoned farms,
reports that since August of year ago
14i of these farms with habitable build
ings on them have been sold and re-occu-
MED. and 100 more have been re-occupied
| nv the owners. There were 1,342 such
farms reported to the Commissioners In
1889. to say nothing of those without
buildings, aud sO1 have thus been taken
in the meantime. This is pretty good