Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1891-02-26
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

| nVhiSh VI IHttu, WHO uTc uUAlOuS that
the age at which a marriage may be
legally entered upon shall be raised from
Its present limit of ten to fourteen years.
They say Krupp, the German gun
maker, acknowledges that he has been
responsible for the death of $50, 900 men
ON the battlefield But he relieves the
strain on his conscience by saying that
they would have died of starvation
or over eating, anyway 1t is sad
truth that, in spite of the advance of civ
lllzation, human life is still cheap
| The United States Government has
been the largest owner of arabic land on
the earth; the total area of the "public
domain" sold and unsold, amounts to
| l, S49, ore, 5S7 acres, and constitutes ~
per cent. of the total area of the United
States, including Alaska; about 700, =
| 900, 900 acres of land have been sold and
| donated; about 1, $50, 900, 600 acres re-
main unsold; as the area of Alaska is
| 1863, $50, 900 acres, the area unsold ex-
elusive of that territory is about 7S0,
900, 900 acres
= In some of the Northern States more
, stringent laws relating to dogs are
urgently required. In Massachusetts
alone one in about sixteen of the sheep
was killed by dogs in 1889. In some
other States the record is nearly as bad.
Until better laws for the protection of
sheep husbandry are made, or more elf
Gent means are provided for enforcing
those which already exist, farmers will
be practically excluded from what would
otherwise be profitable branch of bust
ness.
A GREAT many people want to know
how large Texas is in area. They look
In quite number of alleged statistical
abstracts and never find the same figures
in two of them. The official figures of
Texas area are 252, 69G square miles
equal to about SO per cent. of the entire
area of the United States and Territories.
Texas is six times larger than New York,
seven times as large AS Ohio, and 100, 600
square miles larger than all the Eastern
and Middle States, including Delaware
and Maryland Compared with the
countries of Europe she has "a, 900
square miles more than the Austrian En-
pire, 81, 900 more than the German En-
pire, and nearly 10000 square miles
more than France.
BY the death of William the Third,
King of Holland, last in the male line of
the illustrious house of Orange, which
was closely allied to the early history of
New York, the crown of the sturdy little
Dutch kingdom descends to two-year-
old princess, who will be known in his
tory as Queen Wilhelmina. Three little
people will wear Gro WINS in Europe: King
Alfonso, of Spain, who is four years old !;
a youngster Of three, who is King of
Servia, and the fair-haired, pretty little
girl who will carry the sceptre of Holland,
and who is already betrothed, without
her consent being asked, to the oldest
son and heir of the Duke of Nassau.
Many weary years lie between these little
folks and their majority, and, contem-
porary thinks, their lives may be made
all the happier if in the meantime
doms and they are relegated to the estate
of private citizens.
RUSSIAN journals cautiously allude to
the treatment Of real criminals in the
penal colonies of Siberia as being some
what different from that accorded to
political convicts. Murderers of the
deepest dye are leading life Of ease.
One, who killed usurer and his house
keeper to evade payment of debt, en-
joys an income of 5000 rubles year as
the employc of a mercantile establishment
in the convict colony of Sachalin, lives
in house of his own, is married, and
takes life easy. Another convict who
killed his entire family, lives in the same
settlement as clerk and is happily mar
ried to a woman convict of similar
record. Another convicted murderer is
leader of u musical society consisting
entirely of convicts. Indeed, convicts
in Siberia do not seem to have so very
hard time of it after all, provided they
have been careful enough not to plot
against the government or to advance
society, but have committed some re-
spectacle crime
No less than $50, 900, 900 of our railroad
shares earn dividends of 10 per cent. or
over; s to 10 per cent. is paid on $107,-
600, 900; from to 8per cent. on $780,
600, 900; from to 6 per cent. on $780,
600, 900, and from to 5 per cent. on
$427, 100000 If we turn to the bond
we find that interest is paid at 10 to II
per cent. on $28, 900, 900; at to 10 per
cent. on $42, 900, 900; at to 8 per cent.
on 81, 273, 900, 900; at to per cent. on
81, 095, 000, 600, and at 3 to per cent. on
| 1892, 600, 900. .-On the whole 81, 251, co.,
| 600 of stock the dividends were $S3, A.
095, and on the whole "a, 267, 900, 900 of
bonds the interest paid amounted to
| 1874, 900, 023. Now what strikes the
observer is the unequal distribution of
this vast annual sum of $685., 900, 600 a
year among the owners of railroad prop
erty in the United States. On the whole
| $S,51S, 000, 900 of stock and bonds there
are S3, 391, 900, 600 ON which nothing is
paid On the remaining S., 121 900, 900
! as we have seen a return in the shape of
dividends or of interest is paid yearly
ranging from less than1 per cent to IL
per cent. and above.
ArRoPos of brave and successful stu
dent girls, an Auburn IN. W lady
| Justly thinks her classmate at Wellesley
takes the lead. Left to her own re-
sources at the early age of twelve years
| she refused to eat the bread of depend