Morning journal and courier., 1892-08-02

town council of Paris has begun to insti-
tute an important reform of physical edu-
cation in the elementary schools of the
French capital. N. Blondel recommended
that the old system of gymnastics should
give way to the English system If outdoor
games, and cited the reports physicians
that rings, parallel bars and 9 her gymnas-
tic apparatus frequently, Through in
judicious use, do more harm than good
The town council has therefore decided to
purchase ten piecea of ground in the sub
urbs of Paris wheye the boys and girls of
the board schools will be able to learn ath-
letic games.
Speaking of egg-laying, hens lay an egg
when they feel like it and then blow like
fury about it. Some silk worms lay from
1,000to 1000 eggs, the wasp 5000, the ant
from 5000 to 5000. The number of eggs
laid by the queen bee has long been in dis
pute. Burmeister says from 5000 to 5000,
but Spence and Kirby both go him several
better, each declaring that the queen of
average fertility will lay no less than 40,-
600 and probably as high as $4,000 In one
season. Termes fstalis, the white ant. is
possessed of the most extraordinary egg
laying propensities of any known cres-
ture; she often produces SO, 400 eggs In q
single day. From the time the white ant
begins to lay until the egg-laying season is
over-usually reckoned by entomologists
as an exact lunar month-she produces
2,500, 900 eggs. In point of fecundity the
white ant exceeds all other creatures.
Gladstone is statesman and Grand
Old Man, and he knows q good thing
when he sees it. Here Is what he says
about bicycling. have noticed with real
and unfeigned pleasure the rapid growth
of cycling in this country, for not only
does 1t afford to many to whom it would
otherwise be unobtainable healthy and
pleasurable form of exercise, but it also
enables them to derive all those advan-
tages of travel which, previous to the ad-
vent of cycling, were out of their reach.
1t is far more profitable than the luxurious
railroad journey from the city to some
definite point along an unaltersble route,
over which the traveller is whirled with
no time for observation and no oppor-
tunity of examining the district through
which he is carried. 1 can only empha
size the fact that I consider that physi
cally, morally, and socially the benefits
that cycling confers on the men of the
present day are almost unbounded.
American engineers will be interested in
testimony given before a section of the
Royal Labor commission engaged in an in
quiry into the conditions of the iron and
coal industries. Mr.. j. w. Whitaker,
an official of the Amalgamated Society of
Engineers, resident at Manchester, declared |
that the society, which was established in
1851, now had 515 branches in different |
parts of the world and a total member
ship of 72,006. The average rate of wages |
earned by members of the society was 29s. |
I'd. The hours of labor were fifty-three or |
ffty-four a week. In many districts the |
sanitary arrangements were bad, and there |
was urgent need of rigorous inspection,
which should be provided for by the mu-
nicipality. The witness was in favor of |
the formation of joint boards of arbitration |
and concilistion. The point of most inter- |
est in the above testimony is the state
ment of wages. From this 1t appears that
British engineers receive about 81 a week,
as against from So to 81 day in the United |
States.