St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1893-11-11
NOTES AND COMMENTS,

of the town, and the other day he fined
himself for allowing his COW to run at
large, In violation OF the towns ordln-
anCe.
Or every 900 clergymen between the
ages of As and 65 it is found that only
15 IS die annually. But of every 1000
doctors between the ages of 45 andes no
fewer than 29.02 die every year. That
is to say, tho mortality of medical men is
almost double that of clergymen, and
the rate is increasing.
A ELL before the English Parliament
aims, by a somewhat singular method, to
prevent drunkenness. According to its
provisions, any party convicted of drunk
enness twice within a year shall not be
allowed on the premises on which liquor
is licensed to be sold. A licensed ven
| dor who breaks the restriction imposed
in such a case shall be liable to q pen
atty. The bill in question is not to
apply to centers of population with
more than 10000 inhabitants.
| RAvENsTEIN, the noted statistician,
has just published the result CT a series
of interesting calculations, which are
| that the earth cannot nourish more than
5000, 900, 900 people. At present the
population of the eorth is estimated to
be 100000, 600 souls. and according to
| Ravensten's ingenious combinations the
| 5000, 600, O0) mark will be reached in
| $50 years, 50 that the day is not very far
off when the earth can no longer main
tain her children. un'ess by that time
| becfsteak and potatoes can be chemically
maize from air, earth and water.
OF cities with more than 100, 900
population England has thirty, Germany
twenty four, France and Russia each
twelve, Italy ten, Austria Hungry six,
Spain five. Belgium, the Scandinavian
States, Koumania and the Balkan Islands
each four, the Netherlands three, Por
tugal two; the total in Europe being
llG great cities. Asia has 1OJ, China
having fi(ty-three and British India
thirty. In Africa there are seven, in
America forty, of which the United
States have twentysix; South America
nine Australia has only two large
cities
Few pcrsons,' says railroad man,
''havc any idea of the enormous cost of
rolling stock Thcpricc OF single car
ranges from 81, OJ0'uown to $3.50. The
former is the price of a tirst-class Pull
man car, while the latter is that of what
is known as flat car such as are used
to haul gravel and dirt. A common
at-bottomcd coal car costs $500. while
car with double hopper bottom is
49, frsr
ator car costs $3.50. n combined bag
gage and mail car costs So, 800, and a
frst-class coach is valued ct s., 800
PERHAPS the quaintest and quietest
little settlements within a hundred miles
of New York are those built ut the foot
Of the Palisades. The fishermen who
live there appear to be as far from the
madding crowd as though they were
alone on the prairie. The tall cliffs and
jagged rocks about them cut them off
from the rest of the world, and they
have few visitors. There is not horse
or wagon among them and no road to
drive on Springs of good water arc
found within rod of the salt Hudson,
but beer and groceries are long way
of, unless one takes boat and crosses
the river to the metropolis that swirls
and roars on the other bank.
JOHN ROBINSON, who now lives at Gin
cinnati, is probably the oldest survivor
of the oldtime circus. lie is over eighty
two years of age, and was actively en-
gagged in the business from his boy hood
up to just before the war. He says that
in those days the regular charges in the
South were twenty five cents for whites
and thirty and onc-ha!f cents for
slaves. Spanish coins were plentiful,
and dollar could be split up in nearly
any way desired. The slaves were
charged the higher price in order to, in
a certain measure, restrict their patron
age. II was nearly as easy to get thirty
seven and one half cents as it would
have been to get twenty-five cents. Tho
slaves came in droves generally, ac
companied by some member of their
owners family or in charge of trusted
slave. In the North twenty-five cents
was the usual price, but business was not
so good as in Dixie.
A QUEER story comes from Ashland,
Kan. In common with the rest of the
country, the people of this town have
been feeling the pinch Of hard times.
They therefore determined to economize.
The town is not very large, but it has
seven settled ministers, and it was de-
termined that one would suffice until
better times came. So a vote was taken
on the question which Of the seven
should be retained. The poll showed a
plurality of votes for the Methodist
minister, and therefore the other six
were discharged. 1t is proposed that
other towns in Kansas, especially those
suffering from drought, shall adopt the
same plan, and that the money thus
saved shall be given to the needy. This
is 4 practical movement in the direction
of Christian unity that will hardly be
pleasing to the discharged clergymen,
however strong may be their theoretical
belief in Christian unity.
In many ways the United States have
educated the world in politics, and ], for
one, do not hesitate to say that their
scheme Of government is the best that
has ever been established by nation,
says London Truth But in nothing do
we owe more to Americans than for their
having afforded us the great object les
son of a State pursuing the even current
of its way, without that meddling in the
affairs of other States which have been
the bane of European powers. Here we
have a country, rich, powerful, indus
trial and commercial. yet never troubling
itself with what happens outside its
frontiers, or annexing foreign lands on
the plea of philanthropy, OR on the