St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1893-07-08
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

| iii IaFc upon American
travc! IN Europe. The influence of our
| foreign tourists, through their expendi-
| lures abroad, upon the trade debt of our
country to European nations, is a factor
OF very considerable importance. A
| recent English work on international
nhance reproduced few interesting
Satlselcs. When the payment of the
| RUSSIAN indemnity was under discussion,
NJ Leon Say, reckoning up the resources
~ lalicc on a balance OF exchange. cs-
.illaIeo the amount spent yearly bv tour.
ISIS IN his country at $50, 600, 900 More
specifically, British Foreign Office
report of 1891 on the foreign trade ~
lta'y calculated that for the preceding
Ten years American tourists alone had
expended IN Italy an average annual sum
OF 200, OOO, 900 To this must be added
not only the additional outlay of our
tourists IN Germany, Switzerland, Great
britain, and elsewhere but the continu
Gus payments of the $4,000 or more
native Americans resident in Paris, Lon.
don, Rome, Berlin, and other "winter
cltles' OF the continent. Practically all
OF these people, tourists and residents
slhe, meet their expenditures through
drafts on New York bankers. and the
sum total of such annual payments NAV
safely be reckoned as in excess of $780,
600, 900. 1t is not, of course, to be ex
pected that the attractions of the Worlds
falr Will thus year extinguish the greater
part OF such expenditures; but that the
number OF tourists from America will be
materially reduced can hardly be doubted.
10 this extent, the 'balance of trade'
will CLEARLY be affected in our favor.
ALL the California horticulturists.
farmers and professors of agriculture are
III favor of the establishment of Paa:e~-
Coast Bureau of Agriculture, the nch"s"'
which Congressman Caminetti Ii "'Il'
representing to Secretary Morton. al
say that information that comes to -
IN answer to inquiries of the Washing:
bureau arrives often too late to be o.
service. Moreover a marked disparity
exists between the climate, the tempera-
ture, the seasons, and the soil of the
Pacific and Atlantic Slopes, and know
ledge that would be invaluable in New
England States may be worthless in Cal
lfornia, owing to these climatic differ
enccs. To carry out the idea of estab-
fishing q branch of the Agricultural
Department on the Pacific Coast a build
ing would have to be erected, with
grounds in the vicinity sufficiently large
to permit of the prosecution of certain
experimental work. Sub-experimental
stations might be necessary in the San
joaquin and Sacramento Valleys. A site
is proposed for the headquarters on the
Preside Reservation, all of which is now
supposed to be occupied by the San
Francisco garrison of the regular army.
General Ruger commanding the Depart
ment, would undoubtedly interposs his
objection, because he holds that the
grounds will be none too large for the
future needs of the army.
THE citizens of the Pacific Coast have
many natural advantages, and they never
fail to take advantage of all they have.
The Snoqualmic Falls are twenty-five
miles east of Seattle, Wash, and have
fall of 26S feet. 1t is proposed to place
a number of turbine wheels at the foot
OF the falls, thus securing an almost I'M
limited amount of power, and bv the use
of underground cables supply Seattle
with all the electric power required. But
the enterprise Of the citizens docs not
stop here. They are now talking about
a steamship line to Panama,
with the expectation that the shipment
of coal would alone warrant the under
taking. They also argue that a large
business could be done in the sale of
flour, wheat, canned goods and lumber
to the citizens of Central America, re-
ceiving as return freight their coffee,
rice and fruits. Whether this steamship
line will materiaize or not it is an index
of the progressiveness of the citizens of
Seattle that it is even talked about.
For some time the thieves of Chicago
have been startling the world by the
original methods which they have in
troduced into their line of business.
Now they have taken new departure
and arc winning fame by the strange
character of many OF the articles taken.
A woman stole glass eye from its
rightful possessor, and big base drum
was successfully spirited away from the
re1r platform of a street car Citizens
must take the hint and watch all kinds
Of property which they care to retain.
Wigs, cork legs, false teeth, bull fddles,
liver pads, saw bucks and feather beds
ire as apt to be stolen these days as
ewelry or cash.
THE application of photography to as.
has been productive of specially
noteworthy results in the discovery of
he small bodies which move in orbits
between those of Mars and Jupiter.
From the observation of the first of these,
Ceres, in 1901, until the end of 1891,
'21 had been discovered by the laborious
method of eye observation. Then photo
yraphy was brought into this service,
md within the last fifteen months no
ever than forty four of these celestial
bodies have been found Six were found
~ Professor Charlois of Nice in the first
week of March.
There is great deal of money in lee.
uring. Bill Nyc gets one hundred
[ollars night, and his lecture receipts
mount to more than twenty thousand
dollars a year. James Whitcomb Riley
alks to SUCH purpose that the words
'hich fall from his lips are worth as
luch as the pearls which dropped from
nc mouth of the good little girl in the
Id fairy tale. Eugene Field has doubled
is income since he has taken to reading
is poems, and George KEENAN, has made
! the neighborhood of one hundred
dollars out of his talks about
iberia.
ACCORDING to the Colored American,