Morning journal and courier., 1894-02-16

EDITORIAL NOTES.


 Wheat seems to bes % thoroughly devoid of any rising quality that ve shouldn't be surprised to read that even the most pow erful yeast had failed to faiss the -four made from 1t.
 Dr. Murray, who is editing the new Eng hsh dictionary, has had one hundred thousand books read by his helpsrs, who look for new and old meanings of words. So much material has accumulated that he has had an iron house built In his back garden to hold the words and their his tory.
 A very interesting reunion was that held the other night in Chicago, where . num- bsr of the ex-soldiers who escaped from Libby prison thirty years ago, met within the walls of the ancient structure itself, which, as will be recalled by many visitors to the expedition last year, now stands on Wabash avenue in that city, having been converted into a war museum.
 Mining engineers In the far West com plain that even where the mines have not all closed, there is little or nothing for men of their profession to do. It is the constant opening of new work that pro vides employment for the mining engineer, and there are parts of the West where much ore is still coming from the mines, but where the mining engineers are either pre- pairing to depart or waiting idle and almost in despair for e return of prosperity.
 The Boston school committee has recon sidersd its vote forbiddins the dissection of animals in the public schools. One of the members stated that he hsd been mis- informed ss to the alleged cruelty of dis section. He believed that zoology was most important study, that dissection was necessary in connection with the study, and that there was no danger that the pu- pills would become cruel to animals through this method of study. It was voted to all low dissecting to go on in the public schools.
 Representative Pence of Colorado finds no constitutional obstacle to woman suf- frsge which it will require an amendment to remove. He declares in the preamble to bill he has just introduced that the constitution vests the right to choose rep reeentstives In congress In the people of the several States, making no distinction of sex. and that tine only reason why one half of these people have been deprived of this privilege is the failure of the other half to enact proper legislation. He does not intend that this failure shall continue, and so asks congress to give all women over the age of twenty-one the right to register and vote at elections for represen- tatives.
 If this country should have to fight again 1t could do 1t. It has at least g, ,900.- 900 men of military age from whom to or- gsnizs Its armies. This is shown in the report Secretary Lamont has submitted to congress concerning the country's militia force, organized or available. The prefsnt orgspizsd militia of the country oonsists of 112, ,190 men organized into regiments or other subdivisions, and so we'll uniformed and equipped that the entire force could be put into the field on q few hours notice. With this force ga e nucleus, 1t would take but very few months in which to have ready an army strong enough numerically to meet any possible emergency.
 The long and fierce litigation over the Edison inosndescent-lamp patents, in which Mir. EdIson's patents have generally been upheld, has developed all manner of new incandescent lamps. whose object it is to avoid the broad claims of thcss patents. Striking ingenuity has been shown, and each week sees some new conner whose merit often consists in its oddity. As the Edison patent includes an all-glass globe for the 6lsment, some makers have put lamps in the market in which part of the bulb is not of glass. The Ellison patent calls for leading in "wirss," and one manufacturer has dis pensed with them by Pasting silver pow der on the glass and fusing 1t, thus msk log conducting strips of glass where the "wires" would normally be. The Edison patent covers the filsment burning in a vacuum, and more than one of the lamps put forward, therefore, has an inert gas In the bulb. It is claimed that this makes 6 better lamp. And 60 the changes are runu