St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1894-01-27
NOTES AND COMMENTS.


This would relieve the monotony of farm
life.
AN article on the presence Of gold il
the Appalachian region of Maryland
which was recently printed in Balti
more paper recalled to a lawyer of tina
city the fact that the United States Su
preme Court has decided that all de
posts of gold and silver in Maryland
belong to the State and not to the oWne
of the land in which they lie.
THE American railroad contractor is {
cosmopolitan. He builds railroads il
| Mexico, Central America, South America
China, Japan, Siam and in many othe
| lands. His last contract is for road
from Haifa, in Syria, to Damascus. The
| line is to be completed within eighteen
months, and the intention is to extend Il
through Persia to India as soon as the
necessary concessions are obtained.
SOME idea of the enormous proper
tions the business Of bookkeeping has
! assumed in this country may be gained
| from the fact that there are in the United
States upwards of $1,000 hotels, exclu
sive of what may be properly termed inns
and taverns and what are commonly
known as apartment houses, although
the latter are as hotels, in that they have
a common kitchen and dining room.
THE Welsh in the United States claim
that they are in numbers as many as
their countrymcn in Wales, and they
also claim that one of their ancestors
forestallcd Columbus in the discovery Of
America by 272 years. They base their
assertion on historical traditions, and the
manuscripts of old Welsh bards on the
one hand, and on the prevalence of
Welsh in many of the languages of the
Indians, both of South and North Amer
lea, on the other.
VERY few people know anything about
the Indians in Western North Carolina
the Cherokees. There are 1 200 of them
and they are increasing in numbers.
They own $4,000 acres of land, and very
fine land it is. Their chief is Stillwell
Sounookc. He cannot speak English at
at all. There are some native preachers
and four schools, the Government MAIN
tanning the latter. There are other Chero-
KEGS but these are not included in the
1900, as they live elsewhere than on the
reservation.
TIE Cherokee Strip opening broug ht
strange experiences of boom heights and
collapse depths to the border town of
Arkansas City, Kansas, Prior to the
opening it was the great centre for the
boomers and for their supplies the even
ing of the opening day it was almost
deserted village. During the few weeks
preceding the opening the postotfice did
volume of business emitting it to rank
as first class postotfice. Since the open
ing it has done more business with the
Dead Letter Office than any other city in
the Union. More than $1,000 letters were
returned to Washington within a few
days after the opening. 1t speaks graph
ica'ly of the wild rush for the unknown
taken by the boomers that any effort to
deliver these thousands of letters to the
people who a few hours before were with
in reach was utterly useless.
BRITISH naval authorities are congratu-
lating one another over the recent show
ing made by the British cruiser Melpo-
meme in steaming from CalIao to Victoria,
q distance of over 5000 miles, in
twenty-five days, without making stop
for coal 1t is said this is an achieve
ment which has seldom been paralleled
and never surpassed. The NIelpomene
is steel cruiser of $50 tons displace-
ment. Her principal features are:
Length, 2G5 feet, beam, Al feet, and
draught, II feet inches. She is capa-
bic of attaining a speed of 1915 knots
an hour. Her bunkers have a capacity
for 400 tons of coal, 1t is said she can /
steam 500 miles at a speed of 10 knots
an hour. In general features the Melpo-
meme approaches close to the new
United States cruisers Cincinnati and |
Raleigh. She is less powerful, however,
than either.
some idea of the abundance of game,
Dig Gn1 !siittttlc, in the wiIdernesses of the |
Northwestern mountain ranges may be
gathered from the record of a seasons
hunting, for business, in the cascade
Mountains about Mount Hood, by W. G.
Clark, a noted trapper, who used one
ime to hunt with Buffalo Bill. lie /
pitched his camp on the south side of
Mount Hood just about snowfall last
7ear, and was in exile for six or eight
months. Part of the time the snow was
wcnty feet deep. In little more than a
month he killed 100 elk and over 200
lcer, sending the meat down to Portland
~ packer. When the snow got too
Ieep for hunting he took to his traps,
nd when summer set in returned to civil
rot \ nf ;,,1y |
able, marten, fox and other skins, in
luding several silver gray fox skins,
which are worth $50 each. Altogether
lie cleared about $4,000 by his seasons
uniting. He got no BEARS for though
here are plenty of them in the mount
aims, they are holcd up in the winter.
THERE has been great influx of idle
len into San Francisco and other towns
n the Pacific coast duriug the past few
'eeks, and the question of what to do
Or them or with them has become very
rominent and serious. Most of them
re tramps of the ordinary, disreputable
pecies, but there arc also many honest
'orkmen out of employment among the
rmy that has besleged the coast. These
len have been coming into California,
eating their way on freight and passen-
er trains, sometimes fifty to hundred
| q single company. They have cap
lred freight trains, and the railroad
have notified the freight
onductors TO permit them to ride, be- :
luse the gangs are so numerous they ,,
IN cause serious trouble, and have done I
where transportation was refused. :
he genuine ''hoDoes'' have become so :
Did that they ride on the platforms of +
lie oars of the fast expresses, and the =
ainmen dare not attempt to dislodgc =
em. The railroad companies have .
opealed to the authorities in nearly e
cry town to do their duty and arrest E
e tramps, but the officials have de- !;