Morning journal and courier., 1894-02-06

press also commands e regiment, and vari,
 ous princssses hold similar military com
 mands. The custom began with Gather. inc II.
 "He being dead yet speaksth." Harold
 Frederic says the thirty-ninth volume of
 the late Mr. Spurseon's sermons has just
 been issued, and there are to be thirteen
 more. The demand for them has had .
 remarkable increase since Spurgeon's death,
 and the total sale has already reached the
 incredible aggregate of 10000. .000I The
 single sermon on "Bsptismal Rsgeners-
 ton" sold 224,o00
 A gigantic wheel after the model of the
 Ferris wheel at the Chicago fair is to be
 set up near London. Plans have been drawn and contracts for the work of build ing given out. It will be 300 feet high,
 have forty passenger cars attached to its circumference, and the tower supporting 1t will have eight platforms, fitted with | restaurants and dancing floors. The big tower at Wembley park, near Londen, de- signed to rival the EIffsl tower, Is com pleted to the first platform, which forms the bsse of the real shaft.
 California seems to be all right. At the close of last year the State had apopula- tion of 1,500, 900 and since 1880 the as. sessed value of property has just doubled. She has the largest per capita wealth of any state in the union, and her savings banks now have on deposit $1SS, ,000. 900. She ranks first among the states In the production of gold, wine, honey, orangfs 8, almonds and walnuts and Is running close year her mines yielded gold to the value | of SIS, ,000, ,O00 and other precious mesh to the vslle of $7,oOO, 900. San Francisco Is now the leading whaling port of the world.
 The committee in charge of the distri- button of food and clothing to the poor in Washington, D. O., ara resping the re- l ward of their own carelessuess. It seems that it has been the policy of the commit tee to give to practically every one who applied, and ss a consequences @ poedly portion of the distributions has gone to impostors and the uudeserving. The oity ! is becoming, as Chicago was, a center of resort for tramps and loafers, who come there with the expectation of being fed l and clothed at public expense without ex- l ertion on their part. Men are applying for clothing who do not hesitate to give their residence as Baltimore or elsewhere away from Washington, and some admit that the objest of their presence In the latter city is to get what they can from the committee.
 In the effort to prevent the supplying of firearms to natives of the Pacific islands regulations have just been made by the British High Commissioner for the West ern Pacific prohibiting British vessels from carrying more than one rifle and one pistol for each member of the crew, and each bona fde passenger, not a native. It has also been made an offence punishable by fue and imprisonment for any person to supply firearms, ammunition, explosives or intoxicating liquors to the natives of any of the Pacific islands under British control or protection. Unscrupulous trail CTS have recently supplied the natives of several of these islands with Winchester rifles and ammunition, with the result that the natives SC armed have made -eia- or neishboring islands and slaughtered the inhabitants. A British war vessel on 6 recent tour of the ielands found that party of these armed msrauders, notorious cannibsls, had visited nearby island and butchered tho inhabitants of large will lsge, leaving every evidence of subsequent horrible cannibslistIc practices.
 The Texas oyster is acquiring reputs- ton. Itis found everywhere along the coast, in rivers, estuarles and bays, and in such prodigal quantities that 1t cells very cheap at tide water. In several respects 1t differs from the Atlantic oyster. The shells are longer and more irregular in shape. As @ rule, the oyster itself Is smaller. A barrel of Texas oYsters con- tains not more than six quarts of "mest," while the same measure of Atlantic oysters would yield eight and even ten quarts. The growth of the Texas shell fish Is un- usually rapid. By way of Illustration, $50 "two-snd- d-a-haIf-year-ol fill e three bushel barrel. In the Chesapeake Bay re- zion 1t takes 750 oysters. In Mstsgords and Mesquite Bays, the Texas varieties grow to snch @ size that only 100 of them can be got into barrel. In quality the Texan compares favorsbly with the Allan tic. Were it not for spring freshets, the abundance of oysters along the Gulf coast would bs an embarrassment. of riches, for there the stsrish is almost unknown. Thsss freshets are very destructive, an im- mense volume of water weeping down the rivers which empty into the Gulf, and dis lodging whole beds of oysters. The drum fish also does eoms damage. The area of grounds on the Texas coast that have been | already worked ia estimated ct s7,6s0 acres.