Morning journal and courier., 1894-06-08

an effort is to be made to compel them to
 stop chewing gum while on duty. Some of the 'Tabor movements" are ri- diculously senssless. For instance, fifty men | at work on Elbridge T. Gsrry's new house at Fifth avenue and Sixty-Hrst street, New York, have been ordered to go on strike, as the marble mantelpieces which the com modore will use were cut and polished abroad.
 The city hall of Philadelphia has cost ST, ,000, 900, of which S, ,000. 900 went in-
 to the clock tower (still unhnished). Now
 1t Is found that the tower is settling and
 the marble facing cracking, while there
 are still 300 tons of iron to be placed on
 the tower. Work has been stopped and
 an appropriation of $40, 900 to cure the de- fscts Is seked.
 A new idea in the insurance line is out in London, where 1t is proposed to organ izs an insurance company to guard house owners and tenants from entering upon or acquiring insanitsry property. The ss- socistion would exclude from its books houses in bad condition, while property receiving certificate of good condition, for the guidance of investors and house holders, would be subject to periodical in- spectiop.
 A Hannibal (MissourD man has invented a patent hens nest. When @ hen sp- breaches the nest 8 wicket door gently opens, and after she passes in 1t closes, snd the hen has private apartments all to herself. The egg of its own weight opens a trap door and rolls noiselessly out of sight. Then when the hen arises, put her hands In her pockets and gets ready to walk out, not seeing the egg, thinks she has made mistake and lays another. This sort of thing is repeated until the heft of the chicken buds in the box below touches off spring and Biddy Is fired out of the apartment.
 Colonel E. Fl. Haskell of Boston reports that there is 8 fair outlook for an extensive introduction of the products of our paper mills in England. The British paper makers are using American pulp, and if pulp which is more than half water can be prof itably exported to England, Colonel Haskell sees no reason why it should not be exported dry in the form of paper. He thinks that @ permanent market can be found in England for American newspaper, because we have the advantage of cheap wood in the manufacture of pulp, and our mills are superior to the English mills, and have more abundant water power.
 The Preach mode of conducting auc. tiops is rather curious. In sales of i'm portance, such ss of land, houses, etc, the affair is placed in the hands of g mo- tary, who, for the time being, becomes au auctioneer. The property, whatever be it's nature, Is first examined by competent judges, who fix upon it a price, consider ably less than its value, but always suf- fcient to prevent any ruInous loss by 6 preconcerted plan or combination of bid dsrs. The property is then offered with the fixed valuation stated. The auction eer Is provided with a number of small wax tspers, each capable of burning about five minutes. As soon as the bid is made one of these tspers is placed in full view of all interested parties and lighted. If, before 1t expires, another bid is offered, 1t is immediately extinguished and fresh taper placed in It's stead, and SO on until one ftckers and dies out of itsslf, when the last bid becomes irrevocabls. This simple plan prevents all contention among rival bidders and affords e reasonable time for reflection before making a higher offer than the one preceding. By this means. too, the suctioneer Is prevented from exercising undue influence upon the bidders or hastily accepting the bid of fsvorite.
 In considering the condition of the coal miners throughout the country, the fact that their employment is not continuous must be borne in mind. No kind of labor is more vexstiously interrupted and broken into by causes that are often beyond the reckoning and control of the wags-earners- Among those that may be mentioned are unfavorsble conditions of weather, as they affect the market, suspension of transport stion facilities, fires in the mines and fail- ures of the minerals, and, of course, the inevitable strikes and lockouts. In Illinois last year, according to the records in the State mine inspector's office, the coal oper- stives were idle, on sn average, one-third of the time. Some of the mines, indeed, were shut down half the year. While the miners earning capacity Is thus dwArfed by untowsrd conditions, in another respect he Is not SO unfortunate ss he is often sup posed to be. that of his liability to loss of life or limb. Statistics show that the num- ber of accidents in the mines is less than on the railroads. The miners greatest risk is from falling rock or coal, which causes 50 per cent of the fatal and 60 per cent. of the non-fatal casualties. Fire damp and gas are responsible for comparatively few deaths, notwithstanding popular belief to the contrary. Some figures of 1899 show that about one miner In every 592 was killed at work, and that one in every sl sustsined iDjury of some sort