Birmingham age-herald., 1895-01-04

erIe5 10 separate me uDre DeiOfe It can Do spun into thread. This entails additional expense. The cloth made from compressed cotton does not last as well as that made from cotton loosely packed, aud does not command the high price in the market. Tue mills in the South got their cotton in the loosely packed bale.
 
 THE CANAL AND AMERICAN SHIP
 PING.
 The few public men who are opposed to the Nicaragua canal are as a rule under the influence of the transcontinental lines of railway. All their arguments against the canal are forced. One argument they use is that the United Ststes has but few ships, and the canal would inure to the benefit of those nations that own many ships. In answer to this argument the Mobile Register well says:
 If the shipping laws of this country had been reformed years ago so as to have brought up the merchant marine of this country to the proportions which obtained prior to 1860, the Nicaragua canal would now be an accom- plished fact. As it is people are asking, Why should the United States construct the canal for the especial benefit of that portion of the world which controls the skipping? Yet there is hope if the canal is constructed the United Ptuteo may uo SouiSlnluB lO plaCe lne nag upon ships to take advantage of the canal.
 -< . <--
 IT is claimed that coal has been found in Holmes county, Mississippi, and consid- erable excitement prevails. It is thought to be Ignite or brown coal, and good article of bituminous coal. The bed reaches to an enormous extent, having been traced into Tippah county, aud even as far as Duck Hill, while it's width is in one place ten miles. The samples are of reddish brown color, light in weight, but quite hard and burn readily, with heavy, smoky flame. So far, though many borjngs have been made, the bed has not been pierced and its thickness is conse- quently unknown. 1t has been penetrated in many places to the depth of several feet, and increases in hardness and blackness as the boring continues. The bed generally lies at depth of 15 to 20 feet below the sur face, but crops out in many localities. Birmingham expert named Hammond is on the ground making tests and has formed e syndicate in conjunction with the we'll known Jackson law firm of Nugent & Melville, besides others, including own CTS of the lands underaid by the deposits, to prospect and ascertain whether the coal is really valuable. Meanwhile the syndi- cate IS getting options on all land beneath which the bed is known or supposed to ex- tend. Indications favor the probability that good bed of coal will be found be- heath the Ignite. The syndicate is exam iniug the country with the object of select- ing route for q railroad in case the de- posit should be found worth developing. So far the borings have been principally HraI tx,t hal lot, ,Ia .Nf hr one of the parties to the syndicate. In one of these borings pocket of gas was dis covered, which blew off for hours after ward
 FRANCE is not the silver country that many suppose. 1t has been twenty cue years since France coined any silver of full legal tender. la eleven years there has been n decrease of S74, 5 co, 900 in her stock of silver, while her supply of gold has not dimin nished. She HOW has S850, eco ,000 in gold, much more than any other nation possesses. France has been one of the most indifferent nations on the question of an International agreement for the unlim- tied coinage of silver. One of the French delegates at the last international mone- tary con ference said: ''rhe Latin Union has, to all intents and purposes, been dis solved and my country will soon give the necessary year's notice to the other five members that we will withdraw formally. .'
 THE St. Louis printer who suicided be- cause they put typesetting machines in the office and let him out of job was not a student of political economy. Labor-sav ing machines may temporarily deprive a man of work, but not permanently. There are hundreds of machines at work now in various lines of industry, while fifty years ago there was no machinery worth men, tioning. Yet there are hund reds and thousands of men at work now to ten men fifty years ago. Machinery increases proc duction, but consumption keeps pace with it. The luxuries of life in olden times have become necessaries. Far away nations are now wearing cotton cloth, who once went naked. Typesetting machines result in newspapers printing more reading matter. The taste for reading grows by what it feeds on. The more reading matter the moro subscribers.
 THE volume of poems just published, entitled 'tDora, or On the Border,' ' is said by competent critics who have read 1t to be the work of the highest order of talent,