The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-05-24
WISE AND OTHERWISE.


While public attention is being centered
upon the silver question, some facts pre-
sented in a Washington letter To The Chi
cago Herald will possess interest Uncle
Sam has in the treasury at Washington
and at the sub-treasuries a grand total or
S54S, 600 600 in silver. Seventeen silver dol
lars weigh a pound. A million silver dol
lars would weigh thirty tons. Eight Sill
yer dollars placed on table, rim to rim,
will reach a foot A million dollars would
make white streak more than 23l@ miles.
If all of Uncle Sans daddy dollars were
thus placed they would reach nearly 3D.
900 miles, and would cover all the space
between the rails on a railway line clear
acress the state of Iowa, Il distance OF $50
miles. The weight of all Uncle Sans sill
yer is 16,4i0 tons. If it were loaded into
railway cars, 10000 pounds to the car,
there would be 800 carloads. This would
make twenty trains of forty-one cars
each, and these trains, with their locomo-
tives, would have an aggregate length of
six miles. The coined dollars are packed
in boxes containing $2,0C0 each. 1t Is about
all a man con do to carry off one of these
boxes. Supposed it were desired to move
all of Uncle Sans silver by man power at
the same time there would, at this rate,
be needed 1900 men. Giving each man
five feet of room, they would make sim
Gle file procession more than 25O miles
long. Twentyseven states and territories
of the union have not so many men as this
within their borders. If all this silver
were coined and stored away loose, 1t
would take a man, counting at the rate OF
100 a minute for ten hours each day and
six days each week, just thirty years to
finish the job.
UNDERSTAND:
An elderly man knocked the ashes from
his corncob and said with a deliberation
befitting his years:
Some of us old fellows may be little |
behind the times, but we're nearer the
mark than we used to be. remember when
the steam fire engine was introduced in
Portland. / was present at the prelim- |
mary trial and remarked to one of my
neighbors:
Don't you think that's pretty good
for putting out fire?'
Yes said he, 1T does the work better
than a handful but what | can't under |
stand is why they boil the w<ter before |
squirting it on the fire. "-L<wiston Jour
nal.
There is a justice of tIe peace in a little
cycle craze to great personal profit. A
wheelman tells John Smith, Of the Ex-
press, that "the town has an ordinance
bicycle riding on the sidewalks.
A good many wheelmen go that way, so
what does this justice do but scoop out a
hole and make a great big mud-puddle
clear across the street right in front of his
office. OF course when a wheelman comes
along, rather than ride through the mud,
he turns upon the sidewalk That's what
the justice Is waiting for. He has a con-
stable on the watch, and the two rush out
and nab the cycler. l was caught in the
snare last week. Though l protested I
only intended to keep on the walk till had
passed the mud, it was of no avail 1 was
fined $5 and had to pay it. got a chance
TO look at his book when he was recording
my fine, and there was a record of some
twenty wheelmen who had been served the
same way that day. and 1t was still early
In the afternoon. 1t made me mad, and 1
began abusing the old fellow for having
such a mud-puddle In the street. why
don't you fill 1t up| l asked, If you want
wheemen to keep in the road?' He grinned
IN a most exasperating manner and an
swered without so much as blush:
'Spose we're goin' to destroy such n
source of revenue as that mud-puddle is?
guess not. john, turning to the con-
stable, you better take the hose and
soften 1t up little bit, ready for the next
sucker"
Politics in Quincy, ILL.,, Is getting ami
mated; at least we infer as much from the
Herald's remark concerning u contempo-
rary, 1t says. "The jacobinical journalist
who is the primigenious pater of pruinose
md pessmistic platforms of primerian
is submitting his Quixotic lucu-
orat,ons to the different aldermanic candl-
lates. Especially does he ask for in
lorsement on his inane and insane propo-
;.tion that all municipal servants down to
be chosen by popular vote.
one candidate calmly told his profusely
Dristled emissary to go to hades."
OF WIT:
A man arrested and locked up for being
'ull can always be bailed out.-Galveston
News.
Men of might are often those who might
nave made success in life, but didn't
Syracuse Post.
The most profitable business In this
world Is getting other people to work for
York Record
When man goes out between the acts