Crawford avalanche., 1896-02-27

to cost more than $3.50 each. They are
to be distributed among the officers
and men who distinguished themselves
In the late war. and are to take the
place Of the medals usually awarded at
the close Of national hostilities.
Already Alfred Austin, Englnnd's
custom-made Laureate, Is paying the
penalty Of greatness His mail Ii enor-
nous. and the autograph fiend Is after
him In force. One Of the curious fea-
tNres of the case Is that Mr.. Austin re-
ceives as many requests for his sig
nature from the United States as he
does from England. Qlney and Lodge
should look into this matter.
Benjamin ID. Silliman, Of Brooklyn.
becomes the, oldest living Yale grad
uate by the death Of Charles l.. Powell
of Alexandria, Wa. Mr.. Powell was
born in 1904, and was graduated from
Yale in the class of 1922. For several
years his name has appeared first In
the list Of living Yale graduates. Be
low his name, In the class Of 1924, was
that Of Mr.. Silliman, who was born just
one year after Mr.. Powell.
There seems to be little doubt that
John b. Robinson. of South Africa. is
the richest man in the world. His for
tune is estimated ut 35O,OOO,O00. In
1873 Robinson was In debt He had
kept grocery store in the Orange Free
State, but he could not make both ends
meet. He and his wife begged their
way for 800 miles to Kimberley. Here
Robinson laid the foundation Of his
enormous fortune by picking up a
rough diamond worth $1,000. His am
bition now Is to be worth billion.
Electricity is likely to be an import
ant factor in the agriculture Of the
future, according to the Italian Profess
sOr A. Aloi, who has collected evidence
showing that both terrestrial and at
mospheric electricity are favorable to
the termination Of seeds and the
in the course of his experiments with
continuous electric light on plants, that
Alpine plants, cultivated under con-
stant light, present points Of structure
identical with those Of Arctic plants,
which grow under the midnight sun.
A general, simultaneous census of the
world for the year 1900 is asked for by
the International Statistical Institute.
1t can he taken If slight notifications
in the time of their regular censuses
are made by the chief countries OF the
world. Portugal. Denmark, the United
States, Germany. Austria. Switzerland,
Belgium. Hungary and Sweden will
regularly take their censuses on differ
ent days OF the year 1900, Holland on
the last day of 1899, Norway on the
first day Of 1901. and Great Britain,
France and Italy later in that year.
Prof Becker of the United States
Geological Survey, who has just re-
turned from the Alaska gold fields.
states that although the precious metal
abounds in different parts OF Alaska,
gold seekers should take into account
the hardships and chances of ill-for-
tune that they will encounter. Food
and other necessaries are very eX-
pensive. Notably rich mines already
developed are the Treadwell, on Doug
las Island which produces $5O0,OOO
worth of ore yearly, and the Apollo
mine, near Delaroff Bay. with a yearly
output of 100000.
Henry NJ. Stanley states that within
the last ten years France has acquired
of Equatorial Africa about 100000
square miles, in which there are only
800 Europeans; Germany. 100000
square miles; Italy. $4,000 square
miles, and Portugal has defined terri
tory extending over 10000 square
miles. France. moreover, has been
active farther north, in the Sahara and
in West Africa. and claims rights over
1 100000 square miles; while Germany,
in Southwest Africa and the Cam
eroons, assert her rule over 100000
square miles.
France Is still much troubled over the
found that Paris is not a city of Paris
ians, if even of Frenchmen. Only 30
per cent of its inhabitants were born
within its walls; and IS in every 1000
were born outside Of France-a total
of 1S1 900 aliens. OF these latter no
less than 26.S63 are Germans, while in
Berlin there are only 397 Frenchmen.
While Paris has 15 foreigners to the
1000. London has only 22, St Peters
burg "a. Vienna % and Berlin IL. Per-
haps. though, these figures are not so
alarming to France as they are signifi-
cant OF the comparative attractiveness
Of the cities in question.
One unexpected but by no means un-
important result of DR.. Jameson's
Transvaal raid has been to cast serious
doubt upon the value of machine guns
in civilized warfare. Those engines
were certainly of little use in the Kru-
gersdorp fight. 1t Is to be remembered
that in the Franco-German war OF
1901, the. famous mitrailleuse was a
failure. and to this day the German
military authorities put little faith in
such devices. Against savages, the
machine gun is of the greatest possible
value: but there is evidently reason to
doubt whether such will be the case
against civilized combatants.
Our Baltimore contemporary, the
Manufacturers Review, prints full
review of the business advancement
Of the South during the last year. We
learn from It that, I'm the year, the