The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1896-07-16
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

when he was boy, and tninks tne
fact that the mind increases its power
and scope while the bodily strength de-
Gays is positive proof of the immor-
tality of the soul.
Short hours for workingmen is
phrase that means different things In
different countries. In the German
Parliament the Ministers have just
been defending themselves for cutting
bakers hours of labor down to twelve.
In Britain. Canada and the United
States some are striving to have eight
hours as the limit.
Much interest is taken throughout
the country in the project of using com
pressed air as motive power for street
cars 1t is claimed that while the new
motive power is but little, if any, cheap
er to install and operate than the troll
ley system. it is noiseless and far cheap
er. as well as better in other respects,
than the cable system.
The railway officials of England are
beginning to realize that there are
things worth copying in the systems ON
this side of the Atlantic. Two of the
new trains on the East Coast Route,
which are to compete for the summer
tourist traffic, have been fitted up with
the Gould coupler. and the third-class
coaches have been built on the Amer
lean plan, with the doors at the ends,
instead of the old system, in sections.
Out in California, Mrs Edison Mills
Mitchell is distinguished above her
sisters as one of the few women miners
in the State. She is known as ''the
woman miner of Calaveras County
but she doesn't consider her calling an
odd one 81 am native of Gala
veras," she says, land ever since ! was
a child, have been accustomed to hear
about the finding of gold, and l had
also during my long residence in the
mines, seen and learned much in re-
gard to the working of the different
kinds of properties" Her property
consists of two mines of about eighty
acres each.
In every State in this country there is
still enough wild country to support at
least a few trappers. Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Penn
sylvania, West Virginia, all the South
ern and all States west of the Missis-
sippi, offer chances for the trapper. In
Europe, though there is plenty of wild
country, the land is ''preserved,' so
that a trapper would probably run the
Portugal, in Sweden and Norway, and
in parts of Italy, there is still trapping.
Africa is the great hunting ground of
the world just now, however; there you
can trap, and can also hunt for large
game as well.
The all-conquering bicycle has in
vaded Japan, and is now n familiar
sight in the land of the 1inrikisha The
Europeans take to it kindly, and the
little brown men and women are
equally enthusiastic. Some of the
Japanese women have adopted a queer
bicycle costume that is a combination
of boomers with the native dress. 1t
is neither Japanese nor European.
Combined with the upper part of the
Ramona costume the japanese clothe
their neither limbs in what are neither
knickerbockers, trousers, zouaves mol
bloomers. The ludicrous effect is
heightened when the girl has the ma
tional habit of turning the toes IN.
In a speech at San Francisco recently
the Hon. Robert p. Porter commented
at length on Japan's remarkable com
mercial progress. In the course of his
remarks he said: Last year they
bought $2,5OO,00O worth of American
cotton. AS they improve in manufac-
ture they produce finer yarns and as
they make better cloth they must use
our cotton. In order to get any portion
of the trade that England now has
with China, they must use more Amer
lean cotton. In view of this, there was
a Japanese syndicate formed while
was there with a capital stock of So
600, 900 to run a new line of steamships
from this country, from Philadelphia
New York and Portland, Ore. They
hope to ship cotton from Philadelphia
but they may start line from San
Diego. They must have our cotton
1t is not a mere question of tariff, but
question of the future. Here is a
trade increased from $7S,O00,000 tC
S300,000,000. Ten years ago they made
$4,000 worth of matches and sent very
little out of Japan; last year they made
nearly $5.000.000 worth, and nearly all
went to India"
Several days ago the school authori-
ties of Baltimore decided to investigate
the eyesight of the pupils attending the
public schools of that city and a num-
ber of leading oculists We're employed
to conduct the examination. Out of a
total of 53,067 pupils it was found that
9051 of this number We're troubled with
defective eyes. Perhaps the most re-
markable fact brought out by this in
vestigation was that the pupils in the
lower grades of the school possessed
this defect in more singular degree