Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-11-18
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

A doctor says that persons who at
tain their thirtieth year without suf-
fering from any serious disease are
likely-all things being equal--to live
till they are at least 73 years of age.
A single forest fire in Pennsylvania
mas just destroyed 20,OOOOOO feet OF
timber. Thus are the forests OF the
country being destroyed, and the evils
of treelessness brought upon the coun-
try, with no profits to show therefor.
And now comes a scientist who as
serts that the human system Is full of
microbes. and that one is healthful
| just so long as ones microbes are in
| good health. If that's the case, 1t
clearly Is q mistake to wage war on
these little fellows; better treat them
well.
A number of farmers in Alabama
pledged themselves to SOW from i've
to twenty bushels of wheat this fall.
"This Is a movement" says The Atlanta
Constitution, which, IL persisted in,
will emancipate our pockets from the
and our stomachs from the thousand
and one brands of patent flour, In
which the essence of the wheat has
either been wholly destroyed or sub
stituted for kaolin or some other mix
ture of equal weight and fneness.'
When will the farmers of the South
realize" asks the Atlanta Journal,
that they lose millions of dollars
year by sending their cotton to market
in such wretched condition? The Ma
con Telegraph estimates that the tare
which will be exacted on the present.
cotton crop will cost the South at least
So, 000,0O0. This is not an extrava-
giant estimate, as ) per cent, or TWEEN
ty-five pounds out of every 50O-pound
bale, is taken out to compensate for
the defects of baling. which subject
our cotton to so much damage. At q
cents a pound this makes the farmer
pay a penalty Of S1.50 a bale for the
slipshod method of packing cotton in
the South. Instead of improving our
system of baling cotton, 1t grows
worse"
The secretary of the British Royal
Geographical Society (Ravenstein) es-
Inmates that the fertile lands of the
globe amount to 2S,OOO,0OO square
miles, the steppes to 100000 and the
deserts to 100000. Fixing PCT per-
sons to the square mile for fertile
lands, 10 for steppes and 1 for deserts
as the greatest population that the
earth could properly nourish, he ar
rives at the conclusion that when the
number OF inhabitants reaches about
5000, 100000, our planet will be peo-
pied to it's fullest capacity. At present
1t contains about one quarter OF that
number. If the rate of increase shown
by recent census statistics should be
uniformly maintained, Mr.. Ravenstein
shows that the globe would be fully
people about the year 2OI2. But such
calculations do not allow for unknown
sources of error. and must not be
taken too literally.
When exchanging salutations with
an acquaintance it was considered the
correct thing in London last year to
crook your elbow high in the air, ele-
vate your wrist and drop your hand
and execute a sort OF faint horizontal
movement when your fingers met those
of the person you were greeting. says
the Chicago Times-Herald. This sea-
son that was all changed. You hold
your much-curved elbow in its natural
position on a leved with your waist,
and, with the hand and wrist raisedy
to within about line with your chin,
draw the whole hand of the person
whom you are greeting confidentially
back and forth twice, in a lingering
manner. then drop 1t gently. This
style of hand-shake is most satisfac-
tory to young persons of the opposite
sex. 1t may be made to mean SO
much, and yet commits you so little.
The Secretary of the Missouri Board
of Charities and Correction, after a
years examination of the almshouses
in the State, pronounces them "veri-
table homes of misery, where the in
sane, the blind and the decrepit are
made to exc out a miserable exist
ence." 1t Is the practice in Missouri
to huddle in the county almshouses |
the dependent insane, for whose care
in the State asylums the county will
not pay. 1t is bad, of course, for the
insane, but the publicity given the
practice by the secretary OF the State
Board has in it no promise of reform.
The facts have been detailed before
as to many of the almshouses, and no
newspaper in the State ventures to
question the correctness of the latest |
criticism. On the contrary, many pa
pers tell the secretary that IL he had |
looked further he would have found |
even worse instances than he has pic |
tured of the inhumanity practiced in
the name of State benevolence.
The municipality of Berlin has es-
tablished large markets all over the
city, in which space Is rented out to
tradesmen. The municipality derives |
an immense income from this source,
and the people of the city are greatly
convenienced, but the real motive that
led to it's establishment was the get
ting rid of the little corner grocery |
and the little milk shop and the little
this and that. The tradesman now
rents a stand in the market OF his
neighborhood at a much lower price
than he paid the landlord. The little
stores that bred disease and spoiled
the looks Of the streets are disappear
ing one by one. and the small grocers,
bakers and milkmen are able to COM