The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1897-05-22
NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Il Is estimated that the present
wealth of the United States exceeds the
wealth of the whole world at any per-
iod prior to the middle of the eighteenth
century.
A Minnesota father of triplets went
to Washington to learn that the United
States Government does not pension
triple expansion populators after all.
This country really offers few induce
ments to positive genius.
A farmer of Central Branch, Kan,
estimates that one hen is equal to an
acre OF land, because an acre Of land
produces twenty bushels of corn, worth
50, while the hen, which costs less to
take care of, lays ten dozen eggs, worth
$3.50.
A big ocean liner, with SAT cabin pas
sengers and a crew of 2S7. carries the
following supply Of meat for single
voyage from England to America: 12,-
$50 pounds of fresh beef, 760 pounds Of
corn beef. $500 pounds of mutton, $50
pounds of fresh lamb, $50 pounds OF
veal and $50 pounds of pork.
The late c. Jerome Cary, OF Milwau-
kee, directed that his body should be
burned, that the ashes should be used
to nourish a certain rosebush, and that
the blossoms should be distributed
among his friends. His wishes were
carried out, and verses commemorative
the event were written by Eben E. Rex
ford.
A.letter from Vienna to the Chicago
Record says that nearly $4,000 chill
dren attending the Vienna elementary
schools are in actual want Of food.
Thousands of them are sent hungry to
school, barefooted and in rags as well,
and hundreds faint away in their class
rooms from exhaustion. The more for
tunate feed at noon at the soup-kitch-
ems for.the children of the poor which
are SUPPORTED by charitable associa-
tons
Dis ;ussing the Business of Great
FactoAy" In Scribner's, P. G. Hubert,
Jr., says on the question of small eco
Monies versus profits: "a certain gi-
gantic flour mill of Indianapolis ascrib-
ed balance on the right side of the
ledger one year to the fact that ten
hoops had been used on its barrels that
year, instead of twelve as in former
years. Its margin of profit on barrel
of -four may be seen to have been small
enough"
ExsCensus Commissioner Robert P.
Porter, in an article for the New York
Sun, says: 1.-THE latest general BALANCE
sheet of the railways of the United
States gives us total valuation OF rail-
way PROPERTY close to $4,000, 100000
and over 10000 miles of road. Next 10
our farms, whose value aggregates
s13, 000, 600, 900, these great properties
will form, at the close of the century,
the most valuable assets of the Repub-
lic."
Luther C. Rood has accomplished
the feat of lifting a 211-pound dumb
bell in the Harvard gymnasium, there
by establishing a new amateur worlds
record at heavy dumb-bell lifting. The
previous mark was 201 pounds ounces,
made by Dick Kennel, in New York,
in 1874. The lift was made from the
floor with both hands, and the bell was
forced upward from. the shoulder TO
arms length with one hand. Rood is
of slim physique, five feet six inches
in height and weighs but 143 pounds.
Scotland can no longer claim to pos
sess the longest railway bridge in the
world. The recently completed bridge
over the Danube at Czernavoda obtains
this distinction by nearly 5000 feet.
The length of the new structure, ex-
elusive of its approaches, is 1926 feet,
while its principal spans over the main
channel Of the river are 620 and Ass
feet respectively. The remaining spans
extend over some nine miles of low
lying land, which for several months in
the year is completely submerged.
A curious effect of the plague in India
has been sudden increase in the num-
Der of pearls reaching the London mar
ket, and a consequent marked fall in
prices. This is not due to unusual in
dustry on the part Of the divers, but
to the fact that the native dealers at
Bombay have been in such haste to
quit the stricken city that they have
eagerly disposed of their wares at far
below the customary market value. One
English firm of importers of Indian
pearls has accumulated stock which,
if placed suddenly on the market, it is
estimated, would send down quotations
fully rs per cent.
The Washington Post quotes an Iowa
man as saying that the farmers OF
Iowa are making money out of the COW.
"The Iowa cow" he says, has proved
of far more benefit as revenue raiser
than 10-cent corn, and the creamery
has become firmly established as enc
of the institutions of the land. In the
county of Jones the farmers have in
bank deposits over $4,000, 900, accord
ing to the latest report of our State
Dairy Commissioner. Here is an object
lesson to the agriculturists all over the
Union, for it goes to show that by prop
er management and attention to the
right things farmers can become lend
ers of money instead Of borrowers.
Farmers in the Red River Valley are
in great distress because they have no
seed wheat for the spring sowing, and
200 of them recently held a meeting, at