The herald., 1898-01-31
NOTES OF THE DAY

deaths by 7146. In 1894 the excess rose
to 39, ,76S, which was also trifling figure
for a population of 3S,000,000 and which
justified the anxiety as regarded the
future. Nor did the alarm appear to
be groundless in 1895, for the number of
deaths that year exceeded the births by
1888. The figures of 1896 show, how
ever, that last year there were $4,000
more births than deaths.
No fewer than 1900 acres of barren
land have been made fruitful in the Sa-
hara desert, an enterprise representing
perhaps the most remarkable example of
irrigation by means of artesian wells
which can anywhere be found. Algeria
owes to this method of cultivation that
it is becoming a most important wine
producing country as may be gauged
from the fact that it sent to France in
1896, 10,500,000 gallons.
Petitions are being distributed in
every town along the Des Mones river
which contain request to ask the
state legislature to make vigorous at
tempt to buy the dam across that stream
at Bonaparte, Iowa, and to open up the
Des Moines to the fish which are unable
to pass the obstruction. Sportsmen,
especially the disciples of Izaak Walton,
are anxious to see the obstruction re-
moved
A police raid on a slot machine joint at
Cincinnati resulted in an examination of
the machines, and the discovery that
they were constructed with short
decks" on the rollers. That is to say, in
stead of a full deck of cards the roller
lacked several, making a reduction of
the players chances between 80 and 40
per cent.
Years ago, when one of the now burst
ed Wichita banks was running its Of
ficials caused a certain money borrower
to insure his life and transfer the policy
to the bank as security. Year after
year the bank paid the premium and
kept the policy alive. The other day
| the man died and the receiver of the
bankrupt institution collected $500 from
the insurance. 1t turned out to be the
best investment the bank had ever made.
Ernst Bruncken, the secretary of the
forestry commission of Wisconsin, is
making Jealous efforts to secure the
reforesting of the cut-over lands of the
state with pine trees. He announces that
the pine kings" have promised to re-
plant their cut-over lands with trees
year old, if the state will see that the
fire law pertaining to forests is strictly
enforced.
| Thomas Mansfield's residence, six
miles southwest of Washington, Ind.
caught fire in the morning. The roof
was burning briskly, when an Evans
vile and Indianapolis passenger train
happened along. The engineer stopped
the train and the passengers and train
men carried water from the tender and
extinguished the flames.
| Seventy EIGHT snakes in one writhing
mass were unearthed by men in the
employ of the public works department
of New Bedford, Mass, the other day.
The reptiles We're about a foot below
| the surface of the ground, and had gone
into winter quarters. Near the same
locality the same men discovered nest
of twenty snakes.
An Alaskan traveller recently de-
scribed some extraordinary phenomena
connected with small lake named
Selawik, situated near the seacoast
Tides rise and fall in the lake, perhaps
| on account of an underground con-
nection with the sea. AT the bottom, he
| says, lHe Wdter Is salt, UuI Oh the Top
there is a layer of fresh waer.
A rumor that the Eiffel tower was out
of the perpendicular has led to an ex-
animation by an expert who reports that
| it does bend first one way and then an
other, because of the alternate expan-
sion and contraction of the iron in
changes of temperature, so that it is
really always in motion, yet quite safe,
at the same time.
| Burglars broke into the fortress of
Vincennes, near Paris, recently, and,
after stealing money and valuables of
the soldiers and officers, used the tools
of the military blacksmith shop to break
into the commissariat, which they plum
dered; and then made their way through
the moat by means of the ladders in the
fort
Grand opera in Paris, according to Of
fetal accounts, has been given at an ex-
penditure over receipts of 1850, 900 francs
in five years, an average loss, that is, of
$1S0,000 year. The subvention of 800, 900
francs a year reduces the annual deficit
to $4,000, but there is a further yearly
deficit Of 100000 on the opera concert.
The supreme court of California has
decided that under certain circum-
stances a wife may be compelled to sup
port her husband. The decision was
rendered in the case of an aged and in
firm spouse who was deserted by his
wife. The wife was ordered to pay the
husband $25 month
Under the new regulations at the Enoch
Pratt free library in Baltimore, holders
of cards may hav!e SECOND card, called
students card, issued to them. On the
students card no works of fiction no,
juvenile works will be issued, the pur.
pose being to encourage the reading OF
solid books.
Sixteen thousand dollars is the record
price paid for cablegram, that price
having been paid for message sent
by Henniker Heaton to Australia, in be-
half Of the British parliament. Reuters
account of the murderer Deeming's trial
1000 words, cost $4,000.
In Kansas City an ordinance making
nit unlawful for street car companies to
collect fare from passengers who are
compelled to stand, and providing fol
other rigorous regulations designed to
prevent crowding, has had the effect OF
producing additional cars.
The travelling library Is to be intro
duced in Missouri. 1t will be under the
excellent auspices of the Missouri Fed
Grafton of Womens Clubs, which has
made a study of travelling library meth