Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1900-03-15

B. L 1t IL larger by forty per cent
than the war army of the Boer re-
pub!ics. It 10 nearly as large ~ the
combined inhabitants of the Territory
of Oklahoma and the State of Nevada.
1t is nearly twice as great as the
number of people in the State of Wy
oming when the last census was
taken.
American coal is flowing into the
Mediterranean in q swelling stream,
cutting channel for itself which will
probably notrun dry when the present
conditions interrupting its ordinary
supply are over. England has hither-
to sent it, but now has use for all her
product elsewhere. 1t is not neces-
sary to assume that the present large
demand for American coal means that
naval preparations adverse to England
are being made in the Mediterranean,
though that is the view of some Con-
tinental military observers. It's most
direct interest to Americans is that
it opens a practically new market for
an important commodity hitherto
jealously shut out, and that there is
a good chance of the market staying
open hereafter.
Belgium desires to encourage mat
rimony, and at the same time thrift.
That country proposes to give every
man who is twenty-one years old and
pays 81 year in taxes one vote; If
twenty-five years old and married,
two votes; and if he owns real estate
or government bonds or savings bank
deposits producing an income of $40
a year, he will have three votes. If
it is desirable to increase the popula-
tion it would be well enough to offer
an additional vote for each child.
The armless artist Felu has just
died at an advanced age abroad. He
could do number of things without
arms that many men with arms are
unable to accomplish. He always
shaved himself, for one thing, and,
presumably, without cutting himself;
he wrote a successful play, and he
painted a large number of pictures.
Sometimes when we see the things
that people have accomplished under
great difficulties we almost regret our
own advantages, although the first
thing we should do were we to lose
them would be to try to replace them
in some way. The obvious moral Of
Felu, OF course, is that we, lacking
his disabilities, should accomplish
much more than he; but this is a
moral that only the young will meekly
accept, and they only because they
have to do so. The rest of us merely
wonder, and find few minutes in
terest in the contemplation of the
phenomenon.
Tests made in Detroit give promise
that singing, with some degree Of ac-
curacy, may be taught to deaf chill
dren. The experiments were made
under the direction of the supervisor
of music in the public schools. The
children were gathered around a piano
resting their hands, and in some cases
their arms, upon the instrument
After the instrument had been played
for time the children began to count
in correct time with the music, catch
ing the accentuation of beats through
the vibration of the wood. Occasion
ally child would seem to progress
beyond the mere response to time and
count aloud with some approximation
! to the tune. When this fact was OBJ
served by the teacher, the pupils were
told to repeat the words "baby,
baby" over and over and at the same
time a lullaby was played on the
piano. In short time it was noticed
that nearly all the children with
whom the experiment was tried in
dicated the air with more or less dis
tinctness. Still another experiment
was tried by singing the scale into the
ear of boy and playing it on the
piano. After few trials, the pupil
was able to sound the notes as well
as could many children with unim-
paired hearing.
Governor Brady of Alaska proposes
the use of electricity as substitute
for the cumbersome fire heated iron
used in the branding of seals. He
claims that if every female seal was
electrically branded with the letters
~. So four inches in length and
half an inch in width, the pelagic
sealers' business would soon become
so Improbable that the seal question
would be settled, for, argues the pro-
jector of the plan, eighty per cant. of
the seals illegally killed are females,
and the brand would ruin the skin
for the use of the prospective furrier.
The Interior Department is urged to
send force of men, fully equipped
for the work to Alaska and let them
take the project in hand. The stock
men of the plains have found cleo
tricity to be infinitely more expedite
Gus than the old method, and would
be doubly so with the thin coated
seal. 1.-The branded seals suffer as
little from the operation as do quad
rupeds," says Governor Brady, land
the introduction of this system will
speed the branding, which appears to
be the only method by which we can
prevent extinction of the species.