The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-04-08

How many wards are in Chicago?
What is the mayors salary?-C. @. A.
Thirty-four. ?. $4,000 a year.

49,
When and where did accident insurance
make a start?-P. 3.
In England. in 1886. Three years later
a company was fully organized and ready
for business there. The first company was
organized in this country in 1853.
Levi H.: Under the law just passed a
national bank is permitted TO issue circula-
tion-notes, not coin-to the amount OF its
capital; and in places OF 5000 inhabitants
or under. banks of 5000 capital are per-
mitted.
What is the origin of 'Hobson's choice?'
X. Y. u.
1t arose from a custom of Tobias Hob
son. a stablekeeper of Cambridge, England.
Though a number of fine horses were usual
ly in his stalls his rule was that every
customer had to take the horse from the
stall nearest the door.
In h year was the big mine disaster
known as the Blantyre explosion at
Landrickshire, England?S. NJ.
On October %, 1877. there was an explo-
sion in the Dixon pits at High Blantyre,
La~narkshire, Scotland. in which two hun
dred lives were lost. Probably this is
the explosion you are after.
Does the size of an engagement ring
make any difference?-S. L. B.
Much depends on the girl. The current
fashionable engagement ring is a narrow
band with a single diamond in a high
Claw setting. Whatever changes fashions
bring, a diamond plainly bigger or finer
than her best girl friends is just right.
Where did David Crockett die, and on
what Hoops.
He died in the celebrated defense of Fort
Alamo, San Antonio, Texas, March 6. 1886.
1t was from this defense and the resulting
massacre that Texans took as a war cry
in their struggle for independence, "Re-
member the Alamo!"
Is Samuel Smiles. the author. dead, n
if so, when uId he die?-Artie Ray.
He is alive, in London, according to a
biographical work Of this year. This work
makes a point of telling, among other de-
tails, the recreations of celebrities. and
describes Smiles patheticaIly by the CLASH
ication too old for recreation"
How many countries, and What are they,
have tried to gain concessions from the
N~icaraguan republic for building a canal
t~here?-Friday.
Between the beginning OF the republic
and the height Of travel brought about
by the discovery of gold in California, one
Dutch company and several French con-
Germs made advances. Much earlier than
that, soon after the richness of Peru was
exploited, Spaniards discussed a canal
without doing much more.
Where was the State of franklin when
it was organized, what Territory was it
formed from, and what was the cause of its
disappearance as a State?-R. II. S.
Franklin, or FARMLAND, was organized
by the inhabitants of what is now Tennes-
see in 1884. Its organization was in revolt
against the control of North Carolina, but
supporters of the latter suppressed the
new States government, and in 1870 the
lands were ceded to the United States. In
the beginning civil war seemed imminent.
/ n reference to the Constitutions Of
Clarendon: VIA were they?5C. l..
They were sixteen ordinances passed in
1854. at Clarendon. Wiltshire, England, by a
council of English barons and prelates.
They described limits for the patronage
and jurisdiction of the Pope. Perhaps the
most radical was that which made the
clergy amenable to the common courts in
criminal cases. When they were sent to
| Pope Alexander III for his ratification he
| rejected them, but most of the provisions
were permanent.
Is it a fact that there are orders or sects
who worship the devil or other demons?-
s. L.
1t is: the Yezidees, or Devil-worshipers,
of Asiatic Turkey, are but one of several
such orders. The faith of the Yezidees is
described as a curious mixture or MOham-
mechanism and a degenerate Christianity.
They respect the devil because they believe
he will be restored to heaven, where they
will want him for a friend. They revere
the Old Testament, and care much less for
the New Testament and the Koran. There
are 200, 900 of them.
Will you describe the block system of
railroad management?-T. o. Nj. b.
The railroad is divided into sections, with
signal stations at each end of every section.
An accident within any section is signaled
at both hi sections stations. In some
systems men give the signals. in others
the warnings are given automatically by
! electrical apparatus. by the dOSOlule
block system but one train is permitted
in one section at the same time, and a
variation of this permits a second train to
enter the section before the other has left
it, but warns the second of the others pres
ence.
Who are secretary of the interior and
| secretary of agriculture in the Cabinet?
2. When and where was Thanksgiving day
first observed in the United States? B.
Where and when was the first free school
| established in this country? Would the
omission of the first cipher in the express
sion, 1920, be incorrect?oJ. 4.
Ethan Allen Hitchcock and James VIII
son, respectively. 2. 1t began in 1921, when
Governor Bradford, of the Plymouth
colony, appointed a day of Thanksgiving
and prayer after the colonists' first har-
vest. 8. The first public school was estab-
lished in New Amsterdam in 1888. 4. Either
writing is correct, the longer one being
used as Of surer clearness.
Where will / be apt to find the biography
OF DR.. Weir Mitchell?-A /. b.
Here you will find a very brief one. HI
was born at Philadelphia, Feb. Is, 1899, anG
was educated at the University of Penn.
sylvania and at Jefferson Medical College
graduating from the latter institution in
1850. During the next ten years he wa: