Omaha daily bee., 1903-01-17
OTHER LANDS THAN ours.

The standing army Of Russia in time Of
peace numbers over 1. 600 OOO rank and file,
| OF per cent Of the male population be-
| tween the ages OF II and co years. It is
divided as follows. $4,000 infantry. in 25
| army corps, 50 divisions 209 regiments and
S36 battalions; 117,00O cavalry, in % divi-
sions and ga squadrons; 13S. 900 artillery,
with 4l2 batteries OF field artillery and 46
| Of horse artillery; $4,000 engineers, "a, 900
commissariat, transportation, medical and
other departmental troops, and so 900 Co.'S
sacks. Liability to military service is gen.
eral between the 22nd and 44th birthdays,
the only exemptions being in favor OF the
! COssacks of the Caucasus, who have a spe-
cial organization; the settlers in Turkestan
and the territories of the Amur; the non
Russian population Of Astrakhan, the ASH
attic provinces and Archangel. million
men have every October 1 attained the mil
itary age, but only 300 900 are required to
bring the standing army up to it's peace
establishment. Every urban and rural dis
trict has its recruiting board, which is in
formed Of the number of recruits It must
furnish to each arm. Selection is made
between October Is and November 10.
Usually about 4S per cent OF the conscript
candidates are exempt or ineligible.
Chile and Argentine have signed condi-
tions for the sale of all warshps now build
Ing for either country in European ship
yards, and each has agreed to dismantle a
number Of its most powerful men-of-war
in compliance with the treaty of July last,
which provided for the Limitation of arma>
ments. Unqualified and practically COM
pulsory arbitration having been made the
subject Of a convention of the same date,
the two republics will hereafter have little
use for destroyeTs. battleships and other
lingo paraphernalia They will have no
occasion to fight each other, and their dis
tance from possible assailants is their SUM-
cient defense. The Chileans and Argen-
tinans are wise in their day and generation
Other governments which confer together
in peace congresses, but shy at the men,
tion OF arbitration and disarmament, prefer
to postpone the practice OF wisdom to the
coming of the millennium.
Water works upon an immense scale are
in course Of construction in various parts
of West Australia. Among those recently
completed are those at Mundaring, twenty
three miles from Perth, which are expected
to have an important influence upon the
gold mining in the Coolgardie and Kali
been entirely damned by concrete weir
rising 100 feet above the river bed, and
having its foundations at one point 100
feet below the river bed. 1t is ZOO feet long
at the top and fifteen feet wide there;
eightyflve feet wide at the base, and pro-
vided with a waste weir and a free over
flow OF five feet deep and 400 feet wide.
The depth of water is 100 feet, and the
river, which runs in a deep valley, feeds
the dam for seven and one-half miles of
Its course. The capacity from twenty feet
above the river level, the Lowest depth
from which water will be pumped, is $780,
100000 gallons. But It is one thing to COL
lect the water at Mundaring' 800 feet above
the sea level, and another to force IL
through thirty-inch pipes to Coolgardie,
1,400 feet above the sea level and S25 miles
distant, and to Kalgoorlie, 1880 feet above
the sea level and twenty-five miles further
on This is done by eight sets of pumping
stations, each with extra engines and
pumps, in case of breakdowns, each set of
engines being capable OF pumping 2,sO0, 900
gallons day; and a number OF minor and
regulating reservoirs are provided, besides
service reservoirs at Coolgardie and Kali
goorlie.
Aumirdl mdharoV, the designer or the sue
cessful tce-breaker Ermak, which keeps the
NeVa open to st. Petersburg the greater
part o; thaawinter, has not abandoned his
intention OF seeking the North Pole in his
pet vessel. In a recent lecture delivered
before the st. Petersburg Imperial Geo,
graphical society he explained once more
the grounds on which he bases his hopes
OF one day reaching the goal which has
eluded other adventurers Ermak. in
his opinion, is better adapted to withstand
an Ice squeeze than any wooden ship, and
In It's special work OF breaking through ice
fields is more successful in operating upon
the continuous fields found in extreme
north latitudes than against the more mo-
bile ice nearer home. Admiral Makarov did
not succeed in getting very far north upon
his last expedition, but he brought back
very valuable collection Of photographs
and specimens of the fora and fauna OF
the Arctic regions.
II is a distinctly German idea which
animated the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals in Berlin to give a
dinner entirely Of horse meat, to build
up the public taste for that food, so that
old horses will find their way to the
butcheries instead of being worked to
uealn- II requires an intricate German
mind to hatch out a scheme like this in
the name OF charity. So many horses are
already used for food in Germany that
there is no reason why any man with an
erstwhile Bucephalus should not sell him
for meat. But heretofore horse has been
eaten only by the poor, or the rich per-
chance when they trade with a deceitful
butcher. Now the point is to develop a
taste for the rump steaks OF draught ami
mails among all classes OF the people and
call it a species of philanthropy.
zee
The economic problem Of Naples is Just
now perplexing the Italian government
very seriously. Naples is a town Of over
100000 inhabitants and is without any
staple industry, with the result that there
are always at least 100000 unemployed,
and consequently distress and misery are
never absent. All efforts to develop trades
have failed but 1t is now proposed to
make Naples the Mecca of all tourists to
Italy, It being recognized that tourists are
likely to prove it's main source of sub-