Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume], November 23, 1899, Image 5

About Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925

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CRUISER WRECKED
THE CHARLESTON STRIKES A
REEF ON THE LUZON COAST.
ALL ON BOARD ARE SAVED
Vessel Was Built at San Francisco in
1888 —Carried a Powerful Armament
and Had a Complement of 306 Men
—Belonged to the Class Known as
“New Navy.”
Manila, Nov. 14. —The United States
cruiser Charleston which has been pa
troling the northern coast of Luzon,
was wrecked on the reef northwest of
the coast Nov. 7. All on board were
saved. The Charleston, which was
built in San Francisco in 1888, had a
displacement of 3,730 tons, was 312 feet,
7 inches in length, 46 feet, 2 inches in
beam, and 21 feet, 8 inches in draught.
She was of steel, having two propellors,
one funnel and two masts with military
tops. She had the following arma
ment: Two three-inch guns, six six
inch guns, a six-pounder, 2 three
pounders, 6 one-pounders, two ma
chine-guns, one light gun, with four
torpedo tubes. She had a complement
of 306 men.
Washington, Nov. 14. —The Charles
ton had been in Asiatic waters more
than a year. She was one of the first
vessels to be sent to Manila after the
destruction of the Spanish fleet by Ad
miral Dewey, the navy department
utilizing her for the purpose of send
ing amunition and other supplies for
the Asiastic station. Just previous to
her assignment to that duty she had
undergone overhauling at the Mare
Island nevy yard, San Francisco, and
therefore was in prime condition. She
was one of the vessels of more recent
construction and belonged .o that clas3
which is commonly referred to as the
“new navy.” Her commander was Cap
tain William H. Whiting, her lieuten
ant Gottfred Blockinger.
GERMS IN TELEPHONES.
Dr. Emanuel Friend Finds Bacilli In
festing the Receivers.
Dr. Emanuel Friend, after making
tests of ten telephone mouthpieces in
downtown business houses, finding the
germs of infectious diseases in nine of
them, advocates the passage of an or
dinance requiring the daily disinfection
of telephone receivers. The tests
were made in the laboratory of the
Michael Reese Hospital by Koch’s iso
lation method. Scrapings from sepa
rate instruments were placed in sepa
rate cultures and the examination
showed that some of the disease germs
were pus-forming microbes.
Dr. Friend suggests the use of a so
lution of bichloride of mercury or a 5
per cent, solution of carbolic acid for
disinfecting purposes. He says that
while he has not found the bacilli of
consumption in any telephone he has
no doubt they are present in many in
struments.
“Some weeks ago officials of the Chi
cago Telephone company were visited
by men who are exploiting a patent
germ-killing attachment for telephone
mouthpieces, who wished to ascertain
whether in our experience the trans
mission of disease from the use of tele
phones had been noticed,” said Gen
eral Manager A. S. Hibbard. “Our in
formation was to the effect that no
authenticated cases of this kind had
been reported in the country. Later
they required if they might have an
examination made of mouthpieces in
use in Chicago, and were given every
opportunity in the way of obtaining
mouthpieces from busy public tele
phones and others. Presumably the
examination published today is the
one which was made at their instiga
tion. At about the same time the Chi
cago Telephone company took the mat
ter up with the city officials, and an
examination is to be made under the
direction of the Chicago board of
health by Dr. Wynkoop.”
Dr. Hibbert W. Hill, director of the
bacteriological laboratory of the board
of health, in March last began an in
vestigation of the question whether
telephone transmitters constitute a
menace to the public health by reason
of the presence of disease-producing
bacteria. His report has recently been
submitted to the board of health.
Thirteen telephones which are sub
jected to an extraordinary amount of
daily use were chosen. The attempt
was made to get specimens of bacteria
from the inside and outside of the
transmitters attached to the telephones
in question. The results of the at
tempt were negative, as the cultures
prepared from the specimens obtained
failed to show the presence of bacteria
dangerous to health.
“It may therefore be concluded,” says
Dr. Hill, “that these telephones did not
on the day of examination constitute
foci from which bacterial disease could
be readily distributed. Nevertheless, It
is douotless possible that infectious
diseases may be conveyed from one
user, not by infection of the transmit
ters through the expired air, strictly
considered, of the diseased user, but
through his saliva or sputum deposited
on the transmitter, either through act
ual contact of the wetted lips to the
transmitter or in the form of minute
particles of liquid detached from the
liquids of the mouth by coughing or
other strong expiratory breaths. Prac
tically, then, the telephone transmitter
cannot be considerd a dangerous source
of disease, while at the same time Its
possible action as an occasional
medium for the carriage of infection
must be admitted.’
Dr. Hill recommends the use of a
liquid disinfectant —e. g., a 1 per cent.
solution of formalin or a 5 per cent, so
lution of carbolic acid, applied by
paper, cloth or brush or spray to the
transmitter, inside and out, at all pub
lic telephone stations by the person in
charge after each use of the instru
ment. —Chicago Post.
DANGERS AHEAD.
Dean Farrar’s Indictment of Present-
Day England.
The dean of Canterbury is not usual
ly set down as a pessimist, but his re
cent utterance in the British religious
magazine Young Man, quoted in the
Christian Statesman, exhibits any
thing but a bright view of the imme
diate outlook for religion and morality
in Great Britain. He says:
“I am neither a prophet nor a
prophet’s son, so I will not undertake
the rash task of venturing to make any
prophecy about the future. But it has
long seemed to me that things are in
a state of unstable equilibrium, and
that another century cannot pass with
out the occurrence of some great Euro
pean war, with all its terrible and
heart-shaking catastrophes. Nor is it
possible to be content with the state
of things in England. The alarming
spread of betting and gambling among
workingmen and the youths of great
cities —so that this ruinous vice helps
to fill our prisons, and (in the north of
England especially) has ruined the
healthy influence of our games; the
eager love of money, which leads to
so much wild speculation and commer
cial dishonesty; the cruel indifference
with which we degrade the helpless
childhood of the world by deluging
savage tribes with drink, the growth of
Hooliganism, and crimes of brutal vio
lence; the dominance of a selfishness
which immerses itself in luxury, pleas
ure and amusement, while a poverty
more and more squalid welters almost
at the doors of the wealthy; the
growth of a sullen and angry feelmg
of discontent among thousands of the
poorer class; the decay of faith in the
deepest and most awfully vital truth;
the ever abiding and infinitely loath
some curse of drink, which seems,
among women at any rate, to be gain
ing rather than losing ground, and, as
Pope Leo XIII. says, ‘drags unnum
bered souls to perdition;/ the tendency
to substitute niggling nullities and fe
tich-worshiping superstitions for ’re
ligion pure and undeflled’ —all these
things give serious ground for disqui
etude.”
The great men in religion and phil
anthropy and letters, says Dean Far
rar, are all dying off, and are leaving
no one to take their places.
“We have no poet who can stand for
o moment beside Tennyson or Brown
ing; no orator who can be distantly
compared to Gladstone or Bright; no
painter who reaches the level of Land
seer or Millais; no writer nearly so
powerful as Carlyle or Ruskln; no nov
elist —the novels now flood the world
at the rate of five a day—who is worth
mentioning with Dickens, Tharkeray
or George Eliot; no religious teacher
whose influence is half so telling or
ennobling as that of Maurice, F. W.
Robertson or Dean Stanley. If our age
could prgtygce one dauntless or far
sighted man-4 teacher like Savonaro
la. or Luther, or Wesley, or Whitfield;
a philanthropist like Frances of Assisi,
or Vincent de Paul, or Thomas Clark
son, or John Howard; a man who
would willingly face bonds and afflic
tions, and cataracts of calumny, and
not hold his life dear unto himself, and
would count it a glory, for the truth’s
sake, to
Stand pilloried on infamy’s high
stage,
And bear the pelting scorn of hair
an age;
a man whose soul was so ardent with
the light of Heaven that he cbuld flash
conviction and reformation into depths
of moral unreality; a man who could
fling the Are of God, like arrows of
lightnings, into the apparently impreg
nable strongholds of wickedifhss and
shame —then we should feel a livelier
hope for the immediate future.”
WHAT PRUDENCE AND ECONOMY
DO.
Whether the following is the rule cr
the exception each can judge for him
self, but the News learned today of a
very encouraging condition of affairs
in one part of the county at least.
A well known farmer, who has a
number of renters in Mecklenburg and
Union counties, makes the candid
statement tnat his renters are in a bet
ter condition financially than they
were last year, and that their debts arc
more largely canceled, while some or
them still have surplus cotton on hand.
1 his gentleman attributes condi
tions in part to the increased economy
of the renters in view of the shortage
in the cotton crop, but one thing re
mains certain, and that is it is a fact
that some at leest in this county uav?
ueeu able to more than counter*el the
shortage in their crop by the practice
of economy and common sense.
The merehants also state that their
trade this fall is very little less in balk
than it was last year and the unfavor
able conditions existing do not seem
to have materially afTecfcd their trade.
These facts would make it appear
that eve i such adverse conditions as
have existed this fall may be more
than overcome Ly the practice of pru
dence and economy.—Charlotte (N. C.J
News.
The steamer Polarstjernen. which
was disabled at sea, has arrived at St.
I Michales, Azores, In tow.
CHIPS AND CLIPS.
The importation of wood pulp into
Italy is greatly on the increase.
A Vancouver timber merchant has
just first importation of Aus
trialian hardwood into British Colum
bia.
One and one-quarter million square
miles.s the estimate of the timber
area bf Canada, as given by the U. S.
consul general at Montreal.
One of the most valuable timber
trees in the great northwest, the Red,
Cedar, grows to a maximum height to t
300 feet and a diameter of 14 feet. I
Norway supplied Great Britain with!
twice as much ground'wood pulp last
year as the United States, Canada,
Sweden and Holland combined,
Immense spruce forests will be open
ed to commercial development by the
extension of the Atlantic & Lake Su
perior railway to Gaspe Basin, Quebec.
Paper shingles have been introduced
into Japan by an enterprising Tokyo
firm as substitutes for the wooden
article. The new idea is a slab of
thick-tarred pasteboard, more easily
managed than ordinary shingles and
costing only half as much.
Some historical trees have lately
come into the New York lumber mar
ket from the Wilderness battlefield of
the civil war. The bills of lading
showed that the trees had been felled
and the lumber sawed there. In some
of the planks the minie balls can be
seen plainly, the wood directly ad
jacent to the bullets being discolored
or rotten, but not enough to damge
the lumber.
While the display of forest pro
ducts which Canada will send to the
Paris Exposition of 1900 will include
everything from the tree to the semi
finished product, it is the intention of
the special commissioner to give atten
tion also to recent exports of wood
manufactures.
The possibilities of a lucrative ex
port trade in tamarack between Canada
and Great Britain received something
of a setback in this reply from the Im
perial Institute of London in answer
to inquiries from the dominion:
“Gum of any kind is practically un
known in England, gum-chewers being
confined to Canada and the United
States.” But there is said to be a good
demand for tamarack for medicinal
purposes, so that some samples will go
abroad at any rate.
The portion of the state of Wash
ington west of the supimit of the Cas
cade range is covered with the heavi
est continuous belt of forest growth in
the United States. This extends over
the slopes of the Cascade and Coast
ranges, and occupies the entire drift
plain surrounding the waters of Puget
sound. Excepting the highest moun
tain peaks and the sand dunes of the
coast, which are treeless, the valleys of
the Cowlitz and Chehalis rivers, which
are dotted with small oaks and other
deciduous trees, and the stunted yel
low pines occupying with open growth
the barren Steilacoom plain, all of
western Washington is covered with a
magnificent forest.
TRAINS ROBBED SINCE 1890.
More than twenty times a year rail
way trains in the United States are
held up and robbed. The criminals
who follow this dangerous pursuit are
fearless, and it is said that there is but
one possible measure that will go to
check their vicious careers. Few trav
elers know that since me year 1890
there have been 230 hold-ups in this
country, with more than eighty per
sons killed outright and nearly as
many wounded. The desperadoes usu
ally work in gangs, and are difficult to
run down. After committing a robbery
they terrorize the country for miles
about, and do not hesitate at killing a
man who may be a witness against
them. In consequence their atrocities
are seldom punished, and the wretches
who have slain women and stolen prop
erty live and flourish, waiting for a
fresh opportunity for crime. As it is
always express cars that suffer from
robbers congress was not long ago peti
tioned to grant federal protection ,to
the express companies. Mail cars are,
it is alleged, rarely attacked by rob
bers, for the reason tnat such robberies
are crimes against the United States,
and are promptly brought up in the
federal courts, where the culprits re
ceive severe sentences and no mercy.
On the other hand, the robbers who at
tack express trains commit a crime not
against the nation but against a corpo
ration. Their conviction, therefore,
has to be looked after by the state, and
when a crime is committed so near the
border of one state that the criminals
can escape by running into the next
long legal complications are likely to
ensile, which often end in the robbers
going free. At all events, unless some
thing is done by congress the present
danger will continue to threaten every
train that runs.
HER SHOES.
If it’s a woman, and the shoe pinches,
she buys it. —Saybrook Gazette.
What we are looking for is a girl
whose shoes are not a mile too large.—
Atchison Globe.
Muggins—“Do you believe a woman
can stand more pain than a man?”
Huggins—“ Certainly. You ought to see
the shoes my wife wears.” —New Or
leans Times-Democrat.
FUNSTON RETURNS TO MANILA.
Topeka, Nov. 16. —Gen. Frederick
Funston Wednesday started for San
Francisco accompanied by his wife.
Mrs. Funston will remain at her par
ent’s home in Oakland, Cal. Gen.
Funston will sail on the first transport
leaving for Manila.
Senator Hayward of Nebraska is at
the point of death in Omaha, from
brain trouble.
HIS NEW BROTHER.
Yes, I’ve got a little brother,
Never asked for him from mother,
But he’s here;
But I s'pose they went and bought him,
For last week the doctor brought him;
Ain’t it queer?
When I heard the news from Molly,
Why, I thought at first ’twas jolly;
’Cause, you see,
I just 'magined I could get him.
And our dear mamma would let him
Play with me.
But when once I had looked at him
I cried out, “Oh, dear! Is that him?
‘Just that mite?”
They said; “Yes, and you may kiss
him!”
Well, I'm sure I’d never miss him.
He’s a fright.
He’s sofcmall, it’s just amazing,
And think that he was blazing.
He’s so red;
And his nose is like a berry,
And he's bald as Uncle Jerry
On his head.
He’s no kind of good whatever.
And he cries as if he’d never,
never stop;
Won’t sit up —you can’t arrange him,
Oh, why doesn’t father change him
At the shop?
Now we’ve got to dress and feed him.
And we really didn’t need him,
Little frog!
And I cannot think why father
Should have bought him, when I'd
rather
Have a dog!
—London Mail.
KRUGER AS A SHARP TRADER.
How the Transvaal President Got
Something for Nothing.
An exceedingly curious and interest
ing story about President Kruger has
just been related for the first time by
a well-known resident of Toronto,
Ont., who has spent a number of years
in south Africa.
In 1884 Paul Kruger, Jorrissen and
two other delegates from the Trans
vaal were in London negotiating with
Lord Derby the famous London con
vention which has been so assiduous
ly canvassed and quoted of late. No
one has ever accused the burghers of
the Transvaal of being an especially
docile set, and during the absence of
Kruger and his fellow leaders one of
the not infrequent civi® commotions
took place at home. Not particularly
important in itself, it had the disagree
able effect of stopping supplies for the
country’s quartet of diplomats in Lon
don, and Kruger and his colleagues,
found themselves “broke.” They could
not pay their board bill, and their cir
cumstances were awkward in every
way.
At this junction the Englishman who
now relates the story appeared on the
scene. He was staying in London, was
familiar with south Africa and its pub
lic men, and knew the Transvaal dele
gates well. He became aware of the
financial straits in which they were,
and, as an acute business man,
thought he saw’ a golden opportunity.
It was before thedaysof the Witwaters
raad, and the Transvaal government
was eking out its insufficient income by
grants of monopolies and concessions.
The Englishman had an uncle, a
wealthy Yorkshire woolen manu
facturer. Enlisting his uncle’s aid he
made a proposition to Mr. Kruger.
The two Englishmen would the
hotel bill and would supplement it with
a cash gift of £I,OOO. In return they
asked for the monopoly of the wool
manufacturing and the wool washing
of the Transvaal, in which large flocks
of sheep are kept by the boers. Mr.
Kruger thought it over and accepted.
The hotel bill was wiped out and the
£I,OOO check found its resting place.
Thus provided with the sinews of war,
Kruger and his friends continued the
negotiations and the London conven
tion was signed.
The Englishmen went ahead with
their plans. They intended to erect a
mill to manufacture certain woolen
goods that would find a local market
and to control the export of the surplus
wool. They were to get a certain tract
of land seventy-five acres In extent.
The city of Johannesburg today stands
on that tract. They bought their ma
chinery and were ready to ship it.
Just then they mentioned their good
bargain to a friend, who was an of
ficial in the colonial office. He advised
them not to proceed any farther until
the concession had been ratified by the
volksraad, and the Englishmen waited.
The voolksraad met and President
Kruger submitted the proposed conces
sion to them, exhibiting no warmth in
its advocacy. The volksraad threw
it out summarily. Then the English
men broached to President Kruger the
question of the £I.OOO and the hotel
bill. The president was suave and ex
plained that those sums were to be
charged against the lepublic. The Eng
lishmen, however, are still minus their
little investment.—Gt. Louis Globe-
Democrat.
SNAKES AS WATCHDOGS.
A dispatch to the New York Tribune
from Columbia, S. C., says: The best
burglar alarm in the country Is the
burr-r-r in the warning of a deadly
rattlesnake. That is the opinion of
Postmaster J. A. Pinson, of Thicketty,
Cherokee county, and he has had ex
perience with both burglars and the
burglar cure The postofllce of Tn'ck
etty occupies a corner in Mr. Pinson’s
store, In which he sells and buys ev
erything used and produced in the
country roundabout. He has been
i troubled with burglars, and several
months ago the postofflce was robbed.
Mr. Pinson found the burglar and
has just secured his conviction in the
l nited Stateto court. He soys, how
ever, that his in’no is now easy on *he
subject of burglars, and he is not Sven
particular about locking nis store door
at night. Bulldogs may be silenced or
poisoned, but his guards are ever faith
ful.
Soon after the last robbery Mr. Pin
son pffekured four snakes of the dead
liest kind. He keeps them in & box in
his store, inviting all his customers,
particularly the negroes, to examine
them. He remarks that they are great
rat catchers, and tells how he fastens
strings about the necks of the snakes
nd turns them out in the store at
night before closing up.
Mr. Pinson says bis plan has many
advantages. In the first place, the rats
are cleaned out; then he is not dis
turbed after hoursjiy persons wanting
their mail. It is understood that the
store is used only |n daylight. Again,
he can rest in absolute pe r , and without
the least dread of burglars. A negro
cannot be got within 100 feet of the
building after dark.
If any attempt is mada to rob the
store and postofflce, Mr. Pinson Is
confident it will be the work of tramps
or traveling cracksmen who are not ac
quainted with the facts. In that case
the county will have to bear funeral
expenses, but it will be rid of bad char
acters. Snakes as guards, he says,
beat dogs all to pieces. They draw
customers in the daytime and deter
them at night.
GOSSIP FROM FOREIGN LANDS.
According to a recent report issued
by the French bureau of agriculture,
Spain and not Italy should have the
adjective “sunny” placed, before it.
On the average, it is said, Spain enjoys
about 3,000 hours ot sunshine a year,
while Italy has 2,300. France has al
most as much sunshine as Italy, her
figures being 2,200. Germany has at
her disposal no more than 1,700 hours,
while England, the land of fogs, has to
get along with 1,400, less than half of
Spain’s amount. The average fall of
rain in England is, however, greater
than that of any European country.
One more expedition has been sent
out to recover the gold lost fn the ship
General Grant, which met a strange
and terrible fate in May, 186t>. The
ship was on her way from Melbourne
to London with a number of miners re
turning from the Ballarat diggings
and, being becalmed off the Auckland
islands, a heavy swell drove her on to
the shore and into a rift which led into
the cave. Here she sank and of eighty
persons on board not a dozen were
saved.
The German reichstag and the Prus
sian diet are very much exercised over
that modern method of retailing
known as the department store. They
appear to look upon these stores, as
they do in France, with suspicion, and
are endeavoring to handicap cnera by
making them pay special taxes, based
on the number of departments and
number of employes. As yet no defin
ite action has been taken, but the gen
eral tenor of puoiic opinion appears to
be in favor of restraining their
growth. The Parisian department
stores are subject to very heavy special
taxes.
The first interment in the new dog
cemetery recently opened in Paris has
just taken place, to the delight and
financial betterment of all the space
writers on the Paris papers. The
corpse was laid out on a sofa in a coffin
at the house of its mistress and all its
living comrades gathered around it.
The mourning was opened somewhat
suddenly by a little terrier which set
up a doleful howl in which the remain
ing pets joined. Then the line of
march was taken up to the cemetery.
The Russian government has
adopted a somewhat drastic measure In
order to suppress drunkenness in St.
Petersburg. It has taken away from
25,000 shops the right to sell alcoholic
liquors and has replaced these by 5,000
establishments placed under uie con
trol of the state ana located at equal
distances apart. These establishments
are directed by young women. The
liquor is delivered in bottles, to which
is affixed a government maik. The
consumer can obtain only one bottle In
each shop, and if, when he visits an
other establishment, he shows the least
sign of intoxication no liquor will be
served him.
The Parisians are mightily amused
over an action pending in Brussels. A
gentleman took a stall, a program and
a book of the words for some opera.
Directly the curtain went up the lights
were lowered. He accordingly claims
damages on the ground that it was im
possible to read the book he had paid
for and that the artists were so com
pletely Incoherent that it was impossi
ble to hear a word. He also claims for
waste of time.
HER WILES.
Ihe most successful way a woman
knows of deceiving her husband is
pretending to tell him everything she
does.—New York Press.
He: "You women do not know your
own minds.” She: “Maybe; but we
can read the minds of you men pretty
well."—lndianapolis Journal.
Professionals always beat amateurs.
That’s why widows invariably distance
young girls in matrimonial races.—
Washington Democrat.
If wicked women coulu only add to
their arts the mysterious charm of in
nocence every man in the world would
go to the devil.—New York Press.
UP IN i’LKEsi TO AMERICANS.
i ue ouerau of foreign commerce pub
lishes a tong account, oi me iiei itu mu
lul carnage eApoamun lue most ililer
coting icatuie ot Wuicu appears to nave
uceu a comuineu eiectro auu benzine
motor carriage, in tins me problem
01 unliving an eiectro-aiotoi* carnage
sen-sustaining ana inuepenueiit Of
eaaiging iroin an ouisiue source has
Oven apparently inastereu. lue wheels
auu tuouiar name ale 01 me oruinary
tjpe, eacepi unit tue wont auu rear
a.ties are cuunecieu uy two strong, rigid
steei oraces, on wmoa l est cue electri
cal motor, accumulator auu tne uevice
tor regulating me speeu. a. oenzine
motor tests on springs over lAe trout
“Xie auu turns me main suaw, which
cxteuus oacKwaiu lurougn tue elec
trical motor anu connects Dy mitered
geuinig Witu tue rear axie, tnat con
nects tne uriviiig wheels. mere is
tuus a uelizine anu an eiectricai motor
gcaieu lu me same uriving suait, and
tne iternel m mis cominuation is that
ootn can oe wortieu at tue saute time
or eitnei mrown out anu tue otner left
nr action at tne win of tne driver,
w nen in cities Uie veuicle wouiu Tie
used as an eiectro-molor carriage, with
an me uuvaifiages 01 mat system; but
on a long journey or remote from out
siue electrical supply tne benzine mo
tor is not only emcient to propel the
carnage, but Dy running the electrical
motor as a dynamo or generator it
recharges the accumulator. f
in Down county Ireland, there has
been in operation for sixteen years a
combined tramway anu wagon road
the arrangement of wnieh might be
uuplicated on any of our suburban elec
tric lines euabliug farmers to hitch
their wagons to me electric cars ar<i
have them drawn into town. Tl-J
Dow- county line is built of
steel rails, outside of and
which is a lower line of steel raii
l’he wagons, without flanges on Ul
wheels run on the lower outside rail?’
the inner rails for the cars, are
enough above the outer rails to act ,■
a guide to the wagons, keeping the , 0
on the track. On either end of the
line the wagons arc detached from the
train and taken to their destination
over the regular streets and roads by
horses. There is no delay or difllculty
in getting the wagons on or off the
ends of the line.
'lue commercial intelligence brunch
of the British board of trade was
opened last week at 50 Parliament
street, London, S. W. The work to be
done by tills branch of the Board of
Trade is to keep British merchants and
manufacturers posted as to trade op
portunities in foreign countries, obtain
ail sorts of information concerning
competition, ascertain what the princi
pal competitors to British trade (Ger
mans and Americans) are offering in
foreign markets and give hints as to
the best way for the introduction of>
British vroduets abroad.
The figures relating to the trade of
Italy in the first six months of this
year reflect the activity that has beeu
mentioned several times and tell
a tale of prosperity long un
precedented in Italian history.. The
importation of raw materials for man
ufacturing purposes -coal, wood, to
bacco leaves, cocoons, raw silk, wool,
iron and steel—increased $13,703,000.
The raw-material exports went up sl,-
930,000, manufactured articles $2,895,-
000. The total exports in the first six
months of 1899 were $120,432,000,
against $i lO.Sktf.OOO for the tirst six
months of 1898, or a gain of $9,843,000.
Recent returns show that the United
Slates Is still able to sell a little moat
to Germany despite that country’s
restrictions. Germany Imported dur
ing 1897 47,986 tons of meat, valued at
$9,496,200; in 1898, 83,597 tons, costing
$17,255,000. Of this amount the United
States furnished 47,243 tons, valued at
$9,448,600. The meat Imported from the
United States consisted mainly of fresh
pork. Since 1891 Germany’s meat im
ports from the United States have in
creased three and a half fold.
The final shipment of 25,000 steel
plates for the Coolgardle water supply
of Australia was made this week. They
are twenty-eight feet in length and
made from the best steel obtainable.
The weight of the entire 25,000 plates
aggregates 35,000 tons. They will be
shipped to Australia flat, with special
machinery for curving them upon their
arrival there. They are to be used In
constructing a steel aqueduct thirty
inches in diameter and ten miles long
to supply Sydney with water.
Demetrlo Castillo Duany, civil gov
ernor of the Province of Santiago de
Cuba, was in New York this week. He
said that the census taking, which is
now in progress, may interfere some
what with business in the rural dis
tricts, as people will not want to >ish
agricultural pursuits until they find
out what steps will be taken next*
the American government toward •
independence of the island. In
large cities the census taking It ,
said, will check undertakings and im
provements. for the reason that capi
talists are timid until Anal decision is
known as to what is to be done next.
The Havana Electric Railway com
pany is placing largo contracts in this
country for electrical material and
roiling stock needed to convert the sys
tem to electricity. The new com
pany comprises English, Canadian,
French, Cuban and American capital
ists.
Pittsburg will furnish most of the
material for the construction and
equipment of about 1.000 miles of rail
road which Is now in the first stages
of construction in Japan.
The Richmond Locomotive and Ma
chine Workß of Richmond, Va., has
Just received an order by cable for ten
ten-wheeled locomotives from the Fin
land state railways.
Jacob Immel and Miss Amelia
Brandt of Forestville were married.