I . the orld
OLD ROUTE NEW ROUTE
MAPS SHOWING OLD AND NEW ROUTES FROM AUSTtbALIA TO LONDON.
The mails for England from her col-
ony of :kustralia, on the other side of
the globe, are now being carried
through the United States, as an ex-
periment. Transported by water and
land by way of the Suez canal and
Brlndfsl the Journey to London from
Melbourne takes thirty-six days. By
taking the other direction and c,~mlng
by way of San Francisco and ~ew
York the time has been shortened
greatly. On the first trip, which be-
gan in August, the time by way of the
railroads from the Pacific to the At-
lantic coast was thlrty-one and a half
days. On the second trial, just com-
pleted, the time has been further
shortened. The entire distance from
Melbourne to London by way" of the
American continent is 15,265 miles, or
more than half way round the world.
This beats Phineas Fogg's time by
a wide margin. While Jules Verne's
hero circled the globe in eighty days,
the Journey at the rate of speed reach-
ed by the Australian mails taking the
American route could be made in
about fifty days. Of course under both
plans railroad have been utilized
wherever available. But when Rus-
sia's great railroad, the one from Mos-
cow to Port Arthur, on the gulf ol~ Pe-
chl-li, ls finished, the globe clcuit can
be made in much shorter time than
this. The report sent out to all the
papers the other day that Russia's
trans-Slberianroad was "virtuallycom-
pleted" is misleading. Some of the
course between Moscow and Vladtvo-
tok is by water and a large part of
the railway was only temporary and
experimental, and will have to be
relald. Troops can be carried from
Russia through to Vladivostok by the
:~resent rail and steamboat route
across Siberia, but the time will be
much slower than that which is in-
tended to be attained ulimately. More-
over, Port Arthur, and not Vladivos-
tok, will be the real terminus of the
trans-Siberian road,-and that appar-
ently will not be finished for two or
three years yet.
Until Russia's great line to Port
Arthur is finished the quickest course
for England's Australian mails will
probably continue to be by way of San
Francisco and New York. on the ex-
perimental route now being taken.
This course, too, will be the speediest
way for the entire globe circuit. Even
when the trans-Siberlan line is finish-
ed the roads across the United States
continent will have to be ulllzed in
order to make the circuit by the speed-
iest route. It will then be possible to
make the journey round the earth in
thirty-one days by having close con-
nections. How some of the old-time
girdlers would marvel if they could
hear of this speed! Two years was
considered fairly good time for the
circuit in the days of Capt. Cook and
of the Yankee skipper, Robert Gray--
the Gray, whose vessel, the C~olumbia,
gave its name to the great river of
Oregon. and whose discovery of that
stream gave the United States its first
claim to the vast empire which it
drains. Two years and a half would
have been thought fast time for the
circuit by Drake, the first Englishman
who made the Journey. The crew of
the Portuguese-Spaniard Magellan--
the Magellan who was killed in the
Philippines in the feud between the
whites and natives of those islands
which has stretched from his time
down to Agulnaldo's--who were the
first of mankind who crossed all the
meridians, were three years in making
the journey round the earth. Thirty-
six months in the early part of the six-
teenth century! One month in the
opening years of the twentieth! This
marks the extent of the shortening of
the time of the globe-circling between
Magellan's days and the days of Am-
erlca's and Russia's Morgans, Harri-
roans and Hills.
The new mail service crosses the
United States over the tracks of only
two railroads and that without change
of cars--the Great Northern and the
New York Central•
GiDdan ic ailroad Combine
Minnesota's executive has issued a
statement, saying he will instruct the
attorney general of the state to take
steps to prevent the consolidation of
Northern Pacific and Great Northern
Interests, as contemplated by the
/
Northern Securities company, Just In-
corporated, and that if there Is no
law to cover the case he will call a
special session of the legislature to
make one. Governors of Montana and
Dakotas have taken similar action.
THE WILKINS-FREEMAN AFFAIR.
The wise people of Randolph, Mass.,
and the curious people of Metuchen, N.
J., and numerous other people betWeen
those two towns seem to have consid-
erable difficulty in getting Mary E.
Wilklns and Dr. Freeman married.
It is not wholly clear why any one
should concern himself or herself
about what is a purely private arrange-
ment between the high contracting
parties, but so many persons have con-
sidered it their duty to bring about
the marriage that it may be said near-
ly all of New England and a large
part of New York and New Jersey
have been engaged for#several months
past in fixing and unfixing the dates
when the event was to come off, and
some who can see through a millstone
farther than others have even des-
cazited on the bride's trousseau and
the bridegroom's gifts.
At last the gossips, tired of this
game of hide and seek, positively an-
nounced two or three diiys ago that
~he marriage had taken place and that
the happy pair had settled down at
~et,~-~hma~ that Miss Wtlklns had fin-
ished the novel which had all along
been the cause of delay; and that Dr.
Freeman, who is wealthy, was the
happiest man in or out of New Jersey,
was going to give up pulling and
fitting teeth, and hereafter enjoy his
"ease and dignity," which few bene-
dicts can do.
I
The Navy's Demands. [
A naval programme which contem-
t
plates a large increase in the naval es-
tablishment has been enthusiastically
accepted by the American public, so
that there will be little demurring to
toe general spirit of Secretary Long's
annual report.
But it is not so certain that the sec-
retary decided wisely between the
plans of the general board of which
Admiral Dewey ls~ chairman and the
plans of the board of construction,
The former called for four battle
ships, two armored cruisers, four pick-
et boats,~ six gunboats of 1,000 tons
each, SIX gunboats of 600 tons, and
six of 200 tons, ~ix training ships and
one collier of 10,000 tons; the latter ?~r
three battle ships, two armored cruis-
ers, eighteen gunhoats, two colliers of
15,000 tons each. one repair ship, six
training ships, four picket boats and
four tugs. The secretary did well to
drop a good part of the overnumerous
gunboats, but he also dropped one of
the battle ships proposed in the first-
named scheme, and this omission can-
not be so '.eadily commended.
Perhaps Our Oldest Man.
James Farrell, of BarbourvUle, W.
Vs., has Just celebrated the 105th an-
niversary of his birth. He is now pos-
sibly the oldest man in the United
States. Mr. Farrell served in the war
of 1812 and later was in Mexico un-
der Jefferson Davis. When the war
between the states broke out he en-
listed, although no longer a young
man, and saw four years of service.
He was probably the oldest veteran
to offer his services to the govern-
ment when the Spanish war broke
OUt. °
Owing to temporary illness, Deputy
Police Commissioner Devery of New
York was absent from his usual
haunts a day or two shortly after the
recent overthrow of Tammany. Some
humorist advertised for him in the
"lost and found" column of an after-
noon paper. In the description Mr.
Devery is said to have a "gross ton-
nage of about 225 pounds," a haughty
carriage and to be of "a full h/tbit."
John Armstrong Chanler has about
deci~led to reside permanently on his
estate, Merrie Mills, in Virginia, one
of his reasons being, as he explains
it, that Judge Whlte's decision that
he is sane is of no legal force in New
York. Mr. Chanler's change in ap-
pearance and his gaining of flesh and
color is ascrlbed to his giving up the
use of wine and becoming a vegetarian.
Carrie' Nation the other evening lec-
tured to a large audience In Marietta,
O., under the direction Of H. J. Con-
rath, a saloonkeeper, and Joe Bruner,
a pugilist. In answer to criticisms on
her appearance under such manage-
ment Mrs. Nation said: "Neither the
W. C. T• U. nor .the churches would.
bring me here, but ~hsse men did, and
I am grateful to them."
The czar, before qttlttlng France,
left a gift of 100,000 francs for the
poor of Paris, 15,000 francs for Dun-
kirk, 15,000 francs for Reims and 15,-
000 francs .for Compeigne and also
a sum of 5,000 francs, for the families
of sufferers in the recent to'rpedo ex-~
plomton.
o . • MI ASURE STAR.LIGHT
(Cambridge, Mass., Letter.) with the Merl San Pho eter Dur g in cated by a couple of anecdotes. A
One of the most important and inter- the Years 1879-1882"--a massive eel- money lender once advanced him $20,
}stlng departments of astronomy~as ume giving a list of 4260 stars in the for which, first and last, he paid $1,000.
•ell as one of the least known popu- northern sky visible to the naked eye This person, he says, became so much
larly--is the measurement and record- in the latitude of Cambridge, and in- attached to him as to pay a daily visit
ing of the comparative magnitude of tended to include all stars not fainter at his office and exhort him to be
the stars--a task which has been car- than the sixth magnitude between the punctual. "These visits were very
fled on, doubtless, since the beginning North Pole and thirty degrees south of terrible and can hardly have been of
}f astronomical science. In this reck- the celestial equator. To this original service to me in the office." This mild
Dning of magnitude, which is known list another, Volume XXIV. of the remark applies also to the visits from
t8 photometry--the measurement, that Annals, has since been added. Tech- the mother of a young woman in the
~, of starlight--it is interesting to nically such a piece of work is called a country who had fallen in love with
~ote that an American astronomical Uranometria or catalogue of "naked- him and to whom he "lacked the
~stabllshment stands among the first, eye stars. The mmilar work produc_- pluck to give a decided negative." The
if not as the very first in the world ed by Professor Prltchard at Oxford, m,,',. ...... ., • ......... ~,~, ~ ~,oo~,o,
photometry having been for years one for example containing the magnl-
, on her arm and an immense bonnet
~f the principal subjects taken up by tudes of 2,784 stars thus observed,, was u~onn h~r~ head ..... .rid inn,,tr_~ 1_- _~ lou_d
'.he Harvard Observatory, both in entitled."Uranometria Nova Oxonien- voice before all his, companions,
~ambridge and at Arequipa Peru and sis " The Harvard Uranometria was so ,, '
, , . - ..... Anthony Trollope when are you go.
~he results of the work which it has etaoorate ann so accurately cone tha~ • ' ~.
. mg to marry my daughter." No won-
tccomplished having been accepted as it has been practically accepteu every- he h,~
• . • der that _~ was miserable; _~ was
standard all over the world wnere and the magnitude of all new __^,~.~,.._ .~_~.. __~ ^.. ..... ,.,^ .~
The.first star catalogue giving 108~ stars given on zne rtarvaro scale. A .-. ~^. ~ ~ .... ~.. ~.^.^.~ ~.~ .... t.
,tars, was published by Hipparchus in striking illustration of the use to hPeYsa;s an~'he~at~d hT;l~dle;es;."he
the year 125 B. C, It has come down which it is now put occurred last quarreled with his superiors who
for which, first and last. he paid $1,000. _
to us through Ptolemy of Alexandria,
who nearly 300 years later, in 140 A.
D., produced his "Metals Syntaxis"--
the "Almagest" of the Arabian and
Moorish astronomers--which, either
|lrectly or through the corrected cata-
logue that was based on it by the Per-
~lan astronomer, Abd-al-rahman ai-
3ufl, was the world's standard until
Ulugh Bleigh brought out a new cata-
logue at Samaracand about 1450 A. D.
rhe famous catalogue of Tyeho Brahe
--the last of the mediaeval or the first
~f the modern astronomers--in 1580,
was the last important catalogue pro-
~uced without the aid of the telescope.
Htpparchus and Ptolemy arranged
the stars in six classes, the first class
~omprlsing the brightest~about twen-
ty in all--while the sixth class con-
tained those which could just be made
~ut by the naked eye. After the tele-
scope came into general use magni-
tudes were extended downward as
~ainter stars were brought into view
by the increasing power of the instru-
ments employed. For many years
such astronomer used his own scale,
Herschel at the Cape of Good Hope es-
spring when the new star appeared in
the constellation Perseus. Among the
observers who gave their results on
the Harvard scale were NiJland and
Gyllenskold of Sweden, Pereira of the
Portuguese observatory in the Azores,
the staffs of the British Astronomical
Association and the Astronomical So-
ciety of France and the officers of the
Radcliffe Observatory at Oxford, as
well as practically all American as-
tronomers.
As would be supposed, it takes a
trained eye to notice the finer differ-
ences in star magnitudes. On the
modern scale a first magnitude star
would be expressed as ranging from
0.50 to 1.50, a second magnitude star
from 1.50 to 2.50, and so on. For in-
stance, Castor, which was measured
as 1.56 in the "H. P.." would be called
of the second magnitude~ while its
twin star, Pollux, the brighter of the
Gemini, is a first magnitude star.
measured as 1.12. The Pole Star itself
is a star of the second magnitude, its
measurement being 2.15. The six
brighter stars in the Pleiades are all of
the second and third magnitudes, as
thought him hopelessly incapable, and
felt that he was sinking "to the lowest
pits." At last he heard of a place in
the Irish postoffice, which everybody
despised, and was successful on apply-
ing for it. because his masters were so
glad to get rid of him. At the same
time. they informed his new superior
that he would probably have to be dla-
missed on the first opportunlty.~Na-
tional Review.
HOW THE CHINESE GET RAIN.
Peculiar Practices in Vogu~ In t~$
Celesti&l Kingdom.
Jt is one of the peculiarities of the
Chinese that, while they have develop-
ed elaborate philosophies, none ~f
them has led to any confidence in the
uniformity of nature. Neither the
people nor their rulers have any fixed
opinion as to the causes of raln-fall.
The plan in some provinces when the
need of rain is felt Is to borrow a god
from a neighboring district and peti-
tion him for the desired result. If his
answer is unsatisfactory he is returned
OBSERVING END OF HARVARD'S LARGEST PHOTOMETER, SHOWING
AND THE ~ABLE AT WHICH THE ASSISTANT TAKES DOWN
pecially using very high numbers--a
tendency that has been so reduced
since his time that his twentieth mag-
nitude is very nearly the fourteenth
~n~he scale now generally employed.
This scale more closely corresponds
with that of Argelander, the great Ger-
man author of the "Durehmusterung"
~r catalogue of the stars in the north-
ern heavens, which enumerates over
824,000 stars, the largest number yet
catalogued.
Each magnitude, of course, has its
typical stars to which the others may
be conveniently referred. The stars
which do not exactly correspond in
magnitude with a typical star are ex-
pressed in fraction4il terms of the
I nearest magnitudes, decimals being
usually employed, although Ptolemy
and even Argelander used thirds. Em-
ploying the decimal system, a star of.
5.4.magnitude will be a shade brighter
than a star of 5.5 and so on. An ex-
ception is that certain stars, such as
Arcturus and Sirius, and the planet
Jupiter when at its brightest, are
more than a magnitude brighter than
stars of the first magnitude, Aldebar-
an. for example, and are therefore ex-
pressed in "negative magnitudes," that
is to say, they are preceded by the
minus sign. Jupiter, for instance, ap-
proaches almost the second negative
magnitude---mint's 2"q)r is sixteen
times brighter than a star of the first
magnitude.
It i's significant of the great'accom-
plishment of American astronomy that
Ihere was no universally accepted sys-
tem of photometry until the publica-
tion of what is now known as, the
Harvard Photo:netry~--the "H. P.," as
it is familiarly called by astronomers.
rhts was contained in volume XIV. of
the Annals oU .the' Harvard 0bserva*
tory, under the title of "O~servattons
are those in the Dipper. The upper
star of the two "pointers" in the
Dtpper~that is to say the star
on the lip opposite the han-
dle--has a measurement of 1.96 in the
Harvard Photometry. The pointer be-
low has a measurement of 2,60, which
would carry it into the third magni-
tude. The other bottom star of the
Dipper has a measurement Of 2.56, and
the star at the Junction of the handle
approaches the fourth magnitude, hav-
ing a measurement of only 3.41, while
the star next to it draws near the first
magnitude, with a measu~rement of
1.85, The next star in the Dipper, the
second from the end. is really a double
star, but the measurement ofthe two
together gives 2.38, while the ei~d star
of all is almost a typical second mag-
nitude star, having a measurement of
2.02.
ANTHONY TROLLOPE'S YOUTH.
Illqk Unpromising Outlook While Work-
log as a Postofltce Clerk.
Anthony Trollope's start in life was
unpro~aislng. As he knew no lan-
guages, ancient or modern, he became
classical usher at a school in Brussels,
with the promise of a commission in
the Austrian army. Then he was sud-
denly transferred to a clerkship in the
London postoffice. He was disquali-
fied for the new po~itlon by general
ignorance and special incapacity for
the simplest arithmetic. A vague
threat that he must pass an examina-
tion was forgotten before it was put
into execution, and Trollope charact~er-
Istieally takes occasion to denounce
the system of competitive examination
by whlch he would have b~en excluded.
Meanwhile he was turned loose in
London, and' attempted to Hve a gen*
tleman on $4~0 'a year, The results are
THE HOOD FOR THE OBSERVER
THE MEASUREMENTS.
to his home "with every mark of
honor: otherwise he may be put out l~
the sun. as a hint to wake up and
do his duty. Abunch of ,willow lw
usually thrust into his hand as will be
sensitive to moisture.. Another plan
in extensive use is the building ~
special temples in which are wells c~n-
talnlng several iron tablets. When
there is a scarcity of rain a messenger
starts out with a tablet, marked with
the date of the Journey and the name
of the district making the petition.
Arriving at another city he pays a
sum of money and is allowed to draw
a new tablet from the ~ell, throwing
in his own by way of exchange. On
the return Journey he is supposed to
eat only bran and travel at top speed
day and night. Prayers are umlally
made in the fifth and sixth months
when the rainfall is always due, aml a
limit of ten days is set for their effec-
tive operation. Under such eondltitms
rain usually falls during the pre-
scribed time. When pra~ers are In
progress the umbrella, among other
objects, comes under the ban. In~ some
provinces foreigners are mobbed for
carrying this harinless article at that
time.--Detroit Free Press.
Vicious Politics Affect the' ~ltoolL
In the large Cities of this eountr~
there are more than 10;000 children
who cannot receive the benefitS of the
public schools because theban'are not
enough buildings. Even "BostOn, the
best equipped of " Amerf~&h -cities,
needs 27 more build|ng~.:':~l~G sho~'ing
in al~ cities this fall is "~b~se =than
ever. The not
kept pace wrth th~
It as
Poll-
