MT. CARROLL, Ill., Sept, 23, 1880. 1. How much government land is there in Dakota? 2. In what part of Dakota is said land situated? 3. Is Dakota settling up as fast as some other States or Territories? 4. Can a citizen take up land by homestead, timber claim, and pre-emption, at the same timə? Answer.-1. There are in all 96,595,840 acres of land in the Territory of Dakota. On June 30, 1879, there were 73,969,710 acres of unoffered public land. During the year ending June 30, 1880, there were surveved 2,130,808 acres, leaving 71,838,902 acres. 2. In almost every part of the Territory. 3. Yes. 4. Write to the Commissioner of the General Land Office. Washington, D. C. THE WHITE MOUNTAIN LAND-SLIDE. LAKE CITY, Minn.. Oct. 9, 1880. Several years ago there occurred a great land-slide in the night. The crest of a mountain slid off and went down into the river, filling the bed of it and changing the channel for some distance. Right in the path of the moving mountain stood a solitary farm house, but somehow the huge mass parted just above it and went each side, leaving the house unharmed, but as no sign of life ever appeared there it was concluded that the family, terrified by the coming crash, fled from the house and were buried under the terrible ava anche. Where did this occur? On what, river? What was the name of the fa nily? Is the house there still? Was it ever visited? I have been asking several persons about it, and they all say they don't remember any such thing. A SUBSCRIBER. Answer.-We presume this inquiry is made in regard to the great land-slide with which visitors to the White Mountains are familiar. The facts in that extensive slip are as follows: What is known as the Willey House was built, some say in 1793 and others affirm in 1820. about two miles from the Notch of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The house was occupied by Samuel Willey, Jr., and his family in 1825, and in June, 1826, two slides fell off the flank of Mount Willey, near the house. A long drought ensued through the months of July and August, followed by a south wind, which -to borrow a figure-heaped immense masses of clouds on the mountains, and on the night of Aug. 28 a deluge of rain fell, washing out the sides of the ridges, flooding the valley, and causing great damage in the neighboring villages. All the bridges crossing the Saco River were swept away, and the Ammonoosuck was swollen to ten times its usual width. The first traveler who afterwards forced his way through the river in the Notch found the Willey house deserted, with the doors unclosed, and the Bible lying open on the table. He gave the alarm, and the people who came from Conway found the bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Willey, two of their children, and two hired men, buried in the slide and much mutilated. There were three other children whose remains were never recovered. It is supposed the family left the house, fearing the rising of the Saco, and went further up the mountain, where they were overtaken and swept away. The house was saved, because behind it, and toward the mountain, there was a huge rock which parted the avalanche that swept around the house and reunited below. The house still stands, and if our correspondent ever visits the Notch in the White Mountains it will be shown as the low building to the north end of the main white house which is kept as a tavern for the refreshment of the pilgrim. In the rear of this are the remnants of the great rock which divided the avalanche, while the track of the land-slide can be readily traced and traveled over by the curious tourist. Answer.-1. Judge Albion W. Tourgee, the now-famous author of "A Fool's Errand," is an Ohio man. Like thousands of other loyal men, he entered the Union army and fought to uphold the government and free the slaves of the rebel Democracy. Fortunate in having been liberally educated, he turned his attention to peaceful pursuits at the crushing out of the 'Democratic secession, and went South to find a home. In North Carolina he thought he discovered an abiding-place, and there he remained for several years. Intensely interested as he and his wife were in the education of the recently liberated slaves, they could not long be inactive when the harvest was so great and the laborers so few and feeble. They learned speedily, however, that if they were not to lose caste they must cease altogether their efforts looking toward the elevation of the colored people. This they did not choose to do, and that dread of the Southerner-social ostracism-was visited upon them. Mr. Tourgee became Judge Tourgee, and he and his family felt more and more, as time passed, not only their social isolation, but also the extreme dangers attending them in a community whose peaceful and reconstructed members were then busily engaged in dragging inoffensive citizens from their beds at night, threatening them with fire and shot-guns if they did not renounce their Republicanism, in whipping those who differed from them politically, and in many instances murdering men and women because they had expressed sympathy for "worthless niggers." The air became so sultry even for as careful and respected a man as Judge Tourgee that he decided to emigrate, and, after having had an unpleasant experience in North Carolina, he returned to the "free States." He then wrote "A Fool's Errand," which is based upon facts, every one of which can be substantiated, and most of which came within the range of his own observation. For about a year Judge Tourgee has been living in Colorado, New York, and Canada. He is about 48 years of age. Lately another book of his, "Bricks Without Straw," has been published. 2. They were not especially ous Then blocks of stores were broken into and ransacked and cleaned out, buildings were burned, and Brooklyn did not escape the horrors of those four days of the reign of terror. It is to be observed that the majority of those who lost their lives in those perilous times were colored persons. On Tuesday, July 14, Governor Seymour addressed the crowds of lawless who assembled at the City Hall as "My friends!" Among the buildings assaulted was that of the New York Tribune. Colonel O'Brien, who had been in command of a volunteer military force, was on Tuesday, July 14, beaten to death by the mob. The rioters were finally defeated and scattered by a body of regular troops under Captain Putnam, of the Twelfth Regiment. The property destroyed by the rioters, for which the city was held responsible, amounted to $2,000,000. The outbreak and the part assumed by certain "distinguished politicians" were alike disgracing and disgraceful to them and to the disloyal elements and party to which they belonged. That verdict history has already pronounced. TREASURY NOTES AND DOLLARS RESUMED. PALMYRA, Otoe County, Neb., Sept. 7, 1880. 1. Can a Treasury note be resumed more than once? 2. Does the material of a coin, it being considered of intrinsic value, constitute its legal tender, or is it the impress of the government stamp? 3. Will you please inform me how many dollars have been resumed under the resumption act, and why President Hayes and Secretary Sherman recommended the withdrawing the legal-tender qualities of the Treasury notes? JOHN S. MAIBEN. Answer.-1. If by "resumed" is meant the receiving of a Treasury note in payment of dues to the government, and the paying out of it afterward to discharge an indebtedness by the government: then receiving it back. and paying it out again, this process is in constant recurrence at the Treasury Department and at the various sub-treasuries. If by "resumed" is meant the full and final satisfaction of the promise on the face or a Treasury note, such note cannot be "resumed more than once," because, after its redemption, it is utterly destroyed, and could not be reissued without the miracle of 8 resurrection from the dead. If Answer. The conscription act was passed by Congress March 3, 1863, and two months later President Lincoln ordered a general draft of 300,000 men; all able-bodied citizens between the ages of 20 and 45 years were included in this requisition. The first draft in New York City under this act was heralded by the Democratic journals of that city in a way intended to provoke resistance, and to stir up the worst elements and passions which metropolitan mobs and the sediments of society can furnish on occasion. The howl raised was to the tune of State rights, and that the draft was unconstitutional and an infringement on individual liberty. To further fan the rising fury of the lawless classess, incendiary hand-bill appeals were anonymously circulated some days previto Julv 13, and New York's streets witnessed scenes and outrages that can be compared with nothing but the violence and bloodshed of the Commune of Paris, and that are a stain upon the pages of the history of the Democratic party which can never be effaced. The rabble that resisted the draft, inspired by articles in journals hostile to the Union cause, and spurred on by curbstone, pothouse demagogues, attacked the police, paraded the thoroughfares, stopped workmen in the shops and factories, laid siege to and burned and destroyed buildings, and for a time were virtual masters of the city. At that time the organized militia of New York were absent in the interior of Pennsylvania; the government had only a handful of troops who were available, while the police, though well organized and efficient, were not competent to deal with so strong and reckless a mob. Numerous instances are recorded of the most heartless acts on the part of the disloyal Democratic rioters. The colored people were everywhere assaulted by the rabble; colored women were brutally maltreated; one poor colored man, against whom there was nothing but that he was a negro, was chased, caught, hanged, all his clothing burned off, and his body left for hours until cut down by the police. Even colored children on the streets were the victims of the disloyal deviltry of the lawless bands that patrolled the city. The Colored Orphan Asylum, a spacious and elegant edifice, worth, with its furniture, some $200,000, and situated at the corner of Fifth avenue and Forty-sixth street, was attacked. Founded and managed by a society of philanthropic ladies, it was at once a school and an asylum to some 200 colored orphans. The mob disabled or drove away the few policemen who tried to guard the place, and then, the inmates just having had time to escape, set fire to and destroyed the edifice and what of its furnishings they did not steal. Women in the mob engaged in this scandalous and incendiary work and with as much vigor and viciousness as men. re by "resumed" 18 meant the Our our dollar, with copper and nickel coius), is wholly created by law. Intrinsic value has nothing to do with legal-tender quality. National bank notes, although as current as greenbacks, are not legal tender. The subsidiary coins of silver, nickel, and copper are legal tender only to the amount fixed by act of Congress. At one time the trade dollar, of more intrinsic value than the present standard silver dollar, was a legal tender at its nominal value for any amount not exceeding five dollars in any one payment: but its legal-tender quality has since then been entirely taken away by law. 3. The act approved May 31, 1878, fixed the maximum of United States notes or green backs, upon which resumption was to take place and to be maintained at the sum of $346,681,016, the amount outstanding at the date of the passage of the act. This maximum has been neither increased nor diminished since that date. From Jan. 1 to Nov. 1, 1879, the total amount of greenbacks presented for redemption was $11,256,678; but these went into circulation again, according to the following legal provisions: "And when any of said notes may be redeemed or be received into the Treasury under any law, from any source whatever, and shall belong to the United States, they shall not be retired, canceled, or destroyed, but they shall be reissued and paid out again, and kept in circulation." Other greenbacks may have been thus "resumed" since Nov. 1, 1879, but we do know the amount. The President and the Secretary object to continuing the legal-tender quality of the greenbacks on the ground that "when it is considered that its constitutionality is seriously contested, and that from its nature it is subject to grave abuse, it would now appear to be wise to withdraw the exercise of such a power, leaving it in reserve to be again resorted to in such a period of war or grave emergency as existed in 1862." Answer.-1. The Territory of Alaska has an area of 577,390 square miles. The southeastern part is a long, narrow strip of land, about thirtythree miles wide, extending from Mount St. Elias to the parallel of 54 deg. 40 min. north, bounded on the east by a mountain range that foliows the direction of the Pacific. The peninsula is about 350 miles long and twenty-five miles in average width. The Territory includes a number of islands in the Pacific Ocean and Behring's Strait, and was purchased by the United States from Russia in 1867 for $7,200,000. There are some very large rivers in the Territory. The climate is humid, and much less severe than that on the Atlantic coast in corresponding latitudes. The mean average temperature at Sitka is about 44. There are fine forests of timber, excellent for shipbuilding, and the fisheries and the furs are valuable. The natives may be divided into two classes-the Esquimaux and kindred tribes and the Indians. Hunting the seal and the sea otter is the chief occupation of the former; the Indians live by fishing and hunting largely. 2. There is no Governor; it is a collection district, with an officer in charge. WAS EVE THE FIRST WIFE OF ADAM? WEST POINT, Wis., Sept. 20. 1880. Does ancient history show that Eve was not the first wife of Adam? I read in Chambers' Encyclopædia that his first wife was Lilith. Please give what information the questios may require. FREMONT AVERY. Answer.-The word Eve is derived from the the verb "hayoh," meaning "to live," and was applied to her as "the mother of all living." She was the mother of Cain, Abel, and Seth, and with the birth of the last her history in the Scriptures ceases. There are several references to her in the New Testament. Our correspondent probably refers to a tradition which has been preserved among the Rabbis that Eve was not the first wife of Adam. It runs that before her creation a wife had been created in the same way, which, they sagaciously observe, accounts for the number of a man's ribs being equal on each side. Lilith, or Lilis, the first consort of Adam, fell from her state of innocence without tempting-at least without successfully tempting-her husband. She was, according to this tradition, immediately ranked among the fallen angels, and has ever since exercised an inveterate hatred against all women and children. DUTIES ON TEA AND COFFEE. BOONE COUNTY, Neb. Has President Hayes, in any of his messages to Congress, ever recommended the demonetization of silver and the placing of duties on tea and coffee again? L. W. BRAMAN. Answer.-Not to demonetize silver, but to suspend its coinage. His recommendations on the subject, in his annual message of Dec. 1, 1879, were as follows: "I would, however, strongly urge upon Congress the importance of authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to suspend the coinage of silver dollars upon the present legal ratio. The market value of the silver dollar being uniformly and largely less than the market value of the gold dollar, it is obviously impracticable to maintain them at par with each other if both are coined without limit. If the cheaper coin is forced into circulation it will, if coined without limit, soon become the sole standard of value, and thus defeat the desired object, which is a currency of both gold and silver, which shall be of equivalent value, dollar for dollar, with the universally recognized money of the world." Had this recommendation been adopted by Congress the coinage of the silver dollar would have been discontinued, but all the silver dollars previously coined would have retained their character of legal tenders. They would have remained money-would not have been demonetized. Regarding the other subject matter President Hayes said. in the same message: "If any change of the objects or rates of taxation is deemed necessary by Congress, it is suggested that experience has shown that a duty can be placed on tea and coffee, which will not enhance the price of those articles to the consumer, and which will add several millions of dollars annually to the Treasury." Unfortunately for the President's suggestion, experience has shown that a duty on tea or on coffee does always enhance the price to consumers. In fact, this enhancement almost invariably follows the levy of a duty on the im port of any article which we do not produce at all in this country. Tea and coffee are now free of duty. JAMES WATT. ORANGEVILLE, Iowa. Sept. 21, 1880. Please give a short account of Mr. Watt. the inventor. LEROY SANDOE. Answer.-James Watt was born at Greenock, Scotland, in 1736. He acquired a knowledge of mathematical instrument-making, under his father, and when but 19 years of age he set out for London, to perfect himself in the business to which he had been trained. In England he made rapid progress, and he soon returned to Scotland, where he settled at Glasgow, under the patronage of the university, and there after twenty years of labor, he brought to perfection the discovery that has made his name famous, the steam-engine. He died in 1819. Watt was a member of the Roval Societies of London and Edinburgh, a corrrespondent of the French Institute, and was enrolled among the associates of the Academy of Sciences, at Paris. A statue was erected to him in Westminster Abbey in 1824, and other statues have been placed at Manchester, Glasgow, and Greenock. THE STARS AND BARS. MAKANDA, Ill., Sept. 20, 1880. As this is an exciting time in American politics, and as the Democratic party think so much of the rebel flag (the stars and bars), please inform your many readers who designed that flag. CHAS. L. HOPKINS. Answer.-The "stars and bars" flag was adopted in March, 1861, by the rebel Congress. It was composed of three horizontal bars of equal width, the middle one of which was white, the other two red, and in the upper left-hand corner was a blue square with nine white stars arranged in a circle. Owing to some real or sup· posed confusion in the flags. the Union and the rebel, a battle flag was adopted, in September, 1861, which had a red field charged with a blue saltier, with a narrow border of white, on which were displayed thirteen white stars. The "stars and bars" was supplanted in 1863 by a flag with a white field, having the battle-flag for a union. This was again changed before the collapse of the slavery confederacy, and finally the outer half of the field beyond the union was covered with a vertical red bar. Then the rebellion fell. SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE-QUILL PENS. EXCELSIOR, Wis., Sept. 20, 1880. 1. Give a sketch of the life of Judge Blackstone, author of "Law Commentaries." 2. Please giye a process of clarifying and hardening goose-quills for THOMAS JOHNS. pens. Answer.-1. Sir William Blackstone was born in London, July 10, 1723; in 1746 he was admitted to the bar, but obtained small practice; he became, in 1758, Professor of Law at Oxford, of which he was a graduate, and in 1761 he was elected to Parliament; in 1763 he was appointed Solicitor General, and in 1770 was made a Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and died Feb. 14. 1780. His chief work was "Commentaries on the Laws of England." 2. To prepare goosequills for use, they are dried in hot sand, cleaned of the outer skin, and hardened by dipping them into a boiling solution of alum or of diluted nitric acid. THE KNOW-NOTHING PARTY. SEYMOUR, Ill., Sept. 22, 1880. What became of the Know-nothing party when it broke up? What party did the majority of it go to? Please give a short history of it. Did the Republican party ever advocate any such doctrine? If so, state when? EBA. Answer.-The Know-nothings was a name assumed by a secret political society in the United States, organized in 1853, and which appeared in the elections of 1854 as a well-disciplined party, and carried several of the Northern States, including New York. In the campaign of 1856 they appeared as the "American party." and presented Millard Fillmore as their candidate. The slavery question at that time assumed such proportions that foreign citizenship was ignored or forgotten, and the Kuow-nothings as a party disappeared. It is impossible now to. state with what party the majority of them afterward affiliated. The Republican party never advocated any such doctrine. In fact, it has been during the administration of the Republican party that the most important treaties have been consummated with other nations in regard to the naturalization of foreign-born citizens. TARIFF ON IRON IN THE LAST CONGRESS. FLATWOOD, Fayette Co., Pa. Was the tariff reduced on iron during the last session of Congress? If not, when was it last reduced, and by what party? J. A. TOWNSEND. Answer.-Not at the last session; no change whatever in the tariff took place then. In 1872 Republicans, aided by Democrats, passed a bill to make sundry reductions in the duties on imports, among which is what is technically known as "the 10 per cent reduction," embracing certain classes of articles, among which were iron and its manufactures. There had been a persistent clamor raised by many influential newspapers, both Republican and Democratic, all over the country in favor of a reduction of the tariff, so that Congress, for the most part, was impressed with the belief that these journals expressed the common wish of a large majority of the people. But in 1875, when the evil effects of the legislation had been made manifest by the course of events, the Republicans in Congress passed a bill to repeal "the 10 per cent reduction," by which the several duties were re stored exactly as they had been before. DEBT OF FRANCE AND CHINA. NORWAY, LaSalle Co., Ill., Sept. 12, 1880. 1. Which country in the world has the largest na tional debt? What is the national debt of France? 2. The elucidation and manner of disposal of the United States sinking fund. A. J. ANFINSEN. Answer.-1. From the latest reports of 1879 we learn that the funded debt of France was then $4,750,337,109, and the floating debt $65,000,000. We have no reliable data from China, whose debt is largely held within the empire. 2. The sinking fund is simply the fund created for sinking or paying the public debt, or purchasing the stock for the government. It is made up principally from obligations which have been redeemed by the government, the interest on which is continued and turned into the sinking fund. 7,925-CONSTITUTIONALITY OF THE AMENDMENTS. BRISTOL, Wis., Sept. 18, 1880. Has the Supreme Court of the United States power to adjudicate as to the constitutionality of the thir teenth, fourteenth, or fifteenth amendments? H. CURTIS. Answer.-The question is a contradiction in itself. There can be no such thing as the Supreme Court deciding it, for then the court would pass upon the constitutionality of the Constitution. The several amendments have been adopted by a majority of the States, and the Secretary of State of the United States has promulgated them as such, and they are now as much a part of the Constitution as Article I. of the original. The scheme of the political guerrillas who propose to attack the Constitution when opportunity offered, is to go back and canvass the manner in which the amendments were adopted, and if possible make out, by hook or crook, that they were not properly ratified. The proclamation of the Secretary of State is, however, held by the highest authorities on constitutional questions to be conclusive, and cannot be canvassed, even if the whole horde of rebeldom were to thunder away till the hundredth centennial. FRANCE'S FINANCES. BLAIR, Wis., Oct. 11, 1880. 1. When the government of France paid their debt to Germany how did they raise the money and what were the securities given? 2. What is the difference between the government bonds of France and our own? 3. Is France now paying or receiving interest on her bonds, and how much? J. D. STONE. Answer.-1. The indemnity was paid in several installments, and was met altogether in bills of exchange drawn against exported merchandise. These bills of exchange, in their turn, represented the subscriptions to the extraordinary loan authorized by the French Government, and taken by the French people to raise the means to liquidate the war indemnity. 2. The funded debt of France is not subject to reimbursement, but only to the payment of a certain interest fixed by law. The bonds of the United States have certain dates fixed on which they are to be paid. 3. Paying interest upon them, chiefly at the rate of 3 per cent, a part at 5 per cent, and the remainder at 4 and 412 per cent. EXPORTS AND IMPORTS FOR EIGHT MONTHS. HEDRICK, Ind. Please give us the amounts of exports and imports for the eight months ending Aug. 31, 1880. A leading Greenbacker in our community claims imports greater than exports, but is willing to abide by your figures. A. S. ZESSE. Answer.-Merchandise alone: Domestic exports, $542,369,302; exports of imports, $8,532.120; aggregate exports, $550,901,422; import entries, $495,067,989; excess of exports over imports of merchandise, $55,833,433, Coin and bullion alone: Domestic exports, $3,829,167; exports of imports, $5,577,507; aggregate exports, $9,406,674; import entries, $19,841,290; excess of imports over exports of coin and bullion, $10,434,616. Merchandise and coin and bullion, taken together: Domestic exports, $546,198,469; exports of imports, $14,109,627; aggregate exports, $560,308,096; import entries, $514,909,279; excess of exports over imports of merchandise, coin, and bullion, $45,398,817. The only excess of imports over exports is here seen to be in the case of gold and silver, this excess being the conclusive evidence that the balance of trade is in our faver. VOTES OF SOUTHERN STATES. MERIDEN, Kan., Sept. 20, 1880. Will you please give the votes of the following States at the last State election: South Carolina. Georgia, Mississippi, and Louisiana? Also, the population they have, and, if possible, give the number of whites and blacks in each of the above-mentioned States. M. S. PETERSON. Answer.-The elections in the several States named occurred at a time when it cost something to be a Republican. At the date of these State elections we had only the old census of 1870, and that would be practically valueless in making any statement at this late day. We therefore give the election returns, all of which are official except those for Louisiana. These have been and are fragmentary, the Democrats controlling the State, and only making such returns as, in their wisdom or otherwise, were deemed advisable for the welfare of the party. The figures are as follows: State. South Carolina..1878 Georgia Mississippi. 1877 Time. ..1876 Louisiana........1879 Republican. No oppos'n. 34,116 Democrat. 119,550 109,811 97,727 56,341 No oppos'n. 27,410 Answer.-The life of Mr. Redpath has been singularly eventful. Nothing can better illustrate this than to give a few glimpses of his career, from the raw boy leaving his widowed mother on her farm in Michican, to the veteran correspondent and laborer for freedom to the down-trodden and oppressed of every clime and every color. We discover him, some thirty years ago, walking into Kalamazoo, twenty miles before breakfast from the homestead to secure a place in the composing-room of one of the papers of that town. His mother was an English lady, a widow, and he an ill-favored youth. But he got the place. By and by, a "preserver of the preserving art," he came to the surface at Detroit, a compositor employed upon one of the papers of the City of the Straits. The Rev. Dr. George Duffield, a well-known Presbyterian pastor, was at that season traveling in Europe, and wrote a number of letters to the journal to which young Redpath was attached, giving his notes of travel and his views of the social and political life of the world beyond the sea. In response to Dr. Duffield's contributions, several excellent ahonymous letters were received and printed in the columns of the newspaper publishing the original articles of the genial clergyman. No one knew a particle about the author replying to Dr. Duffield, The articles attracted considerable attention at and around Detroit, and were pronounced the composition of a clear and capable critic. It finally leaked out that the writer was the young printer. Redpath. Later he turned up in Philadelphia, where he wrote for the daily press a series of articles upon the dark side of life in the great and good city of brotherly love, white-stone steps, and centennial fame. These efforts created quite a sensation. Again he moved east |