Notes

NOTES. True success comes through making haste slowly, in disciplining the soul to enjoy the innocent pleasures of a beautiful world, in making refinement and culture the ideals of existence, and in extracting from each moment of the day the drop of happiness that is contained therein. — Dr. A. S. Atkinson. A bulletin of the census of Porto Rico, issued by the war department, gives the population of that island-possession of the United States, as 953,243, which is an average of 264 persons to the square mile. The population of San Juan is 32,084, and of Ponce, 27,952. The island, in time, will make a strong state. The archaeologists uncovered Nippur tho other day, with its palaces and courts and abodes of those who were great and mighty, more than 2,500 years before Abraham. There is just one lesson that these ancient ruins teach, and that is the nothingness of fame and that the only real things in life are love and duty. — Albert J. Beveridge. The New York Observer thinks that Greek and Latin Christianity, are destined to clash over the Chinese question. "Russia desires the extention of the orthodox faith, and will probably acquire a large section of the empire. But Rome has foreseen this danger, believes that the conversion of China to Latin Christianity would, in enabling her to mould and direct the destiny of a fourth of the human race, be her greatest triumph, and has already in north China conducted a very successful missionary propaganda. That she will not willingly relinquish her efforts, but will use her influence with the western governments against Russian aspirations in China, there is little question." The copper mines of Sinai, on the northwest of Arabia, were worked thousands of years before the Christian era. It is written that those copper mines are the most ancient of which history makes mention. According to authentic documents they were worked from about 5,000 B. C, until about 1300 or 1200 B. C. Their possession had been the object of several wars, but they have been abandoned for 3,000 years on account of the poverty of the ores. It was from these mines that was ob-

786 IMPROVEMENl ERA. tained the scepter of Pepi I, a king of the Sixth Dynasty. The scepter, made of pure copper, is preserved in the British museum. The adits still exist as well as the ruins of the furnaces, the crucibles, the huts of the miners and some fragments of their tools. In his studies of slow motions, Prof, Charles S. Slichter, by means of kinetoscope pictures, has so magnified the motions that the growth of seedling peas and beans during three weeks is shown in a few seconds. The plants were photographed on the kinetoscope film by artificial light at intervals of a few minutes to a few hours during the three weeks. On projecting the pictures upon the screen at the usual rate, the motion of growth was magnified about 500,000 times, and the different rates of development of the various parts were brought out very clearly. Among the striking results was the curious behavior of a pea struggling to enter impenetrable soil, the root curving and writhing much like an angleworm, while the pea was rolled about very grotesquely. — Popular Science. Thirty-nine railroads in the United States were removed from receivers in 1899; and sixteen went into the hands of receivers; the total single track railroad mileage in this country is 189,294, an increase for the year of 2,898, larger than for any year since 1893, according to the report of the Interstate Commerce Commission for 1899. The number of persons employed on railroads was 928,924, an increase for the year of 54,466. The amount of railway capital outstanding was $11,033,- 954,898, or a capitalization of $60,556 per mile of line. The gross earnings of the roads were $1,313,310,618, an increase over the previous year of $63,284,497. The operating expenses are shown to have been $856,968,999, an increase of $38,995,823, The amount of dividends declared during the year was $111,089,936. The total number of casualties to persons on account of railway accidents was 51,743, the number of persons killed being 7,123 and the number injured 44,620. The number of passengers killed during the year was 239, an increase of 18, and the number injured 3,442, an increase of 497, or one passenger was killed for every 2,189,023 carried, and one injured for every 151,793 carried. Of railway employees, 2,210 were killed and 34,923 were injured during the year.