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experiment shows that for every fifty pound of dead-weight, one horse-power can be developed; a result to which neither steam, gas, nor compressed-air engines can attain. The few experimental electric railways already tried have been very limited in extent; the two rails acting as carriers of the current, and making connection with the motor through the wheels of the train. In such short lines, no great leakage occurred; but in long lines, the leakage from the rails to earth, and especially to moist earth, would prove most disastrous to success. Professor Ayrton proposes to obviate this difficulty of leakage by laying a well-insulated cable parallel with the rails to convey the main current. The rails would be divided into sections, and only that section upon which the train was actually running would be connected with the main cable, the connection being made by the moving train itself. By another device, it is proposed that the train should graphically record its exact position on a map at the terminus, or in a signal-box, as might be required. These various plans were demonstrated by a working model, which further showed that a complete block-system could be guaranteed. A moving train coming on to a Blocked section of the line would not only stop, for want of propelling current, but would be automatically braked.

The celebrated photograph called the Trotting Horse, exhibiting an animal in different positions, some of which appear quite absurd, so contrary are they to all our preconceived ideas upon the subject, must be familiar to many of our readers. Mr Muybridge, the clever American photographer who produced it, has lately given an account of his manner of working both to the Royal Institution and the Royal Academy. His studio, he explained, was more like a racecourse than anything else, the grand stand being represented by a battery of twenty-four cameras. These cameras were connected by threads, breast high, and a foot apart, stretched across the course on which the horse had to gallop, or trot, as the case might be. As the horse broke each thread, the camera in connection did its instantaneous work; and a series of twenty-four pictures, giving the varied movements of the animal, was the result. By comparing these sun-pictures with the best-known productions of ancient and modern art, Mr Muybridge showed that many of our best artists have been in the habit of depicting animals in positions which they never assume in nature. But he did more than this. By a mechanical contrivance, the various photographs were projected by a lantern on a screen in such quick succession, that the trotting movement of the horse was brought before the astonished audiences in a life-like manner. Mr Muybridge proves that a horse galloping with all four feet off the ground at the same moment, is a simple impossibility. We need not point out that this is the way such an animal is invariably portrayed by even the best artists.

The use of the telephone seems to be steadily increasing, not only in this country, but in most of the European states. Its adoption at first by the public was very slow, for it represented a new-fangled contrivance, and this was quite enough to prevent a very large class from having anything to do with it. But its great value as a

means of communication soon became apparent to all, and the number of applicants for its aid is now very great. It is quite certain that the various British Telephone Companies do not offer the public all the advantages which they might easily do. In Germany, there are public telephone rooms where, on payment of a fee of fivepence, a passer-by can walk in and hold a conversation with any friend who may be a subscriber to the system. But in Switzerland, telephones are made far more generally useful than anywhere else. In Zurich, there are eleven public offices open to the use of all; attached to them is a Commission service, by which all kinds of messages and orders are executed for a very small fee. The central office is in direct communication with the telegraph system, so that a subscriber can dictate his message without the intervention of a third party; and in 1881 nearly nine thou sand telegrams were transmitted in this manner. The Telephone Company also undertakes to wake its more sleepy subscribers at any hour which they like to appoint-an excellent idea.

The

Various endeavours have from time to time been made to get motive-power from the action of the waves; but such attempts have met with very small success. Mr Bigler, an American inventor, has contrived a buoy for use over sunken rocks or other dangerous spots, which carries a small dynamo-electric machine, set in motion by the rise and fall of the waves. current of electricity so generated furnishes an Edison incandescent lamp with light. The action is of course intermittent; and the weak part of the contrivance seems to be the stoppage of the light on a dark but calm night. Without waves, the machine would not act, and the hidden danger would not be pointed out.

The destruction of the American pine forests is going on at such a rate, that it is calculated in some States they will be stripped of wood in as short a period as twelve years. The killing of the goose with the golden eggs was never better illustrated than in the short-sighted policy which allows this forest-land to be denuded of its trees without leaving any provision for the future. A few young trees planted here and there, and a very old one left to provide seed for successors, would have made a vast difference to the future prosperity of the districts indicated. But men have made too much haste to grow rich, and a timber famine at no very distant date must be the result. Another danger which has been forgotten is the risk of drought which the extensive removal of trees is known to induce.

A new musical instrument, the invention of Mr Baillie Hamilton, was recently experimented upon in the speech-room at Harrow School. It is of the harmonium type, in so far that its sounds are produced by vibrating metallic reeds; but the arrangement of these slips of metal comprises a very important modification. In the first place, the reeds are what are technically known as free -that is to say, they can vibrate in and out of the frame in which they are set. These reeds are divided into groups of three, and each triplet is connected by a bridge. The effect of the arrangement is that a quality of tone approaching to that of the human voice is attained, and the rasping effect common to inferior harmoniums is altogether got rid of. The experiment was

certainly satisfactory; and when some little defects in the instrument have been corrected, it will form a dangerous rival to instruments of its class.

We fear that the adventurous gentlemen who have recently risked their lives in balloon journeys across the waters of the Channel, have not added very much to our scientific knowledge respecting aeronautics or atmospheric phenomena. They have merely proved that a north wind will carry them south, and that if they meet with a current in another direction, they must fain go with it. We can ill afford to risk the life of such a man as Colonel Burnaby, the Khiva hero; and we trust that he will not again attempt to travel to Paris vid cloudland unless he has some very potent reason for doing so. The balloon as simply an aerial machine has now been brought to great perfection; indeed, it is difficult to see how it can be further improved; but the wind is still

its master.

The popular outcry against the removal of the elephant Jumbo is very creditable to our human nature; but now that the excitement has ceased, and the animal is far away from its old home, we may well ask whether this outcry was justified by facts. It has long been known that if a male elephant is kept in confinement, it becomes, after a certain number of years, extremely difficult of control, by reason of recurring fits of irritability, if not madness. Chuny, an elephant which was kept about fifty years ago at Exeter Change, London, in one of these fits of temper killed his keeper, and was afterwards despatched, after some scores of bullets had been fired into his huge frame. Another elephant at Liverpool had to be destroyed after killing two of his keepers. At Amsterdam, a third elephant met with a like fate after killing his attendant. At Cologne, the same story was repeated with another elephant; and at Versailles, a man had a very narrow escape from a similar death. These occurrences, and doubtless many others, were of course known to our Zoological authorities; and there had been for some time signs that Jumbo might not always remain the docile creature which the public imagined him to be. Huge oak beams eight inches square, and cased with sheet-iron, had been placed to strengthen his house. These he had in an irritable moment snapped as if they had been sticks of firewood. Anxiety as to what Jumbo might do in the future, led his masters to accept Mr Barnum's offer to buy him, and for this act the Council of the Society have been assailed in a way not pleasant to reflect

upon.

and can be gripped by the car at any point, so that the motion of the vehicle is under the absolute control of the driver. It would be well, however, in laying any further tram-rails, to make sure that they shall do no damage to the wheels of private conveyances. The system of horse-tramways on steep gradients in certain towns should never have been sanctioned. The cruelty that is daily practised upon horses is a disgrace to our boasted civilisation.

The Archæological Society of Greece, to which the government have given the control of all matters relating to excavation and discovery of antiquities, seems to have issued a code of laws which will greatly hamper those who are endeavouring to trace the history of the past by the relics left by the former inhabitants of the country. No man is allowed to commence an excavation, even on his own ground, unless he agrees to give the proceeds to the Greek museums. In consequence of this prohibition, a great deal of secret digging goes on, and the treasures found are smuggled out of the country. In this way, their value as antiquities is much reduced; for the position where they were found, and the circumstances which led to their discovery, are lost sight of altogether.

A single and useful slip-link has been brought out and patented by Messrs Alexander & Co., of 190 Westminster Bridge Road, London, intended to be attached to the kidney-link of each horse's collar, so that when an animal falls it may be instantly released from the pole-chain. This is effected by simply touching the lever of the slip-link, enabling the horse, by being freed from the pole, at once to make endeavours to regain its feet by its own exertions. The invention has been found in practice to work well, and to be a great saving of time, as well as risk of danger to valuable horses.

A new and apparently useful invention has just been made by Mr Robert Pickwell, civil engineer, Hull, and consists of a Self-registering Ship's Compass, by means of which a diagram is produced showing: 1st, the exact steered course of the ship; 2d, the length of time the ship has been kept on any course; 3d, all the changes of the courses, and the exact time when such changes took place; 4th, in the event of a collision at sea, the bearing of the ship's head at the time is clearly shown. The diagram is applicable to long as well as to short voyages, and can be taken off and consulted daily, or be allowed to run the whole voyage not exceeding one hundred and fifty days. The compass itself is perfectly independent of the registering apparatus, which can be easily applied to any ordinary compass in general use.

The street tramway system, which has been so rapidly adopted in our large cities, is in London about to receive an extension of a very import- The Fleuss diving apparatus has been already ant character. Hitherto, in the Metropolis the fully explained by us (Nos. 848 and 857). It tram lines have been laid in streets which may, however, be again mentioned that the object are almost level, for the labour of drawing the of the inventor was to enable the diver to carry huge cars up-hill is more than the most willing on submarine operations without the necessity of horses can bear. Highgate Hill and Pentonville having air pumped down through flexible tubes. Hill are now to be furnished with tramways A supply of pure air is secured by Mr Fleuss worked on a plan which has been adopted for in a different way, namely, by an apparatus the years past with great success at San which the diver carries with him under water, Francisco, known as the steep grade system. The cars are pulled up-hill by an endless wire-rope attached to a drum and stationary engine. This moving rope is sunk in an underground channel,

for filtering the breath and admixing oxygen therewith, thus rendering it capable of being re-breathed. Part of this apparatus consisted of a heavy helmet and collar; but these Mr Fleuss

has now superseded by a lighter headgear for shallow-water diving, reserving the more cumbrous helmet for deep-sea diving.

OCCASIONAL

NOTES.

LADIES' FASHIONS AND BIRD-LIFE.

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HOUSE OF REST.'

of gas, which had to be consumed in lieu of that daylight which the unwholesome sanitary conditions of the great city had shut out by a curtain of its own raising. Take the London fogs as covering ten days in the year-and this is below the real mark-and we have a sum of one hundred and twenty thousand pounds actually THE fashion, which has perhaps always pre- thrown away. Such a sum of money capitalised vailed, of ladies adorning themselves more or less would surely be sufficient to enable those responswith the plumage of birds, has recently assumed a ible for the public health to set in operation some very objectionable phase. It is not now sufficient organisation by means of which complete smoketo make use of particular feathers of particular consumption would be rendered imperative on birds; it is necessary to have the bird-skin perfect the part of every manufacturer, and in course of and entire, and that not of common or merely time every householder as well, within the bounds beautiful birds, but of rare birds as well. A of the Metropolis. The enormous cost entailed correspondent of a scientific contemporary the upon the city by the present system, while, in other day stated that he saw in a milliner's shop addition, propagating the existence of a very in Regent Street, London, four birds of paradise, serious nuisance, ought to bring home to the two trogons-small birds of brilliant plumage- various governing bodies in London a strong scarlet ibises by the dozen, a rare goat-sucker, sense of the necessity for instant and thorough kingfishers, orioles, and bee-eaters, not to mention reform. other birds whose greater abundance might seem to excuse their wholesale sacrifice. The human race,' he adds, has already had to mourn the destruction of the dodo, the solitaire, the great auk, and the moa; let us not add to this list the paradiseida, the trogons, and the humming-birds.' In this desire we most cordially acquiesce. The lower animals in general are no doubt rightly enough made serviceable to man; and the sheep and the silkworm are equally laid under contribution as providers of materials for human comfort and adornment. Even the feathers of the larger birds, the ostrich, for instance, have long formed an important article of commerce; and the bird is cultivated for the sake of the plumy harvest which it yields. But when we come to appropriating, not alone the feathers of birds, but the skins of birds with all the plumage intact, an element of waste and destruction is introduced which cannot be too strongly deprecated. It is an unhappy and mischievous fashion, and we would earnestly appeal to our lady readers to do all in their power to lessen and discourage it.

THE COST OF A LONDON FOG.

In the number of this Journal for December 4, 1880, there was an article on London Fogs, in which attention was specifically drawn to the great increase of this nuisance within the last fifty years, this increase being largely traceable to the enormously greater consumption of coal consequent upon the enlarged population and trade of the Metropolis, along with the fact that no definite attempt had been made on the part of manufacturers and householders to consume their smoke. It was also shown that there was no serious difficulty other than the inexcusable inaction of authorities and manufacturers, in the way of having this improvement carried out, apparatus insuring the consumption of every particle of smoke having been known and used elsewhere for years. As an evidence of the evil of delay on the part of the Metropolitan authorities in formulating some general plan for securing that each chimney consumes its own smoke, a striking item of information comes to hand, namely, that a single day's fog in London brought into the pockets of one gas Company no less a sum than twelve thousand pounds. This represented the price of seventy-five million feet

6

In our notice last month of the Babbacombe House of Rest, we named Miss Skinner as the Lady Superintendent.' This we learn is a misapprehension, she being a member only of the Committee of Management.

MAY BLOSSOMS.

SWEET hawthorn blossoms, with the kiss of May
So coyly nestling 'mid your fragrant tips!
You slyly wooed her on her joyous way,

To steal the honey from her rosy lips.
Her lovely fleeting smile your faces wear;
Fading while we exclaim: 'How frail, how fair !'
While your dear beauties feast my gladdened eyes,
Far from this busy mart my fancy treads;
Twine I your fairy buds 'neath laughing skies,

In crowns of pearly bloom for weary heads!
And with what tender joy I lay you now
On bosom racked with pain, and throbbing brow!

Down many a pleasant country lane I see

Fair childhood laden with your dainty bloom;
Dreams, idle dreams-a child-voice calls to me,

While timid hands reach shyly through the gloom-
Such eager trembling hands, that yearn to touch
The darling flowers the child-heart loves so much.

A childish voice, a little wistful face,

Pleads through the gloom-ah! surely not in vain ;
While your faint perfume fills the mournful place,
Waking a world of mingled joy and pain;
Bearing through narrow court, and alley gray,
God's blessed sunshine, and the breath of May.

Oh, nestle fondly to that wan young cheek,

Where tears of rapture lie like April dew!
In loving whispers to that child-heart speak
Of warbling birds, green lanes, and skies so blue,
Of nodding violets that in dreams of love
Breathe odorous incense through the shady grove.

Before that little fluttering pulse shall cease
Its feeble throbbing-e'er you fall away
From the fast chilling hand-oh, whisper 'Peace,”
Then breathe soft perfume round that form of clay,
While the blest spirit answers: 'All is well!
May is eternal May where angels dwell!'

FANNY FORRESTER.

Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Paternoster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH.

All Rights Reserved.

CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL

OF

POPULAR

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
Fourth Seriez

CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS.

No. 958.-VOL. XIX.

SATURDAY, MAY 6, 1882.

ANGLO-AMERICAN S.

BY AN ENGLISHMAN.

THERE is no subject more interesting to an English traveller in the United States than the career of his fellow-countrymen who have settled in that country. Many causes, often complex in their nature, have induced the immigrants to leave Britain. The great majority, however, have sought the New World hoping to find there a brighter lot than the home-land offered. Some for the sake of their children, some for political preferences, some from simple restlessness, have adopted the Great Republic as their future abiding-place. During the eclipse of British agriculture, large numbers of farmers, labourers, graziers, and the artisans connected with tillage, have joined the mighty hosts carving a shapely civilisation in the primeval Western wilds. But whatever they be, and wherever they be, the Anglo-Americans give a good account of themselves, and are contributing certain features to the society amid which they live. Faculties and tendencies that are merely asleep or suppressed in Britain, become prominent and energetic under the compulsions of the new life which the AngloAmerican enters upon.

PRICE 11d

fully novel kind. Once through his 'prentice difficulties, however, the Anglo-American takes a place from which few competitors can dislodge him.

Business is pursued differently than amongst us, though international comminglings and competitions are hourly bringing commerce and trade to similar methods. Yet our drapers' assistants, for example, would find themselves out of their element in the dry-goods' stores of America. Here, our shopmen spend much time in panegyrics upon the fabrics they vend; and he who is most mellifluous in praise of his master's goods gets promotion. In the United States this specious volubility would cause the shopman's speedy dismissal. Customers judge for themselves, and any attempt to gild the pill excites contemptuous suspicion of the vendor. I was much amused with a little episode, which explains this better than any abstract remarks. A young haberdasher, newly from London, got a situation in New York. His first client was a gentleman in search of stockings. He piled all sorts of hose before the individual, who had a rural appearance, with a gushing eulogium upon each. The customer stared, but said nothing for some time. At length he quietly drawled: 'I say, mister, air you a darned ass?' 'No, sir!' replied the astonished youth. 'Wall, am I?' 'No, sir.' 'Then what air you telling me about them things? I guess this is a store, not a lecture-hall. If I buy, it'll be upon my opinion, not yours.' This led to a subsequent painful interview between the young haberdasher and his employer.

Owing to their superabundance at home, vast numbers of shopmen, clerks, small-traders, and those connected with commerce, have gone to the United States, whither thousands are continually following them; and owing to the enormous growth of business, which immigration itself adds to, large proportions of these persons have But though eager volubility is a positive disfound employment in New York, Boston, Chicago, qualification for business, a slow unimaginative and other centres of trade. The majority have plodder is dropped after a short trial, no matter done fairly well; some far better than if they how painstaking in his department. In the had remained in England. But those who went United States, 'pace' is a first requisite. It is out speculatively had much to endure before they vain to complain of it, absurd to decry it, suicidal became assimilated to the new conditions of men to combat it; for it does not depend upon indiand things. The riddling process' is more viduals. The human brain vibrates quicker in terrific in the United States than in England. the Western Continent than in Europe. Climate Before a man gets sifted through the mesh that is more ardent. The mixed blood of Americans fits him, he has much to experience of a pain is derived from the most speculative, most

What are reckoned

adventurous, most practical of European peoples, and is making a new type of mankind, very different from the average Englishman. This is no novel statement, but one that has been uttered a thousand times. Yet it will bear repetition; for the new type is by no means crystallised into permanent form. Each decade something is added to the Americans, their plastic nationality taking fraud goes frequently unchallenged, is sometimes on a new trait without effort. The hordes of Germans, Swedes, and Irish have considerably modified the people and its march during the past twenty years. Now, the immigration of myriads of English is having its effect. And great among the factors, producing further modification, is the freed negro. That result is an intensity of life such as obtains nowhere else in the world.

To the prevailing type the Anglo-American must approximate wholly, or in degree. From what I saw, it was evident, after his novitiate, the Englishman generally equalled the American as a business-man. Our youngsters required no very long period of drill to fit them for positions of responsibility. In a year or two, without aping the national manners, pronunciation, and habits of thought, the all-constraining media shaped the English boy into a resemblance of the native. But middle-aged Britishers adapted themselves with difficulty to the rapid, irreflective life around them.

Shrewdness and speed are combined by the best sort of Americans; but speed takes preference. While an Englishman is weighing the probabilities of business, his Cousin has effected his purpose, or smashed in the attempt. Business needs to be done smartly, and a man must have a reputation for so acting, if he seeks to advance. No matter what the field of enterprise, a papercollar store or a bank, a man must run it in a go-ahead fashion, or the business will languish. Anglo-Americans fully understanding this, often prove more than a match for the native. Many instances came under my observation, where my capable compatriots had dominated a particular business by their superior perception of the conditions of success. Americans have considerable imagination, and can project cyclopean enterprises, and often carry them to a brilliant consummation. Still, when an English immigrant gets hold of a big thing,' he can keep it against most competitors. Indeed, nothing is more common than to find English brain directing or assisting transatlantic mercantile and manufacturing establishments to developments beyond the daring of Europe. As anonymous partners, as managers, as chiefs of departments, or other spheres of control, capable and docile Englishmen exercise a great portion of that influence in the present progress of the United States which is attributed to the fear-nothing Yankee. In short, Englishmen and English capital are gigantic factors in the phenomenal success to which the United States have attained. Broad as the native mind is, the English is broader; great as native skill is in moneymaking, English skill is at least as great. The addition of a more circumspect morality gives Anglo-Americans frequent advantage over the sons of the soil.

Commercial conflicts are often waged more pitilessly than those of internecine war. This is the case in America. 'Smartness' too

often

means unscrupulousness.
crimes in London are regarded as peccadillos
in New York. If one of our commercial men
leads a client into a financial ambuscade, or
commits highway robbery on the Exchange, he
is shunned, and his career damaged, if not de-
stroyed. Not always so in America. Successful
openly applauded in certain circles. For the
victim, there is little sympathy. He was too
confiding-so much the worse for him. He will
not make the same mistake when he gets up
from
his fall. For he is expected to get up. To lie still
under a swindle is more reprehensible than to get
up and swindle others. This sort of morality is
fatal to trade, and the best sort of Anglo-Americans
know it. Instead of playing scoundrel in turn,
they become wary of scoundrels, and keep them
at a safe distance. The bitter agony-period from
1873 to 1879 has created a number of business
safeguards that did not exist before, and they
are due in some measure to English example
and English astuteness. Anglo-Americans want
to keep their money safe; a traditional vene-
ration for capital runs in their veins. Hence the
tightening of the systems of credit. While eager
for gain as any Yankee, they are still more eager
for the solidity of their customers. Clever Anglo-
Americans would not waste time on perfecting
wooden nutmegs; they know the end of such
things. This trait counts enormously in their
favour, in the conflict for business with natives,
and with immigrants from Germany, France, and
Italy.

The conflict is likely to be more severe in
the future, owing to changes coming over the
rising generation in the United States. For
more than a century, Americans have tended in
the second and third generations to urban rather
than rural pursuits. This tendency is now
becoming a passion. Farmers' sons
are lured
to city life like moths to a candle. Agriculture,
which has made the country what it is, and which
must continue to be the basis of its growth and the
motive of its real prosperity, is being abandoned
by those reared to follow it. Farmers send
their boys to the best schools. The taste of
the Pierian spring gives them a thirst for book-
knowledge, and induces a dislike of manual
labour. From school they go to college, at
their parents' expense, or by their own efforts;
for American boys, determining to be learned,
will find ways and means that never enter the
minds of their British Cousins. By some avenue,
ambitious rurals climb the steeps of Parnassus
and never return to the plough. As school-
masters, clergymen, professors, and the light-
cavalry of civilisation, they seek careers in the
cities. Some have no reason to repent the calls
of ambition; but many have a weary struggle
to middle age, when success, or the grave, relegates
them to a state of quietude. But theology,
teaching, law, medicine, and the rest of the
learned professions cannot absorb the teeming
multitudes now crowding them. Mediocrity
gets a decreasing chance of a bare subsistence.
The overflow goes perforce into some department
of trade or commerce. It is the only path open
to those who will neither be artisans nor tillers
of the soil. At the present moment, there are
multitudes of University graduates touting for

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