Various

“ With our navy, things are different. It has come to be a recognized fact among nations that countries who wish to be respected abroad must have a sufficient naval force to compel that respect when necessary.
Our navy is not as large as the importance of our country demands, and it is the intention of the Secretary of the Navy to ask Congress to make appropriations to enable him to have several new ships built.
Meanwhile he is in a good deal of difficulty over the armor for the ships that are being built. ”

“ Great statesman and good friend to the crown as Canovas was, he was a bad friend to the people. He believed in force. It was he who chose General Weyler to go to Cuba, well knowing his ferocious character, and that he would be sure to treat the insurgents with great severity. ”

“ To his sovereign and his country Señor Canovas has ever been a most faithful servant. In him the Queen Regent loses the one man on whom Spain relied for help out of her present difficulties.
The Coal Strike is still unsettled.
A determined effort is being made to get the Pittsburg miners to join the strike. There is a great Pittsburg firm called the New York and Cleveland Gas and Coal Company, of which Mr. W.P. De Armitt is the head. It is a most important firm, and the strikers think that if they can only get De Armitt's men to join them they are sure of success. ”

“ In taking this step England is only closing the last chapter of a volume of her history, and when she makes her new treaties with her colonies she will be commencing the first chapter of the new history of the British Empire that is yet to be written.
This matter is of such vast importance, in the bearing that it will have on the future, that we must try our best to understand it.
England's importance and wealth lie in her colonies. She is but a "right little, tight little island" of herself ”

“ By the terms of these treaties, Great Britain gave her word that no articles manufactured in either of these countries should be charged higher tariff duties in her colonies than similar articles of British manufacture.
For instance, on German and Belgian cloth, exactly the same duty is charged in Canada and Australia and the colonies generally as on the English cloth. You would have supposed that England, being the mother country, would have been charged a lower tariff than foreign countries, but according to the treaties this was impossible. ”

“ A great deal is expected of the teachers in our public schools at the present day in the way of keeping the pupils conversant with the political and scientific questions of the day. While this is as it should be, we believe that if parents would look well to the quality of reading-matter placed before their children better results would be obtained from the teachers' efforts in this line. ”

“ Armor is a covering of thick steel plates with which all the modern battleships are supplied. It is intended to protect their hulls from the cannon-balls and projectiles that are now used in warfare.
There are three ships now building for the Government, the Illinois, Alabama, and Wisconsin, and the cause of the trouble is that no firm can be found willing to supply the armor-plate for the price fixed by Congress. ”

“ The only person who has got into trouble has been Debs.
When the strike was first organized, Debs and the other labor agitators declared that it was impossible for the strike to fail if the miners only held together. They gave such a rosy picture of the whole affair, that many of the miners believed that the great strike would be settled with little delay or trouble. ”

“ The British Ministers feared that the result of the federation would be a combination of all the rest of Europe against England, so they adopted the policy of keeping good friends with their European neighbors, and allowing the colonies to wait yet a little longer for federation.
The modern statesmen have been extending British influence ever further and further, in the hope of one day accomplishing the great federation. ”

“ Newfoundland is outside the Canadian federation; Cape Colony, in South Africa, is divided into several states; Australia has five separate states, each with its own governor and legislature. These states should first be joined together before they can safely venture to combine with the mother country in an alliance which would be against the world.
Germany and Belgium are both incensed that England should seek to put an end to the treaties. Some hot heads in Germany are urging their Government to return blow for blow, and commence a tariff war with England. ”

“ The day when federation will be completed is still very far off, however; the colonies themselves are not federated as yet, and it is hard to suppose that they are ready to come together and be happy as one country with England when they are still divided among themselves. ”

“ Her possessions lie north, south, east, and west, till it is rightly said that "the sun never sets on England's glory."
The shaded portions are British possessions. Islands owned by Great Britain have names attached.
All her various dependencies are self-governing. They have their own legislatures, impose their own taxes, and manage their own affairs socially, politically, and commercially.
At the same time, the colonies are absolutely a part of the British Empire. The lands belong to the Crown, and the Crown derives an income from the profits of the colonies. ”

“ With wars and rumors of wars about us, the necessity of being prepared for any emergency has presented itself very strongly to the Secretaries of both the Army and the Navy.
While our standing army is small, our military arrangements are such that we need have little anxiety on the score of the army. We have a large State Militia always at the service of the country, and we have the right to call on all able-bodied citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five for military service in case of need. ”

“ Bicycle Propulsion.—So much has been invented for and said about bicycles, that it seems strange that anything is left to say or to do, yet here is a very novel idea. It is not so very long since wind and water were the only motor powers, but those days are so clearly superseded that it is quite a surprising suggestion that a wind-wheel be attached to bicycles. ”

“ Several other firms also declined, and finally, giving up all hope of placing the contracts, the Secretary suggested that the Government should make its own armor-plate.
Agreeably to this suggestion, a board has been formed to look into the matter, and see whether it is possible for the Government to enter into this business with profit to itself.
While some people declare that it will cost the Government twice as much to manufacture the armor, others think that it can be made for considerably less than the companies ask. ”

“ If they obey the rules of their order, they will have to go in a body to their employers, and ask to have their wages reduced.
If they do not, they will be obliged to leave the union; and if in future their employers try to get the best of them, they will then have no one to come forward and fight their battles for them. ”

“ The De Armitt men are, however, quite content with their treatment, and not anxious to join the strike. To win them over, large bands of striking miners have camped near the De Armitt mines, and every morning they march to the pit's mouth, intercepting the men as they are going to work, and urging them to join the strike and help their fellows.
They have already persuaded many of the men to leave work. ”

“ Alfonso reigned eleven years, and died in the winter of 1885. In the spring of 1886 the young King was born, his mother, Maria Christina of Austria, was declared Regent, and will continue to govern the country for the young Alfonso XIII. until he is old enough to take care of the country himself.
During all these troublous times Canovas steadily upheld the crown; through riot and revolution he never wavered, and was even banished from Spain on one occasion because of his well-known sympathy for the crown. ”

“ In making the selection of important events, remember that wars and political events are not necessarily the most important. If, for instance, the air-ship had turned out to be a genuine and successful thing, it would have been most important as affecting the history of the world. ”

“ The book covers themselves are a marvel of ingenuity, and, although they are in one piece and can be adjusted to fit perfectly any sized book without cutting the paper, they are also so simple that any boy or girl can use them; as they are already gummed they are always ready for use. ”

“ Anybody can fly this kite. It goes up straight from the hand like a bird. Will fly in a moderate breeze, and yet no wind short of a gale is too strong for it. It is made of strong, selected wood, and the finest cotton, in red. ”

“ The Indians ran round and round the rock, but everywhere they found the straight walls as we see them to-day. It was impossible to climb them; they could not get up to the friends they had left behind, nor could the unfortunate people come down to them. ”

“ The inner hoop is sure to fit so tightly within the outer one that if the material to be embroidered is at all thick, neither persuasion nor force will make it slip into place. A new hoop is now being made which can be adjusted for goods of any thickness. ”

“ After an elaborate calculation of profit and loss, and the cost of the machinery used in making the armor, he decided that the armor could be made for $250 a ton. He suggested that the Government ought then to allow the companies a liberal sum per ton for profit on their enterprise, and suggested that a fair price to pay would be $400 per ton. ”

“ A punctured tire is a wounded tire, and needs the aid of a bicycle doctor. All attempts at doing one's own surgery are likely to fail for the simple reason that we are not experts in the business, and do not always understand the extent of the damage. ”

“ After a while, as the tribe increased, there was not room enough on the rock for their dwellings and their fields, so they made a way down the rock, and used to send their able-bodied men below to sow and reap, while the aged and the young did the housekeeping on top of the mesa. ”

“ The English plan was to make what is called compound armor. This was hard steel welded on to a back of softer metal, the idea being that the soft back would act as a sort of cushion, and save the front part of the plate from being cracked by the blows of the shot.
The French system was to make a mixture of steel and nickel. They claimed that the nickel alloy would give greater strength to the plate. ”

“ They insisted that they could not begin to supply armor for less than $442 a ton, and that then they would be making little profit on their work.
They reminded Congress that they had added costly machinery to their plants to oblige the Government, and that the country ought to be willing to pay them enough money for their work to reimburse them for the sums they had laid out. ”

“ If the Company could make the iron and come out clear at $250 a ton, it was thought that a profit of $150 a ton was too much to allow, and therefore Congress voted that the Government price for armor-plate in future should be $300 per ton. ”

“ It declared that the armor-plate people had formed a trust by which they hoped to force the Treasury to pay them any price they chose to ask, and finally declared that if armor-plate could be made at an actual cost of $197.78 per ton, the Government would no longer pay $558 to benefit the pockets of private individuals. ”

“ Nearly all the weavers there are members of the union, and when they came to examine the new scale which they were bound to abide by, they found it to be below the rate of wages which they were at that moment receiving. ”