PUBLICATIONS.
MARSHALL M. KIRKMAN'S BOOKS ON RAILROAD TOPICS.
DO YOU WANT TO BECOME A RAILROAD MAN
If You Do, the Books Described Below Point the Way.
The most promising field for men of talent and ambition at the present day is the railroad service. The pay is large in many instances, while the service is continuous and honorable. Most of our railroad men began life on the farm. Of this class is the author of the accompanying books descriptive of railway operations, who has been connected continuously with railroads as a subordinate and officer for 27 years. He was brought up on a farm, and began railroading as a lad at $7 per month. He has written a number of standard books on various topics connected with the organization, construction, management and policy of railroads. These books are of interest not only to railroad men but to the general reader as well. They are indispensable to the student. They present every phase of railroad life, and are written in an easy and simple style that both interests and instructs. The books are as follows:
| "RAILWAY EXPENDITURES—THEIR EXTENT, OBJECT AND ECONOMY."—A Practical Treatise on Construction and Operation. In Two Volumes, 850 pages. | $4.00 |
| "HAND BOOK OF RAILWAY EXPENDITURES."—Practical Directions for Keeping the Expenditure Accounts. | 2.00 |
| "RAILWAY REVENUE AND ITS COLLECTION."—And Explaining the Organization of Railroads. | 2.50 |
| "THE BAGGAGE PARCEL AND MAIL TRAFFIC OF RAILROADS."—An interesting work on this important service; 425 pages. | 2.00 |
| "TRAIN AND STATION SERVICE"—Giving The Principal Rules and Regulations governing Trains; 280 pages. | 2.00 |
| "THE TRACK ACCOUNTS OF RAILROADS."—And how they should be kept. Pamphlet. | 1.00 |
| "THE FREIGHT TRAFFIC WAY-BILL."—Its Uses Illustrated and Described. Pamphlet. | .50 |
| "MUTUAL GUARANTEE."—A Treatise on Mutual Suretyship. Pamphlet. | .50 |
Any of the above books will be sent post paid on receipt of price, by
PRAIRIE FARMER PUBLISHING CO.,
150 Monroe St. Chicago, Ill.
Money should be remitted by express, or by draft check or post office order.
MAP
Of the United States and Canada, Printed in Colors, size 4×2½ feet, also a copy of THE PRAIRIE FARMER for one year. Sent to any address for $2.00.
GENERAL NEWS.
Florida farmers are now planting Irish potatoes.
The St. Charles Hotel, Paducah, Ky., was burned Sunday night.
Another relief party for the Greeley arctic expedition is to be sent out.
Wm. H. Guion, of the Steamship firm of Williams has failed for $2,000,000.
Music Hall, in Whitechapel, London, burned on Monday; loss $200,000.
Ice has prevented the ferry boats from crossing the St. Clair river at Port Huron.
The prohibitionists declare that they will place a presidential ticket in the field next fall.
Lowell manufacturers have given employes notice that there will be a reduction of ten per cent in wages beginning Feb. 1.
An elevated road, adapted both to passengers and freight, is to be constructed along the levee at New Orleans within two years.
There was a railway wreck, caused by a broken rail, on the Wabash road near Macon, Mo., on Monday; several persons were injured.
It is estimated that the United States Senate is the wealthiest deliberative body in the world, the seventy-six members of that body representing $180,000,000.
A rumor is in circulation at Ottawa, Canada, that the Canadian Pacific road has asked the government for additional assistance to the amount of $14,000,000.
A colored base-ball club of professionals has been formed at Chicago, and will be ready to take the road May 1. They are backed by a stock company.
It is claimed that there is at the present time between 100 and 150 foreign vessels engaged in the oyster traffic on the Virginia coast without right or authority.
The people of Ouray, Col., lynched Mike Cuddigan and wife Saturday, on suspicion of having murdered a child whom they took from a Catholic asylum at Denver.
It is said that the buffaloes have come north of the Missouri river, in Montana, and the Indians killed eleven hundred in one day not far from the mouth of the Musselshell.
The horror of the week was the wrecking of the steamer City of Columbus off Martha's Vineyard, January 19th. There were 129 persons on board of whom ninety-seven were lost.
A seal was discovered in the track of the steamer Armstrong, at Morristown, N. Y., on the St. Lawrence river. This was the third or fourth seal seen in that vicinity in the last half-dozen years.
The candle factory of E. L. Schneider & Co., located on the corner of Wallace and McGregor streets, Chicago, was Sunday swept away by fire. The loss is $150,000, and the insurance $57,000.
The friends of Mr. Hintz, the unsuccessful candidate for postmaster at Elgin, Illinois, threaten to defeat the re-election of Representative Ellwood in the next campaign, who is held responsible for his defeat.
Two Irish members of the British Parliament, Matthew Arnold and P. J. Sheridan,—the latter supposed to be the mysterious No. 1 of the Phœnix Park assassination scheme—are in Chicago the present week.
Mrs. Dukes, a sister of the murdered Zura Burns, has left her home in Dakota, in company with her father, to give what she claims is damaging evidence against O. A. Carpenter, before the grand jury at Lincoln, Ill.
The matter of the final disposition of the assets of the estate of B. F. Allen is being heard by a register at Des Moines. A firm which has purchased a large share of the claims at 5 per cent offers $330,000 for the property remaining, but other creditors hold out for $400,000.
Judge Shepard, in the Superior Court of Chicago, Saturday, dismissed three bills for divorce, holding that when a wife separated from her husband her residence as well as her domicile follows his, and that the Illinois statutes excludes from its courts all suits for divorce in behalf of persons not legal residents.
The Onondaga (New York) Indians have held another council, at which it was shown that a majority of the nation is opposed to dividing the lands in severally, but is willing to agree to a division of such timber lands as can not be protected against depredations. The Christian party is to be represented at the next conference with the State commissioners.
Nearly one-fourth of the business portion of Leipsic, O., was burned Friday night, and flames swept away 1,145 bales of cotton at Murrell's Point, La., and twenty-one buildings at Lowell, Mich. A boiler explosion at Cincinnati, in the Corrugating company's manufactory, Saturday, led to the destruction of $50,000 in property.
FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL.
Office of The Prairie Farmer,
Chicago. Jan 22, 1884.
Papers devoted to finance and trade inform us that the number of business failures in 1883 was 9,184 against 8,782 in the hard times of 1877. The fear is, that the worst is not yet come, but this feeling happily is not by any means universal among most far seeing business men.
The transactions at the Chicago banks were a trifle slower than last week. The regular loan market was quotable on Monday at 6@7 per cent.
Eastern exchange was firm at 60c per $1,000.
The stock markets at the East were a little feverish and here the same feeling was noticeable. There are rumors of financial embarrassment in high places, and Mr. Gould himself is said to be a little nervous over the weakness in many of his stocks.
Government securities are as follows:
| 4's coupon, 1907 | Q. Apr. | 123¼ |
| 4's reg., 1907 | Q. Apr. | 123¼ |
| 4½'s coupon, 1891 | Q. Mar. | 1141/8 |
| 4½'s registered, 1891 | Q. Mar. | 1141/8 |
| 3's registered | Q. Mar. | 100 |