The Census Office has issued a special bulletin recently containing the statistics of illiteracy in the United States as returned at the tenth census. The number of persons ten years old and upward in the several States and Territories is 36,761,607. Of this number 4,923,451, or 13.4 per cent., are returned as unable to read, and 6,239,958, or 17 per cent., as unable to write. White persons in the United States ten years old and upward, 32,160,400; unable to write, 3,019,080, or 9.4 per cent. Colored persons of ten years old and upward, 4,601,207; unable to write, 3,220,878.
Melville paid the following tribute to Capt. De Long in November, during the investigation of the Jeannette expedition, at Washington, D. C.: “Q.—Did you believe, when you went for the log books and records left by De Long, that the people of the first cutter were dead or alive? A.—I was morally certain that at that time they were all dead. Common sense and my own judgment taught me that. Before I started, both Ninderman and Noros told me it would be useless to look for the first cutter’s party before spring, as beyond a possibility of doubt they were long since all dead. At one of the reported difficulties between Mr. Collins and Capt. De Long I believe Mr. Danenhower was present. Mr. Collins was treated just as any other officer, and with the same cordiality. At one time Mr. Collins took a notion not to respond to the usual good morning salutations of the Captain. When the Captain entered the wash room mornings it was his custom to say, ‘Good morning, gentlemen,’ and we all responded with ‘Good morning, Captain.’ Mr. Collins, however, used to turn his back when he saw the Captain coming in, and look away or walk away without responding. Mr. Newcomb and Mr. Collins used to talk and walk together more than they did with any of the other officers, and were on more intimate terms with each other than with the others. No distinction whatever was made in the mess on account of their being civilian officers, but all were treated the same and upon an equal footing. I did not know that it would be deemed proper for me to pass judgment upon my commanding officer, but, to my mind, he was as good a man as could be assigned to any duty at any time or in any place. He always seemed equal to any emergency, and all that he did was done with his whole soul. Had I supposed that I would be permitted to speak of my commanding officer or his conduct, I should not have allowed five minutes to pass without bearing my testimony to his worth and unfaltering devotion to duty. But words of mine are of little value beside the monument which his record has erected to his heroism and unwavering fidelity to the service and to the well-being of those intrusted to his charge.”
In compliance with numerous requests there will be a series of articles on civil law in the C. L. S. C. course of study for 1883-1884.
“Heaven knows what would become of our sociality if we never visited people we speak ill of; we should live, like Egyptian hermits, in crowded solitude.”—George Eliot: Janet’s Repentance.
An illustrated daily paper for children, to be printed on the grounds at Chautauqua, will be one of the features of the Assembly in 1883. This will be an improvement on that excellent little daily printed on the papyrograph in former years. The new paper will contain personals of little people and news from the Chautauqua world in which they live.