“Paul M. Atkinson, of Chattanooga, Tenn., who achieved quite a reputation as manager of Lulu Hurst, the young lady who possessed such marvellous magnetic powers, was married to that lady a few days ago at her home near Cedartown, Ga. Miss Hurst, since her wonderful power deserted her, has been attending school, and graduated in December last. It is reported that the fortune of $200,000 she amassed while on the stage has been trebled since by lucky investments.”
Land Monopoly.—The Kansas City Times publishes a list of the leading foreign corporations that own lands in the United States, showing an aggregate of 20,740,000 acres, equal to more than one-half of England. Well, Americans may as well work to support foreign as home idlers; but a generation is nearing the voting age that will object to doing either.
Marriage in Mexico.—A newspaper correspondent from California, writes:
“You may not be aware, as I was not till recently, that Juarez, the native-blood President of Mexico acting, I presume, under authority of Congress, decreed that all children born, or that should be born in Mexico, should be legitimate, regardless of all laws of the Church or State. So rigorous, expensive, and despotic had become the control of the clergy that not one in ten of the children of Mexico were born ‘legitimate,’ the people did not marry. This stroke of the State at the Church was the ‘holy terror’ that broke its back; but it liberated the people, and settled the differences between the 'higher' and lower classes in a manner that has left marriage in Mexico in the hands of the contracting parties where it properly belongs.
The Grand Symposium.—The wise (?) men express themselves in our symposium upon immortality. Their utter blindness to the grand displays of immortality, which have long challenged attention, and their reference to every obscure and blind path for its search, remind one of Carlyle’s expression in reference to Comte. “I found him to be one of those men who go up in a balloon and take a lighted candle to look at the stars.” What a deep shadow upon the intellectual landscape of America is seen in this picture of collegiate ignorance in contrast with foreign enlightenment. While the sovereigns of England, France, and Russia have been communing with the higher world, our college presidents have their heads and eyes covered with the cowl of monkish superstition and ignorance.
Surely the search for truth is the most imperative of duties for those who are chosen to lead the rising generation. They who fail in this duty are as guilty as the sentinels who sleep or carouse upon their posts. The eloquent words of Rev. J. K. Applebee are appropriate to such offences: “The man who is not true to the highest thing within him, does a treble wrong. He wrongs himself; he wrongs all whom he might have influenced for good; he wrongs all the willing workers for humanity by heaping on their shoulders extra toils and extra responsibilities.” What is the difference between the Barnard, Hill, Gilman, Elliott, Newcomb, Youmans, and their sympathizers to-day, and the old time opponents of Galileo, Columbus, and Harvey. The men who rely upon learning or memory represent the past, while those who rely upon investigation and intuition represent the future. They are ever in conflict, and ever illustrate the truth of Gœthe’s remark that “Error belongs to the libraries, truth to the human mind.”
A New Mussulman Empire has been established on the Red Sea, east of the territory occupied by the followers of the Mahdi. Mohammed Abu is the Sultan, and Kassala is his residence. His army has 8000 men.
Psychometric Imposture.—Those who wish to understand and practice psychometry should avoid being duped by an ignorant pretender who professes to develop their psychometric faculties—a pretence which is a self-evident imposition.
Our Tobacco Bill.—The American Grocer estimates the total annual expenditure for tobacco in the United States, at $256,500,000. The estimates of cost are as follows: Liquor, $700,000,000; tobacco, $256,500,000; sugar, $187,000,000; coffee, tea, and cocoa, $130,000,000; schools, $110,000,000.
Extinct Animals.—Wonderful bones have been dug up in Spokane County, Washington Territory—nine mammoths, a cave bear, hyenas, extinct birds, and a sea turtle. One of the tusks measured twelve feet nine inches long, and twenty-seven inches round, weighing 295 pounds. Some of the ribs were eight feet long. The molar teeth weighed eighteen pounds each. The pelvic arch was six feet across; a man could walk through it erect. The monster was estimated to be eighteen and one-half feet high, and to weigh twenty tons.