Questions and Answers.
Helen L. Codey: The United States takes a census each decade—1880, 1890, 1900, etc. The first national census was made in 1790. No, it was not that this government neglected it up till that date. It was not then the custom of countries to take careful censuses. Some States take censuses on the abstract decades, as 1885, 1895, 1905, etc. The figures about shipping, the crops, railway earnings, etc., to which you refer, are collected, for the most part, by a bureau of statistics, at Washington, and published free for general use.
Fred B. Davies asks what is meant by an advertisement, which he encloses to us, asking for bids in connection with the making of pennies, and he inquires if the United States does not coin its own money. Yes, our government coins its own money, and prints its own paper bills. But it gets blanks for pennies and nickels made by private parties. The advertisement enclosed specifies that "one-cent blanks must be properly annealed, cleaned and milled, and ready for the press, composed of 95 per cent. of copper and 5 per cent. of zinc and tin, in equal proportions." These blanks are made by private concerns, and then the pennies are coined at the mint. The blanks cost the government 21.95 cents per pound, and there are approximately 146 pieces to the pound, avoirdupois. Last year the mint at Philadelphia coined 46,168,422 pennies.—Foster W. Stearns, 269 Park Street, Newton, Mass., wants to hear of some amateur journals whose editors desire contributions.—May Inman Maguire, Hendersonville, N. C., expects soon to move to Washington, D. C., and desires to hear from some Chapter or young ladies' literary club in that city to which she may belong.—George E. Purdy, Box 1228, New York city, will write a description of the New York Stock or Produce Exchange to any member anywhere willing, in turn, to write and send him a description of an interesting spot, feature, industry, etc., in any other city.
"Page": You should apply at once to the member of Assembly from your district if you would become a page in the Assembly-Chamber at Albany this winter. But, to be frank with you, it must be said that, as a rule, boys whose parents reside in Albany are almost always appointed. Boys are required to be bright, well behaved, and strong enough to endure several hours of hard work per day, with sometimes a night session thrown in. The pay is $2 per day.
Frederic B. Schurman: Charity organization societies are not found in cities as small as the one in which you live (Erie), for the reason that the necessity for them does not exist. They are a banding together of public and private charities for better administration and for the study and cure of pauperism. It is an English idea. Organized charity was undertaken in London in 1869, and in this country in 1877. The first American society was organized in Buffalo, N. Y., and the organizer of it was an Episcopal clergyman named Rev. Humphrey Gurteen. The second American society was organized in Philadelphia in 1878, and that of New York city four years later. There are now seventy-eight such societies.
