Questions and Answers.
A Fort Wayne member asks what is the most expensive product in the world. We cannot tell surely, but the most expensive one we ever read of is a charcoal thread employed as filaments for incandescent electric lamps. Filaments designed for thirty-candle-power lamps are worth $12,000 a pound. It requires 1,500,000 of these filaments to make a pound, and their total length would be 187 miles.—Harry M. Jones: The first United States census was taken in 1790, and the next one will be taken in June, 1900. The discussion whether the twentieth century begins January 1, 1900, or January 1, 1901, is idle to enter into.—"Young Politician": President-elect McKinley is free to select any persons he pleases for places in his cabinet, the only restriction being that Secretaries must be American citizens above certain ages. That which prevents him from selecting unfit men is his desire to make his administration successful. The President nominates his cabinet officials to the United States Senate, but that body, while it holds a legal right to confirm or reject such names, always, as a matter of courtesy, confirms them, holding that a President ought to be permitted to have such men in his official family as he desires. The talk in the newspapers about cabinet-making is mere speculation. The final decision rests with the President.
John Hamill asks what tundra is. It is a long fibrous white moss (Cladonia rangiferina) which is the natural food of the reindeer. It grows to its greatest perfection in northern and central Alaska, but is found in South Greenland and Lapland. In Alaska there is a vast tract of land—400,000 square miles, it is said—covered with this moss. Why you see it mentioned just now is because there is a project to grow great herds of reindeer on this vast tract; it is good for nothing else. The reindeer, slaughtered, frozen, and shipped to San Francisco and Liverpool, command high prices as venison. The skins, tanned, are of a soft texture and serviceable color, admirable for book-bindings and furniture-covers, and the hair is the best possible filling for buoys to be used in a life-saving apparatus, as it possesses a wonderful degree of buoyancy. It is said, you know, of the hog slaughter at Chicago and Kansas City that there is nothing wasted save the squeal. Everything else being used to advantage, the horns of the reindeer make the best glue of commerce. The project is to turn this moss to profit by feeding it to reindeer, as corn is fed to hogs in the West, and marketed as pork.
"Liberia." Liberia is a republic modelled after our own. It was founded by some enthusiastic philanthropists who thought the colored people of our southern States could be induced to go back to Africa where their ancestors, as slaves and against their wills, came from. Before our civil war some went. Since then none have. The experiment was a failure, and Liberia is not prospering greatly. Have we any readers living on the Isle of Man? We fear not. Does any reader know any one living there? Ralph Carr, living at 1041 Santa Fé Street, Atchison, Kansas, says his father came from there, and he desires to hunt up, if possible, some facts about the island and his father's birth-place. This is an interesting and profitable thing to do. If any member can help him, please do so.
Any questions in regard to photograph matters will be willingly answered by the Editor of this column, and we should be glad to hear from any of our club who can make helpful suggestions.