National.

Telegraphic communication has now been reached between Seattle and all parts of Alaska. The following official message to the press was received at Seattle, announcing the opening of the line:—

Sitka, Alaska, Oct. 6.—The completion of the Government cable from Valdez to Sitka, making a complete connection by an all-American line with forty-six stations in Alaska, is the beginning of a new era for Alaska. Wagon roads and railways will open up the greatest mining center of the world. Other industries will quickly follow and insure this country's future prosperity.

William Distin,
Acting-Governor of Alaska.

In a circular note Secretary Hay has carried out President Roosevelt's instructions relative to proposing a second peace conference at The Hague. The note contemplates the consideration of questions specifically mentioned by the original conference, such as the rights and duties of neutrals, the inviolability of private property in naval warfare, and the bombardment of ports by naval forces. It practically indorses the project of a general system of arbitration treaties and the establishment of an international congress to meet periodically in the interests of peace.

Twenty-seven members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra are reported to have resigned their membership in the Boston Musicians' Protective Union. It is also said that every member of the union who plays in the Symphony Orchestra will resign from the union.

Harvard University has 534 instructors and 5,966 students; Columbia, 455 instructors and 4,709 students; University of Chicago, 347 instructors and 4,463 students; Cornell, 393 instructors and 3,457 students; Yale, 325 instructors and 2,975 students.

Foreign.

An arbitration treaty between France and the United States was signed at Washington on the 1st inst. The initiative in this action was taken over a year ago, at the time of the Anglo-French convention. The public and press strongly approve of the treaty, mainly because of the friendly attitude of France toward the United States, and also as a notable achievement for Delcassé's diplomacy.

Industrial and Commercial.

The total value of manufactures exported during the nine months ending with September, 1904, is $365,000,000 against $311,000,000 in the corresponding months of 1903, $338,000,000 in the same months of 1900, $145,000,000 in the corresponding months of 1895, and $113,000,000 in the corresponding months of 1890. Agricultural products exported in the nine months of 1904 amounted to $502,417,678, against $566,282,378 in the corresponding period of 1903.

Turning to the import side, materials in a crude condition which enter into the various processes of domestic industry amounted in the nine months ended with September to $248,000,000 and formed 33.03 per cent of the total imports, as against a total of $245,000,000, forming 32.37 per cent of the total in the corresponding period of last year.

It is reported that the plant known as "guayule," which covers a large section of the semi-arid region of southwest Texas and a large portion of the plateau of Central Mexico, yields a substance which can be compounded with Para rubber as a basis for various purposes. A factory in northern Mexico with an investment of about $150,000 has produced during the past year large quantities of this rubber substitute. The discovery that this plant is valuable has caused a stir among the land owners of southwest Texas and Mexico, where land which has heretofore been considered worthless, except for grazing purposes, will possess value for the cultivation of the "guayule" plant.

The discovery, through tests on Lake Erie, that the apparatus or wireless telegraphy installed on shipboard will unfallingly indicate the direction of complementary apparatus on land, opens the way to a more effective safeguarding of mariners against the dangers of hidden reefs or bold projections of rocky shores. This has suggested the establishment on reefs and projections, of wireless telegraph apparatus which would inform all masters having a similar equipment on their ships of the proximity of the danger spots.

It is expected that a speed of 150 miles an hour will be reached in the new tests which will be made on the high-speed electric line near Berlin. The last experiments resulted in a speed of over 130 miles an hour. A project has been laid before the Prussian Minister of Public Works for constructing a high-speed electric line between Berlin and Hamburg, but the authorities do not wish to allow such a road to be built without making a further series of trials on a smaller scale on the Berlin-Zossen line.

The Portizuelo Light and Power Company of Pueblo, Mexico, has placed a contract with the General Electric Company of Lynn, Mass., for generators for the plant. The General Electric is also making a number of dynamos on contract for the Waipori Electric Company of New Zealand, a part of a four thousand horse-power electrical equipment ordered in this country.

The Standard Steel Car Company of Pittsburg has perfected plans for building passenger, mail, and express cars of steel.

Wages in Egypt are nine to eleven cents per day in the upper region and thirteen to eighteen in the lower.

The United States imported last year over $40,000,000 worth of coffee from Brazil.

General.

Some interesting and valuable archæological discoveries have been made on the site of the ancient Greek city Olbia, not far distant from the estuary of the Dnieper. This ancient city was a colony of Miletus 655 B. C., and was a great centre for Greek trade with the interior. The excavations that are now in progress upon the site are being carried out under the auspices of the Russian Archæological Society. The masonry is found to be identical with that of the ruins of ancient cities excavated in various parts of Greece. The stone blocks composing the ruins of houses, temples etc., in the upper strata are of remarkably exact area, square proportions, and excellently dressed. The more solid constructive work is, however, found in the remains of the original city, where there was unearthed a perfectly preserved wine cellar containing some fifty huge jars or vases. A large collection of valuable antiques in gold, marble, and ancient pottery has also been found.

Some fine religious paintings are finding their way, it is said, into the art collection of J. P. Morgan, as the result of the activity of French Radicals in causing the removal of those pictures from French law courts, Since the establishment of courts in France it has been the custom to place behind the judge's bench a crucifixion or some painting combining the idea of religion and the law, and some of France's most famous masters have contributed to this work. Among the most famous of these great works of art is the picture known the world over as "The Christ of the Parliament," said to have been painted in 1176 by Memling at the order of Louis XI. Another famous picture is a "Christ" by Henner, and another "Christ on the Cross" by Bonnat, in the assize court.

The income to the people on Cape Cod from cranberry culture is said to be as great or greater than that from fishing. Eighty to a hundred barrels per acre is considered a good run. The annual output is about 200,000 barrels, representing an approximate value of $1,000,000. Harvesting begins in August and continues into October. Formerly the picking was done by the natives and was a time of jollity for the countryside. Now fully eighty per cent of the pickers are Swedes, Finns, French, Italians, and Portuguese.

The most titled monarch in the world is Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria. Without his imperial crown, which is the identical tiara of Charlemagne, he is nine times a king, twice a grand duke, once a grand prince, twice a prince, four times a margrave and the multitude of his titles as count and so forth is past enumeration.

At St. Louis last week the Baldwin airship, California Arrow, was successfully navigated to a height of two thousand feet, circled in every direction, and was brought safely back to the starting-point. The flight occupied about thirty minutes and covered a distance of about 3½ miles.

What education is doing for England and Wales is shown by the fact that the last year out of 1,000 marriages only 23 grooms and 26 brides were unable to sign their names to the registers. Fifty years ago the numbers were 305 and 446 respectively.

In 1848 not over one thousand pounds of salt a year were gathered from Great Salt Lake, Utah. At present the State ranks sixth in the production of salt, the production having increased from 96,760 barrels in 1880 to 417,501 in 1902.

Fourteen million men were killed in "civilized" warfare in the "years of our Lord" 1800 and 1900, and one hundred and fifty billion dollars were required for the enginery of war.

More than two thousand skilled workmen have left the French silk factories of Roubaix and Turcoing, within a year, for the United States.

There are no less than 476 bridges on the Great Siberian Railroad between European Russia and Irkutsk, on Lake Baikal.