National.

After quietly experimenting with long range weather forecasting all summer and meeting with success, the United States Weather Bureau announces that it is ready to enter upon a new departure by predicting weather conditions in advance for periods of several days at a time, supplementing the regular twenty-four hour bulletins of the Weather Bureau. The experiments conducted this summer were forecasts for six days at a time. Professor Moore, Chief of the Department, said: "These predictions are to be made by studying the distribution of barometric areas. The Weather Bureau has been steadily enlarging its scope in that direction. As an instance, I may cite the fact that we have just made arrangements for receiving daily cable reports from the weather stations of Russia. The Russian meteorological service has agreed to furnish us with readings daily from a number of stations. Already we are getting these daily reports from the west coast of Europe, from the West Indies, from Bermuda, the Azores, the Bahamas, and Honolulu, all by cable. In a few months we will have the daily readings from the interior of Alaska and probably within a year from Iceland. In other words we have an extensive system taking in nearly the whole of the Northern Hemisphere, and we will receive daily weather reports from a chain of stations encircling more than four-fifths of the globe. As our weather conditions are governed almost entirely by movements in the region of the equator, it can be readily seen that the more comprehensive system will enable the Weather Bureau to increase its operations."

The opening of bids for the establishment of pneumatic tube service in New York and other cities, under authorization of Congress, which appropriated $1,250,000 a year for ten years for the service, showed not only high prices and a lack of competition, but that for five cities—Baltimore, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Kansas City, and San Francisco, where Congress authorized the establishment of the new service—no proposals were submitted at all. It is announced that the Department will not make any award until further efforts have been made to secure proposals for the cities for which none were received. The character of the bids leads to the belief that either the pneumatic tube contractors find no profit in the operation of the tubes, or else that some sort of combination exists among the companies interested which has forced competition out of the field. The Post Office Department fixes $17,000 a mile as the maximum rate that will be accepted.

Further rulings in connection with the enforcement of the meat inspection law after Oct. 1, just made public by the Secretary of Agriculture, give an idea of what consumers are to expect hereafter when purchasing meat products, particularly canned goods. Anything savoring of a false or deceptive name will not be tolerated, and no picture, design, or device which gives any false indication of origin or quality will be permitted upon any label, as, for example, the picture of a pig appearing on a label placed upon beef products, or the picture of a chicken upon the label of a veal or pork product. Geographical names are allowed to be used only with the words "cut," "type," "brand," or "style," as the case may be, except upon foods produced or manufactured in the place, State, Territory, or country named. For instance "Virginia ham" must be marked "Virginia style ham."

The corner-stone of Chicago's new County Building, which, when completed, will be the largest courthouse in the world, was laid on the 21st. The elaborate ceremonies were opened with an invocation by Rev. Frank Gunsaulus. Mayor Dunne, Governor Deneen, and Vice President Fairbanks delivered addresses. The new structure will contain twelve million cubic feet of space. Its cost will be, including furnishings, $5,000,000. There will be a floor area of fourteen acres and one mile of corridor space. The general design will be on the lines of a giant letter "E."

James F. Smith was inaugurated Governor General of the Philippines on the 28th. Governor Smith in his address announced that his policy would be the policy of President McKinley and of Secretary Taft, the education and preparation of the people for popular self-government.

The sum of $100,000 has been left as a legacy to the National Association of Audubon Societies by Mr. Albert Wilcox. They may benefit later to the extent of $500,000 more from the residuary estate. The bequest is primarily intended for the protection of wild birds and animals.

Foreign.

The largest ship in the world, the largest armored cruiser in the world, and the second largest ship in the world were all successfully launched on the 20th from British shipyards. These were the huge turbine steamer Mauritania, built for the Cunard Steamship Company, H. M. S. Shannon, and the White Star liner Adriatic, which, next to the Mauritania and her sister ship the Lusitania, surpasses anything in size afloat on the high seas. The Mauritania is 790 feet long and 88 feet in breadth. The Adriatic is 710 feet long and 75 feet 6 inches in beam, and the Shannon measures 490 feet over all. The launching weight of the Mauritania, 17,000 tons, has never before been equaled in the history of shipbuilding. She was launched in a tream only 780 feet wide by heading her down stream and checking her momentum by tons of iron cable with which she had been harnessed. A special channel will have to be dredged before the ship reaches the sea. The Mauritania will be fitted with accommodations for 2,200 passengers, 500 first-class, 500 second-class, and 1,200 third-class. In addition she will carry a crew of 800, so that with a full list of passengers and crew three thousand people will be on board.

As a result of the combined recommendations of the Chinese Commissioners who recently made a tour of the United States and Europe, of Yuan Shi-Kai, Commander-inChief of the forces, and of Tang-Shao-Ki, Vice President of the Board of Foreign Affairs, an edict has been issued ordering the abolition of the use of opium, both foreign and native, within a decade. The edict strongly condemns the vice and commands the Council of State to devise regulations for the enforcement of the prohibition against opium smoking and cultivation of the poppy.

Just now, says the Shanghai Celestial Empire, China is a land of contrasts, so wide, so sharp, and so forcible that the dullest observer can hardly fail to observe them. She is going straight from wheelbarrows and springless carts, or sedan chairs, to express trains; in place of special messengers she adopts the telegraph; from rushlights she goes to electricity, and from the extreme of anti-militarism she is developing a taste for patriotic volunteering.

A Times (New York) copyright cable from London says: A statistical paper on India issued shows that in 1904 there were killed in that country by snakes and wild beasts 24,034 persons—21,880 by snake bites, 796 by tigers, 399 by leopards, and the rest by other animals. The number of cattle killed was 98,582. The other side of the account shows that 65,146 snakes and 16,121 wild animals were killed, for which rewards of £7,313 were paid.

A disastrous typhoon occurred at Hong Kong Sept. 18. The entire fleet of six hundred fishing junks was lost. This increases the mortality to ten thousand persons. The money loss is placed at over twenty million dollars.

Industrial and Commercial.

The first of the five largest locomotives in the world, which the Great Northern ordered from the Baldwin Works, has been sent West, where it will be put to work on the mountains. The engine is of the Mallet compound type, with two sets of drivers and two pairs of cylinders. Each is practically two engines in one, and is capable of hauling over mountain grades twice as much as the best the Great Northern now has, or 1,100 tons on a 2.2 per cent grade. The locomotive has a weight on the drivers of 316,000 pounds, while the total weight of the engine is 355,000 pounds, and the weight of the engine and tender is 503,000 pounds.

The first official trip through the Pennsylvania Railroad's North River Tunnel, connecting New York and New Jersey, was made on the 12th. Charles M. Jacobs, chief engineer of the tunnel, and John F. O'Rourke, head of the contracting company that bored the tube under the river, led a party of forty-five men to the middle of the tube, where the working shields had met. Nobody had been allowed to pass through the shields, and on either side the workmen who had driven them were lined up ready for the cheers that were to mark the first passage through. Mr. Jacobs, as the engineer, was allowed to go through the shields first, followed by Mr. O'Rourke.

Taking effect Nov. 1, or as soon thereafter as the computation can be made and the tariffs filed, as required by law, maximum passenger rates on the Lackawanna will be on the basis of 2$ cents a mile. The Erie and the Lehigh Valley have also given notice to the same effect. At a meeting of the Trunk Line Interchangeable Bureau, Sept. 11, it was agreed unanimously to reduce the price of its mileage book on Nov. 1 from $30 to $25, the refund of $10 to be cut in half. It is believed that this will tend to increase its popularity. The action is in line with the reduction recently announced by the Pennsylvania.

The Carmania, which arrived at New York last week, brought $15,278,500 in gold. This shipment is said to be the largest ever brought to this country.

Conservative estimates of the Cape Cod cranberry crop place it at two hundred and thirty-five thousand bushels.