Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information Part 24

Silver: Five shillings or crown, $1.25; half crown, 62-1/2 cents; shilling, 25 cents; sixpence, 12-1/2 cents. Also a three-penny piece and a four-penny piece, but the latter is being called in, and is nearly out of circulation. The copper coins of Great Britain are the penny, half-penny and farthing.

India--Gold coins: Thirty rupees or double mohur, $14.58; 15 rupees or mohur, $7.29; 10 rupees, $4.86; 5 rupees, $2.43. Silver: One rupee, 48 cents, and coins respectively of the value of one-half, one-fourth and one-eighth rupee. In copper there is the pie, one-fourth of a cent; the pice, 3/4 of a cent; the ana, 3 cents.

j.a.pan--Gold coins: Twenty yen, $19.94; 10 yen, $9.97; 5 yen, $4.98; 2 yen, $1.99; 1 yen, 99 cents. Silver: The 50, 20, 10 and 5 sen pieces, answering respectively to 50, 20, 10 and 5 cents. In copper there is the sen, answering to 1 cent.

Mexico--Gold coins: Sixteen dollar piece, $15.74; 8 dollars, $7.87; 4 dollars, $3.93; 2 dollars, $1.96; 1 dollar, 98 cents. Silver: 1 dollar, 98 cents; 50-cent piece, 49 cents; 25 cents, 24 cents. The Mexican cent, like our own, equals one-hundreth of a dollar.

Netherlands--Gold coins: Ten-guilder piece, $4.02; 5 guilders, $2.01.

Silver: 2-1/2 guilders, $1; 1 guilder, 40 cents; half-guilder, 20 cents; 25 cents, 10 cents; 10 cents, 4 cents; 5 cents, 2 cents. The Dutch copper cent is one-hundreth of the guilder.

Peru--Gold coins: Twenty-sol piece, $19.30; 10 sol, $9.65; 5 sol, $4.82; 2 sol. $1.93; 1 sol, 96 cents. Silver: 1 sol, 96 cents; 50 centesimos, 48 cents; 20, 10 and 5 centesimos, worth respectively 19, 10 and 5 cents. It will be noted that the Peruvian coinage is almost identical with that of Colombia. It is also used in Bolivia.

Portugal--Gold coin: Crown, $10.80; half-crown, $5.40; one-fifth crown, $2.16; one-tenth crown, $1.08. These gold pieces are also known respectively as 10, 5, 2 and 1 dollar [Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'pices']v pieces. The silver coins are the 500, 200, 100 [Transcriber's Note: The original text reads 'and 5'] and 50 reis coins, worth respectively 54, 21, 11 and 5 cents. One thousand reis are equal to one crown.

Russia--Gold coins: Imperial or 10-ruble piece, $7.72; 5 rubles, $3.86; 3 rubles, $2.31. Silver: ruble, 77 cents; half-ruble, 38 cents; quarter-ruble, 19 cents; 20 copecks, 15 cents; 10 copecks, 7 cents; 5 copecks, 4 cents; 100 copecks are worth 1 ruble.

Turkey--Gold coins: Lira or medjidie, $4.40; half-lira, $2.20; quarter-lira, $1.10. The silver unit is the piastre, worth 4 cents of our currency, and silver coins of 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 piastres are current.

The currency of Denmark is also in use in Norway and Sweden, these three countries forming the Scandinavian Union. Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Roumania, Servia, Spain and Switzerland are united in the Latin Union, and use the French coinage. The units in the different States are, it is true, called by different names; as in France, Belgium and Switzerland, franc and centime; in Italy, lira and centesimo; in Greece, drachm and lepta; in Roumania, lei and bani: in Servia, dinar and para; in Spain, peseta and centesimo; but in all cases the value is the same.

The similarity in the coinage of different countries is worth notice.

A very slight change in the percentage of silver used would render the half-guilder of Austria, the krone of the Scandinavian Union, the franc of the Latin Union, the mark of Germany, the half-guilder of Holland, the quarter-ruble of Russia, the 200-reis piece of Portugal, the 5-piastre piece of Turkey, the half-milreis of Brazil and the half-rupee of India, all interchangeable with the English shilling, and all of them about the value of the quarter-dollar of North and South American coinage. With the exception of Brazil, the other South American States, as well as Mexico and the Central American countries, are all rapidly approximating a uniform coinage, which the needs of commerce will unquestionably soon harmonize with that of the United States. Curiously enough, the great force that is a.s.similating the alien branches of the human race is not Christianity but trade.

A HISTORY OF THE PANIC OF 1857.--The cause of the panic of 1857 was mainly the rage for land speculation which had run through the country like an epidemic. Paper cities abounded, unproductive railroads were opened, and to help forward these projects, irresponsible banks were started, or good banks found themselves drawn into an excessive issue of notes. Every one was anxious to invest in real estate and become rich by an advance in prices. Capital was attracted into this speculation by the prospect of large gains, and so great was the demand for money that there was a remarkable advance in the rates of interest. In the West, where the speculative fever was at its highest, the common rates of interest were from 2 to 5 per cent. a month.

Everything was apparently in the most prosperous condition, real estate going up steadily, the demand for money constant, and its manufacture by the banks progressing successfully, when the failure of the "Ohio Life and Trust Company," came, August 24, 1857, like a thunderbolt from a clear sky. This was followed by the portentous mutterings of a terrible coming storm. One by one small banks in Illinois, Ohio, and everywhere throughout the West and South went down. September 25-26 the banks of Philadelphia suspended payment, and thus wrecked hundreds of banks in Pennsylvania, Maryland and adjoining States. October 13-14, after a terrible run on them by thousands of depositors, the banks of New York suspended payment. October 14 all the banks of Ma.s.sachusetts went down, followed by a general wreckage of credit throughout New England. The distress which followed these calamities was very great, tens of thousands of workmen being unemployed for months. The New York banks resumed payment again December 12, and were soon followed by the banks in other cities. The darkest period of the crisis now seemed past, although there was much heart rending suffering among the poor during the winter which followed. The commercial reports for the year 1857 showed 5,123 commercial failures, with liabilities amounting to $291,750,000.

THE HISTORY OF PLYMOUTH ROCK.--A flat rock near the vicinity of New Plymouth is said to have been the one on which the great, body of the Pilgrims landed from the Mayflower. The many members of the colony, who died in the winter of 1620-21, were buried near this rock. About 1738 it was proposed to build a wharf along the sh.o.r.e there. At this time there lived in New Plymouth an old man over 90 years of ago named Thomas Faunce, who had known some of the Mayflower's pa.s.sengers when a lad, and by them had been shown the rock on which they had landed. On hearing that it was to be covered with a wharf the old man wept, and it has been said that his tears probably saved Plymouth Rock from oblivion. After the Revolution it was found that the rock was quite hidden by the sand washed upon it by the sea. The sand was cleared away, but in attempting to take up the rock it was split in two. The upper half was taken to the village and placed in the town square.

In 1834 it was removed to a position in front of Pilgrim Hall and enclosed in an iron railing. In September, 1880, this half of the stone was taken back to the sh.o.r.e and reunited to the other portion.

A handsome archway was then built over the rock, to protect it in part from the depredations of relic hunters.

GRANT'S TOUR AROUND THE WORLD.--General Grant embarked on a steamer at the Philadelphia wharf for his tour around the world May 17, 1877. He arrived at Queenstown, Ireland, May 27. Thence he went to Liverpool, Manchester, and on to London. He remained in that city several weeks, and was made the recipient of the most brilliant social honors. July 5th he went to Belgium, and thence made a tour through Germany and Switzerland, He then visited Denmark, and August 25 returned to Great Britain, and until October spent the time in visiting the various cities of Scotland and England. October 24th he started for Paris, where he remained a month, then went on to Lyons, thence to Naples, and subsequently with several friends he made a trip on the Mediterranean, visiting the islands of Sicily, Malta and others.

Thence going to Egypt, the pyramids and other points of note were visited, and a journey made up the Nile as far as the first cataract.

The programme of travel next included a visit to Turkey and the Holy Land, whence, in March, the party came back to Italy through Greece, revisited Naples, went to Turin and back to Paris. After a few weeks spent in the social gayeties of that city, the Netherlands was chosen as the next locality of interest, and The Hague, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam were visited in turn. June 26, 1878, the General and his party arrived in Berlin. After staying there some weeks they went to Christiana and Stockholm, then to St. Petersburg, Moscow and Warsaw, and back over German soil to Vienna. Another trip was now made through Switzerland, and, then returning to Paris, a start was made for a journey through Spain and Portugal, in which Victoria, Madrid, Lisbon, Seville and other important towns were visited. A trip was also made from Cadiz to Gibraltar by steamer. After another brief visit to Paris, General Grant went to Ireland, arriving at Dublin January 3, 1879; visited several points of interest in that country, then, by way of London and Paris, went to Ma.r.s.eilles, whence he set sail by way of the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Ca.n.a.l for India. He reached Bombay February 13th. Thence visited Allahabad, Agra and rode on an elephant to Amber; also went to Benares, Delhi. Calcutta and Rangoon, spent a week in Siam, then went by steamer to China. After spending some time at Canton, Pekin and other places he went to j.a.pan for a brief visit.

He went to Nagasaki, Tokio and Yokahama, and at last, September 3, 1879, set sail from Tokio on his return to the United States.

September 20th he arrived in the harbor of San Francisco. After some weeks spent in visiting the points of interest in California and Oregon he returned to his home in the Eastern States.

HISTORY OF Va.s.sAR COLLEGE.--- Va.s.sar College is on the east bank of the Hudson, near Poughkeepsie, N.Y. It was founded in 1861. In that year Matthew Va.s.sar, a wealthy brewer of Poughkeepsie, gave to an incorporated board of trustees the sum of $108,000 and 200 acres of land for the endowment of a college for women. The building was constructed from plans approved by him, at a cost of about $200,000. The college was opened in September, 1865, with eight professors and twenty other instructors, and 300 students. The first president of the college was Professor Milo P. Jewett; the second Dr. John H. Raymond; the third the Rev. Samuel Caldwell. The college has a fine library, with scientific apparatus and a museum of natural history specimens.

THE ORIGINS OF CHESS.--So ancient is chess, the most purely intellectual of games, that its origin is wrapped in mystery. The Hindoos say that it wad the invention of an astronomer, who lived more than 5,000 years ago, and was possessed of supernatural knowledge and acuteness. Greek historians a.s.sert that the game was invented by Palamedes to beguile the tedium of the siege of Troy. The Arab legend is that it was devised for the instruction of a young despot, by his father, a learned Brahman, to teach the youth that a king, no matter how powerful, was dependent upon his subjects for safety. The probability is that the game was the invention of some military genius for the purpose of ill.u.s.trating the art of war. There is no doubt, that it originated in India, for a game called by the Sanskrit name of Cheturanga--which in most essential points strongly resembles modern chess, and was unquestionably the parent of the latter game--is mentioned in Oriental literature as in use fully 2,000 years before the Christian area. In its gradual diffusion over the world the game has undergone many modifications and changes, but marked resemblances to the early Indian game are still to be found in it. From India, chess spread into Persia, and thence into Arabia, and the Arabs took it to Spain and the rest of Western Europe.

THE DARK AGES.--The Dark Ages is a name often applied by historians to the Middle Ages, a term comprising about 1,000 years, from the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century to the invention of printing in the fifteenth. The period is called "dark" because of the generally depraved state of European society at this time, the subservience of men's minds to priestly domination, and the general indifference to learning. The admirable civilization that Rome had developed and fostered, was swept out of existence by the barbarous invaders from Northern Europe, and there is no doubt that the first half of the medieval era, at least, from the year 500 to 1000, was one of the most brutal and ruffianly epochs in history. The princ.i.p.al characteristic of the middle ages were the feudal system and the papal power. By the first the common people were ground into a condition of almost hopeless slavery, by the second the evolution of just and equitable governments by the ruling clashes was rendered impossible through the intrusion of the pontifical authority into civil affairs. Learning did not wholly perish, but it betook itself to the seclusion of the cloisters. The monasteries were the resort of many earnest scholars, and there were prepared the writings of historians, metaphysicians and theologians. But during this time man lived, as the historian Symonds says, "enveloped in a cowl." The study of nature was not only ignored but barred, save only as it ministered in the forms of alchemy and astrology to the one cardinal medieval virtue--- credulity. Still the period saw many great characters and events fraught with the greatest importance to the advancement of the race.

THE GREATEST DEPTH OF THE OCEAN NEVER MEASURED.--The deepest verified soundings are those made in the Atlantic Ocean, ninety miles off the island of St. Thomas, in the West Indies, 3,875 fathoms, or 23,250 feet Deeper water has been reported south of the Grand Bank of Newfoundland, over 27,000 feet in depth, but additional soundings in that locality did not corroborate this. Some years ago, it was claimed that very deep soundings, from 45,000 to 48,000 feet, had been found off the coast of South America, but this report was altogether discredited on additional investigation in these localities. The ship Challenger, which in 1872-74 made a voyage round the globe for the express purpose of taking deep sea soundings in all the oceans, found the greatest depth touched in the Pacific Ocean less than 3,000 fathoms, and the lowest in the Atlantic 3,875 fathoms, as given above.

THE ARMY OF THE REVOLUTION.--It is not positively known how many men from the colonies served in the war. The official tabular statement indicates a total off recorded years of enlistment and not a total of the the men who served. Hence, a man who served from April 19, 1775, until the formal cessation of hostilities, April 19, 1783 counted as eight men in the aggregate. In this basis of enlisted years, the following table gives the contribution various States: New Hampshire, 12,497; Ma.s.sachusetts, 69,907; Rhode Island, 5,908; Connecticut, 31,939; New York, 17,781; New Jersey, 10,726; Pennsylvania, 25,678; Delaware, 2,386; Maryland, 13,912; Virginia, 26,678; North Carolina, 7,263; South Carolina, 6,417; Georgia, 2,679; Total, 233,771.

THE WORLD'S DECISIVE BATTLES.--The fifteen decisive battles of the world from the fifth century before Christ to the beginning of the nineteenth century of the present era, are as follows:

The battle of Marathon, in which the Persian hosts were defeated by the Greeks under Miltiades, B.C. 490.

The defeat of the Athenians at Syracuse, B.C. 413.

The battle of Arhela, in which the Persians under Darius were defeated by the invading Greeks under Alexander the Great, B.C. 331.

The battle of the Metanrus, in which the Carthaginian forces under Hasdrubal were overthrown by the Romans, B.C. 207. Victory of the German tribes under Arminins over the Roman legions under Varus, A.D. 9. (The battle was fought in what is now the province of Lippe, Germany, near the source of the river Ems.)

Battle of Chalons, where Attila the terrible King of the Huns, was repulsed by the Romans under Aetius, A.D. 451

Battle of Tours, in which the Saracen Turks invading Western Europe were utterly overthrown by the Franks under Charles Martel, A.D. 732.

Battle of Hastings, by which William the Conqueror became the ruler of England, Oct. 14, 1066.

Victory of the French under Joan of Arc over the English at Orleans, April 29, 1429.

Defeat of the Spanish Armada by the English naval force, July 29 and 30, 1588.

Battle of Blenheim, in which the French and Bavarians were defeated by the allied armies of Great Britain and Holland under the Duke of Marlborough, Aug. 2, 1704.

Battle of Pultowa, the Swedish army under Charles XII, defeated by the Russians under Peter the Great, July 8, 1709. Victory of the American army under General Gates over the British under General Burgoyne at Saratoga, Oct. 17, 1777.

Battle of Valmy where the allied armies of Prussia and Austria were defeated by the French under Marshal Kellerman. Sept. 20, 1792.

Battle of Waterloo, the allied forces of the British and Prussians defeated the French under Napoleon, the final overthrow of the great commander, June 18, 1815.

These battles are selected as decisive, because of the important consequences that followed them. Few students of history, probably, would agree with Prof. Creasy, in restricting the list as he does.

Many other conflicts might be noted, fraught with great importance to the human race, and unquestionably "decisive" in their nature; as, for instance, the victory of Sobieski over the Turkish army at Vienna, Sept. 12, 1683. Had the Poles and Austrians been defeated there, the Turkish general might readily have fulfilled his threat "to stable his horses in the Church of St. Peter's at Rome," and all Western Europe would, no doubt, have been devastated by the ruthless and bloodthirsty Ottomans. Of important and decisive battles since that of Waterloo we may mention in our own Civil War those of Gettysburg, by which the invasion of the North was checked, and at Chattanooga, Nov. 23 and 25, 1863, by which the power of the Confederates in the southwest received a deadly blow.

THE WANDERING JEW.--There are various versions of the story of "The Wandering Jew," the legends of whom have formed the foundation of numerous romances, poems and tragedies. One version is that this person was a servant in the house of Pilate, and gave the Master a blow as He was being dragged out of the palace to go to His death.

A popular tradition makes the wanderer a member of the tribe of Naphtali, who, some seven or eight years previous to the birth of the Christ-child left his father to go with the wise men of the East whom the star led to the lowly cot in Bethlehem. It runs, also, that the cause of the killing of the children can be traced to the stories this person related when he returned to Jerusalem of the visit of the wise men, and the presentation of the gifts they brought to the Divine Infant, when He was acknowledged by them to be the king of the Jews, He was lost sight of for a time, when he appeared as a carpenter who was employed in making the cross on which the Saviour was to be lifted up into the eyes of all men. As Christ walked up the way to Calvary, He had to pa.s.s the workshop of this man, and when He reached its door, the soldiers, touched by the sufferings of the Man of Sorrows, besought the carpenter to allow Him to rest there for a little, but he refused, adding insult to a want of charity. Then it is said that Christ p.r.o.nounced his doom, which was to wander over the earth until the second coming. Since that sentence was uttered, he has wandered, courting death, but finding it not, and his punishment, becoming more unbearable as the generations come and go. He is said to have appeared in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and even as recently as the eighteenth century, under the names of Cartaphilus, and Ahasuerus, by which the Wandering Jew has been known. One of the legends described him as a shoemaker of Jerusalem, at whose door Christ desired to rest on the road to Calvary, but the man refused, and the sentence to wander was p.r.o.nounced.

SOME MEMORABLE DARK DAYS.--During the last hundred years there have been an unusually large number of dark days recorded. As has been suggested by several writers, this may have been the result of the careful scientific observations of modern times, as well as of the frequency of these phenomena. The dark day in the beginning of this century about which so much has been said and written occurred Oct.

21, 1816. The first day of the same month and year is also represented as "a close dark day." Mr. Thomas Robie, who took observations at Cambridge, Ma.s.s., has this to offer in regard to the phenomenon. "On Oct. 21 the day was so dark that people were forced to light candles to eat their dinners by; which could not he from an eclipse, the solar eclipse being the fourth of that month." The day is referred to by another writer as "a remarkable dark day in New England and New York,"

and it is noted, quaintly by a third, that "in October, 1816, a dark day occurred after a severe winter in New England." Nov. 26, 1816, was a dark day in London, and is described "in the neighborhood of Walworth and Camberwell so completely dark that some of the coachmen driving stages were obliged to get down and lead their horses with a lantern." The famous dark day in America was May 19, 1780. The phenomenon began about 10 o'clock in the forenoon. The darkness increased rapidly, and "in many places it was impossible to read ordinary print." There was widespread fear. Many thought that the Day of Judgment was at hand. At that time the Legislature of Connecticut was in session at Hartford. The House of Representatives, being unable to transact their business, adjourned. A proposal to adjourn the council was under consideration. When the opinion of Colonel Davenport was asked, he answered: "I am against an adjournment. The day of judgment is approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment: if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish, therefore, that candles may be brought." In Whittier's "Tent on the Beach" is given a beautiful poetical version of this anecdote. It is suggested by several authorities that the cause of the dark day in 1780 should be attributed simply to the presence of ordinary clouds of very unusual volume and density. These instances are, of course, grouped with phenomena of which not a great deal is known, and can in no way be cla.s.sed with those occurrances occasioned by the smoke from extensive forest tires, volcanic eruptions, or fogs.

THE REMARKABLE STORY OF CHARLIE ROSS.--Charlie Ross was the son of Christian K. Ross of Germantown, Pa., and at the time of his disappearance was a little over 4 years of age. The child and a brother 6 years old were playing July 1, 1874, in the streets of Germantown, when a couple of men drove up in a buggy and persuaded the children, with promises of toys and candies, to get in and ride with them in the vehicle. After driving around the place for a little time, the older brother, Walter Ross, was put out of the conveyance, and the strangers gave him 25 cents, telling him to go to a store near at hand and buy some candy and torpedoes for himself and Charlie. Walter did as he was told, but when he came out of the store the men with Charlie and the vehicle had disappeared. It was believed at first by the relatives and friends of the missing boy that he would be returned in a short time, as they supposed he might have been taken by some drunken men. Time pa.s.sed, however, but no trace of the child had been discovered. In a few weeks a letter was received by Mr. Ross to the effect that if he would pay $20,000 his son would be returned, but, that the parent need not search for Charlie, as all efforts to find the abducted boy or his captors would only be attended with failure; and it was stated that if this amount was not paid, Charlie would be killed. The father answered this and a long correspondence ensued, while the search was prosecuted in all directions. Mr. Ross wanted the child delivered at the time the money was paid, but to this the abductors refused to agree. It is stated that more than $50,000 were expended to recover the child. At one time two gentlemen were two days in Fifth Avenue Hotel, New York, with the $20,000 ransom money to be given to the child-thieves, but they did not appear. The search was continued, and the officers of the law were looking up any and all evidence, until they had located the two men.

These were found Dec. 4, 1874, committing a burglary in the house of Judge Van Brunt, Bay Ridge, L. I.; the burglary was discovered, the burglars seen and shot by persons residing in an adjoining residence.

One of the men was killed instantly, the other lived several hours, and confessed that he and his companion had abducted Charlie Ross, but that the dead thief, Mosher by name, was the one who knew where the boy was secreted. Walter Ross identified the burglars as the men who had enticed him and Charlie into the buggy. There the case rested. No new fact has been developed. The missing child has never been found. Many times have children been reported who resembled Charlie, and Mr. Ross has traveled far and near in his endless search, only to return sadly and report that his boy was still missing. No case in recent years has excited such universal sympathy as that of Charlie Ross.