of blood-revenge, unless the relatives of the first murderer speedily dispose of him themselves, and thus remove the cause of strife. Cases of suicide are hardly less numerous, because even very young people are quite reckless of their own lives, and when thwarted in their purpose will destroy themselves from anger or spite, jealousy or unassuaged desire. Persons suffering from some incurable illness, and especially old men and women weakened with age, often proclaim their wish to be killed by their nearest relatives. Then the sons or the nephews, who otherwise are kind and dutiful to their elders, feel themselves bound to comply, however unwillingly, with the request. No retraction is permissible, since such an announcement is considered as a promise of human sacrifice to the evil spirits. If taken back, the revenge of the spirits on the whole family will be incurred."

THE

PROSPEROUS CANADA.

HE migration, within the past year or two, of thousands of substantial American citizens to the fertile lands beyond our northern border adds a new element of interest to such a survey of Canadian affairs as Mr. Erastus Wiman contributes to the North American Review for April. Optimistic, Mr. Wiman certainly is, as regards Canada's commercial and industrial future. He shows from the reports of the Dominion Department of Trade and Commerce that the aggregate foreign trade of the country was 91 per cent. greater in 1902 than in 1895, and that the total trade showed a gain of over $70 per capita. In the meantime, certain Canadian articles, like cheese, have taken a high place in the foreign markets because of their excellence, and are likely to maintain their prestige permanently. Mr. Wiman favors a zollverein arrangement between the United States and Canada.

AREA COMPARED WITH THAT OF THE UNITED

STATES.

Mr. Wiman says that annexation to the United States is unpopular and disapproved in Canada, not because the Canadians love the Yankees less, but because they love themselves more and propose to develop their own country in their own way. Americans do not always fully realize that Canada comprises more space on the earth's surface than all the States of the Union taken together. "It is not only the larger of the two countries, but, because of its enormous volume of minerals, and, specially, because of its foodproducing lands, it is believed by Canadians to be the richer. Omitting the possessions of both

countries in Alaska, Canada has five hundred thousand square miles more of land available than the United States; besides, it has more than half the fresh water of the globe within its borders and within its control-a fact of supreme importance, as will be seen later on, when its geographical location and the grades of its rivers are realized. This five hundred thousand square miles of land comprises Northwest Canada, rendered available within the last twenty years through the operations of the Canadian Pacific Railway, which has made all Canada accessible." GRAIN-GROWING, MINING, AND MANUFACTURING.

We have lately heard a great deal in the United States about the wheat-growing possibilities of Northwest Canada. The future of this industry is still somewhat problematic, but Mr. Wiman shows that Canada has at least one distinct advantage, as a grain-grower, over her competitors, namely, a system of cheap and ready transportation to the seaboard.

Another important element of wealth in Canada is her paper pulp-wood. The area covered by this timber extends from the interior of Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia west and northwest to Alaska, north of the St. Lawrence valley and the prairie sections, almost up to the Arctic Circle, and is estimated to comprise 450,000,000 acres. The entire region is probably better supplied with water power than any equivalent area on the earth's surface. This latter fact has especial significance in connection with the manufacture of paper, and the power plants already established, described in a recent number of the REVIEW OF REVIEWS, seem to indicate a rapid development of manufacturing enterprises.

As to Canada's mineral resources, Mr. Wiman says:

Rich ores of iron abound all the way from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Among many localities, may be mentioned Texada Island, between Vancouver Island and the mainland; several places along the Crow's Nest line of the Canadian Pacific Railway system; the Atikokan district, about seventy miles west of Thunder Bay; the Iron Lake, Frances, and Helen hematite mines near the northeastern angle of Lake Superior, extensive deposits of rich ores in various parts of the country between Lake Ontario and the Ottawa River, and in the valley of this stream; besides many others of different kinds of iron ore in the provinces of Quebec and Nova Scotia, and on the east side of Hudson Bay and in the Labrador peninsula (which is one thousand miles across).

Canada possesses coal enough to supply the

world. Although the limits of her enormous coal fields in the Northwest Territories, and in the mountainous country extending from the State of Washington to beyond the Arctic Circle, have not yet been accurately defined, they probably exceed those of the United States, and consequently of any other country in the world. It is a remarkable and important fact that, while the United States possesses no coal fields on the shores of either ocean, Canada has rich mines capable of great development at tidewater in Nova Scotia on the Atlantic and on Vancouver Island on the Pacific."

The Dominion Geological Survey has reported as follows on the mineral wealth of the country:

"Almost every mineral and metal known can be found in Canada, and a number of the most valuable products exist here in quantities not exceeded anywhere else in the world; take, for instance, the metals iron, copper, lead, nickel, gold, silver, zinc, manganese, and the non-metallic minerals, coal, petroleum, natural gas, salt, corundum, asbestos, gypsum, cements, phosphates, mica, slate, etc."

SOUTHERN COTTON MILL COMMUNITIES.

'HE defeat of the child-labor bill in the Georgia Legislature has caused an impres sion to prevail in the North that the situation, so far as Southern factory conditions are concerned, is well nigh hopeless. An article by Mrs. Leonora Beck Ellis in the American Journal of Sociology for March should go far to remove such an impression, since it brings clearly into view certain distinctly favorable aspects of Southern factory life which have received scant attention from most writers on the subject.

ECONOMIC OBJECTIONS TO CHILD LABOR.

It is evident, in the first place, that practical considerations are operating very effectively against the system of child labor in cotton mills, in the South as well as elsewhere.

"Manufacturers in this part of the country, as in Massachusetts or Illinois, are learning the lesson that it is a false economy, with expensive practical as well as ethical results, which prompts the employment of the low-priced labor of children. Delicate machinery operated at high speed demands more intelligent and steadfast attention, to secure the best results, than untaught and usually careless childhood can give it. The direct loss thus involved counts heavily in the course of a year, and comes to be weighed comparatively as the adult labor of a section grows more skillful and satisfactory; nor are clearheaded mill men slow to discover that such loss,

estimated closely, is by no means compensated for by the low scale of wages to the child operative.”

As a matter of fact, a recent report of the North Carolina Labor Commission shows that, while in 1895 there were 6,046 children employed in the factories of that State, in 1899 there were only 3,308-a decrease of 50 per cent. in four years, although during this same period there was an increase of 50 per cent. in the number of women and 100 per cent. in the number of men similarly employed, to meet an increase of nearly 40 per cent. in the number of spindles. These facts tend to justify, in a measure, the optimistic conclusion reached by Mrs. Ellis, that child labor in factories is a rapidly vanishing evil.

From this conclusion, Mrs. Ellis passes on to a study of the homes and the family life of the mill operatives throughout the new manufacturing South.

A RURAL PEOPLE.

Among the points of difference between the factory operatives of the South and those of other sections, Mrs. Ellis notes, first, the absence of "urban instincts" in the Southern communities. The good and the bad in these mill workers, she says, are still such qualities as belong to a strictly rural people; but with the passing of the present generation this characteristic must be largely lost.

"It may be asked: What are the indications of this quality which, for lack of a better word, is named rusticity'? The signs are many and easy to read. No observant person can miss the plain evidence even in his first day with the mill people. He walks past the cottages row on row, and sees prince's feather and bachelor's button growing in the tiny yards, patchwork quilts sunning from the windows, and strings of red pepper festooned on the back porch. The boys are quite

often chewing tobacco, but they are not smoking cigarettes. Often, alas! the girls dip snuff, but they do not lace in their waists nor attempt handkerchief flirtations. The women are given to quiet, and a profound reserve usually marks their social intercourse. The festive gatherings in the 'amusement halls' on Saturday nights are either stiff parties or genuine country dances. The 'barbecue' is common on a general holiday, and the all-day singing' of a Sunday still remains the acme of enjoyment, affording the perfect blending of sociality and devotion.

NATIVE AMERICANS.

"A second quality differentiating our people from the Northern factory communities of to-day is what may well be called their unmodified

Americanism. Up to the present time, there is an entire absence of the foreign element of population among them, and the effect of such absence is very marked. Not only do better manners prevail in this people sprung from our own soil, but better morals, greater social purity, less turbulence and lawlessness. Observance of law is easier, more natural, even to illiterate Americans, than to other nations, because law has typified to them from childhood the majesty of right, not the tyranny of might.

Most of the Southern mill operatives come from the class known in the South as tenant farmers, a moneyless people,-and Mrs. Ellis accounts for the apparent extravagance and thrift lessness of these people on the score of their derivation. The money that they now receive every Saturday night is far more than many of them formerly saw from year's end to year's end. "Cases such as the following are multiplied many times over: The father, mother, and six or eight boys and girls (for large families are the rule in this class), ranging from twelve to twenty-odd years of age, are at work in one mill. The adults, if fair weavers, easily average $22 each per month; the younger members of the family are probably spinners, and average about $14 each per month. This family, then, that in the old life of the farm thought themselves fortunate, indeed, to handle $100 in cash through out a year, now bring home something like $175 every month. Is it strange that extravagance seizes upon this metamorphosed household?"

LOW COST OF LIVING.

"How can they save money? clamor those who have been studying the comparative wagescale of Northern and Southern factories without acquaintance with the actual conditions of the latter. By reasonable economy, is the answer here as elsewhere. From $20 to $30 per month is paid good weavers throughout this section, while the average spinner draws from $10 to $16; and these are regarded as good living wages in a country where the prices of necessaries range much lower than in the East or the West. Houses are to be heated only about four months of the year, and fuel is cheap,-in many places less than $1.50 per cord for wood and $2 to $4 per ton for coal. Clothing costs far less in this warm climate than in a cold one.

OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI FLOODS.

THE high water of the present spring in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys has occasioned no little discussion of the causes of these river floods, and some interesting comparisons have been made with the flood conditions of former years. In Arboriculture (Chicago) for March some of the striking features of these annual freshets are pictured and explained for the benefit of the reader who is unfamiliar with the peculiarities of our great Western waterways.

The first recorded flood in the Ohio River was in February, 1832. It resulted from a sudden rise of temperature, with heavy rains, following an unusually heavy snowfall throughout the Ohio valley. The river rose to the height-then unprecedented of 64 feet 3 inches. Similar conditions produced another high-water record63 feet 7 inches-in December, 1847. In February, 1884, the river attained a still greater depth at Cincinnati-71 feet and three-fourths of an inch. That was the highest water ever known at Cincinnati.

WIDENING THE RIVER-BED.

To realize the fact that the volume of water flowing away within a given period is far greater now than in former times, when the forest areas were greater, it is only necessary to remember that the width of the Ohio River bed has been increased with every overflow by the caving in of farms along its course, so that to-day the width between the banks is estimated as onefourth greater than it was in 1832.

The writer of the article in Arboriculture was acquainted in boyhood with the river roads on which the traffic between towns and farms along the Ohio passed. He says:

"These roads were washed into the river and conveyed down the stream year after year with each recurrence of high water, the fences carried away, adjoining farms were swept into the whirling water, acres at a time were thus lost by the landowners along the banks. One house with which the writer was familiar was moved back from the river-bank four successive times, each time being taken several hundred feet to a supposedly safe location. It was finally removed half a mile back and the roadway changed to a similar distance.

"Meantime, there was not, as is sometimes the case, any deposit upon the opposite side of the river, but the breadth of the waterway was increased each year, and is now twelve hundred feet broader than it was seventy-one years ago, at time of the highest water of early days.

LOW WATER A MODERN CONDITION.

"But it is by no means the highest water only which is to be regretted on account of removal of the forest. During the long period of drought which follows, the springs having been dried up, the streams run low and the period of extreme low water in which navigation is suspended or made very difficult is greatly prolonged.

"Prior to 1862, there was no time within the knowledge of steamboat men of the forties and fifties when the rivers of the West did not have a good boating stage, usually twelve or fifteen feet depth, while in more recent years, the water has been so low that teams were crossing the Ohio by fording, the water being but two feet

depth, all steamboats and crafts of every kind being idle for months at a time.

"Many cities are dependent for water-supply on the various streams, and during the lowwater stages the contamination is far more serious, the impurities being concentrated to such extent as to cause much sickness. Of course, with all sewerage of cities polluting the streams, this becomes a serious matter when the water for a long time remains so low."

MILLIONS FOR LEVEES AND DAMS.

This writer describes the great floods of 1883 and 1884, when much damage was done and untold suffering caused throughout the Ohio and lower Mississippi valleys. In the present year, however, the water at Memphis has reached a higher stage than in previous flood years 40 feet-while at New Orleans also it has exceeded all records. Speaking of the lower Mississippi valley, from the junction with the Ohio to the delta, the writer says:

"In 1897, there were 15,800 square miles of this alluvial plain beneath the sea of waters; 380,000 people were residents of the flooded area; 39,500 farms were submerged, with 3,800,000 acres of farm land.

"Millions of dollars have been expended by the Government and the several States of the South in constructing levees, as in high water the Mississippi is far higher than the surrounding lands.

"Other millions have been used in damming up the outlets to this great river, in order to

By a systematic reafforestation of the mountain regions and the planting of trees on the plains at headwaters of these Western rivers, and the construction of extensive storage reservoirs to supply water for irrigation, this country must be vastly improved in agriculture, manufactures benefited by water power, and navigation improved by a regularity of flow in various streams; a recurrence of such disastrous floods in the South would be impossible, as, relieved of the surplus water of the Western streams, which back up and retard the flow of the great Mississippi, the Ohio would be fully competent to carry away the waters of its drainage area. And with a proper systematic reafforestation of the Alleghany and eastern mountains, and the broken lands along the various streams, the forces of nature could be easily overcome and the nation be forever benefited."

IS MAN THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE?

ARE we going to come back to the old familiar

theory of the universe, according to which Man was the center of all creation, the sun, the moon, and the stars being the convenient street lamps created for his convenience? The discovery of the immensity of this sidereal universe led to the belittling of the importance of man. We seemed to become as insignificant as cheesemites seated upon one of the minor planets in a universe which contained one hundred million worlds. "What is man that thou art mindful of him?" was the inquiry which gained in force with every improvement of the telescope. As system after system was revealed, each fresh

discovery seemed to make more utterly unthinkable the old theory which had its expression in the Book of Genesis. But now an article which Alfred Russel Wallace contributes to the March number of the Fortnightly gives us hope that our good conceit of ourselves is about to be revived, and that we are going to come back to the old faith by the very latest and most approved scientific road. For if Dr. Wallace is correct, there is a strong presumption that we are after all the center of the whole universe.

He

He maintains that there is no reason to believe that the stars are infinite in number. says that the increased size and power of the telescope, and that powerful engine of research, the photographic plate, alike lead to the same conclusion,—namely, that we are piercing to the outer elements of the starry system. The total number of visible stars from the first to the ninth magnitude is about two hundred thousand. If they increased in number on to the seventeenth magnitude at the same rate that they increased from the first to the ninth, there ought to be 1,400,000,000 stars visible through the best telescope, instead of which there are not more than 100,000,000. As our instruments reach farther and farther into space they find a continuous diminution in the number of stars, thus indicating the approach of the outer elements of the stellar universe. If the universe is not infinite, but has limits, where is its center? He says that the new astronomy has led us to the conclusion that our sun is one of the central orbs of a globular star cluster, and that this star cluster occupies a nearly central position of the exact plane of the Milky Way. Combining these two conclusions, Dr. Wallace states definitely that our sun is thus shown to occupy a position very near to, if not actually at the center of, the whole visible universe, and therefore in all probability is the center of the whole material universe. This conclusion, he maintains, has been arrived at gradually and legitimately by means of a vast mass of precise measurements and observation by wholly unprejudiced workers.

Not only are we the hub of the universe, but Dr. Wallace thinks that there is grave reason to doubt whether life could have originated and have been developed upon any other planet. It was necessary that for hundreds of millions of years the surface temperature should never for any considerable time fall below freezing-point or rise above boiling point. None of the other planets appear to possess this and other fundamental features which have made life possible on the earth. Among these features, he maintains that the importance of volcanoes and deserts has never been properly appreciated.