This machine has just completed its second 1,000,000 miles. The ordinary lot of a railway engine is to run about 20,000 miles a year, so the record in this instance is practically equal to 100 years' service. But the "Charles Dickens" is only twenty-one years of age, having been turned out at Crewe in February, 1882. Its work has been to take an early train, starting at 8:30 in the morning, from Manchester to London, a distance of about 200 miles, returning from London the same day at 4 in the afternoon. It recently completed its five thousand three hundred and twelfth round trip in addition to nearly 200 other trips that it has made, and it is significant that during the whole of its long journeyings, not a single passenger on the trains which It has hauled has suffered injury. In the twenty-one years of its service the speed has gradually risen from forty-two to fifty and one-half miles an hour, and this in spite of the fact that the weight of the trains has been increased by an addition of heavy dining and corridor cars, and other weight-involving luxuries of modern travel. During its twenty-one years of service the engine has burned 27,486 tons of coal and has evaporated 204,771 tons of water, the consumption of coal averaging thirty-two pounds to the mile a remarkably economical performance. The engine has been laid up for repairs during this period only 12 per cent of the time, and the cost of its maintenance has been a fraction over 1 penny per mile. WHAT FOGS COST LONDON The words "Thicker than a London fog" have become proverbial, and were frequently used by persons who wish to describe a dark, gloomy and, perhaps, rainy (as well as foggy) day in the United States. In this line, it would be interesting to learn what the fogs cost London. Every winter day each house in London throws into the atmosphere an average of ten tons of smoke-laden air, a total quantity of 5,000,000 tons of smoke-laden air for the inhabited houses of London per day, or, possibly, 7,000,000 tons per day, if we include factories. London loses one-sixth of its sunshine and daylight on account of this smoke. In winter the loss amounts to one-half. The cost of clearing the air of London, either by electrically driven fans or other scientific methods, would probably be $30,000 a day, equivalent to a rate of 10d in the pound. The cost off caring for London's sewerage is about £600 per day. On the other hand, a bad fog in London costs £5,000 a day, for additional gas alone. The yearly fogs cost, therefore, £3,000,000 to £5,000,000. A ten-penny rate would therefore be a very cheap and agreeable substitute for the smoke of London. The science of the twentieth century will give as satisfactory a solution to the question of smokes as that of the nineteenth century in the matter of sewage. MATRIMONY IN ENGLAND In England, a man's wife is in reality his partner, and whether or not the two are in harmony with each other in affection, they recognize in all material things that their fortunes are irrevocably bound together; that the interests of both are quite identical, and that each has just as strong a motive for making things go well as has the other, since they share equally the labor and the reward of labor. They may have their private disagreements, but they confront the world together. The wife takes the keenest interest in the most minute details of everything that affects her husband's welfare. She knows his income to a penny. She manages her household as a chancellor of the exchequer manages the nation's outlay, so that the annual budget shall not only avoid a deficit, and shall accurately balance, but shall show a surplus. She will practice rigid economy, if necessary, and in doing so, she will feel that she is merely carrying out her share of the marriage contract. It is the man's part to make money; it is her part to help him save it. She plans nothing for herself apart from him; she cannot think of him as anything apart from her. If he is in political life, she enters into his ambitions with intelligence and zeal. She will write his letters for him, and entertain his constituents; she will study the blue books and teach herself to understand the public questions with which he has to deal, so that she may discuss them with him and follow his career intelligently. She belongs to him, in fact, as he belongs to her. There is not much display of sentiment in an English household after the first year of married life has ended; but there is the bond of a common interest, which grows stronger every day and every year, and which gives to man and wife a unity of purpose and of feeling that will, beyond comparison, outlast the ties of mere emotionalism. SCOTLAND'S MODEL TOWN On the banks of the winding Forth, a few miles from Falkirk, may be seen what is known as "The Model Village of Scotland." The name of this interesting little place is Dunmore. It was built long ago by the Earl of Dunmore for estate workers. It is now inhabited not only by this class, but also by salmon fishers and others, about fifty families, in all, going to make up the population. It has a village school, "a Smiddy" and a grocery shop. In the center of the village is a lovely open space in which is the proverbial village pump. The houses are built after old architectural designs, and are comprised of rooms and kitchens. At one end of the village is the open country, while at the other are seen the waters of the Firth of Forth. It is built off the main road, and is approached by a beautifully kept carriage-way, constructed in a semicircular fashion, thus enabling visitors to drive around the village. Dunmore is in the unique position of having no public house. In the bog of Blair Drummond, near the Firth of Forth, a whale was unearthed in early times, which had been harpooned by means of an instrument made of the antlers of a stag. In the neighborhood of Falkirk, near the western extremity of the Firth of Forth, the sea formerly extended up the river Carron, far beyond the present head of the tide. The great Roman wall, named after Antonius, though begun by Agricola, extended from sea to sea, and the remains of it may still be seen near Dunglass, rising 25 feet above the present level of the sea. In the east it terminates on the top of a cliff at Carriden, near Falkirk. CANADA AND ITS GOVERNMENT |
