Show NOTES members ol 01 congress who are anxious to make a record in the line of postal reform should turu their attention to the matter of the rate of compensation pensa tion allowed the railways for car kyine the mails A recent statement in the report of a postal official shows that millions 0 pounds of second class matter are carried by tha railroads at an average charge of about eight cents per pound why a railroad should be paid at the rate of a ton for carrying mail matter of the second class pauses comprehension most of the railroads of the country in receipt of this extraordinary remuneration are clad to carry freight which gives them much more trouble to bandle at an average of 10 a ton it would perhaps be more in the nature of a reform if loude bill were amended by requiring alie railroads to carry class matter at the bame rate that they would haul similar stuff for private persons if such an amendment is offered it will come from some congressman who does not owe his elec tion to the corporations sail chronicle i the royal niger company which administers square miles of territory on the niger is sending an expedition tion of some or more men with two gun boata to operate next spring against a cantankerous chief in the interior raids for the capture of slaves constitute the amusement and business of the native potentates of this region of africa ad of so many others and such raids interfere with the trade early in the present century there was a mohammedan invasion in the niger country and the pagans beame subject to a foulad chief or emperor who resides at lokoto the emirs of the conquered states hold their positions under tribute direct or indirect to the great foulad and all have armies with some cavalry some ot the pagan states have been able to maintain their independence among the number is boncea on the right bank of the middle kiger which has a sort of rough militia that uses in war tho deadly poison arrow this state has been en gaped it ia said in slave raiding and has impeded the the operine of trade with the interior but the objective point of the expedition ia not yet really known to the lie some eay it is directed against lorina lorin a state while the french suspect it ig a deign on their sphere baltimore sun the desert area of africa ia estimated by mr ravenstein at over miles of which all but a email fraction is contained in the tract of land popularly known as the sahara except for bome school children who knew better and school teachers who are instrumental for their doing the misconception of the sahara which is widespread would be practically universal the average man pictures the sahara as a vat aea of sand for the roost below sea level across which the camel speeds before the poison blast of the simola from oasis to oasis schemes for flooding the sahara have come before the public occasionally and we have react accounts of the vast inland sea which be formed rivaling the mediterranean in size giving a southern coast to morocco and algeria and admitting qiea mere directly wealthy states of thy soudan the sahara as known to the geographer corresponds badly with this conception for in fact there ie no risk of the ship of the desert ever being supplanted by the chipe of the sea few parts below aea level and trev are email and scattered in mhd interior the desert is a plain high above sea level covered with vast dunes of red sand in baay parts in others it ia an elevated plateau with lofty mountain bare rocks intersected by stony valleys it is arid save where a spring bubbled up and gives rise to a small oasis of grass and palm trees the sahara proper Is unknown except for a few trade routes regularly traversed by arabs and occasionally sio nally by adventurous europeans these utilize the oasis resting place stepping stones as it were and keep up communication between the wealthy mohammedan states round lake chad in the south and tripoli tunis algiers and borocci on the mediterranean between the trado routes all is a blank af band or barren rock exploration is only possible when water as well as food can be carried and this condition has practically stopped all attempts at discovery for the present on account of the great expense and the purely scientific nature of the possible return A railway running from the french possessions of the mediterranean across the desert to timbuktu the scarcely known trade center near the niger is talked of such a line anay be constructed in the future but the diali cult es are enormous much greater than those overcome by the russians in the trans castiau line through the deserts of orential abia mcclures magazine arc we to hold communication with mare that is a question that may soon receive more serious attention alian has yet been devoed to it the world has accustomed itself to re gardine those who have suggested the possibility of such n thing as harmless but the enthusiasts may yet be able to demonstrate that they have not been so wild as the public has thought sir francis caloa a celebrated engligh scientist has recently published an article in which he takes the ground not only that it is possible to establish communication muni cation with the planet but that leopla there are now trying to attract the attention of the inhabitants of this sphere by a system of signals which it ia necessary for up to decipher he states that one of the european observatories has made a study of a changing light something like a flash light observed at a certain point on mars the flashes are found to DO governed by a perfect system and the observers have become convinced they are regulated by human beings and are intended messages to the earth it is found that what is called the dof lasts second the dash 2 ions dash 5 seconds that there is an interval of 1 seconds between letters 3 feconda between words 6 seconds be aven so on assuming eliat the statements made by gallon are true we may consider the world to be on the verge of one of the most stupendous discoveries ever recorded but wo shall i wait and boire statesman |