Daibutsu.

Great Buddha, so named on account of its size, is situated in the village Hasemma, a few minutes from Hachiman's shrine. The temple, of which the foundation stones alone now remain, is called Sho-josen-ji,and was built in 1238 by a priest named Jo-ko, who collected funds for the purpose from all classes of people.

The great image was made of wood at first. In 1252 a bronze image was cast, but this was lost, and the present image was cast soon afterward.

August 15, 1495, the temple was completely destroyed by an inundation from the sea, since which it has not been rebuilt. The image represents Bushana-butsu (Skt. Vairochana Buddha). Its dimensions are approximately as follows:

It is said the eyes are of pure gold and the silver boss weighs 30 lbs. avoirdupois. In the inside of the image there is an image of Amida-Butsu (Skt. Amitoba Buddha) with some others. This is about the most correct description of this famous image obtainable. It is but a short distance by rail from Yokohama and is a great point of interest for tourists, whose great hobby is to gather in a group before and perched upon the arms and knees and be photographed as a souvenir of their trip to Japan. J. P. BICKFORD.

Our Material Wealth.

According to the Manufacturer "the estimated increase of our wealth during the decade ending 1900 is big with promise. It This

is put down at $26,000,000,000.

makes the nation's known wealth $91,000,000,000, or an average per capita of population of $1,195. The average increase in the ten years taken was $337 per capita, and the estimated savings per capita in the country $37.70. Compared with the wealth of Great Britain ours is huge, or $91,000,000,000 against $50,000,000,000. Still Great Britain's is bigger than ours per capita, of $1,300 against $1,195. The annual income of England's people is $5,600,000,000 The aunual savings are

$1,948,000,000. The annual average earnings in Great Britain are $140, of which fully one-third is saved, making the increase of wealth per ten years $19,000,000,000 vs. our $26,000,000,000. Where this wealth winning will end it would be hard to say. That the world is better off day by day, if not wiser, is apparent to everyone. Our phenomenal gains give us a splendid opportunity to aid others. We are winning our way into world markets, once held almost exclusively by England, Germany, and others."

Anglo-Saxon Primacy.

In the time of Charles I. there were about 5,000,000 people in the world speaking the language of Shakespeare; at the time of our first national census there were about 12,000,000, one-third of them in the United States; today there are more than 120,000,000, three-fifths of them in the United States; and there are children now going to school who will live to see this vast number trebled. The task of organizing society politically so that such immense communities might grow up peacefully, preserving their liberties and affording ample opportunity for the varied exercise of the human faculties is a task which baffled the splendid talents of ancient Greece, and in which the success of the Romans was but partial and short-lived. We believe the men who used the mingled speech of Alfred and of William the Norman have solved the great political problem better than others have solved it. If we except the provinces of the Netherlands, the Swiss cantons and such tiny city-states as Monaco and San Marino, which retain their ancient institutions, there is not a nation on earth making any pretense to freedom and civilization which has not a constitution in great measure copied, within the present century, either from England or from the United States. Thus, whether willingly or not, does the civilized world confess the primacy of the English race in matters political. -John Fiske in the Atlantic.

New Orleans and Pontchartrain Railroad, four miles, opened 1831.

Mail matter was first carried by steam in a mail car in 1837.

Francis Boyden, Ericsson's screw steamer, made ten miles an hour in 1837.

The steam hammer was invented by Nasmyth in 1838.

The first war steamers were begun in England in 1838.

Legal News.

The following bills have been passed during the present session of the Indiana Legislature and signed by the Governor :

ENGROSSED HOUSE BILL No. 250.

AN ACT FOR SIGNAL LIGHTS UPON SWITCHES, AND PROVIDING A PENALTY AND A LIABILITY FOR THE VIOLATION THEREOF.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, That every steam railroad company operating wholly or partly in the State of Indiana shall place and maintain upon each switch in said state that is connected with the main track a signal light attached in such manner to the moving panel of such switch that it will indicate safety when such switch is set to such main track, and that will indicate danger when such switch is not set to the main track. Said light shall be kept brightly burning constantly between the hours of sunset and sunrise, and on such days or parts of days as are dark or foggy.

SEC. 2. That every steam railroad company operating wholly or partly in the State of Indiana shall maintain a signal light, as in section 1 described and provided, attached to and operated by the moving panel of every derail switch in the State of Indiana. Said light shall be attached to such derail switch and be in plain view of all approaching trains, and kept brightly burning constantly between the hours of sunset and sunrise: Provided. That this section shall not apply to the derails which are connected, mechanically or otherwise, with what is generally designated as the home signal at interlockings.

SEC. 3. That for any violation of or failure to comply with any of the provisions of this act such company shall be liable to all persons and employees injured by reason thereof, and no employee shall in any case be held to have assumed the risk incurred by reason of such violation or failure.

SEC. 4. Any company, or person whose duty it is to carry out the requirements of this act, who shall violate any of the requirements or provisions of this act shall, for each violation thereof, be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction shall be fined in any sum not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than five hundred dollars.

SEC. 5. All laws and parts of laws in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

ENGROSSED HOUSE BILL NO. 163.

A BILL FOR AN ACT DECLARING CERTAIN CONTRACTS BETWEEN EMPLOYER AND EMPLOYEE AND OTHER PERSONS NULL AND VOID.

Be it enacted by theGeneral Assembly of the State of Indiana, That all contracts between employer and employee, releasing the employer or third per

son, copartnerships or corporations, from liability for damages arising out of the negligence of such employer or third person or corporation, are null and void. It also declares that any contract between an employee and a third person, copartnership or corporation, in which it is agreed that the employer of such employee shall be released from liability for damages arising out of the negligence of the employer in case of the injury or death of the employee, are against public policy and void. It is provided, however, that the act shall not apply to voluntary relief departments or associations organized for the purpose of insuring employees, nor to any contract or agreement made after the injury or death of the employee has actually occurred, and that it shall not revert back to contracts made prior to the passage of the act.

RECOMMENDED BY INTERSTATE COM

MERCE COMMISSION.

AN ACT REQUIRING COMMON CARRIERS ENGAGED IN INTERSTATE COMMERCE TO MAKE FULL REPORTS OF ALL ACCIDENTS TO THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE COMMISSION.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, It shall be the duty of the general manager, superintendent, or other proper officer of every common carrier engaged in interstate commerce by railroad to make to the Interstate Commerce Commission, at its office in Washington, District of Columbia, a monthly report, under oath, of all collisions of trains or where any train or part of a train accidentally leaves the track, and of all accidents which may occur to its passengers or employees while in the service of such common carrier and actually on duty, which report shall state the nature and causes thereof, and the circumstances connected therewith.

SEC. 2. That any common carrier failing to make such report within thirty days after the end of any month shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof by a court of competent jurisdiction, shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars for each and every offense and for every day during which it shall fail to make such report after the time herein specified for making the same.

SEC. 3. That neither said report nor any part thereof shall be admitted as evidence or used for any purpose against such railroad so making such report in suit or action for damages growing out of any matter mentioned in said report.

any

SEC. 4. That the Interstate Commerce Commission is authorized to prescribe for such common carriers a method and form for making the reports in the foregoing section provided.

Approved, March 3, 1901.

The law compelling a full report of casualties and their causes, was recommended by the Interstate Commerce Commission for the purpose of a better comparison of the effect of the safety ap pliance law in the protection of life and limb-the object of the safety appliance law,

Correspondence.

All contributions to our Correspondence and Technical columns must be in not later than the toth of the month to insure insertion.

Articles must be written on one side of the paper only. Noms de plume may be used, but every ar ticle must be signed with full name and address of the writer to insure insertion.

We shall be glad to receive articles on any subject of general interest to the fraternity.

All communications are subject to revision or rejection, as the Editor may deem proper.

The Editor does not assume responsibility for the opinions expressed by contributors in this department. C. H. SALMONS, Editor and Manager.

A Physical Inspection (or Looking Us Over).

I have been in the car for the eye test and ear,
And, like thousands of others, I entered with fear.
I am not quite so young as I once used to be,
But a hustle-and-get-there yet lingers with me.
I have boxed round the compass of life quite a
spell,

Tasting little of heaven, but plenty of hell;
And I tremble to think if my manhood was o'er,
As ahead of eight others I entered the door.

A refined-looking man, with a smile frank and free

It was child-like and bland, like the heathen Chinee,

Bade me welcome. Two others assisted the while. 'Twas a trio we dreaded, each looked without guile;

They were cocks of the walk, as they strutted about

When we entered the car. But how would we go out?"

Was the question I thought as I gazed on the chap With the sweet, winning smile, 'neath the peak of my cap.

I was first led to slaughter. He picked up a skein. "What's the color?" he asked me. I answered him, "Green."

"Find its shades." (They are many, from Bryan Boru

To myself, and, still later, a much-colored crew
Often boasted about it.) He gave me a tongs,
And I thought, "Now be careful; you're not

crooning songs.

If you blunder on shades to the boneyard you'll crawl;

You're not wanted on modern railroads at all."

I kept picking them over for almost a score;
Then came pink with its cousins, a dozen or more.
Then came blue, and then red, with their family
brats,

As deceitful in looks as old shoddy-made hats.
"You are all right in colors," the doctor declared.
Sure, I knew it myself; his opinion I shared.
And I thought, as I gazed on his unruffled brow,
"I can boast I'm an expert man milliner now.'
For my hearing one went. I played deaf all my
life,

When requested for extra tens by my wife.

But the stop-watch was now put alongside my ear, And it wouldn't stand fooling the same as my

dear.

But I told of its ticking, and when it would cease,
And began to feel more like a chap at his ease,
That was yet fit to rate 'mongst the army of braves,
Who are growing more hourly but chain-dragging
slaves.

Twenty feet from a card I was stood like a fool,
Or a kid, when he faces the blackboard at school,
I was told to read up, and then crosswise, then
down,

But I proved I was neither a fool nor a clown;
Through the broad field of vision I next had to go,
As a fresh Esculapius took me in tow;
Then a whisper as faint as a young maiden's sigh
He sent at me, I heard it, he bade me good-bye.
After thirty-six years of most wearisome toil,
Spent in every department of railroading moil,
With a hustle and drive every hour of the time,
Without ever a blunder that bordered on crime,
I was put through my facings, the same as a boor,
Gathered in from a hayfield, with reasoning poor;
But thank Nature that made me a stalwart, I went
Through the car most successful, with manhood
unbent.

The long agony's over, no more shall I fear
That black nightmare that's known as the "eye
car and ear;"

I am yet 'mongst the lads whom I've toiled with so long,

And made lighter our labors with snatches of song, On the sidings, on grades, in the cuts full of snow, Where exposure and hunger oft filled us with woe, And where fluent Tom Peppers could grind out their lies,

Every Summer and Winter, 'neath black and blue

skies.

Doctor Murray, your hand! Not a favor I owe
To yourself or your smile, that's the reason I crow,
You're impartial, and treated us all just alike,
Who get checks every month on this end of the
pike;

Doctor Carnochan, too, with his blond curley hair,
Put himself upon record as honest and fair;
Doctor Twitchell, you also proved humanely kind,
And you three left a favorable record behind.
SHANDY MAGUIRE.

The Automatic Brake of 1930.

A DREAM-BY W. E. WRYE.

Scene-Meeting of several scientific societies in joint session. The chairman leads forward a distinguished-looking man, decorated with numerous medals, and in an awe-struck manner and a solemn voice introduces him to the audience as follows: "Brother Scientists, I have the honor to introduce to you the erudite and distin

guished Quick A. Brakely, a professor in the difficult art of Stop-ology, a science which teaches the reduction of momentum by compressed ether, applied through suitable apparati to auto-instantaneously superinduce friction between a fixed substance and a revolving periphery. To the great science represented by this learned gentleman we owe our safety while riding on masses of matter, propelled at lightning speed by applied energy or gravity. Without it we might be dashed into the posterior portion of a heavy freight train, without having received due notice of the circumstance prior to its occurrence; or shot by some meeting-point on a heavy grade, into a limited flyer with right of track, without being able to devise means to counteract the consequences. Professor Brakely will deliver a short lecture on instantaneous cessation of motion and the development of the cerebral system necessary to its comprehension." [Applause.]

Professor Brakely (adjusting his glasses and countenance) - "Gentlemen of the United Scientific Societies: I am about to address you on a subject of such importance that I feel my unfitness to properly elucidate to my hearers all the complicated ramifications thereof. It is a subject of gravest concern to those who go dashing about over the surface of our globe in railway cars-both those who pay to ride and those paid to ride in them. [Audible evidences of enthusiasm.]

"To begin, I will state that the greater "portion of the latter half of the nineteenth century and the entire first quarter of the present century were taken up by railway managers in devising means to increase the speed of trains. So successful were they that what was once a side issue-the control of speed-has taken the front; for there no longer remains a limit to speed. It is now a question of stopping. Hence, Stop-ology. [Tumultuous thumping.]

"The crude appliance known as the air brake was the device used to bring to a standstill the so-called flyers of the past. Today, the distance eradicating zim-zippers, that dart like thought from one side of the continent to the other, would run through several counties, and perhaps a

whole state, before their speed could be appreciably lessened by the automatic high-speed brake of 1900. [Cries of “Do tell!" "Hear! hear!" "Weren't they slow!"]

"The present auto-instantaneous galvano-pneumatic motion annihilator is an advanced type of its forerunner, the automatic air brake. The first forms of air brake were designed to be used by skillful operatives. Then, when it was found that one man would stop a train as softly as the fall of a snowflake within a remarkably (then) short distance, another man handling the same brake would jerk a set of false teeth out of one passenger's mouth, cause another to swallow his tobacco, another to sit down in a cross old lady's lap, pile from one to numerous trunks on top of the baggageman and poodles, and get everybody down on the railroad company for miles around,-and still, run by water tanks, platforms, and everything else within a radius of several miles,-it was decided to use a brake that just any old engineer could handle right, and could not handle wrong-even if he had it in for the conductor. [Several whistles and numerous thumps.] Then came the improved triple and equalizing discharge valve, which reduced to a considerable extent the uncertainty of your location in a sleeper, provided a sticky triple didn't unstick and throw the whole system into emergency, right at the critical moment when the engineman had made a one-reduction snap application-thereby spotting the wheels and the engineman's record and causing him to be abused by everybody, including the news-butcher. [Sighs and groans.]

"The constantly increasing speed of trains brought out the high-speed brake, an attachment automatically applying an amount of braking power that could not safely be intrusted to the indiscriminate use of enginemen at large, so great was the difference in the efficiency of different individuals-fluctuating from tolerable down to zero. So you see, gentlemen, the science of reducing motion has grown, step by step, until today it is of such importance that most of our great institutions of learning have added chairs for instruction in the