two hundred and eighty-one degrees below. January, 1864, had eleven days below zero, aggregating two hundred and twentythree degrees below; December, 1872, had seventeen days below zero, aggregating two hundred and twenty-one degrees below; January, 1856, thirteen days below zero, aggregating two hundred and nineteen degrees below; January, 1875, eighteen days below zero, aggregating two hundred and twelve degrees below; January 1 to 7, 1864, three observations taken each day gave a mean of nearly eighteen degrees below. The aggregate for the week, taking the coldest point, one observation daily for seven days, one hundred and sixty degrees below. The coldest two consecutive months in the twenty-five years were January and February, 1875, thirty-eight days giving an aggregate of five hundred and thirty-six degrees below; the next two coldest months consecutively taken were January and February, 1856, twentyfive days, aggregating four hundred and fifteen degrees below; January, 1857, may have been colder than this last month, as I have not preserved the extremes. The mean of that month, four observations daily at 8, 10, 12 and 2 o'clock, was one and onequarter degrees below.

I ought to state that the coldest record of the past month has been taken by a mercury thermometer hanging away from the house on an apple tree, and probably was no colder than either the months mentioned, except February, 1875.

The coldest days for each year from 1855:

USES AND ABUSES OF RAILWAYS.

BY A. V. H. CARPENTER, Milwaukee.

Ladies and Gentlemen: It is said of Carlyle, that "he surprised us into greatness by disclosing the significance of the apparent trifles which crowd our lives." The author who would not feel proud of such commendation deserves no epitaph. Your humble servant will feel that his time is well spent, if he shall succeed in causing the significance of a very few of the points concerning the "uses and abuses of railways" to be appreciated.

Although some two hundred years have elapsed since the hint of a railway had a genesis, even the nomenclature of the thing is still in controversy,- but any man can employ his time more profitably in sharpening shoe pegs with a jack-knife than in discussing this point. Its orthography or etymology will influence the value of the property, or determine the proprieties of its various uses, about as much as the discovery or non discovery of either pole of the earth will affect the current price of real estate at "the Hub."

In fact it would be rather out of line with the column of events to have a settlement of the question as to whether railway or railroad is orthodox. With this preface the work of development will begin.

Two simple words tell the story of its physical use. "Common carrier" expresses the size of it in that respect, as suggestive of the mule and pack saddle as of the railway, and no one finds any thing startling about it until "railway monopoly" is shouted at him, when, presto, it is as terrible as the ghost of the "bloodboltered Banquo." It is consoling, however, that there are not enough such timorous souls to cause an earthquake by their shaking; men of strong minds, great hearts, true faith and skillful hands; men who can stand before a demagogue and damn his nonsensical twaddle or treacherous blarney without winking, don't grow pale at such stuff. There are many honest, well meaning people who think it "the regular thing" to tremble at the word monopoly, as a "shibboleth" of terrible significance; but

the "

man of sense, he looks and laughs at a' that; " the superficial fellows, however, keep up as much chattering as a lot of magpies; the eagle will go to sleep in spite of the hubbub; men of "opinions and a will, who live above the fog in public duty and private thinking," are not disturbed at anything relating to this factor of the unparalleled growth of this nation in all the phys ical, mental, ethical and potential attributes for which it is distinguished. That portion of the Massachusetts boy's speech, "Great oaks from small acorns grow; large streams from little fountains flow," had several stories added to its significance to the thoughtful mind when the railway came.

To the mind of Watt the apparent trifle of the tilting of the lid of the tea kettle, by the escaping steam, spoke a language whose every syllable was prophetic of power. And when Stephenson emphasized its potency with the locomotive, men were ready to not consider Archimedes a teetotal lunatic for his celebrated boast that he would move this earth with his lever if he had another world to stand on; and all the industries of the civilized world were "surprised into greatness" by the revelation of the powerful ally they were thenceforth to have; and the men who had translated the significance of this wonderful force, whose facts eclipse all fables, stepped to the front of the world's benefactors, as soon as they were recognized as other than the world's fools; and no one croaked, monopoly's egg! to disturb the general jubilee among level-headed men; and yet how little did any one then dream of the mighty impetus to the increase of the world's wealth and health that force was to give; had any one predicted a tithe of what has come to pass, he would have been reckoned about as Abraham Lincoln would have been had he, while "roughing it" on his "flat boat," mentioned the fact that he was to be the occupant of the "White House." Watt and Stephenson prudentially abstained from oracular airs over their achievements, or they had done better than they knew.

Standing below Niagara's mighty cataract and looking upward, one can realize the sublimity of water-power. Standing at this end of the last fifty years and looking backward, one can get an idea of what a very small amount of water, compared to the vol

ume poured over that precipice during the time, can do, when applied where and how it will do the most good. When looking back fifty years from current date- from the terminus of the last. mile of the over one hundred thousand miles of railway built and put in operation within that period at the poor twenty-five miles then in existence, and considering what changes have been wrought by this grand progress of the "chemin de fer,” the “man of affairs" puts away his "guide book of Niagara," and turns to the statistical tables of railways, and studies with wonder akin to awe the mammoth figures thereof, among the first of which will be the five thousand millions of dollars invested therein by men. of every social grade, profession and trade, and women innumerable. Next he finds that the representatives of this capital lands, tenements, shops, tracks, bridges, locomotives and cars, together with all the force of brain and brawn engaged in working this mighty industry, earn five hundred million dollars in a year; then he will follow the lead thus obtained and find that of this great sum the average amount that finds its way into the coffers of the shareholders is only three per cent.; after which he will naturally inquire into the reasons therefor, when he will find that the prices of transportation of both persons and property have been steadily decreasing - as rapidly where left to the laws of trade as where under the pressure of statutes; that, a la American, no line of railway develops a capacity to earn enough to keep out of the bankrupt court, without counties, towns, municipalities and enthusiastic or envious individuals rushing into railway construction with an eagerness savoring of the "neck or nothing to the devil," with which spendthrifts run through their fortunes. The result is, most of them are as barren of profit as the sterile region described as being so poor that the crows carry their rations with them when flying over it in their migrations. But of this, more anon.

When the prudential gentleman referred to gets thus far he will, if possessed of the complacency of the average bonanza man, conclude that those fellows did not work it right, and he will take a hand in just to show them how the thing can be done, "you know," and after a few years he finds out and either

crawls out at the little end of the horn," or has railways at his command as plentiful as the dealer in real estate, of a dashing turn, has corner lots, and is the butt of all the bears in the market.

The prudential man and the philanthropist look at the same thing, sometimes, in vastly different lights; for while the man of the world has been indulging in the speculations named, the other has been considering the impetus given to the great aggregate of the world's industries; how time and space have been annihilated practically; how the proverb, "Time is money," has been verified; how all values have been enhanced in geometric ratio to the rapidity of exchanges, almost; how the arts have been fostered, science illumined, and superstition banished. For he will see at a glance, that had not men seen and appreciated the power in a tiny drop of water when converted into steam, before the inventor of telegraphs appeared on the stage, there would have been an auto de fe with that party for the victim, or the nearest lunatic asylum would have had its muster roll embellished with his name, and he would have had quarters in the "incurable" ward.

The statesman and level-headed business man goes straight to the logic of the matter; he looks back to the America of fifty years since and at the America of to-day, and is at no loss to discover the cause, and don't classify the railway as a robber, its owners as monsters, and its operatives as of no more account than the "Greaser" drivers of the overland caravans of ye olden time, whatever exceptional cases he may find answering those descriptions. It would be amusing, but for the consequences to which their conduct "leads up," to study the character of the men who make the forum, the legislative hall, the field, the shop, and even the bench, hideous with their dismal forebodings or bitter denunciations of railways; neither sacred or profane history or the legends of mythology can discount them in grotesqueness or diabolism.

If there is anything in the logic of history the railway is the most comprehensive factor of the industries of the world, and has added a chaplet to the brows of the carrier family; it is time, however, to take account of something higher than that term conveys; that was well enough in the early days; the carrier then was