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CHICAGO. It is reported from Milwaukee that up to date 650,000 _ bushels of grain, chiefly corn, have been chartered for win- ter storage and spring delivery at Buffalo. The last boats gee were the steamers Uganda and Nyanza for 100,000 ushels of corn each at 23f cents and the schooner Chicka- magua for 150,000 bushels of wheat and rye at 3 cents and 2% cents respectively. It is reported .that a girl residing in a Lake Michigan town has recovered $500 damages from a steamboat company _ for naming a boat after her without asking her permission. _ The query will occur to a good many, is she a woman? The women who feel this way ought to copyright their names or take it out as a trade mark, so as never to have it changed or appropriated. However, there are but few ladies who don’t like the ceremony of christening, or personal naming, etc., and there must be some private reasons for the Mich- igan girl’s objections in this case. The use of electricity in shipbuilding as well as for the ship machinery, propulsion, etc., is making rapid progress. The portable electric drills used in shipyards have resulted jn a marked economy, working as they do as readily in the most inaccesible places or awkward positions as in the open. Another invention of fiote in this line is an electric riveter, so that now the holes may be drilled and the rivets driven from the same power circuit. This machine will deal with rivets up to one eighth inch diameter at the rate of 120 per hour, requiring for this work only one and a half horse- power, Grain chartering for winter storage and spring delivery is very quiet, though shippers at Milwaukee are in the market for tonnage and they are bidding rates up. Three cents on corn has been offered. Quite a few vessels that are in winter quarters at Lake Michigan ports are not ready to be chartered until they are put in shape for next season. ‘The capacity of the fleet at Chicago and Milwaukee is small ’ compared with other seasons and the indications are that fair rates will be paid before the opening of navigation. It is expected that Chicago shippers will be in the market for tonnage during the week. The Graham & Morton Transportation Co. will commence on January 1 the erection of a $35,000 building at its dock, foot of Wabash avenue. It will be a four-story structure, beside basement, and will be 66x196. From the dock the entrance to the building will be so arranged that the ship- ments will be carried direct to either the basement or the first floor, thereby furnishing twice the amount of flooring heretofore had. Aside from this, there are three upper floors which are reached by electric elevators, that will be used for freight. The company’s offices, passenger and freight departments, will be arranged in the front of the building on the ground floor, and all to be completed by the opening of navigation next spring. : Mr. J. W. Duntley, president of the Chicago Pneumatic Tool Co., sailed for Europe a few weeks ago and will give his attention to the interests of the concern in Great Britain and on the continent. The trip is made necessary by in- creasing foreign business, and reports clearly show that the demand for pneumatic tools in this country is larger than ever before. The facilities for manufacturing at the present plant are employed to their full capacity to keep up with the increased demand on account of the present activity of the ship and navy yards. Orders for stationary and railroad work are also more pressing than ever before. Mr. Duntley has taken across with him letters of introduction to prom- inent men in the marine line on the other side. With the advantages of mechanical stokers for boiler fur- naces known as well as they are to-day, itdoes seem a bit strange that the marine engineer has apparently not taken kindly to them; at anyrate, they have not yet gained a footing aboard ship. It is worth noting, there- fore, that what will probably be the first mechanical stoker installation in existence afloat is now being fitted to the boilers of one of the steamers of the Zenith Transit Line, on the Great Lakes. The stokers will be of the underfeed type, and their performance in their new field of operation ought to prove an interesting engineering experience. There is certainly no very good reason apparent why some device of this class that will work well on land should not work well at sea. The installment in this particular case will comprise six stokers, three under each of the two boilers, and each of these groups is guaranteed to be capable of burning 1,650 pounds of coal per hour under ordinary conditions, and 2,100 pounds when forced.—Cassier’s Magazine. 3 a oe oe ‘THE ARENA Co., Copley Square, Boston, Mass., offers a $1,000 scholarship in any college to the competitor securing the largest number of subscribers to that journal during the first half of the present year; $50 in cash is also offered for one hundred subscribers and a similar amount for each ad- ditional one hundred. ; —_—_— EE THE officers elected by the Toledo branch of the Marine Engineers’ Benevolent Association for the year 1899 are: Past president, Burton Ransom; president, Alpha Page; vice president, John Marshall; recording secretary, James L. Aznoe; corresponding and financial secretary, E. D. Locke; treasurer, F. N. Weise; conductor, Samuel Shantan; chap- lain, Jay A. Popp; doorkeeper, Richard Skeldon; delegates re the national convention, E. D. Locke and James L. noe, THE MARINE RECORD. MEETING OF THE ete CARRIERS’ ASSOCIA- ION. A special meeting of the executive committe of the Lake Carriers’ Association was held at the office of Capt. James Corrigan on Tuesday. Many of the members of the associa- tion were not satisficd with the date fixed a few weeks ago, for the annual meeting, which was March 22, and the Tues- day meeting was called for the purpose of discussing the question at greater length. A majority of the members were in favor of holding the meetingin January as hereto- fore and it was finally decided to call the meeting for Tues- day, Jan. 24. Notices to that effect will be sent to all of the officers and members of the association. . $e SOME ASTRONOMICAL NOTES FOR JANUARY. (Communicated. ) The most important astronomical event during the past month was the total eclipse of the moon on the evening of December 27. A more favorable opportunity for viewing the eclipse could scarcely have been desired, and the various phases of the eclipse took place in harmony with the pub- lished predictions. Some were disappointed, I suppose, be- cause the obscuration during the total phase was not more marked ; but the eclipse was not central, and the earth’s shadow was indirectly permeated to an unusual degree by the refracted rays of the sun, the red rays predominating, as evidenced by the copper color reflected from the face of the moon, The principal winter constellations, Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor the Gemini, Taurus and Auriga are now con- spicuous in our eastern evening sky. Toward the wes Vega, Altair and Denib are still objects of beauty, but they are nightly sinking toward the horizon, and hence slowly losing their accustomed brightness. Mars, the red planet of war, is now prominent in our even- ing sky. He will attain his greatest brilliancy January 18. Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn are visible only in the early morning hours. December 31 the earth passed its perihelion, the nearest point of approach to the sun, a little less than 92,000,000 miles distant.. The sun came to the meridian to-day about four minutes late. At the close of the month he will be nearly fourteen minutes slow. The increasing daylight in the evening is now quite perceptible, and on the morning of Jan. 8, the sun will rise one minute earlier, and from that date the daylight will continue to drive back the darkness. D. SATTERTHWAITE, Toledo, Ohio, Jan. 2, 1899. roe or or THE PARRY SOUND CANADA-ATLANTIC ROUTE. The success of the new Parry Sound lake and rail line was dwelt upon by speakers at a recent banquet in St. John, N. B. Hugh A. Allen, representing the ocean line that has just made St. John its winter terminus, said: ‘The Canada-Atlantic route has brought to Montreal this first year of its existence between 8,000,000 and 10,000,000 bushels of grain and 46,000 tons of package freight. In ad- dition to the large elevators at Parry Sound and Coteau, they will undoubtly erect a large one at Montreal and these will all serve as a storage for grain which would be exportedin the winter and increase traffic over these routes to an enor- mous extent. The Parry Sound route takes its enormous freight from the wheat fields of the west as well as other products which must find their way to eastern markets in winter months. Its freight this season was diverted from Buffalo to Montreal. Wheat and other freights can be land- ed at Depot Harbor by water for one month or more after navigation has closed at the port of Montreal. This, witha proper elevator system would enable the Parry Sound rail- way to store at the depot terminal and other points along its line, enormous quantities of grain which, with connections to the lower provinces, would find their way to the markets of the east via maritime ports.”’ Another speaker, A. G. Blair, said that he hoped to see the Parry Sound route connected with the sea, and he be- lieved that this would result in benefitting the ports of St. John and Halifax and increasing the trade of Canada. A gentleman prominently connected with the Parry Sound line stated while in Milwaukee last fall that the elevator capacity at Depot Harbor and Coteau landing and the ware- house room also would be doubled at once. This would in- crease the grain storage capacity at Depot Harbor to 3,000,- ooo bushels and at Coteau landing to 1,750,000 bushels. The Parry Sound route draws largely from the traffic which has hitherto found its way to the Atlantic via Ogdensburg. This fact was very much in evidence during the time the new line was operated last season. OO OS TO RESUME MINING. After a period of enforced idleness for more than five years duration the Iron River Mine at Stambaugh, Mich., is to be placed in operation next spring. A company is now being organized in the east for this purpose and there is little doubt that the property will be worked to its fullest capa- city. the mine was formerly controlled by Ferdinand Schles- inger, the great mining king, who met reverses some years ago. The Florence River Iron Mining Company operated it until that company went into a receivership. Judge Ludwig of the Superior Court has entered an order directing the sale of the Michigan property on January 7. The real estate of the Florence River Iron Mining Com- pany, in Michigan and the property at Florence, Wis., in- cluding the Florence mine, will be sold on Feb. 7. FLOTSAM, JETSAM AND LAGAN, The captured Spanish gunboats Alvarado and Sandoval arrived safely at Norfolk, Va., from Guantanamo, Cuba. They will be repaired and refitted at the Norfolk navy yard, The father of Miss Noble, who was a passenger on the ill- fated Mohegan, which was wrecked in the English Channel, has started an action against the company to recover damages, The Merritt & Chapman Wrecking Co., of New Vork, has made a contract with the government for the raising of the Spanish warship Reina Mercedes, which was sunk off Santiago de Cuba in the battle of July 3d. During the last fifty years the size of steamships has been multiplied twentyfold, the horse power employed to drive them has been multiplied fortyfold, and the speed with which they traverse the sea has increased threefold. An exchange says it takes a rich man to draw a check, a pretty girl to draw attention, a horse to draw a cart, a porous plaster to draw the skin, a toper to draw the cork, a ae lunch to draw a crowd and an advertisement to draw trade. Excavation work on the Erie canal was started on July 4, 1817. It was completed Oct. 26, 1825; at a cost of $9,027,456. It was ordered enlarged in 1825, and the cost of enlarge- ment was about $25,000,000, The sum of $9,000,000 appro- priated by the state of New York appears to have been squandered on its so called improvement last year. A curious juxtaposition of names is to be found in a recent Lloyd’s List, where the schooner Twelve Apostles, of Port- madoc, Wales, is reported as wrecked at Hell’s Mouth. There are several Hell’s Gates and ‘“‘holes in the wall’’ which the Twelve Apostles could have discovered as well as the entrance of Hades. The Secretary of the Navy has at length determined to begin the sale of such vessels of the auxiliary navy as are not considered fit for the naval service. A number of these vessels are modern, of excellent type, high speed and splen- didly appointed but were built as pleasure craft and there- fore aehins in many things that goto make up a naval vessel. The Charles C. Hillman Ship Company, Philadelphia, one of the oldest ship building firms in the country, made an as- signment last week for the benefit of creditors. No state- ment of assets or liabilities was made with the deed of as- signment. Charles Hillman, the president of the company, who established the business more than 50 years ago, died at his home only a few days ago. The case of Gustave Stadleman against the White Line Towing Co., of Duluth, was last week transferred from the state district court to the United States court. It is a suit for damages for personal injuries. Stadleman was a fireman on one of the tugs of the White Line Towing Co. He claims that while engaged in his duties as fireman last August flames came out of the furnace door and into his face, burning him so as to disfigure his face and seriously injure him. Every man employed by the Continental Iron Works, in Brooklyn, N. Y., received a substantial present from the management of that firm on Saturday last. It was a gift of money ranging in amount from $25 to $75, according to the length of service of the men. It was in these works that the Monitor, of the civil war, was constructed. ‘The pres- ents were an offering for the men’s faithful service during the late war, when the capacity of the place was taxed in the manufacture of shells. Of course it is only coincidence, but it is related by a con- temporary as being interesting. A sea captain relates that right after the steamer Portland was built he received a large picture of her. It was framed and covered with glass and quite heavy. He hung itin his parlor and never took it down during these years. The Sunday when the Portland went down, he and his wife were sitting in the parlor read- ing when suddenly the‘picture fell with a crash, smashing the glass into a thousand pieces. Seaboard New York, which lays claim to being ‘“‘the representative journal of the shipping interests of America” will change its name this year to the Nautical Gazette, Sea- board with which was incorporated about a dozen defunct journals, has recently changed hands, Mr. Alex. Smith hay- ing severed his connection therefrom, The Nautical Gazette will hereafter be publi: hed in a form of half its present size, without any diminution of matter, however, as it is simply to be folded across lengthwise in the future. The Kansas City Star under a Colon, Colombia, date of December 8th, prints a lengthy article signed by their _ special correspondent, Mr. J. D. Whelpley regarding the abandonment at sea on November Ist of the late Spanish warship Infanta Maria Teresa while being towed to New York from Santiago. ‘‘The dispatch intimates that the Ter- esa was abandoned unnecessarily, that the ship at the time was not in a sinking condition and that the weather, con- trary to the general belief, was comparatively calm.” Of course the Infanta was prematurely abandoned, notwith- standing the naval court of inquiry commended all hands for deserting her. The Infanta, however, toddled along by herself all right fora couple of days, covered a distance of over fifty miles and eventually picked out a good place to plant herself so as not to be fooled with by amateur wreckers or blue jackets again. She’d tried their kind of nursing, , piled them over the side and started of on a roving commis- sion on her own account, resting where and when she felt like it, besides picking out a secure place to leave her leones.