THE INTER OCEAN
CURIOSITY SHOP
FOR THE YEAR 1883.
EDITED BY
WILLIAM P. JONES, A. M.
SEVENTH EDITION.
CHICAGO:
THE INTER OCEAN PUBLISHING COMPANY,
MADISON AND DEARBORN STREETS.
1891.
PREFACE
So well known now is this little annual cyclopedia of facts in agriculture,manufactures, commerce, politics, literature, science and the arts, that thissixth volume of Our Curiosity Shop needs no preface, except to make dueacknowledgments to the many who have aided the editor with information, andto explain to such of its readers as are not yet fully advised of this fact, thatthese pages constitute but a part of the several columns of questions andanswers published every week in the Daily, Semi-Weekly and Weeklyeditions of The Inter Ocean. To have all such answers for the year, onemust be a regular subscriber to, and reader of, the paper. Hundreds of disputes,raised in political gatherings, in debating societies, in Sunday schools,in social and sporting circles, at the village postoffice when waiting for themail, on railway cars, in club rooms, around pioneer camp-fires, and in all kindsof places are referred to The Inter Ocean for amicable settlement. Whennone of the several thousand books on the shelves of The Inter Ocean andthe Chicago Public Library give response to such questions, original sourcesof information are appealed to; and, again therefore, the grateful acknowledgmentsof the editor of Our Curiosity Shop are very heartily made tothe Heads of the several executive departments at Washington and many oftheir chiefs of bureaus, to State and city officials, to his obliging associates ofThe Inter Ocean staff, and to that daily companion and efficient assistant,his daughter.
Every answer given here is in response to at least one person enoughinterested to call it forth. Not one started up at the editor’s own bidding, buteach of them might use the speech put into the mouth of King Philip ofPokanoket, when summoned to meet the General Court of New Plymouth:“You sent for me, and I am here.” So, being here in response to popular call,the editor hopes this volume will have as cordial a welcome as the public hasaccorded to its predecessor of las