istics are published of the increase of overcrowding and
the consequent spread of disease, and no less than 650 schemes of reform
have been presented to the Municipal Council. The deaths between 1870
and 1883 have increased per 100,000 inhabitants from 48 to 96 in
typhoid-fever, from 53 to 101 in diphtheria, from 11 to 74 in small-pox,
from 30 to 43 in measles, and from 7 to 18 in scarlet-fever.

Alarm has been created in French commercial circles by rumors
that the American Congress will make reprisals for the prohibition by
France of the importation of American salted meats by passing a law
increasing the duties on French wines or providing for the seizure of
French adulterations. The National, of Paris, says: "France must expect
that the Reprisals bill now before Congress, which was first directed
against Germany, will now be turned against France."

P.T. Barnum has just made his will. In order that there might
be no question as to his sanity upon which to ground contests after his
death, he had eminent physicians examine him, and secured their
attestation that he was of sound mind. The will and its codicils cover
more than 700 pages of legal cap, closely written, and disposes of real
estate and personal property of the value of $10,000,000 to twenty-seven
heirs. The property is in New York, Brooklyn, Bridgeport, Colorado, and
several other places. Mr. Barnum values his interest in the Barnum and
London Shows at $3,500,000. He gives largely to charitable institutions.

The number of lives lost by the more noticeable accidents of
last year give a total of 125,000, or over 342 for each of the 365 days
of 1883. These colossal figures are attained principally through the
results of three calamities--Ischia, Java, and Syria. Aside from the
earthquakes the year was unequaled in shipwrecks, cyclones, fire-scenes,
and mining horrors. Over thirty people were killed for each day in
January, the Newhall fire, the Russian circus horror, and the Cimbria
shipwreck being the principal of thirty calamities during the month.
Three hundred and ninety-eight people went down in the Cimbria alone.
Two hundred and seventy people burned in the circus at Berditcheff. The
panic later on at Sunderland, England, caused the death of 197 children
and 150 workmen were drowned like rats in the tub called the Daphne on
the Clyde. There were 1,697 murders, 107 executions, 135 lynchings, and
727 suicides.

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