Of all the various orders none is better known nor more highly appreciated than that of the Legion of Honor, the ribbon of which commands the respect of a Frenchman wherever he sees it. The order is not an old one, as compared with many others which exist, but it is one which has survived through many political changes in France, and which, from certain points of view, must be regarded as the one which, more than any other, confers genuine honor. It is one which is attained through merit only, and from which none are debarred for lack of ancient or noble lineage. France has had many orders, but this one alone survives, esteemed alike by royalist and republican, by Bonapartist and Orleanist, and abroad as well as at home. The Legion of Honor is the successor of the Order of the Eagle, founded by Napoleon in 1802, which Louis XVIII. and subsequent royal rulers of France continued as the Order of the Holy Ghost, until it was given its present title. This it carried through the Second Empire, and has retained ever since. France has only one other order, known as Le Ordre du Merite Agricole, which was founded for the purpose of relieving the pressure for admission to the Legion of Honor. It is sometimes alluded to as the "Order of the Leek" by persons inclined to facetiousness, but its decoration is highly appreciated by those who receive it, some of whom proudly assert their preference for it. There are a number of orders which have been especially instituted for women, who are not, as a rule, eligible for admission to the others, except, as in the case of the late Queen Victoria, their position as sovereigns making them the legitimate head of such as exist in their domains. It is an interesting fact that there is one woman who wears the cross of an order instituted for the recognition of great military prowess. Ex-Queen Marie of Naples was admitted to the Russian Order of St. George as a reward for her heroic defence of Gaeta, the last of the Bourbon strongholds. This order was founded in 1769 by the Empress Catherine II. to be conferred only upon a commanding general who has defeated an army of 50,000 men, or captured an enemy's capital, or brought about an honorable peace. Of the orders which may be said to belong to women one of the most illustrious is the Nishani-Shepakat, founded by the Sultan of Turkey in 1878, in recognition of assistance rendered the fugitive non-combatants of the Russian war, just ended, by prominent English ladies. Two American women-Mrs. S. S. Cox and Mrs. Lew Wallace-were given the decoration of this order, a compliment indicative of the Sublime Porte's appreciation of the representation of the United States by the respective husbands of these ladies. England has the Order of the Royal Red Cross, the Order of the Crown of India, and the Royal Order of Victoria and Albert for the benefit of women, who are barred from all the other high orders. In the one last named membership is limited to sovereigns and princesses of the highest rank. As Queen Wilhelmina of Holland was one of the latest admitted to this order, it is apposite to mention here the fact that the young ruler was the first to confer upon a woman the cross of the Lion of the Netherlands, an honor which is one of the most enviable of such distinctions in that kingdom. The woman to whom it was awarded was the Mother Superior of the Sisters of Mercy. Portugal has a Royal Order of Saint Izabel, instituted in 1801, which has been conferred upon few women outside of that country, Queen Alexandra of England being one of the few. Not counting the royal fomaily of Portugal and foreign royal ladies, the order must contain 26 ladies of title, each 26 years old, or married, each of whom is bound to visit in turn every week the Foundling Hospital. Every member must attend church on the feast of St. Izabel, unless absent from the kingdom, or prevented by illness from such attendance; and must afterward go to the Foundling Hospital with the Queen. The most recent of orders instituted for women is that of St. Elizabeth, founded by the Emperor of Austria in memory of his wife, the Empress Elizabeth, who was assassinated at Geneva, Switzerland, September 10, 1898. It is conferred upon women who merit distinction in the various callings of life, or in special religious, humanitarian and philanthropic work. Austria possesses the oldest of the eleven orders designed for women which exist in various parts of the world. It is known as the Austrian Star Cross Order. Among the orders of special character there is one which claims attention because of its isolation. It is conferred upon none but Free Masons of the higher degrees, for whom it was instituted in 1811 by Charles XIII. of Sweden, whose name it bears. Two British orders which must be included in this selection of the most prominent among the great number, are the Order of the Bath and the Order of St. Michael and St. George. The former is supposed to have been instituted by Henry IV. on the occasion of his coronation, and is conferred upon distinguished soldiers and statesmen. The latter is made up of men of distinction in the various colonies, and it is the order conferred upon all those Canadians who, during the reign of Queen Victoria, were raised to the dignity of knighthood. A Spanish order which exists at the present time, but which is doomed to extinction by the logic of recent history, is the Order of Isabella the Catholic. It is known also as the Royal American Order, and was instituted in 1815, to reward those among Spain's American colonists and dependents who distinguished themselves by conspicuous loyalty to the crown of Spain. The elimination of Spanish rule in America renders this order now meaningless. St. Catherine. of Honor. Oregon. Capital: The name Oregon was long applied to all territory claimed by the United States on the Pacific coast, extending from latitude 42 degrees to 54 degrees 40 minutes, north. Under the treaty of 1818 it was jointly occupied by the United States and Great Britain until 1846, when the latter abandoned all claim to the territory north of the 49th parallel of latitude, and the name Oregon was restricted to the region south of that line. The history of the territory may be said to begin with the discovery of the Columbia River by Captain Robert Gray in 1792. In 1811 the Pacific Fur Company, of which John Jacob Astor was the leading member, established a trading post at the mouth of the Columbia, and called it Astoria, but it was very soon after sold to the North west Fur Company. In 1848, 1849 and 1850 many settlers were attracted to the country by the California gold fever. The Territory of Oregon was organized by an act of Congress August 14, 1848, and in 1859 It was admitted as a State with its present boundary. Oregon has been troubled by many Indian wars, the most serious being the Modoc war. During in the point of population and thirsive forests and excellent water lumber and timber the leading infurnishes nearly all the canned The industry of fish canning is carnese, and the centre of this work the Columbia. During recent years looking to the prevention of wholeof salmon, and the industry promfor years to come. Oregon has an area of 96,030 square miles, and in 1901 its estimated population was 424,000. the last decade the industries of this State have been practically at a standstill. In 1900 Oregon stood thirty-eighth in the United States tieth in manufacturing. The exten power makes the manufacture of dustry, while the Columbia River salmon used in the United States. ried on almost entirely by the Chi is at Astoria, near the mouth of stringent laws have been passed sale and indescriminate slaughter ises now to be on a paying basis One of the most important acts was that providing for the submis election in 1902 of an amendment the Legislature of 1899. This tive and referendum. The terms of of 8 per cent of the voters any proposed amendment to the Consti people for adoption or rejection, the voters any bill enacted by the the people for acceptance or rejec cepted at the election held June 2. passed by the Legislature of 1901 sion to the people at the general to the Constitution, proposed by amendment provides for the initlathe initiative are that on petition law proposed in the petition or any tution must be submitted to the and on peitition of 5 per cent of Legislature must be submitted to tion. The amendment was acpassed by the Legislature requires vestibules on their cars for the profirst of November to the first of to carry on the business of barberpointed to purchase supplies for buy, when possible, those grown, gon. An act provides that all deaf home or in a private institution, deaf mute school established by One of the important labor laws street railway companies to provide tection of their employes, from the April. It was made a misdemeanor ing on Sunday. All persons ap public institutions were required to manufactured or produced in Ore mute children, unless taught at shall be required to attend the the State for at least six months each year. Congress was petitioned not only to re-enact the Chinese immigration law, but to make it extend to Japanese and other Mongolian or Asiatic races. A petition was also sent to the Federal body asking the passage of the Grout Oleomargarine bill, on the grounds that the proper fostering of the manufacture of oleomargarine, and the prohibition of calling it imitation butter would add much to the industrial wealth of the Northwestern States. Gov. George E. Chamberlain. A bill that practically provides for the direct election of United States Senators states that the names of candidates for the United States Senate shall be placed on the ballots at the time of the regular election, and when the Legislature convenes the Clerk shall announce the candidate receiving the highest number of votes, and then the Legislature shall proceed to elect the Senator as required by the Federal Constitution. The queer section of Oregon's Constitution declaring that no free negro or mulatto not residing in the State at the time of the adoption of the Constitution (1857) should become a resident of the State, hold real estate or make contracts, was presented to the people for abrogation, though, of course, it had been void since the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. At the State election held June 2, 1902, the Democratic candidate for Governor, George L. Chamberlain, was elected by a small majority, the other candidates elected being Republicans. The race was one of the most exciting ever held in the State, and factional feeling ran high. HALL Paraguay. Capital: The Republic of Paraguay is an inland State enclosed between Brazil, the Argentine Republic and Bolivia. While under the rule of Spain it was called the Province of Paraguay, and included all the territory east of the Andes and south of Brazil, but when the Spanish yoke was thrown off, in 1811, the new nations of the Argentine Republic, Uruguay and Bolivia arose and Paraguay was left nearly in its present shape. At the end of the war against the allied forces of Brazil, the Argentine Republic and Uruguay, in 1870, Paraguay was forced to cede 1,329 square miles of its territory to Brazil as a war indemnity. In 1876 the Province of Bermejo was ceded to the Argentine Republic Paraguay proper has an area of 148,000 square miles. Western Paraguay lies on the west bank of the Paraguay River and is mostly a desert. The general appearance of Paraguay is described as far more attractive than either Uruguay or the Argentine Republic. Although it has no seaboard there is a certain compensation in its great fluvial system. From the banks of the Paragury River to the eastern frontier there is one continuous panorama of gently undulating plains, bordered by verdure-clad hills. The interior of the country is not yet well known. The country possesses two first-class fluvial ways of communication which place it in relation with the rest of the world. The Parana River has a length of 2,043 miles from its source to its junction with the Uruguay. It would be navigable throughout its entire length for vessels of the largest size were it not for the cataracts of Urupapunga and Gueyra. The Paraguay River is 1,800 miles long, its average width is 360 yards and its mean depth about 20 feet, but the volume of water is only about one-twentieth that of the Parana. The lakes of Paraguay are numerous, the most important being the Upua, which is about 100 square miles in extent. The climate of the country is warm and dry and not subject to sudden variations. ture is from 75 to 76 degrees Fahrenheit, and the average rainfall is about five feet. day the sun shines 13 hours and 34 minutes, and in the shortest 11 hours and 26 minutes. from 1877 to 1883 showed that in each year there had been almost invariably 79 rainy 214 clear and bright. The climate is remarkable for its salubrity. The mean temperaDuring the longest Daily observations days, 72 cloudy and Little can be said about the mineral resources of Paraguay, not because of any scarcity of wealth in this respect, but because of the undeveloped condition of these resources owing to the absolute and exclusive preference which has been given to agricultural pursuits. It is said that iron, copper, manganese, gold, marble and building stone of the best quality are found in abundance. Agriculture is the country's principal source of wealth. The fertility of the soil is almost inexhaustible, and manure is neither used nor needed. The sugar cane grows freely, and tobacco is one of the principal products of the country. Cotton is indigenous, and can be raised of the longest staple without difficulty. Cattle raising is very profitable. The manufactures of the country consist chiefly of cotton and woollen fabrics, which the people use not only for underclothing, but also for dresses of both men and women. The manufacture of sugar is a very promising industry, but has received no more attention than has been necessary to provide for home consumption. Tanning is carried on to a considerable extent. The present population is estimated at about 450,000, consisting of whites, Indians, negroes, the offsprings of whites and In Hans, and the children of whites and negroes, or of Indians and negroes. The current of immigration is weak, but efforts are being made to strengthen it. Since November, 1870, Paraguay has had a constitutional government, republican in form. The administration is vested in three co-equal powers, the legislative, executive and judicial. The religion of the State is Roman Catholic Apostolic, but the free exercise of all other forms of worship is allowed. Primary instruction for children of both sexes is compulsory. Secondary instruction is provided by four colleges. There is a national university at Asuncion and also a seminary for young ladies. Following is the Cabinet: Minister of the Interior, Guillemo de los Rivo; Foreign Affairs, J. Cancio Flecha; Finance; Justice, Pedro Bobadilla; War, J. A. Escarra. The President receives a salary of $9.500 a year, the Vice-President $4,800, and the Ministers each $3,000 a year, but the total administrative expenses are said not to exceed $25,000 a year. The country is divided into twenty-three counties, which are governed by chiefs and justices of the peace, assisted by municipal councils. The legislative authority is vested in a Congress of two houses, a Senate and a House of Deputies, elected directly by the people, the former in the ratio of one to every 12,000 inhabitants, the latter, one to 6,000, though in the case of the sparsely populated divisions a greater ratio is permitted. The Senators and Deputies receive each $1,000 a year. The expenditure for 1901 was estimated at $8,065,782. The revenue is derived mainly from customs. Of the expenditures $1,846.567 was for internal administration, $2,469,663 for finance, $2,118,640 for justice and public instruction, $645,852 for war and marine. The outstanding debt, according to the latest figures, amounts to about $5,000,000. Patent System of the United States.* It is not clear to whom is due the credit for the clause in the Constitution which vested in Congress power "to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exelusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." It was not in the original draft of the Constitution presented to the convention by Mr. Pinckney, May 29, 1787, but on the 5th of September the committee reported five clauses which it was proposed to incorporate in the Constitution, the fifth In being the patent and copyright clause as it appears in the Constitution. the discharge of the duty thus laid upon Congress the organic patent act of April 10, 1790, was passed. In 1793 a new patent act was passed, which, with certain amendatory acts, remained in force until the act of 1836, when the patent system, vitually as it exists to-day, was established. Prior to 1836 there was no critical examination of the state of the art preliminary to the allowance of a patent application. Since the act of 1836 there have been various enactments, molfying and improving the law in matters of detail; in 1839 an inventor was given the right to use his invention prior to applying for a patent therefor. for a period not exceeding two years; in 1861 the term for a patent, which had been fourteen years, was increased to seventeen years, and extensions were prohibited except as to patents granted prior thereto, and in 1870 the patent law was revised, consolidated and amended; but in its salient features the patent system of to-day is that of the law of 1836. The first patent granted by the General Government was to Samuel Hopkins, July 31, 1790, for an im provement in pot and pearl ash manufacture. The last patent granted for the year 1889, at the close of the first hundred years of patent issues, was to Wilhelm Dreyer, No. 418.664. of December 31. 1889, for an electro-magnetic typesetting machine. These two patents are suggestively symbolical of the progress of the century in invention and manufactures-the first akin to the primitive industries of a new country and the last serving the exacting demands of a highly organized industrial system. *Prepared from the special Patent Bulletin issued by the Census Bureau. The total number of patents issued during this century of invention was 428,621. The following is a comparative table showing the growth in number of patents issued during each decade to citizens of the United States and to citizens of foreign countries: There is an inter-relation between patents and the manufacturing industries of the closest kind, and a remarkable parallelism may be drawn between the two. As the industries have flourished, so have the patents, while, on the other hand the increasing patents have made possible (because profitable) new and greater industries. Just how closely this inter-action is operative may be traced in the following table: COMPARATIVE TABLE OF PATENTS AND MANUFACTURES: 1850 TO 1900. When the Japanese Government was considering the establishment of a patent system, which was created by their patent act of March 1, 1899, they appointed Mr. Korekiyo Takahashi a special commissioner and sent him to the United States to gather the data obtainable in regard to our patent system. Answering a question of the examiner of designs, who had been helping him in his research and who had inquired of him its purpose, Mr. Takahashi said: "I will tell you. You know it is only since Commodore Perry, in 1854, opened the ports of Japan to foreign commerce that the Japanese have been trying to become a great nation, like other nations of the earth, and we have looked about us to see what nations are the greatest, so that we could be like them; and we said, "There is the United States, not much more than a hundred years old, and America was not discovered by Columbus yet four hundred years ago;' and we said. 'What is it that makes the United States such a great nation?' And we investigated and we found it was patents, and we will have patents." PATENTS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES. (From the latest report of the United States Patent Office.) The following table shows the number of patents issued by the United States, as compared to foreign countries, from the earliest period to December 31, 1901. (Foreign figures for 1901, estimated): Note.-The detailed account of the business transacted annually by the Patent Office will be found in the American Year Book. 294,758 Tasmania 57 Trinidad 148 Turkey 56,456 Western Australia 43 2,046 2,089 151 157 459 459 1,040 1,040 196 196 154 154 822 10.037 10,859 Total foreign United States Grand total Pennsylvania. Capital: Until Delaware Bay and River were first explored by members of the Dutch West India Company, from 1609 to 1624, when forts were erected and military jurisdiction exercised. 1864 the Dutch continued in actual possession of both sides of the bay without much colonization. In 1638 a colony of Swedes settled along the west bank of the Delaware River and carried on improvements until their surrender to the Dutch in 1655. In 1681 the territory west of the Delaware was granted to William Penn, who colonized it and founded Philadelphia in 1682. Under the charter granted Penn the present area of the State of Delaware was included and called the lower counties. These were granted a separate Legislature in 1699, but the two colonies continued under the same Governor until the beginning of the Revolutionary War, in 1776. After Penn's colony was founded a most successful peaceful policy was inaugurated with the savage tribes in contact with the white settlers, who were, in the lower counties, chiefly Swedes and Friends, or Quakers. Large accessions to the population were made by the arrival of German and Scotch-Irish settlers, and the admixture of these peoples made the inhabitants of Pennsylvania among the most noted in the country for zeal toward right and steadfastness of purpose. The colony became the seat of learning, wealth and refinement long before the Revolution, and entered vigorously into the war that freed the colonies. From 1682 to 1776 the public affairs were administered under the government framed by William Penn. In 1776 a provisional constitution was prepared by a convention of which Benjamin Franklin was president, and the first formal constitution was adopted in 1790. Pennsylvania has an area of 45,215 square miles, and in 1901 its estimated population was 6,302,115. During the past decade there has been a decided growth in the manufactures of the State. Since 1850 this State has held the second rank in the United States for manufactured products and first since 1870 in the amount of power used in manufacturing. Various causes have contributed to this, first among them being the favorable location for marketing manufactured products. No other State touches the Atlantic sea coast, the Great Lakes and the navigable waters of the Ohio-Mississippi valley. The first steam vessel launched on these latter waters was built at Pittsburg in 1811, and regular communication was established between that city and for all sorts of manufactures is high in the production of lumber, troleum, iron ore and coal. Natural manufacturing since 1874. Though Pennsylvania still ranks second in The most important industry in iron and steel, the total products 200. The most important centres Keesport, Duquesne, Johnstown and almost entirely, though recently the Lake Superior ores, which is iron industry. The manufacture of industries of the State in 1900. first. Silk culture was encouraged State's history and under the pat filature for reeling cocoons was The carpet industry has shown a cade. as have also the worsted were 2,712 establishments engaged the State in 1900, the chief product of domestic tobacco. Samuel W. Pennypacker. the Southern States. Raw material also abundant, the State ranking tanbark, tobacco, cereals, crude pegas has been used in the State for the gas fields are nearly exhausted, its production. the State is the manufacture of being valued, in 1900, at $434,445,for this industry are Pittsburg, McNewcastle. Local ores are used there has been an increased use of changing the localization of the textiles ranked second among the the manufacture of silk standing and recommended very early in the ronage of Benjamin Franklin opened in Philadelphia in 1750. remarkable growth in the past degoods and knitting industries. There in the manufacture of tobacco in of these being cheap cigars made islature of 1901 attracted widemembers of that body to considor rather, series of acts, was passed transit companies, upon the apcerned, the right to construct and sation to city, county or State, ground along the course of any ways, in any town or city in the One act of the Pennsylvania Leg spread attention and subjected the able adverse criticism. This act. in May and June, and gave to rapid proval of local authorities con operate without franchise compen railways on, above or beneath the street not already occupied by rail commonwealth. The first bill approved enacts that five or more persons may form a company to construct and operate a street railway on any street where there was no such railway at the time of the approval of the act. The company, obtaining the charter and the approval of the local authorities, might sell or lease their road or franchise or parts thereof to traction or motor companies or any company operating passenger railways. No street railway company was to be permitted under any circumstances to connect its tracks with those of any steam railway or to interchange cars or form a continuous route with any locomotive railway company. On The second bill approved stated in addition to the above that any company might obtain a charter with the consent of local authorities to build a road either elevated or below ground, or part elevated and part below ground above or below or across the routes occupied by any other company, and might sell or buy franchises as provided in the first act. The right of eminent domain was expressly conferred upon such companies, with the sole exception of property used for burial purposes and places of worship. A third act permitted any company to build roads either above, below or on the surface of the ground. June 20, after a large number of valuable railway charters had been granted by the Secretary of State in accordance with these acts, a further act was approved, declaring that no further charters for elevated or underground railways would be granted unless the route selected was through thickly settled regions and the application was approved by a board consisting of the Governor, the Secretary and the AttorneyGeneral. These railroad laws were approved on June 7, and in Philadelphia, which was the principal city affected, fourteen rapid transit ordinances were introduced into the City Council on June 12 giving the consent of the local authorities to charters given out at Harrisburg. These ordinances gave to Representative Robert H. Feorderer and others the right to build about 120 miles of street railways in the city of Philadelphia, and they were signed by Mayor Ashbridge on the night of June 13. They were given freely and without cost, and aroused an unusual amount of opposition. Albert L. Johnson offered to give three-cent fares on all the roads in the city and free franchises, if these were not granted, and John Wanamaker offered the city $2,500,000 in cash for the rights vested in the first petitioners. Both these offers were voted down by the Council. Later Mr. Wanamaker renewed his offer to the city, and then made the same proposal to the company owning the charters A factory law passed provides that no minor and no woman shall work in a manufacturing or mercantile establishment more than twelve hours in any day nor more than sixty hours any week. No child under thirteen can work at all in any such establishinent and none under sixteen without the consent of its parents. Another law provides that in every city of the first or second class a house of detention shall be provided for juvenile offenders awaiting trial and for neglected and dependent children under sixteen. Criminal prosecution for libel shall not stand when the object was a public officer or candidate for office and the |