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overcome by the roofing-in of the upper deck with combined glass and wood covers. These protect the passengers from the weather as effectually as the inside passengers are protected. The roofs are of different styles and arrangements. They all have a fixed wooden framework, but in one pattern the side windows can be raised or lowered separately, while in the other pattern all the windows on both sides of the upper deck are raised and lowered together by a winch. The roof in both styles coils up like a rollertop desk, either in sections or all together. In one style of these the deck extends completely over both platforms; but in the kind used in Hull, it is only

DOUBLE-DECKED TROLLEY CAR, WITH UPPER DECK
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a little longer than the body of the car. This inclosing of the upper deck would appear to overcome the climatic objection to this kind of car.

A third objection to the double-decker is the added weight and difficulty of handling them. How decisive this objection would be on roads in cities where there are heavy grades, I do not know; but on level grades, no difficulty is experienced. The cars are stopped and started as quickly and easily as the singledecker cars; and there are more slippery tracks to contend with in this country than in the United States, the fogs and rains causing wet and muddy rails much. more frequently. The weight of these double-decked cars, with every seat occupied above and below, cannot be much more than the weight of the crowded single-deck cars run on nearly every American street railway during the busy

hours of the day. So this third objection to the double-decker vanishes.

One of the chief merits of the doubledecker car is that it offers a smoking compartment for men with every car. Very few women climb the stairs, although they are easy of ascent and descent; and accidents from falling are so rare as to make them a negligible quantity. The "deck" is especially popular with men, who can smoke as they will even if women are present, the free circulation of air removing all offensive odors. Another merit of the doubledecker is its uses as an observation car, the pleasure of riding so far above the street with an extended outlook being great.

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Next to the style of cars, the chief distinguishing feature of the Hull tramway system, is the cheapness of the fares. These are I penny (2 cents) on all lines and for all distances. The financial results of this low-fare system are equally interesting. During the last twelve months reported on, there were 10 miles of double track, or 20 miles of single. track, in operation. The gross income was about $445.000; the cost of operation was about $233,000; this left a gross profit of $212,000, and, deducting interest on the investment and the sinking sum, left a net profit of $122,000, or an average of over $12,000 a mile of double track, which went into the City Treasury. The wages paid look low to an AmeriMotormen receive from $6.75 to $8.50 a week, and conductors from $5.00 to $6.50 a week. But it must be remembered that house rents and some kinds of provisions are lower in England than in most American cities. This difference might make it necessary to add $2.00 a week to the wages of Hull motormen and conductors when comparing them with the wages of the same class of American workingmen. But, as the total wages paid on the whole system was a little less than the net profits, after deducting interest and sinking fund, it is evident that wages could be doubled and still a small profit be shown. All the employees are of an excellent class, fully equal in intelligence and efficiency to those employed on any street-car line. A day's work consists of ten hours, the cars being

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Locomotives

THE NEW YORK CENTRAL RAILROAD is now having built thirty electric locomotives which are expected Electric to haul trains of cars at a speed of 75 miles an hour. These locomotives will be capable of developing 2,800 horse-power. The present steam locomotives which haul the Empire State Express have a horse-power of 1,500 when running at 60 miles an hour. The weight of one of these electric locomotives is 85 tons; and the length, 37 feet. The diameter of the driving wheels is 44 inches; and of the pony truck wheels, 36 inches. The New York Central has made the first step among the railroads towards the replacing of steam locomotives with electric.

HAS THE REMARKABLE DEVELOPMENT of interurban trolley lines detracted from Trolley or added to the business versus Steam of railroads? Instead of Lines looking on these electric lines as competitors, big railway systems are now beginning to regard them as "feeders" to the main lines. Statistics show that in short hauls the electric lines detract considerably from railway passenger traffic in localities where there is much competition, but it is believed that in long hauls they have added greatly to the business of the railroads by creating a desire for traveling, and by making the main lines easily accessible from points whence they derived little patronage before the advent of the interurban trolley lines.

In 1895-the year when the independent railway systems of cities began to expand into "interurban" lines, connecting towns and cities over wide stretches of country-the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern road carried 104,426 west

bound and 98,588 east-bound passengers between Cleveland and Oberlin, Ohio, a distance of 34 miles. In 1896 the network of trolley lines about Cleveland was practically completed. By 1902 the trolley lines had made such inroads upon the business of the railway lines that the latter carried a total of only 91,761 passengers between Cleveland and Oberlin, against a total of 203,014 seven years before.

On the 29 miles of track between Cleveland and Painesville and intermediate points, the Lake Shore carried a total of 199,292 passengers, or an average of 16,608 a month, in 1895; and 28,708, or an average of 2,302 a month, in 1902.

Prior to the building of the electric road from Detroit to Ann Arbor, Michigan, a distance of 40 miles, the purely local business of the Michigan Central road between those points was about 200 passengers a day. During the first summer that it was in operation, the electric road averaged 4,000 passengers a day between those points.

Undoubtedly a great amount of entirely new traffic has been created by the electric lines. The steam roads, it is believed, have derived great advantages from this new business, as statistics show a great increase in long-haul traffic from all districts where the interurban trolley has reached a high stage of develop

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experiment with that crop. The alfalfa earth is impregnated with a kind of parasite which lives on this plant; and this is a very good thing for the alfalfa, because the plant flourishes on dead parasites. The transported soil will be scattered over the field in which the seed is planted. The experiment will be watched with interest.

PROBABLY as simple and clear an explanation of the manner in which gold How coin circulates through the commercial world, was given by one of our weeklies in the following editorial:

Gold Travels

Some coined gold recently made an interesting journey from Tokio to Paris, by way of the United States, and is now on its way toward St. Petersburg.

Japan has been buying supplies heavily from the United States. Such transactions can ordinarily be settled through bills of exchange, by which purchases and sales on one side of the water are swapped off against purchases and sales. on the other. But, because of war needs, Japan bought much more than usual in this country. The "balance of trade" between the two countries turned strong ly in our favor, and Japan had to send gold across the Pacific to square the ac

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paper money, performs these journeys, because it is the article in which international balances are settled. It serves this purpose because its value as coin and its face value are everywhere identical. The coin of one country can be melted into that of another without loss.

Hence gold moves about the world regardless of the symbols which individual nations may stamp on its face.

ACCORDING TO OUR CONSULAR REPORTS, there has been only 5 per cent inOur Small crease in our trade with South American the South American states

Trade during the last thirty years. To the forty million people in South America, our yearly sales amount to less than $1.00 per capita. This is a most inadequate and unsatisfactory state of affairs. We sold to the Canadians last year a little less than $24 per capita; and to the Cubans, without any reciprocity, about $15 per capita. Of the total imports into South American countries, our share is only a fraction more than 10 per cent of their trade; and, while we boast of our American shrewdness and superior methods of business, the unsatisfactory condition of our trade in South America is due mainly to a lack of intelligent and well-directed trade energy. We buy from them three times as much as we sell them. We pay them $120,000,000 for their products, and they use the difference between that and $40,000,000 to purchase from our foreign competitors the goods which we might and ought to sell them. In other words, we supply them with funds which enable them to buy from other people things that we grow and manufacture. In the last thirty years, we have purchased from South America $1,700,000,000 more than we have sold it by direct transportation.

THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD has always shown a wise foresight in matters relating to the future. Railroads The clearing of the forand Forestry ests in the Middle West has brought home to the large railroad systems the importance of tree planting,

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blers, pitchers, and other ordinary utensils. The designs, as will be seen from the accompanying illustration, embrace a variety of patterns-from leaves and flowers to representations of animals, birds, and persons. It is claimed that work of a much finer character can be done than in the case of glass cutting, while very thin ware can be used without danger of breaking. The pioneer glass engraver in the United States was Joseph Locke of Pittsburg, Pa. He learned his trade at Worcester, England, and worked in a number of the most noted factories of Great Britain. He had an exhibition of his work at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893, which first attracted attention to the opportunties for working on glass in this manner.

This industry promises to become very popular, especially with women, as so few tools are required and the work can readily be done at home. One must. however, devote considerable time and

tillation, its combustion is less wearing on boilers. These are two of the conclusions reached by the Board; and they will, without doubt, prove an effective spur to the development and use of oil as a fuel in the sections of country where it is plentiful.

ACCORDING TO THE REPORT of the American Consul-General, there are four Steel yards in Canada for the Shipbuilding in construction of steel vesCanada sels. One yard is building a canal boat that is to carry 7,500 bushels of wheat, or 23,000 tons of dead weight. Her cost will be $130,000. This yard has several other contracts nearing completion. The steel plates used are now imported free of duty from the United States, as they are not made in Canada. As British-built steel vessels come into Canada duty free, it is impossible to de

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