8 z8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



without capital, depending on donations and assessments, with 

 no power to enforce collection. Instead of confining its opera- 

 tions to buying and selling as the farmers' agent, it attempted to 

 take the place of the country merchants, and to furnish supplies 

 on credit to all the farmers of Texas. To do this successfully 

 would require millions instead of thousands. The reason the 

 banks refused to lend money to the Exchange in March, 1889, 

 was neither opposition to the Exchange nor undue friendliness to 

 the jobbers, but plain business prudence. The Exchange was 

 doing a larger business than its capital warranted ; the joint notes 

 used as collateral security were represented by accounts from 

 twenty-five to seventy-five per cent less than the face of the notes, 

 and while innocent purchasers could be protected in the courts, 

 still litigation is a resort which every prudent business man tries 

 to avoid ; some of the joint notes were offset by bonds agreeing 

 not to part ownership, while as a matter of fact they were placed 

 in serious jeopardy by being put up as collateral security for ex- 

 tensive loans. The wisdom of these precautions was demonstrated 

 in the final outcome of the Exchange's management. 



In October last the representatives of the trust fund, which 

 reached about $17,000, perceiving that it would be inadequate for 

 the ends sought, met at Dallas and placed it in the hands of the 

 manager, instructing him to save such part of the Exchange as 

 might be possible. Since the sale of the building there has been 

 organized a new corporation, composed of Alliance members rep- 

 resenting the trust fund ; and this new corporation, known as the 

 Farmers' Alliance Commercial Agency, has purchased the Ex- 

 change building, and designs carrying on a general buying and 

 selling agency. It is to be hoped that the new enterprise will be 

 more successful than the old one was. 



According to Oudeman's review of parallax investigations, the distance of 

 forty of the fixed stars has been approximately determined. The disproportion be- 

 tween this number and the number of stars of which we know nothing is so great, 

 says Mr. A. M. Clarke, that general conclusions seem discredited beforehand, and 

 negative ones can have no weight. But it is evident that the largest stars are not 

 always those nearest to the earth. Seven of those whose distances have been as- 

 certained are invisible to the naked eye, while one is nearer than Sirius, and all 

 are nearer than Capella, Vega, Arcturus, or CaDopus. A further conclusion may 

 be deduced that the disparities between the stars are enormous. " A farthing 

 rush-light is not more insignificant compared with the electric arc than a faint 

 star compared with a potent sun. Sirius emits 6,400 times as much light as the 

 ninth-magnitude star 11,677 Argelander-Oelzen ; and our own sun is nearly as 

 much inferior to Arcturus. Inequalities of the same order appear between the 

 members of revolving systems ; as, for instance, Sirius shines like four thousand 

 of his companions." 



