596 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



1870 of a million dollars could be afforded in 1894 for a like cost 

 of $444,444. Another striking illustration of the present cheapness 

 of manufactured articles per unit and as measured in terms of 

 labor payments per hour or day, compared with former recent 

 periods, and as the result of present industrial conditions, is found 

 in the statement that wire nails are now so cheap that, if a car- 

 penter drops a nail, it is cheaper to let it lie than take time to 

 pick it up ; and the correctness of which has been demonstrated 

 as follows : "Assuming that it takes a carpenter ten seconds to 

 pick up a nail which he has dropped, and that his time is worth 

 thirty cents per hour, the recovery of the dropped nail would cost 

 0'083 cent. There are two hundred sixpenny nails in a pound, 

 and they are worth on an average 1*55 cent per pound, making the 

 value of one nail 0*0077 cent. In other words, it would not pay to 

 pick up ten nails at the assumed loss of time and rate of pay of 

 the carpenter." 



On the other hand, wages have increased in the United States 

 since 1870 in an approximative ratio with the increase in the effect- 

 iveness of labor in producing commodities, and touched the high- 

 est point ever known about the year 1890. During the same 

 period debtors have gained greatly by the decrease in the cost of 

 living, and a consequently increased opportunity for laying up 

 a surplus for meeting tax demands and other purposes. The 

 assumption that the comparatively recent fall in the price of 

 commodities in the United States has increased the burden of 

 taxation upon its people, therefore merits the characterization 

 of being one of the most irrational and fictitious of popular 

 economic fallacies. 



Some interesting facts concerning the Hausas and their country in 

 Africa were communicated to a recent meeting of the Royal Geographical 

 Society by Mr. J. A. Robinson and Mr. William Wallace. Mr. Robinson 

 has paid much attention to the language and literature of the people. 

 Nearly all of them have learned to write in the Mohammedan schools, and 

 business is largely done by correspondence. An association has been 

 formed to promote the study of the language ; and a college is talked of to 

 be established at Tripoli. Mr. Robinson has brought back specimens of 

 •native literature, of which a volume is to be published. Crops of many 

 kinds are raised, of which Mr. Wallace names fourteen specifically, with 

 others ; and large stocks of horses are kept. At Farra, the chief seat of the 

 iron trade, Mr. Wallace visited the smelting furnaces, but was not allowed 

 to see the mines from which the iron ore is dug. At Jaga he found an im- 

 portant commercial town, with large pottery works and dje works, and in- 

 dustries in iron and leather, A part of the country, which was once very 

 prosperous, is, however, now a retreat for robbers, who keep the neighbor- 

 ing region in terror. Mr. Wallace affirmed that peace and freedom only 

 are needed to convert Hausaland into another India. 



