NEEDLES NEGLIGENCE. 



11 



the various lines was $647,210, being over 8 per cent, 

 on their net earnings within the State. 



The total number of persons directly employed in 

 the operation of the roads was 12,190, who earned 

 $6,745,454, or an average of $582 each, during the 

 year. 



The main trunk lines traversing the length and 

 breadth of the State are competing with each other 

 for new territory, and pushing out branch lines in every 

 direction, so that the total mileage of railroads will 

 soon be greatly augmented. 



The building of railroads and telegraph lines, the 

 turning of the sod, and the planting of groves has had 

 a marked ameliorating influence on the climate of the 

 State, increasing the moisture and modifying the con- 

 ditions of the atmosphere. 



The observing traveller on a second summer's journey 

 through the State, after an interval of a few years, 

 cannot fail to be impressed with the changed appear- 

 ance of the country, and notice that verdure and showers 

 of blessings follow the star of empire in its westward 

 course. 



There is a marked difference in the water of streams 

 heading on the Divide running east and west through 

 the State about 25 miles south of its northern boundary. 

 The waters flowing southward into the Platte River are 

 all strongly alkaline, while those flowing northward into 

 the Niobrara River are all soft-water streams from 

 springs gushing out of the hillsides all along the 

 northern side of the Divide, until the gypsum country 

 of the Black Hills is reached. This northern part of 

 the State gradually rises from an altitude of 1()00 feet 

 at the Missouri River to 3500 feet at the western boun- 

 dary, giving a very good mean altitude for health and 

 freedom from miasmatic troubles. 



Agriculture and stock-raising are the chief industries 

 of the State. The staple products of the farm are 

 corn, wheat, oats, rye, barley, flax, broom-corn, sorghum, 

 millet, all the common garden vegetables and the 

 products of the dairy, the total value of which, pro- 

 duced during 1887, is estimated at $60,000,000. The 

 abundance of summer and winter pasture and the great 

 corn product has made Nebraska one of the best meat- 

 producing States of the West, and there is no other in 

 terest more prominent to-day than that of cattle- 

 raising and fattening for market, as well as growing 

 young stock for breeding purposes, in which business 

 a vast amount of capital is profitably invested. Hor- 

 ticulture too has progressed far enough in the eastern 

 part of the State to sustain a number of fruit-canning 

 establishments. 



The wholesale trade of the State is concentrated at 

 Omaha, and curried on by about 200 firms. 



For further detailed information see the biennial 

 reports of the several State officers, the maps and 

 descriptive pamphlets issued by the various railroad 

 companies, ami Tin fm/nsli-ii.i f Oiim/i-i. (F. II.) 



N BEDLE8. The needle is by no means a modern 

 SeeVol \VII ' IIV ''"''""- ' mt nas I* 6611 m use from prc- 

 >313 (I) ("' ' l '" ( " r ' 1 ' times, probably before the era 

 Am. Rep.). f wov ei fabrics. These early needles 

 were clumpy implements, made of wood, 

 bone, or bronze, and even of gold, though tin 

 terials have long since been superseded by steel. Stee 

 needles seem to have been introduced into Europe by 



the .M >. though it is not probable that they were 



the first inventors, since the Chinese claim to have 

 used them from time immemorial. The first knowl- 

 edge we have of the manufacture of needles in Eng 

 land is by a so-called " Indian," probably a Moor, who 

 established thin art in London in 1545, but it <lie<l 0111 

 with him. The art of needle-making was then prac 

 ticed in France and Germany, whence it had come 

 from Spain, the home of the Moorish artificers. I 

 was revived in Hngland in the reign of Elizabeth, am 

 by K'p/iO there was a numerous body of needle-makers 

 established in London. They formed one of the Lon 

 don trade companies, having for their first crest the 



ree of knowledge of good and evil, with a serpent 

 wined round it. Afterwards a wreathed Moor's head 

 was adopted. 



At that period and until long afterwards the needles 

 were made with square eyes, but this style of needle 

 s now extinct. They were scoured by being wrapped 

 n buckram, with emery-dust and oil, and rolled hack 

 uid forth under the feet of the workmen. In 1700 a 

 lorse-mili was established for scouring and pointing, 

 rater-power not being used for this purpose till later, 

 .n the early period the needle-makers drew their own 

 wire, cut it to length, flattened the eye end and punched 

 he hole, a square punch being used as the easiest form, 

 .n 1793 dnlled-eye needles were made, but these 

 troved too expensive, and the old method was re- 

 sumed. In 1800 stamps and dies to pierce the eyes 

 of needles came into use, and in 1826 the drill was 

 successfully applied, but it left the edge of the hole so 

 sharp as to cut the thread. This was overcome by the 

 mrnishing process, which came into use about 1838. 

 The needles were threaded in rows on hard steel wire, 

 on which they were made to revolve rapidly by steam- 



>wer. 



Up to 1840 needles had been hardened in water, 

 vhich made many of them crooked. This was obviated 

 jy hardening in oil, which then came into use. The 

 needle-pointing machine is an English invention. The 

 pointing is done by a grooved grindstone, which is 

 iiade to revolve at great speed, the needles being fed 

 to it from an inclined plane. By the use of a revolving 

 disc the wires are fed continuously and made to turn 

 while pointing. 



It is an interesting fact that round-eyed needles were 

 made and used in China long before even the square- 

 eyed ones were in use in Europe. In England the 

 centre of the needle trade is the small town of Red- 

 diteh for no particular reason except that needles 

 happened to be first made there. Aix-Ia-Chapelle in 

 Prussia is the centre of the continental trade. Needles 

 are now made in a great variety of shapes and applied 

 to many different purposes, and the trade has become 

 a very extensive and important one. The manufac- 

 ture, as now carried on, is a remarkable instance of the 

 division of labor, each needle having to pass through 

 seventy pairs _of hands before completion. The needle 

 manufacture in America is not a particularly important 

 one. It is classed in the census reports with the pin 

 industry, there being in 1880 forty establishments for 

 the manufacture of pins and needles, with a total 

 product valued at $1,378,023. (c. M.) 



NEFF. FfiLix (1798-1829), a Swiss missionary, was 

 born at Geneva, Oct. 8, 1798. In early life he was_a 

 soldier, but in 1819 he engaged in missionary labors in 

 neglected valleys of the higher .Alps. He extended 

 his work into similar districts in France, where he 

 greatly improved the religious, moral, and physical 

 condition of the inhabitants. In order to carry out 

 his plan more effectually he obtained ordination in 

 England in 1823 as an Independent minister. He died 

 at Geneva, April 12, 1829, at the early age of thirty, 

 worn out by his toil and hardships. 

 NEGLIGENCE. In American as in English law 

 it is generally for the jury to say 

 ;ee vol. A v ii. w h e th er there has been negligence on 



Am Rep) the P art of the defendant or not; 

 there must, however, be evidence upon 

 which intelligent men could reasonably and properly 

 find the fact of negligence, or the court will withdraw 

 the case from the jury and dismiss the complaint. 

 The burden of proof is upon the plaintiff, and when 

 he has raised a presumption of negligence he is en- 

 titled to recover unless the defendant produces evi- 

 dence sufficient to rebut that presumption. 



The strict English rule in regard to contributory 

 negligence has recently been modified in the courts of 

 that country. There it was formerly held that a pas- 

 senger in train of A. Company, though having no 

 control over the driver, was so far identified with him 



