POPULAR MISCELLANY, 



859 



ually lost £231,380 on the guaranteed lines, 

 while the shareholders pocketed a hand- 

 some profit in interest and surplus ; and 

 the state was saved from absolute loss only 

 by the excessive profits it made out of a 

 single one of its own lines. The system 

 thus leads to the habit of regarding all the 

 railways as one great property, and of seek- 

 ing to make up for the losses that may be 

 incurred on one set of lines by the more 

 than legitimate profits which there may be 

 opportunity to make on another set. The 

 Government has thus become accustomed 

 to the idea of maintaining its military and 

 administrative lines at the expense of the 

 commercial ones. The latter lines need en- 

 largement to accommodate their increasing 

 business, and would amply pay for it, but 

 the state needs the money they furnish it, 

 and which ought to be applied in that way, 

 for the maintenance of its unproductive 

 lines, and has adopted a penurious policy 

 toward its productive ones. Whenever a 

 complaint is made, or a proposition having 

 in view a more liberal policy is agitated, a 

 half - dozen boards and sets of officers in 

 India and England " straightway begin to 

 play an elaborate and interminable game of 

 battledoor and shuttlecock with the public 

 interests. Any suggestion that is offered 

 is minuted upon, referred, transferred, and 

 generally knocked about , till the authors 

 of it are ready to abandon it in despair." 

 When called upon to interfere, the Govern- 

 ment " is always, perhaps unconsciously, 

 influenced by the thought that, if it sanc- 

 tions increase of expenditure or reduction 

 of rates, it may diminish its share of sur- 

 plus profits. Hence the unwise parsimony 

 which leaves main lines insufficiently sup- 

 plied with rolling-stock to meet any sudden 

 expansion of traffic." Our civil war was 

 over before the Peninsular Railway was sup- 

 plied with engines and cars enough to take 

 away the cotton which choked all of its sta- 

 tions. The stations are glutted with wheat 

 awaiting transportation to such an extent 

 that the peasant dreads a good crop for 

 fear that it will add to the quantity he must 

 lose, because it takes on the average about 

 five years to get the facilities that are needed 

 on the instant. The Government hesitates 

 when it should act, because it grudges an 

 expenditure of capital, which, while it is 



comparatively insignificant and sure to bring 

 ultimately a large return, means for the 

 present a temporary reduction of profits on 

 a lot of railroads, the most of which are 

 losing ones. 



Inflaenee of Oeenpation on Physical 

 Deyelopment. — The data obtained by the 

 Anthropometric Committee of the British 

 Association reveal some curious facts re- 

 specting the influence of occupation upon 

 physical development. As a rule, the in- 

 habitants of the country are taller and 

 heavier than those of the large towns ; but 

 London is an exception, and seems to exert 

 an attraction that draws in the more vigor- 

 ous part of the country population. The 

 metropolitan police, as a rule, are nearly as 

 tall as the laborers of Galloway — the tallest 

 of Britons — and twelve pounds heavier. 

 The members of the Fire Brigade, who need 

 not be so solid, but are expected to be act- 

 ive, are two and a half inches shorter and 

 twenty-five pounds lighter than the police- 

 men. Athletes average five feet eight and 

 one third inches in height, and only about 

 one hundred and forty -three pounds in 

 weight ; from which it is inferred that the 

 majority of the population carry from ten 

 to twenty pounds weight which they would 

 not carry if they were in the highest phys- 

 ical condition. The Fellows of the Royal 

 Society — a class of prominent intellectual 

 gifts — are among the tallest of the race, av- 

 eraging five feet nine inches and three quar- 

 ters. The criminal class are forty -five 

 pounds lighter than the police and four 

 inches and a half shorter; and they are 

 eighteen pounds lighter and two inches 

 shorter than the average of the population. 

 Lunatics are about as short as the crimi- 

 nals, but heavier. In men of the same oc- 

 cupation belonging to different races, the 

 influence of race appears to be predominant 

 over that of occupation. 



Climbing tlie Himalayas. — Mr. Graham, 

 an Englishman, with the help of two Swiss 

 mountain-guides, has recently made an at- 

 tempt to ascend some of the lofty peaks of 

 the Himalayas. Starting from Nynee Tal, 

 he found his first difficulty, and not an in- 

 significant one, to be to get to the mount- 

 ains. They stand far back, and are ap- 



