October 25, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



289 



issue at the same time Freytag's " Aus dem Staat Friederichs des 

 Grossen," with notes explanatory and critical, by Herman Hager. 

 In this sketch we have not a detailed account of the facts of Fred- 

 erick's life, but the author directs his attention mainly to the work- 

 ing of the hero's mind, to the gradual building-up of that char- 

 acter which came to be the moulding force of Germany. An 

 appendix adds some notes on the phonetic changes in German, and 

 special attention is given to awaken an interest in the gradual 

 development of the meaning in words. 



— Macmillan & Co. have just ready " Select Essays of Dr. 

 Johnson," edited by George B. Hill, in the Temple Library ; a 

 selection of the best essays of De Quincey, edited by W. H. Ben- 

 nett, in the Stott Library ; and a new library edition of Words- 

 worth, in eight octavo volumes. 



— From the Publishers' Weekly's " Notes on Authors," we learn 

 the following : Friedrich Spielhagen is reported to be writing his 

 autobiography. It is to be issued in instalments in a new German 

 magazine. Miss Kate Field, the author and lecturer, contemplates 

 starting a journal. Gustav Freytag, the novelist, will shortly pub- 

 lish a little work on the late Emperor Frederick, taken from his 

 notes during the war, and his letters from the camp down to the 

 election of the German Emperor. Horatio Seymour of Marquette, 

 Mich., who was formerly State engineer of New York, is preparing 

 for publication the correspondence of Gov. Horatio Seymour, and 

 desires to secure copies of letters not already in his possession. 



— In spite of the rapid increase in the number of millionnaires 

 in the United States in recent years, the popular notion is that 

 wealth is yet very much more evenly distributed in this country 

 than in England. Mr. Thomas G. Shearman, the well-known 

 New York statistician, has been engaged for some time in collect- 

 ing facts to show as precisely as possible the proportion of the 

 wealth of the country held by a few rich men and families ; and he 

 finds a greater concentration of wealth here than in any other 

 country. The results of his investigation will appear in The 

 Forum for November, from advance sheets of which the following 

 facts are taken. Mr. Shearman makes the following enumeration 

 of owners of more than $20,000,000 each: $150,000,000, J. J. 

 Astor, Trinity Church ; $100,000,000, C. Vanderbilt, W. K. Vander- 

 bilt, Jay Gould, Leland Stanford, J. D. Rockefeller ; $70,000,000, 

 estate of A. Packer ; $60,000,000, John I. Blair, estate of Charles 

 Crocker; $50,000,000, William Astor, W. W. Astor, Russell Sage, 

 E. A. Stevens, estate of Moses Taylor, estate of Brown & Ives ; 

 $40,000,000, P. D. Armour, F. L. Ames, William Rockefeller, H. 

 M. Flagler, Powers & Weightman, estate of P. Goelet ; $35,000,- 

 000, C. P. Huntington, D. O. Mills, estates of T. A. Scott, J. W. 

 Garrett ; $30,000,000, G. B. Roberts, Charles Pratt, Ross Winans, 

 E. B. Coxe, Claus Spreckels, A. Belmont, R. J. Livingston, Fied 

 Weyerhauser, Mrs. Mark Hopkins, Mrs. Hetty Green, estates of 

 S. V. Harkness, R. W. Coleman, I. M. Singer; $25,000,000, A. J. 

 Drexel, J. S. Morgan, J. P. Morgan, Marshall Field, David Dows, 

 J. G. Fair, E. T. Gerry, estates of Gov. Fairbanks, A. T. Stewart, 

 A. Schermerhorn ; $22,500,000, O. H. Payne, estates of F. A. 

 Drexel, I. V. Williamson, W. F. Weld ; $20,000,000, F. W. Vander- 

 bilt, Theo. Havemeyer, H. O. Havemeyer, W. G. Warden, W. P. 

 Thompson, Mrs. Schenley, J. B. Haggin, H. A. Hutchins, estates 

 of W. Sloane, E. S. Higgins, C. Tower, William Thaw, Dr. Hos- 

 tetter, William Sharon, Peter Donohue. These 70 names represent 

 an aggregate wealth of $2,700,000,000, an average of more than 

 $37,500,000 each. Although Mr. Shearman, in making this esti- 

 mate, did not look for less than twenty-millionnaires, he discovered 

 incidentally fifty others worth more than $10,000,000 each ; and he 

 says that a list of ten persons can be made whose wealth averages 

 $100,000,000 each, and another list of one hundred persons whose 

 wealth averages §25,000,000. No such lists can be made up in 

 any other country. " The richest dukes of England," he says, 

 " fall below the average wealth of a dozen American citizens ; 

 while the greatest bankers, merchants, and railway magnates of 

 England cannot compare in wealth with many Americans." The 

 average annual income of the richest hundred Englishmen is about 

 $450,000 ; but the average annual income of the richest hundred 

 Americans cannot be less than $1,200,000, and probably exceeds 

 $1,500,000. The richest of the Rothschilds, and the world-re- 



nowned banker. Baron Overstone, each left about $17,000,000. 

 Earl Dudley, the owner of the richest iron-mines, left $20,000,000. 

 The Duke of Buccleuch (and the Duke of Buccleuch carries half 

 of Scotland in his pocket) left about $30,000,000. The Marquis of 

 Bute was worth, in 1872, about $28,000,000 in land ; and he may 

 now be worth $40,000,000 in all. The Duke of Norfolk may be 

 worth $40,000,000, and the Duke of Westminster perhaps $50,- 

 000,000. Mr. Shearman's conclusion is that 25,000 persons own 

 one-half the wealth of the United States; and that the whole 

 wealth of country is practically owned by 250,000 persons, or one 

 in sixty of the adult male population ; and he predicts, from the 

 rapid recent concentration of wealth, that under present conditions 

 50,000 persons will practically own all the wealth of the country in 

 thirty years, or less than one in 500 ofthe adult male population. 



— Col. H. G. Prout, in the November Scribner, gives the follow- 

 ing pen-picture of Emin Pacha, whom he knew about thirteen years 

 ago : " In person Emin is aslender man, of medium height and tough 

 and wiry figure. He is swarthy, with black eyes and hair. His 

 face is that of a studious professional man, and that impression is 

 heightened by the glasses he always wears. . His attitudes and 

 movements are, however, very alert. He stands erect and with his 

 heels together, as if he had been trained as a soldier. He was al- 

 ways reticent about himself, and his history was known to no one 

 in the Soudan or the provinces of the equator. He was supposed 

 to be a Mohammedan. I am not sure that he ever said that he was, 

 but I am quite sure that he did not deny it when I knew him. It 

 has become known later that he is German, of university educa- 

 tion ; but there were many at that time who thought he was a Turk 

 of extraordinary acquirements. He is certainly a man of great 

 abilities in many ways, and of strong character." There is a circle 

 in Paris which pays weekly visits to the studio of a young Russian 

 artist, Marie BashkirtsefT, who died five years ago. This ambi- 

 tious and gifted young woman left a remarkable journal, which has 

 been published in France, and has attracted many readers because 

 of the frankness with which she here draws the complete story of 

 her life, her ambition, her suffering, and her love. The book has 

 many of the qualities which made Amiel's journal famous. Miss 

 Josephine Lazarus, a sister of the poet, Emma Lazarus, will sum- 

 marize this notable book in the same number of Scribner. William 

 Henry Bishop, author of •' The House of the Merchant Prince," 

 who has been living abroad for the past year, has written, also for 

 this number, a picturesque description of the old Spanish university 

 of Salamanca, giving a clear idf=a 'A modern Spanish student life. 



— In LippincoWs Monthly Magazine for November, Edward 

 Heron-Allen contributes an article on " The Violin," which gives 

 much information concerning that instrument. The poet-critic R. 

 H. Stoddard continues his series of papers upon American authors 

 by contributing a sketch of William CuUen Bryant. William S. 

 Walsh has an article upon " Handwriting and Writers," in which 

 he dilates upon the chirography of many famous people. Some 

 funny stories are told of Horace Greeley, arising from the well- 

 known illegibility of his handwriting. In " Does College-Training 

 Pay?" D. R. McAnally severely arraigns the methods of instruc- 

 tion in our colleges, and hurls some hard facts at the dons, which 

 it is to be hoped they will take cognizance of. " The Question of 

 Pure Water for Cities " is an article contributed by William C. 

 Conant, editor of The Sanitary Era. It contains suggestions for 

 rendering water pure and drinkable, — suggestions that should be 

 acted upon by the authorities in every large city. Melville Philips, 

 one of the editors of the Philadelphia Press, tells what it costs to 

 issue big newspapers. 



— "The Lost Inca," by the Inca Pancho-OzoUo, is one of Cas- 

 sell's Sunshine Series of original novels. In this story, the scene 

 of which is laid in Peru, the dramatis persona: mainly consist of a 

 party of North American engineers and a newly discovered people 

 in the valley of the Inti-Mayu. This party become suddenly and 

 without preparation residents of the valley, and find there much 

 cultivation and refinement, and themselves add many modern 

 scientific appliances to an already advanced civilization. It is an 

 historical fact that an Inca disappeared from history. The Span- 

 iards declared that he was killed in an engagement : there is no 

 proof of it. The bodies of the Spanish soldiers were found, but 



