An Airship and a Sane Fourth
The English navy has undertaken to build the largest air-ship that has so far been designed. England set the pace of building Dreadnought battle-ships for the sea in 1906, and now it seems that she is starting in the same direction in building Dreadnought battle-ships of the air. The immense ship is now in building at Aldershot, and is to have a gas capacity of 350,000 cubic feet. The car underneath the huge gas-bag is to be fitted with rooms having every convenience. A few days ago, the American Medical Association issued its tenth annual statistical report of the accidents and deaths due to the celebration of the Fourth of July. In 1903, the year the association began to compile these statistics, there were 466 deaths and 3,983 injuries in the United States due to the celebration of Independence Day. These casualties were so enormous that a strong agitation was started against the use of firearms, firecrackers, and the other noisy and dangerous things that had become so common, especially among small boys, in their Fourth of July celebrations. "A sane Fourth of July" became the watchword through the press and from the rostrum. As the result of this agitation, many of the dangerous things used in celebrating the national birthday have been put under the ban, and the lessening of death and accident is very remarkable. The year 1912 showed only 41 deaths and 947 injuries as against the much larger numbers of ten years ago. The table prepared by the association shows a gradual decrease in accidents year by year, as the sentiment against the barbarous methods of celebrating the Fourth became stronger and more pronounced. Lord Tweedmouth, Lord Herbert, Lord Innes-Ker, and Viscount Gower are titled Englishmen who have represented their country in winter polo tournaments in California for the last two years. They have cabled that they will not be able to be present this year, owing to the threatened trouble in the Balkans. Things of this character show that the leading powers regard the situation as very serious. Every available man is held for what may possibly develop during the next few weeks. Despatches from Messina state that the volcano Stromboli is in eruption again. There has been more or less activity to this volcano for centuries, but for the present its activity is beyond the usual. At the same time, the despatches and other reports are also telling of threatened volcanic action in Mexico. Violent earthquakes in the latter place, according to what many think is good evidence, are more than probably to be followed by the outburst of the active volcano. A despatch from London dated October 9 states that 10,000 Mongols have recently been killed by the troops of Yuan Shi Kai in Eastern Mongolia.