142 FEMALE PATRIOTISM. The following incident of thrilling interest was related by Col. John McDonald, of Ross county, Ohio, at a public dinner on the 3rd ult. "In 1782, Wheeling was besieged by a large army of British and Indians. So sudden was the attack made, that no time was afforded for preparation. The fort, at the time of the assault, was commanded by Col. Silas Zane; Col. Ebenezer Zane, the senior officer, was in a block house, some fifty or a hundred yards outside the wall. The enemy made several desperate assaults to break into the fort, but on every outset they were driven back. The ammunition for the defence of the fort was deposited in the block house, and the attack was made so suddenly and unexpectedly that there was no time to remove it. On the afternoon of the second day of the seige, the powder of the fort was nearly exhausted, and no alternative remained but that some one must pass through the enemy's fire to the block house for powder. When Silas Zane made the proposition to the men, to see if any one would undertake the hazardous enterprise, at first all were silent. After looking at each other for some time, a young man stepped forward and said he would run the chance. Immediately half a dozen offered their services in the dangerous enterprise. "While they were disputing about who should go, Elizabeth, sister of the Zanes, came forward and declared she Her brother thought she would would go for the powder. flinch from the enterprise, but he was mistaken. She had intrepidity to dare, and fortitude to bear her up in the heroic risk of her life. Her brother then tried to dissuade her from the attempt, by saying that a man would be more fleet, and consequently would run less risk of loosing his life. She replied that they had not a man to spare from the defence of the fort, and if she should fall, she would scarcely be missed. She then divested herself of such of her clothing as would impede her speed. The gate was opened, and Elizabeth bounded out at the top of her speed, and ran till she arrived at the door of the block house: her brother, Col. Zane, hastened to open the door to receive his intrepid sister. The Indians when they saw her bound forth, did not fire a gun, but called aloud," Squaw! squaw! squaw !” When she had told her brother the errand on which she had come, he took a table-cloth and fastened it around her waist, and poured into it a keg of powder. She then sallied back to the fort with all the buoyancy of hope. The moment she was outside the block house, the whole of the enemy's line poured a leaden storm at her; but the balls went innocently whistling by, without doing her any injury. She afterwards married a Mr. Clark, raised a family of children, and is yet alive, living near St. Clairsville in this State. Such was Elizabeth Zane!" Circleville Herald. Utica and Schenectady Railroad. The Schenectady Reflector says: "This road commenced operations with the month of August, 1836, from which time up to the 1st of August, 1841, makes a period of five years. Within that time the company's locomotive engines have made about 1870 trips across the road annually, or in other words, have run on an average, about 150,000 miles a year, and within the period of five years 750,000 miles. Within the same period they have carried 434,893 passengers over the whole length of their road and 376,696 between intermediate points-making, in the aggregate, 811,589 passengers who have been transported on that road within five years. Within this five years, during which 811,589 passengers have been conveyed on that road, no accident (with but one exception, in 1836, when two passengers were slightly hurt,) has ever occurred, by which any passenger was injured; and no serious injury with but one exception, has ever occurred to any of the men employed on the engines or train. Within the same period of five years, during which the locomotive engines have made, on an average, 1870 trips annually, they have never failed to make any one trip, have never but once been six hours behind their time, although snows have covered the track three feet deep, and floods have carried off and fire burnt up bridges. There is no line of public conveyance on the face of the globe, not even excepting the Hudson river steamboats, that can show a greater degree of regularity, punctuality, and safety in the transportation of so great a number of passengers, than the Utica and Schenectady railroad, and certainly no railroad that can at all compete with it. This most complete and gratifying success is owing to the care, attention, and skill of Wm. C. Young, superintendent and engineer, and of David Mathews, superintendent of the motive power on that road." State of the Weather at Salem, Mass. A statement of the weather and range of the mercury, on the fourth day of July, for thirty-four years. 70 1834 Cloudy and foggy morning; fair and fine day 68 1835 Clear, nearly; clouds, very fine 1836 Cloudy; afternoon, distant thunder showers 59 1837 Clear, and remarkable windy; 1838 Clear, nearly; serene and brilliant 1839 Clear and fine; N. W. breeze, 3 o'clock, rain clouds 1840 Rainy and foggy; after 9 A. M., fine day 1841 Clear and fine, N. W. breeze; A. M. rainy 60 Salem (Mass.) Register. Washington Pears. We have been favored with a specimen of the fruit called the Washington Pear, which for lusciousness of flavor is unsurpassed in the estimation of most people, by any fruit of the pear kind. We are particularly pleased with this fine production, because it is a Delaware fruit, the parent tree of which, was discovered by the late Colonel Robinson of Naaman's Creek, growing in a hedge row on his farm, about forty years ago, and was taken under his fostering care, and still lives in a green old age. This pear was called by Colonel Robinson, the Washington Pear, as a token of the high respect which he felt for his great Commander. The excellence of the fruit has won for it great fame, and the kind, it is probable, will in a short time be greatly increased, as there is a demand for it. We hope that when this luscious fruit shall become abundant, pleasing every palate, that it will not be forgotten that the parent stock was of Delaware growth.-Del, Gaz. 143 Reminiscence.-Launch of the Old Frigate Congress in 1799. From the Portsmouth Oracle of August 17th, 1799. On Thursday the 15th, every necessary arrangement being previously made, which could possibly facilitate the labors of the day, Colonel Hackett, United States Naval Constructor, at the Port of Portsmouth, proceeded to prepare for the positive launch of the Frigate Congress, one of the most beautifully modelled and elegantly finished ships in the service of the Union. Mr. Sheafe, the Naval Agent in this department, having forwarded a polite invitation to His Excellency Gov. Gilman, he was pleased to accept of the same, and at the confines of the town was met by as many of the commissioned officers of the first military grades, as could conveniently attend, who escorted him to his lodgings at Col. Brewster's. A large number of respectable fellow-citizens there awaited his arrival. Escorted by Capt. Sparhawk's Independent Company of Light Infantry, he passed over to Continental Island, in the Congress' Barge, handsomely decorated, and followed by a vast number of boats, containing the military, militia officers, citizens, clergy, and strangers of distinction. At the moment of his Excellency's embarkation the flag of the United States was hoisted at the flag-staff on the island; the American standard displayed from the frigate's stern; the stars on a blue ground at the bow, and the Continental pendant amidships. Orders at the same moment were expedited to hasten the knocking away of the blocks, and every workman's hammer was plied with that redoubled activity, and exactness of incessant strokes which constitute the harmonies of the shipwright. Precisely at 12, the ship, as if self-moved by the independent spirit of that illustrious body, whose name she bears, majestically moved off the ways; made one graceful plunge into her future element, and instantly raising her stern in equilibrio with her head, swept on a right line athwart the channel, swung round, and brought up. Her movements on this occasion may be considered as oracular of her future destinies. The stern pitch and instant recovery forcibly said, we only bow to the element on which we float; and bid erect defiance to a world beside. Reiterated cheers pro claimed the sincere pleasure of an immense number of tators; a federal salute bore the joyous tidings to distant plains, and the huzzas and salutes were returned with animation from the opposite wharves and town hills, and more particularly by the heavy pieces fired on Maj. Boyd's wharf. spec Minutes relative to the building of the Congress. Exactly 258 working days were employed in the building of this noble ship. The number of shipwrights never exceeded 100, and frequently did not average more than 60 per diem. The regular working hours were from sun to sun; one half hour being allowed for breakfast and one hour for dinner. Gentlemen frem all parts of the continent have visited the yard, and acknowledge that they never witnessed such regularity, order, harmony and unity. The length of the Congress is 145 feet keel. Breadth of beam 41 feet; depth from the upper deck 26 feet 7 inches; tonnage 1250 tons she is destined to carry 36 18 pounders, but may easily carry 44 guns, or in fact be rendered equal to any 50 gun ship. : In the comparison we gave in a recent Journal of the expense of building the five Sloops of War at as many Navy Yards, we reported about 8000 less days' work on the Dale, built at Philadelphia, than on the other ships. We now learn that the masts, blocks, &c. were not made on that Yard, but were received there and reported as materials.At the other Yards, the number of days' labor was reported. This accounts for the discrepancy we could not then understand-and leaves the expense of labor on the Preble, built at Portsmouth Navy Yard, about $10,000 less than on either of the other four ships built at the same time.-Ports. Jour. [See Register, page 76.] Bank Reclamations. Knowing the deep interest felt in the question, we give the points decided by the Supreme Court in the case of John M. Bates plaintiff in error vs. The Bank of the State of Alabama defendant in error, which was argued at the present term, by eminent counsel on both sides. The suit was instituted by the Bank, to recover the amount of a bill of exchange for $4,632 75, dated 1st May, 1839, and drawn by John M. Bates on, and accepted by himself, at five months time, payable at the Branch Bank at Mobile, and endorsed by F. C. Ellis and Bryan Hines. The following were the points raised in the defence, to avoid a recovery: 1. By the charter of the Bank, the indebtedness of any one person upon bill, was prohibited from exceeding five thousand dollars It was admitted that in the same transaction, Bates drew and accepted sixteen bills of exchange, of which that sued on was one, and that fifteen others were for five thousand dollars each. The court held in substance, that this part of the charter was simply a direction to the Board, and did not, in the particular case, avoid the contract. 2. That the Bank could not recover, because the bill originated, in a dealing by the Bank, in goods, wares and merchandise, forbidden by the charter. That this dealing was established by the following facts: Bates drew and accepted sixteen bills, with two endorsers, in consideration of $79,632 75 received by him at the same time from the Bank, and that he instantly delivered to the agent of the Bank one thousand and twenty-two bales of cotton to sell in Liverpool, and the proceeds to be applied to the payment of the bills. In adjudicating the second point, the court was not unanimous. Judges Collier and Ormond were of opinion that the transaction, however ill-judged, did not violate the spirit of the prohibition. That the manifest object of the Bank, was to create funds subject to its order in Liverpool, as the pleadings clearly showed; and for that purpose the cotton was received by the agent of the Bank as collateral security, whilst the advance of money on the bills was the direct and primary transaction. In this view of the question, Judge Goldthwaite did not concur. He was of opinion that the transaction was a dealing in "goods, wares and merchandise," and that the bill was not recoverable by the Bank. But he thought that the State could maintain an action against Bates for so much of the money received from the Bank as he had not re-paid : that its retention by him was against equity and good conscience; and further, that every director assenting to the transaction was personally liable to the State for the loss 3. That the purchase of the bill sued on was not made by the sustained by the Bank. it Board or directors, in the usual mode, or at the counter of the Bank, but by an agent in Mobile, viz: one of its directors deputed for that purpose. The court overruled this defence, and believed that though might be hazardous to the interest of the Bank to invest the bill was not void, more especially as the Bank had apone of the board with so much authority, yet the purchase of proved it. Circuit Court of Tuscaloosa, of the same character, for reWe understand that there are several cases pending in the clamations in favor of the Bank; and that by consent of parties, the disposition of one case by the Supreme Court might its way to a recovery of the difference between the sum of control the others. If so, the Bank has now no obstacle in money advanced to J. M. Bates, and the nett proceeds of delivered at 500 lbs. to the bale, and that it sold for 18 cents the cotton in Liverpool. Estimating the quantity of cotton in Liverpool, it would about satisfy all the bills, after deducttion. If the cotton sold for 15 cents, the reclamation would ing about ten dollars per bale for charges of every descripbe $15,000; if at 12 cents, it would amount to $12,000.We have merely suggested these items to show the charac ter of the transaction in respect to the claims of one party, and the liability of the other. Acadia's average short of Britannia, 5 hours 66 4 46 1 66 Parallel between the Great Western Railroad of England and the Great Western Railroad of Massachusetts. The Great Western Railroad of England was commenced in 1836. The Great Western Railroad of Massachusetts was commenced in 1836. The Great Western Railroad of England finished in 1841. Great Western Railroad of Massachusetts finished in 1841. Great Western Railroad of England is in length 118 miles. Of Massachusetts 117. Great Western Railroad of England cost five millions and a fraction pounds. Of Massachusetts five millions and a fraction of dollars,-(one-fifth the former sum.) Great Western Railroad of England terminates with a railroad which it leases running to the West. The Great Western Railroad of Massachusetts terminates with a railroad which it leases running to the West. The Great Western Railroad of England is the most splendid work of the kind in Great Britain. The Great Western Railroad of Massachusetts is the most splendid work of the kind in America.-Bunker Hill Aurora. Something Interesting. With this caption we find an article in the St. Louis Evening Gazette, which makes mention of a gentleman named Nangle, from Philadelphia, having been smitten with the Twenty passages-aggregate 289,4—av. 14 days 11 hours. Texas fever some two years ago, hied away to that Eden of Winter passages, Spring 46 3 of 17 days nearly Summer & Fall, 12 of 13 Acadia longest passage, 18 days 12 hours Columbia shortest 12 66 2 diff. 6,10 In the year 1838, the Old Line of New York Liverpool Packets made 19 passages outward to Liverpool in 670 days -average 35 days; and from Liverpool in 398, average 21 days-less home 272 days. The Ship England made the shortest passage out, 16 days home, 20" America, and did not stop till he reached San Antonio. He was delighted with the transporting scenery, and serene and salubrious airs of that delicious region, and he resolved to stay. But being out of means, he bethought himself of turning his skill at stone cutting to account. So taking the lime stone, used in the structure of the Alamo-now consecrated by the blood of the bravest of the brave-he wrought out a great variety of useful and ornamental articles, which sold upon the spot with great rapidity. This stimulated his enterprise, and he determined to "spread " himself beyond the home market, and has accordingly sent to the United States sundry specimens of his manipulations-some of which have found their way to St. Louis-which embrace a variety of specimens, consisting of seals, paper weights, pipe bowls, little vessels, &c., &c. The lime stone is very fine and smooth, and easily cut. Large Water Wheel. The Wilmington Delaware Chronicle says, that the Messrs. Dupont have erected a water wheel for a cotton factory near their powder mills, which is truly a curiosity. Its diameter is upwards of forty feet, and its width less than three feet. It runs on friction wheels and turns with a few buckets full of water. This is a large wheel, but there is a larger one in Burden's nail factory, near Troy, N. Y. The wheel much exceeds in diameter that named, and its width, we think, is about 18 feet. Each bucket will hold nearly a hogshead of water. The shaft is of cast iron and the projecting arms which sustain the buckets are iron rods, instead of huge wooden timbers. There are about 800 of these rods springing from the shaft, and when the wheel is in motion, it is indeed a novel and beautiful sight. This one wheel moves all the operations of various trip hammers, rolling and slitting mills, and an immense number of machines for making nails and spikes. It is one of the most extensive and interesting work-shops in the United States. The UNITED STATES COMMERCIAL AND STATISTICAL REGISTER, is published every Wednesday, at No. 76-Dock street. The price to subscribers is Five Dollars per annum, payable on the 1st of January of each year. No subscription received for less than a year.— Subscribers out of the principal cities to pay in advance. PRINTED BY WILLIAM F. GEDDES, No. 112 CHESNUT STREET, Where, and at 76 Dock St., Subscriptions will be received. COMMERCIAL AND STATISTICAL VOL. V. REGISTER. EDITED BY SAMUEL HAZARD. PHILADELPHIA, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 8, 1841. Pennsylvania & Ohio Canal Company. The time for which I have been employed to superintend your Canal having now expired, I deem it my duty to make a final Report, embracing the cost, repairs, present condition, and resources of the work so far as they come within the sphere of the Engineer Department. The distance from the Ohio River to the eastern termination of this Canal by the Beaver division of the Pennsylvania Canal is twenty-one miles. On this division of the Pennsylvania Canal are fifteen locks, and five dams across the Beaver River, making sixteen miles of slack-water navigation. The length of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Canal as now constructed is eighty-four miles, but may be reduced one mile by cutting through the peninsula on Draper's farm, five miles below Warren, at an expense of from three to five thousand dollars. From the intersection of the Ohio Canal, at Akron, to Cleveland is thirty-eight miles; making the whole distance from the Ohio River to Lake Erie by this route one hundred and forty-three miles; and from Pittsburg one hundred and sixty-nine miles. The distance from Pittsburg to Beaver has generally been called twenty-eight miles, but I know from actual survey, that a Canal connecting the Pennsylvania Canal at Allegheny with the Beaver division would be but twenty-five and a half miles in length. The distance from Pittsburg by this Canal to Bolivar, the western termination of the Sandy and Beaver Canal is one hundred and seventy-three miles. The whole length of this Canal including its navigable feeders is one hundred miles; and the amount paid and due contractors for work and materials is $1,076,012 71. Of this, $118,348 50 has been expended on the feeders and reservoirs. This, by referring to my Report of December, 1838, will be found to differ from my estimate but $140 38, after deducting $1,895 42 for farm bridges in Pennsylvania, and $2,925 39 the estimated cost of Congress Lake feeder, not included in that estimate. The amount paid to contractors for work and materials is ten thousand and seventy-six dollars per mile. The number of locks on the Canal is fifty-four; the ascent and descent four hundred and fifty-four feet, and three locks on the feeders, with an aggregate lift of fifteen feet. There are four locks, one aqueduct, seven culverts, seven road, one tow-path, and seven farm bridges in the State of Pennsylvania; and fifty-three locks, one aqueduct, seventy-three culverts, fifty road and thirteen towing path bridges, and nine dams in the State of Ohio. No. 10. $812,725 02 118,348 50 57,348 50 27,918 37 Hence it appears that the work has exceeded my estimate of 1838 four hundred and forty dollars and thirty-eight cents, (after deducting the cost of the farm bridges and Congress Lake Reservoir;) and the superintendence and incidental expenses, ten thousand four hundred and fifty-nine dollars and sixty-nine cents. This latter excess was mostly caused by the work not having been completed in the time contemplated. Mr. Foster estimated the Eastern Division without farm bridges or waste-wiers at the locks to cost $581,108 91. These appendages have cost more than ten thousand dollars, and this division has been completed for five hundred and three thousand nine hundred and forty-three dollars and seventeen cents; making a saving of $77,165 74. This has been accomplished, not by reducing the wages of labor, but by reducing the amount, by changing the location and plans, where the work had not progressed too far. Twenty thousand dollars have been saved by changing the location at Draper's farm five miles below Warren. The cost of the four dams across the Mahoning has been reduced more than twenty thousand dollars, and sixteen thousand dollars have been saved by the change of the plans of the locks, and a greater sum by changing the plans of the culverts. I believe that this board will concur in the opinion that the location, locks, aqueducts, dams and culverts have not suffered by the change, and that they are more permanent and durable. That it may be known hereafter on whom to bestow praise or blame, I will state that the Shenango Aqueduct was completed, except the superstructure and the three west piers above the second course of stone; the South-East Branch Aqueduct was completed except the turning of the arches, and the side or parapet walls and the coping on the wings; and the stone were all cut for the arches; locks 1, 4, 6, 8, 11 and 21, counting from the junction, were completed except the gates, and the materials were nearly all prepared and one-third of the walls of 3, 6, 7, 9 and 12 built when I took charge of the Eastern Division. The whole canal and feeders with the exception of about fifteen miles were filled and used in the summer of 1839, the work proved and the breaches repaired. Much of the work had been finished from two to four years and had sustained considerable damage, making the repairs up to 1840 $144,939 19 equal one year's use. The repairs for 1839 and 1840, (two 8,820 00 years) have been $28,629 20; of this $5,584 63 have been 688 00 expended in Pennsylvania, and $22,944 57 in Ohio. The Canal has not been re-measured since it has been completed; that portion that lies in the State of Pennsylvania will not vary materially from ten miles, and has cost For work and materials... Expenses of Engineer Corps. Damages..... In the construction of the canal, when stone could not be procured without great expense, for protecting the embank. .$154,447 19ments, where they were located in the river, a temporary Cost not including the expenses of Directors, Collections, &c.,.. VOL. V.-19 protection of brush was substituted until stone could be brought in boats. This has increased the amount for repairs two thousand dollars. Other work was omitted whilst the Canal was being constructed, and has been since done by the Superintendents' parties to the amount of at least five thousand dollars, which should be deducted from the cost of repairs and added to construction. There is about six thousand dollars more of this kind of work yet to be done, which can now be done for one-half of what it would have cost at the time the Canal was constructed. The repairs from the 1st of January to the present time (44 months) have cost four thousand five hundred dollars which is about equal to the tolls received for the last thirty days. There has been drawn from the Treasury and expended in constructing boats, and purchasing beds, bedding and other furniture, and tools, $3,531 13. Other tools and bedding have been purchased and paid for in the accounts of the Superintendents and Directors, amounting to more than one thousand dollars, which can be ascertained by referring to their accounts rendered. I have caused a careful inventory to be made of all the property now in the possession of the Superintendents, consisting of boats, furniture, tools, &c., and find that its present value is four thousand sixty-three dollars and seventeen a new Canal and the length of time required to adapt the agriculture of a country to the new state of things, it will appear very prosperous and highly flattering. The repairs will not amount to more than twelve thousand dollars for the whole season. Two thousand dollars will probably be expended on the unfinished work mentioned in the former part of this Report. To this must be added the salary of the Engineer and the expenses of the Board of Directors. The great difficulty to be overcome in order to establish a brisk and profitable business on this Canal is the unwil lingness of the transportation companies of Pennsylvania to extend their lines of boats from Johnstown into the interior of Ohio, and by that means avoid the delay and expense of transhipment and storage. The capitalists of Philadelphia and Baltimore appear not to be sensible of the importance of the trade of the interior of Ohio, and think that they have accomplished all that is necessary when they reach the Ohio River. To correct this error I will quote from an authentic document drawn up by the collector of canal tolls in Cleveland. 40,000 00 25,000 00 The value of water power which may be re alized in ten years. 85,000 00 Real Estate and subscriptions well secured, worth.. 28,000 00 Pounds Butter.. .$117,163 17 Total value of property...... The expense of constructing Muddy and Sandy Lake Reservoirs and Feeders including damages would be $50,000 00. Should they be made they would double the value of the hydraulic power throughout the whole Canal. The reservoirs already constructed will furnish two thousand cubic feet of water per minute for two hundred days. The Cuyahoga River at the dam at Shalersville will guage two thousand cubic feet per minute for one hundred and twenty days of ordinary drought, four thousand feet for eighty days, and exceed ten thousand feet for the balance of the year. The river, as the works are now constructed, furnishes the whole supply for the summit, and is sufficient to pass sixty boats per day. When the business on the Canal shall require a greater number of boats, the reservoirs of Sandy and Muddy Lakes, must be made, and their waters brought on to the summit level. I am clearly of the opinion that in ten years from the completion of this Canal there will be business for forty boats daily through the season of navigation, and that the dividends will not be less than ten per cent. per annum. In consequence of the deranged state of the currency, and the great falling off of merchandise imported into this country it is difficult to predict with much certainty the amount of tolls that will be received this season. They must I think exceed twenty-five thousand dollars, and may come up to thirty thousand. This may appear small to many, but to those who know the difficulties of establishing business on do Pig Iron. do Iron and Nails. Hhds. Tobacco... Pieces, Staves and Heading Cords Wood... |