Undergraduate Expenses at Harvard.—A physician has written me to know what the annual expense is for an undergraduate at Harvard College. The inquiry is made that he (the querist) may know somewhere near what it will cost to send his son to that institution. Thinking that others of the Journal’s readers might like to know what a literary (or liberal) education costs at a first-class college, I have looked up the present cost, and by comparing it with my own, thirty-five years ago, I find that expense has increased from year to year, until now it requires about $550 to $600 annually to cover tuition, room-rent, board, and common running expenses. A boy might squeeze through for $400 a year, but he would have to pinch and be niggardly, if not mean. The $550 or $600 would not cover vacation expenses and society dues, therefore the larger sum ought to be reckoned as the cost annually for a Harvard undergraduate at the present time. And upon inquiry, I find that about the same amount of money is required by an undergraduate of Yale. Board in New Haven is the same in price as in Cambridge. For the four years’ course, then, there should be provision for $2,500. Rich students spend a $1000 or more each year, but they do not embrace ten per cent. of the classes. The average student when I was in Harvard expended $350 to $400 a year—a cost which did not cover vacation expenses and society matters. I will venture the remark that as high an order of scholarship can be obtained at “Western” colleges as in Harvard or Yale; and that the expense of student life would not be two-thirds as much. Why, then, take the extravagant course? The name and fame of an institution count for something. A recently founded college may not live long; it has to be tested by time before prestige can be attained. Universities have to be endowed before they can command the best talent of the world in teachers. The fees obtained from students will not pay the expenses of a first-class literary institution.

Lastly, an education of a high order does not insure success in life, but, other things being equal, the man of learning has the best chance to win in the race we are running.—Eclectic Medical Journal.

European Wages.—Senator Frye said in a public address in Boston: “I say from all my observations made there, and they were made as carefully as I could make them, and in all honesty of purpose, there is only one country in Europe that comes within half of our wages, and that is England, and the rest are not one-third, and some not within one-quarter, of our wages.”

India as a Wheat Producer.—“Consul-General Bonham says she is a dangerous competitor of the United States. The report of Consul-General Bonham at Calcutta, British India, treats at length of the wheat interests of that country. The area devoted to wheat in 1886 was about 27,500,000 acres, and the total yield 289,000,000 bushels. As compared with the wheat of the Pacific coast, the Indian wheat is inferior, but when exported to Europe it is mixed and ground with wheat of a superior quality, by which process a fair marketable grade of flour is obtained. The method of cultivating the soil is in the main the same as it was centuries ago, and there seems to be great difficulty in inducing the farmer to invest in modern agricultural implements, and yet, with all the simple and primitive methods, the Indian farmers can, in the opinion of the Consul-General, successfully compete with those of the United States in the production of wheat. This is due to the fact that the Indian farmer’s outfit represents a capital of not more than $40 or $50, and his hired help works, feeds, and clothes himself on about $2.50 a month. The export of wheat from British India has increased from 300,000 cwt. in 1868, to 21,000,000 cwt. in 1886, and the increase of 1886 over 1885 amounts to about 5,000,000 cwt.

“The Consul-General says that some of his predecessors have claimed that the United States has nothing to fear from India as a competitor in the production of wheat. In this view he does not concur, and believes that to-day India is second only to the United States in wheat-growing. Furthermore, wheat-growing in India is yet in its infancy, and its further development depends principally upon the means of transportation to the sea-board. He fears that with the cheap native labor of India and the constantly growing facilities for transportation, the United States will find her a formidable competitor as a producer of wheat.”

Increase of Insanity.—I have repeatedly referred to the increase of insanity and crime under our heartless system of education. It is illustrated by every collection of statistics. The increase between 1872 and 1885 was, in Maine, with five per cent. increase in population, in ten years, 23 per cent. increase in insanity. In New Hampshire, 13 per cent. in population, 55 in insanity. In these two States insanity increases four times as fast as population. In Massachusetts, population 33 per cent., insanity 91 per cent. In Rhode Island, population 40 per cent., insanity 94 per cent. In Connecticut, population 23 per cent., insanity 194 per cent. The total number of insane in New England has increased from 4,033, in 1872, to 7,232, in 1885,—an increase of 3,199 in 13 years. Such are the estimates prepared from official reports by E. P. Augur, of Middletown, Conn. Is it possible by the repetition of such statements as these to rouse the torpid conscience of the leaders of public opinion to the necessity of a NEW EDUCATION?

Temperance.—According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the annual consumption of liquors per capita in the United States, from 1840 to 1886, shows a reduction in the consumption of distilled spirits to less than one-half of the average between 1840 and 1870. The most marked decrease was between 1870 and 1872. The consumption of wine has averaged, from 1840 to 1870, about one-eighth as much—since 1870, from 30 to 40 per cent. as much, but the consumption of malt liquors, which in 1840 and 1850 was little over half that of spirits, has rapidly risen until, in 1886, it was nine times as great, the number of gallons per capita being of spirits, 1.24; wines, 0.38; malt liquors, 11.18. The total consumption of liquors of all sorts has risen from 4.17 gallons per capita in 1840, to 12.62 in 1886. The consumption of malt liquors per capita has increased fifty per cent. in the last seven years.

The tax collected on whiskey for 1886-87 was $3,262,945 less than for the previous year, and the tax on beer was $2,245,456 more than for the previous year.

“Chevalier Max Proskowetz de Proskow Marstorn states that in Austria inebriety is increasing everywhere on a dangerous scale. The consumption of alcohol (taken as at 10 per cent.) was 6.7 litres a head in a population of 39,000,000; but in some districts 15½ litres was the average (4½ litres go to a gallon). In all Austro-Hungary there was an increase of nearly 4,000,000 florins in the cost of alcohol in 1884-85 over 1883-84. In 1885 there were 195,665 different places (stations, gin-shops, and subordinate retails) where liquors were sold. In districts where the most spirits are used there were fewer fit recruits.”

Flamboyant Animalism.—In Boston, which sometimes calls itself our American Athens, the highest truths of psychic science are daily neglected by the more influential classes, while races, games, and pugilism occupy the largest space in the daily papers, and a leading daily boasts of its more perfect descriptive and statistical record of all base-ballism as a strong claim to public support.

The pugilist Sullivan is the hero of Boston; he received a splendid ovation in the Boston Theatre, with the mayor and other dignitaries to honor him, and a belt covered with gold and diamonds, worth $8,000, was presented, besides a large cash benefit. His departure for England was honored like that of a prince by accompanying boats, booming cannon, and tooting whistles, and he is said to swing a $2000 cane presented by his admirers. How far have we risen in eighteen centuries above the barbarism of Rome? There is no heathen country to-day that worships pugilism. Perhaps when the saloon is abolished, we may take another step forward in civilization. London has rivalled Boston, giving Sullivan a popular reception by crowds which blocked up the principal streets.