Buffalo Moth

( Entomol.) An insect ( Anthrenus scrophularia ), which has become a pest to carpets, furs, . The larva is a thick, hairy creature, with convex Fig . 2754. MODERN SKELETON BUILDING UNDER CONSTRUCTION. gardens and elsewhere in the States. A small herd of 20 buffaloes is owned by the Island Improvement Company, and kept on Antelope Island, in Great Salt Lake. This island is 30 miles long and 6 wide, is covered with rich gra es, and seems an ideal home for the B. The largest herd in existence is that in Yellow stone Park, which numbers perhaps 400, and by careful protection may considerably increase. A number of these have been recently transferred to the National Zoological Garden at Washington. Of domesticated buffaloes, there is a herd of nearly 75 kept in the Texas Pan Handle, while at Ravalli, Montana, is one numbering 200, owned by Mr. Charles Allard. Mr. Allard is not alone engaged in raising the animals for sale to mu seums and other stock-farms, but has carried on exten back, bearing some suggestive resemblance to a very minute buffalo. The imago is a small brown insect, about one-eighth of an inch long, and mottled with gray, red and black. It is the larva which causes the damage, and when once established in a house is very difficult to eradicate. The carpets need to be taken up, sprayed with benzine, and thoroughly aired, and all the cracks in the floor to be similarly sprayed. In re-laying the carpets, strips of tarred paper should be laid around the borders of the room. Building. The subject of B. has two aspects, the architectural and the constructive, the first devoted to the general effect of an edifice as a work of art, the second to the details of its construction. The first of these has been considered under ARCHITECTURE (q. v.) The sec ond now demands attention. As regards the materials of edifices, they have varied greatly in different times and localities-wood, stone, brick, iron, mud, and even snow being used. In the Arctic regions a house built of slabs of frozen snow is a comfortable residence, while in the tropics posts covered with palm leaves suffice the purposes of an abode. In most localities wood, or tree products in some form, for ages served the needs of the builder, and, therefore, few examples of the domestic residence of the past survive. In localities devoid of wood, but po e ed of clay, brick took the place of timber, as on the Babylonian plains and in the adobe-using regions of Mexico; while the Pueblo Indians built their edifices of thin slabs of stone, prepared for them by nature. The stone construction of the past was largely confined to great edifices, to temples and to palaces, tombs and pyramids, which it was hoped ma ivene of material and solidity of construction would render indefinitely permanent. At present, in civilized countries, it is common to use brick and stone in the walls of dwelling houses as well as of more pretentious edifices, though wood is still frequently used in many countries, particularly in rural districts. Another kind of wall, which has come largely into use in Europe and to some extent in America, is made of a concrete, or artificial stone (called béton in France), which is formed of sand, pebbles, broken stone, and lime mixed with water. Floorings and partitions are usually of wood, while for roofing a considerable variety of materials is used, including thatch, shingles, slate, tin, iron, felt, asphalt and other substances. The internal surface of walls is covered with plaster, while in modern houses the work of the painter and paperhanger comes almost universally into play to give a final finish to the work.- Fire - proof construction. The huge warehouses and office buildings which modern mercantile life demands, and the vast apartment houses and hotels now constructed, have rendered the construction of fire-proof buildings an almost absolute nece ity, and the former very abundant use of wood in buildings is being to a large extent replaced by iron, terra-cotta, cement and brick, the result being a great increase in the safety of structures, though such a thing as a really fireproof B. seems still wanting. This lack of safety is in great measure due to the collecting of combustible furniture and other materials in rooms, and the opening of great chimneylike flues in stairways and elevator shafts which greatly aid the spread of flames. The advent of the elevator has made a radical change in modern methods of building, edifices of many stories in height being now constructed, in which the use of the elevator renders the fifteenth or twentieth story almost as acce ible as the first. Skeleton Buildings. With this change in ease of ascent has come in a new type often spoken of as "skeleton buildings," from their mode of construction. The use of iron in architecture began in the erection of store fronts of this material, cast into ornamental shapes and imitating stone-work in general effect. In the re cent method referred to the B. throughout is a structure of iron, while the walls serve but as a wind-break and add little to the strength of the edifice. These great edifices begin in the laying of a substantial foundation, upon which is erected a series of strong iron columns, well bolted down and thoroughly braced together at the top of each story by cro beams of iron or steel, the whole making a compact and unyielding ma . The skeleton frame-work of the B. is thus erected, story by story, until a great height in the air is attained, the whole forming a strong and self-sustaining ma . The floors are made of terra-cotta self-bracing blocks, filling the interspaces between the cro -beams, while the final proce in the construction of the B. is often the erection of the walls, which slowly close in the iron frame work. Blocks of artificial stone are coming largely into use for this purpose. As a striking example of the most recent type of this cla of construction, attention may be called to the building constructed in 1897 by the Girard Trust, at Twelfth and Girard streets, Philadelphia, of which we give an illustration in its uncompleted state, showing the peculiar method employed in its erection. In this edifice, after the partial completion of the frame-work, the building of the exterior walls began at the fifth story above ground, leaving the space below open and unfinished. This was afterwards completed in marble and other ornamental stone, which could be done deliberately after the remainder of the work was finished; but it is a most remarkable spectacle to see the walls of a building begin at a height of some sixty feet in the air and climb upward without regard to the ordinary laws of gravity. It may be said in conclusion that no small apprehension is felt by many as to the future fate of these great buildings. Their strength depends solely on that of their iron frames; and iron is treacherous as a B. material. Though the skeleton is well painted and closed in at all points from the air, there is no absolute a urance that water may not eventually make its way into the iron and a proce of rusting be set up that will prove in the end fatal to the stability of the B. Another objection to such lofty edifices is their tendency to turn streets into dark, canal-like openings, and a movement looking to a restriction of the height of such edifices is now well under way. In Chicago it is proposed to limit the height of such edifices to 90 feet, and to permit no B. to be erected whose height is more than three times its least width. Similar regulations are proposed in other cities, and all the points of detail in the construction of such edifices are likely in the near future to be controlled by restrictive laws. IMG:content-0879.png:[graphic] Building A ociations, or Societies, are for the purpose of raising, by the subscriptions of the members, a fund for making advances to them upon mortgage security; or, a more popular definition may be, an a ociation by means of which every member may become his own landlord. The first mention of societies of this kind was in 1795, in Birmingham, England, where it was called a Building Club; while differing from, it still greatly resembled, the more modern a ociation in its aim. In 1836 B. A. were, by special act of Parliament, exempted from the usury laws. Under the "permanent" system, adopted in England in 1846, whereby members could enter at any time without back payment, these societies largely increased. The first American society seems to have been organized in Frank ford, Philadelphia, in 1831, and in that city they have attained their greatest development. Income is derived from monthly payments, interest and premiums on loans, and they have aided largely in building up a landlord cla among the operatives in Philadelphia. They are common now in many of the States, but the system has flourished most in Pennsylvania, in which in the year 1890 there were about 1.200 societies, while in all the U. S. the societies numbered 5,290. Probably these societies have a membership of over 1,000,000, and a ets amounting to some $400,000,000, England, in 1887, had 2,318 societies, with about $250,000,000 a ets. Similar a ociations have developed in the British colonies and in Germany. In the ordinary method, the capital of a B. A. is provided by the i ue of shares valued at $200 each, which are paid for in instalments at the rate of $1 per month. The money thus paid in is loaned out. principal and interest being repaid in instalments. The money borrowed is usually invested in homes for the members, and each member so borrowing is obliged to pay $2.00 a month on each share representing the loan, instead of $1.00, as when no loan is secured. It takes perhaps from 10% to 12% years for each share to reach its full value of $200, whereupon the a ociation ends; those members who have not borrowed receive the par value of their shares-$200 each; and the obligations of borrowing members are cancelled. As, however, it was found difficult to loan money when the a ociation approached its end, while it cost too much for new members to enter when it was some years old, a new system has been adopted in which succe ive series of shares are i ued, each beginning and maturing one year after the preceding. Societies in various other places have been organized, some of them probably dangerous in their working, the old system being undoubtedly the safest. Bulgaria. In May, 1881, Prince Alexander I, of Bulgaria, proposed to abdicate, unle invested with extraordinary powers. The new A embly accepted his ultimatum, and the opposing liberal ministers were arrested, but soon set at liberty. A practical dictatorship was established and the administration of the army largely Ru ified; but in 1883 a strong anti-Ru ian feeling arose in Eastern Roumelia and spread to Bulgaria, which resulted in the meeting of the A embly and the installation of a Liberal Cabinet, the adoption of a new Constitution and the overthrow of Ru ian influence. Disputes arose with Servia in 1884 as to the boundary line. On Sept. 18, 1885, a national rising took place in Eastern Roumelia, the Turkish government was expelled, Alexander of Bulgaria put himself at the head of the insurrection, and on the 20th i ued a proclamation announcing the union of Eastern Roumelia with Bulgaria. Servia and Greece at once put their armies on a war footing, announcing that any disturbance in the balance of power in the Balkan peninsula, by the union of the two Bulgarias, could only be compensated by an increase in their territories,| Servia demanding the ce ion of Widdin from Bulgaria. War was declared against Bulgaria by King Milan of | Servia, Nov. 14, 1885. At first unsucce ful, the Bul garians soon recovered their lo es and defeated the Servians and an armistice was agreed upon, Austria morally sustaining Servia. Peace was concluded between Servia and Bulgaria March 3, 1886, and Alexander, with the consent of the Porte, a umed the title of Governor-General of Eastern Roumelia. In August, same year, a revolt took place at Sofia, Prince Alexander was seized and sent out of the country and a provisional government formed, but a counter revolution broke out, the prince was invited to return, and he reached Sofia Aug. 31. Receiving no support from Ru ia (unaware at the time that the revolt which expelled him was a Ru ian move), he abdicated, Sept. 5, 1886, and retired to private life. In Nov., Prince Waldemar of Denmark, was elected by the Sobranje , as prince; he refused the crown, and Prince Ferdinand of Coburg was offered the crown and elected Prince of Bulgaria by the National A embly, July 7, 1887, a uming the government Aug. 14, 1887. His election and the union of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia had not been confirmed by the great powers up to 1897. See BULGARIA in SEC. I. Bull. ( Stock Exchange.) One who asks his broker to purchase stocks with the expectation of a rise, and to whom he does not pay the whole par value of them but only a margin of say five or ten per cent. So long as the price does not fall, or if it rises, the stocks are worth as much as the broker paid, and the original deposit or "margin" is sufficient until there comes the order to sell. But if the buyer mistakes the course of the market, and stocks fall below the price paid by his broker, the latter loses by the difference between the present and the previous price estimated on the par value, unle the deposited margin is sufficient to cover the amount. If it is not, then the broker calls for greater deposits of money. Consequently, in a falling market there is a greatly increased demand on the banks for loans with which to maintain a hold on their stocks. But, on the other hand, it is the interest of "bears" who operate to depre the market, to force sales of stocks, le en the amount of loanable funds, and raise the rate of discount. An "easy money market," therefore, is as unfavorable for "bears" as it is desirable for "bulls." The "street" name for a broker opposing the bull element is "bear." Hence the expre ion, "bulls and bears" in stockbrokers' parlance.