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| Money and the Lake Freight Situation. Although the REviEw has refrained from connecting the stringency in money with the lake freight market, in order to avoid any possibility of increasing the excited feeling that has prevailed in financial circles, everybody who is well informed in shipping matters on the lakes has understood fully the effect of the money scare on lake business, and knows full well that in- stead of the present depressed condition of freights there would undoubtedly have been a rising market, even upon the low basis at which the season started, if it were not for the borrowers' panic that has put the bankeis of the country through an awful trial. It has been a borrowers' panic and nothing more, and now that the worst is over with there can be no harm in referring to it. Probably no collection of banks in the country were better fitted to meet this difficulty than the banks of Cleveland, in which iron ore and coal shipping interests predominate, and yet these banks have been forced, in their efforts to be prepared for the worst possible results, to put some of their customers to very severe taials. A few instances will serve to show that loans were so thoroughly suspended that collateral was not a question. One case is noted in which a leading business man wanting a loan of $8,000, on which $2,000 could be made in sixty days, was unable to secure it, although he offered as collateral $60,000 worth of stock of one of the best national banks of the city and was will- ing to pay a bonus of $100, in addition to 7 per cent. interest. In another case an offer of $200,000 collateral would not bring a loan of $10,000 to a president of one of the national banks. At alow estimate $5,000,000, was drawn from Cleveland banks alone by timid depositors during the worst days of the trouble, to go to safe deposit vaults and various places of hiding. 'The result has, however, caused the banks to force debts to be paid where it could be done, and in this there is a clearing up of bus- iness matters that will undoubtedly have itsadvantages. Among the results most prominent in local iron'circles is the entire sus- pension of further dividends from iron mining companies. As anticipated last week the Minnesota company passed its regular dividend, and even the Lake Angeline has quit, for the present at least, the dividends that have been so regular with the stocks. Both grain and ore freights have fallen off during the week to the lowest figures of the season. Vessel owners still have confidence in an active movement of freight, to make up for the great shortage in shipments up to this time, but until the finan- cial outlook shows a marked change, any speculation as to the future of the market is of no account. Life Saving Appliances. George Learman of Cleveland, who has patented a number of life saving appliances, notably a self-detaching hook for life -- boats that has met with general favor from masters of vessels, has been giving considerable attention to details connected with the recent accident in Cleveland, through which four members of the life saving crew were lost after their boat had capsized. He suggests that in trying to render assistance in cases where there is danger of a life boat being overturned, it might be well to have attached to the boat a number of small lines that could -- be fastened to belts worn by the life savers or tied around their waists. If the men should be dumped out of their boat with these lines attached, they would, he claims, find the lines of great assistance to them in again reaching the boat. Mr. Learman says that he expects opposition to his scheme from men ex- perienced in such matters, on the ground that a line might prove a positive detriment to a man thus dumped into a heavy sea, on account of the danger of the swimmer becoming entangled in it, but he thinks some plan of this kind should be given a trial. He also claims that good swimmers are often drowned in breakers by the spray splashing into their faces and smothering them, though they might be strong enough physically to keep above water for some length of time in the heaviest of seas. He is MARINE REVIEW. : it having made a rubber head covering similar in appearance to the helmet of a diving suit, with which he will soon make a trial of endurence against seas of the kind in which he claims good swimmers ate smothered. 'This head covering will be bag- shaped below the neck and made to tie under the arms, and it will not be necessary to have it fit closely at any point. It will not be very costly, as it will be simply a piece of rubber or water- proof cloth shaped and sewed up, with two pieces of glass at the part over the eyes, to permit of the wearer seeing all about him. A cone-shaped attachment at the top of the head will admit air, but not enough water to render it disadvantageous to the swimmer. The Coal Shortage. In connection witha statement in the Jast issue of the RrEviEw showing a falling off of 162,432 tons in coal shipments, hard and soft, to Lake Superior up to June 1, it may be of in- terest to sum up the shipments of hard coal by lake from Buffalo in April and May of this year and compare them with the move--- ment from that port during the same months last year. Last year the total shipments out of Buffalo in the month of April were 112,439 tons; this year in April, 178,040 tons. In May last year shipments were 273.463 tons; in May this year, 373,433 tons. Thus it will be seen that the shortage is entirely in soft coal as the aggregate movement from Buffalo to June 1 this year is 553,475 tons, against 385,902 tons on the same date last year, a gain of 165,573 tons. : In General. -- Campania and Lucania, the names given to the Cunard ships, are taken from old provinces of ancient Italy. Harland & Wolff of Belfast, Ireland, have the most perfectly appointed ship and engine building concern in existence. A London cablegram says that a dredge tied last week in -- the River Mersey is 320 feet in length and is designed to raise 24,000 tons of matter daily in the bar at the mouth of the river, where a difference of seven feet in the water has been obtained within the past few years. Now it is claimed that the cause of Lord Dunraven's yacht Valkyrie losing her bowsprit and the 'race to the Britannia, another of the English racers, was the use, to save weight, of a spruce spar instead of one of Oregon pine. A spruce stick, ac- cording to the authorities, is not to be trusted in a strain. On a run from Milwaukee to Chicago a few days ago the world's fair steamer Christopher Columbus was forced for a trial of speed. 'There are various reports of the speed attained by the big boat, one of which puts it at an average of nearly 23° milesan hour. Although the Columbus is a very fast boat for the lakes, this seems unreasonable, and we have reserved com- ment on her speed until we can get more definite information. The Thomsons of Clydebank required two years to build the New York: and Paris and Harland & Wolff of Belfast were twenty-eight months in building the Teutonic and Majestic, so that it will not be surprising if the Cramps require a greater length of time for construction of the first two of the American line ships, which will be of a trifle greater register than the New York and Paris and 800 tons larger than the Teutonic and Majestic. West-bound Sleepers. Until further notice a special sleeping car for the accommodation of local patrons of the Nickel Plate road will be attached to train No. 1 at Cleveland, leaying Cleveland at 7:20 p. m. and arriving in Chicago at 8:10a.m, Through sleepers from New York and Boston are also attached to this train. Elegant drawing-room car accommodations will also be found on train No. 3, leaving Cleveland at 6:30 a. m., and train No. 5 leaving Cleveland at 11:28 a. m. Space in sleeping or drawing-room cars for future dates can be reserved by applying to any agent of the Nickel Plate road. All trains run seven days a week,