THE RAILROADS in the United States have cost about $60,000 per mile, and probably a considerable percentage of this has not entered into the construction of the railroads and the equipment of same, says "Signal Engineer" in The Railroad Gazette. The railroads of Great Britain have cost about $240,000 a mile, and yet we claim for the United States more luxurious travel than can be found in Great Britain; and this is true so long as the travel is safe. The difference in the cost of construction in the United States and England may be found in the item of safety appliances. The railroads of Great Britain carried during the last year 800,000,000 passengers, with safety to all but five, and this was possible because the railroads, instead of expending their capital in luxurious equipment and passenger stations, chose rather to equip their lines with the most improved signaling and interlocking. The railroad companies of the United States in expending large sums for handsome and convenient terminals and luxurious cars are placing monuments before the public eye which naturally lead to the belief that every appointment of such roads is on the same high plane, and it requires much less expenditure to furnish luxurious equipment to be carried over 1,000 miles of road than it does to equip 10 miles of the 1,000 so as to make it safe; and since the expenditure for safety appliances and permanent way is not seen and felt by the passenger so long as he is carried in safety, it is not, therefore, so prominent before the public gaze as is the handsome station and the palatial car. On one road in Great Britain, having but 2,000 miles of track, there are employed more men in the manufacture and installation of signal work than are employed by all the signal companies and in the signal departments of all the railroads of the United States, where we are now operating about 182,000 miles. * * * * * MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. ORDERS FOR large quantities of aluminum have been received within the last few weeks by the Pittsburg Reduction Company from the principal foreign nations for the equipment of their armies. The contracts aggregate about fifty tons a month, Russia being the largest consumer. ACCORDING TO the return published by the Minister of Agriculture, the consumption of horseflesh in Paris has decreased slightly in the last year, being only 4,472 tons, as against 4,664 tons for 1895-96. This was the meat derived from 20,878 horses, 53 mules and 232 donkeys slaughtered during the twelve months; but a very strict supervision is exercised, and 575 of these animals were condemned as unfit for human food. The flesh of the remainder was sold at 190 stalls or shops, and, although the fillet and undercut made as much as 9d. a pound, the inferior parts sold for 2d. or less, and most of the meat was used for making sausages.