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X The Great Iowa Storm. The Wonderful Tornado Activity. The storm-cloud proper entered the city from the southwest, first striking the earth on the north -ide of the (J. R. I. and P. R. R. This terrible “reaper of death” cut a swath through a denstly populated portion 700 feet in width in the average, and did not probably exceed five minutes in pass ing through the city, but in that limit of time forty human beings were in stantly killed, and at least ten more will die of their injuries. From fifty to sixty buildings (the Iowa College buildings included) were also totally destroyed—in most instance broken into small fragments and thrown in all directions. Two heavy freight trains, entering the city from the north and east, were caught up and dashed upon both sides of the tracks with terrible violence. Even the ponderous engine was lifted bodily upward, but came down upon its wheels again without injury. The distance traversed by this tornado from Boone to Henry county is in a direct line about 145 miles, although its circuitous route was probably 200. It appears to have been between three and four hours in traveling this distance, and caused the death of sev enty-five or eighty people, a still greater number of animals, and de stroying property valued at nearly two millions of dollars. Several peculiarities of this tornado may be worthy of record. Water, in immense volume, accompanied it. Electricity in form dynamic and ther mal played an important part. Balls of electricity were frequently seen, and window-glass was melted in circular form and with sharply defined bor ders. Light objects were carried up ward, apparently to a great height, and thence at almost right angles with the course of the tempest, found on the ground thirty and forty miles distant. Unlike the tornado of 1860 in this State, no fetid or sulphurous smell was perceptible, nor did the dead odies present such a blackened ap- arance and wounds seemed to heal ore rapidly. There seems to have en a series of almost constant r«in d wind storms in this State, and as r south as Missouri and Kansas, ce the 17ih and up to the date of is communication. Grinnel, I. Frank A Howig. A Sandwich Island Supper. Poi suppers are a great institution on the islands. I have had the fun of eating them in all sorts of places, ranging from the floor of a native fish erman’s grass hut to the dining-room of royalty. I believe that just now will be a good time to describe the best poi supper I have eaten so far. It was at the beach summer residence of a Honolulu merchant. The mer chant was married to a half-wnite lady, an<Ptheir beach home is a little gem of elegance and comfort. The party was small, four half white ladies, one white lady and a half dozen gen tlemen. The half-white ladles are sisters, the daughters of a flue-looking old German, a noble, who was one of the party. The sisters were educated in Germany, and I have never met more gracefully entertaining and cul tivated people, despite the novel ex perience of eati' g supper with them, without the use ol knives or forks. The table was spread in »large and airy room opening out upon a moon lit bit of sea beach.. The white cloth was almost hidden beneath a spread of woven ferns, over which the service of silver, cut glass and fine china formed a pretty picture. Pretty enough, yet with one element incon gruous to the stranger; for, by the side of each dainty cut-glass finger- bowl, filled with perfumed water, stood a heavy, dark, but highly pol ished wooden calabash, filled to the brim with poi. It was th e first table I ever sat down at where the finger- bowls were used before the meal be gan. Each bathed and dried the right baud, and proceeded to dip the index linger of that hand into poi. Everyone—that Is, except myself— and the young ladv who was to share my calabash, observing that I used my fork, she did likewise. I had only eaten a mouthful or two, how ever, when the jolly host cried out “ Shame ” at me for daring to eat poi with a fork. I had only attempted before that time to finger poi furtively and chiefly in the dark during the night suppers on the Likelike and similar occasions. I had not made a very brilliant go of the operation, and so felt a little nervous when my host spoke ; but, rather than be guyed, I determined to try. I turned to my C( mpauion in poi, so to say, and said I would eat a la native, if she would tench me. She would be charmed. We bathed our right hands, and with out another word dipped in. I tell you it is a novel sensation to plunge your hand, in the presence of a tabie- full of civilized beings, into a dish of! food of the consistency wh’ch gene rally demands a spoon. The sensa tion is maue more queer when, as I did, you flud your hand swimming about In the dish in company with the hand of a beautiful woman, who is looking at you the while with mild reproof. The occasion of the reproof she ex plained thus : “ There is no absolute need of your moving your whole body; not even your shoulder nor arm—just a simple wrist movement, thus.” SVe removed our fingers together. On the end of hers was a pear shaped ball of poi. My finger was thin y ve neered with poi. “ What’s wrong with me?” I asked, looking hungrily at my meagrely sup plied digit. Bhe explained that [ had held my finger too straight. “ Crook your finger a little, like this,” she said, as we both dabbed back into the poi, “and turn your hand, not too fast, with a wrist movement only.” I did as mstruettd, and soon the surface of the calabash was disturbed by the movement of two wheels of poi, circling about our respective fin gers. We withdrew our fingers and each was well supplied. We carried our fingers to our mouths, licked them clean, and again dabbed into the cala bash. It doesn't sound pretty, does it? But, upou my word, when one comes to try it, old prejudices and the force of life-long training rapidly disappear, for poi from a fork loses half its flavor and merit. When one takes one’s fin ger from the calabash, the finger is earned to the moqth in a sort of spiral movement, otherwise one’s shirt front getb the poi. My instructress spoke to me just as I was about half-way be tween calabash and mouth, on the up trip, once, and, naturally, I stojiped my hand as one would with a fork. Pretty soon I saw her big black eyes— glorious eyes, by the way—laughing at me. Then I looked for my poi. It had gracefully fell from my finger— part of it divided on my shirt cuff and ornamented the end of my uudershirt sleeve and my coat cuff. When dam ages were repaired she said : “If you want to converse, and happen to have poi on your finger, do like this.” As she spoke she gracefully waved her poi-laden hand backward and forward, with a slow, graceful turn at the end of each beat, and the motion kept the poi in place on her finger-end. Of course, with the poi, there was fish, raw, cooked and dried. The dried and raw fish is easily enough eaten with the fingers. The cooked fDh was the only dish partaken of with forks. The raw fish is served desiccated with tomatoes or in some kind of pickle. Sometimes perfectly plain. I passed on tfie raw fish. The cooked fish, umauma and kumu, were delicious. They were baked under ground in ki leaves, which gave them a flavor new and novel to me. But tbe dish which I lingered by most afle ilionately,which created happiness in this life for me, was the chicken, cooked in luau style—a luau is a na tive feast and dance, but the dance, I concluded, has nothing to do with the style of cooking. The chicken was boned and stewed with taro tops. Taro, or kalo, is the esculent from which poi is made, and the tops and sprouts are both excellent articles of food. I have been, by the way, two months trying, to find out whether this national vegetable is taro or kalo. I conclude, chiefly from my own inner consciousness, that it is, native “ kalo,” foreign corruption, “ taro,” as the foreigners have altered the pro nunciation of K and L in the native words to T and R,neither of which lat ter letters occur in the native alphabet. Well, this taro, then, is a big, coarse, dark skinned esculent, groWu under water on most parts of the islands, the Hize and shape of a very large sweet potato, which, boiled or baked, has a rich sweet flavor, and is far superior to potato. Then it can be fried, or made into cakes. Taro cakes are a revela tion ! It is not to be used fresh, it is pounded up into a coarse, moist mass, called palal, and packed in ki leaves, for use or market. More pounding, aud moisture and straining, and a slight fermentation, makes it into poi. The stalk immediately above the roots somewhat resembles asparagus, and 1b eaten as that vegetable is. The leaves—not a particle of root, stem nor ; leaf is wasted—made an excellent spinach, or flavor accompaniment for the luau dish. “Hello.” Marvelous as have been the discov eries and inventions in the way of telephones, it seems probable that we are yet but in the infancy jf their utility. The result of late experiments has been the establishment of tele phone communication between Bos ton and New York, by which conver sation has been carried on over the distance of 240 miles—that is, to and from Boston—aud not only has the conversation been conducted intelli gently and easily, but with a distinct ness that has hitherto not been ob tained through telephones. This im provement has been reached, not through any particular change in the instruments, but by a chemical manip ulation of the carbou and the use of a current four times as strong as the or dinary one. Mr. Chiunock, the electrician of the Metropolitan Tele phone Company of New York, thus states the ©peiation of the machinery under the new discovery. He says: “Two weeks ago I went to Boston to consult with the Bell Telephone Company. The chief electrician of the company, Mr. Jacques, said that he had something to show that would astonish me. Some twenty feet away from where I sat was an ordi nary telephone, exactly like those it use all over this city. Mr. Jacques came and as he closed the door a voice as loud and distinct as I am talking to you now, said : ‘Good morn ing, Mr. Chinnock. How do you like Boston ?’ I looked around in amaze ment, and said to Mr. Jacques : ‘Have you a speaking tube here?’ ‘No,’ he replied, ‘that is the telephone.’ I thought at first that it was some prac tical joke, but after a few moment’s investigation I became convinced that a great advance had been made in sci ence.” This gentleman says that the pres ent handphones can be made to give forth sound as loud and distinct as the human voice itself, and that hereafter the call belPwill be unnecessary, as the voice can be heard as far as the bell. Thus, standing in Boston, he heard a voice from the telephone call Miss Taylor, a lady sitting in an ad joining room, at least forty feet away and the lady heard the call and came from the other room to answer it. He further explains the possibilities of the future of telephones: “When the voice comes from a die tance, as from Boston to New York, it n necessary to speak quite loudly, but not to shout, for the voice to bd hear# distinctly in all p*rts of the room in this city ; but by putting the handphone to the ear a whisper can be heard from Boston to New York. By using what is known as a metallic circuit—two wires instead of one—con versations have been carried on with ease over 480 miles of country. I see no reason why conversation cannot be carried on between New York and Ban Francisco, and have no hesitation in saying that within a year conversa tion between here and Cmcago will be a matter of hourly occurrence. No change whatever will be necessary in the present apparatus, except in sub stituting four cells for one aud in dif ferently prepared carbon.” The imagination is free to count up what will be the result when a man in Chicago can go to his telephone and call up by a simple “hellw” any person he wishes iu St. Louis, New York, Washington, Boston, or Now Orleans, and speak to him freely, and as distinctly, aud with no gieater voice, than if he were present in the same room. Electricity has made marvelous strides since Morse, lesi thau foriy years ago, strung his first wires aud opened his first line of tele graph, a distance of forty miles. The telephone has already surpassed that, and it is impossible to place any limi tation upon its possible capacity. The promise is now that in a very brief time conversation between cities and towns and Btates and sections of the country will be as common and as universal as it is now between the dif ferent parts of this city, and that the telephone of the future will be so far improved and enlarged aud adapted to common use that conversation be tween people will know no interfer ence by the mere accident of distance. J. W. Keifer, Speaker of the U. B. Hoifce of Representatives, was unani mously nominated for Congressman, by the Republican Convention of the Eighth District of Ohio. Sixteen hundred American revol vers were recently ordered for the South Australian police forces. The Beresford Ghost Story. Many persons may be interested in a version of that strange tale known as the “Beresford Ghost St< ry,” dear to all lovers of the supernatural, which is here given. It is warranted as cor rect on no less an authority thau the present Archbishop of Armagh, who, as a great-great grandson of one of the principal actors and collaterally de scended from the other, certainly ought to know all about it, if anyone does. Nichola Sophia Hamilton, who afterward became Lady Beresford, had made an agreement with the Eail of Tyrone of the De la Poer family, with whom she had been brought up, that whichever of them died first was to appear to the other if there was any truth iu revealed religion, in which neither of them had any faith. One morning Lady Beresford, who was paying a visit, came down to breakfast in a very agitated state, with a black ribbon round her wrist. When her husband, Bir Tristram, asked her what was the matter, she begged him to ask no questions, but told him that the post would bring him tiding’s of Lord Tyrone’s death, aud that he would in the next year be the father of a son. These predictions came true ; the expected letter brought the news that Lord Tyrone had died the Baturday before, and in doe time a son was born. Lady Beresford al ways continued to wear the ribbon round her wrist. Bir Tristram died, aud his widow after a time married a Captain Gorges, who turned out so badly that she bad to separate from him. When she was living iu Dublin she gave a dinner party to celebrate her birthday, and invited an old clergyman who had christened her. He was the first ar rival, and she told him she was just forty-eight that day. “No,” said he, “you are only forty-seven ; you were born in 1666,” She grew deadly pale. “Are you sure?” she said. “Certain,” he said. “You have then,” she re plied, “signed my death-warrant. I have only a few hours to live.” She retired to her room, sent for her son Bir Marcus, for her daughUr Lady Riverston, and, I believe, Henry, Archbishop of Dublin. She then told the story for the first time of Lord Tyrone appearing to her, telling her of his death ; that she would have a son who would marry his brother’s daughter, and that she would make a most unfortunate marriage, and die on her forty-seventh birthday. He touched her wri.-t to prove his appear ance was real, aud the flesh and sinews shrank, on which she always wore a black ribbon. She was hurled Id L >rd Cork's vault, under he Communion table in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Her sou, Sir Marcus Beresford, we may add, married Catherine, Baroness de la Poer, with whom he got the great possession.- in the county of Wa terford which his descendant still owns, and was created Earl of Tyrone, his son becoming Marquess of Water ford. A Joke of Georges Sand. The second volume of the corres pondence of Georges Sand has come, apropos for those who have made up their minds, now that the Due de Fer- nan-Nunez has given the last ball of the season, that it is quite time for them to leave the city. The authoress gives some very amusing accounts of the practical jokes she played on those who importuned her or indulged in the practice of interviewing—more honored in ihe breach than in the ob servance in those days. She tells how a lawyer from La Chatre made up his mind to see her. He arrived at Nahant at noon, and met Rollinat, who, after looking at him up and down, said: “Good night, sir, I am going to bed.” The li*vyer, p zzled, exclaimed: “What, at this time of day ?” “Yes,” retorted R illinat, “it is the custom here.” The limb of the law was not to be denied. Georges Sand hid her self in the bedroom behind the cur tains. She allowed him to enter her chamber, where he was received by an elderly aud moat respectable female, who was f t, fair, and forty, but who with her obesity and her dirty hands might have been taken for twenty years older. Bhe was dressed in an old flannel dressing gown, and her hair hidden beneath a silk handker chief gave her a strangely venerable appearance. The lawyer had a long conversation with her, talking of her different books, and showing so much enthusiasm for the la»'y that he quite overlooked the grammatical errors she made every now and again. When he took ills leave he saluted the grave aud respectable personage who had received him to the very ground, Georges Sand laughing all the time behind the curtain at the deference shown her femme de chambre, who had represented her on this occasion. The correspondence will be read with much pleasure by everyone. It contains anecdotes referring to men „whe are still living or who have been remembered by many. Thus, for in stance, Balzac is referred to. Georges Sand declares that the author of the “Comedie Humaine” was as mad as any man could be. She tells how Balzac dined at her house one day, and that at the table he declared he had discovered another marvel—“a blue rose”—for which the English and Belgian Horticultural Societies had promised a reward of £20,000. He also added that he could sell each packet of seed for five francs, and the whole invention would not cost him more than fivepence. Rollinat asked Balzac why he did not set about the cultivation of the “blue rose” at once, since he was poor and in want of money. “Oh, you know,” said Balzac, “I have so much to do now; but you may be sure that this matter shall have iliy best attention soon.” Clips. Mrs. Lincoln’s estate is $74,000, every dollar being in United S ates bonds. An entire Russian guard, with its non-commissioned officers, has been sentenced to Siberia for life, tor con spiracy to steal a treasure it had been sent to protect. In the last five years 1S94 dead bodies have been taken from the Thanes in the various districts* of London. About one-third of these were women. An area of 93,000 acres has been planted with trees iu Ki.- sas under the new law relating to arboriculture. The cotton tree was largely » Wanted on account of its rapid growth, and 60°0 acres were set with walnut trees. The expectation is that this will operate, in course of time, to relieve the climate of its extreme dryness. The surveyed line of the Continental Railroad Company, which proposes to lay tracks between Council Bluffs and New York, brings Chicago nearer to New York by 113 miles than by way of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Editor McFadden, of the Steuben ville, O , Gazette, stepped up to advise a friend that he ought not to engage in a controversy with one McDonald . who was near by. McDonald over heard the remark, and the blow he dealt McFadden rendered him sense- * less for half an hour. The largest pump in the world, so it is said, is on cars at Sheffield, Pa., for the pump station at Vandergrift City, in the Cherry Grove oil field. It is the Worthington duplex pattern, and each of the huge oil cylinders, with some of the small fixtures, make a car load. In all there are four carloads of tae pump. No city in the world is at the same time so thoroughly national and so tolerantly cosmopolitan as Paris. In no other place in Europe could a politi cal journal in Arabic be established with any hope of success. Yet the Kubek el Cheng (the Morning^Star) is said to be flourishing apace 'in the French capital. When Philip Reich, an old citizen of Frederick, Md., entered the Senate Chamber the other day, after au ab sence of seventy years from Washing ton, the business before the Senate was a bill for the relief of the heirs of R. K. Meade. Mr. Reich at once ex claimed: “Why, that’s the bill they were consideiing when I was here in 1812!” Examination of the record proved that the old gentleman was correct. Mr. Meade sustained some losses while Minister to Spain, aud the bill provides for their jiayment. A Business Explanation. Every established local newspaper receives subscriptions from large cities which puzzle the publishers, but which the New York Times lately ex plained an follows: “A wholesale mer chant in this city, who had become rich at the business, says his rule is, that when he sells a bill of goods on credit, to immediately subscribe for the local paper of his debtor. So long as his customer advertised liberally and vigorously he rested, but as soon as he began to contract his advertising space he took the fact as evidence that there was trouble ahead, and invaria bly went for the debtor. Bald he: “The man who is too poor to make his business known is too poor to do business.” The withdrawal of au ad vertisement is evidence of weakness that business men are not slow to act upon.”