Newspaper Page Text
THE MONROE
VOL XXXIX.
“TIK A HOVE THE TIDE/*
THE LO.NGEST ©RIDGE SPAN ON
EARTH.
Story Of the Great Hudson Piver ", ‘
Brirf,,,. -J It, ' '■ ,ve C4 Jtruf53 fS
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• nd its Comprehensive Plane.
W'itloii fi , \ cur p. 1 rlmp^brs, on
gim <ri M-.? . , v. • N ■ unit'd
N^s Y'd; !<» « .hr ,v 1 \ „
b""' 1 t upendou • pi
........ dwarf iln fin.ok
l.vn P-ici" by I -mj.ari^m. It will
I" 1“' '*• - - !* r no I higher. It will
him tl„ lofigi I high span i„ <],„
world.
When thi Brooklyn Bridge was «ug
sled and tin- l. ngth of span be
came 1 nowri th.-rc were experienced
engine-!' who regarded the under
taking n linzardotts if not imprue
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f IIAUI.I.S II. SWAN.
livable. But the 1,ridge was built
mid was a seven days’ wonder, until
the Eirth of Forth bridge was con
Htruck-d with a span of 1,620 feet in
the clear over the 1,110 feet of (lie
Brooklyn Bridge.
Engineers at that time declared tho
tensile strength of steel (<> be such
that a bridge with a span of 2,000
feel would fall of its own weight.
That is hut a few years ago. Now
the projectors of the New York and
Now Jersey Bridge Uompany say they
will build the longest spun in the
world—2,OiO feet in the clear. This
increase is made possible by the use
Of the highest gru le of steel.
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A BIRD S EYE VIEW OF THE BRIDGE.
-
President Cleveland has finally ap- !
proved the bill passed by Congress
and with the acts passed by the Leg
islature of New York and New Jersey
the projectors foci that the major
part of their undertaking is accom¬
plished.
It has taken twenty-eight years
mul cost over $200,000 to bring the
enterprise whore it is to-day. It takes
great minds to conceive such enter
prises, and greater minds to bring
them to a completion. Few men have
the courage to devote their lives to a
project the completion of whieh is so
far distant, and at best uncertain,
But the men back of the proposed
bridge over the Hudson have given
these years and expended this money,
never doubting the outcome.
Away back in 1S66 a bill was intro
ducod in the New Jersey Legislature
authorizing the bridging of the Hud
won.
The proposition was regarded as
trhinv'rieal. Two years later the bill
was passed. But an amendment had
bi^B^cked only providing become operative that the when act
t^Pregislaturo of New York should
grant similar powers for the New
York side.
The next year found tho projectors
knocking at the doors of the New
York Legislature. But the air at
Albany was colder than that of Tren
ton, A certain amount had been laid
aside to encourage the legislators to
vote the right of way. But it was
insufficient, and when it was ex
liausted the projectors found them
selves outside the legislative breast
work s. So they came back with
empty bands and empty pockets.
The enterprise was finally aband
oneil by its original promoters, and
lay dormant until 1NS6, when the
present projectors took the matter
in hand. At their head was Chns.
H. Swan, by whose intelligence, per
severance and energy the building of
this bridge is made possible. It took
him fouryears to pass the bill through
Albany and then he went to Wash
ington.
The tight there was even more hit
ter than at VI ban v. Mr. Swan found
arrayed against him a rival corpora
tion, together with the re present a
fives of the ferry companies and
railroads not needing tlie bridge.
w H — 5 COUNTY, GA.TUESDAY I ■W r Jfl f * N - JST 21, Ot) H—
7 l 1 0Pr L OHi ! i n T ns f ®f a time PUC :
i/..“if* f ni n ! 1? . ’*! was passed
*
% 14 " n in'reduced by Mr. Dun*
f! i] , 'n 1' " '«P r ° ’ y V* / * M
I;' u V i ■, °r t ti.o T> Indent . to the 10
J. !u>r * Mr ; ( 'b‘veland
g eu li, ana , Mr. bwan had won his
A' ll! II l | n,,ll,on .»»« ,
,;y "* f^ ?’°f th £ f ;^scd m,m -
U a -n ni h.f ' 1 n,a
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iT, ‘ ‘ Li " or. % M V n ‘ t. u nd T* rapid lhe } rH] mode ^ ** of
st ; - 11 fact ;'V 3 I» rol, ,lbl V ,hal
Htu J 1 / r l' a lorry ^ (, »K< companies p traffic will of be the I confined North
“ P ep sons wishing to reach the lower
' Ian h “ ttaIK This, perhaps,
, 1 ,. k of , ,he local traf1fie hut all
,
,lu '°u«h , passengers will be landed at
* n< '‘ion Station, at or near 42d
street and Broadway.
1 here will he a station on the
sey side near the old Guttenlnirg race
track, from which short lines will;
branch off to Hoboken, Jersey City |
and other adjacent towns in the im
mediate vicinity.
Passengers will probably be carried
fmm Jersey City and Hoboken to
42d street and Broadway for a single
fare of five cents. Another branch
will make connections with the New
England roads and the elevated at
126th street.
More far-reaching will be the effect
of (he bridge upon (lie freight traffic.
Only a few minutes will be required
to land cars in the centre of New
York. By no means the least of the
advantages of (he bridge will be the
increased postal facilities.
Perhaps (he most interesting fea¬
ture of this immense undertaking
will he the union station. It, will
cover two blocks on Broadway to
11th street, a bridge over 4Rd street
connecting the two sections, and it,
will be (he largest and the finest
station in the world.
'The building will be eleven stories
high, with sub-cellar, will be built of
stone and iron, and strictly fireproof.
The section between 48d and 44th
streets will he used for outgoing
trains, and will have twelve tracks,
six for passengers and six for freight,
The section between 42d and 43d
street will be for incoming trains. It
will also have twelve tracks, making
twenty-four in all.
The architects have made ample
provision for comfort and conve
nience. One section will be used as
a hotel and the other as an office
building; that is, the upper stories,
The main entrance to the station
will be in the middle of the upper
block, and the entrance to the hotel
will be in the centre of the other,
There will be exits from the tracks
from both buildings into 48d street.
The main waiting room will be 114x76
feet on the first floor, fifteen feet
above the sidewalk. The only cafe
will be in the hotel proper.
The hotel will be one of the largest
in New York. The dining-room will
be 60x06 feet. On the top of the hotel
it is proposed to have a mammoth
roof garden. Electricity is to be the
only power used. It will light the
building, operate the elevators and
baggage lifts and run the trains.
The express department will be in
the 42d street section. The distribut
ing post office will be in the northern
section.
It will be, to use Secretary Swan’s
words, a poem in architecture. It
will be built on the cantilever plan,
which has come to be acknowledged
better for big bridges than the sus- j
pension plan. To the lay mind a
better idea can be obtained of it from
the accurate cut herewith than by
any word description, No matter
how much weight i< concentrated at
any one point, the tension is divided,
The total length of the bridge will
be 4.12R feet. Its exact location has
not yet been decided on. *The first
“dirt was turned" or ground broken
by President Green several years ago
on the river front at 70th street. But
by the provision of the new act the
bridge must be located between 39th
and 69th streets.
{ There will be two piers. One will
be within the bulkhead line of the
i New York side and the other 810 feet
from the Jersey shore, in what is
i practically shoal water. The location
of this pier on the river was the only
j valid objection that the opposition
could ord<lHfe^cure briag to bear against it.
j In approval by the
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I Presklent it was deemed necessary to
amend it m this way:
disinterested, expert bridge engineers,
of of w Engineers J»om one shall be member either the of Chief the
or any
Corps of Engineers of the United
States Army, and the others from
civil lifo > who shali - within thirty
days after their appointment, meet
!?" ether .^^d, after examination of
tne question, their shall, within sixty days
« ter first meeting, recommend
what length of span, not less than
two thousand feet, would be safe and
practicable for a railroad bridge to be
constructed over said river, and file
such recommendation with the Secre
tary of War, but it shall not be final
or conclusive until it has received his
written approval. In case any va
cancy shall occur in said board, the
President shall fill the same, The
compensation and expenses of said
board of engineers shall be fixed by
the Secretary of War and paid by the
said bridge companies, which said
companies shall deposit with the
Secretary of War such sum of money
as he may designate and require for
such purpose; provided, always, that
nothing herein contained shall be
construed as preventing the said
board of engineers from meeting, in
vestigating and liling their recoin
mendation after the expiration of
said time herein mentioned."
This places the entire future of the
bridge in the hands of Secretary of
War Lamont. He could, if he so
saw tit, deprive the city of this great
boon, and so put a clog on the wheel
of progress for a Greater New York.
But he will not do it.
As to the pier, the contention has
been made that on dark nights many
eollisions would occur. This is met
by the retort that a pier is not half
so dangerous as the barges now used
in transporting freight, nearly all of
which would be dispensed with for
the cheaper and quicker transporta
tion afforded by the bridge.
The pier will be sunk about 800
feet from the pierhead line of the
Jersey coast. This pier will be 200
feet sqnare.
In the East River there is but 1,410
feet of water way, and the tonnage
of the vessels passing that point is
far greater than that which will pass
under the new bridge when com
pleted.
On a visit to the office of this com
pany almost the first thing noticed
was a handsome working model in
metal of the proposed bridge. The
model is complete in every detail,
An idea of the work of this model
can be had by the statement that it
cost over $10,000 and took almost a
year to make.
The soundings show it will be ne
cessary to go the unusual distance of
260 feet below the bed of the river
for a solid foundation in building the
pier S00 feet from the Jersey shore.
Experience shows that workmen can
not operate beyond a depth of one
hundred feet below the depth of the
river. The pressure of the air be
comes too great. M hen this point
has been reached the engineers will
adopt a plan used in constructing the
llawksbury River Bridge, in Austra
lia. They had to go 100 feet below
the bed of the river.
When they have used their work
men to as great a depth as possible,
they will bring into play a number
of pointed steel tubes, with holes at
the bottom. These tubes will be
forced into the soft mud, which will
be sucked through the holes and
thus taken out. About all the tubes
will be a big cylinder of steel, and
while the tubes will work separately
the space between them will be filled
in with cement, which sinking of its
own weight, will keep on a level with
the points of the steel tubes.
At a distance of 26" feet is a layer
of fine sand, from ten to eighteen feet
in depth. This is [considered a better
foundation, when confined by pres¬
sure, than rock. So the Jersey pier
of the big bridge will rest on sand.
But it will last, all the same.
Few persons have any idea of the
cost of such a bridge. Tne builders
say it may,cost $ 23 , 0 " 0 ,oou. but this
is probably considerably in excess of
the amount that will be required,
Just as .hex put the probable cost
too high, the builders have doubtless
T underestimated hey laid four or the five time years. required, It is
more likelx to be se\en or eight, or
even ten years. Skilled Work such as
is required on a bridge fke this can
however, to push the W«|k as rapidly
as consistent with safetj and a guar
antee of good workinanskip. If found
practical, work will ^commenced
simultaneously on boijusides of the
river. This would enable the employ
meat of four gangs Aavo f workmen,
About 1,000 men will employ
meat, nearly all of wflom will be
skilled workmen, and offuteruational jot a few of
whom will be experts &7
reputation.
But, big as the bridgf th/work itself is, it
is by no means all to be
done or all the expoto be met.
The tracks of the Hudson River
Bridge ashore are all to be elevated.
The estimated cost hi’$1,600,000.
Stone ballast will be nois^Hs us«:l, and trains
will make no such the ele
vated trains do now. Xpr will there
be any smoke or cinf«rs. <lWw Electric
motors will be used tqj trains,
$ And what divided will all lik^fhis: tl|is>ast! Bridge, About
20 , 000 , 000 ,
$16,000,000; land, N’ifiv Y'ork and
New Jersey, $d,000,000pother expen
ses, $1,000,000.
The big bridge cotnes high, but
New York must have -it—and will,
And when it is done itYvill undoubt
edly be something of whieh even the
Greater New York can justly be
proud.—[New York Recorder.
IN A SHIP-Y^ARD.
An Army of Men Building Monster
Battle-Ships.
Iu the Century AlbeK Franklin
Matthews describes "The Evolution
, a battle-ship, mainly with refer
ence *° *^ ie building Hie Indiana,
*! ie mos ^ formidable engine of war in
' ie w °rld. It is worth while to look
a b° u t a place that produces such a
10 sa }'’?*
^ ie * rain P ship-jard . has , nearly a
quarter of a mile of water-front.
Along this frontage are ships in va¬
rious stages of construction, some on
the stocks and some in the water
illustrating almost every step in the
building of a vessel. Here, near the
entrance to the yard, is an acre or
more of punching-machines, enor¬
mous contrivances that, as they close
their jaws, with their ungainly teeth
bite out holes for rivets in the plates
and frames as easily as a farmer’s
wife takes out the core of an apple.
Over there is a steel checker-board
frame into which bi'u pins are set in
a curve. Against the pins stalwart
sledge-swingers, cherry-red frames half ar^cNates, leaked, bend the
sha^^they assume as they
must for use in
the vessels. Here iff £ a great row of
blacksmith forges. building
Over there is a where a
dozen monster boilcrrs are in con¬
struction, and wheffe a traveling
crane lifts and movess them as easily
as a hotel porter ship-engines, dtP<?s big trunks.
Here are big <lown. some set
up and some taken Here are
foundries where m anganese-bronze
screws are cast, and where brass and
iron are fashioned ■nto a thousand
forms. Here is the great mold-loft
where every line in the ship is laid
down, and from whi< h wooden coun
terparts of the vess els are made be
fore the steel cons ruction begins.
are the wood' working shops,
the gun factory, tp ie great store
house, and there is -he floating der¬
rick that can pick u P a 70-ton boiler
and move it 800 fe< U lift it high in
the a \j and place careful ii 1 a ship in thirty
mi nr , v t., with as an adjust
ment as a watchmaker uses in fitting
a movement in its 5,0(|)0 place,
And here are capacities—machinists, men employed
i n various
wood-workers, moldjers, and perhaps
most noticeable of tolhold all, riveters in sets
of three, one red-hotf man a big sledge
against right-handedf-worker the rivet, and two,
one a and the
other left-handed, t>3 pound it until
it becomes a part of the ship. So the
work goes on until after about two
years the ship that j existed only in
specifications becomes a living thing,
A Samoan Superstition.
“During wars thef unburied dead and
distress caused a great their deal^ relatives, of anxiety who im
to
agined they could he ir the spirits of
warriors const; ntly crying to
them, ‘Cold! Cold' - ' Oh, I am so
cold!’ As it was impossible to bury
the real body, they imagined the
spirits assumed material iii shape, or
could be obtained some tangible
form, and funeral ceremonies held over
them. About dusk the friends and
relatives assembled where the warrior
was supposed to have fallen. Spread
ing a cloth on the ground, one would
pray to some family god, asking to
obtain quickly and without trouble
the spirit of the fallen one. What
ever happened to alight or crawl on
the cloth was considered to be the
spirit. If nothing appeared some
other member of the family would
pray, giving place in turn to some
one else. This was continued until
something would alight on the cloth.
Whatever it proved to be—ant. moth
or worm—was carefully wrapped up
in the cloth, taken home, and buried
with all the honors and ceremony
due the real body of the warrior."—
[Outing,
Tea from Rainwater.
They say that tea made from rain
water is incomparably the best. Many
of the fashionable housekeepers keep
a stone jar in readiness to catch any
chance rain, which, when obtained, is
securely bottled ar.d put on ice. to be
used when needed. Says one of these:
"The water makes far more differ
ence than the mere leaves, I could
make good tea out of anything with
pure rainwater."
ADVERTISER.
BUTTERFLY BUSINESS " i
[
specimens are
RAISED FROM THE EGGS. j
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Strange Adventures of the Butterfly !
Collectors irt All Parts of the
World.
Th . . hliH rf i: L :
e^wfth fascination chikKod which doesn The^ , ot oa tit wa ae vs n i
have never ceased to feel the en
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resourcesofmature . ... . the l-nmvled«»e have%ath -.nd
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AFTER THE HIGHFLYERS.
ored butterfly collections which num¬
ber thousands of specimens and worth
thousands of dollars. There are many
of these collectors in New York, but
only one who breeds his own butter¬
flies. Jacob Doll is his name, nnd in
Brooklyn he has a caterpillar farm.
While others are paying hundreds of
dollars for rare butterflies, Mr. Doll
is receiving the tiny eggs at much
lower prices and rearing them until
they burst into gorgeous butterflies.
“An egg, ” he said the other day at
the farm, standing amid the shrub¬
bery and wire cages under which were
thousands of caterpillars feeding,
“ doesn’t necessarily mean that
you are going to get a butterfly. You
are lucky if you get one out of ten
eggs. And it is mostly the fault of
the wretched little ichneumon fly.
.This parasite, which is the everyday
wasp, stings its victim and leaves
some eggs in its body. The cater¬
pillar goes on feeding, and after full
growth has been attained winds itself
in the cocoon exactly as its fellows
do. But instead of a beautiful but¬
terfly emerging there is nothing but
Tic
eggs come from all parts of the world,
and the caterpillars want the food
their fathers ate. Very often they
won’t touch any other and then they
die, as half the time you have no idea
what plant they feed on, and couldn’t
get it if you did. But it often hap¬
pens that a caterpillar from Mada¬
gascar, say, will take kindly to one
of our native leaves. Sometimes you
think you have the right thing when
you haven’t. They eat all right and
begin to grow. Then some morning
3 r ou find them all dead. The cater¬
pillars didn’t dislike the plant till
they arrived at a certain stage of de¬
velopment. Then it was poison to
them. I have dozens of different
plants, and upon every one of them
a different species of caterpillar is
feeding.”
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GOT ANY ’BACCA?
“What are the stages of a butter
fly’s growth?’’ I asked.
“Well, to begin with the egg, it
may be sent from the Alps or the
Amazon—from Siberia or the Cape of
Good Hope. I receive them on leaves
inclosed in boxes. I keep the eggs in
the house until the caterpillar crawls
out. Then I determine, if 1 can, to
what species the little fellow belongs
and what he likes to eat, and put him
on a plant under one of the cages,
where he feeds and grows, meanwhile
changing his skin two or three times.
When he shows signs of having had
enough of the world I put him into
a box with two feet of earth in the
bottom. He burrows in and is seen
no more until he is ready to assume
the gay life of the butterfly. This
max" be a few weeks later, or, as is
the ease with some species, it may be
two or three years. When he does
come up he gets a few hours of life as
a butterfly, and then a sniff of chloro¬
form. which makes him ready for the
collection.
“How large is the collection?
Well. I suppose there are between
60.000 and 70,000 specimens, includ¬
ing the duplicates. Let me show
them to vou.”
With this Doll led the way indoors
to the butterfly room. It is a room
of cases. Thev begin with the floor
and end with the ceiling. Every
climate that will produce a flower
which the gorgeous creatures eat has
paid tribute to this collection. There
are butterflies whose wings measure
nearly a foot across. There are tiny
ones not half so large as a ten-cent
pieee. There are the magnificent
Asiatic group iv velvets of the most
brilliant black, crimsoil, ?rpen and
where they flit over perpetual snow,
There are ‘the Sat rus Argent»ni from
Chili, whose wings look like bits of
burnished silver; and the Caligos.
reverse side hears a striking
resehiblnnee to tot owl,and the beauti
fnl Thaliiiraci wings* Rhipheus ffoltl Mada*
giiscar* With that glisten with
a- wonderful mingling of old gold and
red and blue and yellow.
u The‘ males and females ate' side
by ^ side. In many cases it is the
f rmer that wear the brighter colors
and are the more delicate. A ffltftked
example of this is seen in the curious
and gorgeous sack bearers, whose
females are crawling, wingless creat¬
ures.’'
In the collection are many silk
spinners, which Vary greatly in size
and beauty. There are members of
the family gaudy with markings on
the wings which are almost perfect re¬
presentations of the human eye. But
these tine creatures are not the ones
that spin the silk of commerce. It
is the smallest and meanest looking
of them all—lit t le fellows, of a dull,
white color—which makes their co¬
coons of the long silk threads which
can be woven. The silk spinners
originally came from China, but
thrive wherever the mulberry can be
obtained.
It would bo an endless task to de¬
scribe half the strange denizens of
the butterfly world in the Doll collec¬
tion, There are thousands of varie¬
ties, and yet so vast is this insect
family that no one collector has a
tenth part of the whole number.
Furthermore, many varieties in ex¬
istence are unknown. Every year
collectors find butterflies which they
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X WESTERN ADVENTURE.
are at a loss to classify, It is this
possibility of capturing insects which
are that very rare or are complete strangers
lends so potent a charm to scien¬
tific butterfly hunting.
Once while Mr. Doll was engaged
in his pursuit in the Rocky Moun¬
tains a gorgeous butterfly flitted past
him and disappeared over a precipice.
Far below it alighted on a flower. It
was but the work of a moment for
his guides to fasten a rope around the
collector’s waist. Then they lowered
him into the depths. Suspended in
mid air, with af rushing mountain
stream hundreds of feet below, he
deftly swept the butterfly into his
net. It was well worth the perilous
descent, being the only one of its
kind ever found.
The Indians took great interest in
the operations of the butterfly hunt¬
ers. They would ride a long distance
out of their way to see what was
going on.
■‘What doin’?” one of the blank¬
eted gentlemen would ask.
When told that they were after
butterflies the red man would turn
away with a look of disgust, But in¬
variably lie wheeled around again
and asked:
“Any tobac?”
It is not necessary to go long dis¬
tances for rare butterflies. The elec¬
tric lights of New York City, with
their irresistible attraction for the
moths or night flies, have brought
many new' varieties to the notice of
the collectors, and in the woods and
swampy ground of Long Island and
New Jersey a fly is occasionally
c au ght which is worth much more
than _ rt s weight- in gold. But it is al
impossible . to capture them
without a minute knowledge of their
time and manner of flying.
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THE GREATEST COLLECTOR OF ALL.
“Just last night, ’ said Mr. Doll,
i “I and a couple of friends went to a
swamp near Brooklyn to see if we
couldn’t catch some wood borers.
While these are not a particularly
rare It fly. they bring $1 or more apiece*,
was 7:30 when we arrived at the
place and not a borer was to be seen,
but all of a sudden at ten minutes to
8, they began their low and rapid
flight from hush to bush.
“ T'vegot one,’ somebody shouted,
There was another shout, and then
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r*
another, until we had secured five,
But they stopped flying as suddenly
was
This
is Always the way. nUtwilight, They feed for five
minute* or ao and for the
remainder of the time keep in hiding
places that collectors have rarely
discovered,
“My method* in catching butter
flies? Well, except for those 1 hat tly
rapidly a bottle containing a little
chloroform is best. Yoff can nut it:
the victim and brush him in
without the handling which a not
often necessitates, and which i.s so
disastrous to his beauty. The chlo¬
roform SOOfi puts him to sleep. Moths
are attracted by a lantern, the bigger
and brighter the better, and molasses you can
bait them by spreading on
the trunk of a tree. The manner of
catching a but terfly depends upon his
habits. These are carefully studied
by the successful collector. 1 be Into
Prof. Ilahtiel spent five years doing
this very thing along the banks of the
Amazon, Noticing that the rare and
beautiful Mofpphos fly above the tree
tops, he erected platforms twenty ft'et
high, and there, during the hours of
flight, secured enough specimens to
supply the collectors of the world.
The Oculist's Stratagem.
Hero Is an Interesting account of a
very clever bit of detective work by
an oculist. It appears that in a
large factory, in which were em
ployed several hundred persons, ono
of the workmen, ill Wielding bis ham¬
mer, carelessly allowed if to slip from
his hand. It Hew halfway across tho
room and struck ft fellow workman in
the left eye. Tho man averred tlmfc
his eye was blinded by the blow, al¬
though ft careful examination failed
to reveal any injury, there being nob
a scratch visible. He brought a suit,
in the courts for compensation for
the loss of half of his eyesight, and
refused all offers of compromise. tho
Under the law the owner of
factory was responsible for the in jury
resulting from an accident of this
kind, and although ho believed that
the man was shamming, and that tho
whole case was an attempt at swind¬
ling, ho had about made up his mind
that he would be compelled trial to pay
the claim. The day of the ar¬
rived, and in open court an eminent
oculist retained for the defense ex¬
amined the alleged injured member,
and gave it as his opinion that it was
as good as the right eye. Upon tho
plaintiff’s loud protest of his inability
to see with his left eye, the oculist
proved him a perjurer and satisfied the
court and jury of the falsity of his
claim.
And how do you suppose he did it?
Why, simxUjr by knowing that the
colors green and rea comiminw
black. He procured a black card on
which a few w r ords were written with
green ink. Then the plaintiff spectacles was or¬
dered to put on a pair of
with two different glasses, the one for
the right eye being red, and the one
for the left eye consisting of ordinary
glass. Then the cai’d was handed
him, and he was ordered to read the
writing on it. This he did without
hesitation, and the cheat was at once
exposed. The sound right eye, tided
with the red glass, was unable to dis¬
tinguish the green writing on the
black surface of the card, while tho
left eye, which he pretended which was the
sightless, was the one with
reading had to be done.—[Sheffield,
England, Telegraph.
Sacrifices to the Sea.
To the adventurous globe-trotter
who has climbed the rock-path U\ the
sailor’s church of Notre Dame de la
Garde, dominating the Phenician port
of Marseilles, the potent influence of
sacrifices and offerings for perils
passed and to come must be no old
story, says Lieutenant J. I). Jerrold
Kelleyq in describing “The Super¬
stitions of the Sea,” in the Century.
There is a pathos, even for the
wordly, in the quaint ships and gal¬
leons, in the rusting marlinspikes
and shattered tiller heads, swinging
to the mistral, in reverential offering
before the shrines, These graces
after danger,these insurances against
evil to come, circle the world. No
people have escaped the influence of
such hopes and thanks. Our Indians
were fettered by them, and no cere¬
monious offerings were more com¬
mon than those which went to ap¬
pease the angry Spirit of the Waters.
On the upper tributaries of the Miss¬
issippi,the Indians,with occult rites,
gave tribute of tobacco from a beet¬
ling cliff to the Great Spirit of the
River, and to the winds that smote
the water with blasts from the cav¬
erns of the jealous gods. Algonquins
in the North, Aztecs, sons of Ata
liualpa and Marco Capac, in the
South—all blew incense out of their
pipes, and strewed upon the currents
and tide-ways just such offerings of
tobacco as, in our more subjective
days, we give with lost meaning to the
minor gods who rule the man’s hour
in our feasts.
Superstitious Chinese Sailors.
Chinese junks and boats have eyes
carved or painted on the bows, which
are usually supposed to be a mere
fanciful form of ornamentation. But
they have a real meaning, as a recent
traveler found. In going up one of
tlie rivers from Ningpo, he was
startled one day by seeing a boatman
seize his broad hat and clap it
over one of the “eyes” of the boat,
! while other boats on the stream were
1 similarly blinded, Looking about
j for an explanation, he saw a dead
j body floating past, and he was told
by the boatman that if the boat had
been allowed to “see” it some disas
ter would surely have happened
either to passengers or crow before
the voyage ended.—[New York Dis
, patch.