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THE DESOLATE REGIONS.
Life in the Waste Places of
the World.
How Human Beings and Animals Live
Under Adverse Circumstances.
The Russian explorer Prejevalsky 1
aid after his recent journey in north
ern Thibet that an enormous amount
of animal life was supported by the
scanty herbage growing on these bleak
half sterile plains that form the highest
plateau in the world, some 1'3,000 feet;
above the sea. He said the wild yaks
there must number millions, and that
a full grown yak weighs from 1,600 to
1,800 pounds. Nature’s chemistry
evolves these great masses of flesh
from the poor herbage of a region so
lefty that its lakes are frozen over un
til nearly June, though they are 600
miles nearer the equator than we are.
Explorers tell us that not only does
animql llfe abound, but that man can
live in some of the most desolate parts
of theglobe. It is a mistake to sup
pose that the Sahara desert is merely
a useless sandy waste. Much of it
lacks not so much cultivable land as
industrious hands to make the vast
expanse of withered oases blossom
again. The Mussulman sect known as
the Senousians has for years been dig
ging wells, irrigating -the land, and
turning many hundreds of barren
acres gardens. Twenty-four
years ago it planted its headquarters in
the desert near the western border of
Egypt, built reservoirs, began planta
tions, erected convents, and now a
JarabCb, where the soil has boon re
stored to fertility by their labor. There
are large areas in the Sahara, that
need only rain or irrigation to cover
them with*rerdure. Through these
regions pass the caravan routes, along
which the 50,000 camels engaged in
the Saharan commerce bear their
burdens.
Mr. Anderson, civil engineer, who
last year completed sixteen years of
explorations in South Africa betweAf
the Orange and Zambesi
that tlie rain that falls for a few
weeks every year in the great region
known as the Kalahari desert covers
the blackened verdureless plain with
splendid vegetation, (lame is abun
dant there, especially lions, leopards
and ostriches, and he has counted in
this desert twenty-two lions in a
troop, and has seen 200 ostriches in
one flock.-4d?east and birds find sus
tenance in this region where only a
few Bushmen hunters live. Far
northeast of them on the semi-arid
steppes of Kordofan and Darfur mil
lions of sheep and camels exist on the
scanty pasturage of that desert region.
The earliest Artie explorers found in
the little .Spitzbergen archipelago—
where, it is believed no human being
had over lived—herds of reindeer up
turning the snow with their hoofs and
noses to get at the lichens on which
they fed. Many reindeer live as far
north as Littleton Island, and several
scores of them were killed by the
Hayes and Polaris expeditions. Musk
oxen, or their traces, have been found
along the shore of the great frozen
sea as far north as explorers have
attained. Lockwood, far north of the
supposed limits of animals life, found
traces of this wonderful quadruped,
which grows fat on the tender shoots
of the Arctic willow, and ploughs up
the snow for moss and lichens.
Os all parts of the earth the Antar
tic regions alone, are comparatively
desitute of life. Few species of living
things in the vegetable or animal
kingdom can endure the rigor of the
South Polar regions. No terrestrial
quadruped inhabits the land within
the Antartic Circle, and whales and
•seals are the only mammals that enter
its area. Summer in the Artic re
gions, with its abundant life on land
and in the air and sea, presents an
animated and cheerful scene com
pared with the utter desolation that,
reigns perpetually in Antartic waters.
—fieto York Sun.
The Size of Our Lakes.
The latest measurement of our fresh
water seas are as follows:
The greatest length of Lake Super
ior is 335 miles; its greatest breadth
is 160 miles; mean depth, 688 feet;
elevation, 627 feet; area, 82,000 square
miles.
The greatest length of Lake Michi
gan is 300 miles; its greatest breadth,
108 miles; mean depth 690 feet; ele
vation, 506 feet; area 23,000 square
miles.
. The greatest length of Lake Huron
is 200 miles; its greatest breadth, 169
miles; meandepth, 6XI Let; elevation,
274 feet; area, 20,090 square miles
The greatest length of Lake Erie is
250 miles; greatest breadth. 80 miles
mean depth, 84 feet; elevation, 555
feet; area, 6,000 square miles.
The greatest length of Lake On
tario is 180 miles: its greatest breadth,
65 miles; depth, 500 feet; eleva
tion, 261 feet; area, 6,000 square
miles.
The length of all five is 1,268 miles
covering an area of upward of 135,000
square miles.
Where the eight ways meet in the
heart of the city of London the tide
of traffic flows at its strongest. Ac
cording to the lastest estimate nearly
55,000 vehicles of all kinds pass daily
little square about which cluster
house, the Royal cx
bank or Easlaad.
Summeru ilk
VOL. XII.
THE FAMINE.
AU along- the maadow-land
Tho rain beat and boat,
And up aloft, the orchard croft,
And in among the wheat;
And where the corn was standing green,
And where the oats were white,
Day after day. day after da”,
And through the dreary night,
The driving flood catjie down and down.
Until in sore despair
The people cried, “Hod stay the tide,
And let His winds blow fair.”
was gathering on the whoa,
And mildew on the corn,
The oats hung down iu rotting brown,
Tho rye-tields beilFfoglorn.
But day by day clouds
Poured forth their floods, until
The evil spell of hunger fell,
And famine had its will.
Then rose a cry that went to heaven
And opened all its doors.
And hurrying forth from South, from North,
And up from distant shores,
'S l h<fagentß of the Lord came swift
To succor and to save—
With corn and wheat, th ■ ships sailed fleet
Across the ocean wave.
Then ceased the wailing cry of woe;
The dread note of despair,
And hand clasped hand from strand to strand,
And curses change.! to prayer.
Then knit the tie of brotherhood.
And love sprang into birth,
Where scorn and spleen had come between
These nations of the earth.
—A’ora Perry, in Youth’s Companion. j
THE LOUIS D OR.
When Lucien de Hem had seen his
jasj, banknote raked in by the croupier,
and risen from the roulette fable where
he had just lost the shattered remains of
his fortune, collected for this last clTort
to retrieve his previous losses, he felt a
strange dizziness stealing over him and
thought he was going to fall. Master
ing himself, however, he sought with
unsteady step and dazed brain, one of
the leather benches of the gambling hall
and threw himself upon it. For a few
moments he stared blankly about this
clandestine gambling house, in which
he had wasted the best years of his
youth. He realized that he wns ruined,
lost. It occurred to him that he hid at
home, in one of thedrawersof his bureau,
the ordnance pistols which his father,
General Hem, then simple captain, had
to distinguished himself in the attack
upon Zaatcha; then, overcome with fa
tigue, he fell into a deep sleep.
When he awoke his month was dry
and parched. lie glanced at the clock.
The hands marked on the dial a quarter'
io twelve. He was seized with an irre
sistible desire to breathe the night air.
Rising, he stretched himself and looked
Mit into the darkness. The snow crys
tals sparkled like diamonds when the
light fell upon them. A muffled figure
passed with n quick step and disappeared
In the shadows. An ironic play of his
memory brought before him the picture
♦f his early life, lie saw himself, quite
a little child, stealing down to hang his
stocking in the chimney corner.
At that moment old Drovski, the clas
sical Pole, one of the fixtures of the
place, clad iu a threadbare cloak orna- j
rneuted with braid and wreaths of olive,
approached Lucien and mumbled through
his stained, gray beard : “I'lease lend me
a five-franc piece, sir. For two days I
I have not budged from the cercle, and
for two days the seventeen lias not come
out Laugh at me if you will, but I will
eat my head if, on the stroke of mid
night, that number docs not appear.”
Lucien de Hern shrugged his shoul
ders. He had not even enough in his
pocket to satisfy this trifling demand,
that the habitues of the place called the
“Pole's dollar.” He passed out into
the vestibule, put on his hat and pelisse,
and descended the stairs with feverish
haste. During the four hours that Lu
cien had been in the gambling hall the
snow had fallen abundantly and the
street was white.
The ru>ned player shivered under his
furs, and quickened his pace, but before
he had proceeded many steps he stopped
suddenly before a piteous sight. On a
rude bench, placed, as was formerly the
custom, near the monumental doorway
of a mansion, a little girl of six or seven,
scantily clad in a tattered black dress,
was seated in the snow. She had fallen
asleep there in spite of the cruel cold,
and all unconscious of the failing flakes
that were softly kissing her white lips
and closed eyes, weaving with a magic
hand a pure white robe around her little
| form. Her attitude betrayed fatigue
end grief, and the poor little head and
delicate shoulder were pressed into an
angle of the wall against the co d stones.
One of her wooden shoes had fallen from
her hanging foot, and was lying ruefully
before her.
With a mechanical gesture Lucien's
hand sought his pocket, but he remem
bered that a moment before he had not
been able to find even a one franc piece
in some forgotten corner, with which to
tip the attendant at the gaming house.
Move l, however, by an instinctive sense
of pity, he approached the little girl
with the purpose of carrying her to some
place of shelter for the night, when, in
the fallen shoe, his eye fell upon some
thing b iighr. He leaned over. It was a
louis d or. Some charitable person—a
woman, no doubt—iu passing had. seen
i tho shoe lying before the sleeping child. j
SUMMERVILLE, GEORGIA. WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 1,1885.
and had put there, with a discreet hand,
a royal alms, that the poor little aban
doned one might still preserve, in spite
of her misfortune, some confidence and
hope in the bounty of Providence.
A louis! It represented several days
of rest and wealth for the beggar girl,
and Lucien was on the point of rousing
her to tell her this, when he heard near
his ear, like an hallucination—the voice
of the Pole —murmuring again the words:
j For two days I have not budged
from the cercle, and for two days the
seventeen has not come out. I will eat
my head if, on the stroke of midnight,
that number does not appear.”
Then this young man of twenty-three
who had never before failed in point of
honor, conceived a frightful thought.
Glancing around he made sure that he
was quite alone in the deserted street
and, stooping, with trembling hand, he
stole the louis d’or from the fallen shoe.
Then running swiftly, he returned to the
gambling house; he reached the top of
the stairs in four bounds, with a blow of
his fist he opened the cushioned door of
the cursed hall and entered at the pre
cise moment when the clock sounded the
first stroke of midnight, threw tho stolen
louis on the green cloth, and exclaimed:
“Full on the 17!”
The 17 won. With a turn of his hand
Lucien pushed thirty-six louis on the
red. The red won. He let the seventy,
i two louis remain on the same color. The
red appeared again.
He still continued to double the stakes,
twice, thrice—always with the same
1 good luck. 11c bad regained, in a few
' turns of fortune’s wheel, the few misera
ble 1,000-franc notes, his last resource,
that he had lost, at the beginning of the
evening. Now, piling up 200 or 300
louis at a time, aud relying on his fantas
tic run of luck, he was in a fairway to
regain the fortune that in such a few
years he had squandered. Ho still
played. He still won. The blood boils
iu his veins; be becomes intoxicated
with good fortune; he throws, hapzard
whole handfuls of golden louis upon the
table with a gesture of certainty and dis
dain.
But in spite of the wild feverish ex
citement of play, a red hot iron was
piercing his heart, lie could not divert
his thoughts from the little beggar girl
asleep under the snow—the child whom
he had robbed.
“Shemust be in the same place! ('er
tainly she must be there! In a moment;
yes; when the clock strikes one;
I swear it, I will leave this place.
I will carry her to my own house; I will
her luing up. give her a dowry, lovelier
as my own daughter, cherish her always,
always!”
* * * » ♦ ♦ *
But. the clock struck one- -the quar
ter—the half—three-quarter. Lucien
was still seated at the cursed table. At
last one minute before two, the dealer
rote quickly and announced in a loud
voice- “The bank is broken, gentle
men; enough for to night.”
With a bound Lucien was on his feet.
Thrusting rudely aside the players who
gathered about him, and who were re
garding him with a look of envious tid
. miration, he went out quickly, rushed
down the stair and ran to the stone
i bench. At a distance, by the light of
the gas, he perceived the little girl.
“God be praised,” he cried, “she is
still there!”
He approached and seized her hand.
Oh, how cold it was! Poor child!
He took her in his arms to bear her
away. The child’s head fell back, but
| she did not waken.
How one docs sleep at this age!
He pressed her to his heart, to bring
back the w armth to her little body, but
filled with a strange uneasiness, he was
i on the point of kissing her eyes in order
to draw her from that, heavy slumber,
when he perceived with horror that her
eyelids were half open, exposing the
eyeballs, dimmed and fixed in a glassy
stare. A terrible suspicion flashed
through his mind; he put his mouth
close to the mouth of the child; not a
breath escaped. While, with the gold
pieces that he had stolen from this home
less child Lucien had won a small for
tune, she bad frozen to death. The
most frightful anguish choked his ut- ■
terance, and with the effort he made to
cry out he awoke from his dream on the
leather bench of the ccrcle, where he
had fallen asleep a little before midnight
and where the servant, being the last to
go, toward five in the morning, had, out
of kindness of heart for the ruined
spendthrift, allowed him to rest un
disturbed. A frosty December morn
ing had whitened the window panes, and '
a fairy hand had traced many a chatteau
d’Eepagne to crumble with the rising
sun. Lucien went out and pawned nis
watch, took a bath, breakfasted, went
to the bureau for recruits and signed an
engagement us a volunteer in the First
regiment of chasseurs d’Afrique.
To day Lucien de Hem is a lieutenant.
He has only his soldier's pay but he gets
along, being regular in his habits and
never touching a card. It would seem,
too, as if he found some means of
economizing; for the other day, at Algier,
one of his comrades who happened to be
some steps behind him in one of the
steep streets of Kosba saw him give alms
to a little Spanish child asleep under a
doorway, and had the bad taste to ex
amine his gift. He -was astonished at j
the generosity’, for the poor Lieutenant
Lucien de Hem had put a louis d or in j
the hand of tho little girl.— From the !
French of Francois Copper,
‘ —■—
A Useful “Prayer-Wheel.”
Tho most extraordinary method of
making religion easy to the devotee is !
the use of prayer-wheels, which the
Pundit utilized in an ingenious manner
on his survey. Colonel Montgomerie I
thus describes the wheel and the way it
was used in the casein question: “It
was necessary,” ho writes, “that the 1
Pundit should be able to take his com- I
pass bearings unobserved, and also that, I
when counting his paces, he should not
be interrupted by having to answer ques- i
tions. The Pundit found the best way |
of effecting these objects was to march j
separately, with his servant cither behind t
or in front of tho rest of the camp. It I
was, of course, not always possible to |
effect this, nor could strangers be alto- j
gethcr avoided. Whenever people did
come to the Pundit, the sight of his !
prayer-wheel was generally sufficient to i
prevent, them addressing him. When he !
saw any one approaching, ho at once i
began to whirl his prayer-wheel round,
and as all good Buddhists while doing
that are supposed to be absorbed in re
ligious contemplation, he was very sel
! dom interrupted. The prayer-wheel
consists of a hollow, cylindrical
I copper bag, which revolves round a
: spindle, one end of which forms the
j handle. The cylinder is turned by means
j of a piece of copper attached to a string,
j A slight twist of the hand makes the
i cylinder revolve, and each revolution
: represents one repetition of the prayer,
which is written on a scroll kept under
the cylinder. ('The prayer is sometimes
■ engraved on the exterior of the wheel.)
The prayer-wheels are of all sizes, from
i that of a large barrel downward; but
those carried in the hand are generally
four or six inches in height by about
three inches in diameter, with a handle
1 projecting about, four inches below the
bottom of the cylinder. The one used
by the Pundit wnsan ordinary hand one,
but instead of carrying a paper scroll
with the usual Buddhist prayer, ‘dm
mani pndme hoim,’ the cylinder had in
side it long slips es paper, for the pur
pose of recording the bearings and num
ber of pages. The top of the cylinder
was made large enough to allow the
paper to be taken out when required.
The rosary, which ought to have 108
bends, was made of 100 beads, every
tenth bend being much larger than the
others. The small heads were made of
red composition to imitate coral, the largo
: ones of the dark corrugated seeds of the
ridras. The rosary was carried in tho
left sleeve. At every hundreth pace a
bead was dropped, and each large bead
dropped consequently represented 1,000
paces. With his paper-wheel and rosary
the Pundit always manages, one way or
another, to take his bearings and to
: count his paces.” — People of the World.
Ths Picket s Inslrustions.
1 n the early part of the war I was on
picket duty on the Maryland side of the
Potomac, near the bridge nt Harper’s
Ferry. At that time a kind of an armis
tice existed. The trains on the Balti
more and Ohio were allowed to pass,
provided they halted at the bridge and
allowed a guard to go through them.
My instructions were, when the train
rounded the curve, to wave my gun three
times at the engineer, and if he did not
! slacken speed to shoot at him and throw
an obstacle across the track. The orders
struck rae ns being so absurd that once
upon bzing relieved by a raw youth, I
explained to him that he was to wave
his gun three times at the engineer, and,
if the train did not slow up, he was to
shoot the engineer and throw himself
i across the track. He replied with cm
pharis that he would do no “such thing.”
I Upon being repremanded by the corporal
the proper instructions were given.
About the third day after the assign- I
m int of this duty, Stonewall arrived and
took command of the troops at Harper’s
Ferry. At midnight, while on post,
j some men on horseback from the Vir
ginia side appeared, who proved to be
Jackson and some members of his staff,
going the grand rounds. The general
halted end asked me a great many ques
tions. After inquiring how I would
challenge cavalry, going into the minu
test particulars, he asked what my in
structions were. Upon being told, to
my surprise, he did not laugh : but j
j asked me, in the gravest way, if I had |
settled upon the obstruction to be thrown -
' across the track.- Thinking he was still I
joking, I replied that it was my inten
tion to sling upon it a railroad bar, lying I
near (which it took four men to carry). I
He asked me then on which side of the
track it would be my aim to throw the '
train. As the mountain was on one side !
and the canal and river on the other, I
quickly answered: “Into the river, of
course.” He seemed to be highly satis
fied, and went away leaving the impres
sion that the new commander was a
crank.— Southern Bivouac.
The first daily newspaper was edited
by a woman, Elizabeth Mallet, in Lon
don, March, 1703. It was called the
Dally Cuurant. In her salutatory Mrs.
Mallet declared she had established her
paper to spare the public at least half
the impertinences tie ordinary papers
j contain.
A FORGER’S HEAVY HAUL 1
I
VorrlnsVanilcrhllCnXanw for 573,C00
—ln Gid Crime Retailed*
j Stored up in the yellow and time-worn
Archives of the criminal courts of record
of this city is tho material for many a j
! romantic or thrilling story. A case may
be briefly told involving the names of ;
three prominent New Yorkers, all of
whom nre now dead.
In the summer of 1807 Commodore
Vanderbilt, although able to count his
1 wealth by millions and the real owner of
I the New York Central railroad, was of-
I licially known in connection with it only
| as a member of its board of directors.
I Henry Keep was at that time president
I of tho road, and the general offices were
■ situated at Albany. At the same time
[ Moses Taylor was president of the Na-
I tional City Bank of New York, which
was one of the well-known repositories
of the “Old Commodore’s” ready cash.
The express business of the Central rail
i road was done by the American Express
I company, and it was the custom of the
; railroad company to turn over to the
| express company for collection all large
checks on bunks in this city.
It was quite in the regular course of
business, therefore, that a man dressed 1
in the uniform of the express company, j
and with a large tin box such as col- i
lectors were in the habit of carrying in |
those days under his arm, entered the \
City Bank one morning early in July of j
that year, walked briskly to the paying
teller’s window, and presented a chock
fcr the railroad company. With all the
composure and apparent haste of a legiti
mate messenger he designated the num
ber of bills of each denomination from
fives to hundreds desired, and said that
having other collections to make in the j
neighborhood ho would go elsewhere
and return in a short, time for the money.
| Then ho walked out as briskly as he
j had entered. The check was as fol
lows .
Nrw York, (> July, 1807.
National City Bank of New York pay to
the order of Henry Keep, I’resident New
York Central It. It., seventy-live thousand
dollars. C. VANDERBILT.
The paying-teller was a young man
named Worth, who afterward became a I
well known caricature artist. He turned
: the check over and read the following
indorsement on the back :
Albany, July 8, 1867.
American Express will deliver and collect
at Albany.
HENRY KEEP. President,N. Y. R. R.
Nothing about the check justified the
slightest suspicion of its genuineness,
. aud the paying teller promptly counted
i out the money and arranged it in piles
according to the bills of different de
j nominations. Presently the messenger ,
j returned, opened his box, and holding i
I it under the window asked Paying Teller
Worth to throw the money’ into it. This
having been done he shut up his box I
and hurried out. A few days later the
I bank officers were astounded to learn ■
■ that the check was a clever forgery.
| The case wns placed in the hands of
two detectives of the central office, one
i of whom was William George Elder.
They began by seeking a description of
I the pretended messenger from Paying
Teller Worth. Worth, it appeared, hud
noted the man carefully’, and as he even
then enjoyed the reputation of being
clever with his pencil the detectives
asked him if he could draw a sketch of
the man. He answered without hesita
tion that he could, and at once made a
pencil and-ink portrait in which the
detectives instantly recognized the fea
tures of a well known confidence man
and forger named John Henry Livingston; I
also known under the aliases of Lewis,
Matthews and De Peyster. Livingston’s
usual haunts were searched, but he could
not be found, and for a time the detec
j tives were unable to discover any trace of
him. At length, however, some of his
associates, who said he had acted un
fairly by them, inasmuch as while they
I had assisted him in the preparations for
j perpetrating the crime he had run off
j with the entire proceeds as soon as he
' had secured them, told the detectives he
i had gone to Chicago. Thither the de-
I tectives followed, but they searched that ,
I city for many days without finding him, ;
or even any evidences of his having been
there.
It looked as if they would have to
abandon the pursuit as hopeless, when
one of those lucky accidents which
change the destinies of nations as well as
of individuals served them a happy turn,
i For the want of something better to do
j they were driving out one afternoon on
! the outskirts of the city, when they met
a farmer on a brand new w agon filled i
j with brand new household furniture and '
. utensils going out of town. To the or
j dinary eye there would not have been
anything out of the way visible in
that fact, but to the detectives' eye
there was evidence of suddenly
acquired wealth, and they thought
! it worth their while to ascertain who
had been favored by fortune in .
that particular instance. Acting on
the impulse they turned their
horse's head and followed the far
mer. He drew up at a neat farm- j
house about ten miles from the city, and
proceeded to unload his goods. The de
tectives drove by a little distance, then
returned, and themselves stopped at the
next farmhouse to inquire who the
farmer was. They were told that no
body know. Tlie man was a stranger to
NO. 24.
tho neighborhood, he had recently
bought the place, and, with his young
wife, had just conic to live upon it. They
remained in the neighborhood ever
night, and soon satisfied themselves that
the prospective farmer was no other than
the fugitive forger Livingston. They are |
rested him at once and recovered $60,000 '
of the stolen money, which they found
secreted between mattresses and in other
places about the house. The remaining
$15,000 had been spent chiefly in acquir
ing the property.
Livingston was brought back to New
York and arraigned on an indictment
for forgery in the third degree before
Recorder Hackett, in the court of
general sessions, on September It), 1869. |
When placed at the bar he said, “I am
guilty. I want to save every day I
can." He was sentenced to ten years in
the State prison. He served out his
terra and immediately dropped out of
sight after his discharge. Recently an
old man has been engaged in swindling
operations iu the West, and it is thought
by the police that it is possible he is Liv
ingston.—Aeto York Timex.
A Mud City.
The name of this notable place is not
j euphonious, but it is in the heart of As
’ rica, and in that far-off region Abeaku
j tah may have a softness of tone not rec
ognizable by us. Round about this dis-
Hant city is a picturesque fringing of
j minor settlements, the population of the
city proper and its suburbs coming up
to two hundred thousand souls.
Abeakutah “stands on a granite foun
dation nearly six hundred feet above
sea-level, a mud wall six hundred feet in
i height surrounds it, it is thatched with
i palm leaves," and must present a very
pretty appearance. Tho twenty miles
circumference of this wall incloses much
farming land. The interior arrangements
of Mud City are said to bo more repul
sive than otherwise. The streets are
narrow and far from clean, and great
irregularity prevails. The homes of the
people nre of dried mud, and, like
the wall, they are thatched; ten or even
sometimes twenty rooms are devoted to
family comfort; These surround an inner
court where sheep and goats are kept.
But they are a busv people in Mud City.
“Trades arc carried ou in primitive fash
ion, and there arc‘unions' of smiths carpen
ters, weavers, dyers and potters; over
the last two on the list women
rule. Lively markets are hell
I and active traffic is carried on,
mainly by women. Barter is tn
food, cooked and uncooked, iu vege
tables and in oils, in shea or tree-butter,
raw cotton and grass, and many very
j creditable manufactures are successfully
kept up among them—cutlery anil ex
cellent leather." Cowry shells is the ac
; cepted currency, though there may bo
j changes, as it is recorded that in 1867
j copper coins were under consideration,
i A great deal of business must center in
■ Mud City, for caravans go from thence
in different directions many hundreds of
i miles.
The government is simple. “There is
a king, and his functions are entirely
: elective." A general has charge of an
army, and there is a sort of legislature,
admitting representation from outside
towns. Mud City can also speak loftily
iin the matter of general intelligence,
since they can boast of a newspaper
, within their limits, and three religious
societies are free to enjoy themselves
unmolested. One church steeple is al
luded to as having a bell and a mud
steeple. Slavery has been abolished
among them, and commerce with Eng
land established, and everything points
to prosperous conditions.— Bazar.
The Paradise of Skaters.
Holland is the paradise of skaters, its
highways being canals that arc covered
with ice nearly half the year. The ladies
i there go shopping on skates, boys skate
to and from school, older members of
the family go to church on skates; the
postman delivers his letters and the doc
tor visits his patients ou them, and even
j the solemn pastor moves ou skates when he
visits his parishioners. Dairymaids skate
; to town with full pails of which not a j
i drop is spilled, aud farmers’ daughters
skate to villages with a full basket of
eggs in each hand. During the Spanish
invasion several victories were won by
the native soldiers, who, on skates, sud
denly moved on the forces of Alva, and
as quietly retired to their own catnp.
For a period of more than 400 years the
soldiers have been trained toperform ev
olutions ou skates.
Antiquity of Arizoni.
Many regard the Southwest as a new
country and they lo.k for new things
when visiting the far southwestern land.
But in reality the territory’ teemed with
an active population, versed in sciences,
in the art of government, in the knowl
i edge of manufacturing, centuries before
, Milton and Shakespeare and Cervantes
and Columbus were born. It is possible,
indeed, and quite probable, that Arizona
! was a progressive and populous region
when Noah built the ark, when the :
' battle of Thermopolyie was fought
when Homer wrote his epics. In fact, it
is an old country, with a history that
may never be known, sacked and pil
laged, neglected and forgotten during ;
the years in which the East grow up.— |
Portland Transcript.
CLiri’LNGS FOR THE CURIOUS.
It is estimated that a ton of gold is
buried each year with those who die
in this country.
A squirrel can run down a tree head
first. The cat and the bear must get
down tail first (if left to themselves.)
The Chinese potato is a club shaped
root about ten feet in length. It is
eaten boiled, roasted, stewed or fried,
and has a rice-like taste. .
From time immemorial the willow
has been regarded as a symbol of sad
ness. Hence it was customary for
those who were forsaken in love to
wear willow garlands.
The earliest machine used for mak
ing screws of which we have any re
cord was invented by David Wilkin
son of Rhode Island, for which he ob
tained a patent in 1794.
Mme. Adrinette I’altt has just died
tit. Saint I’ierre de la Martinique at the'
age of 121 years. She had a distinct
recollection of all the principal events
of the French revolution.
To get a firm hold on an axe or
hammer handle rub it with lard or
other soft grease. Never use linseed
oil, as that will glaze the wood and
make it hard and slippery.
Nine golden weddings have been'
celebrated in Castleton, Vt., in the
last ten years, and all but one of the
individuals are now living. Most of
them are between 80 and 90 years of
age, and quite vigorous for such old
’peoule.
A flea, one-sixteenth of an inch in'
length, can jump a distance of twenty
inches. This is 320 times its length.
The common gray rabbit jumps about
9 feet clear on the level ground. In
proportion to length a horse, to jump
as far as a rabbit, would have to clear
64 feet at a jump. There is no quad
ruped that has such powerful muscles
in his quarters as the rabbit, and none
excel him in the muscles of his loin
and back.
Homer was acquainted with the use
of tho lathe, while relief carving in
wood, and inlaying of metal, ivory and
amber, were early practised. The lat
ter process can also be referred to
I’hcenician influence, in consideration
both of the material employed and of
historical analogy. Even kings busied
themselves with such handiwork, as
the building of his nuptial couch by
by Odysseus proves; and royal ladies,
such as Penelope, Andomache and
Helen, embroidered and wore elabo
rate textures.
Vineyards on the Rio Granilc.
Albuquerque (New Mexico) is the
centre of an important wine-growing
district, being only surpassed in the
valley by La Mesilla and El Paso. A
number of firms are engaged in the
business here, and since they have es
tablished the practice of buying the
grapes from the Mexican and pueblo
Indians, and making the wine them
selves in large quantities, the quality
has much improved. It is related
that at the pueblo at San Felipe there
were once considerable vineyards, but
as the Indians got drunk on the wine
they made, their autiwratic governor,
who is elected by themselves, adopted
the summary and effective remedy of
uprooting the vineyards. Now that
the Indians can sell their grapes, they
have been permitted to plant their
vinesagain. Some of the best vine
yards in the valley are those belonging
to the industrious and frugal Indians
at Isleta. There are commonly but
two kinds of grape grown—the Mis
sion. which is the same as that of Cal
ifornia, and the Muscatel—both being
of the European species, a quite differ
ent fruit from the grape of native
origin cultivated in “the States.” The
vines are planted only a few feetapart,
and are not trained on poles as in
France and Germany, nor on trellises
as in Italy, but have no support at all,
being kept very low andstumpy,grow
ing only about three feet high. This
is principally to enable easy protection,
as through the winter the vines are
covered with earth heaped up from
between the rows. Since the climate
is not so severe as in French and Ger
man wine-growitig regions, at first
consideration it seems as if this pre
caution should bo no more needed here
than there, but a wine-grower told me
that in his opinion it was not so much
the temperature as it was the dry
quality of the cold air which killed
vines. At Mesilla I was told that
some growers in that place covered up
their vines, while others did not, and
it seemed to make no difference.
Mesilla, however, is protected from the
sweep of the cold northerly winds by a
range of mountains. The vineyards
of the Rio Grande were sadly injured
in the November of 1830, when an
early “old snap found many growers
with their vines uncovered. Thousands
of vines were killed. 'The vines are of
; Spanish origin.— Harper's Mayazlne.
_
Through (he Suez Canal.
Steamers going through the Suez
canal must stop whenever the pilot
gives the word, and when the sun has
gone down, no mattei where the vessel
is, whether at a "station” or not, it
must tie up at the. bank. There is no
risk in this, xs no other steam, r will at
tempt to go on after sundown. The
pilots ate a lino set of men, of different
nations, English, French, Greek, Itali
an, etc. They dress in a simple uni
form. something like naval officers U
uadres*