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TOPICS OF THE DAY. Trade with South America is being gradually developed. There are now six steamers running regularly be tween New York and Venezuela, three having been recently added to a suc cessful line. Another fleet is about to be sent to Bolivia, the first steamer having already been sent out. On the other hand, our trade with Peru has dwindled down to almost nothing for want of direct steam communication. Lightning does its work before the victim knows anything. Two men were struck while taking refuge under a tree. Both were carried into the house and laid out for dead. One of the men revived, and, aftei weeks of terrific suffering and infirmity, he got out again, and is still living. He said he knew no more about having been struck by lightning than he was con scious of having lived before the flood. It was all news to him when he was told of the fact. A western paper asserts that there is no reason for believing that the de feated candidates for the presidency have had stronger physical constitu tion or better health than those who were elected, yet of the seven Presi dents who have held the office in the last 28years five are dead; two—Hayes and Arthur— are alive; while of the seven candidates for the different terms in those 28years live—Fremont, McClellan, Seymour, Tilden, and Han cock—are alive, and only two —Doug- las and Greeley —are dead. Two of the Presidents died by assassination, but as that was even more directly in consequence of their holding the office, it strengthens the proof. If we go back of this period we find that the defeated candidates for the Presi dency survived the successful ones. Van Buren died twenty-one years after Harrison, though but nine years younger. Clay, though a much younger man than Polk, survived him five years, and though only ten years younger than Jackson survived him twenty-three years. Cass was only two years younger than Taylor, but died sixteen years after him, while Gen. Scott, though eighteen years ol der than Pierce, survived him three years. So that unless there is some other known cause to account for these discrepancies the most reasonable con clusion is either that the Presiden tial office is not conducive to longevity or that ail, or nearly all, the defeated candidates, as compared with their successful opponents, happened to be men of unusual vigor and vitality. There is no reason for supposing that this is the ease. Incongruous Fifth Avenue. The people who live side by side in the pretentious avenue know each eth er not says a New York letter. Knickerbocker and parvenu, the inheritor of wealth and the archi tect of his own fortune, the genuine gentleman and the vulgar snob, reside in the same block. One house Is visi ted by the best and most distinguish ed; the house adjoining by men who talk loud in sucidal syntax, and women who wear holly-hocks in their hair, And yellow dresses with pink trim mings. Here dwells an author whose works give him a large income; over the way, a fellow who has a genius for money-getting, but who cannot solve the mysteries of spelling. Some of the most spacious and expensive mansions on the avenue always have a deserted look. Only the occupants and’ ser vants appear on the high, carved stoops; only the carriages the masters of the establishment owns stop before (he door. That family purchased a house in the avenue, but society has not accepted its members. They have nothing but a new fortune to recom mend them. They must bide their time. The first gen' ration of the un recognized fares h; rd. The second is educated and the third claims lineage —prates of “gentility” and frowns up on what its grandparents were. To get into the avenue and into its socie ty are different things. They who struggle to enter certain circles are not wanted. Those who are indiffer ent to mere fashion are in request; for not to seek, socially, is usually to be sought. Without a Compass. New' England stories have a raciness of their own, smacking of soil, and in their rusticity often embodying the traits which go to make up the Puri tan character. Essex county abounds in these, and they deserve recording as illustrative of their time and gener ation. One of the sons of old Ipswich, himself grayhaired, was thus relating the characteristics of the parental discipline which obta.ned in his youth. “One evening,’’ said he, “I had come under my father’s wrath,and he sternly ordered me to go to bed. Bed was in the loft of a log house, and I com plained I had no light." “Go to bed in the dark,” was my father's answer, an 1 I climbed the ladder and made my way along the timbers, no flooring being laid. A bright idea struck me, and I thought I could make one more appeal from my fate. I cried down: dark I can’t find the bed !” “Quick as a flash came the answer, "Get as near to it as you can and he down !” It is unnecessary to say the bed was found and not lost again until morn ing.—Boston Record. @lje 3’nmincruiUc (SMjette. VOL. XII. SUMMERVILLE. GEORGIA. WEDNESDAY EVENING. OCTOBER 21, 1885. NO. 40. EMMONS McKEE & CO., S7 BROAD STREET, ROME, Gr-A.., Are Acknowledged Headquarters in North Georgia For CLOTHING, FURNISHING GOODS, HATS AND MEN'S FINE SHOES. ( VA7 E have made extensive preparations for a rousing business during the coming season, and we have taken every precaution to fortify ourselves against disap- 1 /SgJ ~~~ ' J V V pointmeut. Our new stock is all tbatcould be desired in style, quality and price, and, if extra inducements are a consideration, our store will be the most > j attractive place in this country for those who want the best for the least money. ) FALL TRADE IS WHAT AMi WANT! And no stone has been left Unturned, no opportunity has been Neglected, no pains and expense has been Spared to Secure Yl|e Most Sttfkctive Stodk of ip lyorqe ! REMEMBER: We sell only goods worn by the MA LE SEX - Clothing, Furnishing Goods, Hats, and Men’s Fine Shoes —we can fit you out from head to feet, and hope every reader of this paper will give us a call. We are always glad to show goods, and think our attractive display cannot fail to please you. EMMONS McKEE & CO., Men’s and Boys’ Outfitters, 87 BHOAD STKEET. ROME, GA. THE STRENGTH OF THE HILLS. thoughts go homo to that old brown house, With its low roof sloping down to the east, nd its garden fragrant with roses and thyme, ..at blossom no longer, except in rhyme, Where the honey-bees used to feast. iar in the west the great hills rose, Silent and steadfast and gloomy and gray, thought they were giants, and doomed to keep .’heir watch, while the world should wake or sleep, Till the trumpet should sound on the judgment day. used to wonder of what they dreamed As they brooded there in their silent might, •Vhile March winds smote them, or June rains fell, Jr the snows of winter their ghostly spell Wrought in the long and lonesome night. They remembered a younger world than ours, Before the trees on their top were born. A hen the old brown house was itself a tree, \nd waste were the fields where now you see The winds astir in the tassel led corn. A id I was as young as the hills were old, And the world was warm with the breath of spring, \nd the roses red and the lilies white Budded and bloomed for my heart’s delight, And the birds in my heart began to sing. But calm in the distance the great hills rose, Deaf unto ruptures and dumb unto pain Since they knew that Joy is the mother of Grief, And remembered a butterfly’s life is brief, And the sun sets only to rise again. r hey will brood, and dream, and be silent, as now, When the youngest children alive to-day 4ave grown to be women and men, grown old, And gone from the world like a bile that is told, And even those e?ho forgets to-day. —Louise Chandler Moulton, in Harper. AN UNMASKED SHARPER. A STORY FROM THE FRENCH. They were discussing the latest scan dal. A young man of good connections nad been ignominiously expelled from a club. Playing in collusion with a pro fcssional gambler, he had cheated at cards and in a few months had won a considerable sum. “And has he kided himself?” asked some one. “Bah!” replied another. “Do men kill themselves for so little nowadays? it was different in the good old times.” “In the good old times, as you call them,” said old General Roy, “those who adopted the card sharper's profession killed themselves no more than do tho e of the present time. A few exceptions there may have been among those who were detected at the outset. But if the first attempt succeeded, they did as they do to-day, they quickly accustom ihem selves to ’.heir degradation. Ah, it isso easy! When respect for his own good name will not restrain a man at the first step, it is entirely dead within him, and even a scandal will not revive it. By the way, I can tell you of a curious case in point, where the hero blew out his brains, but it was not a suicide. No, strange as it may sound, it was not a suicide. Listen: “It was some fifty years ago. The press of that time was not the terrible gossip that it is to-day, and sensational news never passed certain bounds. There were not fewer scandals, but the scan dals were less known. In fact, I think there were rather more. Not that we I are more virtuous, but the fear of pub . heity is certainly a great check. “Among the elegint young fellows. ! he gilded youth of those days, who fur , nished the greater part of the scandal ous gossip by their eccentricities and : duels, was a young gentleman attached to the king's household. I shad call him i the Vicomte Ro.and. The name was not an illustrious one; in fact, the vi comte was the fi nit of one of those mixed marriages introduced by Napoleon I. General Comte Roland, whose heavy i cavalry charges are matters of history, ■ had married the daughter of the Marquis jde Bransac. a member of one of the wealthiest and most powerful families of France. His son was 'hen about twen ty-six years of age. He had not the ro bust, plebeian beauty of his father, who | had been one of the handsomest men in the army. His was rather the delicate and distinguished grace of his mother, whose idol he was. Having loved her , husband pas io ately, the countess was ; now wrapped up in her son. “ The extra, life led by the son had caused a quarrel between the parents. ’ The countess lived in She Bransac Hotel, one of the finest in tho Faubourg Saint Germain, while the general, secluding himself in a little chateau in the forest, of Senart, passed h s time in the pleasures of the chase. They say he had ill-treat ed his wife, but it was utterly untrue. The fact is that there had been between the general and his wife two terrible scenes. “The first was caused by an idea which took possession of the countess. She found this name ‘Roland' too plcbian for her son, and tormented her husband to obtain the king’s authority to add to it that of Deßransac. The general ener getically refused. “ ‘My name has sufficed for me,’ said he, ‘for me who have made it famous. It will do for this fine gentleman, ray son. If he does not find it brilliant enough, let him try to add to its luster.’ “The second scene was brought about by the vicomte abducting a ballet | dancer, and by a duel and a debt which were the consequences of this little af fair. The general brought the son be fore his mother and roughly reproved him for his folly. Instead of supporting her husband, the countess made excuses for her son. Women always are indul gent toward the man in a love scrape. “As the general told his son that his fortune was not sufficient to maintain such scandalous absurdities, the coun tess unhappily interjected: “ ‘Oh, the fortune of the De Bransacs will amply suffice for him.’ “She had not calculated tho effect of 1 her speech. An hour later the general left the hotel and went to his chateau; at the end of a week the family notary informed the countess that her entire personal fortune was at her disposal. The separation was complete, and the general lived alone on the fifteen thou . sand francs which constituted the rev enue he received from his own fortune. “The son made ducks and drakes of her fortune. At the end of six months the countess was half ruined, and the . energy of the notary alone saved her from . her son’s extravagances. “All at once it became known that [ the Vicomte Roland no longer belonged ' I to the king’s household, and that he had handed in his resignation as lieu ' i tenant in a cavalry regiment. That is ' what was given out, but rumors of a dis- I ferent character were alloat. The coua i less no longer appeared in public, but confined herself to her hotel. In a few weeks she seemed ten years older. “The vicomte, after a voyage of some weeks in Italy, returned to Paris, took apartments in the Rue de la Chaussee d’Antin, and lived the life of an idler on the pension of a thousand francs a month . : allowed him by his mother. It would t \ be little to day; but at that time it en l aided a man to make quite a figure in the fashionable world. He passed his L time between love adventures, the theatres, and the green table. Then little by little his elegance and his eccentricities began to be talked about. I Clubs were not as plentiful as they are , now, but the gilded youth and the gamesters had a few of them where lovers of the green cloth could amuse them selves. “One evening when the Vicomte | Roland, after having won a considerable j sum from one of h's friends, offered him ' , his revenge, his opponent rose, and. j pushing away the cards, looked at him j in a singular manner. “‘Well, no, Roland,’ said he; ‘what ; , with your luck with women and your j luck with cards, you have too much I ; luck for one man.’ “Roland, though somewhat choleric. ■ demanded no explanation, and contented l . I him-elf with laughing. , “Some days afier, the prefect of ; police announced himself to the general , at his chateau. What passed between them Ido not know. Ail that is known , of the affair is that they returned together . to I aris. I “At 11 o'clock of the evening following . that interview, the vicomte was seated at, a table playingecarte. He had just won : ten successive games from an English . man, who, passing through Paris on his way home, had been introduced at the citio bv one of the members. Roland : had a considCTab c sum before him. The i loser had just risen, ami before leaving the table h id bowed thrice, when an el derly gentleman approached the table. “ ‘Will the Vicomte Roland permit me [ to take the gentleman's revenge?' “The young man paled, it was his . father. . “ ‘As you are a bold player, I offer you ' a bold game. It will be useless for you • to say that it is too high. Read.’ And the general handed him a note folded i twice. “The vicomte glanced over it and f shuddered visibly. “ ‘Do you accept?’ “He bowed. The general seated him > self opposite his son, cut a king, and , dealt the cards. He won the first hand. . When it was the vicomte’s deal, he trembled slightly and a strange light r shone in his eyes; nevertheless he played j on. The general won again. “The vicomte rose, pale as a ghost, ! and in a smothered voice sa.d ; “ ‘ln an hour, sir, I shall have acquit ted myself. ’ “He left the room without another word. “On the following morning the guar dians of the Bois do Boulogne brought in the body of the Vicomte Roland. His head was blown to pieces, his hand still grasping the pistol. In a portfolio was found an unsigned scrap of paper, on which were the words: : The loser will blow out his brains. : “The pretended Englishman was an accomplished card sharper, sent by the prefect of police. The three bows had been the sign agreed upon between him and the general to indicate that the vi comte had cheated. “The game was one for life and death between father and son. Both were dis honored—the son by his own act, tho father by the son’s. But this dishonor was a secret, which threatened to become an open shame. Death could stifle it— the son’s death or the father's, for tho stern old soldier would himself have dis graced his son had that son not kept t heir pact. Tho price of the general's secresy was his son’s life.”— Argonaut. A Ride in a Chinese Rickshaw. Trot, trot, trot, along the smooth, sunny, but bamboo shaded high road, I have a little leasurenow to observe these astonishing rickshaw coolies. They wear the enormous traditional mushroom Chi nese hat, suitable in case either of beat ing rain or fierce sun, under which are tucked their hard, plaited pigtails—for even a coolie would feel himself dis graced were he minus a pigtail. They are bare-footed, bare-legged, bare-armed, ami wear just sufficient rags to save them selves from the charge of indelicacy. Their skins are sallow, their Mongolian faces are pinched, their stature is small, their limbs seem attenuated and loosely put together. And yet these demoniacal looking wretches, to call whom, “breth ren” is, indeed, a heavy demand on our charity, throw themselves forward into the shafts and drag their carriages with its passengers, who may be ten or may be twenty stone, not at a walk, or a shuffle, or an amble, but a good round trot of about six miles an hour. They neither flag, pant, nor perspire, but keep up this pace for two or three miles at a stretch. Would not the most renowned European athlete or pedestrian be but a feeble coney in comparison! Moreover, these coolies have to content themselves at the end of their journey with five cents—a cent is a fraction less than a half-penny. They exult if they receive ten cents, and consider the donoi an utter fool if he gives them fifteen cents. The first sensations at being conveyed in a rickshaw are those of mingled amusement and shame. Ono likens one self to a drunken masquerader or to an unostentatious buffoon. Then habit begets indifference. Dignitaries of the church, dignitaries of the government, dignitaries of the law, soldier., sailors, and even the well to do Chinese, all have recourse to them: and the sergeant in his rickshaw salutes the colonel in his rickshaw with precisely the same gravity ias though both were on parade. Per haps the full absurdity can be best real i ized by considering what would be the I effect produced were the dean of West | minster to be trundled in a wheelbarrow ' down Picadilly by a dirty, ragged little I London Arab. wrnhill Maj'-nne. I ___ Terrible Scene at a Bull Fight. A Madrid correspondent says: At the I bull fight which took place in Vittoria a few days ago a scene occurred which is I seldom witnessed on these occasions, i The first bull having been dispatched by i the primer espada Lagartijo, the car casses of bull and horses dragged away, and the blood marks covered with fresh sand,the signal was given for the second bull. The beast appeared at the en trance, looking suspiciously around him, I and as a torero ran past him, he rushed out, more like a tiger than a bull, and with such impetus that clearing the bar . rier by a flying leap he alighted in the I midst of the terrified crowd. Those nearest to the bairier jumped or fell headlong into the arena, while others i were tossed into the air. 1 adies in the palcos screamed and fainted, while the bull kept driving furiously into confused crowds of men women and children, I killing some, and wounding others very • severely. A company of civil guards, which were drawn up in line to keep ' order during the bull fight, ran off. When the bull had cleared half the plaza of its occupants, he paused to take I breath and look at the arena, which was full of spectators. Finding at last a gate open, he trotted out to the promenade, j sending several men, women and chil : dren flying in the air. At last he was I brought down by three shots fired at him by a civil guard. When calm had been restored, the people very deservedly hissed the civil guards and toreros for ‘ their cowardice. Cremation in Paris will soon be avail able for the general public, at the small j cost of $3 for each operation. SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL. Continued investigation confirms the belief that the English sparrow destroys vegetation instead of protecting it from insects. One observer has reported to Miss E. A. Ormerod, the English ento mologist, that the crops of fifty sparrows, kiHed in one summer, contained but two insects. Angle-worms, fish, etc., are often caught up into the clouds by revolving storms, and then dropped again many miles from the place where they were taken up. Small fish have often been found in puddles of water in village streets, to the astonishment of people who were unacquainted with the phe nomenon. The simplest and best test for glucos 0 in sugar is to place a little of it unde r the low power of a microscope. Magni" fying forty times is quite sufficient, and less will do. Cane-sugar under this power is distinctly and beautifully crys talline, and each crystal looks like rock candy. They are clear, bright and beau tiful. Glucose, on the other hand, has a dull, opaque appearance, like a lump of tallow. Once seen, It will be easily known ever after. Narcolepsy is a name that has been ap plied to a rare and curious malady, the main feature of which is an Irresistible desire to sleep, coming on suddenly at irregular intervals —the spell lasting but a short time. It may be due to a spasm or iit-like action in the nerves controlling the circulation of blood in the brain, producing in that one organ an effect similar to the loss of consciousness in epilepsy, but not affecting the remainder of the body as the latter disease does. In an article on windmills, the Scientifi American says: “An 8.5-foot wheel will raise 3,000 gallons of water daily a dis tance of twenty-five feet. Its first cost, including the pump and a plain tower, is about $l5O. A 10-foot wheel will raise about 9,000 gallons of water a day a like distance, and cost SIBO, including the appurtenances above mentioned. A 12-foot wheel will raise 16,000 gallons of water a day the above distance, and cost, with the same appurtenances, $3lO. So up, from 14 to 16, 18 to 20-feet diameter of wheel, which costs about $1,200 and will raise about 100,000 gallons of water daily the specified distance.” Minnis Haden, a colored blacksmith of Montgomery, Va., has lately invented a piece of very simple machinery by which the striking hammer is easily and effec tively worked by his foot, while he has both hands free to hold his iron and use ' the small hammer. To a listener the blows come as naturally and as rap idly as if there were two men handling the hammers in the old-fashioned way, but there is a difference. The machine, by an easy motion of the foot on the treadle, strikes a harder blow than any man can strike, andean be made,at will, to strike as light a blow as may be needed. But the use of this simple and cheap device in the blacksmith shop is not half. It can be just as easily used, and will find a large field of usefulness, in driving a drill or blasting rock. Is the Air Colorless? The Challenger has dredged from the bottom of the ocean fishes which live habitually in great depths, and whose enormous eyes tell of the corresponding ly faint light which must have de scended to them through the seemingly transparent water. It will not be as fu tile a speculation as it may at first seem, ! to put ourselves in imagination in the condition of creatures under the sea, and 1 I ask what the sun may appear to be to them, for, if the fish who had never risen above the ocean-floor were an in telligent being, might he not plausibly reason that the dim greenish light of his heaven —which is all he has ever known —was the full splendor of the sun shin ing through a medium which all his ex perience shows is transparent. We ourselves are in very tact, living at the floor of a great aerial sea whose billows roll hundreds of miles above our I heads. Is it not at any rate conceivable I that we may have been led into a like fallacy from judging only from what we 1 ! see at the bottom? May we not, that is, | have been led into the fallacy of assum ing that the intervening medium above us is colorless because the light which comes through it is so? 1 freely admit that all men, educated or ignorant, appear to have the evidence | of their senses that the air is colorless, [ and that pure sunlight is white, so that 1 I if I venture to ask you to listen to con ‘ : siderations which have lately been ' brought forward to show that it is the : ' sun which is blue, and the air really acts ! like an orange veil or like a seive which l picks out the blue and leaves the white, ! | I do so in the confidence that I may ap ■ ' peal to you on other grounds than those ' i I could submit to the primitive man who j has his senses alone to trust to; for the ' educated intelligence possesses those | senses equally", and in addition the ability i to interpret them by the light of reason, . ; and before this audience it is to that J i interpretation that I address myself.— i Prof. Langley, in Popular Science Monthly. THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE AND Dr.A i'll Beautiful faces are those that we ir— It matters little if dark or fair— Whole-souled honesty printe I there. Beautiful eyes are those that show, Like crystal panes where hearth fires glow, Beautiful thoughts that burn below. Beautiful lips are those whoso words Leap from the heart like the hearts of birds Yet whose utterance prudence girds; Beautiful hands are those tb it do Work that is earnest, and brave, and true, Moment by moment a long life through. Beautiful feet are those that go On kindly ministries to and fro — Down lowliest ways, if God wills it so. Beautiful shoulders are those that bear Ceaseless burdens of homely care With patient grace and daily prayer. Beautiful lives are those that bless— Silent rivers of happiness, Whose hidden fountains but few may guesi Beautiful twilight at set of sun, Beautiful goal with race well won, Beautiful rest with work well done. Beautiful graves where grasses creep, Where brown leaves fall, where drifts lie deep Over worn-out hands—oh, beautiful sleep! HUMOR OF THE DAV. Should a kite be made of fly-paper? “I take rhe pledge and keep it,” says the pawnbroker. The fruit most frequently to be ob served at picnics—the pear. You cannot call a sailor a slugger be cause he boxes the compass.— Derrick. “Can any one suggest a sure prevent ive of sea-sickness?” asks an exchange. Certainly; stay on shore.— Puck. Only eight American poets have lived beyond the age of sixty years. This shows the power of the press.— Merchant- Traveler. THE LATEST CRAZE. Now the maiden sits in her easy chair And drives away melancholy By plying he*' needles and knitting a pair Os scarlet sdk hose for her “Cholly.” ■ —Boston Courier. The planets have been weighed and the moon blocked out into election pre cincts, but the heft and capacity of a boy’s pocket still remain unknown.— i Chicago Ledger. When a cold wave comes Then business hums. —New York Morning Journal. But when it thaws There is a pause. —Gorham Mountaineer. Can’t you give us some war reminis cences?” asked a citizen of an old fel low m a party of ex soldiers telling - stories. “No, I believe not,” he an swered promptly, “you see I’ve only been i married six months.”—Merchant-Trav eler. They were walking on the beach, and as Claude held her little hand he mur mured: “I love to be with you, Claribcl, it seems so bright and I feel so much fresher.” “Do you, dear? I should not 1 think that possible.” And then he ! dropped her hand and turned sadly 1 away, his sighs keeping time to the ■ surges as they lashed themselves to foam on the pebbly beach.— jßusfiwi Tran- 1 script. He mat ber in the garden, And she was all alone. i His arm he folded round her waist, And said she was his own. He on her lips imprinted A kiss with 1 rue love’s zest, And then, witli passion’s fervor, Her soft white hand he pressed. She screamed, and then his ardor . Was in a moment d-ished; For in that soft white hand she held 1 An egg, that now was smashed. —Boston Gazette. A Strong Cigar. i “Don’t care if I do, stranger. Thanks. Strong? Yes: tollable. Strongest cigar J ever smoked? (Puff, pull.) No, ’tain’t ' (pull, puff.) Not by a long shot. What ' was the strongest cigar I ever smoked? Well. I’ll tell you. It was so strong that it knocked some of my teeth out. You don’t believe it? Wait till you hear the particulars. It was way back in 1565. I was with the Army of the Po tomac. aud we we were closin’ up on Lee in Richmond. I was on picket duty one night when I got to hankerin’ fora cigar. - ‘it was against orders to smoke on the picket line, but 1 couldn't stand it, and so I dove into the trench and lit my i I weed. Then I returned to my beat, i I happy as could be. It was a very dark i night, an’ everything quiet, an’ I was just flatterin’ myself that there was no ■ danger in a smoke, when whish! bang! ! and that cigar of mine went to pieces an’ > I felt a prickly pain in my mouth. I j felt, an’ a couple o’ teeth were gone. : Pretty strong cigar, that. Eh.’ Loaded? ( No; but the rille of that ’ere Johnny Reb , sharpshooter was, and right here on my t check is where the ball cum out. If the j ash hadn’t fell off that cigar I would i have two more teeth in my head to-day.” CLIPPINGS FOR THE CURIOUS. To roast a whole ox takes about ten hours. In Paris a man was arrested and fined for dyeing tomatoes a deeper red. A tomato vine at Plant City, Fla., covered a spot seventy-two feet in circumference and bore all last winter without injury by cold. Lightning is reflected for 150 or 200 miles. The sound of thunder may be heard for twenty or twenty-five miles; with the ear to the ground much farther. The Mexican stage coach always has two drivers—one to hold the reins and the other to do the whipping. The latter carries a bag of stones to throw at the leaders. The battle of Hastings, which gave the English crown to William the Conqueror, and at which Harold, the last of the Saxon kings, was killed, oc curred in the year 1066. A Lewiston (Me.) physician’s father, when quite young, was bitten by a Vicious horse, the horse’s teeth closing over his ear lobe and taking out a small piece of the upper part. The mark of the wounded ear skipped one generation, and has appeared in the Lewiston physician’s son, there being on the little fellow's ear the plain marking of the ear that showed, years ago, upon his grandfather. One of the cruel tortures said to have been invented in some heathen country was that of a cell, which at the prisoner’s first entrance presented an appearance of comfort and ease. By degrees, however, he observed the dimensions of his chamber beginning to contract, and the fact became more appalling every day. Slowly, but ter ribly, the sides drew closer, and the unhappy victim was at last crushed to death. The age at which running can be practised, an eminent physician says, by a healthy man in training is from 20 to 30. Boys and girls also of 10 or 12 can run with no apparent fatigue. In boys’ races, for those under 14 years, no previous training should be inflicted. No one should train for running until he is 18, but 20 would be the safer. Between 20 and 27 is the best age for attaining speed in running. Retween 30 and 40 a wise man will think twice before undergoing training for race running. Older men should run on no pretence whatever. The Highest Body of Water. According to a correspondent of the Philadelphia Press, one of the monu ments of the spirit of American ener gy and enterprise, albeit embodied in a man of doubtful reputation, is the railroad that connects Mollendo, a port of Peru, with Lake Titicaca. This lake is the highest body of water in the world, lying in a great basin be tween two ranges of the Continental Cordilleras, 15,000 feet above the sea. On the bosom of this wonderful lake is the island —the Eden of the Wes tern World—where tradition says Manco Capac and Mama Capac, the Adam and Eve of the Incarace, were born. From this little garden sprang a race that has never been surpassed in industry and will always furnish the most interesting topic of study antiquarians and philosophers have ever known. Here are the magnifi cent temples and palaces which Pres cott describes with such a vivid pen and which Pizarro stripped of their treasures. The man who built the railroad was Harry Meiggs, the partner of Ralston, the California banker, who drowned himself in the Golden Gate; the friend of Flood, O’Brien, Mackey, Sharon, and one of the princes of the golden era of ’49. Bret Harte has written of him, and Mark Twain has used him as a text. He committed forgeries in San Francisco years ago, and when his crime was discovered, took a boat and rowed out into the bay, as Ralston did twenty years afterward, but, instead of jumping overboard, he climbed up on the deck of a schooner, purchased her, and sailed away from the scene of his remarkable career. He went to Chili first, and then to Peru, bringing much of his wealth and all of his ir restible energy, which he applied to the difficulties that had staggered this country, and overcame them. From Ecuador to Patagonia, through Peru, Bolivia and Chili, his enterprise extended, and the result is a series of railroads at right angles with the coast, connecting the interior of the country with the seaports, and giving the estates and the mines in the mount ains, the sugar haciendas and the ni trate beds easy outlets to the ocean. He sent back money to California to reimburse those who lost by his forger ies, with good interest, but remained there till he died, one of the richest, most influential and famous men on the coast. A Vampire. The Los Angeles (.Cal.) Herald de scribes a specimen of the vampire family recently there: “This huge specimen measured twenty inches from tip to tip of his wings, and was pretty well armed with teeth and claws. His head was as large as the heads of four or five ordinary bat heads combined, and well hooded with two ears fully as large as a half-dollar. His majesty was as vicious and war like as a scorpion or tarantula when confined, and his bite would probably be as dangerous.”