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2 MEXICAN MATTERS. A NATIONAL. BEVERAGE AND ITS BLISSFUL RESULTS. Water Not an Allowable Drink—A Day for Beggars -Tricks of the Trade in Professional Mendicancy. From the Philadelphia Record. City of Mexico, May 27.—Everybody has heard of pulque, the “national bever age" in this portion of the world—the fer mented milk of that species of cacti known to Northerners as the century plant, or aloe (Agave Americana), here called maguey. Although there are more than 30,000 licensed pulque shops in the City of Mexico alone, besides innumerable booths, stalls and bar rooms where that and other beverages are dispensed, anil although the popular drink costs but a penny a “schooner,” or 3c. per quart, the shops are all profitable. Very little pulque is sold at wholesale, as most Mexicans who make a business of cultivat ing maguey maintain their own shops for retailing it. A certain well-known aristo crat of this city, who rides in his carriage and is reckoned among the magnates of the land, has five pulquerias, from which he is said to derive the neat little income of $25,- 000 per annum. According to official statistics, a little more than SO,OIK) gallons of pulque are sold every day in the Mexican Capital, and nearly double that amount on Sundays and Saints’ days. Three special trains laiden with nothing but pulque run daily into the City of Mexico from the near by plains of Apam and Otumba, where much maguey is cultivated. From this in dustry alone the Federal government de rives a revenue of SI,OOO per diem in the way of duties, and the railroads an equal amount for transportation of the same. A NATIONAL BLESSING. What a field is this for the temperance crusader! But the crusader would do better to mind his own affairs, or to turn his at tention elsewhere, for pulque is not only one of the most healthful and harmless of bev erages but it is one of the few blessings which the poor of Mexico enjoy, and heaven knows their comforts are few enough. Being not at all heavy in Its effects, the worst abuse of the “blessing” leaves no headache behind, but serves only to inten sify the gallantry of the guzzler, making him sing and dance till the sleepy stage comes on, showing his white teeth in con tinual laughter and hauling off his ragged sombrero to passing ladies, with the most re spectful salaams. Two cents worth of pulque will render the poorest peasant ha)>- pier than a king, while sc. worth will secure him the honor of being escorted by men much higher in the social scale than him self (the police) to the nearest carcel, and an engagement to work for the government a fortnight or so, to begin when he shall aw-ake next day, with beans and tortillas provided. As may be inferred, the government has no lack of laborers on these easy terras, and finds no difficulty in thus keeping the streets w-ell paved and similar public duties per formed. SURPRISING EFFCTS OF LIQUOR. While in moist climates one may imbibe considerable quantities of the usual intoxi cants with comparative impunity, in these higher altitudes of the tropics a much smaller dose is surprisingly harmful. And right here permit me to add that some un fortunate Americans who have fallen into disgrace because of undue conviviality at the Mexican Capital really deserve com misseration rather than the contumely that has been heaped upon them. In most cases they were the victims of ignorance on their own pai-t, or of sly practical jokes perpe trated by the Mexicans, who, however po lite they may appear, are at heart jealous of all Americans and delighted to put them at a disadvantage. The same beverage which gentlemen may use socially in the North wtih no ill effects, if partaken here in equal measure first exhilarates the imbiber beyond all account, and then leaves him for days in a state of utter stupidity. Most foreigners learn this only- by sad experi ence, and the “gilded youth” of the capital find great pleasure in initiating a fresh sub ject. especially if he come in the interests of his government. AMERICAN DRINKS NOT POPULAR. . Of course my own opportunities for ob serving this phase of Mexican life aresome what limited; but lam told by an Ameri can journalist, (who certainly ought to know-) that common whiskies and brandies, which are never safe beverages in warm countries, are here simply suicidal. The Spaniards confine themselves to cognac and sour wines, while Mexicans of the better class always have claret at their home tables, with champagne, etc., for festive oc casions. American mixed drinks are not popular, and, in fact, are scarcely known below the Rio Grande, the scarcity of ice making juleps, etc., out of the question in most portions of the country In the City of Mexico ice may be procured; but as it all comes from the summit of Popocatepet, brought down on the backs of Indians to the neaJhst railway station, one docs not grum ble at the price of the congealed moisture (15c. per pound), but wisely concludes to dis pense witn it. EVEN WATER A FORBIDDEN BEVERAGE. Strangers in Mexico arc at first greatly troubled with thirst, as rapid evapiration renders the mouth and throat extremely dry. Water affords no relief, and is, with al, more dangerous to indulge in than any “tangle-foot - ’ whose effects may be slept off. When we reflect that this old, old city-, the ancient Tenoohtitlan of the early Aztecs, has been the site of a populous city for more than 800 years, and during all that time, while empires have arisen and fallen, dynasties decayed and myriads have lived, died and lieen buried here, this cup-like hol low, high up in the hills, has never been drained, but, on the contrary, lias been drained into from all the surrounding country, one has no disposition to taste the waters of so vast a charnel house. To be sure, there is the living spring of Chapul tepec. still brought, down to the capital by that, old Spanish aqueduct (five miles long and 300 years old); but unless you Uvo close by one of its few fountains and see the sweet, pure water taken therefrom, you can never be sure of what you are drinking. The licensed carrier, who pi Idles water from door to door at the rate of a jarrito full for a tlaoo (acent ami u half), is quite as likely to have drawn it from some filthy well filled with washings from the Campo Santo. Other portions of this volcanic country abound in such a conglomeration of minerals and chemicals as to render tho water extremely dangerous, and the traveler is warned that to drink much of it limy cn tail incurable ills. THE LEGEND OF PULQUE. But to return to the pulque. It is as amusing to note the efforts which newly ar rived Americans make to say the word (which should lie pronounced pool-kee) as tlieir grimaces in learning to like the liquid. They generally lx>gin by calling it “pulk,” Or at best “poolk,” and end by doing their full share toward disposing of those 80,000 gallons per diem. In its Ixixt estate the sour-smelling stuff lixiks like thick butter milk, nnd tastes somewhat nastier, if possi ble, than spoiled yeast. Its beauties wore discovered alxiut the year IKK) by one i'apftutzin, a Toltec nobleman. Tradition says that this ancient lxmefnctor, having su.-oceded in distilling a beverage which to him seemed fit for (he gods, called his only daughter, Xixhitl (the iiuuie signifying uowers ol liillcu band commissioned her as cup-bearer to the King. Tlieduxky Helie was young and beautiful, and so the Tyltec monarch not only drank ami praised the pulque but straightway fell in love with tho nituunn He would not jxirrnit her to re turn to lier people, but for manv yuan the •id rascal kept her a prisoner iii liis palace, thong,, wars and bloodshed, and ut last, the b'if.,l,, of f om l ,lr ®’ Ktew out of Ids "reins to have lieen the same y 5 PVPn at thut ,- arly 'ley, that and women- arc the ino4, b of beggars’ day. Throughout the length and breadth of Mexico Saturday is known as “Beggars’ day,” when, under special countenance of Church and State, mendicants of alt degree# and Ixvtli sexes levy demands upon people with the utmost con fidence. Out of their cov erts and lairs they swarm in incredible numbers—the blind, the halt, the lame and the lazy—and before sunrise on the morning aforesaid the streets are literally filled with them. First they make a tour of the shops and markets, and the obliging merchants, in anticipation of their coming, have laid by a store of small coin for the occasion. To refuse to give would be a bad advertise ment, for aiming theOe professional mendi* cants are many good customers for the rest of the week. Then they hie themselves, with their rags and crutches, to the sanctua ries, and after mass is over and the churches deserted they patrol evdh-y street, leaving not a house unvisited or a person unsolicit ed. The broken bits of bread anil meat, stumps of vegetables (“cold clothes and old victuals,” according to Mrs. Partington's Ike) and other odds and ends of the house hold are thus thriftily disposed of —for, In side'S benefiting the poor on general princi ples and getting rid of particular posts whose peristence would otherwise become annoying, the giver has the pious satisfac tion of “lending to tho Lord” and laying up for himself treasures in heaven. MENDICANCY AS A BUSINESS. With their usual poetical instincts, Mexi cans call beggars poriliaseras—“for-God’s sake”—a name not inappropriate,considering that the mendicants themselves always pre face their petitions with those words. The vagabond fraternity of Mexico ply their vocations with a system and assiduity which is conspicuously wanting in most other branches of business in tins queer country. In tlie first place they ore regularly li censed and protected by law, anil, there be ing no almshouses, are allowed to live in their own way, so long as not seriously detrimen tal to the public peace. They divide every city into districts and beats to suit them selves, assigning to each beggar his own particular prowling-plaee. Should any Mendicant less honorable than his fellows venture upon the territory assigned to an other he would surely be received with a vigorous and combined attack of iron-shod staffs and crutches, wielded with a will by arms which at other times appear crippled to helplessness. TRICKS OF THE TRADE. The licensed beggar is seldom imperti nent, anil if harshly repulsed will make you ashamed of your rudeness by returning it with an obeisance worthy of Chesterfield in his palmiest days and a sad but digniged “Perdonez me, Henorita.” A favorite exi>e dient for getting rid of them during six days of the week is to say: “Nada liasta Sabodo” (nothing until Saturday), with which implied promise they shuffle content edly away. But, though you call upon tho hills and mountains to cover you, they sel dol fail to ferret you out ou tho designated day, and present themselves with the ut most confidence, expecting a double bonus. And a failure ou your part to “come down handsomely” after all their trust and trouble would be to shake their faith in human na ture and to call down upon your perjured head their devoutest prayers inverted. Worst of all are the female “for-God's sakes,” for, understanding by instinct tho inherent vanity of the sex, they will(plant themselves in your path (if you lie a^vOm an), and, rolling up their optics as if in an ecstacy of admiration, will discourse upon your grace and beauty in such exaggerated terms that you are glad to escape at any price. LIVING ON THE NEIGHBORS. Anybody’s doorway or arcade may bo utilized as a lodging place by these gamins, whole families of them calmly squatting upon your premist-s for an indefinite period without so much as a formal -‘by your leave,” and to drive off tho intruders is alxiut as easy as to rid yourself of a healthy but hungry tick which has attached himself to yourcutis. Thousands of city vagal Minds have no habitations except of this descrip tion, their earthly jpossessions consisting of one vermin-infested blanket to each adult, which serves him beautifully as a portable bed, and an oarthern pot or two to every family, in which their scant cooking is done (perhaps on your front doorstop! over a few dry twigs or a handful of stolen charcoal. Indeed, the beggars are about the happiest people I have met in Mexico, for life to them is one long holiday—a happy-go-lucky ex istence, wholly relieved from work or wor ry. No corking care disturbs the serenity of their souls, nor vaulting ambitions, nor thoughts of rainy days to come. Everyone of them of adult age is married, and all are surprisingly affluent in “olive branches;” fur reckless Mexicans,like poor humans north of the Rio Grande, rush into double-blessed ness, quite regardless of the numlier of beg gars they may inflict upon the world. Be sides innumerable children, each lieggar possesses a dog or two to share Ills misfor tunes: and I have frequently observed, as a singular circumstance, that the deeper and more hopeless his apparent indigence the greater the number or his canine attaches. LAYING SIEGE TO THE POCKET. It is thus these sidewalk citizens spend their time in the intervals of begging, lounging in the sunshine and gossiping with the neighbors as contentedly as the haugh tiest hidalgo whose prodigal coins support them. Pordiaseros, male and female, ad dress all ladies of whatever age or station who come within range of their pleading by such endearing and familiar words as “Nina 1” “Ninita!” (Girl! Little Girl! Dear Little Girl!) In church they are particular ly annoying, hovering about theaoors liken swarm of Ik-oh, importuning all passers anil pestering worshipers in the midst of their prayers. The impudence of their persistency is only equaled by the ingenuity displayed in the invocations by which, under the guise of religious feeling, they wheedle the last penny out of your pocket. Upon your knees in a crowded sanctuary, in the inidst. of the most solemn mass or an “Ave Maria Puriasima,” they fling themselves and their filthy rags before you, and groveling upon the ground pour forth their petitions to your purse in this wise: “Ninacita por el amor do la Han tins inia Virgin! By the Blood of Christ! For sake of the most Holy Trinity! For the love of God and His angels! fly the bones of the blessed martyrs I” etc., etc., through all the saints in the calendar. If you Im* so obstinate us to go on with your devotions regardless of their prayers they try another tack, and appeal to your do mestic sympathies. To men they will say: “By the soul of your wife! By the life of your sweetheart!” To women: “By tho heart of your lover! By the life of your little child;” and to children: “By the life of your mother! By tho honor of vour father I” A mixture of piety andsuperstltion makes most people draw forth their purses, especially women and children, who are t<M> tender-hearted to resist such appeals. The plea that you have no small coin about you is not a valid excuse with Mexican lx-ggars. for upon such a hint any one of the half-, naked rascals will dive under his dirty blanket, and, pi-odueing a well filled bag of silver, courteously offer to “make change” for you. Rough on Rats,” Clears out rats, mice, roaches, flies, ants, bedbugs, beetles, insect*), skunks, jack rab bits, sparrows, gophers. 15c. At druggists. "Rough on Corns.” Ask for Wells’ “Rough on Corns." Quick relief, complete cure. Corns, warts, bun ions. 15c. "Rough on Itch.” “Rough on Itch” cures skin humors, erup tions, ring-worm, tetter, salt rheum, frosted feet, chilblains, itch, ivy poison, barber’s itch. 50c. jurs. "Rough on Catarrh” Corrects offensive odors at once. Complete cure of worst chronic cases; also unequaled as gargle for diphtheria, sore throat, foul breath. 50c. JosKFU f 'mamnr.Ki.Ai s, who was once a proml lie:it politician. Is gathering unwonted laurels in '.tiKlond's choicest 'haw ins rooms THE MORNING NEWS: SUNDAY, JUNE 12, 1887-TWELVE PAGES. HOW TO UTILIZE EELS. Strange Story of a Venezuelan Gen tleman. From the Philadelphia Aries. Don Miguel Santa Mezzito, a wealthy gen - tleman living at Achaguas, Venezuela, now stopping at the Girard House, tells a won derful story, alleging that he has sueceded in utilizing electricity generated by electric eels, and that his residence is lighted by electricity from that strange fish. Senor Mezzito is a well-educated man, wagradu ated from HeidelbtirgUniversity speaks several languages, including English, quite fluently. T “Yes, - ’ said he, “I have ray residence lighted throughout,by electricity generated by large batteries of electric eels. There is sufficient electricity wasted in the streams of the northern portion of (South America to light a city as big as Philadelphia could it be properly utilized. The town of Achaguas lies on the bank of a small river of that name which empties into the Orinoco JOO miles to the southeqeti It is in the State of Apure, about 150 miles,, from the eastern boundary of the United (States of Colom bia. The city is reached by boat up the Orinoco to San Fernando and by rail from t hat place. Achaguas is an old town and has been the home of my family for many generations. I give you this in detail, be cause I have met scientists since I came to this country who evidently disbelieve that I have electric lights running by electric eels. “I got my first idea of utillizing the gym notus electrius while studying electricity in Germany. Living as 1 had for years near streams in which the eels abounded, and knowing personally of men and animals that has been prostrated and were killed by eels in water, I was especially interested in Faraday’s account of the torpedo and other fishes. I was particularly impressed by tho great scientist’s statement that a full grown electric eel contained electricity equal to fiften Leyden jars of 3,500 square inches. Upon returning to my home I at once began experimenting, and was both surprised and delighted with my success. 1 found that by holding a small eel, the head in one hand and the tail in the other, the shock was much stronger than in any other wav, and six>n discovered that the positive and nega tive cells are divided, tho negative near the pectorals and the positive next the tail. I also sat isfied myself very quickly that the electricity from the eel was the same as com mon electricity. It rendered the needle magne-tie, decomposed chemical compounds and by it heat was evolved and a spark was obtained. On these points, however, tho scientists readily agree with me. I was sat isfied that the power was there if it could be utilized, and alter two years of further ex perimenting I sueceded in getting a battery by which a small light was run nearly an hour. Then it was merely a question of time and study. I have hail the lights run ning, eight of them, eight-candle each, for three months. Mv success lias brought mo to this country, and I propose to explain my invention and discovery to the members of the Franklin Institute before I return to Venezuela. “I first tried the placing of a number of the eels in one large rubber tank well insu lated, but I afterward discarded it and tried the forming of a strong battery by the con nection of fifty cells with two or more eels in each. The result was more than satisfac tory. Here are drawings of the batteries showing how the glass jars are connected.” He then exhibited a drawing. “You will see that no ground wire is used. Each cell is so connected as to com plete a circuit through the wires running from either end of the row to the lamps, which are all in one circuit. The only secret is the manner in which the electricity is con ducted from the cells. That I belive to be an entirely original discovery, and I shall not divulge it until it is protected by patents both in EuroiMi and America. The eel I learned makes heavy, involuntary dis charges of electricity when its circulation is increased or when unaturally excited. This I li Art led by seeing the Indians, under my orders, driving eels into our nets by the aid of horses and mules Wit h half a dozen horses rushing through the water the eels throw off such quantities of electricity that the animals are prostrated and sometimes killed. This without actually coming in contrct with the fish. In an honV the eels will have discharged their stores of electric fluid, and, coming to the surface, lie quite still. They are entirely helpless. Taken in by the nets the eels are placed in receiving tanks, and in half an hour their olectne cells are as strong and active as ever. The Indians and ignorant people in the vicinity of Achaguas regard me ns a wizard, and my life has been threatened lieeause a minor chief of a small trils- living a few miles west of Achaguas was killed by an electric shock while talcing eels for nie. “But I was telling you of the batteries. I found it necessary to keep the eels excited in order to compel them to throw off their store of electricity steadily. I tried several ways of keeping a wheel revolving in each cell, but afterward learned tliat tho feeding of strychnine to them, or rather the plac ing of strychnine in the liquid in which they an-kept accelerated circulation by produc ing tetanic contraction of the muscles and did all that was required. “How about when the store of electricity is exhausted, you ask i “Well, that is easily overcome. Ido not allow a battery to work more than half an hour at a time. By a very simple clock work contrivance I have so fixed things as to instantly and at regular intervals throw one battery off and another on. I keep three batteries of thirty cells each all the time ready. Relieved for an hour the eels arc as active as ever. During the half hour of service the stryothnia has become ale sort mu 1 and the fishes quickly recover their natural jiower. “Thirty cells of two eels each are equal to 1,000 volts, and strong enough to kill three men should the current pass through them. Each eel is a perfect battery within itself. Theso are two jxisitive and two negative calls one-thirtieth of an inch in diameter in each eel, anil each cell has many minute cells within it. I keep a large tank full of the eels on band all the time, and am com pelled to replenish the batteries every day or two. 1 have attempted to propagate the i-els, but thus far have not been suc cessful. “No; I do not see that my discovery and invention will ever benefit the world very much, lieeause theso eels are not found much outside of Northern South America, but it is interesting from a scientific stand)mint, and I consider my time, lubor and money well spent.” Senor Mezzito will remain in Philadel phia for a few days inspecting woolen mill machinery, and will then go to Boston. Butler and the Match Boys. From the New York Evening Sun. To the casual observer no occupation ap pears so unprofitable as that of the little Italian boys who peddle matches in the street, and yet they seem to thrive at it. They are übiquitous, but more are to be found on Broadway and near tho bridge entrance than anywhere else. These little fellows with their trays of wax matches are not to lx? confounded with the bigger boys who deal in the common wooden mutches. The latter are regular peddlers from dixit- to door, and find most or their customers in business oflltvs. You can see them at ail hours of the day wandering through tho corridors of large down town buildings. The boys with wax matches stand on the curb and sell exclusively to passers by. They keep a sharp w atch for a man whose cigar has gone out. The moment one comes along the boy will light a wind match and hand it fo him, at the same time offering him three bozos for a nickel. A few men buy the matches out of considera tion for the bov’s trouble. Others throw him a penny. The majority take the light and hurry along wit hout even a word of thanks. Otin. Butler, who has a well known habit of carrying an unlighted cigar in his hand, used to wonder why the boys swore Ht'hiin whenever he came to town. He investigated the matter one day, nml now when lie comes in sight of a mutch boy be shoves his ei :ar up his sleeve. GYPSIES OF YANKEELANI) ROYAL PRINCES WHO DRIVE THE SHARPEST OF HORSE TRADES. Evolution of the Connecticut Gypsy- Williams and His Dusky Band of Money-Makers-The Profits of For tune-Telling—Gypsy Virtues and Peculiarities Wealthy Members of the Bohemian Fraternity. From the New York World. Rockville Conn., May 27.—Fiction, poetry, the opera and society at large owe a great deal to the gypsies. Among novels “Guy Mannering,” in opera “The Bohemian Girl,” in poetry “The Spanish Gypsy,” and in society the wandering fortune-tellers illustrate the truth of the above proposition. But the iconoclastic tendencies of a mater ialistic age have robbed the gyisy of many romantic features. Take, for instance, the gypsies of Connecticut. They are in most respect radically different from the ideal Bohemians of song and legend. The wooden nutmeg influence has been strongly felt by the “down .east” gypsies, and where a Bohemian of the drama would kidnap a child, Prince Williams and his followers prefer to drive a sharp trade with a horse dealer. The results is that while the Con necticut gypsies may not be extremely picturesque, they are, nevertheless, well pro vided with lands and money. All this is owing in part to the commercial genius of THE GYPSY .IVY GOULD, their chief. Thomas Williams, “the king of the New England gypsies,” is the Jay (ionlil of his race. He knows a hawk from a handsaw in a business transaction, and his remarkable skill in trading horses made him rich. He owns extensive sale stables in New Haven, the Farmers’ Hotel in East Hartford and valuable real estate in Boston and Canada. During the post winter lie has sold a large numlier of horses from the Dominion, and it cun be safely asserted has made a gixxl profit on his ventures. Prince Williams spends his money freely. Two wagons, handsomely decorated, were re cently male for him at Fair Haven at a cost of SI,OOO apiece. His family is a large one. His Wife is now more than 00 years of age, but still holds her [mi, sit inn as the most skillful fortune-teller in the country. She is an expert “cheirosopliist,” though she would doubtless Imi surprised and angry at iM'ing called by' such a* name. Prince Williams and his wife are not at all cultured. In fact it is a sad but acknowledged truth that they cannot read nor write. They have not, however, a narrow prejudice against education and have gone so far as to send a few of their numerous offspring to good schools. Their family is a large one. Washington Williams, commonly known as “Wash,” testifies in name to the patriotic Instincts of his parents. Like his great namesake, “Wash” cannot tell a lie, but if you have occasion to buy a horse from him be very careful to thoroughly examine the animal before you close the bargain. -In fact “Wash” Williams is a genius as a horse trailer, and has been known to cheat even his father in an equine bargain. “Dickey” Williams is another adept in horseflesh, but not so sharp in trade ns his brother. Another princeling bears the biblical name of Noah and has wandered away to the great West. AN ACCOMPLISHED FORTUNE-TELLER. Besides the I>ys1 >ys the venerable monarchs have four girls of whom three are married. “Wash” Williams is now, with tho tents and followers, encamped near Rockville. Two of his married sisters are with him. One of them, Emma, married it man named Lambert, and the other, Paddia, is the wife of “Bill” (Squires. Next to the mother Paddie is tiu- most accomplished fortune teller in the band. (She will frequently go forth for a day's tramp and make 825 by her art. When the band is encamped near Hartford she wanders from door to door and has made a great many converts by her remarkable powers of prophecy. One young woman, who had for years scoffed at palmistry, was once apprenehed by Paddie, who told her that she would marry a dark man. The young woman is now' married and her husband is one of the darkest men she ever m*t. Her belief in Paddic’s genius is unbounded. On such slight foundations doer, the fortune-teller base success. All the daughters of prince Williams have lieen clever girls, and one of them—Betsy-—was a great beauty. She hail many suitors for ner band. And just hero it may lie said that the gypsy women of Connecticut are scrupulously chaste. They are true to their marriage vows, and the man who should go too far in his altentiong might pay the )M>nalty of death for his temerity. I Here is no Meg Merrilies among them. They load an unconventional life, it is true, but there are many women higher in the social scale who might profit by a study of gypsy virtue. THE BOHEMIAN MIGRATIONS. The season has come when the Connecti cut gypsies liegin their migrations. They are divided into various bands, all under the control of Prince Williams. He it is who directs their progress, tells f hein where to camp, what places to avoid, where to do their shopping etc., and it is a well-known fact in the nutmeg State that Prince Williams and liis subjects arc good customers. Whenever they purchase anything they always pay- cash, and what they buy- is of the best quality. There is a certain lux urious streak in the gyjy blood which rejoices in the good tilings of life. The wandering tent-dwellers like high livingand handsome clothes. Their taste in dress is naturally' somewhat “loud,” but they are great admirers of costly textures and hand some fabrics. It is impossible to deceive them in this regard, and they' cannot he cheated by the sharpest dealer in Connecti cut. They are now living in tents and wagons. They camp in the woods or by the highways, and are careful to seek spots where shade and water are abundant. They will remain in some secluded spot near a town <9 village for days, or even weeks, anil then “told their tents like the Arab sand us silently steal away.” And they don’t steal anything else. There was a time w hen a strong prejudice existed against them, based on the belief that they were robbers, but the acquisition of property has rendered the gypsy a law-abiding citizen. He is a good illustration of an economic truth, which is worth mentioning. When the gypsy owned nothing lie was a Socialist in theory and in practice. When, however, he became a landholder, he grew conservative, and held “a goixl opinion of the law.” Thus it is thut the Connecticut gyqisics are no longer feared for their depredations, anil it is but seldom in these days that a gy-psy is arrested for theft. But if the gypsy has increased his respect for other men’s money, he has seemingly but little regard for his own. Ho is very careless with his “boodle.” He keeps some of it in an old sack anil the remainder he wears in a belt alxiut his person. He docs not seem to fear robbery, unit has -apparently great confidence in the honesty of his dark faced companions. THE GYPSY DIALECT. The question naturally arises what language do these wandering Bohemians employ.' English, almost entirely. TheoMl Romany dialect, however, is freely u M' Even outsiders, who have married women and have joined the band, pickup the peculiar patois. Once in fHrfiilo you may hear as you wander along I—a 1 —a by road in Connecticut some old gypsy chant like the following: I work In brass and dicker, too, With canny yak level ami busy vast be [hand]; “Clior! Cliur!" [tmefj they cry, an - mar (strike) me, tiMi; Hut when the rat [night] murks .o’er the blue, I’ll have a caunle [hen |, may he two. For half u dozen hungry chmivie [children]— 1 An’ then the tent anil my aln ruuiile [wife]! There is one feature of a Connecticut gypsy camp which strikes the observer at once. Tiie number of horses is always greatly out of proportion to the nooeds of the band. There ure horses of all kinds and conditions, and the quest ion presents itself, what are they for? Well ultimately they are for the city markets. The gypsy has Ixx-oine n .sort of middleman between the farmer, who is obliged to sell his horses, and the dealer in t ie rltv. who supplies the public. Tattersall, the famous Loudon dealer, is a gypsy and is a striking illustra tion of the success with which liis race engages in the horse trade. A gypsy boy is at fifteen a connoisseur in horses, a skillful rider, a veterinary surgeon in an amateur way and a sharp hand at a close bargain. The draught horses in our large cities are, to a great extent, supplied by gypsies. The latter obtain them from farmers hardup for money, care for them awhile in tlieir comfortable camps and then sell them at a good profit to city dealers. THE RISE OF THE GYPSY. But it is not alone in Connecticut that the gypsies have been successful in acquiring property and influence. Edgar L. YVako man, who has made a close study of the subject, furnishes some interesting facts in regard to their progress in other parts of the country. la Chicago there is a clergyman who was l xml a gypsy. A member of the Pennsylvania Legislature has the same origin! In Canada there are fifty eminent professional people who are of the Bohemian race. A prominent civil engineer on a Southern railway is a gypsy. Mr. Wake man says that in New York City are 50 gypsies, several of whom are worth upward of 8100,000 apiece. A Boston lawyer in good practice is a gypsy. A San Francisco cafe is owned and conducted by a gypsy, wdio is very rich. In Indianapolis is a physician in large practice, who passes as an Englishman. He was bom in a Yotholm gypsy camp. One of the wealthiest residents of Washington is a gypsy. Certain business men in Richmond and Baltimore have the same origin. Henry Stanley, of St. Paul, owns property worth over $40,000. The Cooper family of East Somerville, Boston, are worth $250,000. Uriah Wharton owns $200,000 w-orth of real estate in New York. In Canada tho ainfunt of property Held by gypsies is rery large. Half a million dollars worth of property in and near Dayton, 0., is owned by gypsies In Milwaukee Elias Brewer owns 850,000 worth of property. “In short,” says Mr. Wakeman, “I make it as a state ment of fact that I could fill columns with names and addresses and property estimates of nearly a thousand gypsies in this country whose combined wealth would exceed S4O, 000.000.” Thus is it that the gypsies liave become an interesting race to the student of sociol ogy. Their advancement and prosperity are not supposititious. The gypsies are lie coming in reality an important part of the community. Home day the busy politician will be scurrying about fo catch the gypsy vote. WOMEN’S DOINGS. A Kind of Photography that is Daily Becoming More Popular. New York, June 11. —Composite photog raphy is becoming every day' more popular. This year’s graduating class at Vassar gave me the other day a glance at w hat perhaps it would be fair enough to take as a type of the educated girl of 22 or 23. Everything in the composite tqnes down and fades and blends until the resultant picture gives the average features of all who have posed be fore the camera. The combination of the Vassar faces gives anew one that is soft ened as all composites are. but in no way indistinct in its outlines. It is like no one of the graduates and yet it represents thirty seven. The senior face as brought out by the sunlight is a somewhat regular oval with straight nose, large eyes and rounded girlish features, a little thoughtful hut not over-grave. The forhead is rather high and the hair soft and smoothly drawn back, a fluffy tendril or two escaping about the brows, but without the suspicion of a crimp or a bang. It is an interesting face and one that '7 will carry home as a unique souve nir. A seco:ii 1 composite, also of feminine faces, for which a sanitary science club of Boston sat, exhibits what one seldom sees in a composite, the decided predominance of one face, sreming, though a dozen or fifteen young women sat for it, a modified likeness of perhaps the most strongly marked set of features belonging to any member of the club. The process of taking a composite photograph is not difficult, and the art is practiced with success by quite a number of amateurs. A NEW DEPARTURE IN SHOPPING. A new' departure in the line of shopping for out-of-town families has been inaugu rated in New York of late which bids fair to put a moderately profitable industry into the h.ands of women possessed of some taste, plenty of patience and a gift of bargaining. Women here and there have made purchases as agents for country-bond customers and turned a few dollars commission time out of mind, but the old idea is taking anew shape and bids fair to develop on a tar more am bitious scale. The present plan is that of the shopping bureau, managed by a woman of business turn and gifted with tact for getting on -with people as well a; purchasing judgment. To her one may mail an order for silks, gloves, laces, jewelry, bonnets, anything that requires careful supervision in the buying, w hich order will Vie turned over to a corps of regularly employed pur chasers, women all, whose business it is to look to the interests of the far-away house hold, catch at personal tastes, sometimes with an instinct that seizes upon your color feeling and your veriest whims and caprices, from a trick of the handwriting and hunt up pretty things at reasonable prices, mak ing use of opportunities that one could hardly come upon by sending direct to any linn. The notion may have tieen imported from abroad, borrowed from the thriving French agencies that do Paris shopping for ladies in all quarters of the globe, or it may have sprung up independently in our soil. At any rate the first New York woman who sys tematized her business and established a bu reau is doing a business that may amount to $30,000 at tie* end of her first year, and I doubt if one doesn’t hear of a multiplication of agencies and larger figures before long. A good share of the trade is necessarily in matching shades, obtaining one article to harmonize with another, looking up odd bits and fine goods which the dealers in small towns do not oyry; anti balancing commis sion against discount to the agency, the country chusin can buy at the same prices as her city friend. The business is one that calls for some small capital to start it. hut given that and a little common sense and energy it may prove a valuable addition to the resources of the city woman with more leisure than money-making ways of em ploying it. The scheme has promise at any rate, but every new employment for women requires time io start it and bring the busi ness courage of the non business sex up to the point of making any venture in an un tried buth. A PKOPOSKR new club house. The Nineteenth Century Club unluckily seems to disagree over that pro posed ubhou.se which, if once erected, would be the ideal of its sort in tho country with doors open to women as well as men, typifying as perhaps one may not effect in the present stage of civilization, the millen nial social life of the sexes. The question of a wound’s clubhouse comes up again and again, but is always nippisl in tne bud, not jm any lack of cluDbableness in women, but (pVauso they are as yet more comfortably Svlubbable on a small and informal scale. The new Meridian Club, which promises to be one of the most successful of tne women’s clubs of New York and hr whose organiza tion Mi's. Kossiter Johnson has taken a prominent part, not only limits its member ship but eschews all organization, each mem ber presiding at the meetings in turn. Bo rosis prefers to hold its sessions at Delmoni eo’s rather than in headquarters of its own, and this in spite of the fact that Mrs. Thomas’ (its President) only complaint of the members that so far from being bound together by few ties, the o!ub occupies too much of their time, and quite too much is expected in the way of keeping up an inti mate social intercourse outside of meeting days. It is always the impulse of a woman’s club to set its membership limit as low as 100 or 150 to preserve that freedom of dis cussion which few women not used to public speaking feel in larger assemblages, and such limitation of numbers limits the means to work with. The need of a central clubhouse that might serve as a rendezvous for its mem tiers and visitors from other cities, that might contain reception rooms, reading rooms and a woman's restaurant is, how ever, increasingly felt, and has been a not infrequent topic of discussion which has sometimes gone almost to the limit of plan ning with Brooklyn Woman’s Club, which is at least as enterprising a body as any across the river. WOMEN AS SCHOOL TRUSTEES. The question of the appointment of women ou the Board of Education which agitates Brooklyn, might find considerable support from the quiet, unostentatious way in which Mrs. Agnew and Miss Dodge have gone about their work in New York. Neither has anything to say. Neither has submitted to be interviewed. Both have taken very modestly, but very emphatically, the posi tion that they were learners put in anew position, lace to face with new problems, whose first dnty was to familiarize them selves with the work, not to advance theo ries about it. Both have spent much time collecting and systematizing information about the schools and visiting their own special district thoroughly. The school board may get better work from the teach ers since their appointment in a way that was not taken into account. “I feel more self-respect and respect for my sex,” said a teacher in one of the big primaries the other day, “since I found myself and my work fairly under the supervision of a woman. I can see its effect, too, in the greater respect that is shown me as a woman teacher, or that I at least imagine I feel.” Maria Mitchell is one of those women whose influence over other women, espe cially young women, is unbounded. With the white curls about her neck and the straightforward, direct look that is a unique charm in her eyes, her girl students at vas sar seem to feel it not merely a necessity, but the highest of privileges, to do whatever she wishes. She lives in tne observatory, with tho telescope running up through the dome in the middle, space for recitation rooms and for the most charming of domes tic menages being found in the two stories of the wings on either hand. Prof. Mitchell discovered the til's! telescopic comet spied out by a woman since Caroline Herschel an nounced the last of her eight on Oct. 1, 1847, in recognition of which the King of Denmark sent her a gold medal. ■She has made valuable observations on ne bulae, and has been employed in the compi lation of the Nautical Almanac and on the coast survey, doing work that has won her recognition” in scientific circles everywhere. WOMEN DRAMATISTS FASHION MATTERS. Miss Ada Webster Ward, who assisted Mr. Stockton in the dramatization of “The Late Mrs. Null,” might figure as an embodiment of activity and life. She is very slender of figure, lithe, dark haired, with gray eyes under long black lashes, and looks at once energetically American and indescribably foreign. If there is anything in willing it, she will make one of our new American dramatists. The close of the social season and the ad journment to the country is marked by ex travagances that look suspiciously like the last desperate struggles of boredom trying to be gay. Imagine dwarf grapevines trained on rustic silver trellises as dinner ta ble ornaments, the fatigued and quite too lan guid guests plucking tneir dessert au ncitiir cl, in pursuit of a sensation, from the vine. It would not surprise one if the chase after the novel, the determination to overdo things a little more than the last dinner given, should result in a return in disgust to simplicity as the only thing left that is really new. After all, what business has velvet or embossed satin or min ors or whole flower gardens and parks on a dinner table! Doesn’t everybody know in the bottom of her heart that ex quisitely fine white linen and spotless silver and glass and higher art are incomparably better taste? The cover coat is now a dark green or a brown instead of the pale tan it has been so long. By the way, imitation is the sincerest flattery, and Mrs. August Belmont, Jr., who introduced the garment to New York notice, likes to he flattered. She must be in an en viable frame of mind. The latest thing iu lioatingdresses is white linens, the thickest and heaviest to be ob tained, with girdle and trimmings of blue. Short is tho reign of the most popular craze. Heliotrope, two months ago all pow erful, has gone the way of things fashiona ble. Fastidious people have thrown it over for gray now. A small, gray tulle bonnet, its only trim ming a bunch of roses with a couple of nat ural buds thrown in to heighten the illusion, is the accepted headgear in Vanity Fair just now. A parasol, when it gives mind to the effort, can carry about S4OO worth of gold and jewels incrusted in its stick and embossed in its satin cover. E. P. H. Leonidas and the Pass. From the Texas Siftings. Leonidas was a prominent editor of Sparta in the sweet long ago. His paper, the Palladium, was noted for its opposition to the interstate commerce bill of that period, and when the obnoxious measure became a law Leonidas was as hot as a cook stove. Like the law which is now distracting the minds of the people of the United States and overworking tne Commissioners, this ancient statute prohibited ’ tho issue of passes. Just before the law began to doits deadly work Mr. Xerxes, President of the Ther mopylae Railway Company, issued a cir cular, of which the following is a copy: [Form 291.] 2 —14—2,000 T.iziisioi-L.i-; Railway Cos. i Offic eof Col. W. 11. Xsaxßtf. President . J. Looms, April 27, 480 B. 0. I Dear Sir -As you are aware, the interstate commerce law, which goes into effect on the sth proximo, forbids, under severe penalties, the issuing of free passes or the honoring of those now issueii. You will therefore return to the general offices of the Thermopylae Railway Company the annual jkiss now issued in your name, as the same will not lie available for passage after the date mentioned. Regrerting the necessity for issuing this cir cular, I beg to remain, yours faithfully, William Henky Xerxes, President and General Freight and Ticket Agent. When Leonidas received this intimation he was even more wroth than when the bill passed, The pats was a young and beautiful one, with tne figures 480 in large gilt letters all over the face, and Leonidas had uot exhibit ed it more than three times to the admiring gaze of the conductors of the line. Then, again, the fishing season was about to open, and he intended to take a run down into Thessaly county every Saturday after the paper had goue to press and indulge in the pleasant sport of lazily drowning worms. He had several other little excursions planned for tho summer, one of which was to visit his girl iu Ohio. Leonidas was therefore sorrowful when he learned that this nice new pass, which was just ready to blossom forth into a career of usefulness, bad been cut down in its fresh young bcairty. Then he made a brave resolution. He resolved not to give it up, but die in its defense if neccessairy. He died, as tho sequel will show. Col. Xerxes was determined to see the law enforced, and when Leonidas neglect ed to return 'he pass at the appointed time, Xerxes went a postal card to inquire the wherefore. Leonidas replied that Xerxes might go to Halifax, but Xerxes went not. Halifax was not on his line of road. He went for Leonidas instead, having first called out the militia to assist in taking tho pass from the angry editor. The latter levied ‘;)0 Pinkerton guards, armed with Remington rifles, to defend the | RUSS. But it was of no use. Xerxes captured the precious pasteboard, biit not until Leonidas and all his retainers hut one hail been sent to that land where the wicked legislators cease from troubling and the weary editor is at rest. The man who escaped got back to Sparta and wrote an account of the fight for the I’allnrUum, which thus hail a woop on its contemporaries. This little incident shows us t hut there is nothing alarmingly original about the in terstate commerce law, for pusses were colled in mere than 2.0(1!) years ago. INDIAN MYTHS. Account of the Empire Before the Mo. hammecian Conquest. From the Asiatic Quarterly Review. With reference to India and the Indians as they appeared to intelligent foreigners who visited that country prior to the Mus sulman conquests, it is said that, though dis figured by transparent exaggerations, these descriptions were wonderfully accurate and picturesque, and with a few obvious correc tions are applicable at the present day An imperfect knowledge of the language ic probably answerable for the fables and ah surdities reported bv the early Greek writers, who simply copied from their predecessors without the slightest at tempt to sift truth from error or to invest! gate the authorities, upon which utterly in' credible statements were made. Whenever the narrators were dealing with matters that came under their personal cognizance they seemed to have kept within the bounds prescribed by reason and moderation It is only when they repeated on heresay evi dence the marvelous stories which have brought down upon them so much hasty and intolerant ridicule that they displayed a total absence of the critical faculty They accepted without hesitation the tales that "’ere told of men without noses and with two orifices above the mouth for the purpose of breathing, which, it has been suggested, may have been an uncon scious caricature of the Mongols. The prt. mies, only three spans in height, who were warred upon by cranes and by partridges is large as geese, may have been a dwarfish race dwelling in woods and at the foot of mountains who earned a precarious liveli hood as bowmen and trappers. Bhotan people, whose ear*re enormously elongated by artificial means may have been repre sented as a tribe whose ears reached to the ground, and which were other wise so huge that their owners were able to coil themselves up and go to sleep in them. The swift runners who could run down a horse might have found their analo gies within quite a recent period, and may perchance still find them in some of the, native States. The fable of the gold dig ging ant, large as wild foxes has been long since explained as referring to Tibetan miners, men of low stature who inhabit the mountainous country to the north of Kash mir. The animals mistaken for ants may very well have been marmots, which are said to be plentiful in those parts. As for the monstrous shapes which no traveler pretends to have seen with his own eyes they existed, no doubt, iff bright colors on the inner walls of pagodas, and were in tended to depict the Rakshasas or de mons, odious alike to men and gods. Such was the probable origin of the beings who were born without mouths and lived on the aroma of fruits and flowers; or those whose feet were turned the wrong way, the heels being in front while tho instep and toes were behind; of those who bore the head of a dog and were fur nished with claws, who lived by hunting and fowling and clothed themselves in the skins of wild beasts; of those who had the eare of a dog, erect hair and shaggy breasts, and with one eye in the centre of the forehead; finally, of those without nos trils, who devoured raw meat and all man ner of abominations, and died in their youth ungainly creatures with the upper lip hang ing over the lower. Of no greater im portance are the marvelous animals, erroneously delineated rather than invented, such as serpents with membranous wings, that flew by nigllt; horses with deers' heads surmounted by a black horn, with legs without a joint and with the tail of a pig; tigers twice the size of a lion; the phoenix, sprung from the sun s rays, that lived its life of 5,000 years in India, and, singing its own dirge, died in its nest of aromatic herbs hard by the fountains of the Nile. It would be sheer waste of time to bestow further thought upon the childish inventions fathered by Philostratus upon Apollonius, of Tyana, or rather upon the journal of his fellow traveler Damis. Quite as little attention is due Latin writers who professed to have derived their information tram In dian merchants settled at Alexandria, or from apocryphal embassies supposed to have been dispatched by Indian kings to Roman emperors, in more than one of these romances allusion is made to the load stone islands in the Indian ocean, which were believed to draw iron bolts out of ships at an incredible distance, and which have been thus expl'med by the fact that the seas in question were navigated by ves sels the planks of which were bound together by ropes and coir, without the use of nails and bolts. A NEW TYPE OF MAN. The Western American Species and Its Possible Future Development. Charles I). Warner in Harper's. Out somewhere on the Santa Je route where the desert of one day was like the desert of the day before and the Pullman car rolls and swings over the v ide waste beneath the blue sky day after day, under its black flag of smoke, in the early gray of morning, when the men were waiting their turns at the ablution bowls, a slip of a boy, iierhaps aged 7, stood balancing himself on liis little legs, glad in knickerbockers, bid ing his time, with all the nonchalance of an old campaigner. “Plow did you sleep, eapf” asked a well-ineauing elderly gentleman. “Well, thank you,” was the dignified response, “as I always do on a sleeping car.” Always docs' Great horrors! Hardly out of his swaddling clothes, and yet he always sleeps well in a sleeper! Was ne bom on the wheels' was he cradled in a Pullman.' He has always l>een in motion, probably, he was started at 110 miles an hour, no doubt, this marvelous boy of anew era. He was not born in a house at rest, but the locomotive snatched him along with a shriek and a roar before his eyes were fairly open, and he was rocked in a “section,” and his first sensation of life was that of moving rapidly over vase arid spaces, through cattle ranges and along canyons. Tne effort of quick and easy locomotion on character may have been noted before, but it seems that here is the production of a new sort of man, the direct product of our railway era. It is not simply that this boy is mature, but he must be a different and a nobler sort of boy than one born, say, at home or oil a canal-boat, for wether he was born on the rail or not, he belongs to the railway system of civilization. Before ha gets into trousers he is old in experience, and he has discounted many of the novelties that usually break gradually on the pilgrim in this world. He belongs to the new ex pansive race that must live in motion, whose proper home is the Pullman (which will probably be improved in time into a dust less, sweet-smelling, well- aired bedroom) and whose domestic life will be on the wing, so to speak. The interstate commerce lull will puss him along without friction from end to end of the Union, and perhaps a uniform divorce law will enable him to change his marital relations at any place where he happens to dilie. This promising lad is only a faint intima tion of what we are all comining to when we fully acquire the freedom of the con tinent, and come into that expansiveness of feeling and of language which characterize* the great West Ft is a burst of joyous ex uberance that comes from the sense of an illimitable horizon. It shows itself in the tender word* of a local newspaper at Bowie, Ari., on the death of a beloved citizen: “ ‘Death loves a shining mark,’ and she hit a dandy when she turned loose on Jim. And also in the dosing words of a ><■* Mexico obituary, which the Kansas Maga zine quotes: “Her tried spirit was releas'd from the pain-racking body and soared aloft to eternal glory at 4,30. Denver time. We die, as it were, in motion, ns we sleep, and there is nowhere any Ixnmdary to our expansion. Perhaps we shall never agaiu know any rest as we now understand tua term —rest being only change of motion— and wo shall not be able to sleep except ou the cars, ami wether we die by Denver time or by the ninetieth meridian, we shad only change our time. Blessed lie this slip of a boy who is o mail before he is an infant, and teaches us what rapid transit can do for our ruee! The only thing that can possibly hinder us in our progress will os second childhood: w have abolishes! Br*