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Ono ilny n harsh word, rashly said,
Upon an evil Journey apod.
And like ft sharp and cruel dart
It plercod n fond nnd loving heart;
It turnol a friend iuto a foe,
And everywhere brought pain and woo.
A kind word followed it one day,
flew swiftly on its blessed way;
It healed tlio wound, it soothed the pain,
And friends of old were friends again.
It made the hate and anger cease,
And everywhere brought joy and peace.
A Will and The Way.
By GWENDOLEN OVEHTON
®ianship of some
one who is doing
his duty by you
is not an uu-
Miss Bradford’s
sister, Mrs. Gal
latin, was doing her duty by Miss
Bradford. The former was not at nil
pretty. The latter was very, very
pretty—which is so much’more charm
ing than being very, very beautiful.
But Mrs. Gallatin was married and
Miss Bradford was not. This came of
the fact that Mrs. Gallatin had visited
at Fort Preble and had captured an
unfledged lieutenant by manceuvriug
and a miracle, and that Miss Bradford
had spent her twenty-one years in a
small Maine town.
Boys in the village hail been in love
with Bessie Bradford, but she had not
been in love with them, and she had,
moreover, a decent .appreciation of
her own value and knew she was far
too good for such as they. There had
been a college youth, also, once; but
he and she had quarreled before the
end of his summer visit. And now
Bessie was one-and-twenty and the
family worried. It worried itself into
a state where even the raising of a
mortgage on the home did not seem
too great a thing, if it would but in
sure her marriage. With the money
thus obtained she was Sent across the
continent, with instructions to get
herself wedded before she came back.
She was told to marry a general if she
could. If not—anything, down to a
second lieutenant. But rank was to
hs the primary consideration, Miss
Bradford agreed. She picked out a
very nice general, mentally. He would
be about five-and-thirty, and hand
some and dashing. That years went
with rank was one of the things the
civilian novels of army life she had
read had not taught her. Besides,
she was romantic—as a very pretty
girl should be. So she promised that
grade should govern her ehoice. Then
she departed to visit her sister at the
Presidio.
Lieutenant and Mrs. Gallatin lived
in the building known as the “Cor
ral.” If the Corral were in the city,
it would be called a tenement. But
Uncle Sam doesn’t quarter his officers
in tenements. The Gallatins were
cramped for room—very cramped.
They had three children and second
lieutenant’s pay. So they were poor.
Therefore, taking Miss Bradford in
was not a pleasure. It was a duty.
But Bessie felt the unpleasantness
of the situation the very day of her ar
rival.
“Captain Soutter is going to take
you to the hop this evening, Bess,”
Mrs. Gallatin said; Bessie was cutting
paper bird-cages for her niece. Mrs.
Gallatin was mending a pinafore.
“I’ve promised to go with Mr. Mil
ford,” answered Miss Bradford, stop
ping and looking up from the scissors.
“Mr. who?”
“Mr. Milford. Colonel Milford’s
son, who lives in St. .Louis.”
“Where have you met him?” The
“him” warned Bessie that she was
running on rocks.
“On the train. We got acquainted.
He’s in business in St. Louis, and lie’s
coming to visit his people because lie’s
in bad health, lie is a very nice
man.”
“Man! He must be about twenty
three. A perfect boy. And his busi
ness is being a briefless barrister.
Now, let me tell you one thing, Bes
sie. You must learn from the first
that the civilian son of an officer is no
body at all in a garrison. You will
hurt your chances badly with the of
ficers by going with him. How did
he know there was to be a hop?”
Bessie finished opening the cage,
gave it to her niece with a kiss, gath
ered the scraps of paper in her hand
and threw them into the waste-basket,
clasped her fingers behind her curly
brown head, and answered leisurely:
“He didn’t know there was to be one
to-night. He asked me to go to the
first one there should be after our ar
rival.”
Mrs. Gallatin thought how very,
very pretty Bessie was and wondered
if her husband contrasted them.
‘ ‘He probably will never think of it
again. Captain Soutter is going to
call to ask you, this afternoon, and
you’d better accept.”
“Can one go with two men out here
—ante-nuptially?”
“Don’t be vulgar. You needn’t
consider the Milford boy.”
“Oh! but I must, Genevieve, you
know. I promised.” Miss Bradford’s
big gray eyes were guilelessly ear
nest.
“I’ve no doubt that pose is taking
with the men. But yon can’t make
your devotion to promises succeed
with me, dear. I know you too well.
I can’t remember that they worried
you, with the boys at home.”
“This promise doesn’t worry me.
Not a little bit.”
“Well, I should suggest that you
take my advice and be less flippant.
Recollect that you were not sent ’way
out here to flirt with penniless civil
ians and small boys.”
“If I forget, remind me, will you?
I’ll make you a little red silk flag, if
you like. I can make flags. I made
one for a fair at home, once. You
might draw it out of your bosom and
wav-> it when you see me about to run
oil' the track you have all so kindly
and laboriously laid for me to run on.
I'll teach you the signals. Mr. Mil
ford and 1 studied them from the back
of our sleeper. I think there’s some
oue at the door, sister dearie.”
! THE TWO WORDS.
But yet tlio harsh word left a trace
The kind word could not quite efface,
And though the heart Its love regained.
It boro a scar that long remained;
Friends could forgive* but not forget.
Or lose the sonse of keen regret.
Oh, if wo could but learn to know
How swift and sure our words can go,
How-would w.o weigh with utmost care
Each thought before it sought the air,
And only speak the words that move
Like white-winged messengers of lovo.
—Great Thoughts.
It was Captain Soutter, come to for
malize the hop arrangement. He was,
obviously, very glad that he had come.
For Miss Bradford was pretty—ex
traordinarily pretty.
“I am happy in being a near neigh
bor of yours, Miss Bradford,” he told
her. He forgot—as men will—bow
often ho had cursed the ill-luck which
threw him within hearing distance of
the Gallatin trio of infants.
“Yes?” said Bessie; “you are in our
vicinity, then?”
“A little above you in the world. I
live upstairs. When you want me you
have only to pound on the ceiling.”
“The—what is it?—quartermaster?
The quartermaster mightn’t like mo to
wear out his ceiling.”
“You flutter me by the implication,
Miss Bradford. But I'll settle with
the Q. M. if you will only pound. For
instance, will you pound to-night when
you are ready for the hop, to which it
is my dearest wish to be permitted to
escort you?”
He forgot what he had wished when
Mrs. Gallatin had asked him to per
form this act of eoflrtesy toward the
coming sister. But then he had looked
at Mrs. Gallatin and had judged from
her of the sister.
“I would be only too delighted, if it
were not that I have already promised
to go with someone else.”
JjJThe betrayed captain manifested liis
astonishmentand resentment at having
been subjected to refusal. Ilq had a
high opinion of his dignity, had the
captain.
“Why, who on earth can have asked
you already?” he cried.
Miss Bradford had a cool little
Northern air, when she liked. She
considered the captain’s question in
bad taste. So she raised her eyebrows
and smiled most sweetly. “I shall
hope to have a dance with you, Captaiu
Soutter,” she said.
And she had, not one, but three.
The captain forgot his wrath at the
sight of her. When she came from
the dressing-room into the hallway to
join young Milford, the captain was by
the door. He looked at her.
“Might I hope to be accorded the
second and fifth and ninth, Miss Brad
ford?” he asked.
“Oh! thank you,” said Bessie. She
was grateful, and he was quite ap
peased.
Now Miss Bradford was a success.
She had what is known as a beautiful
time for three whole months. No girl
was remembered ever to have re
ceived altogether so much attention.
She always had lovers—and the two
don't always go together. Captain
Soutter loved her, so did Lieutenant
Paxton, and so did young Milford.
Bessie loved young Milford. A girl
who prefers “cit.” clothes to a uniform
is peculiar, to say the least. Bessie
didn't say or show whom she loved,
except to Milford. She had told him.
She had refused Paxton, and she was
warding the captain off. But the last
she could not do much longer. The
captain had a good opinion of him
self.
He also had a dignity which was not
to be trifled with. Mrs. Gallatin was
by no means sure of Miss Bradford.
So one day she spoke to her. The
process of being spoken to can rouse
the worst in a girl. But Bessie was in
a broken and contrite frame of mind.
She and young Milford had quarreled,
and she didn’t care what became of
her. Sbe might as well marry any
ohl man and sacrifice herself for her
family. She made a most afl'ecting
picture of herself as an offering on the
altar of matrimony_and filial duty. She
would pine away picturesquely in a
year or so, and Will Milford—well,
perhaps he would go to the had. She
hoped so. It was under this pressure
that she solemnly promised and swore
to Mrs. Gallatin to marry Captain
Soutter if he asked her. What Miss
Bradford promised and swore she
never broke.
So as soon as she and young Mil
ford made it up, she set about won
dering how Captain Soutter was to be
kept from asking her. Yet she could
not arrive at any plan. The captain
was an impetuous man, and he was
neither over well-bred nor nicely dis
criminating. Bessie was worried. If
it had been that she had promised
and sworn anything to young Milford
and had had to choose which vow to
break, she would not have hesitated.
But she had teased him, aud had only
answered “maybe.” For which she
now suffered.
But Tate, came to her aid—as it al
ways should and always doesn’t in the
case of a very pretty girl.
She was going to another hop, and
she was going with Captain Soutter.
He had invited her at the time that
she was practicing for the martyr role.
As she couldn’t, therefore, go with
Milford, she would wear the gown he
liked, which was white silk. For it
she had to have white gloves; and her
white gloves were soiled. Therefore
they must be cleaned. Miss Bradford
was an adept at cleaning gloves. She
prepared a special mixture of a num
ber of chemicals and powders. This
mixture had to be whipped—as if it
had been the white of eggs—very light
and frothy. It had a most unpleasant
odor, but it was pretty to look upon.
Because the odor was so unpleasant
Miss Bradford opened the door into
the hallway and stood just within it
beating.
There was air in the hallway, but
there was none in the Gallatins’ quar
ters, as the baby bad a cold. Captain
Soutter had a cold, too—n frightful
one. If he had not had he would
would have noticed the smell of Miss
Bradford’s mixture. He came through
I the hall on his way to his own quar
ters on the floor above. Colonel Mil
ford was with him. The captain did
n’t like the colonel particularly, on ac
count of his being liis son’s father.
“Ah! Miss Bessie! What a pretty,
housewifely picture we make,” said
the captain.
Bessie smiled encouragingly.
“What are we doing? Whipping
cream? How good it looks. If Hebe
would but feed us with ambrosia.”
The colonel smelled the ambrosia;
but he held his peace.
“I’ll give you a taste, captain,
if you want it very, very much. Opeu
your mouth wi-i-de. Shut your
eyes.”
She put a heaping forkful in his
mouth. The horrible taste made him
gasp. Tlio gasp made him swallow
the froth. Colonel Milford laughed.
But Captain Soutter went to his quar
ters without a word.
Bessie went to the hop that night
with young Milford. Afterword, while
she and her sister and Lieutenant
Gallatin were having their supper of
crackers and cheese, Miss Bradford
told them that she was going to marry
the penniless civilian.
“But how about Captain Soutter?”
wailed Mrs. Gallatin.
“Hush! He might hear you. Oh!
I’m awfully afraid he’ll never speak
to me agflin.” And he never did.—
San Francisco Argonaut.
Do# <Jivei* Up Life to Save Ills Master.
When a man gives up his life for
another, posterity erects a monument
to his memory; but when a dog dies
that his master may live, men stop and
think, and John Walker, of Koselle,
N. J., was doing a lot of thinking Sat
urday night. He was face to face
with death, and his dog had averted
the blow.
Walker left his house early in the
morning for a stroll. His dog followed
him. He tried to drive him back.
Then master and dog started to walk
along the Jersey Central Railroad
tracks to Elizabeth.
Midway between the stations Walker
met a heavy freight train running
rapidly eastward, making enough
noise to deaden ail other sounds.
Walker stepped to the west-bound
track. His dog, which had been run
ning ahead after birds or loitering be
hind to make short and noisy excur
sions iuto the bushes, closed in on his
master when the train neared him.
Walker was careless. He never
looked behind him, and did not hear
or seethe Royal Blue Express. Brake
men on the freight train shouted warn
ings. The engineer of the express
train blew his whistle, with no avail.
It was too late to stoj), although the
engineer was trying to do so. Walker
plodded on.
When the train was nearly on top of
Walker his dog sprang at him with a
growl. Walker turned, saw the train
and stepped aside in time to avoid the
cars as they swept past him with a
roar. Not so with the dog. The pi
lot of the engine struck the' animal
and tossed him aside.
When Walker recovered his senses
he looked for liis dog. The faithful
animal lay dying, with his back ;
broken.
Walker carried his dog to the side
of the track. The brute licked his
hand, feebly wagged his tail, and died
in his master’s arms.—New York
Press.
Salmon That Jump Fifteen Feet.
The first full on the Mingan is about
three miles from the mouth. It is
forty-six feet high, in three pitches
about equal in height and with seeth
ing pools between. The spawning
beds of the salmon are on broad,
gravelly bars far up the river.' They
must surmount this fall once a year in
order to reach them. We camped on
a sandbar below the fall, aud watched
the struggle. The broad pool below
the fall was so full of these royal fish,
that their tails and dorsal fins could
constantly be seen sticking out of the
water. Every minute one or more fish
would make a rush from the depths
below, spring far into the air, every
fibre quivering, and time after time
fall back, only the most powerful and
determined occasionally succeeding in
passing the first pitch. Above that,
every nook and crevice in the rocks
where the salmon could obtain a rest
ing place, was crowded. Great mon
sters they wore, weighing from twen
ty-five to forty pounds. How .they
ever mad e the second and third pitches
I do not know, for there was not the
good starting chance that they had in
the deep hole below the first pitch.—
Frederick Irland, in Scribner’s.
Indians ami Animals in Bronze*
Indians and animals typical of
America are to be perpetuated in bronze
for the National Zoological Garden at
Washington, if the plans of certain
men of public affairs at the National
Capital are carried out. And Edward
Kemeys, the Chicago sculptor, is the
artist who is to execute the statues of
the fast disappearing red man and the
fauna of America. Congress will be
asked for an appropriation for the pur
pose, and it is expected that that body
will respond as generously for the pur
pose as it has heretofore in the beau
tifying of the great National park.
Capt. Kemeys has returned to his Bryn
Mawr residence after a six weeks’ visit
to Washington and is at work on the
project.
Are There Living Aztecs?
Dr. Saville, of Washington, read a
paper before the anthropological sec
tion of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science, in the
absence of the author, MissZelia Nut- :
tal. The author contended that the I
Aztecs are not an extinct race, but
many representatives are alive now,
men and women of magnificent phy
sique, not withered deerepits, as many
believe, who still speak the language
of Montezuma. Miss Nuttal’s paper
was startingly original and productive
of much discussion, the greater part oi
which, however, was in her favor.—
Detroit Journal.
KaiTh Not Mere Crust#
Dol'd Kelvin does not believe in the
theory that the earth consists of a thin
crust, including a liquid, lavalike mass.
If that assumption has any ground, he
cannot see how it is that the crust has
not yielded to the tidal influence as
readily as the sea, and thus caused the
globe to he pulled entirely out ol
shape. There is, he says, no reason
| whatever for believing that there is
| anything more than a very moderate
f amount of lava under the earth’s sur
i face.
INDIA’S FIERCE REBELS.
PRESENT OUTBREAK RECALLS THE
TERRORS OFTHE REVOLTOF 1857.
The Supoya Itebollml, anti tlio Massacre*
lVtu’e tlio Most KuvolUng and Urutiil
Ever Known-Tlioiirtand* of Europeans
Mere Slain by tlio Fanatical Native*.
The present rebellion m India re
calls vividly to mind the horrors of tlio
great Sepoy insurrection. British
officers who have grown gray in the
service of their country and who have
been through many hard campaigns
declare that the sufferings of the’ gar
risons in the besieged Indian cities in
1857-8 have never been equalled in
the warfare of this generation.
The spark that fired the hearts of
flie Sepoys and actually caused the
mutiny was seemingly trivial, but it
roused smouldering hatred. There
bad been many grievances for the na
tives to brood over siuoe the English
had established their dominion in
India by the conquest of Bengal in
1757—just a century before—nnd lmd
by the progressive action of continued
encroachment spread their paramount
rule over the whole country. Religious
prejudices grew bitter, nnd fanatics
were assured of victory by prophecies,
said to have been of ancient date,
foretelling the downfall of England’s
power at the end of a hundred years of
supremacy.
The old infantry musket—called the
Brown Bess—had been condemned,
and au improved firearm, with rifled
barrels, adopted in its place. Lubrica
tion of the cartridges was necessary in
loading this weapon. Intense excite
ment was caused among the Sepoys by
the spreading of the story that the new
cartridges w r ere greased with the fat of
the detested swine of the Mohammedan
and of the venerated cow of the Hindoo.
As the Sopoys bit off the ends of their
cartridges this idea was abominable to
them. The report was originally pro
mulgated in the military station of
Dum-Dum, eight miles from Calcutta.
A low caste Lascar in the canton
ment asked a high caste Sepoy for a
drink of water from his lotah. The
Brahmin refused, on the score of caste.
The Lascar tauntingly replied that
caste would soon be abolished, as Se
poys were to lie contaminated by cart
ridges smeared with beef fat and hog’s
lard.
In an incredibly short time every
Sepoy had heard about the greased
cartridges. Animosities had already
been aroused by recent government
measures to curb polygamy and re
move the restraint on remarriage of
widows. Although official denials of
the grease story were made, they
proved without effect. A native regi
ment at Berliampore refused to take
the blank ammunition provided for a
parade, asserting that the paper of the
cartridges had been greased. The*
regiment was disbanded and the great
mutiny followed. At the outset, tele
graph stations were burned, burning
arrows shot iuto the thatched roofs of
the officers’ bungalows, and calls to
natives were spread broadcast, urging
them to resist the sacrilegious en
croachments of the British.
Ho little concert and arrangement
were there that while the revolt was
general in one portion of the great,
straggling contonment and Sepoys
w ere butchering their officers, in an
other section they wore saluting them
as though nothing had happened.
Wives, left without protection w hile
their husbands were striving to do
their duty as soldiers, were cut to
pieces in their burning homes, often
after their little ones had perished be
fore their eyes. A few delicate Eng
lish ladies were led to places of safety,
with dark horse cloths over them to
conceal their white garments in the
glare of the burning station, and passed
a night of sleepless horror in a ruined
temple or under trees.
Dawn found the English bungalows
gutted and destroyed. Mangled
corpses littered the wayside. The
Sepoys had departed. More than
2000 of them had made their way to
Delhi. The bodies were collected
and laid out in the theatre, where a
mimic tragedy was to have been per
formed that evening. Many of those
who had participated in the massacre
were in the bazaars of the town, but
little effort was made to punish any
of them.
The mutineers from Meerut, aided
by the Sepoys already in Delhi, began
a massacre of the Europeans in the
Mogul’s capital. The bank was at
tacked and plundered. Mr. Beres
ford, manager of the bank, took re
fuge with his wife aud family on the
roof of one of the outbuildings. For
some time they stood at bay, he with
a sword in his hand, his courageous
helpmate with a spear. They de
fended the gorge of the staircase, until
the assailants, seeing no hope of clear
ing the passage, retired to scale the
walls in the rear of the house. It is
related by an eye-witness that one man
fell dead, pierced by the lady’s spear.
They were overpoweren and killed,
aud the bank was gutted from floor to
roof.
The revolt spread rapidly. News
was taken from station to station that
the Sepoys had conquered the Eng
lish at Meerut and proclaimed the
Mogul Emperor at Delhi. There was
desperate fighting on every side, par
ticularly in the northwest provinces.
Cawnpore fell into the hands of the
mutineers, and General Havelock
pushed on to recover this important
position. The cruelties of the Nana
Suhib aud his followers had created a
thrill of awe in the hearts of the
Europeans. Stories of plunder and
rapine came from every quarter.
Havelock found the air through which
he had to pass in towns tainted from
suspended bodies upon which the
loathsome pig of the country feasted
—all was desolation.
When the Nana Sahib heard that
Havelock was near at hand he gave
word that all his prisoners should be
killed. The men were taken out of
the jail and massacred, and the women
and children, about two hundred in
all, were butchered in their cells. The
executioners had slashed right and
left, after, in many instances, only
having wounded their victims. The
dead and those who still survived were
thrown into pits in an improvised
cemetery the next day.
Havelock took Cawnpore after a
desperate resistance. The rebels blew
up the great magazine before retreat
ing. The English in Lucknow were
then actually in great peri!, and soon
to be driven out, and Agra was be
sieged. The Punjab forts were threat
ened. There wiis a great outbreak in
Oude. Atrocities were being com
mitted everywhere. Among the many
tragedies reported was one at Mohum
dee, where the Europeans sought
safety in flight after the treasury had
been looted. All the women and
children were placed in carts and
driven away. Sepoys overtook them
and killed them while they knelt in
prayer, awaiting death.
Lucknow was the scene of one of
the great conflicts of the war. Tlio
mosques were converted into fort
resses, and sharpshooters exchanged
showers of bullets into the streets.
Alines were made by both sides, nnd
explosions shook the city. Havelock’s
force fought its ivny from Cawnpore to
Lucknow, and brought relief at about
the time of the most important event
of the war in England's favor—the cap
ture of Delhi in September, 1857, by
troops under General Archdale Wil
son.
The siege of Delhi proved very diffi
cult. After a long assault the fortified
city was occupied, after being almost
wrecked, by the British, who lost in
the last morning’s fighting more than
eleven hundred men. Reprisals were
in order, and many unarmed natives
were pierced -1 by bayonets or cloven by
sabres. The excesses were soon
stopped, however.
The King surrendered, and the
three princes of Delhi were slaught
ered in cold blood by tbeir captors.
The fall of Delhi and the captivity
of the King marked the decline of
the rebellion. The tidings were car
ried from city to city, from canton
ment to cantonment. The backbone
of the Sepoys’ struggle to throw off
the British yoke had been broken.
There was much more work done be
fore England was absolutely victorious,
but peace was restored within a year
after Delhi fell.—New Y'ork Herald.
KLONDIKE NUGGETS.
Some Facts of Special Interest About the
New Livid of (iolrf.
Here are a few specially interest
ing facts about the Klondike region
culled from a hundred compiled by
11. S. Canfield for the Chicago Times-
Herald:
All distances arc gigantic. It is
2000 miles from Sitka to Klondike.
Alaska is two and one-half times as
big as the State of Texas.
It is ns large as all the States east
of the Mississippi and north of the
Ohio, including Virginia and West
Virginia.
It has the only forest-covered gla
cier in the world.
It has the best yellow cedar in the
world.
No land contains finer spruce tim
ber.
Hay grows as high as a man’s
head.
Hardy vegetables can be raised.
Alaska has the largest river in the
world.
A man standing on the bank of the
Yukon 150 miles from its mouth can
not see the other bank.
The Yukon is twenty miles wide
700 miles from its mouth.
With its tributaries it is navigable
2500 miles.
It discharges one-third more water
than the Mississippi.
In summer all land not mountain
is swamp.
Underfoot is iceeake; overhead
twenty-two hours’ sun.
Sweat under blankets in tbe sum
mer or get rheumatism.
Snowfall in the interior is very
light—six inches or so.
Owing to dryness there is not much
suffering from cold.
A tent is as good as a house, and
cheaper.
No shelter is needed except when
the wind blows. At other times a
sleeping-bag answers all purposes. .
Exposed portions of the body freeze
in three minutes.
Talk on the icepack is heard half
a mile.
Men born in southern latitudes
have become insane in the long dark
ness.
Take a chess board and men. They
prevent dementia.
The medicine chest should hold
pills, pills, pills.
Enough library: One Bible, one
Shakespeare.
Under act of Congress communi
ties of miners can make their own
laws. No thief gets a farer trial any
where nor any prompter execution.
It will pay to wait a year or two.
It cost SIOOO now aud will cost S2OO
then.
ltii’ih of an Inland.
On .Inly 10, 1831, John Carrao, a
Sicilian sea captain, sailing in the
Mediterranean, was amazed to see a
column of water 800 feet in diameter
spout up sixty feet into the air. Soon
afterward a dense cloud of steam as
cended to the height of about 1800 feet.
Eight days later Carrao passed the spot
again, and found an island twelve feet
high where was previously 700 feet
depth of water. At this time the isl
aud was ejecting large quantities of
vapor and volcanic matter, and the sea
in the neighborhood was covered float
ing cinders and dead fish. Two
week's more aud the island was 200
feet high, and had a circumference of
three miles. Several names were
given it by marining people, and at
last three Nations claimed it. Trouble
was imminent, when the island set
tled the dispute by vanishing again.
At present the place is marked on the
maps as a shoal, but a shoal under
many fathoms of water.—Science.
The Strongest Chain.
The greatest aud strongest chain
ever made has but recently left the
Tipton Green Iron Works. It is in
tended for crane work at Chatham
wharf, and consists of oval links
forged several of 3J-inch rods, each
link being twenty inches long and
thirteen wide. Since there was no
machinery available for testing a chain
of such dimensions, the test was made
by actual suspension of a weight of
89(1,000 pounds from each link.—
Springfield (Mass.) Republican.
Unhealthy Mexican Killers.
To be a ruler iu Mexico is almost os
unhealthy a business as it was to be a
ruler of Rome in the days before the
fall of the empire. Mexico has had
fifty-five rulers since 1821. Four of
these were executed, one poisoned,
four murdered, and nine killed in bat
tle. —New York Journal.
CURIOUS FACTS.
The firm of Black & Green, paint
dealers of Sandusky, Ohio, has been
dissolved.
There is a colt in the English Derby
of 1899 named “Nemasthenipponske
iesterizo. ”
The Red Lion, an inn at Ardmore,
Penn., lias been a licensed public
house, for 100 years.
Airs. J. P. Miller, of Chicago, has
in her possession the sword which
Lord Byron carried in the war for
Grecian independence.
Blondel, the harper, did not discover
the prison of King Richard. Richard
paid his ransom, and the receipt for it
is among the Austrian archives.
Horatius never defended the bridge.
Tlio story was manufactured by tbe
same gifted author who gave the world
the account of Soaevola’s heroism.
Mrs. Nancy Baker, a cripple seven
ty-five years old, of Valley View, Ky.,
put her hand in a hen’s nest in which
she had placed twelve small chickens,
and found a live-foot snake which had
swallowed six of them. Her son killed
the snake.
H. .T. Jones, of Cincinnati, bought
a violin a few years ago for $75 and
gave it to his daughter. While it was
being repaired recently he accidentally
discovered that it v. as an instrujnent
he himself had made in 1818 ns an ex
periment and sold it for $5.
At Trier the remains of a large
Roman house have been excavated. It
faced on the main street of the old
Roman city. A richly-colored mosaic
floor and the first w inflow discovered
in a Roman building are the most in
teresting things brought to light.
A West Auburn (Ale.) man agreed
to share the blueberries in his pasture
with a neighbor and to placard the
pasture to keep others out. After the
placards were put up his neighbor
picked ball' the blueberries and told
the owner that his were on the bushes
ready to be picked.
A Caribou (Ale.) farmer grubs
stumps by building a fence around
them, poking some wheat under them
in holes made with a crowbar, and then
turning two hungry hogs loose in the
inclosure. The hogs root for the wheat
and break up the dirt so that the
stumps may be dragged out easily.
In view - of the computed seven thou
sand earthquakes within historic times,
twenty-nine of w hich destroyed nearly
one and a half millions of lives, it
is some relief to know that the shocks
are proof that the earth is alive. When
its seas and air shall have been ab
sorbed, it will lie a quiescent dead
globe like the moon.
Mary Gryan, of Nev York, was
young and pretty, but she bad an eye
to the future, and was fearful of be
coming too fat to conform to tbe usual
standard of beauty. This fear preyed
on her mind so much that she finally
became insane, and w T hile crossing the
river on a ferryboat jumped off the
deck and was drowned.
The Conquest of Diphtheria.
In a treatise on diphtheria and its
treatment by serotherapy, shortly to
be published, Dr. Charles Bichet, who
was the first to apply the serum injec
tions made famous by the work of Dr.
Roux at the Pasteur Institute, Paris,
gives some interesting statistics on the
practical results attained since the dis
covery and application of the method.
He goes back thirty years for statis
tics relative to the mortality caused by
diphtheria.
In 1867, when the population of
Paris was just half what it is now,
there were 696 deaths from the
scourge. From that year they in
creased gradually until 1872, when
they attained the number of 1135, and
did not fall again below 1000 until
after the discovery of serotherapy. In
1876 diphtheria caused 1500 deaths,
and in 1877, 2390. For three consecu
tive years then the average was over
2000 - . It fell a little afterward, but up
to 1891 the annual average ranged be
tween 1400 and 2000.
In September, 1894, the Roux
method was applied, and at once be
came widely used. For the year 1894
(only four months of which should be
counted) the deaths fell to 980. In
1895 there were but 440, and last, year
only 423. It would seem, then, that
serotherapy has reduced the mortality
in diphtheria to an average of less than
one-third of that which was main
tained for a quarter of a century.
If the statistics be examined, not
year by year, but by periods of two
weeks, the improvement is even more
marked, not only in true diphtheria,
but also in diphthcnatic affections. In
the years up to 1894, for instance,
there were never less than forty deaths
from croup in any fortnight: hut since
that year there have never been more
than six for i a like period. In short,
since the introduction of serotherapy,
even in the most unfavorable weeks,
the mortality has been invariably less
than half the average for the years
1867-94, and many times only one
tenth as great.—New York Sun.
A Great Fire-Fighter.
The New Yorker made her earliest
appearance as a fire fighter at the burn
ing of the Sound steamer “City of
Richmond” at her pier, foot of Peck
Slip, on March 7, 1891.
She was called from her berth at the
Battery and, sailing up the East River,
“opened fire” on the burning boat with
a monitor nozzle while still in mid
stream. The stream struck the boat
with terrific force, knocking the wood
work in every direction and breaking
off strong uprights aud supports os if
they had been pipestems. There were
several land companies working on the
boat at the lime, both engine and hook
and ladder, and they dropped their
hose and tools and fled in dismay at
the beginning of this liquid bombard
ment, fearing for their lives.
The Chief in command at the fire
rushed to the end of the pier aud sig
naled to the New Yorker to shut off
the stream that was creating such a
panic. For a moment the order was
misunderstood, and, thinking the
stream was wanted in another posi
tion. it was shifted. In doing so it
hit the end of the pier and almost
lifted the roof of the wharf building at
the end. Finally it was understood
on board the New Yorker that the big
stream was not wanted, six smaller
lines were substituted by her crew,
and these greatly assisted the land
forces iu getting the fire under con
trol.—St. Nicholas.
POPULAR SCIENCE.
The habits of ants are more like
those of a man than are the habits of
any other of the lower animals.
The Bethlehem (Penn.) Iron Com
pany successfully oast the tube for the
first sixteen-inch gun to be constructed
in this country. Moro than 100 gross
tons of metal were used. The casting
is nineteen feet six inches long and
seventy-four inches in diameter.
The biggest brain in existence is
that of the elephant, though not in
proportion to the size of the animal.
But the matter of proportion does not
seem to be of absolute importance as au
index of mentality. There is a little
South American monkey, which,
though not particularly intelligent, has
a brain bigger than a man’s relatively
to size.
That insects have an acute sense ol
taste is assumed from the way in
which they pick out the sort of food
they want to eat. Sir John Lubbock
made many experiments, from which
he drew the conclusion that ants have
an excellent sense of smell. The
same authority states that insects are
able to hear sounds which are entirely
beyond our range of perception.
There are 110 mountains in Colo
rado whose peaks are over 12.000 fact
above the ocean level. Forty of thesa
are higher than 11,000 feet, nnd move
than half of that number are so re
mote and rugged that no ono has
dared to attempt to climb them. Some
of them are mussed with snow, others
havo glaciers over their approaches,
and others are merely masses of. jagged
rocks.
The needle of a compass does not
point directly to the north. In the
first place, the north magnetic poie
docs not coincide with the north pole,
nnd then east or west of a zigzag line
which moves east and west the needle
of a compass points west or east of the
north magnetic pole. A ship’s com
passes have to lie corrected and the
variation determined once or twice a
year, at all events.
Within a few years the question has
been raised whether sun spots are
really depressions, or holes, in the
sun's surface, as they have generally
been considered to be by astronomers.
Professor Rieeo, of Catania, concludes
as the result of a long series of obser
vations, not only that the spots are
cavities in the sun, lint that their
depth can lie approximately measurod.
He states that the average depth of
twenty-three sun spots measured by
him was about fill) miles.
The pigment in the human skin has
; been a recent subject of investigation
i by Al. Bruel, who finds the coloring
i matter to be distributed in patches in
the interior of the epithelial cells, tho
I tissue between the cells being color
; Ipss even in black races. The pignt6i.it.
I itself may be quite black, or of any
| shade up to a light yellow. The dif
ference in the color of races depends
upon this difference in the shade of
the pigment, the distribution of the
coloring matter being the same in all
races, and the actual amount probably
the same.
Capses of firay (lair*.
Gray hairs are honorable, no doubt,
but their advent is not usually hailed
with any exuberant joy by men, and
certainly not by women, and it is curi
ous to note in going through life at
what varying ages people commence
to show the passage of years by the
change in the coior of the hair. And
vet the whitening of the hail’ docs not
always portend the approach of age,
for the hair of some individuals labor
ing under certain passic 113 has been
known to become gray in a single
night. Many reasons have been sug
gested for gray hair; some assert that,
the cause is a contraction of the skin
about the roots of it, and from this
cause suppose that Polar animals be
come white, the cold operating as the
contracting power; but this theory is
untenable, or we might all turn gray
if we happened to be exposed to par
tieularly hard frosts. Asa matter of
fact, there are fewer gray people in
Russia than in sunny Italy or Arabia.
The more likely reason is that the vi
tal power is lessened in the extreme
ramifications of those almost impercep
tible vessels destined to supply the
hair with coloring fiuid. The vessels
which secrete the fluid cease to act, or
else the absorbent vessels take, it away
faster than it is furnished. This cer
tainly appears to be feasible, for grief,
debility, fright, fever and age all lnivo
the effect of lessening the power of the
extreme vessels. Against this theory
it may be urged that if the body be
again invigorated, the vessels ought,
according to our reasoning, to again
secrete the coloring fluid, but. to this
it may be replied that the vessels which
secrete this fluid are so very minute
upon their ceasing their functions they
become obliterated and nothing x'an
ever restore them. —New York Ledger.
The Toad *u the Cellar.
“Though I was born and raised it
Massachusetts, where some of the peo
ple are much bent in their ways, and
now and then a trifle superstitious,
especially the women folks,’’remarked
a resident of Falls Church, Ya., to a
Star reporter, “I was never a believer
in such nonsense until I became a
resident of Virginia. lam not a be
liever in it now, although it does not
seem to do any harm. I moved into
anew house a couple of years ago, and
somehow things seemed to go wrong
constantly. First it was one thing,
and then it was another. 1 mentioned
the matter to an old colored auntie,
who did our laundry work, and she
told me that it was because there was
no toad frog in the cellin'. She said it
w as good luck for a uew house to have
a toad in the- cellar, anil that many
builders always left a frog in the cel
lar when they finished a house. As it
was such a simple matter to set things
right, I caucht a toad anil put it in the
cellar, and, strangely enough, things
began running all right immediately.
Wince then my cellar has never been
without a toad frog, and to that ex-,
tent I am superstitious.”—Washing
ton Star.
Lucky Three.
The popular superstition about the
“divine number three” is that it is al
ways fortunate. Asa matter of fact,
it is not. If the Fates were three, so
were the Furies. If the Graces were
three, so were the judges in hades
and the heads' of Cerberus. There
were three disloyal tribes in Welsh
history, three robbers in Orion’s belt
and three tyrants at Athens-