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Damming
vg . the Nile
As everyone knows, Egypt would be
* barren desert but for the Nile, which
not only irrigates the soil, but carries
down from the Abyssinian highlands a
e ' liment that serves all the purposes
of an excellent fertilizer. Each year
the copious rains In equatorial Africa
cause the river to rise and overflow
Its hanks. The area thus flooded and
covered with the alluvial deposit is ex
ceedingly fruitful; beyond this belt,
which covers only a narrow strip of
territory on each bank, the desert be
gins. Nothing can grow In Egypt
unless the soil has firs* been watered
and enriched by the river. Since the
Curliest times, however, these floods
hive been very Irregular. Some years
ago they attained an extraordinary
bight, and the population of the coun
try was able to gather large harvests.
In other years the tropical rains were
greatly diminished in volume and par
tial crop failures ensued. The story in
Gericiig about the seven fat years and
the seven iean years shows to what
extent the state of the Nile affected
ttie prosperity of Egypt even during
Joseph’s sojourn at the court of the
Pharaohs. The ancient inhabitants of
the valley already recognized the wis
dom of storing part of the surplusage
and otherwise regulating the discharge
of the river. Of such a character was
a like near Cairo, obviously of artifi
cial construction. In the course of
centuries these irrigation works,
which Included a well planned system
of canals, deteriorated; but since the
British occupation much has been
and ine to restore them and to build new
Otes. The most important as well as
costliest enterprise of this character i
undertaken by the British is the con
struction of a great dam across the 1
Nile above Assouan, above the first j
cataract. The dam has just been com- |
AGAINST THE
IRON SHIP
Naval officers were the most violent
opponents of iron ships, says a naval
officer, and fought their introduction in
e-'cry way possible, but the iron ship
got tho best of it in the long run. Far
ingut ami hosts of other officers re
fus'd outright to sail in an Iron ship,
and loaded down the records of the
navy with reasons why an iron ship
could not take the place of the wooden
fillip. It is interesting now toread these
old reports in view of the fact that
there are practically no wooden ships
left, They argued and proved to their
own satisfaction, too, that the Iron ship
would be too cold in winter and too
warm in the summer; that it would
‘ sweat” and give everyone who rode in
it rheumatism and dozens of other
diseases. Experience has shown every
one of the objections to lie without
foundation. The people who forced the
iron ship on the navy were lo.ndshark.-i
in every instance. They knew little
about the sea themselves, but just the
IN AA'A’JV
SEALED MINE
Chemists had a rare chance in Eng
land recently for a unique experiment
A mine which had been closed hermet
ically by an explosion near the mouth
of the shaft was opened fifteen months
after the accident. The air within the
mine had been compressed enormously
by the explosion, and for twenty-four
hours after the opening was made, it
Volleyed out with a great noise. Dur
ing this time it was possible to gather
enough of it for thorough analysis,
and it wad found that Its composition
had been altered so completely by the
explosion and the consequent sealing
of the mine that the gas that escaped
did not contain any oxygen whatever.
It consisted entirely of carbon acid gas,
firedamp and nitrogen.
Hut although it was absolutely fata!
to animal life, it possessed wonderful
powers for preserving other organic
life, as was discovered when the mine
was purified enough to permit investi-
SLAVES IN SULU.
W'Muen Ar** Sold at Bargain Counter
ltat-aft !u the Markets.
“The other day," writes Henry Hop
kias, to the Beloit, Kan., Gazette, from
one of the Sulu islands, "I was offered
two slaves for $25 in gold. They be
longed to a woman who claims to be
|i Christian. They were a boy and a
girl, ranging from 12 to 16. The boy
had on a shirt which reached to hf3
waist. The girl’s only garment was a
strip of cotton wrapped about her
waist. She stood up beside me and
just reached to my shoulder. The wo
man who owned her thought 1 wanted
to buy her and said: ’Mucho beveuo,’
Or ‘very good,’ and told me the girl wa3
worth at least $lO, and seemed surpris
ed tiiat 1 did not jump at the bargain.
1 talked to the slaves a few words in
Spanish, but could get no evidence of
their being misused. Had I bought
them they would have been mine to do
with as I saw fit. Slavery is common
tu Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago.
The Chinese merchants usually own
one or more women whom they
l> >oght. They do not marry them as
wives. The chief slave owners are the
Moros. They have the right to slaves
MODERN ENGINEERING FEAT
NEARLY COMPLETED,
. pleted and may rightly be regarded as
a great engineering feat. Not less
; than 20,000 men have been employed
lon it. By its means a natural lake
144 miles in length Is created and
about sixty-five feet of Nile water is
hacked up. to be let loose when most
needed. The dam consists of a vast
wall nearly two miles long and aver
aging sixty feet in height, with 180
openings, each of which contains
sluices. With no more pressure than
a small child can exert, these sluices
—huge masses of steel —can be open
ed or closed by means of levers. The
top of the wail is provided with para
pets and arranged as a driveway. The
foundation consists of a bed of con
i crefed rubble 100 feet wide on the
average and of corresponding depth,
cut into the granite rock. On the west
ern bank is a navigation canal
river boats. At Assouit, some 450
miles down the river, a vast supple
mental dam has been erected. Unlike
the Assouan wall, the other half has
been built on the bed of the Nile it
self. The Assouit dam is half a mile
long, has a navigation lock on the
west side and will hold from ten to
twelve feet of water. Progress on both
reservoirs has been remarkably rapid
and their combined cost has been
about 125,000,000. It is estimated that
the two dams will bring under culti
vation sufficient land to yield an an
nual revenue of $2,000,000 to the gov
ernment. When the water so penned
up is at high level only a few of the
temple phylons and some of the higher
ruins at Philae will be visible; all the
other attractions, the palms, several of
the temples, the storied walls, the
Nilometer, colonnades and Roman
quays, being submerged. Thus is arch
aeological interests sacrificed to the
utilitarian spirit.—Baltimore Herald.
Naval Officers and
Experts Who Oppos
ed Its Introduction.
same they thought it would be an im
provement on the wooden ship, and
they were right about it. The only
thing that I can compare it to was the
opposition to the elevated railroads in
New York city. Three hundred of the
physicians of the largest prae’ice In
New York city joined in a protest
against the building of the elevated
railroad. They insisted that if the ele
vated cars were run, that in lesc than
six months one-third or more of the
people living along the lines of the
elevated railroads would be driven
crazy; that the noise and the jarring
would have such an effect upon the
nerves of the people that they could
net exist. Hundreds of famous naval
surgeons and hundreds not so famous
are on record the same way against
the iron ship. The long list of dis
eases that were to follow their intro
duction have not yet materialized, and
the iron ship persistently refuses to
“sweat” in the terrible way that wag
predicted for it.
Preservative Quality
of Air With All
Oxygen Excluded.
gation. x\ll the provisions which had
been left behind by the miners were
found in thoroughly good condition.
The bread was dry, but thoroughly
sweet and as edible as biscuit. Bacon
was found in as good and pure a con
dition as if it had been freshly cut,
and, most curious of all, the water in
the water barrels was not only sweet
and gix)d, but it had not evaporated
at all, A large quantity of corumeal
had been sent down just before the
explosion to be mixed with the drink
ing water. This was just as goo', as
it had been fifteen months before.
The feed for the mules was perfect and
the animals ate it with relish.
The steel rails, the tools and all oth
er metal work in the mines was entire
ly free from rust. Wire cables and
machinery were as bright as if they
had been polished. There was not a
trace of mildew on clothing or har
ness. and the woodwork showed no
signs of deterioration.
j by their religion. According to Moro
| law, father has a right to sell his
| children; he can sell his wife and, If
; lie gets into debt, he can sell himself
to pay it. I have seen girls sold for
one sack of rice, 100 pounds. I have
known of soldiers buying girls and
giving them their liberty. Not long
since a femaleslave connected with the
sultan’s household fell in love with one
of his warriors. She was neither wife
nor concubine, but servant, and the
warrior asked his majesty that she be
given as his wife. The sultan refused
and the two ran away and got married.
They were brought back and the sul
tan said the man must die. The girl
threw herself at the feet of the sultan
and begged that she be allowed to die
with her lover. The sultan consented
and the same campilan sliced off two
heads."
Remarkable Feat of Memory.
One of the most .notable feats of
memory recorded in the past century
was that of Col. Chorretie, an English
sportsman. The well known English
man once learned by heart, for a bet.
the whole of the Ixmdon Morning
Post of a particular day, and repeated
every word of it, Including the adver
tisements. —.
THE WEEKLY NEWS, CARTERSVTLLE, OA.
HON. WM. H. TAFT.
NAMED FIRST AMERICAN GOV
ERNOR OF THE PHILIPPINES.
Kketrh of III* Life at Bar anr! on tle
Bench —Wad Born at Cincinnati In
1847 —A liltf Tank Is Before Him—Left
Life Position to Go to Philippines*
Congress having given President
McKinley full authority—military,civil
and judicial—in the Philippines, it is
genorally understood that his next
move will be to appoint Judge William
H. Taft, now president of the Philip
pine Commission, as governor to rule
over the entire Philippine archipelago
in the name of the United States.
Judge Taft’s (ask will be a difficult
one. He will have to see that the
civil laws of the government agreed
upon are enforced, and enforced in
such a way that a free people will
have no cause for complaint. His ac-
WILLIAM H. TAFT,
cession to power will be an opportun
ity to prove whether a man educated
for tbe law will make as good a gov
ernor under these circumstances as
one whose life has been spent among
business pursuits. This quesuon has
become a mooted one, and the ap
pointment of Judge Taft, which has al
ready been informally announced, is
likely to provoke a storm of discus
sion. Just at present the conditions
governing the islands are not such as
to make the formal inauguration of a
civil government for the entire archi
pelago under a governor resident at
Manila advisable, but Judge Taft has
notified the authorities at Washington
that within a month the desired state
will have been reached and that prepa
rations with this date in view had
best be made. Judge Taft will by no
means be left to achieve his instruc
tions by purely moral force. Gen.
Chaffee is to succeed MacArthur In
command of the military forces, and
these will always be at the governor’s
service to assist in the maintenance of
law and order. It is not likely that
there will be any material reduction in
the military forces in the islands for
at least a year.
Judge Taft is a son of Alonzo Taft,
who was minister to Russia under
President Grant, and for a time attor
ney general. He was born in Cincin
nati in 1857 and graduated from Yale.
He has filled the positions of assistant
prosecuting attorney for Cincinnati;
internal revenue collector; judge of the
Supreme Court of Cincinnati; solicitor
general in the Department of Justice
at Washington; judge of the United
States Circuit Court of Ohio—a life
position which he resigned to accept
the presidency of th’ Philippine com
mission about fifteen months ago.
AN OPTIMISTIC OUTLOOK.
An Optimum Habitually Expects Good
Thing* In Future.
It Is an interesting fact, says the
London Spectator, that while almoat
all the literature of today is pessimist
in tone, the mass of political and social
speculation is decidedly optimist—at
least if we take the word in its modern
meaning, for it has suffered within the
last half-century a curious and highly
suggestive change. Fifty years ago
an optimist was a man who, looking
upon the things immediately around
him, held them to be good, while to
day the optimist is the man who habit
ually expects good things in the fu
*ure - • . • In its new sense the ma
jority, in this country at all events,
are now optimists. The laudator tem
poris acti, once the bugbear of the
thoughtful, has almost disappeared.
The man who used to play that part
let us say the old Tory squire with a
good income and a long pedigree, is
now a contented being who. except
when discussing family pretensions,
looks backward very little, and is only
doubtful about the future because he
is not quite sure whether he will con
tinue to feel so entirely comfortable.
The world as it is exactly suits him,
and he believes in the past as little as
in the future. The majority go a step
farther, and not leading quite such
podded lives, ignore the past altogeth
er, and people the future with bright
though rather nebulous imaginings
Education will make us all j
bright, will “mollify manners and not i
suffer them to be fierce,” vHJ abolish
drinking, and will make mankind so |
unselfish that poverty in its more '
painful forms will become like re- I
ligious persecution, and evil, er rather j
shadowy, memory of the past which
quite amazes London when it reap- !
pears in China. There are countless !
people who really and sincerely believe
thees things, just as Mr. Hall Caine
does, who in a recent lecture in the
island which he has made his inteilec- I
tual fief repeated them all and many 1
more, one being that all race preju- !
dices will die because they will b
“confessions of our ignoranco of life.**
We are unable unfortunately, to place
on Mr. Hall Caine as a novelist the
value which he places on himself, and
which his multitudinous readers place
on him, holding, doubtless from pre
judice, that his popularity, like that of
Marie Corelli, is one more proof of the
defective literary judgement of the
crowd; but we do not question his sin
cerity, and in this lecture he certainly
gave voice to the nebulous belief of
innumerable men, one which inspires
most journals, and in one shape or an
other serves as mental food for whole
divisions of the vast army of philan
thropists. He is fortunate in so
pleasant a creed, more especially as he
is able to fix hLs period with greater
accuracy than any interpreter of Dan
iel, and, so to speak, knows that it will
begin; but we should like to know, as
a purely intellectual relief, on what
that creed is based.
AN ANCIENT LIBRARY.
I No Document in It Leas Than 4,100
Year* Old.
A library, no document of which is
less than four thousand one hundred
years old, has been discovered by
Prof. H. V. Hilprecht of the University
of Pennsylvania. He has been explor
ing the mounds of ancient Nippur, in
Mesopotamia, and has lately returned
home. His journey across Europe was
interrupted at many points for the
bestowal of honors. Professor Hil
preeht has been at this work for eleven
years, but the labors of the last year
have been more successful than those
of aii the previous ten. The library
tablets throw light on the history of
a people living at this center of popu
lation in very remote times. The study
of the tablets is likely to be of much
interest for their bearing upon ques
tions of Biblical chronology. “The
chief point to be remarked,’’ says Pro
fessor Hilprecht, “is that we have
found the first Babylonian temple li
brary that has ever been discovered.
Hitherto we have possessed nothing
more than the knowledge of the prob
able contents of such a library from
copies found in the royal library of
Asurbanipal, in Nineveh. This royal
library, however, wa3 a compilation
of documents from all over Babylonia.
In the library which we have unearth
ed this year at Nippur we get for the
first time an insight into the arrange
ment of the libraries of that early day,
and a knowledge of the literature of
the period. Of special importance is
the fact that we have not only discov
ered a Babylonian temple library, but
that it proves to be the most influential
and important as well as the oldest in
the whole country- No document Is
younger than 2200 B. C. So far only
one wing of the library has been ex
cavated. Nearly eighteen thousand
documents have been rescued from the
ruins this year. The size of these in
scribed clay tablets varies from one
by two inches to one by one and a half
feet. Unfortunately for the decipher
ing of the writing, they were made of
unbaked clay, and therefore suffered
considerably from the collapse of the
building and the humidity of the
ground. But we have all the frag
ments. The records from Nippur are
now on their way to Constantinople,
where they will arrive in the course
of six months. The conditions at
Constantinople make it impossible for
me to say when they will arrive here."
AN INDIAN SAILOR.
To the United States cruiser Atlanta
belongs the distinction of having, in
CHAPMAN SHENANDOAH,
its crew, the only American Indian in
the navy. He is Chapman Sehenandoah,
an Oneida, and was born 29 years ago.
He is the grandson of Sehenandoah.
The Deer, who in his day was one of
the most notable men of his tribe. At
the age of 18 Sehenandoah could neith
er read nor write. Later he became a
student at Hampton Institute, and af
ter seven years of work was graduated
but remained at Hampton a* an as
sistant In the machine shop.
When the war with Spain broke out
he enlisted in the navy ...nd served at
first as a fireman on the San Francisco
and later on the New York under Capt.
Chadwick. He was mustered out of
the volunteer service when the war was
over but re-enlisted at once and was
assigned to the Atlanta, on which ves
sel he is at present. The Indian sailor
if described as a fine stalwart fellow of
whom his tribesmen have good cause
to feel proud.
Editor’* Rural Trtephoon Sy*:<>iu.
A Missouri editor has had erected,
equipped and connected with his print
ing office an exSertsive system of tele
phone lines, going not only to near-by j
towns, hut also to numerous farm- j
houses. His original object was solely |
to gain news more easily for his paper. |
Ihe enterprise has developed until
now he has an extensive rural tele- I
phone system.
Photograph
of Mars
The question of the inhabitation of
Mars has been discussed with more or
less seriousness since astronomers be
gan to study the planet with scientific
instruments. Mars has especial inter
est for the astronomer. It is the near
est of the superior planets; its orbit
being next outside that of the earth,
and the fourth in order of distance
from the sun. There is no planet
which can be studied under such fav
orable circumstances as Mars, for,
though Venus in inferior conjunction
is nearer than Mars in opposition—
that is, at the greatest distance, but
on the same meridian—yet Venus then
turns her harkened hemisphere toward
the earth.
Canals of Mars,
In 1877 Schiaparilii, at Milan,
thougnt that he detected a network of
fine lines, which he called canals, pass
ing over the equatorial regions of the
planet, lheir nature is still an open
question. As they must be at least
sixty miles wide, the term "canals”
seems a misnomer. Observation shows
that there are regions of polar snows
and seasons corresponding in some
measure to those on the earth.
The accompanying Illustration Is a
reproduction of one of the drawings
made by Professors Lowell and Doug
THE PLANET MARS.
(Drawn from a Photograph.)
lsss at Flagstaff, Ariz., during a pe
riod in which Mars was in opposition
to the earth. Professor Krashear of
Allegheny observatory, whose instru
ment was used in taking the photo
graphs, thus describes the picture, and
adds comments on Mars:
“You see that the north polar cap of
Mars is shown at the bottom of the
picture and the south pole at the top.
This is the way it appears in the as
tronomical telescope. In the observa
tions made by Lowell and Douglass it
was found that the supposed snow
which covers the south pole of Mars
comes down during the winter of Mars
as far as the lattitude of New York
upon the earth.
NAPOLEON’S SON
The popularity of Rostand’s play of
L’Aiglon, In which Sarah Bernhardt
and Maud Adams have this year ad-
THE DUKE OF REICHSTADT,
ded to their reputations, has revived
interest in the young man to whom
the sobriquet of L’Aiglon (The Eaglet) I
K*wark' Thirteen Club.
In its new "tomb room” which is
adorned with a draped coffin, skull,
cross-bones and other decorations of
like character, Newark’s new Thirteen
club held its first meeting one night
recently at 8:13 o’clock. Asa pre
liminary to the meeting a mir
ror that hung on the wall was shat
tered by a member of the club, and by
other acts variously deeply-rooted su
perstitions were defied. The dues are
13 cents a week, and for absence from
REPRODUCED for
INSPECTION of THr
PUBLIC. "**
“Probably the most interesting
ject on this side of Mars i s the Li
La0,,,, or Lako the Sn ’.' ™ ®*
the oval spot a little above the '
Its largest diameter is 540 miles Z
wnh fine telescope ‘seeing’ there are
two lines, similar to the so-called M
nals that divide this region Into f on .
nearly equal parts, it i 8 very douM
ful if this so-called lake is a lakeni
water. One of the so-called cW
canals may be seen stretching from th!
Solus Lacus to the great sea, call
Erythraeum, while others radiate
various directions. “
Double Canal*.
“Two other double canals are se° n
on the lower left of the picture and
many of the single canals may be seen
scattered over the body of the planet
At the intersection of the various
canals you will see a number of round
spots, varying from a few miles to
over 100 miles in diameter. These
are called oases by Professor Lowell,
who thinks that what we see in those
oases and along the canals is vegeta
tion that comes from this wonderful
system of irrigation.
Wonderful Object*.
“It must be confessed, however, that
while there are wonderful objects seen
upon our neighbor planet there is
much yet to be learned. We know
that there is a white substance resem
bling snow that covers the polar cap
in the long winter of Mars, and which
almost disappears in the summer. If
this is snow' as we have it on earth,
then we may understand why the so
called canals form and are more plain
ly to be seen after the snow has melt
ed. Then, too, the vegetation becomes
more luxuriant during the summer.
“Mars certainly has clouds and some
times snowstorms. It is barely possi
ble that the temperature and atmos
pheric conditions, as they appear to
exist, may ereate a snow of solid car
bonic acid rather than of frozen
water.”
was applied. He was the only son of
Napoleon, and his birth March 20, 1811,
was hailed with great joy throughout
the empire, to which no foreboding of
impending disaster had yet come, and
which regarded the little “King of
Rome’’ as its future ruler. To Napo
leon the heir brought great pleasure
and often when the cares of state were
pressing most heavily upon him, he
would pick up the boy and holding him
before a looking glass would make all
sorts of grimaces to induce the child to
laugh.
After his father’s exile the little fel
low was taken to Austria by his mother
and there grew up as an insignificant
prince under the title of the Duke of
Reichstadt. He waa given an estate
valued at half a million francs. About
1830 it was proposed by certain revo
lutionists to restore the Bonapartlsts
to power and a movement was set on
foot to proclaim Napoleon’s son as Em
peror, under the title of Napoleon II-
But the influence of Metternich was
used against the boy and the pl aa
failed. He died at the palace
Schonnbrunn in Austria July 12, 1832.
in the same room and on the same bed
oil which his father had reposed the
night after his great victory over Aus
tria. He is buried in Vienna, between
his mother and the unfortunate Em*
peror Maximilian of Mexico.
the meeting a member must pay a fine
of 13 cents. When there is a sufficient
surplus in the treasury 13 theater
tickets are to be bought on the 13th of
the month, at the 13th minute after the
hour, in the 13th row of the auditori
um. On the 13th of every month the
club w'ill indulge in some special so
cial affair.
The moment a man can really do
his work he becomes speechless about
it. All words become idle to him, all
theories. —Ruskin.