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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.