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BOW IT IS RESTORED BY THE
GOVERNMENT.
Ingenious Identification of Partially
Destroyed Bills — Uncle Sam’s
Big Profit — Fractional Cur
rency Held by Collectors.
The parlor stove is a considerable source
of income to the United States Treasury,
though the contributors to the fund ac
cumulated by its means are invariably
most unwilling ones. Of all ways of
hoarding paper money, nono appears to
be in such universal favor as that of hid
ing it nway in nn unused sitting-room
stove during the summer time. When
the lire is lighted in the autumn, the cash
goes up in smoke, and then the owner
makes application to have the ashes re
deemed. The chief of the redemption
division said yesterday that not less than
100 cases were submitted to him every
fall. Sometimes the remains are not too
far consumed for identification, but as a
rule this method of destroying money is
found to be singularly effective aud hope
less. There was received yesterday nt
the Treasury §120, in the shape of a small
quantity of ashes packed in a thimble,
from Texas. The woman who owned
the §120 had drawn the sum from a bank
and deposited it in a stove for safer keep
ing, with the usual result. Unfortunately
the ashes were indistinguishable from
any other ashes, and so she will lose the
amount.
It is a most interesting fact that nearly
all the paper money destroyed by acci
dent meets its fate on the rail. When
ever a railway disaster occurs, fire usu
ally ensues and the express car is burned.
Now, an express car almost invariably
carries a safe with more or less money in
it, among other valuables. The safe, un
less it is one for transporting Govern
ment money, is apt to be of the portable
kind and not fire-proof. Thus it is nn
almost everyday occurrence for one of
these safes to arrive at the Treasury here
with half its cash contents in the shape
of more or less hopeless ashes.
You would be astonished to see how
little in the way of remains is required,
when passed under the hands of the
Treasury experts, to procure identifica
tion aud redemption of burned paper
money. A few bits, so hopelessly charred
as to seem to the ordinary eye but a
small accumulation of ashes, may be re
deemed for thousands of dollars in bright
new bills at the paying teller’s desk. All
that is required is sufficient evidence
that the originals of the notes have been
really destroyed. Morsels no bigger than
your finger-nail are every day redeemed
for the face value of the bills they repre
sent. As to this it is largely a matter of
chance; if the morsel were merely a cor
ner it would not be likely to suffice for
the identification of the note. Suppos
ing the case is that of a bank note, it is
absolutely essential that the bank should
be determined, else payment cannot be
made. But let the bit presented show
the name of the bank, its number, or
even a portion of one of the officers’ sig
natures, aud it goes. Until very recent
ly portions of old notes sent in have'
been redeemed on the discount principle,
nine-tenths of a $10 bill bringing §9,
and so on, but now the law insists that
the smallest portion is redeemable at full
face value, if only it is accompanied by
satisfactory affidavits as to the loss of the
remainder. Some few attempts have
been made to swindle the Treasury in
this way by false affidavits, but the De
partment believes that it has always dis
covered them.
|f- Uncle Sam has made a good deal of
money by his paper cash that has been
accidentally destroyed. Of course,
every penny of it that is not handed in
at the Treasury for redemption is so
much in his pocket. In this way he has
found his issues of fractional currency
most profitable. These small notes—
for 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents and 50
cents—were easily lost and destroyed,
especially during war times. The first
issue was made in 1863, and of the 5-
eent notes then put forth, nearly one-
half—more than forty-five per cent., ac
curately speaking—havo never been
asked payment for. The same thing is
true of 30 per cent, of the 10-cent notes,
20 per cent, of the 10-cent notes, 20 per
cent, of the 25-cent notes, and 11 per
cent, of 50-cent notes. It is shown by
the figured Treasury total that of the
$20,000,000 worth of these little notes
first issued, more than $4,000,000 still
’remains in the clothes of the Govern
ment. There were four more subsequent
issues of fractional currency—some of
their output in 3 and 15 cent notes—ag
gregating $447,000,000, and of this
lump sum more than $11,000,000 has
not been called for. This leaves Uncle
6am “on velvet” to the extent of $15,-
000,000 so far as his fractional notes are
concerned. In other words, he seems to
have made about that amount of money
clear on the fire issues.
(?- Now, what has become of all this
Email change? In 1879 a Treasury Com
mission, not appointed by law in any
proper form, made up its mind that
$8,000^000 had been lost or destroyed,
and Congress accordingly turned that
amount, out of $10,000,000 originally
appropriated for the redemption of the
fractional notes, over for the payment of
pensions. Since then three experts in
|tho Department, making their calcula-
,tions independently—one of them Ac
countant Lenz, of the National Banking
Division—have arrived approximately at
| the same conclusions, that not more than
,$1,000,000 of the fractional currency has
| been destroyed or lost, and that $14,-
000,000 yet remains outstanding. Ac
cording to their estimate, this great sura
[is at present entirely in the hands of col
lectors, large and small. It requires
nearly $3,000,000 of each fractional issue
to satisfy their appetite for curiosities.
Not merely do dealers hold considerable
stock of these notes, but nearly every
private individual has one or more of
them just for fun.
■ As for the gain of the Government on
its notes of largo denominations through
their loss or destruction, the Treasury is
only able to make a guess, estimating it
at considerably less than one per cent.
While the discounting of paper currency,
by paying proportionately for fractions
of bills, was legal, the Treasury cleared
$850,000 through the industry._ A good
deal of money in paper is hoarded by
persons who die without revealing its
whereabouts, and much of it is never
found. Bums in this shape are often
dug up on the persons of corpses ex
humed for other purposes. Only the
other day the body of a murdered man
was discovered in the woods near an
Ohio town, badly decomposed, and with
.• Docketbook filled with greenbacks.
The latter were sent to the Treuw#,
here for redemption, which did no$
prove in this instance a pleasant task.—
Boston Transcript.'
Fatal Insect Bites.
“If all tho reports aro true, Philadel
phia has moro poisonous insects than all
tho rest of tho country put together,”
said Dr. TV. E. Laraont, of Alleghany,
Penn., to me at tho Gladstone. “Every
little while one reads in the local papers
there of strange deaths and offccls of
bites. Tho latest one is that of an ‘elec
tric bug’—at least that is what tho papers
call it. The bug or beetle dropped from
an electric light wire on a little girl’s
neck and stung her. She seemed to re
ceive an electric shock. Numerous erup
tions have appeared on her body, due to
blood poisoning, and all of these seem to
be charged with electricity, aud give the
peculiar sensation felt from a light bat
tery to those who touch them.
“Then, some time ago, two deaths
were clirouiclcd from tho into of a pe
culiar green caterpillar, and in still an
other caso from a spider's bite. All these
cases were detailed by the mo3t conserva
tive papers, and have led to tho ques
tions: ‘Are American insects growing
more venomous? Is the human system
becoming less ablo to withstand their
bite?’
“Now I have studied insects aud their
poisons for years, and I think I can safely
say there is no dangerously poison insect
in this country. In these cases I am con
vinced the real cause of death was not
the one given.
“In this latest case the ‘electric bug’
is said to have been a peculiar beetle im
ported at the time of the Centennial Ex
position. Tropical insects aro more
poisonous than Northern ones, but I
doubt if such would have survived until
now. Blood poisoning might follow the
bite of any insect, not from the natural
poison, but by the communication of
poison carried from dead or putrefying
matter.
“The effect of an insect bite depends
much upon the person bitten. On some
even a mosquito bite causes a swelling,
aud becomes quite painful. On others it
has little or no effect. It is the same with
the bite of other insects. But as I have
said, we have in the whole range of na
tive inseetivora none that is dangerously
poisonous of itself. On a person in normal
health they would have little or no ef
fect.
“The most poisonous are the bees, and
there is scarcely a person, unless it be in
the large cities, who has not been stung
by them. They are painful, and secrete
a powerful irritating poison, although no
one could call it a dangerous one.”—New
York Star.
Rowing and Bailing for Life.
It was on the occasion of an important
local anniversary in a small Holland
village, says the Philadelphia Times,and
in order to prepare for it Sepp, the only
boniface in the place, took his assistant
and with a batteau started across the
river to secure a cask of wine. They
went around to the various wine firms
and after sampling the goods extensively,
a barrel purchase was finally made. In
order that no time should be lost, tho
barrrel was carried t* the river side and
loaded on tho boat. The night had come
on during their stay and though the
wind was rather high it was pleasant and
moonlight. The assistant rowed, while
Sepp sat behind the cask and steered.
Occasionally a wave would dash over the
low-sunk sides of the frail bark, but
neither of its occupants took any notice
of it, until finally the steerman, with
terror in every'note, cried out:
“For heaven’s sake, Michael, row for
your life. The batteau is leaking. The
water is already above my shoes.”
Michael's hat almost rose on the tpp
of his hair with dread as he bent to tho
oars. Meanwhile Sepp dragged an old
can from the stern and began bailing
with all his might. Do what he would,
however, the danger seemed to increase
and it was a welcome sight to see the
village wharf and several people bearing
lights upon it, who had been brought
there by frantic yells for help.
Willing hands lifted the tired master
and man from the imperiled boat and
then drrgged up the barrel, an astonish
ingly easy task.
For it was discovered that the water
Sepp had been bailiug from the supposed
sinking batteau was the contents of the
wine barrel, the bung having fallen out
jn transit.
A Check on Sneezing and Coughing.
Dr. Brown-Sequard, in one of hts lec
tures, with reference to a check on sneez
ing, coughing, etc., says: “Coughing
can bo stopped by pressing on the nerves
on the lips in the neighborhood of the
nose. Sneezing may be stopped by the
saiqc mechanism. Pressing in the neigh
borhood of the car, right in front of the
enr, may stop coughing. It is so also of
hiccoughing, but much less so than for
sneezing or coughing. Pressing very
hard on the top of the mouth is also a
means of stopping coughing, and many
say the will has immense power. There
are many other affections associated with
breathing which can be stopped by the
same mechanism that stops the heart’s
action. In spasm of the glottis, which
is a terrible thing in children, and also
in whooping cough, it is possible to af
ford.relief by throwing cold water on the
feet,’ or by tickling the soles of the feet,
which produces laughter, and at the same
time goes to the matter that is producing
the spasm, and arrests it almost at once.
I would not say that we can always pre
vent cough by our will; but in many in
stances these things are possible, And if
you remember that in bronchitis and
pneumonia, or any acute affection of the
lungs, hacking or coughing greatly in
creases the trouble at times, you can
easily see how important it is for the
patient to try to avoid coughing as best
he can.—New Orleans Picayune.
TORTURE THAT WOULD KIEL
WHITE MEN.
Driven by a Dead Mail.
A singularly pathetic incident occurred
recently on the high road between Can
terbury aud Dover, in England. The
night was intensely cold, and the snow
lay thick and hard on the frozen earth,
but the driver of the mail cart set out
from Canterbury as usual. At the several
stopping places it was noticed by the peo
ple who received the mail that the driver
had not his usual cheery word of greet
ing for them, but sat still and silent on
his box. His conduct was attributed to
ill humor, although he was not surly in
his general demeanor. On the arrival of
the mail cart at the Dover postoffice it
was discovered that the man was dead,
and frozen stiff in his seat. The horse
had made aU his accustomed halts, while
the reins were held in the dead man’s
grasp.— Washington Star.
Tho Initiation of tho Warrior aPor-
Tormanco That Ends Fatally in
One Caso Out of Four—
Au Indian Funeral.
When a Sioux youth arrives at man’s
estate ho has the choice of being a woman-
man—tho w’ord “squaw” is unknown to
tho Sioux—or of proving by tho tortures
of the sun dance that ho is fitted to bo
a warrior. If he prefers to be a woman-
man ho will not bo ill-treated or even
scoffed at. Ho will become a household
slave, as the women are, and employed
like them, ns a hewer of wood and
drawer of water to the men of the tribe.
Ho must dress like the women, and
liko them bo left at home when tho
braves go hunting or to battle. In fact,
this treatment is such a matter of course
that a stranger might visit a camp and
encounter any number of these persons
and have no reason to suppose that they
were other than women.
With tho young mail who does not
Bhrink from the suu-dancc it is a different
affair. His chances of dying under it
are considerable. The deaths, when all
the forms are rigidly complied with,can
not be less than one in four. Few white
men could survive, but the toughened
constitution of the Indian holds up
marvelously when every nerve must be
in agony. It was in a Sioux camp on a
bluff pear the Missouri River that I wit
nessed the sun-dance. In a “tepee,” or
tent* of buffalo skin, four or five braves
were dancing slowly and deliberately,
around the centre pole, keeping up a
monotonous chant. I noticed that each
of them was attached to the pole by long
strings of buffalo hide. In one or two
cases the strings were connected with
the breast; in tho othor cases with tho
back. The muscular tissue, if the
fastening was at tho front, had been
gathered by the grasp of the hand, and a,
knife run through it. Then tho tough
string of buffalo rawhide was passed
through the opening and connected with
tho pole. If the fastening was at the
back, the process was similar. The pain
thus occasioned to the victim may bo
imagined. He must not only endure
without a sigh or a groan, but must
forthwith proceed to dance, aud keep up
the dancing without food, for days if
requisite, until the friction of the raw-
hide severs the muscles and releases tho
captive a full-fledged brave.
Ho is then immediately fed a rich soup
prepared for the occasion, nfid every care
and attention that Indians know is be
stowed upon his recovery. The young
man may be released from torture at any
time by asking. In that case he i3
doomed to be a woman-man, just as if
he had never offered himself as a candi
date. Those whom the writer saw per
sisted to the last, one of them, however,
dying at the pole. Tho body was re
moved without comment to the tepee' in
which the youth had lived. Every now
and then one of the dancers would give
an extra tug in order to hasten the break,
but as a rule they all kept up a round as
monotonous as their song. The fathers
of the young men sat or stood about, en
couraging them by their glances, but not
by words. One old chief, Two Bears,
bore the scars of a dozen battles. His
son was at the pole, the picture of his
parent in physique, aud evidently bent
upon showing that parent that he was
worthy to bo a warrior. There was not
only an indifference, but a conscious
pride in his movements as he circled
about, and when at length tho muscles
parted and he was released the old chief
gave tho first and only sign of his feel
ings in a gratified “ugh?”
That such men should grow up to be
warriors is not strange.
| On one occasion, near Rice, Dak., I
witnessed an Indian funeral dance. Tho
brave, a man of influence in tho tribe,
and who carried on his left hand tho
scar of a fearful wound, said to have
been received at Fort Phil Kearny, was
laid out stiff and stark in the tepee in
which ho died. The women, just as
Christian women do, washed the corpse,
nnd then dressed him in all his orna
ments. A red blanket was wrapped
about him, and a bow and quiverful of
arrows were added to the equipment of
death. Then tho body was carried on
his favorite pony, led by a woman, to the
place of rest. On four poles with
crotches, freshly driven into tho ground,
a platform of sticks was laid at a height
of about ten feet. On this platform the
body reposed, as if thiS warrior was
asleep in his blanket, with his bow and
quiver beside him. Then the living
braves circled about the scaffold with a
slow, sorrowful motion, uttering a song
or plaint. They made three or four
rounds; then, silently mounting their
ponies, thhy returned to camp, leaving
their dead comrade to the company of
the birds of heaven. In the dry air of
Dakota the body becomes rapidly desic
cated, and one can be in the neighbor
hood of scores of these burial scaffolds
without noticing anything offensive. It
is also a singular fact that the carrion
birds seldom look for febd among the
bodies thus exposed. The motive for
disposing of remains in this way proba
bly is to save them from the wolves,
which would scratch up a grave. Bodies
are sometimes high up in the branches
of trees, and it used to be no unusual
thing in tho river bottoms of the Mis
souri to come across a departed warrior
thus disposed of.—New York World.
The Most Popular Russian.
One of tho most popular men in
Russia, fast outstripping Count Tolstoi
for the premier place, writes our St.
Petersburg correspondent, and on the
high road to canonization, is Father
Ivan, of Cronstadt. During the last
three weeks at least three different
booklets have been published giving an
account of his life and doings, and these
find a ready sale, for his deeds have been
told, by rumor, throughout the empire
and exaggerated till they havo reached
marvelous proportions. It is popularly
believed that his prayer can cure the
sick. He never touches those for whom
he prays and makes not the slightest
claim himself to the possession of occult
powers. He was born in 1829 in tho
Government of Archangel, in the far
north, and was settled in Cronstadt
thirty-five years ago. His reputation has
therefore been a thing of slow growth,
for it is only during the last few years
that those outside his own parish have
heard of his good deeds; but now every
one in Russia talks of him as much as tho
world now talks of Dr. Koch.—London
Newt.
A Worn-Lit Sea.
During the whole of the pazt Tear,
as well as the last five months of 18(39,
the whole of the seo of Venice has beea
as one vast expanse of phosphorescent
waves whenever lashed to oven the slight
est oxtont by the Winds. Formerly this
luminous appearance had been noticed
only at intervals of about ton or fifteen
years, then only from tho beginning of
summer until about tho end of harvest,
and in places abounding with sea grass.
Now everything seems changed, tho
whole surface of the sea or gulf appear
ing as a sea of pale white firo as soon as
dnrkness sets in ou a windy night. In
calm nooks, the mere drawing of a stick
or cane back aud forth through the watoi
is sufficient to give tho effect of nn elec
tric flash, the tight dying out nnd again
returning with tho ebullitions of the
water. A flask filled with water emits
no light until shaken violently; tho in
troduction of a lend pencil or small stick,
however, will enuso tho fluid to glow
with greater intensity than any amount
of shaking on the part of tho experi
menter.
Strained through a fine cloth, tho water
loses all of its peculiar properties, they
having been imparted to tho cloth,
which now flickers nnd glows all over
the entire surface liko tho spot where a
damp match has been scratched in the
dark. After the last mentioned peculi
arity was noticed, scientists made exami
nations of cloths used in such operations
and were rewarded for their pains by the
discovery of tho light giving midge, a
miuuto worm or maggot, scarcely tho
one-seven-huudredth of au Inch in length,
each bow-sh aped and very lively.
Eich of these little creatures is pro
vided with twenty-two mammilre instead
of feet, eleven on each side, aud has
eleven luminous rings around his tiny
body. Persons living on the shores of
the gulf say that when the waters sparkle
moro than Usual it is a sure sign of a
storm.—New York Journal.
He Clubs His Game.
A young Englishman named David,
who lives at Adamstown, is believed by
his friends to be the champion bird killer
and rabbit catcher in Pennsylvania. And
yet ho never uses a gun. During tho
partridge season just closed David ex
celled his record and supplied his friends
on all hands with the choicest birds.
His weapon is a club, three and one-half
feet long, and from one to two inches
thick. Armed with five of these and
accompanied by his English bull dog, he
will haunt the woods from morning to
night without food or drink. His well-
trained dog stands the birds, and David,
with unerring aim, dispatches them with
his club. He seldom misses. On one
occasion he killed seven partridges with
one fling of his club. He also takes
them on the wing with neatness and dis
patch, and has been known in this way
to kill two at a thirty yard throw. His
skill is comparable to that of the David
who slew Goliath, the Philistine giant.
As a rabbit catcher his equal is unknown.
Probably his most wonderful feat in cap
turing the bunnies was done a few days
ago. He got on top of a large rock in
the woods with fishing rod and line.
Baiting the hook with a piece of apple
ho dangled it down among the bushc3.
In a few minutes ho landed a rabbit
whose weight was five pounds and three
ounces. “I have no use,” he says, “for
powder or shot or the time-honored rab
bit snare.”—Chicago Herald.
Smallest Force Generators on Record.
The smallest engine we have any
record of is that made by D. A. Buck,
of Waterbury, Conn. Tho engine,boiler,
governor and pumps all stand on a space
7-16 of an inch square and are about $
of an inch high. The engine has 148
distinct parts, held together by fifty-
two screws. Three drops of water fills
the boiler to overflowing. The diameter
of the cylinder is 1-26 of an inch, tho
length of stroke 3-32 of an inch. The
whole engine weighs but three grains,
not including base-plate.
Levi Taylor, an ingenious mechauic of
Indianola, Iowa, has constructed an en
gine almost equal to the Waterbury won
der. This pygmy was on exhibiton at
the Centennial at Philadelphia, in 1876.
It is built on a twenty-five cent gold
piece, the whole outfit weighing but a
fraction oyer three grains.
It must have been quite a contrast to
the enormous Corliss engine when on ex
hibition in the same building. Taylor’s
engiue, while not us small at that made
by the Waterbury mechanic, is a wonder
that will be better appreciated when the
reader is informed that it would take 146
such engines to Weigh one ounce avoir-
dunois.—New York Journal.
Remains of an Ancient Animal.
Workmen on tho farm of Abraham
Drushel, in Holmes County, Ohio, in
what was once a lake, but is now a
marsh, have found part of the remains of
a huge animal. Ouo portion of the
vertebra showed a length from point to
point of ten inches, and the cavity for
marrow admits an ordinary fist. One
short rib measured nearly three feet, in
dicating that the lougest rib would have
been about six feet. The claws, still
perfect, are six inches long. It is sup
posed to have been a megatherium, or
great-clawed beast (now extinct), nearly
allied to the sloth. Tho remains of such
animals have never before been found
outside of South America, and when full
grown the animals were eighteen to
thirty feet long and seven to nine feet in
height. —Detroit Free Press.
THE INDIANS LIVE.
THEIR COLD TEPEES AND PECUL
IAR CUSTOMS.
Sympathetic Inks.
There are a number of colorless sub
stances that may be usfed as inks, which
arc developed by the use of heat only.
Onion juice is one; a weak solution of
chloride of copper is another. We do
not know any sympathetic ink that is
developed by the use of water only.
Chloride of mercury will turn black when
wetted with chloride of tin. Nitrate of
silver is developed by dipping tho postal
in a solution of ammonia. A purple ink
is obtainecf’by using chloride of gold,
and soaking in chloride of tin.—Courier-
Journal.
Indian Decorative Art.
When tho Sioux go on the warpath,in
anything like reasonable weather, they
exercise great economy in dress. They
paint their ponies with red and black
paint in crosses. They also wear their
hair loose aud flowing and put a liberal
allowance of red and black paint ou
their faces. Decorative art prevails
largely in their make-up. Bugs, reptiles
and animals, as nearly ns the rudely
artistic mind of the Sioux can contrive,
are painted on their foreheads and chins,
while a cross of red and black paint
adorns each check.—Denver Depublican.
Short-lived Because of Their Way of
Living—How Children Aro Named
and Maidens Wooed;
It is not strange that Indians aro short
lived, nor that there should be so high a
rato of mortality among their children.
Tho tribes north of an cast and west lino
coinciding with the northern limit of
New Mexico use for dwellings what is
known as the “tepee.” An Indian of
wealth in tho Ute country sometimes has
an opportudity to purchase on A-tent,
and even a wall tent, at some sale of con
demned Quartermaster’s supplies, but
the very best and newest canvas affords
poor protection against the snow-storms
and freezing winds of the plaius.
The tent is usually staked down, with
a shallow gutter dug around it to carry
off the raiu water, which would other
wise flood its interior, and, beginning
in the early autumn, a tire is built iu the
centre of tho earth floor, which is seldom
allowed to go out. Overhead, and hang
ing in slings suspended from the canvas,
aro the rifles and other weapons of tho
family, aud the floor is covered with
about six inches of dead grass or hay,
which in time is trodden down aud
pressed into a very fair and tolerably soft
mattress. Wrapped up in his blanket,
with his head resting on his saddle for a
pillow, the Indian sleeps through the
night, depending somewhat ou the fire
to keep him from freezing in extremely
cold weather.
In dry weather the ventilator at the
apex of the tent may be kept open, but
during storms, when it is closed, the
atmosphere of the tent is stifliug and
reeking with the odor of the many damp
and badly cured furs which every buck
accumulates. Far from agencies the
Indians lay iu a small stock of flour,
coffee nnd sugar, sufficient to be used
sparingly tnrough the winter, which,
with frozen beef or antelope meat, con
stitute his bill of fare. In a tent of ten
feet in diameter, a buck, two squaws and
five or six small children pass the winter
months.
With a little flour, water and salt the
squaws make a thick paste, which is first
cooked on hot stones until it becomes
stiff, and then each cake is further cooked
by standing it on its edge with tho flat
surface exposed to the flames until it is
thoroughly baked into quite palatable
bread. Their meat is fried in its own
fat or roasted ou a spit stuck into the
ground, while a small child keeps it
turning to equalize the roasting. The
bread cakes serve as plates, while the
fingers are both knives aud forks, so the
Indian has no dishwashing process to go
through with, for when the meal is
finished he eats his plates aud licks off
his knives and forks with his tongue.
The hunting of deer in the Rocky
Mountains had driven them north into
British America and in a few more years
our Indians will have no more buckskin
for leggin3 and moccasins. Only the
skin of the heavy-hided deer can be
used, that of the antelope and white
tailed varieties being too tender for long
service. The Apaches make their moc
casins and leggins in one piece, in the
style of hunting boots, while most of the
Indians to the north wear slippers anu
leggins. Whenever a. deer is out up,the
bladder is carefully cut away, cleaned,
and filled with the brain of the animal,
and the little bag is most carefully
guarded until a stream is reached, where
the hide may be cured. The entire skin
is then put into running 'water and
weighted down with stones. In four or
five hours the soaking has swelled ft and
loosened the hair at the roots, when it is
taken out and stretched ou a frame,
while the owner, with the aid of a
cleaned rib of the nnimal, scrapes it
down until all the hair is rubbed off,
very much in the same manner as over
heated horses are scraped to remove the
foam aud sweat. The skin is then pulled
and stretched for three or four hours,and
at the same time oiled with the brain,
until it is perfectly dry, soft and pliable,
when it is ready for use. Wheu a tau
color is desired it is sdhked in an in
fusion of red bark. Tho sole of the moc
casin is always made of the raw hide of
the beef cattle and sewed to the upper
with the sinews of the deer’s tendon
achilles.
A queer rule is followed by Indian
parents iu naming of children. When a
child is born the father goes to the door
of the hut and looks out, and,-at the first
cry of the infant, names him according
to the object seen. “Running Dog,” a
very common name among them, indi
cates that when the baby cried its father
saw a dog on the run. “Kicking Horse,”
“Mau Afraid of his Horses,” “Flying
Bird” and many other appellations have
the same origin. “Red Cloud,” for in
stance, shows that he w'as born probably
during a gorgeous sunset, while the name
“Sneezer” indicates that some person
near the door of the hut at the critical
moment had a cold.
An Indian about to become a father is
very much impressed with his own im
portance, and among some tribes, as soon
as a child is delivered, the father goes to
bed to receive the congratulations of his
his friends, while the. mother goes on
with her household duties. They have
no marriage ceremony, and when hus
band and wife grow tired of euch
| other, they agree to live apart,
with full permission to form new al
liances. When a young buck casts
loving glances at a maiden, her
parents immediately put a price on her
hand, high or low, according to her
beauty and the number of suiters she
may have. The belle of the camp gen
erally sells for 100 pounds of flour, two
or threo blankets, and a good pony, all
of which must be given to lier mother
before the bridegroom-elect secures his
girl.
There is also considerable distinction
of caste and social position among the
Indians. The son of a chief is a very much
more desirable catch than a commoner,
so to speak, and, besides, tbe families of
chiefs usually have more ponies,blankets,
nnd Indian wealth in general, because in
the division of plunder or booty the chief
has first choice. Tho squaws of the
chiefs also treat the wives of other In
dians with that same patronizing air
some of our wealthy matrons treat the
wives of less wealthy men, or with that
3ame condescending air with which the
wife of tho commanding officer of any
army post looks down upon the wife of
some junior lieutenant, although the
latter may in every way be greatly tbe
superior.—New York Times.
| The ages between which most women
marry are from twenty to twenty-five
years.
SELECT SITTINGS.
Tho Romans etched their public
records on brass.
The Ohineso do not permit their
women to bo photographed.
A Circassian mother’s first care is to
promote tho growth of her children’s oye-
lashes.
Florists arc said to add perfumo to
flowers by dipping them in some fra
grant essence.
There aro about 32,000 arrests each
year in Paris, and of those arrests thirty-
five arc assassins.
A petrified man, seven feet long and
weighing 600 pounds, has been discov
ered in a Colorado canyon.
Into the streets of Denver, Col., $25,-
000,000 iu gold aud silver coin are
shoveled from the mountains every year.
Darmio persimmons weighing eighteen
ounces havo been grown on the ptace of
Colonel Church, just east of Orlando,
Fla.
There are fivo women and one mau
living at 162 Amherst street, Toronto,
Canada^ who sleep every night in their
respective coffins.
An orange tree in Polk County, Flor
ida, is seven feet in circumference, and
has yielded from twenty-five to fifty
boxes of fruit yearly since 1856.
A little armadillo, the mulita, of Uru
guay, is mentioned as the living- repre
sentative of those antediluvian giants,
the mylodou, mastodon, megatherium,
etc.
A Connecticut boy is famous just now,
because he has a tin whistle one and a
halt inches in diameter and several inches
long in his stomach. He swallowed the
toy while playing on it.
Occasionally the return of the swallow
or the nightingale may bo somewhat de
layed, but most sea fowls may be trusted,
it is said, as tho almanac itself. Were
they satellites revolving around this earth
their arrival could hardly bo more surely
calculated by an astronomer.
General Du Temple, whose death in
Paris is announced, obtained his gen
eral’s stars in a curious way. He was a
Captain in the French nnvy in 1870, and
was accidentally gazetted General by
Gambetta, who mistook him for his
brother—also a naval captain.
The Ural Mountains, in Russia, were
anciently the subject of various myths.
The Slavonians who, in the eleventh
century frequently visited the region of
the Urals for trade, described them as
mountains reaching the sky, intersected
by terrible precipices, and as being in
habited by a population of cave dwellers.
It has been estimated that the volume
of water poured into the Rio de laPlatta,
Brazil, exceeds the aggregate discharge
of all the rivers of Europe put together.
Its ordinary flow at some points is 100,000
cubic feet per secoud. The ordinary
volume of -water in the Uruguay River
averages 11,000,000 of cubic feet per
minute.
At a quarry near Salt Lake, Utah, re
cently a frog hopped out of a pocket in
the center of a rock which had just been
blasted. The animal was of small size
and perfectly white. Its eyes were un
usually large, but apparently blind.
Where the mouth should have been there
was only a line. The frog died next
morning.
Forgot Her Left Arm.
Court Councilor Meynert, Professor of
Medicino at the University in Vienna,
was prevented recently from delivering
one of his regular afternoon lectures,
and, as the students were already
assembled, his assistant, Dr. Anton, un
dertook to hypnotize a young woman for
the instruction of the disappointed audi
ence. The young woman was tall,
slender, light-haired, and somewhat over
twenty years of age. Dr. Anton let his
hand slide over her forehead, smoothed
her eyelids with his fingers, touched her
cheeks with soft downward strokes, and
then commanded loudly: “Now sleep.”
She slept.
“Your arms are completely crippled,”
he said, and both arms sank limp to her
sides. “What will you now do, poor
creature, without any arms?” he asked.
The girl raised her bowed head and be
gan to weep and wail so piteously that
the students rose in their places and
shouted that she must be restored at once
to consciousness.
Dr. Anton seized the young woman’s
right arm, rubbed it smartly, and sug
gested :
“You are all right now. Your arm is
well again.” In the same instant the
girl raised her arm,with a triumphal ex
pression of face. Dr. Anton then aroused
her. To his and his auditors’ astonish
ment, however, the girl’s left arm still
hung limp, and apparently nerveless, at
her side. He had forgotten, in speaking
colloquially, to tell her that her left arm
had recovered its strength. He touched
the helpless arm and exhorted the young
woman to raise it, but in vain. She
couldn’t stir it an inch.
Dr. Anton then explained that the
students had before them a case of ‘ ‘post
hypnotic crippling,” which could be re
moved only after tho girl had been
again hypnotized. Ho was unwilling to
exhaust the girl by bringing her imme
diately under his influence once more, so
he deferred the performance of the cure
for several days. Ho said the girl was
so subject to influences that the regular
ticking of a clock or the monotonous
ringing of a church bell would suffice to
hypnotize her.
Leather Brake Shoes.
A company has been formed in New
South Wales for the purpose of exploit
ing the manufacture of railway brake
shoes from compressed leather. Waste
leather scraps are steeped in a solution
and subjected to a hydrrulic pressure to
mold them to any desired shape. The
leather shoe is said to possess distinct ad
vantages over that of iron, with superior
efficiency in every way. The leather
shoe weighs 4J- pounds against 21-J
pounds for iron, and will wear three
times as long. More than this it has a
greater coefficient of friction, so that
forty pounds air pressure is as effective
as seventy pounds with iron brake shoes.
There i3 one pre-eminent benefit which
the introduction of the leather brako
shoe would confer on communities which
are subjected to the necessary evil of the
elevated railroads. They would thus be
spared the dangerous shower of iron par
ticles, which now injure so many eyes.
An attempt has already been made to
remedy this serioug source of dauger by
the use of compressed paper. This, how
ever, was found to be impracticable. It
is earnestly to be hoped that the new
8hoe will stand the test of practical
work.— Commercial Advertiser.
WORDS OF WISDOM.
You cannot pick up sand with a i
set.
Tho only way to feel right is to
nght. <
As soon ns people bogln to love the
bogin to bo unselfish.
Flowers are a thousand times larger u
fragrance than in form.
A woman never gets too old to take
an interost in a loVe story.
No matter where we walk we are
to bo followed by somebody,
Tho acorn is greater than tho oakj
because it can create the oak.
To antagonize that which is good
proof positive that we are bad.
The things wo consider calamities ars
apt to be blessings in disguise.
If you seek your joys in tho world you
will be sure to be disappointed.
If men could be saved in their own
way nobody would over be lost.
The love that is not continually plan
ning aud building dies in its sleep.
You can kill a snake quickest by strik
ing nt the end that has the head on.
No man can love anybody or anything
that he does not know anything about.'
In one moment a resolution may be
formed that will take all of life to carry'
it out.
The greatest of all possessions is love, i -
because it will give everything else if it-
has tho power.
We can not poss ess anything unless
we first possess the spir it of mind- that'
will enable us to enjoy it.
It doesn’t mak so much difference
where wo earao from. The thing that j
concerns us above all others is “where
are wo going?”—Indianapolis (Ind.'y
Dam's Horn.
The Sap-Sucker.
A great many useful birds have been 1
destroyed on the erroneous charge that
they are in some way wholly detrimental
to the farmers’ interests with no compen
sating habits, and twice as many moro
that are admitted to be useful in some
degree, in the mistaken belief that oq^
the whole they are the authors of more
harm than good. In the first category
may be named the sap-sucker that is
commonly considered a fair target for
everybody’s gun, on the plea that he is
continually injuring young fruit trees for,
tho purpose of feeding on the tender
bark or sucking the sap, a3 popularly
supposed. This is the head and front
of his offending, for it is never pretend
ed that he seriously injures fruit or
grains.
Close observers, however, are fully
convinced that the little bird in question
does not make original holes in the bark
of the tree at which it is pecking, but
that all its efforts are directed to destroy
ing and devouring the borers that are
concealed in holes already existing,
which tho birds havo not made. At
the very worst the bird does no more
than in some cases to widen the hole
enough to allow its teak to reach the
worm.
As good an authority as Cassius M.
Clay, of Kentucky, is ou record as say
ing, from his own study of its habits,
that the sap-sucker is the deadliest foe
of tho vermin which destroy our trees,
and that everyone should encourage the
multiplication of sap-suckers.—NeuM"
York World. <
A Poultry Ranch.
Near Whatcom, Washington, is an
island of about 160 acres which is
used as a poultry farm. The poultry
house is the second largest in the world;
it is heated by steam and kept at a spring
temperature in the cold months of the
year.
There are now about 9000 fowls on
the place. Tho blooded or standard
fowls are kept by themselves in separate
yards. There are twenty-nine varieties
on the place, and eleven others have
been bought and are now on their way
there.
With the extensions that are to be
made the coming season, which will
practically double the capacity of those
already built, this-farm will rank first in
the world as a poultry farm.
The new house will contain 100 pens,
and 1200 hens will be put in this year.
It will require 2000 yards of tarred
paper, and wire mesh partitions will be
put inside to separate the fowls. Of
this it will require 2000 yards, nine feet
wide. There will be 20,000 yards of
wire partitions on the outside. This
structure will be 900 feet long, and on*
story high.
That there exists- a demand for such «
place is evidenced by the carloads of
eggs and poultry that are taken there
from Iowa, Wisconsin, Kansas and
Nebraska and other Western States al
most weekly. It is safe to say that if
the farm was twenty times as large it of
would find a market for all its products.
—Farm, Field and Stockman.
A Line-Throwing Gun.
The necessity of having a reliable
method of effecting communication be
tween the shore and a ship in distress or
between one vessel and another has al
ways been recognized, and to this end
various linc-throwiug appliances have
been brought forward from time to time.
The latest of these is the shoulder liuo-
throwing gun. This apparatus, which
is not an expensive affair, consists of a
shoulder gun having the cop, or coil of
line, suspended in a case carried under
the breech of the gun. A rod is inserted
in the barrel, the fore end of the rod
being connected with the end of the line,
which is iu the centre of tho cop. The
line is 144 yards long, and the charge of
powder used is two drachms. Upon the
gun being fired nt a high elevation th»
rod is projected upward aud forward,
carrying the line trailing away after it.
The object is, of course, to land the line
over the ship or other object, the rod
dropping beyond it. By this means a
rope can bo made fast to the tail end of
the line by the succoring paity and be
hauled on board by those in distress.—
Public Opinion.
What Wild Waves Wrought.
It is on record that tho waves of the
German Ocean once broke in two a solid,
column of freestone thirty-six feet high
aud seventeen feet iu diameter at the
base. Tim diameter at the place of
fracture was'eleven feet. At the top of
the Bound Skerry of Whalsoy, iu Zet
land, tho waves huve broken out of their
beds, which are cighty-fivo feet above
the level of the sea, blocYs of stoae
weighing from eight to ten tuas.—Boston
Cultivator.