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DEATH PENALTIES. ___ VARIOUS ANCIENT MODES OF CAPITA r , PITir PlMSHilhNT, prvKHMt’VT Evocation Itv Stoning the Earliest Method of Punishing Crimes— Cruel Punishments Among the Romans and Other Nations. Death the by stoning was, in all proba bility, earliest method o£ punishing crimes, die Jews and other Oriental mi tions being especially given to this form of supreme penalty. From the extremely comprehensive appeared code of Mosaic capital code, offenses it is which in the to be concluded that a death by and stoning was a very common occurrence, the “young men of the the congregation,” of to whom was intrusted duties exe oahoner, must have become quite expert in their that office. It is retaliation quite possible, antedated ever, personal the and that punishment for eye,tooth by co nmunity, tooth.andiifefor the eye for life doctrine was rigorously carried out. Far the instantaneous dispatch of an of fender the Jews used the sword, but stoning continued to be the set form of capital punishment up to the time of the Christian era. Then crucifixion took its plain form of death penalty borrowed from the Latin conquerors. Though the Romans were greatly be given that to crucifying had it can national scarcely form said capital they punishment. any one They acted of largely after the Mikado’s plan of letting the punishment lit the crime. Christians were burned, torn to pieces by beasts, drowned in quagmires and rivers and vivisected. Political offenders, on the other hand, were thrown from Tarpeian Rock, This was a lofty and; precipitous promontory on one side of the Capitolina Hill. Runaway slaves when recaptured were turned adrift into the deserts or woods overrun by wild animals, or else bound to a rock and left to starve. It was customary for a while in Rome to permit capital offenders to select the manner by which they would meet death and be allowed to inflict the penalty upon themselves. This custom also tained in Greece, and when Socrates was condemned to death for spreading dis belief in the national religion he chose to die by drinking the hemlock. unusual of One of most cruel and •punishments was that which the Romans in the latter days of the Republic meted out to those who murdered either of their parents. Luke Owen Pike, M. A., author ef the “History of Crime in Eng land,” in referring to this punishment, says: 4 i JNo. No 4 in in the the amphitheatre amj hit . tre, not n t at a the stake, noton the cross was the parricide wind to perish. A sack was to be his ing sheet; in that he was to be sewn up alive and venomous serpents with him sea was nea^at hand/and i/noh’into a rive'’ BO that the heavens mio-ht be liid den from him while still alive, and the ea Often, n howeverf'hi 6 Addition' to and the wipers, there were a dog. a monkey a rooster sewed up in the sack with the victim, who was naked. The sack was usually of leather. The Oriental nations have always been remarkable for the ingenious cruelty of is their death punishments, although it doubtful whether thev have been more cruel than the self-styled highly civil i?ed nations of the West. Death has come from slow strangulation from a rope, as was in vogue in China, for in •stance, and at the same time from the use of boiling oil, which was dislocated; poured on the joints after they were and by mechanical means, as in Franee Germany from Having, or stripping the skin off" the body, as was formerly dbne in England, and from pressure between planks, on the upper of Tvhicb great Weights were n!aced,as was also in vogue in England atone time. Every method which"human cruelty could prompt and human ingenuity devise has been re sorted to at one time or other in ancient or medieval days, and among nations -professing to be civilized, to administer torture and death. -It is true that Japanese offenders have been executed by though the slow passage ol" a spear upward their entrails, and that Chinese criminals have been gradually beheaded with o bamboo saw, but at the same time that most barbarous form of inflict Ino- the death penaltv, the boiling in a .•cauldron was a European invention. To inflict death by this means sulphur, oil and lead separately weie sometimes used. Water however, was the agent generally employed. Boiling to death was first inflicted by statute in Eng land in 1531, during the reign of King Henry VIII. The first person to suffer this penalty in that country was John Roose, cook to the Bishop of Rochester, who poisoned seventeen persons, two of whomdied The poison was administered m poisoners'should porridge. The statute declared that be boiled to death with out having anv “advantage of his clergy” Future offences of this kind, the law stated, should be deemed alenttohi'rii treason in enormity. The statute was repealed not long afterward. brt not until several other persons met death m the c mldron. Though prae ticed in i upland, it is believed, however, that this horror was of Italian origin. Death bv the serpents’ bite was a com moa form’of adminstcring capital pun ishment in the Oriental countries in ancient days, and, it is said, the system has bv no means become obsolete yet. Instances are on record in which offend ers were bound naked in jungles in which v’iners were numerous, terrible and left to suffer a lingering and death from the rc^tCes’ fang- Men and women, and somvtimes children, were tin wa into c -r eras infested by venomous snakes to meet death in its most frightful form in the darkness among the bone? of hun dreds of persons whose Jives had gone out in the same place and by the same means. Many British prisoners, it w»; told, were subjected to like treatment by the Sepoys dining the mutiny about thirty years ago. Even at the present tim f’ ; s malefactors in some parts of India are thrown into large cages filled with serpents. Travelers in Persia tell stories about similar cruelties being indicted on criminals in the wilder and more barbarous portions of that country. All this may be true, yet it is also true the same form cf punish meat was once on a time common in Norway, and that for years France, England and Spain were ablaze with the fires that consumed people at the stake, Persons suspected the of being witches, sub however, were most frequent jects for this form of punishment. Pope innocent VIII. issued a bull against witfchcraft in 1484. Within the next hundred years thousands of these people were burned alive. Over .100 of them were burned in Geneva in about one fourth of the year 1.111. In the Diocese of Como 1000 were executed in this way in 1524. About 10,000 met death by this method in Lorraine in the fifteen years ending with 1595. In Wurtzburg. between IBa7 and 1629, 12? were burned alive, In neavly every part of Europe which was at all civilized, numerous deaths by fire for witchcraft occurred in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Those which took place in Germany alone are estimated this at upward method of 100,000. The deaths by and for this cause in England also were well up in the thousands. In Massa Vhusctts and Pennsylvania the death penalty for this offense usually took the the form of hanging .—San Francisco Chronicle . Asbestos Manufacture. - Quite a good deal of attention in Bos ton is devoted to the manufacture of as bestos. The stuff, as everyone knows, is a mineral fibre, but concerning its nature and the uses to which it is put very little seems to be comprehended, A piece of cloth made of it closely re¬ sembles, both to sight and touch, coarse cotton toweling. It may be used for the same purposes, and, when dirty, thrown into the fire. Rake it out after a little while, and it is found intact, but cleaned as perfectly as though subjected to the steam laundry process. well The ancients, 2500 years ago, were acquainted with asbestos aud its prop erties. They thought would it was burn. vegetable, So but knew that it not they wrapped their corpses in cloths woven in its fiax-like strands, in order to keep the ashes of their relatives and friends from mingling with the charred remains of the funeral pyres. They used it also for lamp wicks and lor nap ' kins. In fact, however, asbestos is a form very hard rock, called hornblende, ana is f touna 0 „ nf i in. strata strata or of a a umous fibrous con- con sistencj, readily divisible into silky strands resembling flax. Hence, it is d°ep?si“ o? R have been found in the Canadian provinces, whereas in former times it was chiefly imported JJ*^^beenIppRed'by surprising Clothes modern ingenuity is for firemen and gloves wherewith to han materia., "f ’ 110 boner *‘J®; retting * ana ,?d paperTtock papei stock ore other products largely manufactured. Besides, from the same material. it is employed in the mixing and of other fireproof paints for stage scenery pur poses. Sometimes this mineral _ is found in thin sheets of interlaced fibres, known m vulgar When parlance natural as “mountain leather.” the fabric is developed in thick sheets it is called “mountain cork.” In any shape the material is indestructible by fire at the ordinary temperature of flame. As a mat ter of fact, however, there is nothing m nature that will not burn if only the thermometer is high enough. Did you see a lecturer on the problems of chemistry direct the lighted jet from an oxy-hydrogen blowpipe upon will a have piece ob- of iron or zinc? . If so, you served how the metal is consumed,under such conditions, like so much tinder. In like manner the hardest rocks are disiu tegrated by the action of heat. Asbestos cloth is a very pretty goods, but it is not altogether incombustible. Picayune. Sticking K —- ~Z Paper -, to Metal. Paper pasted, gummed, or glued on metal, especially if it has a bright sur face, usually comes off on adhesive the slightest provocation, leaving the ma terial on the back of the paper, with a surface bright and slippery a3 ice. The cheaper description of clock dials are printed on paper and then stuck on zinc; but for years the difficulty was to get the paper and the metal to adhere, it is, however, said to be now overcome by dipping the metal into a strong and hot solution of washing-soda, afterwards rubbing perfectly dry with a clean rag. Onion ;uice is then applied label to the pasted sur face of the metal, aud the and fixed in the ordinary way. It said to be almost impossible joined to .—English separate paner and metal thus I Mechanic. Sell .T.7T--------. Lively, Kittens Are Dull, A businesslike fellow with stiff red mustache stood on L'nion Square during one recent afternoon exhibiting a basket full of bu,f and black little dogs and kittens of similar colors. There were four dogs and five kittens, and none of them were over six inches long. All the women who came along admired the pets and the fakir in half an hour had : sold every dog at $2 apiece. though he offered the kittens at fifty then twenty-five cents each, he didn’t sell one. The fakir thus philosophized: “Vcr =ee dogs are more affectionate than cats. Dogs like the person; cats the place. I’ve always found it hard to sell kittens, but the dogs go in a hurry.” * —Fta York Bun. ---——— Tc was too many Roman punches that dFQthe business for Julius C’jsar. BUDGET OF FUN. HUMOROUS SKETCHES FROM VARIOUS - SOURCES. In An Obliging Mood—Doing Him a Bank Injustice—He Saw Several- Hedging on a Bet—Etc., Etc. First Kentuckian—“Say, Colonel, there’s a Mormon elder down the road preaeliin 1 to ’Would a crowd o’ young women an’ singin: Kentuckian—“Well, I Were a Bird !”’ Second 1 kin os ur ”?* K * \ cm ie on ca *, CT p, uiladeiphia j^,°? S‘f hecon s ® me tar v - . ~ . Tf . nRn . Ininfi . ioe r'..„ n ‘N, ■>, ° lt-omi i. " ‘iRm*n w * * n ' ■ , i • , , lu f!!? 0 yestetaay as an « ota iool. t aon t think t i k tna. sort °, tiling is rigtit. Brown - uny, ot course, it am t rigm, Diunley. 1 ou can t fie more than lort at the outside. tsa.ar. - ~ i1e s,aw creva . ’ . First Pittsburger—“Been ou an Ar kansas trip, I hear?” Second Pittsburger—“Yes; just got back.” First Pittsburger—“Did train you see any of»the numerous robbers reported lately Second from that Stated’ train Pittsburger—“See any robbers! I should say I did. There was a peanut boy on every PUtility a Chronicle « Hedging on a Bet. “Hello, Bromley, that isn’t the fair thing! the You promised you’d that if your side lost election, " shave off one whisker.” “Well, haven’t I?” “Y'es, but you’ve shaved off both of them.” “Oh. that’s all right. I lost the other one in the same kind of a bet withDar ringer.”_ Time. Growing; Desperate, ’ , . . L v “ - at hvc.i-mnking^ y° u Charles. Mother— 11 1 you tell could you have it . uoisecl . about that Yiarv have is to $10,000 for her marriage portion, don t you think her chances would be greatly improved; sensible rather— Woman t it be K ? orc ; attr 1V £ to *° ,' v Die example ol the bargain . shop, and put the liguie at Boston Irawscript. Not an Auspicious “Y~7 , Incident. ‘Please don t forget, my boy, that you ma y * K; a future general in the army of the Dinted States of America,” ’ said the wd officer to his son, duri durm 0 a a West West 4 / waV, . father who’was ” was the re ply. ‘ the that old ^^ C ?^ J 0ll SP ° ke t0 ° U ^ paradc mis aueinoon. f 0 0 ?.. Hog^by^rcdT He?rmUia“class ahmid And of the me boy 1 believe.^ began to think. Courting on the Installment nan. Miss Jollyby— . ... And , now that I ve said , Yes, my dear Claude, I wish you would ask papa as once; and, while you arc about and it, you might say a word lias to mam ma, -er Ann - ary been so kind, you know; just mention it to her and ask if she is willing; and then Lncle George might— Claude— Pardon me, Miss Jcllyby; isn . t it a little rough on a fellow to make him secure a wife on the installment plan. —Jiul'jc. A Wronj Diagnosis. Medicine may modify some of your symptoms, my friend, said the doctor, as he wrote a prescription, but noth ing except a change in your habits will bring permanent relief. You don t take enough exercise. “Don t take enough exercise? ’ ex claimed the astonished visitor, with his eyes staring from his head. “Why, good heavens, of the doctor! I ve for been collect- the Chaumain comm.ttee mg our pastor s salary for nearly e even years '. '-Chuayo Tribune. He wnc dis own orare, Tired tramp (in an exasperated sort of way)—“There .Ma’am, there’s your three bushels of potatoes l promised to dig if you’d give me some lunch and I don’t care if 1 never see a potato again, I’m sick of em. ” Woman—“Well, yon sit down under the shade o’ them gooseberry bushes and lunch ’ll be ready in a few minutes.” Tramp—“What’re lunch, you goin’ to have fur Marm!” Woman—“We’re goin’to have baked potatoes ."—Epoch. Two Sides of Tlielr Quarrel. Augustus—“I wish you would not use powder, Belle.” Belie—“If you ever speak of that again I shall never forgive you—never.” Augustus-“it’s too bad; you are offended every time I speak of y«ur powdering.”_ Belle—“Well, and isn’t _ it worth while quarreling for the sake of making up!” Augustus.—“Yes; _ but it ... isn t worth while ‘.making up’ for the sake of quar reling.”— American. An Emblematic Sign, Some heartless monster has been per petrating a joke—it may not be cons id ered a > oke—at the expense of the Yfoman’s Club, otherwise the Mending Burean, at Fourth and Chestnut streets. On the Chestnut street side of the house, at the entrance to the bureau, a large sign, some six feet long, has been placed against the wall. On this sign, in large letters, the passer-by reads the words; “Woman’s Club.” Yesterday morning people smiled when they saw suspended horizontally directly beneath this sign a half-wain broom.— Louisville Courier. Elossiy’s Inference. Little Flossy was visiting her papa’s sister, a maiden lady, in the country. The child was painfully impressed with the sameness aud primness of every thing, and one day asked: “Aunt Maria, what makes you have every thing all alike '” “Because I like to have everything match,” replied the aunt. “Was that what mamma meant when she told papa that you were trying hard to make a match with every old widower in town:” asked innocent Flossy.— Du¬ luth Parayntv/ur. Plenty of Weather, Maine Man—“I tell vou down East beats the world for quick changes of weather. One day last spring I cut ice all one morning and had to rush out and lant gun um brellas over my tomato vines in the afternoon, Western Man—“Shouldn’t wonder. I rcmem p ei , onc jay in Kansas when I went out with a mowing machine at sunrise and traded it for a snowplough before night, the but day that wasn’t swimming a circum stance to I went in the Missouri River and got carried so tar out by the current that I like to have drowned. 1 just tell you I never ex ¬ pected to How sec shorn did again.” back?” “Eli? yc get “The river froze over and I skated back .”—Philadelphia Ilecord. _ Brought in a. New Conundrum. “I have got a conundrum,” said the visitor, timidly sitting down on the cor¬ ner of a chair, “that I think is new. Why is a man who lays out a new sub division like pickles!” “Because he c-c-cumbers the ground?” hazarded the real estate editor. “No; that isn’t tlie right answer.” “Because,” suggested the exchange editor, “it makes him sour if he doesn’t ketchup with the--’’ “No, no; that isn’t it cither. Give it up? Because he makes lots of acres. See? Acres—achers. Spoils the teeth, you know. Makes acres into lots-” And then they rose up as one man arid threw him out of the window. — Chicago Tribune. Nature’s Voices. “Burr-r-rr,” said the chestnut, “The cold snap is very snappy this morning.” said “Time for me to leave,” the weeping willow. “It’sa cold day forme. Everybody’s gone and I am forlorn,” sadly solilo quized the beech. too,” said the “1 feel kinder seedy ap¬ ple tree. There’s a tired feeling in cider me, “Chestnut!” so to speak.” yelled the hemlock, “Did you call me?” asked the first speaker with a low bough. And then the whole wood resounded with “lofty larity” as the pine tree termed the hilariousness that ensued when describing it later to a lady who hud come that way to buy some fir.— Ncto York Sun. Fonn.l It. City Editor (to reporter)-‘‘1 see that in writing up a suicide you re fer t0 , thfi c , old an ,j r( , morfle less river.’ ” R eporter ._«*Y es Ialwayslike to throw fee]in „ into what 1 write p> CUy j-ditor—“That’s capital, but did y OU ever £ee a r j ver stricken with re morse:” Reporter—“I don’t know that Ihavc.” City Editor—“Well, then, go and find OD<N and by lhft W ay, don’t come back until you do find one.” fThc reporter goes away. Two days later he returns. ( Editor—“Ilelloa, got back,, have you?” Reporter— i.ditor—Well, “Yes.” did find cify you a re morseful river?” Reporter—“I did.” C j ty Editor—“What river is it?” Reporter—“The Editor—“Why Mississippi.” remorseful?” City it Reporter—“Because, years ago, do¬ c id e d to run by St. Louis.” City Editor (springing to his feet) “Young man, take my scat. 1,resign.” 'l'raceler. Ytitliont Batteries, Senor 1 iedrahitu, an electrician ol Bogota, has which patented he claims a telegraphic will revolu- in gtrument tionize telegraphy, as it works without batteries. The Government appointed a committee of experts to examine into the merits of the machine. In their first re¬ port they say: “We the proceeded outside the city and placed new apparatus in connection with the telegraph to the city, and without a battery we held communication with the main office, Wepracticedanothcrtestandsentmes- six hundred sages over a wire meters long, which washungon posts without in sulators and some portions of which were allowed to trail along the ground. Once our niachGe was in order we sent mes sages over this wire in Spanish, received French an d English, and they were without difficulty. The strength of the current received from us was tested and it showed a density of 400 ohms, equal to a distance of seven and a half leagues, and over this range vye could have com municated had our wire stretched that distance.” A Remarkable Window. There is a remarkable window in Fifth avenue. Several thousand dollars’ worth of tiger skins have been taken from the big fur store which owns the window, and they have phantasma been draped jungle so that they present a of dangers, Any tiger hunter who ran against the window at night would receive a ter rific shock, for the heads of the beasts have all been preserved, and they look wonderfully lifelike .—Alw York kun. Lady Herbert, of England, says that in ten years Washington will be the handsomest city in the world. Wasps Battle with Their Enemies. “A story which appeared a few days ago and concerning spider a tight between a wasp a reminded me of a similar battle which I witnessed a short time ago. I was walking across a field when I saw a spider’s web on the grass and no¬ ticed that a wa^p had just been caught in its meshes. The spider was on the watch, and showed unmistakable delight as its victim buzzed and struggled in the vain endeavor to set itself free. The ugly creature sat at the bottom of the web. holding the ropes that were to bind its prey. When the wasp ceased to struggle the spider approached. But tiie winged insect had not given up. As it saw its captor it showed fight and exerted itself to the utmost to get near enough to use its sting. The spider retreated a little, but apparently only for the purpose of tightening the strings that held the pris¬ oner. “A moment later the wasp was turned over and hound more firmly than ever. It seemed as if the spider took advan¬ tage of each movement of its adversary to wind another rope about its legs and tie them yet more firmly. The skill dis¬ played was a revelation to me—I had no idea insects knew so much. Finally, when the wasp was so bound that, it could neither kick ncr sting, the spider jumped upon it, killed it almost instant¬ ly by its biting, and then proceeded to least upon carcass. “At another time I witnessed a fierce colony struggle of between which a large had hornet built and a wasps a nest in the window of an old shop. The hornet crawled up the glass toward the nest, and when the wasps ,-aw him they formed in battle array to defend their home. The intruder moved onward, when a wasp darted from the ranks to sting him. But the courageous little fel¬ low hardly seemed to touch his enemy before falling dead upon the windowsill. At this the wasps retreated in a body to the other sending side of the nest to lay plans then for battle, out a spy now and to reconnoitre. As the hornet came closer all suddenly rushed toward him in a body. A large wasp the stepped out and of tlie ranks, tlew over hornet alighted behind him. The invader halted, and the little army also stood still, watching him. The unequal forces eyed eacli other for some time, when suddenly signal, it appeared and his as companions if the large rushed wa p gave a quick work of the forward, making enemy. Several wasps fell dead before the hornet was conquered, and the survivors did not venture to approach their pros¬ trated foe until he had been dead several minutes.” The above tales were told to a Dispatch reporter by an intelligent Pittsburg insect me¬ lifo chanic, for whom the study fascination.— of seems to have Dispatch. a peculiar l’ittsbunj A Cable Operator’s Experience. Mr. J. Seton, of the Commercial Cable Company, of this city, has seen service all over the world. He has been in Rus¬ sia, China, India, Persia, Egypt, South America,Panama and Mexico. Mr.Seton was stationed in the Persian Gulf for seven years. The worst place be was ever stationed, Mr. Seton said, was on the island of Mussenden, in the Gulf of Omar. It is a repeating station on the Eastern island is Telegraph small that Company’s good line. .swimmer The so a could swim around it in fourteen min¬ utes. On this small place were stationed t wenty cable workers. Not a single island, arti¬ cle of food could be raised on the arid all their provisions had to be brought from Bombay and consisted entirely of canned goods. murderous, The mainland rob¬ was filled with bands of bing nomads, and frequently a British gunboat had to be summoned and the shores raked with shell. A detachment of marines was always kept at the station for its protection. A few miles inland fresh mutton the could be procured, lives,as but they it was at risk of the men’s were repeatedly attacked. Aden is also a dangerous place to work. The cable men treated aro, as a rule, most the graciously countries by the rulers of through which the lines touch, as they stand in fear of England’s wrath. On the great Indo-European line, which runs overland through Persia, the native who molests the line lias either his arm, foot or The car cut Bashi-Bazoukslmd off as a punishment. great deal of a fun in shooting lhc insulators off the poles until of the edict Indo-European issued making Company, the an was offense punishable by cutting off a band, foot or ear of the perpetrator. Numbers of men with maimed limbs can be seen throughout World. the Persian deserts.— New York She Destroyed His “Spite-Wall.*’ A resident of the Gass Farm, Detroit, who owns a handsome home, considered himself infringed uppn by a neighbor who had built aggressively near to him, so that their windows faced each other. The aggrieved man determined to make his neighbor uncomfortable. 8o he took pencil and paper and draughted a line fence nine feet high, that would at once separate the two houses. Ilis little daughter ran into his study while he was working at it, and asked him what he was making. explained her lie it to her, and gave an admonition. “You are not to go into Mr. ’s yard any more, nor play with the chil¬ dren.” “But, papa.” friends. pleaded the little one, and “we’re good I like theut, they like me.” “I don’t care,” was the answer, “I want you to keep away from them, and that is why I am building this high wall between the houses.” The child’s eyes tilled with tears, and she looked earnestly into her father’s angry face fora moment in silence. Then she asked softly: “Papa, is it a spite-wall?” Free It will not be built no ye.—-Detroit Press.