Newspaper Page Text
Mrs. Wood of Kennebunk, Me., had
been lame all her life, but she fell down
stairs in a barn the other day and since
then has walked as well as anybody;
yet there is no indication staircases in
mode are destined to supplant regular
surfer?
Doctors, as a rule, are reticent about
their fees, but Dr. Willard Parker was
paid $ 100,000 for the successful re-
moval of an excrescence from the face
and neck of the son and heir of one of
the wealthiest families in the vicinity
of New York.
_________
In France, according to late statis
tics, there are no less than 2,000,000
married couples that are childless,
2,500,000 with one child, 2,300,000
with two, 1,500,000 with three, 1,00(/.-
000 with four, 5 00,000 with five, 300,-
000 with six, and 200,000 with seven
or more.
_________
Marshalltown, Iowa, bus a very ell
cient mayor, if he is a little man from
a physical point of view, A big,
husky tramp was brought up before his
honor for trial. The vagrant became
insolent, and the mayor knocked him
down and sat on him until sufficient
help arrived to take him to prison.
Then the mayor quietly called the next
cas*
Cdptam muiarn Keed, who nas ocen
on the police force of Pittsburg, Penn.,
for forty-four years, claims to be the
oldest police officer in the United
States in point of service. He recently
celebrated his seventieth biithday. Of
the twenty-four policemen who con¬
stituted Pittsburg’s force forty-four
years ago Captain Reed is now the sole
survivor.
In the United States there are 43 deaf
and dumb institutions caring for 5743
inmates, 30 for the blind with 2178
pupils, and 11 caring for 1781 idiots.
It is estimated that $120,000,000 are
expended annually for the sick and
poor—the little wanderers, orphans,
foundlings, cripples, idiots, insane,
drunkards, and paupers, and in other
philanthropies.
The English government is building
a dry dock at Gibraltar of sufficient
capacity to hold the largest iron-clad,
and there is much bitter feeling in
Spain, and also in France, at this new
assertion of England’s unalterable de¬
termination to preserve her dominance
in the historic sea that laves Malta and
Cyprus, and is the waterway to her
Indian empire.
The great Bear River Canal in Utah,
for the construction of which $2,000
000 has been provided, is expected to
be one of the most extensive irrigation
works in this country. It will irrigato
200,000 acres in Salt Lake Valley and
0,000,000 on Bear River, increasing the
value of the laud to $50 an acre. Bear
Lake is in eastern Idaho. The reser¬
voir for the canal covers 150 square
miles.
An old convict, just released from
the Auburn (N.Y.) penitentiary, boasts
of the fact that he was conducted to
that institution by Grover Cleveland.
He was couvicted of murder and sen¬
tenced to imprisonment for life at Buf¬
falo in 1871. “Grover Cleveland was
sheriff at the time of my sentence,” he
says, “and instead of sending a deputy
to Auburn with me he went himself,
saying that he had never been in the
Stac prisou and wanted to improve the
opportunity. I believe I am the only
man in the world who has been escorted
to prison by a President of the Unite 1
S'ates. The very last paper Mr. Cleve¬
land signed his name to at Albany as
Governor was my pardon to take effect
in 1890, and here I am.”
It is to be hoped that the dams
which they are building for irrigation
purposes in the arid region are being
constructed so as to prevent any such
disaster as occurred at Johnstown.
Some of the dams are immense. The
following are the dimensions of four
recently comp'eted: 1. The Walnut
Grove Dam, near Prescott, Ar., 110
feet high, 750 acres, capacity, 4,000,-
000,000 gallons. 2. Merced Dam, in
Central California, 1 mile long, 60 feet
high, 650 acres, capacity. 5.500,000,-
000 gallons. 3. Sweetwater River
Dam, near San Diego, Cal., 90 feet
high, 725 acres, capacity, 6,000,000,-
000 gallons. 4. The Bear Valley
Dam, San Bernardino County, Cal., 60
feet high, 2250 acres, capacity, 10,-
000.000,000 gallons.
There are at present 13J0 beet-sugar
factories in Europe, and they consume
24,000,000 tons of beets every year.
Their annual output of sugar amount*
to 2,000,000 tons. It is said that over
$80,000,000 are expended for labor and
fuel, and that $100,000,000 arc paid tc
farmers for beets. These figures are
probably too high, but they serve tc
throw light upon the magnitude and
importance of the industry.
The broker of the community, says *
write#Vn the Forum, .becomes the capi¬
talist of the community. The Western
mortgage brokers have been no excep¬
tion to the rule. One of them in Kansas
has made nearly $10,000, 000 since
1870. The businesi developed rapidly.
As increased capital has become neces¬
sary, ind.vidual brokers have given way
to corporations. There arc probably
two hundred such Corporations now
operating in Nebraska and Kansas
alone.
The latest reported discovery in con¬
nection with the cotton seed comes
from Germany, where, it is said, a
process has been discovered for ex¬
tracting sugar from cotton soed meal.
The sugar is of a very superior grade t
but cannot be sold iu competition with
the ordinary article. It is said to be
incl.ned to ferment or sour, and hence
better for use in preserving fruits. It
is 6aid to be fifteen times sweeter than
cane sugar, and tv/enty times more sc
than sugar made from beets.
According to a recent official return,
the length of the telegraph lines on the
globe is at present about 600,000 miles,
or 26 times its circumference at the
equator. The length of wire is 1,688,-
880 miles, or 30 times the length of the
equator. Europe has telegraph line*
measuring 232,270 miles; America,
176.264; Asia, 50,375; Australia, 26,-
053; and Africa, 12, 973 miles. These
are the land lines. There are, besides,
950 submarine cables of a total length
of 112,701 nautical miles.
The amoumt of the precious metals
hoarded in India is simply enormous.
It is estimated on good authority that
there is now at least $650,000, 000 in
gold and $850,000,000 in silver hidden
away in that country and completely
lost to the world. The foim which
the hoarding takes is that of bullion or
coin, and frequenty the metal is made
into ornaments, partly used for the
purpose of adornment and partly kept
as hoard. As a rule the native prefers
it in the form of ornaments for his
family, because it is a hoard, and it is
also a source of gratification to them
to possess these ornaments.
According to a recent experiment »
valuable and important part of the
cotton plant has hitherto been wasted.
It occurred to a manufacturer of Helena,
Ark., that some use could be made of
the cotton stalk, and he sent a quantity
of it to a factory in this city to be
operated upon in the same manner as
flax aud hemp. The results were re¬
turned to him in the shape of about
twenty different grades of fibrous
material, from coarse strands of the
stalk to the glossy fibre as soft as silk.
A machine to spin the material is now
under consideration. Should the claim
be substantiated, that the fibre of the
stalk is sufficiently strong to make the
best of bagging, as well as cloth as
fine as linen, the value of the discovery
to the cotton growing states is plainly
apparent. The extraction of the stalk
takes about six hours and is effected by
an electric process.
In most countries caterpillars arc re¬
garded as a pest. In British India,
however, different ideas upon the sub¬
ject appear to prevail. For the En¬
tomological Committee of the Bombay
Natural History Society has actually
goue to the length of establishing a
great “caterpillar farm” at Poonah for
the deliberate propagation of these de¬
structive insects. Caterpillar-rearing,
according to the official report which
ihe society has recently issued to the
public, is not so easy as might be in¬
ferred from the astounding faculty
shown by these creatures in rearing
themselves. Being new to their work,
the caterpillar farmers made mistakes.
They unwisely kept all their insects in
the same inclosure. The result, in the
words of the report, was * ‘that they got
completely mixed, so that in many in¬
dances nobody was able to say with
certainty which ‘imago’ resulted from
which ‘pupa,’ or to identify the ‘pupa’
with its 'larva. 7 n
A SAILOR’S WORK.
The Daily Routine During a
Merchantman’s Voyage.
Jack Tar Must Be Up Early as*d
Ready for Anything.
The mate of a square-rigged mer¬
chantman thus described the life of an
able-bodied seaman on a long voyage:
A sailor may be said to begin his day’s
work with the “morning watch” at 4
o’clock, when he must turn out of his
narrow bunk in the “fo’ castle” and
tumble up on deck prepared to scrub
and w r ash down decks, which are al¬
ways more or less badly stained with
salt water and iron rust. Plenty of
water for cleaning purposes is always
near at hand, and with the aid of buck¬
ets aud ordinary brooms, brushes, or
“squegees” Jack usually succeeds in
making things tolerably clean.
But if the ship is coming into port
and this Captain wishes the decks to
look particularly white, Jack must go
down on his hands and knees and scour
the decks with all the vigor of a char¬
woman with certain articles called
“holystones.” Now, holystones are
not treasured fragments of some classi¬
cal shrine, but common-looking pieces
of “sandstone about the size of a brick,
aud it is not too much to say that poe¬
try abandons the nautical mind when
the holystoning process becomes neces¬
sary. The operation is always long and
laborious, and the only respite Jack has
from this odious task is in polishing
tarnished brass-work or being ordered
aloft to attend to some troublesome sail
or bit of running gear. Consequently,
by 8 o’clock, when he is relieved by
the “foeenoon watch” he has had suffi¬
cient exercise to get up an appetite for
breakfast sueh as is rarely equalled or
surpassed by anything human.
This meal, year in and out, consists
of a liberal supply of a hot black
beverage called coffee, which is stewed
to distraction, and sweetened, if at all,
with molasses. Then there is ship’s
bread, porridge, or “burgoo,” and a
species of hash called “lobscouse, ”
which nobody but a hungry sailor was
ever known to successfully digest.
Jack then fills his pipe, spins yarns, or
returns to his unambrosial bunk for a
nap, while his shipmates, the “fore¬
noon watch,” are busy making things
snug on deck and aloft. Indeed, it
would be difficult to say what the
‘‘forenoon watch” will not find to do,
for much depends upon the slate of the
weather.
But yards must be constantly
trimmed, according to the direction of
the wind, sails furled, and running
gear looked after, and in addition to a
seaman’s regular duties of setting and
shortening sail, there is always plenty
of sail-mending, rope-splicing, sjiar-
scraping, oiling, varnishing and paint¬
ing to do, to say nothing of the dirty
work of tarring the standing rigging
and ropes occasionally. Thou every
man must take his turn or “trick” at
the wheel, which is always a mono¬
tonous and extremely dangerous duty
in bad weather.
At 11. 30 the men who composed the
“morning watch” arc called to a dinner
of hot pea soup, boiled por.c and a
baneful piece of meat that no argument
will ever convince Jack is anything but
army mule or horse which has died a
natural death. “Salt horse” is there¬
fore, the name bestowed by him on this
tough-pickled substance, and he thinks
himself lucky when it 13 followed by
plumduff or “stickjaw pudding.” This
sumptuous repast is then washed down
with copious draughts of coffee, and
after filling and smoking the inevitable
pipe once more Jack feels invigorated
and happy, and goes on deck as one of
the “afternoon watch,” which relieves
the “forenoon watch’’ at 12 o’clock.
The “afternoon watch,” we will sup¬
pose, for brevity's sake, is employed on
deck with duties of the same nature as
engaged in the “forenoon watch,” and
at 4 o’clock this watch is again
changed. So you see that, generally
speak ing, the men have four hours ou
duty and four hours off. But if this
took place with undeviating regularity,
it is evident that one set of men would
always be on duty during the best part
of the night—an arrangement that
would be manifestly unfair. In order,
therefore, that one watch should not
have the long night’s duty there arc
Witot we sailors call the “dogwatches.”
Tnese watches are the hours between 4
o’clock in the afternoon and 8 o’clock
in the evening, The “afternoon
wetch” accordingly go below at 4
o’clock and come on deck at 6, when
they have two hours’ dog watch. At 8
they go below again, and thus by
means of these dog watches the crew
of a ship get alternate nights of duty
on deck.
Jack lives on a floating house of bu3i-
ness, which is continually carrying him
into unexpected labors. However, in
moderate weather, everything is usually
made snug aloft between 6 and 8 o’clock
iu the evening, when Jack’s work is
finished for the day. He may then
smoke his pipe, and sing his favorite
song or “shanty” to his heart’s content.
But if during the next few hours, or in
the course of the night, the barometer
goes down and the weather looks cmin-
ous of a gale to windward, he has tc
turn out of his snug corner in the fore¬
castle at a moment’s notice, when he
hears the boatswain shout: “All hands
shorten sail!” Now, this is one of the
worst features of Jack’s life, for nine
chances out of ten it is blowing great
guns when he gropes his way up on
deck and crawls up the shrouis, and
you can form no idea of the perilous
momentum of a vessel’s pitch until you
have been on her upper yards or jib-
boom trying to reef or furl sails in a
heavy sea.
That accidents are not more frequent
is probably owing to a sailor’s blind
luck or the efforts of the good little
cherub that is perched up aloft. When
a sailor has performed his task aloft on
a “dirty night,” the first thing he
thinks of is ardent spirits, and the
crew’ then sing the whiskey “shanty.”
One man usually starts the song as they
come down the shrouds, and the rest
smack their lip3 by way of a hint to the
Captain, and the line “I Drink Whisky
When I Can” is sure to be given with
such an emphasis os to soften the heart
cf the gruffest old. sea captain .—New
York Times.
Famous Amazons of Dahomey.
The Republic of France is at
with the King of Dahomey, and a
French newspaper published the infor¬
mation that a battle had been fought,in
which eight combatants were killed and
many wounded. The interesting fact in
the dispatch lay in the last lines:
“Among the dead were found some of
the female warriors of the King ot Da¬
homey.” Who are these Amazons?
About one-fourth of the females are
said to be married to the fetish, many
even before their birth, and the re*
mainder are entirely at the disposal of
the King. The most favored are select¬
ed as his own wives, or enlisted
into ’ the regiments of Amazons, and
L
then the chief men are liberally sup¬
plied.
The Amazons form the flower of the
army. They are marshaled into regi-
ments, each with its distinctive uniform
and badges, and they take the post of
honor on the flanks of the battle line.
Their number has been variously esti¬
mated at from one to six thousand.
Their weapons are blunderbusses, flat
muskets and bows and arrows, They
are in part recruited iu a remarkable
manner. If a woman in Dahomey has
an acrid temper, or if her husband
wants to get rid of her, he honors him¬
self by presenting her to the King, who,
if she has the requisite physical qualifi¬
cations, turns her over to bis army offi¬
cers to bo drilled a3 an Amazon.
It is said that at the death of th
King a horrid scene ensues. The wives,
after the most extravagant demonstra¬
tions of grief, attack and murder each
other, and remain in an uproar until
order is restored by the new sovereign.
—Philadelphia Press.
She Sweetly Requested.
There w r ere seven men standing on
the rear platform of a Gratiot avenue
car, and every one of them was smok¬
ing, when a woman signalled the con¬
ductor to stop, He held the door
open, but she stood and surveyed the
crowd for a moment, and as no one
moved she sweetly requested:
“Conductor, won’t you please knock
out one side of the car, so that I can
get out without disturbing those gen¬
tlemen ?”—Detroit Free Press.
Quite Tasteful.
“O Sophy! I hear you kissed Mr.
Rondo, tho poet, in the conservator
last night.”
“Um-m-m!”
“Tell me. What was it like?”
“Well, he has a very pronounced
literary taste.”— Pud.
The Strength of the Hills Is His, I
The Strength of the Hills, inexorable pow<*l
What might more stem than their grani*?.
breasts ?
Sky-ward in their pride the mountainil
tower, I
Tossing pine-plumes on their stately crests
Gray cliffs gleam out Irom the eh as red
where
Sudden the hill-tops were wrenched bare. apart,]
Leaving the rock in its s'ernness
Strong and silent, the mountain's He heart, |
Above their purple grandeur.
Whose strength is theirs, unbounded free!
Sits in resistless majesty.—
Dear heart! Thy grief Jehovah wills,
His is the awful strength of hills. i
The Strength of the Hills, beneficent power*
Cradling the light on their tender breasts*
Gently as mother-germs cradle the flower, ■
Softly as dew on the violet rests.
Rose-lights transfigure the mountains wherH
Noiseless the cloud-drifts above them part *
Raining the sun on their foreheads bare, H
Light and love to the mountain's heart! H
Throughout their blossomed beauty, He
Whose strength is theirs, protecting,
Whispers his boundless sympathy.—
O Friend, a Father reigns above,
The strength of the hills is rest, is love.
—Jessie F. O'Donnell, in Houscuoije,
HUMOROUS.
Railroad corporations are reticent
they keep their own counsel.
Teacher—Which teeth does man
last? Johnny Knowitall—The
ones, of course.
“You make me tired,” said the whee
to the wheelwright, as he unflinching];
hammered away.
A tableware trust is to be formed
Trust the servant girl to break it—thi
tableware, we mean.
Sometimes the office seeks the min,
but generally the man knows when th
office is on his track.
Do not regard with suspicion th
man who adopts an alias. It is a prope
ambition in any one to desire to mak
a name for himself.
Sumway (with newspaper in t.if
hand)—Here are some paragraphs head
ed “Police Intelligence.” Gazzain—
didn’t know they had any.
Minister (to convict)—My good mac,
I’m very sorry to find you here ii
prison. Convict II1I—Yes, sir; bu|
you ain’t half so sorry as I am.
I’m sure there’s little I would give for
The man who from his cares would fii
For
When you have nothing left to lire for,
You still have something less to die for.
Mamma to Maud—Your tastes an
really becoming quite too expensive, ajB
child. Remember that fine feathers d*
not always make fine birds. Maud—No
mamma; but you’ll admit they mak|
fine bonnets.
“No use,” said an impecunious debt
or to an importunate creditor, “yol
can’t get blood out of a turnip.” ‘
know that,” responded the creditor)
“but unless I get this money, l’|
have gore from a beat.”
Michigan produces a larger numb
of shingles than any other state in th
Union. In spite of this fact it is voiB
doubtful if the small boy of MichigaH
is any more obedient than the sura*
boy in any other state.
The intelligence of animals becarcB
one of the subjects of discussion all
little dinner party. An enthusiast^
advocate of the dog was asked: “I
you mean to tell us that there are son*
dogs with more sense than their nrastc*
can boast of?” “Certainly; I h 3 «
one.” 1
A Policeman’s Life.
There is an opinion very common!
held that the members of the polifl
force have, as the saying is, a “rcguli
picnic.” To my mind nothing coul
be further from the truth, To thos
who are thoroughly acquainted will
the duties and the life of a policeroal pubfl
it is perfectly plaiu that those
servants earn every dollar they recei*
from the city treasury. I was ridinl
on a Third avenue “dummy” train dfl
other day, when I saw one member
the force wfiose lot, at least, was r«|
enviable. He looked like a new rfl
cruit, too, but he bore himself like ■
hero. He certainly possessed sol*
of the spirit which enabled the can
martyrs to face the rack and the w:B
beasts of the Colosseum with a sm
It was, if I remember rightly, at Fiftiy
sixth street or thereabouts, The ofin
was with one arm supporting and lea
ing an intoxicated woman, while on <
other arm ho carried an infant bunffi 1
up in rags- The mother was singiw
the baby was crying and a crowd of A
chins at the officer’s heels were hootb
and laughing. Ifelt sorry for the p°
ft ’! n w. klyn Cit wen