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' ‘ The prison population of England has
fallen oil so much of late years, that out
of 113 prisons, fifty-seven have been al¬
together closed.
The new Constitution ot Brazil is, in
its general outlines, modeled after the
Constitution of the United States. It
establishes a Federal Republic, and places
power in the hands of the people.
An English syndicate nas Deen pricing
one of Philadelphia’s vast chemical works
of international repute, and is said to
have been staggered by the price named
—reported to be $20,000,000. Never¬
theless, the syndicate is still negotiating.
It is remarked as a curious fact that a
certificate representing one of our silver
dollars if carried into Mexico can be sold
at a premium of more than twenty per
cent, over the Mexican silver dollar,
which contains more silver than our
own.
I Bix hundred million uouars would
complete the Panama Canal by the year
1010, estimates the New York Sun. Be¬
fore the year 1000 the cuts already
wrought upon that isthmus will not have
left so much as a scar. Festoons of
vines, well-grown trees, a matted jungle,
fiocks of noisy parakeets and troops of
monkeys will be the visible scene where
France’s millions have vanished as one of
its own exhalations.
The Mail and Express thinks that
“Uncle Sam’s new plan of allowing the
soldiers of the regular army to buy their
discharge if they get dissatisfied, and
also of allowing them to quit the ranks
at the end of three years, if they so elect,
instead of five, ought to work well in
lessening desertions, The new pro-
vision that $4 per month shall be de-
ducted from the soldier’s pay lor the first
v.ar, and held as security against his
desertion, would seem to be a strong ad¬
ditional safeguard against his taking
French leave of the colors.”
The Musical World, announces the in¬
vention of three new and appalling in-
struments. Thc first is a bass fiddle
fourteen and one-half feet high and eight
and one-half wide. “The performer
takes his stand on a set of steps, and
skips up and down as the passages to be
played may require.” Secondly, we
have a steam trombone, “which can be
distinctly heard at a distance of four
miles.” Thirdly, an Italian has devised
what lie calls a “Nasi-flauto,” which the
performer plays with his nose, his mouth
being thus left free to smoke, sing, cat
or drink.
The Bank of England's doors are now
so firmly balanced that the clerk, by
pressing a knob under his desk, can
close the outer doors instantly, and they
cannot be opened again except by spe¬
cial process. This is done to prevent the
daring and ingenious unimployed of the
great metropolis from robbing this famous
institution. The bullion departments of
this and other great English banking es¬
tablishments are nightly submerged in
several feet of water by the action ol
machinery. In some of the London
banks the bullion departments are con¬
nected with the manager’s sleeping
rooms, and an entrance cannot be ef¬
fected without setting off an alarm near
that person’s head. If a dishonest offi¬
cial, during cither day or night, should
take even as much as one from a pile of
a thousand sovereigns, the whole pile
would instantly sink and and a pool ot
water takes its place, beside letting every
person in the establishment know of the
theft.
The correspondent of the London
Telegraph supplies the latest pen picture
of Bismarck: “Let me try to describe
the outward seeming of my illustrious
host, as he strode firmly along through
the leafy paths and umbrageous winding
ways of Friedrichsruh Park, manifestly
as sound in ‘wind and limb’ as the tough
est of his foresters or the hardiest of his
keepers. lie wore a soft, broad-brimmed
bat, a thick wide neckerchief knotted in
front, a long, dark, loose coat buttoned
up to the throat, gray trousers and strong,
double-soled boots. In his right hand,
ungloved, he carried a black stick with
a slightly curved handle, upon which he
rarely leaned while walking on level
ground. His mustache no longer over-
bangs his whole mouth, as of yore, but
has been trimmed comparatively short so
as to show the under lip. He bears him¬
self in his old martial fashion, with head
erect and shoulders well thrown back.
The incipient corpulence which made
kim appear somewhat over-bulky about
fen years ago has entirely vanished.”
MEXICAN COOKERY.
The Dishes Are Appetizing, Cut
Too Highly Spiced.
Primitive Way of Making Tor¬
tillas, the National Bread.
Every Mexican’s yard almost lias an
oven, built out of earth and rock, half
under and half over the ground; here
they bake their meats and some kind
of cakes, but their own breed is tortil¬
las. These are made by an interesting
and peculiar process. The Indian-corn
is boiled whole in water, into which a
little unslacked lime is thrown, until
the grain is tender. It is then taken
out, washed, put into clear cold water,
and allowed to soak all night. In the
morning it is drained dry and crushed
into flour between two stones—the
bottom one like a three-cornered tray
on legs of uneven height, so that it
Blopes downward; the upper, like a
rolling pin.
They place the tray upon the floor,
and kneeling, they mash and roll the
grain until it becomes a beautiful,
white, starchy flour, That is then
mixed with water into a paste, next
kneaded and flattened ont between the
hands into broad, very thin cakes. In
the mean time the mosquito fire in the
corner of the jacal has burned into a
grand bed of coals; on this is thrown
a flat sheet of iron, which is soon hot.
Here the cakes are placed, and brown
instantaneously; they are turned, and
in a minute are ready to be eaten.
They are good, too, but need salt, for
the Mexican mixes none of his bread.
The Mexican of the lower class uses
neither fork nor spoon, but rolls a
tortilla into a scoop, and so eats his.
chile con carne, f rijoles, etc.
"When too much softened bv the
gravy to take up the food, he eats his
improvised spoon, takes another tor¬
tilla, and proceeds as before. They
sit on the floor to eat, putting the dish
of food in the middle of the circle,
and not in one house out of six of the
lower order is there a table. They
are hospitable in the extreme, welcom¬
ing a perfect stranger to their homes
and offering him of their best.
The Mexican cooking, though Amer¬
icans have a prejudice against it, is
exceedingly appetizing, but for most
palates too highly peppered, chile en¬
tering largely into the composition of
every dish. Y r et it is a rare good
feast one can have by ordering the
following bill of fare:
Sopa dc Fiileo.
Gallina con Chile. Tamales.
Frijoles Jlejicana. Enchiladas.
Chile con Carne. Tortillas.
Salza de Chile.
Pastel de Liraon. (ir.inadas de China.
Cafe.
Out in the street, on the sidewalk at
night, one finds here and there about
the town blazing fires, aim over them
set great three-cornered pieces of iron
sheeting supported on legs. These
sheets have round places cut out of
them,and over these holes are tin cans,
theiv contents boiling merrily.
Tamales are cooking here, and the
Mexican woman who is tending them
looks like one of the witches in Mac¬
beth, as she moves about in her short
red skirt with her black shawl about
her wrinkled brown face, while the
fire-light falls upon her in fitful
gleams, now throwing her figure into
broad relief, then leaving it in shadow.
Behind her the open door cf the jacal
shows a blazing fire within, and on the
floor, playing gravely in the quivering,
dancing light, many children of differ¬
ent hues; for, be it known, this peo¬
ple is not a moral one, and a family
of Mexican children may vary in all
the shades between black and white.
This is, bien entendu, of the lower
orders.—[Harper’s Magazine.
Sitting Bull at the Telephone.
When an Indian can not explain a
thing on natural grounds he attributed
the mystery to the action of the Diety.
It is the Great Spirit's doing. I well
remember Sitting Bull’s introduction
to the telephone, writes Captain King
in the Courier-Journal. It was liis
first visit to the States, and I was bid¬
den to St. Paul to meet the old schemer
in hopes of getting something out of
him about his share in the Custer
battle. Of this, however, he would
not talk, and I don’t blame him. for is
soon transpired that he ran away with
the squaws.
But we had some fun out of him.
His nephew, Spotted Horn Bull, wa3
of the party. We seated him in a cer¬
tain oflice at the telephone with an in-
terpreter to show how to work it, and
then marched the old man several
blocks away to the Pioneer Press
building, and then asked him if he
would not like to talk with “Spot.”
lie smiled contemptuously when the
telephone was pointed out to him, but
as the agent assured him it was no
joke he was persuaded to ask some
question in the Sioux language. IIo
did so with a shrug of his blanketed
shoulders and an incredulous grin on
his face.
The next instant lie started as
though shocked; the ear trumpet
dropped from his nerveless hand, and
he almost fell out of his chair.
“Waukon!” was his only explanation,
which might be translated “the
devil!” Spotted Horn Bull had an¬
swered him in Sioux and nearly scared
the life out of him. He would not
touch it again that night.
A Japanese Royal Progress.
A Japanese royal progress has stih
some novelty to European eyes. On
the occasion of a recent visit of the
Empress of Japan to the city of Osaka
the following regulations were pub¬
lished “for the guidance of the peo¬
ple” while her Majesty was passing:
‘‘When her Majesty shall pass along
no one must look at her from the
frame built on houses for the drying
of clothes, or through cracks in doors,
or from any position in the upper por¬
tion of their houses. If anybody
wishes to sec her Majesty he or she
must sit down at the sides of the road
by which her Majesty will pass. No
one must look at her Majesty without
taking off his hat, neckcloth or turban,
or whatever else lie. may be wearing
on or abouit liis head.
Moreover, no one must be smoking
while he ©>r she is looking at her Ma¬
nor must any one carry a stick
cane. Only women wearing for¬
eign clothes will be permitted to re¬
tain their head covering. Although it
may rain, no person will be allowed to
put up an umbrella while her Majesty
may be passing. As her Majesty pass¬
es no one must raise liis voice, nor
must any sound be heard, nor must
the crowd close in and follow r her car¬
riage; for no noise must be made.
When her Majesty reaches Umeda
Station there will be a discharge of
fifty fireworks.”—[London News.
Use Good Flour for Pastry.
The use of good pastry flour is a
matter more essential to the prepara¬
tion of perfect puff paste or of tender
cake than anything else. Good cake
or puff paste which is a mass of deli¬
cate crisp layers cannot be made from
bread flour. Since the introduction
of the “patent roller” process in mill¬
ing, the best bread is made from spring
wheat grown in favorable sections of
the country. Pastry flour must be
made from winter wheat in order to
possess the requisite qualities. For a
long time after the introduction of
the patent roller winter wheat was
ground bv the old process, and this
flour went by the name of “old pro¬
cess” flour.
All flour now i3 ground by the pa¬
tent roller; and by improvements in
the last few years as much gluten, it is
said, is saved by this method as by the
old process. An excellent pastry flour
is made of pure winter wheat at St.
Louis and at Baltimore. There are
several brands of so-caLed pastry flour
in market, which are prepared from
spring wheat merely “softened,” as
the dealers term it, with a little winter
wheat. This flour is offered as a com¬
promise and is recommended as good
for both bread and pastry. In point
of fact it is inferior for both uses.
Nothing shows the lack of “softness”
in the flour made of spring wheat so
quickly as cake. Bread flour makes
tough, dry cake.— [New York Trib¬
une.
The World’s Railroads.
There are 3G0,0Cp miles of railroad
in tho world, or enough to reach
around the world 14 1-2 times. There
are 104,000 locomotives; England has
80 locomotives for every 100 miles of
road, while in the United States there
are only 19 to every 100 miles. The
railroad capital of tlie world is estima¬
ted at $29,000,000,000. A good many
railroad companies are having their
freight cars equipped with air brakes.
Nearly all of them are ordering addi¬
tional locomotives.—[Chicago Sun.
A Moving Mountain.
A traveling mountain is found at
the cascades of the Columbia river in
Oregon. It is a triple-peaked mass of
dark brown basalt, six or eight miles
in length where it fronts the river, and
rises to a height of almost tw'o thou¬
sand feet above the water. That it is
in motion is the last thought which
would he likely to suggest it.-elf to the
mird of any one passing it: yet it is a
well-established fact that this entire
mountain is moving slowly but stead¬
ily down the river, as if it had a delib¬
erate purpose some time in the future
to dam the Columbia and form a great
lake from the cascades to 1 the Dalles.
Tho Indian traditions indicate irn-
nrrense movements of the mountains
hereabouts long before white men
came to Oregon, and the early settlers
—immigrants, many of them’, from
New England—gave the above-de¬
scribed mountainous ridge the- name
of “traveling mountain,” or “sliding
mountain.” In its forward, and
downward movement the feveota
aiong the base of the ridge have? be¬
come submerged in the river. Large
tree stabs can be seen standing deep in
the water on this shore. 'The railway
engineers and the brakemen fi-.:d that
the line of the railroad which skirts
the foot ©*f the mountain is being oou^
tinuallv forced out of place.
At certain points the roadbed and'
rails have- been pushed eight or ten.
feet out of line in the course of a few
years. Geologists attribute this-
strange phenomenon to the fact that
the basalt, which constitutes the bulk,
of the mountain, rests on a substratum,
of conglomerate, or of soft sandstone,,
which the- deep, swift current of the-
mighty river is constantly wearing
away, or that tins softer sub-rock is-of
itself yielding, at great depths, to. th#
enormow- weight of the harder mate^
rial abewe.—[Commercial Advertiser.
A Big Fish in a Cornfield..
During the season’s run, says a re¬
cent letter from Kankakee, Ill.,, we
have Been catching what we consider
large catfish. Fishing from the mill
platform, twelve or fifteen feet over
the boil and flurry in front of the dam,
with, a light rod, the smallest taken
has afforded excellent sport,, while a
seven or eight-pounder taxes the skill
and outfit of the best fisherman to
bring him to hand. But little Charley
Sehniftke, fishing with a com knife in
his father's cornfield, six miles back
from the river, has beaten, the record
for size.
Observing a commotion in a ditch
in the field, when the water had sub¬
sided after a heavy rain, he investi¬
gated, and saw a large fish floundering
around and making every effort to
reach deep water. Securing the all-
convenient corn knife, a few cuts
quieted the li-h, which proved to be a
“buffalo” weighing twenty-four
pounds. To reach this point it must
have left the river a mile above the
dam and followed Gar Breek for
about a mile and a half, and then the
county ditch for probably four miles.
It then entered an ordinary ditch run¬
ning through fields and crossing one
road, and made its way over a mile
farther until it readied the scene of
capture.
Virtue of Apple Sanse.
Probably not one in a thousand of
the many persons who eat apple sauce
with roast goose have any idea why
such a condiment should be used in
these particular cases, Yet the cus-
tom is based, if not on exact science,
at least on a knowledge of the proper¬
ties of the apple, as well as upon ob¬
servation. The malic acid of the ap¬
ple tends to neutralize any excess of
chalky matter engendered by eating
too much, and it also serves to elimi¬
nate from the body noxious matters,
which, if retained, would mak> the
brain heavy and dull, or lean to jaun¬
dice or skin eruptions.
Apple sauce aids the digestion,
which in the case of the rich meats
with which it ■ is usually associated,
would be sluggish.—[Pittsburg Dis¬
patch.
He Used Diplomacy.
Lady (to tramp)—I’ve a good inind
not to give you anything. Why do
you always come to this house?
Tramp—Madam, the woman in the
next house is such a wretched cook
that I couldn't eat anything she'd give
me.
Lady (sweetly)—Come right in,
sir.—fLippincott.
Wild Plum.
Overhead is the hum
Of the wind in the glooi*
Of the sentinel pines;
And below the wild plum.
Where the slanting sun shines
Shows its snowy white bloom *
Flings its subtle perfume
On the breeze
To the bees.
IIow they hover around,
Tiny bandits and bold,
Making thefts honey-swet
With a murmurous sound!
And the psyches they meet,
Little atoms of gold.
Join the frolic, and hold
Jubilee
Bound the tree.
Where is 3Inb? where is Puck?
Is that Ariel sings
From the crest of yon hough
That no mortal should pluck?
O but list to it now!—
Bevellings, rapturings;—
Then a glimmer of wings
And away
Like a ray.
IIow the bloom and the balm
And the bee and the bird.
In the depth of the wood.
To the heart bring a calm.
To the spirit some good.
31ore than music or word!
Every fibre is stirred
By the hum,—
And the plum!
—[Clinton Scollard
HUMOROUS.
A clothes carriage—The laundry
wagon.
Base ball mem do not believe ii
rough diamonds.
Alt plain sailing—Navigating
prairie schooner.
A howling success—The dog that is
locked oat all night next door.
“Do you think base-ball is
ort the square ?”' “Nope. On the
month”
The reaiso-rr most poets think to
purposeis that their thoughts are idyl,
thoughts^
It is not the man who grinds his
teeth over trifles who lias got the most
grit in him.
Sewing-circles are sometimes gath-|
erings where dresses are sewed ami
characters ripped.
A teakettle can sing when it is mere-
ly tilled with water. But man, proud
man, is no teakettle.
Men are “driven to drink” in differ¬
ent ways: some fellows simply go to
the club in a carriage.
Boston ladies attend base ball games
in large numbers. They are ou the
lookout for a good catch.
Nothing suits a cross man more than
to find a button oil' his coat when hi*
wife has not time to sew it on.
A sma'.l Boston girl of three, after
a visit in the country, remarked wist-
fully: “1 wish we had a house out of
doors.”
Young Tom (who has come to ask
to be allowed to go fishing)—Now.
mamma, don’t say I can’t, because
you’ll just make me disobey you.
“The sphere of woman is certainly
extending,” said Mrs. Lashington to
her husband; “every once in a while
some woman goes into the lecture
field.” “Yes,” said her husband,
wearily, “every marriea man knows
that.”
1 1 ‘ Wanted — rel iable men, y yf read
Mrs. Bascom from the advertising col¬
umns of the paper. Then she raised
her glasses upon her forehead, looked
severely at her husband and remarked:
“And the world’ll -wait a considerable
number of centuries yet before it gets
’em.”
A Trout as a Bird Hunter.
“I was sitting on my front porch
Sunday morning,” said Mr. Tift to a
reporter, “reading the News, when 1
was startled by a noise and fluttering
sound that came from the side yard-
I jumped and ran to the end of the
porch just in time to see what was the
matter, and I witnessed one of the
miracles of my life. I have in the
pool surrounding my fountain several
tish, trout taken from the creek, and
on the edges of the pool the grass
grows thick. An English sparrow
had alighted on the grass to get some
water, and one of the fish seeing the
bird swam near him, made asuap a nt ^
caught him. The bird screamed and
fluttered, but it was too late. When l
reached the end of the porch the fish
swallowed the bird and went swim¬
ming around the pool in the most
satisfactory way.”—[Albany (Ga.)
Naw*.