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A 'SAND STORM. Grapkic ic Description of a Striking Scene in an African Desert. Lofty P' Ilars of Sand Carrying Destruction in their Path. Under the fairest skies the desert is an awesome solitude, but when a storm comes it is terrible and appalling. I shall never forget a scene I witnessed some forty miles beyond the great Pyramids, I had gained an isolated hillock, some two hundred feet above the level of the surrounding desert, Away to the west, about two miles dis taut, I descried six or seven lofty pillars of sand moving swiftly over tho un dulating plain. The center one of these w vertical, and those surrounding it, 4 t a distance of 200 or 300 yards, leaned slightly toward it. The sand at the base of the columns was lashed by the furious whirlwind into a surging sea. Desert trees of the hardest wood were torn up with their roots and hurled hundreds of yards away and high up into the air; even the grass that grew in the pa h of that ter rible -storm was shorn clean away from its roots. The summits of those columns of sand at length joined, and then burst forth from their united tops a yellow, gigantic cloud of sand of such magni tude and density as to darken, as in a total eclipse, the face of the bright af ternoon sun. The sand spout, called by the natives “zobahah,” shortly after subsided, but the cloud of sand and grass, which had been raised high in the heavens, continued to darken the setting sun for more than another hour. The smaller columu behind traveled •swiftly, increasing in size, until it reached the site of the break up of the other, and then added its mite to the universal destruction. With my sextant, .as I stood in secur ity, I measured the height of the center column of sand; it was nearly one thou sand feet. Ihe other columns were rising so rapidly that they soon reached a height greater than that of thc center column. When the junction of all them took place the-eudden eruption of sand, leaves and grass reached to a total height of over four thousand feet. These “zobahahs” are no-t-very frequent, but when they occur they carry widespread devastation along with them, and woe betide the traveler and the tent that hap pen to stand in their way. Not more tlian ten yards from the column tho air is perfectly c–lm, but, within the sma .,1 circumscribed circle, there rages such a tempest as will curry away anything, however firmly fixed in the ground, into the regions of the upper air as easily as ordinary an gust of wind will blow a piece of paper. The camel, this wonderful ship of the deseit, always knows a few hours befoie whether one of those approaching “zo bah.ihs is likely to come upon him, and hia datura! instinct will him a place of safety, where he lies down and only breathes tho cool reactive rent cur which closely follows -the burning, 081 su ffocating hot air which panies accom the “zobahahs.” Tho usual rawement of these sand spomts is in the of a wide circle, and the direction die center of the circle is almost in ariably tram south to north. When th esc awful turmoils d are over, fi the disturbing elements UWtd ha ve re* da 'b normal state, the burning g aU '* ?Cornes saturated the with a hcavv dew, sun is i ess angry, and the African desert “lore amenable to life in both men and leasts. Nature’s uitis wisdom and ed arc indeed beyond man’s lim BBdcrstaading. —Mail and Express. f urious Mexican Beetles. b industrious Mexican beetle in the Window of b jeweler on Broad furnish upper cs amusement to large cr °wds almost It is every hour of the day. b curious iookiug insect, and even persons 'Mil versed in natural history BaEle at first sight to tell exactly * ,lt ' ar iety it belongs. c It looks a cross between big black spider tod a a tumble bug. ..J,' »'lh 1 ''' (he h™' leg, 1 " a! *»» » vo'vcty blue back, a , |>Uor . Around the fhat ^°i d band a ^ acbcd t° a thread hoU 10 sect to miniature hu ttan skeleton. a and down The beetle crawls up larit the skeleton with the regu y of clock work. So precise Movements arothe Wtes that nearly every ono mis it f 0 r a mechanical toy. frie other afternoon Walter B. Price SCHLEY COUNTY NEWS. and Senator –tadler spent some time pondering oNer the beetle. “I don’t believe a piece of mechanism could be as perfect as that,” exclaimed the Sena tor. My. Price, who is a great student ot natural history, insisted that Nature had never constructed such a looking in sect, and as a result of the difference of opinion a wager was ma le. I pauied aocom the two gentlemen into the store to decide the wager. The jeweler said that it was a live Mexican beetle “It is a most curious insect,” he said, “and it is as busy as a bee. We have put on a false back of blue velvet to give it a brilliant appearance. We do quite a trade in them. Ladies wear them as charms to their chains. The Baroness Blanc set thc fashion of dcT’t ing them here in New York. I Tut know just how long they will live I know of several that are over five years of age. I am at a loss t 0 under staud how they exist, for they never eat or drink. We keep them in a show case with our watches. Some of them are very intelligent, and one of the clerks trains them to do a number of cute things. If he whistles they will come and crawl up his arm. They are as cunning as’possums. Thev turn on their backhand pretend to be dead when they scent danger. They sell for five dollars and upward, according to their education ” Five dollars sounds rather cheap for a beetle trained like a circus animal and dressed up like a Haytian field marshal, doesn’t it ?—New York Herald. A Festival at Samoa. A naval officer stationed at Samoa writes in a recent private letter: “The long waited for tolota, which you may not know is a native festival at which presents of food, etc., are given by the people to the King, companied with promises of allegiance, came off today, and I saw the people gather, all in best bib and tucker, in some cases a marvel of rich color. Here is a tiputa in thc most dazzling combi nation of crimson and grecr satin, and there a village maiden, abominably ugly, but with such a headdress, a mass of bleached hair standing on end, at least six inches high, looking like the puffy structure of the dandelion flower, and decorated with shells; in front are two horn-like protuberances adorned with pink and white feathe s. “The crowd is like one of our own on show days—universal; every man, woman, and child in the place and sur round.ng country is flocking to tho spot. The fathers and mothers are glistening with cocoauut oil; their hair is firmly brushed on end aid scented with sandal nut; aud they wear stiff lara- aras, or skirts, which bunch out, and give them a curiously awkward, appearance. “I don’t kuow what you may hear of Samoa no-w, but certainly Mataafa and the Admiral are on excellent terms. Usually tho common people dance before the King, but an especial honor was paid the Admiral by the chief’s dancing, something so unusual here that many people had never seen it before. A very grave, dignified-looking man this chief, wiih a kind face aud eve3 that speak very pleasantly whon he looks at you. Tho gale has destroyed much fruit and other products,and the natives will have a hard time of it making both cuds meet for the coming season. The Center of Bnlb Culture. The center of bulb culture in Holland, says Qartenflora , is still at Haarlem, as it has been during two centuries and a half. Hyacinths are especially in favor Just now, and ground suitable for their cultivation has sold for as much as $13, - 500 an acre, as against $1000 given for land of other kinds. The expense of cultivation is placed at about $300 an acre for hyacinths aud $160 for tulips; and it is noted that artificial manures arc never used. Narcissus is also grown in vast quantities near Haarlem, chiefly for exportation to England, Formerly the export trade in cut flower# was enor mous, one Haarlem firm having exported in a single scamn 11,000 cases; but an agreement was last year entered into by a m ajority of Dutch florists to abandon the Ala of cut flowers as competing with tho interests of purchasers of bulbs. Attempts have been made to extract the perfume of hyacinths, but only with moderate success, especially from the commercial point of view. Thc Fenian raid into Canada was in 1866 * THE CHINESE MIMES. An Oriental Dramatic Company in New York. The Players, Their Wardrobe, and Style of Performance. A fresh illustration of the cosmopoli tan character of New York city is afforded by the appearance of a Chinese dramatic company at the Windsor Theatre in a series of select plays from their own literature. Thespians in the Orient are as prone to altisonance and verbal splendor as our only P. T. Bar num. Each organization styles itself “The Heavenly Eloquent Company,” “Tk e Imperial Golden,” “The Pros perity and Beau,y Fratainit y.” or some - thi “ ff equaUy magniloquent. Our visi tor s are no exception, and call them SClvCS tlle Swiu Ti ° 1 Lo > 0r Soon Han L ° k ( " The Sublimest Company”), 14 consists of ncarl y fift y male actora > y ° Ung and °' d ’ women nCVCr bein " al ‘ Wd to S ° U *’° n th ° s!age ’ Mia ° r fe ‘ male P “ rtS are takett by ^ andyouths ‘’ ones by a class of actors who bavc counterpart in the American Wl4 ’ b "‘ ° f * h ° m “ thc impersonator of good old min J" 1 days is the neai€st a PP roach * Of this u . class the present has company a notable representative in Tak-A-Wing, who has long been considered a star of the greatest magnitude. Ilis voice is a treble, almost a soprano, and from in cessant practice, both on and off the stage, has become permanent rather than falsetto in character. The pecu liar gait and carriage of the Chinese woman, superinduced by bandaging the feet as well as "by circumscribed modes of living, are with him seconc nature, and he reproduces the actions and manners w’hich Oriental etiquette forces upon the sex with a fidelity w hich is A Chinese dramatic company is as much a unit as a company of soldiers in time of war. When they arrived in New York they did as they do invari ably, engaging an entire floor in a huge warehouse in Chinatown, where they cook, eat, sleep, study and rehearse to gether. They practice unceasingly, anc do it in a w r ay that would startle Amer ican players. Any departure from the precedents of their stage is met with scolding and objurgation, fines, penal ties of extra work, and where the of fence is very heinous with punishment. Chinese actors are born, not made, and from the first time they are permitted to appear, until they have become capable and experienced, their lives are a long experience of harsh words, privations, and many stripes. They obtain their reward, how ever, in wages that are higher in pro portion to money values in the east than are the large salaries earned by the pro fession in Europe and America. In thc Soon Han Lok the lesser lights receive $10, the stars $50 and $100, and the rest from $L2 to $25 per week. As their mode of living is inexpensive, and as their admirers indulge in the pleasaut practice of presenting them with money, food, tobacco and opium, their lot is far from unhappy. The “Sublimest Company” glories most of all in its wardrobe. Their pride is somewhat justifiable, as their many robes and dresses, armor and cos tumes, although somewhat the worse for wear and tear, are about as rich and beautiful as anything ever seen in this country. In the East, men's attire is remarkable for color and brilliancy. The mandarin, the scholar, the noble, the general and the high official has each distinctive robes, not only for thc class to which each belongs, but also for the occasion where it is to be worn. The.Sublime is thoroughly equipped in this regard, having not only all the standard articles of wear which belong to today, but also the numerous styles of tho past. In the Faithful Yassal they give in this way a very excellent picture of Chinese life as it was centu ries ago under the Tang dynasty. As might be naturally expected, thc “Sublimest Company” have not drawn great audiences of Americans to their performances, and here as on the Pacific coast, where they first appeared, they chiefly on the patronage of their fellow-countrymen. Americans who go curiosity to see them are quickly satisfied, and generally wearied by thc tediousncss of the action. The Chinese people themselves look upon their actors more contemptu than the British nation did in the day* when the term “player” was one of reproach. For example, Wong Laa, a wealthy merchant of the Chinese quar ter, speaking of the company now here, said: “Of course it is likely that we will go to the theatre to see them, but we go exactly as American gentlemen might go to see a prize-fight. We have abso lutely no consideration for the actors, and not only have no knowledge of them personally, but we would be rather ashamed to acknowledge it if we had any. With you Americans the line ol exclusion from society is drawn outside of your first- class actors and actresses. You might in\‘ite them to your houses, put you would not so invite the lower class of the variety stage. In our case we exclude them all. If I should have a party of friends at my house, and should introduce an actor to them, every one of them -would consider him self foully insulted.” The chief play in the repertoiro of the new company, and one that has long been a favorite with Chinese theatre goers, is Shee-Long Tan-Moo, which means “The Loyal Slave, or the Faith ful Vassal.” The play, which is of a historical character, is of the age of the Emperor Tang Yai Eoon, who, accord ing to the chronology as compiled by the missionaries, reigned early in the seventh century. It was one of the most flourishing eras of the history of the couutry.— Harper's Weekly. The Gypsies. There is a fascination about “gypsy lore” which is, perhaps, increasingly felt now that these nomadic insurgents are being gradually—slowly it may be, but surely—absorbed by the environing civilization. Thc altered conditions of modern society make their wandering life more difficult; their language is in vaded by gnujo elements; mixed mar riages attenuate the strength of the Ro many blood, and dotted over the map of Europe there are now little stationary colonies of house dwelling gypsies, who no longer take the road or ‘fold their tents like the Arabs.” The gypsies have been clearly visible in Europe for four centuries and a half. They have been the Ishmaclites of the modern world. If at the present day the law has ceased to treat them harshly the social pressure is probably greater, so that it is now or never for those who wish to make a scientific study of those wanderers. The prosecutions of the Zingari have been many and bitter, Even in the last century they were ac cused of cannibalism. To their foreign appearance and strange mode of life they added the practice of arts that were regarded as irreligious aud heath enish. It will be news to many to learn that it was not until 1856 that, by the aboli tion of Romany slavery in Dacia, the freedom of the Ziugari in Europe was completed. Colocci agrees with other observers in regarding the gypsies as practically destitute of religion, although willing to adopt nominally the prevail ing faith of any country in which they may be sojourners. In England they are Protestants, in Turkey, Mohamme dans. Morally they are untrained chil dren, indifferent to everything but the satisfaction of the desire of the moment, whether that desire be the offspring of love, or greed, or hate. While there is but little gypsy poetry among the English tribes, the “gift and faculty divine” appears profusely both in Spain and in the remoter part* of Europe. The gypsy sings thc beauty of his sweetheart; apostrophises the sun and stars wita heathen fervor, and cele* biates the success of the knavish ruses by which he has gained an advantage over the busno. Filial affection, also, finds a place in his songs, While he shows the frankest enjoyment of the ma terial side of life, there is often a spirit of profound melancholy manifested in these lyrics. The Zingari have always been famous for their love of music. The estimate which gives thc gypsy race a million soul3 is probably far be low tho truth —London Standard. London’s Great Growth. The population of London has grown from 150,000 in 1603 to 4,500,000 at thc present time. Supposing that the recent iate of growth were maintained, might easily, in the course of half century, possess a popula tion of over 7,001,000 . The six prin railway lines of tho metropolis annually over 200,000,000 peo Always to think the worst is the mark a mean spirit and a base soul. SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS. Recent experiments with sugar as a preventive of incrustation of steam boil ers are reported as giving very satisfactory results. Physicians say that the best time for the average woman of our civilization to marry is between the ages of twenty four and thirty-six. Oil to be spread on stormy waves has been inclosed in a cartridge and fired from an ordinary breech-loading gun, giving most excellent results. The amount of rain with a falling barometer in Great Britain is twice that with a rising barometer. Tho ratio diminishes as we go to eastward. The E iTl tower is 6aid to have changed the climate of Paris, As a matter of fact there has been, coinci dent with its existence a marked climat ic alteration. By the practice of rcvaccination the existence of smallpox has now become practically unknown in Germany. Thc Government makes vaccination compul sory and ten years is the limit in which revaccination is practiced. Australia has a remarkable form of earth-worm which would hardly make a good bait for trout. They are one and a quarter inches in diameter and six feet in length, and exhale a strong odor analogous to that of creosote. The St. Lawrence river, at the point where it is proposed to build a new bridge, is 24,000 feet -wide. Tho total length of thc bridge will be 34,000 feet. It will be of the Canti-lever pattern, and its estimated cost is $10,000,000. John Aitken of Falkirk claims tohav succeeded in counting the dust motes g; the air. He says that he has detaJ 30,000 such particles in the thomra of a cubic inch of the air of a A- m the outside atmosphere JKB. dry I y^^her the same me a- urenuBmTyielded j 2119; after a heavy rainf lie number was 521. A century ago only i BBsivu'ieSi of ,or chids wore known, ?$$$>{- vary nn perfectly. Now ifclMit .'.Authority gives the ld,000.|^fii^ cxtremo^Mpi RgMr-4 of known species at cx ‘ cessive estimate, the im mense advances which have been mad* in our knowledge of tiieso interesting plants, for which collectors now ran sack the most remote quarters of the globe. It is said that tho modern pas sionfor the cultivation of orchids sprang from the exhibition of some remarkable specimens at the early meetings of the English Horticultural Society. ,i A Fact Concerning Rattlesnakes. J “1 learned something about rattle snakes up in McConnell’s neighbor hood,” says a New Yorker in the Sun , “and that was that it i n’t always nec essary for a rattlesnake to coil itself up ^ c ^ ore it can strike. A girl ut the bouse where I was stopping one sum mer wen t *bo yard one day to take U P aomo xvash she had spread on the S rasa to dl 7- bha discovered a big rattlesnake stretched out on a table cloth. The girl shouted for some one to come aud kill the rattlesnake, which hurried out of sight under a neighbor ing pillow earn. A hunter named Deck er went out and lassoed the snake and carried it into the road, where he s ^ am l cd on hs head with the heel of his boot. He then took hold of tho iattles to pull them off of the snake’s tail, -when like a flash thc snake raised its battered head and struck back its eQ b r e length at Decker, Both of the ser P eQ t s v 7 e3 had been smashed out by tho hunter, but its fangs struck in Decker’s sleeve, half an inch above his bare wrist. “There was something peculiar about that snake. The day before it was killed the farmer who owned the place where I was stopping was assuring me that there had not been a rattlesnake around there in thirty years. While he was still talking about it a neighbor came up, carrying on a stick a rattle snake which he had ji.st killed not twenty yards above the house. The farmer was surprised. 44 i Well, said he,’ wo must look out n <> w . fer that snake’s mate will be here looking fer it tomorrow, sure. Kill one rattiesuake near a house, and its mato will put in an appearance tho next day. I never knew it to fail yet..’ “The snake that Decker killed the next day was, of course, looked upon as tbte other one’s mate, and undoubtedly was.”