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BLACK DIAMONDS.
PASSPORTS IN FRANCE.
ATOP THE SPIRE. ~
Their Origin a Riddle That 8c!onoe
Seem* Unable to Solve
Genuine black diamonds, although
considerably more valuable than the
ordinary white diamond, arc not
used for gems, haying an appear
ance po more attractive than a bit
of stone or fragment of coni, being
dark gray, brownish or black in
color and opaque, without crystal
line form. They are somewhat
harder than the crystal or gem dia
mond, being, in fact, about the
hardest substance known and are
found in irregular pieces ranging
in size from one-half to 500 carats.
The origin of the black diamond
subject on which science re
mains silent. They are found in
hut one spot on the earth—an urea
of not over 225 miles square, in
Brazil. Here they are recovered
from the gravel and washings of the
river beds. No fine specimens of
the gem diamond have ever been
found in the black diamond fields.
Yet—and this is the point over
which science hah vainly puzzled—
both black and white or gem dia
monds are simply pure earbou, be
ing of .practically identical compo
sition. The gem diamond is trans
lucent and crystalline in form, while
• the other is not. The bluck dia
mond is harder, tougher and not so
brittle, and there the difference
ends.
Practically the entire output of
black diamonds is used for tipping
diamond drills, the precious bits of
carbon being set in pieces of soft
steel or iron. These diamond point
ed drills ; will eut through any sub
stance known and have eaten their
wny through the hardest known
rock down to a depth of G.000 feet.
Ordinary! gem diamonds would be
crushed gndcr the enorrabus pres
sure it is ( necessary to put upon the
drills when the bore has gone to a
great depth. No sbbstance is known
which could be used in place of the
black diamonds for drill points used
in boring,for mineral deposits, and
should the supply become exhaust
ed there would be no more deep
borings, as there were none before
the black diamond was discovered.
The diamond drill is a decidedly
expensive tool, as it is usual to
place eight stones in each bit or
drill point, and fair sized stones of
three to four carats each are more
satisfactory and economical in the
long run than small ones. As the
carbon is worth about $85 per
carat, a single drill armed with
stones of medium size would cost in
the neighborhood of $2,500.—Hitr-
per’s Weekly.
The Marseillaise.
The famous battle hymn known
as thq "‘Marseillaise” is generally
attributed to Jiouget de Lille, a
French engineer officer, who, it is
said, composed it in 1792 to cheer
up- the conscripts at Strasburg. ..
derived its. name from a body of
troops from Marseillan marching
into Paris playing the tune. The
piece became instantaneously popu
lar, and from that day to this it
has never failed, wherever sung or
played, to arouse the martial ardor
of the hearers to the highest pitch.
As an inspifation for fighting it is
beyond doubt the most successful
musical composition ever known.
The author of the immortal piece
was pensioned by Louis Philippe in
3830 and died in 1836.—New York
American,
Fish That Cannot Swim.
More than ( one species of fish is
met with that cannot swim, the
mqst singular of which is the mal-
tlie, a Brazilian fish,'whose organs
of locomotion only enable it to crawl
or walk or hop after the manner of
a toad, to which animal this fish to
some extent bears a resemblance.
It is provided with a long, upturned'
snout. Other examples of nonswim- '
ming fishes include the sea horse, an
other most peculiarly shaped inhab
itant of the $ea.. and. the starfish,
of which there are many specimens,
which walk and crawl on the shore
and - locks, both being unable to
Evciri. t
Th* Kind That Wer* la.ucd In th*
Time of Louis XVI.
Thc^nysterioua cards of thc-Gmint'
de Vergonncs eneh contained a brief
history in cipher of those to whony
they were given. ; De Vergcnnes was
Louis XVl.’s ihiriistcr of foreign uf*
fairs, and when strangers of u sus
picious character were about to en
ter France he issued to them these
strange cards, which acted as pass
ports, und were also intended to
give information, concerning the
bearer without his knowledge.
In the first place, its color indi
catcd tho nationality of the man
who carried it. The person’s agej
approximately, was told by the shape
of the card. Af*fillet around the
border of the card told whether lie
was a bachelor, married or a vyid-
Ower. Dots gave information as to
his position and fortune, and the
expression of his face was shown by
a decorative flower.
The stranger’s religion, was tokl-
by the punctuation after his .name.
If he was a Catholic it was a p^riocL
if a Jew a dash, if he \vas a Luther
an a semicolon and no stop at all
indicated liim a nonbeliever.
So a man’s morals, character and
appearance were pointed out by the
pattern of his passport, and the au
thorities could tell at a glance
whether he was a gamester or a
preacher, a physician or a lawyer,
and whether he was to be put under
surveillance or allowed to go free.—
Exchange.
The Antiquity of Coal.
It is thought that the earliest
reference to coal is that, found in
the writings of Aristotle and of
Theophrastus, who lived about 238
B.C.
There is evidence that coal was
used in England as early as the year
852. According to Bishop Piylsey,
Escomb and Bishopwearmouth. were
two of the earliest coal mining set
tlements. Newcastle coal 'appears
to have come into notice about the
year 1234, when Henry III. granted
the inhabitants a charter authoriz-
them to mine for it.
The Chinese knew of and used
coal, in the thirteenth century. The
earliest reference to coal in Belgium
is assigned to the year 1198, when a
blacksmith at Liege is said to have
been the first in the kingdom to em
ploy it as fuel.’
Paris received its first coal from
Newcastle in 1520. In Scotland
coal was worked as early as the
twelfth century.—Harper’s.
Tho Lynn Man Got In.
A shoe salesman from Lynn was
very anxious to’sell to a large con
sumer in Cincinnati. The buyer of
the Cincinnati house, who had a
bizarre sense of humor, bought ac
cording to whim. When fhe sales
man’s card came in lie kept it and
sent out the office boy with a nickel
to pay for it and break the news
gently that nothing was doing. The
office boy returned with another
card.
“What’s that for?” asked the ca
pricious buyer.
“He said you weren’t getting your
money’s worth,” replied the boy.
“He sells two of these cards for a
nickel.” . t ... ..
The Lynn man got in. — New
York Sim.
He Had the Last Word.
1 A lohTurcr wns annoyed,by a man
in the audience who insisted on
rising uni asking quesrtbtis. “Sit
down. ou ass!” said a second man,
lumping up. “Sit down, you too,”
cried i third plan; “you arc both
asses.’’
“Tin re seem to be plenty of asses
10U1 t'ori r*» lit mil in flip InpHirnt-
aboui ronrglit, 9 pul in the lecturer
calmly “but for heaven’s sake let
us !h':i one at. a time;”
“\V( ’.-.you go nn then,” said the
first i . n. resuming bis seat.—Bos
ton’! nscript.
A Golf Story.
Wilkins 1 whs an enthusiastic
golfer, and when his*friend John
son mot him coming away from the
links a day or two ago he was in a
terrible frame of mind. “What’s
happened, old fellow?” asked John
son amiably. “Everything’s hap
pened!” growled Wilkins. “It’s
enough to make one give up goff
and go in for fishing. That ass Fitz-
noodle has been‘running all over
the course and actually crossed my
tee juBt as I was about to make a
lovely drive. What would you have
done had you been in my place?”
“Well,” he replied, with a smile,
“seeing that he .crossed your ‘t’"l
.think I would have dotted his ‘i/ ”
—Exchange.
Thrilling Incident In the Lit* of JarriM
Freeman Clarke. .
When James Freeman Clarke,
the famous Unitarian .minister and
uutbrir, was a young man.he visited
Salisbury, England, liere the beau
tiful cathedral lifts its spire 404
feet into the air. The spire is top
ped by a bull, und on the ball stands
a cross. From the ground the ball
looks like an orange, but its diam
eter is really greater thun a mun’>
.height; , . : v-
Workmen were repairing the
spire. Mr. Clarke saw them crawl
ing round the slim steeple in the
f olden afternoon like bugs on a
ean stalk. The impulse came to
him to climb the spire and stand
on thp horizontal beam of the cross.
Accordingly at dusk, when the work
men had left, the young American
slipped in and made his way up the
stairs to the little window which
opened to the workmen’s staging.
To run up the scaffolding to the
ball was easy. Then came, the
slightly more bulging curve of the
ball. A short platform gave him
foothold. He reached up. put his
hands on the base of the cross and
pulled himself up. To gain the
cross arm was merely “shinning”
up a good sized tree, and soon he
stood on the horizontal timber and.
reaching up, touched the top of the
cross.
After enjoying his moment of
exaltation he slid to the foot of the
cross and, with his arms round the
post, slipped down over the great
abdomen of the ball. His feet
touched nothing. The little plank
from which he had reached up was
not there!
Here was a peril and one for a
cool head and sure eye. Of course
he could not look down. The hug
ging hold that he had io keep on
the bottom of the cross shortened
the reach of, his body and made, it,
less than when he. had stood on the
plank and reached up to the cross
with his hands. He must drop so
that his feet should meet the plank,
for he would never be able to pull
himself back if he should let him
self down at arm’s length, and his
fe^t bung, over empty nir.
Now his good head began to
work. He looked up at the cross
and tried to recall exactly the angle
at which he had reached for it, to
make his memory tell him just how
the edge of that square post had ap
peared. A few inches to the right
or to the left would mean dropping
into vacancy. V
Bending his head away back, he
strained his eye up the cross and
figured his angle of approach. He
cautiously wormed hirnBelf to the
right and made up his mind that
here, directly under his feet must
be the plank. Then he dropped.
The world knows.that he lived to
tell the tale.
Nerve.
“Bigbee has a nerve.”
“Why so?”
“1 threatened to sue him for the
$100 he owes me.”
“Yes?”
“And be asked'me to sue him
for $200 and give him the other
hundred.”
Sure of One Thing,
Mark Lemon in one of his books
tells qf, a fat little boy who passed,
his instructor on the street without;
bowing.
“What has become of your man
ners, sir?” cried the teacher, shock
ed and frowning. “It seems to me-
tliat you are better fed than taught.”
“Yes, sir,” replied the boy solemn
ly. “I feeds myself, sir.”
Disadvantages of lllitoracy.
When a soldier is confined in the
guardroom for an offense a written
copy of the crime is invariably band
ed to the commander of the guard.
A corporal having given an order,
one of the jnon, seemed disinclined
to obey, when; after having rebuked
him sharply, lie shouted in angry
tones, ‘‘It’s u good job for you, me
lad, that 1 can’t spell insubordina
tion, or,I’d shove you in the clink
(guardroom) sharp,”—London Tele
graph.
A Criterion of Age.^
Birmingham—Your daughter is
to marry a young man named Hill,
I believe? Manchester—Yes. He
belongs to one of the very oldest
families in the country. Birming
ham—I didn’t know that he came
from a particularly old family.
Manchester—Oh, yes. You often
hear people use the expression, “As
old as the Hills.”
RHEUMATISM.
Why It I* Wi*e Not to Ignor* ‘‘Grow-
ing Fains’’ In Children.
Acute inflammat ry rheumatism
attacks people all ligos and Con
ditions and is arcaded not Only be
cause of the intense pain that ac
companies it, but ulso biicuuso it pf-
ten leuves behind it u permanently
injured heart. This complication
is especially frequent in children.
Severe pain, with redness und swell
ing of the joints, makes the diag
nosis easy in most cases of inflam
matory rheumatism in adults, but
in young children these symptoms
may be too slight to be observed,
while at the same time the heart is
suffering serious damage.
So called “growing pains” may
be the beginning of nn attack of
acute rheumntism, or a child, al
though it does not give up its play,
may complain that there is pain in
the soles of its feet when it stands.
If these pains are accompanied by
the least redness or swelling of any
joint and if there is also fever the
diagnosis of inflammatory rheuma
tism is clear.
The child should be put at once
to bed and kept there nil through
the acute stage of the disease. In
this way the attack may sometimes
be shortened, and the shorter it is
the less danger there is of the
heart being, affected. The medical
treatment of the case should be in
the hands of a competent physician.
Fortunately there are today reme
dies for the quick control of rheu
matism that were unknown a few
years ago, when it sometimes ran a
course of many weeks.
While the pain is severe, the
clothing should be arranged with a
view to the greatest possible com
fort for the patient, The night
dress should be. of soft flannel and
should fasten all the way down the
front, because the profuse sweats
characteristic of this disease make
frequent changes necessary. It is
well to have a soft blanket under
the patient, and the bedclothes
must be light, as well as warm.
Where the joints are much swollen
and very painful the clothes will
have to be lifted away from the
body by a wooden cradle. The
nurse must be deft and careful, be
cause iii the acute stage the least
clumsinessjnay cause the most acute
agony, so that, even a heavy footfall
is dreaded by the patient.—Youth’s
Companion.
WONDERS OF FLIGHT- r
Deschapelles.
Deschapelles, tho greatest whist
player the world has ever seen, had
but one hand and was an advanced
Republican. His manual dexterity
was remarkable, and it -was very in
teresting to watch him with his
one hand—and that his left—col
lect the cards, sort them, play them
and gather them , in tricks. Late
in life, when he had developed into
ardent republicanism, he was sup
posed to have been mixed up in
some of the attempts at‘revolution
which broke out in the earlier days
of the reign of Louis Philippe. His
papers were seized, and it was prov
ed that he had drawn up a list of
persons to be disposed of. Among
them was an elderly acquaintance,
so'described :.“Vntry (Alphie) to be
guillotined—Reason—citoyen inu
tile. Vatry is a bad whist player.”
Puzxllng A*rl*l F«»t* of .tho Graceful
Blaok Headed Gull. , . „
l“Flight ia tho master ifeat of wild
life, tub ( muster, physical fekt Jot
ull,” writes Geoi'go Dewar in “Min
iatures. ’ “Thcyo aro-foots of birds
and insects—of plants, too—subtler
than tlioso of tho wing, more mystic
in tho doing. Thus tho way finder
feuts uro tnoro curious and far
harder to follow—tho means - by
which tho emperor moth can dis
cover where is tho empress, which
wo huvo caught and impri^ned in
a dark box; tho ineuha by which
tho root of a tree knows its crooked,
path round obstacles to food; the
means by which tho Wreathing stem
of tho bfuqk brydny! can recognize
and correct its error after it has
strotched out and felt for support
in a vain direction, lb tlics'e there
are feats of physical intelligence
strangor to consider than, anything
which th.n swiftest, deftest flier
docs with its wings, f.t • • V :
“But the feat of flight is the most
brilliant of all animal accomplish
ments. Its sure,' swift, easy,, tri.-
umph, its grace, the siipremo beauty
of its action—these make an ani
mal’s flight matchless as a spectacle.
All thut is athletic and all that- is
aesthetic in movement here com
bine.
“A black headed gull is floating
and gliding,' riot quite flat on the
afr. The tip of ohe wing—say 'the
right—inclines skyward, the tip' of
the other earthward. Thus he moves
forward, up or down or quite paral-
.111
lei with the earth or water for. a
little distance, wings full stretched
and rigid. Then comes a very per
ceptible change. No flap or stroke
of the wing appears to be made for
fresh progress, but the bird turns
its body slightly, and with the body
the full spread, rigid wings. The
result is that the right wing now in
clines earthward and the left sky
ward, and so the bird proceeds for
another twenty yards.
“The turn is so slight, so easy,
one can hardly irpagine the bird
lias won through its new impetus.
How can those wings in this smooth,
lazy action have stirred the thin air
enough to draw from it'sustaining
force? And lioiv is it that with
out a perceptible stroke the bird is
not only upheld, but driven for
ward, though not traveling with the
wind? Perhaps we must seek an
answer in the marvelous perfection
of wing in a gull. The least move-
m’ent of the tip of tliatwing—move-,
ment we are not conscious of when
the bird is swung' high abovq us—
may serve the purpose of flight. The
faintest touch of the wing tip may
be a master touch.”
Spails’ “Eyes."
We arq all. familiar with the pe
culiar structures - which the cqm-
moh snail protrudes from .its head,
as' it travels' "Along, ‘ seemingly 1 ex
ploring the territory around by what
we are accustomed to describe as
eyes,” situated at the end of the
“feelers.” But this is a misappre
hension. It appears that, if the
ends bearing the so called “eyes”
are cut off, the sngil, after a little
while, proceeds on its way ip ex
actly the usual way, thrusting out
its tentacles and behaving much as
before. It is therefore doubtful
whether this “eye”, has,any visual
function at dll. It seems rather that
the tentacles, by touch or in some
other way,'inform the snail of the
presence and character of neigh
boring objects.
Dresden Runs a Paper.
Dresden appears to be the only
town where the principle of munic
ipal ownership extends to newspa
pers.' On bis death some years ago
the proprietor of. the leading. Dres-
l'eri newspaper bequeathedQg]) his
roperty to the town where he had
(ill np bis fortune, and the muni-
. ii-iiitv lias since run the paper on
lines. The profits.
. Hie. terms v 'i
"" Confused Terms.
The superintendent asked the
Sunday school: “With what remark
able weapon did Samson slay the
I’ijilistihes?’-’
; For awhile there was no nr wer.
The superintendent, to revive the
children's memory, commenced lap
ping his jaw with t-he tip of his.
finger, at the same time saying,
“What's this?”
Hu" I; thought a little fellow
repl c.l ■;’■■■ omoeenrly:
- uie of an ass, sir,”—f
Yill h r nnthlv.
George Eliot and “Romola.”
George Eliot’s first arrangement
with the publisher of “Romola” was
for no less a sum than 10,000 guin
eas. “As that is so very large a
figure,” he said, “I must run it
in fifteen numbers of the Corn-
hill”. “No,” she answered; “it must
finish in twelve numbers or the ar
tistic effect of the story will be lost.
I quite understand the necessity
for its prolongation from a com
mercial point of view, so we’ll say
7,000. guineas instead of the 10,-
000.” • And 7,000 guineas was ac
cordingly paid for the copyright*
Three thousand guineas ' seems a
largo sum to give up for an artistic
scruple, but she did it, . . , .. ,
i le) m The Stinging .Tree.
, .The. stinging tree of Australia
sora.ewhat resembles a gigantic net
tle.' It has an unpleasant odor, and
the natives and native animals are
careful to avoid it. When a man is
stung by the tree—or, to'put it
more prosaically, pricked bv the
tree’s thorn—the little, wound' gives
him at first do pain whatever. But
in a few minutes a thaddening pnin
is set’ up; the victim shrieks •arid-
rolls upon the ground. For months
afterward when water touches the
stung part great agony ensues.
Dogs when stung rush about with
piteous whines, biting pieces Of
flesh from the place that has been
stung.
Keeping Up Style.
Mr. Minks—That girl vvfts decent
enough to black the stoves before
going, I see.
Mrs. Minks —No; T blackened
them mvsolf, and it’s lucky 1 did.
Mr. Minks—Lucky?
Mrs. Minks.— Yes, indeed. Mrs.
De Fashion and Mrs. De Style call
ed right in the midst of it,” and so
I just put a little more blacking on
mv lace and went to Hie door and
told them 1 wasn’t in. They said
they’d call again. — Now York
Weekly.