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The Great Iowa Storm.
The Wonderful Tornado Activity.
The storm-cloud proper entered the
city from the southwest, first striking
the earth on the north -ide of the (J.
R. I. and P. R. R. This terrible
“reaper of death” cut a swath through
a denstly populated portion 700 feet in
width in the average, and did not
probably exceed five minutes in pass
ing through the city, but in that limit
of time forty human beings were in
stantly killed, and at least ten more
will die of their injuries. From fifty
to sixty buildings (the Iowa College
buildings included) were also totally
destroyed—in most instance broken
into small fragments and thrown in
all directions.
Two heavy freight trains, entering
the city from the north and east, were
caught up and dashed upon both sides
of the tracks with terrible violence.
Even the ponderous engine was lifted
bodily upward, but came down upon
its wheels again without injury. The
distance traversed by this tornado
from Boone to Henry county is in a
direct line about 145 miles, although
its circuitous route was probably 200.
It appears to have been between
three and four hours in traveling this
distance, and caused the death of sev
enty-five or eighty people, a still
greater number of animals, and de
stroying property valued at nearly
two millions of dollars.
Several peculiarities of this tornado
may be worthy of record. Water, in
immense volume, accompanied it.
Electricity in form dynamic and ther
mal played an important part. Balls
of electricity were frequently seen, and
window-glass was melted in circular
form and with sharply defined bor
ders. Light objects were carried up
ward, apparently to a great height,
and thence at almost right angles
with the course of the tempest, found
on the ground thirty and forty miles
distant.
Unlike the tornado of 1860 in this
State, no fetid or sulphurous smell
was perceptible, nor did the dead
odies present such a blackened ap-
arance and wounds seemed to heal
ore rapidly. There seems to have
en a series of almost constant r«in
d wind storms in this State, and as
r south as Missouri and Kansas,
ce the 17ih and up to the date of
is communication.
Grinnel, I. Frank A Howig.
A Sandwich Island Supper.
Poi suppers are a great institution
on the islands. I have had the fun of
eating them in all sorts of places,
ranging from the floor of a native fish
erman’s grass hut to the dining-room
of royalty. I believe that just now
will be a good time to describe the
best poi supper I have eaten so far.
It was at the beach summer residence
of a Honolulu merchant. The mer
chant was married to a half-wnite
lady, an<Ptheir beach home is a little
gem of elegance and comfort. The
party was small, four half white ladies,
one white lady and a half dozen gen
tlemen. The half-white ladles are
sisters, the daughters of a flue-looking
old German, a noble, who was one of
the party. The sisters were educated
in Germany, and I have never met
more gracefully entertaining and cul
tivated people, despite the novel ex
perience of eati' g supper with them,
without the use ol knives or forks.
The table was spread in »large and
airy room opening out upon a moon
lit bit of sea beach.. The white cloth
was almost hidden beneath a spread
of woven ferns, over which the service
of silver, cut glass and fine china
formed a pretty picture. Pretty
enough, yet with one element incon
gruous to the stranger; for, by the
side of each dainty cut-glass finger-
bowl, filled with perfumed water,
stood a heavy, dark, but highly pol
ished wooden calabash, filled to the
brim with poi. It was th e first table
I ever sat down at where the finger-
bowls were used before the meal be
gan. Each bathed and dried the
right baud, and proceeded to dip the
index linger of that hand into poi.
Everyone—that Is, except myself—
and the young ladv who was to share
my calabash, observing that I used
my fork, she did likewise. I had
only eaten a mouthful or two, how
ever, when the jolly host cried out
“ Shame ” at me for daring to eat poi
with a fork. I had only attempted
before that time to finger poi furtively
and chiefly in the dark during the
night suppers on the Likelike and
similar occasions. I had not made
a very brilliant go of the operation,
and so felt a little nervous when my
host spoke ; but, rather than be guyed,
I determined to try. I turned to my
C( mpauion in poi, so to say, and said
I would eat a la native, if she would
tench me. She would be charmed.
We bathed our right hands, and with
out another word dipped in. I tell
you it is a novel sensation to plunge
your hand, in the presence of a tabie-
full of civilized beings, into a dish of!
food of the consistency wh’ch gene
rally demands a spoon. The sensa
tion is maue more queer when, as I
did, you flud your hand swimming
about In the dish in company with
the hand of a beautiful woman, who
is looking at you the while with
mild reproof.
The occasion of the reproof she ex
plained thus : “ There is no absolute
need of your moving your whole
body; not even your shoulder nor
arm—just a simple wrist movement,
thus.”
SVe removed our fingers together.
On the end of hers was a pear shaped
ball of poi. My finger was thin y ve
neered with poi.
“ What’s wrong with me?” I asked,
looking hungrily at my meagrely sup
plied digit.
Bhe explained that [ had held my
finger too straight. “ Crook your
finger a little, like this,” she said, as
we both dabbed back into the poi,
“and turn your hand, not too fast,
with a wrist movement only.”
I did as mstruettd, and soon the
surface of the calabash was disturbed
by the movement of two wheels of
poi, circling about our respective fin
gers. We withdrew our fingers and
each was well supplied. We carried
our fingers to our mouths, licked them
clean, and again dabbed into the cala
bash.
It doesn't sound pretty, does it?
But, upou my word, when one comes
to try it, old prejudices and the force
of life-long training rapidly disappear,
for poi from a fork loses half its flavor
and merit. When one takes one’s fin
ger from the calabash, the finger is
earned to the moqth in a sort of spiral
movement, otherwise one’s shirt front
getb the poi. My instructress spoke to
me just as I was about half-way be
tween calabash and mouth, on the up
trip, once, and, naturally, I stojiped
my hand as one would with a fork.
Pretty soon I saw her big black eyes—
glorious eyes, by the way—laughing
at me. Then I looked for my poi. It
had gracefully fell from my finger—
part of it divided on my shirt cuff and
ornamented the end of my uudershirt
sleeve and my coat cuff. When dam
ages were repaired she said : “If you
want to converse, and happen to have
poi on your finger, do like this.” As
she spoke she gracefully waved her
poi-laden hand backward and forward,
with a slow, graceful turn at the end of
each beat, and the motion kept the poi
in place on her finger-end.
Of course, with the poi, there was
fish, raw, cooked and dried. The
dried and raw fish is easily enough
eaten with the fingers. The cooked
fDh was the only dish partaken of
with forks. The raw fish is served
desiccated with tomatoes or in some
kind of pickle. Sometimes perfectly
plain. I passed on tfie raw fish. The
cooked fish, umauma and kumu, were
delicious. They were baked under
ground in ki leaves, which gave them
a flavor new and novel to me. But
tbe dish which I lingered by most
afle ilionately,which created happiness
in this life for me, was the chicken,
cooked in luau style—a luau is a na
tive feast and dance, but the dance, I
concluded, has nothing to do with the
style of cooking. The chicken was
boned and stewed with taro tops.
Taro, or kalo, is the esculent from
which poi is made, and the tops and
sprouts are both excellent articles of
food.
I have been, by the way, two
months trying, to find out whether
this national vegetable is taro or kalo.
I conclude, chiefly from my own
inner consciousness, that it is, native
“ kalo,” foreign corruption, “ taro,”
as the foreigners have altered the pro
nunciation of K and L in the native
words to T and R,neither of which lat
ter letters occur in the native alphabet.
Well, this taro, then, is a big, coarse,
dark skinned esculent, groWu under
water on most parts of the islands, the
Hize and shape of a very large sweet
potato, which, boiled or baked, has a
rich sweet flavor, and is far superior to
potato. Then it can be fried, or made
into cakes. Taro cakes are a revela
tion ! It is not to be used fresh, it is
pounded up into a coarse, moist mass,
called palal, and packed in ki leaves,
for use or market. More pounding,
aud moisture and straining, and a
slight fermentation, makes it into poi.
The stalk immediately above the
roots somewhat resembles asparagus,
and 1b eaten as that vegetable is. The
leaves—not a particle of root, stem nor ;
leaf is wasted—made an excellent
spinach, or flavor accompaniment for
the luau dish.
“Hello.”
Marvelous as have been the discov
eries and inventions in the way of
telephones, it seems probable that we
are yet but in the infancy jf their
utility. The result of late experiments
has been the establishment of tele
phone communication between Bos
ton and New York, by which conver
sation has been carried on over the
distance of 240 miles—that is, to and
from Boston—aud not only has the
conversation been conducted intelli
gently and easily, but with a distinct
ness that has hitherto not been ob
tained through telephones. This im
provement has been reached, not
through any particular change in the
instruments, but by a chemical manip
ulation of the carbou and the use of a
current four times as strong as the or
dinary one. Mr. Chiunock, the
electrician of the Metropolitan Tele
phone Company of New York, thus
states the ©peiation of the machinery
under the new discovery. He says:
“Two weeks ago I went to Boston
to consult with the Bell Telephone
Company. The chief electrician of
the company, Mr. Jacques, said that
he had something to show that would
astonish me. Some twenty feet
away from where I sat was an ordi
nary telephone, exactly like those it
use all over this city. Mr. Jacques
came and as he closed the door a
voice as loud and distinct as I am
talking to you now, said : ‘Good morn
ing, Mr. Chinnock. How do you like
Boston ?’ I looked around in amaze
ment, and said to Mr. Jacques : ‘Have
you a speaking tube here?’ ‘No,’ he
replied, ‘that is the telephone.’ I
thought at first that it was some prac
tical joke, but after a few moment’s
investigation I became convinced that
a great advance had been made in sci
ence.”
This gentleman says that the pres
ent handphones can be made to give
forth sound as loud and distinct as the
human voice itself, and that hereafter
the call belPwill be unnecessary, as
the voice can be heard as far as the
bell. Thus, standing in Boston, he
heard a voice from the telephone call
Miss Taylor, a lady sitting in an ad
joining room, at least forty feet away
and the lady heard the call and came
from the other room to answer it. He
further explains the possibilities of the
future of telephones:
“When the voice comes from a die
tance, as from Boston to New York,
it n necessary to speak quite loudly,
but not to shout, for the voice to bd
hear# distinctly in all p*rts of the
room in this city ; but by putting the
handphone to the ear a whisper can
be heard from Boston to New York.
By using what is known as a metallic
circuit—two wires instead of one—con
versations have been carried on with
ease over 480 miles of country. I see
no reason why conversation cannot be
carried on between New York and
Ban Francisco, and have no hesitation
in saying that within a year conversa
tion between here and Cmcago will be
a matter of hourly occurrence. No
change whatever will be necessary in
the present apparatus, except in sub
stituting four cells for one aud in dif
ferently prepared carbon.”
The imagination is free to count up
what will be the result when a man
in Chicago can go to his telephone
and call up by a simple “hellw” any
person he wishes iu St. Louis, New
York, Washington, Boston, or Now
Orleans, and speak to him freely, and
as distinctly, aud with no gieater
voice, than if he were present in the
same room. Electricity has made
marvelous strides since Morse, lesi
thau foriy years ago, strung his first
wires aud opened his first line of tele
graph, a distance of forty miles. The
telephone has already surpassed that,
and it is impossible to place any limi
tation upon its possible capacity. The
promise is now that in a very brief
time conversation between cities and
towns and Btates and sections of the
country will be as common and as
universal as it is now between the dif
ferent parts of this city, and that the
telephone of the future will be so far
improved and enlarged aud adapted
to common use that conversation be
tween people will know no interfer
ence by the mere accident of distance.
J. W. Keifer, Speaker of the U. B.
Hoifce of Representatives, was unani
mously nominated for Congressman,
by the Republican Convention of the
Eighth District of Ohio.
Sixteen hundred American revol
vers were recently ordered for the
South Australian police forces.
The Beresford Ghost Story.
Many persons may be interested in
a version of that strange tale known as
the “Beresford Ghost St< ry,” dear to
all lovers of the supernatural, which
is here given. It is warranted as cor
rect on no less an authority thau the
present Archbishop of Armagh, who,
as a great-great grandson of one of the
principal actors and collaterally de
scended from the other, certainly
ought to know all about it, if anyone
does. Nichola Sophia Hamilton, who
afterward became Lady Beresford,
had made an agreement with the Eail
of Tyrone of the De la Poer family,
with whom she had been brought up,
that whichever of them died first was
to appear to the other if there was any
truth iu revealed religion, in which
neither of them had any faith. One
morning Lady Beresford, who was
paying a visit, came down to
breakfast in a very agitated state,
with a black ribbon round her wrist.
When her husband, Bir Tristram,
asked her what was the matter, she
begged him to ask no questions, but
told him that the post would bring
him tiding’s of Lord Tyrone’s death,
aud that he would in the next year be
the father of a son. These predictions
came true ; the expected letter brought
the news that Lord Tyrone had died
the Baturday before, and in doe time
a son was born. Lady Beresford al
ways continued to wear the ribbon
round her wrist.
Bir Tristram died, aud his widow
after a time married a Captain Gorges,
who turned out so badly that she bad
to separate from him. When she was
living iu Dublin she gave a dinner
party to celebrate her birthday, and
invited an old clergyman who had
christened her. He was the first ar
rival, and she told him she was just
forty-eight that day. “No,” said he,
“you are only forty-seven ; you were
born in 1666,” She grew deadly pale.
“Are you sure?” she said. “Certain,”
he said. “You have then,” she re
plied, “signed my death-warrant. I
have only a few hours to live.” She
retired to her room, sent for her son
Bir Marcus, for her daughUr Lady
Riverston, and, I believe, Henry,
Archbishop of Dublin. She then told
the story for the first time of Lord
Tyrone appearing to her, telling her
of his death ; that she would have a
son who would marry his brother’s
daughter, and that she would make a
most unfortunate marriage, and die on
her forty-seventh birthday. He
touched her wri.-t to prove his appear
ance was real, aud the flesh and sinews
shrank, on which she always wore a
black ribbon. She was hurled Id L >rd
Cork's vault, under he Communion
table in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.
Her sou, Sir Marcus Beresford, we
may add, married Catherine, Baroness
de la Poer, with whom he got the
great possession.- in the county of Wa
terford which his descendant still
owns, and was created Earl of Tyrone,
his son becoming Marquess of Water
ford.
A Joke of Georges Sand.
The second volume of the corres
pondence of Georges Sand has come,
apropos for those who have made up
their minds, now that the Due de Fer-
nan-Nunez has given the last ball of
the season, that it is quite time for
them to leave the city. The authoress
gives some very amusing accounts of
the practical jokes she played on those
who importuned her or indulged in
the practice of interviewing—more
honored in ihe breach than in the ob
servance in those days. She tells how
a lawyer from La Chatre made up his
mind to see her. He arrived at Nahant
at noon, and met Rollinat, who, after
looking at him up and down, said:
“Good night, sir, I am going to bed.”
The li*vyer, p zzled, exclaimed:
“What, at this time of day ?” “Yes,”
retorted R illinat, “it is the custom
here.” The limb of the law was not
to be denied. Georges Sand hid her
self in the bedroom behind the cur
tains. She allowed him to enter her
chamber, where he was received by
an elderly aud moat respectable female,
who was f t, fair, and forty, but who
with her obesity and her dirty hands
might have been taken for twenty
years older. Bhe was dressed in an
old flannel dressing gown, and her
hair hidden beneath a silk handker
chief gave her a strangely venerable
appearance. The lawyer had a long
conversation with her, talking of her
different books, and showing so much
enthusiasm for the la»'y that he quite
overlooked the grammatical errors she
made every now and again. When
he took ills leave he saluted the grave
aud respectable personage who had
received him to the very ground,
Georges Sand laughing all the time
behind the curtain at the deference
shown her femme de chambre, who
had represented her on this occasion.
The correspondence will be read
with much pleasure by everyone. It
contains anecdotes referring to men
„whe are still living or who have been
remembered by many. Thus, for in
stance, Balzac is referred to. Georges
Sand declares that the author of the
“Comedie Humaine” was as mad as
any man could be. She tells how
Balzac dined at her house one day, and
that at the table he declared he had
discovered another marvel—“a blue
rose”—for which the English and
Belgian Horticultural Societies had
promised a reward of £20,000. He
also added that he could sell each
packet of seed for five francs, and the
whole invention would not cost him
more than fivepence. Rollinat asked
Balzac why he did not set about the
cultivation of the “blue rose” at once,
since he was poor and in want of
money. “Oh, you know,” said Balzac,
“I have so much to do now; but you
may be sure that this matter shall have
iliy best attention soon.”
Clips.
Mrs. Lincoln’s estate is $74,000,
every dollar being in United S ates
bonds.
An entire Russian guard, with its
non-commissioned officers, has been
sentenced to Siberia for life, tor con
spiracy to steal a treasure it had been
sent to protect.
In the last five years 1S94 dead
bodies have been taken from the
Thanes in the various districts* of
London. About one-third of these
were women.
An area of 93,000 acres has been
planted with trees iu Ki.- sas under
the new law relating to arboriculture.
The cotton tree was largely » Wanted on
account of its rapid growth, and 60°0
acres were set with walnut trees. The
expectation is that this will operate,
in course of time, to relieve the climate
of its extreme dryness.
The surveyed line of the Continental
Railroad Company, which proposes to
lay tracks between Council Bluffs and
New York, brings Chicago nearer to
New York by 113 miles than by way
of the Pennsylvania Railroad.
Editor McFadden, of the Steuben
ville, O , Gazette, stepped up to advise
a friend that he ought not to engage
in a controversy with one McDonald .
who was near by. McDonald over
heard the remark, and the blow he
dealt McFadden rendered him sense- *
less for half an hour.
The largest pump in the world, so it
is said, is on cars at Sheffield, Pa., for
the pump station at Vandergrift City,
in the Cherry Grove oil field. It is
the Worthington duplex pattern, and
each of the huge oil cylinders, with
some of the small fixtures, make a car
load. In all there are four carloads of
tae pump.
No city in the world is at the same
time so thoroughly national and so
tolerantly cosmopolitan as Paris. In
no other place in Europe could a politi
cal journal in Arabic be established
with any hope of success. Yet the
Kubek el Cheng (the Morning^Star) is
said to be flourishing apace 'in the
French capital.
When Philip Reich, an old citizen
of Frederick, Md., entered the Senate
Chamber the other day, after au ab
sence of seventy years from Washing
ton, the business before the Senate
was a bill for the relief of the heirs of
R. K. Meade. Mr. Reich at once ex
claimed: “Why, that’s the bill they
were consideiing when I was here in
1812!” Examination of the record
proved that the old gentleman was
correct. Mr. Meade sustained some
losses while Minister to Spain, aud the
bill provides for their jiayment.
A Business Explanation.
Every established local newspaper
receives subscriptions from large cities
which puzzle the publishers, but
which the New York Times lately ex
plained an follows: “A wholesale mer
chant in this city, who had become
rich at the business, says his rule is,
that when he sells a bill of goods on
credit, to immediately subscribe for
the local paper of his debtor. So long
as his customer advertised liberally
and vigorously he rested, but as soon
as he began to contract his advertising
space he took the fact as evidence that
there was trouble ahead, and invaria
bly went for the debtor. Bald he:
“The man who is too poor to make
his business known is too poor to do
business.” The withdrawal of au ad
vertisement is evidence of weakness
that business men are not slow to act
upon.”