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Fitzgerald Leader.
FITZGEKALD, GEORGIA.
—PUBLISHED BI—
KNAPP (to SO 1ST.
The Court of Appeals in New York
has held that it was no ground for a
new trial because the jury in a murder
case ’ attended church on Sunday in
custody of the sheriff and heard a ser¬
mon on the prevalence of crime.
Kansas City, Mo., boasts of 23,000
marriages since 1881 a»d claims that
the conditions in that community are
favorable to the conjugal relation,
which is the great conserving force of
society. They denote that marriage
is far from being a failure in that city.
There are, according to an eminent
archaeologist, no lees than from 120 to
130 absolutely distinct .languages in
North and South America. As tho
growth of language is very slow, he
thinks the fact of itbe existence of so
great a variety of upeech on the Wes¬
tern continents proves 'that the native
red men have inhabited-them for many
thousands of years.
Birds, including "domestic poultry,
have long been accepted in popular
belief as reliable weather prophets. A
German professor explains this seem-
ingiy mysterious gift on simple scien-
tific lines. Birds, lie says, are the
most warm-blooded of all animals, and
use up more air than other animals.
Not only , their „ . , lungs, , but air-sacs, . in
various parts of then- body, are ex-
tended with air, wherefore a change
in atmospheric ^pressure is soon felt
by them.
There will be joy among lovers of
animals when they read the will of
Mr. Samuel Beckett Chadwick, an
English justice of the peace. He be-
queaths , ten , shillings , .... per week , for „ the ,,
maintenance of his horse Belshazzar,
and directs that he shall not be worked
after his master’s death, and to his
dog , Grip „ . he , bequeaths , ,, the ,, sum of . five „
shillings per week for maintenance,
Grip may ho considered a “lucky
dog,” for he ought to be able to live
well on his legacy, for a dog’s range
Of diet is so much greater than a
horse’s. Poor Belshazzar will be lim-
ited, of course, to strictly vegetarian
dainties.
The newspaper “Le Petit Parisien,”
of Paris, saysthat “although the face
of Europe has changed, we always re¬
main hereditary antagonists in
British opinion. In London one does
not admit that the world is sufficiently
large for every nation to find room for
itself, when Great Britain desires to
colonize and thus carry civilization
into any country still barbarous.
France is not the only country which
has suffered by these aspirations of
England. Whosoever attempts any¬
thing anywhere is certain to have to
contend against English -agitations.
The Germans have noticed,this as well
as ourselves.”
Probably the cleanest, neatest-look-
ing farmB in all the world are .in Italy.
The Italian farmer is far from being
the lazy, shiftless creature we .assume
the typical Italian to be, writes Ewing
Cockrell in the American Agricultu-*
ist. A most impressive illustration of
the cleanliness of their fields came
under my notice recently. I was
traveling in Northern Italy with a gen-
man and his wife, who lived in my
home town in the “States.” Their
house and yard were very handsome
and always kept in the best of .order.
My friend had bought a sandwich at
the last station, anil raised the win¬
dow to throw the bag out. “John,”
cried his wife, catching his arm, “in¬
deed, you sha’n’t—it would be simply a
shame to throw a speck of paper out
there on those fields. Why, they are
every bit as neat as our front yard,”
And she had her way, too.
The attention of the powerful Ab¬
origines’ Protection Society in Lon¬
don has been called to a new curse
that is now being forced upon the
natives in South Africa. Liquor of
the most fiery and poisonous descrip¬
tion, specially distilled for native con¬
sumption, has long constituted a seri¬
ous obstaole iu the way of those who
desire to civilize the Kaffir, and is
wrecking the dusky races of Africa,
morally as well as physically. Not con¬
tent with this, the Europeans have now
initiated the black man to tho charms
of opium, the nefarious traffic of which
is carried on openly in the Transvaal,
where white people keep dens in which
Kaffir men and women pay sixpence a
smoke. The hideous effects of the
opium on the semi-savage Kaffirs who
work at the mines are already showing
themselves in a very marked degree,
and the mine managers are unanimous
in declaring that the curse is many
times greater than that of alcohol.
A SONC OF AUTUMN.
Mo for the bending sheaves. Bright ’naath the morning blue
Ho for the crimson leaves Sparkles tho frosted dew,
Flaming in splendor! Gem-like and starry.
Season of crib ripened and gold,! Hark how tho partridge cook
Plenty in untold,' fold, Pipes to his scattered (look,
Skies and depth -r ~ Mindful how swift the hawk
Liquid and tender. D arts on his quarry 1
i
Fav, like the goldenrod smile of God, ' Autumn is here again— ■
Hew how the ; Banners on hill and plain
Ripples and tossesl Blazing and flying.
Yonder, a crimson vine Hall to the amber morn,
Trails from a bearded pine, Hail to the hoapt-up corn,
Thin as a thread of wine Hail to the hunter’s horn,
Staining the mosses. Swelling and dyingl
—James Buokham, in “The Heart of Life.’'
m m
i A Wedding Reception 11
G By HELEN FORREST GRAVES.
UST what I ex¬
si pected!” said
Miss Delavigue,
mournfully.
She was sitting
out on the bal¬
cony, where the
mignonnete and
. > Bgf -- m asters were all a
blaze of vivid
color, to enjoy
the sunset; but she didn’t enjoy it
any more, after Muriade Vail had
told her the news. There was a band
playing in the little park, whose green
grass and sparkling fountain formed
such a pretty picture, but she did not
Wits mUsie any ionger.
“Married! said Miss Delavigue,
lifting her hands and drawing a sepul-
chral sigh—“married! Does the
whole world think, and dream, and
trouble itself about nothing else?”
“I’m very sorry, aunt,” said Muri¬
ade, “but—”
“No, you are not,” interrupted Miss
Delavigue. “Don’t begin, at this late
day, to tell me falsehoods.”
“I don’t mean that I’m sorry be¬
cause I’ve promised to marry Tom, ”
said Muriade, with a bright spot on
eaoll eheek) “because that would he a
falsehood. No, indeed, I’m not sorry;
but I mean I’m vexed to disappoint
J ou > alln t-
Muriade was a dark, Spamsh-eyed ‘
irl) ^ brows uke t vo pe rfeot
arches; a red, cherry-cleft mouth, and
the most roguish of dints, scarcely
large enough to be dignified with the
name of dimple, that came- and went
in a capricious fashion in her chin.
She stood, with folded hands and
head slightly drooped, before the
prim, elderly lady, whose black silk
dress resolved itself into such perfect
folds, and whose iron-gray curls hung
so precisely on either side of her face.
“Didn’t I take you wheii you were
seven years old, and bring you up as
a young lady should be brought up?”
sadly demanded Miss Delavigue.
“Yes, aunt.”
“And haven’t I had you educated
at Mademoiselle Melisse’s, with extra
piano lessons, and your voice culti¬
.
vated at two dollars a lesson?” went
on the old lady.
“Yes, aunt,” confessed Muriade.
“And,” severely went _oi( the cate-
chisf, “just as you were getting to be
a real companion for me iu my advanc¬
ing years, you forget all this, and run
off with—Tom Whitworth.”
“I haven’t run off with him, aunt!”
flashed out Muriade, scarcely knowing
whether to laugh or cry.
“But you would if you couldn’t
wring a consent from me. You know
you would,” said Miss Delavigue.
“You’d scramble down a ladder, or
climb out of a fourth-story window.”
“I love him, aunt,” said Muriade,
earnestly; “and he loves me.”
“Rnbbish!” said Aunt Delavigue,
with an energy which nearly tipped
her eye-glasses from her Roman nose.
“You giean that he loves your expecta¬
tions He loves the idea of inheriting
my money andthisbrown-stone house,
and all the shares in the Mexican sil¬
ver mines. That’s the beginning and
the end,of .it!”
“Never, aunt!” cried poor Muriade.
“That’s well,” grimly pronounced
Miss Delavigue; “because I’ve my
own ideas ou the subject. I don’t
know that I’m at all too old to marry
myself. ”
“Aunt!” exclaimed Muriade, in sur¬
prise.
“Why not?” said Miss Delavigue.
suppose there can be old fools as
well as young ones.”
•“But,” pleaded Muriade, “are you
in earnest?”
“Why shouldn’t I be in earnest?”
“Aunt,” burst out Muriade, “is it
Major Larkington? Is it? Oh, I
know it isj And oh, aunt, dear, I' do
so hope you will be happy! And Ma¬
jor Larkington is perfectly splendid,
since he got his false teeth, only, aunt,
those tedious stories of his about the
war in Florida—won’t you get tired of
them, if you’re obliged to hear them
every day?”
Miss Delavigue looked in some per¬
plexity at her niece. She had sup¬
posed that this hint would have filled
Muriade with dismay and disappoint¬
ment; but on the contrary that young
lady appeared to accept the idea as the
most natural thing in the world. And
Tom Whitworth, chancing, entirely by
accident, of course, to corne in jiist
about that time, coincided in Muriade’s
view of affairs entirely.
“The jolliest thing I ever heard of,”
declared Tom, who was a fair-com-
plexioned young Saxon, with ourlyyel-
low locks, a blonde moustache and su¬
perb teeth—which latter was a for¬
tunate circumstance, because Tom
Whitworth was always laughing. “It’s
regular middle-aged romance!”
“I dare say,” said Miss Delavigue,
primly. “But what do you say to
some one else getting all my money?"
“Dear me!” said Tom, lifting his
blonde brows. “It was Muriada 1
wanted, not your money, Miss Dela-
vigne. Of course, if you chose to
leave it to us, after you had done" with
it, it would have been very acceptable.
Ready cash always comes handy.
Now, you know that, Muriade, as well
as I do,” iu response to a warning
gesture from his fiancee.
“Oil, Tom, you are such a bungler!”
said Muriade, half laughing, half cry¬
ing.
“Well, perhaps I am,” confessed
Tom. “But I want Miss Delavigue
to understand the whole thing. The
money is hers, and we don’t grudge it
to her. And we’re ready to work for
our own, aren’t we, Muriade? I’m
not rich, but my office brings me a
thousand dollars a year, and we’re
both going to economize like every¬
thing—aren’t we, Muriade? And Ma¬
jor Larkington’s a brick, and we hope
yoil’ll he happy, exactly as we’re going
to lie.”
And Tom Whitworth squeezed Miss
Delavigue’s hand until the old lady
cried out for mercy.
“And now, aunt,” said Muriade,
radiantly, “when is the wedding to
be? And why haven’t you said any¬
thing about it before?”
Miss Delaviguo hesitated a little.
She blushed. Apparently she did not
know what to say on the spur of the
moment.
“Well,” she faltered, "Major Lar¬
kingtou did say something about the
twentieth of December.”
“Christmas-time!” exclaimed Mu¬
riade. “Oh, Tom, how perfectly de¬
lightful! Couldn’t we manage to have
our wedding at the same time?”
“No,” said Tom, stoutly. “ We
must be married on the first of De¬
cember. You said we should, Mn-
riade, and you mustn’t go back of
your word.”
“But? Tom, it would only be three
weeks.”
“Three weeks or three days,”
stoudly maintained Tom Whitworth,
“you promised me, and I can’t let you
off.”
“Well, then, you obstinate fellow,”
said Muriade, “we can be back from
our trip just in time to danee at Aunt
Delavigue’s wedding.”
“Agreed!” said Tom, looking very
happy, indeed.
Apparently the young couple were
in no wise discomfited at the idea of
going to housekeeping on a capital of
love, and love alone.
Tom Whitworth began to look dili¬
gently around among dim old auction
rooms and musty second-hand stores,
to find something astoundingly cheap
and delightfully comfortable, where¬
with to garnish the small cottage
which he had decided to take a little
out of town, so as to economize in
rent.
made a cooking class,
herself a bib-apron, and began
to come down into Miss Delavigue’s
kitoheu to experiment in pies and
puddings, dainty little tea-biscuit, and
salad which might have tempted an
anchorite to break his vows.
And she studied np the question of
polishing brasses, cleaning plate-
glass, mending china, and darning
table linen with notable earnestness.
And she was more affectionate than
ever with her aunt.
“Because,” she told Tom, “there
is something so pathetic about Aunt
Delavigue’s happiness, coming so
strangely in the autumn of her life.
And I’m afraid, Tom—now don’t tell
anybody—that Major Larkingtou is
only going to marry her for her money,
lor he is certainly ten years younger
than she is, and he has only come from
Philadelphia once to see her since the
engagement. ”
“Love is like the measles,” said
Tom, philosophically, "Every one
has it a different way.”
While Miss Delavigue, who had
been judge and jury all by herself, at
least rendered the verdict to a public
consisting of herself, alone,
“They love each other, after all.
My money had nothing to do with it.
Tom loves Muriade, and Muriade has
not ceased to love her old aunt, now
that she no longer believes herself to
be an heiress. There is such a thing
as honor, and truth, and real affection
in the world, after all.”
The first of December came, and
Miss Delavigue gave Muriade the
prettiest of weddings, under a mar-
riage bell pf white rose-buds and smi-
lax, with an artistio little dejeuner,and
the bride went away in a dove-colored
silk dress, with daisies in her hat.
“But, aunt,” she said, “it’s so
strange that Major Larkington isn’t
here?”
“He couldn’t come,” said Miss
Delavigue. “He’ll be on hand on the
twentieth. Mind you and Tom get
back in time!”
“Oh, we’ll be sure to do that!” said
Muriade. “And be sure, aunt, that
yon thank the major for the dear little
pearl locket that he sent me.”
The twentieth of December came;
bo did Mr. and Mrs. Tom Whitworth,
fresh from the icy spray of Niagara
Falls. .
Miss Delavigue’s parlors were once
more decorated with the choicest hot¬
house flowers, while Souberetti’s men
were arranging the supper-table. The
old lady herself, in pearls, point lace,
and tho palest of lavender silks, stood
in the middle of the room, receiving
ber guests. Major Larkingtou him-
self was there, looking very stiff’ and
military, and an old-young lady in of a
dress exactly of the same pattern
Miss Delavigue’s.
“You are late, Tom and Muriade,”
said the hostess, beamingly. “The
marriage ceremony was performed half
an hour ago. Tlie major thought he
would rather have it over before the
guests began to arrive. Stop! Don’t
congratulate me! Pm not the bride,
This,” introducing the old-young lady
with the profusion of curls, and the
slight soupcon of powder on her cheek
bones, “is Mrs. Major Helena Larkington,
and my old schoolmate, Dove,
who has given me great pleasure by
accepting my hospitality on this occa-
s j oru ”
“Delighted. I am sure!” stain-
mered Tom, staring with all his eyes,
“Many congratulations!” faltered
Muriade, scarcely they'took less amazed.
And then advantage of a
stream of newcomers, who monopolized
the bridal pair and taxed Miss Dela-
vigue with her duplicity.
“Sold,” said Tom, succinctly, “com-
pletely!”
“Aunt, how could you deceive us
so?” said Muriade.
“I didn’t deceive you,” said Miss
Delavigue, laughing. “I said there
could be old fools as well as young
ones, and I say so still. And you
yourself mentioned Major Larkington!
I didn’t feel myself called upon to go
into any disclaimers, although 1 knew
then that he was engaged to Helena
Dove; and the only point I gained was
the certainty that my dear niece and
nephew were not heartless fortune-
seekers, but loved me just as well as
if they believed themselves my heirs,
as well as the conviction that Tom
Whitworth loved Muriade just because
she was Muriade, and not the rich old
woman’s only relation.”
Miss Delaviguo made her will the
next day, and she left all her money
to Muriade and Tom, because she was
easy in her mind at last.
“It was a regular conspiracy,” she
said; “but it revealed to me exactly
what I wanted to know.”—Saturday
Night.
A M«g;nefci« Island.
The stories of magnetic mountains
that exert an attraction that cannot be
withstood on all vessels that come into
their vicinity have some foundation in
reality, and that, too, iii the neighbor¬
hood of Germany, The well known
island of Bornholm, situated in the
Baltic, anil belonging to Denmark,
may be regarded as a huge magnet.
Although the power of this magnet is
not so great that it can draw the nails
out of ships, as was told of tho island
in the “Arabian Nights,” the magnet¬
ism of the rocks on the island of Born¬
holm can cause a good deal of trouble
to ships in quite another way. It ex¬
erts such all influence on the magnetic
needle that it can cause a vessel to
turn perceptibly aside from her course.
This is quite possible, as the effect of
this maguetie island is perceptible at
a distance of nino and a half miles.—
Glasgow Herald.
Food and Poison Combined.
One of the most deadly poisons and
a common article of food are combined
in a single plant. This is tapioca, a
South American shrub that grows to a
height of six or eight feet. The root,
as well as the wood, of the plant se¬
cretes an acrid milky juioe so toxic
that it kills iu a very few minutes.
This quality is eliminated by heat, and
that which in a raw state is so deadly
is thereby converted into a nourishing
and agreeable aliment. The root is
grated into pulp and subjected to
great pressure, which extracts all the
poisonous juice. It is then heated on
metal plates, which transforms it into
the tapioca of commerce. It is to be
hoped that this information may not
disturb the equanimity of consumers
of tapioca. The process employed in
its conversion from a poisonous plant
into a substance entirely innocuous is
absolutely infallible.
Woes of a Court Physician.
Being physician to an Asiatic ruler
parries a good salary with it, but it
has its disadvantages. News comes
from Persia of the death of Sir Joseph
Tholozon, physician to the Shah. For
thirty years Sir Joseph was the physi¬
cian and trusted confident of the Shah
Nasr-ed-Din. When that ruler died
and his son, the present Shah, ascend¬
ed the throne, Sir Joseph wrote to a
friend in Paris saying that he was go¬
ing to resign his post, as he was afraid
of his life.
It would appear that his fears were
only too well founded. Sir Joseph
was acquainted with many of the
secrets of the court, and his death was
desired on that account by the new
Shah. His predecessor at the Persian
court is said to have been done away
with for the same reasons.
How Fasliions Arc Born.
The curious way iu which the most
serious catastrophes are reflected in
the world of frivqlity sets one to won¬
dering whether anything is really se¬
rious or really frivolous. The shock¬
ing holocaust of the charity bazar in
Paris is having a perceptible influence
on fashion there, not by making it less
thought of, but by starting anew a
vogue of black and white. Persons
who have lost no .relative or intimate
friend by the accident nevertheless
adopt this fashion, young men wear-
ing black gloves and young women
black and white figured gowns.
MEN STILL SHANGHAIED.
VICTIMS OF UNSCRUPULOUS SEA CAP-
j TAINS IN WANT OF SAILORS.
j Who Got Even With His
A Galveston Man
Abductor —Venaeanco of a Had Man
From Arizona Who Was SUanKiinled—
* Why Skippers Escape Prosecution.
The officials of the Consular Bureau
of the State Department at Washing-
, ton, writes a New York Sun oorres-
' pondent, figure on receiving every
j year a certain number of complaints
| from shanghaied men nil over the
j world. In recent years not so many
men are shanghaied from American
ports as there used to be, but thore
are enough such cases to cause the
! State Department a good deal of
bother. The best that can be done by
j the department for the shanghaied
men, as a rule, is to authorize the
Consul at the port from which he
sends his tale of woe to furnish him
transportation back to the United
States, and this can only be done in
cases where the shanghaied man has
not permitted himself to be bulldozed
by the skipper of the ship that took
him away from this country to sign
ship’s articles for tho cruise. When
the shanghaied man thus gets himself
down in black and white there is
rarely any redress for him when he
gets back to the United States. He
may wait on the pier for the ship that
took him away, to come back again,
and have papers of arrest served upon
tho skipper for unlawful detention or
kidnapping, but when the skipper gets
before the United States Commis-
sioner he has only to produce the ar¬
ticles signed under duress by the
shanghaied man to secure his release
from custody. It is only when some
young man of good family falls a vic¬
tim to the shanghaies that there is a
moderate chance of punishment fall¬
ing upon the ship Captain.
Such a case happened, at Galveston
three years ago. Angus Burrili was
navigating from his club to his
home early one iporning after having
dined long and heavily. He fell in
with a rough-looking eitizen in a cardi¬
gan jacket and a peaked cap, and
presently found himself imbibing raw
red liquor in a dive beneath a sailors’
boarding hogse on the wa^er
This was the last of his consciousness
until he awoke ill a bunk in the fore¬
castle cf clie barkentine Santa Monica;
the assisting bad-eyed, him cardigan-jacketed awake clouting man
was to by
him on the side of the head, and Bur-
rill soon discovered that he was ad¬
dressing his first mate. The Santa
Monica was by this time 100 miles
from Galveston ou her voyage to
Odessa, Russia, with a cargo of lignum
vitae.
Burrili went to work like a little
man, and did not emit a whimper. He
was a sensible young fellow -when his
head was clear, and when he saw how
he was in for it he buckled down,
sawed wood and did his work up to
the handle. He made a pretty good
seaman, for he had been one of Gal¬
veston’s leading yachtsmen, and he
exhibited such philosophical content
over the situation that the skipper and
mates spared kirn the cruelties ordi¬
narily inflicted upon shanghaied men.
When they drew up able seaman’s
papers to sign he signed them unmur-
muringly, Shanghaied men do no get
shore liberty, but young Burrili took
it when the ship cast her mudhook in
Odessa harbor. He promptly jumped
the ship by swimming ashore. In
Odessa he operated the cable, got
some money from Galveston and re-
tnrned to the. United States. The
Santa Monica turned up in New Or¬
leans harbor six month later. Young
Burrili and his people •were there
waiting for her, and the skipper got a
year in prison and a $5000 line, and
was deprived of his captain’s papers.
The case wa3 exceptional, and the
young man would unquestionably have
been obliged to forego the joys of
vengeance bad he not had powerful
backing. When,
as occasionally happens, the
shanghaied man stubbordly refuses to
sign articles, enduring all the torture
that is inflicted upon him on account
of his refusal, for the purpose of estab¬
lishing his case when he gets back to
the United States, the skipper’s story
before the United States Commissioner
is that the shanghaied man was a stow¬
away. This story is becoming pretty
threadbare, the absurdity of it being
altogether too patent. It is only ships
with a bad name among sailors that
are reduced to the necessity of patch¬
ing out their crews with shanghaied
men, and no man with ordinary com¬
mon sense would stow away on such a
ship, no matter how urgent his desire
to get away from land or how prodigi¬
ous his hankering for a life on the
ocean wave.
San Franoiscois the worst city in the
United States for shanghaing, and
about sixty-five per cent, of the shang¬
haied men who write their complaints
to the State Department from foreign
ports report that they were seized and
carried aboard the ships in that port.
Tho shanghaiers themselves almost
always escape punishment for the rea¬
son that they rarely if ever pick a vic¬
tim who is not, something more than
three parts drunk, and a man in this
condition can, of co.urse, never iden¬
tify the man who entrapped him.
Moreover, it is a matter of the strictest
honor among skippers who accept
shanghaied men not to reveal, even
when they are punished themselves,
the names of the shanghaiers who help
them to get crews.
There was a tragedy over a case of
shanghaing in San Francisco six years
agoi A professional shanghaier got
hold of a man very drunk in the resort
called the Bella Union. The sliang-
haier made him still drunker by means
of doped liquor, and got him over the
side of the brig Morning Queen, bound
for China and Japan ports in jig time,
When the shanghaied man came to
after the ship had got outside the Gate,
he nWfS U mml % man as ever awoke for
tko fitst tim© in an evil-smelling fore-
castlA It happened that he was as
bail a mantosever came out of Arizona.
He was a desperado named Luke Laflin,
a close member of the olique to which
the Earp brothers belonged, and
he had gone to San Francisoo irom
Tucson, his headquarters, for the an¬
nounced purpose of beooming exceed¬
ingly drunk for a season. He soon
showed that he had not intended that
the finish of his drunk should be in
the forecastle of the Morning Queen.
He had barely rubbed his eyes and
looked around him before he was at
the cabin door in half a dozen leaps.
The mate, a gigantic Portuguese, and
the boatswain tried to impede the
progress of the mad man from Arizona
and •were both knocked flat to the-
deck. Laflin then jumped into the
cabin to get at the skipper, but the
skipper was asleep in his alcove com¬
partment, and while the bad ma n was
kicking at the door the mato mustered
the whole crew aft. Laflin soon had
his head laid open with belaying pins,
and was put into the glory hole in
double irons. The Portuguese mate
made it a practice to appear at the top
of the glory hole every half hour or so
when he was off watch to taunt the
shanghaied man. Laflin contented
himself with' muttering that he would
“get hunk with the Greaser.” The
skipper offered to release Laflin after
four days, provided he would consent
to go to work. Laflin told him for his
pains that he would see the Morning
Queen blazing lirst.
There was no doing anything with
this sort of shanghaied man, and Laf¬
lin was kept in double irons until the
ship reached Nagasaki, Japan. In
that port a friendly member of the
crew sawed his irons, and he swam
ashore. He stowed away on a tramp
steamer bound for San Francisco.
There he waited for the appearance of
the Morning Queen and the Portu¬
guese mate, the only man of the crew
that he had it in for. He waited for
three months and met the Portuguese
mate suddenly on Clay street at noon
one day. The Portuguese recognized
the bad man, and made a movement
for a gun or a knife—both weapons
were found upon him after his death.
Laflin shot him seven times, each time
through the heart. He was acquitted
three hours later by a Coroner’s jury,
the verdict being that ho had acted in
self defence, as he unquestionably
did, although he was waiting for his
man.
A Waterfall 1SOO Feet IIi;;li.
On the south side of the Grand Can¬
yon of the Yellowstone* River is one of
the highest, if not the highest, water¬
falls iu this country. It is calleyl the
Silver Thread, and falls, as near as can
be calculated, 1800 feet. The descent
is not perpendicular, but is so near it
that it is hard not to believe that the
water does not fall straight down,
when viewed from across the canyon.
The water comes from a mountain
stream which has no- name. It flows
in a northerly directon toward the can¬
yon from the foot hills of the Absaroka
range of mountains. Its entire route
■j.s . through dense forests until it
reaohes the very edge of the canyon.
Then it plunges downward with a roar
in keeping with its size, and keeps
dropping and dropping until the Yel¬
lowstone River below is reached, 1800
feet from the brink.
As stated before, the descent is not
perpendicular, but it is very near it.
The walls of the canyon at thatparticu-
lar place are very rugged, and this lit¬
tle stream has worn almost a straight
channel down through the rooks. The
water dashes downward at a very slight
angle, praotically turning neither to
the right nor the left. In several
places a rock, not as yet worn away,
breaks the steady fall of water, form¬
ing a slight cascade. These cascades
do not cause a real break in the de¬
scent of the water, so practically the
falls of the Silver Thread are the high¬
est in tho world.
The name given these falls is very
appropriate. They cannot be seen but
from the brink of the south side of the
canon, which is almost a mile wide
there. Although this waterfall is fif¬
teen feet wide from top to bottom, it
does not appear to be more than a
couple of inches wide from the point
of observation. The walls of tho canyon
where these falls occur are below the
vivid colorations, and are a dark brown.
The water looks like a silver thread or
ribbon stretched from the brink of the
canyon to tho water below, hence the
name, Silver Thread.—Hartford
Times.
Tlie JS/Tcct of Water Pressure.
It is a remarkable fact that the very
means of life may be the cause of
death. A whale is drowned, and now
a scientist tells us that there seems to-
be a peculiar fatality among fishes.
After reaching a certain depth of
water, the swimming bladders become
distended by the pressure of air, and
the fish literally explode. Too much
of one’s native element may bring-
about most disastrous consequences.
A sudden change of air from one.
density to another may causa the rup¬
ture of a blood vessel, and a too sud¬
den change of temperature has pro¬
duced like results. Extremes of all
sorts are not only very injurious, but.
are likely to prove fatal, especially to
organisms that are not in the enjoy¬
ment of robust health.
Logwood For I>y fling.
Connecticut capitalists have recently
secured from the Mexican Government
a concession to cut logwood for dyeing
qn the lands bordering on the Hondo-
River, which forms the boundary be-
tween Mexico and British Honduras,
This section is almost unexplored, but
is known to bo rich in dyewoods of
every class, the supply of which is
inexhaustible. The com-
pany is to build a railroad from tho
swamps to the river, down which the
wood is to be transported to Belize,
aud thence shipped to New York.