Newspaper Page Text
> County
The Irwin EWS.
Official Organ of Irwin County.
A. G. DeLOACH, Editor and Prop’r.
PROFESSIONAL CAROS.
•yy L. STORY,
PHYSICIAN and SURGEON,
SYCAMORE, GEORGIA.
|^|ARK ANTHONY,
PHYSICIAN and SURGEON,
Sycamore, Georgia.
Will bo loo-vtoil for tho present at tho Dod¬
son House. Patronage respectfully solicited.
T. W. ELGIN,
PRACTICING PHYSICIAN,
Ruby, Gkobgia.
Calls promptly attended to at all hours,
2 respectfully solicit a share of tho public
patronage Office in B, H. Cockrell’s store.
j^R. J. F. GARDNER,
PHYSICIAN and SURGEON,
Ashborn, Georgia.
Ca.ls answered promptly day or night.
g^y^Speeial children. attention to diseases of women
and
JJENTON STRANGE, M. D.
SPECIALIST.
Cordelle, Georgia,
Diseases of women, Strict ires. Nervous
and all privae diseases. Strictures dissolv-
ed out iu g to 5 minutes by a smooth current
of Galvanism without pain or detention
from business; and given to patient in a vial
of alcohol. Correspondence solicited aud
best references giveu. Office north-east cor-
ner Suwaneo House.
B. M. FR1ZZELLE,
LAWYER,
McRae, Georgia.
Practices iu the .State and Federal Courts,
Real Estate and Criminal Law Specialties.
*YY A- AAKON,
LAWYER,
Asiibukn, Georgia.
Collections and Ejectinaut suits a Rnacial-
ty, jgpOffice, Room JSo. 4, Batts Builuiug.
c. tv. fuiAvoow,
LAl\ r r , REAL . LSiAlE .. & COLLECTIONS,
’iiETON, Georgi .
prompt nttu>uio 4 given to ail business.
g-a.- Office, Luva B uilding, Room-No. 1,
'
4 oHN HAltui-i,
SHOEMAKER,
AsHburn, Georgia.
My prices sire low and ail work strictly
Guuiuuteyd,
*~
] >IR ItGTOR Y.
Mayor —a g. Di-Losch.
Councilman—VV, 11 . Dustier. IL Murray,
a. v>'. (fcokreff E. R Smith, J. P. Fountain
Sm>er:or Courts—Fust Monday Judge' m April
October. C. C. Smith, Hawkins-
vim-. Ga.
c m;' General—Tom Eason. McRae,Ga.
, rks i^bu-Court-J. B.D. Paulk, Ir-
1 Y .n-ntr—j':«
• P.nlk, RnhypOa. Irwin-
. ipuby a i vs—u. L. Piescott,
vii. list.; V/uVanHoutew, «•-ycamore, G?l
J:„ ,„,v. Qa'-rtJiifs July ”'tw, .-u,d ~lVonday October. J. B.
In jni-u.ry. April, Irwm i.ly,
CiciuKiiis. JuJge, Ga.
u.,° Ult 1J ' 1 ‘ !Ul1 "
iviMvPhq OuaiA Mon-
Commissioners’ Court—First
day i 1 each uioiuii. il. Henderson. Commis-
Ordinary’s Court—First. MonSay iu each
by Gf (l-
County Treasurer—W. K. Paulk, Irwin-
Vibe, Ga.
'laxCoflector—J." p.uikq’llffiyAJa. Ga.
Purveyor—H. Barnes, Minnie,
Chair.
Ira ill Ville, Ga ; henry T. Fletcher, Ir-
Gj.; L. R. Tucker, Vic, G..; L. i).
ttf S ’ 3^' Co " lnan ’
usiic.. courts-flOt Dist. G. M., Second
■ urday in each taoutli Marcus Luke, N.
UaviK J - F ; Wm " ^ ” elS> BlUlUr ’
Ga.
i86 tS,;- B'totJG. y. Hanley, M., Third J- V Sa unlay David ineach Troup,
^ ;
I Third Wednesday in each
[- I .dies 1 . C. & p. l Royal, Royal, Huinit's J, p.. sycamore, Sycamore, Gi.; Ga.
SS> Disc. G M.. U. X Ray, N P. & Ex-
:iq J. P. svc-iimu-e. Gu. '_
LOHG X Dial iCTORY-
yciii .iv J-udge, ao 2i0 1’. & A. M.
. 11 “ o* uiniuuie&fcionfj limi anu 4lu feaAu -
i A. >j biory, W. in.; J. F. Ro,aJ, Sc-e.
' Bib Lo ” gv, F. & before A. M.—Regular tho Sunday com*
i-DGl i tiuisjay dtli
‘li mu. . 1*1 j. a. J. Henderson, W. M ;
. At . lutiey, Sec’y, Oeiilu, Gu.
\ i
CHURCH DIRECTORY-
SYCAMORE CIRCUIT.
(Sycamore’—2nd F.t'st Sunday KUuday, uml Sunday night.
Cyciouefi. cow—lird — Sunday and Saturday
Fuiey U
before. Cleuion’s' Chapel—4th Sunday and Satur¬
day before.
jjama cu3—4th Sunday afternoon aud 5th
Ruriciri y
Prayer meeting ut Sycamore every Thurs-
duy night; Sunday school Sunday morning
et 10 .3o o’clock.
J. W. Connors, Pastor.
union primitive baptist.
Bruahey Creek—4 h huuduy and Saturday
oefore. Creek—2nd Satur-
Sturgeon Sunday and
day betore. *
Salem—3rd Hopewell—1st Sunday & Saturday before, before.
Eld Sunday \V, H. and Harden, Saturday Pastor,
Little River— 3rd Sunday und Saturday
^Turner’s Meeting House— 2nd Sunday and
Saturday before
Oakf auuday and Saturday
, j i , up
NOTICE.
Parties are warned that no hunting or fish-
iug will be nflowed on iota of land Nos. 13,
14 17, 13, lit and 44, iu 3rd district of Irwin
popular. Wjwsr Bretobbb
“In Union, Strength and Prosperity Abound.”
SYCAMORE, IRWIN COUNTY, GA., JANUARY 12 1894.
GENERAL NEWS.
Wholesale Summary of the News of the
Week Gathered from Every Quarter.
The Ohio Legislature is in sessiou.
Louisville has several cases of small-
pox.
The Keutucky General Assembly is
in session.
The situation in Sicily is assuming
very grave proportions.
Two new cases of small pox have
developed at Chattanooga.
The whole of Northern Europe is
contending with a terrible blizzard.
Jas. A. Fisher, assistant librarian of
the house of representatives is dead.
Mrs. Lizzie G. Hunt has been ap-
pointed as postmistress at Greenville,
Miss,
their U 1C work co,| hdenCO men ate cities getting in great ill
m many
shape.
The total number of postffices in the
United States in operation on January
1st, is 68,806.
A thousand deaths have occurred
J, f .. om „ u h ’ ■- a a , I, Toneriffe iuieuue, one one of or the me
Canary Islands. ,
An Athletic Club has been organized
in Atlanta and will bid for the Cor*
bett-Mltchell figllt.
The large publishing house of J. W-
Burke is Co., of Macon, Ga., is in the
hands of a receiver.
San Antonio business men have re-
nenewetl their offer of .$26,000 for
the Corbott-Mitclieil fight.
A hording house at Buffalo, N. Y ’ )
was destoved and seven people were
killed and many others injured.
Two editors in Mexico have been ar-
rested and placed in prison because
ihey criticized the administration of
affairs.
• Fire eu the business section of Min-
ileu. Lit., Monday night destroyed
f y valued at $80,000; insurance,
$16,000,
Two men were fairly cooked alive
j,y a boiler explosion that took place
in (lie Cincinnati Southern railroad
shops at Chattanooga.
O.i last Sunday Dr. J. B. Stratton
preachqd his fifteenth annual discourse
in the Presbyteriau church at Natchez,
Miss. He is 80 years old.
Maj A. Pope lias resigned as secre- „„
(ary of the Southern Railway and
Steamship association, and has been
succeeded bv \V r 1 McGill
-
Receiver* have been appointed fur
the Lou i 8vlll e Evans ville and St. Lou-
18 consolidated ii.i-i *'«dvoad i company, x and i
aiso for the Ohio Valley railroad.
f he Mississippi -Legislature is in
session. Among the most irnportaijj
things that will be disposed of by ifcj*
ot law mabeis is tho SOUvicMea^
question.
Tile colored people in many Cities
of the state observed emancipation day
in appropriate style on last Monday,
It is a verry significant event among
the Colored 1 ace.
Cummings of Omaha Neb.
deliberately set his house on fire and
then restrained any of the inmates
from escaping. His wife, baby and
grandmother with himself were ere-
mated.
Justice Jackson has ordered the
Georgia Central and Southwestern
Railroad of Georgia to bo sold within
sixty days after the first day of June,
unless before that date the default on
the bonds shall have been made good.
The Tradesman, Chattanooga,
Tenn.,,one of the leading trade jour-
na ls of the South, has just issued a 202
P 8 * 0 lt » °» e o£ «*?. haui ‘-
somest and igost valuable , publications
0 f the kind ever printed in America
Sam Lee, an industrious and peace-
able Chinaman, of SC was calied to his
door at midnight and fatally shot in the
S (,omach by a negro 0 who was caught c
. boring . holes . , ,, through , the , back , door ,
trying to enter (lie house to rob Sam
Lee, and when caught fired. [The
negro & made liis escape. 1
btatistics compiled by the Boise
City National bank show the value of
the three principal metals produced in
Idaho during 1893 as follows: Gold,
$1,645,000; silver, $1,502,000; lead,
$776,000; total, $3,922,000. This
shows a total decrease of over, $3,000,-
000 as compared with the previous
year.
The case against Corbett and Mitch-
ell has been nolle grossed. Tbe Club
1)0W wan t to change the terms of tlie
contract with Mitchell to read instead
of “within two miles of Jacksonville”
to “within the State of Florida,” at
first the Englishman flatly refused to
sign the new agreement, but after
some persuasion came over and did
so.
a hundred masked men came from
the mountains into Calhoun, Georgia,
prepared to have their way or trouble.
They were moon«hiners whose eiills
been captured by -4000 revenue officers,
who also destroyed gallons of
beer. The men came after (heir stills,
8tc w hioh had been loaded upon a
freight car for shipment to court,
if 1 h D6y .„ ® 0t tM,n tha», '
A crank carrying a huge revolver,
and who said he was commissioned by
tho deity to do good, appeared at the
county jail in Chicago, and asked to
to see Pendergast, the condemned
assassin. “Five minutes talk with
Pendergast is all I want,” said the
crank, “and he will walk out of pris¬
on a free man.” His request was re¬
fused and then pointing at his weapon
he said he would commit murder if
the Lord ordered him to do so. He
was promptly arrested.
A dispatch to (lie London News
from Paris says excavation in Oisseau
Lepetit, department of the Sartlie,
have revealed a Gallo-Roman city,
which appears to have been destroyed
by an earthquake. The city probably
contained some 30,000 inhabitants,
hut its name is not known in French
history. The ruins include a groat
temple, part of which is still standing;
also a Iheater and monuments. A
number of medals have been found,
which includes one of the time of Em¬
peror Constantine.
At a meeting of the penitentiary
board of control of Mississippi it has
been decided to substitute a proposi¬
tion to work the Marcellas plantation,
in Holmes couuty, owned by James
Richardson, on shares. There 2,600
acres in tho tract. The board thinks
there will be enough convicts that can¬
not be leased to work most of it. The
board is to feed and clothe the con¬
victs, furnish guards and medical furnish at¬
tention and Richardson is to
the teams, feed for same, lands, etc.
The proceeds are to be equally divided.
mins AND KNU*.
Atchison, Kansas, is overrun with
tramps.
Snow in Colorado mountains is ten
feet deep.
Reports from India slate that there
are 60,000,000 people on the verge of
starvation in that country.
The public debt statement issued on
Tuesday shows a reduction of $5,000,-
000 in the balance available for tha
payment of the public debt,
Governor Mitchell of Florida says
Corbett and Mitchell shall not fight in
Florida without the Supreme Court
decides he has no power to prevent it.
The entire plant of the Carneige
works at Homestead have resumed
opeatious. A reduction of 2 1-2 cents
per hour has been made in the wages
of machinists and 2 cents per hour
t0 ‘ ottiel laborers la00lei8 -
News from Valparaiso, Ind., tells
of all awful explosiou that occurred
at one of the pumpinf stations of the
workmeu , .. were iu Z the station Sn^nSId engaged un.im
in 1 . i4 0 , )uil . in ,, a i ea k in a pipe tbees-
cap took fire from a lantern
which they knocked over, aud in r
moment an explosion took place which
lore t j ie j ron buildinir to pieces aud
threw the workmen in every direction,
gome of whom were thrown fifty feet
> 4111 ! terribly burned. It is thought
ihat at least seven are fatally injured.
Uoutl Darkoy Gone.
An old colored man named Ralph
Sieele has died in Eutaw, Ala., ,t, the
remarkable age of ninety-eight years,
llis birth was recorded in the *amily
Bible of the Steele family of Green
county, the members of which vouch
for the authority of the record. He
has been in (he Steele family since
1825, not leaving them after being
freed. Several years ago he bought
his coffin and his tombstone and kept
them in his house ready for the final
summons. To the same end he joined
the Baptist church about two years
ago. Just before he died he called his
son and gave him suflicent money to
defray all of the funeral expenses,
saying he wanted to have eyery cent
he owed paid before he died.
In 1856 one of his young masters
bought him a pair of boots and until
bis death he wore them every Sunday
to church. They had never been re¬
paired since the day he received them.
He wore them when he was baptized
and was buried in them at his request.
He was known by most of the citizens
of Green county and was held in high
esteem by all.
“After the Ball."
A grand ball given nt tlie ranch of
Joseph D. jPamerio in Peaces county,
Tex., a few nights since. It was at¬
tended by Mexican cowboys for miles
around. There was a great scarcity
of young women, and there was a
number of rows among the surplus
young men. The ball broke up in a
fight in which three of the young men
were killed. The murderers escaped
to the Mexican side of the river.
Resumption of Iron Mills.
At Pittsburg on January 1st, the
Sligo Iron Mill, the Oliver '& Roberts,
wire and rod mill and the mill of
Dill worth & Co., either resumed op¬
eration or increased the number of
workmen. At least 3,000 men are
now employed in these works that
were idle last week.
Pendergast is Hopeful.
The Attorneys for Pendergast will
ask for a new trial for their client and
should that be refused will appeal the
case to the Supreme Court. Pendergast
is very keysiul.
WASHINGTON NOTES.
Items of General Interest that are Occur¬
ring at the Capital City.
in Tho Sctnnie.
16th Day.— When the Vice-Presi¬
dent rapped for order at noon today,
there were hardly a score ot Senators
in their seats, and it was some time
before a quorum was announced. Mr.
Eppa Hunton of Virginia reading was sworn of
ill immediately after tlie
the journal. A resolution was offered
by Mr. Fry of Maine relative to rela¬
tions of the Uuited States towards
Hawaii, and a bill by Mr. Hill limiting
the effects of the regulations of com¬
merce between the several States and
with foreign countries. Mr. l’ugh of
Alabama, called up a bill, for the re¬
lief of certain aliens who had acquired
property in the District of Columbia.
After considerable debate tho bill was
passed. At 12:40 the Senate went
into executive session and at 1 ;23 ad¬
journed :
17th Day —Iu the Senate today
Senator Hoar introduced a resolution
calling upon the Secretary of the
Treasury for his authority for the
payment of special Commissioner
Blount for his Hawaiian services.
Senator Gray served notice that on
Tuesday next the democrats would in¬
sist upon taking up the federal elec¬
tion bill and continuing with its con¬
sideration until the measure should bo
finally disposed of. The session was
short and uninteresting'the body ad¬
journed at 1:20 until next Mondav.
In The Hoiimo.
16th Day. — The House today met at
noon but adjourned at 2:00 p. m. for
lack of a quorum. There was consid¬
erable animation on the floor in the
interim. It was clearly discernable
that the republicans propose to force
the democrats to enact legislation with
their own quorum, when the said leg¬
islation does not set well with them.
The democrats realizing the situation
instructed the sergent-at-arms to notify
all absentees by telegraph that public
business was suspended and request¬
ing their immediate presence.
I7th Day.—I n the House a repeti¬
tion of yesterday’s experience resulted,
for the republicans refused to vote
upon any question that did not suit
them, and the democrats lacked twen¬
ty-nine votes of having a quorum of
their own present. It was fully de¬
cided, however, by the democrats on
account of (he opposition they have
met to force the tariff' question to a
voce before the consideration of any
question be allowed. After two un¬
successful efforts to get a quorum to
vote the house adjourned.
18tii Day.— Republicans were aga n
able to block the proceedings in the
house today by refusing to vote. The
dommittee on rules, however, made a
report that the final vote on the tariff
bill should lie taken January 25th. It
looks very much like some of the
Democrats are in league with the re¬
publicans by the way they keep out
of reacli of the roll call, or by refusing
to vote when they are present.
Oates’ New Bill.
Representative Oates of Alabama
has introduced the following
important bill to provide for the coin¬
age of silver bullion now owned by
the United States:
Section 1. That all of the silver bull¬
ion now owned by United States shall
be coined as speedily as practicable in¬
to standard silver dollars of the
weight and fineness now prescribed by
law, which shall be a legal tender iu
payment of all debts, public aud pri-
Vale; provided, that one-seventh part
of said bullion may be coined into half
dollars, quarter dollars aud dimes in
the proportion directed by ihe secre
tavy of the treasury aud to contain the
amount of pure silver and aiioy as
now prescribed by law for such coin¬
age.
{sec. 2. That the secretary of the
treasury shall set aside 40,000,000 of
the dollars coined as aforesaid for the
redemption of the notes issued by the
treasury and paid out for tho purchase
of silver bullion in the manner pro¬
vided in the act of July 14, 1890, and
whenever the said sum is reduced be-
low $40,000,000 by the redemption of
said notes, the said secretary shall,
from any other silver dollars iu the
treasury not otherwise appropriated,
add to the said suiq so as to keep it up
to $40,000,000 until tho aggregate
amount of said notes outstanding is
reduced below that stun, and theu the
said secretary shall keep in the treas¬
ury for their redemption an amount of
silver dollars equal to tho amount Of
notes outstanding until they are all re¬
deemed; provided, that the said secre¬
tary may reissue auy of said notes
when redeemed as provided in the
said act of July 14, 1890.
Sec. 3. That any contract hereafter
made by the government of the United
States, or between corporations, or be¬
tween corporations and a person or
parsons, or between private persous,
which is by its terms or by law paya¬
ble in dollars or dollars and cents,
may be paid at its maturity or there¬
after in any lawful coin of tho United
States.
$1.00 a Year in Advance.
VOL.IV. NO. 35.
t.et’H Retwi’u Thank*.
Postmaster General Bissell has giv-
on his last order for (lie printing of
the Columbian postage stamps, known
in the department as the “big Colum¬
bian.” This order was for 1 05,000,-
000, and it completes tho 2,000,000,000
contracted for by Mr. Wanamaker.
Iu a lilne or Two,
The public debt increased during
December $0,801,002. Cash on hand
January 1st, $787,014,701.
The date of holding the Democratic
caucus to consider the tariff bill will
not be fixed for several days yet.
The Globe Theatre, Boston, Mass.,
was almost totally destroyed, together
with several adjacent buildings. The
loss will aggregate at least $1,000,000,
which is covered by insurance.
The old State Capitol building at
Miiledgevilie, Ga., now used for
school purposes. The State holds in¬
surance of $20,000 which will cover
the losses.
O’neill’s Grand Opera House at
Charleston S. C. Insured for $22,000.
Whitehead and Watkins building,
Dublin. Ga, Loss $28,000. In¬
surance, $11,000.
The entire plant of the Interstate
Street railway company at Farmers-
ville, Miss,, was destroyed. Loss
$100,000; insurance $60,000. One
hundred men thrown out of work.
At Toledo, O., a $600,000 fire oc¬
curred on Wednesday.
Hot Springs was visited by a destruc¬
tive conflagration the past week. The
losses will aggregate about $70,000.
Wine Years au(l a Month.
One of the most bitter contested
cases ever tried iu a Federal Court in
the South, has just ended at Jackson,
Tenn., and Dr. Howard, a lead¬
ing attorney and Baptist doctor of di¬
vinity has been found guilty of using
the mails for fraudulent purposes aud
has been sentenced to nine years and
one month in the penitentiary at Co-
Iambus, Ohio, and fined iu the sum of
$1200. To convict Howard (lie gov¬
ernment has spent at least $75,000
The case will be appealed to the su¬
preme court of the United States.
»Y MOLES ALE KILLING.
A Party 111 Texas Breaks up in altov
Three Persons Killed.
A dispatch from Columbia, Texas,
gives the full particulars of a whole¬
sale killing at a party at Cedar Hill,
about fifteen miles from there. E. N.
Williams was dancing on the floor and
aroused the animosity of Lemmon
Gale, who demanded that he must
surrender his place on the floor. Wil¬
liams at first refused, but Gale became
boisterous, and Williams started from
the room, when Gale, with his broth¬
er, Loudon Gale, aud Boh Ealy, began
firing at Williams aud others. Lon¬
don Gale shot through the window and
and killed Eli Waddy, a boy, when an¬
other boy, Isaac Scott, remarked,
“London Gale has killed Eli Waddy,”
whereupon London turned aud say¬
ing: “What is that to you?” shot the
boy through the body and killed him
instantly. In the following fusilade a
woman was shot through the breast and
is now dead. Lemmon Gale was shot
through the body aud will die. A girl
was shot in the face near the eye, and
another squarely in the middle of tho
forehead, the ball glancing and lodg¬
ing next to the skin back ot the head.
One boy was shot through the arm,
aud another through the right baud,
and others received various wounds.
After Lemmon Gale was shot, it is
said his brother, Loudon, sprang 111
and stood over his prostrate body,
Winchester to his shoulder, aud fired
repeatedly into the panic-stricken dan¬ of
cers, who were unable to get out
the house in time to avoid his ven¬
geance. Three are dead, a fourth fa-
tally wounded, two seriously wound¬
ed, and about a half dozen have minor
injuries. London Gale is reported to
be safely locked up in the county jail,
and it is reported that Ealy has been
captured.
The Pangs of Hunger.
At Cleveland, O., a large crowd of
unemployed men marched to the city
hall ana demanded work from tbe city
authorities. They were accompanied
by fully 100 women, many of whom
carried children in their arms. When
informed there was no work for them
the men became augry and mauy
threats were made.
“We will have work or tear down
the city hall,” said one of the leaders.
“Our families are suffering and we
must have employment or bread.”
The city authorities, Citizen’s Relief
association aud the various charitable
iustutions are caring for thousands of
the unemployed, but much distress
still exists.
Will De a Candidate.
It has been announced that Repre¬
sentative W. C. Oates, will bo a can¬
didate for Governor of Alabama-
John L. Bobs up Serenely.
John L. Sullivan (be ex-champion
pugplist says he wants to challenge die
winnier of the Corbett -Mitchell con¬
test.
TALLEST EXTANT ANIMAT
Malo Giraffes Have Reached a Height
of KlKlitoeu Feet.
Compared with their extinct allies of
earlier periods down of the earth’s general history, it
may be laid as a rule that
the large animals of the present day are
decidedly inferior in point of size. territorial Dur¬
ing the latter portion of the
period, for instance, before the incoming
of the glacial attained epoch, when mammals ap¬ de¬
pear to have their maximum
velopment, there lived elephants along¬
side of which ordinary individuals of the
existing dwarfs, species would have looked al¬
most while tho cave bear and
the cave hyena attained considerably
larger dimensions than their living rep¬
resentatives, and some of the sable-
toothed larger tigers than most have biggest been consider¬
ably the African or
Bengal lion. Again, the remains of red
deer,bison,and wild oxen disinterred from
the caverns and other suriicial deposits
of this country indicate animals fat
superior in size to their degenerate de¬
scendants of the present day, while some
of the extinct pigs from the Siwalik
Hills of northern India might be com¬
pared in stature to a tapir rather than
to an ordinary wild boar. The same
story is told of reptiles, the giant tor¬
toise of tire Siwalik Hills, iu spite of its
dimensions having been considerably
exaggerated, greatly exceeding in size
the largest living giant tortoises of either
The the Mascarene latter rocks or the have Galapagos yielded Islands. the
also
remains of a long-snouted crocodile, al¬
lied to the gavial of the Ganges, which
probably measured from fifty to sixty
feet in length, whereas it is very doubt¬
ful if any existing member of the order
exceeds half the smaller of these dimen¬
sions. If, moreover, we took iuto ao-
count totally extinct types, such as the
megatheres ami mylodons of South
America, and contrasting them with
their nearest living allies—in this in¬
stance the sloths and anteaters—the dis¬
crepancy in size would be still more
marked, but such a comparison would
scarcely be analogous to the above.
To every rule there is, however, an
exception, and. there are a few groups of
living large mammals whose existing
members appear never to have been sur
passed in size by their fossil relatives.
Foremost among these are the whales,
which now appear to include the largest
members of thd order which have evet
existed. The so-called white or square¬
mouthed rhinoceros of South Africa
seems also to be fully equal in size to any
of its extinct ancestors; and the'Same'is
certainly true of the giraffe, which may
even exceed all its predecessors in this
respect. Whether, which however, the fossil
giraffes, of the more anon, height were or
were not individuals equals iu of the
largest of the living species
there is no question but that the latter is
by far the tallest of all living mammals,
and that it was only rivalled in this re¬
spect among extinct iorms by its afore¬
said ancestors. like Moreover, if we gigantic exclude
creatures some of the
dinosaurian reptiles of the secondary
epoch, which, so to speak, gained height an
unfair advantage hind as legs regards kangaroo- by
sitting on their in a
liko manner, and limit our comparison
to snob as walk on all four feet in the
good old-fashioned way, wo shall find
that giraffes are not only the tallest mam¬
mals, but likewise the tallest of all ani¬
mals that have ever existed.
As regards the height attained by the
male of the tallest of quadrupeds, there
is, unfortunately, a lack of accurate in
formation, and since it is probable that
the majority of those now living are in¬
ferior in size to the largest individuals
which existed when the species was far
more numerous than at present, it is to
be feared that this deficiency in our
knowledge Is not very likely to be rem¬
edied. By some given writers the sixteen height feet, of and the
male giraffe is at feet,
that of the female at fourteen but
this is certainly below the reality. For
instance, Mr. II. A. Bryden states that a
female he shot in Southern Africa
measured seventeen feet to the summit#
of the horns. From the evidence of a
very large though badly preserved speci¬
men in the Natural History Museum it
may, however, be inferred that flue
males certainly reach the imposing
height of eighteen feet.—[Knowledge.
Giaut of the Land Crabs.
The Titan of the land crab family is
Birgus latro, commonly resident called the
“purse crab,” a of the islands
of the Indian and South Pacilio Oceans.
Mature adults full are in frightful looking
creatures, 2 feet length and from
8 to 14 inches across the back, capable of
“rearing back” and pinching iu defense, a man hip
high when acting which
they are not slow to • do if molested.
The pinchers are, of course, on the first
pair of legs, which are large and powei-
ful; tlie second and third pairs are
armed with but single claws, while the
fourth pair (which are much smaller
thau either the second or third and not
one-tenth as strong as the “pincer car¬
riers") are provided fifth with a pair of weak
little nippers. A pair of legs, but
so small as to simply be useless rudi¬
ments, are attached lo the body near the
abdomen.
Although not identical with the “co-
coanut crab,” described in “Notes for
the Curious” on December 24, 1892, its
habits are similar to those of that curious
species of tho crustao-a. Like the real
“cocoanut crab,” it climbs the coooanut
tree and cuts off the nuts with its power¬
ful pincers. When a sufficient number
have been secured he slowly and care¬
fully descends to the grouud, pulls the
husks from the nuts and, after striking
them over a alone or root, devours the
meat at leisure.—[St. Louis Republic.