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THE HOT WATER CURE.
Rffeetively Applied by an Australian
Battlar'a Wife.
Halves of “aquattera,” or farmera, in
Australia an often left entirely alone
at the farmhouse and are more or leas
subjected to danger in consequence.
A traveler writes: “I know of a squst
ter't wife who was left to her own de¬
vices in this way, while all the men
of the station were mustering cattle—
a business which on large open plains
takes weeks to complete. One morn¬
ing a party of natives arrived and.
finding her alone, demanded food,
threatening death if she failed to bring
it ’Oh, yes,* answered the lady coolly,
speaking their owu dialect, ’I feed you
well, very well, now master away.
You come along a kitchen. You sit
down ail tbe same white man. I get
you budgory tuck-out’ (splendid food).
In no time a score of blacks were
squatting round the kitchen, while the
lady produced all the food available.
Then she filled all the pots, kettles
and billies she could find and put them
on to boll—for tea. as doubtless her
guests thought — while they gobbled
and jabbered, growing more and more
uproarious. Presently the water boil¬
ed, mid then my lady —her natural
com passion slain by her desperate
need I - seized a quart pot in either hand
aud dashed tbe boiling water along
each rfiw of naked figures. This she
did again and again, shrieking, T give
you budgory tuck-out!' while the blacks
yelled in pain and terror, tumbling over
each other to get out of the house,
screaming that she was no white wom¬
an at all, but a dibble-dibble. Neither
could they ever be induced to return
to that station, Inhabited, as they were
convinced, by a dangerous devil.”—
Chicago News.
MISPLACED MONUMENTS.
Helpless Figure#, Boiled and Grimy, In
Stone and Bronze.
The ordinary run of statues, unless
they are royal, have only one real
pleasant and satisfactory day In their
existence, and that ia the day they are
unveiled. If atone, on that day they
are sjiotleasly clean. If bronae, they
are ntee and shiny. After that they
■re never clean or shiny again. It has
to be the statue of a very exalted per¬
sonage for the soot to be scraped off
and to have its face washed once a
year. The average hero has to be sat¬
isfied with being unveiled. After that
no one takes any further interest in
him. But it ia moat instructive to ob¬
serve the unholy skill with which the
soot and other accidents of the air
will lodge on the top of a venerable
bald head and on the surface of what
should be an immaculate frock coat or
a well fitting uniform. A Roman togn
that has met with accidents is not half
so ridiculous as a bronze frock coat
and immaculate bronze trousers that
have been the scene of disaster. Stand¬
ing in front of the statue of a great
statesman, a man notably tidy in his
day and a great worry to hla valet, I
studied the undignified results of a
family of sparrows that had set up
housekeeping under his elbow and
thought how indignant he would be
could be catch a glimpse of tills un¬
seemly domestic arrangement. — Mrs.
John Lane in Fortnightly Review.
Lest Her Prestige.
A New York woman, not being con¬
tent with the reputation she enjoys of
being one of the most beautiful women
In her state, has literary aspirations.
Recently she was a guest at luncheon
when the conversation drifted to books
and plays. Various discussions follow¬
ed. The beauty took part and express¬
ed herself freely. But when she asked
her listeners whether they considered
Ibsen s psychological and patholog¬
ical writer she handed out a stunner.
A graveyard silence reigned until one
girl, who was bolder than the rest, ask¬
ed what pathological meant
Here is where the beauty lost liter¬
ary prestige.
“I looked it up a few days ago," she
replied, “but 1 cannot remember just
now what It means.”—New York
Times
An Artemus Ward Story.
When Artemus Ward was at the
height of b!s fame he received a tele¬
gram from Tom Maguire, then the
leading amusement manager of the Pa¬
cific slope, it asked Artemus, who
was then delivering his funny lecture
la New York, what he would take for
fifty nights in California. The prompt
aud iacoulc response was “Brandy and
water." Maguire somehow failed to
see tbe point, and he wired Ward for
an explanation. He got it in the shape
of a thirty word message costing
$ 10 . 60 . for rates were high lu those
days, which stated that a diagram
would be sent by tbe following mall.
Not Prepared.
“What Is a third of fifty-three and a
third?" asked her friend, who was add¬
ing up her weekly accounts.
“if you’ll wait I’ll run home and get
my diploma and show you that I am a
college graduate and a woman of
mind.” she returned, "but don't spring
questions like that on me all of a sud¬
den."—New York Frees.
TH# Modem Play.
“I want you to write me a play.”
"What sort of a playT
"Weil, we have seventeen specialties.
Get me up enough stuff to wedge 'em
apart"—Kansas City Journal.
The Limit
Mrs. Wtggs—Cook has only broken
one piste today, dear. Mr. Wiggs—
That's better. How did that happen?
Mrs. Wiggs—It was the last one.—Lon¬
don Graphic.
A man must make his opportunity
ns oft as find ih—Bacon. u
-
THE DRAGON FLY.
Before Taking to the Air It Live* Ir.
the Water.
The dragon fly lives in the water dur¬
ing one stage of its life and in the air
during another. The eggs are laid on
the leave# of water plants. When the
larva of a dragou fly appears it Is a
very queer creature indeed. In the
first place. It wears a mask, which
conceals its mandibles, or Jaws, and
when it sees anytblug that it would
like to capture for Its dinner it sud¬
denly unfolds this mask and throws It
forward. It has two sharp claws that
instantly seize tbe prey.
it also draws in and sends forth wa¬
ter, moving in this way. and taking In
the air in the water for breathing pur¬
poses. For nearly a year it lives in
tbe water world. Then on some fine
May or June day It climbs up the stem
of some tall tvater plant that rises
above the surface and in about two
hours throws off tbe old ugly body and
darts away—an inhabitant of the air
world for the rest of its life—on four
gossamer wings, glittering with many
beautiful colors like those of shining
silver and bronze.
It flies as swiftly as a swallow aud
has a long, slender body and large
eyes, ont with many sides iike a dia¬
mond. and on a sunshiny day you may
see many of them catching their prey
on tbe wing. If you should put R back
into the water world of its childhood
it would die.
THE 0YSTERMAN.
Hi* Work Is Hard, and the Return*
Are Often Meager.
The life of an oyaterman is by no
means an eusy one. At the first sign
of dawn in all kinds of weather except
when the river la frozen the oyaterman
leaves his home tind If tbe hreeze is
lair sails to the oyster grounds. If not
he rows the six or eight miles to hla
working grounds. Arriving there, be
drops hla anchor and puts hla tonga
overboard.
AJI day long he manipulates them
with varying results. Sometimes he
finds a particularly good lied, and the
tongs will bring up oysters each time
they are put overboard, but more often
there are more stonea and sheila in the
tongs than there are good oysters, and
l he day’s work is poor.
The catch 1 b then culled—that la, all
undersized oysters and shells are clean¬
ed out and thrown overboard. At least
this is what is supposed to be done;
but. Judging from the cargoes often
brought here, the law is very often a
dead letter. When the catch la culled
It is sold to the river boats and by
them brought to market Few oyster
men market their own catch, but some
own the river boats in which they are
brought to market.—Washington Star.
Joys to Com*.
A popular New England preacher
says that if his sermon ever stretches
beyond the twenty minutes to which
lie means always to limit it the words
of his little daughter ring in his ears,
and he reflects that some of his con¬
gregation are doubtless feeling as she
did on n memorable occasion. The oc¬
casion was the little girl’s sixth birth¬
day, which chanced to come on
Thanksgiving day. She went to church
with her mother and sat quietly
through the service. The sermon was
unusually good, the minister could not
help thinking. He had plenty to sny,
and he said it fluently.
“How did you like my sermon?" he
asked his young critic as they walked
home together, her small baud in his
big one.
“You preached awful long, father,”
said the little girl, “but 1 beared it be¬
cause I love you, and I knew I’d have
a nice dinner when I got home and for¬
get what I’d been through."
The Dahlia end the Fuehtia.
Tbe dahlia rivals tbe hansom cab in
tbe matter of having smothered the
memory of the man after whom it was
named. But persons who use it at
least pronounce “hansom” as Joseph
Hansom pronounced his surname,
whereas probably meat people call the
flower “daylia." thus getting hopeless¬
ly remote from the Swedish Dr. Dahl,
the pupil of Linnaeus, who brought
this Mexican plant into cultivation in
Europe. How many who know the
fuchsia have ever heard of the six¬
teenth century German botanist Leon¬
hard Fuchs? Germany, by the way,
calls the dahlia “Georgina” in honor of
another botanist, Georgl. — Chicago
News.
A Royal Reprimand.
A tutor was once employed to teach
tbe son of a king. The young prince
was sometimes disobedient But in
the esteem of the tutor it was not quite
proper to whip the son of a king with
a common switch. So to tbe lapel of
the boy’s coat the teacher pinned a
piece of purple ribbon. When the
young prince manifested a disposition
to defy authority the instructor point¬
ed with the end of the rod to the pur¬
ple ribbon on his coat This was an
appeal to his royal blood.
Vary Often.
“She’s advertised as a stage beauty
now.”
“Indeed? She never used to be a
beauty."
“Well, stage beauty is a good deal
like stage money.”—Louisville Courier
JoornaL
Obeyed Order*.
Mamma—Why did you eat the whole
of that pie in tbe pantry. Willie? Little
Willie—’Cause you told me once never
to do things by halves.—New York
Globe.
Don’t help yourself to other people’s
money just because tbe doctor says you
must have change.
THE MURRAY NEWS, FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1908
WHAT HE WENT AFTER.
Tha Office Boy Gave the Butines* Cail
*r Some Information.
The big bell in the city hall tower
bad just banged forth the noon hour,
aod the office buildings were emptying
throngs of workers into the streets to
fill the lunchrooms.
In an elaborate office, seated in a
large chair, with his feet comfortably
resting on the edge of the manager’s
desk, was Plugsy, the office boy of
.Tanworth & Co., brokers, says Llppin
cott’s Magazine. His head was cocked
on one side, and with evident relish
he was puffing a huge cigar which his
employer had neglected to finish.
Suddenly the door opened, and Mr.
Whiff, a client of the firm, rushed in,
“Where’s Mr. Janwortb?” he de¬
manded excitedly.
"What’s that?” said Plugsy, slowly
removing the cigar from the far corner
of his mouth.
“I want Mr. Janworth right away.
Where is he?" repeated Whiff.
Just them the bell of a fire engine
clanged below, and Plugsy leisurely
rose and walked to the window.
“Gee," he said thoughtfully, “people
do git skeered o’ them fire carts, all
right all right!” Turning around, be
continued: “Boss ain’t in. I’m runnln’
th’ business Just now. Want any quo¬
tations or”—
"No, you idiot!” yelled the client
“Where has he gone—downstairs?"
“Yep.”
“Will he be back after lunch V
"Naw," yawned tbe future firm;
“that’s what be went out after.”
EYESTONES.
Most Genuine Specimen* Found In the
Province of Astrakhan.
The collection of eyestones is a
dying Industry. In New York the prin¬
cipal sources of supply are sailors who
touch the Baltic sea, and, as might be
Imagined, the supply Is precarious.
Eyestones are analogous In some re¬
spects to bezoars, as they are a con¬
cretion found in the stomach of the
European crawfish. Most of the genu¬
ine eyestones, crabs’ eyes, crabstones
or Lnpilli canerorum, are procured in
the province of Astrakhan, in Euro¬
pean Russia.
There appears to be some confusion
regarding the nature of the eyestone,
for some authorities speak of it as a
concretion In the stomach of a certain
crab and others as of a peculiar shell
formation which is separated from the
crab at the time it sheds its shell.
The so called crab’s eyes are found
fully developed at the end of summer,
ns the crabs begin to shed their shells.
It is noted that these concretious are
absorbed into the stomach of the crab
during the shedding season and there
pulverized and absorbed, the dissolved
calcareous substance being used, it Is
supposed, for the formation of a new
shell. When these calcareous shells
are not normally developed and ab¬
sorbed It is observed that the shedding
process is interrupted, and the crab
dies an early death.—American Drug¬
gist
Two Remarkable Recoveries.
A bride at whose wedding I had been
best man lost her guard ring on her
honeymoon on the Scarborough rocks
She and her bridegroom spent hours in
vain search for It. A year later, while
sitting on the same rocks, she said o
her husband, “Why, this Is the very
spot -where we sat together last year
when I lost my ring.” “There it is!"
he cried in answer, seeing it at the bot¬
tom of a little pool in the rocks, where
It had been washed by u year's tide.
A lady lost a ring on tbe under¬
ground, but did not discover her loss
until some time after she had ieft the
station. When she returned to report
the loss an inner circle train entered
the station, and on the step of one of
the carriages the ring was found. It
was the carriage in which she trav¬
eled, which had Just completed the
circle.—T. P.'s Weekly.
Humor For the Scotch.
A very clever man made an unfor¬
tunate remark the other night in a
gathering which included several na¬
tives of Scotland, but all naturalized
citizens of this republic. It was the
familiar skit that “it requires a sur¬
gical operation to get a joke into the
head of a Scotchman.” Nobody laugh¬
ed. The solemn silence was broken by
a veteran from the highlands who
arose to say: "it is a fact beyond doubt
that the Scotchman takes tbe average
American Joke very seriously. He ex¬
amines it critically and ever so cau¬
tiously, and if he happens to discover
anything In it that is witty or humor¬
ous he laughs heartily.”—New York
Press.
Pleasures of Deserted London.
To the few of us who elect to remain
in town during the dead season, life
offers some attractions. Entire free¬
dom from social engagements comes as
a boon and a blessing, a welcome re¬
laxation. A man can go where he
likes and dress as be pleases. If he
chooses to walk down Piccadilly in a
golfing suit there is no one to say to
him nay.—London Tatler.
Mysteries of Scent.
The mysteries of scent will probably
never be solved, and it is a matter of
everyday observation that while the
trained shooting dog will pass a sit¬
ting partridge, a terrier or a fox will
find the nest.—London Times.
Wonderful Head.
Percy—Yes. it’s rather s neat tie.
Who gave you the idea? Cholly—No¬
body. I got it out of my own head.
Percy—Oh! Blocked it out yourself,
did you?—Chicago Tribune,
Confidences are sometimes blinding,
even when they are sincere.—Eliot
INDIANS ON THE
The Methods Used by the
Men to Communicate.
SIGNS THAT SPEAK VOLUMES
Stick* and Stone* Have a Language of
Their Own and Serve to Indicate Di¬
rection, Departure, Intention, Warn¬
ing, Claim or Demand.
As time has passed and civilization
has changed Indian conditions, 1 was
under the impression that our red
brothers had forgotten the use of
signs in their travels, but as 1 was
loitering about the hills in Siskiyou
county some time ago I came across
a genuine Indian sign such as I hud
not seen for a dozen years i)efore. It
was a simple little sign in appearance,
but It was full of meaning to those
who could read it—a long stick with
one end stuck in the ground, the other
leaning and pointing up the road. The
stick was elevated at an angle of only
about ten degrees from the ground
and was supported on a stone. It told
some Indian that his gon“aliead frffiud had been
along there and had in the
direction pointed out by the stick.
I marveled at it, but on investiga¬
tion found that the Indians of Califor¬
nia still use signs to convey intelli¬
gence to each each, I found that
among the Cocopahs, Cohuillas, Pimas
and Yurnas the sign is as much in use
as ever.
While traveling in San Ben\ardino
county later on I came across a pecu¬
liar grouping of stones, and at once
saw that some Indian had left a sign
so that ail other Indians might know
that water was to lie found in a cer¬
tain direction. The stones were lying
In a complete circle, and in the center
was a long triangular stone with the
sharp point indicating a specific direc¬
tion. The sign was plain to one versed
in such things, and In order to see if
the same sign was universal, for I had
seen it elsewhere, I followed the direc¬
tion pointed out by the long stone and
found a little spring.
This arrangement of stones I had
often seen in a dozen different places
in the middle west and as a variant
which was also found in California. I
have seen a mound of stones similar
to a miner’s monument, with a pointed
stone resting on top, pointing toward
water. In many parts of the country,
especially in the desert parts of Cali¬
fornia and Arizona, the question of
water supply for travelers Is one tha’t
requires serious consideration, and I
have known men to pass within a few
hundred yards of water without know¬
ing it, because they could not read In¬
dian signs. The sign was in plain
view and was placed there because the
Indians recognized the necessity of tell¬
ing all who came along that they could
find water. True, there was not a big
board set up with “Water’’ painted on
it, but to the initiated it was equally
plain. There Is not a trail in al! the
southwest that runs near a spring that
does not have the sign openly display¬
ed. I have even seen instances where
the water was so far from the regular
trail that special signs have been made
to show where it is.
Sometimes, however, these circles
may not mean water at all, and then
it is necessary to understand the intri¬
cacies of the Indian mind to understand
just what he is driving at I remem¬
ber once when I was hunting on the
Republican river I came across a circle
of buffalo skulls, which attracted my
attention because of their peculiar ar¬
rangement. Sixteen skulls were set In
a semicircle with their noses pointing
down the river. In the center of the
circle was a skull on which were paint¬
ed thirty-six mi hues. Near the skulls
were two small sticks placed upright in
the ground, and at the top of each
stick were tied two bundles of hair.
A Pawnee Indian was with me and
told me that thirty-six Pawnees had
camped there. They had made a raid
against a camp of Comanches contain
ing sixteen tents or lodges and had
taken four scalps. They were now re¬
turning home down the river. To the
ordinary observer this arrangement of
skulls and sticks would have given uo
more Impression than the idea that
some one had been amusing himself by
playing with these buffajo skulls. To
the Indian the arrangement was a
complete story.
Indians use signs for several specific
purposes, the most prevalent being that
of guidance, but they are also used for
direction, departure, intention, condi¬
tion, warning and claim or demand, i
was hunting with a party of Utes in
southwestern Colorado, and we had
separated with the understanding that
we were to meet again at a specified
place and all go back to the village to¬
gether. On reaching the appointed
place one of the party was not there,
but |he rest started to the village, pay¬
ing no attention to his nonappearonce.
I asked If they were not going to wait
until he came back, but they said he
bad been there and had gone on to the
village without waiting for us to come
up. When I expressed surprise I was
shown a long stick standing in the
trail with a bunch of grass fastened to
its top. The stick was leaning toward
the village, and this told the story of
the missing man as plainly as if he
had written a letter about it. I found
that a similar stick had been erected
at the top of every hill between there
and where the village could be seen.
He took no chances of the sticks fall¬
ing down and told the story over sev¬
eral times.
The same sign is used by the Indians
of southern Alaska^ and alsd by the
of Manitoba. The | Sioux
Winnebagoes
use a split stick with a short stick in
the split, pointing in the direction tak¬
en.—San Francisco Chronicle.
CORONERS IN MAINE,
More Than Officials For Probing Cases
of Violent Daeths.
Suppose you know nil about the du¬
ties of a coroner Perhaps it would
be safer to say you think you do, for
the chances are that your real knowl¬
edge of what these official:? <Vj Is tome
rrhat limited. It v.'o.iida't be at all
■Tange if there ar,> many lawyers
-..Uo are not thoroughly acquainted
with the duties and privileges of these
officials.
Time was when coroners of Maine
outranked the sheriffs. Ever hear
about that? it wasn't so many years
ago. In those days the coroners were
required to give a bond of S50.000 and
the sheriff one of $40,000. Today it is
different. The sheriffs give the same
big bond, but the coroners have to
have financial backing to the extent of
only about a thousand. The legisla¬
ture has changed the law.
Even now there are only two officials
who can serve a paper upon a sheriff,
a coroner or a high sheriff of another
county. It used to bo that the coroner
was the only one who could do this.
There arc times when it becomes
necessary to serve a writ of attach¬
ment upon a sheriff, and thin. too.
when he doesn't owe the man who
makes the atnehsui-ct a idug’e p u ny.
A brings a suit against II ami at¬
taches his proper;;-- to Insure g. .ting
his cash. B, however, ov, c.-t O a cer¬
tain sum. Now, the »> -cperty which
A lias attached is worth a great deal
more than the amount of A's claim.
C can’t very well attach it, because
there is already an attachment. To
cover his claim he must attach the
sheriff as custodian of the property.
To look out for his own interests he
had the attachments made. Here is
where the coroner comes in. He or
the high sheriff of another county must
make the service. As coroners are,
for the most part, most accessible,
they are called for oftenest in these
cases.
The coroner also does the work of
a sheriff or his deputy in the case of
the death of a sheriff.
When a sheriff dies his deputies "die
with him.” In such an event the coun¬
ty Is left without a sheriff or a depu¬
ty sheriff. Its only officers to serve
civil papers are constables, and they
cannot make attachments above a cer¬
tain sum. Some provision has to he
made by law to guard against emer¬
gencies. On the deatli of a sheriff the
governor, ffrst of all, appoints a jail
breaker, so that there may be some
person legally to have charge of con¬
victs In the penal institution of the
county. After that he names a sheriff
to fill the unexpired term. But this
doesn’t provide for the service of civil
papers.
Here is where the coroner stops la.
He, under the laws of the state, has
power to serve these papers.
The last sheriff to die in office in
Maine was Sheriff Reed of Penobscot
county in 1805. In the time between
his death and the appointment of his
successor, Charles It. Brown of Spring
field, there came an important attach¬
ment to be made on a Bangor concern.
A coroner was called in by the firm of
lawyers who had the case, and he was
requested to make the service. It was
a new duty for the man, but he suc¬
cessfully grappled with it.
You see, coroners are something more
than officials for Investigating cases of
violent deaths.—I-ewlston Journal.
An Emperor's Attic.
The winter palace of the czar sur¬
passes any other palace in Europe. It
is on the banks of the Neva and owes
Its existence to the Empress Catherine
II., that most extraordinary woman,
extraordinary in ability and in vice,
the surprise of ail her contemporaries
and the wonder of all who have stud¬
ied her character. The building is
four stories high, of a light brown
color and highly ornamental in archi¬
tecture. It Is a wilderness of halls,
stairways and apartments. The Nich¬
olas hall and the St. George's hall will
never lie forgotten by those who have
seen them.
One of the most interesting rooms is
that where Nicholas I. died. It is in
the upper story of the northeast corner
of the building'and is approached by
four doors and finally by a narrow'
passage. It is a small room, only
about eighteen feet long and twelve
feet wide, with two small windows,
and is the place where the emperor
spent most of his time when not of¬
ficially employed. It is the room in
which lie died, some say by poison ad¬
ministered by himself in a fit of mel¬
ancholy induced by the outcome of the
Crimean war. The room remains just
ns he left it. Near the center is a
plain iron bedstead. Some chairs and
a few cheap pictures adorn the room,
and a dilapidated, down at the heel
pair of slippers complete the furnish¬
ings of the attic room in the palace.
of the Dancing Bird*. sights
One many strange on
the plains of southern Africa is a par¬
ty of waltzing ostriches. Their queer
anties have been described thus;
“When there are a number of them
they will start off in the morning and
after running a few hundred yards a ill
stop and with raised wings will whir!
rapidly round till they are stupefied or
perhaps break a leg. The males pose
also before fighting aud to make their
court. They kneel on their ankles,
opening their wings aud balancing
themselves alternately forward and
backward or to one side or the other,
while the neck is stretched on a level
with the back and the head strikes the
sides, now on the right, now on the
left, while the feathers are bristling.
The birds appear at this time so ab¬
sorbed in their occupation as to forget
all that is going on around them and
can be approached and caught The
male alone utters a cry, which sounds
much like an effort to speak with the
mouth shut tight,”
CENSORSHIP IN RUSSIA,
Forging Seals on Letters and Replac¬
ing Stamps.
The inodus operand! of the political
postal censorship, which has for some
time past been unusually active in its
scrutiny of private correspondence, has
not materially changed since the time
when the nihilist propaganda first
aroused it:? energies.
The lv r.g kettle and steam vapor
application are still in vogue, except
where the intercepted letter bears a
wax seal or seals. To open and re
dose a sealed letter without leaving
any easily noticeable traces of it hav¬
ing been tampered with is a process re¬
quiring some little delicacy of manip¬
ulation on tlie part of the Inquisitor.
A thin, sharply edged stee! blade
heated just to the requisite degree to
pass under and remove the seal intact
is used, hut if this is done clumsily,
writes the Odessa Correspondent of the
London Standard, then, unless the let¬
ter be appropriated or destroyed, a
new seal mast be made. This is
fected by talcing a mold of the
with a substance whose chief ingredi¬
ent is gypsum and the elaborate ap¬
pliances of the cabinet noir quickly fur¬
nish from the mold a new seal of the
same kind of wax practically indistin¬
guishable from the old one. It is cus¬
tomary in tills country to attach the
postage on a letter as a wafer in¬
stead of a seal—that is, the postage
is placed on the reverse side of tb » en¬
velope, covering the point of the join¬
ing flap.
This almost invariable custom ren¬
ders the application of the steam ket¬
tle a comparatively easy matter, and
if the postage be occasionally destroy¬
ed it is readily replaced by new post¬
age of the same denomination, and
the obliterating stamp of the place of
origin is again applied. A suspect let¬
ter may be opened at the postoffice of
its destination, but that is of no con¬
sequence, as every branch cabinet uoir
possesses obliterating stamps for ev¬
ery city and town in the empire, and
should the intercepted epistle be of for¬
eign origin the expert officials can very
rapidly prepare a perfect counterfeit of
the obliterating stamp.
A different process, and a very sim¬
ple one, is employed when the cover of
the arrested letter is of stout texture,
such as the official stationery common¬
ly used in the diplomatic and other
official services, and is scaled. The up
pec or lower or one of the end folds of
the letter is carefully cut with a nar¬
row and extremely sharp paper knife,
and the silt fold is rejoined with a
special kind of very fine and strongly
adhesive cement, which is of various
colors to match the particular shade of
envelope operated upon, The natural
crease in the fold of very thick paper
greatly assists the success of this proc¬
ess.
It was first publicly revealed some
twenty years ago through a curious
blunder on the part of a postal inquisi¬
tor In St. Petersburg. A me ml mu' of the
clerical staff at the Quai d'Orsay had
written a private letter on official pa¬
per to a friend in the French legation
in the Russian capital. The envelope
bore three seals and was apparently
intact when delivered.
On opening the letter the recipient
was astonished to find inclosed a Rus¬
sian translation of the same in pencil
script. The postal inquisitor had inad¬
vertently Inclosed his Russian tran¬
script. The indignant receiver made a
very strong protest in the proper quar¬
ter, nud six weeks later he was polite¬
ly informed that the “erring official”
had been severely reprimanded and
that there would be no repetition of
the irregularity.
Early Whist.
Mrs. Hervey writes on Oet. 25. 1007,
to her husband that his “four sisters
have been hear this afternoon, and as
they never come unattended, brought
with them Mr. Ga—, Mr. Down— and
Mr. Bo—. Part of them staid and
played at whish (sic) tel this moment,
which is past 11 a’elock.”
Twenty years later (March IS, 1717)
Lord Hervey, as his title was then,
writes to the Rev. Mr. Thomas
Foulkes, the tutor of Mad Tom Her¬
vey. at Oxford, about that sou's gam¬
bling propensities. He is to follow the
example of his “good grandfather Her¬
vey, who, pray tell Tom, never played
at any game hut whist, and at that
only in Christmas time for sixpence a
corner.”
Lady Bristol was at Bath in April,
1723, and was then in the center of the
world of whist. “Poor Bishop Nev
eil,” she writes, “can scarce be reck¬
oned among the living, being (in my
oppinion) wors than dead. They say
he sitts at Lindsey's with one to hold
his cards and another to give hint
snuff. Paisey and gout have brought
him to this missirable condition.” On
May 1 she cheerfully informs her hus¬
band that the diversion of the evening
is the puppet show. “Betty is gone
with Lady Torrington. The whiskers
have promised me some diversion
after ’tis over.”—London Notes and
Queries.
Sweets and the Disposition.
Nothing could be said iu greater
praise of a people than-that they like
sweets. It shows a wholesome, vigor¬
ous, healthful condition, an appetite
not jaded from excessive indulgence.
The child whose appetite has not be¬
come polluted or calloused by false
relishes, smarting sauces and burning
loves sweets; so does the girl of
bright eyes and untainted youth, as is
evidenced by her fondness for ice
creams and desserts. The young ath¬
among men loves sweets nearly as
well as does the child. But the bar¬
room lounger, the “cigarette fiend.”,
the “dope fiend” and the depraved of
all other classes do not like sweets.
Long ago their minds and appetites
the desire for everything pleasing
the natural palate.—What to Eat