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THE BUBBLES OF LIFE.
A boy and girl upon the yellow beach
“Blew shining bubbles in the summer air,
And as they floated off they named them,
each
Choosing what seemed to him or her
most fair.
“Inamo mine ‘Wealth, 9 99 exclaimed the care
, les3 boy;
, “So may I never have to count the cost,
But ships and houses own, as now a toy.”
But Wealth wa3 driven far out to sea and
lost.
*‘I name mine ‘Beauty,’ ” said the pretty
girl; shall fair face,
“So women all envy my
And men shall kneel and beg me for a curl.’’
But Beauty vanished quickly into space.
“I name this ‘Fame,’ ” essayed the boy
again; hour
“So may I hear my praises men.” every
As orator or soldier sung by bea¬
But Fame was wrecked against the
con tower.
•‘This is ‘Long Life, 9 99 returned the little
maid;
“So may I happy be for many a year,
Nor be tilt late oUugly death afraid.’’
But Long Life broke within a graveyard
near.
At last twin globules they together blew,
And named them “Love,” as slow they
rose on high.
The sua shone through them with prisma¬
tic hue,
Till Love was lost within the glowing
sky.
—Irving Browne, in Troy Press.
© OOGGGOOOOOQGOOQQGGOOGOGGGG
G
THE PEARLS o
G
OF PANAMA. § G
-
By Charles Adams. 8
© O
OOOOODOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSOCO
M EOPLE with mem¬
ories will recall
that after the fail¬
ure of M. Ferdin¬
and de Lesseps’s
first grand effort to
W 1 excavate the Pan¬
ama Canal, there
ensued a depress¬
ing period, when
‘ for several years nothing whatever was
done, and millions of dollars’ ivorth of
expensive machinery lay exposed to
wind and weather, aud to thieves who
carried off immense quantities of plun¬
der.
At length an attempt was made to
stay these losses. Paintere were em¬
ployed to coat the excavators, dredges,
cranes, dragues, locomotives and other
machines with waterproof paints, and
guards were sent to patrol the line of
works.
Among the guards were a young
American whose name is given as Ed¬
mond Harris, a Hollander named Van
vieok, from.
^is3ift?a*i)oohey, an Irishman. Their
'•"misiness was to care for the marine
dredges in the “Boca,” or xvesternend
of the canal trench, near the harbor of
Panama. A small steam-lauuch was
provided in which they made their
rounds, and on holidays they some¬
times used this boat for excursions to
other points on the bay. The most in¬
teresting of these jaunts, and one at¬
tended by a curious adventure, was to
the ruins of Panama Viejo (Old Pan¬
ama), six or eight miles south of the
modern city.
Old Panama, the city first built by
the Spaniards when at tho zenith of
their New World prosperity, was
taken, plundered aud burned by the
buccaneer Morgan in 1671. For a cen¬
tury it had been the richest city of the
Western Hemisphere, containing at
one time fully seventy thousand in
habitants, and being called from its
position, “The Gate of the New
World.” Hither were brought the
spoils of Peru, by Pizarro, and gold
aud silver in vast quantities from the
newly opened mines. A well-paved
highway connected it with Puerto
Bello, on the Atlantic side of the
isthmus.
Of Old Panama nothing now remains
except the crumbling walls of the
churches and palaces, overgrown by
vines, in the midst of a dense tropical
forest. One lofty tower alone rises
above the tree-tops, that of the Church
of St. Amastasius.
Steaming in here at high tide, our
three adventurers entered a bayou, or
creek mouth, leading beneath a stone
bridge, the ai-ch of which is still stand¬
ing, to a laud-locked lagoon which
once formed the city’s haven for small
craft.
Here they left the launch, and first
crossing the old stone bridge, visited
the church-tower. Then they wan¬
dered curiously about the site of the
old town. The place is now wholly
overgrown with jungle, and to move
about or to follow the lines of the old
streets it is necessary that a mache
tero, or man Avorking with a machete,
should go iu advance and literally
cleave out a path. Pablo, the half
breed fireman of the launch, under¬
took this task, but was soon covered
by garrapatus, or wood-ticks. While
he was clearing himself of them, Mike
Doohey took up the machete and cut
a path for several hundred yards, over
old walls and vine-grown masonry,
when to his discomfiture he suddenly
discovered a large hooded viper cling¬
ing to his boot. The reptile had stuck
its faugs into the leather, but fortu¬
nately had not been able to bite
through it.
This was too much for the Irish¬
man.
“I wish yez joy of your walk,gentle¬
men,” said he. “For mesilf, I shall
lave ye the snakes and the bugs, and
go back to the launch and shmoke me
pipe! ’
S.9 left them abruptly, and Pablo
resumed the machete, all keeping a
sharp eye out for snakes. They had
gone on but a few yards when a tre¬
mendous yell from Mike caused them
to turn.
“Veil, I vonder what next shall be
de matter vid de Irishmans!” exclaimed
Van Vleck.
Harris went hastily back. Mike!
Mike!” he shouted. “What’s the mat¬
ter? Where are you?”
At first he got no reply, but heard
a strauge gurgling, swashing sound,
as of water, that seemed to come from
the earth near-by. Then came a
muffled cry of “Help! Help!”
Harris then caught sight of a hole
iu the thiak verdure and vines of the
path over which they had just come,
and approaching, found that Mike
had fallen down the deep shaft of an
old Spanish well. With Van Vleck’s
aid, Harris quickly pulled away the
viues and gained a better idea of the
dimensions of the hole. It was six or
seven feet across; they had walked
unsuspectingly along the very brink
of it.
“Is the water deep, Mike? Can you
get a foothold, to keep your head out?”
Harris shouted down to him.
“Little enough!” cried Mike. “Sure
it’s deep as the say and cowld as the
grave!”„
Harris had a surveyor’s tapeline in
his pocket. He threw the reel end
down, holding fast to the other.
“Catch hold of that,” he cried.
“Easy! Don’t break it. It will help
you to keep your head above water till
we can get a line from the launch.”
He sent Pablo off at a run to fetch the
line.
Some minutes elapsed before it
could be brought, and meantime Mike
had to support as little of his weight
as possible by the tape which Harris
held, and barely kept his head aud
neck above the cold well "water, like a
bullfrog at the margin of a tank.
Van Vleck then tied a loop in the
end of the launch-line and lowered it.
“Now get your foot in that loop,
Mike, and then seize hold above, and
■we will pull you out!” Harris called
down to him.
The combined strength of the three
barely sufficed to haul the Irishman
up. Foot by foot they hoisted him,
dripping and trying to aid them by
catchingjtoe-hold and finger-hold here
and there in chinks of the old ma¬
sonry. The well had been lined up
with stone blocks, iu cement.
They had him within a few feet of
the top when his toe dislodged one of
the stone blocks and it fell down with
a splasTiT Tlut 'tiie'iiexTmoYneht'Tuike
got his arms out and was dragged
forth, a very wet and slimy object.
“Bad ’cess to the haythen that
leaves their wells uncovered,” w r ere
his first words. But something about
the hole in the wall from which the
stone block had slipped appeared to
interest him, for all dripping as he
was, he got down on his knees and
looked at it.
“I’m thinkin’ that was a very quare
hole,” he said to Harris. “D’ye know,
I fancied I caught the glint of a bottle
as I passed that hole, sor.”
Harris and Van Vleck laughed,
thinking this a hint that Mike desired
something to warm him up. But he
was not joking.
“Sure, I can see the nose av it
now!” he exclaimed. “Wait a bit,
while I put me fut in the noose av the
rope again, aud thin hould on tight
while I take a peep down.”
They lett him down a few feet,
when he drew out from the hole in the
well wall a large, square-shouldered
bottle of very elumay shape.
“I have it!” cried Mike, and
they pulled him out again. “And
now did yez ever see the likes of that
for a bottle!” he exclaiued. “Bedad
but the ould stopper is no better than
punk. What do ye make of it, sor?”
he asked, and handed it to Harris.
The bottle was a lopsided affair of
impure green glass, aud contained
what looked through the glass like
small bullets. Harris picked out the
stopper, which was of wood, wrapped
in crumbling leather. Some moments
were required to extract it. To their
great surprise, the round, bullet-like
objects proved to be large pearls,
some of them very beautiful. There
were a hundred aud forty-nine of
them.
Van Vleck, who had seen jewels and
pearls in Holland, was of the opinion
that they were of great value.
Their first thought, after looking
at the contents of the bottle, was to
search the hole in the wall for further
treasure. They found nothing except
a small, raoidering box with silver
crockets at the corners. This being
opened, was found to contain discol¬
ored parchments, evidently of the na¬
ture of royal letters, or deeds of gift
or conveyance, aud also exactly a
hundred Spanish, gold coins of appar¬
ently about the weight and value of a
doubloon.
“Well, Mike, this is your find,”
Harris said to bins. “I congratulate
you.”
“Faith, then, how wud I have found
it if yez hadn’t pulled me out of the
ould well? Tell me that, sor!” ex¬
claimed Mike.
“What is your idea, then?” asked
Harris.
“Share and share alike, sor. There
wuxjbe no other fair way.”
‘'Including Didn’t Pablo?”
“Sure! the haythen help
pull me out?”
They steamed back to the city and
showed the pearls to a dealer there.
The man was astonished at the size
and beauty of many of them, and
would not say -what he thought they
were worth. An English dealer at
length rated the market value at
three thousand three hundred and ten
pounds, or not far from sixteen
thousand five hundred and fifty dol¬
lars.
They had little doubt that this bot¬
tle of pearls and the box had been con
cealed in the. well at the time when
the city was taken by the pirates,
more than two centuries ago, aud that
the person who had secreted them
had perished in the sack of the town.
There could be no hope, therefore, of
finding the rightful possessors. that
It will not be thought strange
the three canal guards went again
aud again to the ruins of Panama
Viejo, searching for other old wells,
aud sounding tliein with grapple
hooks in the hope of finding other
similar caches of old-time wealth; but
they found nothing more.—Youth’s
Companion.
NEW SETTLEMENT IN THE OCEAN,
Forty Men Living on Christmas Island,
Which Was Said to Be Worthless.
There is no speck in the ocean big
enough to S8t foot on where men are
not settling down nowadays, if they
think there is a shanee of making a
little money. This is how it happens
that about forty men are living to-day
on Christmas Island, one of the lone¬
ly spots in the Indian Ocean, about
200 miles south of Java. The island
is shaped something like a dumbbell,
is about ten miles long and iu its
widest part has a width of about live
miles.
In 1887 the British surveying ves¬
sel Flying Fish was ordered to make
an examination of the island. It
found an anchorage place in one of
the little bays and a humber of men
were landed. They reported that the
island was of little value, and no seri¬
ous attempt at exploitation was made.
A few years later it was discovered
that rich beds of phosphate of lime
are on the island, and iu 1896 Mr.
Andrew Ross, brother of the man who
owns the Cocos Keeling Islands, made
tho journey to Christmas Island and
decided that money was to be made
by settling there. He went back for
h s family aud a few men from Cocos
aud theu returned to the island. Near
the shores of Fiying Fish Cove a
number of substantial houses have
beeu erected. Wells have been sunk
aud-fruit trees and cocoauut palms
planted, and a small experimental
plantation of coffee has also been
made. Tiie results thus far leave no
doubt that the island is well suited
for coffee growing. In May, last year,
Mr. Ross had just imported a number
of coolies from Java to make the nes
essary preparations for working the
valuable deposits of phosphate of
lime. The population theu numbered
about forty.
Most of the island is covered with
forest. Its climate is delightful, aud
during the greater part of the year
resembles a hot summer tempered by
sea breezes. In the rich phosphatic
soil the trees grow to great height.
Animal life is seldom abundant on
oceanic islands, and Christmas Island
is no exception. There are only five
species of animals, two kinds of rats,
a shrewmouse aud two bats,. The
presence of the rats and the mouse
must be accounted for by supposing
that they drifted to the island on float¬
ing wood, while the bats reached it
by flight. Owing to the abundance
of food and the absence of enemies,
the rats swarm everywhere. Birds of
passage appear iu the rainy season,
and include many varieties.—New
York Sun.
Some Historical Rings.
The British Museum contains
several historical rings. One belonged
to Mary, Queen of Scotland. It con¬
tains the initial letters of Mary and
Darnley, and may be seen at South
Kensington. Another ring is inti¬
mately connected with the last
moments of Charles I.; it was ex
hibited several years ago, at the time
of the exhibition of the Stuart treas¬
ures. It contaiu3 a portrait of the
King, aud is said to have been given
shortly before his execution to the
Bishop of London, Jnxon, who accom¬
panied the King to the scaffold.
Had a Presentiment of Death.
Owen Gray, who recently died in
Evansville, Ind., while on his way
homo from work, had a premonition of
death. Leaving liis boarding house in
tho morning to go to his work, he said
to his friends with whom he boarded:
“I am going to die to-dav’. I dreamed
it, and constantly something is saying
to me my dream will come true.” He
then shood hands with them, saying
he might not see them again. In six
hours he was dead.—Cincinnati En¬
quirer.
There Are Others.
Sir William Long tells a story of an
old Scotch lady who could not abide
long sermons.. She was hobbling out
of kiik one Sunday, when a coachman,
who was waiting for his people, asked
her: “Is the minister dune wi’ his
mon?”
“He was dune laug syne,” said the
old lady, impatiently, “but he winua
atop!”—New Brunswick Advertiser.
! THE MERRY SIDE OF LIFE,
STORIES 1H XT ARE TOLD BY THE
FUNNY MEN OF THE PRESS.
me Dream—An Important Condition—A
Cause and Its Results — A Limited
.
Privilege—A Protracted Gift—A Heady
Explanation—Untimely Nap, Etc.
1 had a dream which was not all a dream;
I saw tho moon slip down the western
sky. full-orbed peeping
And then the sun came
up, splashed the east with red and
And
mounted high; o’erslept—that it 9
I dreamed that I’d was
o’clock, should have been downtown
While I, who
at 8, torture-racked, , , T 1
Still kept my bed and,
tossed, dread of being lute—
For I’d a mortal
Then I awoke, and lo!
The whole sad thing was so!
A Cause and Us Results.
Jack—“Why, she’s so homely her
face would stop a clock. ’
Charles—“That’s odd; seems tome
an ugly face should make one run!”—■
Jewelers’ Weekly.
An Important Condition.
The Grand Vizier—“The powers
intimate that they won’t do a thing to
us.”
The Sultan—“Do they intimate in
French or English?”—Detroit Jour¬
nal.
A Protracted Gift.
A child wdio was delighted with tho
gift of a candy cat said to her mother
at the end of tho holidays:
“I saved it aud saved it aud saved
it, till it got so dirty I had to eat it.”
—Life.
A Limited Privilege.
“Do you allow your errand boy to
sleep in your office?” was asked of a
broker iu the Chamber of Commerce
building.
“Only during Ihe day lime.’’--De¬
troit Free Press.
A Ready Explanation.
Customer—“My dear sir, your
marbles, bisques and bronzes are pot
well selected. You have only stand¬
ing postures.”
Jeweler—“Certainly, sir; my fig¬
ures never lie.”—Jewelers’Weekly.
A Pleasant Day.
“When I get a good breakfast I feel
well started for the day.”
“Yes?”
“Then if I have a nice luncheon
down town and a good dinner at lfight
I go to bed cheerfully.”—Chicago
Record.
Tile Letter of the Law. J
m
4
mm
J
? A
13
The Parson—“Don’t you know, lit¬
tle boy, that you should love your en¬
emies?”
The Scrapper—“Dat’s all right. Dis
is a friend of mine.”—New York Jour
ual.
The' Woman of It.
Postal Clerk—“This letter is over¬
weight, ma’am. You’ll have to* put
another stamp on it.”
Woman—“I think the government
is to mean for anything. I know I’ve
mailed hundreds of letters that weren’t
anywhere near full-weight, so I think
the least you can do is to let this one
go through.”—Judge.
His Convincing Weigh.
(’ought McLubberty—“Wull, Ox wull! Oi
was a trut’ful mou, but
Shannihan convinced me thot Oi am
not!”
O’Hoggerty—“How McLubberty—“He did he do ut?”
called me a loiur,
an’ as he weighs fifty pounds more
than Oi do, begorra, Oi was foorced
to belavo him!”—Puck.
Cold Sympathy.
the Friend—“Hullo, old man! what’s
matter?”
Gilded Youth—“Just proposed to a
girl—been refused, Think I shall
blow my brains out.”
Friend — “Congratulate you, old
thap.”
Gilded Youth-“What do you
mean?”
Friend “Didn’t know you had
any.”—Punch.
When He Was Too Sudden.
Mr. Peck “The only time I ever
acted hastily iu my life I made a mis¬
take.”
Mrs. Peck—“Ha, ha! I repeat it
with emphasis-ha, ha! I don’t be¬
lieve you ever made a hasty move
smee the day you were born.”
Mr. Peck—“Well, you aud I were
engaged less than three months you
know.”
He reached tho ground by way of
the fire-escape. -Chicago News.
An Explanation.
Windsplit Adolphus Wierry, the re¬
nowned tragedian, paused in his lines,
and advanced to the ceuter of the
stag£. Then, lifting his voice, he
spoke: third !
“The gentleman on the tier,"
he said, “who just earnestly and forci¬
bly exclaimed ‘Rotten!’ has my sym
pathy. I agree with him. Much that
this fellow Shakespeare wrote is un
doubtedy rotten. But, my friends,
we must follow the lines. With this
explanation, let us proceed, and if yon
will bear with me I’ll promise to get.
through as soon as possible.”
Then the play went on.
Those Annoying Clocks.
First Cook (reading)—Wanted, to
go to Connecticut, a first-class cook.
Good wages.
Second Cook—Niver on yer loife.
Sure, isn’t that where they make
alarum clocks?—Jewelers’ Weekly.
America and Germany.
So soon as America showed- her character¬
istic firmness the German cruiser left Manila
Bay, and we now protect tlie German inter¬
ests. In a like manner all stomach Ills fly
before the wonderful power of Hcstettnr’s
Stomach Bitters. It strikes at tho root of all
diseases—the stomach, and not only cures i n
_
digestion, constipation, biliousness, liver and
kidney troubles, but cures them quickly and
permanently. It makes a hearty appetite
and fills the bicod with rich red corpuscles.
The names of the United States transports
Scandia and Arizona have been changed
Warren and Hancock.
44 Trust Not to
Appearances.”
That which seems hard to
bear may be a great blessing,
Lei us take a lesson from the
rough weather of Spring., It
is doing good despite appear
ances. Cleanse the system
thoroughly; rout out all
impurities from the blood
with that greatest specific,
Hood's Sarsaparilla.
Instead of sleepless nights, with conse
quent Irritableness and an undone, tired
feeling, you will have a toue aud a bracing
air that will enable you to enter into every
day’s work with pleasure, ltetnoinher,
Hood’s never disappoints.
Coitre—“Uoitrc was so expensive in rned- .
ical attendance that I let mine go. It made S
saparilla, me a perfect which wreck, entirely until I cured took Hood’s Sar-|
me.” Mrs.
Thomas Jones, 12j South St., Utica, N. Y.
affliction Running came, »' running “I-". v-o ojaro AU.J
Hood’sSarsapar- uur« *
causing me great anguish. which
ilia healed the sore, has never re- f 1
turned.” Mrs. A. W. Barrett, 38 Powell
Street, Lowell, Mass.
<7 {oedA a \i(fa
Never — d EE fitiFTfi HW
Hoo d’ s Pill s cure liver Ili a, t h e non-i rritating and ,
th e only cath artic to take with Ho od'a Sa rsaparilla. S
BAD
“ I have been using; CASPAR F.TS and a*
a derful. mild and My effective laxative the} are bothered simply won¬ with
sick daughter aud I were After
stomach and our breath was.very had.
taking a few doses of Cascarets we have improved family."
wonderfully. They WlLHELMlNA are a great help In the
NAGEL.
1137 KlttenUouse St., Cincinnati. Ohio.
CATHARTIC .
TRADE MARK
A
Good, Pleasant., Palatable. Potent, Taste Good. 50c- Do
Never Sicken. Weaken, or Gripe. 10c, 25c.
... CURE CONSTIPATION. ...
Sterling Remedy Cnmpnny, t lilr.ro, Honlrrnl, Nut Turk.
NO-TO-BAC gists Sold and to C guaranteed MURE Tobacco by all Habit. drug
THEDIFFERENCE
Between a
NEW FLORENCE
AND ANY OTHEft WAGON.
THE I NEW FLORENCE has and Springs pe
under Sard Bolster in front
tween the Bolster aud Axle behind whirl
createsalive weight,rnakestlie Draft 11)1“ *
er, saves the Team and prevents .5 percent,
of tho usual breakages. handle .. this'*
If your dealerdoes not
write direct to WORKS,
FLORENCE WAGON
FLORENCE, ALA,, with Gins.
and receive full information
Prices and Testimonials.
Saw Mills
$129 TO $929.00 Food
With Improved Rope ami Belt
SAWS, FILES ami TEETH in Stock.
Engines, Boilers and Machinery
All Kinds nnd Repairs for same.
Shafting,Pulleys, Belting. Injector*. P*l u "
Valves ami WORKSSJUPPLYCO. Fittings.
LOMBARD IRON
AUGUSTA, GA.
ELF REFRIGERANT lul
I A over 20 degrees colder than
I 1 A w used Is refrigerators just like
« perfect substitute Inr WANTKU
SEND FOR CIRCULARS. AGENTS •• * 5*’y
»i>2 UNIVERSAL REFRIGERATING BKOOKMN j'L-l
F lus hing Avenue, ’
MENTION THIS PflPERK“K’«”l