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SOMEWHAT STRANGE.
ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS OP
EVERY day like.
Queer Facts ana Thrilling Adven
tures Which Show That Truth Is
-Stranger Than Fiction.
A miner, while at work the other day,
discovered a large aud well-formed frog
in n mass of anthracite coal blasted from
a chamber 3000 feet below the surface
in the Mount Lookout Colliery, at Wyo¬
ming. Penn. Joseph Johns was timber¬
ing with another miner, James Otts, in a
tunnel in the mine and had barred down
a large lump of coal when the gleam of
light from his lamp fell upon something
in the coal. He stooped down and
touched the object and was surprised to
find it soft and yielding. There was
■about u square inch of surface exposed
at the time, and he saw that the thing,
whatever it was, was in a cavity. "With
his pick he very carefully chipped off
the coal all around it until the cavity, or
chamber, was fully opened, and there,
nestling in the hard coal, he found a
frog. Some seventeen v;.ars ago, while
working in the mines, he made a similar
discovery, and had then taken the frog
in liis hand, shown it to his brother
miners, and taken it home. But, while
it was alive and warm when he found it,
it died before it had been exposed time to scien¬ the
air half an hour. At that a
tist told him that if he had enclosed the
frog in an airtight compartment imme¬
diately after unearthing it the animal
might have lived. When he made his
second discovery on Wednesday this fact
at once recurred to his mind, and, as
soon as he had recovered from his sur¬
prise and realized what he had found,
he ran to his dinner in which pail and had got brought an air¬
tight fruit jar, he
the tea for his lunch. Into this he put
the frog and closed the lid, and the jar
has not been opened. The frog at first
showed no signs of life, although it was
warm, but after being in the jar six hours
it began to move, and when it had been
exposed to the light ten hours it was
quite as lively as any specimen which
can be found around the ponds in sum¬
mer. Since., then it has continued to be
fully wide awuke, and stares in wonder
at all who look at it. In appearance it
is not very different from an every-day
frog, except that its back is nearly black,
and there are two rows of little hilly
protuberances down each side of its
spine. Its legs also are and peculiarly long
aud its feet very delicate tender.
Ellis R. Smith, the only Republican
Sheriff Pettis County, Mo., has had
since the war, and the only Sheriff that
has ever executed a criminal during the
criminal history of that county, was re¬
lating his experiences as au officer to a
■party of friends in St. Louis. “I wit¬
nessed quite a peculiar thing in the jail
at Sedalia last year,” he remarked. “I
had the very unpleasant duty off offi¬
cially removing an old man by the name
of Tom Williamson, who had been con¬
victed of a triple murder. About two
months before the day of the execution
the old man asked me to get him a young
kitten to raise. I did so. An attach¬
ment grew up between the two that was
certainly remarkable. If at any time I
happened to lock the old man up in
cell without the cat she would raise
a disturbance that I would have to
her up with him. They were together
day and night. When the day of exe¬
cution rolled around the cat appeared'to
be the chief mourner and brought up the
rear of the death march to the scaffold.
When the trap was sprung tliecat walked
back into the jail and, after walking up
and down the corridor for an hour,
pounced where upon it remained old man for Williamson’s week,
cot, a re¬
fusing to eat or drink. About eight
days after, the executioner determined to
remove her. When I attempted to
frighten dead. the cat off I discovered that she
was I actually believe she grieved
herself to death.”
Obediah Barber, who lives near the
Okeefeenokee swamps, in Georgia, tells
killed. an interesting story about a bear he
“The bears are numerous since
the canal was begun. They have left the
middle of the swamp and are staying
near the edge of it. They frequently go
and in droves devour at the night hogs. to the farms near by
I went into the
swamp, accompanied by a young man,
to hunt the bears. Our guns were singie
'barrelled. Presently a noise was heard.
We followed, aud soon came upon a bear
as she had reached her cubs. We were
within about ten yards of her and tired
our guns. The bear was shot in her
lower jaw. She made for us. The
young man ran and left me to tight it
out. I had a butcher knife, and as she
reached me plunged it into her breast.
The knife fell out of my hand, and the
bear was closing upon and me. I felt her
hot breath in my face gave myself
up to die a horrible death. Fate inter¬
fered, and I was pleased to hear the cubs
making a noise. The hear turned and
looked at her cubs. Being satisfied that
they were not in danger, she came and at me
again. I had my kuife again used
it in different purts of her body. She
was gettinga bold on me when I plunged
my knife into her heart to the hilt. The
bear fell to died. the ground and after a few de¬
struggles The cubs were
spatched 1 with a pine limb.”
“See this pearl?” said Giifton Sparks,
as he held aloft to view a beautiful spec
imen from the sands of the Indian Sea
aud twirled the gold in which it was set
to show off its superior value to a St.
Louis reporter. “That pearl is worth
$300 in the market to-day, but the cir
cumstances under which it was discovered
make it invaluable to me. It’s a
from my mother, who received it lrom
my father, and he got it for nothing,
My father was a Captain in the English
army, and was stationed in India. On
his homeward voyage, after a stay of
twelve years in India, he accidentally
acquired this pear!. He got it from a
sea gull, and the sea gull from some
pearl oyster that was washed up on the
strand *bv the waves. My father fished
for sea gulls with a hook and a bit of
bacon. He caught twp gulls and dis
seated them for his owu amusement. In
one he found this pearl, which, when he
reached London, he had set in gold, aud
gave it to mother as a souvenir of the
long ocean voyage. Acids are very
deleterious to pearls, aud when you con
aider how perfect this one is you can
imagine that the gull had not long
swallowed it. I don’t know of a similar
instance, and that is why I say it is in¬
valuable to me.”
A woman appeared on the streets of
Canton, Miss., who attracted much at¬
tention. She has a perfectly kinky hair, white with face
and hands and short
the features of a negro, The woman
said that she was born black and re¬
mained so until she was fifteen years old,
when she suddenly turned white, remain¬
ing so for one year, when she turned
black again. Since that time she is al¬
ternately white ami black, not alone in
spots, but changes color entirely She
is fairly intelligent, and says she has
never had a spell of sickness and lias
never taken a dose of medicine. She
lives near Sallis Station, on the Canton
and Aberdeen road. She says she
cannot stand the sun at all, and wears
a double veil and heavy gloves. She
says if the sun shines on her skin for one
minute it causes it to blister at once.
She has been examined by physicians, the change
who are unable to account for
in her color.
Heue is a pointer on wolf killing. In
New Mexico a shepherd was ordered to
kill a goat for eating purposes. The
Mexican took his gun and shot the goat,
which did not die immediately but ran
around and finally fell on a rocky in place the
where there were little basins
solid rock, one of which became filled
with blood. The Mexican conceived the
idea of putting poison in the blood as
bait for wolves, which were very trouble¬
some, and accordingly added some stry¬
chnine. Next morning there were five
coyotes, one lobo and a wildcat lying The
dead near the puddle of blood.
sheep men were enthusiastic over the re¬
sult, and will make further experiments
to teat the seemingly valuable discovery.
It is supposed that blood is the most
attractive bait that can be used.
A local paper tells how Albert Smith,
of Milford, Penn., allowed an old apple
tree to stand between him and a fortune.
A party of oil prospectors, having be¬
come convinced that there was oil on his
farm, decided to bore a well in his or¬
chard. Smith objected strenuously be¬
cause it would destroy au apple-tree for
which he had a particular fondness.
After vainly endeavoring to have Smith
change his mind, the prospectors beyond re¬
moved their apparatus a few' feet
his tree, on the edge of another man’s
land, and in a few days oil was flowing
at the rate of 100 barrels an hour. Far¬
mer Smith saved his apple-tree and his
neighbor got $35,000 in royalties.
Queen Victoria is going to send a
number of paintings, “done with her
own hands,” to the Chicago Fair, some the
of which will come from the walls of
private dining room of Windsor Castle.
The pictures will include a water color
of her Indian Secretary, one of her
favorite dogs, and some Balmoral sket¬
ches. She will also send a sachet which
she worked, also “with her own hands,”
from a piece of crape. Princess Louise
and Princess Beatrice will also send
pictures, while Princess Christian will
send some specimens of needle-work, in
this case “executed with the most con¬
summate skill and ingenuity.”
In M. Dybowski’s journey from the
Mobangi to the Shark the as described Geograph¬ at a
recent meeting of Paris Qie
ical Society, he encountered one of
most systematically cannibal tribes which
has yet been described. This tribe,
known as the Bonjos, have only one ob¬
ject of purchase—slaves to be eaten.
They refuse to sell food or any other
products of their country for anything
else, and the surrounding tribes capture
and export canoe-loads of slaves for this
purpose. The French expedition ex¬
perienced great difficulty in obtaining desire
food among a people who have no
for ordinary articles of trade.
A curious scene is witnessed during
the winter months in the parish church
of Capel-le-Ferne, Kent, England.
There are no means of lighting this
church, so that the worshipers lights, are and re¬ it
quired to carry their owu
is no uncommon sight to see a member
of the congregation standing during the
singing of the hymns with book in one
hand and a candle or lamp in the other.
Will Smith and Frank Nethery went
into D. A. Jackson’s store at Trenton,
Ga., and purchased a can of cove oysters
which, upon being opened, disclosed a
small greenish frog, alive and able to
jump. Several were present in the store
and saw the frog taken from the can,
and saw it jump along the counter. The
frog was evidently put up with the
oysters, no saying how long.
Packs of and wolves have also in appeared At at
Belgrade other girl towus devoured Servia. by the
Pozarewatz a was
famished brutes, and stories of similar
tragedies have come from various parts
of Europe. The cold in Bohemia and
Servia has been extreme.
Speaking of remarkable longevity,
how’s this: Mrs. James Polly, of Green
County, Kv., is one hundred and seven
years old and the mother of fourteen
children, of whom thirteen are living,
the youngest beiug fifty-nine years old.
Two Words Otten Confused.
“Gourmand aud “Gourmet are two
well known French terms which are fre
quentlv used, but not always with suffi
cient discrimination. People are apt to
confuse them and to use one in lieu of
the other, although the difference bc
tween the two terms is so great that they
j may be "gourmand” regarded as is complete glutton, opposites. who
! The a mere
eats as much as he can at a meal, devour
ing one plate of food after another. In
short he is simply an animal, feeding with much a huge,
uncontrolled with appetite, this exception in as the a
dog feeds, the gourmand is
dog’s favor, that more
omniverous than the dog. He is a sort
of man who would not omit any one dish
at a table d’hote, and who would, in all
probability, wind up with the grumbling
assertion that he cannot dine properly at
that hotel. In fact, whether dining at
home or abroad, his anima'l nature pre
dominates to such an extent that he can
not be fairly ranked as a civilized
being. The “gourmet,” on the
other hand, is a product of high
civilization. He enjoys while lie
is discriminative in his food, and he
is quite on the side of temperance aud
moderation; and even values the com
inonest articles of diet if they are excel¬
lent of their kind. A French gourmet
once remarked, "I am very fond of oys¬
ters, but I never exceed one dozen, be¬
ing convinced that after that quantity
the palate has become incapable of fully
appreciating the flavor.” A real gour¬
met preserves the palate in the heultic-t
and most natural condition. He would
not smother an oyster with pepper, nor
even squeeze a lemon over it. Plain
things richest are often preferred food. by Persons a gourmet in¬
to the sorts of
different to niceties of flavor will drink
wine and eat cakes at the same time. Not
so the gourmet, unless the wine were
unworthy of attention; with a wine of
good quality he would rather eat a plain the
crust of bread. A gourmet prefers
simplest meals, such as a beefsteak or
mutton chop, it really well cooked, to an
elaborate banquet badly or unsuitably
prepared. To sum up, it may be said
that the gourmand ‘dives to eat,” with
no regard for anything but quantity; on
the contrary, the gourmet “eats to live,”
with a chief regard for the quality of the
viand, and the excellence of its prepara¬
tion for the table.
Tennessee Onyx Caves.
“What I believe to be the largest and
finest onyx deposits in the world, ” said
Philo B. Shepard, “have recently been
discovered in some caves in the Cumber¬
land Mountains of West Tennessee. It
has been known for some time that there
was a fine quality of onyx or chalc edony
there, but the mines or caves have
scarcely been touched, and recently my
attention was brought to the existence
of large caves in Anderson County, the
roofs of which are bristling with stalac
tities of onyx, and in some eases the
columns reach to the floor of the cavern.
I found one column fourteen feet in
length, the top of which is more than
four feet in diameter, and, I believe, an
onyx slab four feet wide by six long
could be sawed from it. The onyx in
these caves is wonderfully free from and
sand pockets and other blemishes,
is more richly colored than any I ever
saw, and seems to exist in unlimited
quantity. Onyx, as you may know, is
formed by the drippings of limestone,
and in early stages looks like prisms of
glas*s 4 or frosted icicles hanging from elapse the
roof, and countless ages must
before even the smallest cone of onyx
could form, while the large column I
have described must have been growing the
since the beginning of time. When
value of these stones becomes known to
the world then Tennessee onyx will be
more widely known than Italian marble,
but as yet only a few samples have been
taken out.”—[St. Louis Globe-Demo¬
crat.
Sounds AVe May Not Hear.
Animals may here sounds that are in¬
audible to us. Certainly the sounds
that give the keenest pleasure to seldom many
animals—cats, for example—are We
capable of giving pleasure sounds to us. be
know, of course, that may
too low or too high—that is, the vibra¬
tions may be too slow or too blit rapid—to jtdoes
be audible to the human ear,; equal//in/ftidk
not follow that they are
ble to differently-tuned ears.
The limits of audible sound are not
invariable even in the human ear; women
can usually hear higher sounds than
men, and the two ears are not, as a rule,
equally keen. A sound may be quite
inaudible to one person and plainly
heard by another. Professor Lloyd
Morgan mentions as an instance of this
a case in which the piping of some frogs
in Africa was so loud to him as almost
to drown his friend’s voice, hut of which
his friend heard absolutely nothing!
The same thing may be observed by any
one possessing the little instrument
known as Galton’s whistle. The sound
made by this whistle can be made more
and more shrill, until at last it ceases to
be heard at all by most persons. Some
can still hear it; but by raising the sound
still higher even they cease to hear.
The sound is still being made—that is,
the whistle is causing the air still to
vibrate, but so rapidly though that our the ears exist¬ no
longer recognize inaudible it, vibrations is de¬
ence of these
tected by a “sensitive flame,” as was
first shown by Professor Barrett in 1877.
—[Chambers’ Journal.
“The Gardea of Eden.”
There is a spot in Hawaii called “The
Garden of Eden,” and it has been most
appropriately named. The place is on
the sugar plantation of James I. Dawsett,
near Honolulu. The beautiful garden end is
situated near the big house at one of
the plantation. Here the Northern
apple grows ripe by the side of the date
palm and the sunny orange. Roses, whose
name and variety are legion, are ever in
blossom, and that bloom no diminutive,
occasional flower, but abundant England. as The tea
roses in June in New
number of different varieties of flowers at
Ulapalakua, the name of Mr. Dawsett’s
beautiful home, cannot be less than 200;
uor can the varieties of fruit trees be
less than 50. One peculiar feature of
Ulapalakua is the entire absence of
springs or streams of water. Clouds,
rain and dew in all the seasons furnish
crops,flowers and trees with their needed
supply. — [New York Tribune.
Novel Anchors.
The British steamer Bawnmore, now
discharging coal at Mission No. 2, has a
novelty aboard in the shape of & stock
less anchor. In fact she has two of
them, aud they are hauled up “chock-a
block” to the liawseholes in a way to
make a sailor feel like kicking himself
for all the risks he has run in the way of
catting and fishing anchors in the years
gone by. The new anchor has no stock
and no flukes. It consists of a heavy
semi-circular mass of metal fastened di¬
reetly to the chain and furnished with
two attachments very similar to the old
time flukes, but twisted like the flanges
of a screw propeller. The anchor can
be seconds let go and grounded inside than of half ten
and hoisted in less a
minute. It will take hold of the hardest
bottom, and the anchors, starboard and
port, will keep a ship in position in the
worst Nvather.—[San Francisco Call.
GRASSHOPPER PLAGUE
A SOLID WALL OF INSECTS SIX
INCHES THICK.
An Old Kansan’s Account of a Sudden
Invasion of Myriads of Grasshoppers
and the Ruin They Wrought.
An old resident of Kansas has been
giving u New York Tribune correspondent
a tation graphic account of a remarkable visi¬
nessed of grasshoppers which he wit¬
once upon a time in that State.
He was working upon a railroad as a
construction hand, at the time. We
quote from his narrative as follows:
“I rented a house with a good-sized
garden attached, and devoted my spare
moments to its cultivation, taking great
pleasure in watching the rapid growth of
the vegetables, including sweet potatoes
and w atermelons, and fondly anticipating
the time when they should reach a state
of usefulness. Meantime we heard
rumors about the approach of immense
swarms of grasshoppers, and my fellow
workmen would regale me with stories
of the devastation wrought by them
which seemed so incredible that I merely
regarded them as attempts called to delude a
‘tenderfoot,’ as they me. As the
weeks passed did by and the threatened feeling in¬
vasion not occur, a of se¬
curity took possession of all, and we
came to the conclusion that the impend¬
ing scourge had passed in rapidly some other nearing di¬
rection. My garden was could have
that Btate of maturity when I
my own vegetables aud melons in abund¬
ance. One morning I told my wife that
ia another week we wou ld huve our Q wn
sweet potatoes and beets and cabbages,
while the melons would not be far be¬
hind.
“We were engaged that day in pre¬
paring to move the tracks further back
from the enroaching river. The heat
was intense, no rain having fallen in
several weeks, and the parched and burning baked
earth reflected the rays of the
sun until the air seemed to come from an
oven. About 4 o’clock in the afternoon,
while wewere working in a half-hearted,
listless way, about ready to drop from sudden¬ the
enervating effects of the heat, we
ly heard a rustling among the branches of
the trees on the bluff near us.
“ ‘Thank God !’ cried one of the men
dropping his shovel, ‘there comes a
breeze at last.’
“We all straightened up to catcli the
first faint breath of the welcome stir of
the superheated atmosphere, and lifted
our hats to let it play upon our throb¬
bing temples. All at once the foreman
cried out in a tone of consternation,
‘Hoppers, by — !’ The long-threatened
visitation had come sure enough, and
what we had fancied to be the gentle
rustling of the longed-for breeze was
the sound of the onward rush of the
countless multitude of grasshoppers
through the foliage of the forest nearby.
First one settled upon the ground at our
feet, then another and another, and in an
incredibly short time the ground was
swarming with and literally buried from
sight by the ever-increasing army. Talk
about a blizzard ! I have never seen a
blizzard that obliterated everything as
quickly as that grasshopper blizzard did.
They swarmed all over us—in our faces,
down our necks, and we had to keep our
mouths closed to keep them from getting
down our throats. We could not step
without crushing a mass of them under
our feet. To me who had never seen
them before the sight was appalling.
Still they continued to come, the air be¬
ing darkened by the oncoming hosts.
Aud as soon as they touched the appetites ground
they went to eating. What
those varmints had ! Soon the weeds
and grass and leaves on the trees aud
bushes began toalisappear as if by magic.
Almost everything was to their taste
unless it was sweet. They would not
touch sorghum or sweet potatoes or any¬
thing like that. tearing Pretty along soon down-grade a passenger
train came a
some distance below, but near us the
grade began a sharp ascent, and as the
train drew near the driving-wheels of the
engine flew around at a tremendous rate
and the train slackened 9anded its speed the while rails,
the engineer frantically
trying to make them hold. Bug it was
of no use. The grasshoppers covered the
rails so densely that myriads of them had
been crushed under the wheels, train greasing
them so thoroughly that the was
stalled. The and, train hands got a handles, couple
of brooms, shortening the
fastened ODe on each side of the pilot of
the engine so that they just swept the
rails. The mass of crushed hoppers was
cleaned from the driving wheels, the
rails were well sanded, and after
several efforts the train at last started,
the brooms sweeping the insects from
the rails before it. I had often been told
of the believed hoppers stopping I trains , but I had
never it until saw it with my
own eyes.
“When I reached home that night my
pretty garden presepted a sad sight to
ray sorrowful gaze. The vegetables had
nearly stumps all disappeared. sticking out A of few the cabbage ground
were
in ruined loneliness. The sweet potatoes
■were the only thing remaining un¬
harmed ; while my melons, what a wreck
they were ! The rinds and outer shells
of white had all been eaten away, leaving
the juicy red meat lying upon the ground
untouched. As I gazed into the tearful
eyes of my wife I was too full forutterance.
Adjoining was a large fifty-acre corn¬
field. There were about a dozen rows of
sorghum corn along one end, and they
had not been molested. All that re¬
mained of the rest were the bare, hard
stalks. Everything else was eaten off
clean. The grasshoppers were in the
house, in the victuals on the table—in
everything. As the sun sank in the west
we went out in the yard to see if there
was anything left, but all we could see
was the countless myriads of hoppers.
They were in the air as thick as snow¬
flakes in the driving storm; the ground
was piled with them, in some places over
a foot deep. Around my lot was a high
picket fence. This presented the appear¬
ance of a solid wall of grasshoppers live
or si finches thick, all the spaces between
the pickets being completely filled up.
The sides of the house and the roof were
buried uuder the clinging mass. the The
next morning prepared when I lighted before, fire,
which I had the night
1 heard a lively scrambling in the stove,
and liftingthe lid I found it chuck full of
hoppers who were trying to escape from
their fiery imprisonment.
‘At the close of the secor.H day the
country presented the appearance of a
desert. Nearly everything green had
disappeared from the face of the earth.
The grass and weeds and growing ground, crops and
had been eaten close to the
the trees and bushes were stripped desolation of
their foliage. Such a scene of
I hope never to see again. Having coins
pletely destroyed everything, the grass¬
hoppers passed on to lay hi waste
other portions of the country. The loss
to the farmers was complete and much
suffering ensued that fall and winter, but
the next season the crops were bounteous
aud plenty, aud contentment reigned
once more.”
AROUND THE HOUSE.
Try fresh cologne for removing oil
spots from cloth.
For polishing tables and wooden trays
use a soft cloth sprinkled with linseed
oil.
You can drive nails into hardened
wood without bending them if you dip
them first in lard.
Dusting and Sweeping.-— An apart¬
ment may be, to all appearance, neat and
well swept, says the household editor of
the Tribune , when in reality the dirt is
only hidden. It surges from the carpet
under a heavy footfall; it is under the
furniture; it is all over the doors and
windows, but to the careless observer
the room may seem perfectly neat. If
the weekly sweeping of the rooms is
thoroughly done, it will be only necessary other
to brush them up and dust them at
times. If it is done in a perfunctory
manner the rooms will be in disorder
continually and require sweeping and two will or
three times a week yet
never be clean. It is the old story of Moli
dusta, “who is anon and anon, sir, frisk¬
ing about in a whirlpool of bustle and
confusion, and is always dirty under pre¬
tence of being always cleaning.” The
first thing to do when the time for the
weekly sweeping of a room arrives is to
open the windows and close the register. should
The blinds and the window-sills
then be brushed and dusted, so that no
dust from them will fly into the room.
Then the smaller pieces of movable fur¬
niture, including the chairs and stauds,
should be dusted and taken out of the
room, with all the bric-a-brae and tiny
ornaments. The larger pieces should
then be dusted and covered up closely.
The ceiling should be brushed down with
long brushes for the purpose, and then the
sweeping should begin. Sweep with
short, strong strokes, first a space in the
direction of the rep of the carpet, then
across the same space. 'When the carpet
has been thoroughly gone over in this
way and the dust taken up, go over it a
second time with a broom dampened with
salt and water. Use a half worn broom
lor this purpose, as the dampening would
soon ruin the regular broom. Then brush
out all the edges of the carpet and the
corners with a little whisk-broom. The
dust will have settled enough under these
operations to begin dusting. Dust the
windows, the ledges over the windows
and ;doors 'and all the ledges of the
walls. Dust off the mantelpiece
and wipe off the hearth if
there is an open fireplace, or if there is a
register, dust out the register. It is al¬
most needless to say that ‘in the case of
an open tire or Stove in’ the 'room, the
removal of the ashes is the first thing to
do before the sweeping is begun. Now
remove the dusting sheets from the larger
pieces of furniture and wipe off any dust
which may have gathered under Examine the
sheets. Wash the mirrors.
the glass globes and wash or dust them,
according to their condition. Wash the
windows after the dusting-sheets have
been shaken out of them. Put down tha
windows, arrange the window-shades in
place, bring back the smaller pieces of
furniture and the bric-a-bac aud orna¬
ments. Then is the room thoroughly
swept and dusted and purified, slight so that for it
may be kept clean with care a
week.
Sick Headache.
Attacks of sick headache could often
be avoided if the caus^ of them were
known. In many instanic.es the cause is
a disordered condition oi| the stomach.
In such cases there is often a regular re¬
currence of the attacks, ttie person in the
meantime feeling perfectly free from the
complaint. it will often be found that by
Here
some error of diet the patient is gradu¬
ally accumulating in his system some
noxious substances, which it takes a
special effort of nature to throw off.
Then the whole internal machinery re¬
fuses to do its ordinary work, The
stomach, the intestines, the liver and
other organs which produce the diges¬ their
tive juices almost entirely cease
regular task of rendering the food taken
into the mouth fit for absorption into
the system at large. overeating will
Sometimes habitual
produce this result. Or a person who
has been constantly active may continue
to eat his usual- amount of food after
exchanging his occupation for some
more sedentary one. In either case the
result is the same; the overburdened
organs become partially paralyzed, the
undigested food acts as an irritant, and
headache and general disorder in the
digestive tract prevail.
A person who has no symptoms of
stomach disorder, or who has been
taught by his physician formerly to avoid indis¬
cretions which resulted in
trouble, and who still has regularly re¬
current attacks of sick headache, must
look to some other than these, the most
common causes of such attacks.
One not uncommon cause of sick head¬
ache is irregularity of the cornea, or
some other eye derangement. The skil¬
ful oculist will be able to detect any such
irregularity, and to judge whether u.
not it is sufficient to cause the trouble.
A curious case of sick headache was
lately reported, in which the cause was
found to be the lead absorption of a certain
proportion of which was contained
in a kind of “composition” hat-band.
A change to a leather band was followed
by an entire cessation of the symptoms.
Sick headache is very apt to occur in
school-children from leaning forward
over books, from imperfect digestion, or
from too little exercise in the open air,
and not unfrequently from a combina¬
tion of these suffers unhygienic conditions. A
child who from sick headaches
should be promptly influences.—[Youth’s relieved from such
uuwholesome Com¬
panion.
ANTIQI E WAS WEAPONS.
Pikes, Swords, Lances, Shields, Hel¬
mets, Slings, Cross-bows and Cata¬
pults. long.
The Greek pike was 24 feet
The medieval lance was 18 feet.
Standard Roman sword was -« ^
The
inches. weighed . , , 2o
The helmet of Richard I.
1 rabbis Cain killed Abel with
The say L
a club.
David slew Goliath with a
B. C. 1058. in the
The cross-bow came into use
Twelfth century. had
The pully-drawn cross-bow a range
of forty rods. invented
engines first .
Projecting were
by the Greeks. used
Mixed chain and plate armor was
from 1300 to 1410.
Gustavus Adolphus abolished all armor
but a light cuirass.
The French infantry were armed with
the pike until 1040.
Damascus blades were famous all over
the world B. C. 500.
Shields were not used in England after
the reign of Henry VII.
Greek sword9 were short cut-and
thrust, leaf-shaped blades.
The cross-bows of the Fourteenth cen¬
tury weighed fifteen covered pounds. the head, back
Greek helmets
of neck, ears and nose.
The battles of Crecy, Poitiers,
Agineourt were won by the archers. ,
The bow appears among the earliest
sculptures of Egypt, B. C. 4000.
Ancient battering rams were manned
by the 100 or 150 men, generally cap¬
tives.
The double-handed swords of medie¬
val times often weighed 30 pounds.
In naval warfare the ancients used
grappling hooks and boarding bridges.
Many suits of armor worn in the Four¬
teenth century weighed 175 pounds
each.
Pliny ascribes the invention of the
sling to the Phoeuecians, about B. C.
iOOO.
In 1216 heavy cavalry were covered,
horse and man, with a scale of chain ar¬
mor.
Stone arrow-points and hatchets have
been found in every country in the world.
Long bow-strings were of plaited gold. silk,
and worth five times their weight in
At the siege of Jerusalem the Romans
had 400 large and nearly two hundred
small catapults. oriental It
The saber is an weapon.
was introduced into the French cavalry
in 1710.
The sword of Henry the Pious, Duke
of Silesia, was G feet long and weighed
30 pounds. made woolen stuff,
The sling was of
and the slingers always stood behind the
infantry. Egyptian C.
bronze swords made B.
3200 were from 2 to 3 feet long, with
double edge.
The Mexican flint knives were made
so sharp that they could be usctl for
trimming hair. j
The shield of Hector, when slung at
his back in walking, covered the body
from neck to heel.
Cross-bowmen were always attended
by shield bearers, who protected them ia
action. i i
The largest catapults threw beams 6
feet long, weighing sixty pounds, over a
quarter of a mile.
The legion was formed by Romulus,
B.C. 720. It originally consisted of
3,000 foot and 300 horse.
attack Some of besieged the wooden city towers ten eroded stories to
a were
high, about 100 feet. blades
Toledo and Damascus were very
popular in the Middle Agfcs and sold for
their weight in gold. Mexico the
When Cortez invaded for
second time he hqd eighty musketeers
and eighty cross-bow men. fully
The value of infantry was not
recognized by medieval commanders
until the Fifteenth century.
The armor of the Fourteenth century
was so heavy that a fallen knight could
not rise without assistance.
The long bow was brought into West
ern Europe in long, the Eighth century three. ; bows
were six feet arrows
Knightly lances were from 12 to 20
feet long, the heads from 4 to 8 inches
broad, and from 12 to 20 inches long.
The Amazon Indians use a blowpipe
with which they throw an arrow 200
yards with wonderful precision.
The miserieorde was a small dagger
with thin blade made to reach the vitals
of an antagonist between the joints of
the armor.
Palmedes of Argos was the first com¬
mander to array au army in a regular line
of battle, to place sentinels, or to give a
watchword.
At 200 feet only the best Spanish
armor could resist the English arrow.
Many museums have steel corselets
pierced through by an arrow.
In the Fourteenth century armor be¬
came so heavy old than many soldiers only
30 years were deformed or perman¬
ently disabled by its weight.
tensively Mining and counter-mining were ex¬
sieges. practiced during the ancient
The mine was made, the roof
supported by timbers; when all was
ready the beams were set on fire and the
wall caved in.
in In Italy, 1418 and a battle perfect was fought i/fear Milan
so was the armor of
both armies that, though the conflict
raged either from 9 a. m. to 4 p. m., no one on
side was killed or wounded,
though falling one man broke his collar-bone by
off his horse.
A complete suit of knightly armor con
tained the helmet, the cuirass for breast,
epaulieres for shoulders; brassarts, up
per lower arms; coudieres, elbow; avant bras
flanks; arms; haubergeon, gauntlets, gloves; faudes fo
cuissarts, thigh pieces; a quilted surcoat
knee guards; grevieres, leg genouilliere/
ets, shoes and pieces; solei
On the shield spurs.
of Achilles, describe
by Homer, were represented the eart!
the sky, the sea, the sun, the moon, c
the constellations, two cities with crowi
tilling the forums and arms besie<rin<»'
town, beside battles, single eornba
rural scenes, harvest scenes, vinta
scenes, matures . of home
tie herding, lion life, dances, cv L
and bull H|hting. a
a vast variety of mythological subjects
[8t. Louis Globe-Democrat.
Gold bangles fastened A *
slippers with tiny iH
are the gifts bridegrooms
sents to bridesmaids.