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A GEM OF THE SOUTH SEA.
A. SPECK OP LAND BELONGING TO
THE UNITED STATES
it* Thirty Inhabitants Wealthy
and Contented—lsolated and
Hard to Find.
A San Francisco Chronicle correspond
ent has this to say about the little
JSouth Sea island of Quiros in the Tokelan
group.
For many years ihe island lay deserted
•f human inhabitants. If the cocoa
palms had bean destroyed by a hurricane
they grew again. Whatever its con
dition at the time of its abandonment
the prolific forces of tropical nature had
restored it—or preserved it, as the case
may be—just as typical a “gem of the
sea” as it was when the ancient navi
gator Quiro saw it and fell ir. love with
it. Such it was when a waudering Kew
Englander, Eli Jennings by name, see
ing its capabilities and noting its unoc
cupied condition, conceived the idea of
setting up a kingdom in the sea all on
his own account.
Seeing that the island was going a beg
ging for an owner, that it was a goodly
place, and just the right size to main
tain a family upon in all South sea
abundance and luxury, Jennings took
possession of it and brought there his
wife, a native of one of the islands that
lie to the south of his new abode, his
children, and one or two serviceable
people to work for him. There he set
tled, seldom leaving the islet; there he
reared his family ami laid up a reason
able amount of wealth, and there he
died.
How r the natives found Quiros island
at first or returned to it after wandering
away is a mystery. Navigators of Eu
ropean race have been known to run for
It and fail to find it. As you approach
it nothing appears at first but the tops
of the cocoannt trees, like a little cloud
against the horizon—sea to the right,
ku to the left, and just these palm leaves
gleeping in the sun.
You are quite close to the land before
you discern whence these trees spring.
Not only is there no mountain peak, but
there is not so much as a little hill.
Prol ably no part of the l&nd is ten feet
above the high tide level, and the differ
ence between high tide and low tide is
not worth speaking about. Insignificant
as is the height, so is the extent of the
island. You go ashore and boldly
plunge into the “interior of the coun
try.” Vou pass by the side of a small
lagoon, push on through the groves and
suddenly something bright gleams
through the trees.
It is the ocean. You have traversed
the whole island; it is not a mile across.
You turn to the right or left al<-ng the
beach and presently you find yourself
where you started from, in front of the
Jennings domicile and beside the fiag
fctaff from which, in honor of your visit,
floats the flag of the l nited States.
Length aud breadth are just about the
game; that is all there is of (Quiros
Island.
This veritable speck in the ocean is
considerably more tliau 1«>0 miles from
even any similar speck and much more
than that from land of any considerable
extent. No isolation could be more per
fect. Out of the ordinary track of
trading vessels, it is scarcely ever visited
except by the craft which its present
owners annually charter to carry their
copra to market at Apia and bring back
theyear’s supplies for the little settlement.
Just once in many years a man-of-war of
some nation calls at the island, tempted
probably out of the ordina y course of its
cruise by the rumor that poultry there is
abundant and cheap. Trading ships,
espe ally labor vessels, are by no means
welcome at Quiros Island unbiddeD.
The presumption is that they do not
come there for any good purpose. Be
sides they unsettle the minds of the
younger members of the little commun
ity.
Not a dozen years ago a wandering
labor vessel lay of the island for a day
»nd anight. Her people were hospitably
entertained, and the provisions they
wanted were supplied to them. When
she was none it was found that no loss
than three of the islanders had disap
peared with her. The traders subse
quently protested that they had no hand
in the matter and would have returned
the stowaway-, only it was too much of
an undertaking to beat back against
wind and current w hen their voyage had
already been uuprofitably protracted.
None of the runaways ever returned to
the iff&id Perhaps they were not so
much enamored of ocean solitudes a>old
Eli • dinings.
However, if there have been truant
spirits in this little community the
smajority of the Jennings family and
■their dependants are patriotically fond
■of their island home, and though those
r of them that get the chaice enjoy to the
full an occasional jaunt to Apia, which
for them represents the great busy world
from which they live secluded, they
would none of them change
Island for the finest domain elsewhere.
The old Jennings died some years ago.
liis eidest son, as has already been
hinted, in bis stead. He is a white
man and has inherited the shrewdness
of his father. There was little of senti
mentalism about Jennings’ choice of his
solitary island. He had made money be
fore he went there, and he turned his
sea-girt dominion to profit. Is'ow his
son follows in his footsteps.
The bounties of which nature in this
enchanting clime is so prolific are turned
to good account. It may be doubted
whether there is a farm in all California
that for the same scant acreage returns
so much as Quiros Island does to the
Jenn ngs family. The whole community
probably does not exceed thirty souls,
i»ut they to hire no more labor, nature
does so much for them, and what is made
is saved. Here are no attractive stores
to 1 ure the dollars out of one’s pockets;
no saloon or corner grocery to help a ma 1
to swallow his money. Mor is there a
stock market to lead the years savings
into uncerta u and leaky channels whence
they are not recovered.
Granted the annual surplus, which is
the real miracle, there is no wonder that
the lord of uiros Island should grow
rich. Whether he hides his accumula
tions in a stocking or buries them in the
soil, converting his little island into a
silver mine, noone has found out. Hu
mor, that most uurebable historian has
it that Jennings can put by a good
couple of thousand dollars a year after
living in the lap of the South Sea Island
and paying for all the little
wants of his own household, and those
of other members of the family. He
will before long, be as perplexed with
his “surplus” as is the Treasurer of the
United States. Some fine morning he
will think his island too small, will be
for making a change, and will announce
that this time he would prefer to buy a
continent.
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.
One pound of mercury converted into
fulminate is sufficient to charge 50,000
percussion caps.
In the eighty years—lßoß 88 —no less
than 117 earthquake shocks have been
recorded at San Francis o.
Paraldehyde is a new sleep producer.
Its action is quicker than chloral, it is
as safe as the biomides, and is not in
jurious, except when used to excess.
It is estimated that 100 tons can now
be carried thirteen miles an hour by
steamship at a mile c ost, including fuel,
insurance, etc., of one-eighth of a penny.
The shore of France is sinking at the
rate of seven feet a century. In ten cen
turies all the seaports will be under water,
and Paris itself will be a maritime city.
Baron Albeit Rothschild has expended
$40,000 in the purchase and setting up
of the largest mirror telescope that has
been constructed at Paris for the \ ienna
observatory.
Without taking into account the small
variations due to refraction, etc., the
days and nights are always of equal
length at all points on the equator, with
out regard to the position of the ecliptic.
If gelatine be suspended in ordinary
alcohol it will absorb the water, but as it
is insoluble in alcohol that substance will
remain behind, and thus nearly absolute
alcohol may be obtained watiout distil
lation.
The Liverpool and Manchester Ship
Canal, which is to cost $30,005,000 and
be built in seven yeais, will be dredged
by German dredging machines, as the
Engbsh contractor finds nothing iu Eng
land to equal them.
In some rifles the bore is twisted.
There is an advantage in this, because it
is supposed to produce a rotation of the
ball around an axis in the direction of
its motion, which overcomes the com
pression and irregularities in the air, and
renders the ball less liable to deviate iu
its path.
According to Dr. Howship Dickinson,
a furred tongue is not necessarily an
alarming symptom. To some persons it
is normal to have a clean tongue, and to
others equally normal to have a coated
tongue, so that it is impossible to fix any
degree or limit of coatiDg as a necessary
accompaniment to perfect health
A new method of weather prediction
has been discovered by a French phy
sicist. He has observed that the scin
tillations of the stars increase before
many storms, indicating disturbance of
the upper atmosphere hours before the
meteorological instruments show any
change. The fiercer the storm the more
is the strength of the scintillations in
creased.
For several weeks, says the Atlanta
Constitution, there have been on exhibi
tion, in the office of the clerk of the Su
perior Court samples of pulp made of
the hulls and stalks of the cotton plant.
The pulp is as white as snow and can be
converted into the finest writing paper.
It is regarded as valuable and is regard
ed as the produ t of parts of the cotton
plant hitherto deemed valueless.
What is said to be a satisfacto.y sul*s
stitute for the high-pribed gum acacia is
prepared by Trojanowski by treating the
mucilage of flax-seed-with sulphuric
acid; and another, lately patented in
Germany by Schumann, is made frorfi
starch. The euphorbia gum, a peculiar
African resin is coming into extensive
use as a substitute for, or addition to,
caoutchouc, whose quality is even
claimed to be improved by mixture with
the cheaper gum.
In spite of the much-proclaimed dan
gers from overwork, it is interesting to
read from the statistics of the Insane
Hospital of Westboio that ot 180 pa
tients the alleged cause given for insanity
xvas overwork in only nineteen instances,
three male aud sixteen female natients
being afflicted from that cause. Proba
bly 10 per cent, is more than should be
produced iu this age, when every man
and woman should understand the wear
to the brain of continual thought upon
one object, this being true “overwork.’
Tigers and Ghosts.
Indian folk lore cherishes many strange
traditions about the tiger, borne of
these are collected in a paper read lately
before the Bombay Natural History So
ciety. Natives believe, among other
things, that the ghost of a man killed
by a tiger rides on the beast’s head to
warn him of danger and point the way
to fresh victims. Bating tiger’s flesh
gives one couiage; but unless the whis
kers are first singed off the tiger’s spirit
will haunt you, and, what is worse, you
run the risk of being turned into a tiger
in the next world. God allows a tiger one
rupee a day for his food, so that if a
tiger kill a bullock worth five rupees he
will not kill again for live days. To
this may be added a true tale of a tiger.
An unfortunate villager was killed by
one. The police held an inquiry into
the matter and submitted the following
artless report: “Pandu died of the tiger
eating him; there was no other cause of
death. Nothing was left of Pandu save
some fingers, which probably belonged
either to the right or left hand.”— Boston
Globe.
“Give Him Jessy.”
The origin of this phrase was discussed
in the new Journal of Av eri-.nn Fo'k
lore as follows: “When two American
boys are fighting together, and a crowd is
watching the mill, a spectator will often
encourage one of the contestants by cry
ing: “Give him jessy!” In my own
boyhood the e> j ression was too fa
miliar to seem worthy' of note. Hearing
it after many years, it seemed a subject
fit for inquiry. It appears certain that
tins phrase is a remnant of the days
when the 'anguage of falconry was fa
miliar among the youths as that of horse
raeing now is. The jess was a thong by
which the bird was attached to the wrist,
aud when it retrieved badly it appears
to have been the custom to punish it
by the application of the thong. It ia
not unlikely that this convenient bit of
leather may also have been used from
time to time in arguments with boys.”
DANGERS OF THE DEEF.
LIABILITY OF VESSELS RUNUJTNG
INTO OCEAN DERELICTS-
Many Abandoned Vessels I>riftin{j
About on the Atlantic —A Naval
Derelict—A Big Buoy at Large.
A derelict, writes Lieutenant Under
wood, of the United States Navy, in the
Argonaut , is anything that has been
forsaken or abandoned, and, as applied
to the sea, it is a vessel that has been
abandoned by her crew, and left float
ing on the oe an.
Derelicts are much more plentiful
than a casual observer would imagine.
Besides vessels sunk near the coast in
sufficiently shallow water to make their
protruding masts dangerous to passing
ships, there were, on an average, seven
teen floating derelicts in the North At
lantic reported to the Hydrographic
office for each month of the year 18815.
A larger number of them was sighted
in the late fall, winter, and early spring
thin during the other seasons of the
year, no doubt because there were then
more dangerous storms on the ocean.
Some of these derelicts drift around,
month after month, at the will of the
wind and current, aud are reported time
after time by passing vessels.
The most interesting wreck that has
b en reported for years is doubtless that
of the derelict schooner Twenty-one
Friends. She was abandoned on March
24, 1.885, about one hundred and seven
teen miles east of Cape Henry. Being
lumber-laden, she continued to float.
Her masts were carried away close to the
deck, so that there was but little surface
exposed to the wind, and her progress
was almost entirely due to the current of
the gulf stream. Her track across the
Atlantic was directly in the route of the
European steamers, by whom she was
sighted many times, and whose captains
doubtless grew to regard her as worse
than tw'enty-oue enemies! The last re
port received placed her about seventy
miles north ot Cape Ortegal, Spain, on
December 4, 1885. She was probably
toWed into some port by the Bay of Bis
cay fishermen, who must have regarded
her as a rich find. During her long
cruise, she covered some three thousand
three hundred miles, which made an
average of about four hundred and
twenty-five miles of progress each
month.
The bark 1 owland Hill was abandoned
on February 27, and last reported on
November 12, 1885; the derelict schoon
er Ida Francis zigzagged between Ber
muda and the coa,st of Florida for nine
months; the schooner Levin S. Melson
was wrecked on February 27, about one
hundred and fifty miles east of Cape
Ilattera-, and was last reported on
October 3, 188(5, about two hundred and
fifty miles south of Cape Race, New
foundland.
Each of these vessels was lumber
laden ; each has drifted hundreds of
miles aud been reported many times, and
one or all may be sighted again. A
number of similar cases could be given
where derelicts have been reported
month after mouth in the highways of
commerce.
Fogs and icebergs are encountered
only at a particular period of the year,
and within certain limits of the ocean,
but derelicts are liable to be met any
where or at any time.
A ship striking one of these water
logged wrecks would be apt to sustain
about as much damage as if she ran upon
a rock. An inhospitable coast is known
at night by its lights, the presence of
icebergs by the chill of the water in their
vicinity; but during darkness or fogs
there is nothing to indicate the presence
of a derelict. ft
Sometimes, when it L found necessary
to abandou a vessel, her Captain is
thoughtful enough to set her on fire.
Sometimes, if the sea be smooth aud the
weather favorable, a Captain, on meet
ing one of these derelicts, will lower a
boat and send some of his crew to fire
her, but this is also a rare occurrence.
Reports are occasionally received of
ships injured by striking wrecks, and
no doubt some of those that have left
port, and never been heard from after
ward. have been lost in iust this way.
Perhaps the most novel derelict on
record was that of the great raft w'hich
it was attempted to tow round from the
Canadian coast to New York some
mouths ago. The attempt failed, and
the great mass of logsVas left to float
about directly iu the path of vessels
coming into New York. Fortunately, the
raft was speedily broken up, and the
logs were scattered, and no serious
casualty is known to have occurred from
collisions with them.
A w ord on the subject of buoys which
have gone adrift may not be amiss.
While most buoys are small and insig
nifi ant. a few are large and heavy, and
might do considerable damage to a ship
if run into at full speed.
There is a small number of lighted,
whistling buoys, at important points on
our coast. These are of mammoth size,
and act as beacons, and, at the same time,
they give warning by the noise they
make. The whistle is automatic, and is
sounded twenty or thirty tjmes a minute
oy the action of the sea. There is a
chamber into which gas is forced, and it
is lighted by means of a lens lantern at
Ihe top of the buoy. Ot course, the gas
must be replenished at regular intervals.
One of these enormous buoys was driven
From its moorings off Cape Hatteras, in
December, 1885, and, after taking an
involuntary journey of about twelve
hundred miles, it was, on the twenty
fifth of the following May,captured and
tow'ed into Bermuda by an Euglish
Reamer. It was in good condition, but
evidences of its long trip were found in
the large barna: les adhering to it. When
it started on this cruise the gas was soon
exhausted, causing the light to become
extinguished, but doubtless the whistle
continued to pipe lustily with every rise
and fall of the sea.
Imagine the dismay of some supersti
tions mariner, whose ears should be
greeted by a half-dozen violent whoops
in the small hours of the night, when he
comfortably believed that no object was
within miles of his ship.
A blind boy w r as once asked the
meaning of forgiveness. After think
ing a few moments he replied: “It is
the odor which the trampled flower
gives oat to hies- the foot that crushes
it.” ______
It seems queer that the man who takes
life never has it after he takes it.
SELECT SIFTINGS.
A fathom is six feet.
There are no frogs iu Ireland. ■
The new French rifle will kill at two
miles.
Robert Bruce, of Scotland, diei ol
j leprosy in 1329.
The Chinese make a sacred rite of
paying every cent they owe before be
ginning a new year.
There is a clump of thirty orange trees
near Lakeland, Fla.,that yields annually
over 100,000 oranges.
Babylon was taken by the Medesjand
Persians under ( yrus. anu Belshazzar,
the King, w T as slain 538 B. C.
After a hard fight a few days ago, near
Delta, N, Y., a rabbit prevented a crow
front eating her little ones.
In the reign of Ogyges, King of Attica,
17(54 B. C., a deluge so inundated Attica
that it lay waste for nearly 200 years.
One of the wonders of Paris is a well
2009 feet in depth. Hot water rushes
out of this well iu a stream 114 feet
high.
At Wallingford, Conn., a big pointer
dog was caught trying to bury alive his
rival—a small spaniel—of whom he yr as
insanely jealous.
The latest thing in envelopes is an
article which will turn black, blue and
red when any inquisitive person attempts
to open it by the u-e of steam or water.
A Georgia man has a Plymouth Rock
chicken, astonishingly lively, which has
but one wing, the other side being as
smooth as the breast of an ordinary
bird.
The famous Chinese wall is said to
have been erected about 300 B. C. In
1879 it was reported to be 1728 miles
long, eighteen feet wide, fifteen feet
thick.
The average growth of the beard has
been computed to be six and one-half
inches each year. A man eighty years
of age, therefore, who has shaved
regularly all his life may be said to
have sacrificed to the razor about thirty
five feet of hair.
An immense radish has been-picked
by Miss Mary Lambert, of Island I ake,
Fla. It weighed four pounds and was
six inches in diameter at the largest
point. This radish was thirteen inches
long in (he body proper, while its tap
root was thirteen more, making twenty
six in all.
The American work of fiction that has
had the greatest sale is Mrs. Stowe’s
“ : ncle Tom’s Cabin.” Next to it comes
“The Lamplighter,” a Bcston school
teacher’s work, that has been through
200 editions of 1000 copies each. The
third book on the list of successes is
Ilalberton’s “Helen’s Babies.”
While the three-months-old infant of
Mrs. Ilenry Crocker, liviug near Milwau
kee, was sleeping in its cradle, a large
cat jumped into the latter and curled it
self up for a nap over the little one's
face. When the child’s grandmother,
who had fallen asleep while watching at
the crib, awoke, she found the baby
smothered to death.
According to a writer in Blackwood's
Magazine the gypsies of Transylvania
teach young bears to dance by placing
them on heated iron plates while the
trainer plays on the fiddle. The bear,
lifting up its legs alternately to escape
the heat, involuntarily observes the time
marked by the violin, and eventually
learns to lift its legs whenever he hears
the music.
Minnie Lewis, the six-year-old daugh
ter of William Lewis, living near Butler,
Penn., went into a thicket to gather
wild flowers. While there she was at
tacked by a black snake, which wound
itself around her neck and choked her
to death. The snake was found in this
position by a brother of the little girl,
and was killed. It was eight feet in
length.
Facts About Butter.
A New York dealer who knows
whereof he speaks said to a Midland Ex
press reporter: “ The annual product of
butter in the United States is not less
than 4,000,000,000 pounds per annum.
It is generally admitted that one-half of
thebutter produced is arti cially colored.
If this be so, and if natural high colored
butter is valued at five cents more per
pound than the uncolored article, it fol
lows that the public pay no less than
$25,000,000 per annum for an artificial
color, believing it in most cases to be a
natural color and an indication of supe
rior quality, for which they receive no
equivalent. It is also true that if one
pound of color, which consists of an
natto color, dissolved in cotton seed oil,
is required for 1000 pounds of butter,
there must be not less than half a million
pounds of spurious butter added to the
product of the country in the shape of
cotton seed oil.”
Turmoil for Trees.
Apropos of the vibrant property of
wood, have you never heard the grind
ing in the dead, dry trunk of the pine—
the gnawing of the minute teeth of the
borers? It is like a busy carpenter shop
in full blast. I remember, in a recent
walk in Conway woods, that such a tree
audibly announced its presence fully
twenty feet in advance of me. Sawdust
poured out from hundreds of apertures,
and on laying my ear against the trunk
and closing my eyes I seemed to be in
the midst of a metropolitan bedlam—a
whole city block behind in its contract
and rushed for its finish, with hammers
aud planes and chisels in wild echoing
confusion. I could hear the saws and
augers, gouges, derricks and pulleys, al
most the hurried footfall —indeed,every-
thing but the profanity of the workmen.
And yet a single one of these disclosed
in his hiding place was scarcely larger
than a brad. — Harper's.
Half-Masting Flags.
The custom of putting flags at half
staff or half-mast is probably as old as
the use of the flags themselves, which
certainly dates ba k to the time of the
Punic wars if not further. It was cus
tomary at that time to lower the flag in
token of defeat, for we are told that
after the capture of the Carthaginian
ships by the Romans, their flags were
taken down and trailed over their sterns
by the vigors, as is still done when cap
tured vea-els are brought into port. The
custom of putting the flags at half-staff
is, in all probability, quite as old, and
most likely was confined to the navy at
first.
A SODA WATER FACTORY.
HOW THE GREAT SUMMER THIR3T
a NCHER is MADE.
Generating Carbolic Gas, the Vital
Element in Soda Water, From
Marble Dust—The “Fruit Syrups.
Theie xvas quite a long row of big
bellied, ccrious looking ob eels. in
general appearance they resembled a
battery of smooth, shining Armstioug
breech-loading guns. Theie was a
rumbling, humming noise in the air,and
a great deal of bustle and activity. It
was not on board of a gigantic man-of
war, however, but in the engine room of
the largest soda water factory in the
United States.
“How is soda water made.” repeated
Mr. Vosteen, the N compounder and gen
eral superintendent of the main works of
the Uhicago Consolidated Bottling Com
pany, otherwise the so Ja water trust of
Uhicago. “Told in a lew words, it’s
something like this: Get up your gas in
a, ‘generator,’ convey it into ‘purifiers,’
then mix it with water and flavor it with
whatever flavor you want. That’s all.
But the explanation wouldn’t be under
stood by the general public, Pm afraid.
So I’ll have to give some details. Car
bonic gas, the vital element in soda
water, is made in this mortar-like ma
chine, known as the generator.
“In the round receptacle is the marble
dust, aud the vitriol drips on it and
generates the gas. The gas, however,
not being pure carbonic acid, it has to
pass through various ‘purifiers,’ being
conveyed there in block-tin tubes. In
the ‘purifiers’ is water, which gradually
absorbs all the foreign components of
the gas. When finally pure the gas is
pumped into vessels holding water.
To bring about a thorough mixture of
the w T ater and gas the water is constantly
agitated by steam power. The syrup is
conducted to the bottling machine in
separate pipes, and then by means of a
pump is put into the bottle, and the latter,
if small, is closed with a patent stopper;
if of quart size it is tightly close 1 with
an ordinary cork, wired, tin foiled and
labeled. One of the principal thiugs
in making good, wholesome soda water
is the water. Ordinary lake water won’t
do. It must be thoroughly cleansed
first. That is accomplished in tanks.
We have in this establishment, for in
stance, a number of such tanks, from six
to ten feet high, and holding altogether
5000 gallons. There is a perforated metal
bottom to it, through which the water
filters. Above are alternate layers of
coarse gravel and sifted charcoal.' Every
impurity in the water is absorbed in
this way, and the water is chemically
pure upon finishing its roundabout jour
uey through these filtering tanks. The
thing next in importance is the correct
compounding of the syruns. Pveybody
knows their names, aud new names are
invented every season and certain novel
3yrups always achieve a great run for a
season or two —lemon, raspberry, and
strawberry—are and remain the favor
ites. There are no fruit juices in these
syrups, but certain extracts, prepared
chemically, take the place of them. It
would be an impossibility, with the low
price of soda water, to furnish genuine
fruit juice. Mead is made of sugar,
honey, carbonated water and various
flavors. Birch beer is made both fer
mented and carbonated. Champagne
fizz is compounded out of a variety of
flavors. Root beer| and sarsaparilla and
spruce beer, and ginger ale are all made
iu this way. Mineral waters are made
after an analysis of various waters, tak
ing the component jiarts ot chemicals
and carbonating the whole.
Now, what I have said so far refers
only to botiled waters. When we come
to louiitaia soda tvaterthe case is some
what different. Fountains are kept in
drug stores, restaurants, confectioneries,
etc., and hold as a rule from six to teu
gallons each. In price they vary from
.>l4O to SIOOO each and over. Many big
drug stores make their own soda water
and their own syrups, of course, aud
own their own fountains as well. But
the bulk of the fountains are furnished
by a concern that makes the manufacture
of fountain soda and the renting out of
fountains by the season its exclusive
business. Now, then, ea h fountain is
filled with water and the gas is conveyed
into it by meaus of pipes, and then the
fountain is placed on a ‘rocker’ and its
contents rocked as if it were a cradle—
only longer. Then the gas becomes
thoroughly mixed with the water. As
the contents of the fountain are used up
another one takes its place. There are
about twenty syrups used mostly for
fountain soda. And each syrup, despite
the contrary assertion of the funny para
graphers, is in a receptacle of its own
and conveyed into the soda by a separate
pipe. Of course, there is no pineapple
in ‘pineapple’ soda, no more than there
is of strawberry or raspbery or banana.
But the juice which takes its place tastes
just as nice aud is just as harmless. In
chocolate and coccoa and coffee there is
the genuine thing, however, and in lemon
syrup there is some lemon oil, and in
\ aniila some extract of vanilla. So thift’s
fair enough.”— Chic igo ILrald.
a Scientific Description of Drowning.
“How do persons die from drown
ing?” asked a Health Board doctor of a
New \ ork Telegram, reporter.
“For want of air?”
“No.”
“ -ive it up then, what is it?”
“I will tell you. After a person is;
oelow the surface long enough, he fills
his lungs with water. The first stage of!
deep inspiration lasts about ten seconds,
followed by a reaction caused by the re
sistance to the entrance of water into
the bronchiales. This is followed by
arrest of respiration and loss of con
■ciousness.”
••In a lew seconds more he makes four
,ve respiratory efforts and then dies,
umersion causes an immediate rise in
;he blood pressure with slowing of the
art beats. The action of the heart re
gains slow but strong till death ensues.
Hie pressure gradually lessens, but rises
ust before death, to fall to zero imme
diately afterward. The heart continues
to ?>eut feebly for twenty minutes in
some cases. The period of respiratory
lesistance i 3 therefore due to the respir
atory muscles, and not to spasms of the
glottis. An interesting stndy, you see,”
added the doctor, “but to appreciate
fully the various symptoms causod by
<udden immersion you, peihaps, had
better experiment yourself.”
“Thanks,”
NEWS AND NOTES FOR WOMEN.
Boston has a boxing school for ladies.
Black lace toilets are as popular as
ever.
Both high and low dress collars are
fashionably worn.
White daisy weddings are the fancy of
the passing season.
Every well-made tailor suit is slightly
but artistically padded.
Sleeves are more frequently puffed
above than below the elbow.
< leorge Elliott never received less than
$40,000 for any of her novels.
The Duchess of Hamilton has opened
a retail butter shop in Ipswich.
Gray, blue and red is the fashionable
combination in dress just now.
There is a mining company in St.
Louis composed entirely of women.
Four women are studying medicine at
the Christiania University, Norway.
Oddity in sleeves is a feature in sum
mer frocks-for both big and little people.
Belva Lockwood’s campaign emblem
is a delicate lace handkerchief of plain
white.
Out of 250 voters at the recent elec
tion in Cimarron, Kansas, ninety-eight
were women.
Black horsehair bonnets embroidered
in gold are among late imported Paris
ian novelties.
Old-fashioned sprigged muslins, soft,
sheer and cool m effect and coloring, are
again in vogue.
The most serviceable jeweled novelty
is a silver parasol handle that opens at
top to disclose a fan.
Accordeou pleated blouses and skirt 3
in light wool fabrics arc both very popu
lar for summer wear.
The Indiana Woman’s Prison and Re
formatory, near Indianapolis, is man
aged exclusively by women.
A scientific paper has been started in
Paris with the novel feature of publish
ing nothing not written by a woman.
Poppy red, ecru, old rose, reseda and
gobelin blue are popular colors for the
foundation of dressy black lace toilets.
Mrs. Labouchere, wife of the editor of
London Truth , is giving campaign ad
dresses in favor of Gladstone and Home
Rule.
The Domino capo of lace is a very
chic little garment which is worn some
what in the same style as the Spanish
mantilla.
Queen Margherita, of Italy, is making
a collection of pearls with a view to
decorating, some day, the wedding-dress
of her son’s bride.
Mrs. Burton, a lady resident of the
town of Ensenada, de Todos Santos, in
Lower California, has opened an office
for the sale of lands.
Flower weddings are the outcome of
the suggestive color dinners. Only one
kind of flower is used for the decorations
of a flower wedding.
Mme. Pornero, the wife of the Mexi
can Minister at Washington, is said to
have no superior among the ladies at the
capital as an entertainer.
The box containing a wedding present
to a New York bride from Mrs. Cleve
land was lined with some of the material
of that lady’s own wedding dress.
Dresses and long wraps made for sea
vovages have weights of lead in the
hems of the skirts to keep them from
being blown about too rudely on deck.
The changeable or shot effect in ribbon
is produced, not as in the case of dress
fabrics, by warp of one shade aud woof
of another, but by dyeing one hue over
the other.
Jewelry, which for a time almost dis
appeared as an article of adornment, is
again the rage, and is worn in the greatest
profusion when occasion demands dis
play of that sort.
One of the largest ship owners in the
town of Ellsworth, Me.,* has been Mrs.
Mary A. Jordan, at whose death the
other day the flags on the shipping were
placed at half mast.
Braided tulle is a novelty in bonnet
making, and it would seem unsuitable as
a material for this sort of manipulation,
yet when made in two different shades
the effect is very pretty.
Short summer wraps approach more
and more the mantilla, and lace or bead
ed gauze, with a trimming of lace and
passementerie, is the stuff of which such
dreams are oftenest made.
Fine plaitings of all sorts take the
place of other trimmings, the skirts,
waists aud sleeves as well as finish for
the bottom of the skirt 3 are well laden
with finest knife plaitings.
The pith bonnet is an Euglish device
altogether attractive, and the material in
no way shows itself aggressively, in
stead it has a light and pretty effect, and
forms some stylish headgear.
Queen Victoria has sanctioned the
Local Government Electors’s act, which
passed both houses of Parliament, and
gives women the right to vote in county
matters both in England and Wales.
The Czarina of Russia, it is stated,
often designs and even makes dresses for
her younger children, and frequently
takes their new hats to pieces and trims
them over according to her own taste.
Belts of kid or Russia leather, with
dull steel or oxydized silver buckles are
seeD in the best shops, aloDg with buckles
of rhine-stone or brilliants for wear with
the belt ribbons that finish new round
waists. '
Some very new hats have the brim
lined with stemless blossoms sewed
thickly in, or else single petals of large
flowers slightly overlapping one another,
and the effect is youthful and quaintly
pretty.
Photographs of the interior of pretty
rooms are a popular present among
friends, and iu taking views of the cozy
corner or the most attractive nook of ths
house the amateur photographer is well
occupied.
Miss Kate yield, after living in almost
every civilized country in the world, has
Anally determined to take up her perma
neut abode at I.os Angeles, Cal., where
she is building a house that will over
look the sea.
A new double-pointed nail is the in
vention of an ingenious women. The
points turn in opposite directions. Th«y
are especially useful for invisible nailing
in woodwork. It is simply two nails
joined firmly, the sides of the heads be
ing placed together.