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“CONSCIENCE FUND."
Mysterious Contributions Sent
to Washington.
From Two Cents to Thousands
of Dollars Received.
The United States Treasury receives
many mysterious contributions sent in
by unknown persons whose conscience
accuses them of having swindled tho
government in one way or another.
Most of the frauds thus rectified are
committed against the customs and
internal revenue laws. The majority
of people seem to regard the govern¬
ment as they do a corporation, which
having neither a soul to be saved or a
body to be kicked, may be cheated to
any extent justifiably; but now and
then an individual turns up who got a
worried about it afterwards. Such
penitents send the amounts they think
they owe to Washington usually, where
the sums pass through the hands of
the bureau of public money into the
Treasury. Contributions of this sort
as low as a two-cent stamp are received,
while sometimes they are as high as
several thousand dollars. A while ago
eight halves of as many $1000 notes
came in, accompanied by a notifica¬
tion that the remaining halves would
follow if acknowledgment was made
of the receipt of the first consign¬
ment.
Some of the communications arc
rather amusing. One correspondent
writes from Erie, Pa: “Inclosed find
$40 which I return to the government,
having beaten her out of that amount
in minor ways from time to time.”
Another sends $200 saying: “This
is on account of amount I defrauded
tlie government of and which I have
paid back, thank God!”
An old soldier, who is regarded as
a regular customer, sends $5 from time
to time on account of $100, which, he
writes, “I obtained by unfairness
seventeen or eighteen years ago, as
well as I can remember, and which I
hope to liquidate. I give my God the
benefit of the doubt, relying on his
boundless mercy.”
Another penitent incloses $10 and
says: “This money is to be placed
in the United States Treasury to the
credit of an unknown debtor. Pay
this money where it belongs and keop
your record clear.”
A person whose conscience is in
proportion to his means sends $4905,
accompanied simply by a scrap of pa¬
per with “conscience” scrawled upon
it.
Two postage stamps are inclosed in
a wrapper on which is written:
“Money that belongs to the govern¬
ment.”
Similarly a woman sends from
France $20, with the words “C’est
potirie tresorio.” A case of smug¬
gling repented, doubtless.
An unintentional and very con¬
scientious smuggler $1.26 iu a paper
with the words, “Duty on five pairs
of gloves, visible but not taxed.”
The very small contributions sent
in this way are probably in most in¬
stances acknowledgments for having
used government paper for private
purposes, for having utilized canceled
stamps to carry a letter or some such
peccadilloes.
The Treasury is often bothered for
money by people in whose family
traditions exist to the effect that a
great-grandfather or a granduncle de¬
posited with the institution ever so
long ago sums which have since
mounted to fabulous proportions. It
is desired by the heirs, very naturally,
that their inheritance shall be dis¬
tributed, and they sometimes go so far
as to threaten legal proceedings. These
money myths are preserved bv gener¬
ation after generation, and those con¬
cerned never seem to lose faith in them
altogether. Think of the imaginary
treasures that have been heaped up in
he Bank of England for centuries
merely waiting their long-sought own¬
ers to come and claim the golden bean
stalk 1—[Washington Star.
One Rock Avoided.
Mrs. Tiptop—How iu the world did
you persuade yourself to marry a
baker ?
Mrs. Van Oven (formerly Mrs. I)c
Fine)—I determined that for my sec¬
ond husband I should mafry a man
who could hake his own biscuits.—
i New York Weekly.
A MeeM ulting Saw.
General Manager l’otier of the
Homestead mills of Carnegie Brothers
& Co. has invented a cold-saw for tho
purpose of sawing iron and steel,
which has proved a great success, and
is creating considerable interest. For
some years an instrument has been in
use, known as the hot saw, that is, it
could only cut metal that had been
heated to redness, but it is not equal
to the new saw brought out by Mr.
Potter. The hot saw leaves a burr on
one edge, but the new old saw does
clean, smooth work and is not very
expensive.
A reporter had a talk with a gen¬
tleman who had seen the saw at work
a short time ago, and secured from
him the following description of the
new invention: The instrument itself
is simply a circular saw of fine steel,
tempered somewhat hard and about
one-quarter of an inch in thickness at
the periphery. It i* ground slightly
Biinner at its center to clear itself
easier in a deep cut. It is made to re¬
volve at a slow speed, while the old
hot saw was run at a high rate and
did its work by means of the intense
friction created rather teeth. It cuts
but one inch a minute.
The machine differs from tho ordi¬
nary circular saw in this respect, that
it is not tho work that moves up to
the saw, but the work is fixed station¬
ery and the saw is made to travel
along tho table through it. It is
driven by a worm wheel and screw of
some four or five feet in length, along
which it can be moved easily by hand-
screw gear or by self-acting feed
gear. The saw runs in a tank of sola-
tion, and the greatest cave is necessary
in regard to the quality of the mater-
ials in this solution. It is made up of
ten pounds of whale oil soap, fifteen
pounds of sal soda, two gallonsjof lard
oil, with water added to make forty
gallons of mixture. Tho new saw will
be used in cutting tho armor plates
for the Government the proper size.
A Muscular Minister.
Dr. Rainsford, says a correspondent
of the Richmond (Ya.) Dispatch, is
the most unique figure in New York
today as I saw him in Beecher’s old
pulpit in Plymouth Church not long
ago. Over 6 feet in height, his form
is straight and he carries himself with
the precision of a German drillmaster.
Ills sparse hair was carefully parted
in the middle. His countenance was
open and frank, and iiis eyes beamed
through a pair of pebble pince nez.
Dr. Rainsford is a perfect type of the
English'parson whom Anthony Trol¬
lope loved to depict. He is a Londoner
by birth. His cheeks bear the glow
of ruddy health. He is a fine oars¬
man, a good cricketer, as enthusiastic
an angler as ever whipped a stream,
and he can ride to hounds, box or do
a twenty-live miles’ walk a day with¬
out turning a hair. His church is very
large and lias ho end of societies and
relief committees at work. His con¬
gregation numbers nearly three thou¬
sand persons. He is popular with the
young and an advocate of the people’s
pleasure, indeed, an enlarged edition
of Walter Besant, and he would like
to have a people’s palace in every city
in the Union.
Making Her Proud.
He was a carpet-cleaning man and
lie had solemly agreed to have every¬
body’s carpet cleaned and sent home
by Tuesday. lie sat in his basement
office Tuesday afternoon when a wo¬
man entered and curtly demanded:
“Well?”
“Y'ou are Mrs. Blank of Second
avenue?”
‘ ‘I am. ”
“Your carpet was to be delivered
this morning.
“Mrs. Blank, I’m sorry to be
obliged to inform you that”—
“Your wife is dead, or you had a
fire, or the machinery broke down?
Those are no excuses, sir.”
“Certainly not. The trouble is that
your parlor carpet got mixed up with
one belonging to a nabob on Fifth
avenue and we haven’t got it back
yet. The wagon has just gone after
it. We sometimes got those elegant
fabrics mixed up iu spite of all we
can do.”
“Oh! That was it! Went to a
nabob’s, eh? Well, Mr. Renovator, I
know you must bo worked and wor¬
ried almost to death, and if you get it
around tomorrow it will be all right.”
—[New York World.
0UFFK PHYSIC.
Methods of the Chinese to Rid
Themselves of Disease.
The Remedial Value of Various
Insects and Snakes,
Chinese drug stoves, which may bo
numbered by tho scores in the Mongo¬
lian quarter, are in themselves com¬
plete and unabridged museums of in¬
sects. In the hundreds of neat draw¬
ers which line the walls and in the nu¬
merous jars of fantastic design and
barbaric form which ornament those
establishments, are to bo found pre¬
served Hies, beetles, bees and every
other species of insect life, not to
mention every variety of toad, snake
and lizard. Every box is carefully la¬
belled with Chinese signs, and the con¬
tents are carefully dried before being
stored away for medical use.
The Chinese druggist and his clerks
wear the same haughty and secretive
airs which so become their Caucasian
colaborers. Should an ailing fellow-
countryman call at the establishment
to have his pains relieved and his ills
cured he merely steps into the store.
The druggist’s knowledge of Mongo¬
lian diseases enables him to diagnose
at once where the seat of the suffering
man’s ailment lies. The wise and
all-discerning pharmacist shrugs his
shoulders and mutters a werd or two.
A clerk steps up to box and draws
forth a dried snake, coiled and
lreld in that position by skewers.
IIc P asscs U to an aUentlant ’ a,ld
whil ° llis P aUcnt is countln ° out thc
$2 tho snake is reduced to a powder
and P ut a package. 1 ho snl-
ferer ^oes his way with a gleam of
hope in his eyes, for every Chinese
knows that the snake powder is a de¬
termined foe to rheumatic pains.
Indigestion, such a baneful disease
where cook's do not mind their parts,
is cured by a powder of dried horned
toad, provided it lias been carefully
caught and prepared when tho moon
is on the wane.
Centipedes, which m life produce
agonizing blisters in the neighborhood
of their bites, still carry with them in
the powdered state tho faculty of
raising blisters when made into a
poultice.
Scorpions, according to the Chinese
way of thinking, are invaluable when
employed as a remedy for a badly
congested liver, which ailment caii
only be surmized by the Chinese drug¬
gist to be the one which afflicts his
sore and wearied customer.
Powdered bees and beetles are Ugli¬
ly regarded by the Chinese physician
in the treatment of throat troubles,
and if they do not instantly effect a
cure oil being taken the patient de¬
serves to suffer.
Blood troubles, malignant cancers
ami scrofulous diseases hie away when
brought into combat with powdered
lizard.
The materia medica of the Chinese
physician would be shorn of much o
its value did it not contain a sea-horse.
Sea-horse is a general cure-all, and if
a Chinese druggist was unable to sup¬
ply his customers with any other rem¬
edy they would stiil have iihplicit
faith iu their ultimate recovery if
powders of that curious fish were fre¬
quently administered.
The grasshopper, which is so
dreaded by the farmer in the Western
states, is highly valued in its pow¬
dered state by Mongolians.
The weak and afflicted Chinese or¬
gans of vision are returned to their
normal condition by a poultice of
mascerated hornets.
Broken limbs rapidly knit together
under the beneficent influence of a de¬
coction of cockroaches.
It must not he supposed for a mo¬
ment lhat these are all the remedies
dispensed by the Chinese druggist.
The few mentioned are but the staple
remedies which may be found in the
medicine chest of every Chinese fam¬
ily. The wily Mongolian, too, does
not trust his well being to them alone,
but invokes the aid of his house¬
hold deity to rid him of his suffer¬
ings.
The evil spirits which constantly
beset the pathway of the Mongolian
are charged with being tho causes of
all diseases. Such a thing as attrib¬
uting physical troubles to bad sewers,
being out too late at night or going to
the lodge, would not he given the
honor of consideration by any Irfgh
minded and honorable Chinese. If
the gods and insects will not aid him
ho closes his eyes in serenity as his end
approaches and calmly yields up his
spirit—fate has decreed it.—[San
Fraucisco Chronicle.
Where Nature Is Reversed.
Yuma! What recollections the name
itself brings up! Yuma, where they
dig for wood and climb for water.
W r here there are more Mexicans than
Americans and more Indians than
either. Where the thermometer “sel¬
dom gets above 118 iu the shade,”
where tho river is the color of the
earth and the earth the color of water,
where steamboats run comfortably on
moist sand and the prisoners in the
penitentiary keep store in the public
yard. Where they eat strawberries
in January and where tho desert blos¬
soms like the rose, where the rainfall
is Jess in a year than it is in Now
York in a day, and where the old men
pitch pennies and fly kites. Whore
the Indian warrior is practically peace¬
ful and where the entire world seems
topsy-turvy.
Such is Yuma, a picturesque town
situated in the heated corner of the
world, whore Arizona, California and
Mexico meet.
There are few quainter or more in¬
teresting places than this singular city
—possibly for the same reason that it
is so full of paradoxes, all of which
exist precisely as I mentioned them,
says a writer in the Omaha Worid-
llerald. While one hears the liquid
Spanish tongue more frequently than
the English and gutteral Apache dia¬
lect is heard much more than the voice
0 f u, e Anglo-Saxon, the American as
a ma ttcr of course leads the intellectual
1H . ocess i on>
He is at present “just humping
Yuma,” to use tho local vernacular,
and has brought it to the attention of
the United States Senate. It has had
no Proctor Ivnott to laugh it into
prosperity after the manner of Du¬
luth, but it ha9 taken up and coddled
its most imposing and unsightly fea¬
tures, thc great Colorado desert, and
by that means expects to reach a glory
and a greatness that shall make St.
Paul and Minneapolis, Tacoma and
Seattle hide their diminished heads as
progressive and growing cities.
Mules the Draft Animals of Australia.
“Mules are the draft horses of Aus¬
tralia,” said Charles F. Stansbnry of
Melbourne, Australia, at the Sturte-
vant House. “This may seem some¬
thing like the Irishman’s remark about
riding to Dublin the next time he
walked; but it is a fact with us. Any
man who can possibly get a good mule
will let his horse go every time. A
mule is the best riding animal a man
can get for a long distance. Very few
mules are bred with us, owing to the
scarcity of good jacks; but the breed¬
ers are going into the business more
and more every year, as it is extreme¬
ly profitable.
“A good pair of well coupled 15.2
hands high mules in Melbourne will
bring $1000 without any trouble.
Mules will pull a load that horses
twice their size could not budge.
When horse3 find that the load does
not inovo they jump back and throw
themselves into the collar. A mule
will get down on his knees and pull,
but the load must come somehow. I
am thinking of buying two or three
hundred mules here and shipping them
to Australia. I have never seen finer
animals than those in some of the
trucks here. I am told that they come
from Tennessee, and am going down
there te see how they are bred.”—
York Telegram.
Chances of Survival.
Tho game statistics of these coun
tries prove that brute strength, handi¬
capped by bulk, offers a very slim
chance of success in the struggle for
survival. Of the nine species of large
carnivora once abounding in southern
Europe and western Asia, seven have
almost disappeared, while foxes and
minks hold their own without the
slightest assistance of protective game-
laws. At least ninety per cent, of
the east American bear-population has
succumbed to powder and lead since
the arrival of the first Caucasian colo¬
nists, but raccoons are still found in
nine out of ten counties of the Atlan¬
tic States, and squirrels and polecats
will probably not disappear before the
demolition of the last acre of wood¬
lands.— [Belford.
Two Heroes.
“To make my fortune X have a plan—
I’ll conquer the world,” said the timoroui
man.
Ho started forth, but a lion ran
Into his path: said the timorous man:
“The lion will kill me; 1/ I can,
I’ll turn back now, I’m a timorous man.”
And having tried it once in vain,
He never tackled the world again.
Then came that way the valorous man
Who there his battle of life began.
He saw the lion; it roared and ran.
Intent to devour the valorous mati,
Who drew Ms sword and said: “l ean
Kill the lion!” The valorous man
The flag of victory then unfurled,
And marched on, conqueror of the world!
— [Mrs. M. L. Ilayne in Detroit Free Press.
HUMOROUS.
There is a great future for the nut¬
meg.
Never loan you watch to a musician,
he has too strong a predilection for
keeping time.
Every silver lining has its cloud.
You can’t earn a half-dollar without
working for it.
It is hard for the young man who
is just learning to rido the bicycle to
lead an upright life.
No man knows how desperate a
women can look until he has seen hei
undertake to rido a bicycle.
Next to rolling off a log, the easiest
thing is to tell other people how they
ought to bring uji their children.
If we all had the gift to see our¬
selves as others see us, very few of us
would be persuaded to act as grand
marshal in a holiday parade.
It is a mournful commentary on
human vanity to see tho mourners
looking back, on turning the corners,
to see if the procession is worthy of
the corpse.
Lady (who is about to move, to
neighbor’s little boy)—And what will
you do when I go away, Sammy, and
leave no one in the house? Sammy—
Break all the windows.
“There’s a good deal of sarcasm In
that,” remarked a man suffering
from ague, as the druggist handed
him a bottle of medicine labeled,
“Shake before taking.”
“See that fellow over there? He
doesn’t know where he’ll get his next
meal.” “You surprise me. He looks
well-to-do.” “lie is; but he doesn’t
know whether lie’ll dine home or at
the club.”
Ancient Beau: Emma, I think you
are charming. Could I persuade you
to accept my hand and heart? “Have
you said this to my mother?” “Why,
yes, twenty years ago, hut I don’t sea
how you knew it.”
“You have a very fine collection of
coins, Bronson.” “Yes.” “Did you
sver see an American dollar with two
sagles on it and two dates?” “No.
Nor you either.” “Yes, I have. It
was made up of two halves.”
Jones was catechising his newly
married friend. “Did you kneel
down when you proposed ?” he asked,
“No,” replied the friend. “Did you
promise to give her all your money
every week and to be home every
night at dinner?” “No,” answered
the friend, “I married a widow.”
His moral standard is so high^ be,
So high his worthiness must
That in the men who pass him by
No jot of virtue can he see.
Our Sequoia Forests.
Counting as forests all areas of a
thousand acres and upward, Mr. Frank
S. Walker computes that there are
now 37,200 acres of Sequoia forest in
tho United States, divided as follows:
King’s River forest, 7500 acres;
Kaweah River, 13,000; Tulo River,
14,000; Kern River, 1700 acres. They
are all south of King’s River, and
nearly all of they in Tulare County,
Cal., and extend over a belt of coun¬
try beginning at Converse Basin on
the north, and ending with the Indian
Reservation forest. The groves and
forests within this region are more
than twenty in number, with an aver¬
age distance between them of perhaps
three or four miles. Tho southern
limit of the Sequoia is the Deer Creek
Grove, which contains less than 150
Sequoia, scattered over an area of per¬
haps 300 acres. Too many of thseo
noble woods have already passed into
the hands of speculators, and are
doomed shortly to disappear.-*- [Popu¬
lar Science Monthly.