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THE MOVING ROCK.
A Wonderful Freak of Nature in
Argentina. *
An Immense Boulder, Which
Sways in the Wind.
"When European tourists visit the
United States they turn towards tlSb
Falls of Niagara as the greatest natu¬
ral wonder of the laud.
Argentina, with its grassy plants
and bare foot-hills presents few great
works of nature to interest the stran¬
ger save at this quiet village in the
southwestern portion of the Province
of Buenos Ayres. English travellers
especially take a run down to Tandil
from the capital to see the moving
rock, a freak of nature which is quite
unique and is as much of a sensation
for unfamiliar visitors as tho great
cataract of tho Niagara River.
Tandil is located 160 miles from
Buenos Ayres. It is a parochial town,
named after a famous Indian chief¬
tain who waged incessant war with
the Spanish colonists. I came to
Tandil over the Ferro Came del Sud,
and after u breakfast on pacbero, tho
invariable native dish, mounted a
Spanish horse and rode a league up
the hills to the moving rock.
The scenery along the path was
picturesque. The river Tandileofie,
flowing down from the Sierras and
winding among the hills, irrigates the
adjacent country and waters the
numerous herds and flocks. The huts
of the peasantry, shabby but quaint
and attractive in their squalor, lay on
the slopes, and the ragged children,
with eager, gleaming black eyes, ran
along the road begging for dinero.
The rock is of granite formation and
weighs, according to the estimate of
scientific authority, about 800 tons.
It is poised on the sloping side of an
enormous rock which is several hun¬
dred feet long and which rises high
above the ground. The surface of the
latter.is smooth; in the vicinity there
are signs of the passage of a glacier.
The point on which the moving rock
rests is about eighteen inches in diam¬
eter, and l he stone was poised so ex¬
actly by tlie flood or the ice which left
it in position that by the pressure of
the hand I was enabled to stir it witli
a swaying motion amounting to at
least four inches. The wind wag
calm and insufficient to move the
heavy mass, but when the blasts sweep
down the Sierras the boulder rolls to
and fro.
Notwithstanding the ease with
which the rock is swayed, there is a
limit beyond which it will not go by
any power which has been applied-
General Rosas, during his Dictator¬
ship of Argentina, made a wager that
he could pull tlie rock from its po¬
sition by attaching 100 horses. The
attempt failed, and Rosa, becoming
incensed, swore he would overthrow
the monster anyhow. The number of
horses was increased to 500; the rock,
however, went to the limit of its
motion and no further. The supply
of available horses being exhausted,
Rosas was on the point of using gun¬
powder to accomplish his purpose,
when his attention was drawn else¬
where by poitical events, and tho
rock of Tandil remained unmolested.
A terrible tragedy occured beside
the moving rock in 1873. A fanatic
named Sala Dios collected nearly 150
deluded followers for the purpose, as
he claimed, of making an important
revelation. Suddenly he commenced
a massacre and killed forty-one per¬
sons before he was overpowered,
He had hidden firearms in a crevice of
rock and shot women and children in¬
discriminately.— [New York World.
Daniel Boone’s Tomb.
The Moberly Democrat thus de¬
scribes scenes 15 miles from Warren-
ton, Mo.:
The scenery is as grand and beauti¬
ful as tlie castled Rhine. Immense
cliffs rear their tree-crowned heads
hundreds of feet into the clear air;
adown their sides cascades of crystal
water tumble from crag to crag; love¬
ly ferns grow from mossy banks; wild
vines embrace the gnarled trunks of
the monarchs of the forest, while
prickly pear flourishes in profusion,
and, when covered in bloom, makes
touches of color in the lovely scenes,
more worthy of an artist’s pencil than
the studies he seeks so far afi#id. One
scene alone we mention among the
many beauties, more lovely than its
name. An immense cascade which
flings its silvery spray from cliff to
cliff adown the sand-stono crags, has
formed some wonderful objects. On
the first plateau of level rock stands
an immense wash-bowl which tlio cas¬
cade has formed in its descent. Per¬
fect as though formed by the hand of
man, about 30 foot in diameter, and.
filled with water of crystal clearness,
in which can be seen sporting the sil¬
very perch. Here the cliffs close to¬
gether, making a narrow chasm, down
which the stream again falls to an¬
other plateau, and here nature lias
again formed the complement of the
bowl in an immense pitcher. It stands
about 15 or 20 feet high, complete in
form, and into the open month falls
the water from the cliff above and
then comes bubbling out and continues
its course to the bottom of the declivi¬
ty.
On tho Femine Osage still stands the
old lint occupied by Daniel Boone, and
on one of the hill tops near the
“Devil’s Wash Bowl and Pitcher,” as
it is called, was Boone’s tomb, cut in
the solid rock. The tomb is yet to be
seen, though tlie body has been re¬
moved to another resting place. Also
near here are the remains of old stone
forts, standing on the tops of four of
the highest hills, probably look out
posts of Indians and defenses of the
valley, where undoubtedly many bat¬
tles were fought, as the place is still
thickly strewn with arrows and spear
heads and battle axes. When digging
out and leveling for the Central Mis¬
souri Railroad, which will he built
near here, graves were unearthed of
an ancient race, whose customs and
habits arc unknown to anyone now
living. Tlie coffin was of potting,
made in two parts, the length of the
body to be buried, and the bones were
found in the coffin, together with tlie
tomahawks, skinning knives and ar¬
row heads.
What Became of the Globes ?
When Frederick Gerstaecker accom¬
panied the Duke of Cobnry to Eastern
Africa the incognito of his sovereign
was dropped at Cairo, where a Ger¬
man banker treated them to a dinner,
followed by an exhibition of local
talent in Arabian legerdemain. The
principal exponent of the accomplish¬
ment, after a series of preliminary ex¬
hibitions in the magical art, invited
his audience to an open terrace, and
in the piaiu light of the evening sun
flung up a number of transparent
balls. These shining globes disap¬
peared at an apparent height of about
eighty feet above the esplanade. The
globes were colorless and pellucid like
white glass, but were as light as gum,
and were repeatedly subn> itted for the
examination of the spectators. After
passing from hand to hand they were
put into an open vessel, shaped like a
short-handled dipper, and, leaning
back till his outstretched arm nearly
touched the ground, the wizard then
flung them straight up into the air,
where they could be seen for a mo¬
ment like glittering globes against the
blue sky. But no one ever saw them
come down again, though the scene of
the exhibition was surrounded by a
large, level lawn; the air seemed to
have swallowed them like globes of
dissolving vapor. A sleight-of-hand
trick was clearly out of the question,
but a more tenable explanation would
have puzzled a chemist as we 11 as an
optician.— [St. Louis Republic.
Titled Waiters in a Restaurant.
There is a swell Italian restaurant
in New York, which, it is said, has on
its staff of waiters two Italian noble¬
men and an accomplished man of let¬
ters. An Italian gentleman happened
in there one day, and found himself
served by one whom he had known as
professor of Latin in an Italian uni¬
versity. He had come to this country
in the hopes of bettering his fortunes,
only to be disappointed, and finally to
be driven to waiting on tables as the
only employment open to him. In the
saipe restaurant, he said, there was a
marquis and a count, who had been
students in the university when he was
professor there. These two scions of
noble families had come to this coun¬
try after having ruu through in dissi¬
pation what little patrimonies had
come to them, and after knocking
about from one thing to another, had
come down to their present low es¬
tate.— [Picayune.
THE BACK STREET.
Peculiarities of Seventh Avenue
in New York.
It Is One of the Queerest of
Metropolitan Thoroughfares.
1 imagine that if a small man from
a small town were to move with his
family into New York he would grav¬
itate to Seventh avenue and start a
grocery. Indeed, it must ho that such
persons, of moderate prosperity and
of much caution, coming in the past
from other countries and from other
parts of this country, have segregated
in Seventli avenue as small grocers or
petty dealers of one kind or another;
for Seventh avenue, crowded with
little shop* from its beginning in the
slums almost to Fifty-ninth street is a
series of neighborhoods, each preg¬
nant with gossip and tittle-tattle, each
dotted with doorway liobnobbings.
I went into a dozen or more shops
there the other day. As I opened
each door, a bell rang in tho back of
each house. This sometimes brought
the proprietor to view, but more often
caused a child to dart from somewhere
back to the sidewalk, and call in a
grown person from a chattering or
argumentative group. Once I conld
rouse nobody at all, and after I had
rapped loudly upon a show-case several
times, the man who kept tho shop next
door came in. He said the proprietor
had gone to get a drink, and had asked
him to watch the store. “I don’t know
the price of anything,” ho added,
“but if you do, I might sell il to you.
I guess it would be all right.” If I
had not heard the reminding rumble
of an elevated train, I should have for¬
gotten that it was New York.
The shop-keepers all have their
families at hand, and generally sev¬
eral other families also, for Seventli
avenue is almost a tenement-house
street. It is probable that it does most
of the cobbling for the west side. The
cobblers and their families live in the
basements, and you descend to them,
guided by signs at tho head of the
basement stairs. Business is so leis¬
urely that you find the cobbler asleep,
and the baby whittling his bench with
a shoe knife.
The dealers in second-hand clothing
are as numerous as the grocers. They
are hidden in behind »?’ curtain of
“pants” hung across the door. They
arc sharp at a bargain, hut seem to
expect less prices than such dealers in
other parts of the city. Second-hand
clothing shops everywhere have
a deserted air; here they seem thor¬
oughly at home.
You can get good groceries cheap
in Seventh avenue, cheaper than any¬
where else in the city, So you are not
surprised to find in the side streets
just off the avenue many boarding¬
houses where lodging and meals of a
respectable but far from luxurious
kind are to be had at very low rates.
And in these boarding-houses you find
the best class of people to whom
Seventh avenue is the outlet. Here
are clerks and shop-girls,who arc hon¬
est, and set great store by their re¬
spectability. They have little money
to spend; they are not ambitious;
they wear “Sunday clothes,” and
looked dressed up. Those who feel
called upon to be tough find it pos¬
sible to do it cheaply and noisily in
tho Seventh avenue saloons. There
are back rooms for women, where
“gents” are not allowed unaccom¬
panied by ladies, and where they may
not smoke.
But the chief life of Seventh ave¬
nue—especially in warm weather—
comes from the colored people. They
used to promenade in Sixth avenue,
which still bears a name reminiscent
of that time, but now they have de¬
serted Sixth avenue, and make Seventh
avenue gay on summer evenings with
their loud laughter and good-natured
remarks. They are the chief patrons
of the second-hand shops, as the loud
patterns of the curtains of “pants”
plainly show. You may see some
curious costumes on the streets as the
result of this patronage.
Seventh avenue goes to bed early—
earlier than any other part of the city.
After 10 o’clock the policeman has
rather a solitary time of it, except
when tlie tough clerks are out harm¬
lessly proclaiming their devilishness.
And yet Seventh avenue has been [the
scene of many murders. This is due
to tlie early quiet of it, making it a
good place for robbery with the aid of
the knife and tho sand-bag.
There were once many dangerous
saloons here, and also some notorious
concert hulls, but only a few of them
remain, and the police do not allow
them to disturb the early-slumbering
inhabitants. There are half-way out¬
breaks at the frequent balls given by
sundry “associations” of not over¬
savory characters, but neither the as¬
sociations nor the guests at the balls
belong to Seventh avenue.
As the years pass, Seventh avenue
becomes duller and duller. It seems
to he drifting altogether out of touch
with New York life. This is a neces¬
sary result, for Seventh avenue is the
only lull in tho storm—the solitary
great “back street.”—[Harper’s Weck-
iy-
The Mexican Swell on Horseback.
The Mexican swell rides on a saddle
worth a fortune. It is loaded with
silver trimmings, and hanging over it
is an expensive serape or Spanish
blanket, which adds to the magnifi¬
cence of the whole. Ilis queer-shaped
stirrups are redolent of the old mines.
His bridle is in like manner adorned
with metal in tho shape of half a doz¬
en big silver plates, and to his bit is
attached a pair of knotted red-cord
reins, which he holds high up and
loose. Ho is dressed in a black vel.
vet jacket fringed and embroidered
with silver; and a huge and expensive
hat, perched on his head, is tilted over
one ear. His legs are encased in dark
tight-fitting breeches,with silver trim¬
ming down tho side seams, but cut so
as, in summer weather, to unbutton
from the knee down and flap aside.
Ilis spurs are siiver, big and heavy
and costly, and fitted to buckle around
bis high-cut heel. Under his left log
is fastened a broad-bladed and beau¬
tiful curved sword, with a hilt worthy
a prince of the blood.
The seat of this exquisite is the
perfect pattern of a clothespin. Lean¬
ing against the cantle, he stretches
his legs forward and outward, with
heels depressed in a fashion which
reminds one of Sydney Smith’s say¬
ing that he did not object to a clergy¬
man riding, if only he rode vevy bad¬
ly and turned out his toes, It is tho
very converse of riding close to your
horse. In what it originates it is
hard to guess, unless bravado, Tho
cowboy, with an equally short seat
and long stirrups, keeps his legs
where they belong, and if his leg is
out of perpendicular, it will he so to
the rear__[Harper’s Magazine.
The Iron Horse’s Breathing.
The “breathing” of a locomotive—
that is to say, the number of puffs
given by a railway engine during its
journey—depends upon the circumfer¬
ence of its driving wheels and their
speed. No matter what their rate of
speed may be, for every one round of
the driving wheels, a locomotive will
give four puffs—two out of each cylin¬
der, tlie cylinders being double.
The sizes of driving wheels vary,
some being 18, 19, 20 and even 22 feet
in circumference, although they are
generally made of about 20 feet. The
express speed varies from 54 to 58
miles an hour.
Taking the circumference of the
driving wheel to be 20 feet and the
speed per hour 50 miles, a locomotive
will give, going at express speed, 880
puffs per minute, or 52,800 puffs per
hour,the wheel revolving 13,200 times
in 60 minutes, giving 1056 puffs per
mile.
Therefore, an express going from
London to Liverpool, a distance of
2013-4 miles, will throw out 213,048
puffs before arriving at its destina¬
tion. During the tourist season of 1888
the journey from London to Edinburgh
was accomplished in less than eight
hours, the distance being 401 miles,
giving a speed throughout of 50 miles
an hour.
A locomotive of an express train
from London to Edinburgh, subject to
the above conditions, will give 423,-
456 puffs.—[Iron.
Art and Nature.
Husband—What was that you were
playing, my dear?
Wife—Did you like it?
“It was lovely I—the melody divine,
the harmony exquisite.”
“It is the very thing I played last
evening, and you said it wus horrid.”
“Well, the steak was burnt last
evening.’’—[New York Weekly,
A Love Song.
My love is like the sea,
As changeful and as free;
Sometimes she’s angry, sometimes rough,
Yet oft she’s smooth and calm enough—
Ay, much too calm for me.
My love Is like the sky.
As distant and as high;
Perchance she's fair and kind and bright,
Perchance she’s stormy—tearful quite—
Alas! I scarce know why.
For thus I’m tempest-toss’d,
A drifting skiff at most;
l dare the waves, risk cloud aud rain
I ever tempt my fate again,
Nor care if I be lost.
HUMOROUS. ,
Somo kisses are materialized poetry.
It never pays to play with a rat-
trap.
The aimablo man doosn't always do
the most work.
Museum dwarfs should travel by the
“limited mail.”
A happy old age is the dessert of
tho dinner of life.
Some of the actresses do not draw,
but ail of them paint.
A geographical paradox: Mrs. Sippi
is the Father of Waters.
Members of a boating club should
always be true to its scullers.
Women think more of flattery than
men, but they believe less of it.
Doing nothing for others is one ol
tlie surest ways of robbing yourself.
Failures of hatters are nearly al¬
ways due to the fact that they cannot
get ahead.
There is one lucky thing about
spoiled children—we never have them
in our own family.
Some men are born great,some men
achieve greatness, and some men are
not worth a continental.
“Did you attend the obsequies of
Snip, your tailor?” “Yes, aud I never
saw Snip less obsequious.”
Mrs. K.—But are you sure that
parrot will talk? The Dealer—Cer¬
tainly, ma’am. It’s a female.
He (poetically)—Ah, who can ex¬
press the power of love? She (prac¬
tical)—It’s two donkey power.
When a young man says that he can
never love another, he means, ol
course, not for two or three weeks.
It is the unloaded guns that always
goes off at unexpected moments and
wrecks things. It is different with
men.
It is, perhaps a trifle superfluous to
say that recent failures in the sho«
trade were because of inability to foot
the bills.
Sharpson—What makes your nosa
sored? Plfiatz—It glows with pride
because it never pokes itself into other
people’s business.
“How much is Siipkins out on that
last transaction?” asked one brokor of
another. “He is out of jail,” was the
reply, “which is very lucky for him.”
Some one says: “Woman studies
man with regret; man studies woman
with amazement.” Tlie woman in this
case is evidently married and the man
is not.
“What novelty would you suggest
for my 5 o’clock tea?” asks a young
lady reader. Something substantial to
eat would be a welcome novelty to
most healthy guests.
Father—Dr. McClure seems to be a
very intelligent, well-read man. Son
■ Nonsense, governor! I talked with
him at dinner yesterday and he does
not know a thing about base ball.
Banker at (11.30 p. m.) —I can’t
say I like Spatts altogether. He goes
by fits and starts. Miss Blanche (with
a little yawn)—Well, I wouldn’t mind
a man going by fits if he did but start
finally.
“What do you call your dog?” was
the question which a policeman asked
of a very large man who was followed
by a very small pup. “I don’t gall
him ad all,” was the reply. “Ven I
vant him I vissle.”
Miss Lucy—Has Aunt Belinda made
much progress in riding, WeLlyn?
Riding Master—Well, miss, I can’t
say as ’ow she rides wery well as yet,
but she falls hoff a deal more grace¬
fully as wot she did at fust.
“And what is the trouble?” inquired
the young wife of the physician.
“Well, I don't think the case is really
bad enough for a season at tlie sea¬
shore. I think a cure may bo effected
by tho judicious application of a nice
summer hat.”
