The Columbia sentinel. (Harlem, Ga.) 1882-1924, February 18, 1886, Image 2

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{foltiinbia HAKI.F.M (H'OBUIA pvhi.ihii » k 1 //• >' mi Itnllnol «*• A. tlx. I.>•<»>*• I'BOl mtT«>K~ Pome men don’t know when thes arv wr|| off No anelent fable * >er polot«d • morel with greater effect than the ■tarry of two murderere in Missouri. They hed been eenuoced to pri« >n for life, but, being dimtiefied, obtained a ■ew trial. They will now be hanged on the lath of March, unless the governor interfere! The relative efficiency of labor in the cotton mills throughout the world can be seen by reference to the amount of cotton which different workmen will consume per year. In India the average is 3,451 pounds per operative, in Eng land 2,914 pounds, in Germany 1,200 to 1,500 pounds, and tn the I sited Staten 4,350 pounds. The cost of gathering and planting the cotton crop is computed to bo 1113,480,000, or thirty-six per cent, of its gross value at nine cents per pound. A representative of the New 5 ork Tribune has made public the fact that some of the liquor saloons of that city sell quinine pills to their patrons. A bartender who was interrogated by him on the subject said “We sell lots of quinine. If we didn’t keep it our cus tomers would go to the drugstore for their liquor as wi ll as their quinine. It would do no good to kick, so we set up tbe pills. Quinine to a certain extent acts on the system like liquor. Men who drink much or go in for any excitement, until the ordinary stimulants fail to operate on their nervous system, often take to quinine, opium or its compounds, chloral, absinthe, and so on.” According to the Hong Kong daily Press, the empress of < hina has caused a great commotion among her counselors by her liberal ideaa and her conduct. She has abated the rigor of court eti quette, has transferred her residence from the winter palace to the castle in Imperial park, t ikes boxing lessons, and does not conceal her opinion that reform in social and religious matters are needed, anil that China no longer can keep up her isolation from the rest of the world. The conservatives complain that her conduct is weakening the popu lar belief in the divine power of the im perial house, and arc confirmed in thoi r belief that a woman is untlt to rule a country. A singular sort ot fertilizer for potato fields has been introduced on a Pomera nian model farm. Hitherto herringsand potatoes have been known as a palatable dish in family households. The man agrr of the farm in question has hit upon the idea of blending them from the start, by planting his seed potatoes with a her ring placed in every heap, and with so decided a success as to cause him to in crease the area thus planted from twenty ■cres last year to sixty in the present one. The expense he calculates at about nine marks per acre, which is cheaper than the cost of any other kind of manure, and amply repays the outlay.’ Os course it can only be employed near the sea coast. Iho King of Bavaria keeps carefully out of sight, but contrives to provide matter tor more stories about his private doings than any of the vi-ible monarchs of Europe. King Ludwig's latest ec centricity is remarkable even for him; he has been photographed. During one •f his solitary walks in the Bavarian Alps ho encountered an amiable ox, wbieh barred tho way and refused to ■How his majesty to pass, Eor a bovine subject to make himself so unpleasantly conspicuous was not to bo endured; w herefore the king seize I a p'nnk whieh happened to be at hand, and. placing himself in a position of attack, as with a bayonet,he prepared to charge. Then, ot course, the surly ox sheered off and allowed the King to pass, and he was so pleased with his own exploit that he had himself photographed in the at titude of charging. General Brisbin recently visited the Rosebud Indian agency to witness an is sue of Uncle Sam's beef to the red chil dren of tho prairie lie found that the beef was issued on the hoof, and tho braves were armed with rejieating titles and revolvers to do the butchering. First one young warrior would shoot a born off, then another would break a leg. and so on The peer animal would be tortured by slow degrees, his death being put off as long as possible s > the sport might lut longer. "And this was the government of the I'nited States met ho-1 of issuing beef to its Indians, encourag ng them to lie barbarous and cruel, making a gala dar of its meat is sue. and giving tbe young warriors a .•Lance t > learn toehoot w, and ride well, s> that they can kill my soldiers more readily and kill citizen- better if •uiey should go to war.” I'avxr rails are made in Russia. Th< v are longer than ordinary rails, and said to have a greater adbesivensw- ui contact with locomotive wheels. ' The little country of Belgium has <BO persons to tbe square mile, or three to every lour acres. That is, four acres are made to support three persons. If the I nited States were equally crowded the population wou d be 1,050,000,000, or more than the popti ation of the whole world. One acre perfectly well culti vated can easily support one person. It is pos-ible to produce sixty bushels of wheat on one acre, and this is equivalent to the whole support of at least two persons. It is simply a matter of calcu lation and management. Belgium shows what can lie done And it is well done, for we do not hear of distress in that busv country, nor of paupers, nor of a rush of dissatisfied Belgians crowding away to better theii condition. It .-hows that high farming and excellent cultiva tion of the soil are profitable, and may be taken as one of the facts that proved this to be a settled principle of agricul tural economy. Doctor Sutro, of London, celebrated for his knowledge of nervous diseases, said to a Herald correspondent, while talking of the treatment of hydrophobia “I have never known a case cured where symptoms of hydrophobia had appeared, however slight or intermittent. lam inclined to believe that M. Pasteur is right and hope England and America will send doctors to study his method. The reported death of a little girl after inoculation under him proves nothing adverse to M. Pasteur, it thirty six days had elapsed before his treatment began. People can't do better than try M. Pas tuer. Ills inoculation is harmless and it may do good. Cauterization will best prevent hydrophobia, but it must be thorough, so that the part bitten may be absolutely destroyed. This is best done, I have found, with fuming nitric acid. A hot iron might only destroy the sur face. Nitrate of silver, in my opinion, is utterly useless. Commenting upon the vast fortune left by the late V. . 11. Vanderbilt, the Chicago Herald says: "Two hundred millions! What are they? Who can compute their power for good or evil? Who can imagine them in a single pile or grasp the responsibilities involved in their possession? Two hundred millions are one tenth of the national debt at its greatest figure. They are more by $20,- 000 than the entire customs revenues of tho United States, and they are con siderably in excess of one-half of the cn I tire revenue of tho republic from all I sources. They would support the United States army of 25,000 men for five years, pay tho 250,000 pensioners for three years, run the naval establish ment for ten years, build a double track from New York to San Francisco, and give every man, woman and child ,in the Unite 1 States fl. Five per cent interest on them would yield an income of $10,000,000 per annum, enough to support every charitable institution in America not of a public nature, to build asylums and hospitals for the world in fifty years, to educate, feed and c.lothe the deserving poor forever, and to make | such a thing as a slum unknown in any city of the republic. Tho man who con trols a fortune like that is not to be en vied unless he does some good with it.” Pasteur's method of preventing hydro phobia is by inoculation, not by vaccina tion. The former process produces the genuine malady in a mild and innocuous form , the latter employs one malady to antagonize and ba'lle a more serious one. Thus cow pox is employed to ward oil small pox. In a recent chat with a cor respondent M. Pasteur described his ex periments and their results as follows. "1 began my experiments in 1382 in this way I took a portion of the spinal cord i of a dog which had died of hydrophobia and with that 1 inoculated a rabbit in tho first membrane of the brain. It went mad in fifteen days. Then with a por tion of the spinal cord of this rabbit I inoculated another rabbit in the same way, and it went mad in thirteen days, and soon. 1 continued inoculations from ,abbit to rabbit, finding the strength of the virus increase each time until the ninetieth time produced hydrophybia in only seven days. 1 then took very small portions of the spina! cord of this nine tieth rabbit, and which contained the greatest virulence yet obtained, and I suspended these bits of virus in empty bottles, in which the air was kept very dry by means of potash on the bottom of the bottle. After several days’ exposure in a dry, cold temperature the virus loses all its strength. The time required for this loss depends on the size of tho piece aid the dryness and coldness of i the sir. Th nos this virus which has lost its strength I take a small portion dissolved in sterile bouillon, and with a prava-syringe I innoculate the animal. Each day I innoculate it again with virus, jus; a little stronger each titn® until at last the system ins become so accustomed to the poison that I can use the virus which had not been dried at all and which wcuhl produce hydrophobia ir ven days if th system had not been so tn-a.ed to it by degrees. I have treated one hundred degs in this way, and not one has become mad.” Epaphnis Hinsdale was the first manu facturer of jewelry in the United States. He commenced b ■■ at Newark N ( J., about 1708. SMALLPOX A lliatorv •! tbe Dread Dlueaae Pre ▼ration by V aeclnatiun The srna lpox is believed to have pre vai ed more or lesa in Eastern rountrict from the earliest ages, but its early his tory is shrouded in obscurity. Some have thought that "the plague of boils and blains" recorded in the Bible had reference to thia disease. Certain men tion of epidemics in the Greek writings may, >t is thought, refer to the small pox ; and the deadly plague in France in the sixth century, described by Gregory de Tours, is believed by some writers to have been this disease. But though the small-pox was known long before in the Orient, there is no unmistakable record of its appearance in Europe until it was brought thither by the Saracens about the year 710. And it is the more prob able that this was the first appearance of the disease because it has never been wholly absent from European countries since. From Spain it went all over Eu rope, sparing for a time certain isolated countries, such as Denmark, where it first appeared in 1527. It was carried to the West Indies in 1517 by the adventurers seeking to profit by the discovery of the New World. It reached Mexico in 1520. and Brazil in 1583. Farther north it first appeared in .Maryland, having been brought there by an English ship in the early part of tne seventeenth century. Thence it made its way through the other colonies. From the time of its first appearance un til its ravages began to be checked, first by inoculation and then by the milder and safer process of vaccination, it con tinued its course as a deadly pestilence, nearly always and everywhere present, though not continuously active and sparing neither age, sex, condition, nor nationality, no one being safe from it except by having previously passed through its perils. From very early times the Chinese followed the practice of procuring this exemption by inocu lating with the disease, that is, convey ing it intentionally by introduction of the contagious material into tbe sys tem of persons in health. The inocu lated disease was found to have a milder and shorter course than the natural con tagious small pox. and showing a mor tality of less than one per cent, while the other ranged from ten per cent, in its mildest to 60 per cent, and higher in its malignant form. The inoculation process found its way from the Orient into Europe byway of Constantinople, where it was openly introduced in the year 1701. The first inoculation in Eng land was performed in 1722, on the daughter of Lady Mary Wortley Mon tague, wife of the British embassador to Constantinople. It was violently op posed at first, but gradually came into extensive practice and was also adopted in Conti- nental countries. In America it was first practiced in 1621 by Dr. Boylston, of Boston. Inoculation, however, though it served as a protection against the more fatal form of the disease, yet was an ob jectional pro ess, as the contagion of the disease was in no way lessened, and it thus became more widely spread. But in the year 1798 the process of vaccina tion, or inoculating with the cow-pox, was shown by Dr. Jenner to be a thor ough protection against smallpox, and this method has since been used. It has proved an incalculable benefit to the hu man race. Smallpox, unchecked by vaccination, was tho most fatal of the zymotic diseases. With the aid of this practice, however, not only has its mor- i tality been greatly lessened, but the dis ease can now be to a great extent con trolled and even prevented. It is diffi cult to describe the symptoms of this disease so that an inexperienced person can recognize them. One who has seen one case, however, cannot fail to know another instantly. Whenever there is the least suspicion that there has been exposure to infection, a physician should be consulted. The initial stage of the disease is usually ushered in by a violent chill, followed by a high fever, attended with vomiting and severe pains in the head and back. With a child, convul sions usually attend this stage. The eruptive stage is marked by the appear ance of little red elevations of the skin, which come first upon the head and face, and alter a few hours begin to appear on the body and limbs, These feel at first like little hard seeds under the skin, and by this characteristic may be known from eruptions of any other kind.— Chicago Inter-Ocean. Fat Men. To the student of ethnology few things are more interesting than the different views held by the eastern and the west ern worlds 011 the subject of corpulence. In China corpulence is considered to be one of the most important qualifications for the bolding of any public office. It is regarded as a physical virtue, which imparts dignity to the appearance, weight tothe judgment and solidity to the mind. In China the thin man is always moody and disappointed ; he sees himself easily outstripped in the race of life by his stouter contemporaries, and, enraged at the unjust distribution of nature's gifts, he retires usually into obscurity and shuns the gaze of his fellow-citizens. Banting, except as a punishment for grea criminals, is unknown in China. The most popular gods in the Chinese Pantheon are those remarkable for their obesity. With us in Europe how dif ferent it is! Daniel Lambert, whom the Chinese would have sent to a province as a mandarin, we sent to a museum as a monstrosity. Byron’s tendency to grow fat was one of the secrets of his melan choly, and the declining years of tbe first gentleman in Europe were rendered miserable by that stoutness which even stays could not conceal. It is true that Shakespeare intended Hamlet to be fat, feeling probably that it would be charac’. teristic of such a lethargic nature, but modern audiences are not ready to ac cept fat Hamlets; they prefer thin Ham lets. and even lean hamlets, and seem to be of opinion that there is an artistic discord between romance and rotundity. And indeed it cannot be doubted that this opinion is very widespread. The only in-lance to the contrary that we know of is in the case of a ladv who, on being shown the Apollo Belvidere, re marked that she preferred “stouter lUtues,” but this lady w a s from Chicago, ind the idea of making bulk the test of beauty is one purely American and is not as yet accepted in European wsthetics. Pali Mail if alette. Signal icexenge. Thirty-six years ago occurred the bat tle of (. hillianwallah. at which the Eng lish ran an appallingly narrow chance of | being defeated by the courageous I Sikhs opposed to them. Though Eng ! land did gain the day, it was only by an enormous expenditure of brave men a lives. A commemoration pillar is erected Ito their memory, in the garden of the : Chelsea hospital. This battle, however, one of the se verest ever fought by the British on the soil of India, is also noteworthy because of the shadow of misfortune and dis i grace overhanging it. The fourteenth regiment of dragoons, in the midst of ( the engagement, suddenly turned in re treat, and nearly caused a panic in the army. Its commander. Captain King, overc 'me by shame, aftei ward committed suicide. Previous to his death he repeatedly de dared that he gave no order for retreat, and knew no reason why his troops should have fled. But the order was heard by many officers and men. and the captain’s word was not believed. Public opinion gave a verdict of cowardice against him. The circumstances of the battle have, however, been recently revived,and new evidence has come in, which, if true, frees both officer and men from the worst charge which can be preferred against j soldiers. In the regiment, says this ex onerating voice, was a private who, for some reason, bore a grudge against his colonel. Though he had sought for an opportunity of taking revenge, none had presented itself. But tbe man was a ventriloquist; and at last his chance came. On the day of the battle, at the critical moment, when it was infamy to take one backward step, the ventrilo quist threw his voice close to the colonel ’ and cal ed : “Threes about!” It was the signal for retreat. The regiment was a model of discipline, and had always obeyed as one man. It did Iso now with fatal promptitude, and, in the melee of the battlefield, its retreat was soon converted into helter-skilter flight. The soldier had avenged his wrong at the expense of his comrade's honor, and at the risk of defeat to his country’s flag.— Youth's Companion. A D.me Museum Curiosity. If the reader is more than forty years old, and as a youth used to hear the popular lectures of that period, writes a New York correspondent of tbe Cincin nati Enquirer, he may be able to recall Pro fessor Herschell Leander Corwin, whose themes and forehead were so high that ue impressed his younger auditors stupen dously, and was in great favor with the ministers and others who desired the in tellectual culture of their communities. Well, I recognized him on sight in the Bowery this week, although his hair was white and his step uneiastic. His dig nity was all there, snugly buttoned into a coat less tine than of yore, and his big head was up. On his arm hung a small woman, who hobbled along laboriously, with the support of him and a cane. The couple entered a dime musem, and I curiously followed. But inside I lost them, and was about to depart when the ringing of a gong announced that the afternoon's half hourly lectures on the curiosities was to begin. The orator was none other than the venerabie Professor Herschell Leander Corwin, and the first subject of his deep bass, solemn lying was the woman who had come in with him, and who was his wife, as I subse quently learned. She was deformed by an absence of knee pans, and therefore her legs could be flexed forward as well as backward. That enabled her to as sume the position and nearly the gait of a four-footed brute. Costumed in shaggy cloth, with her lang hair disheveled, muttering a jargon and walking on her hands and feet, she quite satisfied the spectators, who was assured by the pro fessor that she was a wild what is it, caught in the marshes of Florida. “This is something of a departure from the old subjects,” I said to him af terward, “No, no, sir,” he replied, with dignity unabated; “natural science has ever been mv study, and I am still in the field.” ' A Curious Phase of City Life. “I fancy we loose five pounds of tea and coffee every day by people who are passing by dipping their hands into tho open boxes at the doors and taking out what they cal' ‘samples’’ ” said a Vesey street grocer. "Os course, the boxes are put there for that purpose, and we cannot very well complain, and most of the persons who take the goods, no doubt, merely want to test their quality, but you would ;te surprised to learn how many mothers of families keep their households supplied with tea, coffee and sugar, too, just in that economical way. They take a little out of every box thev pass, pretend to taste it, shake their heads and slip it into their pockets. Now, watch this old woman. I know her face well. She lays in her stores about twice a week,” The old woman in question tested the grocer’s tea, and acted afterward exactly as he described. Then she went to another grocery store a little further down the street and re peated the performance. “It is not so easy to take sugar, as only a little can be grasped at once, and more stores are to be visited, but they manage to do it,’ 1 the grocer added.— New York Sun. Don’t Kick. Here's a piece of advice I'll give to ■ yc bub, Old man, old woman or chick. No matter what comes, no matter wha? goes, Don't permit yourself ever to kick. If the world, as it gravely goes jogging along. Throws tho thorns in your path, fast and thick, Dodge all that yeu can, and step on the rest, Bat ot all things, I pray you, don’t kick. If you throw yourself into political strife, And get hit with a political brick, You will show your good sense bv holding your jaw, And" never once making a kick. If you play for a winning and draw out a blank. And some other chap makes the thing stick. 6 Just swa’low the dose like a good little man. And, for heaven's sake, don’t make a kick Take things as they come, they’ll be right in the end, If you're hungry, rich, beggar, or sick. You'll only be wasting vour valuable time if y®ti use it in making a kick. I Bort Wood, in Sin Francisco Post fISE WORM: The man who never excites eavy n vei nW!?:®*® but to his behavior in them. Three are three things in speech that ou ’ht to be considered before they are spokem—-the manner, the place and the '"we should not too much rejoice in hone if we would enjoy in reality, for the m”st agreeable pleasures in general are those that we have least expected. Aversion from reproof is not wise; it i. th,- mark of a little tnind. A great man can affordto lose; a little insignifi cant fellow is afraid of being snuffed ° U iiere thou art but a stranger traveling to thy country ; it is therefore a huge folly to be afflicted because thou hast a less convenient inn to lodge in y Character is made up of little things, and it is only through constant watch fulness over the details of right and wrong that we can hope to build .t into fair or enduring proportions. An unchanging state of joy is not possible on earth as it now is, tecame evil and error are here. The soul must have its midnight hour as well as its sunlit seasons of joy and gladness. Strive, well improving your own talent, to enrich your whole capital as a man. It is in this way that you escape from the wretched narrow mindedness which is the characteristic of every one who cultivates his specialties alone. A Petite Woman’s “Nice Little Lunch.” She was a rather petite and attractive woman, with an air that indicated French descent, fashionably dressed,and the picture of periect health. It was about 1 o clock, and the restaurant was fairlv well crowded. It was at one of “Jimmy’s” tables, opposite the narrator, that she found a vacant chair. H-iving disposed of her wrap, she removed her gloves and displayed a collection of diamond rings, that, at least, gave evi dence of poor taste. Turning toward the diminutive Jimmy she chirped sweetly: “I want a real nice little lunch. Can you give me one?” Jimmy’s only reply was to hand her a bill of fare, bhe studied it a moment and said: “First, you may bring me some clam chowder.” She didn’t look like a clam chowder woman, but rather resembled one who would toy with a small portion of Ju lienne. Appearances are sometimes de ceitful. When the clam chowder came she prepared for business, however and added, tc complete her “nice little lunch:” “You may bring me some rare roast beef, boiled potatoes, and some sliced tomatoes.” She had laid aside the bill of fare. The waiter started to give her order. “Oh, waiter,” she then added, “you may bring me some chicken pie too, on a side dish you know.” It was strange how that woman seemed to grow while she ate the chowder and to evolve from a sort of French chrysal lis into a grub ot the English matron order. When the waiter appeared with a loaded tray the chowder had entirely disappeared. Iler “nice little lunch” made up a formidable sort of dinner for an average man . To her it was a trifle. She smiled as sweetly is such a woman could, and said: "1 see you have partridge. You may give me half of one broiled, on toast, and a dish of green peas.” Great Scott! That woman had grown absolutely formidable. It was notice able, too, that she had rings on but three fingers of that flashing left hand. The thumb and that little finger seemed to need some. The beef and chicken pie, and partridge and vegitables disposed of she calmly remarked: “Now, what can you recommend for a nice dessert?” But before the waiter could reply she said: “Baked apple dumpling; ah! that will do nicely.” The apple dumpling was brought, cut open by the seeker for a “nice tittle lunch,” buttered and sugared, and sent back to the kitchen to be brought back steaming hot, with “a large cup of black coffee.” And the woman actually ate the dumpling and drank the coffee, and then complacently remarked: “That was a very nice lunch. Please give me my bill.” “That “lunch” had actually seemed to make the petite and spirituellc woman who came into the restaurant developed into a sort of combination of the giantess Anna Swan an I the fat woman Hannah Battersby. As she moved away from the table it didn’t seem as if she could ever leave the place byway of the small door by which she had entered. Per haps it was only imagination about her having grown so rapidly while eating that “nice little lunch.” She certainly left the place bv the same door at which she had entered it. New York Times. Dynamite in a Watch. Herr Hager, the wealthy German banker, is the most punctual 'man in the world, and always carries a couple of chronometers about with him. Thanks to this habit he is a frequent victim to pickpockets, as not a week passes with out his losing one of his watches. At first he had recourse to all kinds of safety chains; then one fine morning he took no precaution whatever, and quietly allowed himself to be robbed. At night, m returning from business, he took up the evening paper, when he uttered an exclamation of delight, and at once started off to the police station. This is what he had read: “To-day, about 2 p. m. , a violent explosion took place in a house on B street, occupied by Mr. 8 , a wealthy townsman. The hands of the victim are shattered and the left eye gone.” The crafty banker had filled the watchcase with' dynamite, which exploded during the operation of wind ing. Since that time no more watches have been stolen from tbe person of Herr Hager. Easiness. There was a man once on a time who thought him wondrous wise, ° He swore by all tbe fabled gods he’d never advertise; But the goods were advertised ere long, and thereby hangs the tale— ‘SWffrTsaie.. nonparei1 ’ and headed —Salam GareUo. SELECT SIFTINGS The petrified skeleton of a ~I over thirty feet long has been discover? I by an officer of the coast survey 0/ fl range of mountains in Monterey count;' I Cal., over 3,300 feet above sea level. '' ■ There seems to have been a preji 1( p..8 from time immemorial against 'im.bu'B in March, and according to a Ge r!lla ’B saying, it were better to be bitten l>- .B an’akc than to feel the sun in March B In Whitney’s creek. Inyo county, p a | I are found the celebrated golden’ tro';-' I They average twelve inches in | ea l and are of slenderer make than comni,, l brook trout. Down each side arc tw,B bright golden bands, each a little than an inch wide. The Indians of Mexico illumine ffi,>: r B path by night with a pliosphorescw B insect which is f-.; more brilliant th;;- B our fire fly. They feed their lights,-. I sugar-cane instead of from the kens.'njß oilcan, and increase their bril i mey ]„ I dipping them in water. These ir,,- ( . c: , ■ are said to afford light enough to re a ,j I by. The state coaches of the lord mayor «(B London and of Queen \ ictoria are aearlt » coeval. The latter dates from 1762, ;h'j fl third year of George 111. It wasaboatß 1712 that the lord mayor first used a k state coach, on November!). The first fl coach lasted till 1757, when the one now fl in i:se was built by sul scriptiou and pre fl sented to him. It is very similar to tlefl queen’s. “The Tineida epigraph,” writes Al.■ phonse Karr, “is the smallest of al! ■ moths, being two lines wide when its ■ wings are outspread; but how mag ■ nificently it is attired! It is robed it ■ gold and silver, and on the silvery gauze I of its upper wings is traced, in letters 0! ■ gold, an inscription which no one has I vet succeeded in deciphering, though !■ fancy I can read it thus: Maximus in ■ minimis Deus (God is geatest in His I smallest works.)” In ancient times cobblers made shoes ■ out of hides, flax, silk, cloth, wood, iron, ■ silver and gold ; and in great variety of I shapes, plain and ornamental. In the « eleventh century the upper part of the B shoe was made of leather, and the sole of 3 wood. The Saxons wore shoes with thongs. In the year 1090, in the reign I of William Rufus, the great dandy Rob- i ert was called “the horned,” because he < wore shoes with long points, stuffed, 5 turned up, and twisted like horns. The clergy waged war upon this fashion until it was discontinued. The superstitions about numbers have x quaint interest. Ten is the luck, number of the East. Solyman the Mag nificent was called the “perfecter of the perfect number,” because he was the tenth sultan, and he lived in the tenth century after the prophet. He captured Belgrade in 1521, Rhodes in 1522, de seated the Hungarians at Mohacsin 1526, snd captured Buda in 1529. Under bis reign the Turkish empire reached its greatest expansion and its highest pitch ! of prosperity. The most popular num ber among Aryan nations is seven. Sin- . gularly enough it is also the lucky num ber of the Japanese. The most import- 1 ant day of the calendar of old Japan is ' the seventh day of the seventh month (July.) It is the day for the children's merrymaking, like our Christmas. The Japanese have also seven patrons of hap piness—long life, riches, daily food,con tentment, talents, glory and love. Five Millions in a Bag. John I. Blair, of Blairstown N. J . is a man of very large wealth and of very original methods. Many years ago, it is told of him, he was a partner of John B. Alley, another millionaire. They disagreed and separated. Some time afterward Alley sued him for some thing like two and a half millions. When the trial day came Mr. Blair was not ready for some reason and he wanted a postponment. There was a battalion of lawyers in the case and a great deal of quibbling ensued. The court finally decided to grant the motion, but stipu lated that a bond of double the am ' mt of the alleged claim should be filed. “The bond required will be $5,000,000, understand?” said Mr. Blair, when that point had been reached. The opposing counsel were quick to assure him that he had not overstated the amount. “I expected there would be something of the kind necessary,” said Mr. Blair quietly, “and so I brought this along. "This” proved to be a black bag. which he had laid down on the floor near his chair when he came into court He opened it, and stepping up to the bench took from it and spread before the judge $5,000,000 in government bonds. “These will answer, I suppose?” he inquired. After the judge recovered from his amazement he said he believed they would. “But,” he continued, “I make you custodian of them with the distinct understanding that none of them shall be used while it is' a part of the bond.” “Your honor need have nn fear on that score.” Mr. Blair responded, reas suringly. “I only brought in a few this morning for this purpose. These are some that I will have no use for while this matter is pending.” It was some time after the miliionatr had left the court room before tbe nesses of the scene recovered from the stupor produced by the display of s i:'■ princely wealth in such a mattcr-of-fac' fashion. Chicago Netcs. That Great Chinese City. There is an air of decay about Pekin which extends even to its temples. Tae number of its population is not accu rately known, but according to a Chinese estimate, which is probably in excess, it i 51,300,000, cf whom 900,000 reside in the Tartar and 400,000 in the Chinese city. There is no direct foreign trade with Pekin, and the small foreign pop ulation is made up of the members of the various legations, the maritime cus tomers, the professors at the college and the missionary body. In August, 1881. it was brought in direct communication with the rest of the world by a telegraph overland to Tien Tain. The estimated population of China is 405,213,152, or 263 souls per square mile throughout China proper.— Baltimore American. Red lamps in the Scotch cities indi cate at night that drop letter boxes ar® attached to the posts.