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KNOXVILLE JOURNAL. KNOXVILLE, GEORGIA. An American has wagered $500 in London that he can carry a German flag over the highways of France for 200 miles and not even be insulted. He may, observed the New York Graphic, pos¬ sibly get forty rods from the starting point before having the top of his head knocked off. The new Orphan’s Home at San Diego, Cal., promises to be one of the most im¬ portant and best-endowed charitable in¬ stitutions in the Union. In addition to the Home proper there will be an educa¬ tional and technical school. Four cit¬ izens of San Diego have subscribed $2, 000,000, and the city has given 100 acres of land in the city limits, worth nearlv £ 1 , 000 , 000 . Spain is the place for electricians just new. The government has decreed that all the theatres in the kingdom shall adopt the electric light within six months. Experts say that danger is in this wholesale edict, for there are not men and material in the country to do the work in the required time, and if there should be a general influx of elec¬ tricians, the work is likely to be too hastily done to be safe. The French have discovered an an nexable island in the Pacific, declares the New A'ork Time , and have straight¬ way proceeded to annex it. Their ac¬ quisition is Raratonga, which has an area of possibly fifty square miles. It is more of an island than some recent British annexations, since it at least can and does support a population of several thousand natives, who live in those set¬ tlements. Raratonga is a leading island of the Cook or Hervey group, made very well known to the world through the successful labors of missionaries, who have converted a great part of the people to Christianity. The Mexican paper, Diario del Eogar, tells of a large railroad contract for the construction of a road by an English syndicate, from Esperanza to Oaxaca, which was signed a few days since in the City of Mexico by General Pacheco, representing the Mexico government, and Mr. Louis Pombo, as representative of the syndicate, by which the govern¬ ment guarantees to the company 8 per cent per annum of the net proceeds on the capital invested in the building of the road for a term of fifteen years; the total proceeds from the stamp revenue of the State of Oaxaca to be appropriated to this purpose, as also 3 per cent of all the customhouse collections throughout the entire republic. The Charleston News ami Courier claims that Claflin University, located at Orangeburg, S. C., is the model univer¬ sity of the South for colored people. There were 10,003 people at the recent commencement exercises. The Univer¬ sity has seventeen teachers, fourteen superintendents and 940 students. It ex¬ ceeds in size the famous school at Hamp¬ ton, Ya. More than five hundred students actually pay for their own education by the work of their hands. In the curricu¬ lum are six courses of study, with in¬ struction in nine different industries, rep¬ resented by nine special schools of agri¬ culture, carpentry and cabinet-making, printing, tailoring, shoemaking, paint’ng and graining, blacksmithing, merchan¬ dising and domestic economy. The University was founded by Air. Claflin, of Boston, but it is upheld by South Carolina, which gives it both financial and moral support. QUAINT SANTA FE. OBJECTS OF INTEREST IN AN OLD MEXICAN TOWN. Old Adobe Structures Erected Be¬ fore America’s Discovery—The Remarkable Santa Fe Trail— Spanish Chiefly Spoken. An Atlanta Constitution correspondent sends the following graphic pen picture of Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico: When old St. Augustine, down in Florida, was but a barren stretch of sand and Melendez was a child, Santa Fe.wasatown of considerable import¬ ance, had although the face of a white man never been seen by any of the in¬ habitants. There are now standing some of the adobe structu.es that were erected here long before Christopher Columbus was born, and, if the stories of the old priests are to be believed, the church of San Miguel was built before Ferdinand and Isabella ascended the Spanish throne. When the Spaniards eame here, in 1582, they found a town of four or five hundred inhabitants, which was then, to all appearances, several centuries old. Its altitude—0862 feet— assured an equable climate the year through, had and the Indians who built the town cultivated the plateau on which the city now s ands, and made it fertile as well as beauti ful. As a rule, the North American Indians were nomads, but the Zuni, Moqui and Pueblo tribes were more domestic in their habits, and they built the first villages on the NorthAmeri can continent. It is supposed that the Zunis built Santa Fe and gave it the name Pueblo, meaning “a settlement.” From this the residents were called Pueblos, after a while taking this name body to distinguish them-elves from the main of Zunis, who had moved north¬ ward and founded the towns of Moqui, Trinidad and Pueblo—the two latter in Colorado. Between these Indian villages were well beaten bridle paths, the un¬ them erring instinct find of the Indir as having led to the shortest and easiest route through the Ricky Mountains, be¬ tween Raton and Trinidad. When the Spaniards came here, in 1582, they were greatly astonished to find a large adobe structure—used by the Zunis for a coun¬ cil chamber—and they straightway pro¬ ceeded to turn it into a church, calling it San Miguel. This is the building which still stands, and which is believed to be the oldest structure in the United States. In 1680 the Indians came to the con¬ clusion that the Spaniards, who had changed seized the name of their city and had their council chamber and turned it into a church, were a sort of nuisance, and they rose in rebellion against further innovations. Finally, they masacred hands every Spaniard whom they could lay upon, burned the church saints in the plaza, forbade the use of the Spanish they language, had been put aside the wives to whom married by Catholic rites and washed themselves in the river to purify themselves from the baptism of the church. In 1692 the Spaniards re¬ captured they the town, and since that time have had things pretty much their own way. To-day the city has a popula¬ tion of 6500, of whom 5500 are Mexicans, many of whom do not understand a word of English. It is the only city of its size in this country without a steam en gine in its limits. There are but few frame buildings—everything is adobe. The adobe house, or “doby,” as it is called, but is familiar to all Western tourists, it is seen at its very best here, The wealthiest people live in structures which, from the outside, seem scarcely habitable, but within are cosy and, in many instances, luxurious. Judge Thornton, a wealthy mine owner, has a “doby” house near the plaza, or public square. In the center of the building is a square court yard, filled with magnifi¬ cent flowers, with a fountain in the center. The doors of each apartment in the house open on the wide veranda which runs around the court-yard, and the effect is very charming. The walls of the building are nearly three feet in thickness, giving opportunity for deep, cushioned window seats. These thick walls keep out cold in winter and heat in the summer, and there are, therefore, but two fire-places in the whole house— for use in the event of extraordinary severe weather. The decorations of the lanta’s dwelling are such as one finds in At¬ l’eachtree street homes—beauti¬ ful pictures and statuary, imported car pets and rugs, rare bric-a-brac and pot¬ teries—everything this that money can buy. Of course, all makes the change from the outside atmosphere of squalor the more marked. Judge Thornton’s home is but the type of hundreds of others owned by wealthy Spaniards, Mexicans or Americans, who have settled here because of this incomparable climate. Reference has been made to the old church of San Miguel. Here is to be seen the bell cast in 1550, brought to Mexico by Cortez and transported hither by Indian slaves from the City of Mexico after Montezuma’s power was no more. Three of the altar pieces are over seven hundred years old and were painted in Barcelona and sent hither through the officers of the cliur: h in Mexico. From the door of 8an Miguel starts the path to Trinidad, hundreds of miles away; the trail which so astonished the Spaniards, away back in 1582 and which, as late as 1848, astounded the civil engineers who surveyed it and gave it the name it has since borne—the Santa Fe trail. Antiquarians tell us that the Santa Fe trail is one of the most remarkable pieces of engineering of primeval origin. It runs in the most direct possible line to Trinidad and thence to Pueblo, near Den¬ ver. have been Through the mountains the grades chosen with such skill that, notwithstanding hundred the fact that more than two surveys have been made by competent engineers to find a better route, no one has yet been abie to find an easier grade through the Rocky Mountains than was located by these nomads hundreds and hundreds of years ago. The line is so direct that “the old Santa Fe trail” has been followed closely in the build¬ ing of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa. Fe railroad, from Kansas City to the far West. Colonel A. B. Steele, an archeologist of repute, says of the Santa Fe trail: “When you see the old road from the car windows you may reflect that you are historic looking upon the unused paths of pre¬ wanderers. The roads that lead to the Mecca, the sand-drifted highways of Sahara, the very footsteps of Christ, are not more ancient.” The old trail is plainly visible, since it was the only route for years to the Paciiic coast and soon became a broad well-worn road, with stage houses at intervals and civili¬ zation wherever such a thing was pos¬ sible. The Governor’s palace, a long adobe structure, a couple of hundred or more years old, contains the territorial offices and many choice relics, and, in addition to this, there are two free museums and curiosity shops by the score. The city surrounds a piazza (pronounced plat-za) a large and square fenced in and covered with grass trees. There is no architect tural beauty except in the capitol, a new yet rather building of brick and granite, as bare looking. The territorial legislature is composed principally of men whose parents are Mexican, and the almost universal language is Spanish, all of which tends to make one forget he is still in the United States. a__________La. i —--—L The Cocaine Habit. Dr. C. F. Belcher, of St. Louis, in an interview in Chicago recently, said: The cocaine habit is now as regularly an have accepted disease as phthisis or gout. We in St. Louis more than a dozen cases of it—men and women who have let this fatal drng get the mastery of them, and who have been completely wrecked by its effects. One of our phy¬ sicians is among the number—one of the brightest men in the profession. He is now for this in an habit. insane asylum being treated Cocaine is worse than alcohol and opium put together. It robs a man of his will power from the start, and changes him into a drunken beast after the first exhilaration passes away. I do not know of any drug which seems to attack so severely man’s moral side. The cocaine user becomes a villain as naturally sleep. as a chloroformed man goes to He loses his sense of right and wrong and is violent, passionate and brutal. The effect is the same in both sexes. I have studied cases enough to know that cocaine must affect that part of the brain, where if there is such a localization, what we call man’s moral quali¬ ties abide. Extermination of the Birds. The birds of the Florida coast are fast plume disappearing hunters. before There the is guns of the scarcity of the American an especial heron, great Louisiana egret, the snowy the hen, the reddish egret, Ward’s heron, and the little blue heron, Biids that were com¬ mon at Fort Ogden a year and a half ago are no more to be met with. The past dry season has enabled the merciless pine hunter of the border to penetrate dry shod into the former impenetrable re¬ treat of the birds ,—Savannah News, HOW IT HAPPENED. I got to thinkin' of her—both her parents dead and gone— And all her sisters married off, and none but her and John A-livin’ all alone there in that lonesome sort o’ way, And him a blame old bachelor, confirmder ev’ry day! I’d knowed ’em all from children, and their daddy from the time He settled in the neighborhood, and hadn’t ary a dime Er dollar, when he married, fer to start houselceepin’ on!— So I got to thinkin’ of her—both her parents dead and gouel I got to thinkin’ of her, and a wundern what she done That all her sisters kep’ a-gettin’ married, one by one. And her withont no chances—and the best girl of the pack— An old maid with her hands, you might say,, tied behind her back! And mother, too, afore she died, she ust to jes’ take on, When none of’em was left, you know, but. Evaline and John, And jes’ declare to goodness ’at the young men must be bline To not see what a wife they’d git, if they got; Evaliue! I got to thinkin' of her; in my great afflic¬ tion she Was sich a comfort to us, and so kind and neighborly— She’d come, and leave her housework, for tor help out little Jane, And talk of her own mother ’at she’d never see again— Maybe sometimes cry together—though, for the moat part, she Would have the child so riconciled and happy like, ’at we Felt lonesomer’n ever when she’d put her bonnet on And say she’d railly haf to be a-gittin’ back. to John! I got to thinkin’ of her, as I say—and more and more I’d think of her dependence, and the burdens; ’at she bore— Her parents both a-bein’ dead, and all her sisters gone And married off, and her a-livin’ there alone with John— You might say jes’ a-toilin’ and a-slavin’ out her life Fer a man ’at hadn’t pride enough to get. hisse’f a wife— ’Less some one married Evaline and packed: her off some day— So I got to thinkin’ of her—and it happened: thataway. James Whitcomb Riley. PITH ANDPOWr. Vein expectations—prospecting ior gold. A foot-note—“Please use the door¬ mat.” Marked intelligence—A ? rofessor with-, a black eye. That things are mixed up slightly When Everybody * beet” konws, the a ‘live in garden Of a “deadbeat” grows. —Dansville Breeze. “All roads lead to roam,” remarked a Budget. tramp, studying a guide board.— Boston A law prohibiting the intemperate hoarding of wealth might prevent money from becoming tight. A cradle in a house may or may not be girl’s a boycot. It is just as likely to be a nest.— Picayune. Bride—“Give me a kiss, Harry?”' will Harry—“No; that I cannot do; but I loan you one—if you will return it.” - — Tidbits. The Empress of Japan is taking lessons on the piano. The Mikado’s fifty-seven, physicians are giving him every atten¬ tion.— New York World. Although And he covets it through it from life's birth, covets brief span, Man never, never gets the earth, It is the earth that gets the man. —Labor Leader. “Have you Browning?” she asked at the village store. “No,” replied tho clerk; but browning.”— “we have blacking Life. and whiting, no “Gentleness cannot be kicked into a cow,” says an exchange. Neither can tenderness cr there wouldn’t be so much tough beefsteak.— Dansville Breeze. “What does menu mean, my dear?” “Food for me an’ you, ’tis clear.” “What does meander mean! Who knows f* “When me and her out walking goes. —Mercury. A