I OUR PRISONERS OF WAR. | O Humane Treatment That Has Opened the Eyes of w Q the Captured Spaniards. w ADMIRAL CERVEHA'S BILLET. ' Civilization wkile you wait would be an appropriate motto for the prison stockade at Camp Long. The camp is on Seavey's Island, part of the Navy Yard, which on the map appears in Kittery, Me.,and on official documents at Portsmouth, in New Hampshire. Two days before the St. Louis steamed into the harbor with 69*2 Spanish prisoners of war on board the camp ground was not much better than a desert. This end of the island is bound with rocks which stick up through the blueberry bushes and scrubby grass on knolls and hillsides. Within thirty-six hours from the ar rival of the St. Louis in the lower har bor the village had been equipped with all the creature comforts de manded by a free born American citi zen. The landing of the Spaniards was ■without ceremony or display. Two black, flatiron shaped barges were brought up, one after the other, from the big liner, about a mile away, and made fast to Lieutenant Cireely's land ing place, at the foot of old Fort Sulli van, now used as a reservoir. There were a few workmen and a few ladies and children from the post on the shore, and a cordon of pleasure boats on the water, but no official demon stration of any sort. There was not an officer, nor even a marine, in sight, aud no indications that the island was garrisoned. On the first barge Lieutenant Cat liu, a survivor of the Maine disaster, brought with him Captain Moreu, of the Cristobal Colon, to act as interpre ter, and about a dozen American ma rines to take care of a bootload of four hundred Spanish prisoners of war. Lieutenant Catlin had a navy revolver in his belt instead of a sword, but went at his work without any fuss or feathers. When sis marines had scrambled ashore aud were strung along the bank, the gangway was opened to the prisoners, who went off the barge in an irregular straggling. They were defeated and shipwrecked sailors, and they showed it. Bare headed aud barefooted, with straggly QUARTERS OF ADMIRAL CERVERA AND HIS OFFICERS AT THE ANXArOLIS NAVAL \ ACADEMY. beards, aud only a couple of dirty gar- , meats in most cases covering legs and ; bodies, they passively obeyed the or- I ders of Captain Moreu, and were ! gathered in ship's companies by the calling of the roll. Hardly had a hun- | dred men been landed before the sick began to drop groaning upon the Jnsty roadside. After the mustering was over the first shipload of prisoners was sur rounded by marines from the garrison and marched into the stockage, the barefooted ones being chiefly anxious i to avoid the nettles that lurked in some of the grassy places. After one day in camp these same hungry looking prisoners could hardly be recognized. The day's rations of beef, bread, coffee and pickles were i devoured at one meal, each man eating ! more than a pound of meat. They j found hammocks, comfortable hair 1 BARRACKS ON SEAVEY'S ISLAND, PORTSMOUTH HARBOR. (Where the rank and file of the Bpanish prisoners are confined.) mattresses and government blankets provided for them, and after a few puffs from borrowed cigarettes the well Spaniards slept long and sound ly. More meals followed with sur prising abundance and regularity, and great wagon loads of clothes were hauled over,from the Navy Yard and dumped at the feet of the prisoners. The few industrious spirits volun teered for camp work, and their work ing made a pleasing spectacle for those who were not industrious. With warm, new clothes and a comfortable fulness under one's belt, it is agree able to sit iu the sun, or at least oat of the rain, and discuss why it was that Admiral Cervera did not utterly destroy the American fleet. To be sure there are sentries and deep water in front, and sentries with a high board fence, backed by barb wire and Gattling guns, in the rear. What would you? Shall sane men runaway from good food, good clothes and a good company to lose themselves in a strange country and starve? The landing of the prisoners and the establishment of the camp was ac- UNCLE SAM, HE TAYS TIIE FREIGHT. (The cartoonist of the New York Herald gives his l>lea of how the prisoners will be sent home to Spain.) complislieil without the slightest hos tile demonstration on the part of the Spaniards. Some of the men passive ly object to being clean, but they can put up with cleanliuess if only they get plenty of tobacco. Colonel Forney has in the barracks at the Navy Yard and on duty at the stockade about two hundred men, but Surgeon Parsons says that if the Spaniards only understood that they ' were to have their three square meals a day a marine guard would be re quired, not to keep them on the island but to drive them ivwav from it. Two Spanish chaplains, two sur geons, nn apothecary's steward and five junior lieutenants have had a building built for their special accom modation, and have been fitted out with sailor's clothes from the navy yard storehouses. Their wardroom is fitted out with bunks and abundant furniture. The civilizing influence of a short piece of rope is still to be seen in Camp Long. In the olden times the rope was used to cow starved and ill treated prisoners. To-day it serves a different purpose. The members of the officer's mess hardly got new clothes before they began devising amusements, and jumping rope has become very popular. Two of the more sedate officers swing the rope while the others take turns jumping. The horrors of war already seem faraway, and the most important things in the world seem to be the delights of good living. Admiral Carpenter, who is in temporary command of the Navy Yard, has closed the island to curious visitors, who are not annoying when they get long range views from the New Castle and Kittery shores. The scene on shore of the prison front on Seavey's Island on a recent afternoon between five and sis o'clock presented a most novel and interest ing picture. The prisoners had just finished their afternoon meal and had swarmed to the water's edge to wash their bowls, plates and spoons. The olatter of the dishes and the laughter and animated conversation of the pris oners made such a babel of noises that they could plainly be heard on the Newcastle shore on the other side of the Piscataqua River. Hundreds of boats gathered in front of the Spaniards on the beach and watched them at their work and en joyed the animated scene, for the "Dons" seemed happy as larks and evidently greatly pleased at the atten tion shown them. Many ladies in the boats had provided themselves with kodaks, and hundreds of pictures were taken of the prisoners that will prove valuable souvenirs of the American- Spanish war as time goes by. The Spaniards enjoyed having their pic tures taken, and many of them gath ered in groups and posed in pictur esque attitudes and waited their, turns for the camera. A colored prisoner, black as Erebus, waded out into the water up to his knees, and, striking his bowl and plate together fto attract attention, plaoed his bauds by his side, rolled the whites ata:iiA 15ccl. Asparagus roots may be plantel in spring or fall, but unless the ground j is well drained, spring is preferable. I Good strong one-year-old roots are best. The soil should be made as rich :as possible. If very stony the stones I should be removed, as they are much ;in the way of cutting the stalks. In | garden culture it is best to dig trenches i about three or four feet apart and i twelve inches deep; then putin a i layer of manure to (ill about half of ' the trench after it ha 3 been packed down. On this put two or three in ches of soil on which place the roots, 1 spreading them out in all directions, and cover with tine soil, packing down | all around. The plants should not stand closer than two feet in the rows, ' aud as they start to grow more soil | should be drawn into the trenches until I the surface is level again. All that is | necessary during the season is to keep I the ground loose and free from weeds. ! To raise a tirstclass crop the bed has to be manured every year by scat tering manure over the plants in the fall. If white or blanched asparagus is desired, the roots have to be set ieeper and the rows have to be hilled up similar to what is done with celery. —New England Homeste.id. I„evel Culture for Potatoes. Practice of late years is largely in favor of level culture for the best re j suits in potato growing, although the ! socalled trench system aud the hill I system have adherents. In former j. years on new rich soil shallow plow ing and planting necessitated the hill system of culture in order to prevent the drying out of the tubers by the sun. As farmers learned the value of deep aud thorough cultivation, as well as the advantage of running the weeder i or cultivator through the rows before ■ the plants broke through the ground, I it was no longer necessary to throw up 1 mounds of earth to protect the tubers. | Then again, our best varieties may be ; grown to maturity in from ten to ' twelve weeks and protection against i late frosts is no longer necessary as it was with most of the popular varieties of twenty years ago. If farmers will keep scab from seed potatoes, plant them in deep soil and keep them under good cultivation on the level system, there is uo reason why paying crops cannot be generally raised. Chicks in the Hot Weather. How are the chicks? If they are dying or seem drooping, examine very carefelly for lice. If lice are fonnd, and there is not much doubt but that they will be, dust with good insect powder and also dust the mother. Dust her extr i well under the wings and around the vent. Rub coal oil on her legs. If they are scaly a few ap plications will clean them, and if smooth it will prevent the hen or chicks from having scaly legs. It is best for all reasons to dust the hen and chicks at roosting time and sprin kle coal oil on the under side of the coop. Sprinkle enough so that it will smell quite strong. Sprinkle with oil twice a week; it is much cheaper than having lice. See that they have access to a good dust bath. Sawdust mixed with the flue dust is a great help. It will work into the skin better, aud enables the hen to shake the lice off when she shakes herself after the bath. If no lice or signs of lice, i. e., nits, are seen and th# chicks are ailing, you have surely neglected to provide "teeth" for the little things. Mix some sharp sand in their breakfast, and have a dish or board of grit, pounded dishes and small gravel iu their coop. Of course you don't feed your chicks in their roosting room. There's not much excuse to make a chicken dining room in their bedroom. It's too ex pensive in the end. Move your roost ing coop to clean ground twice each week.—American Agriculturist. Cannai. Of all the plants which are adapted for bedding out on the lawn or border the canna ranks first. For an elegance in general appearance, and for a trop ical effect the broad leaves of the aan- na are unexcelled, and in the newer and better sorts the flower is quite an item. This plant is like other good things in the line of floriculture, mak ing rapid progress mainly in the flower. The different varieties vary considerably in height, from the dwarf est French to the tallest old-fashioned dark-leaved sorts. The latest acquisitions to the many fine varieties of cannas are the orchid flowering sorts, the flowers of which are serrated or crimped on the edges, making them particularly beautiful. It is said, however, that they are not so well adapted for general bedding as the plain-flowered sorts. Cannas delight in a very rich soil and an abundance of water, and with these two conditions properly supplied success is assured at once. They should be bedded out as soon as the soil has become warm and all danger of frost is over. Water liberally all summer, and in the fall, as soon as the leaves have been blasted somewhat by the first early frosts, cut the tops off to within six inches of the roots. Dig the roots carefully and store them iu a dry cellar where the temperature is not too high, nor where it does not drop to the frost line. In the spring the roots can be separated, each clump making two or three plants. —Womau's Home Companion. Growing Carnations. To grow strong plants for winter blooming secure young stock iu the early summer, plant them out iu a fairly good garden soil where they can be cultivated well during the summer. A well-drained location, easy ot'access with water, is best, us during the se vere dry spells so often occurring the plants make very little growth, and if helped by the free use of water, as seems necessary, better results will be secured. Keep the soil about the plants stirred constantly all summer, culti vating the plants exactly as any other bedded out stuff. From the time the carnations are set out until the first week in August remove all flower buds and flower stalks as fust as they ap pear. After the first of August it is better not to cut the plants back any more, as the buds for the fall flowers will then commence to form. The first teu days iu September, varying somewhat according to the season, is the proper time to take the plants up and either pot them or bed them out on the benches of the green house or conservatory. If they are to be potted, use good garden soil, with some broken pots or tuft of sod iu the bottom of the pot for drainage. After potting or plautingon the bench,shade from the sun for several days, nud let them have plenty of air. Air iu the culture of carnations is very necessary as they do not thrive in a close at mosphere.—Woman's Home Com panion. Feeding Cows on Taoture. When the pastures begin to fail it will bd necessary to give the cows some extra feed. Indeed, it has been shown to be profitable to give this extra food even in the first flush of the grass, for the increased product not ouly paid for the extra food, but the condition of the cows was improved all through the following wiuter and into the next summer. Any animal may acquire a reserve force, so to speak, by which the system accumulates the material for a leugtheued product during a sea son of lessened supply of food. This extra feeding on the pasture avoids any draft on this accumulated reserve, gained through good feeding during the wiuter, and prevents that frequent falling ott' iu condition which is apt to occur while the cows are in the flush of milk, while the pastures are fresh. This has been demonstrated by both practical feeding and scientific tests in which the cows on good pasture have received a liberal addition to the grass of grain food, either simple corn meal or gluten meal,or indeed some change even of green feed, as peas and oats mixed or green sweet corn with the grain on. l£ was found at one of the experiment stations that this extra feed was not only liberally paid for during the summer, but its effect was noticeable during the next winter and into the following summer. It has been, and still is, my practice to feed ten pounds of corn meal daily to my cows while on the best pasture and to add green cut fodder in addition when the pastures begin to fail later in the season. Aud this better feeding has paid well without exception as regards individual cows. They all responded to the stimulus, while the calves of these cows always improve on their dams in productive value.—Orange Judd Farmer. Ron* llirds Fly and Glide. Most people accustomed to an open air life can tell almost any bird by it? flight, but it would be difficult for tin average man to describe how one bird differs from another in this reaper; Scientists have, however, closely ob served the motion of the wings, aud this is their classification: Gliding flight—A sort of sliding over the air on fixed wiugs, practised by pigeons and swallows. Soaring flight—Sailing, with oeca sional flaps, as in the case of liawii and eagles. Bowing flight—Progression by the ungraceful flapping we see in ducks geese, partridges, pheasants and some times crows. Sailing flight—Using the wind aloue and going aloug with it as a barge goe with the stream. Vultures, the alba tross and other large and heavy bird move about in this lazy way. Hovering flight—Remaining flutter ing over a fixed point as humming birds and skylarks do.—New Yor' Journal. Ostrich-taming is a very profitable industry in Africa ; there it is ?om puted there are over 150,000 tame birds.