os
Demorraic; Wald
Bellefonte, Pa., October 4, 190I.
THE GLORIOUS SEASON.
Jest a breath o’ winter; it-ain’t so fur away,
Though ’twill be a little while yit, fore you hear
the fiddles play;
Yit it’s good to dream about it—the eyes that
brightly glance,
An’ the room a-goin’ roun’ youn in the glory o’
the dance!
Jest a breath o’ winter—a whisper in the pines,
An’ fewer songs 0’ mockin’ birds—a rustle in the
vines,
An’ the gold leaves in the woodlands! * * *
well the summer had its joys,
But it’s winter that makes music for the merry
gals an’ boys
Jest a breath o’ winter; Let it come an’ stay
awhile!
The sweet spring and the summer made all the
gardens smile ;
But winter has its pleasures, an’ the boy’s’ll take
their chance
With the rosiest o’ partners in the bright round
o’ the dance !
— Frank L. Stanton, in Atlanta Constitution.
THE GIRL IN GRAY.
How She Surrendered to a Yankee from Ilimois.
It was during an encampment of Con-
federate Veterans that Howard Pearce first
saw her. She wore a gray riding habit
with a double row of small brass buttons
leading up to two black stars on the col-
lar. On her sunny locks a small gray
slouch hat rested, tilted just the least bit
over one eye. She rode well.
Pearce leaned so far from the window to
catch a glimpse of the girl that he almost
fell. It was a warm day toward the end
of July, and he was not sorry that he had
no husiness on hand that must be rushed.
Evidently the girl in gray had gone to
the camp ground, and with Saunders. But
Saunders was married—happily married,
Pearce hoped. Anyhow, he was glad that-
Saunders was married.
That evening he sat before Captain Saun-
ders’ tent, with the captain, his wife and
Miss Moore—the girl in gray. To the east
of the camp ground the ridge rose in a gen-
. tle slope. To the southwest, seemingly
towering just over them, was the mounnt-
ain.
Pearce’s heart beat faster as the thought
came to him that 30 years before white
tents bad marked the foot of the ridge as
they did that day. But then they had
stretched for miles north and south.
*‘Captain,’’ he said, turning to Saunders,
*‘it is easier to get up the ridge than it was
once. There are no men in blue there to-
night.”’ :
*‘No,’’ the captain replied, ‘‘but the sons
of some of those men are there,’ pointing
to the company street, in which blue clad
figures lounged. ‘‘Loyal ? Without doubt.
Listen !”?
The bands, which bad united for the
.evening concert, bad just struck up ‘‘The
Star Spangled Banner.” . When the air
was recognized, a cheer arose from the
“tented wood.
“Hear that ?”’ said the captain.
*‘Wait,’ said the girl in gray.
‘For what ?”’ Pearce asked.
‘They will play ‘Dixie’ after awhile.’
“What then 2’
‘Then they will yell,”’ she said, lookiug
at him with a bright smile and nodding a
confident ‘“You’ll see or hear.”
And he did. When the national air was
finished, there was a brief wait. Then the
quick, stirring notes of ‘‘Dixie’’ started
the woods into life with sharp echoes,
ion were drowned by one long, loud
yell.
Pearce looked at the girl to receive an
expected “‘I told you so.” But she was
-not looking at him. Her cheeks were dark
with color and her eyes, brightened by ex-
citement, were fixed upon the young men
tossing their caps high above the tents and
shouting with all their sturdy lung power.
“I wonder,”’ he mused, ‘‘if she hates the
uorth as she loves the south.”
When the tumult had ceased, he turned
to Saunders.
. ‘‘Well, captain,” he said, ‘‘what do you
say to that ?
‘Of course, they love ‘Dixie,’ said the
captain earnestly. “So do I. But there
is no deeper meaning in that cheer than
the love of a memory. They are loyal.”
! Miss Moore said that she must go back
to town.
‘‘As it is late, I shall have
_horse with you, captain. I shall send for
him tomorrow. I reckon I can walk to
the train in this rig.”
She looked down somewhat doubtfully
at her riding skirt. Pearce said that he
would be glad to go with her, and though
it was not apparent in just what way he
could overcome the disadvantage of the
long dress, she seemed to he grateful for
his escort.
Well, that was the beginning of it, and
the end is not yet. An incident that oc-
curred under a large tree in the old Con-
federate fort on the mountain may give a
hint of the trend of events.
Pearce and Miss Moore were under the
‘tree because it was the shelter nearest when
‘rain suddenly began-to fall, and it rained
probably because a number of young folks
‘of the city bad come up on the mountain
-to spend a September day that promised in
the morning to be pleasant. :
Mr. Pearce was not in good humor. He
and Miss Moore had separated themselves
from the others. One topic of conversation
bad led to another, which in this instance
‘was a declaration by Mr. Pearce that he
was irretrievably in love with Miss Moore
and that if she refused to make him happy
be should be forever miserable. Ata critio-
al stage of this declaration a rain-drop
kissed the girl’s cheek. :
‘Oh, it’s going to rain I’ she cried.
The next instant the down- pour began,
and both rushed through a breach in the
earthen wall of .the fort to the tree, whose
branches, to which the leaves yet clung,
offered protection. There they stood in
silence for several minutes, she busily
brushing rain-drops from her hat, which
she had ‘taken off, and he watching her
moodily.
The silence hecame oppressive, and she
glanced at him curiously and apprehen-
sively from under her lashes. He caught
the glance and, moving toward her, said :
“Well 27 ;
‘Ob, don’t!’ she exclaimed, starting
away, her eyes still fixed upon a ribhon
with which she was working.
‘Why, Katherine—er—Miss Moore’ —
*‘Oh, you mustn’t !”’ :
He walked to the edge of the circle pro-
tected by the leaves and looked out over
the clay wall of the fort, down which tiny
rivers ran. She, having dried her ha,
Plas it again on her head and began
rushing her skirt where, here and there,’
rain had spotted it. She glanced several
times at his back, stubbornly turned to-
ward her. He evinced no "intention of
’
to leave my
moving nor of speaking again. and she be-
came nervous. The situation was unbeara-
ble, and she exclaimed :
‘We must get hack to the others !”’
‘“We can’t very well go through this
rain,”’ he said, without turning round.
Another prolonged silence, broken only
by the monotonous fall of the rain. Final-
ly, when she had almost made up her mind
to gather up her skirts and run to the
hotel, a quarter of a mile away, he turned
and came quickly toward her.
He put out his hand as though to take
hers, but she quickly put her hands be-
hind her and stepped back. He folded his
arms and stood before her, looking earnest-
ly into the eyes that she raised to his al-
most appealingly.
‘“Katherine,”’ he said, ‘I love you. Will
you be my wife ?”’
A beautiful color stole slowly from the
ribbon at her throat up, up, until it tinted
the edges of her small, perfectly formed
ears. His gaze held hers for a moment,
then her eyelids fell and their long lashes
swept her cheeks.
‘‘Mr. Pearce,’’ she said slowly and hesi-
tatingly, *‘I am so sorry, but I—I can’t.”
‘‘Because you do not love me ?”’
She looked up quickly into his face; then
down again, but she did not reply.
“Katherine, tell me,”” he said.
is it that you cannot marry me ?”’
‘‘Because’’—she was very busy dislodg-
ing a half buried stone with the.toe of her
shoe—*‘becaunse you are a Yankee !”’
Another swift glance met his steady
look. Then she moved a little farther
away and stood balf turned from him. His
first impulse was to laugh. But that pass-
ed almost as it came. The gray, brass but-
toned riding habit, the flushed cheeks and
bright eyes with which she had listened to
“Dixie,” flashed across his mental vision.
The ‘‘Yankee’’ might be an obstacle not to
be laughed away.
“But I am not a Yankee,”’ he said with
emphasis. ‘‘I am from Illinois.”
1t seemed a long time to both that they
stood in silence. Again she was the first
to speak.
‘‘This is an awful rain,”’ she said.
‘Yes, a very wet rain,’’ he replied.
**Oh, you are going to jest about it’'—
‘‘But I am not jesting,”’ he answered,
walking rapidly to where she stood. ‘‘What
I mean is that yon will get wet. The wa-
ter is beginning to drip from the leaves.
Here,’ stripping off his coat, ‘‘let me put
this around you.’
‘Oh, no,’’ she said. stepping back.
‘‘But you must. The air is chill, and
if you get wet you will catch cold.”’
‘But you—youn’’'—
‘It won’t hurt me a bit. Come.’’
He assumed a commanding tone, and
that or something else accomplished his
end, for she made no effort to free herself
when he placed the coat about her shoul-
ders. It took a long time to get it fixed
just right,and his arm was still around her
when he looked into her face and saw that
she was looking up into his. Something
in her eyes prompted him to draw her close
to him and to say very tenderly :
‘‘Sweetheart, I come from the north, but
I love a southern girl. Don’t you think
that she can love a northern man just a
little—if he is not a Yankee ?”’
She studied the arrangement of his neck-
tie closely,and then transferred her scrutiny
to his watch chain. But evidently she was
not thinking of either, for when she spoke
she asked :
‘Illinois people aren’t Yankees ?’’
‘‘Certainly not !”’ he replied, with con-
vietion. ‘‘They are a long way from Yan-
kesdom—more than 1,000 miles.’’
She examined the necktie again, looked
into his eyes for a moment, then over his
shoulder, off into the rain.
“Katherine,”’ he said softly, ‘‘do youn
love me?"’
She turned her head slowly until their
eyes met. A wave of color rushed into her
cheeks, and she murmured faintly, ‘“Yes.”
‘‘And you will be my wife?”
‘With perhaps a sudden thought of her
surroundings and of a stormy day 40 years
before, she replied, ‘‘I—I surrender.’
The rain,as if to hide the scene from any
possible observer, fell more heavily fora
moment. Then it ceased altogether, and
soon the sun shone through from a blue
blue sky where the gray clouds had parted.
“Why
Great Sufferings in Klondike.
The Indians are Threatened with Starvation—Many
Destitute Miners Arriving at Nome,
According to reports from Nome, brought
by the steamer Oregon, the Indians in that
section are threatened with starvation.
During the past few months about 300 na-
tives have visited Nome, bringing furs to
trade for supplies. As soon as their goods
were disposed of, however, whisky ped-
dlers got among them, and they changed
the proceeds of their sales for liquor. The
Indians: again camped on the beach, gen-
erally in a drunken stupor, allowing the
season to pass in which they could lay in
supplies of fish for use during the long win-
ter period. Unless they are assisted by the
government, it is said suffering and starva-
tion will follow.
Destitute miners from outlying districts
are arriving at Nome. The United States
steamer Bear on Aug. 31st landed eighteen
men at Nome. These men were found on
the beach at Kotzebue sound, penniless and
out of supplies. They had for some months
been depending on what fish they could
catch and what game they could kill. This
party joined in the rush to Kotzebue in
1898, and have been there ever since. They
report that during three years they failed
to find more than a few colors of gold.
The Nome banks have given out an esti-
mate of the out-put of gold for that dis-
trict for the season. They place the amount
at $5,000,000, which is only a half million
more than last year.
The passengers returning on the steamer
Oregon report that the cable between St.
Michael and Cape Nome isa failure. In
several places the ice has cut the cable. It
has been ascertained that there are nine
breaks. The gap was supplied by a new
cable, but it has been so badly damaged as
0 be practically worthless, A surveyin
party has been in the field serveying a lan
route for a telegraph line. o
The schooner Arthur B., which was re-
3rd.
A Theological Hypothesis.
. An old negro ‘preacher in the rural dis-
trict accounted for the lightning in this
way: : :
‘‘Ever’ time Satan looks down en sees
de Lawd’s work gwine on, fire flashes f'um
‘his eyes. Dat’s de lightening. En w’en
he fail ter hit a church wid'it he lays back'
an’ hollers. Dat’s de thander.”’
‘‘But, passon,’”’ said an old deacon,
“whar is
don’t have no lightin’ den.” i,
: ole preasher studied ‘a minute‘and ‘hen
said :
‘Well, hit may be, Br'r Williams, dat
hell’s frozen over den.,’
ported lost, arrived at Nome on September:
Satan in de winter time? We :
i
Lands Soon to Be Allotted.
The Five Civilized Tribes Will Then Cease to Exist—
How White Home Seekers May Acquire Possession
of the Surplus Lands.
The recgnt completion of the appraise-
ment of the Choctaw and Chickasaw lands
indicates the rapid approach of the time
when these lands will be allotted. The
two tribes, together with the other Indian
nations in'Indian Territory, will then as-
sume a new status in their relations to the
people of the United States. Within a
comparatively short time the five civilized
tribes of Indians will cease to exist as an
independent factor, and their identity, like
their lands, will be merged with that of the
whites.
This change of status of tribes raises the
question by what means white home seek-
ers may acquire possession of the surplus
lands under the well defined provisions of
the statutes enacted by Congress. It is
evident that many have imbibed a strong
dose of misinformation on "this subject.
‘Some are under the impression that lands
in the Indian Territory may be acquired
by somewhat similar methods as those un-
der which Oklahoma was originally opened
to white settlement, afterward the Chero-
kee strip, and quite recently the Kiowa,
Comanche and Apache and the Wichita
reservations—that is to say, either by the
method described as a horse race or that in-
troduced with regard to the disposition of
the lands in the Kiowa and Wichita reser-
vations, popularly known as the lottery
system. This is a mistake.
The lands in the Indian Territory, part
of which are now nearly accessible, and the
remainder of which will undoubtedly be
ready in the course of months, are on an
entirely different plan from the lands here-
tofore opened. Their title is in the Indians
and the United States government, through
its commissioners, merely acts as an agent
for the five tribes.
Agreements providing for the dissolution
of the tribal governments and the allotment
of the lands in severalty have been made
with the Seminoles, the Creeks, the Choc-
tawe and Chicasaws, and only the Chero-
kees, who twice refused to confirm agree-
ments to this end, are outside of the fold
and subject to the provisions of the act for
the protection of the people "of the Indian
Territory known as the Curtis act.
In the case of the Choctaws and Chica-
saws, the provisions relating to the allot-
ments and alienation of their lands are
specifically set forth in the agreements
made with the Choctaws and Chicasaws
April 23, 1897, as amended by Congress.
These allotments were directed to be made
‘‘so asto give each member of these tribes,
so far as possible, a fair and equal share
thereof—that is, the lands in common, con-
sidering the character and fertility of the
soil and the location and value of the
lands.”
LAW ON ALLOTMENTS.
Quoting the provisions of the act of Con-
gress, confirming the treaty, ‘‘All the lands
alloted shall be non taxable while the title
remains in the original allottee, but not to
exceed twenty one years from date of pa-
tent, and each allotte shall select from his
allotment a homestead of 160 acres, for
which he shall be inalienable for twenty
one years from date of patent. This provis-
ion shall also apply to the Choctaw and
Chickasaw freedman to the extent of his al-
lotment (forth acres), selections for home-
steads for minors to be made as provided
herein in case of allotment, and the re-
mainder of the land alloted to said mem-
bers shall be alienable for the price to he
actually paid and to include no fgrmer in-
debtedness or obligation, one fourth of said
remainder in one year, one fourth in three
years and the balance of said alienable
lands in five years from the date of the
patent. : :
‘*That all contracts looking to the sale
or incumbrance in any way of the land of
an allottee, except the sale hereinbefore
provided, shall be null and void. No al-
lottee shall lease his allotment, or any por-
tion thereof, for a longer period than five
years, and then without the privilege of re-
newal. Every lease which is not evidenced
by writing, setting out specifically the
terms thereof, or which is not recorded in
the clerk’s office of the United States court
for the district in which the land is located
three months after the date of its execution
shall be void, and the purchaser, or lessee,
shall acquire no rights whatever by an
entry or holding thereunder. And no such
lease or any sale shall. be valid as against
the allottee unless providing to him a rea-
sonable compensation for the lands sold or
leased.” ;
Regarding the town sites in the Choctaw
and Chickasaw nations, the law provides
that *‘when said towns are so laid out each
lot on which permanent, substantial and
valuable improvements, other than fences,
tillage and temporary houses, have been
made shall be valued by the commission
provided for the nation in which the town
is located at the price a fee-simple title to
the same would bring in the market at
the time the valuation is made, but not to
include in such value the improvements
therein. The owner of the improvements
on each lot shall have the right to buy one
residence and one business lot at 50 per
cent. of the appraized value of such im-
proved property,and the remainder of such
improved property at 62} per cent. of the
market value within sixty days from date
of natice served on him that such lot is for
sale, and if he purchase the same he shall
within ten days from his purchase pay in- |
to the treasury of the United States one-
fourth of the purchase price, and the bal-
ance in three cqual annual installments,
and when the entire sum is paid shall be
entitled to a patent for the same*?’
The owner of ‘the improvement on any
lot is required to purchase within sixty
days or the same. shall be sold at public
auction to the highest bidder. All upnap-
praised lots shall be sold from time to time
at [Euhligt suction for the henefit of the
tribes. | !
A Pigeow’s Long Flight,
Bird Travels from Denver to Pittsburg in a Little
Over Twenty Days.
Traveler Al, a homing bird owned by
| Albred Greb,of Pittsburg, broke the world’s
standing record in a flight from Denver,
Col., to the Smoky City, covering the dis-
tance in twenty days two hours and fifteen
minutes, the previous standing record be-
ing twenty-two days. Mr. Greb sent two
birds to Denver and they were liberated by
C. M. Day at 7:10 on the evening of Sep-
tember 2nd. Mr. Day reported that the
birds were off in a jiffy, going almost due |
east. No report of the birds was had until
Mr. Greb discovered Traveler Al in his loft
on Sunday. The bird was in splendid con-
dition, although Mr. Greb expects the
homer will fezl a little sore and stiff with-
in the next few days. The air-line dis-
tance from Pistsburg to Denver is about
thirteen hundred miles. :
| Our Experience.
How doth the little busy bee :
Improve each shining minute ?
Selects a spot on you or me
And jabs his stinger in it:
Cutting Diamonds
The Various Stages of a Delicate and Interesting
Process.
Mr. J. C. Sipe recently returned from a
trip to Amsterdam, where he saw much of
the cleaning, cutting and polishing of dia-
monds. To a reporter he talked interest-
ingly on the matter. He said :
‘“The diamond, when mined, is very of-
ten of a shape so uneven that. in preference
to cutting balf off and letting that part go
to dust, as was formerly done, incisions are
now made running with the grain of the
diamond. The incision is made with the
sharp edge of another diamond. The
cleaving knife is then inserted and given a
sharp tap and the stone will split as the
grain runs, and thus two or more smaller
but better shaped diamonds are made.
‘After the diamond is cleft it is neces-
sary to do the rough cutting technically
known as ‘bruting.” This is done by af-
fixing two diamonds on the ends of two
boxwood sticks with a very sharp cement ;
one is then rubbed against the other and
‘diamond cuts diamond.” They are held
over a cutting box having two iron pegs for
levers and containing finely perforated
brass pans through which the dust falls,
the chips remaining in the top pan.
‘“The stone having been cut to the satis-
faction of the master is taken out to the
polishing room, where a setter selects a
suitable-sized brass cup, called a ‘dope,’
fills it with a mixture of lead and tin and
melts it in a gas flame. Having worked
the solder to its proper shape he places the
diamond in the centre, leaving only a very
small part exposed. A mark is made on
the solder before it becomes thoroughly
set, and then the stone is passed on to the
polisher. By the mark made on the solder
the latter knows at once the precise run of
the grain and the way in which it will pol-
ish to the best advantage on the mill.
‘‘The first operation is the marking of
the ‘table’ of the diamond. This done,
it is handed back to the setter that he may
take it out of thesolder and reset it for the
first corner, called the flat corner. Thesol-
der is again marked to indicate to the pol-
isher the run of the grain of this particular
corner, and so the process is continued un-
til the diamond is polished throughout.
Every facet has a name and every name
denotes the grain and how to polish that
particular facet. The polisher uses a circu-
lar disc, composed of soft, porous iron, so
that as the diamond is polished away in
the form of dust it enteres the pores of the
iron, the result being that we have the
diamond cutting the dimond again.
‘Without the assistance of the diamond
dust the iron would not make the slight-
est impression on the diamond. The pol-
ishing wheel or disc is propelled by steam
power and makes 2,000 to 3,000 revolu-
tions in a minute. Before the slightly re-
volving disc vou will see men so intent up-
on their work that they have eyes for noth-
ing else ; for, notwithstanding the perfec-
tion of the machiuery, the skill of the work-
men remains of primal importance. It is
with their fingers and ‘thumbs that they
adjust the points, edges and facets of the
diamond with extreme accuracy, keeping
them constantly moist with diamond duss
and olive oil. The thumbs of the work-
men, being used constantly and with much
force, become greatly enlarged.
The beauty of a cut or finished stone de-
pends so much upon the form and position
of the facets that a moderately fine stone,
well cat and polished, is of far greater val-
ue than a large one less artistically worked.
It sometimes happens that a lapidary re-
_ceives a stone of very unfortunate shaps
His duty will, therefore, be to take all
possible care to preserve its size ; and, hid-
ing its faults, give it such a form as shall
send it forth with the greatest weight con-
sistent with beauty and brilliancy.
i
Kermit’s Rabbits Will be Admitted into
White House.
Negotiations Now Pending Between Young Roosevelt
and Gardner Pfeister Almost Concluded—Children
Sent to School—Small Boy and Sister Go for Bi-
cycle Ride Through the White House Lot—Are Pop-
ular With the People.
Diplomatic note—negotiations now pend-
ing between Gardener Pfeister of the White
House, for the first part, and Master Ker-
mit Roosevelt of the second part, in rela-
tion to the introduction of sundry white
rabbits in the White House grounds, said
white rabbits now heing domiciled at Oyster
Bay, N. Y.. were continued Saturday.
It is understood that the high contract-
ing parties are about to reach au agreement,
the only point of difference now being that
of the assignment of territory to the rab-
bits. Gardner Pfeister insists that the rab-
bits shall not cone near his conservatories,
while Master Kermit Roosevelt is inclined
to hold out for a free range over all lands
adjacent to the White House with incident-
al excursions to the conservatories should
the interest of the rabbits demand it.
It is stated in certain quarters that Gar-
dener Pfeister has made his point so clear
that Master Kermit Roosevelt will recede
and take the territory designated. In that
event the protocol is likely to be signed
soon.
On Monday morning Henry Pinckney
took Kermit by the hand and went
with him to Force School on Massachusetts
avenue, between Seventeenth and Eigh-
teenth streets. Kermit was registered at
this school, which is one of the most popn-
lar in the city, and entered the fifth
grade on Monday. On Monday, also,
Ethel Roosevelt entered the Cathedral
School in Woodley lane. This school was
founded by Mrs. Phebe A. Hearst. The
plans for the other two boys are that Archi-
bald is to attend a preparatory school not
yet selected and Quentin, the baby of the
family, will be in the hands of a nursery
governess.
‘When Kermit returned home from regis-
tering at the school he found Ethel waiting
for him on the portico of the White House.
She had both bicycles there, and Henry
Pinckney was told to get his wheel and
corue along for a ride. The three started
through the White House lot to the Wash-
ington monument. A few minutes later a
park policeman was astonished to see a
grinning colored man mounted on a wheel
and a small boy and a small girl also
mounted on wheels come whooping across
the lawns, bounding over gutters and coast-
ing down terraces. The man was pedaling
as fast as he could and the .little ones were
following close behind. They dashed up
to the monument and stopped breathless.
. ‘‘Them’s: the President’s kids ?’’ asked
the park policeman. :
“They are,”’ said the negro between
gasps.
‘‘It’s a great thing to bave kids in the
White House,’’ commented the policeman,
“Kinder gets hold of the people.”.
——John T. Stewart is probably the
richest man in Kansas, his wealth being
estimated at nearly $2,000,000. , He owns
130, quarter-sections in Summer county,
where he lives, and his rentals are said to
be $50,000 this year. Twenty years ago
he was an office boy in Wichita.
We Have Taken Paragua.
It’s a Fair-8ized, Densely Wooded Philippine Island
—People Very Poor.
Puerto Princesa, Island of Paragua,
July 21st—This island, which is situated
in the southwestern portion of the Philip-
pine Archipelago, has recently been occu-
pied by a company of the Tenth Infantry
under the command of Capt. Eli A. Hel-
mick, a very able and experienced officer
of long service in Cuba. Prior to the com-
ing, no American troops had taken post on
the island, and it was not known what re-
sistance, if any, would be made, so the
transport which brought the land forces
here was accompanied by two gunboats.
They entered the harbor of Puerto Princesa
in solemn state, and upon arriving in front
of the town they saw the insurgent flag
floating, but it was found that the so-called
Governor was absent with a detachment in
the northern part of the island, hence the
invading troops were duly asked to await
his return. In reply the Governor’s repre-
sentative was told that his peaceful sur-
render would be awaited for one hour, and
if not forthcoming at that time, forcible
possession would he taken of the town.
One hundred rounds of ammunition were
issued to each man, and this was followed
by; the disembarkation. The ladies of
the party were prepared to see actual hos-
tilities, but before the troops were all
transferred to the small boats a sheet was
raised on the dock as a sign of surrender.
Upon examination thirteen old guns,
were found, about two of which would
probably shoot, and some forty odd wood-
en spears. One energetic man with a load-
ed revolver could have put the entire town
to flight. Since then small detachments
have been in the field hunting for the ab-
sent Filipino Governor, who declined to
come back and give himself up. All of his
men except two have been captured, and
so the American forces are in peaceful pos-
session.
The island of Paragua or Palawan is
north of Borneo, and is one of the most
southern islands of the Philippine group.
It 1s about two hundred and fifty miles
long and thirty miles wide. It is exceed-
ingly monuntainous and heavily wooded in
the central part. The Spaniards made
very little progress in colonizing it. This
town is the results of their last effort. It
was built in the early seventies and has
less than thirty years of history. It is
well located and well laid out on the neck
of land which encloses the landlocked har-
bor on the east. It is furnished with good
barracks of hard wood and brick, covered
with a corrugated roef. They were begun 3
years previous to the evacuating of the
Spanish government, and unfortunately left
in a balf completed condition. When fin-
ished they will accommodate a company of
one hundred and fifty men comfortably.
There is in addition to a Governor’s palace,
a church, a convent and a jail, but good
water is scarce, and cisterns are the main
dependence.
Your correspondent has seen a great deal
of poverty, but he has never yet seen peo-
ple so generally poor according to Ameri-
can standards as the people from this island.
There is not a place between this port and
the orthern end of the island that con-
tains a store where any of the various
things which a civilized man thinks neces-
sary could he bought. One store has since
been established here, and, of course, is do-
ing a good business. The southern part of
the island is peopled by the Moros, who
are said to be in a better condition than
are those in the northern end of the island.
The commanding officer of the company
stationed here is Mayor of the town, and
bas visited all of the outlying barrios, re-
storing order and encouraging the people to
go to work. The natives live in what are
called nipa huts, built of hardwood poles
and bamboo, covered with nipa leaves,
which are from a species of palm that grows
along the river banks and in the swamps.
The natives dress generally about as do the
middle and lower class in Cuba, but there
is a tribe which occupies the mountain-
ous region, who wear but little clothing.
A large size bandanna handkerchief would
fully dress an entire family. Among the
men employed to clean up the town was a
young fellow of this tribe who reported
with neatly cut hair, aud a gee-string.
which with the handkerchief constituted
bis entire outfit. As in the case of the
ninitas of Cuba, it is only a matter of get-
ting used to it.
A small percentage of the people speak
Spanish, but Spanish is all that one needs
to know, as there is always someone to be
found who can speak it sufficiently well to
interpret. The common language of the
people is Tagalog or Visayan, but in the
south Moro is spoken. These jargons re-
semble our Indian languages, and abound
in harsh, guttural sounds more than they
do in Spanish. There is little beauty or
utility to tempt one to study them.
Their music is not so unlike ours, and
they dance and waltz, polka and two step
not gracefully but correctly. There is a
brass band here consisting of ten or twelve
piece, which is probably the only one in
the island. Tt now plays the ‘‘Star
Spangled Banner’’ with variations peculiar
to the performers. At one of the visitas at
which I was present the music consisted of
an accordion and a drum somewhat like the
native drums of Cuba.
The cultivated products of the island are
rice or polay and corn, together with the
usual tropical fruits. This year the grass
hoppers have destroyed the rice in many
places. Here, as in Cuba, they have a fine
grade of cattle, which are always in good
condition. Every native family has a few
chickens and pigs, but eggs are difficult to
get. The Spanish Government attempted
to raise sugar cane on this island, but the
land selected was not suited to that crop,
and the experiment was a failure, but
there are doubtless many places where cane
can be grown to advantage, Probably the
most valuable product that can he had
from the island is hard wood timber, of
which there are many varieties growing in
profusion. The trees are of immense
height and straight, without a limb for 50
or 60 feet. The most valuable wood is
the ipil, of a dark red color and very hard,
80 that it takes an excellent polish. Floors
and frame work are made from it, as the
white ant, which is a great pest here, does
not attack it. In a single day the ants
will riddle the bottom of a pine chest and
ruin the contents.
This island is entirely pacified, and no
fear is had of further disturbances.
Cost of Intemperance.
One of our most enlightened cities reports
26,000 arrests for drunkenness a year, and
8,000 imprisonments. The fines collected
amounted to less than $25,000, while the
cost of maintaining the prisoners was not
less than $125,000. The net cost to the
taxpayers, therefore, was more than $100,-
000. If some one proposed to a; propriate
that amount for establishing a library. or
any other public institution the matter
would have a great deal of consideration,
lest the city might be guilty of extrava-
gance.
Biggest Tunnel in the World.
Boring by Air Through Twelve Miles of Rock in the
Alps.
Brig, an Alpine village, has long been
the terminus of the Jura-Simplon railway
system. Only twenty kilometres away,
twelve miles and a half, lies Italy. But
these are twenty kilometres of a towering,
tumbling mass of mountain rock. For
many years men have been figuring how to
do away with this twelve and a half miles
of mountain. Some wanted to go right on
up the Simplon Pass with the rails. Others
would have gone balf way up and then dug.
There were several scores of plans, but
finally the most costly and most daring,and
yet the simplest, was chosen—namely, to
go right through. So this last and perma-
nent plan is an evolution from fifty years
of surveying, drafting, calculating, correct-
ing. The men who did it are lost in the
powerful corporation for which they worked
the Jura-Simplon. In 1891 the plan was
submitted to the Swiss Government, and
the Swiss Government talked it over with
the Italian Government. Both accepted
the proposition, granted concessions, and
in 1896 ratified the treaty for having the
tunnel between them. Next came the
question offmoney. The cost of a single
track tunnel with a parallel ventilating
tunnel would be 70,000,000 frances (about
$14,000,000). Sixty millions of this was
loaned by a syndicate of Canton banks on
3} per cent. bonds guaranteed by the Swiss
Confederation. The Confederation also
gave a subsidy of 4,500,000 frances, and
Italy granted an annual subsidy of 66,000
lires ($12,540). Swiss parties subscribed
10,500,000 frances more, and Italian parties
4,000,000 lires.
At once the Jura-Simplon let out the
contract for building the tunnel to Brandt,
Brandau et Cle, who are known as the En-
terprise nu Tannel du Simplon. Only a
war involving Switzerland or Italy, or an
epidemic, or a strike not the fault of the
enterprise can effect the time limit of the
bargain. All other unforeseen difficulties
and catastrophes whatsoever do not count.
The gigantic hole must be delivered five
and a half years after commencing. The
penalty for delay will be $1,000 a day with
a bonus of as much for each day ahead of
time. The tunnel is to be 19,730 metres
long’ (twelve and one quarter miles), and
there must be a smaller tunnel for ventila-
tion parallel to the first at a distance of sev-
enteen meters (or eighteen and a half
‘yards.) Under a future contract the en-
terprise will make the second tunnel the
same size as the first for a return track.
Work began in November of 1898. It
should be finished May 13, 1904.
It is quite apparent that to dig a tunnel
from two sides and make both ends meet is
a delicate problem. Should they happen
not to meet it would be an expensive wan-
dering in the mountain to find them and
get them together. But fortunately there
is a guide as true and unbendable as mathe-
matics. There is an imaginary straight
line between two points. One point isa
little observatory shed on the bank of the
Rhone, with a spy glass pointing horizon-
tally toward Italy. The other point is a
similar little observatory on the bank of the
Doveria, in Italy, with a glass toward
Switzerland. Between the two points rises
the Simplon mountain mass. But the
straight line goes through just the same,
for is is only an imaginary straight line. It
is, however, steadily turning into reality —
that is, the tunnel. And if it were not for
the grade of the tunnel, then some day the
observatory in Switzerland could look
through the mountain at the observatory in
Italy. It will be objected, however, that
we went around a curve in the tunnel. In
fact, there are two curves, but they do not
affect the straight line proposition.
There is a small tunnel which joins the
main tunvel some hundred metres or 109
yards inside. It is called the locating tun-
del, and faithfully follows the imaginary
straight line. The main tunnel finishes its
curve at this hundred metre point and
thence continues along the straight line to
the corresponding curve at the other end,
where again the straight line is completed
by a second locating tunnel.
Strangled to Death.
A Man who Helped to Kill a Coke Company's Pay=
master is Hanged.
Vassel Laketch was banged in the jail
vard at Greensburg Thursday morning, in
the presence of about four hundred people.
Death resulted from strangulation in eleven
minutes.
On October 30th, 1900, Paymaster Wil-
fred Hassler, of the Southwest Coke com-
pany, and his colored driver. Harry Bur-
gess, were driving to Morewood, with
$5,000 to pay off the cork workers, when
they were held up by Vassel Laketch and
three companions, all foreigners. “In the
ensuing fight, Paymaster Hassler and one
of the highwaymen were killed and anoth-.
er highwayman was seriously wounded.
Burgess whipped up the horses and escaped
with the money. Later the three men
were discovered hiding in a ravine, and be-
fore they surrendered one of them, Vasil
Nicholas, was killed. The two others,
Mike Markoviteh and Vassel Laketch, were
taken to jail, and oneday, while awaiting
for trial. Markovitch hanged himself in his
cell. Laketch was convicted and sentenced
to be hanged on Aug. 8th,but was respited
until to-day on the representation that his
father was hastening here from his native
home, in Montenego, for the purpose of tak-
ing farewell of his unhappy son.
Congress Pays the Bills.
Will Vote Money for President's Doctors and Funer-
al Expenses.
Congress will make special provision for
the payment of the physicians and surgeons
who attended President McKinley in Buf-
falo and for the payment of his funeral ex-
penses. This was the course pursued after
the death of President Garfield.
What these expenses will amount to in
the case of President McKinley cannot be
stated, even approximately, as none of the
bills have yet been sent in. In the case of
President Garfield Congress appropriated
in all $57,500. Of this amount $35,500
was for the payment of physicians and $22,-
000 for funeral expenses.
The total expenses in the case of Pcesi-
dent McKinley will probably be fully as
great, for though the bills of the physicians
will not be so large as they were in the
case of President Garfield, who lingered for
more than two months after he was shot,
the expenses of the funeral are expected to
be larger.
Congress also made liberal provision for
Mrs. Garfield, giving her the President’s
salary for the rest of the year and a pension
of $5,000 a year for life. Mrs. McKinley
will certainly be treated with equal liber-
ality.
-——Barone—‘‘If I bad a race horse I'd
name him Money.”’ v
‘Fieldl— Why so?’ :
Barone—‘‘Well, money is ‘about th
fastest thing to go I know of.—Pick-Me
Up.