smooth before his feet:
Beworrai chan
Bellefonte, Pa., February 13, 1903.
THE CORNER STORE LOAFER.
On a cracker box sat a lank yahoo,
Sing ho! for the hoo, who, was stuck and gone
On his own sweet self ; but his loud bazoo,
As a matter of fact, blew spawn.
He scratched his side quite oft indeed,
And he raised his arm, that the place of need
Might come to the scratch with greater speed,
‘When he plied his nails thereon.
Tobacco in quids in his left jowl lay,
Sing faugh! for his nibbs, with the
cheek!
And they bulged the jaw of the loafer jay,
Till it leaked beneath his beak.
He frescoed the floor of the crossroads store
And painted the stove with tobacco gore,
Till its filth was pat with the shirt he wore,
Which spread a scent like a rotten leek.
lump-jaw
His Joud bazoo dripped slander and slang,
Sing ho! for the mug full of slumy notes,
That the jayhawk rubbed on the notes he sang,
Of children kids and women goats,
He never cheesed it nor slipped a cog,
For his ’stinets, like those of a Poland hog,
Led the snoozers nose to the nearest bog,
Where he wallowed with kindred shoats.
He had a coarse laugh for his own vile jokes,
Sing ho! for the bloke with the horsy laugh,
That he oft cut loose mid congenial mokes,
Who stood for the riffand the raff.
He shut his mouth at his long pedigree :
Said “his sires were kine of way up in gee,”
And he butted it on the family tree,
In the sense of a well-weaned calf.
A beribbon ed girlie came flipping by,
Sing ra ! for the ribbon the girlie flip,
For she smashed him there with her goo-goo
eye,
And he “‘nectered” on her lip.
Soon she coppered onto his cultured talk,
And coussned him onto the grand cakewalk,
Till his cake was dough, and he walked the
chalk,
At a very lively clip.
Now he goes to church like a little man,
Sing la! for the maid with the heap hoo doo,
Who dug a jewel from the rough hardpan,
That proved to be a diamond true.
Sing loud for the maid who will cali a spade,
By the name it had when it first was made,
And is not afraid of the rust on its blade,
Getting into her eyes goo-goo.
A JAPANESE GENTLEMAN,
He came at a time when spring, like a
breath of Florida sweetness, had stolen up-
on Washington unawares, and given over
her parks and circles to a tender luxuriance
of bloom.
He came with a stack of letters which
demanded for him the consideration of
those who are high in the land. He came
as a person of importance, of consequence,
comes —attended by his tutor, who was
English, his courier, who was American,
and his two servants, who were Japanese.
He was very careful in his English, very
polite in his manner, excessively imper-
turbable, and unmistakably Japanese.
He came to see what he politely termed
the superior excellencies of this superior
country ; and those of the diplomatic circle
to whom his letters were addressed saw to
it that the paths which he trod were made
Together with the
tutor, the courier and the servants, they
protected him'on every side from all that
could possibly be injurious toa confiding
Eid
Japanese gentleman.
“But, alas! as the heel of Achilles was
“4 tulnerable, so they had left one avenue
are
$e
‘unprotected, one gate unguarded, being
« powerless to guard it ; and along that un-
‘sengineled highway, as sweet and penetrat-
ing as the breath of the violets that the lit-
‘tle Japanese gentleman soon learned with
delight to lay at her feet, came a vision—a
vision who, like himself, moved in the
diplomatic circle, and who sadly disturbed
those innermost depths of calm that had
heretofore circled the citadel of his innocent |-
little Japanese heart.
With the luring charm of a Washington
April making a background against which
her own beauty and charm stood ous in a
delicate brilliance that fairly rivalled the
April, Elinor Almy formed a torch at which
Mr. Waunatomo took instant fire,
Because of Mr. Almy’s Japanese inter-
ests, which were extensive, Mr. Waunatomo
found the doors of the Almy’s house open-
ed wide to him, and a vista of happiness,
brilliant, wide and, to his excited imagina-
tion, limitless, extended itself . before him
with the opening of those doors.
At the first sight of Elinor, so directly
opposite in beauty, in manner and in char-
acter from all that had heretofore been his
ideal of beauty, manner and character, his
untutored little Japanese heart experienced
a sensation that he found as pleasurable as
it was startling and strange ; it appeared
to turn completely over within his breast.
It any guardian angels are told off to
watch over the wandering sons of Japan,
then the one whose duty it was to attend
Mr. Waunatomo had undoubtedly neglect-
ed her office and gone off sight-seeing,
without even the kindness to hint to him
in warning that caution is indeed the
mother of safety !
Mr. Waunatomo was excessively incau-
tious. No thought of flying from the flame
which dazzled him appeared to present
‘itself to him. No idea ever wavered across
his brain of shaping a backward course
which should lead away from the disturber
of his peace.
The intention of his estimable Japanese
papa had been to have him make an ex-
haustive American tour ; which wish he
had been happily prepared to carry out,
but the first shock of that old jerky motion
in the region of his heart had ‘also blunted
the edge of his filial duty.
“‘Thad Washin’ton is so gread a city,”
said Mr. Waunatomo, artlessly, ‘‘that I
inspect all those gread United States coun-
try if I am staying righd here 1”
So, far from flying from the flame, Mr.
Waunatomo dared it, as it were, to do its
worst. He dined and lunched, and even
breakfasted, at the Almys’ ; he went auto-
mobiling with Elinor in the afternoons, he
came back with her to five-o’clock tea
afterward. He played ping-pong with her
with a delightful agility, a certain decorouns
impetuosity, and ejaculated “Ping!” or
“Pong !”” in politely triumphant accents
at each lucky stroke.
And all the while his little heart kept
up its odd gvmnastics, not quite so vio-
lently as at first, but unalterahly.
Elinor Almy herself was by no means
unfamiliar with that sensation of the heart
which Mr. Waunatomo was undergoing,
but she bad long ago learned to associate it
with the presence of Lientenant Richard
Powers of the U. S. 8. Alaska, now station-
ed at Yokohama, and if she was more than
ordinarily kind and polite to Mr. Wauna-
tomo her reasons, perhaps, were less con-
nected with filial compliance to Mr. Almy’s
wishes than from an illogical and inex-
plicable feeling that the presence of one so
lately arrived from Japan brought Yoko-
hama and Lieutenant Richard Powers
nearer.
It was a reason too subtly feminine for
Mr. Waunatomo to grasp, and, truth to
tell, it never occurred to him. He opened
his heart and soul to her smile as one of
the beloved cherry blossoms of his own
land would expand to the warmth and
light of the sun, and he was happy—so
happy that even in his own flowery Japa-
nese, still less in his painfully particular
English, there was no word which could
rightly express the rapturous happiness
which he felt.
The lights in the Benedicts’ ball-room
were shining down upon an assemblage
which, from their elevation, must have
seemed a mosaic of brilliantly diversified
coloring. They shone down gaily upon
Mr. Waunatomo, who perhaps was the
least self-conscious guest at Mrs. Benedict's
masquerade. Being entirely at ease in his
Japanese attire, gay with brocade and
stiffened with gold as became his rank, he
moved, light-hearted, good-natured, among
the rest, ceaselessly pursuing his ‘‘inspec-
tions’’ of the social customs of ‘‘that gread
country,’’ which customs he considered it
his mission to search out.
Life was rose color, Washington was
fairyland, to Mr. Waunnatomo,and curiosity
led him hither and thither among the
dancers like some gay, inquisitive little
butterfly. It led him at last to the shade
of the palms that screened the fountain at
the end of the conservatory—and there,
out of sight of the crowd and within the
crashing music of the military band faded
out by the distance toan echo of itself,
Mr. Waunatomo chanced upon Elinor Almy
alone.
There come moments when music and
lights and gaiety and all the pleasures that
the world and fashiqp can bring count for
nothing beside the fact that the person you
care for most is on the other side of the
world and you can’t see him ; and no
amount of longing that either of you can
do can annihilate even one of the miles
that lie between you. It is an established
fact that these moments come at the most
inopportune times, and even the gayest of
occasions cannot ward them off.
Such a moment had arrived for Elinor
Almy. One tarn round the room with
Dick Powers seerued just the one thing in
the world for which to exchange all your
earthly possessions, and each separate mile
of the thousands that lay between Yoko-
hama and Washington seemed to lengthen
itself out into three and mock her.
She had sent off her escort on some pre-
text—a plump and jolly toreador in satin
is only an irritation to have about when
what ove wants is a big, quiet man in the
navy blue with two gold bars on his collar.
Mr. Waunatomo, emerging from the
shadow of a tall palm, was smitten by the
far-away look on his beloved’s face. :
‘‘Ob, you most honorably beautiful
angel I" he cried. ‘Do not he sad !”’
Elinor looked ; it was as if some one had
interposed a bright little Japanese fan be-
tween her and her thoughts, yet the smile
that was struggling to the front delayed
long enough for Mr. Waunatomo to take
alarm.
‘Thad’s nod nise for me to say ?”’ he
inquired anxionsly. ‘‘It nod righd to ask
an honorable United States angel nod to
be sad ?”’
At that Elinor’s smile broke out like a
light after a shadow.
‘Ob, yes, Mr. Waunatomo,’’ she said.
‘It was all right, but you were mistaken.
I am not sad ; I was only thinking.”
Mr. Wannatomo heamed ; if his ange]
‘was not sad, all was right with the world.
‘Those honorably beautiful thoughts,’’
he said. ‘They must be of the fragrande
of the most adorable of cherry blosssoms.
Could one of the very little smallest of
those flower thoughts be of me 9” A
He trembled at his own boldness, but
some power outside of himself seemed to
be pushing this little Japanese moth on to-
ward the flame that to him shone out be-
yond all others in the world.
Elinor smiled down at him kindly.
*‘They. are very often of you,Mr. Wauna-
tomo,’’ she said. ‘‘We shall all be sorry
when you go back to Japan.”’
*‘It thad going brings a sorrow feeling to |
your honorable tender heart, I will nod
never go,”’ said Mr. Waunatomo with
decision.
‘Oh, but you must go back some day,
you know,’ said Elinor, ‘‘Thisis only a
visit,”’ and she continued to smile down
at him, that vague, kindly smile that was
rapidly upsetting the equilibrium of Mr.
Waunatomo. He felt it going to his head ;
yet how could a polite little Japanese gen-
tleman say ‘‘Stop smiling at me !”’ to the
adored of his soul, when the adored of his
soul was so supremely unconscious of the
tumult that raged under the gold and
brocade of hig costume.
‘‘Ishall nod go back,’’ said Mr. Wauna-
tomo, unexpectedly, ‘‘without my honor-
ably beautiful angel, which superior angel
is you, goes back with me to my honorably
unworthy home !’’ ; :
He followed this heroic declaration by
all the wooing that he had at his command
As rapidly as his own flowery language
could be turned into the most inaccurate
of English, just so rapidly he informed her
that she was his most superior ‘‘Star of
Daylight, his honorably exquisite ‘‘Cherry
Blossom,’’ whose delicacy and beauty were
so augustly superior that he was honorably
unable to put them into words. And his
love for her! Since the world hegan there
bad flowed no river with a tide like that
love! It would enfold her as the gold
sunshine enfolded the earth. It would
lavish upon her every joy which Japan
could afford. It would import for her
such joys as United States—Washington
ladies required for their happiness.
He painted the beauties of Japanese
domestic happiness with all the skilful-
ness of rhetoric. He tonched with becom-
ing modesty upon the honorable advantages
attaching to the rank of his father. He
wove a wonderful brilliant fabric descrip-
tive of the joys that waited for them in the
land of his beloved cherry blossoms ; and
then—the dim edge of a hitherto unknown
fear crossed his heart ; a fear that someth-
ing was gone wrong. The silenceof his
augustly honorable angel brought him for
the first time a chilling terror that his
dream after all should prove to he only a
bubble and break.
The smile had faded from Elinor Almy’s
face ; she put out her hand quickly and
laid it gently upon his.
‘‘Ah, don’t, Mr. Waunatomo,’’ she said
“I thought you knew—that every one
knew—that I was going to marry Lieut.
Powers.”
The light died out of Mr. Waunatomo’s
eyes—to make way for the anguish that
filled them. It isa bitter moment when
you touch the flame that dazzled your
moth-like fancy only to find a scorching
pain where you looked for the radiance of
delight.
‘“Thad same Lieutenant Powers thad I
meet on your most excellent United States
war-ship in Yokohama?’ he asked.
Elinor nodded.
For a minute the whole figure of the lit-
tle Japanese drooped forlornly, as one of
his own cherry blossoms might have droop-
ed, but an instinct of chivalry, which flow-
ers, where it flowers at all, without regard
to Orient or Occident. pulled him through.
‘“You have made an honorable excellent
choice,” he said firmly. “Thad Lien-
tenant Powers was a most honorably nise
man !’
‘‘Honorably nice!’ So he was, but it
brought another smile to Elinor’s lips, and
that smile was like another wave of the
scorching flame that was so hurtful to Mr.
Waunatomo’s heart.
**To you it is only funny,’”’ he said sad-
ly, ‘‘an’ to me it is everything los’.”’
*‘Ob, mo,” said Elinor swiftly, ‘‘not
funny. I am sorry—so sorry.”
“I am sorry, t0o,’’ said Mr. Wannatomo
naively, and there was something sus-
piciously like tears in his bright, dark
eyes. Then he straightened himself val-
iantly.
‘No,”’ he said. ‘‘I am nod sorry : I
am glad always that I have showed the
honorably superior sense to give yon my
love.”
The toreador in satin, coming back, found
Elinor as he bad ieft her, alone under the |
shadow of the palms, with the military
band still crashing out its distant music ;
but out in the wide, flower-embanked hall
a little Japanese gentleman stood aloof
from the gaiety, and watched it with eyes
for which that brilliant mosaic of color and
light had suddenly lost interest.—By
Harold Heartt Foley, in Everybody's Maga-
zine.
A Strange Ballroom.
Merry Dancers in a Salt Mine Three Hundred Feet
Deep.
The strangest ball room yet discovered is
that which in the name of charity was
opened, for one day only, a few weeks ago.
It was the floor of a salt mine—one of the
finest rock salt mines on earth—situated at
Northwich, in the very heart of the Che-
shire salt fields.. The novelty of dancing
in a salt mine appealed to great crowds,
and people came from all parts of the coun-
try eager to participate in so unique an en-
tertainment.
Down 300 feet into the very bowels of
the earth plunges the shaft, and the only
means of entrance is per bucket express.
This bucket, attached toa wire rope, is
guaranteed to take three passengers—some-
time four, if they he not overburdened with
adipose—on each journey, and the trip oc-
cupies one minute. 3
It isa wonderful sight, this salt mine.
Normally it is plunged in deepest gloom,
but on this occasion its dark recesses were
illumined by thousands of candles formed
into mottoes of flaming welcome, diamond
pointed stars, circles of light and other de
vices. It is 15 years since the public had
the opportunity of seeing the salt mine un-
der such conditions.
He who has been content to explore a
coal mine or a Derbyshire cave can form
little 4dea of the marvelous spaciousness of
the Baron’s Quay rock salt mine at North-
wich. Fifty acies in extent, it has heen
worked for 56 years, and hundreds of thou-
sands of tons of rock salt have heen extract-
ed. There are no narrow passages here.
You can walk under a roof 30 feet above
your head; one of the streets is 100 yards
long and 80 feet wide, with a floor of salt—
nothing but salt—in which, if you examine
closely, the rock dust sparkles and scintie-
liates like diamonds.
No fear of the roof falling in and burying
you, for it is supported at distance of 75 ft
by giant pillars of rock salt, each number-
ed for reference and each 30 feet square.
How cool the air is! It is a revelation, and
you are the more astonished wben your
guide informs you that there is neither gas
nor fumes; that, though working in salt,
the men never thirst; and that the tempera-
ture is never below 50 degrees in the bit-
terest day in winter, and never above 52
degrees in the most boiling day of summer.
Before joining the dancers, who were
waltzing to the strains of a military band,
let us see something of the workings, for
nowhere else in the world is there exactly
the like of this. First you are introduced
to the stables and told how, when young
these splendid horses are hob'led and low-
ered into these cavernous depths, never
while life remains to return to green fields
and pastures. Bob, there, has been work-
ing in the mine over 30 years, and is won-
derfnlly healthy.
A remarkable fact is that, probably ow-
ing to the equability of the temperature,
the coats of horses never grew, and never
require to be clipped.
Suddenly the mine resounds with a deaf-
ening noise, and you are informed that the
men are blasting. Picking your way over
the somewhat uneven surface, stopping now
and again to note the dull flash of a piece
of amber salt rock or a square of crystal salt
imbedded in a streak of marl, you soon
reach the desired haven. Men bared to the
waist, are wielding picks and breaking
down the saline walls; others armed with
long steel rods probe deeply into the rock.
their borings being filled with powder, and
four or five tons are blown out in a blast.
At times the hydraulic saw grinds its way
through a ledge with unerring precision
and enables the rock getters to hew out
more of nature’s wealth.
Millions of years have gone to form this
deposit of salt, which at this depth repre-
sents a solid seam of salt 40 feet in thick-
ness. The workings of the mine pass un-
derneath the River Weaver, but 200 feet
below its bed, and it is certainly curious,as
you wander about, for instance, the post-
men are sorting your letters, or that if you
ascend ‘in a straight line you would enter
the inner chamber of the local salt chamber
of commerce.
* And yet nature has been so generous that
rock salt ir quarried and blasted, sent up
on the buckets to the surface and delivered
in Belgium at nine shillings a ton.
By the world at large a salt mine is al-
most invariably confounded, with the do-
mestic salt of comrierce. This is natural,
but at the same time a great mistake. The
white crystals, which form so important a
part of the daily life are made from brine.
At a depth much nearer the surface than
that we have heen exploring, is found a
thinner layer of rock salt known as the top
bed.” Over this springs of water pass and
naturally become impregnated with the
salt until they are fully saturated. This is
brine, Itis pumped to the surface, turned
into open pans—just as the Romans did, for
in this department of life invention has
been unable to improve things—and boiled
As the water is driven away in steam, the
salt falls in flakes to the hottom, is raked
out, made into lumps or placed into bags,
and sent ont to fill the world’s salt cellars.
——Miss Vere—Why, Mr. Desmond,
did you go to the dining-room before you
greeted the hostess ?
Mr. Desmond—Well, the hostess will
keep, but the refreshments seemed to be
getting away. :
Climate of Alaska.
Varies as Much as That of the United" States.
Some Parts are Semi-tropical, and Have Winters
Without Ice—Mineral Wealth of Territory.
‘“What would you think if you were in
Europe and some one would ask you what
the climate of the United States was?”
asked Dr. Callb Whitehead, a banker of
Nome, Alaska, addressing a representative
of the Washington Star. ‘Alaska exceeds
in latitude by 5 degrees all the territory of
the United States east of the Mississippi
river, and it exceeds in longitude all the
territory by many more degrees. In geo-
graphical area it is about the same as that
portion of the United States. Thus there
is as much difference in the climate there
as there is here between Maine and Florida.
Yonr European friend in assuming that
Portland, Me., and Jacksonville, Fla.,
were in the same belt, possessing the same
climatic conditions, would not be as much
in error as you would bein asking me what
the climate of Alaska was.
‘‘However, information on other subjects
concerning Alaska is just as meagre. There
bas always been a lack of interv~ in that
country on the part of the United States,
and many erroneous ideas were caused by
the incorrect statements of those who op-
posed the purchase. While the treaty with
Russia formulated by Secretary Seward
was signed on the 30th of March, 1867; rati-
fied by the Senate May 28th, proclaimed
by the President June 20th and possession
under it taken October 18th, payment of
the $7,500,000 purchase money was delay-
ed almost a year owing to the failure of the
House to make the necessary appropria-
tion. The bill providing for the purchase
money was opposed by C. C. and E. C.
Washburn, Blaine, Logan. Cullom, Butler,
Delano, Morrill and others, and many who
voted for it did so under protest. All sorts
of ridicale were heaped upon the helpless
possession. It was called Grant’s ice box.
Seward’s folly and other like names. The
principal argument used was that it was a
usurpation of the prerogatives of the House
to make a treaty without first asking the
House for an appropriation to render it ef-
fective. Three or four small garrisons were
established at different points after posses-
sion was taken, but two years later the
number was reduced to t%o, one at Wran-
gell and one at Sitka. In 1877 these were
withdrawn, and for almost two years there
was no form of government there and no
protection. For several months in 1878-79
the United States was not represented there
by any official, civil or military. In 1884,
seventeen years after the travsfer, the first
semblance of civil government was accord-
ed, and the law giving it deprived the citi"
zens of the more important and valued
rights, privileges and immunities of
American citizenship. That was the treat-
ment Alaska received up to 1884, and to-
day the laws looking toward the develop-
ment of the country are conspicuous for
their absence.
‘‘Parts of Alaska affected by the Japa-
nese current are semi-tropical, zero is rare-
ly reached in Sitka and there have heen
winters without ice. The mean actual
temperature of Sitka is the same as that of
this city, Washington, and the extremes
of heat and cold are much less. While the
winters of that part of Alaska beyond: the
influence of the ocean current are exces-
sively cold, the summers are corresponding-
ly warm, affording climatic conditions fav-
orable to the growth of farm and garden
products. In all this interior country is
tillable land of fine quality, and there is
congiderable timber. I have seen spruce
trees from eight to ten feet in diameter,
and there is much pine, hemlock and red
and yellow cedar. All the cereals except
corn can be grown to perfection, and the
yield will be large. Barley, oats and veg-
etables can be successfully grown. Wild
timothy, blue joint and red top grasses
grow to a height of from four to six feet,
going to seed in the middle of August, and
this is a sufficient gnarantee that wheat,
oats, rye, barley and vegetables can be
raised. A dozen varieties of wild fruits
insure the success of domestic fruits. Red
and black currants, gooseberries, whortle-
berries, cranberries and strawberries grow
wild, the latter attaining great size. The
soil will undoubtedly supply food for any
population within reason which mighs find
its way to Alaska. Successes have been
made in agriculture in Canada and Russia
under exactly similar conditions of soil and
climate. There is abundant pasturage for
cattle and sheep and innumerable streams
furnish water. North from Valdez to
Eagle a strip of land along the trail has
been more or less investigated for thirty
miles east and west. The total distance is
453 miles. This area is south of the Yu-
kon, and is in reality about 600 miles wide.
It is safe to assume that the soil is about
the same and the climate not materially
different from that we are familiar with.
A fine agricultural country is thus suscep-
tible to development. :
Fistic Duel to the Death.
Old Enemies “Fought Until One Was Fatally
Hurt—Victor is Pursued and Thirty Spectators
are to be Arrested as Accessories.
As the result of a fistic duel, which re-
sulted in the death of one of the partici-
pants, the other fighter is being pursued
on a charge of homicide, and 30 spectators
are to he arrested as accessories.
There has been a feud of long-standing
between Wark Ward, of Uniontown, who
is connected with coal operations, and Om.
ar Stewart, a nephew of ex-Congressman
Stewart. On Saturday the men met and
agreed that they should settle sheir differ-
ences in a fist fight. ‘Going to a secluded
spot, they began their battle, but before
either side was ready to give up, asquad of
police appeared, and the combatants were
taken before the Burgess, who fined them.
DETERMINED TO FIGHT IT OUT.
Neither of the men were satisfied with
the result of their fight,and both were anx-
ious to renew it. They agreed to go out-
side the town limits and fight without in-
terference. They boarded an electric car,
aud went about two miles, toward Fai
chance,ahout 30 men from this place accom-
panying them to witness the combat. They
battled long and furiously, in a rude ring,
surrounded by the spectators, and clinched
and fell a number of tirres. It wos bloody
work, and after a half-hour or more Ward
was unable to rise. The crowd dispersed
and left Ward lying oh the ground, and
some traivmen helped him to his home at
Fairchance.
DEFEATED COMBATANT DIES,
It is claimed by some of the spectators
that Stewart kicked Ward in the stomach
in the last round. Another claims that
‘Ward fell on a log under his antagonist and
this caused his injury. Ward suffered great
agony until he died the next morning. The
Coroner has ordered an autopsy. Waid was
28 years old, martied, and had one child.
Stewart fled when he learned that Ward's
injuries were dangerous, but sent word
from the mountains that he would give
himself up.
Jewels at Durbar.
East Indian Chiefs Wore Capes of Diamonds and
Ropes of Pearls.
For 2000 years, and who can tell how
much longer. India has been absorbing
jewels. Rubies, diamonds, pearls, and
emeralds bave found their way to
Hindustan by caravan and sea, while
the mines of Burmah and of India itself
have contributed their quota. What has
become of them? Only an insignificant
quantity has found its way out of that
country, for once they are acquired by
native nobles and rulers they go to the
treasure house and seldom see light.
The best opportunity of displaying the
priceless accumulation for a generation has
been the Delhi durbar. It is safe to say
that the ruling chiefs that did homage to
the English ‘Raj’”’ on New Year’s Day
wore on their clothing the resources of
| their kingdom. Not only were the tur-
bans, robes, swordknots and seabbards
crusted with gems, but the trappings of
their very elephants shone with jewels.
Perhaps the Maharajah of Gwalior wore
the most splendid collection amid the
gorgeous display. His collar of immense
emeralds was worn over in England during
the coronation festivities, and attracted
great admiration. The three bands of
magnificent stones composing it are native
cut. They made a splendid and glittering
show; but if recut in European fashion
their brillianey woald be increased tenford.
Indian rulers, however, are a conservative
race. The rest of his robes were covered
with gold embroidery, set with many
smaller emeralds. Many of these jewels
have lost much of their value (according to
our ideas), from the fact that they have
been pierced for convenience in attaching
them to the Prince’s clothing.
In the case of the Rajah of Baroda, a
number of his priceless diamonds have not
only been pierced but engraved with texts.
‘‘Baroda’’ wears a collar of strings of large
diamonds that might almost be termed a
cape. Here and there it is picked out by
the glow of a red ruby or the gleam of an
emerald or sapphire. In his turban he
wears a large tassel of carefully graded
pearls, and the top of this wonderful head-
dress is a mass of variegated gems matching
the collar, while great diamonds are set as
pendants all around.
Though Sir Pertab Singh, Maharajah of
Idar, is a comparatively wealthy man, he is
poor compared to some of his compeers.
Yet he wears in his turban a jewel that he
would not exchange for the collar of Gwa-
lior or the headdress of Boroda. Itisa lit-
tle minature of Queen Victoria set in the
midst of a circle of brilliants and was pre-
sented to the gallant Sikh chief by her
Majesty herself, and he is never seen with-
out it. No Rajah sets greater value to the
heirlooms that have come down to him for
forty generations of forebears than Sir Per-
tab attaches to this simple gift.
Pearls are the favorite ornaments of the
Nizam of Hyderabad. and he has five great
ropes of them, which he wears on great
occasions, all graded and of inestimable
value.
Royal Fantastic Feasts.
Bear Heads on Silver Dishes Set in Hunting Scenes
at Bavarian Court.
The recent doings at the court of Prince
Leopold, the aged regent of Bavaria, are
causing widespread comment. as they show
a decided tendency toward the luxury and
display of the exetic and electric which
has landed recent Bavarian monarchs in
lunatic asylums, says a spesial cable
dispatch from Munich, Bavaria, to the
New York World.
The prince regent’s idiosyncrasy is in
the direction of the most elaborate and fan-
tastic table decorations and of dishes in ex-
traordinary forms. At the latest court ball
supper there was so dazzling an array of
artistic conceits that the guests were with
diffienlty induced to demolish them. Huge
lobsters were set in mayonnaise fashioned
in models of Moorish buildings, every de-
tail being perfect. The meats were coated
with a pearly paste, with the arms and de-
vices of the royal house, with all their
numerous quarterings, done in jelly of
absolutely correct heraldic colors.
The fish were dipguised in intricate
Sevres work, designa copied from the most
famous masters. Fillets of beef were
served on dishes fashioned to resemble the
Bavarian public edifices. Numerous wild
boar heads, lavishly ornamented, and
quarters of deer were on vast silver dishes
surrounded by oak leaves and a complete
representation of a hunting scene in delici-
ous paste. The ices were were laid flat on
silver dishes and arranged to make a por-
trait of the prince regent.
Distress in Brittany.
Sardine and Potato Failures Have Left 100,000
‘in Dire Need.
. The accounts of the sardine famine
and the terrible distress in Bittany, France
are heartrending. When it is remem-
bered that not only the fishermen but
the working members of their families are
deprived of all chance of a livelihood, the
magnitude and promptitnde of the relief
required may be estimated.
‘The reports of the municipal councils in
the western districts declare that their peo-
ple are literally dying of hunger. Itis to
be hoped that the urgent appeal of M., de
Kerjegn, deputy for the Finistere depart-
ment, will excite practical sympathy. The
appeal states that the number of sufferers is
over 100,000. Subscriptions have been op-
ened by several papers, and it is probable
that a special representation will be given
at the opera to aid the fund.
No similar dearth of sardines has occur-
red since 1831, and then not to such an -ex-
tent. The famine is aggravated by the
failure of the neighboring potato crops, the
potato along the Brittany coast being. as in
the west of Ireland, the chief item of nutri-
tion.
M. Delesclues, the Mayor of Douarnez,
gives a touching account of the shame-faced
way in which the Breton fishermen and
their wives linger on until, for their chil-
® | dren’s sake, they are driven to seek relief.
The families are larger than in any other
part of France, the fear of numerous off-
spring being lessened by the fact that they
all help to keep the home going.
Farmer's Novel Contract.
Joseph Market, eighty years of age, a
prosperous farmer, said to be worth $100,-
000, has been married to Miss May Dayis,
aged twenty-five years, savs a Marion (Ind. )
special to the Chicago Inler Ocean. Mar-
ket was a widower with four children. He
did not wish to marry a woman who want-
ed him only for his estate, and to insure
himself good treatment he made a con-
tract with the young woman setting forth
that she is not to get any of his estate at
death, but is to receive $5,000: a year as
long as she takes good care of him and
keeps him alive.
——Suberibe for the WATCHMAN.
Our Late Presidents,
Many Interesting Incidents in the Lives of Rulers
of United States.
Ulysses 8S. Grant was the only graduate
of West Point elected President. In fact,
Grant, McClellan and Hancock were the
only West Pointers ever nominated for the
office, writes J. C. Meigham, in the New
York Times.
The only cabinet office which has been a
stepping-stone to the presidency, is thas of
secretary of state. Six Presidents have come
from that nest. They were Jefferson, who
was secretary under Washington; Madison
under Jefferson; Monroe, under Madison;
Jobn Quincy Adams, under Mouroe; Van
Buren, under Jackson, and Buchanan, un-
der Polk. It may be said, however, thata
once Secretary of war (Monroe) became
President, but as he had been also secre-
tary of state, as has been mentioned, that
war office incident can hardly count for
anything.
James Buchanan, that *‘Old Pablic French
man’’ as he zalled himself in one of his
messages, was the only confirmed hachelor
we have had in the White House. He was
80 ‘‘confirmed’’ that he was not married
before he became President, he did not get
married while he was President, as Cleve-
land did, nor did he abandon his bachelor-
hood at any time afterward.
Washington, Madison and Polk were the
only Presidents who had no children, but
Taylor, who was a twice married man—
bis second marriage taking place when he
was President—had thirteen children.
No person, who was at any time speaker
of the house of representatives, with one
exception, has ever succeeded in reaching
the presidential chair, although many
speakers have in their day tried bard to get
there. Notably among the aspirants were
Henry Clay, Samuel J. Randall, James G.
Blaine and Thomas B. Reed. The success-
ful exception to the rule was a very ordi-
nary man compared to speakers who failed
to win the much coveted prize. It wae
James K. Polk. :
There has been three occupants of the
White House who were elected without ob-
taining even a plurality of the popular vote
not to say anything of the majority. They
were John Quincy Adams in 1824, Ruther-
ford B. Hayes in 1876, and Benjamin Har-
rison in 1888. The smallest plurality any
candidate elected ever got was 7,018. And
that, too, was out of a total vote of 9,209,-
406. It was Garfield who got that unpree-
adentedly small plurality in 1880. The
Democratic candidate who gave Garfield
such a close shave was General Winfield S.
Hancock.
Not to go further back than 1824, because
the records before that period are fragmen-
tary only, it may be a surprise to many
readers to learn that but seven of the twen-
ty Presidents elected since then received a
"majority of the popular vote; that is to say
more votes than the combined votes of all
their opponents. Those seven were Jack-
son in 1826 and 1832, Van Buren, in 1836,
William H. Harrison in 1840, Pierce in 1852
Lincoln in 1864, Grant in 1868 and 1872,
and McKinley in 1896 and 1900.
Strange to say, Cleveland, who ran three
times for President and was elected swice,
did not have a majority of either of the two
elections when he was victorious. When
he defeated Blaine in 1884 he had 62,683
plurality, but he lacked 222,951 votes of a
majority. Yet when he was defeated in
1888 he received 98,017 more votes than
Harrison; that is to say, 25,334 more votes
than when he was elected four years before
and yet when he defeated Harrison in 1892
although he had 380,810 plurality, he lack-
ed 945,515 of a majority.
Washington, when he began his second
term, made the shortest inaugural address
on record. It was about seventeen lines
of the average space of a newspaper. There
were only 588 words in Lincoln’s second
inaugural and only 431 in Arthur's. As-
tonishing as it may seem, it is a fact never-
theless that the personal pronoun I was
made use of but once in each of these two
last mentioned addresses. While this fact
is doubtless an eye opener to a good many,
but few people probably are aware that
there was one president who at his inau-
guration made no address at all. That in-
angural wonder was Fillmore.
But Cleveland did an unprecedented
thing also also at his inauguration. It was
not like Fillmore’s, however. It almost
paralyzed with amazement the oldtimes
statemen who were present and who had
been present at many other inaugurations.
All presidents bad hitherto read their ad-
dreeses from printed copy or written copy,
carefully prepared beforehand. Cleveland
without a scrap of paper in hand or in
sight anywhere, delivered his address from
memory. He did the same thing at his
second inauguration. None of his suec-
cessors has ventured to follow his example.
It is said that when a friend spoke to Cleve-
land after his first inauguration about his
wonderful memory, the president remark-
ed laughingly: ‘I never remembered any-
thing which I want to forget.
When McKinley ended his first term of
office the Democratic party and the party or
parties opposed to it since and including
the days of Washington bad had possession
of the government for precisely the same
number of years. The term ‘‘Republican’’
of course covers the two terms of Washing:
ton and the one term of John Adams, they
both being ‘*Federalist,’’ and the terms of
William H. Harrison, Tyler, Taylor, and
Fillmore, who were **Whigs. ’ :
——The most powerful gun ever built
in the United States was successfully tested
at Sandy Hook January 16th. This gun
cost $110,000. At the test three shots were
fired and the New York correspondent of
the Chicago Record Herald says that these
shots ‘‘served to fulfill the wonderful ac-
curacy and mathematical calculation of the
army experts who had charge of the con-
struction of the gun.” This correspondent
explains: ‘The first charge was 550
pounds of smokeless powder, and the
velocity of the 2,400, pound projectile
when it left the muzzle was 2,003 feet a
second. The pressure of the powder in
exploding was 25,000 pounds to the square
inch. The full charge of 640 pounds of
powder was used for the second shot, and
the velocity was 2,300 feet a second, or six
feet more than caiculated. The pressure
was 38,000 pounds to the square inch.
The elevation of the gun’s muzzle for the
first and second shots was 13 degrees and
the rauges were 3,000 and 3,500 yards.
For the final shot the muzzle was elevated
to 4} degrees, increasing the range to 7,000
yards. The charge was 640 pounds of
smokeless powder, and the pressure was
38,600 pounds to the square inch, All the
shots ricochetted two or three times on the
water, sending up great fountains of
sprays.’’