Beliefonte, Pa., January 1. 1909. The way the Plates Are Removed From the Animal. The comb of tortoise shell has a very pale and translucent yellow, the only really valuable kind of shell. “Many people think this pale, un- motiled shell the cheaper kind,” the dealer said. “Do you know why? Be- cause the imitations are all made like this. “hat is one vulgar error about shell. Another is that the tortoise is killed to get its shell casing. That is as absurd an error as it would be to say a sheep was killed to get its wool. “What is done is this: The fisher- men, having caught a tortoise, tie him and then cover his back with dry grass and leaves. They set fire to this stuff, it burns slowly, and the heat causes the thirteen plates of the shell to loosen at the joints. With a knife the plates are pried off, and afterward the tortoise is set free. The base, or root, of his shell is intact and will grow again. If tortoises were killed to get their shell they would long since have become extinct. “No, no. Every tortoise is, as It were, a farm—a shell farm. Fishermen catch him regularly and with heat and a knife gently remove his shell.” — New Orleans Times-Democrat. COLORS IN THE OCEAN. Various Causes For the Different Tints of the Water. Sky and cloud colors are often re- flected in the sea, but just as the air has its sunset glory so water has it. changing tiuts quite apart from mere reflection. Olive and brown lines in the waves off the coast come from the muddy sediment washed from the shore, as blues arise chiefly from reflected sky. But there are many other colors in the ocean. On almost every long voyage at sea spots of reddish brown color are noticed at one time or another, When a few drops of the discolored water are examined under a micro- scope myriads of minute cylinder shap- ed algae are seen, some separate, some joined together In scores. It is this organisin—sometimes called “sea saw- dust”—which has given the name to the Red sea, although It also abounds in other waters. Sometimes the wa- ter far from land will be seen to be of & chocolate hue for an extent of scv- eral miles, nud this is caused by mil- lions upon millions of minute one ~e! ed animals which lash themselves along, each on his erratic individua! course, by means of the finest of hair- like threads of cilia.—Pearson’s. The Traces of the Beasts. On every side in the Malay wilds the traces of the beasts—which here live as scheduled, as safe from moles: tation, as did their ancestors in pre- Adamite days—are visible on tree trunk, on beaten game path and on the yielding clay at the drinking places by the hurrying stream. Here a belt of mud nine feet from the ground shows that an elephant has rubbed his itching back against the rough bark of a tree, and, see, contrsze halrs are still sticking in the hardened clay. There a long, sharp scratch re- peated at regular intervals marks the passing of a rhinoceros. Here, agnin. is the pad mark of a tiger barely an hour old, and the pitted tracks of deer of all sizes and varieties surround the deeply punched holes which are the footsteps of an elephant. — Cornhill Magazine, Settled the Sign. When Willinn M. Evarts was sec- retary of state a new elevator man had been cmployed in the department who did not know Mr, Evarts by sight. In Lis car was a conspicuous sign to the effect that by order of the secre- tary of state smoking was prohibited. One day Mr. Evarts boarded the car in company with a famous senator, the latter sinoking a cigar. The new man promptly touched the smoker on the elbow aud said, pointing at the no- tice, “Can't you read that sign?" Mr. BEvarts promptly tore down the of- fending notice and, turning to the ele- vator man, said: “What sign? I don’t see any.” The attendant, suspecting something, wisely held his peace, but he followed the pair out and asked the guard at the door who the chap with the large head was. The guard told him. England's Prettiest Villages. After a very careful survey we ven- ture to write down the names of the six English villages that we consider the prettiest in the land so far as our own opinion and wide experience are concerned, The choice is made impar- tially and with full knowledge and due recognition of the claims of each to its high place. Here are the six: Bon- church, Isle of Wight; Clovelly, Devon. shire; Wilchampton, Dorset; Sonning, Oxfordshire; Shere, Surrey, and Clap- ham, Yorkshire.—London Strand Maga- zine. Accomplished. “She's got a future.” “Can she act?™ “No, but she can work her eyes bet- ter than any lady in the business, and as for wearing swell clothes—gee, she couldn't do better If she was twins!” — Life. Very Careful. Indulgent Uncle—Jack, are you care- ful about your personal expenses these Gays? Jack—Yes, sir. I manage, with some effort, to make them balance my | income to the exact cent. — Chicago | Tribune. | Nominating a President. Patll the constitutional wmendment | of 1504 the president azd the vice pres- iden: were voted for on the same bal- iot, the man with the second highest number of votes becoming vice presi- dent. The presidential electors have pot always been chosen by popular vote. Before 1800 it was the general cus- om for the state legislatures to choose the electors, and it was not until 1828 that presidential electors were chosen in nearly all the states by popular vote. As late as 1876 the Colorado legislature chose the three presidential electors to represent that state. There is nothirg in the constitution to prevent any state legislature naming fits own electors without appeal to the people provided such a method of election is prescribed by the state laws. From 1800 to 1824 presidential can- didates were chosen by the members of congress in caucus. In 1824 the electoral college failed to make a choice from the candidates so submitted, and the matter went to the house of repre- sentatives. Four years later Tennes- see's legislature nominated Andrew Jackson without any reference to the congressional caucus, His opponent, John Quincy Adams, was nominated in the old way, but that was the end of presidential nominations by congres- sional caucus. Gathered Him In. “You look very much excited, dear.” he said when she entered the parlor where he was waiting for her, “Well, 1 should think I ought to look: excited,” she answered, “I've just had the most awful argument with ma.” And she began to weep hysterically. “Why, what is the matter, my dar ling?" he inquired as he slid an arm around her waist and endeavored to soothe her. “What was the argument?” “Oh, how can 1 tell you? She sald you were only trifling with me and that you would never propose, and | told her she did you a great Injustice, for I believed that you would propose tonight. She said you wouldn't, and | said you would, and we had it hot and heavy. Dear George, you will not let ma triumph over me, will you?" “W-why, certainly not,” answered George. “I knew it, my darling,” the dear girl exclaimed; “come, let us go to ma and tell her how much mistaken she was.” And they did, and ma didn’t seem to be very much broken down over the affair, after all. A Little Paint Badly Applied. The Journal des Debats in an article on “Napoleon on the Stage” tells why the play “L'Homme de Destin” was taken from the stage when its triumph was at the zenith. One evening, ac- cording to the story, the emperor, ac- companied by his friend Duroe, went in disguise to the Porte St. Martin theater, where the piece was being per- formed, Eugene Chevalier appearing as the man of destiny. They bought a box, but had hardly entered it when the emperor broke forth in violent exe- erations against the “fool managers.” It seemed that the decorators had left in the box pots of oil and paint, and into these the emperor had stepped. “Wild with rage,” says the writer, “he rusbed from the house and, to make matters worse, was recognized in the lobby. No paper mentioned the inci dent, but by order of the emperor the play was never produced again, and Chevalier never appeared again as the man of destiny—and all on account of a little paint badly applied.” Passengers as Bouncers. A passenger in a full railway car- riage in England has a perfect legal right to push away any one else who tries to get into it. This decision was given at Marylebone police court when a man complained that he was pushed out of a carriage at Bishop's road sta- tion by another passenger, who said the car was full. “It is the duty of conductors,” said the court, “to see that the trains are not overcrowded. They are perfectly entitled to use reasonabie force to prevent any one from boarding cars when they are full. If they fail to avail themselves of this right the passengers are entitled to act for themselves.” The Sccret of Success. The motto of success was given Ib this tale, told at a banquet: A Swede among the miners in the west was noted for always striking pay dirt. His fellows thought that there must be some secret to the unusual success of the Swede and questioned him as to how he always succeeded in finding the spot where the gold cropped out. “Yell, Ay don't know ef Ay can tell anytang "bout dat.” answered Ole. “Ay only know dat Ay yust keep on dig- gin'."—Milwaukee Free Press. Wrong. A man recently entered a restaurant and ordered a steak. When the walter served him with it the customer said, “I'm afraid you'll have to take it back, for 1 find I've come out without my" —- “Purse.” of course interrupted the walter. “No,” replied the man, “my false teeth!” More Trouble. “What's the trouble now?” demanded the janitor. “More heat?” “No.” said the tenant of the latest tkyscraper. “but I want these clouds pushed away from my windows." Louisville Courier-Journal, Not Like the Play. “Life ain't like the plays.” “How now?" “YYhen 1 go ealling no housemaid ever *olls ma the family history while making pusses at the fu-niture with a feather duster "St. Louis Republic. i MAGIC GLASS. A Curious Mirror That May Be Made Transparent. One of the most curicas inventions of this age is what is cailed platinized glass, A piece of glass is coated with an exceedingly thin layer of a liquid charged with platinum and then raised to a red heat. The platinum becomes united to the glass in such a way as to form an odd kind of mirror. The glass has pot really lost its transparency, and yet if one places it against a wall and looks at it he sees his image ns in an ordinary looking glass, But when light is allowed to come through the glass from the other side, as when it is placed in a window, it appears perfectly transparent, like ordinary glass. By constructing a window of plati- nized glass one could stand close be- hind the panes in an unilluminated room and behold clearly everything going on outside, while passersby look- ing at the window would behold only a fine mirror or set of mirrors in which their own figures would be reflected. while the person inside remained in- visible, In France various tricks have been contrived with the aid of this glass. In one a person, seeing what appears to be an ordinary mirror, approaches it to gaze upon himself. A sudden change in the mechanism sends light through the glass from the back, whereupon it Instantly becomes trans- parent, and the startled spectator finds himself confronted by some grotesque figure that had been hidden behind th magie glass.—New York Tribune. SPEED LAWS OF 1816. Coaches Going Nine Miles an Hour Frightened the English. The outery daily growing louder in England against the excessive speed of motor cars lends interest to the fol- lowing passage from the Annual Regis- ter for 1816: A new coach was started in the spring to run to Brighton, a distance of fifty-two miles, in six hours, * * * This, however, became alarming, par ticularly in the populous neighborhood of Newington, through which it passed. and the parish officers there caused in formation to be lald against the driv ers for driving furiously on the publi road so as to endanger the lives of hi majesty’s subjects. The result of this is to be read in Mansard’s “Parllamentary Reports.” June 10, 1816, The attorney general moved for leave to bring in a bill the object cf which was the protection of the lives and limbs of his majesty's subjects by correcting the enormous abuses cf stagecoach drivers. Within these few days it would be hardly credible what a number of applications he had re- ceived on this subject. Some accounts were enough to freeze one with horror. A gentleman of ve- racity had informed him that on Tues. day, May 21. at 5:30, the Trafalzar and Regulator coaches set off from Manchester and got to Liverpool at 8:20, doing this journay in two hours fifty minutes, at the rate of twelve miles an hour.—~New York Sun, Fiji Islanders’ Sugar Cane Dance. A very curious and exceedingly elev er dance may be witnessed in Fiji call- ed by the natives “the sugar cane meke,” or sugar cane dance. It rep: resents the growth of the sugar cane In the first figure the dancers squat low on the ground, shake their heads. shut their eyes and murmur slowly and softly an unintelligible sentence. Gradually they all stand up together, growing taller aud taller, and as they “grow” they wave their arms and tremble all over from ankle to head. like the tall, tasseled cane waving in the wind, and still they keep on chant- ing louder and louder. The last fig- ure represents a series of combats meant to symbolize the exactions of the chiefs, who compel the “kaisi” willing and unwilling, to come and cut their crops.—London Standard. Ambulance Field Examination. Scene—Hamilton South Haugh; sol dler supposed to have been wounded is brought to surgeon's tent by bear ers. Bearer (reporting)—Severe scalp wound, sir, accompanied with insensi bility. Surgeon—Well, what have yon done? Bearer—Dressed the wound, sir. and gave him a little whisky and wa- ter. Surgeon—Whisky and water! How did you expect an insensible man to swallow that? Bearer—He axed fort. sir.—London Illustrated Bits. Tricks of the Trade. s Buyers of patent leather should look out for skins in which holes have been neatly covered with a piece of thin paper which Is varnished over, the un- finished side being puttied up with a mixture of glue and leather dust.— Shoe Manufacturers’ Monthly. Genius. As diamond cuts diamond and one hone smooths a second, all parts of intellect are whetstones to each other, and genius, which is but the resuil of their mutual sharpening, is char acter too.—Alfred Tennyson. Nor “The Long Green” Hicks—They say that the biind can distinguish colors by the sense of touch. Wicks—That's nothing. One doesn’t have to be blind to feel blue.— Boston Transcript. A Comparison. In a certain store there is a salesman named Green. Small Clarence learned his name and said, “Say, Mr. Green, there's a man living two doors from us who has a name the same color a® yours!” Belated Revenge. “Once when I was a small lad on my father's futm In Ohio.” said a judge, “a peddler got me to help him make some repairs to his wagon. 1 did so withont any thought of pay, but when the vehicle was mended as he drove off he told me the next time he came by our house on his rounds he would bring me a gift in the shape of a copy of ‘Robinson Crusoe,’ a book I had long coveted. How 1 waited for him to come again and how my heart fell when he failed to bring me the vol- ume! Again and again he promised, but never made good his word. Years passed. and 1 grew to manhood, but the memory of that crue! disappoint- ment never vanished from my mind. 1 was made a school trustee of my distr!~t. and one day a man applied for a position as teacher. In him 1 rocognized the peddler who had blast- ed my youthful hopes. There was an- other candidate for the job, and mine was the deciding vote. Nothing in life ever gnve me more pleasure than in votinz against the ex-peddier, who for hi= deception on a boy lost a good place. It was perhaps carrying the spirit of revenge too far, but there are rot many who would have done other- wise." Baltimore American. A Skater’'s Daring. Few feats of skating have ever ex- celled the exploit of one of Napoleon's officers performed shortly after the fight at Jena in 1806. The emperor dis- patehed an officer to Marshal Mortier requiring him to seize certain impor- tant towns without delay. When the officer arrived at the mouth of the ithe, where the river is seven and one- half miles wide, he was threatened with serious loss of time. The river wns just covered with ice: therefore to row over was out of the question. He could not cross by the nearest bridee without going twenty miles out of his way on roads heavy with snow, and he grodged the time that would thus be wasted. So he resolved to skate across the thin, freshly formed ice. Had he tried walking he would have snnk at once, but by skimming along on his skates at the top of his speed he got over the river both dry and un- harmed. By this daring if dangerous deed he egaved six hours, did what Na- | poleon bade him do and won great | eredit for his bold and clever exploit. London Bakers In 1310, In 1310 we find the following Bow bakeresses accused of selling halfpen- ny loaves deficient in weight: Sarra Foting, Christina Terrice, Godiyeva Foting, Matilda de Bolingtone, Chris- tina Prichet, Isabella Sperling, Alice Pegges, Johanna de Countebrigge and Isabella Pouveste. One wonders why the husbands were not summoned. In a similar case in 1316, when Agnes Foting's bread was seized, it was “ad- judged that her bread should be for- foited and given to the prisoners in Nengate because her husband did not come to avow (own) the bread.” Are we to assume that in the absence of the husbands the bread was merely forfeited without the infliction of a fine? An indication of the importance of the breadmaking business is also found in an enactment of the reign of Henry II1. to the effect that “every cart of Bremble (Brombley-by-Bow) or Stevenhethe (Stepney) that comes into the city with bread shall pay each day a halfpenny.”—S8t. James' Gazette. A Tardy Act of Justice. Marriages between English actresses and men of a high social position be- zan in the eighteenth century, if no earlier. There was Lavinia Fenton, the Polly Peachum of Gay's “Beggar's Opera,” who became Duchess of Bol- ton; there was Miss Farren, who mar- ried Lord Derby; also Miss Brunton became Lady Craven not long before Lord Thurlow married Miss Bolton. Earliest of the list, though, comes the Earl of Peterborough, who wmerried Anastasia Robinson, the singer, and kept the marriage secret until a few days before his death in St. James’ palace, when he assembled his relatives and friends and publicly acknowledged the woman “to whom he owed the best and happiest hours of his life,” a tardy act of justice that caused the lady to swoon away. How Ledgers Got Their Name. On the authority of the best lexi- cographers “ledger” is an adaptation of a once common word, “ligger,” sig- nifying any large book suited better for lying on a desk than for carrying about. Sometimes this was applied to a large account book, cartulary, or the like, frequently a great breviary for use in church, as distinct from a “por- tas,” or small one, carried by a “book bosom priest.” “Coucher” is another old synonym for “ligger,” the foregoer of the now general “ledger.” Old Theory Confirmed. Tommy, whose nose was out of joint, had been permitted tc see the new ‘baby In its bath. “Where's his other leg?’ he asked. eying the infant with strong dis:avor. “It's doubled up under him." ex- plained the nurse, “Yes!” he snorted. “Jes like de blamed stork what brung 'im!"—Puck. Saved Her Life. Riggs—Hear about Mrs. Titewadd? Told her husband she -vould kill her- self if he didn’t buy her a new hat Jiggs—What did Titewadd do? Riggs —Got estimates on funerals, found he could save $2 by buying the hat and saved her life.—Baltimore American. Stage Paint. Painting the face on the stage Is a barbarous custom come down to us from the age of oil lamps and candles. With gas and electric light and opera glasses for the remote seats in the house it is not needed.—London Mask. LADIES’ COATS. leather and and colors. match. handsome. LYON & 17-12 Lyon &. This is the place for you to buy vour NEW YEAR GOODS We have everything that is useful and practical at the lowest price. CHILDREN'S COATS. Ladies’ Fur Muffs and Scarfs. Misses’ Fur Sets. Children’s Fur Sets. Ladies’ and Chidren’s Golf Gloves in all colors and black. Ladies’ Cotton Gloves. Ladies’ Kid Gloves. Ladies’ and Children’s Mittens. Men's Gloves of all kind. Handkerchiefs for Men, dren, Silk, Linen and Cotton. Men, Wemen and Children. Umbrellas for Men, Women and Chil- dren, Silk and Cotton. Purses, Pocket-books, and Chatalines in Gold Pins, Brooches, Bracelets. Neck Wear for Women. Neck Ties for Men. Silk Scarfs in all colors. Embroidered Patterns in Waists. Embroidered Frontings for Waistf. Handsome Waists in fine Emb. and Lace. Fine Lisle and Silk Gauze Hose in Black Satin Damask Table Linen and Napkins to Satin Damask Towels, something very Coat Sweaters for Men, Women and Children. Fancy Persian Ribbons for Fancy Bags and a great many other useful presents. space to give you a complete list. Come into our store and we will help you to make a selection for Men, Women and Children at specially low prices. Allegheny St., Company. MISSES’ COATS. Women and Chil- Silk Mufflers for metal. Have not the COMPANY, Belletonte, Pa. Bellefonte Shoe Emporium. 0 Men’s $3.00 Boy’s $2.50 Shoes now successor to Bush Arcade Building, Boots and Shoes 0 Leather Boots now $2.25. Leather Boots now $1.98. 75 cent Baby Shoes now 48c Ladies’ $1.50 Warm Lined now 98c. Men’s $5.00 High Top Shoes $3.75. YEAGER’'S SHOE STORE. Yeager & Davis. BELLEFONTE, PA.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers