GRE
Bemorratic: atom
Bellefonte, Pa., May 9, 1919.
THE BETTER WAY.
XI ask not wealth, but power to take
And use the things I have aright;
Not years, but wisdom that shall make
My life a profit and delight.
I ask not that for me the plan
Of good and ill be set aside;
But that the common lot of man
Be noble borne, and glorified.
I know I may not always keep
My steps in places green and sweet,
Nor find the pathway of the deep
A place of safety for my feet;
But pray, that when the tempter’s breath
Shall fiercely sweep my way about,
I make no shipwreck of my faith
In the unbottomed sea of doubt;
And that, though it be mine to know
How hard the stoniest pillow seems,
Good angels still may come and go
About the places of my dreams.
XI do not ask for love below,
That friends shall never be estranged;
But for the power of loving, so
My heart may keep its youth unchanged.
—Phoebe Cary.
HE ALWAYS HAS HOPE.
Prospector for Gold One of Fortu-
nate Men.
The typical prospector for gold, still
met with in the far hills and deserts,
may well be taken by all men as an
example and an inspiration as far as
the blessings of staying hopes are
concerned, says the Los Angeles
Times.
“Hope deferred maketh the heart
sick,” says the proverb. But it is not
a good proverb. No matter how long
deferred a hope may be it should
never be abandoned. It should never
be anything but an inspiration and an
incitement.
Take this nomadic tribe of prospec-
tors, for instance. The typical pros-
pector is a man who has spent per-
haps the most of his life pursuing a
hope that has never been realized. Yet
we never find them discouraged. We
never know them to end their days
in despair. No matter how many their
years of failure may be they will tell
you that just beyond the next chain
of hills or in the heart of a still unex-
plored desert the treasures they seek
are surely awaiting them,
A most sincere and persistent man
i8 the prospector. He believes in his
quest and respects it. The little or |
the much that he wins by spasmodic
toll he invests in his dreams. He
braves the solitudes and the lonely
wastes of the world to reach the goal
for which he strives. Hunger, thirst
and other hardships and sufferings he
endures with a willing heart.
And he never despairs. That's the
glory of the prospector—he never de- !
spairs.
looks upon the prospector as a queer
and somewhat demented individual.
i8 pictured to us as plodding along in
the wildernesses and the sandy deso-
lations with his pack and his burro,
following the will-o’-the-wisps of for-
tune.
But the prospector is only doing in
his way what we are doing in ours.
as the prospector is following his.
ceed in safety and without adventure.
Otherwise we are. the same as the
wanderer of the desert and the hills.
And also we are soon discouraged and |
we are easy prey to defeat, while it is
death alone that can defeat the pros-
pector.
It seems to us that of all the mis-
fortunes there are in life—and heaven
knows there are many—the misfor-
tune of hopelessness is the worst.
“Only for hope the heart would die,”
said a poet. It was a true thing to
say.
And about this wonderful thing of | tors and nurses.
| sists of two containers, one to ac-
i commodate the instruments to be
| treated and the other for the gauze,
hope there is another way to look at it
and that is that we should always
have at least one hope ahead. That
is to say, we should always have some-
thing that we look forward to. Then,
other thing that we look forward to
will stay us,
Hope is something to be busy with.
It is something of which we should
accumulate a store. Always have
plenty of hopes and have them so that
they will reach out and last away into
the years of the future.
There is really something mysteri-
ous about a hope. If you will cherish
it faithfully and keep it warm in your
heart you will be almost sure to some-
time realize it. It is said that we are
are what our hopes are,
Since then a long-cherished hope is
most likely to be realized, surely it
were foolish of us to harbor hopes that
will not bring us comfort and Joy.
Hope for the best there is—not great
riches, not any material possession,
but peace for the heart and a serene
path for the white years of old age.
Cotton Growing in China.
Now that China has decided what
kind of cotton seed does best in that
country, and is distributing it by the
ton to farmers, cotton growing starts
an a new geographical development.
The time may yet come when the 'Chi-
pese laundryman, far from home, will
croon over his collars that he is “still
longing for the old plantation.” Work
done during several years in four ex-
periment stations indicates that out of
forty varieties of seed the kind known
as “Trice” is best suited for Chinese
I ————-~ aa...
and to insanity, especially moral in-
i growing from the forehead.
We laugh at this strange fellow who |
' the most convenient forms of fuel, and
, are many forms of cookers making
i use of this fuel, and the latest de-
. vice of this character is a sterilizing
; Small quantity of water in the lower
if what we have in hand fails us, the | chamber is heated by the flame from
i the alcohol and the steam therefrom
; basses around the instruments, thor-
: ple is made use of in the construction
of a food kettle for the use of aero-
keep the food hot for several hours.
what we believe ourselves to be. But |
perhaps we might better say that we i
' the two sides.
cultivation. It appears that “Trice”
yields 141 cattles to the moe, which 1s | JAY HONORED BY WELSHMEN |
the Chinese way of saying something
more than 141 pounds per one-sixth |
of an acre, for the catty weighs about |
one-third more than the English pound.
The Chinese pound, for that matter |
is called “kin,” but for some reasom
foreigners prefer to call it a “catty.”
Those Whom the World Has Recog- |
nized as Men of Genius Remark-
able for Precocity.
One character common to genius
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sanity, Js precocity. Cesare Lombroso,
professor of legal medicine, University
of Turin, relates that Dante, when !
nine years of age, wrote a sonnet to |
Beatrice; Tasso wrote verses at ten. |
Pascal and Comte were great think- |
ers at the ages of thirteen, Fornier at
fifteen, Niebuhr at seven, Jonathan |
Edwards at twelve, Michel Angelo at
nineteen, Gassendi, the Little Doctor,
|
|
i
at four, Bossut at twelve, and Voltaire
at thirteen. Pico de la Mirandola knew
Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Chaldean and
Arabic, in his childhood ; Goethe wrote
a story in seven languages when he
was scarcely ten; Wieland knew Latin |
at seven, meditated an epic poem at
thirteen, and at sixteen published his |
poem, “Die Vollkommenste Welt.” |
Schiller was only nineteen whan he
wrote “Rauber.” Victor Hugo com-
posed “Irtamene” at fifteen. Pope |
wrote his ode to solitude at twelve, |
and Byron published verses at eight. |
een. Moore translated “Anacreon” at
thirteen. Meyerbeer at five played ex-
cellently on the piano. Claude Joseph
Vernet drew’ very well at four, and at
twenty was a celebrated painter. At
father with a Latin dedication. |
Raphael was famous at fourteen. |
thirteen. Eichorn, Mozart and Eybler |
gave concerts at six. Weber was only
thirteen when his first opera, “Das
Waldmarchen,” was presented. Bacon !
conceived the “Novum Organum” at '!
fifteen. Charles XII manifested his
great designs at eighteen.
RIDICULOUS FAD OF FASHION |
Description of Head-Dress Worn by |
Women Some Centurics Ago Ap-
pears Almost Incredible.
Fashion plays constant pranks with !
a woman’s hair. Addison says in the
Spectator of 1718: “There is not so
variable a thing in nature as a lady’s |
head-dress; within my memory I have |
known it to rise and fall above 30!
degrees.” In the reign of Henry VI, |
ladies wore horns, having cn each side
ears so large that when they would
pass through the door of a room it |
was necessary to turn sideways and |
: stoop. It was judged necessary to en- |
The average man, hedged in by the
traditions of towns and cities or set- '
tled in the humdrum of the country, |
large the doors of the Chateau de!
Vincennes. The correct angle for the
hair was 45 from perpendicular, which |
entailed: great strain upon the hair!
Little |
thought of what we call cleanliness |
| or even decency was present at the |
. hairdressing of that day. Not only |
; was the hair left untouched for a most | suffered from a temporary fit of mania
; revoltingly long time, but materials | ‘
, Were used in the dressing of the hair
. and making the rolls (as Anna Green |
; Winslow related), which were most
We are following each our own dream
incredible.
The Boston Gazette of
. May, 1771, tells of a young woman |
The only difference is that we pro-
driving in Boston streets who was
thrown from her carriage and her high |
tower partly torn off. It proved to be
stuffed with yarn, tow, wool, curled
hair, and even hay.
Solidified Alcohol.
Solidified alcohol has proved one of !
is largely made use of at the pres-
ent time for many purposes. There
apparatus to be made use of by doc-
The sterilizer con-
bandages and similar material. A
oughly cleansing them and then pass-
ing to the upper chamber, where it
has the same effect on the contents of
that compartment. The same princi-
nauts. The food is packed in the in-
terior of the kettle and a small alco-
hol burner stowed away in the bottom
is ignited and the heat from it will
Explaining Knockout Blow,
When the lower jaw is struck on its
point, especially with an uppercut, the
bony portion of the ear inside is
driven forcibly upward into the glen-
old cavity of the skull, above and be-
hind which is situated the delicate
labyrinth of the inner ear.
The jawbone strikes hard upon the
thin plate qf bone that supports these
sensitive organs and gives a shock
to the semi-circular canals that is in-
stantly transmitted by them to the
bulb, producing dizziness, nausea and
momentary paralysis,
This explains why a sideways blow
on the jaw is more effective as a
knockout than ome delivered directly
upon the point of the jaw. For the
shock of a sideways blow is received
in one glenoid cavity, thdt on the side
opposite the one on which it is struck,
while the shock of a blow In the cen-
ter is divided between the cavities on
{ March the First Known the World
{ observed as a special day by the peo-
| ple of V7ales and is called St. David's
| day in honor of the good St. David,
i patron saint of the Welsh, who lived
1
Over as Anniversary of the
- Country's Patron Saint.
The first Gay of March has long been
in the sixth century.
St. David was said to have been the
son of a prince of Cardiganshire,
Wales, and is accredited with the
working of many miracles, especially :
among the poor of the country. It was |
said that when the saint first went
into the fields to preach to his follow-
ers the ground on which he was stand- |
ing began to rise until it assumed a i
goodly height, and henceforth was his |
pulpit. i
For hundreds of years the Welsh |
wore sprigs of leek—a plant with
broad bluish-green leaves and yellow
flower clusters—in their hats as a sym- i
bol of recognition of the day. This cus- |
|
i
i
tom was breught about, some say,
from the fact that in a battle of the
Welsh against their old enemies, the |
Saxons, St. David had ordered all |
Welshmen to go into battle wearing
their native leek, not only to distin-
i guish them from their enemies, but to
bring them good luck.
Other writers argue that the badge
| was worn more as a fraternal sign and
because leek was grown in every Welsh
garden and was the favorite vegetable
of a true Welshman.
Writers of the last century depict
a typical Welsh garden as a garden of
onions, garlic and leek. Homely inci-
dents are told of Welshmen assisting
each other in farming and eating their
leeks together, a ceremony symbolic of |
hospitality and good fellowship.
NOT ALWAYS PROPERLY SANE :
| Scientists Assert Few People Have at
{
All Times Full Command of Their !
Mental Facultles.
— 1
Many people think that the expres- |
sion “temporary insanity” is merely |
used by a jury wishing to save rela- i
tives pain, but numbers of doctors |
who have made a study of mental dis- i
orders emphatically declare it is no |
idle term. :
One doctor has stated that tempo- |
| rary insanity is a condition of double
consciousness, not dissimilar to ep-
ilepsy. A person normally quite sane |
may have attacks of temporary aber-
ration lasting little more than a few
minutes, especially after long bouts
of hard, continuous mental work, be-
ing particularly liable if insomnia su- '
pervenes.
Crimes have been committed in the
early morning when the perpetrator
has not really been properly awake,
and has been horrified to find what
he has done. This is a true case of
temporary insanity, but it is compara-
tively rare, and a man in normal
health would not suffer in this way.
A specialist in mental diseases has
stated that he knew a case in which
a person was insane during a certain
time of each day, and that others have
been known when the patient was
quite normal at ordinary times, but
regularly once a month.
Forming Artificial Pearls.
Pearls were valuable as gems in
China as early as twenty-two centuries
before our era, and the Chinese had
worked out a plan for the artificial
formation of pearls about 700 years
ago, which they have carried on ex-
tensively. Large numbers of oysters
are collected and the shell gently open-
ed to allow the introduction of vari-
ous foreign substances which are in-
serted by means of a forked bamboo
stick. These pellets are generally
made of prepared mud, but may be
bone, brass or wood. The oysters are
then placed in shallow ponds connect
ed with canals and are nourished by
tubs of night soil thrown in from time
to time.
Some time later, from several
months to two years, depending upon
the size of the gem desired, these oys-
ters are taken out of the shell, the
pearls removed and the body of the
animal eaten as food. Millions of such
pearls are sold annually in China. The |
most valuable are either round or pear '
shaped.
Few Old People in New Guinea.
The average duration of life is short-
er in New Guinea than in any other
country, owing to the peculiar diet
of the natives, who devour with gusto
the larvae of beetles, dug out of decay-
ed tree trunks, and habitually drink
seawater when near the coast. “The |
‘people die off at about forty,” A. E'
Pratt says in his “Two Years Among |
the Cannibals of New Guinea.” “We |!
saw one very old man, who may have |
been about sixty years of age—the |
only example of longevity that we
came across. He was bent almost
double, and had a long, white beard. |
His fellow tribesmen regarded him as '
a great curiosity, and brought him to
see us. Despite the decrepitude of his
body, however, there was no trace of
senility; his senses were unimpaired,
and the poor old creature showed great |
gratitude for a gift of tobacco.”
Hence the Congestion. |
“You have plenty of room in Amen |
ca,” said the foreign visitor. .
“OR, yes.”
“Then why do you build so many
sky-scrapers?”
“I guess that’s because the average
American thinks he can't transact
business unless he's within
distance of the post office."—Birming. |
ham Age-Herald. : ;
| of them was called a “cabinet maker.”
i scapes the size of an ordinary sheet |
i of drawing paper. He would surround |
: tests, that anger is a poison in the
poisoning.
ART DEVELOPED AS NEEDED
' Makers of Cabinets Fitted Themselves |
to Demands of Increasingly En-
lightened Generations.
—
Cabinet making, as all arts, began :
, with the human needs of people. War
and the necessity for hastily moving
; from place to place during the semi-
i civilized periods gave place to the
making of homes and the effort to .
furnish them comfortably—one of the |
strongest impulses in nature and the |
surest sign of civilization. :
The old chests in which they kept
their belongings were at last allowed |
i to remain stationary and were used as |
| seats.
The name of these chests in |
England was “cabins,” and the maker |
As soon as might be, the cabinet maker
provided the old chests with backs and
they became settees. while others were
| raised on legs and became cabinets, |
: : . i
i or, being provided with doors and!
i drawers, became cupboards or “chests !
of drawers.” Tables and beds were |
| also devised, together with wainscot- |
ing for entire walls. and people really
began to live.
The workmen who made these!
things were capable of designing and
executing an entire department with |
its furniture. Great skill was required, |
' and notables and royalty prided them- :
selves on having somg artist-artisan to
do their bidding. In the establishment :
of these men different degrees of skill
were recognized, and the system of '
apprenticeship obtained. A youth en- |
tering one of these studio workshops, :
having passed all the grades, became !
a “master.” To attain this degree was |
to be worthy of the respect of the!
world. :
ART WORKS IN ANY LENGTH
Method of Getting Things Done Quick. |
ly le Not by Any Means an
Idea to Be Called New.
Hurry is not characteristic of the |
i present century alone; our ancestors |
| were not always immune from the |
ten was a master in scheming out
short cuts and saving time.
- Vanderstraaten had little difficulty, |
it Is said, in painting in a day 30 land- |
habit. The Dutch artist Vanderstraa- |
|
i
himself with pots of paint, each of |
which had its particular purpose—one !
for the clouds, one for the grass, one |
for the shadows. When he was ready |
to begin painting he called his assist- |
ant, “Boy, a cloud!” and the lad speed- |
ily brought the desired pot. |
Vanderstraaten, with a thick brush, |
quickly transferred the clouds to the |
canvas. With the finishing strokes he |
calied, “There are the clouds; bring |
the grass!” And so it went, without |
a moment’s waste of time, until the
80 landscapes were finished. :
On occasions Vanderstraaten would |
paint in the manner described a land-
scape upon a long piece of canvas.
In filling the orders of customers he |
would cut the strip into pieces of va- ;
rious lengths. A purchaser could buy |
two, three or four feet of landscape, ac-
cording to his fancy or according to
the size of the space he wished to dec-
orate.
Pugilism in 1725. {
Jack Broughton, the father of pugil- |
isa, fought his first fight over 193 |
years ago; to be exact, it was on July
9, 1725. He was engaged in many
rough-and-tumble fights with other
lads, but at that time he knew noth- !
ing of boxing, which was just being in- |
troduced by James Figg. While attend- |
ing a fair Broughton was attracted by |
a boxing booth kept by Figg and was |
much incensed by the foul tactics used |
by a big man in boxing a much smaller |
one. He remonstrated with the big
bruiser and an altercation ensued |
which had reached the stage of fisti-
cuffs when Figg interfered and invited
the two men to the stage to settle
their differences. Young Broughton, |
after ten desperate rounds, completely
triumphed over his older, bigger and |
{
1
i
more experienced opponent. That was
Broughton’s introduction to the ring. |
After Figg’s death he became cham- |
pion and by formulating a code of ;
entitled to rank as the founder of |
. rules to govern the game he became |
| modern pugilism.
TOILED HARD FOR SUCCESS
Great Sculptor Knew Many Vicissi-
tudes Before His Genius Compelled
World's Aeknowledgment.
The old. old story of genius toiling
‘against adversity and winning the
struggle is ever repeating itself—and
is ever interesting. Rodin, the great
French sculptor, elimbed the ladder
latoriously, but with such a persist-
ene that fame could not escape him.
In “Rodin, the Man and His Art,” Miss
| Judith Cladel tells how the young ar- |
tist, in order to live, applied himself
to varied occupations.
He chipped at stone and marble, he
drew sketches for the fashionable jew- |
elers of Paris, and he made articles
of decorative art ordered by manufac-
turers. Despite a considerable loss of
time he obtained by that means a true '
apprenticeship in art, and finally was
able to realize his first dream—to have
an atelier of his own.
His atelier! It was a stable in the
Rue Lebrun, in the quarter of the
Gobelins, where he was born. It was
a cold hovel-cave, with a well sunk in
i the angle of the wall that, at every
season, exhaled its chilling breath. It
did not matter. The place was suffi-
ciently large and well lighted.
There Rodin accumulated his stud-
ies and works until the place became
80 crowded that he could hardly turn
himself about, but, being too poor to
have them cast, he lost the greater
part of them. Sometimes the soft clay
; settled and fell asunder; sometimes,
: becoming too dry, it cracked and crum-
bled.—Youth’s Companion.
NEVER WORE ROYAL DIADEM
Seven Queens of England Who Re-
mained Uncrowned on Account of
State and Religious Reasons.
There have been seven uncrowned
queens. of England. The first was
Margaret of France, the second wife
of Edward I. Money was scarce in
the government coffers at the time,
and Edward could not afford the ex-
pense of a coronation. The four later
wives of Henry VIII, Anne Boleyn’s
successors—Jane Seymour, Anne of
Cleves, Oatherine Howard and Cather-
| ine Parr—were never publicly crowned
as queen consorts. Perhaps it was be-
cause Henry thought it would cause
ridicule to have coronations occur as
frequently as his marriages. Henrietta
Maria, the wife of Charles I, being a |
| strict Catholic, refused to take part !
in a state function which would com-
pel her to partake of the sacrament ac-
cording to ihe rites of the Church of
England. Sophia Dorothea, the wife
of George I, and mother of George II,
was never recognized as queen of Eng-
land, and therefore cannot be classed ;
ts one of Britain’s uncrowned queens.
! Caroline of Brunswick, the wife of
George IV, was not permitted to be
present in Westminster hall at his
coronation.
Lone Tree of 1849.
There was an immense cottonwood,
four feet thick and very tall, which
stood in Nebraska almost in the cen-
ter of the continent, half-way between
. New York and San Francisco, which
| was within one mile of that center.
Under its branches rested thousands
of forty-niners en route to the Eldo- |
rado of the Pacific coast. It was the
best known camping ground on the
old California trail. From 1849, when
the gold seekers rushed across the
great plains down to the completion
of the Union Pacific railway, the great
tree was a guidepost to the wagon
trains going West.
After the railway was completed
there was no further use for the old
| tree and it eventually rotted away
{ and died. In 1910 a monument was
erected on the spot that the tree had
occupied. It represents the trunk of
a giant cottonwood and bears this in-
scription: “On this spot stood the
original Lone Tree on the old Cali-
fornia trail.”
Remarkable Women Rulers.
Remarkable in many ways was Eliz-
abeth Petrovna, empress of Russia,
and daughter of Peter the Great. She
died 157 years ago, after a reign of 20
years. While history knows her chief-
i ly for her immorality, she eft behind
Stones of Remarkable Power. ;
Lovers of the occult will be inter- |
ested in a story told by Lady Blunt in !
her remarkable volume of reminis-
cences.
Her husband was sick unto death
in Constantinople, and the Turkish
government loaned her two small
stones which had been in its posses-
sion since the Conquest, telling her to
apply them where the pain was most
severe,
Lady Blunt used them as directed
with the result that the sick man
speedily recovered, although four doc-
tors had previously decided on an im-
mediate operation. i
“These wonderful stones,” adds Lady |
Blunt, “are found at rare intervals in |
the veins of a donkey's neck; per-
haps only one stone in a million don- i
keys.”
Anger's Poison.
Biologists have proved, by laboratory
blood; that a person who loses his
temper is actually selfpoisoned. Tdke
a few drops of blood from a man in &
violent rage, they tell us; them
on the tongue of a guinea and it
will probably make the ]ittle beast sick,
Yet we hear people brag, “I gave him
a good going over,” “I got goed and
mad,” as if ene bragged of deliberately
Jontracting a dangerous case of blood
' her monuments to her better nature,
{ the University of Moscow and the
Academy of Fine Arts in Petrograd.
Empress Elizabeth’s mother was the |
Empress Catherine, who had been the
wife of a Swedish dragoon, and be-
came the mistress of several men be-
fore Peter the Great married her.
Her daughter,
Frederik the Great that she made
war on the witty Prussian king, and
until her death Russia was one of his
most dangerous enemies.
Ant’s Sweet Tooth.
One of the greatest pests that haunt
our orange groves is the Argentine
ant, and yet it never goes near the
trees. Every bit of the damage it
does indiré®tly. It seems that it has
a very sweet tooth and is abnormally
fond of a honey dew that is secreted
by certain mealy bugs and scales that
are most injurious, and it will go te
any lengths te protect them from be.
ing destroyed or harmed in any way.
In Louisiana they have discovered
a way of trapping these ants. They
construct @nests and when they, all
congregate there, as they will in rainy
weather, they can destroy them,
In California they poison them with
poison syrup. When they are once
gone it is easy enough to deal with
their friends. -
i e- ta e—
Elizabeth Petrovna,
when she ruled Russia, once became '
so mortified by one of the jests of
HOW SAILORS “LAY GHOSTS”
Men of the Sea Give Short Shrift to
Matter-of-Fact Spooks That
Annoy Them.
The first lieutenant had just been
relieved, writes “I. S. T.” in the Lon-
Hon Mail, and was wending his way
from the destroyer’s bridge to his
cabin. It was fairly calm, but very
dark, and there was little to be seen
but a line of waves on each side and
the dim form of a second destroyer
| in station astern. Even for this “No.
: 1” had no eyes, for he bad had a
\
. Weary middle watch and bed was his
| only interest. But he did notice a
! weird figure, apparently human,
| erawling about near the “bandstand”
| of the after gun.
He went to investigate and found
the surgeon probationer, clad in a
chamois leather overall suit, in which
; he had been sleeping on the ward-
room couch below—for every one
must sleep more or less clad, ready to
turn out at a moment's notice. He
was feeling about in the dark, ap-
parently in search of something.
“What on earth are you doing,
Doc?’ he asked, and got the brief an-
swer, “Laying a ghost.” The first
lieutenant grunted and disappeared
below, leaving the doctor to insert a
paper wedge between a loose rattling
shell and the side of the stand in
which it was placed.
A ghost, in naval language, is a
noise which cannot be accounted for.
In a destroyer one becomes a con-
noisseur in noises.
The steering gear clanks heavily at
intervals and the rhythmic beat of thé
engines is always there, changing only
when the speed is altered. In heavy
weather the washing and beating of
the water makes a hundred noises.
But ghosts are extra noises and
should be avoidable. Some misplaced
or ill-fitting article or a loose screw
may cause the noise, and with the
ship’s vibration it will knock or rattle
with a regular persistency that will
drive the most placid mind nearly to
frenzy, and sleep will rarely be the
victim’s portion until he has left his
warm bunk and found the cause of
the trouble and the ghost is laid.
COIN TOOK FANCY OF ARABS
Austrian Maria Theresa Dollar Has
Long Been the Principal Money
of That Region.
The only coin in general circulation
In Abyssinia is the Austrian Maria
| Theresa dollar, of silver. It is also
the principal money in Arabia, and
! the story of its introduction in those
regions and all the neighborhood of
the Red sea is quite interesting.
More than a century ago trading
| Arabs got hold of some of these dol-
lars and found the effigy of the queen
(which they bore on one side, the re-
verse showing the Austrian double
eagle) so attractive that they sought
, to obtain more of them, for sale as
i Jewelry. Later on they became highly
{ popular as a medium of exchange in
‘ mercantile transactions in Arabia;
and when at intervals the Turkish
| government prohibited their importa-
{tion a large and profitable business
‘was done in smuggling them through
Aden and other seaports.
They are all dated 1780, being even
| now minted from replicas of the orig-
inal die, which is of rather crude
workmanship. Any change would not
{be understood by the Arabs and
| Abyssinians and would render them
less acceptable.
Bankers and merchants in the Red
sea region import the Maria Theresa
dollars in bulk from Trieste, selling
them at a good profit or exchanging
them for native merchandise. They
are somewhat larger than our silver.
. dollars, but weigh less than an ounce
and are only a little over four-fifths
silver. '
: Wrought Iron From Ore.
i Wrought iron is not commonly pro-
' duced direct from the ore, but a Cali-
‘fornia metallurgist, using petroleum
{ as fuel, claims to avoid the usual trou-
bles and to obtain pure iron at'a much
1educed cost. The ore, after grinding
to pass through a sixteen mesh sieve,
: is mixed with some heavy oil, such as
asphaltum. The mixture is made into
cylinders, each of a size to yield about
150 pounds of reduced iron, and these
cylinders are placed in the furnace
and gradually heated to the welding
point of the iron, then taken out and
compressed into blooms. A little sill-
cate rock is added to give slag enough
to hold the semifluid mass together.
To avoid reoxidation—the great diffi-
culty in previous processes—a reduc-
irg atmosphere is maintained in the
| furnace, and the bloom is compressed
before entirely removing from the fur-
| nace. The time required for heating
| through and reducing Is given as four
| or five hours.
: Generous Royal Gambler.
i One of the most romantic gambling
, stories is told by Mr. Thiselton-Dyer
of a plainly dressed stranger who once
| took his seat at a faro table, and after
an extraordinary run of huck succeed-
ed in breaking the bank. “Heavens!”
, exclaimed an old, infirm Austrian offi-
! cer who sat next to the stranger. “The
“twentieth part of your gains would
make me the happiest man in the
world I”
“You shall have it, then,” answered
the stranger as he left the room. A
servant speedily returned and pre-
sented the officer with the twentieth
part of the bank, adding: “My mas-
ter, sir. requires no answer.” ‘The
successfal s was soon discov
ered to be no other than the king of
Prussia In disguise. t
——r.o
wp,