M) LOXKKR AShEEP. New Oi leans Beginning to Recog nize Her Own Importance. C'nstnnii anil I'onillllonii R\i«llnu for Ceiiturie* Ulilng Wny to Mod ern ldt-nn 111111 I |> (o llnle I m prove men In. [Special Now Orleans (La.) Letter.l New Orleans has been the Kip Van Winkle of American eities. For years she hijs slept anil allowed great opportunities to pass her door unheeded. The good things that might have been hers for the asking were waved aside with indifference, sometimes with contempt. lilessed by providence with a geographical location which, for purposes of commerce, has no equal on the American continent, her people clung to the traditions of the past, to unwholesome sanitary condi tions and unprogressive municipal gov ernment, which frequently was tainted with corruption and premeditated mal administration of affairs. Hut the day of awakening came at last. II came suddenly, unexpectedly. New blood was introduced into the council chambers, men noted for en terprise and honesty, young men filled with local pride and an understanding of the city's most crying needs, were j chosen to make its laws and restore it ! to its proper position as the metronojis i of the south, the gateway to Central • and South America and the islands in ; the ( aribbcan, the great trailing center of the American gulf coast. For '*oo years the surface drainage i of the city was emptied into Lake Pont ••hartrain, a beautiful body of water just north of New Orleans, but a little | over a year ago the city council began SIDNEY STORY, ONE OP NEW OBLEANS' PROG RE DBRS« the construction of a drainage system which will take care of all the storm water and drain every inch of soil be tween the Mississippi river and the lake and reduce the moisture in the soil ful ly six feet. The first section of this .system will soon be finished and will drain the entire business section. The drainage canal proper is 30 feet wide and '-5 feet deep, built of brick and cement on a concrete foundation, and covered over with asphalt. This work has seemed a wonder to all who have investigated it, and is one of the great engineering triumphs of the decade, of which its originators, Maj. llarrod and L. AY. Urown, have ample reason to be proud. To build a canal of the dimen sions indicated in some places would be child's play, but to construct miles upon miles of monster culverts in the soft soil of New Orleans seems little short of miraculous, liecently a party of engineers and representatives of the press descended into the culvert at Canal street and walked a distance of two miles upon a surface wide enough to accommodate three teams driven abreast. That these underground tourists were more surprised than when they took their first boat ride in the great sewers of l'aris is not surpris ing. It will require fully five years to complete the work so auspiciously be gun. and a total outlay of perhaps SB,- 000,000, of which $2,000,000 have already been expended. When completed, the new system will carry off the drainage to the (iulf of Mexico, by way of Hayou Bienvinue and Lake ISorgne, thus keep ing uiicontaminatcd the waters of Lake l'onfchartrain, one of the most pic turesque lakes in the I'nited States. The system of sewerage and of re moving the night soil is still as primi tive in New Orleans as when liicuville inarched across the swamps from Biloxi ami planted the standard of France upon the banks of the Mississippi. The vaults arc emptied t u ice a year, and the offensive matter dvmped into the river, producing a condition at once unsani tary ami offensive. This fact has at last been impressed upon the people, and even those most stubbornly opposed to progress arc beginning to realize that in order to avoid quarantines and their attendant evils and business depres sions, and epidemics and pestilence, the cause must be removed. A campaign | was begun a short time ago for tlie con struction of a modern sewerage system, a thorough system of municipal water work!* and an adequate system of street pavii.g; and it is almost certain t hat the pcoplu will vote in favor of issuing | bond I for that purpose. Such improve ments would not only redeem the city from filth, but make it at once the healthiest and most beautiful muni cipality in the south and the greatest j gut t outside of New y or k. The death rate of .Vrtv Orleti.'* now ' is about. 29 per 1,000. Improved drain age conditions will lower il easily to ; and the completion of (lie sewer age and paving systems and an abun dant supply of pure water would, speak ing from scientific experience, reduce it to ten or even nine per 1,000. Preparatory to these far-reaching innovations the city council lias caused the telegraph, telephone and electric light companies to playe their wires underground, so that in the, space of half a decade New Orleans will have , evolved from the slowest to the most , progressive city in America. | The public buildings, many of them , j old and uncomfortable, are about to I give place to modern and architectural | ly perfect structures, and the parks, | uncqualed in point of natural beauty, j are being improved at a rapid rate. | Audubon park and City park, by the way, are famous for possessing the most exquisite oaks in America, some | cf the trees being .100 years old. That the commercial development Will more than go hand in hand with ! the city's sanitary improvement cau | not for an instant be doubted. New Or j leans lias always been the great cotton I trade center of America, and has han | died immense quantities of sugar and j rice in addition. Moreover, it isthcsec | ond largest grain exporting point in the I'nited States. Hut its trade in manu | factured goods and its manufacturing [ interests are in want of development. Capital has been kept away from the city by its unsanitary condition, and ! the same cause has hampered its ship | ping interests. Situated nearly 100 j miles from the mouth of the Mississippi j river it possesses a harbor which, at. comparatively small expense, could be made accessible to our modern ocean leviathans. The I'nited States govern j i:ient is fully aware oft his fact, and has I just let a contract for 1 lie const ruction of a steel floating dry dock, to cost $600,- 000, which portend tile establishment of a navy yard and tlie deepening of the river channel. Once a thoroughly healthy city, free from the incubus of quarantine. New Orleans w ill command the trade, by force of location and su perior facilities, which it now seeks to control by other means. Manufacturing enterprises are natu rally attracted by sanitary surround ings and shipping facilities, and the New Orleans of the nineteenth century, a town of sentiment ami tradition, will evolve itself into a mighty mart, where sordid competition will be tempered by art and letters and the high breeding of its social leaders—a typical twen tieth century metropolis, cosmopolitan in population, international in com merce and thoroughly American in cit izenship and higher civilization. Ihe writer has dwelled at some length upon the material aspect of the present condition of the city of New Orleans, because higher development depends upon material surroundings. I he women of New Orleans recognizer! this inalterable l.u t long before their husbands and fathers, and were among the *jrst to advocate the construction of the great drainage canal already de scribed. Their efforts were ably sec onded by the press and by theyoungef element of business and professional men who realized <'•.«» the future of their city depended upon progress, both within and without. And among this coterie of bright and promising public men none is entitled to greater praise than Mr. Kidney Story, wfu,, ft* a member of the city council and influ ential clubman, crystallized sentiment into action and made the dreams of others a reality. Voting, ambitious a.nd singularly devoted to the city of his birth, lie overcame obstacles which were fortified by the prejudice of cen turies, and coerced cooperation when simple reasoning failed. Opposition based upon sentimental grounds, ho had to fight in season and out of sea son; but the end has justified his ef forts, and when the history of New Qr« leans is written his name deserves n prominent place on it* brightest page Jn the meantime he merits public rec ognition at the hands of bis fellow citi zens, and the indications are that ho will receive it. as well as those who worked with him for the good of the Crescent city. \ V wbippikrt. Hi r»1 I,| nop I'irst Hoy (gloomily) I've got. to cut kindlings and empty three buckets of nslies and build two fires and goto tbC store on an errand and then fill tl»« coal box. Second Boy (enviously)— You've got i reg'lar picnic, you have. Just think Df me Mother said when 1 came home from school to-day I'd got ter hold the baby.—Harle® Life. CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 1809 THE LAND OF OPHIR. There In Kvldenee Thai It Wan What In Ka, Afrlen. The Monomotapa region, in Rho desia, in the ancient land of Ophir. The gold mines of the ancients are now re discovered and the gold ingot molds rediscovered in Ilhodcsia are identical witli the tin ingot molds ii.sed by the Phoenicians in Cornwall. It is believed, says the Matabele Times, that the Phoe nicians worked the South African mines 2000 li. ('. Scripture tells us how Hiram, the Phoenician king, brought enormous quantities of gold, ivory and slaves for King Solomon, and where could all these have been discovered to gether, and in such large quantities as described in holy writ, if not in this portion of southeast Africa? Job's ref- i '■re 11 ces 1o "gold dust" locate the source J of Solomon's wealth in the parts, and ceriainlv neither the "ivory" nor the COL. WILLIAM CHRISTIE JOHNSON. The executive council of the Grand Army of th«- Republic having failed to elect a successor to the lat< Col Sexton, who at the time of his death was command), r-ln chief of the organization. Col Johnson, of Cincinnati, will act as command- r until th)' annual encampment which Is to meet at Philadelphia in Scptcinb) r Col Johnson enlisted In the union army when hut 19 yearsold, and wass. vcral times promote.l for gallantry. At the encampment last year h<- was unanimously elected senior vlo com mander of the order. By occupation he is a merchant. "slaves" nor the "apes" of Bible history came from India, for Africa, as is well known, has ever been credited in his tory as the ivory, slave and ape-produc ing country. Further, there is consid erable doubt whether any other coun try, India included, could at that period have produced the quantity of gold mentioned in Chronicles and Kings. Scattered throughout the country are colossal ruins of fortresses, temples of distinctly Phoenician origin, identical with the ruins now seen in the land of the Phoenicians and built by the same race as erected Stonelienge oil Salisbury plain and later built the rounded tow- j ers of Ireland. Here is t lie herringbone style of building, as in Arabia, Sardinia and the British isles. There, too, are the gigantic monoliths, cloven stones and stone circles, with altars and sacred inelosures. The I.tiiitlli 11F IIIMIIIIM Life. According to M.l. lfoll Schooling, of Brussels, says Cosmos, there is an old rule for finding the length of a man's j WINTER FISHING IN HUNGARY. Th" Hungarian fisherman flops not let .snow ami ice interfere with his business He cuts holes in the ice in the river, as shown in the illustration, Wrs u|> a hook and line 011 a frame over the hole, build.s up a hay stack to sit 011 while If waits for the fish to -catch themselves, and smokes, comfortably indiffi n 111 to Ih. uiath>i v hell fastened to each line rlnns when a lish bites, and all the angkr lias to .l<> is tu unfasten It and bait the hook afresh. life if the present age lies between 12 and 80 years. This is the rule: Sub tract the present age from SO and divide the remainder by 2; the result will give the number of years you have yet to live. This old rule was discovered by the mathemat ieian De Moivre, who emi grated to England from France in 18G5 and became a member of the 1 Joy a 1 so ciety. The curves given by Mr. School ing are interesting to examine. A first diagram shows the chance that every man has of living one year longer than his present age. At birth this chance is 5 to 1; at 5 years, 119 to 1; at 10, , r >l2 to 1; at 15, 317; at 20, 207; at 25, 156; at 30, 120; at 35, !)7; at 40, 78, etc. Mr. Schooling affirms from his calculations that of 1.000 individuals of 00 years, 599 will live to be 70, 120 to 80 years and 17 to 90; while of 1,000 nonagenarians, 4 will reach their hundredth year. We may add that for men of 05, the average expectation of life is 10 1-3 years. ADDS PI TO HIS LUNCH. The Tnrdj Su Im r lia ■■ 11 e°K Morlif > IUK Mnitulc wttli I lie He'" i I'll Iter I'll reel. The man in the suburbs had his lunch neatly tied in a square paper parcel which did not look its function, lie started from the house in orderly pre cision, says the Chicago < hroniclc, but had barely turned the corner when he stubbed his toe and dropped the unsus picious bundle to the sidewalk, split ting the yello,v paper and depositing sandwiches and cake on the ground. Then the train whistle sounded its warning note, and in despair the tor tured suburbanite crammed cake and bread promiscuously into his pockets and started on a run for the station. He caught the last platform of the last i car and hurriedly sank intoa seat. When ■ the conductor asked for his ticket he managed to extract the small pante ; board without showing 11 ontentsof t one pocket, but tugging deep into the j other for his handkerchief to wipe his j heated brow, out Hew crumby bread ! and stringy ham and cake that looked i as if the frosting had been nibbled by | mice. The passengers smiled. They I could not have been human and done ■ otherwise. But the man made no al j lowanees for uncontrollable risibilities. ; lie glared at the offending men anil j women, savagely thrust back the bread j and battered cake into his pocket and enveloped his burning countenance in j the cooling pages of th)' morning paper. But there was a look of flint in his eye that spoke the finish of the home concocted l» nehcon. Sea Water for .Street S|i> 'nI,IIn«-. I lie Merchants' association of San Francisco, says the Popular Science Monthly, has been trying the experi mint of sprinkling a street with sea water, and finds that such water bind.-, the dirt together between the paving stones, so that when it is dry no loose dust is formed to be raised by the wind; that sea water does not dry so quickly an fresh water, so that it has lieen elaimed when s.-ilt water lias heen used that one load of it is equal to three loads of fresh water. The salt water which is deposited on the street ah sorbs moisture from the air during the night, whereby the street is t horonghly moist during the earh morning and has the appearance of being freshly sprinkled. <■ll v<» I |» < li«> Jol». The Swedish company which was go ing to raise the sunken Spanish war ships at Santiago has given up the task Those Swedes will know better another time than to undertake what Ameri cans can't do. A Voimii Executive. Karl Kcanchamp is one of the young est nien who have in recent years been appointed to a colonial governorship. He is not quite 27 years of age. THE HOUSE CHAPLAIN Rev. Henry N. Couden and His Stir ring Public Career, l«oat Ill» SIJAIiI While Ser\injur an a Defender of (lie lii ion—Al len* n rliiiltt(t*> n ml \\ on SticceNM. Five or six years ago the relations be tween England and the United States were strained over the Venezuelan af fair, and it seemed as if only a spark were needed to ignite the flainesof war. Hlit the country was slow to understand the humiliation of the diplomatic de feat that England was preparing for us, nn)l congress was pretending not to see how far England was going in her ag gressions. One morning Dr. Couden entered the chamber just on the stroke of the clock and was taken to his station below the desk of the speaker, lie was nervous, for lie had not been long in the house, and he was not quite certain of his ground. Hut he began with apparent confidence, and, speaking distinctly, prayed long and earnestly for peace be tween the two nations. lie prayed for God's blessing upon the congress and the speaker of the house of representatives. 1 hen, as he li eared the end of the prayer, he raised his voice so that it could be heard in every corner of the vast hall. "Heavenly Father," he said, "let peace reign throughout our borders, yet may we be quick to resent an insult to this our nation!" To-day Dr. Condon's home life, says the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post, is as full of quiet and sweetness as his younger days were of hardship and vicissitude. His reading is done by Mrs. Couden, who keeps him in touch with the doings of 1 lie World, and reads aloud the books which In; uses in preparing his sermons and other writings. She is his lost sense regained. At tl;e outbreak of the civil war Dr. Couden was a boy of 17, overflowing with life and spirits, and ardent in his patriotism. So, when President I>in- UKV. HENRY N. COUDEN. (Tho Blind Chaplain of the House of Rep resentatives) colu issued his call for 75,000 men for three months, young Couden was among the lirst to present himself for enlistment. Hefore the three months had expired lie hud enlisted again in the Sixth Ohio infantry for a period of three years. II)! fought in tlie battles of Laurel Hill and in the skirmishes at Carrick's Ford and Green Brier. lie was in Ihe battle of Shiloh and Perrysville. But it wasnfly his transfer to the Mississippi marine brigade that the engagement in which he was wounded took place. It was there that the light failed him forever. Voting Couden become blind imme diately, and he says that lie felt then that he would never set: again. When the doctor came to examine him the young sulTercr heard that his case was hopeless. "Will 1 sec., doctor?" he asked anx iously. The doctor smiled sadly; "If you're a good boy, you'll see—after you die!" lie answered. When young Couden went back to his home in Cincinnati lie began the manu facture of brooms, and afterward the selling of confectionery. But lie :«on determined to study for the ministry, 'i'his he did iu a seven-year course at the institution for the blind at Colum bus, O. IMeftyroe* In Porto ltt)')>. Dr. 11. K. Carroll, of Hainfield, N. J., the president's special commissioner to examine inlo the political and social conditions in l'orto Kico, was much im pressed by the high character of tlw» negro population there. most ca pable builders, carpenters, bricklayers, masons, printers, plumbers and arti sans generally are negroes, he said. They mingle with the white workmen op terms of perfect eipia lity, and, so far as Dr. Carroll could find, there is no color line. When he held public hear ings in the different towns on the is land to get at public sentiment, repre sentatives of the artisans' guilds or grenjios came before hint. More than half of the delegates selected by the gremios to meet him were negroes. He f»>11111 112 them, he says, practical and hard headed I h inkers. Comiyh-rclal Plants in Hiirope. It is interesting to know that 4,200 species of plants are gathered and used for commercial purposes In Europe. Of these ci"ii 1 l.v remembered (linfc Brazil was at one time the most impor tant. <1 ianiond-producing country in t be world. We are reminded of tins fact by tlie second secretary of the British legation at Bio, who has just sent homo a report on a journey to that part of the country, Minas Gereas, whence this inincra* has been obtained In great est epiantity. Mr. Beaumont tells us that though the quality ef the Brazil ian stones still makes them more val uable than any others, diamond mining has of late been comparatively neglect id, the industry being now, fort he most parr, carried on by single individuals, "garimpeiros," or small associations, working with rude and obsolete ma chinery. A company know nas the Boa Vista, has recently been formed in J'aris, with a capital of 2,000,000 francs, to carry on work on a systematic ba sis and on a large scale, for a very long period, and it' it succeeds the industry will no doubt receive a great impetus therefrom. Mr. Beaumont's journey was under taken partly through curiosity to visit a little-known country and partly in the hope of learning something of the methods and prospects in vogue, es pecially those of the new company, from which such great things are ex pected. The company's operations are centered about t he town of Diamantina, a place founded by a band of St. Paulo and Portuguese adventurers in the sev enteenth century. Diamonds were dis covered in this locality about the year 1728. Between 1772 and 1800, the pe riod of tin most active production, the diamond mines produced 1,030,305 car ats, at a cost which averaged 10c. per carat between 1772 and 1 ;!)5, 725. Cd. per carat between 1890 and 1800, and 325. between 180' land ISOG. During the same period gold was extracted amounting in value to £107,410. From 1772 to IS!.'!, under the administration of the "Ileal Kxtraccao," 80 stones were found of an oitava (18 carats) or more. The gems extracted, after the largest and best had been set aside for the crown, were sold by contract at from about 375. to 50s. a, carat. For Hi years at the beginning of the present century the banking houses o£ Hope in Holland and of Baring in Lon don controlled the mines, the output of which was assigned to them in re payment of a loan of 12,000,000 florins. Then the government took hold of the administration, and continued to do so until 18|.">. Jn that year it was decided by decree that the lands should be put up at auction every four years, the re serve price being 30seis (2d.) a"braea," but its provisions were never carried out, being inodilied by the law of 1552, which recognized the rights of all those who already effectively occupied min ing lots on payment of one real per "braca rpiadrada." The term of occu pation might- have been indefinitely ex tended. Lands not yet occupied were to hi- put up at a uel ion, t lie reserve price being one real per "braca qtiadrada." Between 1772 and 18 13 1,351,700 carats were taken by the "Ileal Kxtraccao." Since that date mining has been carried on exclusively by private individuals, and mostly on a small scale. The total production of Brazil up to 1880 is es timated by M. tiareeix at 2' :, tons. It is impossible to form an accurate esti mate of the present production, but ita is probably about 40,000 c«trats a year, including tho Bahia diamond fields.—< St. James Gazette. STREET CAR EPISODE. Utile Willi*' <«ot So inetliinjr froni Hi* linlulKi'iit Ma Tliat He Didn't Ask For. "I meet a good many strange people," fc.'ii'i the street car conductor, as ho slopped the car to let the fat party off, "but yesterday 1 think 1 capped tho o.'imax. "An overdressed womo . and a small boy £ot on my car, uas I rang up their fares the small boy became In terested in my bell-punch and insist ed on ringing the little bell just like X did. "1 couldn't see my way clear to amus ing children at five cents a ring, and said as much. "Then the woman flared up and said she thought that I might let little Wil lie ring the bell il' he wanted to. "I kept my temper and explained td her that t he st rcet car company collect ed five cents from- me for every tiinwi< and got what h-' should have received in the lirst place—a good spanking. "Then an unfeeling passenger re ma iked in an audible tone of voice that that was probably the first time tliab little Willie ever got something that h«J didn't ask for."—N. V. World. How lie Won Her. ITawkslev—Here's a pretty girl eloped with a dentist! Blunt—ll'm! I suppose at the lafti minute he didn't pull the tooth. —Phil- idelphia North American, 9