ROBBING THE MAILS. THIEVES WHO PLUNDER UNCLE SAM’S POST, . Three West Virginia Mail Robbers — A Colorado Episode—The Last of Ed. Reeves—A Year's Record. At least ome picturesque episode marked the capture of three despernto mail robbers in Barbour county, West Virginian. There was in that part of the ganization known as the Red Men. At the beginning it was fairly respectabie, being intended for the purpose of putting down Nampa, and included many good citizens. Bat bad charactors g White Caps Society, terrorizing that re- committing murders occasionally. Mem. bers of the association, while engaged in their nocturnal excursions, wore long robes red stuff, red hats and red masks in the shape of hoods, so that their appearance was very awful indeed. "Three desperadoes, named Price, Kittle und Hoffman, were the leaders, and they they took to knocking down postal mes. sengers and stealing letters and pack- ages. They were hunted down in the mountains, and were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. In court the most important witness was the secretary of the Red Men, named Brown, whose beard, measured by the official tape, was D fect 4 inches in length, his moustache 4 feet 2 inches. In a remarkable robbery near Grand Junetion, Colorado, in 1886, highwaymen held up a mail train, having piled tieson the track to stop it. They put the con- ductor and fireman out on a pile of rocks alongside the track and kept them cov- ered with guns while they got the postal clerk and the express messenger and put them under guard likewise. Being con- tent with pillaging the express and mail cars, senge trave der to sce what was going on. of but rs; one Englishman on i . that he would be killed if he went out. side, he replied: ‘‘But I want to observe how the rob a train in this blooming country, don't you know!” He went as far as tho platform, but a ballet through his hat induced him to retreat precipi- tatelv, The four robbers were pursued by inspectors and marshals through Col- orado and Utah and were caught. A of highwaymen, led by the nototious Ed Reeves, held up a train on the Panhandle road in Texas in 1887. They robbed the express car, knocking the messenger senseless with a six-shoot- er, but the postal clerk refused to open the mail car ia response to their demand. They blew open the door with dynamite and cut open the pout hes. Then they went through the sleeping cars and col- lected watches, rings, diamonds and other valuables from the passengers. Alto- RE gang besides jewelry, they secured $7,000 in cash. Reeves was capt ired after a des. perate fight, during which be was shot five times, and, preferring death to im- swisonment, he offered the Sheriff 850 to kill him. Five inspectors and deputy marshals lay in wait for Whitley, another member of the band, at his When he entered they covered guns, but he opened fire fell, riddled with bullets. the most remarkable | robberies on record GeOurre d The thie wind ww desperate house. him with their at : once and (ne of Yost Office Minneapolis in July, | entered through the stamp night, cle Then they broke into the safe in which the stamps were kept, using a diamond drill =o quietly that men working close by in the building did not hear them. In front of the safe was a large plate glass window. but the cold had covered it with frost, and no one could seo through it. The burglars secured 690,000 two-cent stamps and 100,000 ono-cent stamps, be. at fs nt wMEy, to the value of over $14 000, ersons and were caught in $078 worth of the stamps being re- covered, During the past year O68 Postmastors, 98 Assistant Postmasters, 45 clerks in Post Offices, and 66 mail carriers were arrested on charges of dishonesty Postmasters are exposed to much tempta- tion. Somotimes they are in tight places financially, and it se m: to be a very simple thing to help themselves out tem- porarily by using some of the Govern. ment cash, Every dishonest Post Office employee imagines that his method of stealing is new; that he does it better than any one ever did it before, and that he can elude detection; but such offenders are caught invariably, They can never tell when they are being watched or how, structed with peep-holes expressly for that purpose. The rifling of letters is the most common theft, eaught in the act recently at Wilming- ton, N. C, blindfolded, seven lotters bank notes out of 400 placed Before him, in order to satisfy the curiosity of the inspectors. The method of detecting popes currency by feeling is familiar, ns knot on the end of it through a letter, the knot fetching with it some of the fibre from the enclosed note, | an employee who was stealing from registered letters, Over the post.office is an opera house, and the detective e nt a suitable erack. open the letters by floating them on wa- ter, placing them afterward under a press for the purpose of sealing them with the old mucilage. So engrossed was the man with bis scheme that the inspec. wor was able to walk in, peep over his shoulder, and say: “What have you got fhere. my boy?’ . “Good Lord! you've got me,” was his mnswer, as his khees gave way, A clerk in the postoffice at Fargo, North Dakota, in October, 1880, asserted hat be had been bound and gagged wo men who entered the building aight, smothored him with slothes, burned his feet w poker to compel him to give the combin. ation of the safe, and shot him. The trifling nature of the wound and the fact that his foot was hardly blistered led to a suspicion that he had committed the robbery himself, which was proved by his subsequent confession. What a Flat Wheel Is. “There's flat wheel on official who sat in the back seat of the rear car of a ford (Penn.) Era man, “That must be wheel ¥"' asked “Listen,” said the railroad man. “What's a flat scribe. the wheel? wheel. wheel a flat place is worn, rail. Let it slip but the least, yet a will be worn on the wheel. The ace on the rail, stops with that same p By the time it is and it is worn larger. to pound every time the wheel turns. when the flat spot is reached. sequence is that when the flat spot has grown to be three or four inches across it is a very dangerous thing. Every stroke against the rail by the tat side of the wheel is linble to break the wheel and ditch the train.” Around the shops and at nearly every flat wheels may be seen. As soon as one is discovered the pair of wheels affected is taken out and sent to the junk track to be cast into new machinery. The flat spots are plainly perceptible, but they would hardly be judged by the uniniti- ated to be of sufficient importance to bx one of the most dangerous elements of railroading, yet such is the case. A Man Saved by a 8 abird. A vessel was plowing through the waters of the South Atlantic when a cory of “Man overboard!” was heard. The man at the wheel brought the ship up in the wind and boats were lowered, but by the time this was accomplished the sailor was a quarter of n nule astern He kept up. however, and as the boat approached a big albatross was seen to dart at him, and the next moment to struggle: then away went the bird, fap. ping v iolently towing the sailor along the surtace. The men had to pall hard to gain upon it, and then it was found that the was uninjured and perhaps had been saved by the bird. He was almost exhausted albatross flew over him in ey ;as it § he scized The bird, in car and terror, strong enough to tow him along the sur. face at a rapid rate.— Boston Globe. S®i07 when {the lent cari. osity assed i's feet. its | wae a Their Ear Drums Burst, The trial of the new heavy guns of the United States monitor Miantonomoh ot trardiner's Bay. Long Island, tended with a most peculiar accident to three of the officers of that vessel, whom had their ear drums burst by the concussion following a heavy dis harge Surgeon Kand refused to discuss the sub ject bevond saving that had proper care the not was nt. all of been exercised accident would have happened. As one of the first precautions taught in the navy is to stand on tiploe with mouth open when heavy guns are being fired, there was considerable surprise at the navy vard upon learning of the acei- dent. Unless the injured men had par. ticularly sensitive car drums the accident could not have happen d without care lessness on their part. {New York ross. Does Tea Make Lunaties! “f never knew of a case where a man or a woman's insanity could be travel directly to the drinking of tea,” said Dr. Brower, of State street, to an Evening News reporter recently, when his atten. tion was ealled to the paragraph in the London Lancet. wherein a woman whe wns sup- posed to be insane through drinking tea to excess, “I have no doubt as to the injurious. noss of excessive tea-drinking, and be. He their case is much aggravated nee, Still, take tea-tasters: [ heard of one in that business becoming insane, although | have known many who have wrocked their nervous systems in their calling.” by its said: “Undoubtedly ten-drinking is the cause of many nervous troubles. It pro. duces a chronic indigestion which is cer. tainly apt to break down one's system I believe a person with a tendency to- wards insanity would have his or her con. dition seriously aggravated by using tea in large quantities. A wit has made the remark that the pessimism of the Russians insanity would arise from this habit alone, Combined with other abuses of the system it certainly would have a disastroas effect I believe, as the Lancet says, that many of the ailments from which uso of tea.” [Chicago News. Buildings of Sawdust, Extensive experiments have heen modo in Germany with sawdust that had been treated with acid. The action of the acid is to convert the fine particles of wood into an material that can be monla. ed into blocks or other form, having an ostremely hard surface and being prac. tically non-combustible. The material is said to be stronger than timber and wight ind ig Ri w nt o tis su to either wood or To p poriet are { cing made to manufacture the ma. Yarial on an extensive scalo.— (Philadel. P : 1 SOMETHING ABOUT CORDAGE. Twine a Large Item of Expense in the Harvesting of the Wheat Crop. Few people are aware of the magni- tude of the business done yearly by the corporation known as the cordage trust, whose main offices are located in this city. The history of the trust has been that of the * survival of the fittest.” and otherwise absorbed more than fifths of all the cordage mills this side of the Rockies, until they have blossomed into what is practically a monopoly in their line of trade, The National Cordage Company of the Atlantic slope does not, however, at. of the Rockies. Francisco attends to business in that section. all the ‘‘rope’ There is a sort concerns to keep off each other's terri- tory. In this way there is, as it were, a double action wnonopoly, of which the largest share. The business of this latter concern is inches in diameter and binder twine. What is known as mercantile twine—cord for tying up bundles, &c.—is not manu. factured by the trust. tinkering item in the cordage business. In rope alone the aggregate yearly sales of the trust amount to upward of $10,000,000. Their main attention, how. devoted to the manufacture of binder twine. This is a single strand of rope that is used by the farmers through. out the country for tying up their wheat stacks. The farmers use for this pur. pose about 815,000,000 worth of twine yearly. The evor, is mills of the ocordage trust are Maine to Texas, N.Y, diana more in Ohio, In. Their branch offi. and a dozen or and llinois, of any size in the Union, Most of the raw material used by the trust in the manufacture of binder twine comes from Yucatan, It the fibre of a plant of the cactus species that grows here in great luxuriance, It is gathered and dried in Yucatan and shipped here in bales. It costs about four cents a pound. Manufactured binder twine is worth about eight cents Most of the hemp used in the manufacture of rope comes from the Philippine isl. ands. The aggrezrate weight of the rope and “‘twine” early in this country is something over one hundred thousand tons New York Herald is al into used y The Fox and the Hare. One day the Fox saw the Haro enter her burrow, and knowing that he could not dig her out he approached with a grin upon his face and announced that he had been appointed a committee of one © through the forest and report as to which animal was entitled to the prize for grace beauty and fleetness of foot no question, he said, that she could run three feet to his two, formality she should come out and make a trial, ¢ Sir," replied the Hare from her safe re treat, “'l am no Spring Chicken! Do wo not all know that the Weas.! is the fleet. est animal in the forest?” “Ah! said tho Weasel has no grace 1 hie fe was but simply as a Fox, “but the His body is alto gether too long for his girth, and every. body has remarked on the size of his feet Your form is pronouncad faultless by all I pray you come out that | may behold You. “8ir, Hate, green, but | am no hayseed, yosterday that you chased me two miles aud camo near eating me. thank you!” “But, my dear Hare,” Fox, **it is well known that youha loveliest eyes of any inhabitant of fore at.” t “Do you really mean it?” Hare. “AM corse i do! teeth!” “Dear, dear me!” sighed the Hare “And you have such a shy, cute way with you, and such a graceful walk. Really, 1 must insist on your coming out of that hole in the ground, which is no fitting domicile for such ns you." “Honestly, now, bat do vou actually think?"-—.began the Hare, ns she popped But before she could finish the Fox had her. When she had been duly devoured he picked his teeth with a sassafras twig and observed “Flattery, if persisted in, isa weapon which never fails to bring down its game.” {New York World. Yas, “1 may look It was only ' replied the ve the the queried the And such beautiful Do the Dying Fear Death! A striking fact in connection with the fully comprehend that dissolution is fast taking place. This we notice even in executions, where the hanged are almost invariably reported as having “died game.” Physicians and surgeons in general have decided that death follow. ing disease or injury is seldom accom. panied with fear. Disease dulls the in- Joliigenes, so that the situaton muy not be fully comprehended in all cases, or, again, the patient may be suffering tor. relief, ors who have given the subject atten. ion that nature, prepared the body and mind for the flight of the spirit. It is well known that as the hold upon life grows weaker that the desire to live grows gradually loss, and that there ie, comparatively spusking, soarcely a recorded instance where the dying person has not at Inst yielded up life without sesming reluctance or fear. Of course the various physical phe- nomena which usually sceompany the act of dying vary considerably in the i py with the causes which are ucing death. To one schooled in Soath scones, the the grim destroyor ah Lthe grim yor sone not ns the venous blood courses the arteries; the skin grows clammy as the various vessels rofuse to longer perform their functions; the eyes glaze; the Jaw drops; fluid pocumulates in the wind-pipe, causing the '‘death rattle,” and, finally, the breathing ceases altogether, Many of the old-time hallucinations of the dying lave lately been explained natural causes) -— Limes Living for Old Age. The gradual lengthening of human life It suggests that a vigorous dependent upon personal conduct, und Dr. B. W. Richardson advises that them from mental shocks and unnecess- The persons themselves, when older, should avoid the hus which hasten When old age of all the least friction and waste. Rules for this inolude subsistence On moderate quan- tity of light but nutritious food, varying ercise and the mind active and cheerful; maintaining an interest in the world's affairs, and taking a reasonable share in its labors and pleasures; securing plenty of sleep at proper hours in a comfortable room, aud excitement and luxury. Thoughtful living like this way may enable n weak man his robust bat less Tren ton (N. J. American. avoiding io out-live wise neighbor. Mexico's Miseries. Mexico seems to be a pretty pood place to keep away from just now, A correspondent the New York Evening Post the yellow fever is sending dozens to thelr graves, and funeral pro cessions are as common in Vera Cruz to- writes to day as they were during the summer sea Cordoba, sixty Vera Cruz, is also afflicted with vellow fever sO. miles from and smallpox. Campeche and Tuxpam are recording deaths from constantly, and the authorities fo subdue it be this, it seems evident that its re Appearance wiil most making dents of as little pestiicnce i af om the failure ore be calamitous The “grip in for visitors . nd At things uncomfortable ros. the capital, and there as possible tune ; ' In the State of Chilpansing, with the malady, reported dying. and his secretary is He Learned Better, a millionaire, but other the tells of Renator Plumb died he youth story an old fre saved up $100 and } Was OnCo just ns grecn as any tiers, if gout business friend in m Rausas ~onnfor had 1 it on deposit in a local bank, He « 10 use the mone ¥ one day asked the president of the He told | yo Ing man Make out him is ture Plumb to sign a looked up and a check for the pri d the banker the statesman in em- “fo I don’t put my name paper unless | keep the paper i money without taking your receipt and I want it back on the same terms And it took considerable argu. ing to persuade him that it was the cus tomary thing to make checks for money. iNew York World, pid EL? amount and sign i *314a 3 No, Bir-oe bryo, on wiv Ou, Bare you my A Mammoth Incubator. An ingenious hop grower of Ukiah, Cal. put his kiln to & novel use the past summer, while waiting for the unsual fall curing of his wp. After lighting the great furnace underneath the wire dry. ing floor, he carcfally guaged the tem. on thus changing tue building into a gigan. tie incubator eggs were tirolesaly watched during the incubating period. There was much ex. of the chicks. The capacious brick kiln was invaded by miscellaneous crowds of amased, curious visitors, and finally, at LIVING CURIOSITIES. WHERE SHOWMEN PROCURE THEIR WILD ANIMALS, - mals and Birds in the How Captores are Made, There are strange professions in this Humburg. They are most likely the being in connection with all the leading museams, circuses, aqu rinms and zoo- the multiplied broods. On this occasion possible in infantile chickens, the experiment, successfully demon. strated in this instance, will be repeated seen, American Agricultorist, A onear big kick is being made by a Quaker City gas man because the World's Fair authorities have made no provision whatever, and refuse to make any zation appliances. Ho says that there is over $00,000,000 invested in the gas business in the United States, and thinks that such an industry should be recognized as well ns the eloctrieal industry for which the fair managers bave provided a special building, while they do not pro. pose to have gas on the grounds for any purpose whatever. Dr. J. A, Hornsby, assistant chief of the directors of the fair, is quoted as saying that there are ten persons interssted in electricity where one is interested in gas, and as is a back number there will be none of it at the exposition. He might as well say, comments the New York Press, that be. cnuse coal for fuel isa back number as compared with steam there will be none on oxhibitica. The real fact is that 10,000 burn gas for light or fuel where ton persons use electric lights in his country, and that the whole populace in the large oities are deeply interested in any inventive applisees the consumption of gas or light or heat from it. for the wealthy than the should be for the millions, Hagenbeck for their supply. Ordinarily only purchasers known or introduced to the firm are allowed to kinds of food washenped up in pyramids or stowed away in bags _ boxes, Coming to a courtyard my guide printed out a number of wagons that { looked like huge furniture vans, “We | uxe those to transport our goods from the Pvesenls and railway stations. Sometimes we run special trains.” | “What do you do with the animals i that die?” | inquired. I “We soll their skins and a'so their skeletons, though their carcasses first go to the dissecting rooms.” “Fle cirenres are good customers of ours,” resumed my guide. “We have traded with Salomonsky Rentz, Carre, the Circus d'Hiver, Forepuugh and Barnum A tamer of wild animals is steadily en- gaged; he merely does the preparatory, but it seems to me the most dangerous work. | believe he is now at a lion who but a few weeks ago haunted the oases cf the Sahara desert.” month. On entering one passes the office room, where more than two dozen as these only stay there a fow days bo- fore leaving for their final place of des. tination. Showing my card of admission I was introduced 10 one of the keepers, They sevin to be a set of energetic men, who, armed with knives and re- volvers, are willing to dare any danger My save the New York Telegram, was a little muscular, elean shaven man who had spent ten vears in the servico of / bowie conductor, nireadsy the acquainted with all the pecu- firm, and was therefore liarities of “The majority of the keepers are ex- marksmen,’ quainted with an his prof sEion, cellent nad explorers lifu, he related, ac- being sent ont as assistants in the « My last trip was to South Ame with the on horseback, throwing ton wditions, We ostriches, i rica. had a great time which we chased the bola a after them. ball attached But am sure the Llanos are the hottest place on earth “How often do they send out an expe- dition?” Oh Phere are three ying the heat was awfal; | about five or six every at work at present. Ww gays and an- A coliect- Yeur. ne other mth or =o number of our be in goang out in 8 mw st hunters are ing several complete ts of furbearing i here is nn great witing in Can difference animals belwoeen whic an animal and catching 1 vou Know, tions i the “1a the me 12d ie 1a niet Of pe rin 16 I inquired ‘ No: they few of our experienced and sportsmen prentices tenur of the office stad destination they hire are deemed necessary “These eX] ditions must be an I remarked them the ¥ seldom go beyond that “Do many accidents happen?” | asked the little man No, not many jority of us could show the marks of their paws and teeth, J i enor ‘Some of Cost o $75,000; Nevertheless the ma. and, rolling sleeves, he display od a dee Pp osch arm A Tasmanian wolf did look ths The tamer animals were merely fenced here a jaguar got a We passed a group of Japanese Ch Then we chamois which are very rare; ian al pacas, Ac came to the clephants, and my guide re- marked: “We are oat of present, as they zebras, antelopes Asiatic ole are diff phants at i to get since he bill for their a dozen of their the government passed protection Hat hers African brothers with long flabby ears.” Ni ar by Wore some oro 1 i. ti was a giant fellow over thirty feet long. ‘Do you secure all vour animals by the special expeditions you mentioned?” “By no means. Many things are sim- ply ordered. For instance, we get most our dromedaries from the Crimea, while an large number of other animals fall into our hands by chance. We buy evervthing in the line of rare and out. landish animals, and people who trade in or keep animals for plonsure are aware of it. Hamburg is an excellent place for good bargaine, as nearly every vessel brings us something rare and unlooked for. Every sailor comes armed with some specimen from the tropics. “Parrots we only sell wholesale,” he added, as their chatting fell on our ears, “Take eure of the kangarco,” my com- panion warned, “that beast conid kill you with a single stroke of his foot.” When we came to the seals my talkative uide related laughingly how once two ice bears broke loose and, finding their way to the seals made short work of them. “What are the most difficult animals to procure?” “Undoubtedly the gorilla and the con- dor, which hardly pay thetrouble. We only catch them to boast that we have everything on hand. But the greatest bother we had with a whale, having to build a special tank for him. Fish, any- how, are not my taste.” he continued, making a sour face, “if 1 were the pro- prietor, I would not bother with them,” and pointing to some glass tanks, bound in iron he exclaimeq: “Look, several of those tanks have to be filled with fresh son water at regalur intervals,” A graceful black swan was swimming solitarily in a small fenced-in tub, and a lyre bird near by was running against the wire railing. He isa i, of the mountains of New Sonth Wales. “What is in those boxes?” “Sunken,” was the reply, “We ean measuro them by the yard, There are pythons, boa constrictors, adders; what- over you like, They are quite harmless creatures and quite easy to keep. They only require to be fed once in three months, and sleep away the rest of the time.” “Yon must need an enormous amount of meat to feed all these animale?” “Well, wo have a special store. that looked like house of HEREDITY IN MONKEYS. A Scheme for Improving the Intel. lets of Anthropoids. A man of large means who resides in Washington has recently declared his in. tention, privately, to devote $100,000 to a very original purpose. The idea is that no satisfactory oppor- tunity has ever been afforded for the de- the brute. Intelligence, like bodily qualities, is susceptible of velopment of improvement through breeding, as every ons knows who has thought about the evelation of the aor from the wolf by artificial selection. This rich man pro- poses that monkeys or apes shall be taken as subjects for experiment, simply because man understands those animals better than be does others. Let fifty of them, half males and half placed in a paddock, suita provided with separate quarters for Then have them mate, pair shall be directed by those Some of them will de. females, Iu iy ti a wiXew oy pair, ne who superintend elop certain abilities more conspicuous than others. For example, certain indi. vidunis will exhibit superior understand. of the addressed to them dexterity in the Those which ap- from the by fresh When a male and a female are a exhibit the same sort of np- any direction they are to be wrried on for gen wrily result in the rior characters until f twenty-fi almost es or monkeys far higher reason than any known up present fim I'hese putative \ : ave COMMAaNas Bi i BROW o handiine of obiecis ure their places being filled or wii greater pear stud fo Lie i oomony, expolled mated, erations, w de rel Fhis process ¢ » would Cor in the scale of fo 1h vasins of the human exhibited a mental and bani ty sufficient to give ground for great hopes of possible intellect. Chim- } to bring to the table, and the big Langur baboon India is in that country today as a servant for working the punkah with which flies are kept away from dinner tables. Explorer Stanley en an socount of apes who carry torches at night. . | by scientists to be an the anthropoid are too afraid of fire to thing It is a that gorillas, while they deserted camp fire warmth, will never he embers alight by Nevertheless, every book on natural history relates many an in- stance illustrative of these creatares’ thinking powers, and there is no question that it could be greatly improved by the process of judicious i Even 5 pig can be taught to count up to ten Washington Star. pirenacy Yen me al capo development in point of panzees have been taught of commoniy used fans, has gis his is believed b absurdity, becnuse all an iriboes and simi ren such a possibie, 4 11 1 . sii Known will gather about a ior the . 3 hink of sake of a keeping adding fuel adding fuei hire eding. Metals Get Tired. to the fatigue of mtinued stress bas and, it is believed, in the treatment of two similar suspension bridge links, and the results obtained. A square iron link, inches wide, one inch thick and about twelve feet long, was tak-n froma bridge at Kieff, Russia, thon about forty years old, and tested against a similar link which had lain unused in store ever since the building of the bridge. Under these circumstances, the means of comparison were oonsidered in the highest degree favorable, and the result necessarily of a reliable character in determining whether not iron actually losts, and to what extent, any of its strength in pro. longed service. The effect of the test showed for the old used link an ultimate tensile strength of 21.8 tons per square inch, an elastio limit of 11.1 tons per square inch, an elongation of 14.5 per cent. and a contraction of 17.30 per cent. at the point of fracture. In the case of the unused link. the tensile strength was found to be 22.2 tons per square inch, | with an elastic limit of 11.9 tons, and an elongation and contraction at fracture of | 18.42 per cent. and 18.75 per cent. res. | pectively. From this it appears, there. | fore, that the pieces of iron were of ractically identical strength--the small | Hifferonce actually observed being well { within the aerdinary range of variability ‘of similar picces of such metal. —{New Orleans Picayune. The question ns melals under recently been tested, satisfactorily settled, FOIE etl y twelve or ——————— PN ——————— Traps for Monkey Talk, It seems odd to think of phonographs and electrio batteries set up in the midst wild forests of Africa. But these will be among the appurtenances that Professor Garper's expedition will carry with it. The object of this expedition is to make a study of the gorilla The results of this u vestigation will be awai terost. Never before
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers