SOMEWHAT STRANGE. INTERESTING NOTESAND MAT. TERS OF MOMENT. Which Show that Truth is Stranger Than Fiction. Tie smallest woman living to-day is said to be Mlle. Pauline, of Hol- land, of a respectable family, who is 18 years old, weighs ten pounds and is 1 foot 9 inches tall, Tug driest place in the world is said to be that part of Egypt between the two lower falls of the Nile. Rain has never been known to fall there, and the natives do not believe travel ers when told that water falls from the sky. Maixe that only a the names of her the tongue, but t are from the Can tario; Lake Kashagawigamog, cambejewagamog, is jusly proud of the fact native can pronounce lakes trippingly on he names of Maine besides these and others adian Province Misquabenish, and Lake cusy THE conservatory of Washingtor Park, Chicago, boasts of what is af- fectionally called nH is composed of growths that look like three or four big geese and over a dozen goslings. The plant is a rare native of South America, known prop- erly as the Aristolochia Gigas Sturte- vanili, and issaid to be the only one of its kind in the United States. It was on exhibition at the World's Fair. but was so small at the time as to attract little attention. “goose plant. During a south Florida, oblirved to resort to uni for obtaining fresh water. not be surprised while ter, frogs pump, and one man tied while pumping two feet long i and upon striking crawled under tiles crawl into joy the water vales. Ix 1867 Dr. W had been in the and afterward in seen his wife for heard that was dead. mained in Mexico until the year, when he came to Kentucky to pumping wa- from the rather sts to see lit issue was to Spo a nfe xic H. Ricl Co Me five she re- He pre sent look up relatives. In to land he wrote t in Texas, and learned living and had for tw remarried. Husband retired, and the pair wer: ter thirty-two year A GASTOGRAPH movements of fo in ¢ stom: a patient, & his wife's relative was recently xhibited action before the Medical So 3 the County of New York by Dr. Max Einhorn. The s 3 records tl motions on a by battery. sient vw ot § vO means of elec The patient swallow tie ball of brass c« strument by electric w details of the mechanism are given snnected to the ires, but no The apparatus is expected to be use- ful in i] ii diagnosing # oy ments of the st THE deathof ‘The of Manzanares’ has attention in Spain, known from one end of the country to the other. She was a poet and had a remarkable talent for writing gin g verses, describing her misery Many of the poems are beautiful, and the author enjoyed a large income. She was said to be one of the best re. citers in Spain, and many of the men in that country beg- most famous made pilgrimages to her house to hear her. Queen Isabelln gave her n pension years She left about $60 000, Prov. Pear, the ethnologist. re- cently described to the Asiatic So- ciety the condition of the hunting Nagas on the borders of As- gam. the continuance of the practice ; they taunt the young men who are not tats oe |, and the lattergo out and eut off heads to exhibit to them, fully hall of which are those of women and children. The area occupied by the tribe is not more than twenty miles square, but in it during the past 40 years more than 12,000 murders have ago, x , LER ghastly trophies. A STRANGE with the work of clearing away the debris of the recently wrecked bridge at Louisville is related of the subma- sults may be had. than an hour. There was no response when signals were made, and there was uneasiness felt, At length the diver who goes on as a relief reported for duty, and he was at once sent down to ascertain what was wrong. In a few minutes both men came up. The diver was found seated on a pile of iron fast asleep. Two queer cases of telepathy: A lady in Maine, whose daughter was a missionary’s wife in India, dreamed of her on the 18th of May last. She thought the girl called ‘mother’ as if in agony. Long after the slow mail came, saying that on that night the daughter was supposed to be dy- mg, but had recovered. A lady in New Orleans fell to the floor during a social gathering, crying, with han at side: “Oh, I'm I’. Bhe wasn't; but she felt that way. Shortly after she bore a child marked upon the side as if by two stab wounds. Neri day came a | saying that her twin been stabbed to death in Later it was learned that { land. { man’s hallucination, and the place of { the wounds the same. These stories may be taken with salt, if preferred. | Ax unusual summons was received over the telephone not long ago by Dr. David Birney. of the University of Pennsylvania, from a wealthy man in New York, who wished him to go to Long Island. Dr. Birney endeav- ured to find out something about the nature of the case he was expected to treat, but the man, after securing his promise to go, refused to talk further over the ‘phone. The doctor packed a case of instruments at ran- dom and met the man in New York. After dinner at the Waldorf they took the train for Long Island, but not a word was said about the opera- tion. When they arrived the man thanked the nd paid him 850: then in response to the look of vonder from the astonished surgeon, he said : I saw my sister bleed to ! death in a railroad accident for want of a physician, i have never trav doctor an ¢ Because Captain struck and made { logwood laden schooner Net don. from Falmouth, ! Philadelphia, was compelled to Key West in distress. Langdon drifted about in condition for days after Capt. Bray's sad plight, and finally drifted toward the Florida coast, where a pilot bos and Pile was taken on board, and he 1 to Key West, into helpless was sighted, James Sinelal ted the vess fortunate skipper's evesi CRUSE *h he 3 inve been y whi vir ury $ indictment most turtie is 1 1 » ieast take advantage of a certain specie i called Dy ‘meaning reversed), 18 the its back is usually taken for its belly. It has an oval plate attached to its head whose surface is traversed by parai- lel ridges. By this plate it can firmly lhere to any solid body it may The boats wh turtles each carry a of these reves, the turtles are they are cautiously approached, and as soon as they are judged near enough a reve is thrown into the sea. Upon perceiving the turtle, instinet teaches it to swim right toward it and fix itself firmly upon the crea- ture by its sucking disk. Sooner wonld the reve allow itself to be pulled to pieces than to give up its grip. A ring which was attached to the tail of the fish, in which a string was fastened, allows the fisherman to pull in his prize. ly a peculiar manipulation the reve is pulled off and returned to the tub to be ready for use again when the next turtle sighted.” vecause Hl! choose. ich go in quest tub contain- When Sie} of ing some sleeping its is Tur present area is remarkable for lized races of the world of kindlier feelings toward the brute ereation. and it is certain that animals have ade of the nineteenth century. tion was drawn in these soldier for applying an insulting epi- thet to a government horse ; to a suit libelled a racer; the Belgian Government that a dog when once provided with his ticket railrond compartment as a human being. And now there is the Aus- trian town of Baden, which has just voted a credit of $10,000 for the rheu- matic horses. The equine patients are to have sulphur baths erected for their treatment, in which it is hoped that wonderful cures will be effected, Elsowhere in Europe valua- ble racehorses are got into training by means of a course of turkish baths in piece of the old-fashioned cloth treat. ment, aud if matters advance at the present rate the day cannot be far istant when every well-bred horse will insist like so many other de- votees of fashion, upon an annual stay at Homburg, Carlsbald or Vichy for the saks of recuperating his strength. Tose WesLey, of Ga., came to Macon, recently to buy a coffin for his seven-year-old son, who was erushed to death by a huge snake, The boy had gone to the field with his father, and while his father was at work wandered ofl a short distance and climbed a mus- cadine vine as was his habit, On be- ing unable to find the boy when he had finished his work about sundown, the father went to the house expects ing to find him there, but was in- formed by his wife that the boy had not been home since he left the house with his father. Feeling no uneasiness Wesley, knowing habit of his boy, went back into the field, which was the edge of a dense swamp bordered with dine vines, and began searching vines where he had last seen the boy, the hoe not long in finding him on By looking up in vines hut called the boy failed to answer. ter calling two or three times receiving no answer the father shook Af- the vine, and 0 his horror saw what had of the branches of the was sup- he supposed to one he vine that his son. begin to uncoil the i sO was In Wesley and before he the snake the boy fell Realizing that his oil of a huge soake ited to the ould r y i G1 complete y the ground, on 1e or ton feot, iid up and ww to the rst fears were On being house and further examin frstry ey HOW ly uncoil Ww was dead it was ARG Deen AMINER'S ORDEAL Lights Four Fuses of Giant Powder and Finds Escape Cut Off, Frank Bagley, a miner, had m nee the heir way to as many His i sot alarm powder. i tempt die Ls and *ach ck to the bott that | He thie narrow confines had blown out his light and in of the shaft there was not a crevice or a projecting rock big enough to shield even his hand. The place was black as midnight darkness itself, and his only way of was through the agency that slippery and treacherous He knew about the time the eseane i roe, i explos. desperately did he attempt to make the ascent, but all to no purpose. The first shot went off, scattering rock in every direction around him and hitting him in various places on the body. Tha third and fourth followed in rapid succession, but with less serious results to him. The injuries he sustained were most. ly received from the first shot. He is lacerated and bruised from head to second. While they are serious and quite painful, they are not con- sidered dangerous.~{Prescott (Ari- zona,) Journal. - —- OP HL 5 Habits of the Walrus, Although the walrus is a formi- dable<looking animal especially when he rears his huge head and gleaming tusks out of the water within a few feet of your boat, Mr. Elliott says hs is not only timid, harmless, and in- offensive, but not even given to fight- ing in his own family. liis tusks, which vary in length Zeom twenty to thirty inches, and in weight average given him to dig clams with, and are of precious little use to him either in fighting or defending himself from attack. He sleeps comfortably in the open sen, floating bolt upright in the water, with his nostrils out and his hind flippers hanging a dozen feet below. Nature purposely built him in the shape of a buoy, so that when sleeping or resting at sea the buoy ancy of his huge, blubber-cased fore- quarters bring his nostrils out of the water without the slightest effort on his part. He nts and bellows a ment, apparently, and many a time have vessels been warned off danger. rocks in thick. weather by gruntiig of the walrus lying upon WALLS OF PIERRE LOT! DESCRIBES HIS JOURNEY THROUGH THEM. PEKIN. Wondrous Word Painting of This Early-World Metropolis, with Its Walis Upon Walls, Its Grotesque Architecture--Ete., Ete. The crowning ambition of Japanese patriotism war was declared against the Celestial Empire is to emuiate the prowess of the French since is likely therefore, to occupy the at. tention of the onlooking world for coine, Its sights have often been depicted by travelers who had the fortune to in its normal, workaday state in the piping times of peace, but by French Acade- Pierre Loti terateur, and iit iil mician, Subjoined is a of AM. translation En route for Pekin! Clie! Clae! “Ia, Ia ta!” eries our conchman, and two start off with a tot. ta, pigtailed thin mules nur ht from each othe Lie ge ind us is of Heaven; top of its palace of the Son one perceives the within which no European has ever been. It in inconceivable splendor, and at its feet the Lotus mysterious walls still slumbers its f Ani ji Ral yer FIR EF Ti NTT ! ” oh 118 0 5 ls =r A SW , Lake lie® tarnished and dead under the January ice. One experiences a sort of indefin- immensity of this city, awaking in the bright morning; one feels op- pressed, as it were, by this cramped, confused, inexiricable dedalus one makes out around one, covering a greater extent than any of our capi- tals of Europe. The dogs bark furiously at us and make menacing charges at the legs of our animals, whose move regular. These dogs issue from all the allies, all the cloacae, and the troop pursues us, showing their sharp fangs, eager to bite, The countenances of a few young Tartar girls, who have just got up, already appear at the doors of the little, low, gray-brick houses. Their broad, full-moon-like faces, befarded with white and vermilion, peep curi- ously after us, like a lot of kittens’ h ; they have little airs of tim- idity ; blankness and astonishment at the sight of the Western carnival y. Their larg nes and bright, raw colors against the gray walls of the houses; they themselves awkwardly on feet are too small, in the pretty poses of poise These images defile rapidly on each again encounter an interminable series of deserted strects, Weare in the Yellow, or imperial town. and all these old. dead districts bear an aristocatic Wal walls without end ; character. i ferns, Jehind them are immense parks, where a nature artificial whimsically Chinese hay loned ut great expense, been Occasionally entrances are opene: do pil: entrances with heavy oanken worn by time, and ters, They have ex these entrances CHoOrmous yellow roofs whose extreme angles are raised skyward in in forms of drazons and monsters, are guarded by two capricious crooks grimacing marble { chimeras one clawed paw posed on a half lions, | whi DR gard the passer-by with a myst rictus, And over ¢ desert has placed dust 11 1.2 $ iil this the its OF WALLS wa yw foil ‘ k bot ned horses beg comi boul % ard with people: it is be tumult tiders come coded by Mafoos in | all of a heap in the and look as though squattin colors and gilt, the strange medleys painted upon these Yamen by the ar- | tist of long ago. In the direction of Sitchemen, the | Western gate, which will give us ac- {high saddles. They are attired in | garments of silk trimmed with pre. {i cious furs, and black velvet boots | turned upat the tips, with thick, im- Cmaculately white soles, made of lay- ‘ers of paper. Among them are phi- , siognomies that, while very Chinese, {are stamped with a kind of distine- | tion peculiar to the upper classes. They eye us as we pass with a cor. | tain expression of astonishment, with ‘an imperceptible shade of irony, | though in their deportment there ia | nothing but benevolence and courte- ay; but the Asiatic rictus is always | there, even in the kind and distin- | guished physiognomies of the upper classes, ere is an im le abyss between this antique Asia, which still lives in spite of all, and us, who, born yesterday, have chang. “srarvihing A cloud of dust; children scam. pering about and ; as piercing as a steam whistle; dirty lanterns end of ita long out of breath, carrying broad daviight, at the lictors dressed in’ black and puffed out doublets and breeches, and lofty hats bedecked with plumes, shaking, with frantic whips weighted eat-o’-nine-tails, chains and of torture: and then, he same headlong man- dravons, Imonsiers feel £3 1% gosticuintion, instruments advancin ner, people earry red screens di on the eo ing green chimeras and i of long poles 1:3455% the great personage thus ¢s- 1a splendidly capari- He is Li-Hun of Petehild, who is going isi «, the Pri ail ] His b my i o mu wl hang nee-Be- qe tie ' Way Crossings ulevards Igies, we s forced 1 “10 { low intermi- ble , enor- beasts iti usky zzies and rougl i hich ambie along vd legs like es out of gear. » fellows leading them are Mon- gols from the Northern desert Their large, flat faces have something vial and hardy about them, which contrasts agreeably with the perpet- They are dres- olored robes, with waist belts bristling with poignards, and are coiffed with a kind of cur 15 ornamented with a tuft We trot along on a sort of high embankment, reserved for horses and vehicles, which occupied the middle of the boulevard, while on either side, on a lower level, is a road reserved for pedestrians. Around us still are rich cavaliers, befurred and begowned; blue carts without number: ladles of quality in black sedan chairs, shaped like street lamps, and burgeois of placid mien, mounted on hired done keys and followed by donkey boys, who flog the animals with sticks and shout: ‘Ta, ta, ta, ta!” And shops upon shops, always gilded and splendid, wherein are sold Mongolian furs, gold and silver bro- cades, priceless stuffs embroidered with fantastic things in dreamy shades, enamels and beautiful pot. tery, all the relics of an inconceiv= able past, extravagant in richuess and color. Then there are fortune tellers doctors operating upon dummies laid on trestles, There are also banking houses swarming with a whole papu- ination of sheep-faced employes fevers ishly manoeuvring the strings of balls on the calculating machines with the tips of their long, sharp, Chinese claws, At last, at last, we come to a large donjon, perched on a high gray wall, and a black gull. It is Sitchemen, the direct western gate. Let us pen etrate slowly and prudently into this cavern so as not to break our horses’ legs between the old, disjointed fag. stones, dating from the time of Kha-
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers