"FEW BUFFALOES LEFT. ONCE THEY ROAMED THE WESTERN PLAINS IN COUNTLESS NUMBERS. Riding for Fifty Miles Through a Hord of 4,000,000 Animals--How They Were Ruthless!y Slaughtered. Few people are now aware of the the has writes Frank G. Carpenter in Washington “Star,” No ever existed in such large numbers nor territory. Buffaloes animal covered so much formerly far cast as Washington city, and there herds of thousands be ing seen in Pennsylvania not long be A hundred years in great droves to drink roamed over the country as are records of fore the Revolution. ago they came at the Blue Lick Daniel Boone spea now only n springs of Kentucky. ks of them, and it is ince they existed great plains of twenty by the millions on the West. In 1871, now only five years ago, Colonel R I. Dodge rode for miles through a herd of buf faloes wmted bel twenty-five wide. I'hi Arka: point he 11 which he estin as ng rivles sas iver able to along the At one a hill, ane herd of In six to ten n wns get upon eo savs he could see this vast iffaloes stretehing les in every herd was moving, and it tO pass a given point aday Bays there one herd, : only twent traveler al oad states one hundred buffalo, ith t} passed thro twenty mile iol plains were dw more than ATS were by them Natio: which 1 buffaloes ¢ As soon OTR cnn bree h i by thousan uffalo Bill earned of huffalo he Mr. Horna hilt that he in the In » buffaloes jess than an hou n some places | riven over preci pices, breaking their the fall, and bei Wi the ordinary pot fast enough way of skinning the buffalo by means | of horses. They would cut the skin at | the neck the belly and] around the legs at the Knees, A stout fron bar, like a hitching post, was then driven down through the skull about eighteen incl into the earth. Then | a rope was tied to the thick skin of the neck. The other end of the rope was | hitched to the whifile tree of a pair of | horses, or to the rear axle of a wagon The horses were whipped up, and the | skin was cither torn in two or torn from the buffalo, with about fifty pounds of flesh sticking to it. This method, however, was not a success, and was soon given up. About fifty thousand buffaloes have been killed for : their tongues, no account baving been made for their skine, For a long time every skin sent to the market represents ed about five buffaloes, the others hav. ing been destroved. Thousands of buf- | faloes were killed by firelight and moonlight. the fires in such cases being made for the purpose. During the year 1873 the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad alone carried a quarter of a million buffalo robes, and more than a million and a half pounds of buffalo meat, and during the three years fol lowing 1877 more than three million buffaloes were slaughtered by the white men, and of these 1.800.000 were wasted. The great southern herd bad been annihilated by 1875. At this time the market had been overstocked with robes, and the hunters got from 65 cents to £1.15 for them. necks by afterward i some of these hunter murderers of and they process skinning was invented "nu and down H Tiere was then left only the great +! herd of the northern part of the United States. Its destruction began in 1880, {at which time about 100,000 buffaloes were shipped out of the country every vear. The Indians of the northwestern territory marketed about 75,000 buf- faloes a year. ' As soon as the railroads in to the country in, and in 1882 hunters and hunters there were HDOO nt They killed the buffaloes by the thousands their getting #1 £3.00 aplece for them, and within about herd was estimated came the came skinners work. for robes, from ol to this other vast wiped out, In 1874 it that there were half a million buffaloes within a radius of 150 miles of Miles City. In 1884 the last buf falo robes ever shipped to the East wat th hunting four years wis carload of sent over The immensely the figures of Mr. Hornaday, of thousands of dollars were made out of the slaughter before 1840 From 1835 to 1840 there were live rallroad. of the profitable, buffaloes wi According 16 to hundreds long ¢X peditions, which killed buffaloes worth than a million dollars, and the buffaloes killed | realized more oh up to that time twenty ve fi 8 Ars £3 000.000. There are re thn: fur firms who handled In singe of thousands of dollars’ worth « 2 IMM iNM or fur deal 13 i ordinane 1 1 ren us way Africa rdon.” It 1! introduction met li in Central “Allow me.” “I beg pa and “TI in respect! me to pass,’ anks tex] to is also equivalent in inferiors are respond Lv two brisk clans signifying, “I am com if the Ashantees and wthird of the prop 1 Insts rind i FRENH 41 1 and rifling of r action grave an considered fnemy Is for a warrior Crows Hunt a Fox, Ira Stone of Taylorsville, Va., recent witnessed a most curious combat thing. As he neared the scene of con flict he saw that the object of attack was a large gray fox. The fox would rush open-mouthed upon his antagon viciously at his back. Once, when the fox sought to escape by running, the birds formed a solid wall before him, Reynard immediately changed his tactics. He threw himself on the ground and began to roll quickly over in the direction of his foes. This ruse proved ineffective, for the crows sim. ply widened the circle the had drawn around lim, and as he came tumbling toward them attacked him with re doubled energy. The fox would in all not sight of Mr. Stone put all the com: batants to flight. Evidently, from the many tufis of fur found on the ground, the fox suffered considerably. New York Press, AS The Highest Price for a Book. M. Quaritch, the London dealer, asks £26,000 for a psalter printed for the use of the Benedictine monastery of St, James at Mentz, It is said to be the highest price ever asked for ao book. The volume is printed on vellum, and is the third book ever printed, the sec: ond printed with a date. Ji was pub- lished in 1450. The Spirit of a Will Prevails. Burrogate Fitzgerald has written an opinion of much value and interest in deciding to admit to probate the will of Mary A. Buchan, The will was writ ten on two sldes of a sheet of notepa per, and the lack confusion the woman wa edueation, or of punctuation and some to capitals show that ns 8 not possessed of rent was writing under It the surrogate » some unusual difficulties i8 possi ble, however, to make out main de glen of the testator. Fitz gornld carefully reviewed the evidence One of the witng § wses who was interest ed In sustaining the will swore thal legal fulfilled in the signing and publication of the will, but the l thie ments were requ other witness, who seemed to have a leaning town » pide, gave testimony show properly executed Sur ernld says “The statute in reference ills was enacted to effectuate, not % of competent 8 it constraii of thelr 1 the circu. to make a they value of the ™ oo nnd narketed nix to nbont Mall and Ex 10.000,000 Tons of Coal New Yeork coal showing a Pittsbur New { prominent mer 1hont Y ork on the occasion ret visit to the metrop ton af one of the town and different ob fe ta gs in £1 cond of seen. The Western he in the beautiful | sud then looked north tiles an foak and miles of roofs | the vast expense business buildings turned to his most | that it of smoke Clear and bri a brillant hen mrk that to him was Not 8 blot fhe wis so clear marred the Inndscape, in the of New York was clean and neatand contrayg to the dingy and grimy of the West, where the use of coal is not restricted | to certain Kinds New Yorkers have made a study of | the combusion of coal, and have | learned how to get the most out of it | with the least dirt and smoke. The | enormous amount of 10.000.000 tons of | anthracite coal now burned every ! year in New York, and this is not at all | remarkable when it is considered to | what an extent the use of coal enters into the everyday life of the people. The conl dealers of New York are le. gion, and the business has grown to im- : mense proportions. The ease with | which coal can be shipped to New York ! and unloaded in order to get if ta the | market with the least posible handling has contributed, to a great extent, to | the success which New York coal mer- | chants have attained — New York Mail and Express, tiant gun winter fay. fhe greatest possible cities HT Has a Peculiar Mania A lawyer of Biddeford, Me, ls af- fileted with a peculiar mania for col lecting lnmps of all sorts, His house is filled with every kind of lantern he has been able to buy, including a full line of bleyele lamps. He visits Boston fre. quently and always brings back with him a new lot of lamps. His craze costs bi a good deal of money, and he de- clares that he is aware of the folly of it, but entirely unable to resist jt.— New York Sun. A Phenomenal Mathematician, The Now York Central Faftlroad office has secured a phenomenzl mathemati einn in its service, in the person of Al red Blum, a sixteen-year-old newsboy, The boy applied for a position and ex pros sol a willlngness to submit to ap Mitnte oxi i nendntion, was made that nathematics and a After his the briefly qui wield controller concerning antec experience, { interested wt difficult pr tion, nl he ealled he remarka young fellow nd buttonbol oN have wen rude i are now a lroost ox ha ast turquoises reach the market are obtained thoug! This variety when found, oft time to milky tr uel ses N ow = in wit 11t the vield thus fas anal x ff Siitsy sSOUrTe o 1 : sr |Upp Mounial hoy algo in the Buno 1 ¥ Ys inty. J POS f On gray quartzite sai sanistones 0 ¥ oni but so uplifted and 4 ) * wrphiosed that the STONS Ae ir sedimentary racter 8 obssenrsd npanies Are Now workin and the Bune Moun Mexico, and of near Tos Cerrillos, Now region, Much tain that Tut le the product in color; but a great quantity of ! the finest Persian stones, are obtained and a single piece gold for £4000 is re ported to Europe, where their excellence is ac and the total American sales from 1800 te the beginning of 1804 were not less than $500,000, This has proved the most profitable gem mining in the United States. Wash. ington Star. Many of these gems have gone Vault Built For Endless Ages. When the Bank of the United States was established in Wa shington nearly 100 years ago, steel vaults were un known, so the vaalt was built of brick. The old building is now occupied by ftiggs & Co. as a bank. Recently it was decided to put in a steel vault, and last week a force of men were set at and blasting powder. After five days’ work and the removal of many tons of brick, the vault is apparently as im pregnable as ever. It was built in twe parts. The inner shell was square, with an arched ceiling. Outside of this brick were laid in cement to a thickness of nearly four feet, making the interior in the shape of a cube. At the corners of the arch the brick wall was allowed almost double its thickness elsewhere The brick were as hard as stone, and the cement by long standing had be come practically indestroctible. The old vault hax protected almost count fens millions of wealth in its time, and even now, after the present work, it is «till in a condition to furnish absolute security ~Chieago Times-Herald, SMUCCLERS' TRICKS, The Amount ot Contraband Startles Revenue Officers. Diamonds are being mntry smuggled into fl such A Mie ne What to startle isury officials to dot does not « know sort of hidden in many suspicion by the ben discovered iinve i oot heels Ages BOD 3 cart: ind even between a tf OH in pei diamond one of he inch of mngway an Ween two and desery pia ing of Investig One of the planks Was Yn fine cigars were ise iden away hetween the planking and the outer skin of the Sew York Journal His Own Executioner. 3 Canton says a At St. Plerre-de-Palud, | t . AbLresle, near Lyons, lived, of Paris correspondent, a handy man, halr carpenter, half and 42 years old. His wife died years and he had Hyed over mason seven ago, alone since going to work out would astonish the whole country. His ap- pears, was to construct unaided a gail lotine and to be his own executioner. He had got two vertical beams nine foot high. The knife was a hatchet carefully sharpened, and a mason’s idea, it now adapted to it. Nothing could be neater ihan the grovves pulleys and adjust ments, A semicircular groove Was arranged to keep the head well under the hatchet. Deparcieux lay on his back with his neck in the semicircular cutting in a cross plank. He set a heap of straw on the place where he ealeu lated the small of his back would be and placed his feet against a wall. This cord that he held. his head clean from his body. The strange suicide was not discovered for some days after it was committed, Neighbors began to wonder what had happened to Deparcieux. As his dog howled fearfully, they determined to enter the house, to another they discovered nothing un- usual, but when the dog was liberated from the kitchen it rushed down to the cellar and again began to howl. The neighbors following, found there the guillotine and the guillotined. SA A MSR SE, Khe-I've seen just sixteen winters, He-