CONVICTED BY A MONKEY.
HIS DUMB EVIDENCE SESDS A MAN TO
THE GALLOWS,
A Woman Accompl cs Sent to Prison for
Life The Murdered Man Was the Owner
Furnished la Court by the Simian,
“Louisiana has just furnished a sen-
been equalled In modern history,”
Julius MeGrea™ of New Orleans.
“What do you think of a monkey as a
witness in a murder trial? Oh,
not all of it, for his testimony
the conviction of the man and woman
charged with murdering his
i
the penitentiary for life. The evidence
in the case was all purely circumstan-
tial
for if ever an animal spoke that mon-
key did.
of Starr and his ‘wife grew more and
wore suspicious, and an investigation
was made,
“Finally the suspected palr were ar-
rested by the authorities of West Bat.
on Rouge parish, in which Devil's
Landing is located, The evidence was
purely circumstantinl, It was true
that Ackerman had not been heard of
since he left the landing on that April
night, and he certainly had not arrived
whither Starr said that he
An axe with blood on It
in the houseboat. Chips
from the skiff which was towed be
hind the craft and a bush which grew
near the water's edge, all of which
were brought
They were examined
Professor Dosson of
sald
axe,
was going.
for inspection,
and analyzed by
that all of them, including the
were smeared with human blood,
“Sixteen persons gave testimony at
which took place during the
month of September. Their evidence
was damaging, but it practically prov
gid waters
than
The story sounds
the ante-bel
so replete is it
lents reminding us of bygone
tur
nore
old Mississippl, whose
have been reddened
with human blood.
more like a narrative of
lum days on the river,
with incle
times.
“Perhaps you know that the house
boat has not quite disappeared from
the Mississippl. As a usual thing they
start in below St. fitting out
either at Memphis, Cairo or some other
point not far from the of
their operations. . They are equipped
with provisions, small farm.
ing implements, catlico prints,
in fact everything which tld
expect to find the stock of a
country store. They drift down the
current of the river, stopping at ham
iets and houses on banks, driving
inhabitants,
the inland
ounce
Louls,
100 RCene
groceries,
notions,
one wot
in the in
the
surewd bargains with the
sometimes find store
too far away, or too poorly
get what th
“Sometimes a
who
gtocked to
ey want,
rude
desired
sail
tO Cross
is
when it is
but this done
craft is steered and half
means of long ‘swe p
from the stern
the
iz not often
lke
by
Ours,
to see evolution
per
wand of
rev a
hese ri
form when the
atin
ago
aux ari
th te
thing to see
long to a past egoch
“A few
name of H. N
quently known
the
1 He
and had realized that
profit
Hix scow
Ie £%y ‘wt
montis
An
as Bill
river
fre
man,
ore
Ack
in one of those
‘
seboats, a shrewd fellow,
was
x 11641
was tie
a mere huck ing enterprise
contained ¢ mennge
feyor f vied ri ier “pr wr
INE of trick ponies, x forin
and a
forgotten
a monsey
Mississippi,
for the
Uses nis,
country
am and al
most anything serves to furnish diver
for the
of
people
gion
1060
kod
the
and
he needed
to give
fi bout
he pick
save
landings,
Baton Rouge,
a man and woman who
name of Starr, claiming to be man
wife. Ackerman said t
welp in show, and agreed
pair a certain percentage of the
the woman the cooking
i man to help with the perform
The trio led a sort of Huckle
Finn existence, going
desired, sto ping
ip to the bank at nigh
te hard for the
understand the attraction
at the
the
hat
his
the
profits, fo do
ant t}
auce,
berry
they
vherever
to ash, and
tying
*1t
I
such an
would average
mn to
entertainment, poor
the banks of the stream
not
and
live along
In many cases a railroad
come within fifty miles of them,
about the only amusement have
to watch the going
and down the river. The majority
NEVEr «aw a few
the
show,
does
they
is steam packets
up
of
of
hem elrens, and
them
smallest Ackerman's
with its merry-go-round,
dogs capable of performing unheard-of
tricks, set the rural denizens wild with
delight, P. T. Barnam's name would
not have been one-half as great a talls.
man as that of Ackerman. He abso
lutely owned the community wherever
he went,
“The prize of the whole combination
was Jocko, the monkey. Ponies and
dogs were ordinary domestic animals,
but this gimian, with its alinost human
fuce, something irresistible. It
have ever wen Inside
theatre,
ite ponies and
was
master's shoulder, take off his cap, and
make his tour of collection. Jocko was
devoted to Ackerman, and was his con
stant companion, Ackerman never left
the boat without taking his pet with
him, for Jocko would have been incon.
solable in his master's absence,
monkey had more hdelity than a dog,
and was a most intelligent representa.
tive of his species,
“he houseboat continued down the
river, amd its approach was heralded
pended on a well-satisfled public as his
advance agent. When the show left
Devil's Landing in April Ackerman
was with it, but he did not appear at
the next stop. The people asked for
him, and Starr said that he had gone
north on a packet to attend to some
business in Southern Hlinols. Several
people who had seen ihe show fagther
up the river came to see it again, and
they pursued their inquiries, which
were met with contradictory eRe
when it came to details, The a !
“The main witness was the monkey.
is doubtful
if Starr and his wife would even have
been arrested. He showed a tremen
dous aversion to the couple, and would
not allow them to come near him. He
chattered and uttered shrill cries
vhenever he saw them. He some
times tugged furiously at his chain and
teeth In impotent rage
were in his presence
love Jocko had for Ack
officials considered that his
the greatest significance
even averred that he had
been a witness of the crime,
“To cap climax of this strange
proceeding, the monkey was locked uj
in a ¢ell at the parish jail the same as
human He was kept there
the off, and no
was that time
was the
around Starr's
female ac
The
rea
his
when they
Knowing the
erman, the
action had
ind
BOmne
the
Witheas.
rial came
present at
to say that bis
ny that placed the noose
neck and
complice
little
of his dumbness, did ne
avenge his master. He
into the court
$
One
hesd
testimo
condemned his
a life term in prison
brute, handicapped by
wt fall to
brought
I "ii
son
Was
dressed in
cont amd
cap, just
nds
and {
auction i
kKerman's son-in-law got the |
it 1 am ert
p strang i:
ould hive
a throug
not sin of that,
¥
iit sO re
fn nse sl
enti sout the coun
EASY LIFE ‘N NICARAGUA.
When the Family Is Out of Moncey Somebody
Gioes Out and Gets a Little Gold.
“When I was in the Olancl
in Nicaragua, last month,
itor who is largely interested in min
ing in Cestral America, “1 had
portunity of seeing how th
tives tap pature's till when
small
30 dist of 11
snd a vis
an op
he
tiey
nn
ned
“OMe change.
“Near our camp by the river was a
hut occupied by a typical Honduranian
family, consisting of husband and
wife, grandfather and grandmother
and a dozen or so assorted children
The only of the crowd who ald
anything except rest and smoke wae
the wife. At intervals of perhaps a»
week would sally out with the
family tinpan, erstwhile used for cook
ing. and proceed to an old placer dig
ging the river bank. There she
would squat, throw a few gourds full
of dirt into the pan, fill it up with wa
ter and begin the usual clreuls
of gold washing. She was very
ful and would keep a little sheet
dirty water spraying over the edge
like a miniatore eataract. When the
water was exhausted a few spoonfuls
of sand would be left in the bottom of
the pan, and, spreading it out thin,
with a bit of stick, she would go over
it grain by grain, looking for ‘color.’
Whenever she saw a speck of gold
one
she
on
r motion
skill
of
gion. Each bit of the precious metal
wns sorted away in a quill. plugged!
with clay at the ends, and 1 have
known her to take out as much as a
quarter of an ounce in the course of
one day. Usually her limit was about
£2, and when she got that she stopped.
Then the head of the house would arise
Innguidly and start for the nearest
Sometimes
i
:
1
whiskey, bot as a rule he brought
back tobacco, salt, meal or ealico,
“There are hundreds of native fami
lies who live in exactly that manner in
Olancho, Sometimes the woman will
be lucky enough to strike a rich pock.
ef, that will yield a dollar or more a
pan, but they never dream of washing
it ont at once and getting n sinke, It
simply means that they secure their
usual amount with less work,” New
Orleans Times Democrat,
Ten earlonds of black waluut logs
were sold in Kentucky for export
abroad, principally to London, Glos:
gow and Hamburg.
FACTS ABOUT METEORS
AFragment of Comet's Tail The lutense
Cold of Space Felt by Man,
The atmosphere forms an armor
which Is almost impenetrable to the
meteors that are constantly pelting the
earth. Most of the meteors are small,
They come rushing through space,
atrike the atmosphere, and the friction
ugainst the molecules of alr heats
them to a white heat, and sets them
ablaze. Sometimes part of one may
reach the earth, but as a rule they are
consumed, and the dust alone, cosmie
dust, drops upon the surface,
B.C. in Phrygia,
it was worshipped. It was carried to
tome, and was supposed to be a mes-
senger from the Livy describes
a shower of meteoric stones. The peo-
ple were greatly alarmed, and declared
a nine days’ festival to propitiate the
gods, There Is at Mecea a meteorite
which fell in 600 A. D,
shipped by the faithful, In
Hterature there Is mention of meteors
which fell in 644 B, C. The oldest
known meteorite which was to
fall on exhibition at Ensis
helm, Alsace, Germany. In 1402 it
came crashing down through the air
with a roar that prostrated the
antry with fright. It buried
deeply In the earth, It weighed
pounds, and hangs to-day in the
ch.
Chupaderos
dl twenty-five fell
Mexico. The largest
known the Peary
approxi 106
stone of Canon
gods,
Chinese
Keel
Is now
pas
260
pir
ish chur
The
welgl
huabua,
which
in Chi
meteor
maoeteariie,
1GOs,
which
The
Jeast
the
ite iu stone,
mately tons
Dinbie
and exploded high In air,
found all over the
rounding country. In Italy several in
known of the of life
was wit
weighs
weighs at
ten tons,
being
PHeces #1
SIANCes are joss
rom meteorites A peasant
and was killed
crashed
in his cabin hy an
ng
{
an iron mass that throagh the
The
in of diy
wi
fate
act was regards
ine anger
ws | hist 5 il x the 44
lan is perhaps the only one that has
bhivwn struck tneteorite
of
by a
teorit several tons’ we
that city in the
'aoio
ka Fran
authority of Maria
1546
wreck
aeourrid Hay
collided wit
the comet d
have omet: in
heed ann
observers remember
any ens
many
ng
=e paraling SGIe
ued one part of
fate in
{0 pieces
¥ purs ithe comet
infinite
and
shoreless sen of space
predicted if the
if did not INTZ its
would &ible
stars tion was
NOY
heavens a
During the
upon the
Mazapil,
to bw a part
met its
space
went became a
i pon i! jie
Astronom
that
in
Vy
ars
Clie 1a
appear
wreckage become as
shooting and this predic
apparently,
there
pe
ty
realized
1872,
cloud
oan
the
as
burst from
of shi t
witing siars
display one
earth, and
Mexico,
of the
The
after
plece dropped
WARS secured at
and was declared
great comet
average meteorite immoediat
ite fall Is intensely hot,
least which was handled
diately after falling, still held the
tense cold of space A few
say that they bave experienced
A meteorite exploded above Dhurm
sain, Kangra, Punjaub, India, in 15060,
and a section was picked up imme
diately by some natives who dropped it
with expressions of pain. The explo
sion had exposed the interior of the
iy
bnt at
one, imme
in
men can
$o §
this
intense cold of space, and was so cold
that its effect was like a burn, This
fragment i« now to be seen in
Field Museum. Of it, Dr. Farington,
the curator, sald: “This is perhaps the
only instance known where the cold of
space has become perceptible to ho
oan senses,”
A New Kind of Umbretla.
Two students arranged to have a
stroll one afternoon in Glasgow. They
both arrived provided with nmbrelias,
but before starting on their perambu.
Intigns one hurriedly returned to his
lodgings in order to put some fresh
fuel on his fire,
Ax they walked along they were
rather surprised to see so many of the
passersby looking at them with amos.
vd smiler, At last some corner boys
shouted ont:
“What a fancy cane he carries!”
Then, on looking down, one discoy-
ered to his horror that he was quietly
carrying the fire tongs Instead of an
umbrella, having forgotten to make the
exchange after replenishing bis room
fire, Pearson's Weekly,
Within the last two centuries the
population of Berlin has increased
Crom 20,000 to nearly 2,750,000,
MR. GABBER ON GIVING.
His View Before and ! Alter Aunt Jane's Mess
age Came.
“Isn't it almost time to deeclde about
Christmas presents, dear?’ timidly
asked Mrs. Gabber, Henry dropped his
paper and glared savagely, just as Mrs,
Gabber expected him to do,
“Of course it's time!” he exclaimed.
“It always is time, 1 never got in the
middle of an interesting editorial in
my life that it wasn't the to decide
nerve-rnsping thing! Now it's
‘What'll we give Aunt Jane, and
lobby wants an automobile, and what
can we about Uncle Peter? The
sume old year after year—how
to
story,
don’t want, for
y-six dollars and thirty-two
dollars and
Mrs, Gabber
“I've saved forty-eight
cents,” put io
“That won't be enough to supply
your Canadian cousing,” sputtered Mr.
“Then there are five of us,
and the mald and Mike, doz
ens of relatives, scores of dear friends,
hundreds of ordinary friends, thous
of intimate acquaintances, mill
of regulation acquaintances, and
of and wvaga-
bonds In five we'll be
in the poor-honse, victims of a blamed
that grows ull the
time! In ten yvears--"
“Henry listen a
isn't half bad you're
and you
ands
fons
wiifs, strays
another Veurs
custom Worse
it
making it
The hardest
always been
that,
won't
year, and
understand that
If
told you
io moment!
ns as
Know ft,
have
od # gos
vrites
Os,
presents to choose
Aunt Jane's, and
owing the hard times,
make
wishes us to distin
she me
to she Lae
able to presents this
tly
is unwilling to u«
Ki pt wtiil 1'd have
first
sh TeEpL any
you'd only
this | the
Mr
burst with
“Well,
place
fal if
he
ration
would
nw
indig
looked
fourteen afghans,
fool. rests
# £4.45
Hite
or bg
ag
«d with
larg
pn gi
ont
and with two
rider's food
which
two wateg
ining the
bs ge 00 '
besides
ith
arvording
is el w
man Ww pros
skins, to be filled to require
tenis Thur equipped, a seven days
taken,
sufficient
desert trip could Ix unde
wells
the cn
there were
coniaining
to water mels about every third
day
The men
and bayonet
armed with a Martini
and carried
of ammunition, ninety in ban
and pouches, the remainder
sewn in a roughly made
gas to distribute the
They were clothed is
jeresy. panta
were
rifle Sy
rounds
dolier
thelr saddles,
saddle cloth
weight « qually .
a brown woolen
loons and leather
The total
od up for a
on
Ney
cord
gaiters
carried when load
trip, with filled
5)
welght
even days
would
of
walersekins, Iw an gould
pounds, which course, redaoed it
self forag:
consumed, Thus
and self-contained
its own
ang
have
daily as Water wen
We a completo
fighting for
wlilch element, the deser:
ask« nothing from any one, which dis
appears and swallowed up in
frackiess waste, again,
an interval of having
The Cornhill,
in
is the
af
ac
fo reappear
«ix days
Trading iu the Transvaal
Ordinarily the Transvaal
store is of galvanized iron,
tradmz
upon which
making the alr within almost un
bearable. But the trader not
mind thie, Dressed in a palr of {rons
ore, a light pair of shoes and a Sannel
shirt, he reclines on a convenient part
of the counter, and with the aid of his
pipe passes the time until a customer
arrives,
fhould the customer be a white man,
the storekeeper and he will as a rule
retire into the little side room for a
few minutes, and a bottle and a couple
of glasses will be produced. Rhould
he, on the other band, be a native, the
trader will glance at him casually, and,
without moving, will ask him what he
wants, He does this because Kaflirs
often want something which they
know the storekeeper has not got. The
shelves in the back of the shop are
piled up with gaudy blankets, clothing
of all descriptions, tinned goods, clocks
and vases, cheap “jewelry,” and vari
ous other commodities. Below {hese
shelves are the bins where the sugar,
flour, meal and coffee are kept.
Outside the store, on the stoop, are
the agricultural lmplements, plonghs,
barrows, new American inventions of
all sizes and Sustriptions, that are too
big or too Leavy to be easily carried
does
GREAT SEA THOROUGHFARE.
City Streets,
Mariners about our English coasts,
says the London Mall, hiss the
marked out for them into roads and
streets as definite and obviens as Pic
cadilly or the Strand. Ii i» only by
extreme negligence by an absolute
unforeseen combination of adverse cir
cumstances that a ship can
way nowadays when it Is within tween.
ty or thirty miles of the English const.
The greatest sea road in the whole
world is the Swin Deep, at the mouth
of the Thames It is not too much to
say that foot of It is surveyed
tnarked down on the chart | £1
completely than many
and to the sallor it
familinr than
White
or
loge
every
i 114d in
Hghted more
thoroughfares,
City
more homelike and
the Commercial road or
chapel High sireet,
Down this great high road of the sea
i of the trade of the world is car-
Ships from the farthest parts of
world patrol it day night in
bringing goods
taking English products
{to distant lands
As the tras
Tiames between tl
fhe
mue
ried
ithe
inn
10
and
endless procession,
London or
steams down the
+ low
first
ol
eller
sand reaches
of
which
beyond Gravencnd,
the
iw glimpse
stem Hghts
at
wonderful sy
South
finished
r at hand
jimortal
Hood
alled
Ton
R&R poem
NOre
Of
Ie 5
Lind a steel shutter
ny of these "occulling™
treet, and {ten a
of them flash
with abso
it ix «
tne sight to see One
ont of the dark.
lute cortainty
ship nn the
lights of all
ations are
buoys whit
exact posiiion of the
The smallest
the many colored Humin
head of
various safe
burn
produ Tt
Eri
fifteen to twenty
and fAlled
continually from =a
the
channel.
those at the the
the
hese
I mark out
passages for ships
amd day
night
and the light is
from ordinary gas, The
many of them from
feet high--are hollow
gax, which burns
lamp at the top
Often the traveler in
may see a curious, slowly moving ves
wel with nt great tank on the deck, mov.
ing fo buoy, This
gas ch supplies the
with fresh gas at stated intervals,
may be calied the
sea road.
bn Vs
with
Swin street
from is the
lights
| §
lamplighter of the
buoy
bond wh
Chile's “Val of Paradise.”
Valparaiso is the second city of Chile
and next to San Francisco is the most
important port on the Pacific coast of
Americd. The name means “vale of
Paradise.” and is so incongruous in
several respects to provoke sar
casm, but the true origin was as fol
fows: In 1536 a Spanish captain named
SBaavadra was sent by Diego de Alma.
gro, Plzarro’s partner, to take posses
sion of an Indian village called Quin
tal, which stood here at that the, and
his loyalty to his native place, Valpa-
raise, a town of Castile, prompted him
to christen the city he founded in its
honor,
as
125.000 inhabitants should be located
here. The inhabitants have shown a
the bay with houses, Indeed, the mos!
agreeable and fashionable residence
quarter is the cliffs which are
reached by winding roads and Hfts
sich as one sees In Cloncinpati and
Pittsburg. On the edges of the cliffs
the poorer classes have built rade
dwellings of old timber and all sorts
of debris, patched up with sheets of
corrugated iron, and some of them,
perched upon almost fnacessible rocks
and propped up with ungainly wooden
supports, present
peril and inconvenience.
| storms several were washed away, al
| though they did pot suffer so much as
| one would expect,—Correspondence fp
¥
Chicago Record.
STRANGELY ILLUMINATED.
| The Weird Ef gt of Phosphorescence on o
Ship in Bering Sea
| “I have often heard of the wonder
ful phosphorescence of Southern seas,”
remarked a traveler from the North
“and 1 have some pretty fair
samples in the Atlantic between New
York and English ports, but I did not
know it prevailed to any extent ip
Northern waters until during the past
summer,
“In August
revenue
ring
tude,
wien
inst I was on board the
McCulloch, in the Be
G3 degrees porth lati
bound north, when ope night
10 o'clock 1 happened to g0 oD
and 1 was almost frightened by
wight seg, The wind was
sharp enough the
white the gen looked
as if it ghted from its depths
‘by a million are ligh throwing their
white rays upward and under the fly
ing foam. The hollows of the waves
were dark, were dark, but every crest
i ered and sparkled as
bh ligh t From thd
rolls of broken
cutter
sea, about
about
deck
the {
41
G1 he
blowing raise
caps, and whole
were 1
int Liroke
it were fil i wit
sides of ia
wile
broad pathway
bie
: hig
ie ship
great
Hight 4 away,
and
of silvery foam
mek as the eve could reach
“But
triking disp
ysl
£ shy
about thizx hour was the m
A Cow's Grief
pa
‘turned 10 the
r up to be
ade his bed
same
» Was
he
going
Desert
resulted.
made on
separate
belligerents by her horns and feet.
fnexpl manner she killed
As soon as she perceived
bad d« or grief was most
itness. She moaned and
and stomi over the prostrate
pearly all day Many in the
neighborhood could not stand to see
stich an exhibition of dumb sorrow and
turned away.—-Paducab (Ky.) Sun,
Wis
fight
attack
attempted fo
another
COW resented the
friend, and
the
In some abi
friend
she
het
bit
w hint fe 1
pat 0 Ww
groaned
body
Lambs and Oysters on Trees
The Dominican, a Tertre, asserts in
his book that he saw at Guadeloupe
oysters growing on the branches of
trees, by their weight bending down
the branches into the sea, “and they
are refreshed twice a day by the flax
and reflux of 11.” Bishop Fleetwood
tells of a tree in Cimbalon whose
leaves turn into birds and animals as
soon gs they fall to the earth. Piglet
elght days in a jar, and that it took to
walking as soon as he touched it, and
it lived only on the air.
The wonderful Tartarian shrub or
lamb tree is vouched for by more than
It is about three feel in height.
it in
blood flows when it Is wonnded, As
long a the lamb is surrounded by plen.
tiful pasturage it thrives, but as soon
from the others in hay
traveler says that he a
and drank of the blood
Sir John Maundeville
trees of the sun and the
grew in one of the Indian Wands,