Address (o Winter.
Hal lint® yon oonw to make na wheeze;
I hhi our lingers on the troea,
A..il . mr you shouting on the breeze
The storm clan's slogan.
Youii noon las here to nip my tons,
And paint tny cheeks with sunset glows,
And Iresco this old ohin anil raw
With blue and purple.
I hear you've been, you roving lellow,
Among the Australasians yellow.
And soaring with your blatant bellow
The Polynesians.
Touoh them kindly. Kindly deal
With those who most thy rigors leel;
In trembling supplianoe they kneel
And crave thy tneroy.
Bluster around the rich man's door;
Make him unlock his golden store,
Kaoh year i ncretuting more and more
His deeils ol kindness.
You're getting rough; I tear you pass
Your time too much with Boreas,
And that atar-mantled gypsy lass,
The summer Solstice.
Old triond, together many a year
We've journeyed on through foul and dear,
And now, old comrade, lend an oar
To my petition.
This year, I pray thee, leave thy snows
In cold Arc turns with thy blows;
Oh! Winter, gently come to those
Who havo no shelter.
Hoar 'round the miser till he quakes;
Nip him and strip him till he shaken;
Freeze him and squeeze him till ho makes
A big donation.
And in the oause of science, pray
Keep out the ioe trom Baffin's hey,
So that Polar " savants " win their way
To frozen glory.
Let those we love, though they abide
Far from us now, oome to our side
Happy and well at Christmastide,
And we will bless thee.
Guy H. Avtry.
MARKHEAD'S EXPLOIT
At Bismarck (Dakota) the mountain
men often tell the story of Mark head's
exploit with the Blackfeet.
It is the same Mai khcad who, five or
six years later, was treacherously mur
dered hy the Mexicans, near Taos. At
the time of his death he was not more
than twenty-sevc;. years old, and he
could hardly have been more than
twenty-two when he had this Blackfoot
adventure.
The old pioneers of the upper Missouri
speak of Markhead as a moat remark
able hoy, so muscular and of such
powers of endurance, that he would run
fifteen or twenty miles without appar
ent fatigue. Indians ho held in trifling
ri gard, and delighted in a skirmish with
them; though he bore the scars of not
less than a dozen of their bullets and
arrows.
At tiie time alluded to. he iiad gone
on a trapping excursion for beaver, up
one of the head creeks of the Yellow
stone; a locality not ran ii resorted t >
hy other trappers, on account of the
deadly hostility of 'he Blackfeet, who
were very jealous of ;he white hunters,
and killed every hunter they could sur
prise.
As was his custom, he had his horse
with him, for carrying traps and pro
visions, and at this time had made his
camp in a clamp of cottonwoods, on
the bank of the creek, near the foot of a
range of bluffs which fronted the stream
on the east side.
i hat morning—it was in the month of
October—he bad set off early to look to
his heaver traps, of which he bad a line
lioth up and down the creek. He had
proceeded but a short distance, when
he found one of his steel traps missing
from under the hank where fie had Bel
Ik
There were bear tracks in the mud
about the bank; very large ones, lead
ing back into the cedar bushes, toward
the bluff.
The trail was fresh, and Markhead
followed it cautiously? through the
oedar.
Coming at! length to the foot of the
bluff, be found thnt the animal had
turned aside, and gone further up the
bottom. But just at that moment he
thought he heard it thrashing about in
the cedar a little way ahead.
So he carefully mounted the side of
the bluff, twenty or thirty feet, hoping
to catch',sight of the animal over the
tops of the hushes. From this point he
saw a large grizsly, sitting on a broad
flatVock not more than forty or fifty
yards distant.
Watching the creature a moment, he
found that it limped painfully, and that
it walked a short distance on three legs.
Finally, it turned about and limped back
to the stone again; and Markhead now
perceived that the grizsly had his
beaver trap hard and test on one et his
f. "caws.
The bear eras much annoyed by the
trap. It sat down on the stone again,
and from where he lay, Markhead could
sec him examining it attentively, hold
ing it close up to bis nose and grjtvcly
turning his paw over'and over. Then
it would tip its head to one side and
look at the trap from out the corners of
its ryes, in a most comical manner, st ii
at an entire loss to mnke out what the
novel and painful appendage could be
that had got such fast bold of his toes.
Anor, the puzzled animal would Iry
to step on its foot; but instantly took it
up from the atone again, with a low
whimper, and would then commence
licking the trap. as if wishing to appease
its anger and coax it into letting go its
grip.
This pantomime so interested the
trapper that he could scarcely take aim
with his ritle. But'not wishing to lose
his good steel trap, he was on the point
of shooting the hear, when he was
startled from it by the neigh of a horse.
Glancing out over the tops of the
hushes, he saw, some four or five hun
dred yards down the opposite bank of
the creek,[a party of six Indians, sitting
on their ponies. They [had reined up,
and stood among some little sand-hil
ocks, looking across, directly toward
where his camp was, in the cotton woods.
It then flashed to his mind that it was
his horse which had neighed. That
was why the Indians had pulled up so
suddenly and were staring across the
creek.
Markhecd saw that, even could he
himself escape them.ltlie Indians would
inevitably discover his camp and cap
ture his horse and provisions, together
with all the peltries he had trappd.
That was bad. But was was worse,
there was a heavy dew that morning,
and his own trail through the grass
along the bank of the creek must, he
knew, be as plain as a pike-staff.
He knew that the Indians would not
fail to discover his trail, and that they
would follow him like bloodhounds to
his death. It is not strange that our
hunter thought no more of the bear,
and that his merriment was cut short
bythisjby no means laughable aspect
of affairs.
But Markhead was a quick-witted
fellow, not easilyHalarmed, and while he
lay there watching the Blackfeet as they
stealthily approached the place where
his horse was picketed, he hit on a ruse
for outwitting them at their own tac
tics.
Feeling sure that in a few minutes
they would be on his track, he slid
down from his perch on the bluff and
ran back to the creek, to the point
where he had left it in pursuit of the
bear.
Here he resumed his way up the
creek, taking care to leave a plainly
marked trail through the wet grass,
with here and there a footprint in the
mud or sand, just as if he was leisurely
proceeding along the bank, looking to
his traps.
But he ran on fast, and never slack
ened his pace till he had covered a dis
tance of at least ten miles Born the
place where he had seen the Blackfeet
cross the creek. His surmise was that
the savages, on discovering his trail,
would pursue him, but would expect to
cc me upon him at every trap, and hence
would follow on stealthily, and at no
gjcat speed.
Having thus planned out a ten-mile
chase for them, Markhead ran bacic
across the narrow meadow, and climb
ing the bluffs, made a detour for his
camp again, keeping "a mile or ovrr
from the creek, back among the sand
hills and cliffs.
Being a fleet and praticed runner, he
was not more than an hour and a half
making the trip back to the vicinity of
his camp, among the cottonwoods, the
tall tops of which he could see at a
great distance.
After taking breath a few minutes,
and looking to his rifle, Markhead crept
out among the boulders on the crag
overlooking the camping-place; for he
expected the Indians would leave one
of their number to watch the horses.
That one he was prepared to deal with.
From the crag, he soon saw the six
ponies down among the timber. They
were hitched up near his own horse.
Nor was he wrong in his conjecture
about the savages leaving one of their
number with the horses. The packs
had been taken off the ponies' hacks;
and after looking a few moments, he
espied an Indian sitting in the shade of
a hush, on a heap'of buffalo skins and
peltries.
Watching the Indian a little, Mark
head crept down, noiseless as a fox, to
a large oottonwood, rather nearer the
horses, and then, steadying his piece
against the tree-trunk, was just about
to shoot the unwary sentinel, when the
Indian turned partially, and to his great
surprise, he saw that it was not a Black
foot warrior, but a plump and very
comely squaw.
Markhead often admitted that, for the
instant, he was quite nonplussed. He
did not know what to do, for he would
not shoot the squaw. At length, ha
gave a shout, and rushed toward her.
The squaw bounded from her seat,
and seeing the trapper close upon her,
"yelled like a pig," as Markhead said,
and started to run away. But she had
not got many yards before Markhead
seized her by her long hair; at which
the poor woman, thinking, no doubt,
that her last hour had come, crouched
on the ground, and begged piteously, in
choicest Blackfoot, for the white to
spare her.
Markhead led her hack to the ponies,
and drawing his knife, intimated to her
by most emphatic dumb show that her
top-knot would assuredly come off if
she made the least attempt to escape.
With that, the squaw protested, with
every gesture she could devise, that she
would never try to get away; she
would be like a little dog, and run at
bis heels; she would be like the pony's
tail, always at bis back, and inseparable
from him.
Finding that her life was in no im
mediate danger, the squaw rapidly re
covered from her fright, and in answer
to signs, gave her captor to understand
that tho five s.-.vnirrs had gone on Ida
trail up tho crook, just as ho had sur
mised they would, and hud boon so con
fident that they would find him, that
thoy had loft only this squaw to Bit by
the ponies.
Mark head thought over tho distance,
nnd concluding ho had a full two-hours
start of them, resolved to take it easy
He made the squaw unpack spmo cold
venison which they had in one of their
sacks; nnd tho two strange com
panions lunched very convivially to
gether, for tho long run Markhead had
taken had given him a good aopctite.
Assisted by the squaw, he next packed
up all the Indians 1 peltries, and lashed
them on the backs of tne ponies, mak
ing up a sort of pony train, at the head
of which he placed the squaw. Then
collecting his own property, he mounted
his horse and set off, driving the whole
train in front of him—master of the
situation—leaving, in fact, nothing of
any value behind.
Once out cn tho plains, clear of the
crags and timber, Markhead drove his
sir gular cavalcade on at a great pace,
and traveling all the rest of the day and
all that night with but brief halts,
reached a trading-post—Laramie fort,
probably—toward tho end of the next
day. The feelings of the outwitted
Hlaekfcet on their return to the place
where they had left their ponies,
after their unsuccessful chase after
Markhead, may perhaps better be left
to the fancy of the reader.
The young trapper realized about six
hundred dollars from the sale of the
captured ponies, peltries, buffalo robes,
and other property.
The squaw was some time afterward
reclaimed at the fort by a Blaekfoot
chief, whoso wife she had been when
captured. On Markhead being pointed
out to him at the post, he said: "lie big
warrior. He play beaver on Indian. 11
Curious Facts.
Thirty-two thousand seed were on?
counted in the head of a poppy.
The Chinese make glue out of a com
mon kind of seaweed on their shores.
The American Bible society has pro
cured a new stop-cylinder press, upon
which a.one a whole Bible can be printed
every minute.
There is a cave in Monroe, Conn., in
which, at a depth of fifty feet, has been
found a spring of water, and an antique
trap for catching wolves.
A woman in Kansas, while at work
clearing away some bushes near her
house, was stung by a wasp, and the
effect is such that she has been entirely
paralyzed.
The object of the greatest intc.-cst in
the Orkney islands is the cathedral ol
St. Magnus, at Kirkwall, which dates
from the twdftfl century, and is still
entire and in nn excellent state ol
preservation.
A field-glass, lost in I'rickly Pear val
ley, Col., last winter, was found a few
weeks ago, and the trees, vegetation
and small stream, near which the glass
lay, are indelibly photographed on the
glasses.
At Macedonian weddings the groom
leads the bride into her new home by a
halter, and when she enters he knocks
her head against the wall, as a warning
of what she may expect if she does not
behave well.
Hair often falls out after sickness, and
bleaches suddenly after severe nervous
shocks, hut a white-haired elderly lady
was lately surprised to observe that the
hair which had fallen out during an
attack'pneumo.iin was being
not by locks of raven; hue, at least by
those of a dark color, such as had[not
adorned her brow for many years.
The monks of the Greek church, who
live in solitude, subsist upon fresh or
dried vegetables, and are allowed fish
only on Saturday and Sunday. Once in
a great while they indulge in the
luxuries of eggs and cheese. Each
monk is required to support himself by
some sort of [manual .labor; their prin
cipal occupations are the manufacture of
clothing and wood carving
In Royal Lire.
The Emperor and Empress of Ger
many see each other as little as possible.
It is somewhat curious how few mon
archs do get on with their wives and the
wives with the husbands, for they sel
dom adore each other. The Empress of
Austria is seldom seen in society, and
when out riding or driving carries n fan
before her face, even when returning the
gieclings of her royal admirers. She
seidom attends the theater or opera,
but when the circus 'comes to town is
then seen in her box every night. She
knows only one passion, and that is her
love of horses and equeatrianship. She
has her own especial riding establish
ment, and here she reigns supreme. She
will drive a tandem team before her at
a relentless pace around the ring, hav ! ng
fresh relays of horses every few min
utes. She has a place fittqd up in the
stable of her favorite charger where she
can sleep if she feels so disposed, and
where she frequently dictates her letters
to her private secretary, while her fa
vorite horse looks over from his stall
and is patted fondly by his imperial
mistress.
In Breslau, Germany, there are three
thousand people who do not receive
their conespondence until it has been
examined by the police. If any of our
readers are on writing terms with any
of these three thousand Breri era we
advise them to writeaHor .ee meley
sort of a hand, in order to ooinpel the
police to earn their salaries— and per
haps to commit suicide.—AWrMjown
Herald.
DROPPING INTO POETRY.
The Kirhnngc Kclltor I>oe It !W*taralljr.
" If you plsase sir," said the young
lndy, timidly, us the exchange editor
handed her a chair, *' I have composed
a few verses, or partially composed them
and I thought you might help me finish
them and then print thom. Ma says
they are real nice as far ns thoy go, and
pa takes the every day.
She was a handsome creature, with
beautiful blue eyes, and a browning
glory as yellow as golden rods. There
was an expectant look on her face, a
hopefulness that appealed to the holiest
emotions, and tho exchange editor made
up his mind not to crush the longing of
that pure heart if he novpr struck
another lick.
" May I show you the poetry?" con
tinued the ripe, red mouth. " You will
see that I couldn't get the last lines of
the verses, and if you would please he so
kind as to help me— 11
Help her! Though he had never even
read a line of poetry, the exchange editor
felt the spirit of the divine art flood his
soul as he yielded to the bewildering
music. Help her! Well, lie should
smile.
"The first verse runs like this," she
went on, taking courage from his eyes:
"'How sollly sweet tho autumn air
The dying woodland fills.
And nature turns lrom restlul care- '
"To anti-bilious pills," added the ex
change editor, with a jerk. "Just the
thing. It rhymes and it's so. YoU-nko
anybody now. Half the people you meet
are— 1 '
" I s ttppose you know best," inter
rupted the young girl. " I hadn't
thought of it in that wav, out you have
a better idea of such tilings. Now the
second verse is more like this:
' Tho dove-eyed kin© upon tho rnoor
I.<x.k tender, meek and sad;
Whilo from tho valley cornea tho roar—'
"Of the matchless liver-pad!"
roared tlie exchange editor. "There
you get it. That finishes the scoond so
as to match with the first. It combines
the fashions with poetry and carries
the idea right home to the fireside. If
only had your ability in starting a verse,
with my genius in winding it up, I'd
quit the sheara and open in the poetry
business to-morrow."
"Think so?" asked the fair young
lady. "It don't strike me as keeping up
the theme."
"You don't want to. You want to
break the theme here and there. The
reader llxes it better. Oh, yes! Where
you keep up the theme it gets monoton
ous."
"Perhaps that's so," rejoined the
Ixnuty, brightening up. "I didn't
think of that. Now I'il read the third
verse:"
" 'How Badly droops the dying day,
As night Hpring* lrom tho glen.
And moaning twilight socmn to way—'
' " The old man's drunk ,'again,
wouldn't do, would it?" asked the ex
change editor. "Somebody else wrote
that, and we might he accused of pla
giarism. Wo must have this thing
original. Suppose we say—now just
suppf* ■ wc say : 'Why did I spout my
Ben?' "
"Is that new?" inquired the sweet,
rosy lips. "At least I never heard it
before. I don't know what it means."
"New? 'Deed it's new. Ben is the
name for overcoat, and spout means to
hock. 'Why did I spout my Ben?'
means why did I shove my topper?
That's just what twilight would think
of first, you know. Oh. don't be afraid
—that's just immense!"
" Well, I'll leave it to you," said the
glorious girl, with a smile that pinned
the exchange editor's heart to his spine.
"This is the fourth verse:
" • The merry sombre song
I to-echoes from tho rocks,
As silently she trijw along
" 'With holes in both her socks,' by
Jove!" cried the delighted exchange
editor. "You see "
"Oh, no. no!" remonstrated the
blushing maiden. " Not that."
"Certainly," protested the exchange
editor, warming up. " Nine to four
she's got 'em; and you get fidelity to
fact with a wealth of poetical ex pros
sion. Tho worst of poetry generally is.
you can't state things as they are. It
ain't like prose. But here we've basted
ah the established notions, and put up
an actual existence with the veil of
genuine poetry over it, I think that's
the best idea we've struck yet."
" I don't seem to look at it as you do,
but of course you arc the best judge.
Pa thought I ought to say:
"' As silently she trips along
In autumn's yellow traoks.'
" Wouldn't that do?"
"Do! Just look at it. Does tracks
rhyme to rocks? Not in tie Brooklyn
Kagle it don't. Besides, when you say,
' tracks' and ' rocks,' you give the ex
pression of some fellow heaving things
to another fellow who's scratching for
safety, ' Socks,' on the other hand,
rhymes with 'rocks'and these beautify
them, while it touches up the milkmaid,
and by describing her condition shows
her to be a child of the very nature you
arc showing up."
" I think you're right," said the sweet
angel. "I'll tell pa where he was
wrong. This ;is the way the fifth verve
runs:
" And oloae behind, ihe farmer's boy
Thrills lorth his simple tunc-,
And slips beside the maiden* — l '
'" And splits his pnntaloo *l' Done
it myself; know just exactly bow It is.
Why, bless your heart, you——"
Snip, snip, snip. Paste, paste, paste.
But it is with a saddened hcait that he
snip* and pastes among his exchanges
now. The beautiful vision that for a
moment dawnod upon him has left but
the recollection in his heart of onesun
beam iu his life, quenched hy the shower
of tears with which she denounced him
as a " brute," and wnt out from him
forever .—Brooklyn ftujlc.
A .Machine That Measures Thought*.
A machine has been invented by Doc
tor Mosso, of Turin, wfiich measures
thought. It is called the pJethysraograph,
and its revelations are baaed on the fact
that thought creates nervous action,
which consumes in its performance a
certain quantity of blood, and that
quantity may be measured . In an ad
dress before the American Association
of Science, Professor (J. K. barker de
crihes the machine and its working as
follows:
The forearm, for example, being the
organ to be experimented on, is placed
in a cylinder of water, and tightly in
closed. A rubbr tube connects the in
terior of the cylinder with the recording
apparatus. With the electric: ciremit by
which the stimulus was applied to pro
duce contraction were t wo keys, one of
which was a dummy. It was noticed
that, after using the active key several
times, producing varying current
strengths, the curve sank as before on
pressing down the inactive key. Since
no real effect was produced, the result
was caused solely by the imagination,
blood passing from the oody to the brain
in the act.
To test further the effect of mental
action, Doctor Pagliani, whose arm was
in the apparatus, was requested to mul
tiply two hundred and sixty-seven by
eight mentally, and to make a sign when
he had finished. The recorded curve
showed very distinctly how much more
blood the brain took to perform the
operation. Hence the plctbysmograph
is capable of measuring the relative
amount of mental power required by
different persons to work out the same
mental problem. Indeed, Mr. Gaskel
suggests the use of this instrument in
the cxaminatiiyi room, to find out, in
addition to the amount of knowledge a
man possesses, how much effort it
causes him to produce any particular
result of brain-work.
Doe-tor Mosso relates that, while the
apparatus was set up in his room in
Turin, a classical man came in
to sec him. He looked very con
temptuously upon it, and (asked of what
use it could be, saying that it oou'dn't
do anybody any good.
Doctor Mosso replied : "Well, iw
I can tell vou ny that whether you rea.
Greek as easily as you can I^atin."
As t.ie classicist would not believe it,
his own arm was put iDto the apparatus,
and he was given a book to read.
Avery slight sinking of the curve was
the result.
Tiie Lilin book was then taken away,
and a Greek book was given to him.
This produced immediately a much
deeper curve.
lie had asserted before that it was
quite a easy for him to read Greek as
lAtin. and that there was no difficulty
in doing either. Doctor Mosso. how
ever, was able to show hitn that lie was
laboring under a delusion.
Again, this apparatus is so sensitive
as be useful for ascertaining how
much a person is dreaming. When
Doctor P&gii&ni went to sleep in the ap
daratus, t:;e effect upon the rvsnltirg
curve was very marked indeed. He said
afterward that he had in en in a sound
sleep, and remembered nothing of what
passed in the room—that he liatl been
absolutely unconscious; nnd yet, every
little movement in the room, such as
the slnmming of a door, the t arkins of
a dog, and even the knocking down of a
piece of glass, were all marked on the
curves. Sometimes lie moved his lips,
and gave other evidences that he was
dreaming. They were all recorded on
the curve, the amount of blood required
for dreaming diminishing that in the
extremeties.
Treed by Tigs.
Treed by pigs is not exactly the posi
tion in which wc should expect to find
a colonial secretary—at least not often.
But when Mr. Fowler, colonial secretary
of the Honduras, was recently exploring
the interior of the he was over
taken by a drove of peccaries and had
only time to take a snap shot at the first
of them and scramble up a tree, drop
ping his rifle in the performance, before
the whole pack were around his perch,
gnaehing their teeth at him, grunting
and sharpening their tusks against his
tree. Now the peccary is not only fero
cious, but patient, and rattier than let
an object of its anger escape will wait
about for days, so t hat the secretary had
before him only two courses—either to
remain where he was until he dropped
down among the swine from sheer ex
haustion and hunger or else to commit
suicide at once by coming down to be
eaten there and then. While he was in
this dilemma, however, what should
come alone— and looking out for supper,
too—but a jaguar. Never was beast o
prey so opportune, for the jaguar lias a
particular fondness for wild pork and
the peccaries know it, for no sooner did
they see the great ruddy bead thrust out
through the bushes than they bolted
helter-skelter, forgetting, in their anx
iety to save their own bacon, the meal
they were themseives leaving up the
tree. The jaguar was eff after the swine
with admirable promptitude, and the
secretary, finding the ooast clear, came
down—reflecting, as he walked toward
the camp, upon the admirable arrange
ments of nature, who, having made
peccaries to eat colonial secretaries, pro
vided also jaguars to |eat the peocar
ice. —//ondon Telegraph,
THK BAHUTO WAK.
Th I-an>l and lh fropla How In
Sialntl Ureal Hrltalri.
Baeutoland m*y be described ns
Wales of Kouth America. It ha ii"
province fitted in at the northeast r/, r .
Ncr of Cape Colony, between thcOrar <
free state, the Cape Colony and .V .
It is about 15" miles long fry fif* y broad,
its length running parallel to theOrar.y.
free state, or, roughly speaking, nfar.7
parallel at some distance inland with
the coast line. Some of the table lands
nre nearly 5,000 feet above the sea, wl,i <
its loftiest mountain is credited with h
height of 10,000 feet. The cold through
out the whole of Bnsutolnnd is very
severe in the months of June, July, Au
gust, and even September. Though i
Basutoiand may be said to be IV) mi.
by fifty mik*B in size, the eastern sid<* •,<
Its breadth is scarcely inhabited on a/
fount of the extreme cold and of the in
accessible character of the mounts, n*.
The most thickly populated di*tri' t>- of
the little country extend nearly along its
whole length, but are of a breadth 'J
about twenty miles only—the thirty
miles to the norttiwi-st —an 1 lying • < x t
to the Orange free state. It is from t!
free state, then, that Ba-utoiand ran ).<
most easily intend,and its chief so,
tions. which lie within a>w hour- of
the free state border, most safe.y nr.d
easily reached. There are other route,
from the south, hut they present gr'-.v.
difficulties to the march of troops, and
are open to grave objections from a mi .-
tary point of view.
The Basutos are mostiy remnants of
tribes who were driven before the K*f
firs. Early in the century they took
refuge in the mountain fastnesses of
Basutoiand to escape: the pitiless: oldi' ry
of the Zulu conqueror, Cheka. It
on the steep and rocky hill of Thabs
Bosigo that Mosbesh, the first para
mount chief of the Basutos, ra.lied th'
starved and desperate men of the diffi •-
cnt elans of his race, made a success!u.
stand against the Zulus, and laid the
foundation of the Basuto nation. To
speak of the Basutos as equal or near.y
equal to the Zulus in fighting qualities
(as is sometimes done) is a mistake.
The Basutos lack the discipline, th'
reckless bravery and the taste for fight
ing possessed by the Zjiu soldiers. Th'
Ba-utos have no military organization,
merely turning out or being turned out
by their chiefs for fighting by tribes o.
clans. They are not soldiers like tin
Zulus were before the Zuiu army w.-
broken up, but are merely mountaineers.
L'n.ike the Zulus, the Basutos fight, as a
rule, mounted, possessing hardy and
active ponies, which make light the dif
ficulties of the mountain tracks of their
countiy. Almost ail the Basutos have
taken to clothing, partly from their pro
gress in civilization, and partly from the
severe climate of their land. Tiie mili
tary trait to lie remarked in the Basutos
is their aptitude lor fortifying or en
schoncing themselves, and the intelli
gence with whiclAfiey strengthen any
position they may desire to hold. In
deed, the colonists' chief difficulty will
probably commence when tlie Basutos,
worsted in the open, betake t cmselves
to their mountain strongholds. Thaba
Bosigo, the stronghold now held by the
chief Masupha, is a good example of a
Basuto position. It is an isolated hil
about forty feet high, with a fiat or table
top, and with sides scraped away by
natural causes. Tiie table Is only ac
cessible by three or four paths. Some
of these paths are said to have been
rendered inaccessible; others to be
barred by lines of schanzcs, or stone
barricades, loop-holed and possessing
flanking defense. On the mountain arc
good pasture to graz; the cattle, plenty
of water, and stores of grain and arnmu
nilion.— l/ondon Telegraph.
The Blue Doctor.
Sarah Bernhardt has been succeeded
in the gossip of Paris by Dr. Chirou,
called the "blue doctor." This name
he obtained through being called in to
see a lady who was on the point of
death, as was supposed, from some mys
terious weakness. He sent at once, not
for medicaments, but for an upholsterer.
and ordered this tradesman at one* to
refurnish the whole of the lady's rooms
with stuffs and carpet* dyed with in
digo. He clothed her with stuffs simi
larly dyed, and ordered that none should
approach her unless clad in indigo-dyed
garments. The result was. so the story
goes, that the lady recovered, and that
M. Chirou received the name of " le
dootcur bleu." He is not liked by the
regular practitioners, who do not scru
ple to call him a quack; but he has
made some wonderful cures by wonder
ful methods. One of these cures has
just occurred with the wife of an emi
nent English slate imnn. This lady iiad
long suffered from an apparently incura
ble cough of a very distressing nature.
She went to the blue doctor, who for
three months made her inhale daily a
mixture of chloroform and the fumes of
seme strong acid. Every day she was
chloroformed to insensibility, and at the
same time vu acidulated, with the re
sult that she is now quit well.
It was so cold in the vicinity of the
North Pole when Lieutenant Schwatka
there that the breath of the party
in the Esquimau huts condensed and
fell in a small snow-storm around them.
This comes very near to the story of the
man's words which were frosea so hard
that nobody knew what be said until
they mcltMl the next summer. tkiroii
Prt* /Vest.
Isn't it slightly sarcastic to tell a blind
man that he is looking wellP—Fhl Ctw
tribuior.