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THE PITTSBURG DISPATCH
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j PAGES 9 TO IS.
SEOOHD PART. '
1 I
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PITTSBURG, STOTDAT, JULY 21, 1889.
MY FIRST TIGEft HUNT
A Long Night Spec' in a Mirador
Watching for Mr Stripes.
THE EANDOM SHOT IN THE DARK.
Polloivins a
Wounded Tigress
Sense Jangle.
Into the
TOASTING THE SUCCESSFUL HDNTER
rFEOM OCB TEAVILINQ COMMISSIONED.!
-HEN Ileft home I
r promised to bring
back a necklace of
tiger claws of my own
shooting. This was
the result of a conver
sation about ''Mr.
Isaacs." It is jnst as
easy to promise one
thing as another, and
jfSg??! when you are handling
wfifmS a brand new Express
V JS vT jifle in your den at
". i U home yon positively
iff ache for the moment
, if which shall bring yon
face to face with the
sportsman's king of beasts. When the mo
ment really comes the ache is apt to be of a
different kind. Bat this is to anticipate. At
any rate, I promised the claws. I bore the
promise constantly in mind, and I looked
upon the moose and bears and wolves whieh
lell to that rifle merely as training for its
j fulfillment.
At the entrance to the riverof Saigon, the
French capital of Cochin China, and 40
miles from the city, there is a lonely tele
graph station, where the English cable from
Hong Kong and Singapore, and the French
cable to Tonquin, touch ground. As I am
much interested in telegraphy and hare a
circular letter of introduction from Sir
James Anderson, Managing Director of the
Eastern and "Western Extension Telegraph
Company, I determined to pay these exiled
electricians a visit
It is a curious little colony at Cape St.
James, a dozen Englishmen for the service
of the English cable, three or four French
men for the French cable, half a dozen
pilots, and a hotel or sanitarium where no
body comes. The electricians get their
supplies in a launch from Saigon every
Sunday morning, and for the rest of the
week their only communication with the
great world is by the zig-zag line which
trickles interminably out of the tiny siphon
of Sir William Thompson's recorder. And
this tells them little, for even news mes
sages here rome in code. Tne great French
mail steamers pass them twice a week and
the few other steamers which ply to Saigon
for nee pick up a pilot
TIGERS -WXBE- SCABCE.
To return, however, to the tigers. The
chance oi one, I found, was decidedly slim.
The local Nimrod, Mr. Sclt, had spent
nearly all his spare time for two years in
trying to get one, had built innumerable
"miradors" and sacrificed dozens of buffa
loes, dogs, go&U and pigs. And two months
aro he had had bis first and only success,
shooting a tplendid beast Except the one
killed by accident 12 years before, no other
tiger had ever been shot here by a European.
I had come to try, however, and next morn
ing an Annaniite hunter who had been sent
out by Mr. Langdon, the Superintendent of
the station, to look for tracks, returned and
reported that he had built a "mirador" and
we were to make our first attempt that even
ing. Whether there was any likelihood of
a tiger'or not. he declined to say, and con
versation with him was a difficult privilege,
first because he only spoke a few words of
English and a few words of French, and
second, because he was stone deaf. Then he
went away to sleep, I looked over my rifle
and tried to do the same, and at 5:30 that
afternoon we started. Mitt (that was his
name or nickname) walking and running
ahead and I following him on a pony.
For a time we followed a road through
the woods and then struck off into the bush.
An hour later Mitt laid down his rifle and
motioned me to dismount A coolie wait
ing for us jumped into the saddle and gal
loped off. We were on a small rising
ground, dotted with bushes, in the middle
of a rough tangle of forest and brushwood.
I looked everywhere for the "mirador," and
not finding it I yelled an inquiry into
Mitt's ear. He pointed to a tree Co yards
away and I saw how marvelously he had
concealed it Heiad chosen two slim trees
growing four feet apart, behind these he had
planted two bamboos at the other comers of
the square, and then he had led two or
three thickly-leaved creepers from the
ground and wound them in and around and
over a little platform and roof, till he had
made a perfect nest of live foliage. The
floor was abont 20 feet from the gronnd and
it looked perilously fragile to hold two men.
But it was a masterpiece of hunting craft
BAITING THE TEAP.
In response to a peculiar cry from Mitt
two natives appeared wiw a little black pig
slung on a pole, yelling lustily. The "mi
rador" (or "mechan" as I believe it is
called in India) overlooked a slight depres
sion in which an oblong pond had been con
structed for th,e buffaloes to wallow in, as
these ugly brutes cannot work unless they
are allowed to soak themselves in water two
or three times a day. By the side of this
Master Piggy was securely fastened, neck
and heels, between two stakes, to his in
finite disgust Then the two natives took
themselves off with their pole. Mitt gave me
a "leg up" into the "mirador," which
shook and swayed as we climbed gingerlv
in, and we arranged ourselves for our long
watch. A soft cap instead ofthebigsun
helmet, the bottle of cold tea and the flask
put handy, half a dozen cartridges laid out,
the rifle loaded and cocked. "The rest is
silence."
To get an idea of what it is to watrh like
this, lay a dozen billiard cues side by side
on the floor, an inch apart, squat cross
legged upon them with a crowbar in your
lap, and sit so, without smoking, without
speaking, almost without moving, for 11
honrs, with your eyes glued to a mouse
hole. The position is torture, the time is
interminable, the strain is intense, the mos
quitoes are devilish, and at last when you
have quite made up your mind that there is
jiu " wiiuin ten miies, you oegm to leel
like a fool. You look at your watch and
determine you will not touch it again for an
hour. Then you try to recall everything
you have recently lorgotten. You repeat to
yourself a long p'ocm. At last after several
such expedients you are sure some two hours
have elapsed. You look at your watch.
Fifteen minutes! We loaded our rifles
at GSM. Till 10:50 we sat side
by side like two stone Buddbas.
Then five wild pigs came trotting down to
the water to drink, which was an intensely
welcome break in the monotonv. At 11:30
Mitt made signs to me to go to sleep lor a
while and he would watch. At 12:30 he
Mokeiueand immediately lell back in his
turn, fast asleep. The rest, and the con
sciousness that I had no longer the sharp
eyes ot my companion to rely upon, made
me doubly attentive, and I watched every
twig. It had been moonlight, but the moon
was now hidden behind clouds. Onthe
horizon before me broad flashes of summe
lightning were plaving. There was a
chorus ot frogs in the" distance, night birds
were calling to one another, the great liz
ards were making extraordinary ifud gro
tesque uoisis, and itwjs so dark that I
could no longer discern the black patch of the
pig's body on the ground 20 yards away.
Not a single glimmer was reflected on the
diamond sights Messrs. Bland hA frit-on
me, audi could-scarcely see the chalked
nb of my barrels. But I stared all roundj
into the darkness till my eyes stuck out of
my head.
THE GAME IN SIGHT.
Suddenly, in perfect silence and without
the slightest warning, a big black object
flashed by the far side of the little pool. It
was like the swoop past of an owl in the
starlight, like the shadow of the passing
bird, utterly noiseless and instantaneous.
Evcrv nerve in my body was a-thrill, every
muscle still with excitement Slowly I put
out my left hand and grasped my sleeping
companion hard by the leg. If he made
the slightest noise we were lost Like a
trained hunter he woke and lifted himself
into a sitting position without a sound.
Rifle to shoulder we peered through our
peep holes. A moment later a blood
curdling scream broke the stillness, fol
lowed by yell alter yell of utter terror. It
was the wretched pig who bad woke to find
himself in the clutches of the tiger, and the
eflect on nerves strained in silence to their
utmost tension was electrical. I shall
never forget that moment. The tiger
was there before me, he had the pig in
his grasp, in another second he would
probably be gone. And I could see
nothing, absolutely nothing. It was pitch
dark in the depression where he was stand
ing, and I might as well have fired with my
eyes shut Stare as I would, I could not
distinguish the least thing at which to aim.
And all the time the pig was yelling loud
enough to wake the dead, tjfuddeuly I saw
the same black shadow pass up the little in
cline for a dozen yards. The pig's screams
dropped into a lone ho-vrl. My heart sank.
Had the tiger gone? No, lor an instant
afterwards the shadow shot down the slope
again and the yells broke out afresh. The
situation was agonizing. I could hardly re
ist the temptation to fire both barrels at
On th Mirador.
andom into the darkness. Do I see some
hing? Yes, the black mass of the pig,
spinning head over heels on his ropes like a
butterfly on a Din. And just above him a
very pale faint curved line of white. It is
the white horseshoe of the tiger's chest and
the inside of his forelegs, as he has turned
for a moment in my direction. How or
never. A last glanca down the almost in
distinguishable barrels and I pressed the
trigger. The blinding flash leaps out, the
answering roar scares even the terrified pig
into silence, and a blue veil of smoke, hid
ing everything, hangs before us. Mitt
turned toward me with interrogation or re
proach in his eyes, and shook his head
doubtfully.
For two minutes we sat and listened.
Then along, hard-drawn breath, expelled
in a painful heavy sigh, came out of the
bushes on our right I never heard a
sweeter sound in my life. It meant that the
tiger was hit so badly that he could not get
away at once, and evidently hit somewhere
about the lungs. Every two minutes for
half an hour this sobbing sigh was audible.
Then it ceased, but no matter. If he was
hurt as badly as that we should get him for
certain. So I lighted my pipe and trfed to
wait patiently for daylight It was so long
in coming that 1 began to think the sun had
overslept himself, but at last at 6 o'clock
we climbed down, and stretched our
cramped limbs; the coolie arrived at almost
the same minute with tiys pony, the two na
tives returned with their pole, and we
stabted out to beconxoiteb.
First, as to the pig. Instead of being half
eaten, as we supposed, he was all right ex
cept for five long scratches down one side,
where the tiger had evidently put out his
paw and felt of him with a natural curiosity
as to what he was doing there. Just behind
him -were two deep footprints. That was
all. No blood, no tracks, and we looked
cautiously round without seeing a sign.
Fifty yards away there was a stretch of grass
three leet high, where he was very likely to
be biddeD. But I knew from books that to go
up to a wounded tiger, practically single
handed, for I could not tell how far the An
namite could be depended upon at a critical
moment, would be for an inexperienced man
an act of unpardonable folly. So recollect
ing that two or three men from the telegraph
station had spent the night a mile away, I
sent the coolie to fetch them. He returned,
saying they had gone home. This was an
noying, lor the sun was already hot and to
send back for help meant a delay of several
hours. Where could the tiger be, anyway?
Mitt and I walked over to the edge of tf
grass and looked carefully along it for
tracks.
That moment canre very near being the
last for one of us. While we were peering
about the tiger suddenly sat up in the grass
not ten feet from us and', with a tremendous
roar, sprang clean out into the open. He
was so near that it was out of the question
to shoot If I had flung my rifle forward it
would have fallen on him. I could see his
white teeth distinctly and the red gap of his
throat I remember even at that moment
wondering how he could possibly open his
mouth so wide. Mitt and- I were perhaps
ten yards apart and the tiger leaped out mid
way between us. Instinctively the Anna
mite made a wild rush away on his side and
I on mine. The tiger had evidently just
walked far enough into the grass to be hid
den and had then lain down. His presence
there took us so completely-by surprise that
we were helpless. 1 may as well confess
that my state of mind at that moment
was one of dreadful funk. If the tiger had
been slightly less wounded than he was, it
is perfectly certain that in another instant
he would have killed one or the other of us.
We had not the remotest chance of escaping
him by running away. But his first spring
was evidently all he conld manage, for he
turned immediately and sneaked back into
the cover. Mitt fired into the moving grass
after him, in spite of my shouted protests,
tearing a piece of skin off his flank, as we
afterward discovered. We took five minutes
to recover from our scare, and then, as the
beast was practically helpless, we followed
mm mrougn tne grass. Alter a hundred
yards his growls brought us up short again.
THE COUP HE GBACE.
I sent Mitt up a tree and he reported the
sight of his head. So I beckoned him down,
climbed up myself, pulled up the rifle after
me, and there I could distinctly see the tiger
about TO yards away, sitting on his haunches
with his back toward me. I aimed at his
spine behind his shoulders, and when the
bullet struck he simply got np and turned
halt round, giving me a splendid chance.
My second bullet struck him .in exactly the
right place and he made a grab with his
mouth where it entered, then spun round
three or four times likea terrier chasing his
tail and fell in a heap. At this moment the
three other men, who had not gone' homo
after all, arrived on their ponies, so we
walked carefully up to him in line. There
he lay, or rather she, for it was a fine tigress,
a little under eight feet long, and very beau
tifully marked. As we stood round her.
tions on my wonderful lock camo.tbosk and
fast, drunk in milk punch made from fresh
cocoanuts gathered on the spot, it was among
the happiest moments of my life. If that
seems exaggerated, inquire of any other
sportsman how he felt when he stood over
the first "Mr. Stripes" that fell to his own
rifle.
Six coolies carried her in on crossed poles,
the natives came ont and "chin-chinned"
her, for the tiger is. "joss" to them, the for
eigners rode out to meet us and we were a
triumphal procession by the time we reached
the Cape. My first shot we found on skin
ning her, had smashed her right shoulder,
turned in to her lungs and broken up there,
making a fearful internal wound, exactly as
an Express bullet is supposed to do. The
wonder was that she should have lived so,
long. Her skin is on its way to Bowland
Ward's, her claws are at a Chinese gold
smith's, her body was eaten by the Annam
ites and I have a reward of 100 francs from
the French Government for killing an "ani
mal nuisible." And I shall keep my prom
ise. Henby Nobman.
IRRIGATING THE SAHARA.
Chancing the Plain of Sand Into a Garden
of Verdure.
Paris Letter In Providence Joirnsl. j
We saw yesterday a fac-simile of two en
terprises commenced by the Province of
Algeria, which bid fair to revolutionize a
large portion of the world. One was the
representation in miniature of the third
plantation of 10,000 palm trees, which has
been made since 18fc0-'81 in the Desert of
Sahara, as artificial oases on the lines
of the principal routes of travel.
These have all been perfectly successful.
The trees have giown magnificently and
become a source of refreshment and rest
which put aside the risks and dangers of
desert travel.
The system is based upon the production
of water from artesian wells, conducted
through the fields in shallow ditches which
nourish the roots of trees and plants,
and change the plain of sand into
a garden of shade and verdure. Later
on other forms of vegetation will be intro
duced in the shadow of the trees, which will
shelter the frailer growths, otherwise
impossible under the fervent sun
shine. What a revolution this will
make in the face of nature, and what a
new field for the ingenuity and industry of
man! It reminds one of the changes effected
in our own western and southern plains by
the introduction of water, which makes a
garden of beauty wherever it touches.
the barren sand. Long ago, in the time of
the Empire, there was some question of a
process invented by De Lesseps and much
encouraged by the Empress Eugenie, to
form a great lake in the center
of Sahara by a canal cut from the
Mediterranean. Whether feasible or not, the
disaster of Sedan caused the collapse of this
scheme also, and the possibility of success
in the enterprise must be left forever in
doubt. But it is strange that this simpler
method was not earlier attempted or, now
that its perfect feasibility has been proven,
that it is not made of more general use.
THE AUSTRALIAN BOTTLE TEEE.
One of the Remarkably Peculiar Plants of
the Tropical Region.
Hawaiian Gnette.l
Among the singular and rare plants of
the world is the Australian bottle tree, an
indigenous tree of a limited portion of trop
ical Queensland and found nowhere else in
Australia or on the globe. The native hab
itat of this peculiar specimen of vegetation
is on the eastern coast range of mountains
within the parallels of 18 and 21 degrees of
south latitude. The soil on which it grows
is dry, the areas are levti to a limited ex
tent, and elevated above sea level over 1,000
feet
This tree takes its name from the shape
of its trunk, which, is wonderfully like the
outlines of a giant bottle of the common
order. The thick part of the trunk from,
the ground upward 's from 60 to 60 feet
high, from 30 to 40 fyet in circumference
and quite straight up to where the neck
tapers to the spreading foliage above all.
The bark of the tree is about three feet
thick, of a brown color and ot cork-like
consistency. The foliage, which is very
graceful, spreads from the top of the tree,
and the branches have their base in the top
of the "neck." The leaves are similar in
size and shape to those df a cherry tree, but
their color and consistent y are much lighter.
The spread of the branches and loliage
form a regular shaped dome of about 40 feet
in diameter and of mouerate density, giv
ing ample shade from tge rays of the sun.
Those bottle trees gro- in groves from 10
to SO in each, and are dot less than 100 feet
apart from each other, although other trees
intervene in places. There is generally good
fastuerage, and very lijtle undergiowth of
ushes where bottle tfejs grow. Their ap
pearance on the landscape is very striking
and unique, but their is a quaint beauty in
the tout ensemble nevertheless; and the tree,
although strange, is ratoer handsome in the
spread of its foliage. liven the elephantie
appearance of the trunk! is not unhandsome
when the eye becomes accustomed to its
shape. . V
3
A Chip of the Old Block.
Lewlston Journal.: j
One of the ablest men.'among many able
men whom the State of Maine has sent to
the United States Senate was William Pitt
Fessenden. His father- General Samuel
Fessenden was also a kieu lawyer and it
was not an uncommon thjing for father and
son to be pitted against ekch other in a case.
At one time, when they were on opposite
sides of a certain suit, the) younger man had
made some points which" his father could
not get around, and, finding himself cor
nered, exclaimed angrily: "Young man I
did not bring you up to pi,ck my eyes out!"
' Out, no father," was the -quick reply, "iit
to pick them out, but to open them,"
How to Wnih Flari:
rind Shirts.
Albany Art dm
" material win snruiK some; we gen
erally allow half an inchjfor flannel, and if
it is properly washed there is no reason
why it should shrink perceptibly after that
The proper way is to souse the garment in
hot soap suds never rubbing it put it re
peatedly through a. wrinjer. The garment
should never be wrung with, the hands and
never put in cold water. V
Quite Put Out.
J
Mr. C. Beach Excuse me, lady, but your
hair is on fire! ,
Mr.Lonrobaxii Who ver callin'Urtv?
Puck. ' . v V
x i
r
AT ITS TERr BEST.
The Season at Bar Harbor Beaches
the Acme of Summer Pleasure.
DAINTI WOMEN AND GAUDY MEN
Pill Every Hotel and Boarding House and
Greatly Ornament the Beach.
AMUSEMENT FOE THOSE OP ALL AGES
rconsxSFOXDxxcB or the dispatch.
Bab Haebos, Me., July 16.
HIS is a far
reach from the
smells and
rattle or the
workaday cities
and, as I look
about at t h e
dark green
mountains, and
then breathe the
salt tang of the
sea into my sat
isfied lungs, I understand the whole secret
of Bar Htrbor's unexcelled prosperity. The
resort is topographically andatmospherically
perfect As a fair blush on nature's breast
it is without a flaw. Without the gladsome
revelers, who are at this instant disporting
themselves on all sides, the place would
still be immense in its advantages. The
ocean, the drives, the lakes, the diamond
mornings, the moon-flooded nights, the ex
hilarating air at all hours, make of
this half-ragged village a gem to
rave about As the primitive Indian of
vanished years came down from the hills to
this queer floor alongside the sea I'll venture
to believe that a great throb of appreciation
agitated him, and he bethought himself that
he should remain here through eternity.
But our Indian, as is customary with his
species, reckoned too solidly upon his birth
right, and to-day he is nowhere to be found
in this gorgeous landscape. The blazing
toggery of the usurpingpopnlatim would
do his heart good could he have stayed to
see it A youth passes my window at this
moment who, if he were clad for the war
path, could not present a more terrifying
spectacle. I think he has on green stock
ings, blue breeches, a red shirt, yellow coat
and pink hat. By his side troops a squad
of girls, their faces shining with midsummer
health and happiness, and their clothes
combining so many colors that the cows
being driven up the dusty road pause and
gaze at them in surprise out of their warm
brown eyes. Yonder on the green sits a
squaw of civilization. Her wigwam is a
lace'parasol, and under it she reads a sum
mer novel.
A TEEY-POPITLAE BESOBT.
We may write to you as rapturously as
we choose about all the other wooden cities
that are flung down so negligently along
the coast, but it is away up on the edge of
this queer, extensive and pretty substantial
State of Maine that we find, after all, the
most popular, most tumnltuous resort in all
America. People are here like swarms of
bumble bees, wasps, blue-bottle flies, any
thing that flits, flutters and flashes with airy
eflect The reports to the effect that it is im
possible to find accommodation are not
needed, and in the midst of the furious en
joyment you are constantly stumbling over
people who haven't a place to sleep unless
they curl up on a billiard table.a piano or a
tennis lawn. The girls here sometimes go
in couples, and their dialogues are some
times worth eavesdropping to hear.
It is a peculiarity often pointed out, and
yet never so thoroughly believed as it
should be, that the entire soul of Bar Har
bor is concentrated in the office of one hotel.
This office is called "The Fish Pond." For
the greater number of visitors the glories of
the country and the ocean are as nothing
compared with the remarkable turmoil and
display found in this small room". And the
fact is that the enlivening influence of "The
Fish Pond" is irresistiblo even to the most
fatigued man of the world who coukl ever
get this far from his club. Yon can scoff
away at the silly children that comprise its
chief contents, but you can't deny
that it really provides a continuous
excitement and interest that is be
yond your criticism or your understanding.
The deafening noise of glad voices stuns
the stranger to begin with. The row of
pipe-smoking, jolly, larking boys who sit
dangling their legs over the edg of the
office counter are unusual. The wreathing
and writhing visions of fair women floating
through the cigar smoke ic diaphanous ma
terials of quite unearthly hues, the flash ot
eyes, the sweet perfume of roses, the frou
frou of skirts, and the stairs loaded down
with "sitters," forma picture and experi-
wjuca are so utile usplMMBt tatt
te. SlTOf .;
you are willing, and do, stand about there
for hours enjoying yourself much more than
you care to confess.
NOTHING NEW YOBXT.
The Bar Harbor Hotel is a somewhat in
definite institution, not altogether unpleas
ant, nor especially trying to luxurious peo
ple on account of its pristine simplicity.
The best known houses in the place provide
the least attractive viands. The managers,
clerks, porters and bell boys of every hotel
are all good natured souls, glad to know
you, glad you've come and sorry when you
go. There is nothing "New Yorky" about
"any of them. They are Maine from their
irregular trousers to their hair brushed only
in front and their shoes with the heels left
unpolished, and this is gratifying in the way
of a change from our glistening friends who
ornament the marble rotundas in hotels
nearer home. I imagine the majority ofl
people think that the hotels here charge an
extraordinary high rate for board, but that
is a mistake, for the prices range fiom 2 to
S3 a day, which is less than the tariff at the
average American watering place.
A star-lit night at Bar Harbor, when the
bay is smooth, and the yachts are picked
out in lights that tell of the good cheer
within their luxurious cabins, is like a
mammoth theatrical picture,, and I have no
doubt the hundreds of romances worked out
amid the half-lights would supply our
dramatists with plots to last them through
eternity. If you will walk down through
the main street, where
dainty voauar and oaudy men
are shopping for ices and caramels, and
follow the road down to the steamboat
wharf, you will be thrilled by the sight of
the lusty-lunged canoeist, who is, in my
opinion, one of the most inspiring and at
tractive examples of American girlhood. I
shall not soon forget the young woman
from New York who faded into the
gloom of the bay the other night, close
ly pursued by a half dozen fellows who
confessed their devotion to her by every
word they uttered. She was as supple as a
young deer, and she could not refrain from
kicking up her heels as the boatmen drew
her canoe alongside the steps for .her. She
settled down into the bottom of the boat as
easily as though there wasn't a rebellious
joint in her whole body, and as the canoe
was pushed into the clear water her arms
and the paddle 'flashed in the moonlight,
and I could have thought her some Indian
maiden racing away from her suitors. After
her sped the young fellows, shouting for her
to please not go so fast.
- "The first man who catches me can ki-ki-catch
me."
And the cluster of canoes vanished in the
darkness, only their lights left dancing like
fireflies over the water.
But no boating at Bar Harbor is prettier
than that of the boys with their min
iature yachts. When life looks downright
unbearable, when you can't remember you
ever were happy, when you are soaked with
certainty that you are not happy, and when
you feel yourself obliged to believe you
never will be -happy, just go to the seashore
and see the children play around in the big
puddles dammed off from the big ocean for
their special use. Of course the children
don't know they are happyfcrutyoutQo, and
it is a blessed thing that the sight ot springs
time and of childhood tones np old age and
discontent The fact that we can't go
paddling about, yelling at the top of our
voices, and getting sun blisters on the back
of our necks, doesn't trouble us; but we
gather in a sort of peace from mental con
templation ot teat otner fact, that be the
world ever so full of grown ifolks who wish
themselves dead, there is young blood flow
ing all the time that dances at the mere fact
of being alive. TTArr.p ,
EEMAEKABLE DEEAMS.
Stories of Poets nod InventorsJWho Got
Ideas While Asleep.
Youth's Companion.
One of the best authenticated stories of
remarkable dreams is that of Geoffrey
Watts, who was a mechanic in England.
He was employed by a shot-maker, and his
work was to cut countless little cubes of
lead and turn them in a revolving barrel
until they were worn round by friction.
For many years Watts racked his brain
to invent some better method of making
shot than this, but to no purpose. One
night he dreamt he saw melted led raining
from the sky, and that each drop was round.
In the morning Watts, trembling with
anxiety, carried a cup full of melted lead
to the top of the church tower and threw it
down into a shallow pond. Hurrying down
he louad in the water perfect shot. The
shot tower was the tangible result of his
dream.
Our readers are probably all familiar
with the wonderful poem of Kublai Khan,
which came to Coleridge in a dream, com
plete in meaning, rhythm and rhyme, '
Instances are not raro of such triumnhs
!of the brain during sleep. Alexander
Campbell, one of the foremost linguists of
hue juqt vcutur, ucuiatcu luat wuen a puii
ological problem was too hard a nut for
him to crack, he dreamed of it, and usually
awoke with the meaning clear in his mind.
THE P0E OP THE B1TALTE.
Ojstermen S,eeklns a Destructive Agent for
the Starfish Pest.
New York Evening World.j
The United States Fis h Commission has
decided to make a study of the habits of the
dreaded starfish, the oyster-growers' worst
enemy, and try to discover some remedy to
destroy the pests.
Several of the commission's vessels will
cruise around Buzzard's Bay this summer
to find ont whether oysters can be protected
from the onslaught of the stars.
The vessels will also explore Long Island
Sound. This has filled the oyster-growers'
hearts with foy. It is claimed that the pests
breed on public ground off Bridgeport It
is raid that the men who work the natural
beds throw overall the stars they catch and
so fail to destroy them.
Steamers with large dredges have been
found very effective in destroying the pests,
but it would require an army ot steamer: to
kill off the increase in starfish in Long Is
land Sound this year. It is estimated that
$250,000 worth of oysters were destroyed in
this way last 'year.
HE HAD TO BEATV THB LINE.
Willing- His Friend Shoald Mnrrr All His
Dancbters, bat Not His Widow.
New York Press.!
. A good story is being told about town of
an old gentleman who has lived for years at
one of the Stamford hotels with his family.
Several years ago his eldest daughter, who
was married, died. After a suitable time
the bereaved widower asked for the hand of
the next daughter. Not long afterward he
was left alone again, and again he sought
for the hand of the third daughter of his-old
friend. At last, when he came far the
fourth, the old man exclaimed:
"Yes, take her; bat, hang it all, when
be's gone, what'II you do? Xu can't bare
tne oia. woman, too.".
A JOURNEY OFF THE TRACK.
V
"WRITTEN OFOIt
BY JULES VERNE AND
CHAPTEE r.
GOLD IN TOil HALLO'S DAG.
HEBE was a kiss in
the passenger room of
the railway station at
Denver. Those who
looked at what they
heard saw that one of
the kissers was a come
ly, elegant lady of 25
years, with no tinge
of a blush on the
kissed cheek, nor any
deprecation in the
smile of the lips that
did a full half of the
kissing. Nevertheless,
the other participant
was a gentleman of
about her own age.
The fact explanatory
was that they were
cousins. H e called
her Dell in his hearty
greeting, and she vivaciously responded :
"Dell what? You don't know my name,
Tom Barlo, for I've changed it"
"Married?" he exclaimed.
"Yes. I've been Dell Erwing" since yes
terday. You may find 'William Erwing
and wife registered at the hotel. We
stopped off the train from 'Frisco, 'went to
a minister, and the rest of my journey east
ward is going to be a bridal trip." She was
telling this in a lively yet unexc'.ted way,
as though she supposed he would be inter
ested by it, or even astonished, but wltn a
self-possessed air which showed that she
deemed it no particular concern of his. It
was a narration and not a confession. "You
knew I had spent the winter and spring
with TJnole Henry's folk in San Francis
co," she went on, as they took seats, "and I
wrote to you to join me here for some of the
journey, if convenient I'm not afraid to
travel alone, but uncle thought something
might happen to me on the way "
"And something has happened to you, X
should say."
"Hasn't there? Yes, indeed. Do you
know, Tom, I think there is no place on
earth where sentiment emotion anything
oi the heait sort progresses so fast as on a
railroad train. I cared nothing especially for
Will Erwing in California, but I liked him
through Nevada. I -was fond of him
through Wyoming, I loved , him through
Colorado, and on getting to Denver I was
ready to marry him before we traveled any
further."
"That is a progressive process of elope
ment, surely."
"Not an elopement at all, Tom. It was
by a mere chance that Will and his sister
she is a lovely girl, and you'd like her
I say it was by chance that we started on
the same train. We h;rd become friendly
in San Francisco, but hadn't fallen in love
at all."
"You are sure you love him now?"
t "Sure? O, yes. I love him well enough
well, in plain English to lie to him.
You know how truthful I am?" He nodded
assent, and she went glibly on: "Well, I
have tpld a falsehood to. Will, and I've
made upmy"BSnrKte:take?yoit into-my con
fidence. I'll be Sapphira, and you'll be my
Ananias won't you?"
"I've been for five years a traveling sales
man for a St Louis dry goods house," was
the answer which seemed to him sufficient,
"and the ground hasn't yawned to take me
in yet."
"It is abont something that the ground
has given up that I've lied. Listen to me,
and don't interrupt, for Will may come any
minute. He is in the baggage room loosing
after our trunks. A whimsical dear fellow
he is, and one of his whims was that he
wouldn't marry any one who was richer
than he, and he wasn't rich to the extent of
a single thousand dollars. I am an orphan,
you know, and wasnt heiress to anything
until last winter, when a Nevada aunt left
me something. I've got it right here in
this handbag a certificate for 30 pounds
of pure gold, deliverable here in Denver.
That's not so much of a fortune, is it? But
Will wouldn't have taken me with that in
cumbrance if he had known. When he
asked me if I was poor I looked him lov
ingly straight in the eyes, gulped the lump
of conscience down out ot my throat, and
said I would arrive in New York a dollar
less dependant on my relatives. Then he
hesitated no longer, but asked me to stop off
the train to marry."
"What are you going to do with the
gold?"
"I wish you to get it for me. You're
bound for St. Louis. Why not travel
along with us awhile? Will and his sister
were making for New Orleans when the cas
ualty occurred when I happened to meet
them and we have decided to stick to their
programme. You will do me a service,
Tom Barlo, by drawing the 30 pounds ot
gold, packing it in a satchel, and bringing
it along with us. I may hit on some way or
other of getting it or its equivalent, into
Will's possession in a manner to make him
believe it didn't come from me."
Mrs. Erwing was gazing keenly into her
cousin's face, as alert women are apt to do
when watching the effect of their language,
and she saw an expression which puzzled
her, for it was something different from
either disinclination or readiness to serve
her. For an instant an eager el earn in his
eyes, and a downward tension at the corners
of his mouth, gave a repellant visage to the
usually agreeable young man. Covetous-
ness and avarice darkened his countenance,
but it quickly cleared when the lady arose
to meet herjiusband.
William Erwing was a big, brawny man
of 30, with good humor in every lineament
of his frank face, and careless unconcern in
each sag and flop of his easy clothes. A
bride never fails to critically compare he"r
husband with the first brother or cousin to
whom she introduces him, and, while Mrs.
Erwing was acquainting these two men with
each other, she realized that the geniality of
one was spontaneous, and of the other an
assumption. She had long known her
cousin Tom as an aggressively jovial fellow.
She briefly knew her husband. Will, as one
whose manner was sincerelv, unobtrusively
amiable. The scrutiny tended to make her
content
The bridal party was to leave Denver two.
hours later. Tom Barlo was successfully
urged to travel with them as far as Kansas
City. He dined with them at the hotel, in
the meantime, and there met Miss Lucilla
Erwing, called Lu even in the formality of
introduction. She was a feminized coun
terpart of her brother, with two-thirds his
age, half his weight, and less than that pro
portion ot his freedom of manner, but with
plenty of exactly his kind of ingenious
gnod nature. She was an observer of the
niceties ot politeness, as ordered by ladies'
usage, except that she laughed merrily
aloud when provoked thereto. Her laughter
was so musical and hearty, however, that
nobody could think of regarding i( as inde
corous. Mrs? Erwing found the opportunity to
privately give Tom the order lor 30 pounds
of old, and th yellow metal was delivered
to him in three Ingots at the United States
assay office, were he presented the docu
ment. Some formalities of signature and
identification had to be undergone, and in
submitting to them Tom was singularly
nervous and irritable. His comin had
signed a reotipt ik hr awidca at, 1u2i4.imh
THE DESPATCH.
AN AMERICAN AUTHOR.
was proper, but when a messenger was sent
to the hotel to inquire about such a person,
her mergence into "Mrs. Erwing" made the
quest fruitless. This seemed 'o prove she had
not been in Denver, and to indicate that she
was altogether a myth. But before sus
picion was aroused, and before the assay
office became fearful of being swindled,
Tom brought several Denver merchants,
customers of his employer, to tell who he
was; andhe was permitted to depart with
the gold in anew leather bag, which he car
ried to the railway station, and retained in
his hand after rejoining his friends.
"All aboardl"
The last to respond to the conductor's cry
was ajronng man by whom haste wag dis
liked exceedingly. His countenance was
a protest against the hurry of his legs. As
he ran through the station and across the
platform his reddened face and labored
breath were resented by him as offenses to
his dignity. A stranger could see that his
ordinary gait was a leisurely stridr, al
though at this exceptional time he was
using his feet with nimble celerity. He
slowed himself when he found that the train
had not started, however, and entered a car
in a state of fever and asthma, yet with
grave composure an,d deliberation. He
passed through that car and another before
coming to the rear one of the train. This
was a drawing room and sleeping roach.and
the Erwing party of four had taken the front
two opposite sections. Mrs. Erwing and
Lu had disposed themselves in one seat, and
the men had settled down across the aisle.
Wraps and handbags were laid carelessly
aside, excepting that Tom's bag was on the
floor between his feet
"You'll find that in your way, I think,"
Erwing was saying, as the young man
passed them.
"Well, it contains some things that I'm
rather careful of," Barlo replied.nervously,
as he lifted the bag to the seat facing them.
The grave young man eyed the treasure
furtively, and tried to hide his satisfaction
at finding the adjacent seat empty and pur-.
THE QtTEEN GIVES EBTTINQ THE GOLDEN IDOL.
chaseable. That placed him within reach
o(j the artiolewbich he had been as
signed to accompany, no matter where
to or how long, until he received an
order by telegraph telling him how to vary
his duty. A quick choice of him had been
made from among the clerks of the assay
office, after the directors became mistakenly
convinced that a fraud of some kind had
been perpetrated, and he was enjoined to
keep in as frequent telegraphic communica
tion with headquarters as possible. He was
constituted a government detective, and
thereupon he made up his mind to perform
the ignoble service with the intellectual
asumen and pbvsical portliness of a
judge of the United States Court
of Appeals. His name was Jasper Adaman.
No handbag was ever the subject of
deeper or more diverse regard. Tom Barlo
gazed on it and schemed how to make its
contents his own. He had no deliberate in
tention to steal the gold, but plans of theft
wouid come into his mind, one alter anotner,
and he found himself carefullv arranging
their details and estimating theirfeasibility.
Mrs. Dell Erwing rested her eyes on the re,
ceptacle of her small lortnne, and puzzled
herself affectionately how to convey it to her
husband without his knowing the source
from whence it came. Jasper Adaman
twisted his neck to get a frequent sight of
the thing, and meditated upon the possi
bilities of his mission. But William Er
wing was untroubled in his honeymoon
happiness, and neither he nor his merry
sister Lu suspected the bag of having un
common contents,
The cars rolled along down the Bocky
Mountain height of Denver for two hours.
Tom Barlo took to studying a time table, in
which he saw that a westward train would
meet and pass this eastward train at Mirage.
What of it? He put the question mentallv
to himself, and answered that it meant
nothing whatever to him. But he went on
to think that, if he wished to steal the gold,
a way to db it was to quit this train at
Mirage and get aboard the other. He pro
nounced the idea preposterous, but he did
not get rid of it, and when the stop was
made he alighted with the bag in his hand.
He seemed actuated by some impulse which
got its force outside of himself. Erwing did
not accompany him. He had the opportun
ity to use the speed of two locomotives to
Sut distance between the gold and its owner.
Ce walked slowly toward the further end of
the platform, wondering at his inability to
P0HUg orujf, aaa aDtc wjuur
' Barlo Meets Mrt. Erwing. ' I
there was any likelihood of his changing to
the westward train when it came.
The most resplendent things la Colorado
are the drinking saloons, and a new one at
Mirage was to be paneled with mirrors. The
big plates of glass had been delivered at the
station. They were unframed, and some of
them were out of the boxes in which they
had .been transported. The owner of the
grsggery had discovered that if the edges of
two mirrors are placed together at a right
angle, with no frame or anything else to
separate their surfaces, a person sees himself
duplicated in the corner thus formed. Half
the image is on one glass and half on tho
other, but the juncture is not visible, and a
singular optical effect is that no matter
where the man stands or how he changes his
place, his reflection will not budge from its
Slace in the mirrored angle. The name of
lirage had been derived from the frequency
of the visual illusion of mirage in the rare
fied atmosphere of the elevated region, and
it may be that the whisky seller meant to
startle his customers, beyond anything
known to the fata morgana, aj they drank at
his bar. As though impatient to see the
practicability of his plan he had set up a
dozen of the mirror plates in right-angled
pairs against the boxes and the side of a
freight house. Toward them Tom Barlo
walked unexpectantly. To his sudden
amazement he encountered himself in mul
tiple. Each Tom Barlo had a villainous
scowl and a skulking air, as he gripped tho
bag of gold. Notwithstanding the absence
of frames from the looking glasses he would
have comprehended them at a second glance,
but for the behavior of the reflected images.
They did not stir from their separate glasses
as he advanced, nor change their positions
in the least when he moved aside, but stared
back at him like so many thieves suddenly
halted iu their flight. He was shocked and
bewildered as though by a supernatural
vision.
"That's a curious effect, sir." It was
Adaman, whose voice caused Barlo to turn
abruptly, with a quiver of fright.
"Whatd'yousay?,,hebrokenly responded.
"Do you mean the effect on me?"
"O, no tbequeeroptical effect of such an
arrangement of mirrors."
"Certainly that is yes, I was observing"
it myself."
To Barlo a3 much as to Adaman it re
mained an uncertainty whether a flight was
prevented by the encounter of the mirrors.
The two men sauntered back to their cor
and went journeying along as before.
The afternoon at length became dusky,
and the passengers drowsy, when the dark
ness of a tunnel, comming suddenly, aroused
them to a wide awake state. The train had
entered a mountain near Arapahoe, and tha
car in which the Erwing party sat was never
to emerge from the other end of the railway
burrow. The tunnel extended nearly a
mile through the almost solid rock. At
about midway of the transit, a rail broke)
from its fastenings just in time to throw tha
rear car off the line. The speed was high
and the momentum great. The couplings
were severed as though the iron links were
straw. The derailed truck turned abruptly,
and the lore end of the car struck the sida
of the tunnel with awful force. There was
a noisy breakage of the rock and aloud
crunching of wood and metal. The portion
of the car not wrecked was crammed cross
wise of the tunnel. From its windows
passengers crawled out, some disabled ones
requiring the help of their less hurt com
panions. These had occupied the rear two
thirds of the coach, back of the point of de
molition. They were too stunned and con
fused to think of the persons who had been
i at the other extremity of the car. The quick
application of airbrakes stopped the rest of
the train several hundred yards beyond tns
disaster, and it was backed to th,e place.
"Are they all oat?" the conductor asked.
"No, sab," the negro porter replied, with
one hand on his bruised head and the other
soothing a sprained knee; "dcre was a par
ty of fo' two gem'en an' two ladies in da
front of de cah. An' dere was anoder
gem'en next 'em. Dey yan't come out,
sab."
The conductor -and two train hands en
tered through the windows, the door being;
inaccessible, and the excited spectators saw
the three lanterns flickering inside. In a
minnte the light within became brighter,
next a flare of flame illuminated the in
terior. "The car is afire!" was the cry.
The men who had gone in to rescue the
missing passengers were compelled to save
their own lives by a hasty retreat In their
brief inspection they had seen that the im
bedded portion of the car was cut off com
pletely by rock and debris. They had
gained no sight ol the buried unfortunates.
The fire spread rapidly. A draught of air
through the tunnel carried the blaze and
smoke away from the throng of horrified
travelers, and made the flames consume tha
wood so fast that in half an hour nothing
combustible was left in the heap of hot
rack and metal.
CHAPTEE rr.
A VABIATION OF THE EOTJTZ.
However, the Erwing party were yet
alive. More than that, they were unhurt'
except by scratches and bruises. The dark
ness was complete, and they were heaped
indiscriminately together. They realized
that a collision had occurred, but they could
not imagine the predicament in which it
had left them. Before there was time to
talk, even enough to learn whether any of
them had been badly injured, a glimmer of
firelight grew into a glare, and they were
aware that the car was burning. It was
through the apertures of a mass of broken
car and rock that the flames were visible to
them. To escape in the opposite direction
was their first impulse, but they found that
the end of the car was broken in a manner
to close all egress byeither door orwindows.
The three men set to work at the wreckage,
tand the women.too, used their weaker hands.
They were terrified, but not demoralized, and
they meant to save themselves from deatb by
fire. Tbey were sufficiently self-possessad. too.
to observe that the flames were beinc sucked
away from the other side of the barricade of
debris, and that as fast as tho wood therein
was consumer huge sections of rock dropped
down as though an enormous quantity of tha
stone above the tunnel had been loosened from
the solid mass of the mountain. They exerted
tbemselvet less furiously as the fire was slowly
shut away from them by the self-formlnz wall,
and yet they did not cease to slowly remove the
obstruction from one of the windows. Boon
William Erwrag's exceptional strength pushed
allele a displaced sash and he thrust oat his
head to see what was on the outside. Vat the
flames were now bnrnlns very feebly beyond
the barrier, wtjlch was so massively thick that
hardly a gleam cams 'through the chinks.
These sparse rays faded out one after another,
and the blackest darkness ensoed. Ho sound
came from the farther side. The Ave tourists
were by themselves. Their remark were ex
oUauteT. Wwrawtfatbtrr StftlH other
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