.
THE PITTSBURG DISPATCH,
SECOND PART.
PITTSBTJRG-, SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 1890.
: I Ir
PAGES 9 TO 12.
.
11
Excavation on Peters' Creek
AIjoyc Pittsburg.
MANY EVIDENCES OF FIBE.
Paint, Beads, Copper and Traces of
Human Beings.
LITTLE KNOWN OP THE BUILDERS
tTTKITTEjr TOB. THI DI6rATCH.l
ESTERN Pennsyl
vania is an attractive
field for archeologists.
The beautiful valleys
of the Monongahela
Allegheny and Ohio
rivers were once in
habited by a primitive
race as numerous as
the -whites who now
possess the soil. On
the Monongahela river
the remains of 40 In-
I dian villages may be
traced between Pitts-
m5?&'Yn: burgand Morgantown.
wfZ. c Tie tills are dotted
yr& here and there with
graves and burial
mounds.
It is thought by some that there were two
races of people the Indians and the Mound
Builders, who had cad precedence of the
whites in North America. Be that as it may.
there are distinctive features observed in the
remains discovered that warrant a belief, at
least, of an earlier and a later period of prim
itive occupation of certain sections of the
country. The following account of the dis
coveries of an exploring party may serve to
throw additional light upon this interesting
subject:
The existence of a large prehistoric
mound, located on Peters' creek, has been
known for many years. Mr. Isaac Yohe,
o
w
0
i
vorrtiW
Appearance of the Mound.
Jr., of Monongahela City, Pa., who takes a
great interest in matters of this kind, ob
tained permission from the owner of the
property to open the mound, and on Tuesday,
February 25. 1890, visited the spot for that
purpose with a party made up, besides him
self, of four stalwart workmen, accustomed
to digging and shoveling, and the writer,
who assisted in keeping an account of the
progress and result of the work.
THE OUTFIT KECESSARY.
The exploring party provided themselves
with picks, spades and shovels, a surveyor's
compass, a 60-foot tape line, a chalk line
and numerous wooden pins, a hatchet, shel
lac varnish, paper, twine, an amateur
photographing outfit, sketch paper -and note
book.
Peters creek enters the Monongahela
river on the southern bank 20 miles above
Pittsburg. It is an erratic stream about 20
feet wide at its normal stage, except where
it passes over low ground, when it covers
many acres of swampy land. On each side
of the creek is level ground extending sev
eral miles and reaching back to
the hills by a gentle slope.
On the up-river side of the small stream
there are abundant traces of a large Indian
village. Acres upon acres are thickly
strewn with the shells of mussels, broken
nottery, flint, and fragments of arrow beads,
celts and stone axes. Many perfect imple
ments have been gathered on this spot, and
now occupy a place in the cabinets of col
lectors. This was a favorite spot tor fishing and
hunting. Portion of the flats were perhaps
cultivated after the Indian manner, and
Diagram Showing the Order in Which the
Trenches Were Dug.
corn and tobacco raised from the rich allu
vial soil. The ravine and hills back from
the river afforded natural retreats and shel
ter from enemies.
On the top of the first hills that rise above
the bottom lands is a level tract, known all
along the river as the Bench, but at this
point it is much wider than elsewhere, em
bracing a hundred acres or more. Through
it runs a depression.
SOME PECtTLIAB TACTS.
It is an odd circumstance that the first
field is covered with an unlimited quantity
of small pieces of slaty stone, while the sec
ond field is entirely free from stone of anv
kind. The first field is also very thickly
strewn with flint chips. A most beautiful
flint drill was picked up and many perfect
arrow heads. Near the center are
the ruins 'of two boulder mounds.
one of which was investigated by digging
a trench thrugh it, but nothing was
found save a few pieces of bone. On the
other field no flint chips or arrow heads
conld be discovered, but in the center was
the large clay mound which had attracted
the visiting party. No umonnt of specula
tion brought any satisfactory explanation as
to why this particular spot should have been
selected for the site of a mound. The prop
erty is owned by Messrs. L X. and S. P.
Large, who at present live in California, but
The Two Copper Plates. Scale About One to
Turelve.
i
have left the farm in charge of Captain B.
M. Blackburn, an elderly and intelligent
gentleman, who took great interest in the
enterprise in hand. He has lived in that
neighborhood for 0 years, and stated that
OPENING
H
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CS&fcfcSC
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the mound had never been disturbed, except
as it had been plowed over season after
season in an attempt to level it.
Originally it was four feet higher than at
present, but did not cover so much surlace.
There arc no trees or stumps nearer than
300 or 400 yards. It is more than probable
that the entire field has been free from tim
ber growth for a long period, which may in
part account for its selection as a location
lor the mound. The party found the mound
higher than a man's head, with a diameter
of 80 feet. As intimated before, its dimen
sions were originally quite different, litely
about 8 or 10 feet in height and 40 feet or
less in width. If there had ever been any
so-called intrusive burials they were proba
bly leveled away with the plow long ago, as
no indications were to be discovered.
EXACT 2IEASUKMEXTS MADE.
Beginning the work of excavation, the
north and south points were located by
means of the compass. Pins were set at
the four points and a line ran around, form
ing an 80-foot square. The object of this
was to faciliUte the exact location of possi
ble finds in the mound by cross measure
ments. A trench was marked off, east and
I
1 Bear's TusK t Copper Sheath. S Folded
Copper.
west, four feet wide and three Icet from
the center. The diagram, Fig , shows the
plan of the various trenches. It was imme
diately discovered that the clay was very
loose and soft The workmen soon expressed
the opinion that it was made ground, and
in answer to a suggestion that its loose na
ture indicated a recent date, they stated
that made ground, no matter how long it
continued at rest, never became as firm and
solid as undisturbed ground. The ground
thro wn out of the trench was principally clay,
mixed with top or surface soil. This was the
case all through the mound, especially in
the deeper part of it.
The first trench was dug down to the bot
tom or original surface ot the ground which
was hard and served as floor to work upon.
The digging extended to the margin and
demonstrated that little was to be expected
from the outer jimits of the mound. The
first 12 to 15 inches taken from the surface
showed plainly traces ol fire. Some of the
clay was reddened as if by heat, and mixed
with ashes and charcoal, but not in any
large quantities. A few old bits of stone
were found also reddened. With this ex
ception no stone of any kind was found.
Going a little deeper almost every shovel
ful of dirt thrown up contained small lumps
of charcoal. It appeared as if mixed in the
clay, and not the remains of fire in the
mound itself. Every shovelful of dirt was
carefully examined. Three feet 'from the
surface a small irregular flake of worked
flint was found. It was the only bit of flint
of any description lound in the mound.
A COVERING OP ASHES.
The first discovery of special interest was
a thin layer of white ashes. It was five feet
from the surface, extended the whole length
of the trench, and when the sides of the ex
cavation were smoothed down with a shovel
it appeared as a white line or stratum in the
clay. Very probably the ashes had been
1Thc Small Meads. SOne of the Large
Beads. SCap of the Ball of Paint.
placed as a covering over the contents of the
mound. As the excavating proceeded the
dirt removed from the trench west of the
centerbecame dark and rich looking. Ex
pectations of a find were excited and ex
treme care was exercised by taking the dirt
away with the hands. A hard substance
was come upon which proved to be a stone
ar, followed bv two large stone celts or
skinning knives. These implements were
laying side by side as indicated in the figure.
A couple of pieces of decayed bone were also
found. At a point opposite the center a
hand full oflarge shell beads, about'tbe size
of turtle eggs, rolled out from the side, quite
close to the bottom. This first trench re
vealed nothing furthur, but there was
abundant evidence of the main contents of
the mound being near the center.
The next trench would pass directly
through the center, and work was at once
begun on it, starting from the top and going
down. It was of similar width as the first
trench, but not so long. The same peculiar
reddened clay, bits of charcoal and mixture
of clay and top soil were met with as in the
first cut. When the ash layer was reached,
more beads were rolled out." Then a thin flat
shell with bright spots of green and red
upon it, was picked out. At the exact
center of the mound the dirt was soft and
oozy, and there rolled into the hands of one
of the worfcmen a big roll of something
about the size and shape of a roll of butter.
It was red clay, or Indian paint, and qnite
neavy ana uamp, out nrtn auu sona.
TIEST FIND 0 COrPEE.
The removal or the paint exposed to
view a sharp edge of green material.
Alongside of it was found" another roll of
paint, in the top of which was a small, cone
shaped stone partly embedded. Upon re
moving the paint more large beads were
fonnd, arranged in a row as it upon astring.
The string was missing, however. Before
removing the green looking plate its posi
tion was carefully noted. It was copper.
Strange to say there was nothing under it
except the black looking -dirt already men
tioned, containing a few fragments of bone.
Bight close to it was one half of a lower hu
man jaw, with teeth intact, the only solid
portion of bone found. It was clearly evi
dent that a skeleton or body had once lain
there, but scarcely more was left of it than
the dark line of black soil which marks the
spot in a forest where a tree fell, decayed
and moldered away, leaving only a hard,
scrubby knot as the last of its substance to
disappear.
, The excavating was continued, and three
small pieces of folded copperfound, followed
by a handful of small disk-shaped beads of
bone, curiously arranged about two large
bear tusks, still attached to a fragment of
the jaw bone, which held a couple of small
teeth. A little further work disclosed
another copper plate similar to the first, but
smaller in size. Care was also exercised in
its removal. It was Iving in a direction op
posite to the first plate. Under it was found
evidence of human remains, and close to it
two more tusks, one of them sheathed in
copper. A second copper shield was lound
detached. A little distance from these
things another stone celt was found.
Additional trenches were dug on both
sides of the center line, but no further finds
made. The excavation or opening of the
mound was considered thorough and com
plete. It occupied a whole day's time.
DESCRIPTION OF THE KELICS.
The large copper plate was lying almost
uvitu nuu wuiu, luuuuing wwaras me west,
and the small plate almost cast and west, in
clining towards the north. Ike skeletons or
:
bodies of such there were must have lain in
the same direction, but crossing each other.
The large plate is 16 inches long by 8
inches wide, and the small plate 14 inches
longby 6 inches wide. They are both about
an eighth of an inch thick, except at the
ends where they are much thinner. The
plates were doubtless hammered into shape
as the surface is uneven and rough and pre
sents many thin lamina. They contain
neither holes or marks of any description.
The stone ax is rnde in shape, grooved, has
a sharp, cutting edge, and is considerably
worn. It is not equal in size or finish to
the thousands that are in the cabinets of
collectors. Two of the celts are the regula
tion size and shape, made of hard, green
stone. One of them is slightly grooved and
bears evidence of use. They are excellent
specimens. The other celt is of brown slate,
well developed, squared along the edges and
back end. It is i4 inches long, 2 inches
wide and less than $ an inch thick. It is
certainly an unusually fine specimen.
The large beads are 28 in number, worked
out or the thick part of some very heavy
shells. Holes are neatly drilled through
each one, but show indifferent workmanship,
as the drill did not always meet in the
center, the hole being worked from both
ends. Most of them are in good condition,
but a few are very much decayed.
BEADS AND BEAK TUSKS.
There are 60 of the smaller beads, disk
shaped and neatly made. Three sets of
beads were found, one with each copper
plate. The bear tusks were, of course,
worn as ornaments along with the beads, as
the fragments of jaw bone attached have
holes drilled through them. The curious
copper shields found with the tusks have
minute holes in two of the corners. Shaping
them as they are was a marvelons piece of
work in the hands of a man without modern
tools. The three pieces of folded copper
have their ends turned in as if fastened in
that manner to some sort of fabric. The two
lumps of red clay or paint jyeigh each about
seven pounds. They have a slightly un
even surface all around as if once enclosed
in something that left its impression. The
small cone-shaped stone iound imbedded in
The Stone Axes and Celts.
one of the lumps is of some very hard ma
terial. Its surface is blistered as if having
sustained a high degree of heat.
It is to be remarked that in the mound
no flint or pottery of any description was
found, while on the adjoining field, and on
the bottoms below these two things, so
characteristic of Indian industry, may be
found in quantities. Did Indians build
the mound? M. P. Sciiooley.
PROTECTING BEER KEGS.
The Brewer' Association IDctcrmlned to
Enforce the Lnvr-A Detective Employed
to Prosecute Offenders Property Will
Not be Destroyed Wltu Impnnily.
The Property Committee of the Allegheny
County Brewers' Association met yesterday
in the Westinghouse building. Mr. Her
man Straub acted as Chairman. Mr. Straub
explained that the committee was appoint
ed for the purpose of protecting the proper
ty of brewers. Eecently a law was passed
making it penal and entailing a fine of 550
for breaking beer kegs, and anyone caught
at this work will be prosecuted.
The Allegheny County Association has
appointed a detective or agent with full
power to act to see that this law is properly
and rigidly enforced. The work of the
committee yesterday was to give the agent
fuller instructions. Mr. Straub said it was
becoming quite common for people to re
gard beer kegs as of no value, and
frequently they are carelessly broken and
diverted from their use. The business will
have to stop.
The committee has also reiterated their
objections to the increase in duties on hops.
They felt that the hop growers were manipu
lating things to suit themselves. As for, the
Stewart bill against beer adulterations, they
want to see ale and porter added to the list.
Mr. Straub stated that these two drinks
were adulterated as much as beer.
He declares that since the Allegheny
brewers had increased the capacity of their
plants, tbey were more determined than ever
to give the people a pure article, and that
the local beer is made out of hops, malt and
water, these three ingredients and nothing
more. Mr. Straub insists that much of the
imported beer is highly seasoned and
adulterated. Their trade has been injured
slightly by the dishonest practices of others. "
The committee was Very anxious to learn
the outcome of the license question, and
they expressed the hope that more privi-
leges to sell would be sranted. As for the
letter alleged to have been written by Secre
tary Crowell, in which he admits money
and influence was used to defeat the amend
ment, Mr. Straub said he didn't believe
there was a word of truth in the charges.
He was interested in the campaign, and
knew every transaction that was performed.
He says that no money was expended except
for legitimate purposes, and that no Senator
or any other man was offered a bribe or ac
cepted one.
AN LNTALID BURNED TO DEATH
Wiillo Attempting to Walk With a Lamp
in Her Ilnnd.
Patekson, If. J., April 4. Mrs. Carrie
Young, aged 40 years, was found dead in
her rooms on Northwest street, this city,
this morning by a lad who called with a
message. The woman had been ill for sev
eral days, and was visited and cared for
until a late hour last night by friends.
When discovered her body was lying in the
center of her room burned almost to a crisp.
Beside it was a broken lamp.
She had left her bed and attempted to
walk with the lamp in her hand when, be
ing overcome by weakness she fell and her
clothing caught fire, and she fas slowly
roasted to death. The floor was very little
burned. Nobody discovered the blaze or
even smelled the smoke. The woman's
husband had deserted her and the charred
remains were taken to the morgue.
THE LAW WAS TOO LATE.
Rhode Island's Supplementary Election to
bo Under tho Old System.
NEWPORT, B. L, April 4. The supple
mentary election here to-morrow will be un
der the old voting system, not under the new
ballot law. Only last week the Legislature
passed a law making the new ballot law ap
ply to supplementary elections, and requir
ing the city and town clerks to have ballots
printed bearing a fac simile of their signa
tures, A copy of the law was not received from
the Secretary of State by the City Clerk un
til this noon too late to have the ballots
prepared. The parties, are therefore, print
ing their own ballots as in former elections.
Two representatives are to be voted for.
Some Coal doing.
The river was rising slightly yesterday.
The John Moran and Percy Kelsy started
down the river with 11 barges apiece. The
W. W. O'Neil and Dick Fulton left Louis
ville with 1,050.000 bushels.
Handsome beaded capes, 1 50, 3 and
up, at Es-aenbaum & Co.'s.
L 5.
THE ARABS' GAEDEN.
A Spot Singularly Favored by Nature,
Which Should Bank as the
FLORIDA OP THE GREAT ORIENT.
Parting Peeps at the Old City of Algiers,
With a Description of
ITS SEMI-BARBARI0 STREET SCENES
CCOBRESPONDEXCB OP TBI! DISPATCH.
Catania, Sicily, March 20. One does
not require a week's time in Algeria, or to
go, with his eyes open, more than 200 miles
from the city of Algiers in any direction in
the interior, to discover, aside from the
human interest which is absorbing on every
hand, and the scenic beauties and splendors
which are unexpected and surprising, that
here the French have found a new empire
whose possibilities as a garden spot for en
joyment and material development surpass
all ordinary calculation. The native interior
population and their strange manners and
customs have been well and fully described.
But I have seen presented no references to
those things on which the future of any conn
try( must depend. In what respect mav
France be vastly benefited by its Algerian
possession at such stupendous original cost
of life and treasure? is the constant query
of the earnest reader and earnest observer.
The answer is everywhere given in such stu
pendous proofs of rich rewards, that the vis
itor is constantly forced away from the con
templation of the native people, customs and
archaeology, to the liveliest, most exciting
speculations upon commercial and agricul
tural possibilities under the new and en
lightened regime.
As to climate, one is reminded constantly
of the vast variety accessible in Mexico.
Every possible degree of heat or cold can be
definitely secured during nine months of the
year. It is only a question of one's location
within tropical valley, far-reaching table
land, mountain side plateau, or crisp and
ireezing neignt. so, too, every form of veg
etation known to torrid, temperate or frigid
zone is here discoverable by the botanist.
Within an area of ten square miles one may
see, in midwinter months, prodigious Jac
queminots, jonquils, Marchael Neil roses
and mignonette shrubs as large as the most
luxuriant American locust; eucalyptus
trees, cacti, hedges of pomegranate, orange
and lemon, interspersed with lordly roses;
pear, apple and other northern fruit trees;
wild olive and oarob trees; evergreens, oaks
and cedars as astonishing in girth and
height as the tremendous redwoods of Cali
fornia and Washington; and, at last, set
like beds of emerald against the white
cameos of mouQtain snows, vast and untrod
den forests of noble pine.
A FKUITrUL REGION.
Trafficable and always profitable products
of the soil, but 25 hours distance by steamer
from European entrepots, are cultivable in
Algeria in an equal proportion and variety.
As Cuba and Florida are now in a degree,
and in time will become comprehensively,
the "truck" gardens ot American cities, so
Algeria is already largely, and will eventu-
nil. . nannma 1,1 a 4I.A li.,l Cmlln T.I.kJ.
ofT Cornwall to London, the supply garden
of Europe. Algiers is but 25 hours distance
from Cadiz, Barcelona, Marseilles, Borne
and Venice, 48 hours from Madrid and Paris,
and but 80 hours the same time as Jack
sonville, Fin., is from New York and Chi
cago from Vienna, Berlin and London.
Any morning you may enter the market in
the Place de la Lyre or in Place de Chartres,
in Algiers, and the exhibition of eggs, pota
toes, peas, beans, asparagus, mushrooms, ar
tichokes, cauliflower, lettnee, and all known
northern and tropical vegetables; roses and
branches of buds, blooms and blossoms,
such as all Cuba cannot surpass; and apples,
plums, pears, cherries, dates, figs, bananas,
tamarinds, pomegranates, melons and every
Known ueucions iruu oi every lana ana
clime; is something your eyes can never
elsewhere behold. And yet all this is but a
hint of what another quarter century of
French husbandry in Algiers will be able to
disclose.
In general, fruits, cereals and other agri
cultural products for necessary consumption
and profitable export are vastly more varied
in number, and average a higher grade of
excellence and perfection, than in any other
known land. In ancient times the Barbary
States were an overflowing granary for old
Borne. For more than a thousand year: Al
gerian soil has rested fallow, only scratched
and prodded here and there by the primitive
plow of the crooked olive-tree root. To-day,
every acre of Algeria's 150,000 square miles
is stored with the riches of these thousand
years of recuperation and strength. France,
then, has found what is practically a new
America 25 hours from home, wherein she
may remove the overplus power of her
splendid' industrial activities; with the
added advantage of a soil and clime canable
of incalculably diversified employment.
ITS CHOICE PRODUCTS.
Even the date, that precious almost manna
of the Arab, the feet of whose tree are in
"the water aqd its branches in the flames of
heaven," is transforming the northern edge
of Sahara into a garden, through French
irrigation. Two crops of potatoes are an
nually yielded. Beetroot for sugar manu
facture is already successfully cultivated.
The fig is everywhere, forms an immense
food supply when fresh, is exported for
spirits distillation, and no American need
be told of its universal foreign consumption
when cured. Nearly all the guava jellies,
which come by way of France, are made
from the Algerian fruit. Algerian bananas
and oranges of" the most delicious flavor, are
now rivaling in the European markets the
same truit from the Azores, Canaries and
the West Indies. Wheat, barley, rye and
corn as fine as produced anywhere in
America, and already to a yield of nearly
400,000,000 bushels, are grown. Cotton is
still in an experiments! status; but speci
mens of extraordinary yield and texture are
secured. The vast tobaeco plantations of
Mascara and elsewhere are now producing a
leaf the equal if not the superior of the most
prized product of the sunny valleys behind
Havana.
But more than all this, if you have
loitered in the noblest vinevards of France,
Spain and Italy, you will And that those of
Algeria now surpass the most splendid
plantations either of those countries ever
knew. Years ago the French savant, M.
Dejernon, commissioned by his Government
to study and report the subject, said: "The
vine will become the fortune of the country.
It can produce an infinite variety of vines,
suited to every constitution and to every
caprice of taste." The promise is already
fulfilled, though grape-growing and wine
making are yet in their infancy. What all
the travelers and poets have written upon
the vineyards of Southern Europe within
the past two centuries, will be true before
the close of the present century in this
wondrous land where the swallows home
Deneath a genial winter sun.
A parting peep at Algiers was taken in
the old Arab quarter of the city. One
ceases to wonder over the rhapsodies of
artists'upon this bit of Moresaue holding
itself sturdily ngainBt all inroads of modern
progress. Its outlines still very clearly de
fine those of the ancient city. Sown here
harborward are the grand boulevards,
plazas, palaces and shops of the new Paris
the French have made. The two great gen
eral markets, the fish market of the port,
and two stately mosques occupy a line of
common ground upon which all nationali
ties seem to meet.
A BEM ARK ABLE LABYRINTH.
From this line, as a broad base of nearly
a mile in length, converging gradually as
you ascend to the Kasbah, or ancient
citadel, rises and narrows the old Arab
quarters, a dense mass of Moorish structures
from 100 to 1,000 years old. No one ever
gave, no one can ever give, an adequate de
scription of this almost trackless labyrinth.
Nothing exists in Europe or America to
which it can be likened. I have attempted
its exploration on 18 different occasions. On
each but one I was rescued and conveyed
back to recognizable precincts and location
only after an excellent exhibition of panto
mime and coin. There is but one street, or
way, which starts at somewhere and finally
reaches anywhere. This is the Bue de la
Kasbah. This at one time led from the
quays to the pirates' stronghold on the
heights. What is left of it rises a step in
every two yards, and 500 crumbling stone
steps still remain. To the right and left of
this there are, I am told, upward of 400 dis
tinct streets, thoroughfares, courts, alleys
and lanes. No two are at right angles.
Every curve or sinuosity imaginable is de
scribed. Is is a maze of shadowy burrows
where flit and'loiter swarthy beings sheeted
in ghostly white. In not a half dozen of
these old AraD streets can one catch a
glimpse of more than a tiny blue thread of
sky above. The widest streets are not up
ward of 12 leet in width; the average one
does not exceed eight; and in very many
one can touch the opposite walls with out-
stretcned hands. The habitations of rich
and poor are joined. None are detached.
In nearly every street and passage the sec
ond, third and sometimes a fourth story of
the structures each extend beyond the lower
one, giving effects like those in the Dutch
city lanes in Amsterdam. The street side
of each succeeding story is propped from
the lower one bv huge timbers at acute an
gles; and in these dove and swallow cotes
are hung. The streets are stone, the walls
are stone; the props and all exposed timbers
are whitewashed to resemble stone, and the
effect is something like wandering in a tun
nel of dazzling white, whose vaulted sides
are ornamented by strange and uncouth
architectural flonture, and through the
truncated pointed arch of which twilight
way there is seen but the slenderest line of
sky.
STBANO STREET SCENES.
One will see stranger things within thesj
streets than their quaint architecture. Tn '
shops are all nearly tiny niches in the walls.
The Moorish merchant enters his black lit
tle den through a trap-door; lowers the shut
ter which falls, often in steps, to the street;
ana sits in the center ot his possessions,
which are all within reach, voiceless and
grave the day long, like a forsaken Punch
in a pantomime. Every manner of shop is
just like his. In some, workmen are em
broidering the white burnous, utilizing their
great toes for holding tight the disengaged
thread. In others greasy fritters are fried in
a solemn and stately manner while one
waits. Some display ostrich eggs and
native ornaments. Here and there is a
seller of herbs and vegetables. Again
white-robed and bearded men are surround
ed by crates of charcoal and tiny bundles of
fagots.
In others almost priceless oriental draper
ies arc packed and bunched around a mer
chant who smokes and dreams as if no
thoughtof traffic ever entered his head.
The ancient and venerable letter and scroll
writer has his niche, or chair at archway
side, and waits with that stoic patience only
an Indian or a Moslem can command, to in
dite epistle or trace sacred passage from the
Koran upon egg shell, or on ribbon forsome
devoutone's amulet. Shoemakerssquatcross
legged, sewing and hammering upon sandals
and slippers only. Bread sellers crouch
against walls and doorways. Groups of
swarthy Kabyles with their copper ewers
are ever before the gurgling ionntains.
Veiled women wriggle and mince to and
from market or khonba. Stately Arabs ap
pear and disappear, their flowinc robes shut
ting out the vistas of the narrow streets.
SEMI-BABBAKIC LIFE.
Cloth venders higgle-haggle at the cracks
of massive doors barely ajar. Funeral cor
teges pass on the run for the dead Moslem
arrives in paradise that much more speedily.
Girls with dough-covered boards ready for
the bakeries are as fleet as the funerals.
Tiny donkeys loaded with street garbage
force you against the walls. Other donkeys
with panniers packed with truits, orange
blossoms and roses, fill the shadowy ways
with the attars of sunny Algerian valleys.
The same weird, wild scenes ot semi-barbaric
life that were here 1,000 years ago are
here to-day, every day, all day, and will
remain. And if you wander these ghostly
ways at night, all is still, shadowful, silent.
You see the white, silent walls about you.
You know that white, silent forms whisk
past you. And away up there through in
finite space you see the white, silent stars
looking down.
It holds, fascinates, enthralls. One is
bound with almost inseparable fetters of in
terest to it; but when you have put the
"white dove upon the hillside" behind you,
something like a breath of relief comes, as it
did to me yesterday, when I stepped foot on
Sicilian shores,even it above the white walls
and domes of thrise razed Catania loom the
dark and forbidding outlines of hideous,
fearful and ever-destroying JEtna.
Edgar L. Wakeman.
HAS ITS HANDS FULL.
Tho Councils Auditing Committee's Great
Tnsk First Formal Work of tho Kind
The Hew Council Meeting Next Mon
dayThe Treasurer and His Bond.
The Auditing Committee of Conncils con
tinued its work, yesterday, of examining
the City Controller's sinking fund invest
ments. The whole committee consists of
both Conncil Presidents and the Chairman
of the Finance Committee, but as W. A.
Magee is out of the city, Messrs. H. P.
Ford and George Holliday conducted the
examination, which will not' be concluded
before this afternoon. The work is very
laborious, and necessitates a rigid inspection
of over 51,871,000 worth of investments to
the credit of the sinking fund. This is the
first time the accounts of the City Control
ler have been formally audited.
Councils will meet at 10 o'clock Monday
morning, to swear in tho newly elected
Counciimen, and again at 12 o'clock, to
swear in the Mayor, Treasurer and Control
ler, and to nrirniur.t Councils bv electing
ofcssrs. President Ford, in Select Council,
and Holliday in the Common branch have
no opposition to re-election.
The Controller's bond, $10,000, was ap
proved by the Auditing Committee and
several other members of the Finance Com
mittee yesterday. The new Mayor's bond
in the same amount has not yet been filed.
An act of Legislature gives the City
Treasurer until the first Monday in June to
file his bond, $100,000. The business of the
Treasurer's office, being heaviest at this
time than any other in the year it would be
almost an impossibility for a Treasurer to
turn over the office to a successor, and for
this reason the expiration ot the Treasurer's
term was fixed in June, when the business
of the office is very light and the transfer
could easily be made. Major Denniston
will not hie his bonds until the time re
quired by this act.
PATHER STKADB'S SUCCESSOR
Selected, nnd Expected to Arrive Here In
Few Days.
The American province of the Order of
the Holy Gnost has appointed a Superior, a
successor to the late Father Straub, who was
the founder of the order in this country.
The new Superior is the Very Bey. John
OsUr, who is at present Superior
of the college and monastery of the
Order of the . Holy Ghost on the
Island of St. Pierre, near Newfoundland.
Father Oster was born near Strasburg,
Germany, in 1846. He has already left
Newfoundland for his new field, and is ex
pected to arrive in Pittsburg next week.
It has not yet been decided whether the
new provincial will take up his seat at the
Pittsburg Catholic College or at the St.
Joseph's Monastery, near Conway, Ark.,
which place he will visit shortly after his
arrival here, but it is supposed that he will
remain here permanently.
SHE HAD HER WAT.
A Woman Who Wouldn't be Shipped
Out of Pittsburg by the City,
UNLESS SHE WANTED TO GO.
Very Discouraging- Experience of City
Officials Yesterday.
CHIEF JuLLIOT BECOMES DISGUSTED
The woman whom M. J. Dean, the Super
intendent of the Anti-Cruelty Society, re
moved with her four children to the Central
station Thursday afternoon distinguished her
self again yesterday afternoon. She refused
point blank to be sent to her home at Spring
Hill, Lawrence county. Jler husband, as
stated in yesterday's Dispatcii, is at pres
ent under" hospital treatment for a severe at
tack of pneumonia. The family has only
been in the city for six months, and during
that time has been leading avery precarious
existence. The police Officials listened with
a sympathetic ear tq her tale of priva
tion and sickness and promised to aid
her in returning to her home in Law
rence county. To that end they solic
ited the attention of Chief Elliot,
of the Department of Charities, and
Examiner George Hoffman called at the
station house and heard Mrs. Sullivan's
story. She told him that she had no further
object in staying in Pittsbnrg, her husband
being well cared for, and would be glad to
get back to her old home.
Mr. Hoffman at once procured tickets for
herself and children over the Pittsburg and
Lake Erie Bailroad. They were to leave at
2 o'clock yesterday afternoon, and the patrol
wagon was called to transport the party to
the depot.
WOULD DO AS SHE PLEASED.
Everything was quiet until the depot was
reached. Messenger Pearson, of the Depart
ment of Charities, who accompanied the
family, stated on his return that as soon as
Mrs. Sullivan stepped out of the patrol
wagon she defiantly declared that now no
one had any further authority over her, and
that she would do as she pleased. One of
her acts was to refuse to board the train for
Spring Hill. Messenger Pearson and the
wagon men endeavored to persuade
her to get on the tram and suc
ceeded in getting her as far as the
ladies' waiting room, but there she made
another determined stand, and said that she
would go no further. Mrs. Sullivan raised
the pitch of her voice to a very shrill tone.
Abont the same time she was approached by
a couple of ladies, who asked her what was
the trouble. They were apparently under
the impression that she was being wronged
in some way, an idea that was instantly ab
sorbed by Mrs. Sullivan, who accepted the
ladies' sympathetic offices as the signal to
weep and moan in a very loud tone. In a
twinkling the party was surrounded by a
crowd of at least 200 persons, who supposed
that something tragic was taking place.
Messenger Pearson was disgusted and
angry. He asked the depot attaches to assist
him in getting the party on the train, which
they declined to do. He then wanted the
policemen to take them back to the Central
station, but they replied that their duty
ended with delivering the woman and chil
dren into his hands.
Finally, as the train was moving out of
the depot, Mrs. Sullivan concluded that she
would go, but when told that she wonld
have to take a later train, she declared once
more that she would not go at all now.
couldn't be moved.
All Mr. Pearson's eloquence failed to
alter her resolntion, and he retired from any
lurthej attempts, leaving Mrs. Sullivan do
as she wished.- She said that she would go
back to her sister's house on Etna street.
where she was when arrested by Superin
tendent Dean, and the last Mr. Pearson saw
ol her she was plodding along Smithfield
street in the mud and rain, with her chil
dren at hereels.
When the charities' messenger returned
to the office he was warm and tired, and his
finely polished shoes were splashed with
mud. He explained the result of
his errand to Chief Elliot, who
brought his clenched fist down on a desk,
and declared that Mrs. Sullivan should re
ceive no further aid from that office. "She
does not belong here," said he, "and is
strictly not entitled to the aid we did ex
tend to her, but if she refuses to go to her
home, and intends to become a charge on
Pittsburg, I will apply for an order of re
moval from the courts, and send her away
by force. This practice of other counties
that have no poorhonses or any way of car
ing for their people is getting altogether too
prevalent. Why, it is a fact that it requires
more care and work on our part to prevent
undeserving outside persons from imposing
upon us than to attend to those legitimately
entitled to relief."
ABANDONED HER CHILDBEN.
Mrs. Sullivan, after hearing the officer of
the Department of Charities, went to the
West Penn Hospital where her husband was
lying.and throwing the infanton the bed he
side its father, lelt both the children and her
husband, and was seen wandering around
her old place on Etna street, and was said
by the neighbors to have acted very
strangely.
The wretched husband, although scarcely
able to walk, got from his hospital bed and
took the children to No. 90 Pike street,
where he left them and they are now being
cared for until taken care of by Superintend
ent Dean. The latter want in search of Mrs.
Sullivan, but, although she had been seen
by several people in the neighborhood at
different times, he could not find her, and
said that he would not be surprised to hear
that she had made away with herself.
The woman, if found, and the children
will be sent to the Lake Erie depot in
charge of the city police, who were refused
admission yesterday because they had not
the tickets, and the family will be sent to the
Women's Home, near New Castle.Lawrence
county, the authorities of which, Chief
Elliot thinks, ought to be responsible for
their care and safety.
ANXIOUS TO GET THE BEST.
Mr. Scott Describes Mr. Carnegie's Views on
the Library Matter.
Mr. James B. Scott was asked yesterday
to state more particularly the situation as to
the Carnegie Library in Pittsburg. From
the interview it was learned it was Mr. Car
negie's suggestion and desire that a full op
portunity be given for public discussion
and expression on the general matter
of his enterprise, and any and all
details pertaining thereto, including par
ticularly the important factor of site. He
thought a few weeks at the beginning could
be most advantageously emphyed inuch
consideration, and wonld not prove a waste
ot time, but emphatically the reverse.
When it is evident that no propriety exists
for continqing time lor public discussion,
the commislon will settle down to business.
It is manifest, continued Mr. Scott, that
plans for buildings cannot be selected until
a site is secured, as "designs suitable for one
location might be very unsuitable for an
other. The seeming delay is not the result
of negligence or oversight, but is in accord
ance with the foregoing suggestions.
When the active work is taken up. it will
move with proper celerity. Mr. Carnegie
is very much interested in the question of
site for the main building, and is very
desirous that the conclusion of the commis
sion may carry with it the commendation of
the general public.
A Tower Oat of Flamb.
The electric light tower at the corner of
North avenue and Federal street was pulled
Ai.f nt nlnmn vailo.rtnir Kw ..... .f .. I
vu v jhuuu ji.Diuaj uj naut ui nwa
men who were trying to straighten a guy
rope. The tower appears to be dangerous
and must come down.
FROM TUMPLE BAIt-ILLUSTBATED Br THE DIS
PATCH. "He is a bad actor," said the manager of
the strolling company of players where
Jovan made his first appearance, and so said
the first violin of the orchestra of the little
country town theater where Jovan tried his
luck the second time. The violinist was an
old man and had a great deal of experience,
so that was discouraging; worse still, the
audience said the same thing, and worse
even than that was to come, for one day
something inside Jovan said it too.
"He is a bad actor," so said the part of
Jovan that did not go on the stage, the part
of him that stood with the manager at the
wiegs of the theater, that watched him fiom
the orchestra, that sat in the front rows with
the audience, the part which looked at him
from outside, which shook its head when he
cauie before the footlights, which waited for
him at the door and walked home
with him through the empty streets when
the play was over. There was Jovan the
player, and there was Jovan the critic, and
then there was Jovan himself Jovan the
nature-made, the nature-bred, who hated
the critic and spoiled the player, Jovan the
man, strong and unruly, self-assertlug and
tenacious; Jovan who would be himself
when he ought to be somebody else, who,
when the player changed his coat and went
before the audience, followed him close and
would not be left behind.
"One must change not one's dress only,
but one's body and one's soul also, if one
would be an actor," said the violinist, and
that Jovan would not do.
When Jovan was in love, he played like
a lover, wlien he had a wicked mood he
played like a villain, when he was good he
plaved like a saint, and it did not do at all.
Jovan lived, or rather wandered about the
world with his mother; she bad Eastern
blood in her. and it was from'her he had got
his name "Jovan." The Germans turned it
into Johann. His father had been a rich
English merchant, a trader in the East, sue
cessiul, unscrupulous, cold-hearted and
luxurious; for the rest the story was an old
one it was hrst written in the book of Gen
esis and Jovan and his mother were driven
iorth as Hagar and Ishmael of old, with this
difference, that Jovan was of age, and that
no angel appeared to succor them in their
jonrneying.
Jovan and Hagar were poor and they
were vagrants, but tbey got on well enough
to be happy. The "little mother" was an
actress by birth and a mimic of some skill,
and when Jovan failed she succeeded
enough to keep body and soul together,
though more she could not accomplish. As
for Jovan, there was no counting on him.
Sometimes for days he would bury himself
in his books, books he would starve to buy;
then they would be thrown aside, forgotten,
and he would pass days and nights with
wild companions, till he wearied of them
too, and fonnd some other pleasure or in
terest to usurp dominion over him. He
could like but one thing at a time, he
avowed.
"You cannot hate and you cannot love,
no, not for one month together, my Jovan,"
said his mother. "Not lor one month, no,
nor for one week. Do not trust him, child,
do not trust him."
Jbvau was sitting in the window of the
poor little room where last they had pitched
their tent; he was then, it might be, 22 years
of agejthe Servian woman was some 17 years
older, but still the beauty of her youth
clung to her, as loath to quit one who had
"loved it so well." A'girl, hardly more than
a child in years, leaned against the frame
work ot the dusty window panes. She was
so close to Jovan that her hair, falling loose
to her waist, touched his shoulder; he took a
handful of the soft yellow threads, and
slipped them round and through his fingers,
and smiling back at his mother he drew the
girl nearer.
"Let her go, let her go, Jovan," said the
Servian woman, searching their faces with
keen, kind eyes.
''. '' c Bw. ' Mt lu, cwuucu
Jovan, with his laugh (which was the only
beautiful thing about him). "Who keeps
her?"
"res, let her go. Jet her go," echoed
"He does not love you, child. Do not give
him your heart." said the mother, who was
like Hagar, and knew what men were; but
she laughed back at Jovan, even while she
warned the child.
"He does not love you," repeated Jovan,
mimicking her tone.
"No, he does not love yon. Do not lova
him. He is good for nothing; he pays yes
terday's debts with to-morrow's wages; he is
a spendthrift, a bankrupt in the coin which
is stamped with a heart on one side, and a
branch of bitter herb on the other. Do not
love him. He does not love you."
He lilted the long twist of waving hair
he had unbound from his hand and touched
it with his lips.
The girl suddenly moved; wrenching the
freed hair from his hold, she crouched on
the ground beside him; she laid her arms
across bis knees, and then hid her face in
her hands. He touched her bent head
gently, friendlily.
"But she loves me, my sweet white heart,"
he said softly.
It was nothing new that she, little pale
Lise, should love him. Children had a way
of loving him, and women had, too; they
loved him not as women love their lovers,
but as dogs love their masters, as winter
starved birJ3 the hand that succors and
shelters them. Jovan knew it knew that
it was not at a lover that Lise (and others
also) loved him. He knew that Lise was
happy when his hand touched hers, when
his voice was within her hearing, when his
eyes rested on her: what did it matter? for
he knew too that her instinct of trust was a
true instinct; he would not harm her, not
by word or look, and if she gave him more
than he could return, she would never miss
his care, his pity. When Jovan broke a
woman's heart, it would not be by unkind
ness. Lise was dying. He had picked her up,
half-starved, wholly forlorn, in the road
ways ofa great city. She was not the first
foundling, child, beast or bird, whom he
had brought home to be sheltered, caressed,
played with, thought over, and when
there was no more to be done, forgotten;
Lise was one of many such foundlings. Lise
was an episode all Jovan's life was made
up of episodes; hers was soon over a grave,
narrow and short, in the poor people's cem
etery, was soon its only record. Jovan was
playingaclown'sparttbenightartershedied;
he was hissed off the boards, and the mana
ger dismissed him. Jovan was a bad actor.
"But he has a heart," his mother said
proudly, and she took an engagement her
self and played an old woman's part at the
theater, and they lived as best they might
on her earnings.
It was that year that Jovan had made a
friend, a doctor, who had been kind to Lise
when she died. Gotthold, that was his
name, was a student, an enthusiast in his
own science, a would-be discoverer. He
was older than Jovan, and had a wife and a
5-year-old baby. Jovan was friends with
the baby as well as with the father. Gott
hold lent him books, he tancrht him many
things, took him to lectures, to the hospitals
and into the hospital "theater," where the
chief actor does nothing, and no other acting
is allowed.
Jovan studied these things with passion;
it was a new world to him a country of dis
ease, and sickness, and death. He bad, said
Gotthold. a genius for science, only he was
a genius who had missed his road. Jovan
grew day by day more absorbed, more am
bitions, and more unhappy.
"These things are real," he would say
"this is life, snbstance, not shadow, the act
ual, not the phantasm."
But Hagar shook her head when he talked
so, deriding the mimicry of life which had
been bis art and hers.
"It is the shadow which rule men's
hearts and souls," she would reply. "The
feigned death on thestace, not the dead body
in the hospital ward, stirs the heart of the
world. They who read the police report
without pity will weep bitter tears over the
romance before the footlights."
Hagar knew life if she knew little else..
"There is a flaw in your mind, little
mother." Jovan only mocked and kissed
her when she spoke earnestly to him. The
two go well together, mocking and kissingl
So the weeks wore away, and a cloud set
tled on Jovan's brow.
"Curse the life!" he said bitterly one
night; "my mind is a forge; it can only
turn out tools for other men to use."
"Your father used the tools other men
made and then he threw them away, that
was worse." Hagar told him.
In those days she learned that Gotthold
had made a great discovery in science, and
had wonthe highest prize that fame could
accord him; then she guessed what had be
fallen Jovan, that he had forged the tool
and his friend had used it; but of it, or of
his friend who had cheated and defrauded
him, he said no word. Only he studied his
friend's studies no more; be studied his
friend instead.
"I want to act a thief's part," he told her.
"Then you had better steal," she answered.
"Jovan, you are no actor; once you were a
mimic like me, now you are not even that,
1
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