&
THE PALM-LEAF FAN
Is One of Nature's Choicest Blessings
In the Eyes of the Sick Person
. ' in Snmmer's Heat.
jgHOW HOSPITALS ARE KEPT COOL.
lke Homeopathic Constructed So a Lower
Temperature Can le Maintained
With Closed Windows.
6ETTIXG BID OF THE TITIATED AIE.
Cssnires la Pisease That Can he Predicted' From the
Ittermometois Etcirds.
rwarrrcK roB im aisrTCB.j
HEN nature first
grew the palm
leaf, and man
fashioned it into
a fan, God must
bare looked en
with an approv
ing eye. He fore
saw the needs of
a sick room, and
created a bless
ing in reserve.
Somewhere
among the fibers
of the palm-leaf
He hid the
breath of heaven.
No more gen-
Itle, soothing or
I effective gift goes
into the large
city hospitals
than a cheap, trifling and homely-looking
palm-leaf fan. In the last annual report of
the trustees of the Homeopathic Hospital on
Second avenue several pages are filled with
the printed list of donations made by chari
table men and women. There you will read
of jellies, that were given to entice back .the
weak appetite; of flowers and books to make
irksome hours pleasant; clothes to fit out
the convalescent for bis coming departure;
provisions and other hospital supplies in
every variety.
iTjxxrnr op a pan.
And opposite the name of the wife of a
well-known wholesale grocer may be found
this donation accredited: "Bunch of Fans."
It don't sound very important, but in that
bundle of palm-leafs there was as much
solid comfort and luxury as in all the jellies,
cordials and flowers that could be placed be
fore a sick man.
A gentleman who had recovered from a
long illness once told me the most horrible
experience he had during his siege. I
asked him what the most pleasant thing
was be conld recall of those weary months
in bed. He smiled as he said: "As I think
over it all now, nothing is more pleasant to
recall than the days and nights when, with
my face brilliant with fever, eyes restless,
bead never still, every muscle strained and
rigid, my brain a living hell when,
through all these agonies, I suddenly saw a
band reach out over me. and a great, big
palm-leaf fan wave slowly to and fro over
my brow.
HOT VEATHEB IN HOSPITALS.
"Steady, lingering, cool, delicious, heav
enly draughts of air played, around me.
They dried the beads of sweat from my
flesh, stilled the torment within my head,
and carried me gradually into a state of
languor that was on the next half acre to
Paradise. The regular motion of the fan
became a lullaby to my distorted eyes, and
I remember how I used to get fearful that it
should suddenly stop, and the hand of the
nurse be withdrawn, while I was yet una
ble to speak. But as I stealthfully watched
for any cessation of the motion, I would
invariably fall asleep. The fanning wonld
go on all the time, and I could yet write
some ot the sweet dreams I had under the
influence of its soothing effects."
Pittsburg has had some exceedingly hot
days this summer. When the mercury was
up in the 90s, and people on the streets or
in their shaded homes were actually suf
fering from the heat, did yon ever think of
what that day must be to the hundreds, of
sick patients in crowded hospitals?
VENTILATING A BIO HOSPITAL.
"How do you keep your patients cool?" I
asked Superintendent Slack, of the Homeo
pathic Hospital, one sultry day this sum
mer. "Principally with the fan," he replied.
"A palm leaf is the nurse's most constant
companion this kind oi weatber, but, of
course, we have other methods of making
the hospital wards as cool as possible. At
any season of the year good ventilation is
most important in a large hospital, but par
ticularly so in summer. In the erection of
this building care was taken along sanitary
lines, and our fine system of warming, cool
ing and ventilating was copied from the best
hospitals of London."
The snperintendent then showed me
through the building, and explained the
ventilating Apparatus. Ventilation consists
of two operations the removal of foul air,
andjthe introduction ol fresh air. To what
nicety this double operation must be
.brought in a hospital can be realized by
reflecting a moment on the unhealthy sur
Groundings of the average sick-room.
XICETT OP THE TASK.
The evil effects on a perfectly healthy
man or woman of breathing and rebreath
ing the air of an illy-ventilated bedroom
are well known. It poisons the lnne. Tt
has been estimated that the respiration of
one Human ueing vitiates nonriy aoouiouu
cubic (eet of air. How much worse is it iu
the ward of a hospital where 25 or 30 persons
are prostrated with disease? Their breath is
almost poisonous itself. Every exhalation
eoHttias an undne amount of watery vapor,
Sand minute quantities of animal matter,
ii nut
V .ufl i
Pwi'Jii
which, unless the apartment was ventilated
up to the highest degree of perfection, would
form a clammy deposit on the furniture and
walls, and by putrefying, become organic
poisons. . .,
A lack of heat in winter decreases the
vitelitv of sick people. They must be kept
warm. And in summer, sick people are
more sensitive to the heat than well people,
becoming restless, losing sleep, and suffer
ing from enervation. So that the same hos
pital wards, used alike lor the same disease
in winter and summer, have to be suitable
for the different seasons.
LARGE AND ATBY WAEDS.
These demands have been most admirably
kept in the ventlating arrangements of the
Homeopathic Hospital. The wards are
large and have high ceilings. Tbey are
well-lighted, thus leaving many windows to
be utilized Tor air as well as light. Beside
the upper and lower sashes in these win
dows, there is in each frame a small panel
of blue-glass at the top which was put there
purposely for ventilating purposes. It is
so operated as to shield the patients on the
beds underneath from both draughts and
light.
On the inside of each window-sill is cut a
long, narrow hole in which is inserted a
sheet-iron vent TJp through this vent
comes hot air in winter, and cold air in
summer. It is connected with pipes which
lead up from the cellar. In the cellar these
pipes converge in an immense double
chamber, which is probably 80 feet long, 30
wide, and 15 feet high. All doors leading
into it are kept tightly closed.
A VAST AIR CHAMBER.
For instance, when Superintendent Slack
took me into this underground apartment
he quickly pulled the door shut after us.
"We try to Keep tne piace as nearly air
tight as possible," he explained. "Fresh
air is sent down to this chamber by ducts
from an opening in the building's walls 40
feet high. Then it enters these pipes and is
distributed in the various wards through
the vents which you saw. If all windows
AMONG THE
in the wards could be kept closed this sys
tem will make the house cooler than the
draughts from the windows themselves.
"We have tried it this summer, and suc
ceeded in lowering the temperature of the
whole building considerably below what it
is when the windows, are open, but the
'rouble is that,weajuip.t xatisfjrthe patients
that they are going 'fobe cooler with the
windows closed than they will with them
open. They want to see the windows well
up because it is summer. Open windows
interfere with the draught that can be se
cured from this air chamber."
CARRYING OPP POUL AIE.
In the same air chamber in winter the air
from above is heated by a huge battery of
boilers, and this hot air ascends throughout
the building, finding egress throngh the
window-sill vents. So successinl has it been
in beating the great, seven-story structure
that not for four years has a fire been main
tained in any of the open grates that are in
all the wards. These grates, therefore, serve
only as ornaments.
In the floor of each ward of the Homeo
pathic Hospital there are a number of iron
grated openings, exactly similar to heat
registers. Through these all the foul air
escapes. It is drawn into them by suction,
which is created in the cellar by means of a
draught From each of these register open
ings a zinc conduit, shaped like a box-sewer,
extends along under the floor. It empties
into a huge brick smokestack which runs up
through the center of the bnilding. This
stack is about six feet in diameter. I put
my hand into it at the opening on the third
floor, and the suction I felt was remarkable.
DABK AND BBIGHT PICTUBES.
This cadaverous chimney is something
awful to contemplate. Into it passes all the
foul air of the big hospital. It roars
with an artificial wind. It fairly reeks
with rvnisnn. Onlv one thintr can snrnass it
iu the building in uncanniness. Thst is
the dead room, or oneratin? hall.
The whitecapped lady nurses who flit
throughout the building everywhere
appear like sentinel angels against
the somber background 0f suffering
that a hospital always presents.
One spot, it is true, seemed bright enough
without them. That was the children's
ward. But everywhere else In the fever
ward, the convalescents' ward, the female
ward their presence was necessarrto add
anything like life among the dying. I
watched them for a long time, and I saw
that of all their duties administering med
icines, smoothing rumpled beds, wetting
wonnds, washing feverish faees, or singing
lullabies to still some wild fancy of de
liriumof all these
THAT OP FANNING
seemed to bring quiet easier, and make the
rest of the sick person more gentle.
"Set the fluctuations of temperature in a
sick man or woman is one of our most valu
able guides," said a hospital nurse" to me on
one occasion. And going to her library she
took down a medical book and pointing to
' HI T1
nr the childbed's wabd. .
a couple of paragraphs said: "We can fre
quently if not invariably know the condi
tion of our patient this way:"
In ague, the temperature of the body begins
to rise several hours before the beginning of
the paroxysm, and after the disease seems to
have disappeared, a periodio Increase of the
temperature may still be detected, and as long
as this continues, the patient is not really
cured. In typhoid fever, the rise of tempera
ture, or its abnormal fall, will indicate what Is
to happen three or even four dajs before any
fsaL
.1 I
Eit'Firit Day Btttmg Up.
change in the pulse or other sign of mischief
has been observed. A snaden fall of tempera
tnrehas thus denoted Intestinal hemorrhage
several days before It appeared.
IT POBEBODES DANOEB.
When a person, who yesterday was healthy,
exhibits this morning a temperature above
1M, It is almost certain that an attack of
ephemeral fever or ague is coming on, and
shonld the temperature rise up to nr beyond
lOfi'.S, the case will certainly turn out one ot
ague or of some other form of malarious fever,
if during the first day of illness, the tempera
ture rises to 100, it Is certain that the patient
CONVALESCENTS.
does not suffer from typhus or typhoid fever
and if the temperature of a patient, who ex
hibitsthfl ceneral signs of pneumonia, never
reaches 101.7, it is certain that there is no soft
infiltration In the lnngs.
In typhoid fever.a temperature whieh does not
exceed on any evening 10S.8. indicates a prob
able mild courses! fever. A temperature of
102 in the evening or 104 in the morning shows
that the attack Is a severe one, and forebodes
dancer during the third week.
A SURE SIGN. ,
On the other hand, a temperature of 101s. 7'
and below, in the morning, indicates a very
mild attack, or the commencement of conva
lesence. In pneumonia, a temperature of 104
and npward indicates a severe attack. In acuta
rheumatism a temperature of 104 is always an
alarming symptom. In a caso ofjaundlce
otherwise mild, an Increase of temperature in
dicates a pernicious turn. In tuberculosis, an
Increase of temperature shows that the dis
ease is advancing, and Jtbat untoward compli
cations are retting in. In short, a fever tem
perature of 104 to 105 In any disease Indicates
that its progress is not checked, and that com
plications may still ocenr.
All the hospitals in Pittsbnrg and Alle
gheny have admirable arrangements for ven
tilation. In fact few cities in the country
can compare with them. L. E. STOPIEL.
ATHLETIC
GHOSTS.
After Abandoning Table-Tipping They Have
Taken to Stonr-Throwing.
Parts Edition Mew York Herald.
There has been for some years an "obvious
neglect of atbletio sports among ghosts.
Formerly the ghosts' favorite amusement
consisted in upsetting beds containing timid
people and in throwing heavy articles, in
cluding bricks and stones. Of late years
the ghosts have wholly abandoned these
sports, and have devoted themselves to liter
ature, public speaking and quiet, social
games of table-tipping and levitation.
But now we are apparently about to wit
ness a great athletio revival among the
ghosts. Tbey have begun by establishing a
range for throwing stones at a mark in the
gronnds ot Mr. Piddock, of Clapham. The
nark is rather a large one, being Mr. Pid
dock's honse, bnt they are rapidly acquiring
so mneh skill that they seldom tail to hit it,
and frequently make the bull's-eyes on the
drawing room windows. In time they will
choose a smaller mark, and will doubtless
strive to hit Mr. Piddock as he moves across
bis lawn.
Every intelligent man, so long as some
other man's' bouse is selected as a mark,
will be pleased at this revival of ghostly
athletics. It is much better than table
tipping and infinitely superior to ghostly
literature.
EXPAHDIHG TEE BEAUT.
A Paris Dootor Bu Found a Way to Blake
l-tntemen ot Idiot.
Paris Edition New York Herald.l
A Parisian surgeon has discovered a sew
method of developing the brain. Noticing
that the head of an idiotie little girl was ex
tremely small be removed part of the sknll
in order to give the brain room to expand.
It duly expanded, and the girl is now qnite
as intelligent as there is any real necessity
that a girl shonld be. This successful ex
periment not only shows how idiocy may be
cured, but it also seems to establish the fact
that a man's intelligence varies as the size
of his brain. t
If, therefore, any man wishes to increase
his brain power all he has to do is to have,
say, half ot his skull removed. General
Boulanger might be converted into a new
Napoleon by simply removing his skull and
by expanding the brain artificially. Tbe
discoverv is one which promises to be of
great nttlity, and can hardly fail to make
the discoverer wonderfully popular in
"idiotie" circles.
A Lady Newspaper ArtUt.
West Shore. 1
Eose Maury, who Illustrates for five of the
best Parisian journals, is the danr1 '
station master in France. Sb
of M. Durny, Minister of
tion. who happened to see
when she was 7 years old.
future is prophesied for i
Durny had not happened to
way, sne mignt sun oe , oi;
in the old station house, thoi
.is seldom entirely overlookecl
ARTHUR AND TELLER.
How the Colorado Senator Was Forced
Into the Cabinet in '82.
D0K CAMERON HELPED TO DO IT.
A Story About the Biggest Sheep Owner In
the United States.
8ENAT0E EYARTS AB A BON YIYANT
rcoKBisPoinjBNCx or the msr-i.TCH.1
WASHINGTON, August 22. The Colo
rado United States Senatorship will be
settled within a few days. It is generally
believed here that Senator Teller will suc
ceed himself. He is by all odds the clean
est and most able man that his State has
ever sent to Washington, and I am told that
his onlv onnonent of anv orominence is
Tabor, who has to buy all the votes that be
gets.. Senator Teller is one of the most re
markable men in this country. He is the
son of a farmer in "Western New York, and
he has the bine blood of the Knickerbockers
In bis veins. His ancestors came to this
country from Holland in 1639, and the
present generation is the first that has not
been able to speak the Butch language.
His father was in ordinarily good circum
stances and young Teller got a good educa
tion, studied law and went by stage to Den
ver in 1858.
Central City was then a great mining
townnd Teller moved there and practiced
law. He is one of the brightest lawyers in
Colorado and he has made several fortunes
in his practice. He has lost as well as
made, and he is now a comparatively poor
man. He left his law office in 1876 to be
one of Colorado's first Senators and he left
the Senate for the Cabinet in 1882.
couldn't haemonize.
"When Teller was a Senator, the million
aire, N. P. Hill, was also in the Senate, and
the two did not eet alone well together.
Hill was jealous of Teller and he was so
angry with President Arthur when Teller
was made Secretary of the Interior that he
became Arthur's enemy as far as he dared
to be. He never got over his disgust at
Teller's appointment, and he is now oppos
ing Teller's election to the Senate.
The story of Senator Teller's appointment
as one of President Arthur's Cabinet Min
isters his never been published, and the in
side history of it was known only to three or
four statesmen. These were the President
himself. Senator Teller. John A. Logan and
"Don Cameron. Now Arthur is dead, Logan
is dead, and Senator Teller, at my request,
gives the story through me to the public.
The truth is the place was forced upon him.
I had a chat with him regarding it the other
night. Said he: "I had not the slightest
desire for the-position, and it was ten days
after the place was offered to me that I con
sented to accept it, and I could not well
afford the expenses of a Cabinet Minister.
My wife did not want me to take it, and
I refused to accept it as long as I dared.
Ex-Senator Chaffee was a candidate for the
the place and so was Senator Logan. Bon
Cameron and myself were pushing Chaffee
for it.
SOBT OF A JOHN ALDAN.
"One Monday morning I was called out
of the Senate by the President's private
secretary, Mr. Phillips, who told me that
President Arthur would like me to come to
the "White House at 10 o'clock that night
and talk with him about the appointment of
a Secretary of the Interior. I supposed that
he referred to Mr. Chaffee's candidacy, and
when Xaaw himIagain presented Mr.
Chaffee's case. "We were discussing the
matter in the little private room which
Arthur reserved for himself, in one corner
of the Presidental Mansion. As I was going
on about Senator Chaffee, President Arthur
said:
" 'There is no use of talking of Mr.
Chaffee's appointment. Ihave decided that
I shall not have a man for my Secretary of
the Interior who is not a lawyer, and who is
not fresh from a good practice. Ex-Senator
Chaffee has not the qualities that I want for
my Secretary of the Interior.'
"I was rather nettled, at this," Senator
Teller went on, "And I referred to the fact
that a nnmber of the past secretaries had
not been lawyers when the President said:
'I will tell yon the elements that I want in
my Secretary of the Interior and the kind
of man I propose to appoint. The Secretary
of the Interior has to settle more important
eases during the year than' the Supreme
Court, and he investigates twice the num
ber of legal questions as the Department of
Justice. Hence the man must be a good
lawyer. He must have some experience
with public affairs and with public men.
He must come from the West,' and Presi
dent Artbnr went on to tell me the other
qualities which be wanted his Secretary of
the Interior to possess.
STRUCK ALL IK A HEAP.
"As he went on I saw that he had some
one in his mind, and I racked my brain to
figure out who he was driving at. I ran
over man after man from my locality, but I
could find none who had the qualities he
mentioned. His talk grew hazier to me as
he went on, and at last he concluded, lean
ing over and putting his band on my knee,
and saying: 'Now, Senator Teller, I have
decided that you come the nearest to filling
these requirements ot any other man I know,
and I want to offer you the place.'
"I was thunderstruck. I jumped to my
feet and excitedly exclaimed: 'But I don't
want it, Mr. President I am in the Senate
and I can't leave it. I cannot afford it, and
you must not offer me the place, fori cannot
accept it. Besides, I am here to push the
claims of Mr. Chaffee.'
"The President begeed me to sit down and
talk over the matter. I complied with his
request, tbongh I said there was no use in
talking about it, and onr conversation lasted
until 2 am. As I left I begged the Presi
dent not to tell anyone he had offered me
the position, and reiterated my statement
that I conld not take it.
BEPEBBED XO CAMERON.
"President Arthur replied: 'I don't want
yon to decide to-night. Think over the
matter until Thursday night On Thurs
day I met my appointment and npon my
again refusing, the President asked me to
go and see Don Cameron at the Senate and
talk over the matter with him, and to tell
Cameron to eome and see mm after he had
had his conversation with me. I saw Sen
ator Cameron and Cameron urged me by all
means to take the place, He said: 'If the
President will not have Chaffee, yon must
accept the place and I am lor you.'
"I gave Senator Cameron my reasons for
not wabting it He said: 'You cannot help
yourself. You will have to take it,' and
with that he left to go to the White House.
The next day when I came ont oi the Senate
Senator Allison met me with a sly wink in
his eye and asked me if the Governor of my
State was a Republican and whether be
would appoint a Hepublican successor to
my place in tbe Senate. I saw from this
that the story was out, and the next there
was a line in a New York newspaper saying
it was rumored that I had been offered the
portfolio of the Interior.
CONSTITUENTS FT'"'" PROM.
"This statement was telegraphed to
Denver, and I got ,100 telegrams next day
' -ging me to accept the position. In the
time Don Cameron telegraphed Chaffee,
was in Florida, to come to Washing-
laying that while he could not have
appointed Secretary of the Interior,
resident would make an appointment
i would be perfectly satisfactory to
He came and hs also urged me to ac-
-he position.
the meantime the telegrams from
tdo continued to come in. It was the
first time that a Cabinet office had been
offered to a man from Colorado, and the peo
ple of my State wonld have considered it an
honor to have" a man in the President's Cab
inet The pressure became so great that I
could not refuse it and I went to the White
House and told tbe President that I would
accept the position. I found the office a
very pleasant one and my relations with
President Arthur were of the most pleasant
nature. I lound that what he said as to the
legal requirements "of the office was true and
I don't believe there is a more important
position, in the appointing power of the
President from a legal standpoint than that
of the Secretary of the Interior."
AN INTEBESTING PABMEB.
The question of the wool tariff has
brought one of the' most remarkable farmers
in the United States to Washington. This
is David Hamster, ot Northern Ohio. He
is onr of the millionaire sheep raisers of
the country. He has large estates scattered
over other parts of the Union, and to look
at him you would not suppose him to be
worth a dollar. He is abont five feet four
inches high, is as broad as he is long, and
has a round cannonball bead, pasted down
unnn a nair of broad fat shoulders. His
roly-poly form is clad in rough goods which
might have been put together by his wife
and a big derby hat comes well down
toward his ears and shades his fat florid
face.
Harpster is a great friend of Senator
Sherman's. He was' sitting the other day
iu Senator Sherman's committee room when
John B. Alley, the ex-Congressman from
Massachusetts, who was so prominent in the
days of the Credit Mobilier scandal, came
in. Alley is a millionaire. He is proud of
his riches and he is, I am told, a little in
clined to pose. When he entered Senator
Sherman's room, Mr. Sherman introduced
him to Dave Harpster, saying, "Mr. Alley,
I want to make yon acquainted with one of
our representative farmers, Mr. Harpster."
A MILLIONAEE nUMBLED.
"Ah, indeed," replied Alley as he shook
hands. "You are a farmer, are you. I am
always glad to meet farmers, for I am some
thing of a farmer myself. I have a farm in
Texas consisting of 40,000 acres."
"You have," muttered out Harpster,
"and where Is it."
"It is in such a county," said Alley,
naming the county, "in the central part of
Texas."
"Indeed!" replied Mr. Harpster, "it must
be good land, for I own the whole county
next to it"
This surprised Alley and took the wind
out of his sails. He said little more about
his farms, but his actions showed that his
respect for Mr. David Harpster, the Ohio
farmer, had perceptibly risen.
There is no man in Washington who en
joys a good dinner more than Senator Ev
arts. He is one of the highest livers in
Washington, and notwithstanding that he
is six feet tall and does not weigh more
than 125 pounds, he can eat all aronnd Phi
letus Sawyer, who weighs 300 and has a
stomach so large yon could-roll Evarts up
like a watch spring and coil him within it
and have room to spare. He shows in fact
no sign of his epicurean tastes, and once
while speaking in New York a Yankee
who bad arrived alter the meeting had be
gun, asked the name of the man on the
platform. He was told it was Evarts.
"Whatl" said he. "You don't mean to say
that that lean little thing is E-vartsI Why,
he looks as if he boarded."
Fbank O. Cabpentbb.
BZEMB T.nrR SUICIDE.
The Freak of a Peculiar Mountain
Bird
That Hants Food In tbe Water.
Away np on the mountain side is the
natural borne of the water ousel, the
strangest of all strange birds. Yon seldom
see more than one of them at a time. They
are oi a dark blue color, and are easi!
recognized by a. pecnlar, Quick, jerkiff
motion which they never seem to tire of.
And as they flit from rock to rock they are
continually bobbing up and down, perform
ing sikh a polite little courtesy- as wonld
make yon smile to see it.
Owing to their peculiar habits and the
isolated spots they select to bcild their nests
no one bnt the most ardent sportsmen and
naturalists succeed in finding them. Hence
a water onsel'a nest with two of their eggs
in it has a commercial value among nest
collectors of $2,5. They always build their
nests just back of some waterfall or under
some overhanging bank, where they have to
go throngh or under the water to get to it
Another strange habit of this bird is the
deliberate habit in which they appear to
commit suicide. They will start slowly,
very slowly, to wade right down into the
water until they disappear from view, but
if the water is clear, and you have a sharp
eye, you can still see their little dark forms
clinging to the bottom in search of their
morning repast, which consists of peri
winkles.
SHE'S WOBXH F0UE MHXI0HS.
Pretty Florence Bljllir, Whom the Conrta
Have Made an Heiress.
Florence BIythe, who is now to be placed
in possession of the four-million-dollar
estate of the late eccentrio millionaire,
Thomas H. BIythe, is quite a handsome
young woman. This, together with the
gold she now commands, oueht to bring her
a first class foreign lord, if she inoliues that
way.
SITE OF THE MOSQUITO.
If Ton Lie Still and Let tbe Beait Have Its
Fill Ton Are Jill Right.
New York Bnn.J
The cauje of the irritation from a mos
quito's bite was for a long time a subject of
discussion and frequently of dispute. "The
secret was first discovered," 'says- Prof. Ma
closfcie, "by the observation of fine droplets
of a yellow, oily looking fluid escaping from
the apex of the hypopbarynx."
"It has been demonstrated in many in
stances," comments Mrs. Aaron, "that if
the female be allowed to drink her 11 and
to flv away unmolested the effect' ot the
I poison is very much reduced; in some cases
entirely so. it is tne interrupted periorm
ance which produces the greatest itching.
This seems to prove that, if allowed to finish
her meal undisturbed, the mosquito will
pump back the venimo salivary secretion,
whereas a quick withdrawal of the tube re
sults in tbe consequent abandonment of this
irritating fluid to be a sonrce of annoyance
in tho flesh."
Baron Kothschlld's Clock.
Jewelers l Weekly.
Baron Alphonse Bothscblld has lately
bought a clock made by that royal and most
luckless clock maker, Louis XVI, , with his
own bands. It is not particularly beautiful,
bat being unique and the object of mneh
competition among collectors, it bronght the
remarkable price of $163,000,
Florence BIythe, the Betrett.
IN THE POSTAL CAH
Busy and Hard Life Led by the Clerks
Who Handle the Mail.
PHYSICAL AHD MENTAL STKAffl.
How the Men Are Tested as to Their Fitness
for Their Important Work.
THE NEW T0BK BLEEPING APARTMENT
rcoBBXsroxnraca or the dispatch.!
New Yoek", August 23 Amid the rush
and roar of Park Bow, Broadway, Fulton
street and all of that maelstrom of metropol
itan business life focused on the city build
ings very few people think of the complex
machinery in operation in the granite build
ing known as the Postoffice. If they do
think of it the subject is too vast jn all its
ramifications for even the best-posted human
mind to grasp. The Government official
who works in the bnilding probably knows
as little about it as a whole as a department
clerk at Washington knows about tbe work
ings of the department m which he is em
ployed. He knows his own branch, or nar
row routine no more. He is a good clerk
if he knows that thoroughly.
The operations of the railway mail service
in the New York division alone are enough
to tax the executive abilities of the best men
the meager Government pay will buy. Even
the small armvof railwav postal clerks have
dailv tasks more difficult than the trials of
most men in private business.
'HANDLING DUMM.T MAILS.
The unhappy probationer is given several
thousand cards addressed to all of these
offices, stood on end in front of this memory
machine and told to fire away. The accur
acy and speed with which he can do this
will determine his efficiency. His dummy
mail represents just what he will be called
upon to handle in a railway car running
from 40 to CO miles an hour.
The real mail has been first assorted by
routes and through mail in the big'distribut
ing room of the New York Postoffice. In this
mail car distribution he is handling only
bis share and doing what is being done
night and day on every postal car in the
country. It never stops. The day shift is
succeeded by the night shift, and day again
follows night The rest of the world sleeps,
sits down to breakfast, works, comes home
to dinner, plays and sleeps again. The
postal world sleeps and eats in wayside
gangs its work goes on unceasingly, ou a
thousand cars rusmng tnrongn snnsnine
and darkness, hither and thither, and the
steady chuck, chuck, chuck, ot the swaying
clerks among the railway pouches is never
stilled.
POSTAL CLEBK BEQTJIEEMENT3.
There are 4,544 postoffices in Pennsylva
nia, for instance. Think of the job of a
postal clerk between New York and Pitts
burg, who must be so familiar with these
(only a part of his route work:) that he can
instantly tell into what pouch a letter must
go in order to reach anyone oi these offices
by the shortest branch lines. Tbe severe
civil service examination that he goes
through to get his place ou tbe probation
ary list is but the stepping stone, as it were,
to harder mental work. The first test a man
who has passed the civil service examina
tion for the railway mail service is subjected
to is that of reading quickly and clearly tbe
addresses on 100 envelopes, all in different
handwriting, and the addresses taking in
every portion of the country.
Probationary men, the stage of the first
Bix months, are subject to examination every
30 or .60 days as to their knowledge of their
routes. A pigeon-holed case arrangement
is set up in tbe chief examiner's (War
ring's) office. The holes represent the dis
tributing offices along the route, and each
one of these distributing offices represents
from 6 to 20 subordinate offices.
WONDEBFT7LLT .ACCTJBATE.
The accuracy of these human machines is
something wonderful. Let but a single in
competent man get in a mall car and the
peace of mind of the whole business world is
broken. Therefore this ceaseless drill. And
when this clerk has mastered that one route
he must master the distributing offices of
the entire country if he would go up higher
in grade and salary.
When a postal clerk has boarded a western-bound
train, say at 2 o'clock in tbe
afternoon, has gone into his traveling post
office and worked till he gets to Pittsburg,
about 9 o'clock next morning, without even
having a chance to sit down, and all this
time under tbe mental strain of several hun
dred postoffices, to say nothing or the ardu
ous physical labor of catching, sorting and
throwing off, it may be fairly presumed that
he earns his salary. But tbe railway mail
service man may not yet be through. He
mav possibly have three or four hours "rest"
in Pittsbnrg. Then he gets on his car again
to go through the same laDor on the return
trip.
THE CLEBK AX BEST.
When he arrives here in tbe night he
directs his footsteps to the postoffice. He
takes the elevator up to the top floor where
a cice, clean bed awaits him. He enters a
small reception room where hotel keeper O.
D. Turner awaits him. There is a register
here, similar to tbe ordinary hotel register.
In this register he writes his name, the
name ol tbe postal route with which he is
connected and the hour at which he wishes
to be called in the morning. Opposite this
entry the keeper places the number of his
bed, just as the hotel clerk assigns a room.
There is but one room in this hotel and no
discrimination as to accommodations.
He is then conducted across the way over
a marble-tiled floor to the dormitory. This
is a large room containing 65 beds. These
beds are substantial cots with springs, mat
tresses and pillows, aud sport the snowiest,
of linen. The windows of the room are
heavily shaded to keep daylight out lor
many ot the men'mnst sleep daring the day.
The greatest quietude is observed. It is as
if you were entering the critical ward of a
hospital.
KEEP THE BEDS PILLED.
Every minute of sleep is valuable to the
man who works at night and especially to
one of irregular hours. Here;come in when
you will, nearly every bed is full day and
night For the moment you may think
tbese tired sleepers are the same men, bnt
they are not There are 3S0 railway mail
service men who use this room. There are
but 65 beds. But then there are always
some getting up and always some going to
bed some coming in and some going away.
F.verv honr of dav and night they pasa up
Land down a set ot tired.or refreshed, home
less railway wanaerers.
It is to enable the men to catch these few
hours of much needed rest that the system
has sprung up. For the privilege they pay
the nominal sum of 75 cents a month. The
linen of each bed is changed as soon as the
nreient occupant is through with it which
opens to the newcomer a more inviting pros
pect than he could get anywhere else at 75
cents a night.
A NICE PLACE TO SLEEP.
Here, high above the noisy traffic of the
streets, he can lie down in a clean, fresh bed
in a shaded room where every sound is ex
cluded, as tree from disturbed slumbers as if
he were camping in the piny woods of the
Adirondack,
Snperintendent Jackson, of the second
division, is a hard worker and an untiring
drill master, but he takes a lively personal
interest in the welfare of his men and lor
that reason is very much liked by them.
His employes are paid bv check on the Sub
Treasury, but these checks are usually
cashed by. the proprietor of an all-night
honse on Park Bow, where the men often
get their first or last meal of the day's ran.
Ckabtvbb T. Uubbax.
ifrfMflfc?
4mJ1wmg?h---:
Yti?iS0
lWBITTEir Ton THE DISPATCH.
PABTL
In the year 1840 I sailed in a fine brig
named the Laughing Creole for a passage to
Kingston, Jamaica, where lived an uncle of
mine who had been for many years estab
lished there as a merchant. I had not set
eyes on him since I was 6 years old, bnt in
writing to ask me to visit him he talked as
though be intended I should be his heir,
and in this there lay encouragement enongh
to me to attempt the voyage.
In those days there were no great steam
boats trading in the Antilles. The West
India merchantman was still afloat, but her
sailings were at intervals not always con
venient, and people who were unwilling to
lose time were glad to take the first vessel
that ofiered. Thns it happened that I was
a passenger aboard the Laughing Creole
the only passenger, as it chanced, though
there was accommodation for three or four
others,
. The captain was a square, mahogany faced
man of the true deep sea type; his large,
damp, blue eyes seemed to strain in their
sockets as he rolled tbenvalong the horizon
or directed them at his sails; his teeth were
black with the tobacco he incessantly
chewed, and his attire was always the same
wet or dry, hot or cold a long pilot cloth
coat, a rnstv beaver, very large at the crown
and the sides dandily curledup; an immense
cravat or neckcloth, wound round and round
his throat, and so stiffening him-about the
neck that he was unable to move his head
without turning the rest of his body with it
He had built the Laughing Creole and
owned her. and I had not been long on
board before he informed me that the cargo
in. her was entirely his own venture. With
him was what is called an Only Mate a
slow and heavy man belonging to South
Shields? bnt as fine a sailor as the coal trade
could breed or as could hail from a part of
the coast which for generations has produced
the noblest race oi seamen that "ever bled
under the white flag or toiled under the red.
The captain's name was Larkins; his
,oa Wnarrier. The carpenter of thebrig
acted as second mate and relieved Wharrier
A LABGE TIGEB LEAPED
on deck when the change of watch came
round. There were six or seven of a crew
at this distance of time I forget tbe nnmber,
butlrecolleet that they were very smart
fellows, hairy and tarry, nimble as monkeys
in the rigging, swift as bluejackets in reef
ing down or in furling, "every finger a fish
hook, every hair a rope yarn."
THE LAUGHING CEEOLE.
The brig was a clipper of the old school,
sharp as a knife at the forefoot, with a
sturdy round of bow over it, coppered high
and painted black with a white line. She
needed but a brass gun forward or the muz
zles of a few carronades projected through
her high bulwarks to give her a genuine
piratical aspect She carried skysail poles,
which topping masts usually lofty for a
craft of her dimensions, lilted her canvas to
the very stars, as I wonld sometimes think
when I looked on high on a fine night, and
marked tbe dim spaces of her cloths sway
ing under the brilliance of the heavens, with
here and there an expiring scar of meteoric
dust, that seemed within reach of the arm
from her little skysail yard.
Nothing whatever noteworthy happened
nntil we were well within the tropics. The
northeast trade wind had swept ns smartly
along, and for several days and nights the
cheerlnl humming in the rigging, the
seething and washing noises over the side
had gladdened me as an assurance of a
swift passage. But one morning when I
came on deck I found the wind gone. There
was a troubled swell running, as though the
heaveof the waters were from two distinct
points of the compass. The sea was of the
color of lead; there was not the least
draught of air to freckle .or tarnish the
folds, and they swept along soundlessly,
polished as liquid glass, without a break of
foam the wide sea over.
The sky had a strange, wild, ngly look;
there were layers of clouds down in the
west whieh made one think of matting
formed of twisted horsehair; then breaks of
sickly blue that merely accentuated the
storm dark face of a spread of clond bend
ing down into the north, where the rim of it
turned into a huddle oi sulphur colored
stuff which looked like volumes of smoke,
that having steamed out of a colossal dung
hill there, now bung motionless jin the stag
nated atmosphere.
The sailors were aloft reducing canvas.
Old Wharrier paced the deck athwartship
to and fro, occasionally bawling an order.
The captain stood near the wheel with his
beaver hat pulled well down over bis brow
and his hands clasped behind bim, and the
energy with which he chewed the hunk of
tobacco that made a lump in his cheek un
der his ear satisfied me that his mind was
not without excitement
SIGNS OP A STOBII.
"What's going to happen7" said L
"Looks like a revolving storm a-brew
log," said he. Captain Larkins was not a
highly educated man, and having made his
way from the forecastle to the quarter deck
he had brought with him many of the quali
ties and graces of Jack's sea parlor.
"There is some theory about revolving
storms," said I, sending a concerned eye
round the sea. "They have a center, and the
job is to know how to bead so at to keep
clear of the vortex."
"Here It is I" said he. with a not of grum
bling in his voice. "Wortex. How is a
plain sailor man to deal with snch mean
ings at lay locked np in words of that kind?
Bnt wortex or no wortex, it'i going to
blow."
Even as he spoke the scowl of the sky
darkened, the dim breaks of the heavens
grew yet more filmed, if I may sse the ex
pression, like to tbe blue eye of a dying
woman, and there was a sharp, brassy glare
of lightning down in the southwest, bnt no
note of thunder aa yet, save what came from
the lofty hoist of main topsail, that was still
!lnln """ wl0
YAFftr
VfcirfJVfffdSSEit.
to be reefed or furled, as the weighty can
vas slapped the mast to the staggering and
helpless rolls of thebrig upon the oil smooth
swell.
Before two hours had passed the gloom
had so deepened that the like of It should
have held impossible in the daytime. It
was of the darkness that hovers betwixt twi
light and night The mastheads were
scarcely to be seen; the sailors moved in
shadows, blending easily with the obscure
details, nntil you could not tell a man from
a coil of rope hanging by a belay
ing pin. xnere was a aeatnuse nusn
npon the ocean that rmt a new ele
ment of horror into this blind, dark,
eclipsed rooming. Every sonnd, the noise
of straining timbers, the beat of such
pinions of canvas as were left unfurled,
the sudden, fierce tension of the jerked
shrouds smote and startled the hearing as
though a pistol were discharged close to
one's head. A coil of brown vapor of aa
sooty a complexion as the smoke that over
hangs a manufacturing town lay poised
upon the near horizon, so narrowing the
diameter of the circle of swelling, sulky,
lead colored waters, in the heart of which
the brig wallowed, that one was sensible of
an oppression in looking at it, as though it
were some hell born, imprisoning girdle,
pestiferous and suffocating, through which
our little vessel would never be able to
thrnst her way.
THE STORM BREAKS.
Presently some immense drops of rain fell
and I went below. Five minntes later there
happened a dazzling glare of lightning, fol
lowed by a near and terribly loud crash of
thunder. The electric brand appeared to
liberate the rain, and down it came in a
whole ocean, in the midst of which thalight
ning began afresh, attended by on incessant
raging of thunder. Peal followed peal like
the broadsides of a line-of-battle ship, and
the lightning was terrific and appalling to
me, who had never before witnessed a trop
ical storm, and whose notions of lightning
did not go beyond the spectacles which the
English skies provide us with in that way.
There was no wind; it was a breathless elec
tric outburst, an inexpressibly furious flour
ishing of liehtning and a continuous cannon-
I ading, as stunning and confounding to every
PBOM THE STEANGE CBAPT.
sense as the fire of a hundred parks of artil-
On a sudden there was a flash crimsoned,
spiral! It seemed to leap in 20 corkscrew
shapes of fire out oi the deck and sides and
ceiling of the cabinet in which I sat I
thought I could catch a splintering timber
penetrating the blast and shock of thunder
that followed. The atmosphere was full of
sulphur. I could scarcelv breathe, and,
convinced that the brig had been struck and
might be on fire even as I sat thinking of it,
I fled to the companion steps.
THE BOLT STRIKES.
The rain had ceased, but there was still
no wind. The air was aflame with Hgnt
ning. A single glance sufficed to assure
me that the brig had been strnck, and
struek with a vengeance! Forward she was
completely wrecked. Her foremast was
gone some leet under the top, and the. spars,
which had crushed the length of bulwarks
flat in their fall, lay in a hideous litter over
the side. The jibbooms were torn off the
bowsprit and on the main everything from
the crosstrees upward bad vanished
snapped off as a clay pipe stem is broken
by the drag upon it 'of the lightning blasted
fabric forward.
Tbe crew had vanished, but a seaman
stoutly clung to tbe wheel, and side by side
near him stood Captain Larkins and old
Wharrier. My good sense told me, spite of
the desperate promptings of my terror, that
this was not the time to bother the captaim
with questions. I stood at the companion
way sheltering my sight with my hands,
and very shortly after I had emerged some
order was delivered by the eiptain, where
upon Wharrier rushed forward, roaring out
as he ran. The men who had sprang ont of
the way of the falling spars came tumbling
out on to the deck on hearing the mate's
cries, and with a sort of fury in their man
ner went to work with knives and hateheta
to free the brig of the wreckage that was
grinding alongside and threatening-to open
her seams for her, the captain mean
while stimulating them by bawling out that
a hurricane of wind was coming along) that
it would be down upon us in a breath; that
if it canght us with all that raffle alongside
we were lost men, and the like.
THE CYCLONE. v
There was nothing else, I suppose, to ta
done in the face of the lightning and the
lowering sky, black with the menace of the
cyclone. Certainly if old Larkins could,
have saved bis masts by hoisting them in
board he would have done so. There was
time to cut the wreckage clear before the
wind came; time for that, I say, hut nothing
else. The lightning ceased; the swell
miraculously flattened; it grew brighter in a
phantasmal sort of a way iu the west, and
then came the wind!
I have no language in whieh to express -the
fury of this first outfly. It heaped the"
water into a tall, boiling ridge, which one
could see miles distant approaching when
there was not a breath of air where the briz'
was. Down lay the vessel to the flash of
the tempest and I could hardly see her for
the white thickness of tbe flying spray. It
caught her right abeam, and in a breath,
away went onr mainmast, parting its strong
fastenings as though they were pack thread. -
What followed I recall but Indistinctly.
My senses were stunned by the suddenness
of our calamities, by the lightning- that had
withered ss aloft, and now by this tssapeet
of wind that made by its, own fearful rush
ing as wild a noiseofthnndtrln thesky as'
ever had attended the electric play that was
passed. Bnt our sailors were all fine fel
lowsable, eool and daring. Old Larkins
roared at them throngh a speaking trumpet,
and Wharrier was everywhere, yelling a
eouragement, flouruhiajr a hatchet, knowing
exactly what to do and setting the most la-'
spiriting example that could be IsaagiaeeVi V
leoaidbeofaonaeoadeck.aadprsseaUi'yf
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