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THE "PITTSBURG' DISPATCH,' ' BUNDAT
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DECEMBER r 14,
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ESTABLISHED FEBRUARY S, 1S46.
Vol. 45, N o. 310. -Entered at 1'ltlsburg rostoffico,
November 14, 1SS7, as second-class natter.
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PITTSnURG. SUDAY, DEC. 14, 18&1
GAS AT THE EXPOSITION.
Avery unexpected and satisfactory chance
in the gas situation is rendered possible by
the striking of gas yesterday in the 'well
drilled at the Exposition.' Of course, it is
too early to determine the force or perma
nence of the pressure. It is qnite possible
that it may turn out to be a mere pocket, as
has been the case with other wells that have
been drilled in and about the city limits.
Alter the experience already secured with
wells at Homewood, "Wilkinsburg and on
the Southside, it will not be wise to count
on the presence of a strong gas pressure from
this well as a sure or permanent thing.
But the tact that gas has been struck at a
depth of about two thousand feet in the cen
ter of the citv, raises the interesting possi
bility of developing a new field right in our
midst. At the time when the supply
from other fields is becoming insuf
ficient for Pittsburg's needs, the
introduction of such a possibility
into the situation is one of the most vital
importance. A well of 200 pounds pressure
right in the city is of more value lor the
domestic supply than one of 500 pounds at
Grapeville or Bellevernon. If such wells
can be drilled right under our manufactur
ing establishments and residence quarters, a
very low pressure in them may keep the city
free from smoke and supplied with cheap
fuel for an indefinite period.
Of course every one will hope that the
pressure in the well may turn out to be full
and permanent. One of the most gratifying
result! , if the well should prove a good one,
woulS be its addition to the revenues of the
Imposition Society. To have a paving well
added to the assets of that institution would
be a piece of good luck which no one will
grudge that public enterprise. t It is to be
hoped that this gratifying outcome will re
ward the public spirit oi all who have been
engaged in pushing tbe work till it reaches
the gas bearing strata.
BEFORE KOCH, PERHAPS.
"Whether the claim that the discoveries
made at "Washington antedate those of Dr.
Koch in connection with tubercular dis
eases, the account of the germ experiments
in the Animal Industry Department, which
we publish to-day, will be of wide interest.
It is worth noting that the observations and
tests in "Washington practically confirm the
correctness of Dr. Koch's theorv.
RAILWAY MAGNATES AND THE LAW.
A very striking exhibit of the respective
valne of the plans of the railway kings and
the enactments of law governing the course
of the great corporations, is furnished
by the summary published by a "Wall street
journal of the plans which will be presented
to the meeting of railway presidents in New
York on Monday, backed by the indorse
ment of Gould, Huntington, Bockafellar,
and the banking interests.
By this statement what is called "the
Gould railway plan" will consist of placing
all the competitive business of the lines
forming the association in the hands of a
general manager or assistant. Through this
agency "the association will regulate,
through competitive tariffs, the manage
ment of competitive business, and the con
duct of outside agencies for the procuring of
traffic as well as routing it over the respec
tive roads of the members of the association
in such amount, manner and proportions as
may be agreed upon between the members?"
During the agreement no road must con
struct new lines that might compete with the
roads of other members, and all must put up
a forfeit or guarantee that they will stick to
the agreement.
As a method of attaining tbe corporate
ideal of abolishing competition in railway
traffic, this plan does not present any ma
terial difference from scores of others that
have preceded it and gone to pieces in due
time. But as an indication that the mag
nates who now rule the railway world do
not deem it necessary to pay any attention
to the law, it appears very striking in view
of tbe fact that the inter-State commerce
laws make it illegal for any common car
rier subject to the act to enter into any
agreement with any other common carrier or
carriers "for tbe pooling of freights of dif
ferent and competing railroads, or to divide
between them the aggregate or net proceeds
of the earnings of such roads or any portion
thereof," and each day's continuance of
such an agreement is made a separate
offense, subjecting the officers of the roads
engaged in the contract or agreement to a
daily fine of 55,000.
There fs no possible dispute that the
agreement as announced not only evades
the purpose of the law, but violates its let
ter by uniting in one common total or
"pool" the competition traffic of the roads
engaged in the agreement, and its division
among them of the business "in such
amount, manner and proportion" as may be
agreed upon. This is a "traffic pool,"
neither more nor less, of exactly such char
acter as dozens of others that were prohib
ited by the law. It is openly announced
and advocated in the expectation that the
financial powers behind it can secure its
immunity, although we believe that Air.
Gould, as a matter of courtesy, proposes to
request of Congress'that it repeal the pro
hibition at the present session.
The Dispatch has noted with pleasure
r that efforts are being made to punish the
railway officials of secondary rank who
have bees violating the law in the matter
of preferential rates. There is even more
need for bringing the penal provisions of
the act to bear on tbe participants in this
agreement It is a plan to relieve the rail
roads from the influence of competition
practically the same as those of the trusts,
and for the same purpose to force the pub
lic to pay for earnings on purely fictitious
capitalizations. If the trusts are to be tol
erated the railroads have tbe same right.
But there is the greatest need for a vigorous
and incisive assertion that the great masses
of capital must respect the laws and the
rights of the public. Yet the financial mag
nates proposing this agreement have such
confidence in their ability to nullify the law
that they subject themselves to the penalty
of ?3, 000 per day for each individual with
out weakening.
BUSINESS AND CONFIDENCE.
The lack of confidence is one of the feat
ures of the monetary situation which is at
tracting the attention of the press. It is
bevond dispute that the immediate reason
why stocks are depressed, why some of the
leading investments of the country are
looked at askance, why some classes of busi
ness cannot obtain discounts from the
banks, aud why some banks have been run
upon by their depositors, is a lack ol confi
dence. In some cases this is the only cause
of the trouble, although so far as the more
serious business disasters are concerned, they
have revealed more deep and permanent
causes. I
This feature of thesitnation isjustat present
enlarged upon by a portion of the press in a
very monitory manner. Our esteemed cotem
poraries are lectnring the public on its lack
of confidence, and exhorting it to show a
more worthy spirit, in a tone almost as
pathetic as that character of Mrs. Burnett's,
who, when his wife rejected with scorn his
proposition that she should "allowance"
him with twelve shillings a week to spend
for beer, reproached her with "Tha hast na
confidence in me, Lizer-Jane tha hast na
confidence." It is true that the lack of con
fidence may put solvent business firms to
much inconvenience, and that the country
has exactly as much real wealth as it had
before any monetary troubles were ex
perienced. These facts show the foolishness
of misplaced distrust aud unfounded panics;
but they do not prove that the lack of confi
dence is the only cause of business
troubles.
As an evidence that there is money
enough but that it is kept out of the market
by a lack of confidence, the New Tork
Herald notes that the city of Brooklyn's
new 3 per cent loan was recently bought up
at a handsome premium. This proves that
there is money enough for investment; but
it also proves that there is plenty of confi
dence in certain investments. Another case
of the same sort occurred in this city the
other day, when the stock of one of the
leading banks was sold at the highest price
it ever obtained, and one which at its
present rate of dividend makes it little
more than a 3 per cent investment.
Beat estate in this city, also, which
has not been pushed to inflated values still
finds money enough. These things show
that the public has a good deal of confi
dence. In these investments people know
that they will not be juggled out of their
money by manipulations or squeezes; that
the investments are unwatered and that the
assets of financial institutions have not been
used to float corporate or political adven
turers, la such investments, confidence is
ud shaken.
It is well to remember that while tbe lack
of confidence has caused every panic from
the bursting of the South Sea bubble down,
there is reason in the inquiry how far the
lack of confidence was justified. In the
first example just mentioned, it would
plainly have been better if the lack of con
fidence had been developed at the beginning
instead of at the end of the bubble. The
present monetary stringency began in the
stock market, and when we recall the trust
bubbles, the operations of the corporate
kings, the dividends on borrowed money
and the other means by which the public
has been fleeced, there is some reason for
thinking that the distrust of that
field of investments is not altogether mis
placed. The best way to create confidence
is to have financial interests so managed as
to prove themselves worthy of it. "We will
wager that the bank in Philadelphia which
recently paid out its lands to depositors un
til they begged it to take back their depos
its, like the bank in this city whose stock
sold last week at the highest figure ever
known, have no reason to complain of the
lack of confidence.
It is foolish and injurious to display a
lack of confidence of solvent and legitimate
business; but wherever that spirit appears it
will soon correct itself. Business houses
that have kept themselves clear from specu
lation and inflation can be relied on to prove
their title to the confidence of the public
But in view of some of the methods by
which corporate management and stock
operations have been connected, it is quite
possible that a general and discriminating
lack of confidence in such things may prove
a healthy and much-needed corrective.
BANK WRECKERS BAGGED.
The arrest of two. more of the Philadelphia
bank wreckers yesterday indicates that the
machinery of justice has been set in motion
at last and refined rascality is in a fair way
to get its proper reward. It is to be hoped
that every man engaged in the gigantic
scheme of bank gutting will be landed in
jail with Pfeiffer, Duugan and "Work. The
grade of their guilt may be severally deter
mined later on, but for tbe present the
safest plan is to put all the' suspected finan
ciers under lock and key.
A NEW CABINET RDJIOB.
A very novel development in politics is
promised by the report that the next addi
tion to President Harrison's Cabinet is to
be James S. Clarkson, whose trenchant
record as Assistant Postmaster General has
endeared him to the spoils faction. The
rumor goes that Clarkson will succeed Noble
in the Interior Department, while Noble
will be made Attorney General, vice Miller,
promoted to the"Supreme Court. This puss-in-the-corner
arrangement will give the
President's law partner the permanent
plum, and Clarkson's last state produced by
his recent kaleidoscopic career will be that
of a full-fledged Cabinet minister.
Under ordinary circumstances such a
rumoras this could be rejected without the
slightest considerationsimply for the reason
that if there could be one person in the
couutry who is more impossible as a
cabinet minister than Clarkson, he
has happily remained undiscovered
up to the present time. His sole
idea of politics is the spoils, and his only
theory of statesmanship is to get the closest
grip of the offices that the law will allow.
He first attained national reputation as a
political manager in connection with the at
tempt to obtain the support of a leading
Prohibitionist for pecuniary considerations.
His record in office has been that of whole
sale removals for purely partisan reasons;
and if he can be held to represent any politi
cal idea, it must be expressed in a variation
ot Nero's wish to the effect that all fourth
class postmasters might have but one neck,
so that he could strike off their heads at a
single blow.
Still the present disposition of the Presi
dent to insist on doing the things that he
ought not to do, leaving out of the question
the failure to do the things that he ought to
do, renders it necessary to regard the report
as the reflection ot a possibility. It may be
that Mr. Harrison regards the introdnction
in the Cabinet of the man who has lately
been trying to get political prominence
by essaying the gigantic contract of
reading Secretary Elaine out of the
Republican party, will establish a
balance to the Secretary's growing
popularity. It is no objection to Clarkson
that his appointment would show the ad
ministration to be wholly regardless of the
pledge of the Bepublican platform to civil
service reform; for that has been fully dem
onstrated already. But it might be of some
significance that with Clarkson at the head
of the Interior Department the greatcorpor
ations having dealings with the Depart
ment would reasonably expect to have a
picnic if there is anything left within the
power of the Secretary of the Interior which
they have not already obtained.
The nomination of Clarkson to the Cabin
et would be a novel development of the
President's idea of forwarding his chances
for a renomination. Mr. Blaine can cer
tainly afford to stand aside and give Mr.
Harrison all the rope he wants for experi
ments of that sort until the latter has had
all of the sectional and spoils policy that he
wants. Such a course wonld only strengthen
the demand on Mr. Blaine to assume the
leadership in 1892.
Air extremely surprising deliverance on
tbe subject of tbe monetary stringency has re
cently been published all over the country, in
which the silver-tongued Chauncey AI.Depew is
made to say that not only do the people lock up
money, 'bnt the Government does it also in
times of a financial scare, by buying bonds."
As the necessary effect of buying bonds Is to
take money out of the United States Treasury,
where it has been locked up, and to put it into
circulation, tbe first presumption would be that
Dr. Depew meant to say that the Government
locks up money "by not buying bonds." But
when he proceeds to unfold his pet remedy it is
perceived that he has indulged in a little shallow-misrepresentation
to support his scheme of
having tbe Government lend its surplus to the
banks without interest.
"Whatever the outcome of the meeting
of the railroad Presidents next week, there
seems to be a universal determination that it
shall not be a "gentlemen's agreement." Be
sides the fact that gentlemen's agreements do
not agree, there Is also the conclusive fact that
Jay Gould is running this one.
The surprising report is set afloat in New
York that the reason why Governor Hill hesi
tates about taking the United States Senator
ship from New York is that he does not under
stand the first principles of the game of draw
poker. This can hardly da expected to gain
credence. It is possible that a man might rec
ognize his deficiency in the great American
game as a disqualification for Senatorial
honors; but who can believe that Governor Hill
has risen to the leadership of spoils Democracy
while retaining this remarkable iguorance of
the great American game? We should as soon
expect to hear that David Bennett was a hated
mugwump.
The Brazilian waT. ships have returned
to the tropics, their crews being unable to
stand the blasts of a Northern December. "We
may regard the danger of having our ports
bombarded by the fleets of Brazil as reduced
to a minimum during the winter months.
It is rather amusing in the light of recent
events to read in the New York Herald of
Friday a prediction that "it is likely that tbe
mild spell of this week will slowly give place to
a cold anti-cyclone from the Northwest." Con
sidering that by the time this was pnblisbed
tbe muddy mildness of Thursday night had
changed into the cold blasts of Thursday morn
ing, it looks as if the esteemed JlevlcTs idea
of slowness was of the sort that makes it diffi
cult'f or it to keep up with the procession of
this year's weather.
"With the probability that the pension
attorneys may find their rations cut short by
the new pension appropriation bill, they may
be expected to hold a ghost dance in tbe
lobbies of Congress.
Austria has taken precautions to regu
late the u?o of Koch's lymph by providing that
it shall only be obtained from authorized Prus
sian agencies, and f orbjddlng its administration
except with proper medical supervision. The
function of the Unite! States Government in
the same connection is to protect the country
against the pauper scientific discoverers ot Eu
rope by imposinga d'lty on the lymph of 25 per
cent as a medicinal preparation or "SO per cent
as a preparation containing alcohol.
This winter's cold waves create a univer
sal public opiuion tnat whatever the gas com
panies may do with their capital stock they
shonld not fail to inflate their gas supply.
Judge "Woods' decision that a bank
rupt corporation cannot make its directors or
officers preferred creditors is universally recog
ntzedasacase where sound sense and good
law are entirely agreed with each other. An
extension of the same idea might enforce upon
Congress the good sense and sound legislation
that would be combined in the act of stopping
partisan squabbles long enough to pass a na
tional bankruptcy law, which would abolish
preferred creditors altogether.
The foreign gold that is coming to this
country across the Atlantic is certain to have a
more relaxing effect on the money market
than the American Gould.
"Whatever appropriateness there may
be In the late Home Rule party operating on
the principles of a faction fight, it certainly Is
time to suggest to the leaders that they are not
likely to increase the influence of their organs
by discounting the methods of tbe Arizona
Kicker and editing United Ireland with a
crowbar.
The mention of Attorney General Mil
ler's name for the Supreme Bench arouses ex.
actly the same lack of enthusiasm that it did
before.
ON THE ATBICAN PIGMIES.
Stanley Writes About a Bewitching Llttlo
Model of a Woman.
Henry M. Stanley, in his article on the Pig
mies in the January Scribner't, says: "We
have seen some a few who mignt be said to
be well formed. Tbe little plump beauty we
saw with Ugarrowwa an Ivory raider was a
bewitching little creature 33 inches bight. It
is possible that this beauty was due to per
fect health and tbe good food with wblcb she
was fed by the Arab. She was certainly a gem
worth seeing, and as calm and self-possossed as
a well-bred lady.
"Artists would have doted on her, and sculp
tors would have paid goodly sums for such a
miniature model. She was young, just at the
dawn of womanhood, and her youth and girlish
innocence made her simply charmlDg."
THE TOPICAL TALKER.
A 'Half Assent,
Qome of tbe secret societies and benevolent
orders give their members cards or badges
which procure for their wearers a discount on
articles they may buy at certain stores.
Yesterday a man walked into a Fifth avenue
cigar store and asked for five cents' worth of
tobies. Tbe storekeeper pushed over a box of
tobies and tbe customer took fonr, laying a
nickel on the showcase In payment. Tho store
keeper slid the niokcl into the till, and tbe man
with the tobies said: "I want ten per cent off."
"What fori"
"I'm a member of the order of X. Y. Z. you
allow a discount of ten per cent, don't you, to,
members T"
"I'm out of half-ceuts at present," said the
cigar man coolly, "but you're welcome to help
yourself to matches."
Square.
T WANT fifty dollars," were the familiar
words which fell upon tbe ear of a city
official yesterday. The man who uttered them
had the air ot a millionaire and the attire ot a
seedy wringer peddler. He didn't wait for an
answer, but went on to tell how his rent was
overdue, and tbe butcher brutally attentive,
and tbe milkman frozen up, and the universe,
in short, out of joint. He explained
that fifty dollars would place him upon
a plateau of prosperity from which
the heights of fortune could easily be reached.
His rhetoric was rich, and the gentleman he
was operating upon was impressionable. Be
sides, there were reasons of state for the grant
ing of the loan. Tbe fifty dollars were forth
coming, and the borrower departed breathing
blessings upon tbe lender's head.
Half an hour later the city official went into
a fashionable restaurant to get his noonday
lunch. His was not a fashionable meal sim
ply a bowl of milk and some crackers. He bad
dropped two crackers into tho milk when he
saw at a table on tho other side of
the room the impecunious party who bad
touched him for fifty. The L P. was lunching
in high style. A pint of Fommery peeped r om
an ice-pail by his chair, and the waiter bad just
removed the cover from a dish of quail on
toast. Strange to say the sight made that city
official's soul boil within him. It was unlucky
for milk and a boiling soul do not assimilate
nicely. He didn't relish the milk and the
crackers choked him.
One quail had become a dismantled wreck
when the angry man reached the impecunious
party's elbow.
"Do you call this square?" asked the angry
man.
The feeder trpon quail looked up with a wild,
deprecating smile, but said nothing.
"Do you call this square?" tho other repeated
more angrily. "You told me your family was
starving, in danger of being turned out of
doors, and I find you bore do you call this
square?"
"Square?" echoed tho borrower with a fond
look at the second quail. "Well, it's the near
est I've been to a square meal for a long time,
but if you can suggest anything, you know"
But the angry man had fled.
A Big Bill and a Bigger Gall.
"GIVE me a ROOd five-cent cigar," said a well
dressed man in a Smithfleld street cigar
store yesterday.
A box of those fragrant perfectos grown
near Lebanon and made In Wheeling opened its
cedar jaws and the daring man took a cigar.
Then he handed over a bill.
Tbe salesman's eyes almost jumped out of
his head it was a S5.000 bill. He took it back
to the proprietor of the store, who came out at
once to look at the customer. The latter was
puffing quietly at the five-center.
"I'm sorry, sir." the storekeeper said, "but
wo havo only S4.S0O in change we're a little
short just now. and I shall fe-l obliged if you
will take the cigar as a slight token of my
regard."
A Woolly Western Christmas.
"T7"HEir Rosina Vokes was nere last she told a
story that is timely enough now on tbe
verge of the Christmas holidays. Said she: "I
have had some very funny Christmases, bnt I
cannot remember any much more amusing than
my very first Christmas in this country. It was
in a Western city, then a very primitive little
place, now a rather flourishing city, I believe,
although I have not been there since. No, I
will not tell you the name, but it is on tho map
and you may guess It in six times!
"We bad just made a remarkable success in
Boston and New York and were on very good
terms with onrselves. We were a little hurt at
first on finding that the men, or rather the boys,
at the theater had not the smallest notion who
we were. Tho head boy proposed to give us an
Alpine scene to play 'The Belles of tbe
Kitchen' in. "We kindly but firmly declined,
and pointed out that we wanted a carpet,
chairs and even a table. He proceeded to bring
forth a piece of carpet about six feet square.
Again we remonstrated and told him that we
wanted the carpet to cover the stage. To
cover the stage!' he said. 'Why, 1 thought you
were tumblerst We were a little crestfallen at
this, hut were somewhat encouraged in the
evening by the landlord, who told us that the
street in front of the theater was so crowded
that it was almost impossible to pass.
'Weil,' we thought, 'fame does travel
quickly, after all r But when we arrived at
the theater we found that the excitement was
not on our account at all. Not a bit of it. It
was the first appearance of the stereoptlcon in
the town that is, the thing that flashes adver
tisements on a white sheet and the populace
naturally preferred seeing 'Sozodont' or some
body's tablets or baking powder gratuitously,
and tho claims of the legitimate drama were
overlooked. Fortunately, our manager was a
man of resources. He went across the street
and hired our hated rival to 'turn ofT the
lights for K0. So the crowd, for want of any
where else to go. turned into the theater, and
in a few minutes every seat but one was filled.
That belonged to a gentleman in a red shirt,
who paid lor two and planted bis legs and his
revolvers on one of them, nor rould the most
variegated remonstrance it has ever been my
lot to hear induce him to relinquish it.
"The stage was supported by barrels, and
each of us gave a hint to the' others when we
came to a good barrel or an unreliable one, so
that wc might all know the best spots to dance
on. It was lighted by a few little oil lanips.aud
the progress of the play was a little retarded by
tbe boys passing and repassing to relight them
or touch them up when they showed signs of
coming total eclipse.
"Not a very pleasant Christmas, but a funny
one and a merry one, too."
Do We Chew so Much?
iiThe tobacco-chewing hog seems to be om
nipresent in Pittsburg," said a San Fran
cisco man yesterday. "I've been meeting
him everywhere since I came here, a week ago.
This morning I came in from tho East End in
a cable car. One chewer sat beside -me, and
another opposite, and it kept me busy to keep
out of their lino of fire. Luckily, they had
found their range before I sat down, and I
escaped with a slight spattering. At the
Fifth avenue corner a motley crowd of men
lined the curb, and they were all
chewing and expectorating as If they
were competing for a prize. The
pavement all around them looked as if it had a
cutaneous disease and bad broken out in
blotches the tobacco juice bad frozen where
It f ell. I fought my way to a big office build
ing and boarded the elevator. As tbe boy
closed the door he expectorated dexterously
between the passengers' feet; he had a rubber
mat to squirt at. The lawyer whom I went to
see, as he talked to me, punctuated his sen
tences with long shots at a cuspidor, and he
had tbe delicate politeness to offer me a chew.
"No dount you PIttsburgers do not notice tbe
tobacco chewers; you are used, hardened to it:
but to one coming from the Pacific coast, where
even the Chinaman gets out of a street car if a
tobacco-chewer spits before him, the flood of
tobacco juice is somewhat appalling."
A Star Gas Meter.
here's a Ras meter in a house on tho Bluff
that is making tbe natural gas question
exceedingly interesting to the man who pays
the gas bdls. It's a natural gas meter. At
least that's what it thinks it is. Keely migbt
be clad to claim it as his motor, but the Peo
ple's Gas Company would be foolish to part
with it. Since It came Into tbe house it has
registered enough gas to make up the de
ficiency in tha supply for the whole city.
Yesterday the lessee of this eccentric
and humorous machine decided to give
It a chance to make a record for itself. He
turned off the gas. The effect was miraculous'
and alarming. It registered faster than everg
Tho hands on the dial could not be seen, they
flew around so fast; and the noise they made
was heard blocks' away. At this point the
landlord' arrived and Insisted 'that the gas be
turned on again In order to save tbe house, for
the foundations wore trembling. Since then
the meter has kept oh the even tenor a rather
hign tenor of its way, and a gas bill In the
thousands stares its owner in tbe face.
' Hepburn Johns.
ANOMALIES IN PLANT DD3X.
Curious Facts Which Negative a Division of
Animals and Plants.
What are we to say, writes Andrew Wilson in
the Illustrated News of the World, of the para
sitic mistletoe, whicb, while It has green leaves
of its own, and can, therefore, obtain so much
carbon-food from the air on its own account,
nevertheless drinks up tho sap of the oak or
apple, which forms Its host, and thus illustrates
the spectacle of a green plant feeding, like an
animal, on living matter ?
Or what may we think of such plants as the
sun-dew, the Venus fly-trap1, the pitcher plants,
the side-saddle plants, tbe butterworts and
bla'dderworts, and others of their kind, which
not only capture insects, often by ingenious and
complex lures, but also digest the animal food
thus captured? A sun-dew thus spreads out its
lure in tbe shape ot its leaf studded with sensi
tive tentacles, each capped by a glistening drop
of gummy secretion. Entangled in this secre
tion me uy is luriner uxeu to tne leat by the
tentacles which bend over it and enclose it in
their fold. Then is poured put upon the in
sect's body a digestive acid flald, and the sub
stance of the dissolved and digested ani
mal is duly absorbed bv the plant,
So also tho Venus' fly-trap captures insects
by means ot its leaf, which closes upon the prey
when certain sensitive hairs have given the
signal that the animal has been trapped.
Within the lear the insect is duly dlzested as
before, and its substance applied to the nutri
tion ot tue plant. Such plants, moreover,
cannot flourish perfectly unless dulv supplied
with their animal food. Such Illustrations ot
exceptions to the rule of green plant feeding
simply have the effect of abolishing the dis
tinctions which tbe diet question might be
supposed to raise between animals aud plants.
I have said enough to show that to the ques
tion "Can we separate animals from plantar1 a
very decided negative reply must be given.
Lile everywhere exhibits too many noints of
contact to admit of any boundary line being
drawn between the two great groups which
make up the sum total of organic existence.
THE EPOCH OF REGENCIES.
This is the Condition or Things in Europe at
the Present Time. '
The present time may well be known as tho
epoch of regencies in Europe, says tbe Phila
delphia Evening Bulletin. No less than five
governments have for their heads the proxies
of their more or less legitimate sovereigns,
holding sway merely ad interim.
These are the governments of Holland, Spain,
Bavaria, Servia and Brunswick. In tbe first
named country a woman reigns for. the first
time since "Governoress" Marearet of Parma,
more than 300 years ago. and in Spain another
young German Princess is holding most suc
cessful sway. These two women regents are
each about 32 years old, while tho regent of
Brunswick, Prince Albert of Prussia, is 55; tbe
regent of Bavaria, Prince Luitpold, is 70, and
the Servian triumvirs average more than 61
each. The two young women, however, seem
to get on much better than the five old men,
and they have the most important countries in
band, too.
A SPABK FELL ON HIS BACK
And, as a Consequence, a Lumberman Was
Almost Burned to Deatlu
Beaver Falls, Dec 13. Hugh Henderson,
engaged in hauling logs to a portable sawmill,
situated on the Reissinger farm, in Brighton
township, met with a singular accident yester
day afternoon.
He had unloaded a log at the mill when a
spark from tbe furnace fell upon the back of
his coat and set fire to his clothing. This he
did not notice and was quite a distance into tbe
woods when the heat on his back admonished
him that something was wrong. By that time
the coat was ablazo. He sprang from tbe
wagon and began to execute a chost dance, at
the same time crying for help. Some com
panions ran to his assistance, tore the flaming
clotbes from bis back and extinguished the
flames. Henderson's clothing was destroyed
and his back is very badly burned.
PEBS0NAL MENTION:
Dom Pedro's throne was recent! su at
auction initio de Janeiro for S400.
SpenceW M. Clark, whose death was re
ported on Friday from Washington, was tbe
first person who printed greenbacks for the
Government.
Justice Bradley, who has the reputation
of doing more nork than any other justice on
the Supremo Bench, rises every morning at G
o'clock and eats a peach, after a bit of exercise
or airing, before breakfast.
"W. C. Carnegie, a nenhew of Andrew Car
negie, who was married in Cleveland a day or
two ago, is in Washington with his bride. They
are seeing tbe sights'of tha city and stopping
at Willard's Hotel.
Nathah Matthews, Jr.. who was last
Tuesday elected Mayor of Boston by the
Democracy, is socially oue of the tost fellows
in the world. He and John Boyle O'Reilly the
lamented patriot, poet and journalist were the
dearest of friends, and many ever so many a
pleasant evening was made bright and memor
able to scores of Boston's intellectual magnates
by tho quiet reunions they gavo together in se
cluded corners of the old town to choice gain
ings of a score of kindred spirits.
The venerable General Francis E. Spinner,
ex-Treasurer of tbe United States, will be 83
Tears of age next month. Ho served in Con
gress six years, and was for over 14 years in the
United States Treasury. He is now in Florida
and suffering dreadfully from a steadily pro
gressing cancer upon his face. He writes that
by tbe use of opiate's he is able to obtain some
sleep and rest from his intense pain, but that
he is gradually wasting away and that he can
not sec to read or wnte.
Mrs. Jefferson Davis Is now at the home
of an old family friend, Dr. J. Harvie Dew, No.
252 West Fifty-fourth street She has been in
tbe city since October at Mrs. Alexander's, No.
41 East Twenty-second street, and lately with
Dr. and Mrs. Dew. Her timo has been occu
pied to some extent in revising the final proofs
of herhiograpy of her husband, which is now
in the publisher's hands. To-day Mrs. Davis
will go to the New York Hotel, where she will
stay until April, when she will visit Colorado
Springs if ber health, which fs still enfeebled,
will permit the journey.
"Senator Inoalls." says tho Kansas City
Star, "has never written a novel, and may
never write one, but it is believed by people
who know blm well that be has sufficient
ideality to produce a creditable work of fiction.
When his children were small he was accus
tomed to relate to them a talc called The De
mon of the Blacksnakc Hills.' It was a thrill
ing story of adventure, 'made up' as tbe author
went along, and occupied countless winter
evenings. Tbe only one of Senator Ingalls'
children who inherits to a notable degree his
literary talent U his eldest daughter, Ethel."
DEATHS OP A DAT.
John A. Ileistand.
Lancaster. Dec. 13. Ex-Congressman John
A. Ileistand died at 1 o'clock: this morning at the
Stevens Uonsc, after a long illness. Alr.Hclstand
-was 63 years of ace. He was a lawyer, and had
served as State Representative and State Senator.
In 1871 he was made Naval Officer at the port of
.Philadelphia, which position he held for eight
years. Iu 1SS4 hewas elected to Con Kress as a Re
publican, and was re-elected in 1S36. Mr. Hels
tand was for over 30 years proprietor and editor of
the Lancaster Examiner.
George Howard.
George Howard, a well-known resident of tbe
county, died yesterday at bis homo on tbe Morn
lngside road, at the age of 83 years. He was born
in Ireland, and was the son of Captain James
Howard, of the North of Ireland. He came to
this country in 1S70. Two of his sons are carriage
manufacturers In the city. Mr. Howard was a
faithful and consistent member of St. John's
l'rotestant Episcopal Church. The runerat will
occur to-morrow.
Jndge William C. Maxwell.
SPKCIAL TELKOUAM TO THE DISrATCII.l
UBEENVILI.E, Dec J3.Willlam C. .Maxwell,
ex-Judge of Mercer county, died to-day, aged 82
years. He was the senior member of the bar of
Mercer county, having been admitted In 1831. and
S noticed continuously until a few days before his
eatb.
Mrs. Mary Drennan.
Mrs. Mary Drennan died yesterday moraine, at
the age of SS years at her home, pn Lacock street,
Allegheny. She was well known In both cities.
She was the mother or John mid the-laic Joseph
M. Drennan.
Bernhard, Kauh.
-IScrnhard Kauh, one ol the best-known old
gentlemen. or Allegheny, died late Friday night
at his home on Locnst street. He was 73 years of
age.' The funeral will occur to-day.
MURRAY'S MUSINGS,
A Suggestion That Men Invade the Kitchen
to Do the Work Women Hate So Univer
sally A Carious Tacti About Photo
graphs A Southern Man's Talk.
IVItOM A 6TA1T CORBESFONDENT.3
N optimistic and pbilanthropical ladyof
New York, who has given considerable at
tention to the higher social problems, has sug
gested and warmly advocates domestic service
for men. Tbis is a direct and practical means
of relieving an overcharged labor market and
of, at the same time, materially improving pres
ent unsatisfactory domestic conditions. It
will probably not strike a good many married
men who already do kitchen work every day.
as cither new or novel. While young women
are being trained on eveiy hand to take the
place of men in the ranks of skilled labor and
the factories, stores and shops are crowded
with female cheap labor at the expense of the
male population, and to the great neglect of
the common requirements of domestic life,
this particular woman wants to know why
sbouioTnot tha malo overplus flow into tbe
kitchen, tho laundry, and that other most im
portant branch of domestic sorvice known as
"general ho lsework."
The possibilities concealed in this suggestion
are startling. In this city, and in every great
city, in fact, everybody feels the great and dn
ceasing friction of stupid and Incompetent
domestic service. This friction is aggravated
by the fact that tbe mistress is worse than tbe
servant. Men servants are only possibl e to the
well-to-do and are well paid. Men make the
best cooks, the best laundrymen, the best
"maids of all work." In these days the smart
est girls are put in the mills, factories, shops
learn typewriting, stenography, bookkeeping,
teaching, etc. and are practically withdrawn
from domestic life. Only the newly imported,
the old and the stupid and ignorant are Iett to
cook and wash and iron and perform other
domestic lanor. There are not less than 211,000
males in this city who are well educated who
are doing office drudgery year after year and
who will never do anything else but drag out a
miserable existence, and several thousand
other men who are on tbe verge of starva
tion, none of whom are as well off as the
stupid girl in my kitchen who gets 815 a month
and her board. They work twice as hard as
she, and furnish tbe skill and brains to do that
work which she does not possess. Yet most of
them never have 515 per month over and above
their Dare necessities at any time during the
year. But first-class servants good cook3 and
laundry women get from $30 to S50 per month
over and aoove their board. And they are
hard to cet at any price. Tbis, while the streets
of New'York and other cities, and tbo roads
all over the country, swarm with male beggars
and tramps and vain seekers after employment,
and wbllo countless male tollers work day in
and day out, year alter year, for what merely
supports life from hour to hour in hopeless
slavery.
What is there in tbis domestic field of labor
which makes women of all grades and condi
tions flee from it as an humiliation and a
shame? There are swell clubs of rich men in
this city whose members are better cooks than
any woman who ever trod shoe leather. The
logic is irresistible. Yet while men will marry
and do the housework of helpless wives, most
men would rather starve than go into a kitchen
and cet up plain meals for pay. Astogettinc:
out tbe family washing and ironing whewl
The same men will drive a team, run a horse
car, beg or steal, or do any labor under a boss
that treats him like a horse, almost uncom
plainingly. If such a man can marry one of
these samo factory or shop girls, who knows
about as much about domestic work, and likes
it about as well as he does, it is in the usual
order of things he will do it at the best ac
cepting the misery of such a life as tbo natural
sequence of matrimony. And if a pretty
daughter of such a union should prefer to go to
the dogs rather than wash dishes, it is not to be
wondered at, but is aiso to" be set down as the
usual order of things. Font may be accepted
as a fact that the ill-regulated household is tbe
source of more unhappiness and crime than all
other sources put together.
A Phlegmatic Man's Hard Work.
'T'HEHE is a fleshy and phlegmatic gentleman
in gold glasses at a high desk in tbe office
of the County Clerk of New York county who
passes his official life in about as monotonous a
manner as could well be associated with con
tinuous and trying labor. He is tho acknow
ledgement clerk, administers oaths and has
charge of the county'seal. All day long, from
early morn till dewy eve, on every day of tbe
week, Sundays and legal holidays excepted, he
sits and stands, alternately, at this desk and
fills out blank certificates, signs his name in a
cramped, fine hand, affixes tbe slips with a dab
of mucilage and brings down tbe lever of tbe
great seal of tbe most important county of tbe
United States upon the document. His oaths
are not loud, but deep and continuous. An
average of SOU certificates per day. sometimes
mure and sometimes less, constitute his day's
work. At whatever hour in the day you call
uoon him you will find from 3 or 4 to 20 per
sons in line in front of his window, papers in
hand, awaiting a turn at the big seal and Its
calm manipulator.
No matter how many and how eager those in
line he never gets rattled, never worries. His
soft, white, chubby hands do. their work in
each case as if it were tbe last and whether it
is a certificate for a 10 pension paperor a deed
for millions of dollars, he rarely raises his eyes
but to rake in tbe 25 cent fee. or administer a
perfunctory oatb. Having entered it in a little
blotter he silently swoops down on tbe next
paper and goes on with the procession. A more
nervous or fussy man in such a place would
wear himself out In six months.
Why They Leave tho South.
A Southern friend just returned from a
visit to his old home says he can scarcely
understand how an energetic man can longer
live contented in tbe South. "No man who left
the South to live in New York," said he, "ever
goes back to his old home, but what be is glad
he left it. He could never be induced to go
back there for good. And yet in my section
there never was such general prosperity as
there is to-day. The changes have been for the
betterment of all classes, and there are many
changes. Northern enterprise-and Northern
ideas are apparent everywhere, $n where no
Northern men are to be found. There is
scarcely a vestige of tbe old order of things in
town or country. It has been a Iorely
season and the cotton boles have come out in
their second bloom, while tbe second crop of
potatoes and the early peas and other vege
tables seem to leave nothiDg to be desired. At
Savannah a new modern hotel has been erected,
and furnishes as good accommodations as can
be found Nurth. Tho things which make tho
South more desirable to live in, however, are
tbe very things that make a Southern man
more contented to live in the North. Why?
Because these very changes have swept aw ay
all the seutimen; imbibed with the 'mammy's
milk' ot childhood, fixed into the mind of
youth and burned into the soul with the hot
iron of war. It is more satisfactory to remain
away and cherish the memory of early days
than to go back and realize the cold, hard facts
that there is nothing ot the old Southleft, and
if there was it wouldn't be worth remembering.
New York is good enough for me."
Two Sides to a Man's Face,
(i "yHERE is an extraordinary dissimilarity be
tween tbe two side views of almost
every person's face," says a prominent Broad
way photographer. "I mean that If X should
take a three-quarter view of you, thus. It
would be quite different from a three-quarter
view of you taking the other side of tbe face.
Most people are taken from the samo side I
don't know why. When they happen to be
taken the other way their best friends will
sometimes fail to recognize tbe portrait. Tbero
is usually a good side and a bad
side to every face, speaking from an
artistic point of view. It is tbe business of the
artist to catch the better side it the sitter will
permit him to do so. But there are public men,
actresses, professional beauties, and so on, who
understand tbis good and bad side quite as well
as we do. Tho only way you can get a good
conception of a face is by studying all
sides of it. If you should see many of our
celebrities from any other point of view than
afforded by tbelr commonly accepted photo
graphs you probably wouldn't know them. Of
course. If this other view Is a photograph, you
will call it a bad likeness. Very often tho pose
of an actress or celebrated beauty brings out
ber best points in such a striking way that a
sight of tho original is a disappointment. The
outlines, good or bad. can be accentuated by
the artist. You wouldn't think it possible, per
haps, but three photographs ot you could be
taken, and two would not look like they bad
been taken of tbe same man that was tbe orig
inal of the otber. And they would eive the
outlines of the face, too. Queer, Isn't It?"
The OldMessenger'Boy Fad Keeps Up.
TN this progressive aee tbelady of tbe period
at least the New York 1. o. p does not
remain at home because she has no beau,
cousin, brother or other conventional escort
bandy, nor does she Ignore Justice Duffy's de
cision that no respectable woman is abroad
after U o'clock at night without an escort. If
she has no serving man or big black maid she
simply rings for a messenger boy. In tbis city
a "messenger boy" may be a youth from 15 to
25 years of aze. With this "boy" she gets on
her "things" and goes abroad for business or
amusement as safely and self-satisfied as if she
were in chargeot her husband or a policeman.
Everybody respects tbe lady with the messen
ger boy. Sbinesympathize'with ber. perhaps.
Some may envy the boy. Buc-rbe lady with the
messenger boy as an escort pays a trfuuto to
respectability that is at once appreciated by
loungers or streetcar society. Andsbe can, and
does, go to the flower show, the horse show, or
to any other show thus attended without violat
ing tbe rules of propriety.
The pay is so much per hour, the bov likes
tbo job, and the lady is not bored by tbe
necessity of entertaining an escort for whom
she cares nothing. Tbe uniformed messenger
boy is an official in New York life who bears
in ins brass-buttoned bosom the secrets of a
good many people and ho beats them with an
air of responsibility that would do credit to
any gigantlo member ot the Broadway squad.
w
Salvation and the Ghost Dances.
A far Western man who has just arrived
here from tbe scene of the Indian difficul
ties says that, while, it is true that tbe Indians
havo been systematically cheated by everybody
having dealings with them, including Govern
ment officials, tbe real cause of trouble lies In
the rivalry of religious denominations to get
control of the Indians' salvation. He thinks
this fact has been kept in the background
through the delicacy officials and newspapers
have always exhibited of going into matters of
religion.
"The Messiah craze," he says, "can be traced
to the same old struggle of tbe frontier repre
sentatives of the various religious denomina
tions, who have vied with each otber from time
immemorial for the exclusive control of tbe
savage conscience. These operations have
been quiet, but none the lcS3 effective, as the
result shows."
Tho Servant's Day Out.
TF anybody uses his powers of observation
and the elevated trains Sunday afternoons
and evenings he will note that four-fifths of the
travel is that of servants. It is their "day out."
By hundreds and thousands they flock on and
off the nptown stations of the Sixth avenue
line. Mostly women, they are smartly and sub
stantially ciotbed and with a uniformity that is
astonishing. They are of all nationalities,
chiefly Irish, German and Scandinavian, while
the absence of tbe native American type is con
spicuous. As a rule they have a well-fed, stolid,
comtortable look of respectable and happy
mediocrity. CHARLES T. MURRAY.
New York, Dec 13.
FAV0BITE SONS EOS 189&
A Western Paper forms a Consensus of
Editorial Opinion.
Tbe Chicago Times devotes over three pages
to a consensus of editorial opinions touching
tbe probable action of tbe political parties in
1892. They are gathered from leading and
local representative papers in alt parts of the
country. It appears therefrom that most Re
publicans and all Democrats give Blaine the
chieftaincy of his party, while most Democrats
and all Republicans look upon Cleveland as tbe
Democratic leader, both parties at present
anticipating the nomination of these two men.
Not all of the predictions were preferences,
and the tally could not well be made accurate.
A summary of the 221 editorial responses, from
45 different States and territories, show that 106
named Cleveland as the nrobable Democratic
nominee for 1S92, and 12 named Hill; while
Blaine was named bv 52 as tbe probable Repub
lican nominee and 12 named Harrisun.
Among the "favorite sons" for 1892, tbe Dem
ocratic list reveals the names of ex-Governor
Palmer, of Illinois, soon to bo Senator-elect,
Governor-eleet Winans, of Michigan, Governor
Boies, of Iowa, Governor Campbell, of Ohio,
Governor-elect Fattlson, of Pennsylvania, Governor-elect
Russel, of Massachusetts. Senator
McPberson, ot New Jersey, and Governor Hill,
of New York.
Tbe Republican list comprises the names of
McKinley"if" he should be next year elected
Governor of Ohio, President Harrison, Judge
Gresbam, John Sherman, Alger, of Michigan,
Allison, ot Iowa, Phelps, ot New Jersey, and
Robert T. Lincoln, of Illinois, There 13 no
mention of Keed or Cullom.
The Times remarks,editoriaIIy:"What changes
two years may bring in a rapidly moving world
no man can say, but the probabilities are so
strong as to amount seemingly to a certainty
that if each shall have health tbe rival nomi
nees for tbe Presidency in 1892 will be Cleveland
and Blaine."
COIN FOB CHEISTMASTIDE.
Uncle Sam's Mint Is Turning Ont Gold for
Holiday Shoppers.
From the Philadelphia Press.
Tbe quota of coin money to be manufactured
and finished in tbe United States Mint in Phil
adelphia for the month of December has been
decided upon, and will be as follows: Gold,
half eagles, 5,000 pieces, value, $25,000; quarter
eagles. 10,000 pieces, valne. $25,000; silver, dol
lars, 1,600,000 pieces, value. Jl.eoO.OCO; half dol
lars, 10,000 pieces, value, S8.0U0; quarter dollars,
80,000 pieces, value. $20,000; dimes, 2.500,000,
value, 8250.000; bronze and nickel, 5 cent and 1
cent pieces, about 12,000,000 pieces, value, i200.
000. Total number of pieces, 16,246,000; value,
12,083.000.
A great deal of small change Is being made
to accommodate trade. During the three or
four weeks preceding and a few weeks follow
ing Const mas there is a great demand for small
change, and more of it is coined in order to
meet this demand.
The manufacture of the smaller gold coins at
tbis season, while it is partly for the purpose of
keeping up the continuity of these pieces, has
a bearinc on the holiday festivities, as many
persons take pleasure in making their gifts to
children, and sometimes to aduts, in them. In
order to manufacture so much money it i3
necessary for the employes of the Mint to work
12 hours daily. This they hare been doing for
a month past.
"WADE HAMPTON'S DEFEAT.
WASHlNdTON Post: It is possible that the
'defeat of Senator Wade Hampton will have
tbe effect of checking the political revolution
in South Carolina.
Philadelphia Press: The defeat of Sen
ator Hampton for re-election by the Legis
lature' of South Carolina will be regretted even
by his political opponents.
New York World: Senator Wade Hamp
ton's defeat will remove from the Senate one of
Its picturesque and historical figures that of a
brave soldier and anbonest gentleman.
New York Sun: The defeat of General
Hampton will bo received with general regret
In the country, and in tbe Senate of which be
has been a useful if not a distinguished mem
ber. New York Times: ThU is a result over
which there will be no rejoicing outside of
South Carolina, for General Hampton has
shown himself an able, dignified and high
minded Senator.
New York Press: A Bourbon of the Bour
bons, his personal honesty has never been im
peached, and be has commanded the respect of
the Republicans as well as the Democrats
among bis colleagues.
Philadelphia Ledger: South Carolina can
hardly be congratulated on her choice of Sena
tor, made under the influence of the Farmers'
Alliance. Senator Wade Hampton has been an
honor to the State, and should have been re
elected. NEW York Tribune: Hampton may be said
to be a victim to thecourase of his convictions.
The fact that ho did not hesitate to come out
openly against the Sub-Treasury scheme and
that he pursued a conservative course during
Tillman's great fight for leadeiShip cost him
his election.
Philadelphia Inquirer: General Hamp
ton, tbe flower of Southern chivalry, the repre
sentative of an ancient wealthy family, has
fallen before John Laurens Irby. a boy of 36.
He is a lawyer and a reputed sbrowd politician.
He Is we believe, the youngest man ever
elected to tbe Senate, with the exception of
Henry Clay, who was too young to qualify un
til several months after his election.
THE TOYS.
By Coventry Patmore.l
My little Sou. who looked from thoughtful eyes
And moved and spoke In quiet grown-up wise,
Having my law the seventh time disobeyed,
1 struck him. and dUuiiss'd
With hard words and unklss'd,
His Mother, who was patient, being dead.
Then fearing lest bis grief should hinder sleep,
I visited his bed,
But found him Numbering deep.
With darkened eyelids, and their lashes yet
Trom his late sobbing wet.
And I, with moan, t
Kissing away bis tears, left others of mv own;
For, on a table, drawn beside his head,
He had put. within his reach.
A box of counters and a red-veln'd stone,
A piece ot gUw abraded by the beach,
And six or seven shells,
A bottle with bluebells.
And two French copper coins, ranged there with
careful art.
To comfort his sad heart.
So when that night I pray'd
To God, ana went, and saldt
Ah, when at last we lie with tranced breath,
N ot vexing Thee in death.
And Thon rememberest of what toys
c make ourjoy.
How weakly unacrslood
Thy great commanded good,
Then, iatherly not.Icss
Than I whom Tbou hast molded from the clay,
Thoh'ltleavo Thy wrath, and say, -'
"I will be sorry for their childishness."
CDEI0US C0JJDENSATI05S.
All over .nlexlco, except near the United
States border, prices of coal range from 510 to
113 per ton.
A modern "improvement" is to drop
the m in tbe abbreviations a. m. and p. m., as
for example, 11 a. and 4-20 p.
"With the assistance of his dog, Chauncey
Snyder, of Woodstock, N. Y.. killed a wild
cat weighing 34 pounds tho other day.
While the United States has but 11 per
cent of its area covered by forests, the Empire
of Germany has 26 per cent of its entile area
so covered.
It took ten men and boys to handle a
drove of 200 turkeys that Butcher Amos Nace
drove through the town of Cbalfont, Buaks
county. Pa., a few days ago.
The most expensive drug is pbysostig
Jj'ps. two ounces of which would cost nearly
.1000,000. It is a preparation from the calabar
bean and Is of use in eye diseases.
According to a decree ofthe Archbishop
of Santiago all brldemaids In Chilli must dress
la black. White gloves and veils are per
mitted then, but no colors are allowed.
Of twin daughters born to Mrs. Taylor,
of Helena. Ky., the other day, one of tha
babies is said to have entered tbe world
already provided with a full set of teeth.
The house that was occupied by Jeffer
son Davis in Richmond as tbe Executive Man
sion of tbe Confederacy has bees turned over
to a memorial society as a museum for war
relics.
Kev. J. C. Price, of Salisbury, N. C,
avers that of the 10,000 negro preachers in the
South not more than one-fifth, or 2,000 of
them, have had any preparation for their
work.
Joseph "Wetzell, 11 years old, of Hart
mansville, W. Va., being attacked by a "tre
mendous" catamount the otber day, shot the
beast through tbe head, killing it instantly, lie
is now quite a hero In the community.
The little cod of the polar seas, although
a pigmy compared with tbe true cod of tbs
Grand Banks and George's, stands to the
Esquimaux in as Important a relation as iu
bigger relative to the people of New England.
Of the 52 vessels constituting the Arctic
whaling fleet as it existed at the beanning of
tbe season. 43 have arrived at San Francisco.
The total catch for the seasun amounts to 14,835
barrels of oil and 241,360 pounds of bone,
Richardson mentions the polar cod, or
coal flsb, as the principal nourishment of the
sea fowl which frequent tbe Arctic regions in
summer, its habit of swimming at the top of
the water making it extremely easy of
capture.
From a bushel of corn the distiller gets
four gallons of whisky which will retail at J16.
The Government gets S3 60, tbe farmer gels 40
cents, the railroad gets si, the manufacturer
gets H, tho retailer gets $7 and the consumer
gets drunk.
In Paris, when a funeral is. passing,
persons in view of the procession remove their
hats and remain uncovered until it passes, and
in London, Berlin, Vienna, Rome and other im
portant cities funerals are treated with
respectful consideration.
Little kerosene lamps, made to fit in or
dinary silver candlesticks, are in demand for
rich men's tables. Ihey are displacing candles
because they give more light, don't set fire to
tho fancy shades, don't smoke or barn out
quickly and because they are the fashion.
To fell a large mahogany tree is one
day's task for two men. On account of tbe wide
spurs which project from the trunk at its base,
scaffolds have to be erected and tbe tree mi off
above tbe spurs, which leave a stump from 10
to 15 feet high a waste of the very best wood.
The length of the polar cod is said to
reach a maximum of 14 Inches; the average
length, however, is about one foot, and the
weight less than half a pound. The flsb, ac
cording to Richardson, spawns on set weeds
along the shores In February and uoaer the
ice.
Four young men of Piscataquis, 3Ie.,
while "kating on Harrison Point at Sebec last
week, noticed pickerel swimming about and at
once secured an ax. "Striking the ice stunned
the flsb, and when a hole was cut through it
was easy to serure a large number. They car
ried home 36 of the finest specimens.
Guttapercha derives its name from the
Malayan words gueta, a gum, and pertcba, a
cloth, and was introduced to tbe civilized world
in 1842 by Dr. Montgomery, a Scotch surgeon.
Tbe first specimens were taken to London from
Singapore by Jose Almeida, and the properties
of tha gum were announced by Hancock,
Wheatstone aud Faraday.
Foreign agents are buyinsrlarge num
bers of male finches in Voronezh and neighbor
ing provinces and sending tbem to London
Tney pay as much 'as 25 kopecks apiece. Tha
bunting for these birds has become quite an
industry in those Governments. No less than
10.000 finches were shipped from Russia during
the months of August and September.
"When a woodcock "twitters" he squeals,
pipes, squeaks, rather than whistles. The sound
made in swift flight by the wings of tbis and
other species many of ourducks for example
is perhaps more appropriately termed a whistle.
Frank, Forester makes tbe same distinction.
He speaks of the woodcock's flisbt after tbe
leaves are off tbe underbrush of its darting
away "on a vigorous and whistling pinion, with
sharp-piping alarm note, swift as a rifle bullet."
Certain worms similar to thetubifex
multiply by producing new parts. There is one
form, known by tbe quaint name of Nats,
which will develop in tbe midst of its own body
a second bead, and just in front of tbe new head
a second tail. Tbns there come to be, as it
were, two worms joined together; the front one
has tbe old head and a new tall, tbe hind one a
new head and the old tail. By and by tbe com
panions separate, and tbe parent body is thus
transformed into two complete animals.
A woodcock-, which was recently kept a
few days in captivity by Gurdon Trumbull, of
Hartford, Conn., ate, by aotcal measurement,
about a half pint of earth worms during each
day (24 hours); the worms being measured
without any dirt, of course; each one picked
up by itself, shaken clean, and dropped Into
the measure. Arew "white grubs" of different
sizes wero also supplied: be ate tbe little ones
bnt refused tbe larger. None of tbe angle
worms, however, seemed too large for him.
An exhibition of a novel kind is planned
in St. Petersburg. The geographical and eth
nographical societies ot St. Petersburg aud
Moscow, tho art academies and the historical
museums, have for the last ten years collected
women's needlework from all parts of ths
Czar's empire in Europe. Aula and Africa. Now
thev have several thousand samples of that
work, which represent the patience, abilities
and taste of the women of various regions and
trioes. To tbis will be added tbe historical or
namentation of garments. Doth male and fe
male, as well as pictures of the various peoples
and lands from which the needle work was col
lected. HUMOR OFTHE HOUR.
"At last I have it," said the poor bnt
honest man who knows It all. "1 shall advertise
for pupils. Incorporate myself into a university.
and wilt for some rich man to endow me." Asia
Xork Sun.
Clericus (clinching the argument) Worth
makes the man and want of It the fellow:
Cvnlcus Yes? How much does he have to be
worth?-iYew York Herald.
Friend I suppose everything is settled
in regard to tbe marriage of your daughter?
Stoakley Well, yes; everyinintr out tne nuis.
Detroit ttee Press.
Tom The man in the room next to me if
learning to play on the piano.
jack And what do you do?
Tom I'm learning to s-vear. Kev Xork' Herald.
Teacher Tommy Trewant, don't you
know that the rule of this school Is for children to
have their shoes shlned? Why are yonrs so dirty?
Tommy Trewant I did shine 'em, ma'am. But
I climbed up a tree afterward, to get this nice red
apple for you. Puc.
THE BOSTON GIRL'S CHRISTMAS.
She tossed her Christmas toys aside,
Her face with disappointment frowning,
"Ou. dear!" tbe little maiden sighed,
I did so want another Browning!"
Lift.
The richest woman in Baltimore has de
cided to retire from the world; which means, we
suppose, that she Is going to move- to Philadel
phia. Judge.
Auntie Katie, you must not cut out
dolls on Sunday. Remember the fourth com
mandment. God made this beautiful world la
six days and rested on the seventh.
Katie tatter a little reflection) Auntie, did Ha
make everything In six days?
"Yes. my dear, everything."
'Well, I reckon He did rest, 'cause He didn't
have anything else to do." Life.
MistEIderlelgh No, Mr. Sissy, there is
not a day passes that I do not add to my store of
knowledge. ' ;
Mr. Sissy Une Is never too old to learn.
(And he wonders why she is never at home wae j
he calls now.) Detroit irttPrttt.. . m. f