HE'S OLDBUT YOUNG
Editor Dana a Sprightly In-
tellectual Athlete at 73
Tears of Age.
SIMPLE BULES OF LIFE.
Vacations and the Ability to Control
His Mind Account For
HIS GREAT CAPACITY TOE DOING.
Memories of His Poetic and Intellectual
Life at Brook Farm.
'CRAWFORD'S PEN PICTURE OF THE MAN
HHU'l'M rOB THI DISPATCH.!
One of the most notable figures in Ameri
can journalism is that of Sir. Charles A,
Dana, editor of the New York Sun. He
has had over 50 years' experience as a man
ager, writer, correspondent and editor. Al
though he is to-day in his 73d year, he is as
active in the pursuit of his protssioa as if
he had just entered it. He has the vigor
and energy of a man in the earliest prime
of life. Those who are fond of talking of
the strain and overwork found in active
j ournalism should take a good look at Sir.
-Dana as I found him several mornings ago
nt his desk.
The caricaturists, who have made his face
halfway familiar to the public, nearly al
ways represent Mr. Dana with a short and
rotund figure and nearly always give his
shoulders a round turn. Mr. Dana is very
tall, very straight, and while his figure is
; well rounded, it is spare for his height.
He is fully 6 feet, and is as straight, not
withstanding his daily hours of desk work
for 50 years a' an officer in the regular
army. Indeed there are few veteran officers
is the regular service who carry themselves
as well. And he does not look a day
over 50.
Ten Picture of the Great Editor.
His hair, which is slightly thin on top,
cut short, is only now iron gray; his fore
head is high and full; his eyes are dark and
gleam with a light of mingled shrewdness
and kindness through heavy gold-bowed
spectacles. His nose is large and straight;
the lower part of his face is hidden by a
. sweeping grav mustache and short beard.
His hands are long and muscular. He
works with a quickness and an energy diffi
cult to describe. As he talked with me
during my first visit he read proofs almost
as if by magic; the long strips of paper
would run across the top of his dek as he
talked with an even rapidity as if they
were drawn from him by some invisible
piece of machinery. Mr. Dana was trilling
to talk upon almost any snbject I cared to
select if I would avail myself of his occa
sional intervals of repose, as he was en
gaged in the active transaction of his duties
as editor. Few men who have arrived at
the financial success which he has made
would care to devote from five to six hours
a day to their business. He is the onlv one
of the prominent editors of the New York
newspapers who gives his daily personal
attention to the newspaper controlled by
iis much to be learned by a study of
ctertpd career. His perfect health,
trong physique and undimmed vitality
the endtfot hfty years' prolonged labor
relv shoood interest every one. Twenty
ears ago Air. Dana bought a -country place.
.here he spends all of his time with the
exception of his middar work at tne office.
I am sure ,hat jf, instead of going to his
country home every day, he should instead
have gone nearly every day to some uptown
club, he would not now be at his post of
duty. His rule of dropping his business
cares when be leaves his office, and his
living in the country, account lor a part of
his freshness.
Bis Ability to Control HI. Mind.
His philosophical temperament must also
contribute a factor, but I am sure that one
of the most important elements is his ability
and capacity to turn his mind into other
fields than that of the actual newpaper busi
ness. It is verv evident from his methods
of work, bis habits ot study and the general
conduct of his life, that he is not much of a
r-eliever in the possibilities of overwork, as
overwork is popularly understood. It is
evident that be finds that there is plenty of
time for many kinds of study, as well as for
doing nothing at all, which he does not by
anv means cons der a waste of time
In my first conversation with Mr. Dana I
went over a number ot general subjects for
thj purpose of finding what would best
rl ae him in the way of topics for discus
sio n, but I soon found that nearly all were
q he the same to him. He had none of the
jyolitician'sdiead of expressing an opinion
tijion nnj of the so-called delicate topics of
tu e day. iliere was only one question which
I asked him which he declind to answer,
and that was whether he would support Mr.
Cleveland in the event of his being nqmi
tatcd at Chicago. To this he replied thatit
would be time enough to meet that situa
tion when it was before him. The talk at
first Ma5 about newspapers, naturally. I
submitted lor Lis consideration an idea of
W.T. Stead, who is one of the most original
journalists in Europe, concerning the future
newspaper. Mr. Stead in a recent article
said that he believed that the time would
come when rich people would leave large
turns to particular newspapers for the pur
pose of having certain reforms carried out,
or certain scientificinvestigations conducted
and exploited. Mr. Dana did not think that
the idea was a practical one. He said that
there would be no way of protecting a be
quest like that; there was nothing perma
nent enough about the character of the man
agement ot the newspaper. A newspaper
committed to certain views might suddenly
change hands, and so on.
His Ferocity Only Literary.
The outside public, who know him as a
cmc, think of him as an austere, cold
t looded, uncertain tempered man. The re
- erse of this is the truth. His temper is
l indly; his manners those of a philosoph
ical man of the world, whom nothing ordi
nary annoys or rumes. is lerocity is
purely literary. He has a keen hatred of
shams and of humbug. He has seen too
much, traveled too much and lived too
much to concern himself greatly about
trifles.
"Mr. Dana, will you kindly outline your
mental habits and the day's routine?" I
asked.
"Mental habits? I don't know as I have
nay. I suppose I must have, for every man
has them. I never worLed at home either
nt night or morning; never study at home.
It is. all done here and in the railroad trains.
I get down here, take the vear through,
shout 10 or 11 o'clock. The first thing I do
js to read my letters; then read the news
papers; cut out anything I want; then I
read the proofs, read them all every day of
the entire paper not all with attention,'but
go through them all. I don't bother aoout
work alter I get away in the afternoon. I
stop usually irom 4 to 5:30 and after that I
do -not bother myself with it, unless they
send to me.
"Yon have done a great deal of outside
work. Was that done at your office?"
"Never. I always had a separate office
for that. When I was a young fellow I made
a very laborious collection ot poetry; that
I made in my home, and when we made the
American Encyclopedia there was a large
office for that. That was a large enterprise
and a large staff, but the ordinary things we
call work and study are done here."
Horrid t No Place to Work.
"And then at home?"
"At home? Nothing but get my dinner,
amuse myself, go to the theater or to visit
friends."
"You have the repntation of being a great
collector?"
"That is done around the shoos and when
traveling."
"You are said to be a great cultivator of
roses?"
"No, I am not I have a small place
down on Long Island called 'West Island,
and there I cultivate every-tree and plant
of the temperate zone, and there is a very
extensive collection oF.plants. but all that
is attended to on Sundays and afternoons
after I get home."
"Then you travel 60 niTles every day?"
"Just about."
"Do you consider that a waste of time?"
"Uh, na"
"How can you utilize the time?"
Thirty miles is about an hour's ride; takes
about an hour and three-quarters from the
office to the house, and there I see a good
many people. In the morning I read the
papers, and after that sleep and take a nap.
No, time is not wasted when you are not
doing anything."
"It was the idea of the Puritans that it
was."
"The Puritan's idea was that there should
not be any pleasure in the world."
"Don't you think that your habit of let
ting your work go and devoting yourself
to congenial things, as mnch as anything,
has given you your strength and ability to
work?"
"It is a vacation it is a vacation."
"Your work is your vacation?"
"No, the other is the vacation. I bought
this country place 20 years ago, and spend
a great deaf of time there, including all the
Sundays, and I think it is so much gain,
apart from the pleasure."
He Works Five or Sir Hoar.
"How much of the time do von no.tn.i11r
devote to the detail work of the paper?"
"Here, to-day, for instance. I came here
at 10:30, rather later than usual, and I shall
go away at 3:15. That is about four, five or
six hours, but generally, I should say,
taking the year through, five or six hours."
"What class of work do you do on the
newspaper?"
"Pretty nearly every class. I do not
write a great deal, but I always have a sten
ographer." 'I take an excursion every year of one,
wo or three months: generally eo to
Europe. I regard it as very important to
get entirely out of the rut; to go where no
body can reach you with any questions,
telegrams; avoid the necessity of writing
letters of recommendations anything. That
is a pure vacation."
"Do you observe any special rules to
keen yourself in good physical condition?"
"No, except not to eat too much."
"I never saw anyone of your age who
does so much work in such fine condition."
"The only rule is, not to eat too much."
"How about sleeping?"
"If you don't sleep you can't work. I
sleep at least eight hours."
"Do you use any wines?"
Takes n Little TVnUky and Water.
"I drink a little whisky and water.
When I was a young fellow I drank wine,
but now the doctors say I must let it alone,
or I will have the gout." .
"Do you smoke?"
"Never. But I am very fond of it.
When I was about 13 1 smoked a cigar that
was too much for me; I have never smoked
since. Yet I am very fond of the odor and
flavor."
"Don't you think that much of your fine
physical condition comes from your tran
quility of mind. You are not easily wor
ried?" "My nerves are good, and I don't
easily get excited. One inherits these
thioes."
"Do you take exercise?"
"I take a great deal of exercise. A man
who travels CO miles a day on the railroad,
and by carriage drives himself then walks
around his place half an hour or so; gets up
at 6:30 or 7 o'clock in the morning, takes a
great deal of exercise. I don't take any
regular exercise."
"Do yon follow what is called an Amer
ican diet? Do you take a heavy break
fast?" "When I live in France I follow the
Fiench system. Here I have to take it as I
can eet it."
"When you write do you dictate or write
with your own hand?"
"Almost always dictate."
"I once heard Mr. Blaine say he did not
think the highest classical work could be
arrived at by a writer who dictated."
"I don't believe that It is a mere ques
tion of thought If you have the thing in
your mind you can express it yourself or
dictate it to anyone. I don't think it
makes much difference. If your articles
have the ideas and thoughts, the principal
thing, they will produce their on effect.
Whether they are signed John Smith or
Horace Greeley, what difference does it
make except a man may be attached to
Horace Greeley and think whatever he
says is of importance; but generally speak-
The fiAwspapers Mast Pay.
"What is the prime object, from your
standpoint, in the publication of a newspa
per?" "That is a complicated question. The
great object, of course, is business. A news
paper is published for the sake of profit, like
any other business; then after that comes
me intellectual motive, tne success ot a
cause, the supremacy of one party over an
other, all those things which intellectual
men contend about, but no newspaper could
be published unless it paid, and when you
take a modern newspaper, with the capital
that is required to carry it on, where, for
instance, it has to have a half-dozen presses
that cost $150,000 each, it is plain there
must be a considerable profit or the enter
prise would not live."
"What is the great expense of producing
a metropolitan paper for a day?"
"I never calculated. I should say, take
the whole thing, all around, month by
month, about 51,000 a day. On careful
scrutiny it may be more or less, but it
would not vary much, I think."
"Then you don't think the question of
morality, or improving the public, enters
any more into the conduct of a newspaper
than any other business?" ,
. "Yes,"a little more, beeatse the intel
lectual character of a newspaper requires it
to discuss political moral questions, and
this tact makes it a matter of more conse
quence makes moralityand public wellbelng
of more consequence to it than any other busi- I
THE
ness. Moreover, there is certain respon
sibility enforced upon a newspaper. If it
shocks the moral sentiment of the commu
nity it is punished tor it, by losing busi
ness." "What was' the Brook Farm experi
ment?" The Brook Farm experiment.
"The Brook Farm experiment was that of
a general mmifestation that took place all
over this country along about 1810. Every
intellectual man in the 'United States, by
some spontaneous operation, seemed to have
a general tendency to the study of co-operative
social organization, and it was every
where. In Massachusetts George Bipley,
who was a superior Unitarian clergyman and
a remarkable scholar, and his wife took the
lead. They had held meetings of their
friends for a long time and concluded that
they would try the experiment o democ
racy in society life, so they went ont and
established the community at Brook Farm.
The business was to be agriculture and edu
cation. They were all learned people and
familiar with the cause ot education, and
thought they could create a school there
and carry on the farm. They bought a
farm of 200 acres of land eight miles from
Boston. The enterprise lasted from 1811
until March, 1816."
"Were you there all through?"
"Not through the whole of it. I was
there until its failure was substantially
brought about by the burning of a large
building in which they had invested all
their money. Then I le'ft and went to the
Chronolype in Boston."
"Do you think the idea was good?"
"It was a benevolent association. All
were equal. Each man was paid at the same
rate for his work. The shoemaker was paid
as much as the President of the establish
ment. ThIr Ideas Were Not PracMcible.
"How do you think that would do ap
plied to real life?"
"I don't think it would work at all. It
takes away the premium on superior in
telligence. During the time I was there
there were some students in the Newton
Theological seminary and some young ladies
in a school near by. Tne youne men at
Newton wanted a"teacher of German, and
the younz ladles wanted a teacher ot Span
ish. I went over and taujjht tlio men Gor
man and the ladles Spanish and received
the same rates tliey would have paid any
other teacher, and that was turned Into the
treasury. It wasmoie than my allowance
as a member of the society. That was the
-systoui."
"Somebody once told mft that you took up
a new science every yeart''
"If there's anything I want, I go for It.
The last few years I have been studying
Ib.en."
"What do you think of IbsenT"
"Iben i a man of great genius, but he is
an irregular man, and his sincerity he leaves
you to doubt about. He is a man of great
conceit, interesting but unsatisfactory, al
most always."
"What do you think was the effect of that
Brook Farm life on - our future career?"
"well, it wbb a sood wbolesome life: a life
out of doors, and left the man Treei after he
got through with it, he could turn to any
thing, study law, become a teaeber.a laborer
on a railroad, or anything. A man came out
or it pretty free."
Dana as a Head Walter.
"Was it something on the idea of a Chau
tauqua?" "So, it was more a sort of a social ptonio.
The Chautauqua is a regular organization, a
regular machine. Here there was almost no
machinery. Each one did what he wanted
to do. For instance, I was a head waiter,
chief of a regular corps of watte rs.flne young
fellows, who waited on the tables every day
at dinner."
"And you enjoyed itT"
"Very muohl very muoh, immensely!"
"And you had fun poked at you by the
newspapers?"
"They don't understand it. But there .was
very little of this fun that we oared for. We
were reformers and were going to revolu
tionize the world. We cared nothing for
fun made of us."
"Was everything in harmony? Was there
a good deal of quarreling about the way the
world should be steered?"
".inero was always moro or less friction,
as, of course, there would be in sueh a con
cern, where some worked harder than others.
Some thought their judgment was not suf
ficiently regarded in the management of the
business. There were natural dlffeiences,
such as would arise In any place. It was a
partnership, but nobody had a cent to pay;
there were no assessments."
"And no contributions?"
"2fo, none, except as outside friends who
were interested in the scheme lent money to
the enterprise. In the final settlement some
of this was lost, of course, but it was very
little considering the extent and duration of
the concern. It proved one thing that peo
ple can live together in comfort nt a very
cheap rate.' T. C. Cbawbord,
THE BOTTLE IMP HOAX.
This Brazen Imposition Was the Keso.lt ot
a Wager Between Two Noblnnon.
The bottle imp hoax was one of the most
brazen impostures ever practiced on the
credulous English public of the 'laRt
century, says a writer in the St. Louis Globe
Democrat. It was the result of a wager
between the Duke oLMontague and another
nobleman in the year of 1719.
In disenssing the amazing gullibility of
the English, Montague, declared that if an
impostor were to advertise that he would
jump into a quart bottle all London would
go to see him do it. A wager was made
and an advertisement inserted in all the
papers promising that this feat would be
perlormed on a certain date at the Hay
market Theater. On the appointed day the
theater was packed from pit to gallery, and
thousands of persons-were turned from the
doors. The supposed magician appeared on
the stage, made the startling announcement
that it the audience would pay double
price he would enter a pint bottle instead
of the quart flask on the stage table, and
then hurriedly escaped by the stage door.
The performance ended in a riot, in
which the theater was almost wrecked and
the Duke and his oompanion bad to leave
town until the affair was forgotten.
Wanted Mr. B alne's Place.
A day or two after Mr. Blaine's resigna
tion a letter reached the White House from
an ambitious young man in Iowa, in which
the writer asked for information sbout the
duties required of the Secretary of State
and "how muoh the wages were," The
correspondent added that it the salary was
satisfactory and the labors not too arduous
he would like to make application for the
job.
i
4mHo 1) '
WBWIL
ME. DAi'l AT 'WOEK.
5
PJTTSBUKG DISPATCH,
THE VALUE OF TIME.
Eev. George Hodges Puts Trite
Thoughts Into New Dresses.
Old
A TALK 05 COMMENCEMENT DAT.
The Hour Is Worth Just What Is Put Into
It by Each Individual.
DOLLAR TIME PUT INTO PENNI JOBS
fWlUTTEN TOB THB DISPATCH. I
It was the privilege of the parson, not
lonK ago, to address a company of young
men upon the occasion of the graduation of
a dozen of them from one of the best schools
in the United States of America. At the
lequest of some of their fathers and mothers
inc word? men spo&eu are ucre written out,
as well as memory permits, for the sake of
any other boys who care to read them.
These young men, the parson said, are
richer than many of us, because they have
more time than we have a great deal more
time, I hope, in the future; and certainly
more time now. And time is one of the
most precious of all human possessions.
It is not likely that you realize how rich
yoare. You think, perhaps, that when
you get out of school, and time, as you say,
is your "own," that you will have moro
leisure. But that is a great mistake. You
will find as you grow older that the years
grow shorter. And if you succeed in life,
as we hope you will succeed, you will -very
often find yourselves saying, O, that there
were 13 hours in every dfiy and no night st
all.
Modern Savings Banks for Tim .
The latter half of this century has been
remarkable for the invention.ot appliances
for saving time. The railroad, the tele
graph, the telephone, the typewriter, the
phonograph not to mention the great ma
chines which save time in the mills are
valuable in proportion as they serve as
savings banks for time. And yet it some
how comes about that the more time we
save the less we have. No generation that
has lived upon the planet since the day
when the morning stars sang together at
the creation ot the world, has ever known
such a famine ot spare time.
I have not looked in the century
dictionary to see if the word "leisure" is
still a part of the English language. Per
haps they have marked it "obsolete."
Certain itis that the fact of leisure has well
nigh ceased out of modern life. We live
in a perpetual hurry. We must be all the
time doing something. We are ashamed to
be caught enjoying-ourselves. We feel as
if we were stealing stealing time. Or,
rather, as if we were spendthrifts squander
ing time. You young men have more time
than you will probably ever have again.
Accordingly, the word which I want to
speak to you is about time.
The Keal Talr.e or an Hour.
You have learned, no doubt, long since
that an hour is 60 minutes long, and that a
yard is 36 inches long. It is evident, bow
ever, that thee words, "an hour" and 'a
"yard," are terms not of value but only of
measurement. The value of a yard depends
upon the material which is measured by it.
It may be a yard ot cotton cloth; it may be
a yard of gro'und along the chief street of a
great city. So the value of an hour de
pends upon what is put into it. And that
depends partly upon the place and time in
which the hour is spent, and partly upon
the person who spends it.
Think of this present honr as the sun
measures it out across the globe. There are
GO minutes in it everywhere, 60 minutes on
this beautiful hill) fa the midst ot these
scholastic surroundings, in the heart of the
treees; 60 minutes in the hot tenements of
the great city, where men and women with
unclean hands and faces, and hearts not
much better, are this moment drinking and
cursing and fighting; 60 minutes in that
devastated country through which I rode
the other night, where that awfnl river,
half of seething water, half of hissing fire,
came tearing down the pleasant valley,
drowning and burning as it came: 60 rriin
utes where men are becalmed on the great
Locean, or beset by dangerous storms; 60
minutes in the horrible dungeons of St.
Petersburg, and on that weary road where
men are trudging through dust and ice
across Siberia; 60 minutes where people are
watching in anxious sick rooms, where the
seconds are measured by the labored breath
ing of the patient It makes a deal ot dif
ference when and where an hour is
measured.
Precious by Season ot Its Possibilities.
God bos made all time valuable and in
teresting by the gradualness of his revela
tion of truth. He might have told all the
secrets of the universe at onee. He might
tiave gathered the race into his class, and
taken Mt Sinai for a teacher's desk, and
the sky tor a blackboard, and given lessons
in all knowledge. He might have sent
Noah to discover America. He might have
set up a printing press in TJr of the
Chaldees. He might have fitted out the old
armies of the living God with repeating
rifles. He might have conveyed the
children of Israel across the wilderness in
the successive sections of a limited express.
But how much interest that would have
taken out of life! Alas for man if ever.even
in Heaven, he comes to know all that can be
known. For life is made interesting bv the
presence in it ot the element of progress.
And time is valjyible because it is lull 01
opportunity. This hour is digmned, en
riched, made significant, made sacred, by
the fact that it has behind it the illimitable
background of the future. It is precious
by reason ot its possibilities. '
God has made all time precious by His
gradual revelation of truth. Every year
since the beginning men have looked out
into the undnown to-morrow and wondered
what wonld happen. And they have been
taught that to-morrow depends upon to-day,
and that God has put the shaping of to-day
into the hands of the men of to-day.
Every Year Something Has Happened.
One year all the geographies had to be
written over and made big enough to take
in this great new continent Another year
printing was invented, and then powder.
And minting and powder turned the whole
world upside down, took away power from
the possession of the few and put it into the
hands of the many. Then came the .Infor
mation and set men to thinking new
thoughts about theology. And then those
two great revolutions, the French and the
American, 'and set men thinking new
thoughts about politics. Every year some
thing has happened. Every year has been
worth living in. Time has always been of
value.
But to-day, time is of pre-eminent value
This is the best year to "live in that the
world has ever known. This is the best
land to live in of all the countries of the
earth. The world was never so interesting.
opportunity never so great, time never so
precious. In the Church and in the State,
what great problems clamor for solution!
What great changes begin to loom up in the
foreground! Alike in theology and in in
dustry the old orthodoxy seems to be giving
nay before a new and trner orthodoxy.
Two great forces, skepticism and socialism,
are bearing down, tor good or ill, upon us.
'All things are now possible. And von,
young men, are ntting yourselves to take
part in the settlement oi these unspeakably
important questions.
The Burden Bearers of the Future.
I look into the faces of the young men of
this class, and a deep sense of responsibility
comes upon me. For I see here not simply
a dozen boys, but a dozen men, the lead
ers and the makers of the Pittsburg ot the
future. I said that this is the best year to
live (n all of the years, and this the best
land to live in of all the lands. And I want
to say now, that this, I believe, is the best
town to live in that can be found between
the two great ooeans. And a large part of
the future of this town depends upon this
To-morrow depend upon to-day.
SUNDAX JULY
The years of the time coming are being de
termined by the way in which you young
men are spending the time present
It is a matter of congratulation that in
this school you have been learning some
thing better than mathematics and geogra
phy; you have been learning character.
By precept and by example you have been
learning character. The man for the times
must first of all be a man of character. It
is true, after all, that the great thing that a
man can do for his generation is to be' a
good man. What we want" js not more
men, but more man.
But the value of time depends not only
on the place and the age in which it is
spent, but upon the person who spends it
Some of you have seen that queer old
clock at Berne, where, when the clock
strikes, there comes out a procession of lit
tle bears and they maroh around the dial
But these little wooden bears are not an es
sential part of the clock. They might be
taken away and the clock would go on just
as well. There are people who have little
more vital connection with the times in
which they live than the bears of Berne.
A Good Many People Don't Count
Inthis busy day, with its great thoughts
and its great problems and its' great needs,
there are people who live frivolous lives,
and foolish lives, and useless lives: people
who might as well be living in the age of
old' Methusaleb. Human life is like the
water of the river it must be kept in the
current, it must stay in the great stream of
the life of humanity. If it is taken out of
touch with that rushing river, as one might
dip up a cupful of water, speedily it loses
its value, as the water loses its sparkle and
becomes stagnant
Keep in contact with the great world if
you want to make the most of life. Read
men more than books. Make it your busi
ness to know what is going on. Keep your
self in sympathy with all the great move
ments of the day.
And then see that you get something that
is worth while into every hour. No man
ever won success in life who habitually
wasted time. Look at the men who stand
about the streets with their Hands in their
pockets, or who sit in tilted chairs staring
out of the windows of hotels. They are
like the little children in South Africa who
were playing with the pretty pebbles, which
some wjse man who came that way discov
ered to be diamond. They have the preci
ous possession ot time and do not know
what it is.
Sidney Dillon's Start In Lire.
I read the other day about a man who
died a week or two ago who knew as much
about railroads as any man in this country.
He owned the largest part of half a dozen
of them. That man began his railroad
enterprises when he was 10 years of age, by
carrying water for the men who were dig
ging the bed for the road between Schenec
tady and Albany. He did that faithfully
and was paid $1 a week for it. But it did
not occupy quite all his time, so he wheeled
dirt also. By aud by he saved enough to
buy a horse and cart. And now he carried
not only water and dirt, but other needed
things. Thus grew up a great supply busi
ness. And to that he ailded now one inter
est and then another. And at last when the
time came to drive the silver nail which
marked the completion of one of the most
notable railroads in the world the Union
Pacific, Sidney Dillon was one of the men
chosen to strike it with the'bammer, as one
of the great builders and owners of the
road.
Prof. Langley says that the man who
knows most about double stars, who has
contributed most to the world's stock of
knowledge about them, is not a professional
astronomer, but a bank clerk in Chicago,
who has studied the skv after banking
hours. Think of ail the things he might
have done with his time! He might have
spent his evenings at theaters, or in billiard
rooms; might have wasted money as well as
time. Instead ot that he filled np every
hour with that which was worth doing.
Dollar Time in Cent Jobs.
Never spend any 53 time in SO-cent jobs.
Always be doing something, and let that
something be worth doing.
Time is a trust It all belongs to God.
He makes us His stewards in the use of it
It is to be used for His honor and glory and
for the good of man. One of the questions
in that last great day of examination, which
we call the Day- of Judgment, will be,
What have you done with your time? To use
time aright, and fill up every moment ot it
with good thoughts and good deeds, is to
accomplish a greater task than ever the old
alchemists attempted, who tried to turn
lead into gold; it is to translate fleeting
time into life eternal
George Hodges.
THE PaiKCE OF TUENIP&
A Story From Grimm' Fairy Tales Illus
trating a Good Moral.
There were two brothers who were both
soldiers; the one was rich, the other poor.
The poor man thought he would try to
better himself; so, pulling off his red coat,
he became a gardener, and dug his ground
well, and sowed turnips.
When the seed came up there was one
plant bigger than all the rest; and it kept
getting larger, and seemed as if it would
never cease growing: so that it might" have
been called the prince of turnips, for there
was never such a one seen before, and never
will be again. At last it was so big that it
filled a cart, and two oxen could hardly
draw it; and the gardener knew not what
in the world to do with it, nor whether it
would be a blessinz or a curse to him.
One day he said to himself, "What shall
I do with it? If I sell it, it will bring no
more than another; aud for eating the little
turnips are better than this. The best thing,
perhaps, is to carry it and give it to the
king as a mark of respect"
Then he yoked his oxen, and drew the
turnip to the court, and gave it to the king.
"What a wonderful thing!" said the king;
"I have seen many strange things, but such
a monster.as this I never saw. Where did
you get the seed? or is it only your good
luck? If so, you are a true child of fort
une."
"Oh, not" answered the gardener, "I am
no child of fortune. I am a poor soldier who
never conld get enough to live upon; so I
laid aside my red coat, and set to work, till
ing the ground. I have a brother who is
rioh, and Tour Majesty knows him well,
and all the world knows him; but because I
am poor, everybody forgets me."
The King then 'took pity on him, and
said: "1'ou shall be poor no longer. I will .
give you so much that you shall be even
richer than your brother."
Then he gave him gold and land and
flocks, aud made him so rich that his
brother's fortune could not M all be com
pared with his.
When the brother heard of all this, and
how a turnip had made the gardener rich,
he envied him sorely, and bethought him
self how he could contrive to get the same
good fortune for himself. Hon ever, he de
termined to manage more cleverly than his
brother, and got together a rich present of
gold and fine horses for the King, and
thought he must have a much larger gift in
return; for if his brother had received so
much for only a turnip,. what must his pres
ent be worth. "
The King took the gift very graciously,
and said he knew not what to give in re
turn more valuable and wonderful than the
great turnip; so the soldier was forced to
put it into a cart and drag it home with
him.
Tier BlvaL
New York Tribune.
Oh, she tried full hard to love him,
Tes, this little woman did;
And not one took rank above him
Inliermlnd or heart; xhe hid
. All his faults from buy-bodle-,
For she knew no harm he meant.
He might smoke or take his toddies
If he only kept the scent
Off his breath; ho might so flirting.
With the jiirls, too, ir inclined.
So he thought not of deserting
These did not disturb her mind.
But as to and Ho, one morning
Unobserved, sue saw him pass,
While he was hlnisel: udorin.',
He kept flirting with tlio glass;
Then her rival, she saw cleaily,
Was not woman, wine, nor pelf.
But a stromrer, for most dearly,
Hopelessly, he loved himself.
Kw.T.m la. Bra Bbowk.
A HOLE FULL OF CATS.
The Fun Two Boys of Pennsylvania's
Wilda Bad in the Woods.
TI&ED OP PLANTING POTATOES,
They
Thought They Could Make
Silling Mountain Screamers.
More
HOW THE! WERE WRECKED IN A EUT
icosBzsFOxnxircx or thb msrATCH.i
Koulette, Pa., uly 1.
HEN I was fishing
down on Barley run,
Doo Barnes came in
one day and said be
had just been up to
farmer Ben Pome
roy's and Jim
Crane's, taking some
stitches in Ben's
boy Sam and Jim's
boy Joe. The cir
cumstances that led
to his call np in that
neighborhood, as
near as I could
gather it from au
thentic sources, was
substantially as fol
lows: Fourteen-year-old
Sam Pomeroy was
industriously planting potatoes in a back
field on his father's farm, that forenoon
when 13-year-old Joe Crane came along.
"Plantin' 'taters? said Joe.
Sam said he was.
"What do you git fer ,doin' it?" asked
Joe,
"Don't git nothin' fer doin' it," replied
Sam. 'Fer not doin' it I git licked."
Then there was a silence for a moment or
so. By and by Joe said: "It's too .wet to
plant 'taters. They'll rot
"Don't seem to strike my pap that way,"
said Sam, and he planted along. Silence for
a spelL Then Joe said: "Tha's a wild cat
up here a piece, Sam."
A Trmplntion Worse Than Adam's.
"Go 'wayl" exclaimed Sam, straightening
up and leaning on his hoe, "where 'bouts?"
"Jist beyond the laurel patch, nigh the
edge of the Devil's But," replied Joe.
Sam pondered in silenoe for a minute with
his chin on his hoe, and then, sighing deep
ly, resumed his planting.' Joe broke the
silence again.
"Can't you sneak your pap'a gun?" said
Be. "I've snuck my pap's."
"Yes, I km sneak it easy enough," said
Sam, leaning on his hoe with one hand and
scratching his head with the other. "But
pap'll lick me like tarnation fer knockin'
off plantin'."
"Tha's two dollars bounty jist fer the
wild cat's ears," insinuated Joe. "An' the
hide's wuth $2 more."
"That's sol" said Sam shaking his head
dolefully. "Dura the 'taters!"
"There's a circus over to town next
week," said Joe, "an' 'tain't fur yit till the
Fourth of July. Is'poseyour pap'll give
you $2, o' course, to take 'em in."
"Not by a jngfull, he won't!" exclaimed
Sam, dropping his hoe. "Where'U I meet
you, Joe?"
"By the rock spring," replied Joe. "I
got pap's gun hid up there."
And Joe went back to the woods, while
Sam took a circuitous route for hgme as his
father was plowing on the direct route. In
less than a quarter of an hour he and Joe
loaded their guns at the rook spring, and
marched for the place where the wild cat
was alleged to be lurking.
It Wasn't a Wild Goose Chase.
That there was a wild cat in the vicinity,
and a big one, was well known. Some said
there were two. One had been seen several
times, at any rate and a number of lambs
had been carried off, and poultry yards had
been thinned out in a way that denoted the
methods of the wild cat So there was no
Can't TouBneak Your Pop's Gunt
doubt that one of these destructive prowl
ers, at least, was operating in the neighbor
hood. Men had bunted for it and trapped
for it, but it had thus far eluded hunter and
trapper. The day Joe Crane appeared to
Sam Pomeroy in the potato field, he had
been looking for a hawk's nest that he be
lieved was somewhere among the old pine
Btnbs around the Devil's But, when be ran
across a big wild cat, which ran np a tree,
crouched in the fork, and glared back at
him. tie, had thereupon hurried home,
"snuck" his father's gun, and with rare
diplomacy induced Sam to "sneak" his
father's gun, and join in a campaign against
the wild cat's pelt and ears.
Joe, as arbiter of the hunt, sent Sam
through the laurel patch when-they got
there, where he shrewdly suspectrd the
catamount had bis refuge, while he himself
went around the patch to be ready for the
wily game if Sam routed it out Sam
started the big cat and got a shot at it
Th Gam. Dead bnr Oat of Uracil.
He broke one of his hind legs, but the
wildcat bounded out of the laurels on three
legs. It came ont near Joe, and he gave it
a charge from his pap's gun, and tumbled it
heels over head. It tell, kicking and. yell
ing,' right on the edge of the Devil's But,
and its dving kicks carried it over the edge
and it fell headlong to the bottom of the
rut
The Devil's But, so called, is a canon on
a small scale. It is a seam in the rocks, not
over 10 feet wide at its widest part, 30 teet
deep and a quarter ot a mile long. Joe and
Sam looked down into the Devil's Rut, and
could see the wildcat lying there'dead. To
climb down the side ot the opening was an
impossibility, and it looked as if the hunt
was to be a truitiess one, after all.
"We're dished!" said Sam, "and I'm a
heap worse off than nothin', fer all I'll git
now '11 be pap's lickin!"
But Sam was too much ot a pessimist Joe
was optimistic and resourceful. If he
hadn't have beeu he would have lost the
wildcat's bounty and its skin, but both he
and Sam would have returned home with
more skin ot their own than they did, to
sav nothing of clothes.
It is a great place tor wild grapes around
and about the Devil's BJt The vines ex
tend from tree to tree, some ot them in a
continuous stretch for 50 feet or.more. It
took Joe Crane no longer than two minutes
to think out a plan for securing the wildcat
and all that it implied.
A Rope Prepared by Natnre.
He traced out a vine that had thrown it
self throngnsthe trees for IS or 20 yards
from lu parRt cane. He climbed the "trees
in succession, cutting the vine loose from
the branch vines and tendrils that held it,
and at last had it tree; a long, strong nat
ural rope fully fiO feet.in length. The two
boys tested its strength by both putting
their weight on it at once, and hanging from
it It held staunch and safe to Us native
tree. Joe lowered the vine to tire bottom
of the Devil's But, and went down upon it
into the ravine, hand over hand.
His intentions wercto fasten the wild
cat's carcass to the vine and have Sam haul
it np, but while Sam was waiting for the
signal to pull away he heard Joe shouting
something else.
"Hello, .Sam," Joe's voice came np from
the But "Drop down here with the gnats!
Tha'a a hole full o more wildcats!"
Sam couldn't drop down with thegnns, eo
he tied them to a long grapevine aud low
ered them to the bottom. Then he dropped
himself down Joe's grapevine and joined Joe
in the But
"Look in yender!" said Joe, pointing to a
big hole in the rocks.
Sam looked and saw four balls of fire, all
in a row.
Counting Chicks Before the Hutching,
"Each pair o' them balla o' fire," said
Joe, is "two dollars fer bounty and two dol
lars fer hide. That's tootems four is eight,
and this feller lavin' over here is tootems
twoisfour.makin' twelve, 'cordin' to Daboll.
You take the two balla on the nigh side,
Sam, an' I'll take the two on the off side.
When I say three, let her biml"
It seemed a good while to Sam before
Joe said three, buc when the word came he
"let her bim," according to directions.
Both guns went ofl at once, and the lour
balls of fire disappeared. But something
else came in sight Two .wildcats bounded
out of the hole over the bodies of the two
Joe and Sam had shot, and while the report
of the guns' was still bowling along the nar
row passage in booming echoes, and before
the boys had time to be surprised, they
found themselves mixed up on the rocky bot
tom of the Devil's But with wildcats,
grapevines, guns and stones in such a way
that the impress of it on their minds will be
fresh and vivid long after the impressions
made on their bodies have healed np and
disappeared.
Neither Joe nor Sam can recall jnst how
they managed to bring the end about, but
the appearance of the wildcats' heads con
veys the impression that it was accom
plished principally by the use of the butts
of guns. At any fate, when the rush and
whirl and yelling was all over, the boys
found themselves sitting on the bottom ot
the But, without much clothing on to speak
of, and scarcely a spot four inches sqnare
from their shoulders down that didn't have
Joe Was First to Break tt; Silence.
the marks of a wildcat's claw imprinted on
it. As they sat there, wiping the blood
with' such bits of shirt and things as still
hung to them, Joe was the first to break
the silence.
Hissed It on the Cntcu.1 atlon.
"The hole." he said, "was a leetle fuller
o wild cat than I calkilated on. But them
rlast ones makes tootems four is eight more,
Sam."
Sam said "he knowed it," but made the
apt suggestion that they had better be dig
ging out of there and making for
home to get patched up. So they
agreed that they had done their share, and
concluded to go home and send their paps
back after the guns and wildcats. They
hauled themselves out of the But by the
grapevine and limped homeward.
It happened that not long after Sam
Pomeroy bad abandoned operations in the
potato field and joined Joe Crane in the
wildcat hunt his father strolled over to the
field to see how he was getting along. Find
ing the hoe there alone, Farmer Pomeroy
hurried home to see what had become of
Sam. Not finding Sam, but noticing that
the gun was gone, be started for the woods.
In the course of hisreconnoiteringhe at last
came upon Sam and Joe as they were mak
ing the best time they could homeward,
tattered and disabled.
"Jist what I ben a 'spectinl' " exclaimed
Farmer Pomeroy. "That gun has gone and
busted on you at last! Serves ye right, an'
I'll give ver hide a good tannin' when I git
ye homel"
"Don't know about that pap!" said Sam.
"You won't find much hide left on me to
tan, I'm thinkin'I"
Then the boys told the wildcat story, and
Farmer Pomeroy helped them home on the
double quick, turned them over to their
mothers, sent for the doctor, and he and
Joe's father went to the Devil's But and
brought in the wildcats and the guns.
Potato planting will ail be oyer, JJoo
Barnes says, when Sam and Joe get around
again.
"But then'll come the grass and the rye!"
says Sam Pomeroy. "I wisht me an' Joe
could find another hole full o' wildcats.
That'd help oyer hayin' and harvest too!"
Ed Mott.
THE DUBATION 07 UFA
Certain Causes Which Tend to Abridge That
of the Ayerajo Being.
Philadelphia Times.
The duration of life depends neither ou
climate nor food nor race nor any external
condition, but on the natural constitution
and intrinsic vigor of our organs. One hun
dred years is the natural life of man. The
curtailment below this normal term is the
result of those errors and excesses in the
manner of living which impair the organs
and produce premature decay. From the
time of Noah to the days of Joshua and
Moses the record is one of successive and
gradual decrease in longevity. Joshua
waxed old and stricken in years some time
before his death at llu.
The whole of life teems with incidents
which must need eflect, more or less, its
duration. In a manufacturing and commer
cial country particularly, where population
is more crowded, and where art and labor
in their evey branch are strained to tbe
utmost reacu of human exertion, life be
comes subject to influences which act pow
erfully upon it, aud tend to shorten its
duration.
Some particular occupations abridge life
bv bodily confinement and the privation of
good air. When there is a free current ot
pure air tbe functions ot the body and mind
are kept in healthy action by moderate
'exercise, not by strained tension, and tbe
pursuits in life are of a moral tendency and
eflect, lite may be prolonged to advanced
years. But when we indulge in vicious
habits, which create pain and trouble, lite
ebbs away often imperceptibly, ami we do
not notice its decline until the fatal regress:
"As brooks- make rivers, rivers run to
seas."
BoACRxa, bedbugs, eta, grow fat on Insect
powders, pastes, eta, bat they never get
away trom Bnglne. S3 coats.
) " itv" '
j 1 W i ft"n(Vrrt AT? Tip 1TTT
A If AiUN lJsj U" VE UEjAID.
Scientific Explanation of the Tick
ing of the Death Watch.
IT'S THE AffTIC OF A BEETLE.
Fixing the Eyes on Distant Objects It
Cure for e'easiczness.
TOWING BARGES ACROSS THE 0CE1H
There is a more or less clearly defined
thread of superstition running through the
minds of most people, and not a few who
have at various times beeu involuntary lis
teners to the sound of unfamiliar tickings,
especially during the hours of darkness,
have been unable to prevent their imagina
tion leading them back to the stories told
them in childhood of the dreaded omen of
the tick of the death watch, which precedes)
a death in the family.
It is now well known that the ticking Is
produced by an insect, and a Parisian
'chemist has not only taken the trouble to
investigate the subject thoroughly, but has
sent to a Paris paper two insects actually
canght in the act of producing the sounds
alluded to. They were on the same sheet
of packing paper (strong tarred paper), but
on the opposite sides and at a distance of
about four inches apart One struck forci
bly with its head at the rate of six blows
per second, and the insect on the lower side
answered as soon as the other bad finished.
The insect is a tiny beetle, barely a quar
ter of an inch long. It is generally during
the night that it produces the ticking
Bounds, and in order to do so draws in the
antennae and intermediate legs, and, resting
principally upon the median legs, strikes
its head against its support by a sort of
rocking motion. It is through this noise
that the male calls the female. The larva
of the insect lives in woodwork (frame
work, old 'furniture, eta), which it gnaws
in the interior without anything outside be
traying its presence. A lew weeks after it
has been transformed to the chrysalis state
the perfect insect comes forth, and makes
its exit from the wood by bonng a per
fectly cylindrical hole in it which there
alter shows that the wood has been attacked,
and it is often mutilated to such a degree
that it is virtually destroyed. A smaller
species of the same genus works equal havoc
not only with wood, but books, herbaria,
natnrel history collections, cork, dry bread,
crackers, eta The death watch beetle has
the invariable habit of feigning death when
seized or disturbed. The simulation is so
persistent that when immersed in water, or
even in alcohol, the insect remains perfectly
immovable, and will allow itself to bs
burned alive rather than betray itselfi
Xions Dlntanco Ocean Towing.
The subject of long distance ocean towing
has been receiving much consideration at
the hands of American shipowners. A pro
posal has already been made to employ her
metically sealed steel barges for ocean trans
portation, these barges being towed by
specially designed tugs and towing appa
ratus. It is believed by many shipowners
in this country that we are nearing the
time when the towing steamship will bs
largely employed to drag treisht barges
across the Atlantia The possibilities in
this direction have been suggestively
indicated by some noteworthy feats
of towing done recently by the United
States tug steamer Saturn, which is
about 2,200 tons, and is fitted with very
powerful engines. The chief difficulty in
ocean towing is the failure of the tow ropo
or steel hawser or its fastenings. Neither
manilla rope nor steel wire rope can with
stand the sudden strains caused by the
motion of the ton boat and her consort in a
heavy seaway, the great want being elas
ticity. To "overcome this difficulty the
Saturn has been fitted with atpjm-- -s
paratus invented by an American engineer.
It is a balancing cable drum, which is so
eeared up that the normal pressure ot the
engine cylinders, situated on either side of
the drum, will balance the normal strain on
the cable or hawser; but if the strain on the
hawser is increased the drum revolves aft,
and the hawser pays out running in again
when the strain is relieved.
Loss of tile at Sea.
An English paper gives some suggestive
figures tn support of its statement, that be
yond the noble service done by legislation
for the protection of sailors from the prac
tices resorted to in the post by rapacious
ship owners, the decrease in the annual loss
of life at sea is, in a great measure, due to
improvement in the desiga of sailing ships,
which are now better able to withstand
great storms, and the adoption of steel,
which minimizes the danger of stranding.
The proportion ot lives lost to the total ton
nage entering and clearing English ports
has decreased rom 4.17 per 100,000 tons in
1881 to 2.06 in 1890. This represents a de
crease according to tonnage of about one
half. In the case of steamers the increase of
traffio was equal to 43.6 percent, and yet
there was a decrease in the number ot live
lost of 28 per cent
Preventing Seasickness.
Dr. Graily Hewitt has concluded that the
sensation of sickness on board a vessel can
be lessened, if not prevented, by looking at
objects away from the vessel, and therefore
comparatively fixed, like clouds, the hori- ,
zon, the shore, or a passing vessel. The
benefit to be derived from this method is
but little known, though for moderately
susceptible cases it is an almost sure cure.
Another and still more radical mode of pre
venting seasickness is the complete abolish-
meat ot vision for the time being by the
bandaging of the eyes. The bandage
should be applied before starting on the
voyage. The patient should also lie down
and get the benefit ot the horizontal posi
tion, which is an old remedy, although it
has been found in many cases that bandag
ing the eyes without lying down has had
the required effect
Ice Crram Delivering Machine.
An American company has struck the
popular taste in London by the organisa
tion of a system of 'automatic machines on
the penny-in-the-slot principle for the de
livery of ice cream. This toothsome ele
ment of daily consumption in this country
is not so commonly nsed in England, and
the ability to obtain it at all hours at slight
cost constitutes nothing short of a luxury
to many classes ot Londoners. The novelty
of the machine lies in tbe combination of
the automatic delivery with an ice refriger
ator, which is so enective tnat when tne
machine is full the supply of ices will,each
ice being contained in a separate cardboard
box, keep gbod tor a whole week; that is to
say, will not melt during that period.
Letter Weighing Made Eajy.
A novelty which is likely to be widely ap
preciated is a "postal" pen, i. e., a pen
holder fitted with a scale which gives the
accurate weight and amount of postage of
letters and small parsels. The pen nib it
ai ranged at one end and the weigher at the
other. The weigher consists of a carefully
adjusted spring. The letter to be weighed
is placed in a clip, aud the penholder is held
in a vertical position. The indicator then
marks the weight and postage of the letter;
Typewriter Register.
An invention just put on the market em
bodies a simple device, adapted for attach
ment to any form ot typowriter, which, by
the movement of the keys and space bars,
will count and register the exact number f
words printed by the machine.
J
.
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