-n -en
Miss Passt I dread to think of my thirtieth birthday.
Miss Btjdd "Why, what happened? Puck.
"THE j&.
Ont in the cold world, ont in the street,
Tammany, Crisp and his little speech.
Ken TorkPrm.
A DINNER IN PARIS.
"What One Must Pay in a Moderate,
Respectable Restaurant
1 MEAL A LA CAETE AT 80 CENTS,
Beefsteak Comes to the Ordinary Consumer
at 40 Cents a round.
DUTIES COLLECTED 05 EATABLES
rcoRBESPOxnixcx or the dispatch i
Paris, Dec S. Eestaurant food In Paris
Is at the same time cheaD and not cheap.
Whatever cheapness there is in Parisian
living over that in America consists rather
In a higher qnality obtained for the same
money than in any actual lowness of price.
This higher quality should be pnt down to
the minute habits of an old established
mode of life, not to be expected in a new
and rich country like America.
Something like this has recently been
said by M. Paul Descbenels, who came
back from his late mission in America with
favorable impressions of nearly all that we
have and do in the United States, He
reiterates that the cost of living in the
United States is not dearer than in France:
You will far that livins is dearer in
America. Tes and no. It depends on the
nature of the expenses. TheAmerican ex
pends more for his rent and for his clothing;
but he spends less for his food. For his
rent the American pays about 1C per cent or
his entire revenue, the Enalishman 11 per
cent, the Frenchman S per cent, the Belgian
10 per cent, and the Gorman G per cent. On
the contrary, lor hU fool the American pays
only 42 por cent, whereas the E'.slishuian
pays 47 per cent, the Frenchman 49 per cent,
the Belgian 43 per cent, and the German 51
per cent. For alcoholic drinks and tobacco
the American spends only 6 per cent, while
the Englishman spends 7 ner cent, and the
Frenchman 13 percent. These are only ap-
Si
loximate nnres, snoject to conuoveray,
ut the general conclusion is exact.
Taxed for Parisian Revenue.
Food is cheaper in America than in
Prance. This is all the truer of our great
American cities which have the first pick
of the market, when comparison is mnde
with Paris and its enormous population
subjected to extra octroi duties on every
pound of chicken and every box of straw
berries that pass the harriers. This munici
pal tax on eatables and combustibles
amounts every year to something like $30,
000,000. Twelve millions of dollars are
from wine and liquors, while 56,000,000 are
collected on eatables and ?3,O00,O00 more on
fuel, kerosene and oil. On horse food and
provender alone more than $1,000,000 are
annually collected. Thus, not an article of
food passes the fortifications but is taxed
for the city's revenue.
As a result beefsteak comes to the ordi
nary consumer at 40 cents a pound, a good
chicken costs $1 and one good .mutton chop
12 cents. In what, then, consist! the seem
ing cheapness ol Paris restaurant food?
The answer will be found by studying a
typical Parisian restaurant
A Hint for Pittsburg Restaurateurs.
The Duval restaurants, which are the
property of a single company, are scattered
all over Paris, and they do an enormous
business. Their theory is that people of
moderate means will patronize places where
something like the skill, taste aud care of
expensive restaurants is exercised on
cheaper food, served in very small por
tions. The Davai restaurants are tempting
because they are clean and dainty, and be
cause the price of each dish is small.
The first charce of 1 cent is for the nap
kin and cloth. This secures fresh ones for
each guest: The second charge is for bread,
2 cents. There is little difference between
the breakfast and dinner card; and what
ever variety there may be outside of great
lines irom month to month will be due to
the fluctations of the provision market
Soups are usually clear, thin and cheat)
excepting now and then a savory pottage
Into which peas and patatoes enter .freely.
Onion sout is G cents, with grated cheese 7
cents. This soup is a favorite, especially at
nights, and in other higher restaurants; it
is thought to fit one for sleep, to make the
stomach clean and the breath sweet the next
xnorninsr, while taken with a little grated
cheese it is an excellent digestive. Con
EVENTS OF THE DAY AS THE COMIC
; . . , . -r 5 -o
somme, bouillon and bread soup are each 5
cents. There is nothing remarkable about
them except that they are hot and filling,
and enable a man to eat a quantity of
bread.
Portions of Sleat and IJsh.
At the Duval establishment the fish is
very often good, therefore it is only natu
ral that the portions should be small.
Among the meats plain boiled beef, with
out gravy or a vegetable, costs 6 cents gar
nished with a vegetable it is 8 cents. Here
there is a enrious manipulation of prices.
The "garniture" of meats by vegetables is
charged but little extra for; but the quan
tity of vecetable given is half that of a reg
ular order. Thus, pears are 12 cents a plate;
but plain boiled beef "garnished" with half
as many peas costs only 2 cents more
than plain boiled beef 'alone. To eat
cheaply, therefore, it is only necessary to
take meat dishes garnished, and to leave
separate vegetables alone.
The European use of vegetables is a prime
matter of complaint with Americans abroad.
Sweet corn is unknown outside of Huneary
and the lower Danube. Here they call it
maize, and feed the voting stalks to cattle.
Tomatoes are not cheap and are most often
too delicate, without flavor and with too
much seed matter. There are no sweet po
tatoes, no Bermuda onions, no Lima beans;
while white potatoes are used just as any
other vegetable and no more. Neverthe
less there is a good list of vegetables on the
Duval card.
Customers Slake Their Own Salad.
Of salads there are chickory, cultivated
and wild, romain, lettuce, cucumber and to
mato running in price from the chickorvat
8 cents to the cucumber at 15 cents. The
name tomato salad is misleading. It means
one tomato served in a salad bowl. So
also with the rest, each customer mixes his
own salad dressing, using the contents of
the cruet stand at discretion. Americans
and Englishmen occasionally ask for sugar
to add. The waiter girls, although they
have brought sugar to Americans and En
glishmen hundreds of times, cannot resist a
lifting of the eyebrows at every fresh de
mand. I have seen one wild with vexation
wnen a Pittsburg dude asked for ice to cool
a fresh tomato before he should cut it up in
sugar and vinegar. These waiter girls at
the Duval establishments are generally
cheerful and good, but they are custom
bound, like all their people.
French restaurants have few puddings
and no pie. If pie is desired one must con
sult the columns of the Paris edition of the
Berald. The proper addresses will be found
under the scare head of "corned beef hash,
pie, codfish balls and other American deli
cacies." For puddings it is only necessary
to take board at a moderate priced pension,
preferably English.
The Fruits and Creams.
The Duval restaurants have a variety ot
sweet dry cakes, which are dear at 6 cents
an order; and there is pineapple in kirsch
tor 8 cents, and fruit in season at varying
prices. For instance, in September a small
plate of raspberries, or green figs costs 12
cents; cherries and green almonds were 10
cents, and peaches were 12 cents apiece.
But these traits are very fine, especially
peaches and pears; they are grown along
the sunny sides ot walls, the trees being
trained like grapevines and constantly
pruned.
They have also creams, always slightly
"turned," and which partake of the nature
of cheese. The ordinary Normandy cream
is 10 cents a portion, and creme d'Isigny,
in little brown pots, very delicate, is 12
cents. Among the desserts are sweet
omelettes and rum omelettes. The sweet
omelette is made by rolling the half cooked
egg batter around jelly just as it is ready to
take from the pan. The rum omelette is a
good dish for cold days, but it does not
digest welL Plain jellies, currant, cherry
and plum are 6 cents a portion; mirabel,
strawberry and raspberry are 8 cents a
portion. The last foods are the cheeses and
they form an important element in a cheap
meal.
. Tips Average Five Per Cent.
After this glance at each division of the
Dpval card it will be noticed how minutely
the prices are arranged and how the profits
must be made up irom small reckonings.
The Duval secret is to have no waste. The
service costs nothing, as the girls are paid
by tips alone. Tips, thongh small, add up
handsome sums daily. The average Paris
tip is five per cent on. the total ot the bill.
Everyone tips. The management gives he
girls their meals, Including wine, and they
choose about what food they please.
Back of the foods and always a source of
considerable profit is Jhe wine. Everyone
drinks wine ox beer, and the beer is nearly
Tnrm ABTS AT THE FAIR SCraPTTTEE. Sett York Evening World.
- Tv
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9) vnr xAl iwi,w4
W . uzii ill ' WW ymzw
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WAITING. Philadelphia Inquirer.
as expensive as the cheaper wine. The
cheapest wine is the ordinaire, which may
be had in a carafon a small decanter for 4
cents. It is scarcely more than a gobletful.
A bottle of the ordinaire costs 20 cents. It
is not good. "What they call Meddc is 24
cents a bottle; it is scarcely not bad. The
St. Estepbe which they sell you at 28 cents
might really be called not bad; while an
extra franc makes a grand leap toward good
wine.
What the Better "Wines Cost.
The most expensive Bordeaux on the
Duval list is 6 francs a bottle; the most ex
pensive red Burgundy is 5 francs; the most
expensive Sauterne is 3 francs, and the
most expensive white Burgundy is 2 francs.
The Duvals revel in chf.-vp champacne. It
may be interesting to read the names and
prices of certain brands. They are the
regular champagne bottles. Tisane, Si. The
Cosmos champagne (A. G. Leniaitre) carte
vert, 51; carte bleu, $1 20; carte doree,
$1 00. G. K Mumni's Ay mosseux is fl 20.
These, of course, are restaurant prices. The
extra charge for half bottles is 5 cents.
To conclude, there are two species ot
profit in the Duval restaurants, the profit
of the proprietors and the profit of the cus
tomer. For the management there is a
sure profit on each article with a compara
tively large profit on some notable wine,
vegetables and desserts. Two other profits
have not been mentioned, thehors d'oenvre
and the liqueurs and coffee. The Parisian
begins his dinner with a few olives or a
small bit of fancv sausage at 8 cents,
and ends with a Benedictine or other
digestive at about 9 cents.
A Very Satisfactory Meal.
To the customer the only profit consists
in a meal of variety and good taste ap
proaching elegance, at a price little zreater
than that of a common teed. Let us imagine
a dinner: Comsomme, fi cents; caviare, 12
cent; salmon, with green sauce, 20 cents;
roast capon with cress,' 25 cents; trcsh cream
cheese, 12 cents; coffee with cognac, 10
cents; and the wine, say, 40 cents. The
total is $1 27. If an extra soup be 'taken,
with a half bottle more wine and another
coffee, this dinner will be enongh for two
and cost 80 cents apiece. Neither of these
prices is cheap for a meal, but see what you
get.
And this is the best one can do In Paris
a la carte. One dish, two dishes may be
left out or cheaper dishes taken, but the
meal will always come up to 40 cents
apiece, even when two dine together.
There are many restaurants where a com
plete dinner is given at the fixed price ot
23 cents or 30 cents, but the food is not to
be depended on. A man had as well go to
a boarding house.
Sterling Hetxio.
STONES THAT WILL BEHD.
Certain Brazilian Specimens Are Flexible
Without Going to Pieces.
Brandon Bucksaw.
Of most stones rigidity is one of the most
marked characteristics and it is hard for
uninformed people to believe that there
are any stones that can be bent. Th'ere
are some, however, that are moie flexible
than .wood, and bend readily under slight
pressure without breaking. The most
abundant of these is itacolumitc, or flex
ible sandstone, which is found in large de
posits in Brazil. This stone is composed of
separate grains ot sand cemented together
with a mineral closely resembling mica or
sericite.
The minerals, being quite flexible in
themselves, confer the same property upon
the sandstone as a whole. The way in
which the cementing material was intro
duced into the itacolumite is not easy of
explanation. Mica and sericite are not
soluble and could not have been deposited
by water, like calcite or eilica.
It is most probable that they were origi
nally introduced in the form of clay or
some similar material, and afterward met
amorphosed by heat, pressure and super
heated steam into micaceous mineral. In
stances of a similar change of one "mineral
species Into another are very common.
Electric Bells In Churches.
Playgoers are familiar with the electrio
bells which ring in all parts of the house
just before the curtain goes up. This use
ful device has been adopted at Spurgeon's
Tabernacle in London. Strangers are kept
in the aisles until live minutes before the
service. By this time the regular seat
holders are supposed to have taken their
places, and the electrio bell signal is made,
followed immediately by a general rush for
the best seats that remain vacant.
THE PITTSBTJKG- DIBPATOH, SUNDAY, DECEMBER - 18.
REPUPUCAN
PASTURE
i iy,'
.$" ywiu
NOTES AND QUERIES.
Queen "Victoria Would Have a Big
Time if She Tried the Veto.
BALLOT l0P THE SLAVE-HOLDEB.
The Observation of Christmas Pay and
Other Like Holidays '
SALARIES PAID TO OUR G0TEEX0KS
The change of administrations and the like
lihood of a difference of opinion between a
majority of Congress and President-elect
Cleveland on the silVcr question has been
the occasion -of a number of questions as to
the veto power. That prerogative in the
United States is pretty generally under
stood, but questions as to the power in
England are often asked The Dispatch.
Queen Victoria has never vetoed a bill
since she became Queen. She could not
have vetoed one without causing a revolu
tion. The Sovereign of Great Britain docs
not rule; she reign. That is, the whole
management of the kingdom, is in the hands
of a committee of the House of Commons
and House of Lords called a Cabinet; they
arc the Government and responsible to Par
liament and the people. Tbey remain in
power so long as they can keep a majority
in the House of Commons behind them.
Now if the Quern should veto a bill
which the Government wished to have
signed, the members of the Government
would resign, and the Queen would have to
ask some other members to form a Govern
ment. But they would not obtain a major
ity in the House of Commons, and so could
not do anything; and the Queen would
have to ask the Ministers whose bill she
had vetoed to return to power. They would
refuse to return unless she signed the bill
Meantime Parliament would be at odds and
euds; everyone would be indignant at the
Queen's venturing to refuse to do some
thing which the people's representatives
wished her to do; and, unless she turned
about very promptly, she would find herself
minus a throne. The Queen might dissolve
Parliament, but there would be no one in
office to issue writs for a new Parliament,
so things would still be at loose ends. The
sovereign has the right of veto still, but the
right has not been exercised since 1707, and
is practically out of date in Great Britain.
A correspondent of New Brighton, Pa.,
who signs himself G. L. E., writes as fol
lows: Under "Notes and Queries" in The Dis
patch of December 4, in giving the names
of the officers of General Lee's old regi
ment in the regular army it was stated that
Captain Theodore O'Hara wrote his fa
mous poem, "The Bivouac of the Dead,"
lor the return of a regiment of Missouri
volunteers from the Mexican war. This is
a very serious error, and thero is nothing
in the poem to indicate, in the remotest
degree, that it was written for the return
of living men. It is threnodial in every
line every stanza an apostrophe to the
dead.
The true origin and history of the illus
trious threnody is as follows:
The Legislature of Kentucky passed a
law providing for the expense ot having
the remains of all the soldiers of that State
who fell in the battle'of Buena Vista, fa
the Mexican war, bronght to Frankfort,
there reinterred and a handsome monument
erected over their ashes. Captain Theodore
O'Hara was chosen as orator for the occa
sion of the dedication of the monument,
and it was there that, for the first time,
the grand elegy was made known and read
o the public. The poem comprises 12
stanzas, of eight line- each, but is seldom
all seen in, print.
The four lines most frequently auoted
are in the first stanza, which I he're repro
duce: The muffled drum's sad roll has beat f
The soldier's last tattoo;
No more on llie's parade shall meet
The brave and fallen few.
On fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread, ,
THE PESTS OP OUE TACTFIO AND AH.AXTIC COASTS.
Uncle Sam There shall be no discrimination. X will shut.you both out. Judge.
FROM THOMAS ITAST IN
And glory guards with solemn round
The blvouao ot the dead.
What is or was "the Fronde" to which we
find allusions in French history?
Stud but.
The war of the Fronde, or the Sling, was
the name given to a civil war which broke
out in France in 1648. The Paris boys used
to have mimic fights, with slings as their
weapons, in the city ditches; and the civil
war which had about as much value as one
the boys' fights, was "nicknamed "The "War
of the Sling" by the Cardinal de Betz.
Early in the autumn of 1648 Cardinal Maz
arin, Prime Minister to theKiDgot France,
determined to punish the Parliament of
Paris for having assumed nn undue inde
pendence, and arrested four of its members.
All Paris rose, and the King's mother and
Mazarin fled from the city in terror of a
revolution. They came bick in October,
but departed again in 1649. Then the
nobles many of whom were discontented
at Mazarin's changes iu the way of govern
ing, joined with the Parisians, and for a
time seemed as if tbev would bear down
Mazarin. But the Prince of Conde be
sieged Paris; the people ot the city found
they had to pay the piper while th5 nobles
danced, and early iu 1619 a peace was
made.
This peace was the end of the old Fronde.
The nobles, not contented with the peace,
kept up the new Fronde; Conde and Maza
rin made various moves on the chess-board
ot French politics: the Parisians came in
i w. ..... --J ....11.- : -IK-:'? --
BUU neuh uut, auu uuauj, u xvikj, cibij- i
one being tired of the war, the King was
invited back to Pans, Conde went to Spain,
Cardinal de Betz was imprisoned. Mazarin
was recalled to the side of the King, and
the Parliament of Paris was compelled to
cease its meetings. The war has been
called by Michelet, the great French his
torian, "a burlesque," "comic in its origin,
its events, its principle'," "a game of live
ly schoolboys in the interval between the
lessons of those two stern and severe
teachers," Cardinal Richelieu and Louis
XIV.
Was thero ever a time whon a slaveholder
could cast a ballot for each nnd every slavo
whom ho oivnedt Daily Header.
No; that is, no slaveholder could vote for
himself and for each of his slaves, too. But
under section 2, clause 3, of Article L of
the Constitution, representatives were and
are apportioned according to the numbers
of the population of the various States,
which were to be found by adding to the
entire number of free persons three-fifths of
all other persons. This gave the slave
holder an advantage, for it made his vote
count for more than that' of the non
slaveholder, or ot the voter in the "free
States." In 1813 the ratio between the
representatives and population was
1 to 70,680; say 1 to 70,000. In
the "free States" 14,000 votes
elected one representative; iu the slave
States there were more than half as many
slaves as there were whites, and of them
two-thirds were count jd in making up the
groups of 70,000 persons entited to one
representative; so that of each 70,000
about 25,000 were negroes, leaving, 45,000
as the number of whites, of whom 9,000
were voters. So each voter in a slave
State call him a slave holder, if yon prc
ler had as much power at the ballot uox
as one and five-ninths voters had in a non
slave State. But this does not say that a
slave holder had one vote for himself and
one for each slave. At the suae time that
slave holders had so mncb extra power at
the ballot box they were liable to a propor
tionate increase in the direct taxes; only
the United States levied no direct taxes on
them.
How lor-g Is it since Christmas was kept
for the flrsc timet Uexediot.
Since sometime in the fifth century; say
about 1,150 years. "Christmas is observed
in December, less because this is supposed
to be the actual month in which Christ was
born than because some day was desired on
.which services commemorative of Christ's
birth could be held. December, in Pales,
tine, is the height of the rainy season, when
neither shepherds nor flocks could have
been at night in the fields of Bethlehem.
The Romans, tiie masters of the world, ob
served their festival ot the Saturnalia dar
ing the month of December: and it has been
suggested, with a great deal ot probability,
that Christmas Day was instituted to sup
plant the heathen festivals. We know that
many other Christian festivals at first
paralleled heathen festivals, and finally
1892,
ARTISTS SEE THEM.
HAHPEE'S WEEKLY OP 1881.
supplanted them; for example, St. Valen
tine's Day took the place of the Roman
Lupercalia; Easter took the name and
place of the spring festival among the Sax
ons; and other instances might be given.
Before the 25th of the month had been
chosen, the feast was observed on January
G. the feast of the Epiphany, or Twelfth
Night. The older Christmas customs par
tace of the nature of the customs preva
lent during the Saturnalia: the customs are
observed during the entire Christmas sea
son, which ends with Twelfth Night, so
that on the whole the suggestion made
above as tor the reason for the choice of the
day seems to be good.
Is not the death of two Archbishops of
York in a single year, 1S91, a uniqno occur
rence! V. F. O.
Dr. Thomson and Dr. Magee, to whose
deaths you allude, did not die in the same
year, but within a twelvemonth; Dr.
Thomson died on Christmas Day, 1890, and
Dr. Magee on May 4, 189L But their
deaths are not a unique occurrence; in 1G28,
to go no further back. Archbishop Tobias
Matthew died on March 29, and Archbishop
George Mountaigne died on October 24.
But the death of two such high ecclesias
tics within a twelvemonth is unusual, if
not unique; even in the list of the Popes
such an event has happened only 14 times
in the last 830 years. In 1276-77 there were
four Popes, Gregory X, who died January
11, 1276; Innocent V., died Jnne 22, 1276;
Adrian V, died August 17, 1776; and John
XXI., died May 16. 1267; and in 1590-91,
Sixtus V., Urban VIL. Gregory XIV., and
Innocent IX., died. Since 1G05, however,
no two Popes have died in a single year.
What is the origin or the quotation mark?
It seems to have no reason lor its shape.
1'oixs.
The mark was originally q-o, an abbrevi
ation for the Latin questio, a question. The
"o" was placed nnder the "q," and in time
the present strange sign was adopted. So,
too, with what the printers call a "scare
mark" I It was first the Latin word "Io,"
an exclamation of joy or triumph; it easily
became our exclamation point. The para
graph mark 1T is the Greek letter corre
sponding in force, though not in form, to
our letter "p." The Greek letter was com
posed ot two upright lines, joined at the
ton by an horizontal line; it was the initial
of the word paragraph, and so was nsed to
indicate where a paragraph began: the
heavy black spot, making the sign look like
a "p" backward, and believed at that, was
made to distinguish between the letter nsed
to indicate a paragraph and the letter used
to begin a paragraph.
What is meant by the words "duouv" nnd
"duket" W. H. K.
Originally a duehy was a district gov
erned by a duke, and a duke was a general;
the word comes from the Latin dux, a
leader, i This idea holds in Germany,
thongh of late the French and British idea
of a dukedom has come into force there.
In Germany we find the Duchy of Anhalt,
the Grand Duchy of Baden, etc.; and we
likewise find one or two modern dukedoms,
whose dukes do not rule over any country.
For instance, Bismarck declined to be cre
ated Duke of Lanenberg. In France add
Great Britain for hundreds of years past
there have been only two dnchie3,though
many dukedoms, the distinction being that
a dnchy is a territory ruled by a duke,
while a dukedom is the rank held by a
dnke. These two duchies are, in England,
the Duchy of Lancaster, whereof the
Queen is duke; and the Duchy of Corn
nail, whereof the Prince of Wales is duke
What States pay the largest salaries to
their Governors? C. P. N.
New York pays her Governor ?10,00J a
year, and gives him a -house and allowances
for keeping it in order; New Jersey and
Pennsylvania pay their Governors ?10,000
a year, but do not give them houses. Ohio
pavs him $8,000, and California and Illinoix
pay $6,000 a year each. Ten States pay
S5.090 a vcar" each, and Orezon and Ver-
1 mont pay 51,500 a year each to their Gov
ernors.
Vas General Babcook, President Grant's
Private secretary, implicated in tno whl-tky
fraud;,? C. BYaoif.
He was accused of being mixed up with
the frauds, and resigned at Secretary Feb
ruary 24, 1876. He was indicted and tried
and acquitted of all participation in the
JrABXWZZiTj XO THE DUDE THE ATHLETIC TOTJKO- MAS IS HOW THE ffAD.
St. Paul Globe.
ff ScmM fVi"j j ' C" r " C'"'. '
CANNOT 'WAIT TILL THE POEKIDGE COOLS. Sea York Advertiser.
frauds. He went South after his trial, and
was drowned in Florida in 1834.
THE CEUiL BUICHES BIBD.
It Is Very Strong and Often Displays a
Great Deal of Sagacity.
Pomona (Cal.) Progress. .
The butcher bird, that is familiar to all
ranchers in this region, is considered by
some of the foremost ornithologists as the
most sagacious bird in America. Thomas
Oldham, of Kordsburg, tells us that he be
lieves it as cruel as sagacious.
"I have paid lots of attention to a pair of
common bntcher birds at my place for six
months," said he to Us the other day, "and
I have learned many new things about the
habits'of the peculiar batcher bird. A pair
of them have followed me while at plowing
for three or four days at a time, watching
and waiting for me to overturn a nest of
field-mice. When I overturn a nest they
will pounce down upon the little mice, and
claw and peck them to death. Then the
mouse carcasses are carried away to some
neighboring orange or lemon tree, and
spiked upon the thorn'. The birds seldom
eat the mice, but just kill them Irom
sheer love of the excitement. When they
cah spike a live-mouse, or even a rat, on a
thorn, they flutter about and chatter with
themselves as if they had great fun in see
ing the rodents squirm and twist in the
throes of death.
"But J am most surprised to see how
strong butcher birds are and what they can
life And fly away with. I have often seen
toads that had been impaled upon the thorns
of a century plant on my place, and left to
die. Because these birds are destructive to
gophers and rats, they are considered the
Iriends of the orange grower."
-
BuTTEKFLIE3 IN 1HS MOU.ITAHTS,
They Appear In Sierra Nevada Above the
lino of Perpetual Snow.
Pearson's WeekiyJ
A correspondent, writing from California,
gives interesting observations npon the oc
currence of butterflies at elevations much
above any noted in Europe. It is remark
able, says he, that these creatures of a sum
mer day can fly so far, and can bear such a
degree of cold as they do in crossing our
mountain ranges. Last summer, while on a
peak of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at an
altitude of 13,000 feet, I saw butterflies sail
ing leisurely about in the air above me
with no more ado than if it had been a low
land garden. That was above the line of
Eerpetual snow. In climbing that peak I
ad passed over snow ten feet deep.
At another time, in the summer of 1890,
I saw butterflies at an altitude ot 11,000 feet
on a mountain of British Columbia, near
the southeastern frontier of Alaska. There
was a pass, although a high oue, on the
mountain, and the butterflies were going
through it toward the east and seemed to
be migrating. Although these were not so
high as those seen On the Sierra Nevada,
yet in a latitude so far north it was surpris
ing to see them practically almost nnder
the Arctic circle.
The butterflies, were several thaosand feet
above the line of perpetual snow. As I
said, they seemed to be crossinr, all going
in the same direction. Those on the Sierra
Nevada, on the other hand, appeared to be
flying about for their own pleasure, not go
ing anywhere in particular.
DUE TO VEHETIAH MUD.
Adoption of lU;h-lIerled Shoes Orten Halt
a Yard in Height.
The National Eevlew.J
The streets of the City of Venice were
often extremely thick in mud, in spite of
the great severs which dated from the tenth
ceutrry. It is easily conceivable. Even
now, with but 69,030 or 70,000 Inhabitants,
the thorougnfares between the Piazza and
the Bialto are sometimes sufficiently bail.
We are writing of the time when the popu
lation was nearly five times what it now is,
and when Venetian trade was at its zenith.
Well, to combat this mnd the ladies took
to high-heeled shoes. As the mud grew
worse the heels became taller and taller,
until at length they ere half a yard high,
and as difficult to control as a pair ot stilts
without handles. The consequence was
that a lady in full drsss, obliged Io walk
but a few yards,, had to be supported on
both sides. This was a task for the black
pages, or the lovers, who bad now become
a very conventional part of Venetian society.
18
MANX SUPERSTITIOUS.
The People of the Isle of Man mis
judged as to Their Beliefs.
CLING TO THE PLEASANT FORMS.
The Cnlv Gloomy Spook Takes on the Form
of a Great Spaniel.
FAIEI GUARDIANS OF LITTLE FOLKS
rconnisrosnzscE op rna dispatch.
Douglas, Isle of Mas, Dec. a Few
writers ever trouble themselves at all abont
the Manx people. Those have invariably
set them down as "extraordinarily super
stitious." Then they have galloped away,
leaving the Manxmen in mist and their
readers in mystery. But I have gradually
come to know that, however grim-visaged
the face of the one confiding the weird as
sertion of uncanny belief, secretly the
masses of the people scout and flout them
all, save those of a tender and winsome
character. Briefly, Minx folk to-day reject
the essential slaverv of superstitious prac
tices, but universally insist on retaining the
pleasure of subscribing to the superstitions
themselves.
One traditional spook .which represents
the evil genius of dull despair, of dumb
inevitability and of rank fatalism glowers
through Manx tradition as black and dread
ful as the gloom of the halls of Eblis. This
is the "Moody Dhoo." Tangibly and as
crvstalizcd in tradition it took on the form
of'a huge, voiceless black spaniel which
haunted ancient Peel Castle, the daring of
whose satanic power by a drunken soldier
terminated in the tragic death of the latter,
as made famous in fiction and song.
Generalized,the ''Moody Dhoo" is the sable
spirit of lonsliness, of impending-danger, of
irrevocable despair. To a people barren of
book lore, impressionable with a thousand
misty shadows from the past, whose mental
activities are chiefly in contemplation of
the saddening sea and the keening-voices of
mountain winds, some form of a mental
"Moody Dhoo" is a logical and inevitable
presence.
There is throughout the island an actual
dread regarding the publicity of weddings.
Thongh all the neighbors mar be aware of
little details leading up to the ceremony,
households directly interested oflect the
greatest secrecy. Cooking for the feast,
dressing and the like is 'often done with
closely curtained windows at night, and
when all is ready the wedding- party will
mount an open car and gallop to the near
est church in the gray of rooming as though
all the witches were after them.
But the arrival of the Manx baby brings
a host of traditional superstitions, safe
guards and ominous portents into immed
iate activity. No one must step over it or
walk entirely around it, lest it becomes
dwarfed and weazened. Until baptism all
babes are quite at the mercy of the fairies.
The baby will remain luckv through life if
it first handles a spoon with its left hand,
but it will come to perfect estate if it
shall have repeated tumbles out of its
mother's arms, its cradle or bed before it
has attained its first birthday.
One ot the most winsome of half super
stitious customs in Manxland is for the
family on stormjt, nights to retire to restat
a very early hour, so that the good fairies
may unobserved enter to find shelter and
repose. A very ancient tradition that a
fairy in the guise of a beautiful woman ones
bewitched a host of the best men of the
island and then led them all over a cliff to
their.death in the sea, prevails so unyield
incly to this day, that a jranx wife or
sweetheart will on" no occasion precede her
husband, lest her character lor correct
womanly attributes be impugned. The
same fairy which established this custom ii
the one which, in its efforts to escape Manx '
vengeance, was transformed into a wren,
and has ever since, on St. Stephen's day,
been hunted, stripped of its leathers aul
beaten to death in countless nnmbers. -
Edgar L. Watckvatt.
An Aluminum Xlcroicope.
A microscope now made ot aluminum
weighs only 2 pounds 10J onnees aa
against 7 pounds 13 onnees when made in ;
brass. The screws are of brass, the Camp-,
bell-fine adjustment of steel, and the bom
piece pf Uermaniiver.
.