LI HUNG CHANG.
Rise and Public Career of the
Bismarck of China.
For Years He Has Been Vir
tual Chief of China.
The fact that one of the greatest of
living statesmen arrived, a few days
ago, at his 76th year, has almost es
caped the attention of the press. The
statesman in question Is Li llung
Chang, who, for over a quarter of a
century, has controlled the affairs of
the oldest empire in the world. For
the past thirty years every important
negotiation with foreign governments
has been practically conducted by Li
Hung Chang oil behalf of the Cliineso
Court; and the title of the Bismarck
of China iias been, perhaps appro
priately, applied to a man who em
bodies the views of tl>o Pekin au
thorities as completely as the great
Chancellor ever represented tlie policy
of the German Empire. Li llung
Chang first rose into fame during the
Taiping rebellion. When the empire
seemed to bo at its last gasp he stepped
forward to the rescue and enlisted
foreigners to aid in crushing out the
gigantic insurrection which threat
ened the overthrow of the imperial
dynasty. To his action in securing
the assistance of the late Chinese Gor
don and other able mercenaries, may
be attributed the suppression of the
most formidable rcbelliou which has
disturbed the Chinese Empire duru-g
the past two hundred years.
Li llung Chang rapidly rose in
favor, aud in 1870 ho was appointed
Viceroy of the Imperial Province and
Guardian of the Heir Apparent to the
Throne. These ollices, with numbers
of others, lie lias since held. It is not
often that an Oriental statesman has
been ablo to hold his own for over
twenty years against detractors aud
opponents, who commonly spring up
to check the career and thwart the
policy of prominent politicians in the
East; and it may truly be said that if
it had not been for his sagacity in per
ceiving the merit of foreign inven
tions, and utilizing them to strengthen
tiie empire, and at tlio same time to
secure his own position as chief of
state, Li Hung Chang would doubt
less have shared the fate of other
famous but less foitunatc Chinese
Premiers.
He established a torpedo school, an
arsenal, a railway and a foreign
trained military force within his juris
diction on lines which made him, be
yond comparison, the most powerful
Viceroy in the empire. Even if policy
had made it advisable to weaken his
authority any attempt to do so would
have been attended with so much
danger that the palace government at
Pekin would probably have shrunk
from the endeavor. Happily for the
cnyiire, as well as for Li Hung Chang,
the fact that his policy has been suc
cessful and that he lias never appar
ently overstepped the limits of liis
authority have kept liiin firmly estab
lished in office aud in the favor of his
sovereign.
Li Lung Chang shows no signs of
decline, and it is probable that he will
continue for years to come to be the
virtual chief of the Chinese Empire.
It is to be hoped that this will prove
the case, for he surpasses other Chin
ese statesmen of the day in liberality
of thought aud action. He has a
prudent appreciation of the strength
aud capacity of Western nations, and
while lie makes it his aim to maintain
by every means within his grasp the
power and influence of China, ho pre
fers diplomacy to force in dealing
with Europeans and Americans. He
has improved immensely the defensive
ability of the empire, and while in
this ho has served iiis own ends, lie
has also had in view the interests of
his country. There can be no com
parison between the China of tin
present aud tho past, so far as military
and naval power are concerned. This
should not be forgotten by American
statesmen when called upon to pro
vide for the protection of American
interests in the Pacific.—[New York
Press.
Anecdote of General Beauregard.
The death of General Beauregard re
calls to an old contributor to Harper's
Weekly the unusual circumstances
under which his last interview witli
Beauregard.took place. He writes:
"When iu Confederate service I
was thrown in with General Beaure
gard in a fairly singular manner, and
the incident of my coming across hi in
wou d have made a neat epnode for
Archibald Forbes. It wag two daj-s
after the fall of Columbian, South
Carolina, and I had been ordered on
ticklish service, which was to scout as
near to Columbia as possible.
"I had been working on from dawn,
and fairly familiar with the country,
avoiding the roads, I had taken short
cuts across the woods. I made out
beyond a clump of trees a man, some
what Napoleouesque iu attitude, for
his hands were cia«ped behind his
back. He was striding to and fro be
fore some embers. Peering through
the thicket which screened me, I
knew it was General Beauregard. !»
never would have done to have
bounced in 011 him. My arrival was a
surprise. He wheeled quickly, as if
on a pivot, and faced inc. 1 told h'm
that if he remained au hour more
where he was bivouacking, lie stood a
fair chance of being captured.
'•lie certainly did not know the
danger he was 111. I was probably
much more excited than was General
Beauregard, for he received the infor»
ination I gave him with perfect sang
froid. Then he called to an officer—
who was his aid, I suppose—who came
in, tottering under au armful of wood
and addressed him in French. As I
was familiar with French. I said,
•General Beauregard, English si-
French are about the same to ine, so
if you do not wish me to understand
what you arc saying, 1 had better go
away. 1 I again explained conditions
to him, giving him fuller details. 11l
a few minutes tho mule was harnessed,
tilt wagon crashed through tho brush,
and that was the last 1 saw of General
Beauregard.
"Wanting to learn whether ho re
membered the incident, I wrote him
in November, 1884, and this is a por
tion of his courteous reply: "I have
recollection of the incident, I have
no doubt that you saw me much
troubled in mind. When you came
suddenly upon me on tho road I was
«till in doubt as to which route to fol
low."
•-Two hours afterwards live com
panies of United States cavalry, four
hundred strong, were scouring that
South Carolina wood." —[Harper's
Weekly.
Plenty of Oeer Left.
J. L. Dobbins, the former trapper
and deer hunter of Reynolds County,
'<lo., is spending a week at the
Lac'cdc. Mr. Dobbins has probably
killed more deer and black bear be
tween the east fork of Black Itiver
and Marble Creek than any hunter in
Southwest Missouri. W r hile his long,
silvery locks indicate his extreme age,
his eyesight is yet good and not less
than twenty deer have fallen before
his Winchester since November.
"It's no trouble to kill them, boys,
but they are rather hard for a stranger
to find," remarked the old trapper to
a group of listeners at the St. James.
*'l have tramped all over the famous
Bush Mountains, Cuford's Range, the
Siiutin, the twin Hills, the banks of
the Big Black, Current Itiver, Marble
Creek and other places in the south
east for thirty years, and 1 know
nearly every hill and rock iu the
country. Of course, gauio is not as
plentiful now as it was then, but it is
all a mistaken idea about the deer
being exterminated; there are plenty
of them right now iu the cancbrakes
and mountains of Sjuthern Mis
souri, but 110 hunting party from
the city can find them; it takes us old
managers to do that, and, as hunting
is our living, we are not very fast iii
informing hunting parties where to
find them, but on the other hand wc
steer them just as far away from tho
game as possible. Whilo I don't pre
sume one mail out of ten from tho
city could kill a deer, they succeed iu
frightening them out of the country.
These are tho parties that are respon
sible for tho statement that there are
no deer in the state. They are in
structed by the hunters togo .to this
place and that place until they become
disgusted, shoot a few squirrels and
pull out for home with the impression
that there was not a deer within 500
miles of where they were hunting.
[St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Smoke Detrimental to Health.
A St. Louis physician says that there
is no doubt whatever that the adop
tion of some practical method that will
tibate the smoke nuisance will greatly
add to the health of the city as well as
to the general comfort aud cleanliness.
It is a mistake to c ill the various de
vices smoke consumers. You cannot
consume smoke, but there are several
plaus by which the nuisance can bo
greatly lessened by condensing the
soot, which is what makes the smoke
so unpleasant. Smoke thus free is
much lighter, aud will readily rise in
the air and be carried away; but laden
with soot aud ashes, it becomes heav
ier than air, and naturally settles
toward the ground, where high build
ings prevent the wind sweeping it
away. This soot-laden smoke is tho
cause of nearly all the throat and luugi
diseases iu the city.— [Detroit
Press. jf
WHITE HOUSE WIVES.
The Domestic Relations of the
Various Presidents.
Some.Presidential Love Affairs
and Romances.
It is a notable face, declares the
New York World, tiiat most of the
Presidents were or had been very hap
py in their domestic relations. But,
then, the ladies of the White House,
from Martha Washington to Frances
Cleveland, have been admirable and
lorable representatives of their sex.
Buchanan was the only confirmed
bachelor among the Presidents, yet
lie, too, had had his romance, lie had
loved a Miss Coleman, whojillcd him
without a word of explanation. When
she died shortly afterwards, lie wrote
to her father, saying "that he had
loved her more infinitely than any
other human being could love, and
though he might sustain the shock of
her death,happiness had fled from him
forever." Van Burcn, Jefferson and
Arthur were widowers when they en
tered the White House. All of them
cherished a most touchiug devotion to
the memory of their wives. Arthur
had met his wife at Saratoga and af
ter her death he conld never bear to
goto that place. Jefferson tended his
sick wife four months, aud on her
death-bed solemnly promised,his hand
in hers, that he would uever marry
again. When the end came ho stag
gered into his library and fainted.
When he revived lie was almost out of
his senses and for weeks was c. n tine.l
to the library, pacing up and down
the room all day aud all night until
exhausted nature could stand no
more.
One of the queerc-t couples that ever
inhabited the White House, and one of
the most devoted, wore Andrew Jack
son and his wife. Sho was as demo
cratic as himself, smoked a pipe and
used strange country idioms and con
fined her reading to the Bible. Yet
she was intensely sensitive to public
opinion. There had beeii some mis
understanding about her divorce from
her tirst husband, which, through a
confusion of State laws, had not really
taken legal effect until after her mar
riage with Old Hickory. The scandal
was revived when she entered the
White House, and it was the object of
Jackson's tendered solicitude to kcop
from her all knowledge of tlio tharce
ful attacks that abounded iu the news
papers. She died in the White House
aud her bereaved husband ever after
wards bore around liis neck and hidden
in his bosotn a uiiuiatiue, which every
night he placed on a little table by hi s
bedside, so that her face might be the
first thing to greet him iu the morning.
On her tombstone he had caused to be
engraved the words, " A being so
gentle and yet so virtuous, slander
might wound but could not dishonor.''
General Grant during the whole of his
married life wore a ring which his
wife had given lain during his en
gagement and at Ins request it was
buried with him.
General Tyler and Millard Fillmore
were ilio only I'rcsideuts who were
twice married. The forinor was
President at the time of his second
marriage, but for some reason he con
sidered it indelicate to be married in
the White House, a precedent which
Cleveland rightly honored in the
breach rather than iu the observance.
Fillmore's first wife was taken sick on
the very day his term of office expired,
and died a few weeks afterwards at
Wil lard's Hotel, in Washington,
whither sho had been removed from
the White House.
Lincoln's romance was connected
with his first love rather than with the
lady whom he afterwards married.
The former was a golden-haired little
blonde named Anne Rutledge, to
whom he was engaged at Uie age of
24. She died before thcjV could be
married, aud Lincoln almost went out
of his miud. His friends thought in
deed that he was crazy. He was es
pecially violont in gloomy or stormy
weather, when ho WjOuld rave and cry
that he could ncveij be reconciled to
have the snow, raii or storms to beat
upon her grave. J It was not until
nearly ten years/afterwards that he
became engaged!to Miss Mary Todd,
who refused Stephen A. Douglas in
order to accent him. But ho had a
prescntimeuUHiat the marriage would
not bo a htiJpv one. On the day first
set for ho became sud
denly ill J®d was unable to mako his
appeiuyrfce, though bride, clergymen
andjfucsts were all waiting for him.
_\4,nro than a year afterwards the mar.
fiugo was finally consummated.
Most Wonderful Living Skeleton.
The most singular freak of nature
known to surgical or medical litera
ture was Claude Ambroiso Leurat, a
Frenchman, known all over tho world
in tho early part of the present cen
tury as the "Living Skeleton." At
the timo of his birth, and for quite a
period after that interesting event,
Claude was as plump and fleshy as
any of the little French cherubs of
his neighborhood, Troves, France.
One account says tliat he was born in
1787, but a half dozen others place it
teu years later, so that we may con
clude that, had he lived to the present
day, he would only be three years
older than the century.
At the age of four Claude was al
most a perfect miniature mummy,
being a mere skeleton clothed in a dry,
yellowish brown skin. Siill lie con
tinued to grow in height, the bones
eulargiug just as though they wore the
framework intended to support their
quota of flesh. At the age of twenty
eight, when he was first exhibited iu
London, lie wa3 a man iu height and
general appearances, but weighed
only fifty-six pounds. Ho stood five
feet seven inches in height and is said
to have looked for all the world like
a varnished skeleton, the skin, which
was tightly st etched over the bones,
especially at the joints, being parch
ment-like, both to the touch aud to
the sight. When lie first began
wasting away in flesh (this during
the third and fourth years of his life)
the breast • and sides retained their
plumpness long after the legs and
arms were literally "skill aud bones."
Finally, when the flesh wasted from
the breast, sides and shoulders, the
skiu was so loose that it fell down and
dried betwoon the ribs, making it pos
sible for a person with the nerve to
do so to clasp the fingers around tho
libs and touch the ends together, there
being nothing but the two thicknesses
of skin to interfere. A writer on the
London Times says of liiin: "He had
tho appearance of a bag of hoops
covered with leather and set up on
two rough, knotty sticks."
The great wonder of Lourat's case
appears to lie, not in the fact of his
extreme emaciation, but in the fact
that such a degree of decay should bo
compatible with human life.— [St.
Louis Ilepublic.
Story of an Altered Draft.
Within a few weeks the power of
chcmestry to aid criminals lias been
made manifest in the case of a Buffalo
(N. Y.) bank. This bank believed
that it was amply protected against
fraud by what is called the advice
system. Its habit hss been at the
close of each day's business to notify
its New York bank correspondent to
alt the drafts it has issued that day,
and the numbers and amouuts of each
of them. This it was supposed would
prevent the payment of any altered
draft when it reached the New York
bank. But this advice system cost
tho bank .$12,000. A well dressed
man, well introduced apparently,with
the manner of an active businessman,
bought two drafts of this bank, one
for $12,000 and one for $l2O. This
transaction wag reported immediately
to the New York correspondent.
A day or two later a draft for
$12,000 was received by the New
York correspondent. Its number cor
responded with that indicated in the
letter of information sent from the
BuDalo bank, and it was, therefore,
paid. But when a few days after
that another draft for $12,000 of the
same number was received, it was
evident that fraud had been practiced.
The last draft was genuine. It had
been negotiated iu a distant city. The
first draft iiad been altered so that its
number corresponded with that of the
genuiiio draft for $12,000, and it had
been raised to $12,000. Yet the alter
ations were so perfect that it was al
most impossible for Mr. Siee to detect
them. As the New York correspon
dent had paid the forged draft, it was,
of course, compelled to pay the genu
ine one, and the BufTalo bank lost its
money.—[Atlanta Constitution.
The Electrical Wonder.
There has been some misconception
as to the working of the so-called
"electrical wonder," which is now
drawing largo crowds in London. The
invention would probably be more
correctly described as a photographic
wonder, the electrical part of the ar
rangement consisting simply of the
motor, which gives the rapid motion
to the series of pictures, and an incan
descent lamp in the interior of ilie
machine, both of which are operated
by a coin falling in the slot. The ef
fects exhibited are truly wonderful.
Figures of men and animals seem in
stinct with life, and their animated
gestures are absolutely true to nature.
Notnblv an elephant and a camel walk
and run respectively across the lield
of vision, and not only is tho charac"
(eristic gait of each made manifest.
Lilt the action of tho various muscles
of the body and limbs is distinctly
seou. [Chicago News Record.
PEARLS OF THOUGHT.
Hope is the wing by which tlio soul
ascends.
We easily forget our faults when
they are known only to ourselves.
A gentleman is one who is willing
to abalo something from liis right.
Every action becomes more certain
ly an eternal mother than an eternal
daughter.
No man convinces an audience who
is not willing to make a fool of him
self for his cause.
Degeneratiou begins when the point
is reached where one is thoroughly
satisfied with himself or his attain
ments.
To discover truth is the best happi
ness of au individual; to communicate
it, the greatest blessing he can bestow
upon society.
Be not in too much baste to come
to a determination of a difficult or im
portant point. Think it worth your
wailing to find out the truth.
Men are tattooed with their special
beliefs like so many South Sea Island
ers; but a real human heart, will)
divitio love iu it, beats with the samo
glow under all the patterns of all
earth's thousand tribes.
Times of goeral calamity and con
fusion have ever been productive of
the greatest minds. The purest ore
is produced from the hottest furnace,
aud the brightest thunderbolt is elicited
from the darkest cloud.
A man that only translates will
never be a poet; nor a painter that
only copies; nor a swimmer that
ewim.s with bladder*; so people that
trust wholly to others' charity, and
without industry of their own, will
always be poor.
Life is u succession of lessons which
must be lived to be understood. All
is riddle, and the key to a riddle is
another riddhf. There are as many
pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow
storm. We wake from one dream
nto another dream.
Hair-Dressing in Central Africa.
During the hot hours of mid-day t
when all actual labor is suspended ill
the village, the natives, urged by van
ity ami national pride, devote a great
deal of time to the arrangement of
iheir odd but elaborate toilets. Hair*
dressing is one of the principal obli
gations, and constitutes one of the
numerous domestic duties allotted to
tho "fair" sex. On arced mat spread
out in some shady corner the woman
sits down, and tlio man upon whom
the operation is to be performed re
clines at full length, resting his head
in her lap. She begins at once to
unplait his hair, and soon has it all
ravelled, aud then, with a coarse
instrument resembling tho
head of a child's toy rake, she combs
it thoroughly until it is clear of all
entanglements, and stands out all
over tho head in a thick bushy mass
six or seven inches deep.
It is now generously greased with
oil from the palm nut. The woman
then parts it off into sections, and
very soon tho coafse bunch of hair,
cleverly manipulated by her nimble
fingers, is woven down closely to the
head. They display a good deal of
ingenuity in forming a variety of de
signs. Sometimes a series of little
plaited strands, like rat tails, hang in
a fringe ail around the head. Often
solid plaits of hair about the size of a
goat's horn are made to stand out
from the lioad in different styles. Two
of these will appear sprouting from
the top of the head, or one will drop
over the forehead and lie along tho
nose. A very popular fashion is to
have a roll of hair along ench side of
the head, ending iu two solid plaits,
Which curl over each cheek like sheep's
horns. Both men and women have
the liuir treated in the samo way.
The plaiting operation is also ex
tended to tho man's beard. Tho mus
tache is removed, and so are tho eye
brows, with a razor, which is a small
cheese-cutter blade with a long sleuder
handle. This is used somewhat as we
hold a pen, aud tho stubby hair is
really chiselled off tho face, no small
amount of it being dragged out by the
roots. Tribal custom compels its re
moval, and tlio African is so insensible
to pain that the means employed do not
inconvenience him iu the least. Often
when undergoing this treatment ho
falls nsleep, and never betrays any
discomfort. —[Harper's Young People.
One Alan in a Million.
"Hello, ltivers you liavo a bad
cold."
"Worst I ever had, Banks."
I ain sorry for yon,old fellow. Wish
I knew of something that would euro
yon, but 1 don't. (With tears iu his
eyes) "Give me your hand, Banks!
You're the only man I've seen for
three days that hadu't a sure cure I"
CHILDREN'S COLUMJf.
BEGINNINGS.
O mighty, mighty river,®flowing down so
deep and calm,
With the mills upon thy fingers and the
ships upon thy palm!
Tell me why thou never failest, never grow
est weak and small.
But with ever-swelling current bringest
down thy wealth to all?
Quickly then the river answered: "Praise
the little mountain spring,
Ever sparkling, ever gushing, for the precious
gifts I bring.
"Far away among the forests, where tht
moss lies deep and cool,
There the mill hum* in a crevice, and the
ship swims in a pool
—[James Buckham, in Harper's Young Peo
ple.
"DON'T LOOK AT TIIE CLOCK."
This is the motto Thomas A. Edi
son, the "electric king," ouce gave to
a boy who desired his advice on get
ting on in the world. The implica
tion is obvious.
An employe who measures out the
time he gives to business by the min
ute, stopping in the midst of any work
on which he happens to be engaged
the instant the whistle blows, is not a
clerk to be depended on. Just as ha
watches the clock, so his employer
Watches him, realizing that ho needs
it. There is no heart iu such working.
The boy who starts in on a business
career with no higher aim than to
make each day seem as short as possi
ble and to draw his salary 011 Satur
day, is certaiu not to have his pockets
weighed down with an increase iu his
pay.
Don't look at the clock, then. Time
will pas- no moro quickly because of
your doing so; the way to bring this /
about is to throw such zeal) and whole
heartcdness into the discharge of your
duties that you will forget such limi
tations as time, which will then fly so
swiftly that you will not note its pas
sage.— [Argosy.
THE THREE CARAVELS OK COLUMBUS.
In the days of Columbus ves els were
generally called "caravels," and it of
considerable size for those times they
were called by the Spaniards naos.
When Queen Isabella determined to
help Columbus to make his voyage,
a royal order was sent to the city of
Palos to fit out three caravels and to
place them at the royal disposal. The
city made a pretense of complying,
but it was so well known that the
ships were for Columbus's hazardous
veuture into the terrible western ocean
that neither money nor force could
get them equipped and manned. Over
and over again the people were as
sembled in the public squaro and the
order read with great poinp, but all
in vain.
Columbus, in his despair, begged
that the prisons be opened and the
convicts allowed togo with him.
Finally, a ship-owner of Palos, Martin
Alonzo Piiizou, was induced, by an
offer of a large share of the rewards
iu caso of discoveries, to make an
active effort to lit out the expedition.
He was a popular sea-captain and a
vigorous mau of business, and it was
entirely due to him that Columbus was
able to set sail from Palos on his ever
memorable voyage. Pinzou con
demned two of the caravels given by
the town, aud substituted two stanch
vessels of his own. One was a
decked vessel of three hundred tons,
large enough to be called a nao, aud
the other was a little tiling with lateen
sails, which was chosen on account of
her light draught, 111 case rivers had
to be ascended in the country they
expected to discover. The nao was at
first named iho "Gallega," but they
renamed her the "Santa Maria."
Columbus took her for his flag-ship,
for he held an admiral's commission
from Ferdinand and Isabella. The
little lateen-rigged caiavel was called
the "Nina." Of the three caravels
offered by the town of Palos, the only
one which Piuzoti considered seawor
thy enough to accept was tlio "Pinta,'»
a boat about half as large as the Santa
Maria, and rigged like her. Ilia
shrewdness in rejecting tho other*
was fully proved before the expedi
tion reached ihe Canaries; for it was
discovered that the Pinta had been
tampered with, aud had been pur
posely weakened. A long delay in
the is amis was necessary to repair
her.
Such were the vessels in which Col
umbus discovered America; one a*
large us a small schooner, and the
other two about the size of lighters.
Hid ho su«poctod tho length of his
jo ?ney, or known of the t.rriblo
storms which can rage in the Atlantic
Oce.tn, lie never would have dared to
venture out iu craft so frail. [St.
Nicholas.
The New Orleans Hoard of Trade
recommend* tho shipping ai.d hand
ling of rico iu bulk instead ol' i.ibba r «
at at present