THE GALLEONS OF SPAIN. King Philip had vaunted his claims: Ho had sworn (or » year he would sack us; With ar irmy of heathenish names He was coming to fagot and stack us; Like me thieves of the sea he would track us. And shatter our ships on the main; But we had bold Neptune to back ua- And where are the galleons of Spain? /lis carackes were christened of dame 3 To the kirtles whereof he would tack us; Vith his saints and his gilded storn-frames He had thought like an egg shell to crack us; Now Howard may get to his Flaccus, And Drake to bis lievon again. And Hawkins bowl rubbers to Bacchus— For where are the galleons of Spain? Let his Majesty hv.ic to St. James The nxe that he whetted to hack us: He must play at some lustier games Or at sea he can hope to out-thwack us; To his mines of Peru he would pack us To ~Mig at his bullet and chain; Alas! that his greatness should lack us— But where are the gallaons of Bpain? ENVOY. Gloriana—the don may attack us Whenever his stomach be fain; Ho must reach us before he cau rack us — And where are the galleons of Spain? —Austin Dobson. fifiHFsrK^ 0 A TALK OF THE SPANISH MAIN. $ Iu the begiuuing of tlie present cen tury the Gulf of Mexico swarmed with pirates, preying ou the commerce of every nation. One has only to refer to the newspapers previous to 1826 to recognize how great were the perils of a seaman's calling iu those days. Ships disappeared at times with their officers and crews, and it may be years after that some desperate sea rover brought to the gibbet told the story of capture and destruction. The worst locality in the West Indies was the south side of the Island of Cuba. Here lies the Isle of Piues and a succession of low keys that afforded the pirates excel lent opportunities for concealment. All merchantmen went armed in those days, but the pirate schooners, carry ing one heavy 24-pounder, could cut a vessel's spars to pieces and thus make her defenseless. Iu 1824 an English brig from Ja maica, bound home, was taken off St. Antoine, her crew massacred and the vessel beached ou the coast of Cuba. Her cargo was valued at over $200,- 000. The British government started an investigation, and it was found to be the work of a Spanish Irishman naraQd Cain, who had a fast topsail schooner called the Esmerelda, with a crew of 200 men of all nationalities, j among them two Philadelphiaus I named Brent and Supplee. It was also found that in disposing of the plunder a Spanish coast guard vessel had con- j veyed most of it to Havana for sale, > and that many Spanish officials were j interested iu the affair, getting a share of the plunder. The British government went for the Spaniards in a very vigorous man lier, demanding indemnity for the past ami security for the future. The : Spaniards yielded and agreed to equip a force to cruise ou the south coast and search the keys for marauders. A fa»t sailing brig of war, El Toridor, carrying ten guns, was put iu com mission, under Captain Heruani. He was a tine sailor and au honest man, and soon made it very unpleasant for the pirates about the Isle of Pines and Cayo Largo. At this time the United States had a fleet of small vessels doing police duty iu the gulf, one of which, the Enterprise, commanded by Lieutenant White,was very active and had captured several pirate craft and cut up their crews. It was on the same station as the Toridor, and ar ranged with Captain Hernaui to co operate with him, and if in want of assistance at night to show a light at the mainmast head as a signal. Information had come to the Spanish captain that a consort of the Esmerelda, a very fast sailing schooner called the Bouita, commanded by a negro named Pinto,would try and get into the Largo Key at night. She had been on a cruise away south and was reported full of plunder. The negro captain was a bloodthirsty ruf fian about 50 aud was badly wanted by the Spanish authorities, as he had murdered a brother of Captain-General Galviz in o'ue of the raids ashore. So the Toridor lay out about three miles away from the pass between the Isle of Piues and Cayo Largo, tossing and heaving and keeping her copper bright under short sail. It was said by Eug lish captains in those days that you might make Spaniards fairly good sea men, but it took constaut hazing to make them stand a decent watch. No sooner was the watch set than one-half went to sleep and the other half to play cards and gamble, leaving" the ship to itself. Such must have been the case on the Toridor on this night of the 10th of August, 1822. Eveu the officers on the quarterdeck were dozing while the captain was below asleep. The man at the wheel was the only one on the alert. Suddenly from the northwest came a bright flash and then the boom of a gun and a shot whistled through the rigging,aud then a cry from the helmsman, "Aliov, there; here's two boats alongside." Iu those days muskets were kept in racks under the break of the poop overhead, covered with tarpaulin, and the boarding lashed to the maiuboum. To these the startled crew rushed, and the sides were alive with men coming aboard yelling, "Kill! kill!" There is no want of courage among Spaniards,and the crew fought desperately. The captain was on deck and at once sent a man to the mast head to light the signal lantern, .and with his officers and marines pitched in; but the shore party had got first blood and they fought like tigers, while the heavy shot from a big schooner not over 300 yards away caiue fast. The Toridors retreated to th« f the Asturias was, possibly, even mort profuse iu her display of admiration. In addition to the usual subjects, he has passed in elementary algebra, geometry, physics, chemistry, botany, zoology,mineralogy,ethics, psycologv, Latin, Greek, French and agriculture. French, in his case, was purely a mat ter of form, because, like his sisters, he speaks French, English and Ger man with ease aud correctness. The English lady who was, until a recent date, his governess for our vernacular, received about SSOOO per annum and free quarters in the palace. In glaring distinction to this comes the report on Spanish schoolmasters, published in the official Gazette, the other morning. From the document it appears that the sums due to these long-suffering people for arrears of pay extending ■ over several years amounts to the enormous figure of $2,000,000. If we were indebted for elementary education to the same ex tent our liabilities would reach into the millions in round figures. Of the forty-nine provinces into which Spain is divided only seven are quite free from debt iu this respect.—London Soeiety. Fniigim Curving*. Ornaments of a variety of fuugus found in the Adirondacks are in de mand. Pictures are carved upon them, the dark coating surface of the fungus forming the background and the figures appearing in white. The dark surface is cut away to form the drawing. Touched with a knife the coloring of the fungus becomes a darker brown, so that all depths ol shading are possible.—Trenton (N.J.) Aniarinto. SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS. It takes eight times the strength to go upstairs that it requires to accom plish the same distance on a level. When thi) sparrow hawk is swoop ing down on its prey, it cleaves space at the speed of 150 miles an hour. The sound of a bell which can be heard 45,000 feet through the water can be heard through the air only 156 feet. The eleiihant has no fewer than forty thousand muscles in his trunk alone, while a man has only 577 in his entire body. It is announced that Italian experi ments on vegetable life with Roentgen rays have shown that the effect is iden tical with that of sunlight. The voice of a woman is audible in a balloon at the' height of about two miles, while that of a man never reaches higher than a mile. Under the action of stin, air and water the loftiest mountains are being gradually worn down, it is said, and the whole varied landscape of hill and valley is being reduced to a dead leyel. Captain Perry speaks of the great distance that sounds can be heard dur ing intense cold. We often, he says, la the Arctic regions heard people «on verso in a common voice at the dis tance of a mile. The efficiency of a modern cruiser is shown in a recent statement in an en gineering magazine that it took seventy shots at close range from a 9.2-inch gun on the British cruiser Edgar to sink a defenceless and derelict tank steamer. To illustrate the rapidity of thought, a distinguished scientist says that if the skin be touched repeatedly with light blows from a small hammer, the brain will distinguish the fact that the blows are separate and not con tinuous pressure, even when they fol low one another as one thousand in a second. The air within the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky has a uniform tempera ture summer and winter of 54 degrees Fahreuheit. The cave may be said to breathe twice a year, inhaling during the winter and exhaling during the summer. This breathing of the cave, and the purity of the air and its free- j doiu from germs, are among the most j interesting problems to be studied. | By what process the air in the cave becomes sterilized remains to be de termined. THE WORLD'S HEADSMEN. Ostraoiz»Ml by Society Gruesome Crafts men Intermarry und Fraternize. The marriage of the son of M. Deb lier, the public executioner of France, took place recently before the mayor of the Sixteenth Arrondissement, Paris. The ceremony was purely civil in char acter, only thirteen witnesses being present. M. Deblier, or, as he is more familiarly known, Monsieur de Paris, not only the fnost aged official execu tioner in the world, but likewise the one person who had probably put more human beings out of existence than any other living man. There is a sort of gruesome atmosphere of a forbidding character which seems to surround the public executioners of Europe. They are usually men of fine self-culture and education, retir ing in disposition and plainly respect able bourgeois in their domestic rela tions. Beiug denied the privilege of the society around them by the char acter of their profession, they have a society of their own which is as ex clusive as that of royalties, for they visit each other in ceremonious fashion and intermarry. Thus M. Deblier is a second cousin by marriage of the headsman of Prussia, and his wife was the daughter of the executioner of Algiers, a descendant of the famous Samson who guillotined Marie An toinette and her royal si>ouse, Louis XVI. But the sou of the present Monsieur de Paris, Joseph Francois Deblier, has made, as it were, a mor ganatic marriage by seeking his wife— ltosalie Roges—outside the families of the executioners. She was formerly a cigarmaker in one of the government factories. She is twenty-one and her husband is thirty-live. According to the marriage settlement, M. Deblier gives as a dowry to his wife the sum of SIO,OOO. He will probably suc ceed his father before long. For the last ten years he has been the old gentleman's assistant in all execution* of note. , •Growth of Telephone Business. Twenty years ago the telephone was practically unknown to mankind, while toi'ay there are said to be about 1,500,000 telephone subscribers in the world, of whom the larger part are in the United States. Recent figures put the details of this total as follows: The United Staies leads the list with about 600,000; comes Germany with 110,000; Great Britain with 75,- 000; Switzerland, 51,000; France, 35,- 000; Austria, 20,000, Russia, 18,000; Sweden and Norway lv,000; Bavaria, 15,000; Denmark,ir-,0()6; Italv,14,000; Holland 12,000; Spain 12,000; Bel gium, 11,000; Hungary. 10,1100; Wurt temburg, 7000; Finland 60tV); Japan, 3500; Cuba, 2500; Luxembourg,2ooo; Portugal, 2000; and Australia The remainder are divided among the smaller countries,from Roumauia with 400, down to Senegambia with 100.-- The Manufacturer. A Prehistoric Mine. In the southeast corner of San Ber nardino county, Cal., an expedition from San Francisco has recently dis :overed a rich turquoise mine appar cn ly worked many centuries ago by I rehistoric people. The mine is 60 miles from Manville, in a mountainous country, and had been partially oblit erated by vo'cauic disturbances. Stone hamniern and other implements H ere found in numerous old pits. S THE REALM OF FASHION. X g DOOieQiQ Commended to the Tall, Thin Sisterhood No material is at onoe more soft, lustrous and durable than genuine Liberty silk. The full waist shown in this illustration by May Manton is LADIES' WAIST. all in soft cream white without figures of any sort. But all i>lain colors, as well as flowered designs, and the whole range of thin silks, muslins and organdies, are equally well suited to the style, which is especially to be commended to the tall, thin sister hood to whom folds and frills are both welcome and becoming. The foundation is a fitted lining which closes at tiie centre front. On it are mounted the full back and fronts which are puffed to yoke depth and which close at the left shoulder and side beneath the full scarf. The latter is simply straight and full. The two sections are seamed to the arm's-eyes and are brought down to the waist line, where they cross and are passed round to the back, at the centre of which they are caught in a knot. The sleeves are full and arranged in three groups of narrow putt's, with a full soft puff at each shoulder, over which fall the frills which form epaulettes. At the neck is a soft draped collar of the silk, which terminates in a rosette un der the chin. To cut this waist for a lady of me dium size four and one-half yards of material twenty-two inches wide will be required. Girls* Blouse Reefer. The combination of reefer collar and blouse jacket shown in the large illus tration is both novel and stylish. As here given the material is covert cloth banded with braid, and the garment is designed for general wear with any gown, but all suiting materials, as well as cloth of various sorts, can be treated in a similar manner. The seamless baok and pouched fronts are joined by shoulder and nn der-arm seams, the basque portion being separate and seamed to the jacket at the waist-line. The right front laps well over the left, where the closing is effected by means of buttons and buttonholes, an additional row of buttons beiug added to give the double Ireasted effect. The neck is slightly open at the front aud is fin ished with a deep collar that is square at the back and is finished with rows of braid. The sleeves are two-seamed and fit snugly. The garment is lined throughout with changeable taffeta blue and green. To make this blouse for a girl of eight years of age one aud a half yards of material fifty-four inches wide will be required. A Pretty Scarf. 1 , The Roman scarf, with plain or fringed ends, especially the patriotic variety, when the bars are red, white and Llue, with a slight predominance of the red, is very much in rogue. Besides Us old use as an article of neckwear, ,t is used as a sash, a belt, « hat banV and i hat trimming. Patriotic girls |tie the narrow ones to parasol tips, w?lkinguticks, bicycle handles, baby