BARBED WIRE IN WARFARE. ' wiRE EITTANGIjEMENTS PLACED ABOUND OHCEVELBt STATION IN SOUTH AFRICA AS PABT OF THE BRITISH DEFENSES. | The Blossb u pg "Gu sher"| 4 Greatest 112 Strike on Record, S 2 NEW KLONDIKE, jj "7C" RIVER of oil has created a / \ second Klondike in Penn sylvania. It has made a (J" city of a mountainside hith erto sacred to rattlesnakes. It has added millions to the real estate values and made heiresses of poor farmers' daughters for many a v mile around. Most important of all, it has proved that the geologists were wrong when they decided, years ago, that oil would never be tapped east of the Al leghany watershed, and it suggests the possibility of the world's oil mar ket being flooded to such a degree as to bring prices down to next to noth ing—that is, if Mr. Rockefeller were not here to keep theru up and put the difference in his pocket. ' Such, in brief, are the facts concern icg the Blossburg Oil Company's well, the source of a river which is jealously caught and imprisoned as it gushes from the earth, because every gallon of it is worth money. It is pouring out wealth at the rate of $365,000 a year—a thousand dollars a day—and it represents only the be ginning of what may be expected of a region where land is ten thousand times more valuable to-day than it was before the oil discoveries. This last is a literal fact. If the DEL.AVAN AYLESWORTH. JOBS AYLESWOBTH. (The brothers who have struok oil.) mountainside had been offered at auc tion before a drill had been sank it would not hare fetched ten cents an acre. Now there is not an acre that would not sell for SIOOO, with a mob of bidders fighting for precedence. Pine Creek, the most famous trout stream in Pennsylvania, is the centre of this oil rush, which rivals the gold rush of Cape Nome. The big well— there are many smaller ones around it, and more are being sunk every day —is three-quarters of a mile south east of Gaines, Tioga County. It penetrates the rock for 654 feet near the edge of a bluff that rises 120 feet from the bed of Pine Creek. There was a time when the hills for miles in every direction were cov ered with the finest pines in Pennsyl vania. But the creek has floated out billions of feet of timber, and now the region is a desolate one of stumps and brambles, repellant alike to the agri culturist and the artist. UNABLE TO CONTROL THE FLOW OF OIL. The story of the "Great Gusher," as it is known in the parlance of oil men, is one of the romances of for tune, deserving a place beside the fjonanza tales of California and Ne vada. Those for whom the well is ponring forth its SIOOO a day are coun try merchants and professional men, formerly of moderate means, none of whom knew anything about the oil business. They are former Senator Walter Merrick, John Aylesworlh, Del. Aylesworth, William Aylesworth, Dr. D. O. Merrick, George Clark, J. D. Connors, W. 8. Scott, Mark Davis, W. H. McCarty, A. I'. Botchford, H. R. Whittiker, F. H. Stratton, W. C. Babcock, F. L. Jonei and W. A. Rob erta The company is not incorporated and business is carried on as a co partnership. The drilling of the Great Gusher was a forlorn hope. The company had already drilled one well on its lease of 155 acres and had found the sand a; dry as powder. Under the lease a forfeit would have to be paid if two wells were not sunk. The forfeit would amount to about the same loss ad the drilling of a well. ' I LOWINC, INTO TA.NI FROM THI BLOSSBURO "GU: HER." With the slenderest shadow of a hope—merely, iu gambling parlance, to"have a run for their money"—the partners decided in favor of the well. In selecting the bluff near the upper end of the property they disregarded the advice of experienced oil pros pectors. To drill there was pro nounced an act of folly. To emphasize the hopelessness of the oaae work was begun on Good Friday, April 13. Any gambler would have laid big odds against such an unhappy combination. For ten days the drill burrowed its way through varying strata. On Mon day, April 23, it gnawed slowly for an hour through a hard formation more than an eighth of a mile below the surface. "She's struck sand!" shouted the driller. It was only that the drill had dropped into a softer formation—and the sand was likely to be as barren as 1 Coney Island's—but force of habit impelled this cautious man to con nect the well with the storage tank provided to save the first rush'of oil. He was just in time. Before the tools could be withdrawn from the hole a yellow torrent gushed forth and filled the tank with a roaring and a splashing that sang of millions. 'She's struck oil!" was the shout; find it echoed down the vailey and be yond, till at every farmer's door and on into the cities were echoed the magic words, "Struck oil!" Every telegraph wire in the land flashed the story of the Blossburg Oil Company's Great Gusher, and capital ists began to speculate on the strange developments that might follow the discovery of a subterranean petroleum lake east of the Alleghanies. As for the Great Gusher, it spouted forth 2200 barrels the first day and 2500 the second day. Before noon on the third day it had repaid the partners their entire ex penses on the lease—the investment had oost them only 85200. At the close of the tifth day they were 814,000 richer for the. mere trouble of catching the oil. Then the Great Gusher sobered down to the cheerful song of SIOOO a day, and this it continues to sing, week days and Sundays, with no sign of weariness. It is the greatest well known to the northern oil fields since 1882, when the Cherry Grove field, in Warren County, Penn., made the world ring with tales of sudden fortune. Cherry Grove knocked the bottom out of oil prices and ruiued thousands of men engaged in the oil business elsewhere. Blossburg may do the same thing if it proves to be over a big lake of oil and not merely a small pool, as was the case with Cherry Grove, which exhausted itself in a year. This important question can be settled only when test wells have been sunk for miles around, and from the way speculators are rnshing into the Pine Creek region doubts must soon be dispelled. The Blossburg property is being honey-combed with drills. A well near the Great Gusher is yielding 540 bar rels a day, and auother is productive iu a smaller degree. Just what kind of sand the oil comes from no one knows. As soon as the tools pierced the shell the well flowed and no sand was bailed out. Whether there is ten feet of it or fifty, whether it is brown, white or gray, no one knows as vet. The company liaq been kept too busy caring for the oil to worry about the color or thickness of the sand in which it has been stored up. The little town of Gaines has ac quired some of the character of a Western mining camp. The hotel has been overflowing for three weeks and the proprietor has secured every vacant room in town for his guests. The telegraph and telephone have become metropolitan in their activity. Keen men with large bank accounts roam everywhere, snapping up speculative chances. Their talk is all of barrels and dollars, leases and wells, drills and pipe lines. The Standard Oil Company, alive to the great possibilities of the new field, is laying a four-inch pipe line across the mountain to connect with their main pipe line twenty miles away. On the lighter side of human na ture at the Pine Creek rush are ranged the clairvoyants and hazel twig magicians who infest new oil fields. One of these "oil smellers" will sell out his occult gifts as a pros pector for from $lO to 8150, accord ing to the means and credulity of his client. Some of the individual cases of sudden fortunes are full of interest. Joseph Bernauer was a poor man two years ago. His little farm on the bank of Pine Creek yielded him a liv ing and that was all. He peddled milk every morning and evening to the housewives of Gaines. His farm proved to be right on the oil belt and his income from royalties is now over SSOO a month. This discovery has made a group of country storekeepers and small farmers rich in a trice. Men whose total worldly possessions were worth perhaps SSOO have been offered $125,- 000 for their rights in this gusher. How to Live a Century. Dr. D. K. Pearsons, of Hinsdale, 111., a millionaire who is makiug it his business to give away his money to enterprising colleges in the West, re cently made some very interesting statements in explanation of his con dition of hearty and hopeful health at jogto* the a ß e of eighty Jgr years. He says he Jgf \ expects to live until he is a hundred, and vSr "ywJB k' B ru ' oß °' ftre worth considering. "Most mrn dig their graves with their teeth." he said. "My T 1W , stomaoh is my friend A /Jr J and I'm happier than IA if / any other man on \ jf\ ' earth." He says the DB. D. K. PEAR- MAU W HO wants to live SONS. to a ripe old age should keep 0001, not overload the stomach, breathe pure air and lots of it, eat a vegetable diet, not eat late suppers, goto bed early, not fret, not go where he'll get excited, and not forget to take a nap after dinner. Though he is a doctor himself, he threw all his medicine away years ago, and he says he does not know what an ache or pain is. He takes regular de> light in his gifts to colleges, but will not allow anyone to make a hero of him, as be hates exoitement. He say* a man must "keep oool" if he wants to live a hundred years. "It's the worst thing in the world," he maintains, "to get angry or cross." He gets up at 6, eats a light break fast, works till noon, eat 3 a vegetable and fruit dinner, without tea or oof fee, takes it easy the rest of the day and goes to bed at 8. He says he does not want to die till he has given away all his money. Even the rioh girl may have a poor complexion. Most Beautiful Woman in Cuba* Senorita Silvia Alfonso y Aldama, whose portrait is here shown, has been voted the beauty queen cf Cuba. The election was recently held in Havana preparatory to the carnival to be shortly given there, over which Senorita Alfonso will reign. Some SENORITA SILVIA ALFONSO. twenty well-known beauties of the island were contestants for the honor. Senora Josefina Herrara de Pulido, the daughter of Count Fernandina, was the last Cuban senorita to be similarly honored. Silvia Alfonso was born in Cnba, but was educated in Paris. She lived in New York from time to time during the past four years, during the pro gress of the recent insurrection. She will be the recipient of every honor during festiviit. week and will remain supreme for two years until the next festival is held. Makes Chain Armor Shirts. Owing to the cleverness of a Shef field manufacturer the ancient custom of wearing chain and mail is likely to be revived. The abandonment of the coat of mail was due to the superior piercing ability of the modern missile, which rendered the coat useless for ordinary purposes of protection. Moreover, its unwieldiness made it worthless as a protection against the attack of steel. Now, however, the deverness of a Sheffield manufac turer has produced a shirt of mail that weighs less than twelve pounds, that can readily be worn beneath the 3oat, aud is impervious to every at tack except that of the composition bullet. His product is having a large sale, and is likely to be more widely used as it becomes better known. It is composed of small steel rings linked together so finely that even the point of a pin cannot penetrate through them. At the same time they can worn without the slighest dis joa ort. * Tiicj cover the entire breast and oack from the neck to the thighs and jxtend down the arm to the elbow. Thus it will protect anyone from an ittack of dagger or sword in every vuluerable place. Its value as a pro tection against assassination is evi dent.—Cleveland Plain Dealer. Encouraging Marriagni. The Mayor of Cardiff, Wales, re cently awarded what is known as "the Bute marriage dowry" to a domestic servant. The dowry was instituted by Lord Bute to enable deserving couples to marry. It is the interest on SSOOO and is awarded once annually. This year the amount was 8140. The lucky young man to whom the domes tic is engaged is William Cam, who has been ten years in the service of a Cardiff carriage builder. When pay ing over the dowry the Mayor reads a passage from the Bible relating to marriage, and delivers a little homily to the intending bride and bride groom. Making; a Collar Button. In the first stage of the manufac ture of a single-piece collar button there' 3 a ciroular disc stampted out of a strip of metal. Being fed into sev eral machines, it at length gets into the third form, so like a grandfather's hat. Bapid blows, and many of them, from powerful hammers bring it to the fourth stage. 4%, /TBI VARIOUS STAGES OF MANUFACTURE. - Then a machine turns up its edge. Still another rolls it over. Then its head is pat into shape. Last oomes the polishing. How seldom do we itop to think of all the brains and energy that go into every tiniest article! The average distance traveled by British engine drivers is from 30,000 to 50,000 miles every year. There are aboat 20,000 drivers in the United Kingdom. When a mystery is unraveled there's pretty tore to be a long yarn. SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY 1 . The American water hyacinth which .s not infrequently an obstruction to navigation, in southern rivers h-s been successfully killed on the 1. el pomene caual, New Orleans, by a chemical spray. A specimen of edible earth lately orought from Fiji—a soft, pale pink, slayey substauce—proves to be an iluminum silicate, probably kaolin, ffith about 7.6 per cent, of iron oxide is a mechanical impurity. The water storage required to pro luce one horse-power for one hour, nrith au available head of 10 feet, ffould be represented by the capacity >f a tank 20 feet square and 10 feet leep; at a head of 140 feet the storage tank would still be required to be 10 :eet square and about three feet deep. A French inventor says that he has •olved the problem of sendiDg a num ber of dispatches simultaneously on a single wire. His system, which wa3 sxplained before the Academy of Sciences, was recently tried success fully between Paris aud Pau. Twelve independent currents were sent ou ;he circuit at once in either direction, cnaking a total of 24 telegrams. The public library building in Chi cago is protected against the invasion >f fire from the outside by means of a to-called "water curtain." At the top jf the building is a system of tubes through which water, supplied from a mnk, can be caused to flow over the lutside walls. Recently the efficiency jf the water curtain was tested by the soeurrence of a fire in a large spice nill adjoining the library building. The water being turned on, the outer walls were immediately covered with i liquid sheet which, as the tempera ture was low, became eventually a sheet of ice. A flexible metal hose is made at Pforzheim, Germany, by rolling up a metal band like a screw thread, the specially profiled edges engaging in Due auother so as to form a continu ous joint, which is made tight by a :ord of rubber or asbestos. The metals chiefly used are galvanized steel and phosphoror-bronze. The pipe is remarkably flexible, and its Due disadvantage of tending to un twist through rough usage is over come by making it double, with op posite windings. It is intended for mining purposes instead of rubber Lose. It is made up to eight inches iu diameter, and to withstand pres sures up to 200 atmospheres. It is a curious thing that in all the balloou asceusions and experiments that have been made in recent times, there has been collected no satisfac tory data on so important a question 'is how long a time a balloon will re main in mid-air. It is, however, the general opinion that, because of the change of the temperature of the day to that of night aud its effect on the gas with which the balloons are inflated, it has been possible to keep the ordinary balloon in the air foi Duly about 30 hours without replen ishing the supply of gas. Some Ber liu scientists are to make an effort tii gathering more exact information soon, when they will be sent up on )iie of these airships, containing 115,000 cubic feet of gas. Provisions for ten days will be stored in the car, which will be eight feet square and will accommodate fivo persons, with sleeping quarters for three. Ants Useful in Surgery. Many useful discoveries have been !nade bv savage people aud utilized by nvilized men for the amelioration ol human suffering. The native Brazil tan, far removed, as he usually is, from doctors and surgeons, depende upon a little ant to sew up his wounds when ho is slashed or scratched. This add creature is called the surgical ant, from the use to which it is put. The ant has two strong nippera on his head. They are his weapons foi battle or forage. Wheu a Brazilian has cut himself, for example, he picks up au ant, presses the nippers against the wound, one ou each side, and theu gives the bug a squeeze. The indig nant insect snaps his nippers to gether, piercing the flesh and bringing the lacerated parts close together. The Brazilian at that moment gives the ant's body a jerk and away it flies, leaving the nippers embedded in th« flesh. To be sure that kiils the ant, but he has served his most useful pur pose in life. The operation is re peated until the wound is setfed uj neatly and thoroughly.—Chicagc Chronicle. A New Way to Sterilize Milk. A certain degree of heat kills th« bacteria that promote the souring o) milk; hence by raisiug the tempera ture of that fluid nearly to the boiling point it ie effectually sterilized. Sucb treatment, however, robs milk of its characteristic flavor, imparts a new taste to it, robs it of its ability tc yield cream, ana otherwise affects it iu an uudesirable way. But a method of conducting the operation has been found which is said to le free froa these objections, while retaining thf advantages of sterilizing. Niels Ben dixen Of Copenhagen has just pub lished a paper in which he describe! the prooess. He saturates the milk with carbonio acid before applying heat, raises the temperature to 12( degrees, and finally removes the oar bonic acid by exposing the milk tc sterilized air. He alleges that milk sc treated forms no skin, does not ehangt color, and retains the cream yielding power. Jost how the oarbonit acic accomplishes thia result is not clear, bat its shaL'e in the work ia affirmed poaitivelv. TRAVELS OF THE JICCER. TTII# Flen Seemi Bout on Circuuinuvl* gating the Globe. The very small species of the flea, commonly known as the jigger, whose native home is tropical and subtropi :al America, set out iu 1872 to circum navigate the world and has now hall completed his journey. His arrival in India and Malagascar is almost simultaneously reported. On his cou queriug way he has badly frightened many barbarous tribe,s by his propen sity to bore through the skin and tine 1 lodgment under it, and mauy villages and sometimes whole districts won abaudoued by the natives during his journey across Africa, says the Nev York Sun. In September, 1872, a sailing vessel from Brazel dumped a quantity o; sand ballast on the beach at Ambriz,i little south of the Congo. This event has historic importance from the faC that the jigger crossed the ocean it this sand audit is believed to have been lm first introduction to foreigt territory. His rate of advance acrost Africa depended upon the means ol transportation at hand, for the jiggei will not hop when he may ride. It was 13 years before he struck the caravan route to Stanley Pool, and then he journeyed quickly and com fortably with the porters in the freight service to that starting point of the upper Congo steamers, which carried him half way across Africa. Twenty years after his arrival in Africa the jigger appeared on the shores of Vic toria Nyanza, aud sis years later he was hopping along the sauds of Zanzibar island. The jigger was thus established in 1898 at the busy mart whence many vessels sail for the Ea3t Indies anil Oceauica. It was predicted that ho would soon invade India, aud, sure enough his arrival at Bombay, whether he had been brought by coolies re turning from Africa, is now reported. "Le Tour da Monile" says he may be expected in French Indo-China at auy time and that he will evidently invade the whole of southern Asia, aud let ters from Nossi Be, iu northwest Madagascar, report his advent there and on the adjoining islauds, where he is flourishing and multiplying iu the sandy soil.—Pittsburg Daily News. QUAINT AND CURIOUS. While cutting timber in the forests near Cromwell, Ivy., lumbermen found a bone in the heart of a solid oak tree. How it got there is a mystery. It was a belief among the Egyp tians that the third finger of the left hand was connected with the heart by meaus of a slender nerve. From that belief came the custom of wearing the wedding ring on that finger. The Eads bridge across the Missis sippi river at St. Louis has always been subject to thopbeuumoaon known as "creeping rails." The creeping occurs always iu the direction of the traffic, and varies with the amount of tonnage passing over the rails. A. A. Putnam, an electrical engi neer of Rochester, N. Y., made an oral will the other day by talking into a phonograph. He signed his name on the wax roll of the machine with a hot copper wire, aud the witnesses did likewise. Legal authorities say that the will is valid. A curious plant is the tooth brush plant of Jamaica. It is a species oi creeper, aud has nothiug particularly striking about its appearauce. By cutting pieces of it to a suitable length and fraying the ends the natives con vert it into a tooth brush, and a tooth powder to accompauy the use of the brush is also prepared by pulverizing the dead stems. A singular accident occurred neai Juliet, Ga., a few days since. A fly ing pigeon collided with a southern railway train which was coming at high speed. The beak of the pigeou broke the glass in the locomotive cab and so great was the velocity of the bird that the window was not shat tered, but a round smooth hole was made, similar to that caused by a bul let wheu fired through glass. The bird was instautly killed, but in his flight his sharp beak came in contact with the engineer's face and the man's eye was put out. Mrs. Davis Sweet of Boston in step ping from a chair seversl weeks age struck her foot lightly agaiust one ol the rounds. Intense pain followed and the usual remedies failed to give relief. Finally her doctor cut intc her foot and uear the heel attached tc' a tendon was a largo piece of bone that was tearing the flesh. Upor beiug remove I it was found to be the exact counterpart of au incisor tooth, the only difference being that it hao enamel on the back while the front was of double thickness. The doctoi is unable to give any explanation as t< the (rtece. He doss not believe it is part of the heel In the province of Cordoba, Argea tine Republic, is a great salt lake, which recently has been surveyed bj an Argentine surveyor. The lake it 50 miles long from east to west, and 31 miles wide at its broadest point The average depth is from 12 to If feet. Some fish live in the lake, but they are small, and do not thrive well because of the extreme saltiness o» the water, which is a 6 per cent, sola tiou. The shores of the lake and its IS islands are thickly wooded with pin* and qnebraoho. The lake is called Mar Chiqaat*. and the region about il is entirely nninhabite 1. Many wild animal* abound th»r#
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers