SPANISH GUNS TRAINED ON THE WHITE HOUSE.
' " Two of the cannon captured by Dewey at Manila, May 1, 1888, now
bclorn the east front of the War, State and Navy building. in Washington,
{jointing toward the White House. One of them, called the Belicosa, was
cast at Manila. October 23, 1759. The other, called the Carduna, bears the
monogram of Carlo; IV.. and was cast at Seville, February 21, 1777. The
crown of Spain is cast on each. The present mounts, provided by the Navy
Department, are gilt shields, bearing the Stars and Stripes.
purious Method
of Making Wax, |
r-k tK
The white wax exported from China
is made by the curious method of us
ing minute insects in its production.
These insects are found in brown, pea
shaped excrescences or galls attached
to an evergreen free called the "insect
tree." The galls are gathered in May
and carried in headlong flight to the
market towns by bearers, who travel
at night so that the heat may not force
the insects to emerge during the jour
ney.
They are then placed on the "wax
tree," which is a stump varying from
three to twelve feet in height, with
numerous brauches rising from the top
similar to the pollard willow.
The wax insects are made into small i
a ut- n.ii msecis lire uiuue into small I uuces iuuii line suiucuiing ueiweeu uu
l__
CHINAMAN FASTENING A PACKET OF WAX INM'.UTd TO THE WAX Tit EE.
packets of twenty or thirty galls,
which are inclosed inn leaf of the
wood oil tree fastened together with
rice straw. These packets are sus
pended close lo the branches, under
which tliey hang. Oil emerging from
the falls the Insects creep rapidly up
the branches to which th«-y attach
themselves, and begin fonniii-j u coat
ing «>f was that in about three
months attains a thicKDc.ss of almost
a quarter of an Inch.
The branches are then cut off. and
after removing as intich of the wax
as possible by hand they are putin a
kettle of hot water, when tin- remain
ing wax floats on the surface and
the Insects tinisli their Icrui of u.-.e
fulness by g< ing to the bottom.
For OHIn r*' I'itr.
llc»re we illiihtraif «i tn:iil»lnntion
RI'MUISINUN K«Nll) AMI H*VOI,VKH.
sword anil pistol r •cetitly patented In
Untflsud by li. Iteyus. vt M uiun y.
Mexico. An officer in battle is always
expected to carry his sword in one
hand, and if his horse is at all frac
tious or hard to guide he lias very lit
tle opportunity to defend himself with
his pistol, and there has been in
stances when if a revolver was within
easy reach an officer could have saved
his life instead of watching an enemy
aim his gun and fire before the doomed
man could reach the pistol. The ad
vantage of this combination weapon
will therefore be easily understood, as
the officer could easily swing the point
of the sword foward the enemy in a
shorter time than a gun could be
raised and fired. The arrangement ol
file two weapons is such that the trig
ger can be easily manipulated while
the hand is closed over the sword grip.
Mexican nreail Oven.
The accompanying photograph shows
the manner in which the Mexicans
used to build their bread-ovens. Seen
at a distance these peculiar contriv
ances look like something between an
ant-hill and a Kaffir hut, and, al
though it took several hours to bake
the bread in them, they seem to have
answered their purpose pretty well.
Now, however, tin- Mexican is getting
an appetite for new things, and his
i
'* .i-
OVKSH IS Wflli'tt MKXICANS II \K It ItItKAD
precious oven, one of the most Impor
t.tni part* of tils whole house. Is oun
of the tirxt things to fall a victim to
tie march of ctvtlliatlon. Mtoves are
now the rage; and even the very |n>or
est manage somehow to scra|ie enough
together to buy one.
Australia's biggest offertory wa»
taken up at the cousecrntlou of th«
Hlkhop of Carpentaria la Myduejr
Cathedral It aiuouutrd to $42.3<J11,
and I* perhaps the largest on record
ooooooocoooooooooooooooooo
I Minting Money!
8 o
© How the Metal is Transformed Into g
q Bright Pieces of Money, n
ooooooooooooooooooocoooooo
(■■■4 HE Director of the
_ I Mint, George E.
I Roberts, is proba
bly about the best
I equipped mnn 1 11
the country for the
> purpose. He lias
three big money
"v manufat uring
plants in operation
j ✓ —at Philadelphia,
7 * y at San Francisco,
) J and at New Or
y leans, turning six
hundred tons of silver into subsidiary
coin. The Southern mint is working
at its full capacity now on sliver dol
lars alone.
From the ingot to the coin is a rapid
Journey at one of the mints. It begins
in the "weighing room," where stands
the pair of balances that receives all
the metal brought in. The scales in
the Philadelphia mint are said to be
the largest and finest In the world.
They hav" a capacity of 655 pounds,
but exhibit instantly the variation of
MILLING THE COIN.
one-hundredth of an ounce. The sys
tem of weighing nnd recording begun
here is carried out with every transfer
of the metal until it is delivered as
coin to the cashier.
After leaving the weighing room
the silver or gold, as the case may be,
is sent to the melting room, where it
is dumped into the huge plumbago
crucibles. After melting, the coin ma
terial is cast into bars, and when cold
a fragment is cut from each, which is
sent to the assay office. The assayer
ascertains the proportion of pure
metal in the bar and amount of alloy
needed to bring it to the required
standard. The bars are again melted,
the alloy doled in, and the metal then
cools in bars about a foot in length,
half an inch in thickness and regu
lated in width according to the size of'
the coin to be manufactured.
In the melting room for gold nnd in
many other departments of the mints
the floors are overlaid with hexagon
latticed iron plates, through which fall
the small particles of gold that ad
here to the shoes of the operators.
The sweepings of the floors are even
saved nnd treated for the gold and
silver dust. Director Roberts is au
thority for the statement that more
than $20,000 is thus saved annually.
The rolling room next receives the
metal, which is passed between power
ful circular crushers at the rate of
200 !>ars an hour. The bars come out
as ribbons the proper thickness for
strips front which to cut the "plan
chets." These last named are coins
In the plain before they receive the
stamp or are milled. Before the plan
diets are cut, however, the ribbons
pass through several presses to bring
CCTTIMO OUT TUB COINS.
them lo the proper lutrduess aud to
t'uusi them to pass muster in the way
of width aud thickness to the breadth
of n hair.
After Ihe plauebets are cut Use
metal begins lo look like colli. The
round pieces drop from this marvel
ous in II chine in the rate of 2.V1 a
minute, though when pressed a
snccd of .si i tun |m- at tallied. The
perforated strips go back lo the cruci
ble, while Ihe plauehets go lu tin*
coining-ratlin. Here iliey are carefully
sorted by girls who are wonderfully
c«|M>rt In detecting those thai are un
der or o\er weight. The |M-rfect plan
chela ilieu goto the adjusting room,
where I hey are further scrutinised
Thru they vialt the utilliug machine
The plnncliet leaves this operation
with its edges turned up to protect
the device which is Stamped on later.
Many persons call the fluting or "reed
ing" on the coins the "milled edge."
This is an error.
Before the final stroke is given the
coin that will make it an obligation of
the United States Government It goes
to the cleaning-room, for.after it has
passed through so many processes it
is black, greasy and anything but sil
very or golden. They are heated to a
dull red .".nd dipped into boiling acid,
which very quickly removes every
trace of grime or grease. The plan
chets are dried after their acid bath
in revolving cylinders filled with saw
dust. They come out bright and shin
ing, and are finally bustled into the
coining-room, whence they become
full-fledged pieces of money.
FOR FOG AND NICHT SICNALS.
Gas and Bell Buoy, Which Burn* Tlirefc
Months and 1* Seen Six Miles.
Remarkably effective as an aid to
navigation Is a gas buoy which at the
same time is a bell buoy. It Is likely
to play an important part in the pro
tection of the shipping of this port,
as well as being a most Important fac
tor in increasing and developing the
commerce of New York. This is so
because through the proper use of
these buoys this harbor could be made
navigable at any hour, at low tide as
well as when the tide is full, while
fogs and thick and stormy weather
would no longer be a bar to the free
and expeditious entry of ships of all
tonnage.
The height of the buoy over all is
eighteen feet. Prom the water line
to the focal plane it measures ten feet
six inches, and the diameter of the
body of the buoy is seven feet, the
total weight being 08(50 pounds. The
body of the buoy forms the receiver
for the compressed gas, and is of suffi
cient size to give buoyancy for flota
tion and of adequate strength to safe
ly hold a pressure of 130 to ISO pounds
per square inch.
On top of the body is a wrought iron
tower about six feet high, surmount
ing which is a lantern. Surrounding
the lantern is a cage for protecting it,
and the tower is provided with a
pin'form on which to stand to light or
adjust the flame.
Just below the platform is suspend
ed a bell weighing 183 pounds. This
bell is sounded automatically every
twenty or thirty seconds, or indeed
at regular intervals of any duration,
all of which may l}e predetermined.
The flow of the gas from the receiver
to the lantern furnishes the means of
operating the bell. Thus a reliable
~OAS ASD BELL MCOY.
sounding of the bell warning is se
cured without any dependence upon
the action of the waters, as is the case
with the old-fashioned bell buoys.
The advantages of these buoys can
be easily understood, for they not only
furnish a fixed or flashing light, that
can be seen a distance of between six
and eight miles, but operate in combi
nation, and most successfully, a bell,
thus affording a double protection to
mariners. These buoys will burn con
tinuously day and night, from three
months to one year, with one charge
of gas, aud may be rented for about
fifty cents a clay, including the cost of
gas. Ituoys of tills type without the
bell attachment are used very largely
by all the civilized nations of the
world, and are otticlally recominei led.
England has 23ii in service, France
the United Stales l.'il, Germany
i !»S. Holland lid, Denmark Ul, Egypt
112, Canada -It! aud Italy 15,—New
York Herald
Kidding Havana of Dog*.
Havana used to be overrun by own
erless dygw almost as badl.v as Con
stantinople. The mangy curs were
everywhere about the Ureets. Sluce
the American occupation the work ot
clearing Havana of these nuisances
has IMH'U going on. aud now the Directs
are comparatively free. In the last |
year nearly IHNSI dogs have been cap- ,
lured In the street* and kilted by the |
inuuiclpal dog catchers.
Th« Hulul'i *!•»••« limaklug.
A Journalist Who bus often been
called upon lo make a stenographic
report of a »|Heclt by Umperor W ill
laut deeh -ei» that Hie Kaiser speaks
slowly al ltrst, but gradually gets rast
er aud faster, uutll It is liu|msalhh* in
follow Itiin verbatim. The repurieia,
lie says, generally wrl' down what
they cau. and, by comparing notes af
terward. concoct a tolerably accural*
report w( what he aalU
DK. TALMAGE'S SERMON
SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE,
Subject: Spirit or Unrest —lt Is the
Cauae of Mucli Un happiness—.Need of
the Church and the World i» More
stability—Stop Gadding About.
(Copyright IHou.i
WASHINGTON, D. C.—From an unusual
text Dr. Talmagc in this discourse rebukes
the spirit of unrest which characterizes
so many people, and shows them the hap
piness and usefulness to be found in sta
bility; text, Jeremiah ii, 36, "Why gaddest
thou about so much to change thy way?"
Homely is the illustration by which this
prophet of tears deplores the vacillation
of the nation to whom he wrote. Now
they wanted alliance with Egypt and now
with Assyria and now with Babylon, and
now they did not know what they wanted,
and the behavior of the nation reminded
the prophet of a mnn or woman who, not sat
isfied with home life, goes from place to
place gadding about, as we say, never set
tled anywhere or in anything, and he
cries out to them, "Why gaudest thou
about so much to cnange thy way?"
Well, the world lias now as many gada
bouts as it had, in Bible times, and 1 think
that that race of people is more numer
ous now than it ever was—gadabouts
among occupations, among religious theo
ries. among churches, among neighbor
hoods —and one of the greatest wants of
the church and the world is more stead
fastness and more fixedness of purpose.
It wa, no small question that Pharaoh
put to,l aco i and his sons when he asked,
"What is your occupation?" Getting into
the riir'it occupation not only decides your
temporal welfare, but may decide your
eternal destiny. Tho reason so many men
and women are dead failures is because
instead of asking God what they ought
to be or do they, through some vain am
bition or whimsicality, decide what they
ought to be. Let me say to all young men
and young women in homes or in school
or college, do not go gadding about among
occupations and professions to find what
you are fitted for. but make humbL- and
d'rect appeal to God for direction.
While seeking divine guidance in your
selection of a lifetime sphere examine
your own temperament. 'lhe
will tell you your mental proclivities. The
physiologist will tell you your physical
temper aent. Your enemies will tell you
your weaknesses. If you are, as we say,
nervous, do not become a surgeon. If
you arc cowardly, do not become an en
gineer. If you are hoping for .a large and
permanent income, do not seek a govern
ment position. If you are naturally quick
tempered, do not become a minister of
the gospel, for while any one is disadvan
taged by ungovernable disposition there
is hardly any one who enacts such an in
congruous part as a mad minister. Can
you make a tine sketch of a ship or rock
or house or face? lie an artist. Do you
find yourself humming cadences, and do
the treble clef and the musical bars drop
from your pen easily, and can you make
a tune that charms those who hear it? He
a musician. Are you born with a fondness
for argument.' Be an attorney. Are
you naturally a good nurse and especially
interested in the relief of pain? lie a
physician. Are you interested in all ques
tions of traffic and in bargain making, are
you apt to be successful on a "mall or
large scale? Be a merchant. Do vou pre
fer country life, and do you like the plow,
and do you hear music in the hustle of a
harvest field? Be a farmer. Arc you fond
of machin*iry, and are turning wheels to
you a fascination, and can you follow with
absorbing interest a new kind of thrash
ing machine hour after hour? Be a me
chanic. If you enjoy analyzing the natural
elements and a laboratory could entertain
you all day and all night, be a chemist.
If you are inquisitive about other worlds
and interested in all instruments that
would bring them nearer for inspection,
be an astronomer. If the grass under your
feet and the foliage over your head and
the llowers which shake their incense on
the summer air are to you the belles lct
tres of the lield, be a botanist.
If you have no one faculty dominant and
nothing in your make up seems to point
to this or that occupation, shut yourself
up in your own room, get down on your
knees and reverently ask God what He
made \ou for and tell Him that* you are
willing to do anything He wishes'you to
do. Before you leave that room you will
find out. For the sake of your usefulness
and happiness and your temporal and
eternal welfare do not join that crowd ot
people who go gadding about among busi
nesses and occupations, now trying this
and now trying that and never accom
plishing anything.
There are many who exhibit this frail
ty in matters of religion. They are not
sure about anything that pertains to their
soul or their eternal destiny. Now they
are Unitarians, and now they are t'ni
verjalists, and now they are Presbyteri
ans, and now they are nothing at all. They
are not quite sure that the Bible was in
spired or if inspired whether the words
or the ideas were inspired or whether only
part of the book was inspired. They think
at one time that the story in Genesis about
the garden of Eden is a history, and the
month alter tluy think it is an allegory.
At one time they think the book of Job
describes what really occurred, but the
next time they speak of it they call it a
drama. Now they believe all the miracles,
but at your next Interview they try to
show how these scenes had nothing in
them supernatural, but can he accounted
for by nafhral causes. Gadding about
among religious theories and never satis
lied. All the evidence is put before them,
and why do they not rentier a verdict? It
they cannot make up their mind with all
the data put before them, they never will.
I here are all the archaeological confirma
tion ot the Htble brought to view by the
"Palestine Kxploration Society." There
are the bricks of Babylon, the letter "N '
impressed upon them "N ' for Nebuchad
nezzar, showing that lie was not a myth
and the farther the shovel of the anti
quarian goes down tin- m ire is revealed
of that ni'<st wonderful city of all time.
Professor lleilprocht, of the I'niveisit) of
Pennsylvania, presents us tablets found
in the far Fast ratifying and explaining
Scriptural passages which were before in
mystery. As the builders in Jerusalem to
day dig for the foundation of new I uses
they turn up with their pickaxes the ashes
(if the animals that were used for burned
offerings HI the temple ages ago, demon
strating the truth of the lltble -tory about
Ihe sacrifices of lambs and heifers and
pigeons. There is ihe history by JoMphus
describing on uninspired page scenes
which the lliblc depicts, tin the banks oi
the Dead rca there are pieces of the very
brimstone that fell in the sulphurous
s:onn that destroyed Modom and Gouior
rah Malic up your mind whether the Hi
hie i» i glorious revelation ot I!oil or the
win st inipositiuu oi the centuries Why go
uaddiiiK about among uilidels, atheists and
deists asking question* and surmising and
K<i about ihe authoriH and VMM 'it
a book which involve* the inhumes * It is
either a good book or a bad book. It II
be a bad book, you do not uaut it in your
house nor have your children eonlamuiai
ill Willi Its .c.i. lungs It It IS a good li.iiW.
your eternal liapplic** depend. u|«iii the
adoptlou of its leaching* tlim and lor
ever make un tour iiiiud whether il is i
the buok uf God or the book of villainous
pi* tenders
Ho. alas, there are those who pad about
aiuuug narlU'ular rhimhe*. ,Vo uwliir
caa depend on them for a single servica
At some time when he has prepared 3
sermon after all prayer and all research,
putting nerve and muscle and brain and
soul into its very paragraph, these inter
mittent attendants are not there to hear
it.
Cut, oh, how the gadabouts injure the
churches! Instead of staying in their own
prayer meeting or Sunday school they af
flict other prayer meetings and Sunday
schools. I meet them on the street going
the wrong way on Sunday morning and
evening, and I accost them in the words
of the text, "Why gaddest thou about so
ranch to change thy way?"
My text also addresses those who in
search of happiness are going hither and
yonder looking for that which they find
not. 'their time is all taken up with
"musicales" and "progressive euchres" and
teas and yellow luncheons and "at homes"
and dances and operas and theatres, and
instead of finding happiness they get pale
cheeks and insomnia and indigestion and
neuralgia and exhaustion and an abbre
viated lifetime.
There is more splendid womanhood sac
rificed in that way in our cities than in
any other way. The judgment day can
only reveal the awful holocaust of jangled
nerves and the suicidal habits of much of
our social life. The obituary of such reads
well, for the story is suppressed about how
they got their death while standing in at
tire of gauze waiting for the carriage on
a raw night on the front steps.
While in their lifetime they possessed
all the ability for the relief of pain and
impoverishment, yet they have no time
for visitation of the poor or to win the
blessing of such as comes upon those who
administer to those who are ready to per
ish. Knough flowers in their dining halls
to bewitch a prince, but not one tuft of
heliotrope to perfume the room of that
rheumatic on the back street, to whom
the breath of one flower would be like
the opening of the front door of heaven.
Find me one man or one woman who in
all the rounds of pleasure and selfishness
has found a piece of happiness as large as'
that half dollar which the benevolent and
Christlike soul puts into the palm of the
hand of that mother whose children are
crying for bread. Queen Victoria, riding
in triumph through London at her jubi
lee, was not so sublime a figure as Queen
Victoria in a hut near Balmoral Castle
reading the New Testament to a poor dy
ing man.
Let ail the gadabounts for happiness
know that in kindness and usefulness and
self abnegation are to be found a satisfac
tion which all the gayeties of the world
aggregated cannot afford.
Among the race of gadabouts are those
who neglect their homes in order that
they may attend to institutions that are
reaily excellent and do not so much ask
for help as demand it.
I am acquainted, as you are, with wom
en who are members of so many boards of
direction of benevolent institutions and
have to stand at a booth in so many fairs
and must collect funds foi so many orphan
ages and preside at so many philanthrop
ic meetings and are expected to be in so
many different places at the same time
that their children are left to the care of
irresponsible servants, and if the little
ones waited to say their prayers at their
mother's knee they would never say their
evening prayers at all. Such a woman
makes her own home so unattractive that
the husband spends his evening at the
clubhouse or the tavern. The children of
that house are as thoroughly orphan as
any of the fatherless and motherless lit
tle ones gathered in the orphanage for
which that gadabout woman is toiling so
industriously.
By all means let Christian women fos
ter charitable institutions and give them
as much of their time as they can spare,
but tne first duty of that mother is the
duty she owes to her home. -
The book of Samuel gives a photograph
of Mephibosheth lame in both feet. When
we see any one lame in one foot or lame
in both feet, we ahvays wonder by what
accident he was lamed. Perhaps it may
have been in battle for his country, or
he may have been run over by some reck
less driver or some explosion did the dam
age. So you wonder how Mephibosheth
became lame in both feet. The Bible for
a good reason gives us the particulars. It
tells us that when he was a child his
nurse dropped him. She must have
dropped him very hard, for he never again
got over the effect of that fall. Long af
ter the accident we find him at King
David's table, but still our attention is
called to the fact that his feet were crip
pled, though so long before his nurse
dropped him. And mark you that to-day
in all departments of lite there are those
crippled in habits, crippled in morals, crip
pled for all time. The accident happened
in this way: Their mothers were gada
bouts and neglected their homes, and the
work of training them was given over to
incompetent nurses, and the nurses let
them fall into bad habits, told them de
praving stories and gave them wrong no
tions of life and practically ruined them.
But Mephibosheth was taken by King
David into the palace and seated at the
royal table, so by the gracj of the heav
enly King these unfortunate ones mav yet
be seated at the King's table in the King's
palace, though the nurses did drop them
so that morally they were lame in both
feet.
Now, what is the practical use of the
present discouise? l'his: Whereas so
many have ruined themselves and ruined
others by becoming gadabouts among oc
cupations, among religious theories, among
churches, among neighborhoods, therefore
resolved that we will concentrate upon
what is right thought and right behavior
and waste no time in vacillations and in
decisions and uncertainties, running about
in places where we have no business to
be. Life is so short we have no time to
play with it the spendthrift. Find out
whether tin- Bible is true and whether
vour nature is immortal and whether
Christ is the divine and only Saviour, and
whether you must have Him or be dis
comfited and whether there will probably
ever be a more ausp ions moment for
your becoming Mis adherent, and then
make this 12 o'clock at noon ni November
2.'. the most illustrious minute that you
will ever have passed since the day of
your birth ntil the ten millionth cycle of
the coming eternity. Incline by complete
sum nder of thought and «ill and affec
tion and life to (iod, through Jesus
< lirist you became a new man, a new
woman, a new »oul, and (Jo 1 the Father
>nd Cod the Son and C.od the Holy
Chost and a'! angcldom, Cherubim and
-eiaphun uitd Archangel became your al
lies
Found among the papers of th>- learned
Samuel Johnson v i* a prayer inscribed
with the '.onls. "\Vh«n mv eye was re-
Storrd t > its u«e," ami it is a great mo
ment when we act over our moral blind
in -sand gain sniritn tl eyesight. That u
a moment from which we mav well date
everything. Ml the «l..ry of llenry If. of
France vaniatied when in a tournament
a la nee extinguished his eye. end the worst
dirtier that can happen to us is to have
the visi >n of our soul put out If you
have gone wrmi; so far, now go right. If
'he morning »<n| MHI of *>ur life have
I Mien a moral defeat, make the evening of
i >ur life M vietorx the battle of \ltn*n
go, ' >»t it i o'clock in the afternoon, was
gloriously Won at tl and in your life and
mine II is not too late to achieve some
thing vorthy ot au immortal Start right
and het II on IKi not »|H-UJ t«*i much time
in tacking shin Dm id felt the impor
tance ni tiaedaeas of pur|M*#e when he
cried <»lt, ''Jit heart i« tilv-J, 0 UoJ, Uijr
heart ta tu»d!"