ij T4 B K' n S D ' S« am
3; and flis family.
This Ruler of H Strange Coun-
trj' rropoK'i to Mnkii u Visit «4»
•y* to the United States.
T" LEOPOLD of Belgium is
I/{ not the only royal personage
| who is contemplating a visit
C % to this country. It is on the
Cards that lie King of Slam and his
family are to journey to the United
THE SIAMESE KING'S EIGHTEEN CHILDREN, BY HIS VARIOUS WIVES.
—From Harper's Weekly.
States some time in the near future.
If the ruler of this strange country
does pay us a visit it will be with all
the accessories of Oriental splendor.
We do not have togo back many
years to find Siam almost, if not quite,
as exclusive 1o European influences as
China is to-day.
One of the most remarkable Illustra
tions of the changes which are taking
Pi ace in the Orient is furnished by the
Crown I'rincs of Slain, who is now a
student at Oxford University and
IHC QUEEN OP SIAM IN NATIVE COSTUME
about to publish a book on the war of
the Polish succession.
Phya Charoon Raja Maltrl, who 13
Coming here as first Envoy Extraor
dinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
from Siam to the United States in
order to pave the way for his royal
master's visit, has had a career prob
ably more remarkable than any of the
other diplomatists in Washington.
Co'")in of his King as he is, he has
, | n
i
THE KING OF SIAM IN ROYAL ATT IKE.
—From Harper's Weekly.
'been Trlnce, priest, beggar and final
ly not onlj Prince again, but one of
the most trusted advisors of the
vthroue.
| I'hya Cliaroon Is about thirty-seven
years old. Like most Siamese he is
below medium size, according to our
standards, but is of tine physique,
' deep chested, muscular and straight.
! He will be a particularly gorgeous
i Minister. In Slam his collection of
jewelry is no finer than that of many
. other men of high rank, but Slam has
been amassing gems for many genera
tions. He lias emeralds, rubies, pearls
and sapphires sewed into some of his
ceremonial costumes. Besides these
he has his more personal jewelry; dia
monds, pearls, in rings, pins, belts
and pendants. With all his decora
tions on, chief among them blazing
the blue-white diamonds of the Order
of the Whi' elephant and the pris
matic go* jfisness of the Chinese
Crown, jis literally a dazzling cen
tre o radiance.
His home in Bangkok Is a spacious
palace by the river side, tilled with
retainers and slaves, who serve him,
his several wives and their numerous
children. The carvings anil bronzes
and other works of art would furnish
:i museum. lie has a separate slave
for each detail of service especially
trained and the bearer of the betel-nut
box would never be expected to carry
the parasol, or the steersman of the
ceremonial boat to tend a door.
Not always has I'liya Clinroou lived
thus. Siam is the home of the most
rigid Buddhism, and the envoy is a
pious Buddhist. By the precepts of
that religion as practiced in Sinm,
every nobleman must serve in the
priesthood a certain time. The King
himself has been a priest. Phya
Charoon spent his allotted time as a
novitiate in one of the monasteries,
where he became so imbued with the
religion that he donned the yellow
robe of the mendicant, renounced his
riches ana begged his food from door
to door.
After completing his priesthood he
studied diplomacy, and then traveled.
He speaks English. It is not likely
that he will bring any of his wives
with him.
Shaving In Public.
The most public barber shop in New
York has just been started in a room
in the Grand Central Station which
opens into the main passageway from
the elevated railroad platform to the
main waiting room.
It is a small, shallow room, and the
side toward the passageway is almost
entirely glass. The chairs are within
five or six feet of the passersby and
every expression on the faces of the
men in them can be seen plainly.
Thousands of people pass this glass
fronted barber shop every day and
since the barbers have begun work
not a few of these people have stopped
to stare at the men being shaved as
if they had never seen a barber shop
before.—New York Sun.
Of the 1557 towns in New England
101 manage their schools under the
district system, eighty-one of them
being in Connecticut.
GUUUUUUUOTTMUUUUUUG
g Curiosities of Ichthyology- 3
& a
B RF Oharlas Minor Blackford, Jr., M. D. Q|
THE study of Ichthyology Is at
tended with greater practical
difficulties than is that of any
other branch of natural his
tory, and on account of this It is far
behind its sister sciences in the de
gree of completeness to which It has
attained. Land animals may be
tracked to their most secret lairs, pa
tient research will reveal the most
cunningly hidden nests, but it is im
possible to pass beneath the waves to
watch the habits of "all that dwell
therein." "The way of a fish in the
sea" is almost as much a mystery now
as in the days of Solomon, and what
is known but shows the extent of the
unknown.
Suppose that a visitor from some
other planet were to come on an ex
ploring expedition to our earth, but
that ids vessel could come no nearer
than several miles, while our atmos
phere was opaque to his vision and
unfitted for his respiration. Under
such circumstances his position would
not be unlike our own in regard to the
sea, and it may be perceived that in
either case the knowledge to be gained
must be scant and fragmentary. The
astral explorer might capture a few
of the lowest animals in his nets and
dredges; lie would probably obtain
some worms, but he would lie unlike
ly to take a bird, quadruped, man or
any other thing that has the power of
locomotion. For the same reasons the
investigation of the sea has been slow
and unsatisfactory, and but little has
been made out of even the common
est fishes. Many species and some
genera are known by single specimens,
and in several instances these have
FIO. I—BONES OF A "SEAI. FISH.''
(Therobromus callorhini.)
been found by what appears to be the
purest chance.
Quite a number of rare specimens
have been obtained from the stomachs
of other aquatic animals. The greater
number of fishes are carnivorous and
most of them are voracious feeders,
greedily swallowing anything of a
suitable size that presents Itself. A
shark's stomach sometimes contains a
remarkable assortment of objects, and
sometimes rarities are discovered, for
sharks are more intent on the quan
tity than the quality of their food.
There is a genus of fish called the
Tarlelonbeanea, in honor of Dr. Tarle
ton H. Beau, a distinguished ichthy
ologist, but of it only three specimens
are known to exist. Of these, one was
taken from the stomach of an Albacon
off the coast of California, one came
from a Sebastodes miniatus, and the
third was blown on board of a boat
during a storm.
A still stranger example is that of
the "seal flsh." In making some in
vestigations into the life of the fur
seal a few years ago, it was necessary
to determine the character of the food
on which it subsists. To do this, the
stomachs of numbers of seals were
opened and their contents examined,
and in them the remains of a new
kind of fish were found to very com
mon. Nothing but the bones (Fig. 1)
have been found, but these in such
numbers as to show that there must
lie vast quantities of these little fish,
although up to the present time no
one has seen one in life.
The sea is the great home of aquatic
life, but the fresh waters well repay
research. The "lung fishes," that can
breathe atmospheric air, and thus
avoid polluted waters, or the mud
lislies, that are captured by digging
them up, are interesting variations
from the general rule, but the subter
ranean spceles are most wonderful.
The blind lislies found in our great
limestone caverns and those from
! the ditches of the rice-fields are fain-
illar, but the secrets of"the watera
under the earth," are not yet made
plain. A few years since a station
was established by the United States
no. 2 TTPHIiOMOIiOE RATHBUNI.
(Drawn from life.)
Fish Commission at San Marcos, Tex
as. An artesian well was bored, and a
llow of 1200 gn lions of water per min
ute obtained at a depth of 18S feet.
The boring was through almost solid
limestone, the "log" of the well show
ing that one tunnel some two feet
in diameter was pierced, but the flow
has brought up numbers of living or
ganisms, all new to science. So far
four species of shrimps and a sala
mander have been described, but these
have been abundant. Dr. Jatnes E.
Benedict, of the Smithsonian Institu
tion, described and named the shrimps,
and Dr. L. Steiner, of the same estab
lishment, did the same for the sala
mander. He gave it the name of Ty
phlomolge Rathbunl, in honor of
Mr. Richard Rathtbun, the assistant
secretary of the Smithsonian Institu
tion.
The accompanying illustration gives
an accurate conception of this strange
animal. Its head Is large and pro
longed forward into a flattened snout
in which is tile mouth. The eyes are
covered by the skin and are visible
only as two black specks. Behind the
head the external gills form festoons
about the neck, their vivid scarlet
making a sharp contrast with the
dingy white skin. The four legs are
in two pairs, the anterior ones having
four lingers, or toes and the posterior
ones having five. It terminates in a
flattened, cel-like tail.—Scientil'"
American.
Automobile to I>rlve With Itetna.
While there are several kinds of au
tomobiles it is only an export who can
distinguish them, the ordinary lny
i
man seeing in an automobile merely a
borsaless carriage which is moved by
some unseen power. Now, however,
an automobile has been invented in
Massachusetts which differs widely
from those in use at present.
It consists of an ordinary four
wheeled carriage, in front of which
is a traction motor. The latter is
mounted on separate wheels and Is
connected by couplings with the axle
of the carriage. It is also provided
with reins, by means of which it can
be guided and controlled.
As the accompanying picture shows,
this motor is driven very much in the
same manner as a horse, and for this
reason it is claimed that it will com
mend itself specially to women. The
reins are so adapted that when either
L pulled the motor is at once guided
to that side and when both are pulled
a brake is set in motion.
Tills arrangement is certainly more
simple and artistic than the ordinary
method of guiding and controlling an
automobile, but whether it will work
in practice remains to be seen.—Chi
cago Record-Herald.
New Uoe For tlio Lump.
Hot water bags have grown to be a
positive necessity In the household of
late years, one great advantage of
this being that they retain the warmth
for an extended period of time. But
the heat will eventually diminish be
yond the point, where the water bag
Is useful, when the water must be re
newed. As this cannot always be done
conveniently it has occurred to Sam
uel A. Gotcher that the water might
be constantly maintained at the re
quired temperature by an arrangement
attached to an ordinary lamp. He
has applied the thought in the manner
shown, simply connecting two bags
with a coil of pipe in conjunction with
the flame. As the latter can be readi
ly regulated it is easy to vary the
temperature to suit requirements. The
—~i i l . i i i mmmmd
WATER HEATER FOR TUE FEET.
inventor does not confine himself to
the use of the heater for indoor pur
poses, but applies the same principle
to the heating of foot-warmers in
carriages and sleighs, obtaining the
heat from a lantern carried on the
dashboard for lighting the roadway.
DR. TALMAQUS SERMON
SUNDAY'S DISCOURSE DY THE NFOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: The Swsct Influences IV« Aro
Affected For Good or l£vll Isy Forces
That We Seldom llccugitize—lmport
ance of Good Actions.
(Corrriiflit, 1901.J
WASHINGTON, 1). C. —In this discourse
Dr. Talmage demonstrates that we are
afiected by forces that we seldom recog
nize and enlarges upon human accounta
bility. The text is Job xxxviii, 31.
"Canst thou bind the sweet influences of
Pleiades'.'"
VVhat is the meaning of that question
which God put to Job? Have we all our
lives been reading it, and are most of us
ignorant of its beauty and power and
practical sucgestiveness? A meaningless
passage of Scripture many thought it to
be, but the telescopes were busy age after
age, and astronomical observations kept
9n questionii g the skies until the mean
ing of my text come.s out lustrously. The
Pleiades is a constellation of seven stars
appearing to the naked eye, but scien
tific instruments reveal more than 400
properly be onging to the grou;>. Alcyone
is the nr.mo oi the brightest star of tiiat
group called the Pleiades. A Russian as
tronomer observed that Alcyone is the
centre of gravitation of our solar system.
Hugh Maemillan says that the sun and its
i planets wheel around that centre at the
rate of 422.000 r.iiles a day in an oruit
which it will take 19,000,000 years to com
plete. The Pleiades appear in the spring
time and are associated with flowers and
genial warmth and (rood weather. The
navigation of the Mediterranean was
from May to November, the rising and
the setting of the Pleiades. The priests
oi Belus noticed that rising and setting
2000 years before Christ.
Now, the glorious meaning of my text
is plain as well as radiant. To give Job
the beautiful grace of humility God asked
him, "Canst thou bind the sweet influ
ences of the Pleiades?" Have you any
power oyer the laws of gravitation? Call
vou modify or change an influence wielded
by a star more than 400,000 miles away?
Can vou control the winds of the spring
time? Can you call out the flowers? How
little you know compared with omnis
cience? How little you can do compared
with omnipotence!
The probability is that Job had been
tempted to arrogance by his vast attain
ments. He was a metallurgist, a zoolog
ist. a poet, and shows by his writings he
had knowledge of hunting, of music, of
husbandry, of medicine, of mining, of
astronomy and perhaps was so far ahead
of the scholars and scientists of his time
that he may have been somewhat puffed
up; hence this interrogation of my text.
And there is nothing that so soon takes
down human pride as an interrogation
point rightly thrust. Christ used it
mightily. Paul mounted the parapet of
his great arguments with such a battery.
Men of the world understand it. Demos
thenes began his speech to the crown and
Cieero his oration against Catiline and
Lord Chatham his most famous orations
with a question. The empire of ignor
ance is so much vaster than the empire
of knowledge that after the most learned
and elaborate disquisition upon any sub
ject of sociology or theologv the plainest
man may ask a question that will make
the wisest speechless. After the pro
foundest assault upon Christianity the
humblest disciple may make an inquiry
that would silence a Voltaire.
Called upon, as we all ave at times, to
defend our holy religion, instead of argu
ment that can alwavs be answered by
argument let us try the power of interro-
f cation. We ought to be loaded with at
east half a dozen questions and always
ready, and when Christianity is assailed,
and we are told there is nothing in it and
there is no God and there never was a
miracle and that the Scriptures are un
reasonable and cruel and that there nev
er will be a judgment day, take out of
your portable armory of interrogation
something like this: What makes the
condition of woman in Christian lands
better than in heathen lands? Do you
think it would be kind in God to turn
the human race into a world without any
written revelation to explain and en
courage and elevate and save? And if a
revelation was made, which do you pre
fer—the Zenda-Vesta of the Persian or
the Confucian writings of the Chinese
or the Koran of Mohammed or our Bible?
If Christ is not a divine being, what
did He mean when He said. "Before
Abram was, T am?" If the Bible is a
bad book, what are the evil results of
reading it? Did you see any degrading
influence of the book in your father or
mother or sister who used to read it?
Do you not think that a judgment day
is necessary in order to explain and tix
up things that were never explained or
fixed up? If our religion is illogical and
an imposition upon human credulitv, why
were Herschd and Washington and Glad
stone and William McKinley its advo
cates ?
How did it happen that our religion
furnished the theme for the greatest
poem ever written, "Paradise Lost." and
to the painters their greatest themes in
the "Adoration of the Magi," "The
Transfiguration," "The Last Supper."
"The Crucifixion." "The Entombment,"
"The Last Judgment." and that all the
schools of painting put forth their utmost
genius in presenting "The Madonna?"
Why was it thnt William Shakespeare
after amazing the world as he will amaze
the centuries with the splendor and pow
er of"The Merchant of Venice." and
"Coriolanus." and "Richard III.," and
"Kinit Lear." and "Othello," and "Mac
beth." and "Hamlet" wrote with his own
hand his last will and testament, begin
ning it with the words: "In the name
of God, amen! I. William Shakespeare,
of Ptratfcrd-on-A von. in the County of
Warwick, in perfect health and memory
(God be praised!) do make and ordain
this mv last will and testament, through
the only merits of Jesus Christ, my Sav
iour. to be made partaker of life ever
lasting and my bodv to the earth whereof
it is made?" Had Shakespeare lost his
reason when he wrote his faith in Christ
and the great atonement? Put your an
tagonist a few questions like that, and
you will find him excusing himself for an
encr." gem en t he must meet immediately.
These words also recognize far-reaching
influences. Job probably had no adequate
idea of the distance of the worlds men
tioned from our world, but he knew them
to be far off, and we, who have had
the advantage of modern sidereal inves
tigation, omrht to be still more impressed
than was Job with the question of the
text, as it puts before us the fact that
worlds hundreds of thousands of miles
distant have a grip on our world. There
are sweet influences which hold us from
afar. There may have been in our an
cestral line perhaps 200 years ago some
consecrated man or woman who has held
over all the generations since an influ
ence for good which we have no power to
realize, and we in turn by our virtue or
vice may influence those who shall live
200 years from now. Moral gravitation
is as powerful as material gravitation, and
if, as my text tenches and science con
firms. the Pleiades, which are millions
of miles from our earth, influence the
earth we ought to be impressed with
how we may be influenced by olhers far
away back and how we may influence
others far down the future. That rill
away up among the Alleghanies, so thin
you think it will hardly find its way down
the rocks, becomes the mighty Ohio, roll
ing into the Mississippi and rolling into
the sea. That word you utter, that deed
you do, may augment itself as the years
go by until rivers cease to roll and the
ocian itself shall be dried up in the burn
ing of the world. Paul, who was all the
time saying important tilings, paid r>-'
ing more startling!}- suggestive
he declared. "None of in livct' - .ieth
to himself." Words, thougl actions,
have an eternity of flight.
As Job could not bind the sweet in
fluences of the Seven Stars, as they were
called, so we cannot arrest or turn aside
the good projected long ago. Those in
fluences were started centuries before our
cradle was rocked and will reign cen
turies after our graves are dug. Oh, it is
a tremendous thing to live! God help us
to live aright.
Astronomers can r ily locate the Ple
iades. They will tal you into their ob
servatories on a clear ight and aim their
revealing instrument award the part in
the heavens where thaie seven stars have
their habitude, and they will point to the
constellation Taurus, and you can see
for yourself. But it is impossible to point
to influences far back that have affected
our character nnd will affect our destiny.
We know the influences near by—pa
ternal, maternal, conjugal—but by the
time we have gone back two generations,
or. at most, three, our investigations
falter and fail. Through the modern,
interesting habit of searching back to
find the ancestral tree we may find a
long list of names, but they are only
names. The consecration or abandon
ment of some one 200 years ago was not
recorded. It would not be so important
if }'ou and I. by our good or bad be
havior. blessed or blasted ' ■>' those im
mediately around us, but our goodness
or our badness will reach as far as the
strongest ray of Alcyone—yea, across the
eternity. Under this consideration,
what do you think of those who give
themselves up to frivolity or idleness
and throw away fifty years of their exist
ence as though they were shells or peb
bles or pods instead of embvro eternities?
I suppose one of the greatest surprises
of the next world will be to see what
wide, far-reaching influence for good or
evil we have all exerted. I am speaking
of ourselves, who are only ordinary peo
ple. But who can fully appreciate the
far-reaching good done by men of wealth
in Oreat Britain for the working classes
—Mr. Lister, of Bradford; Edward
Akrovd, of Halifax: Thomas Sikes, of
Huddersfield; Joseph Wentworth. and
Josiah Mason, and Sir Titus Salt? This
last great soul, with his vast wealth, pro
vided 7."G houses at cheap rent for 3000
working people, and chapel and cricket
ground and croquet lawn and concert
hall and savings bank, where they
might deposit some of their earnings,
and life insurance for those who looked
further ahead, and bathhouses and parks
and museums and lecture halls with
philosophical apparatus, the generous
example of those men of a previous gen
eration being copied in many places in
Panada and the United States, making
life, which would otherwise be a pro
longed drudgery, an inspiration and a
joy.
If something appears against us, they
say, "Wait till I hear tne other side."
1; disaster shall befall us, we know from
whom would come the lirst condolence.
J-.i in ily friends, church friends, business
friends, lifelong friends. In our heart
of hearts we cherish them.
When the heirs of a vast estate in
England wished to establish their claim
to properly worth $100,000,000 they offered
a reward of 8500 for the recovery of an
old Jlible, the family record of which
contained the evidence requisite. But
any iiible, new or old, can help us to a
vaster inheritance than the one spoken
of, one that never fades away.
The sweet influences of the heavenly
world, which many wise men thought
for a long while was Alcyone, the centre
of the constellation oi the Pleiades —
world of our future residence, as we hope;
world of chorus and illumination; world
of reunion; world where we shall be
everlastingly complete; world where our
old faculties will be itensified and quick
ened and new faculties implanted; world
of high association with Christ, through
whose grace we got there at all, and
apostles and poets, Habakkuk, and St.
John of l'atmos, and Edward Young, his
"Night Thoughts'' turned into eternal
day; and Horatius Bonar of modern
hymnology, and Hannah More, and Mrs.
Jiemans, and Mrs. Sigournev, who struck
their harps till nations listened; and
David, the victor over Goliath with what
seemed insufficient weapons; and Joshua
of the prolonged day in Cilieon, and
Havelock, the evangelist hero, and those
thousands of men of the sword who
f.night on the right side. What company
to move in! Wnat guests to entertain!
What personages to visit! What choirs
to chant! What banquets with lifted
chalice tilled with "the new wine of the
kingdom!" What victories to celebrate!
The stories of that world and its holy
hilarities come in upon our souls some
times in song, sometimes in sermon,
sometimes in hours of solitary reflection,
and they are, to use the words of my
text, sweet influences. But there is one
star that affects us more with its sweet
influences than the centre star, the
Alcyone of the Pleiades, and that is what
one Jlible author calls the Star of Jacob
and another Bible author calls the Morn
ing Star. Of all the sweet influences that
have ever touched our earth those that
radiate from Christ are the sweetest.
Horn an Asiatic villager, in a mechanic's
home, living more among hammers and
saws and planes than among books, yet
at twelva years of age confounding robed
ecclesiastics and starting out a mission
under which those born without optic
nerve took in the clear daylight and
those afflicted with unresponsive tympa
num were made to hear and those almost
doubled up with deformities were
straightened into graceful poise and the
leprous became rubicund ana the widow's
on.y son exchanged the bier on which
lie lay lifeless for the arms of his over
joyed mother and pronouncing nine bene
dictions on the Mount of Beatitudes and
doing deeds and speaking words which
are tilling the centuries with sweet in
fluences.
Christ started every ambulance,
kindled every electric ray, spread every
soft hospital pillow and introduced all
the alleviations and pacifications and
rescues and mercies of all time.
lie was the loveliest that ever
trod our earth —more beauty in His eyes,
more tenderness in His manner, more
gentleness in His footsteps, more music
in His voice, more dignity in His brow,
more gracefulness in the locks that rolled
unon His shoulders, more compassion in
His soul.
Sweet influences of the Holy Ghost,
with all His transforming and comforting
and emancipating power. When that
power is fully felt there will be no more
sins to pardon, and no more errors to
correct, and no more sorrows to com
fort. and no more bondage to break. But
as the old-time ship captains watched
the rising of the Pleiades for safe navi
gation and set sail in Mediterranean
waters, but were sure to get back into
port before the constellation Orion came
into sight—the season of cyclone and
hurricane—so there is a time to sail for
heaven, and that is while the sweet in
fluences are upon us and before the
storms overtake and delay. Open all your
soul to the light and warmth and com
fort and inspiration of that gospel
which has already peopled heaven with
millions of the ransomed and is helping
other millions to that glorious destina
tion. Ho not postpone the things of God
and eternity until the storms of life
swoop and the agitations of a great future
are upon us. Do not dare wait until
Orion takes the place of the Pleiades.
Weigh anchor now and with chart un
rolled and pilot on board head for the
reunions and raptures that await all the
souls forgiven. "And they need no
candle, neither light nor the sun, for
the Lord God giveth them light, aud
they shall reign forever and ever."