ES AND CAROLINES. 9, Sj BIR Q < S a 9, 9 Fur out in the Pacific, where the map looks as if a charge of bird shot had peppered a spot no larger than your thumb, the American flag is dying over the Ladrones. They are but specks on the face of the deep. Yet there is an empire of island wealth amid the rarest scefery in the world. An earthly paradise it is called. The capture of the Ladrones by the United States with a seizure of the Carolines just to the south of] the group makes them of new interest to Americans. The Ladrones are a chain of wvol- canic islands extending north and south from latitude thirteen degrees twelve minutes north to latitude twenty degrees thirty-two minutes south and in longitude about 146 east. They wexre discovered by Magellan, March 6, 1521, and named Ladrones from the supposed stealing propensi- ties of the natives, Later, in 1668, the islands were named Mariana, in honor of Maria Anne, of Austria, the widow of Phillip IV., King of Spain. The inhabited islands are Agrigan, Saipan, Tinian, Rota and Guam. On the other islands are volcanoes spouting fire and steam. The mountains range from 1000 to 3000 feet high, about the altitude of the biggest of the Catskills. The Spaniards have controlled the islands without interference or seri- ous trouble from the natives. There is a small garrison at Agana, the cap- ital, where the Governor-General has resided. Many natives of the Caro- line Islands have been imported into the Ladrones and the races are inter- estingly mixed. The blending of the tall, copper-colored, curly-haired, long-bearded and mustached Carolin- ians with the Philippian-looking La- drones, with their dark Malay skin, A LADRONE BELLE, has given a new tint to a large num- ber of young men and women. The chief products for sustaining life are cocoanuts and bread fruit. They grow spontaneously everywhere. It is said that one cocoanut tree will feed a man. A grove of the fruit trees to the islander is what a herd of cows is to the Pennsylvania farmer. These, with the tons of fish in the lagoons, which are natural fish ponds, are responsible for the profound in- dolence of the natives. They can support life without laboring. Some of the bread fruit trees are ten or twelve feet in diameter. A single tree is considered equal in life-sup- porting capacity to two acres of wheat. Then there are other pro- ducts—guava, corn, ordinary wheat, bananas, figs and arrowroot. 3 The islands forming the Ladrones, Value and Beauty of These Much-Discussed Islands in the Pacific Ocean. A QUEER PEOPLE WITH QUEERER CUSTOMS, 0)o(q Prd RESON RII NRIB RE Ne possessing 30,000 inhabitants, and now a place of segregation for lepers, with a population of 300; Aguijan, of no importance; Rota, with 500 inhab- itants, and Guam. Guam, or Guajan, the southernmost and largest of the islands, is thirty- two miles long and has a’ population of about 9000, two-thirds of whom are in Agana, and nearly all the rest upon the seaboard, the country inland be- ing almost without inhabitant. Agana, can lie closer to the wind than any other sailing craft known, Customs, superstitions, dress, re- NL 4 Wh DUR 057 a [7 NATIVES AND HUT IN THE LADRONES. ligion, etc., prove that the people of the Ladrones have a common origin with the other races of Polynesia, but they have lived so long by themselves that they have a distinct language. Some writers have argued that the race is of Ameriean origin, while the capital, is also a convict settle- ment. It is beautifully clean, and possesses good government officials, a hospital, schools and a church. The Spanish residents have usually num- bered about twenty, and the regular soldiery about 200, all quartered here. The militia, comprising about all the male population, is commanded by native officers. The civil government is similar to that of the Philippines. Postal communication has been quar- terly. When first discovered the Ladrones had a population of about 60,000. Not one of the original race survives, and the islands are peopled chiefly by Tagals and Bisayans from the Philip- pines, mixed Sdescendants of South American Indians, a colony of Caro- line Islanders who founded Garapan in the Island of Saipan, and numerous Chamorro-Spanish half-breeds. The census of 1888 reports a population of 6476 in Agana, and a total of 10,172 in all the islands, 5034 being males 5138 females. There are eighteen schools in the Island of Guam. Only ten per cent. of the Ladrone Islanders are unable to read and write. Spanish is the recognized language; but many of the natives speak a little English. The climate is good and equable; sev- enty degrees to eighty degrees Fahrenheit is the range of the ther- mometer. The present population are de- scribed as ‘‘wanting in energy, of in- different moral character, and miser- ably poor.” They are descended in part from the original inhabitants, called Chamonos; and from the Mesti- zos, a mixed race formed by the union of Spaniards with these natives. On the island called Suypan a colony from the Caroline Islands, which lie to the south of the Ladrones, was estab- lished some years ago. These people are the most active and enterprising inhabitants of the Ladrones. Spain has derived no revenue from these islands, and has done little to civilize the people. At one time a few small schools were started, but they were soon abandoned. In 1856 an epidemic destroyed one- third of the population. August and September are the hat- test months, and the rain-fall in the summer months is very heavy. Agana, the capital, is well built of timber, and many of the houses have tiled roofs. There are twenty small villages on the islands. So little has been done to civilize the people that they live in about the same primitive fashion as character- ized them when Europeans first visited them. THE BUSINESS SECTION OF AGANA, PRINCIPAL TOWN OF THE LADRONES, beginning at the northernmost, are Farallon de Pajaras, an active volcano 1000 feeb in height; a group of three rocky isiefs known as the Urracas; . Assuraption, a partially active vol- canic peak 2848 feet in height; Agri- gan, seven miles in length, mountain- ous, and the northernmost inhabited island; Pagan, having three active cones, and peopled by a few natives; the uninhabited islands of Alamagan, Guguan, Sariguan, Anataxan and ~ Farallon de Medinilla; Saipan, fifteen ‘ ‘miles long, fertile, and. having about ~ 1000 inhabitants; Tinian, originally In one thing the people of the La- drones excel all the natives of the Polynesian 1slands—this is their faculty for building and sailing a won- derful water craft with a lateen sail. Sailors of all nations for over 300 years have admired their skill with these vessels. . They are built entirely without metal. and the largest of them will carry about seven men. The boat has an outrigger which is carried on the lee side to prevent”up- setting. It is said that these boats make wonderful speed. and that they = ES A) Er > RL CARN aA ik x SN oN 2 =A ARN NAAT ta — BAHLDONAP, A TYPICAL TOWN IN THE CAROLINES. others hold that they are an offshoot of the Japanese. Gobien, the French writer, who studies the people on the spot, says of them: ‘““The natives are mot so dark as those of the Philippines, and are larger of body than the average European. They lived on roots, fish ana fruits, and were extremely active and quick. Many of them lived over 100 years.” Another French writer says that he saw them dive and swim so well that they caught fish in their hands under water. In character the Ladrones are gay and amiable, loving pleasure, and spending much of their time in out- door amusements. The women are usually lighter in color than the men, and many of them are extremely beautiful, with luxuriant hair reaching almost to the ground. The Carolines are like the Ladrones, only more extensive in number and area, and densely populated. The islands are widely scattered into three great groups, the eastern, western and central. Spain originally claimed all the groups, but Germany recently took the Marshall Islands. The cen- tral or main group, now belonging to Spain, comprises forty-eight smaller i Hi 3 A CAROLINE WARRIOR. groups, making a total of four or five hundyed islands. Amqng the products of the country are rice, corn, wheat, sugar, cotton, tobacco, indigo, bread fruit, castor oil and kindred necessaries of life. Among the curious natural features are the palm trees, that produce vege- table ivory; banyan trees that grow downward, the seeds being planted by birds high up in other trees, de- posited in bark and crevices, sending down rootlets to gather sustenance and moisture from the soil. Another tree bears a fruit so offen- sive in odor that no man not in prac- tice can endure it, but once in a mouth the fruit tastes so deliciously that he cannot stop eating until it is devoured. The women of the Carolines are neat and attractive at home or among their cocoanut trees. = The men are indus- trious—everywhere displaying ingen- uity and gentle thrift. The Caroline Archipelago consists of thirty-six minor groups, of which the nine followtag are the principal: The Palaos or Pelews, Yap, Uluthi, Uleai, Namonuito, Hogolen or Ruk, the East and West Mortlocks, Bonabe or Ponape, and Kusaie, otherwise called Ualan or Strong’s Island. The Pelew group contains some 200 islands and islets. The principal isl; and is Bad-el-Thaob, which in area is equal toall the restput together. The most important of the others are Kor- ror, Uruk, Tapel, Malk, Pelelen and Angaur. The population of the Pe- lews is estimated at some 3000, but is probably much more. The language is a very peculiar and bizarre Malayan Archipelago. The principal products are turtle shell, copra and becko de mer (Holothuria), which in the Chin- ese markets brings as much as $400 gold per ton, There is always civil war going on in the group between the various tribes, and a firm hand is needed to keep things in order there. Captain Butran, of the Velasco (lately sunk at Manila), who visited the group in 1885, gives these natives a good name. Cap- tain O’Keefé, however, a wealthy trader of Yap, gives them a doubtful reputation, putting them down as a folk of piratical and turbulent charac- ter. The enormous quartz wheels, the famous and curious stone money of Yap in this group, were quarried in the Island of Kokial. In olden time there and the Yap and Pelew folks went on extended voyages of trading and con- quest. Bab-el-Thaob is rich in good timber. Great quantities of yams, bread-fruits and cocoanuts are grown. Alligators are found in some of the creeks,and a peculiar kind of a horned frog, There are two kinds of snakes, which the natives called Bersoiok and Nguus, both somewhat venomous. There is abundance of good pasture for horses and cattle. Goats are plen- tiful, probably introduced by the early Malayan settlers. : The Spanish have done next tonoth- ing to show their occupation, and everything goes on much as before. There is no Spanish garrison. The country is well worth opening up to honest and energetic trade. - DIVING ELKS. Trained to Perform Trieks That Almost Supernatural. Seem There seems to be no limit to the ingenuity of man in devising sensa- tions to please the public. Especially is this true in the matter of training animals to perform feats which at first seem impossible. One of the smallest of insects, the flea, and one of the largest of animals, the elephant, have been put through a course of training which has resulted in their performing A DARING DIVE, feats whieh seem almost supernatural. However, it remained for Mr. Will H. Barnes, of Sioux City, Towa, to train an animal which was generally con- sidered to be the dullest of quad- rupeds, namely, the elk. His efforts have proved beyond a doubt that the elk is by no means lacking in in- celligence, and his famous diving elks elicit admiration and wonder from all who see them perform. Mr. Barnes secured the elks when they were young, and though it required un- limited patience, he finally succeeded in breaking them in harness. "While training the elks, the owner noticed that they seemed utterly indifferent to what height they jumped from, and he then conceived the ideaof teaching them to dive. The process was a slow one, but now, after two years of labor, they have attained a marvelous degree of ability in this feat, as they make a headlong plunge of fifty feet into a tank of water. Herewith is presented a cut representing the elk making the dive. As will be noticed, the animal makes a headlong plunge with his feet extended. Strategy in the Ranks. Captain J. W. Pratt has told a mighty military story that came to him somehow from the big camp of the United States volunteers at San Francisco. An infantryman hadover- stayed his liberty. Detection meant a tine and perhaps some imprison- ment, with the most disagreeable sort of police duty. The infantry chap was a genius. He pinned strips of white paper down the legs of his trousers. Then he made officer’s shoulder straps out of banana skins. Then he boldly walked right through the line, an- swered ‘‘officer,” and accepted the night honor of the sentry.—Pacific Commercial Advertiser. He—*‘“What would you say if I were to steal a kiss from you?” . She—*‘But that is imyptseible.” He— ‘Impossible! Why.so, pray?” Shre— ‘Because you ¢anctsteal any- thing I haven’t got, and no. one has ever-given me a kiss—see?”’— Chicago Post. The Old Bookkeenér at Lunch. i il | << | : i dialect. somewhat akin to that of Sulu “The habits that nse doth hreed.” was great commercial activity here, - HELPS FOR HOUSEWIVES, Broiled Herring. Scale and cut off the heads; clean and dry them with clean cloth. Sea: son with salt and pepper, dredge with flour and broil over a bed of good coals. Serve with onion sauce. Three medium sized boiled onions, chopped fine. Boil cup milk, add ta- blespconful each of butter and flour, braided, season. When smooth and bot pour over the onions. Pickled Eggs. . When eggs are plentiful housekeep- ers should seize the opportunity to pickle them. Boil the eggs until hard, then lay them in cold water. Remove the shells, and put five eggs in each quart fruit jar. Secald as much vine- gar as will be needed; add a few slices of freshly boiled red beets, some celery seed, peppercorns, mus- tard seed and a pinch of mace. Fill the jars containing the eggs with the boiling vinegar and seal at once. Pickled eggs are a palatable addition to broiled or baked fish, and also are very good eaten with lettucesalad and mayonnaise dressing. Fruit Custard. Take a can of peaches or any kind of fruit and drain off all the syrup and put the fruit in the pudding dish; take a quart of milk and put it over the fire, when it comes to a boil stir in this mixture: The yolks of two eggs, a half cup milk, one tablespoon- ful of cornstarch, a pinch of salt and two tablespoonfuls of sugar, all thor- oughly mixed, and let boil two min- utes, stirring all the time; then add carefully the syrup; take off the fire immediately and pour over the fruit; now take the two whites of the eggs and beat to a stiff froth, adding three tablespoonfals of powdered sugar and two drops of essence of rose; spread over all, and brown in a quick oven. Serve cold. Gingerbread Like Mother Used to Make. An old-fashioned molasses ginger- bread. The following are the pro- portions: One-half cupful of molas- ses, one-half teaspoonful of ginger, one saltspoonful of salt, one-half tea- spoonful of soda, one tablespoonful of clavified beef dripping —or you may use butter, though the dripping is the better—one fourth of a cupful of hot water, boiling, and one cuptul of flour. The ginger, soda and salt are added to the molasses; the softened drip- ping is then put in, and the mixture beaten well; next the boiling water is added, then the flour; beat again thoroughly, pour into a well-greased shallow pan, and bake in a hot oven. It will take about twenty minutes to bake the loaf. —Woman’s Home Com- panion. Celery Sandwiches With Mayonnaise. For celery sandwiches with mayon- naise boil slowly for fifteen minutes four eggs; removethe shells and chop the whites very fine, or put them through a vegetable press, mixing with them a little shredded celery. jut the crust from the end of the loaf of bread, butter the loaf, cut oft a slice a quarter of an inch thick, put over it a goodly layer of the white of egg and celery, then a layer of may- onnaise, then a layer of the yolk of egg put through a sieve, and over all another slice of bread pressing the whole together gently. With a sharp knife cut off the crusts, leaving the sandwich perfectly square. Cover a meat-plate with lettuce leaves, arrange the sandwiches on them, cover with dampened lettuce leaves, and stand aside for twenty minutes. Sand- wiches made in this way may be kept fresh from early morning until even- ing, consequently are particularly nice for picnies.—Ladies’ Home Jour- nal. Household Hints. A basket kept on a swinging shelf is the proper receptacle for eggs. Keep potatoes and all root vegeta- bles in box or bin in a dry cellar. Cranberries may be kept for months in crocks or jars and covered with wa- ter. Cold vegetables and the like must be covered if not kept in a wired cup- board. Milk should be as far as possible separated from other food and kept clear and cool. Freshly made tea and coffee stains ‘may be removed by at once stretching the part over a bowl, and slowly vour- ing boiling water through it. In preserving berries or any other fruit liable to fall to pieces, if a small lump of alum is added to the fruit while cooking, it will make it firm. Raw potato with a bathbrick will remove stains from steel knives and forks, and stains can also be taken out of tinware and brass in the same way. . Two tablespoonfuls of washing soda dissolved in a gallon of boiling water makes an excellent disinfectant for the kitchen sink. Pour in while boil- ing hot. An effectual way of getting rid of cockroaches is to place slices of cu- cumber over the floor they frequent at night. They devour this greedily, and it destroys them. In making jelly it must be borne in mind that the less stirring there is the better. If stirred too much the jelly is not clear, while the tendency of sugar to grainlate is increased by stirring. A Sanitary Drinking Fountain. In Rochester, N. Y., it is proposed to introduce a drinking fountain whose water supply will be delivered as a short, vertical jet or fountain. The person using it places the mouth over the jet and drinks without touching anything but the water itself. ‘This avoids contamination from other users of the fountain. : THE MARKETS. PITTSBURG. Grain, Flour and Feed. WHEAT. No. 1red No. 2 red CORN--No. 2 yellow, ear No. 2 yellow, shelled Mixed ear.......... RYE—No. 1 FLOUR---Winter patents Fancy straight winter Rye flour HAY—No. 1 timothy Clover, No. 1 FEED—No. 1 white mid., ton.. Brown middlings Dairy Froduets. BUTTER—Elgin creamery Ohio creamery Fancy country roll CHEESE—Ohio, new New York, new Fruits and Vegetables, BEANS—Green, # bu.... POTATOES—White, # bbl CABBAGE-—Per bbl ONIONS—New Southern, # bbl Poultry, Ete, CHICKENS-—Per pair, smail.. . 3 TUREKEYS—Per th EGGS8—Pa. and Ohio, fresh.... 5 2 25 50@ 1 12 CINCINNATI, CORN -Mixed OATS OATS-—No. 2 white BUTTER-—Creamery, extra. ... EGGB—Pennsylvania firsts. ... NEW YORK. BUTTER--Creamery:. EGGBS- State of Penn LIVE STOCK. Central Stock Yards, East Liberty, Pa. CATTLE. Prime, 1300 to 1400 ths. ......8 5 10@ 5 Good, 1200 to 1300 ths 49 50 Tidy, 1000 to 1160 ths. .......... 4 75 Fair light steers, 900 to 1000 ibs 4 25 Common, 700 to 900 Ibs.... ... 370 HOGS. Medium Heavy Prime, 95 to 105 ths Go00d,851000 bs. .........i.. TRADE REVIEW. An Unusual Number of New Orders Have Been Place Now That Pence is Established. R. G. Dun & Co.'s weekly review of trade reports as follows for last week: Prospects of peace have had a cur- fcug influence on business contracts, not quite explainable on common sense grounds. Nobody really feared disaster, or exhaustion of national re- sources, and nobody feared that any- body else was afraid of either. Yet orders unusual in number and size have been placed since Spain asked for peace. In some industries the gains have been large for about two weeks, while in some textile manu- factures it has only begun to appear this week, but it involves a consider- able increase in the working force. Crop prospects are on the whole more encouraging, for the govern- ment’s latest report as to corn is much larger than the commercial estimates, and its cotton return promises a heavy yield, while allowance is made for its habitual error in its wheat re- turn. Money markets show. neo sign of possible disturbance, securities are stronger, and there is no harmful spe- culation in stocks or products. Rare- ly has the financial outlook been more nearly unclouded. The general holding back of grain by farmers and consequent heavy shrink- age in western receipts have reduced the visible supply below all past rec- ords, but everybody understands that at this date many times that quan- tity is almost within a day’s run of Chicago. The more effective change is the decrease in exports, which have been only 3,237,819 bushels, flour in- cluded, from both coasts, against 3,- 832,974 bushels last year, showing but a slight increase of half a million bushels for two weeks, compared with last year. The iron and steel trade fully sap- ports inferences drawn from recent events. The demand for steel is so heavy that some of the biggest con- cerns have been buying, one taking 40,000 tons, advancing the price at Pittsburg from $14.50 to $15.25, which was at last refused. Bessemer pig is steady, and other pig there and at castern and western markets general- ly, but rails have been advanced by eastern makers to $18 per ton, the makers of structural beams have ad- vanced the price $1 per ton, and mak- ers of merchant pipe have advanced the price 5 per cent, while plate mak- ers are crowded to the point of refus- ing orders, both east and west, and bars are stronger, with many mills engaged for weeks ahead. Illustrat- ing the demand are reports of orders for 20,000 tons structural work tunere, and big orders at Philadelphia for cast pipe and 6,000 tons elsewhere. Itastern works now appear to be crowded to their utmost capacity as the western have been for some weeks. In_ the minor metals there is heavy buying. The aggregate <ales at the three chief wool markets have been only 5,- 432,700 pounds for the week, about a third of the sales in the same week of 1897, while in 1892 for the correspond- ing week the sales were 7,164,600 pounds. For the week failures have been 196 in ‘the United States against 239 last year, and 18 in Canada against 38 last year. NEWS NOTES. Friends say that Presidgnt McKinley is enjoying the best of health. Miss Grace Parker, of Cincinnati, took a headache antidote last Monday and died 15 minutes after. Secretary of the Interior Bliss hears that 30,000 sheep have been cjected from Yosemite National park. ‘The public is warned against im- posters throughout the country who are conducting Red Cross Societies.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers