The Philippine trill start in with
1 he Merritt system mid allow olhnr
efvil service problems to follow at lei
attre.
The mercantile iiiniino o( the United
States has been Increased by the nddi
tion, in a lump, of fifty-three vessels
by the annexation of Hawaii.
. The rnw nilk industry of Jnpnn In
cIhiIpb nn annual production of nlionl
7,600,000 pounds. Of the t-verngo
export more than hnlf ere to the
United States.
The whole Hohson incident is fine,
but there in nothing finer iu it thnii
bin turning hid back on cheering
crowds to plunge at once into bin
technical duty as a naval constructor.
The assignment was made and accept
ed as bare mutter of course. This il
lustrates the spirit of our whole nnvy.
On top of the news thnt the Chi
nese Emperor has ordered the estab
lishment of universities on the Knvo
peau model comes the report that the
younger Mandnrins bnve established
a reform society: and, though their
meetings were for a time forbidden by
authority, they have been resumed
under the presidency of the Emper
or's tutor.
The financial supplement to the
Street ltailway Journal recently is
sued, devotes some space to a com
parison of gross receipts by loading
street railway lines in the United
States in the years 1H!7 and 180(1. It
shows thnt iu 1807 the twenty-sis
properties earning more than $1,000,
000 gross per annum- increased their
income 2.20 per cent.; those earning
from 300,000 to 81,000,000 lost. 11
per cent., and those earning from
$100,000 to 8500,000 gained 1.87 per
cent. The aggregute gain showed by
all of the 170 roads included iu tho
summary was 1.9 per cent.
Mr. George B. Waldron, in an arti
cle in McClure's Magazine shows that
iu the twenty-years following 1703,
Napoleon cost the British and French
not less than 8(1,300,000,000 in money
ud 1,900,000 lives the latter num
ber equal to the eutire adult male
population now living in Greater Lon
don and Paris. Iu the one battle of
Waterloo 51,000 men were lost,2l),000
of whom were British. The Crimean
war of two years cost the nations en
gaged In it 81,500,000,000 in wealth
and over 000,000 of their citizens.
The France-Gorman war coBt over
200,000 lives and required nu expendi
ture of 81,500,000,000. France had iu
addition to pay aniudemnityof 1,000,
000,000 and to give Alsace-Lorraine,a
total Iors, it is cKtimated, of not less
than 81,000,000,000.
While the soil of the Hawaiian
group of islands is prolific iu fruits of
almost every kind, tho manufacture
of sugar is the chief industry of the
inhabitants. In 1890 the exports of
sugar amounted in value to $14,0it2,
000 out of 815, 430, 000, the value of the
eutire exports. For the same year
the total imports aggregated in value
$7,165,000. Most of the trade or the
islands for some time past has been
carried on with the United States.
The public, debt of the islands ou
January 1, 1890, aggregated $3,751,
335; while the yearly income from di
rect taxes, customs aud licenses is
approximately 81.740,000. In spite
of the wealth of the islauds, the chief
attractiveness which thoy possess for
the United States grows solely out of
their strategic position, says the
Atlanta Constitution.
Statistics translated from the Archiv
fur Eisenbuhnwesen, publication of
the Prussian ministry, show that in the
five years 1891-5 America has built
more miles of railway than any of the
other continents, the increase for that
period being 16,998 miles, making a
total of 229,722,as against an increase
of 13,732 and a total of 155,284 for
Europe, an increase of 4867 and a to
tal of 26,890 for Asia, an increase of
1647 and a total of 8169 for Afrioa,
and an inoreaie of 1566 and a total of
13,888 for Australia. When ftut in,
percentages, however, the additions
to the Afrioan lines head the list, for
the record of that country is 23. 2, with
Asia second, 22.1, and Australia, Eu
rope, aud America following in order
with 12.7, 0.7, and 8 respectively. At
the close of 1895 the railways of the
world, if joined together, would have
gone aroaud it at the equator more
than seventeen times, for the aggre
gate mileage was 433,053. Of this
nearly tenth was built between the
end of ' 1891 and the beginning of
1896. This is the first four years in
railway history that construction has
not advanced proportionally as well
as absolutely more rapidly on this
continent than elsewhere, but we
till have wore miles of railway thsu
U Uve rest of the world uuited.
CASTLES
How fnlr they rise
From hyaolnthtiie momtow-gronnd that
llis
Within the simile.
By nmv-('niM)il hnlKht of wild alarms
made l
How Rimming white
Those linitlumuuts bennntb the morning
ll;iit!
Mow marbles show
Tbnlr brilliancy against the eternal snow I
How roof ami spire '
Are dully klmllfil to a Hashing fire,
Ami over nil
Folils of silken bnuuor rise anil full I
Tho noiirt bolow
Is montol with a stn-nm of gentlo flow,
Whoso crystal fiico
H(lii)Ilcii(" the beauty of t tin place.
r.. 1
THE GRAY STEER.
L, i
Twelvo hundred feet high is the
suu-dinl of the Lazy T ltnnch and
nearly ns broad that clilTof divers
hues which stands out from the wall
of the canon of the Grand river.
The opposite precipice serves the
cowboys ns gnomon or index to the
hours of tlnv, for its shallow sweeps
over the stupendous, variegated face
aud marks the course of the suu
through a sky thnt is always un
clouded. A ledge of porphyry, fifty
feet deep, crowns the ilml; often it
looks like a strip of pink ribboli to
the men below liy the stream. Jlut it
was a glorious coronal, kindling in the
first rays from the oust, when llolden
builed it with uplifted eye and hand
as he quirted bis horse through the
barway of tho corral.
"Sunup!" cried llolden, the young
foreman, filled with t lie joy of the
morning. He is tho son of the presi
dent of the cnttle company; he had
come stiuight from college to the cow
camp, and the old stroke of tho 'var
sity eight set n hot pace iu saddle for
the Lazy J riders.
He rode that morning a big-boned,
Itomau-nosod, blue-roan "outlaw" a
horse pronounced irreclaimable by the
boys; he had tied a bucking roll
across the shoulders of his saddle to
supplement the grip of his knees, aud
on top of that lay the big, loose coil
of his fifty-foot cable lino, for he was
still young enough to tlisduiu a lariat
of lessor leugth mid caliber.
Behind llolden Navajo Jim lifted a
light left foot to the stirrup; theu his
spurred right tripped clinking to the
evasive dance of his young horse, aud
lie slipped iiiimitnbly into his saddle.
To its right shonldor hung the trim
coiled ring of bis rope of braided raw
hide, which, to that of the foreman,
was as steal to irou aud would hold
anything ou hoofs.
Foremnu and follower struck out
through the gre:isewood over ground
without grass; the grazing range lay
high ou the mesa, fencod by the lofty
wall of the canon. Its seemingly ill
accessible hoight was scaled by tho
sure-footed, agile range cnttle at a
break in the porphyry ledge not fur
up the canon, and presently they took
to the dizzy Iruil.
With slack ciuchos the blowing
horses clawed up tho loose footing nt
the top of the break and moved out on
a narrow projecting tongue of the
mesa. Still higher the mesa broad
ened and was sot with squat cedars
and pinons. Here the riders saw cat
tle already chewing their cuds in the
shade.
"We're too low down. There's
nothing here," snid the young fore
man, his eyes roving over the stock.
"It's beef I'm aftor. I've got to
get a traiu-road off by the first and not
a hundred steers gathered yet 1"
"Quaking-asp putty good place
for steer now," said Navajo Jim.
"Water sweet there and stam;iu'
gronnd close."
"Ves, I know," Holdon returned,
impatiently. "The boys stnrtod
twenty head dowu yesterday aud bad
them pointed for the corral, when
thnt blamed grny steor scattered the
bunch, i.u I thoy broke back for the
hills."
"That gray steer like bull elk. Bet
ter corral him with six-shooter," said
Jim. "One steer not much worth."
"rfix-shooter nothing! What's our
ropes for?" cried Holdon. "That big
grizzly brute will fetch np a whole
carload to the top notch in the stock
pens. Ho goes on hoof to Omaha. I
told the boys I'd give a $50-dollar
saddle to the first man that 'twined'
him and stayed with him."
"I already gut putty good saddle,
Mr. Holdeu," said Jim, with a griu.
"That steer seven.eight year old now,
and all time run wild. Horns so long
tick elenu through horse."
-"Well, beef's np in the air; horses
are down," returned the foremun.
"Quirt np, Jim. We'll strike up
higher."
On the loftier grazing-ground they
found the cattle still at feed. Through
thickeuiug hosts of deer-flies aud
horse-flies their horses strained up the
ateep oakbrnsh slopes. In banded
resistance to like winged attaoks, the
cattle of the higher ran go were begin
ning to "bunch" on each open stamp-ing-grouud.
Toward these trampled
oircles the scattered steers were one
by one making their way.
"The boys can run in all these
teers tomorrow," said Holdeu. "Vou
and I, Jim, are going to twine that
gray steer today."
"He got big scare yesterday; too
harp to show up ou stampin'-grouud
today," Jim suggested.
"Like .enough," Holdeu assented,
"but we'll rustle him out. The boys
lost biin late yesterday in the long
quakiug-asp patch in "that gulch up
there, just below the'lim-rock."
He pointed to the rim-rock of the
pruoe ridge, rising yet loftily above
IN SPAIN.
The pntfiimetl breese
Cuum through the brsnahos of frnlt-lailen
trHs,
And song of hint,
Fhito-tlM mill mellow, from the oopao Is
heard.
With soothing sound
Tool fountains i-ntir Jewels nil around,
in iuiiiimr spiny
The i tlubow beiuls its arch above our way.
f entnr Dioro
With osiini friends we bid our Joys to
shnrot
We rest nt ensei
Vie go again nt any time we plt-aso.
From mortnl eves
Wero tpIImiI tho glories' bright of Tamills,
Vt tltcro remain
Those glorious castle all onr own In Hpnln.
New York Home Journal.
thorn with innumerable aspen gulches
ami brushy slopes draining clown into
tho side canons.
Quickening their horses, they pres
ently rode into the green gloom of the
gulch, where the quaking-aspens
trembled over bidden springs. Here
mighty boofprint dinted deep the
mud and the sodden trails.
"Dere his track, fresh," said Jim,
stooping from his saddle over a print
like a post-hole. "He lie close, some
where. "
"We'll put him np," snid Holden,
conllilently; "and once he sbows,stay
with him, Jim."
"You bet I stnyl" said Jim, simply.
Thoy threaded the winding thicket
on separate trulls and met near its
bend without a sight of the grny steer.
" It's no tiso looking for him
down iu here," said Holdeu. "He's
gone np higher. Let's try iu tho
spruce below the rim-rock."
He led the way upward along the
steep, brushy side of the gulch until,
stopped by the rim-rock, they snt iu
their saddles and looked down aud
back iu disappointment.
Below them the gulch enclosed the
fastness of the deor, a space darkened
to twilight by a growth of young
spruce and aspen saplings.
"Maybe he down in those," snid
Jim, with a drop alike of voice and
hand. "Hide bisself iu daytime like
blacktail buck."
"But we can't get into that 'pocket
on horses," Holden replied loudlv, iu
vexation. "Wait! I'll try for him!"
As he spoke he dismounted to act
on a boyish inspiration.
He had noticed a big block fallen
from tho rim-rock and lying tilted up
on the slope. With mighty heaving
be overturned it, and down the slope
it crashed iu smashing leaps through
the brush and swaying timber to the
very heart of tho spruce thicket.
Snorts came up from below ; Holden
marked the course of startled, hurry
ing creatines by the lines of swaying
tops furrowing the still, green sur
face, ami three grand bucks sprang
out, their horns showing brown in the
velvet ns they topped the lower brush;
but a bearer of mightier horns was
breaking through the pliant young
trecB.nud a glimpse of a grizzly hide
was exultantly cuught by the young
foremnu.
"Ah, be show up now I" shouted
Navajo Jim, erect in tho stirrups, as
the great steor came out below.
Bred from the finest of the Lazy J
stock, bo would bnve weighod near
2000 pounds; but such spoud aud bot
tom were his "rustling" on thnt rough
range that the big body rose over tho
brush with the wild grace of a buck,
and with doer-like case his frontlet,
black and threatening, was thrown
bnck over his grizzly shoulder as he
stopped and eyed his hunters for an
instant. One defiant shake of his per
feet horns, then he raced onward.nnd
only bending brush marked his path.
Holdeu was already galloping after
him, smashing the undergrowth in a
straight course down the slope to in
tercept him below, shouting as he ran.
Jim, with Indian circumspection, ran
his horse in an eusier descent along
the slope, keeping his eyes on tho
swaying brush benonth and wuitiug
for nn opportunity of closing iu more
open ground.
Now Holdeu'a horse, the blue out
law, showed once more his spirit and
brought Holden close behind the
game. Navajo Jim emerged from the
thicket to see the young foreman iu
full career, swinging his big rope,
while the haltered head of the horse
and the huge-horned frontlet of the
steer reached out in an even race
across the little open space beyond.
The loop of Holdeu's cuble lit fairly
over the widespread horns; but his
band was hardly quick enough in
closing it. While it hung slack the
steer leaped with both front legs
through it, and then Holden's tardv
jerk brought it tight around the grizzly
nanus.
The beast bellowed as the Plunge
of his great gray body drew the tnrn
of the rope awiftly from the saddle-
born. V ainly Holden tried to stay it.
Recklessly he threw the slack end in
a hitch around the steel horn and
clapping his baud over it braced his
horse for the shock.
With forelegs outplnnted and Quar
ters lowered, the stubborn blue out
law stanchly set himself to the tight
ening rope. For an instant he was
jerked along, stiff-legged, thou over
ttiey went, dragged down, fierce horse
aud reckless roper.
Clearing his legs, banging at the
side of his struggling horse, Holden
still held the .saddle-horn with power
ful grasp. Another bawl, a plunge
that no cinches could withstand and,
lo, the saddle was stripped from the
outlaw and jerked high aud far from
Holdeu's baud!
Navajo Jim oheoked hia horse, but
"On I" roared the young foreman, aud
on the obedient Indian spurred After
the wild stoor and the riving saddle.
The great steer seemed scarcely to
reel the (ill-pound drag of the bump
lug saddle. Yet it tightened the rope
about loin and Hanks, and by making
it harder for him to breathe so lessened
his speed thnt Jim easily kept him in
sight. Through yielding brush and
swaying thicket, thrfhigh bunches of
frightened cattle that split to let him
pass and came stringing after, bucking
nnd bawling in sympathy, the brute
plunged on.
Each bawling bunch in tnrn wna
distanced. The brushy slopes broke
way. As the men, sprinkled with
pinons, begun to ollor to Jim smooth
spaces for handling his horse, he tin
buckled the strap that held the coil of
his rope, but still, as every lenp of
i lie steer took linn the nearer to the
corral, the wise Indian only held the
rawhide ringed ready iu bis hand.
Down the rapidly narrowing tongue
or the mesa the mesa which tipped
precipitously out into the river-gorge
ana was bounded on either side by nu
abyss the trapped steer sped. He
must soon be at a standstill or at
tempt to return on bis tracks.
The Indian's eves had already kin
died with anticipation of triumph, when
nt tne last or the pinons the bumping,
huvtliug saddle caught fast between
projecting roots. It scarcely checked
the steer! Holdeu's cable tore loose
from the saddle-horn, nnd its slack
ened loop was speedily kicked from
the steer's high-plunging haunches
Once more the great gray brute was
free.
"Ah, be on the push now!" snid
Jim and looked to his loop as the steer
reversed his big body, gave a high,
writhing leap over the spurned rope,
confronted tho herder with the threat
ening crescent of his sharp horns and
plunged forward to the combat.
The Navajo lifted his horse aside
witli the spurs, swung the loop open
in his right hand and rose, half turned
in tho stirrups, iu a quick uuderthrow
for thn front hoofs of the steer as he
lunged by.
Jim's eyes saw, for an instant, low
ered horns and nplifted hoofs mingled
together, and his throw was true. But
so quick was the piny of the ponder
ous feet that the loop caught one fore
leg only and passed over the face and
hung across the horns.
The loop, drawn tight by the roper's
lnstHutan cons jerk and kept from slack
ening by his nimble horse, bouud born
and hoof togethor. Now the steer
was iu sad plight. With bead drawn
sidewise, with tongue lolling from
open jaws, bellowing, he surged on
three legs, but his spirit was un
broken. The roper slowed his horse to the
strain. From horu to cautle the sad
dle creaked as, trampling and tugging
iu a wild, wide waltz, straining horse
and hauling steer made the mnd cir
cuit of the precipices.
The Navajo, active in the saddle
with rein,spur nnd rope, was, in spite
of nil his cIVorts, dragged past the
break where the trail rati down the
slope. His horse, always straining
desperately, was tugged on and ou
until he circled along the perilous
porphyry brink, and Jim glnnced
longingly from the saddle ou the cor
ral, seemingly almost directly beneath
him, its great square shrunk to the
measure of his snddlo-hlauket.
Holdeu, pounding down bareback on
the blue roan, hnd stopped to gather
up his rope, but now Jim heard his
encouraging shout. The ouickeued
tramp of bis rushing horse, the whirr
ing of his big rope as be swung it
aloft, soundod close at baud, and the
sweating roper relaxed his strain.
Tho steer, alert to the slack, jerked
bis hoof from the loop. Heedless of
the cutting rope, instantly tightened
across face and frontlet, 'his stately
head was lifted, and he stood, wild
eyed, quivering, cornered, caught but
not conquered. He was on four legs
ngain. Conquered? Never! With
resistless pull ou the rope.he wheeled
nnd broke for escape across the cliff
thnt rises, red-bauded, above the cor
ral. "Stay with him, Jim!" roared the
young foreman, swinging his rope,
sure the steor would stop at the edge.
Stay with him? It meant death
surely. Already under the plunging
fiout hoofs of the desperate rebel the
porphyry rim crumbled. Jim's obedi
ence did not fulter, although he was
fnirly staring down on tho corral.
How would the falling feel?
The Indian hnd a swift picture of it
the steer lowest in the air on the
taut lariat, horse and man whirling
after but Navajo Jim set bis savage
jaws. No foreman should dare biin
to stay with a roped beast! He would
not look on the faces of white ropers
sneering. He was hired body and
soul he was obedient he would
stay. .
Holden, for this mad second, watched
incredulously. The steer would not
go over surely not. What? Straight
on! And Jim! Was the man also
crazy? Then the Navajo heard once
more his master's voice.
"For God's sake, Jim let got O
heavens!"
Jim obeyed. He flung loose the
rope, but ou his horse staggered. And
the black length of the lariat was still
whipping out with the defiant horned
head that pitched off into space when
the agile horse saved himself and hia
rider ou the very brink.
Holden dropped his useless rope as
the Navajo, skimming the porphyry
edge like a swallow, rode back and
stared into the eyes of the white man.
"Ho was brnve, that steer," said
Jim, with a queer choke iu his throat,
''He saved himself from the stock
peas." Holden held out his hand and
grasped the Indian's, "You beat my
time, Jim," was all he said, but some
thing in the tone called a new pride
iuto the Navajo's stern faoe. Frank
Oakling, in Youth's Companion.
HUNTING SPANISH SPIES
MOW OUR SECRET SERVICE FOILED
THE ENEMY'S EMISSARIES
Ths Thrilling Capture of Hownlnu Tilers
ITInilpnl ltdliinr Ha Hnn Ills Finish
nml UHlriml the flnvwrninMit hv Com
mltlli.gSnli lilo ( lilcf Wilkin's t:ptnP
The seerot service of tho govern
ment during tho war has been em
ployed mostly in discovering and
thwarting the efforts of Spain to get
information and gnin certain ends in
this conntry by means of secret agents.
That the secret service has beeu suc
cessful has been attested by Lieuten
ant C'arranza, formerly of the Spanish
legation in Washington And the bend
of tho Spanish spy system iu this
country. In his published lotter set
ting forth his hope, plans and experi
ences be referred to tho work of the
secret service thus ;
"The Americans are showing the
most extraordinary vigilance. They
have captured my two best men."
Aud be might havo added : "In a mo
ment one of their men wilt come iuto
this room, take this letter, send it to
John Wilkie, chief of tho seoret ser
vice of America, who will thereby be
informed officially, as if I were to
confess to him myself, all that I have
done nnd all that I hope to do."
An illustration of how the secret
service does its work was giveu by
Chief Wilkie during a conversation
in his private office :
"The Downing case was taken up
by ns and we disposed of him," Chief
Wilkio begnn, "in less than one week.
I was warned thnt George Downing,
a former sailor on the cruiser Brook
lyn, had entered the Spanish spy ser
vice. He wn-t located on arriving in
Toronto. When he went to pay his
first call to the attache of the Spanish
legation my man was within earshot
nnd heard every word thnt passed be
tween them. Ho beard all of the in
structions Downing received, nnd
when Downing left the room my man
met him as if by chnnce and asked for
a match to light his cigar. He walked
with him to the hotel office, got a
good look at him, followed him to his
hotel, learned his assumed name, got
a tracing of his handwriting from the
register aud later shadowed him to
the train.
"Then he telegraphed me that
Downing bad left for Washington on
the 5 o'clock train, sent me a full de
scription of him, and when the train
arrived here three of my boys spotted
biin. They followed him to a board
ing house, where he left his grip. Then
they followed him about town and back
to his bouse. After nu hour or so he
came nut and walked to tho postoffice.
When ho dropped a letter to his Span
ish employer in Toronto through the
postofHce receiver, the letter fell into
the hands of one of my operatives and
was brought at once to me, while the
other operatives followed Downing
back to his boarding house. I opened
the letter and, npou rending it, com
municated with the war department,
which decided upon a military arrest.
Soldiers were sent for, nnd takiug a
few operatives with me, we went to
Downing's house. He was still there,
and we waited till the extinguished
lights told us he had gone to bed.
"Theu we knocked utthe frontdoor.
The mistress of the house thrust her
bend through the w indow and declined
to let us in till I threatened to break
down her door. Thou, very much
frighteued, she admitted us. Leaving
the soldiers below, I took two of my
men, and bidding the landlady go be
fore, went np to his door. I bade the
landlady knock and tell Downing that
some friends from Chicago wanted to
see him. She could leave the rest to
me. ' She did so. Downing bit at
once and we could hear hiiu dressing.
The hull was dark, nnd we stood on
either side of the door. When he
opened the door he was in the best pos
sible situation for capture had he been
disposed to put np a fight, for he was
iu the act of putting on his coat and
had one arm through his sleeve and
the other only half through, so that
he conldn t have used either to advan
tage. I grabbed him by tho collar and
explained our errand briefly. Instend
of fight, he wilted like an icicle on the
Washington pavement in July.
"Entering his room, we found his
effects, the cipher he was to use in
telegraphing to his Spanish employer,
romo destroyed correspondence; iu
fact, everything necessary to make out
a perfect case. He never recovered
from his collapse. He had brains
enough to see that it was all np with
him. We turned biin over to the
soldiers, who took him to the mili
tary prison, aud there, after a severe
attack of melancholia, he committed
suicide by hanging."
Chief Wilkie is nnder 40. For vears
he was city editor of the Chicago Trib
une. He left journalism to go to Lon
don and went from there to the sec
ret service.
Not long ago Secretary Gage asked
Wilkie to do a bit of special work for
him. The work required much shrewd
ness. Wilkie performed the task so
quickly and satisfactorily that Gage
offered him the place he now holds.
The Sleep of Plants,
All close observers are aware that
many sorts of plants have what
answers to the appearance aud posi
tion or sleep, xuey rold iu their leaves,
the blossoms close their petals aud
they sometimes assume a drooping
habit that clearly indicates the object
of this change in appearance. It has
beeu ascertained that this position is
also taken as a precaution against too
large deposits of moisture from the
atmosphere. If the leaves aud petuls
were spread out there would be inoro
anrfuce to catch the dew. The plunt
folds itself up and thus promotes a
greater circulation of the sap and the
consequent nutrition of the entire
structure. New York Ledgor.
THI4 NAVY'S MINIATURE SEA,
A Great Task In Which Model nt ht
Warship Are to lis Trutril.
Close to the water front nt the gnu
factory in Washington the first ex
perimental tank of the nnvy is being
rapidly completed, and by the time
bidders have submitted proposals for
the construction of big battleship
and monitors recently called for, it
will be ready to test miniature mod
els of paralfine and wax, represent
ing the proposed new additions to the
country's fighting strength on the sea.
There is no tnuk in the world equal
to this one in size, eqnipment
nnd completeness of its elec
trical devices. It is longer and wider
than the best owned by foreign coun
tries, and covers an "area of water
fully cnpnble of floating some of the
largest torpedo boats. It looks lik
an immense nntntoriuin, and, in fact,
would make an excellout one.
The plan of having a big tank,
housed over, with brick sides and
concrete bottom, In which little mod
els of all new ships to be built for tho
navy should be teste 1, was suggested
some years ago by Chief Constructor
Hitchborn, who had notod the excel
lent results obtained in Great Britain
and France by testing design of new
ships before their actual lines were
decided npou by constructing small
models and having them towed
through the water at given rates of
speed. The resistance offered by the
models to the water formed a basis on
which close estimates could be made
of the probable speed of the actual
ships when in service, and faults in
designs could be readily detected and
corrected before the vessels were com
pleted. Two years ago Congress ap
propriated 8100,000 with which to
build a tank, and under direction of
Constructor Taylor the work has so
advance I that it will be availuble in a
few weeks.
When n new vessel is to be bnilt, a
model of it is made about eight feet
long, enre beiug observed to have the
lines occurntely moulded. This model
is made of wood and covered with a
mixture of paraffins and wax to give
it a smooth surface, r.unuing the
eutire longth of the tank, several feet
above the water is an electrical trol-,
tey apparatus, to which the model is
attached, aud by which it is drawn
thtough the water at certain fixed
speeds. The waves created and their
character are noted, and the disturb
ance caused abeam and the general
effect produced on the water by the
vessel are closely watched. Where
defects are apparent the designs of
the proposed vessel are altered to cor
rect them, and by this means the
constructors can estimate accurately
just the amount of steam power re
quired to send a vessel of a certain
displacement and desigu through the
water at a given rate of speed. Mod
els are now being made of the three
new battleships, which will be the
first tested in the new tank. It is ex
pected thnt some valuable lessons will
be learned from the experiments by
which improvements may be made in
the plans of the ships. New York
Sun.
QUAINT AND CURIOUS
Australian savages eat the grean ant
raw.
Chinese babies are fed ou rice and
nothing else after they are a few
mouths old.
The smallest theatre in the world is
T.. ,.f ,. o I.T n.l '. . T 1 . 1 T.
seats only 130 persons.
Chocolate is still used ia the inte
rior of South America for a currency,
as m e cocoauuts aud eggs.
Twelve girl friends of the bride nt
a Kansas wedding supplied the niusiu -
by whistling the Weddiug March. .
William Ne.T of Colorado unearthed
six baby coyotes on his ranch, and
trained them so that they follow hiji
like dogs.
It is said that in many Welsh vil
lages the yew tree and the chnreh are
of the same age, the one beiug planted
when tho other was built.
A lighthouse of bamboo has been
built iu Japan. It is said to have
greater power of resisting the waves
than any othor kind of wood.
Tin is one of the oldest knowa
raotals. The Chinese h ive used it in
the fabrication of their brasses and
bronzes from time immemorial.
Hebrew guides in Home never pas
nnder the Arch of Titus, but walk
around it. The reason is it commem
orates a victory over their race.
Within a year Thomas Sanderson,
six years old, of Fall Biver, MasB.,
has fallen from a second-story window,
drank a pint of kerosene, been run
over twice, and escaped tvithont break
ing a boae.
People of St. Thomas, Canada, were
so superstitious that they wanted
supervisor to revise the" lists when
they were told that their totvu bad
increased but thirteen ichabitauts dur
ing the year.
Hcma Doon M1 la Winter.
Screen doors, such as are used to
keep out flies and other inserts, are
made almost wholly by machiuery.
They can be bought iu various sizes
in stores, like any other merchan
dise, arid they are sold so cheap thnt
they are now more commonly nsed
than ever. Like many other articles, .
nsed iu summer, soreoa doors are
made in winter iu tactorid that may
be occupied in summer iu the pro
duction of snow shovels. Screen
doors are shippod from the factories
to large wholesale buyors iu cm-load
lots. The wholesale trade in them,
begins iu April and ends about the
1st of July, the retail distributing
continuing later. Screen doors are
sold everywhere iu this country aud
thoy are also exported. N'aw Yurie
Suu. .