r THE NICARAGUA CANAL. I S5 Scenes Along the Proposed Waterway to Divide ANAL building seems to be the rnge now. Dividing North and South America by menus of the Nicaragua Canal will he the next grent engineering font. Americans will 1o it, American ("kill ami ability will plan it, Ameri can contractors will execute it with the aid of American It is now universally ad mitted thnt a short cut must be made for ships between the Atlantic and the Pacific Since lS2fi, when the first party of American engineers penetiated the tropical wilderness of Nicaragua, every part of the conntry south of Mexico has been carefully examined. The United States, Europe aud Mexico A COFFEE PLANTATION have been interested. Elaborate maps have been made, volumes of scientific data compiled and every engineering problem has been studied and dis cussed. The scheme lias been a diplomatic question for over three-qunrters of a century. Several times tho United States and England have been on the yerge of decluriug war over the pos session of Nicaragua. Each realized the importance of that country it a canal were built, The Nicaragua Canal may be briefly desoribed as a summit level of navi gation in fresh water, 153 miles long. 110 feet above the sea level, reaching within three and one-half miles of the Paoifie aud twelve and three-quarter ' ;X TYPICAL RPEN'E ALONG THE CANAL ROUTE. tmifia of the Atlantic Ocean. The total leugth of navigation is 109 J miles; there will be three lift locks at each end of the summit level. For miles huge machines mnst dig way loose rock, sand and mud and force it through pipes some two or three miles away. For many miles machines mnst scrape ont the bed of the river and lakes along the line of the canal. Some of those great dredges would dig oat from (1000 to 8000 cubic yards of material every twenty-four hours. Thousands of men must work with picks and shovels where the ma chines cannot strotch out their giant arms and dig away at the canal bed. machinery. SI' ' BIO D HEDGES AT WORK ON THE ENTRANCE TO THE NICARAGUA CANAL. The reason the Nicaragua route it the best one is that a water way has been found that requires canal dig ging for the shortest distanoe. You can leave the Caribbean Sea in steamer the size of one of our small North and South America. j& coasters, and can go to a point where you can reach the l'nctfio Ocean by walking three hours at a moderate gait. It is but twelve miles distant. If your stenmer lias a mast fifty feet high, by climbing to the top of this mast yon can see the blue line of the Pacific in the distance. The natural part of the ;1 is formed by the Han .Tunn 1 and Lake Nicaragua, of which it is -.1 out let. The lake is a basin in the Cen tral American l'lnin, tilled with fresh water ranging from ten to 210 feet in depth, and is 110 miles in length. Its outlet is not less than 400 feet wide i't any point, and varies from twelve to fifty ami sixty feet in depth. But at one point of the river, and only a few miles from the Atlantic coast, an earthquake or some other convulsion, possibly a thousand years back, threw up a barrier of rock, which must be cnt or rather blown out iu order to al low the passage of large steamships. To take away this rock and to build locks and dams to support the walls of DOr.UF.KIXO OX THE CANAL. water to the required depth are the great engineering feats of the Nica ragua Canal. Tons of the most power ful explosives must be used. Holes must be drilled in such a manner that the force of the explosives with which they ore loaded will work directly on the portion of the channel to be exca vated. Some of the blasts will contain fully 50,000 pounds of explosive. Tf a ship passes through this cnt the summit of the rock will be higher than the top ot her mainmast. An ex cavation over 125 feet wide must be made, for the minimum width of the canal will be 100 feet. Two grent dams will be needed to maintain the water ways nt a proper level. These are termed the Oehoa and Tola. The rock taken from the channel described will be used in building them, mixed with cement. It is calculated thnt they will prove strong enough to retain the tremend ous water presture. On tho Pacific side in what is known as the Tola Basin, which will be filled with water to the depth of thirty to seventy feet, by another dnm 1800 feet long and seventy feet high. From the Oehoa dam to the Tola dnm a ves sel will travel a waterway over 150 miles long, on which the fall is but four feet of the entire longth. To reach the summit level, as this is termed, that is, the highest point of the canal, involves another engineer ing problem, on which many years of study havo been spent by some of the most noted experts iu the world. The decision reached by most of the engiucers has been a system of locks. The plnns provide for three on one side of the summit level and three on the other. The highest will raise a vessel torty-five feet, and the lowest will raise her between twenty and twenty-fire feet. They are to be 050 feet long, eighty feet wide and thirty feet deep. The St. Lonisor St. Paul, for instance, could easily be accommodated in them. The canal will be less than thirty feet deep and 100 feet wide on the bot tom. The locks will be constructed of the largest blocks of stone and con crete ever used for this purpose, and will be closed by gates of steel, be- aide which the largest look gates in the world will seem as pigmies. The greatest industry in Nicaragua is coffee culture. The one drawbaok to the busiuess and to all enterprises iu Nicaragua, is the want, not only of labor, bnt of the proper kind of labor. A gentleman who is engaged in the coffee Industry said recently that hi laborers would get drunk on Sunday, take all day Monday to sober up, come to work on Tuesday and continne working until Friday or Saturday, when they would lay off again, so thnt the rnozo of the country labors about one-half of the time. Counting Sun days there are 105 fiestas, or feast days in Nicaragua, during which time the mozo "toils not, neither doth he spin." Hie Department of Mnt.igalpa is destined to be a great cofl'ee center at no fnr distant day when the grent cnnnl is built. There are now about 4,000,000 trees under cultivation and each month the number is largely in creased. Persons who claim to have a knowledge of the subject state that whereas iu other parts of Nicaragua the yield per tree is from half a pound to a pound and a bnlf of cofl'ee, iu Matngnlpa the trees produce from two to four pounds. A number of Ameri cans are engaged iu the coffee indus try, some ow ning as high as 2000 man znnns nearly 4000 acres. These binds cnu be purchased from the Gov ernment nt the rate of 81. CO per man- znna, being about two English acres. Though there are some large holdings, the majority do not average over twenty acres. DOES IT MEAN SEPARATION? A Stir CatiAiMl hy nn Art of llio Nnrn-rglnn I I let. A great stir has been caused in Norway and Sweden by tho recent ac tion of the Storthing at Christiana in the matter of the Norwegian flag. The Storthing has voted that hereafter Norway's banner shall flout without a jnck the symbol of the union with Sweden. Some say that should King Oscar veto the resolution two more diets must pass upon the mntter be fore it con go into effect; others that the new flag will come iuto immedi ate use. Since 1844 the closest rela tions have been maintained between Norway and Sweden. At thnt time the flng of each nntiou wns changed so thnt the jnck in the upper left-hand corner combined the colors of the other na tion. For several years past, how ever, there has been a growing feel ing of discontent in Norway concern ing the close relations of the two pow ers. This dissatisfaction King Oscar has 'striven to assunge. Tho two countries have entirely sepnrnte and distinct governments, but are ruled by the same king, Oscar of Sweden. Each country has its own parliament, which passes laws for its respective conn the L.vnoE flao is the rnorosEu n.Aa OP NORWAY. try. All laws are subject to the ap proval or disapproval of the king. Tho nag of Norway, with the jnck left out, will be four rod corners, with a Greek cross of blue through the center. The Swedish flng has four blue corners, with a jnck of red, blue and yellow iu the upper left-hand cor ner and a Greok cross of yellow in the confer. The Norwegian flag bad formerly the jack, which continued the bar of yellow as a symbol ot the union with Sweden, but this will not appear iu the flag iu the future. Very AUxent-sTlndcd Men. A friend calling npon Peter Bur rowes, a celobrated Irish barrister, one morning in his dressing room, found him shaving himself with his face to the wall, aud asked hira why be chose so strange an attitude. The answer was, "To look in the glass." "Why, there is no glass there," said the friend. "Bless me!" exclaimed Burrowes, "I did not notice that before." Then, ringing the bell, he culled the servant and questioned him respecting the looking-glass which had been hanging on the wall. "Oh, sir," said the servant, "it was broken six weeks ago." A certain learned professor at Cambridge is a very absent-minded man. A friend of his had been seriously ill. When he was convalescent the professor used to send him jellies and other delicacies, One day he took him a tine bunch of hothouse grapes. The old friends were very pleased to see each other, and were soon deep in a discussion. The professor, becoming interested, began absent-mindedly nicking the grapes, taking one at a time till they were all gone. On goiug out of the door he called back to bis friend, "Now, mind you eat those grapes; they will do you all the good iu the world." To Dry tka Hair. A New Yorker has patented an ap paratus for drying the hair after wash ing or shampooing, a metallic, casing having a beating stove at the bottom with air inlet holes, the air being drawn to the top of the casing aud blown through funnel by means ot revolving fan, The children of the United States each year consume toys that cost ftt retail $45,000,001). .1,1,!!, i , sfl ..g V, 11, J Uir-Ma V ' a , I'WM'f 'f ' t :7;ife!;;;ii; rtai;i:.l,i:;.i;,i":i,i,j t ulumuj . f ?.? n,iiii"iiliiiiHiri;,'li mm$& m gi ll litiJlilS i; ,ii'n,:1li;i.i.r.'.i:,3 r--i Mi',!iUliiiiJ (forfj FOR FARM AND GARDEN, 1 Knrly Maturing Hoy. Young pork is always best as well as the most chenply produced. Un less the nnlmnl is wnnted as a breeder it is not usunlly kept until n yenr old. The breeds thnt mature early will mnke more pork nt less cost nt six to eight months old tlinn those that keep on gl owing two or three years and at tain very henvy weights. But it is still better to keepn breeding sow of some of the course, lai gemmed bogs and then grow litters of pigs from her when mnted with some of the small breeds that mature earliest. The bnlf breeds will mnke more pork than will the thoroughbreds. Wnlrr llontra Kmitietitly. It is not nntnt'iil for the Irirse to go long without n drink of wuter. His Ktomnch is small and cannot bold a wnt -r supply for a long time. Water ing morning, noun nnd night when nt work in summer time i'l none too often. If the work is very henvy two tnble sponufuls of ont meal stirred 111 the pnil will make the horse drink better, nnd will tlso prevent so milch cold wnter from injuring his stmnnch. It is a mistake to suppose, thnt a horse or nny other domestic aniiiuil prefers to di ink wnter only n few degrees above the freezing temperature. If it is lukewarm the horse will drink more freely and the wnter will be less npt to injure him. oil lcii1 for 1'iittpiilnv Hon. Ore of the best variations of the nil-corn diet for fattening hogs is some old process linseed meal, or if thi eiinnot be procured, use rottonnred meal with Hume oitnual hot bolted. All the linseed nnd cottonseed litems contain some oil, nud to this extent are laxative. But nil the cottonseed meal iiinde now has the nil so squeezed out of it that it is unsafe to feed it to young pin, nud it can only be fed to old lilies iu very small quantities, anil then not very safely. It will need some routs to go with it. But these should be given nny way when corn is fed to hoys, as the starch of corn is hard to digest. Besides the oil the oil meal contains some nitrogenous nutrition which makes the feed n bet ter balanced ration. Hii-iiImk I'nfiitnes Tor Itlliilit. The past season bus thoroughly de moustrnted the value of the bordeaux mixture for hliuht 011 potatoes, nnd it hns quite us thoroughly shown that the use of pnris green and loiulon pur ple, alone or mixed with land plaster, bus no good effect. Potnto growers should bear this fact in mind next sea-ion nud use the bordeaux mixture freely, not only on potnto vines, but other vegetables nnd fruit trees where foliage diseases of any kind appear. Without question it is one of the most valuuble implements for use on the farm, nnd the bordeaux mixture cnu be ensily nud chenply miido nt home. So t-iere seems to be no reason why the blighted, scabby potatoes thnt have been put on tho market for the past two years should not be replaced by the fair, smooth specimens of the days when scab nnd blight were prac tically unknown, or nt least not for iniiliible. HI 111 in I he milk, There nre some points about strain ing milk that are not generally thought of.nud therefore the milk is not wholly cleared of its bacteria. In the llrst place it is importuut that the milk should be put through the strainer and set where its cream is to rise as soon ns possible after it comes from the cow. It often accumulates bac teria very rapidly if left in stables ex posed to foul odors. Besides, if left long some of the cream will rise and will be so mixed with the milk that what does not cling to the strainer cloth or wire will not liso as cream again. The strainer should be thor oughly washed by dipping it first in cold wuter and moving it rapidly through both ways, so that bacteria will not adhere to the underside, ns they are apt to do if the rinsing water is merely poured on the strainer from above. Then repeat this process with wuter pretty near scalding heut. In thnt wny if there are nny bacteria on the strainer they will be killed. Mulching Mrawberrlr. Tho plants should be covered with some course material just before the severest weather comes 011 in the full. It may be applied before the ground freezes or nfter it is frozen solid. If covered before, the mulch should be dropped oil' nt the ends of the rows nnd carried onto the bed with forks. After the ground is frozen, you call drive anywhere, depositing tho ma terial where most convenient to spread. The entire surface should bo covered just deep enough to entirely hide the plant. When applied the straw will be about three inches deep. Ituius and snow w ill cause it to puck dowu to nn inch. Strawberries will not smother, 110 matter how deep the cov ering, if it is not applied too eiirly in the full or left on too lute iu the spring. Itemove the covering nud put it in the paths between the rows about May 1, or us soon as growth starts. Just before the berries begiu to ripen, go through the fields and pull all weeds aud place the straw carefully about the plants so as to cover all the surface not occupied by the plants. Orange Judd Farmer. Advantuicra of Fall I'lowlng, Nearly every farmer who has been oaring for the farm for a series of years will have seen the benefits of full plowing in many ways while run ning the furm. There may be some oils where the b.uetits are not seen sb plainly m upon others, but nearly all sorts are in some wny improved by being worked iu the full. If the soil is stiff and clayey, nothing seems to improve it so much as fall plowing. Let full plowing be practised ench sensoti for a series of years, and a finer aud more mellow soil will surely follow. If a good dressing of light, strawy manure, such ns horse stable dressing, can bo applied, spread broad cast upon the soil nnd plowed under, so much the better. But if the farmer hns not the dressing, plowing alone will help to improve the soil surely. By turning up the soil Inte iu the fall the action of the frost will serve to render it finer iu texture. Freezing nnd thawing nre among the grent agencies in prepnrlng the soil for better production. Stiff clny soil is a poor soil for plants to do good work in, even if it be mnde rich with dressing; the roots cannot penetrate a bnrd soil and poor crops are the re sult. Every fanner who hns hnd a practical knowledge by treating such soils cannot fail to see this, and they must work with this point in view if they hope to succeed, thnt a gradual deepening of such soil by ditching and full plowing nre the very bent methods to apply. No soil can produce even fair crops while it is in scold and hard state. Then let us devote our atten tion to making nn improvement. We must work to render the soil flue, nnd to tnke the surplus wnter from it by ditching nnd plowing. Let freezing nnd thnwing come in to help us. Nothing can be cheaper thnu this in the farm economy. We have treated soils such ns have been mentioned nbove many times, nud these methods have proved satis factory iu every ease. We hope thnt nil farmers who may have such noils t 1 work will try this mode of treat ment nnd report results. A. K. Fuulit in Americnn Cultivator. Keptllng llogt In Kliitflft. The feeding of hogs iu the field is becoming more iu practice every yenr. Putting them in pens on n floor will no doubt have a tendency to put flesh on more rapidly, ns it deprives the hogs of exercise, which is necessnry to good health nud better pork. Then, pen feeding requires more labor iu taking everything to the pen to feed besides the daily cleaning. More manure is wasted around a hog pen thnu nny other plnee. Owing to its ofl'e nsiveness nud being filled with corn cobs, which makes it trou blesome to bundle, it is left to lie right where it is thrown out of the pen. While this manure is of the best, I be lieve there is tho lenst attention paid to saving it of nny manure we have. When hogs are fed in the field all this good manure is saved with the least trouble. There is no drawing out nnd spreading, ns tho hogs have done this work better thnu it can be done by hand. While you may add a few more pounds on the hog with the same amount of grain by pcu feeding, this will be more than overcome by the saving of manure and the decreased amount of labor required. I don't believe iu having a lot on purpose to feoil iu nud keep it. for such, year nfter year, with nothing else iu it. This would be an entire waste of manure. I'.vory farmer should have souio small fields nud change them for feeding purposes. Where bogs were fed last yenr should be put into some crop this year. They mny be fed with profit on clover sod that you intend to jdow for corn next yemv Io this feeding on tho poor places 11 f the field, and mnke them ns rich us the richest (daces. Jf you have a few hogs, nn old wngon ciin be londed nnd driven where yon wish to feed, changing places ouch loud. If you haven't the old wngon, a store box set up high enough so thnt the hogs won't get iuto it will do. If you have a lure number of bogs, a portable corn crib can be built on runners and drawn with a team any where you wish. We have one of thi kind that holds about a hundred bush els, made of rough boards. Our man made it iu n couple of hours. It is just a largo box, made strong enough to hold a hundred bushels, with 11c roof over it. O110 end is made to tnke out, so you cnu use a scoop from the start when you commence feeding. Then the end cnu be placed back again. But how about the wuter in those fields with so many hogs? Yes, they must have wuter, nud all they want ol it, nnd wuter thnt is fresh nud clean. Well, we fill barrels and draw them out to them on a stone bout, enough at one load to lust a week. Wheu the weather is warm, wnter ought to be drawn twice a week to keep it fresh enough. But once a week will dr later ou iu the full. Ashes and suit should be kept bo fore them nil the time. Cut a hole in the side of a box or barrel and fill it with ashes and salt thoroughly mixed at one part of salt and three of ashes, and cover it over to keep the rain out. You will be surprised at the amount they will eat. It keeps them iu healthy condition. If the weather is. hot, some kiud ol place should be fixed to shelter the hogs from the sun. Cheap atl'uirs ol some kind that will suggest thomselvet to the farmer cnu easily be arranged, I. N. Cowdrey iu Farm, Field aud Fireside. A I'litaue of ltt In JlrueW. The Hue Berckmans, one of till most fashionable quarters of the capi tul, has just beeu visited by a plague ot large rats. No house has beeu fret from these unwelcome visitors, auc the havoo they have made is so great that most of the residents have beet put to flight. Some of the rats are o: au extraordinary size, and hitherti the measures which have been taker to free the neighborhood of the pes' have proved of little avail,- Brusseli Correipoudenoe of the Loudon Post, KEYSTONE STATE Mi CONDENSED A LOADED LAST. Practical Joker Responsible for a Serious Injury to a Harelton Shoemaker Lock jaw Feared. Sonip unknown person plnycd a ser ious practical Joke on Frank Marcel lus, n Ktmeimiker nt Freeliiml a few ilnys nun. Hi. wns linmmerljiK on a Miop w hen an explosion took 'place In It, n null ioimImk Ihroimh anil pene liHtlntt his hand. I'pon InvestlKatlon It was found thut a hole In the last was filled with RiinpowdiT and a nail put In on top of 11. Marcellu's hand Is bndly swollen, and It Is feared lock jaw will si-t In. Mrs. John I'nilRle, wlte of a Qunk nke farmer, while uldlnK her husband In a saw mill, near llaseltown the other day, wns caught In a wheel of the circular saw nnd whirled with ev ery revolution. Horror-stricken, the husband stopped the machinery, but mil before m-urly nil her clothliiK wu torn from her oody. Ho tlRhtly were the clothes wrapped about the mach inery, thnt they hnd to be cut loose wlfh a knife. The woman wns un conscious when released from her uw ful position. She wns fatally Injured. Her right nrm nnd leg were broken nnd she wns terribly cut nnd bruised. Frank, the S-year-nld twin son of Mr. nnd Mrs. J. K. t'arson, wns drown ed nt IHton n few dnys ago, nnd an other boy went through the pond at the same time, hut got nut Hnd went home, some distance away. Hnd he Riven the alarm his companion could huve been rescued by people living; nenrby. The body whs recovered about two hours after the accident. This Is the seventh child the bereaved parents have lost by denth. The boya went to the pond to skate it . tend of going to school. t'hnrles Newton, nn exper. torpedo shooter, drove from Hrudfor I to Or chard Park, New York, om day Inst week, with 41 (limits of frozen nitro glycerin. He nrilved nt n well which had been drilled down to the rock eon Ininlng riis nnd here he unloaded hlH material nnd prepared to put In the shot. He tiinwed the explosive by means of hot wnter. nnd the whole n mount blew up, completely annihilat ing Newton, destroying the engine nnd boiler, nnd wrecking the holler house nnd rig. A number of Italians who were for merly proprietors of fruit stands In Philadelphia hnve formed n colony at New (lalenn, a few miles west of Ioyestown, nnd nr engnged In farm ing. They hnve decided to make their homes here Instend of returning to Italy, nnd will make n specialty of fruit growing. The children will con tinue to conduct the fruit business In the city, while they manage the farms. In preparation for a dinner Mrs. MiicKeller, of llrlstol, started n brisk lire In her kitchen Htove early In tho morning, nnd a few hours Inter she threw open the oven door to put in a chicken. An unsavory odor greeted her. She looked In, nnd, to her horror, found her pet kitten, which hnd been missing, nicely roasted. It had crept In when the stove was cold, and, Im prisoned, wns cooked alive. While Iteiiben Crumley, nn old lime burner, wns winking In his quarry, on Dale's hills, nenr Si'lingsgrove, a deer suddenly leaped from the cliff nbove and nlighted siiuarely upon him, knocking him senseless. It Is fenreil thut his Injuries may prove fatal. The supposition Is that the deer was pur sued by hunters, and In Its Might It leaped over the cliff. A terrllle explosion wrecked the en gine house and blew down the pipes at the Dunbar furnace .Monday morning. The blast wns off the furnace nt the time and the workmen were putting In a tuyer. The hot air from the furnace coining In contact with the damage was confined to the plant. Tho cold air caused the explosion. The furnace will hnve to close down sev i nil days for repairs. On Thursdny night Andrew Thomna of New Cnstle, nfter having made an Information before Alderman I'otter charging his wife with nss.v'lt and battery, threw himself under a pass ing train nnd was literally u' to pieces. Mrs. Thomas had a I. Bring on the charge made by her husband, admitted her guilt, and went to the Allegheny workhouse for six months. Superior Court Judge Howard J. Iteeder, who for seven weeks hus been lying In n critical condition nt his home In Hnrilsburg, died last Thurs day. His death was due to a compli cation of nllments following congestion of the lungs and dropsy, which under mined his constluitl ,n. I'hlllp Kunkle, aged 5fi years, a Pennsylvania railroad trackman em ployed by Division Foreman Jamea Hlalr, wns instantly killed by the New York and Chicago limited at the C.i'eensburg tunnel Wednesday morn ing. His body wns almost ground in to a pulp. The Mercer County Telephone Com pany Is expending thousands of dol lars on its lines. The consolidation of the lines of Heaver, Lawrence, Krle, Ciuwford and Trumbull counties Is a (1 rtalnty. and the connection with the New Castle lines will be made in Feb ruary. While crossing the tracks of the Hnl tlmore arid Ohio railroad at Dawson, near I'nlontnwn, the other day, Thos. Addis, a mason, of Vanderhilt, aged r:l years, was killed by a fust freight trnln, which struck and demolished Ms buggy, but did not Injure the horse. The North Cornwall Iron furnace, at Cornwall, near Lebanon, operated by the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Com pany, of Scranton. was badly wrecked Monday by an explosion. Several men hud nurrow escapes. The dumuge la estimated at 20.(IIW. Company K, Sixteenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, was mustered out of the service at Franklin, by Captain Kdgnr W, Howe, of the I'nlted States regular army. The company lost seven men while in the I'nlted States service. Joseph Hollinger of Hummelstown wus sentenced by Judge Slmonton ot Hurrisburg to be hunged for wife mur der. The record of the cuse will be certified to Gov. Hustings, by whom the date of execution will be fixed. Klectrlc cars have replaced the old truln drawn by a locomotive on the railway from Wllkesbarre to Harvey's Luke. Fulling con! killed Andrew Tree boney In a coal mine ut Dunmore. Luckawannu county. A Westmoreland county schoolmus ter. while attending the institute at OreellHlmrg. is reported to huve nearly died thruugh blowing- out the gun on retiring. Many of the people of fireensburg want Andrew Curnegle to build un ar mory In that town, insteud of the pub lic llbrury he hus promised to present. Private Victor Holmes, of the Tenth Pennsylvania Regiment, wounded In the buttle of Manila, has hud two of his libs taken out in a Sun Francisco hospital. lloth of Willie Ilobluson's legs were cut off by a car ot the Leggett's Creek bleaker, Lackawanna, county, a few duys ago, und his death resulted.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers