Tlie political sit nation in Europe font in uefl to grow darker. The Japanese eat more fish than any other people in the world. With them meat eating is a foreign innova tion, confined to the rich, or rather to those rich people who prefer it to the National diet. 'f The farmer who is feeding his wheat to his horses should, in the opinion of the Courier-Journal, hold both his wheat and his horses until he digests the fact that wheat will be wheat in the world's markets during the year ahead of us. The new warships are a credit to the Nation. Recently the Philadel phia made the run from Rio de Janeiro to Callao, a distance of 5000 miles, in twenty days and eighteen hours, with out stopping anywhere for coal. This was a speed of 242 miles a day and a continuous run of twenty-one days Without stopping at any coaling sta tion. ' A poor old man, who once was n well-to-do merchant in Wisconsin, and likewise was of much State renown as a public speaker of force and persua siveness, has been taken to the alms house in Baraboo, weak in mind aud poverty-stricken, and past eighty years of age. "The poorhouse is hospitable when all other friends fail," is the QOUirnent of the New York Times. Doctor J. T. Boyd, of Indianapolis, has added his voice to that of Lieuten ant Totten, and declares that the end of the world is at hand. In support of his theory, he says that the British Chronological Society, composed of noted scientific men, has arrived nt the same conclusions as those reached by Lieutenant Totten and himself, and that all prophecy points to 1899 as tho date of final smashup. Some idea of the enormous propor tions the hußinesß of hotel keeping haH assumed in this country may he gained, declares the New Orleans Picayune, from the fact that there are in the United States upward of 50,000 hotels, exclusive of what may properly be termed inns and taverns, and what are commonly known aaapartmcnt-honses, although the latter are in many in stances conducted as hotelß, in that they have a common kitchen and din ing-room. Deer nnd hears are reported to be more plentiful now in the "great woods" of Oxford County, Maine, than st any other time during the present generation. These woods extend, in a belt from four to six miles wide, from Dixfield away up into the un trodden wilderness of Northern Maine, and mnch of the area has seldom been visited by sportsmen. Driven from the hunting grounds about Rangeley Lake the game took refuge in these woods, and have multiplied there un molested. The New York News observes: Now the surgeons have cut out a man's spleen, and yet he lives and has red blood, and will, it is said, recover. No one has ever known absolutely what is the office of the spleen. The organ is not a vital one, but is often much dis eased and very painful. The opera tion to remove it is technically called ipleneetomy. Many years ago a writer in Chambers's Miscellany con tended that the spleen was the manu factory of the white blood corpuscles. If that were so, the red corpuscles in the veins and arteries would have soon laded in vividness in the patient, Athlete Short, of Yonkers. Are the iplecn and the vermiform appendix, which are declared to be useless, left is hints of the evolutionary process? SVas man differently constituted when khey were useful to him, instead of being as now unnecessary? Who can eay? George Vanderbilt is one of nature's queer freaks. He is the least known of any of the enormously wealthy men of New York. He must be worth at least $35,000,000, but he might walk the length of the entire city without being recognized by half a dozen per tons. He has never been prominent in any public movement. He has never attended a public function where trowds of people congregate, and when he goes to the theatre or to the opera he hides himself in the rear of a box, says the New York Herald. Young Vanderbilt has many fads. First of ill he is a bookworm and is in away a woman-hater. Formerly he was rated as being, next to John Jacob Astor, the wealthiest young bachelor in the Uni ted States, having $1,000,000 in his own right and control for every past year of his life. Now, as John Jacob Astor is a husband and father, George Vanderbilt stands at the head of his plass aloni The crest-ion of money order offices h the small postoffices is advocated by •he Springfield (Mass.) Union on the ground that such offices would greatly 'aoilitate the transaction of business in rural neighborhoods. A business man of Canada, of an en terprising nature, has established a "floating bank" on Kootenai Lake, I Canada. It is in a steamer which journeys from place to place along the lake ; thus enabling its owner to sup ply the inhabitants of the lake villages with banking facilities. Doctor Oliver Wendell Holmes says that the largest elm he ever saw was in Oxford, England, and measured twenty-five feet in circumference. There was an elm of about the same size in Springfield, Mass., some years ago. The Doctor estimates the life of | the American elm at between 200 and 300 years. If any survive to be 300 years, bethinks, it is as wrecks, liable to go to pieces in the first heavy storm. The method of harvesting wheat on the great bonanza ranches of the Da kota* is said to have amazed the for eign Agricultural Commissioners at, the World's Fair. To clear up 640 acres of wheat in one day with 150 | hands and forty-five harvesters is a ■ feat which has been paralleled in Cali fornia, Nebraska and other big West ern grain States, but it is doubtful, thinks the San Francisco Chronicle, it any part of Europe can show such rapid work. Life insurance companies are becom ing the holders of enormous masses oI capital, notes the New York Tribune. Statistics made public at the last meet ing of the National Association of Life Underwriters show that the companies taking no account of assessment cor porations and societies, hold assets to the value of $850,000,000, that they receive from policy holders about $175,000,000 a year, that their gross income is nearly $220,000,000 annually, and that they pay about $100,000,000 ! annually to the insured in the form of I death losses, surrenders and dividends. Though most people are equipped with thirty-two teeth only, the Shah of Persia appears to be more amply provided for, as we are told that he has just had his fortieth molar ex tracted. The phenomenon is thus ex plained, The first time his Eastern Majesty suffered from a decayed tooth and had to have it removed his loyal subjects offered him as a solatium a number of presents amounting in all to ten thousand gold sequins. Hav ing thus discovered a new source ol supply for his privy purse, the Shall, whenever he feels the want of those little presents that help to maintain the glow of friendship, causes the fact of his having another bad tooth to he proclaimed by a flourish of trumpets in all parts of his empire, aud the presents begin to pour in. Great Britain has undertaken nn other great enterprise in Africa, which will probably have an immense effect in the extension of its empire and the civilization of the dark continent. It is to erect a telegraph line from Alex andia, in Egypt, directly through the heart of the continent to Cape Town. The preliminary surveys have already been made. The line will traverse Egypt, the Soudan, the region of the great lakes, and the East Africa Com pany's territory, German East Africa, the Portuguese possessions, Mashona land, Khama's country, Bechuanaland, the Transvaal, the Orange Free State and Cape Colony. Contracts have already beer signed for constructing the line for more than half the dis tance, and work is being rapidly pushed, so that the whole is expected to be in working order early next year. The Atlanta Constitution says: Congressman Brosius, of Pennsyl vania, is a man who has a vivid recol lection of his experience during the war. He came near losing his life in the fight with Pickett's forces nl Green Plains. He was one of the 300 men who charged across a wheat-field, a third of a mile in width upon a Con federate rifle pit and of the number only 125 came out alive. The Confed erates waited until the storming party was within twenty-flve yards of the pit and then they opened deadly flre he tells. Brosius, who was a boy of nineteen, stopped to pick up a wounded comrade, and as he did so a rifle ball pierced his shoulder, shat tering tho blade and making him a cripple for life. He still carries a mcuiemto of that day in tho shapu of a pocket diary, which he wore in his veßt. There is the mark of a bullet in it that would hate gone through the young soldier's heart if it had not been stopped by the book. THE SAMARITAN'S. UNIQUE international COX VENTION AT VIENNA. Its Object Was to Tench Methods of diving Efficient Aid to In- Jure<! People—How the Work is Done. THE Samaritan Congress which recently assembled in Vienna was the first international convention of that body, which was originally started at the instigation Df Professor von Esmarcb, of Kiel, the inventor of bloodless surgical opera tions. The underlying theory, upon which Professor von Esmarch lias built the system which he has exposed to the Briticisms of the public at this con- U|Jt £) " CARRYING AN TNJTRED MAN. j stress, is that the vitality of the patient ihould under no circumstances be im- I paired or exhausted and that the nat ural strength existing in the person at the moment of the accident should be kept at its normal condition, as far as permissible under adverse circum itances, and thus made to act as one of the elements in recovery. The pro fessor, according to the New York Herald, acts upon the conviction that %n accident, however severe it may be and whatsoever may be its final out come, does not at the instant rob the injured of all his strength ; he argues that it is the suffering consequent upon the accident that weakens and that this suffering is hastened and perpetuated in a great measure by delay in giving to the injured parts the attention and relief they require. This argument led the professor inevitably to the po sition that the quicker relief is forth coming the longer will the strength remain with which to battle against the depressing tendency of the wound or injury, and to extend this aid and to educate the people up to the knowl edge of extending this aid is the pre liminary step in the groundwork of his system. The Vienna Samaritan Society'b es tablishment, like that of Berlin, is governed by the same strict discipline prevailing in the fire department of every great city, and is not unlike it in its various stations located in the different sections of the town. All those stations are connected by wire with each other and with the resi dences of competent physicians, some of whom are constantly within reach of an alarm sounded upon their call wire. So, too, are these stations open at all times to those who may want re tfiip m. HOW TO CARRY A PERSON OVERCOME BY OAS. lief from slight injuries not sufficient to require the use of an ambulance, and there is at the same time a force of men ever ready to respond to de mands from the outside. Aside from the superintendent of the stations the force consists entirely of volunteers, men whose heart is in the work and who find satisfaction in relieving suf fering humanity. An exception, how ever, to many volunteer organizations, this one is so thoroughly nnd admi rably under control that the partici pants arc always at their post when re quired. I" large cities the leading causes of injuries are: Being run over by ears and wagons, falls in build ings in the course of construction, nt fires and nnforseen accidents in stores and mechanic shops; furthermore as the ot excesses in drink, inattention in handling electric wires, etc. In smaller towns and mining dis tricts the principal causes of injury to life and limb are explosions, falls from VIENNA STREET SAMARITANS CARRYING MAN IN A HAND CART. great heights, etc., and in the agri cultural districts railroad collisions, floods, lightning and accidents caused by vicious animAls. According to the rules laid down by Professor von Esmarch and adopted by the Berlin and Vienna Samaritan so cieties the very first qualification for one who intends to become a volunteer is that he should be able to move and otherwise handle an injured person so as to cause the least amount of pain and give the least discomfort. When three or four men are available two should make it their sole duty to lift the injured, while the third or fourth should raise entirely independently the wounded head or limb and steady it with the utmost care, seeing that it re ceive no new shock or wrench, for on the tender treatment by these assist ants much depends, as they have it in their power to do greater damage than the most delicate care ou the part of the other two will offset. The first act of the Samaritans when called to at tend an injured person is to see that the patient is laid perfectly flat upon his hack and that the bleeding is | stopped. Then, one man stationing himself on the right and the other on | the left of the prostrate figure, the one on the right side passes his right arm beneath the back of the patient, the man on the left passing his left arm iu the same manner. After that each man places his disengaged hand under the upper leg of the patient, about midway between the knee and the thigh. The third and fourth Samaritans meanwhile gather the patient's arms in his lap and take in their hands the patient's head or limbs, bo they wounded or not. Then the first two Samaritans grasp each other's hands beneath the patient and raise the body at a given signal, acting in perfect unison. It is prefer able that instead of their handsa towel i be used or a strap to better steady the body. The mat attending the wound- i od parts must hold them as high as j possible without contributing to the patient's discomfort. , In case of a great catastrophe, where a number of injured people de- I maud looking after, two men, or even I a single man, if he is strong enough, J may perform the preliminary work in a similar manner as above described. In a ease of asphyxiation, where no in jured limbs need to be taken into con sideration. the Samaritan must never wait for assistance from other volun teers, but remove the body as quickly as possible and in the best practicable manner from the scene of the disaster. If two volunteers are on hand one should grasp the body firmly around the waist, having the head, shoulders i TAKING ITT A PERSON WITH BROKEN LIMB?. and back against his own breast, while the second man takes both legs of the victim, and, carrying them in his arms next to his own body, moves briskly on. If the wounded person retains the power to do so he can greatly aid the rescuers by placing his arms around their necks while they carry him between them. The patient should under no circumstances be car ried further than is absolutely neces sary to take him out of danger, or else to a place where he may be trans ferred to an ambulance. Arrived there the body should be laid flat on a table, door, mattress or blanket, permitting it to be taken up at its ends and sides. The bleeding must be stopped be fore removal is thought of, as already intimated. This is done by binding the wound or l>v holding the artery just above the bleeding part in a firm grasp. Tf the Samaritan is called upon to assist an asphyxiated or otherwise unconscious but not externally injured I person he must observe the following I leading principles: The head of the patient must be raised and breathing restored as quickly as possible. Only when the comatose condition is a consequence of loss of blood the head rest is to be placed considerably lower | than the feet, so as to induce the | blood remaining in the body to run to tlie head and revive the functions of the brain. In all cases of unconscious [ liess it is necessary to entirely free the j upper part' of the body from clothing, [ especially the collar, necktie, suspen | ders, and.incaseof a woman, the corset, waist and girdle. The strings and but - tons of the undergarments above the hips should also be cut and loosened. The body is then to be placed on a ta ble or any flat surface at hand, while it cushion or rolled coat is placed under the middle of tho back to raise it. The legs should be bent at the kuees, so s I to relax the Hkin over the abdomen. I After thiw is done the Samaritan places his hands on both sides of the patient's abdomen, and, with a firm, hard pres sure slowly moves his hands upward. This is repeated until the strength of the motion relaxes the air confined in lungs aud it is heard forcing its way through the different respiratory or gans. It requires a certain amount of practice to determine the exact strength of pressure desirable to use in this treatment, for if too great a power is extorted it is liable to cause some in jury to the delicate internal organiza tion of the human body. If respiration fails to respond to this treatment then the services of an as sistant must be employed, and while the pressure upon the abdomen is con tinued the assistant may place his hands on both sides of the chest, below the short ribs, and exert a steady pres sure in order to help forcing the air from the lungs. The tirst natural breathing produced by these manipu lations is announced by a deep sigh from the patient and a flushing of the face. If the face becomes again pale the Samaritans must renew their ef forts with redoubled force. It some times happens that respiration is in terfered with by the turning back of the victim's tongue into the roof of the mouth. In such a case the Sa maritan will find it necessary to draw the tongue back into its normal place and hold it protruding slightly from the mouth while his assistant is work ing on the body. In case these methods fail in the desired result the arms JL - ' nOW TO PRODUCE ARTIFICIAL RESPIRATION. should be repeatedly lifted above the head and brought down to the sides again ; this must be done energetically and continuously to have effect. Unless the patient is so crushed or mutilated as to be absolutely dead, Professor vonEsmarch's rules require the Samaritan to work over a body in the manner described for two hours be fore giving the patient up as beyond recovery. So soon as consciousness re turns the Samaritan gives the patient a strengthening draught of either black coffee, brandy or other stimu lant. When a person is injured, but not unconscious, this stimulant should be given before the patient is taken from the scene of the accident. llow Nature Drives Out Disease (Jerms. With every twenty breaths a human being inhales from eleven to '175 germs, together with a varying amount of iuorganic matter. In a town, of course, the micro-organisms are much thicker than in the comparatively pure country air. Such foreign particles are mostly caught in the mouth, noso and upper throat or swallowed, while a certain number pass into the air tubes or lungs. But to drive out all intrusive gerniN and particles nature has established a wonderful arrange ment. The inferior walls of the wind pipe and bronchial tubes are lined with a sort of mosaic of tiny cells. Each of these cells stands on end and has a sort of beard of very small hairs at its ex tremity. This b(#rd serves as a broom with which the little cell is constantly sweeping night and day. Ho long as lile stays in the body these thousands of sweepers go ou sweeping all foreign j material up toward the mouth. In | fact, they usually keep at it for a long j time after death has arrived, being the lust portions of the body to give it up ! and die.—Washington Htnr. The Angry Tree. The "angry tree," a woody plant found in Eastern California and West ern Arizona, cannot be touched with out it exhibits signs of vexation by ; ruffling its leaves and giving forth an j unpleasant, sickening odor. Fashion's Dragou Fly. j M. Worth must answer for it. It is | his will that the young woman of high | fashion shall go about in a wrap of j lace and velvet that has a big jet dragon fly embroidered upon it, back and front. The sight of it brings to mind Mr. Walter Besant's wonder FASHION'S DRAGON rar. at seeing real, live fireflies in the parks of Albany as ho journeyed homeward from Chicago's Congress of Authors. "£ always thought," ho says, naively, "that fireflies belonged in Humboldt's cosmos and BuutU America," -St, Loipy Republic, INDIA RUBBER, now IT IS GATHKRKD IN BRA ZILIAN FORKBTS. Gashing the Rubber Tree and Col lecting the White Juiee r Tile Operation of'•Smoklnn"— The Rubber Trade. NEVER Hay that the twelve-foot globe in the Brazilian Bection of the Shoe ami Leather (. Building in made of "India rubber." Call it Para rubbew or Baron de Mnrajo, the Brazilian Commissioner, will make a correction. He will say that Parn rubber is the bent rubber in the world, and that all other rubbers arc imitations. He will then lead the way to the enormous rubber sphere, which has its axis resting on the pol ished stump of a rubber tree, and will point out ten different varieties of rubber, each from a different river. The Baron is high authority on rub ber and lias all the simple appliances <ised by the seringneiro or rubber gatherer for topping the trees and col lecting the milk. He also lias the queer inverted vase-like fumatory or furnace, the wooden mold and nuts of the urucury tree, used as fuel for pre paring the crude rubber. The seringneiro begins work about 8 o'clock in the morning. He carries INDIA RUBBER BALL IN THE BRAZIL SECTION OF THE FAIR. with him a little hatchet like a minia ture tomahawk, and going along tl.j estrada, a winding path through the forest, makes small cuts in the bark of the rubber tree. Under each gash he fastens a little tin or clay cup, to col lect the white sap which drips from the wound. He goes on blazing a line of trees until noon. Then he retraces his steps with a bucket or gourd and collects the sap from the drip cups. Some of the rubber gatherers prefer to work at night, and to collect the milk in the morning. The gatherers empty tlicar buckets of rubber juice into a large vessel, and the work of smoking begins. Tliie is done to harden the sap. The furnace is set up in a hut or on a terrace, and a fire is built under it of the nuts of the urucur)-, a species of palm tree. It makes a dense smoke, which pours from the circular opening in the top of the furnace. The work man, sitting beside his fire, with a, round wooden paddle dips it into the RUBBER GATHERER. sap. It clings in a thin layer to the mold, which is turned in tho smoke until the water in the sap evaporates. When this is done a thin sheet of solid rubber is left on the paddle. The operation is repeated until a ball of rubber about the size of a man's bead is formed. With a keen knife two lateral slashes to the paddle are made, I and the wooden center is taken out. The rubber is exposed to the sun to finish the drying process, and is then ready to be sent to the nearest ship ping point. The product of rubber from Para in 1839 amounted to 420,300 kilogrammes, valued at 237,458,000 rels. One thou sand rels are equal to fifty-four cents. In 1892 the rubber produced had in creased to 10,891,888 kilogrammes, valued at 43,000,505,551 rels. The, visitor to the shoe and leather bnild ing will find rubber boots and shoe# everywhere but in the Brazilian sec tion. Yet Brazil used to export rub- HOUSE ON A RUBIiER PLANTATION. ber shoes by the thousands. Up to 1840 rubber was exported almost ex clusively in the form of shoes. But the business dwindled, for crude rub ber went out instead of the manufac tured product. Amerieau, English, Frencli and German manufacturers im proved the method of manufacturing' rubber shoos r.nd asked for the crude rubber. This conditions of affairs lowered the exportation of rubber shoes, and, although in 1850 138,88:4 pairs were shipped from Brazil, in 1854 exportation ceased, and since their nothing but smoked rubber has beeu exported. Rubber for foreign trade is divided into fine, entrefine andsernamby. The last variety is made from the residues of the coagulated sap that escapes from the cups and flows along the trees or drips to the ground. Rubber was first brought to the at j tention of Europeans by La Conda inine, a Spanish astronomer. In 1741 he arrived in Para on his return from a commission, on which he was sent with other Spanish and French astron omers for the purpose of making geo detic observations in order to deter mine the real form of the earth. Ho did not confine himself to star-gazing, for in several important scientific works which he published he gave Eu rope information of great value re garding the principal natural products of Brazil. One of them was rubber, which, up to that time, had been un known to European s. —Chicago Record A Balloon l'lant. There is a very curious plant to be found growing in tho vicinity of Oro ville, in this State. The fruit is yel low and a little larger than an egg, nnd appears like an empty bag rather than a solid, though it contains a watsrv substance which evaporates or dries up when the fruit is full ripe, leaving a sort of gas inside the fruit which is lighter than air. This in flated, bag-like fruit flips back and forth in the wind till it finally breaks loose from its slender stem, sails up into the air, rising 100 or more feet! nnd finally disappearing over the hill. Oroville (Oal.) Mercury. Wild Flax. There are three species of wild flax that have yellow flowers; the cultiva ted species, which has blue flowers, also appears as a weed quite frequently, the seeds being mixed with those of grains. All are annual, but some in crease by suckers from the base of the stems, which makes them perennial, in away. These weeds are easily killed if prevented from seeding by plowing in the late summer by growing such crops as are cultivated, as potatoes, corn, or peas. The first two crops are the best for this purpose.—New York Times. "Knocked Out." * The green apple knocks out the small boy with a hit below the belt,—Life.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers