Americans and Englishmen nrc said
to be investigating in large tracts of
land adapted to coffee, tobacco and
cocua in Mexico.
V"
> In nn essay on Egypt, recently pub
lished, Dr. Philip Scliaff estimates that
no less thou 731,000,000 mummies
have been buried in its soil.
It is a fact worth noticing that
twenty-five per cent, of accident in
surance policy holders who notify
companies of an injury never make a
claim for benefits.
1 According to the method which is
now adopted for reckoning leap years
in England, December, January and
February will be the summer mouths
about 720,000 years hence.
1 Joreph Hessel, the Austrian, who is
said to have inventod the marine
screw propeller, died in abject poverty.
But a monument wus erected to his
memory iu Vienna tho other day.
There seems to he no lack of open
ings for female medical practitioners
in this counfry, notes the Courier-
Journal, for the Indian Bureau an
nounces seventeen vacancies for wo
men.
New York City has $16,000,000 in
vested in school sites and buildings.
The educational budget of Spain last
year was $5,500,000; of Italy, $8,000,-
000 ; of France, $25,000,000; of Great
Britain, $35,000,000, and of Germany,
$40,000,000.
By irrigation 4 25,000,000 acres arc
made fruitful in India alone. In Egypt
there are about 6,000,000 acres, and
in Europe about 5,000,000. The
United States have just begun the
work of improving waste area, and
have already about 4,000,000 acres of
irrigated land.
California people have subscribed
SIOO,OOO for the support of the Cali
fornia Midwinter International Fair.
The Fair Structures will be placed in
Golden Gate Park, a large plot of re
served land west of San Francisco be
tween the city and the Pacific Const
line. The buildings will be Moorish,
Aztec and early Spanish Mission in
design. Commissioners of Foreign
Gov rnments at Chicago have been in
formed of the Fair and invited to aid
in securing exhibits for it.
- Further testimony concerning the
physical charms of the Japanese wo
men, a matter on which Sir Edwin Ar
nold and Clement Scott, the dramatic
critic, ore violently nt odds, is fur
nished by Mrs. Louis Fagan, a traveled
English woman. Mrs. Fagan knows
the Mikado's laud well and Bhe avers
that, though the Japanese women are
not beautiful, had Providence given
them good looks in proport ion to their
other attractions, western women would
in time become extinct, for men would
go en masse to Japan for their wives
and sweethearts.
Running ih the great boautitier of
figure and movement. It gives muscu
lar development, strong heart action
and free lung play. The muscle comes
where it ought to be, the shoulders go
back, the loins hold the trunk well
balanced, and the feet take their cor
rect positions. It was running which
made the Greek figure. The more ac
tive tribes of American Indians have
been ruuners from time immemorial,
and from the chest to the heels they
are much more beautifully built than
the average of white men. Running
people have usually the firm but elas
tic texture which is the beauty of
flesh.
Tli l commercial and industrial fail
ures in the panic of 1873 numbered
5183, with total liabilities of #228,-
499,000. Until 1878 these failures
steadily increased in number though
not in volume of liabilities save in
1878, when 10,478 failures covered
liabilities to the amount of 8281,383
000. This, however, was the rear
prior to that in which the bankruptcy
law was to cease, and very many shaky
concerns and individuals in business
desired to advantage by passage into
bankruptcy. In 1874 the number of
names recorded in business in the
United States and Canada, as the New
York Evening Post presents it, was
594,180, whiie in 1893 the number has
more than doubled. The failures of
1892 are shown to be 10,344, with li
abilities of $114,044,167. For the first ;
six months of the current, year the I
number of failures is G4Ol, with liabil
ties of $168,920,839. "The compari
son makes decidedly in favor of the
present situation," adds the Post
"nn I many factors warrant the to
sertinn that present disaster does no
compare with tho disaster wrought i
187.", and leads to the hope that ri
pover.y will be much quicker,"
The United States have for each 100
miles of railway twenty locomotives,
seventeen passenger cars and 714
freight cars.
In the production of iron ore
Michigan ranks first. Her product ie
nearly one-half of the total of the en
tire country.
Some of the richest gold and silver
mines in the world are in Japan.
From them ore to the value of $250,-
000,000 has been extracted.
Gattling has succeeded in adding an
electric appliance to the gun which
bears his name, which makes it pos
sible to fire that weapon 5000 times a
minute.
The National Bank of Italy, like the
Bank of Fingland, manages the finance*
of the Government. It is a practical
monopoly and has branches in ever,?
large city.
Officers and soldiers of the French
army will henceforth have a metallic
plate fastened to their collars foi
identification. A similar scheme if
being considered for the benefit o)
miners.
The New York Recorder avers thai
Kansas farmers have reaped more
wealth off the earth's surface in grain
than has been dug out of its interioi
in precious metals in the same time ii
all the States and Territories west o:
her.
The wool crop of California for 1892
is given by Thomas Benigan, Son &
Company, at 32,521,000 pounds. The
heaviest yield during the past decade
was in 1883, when it reached 40,848,-
690 pounds. The crop has not since
that date fallen below the yield of last
year, except in 1891, when it was but
29,013,476 pounds. The crop of the
present year is expected to exceed that
of 1892 by some millions of pounds.
Some experiments in military bal
looning have just been made in France.
Five balloons were released from the
Esplanade des Invalides in Paris; the
aeronauts in charge having been
previously instructed to pass over a
radius of twenty miles of country sup
posed to be held by an enemy, and
then to descend as closely as possible
to Combs la Ville. One of the balloons
descended within a mile of the desired |
place, and two others at a point some
what more distant from it.
! Reports from the recruiting station
of the United States Army in Boston
and from the recruiting station of the
Marine Corps in the same city show
that at both stations an unusually
large number of men have presented
themselves the present summer as re
cruits. It is suspected by the New
York Tribune that the closing of mills
in New England and the discharge of
thousands of workinginen have Jed to
the enlistments. The recruits also are
of a better class than usuully present
themselves.
The farmers of Saratoga County
New York, regard the golden rod as a
uuisance, exceeded only by the
Canada thistle. It fills the meadows,
chokes out the grass and ruins the
pasturing. That the "pesky stuff"
had value was unknown until a man
recently arrived from New York and
arranged with several agriculturists
for the purchase and shipment of the
flowers. He is to furnish boxes
specially made to preserve the goldeD
rod's freshness during its seven hours
1 journey cityward, and hopes to reap n
profit from sales on the street and at
1 the florists' stands.
The American Agriculturist ob
| serves: "In nearly every county one
or more fairs are held each autumn.
Farmers and their families should en
deavor to spend one or more flays at
these annual gatherings. There is cer
tain to be something of great interest
and benefit to every branch of farm
ing. In fruit or vegetables, if any
thing of merit is observed, find out
the name and price, test it for next
season. Follow the same with grain
or other products of the fields. Talk
with the producer, if possible, and ob
tain valuable i>oiuts or hints that will
aid in future labors. Look over the
improved breeds of stock, and decide
whether a thorougbred animal could
be used in your neighborhood with
profit. The machinery and imple
ments will receive their share of atten
tion. You will usually meet many of
your friends, and make new ones, and
thus add another link to the evidence
of why you should attend the fairs,
both local and State. Take something
with you to exhibit, and whether you
obtain a premium or not, you have
aided in the display and success of the
exhibition, and in the future, by this
cou?e, be moro deeply interested,"
THE TOOTHSOME POMPANO.
A. FINNY MORSEL THAT TIC3CLES
THE CALIFORNIAK'S PALATE.
It Came Originally From Japan, Hut
is Caught Now On the Pacific
Coast—Three Ways of Cooking It.
WHAT arc pompano, any-
To begin with, pompano
iu California are like the
snakes in Ireland. There are no pom
pano. The real pompano, the genu
ine, simon-pure article, only swims in
the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The delicious little tinny morsel that
is sold in San Francisco fish markets
under that name is really the stroma
teus simillimus, or "butter fish," but
he is a thousnnd times more appetizing
than the real article, and whether you
call him pompano, butter fish, stroma
teus simillimus or similia similihus
curantur, he's the finest little fish that
ever sizzled over a lire of hot coals or
followed the soup on a menu card.
Originally the pompano, as we call
him to save trouble, came from the
Japanese coast. A little school of tlieni
strayed too far from shore and got
caught in the great Japan current, the
gulf stream of the Pacific, and event
ually brought up in Monterey Hay.
How long ago this took place no one
knows, but it was not until 1870, or
thereabouts, that the fishermen began
to find stray pompano in their nets.
Only a very few at first, but California
seems to have suited the Japanese
strangers, and the number has been
steadily increasing from year to year,
i and now they are only forty cents a
pound.
When tlio Monterey fishermen began
to catch them first each man caught so
few it hardly paid to sell them. 80 n
sort of co-operative scheme was adopt
ed. All the pompano caught on Mon
day, no matter by whom, became tlie
property of Giuseppe, to have, to hold
and dispose of at the highest market
rates. Tuesday's catch went to Felip.
The pompano "corner" on Wednesday
I became the property of Luigi. Thurs
day Antone had his innings, and so on,
each fisherman in time being entitled
to the entire catch of all the fish. This
system seived a double purpose. Each
fisherman, when his day came, had
enough pompano to insure a good pro
fit on the sale and it kept prices at one
figure, as it did away with competition.
All that is past now. Every one
catches enough fish to market for him
self, and pompano can be had for 37}
cents a pound.
Although the pompauo supply still
comes from Monterey and Santa Cruz,
the toothsome little fish is caught at
other points, but theso arc either too
remote or the supply not sufficient to
make it pay to market them. From
Santa Barbara and Santa Monica the
good news comes that down there, too,
the price of pompano is steadily fall
ing and the supply is increasing. At
Santa Monica the new whaif that the
railroad lias thrust a half milo or
more out to sea seems to have pene
trated into the "stamping ground" of
the pompano. They swarm around
the end of the wharf, and the Santa
Monica summer girl abandoned every
thing, even flirting, for the fascinating
sport of pompano fishing. They bite
readily, and there is not only the fun
of catching them, but the subsequent
and greater joy of eating thorn after
ware!.
Pompauo should be cooked in three
ways —broiled, in the pan or en papil
lote. Done the first way they are de
licious. After the second fashion they
ari better still. Rut en pupillote—
well, words fail to convey any adequate
idea of the epicurean joy ot eating
pompano en pupillote. The latter
method of preparing the fish is sim
plicity itself. The pompauo should
be placed in the pan and cooked as
usual until tliey lack but a few brief
moments of being done. Then removo
them from the pan and wrap them
quickly in white paper thoroughly
buttered, each fish in a separate sheet,
placo on the fire for a moment more,
and then —well, if any one doesn't
know what to do then, codfish bolls
would be too rich for him.—San Fruu
cisco Examiner.
Process ol Making Postage Stomps.
Every part of postage-stamp making
is done by hand. The designs are en
graved on steel, 200 stamps on a single
plate. These plates are iuked by two
men, and then are printed by a girl
and a man on a largo hand press.
They are dried as fast as printed and
then gummed with a starch paste made
from potatoes. This paste is dried by
placing the sheets in u steam fanning
machine, and then the stamps are sub
jected to a pressure of 2000 tons in a
hydraulic press. Next the sheets are
cut so that each one contains 100
stamps, after which the paper between
the stamps is perforated, and after
being pressed the sheets ore filed
away. If a single stamp is injured the
whole sheet is burned.—St. Paul
Pioneer Press.
A Xew Story of George Washington.
Hero is a new story of the Father of
his Country. Washington's head gar
dener was a man from some European
kingdom, where he had worked in the
royal grounds. But coming to Amer
ica, he left his wife behind. Home
sickness for his "gude" woman's fnco
soon begun to prey on him, and Wash
ington noticed the anxious eye and
drooping spirits of his servant. Final
ly the man went down to the river and
declared his intention of shipping to
the old country, when who should
come up and lean over the side of a
newly-arrived vessel but his wife. The
kind-hearted General had ueoretly sent
tor the woman, and she unfortunately
surprised her loving husband in one
of his fits of despoiplcjiey.—Pbilndel-
I phia Times.
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL.
There nro electri3 railways in New
Zealand.
A Paris medicnl journal declare!
Jaundice is, or can l>e, cured by eating
nothing but lettuce and lemons.
Doctor E. M. Hale, the climotolo
gist, states that Bright's disease if
mont common in New Jersey, and least
frequent in Virginia.
Experiments made at a cancer hos
pital in New York have convinced the
physicians that the virus of erysipelas
injected into cancerous tumors causes
them to disappear.
In the museum at Cambridge. Eng
land, is the skeleton and stuffed skin
of an adult hybrid between a lion and
a tigress. This, with several distinct
litters by different parents, was born
in the same menagerie.
It appears that the camel does a
good deal of harm in Egypt, by eating
the trees as they are growing up.
Already the massive Cairo camel is a
type distinct from other camels, sur
passing all in its cumbrous, massive
proportions.
Some investigations carried out by
Doctor Alexander A. Houston, of Ed
inburgh, respecting the number of
bacteria in the soil at different depths
from the surface go to prove that the
micro-organisms become less and lesf
abundant as the depth from the sur
face increases.
Extensive draught will cause the
snail to close its doors, to prevent the
evaporation of its bodily moisture and
dry up. These little animals are pos
sessed of astonishing vitality, regain
ing activity after having been frozen
iu solid blocks of ice, and enduring a
degree of heat for weeks which daily
crisps vegetation.
The common purslane, which grows
anywhere as a weed, produces more
seeds than any other plant. One seed
pod, by actual count, has 3000 secdH,
and as a plant will sometimes have
twenty pods, the seeds from a single
year's growth may, therefore, number
60,000. There is no instance of simi
lar fruitfuliiess in any other plant
growing in this country.
The Bible tixes the creation of life
in successive periods, the creation ol
the higher order of animals in the last
period, and immediately before the
appearance of man. According to
Moses, the order in which living things
appeared was Plants, fishes, fowl,
land animals and man. Science, from
i study of fossils in the rock founda
tions, has independently arrived at
the same conclusions.
Telephonemeter is the new word
naming an instrument to register the
tiino of each conversation at the tele
phone from the t :no of ringing up the
sxchange to the ringing-off signal.
Such a system w mid reduco rentals of
telephones to a scale according to the
jervice, instead of a fixed charge to a
business firm or occasional user alike.
The instrument has been constructed
at the invitation of the German tele
phone department and is to control
the duration of telephone conversa
tions and to total the time.
Bpace for a fort on a hill near Lon
don is being cleared of tree stumps by
an electric root grubber or stump
puller. The dynamo for supplying
the current is about two miles from
the hill. The current is taken by over
head wires on telegraph poles to the
motor on the grubber carriage. By
means of belting and suitable gearing
the motor drives a capstan upon which
pre coiled a few turns of wire rope. A
heavy chain is attached to the tree
roots, and as the rope exerts its force
the roots como up quietly ono after
the other.
The Oldest Trees.
The Soma cypress of Lomb&rdy is, 1
believe, the oldest tree of which there
is any authentic record. It is known
to have been in existence in 42 13. C.
There are, however, many trees foi
which a vastly greater antiquity it
claimed. The Senegal baobabs—some
of them—are said to bo 5000 years old.
The bo tree of Anuradhapurn, iE
Ceylon, is perhaps the oldest specimen
of another very long-lived species; it
is held sacred upon the ground that
it sprang from ft branch of the iden
tical tree under which Buddha reclined
for seven years while undergoing his
apotheosis. This oak is well known
to be a long liver, and there ore speci
mens still standing in Palestine, of
which the tradition goes that they
grew out of Cain's staff. The haw
thorn, again, sometimes lives to bo
very old; thera is said to be one in
side Cawdor Castle of an "immemorial
age."
The cedars of Lebanon may also bo
mentioned, and there are, according
to Dean Stanley, still eight of the
olives of flethsenmne standing, "whose
gnarled trunks and scanty foliage will
always be regarded as the most affect
ing of the sacred memorials in or about
Jerusalem. "—Notes and Queries.
In Northern Alaska.
Juneau is the most northerly stop
ping place on the regular Alaska ex
cursion route, and while it is not suffi
ciently near the pole to meet the mid
night sun, there is time at this season
of the year for a good deal of light
work.
What most troubles strangers is to
know when to go to bed. The sun is
apparently uuwilling to pass and leaves
its hah) behind.
Twilight waits for dawn, or if there
is an interval between I have not dis
covered it. It is not difficult to read
ordinary print at 11 o'clock, and sit
ting on the deck at midnight (the ship
keeps San Francisco time) watching
the shadows cast upon the smooth
water, and the snow-capped peaks at a
few miles'distance is not uncomfort
able with an yyereoat.—Saq Francisco
Bulletin
A TREASURE HOUSE.
THE UNITED STATES SUB
TREASURY IN NEW YORK.
Two Thirds of the Financial Opera
tions of the Government Arc
Transacted There —How
Its Business Is Done.
T WRITER in the
/ /\\ New York Herald
/J \ \ savß: Uncle Sam's
i I \ \ strong box is situ
ijL—-—* \ ated at Wall, Nas-
IffM \ \ HftU Pine streets
\ and is officially
k nown rtS the New
York Sub-Treas
\sM ury. The average
'LiA 11 individual wlio
1 P nBHCB it by ou
3%-Aj// cither of the three
thoroughfares is
\ Vlk thoroughly ac
* * quainted with its
massive granite
walls, lingo columns and severely
classic style of Grecian architecture.
Half way up the long flight of stone
steps which communicates with the
mam entrance in Wall street stands a
bronze statue of Washington of heroic
size, keeping watch and ward, as it
were, over the vast treasure withiu
Upon the same site in 1789 and for
a score of years later was Federal Hall,
standing upon the balcony of which
the Father of His Country took the
oath of office as the first President of
tho United States. The building,
therefore, rests upon historic ground,
which lends to it a double charm and
connects tho present with tho past.
Washington no doubt had an abiding
faith in the destiny of his country, and j
MAIN FLOOR OF TITE SUB-TREASURY.
believed that it would attain an impor
tant place among the nations of the
earth, but never, it is safe to assume,
did his mind picture the transforma
tions that have come to pass over the
site of the old colonial hall within tbo
brief space which separates his gener
ation from the present.
Then the country was emerging
front the effects of a devastating war
and was without a revenue or public
credit. Now its resources are bound
less, and its credit, unshaken by a
financial storm, stands pre-eminent
among the nations of the earth. On
the site where in 1789 the infant Re
public was launched forth upon an un
known and untraversed sea, without a
penny in its coffers, stands its treasure
house in which is stored wealth be
yond the dreams of avarice or the
combined fortunes of Crcesus of old or
Monte Cristo of modern times.
Within the gray granite walls of the
New York Sub-Treasury are transacted
two-thirds of the eutire financial oper
ations of the United States Govern
ment. In 1892 its receipts were sl,-
259,730,591.80 and its disbursements
were $1,279,579,904.24. This would
have shown a deficit but for the fact
that the Sub-Treasury had a small bal
ance of $138,072,240.03 left over from
the year before, and hence a year ago
last June, when the balance was struck,
tho Government found that it had
stored in its New York treasure house
the neat sum of $118,222,977.09 to be
gin the work of the fiscal year of 1893.
It is difficult to conceivo of one hun
dred and eighteen million and odd
hundred thousands of dollars in coin
and bills, and yet at the Sub-Treasury
this is a trifling amount, and has fre
quently been exceeded by a hundred
or two millions more.
The building fairly groans under the
weight of gold and silver and heaps of
copper and nickel and huge stacks of
Mikiyto!
WHERE THE TREASURY NOTES ARE KEPT.
bills. Stored nently in little Bteel
cubby boles, inside lingo vaults, them
selves incased in metal and granite, or
scattered around on desks or counters,
undergoing tile process of weighing
au4 counting, the buildiu fairly reeks
with wealth. The very air seems im
pregnated with an odor of riches. In
one instance this amounts to an em
barrassment, for in the caso of the sil
ver dollars, forty millions of which
are stored iu a series of vaults in the
basement, the heavy iron lattice work
and huge steel bars are bulging out of
place under the enormous pressure of
1200 tons of silver, for $1,000,000 of
silver weighs thirty tonß, and $lO,-
000,000 is the burden of the vault.
Under ordinary circumstances the
Sub-Treasury handles very little coin.
The metal lays stored away in the
vaults in neat canvas bags, $.->OOO in
each one containing gold and SIOOO in
each bag of silver. At the present
time, however, all this is changed. The
Government has suspended the issue
of gold certificates against deposits of
that metal, the free silver dollars are
exhnusted, and only those secured by
silver certificates remain in the vaults;
the Clearing House balances are settled
in actual coin, gold is coming in and
going out, is weighed and counted,
and the passer by in Nassau street at
the corner of Pine hears all day long
the clink and clatter of metal.
At any time a visit to the Sub-
Treasury is interesting, but it is
particularly so now. Walk up the
long flight of stone steps leading from
Wall street to the main entrance of
the building any morning after 10
o'clock, pass by the guardian statue of
Washington and between the huge
granite columns which support the
projecting roof, and you enter a cool,
lofty counting room.
Standing at the main entrance be
tween two supporting granite columns
similar to those outside, the view is
unobstructed to the Pine stroet, or
rear, entrance of the building. Be
fore another step is taken the visitor
becomes at once aware of the over-
powering strength and massiveness of
the structure. He has passed through
a doorway of solid granite blocks six
feet in depth, guarded by an outer
door of huge iron bars, an inner door
of heavy steel plates and a frame door
the projecting rivets in the surface of
whioh bears testimony that it is metal
sheathed.
On either side of the entrance is a
room of comfortable proportions.
That on the loft, or Nassau street side,
bears the words over the door, "As
sistant Troasurer," while to the right
are the quarters of the Cashier and
Acting Assistant Treasurer. The one
is occupied by Conrad N. Jordau, the
other by Maurice L. Muhlcman, one
of the most popular, painstaking and
thoroughly efficient Government em
ployes in the country. The entire
executivo work of the Sub-Treasury—
and it is vast and multitudinous in de
tail—is transacted within these two
rooms.
The interior arrangement of the
Sub-Treasury is peculiar to the date of
its construction. Tho ceiling of the
main room rises in the form of a dome
to the extreme height of the building,
and is supported by granite columns,
forming a rotunda. Four galleries
afford a means of communication be
tween tho rooms situated at either
angle of the building on the second
floor, from which can be obtained a
bird's-eye view of the clerks at work in
three departments on tho floor below
—the cashier's, receiving and paying.
These, situated on the main floor, are
separated by bank counters of wood
and partitions of iron, pierced here
and there by the familiar pigeonholes
of a bank. In fact, the entire appear
ance of the main room of the Sub-
Treasury suggests the arrangements of
a large bank as they existed two score
years ago.
The departments of the Sub-Treas
ury are the cashier's, receiving and
paying, which is snb-uivided into cash
paying and check paying; coin, divided
into paying and receiving; minor coin,
bond, coupon, authorities, accounting
and superintending. The names of these
in most instances amply describe in a
general way the nature of the work
performed. The duties of the authori
ties department, however, aro pe
culiar. In it are kept the lists of cor
porations having business relations
with the Government and the names of
the officials of each who are authorized
to sign and receipt for checks. In the
' accounting department are kept, in
addition to the general accounts of tho
Sub-Treasury, the account of tho Post
Office Department, always maintained
separately, and the accounts of the
disbursing officers of the United States
Army and Navy, etc.
At the present time the daily bal
ance in the Sub-Treasury averages
about $125,000,000. It runs, how
ever, at times as high as $225,000,000,
a sum of money of which tho ordinary
mind can form no conception. Nat
urally enough every safeguard is taken
for the protection of this immense
tpetwufe. The casual observer of the
Bub-Treasury building known full well
its massive exterior. Its full strength,
however, is not apparent until after a
earefui scrutiny of the interior. The
building itself was constructed for the
purposes of tho Custom House in 1832
and use I as such until 1802.
Strong as it was originally it was, in
remodelling, made absolutely impreg
nable. Aboard of United States army
officers were intrusted with the work,
and os it stands to-day it contains
many features of a fortress. Tho walls
in the basement nre eight feet thick
and are built of solid granite blocks.
No part of the walls anywhere are less
than four feet through. All the par
titions between tho rooms arc of
masonry. The ceilings are concrete,
all the floors are of stone or metal and
the various doors are of steel plate.
The treasure is stored in live princi
pal vaults, three of which hold tho
greater proportion. These are tho
gold vault, tho note vault aud tho
vault in which is stored the silver dol
lars. Tho first two are on the main or
rotunda floor, while thoother is a hugd
cavern in the cellar of the building.
The vaults on tho main floor are
bombproof and burglar proof aud
proof against everything else short oft
a general cataclysm. That in the!
cellar is equally so. The walls of tho
building forming tho sides of tho
vaults are eight feet thick, and masonry
encases them on all sides, saving
where the entrance doors pierctf
throngli. The ceilings of the upper
vaults are about twelve feet in height
and tho ditnensiens perhaps twelvo by
fourteen feet.
A Pest of Western Farms.
To the order of animals known a*j
Rodentia, or gnawers, belongs the
ground squirrel, or gopher, one of the
numerous enemies against which the'
farmer has to contend. These pests,
says the New York World, have be
come so destructive that many schemes
have been suggested for their exterm
ination. The latest, report of tho Wy
oming Agricultural Station details the
experiments undertaken to destroy tho
various orders of gophers.
Tho ground squirrels attack root
crops and seeds of all kinds as soon as
planted, though they do tho greatest
damage after tho plants have com
menced to grow and are through tho
ground. Their burrowing habits are
a source of annoyance to the farmer,
and greatly injure the land. In this
respect gophers resemble the prairio
dogs, their burrows being close to
gether so as to form towns.
While the gophers are fond of seeds
and have a particular weakness for
carrots, sugar beets and roots of all
kinds, they also attack fruit trees.
The latter suffer so much from their
depredations that a California or
chardist suggests tying newspaper!
around the trunks of the trees in such
away that when tho squirrels attempt
to pass over the paper its rattling will
frighten them away.
The plan of drowning these pests
out of their burrows lias also been
tried. But this is a tedious method
and water is not always procurable.
Strychnine or some other poison mixed
with grain has been used with consid
erable success. But the danger at
tendant on this method is great, as
stock, poultry and wild birds aro as
liable to eat the poisoned graiu as tho
squirrels.
CALIFORNIA GBOUIVt) RQUIRRKL.
As the result of a number of experi
ments, the station advises the use of
bi-sulphide of carbon. The method of
applying it is to tako a ball of cotton
about the size of ail egg, thoroughly
saturate it with qi-sulphido of carbon,
throw it into the burrow and close tho
opening with some earth. Tho bi
sulphide of carbon evaporates rapidly,
and being heavier than the air, soon
fills the burrow and smothers tho
squirrels. A pint of the fluid is suf
ficient to treat twenty burrows.
Bi-sulphide of carbon is good also
for prairie dogs, rats, ants and any
kind of vermin. A caution in its uso
is, however, necessary. The liquid is
highly inflammable, and should never
be brought near fire or any kind of
light for fear of an explosion.
According to ancient custom tho
Queen of England has forwarded to
the Lord Mayor four fat bucks from
Buskey Park and to the City Sheriffs
three bucks. This usage had its origin
in the times in whioh tho city had
rights of hunting in the royal forests
and parks. Similar presents are mado
in due season in January of each year.
The Little One's Guardian AngeL
"Aunt, liavo I a guardian angel''"
"Certainly, my dear. I am you?
cunrdiaij angel I"—Flicsreode BlaeWer