Probably the Spaniards are think
ing just now that those "American
pigs" must be of the wild boar
ety.
Massachusetts claims to have more
different kinds of native trees than
has any kingdom of Europe. The
number exceeds fifty, among them be
ing nine large oaks.
It is rcj from Spain that our
navy officers don't wear socks. This
may account to the Spanish mind for
the barbarous ferocity with which
they keep at the work of knocking the
socks oil the Spanish navy.
A larg of the literature of the
world is becoming unintelligible to
this generation through lack of ability
to understand quotations from the
Bible, asserts the Christian Herald.
Allusions to sayings and events which
our fathers wonld have understood at
a glance now signify nothing to many
readers.
The Illinois Central Railroad has
beaten its record, having delivered [
1,000,000 bales of cotton at New !
Orleans during the current season of j
eight months beginning September 1,
1897. The one million and hrst bale
was presented by Stuyvesant Fish,
President of the railroad, to Colonel
H. Or. Hester, Secretary of the New
Orleans Cotton Exchange, and it is to
be disposed of for the benefit of the
poor of the Crescent City.
"The talk about European inter- j
ventiou in the Cuban affair and a Con
tinental league against the United
States has a hollow sound," declares
the New York Tribune, "when Amer
ican control of food supplies is dem
onstrated so completely. America
stands in no dread of a European con
cert in defense of the worm-eaten
Spanish throne, when by withholding
food supplies she could menace every
Continental State except Russia with -
bread riots and starvation; nor is it !
necessary for Americans to be impor- j
tunate in their wooing for an Anglo- !
Saxon alliance. England not only
speaks the same language and reads
Shakespeare, but it also lives on j
American wheat. Self-interest rather
than sentiment is the true basis of an 1
Anglo-American alliance; in future
bread is more important than blood
relationship."
It has been repeatedly stated in the
past few months that the ships of
nations at war conld not pnss through
the Suez Canal. That was the com
mon belief, and many poople who
prided themselves on the accuracy of
their general information have been
not less confused than surprised to
find, on looking the matter np, that
they were entirely mistaken. The
canal is as free—except for the little
detail of tolls—to the navies of every
nation and at all times as are the
waters of the open sea itself, and this i
has been the case ever since 1888.
Early in that year England, France
and Turkey agreed on a convention
making the canal a neutral highway,
and a few months later all the powers
gave their acquiescence. The instru
ment explicitly permits the transpor
tation of war material and ships of war
Uur. mgli the canal, whether peace pre
vails or not, anil only prohibits overt
jots of hostility between or within ,
three miles of the termini.
The bat ships of modern times are
a necessity to any great nation which
intends to maintain its rights and pro
tect its interests, believes the Atlanta
Journal, but their cost is heavy. An
outlay of something like $3,000,000 is
required to construct and equip a ship
which would take high rank in any
modern navy. After such a ship is
complete the expense of maintaining
it is very heavy. This item for each
of our big battleships is now about
SISOO a day even when they do no fir.
iug. The daily expenses of our navy
are now over $50,000 a day. The total
annual expenses of a first-class battle
ship are estimated at $547,000, divided
as follows:
Pay of officers, erew anl marines .£320,000
Rations 48,000
Equipment * 12,000
Navigation ohargos 0,000
Ordnance 18,000
Construction and repairs 13,000.
Steam engineering 82,000
General supplies 14,000
Medloine, surgery, secretary's of
fice and incidental expenses 78,000
The cost of ammunition used dur
ing an engagement is immense, but it
is of course impossible to estimate
this in calculating the expense of a
navy, i Repair to warships, cruisers
and other craft even in time of pence
is large, but after every engagement
it is necessarily immense, even for the
victor. War on a modern basis is R
terrific absorber of money, and thero
never was a time when the importance
of money as a factor in war was any
thing like as great as it is now.
THE DANCER OF BEAUTY.
I never read tfce papers without feeling so The papers never tell about a woman being
conteni shot,
That both my eyes are twisted and my Or mangled by a trolley car, or marrant to
nose is slightly bent; a sot,
I'm glad iny mouth is out of line and that Or forced, at point of pistol, her last fifty
my teeth are few, cents to lose,
And if I had a "wealth of hair" I don't But that her eyes are "limpid" and her
know what I'd do. boots are number twos.
A "tfny foot" or "lily hand" would fill rae 80 I can live In sweet content, without tho
with dismay, slightest fear
And if I had a slender waist I'd sicken in a That trouble or calamity will ever hover
day; near—
For I have noticed from the first, as And when I see my misfit fuce it's some
strange as it may seem, relief to know
The girl who gets the worst of it is That I'll outlive the beauties by a hundred
"lovely as a dream." years or sol
—Brooklyn Life.
| THE HEART OP SAVAGERY. §
A TRAGEDY OF BEACHCOMBERS IN THE FAR ®
£ AWAY SOUTH SEA. g
EARL fishers are a
mysterious lot anil
the South Sea is
full of obscure
tragedies. Recent
events in the Phil
ippines hare drawn
attention to them
anew. Tragedy
was often the end
of adventure, and then, too, none but
the most venturesome or the most
abandoned of white men sought to
live among the wild islanders in the
days, not so far remote, when the
missionary had not yet introduced his
stucco churches and taught the na
tives the price of an axe or a handful
of ship (biscuit. This tale of
one of the forgotten tragedies is
drawn from an official document on
which forty years of slumbering in a
forgotten pigeonhole has served to
dim the writing and to dull the im
print of the lion and the unicorn with
which a British Consul made the pa
per official. To write an account of a
murder on sixteen sheets of Govern
ment blue stationery, to attach a seal
with the royal arms—that may pass
sometimes as just the same as aveng
ing it.
Suvarrow is as lonely a group of
desolation as it is possible to find in
that scantily traveled region of the
South Seas which lies to the eastward
of Samoa nnd before reaching such
populous centres as Tahiti and Rnro
tonga. Other islands have the pic
turesque features of towering moun
tains, verdure clad to their summit
crags, the grace of waving cocoanut
palms fringing every beach with giant
leaves. Suvarrow is but a ring of
sand banks skirting n lagoon filled
with coral groves; the only trees, the
stunted paudanus, set on a group of
prop-like roots. Other islands have
their peopling of brown-skinned folk,
possibly treacherous, and always to
bo treated as inferiors by that lovely
creature, the beachcomber of these
seas, yet human in their desire for
gaudy toys and the tinned goods on
which the white man feeds. Suvarrow
Is marked on the charts as uninhab
ited and, therefore, is not a port of
call lor the vagrant whaler in his
search for sperm, the trader or the
blackbirder. Yet now and again little
island colonies may bo found on the
bare sands of the ntoll, for in the la
goon grow the pearl oyster and the
beche-de-mer, which Chinamen eat,
and on the sands great turtles come
to lay their eggs by night. Hence
beachcombers mysteriously wander
ing beyond the confines of civilization
at odd times camp on the bare islets
in search of the wealth of tortoise
shell, pearl shell and trepnng the sea
affords. This is the story of one such
colony on the desolate atoll of Su
varrow, a tale whose events were com
plete iu 1858, but have never yet been
made known beyond the combers of
South Sea beaches.
Iu the early months of 1857 Thomas I
Charlton, of Martha's Vineyard, a'run
away hand from a Nantucket whaler,
was living on the island of Manaliiki.
When he was fishing one day in a
canoe outside tiie coral reef a sudden
squall carried him and his party of
islanders out of sight of land and left
them adrift and undirected upon the
ocean. South Sea tradition is a mass
of tales of such involuntary voyagiug.
\\ ith such help as a sailor could get
from dead reckoning and a knowledge
| of the set ot the trade winds, Charlton
I managed to bring his canoe to Suvar
; row and there established his colony
jof gentle Manahikians. In addition
to his wife Sumaria, Charlton, of Tamu,
as he was called in the liquid speech
of the islands, numbered in the census
of his settlement on the sands eight
souls. Here and his wife Kokornriki
(a Paumotu woman from the far east
ern island away to windward of Tahiti,
and, as the event proved, a shrewd
and conscienceless woman), Kaitni
and his wife, and the single men
N'gere, Taarau, Voitia, Otea, and
Vairaau. With true Polynesian apathy,
these people made the best they could
of a bad affair, built them houses near
a source of water, and took up the
thread of life where it had been broken
by the squall at Manahiki, scores of
leagues away. There was food on the
island and water—that is enough for a
colony of folk whole needs are simple.
They were destined to live not long
alone. Captain Hani Sustenance was
sailing those seas in his topsail
schooner Dart. Captain Sustenance
might not be classed among the elect.
He was not a good man, even accord
ing to the standard of these waters,
where the only good thing aflont was
the "society's brig," said society be
ing the London Missionary Society,
which has pioneered the South Pacific
since Cook's voyages of discovery.
But Sustenance was such a man as
best suited the early times of sen
trading, enough of a mere merchant
man to satisfy the curiosity of the in
freiueut naval vessels cruising among
the islands for the sake of the moral
effect, enough of a buccaneer to have
dollars to jinglo on the Circular Quay
in Sydney before a grand carouse in
the Currency Lass public house. From
end to end of the Pacific Sam Suste
nance nas known by the name of Uru-
Uru, which the islanders had given
him. At Penrhyn Island on August
1, 1857, he engaged an English beach
comber, Joe Bird, to superintend the
party of native pearl divers whom he
shipped at the same time. There were
eighteen men and several women in
the party. The Penrhyn folk are
widely different from the gentle and
timorous Mauahikiana. Sour and
gloomy at nil times, they are capable
of nourishing ajgrievance and of bid
ing their time in a plot to wipe it out.
Two days later Uru-Cru stopped at
Manahiki long enough to take on board
7000 eocoanuts for the food of his
divers, and on August 13 he anchored
at Suvarrow.
According to beachcomber's law of
might is right, Sustenance and Joe
Bird with a lighting crew at their back,
with a score of fierce Penrhyn Island
ers, were able to decree that Tnmu and
his handful of mild Manahikians should
confine themselves to one islet and
leave tho rest of the ntoll .to the pearl
divers. Still more company was com
ing. Within a month or six weeks the
schooner Tickler, Thomas F. Martin,
master, visited Suvarrow and landed
Jules Tirel, n Frenchman, who was
known to the islanders as Jules Farani,
or French Jules. Iu October of the
same year Sustenance revisited his
pearling station and found little shell
as yet collected. It is likely that he
gave forcible expression to his disap
pointment, but be that as it may, the
main feature is that tho three beach
combers were then there with the two
native settlements of Manahikians and
Penrhyn people and thnt all was well.
In April, 1858, the brig Charlotte
couched at Suvarrow and two of the
Manahiki boys, Otea and Vaimau,
went on her to Samoa. Neither on
the voyage nor at Apia did they men
tion any white men as having been
with them on Suvarrow, and the mas
ter of the Charlotte kuew nothing of
the former actions of Sustenance.
That trader again visited Suvarrow
on June 15, ten months after estab
lishing his diving station and eight
months after his last visit. As he
stood up for the passage through the
coral reef first one and then a second
canoe filled with Penryhn Islanders
boarded the Dart with many expres
sions of pleasure that they once-more
saw their friend Uru-Uru, for the three
beachcombers had long ago taken their
boat and sailed away westward to Sam
oa. Knowing the wild roving fever
which drives the beachcomber hither
and yon, back and forth through the
South Seas, and their recklessness of
the chances of voyaging, Sustenance
saw nothing unusual in the thought of
three men'setting out in a small boat
fyr an ocean voyage of hundreds of
miles. His two mates suggested the
possibility of foul play, but he pooh
hoohed their suspicions. At any rate
the Penrhyn Islanders told a consis
tent story.
On landing, Sustenance metjthe Pau
motu woman, Kokorariki, wife of the
Manahikian Here. Her story was to
the effect that in February the three
beachcombers had painted the boat and
made a new sail. They had taken tho
small cask filled with drinking water
and a large supply of dried eggs of the
sea fowl which swarm on the islnnds,
together with a variety of food in the
shape of fresh and baked cocoauuts.
The boat had been leaky, but was tight
after the new paiutiug. They had
sailed away to tho west and before
sundown were out of sight. As they
had left their wives behind, she was
sure that they intended to take ship
iu Samoa and go to their own lands
beyond the horizon. They had taken
all their trade goods except one bolt
of printed goods which they hod
divided among the Penrhyn divers.
. For a savage this woman seems to
have had a genius for lying. The
other people agreed with her account,
nnd the island, when carefully
searched, yielded no indication in the
way of goods or stores that the woman
had told other than tho truth. For
the following fortnight the Manahi
kians and the Penrhyns were on the
Dart on the homeward voyage back to
Penrhyn, and not a word or a sign
gave reason to suspect that the story
was false.
Homo weeks later Sustenance
touched in the course of trade at Rak
ahauga, and there again encountered
the woman Ivokorariki. Slio nsked at
once if he had heard of Joe and Tamil.
Apparently much concerned when she
heard that they had not reached
Samoa, she asked in what direction
Pukapuka bore, and when the ship
master pointed down to the west, she
seemed ranch relieved, and suggested
that the beachcombers had ..probably
reached that island.
Tet in her original story and in this
renewed interest in the voyage of the
beachcombers Kokorariki was but
playing a leading part in a tissue
of fabrication which was sufficiently
good to deceive Sustenance, and it
may be said that it is by no means
easy to pull the wool over the eyes of
a South Sea trader.
The three beachcombers had been
murdered on Suvarrow in the presence
of this woman and every other person
on the island, and Kokorariki herself
had planned the consistent story
which had cleared them all from sus
picion. The story came out by the
confession of the wife of Tamu, that
is, Tom Charlton, the American, which
she made to Tniri, the native mission
ary teacher on Rakabauga.
For some time after the last visit
which Sustenance made at Suvarrow
the people busied themselves about
their several occupations. Tamu and
his Manahikians fished and cured the
beche-de-mer, Joe nnd the Penrhyn
Islanders worked at the beds of pearl
shell, and Jules seems to have diver
sified his chief occupation of doing
nothing by spells of watching the
others nt work. He was well liked
by the islanders. So was Charlton.
But Joe Bird acted as the superior be
ing is so apt to do when living among
the islanders. A common threat when
any of his divers proved refractory
was that he would cut them in two
nnd would eat their livers, and when
one is a cannibal such a threat does
not seem as improbable as it might ap
pear in other conditions of life. Often
he deprived his divers of their rations
aud water when their take of Bhell
was not up to the amount he fixed for
a day's .task. The divers plotted to
tako their revenge upon him, and saw
clearly that they must make away
with the other white men at the same
time.
The opportunity came early one
morning. Joe Bird missed some co
coanuts from his pit. He went first
to Tom Carlton's and questioned the
Manahikians as to the theft. This
was no more than a matter of form,
for no one would ever suspect a
Manahikian of theft. Receiving their
denial in good pnrt Joe took his gun
and sword and strolled over to the
quarters of his divers. The various
people on the island were engaged in
various concerns. Kokorariki was
cooking a bird for breakfast. Here's
wife was attending her sick husband
at lomilomi, the effective South Sea
massnge; the other Manahikians had
just started out after beche-de-mer.
Tom, with pistol and Bword, hurried
after Joe Bird and after him came
Jules Farani with a sword. Arrived
at the houses of the divers Joe chargd
their head man, Tangiora, with steal
ing the cocoanuts and fired the gun
over his head. Then he grappled
with Tangiora nnd called to Tom for
help. Tom ran up nnd got hold of
Ttngiora's hand and snapped his pis
tol at him. It missed fire and he re
capped it, taking the fresh cap from
a little chamber in the butt of the
weapon. As he aimed a second time
a savage named Maori caught him' by
the hand, whereupon Tom , knocked
him down by a blow in the eye. But
ns he fell Maori caught Tom by the
feet and threw him with the assist
ance of Tangiora, and these two then
disarmed him and tied his hands and
feet. Mennwhile a snvnge named
Rapahua seized Joe Bird nnd threw
him down, nnd with the help of Tang
ioro lashed his hands. Farani had
no firearms, but he came on a run
with his sword at Matahu. The lat
ter with the aid of Popokia and Na
toto, tied the Frenchman up like his
mates. The three beachcombers were
then thrown into their boat and word
was sent to four other Penrhyns
who were fishing on the other side to
come and row the boat.
Tom's wife Sumaria, came running
to Here's house shouting, "O nga
ropa, O nga ropa, good people, they
are killing the white men for they are
taking them away in the hoat." Tom's
wife, Kokorariki, and ICaitai's wife,
all hastened to the boat. Here Su
marin and Ivaitai's wife had already
cast off the lashings from Tom's
wrists and ankles, when Kapa
hua aimed a gun at the women and
forced them to desist. Tom, appar
ently thinking that they were to be
set on one of the islets across the
lagoon, then bade Kaitai's wife to call
the Manahikians to launch his boat.
This the Penrhyns prevented with
guns and swords, and, the four row
ers by this time having come across,
they pulled the boat out into the la
goon. Tom was seated on the gun
wale and the other two were lying
under the thwarts. Joe Bird begged
his captors for mercy and offered nil
he had if only his life might be
spared.
But Tom bade him not to bo a child,
for it was now too late, and he himself
had brought this fate upon himself
and his companions. At the deepest
part of the lagoon the Penrhyns hove
Joe Bird overboard first, and he sank
right to the bottom. Tom was the
next to go, and he, too, went down
like a stone. But the Frenchman roso
alongside the boat, aud Powhatu cut
his bead open with a sword. Then the
Frenchman sank to join his mates in
the quiet depths of the lagoon.
Now that the deed was done the
shrewdnoss and facile invention of the
Paumotu woman, Kokorariki, stood
the party in good stend. Left to then
own .simple devices they would have
shared out the goods of the murdered
white men, and their detection would
have been certain. She it was who
set the scene and concocted the story
so well as to deceive Captain Sus
tenance. She had the boat burned
aud the metal work sunk in the la
goon, and the property of the white
men was in like manner destroyed, all
but the single bolt of cheap cloth dis
tributed to the divers. That was a
stroke of genuine art. It would be
such a natural thing for Joe Bird to
do if he were sailing away that it car-
ried proof in itself. The money was
almost all in her possession, but she
had a long series of unwritten aa
counts by which it was madp to seem
the wages of the Penshyn Islanders
acquired by her in the way of trade.
With these confessions set out in
full the original dooument ends. A
careful search of the records shows no
indication that any attempt was made
to punish the murderers. Three men
had died in the early morning in the
lagoon of a little visited ntoll in the
wild South Seas, but they were only
beachcombers, nnd their loss was not
grievously felt by the world of civili
zation they had voluntarily cnst off in
order to plunge into the heart of sav
agery, a wild, a sudden, a cruel heart.
How such a murder was regarded
by a man who was living the same life
and was exposed to the same chances
is naively shown in the concluding
words of the deposition of Captain
Sustenance: "There did not appear
to have been any serious quarrel,
neither should I judge the natives to
have been much excited. I should in
fer that it mußt have been talked of
long before and probably accelerated
by the gun unhappily discharged over
instead of into the head of Taugiroa."
—New York Sun.
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL,
The steam engine is covered by
8237 patents.
One-quarter of all the people born
die before six years, and one-half be
fore they are sixteen.
Microbes are so minute that 250,-
000,000 can be comfortably accommo
dated on a penny postage stamp.
There ore three times as many
muscles in the tail of the cat as thers
ore in the human hands and wrists.
The expenses for the electric un
derground road now being built in
London have so far amounted to 88 •
000,000.
There are now forty-five match fac
tories in Japan, employing an average
of nearly 9000 operatives a day. Their
exports last year reached a value of 81,-
706,612.
No parental care ever falls to the
lot of a single member of the insect
tribe. In general, the eggs of an in
sect are destined to be hatched long
after the parents are dead, so that
most insects are born orphans.
In Russia eleven laboratories are
engaged in the manufacture of diph
theria serum, in which the entire peo
ple place great confidence, nnd not
without reason, as in 44,631 regis
tered cases in which the Berum was
used the death rate was but fourteen
per cent, against thirty-four per cent,
of the 6507 cases in which it WUB not
employed.
It has been suggested that as ice at
only twelve degrees below freezing
has a speciflo insulation of over one
thousand megohms, it might be possi
ble to have hollow conductors which
could be placed in a trench filled with
water and used to carry brine for pur
poses of ice making and refrigeration.
The frozen water would act as the in
sulator, and calculations have been
made showing that the arrangement is
feasible on a commercial scale.
The consensus of opinion regarding
the origin of the migration of birds is
that it began during the glacial period.
The earth being then covered at
either end with a cap of ice, all life
was confined to a belt in the centre;
but ths ice receded a little at certain
seasons, leaving an uninhabited space
that afforded the quiet and seclusion
that all the higher animals seek dur
ingjtlie breeding period. The birds
went there accordingly to rear their
young, nud, as the ice receded fur
ther and further, they migrated fur
ther and further.
Itusslun Bluejackets Eat Tallow Cantllci
"To most people," says the Hong
Ivong (China)J Telegraph, "a tallow
caudle appears more in. tlie way of a
necessity than a luxury, but the Rus
sian bluejackets who are enjoying
shore leave just now from the ltossia
and the Admiral Nakimoffappear to find
in assimilating candles of Chinese
make as much gusto as an English
child would have in eating a sugar
stick. The other day a party of stal
wart Muscovite bluejackets were to be
seen going along Queen's Boad, and
the avidity with which they polished
off joss candles was a sight for the
gods. Some of the men, who were
evidently petty officers, elected to dine
off candles as thick an one's arm—
regular No, 1 joss pidgin arrange
ments—and streams of grease trickled
from the corners of each man's mouth."
A Large Family.
In the Easier Jura, on the slopes of
Mount Terrible, is a small village
called Montavon. The government of
the place is conducted by a President,
Vice-President, three Councilors or
Aldermen, Communal Steward, Com
munal Clerk and Communal Sergeant.
The name is Joseph Mon
tavon; the Vice-President, Victor Mon
tavon; the Steward, George Monta
von; the Clerk, Joseph Montavon; the
Sergennt, Karl Montavon, and the
three Councilors, Peter, Julius and
Ernst Montavon. This curious cir
cumstance arises from the fact that
everybody in the place bears the name
of Montavon. It is the name of a fam
ily so large that it has been vested
with town rights by the Swiss govern
ment.
New Treatment For Dyipepßlft.
A new treatment for dyspepsia is n
Japanese fish diet, in which the chief
articles of food are fish, rice, eggs
and oysters. The dishes are said to
be numberless. One is a baked pud
ding, made of flakes of fish, boiled
rice, eggs nud seasoning. Another is
a raw fish salad; a third, raw fish
pickled; a fourth, is the lues 1 of fish
pounded iuto a paste with butter,
vinegar, salt, white nnd cayen .e pep
pers. All are said to be appetizing
! and nutritious to a high degree.
Bows Under the Chin.
I It is a conservative estimate to say
that two-tliirds of the feminine world
wears a bow under its chin. A dash
ing little French bow, made in two
loops—no ends appearing—of taffeta,
or chiffon, or tulle, that is accordion
plaited, is especially stylish.
Shamrocks the Vogae In Paris.
| "Three little leaves of Irish green
United on one stem," incased in a crys
tal locket are the latest fad in trifles
i whioh go to make np the budget of
fashion in Paris. In the shop win
dows these trinkets are labeled, "In
dian," but the description is only in
name. Moßt of the jewelry in vogue
j is still fashioned after beetles, scor
! pions and birds.
Fans Are Larger.
j Fashionable fans are growing in size.
The very small Empire fans, popular
for so long, are being ousted by a
breeze-creator that has at least a few
degrees of usefulness. Ostrich feather
fans, particularly those of a natural
| color, are again at the top of style.
I Every woman who has had one packed
away in a moth-proof box for four or
five years had better bring it out and
i air it, for she will surely need it,
I Those made of black, white or pale
gray feathers are also being much used.
No fan, of gauze and tinsel, issograce-
I ful and alluring as one made of a mass
of waving plumes. The preference is
■ for the open and shut fan.
I Simpler fans of gauze, silk, satin or
net are also larger and create more
wind than those of last season. They
are decorated with lace, embroidery
and painting and have handsome sticks
of pearl, silver, gold or wood.—New
York Sun.
Venezuelan Women.
Miss Louise Stevens lectured the
other day before the Professional Wo
man's League of New York on "Ven
! ezuelan Women." The Mail and Ex
press reports the following:
"A few days ago I happened to be
I in the house of a Cuban family, when
a young lady entered who was so mar
j velously beautiful as to attract atten
: tion in any place. She had eyes of a
j limpid black, with arching brows
i above, raven hair, features so regular
| that a Phidias might desire to model
them, and the figure and carriage of a
young Hebe. She spoke Spanish up
on entering, but changed to perfect
English in deference to the presence
of an American, with the ihnate po
liteness common to her race. When
I was told that she was a Venezuelan
I knew the secret of her enchanting
grace.
| "The complexion of Venezuelan
women might be called fair brunette,
though throughout their own country
the women powder their faces so as
to give almost the appearance of a
white mask. It is an old custom, a
part of the regalia of full dress; a lady
will carry her powder box in her
pocket to the opera or dance, and
think nothing of turning to one side
and applying another layer over her
face in the full view of the assembly.
The effedt of this profussion of pow
der when the perspiration trickles
down is far from pleasing, forming as
it does, little ridges of paste in the
corners of the nose.
"I presume that one of the reasons
for this custom is the pleasing sensa
tian of coolness it imparts, and while
"V enezuela is by no means a hot coun
try, yet the gentle exercise of dancing
in a land where it is always summer is
somewhat heating. However, one
cannot but wish that 'they would not
so disfigure themselves.
"The marvelous beauty of the young
women quickly fade 3. Either they
grow enormously fat, losing their clear
complexion, with a swarthy hue and
many moth patches, which no amount
of white powder will cover, or they
become very thin, and their faces have
the appearance of a baked apple.
They keep their luxuriant blown or
black tresses, however, until a very
advanced age; but though they lose
khe freshness of youth, they are not
unattractive, their simple friendly
manners and their kindly interest in
one counting for much. - ,
"Venezuelan women are pre-emi
aently mothers. They seem to keep
kheir interest and sympathy with their
•hildren, and do not grow hard or
crabbed."
Gosaip.
Mrs. Micah Dyer, Jr., of Boston,
has been chosen President of the
Woman's Charity Club of that city for
the tenth couseoutive year.
The Princess of Wales has a tea
service of sixty pieces, and each piece
is decorated with a different photo
graph whioh she took herself while in
Scotland.
The Woman's Club, of Evanston,
111., has raised near 812,000 for the
Charity Hospital of that place, and a
new hospital building will soon be
opened free from debt.
A monument designed by the Prin
cessLofiise has just been placed over
the grave of Mrs. Mary Ann Thurston,
who nursed all the children of Queen
Viotoria from 1845 to 1867.
These three American women have
recently written and published novels
In England: Mrs. Atherton, Amelie
Rives, under which name she still
writes, and Kute Douglas Wiggin.
The Countess of Wisberg, wife of
Prince Oscar of Sweden, is in London,
taking a course ;f training as a nurse,
in order to help her husband in mis
sionary _ work he has undertaken in
Africa.
Acting as guide, chaperon and shop
ping expert is the present occupation
of at least one lady in Boston, who is
following a line of business for women
which has become quite popular in
London.
Women bicyclists in St. Petersburg
are ordered by the police to wear
bloomers or rational dress, as the
wind blows too oapriciously in Rus
sia's capital for skirts to be worn with
decency.
Empress Augusta Victoria of Ger
many found 144 German servant girls
last year to whom she could give the
golden servants' cross for having lived
forty years with one family. Only
one was found in Berlin.
Miss Charlotte Yonge's name is to
be given to three free scholarships for
girls, for which her admirers, headed
by the Prinzes of Wales, are collect
ing money in England. Miss Yonge
is seventy-five years of age now, and
has written more than eighty books.
During the present session of the
English Parliament the debates hove
been listened to by a large number of
women. The Duchess of Marlbor
ough, Mrs. Chamberlain and Mrs.
Curzon are among those who have
been most frequently seen at the
House.
New York women are overjoyed
that the Pennsylvania University has
decided to open its doors to women,
and to offer undergraduate courses
equal to those now open to men. The
women think that many other colleges
will follow the university's example
before long.
In giving 8100,000 to the United
States Government to be used for ex
penses incident to the war, Miss
Helen Gohld has endeavored to ren
der the most efficient kind of aid, say
ing that the money might be of more
service than the fitting out of a yacht
or a regiment.
The Emergency Hospital at Rome,
Ga., is said to begone of the grandest
works of its kind in this country.
Rich and poor alike are treated with
kindness and consideration, and the
head nurse is extremely popular
among the patients under her care and
that of the people of her city.
Parisian women are discarding birds
for animals as trimmings for their
hats. Small chinchillas, not unlike
rata in appearance, have become a fa
vorito form of adornment, and it has
been suggested that the new fad, if
carried so far as the wearing of birds,
may even extend to guinea pigs, kit
tens and puppies.
The Newest In Itre.R Goods.
The season's jacket will flare, with
large lapels, moire being the facing
generally used for this purpose.
The Tamo' Shanter, with violets
and other flowers, will make popular
and pretty headdresses this season.
Persian mauve and pale almond or
tan color'are effectively combined on
new Paris evening gowns and tailor
costumes for special wear.
The usual decoration for gowns is
revers of laco edged with pleated Batin
ribbon. The belting is of ribbon, with
pretty little ends and loops.
Satin royal and very elegant quali
ties of peau de soie are handsomely
made up together in imported wed
ding toilets for the spring and early
summer. '
A white chip flare, with three long
ostrich plumes of the same color, one
standing in the centre and the other
two falling gracefully on the brim,
forms a pretty hat for young women.
Jeweled buttons are much used on
some of the fancy coats and on the
more elaborate gowns. They are sel
dom used, however, to fasten the gar
ment, being better adapted to adorn
than to be useful.
The old-fashioned gray, so popular
with our great-grandmothers is once
more a leader in the fashions of the
day. This is true also of the old silk
poplins, and the gray, combined with
pink or blue and garnishod with lace,
makes a lovely costume.
Sashes will be much worn, the styles
being varied and beautiful. The
Roman sash is again in vogue, and is
made up in all the attractive colors.
One particular style is the stripes and
crossbars in pink, green, [blue and
yellow, with a little black. V
Caps for aged women are more elab
orate than ever. A dainty one is of
black Chantilly lace, accordion-plaited,
with a lavender bow on top. From
the back are two streamers formed of
rows of black beading, having a lav
ender ribbon run through them, and
edged with narrow lace.
Vests are more becoming to stout
figures than yokes, which fact will
ever keep them in vogue, but they are
not as new nor as stylish as yokes. A
narrow, flat vest gives length to the
waist if made to taper to a point. The
ever-popular full vest is now orna
mented with tiny cross tucks and fits
loosely, but does not bag in front.
Squares of black enamel, studded
with diamonds, in ohecker-board de
sign, are very handsome; flowers
painted on white china, with a border
of turquoise, gunmetal and enamel,
are new, and a novel shape is like the
setting of a marquise rin£, but very
small. Steel, cameo and moonstone
buttons are all hand ome and smart.