1 TALES OF PLUCK 1 m ABTENTUEE. | §*S\®,,(3vy, ®5xJ Cradled on an Iceberg. A THRILLING story of a ves sel's encounter with an ice berg is told by Captain £ Chester of the schooner El wood. The San Francisco Chronicle, whose narrative we coudense, reports that while the schooner was on a fish ing cruise in the northtrn waters, Cap tain Chester sighted an immense ice berg apparently fast on a reef known to exist just off Hoonia. "It's a lucky find!" thought the captain, as he head ed the Elwood for the berg, that he might fill the hold with ice, to preserve the fisii he expected to catch. When the schooner was within a few yards of the berg, the anchor was dropped. The vessel swung around until she came alongside the berg, to which she was made fast with lines. The tide was at the full; a gangplank was thrown over to a ledge in the ice, and the men began breaking off chunks of ice and hoisting them aboard. All went well until evening, wfien thirty tons of ice had been stowed in the hold. Meanwhile the falling tide had caused the berg to settle upon the reef, and to tip toward the side opposite the vessel. The gangplank rose in the air, and had to he made fast to a ledge nearer the water to keep it horizontal. Captain Chester, suspecting that all was not going to be well, ordered the crew to make sail. Before they could man the halyards, the iceberg, with a grinding roar, rolled off the reef and started to turn over. A jagged spur of ice, which had formed the bottom of the berg, arose on the starboard side of the vessil and beneath it. The ice struck the keel, and the vessel, lifted out of the water, rested in an ice cradle. Chester or dered his men to get into the boats and out of harm's way. Cutting the lines that held the schooner to the berg, the men pulled to a safo distance and waited. The anchor held fast, and the Bcho.oner tugged at the chain. The tide dropped a few more inches, the iceberg careened still farther, and the Elwood rose higher. This proved the schooner's salvation. The tendency of the iceberg to roll over and raise the vessel brought such an enormous strain upon the anchor chain that something had to give way. Something did, and to the joy of the fishermen, it was not-the anchor or the chain. The iceberg lurched, and the schooner was seen to slide several feet along the crevice in which it rested. There was another lurch and another slide. Then the vessel reached a down ward grade, and the next instant shot off the iceberg and into the sea, bows on, like a rocket. She shipped a heavy sea, as the re sult of plunging her nose beneath the nirface, but quickly righted, and after stumbling over her anchor chain and tugging viciously to get away, settled down to her original state of tranquil ity, to all appearances unhurt. Sleeping With Snake. While on a prospecting expedition in Western Australia a few months ago. my mate and myself had a rather strange experience. We had thrown ourselves down on the sand to sleep one evening after a hard days' travel. 1 awoke in the middle of the night with a start—some very cold object seemed to he moving under my trousers below the knee. "Keep your feet off me, Boh," I cried to my mate. Boh rolled over lazily, and by the dim starlight 1 could see his feet about a yard away from hut still the numbing sensation continued in my leg. . I put my hand to the place cautiously, and felt a snake's coils un derneath my khakis. 1 quickly explained the matter to Boh. He was a man of much ex perience. "Keep quite still," he said, and he got up and kicked our camp fire into flames. Then he brought a shovel ful of burning embers aud laid them beside my leg. The heat was almost unbearable. About a minute passed, and then I felt a movement in the snake. "It's coming," said Boh. I strained my neck and looked. The coils of a black snake were slowly unwinding out of my trouser leg; a few minutes more and my unwelcome visitor lay coiled in a heap beside my foot. I dared not make a movement. I saw heads of perspiration on poor Bob's face. "I'll shoot It," he said, and, drawing his revolver, fired. "You're all right now," he said, with a sigh of relief. He had blown the head clean off. The snake measured four feet six inches. Sailor's Pitiful Death. A dispatch from San Francisco says: "On Unimak Island, which guards one of the entrances to the Bering Sea, a rude mound of rocks marks the last resting place of Charles William An derson. sailor, fisherman and hunter. "Anderson starved to death on the bleak and barren island, waiting for friends who deserted him. He died on June 39, 3599, and his skeleton in his hunk and his diary beside it were found by two hunters who were driven on the island during a storm. "Several vessels passed by his island prison, the pathetic record reads, hut none saw Anderson's flag of distress. Once a vessel was becalmed close to the shore, and he tried to reach it, but he had not the strength left to launch his little boat.. His legs had failed him, and he could only pull himself along by his elbows. "He deliberated on shooting his dog, Dempsey, hut he could not get up enough courage to slay his faithful friend. 'He brought seals to me through the breakers,' Anderson wrote, 'and 1 fed him as long as I could.' Finally the dog disappeared. "The diary records the terrible suf ferings of Anderson from thirst and his expeditions after fresh water. The last entry says: " 'June 19—Now I must go for wateT again. I am more afraid this time than before. But with God's help I come back again. I would not like to die outside, hut God's will he | done.' "He had liis wish, for he returned ! and died in his bunk." In ICxrlmngo For Fork. I Many years ago the United States j ship Jason went cruising in search of British merchantmen. One of her crew kept a private log of the voyage, and the journal has happily come down to us. Here is an entry made one sum mer's day: The ship's company had had pork served out to them, and thirty-two pieces were hung over the ship's side to soak overnight. The next morning a man went to his rope, and on pulling it up, found the rope bitten and the pork gone. Every man ran to his rope, and all were found bitten in the same way. They went aft. and looking over the taffrail saw a shark under the stern. Our captain came on deck and ordered the boatswain to bring him a shark hook. He baited it with three pounds of pork. The shark took hold of the bait and hooked himself. We made the chain fast to the main brace, and when we | got him half way up he slappod his j tail and stove in four panes of the cabin windows. We got a bit of rope I round his tail and pulled him aboard, j but when he found himself on deck he I drove the man from the helm and broke two spokes of the wheel. Then the carpenter took an axe and ; struck him on the neck, which cut his head nearly off, the boatswain tickling ! the shark under the belly with a hand spike to keep his eyes off the carpenter. When lie had nearly bled to death, the carpenter gave him another blow, which severed the head from the body. Our captain then ordered the stew ard to give the ship's company two • casks of butter, and the cook to prepare | the shark for the people's dinner. He was eleven and a half feet long. The Skipper and the Day. Captain F. Dominlck of a fishing smack, hud a fierce light with an American whip sting ray near the Charleston (S. C.) lightship the other afternoon. So far as the local fisher men are able to say this is the first lisli of the kind ever seeu around the waters of Charleston, and being un known to Dominlck he was naturally in bad fighting shape before the sea monster was finally killed. The ray had a wire-like tail five feet long, and when t his went slashing through the air and descended with mighty force on the hack of the captain lie was more alarmed than lie cared to he, and it was any man's game until the tail was finally cut off with a knife. Captain Dominlck says he was fish ing in quiet waters and his lines were hanging loosely from his boat. Sud denly there was a vicious pull at the line and the whip stinger, weighing 125 pounds, came to the surface. The fish fought to get away, and some of ids Hint teeth were broken in tlic scramble. The tail began whipping the air as soon as it came from the water, and Captain Dominlck had to throw his hands to his face to keep from having it lacerated. Fortunate ly a big knife was lying open in the boat, and with one cut the tail was severed. This somewhat subdued tlio fish and in a short time Captain Doin inick had it under control. The captain says he had never seen a living specimen of the whip sting ray before, and lie was not prepared for the onslaught from the monster's tail. Farther up the coast these mem bers of the piscatorial tribe are not uncommon, but tliey are rare here about.—Atlanta Constitution. lllHkcd Life For llushand. Charles ltota, a well known rancher living near San Lorenzo, undoubtedly , owes liis life to the heroism displayed j the other day by his wife. In his j herd was a hull known to he extremely ferocious, and Rota lias heretofore al ways exercised the greatest precau- ' tion on every occasion when lie ap proached the bull. On the occasion referred to Rota went into the corral to feed the animal, and while off liis guard the hull suddenly attacked him with his horns, ripping a deep and ugly gash on the rancher's loft thigh and fearfully lacerating his face. The man's agonizing screams attracted his wife's attention, and she hurried to the rescue. Climbing into the corral, she began beating the bull with a heavy club. Suddenly the animal wheeled about and directed his attack upon her. Rota, though very much exhausted, grabbed the club liis wife had wielded and smoto the hull one more blow which seemed to stun the animal for a few moments, and during the brief Interim man and wife reached a place of safety, where they both sank to the ground, completely exhnusted from exertion and loss of blood. The brave woman, who had so heroically risked her life for that of her husband, sus tained a deep gash ou the neck.—ChU cago Chronicle. Knew How to Fall, At Womelsdorf, Penn., Henry Moyer was painting the roof of a house, when he fell forty feet to the ground. He was unhurt and in a few minutes was again at work. "You must know how to fall, and not lose your presence of mind," he remarked to a bystander. Moyer was formerly an acrobat—Phil adelphia Ledger. The average depth of Russian pe troleum ivells is a little over 900 feet CASH FOR DEAD TRAIN ROBBERS. The Burlington ami MIMHOUVI Computi? j Offers JBIOOO Apiece For Them. A reward of SI,OOO ig offered by the Burlington & Missouri Railroad Com pany foi the capture or killing of a j train robber or for the frustration of j a robbery. The orders were issued last Tuesday from the Omaha headquarters of the company's lines west of the Mis j souri River. j The reward is specially intended for i employees of th 9 company, but may be | earned by anybody at all. Heretofore j an employee was not necessarily re- j warded for frustrating a train robbery or aiding in the capture or killing of a robber, and, naturally, the employees didn't take the chances which, it is be- j I lieved, they would take otherwise. It ! I was considered part of an employee's I business to protect the company's prop erty. The recent robbery of trains running west of the Missouri River was the cause of the offer of reward by the Bur lington. A half dozen train robberies have occurred within the last two months, and the Burlington has taken the initiative in guarding against the j robbery of its trains. The robbery of the passengers in the Burlington sleep ers near Brush a few weeks ago, too, Impelled General Manager Holdrege of the Burlington to offer an inducement! to the employees to thwart train rob bers. This last condition was suggest ed by the heroism of Ray Miller, the brakeman on the Denver & Rio Grande, who smashed a would-be robber over the head with his lantern, knocking him oft the platform. ' Trainmen said the Burlington's new order would have the effect of spurring the trainmen to action. Every one of them on trains running into Denver has bought a revolver. Several of the conductors and braltemen who have had their own special lanterns have gone back to the heavy lantern fur nished by the company. The notice of the offer of reward has been posted in the yard offices and other places where conductors, brake men and others interested may see it. It is said that other roads will follow the example of the Burlington.—Den ver Republican. WISE WORDS. There is no policy like politeness.- Magoon. The best hearts are always the brav est. —Stern. One to-day is worth two to-morrows. —Franklin. Faithfulness is the soul of goodness. —J. S. White. Every noble work is at first impos sible. —Carlyle. Conduct is three-fourths of life; — Matthew Arnold. An honest man is the noblest work of God. —Pope. Nothing is so contagious as ei*- thusiasm. —Bulwer. Truth needs no color, beauty no pen cil. —Shakespeare. In noble souls, valor does not wait for years.—Corneille. Humility is the true cure for many a needless heartache. —Montague. To give up interest for duty is the alphabet of morals.—James Hinton. Whilst we are considering where to begin it is often too late to act.—Quin tilian. j Our greatest glory is not in never j failing, but in rising every time we fail. —Goldsmith. The value of conscientiousness is principally seen in the benefits of civi lization. —Charles Kingsley. The " Freedom of the city." The "freedom of the city" means an Immunity from taxes and lite allow ance of certain privileges, granted to distinguished personages. It has long been in vogue in the Britsli metropolis, and is conveyed as a mark of honor to noted visitors. When any person is presented with the freedom of the city of London he receives a parch ment slip, on which are written his name and titles, and it guarantees to the holder and his descendants forever the right to live within the city with out having to pay any tax on their goods, as they are "brought through the gates." It likewise exempts the holder from military and naval service I and tolls and duties throughou the United Kingdom, and insures ids chil dren the care of the City Chamberlain, who, in case they are left orphans, j will take charge of their property and j administer it in their interest during t their nonage. Mutual Forbearance. The house will he kept iu turmoil where there is 110 toleration of mis takes, no lenity shown to failings, no meek submission to injuries, no soft answer to turn away wrath. If you ! ' lay a single stick of wood iu the grate ! and apply fire to it, it will go out; put on another stick and they will burn, and half a dozen, and you will have an effective blaze. There are other fires subject to the same coitdi- j tion. If one member of a family gets I into a passion and is left alone, he will j cool down, and possible be ashamed 1 and repent. But oppose temper to ! ' temper, let one harsh answer he fol- ' lowed by another, and there will soon be a blaze which will enwrap them all j in its burning heat. Eavlteßt Eruption or Vesuvius. Tile earliest eruption ol' Vesuvius on I record, and one of the most fatal, took j place in the year 70 A. D„ being the 1 first year of the reign of the Emperor! Titus. All the southern part of Italy was alarmed by Its violence, and [ Campania, as the adjoining district is i called, was devastated to a great dis-! tance. On this occasion the cities of v Herculan&um and Pompeii were over- t whelmed and destroys and the great- t er part of their inhabitants killed. j t INDIAN BUILT A ItOAI). ONLY MEMBER OF RACE WHO | ROSE TO SUCH DISTINCTION. 1 MathiaK Kplltlosr Till* Shrfwd but. TTlltfir ato ICedKkln—Lino Was Constructed to Develop "Salted" Cold Mine—Ked Man * | Money Hidden In Missouri. j An Indian whoso name Is familiar In portions of Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas j and the Indian territory and who en- ' | joyed the distinction of having built a railway line which has grown to be | one of the most important in the mid j die west was Mathias Splitlog, whose : death occurred a short time since. Splitlog was born in Canada in 1810, and was of French and Indian descent. He was brought up in the woods of the far North and was unable to read or write, but he could count money like a banker and was shrewd at driving a I bargain. Like most Indians, he was reticent,, cautious and suspicious. I Although without schooling or me i chanlcal training, Splitlog was a nat ural mechanical genius, and to that he was indebted for his start in life. He had built a ferryboat at Windsor, Can | ada, in the early '4os, and ran a ferry between Windsor and Detroit. He had also built a sawmill there and dis played other indications that caused the United States government to no ' tice him, and he was seiected as a suit able man to go to the Wyandotte In dian reservation in Kansas to build houses for the Wyandottes. After completing his work among the Wyandottes, Splitlog moved to the Seneca Indian nation, close by, and built a gristmill and sawmill there. His counsel and energies were so highly appreciated by the Senecas that they adopted him as one of their tribe and he married a Seneca woman. A few years later he became chief of the Senecas. When, in 1866, Splitlog conceived the mine proved a failure and the old wealthy man. He bought an alleged rich gold mine and it was with the idea of bringing his gold fields in touch with the large cities that he started his line. In 1887 thirty-five miles of railroad had been put into operation, or under way, and Splitlog had put $265,000 into his scheme. But his troubles began to grow, and finally he was compelled to sell out. His gold mine proved a failure and the old HBSMWM/ nt - '"remrais:* \ ■—■ \ -ffIMOLS LABOR LHMR-. |j John Burns, who was recently re elected to the British parliament by a London district, is one of the best known labor leaders in the world. As a municipal statesman and parliamen tarian he has also gained fame. He Is to the working people today what John Bright was to the commercial classes some forty or fifty years ago. John Burns has had a stormy career. Many times has he been arrested and put into prison for taking part in strike riots, but the powerful speeches which he made at the trials secured his acquittal with his colleagues. As a member of the London county coun cil he has accomplished wonders. The local authority works its men only eight hours a day, and insists that all contractors it employs for building, etc., shall do the same. Besides re ducing the hours of labor in London from sixty-eight per week to fifty-four, the wages have been increased. All men receive ten days' holiday in the summer and six general holidays. They receive medical attendance and j M OLD fMJMM. | In an old, log church, built In 1775 and now standing In the edge of Cata- A CHURCH YVI I'll \ ;•>>;,; i 1 : \\ .)R SHIPI3R. wissa, Northumberland county, Pa., there Is one lone worshiiper to keep up the spiritual Quaker flta that once blazed on Its altar. chief lost considerable of his weaJtll. I In 1890 the road passed out of his con- j trol. It was pushed through to the gulf and almost to the great lakes by the new owners and proved a paying venture. Splitlog had many peculiarities, but was always thoughtful, considerate and charitable, and may bo classed as one of the most remarkable of Indians. , Upon his death he left over 8100,000. ! i HAVE NO RELIGION. Several Nations Have Not tlie blielittit Vestige of Creeds. The savage's conception of religion . is very different to that of the civil- j ized man, and the lower orders of savages are exceedingly shy with i white men on this subject, hence Max Muller may have been right when he said that wherever there is human life there is religion. At the same time the evidence of many noted travelers and keen ob servers goes to show that there are tribes in existence which ap- j pear to have no conception of religion in the usual acceptance of the term, i Among these may be termed the Pig mies of the Aruwimi forest, the Bush- t men of South Afria, the Veddahs of i Ceylon, the Fuegans (in which Dar- l win was unable to discover any trace of religion), the Indians of the Gran Chaco in South America and some In dians in California. In former times many of the south sea islanders had no religion, but have since become j Christians. It is also said that those ; extraordinary people, the gypsies, 1 have no definite conception of religion, j At the same time it should be remem- j bered that if the word "religion" is i held to cover belief in good and evil 1 spirits, witchcraft, and so on, then it is apparently universal. He's It. "Our town," said a man from Lam bertville, N. J., "boasts of being the residence of the original fellow who 1 doesn't know enough to come in out of the rain. I'll tell you how it was. This young man is employed in the Penn sylvania railroad shops, and the other day he was sent to Phillipsburg to re pair the roof on the station, and give it a coat of paint. After he had been at work an hour or so a heavy rain be gan to fall and the following telegram j was received by the foreman at the shops: 'I am on the roof and it is j raining; shall I stay up or come . down?' You can imagine there was , considerable sport at the fellow's ex- i pense when he came back in the eve- | nlng." Shoeing a Horse In China. In China the shoeing of horses is a i very different process from that em- ; ployed by ail American blacksmith. 1 The Chinese leads the horse up to a ! framework composed of two post 3 and j a horizontal beam. Then with a long j pole attached to the horse's head he ! runs around the other post and thus ■ binds him between the two. The rope j is then brought around the body and ( over the beam to Which both body and head are firmly secured, and the horse is thus unable to move tideways or lie down. The smith then puts a small stool under the foot to 196 shod j and thus trims the foot and dVlves the shoe. sick pay, and a large number of them 1 are provided with free quarters, coal and gas. The council has built a num ' I her of cottages to accommodate them near the public works, and provided a ' dining room where they may take ■ their meals in the middle of the day. ! > Mrs. Mary Emma 'Walker is a • . granddaughter of one of the austera charter members of the church. She ' sits on one of the original benches i and looks upon the crude furnishings | of the church, which are almost as well preserved as if a caretaker had been in charge of the building. Her prayers are silent Quaker prayers and no one disturbs her. Down the center of the building is the partition which ' served to separate the sexes in meet- ! ing. The straight-back pews are as uncomfortable as ever. Outside are the dead of 100 years ago; Inside on - each seventh day only is there life. When it is gone the town of Catawlssa , may preserve at least the temporal church. I SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL. i Experiments have for some time been made in England with smokeless coal. This peculiar fuel may be burned either in an ordinary grate or in a ! basin in the middle of the room with- I out developing any perceptible odor or ; smoke at any time. The Are looks like the finest coal fire, and the flame is j white and blue. | The velocity of propagation of elec ! tro-magnetic waves through space is about that of light—lß6,ooo miles per second. Telegraphic signals have a j greatly diminished speed, due to static capacity and self-induction. A test be tween Washington and St. Louie showed a rate of sixteen thousand miles per second. M. Moissan, the celebrated French chemist, whose researches with the electric furnaces have made his name so well known in the scientific world, believes that before long he will be able to produce pure iron, which as yet only exists in the brains of the elec tro-chemists. This substance, when ob tained by M. Moissan, will be found to be as white as silver, flexible, and strong, and will be a magnificent ma- I terial for bridge and other construc ' tion. Professor Picket, of Geneva, has de vised a plan by which oxygen can be produced In a commercial way, and at a cost that will greatly enhance its use. By his method air is admitted into a condenser, the condenser being j cooled by liquid air. The low tem- I perature causes the oxygen to separate by gravity from the nitrogen of the air. It is then drawn off from the bot tom of the codenser and the nitrogen from the top, while the liquid carbonic acid—made so by the low temperature —is drawn into tubes. As a 600 horse power engine will make 500,000 feet of oxygen a day, it seems that the process is not expensive. I N. Alvisi, in the Gazzetta Chemica Italians, describes a new powder, I which he calls canned powder. It con ! sists of a mixture of sixty parts of ! pcrchlorate of ammonium, with twelve j parts of cannel coal from Scotia. The I method of making the new powder is 1 very simple. The finely divided ear [ boil is intimately mixed with the per | chlorate cf ammonium in an apparatus I to which a gyratory movement can be imparted. The mass obtained is slight ly moistened with water containing a j small quantity of gum. It is then i compressed and granulated like or ' dinary blasting powder. Samples of 1 the powder kept for seven months have | shown no alteration. It is said to be j more powerful than dynamite. | As the utility of gargling in diseases J of the throat has been questioned by ! several physicians of prominence in Europe, a series of experiments were i recently made by Dr. Sanger, and are j described in a Munich medical journal. : The therapeutic utility of gargling de pends on whether the fluid employed | reaches the mucous membrane of the I pharynx and the tonsils or not. To determine this fact, the tonsils of a patient were painted with methylene blue, and ho then was told to gargle with plain water. The water ejected ; from the mouth was found to be quite colorless, and the tonsils still retained | their blue appearance. In other experi -1 mebts, the velum, a portion of the | tongue, and the tonsils were dusted i with wheat flour, and a gargle given the patient in which iodine was mixed with glycerine. It was found that the velum and the tongue showed the blue color of the reaction on the starch, but the flour on the tonsils was neither col j ored nor washed away. Dr. Sanger be ' lieves that gargling is useless, and when a local treatment is desired a swab of cotton wool should be em ployed. Icelandic II iiiesty. To the average render Iceland is as little known as the interior of Africa. Yet Iceland is a famous country, fa mous for the achievements of its he roes, for the poetry and prose it has given the world, and, nhoxc all, for the education that pervades all classes. The love of learning is almost a ma j nia In Iceland, and it is the rarest ' thing in the world to meet a native who cannot read and write. Another admirable trait Is the re markable honesty which prevails in Iceland. Crime is almost unknown; I the people never lock their doors, and but two eases of thieving are known to have taken place within many years. One war an Icelander who had bro i Icon his arm, and whose family in the i winter were suffering for food. He , was at once put under medical care j for his injury, ntul in time he was i given work. This was ills punishment, i The other case was a German who : stole seventeen slicep. lie was in com fortable circumstances, and the theft was malicious. Ilis punishment was to sell ail his property, restore the value of his thefts and leave the coun try or be executed, lie left at once. T.omlon Children Taught to Swim. ' A few years ago it was rare to meet , with a native of London wno could swim, but this condition of things is rapidly changing. In connection with nil hoard schools are swimming clubs, and once a week, at least, both lads and lasses are taken to one of the ad jacent swimming baths and taught the art of natation. In the St. Bride's Institute swimming is taught as one of the subjects, and there are no less than 7UO who go steadily through Iho course during the session. Nearly half of this number are females, most ly engaged in the postoffioe, and among them are many export swimmers. Up the Thames, too, between Teddingtou and Windsor, from the houseboats and riverside residences, swimming is con stantly indulged in by both sexes.— Newcastle (Eng.) Chronicle,
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers