FRtELIKI) TRIBUNE. KSTAHI.ISIIKn IBSB. PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY, WEDNESDAY AND FRIDAY, BY THE TRIBUNE PRINTING COMPANY, Limited OFFICE; MAIN STHKET ABOVE CENTRE, LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONE. SUBSCRIPTION* KATE* FREELAND.—The TRIBUNE is delivered by j carriers to subscribers in Fi*oo}and at the rate , of l'2\& cents per month, payable every two j months, or $1.50 a year, payable in advance- The TRIBUNE may bo ordered direct form the carriers or from the office. Complaints of Irregular or tardy delivery service will re ceive prompt attention. BY MAIL —The TRIBUNE is sent to out-of town subscribers for $1.5 ) a year, payable in advance; pro rata terms for shorter periods. The date when the subscription expires is on the address label of each paper. Prompt re newals must bo made at the expiration, other wise the subscription will be discontinued. Entered at the Postofflce at Freeland. Pa* as Second-Class Matter. Make all money orders, cheeks, etc.,payable to the Tribune Printing Company, Limited. A California paper says that the men who live on the ranges are notable for their remarkable retentive memo ries. Great Britain must now begin to face a period of declining trade. Iler revenues are falling behind what was expected. Former Secretary of State Sherman Is said to have died of simple old age. In spite of an extraordinary busy car eer, with its incidental mental strain, he is said to have had no distinctly organic disease. The end was simply a general stoppage of the entire vital machinery. A traveler reports Honduras as a curious mixture of jungle and gigan tic forest, of cocoa and of rubber trees, of bugs, vampires, snakes and crocodiles—of all manner of things that creep and crawl and sting and bite. Here, in every hamlet and city, are to be found men from different lands, mostly outlaws from their own country. Chicago, Boston, New York City ajid Philadelphia all furnish their quota. England, France, Italy, and even faraway Russia have their share. How quickly the huge herds of buf falo on the American plains were swept from the face of the earth! A recent careful count by a competent person places the whole number of animals of the kind living today at e/.ly 1024. Dr. William T. Hornaday says in his book concerning the buffa lo that it would have been as easy to count the number of leaves in a forest as to calculate the number of buffaloes living at any given time during the history of the species prev ious to 1870. The tramp question in the United Btates lias been a most serious one iver since the introduction of ra.l roads. It Is estimated that no less than 10,000 are carried nightly on trains, and that 10,000 are waiting to steal a ride at the same time. One of the leading railroads has tak°n a firm stand in the matter, and lias equipped a special police force for the purpose of preventing trespassing. Some of the farmers, however, do not approve of this action, as they obtain much of their extra help in harvest times from the drifting population. There are valuable products In Al aska other than the mincruls. F, A. WaJpole, a special agent of the de partment of agriculture, lias found there an Immense growth of many kinds of woods which will make valu able timber. The principal trees lie found were two varieties of spruce, two of hemlock, and one each of pine and cedar. There is a groat deal of spruce. The pine as a rule is not of much value. It is rather small and grows in the marshes and bogs. The cedar is the most valuable wood to be found in southern Alaska. It grows in great abundance along the coast, and is called there the yellow cedar, but is known in all parts of the country as the Alaska cedar. There is some red cedar and it is very large. There is a good growth to fcr iPtind about Wrangel. The yeller*, cedar is good principally for making moth-proof boxes and such like arti cles, and is especially valuable for in terior finishing and the inatmfucture of furniture. Half-size pianos are being made !n Germany for the use of children who are learning to play. Doctors declare that much permanent iniurv is done to ihe muscles of the fingers by endeavoring to stretch an octave or more, so the r.ew pianos are made with keys half th< usual width in crdcr to prevent such in jury. A factory for liquid air is being erected at Los Angeles, Cal., for refrig erating purposes. | AN ARIZONA GHOST STORY. A strange-looking little Arizona newspaper, in a wayworn wrapper, came with my mail a few mornings ugo, and when 1 opened it, wondering why it had been sent to me and by whom, iuy eye presently fell 011 a blue penciled paragraph: "Marshal Catlip and posse got back late last evening. They had a lively chase—and there is one bad man the less. It won't cost this town anything to try him. Dive Trancliard needed a change. He was too fond of horse llesli—other people's." Probably Arizonians understood that paragraph perfectly at first sight, and it intimated even to a slow New Eng lander that "Dive Trancliard" had been sternly punished. "Dive Trancliard!" Something in the name set the chords of memory vaguely vibrating all day, and when I waked next morning, the full, fa miliar name laid come to me out of the past—Dives Trancliard! It must be he —the "queer boy" of the school where I flrst began as a teacher in Kennebec county, Maine, 20 years ago. I was then only 18 years old, and the school agent who hired me and the good minister-member of the school board who gave nie my "certificate" said that 1 might "pull through" If I could manage Dives Trancliard. In the schoolroom, Dives did not ap pear formidable at first view, but I was not long in discovering the fer tility of ids mischievous ingenuity. The wits of the average schoolmaster could not possibly keep pace with the swift trickiness in which he indulged himself. He was n somewhat sedate and dis tinguished looking youngster, with a clear-cut, refined face, and the incon sistency between his countenance and his conduct was such that I never was able to feel, during the whole time he was my pupil, that 1 quite understood him. Dives was an orphan, who, while still very young, bad been adopted by the storekeeper of the place, Mr. Mul lia 11. His father had been a very Intem perate and blasphemous man, whose dearest delight had been to rail at the Scriptures. In profane bravado he had named his three sons Judas, To phet and Dives. The two former had died of croup while very young, and Dives, or "Dive," as he was generally called, was the sole survivor of the family. Naturally, a teacher only 18 years old could not hope to assume the role of moral adviser to a youth of 17 with entire success. When I attempted it with Dives, he grinned in my face, and the effort end ed in a rough-and-tumble fight over the schoolliouso floor. In this conflict I es tablished a kind of doubtful suzer ainty over liira, and afterward main tained It with a bold front, but Ihe issue was always in some little doubt. What the outcome would have been is far from certain. I have a feeling that Dives would have been too much for me, in time, had our relations as pupil and pedagogue continued long. But they lasted only throe weeks. On the flrst day of January he ran away, In consequence of n curious prank. District Number Eleven was the only place whore I ever saw what was be lieved to be a ghost. The people there were not superstitious, but I found that many of tlicm had seen an ap parition that they could not account for. It had been seen three times the previous winter and once late in No vember, a few days before I arrived. More than 20 persons admitted that they had seen it during snow-storms, but all made light of it; the people were not ignorant, and the apparition puzzled them much more than it frightened them. The mysterious tiling, whatever it was, had always been seen at night, and seemed to be a kind of phantom on horseback, an equestrian ghost, so as to speak. It had been discerned passing at great speed, but the hoofs no noise, and it looked thin, or white, and was hardly distinguishable in out line amidst the falling snowflakes. That was about nil I could leant re garding the phantom; and as the repre sentative of education, I set myself to discountenance belief in the spectre. My theories were received with re spect the only difficulty In the way of their entire aceeptar.ee was that num bers of those who listened to me had really seen the ghost. It was a place where the people re tained many of the old customs of an cestral Puritan England, among others that "of watch-night," or watching the old year out and the new year in, on the night of December .11 st. It was announced at the meeting-house the previous Sunday that there would be a watch-night the following Saturday evening, to last half past twelve, New Year's morning. There would he sing ing and prayers, but it was not to he an exclusively religious ceremony. Conversation and even story-telling would be allowed. At the watch-night meeting there were 30 or 35 people, old and young, Including the Methodist minister, Mr. Reeves, who had been settled there bu? a few months, a very young man, with whom I had already become inti mate. lie was companionable, robust and Jolly, a youth who still enjoyed snow balling, for instance. After school, when I passed the house where he lived, he usually dashed out, fresh from liis theological studies, and we would go at a brisk trot for a mile to gether along the road to the post-office and back. The early hours of the watch-meeting passed agreeably. We had all gath- i red about the meeting-house stove, for the night was cloudy and bleak, and after the usual hymn and opening exercises, we amused ourselves by re lating our "good resolves" for the New Year. Many of these were admirable and some very humorous. Mr. Smith, the little shoemaker of the place, whose wife was very large and strong and active, rose to say, with a twinkle in his eye, that lie had sadly neglected his duty for the past twelve months, Imt had now firmly resolved to beat Mrs. Smith more frequently during the year to come, to which Mrs. Smith responded with a breezy laugh, "I'd like to see you begin!" At about 11 o'clock one of the boys, who had been to the outer door, returned to say that it was snowing fast and thick, and Indeed, we could faintly hear tlie ley Hakes driving against the window-panes. One of the young ladies was playing, on the or gan, the accompaniment to a hymn which many of the older people were singing. Young Mr. Reeves sat near me, with a quiet smile on his face, pondering, as I fancied, something which ho meant to say after the music. Sud denly I felt him start, and glanced at his face. His eyes were bent on some object, but he turned at once. "Don't look!" he whispered to mo. <4 I have seen that ghost. It is outside, looking in at the opposite window. Wait a bit, then cast your eye in that direction." I did so, and saw as distinctly as I ever saw anything, a long, white aw ful face looking in! Much to my con sternation, it moved, and appeared to nod several times. "Don't seem to notice it!" Mr. Reeves whispered. "Sit quiet a mo ment. When the profile move back from the organ, we will steal out and see what we can discover." Recovering myself In a moment I stepped quietly to the door, and a few moments later was joined by Mr. Reeves in the dark entry. We took our hats, and then, without waiting lo put on our overcoats, opened the door carefully. Snow was falling fast and drove in our faces; several inches had fallen: but we dashed out, doubled the corner of the house and hurried toward the window. A great, dim, indistinct object was standing there which appeared to melt away suddenly, with but the softest possible sound. It disappeared round the other corner of the house. With out speaking, we ran after it. We could hardly see anything on ac count of the driving snow and dark ness, yet we again discerned, dimly, the great. Indistinct object moving to ward the highway. I confess 1 felt a Rhivery sensation, for the spectral appearance made hardly an audible sound; but I dashed on, side by side with Mr. Reeves. We were good runners, and made a dash to catch the thing. In the road, a few hundred feet from the church, we came so near at one time that I reached out my hand In hope to lay hold of the apparition, but it glided away only the faster and I did not suc ceed. And now we both heard a kind of regular muffled noise, as of great feet falling softly: and these audible evi dences of physical substance stimulat ed us to continue the chase. "Run it down!" Mr. Reeves said. In a low voice, and I settled myself to keep pace with him. The snow hindered us little, hut not withstanding our efforts the effigy drew away from us. We had lost sight of it when we ran past the house of Mr. Mulhnll, the storekeeper, but in the very moment of passing, we heard the largo door of the stable creaking. This, at that hour of the night, seemed so strange that we both stopped short and turned back. Entering the yard, we approached the stable door, but found it closed. There were slight noises inside, how ever. and soon a gleamed through the crack of the door, and a lantern was lighted. To our astonishment, we now per ceived that the person inside wns Dives Trnnehnrd, clad in a white gar ment and white cap, and that he was untying what looked like snowy bags from the feet of Mulhall's old white mare. Having taken off these mufflers, Dives next proceeded to withdraw a large, white, bonnet-like structure from the mare's head. When these singular trappings were removed, he put the beast In her stall, stripped off his own white garment and cap, and made the whole outfit into a bundle. Then lie' extinguished the lantern, left the stable by a side door, and went to the house, which he entered cautiously by a door In the ren r. My first impulse had been to seize him when he came out and compel him to confess to the prank; but as he emerged from the stable, Mr. Reeves whispered. "Walt! Don't say any thing to him. Don't let him know yet we have caught him!" We therefore stood aside In the dark ness and allowed him to go to the house unmolested, and then, hastening back to the meeting-house, joined the people there. Our absence had been hardly noticed. At 8 o'clock the next morning, after Dives had gone to the school house, we called at MulhaU's store and told the astonished storekeeper what we had seen. He did not at first be lieve us, and was Inclined to resent tlie ctfarge against his foster-son. At last, when Mr. Iteeves said that ho might perhaps be convinced by be ing allowed to examine the room where Dives slept, Mulliall led the way up-stalrs. lt was a large, open room, with many old chests, boxes and cuddles, and a very brief search disclosed the bundle which we had seen Dives bring from the stable the previous evening. It contained not only his white shirt and cap and the gunny bags, with which he muffled the mare's hoofs, but a curious padded contrivance of white cloth and wire to tie on her head. Tlie front of it was drawn to repro-. sent 11 human face, with holes for the horse's eyes. It was this nodding white face which we had seen at the window. Farther search in the chamber re vealed other things; plunder of many kinds; goods and trinkets from the store; not less than 50 letters, appar ently stolen from tlie post-office; four bridles; 15 silver spoons; a bunch of articles which Dives could not have come by honestly. By this time Mulhnll. n rather simple man, was abusing his foster-son vig orously a thl f and wished to go at once with us to the sclioolhouse and denounce him. Mr. Hooves persuaded him to say nothing till evening, and wo arranged to call at the house that night and en deavor to get the truth of the matter from Dives himself. But before noon that day the youth had, in some way. learned or guessed that his thefts were discovered. He did notreturn to theschoolhouse in the a fternoou. He had run away, and I never heard of him afterward until I saw his name in the Arizona newspapers.—Youth's Companion. QUAINT AND CURIOUS. A Chinese woman's shoe Is often only three inches long. Naturally the Chinese lady does little walking, and when she does get about she leans con stantly 011 her maid. A marble statue of Apollo, with the head in a fine state of preservation, has recently been unearthed near Ath ens. Its workmanship shows that it belongs to the llfth century B. C. When a rich Chinaman is so 111 that he is likely to soon shuttle off this mortal coil, his thoughtful relatives hurry him off to an undertaker's, where he may rest his dying eyes 011 the eoflin that is to contain his bones. This is to save time and trouble. Numerous droves of cattle, each beast with smoke tinted spectacles fixed over Its eyes, are in winter seen ranging the snowcovored plains of Russia. The glare of sunlight on the snow causes blindness, hence the re sort to spectacles to protect the eye sight of the cattle as they pluck the grass which sprouts through the earth's white mantle. What Is the record price for a single flower? From Australia comes an answer to the query. A princess was president of a music exhibition on which a loss had been made. She ac cordingly organized a flower show, at which ladies of rank, including the princess, had stalls. One of her cus tomers was the wealthy ltaroness Reinelt of Trieste, who, in choosing a pink, asked: "How much may I pay for this flower?" "You, Baron ess, may in your generosity fix the limit." "How much is wanted for the music exhibition?" Forty thou sand pounds." "I will give that for the pink," said the baroness. A curious fight took place a short time ago on the south branch of the Potomac. John Fisher, of ltonmey, W. Va., caught a 40 pound turtle. Just as he landed it, the hook broke, and the turtle chased him all around the boat. The fight lasted 10 minutes, Fisher defending himself with a pad dle, when the turtle at last turned tall and flopped into the water. A ParH<llf*e For Splimtrr*. Queensland has been not inaptly de scribed as a paradise for spinsters. The last census taken there showed 75,000 more single men than single n'onien, and the efforts of the colonial govern ment in the way of emigration are now chiefly devoted to making up the de ficiency. Indeed, Sir Horace Tozer, the agent general for Queensland, may claim to be one of the busiest matrimo nial agents in the world, for he is send ing out large numbers of single women to that colony, and it is said that the objection entertained by the working men of Australia to free or assisted emigration does not extend (otlie class exported by him, so long as he is care ful to select them young and tolerably good looking. It is evident that the agent and his assistants must possess unusual powers of discrimination with regard to picking out attractive emi grants, for it appears that about 50 per cent, of the women marry within two years after thelrarrival In Queens land. When we are told that servants are always In demand In the Austra lian colonies, that wages average be tween SIOO and S'JOO a year, and that In a* probability witlTln two years do mestic service may be exchanged for matrimony. It is easy to understand why Queensland has been termed "a paradise for spinsters." PEARLS OF THOJGHT. Whore law ends tyranny begins.— William Pitt. Delay always breeds danger.—Mi guel Do Cervantes. I'sunlly we praise only to be praised. —Hoeliefoueauld. Patience is the best remedy for every trouble. —Pla ut us. It matters not how a man dies, but how he lives.—Samuel Johnson. Always act in such away as to se cure the love of your neighbor.—Pliny. Some people are so fond of ill luck that they run half way to meet it.— Douglas Jerrold. Knowledge and timber shouldn't be much used till they are seasoned. — Oliver Wendell Holmes. The winds and the waves are al ways on the side of the ablest naviga tors.—Edward (iihbon. Inconsistencies of opinion arising from changes of circumstances are often justifiable.—Daniel Webster. . Plot out vain pomp; check impulse; quench appetite; keep reason under its own control. Marcus Aurelius. It is always right that a man should be always able to render a reason for the faith that is in him.—Sydney Smith. Dot us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it.— Lincoln. HAPPIEST CLASS OF PEOPLE. Those Tlmt TCr.Joy Life Most Are Ones Whc Have "Neither ltiches nor Poverty," 11l writing of "The Happiest Class of People" in the Woman's Home Com panion, John Gilmer arrives at the fol lowing conclusion: "I have told you who are the unhapplest men, and now it is my pleasant duty to speak of the his petition, 'Give me neither riches nor poverty.' There Is in that, as in happiest state. Solomon indicated it in most of tin* proverbs, both definition and description. Neither riches nor poverty. 1 need say little more. We all know what the alternative is—that middle state where the income safely exceeds the expenditure. Then a man can be happy—ami lie has a good temper and a robust digestion—it does not make much difference what goes on around him. He is safe, and for the time being at least his family is secure. The best thing about this happiest state is that it has within it such a tremendously large class. It is not only a man here and there that be longs within it; the men are legions. •In this country it embraces all of the great middle class. And the very great majority of them do not even know that theirs is the happiest state; they do not dream how well they are off. Some of them, being wrong-headed men, envy their richer neighbors; some others throw away their valuable suf ficiency in the endeavor to get riches; some others get riches, and then are not happy as they were before. Let those who are in this happiest state continue in it if tliey can, for the world at large and the country at home lias great need for them. They constitute the great conservative force—the force which prevents the democratic coun try from going pell-mell to smash; they represent the solid honesty which stands midway between the madness of a too rapid social reform and the insatiable greed of the unscrupulous who look upon the whole world as a goldmine that belongs to them by right of inheritance or purchase. Hap py should be the land where this class is very great; and it is greater in the United States than anywhere else in the world." Cupid and RUN (now. "Miss Florry,"said the traveler, lean ing over- the counter of the village shop, where ids samples were spread out for display, and speaking to the girl behind it in low, eager, passionate tones, "now that old Hunks has gone vo the front to wait on a customer, I may tell you how I have looked for ward for the last 30 days to the time when I should have the happiness of seeing you again, and hearing from your own dear lips that you have not forgotten me—may I not? While I have been on my dreary rounds from town to town, or passing the leaden hours in waiting for trains at little railway stations, the thought of your lovely face has thrilled me to the heart's core. You have been to me the beacon light of hope, the inspiration of every— striped goods like these, Miss Baxter, are worth 21 shillings a dozen. I can't make them a penny less," he said, In a hard businesslike tone. Old Hunks had returned to the back part of the shop.—Tid-Bits. Not Personally. The Antiquarian society of Smith ton was holding its anniversary meet ing, an occasion of much splendor and Importance. A young woman who acted in the ca pacity of society reporter for one of the morning papers of the city, in mak ing her rounds for the purpose of se curing the names of those in attend ance, approached a somewhat elderly hut well-preserved spinster, who was moving ir her stateliest manner amid the throng. "I suppose. Miss Bunhnm," the re porter said, jotting down the name in her note-book, "you are an Antiqua rian V" "I nm n member of the Antiquarian society,"responded Hiss Bunhnra, with great dignity, evidently having an im pression that an "antiquarian," ob jectively considered, was about the same as an antiquity. SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY; j Experiments carried on at the UnT ! Verslty ot Illinois sliow that eonl ! washing removes a considerable per centage of the slate and ash ingredi | eiits and 50 per cent, of the sulphur, I rendering the coal more tit tor gas i making and coking. j An immense dockyard is to 1) - eon ; etructcd at Antwerp to cope with the ] exigencies of the rapidly increasing j shipping trade of that port. | When completed it will cover no less than 07 acres. Tile ! scheme lias received the financial sup j port of flu- most prominent shipping I owners in Germany. It has long been known that there were iron ore deposits east of Biwa- Idk, in the Mcsuhu Range, in Minne- I sota, but owing to their apparent I small size and the large deposits dis j covered to the west, they have been ] neglected, and little prospecting lias been done in this region of late years. Ten or 15 years ago, however, tin- re i jtion was carefully examined by a | number of experts and passed by for | apparently more promising mines. The Minnesota correspondent of tlio j Engineering and Mining Journal now I reports the discovery in this region of | an ore body a mile long and a half j mile wide under hut 50 feet of sur face, and that a large mining eom . pany lias already secured an option, i on the property. I Workmen in steel works are oca slonally poisoned by water-gas. of which carbon monoxide is a large I constituent. A treatment for such cases has been the transfusion of blood, and now In its place M. A. Mos so. In the Comptos Rendu of the Paris Academy of Science, lias suggested that the Victim bo placed in an at mosphere which contains oxygen at considerable pressure. In experiments on two monkeys, poisoned with car bon monoxide, it was found that the one subjected to this treatment, which involved being placed in an atmos phere containing oxygen at a pressure of 30 pounds to the square inch, com pletely recovered in half nil hour, while the other animal, which had been left to its own resources, died. A sawmill run by electricity began operations recently in Oregon and seems to have been successful. The electricity is generated by water power, the water being flumed from a small streum which runs a 50-horse power water-wheel. In connection with which is a dynamo to generate the current to run the mill. Wires are strung from the power-house to the sawmill and are attached to the saws and other machinery of the mill. A feature of the electric sawmill is that the carriage is above the log and car ries two saws, which are so iixt-d as to cut both ways, making two cuts at the same time. This arrangement al lows the saws to cut going both ways, and obviates the necessity of having to bring the carriage back and begin cutting at the same end of the log eaeli time. It is claimed that the mill will cut any lumber or logs at one kalf the cost of other mills. Up to the present there have been two general methods for operating railroad switches from a central tower. The most common and old est of these is by means of manual levers in the tower, mechanically con nected to the track switch by a sys tem of rods, chains, or wires. The second system, known as the electro pneumatic, consists of electro-mag nets, controlled from the central tower j operating valves which in their turn ] control the compressed air used to change the switches and signals. Now there comes a new system, the ••all electric" as it has been named, which consists simply of a small electro mo tor at each switch whose action is governed from the central tower. The only connection necessary is tin- two wires of the motor circuit. This sys tem has recently been installed in , several raidroad yards in Chicago, and is giving satisfaction. The practical perfection of the whole apparatus, which in theory is so simple, and es pecially of the electric interlocking machine In the tower, is the result of j several years' experimental work. Honesty Developed by Mail linxes. "That naive trust In human honesty that one sees here is distinctively American," said an Englishman, point ing to a letter box. "I would like to j see a Continental business man lay v packages and large envelopes on the top of the post boxes. They would lie taken before the glue of the stamps was dry. There is another reason why we can't do that at home. Our dear f old London fogs would wipe out the address in short order and unless the collections were frequent the paper would be reduced to a pulp. A dry climate makes you Americans talk with a dreadful nasal accent, but it shows up your honesty." Texas Furnishes It Flctoral Snake. •Tim Newcomb of Caldwell, Texas, Is ! in possession of a mouse snake about 14 inches long that Is out of the usual order. On the back of the head and neck is a complete photograph of a woman, showing bust and face. Iler hair is done up in a top knot and she has on a shirtwaist. The snake was killed near Milano Junction and is pre served in alcohol as a curiosity. The image is formed on the skin by the ar rangement of the two colors of the snake—black nnd dingy white.—Gal veston Dnily News.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers