DIME NOVELS FOR BOYS
HOW THE AVERAGE PENNY DREAD
FUL IS WRITTEN.
•I©n Wlijo Can Writ© On© a Week With
Eae - A Novel Written in Hiirty-six
Hour*— ltule* the Authors liav to
Follow Das Its Itigid Morality.
To the romantic imagination of the
femall hoy the writer of dime novels is
of the same heroic and fire-eating typo
as the heroes he portrays, writes Wal
ter L. Hawley in the Washington
Star. The actual fact is so different
that if it were known, the resultant
loss of glamor would undoubtedly be
accompanied by a corresponding de
crease of sales. The men who write
dime novels do not wear their hair
long. They carry no six-shooters nor
bowie knives and many of them never
saw a live Indian or cowboy. The
writing of such literature is a business
rather than a profession, and the only
special qualification requisite to suc
cess are an imagination of great re
source and fertility, and an unlimited
capacity for hard and rapid work.
Each publishing house engaged in the
business employs a staff of regular
writers, paying those who do nothing
else a salary, and to those who do
other work a fixed sum for the manu
script and copyright on each story.
Thus Is carried on the business of
embodying and re-embodying the good
old heroes. Alkali ike, Gentleman Joe,
Big Foot Sandy, One Eye Pete, Dead
wood Dan, Dare Devil Dick, The Man
With the Iron Hand, The Boy Detec
tive and all the other popular favor
ites, who are still on duty, trailing In
dians, hanging horse thieves, rescuing
kidnaped maidens, finding lost heirs,
recovering lost fortunes in either
•ways helping good people out of bad
scrapes and leaving bad people "cling
ing, weak and despairing, to a yield
ing twig, that holds them for one
thrilling moment suspended between
the edge of the cliff and the yawning,
rock-bound abyss a thousand feet
below."
In addition to the men who are en
gaged to produce a certain amount of
copy within a given time in order to
supply the regular issues of the
"libraries" each publisher has a list
of men who can write a story to order
at short notice. They are classed as
"extras" or "specials," and are called
upon when a regular writer is ill, on a
vacation or falls behind in the pro
duction of copy. These extra writers
are usually newspaper men employed |
on some paper in the city or men en
gaged in some other class of literary
work that does not fully occupy their
time. Nine-tenths of all the so-called
"blood-and-thunder" stories produced
are written to order. As a rule the
author does not even select the title
of his story, and in many cases he is
compelled to follow a plot suggested
by the publisher or to use some inci
dent in real life as a basis.
The publishers keep a close watch
upon the daily papers for stories of
sensational crimes and adventure
that may serve as incidents in the fic
tion prepared for the small boy, and
when a great event or an incident of
national interest occurs there is an
exciting race between publishers to be
the first to put upon the market a
dime novel relating in some way to
the affair that is in the public mind.
Within a week of Dewey's victory in
Manila a score of thrilling stories in
which that battle was the chief inci
dent were on the newsstands. When
the sailors of the United States
cruiser Baltimore were attacked in the
streets of a South American city a
few years ago, and there was much
wild talk of war, a publishing house
in New York put on sale 48 hours after
the news of the affair reached this
country, a dime novel with the mur
dered boatswain's mate of the cruiser
as the hero. The author of the story
wrote for 36 hours without rest or
sleep, producing 40,000 words of copy,
which went to the printers sheet by
sheet as he wrote it. This is prob
ably the record for rapid literary pro
duction. It often happens that a
writer of such literature is called upon
to produce a story of 40,000 to 50,000
words in three days.
Writers of dime novels do not, as a
rule, attompt a polished style of Eng
lish, and rarely re-read or revise a
page of their copy. The publishers
want action, plot, incident, dialogue
and thrilling situations. A successful
writer of dime novels must possess at
least superficial knowledge of a great
variety of subjects. He must be able
to write a story of life in the slums of
a great city, one of adventure on the
western plains, of war in Cuba or the
Philippines, without making any ma
terial error in the descriptive sections.
It is a rigid rule that the plot and in
cident must be plausible. No matter
how improbable the deeds of the hero
may be, the author must be careful to
avoid impossibilities and absurdities.
If Alkali Ike scalps an Indian in the
Black Hills in the morning and cleans
out a faro bank in Deadwood at night,
the story must explain satisfactorily
how he made the journey from one
point to the other in the time speci
fied.
The dime novel writer must also be
able to take up a character created by
another writer and carry the imagin
ary individual along through other
stories and new adventures without
changing his habits or permitting him
to repeat himself in deeds of daring
It often happens that one central char
acter Is carried along as the here
through 20 or 30 stories published in
the mode,n "library" style of such
fiction. While the same name or nom
de plume may appear on the title page
of each siory, a dozen different
authors perhaps contribute to the
series, each taking up the characters
where they were left by the preceding
writer, and carrying them on to new
fields of adventure.
A publisher who had created a ro
mantic western adventurer wfth a
name that proved popular with the
boys contracted with one of his regu
lar writers for a series of twenty
stories. After sixteen of the series
had been issued, one every two weeks
and the other four extensively adver
tised to appear on certain dates, the
author fell ill. The publisher sent for
one of his daily writers, who was em
ployed on a daily newspaper, and
arranged with him to take up the
work and carry on the central charac
ters unchanged. In order to prevent
delay in getting out the stories as ad
vertised, the extra writer had to read
up the career of the hero from the
start and write four novels of forty
thousand words eacu in twenty days.
The task was successfully accom
plished, and the writer in question did
not lose an hour from his regular
work as a reporter. Devoting only
nights and Sundays to the stories, he
dictated them to a stenographer,
working sometimes six and seven
hours at night at a rate of two thous
and words per hour.
The regular writers of such stories,
men who do not attempt any other
work, are able to produce one story of
forty thousand to fifty thousand
words a week, for six months or ayear
with comparative ease. UndeT press
ure, they can readily write two a
week, but could not long continue that
rate of production without a period of
complete mental and physical rest.
The author who attempts to lay out a
schedule of his story, to work out a
plot to the end in his mind, and name
all his characters in advance, cannot
write dime novels. He must be able
to take a title, a name and an incident
suggested by the publisher, and write
a sto'ry of a specified length, letting
the plot grow and develop as he
writes. Ho must invent names as he
forms the letters that spell them and
create a thrilling incident or climax
Virtue must always triumph, in the
dime novels, and vice be overthrown,
the desirable consummation being
achieved invariably In the last chap
ter, and the hero must be an example
of all the virtues. Nor must the vil
lain be too wicked, for in certain re
spects the morality of the dime novel
is very rigid. It may surprise many
persons who denounce such fiction as
wholly bad, to know that the publish
er will not permit a line or situation
that might so much as suggest inde
cency or vulgarity. The villains as
well as the heroes all swear "under
their breath," and oaths are never
used in the lines of the story. Four
or five large publishing houses! n New
York produce tons of such literature
every week and the business is con
ducted in a systematic way. There Is
the sharpest kind of competition in
the trade, and the writer who can
suggest and work out new and novel
plots or situations will find a demand
for all the material he can produce.
THE EXILED BOERS.
The British HRVB Scattered Tliein Wide
ly In Different Tart* of the World.
A small sketch map, occupying a
corner of the Geographischcr Anzie
ger, shows the places in Potugal and
India where hundreds of the Boers
captured in South Africa are now kept
in confinement. Having distributed
the prisoners from India to Bermuda
it will certainly not be easy for them
to plot against the British govern
ment
Cronje'B soldiers, the first large
party to fall into the hands of the
British, were landed on the Island of
St. Helena in April, last year, aud have
been living ever since on Deadwood
plain, as the islanders call the plat
eau that rises about 600 feet above
trie sea on one side the port of
Jamestown.
Another part of the Boer army, 700
In number, marched eastward over
the Transvaal fronrier into Portu
guese territory. They were captured
near Komati Poort. the gateway
through the mountains by which the
railroad from Lorenzo Mar
ques ascends to the Transvaal plat
eau. They were sent to Portugal at
the expense of the British govern
ment, which is now paying the cost
of their maintenance. Four hundred
of them are confined in the cltidel at
Penicue, a small fortress on a penin
sula jutting out into the sea a little
north of Lisbon. It is a very secluded
place, the few thousand inhabitants
around the citadel being devoted al
most exclusively to lace making. Four
hundred men are all that the storage
capacity of the citadel would accom
modate, and so the other 300, except
ing the officers, were sent to Alcobaca.
a few miles inland. Commander Pie
naar, who was in charge of the party
when it surrendered, is kept a prison
er at Thomar, about 50 miles north
east of Lisbon, where still stands the
famous monastery of the Knights of
(jnrist to whom was conceded the
privilege of "conquering the new
world," whose deeds of prowess and
rapacity both in Brazil and In the
East Indies gave them an enduring
and not very desirable reputation. The
other officers are confined at Caldas
da Reinha.
Another transport from South Af
rica carried GOO Boers to Bombay,
whence they were taken inland about
100 miles to Ahmednagar. Their
present situation does not appear to
be particularly inviting If it Is proper
to call Anmednagar "a hot, waterless,
pestilent hole," in which terms a cor
respondent of th Manchester Guardian
has given his opinion of it
Another batch of prisoners has heen
sent tr the Beimuda3. It seldom hap
pens in any var that the defeated
prisoners are so widely scattered.—
Sun.
NIGHT WORKERS IN NEW YORK.
VI ft urea That Show the Number of Them
to Ue Upward of 40,000.
There are 800,000 persons, men and
women, employed In what the law de
scribes as gainful occupation—work
ing tor others for compensation —in
New York City, says the Sun. It has
heretofore been supposed that about
5 percent of these were employed at
night, wnich would give a total of 40,-
000 night workers in the city.
Recently a table has appeared in
tended to show how many night work
ers there actually are in the four
boroughs, and this estimate gives 3200
policemen, 3000 railroad employes,
3000 bakers, 3000 newspaper em
ployes, 2500 engineers and firemen,
2500 actors and musicians and 1000
restaurant employes. The total is 20,-
000, the balance being made up of
butcners, pedlers, steam railroad em
ployes, telegraphers, watchmen, eleo
tricians and miscellaneous workers.
The table, accurate in many respects
falls short oi completeness as to the
total number of persons employed
at night in New York. There are in
New York and Brooklyn 2167 Raines
law hotels which are open all night,
in each of which there is at least one
man employed and usually two. This
figures up 3500.
The table does not include the mar
ket men, a considerable group of night
workers, who number at least 1000,
the men who work along shore load
ing or unloading boats to the num
ber of 1000 additional, and it does
not take into account either those em
ployed on or connected with the ferry
business of the city, which is carried
on all night, in which there are at
least 500, a total of 6000 additional.
The number of watchmen is esti
mated at 400, actually it is nearer
2000, for there are watchmen of build
ings under construction, watchmen of
office buildings, watchmen in care of
material, factory watchmen, private
watchmen and ordinary night watch
men.
There are 250 hotels in New York
City and the number of night em
ployes of these —clerks, porters, eleva
tor men, watchmen, bell boys, gas
men and cleaners is 2500, or an aver
age of about 10 for each hotel.
Another considerable item of night
workers is made up of the employes
of apartment houses, elevator men and
janitors, and still another of city em
ployes connected with the water sup
ply department, which iB going all
night, and in charge of public build
ings.
Gashouses in New York do not shut
down at night time, but employ night
shifts of men, and the same is true
of the foundry business, and there are
the all night drug stores as well as
the all night saloons, and the night
hawk cabmen, whose chief time of
profit is between midnight and day
break.
Taking all these classes together, it
is probably no exaggeration to say
that there are 40.000 night workers in
New York, exclusive of physicians and
clergymen.
Bolivar Rcarrd Him.
The life of a photographer is not
always a happy one He has to in
vade precincts which are almost sacred
in nis efforts to get a snap shot, and
sometimes he literally takes his life in
his hands when he has to Bet up his
machine in dangerous quarters. A
well-known artist had an exciting ex
perience the other day when he
essayed to make a pnotograph of Boli
var, the huge elephant at the Zoo.
Getting inside the cage in which Boli
var lias been confined for so long, the
photographer set up his machine and
awaited a favorable moment.
Bolivar seemed to be disturbed by
the presence of the strange apparatus
in his cell, and, suddenly whisking
around, manageu to snap the chains
by which he is always bound. The
frightened photographer made a dash
to one side to escape the waving trunk
which he saw coming his way, and in
his confusion made a misstep which
landed him, camera and all, In a pit in
which the waste hay and refuse of the
cage are kept. Luckily for him the
keepers rushed to his "assistance and
draggeu him out before the angry ani
mal could get at him. His camera was
badly damaged, and nearly a week
passed before he could muster up suf
ficient courage to renew his attempt.—
Philadelphia Record.
The Arms of W*le.
The king is said to be favorably
disposed to the inclusion of the arms
of Wales in those of the future Princes
of Wales. It is to be hoped that the
dragon will not be used as the symbol
of this inclusion, for nothing, heraldi
cally, could be more absurd. The
dragon does not occur in the coats
of arms of any of the ancient Welsh
princes or in those of any of the old
Welsh families. It is sometimes spok
en of as the emblem of the Tudors;
but Owen Tudor, the founder of the
Tudor family, was not armigerous;
and the red dragon which Henry VII.
adopted was not that of the Tudors,
but was a compromise between the
white bull of York and the red lion
and greyhound of Lancaster.
BIK Window, No Harmony.
The Builders' Trade Journal says
that plate glass, the creation of com
paratively recent times, Is responsible
for many of the enormities which ren
der the street architecture of today so
devoid' of grace and harmony. Those,
however, who contend that a house
window glazed with small panes—even
those so popular at the beginning of
the 19th century, about 12x15 inches—
Is much more pleasing in appearance
than on? glazed with one great sheet,
are, we think, quite in the right.
A BUTTONHOLE CASE.
Brought to Ilec'de the I'recetlence of tin
Opening.
Once upon a time a case was TTrought
before a learned judge, in which the
question at issue was as to whether
the button was made for the button
hole or the buttonhole for the button.
Counsel for the button held that it
was so plain as to render argument
superfluous that the buttonhole was
made for the use and behoof of the
button; still, for form's sake, he would
give a few reasons why his contention
was the correct one. It was apparent,
he said, that without the buttonhole
the button would be unable to per
form its function, and hence it was
plain that the button preceded the but
tonhole, and that the latter was in
vented in order that the button might
be of service to mankind. It should
be clear to everybody that had it not
been for the button the buttonhole
never would have been thought of. Its
existence necessarily presupposed the
existence of the button.
The lawyer for the other side was
equally positive in the stand he had
been employed to take. He averred
that the buttonhole preceded the but
ton; that, In fact, the button was mere
ly an afterthought. He said that, as
every on e knew, the buttonhole can
be employed without the button, as
witness Farmer Jones, who invariably
uses a nail or sliver of wood instead of
the conventional button, whereas it
was impossible to make an effective
use of the button without the aid and
assistance of the buttonhole. Hence
it was shown beyond peradventure
that the buttonhole was of greater im
portance than the button, and It was
natural to Infer that the buttonhole
was first Invented and that the button
came later simply as an ornament or,
at best, as an improvement upon the
nail, silver or other Instrumentality
wherewith the buttonhole was made to
perform its duty. To show the rela
tive value of tho buttonhole and the
button, he said, take this simple exam
ple; When a button comes off the but
tonhole can still be made serviceable,
but if the buttonhole Is slit open the
button is of no use whatever. With
this tho learned counsel closed his
case, although he claimed that he had
not exhausted the subject.
When the court came in after recess
the learned judge promptly decided
the case in favor of the buttonhole —
clearly a just decision, although It wag
whispered about the court room that
the decision might have been different
but for the fact that while changing
his linen between adjournment and re
assembling of the court his honor had
dropped his collar button and hunted
for it without success for half an hour,
and perhaps might never have found
it had he not stepped upon it. But, of
course, this suggestion came from the
partisans of the button and may fairly
bo Imputed to their disappointment
and chagrin. —Boston Transcript.
Many Uninhabited Inland*.
If you should want an island, that
Is, an uninhabited island, for the pur
pose of occupying It alone, Robinson
Crusoe like, or to use it for romantie
fiction, or for any other purpose, to
the exclusion of all others in the world,
you need have no trouble in finding
one, if you see fit to make a journey
to the Indian ocean. In the waters be
tween Mauagascar and India you can
find more than 15,000 of them, where
there is not a human being, and where
you can, if you will, be monarch of
all you survey.
An English traveler has recently
been among the small islands that dot
the western end of the Indian ocean,
to make an inventory of them ,and re
ports that he counted 16,100, and found
only about 600 of them inhabited. Now,
there is a good chance for any one
who may want an island.
These partVular islands are not
large, as islanus go, hut very many of
them are sufficient for the purpose of
a Robinson Crusoe or any other novel
hero, or for even a small colony of
shipwrecked mariners or other per
sons who might be cast on one of them
or seek for the purpose of making a
home pretty much out of the busy
world.
Some of them are only an acre or
two, well elevated above the tide, while
others are a quarter of a mile in di
ameter and running from that up to a
mile or two in length, and a quarter
or less of the length In breadth. Many
of them are granitic structures that
rise steeply from 20 to 100 feet, well
covered with rich soil, through which
small fresh water streams hurry to
the sea, which they reach after flow
ing over beaches of glistening calcar
eus sand that are begirt by coral reefs,
which form wails about the islands.—
New York Sun.
New York'. Foolish Women.
It Is one of the singularities of tho
New York woman's fashion that she
will appear in midwinter with lier
head uncovered and pass from the
theatre to her carriage without any
qualms. But as soon as the warm
weather sets in upon us her hat is as
essential to her piece of mind as is
one of those wonderful creations with
which the East End 'Arriets of London
require for bank holiday wear. To go
about with one's head uncovered is
the sign of the provincial. And no
matter how lovely or sensible a fash
ion is. so long as it is not acceptable
here, it is to he cast into the outer
darkness —which is the provinces.—
New York Press.
Snltßblv Attliwl.
Mrs. Cliatterton —Henry, for good
ness sake, don't wear such short trou
sers! Give them to the ragman!
Chatterton —Not much! You women
haven't got any patent on the rainy
day costume idea. These are my rainy
day trousers.—Brooklyn Eagle.
REAL YELLOW PERIL
IT WILL COME NOT IN WAR, BUT IN
TIME OF PEACE.
Victories In Domain of Commerce —Views
or ail' American Who Has Lived in
China startling Observations Jupun
the Ally of China—Wonders in Imitation
An American who has lived in Chi
na for the past three years, and who
was at the headquarters of the allies
since their entry into that country
until six weeks ago, was In Washing
ton recently. Owing to his Important
business interests lie refused to allow
his name to be used, but with that
condition expressed himself freely to a
Star man as to his view of the situa
tion in the Orient He said;
"The awful crimes of three of the
allied powers will not go forever un
punished by China. France will be
driven out of southern China some
time in the near future. Germany will
lose the money Invested by her citi
zens In Chinese enterprises, for the
atrocities committed by her soldiers
will not be forgotten or forgiven. The
nation which will lose most of all Is
Russia. The day of settlement will be
long delayed, but the appalling out
rages committed by the Russian troops
on the Chinese of Manchuria, where
between 300,000 aud 400,000 were mur
dered last winter, will remain fresh
in the memory of the Chinese nation.
"In the distant future, when LI Hung
Chang and all of the other thieves
who sold themselves and their coun
try to Russia and who stole the money
given to them by their country to build
forts and buy arms, ammunition and
supplies, are gathered by the devil
unto himself, and when the patriotism
of the restored Chinese emperor lias
Injected some honor into the army of
China, there will be trouble for Rus
sia.
"When that day comes China will
have an ally in Japan, a people any
other nation in the world may well
dread to meet in war, one with an un
dying hatred for Russia and everything
Russian; a people lying in wait and
praying for the hour when she can
strike the czar a deadly blow, a feat
she cannot hope to accomplish alone.
"The Japanese are a nation of sol
diers, and as soldiers I admire them
greatly. Their best men go into the
army. Their army officers are proud
of the army, of its honor and reputa
tion. Their ambition is to keep faith
in all ways as do other western na
tions. In business, however, where
the second grade of Japanese are
found, there is no sense of honor, of
business integrity, of the solemnity
of the promise, engagement or obliga
tion which under any pretext can be
evaded.
"In China the reverse is true. There
the best, the brightest, the most ambi
tious of the race choose a business
career, and while they squeeze you
hard in any trade, if they finally agree
and give their word it is faithfully ful
filled in the most minute particulars.
In politics they are corrupt as indi
viduals and as a nation, and are with
out political principal, conscience or
honor. They rob their soldiers of their
beggarly pay; they rob their country
of the money given without stint to
strengthen the nation's defenses. Be
ing themselves without patriotism
from the empress dowager down, their
pernicious example, set for generations
has stiffed all patriotism among the
masses of the people.
"My hope is that the allied powers,
from jealousy of one another, will
keep China intact; that their own
greed to secure the unlimited wealth
of the empire will make them force
the Emperor Kwong Hsu, whom they
will enthrone, to open the country in
fact as well as in name to foreign
trade. The public spirit of the em
peror, assisted by a progressive minis
try, will do the rest. Kwong Hsu's
ideas are at least a century in ad
vance of those of Li Hung Chang, who
has ruled the empress dowager aud as
sisted her in degrading the empire to
its present low estate
"Assuming that all this will come to
pass, that Kwong Hsu will be restored,
the country thrown open to the build
ing of railroads and the development
of mines and other industries, there
will follow a growth of material
wealth such as no nation in the world's
history has ever conceived possible.
"It la realized, however, by those fa
miliar with the situation and the char
acter of the Chinese people that this
wealth will not be for the outside
world that will develop the resources.
The profit will be reaped by the Chi
nese, and for one 1 am glad it will be
so. The industries, tireless, thrifty,
shrewd Chinese; those who have al
ready grabbed a good share of the
wealth of Hong Kong, Shanghai and
Tien Tsin; who own the mines already
open, the large banking interests, im
mense shipping interests and who mo
nopolize the mercantile trade already
established, will, with the increased
facilities furnished by foreigners, not
only hold their own, but increase their
wealth a hundredfold.
"When the western world opens
China to the great manufacturing and
wonderful mineral possibilities of the
latter country, when other nations
point the way, China will develop her
resources in such a manner that no
nation unwilling to let her laboring
men live as the Chinese live can hope
to compete with the native population.
MY admiration for the physical
strength and endurance ot the Chi
nese knows no bounds. Physically
they are possessed of vast reserve
strength. I wish I could tell you of
what I have seen them do, how they
work like giants 24 hours at a stretch,
never closing their eyes, singing all
the while and living solely on rice.
Physically these men are the wonder
of the laboring world.
"They are imitating, ingenious and
Inventive. When foreign etoves were
selling in Tien Tsin for SIOO in Mexi
can money I have known the Chinese
to take one of these foreign stoves
and use it for a mold from which to
make new castings, imprinting even
the names of the foreign manufactur
ers so well that detection was impos
sible. From this one stove bought of
the foreign dealer they would make
many and sell them at a profit of 900
percent. A country whose people can
do this, and many other things like it,
will, as soon as the utilities of the
civilization of the west are appreciat
ed, build up a manufacturing and com
mercial industry which will mark a
new epoch in civilization.
"The allied powers have driven the
iron deep into the soul of the Chinese
nation. Who can say, with Kwong
Hsu on the throne, that these people
may not learn the lesson of patriotism.
They learn all other lessons given
them, and this last one will be told
to their children's children. No ghost
stories will be needed in China to.ter
rify the young until the occupation of
the allied powers in the last year of
the old century has been forgotten.
"Those who ridicule Sir Robert Hart
are wide of the mark His only error,
in my opinion, was putting the cart
before the horse. Yellow Peril will
not come first in the form of war, foi
its victories will be those of peace in
the domain of commerce and manufac
tures with which no other nation, not
even Japan, can hope to compete."
QUAINT AND CURIOUS.
In a church at West Kensington,
London, a notice was lately posted
announcing the sale of five pews.
One of the "advantages" of these
pews, ran the notice, was that "the
contribution box was not passed to
them."
Our friend the cat is called kat in
Danish and Dutch, katt in Swedish,
chat in French, katti or katze in Ger
man, catus in Latin, gatto in Italian,
gato in Portuguese and Spanish, kot
in Polish, kots in Russia, keti in Tur
kish, cath in Welsh, kath in Cornish,
catua in Basque, and goz or katz in
Armenian.
Chinese in London who wish to
worship without leaving the city now
have an opportunity of doing so. The
largest joss ever brought to England
has just arrived from Swatow, near
Foo-Chow. Its full height is about
five feet 10 inches. It has a central
made figure three feet high, dancing
on a rustic stand and holding up
some sacred fruit.
An entire town has recently been
discovered in the dominions of the
Czar of the existence of which no
one seems to have any idea. Deep
in the forests of the Ural lies a flour
ishing city, the inhabitants of which
speak a curious language of their own,
and seem to form a sort of ideal com
monwealth, in which taxes and tax
gatherers, among other troublesome
things, are unheard of.
The most costly state funeral which
has ever taken place was. perhaps,
that of Alexander the Great. A round
$1,000,000 was spent in laying Alexan
der to his rest. The body was placed
in a coflin of gold, filled with costly
aromatics, and a diadem was placed
on the head. The funeral car was em
bellished with ornaments of pure gold
and its weight was so great that it
took 84 mules more than a year to
convey it from Babylon to Syria.
A painstaking meteorologist has
undertaken the laborious task of
measuring the dimensions of rain
drops. He finds that the largest are
about one-sixth of an inch, the small
est one five hundredths of an inch,
in diameter. They are larger in sum
mer than in winter and larger in hot
than in cold climates. The size of
the drop when it reaches the earth
depends on the height from which it
has fallen. In summer the lower
strata of air are warmer than in win
ter, and therefore clouds are formed
at a greater height.
Peppercorn rents are very common
throughout England, especially in
building leases, where, for the first
year or two, a nominal rent of one
peppercorn is payable. At Highgate,
in the County of Denhigh, that rent
has been paid since 1602. At King's
Brome, in Warwickshire, a pepper
corn rent has taken place of a pair
of tongs, which formerly had to be
given yearly rent for certain lands.
So for land at Wakefield the pepper
corn has take the place of an annual
rent of 1000 clusters of nuts. Two
farms at Carlcoats, in Yorkshire,
which not long ago paid as rent, the
one a right-hand and the other a left
hand glove, now pay one shilling year
ly, the other a peppercorn.
The I.out Sin ok,- rntmumer.
It was sheer vanity that kept Grant
Finlay from giving the world the bene
eflt of his invention of the total aboli
tion of smoke. He evolved a simple
system by which any fire or light
could be made to consume its own car
bon; and though he demonstrated the
usefulness of the invention many
times, obstinately refused to put it on
the market or sell the secret of it.
His own house, just outside Glasgow,
was fitted with his system, which did
not cost him 30 shillings for the entire
building, and not a jot of smoke was
ever emitted there. All his fires con
sumed their own smolle, and he was
fond of showing the efficacy of his in
vention to guests, but never would he
explain the working of it; and he
died two years ago, carrying his secret
with him to the grave. A week be
fore his death he had all the "anti
smoke" apparatus stripped from his
| house and destroyed.—Answers.