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1-It alms to pablish all the news possible.
does so impartially, wasting no words.
1 correspondents are able and energetic-
VOL. 28. NO. 29.
N the leeward chain of Islands ot
the Hawaiian group the Pacific
possesses not only one of the
great natural wondefs of the
western world, but a cruising,
camping, fishing and outing park
reservation that is in every
sense unique.
Few even of the best informed
people in the Hawaiian Islands,
or out of them for that matter,
appreciate this important pos
session at its real worth. This, however, Is not
so difficult to understand as it might at first seem,
since hardly one in a thousand of the limited
number who have desired to make the journey
among them has ever been permitted to visit
these floating bits of coral sand that apparently
bob aimlessly about, adrift on the bosom of the
great wide ocean. Few indeed have a first hand
knowledge of what these possessions really are
and know of the fascination they and their in
habitants possess as objects of natural interest.
Then, too, the idea of utilizing the distant islands
In any way that would suggest a natural park is
so novel and out of .the ordinary that it has not
yet taken root in the mind of the man in the
street.
Though all put together the exposed dry land
and reefs of the reservation would hardly have an
area of ten miles square it literally teems with
fflsh and bird life. The sea bird population alone
probably cannot be equaled in any other part of
the world. Tens of millions of feathered fowl
make their home on these lonely specks of land,
repairing thither each year in countless flocks
to establish rookeries and to rear their young.
The reefs and waters about the Islands fairly
swarm with fish and other forma of life, so that
they really form a densely populated natural zoo
logical garden.
To the naturalist, the out-of-door enthusiast, the
nature study photographer or the man who sim
ply loves out-of-the-way places and the unusual
and novel, these islands leave little to be desired.
A chance to run down along this chain is the
opportunity of a lifetime and bound to result in
a really worth while experienceone that will
lire fresh in the memory long after the details
of other trips and experiences have been mingled
with the commonplace of life.
Unfortunately, at present, visiting the islands
in the reservation is not the simple matter that
1t Bhould be, nor that it is hoped it may be made
In time. In former years the operations of a
guano company, then engaged in exploiting the
guano or bird lime deposits on the islands, made
it possible, by invitation, to make the journey to
Laysan Island from Honolulu during the summer
months in one of the company's sailing vessels.
While the islands of the chain are all different
from each other and all intensely interesting,
Layson is in a certain sense typical of most of
them. It is a raised coral atoll approximately two
miles across that in general form has been com
pared to a broad, shallow platter composed en
tirely of sand or raised coral reef not more than
40 feet about the sea at the highest point on the
sand rim which completely surrounds the salt
water lagoon that occupies the central part of the
Island. This lagoon is of special interest, since
Its water contains more salt than does that of the
open sea. This interesting fact tells much of the
geological history of the island and points unmis
takably to the origin of the land. It shows it to
be a circular coral atoll that at the time of its
elevation above the sea carried the water of the
lagoon up to its present level. Since that time,
and it must have been very long ago, the waters
have evaporated to some extent and left that
which remains more concentrated and salty than
It was when the island was first made. About the
edge of the lagoon the boggy earth is covered wtih
crystals of salt mixed with chips of guano. This
shell-like substance sparkles in the sun and sug
gests a band of silver at the water's edge. About
this barren ring is a narrow band covered with
low creeping vines. Back of this again is a growth
of juncas which is backed up in turn by a ring
of low bushes. The prevailing plant of the island,
liowever, is a kind of coarse bunch grass/that
.grows three or four feet high. More than a score
of plants have found a footing there during the
long period that has elapsed since th dry land
"first rose, so that at the time of its discovery, and,
Indeed, on the occasion of my first visit, for a
sand island it was well supplied with a low
growth of hardy vines, grass and shrubs. Unfor
tunately the introduction of rabbits on the island
feas marked a sad change since then.
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Of the many things which interest the visitor
at Laysan the great number of birds and their
absolute fearlessness are perhaps the most strik
ing. Dr. Fisher of the Albatross expedition, writ
ing of his impression of the enormous number
of birds, has very truly said:
"The effect of this at first was nearly over
powering. Where we made our way through the
populous colony of sooty terns we had to exercise
much care to avoid crushing their eggs and
treading on the birds which struggled panic
stricken before us with the old ruse of a broken
wing, and then, taking flight, swarming over our
heads. If wo would converse, it was necessary
to shout.
"Turning toward the center of the island, we
were obliged to cross a wide area with tall grass
and completely honeycombed with the burrows of
petrels. Through the roofs of these tunnels the
pedestrian is continuously breaking, sinking In
the soft soil up to the knee. Prom out of the
shadows of the tussocks young albatross, un
couth and awkward, snapped their beaks at us,
and occasionally losing their balance from over
haste fell forward on their chins. This proceed
ing usually made them actually sick.
"Few of the adult birds, however, seemed
frightened, and with the exercise of a little care
we were able to approach most species as close
as we wished. It was certainly gratifying to
walk up to an albatross or a booby and watch It
feed its young and to record this domeestic duty
with the camera."
More than two dozen species of sea, land and
shore birds frequent this island in great numbers
during the year. They do not all breed at the
Midway island, now one of the most important
stations on the Pacific cable, was the scene of
many wrecks and unsolved mysteries in the days
when the sailing vessels roved the seven seas.
Not the least of these strange events says the
San Francisco Chronicle involved the old bark.
Wandering Minstrel, which was wrecked on Mid
way in 1888, while on a shark fishing cruise out
of Hongkong. All hands succeeded in reaching
shore safely, where they found an old building
erected thirty years before by a party of sur
veyors and here the luckless survivors of the
ill fated Wandering Minstrel were marooned for
14 long months, subsisting on fish and the eggs
of the countless sea birds, which wheeled and
screamed over the flashing coral reefs, until res
cued by the Japanese schooner Norma and taken
to Honolulu.
The Wandering Minstrel's company found many
marks of wrecks on the Island, including a broken
hull marked Generat Siegel, and on one of the
smaller islands close to the main Island they
stumbled across two mounds of sand over which
wooden crosses, made from drift wood, had been
erected, hacked with the inscription "1886."
A little distance beyond, upon the sand, was
the form of a man lying on his back with bis
head resting In his hands. As the exploring ship
wrecked sailors approached the man opened his
Shu
MURDERER EXILED BY HIS CONSCIENCE
Defective Page
ST. PAUL ASP MINNEAPOLIS. MINN,, SATURDAY. JULY 20,1912
same time in fact, some of them, as
the plover, the curlew and the turn
stone, do not breed.on the island at
all. Nevertheless, the island was liter
ally covered from center to sea with
breeding birds, mating birds, and
young half-grown fledglings of a dozen
or more species.
With such an astonishing popula
tion, numbering perhaps twice the in
habitants of Greater New York, it was
to be expected tha^, a study of the
situation would reveal a method in
their distribution. Generally speaking,
the various species were grouped in
more or less well defined colonies. As
a rule, these colonies had settled on
certain localities,that^eemed to suit
tneir fancy 0T~c6nlr^i^3cer*'TSSfe
The Laysan albatross, or white-breasted gony,
is distributed all over the island, with the pos
sible exception of the sea beach, which is espe
cially popular with their brown-breasted, black
footed cousins. In certain places, as at the ends
of the lagoon, they are or rather were, more con
gested than In other localities. The dense colony
shown in the illustration was at the east end of
the lagoon. To the progenitors of these birds is
due the exceedingly valuable deposit of bird lime
or guano, the accumulation of ages, which has
been removed in years past and utilized as phos
phate rock in chemical fertilizers.
The old birds do not mind the presence of man,
often walking up to the visitor, evidently intend
ing to welcome him among them. Once in a
while an individual will take hold of the visitor's
finger or gently pull at his shoe strings or leggins,
but once ordinary curiosity is satisfied and the
freedom of the place extended to the visitor they
take up their former occupation or go on with
their amusements in utter disregard of everything
and everybody. Friendly as they are, they will
not allow themselves to be handled, avoiding
any attempt to touch their persons, evidently re
senting such approaches as undignified.
Some years ago a company of Japanese were
landed on the island to kill and cure birds for
millinery purposes. That they were rudely inter
rupted in their spoliation by the United States
revenue cutter Thetis, is a truth well known, but
the result of their poaching is everywhere too
apparent.
eyes and without apparent emotion said: "How
are you?" Then he arose and with no more ap
parent concern than as if he had had companion
ship constantly, told them that he was the sole
survivor of the Siegel and that the two graves
were those of the captain and mate, whom he
had buried. His name, he said, was Jorgensen,
and he had lived alone there for two years.
Jorgensen joined the Wandering Minstrel's
party and as time wore "along his manner became
noticeably strange he avoided conversation and
especially evaded inquiry concerning his ship and
the details of its loss until it became the general
opinion that there was a mystery about the
affair which he could dissipate.
The man clung to his secret despite the con
stant efforts of the others to. get him to dis
close it. After six months he fell ill and when
dying told the Wandering Minstrel's men that he
had murdered the skipper and mate successively
after they landed in revenge for previous ill treat
ment, and buried them where the crosses stood.
When at last the attention of the Norma had
been attracted and the marooned sailors pre
pared to leave, Jorgensen refused to go with
them. He said he felt that he must remain on
the Islandthe little white spot of desolation it
was thento watch and wait at the graves of
bis victim*.- -:^%^^mm^m *Mr~:
is a
constant coming and going at Laysan,
so that the visitor arriving there at
different seasons of the year would
find different species predominating in
the bird population, while other spe
cies that at another season would be
equally as abundant might not be
found there at all. But visit this isl
and or any one of the chain when you
will, enough interesting material for a
volume on birds can be gathered in
an hour or two on shore.
One of the many curious birds of the
island, the albatross, of which there
are two species, is of the most general
interest. This is due in part to their
splendid size and part to their unusual
domestic habits.
MAYSOLVEMYSTERY
British Yacht to Take British
Scientists to Easter island.
Lonely Dot of Land, Two Thousand
Miles From South American Con
tinent, Believed to Have
Been a Continent at
One Time.
London.The Mana, a motor aux
iliary yacht just launched at Whit
stable, is to carry an expedition to the
South seas to investigate the origin
of the gigantic prehistoric remains of
Easter island.
This island, the most easterly of the
Polynesian group, is a lonely dot of
land 45 miles in area", 2,000 miles from
the South American coast. Facing the
Shore Line of Easter Island.
sea on the island are enormous piat
forms made of uncemented stones,
some of which weigh five tons. Some
of the sea walls are 30 feet high and
200 feet long.
There is no metal on the island, and
the only tool found was a prehistoric
chisel, with which it would seem im
possible to execute such colossal
works. Moreover, the island, with its
scanty water supply, could not have
supported enough people to drag the
figures from the quarry where they
were made to the platforms. Some of
the statues weigh 250 tons.
There is every evidence that some
great calamity overtook the island and
its inhabitants, for most of the figures
are unfinished, some of them never
even having been removed from the
quarry. A popular theory is that East
er island is the sole remains of a con
tinent, which was ^overwhelmed by the
sea after a great seYsmlc disturbance.
The Mana expedition, led by W.
Scoresby Routledge and accompanied
by geologists and other scientists
from the British museum, will make
excavations in an effort to solve the
mystery.
CURIOUS HOUSES IN CHINA
Celestials Buiid Their Homes or Pal
aces Wall-Within-WallAll Have
Beautiful Gardens.
Peking, China.It is difficult for the
occidental mind to picture the wall
within-wall life of a Chinese home.
Down a narrow lane one passes
between two walls, behind which may
be hovels or palaces, there is no
telling which, since the one-story
roofs beyond are Invisible, says a
writer in the Century Magazine.
One pulls a string at a gateway, the
address of some family of high de
gree. A servant appears, leads
through another gateway, a flowery
courtyard, a passageway, perhaps an
other courtyard, a little room or two,
and finally into a reception room,
with its carved wood and wainscoting
and furniture, its porcelains and jades
and brasses, its blue-and-green-and-
gold ceiling and its window pattern
of paper panes.
Here the hostess appears, offers her
occidental guest tea or champagne,
or both, with cakes and candied fruit
or lotus buds. Then she may lead one
through other courtyards, all with
the usual one-story rooms around
them, and into her secluded garden
of rocks and pools, of pretty paths
and bridges, of clustering trees and
flowers.
In such a palace as this each court
yard, with its surrounding rooms, may
In a Chinese Garden.
be the special home of one of the
sons and his wife and children but
somewhere in the maze of walls, un
der one of the low, tiled roofs, is the
common dining room, with the kitchen
beyond. Here the men of the family
eat together, twice a day, and after
ward the women and children. And
somewhere also there is a central
family hall, with the ancestral tablets,
which must have their tribute of in
cense at proper seasons. These are
held in such reverence that no foot
may pass above them, and therefore
two-story dwellings are unknown in
regions uncontaminated by foreign
influence.. _
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NEW EDUCATION OF TARTAR
Phonetic System of Teaching Reading
arnd Writing Introduced Among
Indian Mohammedans.
Constantinople.Ishmail Bek Gas
prinsky, the editor of the Terjuman,
the oldest Tartar newspaper in Rus
sia, and the pioneer of the modern
Tartar educational movement, widely
known outside Russia as having ini
tiated about five years ago a move
ment for convening a general con
gress of Mohammedans to discuss the
causes of the backwardness of Moham
medan peoples, has returned from
Bombay, where he went to open a
modern elementary school which
should serve to introduce among In
dian Mohammedans the phonetic sys
tem of teaching children to read and
write. The importance of this step
is not obvious at first sight, but the
adoption of the phonetic system means
the adoption of new principles of in
struction generally. It means break
ing with the traditional Mohammedan
scholastic system. And for this rea
son the "new method," as it is called,
lias become among Russian Moham
medans a watchword of reform and is
vigorously opposed by the adherents
of the old school.
In its essence the "new method"
means that children, instead of be
ing taught to read by spelling out the
names of the letters of the Arabic al
phabet which is used by all Moham
medans, are taught at once to asso
ciate letters with sounds and to form
them into syllables. M. Gasprinsky
has discovered by long experience in
Russia that by the new system an
enormous amount of time is saved.
The average child can by its means
learn to read intelligently in 40 days,
whereas under the old system six
months or a year were necessary, and
then the result was unsatisfactory.
The mullahs who have adopted the
new system in the Crimea have found
themselves compelled to fill in the
time saved by giving instruction in
other subjects, such as geography and
hygiene, otherwise the period of in
struction would have been so short
that their slender income from the
village schools would have grown
more slender still.
The new system has already been
adopted at the Normal School for
Teachers, established at Constanti
nople, after the constitution, and the
teachers who are now being trained
will gradually introduce it in ele
mentary schools all over the country.
DONJON OF VINCENNES OPEN
Famous Twelfth Century Castle
Is Now Ready for
Tourists.
Paris.Through the efforts of Capt.
de Fossa, the famous donjon, or keep
of the Chauteau de Vincennes, which
Part of Old Vincennes Donjon.
since Napoleon's time had been used
for the storing of military supplies,
has been thrown open to the public.
The donjon is over 160 feet in height,
and from its summit an excellent
view of the surrounding country can
be obtained. The walls are 10 feet
thick and there is a winding stair
case of 327 steps. There are five
stories, and on clearing out the place
60,000 muskets of the First Empire
were found on the first floor, while
above were 100,000 sabres, together
'with a quantity of saddles and bridles
of the same period.
All these things have now been re
placed by contemporary relics illus
trating the history of the tower dur
ing 700 years. There is also data
showing the famous events in which
the structure played a part and the
equally famous prisoners confined be
hind its massive walls.
As far back as 1164, writes Capt.
de Fossa, in a pamphlet he has pre
pared on the subject, Louis VII. con
ceived the project of building a royal
residence at Vincennes, in the wood
of which the earlier monarchs often
hunted. Philippe Auguste and his
successors improved and enlarged the
chateau, in which many of them
dwelt. It was later utilized as a state
prison, and In 1740 the porcelain fac
tory which was removed to Sevres ten
year later was established there.
Then the edifice became the quar
ters of a military school for a brief
period, and afterward a manufactory
of arms.
In 17SS, at the time of the French
Revolution, Vincennes was ranged
among the royal chateaux which were
to be sold, but did not find a par*
chaser. Then came Napoleon, who
turned the historic castle into a milt
tary storehouse. Among the mon.
archs who have died there were Louis
VH., Philippe V., and Charles IV., and
also Henry, V. of England.
$2.40 PER TEAS.
lipjpiDGE
Crude Device Is Used to Cross
Tibet Stream-
Rivers Are So Wide and the Walls So
Precipitous That Is Is Impossible
to Find Foundations for
Structures.
Lhassa, Tibet.One of the most
fascinating things met with in Tibet is
the single-rope bridgefascinating,
and yet at first sight rather alarming^
To shoot swiftly across a thundering
river suspended many feet in the air
by two leather thongs from a short
wooden slider which hums over the
knotted surface of a rope made of
twisted strands of bamboo, seems
more precarious than it really is, and
after the first journey one thoroughly
Ferrying Horse Over River.
enjoys the experience. Whoever the
ingenious native was who first sug
gested this mode of crossing a river
he probably came from the jungles of
Assam and had seen monkeys crossing
the river there by means of growing
creepersthere is no doubt that he
found the one method which is ap
plicable to the big rivers, exaggerated
mountain torrents, of eastern Tibet
and far western China. The obvious
way for natives to cross a river is by
canoe, bvt, unfortunately, neither the
Salween nor the Mekong, big as they'
are, are navigable even for canoes in
Tibet. The single-way rope bridge
overcomes every difficulty. Two small
platforms are made, one on either side
of the river, one high up, the other 20
or 30 feet lower down stoui posts are
driven into the rock and the bamboo
rope is slung across from post to post,
and tightened so that it slopes steeply
from one bank to the other. The
slider consists of a half-cylinder of
wood, about three inches in diameter,
having two slots cut in its upper sur
face, one at either end, through which
pass the leather thongs to these
thongs the man, baggage or animal is
tied, so that he hangs just beneath the
rope, and, being pushed off the plat
form, the slider carries him safely
over the river. It will be seen, there
fore, that two ropes are necessary at
each crossing, one for going each way.
The advantages of such a system are
obvious. The rope is cheap to make
and the materials are ready to hand
it is quickly put in place and, though
It will not stand the wear and tear of
constant use for very long, it can be
replaced in a few hours. It can be
suspended so high above the river that
it is completely out of reach of sum
mer floods, but very often it is only a
few feet above the water at its lowest
point, and such ropes are under water
and impassable during the summer.
On the other hand, I have seen ropes
as much as a hundred "feet above the
river they look rather alarming, but,
as a matter of fact, it would make no
difference whether one fell one hun
dred feet or five feet into such a
river as the Mekong in Tibet. After a
few .weeks' use the rope begins to sag
at the lower end and may require
tightening up, especially if animals are
being slung across a man can pull
himself up the last few feet, hand over
hand, or haul up a box which has got
stuck, but an animal is helpless unless
he lands right on the opposite bank.
Hundreds of these single-way rope
bridges are in use on the Mekong and
Salween rivers alone, and they occur
a long way east of this on the La-lung
and Li-tang rivers, and many others.
But I have never seen one on the
Yangtze, which is too big a river.F.
Kingdom Ward, in Country Life.
WEALTHY WOMAN IS A NUN
Mrs. Gertrude Halle Lenman of Bosr
ton Abandons Social Position and
$1,000,000 to Enter Convent.
Boston.Mrs. Gertrude Halle Lan
man, widow of William Camp Lan
man, has abandoned society and Is
now at the convent of the Sisters of
Mercy at Hookset, N. H. Her sister
hood name is Mary Gertrude. Mrs.
Lanman, who inherited $1,000,000
from her father, went to Hookset, fol
lowing a nervous breakdown in New
York, where she was engaged in slum
work.
Wisconsin "Co-Eds" Must Keep House.
Madison, Wis.The University ol
Wisconsin "co-eds" In the home eco
nomics course will have a chance to
wrestle with the real cost of living
problem. By a new requirement, each
of them must in turn take charge of
the new practice cottage under actu
al housekeeping conditions.
Nk^*^ ^^^^^^M^'^S^^^^m'
IS M.
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