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4 ▲ GAI^VXT OF BTARA. man priced orchids. Bfanij Peril* Arc Undergone in Securing Rare Specimens. It costs time and money and sometimes life to rather sonic flowers. The flowers are not the fortune telling daisies, the silky petaled roses or th<* buttercups growing beside the dusty road In the tall grass. They are the fragile orchid* living In the humid Jungles of the tropics. To find these men are willing to take Journeys of two and three years' duration and costing much fro:i*y, besides risking their lives. it Ib paid that many enthusiasts have lost their lives from fatigue and from diseases caught In the pestilential climate which so well suits many of the richest orchids. Some of the finest of these queer plants have b'"n found In swampy Jungles and almost Impenetrable forests. Weeks *■" spent floating down rlv<*rs In South America on rafts. From these rafts the collectors gather large numbers of the orchids, which hang from the branches of the trees over the water. The Insects' which are attra< ted to the flowers arc in some Instances dangerous to human life. In sui-h cases the tree Is rut down and towed through the water until the Insects have been washed off. Sometimes snakes are found In the trees. Lives have been lost from attacks by these; or from wild animals. The hundreds of natives who have been hired by collectors as Knifes and porters have added to the number of those whose lives have been sacrificed. The loea of life la not always due to tropical fevers, the bites of dangerous insects, or the -at tacks of reptiles and animals. Sometimes a collector Is killed by a native for his money, VJ;d Is never heard from again. A collector Vho expects to be gone two or three years may <ike with him treasure to the amount of from f;;;M)00 to $.",0,000 to cover his expenses Only • few years ago a London firm sent a collector to South America. It was expected that his .'rip would take at least two years, and he car- Jed with him $40.OO(k He never cause back out it the South American forest It was supposed "Be had been murdered for his money. Orchids are found In a number of different tropical countries. Some of the finest are said it ionic from the Philippines. It is believed that there remain In these islands many choice va rieties to be discovered. They are found also in India, Australia, brazil, Mexico and other coun tries. There are persons who collect orchils a* others do coins or postage stamps, paying large sums for single plants. It is said that a sum nearly twice :>6 large as the largest price paid for a tulip bulb in the time of the famous tulip craze, .5r.,°.<)0,, °.<)0, was paid In London last year for one plant, and that the stock of another is valued at ?I<Um:i. The hifihest valued orchid is Bald to be m the collection of Sir Trevor Lawrence, of Dorking; England, its value has not in en tested by t'alo, however, as the owner cultivates orchids for his own pleasure solely. Iflss Gould Is said to have pal 1 $.",000 for one plant. Some orchids are so large that large teams are required to move them, and so old that they outrank the UvCS of mo.'t men. l'.aron Aponoyn, an Hungarian nobleman, bought from a Ven< z uelan a plant which was Mild to be one hundred years old. He paid J0.f.00 for It. It was so heavy that several teams of oxen were required to draw it from the forest to the coast fi.r transportation over sea. Awing the fine collections Is that of Hnron Bchro !er, of the Dell, who has a collection oc< upying twtnty-three houses, almost under the msesUe towers of Windsor Castle. For NEW-YORK TRIBUNE ILLUSTRATED SUPPLEMENT. FRAIL FLOWERS FOR WHICH MEN RISK THEIR LIVES. two of his specimens he has been offered 55.00Q apiece. Some men make a specialty of one genus, IL H. Measures, of London, anil Mr. Hothwell, of Brookllne, Mass., are said to have remarkably fine collections of this character. That of Mr. Measures is one of the finest in the world. Mr. Measures took up the collection Of orchids for the benefit of his health. A physi cian told him to buy a place in the country and take up the cultivation of some special kind of plant. He selected the orchid. Joseph Chamberlain can always be picked out easily In the House of Commons by the ■•:!.: i In his buttonhole. He is fond of orchids an 1 has a fine collection of them. A story is told of one orchid which proved to be an unusually profitable speculation for the owner. He was a wealthy Knglish Iron mer chant, and bought the plant from a dealer near l>)ii(Ju:i for $o7. r ». The plant proved to be an AN ORCHID HUNTER'S RAIT. Vrosfl these rafts the collectors C ather orchid* wfcfcl hwfta treat brushes over the water. unusually fine f^,ectn:en, so fine that the owner divided it Into ten part* Of these he sold eight for sums which bought the total receipts up to $10,000, The firm from which he bought It orig inally, hearing of this, tried to buy from him one of the parts. Ho refused to sell It for lees than 15,000. notwithstanding the fact that he would still have one part remaining. TOO MUCH RESIGNATION. Dishop Cbrtlandt Whit. Lead, .if Pennsylvania, was talking about resignation. ""This attitude of mind." he said, "ran hardly be carried 100 far. I rath. think, though, that In the ease of a certain philosophic farm hand an alarm clock would have served better than the excessive resignation which the man dis played. "lie was a great philosopher, and he slept In the barn with the stable boy. The two, one win tor morning; overslept themselves, and the fanner, very angry, came With a pall of ice writer to gel them up. The philosopher lay on the outside, nearest the door, arid he it was who received the full contents of the pall. "'oh, well,' he said, in his resisted way. 'I will take measures to avoid this another time.' And he dried himself with handfuls of hay. "The next nlghl be was careful to lie on the inside. He in .1 (lie boy- overslept themselves again, and again the fanner cams with the pall. VALUE FHOM J3.5C0 TO $r..000t Both sleepers were conceal ! •: !• r a mountain of straw, and, reflecting that he had fliumwril the outside servant 'h | .. •fore, the farmer decided that it would be only just to drench th»- Inside one this time, "A. ■ ordingJy, the yhflosophei uus aroused again by a Kr»-at deluge of cold water. "Bui his spirit of resignation was not at vii dirturi ed " This Incident t*a< bes us." he said, as he took off his w« t clothes, thai even Urn wisest cannot aviid their fate.' " Till: CU'llllli TOO Ml ( //. While Secretary Hay was in the count-, summer, an important piece of official business w.is peri'linij. and he arranged With Washington that any news that might arrive about the matter should be telegraphed to him in : ■ • L»ay after day he waited; but no teW^: tm came. One morning, happening to £■•■> to the lonely tittle telegraph office* he said to the <•;• erator: "I suppose you have received no dispaica for me?" "Why, yes, sir," th« operator replied, "there was a dispatch for you the other day, but it was all twisted and confesed. I cowl ■■ t make head or tail of it, so I didn't thtnll it was any use to send it up to you." A SLIGHT MISUSDKRSTASDISG. A H. Klrkland, the roster. entomo.ogtet, who has shown the toad to be on* of the farmer's best friends, said recently: "The toad has been misunderstood In the 'Ost— as much misunderstood as a certain friend of mine. "This chap was making a walking tour, and one night he put up at a little hotel in Florida. Next morning, at breakfast, the landlord said to him: " l>id yon enjoy the cornet playing In the room next to yours l..st night?' " 'Knjoy it?' my friend shouted savagely. 1 should think not. •Why. I spent half the night pounding on the wall to make It stop. "It must have been a misunderstanding.' said the landlord, gently. Tb.% cornet player told m* that the person tn the next room ap plauded him so heartily that he went over «mr piece be knew three time*,' ■ a ariilXG OF BKAfTIKi MR KOOSKVELT. Continual from -^iinul iiugw. with the baggage wh»-n the rest of th- boys go to Cuba." II <l!i! ri<>t Like the prisoner more than half art hour t>- feejrl his commanding offi cer with a rueful cMmtenanrei ■ if you leave me behind with the baggage^ colonel." he . iii. "I'll never dare go back home again.'' "So you want to go to Cuba, do you?" asked Colonel Boost vett. "I do. worst kind." replied .Mr?h«:i«\ "Well." said the colonel, "if there is any man in the regiment that ought to •• -'.■:. it's oil." "Thank yew. teiowl. thank you. You're go» ing to take me. ain't ><••»."■ cried the prisoner. "If you will promi>e to l»-have yourself," saiil Colonel Roosevelt. After the trouble «;u ov*-r down in Cuba, and the re^im«:;t was about to be disbanded, some oflicer asked Colonel Koosevelt where "the pri3 oner" was. "What ptt3on»T?" ask- d Colonel Roosevelt. "The wan sentenced la six months hi jail." replied the tnrairer. "Oh. I remitted that sentence),* replied Colo nel Roosevelt. "And it never occurred to me till that moment." sail the President telling Hal story afterward, "that Mi-Shane's sentence had! been approved by the maj< r general command ing the department, and that no one but •.' • President had the power '.. 'remit 1 that sen tence." "But the trooper went into battle, didn't he?" asked cr.e of the President's hear* "Tea. and he was a mighty tine soldier after that," said the President Sometimes the loyalty of the President's ad mirers la carried to such a point that he Is obliged to call a halt for sheer self-preserva tion. There was a troo;« r in his regiment wha^ after the war. folio ! him from place to p'.ac^ asking only the privilege of adoring. Adoration Is all right In small doses, but when one meets his worshipper at eve-> street corner, when out riding or walking, and cannot get rid of that beaming, soulful gize, it may become tiresome. One day the President was remind* of the in tense admiration of this particular man. "lie simply worships the ground you tread," the man's frier.! observed. "Oh, yes, so it appears. And still it would be illegal to drown htm." exclaimed the Chief Magistrate. As ■ maker of epigrams the President is fa mous in the circle of his friends. Many of his sayings will probably live as long M some of his more deeply considered utterances, though spoken on the spur •■■■.: .-. I given out for private consumption only. It will be many a year before his estimate of a well known New- York politicLui is forgotten by the small clrcU that heard It "That man," exclaimed the President, as th» latest gyration of the person In question was be ing discussed, "is returning to his arboreal a . cestors. 1 should not be surprised it any mo ment to sif him grow a tail a:. d swing ofl t'ruia th«; chandelier." OS THE PYRAMIDS. It ts said that Richard Harding r>\v!s o-. -e made a Joke about the Pyramids that Ls st.Q repeated at Shepheaxd's Llotel. the fa-sh^ . .« hostlery of Cairo. Mr. Davis was studying the Pyramids, and a guide approached and said to him: "It took hundreds of years to build them nui^i^mwi^ Sir.™ m A government Job, eh V said the novelist.