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The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, January 13, 1904, Image 3

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The Denison Review
E.F. TUCKER, Publisher.
VENISON,
-*5
v*
IOWA.
GREED.
^v'le" God had made the world He stood
And gazed upon the charms had:
TThe thing that He had done was good.
Its glowing beauty made Him glad. O:
llie flowery meads, the verdant hills.
The fragrant woods, the spreading uki,
™ne fertile plains, the laughing rills
And snowy peaks combined to please.
Contentment, full and deep and sweet.
Was over all that crawled and crept.
Between the drowsy tiger's feet
The hare lay down and calmly slept.
^Then God, the Maker, standing there,
Became perplexed and shook His head:
'The world that I have made is fair,
Nor might be more sublime," He said-
''But if in such a realm as this Js'
1
I set up man to proudly reign,
ilow should he dream of future bliss
And future glories to attain?
*'Here, mid the beautiful and grand,
From sorrows left forever free.
His highest hopes would center, and
Down here his paradise would be
Therefore, that man might never deem
The world sufficient to his need
And so that Heaven should be supreme
The Lord created Greed.
—S. E. Kiser, in Chicago Record-Herald.
Old Miss Hortense.
By S. Rfiett Roman.
'\KTHAT did you say?" asked Mc-
VV Ferson, pausing in the act of
pouring seltzer water into his white
"wine and looking suspiciously at the
•dainty, well-gowned handsome young
•woman sitting on the other side of
the table, who was absorbed in peel
ing iced shrimp as if to the manner
•born.
"Antiquities shops?" she said, lacon
ically, looking^ up with laughing eyes
and a gay determination which had its
effect.
"What for?" queried McFerson, be
fore helping himself to the broiled
jpompano, which presented an enticing
appearance.
They sat in the dining room of the
St. Charles, where it was cool and
pleasant, idling over their luncheon,
a ad they were evidently strange^and
people of decided social importance, as
their air, look and manner indicated.
"Why, Dan, because I must get a
lovely, dear old-fashioned desk, Louis
XIV. style, you know, to match my
furniture. I want to put it in the cor
ner of my room, near the big bay win
dow, just underneath one of those
candelabra we got in Europe. We'll
lake our drive, then drop into some
of those curio places I've heard so
much about, where they sell beautiful
•old things. We'll come back in plenty
time to dress for dinner. We arc to
•dine., at the Carringtons to-night, ybu
know."
"Drop in, .did you say?" McFerson
retorted, smiling ruefully in answer to
the winsome gayety of the face, which
to him (and to some others, too) was
the most beautiful on earth.
"You evidently know nothing about
man-traps. Those antique shops. A
woman who once gets the antique
craze, my dear child, goes from bad to
-worse, and there is no limit to the
time she will spend in pursuit of the
ideal in localities inhabited by rats and
spiders. Drop in, indeed you'll be
there hours and hours.
"I'll tell you what we'll do. Don't
•waste this fine day in shops. We'll
take a drive, and when we get back
home again I'll write for pictures and
photos and you'll get any kind of desk
you want."
"Indeed not. I must see what it
looks like. Why, Dan, how absurd you
are. I'll make a bargain with you.
Take me to that extraordinary place,
it's a real art museum, at the corner of
Royal, and I don't remember the other
street, and look at your watch. I
promise not to stay more than half an
hour. Honest."
"All right! I'll drive you there if
you'll add another promise that you
•won't go beyond $500."
"Why, of course not. I don't expect
to spend one-fifth of that."
"Shows how much you know about
antique shops," McFerson remarked.
Then the discussion waxed animated
and prolonged until it ended in a truce.
McFerson reached over for an apri
cot, while the waiter brought in the
small cups of coffee, as it is made in
Louisiana, an aromatic essence and a
nerve tonic.
It was some hours later when a
coupe, going rapidly down Royal street,
drew up at a corner.
"Here you are," McFerson said, get
ting out. "Now, remember your oath,
one-half hour and not over $500."
Alme jumped out, and nodded gaily,
and going in drew a breath of delight.
"Why, Dan, this is magnificent," she
said, looking around, and pausing be
fore a console, whose workmanship
bespoke the patient art spirit of the
Cinque Cento period, while a tall clock
of ancient Florentine design swung its
pendulum with a slow grace and equal
indifference to the hurry and scurry
of the present bourgeois twentieth cen
tury.
There were chairs and baliuts of old
Flemish oak, carved by the dexterous
fingers of earlier centuries, and Vases
of iridescent Gubis ware, an art lost to
modern days.
There was a rare wealth of curios
and furniture, whose grace and finish
make machine manufactures of the
liour appear commonplace and clumsy.
Alme sat down with a sigh, of de
light on a Spanish sofa which had been
brought from the parlor of an ancient
convent in Mexico, the mother superior
being glad to sell a thing so black with
age for good money, wherewith to re
furnish the chapel, where mass had
been said from the time of the Spanish
conquest.
One of the proprietors of this fas
cinating place came leisurely forward.
His was a kindly face and one which
bore the stamp of a keen intelligence
and of much culture.
His manner was quiet and pleasant.
"Where did that lovely thing come
from?" Alme asked, pointing to a
bronze candelabrum, from whose twist
ed branches hung small, glittering
crystal drops. They threw shafts of
light over the tesselated flooring, as
the late afternoon sun, pouring through
the open door, glanced upon them.
"Just recently it came from a resi
dence in Mexicb, which belonged to the
decadent descendants of a time-hon
ored house of Spain. The lady who
lived in it died in poverty and every
thing was sold by a public crier—what
we call auxtionnaire. Originally that
candelabrum must have been brought
from Seville. Look close and you will
see a name.
"It is that of a famous artist of the
fourteenth century. His name appears
in old records of the art works of that
period in Spain."
Alme sprang up and questioned eag
erly.
McFerson looked at his watch, with
a smile, and put it back in his pocket.
"You said something about a desk?"
he remarked.
"Oh, yes. I want a particularly love
ly Louis XIV. desk. Of course you
have one? I'll hang that candelabra
right above it. It's a thousand times
more artistic than ours. The light
from it will be charming."
The proprietor led the way to a
certain high-ceiled room, whose con
tents made Alme express her delight
with warmth and decision.
Alme had been so much absorbed in
her examination of the beautiful ob
jets d'arts, crowding on all sides, she
had hardly noticed a small, daintily
dressed, old-fa3hioned womaij, who,
with her black satin skirt, black lace
shawl, wealth of white hair and
strange, old-time bonnet, seemed to be
long to another period.
"Come in and look around, Miss
Hortense nothing new to-day," the
proprietor said in a pleasant voice as
she stood timidly in the doorway.
She came forward with a dignified,
gentle air, and began peering about
among the furniture in an anxious
way, and when Alme spoke of a desk
she drew close to her and listening
to her followed her eagerly.
"I am anxious to see a lady's desk
myself an old desk with bronze door
trimmings. Quite a pretty thing. My
mother s, she said, in a low voice,
hnldins: Aimo-'o-aWva -MAIIIAII-
has promised to get it for me. He will
some day. There is a will locked up in
it my grandfather's will. It will be
found, of course. Everything was sold
while I was away—everything It was
quite a number of years ago. I drop
in occasionally to see if they have
found the desk for me. My lawyer
tried to trace it Tor me, but perhaps
you have noticed, my dear young lady,
that lawyers are not very efficient. So
I have undertaken to find the desk
and the will myself with Mr. Norton's
kind assistance. Yes, yes it will turn
up some day. It is my grandfather's
will. I have inherited great wealth—
a vast amount of landed estate—quite
a large property. I would be very
patient, my dear, about the will and
content to wait, only you see I must
send Rene to college. My sister's son.
A fine lad. He must have every educa
tional advantage, so I must hurry to
find the testament which is to place
me in possession of the land. In my
will I leave it all to Rene. Nothing
new, to-daj^Mr. Norton?"
Her voice was sweet and low and her
manner gentle and refined, and she re
minded Alme of an old-fashioned pic
ture. Her rambling talk caught Alme's
attention, who looked down compas
sionately on the small, pathetic lit
tle figure.
"She is perfectly harmless. We let
her come and wander around as long
as she cares to do so. They were all
very wealthy people formerly, and to
day this elderly lady and the lad
Rene, her nephew, are all that are left
of them. They are in sadly reduced
circumstances. The boy works cheer
fully and hard."
"Who supports them?" Alme asked,
a feeling of immense pity -welling in
her heart for the poor, forlorn little
woman whose troubles had evidently
brought her to her present benighted
condition.
"Her neighbors. This is a poor but
a kindly neighborhood."
"Where does she live?" whispered
Alme, as the little figure moved softly
away.
"She lives right next door," Mr.
Norton said, with a slight embarrass
ment, which Alme understood, for
there was a look of gentle compassion
easily read in his face.
"There are several which might suit
you. They are of the period you men
tioned and can be restored to their
original condition," Norton said, turn
ing away.
"Well, little woman, look around and
make up your mind. I'm going to see
some carved oak dining sets." Mc
Ferson went off with a young man,
Norton's assistant.
But Alme was too engrossed in her
examination of an array of slender,
graceful Buhl and Marquetterie desks,
with many drawers and much gilding,
to pay any heed to Dan McFerson's
remark.
"Embarras do richesses. I don't
know which is the most fascinating,"
Alme said, opening and shutting some
doors, from which faint odors of faded
loses crept out.
"Here is a remarkably fine piece.
It
was discovered only recently In a ne.
gro hut in St. Bernard parish. Our
buyer went on a duck hunt with some
friends and they stopped to get water
in a settlement of Acadians and ne
groes. He noticed the gilding on the
feet, although they are badly tarnished,
and he got the mulatto woman, who
said the desk was her property, to sell
it to him. She was eager to get rid
of it, and the presumption is she never
came by it honestly. It is particularly
fine. There are wreaths and flowers
and bronze doors splendidly executed.
It a beautiful piece of workman
ship."
Alme gave an exclamation of de
light and decided then and there to
become its owner.
She was bending forward, admiring
the delicate tracery of inlaid scroll
work when she felt the flutter of a
hand on her arm.
Turning, she saw-the frail, delicate
little old lady, Miss Hortense, stand
ing by her side bending forward, her
gaze fixed in trembling anxiety on the
desk, her face drawn and gray, while
her lips moved inaudibly.
"What is it? For heaven's
what is the matter?" Alme
throwing an arm around the
trembling form to support her.
"fr knew we would find it—my
mother's desk. Mr. Norton said some
day he would have it brought back,"
she said, in a small faint voice. "The
will is in there—my grandfather's will.
The key is on this chain. I always
wear it around my neck, because there
is so much land and property men
tioned it is safer. Take it, my dear.
•The top of the desk is double. Do you
see the key hole? Open it. Youi
young eyes are better than mine. Give
me the papers. I promised my law
yers I would bring the document to
them as soon as I found it. You see,
it means enormous wealth. Take the
key, my dear, and open it. How for
tunate you came I am not as strong
and young as I used to be, and the
sight of my mother's desk has affected
me. Her name was Flore d'Aurillae.
Her initials are in silver inside. I felt
confident that with the assistance of
my good Mr. Norton I would some day
get back my own again. It is for
Rene's sake."
sake
said,
thin,
She held out a small gilded key, her
transparent hand trembling violently.
"Better humor her take it," Mr.
Norton whispered over her head to
Alme, slipping his arm around Miss
Hortense, whose deadly pale face
leaned against him, as if she were
about to faint.
Alme took the key, and, talking en
couragingly, placed it where Miss Hor
tense told her.
To her intense surprise the lid
opened, and in the narrow space lay
a slim folded paper, yellow with age,
and tied with a faded ribbon.
Mr. Norton gave an exclamation of
equal astonishment as Alme took it
from its long-time repository and
it to Miss Hortense.
"IV liar
-handed'•a-tuoh.-ve
he placed it gently in her trembling
fingers.
"Why, Miss Hortense, this is a great
find. But you are not feeling very
strong to-day. Suppose you let me take
this will of your grandfather's to your
lawyer? Judge Duval, is it not? He
will come around and .see you and start
proceedings to get all your property
back for you and Rene. He'll call
round to-night. Suppose you let me
take you to your room?"
Lifting her gently and saying he
would be back in a few minutes, Mr.
Norton went out.
In the other room Dan McFerson was
discussing the respective merits of
Flemish and French oak of the middle
centuries.
"Excuse me for keeping you wait
the dealer in curios said, coming
back some ten minutes later. "It was
a singular find, but it will make her
happy for the few remaining years she
has to live, poor soul."
"Was it the will?" Alme asked, clos
ing the lid of the pretty desk.
Mr, Norton shook his head.
"An old love letter best destroyed
and forgotten. But she thinks it is
the will and is rejoicing in the thought
of the boy's future and laying out great
plans for him."
"Poor little thing," Alme said, com
passionately. "What will become of
Rene when she dies?"
"He will be cared for," the art dealer
said, quietly. "He is a good, honest
lad. We'll make a civil engineer of
him. That's better than giving him
Chevalier d'Aurilliac's wealth."
Alme turned and shook hands warm
ly with Mr. Norton without speaking,
her brown eyes a little misty, although
her smile was winsome and bright.
"Have you concluded your pur
chases?" McFerson said, coming in and
taking out his watch.
"Some of them—yes. This lovely
desk, and the old Spanish chandelier,
and the. buhl chiffonnier, it's a dear,
and—"
"Better come back another day. It's
rather late, you know. We have a din
ner engagement. We have been here
exactly one hour and a half."
"Good heavens! I had no idea it was
so late," Alme said, leading the way
out.
Mr. Norton helped her in the coupe,
while McFerson filled out a check.
"Good-by. I hope Miss Hortense will
feel better to-morrow," Alme said
through the window as they drove
rapidly away.
"Who's Miss Hortense?" McFerson
asked.
"A fragile little plaything of fate—
the dearest little old-timey lady you
ever saw. Was it very much, Dan?"
"It might have been worse," McFer
son answered. "Only $700." Then
added: "We'll say quits, Al. I got
that Flemish oak library set for $1,000.
It's good-looking furniture."
Alme leaned back and laughed with
entire enjoyment.
The next day Miss Hortense received
a box of flowers with Alrue's card,—N.
O. Times-Democrat.
vWv"
lawfully deprived of a whole slock of
magazines which rested on the counter
outside his shop. All attempts to dis
cover the author or authors of this theft
proved fruitless.
Some few years ago a bookseller in
Manchester, who had provided himself
with 300 copies of a shilling almanac il
lustrated. by Kate GnVnawa.v, was
gratified to find his stock exhausted al
most within a week. He was subsequent
ly visited by a would-be purchaser, who
tendered three pence and demanded as
many copies oC the almanac. In re
sponse to the bookseller's' protest, the
customer informed him that copies of
the almanac were being sold at that mo
ment in Piccadilly—Piccai'illy, Man
chester—at a penny apiece. Inquiry
not only proved this statement to Ije
quite correct, but elicited the fact that
the books in question were the stolen
property of this very bookseller. It is
pleasing to learn that the book thief does
not always get off scotfree. Mr. Rumpus,
of Holborn, captured a thief only six
months ago, and he went to hard labor.
Another thief was caught red-handed
in Fleet street even more recently.
AN OVER-WISE CAPTAIN.
Did Not Helieve in Weather Predic
tion* a nil 1'aiil Dearly tor
llis Skepticism.
The weather bureau has saved hun
dreds of vessels from shipwreck, and
thousands of human beings trom drown
ing by its forecasts for the benefit of
mariners. Once in awhile its hurri
cane predictions are not materialized,
owing to the dissipation of the atmos
pheric disturbance before reaching the
latitude calculated, or by reason of the
storm veering off in some other direc
tion. Usually, however, disturbances of
such magnitude as to warrant the is
suance of hurricane warnings make
themselves felt sooner or later. An
example of the dependence that may be
placed on these warnings occurred dur
ing the latter part of the summer. On
August 11 the weather bureau sent a
graphic warning to Tamp.'co, Mexico,
that a hurricane was approaching the
Mexican coast.
As the following day, however, was
clear, with a light breeze, the captain
of the steamship Jason sailed on the 13th
late in the afternoon. The ship's log
tells the rest of the story. Fine weather
up to midnight, then cloudy, and finally
rain at dawn on the 14tli, accompanied
by a gale and very rough seas. The
storm increased in force until evening,
and by morning on the
15th had exhaust
ed its fierceness, and by the following
morning sufficiently to permit c.f the
hatches being opened for the first time
in three days. A lifelong sailor de
clared it the worst storm he had ever
encountered. The sea was comparable
only to a seething, boiling cauldron.
When the hatches were at last opened
270 head of cattle, out of a cargo of G13,
were found dead. The captain, deceived
by the fine weather and nonappearance
of the storm on schedule time, took hit
chances, with disastrous results.
BAT AND THE TWO WEASELS.
Find Another llat.
A Weasel seized upon a Bat, who begged hard for his life. "No,
no," said the Weasel, "I give no quarter to birds." "Birds," cried the
Bat. "I am no bird. I am a Mouse. Look at my body." And she
got off that time. A few days later she fell into the clutches of another
Weasel who, unlike the former, had a stronger antipathy to Mice than to
Birds. The Bat cried for mercy. "No," said the Weasel "no mercy to
a Mouse." "But," said the Bat, "you can from my wings see that I am
a Bird." And so she escaped that time as well.
Moral—Make conditions lit your opportunity when you can do so honorably.
LONDON BOOK THIEVES.
An Evil That Causes the Bookseller*
'Inch Annoyance a lid l'eeu
ninry I.ONN.
It is not generally known that the wire
"cages" which have lately become a feat
ure of many booksellers' outside shelves
are intended as a protection against
theft. Booksellers ar# particular suf
ferers in this respect, says London
Academy and Literature. One would
hardly have suspected it, seeing that
books' seem hardly adapted to conven
ient barter and are certainly of no use
when Loiled down. Books are not in
trinsically valuable, but in these days ot
big discounts when the "thirteenth to
the dozen" so often affords the booksel
ler his sole chance of profit, the loss of
even a single volume is a matter of con
sideration. These depredations' appeal
in many instances to be committed by
well-dressed persons of the "klepto
maniac" class, but in many instances
the professional gentry are not above
directing their attention to the book
sellers. Not long since a well-known
GOT IN ALL DETAILS.
WOman ho Opcueil Dnnlc Account!*
"J?*' 'or Nephews anil Xicces Gave
Particulars.
A reporter who was in a hurry was
standing in line at a local bank wait
ing his turn to deposit. There was only
one person ahead of him and he was
congratulating himself upon his good
luck. The person ahead was a woman,
and when the reporter arrived she was
just opening up negotiations with the
receiving teller, relates the Washington
Star.
"Now, I want to open accounts," she
began, "for some little nieces and neph
ews of mine. It's for a Christmas pres
ent, you know"—confidentially—"and
I'm only going to put five dollars in each
book. Of course that isn't much, but"
—here the teller endeavored to get down
to the business details, but in vain—
"if they're real saving, as I want them
to be, they'll soon make it more. Lota
of rich men started with—"
"Yes, yes, madam," interrupted the
J,5 V8£s6QBfi?fui&f]|
names and ages?"
1
"Why, there's Fannie, my namesake
she's nine—no, maybe, it was eight her
last birthday— What? Oh, her full
name? Frances Anne, of course—how
stupid of me—and then Joe—no, Joseph
William, named after an uncle that died
—he's six and just as cute as he can
be. You wouldn't believe what that
child—"
"Yes, I would, madam. But please be
as brief as possible and omit every
thing but business. Are there any more
children?"
"Oh, yes there's the baby, Mildred.
She's ten months old, and I thought she
seemed pretty young to have a bank
book all to herself so I'd like to take
one for her and her mother together-
her mother's only my brother's sister
in-law, but she's just like an own sis
ter to me. What? I can't' do that?
Well, that's funny. But you fix it ac
cording to the rules, of course."
The reporter, who had at first glared
savagely at the loquacious depositor,
now shifted wearily from one leg to the
other and began to show signs of col
lapse.
The teller succeeded in extracting the
necessary information as to the birth
place of the children, and then inquired
in whose name the books were to be
held in trust for them.
"Will you have it in their mother's
name or their father's?" he asked,
shortly.
"Their father's? Mercy sakes!" ex
claimed the depositor, energetically.
"Why, he's a perfect, good-for-nothing
scamp, if there ever was one. You
couldn't trust him—"
"No, I suppose not," hastened the
teller, repenting that unfortunate sug
gestion. "The mother's, then, I sup
pose. Her name, age and birthplace,
please. Be as quick as you can, madam."
As he finished the entries he turned
with a sigh of relief to see who was
next but the reporter who had been
waiting so long had given up. He was
already half a block away from the
bank, walking dejectedly and wiping
his brow like a man who had done a
hard day's work.
AVlien In a Man Kich?
A man with a single million may tell
you in all seriousness that he is peer
Judged from the plane of the pluto-mil
lionaire he is, indeed, too poor to enter
into and hold his own with their reerea
tious, pleasures, functions, etc. A man
with $50,000 is considered well to do.
He himself may claim no mere. But from
the point of view of the man with noth
ing at all, $50,000 might purvey all the
dreams of avarice. But even the penni
less man who has a spirit like Cyrano
should be counted rich, for he feels it.—
Dccembcr Cent, per Cent.
MIIICVKI Production.
The mineral products of the United
States are $350,000,000 in coal, $242,
000,000 in pig i'--on, $87,000,000 in cop
per, $78,000,000 in gold, $C6,000,000 in
petroleum, $55,000,000 in stone, $33
000,000 in silver, $27,000,000 in natural
gas, and $23,000,000 in lead.
CARS~cbOLED BY AIR.
Ilave Compressors That Are Drives
by the Motion of the Wheels
in Transit.
In recent years there have been vast
improvements in the methods of refrig
erating railway cars for the transporta
tion of perishable goods, such as fruits,
vegetables, eggs and meats. The fre
quent icing of refrigerating cars en
route constitutes one of the largest items
of expense in the handling of perish
able freight. Whenever trains carrying
a refrigerating car arrive at certain
designated stations they are halted for
the refilling of the ice chests of the cold
storage cars.
A Philadelphia inventor conceived the
idea of applying mechanical refrigera
tion to such railroad cars, depending
upon the car axles to furnish the neces
sary power for compression purposes.
Inasmuch as train-lighting systems in
numerable have been devised, and prac
tically operated on this principle, it is
only a question of mechanical details
to similarly operate a refrigerating sys
tem. The sides of the ears are lined
with refrigerating coils containing com
pressed carbonic acid gas or carbonic
dioxide. A tank carried on the roof
of the car supplies water for the con
densing purposes, its effectiveness being
enhanced by the use of an absorbent
covering for the condensing pipes. The
problem of furnishing a reservoir of
cooled material to supply the necessary,
cooling while the car is at a standstill
on side tracks or at terminals or wait
ing on belt lines has been solved by the
use of brine-filled tanks located at the
ends of the cars.
The expansion coils are immersed in
these brine baths, reducing the tempera
ture of the brine sufficiently so that the
radiation from the tank into the car
maintains the car at the temperature
desired, the capacity of the compress
or being sufficient to furnish a sur
plus of refrigeration beyond that neces
saiy for the maintenance of a proper
temperature while the car is in motion.
An automatically temperature-controll
ing door is also embraced in the" inven
tion. Its function is to prevent the car
fiom attaining too low a temperature,
which in the handling of some classes
of goods, notably fruits, would be as
fatal as too high a temperature. This
door opens into the atmosphere at a
predetermined temperature, through
the medium of a thermostat, automat
ically closing again whenever the tem
perature has risen to the proper point.
EXPENSIVE SAWS.
Have Diamond I'oluteil Teeth and Aro
tseii in Cutting Slabs
of Slute.
Probably the most expensive saws in
use anywhere in the world are those in
the factories of Pennsylvania, where
i^VfestFe're are 300 hori
zontal saws, 12 feet in length, each of
which is furnished with 75 cutting dia
monds, each saw being worth $5,000.
The slate land which furnishes the ma
terial for these costly saws to work
upon was once so little valued that the
tract upon which the famous Chapman
quarry in Pennsylvania is situated was
sold for a jJint of whisky, its subsequent
owners have taken millions of dollars
from the land.
The most valuable slate deposits in
the world are found in the central part
of the state. In the neighborhood of
the Pennsylvania quarries there are
houses whose walls are entirely of slate.
The blocks of which they are made are
smoothly sawed, and are most substan
tial.
When slate is blasted in the quarries
the rough slabs are taken to the shantie3
of the "splitters." The stone forms nat
urally the layers, and the "splitter,"
following the grain, or "ribbon," with
his large chisel, separates the blocks
into strips. Then these strips are
passed through a trimming machine,
where, by blows of a heavy knife, they
are cut into rectangular "shingles,
ready to be used for roofing purposes.
When slate is cut up for use in other"
ways the procedure differs. The huge
horizontal saw, with its scores of dia
monds, is called into play it is lowered
upon one of the blocks of slate by a
ratchet. The workmen play a stream
of water upon the slate to keep it cool,
and wash the dust from the cut. After
sawing the block is planed by being
moved back and forth by machinery un
der a firmly-fixed chisel. It is after
ward polished much as marble and gran
ite are. The value of the slate quar
ries run into the millions.
Jupiter's Atmosphere.
Owing to the high gravitation, "the
atmosphere of such planets as Jupiter
and Saturn is very dense, and so loaded
with opaque particles that we cannot
see through it to the body of the planet
within. But though the body is be
yond our scrutiny we can infer that it
is very hot, even at the surface for
if the solar system is formed (as is as
sumed) by condensation of nebula, the
heat of condensation hmst be propor
tionately greater and longer retained in
a large world than in a small one. Thus,
for the purpose of life on these great
planets, the energy radiating from -with
in may be available and, indeed, may
largely exceed the energy received from
the sun at so great a distance.
Artist VMCM Camera,
Probably no living artist makes such
a liberal use of photography as an aid
to his art as Mr. Linley Sambourne, the
well-known Punch draughtsman. In a
single Louis Seize cabinet he has no
fewer than 10,000 photographs of every
description of military uniform, and
there is at isast an equal number of cam
era studies of every conceivable subject
likely to be of use, "from an elephant to
a hospital nurse." Many of these have
been taken by Mr. Sambourne himself,
who is an expert with the camera.

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