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QV~KRTStfBfnlZLUEL'1T ~Lh~L I3PrP4~ 7 1 j Mr. Orio Tamura is now twenty rears, having put off all thoughts of matrimony until this late day in or der to finish his studies at college. He has signified to his father and to the matchmaker, or go-between, that he now desires that a young wife be brought to his own-which is his father's-home. The matchmaker, af ter considering the official and social position of all the persons and fami lies interested, has suggested that Miss Sugihara Inouye would be a most desirable bride for Mr. Tamura. The marriage is arranged by the go-between and his wife at the in stance of the young people's parents. Love has no part in the arrange ments and the young people seldom see each other until they meet and exchange glances, but not words, at some place designated by the go between in the presence of the go between and the father of the pros pective bride. Unlucky days for the wedding have been carefully elim inated, and the bride with the help of her mother and maids prepares herself for the ceremony. She smooths her face with rice bran and whitens it with powder. She paints her lips red and takes the utmost pains in dressing her hair. Her wedding dress is of pure white silk. Weddings in Japan are generally celebrated in the evening, and always at the home of the bridegroom's parents. As she leaves her home she is carried past a little fire which has been kindled at the entrance. In this are burned her dolls and play rr ý ^ I -~-r -V.. CI- - ·-_ -=. -~t ý 1ý -·r OLDEST LIVING CITY. The oldest living city in the world is undoubtedly Damascus. Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre, Sidon, have gone their way; but Damascus remains, and that, too, what i, was before the days of Abraham, a center of trade and travel. Aside from any historical interest, Damascus is interesting purely as a commercial center. From it came the damson, or blue plums, and the apri cot of Portugal, called damasco; dam ask, our fabric of cotton and silk, with designs of vines and flowers raised upon a smooth, bright ground; the damask rose, introduced into Eng land during the time of Henry VIN.; the Damascus blade, famous for its keen edge and its remarkable elastic ity, t.e secret of whose manufacture was, it is said, lost when Tamerlane carried the artist into Persia; and the art of inlaying wood and steel with gold and silver. WORLD'S OLDEST WINES. Some of the wine cellars in Paris contain bottles of Sauterne at least two centuries old. This is a very re spectable age, but it is nothing com pared with a certain Ribeauvilliers of 1652, or a Steinwein of 1540, or a Jew ish Passover wine of five centuries and a half. Still, in the museum at Rheims there is a far older wine, or rather a bottle containing something which was once wine. It is said to date four centuries before our era. This, tradition says, was found in a tomb of the Gallo-Roman period. Ber thelot, the celebrated chemist, has left on record that he once analyzed a bot tle of wine made in the neighborhood things to Indicate that she is piassinl from girlhood to womanhood Fol lowing the bride in procession to thi bridegroom's house are her parents her own and the bridegroom's friends and servants bearing presents for the bridegroom's family. Just before Miss Inouye becomel Mrs. Tamura she drinks tea with hel mother and her friend, the wife o1 the go-between. For want of an exaci term we have to call the wife 01 the go-between a bridesmaid, for i Japanese bride has no bridesmaids is the occidental sense. Young Sugi hara now receives some final good advice on her conduct in her new home. Perhaps they quote these counsels from the Japanese Greater Learning for Women: "The great life long duty of a woman is obedience. In her dealings with her husband both the expression of her countenance and the style of her address should be courteous, humble and concilla tory, never peevish and intractable, never rude and arrogant." The "tokonoma," the elevated place of honor and sanctity, is decorated for a wedding with articles such as n.'e, plum tree, and gamboo, symbol. izing long life, peace and uprightness; rice, offered to the gods; sake, or rice wine, and two small sake Jugs from which the "butterflies" pour the drink for the bride and bridegroom. In this family sanctuary are the bridegroom and bride, their parents, the go-between and his wife and the two "butterflies." The bride has taken her place near the bridegroom, her veil concealing her face until the ceremony is ended. The go-between, or middleman, is making formal an nouncement of the marriage, while music and singing are heard without Now the "butterflies"-two little girls or a boy and a girl-present the two-spouted cup of sake to the mouths of the bride and the groom alternate. ly,. This drinking from one cup sig nifles their unity in joy and sorrow henceforth. After the third cup the ceremony is ended, and Orio and Sugihura are now Mr. and Mrs. Ta. mura. of Rome about Nero's time. In this case the analyst had only a dry resid uum to work upon. MR. SMITH'S COMPEERS. In France the name employed to designate one of a very large number of men, as Smith is sometimes figura tively used by English people, is Du rand, the commonest name in the French directories. In Berlin and other cities of north Germany "Herr Meyer" is the equiva lent of "Mr. Smith." In other parts of Germany the name of Schulz, or Schulze, is the most common. Ger. man police authorities, who keep a sharp eye on everybody, have much trouble to distinguish all the Shulzes who have the same given name. One Schulze, who received a publie office in Berlin, was inscribed on the police rolls as "Hermann Schulze LV." On the same roll there were a Leh. mann XIX. and a Neumann XIV. ANTIQUITY OF TOBACCO. The idea that tobacco has only been known in Europe.since the dise covery of America is incorrect. In fact the Medes and Persians a long time before our era smoked narghiles, as ancient sculptures prove. A philol. ogist has suggested that the Greeks and Romans smoked tobacco at least in their colonies. In the Malay archi pelago the use of cigars and cigarettes is said to date much further back than the discovery of America. The word "cigar" seems to show that man's sol. ace and comforter did not originate in, the West Indies, but is most likely de rived from "sakara," an Arab word meaning smoke PAMOUS OLD.-'IM: PROPHETItSI Just outside the town of Kaares. borough, Yorkshire, Eng., ''esided Mo th6r Shipton, in a cave, still called after her. According to tradition the prophetess and witch was born in 1488, and was baptized Ursula by the Abbott of Beverley, although it was stated that the Evil One was her ifa ther. She must have been an ugly 'child, for one account says "her stature was much larger than com. mon, her body crooked, and her face frightful." Still, she managqd to get married, at the age of twenty-four, to one Toby Shipton, and for nearly fifty years more her prophecies were legion. It is understood that the first one of note which came true related to the downfall of Cardinal Wolsey, and that she followed this up with certain remarks relating to the dis solution of the monastries. But what fI chiefly interesting today are her supposed views on modern times; and in this connection it is said that she foresaw bicycles ana railway trains, and had also an inkling or rotor cars and ironclads. THE FATHER OF INTERVIEWERS. Boswell was the father of inter viewers. When he planted himself squarely before his eminent friend and inquired, "If, sir, you were shut up in a castle, asnd a new-born child with you, what would you do?" there you have the system inaugurated. In the fullness of time we have arrived at the reporter behind the note-book, and the lier-in-wait behind the kodak. There is this much to be said of the parent, which cannot always be said of his descendants-that he was steadfastly resolved to make his sub ject pose well. If the foretops of Dr. Johnson's wigs were all burned away in reading, the biographer feels bound to mention the fact; but he speaks disparagingly only of the can dle. He would not have hesitated, I feel sure, to inquire of Socrates con cerning his domestic infelicities, or of Henry VIII concerning his religious belief; but in his report of the mat, ters Socrates would preserve his dig nity, the king his piety.-Holbrook White, in the Atlantic. WIDOW MADE EXECUTIONER. Civilization has not yet taught the Afghans to abolish their barbarous ways of meting out justice. Recently a widow was allowed by the Amir, the native governor, to take a dramatic vengeance on her husband's murder er. The woman's husband had been murdered by another Afghan who was under the impression that his victim had some money in his possession. It appeared, however, that the mur. dered man was penniless and what the murderer thought was money turned out to be the remains of some food tied around the dead man's waist. The murderer was captured and the Amir ordered him to be hand. ed over to the widow, who was told that she could do what she liked with him. The widow decided to take the man's life, and while two male friends, kept a firm hold of the victim the woman slowly cut the man's throat with a penknife. REMEDY FOR EAST COAST FEVER. The statement that a remedy has been discovered for east coast fever will, if correct, prove a great boon to the farmers and natives of South Africa, many of whom have been ruined by the ravages of this terrible scourge. At one time previous to 1896 stock-farming was perhaps the most remunerative form of agricul ture in South Africa, but in that year the herds of the farmers were deci mated by rinderpest. No sooner had this pest subsided than it was fol lowed by east coast fever. But, now comes the news that Joseph Barnes, C. M. G., one of South Africa's most progressive agriculturists, succeeded this year in saving all his herds by building dipping tanks on his prop erty, in which the cattle were im mersed for a short period, thus ren dering them immune. COWBOY HATS 2,000 YEARS AGO. That there is nothing new under the sun is becoming more and more axiomatic. It is suggested that the Egyptians under Pharaoh knew of radium, that the Assyrians and Chal deans were acquainted with electric ity and that aviation was not un known to the ancients. Now we learn that frescoes and bas-reliefs in Crete show that in the depths of past ages huntresses wore leather boots, with big hats like those used by American cowboys, and that an archaeologist has come to the conclusion that the fashionable Cretan ladies 2,000 years before the Christian era appeared in public with boots with heels. the straight mantle and jupe culotte, in fact, just like a lady from one of the celebrated Parisian dressmaking es tablishments. COMPOSITION OF THE AUSTRIAN PARLIAMENT. According to Information supplied by the deputies themselves, the new Austrian parliament is composed of 120 landed proprietors, 50 advocates, and the same number of authors and journalisth, 41 public officials, 40 pro fessors, 26 persons at private employ ment, 22 business men, 21 Judges, 14 manufacturers, 11 burgomasters, ten teachers, nine doctors, nine diet members and nine former cabinet ministers and privy councillors, eight engineers, seven merchants, five polit leal offcials, three private persons, two clergymen and an active cabinet minister, an artist, a town councillor, ma osicer and a workingman. HOLD THEATER LOTTERY CHICAGO $HOW HOUSE BROUGHT' $600,000 IN 1867. Builder of Crosby's Opera House Went Broke on Enterprise and Decided to Dispose of Place by Lottery. Doubtless in the rummage of a good many homes in this country might still be found elaborate and ornate certificates of chance In the great lot tery of Crosby's opera house, Chicago, the drawlpgs for which took place January 2f, 1867. Nearly one hundred thousand of those chances were sold at $6 peqr chance, the builder of the opera house retaining more than twen ty-flve thousand himself after the sale had closed. This beautiful theater, famous in its day, was erected by Uranus H. Crosby, a prosperous wholesale liquor merchant, who went to Chicago from Massachusetts. He planned so mag nificently that when he had his build. Ing finished and furnished he had put into it not only all his business money, but most of his private fortune as well, the institution standing him about $600,000. It was too early for a "temple of art" in Chicago, and the builder went broke. Then it was that the plan to sell the house by lottery was formed and carried out. The prospectus described the building and its furnishings, the latter including a number of very costly paintings. For months the sale went on. The pur chasers covered the whole country. The hopes of the winners ran high, not only because of the capital prize, the opera house itself, but because of the lesser prizes, especially the paint ings. The drawing was directed by a board of men representing a half dozen cities. For two days before it took place train loads of ticket holders rolled into Chicago. On the Sunday preceding the Monday of the drawing the streets were crowded. Improvised sleeping accommodations had to be provided for the vast throng. Every hall, as well as every hotel and board ing house, was filled to its capacity. The grand prize was not reached un til the one hundred and thirteenth drawing, and it went to a man who was in Chicago, one of the few who had forgotten all about his investment and knew nothing, at the time, of the drawing-A. H. Lee of Prairie du Rocher, Ill. Several of the paintings, including Bierstadt's "The Yosemite Valley," were drawn by Mr. Crosby. Four days after the drawing Mr. Lee went to Chicago, but, in recogni tion of Mr. Crosby's high purposes I and the sacrifices they had cost him, offered to sell him the theater for $200,000, which price was paid to him by Mr. Crosby out of the proceeds of the lottery. This restoration of for tune did not last long. The opera I house was destroyed in the great fire I of 187L Browning a Great Talker. If Lord Houghton talked more than most people he certainly was eclipsed by Mr. Browning, who spoke louder and with greater persistency than anyone I have ever come across in my life. Although I had known him as a girl, we did not renew our ac quaintance until after my marriage, when I saw a great deal of him, as he constantly came to our house. He dined with us often, and used to come and see me generally every Sunday afternoon. He was very agree able and kind, and, although I was never one of his devoted followers and often told him I had never been able to read a line of his poetry, he still continued his friendship with me. I think most people feared rath er than loved him-certainly men did; but women adore poets, and they worshiped Mr. Browning.-From Lady St. Heller's "Memories." Memorial to Famous Wemen. The chapel of the new Liverpool cathedral, which is to be open next summer, has a scheme of beautiful stained glass windows commemora. tive of the deeds of good women. Be sides the women of the Bible the fol. lowing are commemorated: Dr. Alicia .Marvel and all who have laid down their lives for their sisters, Grace Dar. ling and all courageous maidens, Jo sephine Butler and all brave cham pions of purity, Mary Collet and all prayerful women, Louise Stewart and 'all the army of martyrs, Christine Ros. setti and all sweet singers, Catherine Gladstone and all loyal-hearted wives, 0Ulizabeth Barrett Browning and all women who have seen the infinite in things, Angela Burdette-Coutts and all women almoners of the king of heaven, Mother Cecile and all women loving and large hearted in counsel. Possibly Sarcastic. Three men sat in a row in a car, facing a middle-aged, clean-shaven man of ruddy complexion, who had an elongated leather case on his knees. Said the first man: "I bet I can tell that man's business. He's a doctor.' "Wrong," commented the second. It's a carpet-layer." "Nix on the carpet layer," said the third. "It's a piano tuner." The middle-aged man across the aisle put down his leather case and leaned forward. "I couldn't help over. hearing you gentlemen," he said, "and I want to correct you. My name is George Harvey. I am a veterinary surgeon and if I can be of any service to you call on me." They are still wondering what he realy meant by his offer of servioe K' - G.10 CU/Da r ý\s7 DY TdfFO(//01f/f ý / y '%y I have been employed to guide seamen in making harbors when they were hidden by darkness or fog ever since man Irst discovered that he could travel an water in a boat. In the long ago great fires were kept up during the night and if the night was fog-bound so that the fires could not be seen men having heavy, coarse and pene trating voices would stand at the wa ter's edge and one after the other they would lift their voices to the highest pitch in the "Lfi-f-hi-li-ho!" Mariners hearing, the voices would know in what direction to steer their craft. In those days, however, fires were kept burning or voices sent out over the water when a boat was expected, which was not often. Later, the watch tower was added to the fire and the voice signals. The United States is generally re garded as leading the world in the protection which she affords to her own mariners and to those coming to her shores from other countries. Like many other of our institutions, the de velopment of this service, though com paratively recent, has been both rapid and thorough, and in some respects marvelous. Other countries, however, have also made notable strides along the same line with the result that the old dangers of travel upon the seas of the world have been greatly re duced. More than 200 years after the dis covery of America only one lighthouse had been built In this country, though the value of such an aid to navigation had been known since the days of the ancients. Since they began to multi ply, many almost unsurmountable ob stacles have been overcome in estab lishing some of the most important lights and not a little heroism has been chronicled In the work of con struction as well as in the subsequent daily tasks of the keepers. Some most notable feats of engineering skill have also been chronicled. The greatest heroism and skill has, of course, been exhibited in the erec tion of those lights which stand upon the reefs or on huge boulders. Pas sengers on passing ships watch the waves and heavy seas dash over these rocks on which now stand staunch lighthouses, and marvel how they were ever built. The history of such houses usually includes the loss by drowning of several of the builders not to speak of exposure and unusual hardships on the part of all. Nor have all the obstacles been upon the ocean coasts. On one of the five great lakes-Lake Huron-there stands a lighthouse on Spectacle reef' which for nearly forty years has been with standing not only the storms and heavy seas but also the pressure of great packs of ice. Other lighthouses built under much less difficulty, however, are of the greatest importance. Buildings of much less size built not upon rocks but perhaps upon artificial cribs a mile or so from shore are to be found at many points, especially on the great lakes, and their lights illumine the paths of the immense steel ships which carry the ore from Lake Su perior to the ports on Lake Erie. Some of those now building on these waters are said to be a forerunner of m.ny others of like construction which the government will build within a few years. They are constructed of steel and concrete along the lines of a mod ern office building. One of these mod' era buildings has just been completed and is known to mariners as the White Shoals lighthouse. Steel instead of stone and brick means as much to modern lighthouse building as it does in so many other industrial lines. The cost of lighthouses ranges from $1.000 to $800,000 and there have been a few which have cost more than don ble the latter amount, this depending largely upon the construction required and especially on whether or not they are located on a reef or rock where the hazards involved in the work are unusually great. Such buildings in a 5,000-mile coast line are, of course. comparatively few. The lighthouse territory of the United States is divided into districts, each district in charge of an inspector under the navy department and an en gineer under the army department of the government. Unlike the life sav ing service, the figures for the amount of life and property it saves each year cannot be readily computed, but could the story be written it would fill vol umes. On the gtsfat lakes, three districts are represented in the service of these bodies of water-the ninth, tenth and eleventh. Vessels with supplies and which do construction work and make repairs are plying constantly to the various lighthouses in these districts. The one which looks after new con struction and repair work is under the engineers' department in the army service. The service on these inland seas is very important, as it has to do with a commerce which is greater than that of any bodies of water of similar size in the world. In front of the entrance to all great lake ports there is a lighthouse and on a line with it further into the harbor a range light. This arrangement guides the mariner into port. Coming down the lakes he continues until he comes to a point where he is about on a line with the lighthouse and the range light, then turns and begins his journey to and into the harbor. In the darkness of the night, the captain of a vessel determines the par ticular harbor from which the light shines by different characteristics of the various lights. Plashes which are made by revolving arms passing around the large circular stationary lens at the lighthouse give him the name of the port. The number of fashes a minute and the duration of the total eclipse are governed by rules of the department and the mariners have a copy of the key or code to which they refer until thoroughly fa miliar with the same. In connection with these lights the fog horns are operated. The doleful noise of one of these horns may be heard for 20 miles. All day long and all night if necessary the sound is heard, the horn being run by auto matic machinery. Like the difference in the number of flashes of the revolv ing light, the number of blasts of the fog horn and the interval following tell the captain of a passing or incom ing vessel the name of the port. In one of the lighthouses of the lakes a 20-horsepower compressor and engine furnish the air for the siren whistle which is used in time of fog. This air is forced through 20 obliquely cut slots making the disk revolve at a speed of 2,400 revolutions per minute. Thus it is forced around much as a windmill and the sound emanates from it when it is revolving. The keeper of the light and his as sistant are on watches just as the captain and his assistants on a lake ship' take turns. Their residences are on shore and they go back and forth to the lighthouse in a small boat. Often, however, the seas are so high that it is impossible to go ashore and they both remain at the lighthouse. In the late fall when the seas break over the lighthouse it is not unusual for the water to freeze and the keepers have to cut their way out. Within the light house living rooms for the keepers are fitted up and a supply of food is al ways kept on hand in the event that it is impossible for them to come ashore.