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LOS ANGELES, Oct. 5. 1898.— A druggist in this city has on ex hibition in a wire cage in his show windows a Gila monster brought from the alkali deserts of Southern Arizona, and there has been nothing in the line of natural his tory shewn her" in a long time thnt has attracted so much attention as this reptile. There is a great mass of fiction about the fatal effects of the breath of a Gila monster, and any amount of senseless traditions among- the Indians and old soldiers of the Southwest concerning the blighting effects left by the crawl ing of the reptile over any living plant or animal. The reptile gets its name from the Gila River region in Arizona, where the soldiers stationed at old Fort Yuraa found hundreds of them years ago before the war. The Pima, Apache, Maricopah and Yuma Indians of the Southwest, who have little fear of the bite of ._ Mexican centipede or a rattlesnake, will hunt a Cilia monster cautiously to its death and will even go many miles to - i* I the country of one of these reptiles, which they regard as the most to be dreaded of anything that crawls. Among the Cocopahs of Southern California the tribal belief Is that the most fearful vengeance that may come to the spirit bodies of bad Indians after this iife is to be bitten by a red Gl-La minister that roams, un seeji.by mortal eyes, over the adobe plains waiting to snap at the red sKinned savages inimical to the great spirit chief. • is a ridiculous mls ptile is a combination of ih- of India and Java and the common lattlesnake of this coun try. It has a counterpart in a reptile f..und in the lava, b^ds of the Hawaiian Is, but la the much deadlier of the Many settlers in Arizona call the ij-tl'jes "rattlesnake lizards," but it has re hideous and startling appear than a rattlesnake, and for that : ably gave it the :.ame of monster. The Gila monster is about eighteen inches in length and in girth about the size of a boy's arm. its tai; is one-third i>f the body, and It has a mottled or striped skin in red dish yellow and dark brown. Its mouth liar in shape to that of an alli gator, and its little black eyes have the appearance of those of the alli farnily. It weighs from three to four pounds. A true saurian, it ha^i r'nur stubby legs, Bhaped and placed like those of a lizard, but it has none of the rapidity of motion of a lizard. It is never found in damp, cool spots, tut in the hottest sand or on the uryest sun baked soil. Rattlesnakes do not stay in the heat that the <.;i!u monster enjoys, and it is doubtful if f-veu a could stand a dally temperature degrees for hours, whl^h the (lila mon ster grow? fat on during midsummer •weeks. It lives with rattlesnakes and subsists like the snakes. The head of the Glla monster Is much like that of a small boaconstriotor and the teeth are in double rows, thick and very sharp. When the reptile bites — It never sprlnps or strikes at its victim, hut just simply bites — it means busi for the grasp of the Jaws is some thing marvelous. Anything once caught between those two double rows of teeth is held a* if In a vise-like steel trap. The Indian? have a saying that a genu ine Gila monster will not release a piece Of flesh between Its Jays until the big spirit in th mountains causes a thun der, even If It takes all summer. It is known by both whites and savages on the df-.«orts of the Territory that it is "worse than useless to attempt to forct the Gila monster to release its hold upon any person or animal, for that only Increases the wound and the rep tile in a rage manufactures fresh venom In Its poison Backs in the roof of the mouth and injects it into the cut and torn flesh. The Gila monster Is always killed firm when it has bitten a human being and then the Jaws are cut and pulled away from the wound. The Maricopah Indians do not attempt to release &. member of their tribe who has been t>i;t>-n by a Gila monster from th»k dreadful little jaws, and it is generally believed that they end th^ suffering* of any hapless victim amonß them selves by a deadly blow on the bead. Th»y say the know no cure for the poison of the reptiles. When attacked the Gila monster re treats about half his length and crouches close to the ground, but rear ing his head and neck in a fierce man ner, whil>- a black, forked tongue over an inch In length darts swiftly out of a mouth abnormally wide and cavernous. At the same time it <-mit.s a hiss, joir"'v with a creaking noise, wh'ch ; s nsade by scraping either its claw.-;, which ap pointed an " sharp, or the rough scales of its body v. Ti the stones or gravel beneath it. if this demonstration fails to repulse the aprgrops-.r th* Gila mon ster will not hesitate, when thoroughly angered, to make a map at the foe, be it man or beast. Tt bites precisely as a rattlesnnk.'. bul has none (•: the agility of a serpent. But It will never attack anything that it does not require for food unless firft Interfered with. If es cape be near in the shape of a burrow in the ground or a hole In the rocks large enough for its accommodation th? monster will discreetly retire from view and remain hidden until the ene ... ■ .. ' ■ . . • .- my has retired. One of the few authentic cases of re covery from the bite of a Gila monster is that of Walter H. Vail of Phoenix, Ariz., who is one of the best-known and wealthiest cattlemen in the Ter ritory. While Mr. Vail was engaged in a round-up of his cattle in the Gila River region o' Arizona in IS9O he took luncheon one day in a chaparral. He went to resaddle his horse after the meal and while picking up a saddle cloth from the hot earth his hand was bitten by a Gila monster that had crawled there a moment before. Of course Mr. Vail knew instantly that he was probably a doomed man. His ranchmen came to his aid at once. The reptile was killed and the jaws were cut away from Mr. Vall's hand. Quicker than it takes to pen these wolds the man's arm was bound tight at the elbow to check the flow of blood, the wound \vas cut open and strong ammonia was poured in. while very co pious draughts of whisky were poured down Mr. Vails throat. He was put ■in a horse and accompanied by his cowboys roile like mad for fifteen miles to the home of a pnyslcian in Tucson. Several brief stops were ma* t > force more liquor down Mr. Vails throat and to pour ummonia on the wound in the hand. For three weeks Mr. Vail lay almost between life and death at the home of a physician in Tucson. Phy sicians were summoned for consulta tion from PZioenix and even from Los Angeles, everything that money could buy or science suggest was done for the patient. He had a strong, vigorous tution, and in the course of a few months he was as well as ever. He is still in the cattle business in the Ter ritory. Every one in the Southwest has heard of the wonderful recovery of Walter Vail fror the bite of a Gila monster. Among the Yuma Indians is a squaw who was bitten by one of the reptiles over thirty years ago. What decoction was given to the woman to save her life or what the army physician at the United States garrison there did for the poor savage is now now known, but she is pointed out by whites and Indians in the town of Yuma as the only person in that locality that ever survived the ; in of the Gila monster. The wo man's leg which was bitten has shriv eled away to half the size of the other leg, and the squaw has been a semi idiot ever since her accident. For sev eral years she claimed to be deaf from the effects of the reptile's venom. The- period of suffering after a bite by a Gila monster and before death comes to a victim's relief is from twenty minutes to two hours. A surgeon at Fort Apache says he knows of the case of a big, strapping Irish private in the army service who was bitten by a Gila monster while out hunting one day and died in five minutes. A teamster who hauled merchandise to Tombstone in ■as picking up mesquite boughs for a campflre and unconsciously picked up a Gila monster with the wood. He was bitten in the upper arm and died before his companions could saw the reptile's h'-ad off and cut the teeth and jaws from the wound. Where the afflicted person survives an hour or two after the bite the agony is described as awful to witnr-ss. The venom of the rattlesnake is somewhat numbing in its first effect, and after the first half hour is not so very painful, but the poison of the Gila LEARNING LANGUAGES BY GRAPHOPHONE. Ncvel Club Formed to Prepare for the Great Paris Exposition. Parl^z voui Franraip? Sprechen pie Deutsch? No? Then buy a graphophone. That is what a club of nearly COO students in this city are doing, all in dead earn est, too. During work, at the breakfast table, in their bedrooms, they will only have try "press the button" and cun ning little machines will speak out a volume of French, German or Spanish with all the fluency of the mother tongue. The mazes of the inextricable "irregular verb" will vanish. The charter members of this novel organization met last week In Dr. Simpson's office at the Y. M. C. A. building, and formed what will be known as the "1900 Club." The prime object of the club is to master one or all of these languages before the Paris exposition in 1900, which many of the members will at tend. The graphophone method will be used to this end, and the system prom ises to work wonders in the study of al! foreign tongues. Charles Freeman Johnson, official nfr-noKrapher to the Midwinter Exposi tion, first conceived the idea of organiz ing such a flub, after ten years' expe rience in using graphophones. He Is now organizing "1900 Clubs" in Los An geles Chicago. Detroit, Toledo and cities of the East. Nearly 300 young men and women in this city have en listed for the work. The objects of the 1900 Club are: Fi rs t_-The study of the French. Ger man and Spanish languages, conversa tion, reading and writing, with compe tent teachers and through a novel plan of home study, using the graphophone in the club and at home. Second— To collect all necessary in formation for those desiring to visit the Paris Exposition in 1900, to procure special rates and advance accommoda THE SAX FEAXCISCO CALL,, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 9, IS9B. HANGS ON TO ITS VICTIM Like a Bull Dog While The Poisosrn Acts AND HAS TO BE CUT AWAY. monster goes through the human sys tem with lightning rapidity and causes unspeakable pain and exerueialing agony from head to foot. The victim seems to be paralyzed, and yet every muscle, bone, sinew and particle of gray matter is keenly alive to intense pain. The sufferer's head seems as if It would split open. Very few persons j bitten by a Gila monster can speak I after the first fifteen minutes, but un | consciousness seldom comes until a few minutes before death. Physicians say that the poison sets up a tremendous ' action of the heart, and the victim 1 really dies of heart failure. The person who has been drinking to excess a few ! days or a few hours before he is in jured by a Gila monster is almost sure of death in half an hour after the bite. Many physicians in the Territory say that" alcoholic stimulants are worse I than useless for a person hurt by the reptile, but Walter H. Vail says he owes his recovery to a prompt use of whisky and the application of am monia. Dr. E. G. Harper, who has been among the Hualipi Indians in Mexico for several years in the Interest of science, says ih° savages there cer tainly have' a decoction that is a cure, if administered immediately, for the bite of the Gila monster found in that region. "I have tri"<l to learn from the Mexican Hualipifl this anti-venom I decotum," said Dr. Harper re ! cently, "but it was useless. Pres ident Diaz snys, however. that it can be had. rvnd he will interest him self to get it for the benefit of the per> ' pie of the T'nited States, wh^re a death ; from Gila monster bite happens once in a while. "The most wonderful feat I ever saw accomplished anywhere," continued Dr. Harper, "was down on the edge of the desert wastes in Southern Sonora sev eral years ago. It was a test of the power of the anti-venom preparation of the Hualipis. The chief medicine man claimed that he was n. wizard, too, and 1 that the great spirit Moz-no-ha, who I dwelt on the peak of Orizaba, came down and helned him d-fy death from ' the most deadly poisons known among i the Indians. At the time of the test I j witnessed, the medicine man sum! ! moned a dozen of his assistants around a caldron, which was steaming and Roiling with roots, leaves, horned toads, rattlesnake heads and a score of other kinds of articles. I was told that this i was the anti-poison medicine. In an i hour the stuff was cooled and ready for use. , ... "The chief medicine man drunk lib erally of the ctrange tea and then his body was liberally washed with some liquid that made it impervious to poison. The body, bare to the waist, was then painted in red and white | stripes. A fox hung from the waist. i The medicine man bounded into the i arena with a 'ho-ho, 1 brandishing over i his head two Gila monsters. Then he i varied the pror -amme by twirling them i around his body and permitting them to crawl all over him. He teased the reptiles poked his thumb into their mouths, and even put them up to his face I am sure the man was bitten several times. We looked upon this daring feat with horror, while the In dians viewed it with superstitious frenzy and showered upon the medi cine man all the presents they could command." "The most awful paroxysms of pain I tions for members on railroads, steam ships and at hotels. A trifling monthly fee will be charged, for which members will have the advantage of a permanent club room fully equipped with foreign books and periodicals printed with English translations for students, competent teachers In both beginners' and ad vanced classes, graphophones and cyl inders containing the language lessons, with opportunities for conversation practice, together with all the informa tion and special advantages the club may obtain concerning Paris and the exposition of 1900. The charter members of the 1900 Club are: Mrs. H. C. French, Mrs. E. P. Jordan, Mrs. Nellie Holbrook Bllnn, Mrs. E. C. Colnon, Mrs. John Gillson, Mrs! M. J. Donovan. Mrs. De Lyons, Dr J M. Simpson. Mrs. G. W. Cloud, Mr. H. J. Dorian. Mr. W. E. Little Mr. F. Flawlth and Charles Freeman John son. Mr. Johnson has a graphophone in his bedroom, and every night and morning It is, "Au revoir!" "Bon jour. Monsieur" from the metallic little teacher at his bedside. "If I have only a minute," said Mr. Johnson, "I set the graphophono to talking; while I am washing, dressing or undressing, the machine always has the last word. "We intend to make our club a Chautauqua of languages. In our club rooms we will have graphophones for the uxe of the members who will hear from little cylinders nothing but the best of French, German and Spaninh. We will have competent teachers to dictate to the machines, which the members of the club can then hear as long as they like. Graphophonee are cheap, and we will all have them in our rooms ready for use any hour in the day. Close to 300 students are now In terested here." ever saw," said T. W. Brooks, a well known miner and prospector in Arizona, while he was In Yuma recently, "was that suffered by a Mexican scout ton years ago. We were camping along tHe Gila River one night In summer and at about daybreak one of the mules we had tethered near by raised a commo tion. The Mexican, who had taken off his boots because of the excessively warm weather, Jumped up and ran to see what was the matter, while I lazily rolled over for another nap. In a mo ment I hoard piercing shrieks and was on my feet before T knew it. I snatched up the camp lantern and ran to the Mexican. He was dancing about on one foot and pointing speechless to some thing dangling from the other. I looked and saw a Gila monster.- "In a trice I had my hunting knife out and plunged it again and again into DIVISION OF AFRICA BY THE GREAT POWERS Contest Between England and prance for the Rich Table-land of the Interior and What the European Governments Purpose Doing With the Territories They Have Seized. LONDON, Sept. 24.— 1t seems only yesterday that public attention was centered in Cuba. Then it shifted to China. Now it Is fixed on Africa. General £it chener has swept all before him at Omdurman. Gordon is avenged. With the masterly hand of a genius Kitchener has moved persistently for ward. After Omdurman, he advances without delay and challenges the French claims in the lower Soudan. He orders Marchand and Llotard to evacu ate Fashoda, bringing the Anglo- French dispute to a crisis. In the south, Cecil Rhodes makes the wonderful claim that he will build a railroad from Cairo to Cape Town. For the next fifty years nation building prom ises to center In "Darkest Africa." Will the French give way? How will the European? divide up the continent? What will the effect be on America? Can Cecil Rhodes carry out his gigan tic plan? All these questions suggest interesting possibilities. The story of Africa as she is to-day DIAGRAM SHOWING MOW FRANCE fIND ENGLAND ARE SEIZING POSSESSIONS IN AFRICA. The fight for territory is between England and France. In actual area, France holds the most. Her flag flies over three million square miles, while England's control covers only aoout two millions. But Eng land makes up in quality her lack of quantity. Roughly speaking, the continent of Africa is divided into three parts. A great low area In the north; an immense table land extending from the Sahara desert southward through the continent; the mountainous region along the coast, the passageway to this table land. The first, the desert of Sahara, is for France; the second, the meat of the continent, is for England; the third— a sort of rind— belongs for the most part to Portugal and Germany. is the oft-repeated story of British i brains and British pluck; the story of that greatest element in the Anglo- Saxon character, its colonizing faculty. The fight for territory here is between England and France— and England wins as she always has won. Look at the map of Africa. In actual area, France holds the most. Her flag flies over three million square miles, while England's control covers only about two millions. But England makes up in quality her lack of quantity. Rough ly speaking, the continent of Africa is divided into three parts. A great low area in the north; an immense table land extending from the Sahara desert southward through the continent; th* mountainous region along the coast, the passageway to this table land. The first, the desert of Sahara, is for France; the second, the meat of the continent, is for England: the third — a sort of rind — belongs for the most part to Portugal and Germany. The principal rivers, lakes and har bors belong mostly to England. The only first-class harbor not under Eng lish control is Delagoa Bay, under Por tuguese rule, and on this the British lion has fixed a craze which means that he will not be denied. France has the Upper Niger. Leopold of Belgium holds a part of the Congo River. England holds the rest of the navigable water ways. English gunboats patrol the lakes. The Congo Free State and Qer the reptile's sides and back. It hung on like an English bulldog, and when I saw that it was dead Iby mai force pulled the monster away from the foot, now dripping with blood. By that time the Mexican had become calmer. He knew whr.t it meant, and he simply said between the pains that darted from the wound through his system, 'It will all be over in an hour.' He know we had there no antidote for the poison, and he told me to give his pay to his wife in Phoenix and to go and tell her how he had died. In ten /minutes his pain had increased so much that he was unable to open his mouth to even gulp down whisky that I pressed to his pur ple lips. I" • said no one could imagine ihe excruciating agony he was in. Per spiration rolled from Hs body ;..s if he were in a Turkish bath, and he rolled hack and forth on the ground. His many jointly holds Lake Tanganyika, but Lake Nyassa, the lakes of Zam besi, the lakes of the Upper Nile and Lake Tchad are controlled by the Gov ernment at London. But England has the fertile valley of the Nile, which, after frightful mis management by the Egyptians and years of recuperation by the English, is now holding its own. She has the rich country of the Uganda and th^ surrounding provinces of British East Africa. She has Cape Colony, with it? farming lands and its ranches. And, lastly, she has the richest part of that Golconda of the world, the diamond and gold fields of South Africa. There is one more fact about Eng land's territory and an important one because it bears directly on the rail road of Cecil Rhodes' imagination. The sweeping victory of Kitchener will not warrant tn calling the Soudan Egyptian — and therefore British terri tory. A glance at the map will show a straight line of England's territory from Cairo- to Cape Town with but one break. The waving of the Union Jack through all those 5000 miles of terri tory is prevented only by a narrow strip of 540 miles. That land was eyes were staring wide open and his hands were clenched. "In half a., hour h was insane with pain. His legs and then his whole body swelled. It seemed as if the wounded foot and leg would burst open. He tried to talk in his delirium, but his tongue was so swollen that he could only utter whistling sounds. In an hour and a half he was dead. I have sometimes dreamed J saw all that scene over again. The Mexicans in Phoenix said that the fact that it was in the middle of a long summer when the man was bitten was what made the poison so venomous." Captain B. E. Lewis, recently retired frnm the United States army, has lived I seventeen years in Arizona and New Mexico. "It is an absolute truth," says he, "that the hiss of a Gila monster is deadly to some creatures. I would not taken by an Englishman, but most un fortunately, acting under the Belgian flag. Had England stood back of .Stanley, had she listened to his plead ings and not driven him to Leopold of .''elgium, there would have been an un broken line of English territory to-day through the center of Africa, from the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope. The Congo Free State makes the single break. Stanley found it. Belgium has established a protectorate. Still the obstacle can be overcome. Leopold is working in entire accord with England's plans. He has es tablished England's policy of "the open door" in all trade matters. He will place no obstruction to any plans that will lead to development and civiliza tion. •The value of Egypt commercially lies in the Nile River. The rising of the i river and the consequent fertilization of j the land renders two and sometimes three crops a year nossible. This I gives an immense agricultural output. ' The Soudan Is immensely fertile and when once under control will play an ! important part in the world's wheat supply. South Africa will probably be devel- want to risk my life by trying the ex periment. I was once sitting on the porch of my headquarters in the Apache war and I saw my little black and-tan dog nosing with something in the sage brush a few yards away. I looked and saw a Gila monster" dart forth and hiss in the face of the dog, which sprang back at the same mo ment. I ran and killed the reptile ana the dog went off to sleep near by. It was dead in two hours. Several per sons and I examined the dog's carcass carefully and we could find no evidence of a bite on the beast. I am sure it was something in the hiss or breath of the Gila monster that killed the dog. "A Mexican ranchman near Fort Bowie told me that he once saw a sheep attacked in the same way by a Gila monster and the sheep went ,into a stupor and was dead in a few hours. oped faster than other portions of the Dark Continent, because it already has such a splendid start. The district in cludes Cape Colony, Natal, Bechuana land, Matabele, Mashonaland and other smaller provinces. Cape Colony has been known for centuries. Orig inally settled by the Dutch and after ward occupied by the English, there exists in the colony a strong element of political friction which sometimes takes the form of an outbreak. The temporary setback to Cecil Rhodes in the elections of last month is but an other example of tbe pertinacity of the Dutch. Farther north, the English are pushing into the vast territory of Rho desia- Almost surrounded by the land of the English and with nearly a half of their populations composed of that na tionality are two independent countries, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. That they will hold aloof from England's control for a number of years is unquestioned, but that they will be absorbed finally under a protec torate seems inevitable. This then is the condition of the Brit ish star of empire in South Africa. Sit uated almost entirely in the temper ate zone, rich in farming and grazing lands, containing almost fabulous min eral wealth waiting to be developed, it stands to-day England's greatest Afri can colony. What progress has Cecil Rhodes made with his railroads, and does that prog ress warrant his claim of a railroad, from Cairo to Cape Town? In EevDt the railroad has followed the British, advance. In 1896 It reached Wady Hal fa, a distance of 800 miles from Cairo. In 1897 it was pushed forward to Ber ber, 300 miles more. The capture of umdurman means the immediate con tinuation of the railroad to that point. The necessi ies of a big army, the im mediate need of occupying in force the whole of the district, calls for rapid, construction. The present railroad in Egypt has been built almost entirely for military pumoses, and its chief characteristic is military utility. After the war has closed, the branches of commercial value will be advanced on the foundation already laid down by the army. In British East Africa a line has been planned to run from Mombasa, on the coast, to Lake Victoria. Already the first hundred miles have been nnrn ed and trains are running. The who c distance to be built is 856 miles, and it is estimated that less than five years will be necessary for finishing the work. Some of the details in the run ning of the trains are interesting. They start and return on alternate days. The journey inland is up grade, and tbe speed is twelve miles an hour. The prices are in three classes, the first being 38 rupees, the second 19. and the third 3 rupees '5 annas. A feature that may appeal to Americans is the names of the stations Chaugamwe. Samburu. Maji Chumoi. What possibilities for the intelligent brakeman. The telegraph is the scout of the railroad system in Africa — its advance agent. Along with the iron rail from Cairo to Capetown runs Rhodes' plan of a wire line and it will be finished in a few years. The end of 1597 marked the first real step in Cecil Rhodes' plan, when the railroad was extended northward as far as Buluwayo. The financial success of this enterprise has so encouraged Rhodes that he has petitioned the En glish Government to guarantee the in terest on the next section, the line from Buluwayo to Lake Tanganyika. This line will proceed northeasterly to Zumbo, passing through the Sanga coal fields. Crossing the Zambesi on a ferry it will pass through Northern Rhodesia, opening up a new territory peculiarly fitted by its altitude for white colonization. Finally, it will strike the lower end of Lake Tangan yika. This new portion will cover a distance of 800 miles and the expense of building it will be £2,500.000. The guarantee of the Government would enable the company to obtain the loan at 3 per cent instead of 5 per cent. As the line to Buluwayo was a paying one from the start, there are good rea sons to believe that the Government will not lose money by such a guaran tee. One *other great factor will shortly contribute to the development of Africa. This is long-distance trans mission of electric power. Already the waterfalls of the Nile at Assuan have ben harnessed and power Is being trans mitted overland to vark.-u. points. Alexandria is being lighted by trana mltted electric power- 23