The Leon Reporter
B. HOIA, FabUihw.
6S08 IOWA.
THURSDAY, FEB, 28 1901.
The will of the late Jarvis Ford ot
4St Joseph, Mo., leaves .$20,000 for a
free memorial library in that place,
and $10,000 to the municipal hospital.
Speaking of the difficulty students
experience in remembering the exact
situation of the mitral and tricuspid
valves of the heart, Prof. Huxley once
remarked that he remembered that the
mitral (so called from its resemblance
to the. headgear of the church dlgni'
must be on the left side, "because
bubop could never be in the right"
Potatoes are now being Imported
from the Pacific coast ts China. The
W l»f|» shipment of potatoes from
Uuseountry to the Walled Empire was
*e»«rted a short vhUe ago. The car
te left Tacoma, Wash., for Shanghai.
Th* £felaeae have drawn on the Pacific
for breadstuff* in recent years,
but this Is the first sign that they havr
acquired a taste for potatoes.-,"^
(j
Vi,
A. curious street car line is that be
tween Atami and Toshihoma, .two
coast tolrfis In the province of Izie,
Japan. The line is seven miles long,
the rolling stock consists of a single
car, and the motive power is furnished
by a couplq of muscular coolies, who
push the car along wherever power is
necessary. When the car comes to a
down grade they jump on and ride.
Were the protection of our forests
carried to the full extent, there would
In no offender to come under the cdu
damnation which Phillips Brooks thus
expressed: "There is something wrong
about a man that needlessly plucks off
Ha new leaf-bud from a forest tree, even
,if he be where no human steps would
telxave been sheltered by its shade and
4io ^luman eye charmed with its
b^ariity."
What Booker Washington is saying
to the men of his own race, anothff,
2iear voice is saying to the white folks:
"What the south needs is respect for
ytoSfk. We must put on our overalls
•*nd use our hands." There is no sec
tionalism in such a lesson it is law
)fcn4 gospel for all, latitudes .and longi
tudes. Industrial development offers
fcoth 'oasis and security for all highei
interests. i'"Y'
p" Jt
Glowing reports come from the
jbeepraising district in southern Colo
rado. The Arkansas valley Is und*r
irrigation over an area of .eighty-fi\"e
miles long and ten miles wide, and
will shortly become the greatest lamb
feeding center in the world. At the
present time over 315,000 sheep and
lambs are on feed there, .and judging
from the rate of increase there should
to^500j000 in_another year,
Among ine-notewortHy Bel,_
charitable purposes during the
5year was that of a Navajo Indian,
whose estate, valued at over $20,000,
was left for the establishment of a free
medical dispensary, as "an aid in ex
Alnguishing cruel aboriginal supersti
tions in the tribe." The giver reeog
poized the fact that, in an important
sense, it is for the Indian to say what
the future of the Indian shall be.
'A $1 bill bearing only a stamp and
no wrapper for a written communica
tion on mailt from Chicago. The bill
served as a wrapper from a written
communication on a card, and was*
•sewed to the card. On the outsidept
the bill was pasted a bit of whitg/pa
per bearing a two-cent stamp/did the
address. Ques 'ion was raigeffas to the
right of sendin? moj^lnthis manner,
but the bill irm^Tfiend was allowed to
It is contemplated to construct a
railroad, similar to the Jungfrau line
{o the summit ot Mont Blanc. M.
Vallpt, the director of the Mont Blanc
observatory, and M. Deperet, professor
of mineralogy at the Lyons university.
In conjunction with M. Fabre, a French
engineer, have been engaged for some
time past in surveying the sides of the
mountain to zscertain a suitable route
and the atmospheric conditions. The
result of these investigations is the
projection of a line probably starting
from the village of Ilouches, on the
Savoy side, to the suiamit, to have a
•otal length of eleven miles.
After a recent contest it came out
that in some instances- the struggling
athletes were sustained by the use of
arsenic, strychnine and nitroglycerine.
The winner in a close trial may tri
umph because the trainer has been
judicious in administering tonic drugs.
But does not the pharmaceutical road
to victory seem less attractive than
the old way which led through physi
cal strength and skill unaided by the
stimulants which edicine offers?
There ]s a modernness about the pos
sibility of being beaten by a sixtieth
of a prate of strychnine, which to
earl' jr «W2:lStes would have brought
both wonder and regret. '.
A company at Ansonia, Conn., ha*
||ust received the largest order for cop
ier trblley wire ever placed in this
(country. The weight is more than
f1,000,000 pounds and the destination
is British India, whefe'the wire will
be used to equip one of tie first trolley
lines in that colony.
gyenge is a kind of wild justice,
^he morgjgg]^ nature runs to
gutj^foj
r.
Fis ex
itue "La
Red it have
Jcrap iron foi
uprises '210,
fcubic meter
^ornament#
ballast.
paying
in
Ito tht
.paii
101
ft
Tha Oiwtuii or tha Century.
We mark off centuries, and fix the
stakes,'
Arraigning time to judge him by our
deeds
First science writes with giant hand
her meeds,
Then knowledge all the slumb'rlng se
crete wakes
Man stands supreme, the sceptre boldly
takes
As conqueror of the earth, the world
old seeds
Have borne great fruit In things and
creeds
Through these last years behold truth's
dawn-like breaks.
Aye, read the splendid records of our
race
But only in the light of human hap
piness
What matter if man's power control
the pace
Of wild-whirled stars be there one
joy the less
Search hearts and hopes before the
crown you place
Upon the century then 'tis time to
bless.
—Henry C. Rehm.
Daniel Morgan and the Baby.
When Arnold's expedition against
Quebec sailed for the Kennebec, in
1775, it included no finer troops, and
none more picturesque than the Vir
ginian sharpshooters of Daniel Mor
gan, who was afterward famous as
the friend of Washington and the vic
tor of Cowpens. A pretty tradition of
the march of the Virginians from the
camp at Cambridge to the rendezvous
at Newburyport belongs to an old
farmhouse set back a little from the
main road on a shady lane of its own.
In its kitchen, that September day, a
boy of nine was'engaged in washing
dishes, half-crying with vexation over
bis task and the possibility of the sol
diers passing without his seeing them.
His mother had been called suddenly
away, and had left him in charge, with
an injunction not to leave the house
until her return. With the dish pan
before him, a blue tire fastened around
him and one foot frequently on the
rocker of the cradle drawn up beside
him, he dutifully but despairingly clat
tered china and sang to his baby sis
ter. A shadow in the doorway made
him«°K up, and he beheld there two
[llJ. brown, towering figures—one
of the tallest and handsomest men
hehad ever seen, several inches over
ix attired 'in buckskin hunting
•hirts and with caps bearing the motto
'Liberty or death." They vrere Daniel
Morgan and one of his lieutenants.
They entered and asked for a draft of
water but the boy hastily whisking off
his apron, invited them to sit down
and partake of milk and cookies in
stead—an offer which they readily ac
cepted. But the baby, as her brother's
foot left the rocker, roused herself and
began to cry so lustily that he hesitat
ed whether to try and quiet her first,
or to go at once to the pantry. The
mighty Virginian captain did not hesi
tate at all he stooped with a laugh,
scooped the small lady out of her cra
dle and lifted her to such a breathles3
height that she stopped her complaints
in sheer amazement, and presently be
gan to squeal with delight. Moreover,
when the food was brought, and her
brother tried to take her from her new
friend, she pretested so tempestuously
and clung so tightly to the fringes of
his shirt, that he laughed again and
would not let her go, but ate and drank
one-handed, with the baby still held on
his left arm. In consequence he was
somewhat awkward and let fall a plate,
which was broken in halves. After the
departure of the rnea this breakage
worried the boy, who feared he might
be punished for having served his im
posing guests, as he bad done, from
the precious best china, which no one
but the mistress of the house might
touch without permission. On his
mother's return, therefore, it was with
much trepidation that he told his
story but that strict, although patri
otic housekeeper, forgave and approved
1iim. She had the broken plate mend
ed, and for many years it remained in
the family, and was known to suc
ceeding generations as "Ueneral Mor
gan's plate."
Killed 1]Is Kueiny.
"How does it feel to kill a man in
battle?" was the question put to one
of Morgan's men the other evening.
"Thank God, I never had but one ex
perience of that kind," was the reply,
"but that was enough.
"In Kentucky it not infrequently
happened that boys from the .same
town went Into both the confederate
and the federal armies. When the war
broke out I joined Morgan's command.
My best chum, Dick Nolton, went with
a regiment of federals.
"Before we separated we swore to
each other that, whatever came, noth
ing should alter the affection we had
for each other, and that if either could
help the other he would do so, no mat
ter what the cost. We even went so1
far as to cut a dollar in two pieces,
and each promised to wear his half on
a string about his neck.
"One day in September, in the sec
ond or third year of the'war, our com
mand was ordered to dismount and try
to dislodge a "party of federals who
held a little wood in front of us. We
charged across the open and succeed
ed in getting a hold inside of the wood.
Then began a duel between 200 sharp
shooters on a side.
"At first I fired rather aimlessly.
Then I noted that wh .^kgr I ra'sed
my head above the rocklfsiind which
I was hiding I was likely ^Hget a bu'
let through my cap or one wrould pass
within a few Inches of my head.
"I noticed that all seemed to come
from straight .in front of me. I began
to o^^B^yes and was able after a
Viy^^^^^^fellow about 200 yards
away who had been pegging away at
me. Every time he fired he wouldj
stick his head out from behind the
tree ts see whether he had had any
luck.
"I waited my chance. The third time
he did this I let him have It, and he
dropped. A few minutes later came
the order to advance. When I reached
the spot from which the Yankee sharp
shooter had been firing I stopped to see
what had happened to him."
The old fellow paused here and the
reporter broke In with the Question:
"Did you find him?"
Ygb, I found him, with a hole clear
through his head. His coat was open,
and I saw. a half dollar on a string
around his neck. It was Dick Nolton.
and I had killed him. Just then the
Yankees charged in turn, and I was
forced to leave him there."—Louisville
Courier-Journal. £$•'*' "ft
Was Too Literal by Far.
.......
Cownel Pew tells a story of tM
Tenth regular infantry that is pretty
good. One night In Cuba one of th«
sentries was a raw recruit from thq
green isle and the officer of the day,
on his rounds, was challenged by him.'
"Who goeB there?"
"Officer of the day." *v
1
$
Not a move on the'part of the sentry
and the officer stepped forward and
again was greeted by "Who goes
there?" and he again replied in the
same way. Not a move on the part of
the sentry, but the officer of the day
heard an ominous click.
What are your orders, anyway
he asked.
"Challenge three times, then fire,"
was the laconic and self-satisfied an
swer, and the officer of the day's hat
was raised on his hair as he realized
how near he was to being peppered by
the sentry. The latter was given a few1
instructions before he went on sentry
duty again.
Tha Luiufi of Boldler*.
An anecdote of Gen. Sfieridan shows
the man in his true colons better than
a volume of biography. Sheridan gave
his orders in a mild-toneof voice/but
his enunciation was so distinct that
he was never misunderstood. Once, in
the midst of a fight, an aide reported
that his flank was being demoralized
by a battery on a distant hill. "Give'
my compliments to Gen. Crook," he
said, "and ask him to clear it away."
His famous dispatch to Gen. Grant on
the day before the surrender at Appo
mattox was written on horseback, in
these terse, words: "If things are
pressed I think Lee will surrender to
morrow.", \And Grant's• answer, still
more terse, 'came back: "Press things."
Such is th^ language ot such soldiers
Fire Lou Not So Bad.
According to reports received at the
bureau of construction and repair the
Ices, of plans in tbe recent fire at the
Norfolk navy yard was not as complete
as was at first feared^J^ppears that
nearly all of the d^^HjjBrt'ngs
moval more difficult.
Ior
the battleship Texas, flHNJpser Kal:
eigh and the monitor Amphltrite have
been rescued from the debris ot tbq
fire, and with a little labor can be mado
as good as new. The total number ol
drawings and blue prints recovered
from the ruins will be not far from
3,000. The work of replacing the de
stroyed drawings will be commenced
at once, and will be completed within
six months.
To Raise the Maine*
All that is left of the battleship
Maine is to be taken from Havana har
bor. This has been decided on by the
navy department on the representa
tions of Gov. Gen. Wood, who says
the wreck is a serious obstruction to
navigation. The tangle of plates and
beams is sinking deeper and deeper
into the mud of the harbor, and delay
will only make the work of
ito
re
Officers for Honolulu.
In view of the growing importance
of both Honolulu and Guam it is quite
probable that the navy department will
increase the number of officers on duty
at both these stations in the near fu
ture. Honolulu is rapidly assuming
the position of a great port of call for
much of the commerce of the Pacific,
and the facilities of the small harbor
are being taxed to their utmost ca
pacity.
Grand Army Selects Peoria*
The Illinois state council of adminis
tration of the G. A. R., recently award
ed tht next encampment to Peoria. The
date of the encampment was set for
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday,
May 14, 15 and 16. It is planned that
the opening session of the state en
campment shall mark the dedication
of Peoria's new assembly hall, now in
course of construction.
To Kepalr the Oregou.
No orders have yet been sent out to
to the Oregon looking to that snip's
coming home, but it is said that the
navy department that she will be
brought to the Mare island navy yard
within the next three months. Ex
tensive repairs will be required by the
Oregon and it is not unlikely that the
Union iron works may get the contract
for the work. ,'-7.
Recruits from Kural Districts.
umciais of tbe navy department arj
considering a plan for recruiting for
the navy from the farms and countr)
towns in the interior of the country
While it is true that recruiting for the
navy is now carried on outside of the
large cities, it has not yet reached tha
interior sections remote from large cen
ters
Some Wood Hard to Split.
V.LJ'
Tough wood, or wood that is hard tc
split, is so because the fibers of which
it is composed cross and interlace each
other. The wood of the elm la a fa
miliar example,. The toughest wood
known is the lignum vitae. It cannot
be worked by splitting,
.v.-
IN THE ODD CORNER.
QUEER AND CURIOUS THINGS
AND EVENTS.
fiv/ —i
The Japanese of New York Start a Pa
per In Their Own I.ftnenape—The Edi
tor Women Like to Introduce Roman
Type. iV
if
A Well Known Man In Town.
There is a man in our town.
Whom his neighbors view with
dor.bt.
Whene'er he says he's going in
They know he's coming out.
If he should say it looks like rain
They know the sun will shine
And when he speaks of oaken wood
They know that it is pine.
4 l.
If he asserts that black is black.
They know quite well it's white.
And when he says the sun la up
They'll swear that it is night.
if he should don a bathing suit
They know, as sure as fate,
That he intends to pass the time
By going out to skate.
When he declares that be will eat
'Tis certain he will drink.
(t
And every time he tells a tale
They hear it with a wink.
His name is Annanias Flbbs
He wears the liar's crown
He used to send the cablegrams
That came from Shanghai town.
—Baltimore American
l.
Sensation ot a Severe Shook.
•The sensation of an ordinary severe
shock of electricity is familiar to thj
majority of people and is not. especially
peculiar, but a knock-out dose of the
current is something entirely differ
ent. I was splicing a connection in a
power-house and mistook an arc-light
feeder, which had sagged down, for a
dead wire. I had a pair of pliers in
my left hand, and attempted to push
it out of the way with them. So much
I remember perfectly. Then all of a
sudden I had a most extraordinary sen
sation. I felt as if my blood were ex
panding and swelling every vein in
my body to the last pitch of tension.
The great arteries in my neck seemed
to stretch until they were as big
around as ship cables, and were suffo
cating me with their pressure and I
had the same bursting feeling in my
eyeballs, my nostrils and even in the
roots of my hair. All this came over
me 'With- terrific jrwiftness. but it was.
nothing like a stroke of lightning or
the twinkling of an eye. On the con
trary, several seconds seemed to elapse,
and the feeling was so entirely different
from what I had always Imagined it
would be. that it never entered my
mind that I had been shocked by a
high power current. Then, as nearly
as I can describe it, my overstrained
tissues appeared to give way, some
thing exploded in my brain like a hun
dred*
ton gun, and everything beeame
black. Almost immediately, it seemed,
I opened my eyes and found myself
on the floor, fully conscious, but very
weak. As a matter of fact, I had been
hurled a dozen feet. What I imagined
had consumed at least a tenth of a
second had possibly occupied a thou
sandth part of a second, and I had
been unconscious fully two hours. My
experience simply shows that we have
often observed in dreams, that under
abnormal conditions the brain loses all
conception- of time, I am pretty posi
tive, from questioning a number of
people, that everybody who survives a
shock from- a current over a certain
voltage has an experience very similar
to my own.—Times-Democrat.
New York's Japanese Fap«r.
Japanese who reside in this city, says
the New York Sun, may now read the
news of the week in a paper published
here in their own language, for the
Japanese American Weekly News has
made its modest appearance in the
newspaper world. At the head of the
first page, which would be the last in
an American paper, the name is given
in English and in Chinese characters.
In the latter, the sign for the sun rep
resents "Japanese," and the sign for
rice does duty for "American." The
Japanese do not pretend to suppose
that America is the original source of
rice, as they fancy Japan is the land
of the rising sun, but as "me," the
most prominent syllable in "America,"
is also the first syllable in "meshi,"
rice, the sign for rice has been adopt
ed to represent the name of this coun
try. The paper has four small pages,
which are lithographed from hand
written copy, as is the case'still with
many papers and periodicals in Japan.
This is a very tedious and cumbersome
process, but-the enterprise could not
support the considerable expense of
bringing from Tokyo the fonts of type
for the Japanese and Chinese charac
ters. The columns are, as usual, lib
erally strewn with Chinese signs, still
dear to the Japanese, as a knowledge
of these ideographs is regarded as a
credential of education. It is a sort
of intellectual game, in which the ideas
,are represented by Chinese picture
signs, but are read in Japanese equi
valents. Hajima HoshI, whose name
in Chinese and Japanese means "Star
Origin," is the proprietor, and the edi
tor and publisher is Masatoshi Fuku
toml of 212 West Sixty-seventh street.
Mr. Hoshi is in his last year at Col
umbia university, where he is studying
political economy and the science of
government and law. The entire paper
—news articles, market .reports, edi
torials, advertisements and plain or
ornate type—is the work of the "fude,"
or brush, of Mr. Fukutomi, who writes
or copies everything. He has had to
try his hand at drawing barber signs,
glasses of beer and the American flag
for the advertisements. There afe some
800 Japanese in this city to read the
paper, and from 6,000 to 6,030 in this
part of the United States. Mr. Hoshi
the proprietor, is a Japanese of the
most advanced school. He is an ar
dent believer in a Japan much more
modern and newer even than the new
Japan of Count Ito and the present
mikado. Among other reform move
ments he is enlisted in the cause of
the Romaji Kwai, or the society which
Is laboring for the substitution by the
Japanese of the Roman letters for the
different kinds of "kana," or native
.characters and.the Chinese signs. He
wants the Japanese to spell out their
words instead'of drawing convention-,
ilized picture of i^pas. Mr. Hoshi ex
pects to adqpt Roruan type entirely in
*7
hls paper after May, 1901, and will
abandon the use of "kana" and Chinese
signs. He completes his course In Col
umbia this session, and will spend at
least two years In newspaper work
here before resuming in Europe his
travels and studies and he is desir
ous of promoting the adoption of the
Romaji by using it in his paper and by
distributing the latter as broadly as
possible among the Japanese in this
country and in Japan.
He thinks that nearly ail of his coun
trymen in the United States and Can
ada can easily read the Ronnji. and
that there are at present at lrast 100
000 persons in Japan who understand
it fully and nearly a million-more whe
understand it in part Among these
ftiore' than a million of Japanese th.
Romaji Kwai expects to transform thf
inartistic, illegible script of the Japan
ese Into the neat and clcar Rmian typn
now used by the great body' oi civilized
peoples. But Mr. Iloshi has another
idea, worthy of a true reformer o*
language. He thinks that the use of
the Roman type for the Japanese ma.
lead to still more extensive borrowing
of English words, and that, ultimately
the "Yankees of the east" and the
Yankees of the west, together with the
British, Canadians, Australians and
South Africans, will epeak the same
language—English, the true lingua
franca of the future.
Wliat a Beaver Did.
Mr. A. D. Bartlett. sdn of the late
superintendent of the London zoo, has
an interesting 6tory of a captive Can
adian beaver. A large willow tree in
the gardens had blown down. A branch
aiiiout twelve feet long and thirty
inches in circumference was firmly
fixed in the ground in the beaver's in
closure. Then the beaver was watched
to see what he would do. The beaver
soon visited the spot, and walking
around the limb, commenced to bite
off the bark and gnaw the wood about
twelve inches from the ground. He
seemed to put his whole strength into
his task, although he left off every few
minutes to rest and look upward, as if
to determine which way the tree would
fall. Now and then he went to his
pond, which was about three feet from
the base of the tree. Then he would
come out again with renewed energy,
and his powerful teeth would set to
work anew upon the branch. About
4 o'clock, to the surprise of those who
saw him, he left his work and cams
hastily toward the iron fence. The
cause. of this sudden movement was
soon apparent. He had heard in the
distance the sound of the wheelbarrow,
which was brought daily to his pad
dock, and from which he was anxiously
expecting his supper.
The keeper, not wishing to disap
point the beaver, although sorry to see
his task interrupted, gave him his
usual allowance of carrots and bread.
The beaver ate it and was 3een swim
ming around the pool until about half
past u. Then he returned.to his work.
In ten minutes the "tree" fell to the
ground. Afterward the beaver cut the
log into three convenient lengths, one
of which he used in the under part ot
his house.—Youths' Companion.
Our Haglected Fnt. tkwv'M
What is the matter with Americans'
feet? This- question was asked last
week at the Brooklyn navy yard by
Capt. Casper F„ Ficke, a veteran of
the German army, now visiting this
country. "Do you know," continued
the captain,. "I think I counted a dozen
signs in various sorts of foot doctors
in three blocks as I was riding on the
Sixth avenue elevated road yesterday,
and I have noticed the same condition
on other streets. The chiropodists of
your city must live, and it must mean
frequently see men, and much more
often women, who apparently walk
with great difficulty, and would be ab
solutely unable to take a continuous
walk of half a dozen miles. There is
no good reason for this, and it simply
means that their feet are neglected.
There is one place you can find good
feet, and that is in the German army.
I know all about it, and if it was' fol
lowed as a model we would not hear so
much about corns, bunions, sore and
tired feet and all that sort of thing.
In our army every private must bathe
his feet once a day and grease them
thoroughly, rubbing the ointment well
into the flesh and massaging the soles
to keep them soft and flexible. Every
army man knows the importance of
good feet, and if civilians would fol
low that example you would not see
the sort of pedestrianism that is ex
hibited on your streets. The feet are
as important as the hair or teeth, an.1
yet they do not receive one hundredth
part of the care. This is all wrong,
and humanity has to suffer in conse
quence of it."—New York Herald.
Some Curious Counterfeit#.
One ingenious individual, who nar
rowly escaped prosecution awhile ago
for counterfeiting rare eggs and selling
the bogus specimens to museums and
private collectors, has recently turned
up with exquisitely lifelike photographs
9f birds, which in reality are produced
by the help of stuffed specimens artis
tically attitudinized with wires.—Sat
urday Evening Post.
SSSi
Bible and Public Schools'.
The Times-Herald of Chicago, #ays
of the action of the Chicago board of
education in refusing to authorize the
use in the public schools of a volume
of selections from ^he Bible: "Every
man sends his children to the public
schools with the notion that the train
ing reeeived there will not only educate
them but will develop those moral at
tributes that will keep them out of the
penitentiary and make good citizens of
them. How can the schools do this
if they are not permitted to draw upon
the Bible, which is the source of our
coximonly accepted code of morals? In
forbidding the reading of suitable pas
sages from the scriptures in our
schools the board has, foolishly pan
dered to a sentiment which does not
exist and has set itself against the
usage of all but three or four statfs in
the Union."
A Slnen'or Coincidence.
Both Arkansas and Mississippi,
which are to have new state houses, to
cost about .$1,000,000 each, have, by a
singular coincidence, selected as the
sites for their buildings these f.rmerly
occupied by penitentiaries.
THe Spider's
The spider is the original telegraph
lineman. Indeed, he is something
more. After his lines are stretched,
he establishes a "central," to which ho
runs as soon as any sort of vibration
tells him that prey is entangled any
where in his web. Once at-central, he
listens a minute, then having gathered
the direction glides away to weave
Still further netting of silken web
about the luckless wasp or fly that has
fallen into his clutches. "HS" would
more properly be written "she." As
In case of so many insects the female
spider Is ever so much bigger, more
powerful and more resourceful than
the male, substance spider web is
nearly Identical with silk. But the
spinners of it are far to wise to reel
it up into cocoons, which may be plun
dered by men to feed the desire of the
eyes, and the pride of life. Web spin
ning is very wonderfal work. The
workers indeed deserve h,lgh rank as
civil engineers, and often deal with
knotty problems in ways bespeaking
almost human intelligence, as for in
stance, when, they spin, lpose threads
so deftly and with such Aice calcula
tion of wind force that the loose ends
are carried exactly to the chosen spot,
often a couple of yards away, and
there anchor themselves of their own
motion. It is thus the fairy cables
"which net trees and boughs, and
stretch across all summer. paths, are
set in place. They are invisible save
where the full sun glints upon them,
or else when-a misty morning strings
.them with dewdrops. None the less
they hold firm, and serve as aerial pas
sageways along which the spiders run
to and fro, safely and swiftly. Or
felse they serve as guys to brace the
main. web. In spinning the spider
Shows architectural genius to match
her engineering skill. First she sur
veys a site, then stretches across It
strong thread. She is not particu
lar about having this first thread very
taut—all that can be managed later.
She spins another thread from the' end
of this diagonally to another point,,
whence she goes to a third anchorage,
a fourth, even a fifth. Now she' has
a clear central inclosed at Irregular an
gles. The inclosing threads have- been
spun of pure silk. The next thing is
to go over them ,with a viscid exuda
tion which will' make whatever touch
es them stick. When that is done she
spins the web proper, running from
side to side, with a thread trailing be-
ZSotn Jones
Writing in Donahoe's Magazine on
the situation in China, Rev. Father Jo
seph M. Gleason, who is with the Am
erican forces in Pekin, maintains that
the Boxer movement with all. its at
tendant horrors was not a result of the
presence of missionaries in China. It
was an anti-foreign demonstration
rather than anti-Christian. The rev
erend gentleman takes the newspaper
correspondents' to task for attributing
the trouble' to the missionaries and
gays of theme
"A newspaper man rushes into a
country of which he hardly knew the
Existence before- his arrival,, takes no
trouble to learn a word ol the lan
fuage, corners a few residents, and af
ter a few cigars, and more drinks,.
2loses the interview, and. writes for
his- paper. He is paid a fancy salary
as- special correspondent and must
Write something for hia paper, and
this something is, as a rulie, superficial
generalizing of the veriest rubbish, Yet
When Phil Armour was a boy living
on a farm in Madison, N. he did
not take his weekly bath, in a marble
tub, nor was he rubbed with perfumed
soap. Saturday nights his mother used
to take him and the other, boys down
to the creek for their weekly scouring.
Home made soft soap would be poured
FAST-STEAMERS.
4
'"Vi*
New York Waata Tliem for the Benofit
of Suburban Resident).
Steamboats that can go forty miles
an hour are soon to make several su
burbsa part of all-devouring New York
as Greenwich, Woolwich, Gravesend,
Hampton Court, Chelsea, Kew, Ciacton,
WinMor, Margate, Ramsgate, etc., are
part of London,
says
the. New York
Press. The steamboats on the Thames
are perhaps the vilest in the world.
Those in New York waters are the
most palatial. The St. Johns. Sandy
Hook and Monmouth have made the
approach to the Hook a long stretch of
the most delightful summer homes.
Similar -boats will, line Jamaica bay
with cottages as soon as Barren Island
is cleaned out. The proposed forty
mile boats on the Hudson will extend
New York thirty miles up the shores
of the American Rhine in an incred
ibly short time. Many thousands of
New Yorkers who now refuse to leave
the city on account of the crush of
morning and afternoon travel on the
railroads will joyfully take up a resi
dence in the country when they can
go forty miles an hour by boat, with
plenty of unconfined air, plenty of el
bow room', no smoke, no cinders, no
dust, no every-day train annoyances.
The day will bring two outings of the
most delightful and fascinating de
scription, with attendant health. In
stead of ibreathing another man's con
taminating breath in a close and foul
smelling car, the boat commuter can
fill his lungs with the pure ozone of
heaven. Instead of contracting him
self twice daily into the smallest pos
sible space he may expand with an
honest, fearless inflation. Even in the
most inclement weather the decks will
be free to him should he desire to
brar* and breathe the «lements.
Almost Human In
telligence Shown
by This Insect.
\hind her, until all the web-spokes are
in place. Before she weaves the rays
together with crossing-threads, she
m\ist know that both they and the
anchor threads are dependable. So
she runs about, stretching, straining
every one, and if it br6aks spinning
it over. 'Where there is pronounced
slack she either takes it up by splic
ing a new thread next the center, and
fastening it outside, or by attaching
light weights, pebbles, bits -'of stick,
and so on, to the web's lower edge.
Now begins the last work—running
round and round* The ero6slng threads
are spun double-first very fine, then
with a coarser ply. At the middle
where the ray threads meat and cross,
she either builds herself a sang sta
tion, or after everything Is done cuts
away the tangle and leaves a small
clear space. This is the parlor into
which the traditional ity was invited
—with disastrous results—but Mad
ame Spider does not habitually sit in
it. Instead she lnrks oat of sight, am
bushed at the foot of a ray thread.
When vibrations tell of prey, she.
seeks
the parlor, locates the disturbance,
and straightway goes to see about ft.
A strong-winged insect, as a wasp or
bumblebee, left to himself, will soon
break out of her flimsy toils, though
he may so entangle his wings in doing
it that he never flies again. So she
takes no chances. Nimbly, she runs
down the nearest ray thread, spinning
as she runs. When she is a little be
yond her victim she dexterously loops
her new cable around him, drawB it
taut, and fastens it. When this had
been repeated half a dozen times, the
prey bound wing and foot, ts ready
for removal. She fastened a new thread
at the parlor, loops it around the fly
or wasp, carries it back, and pulls it
as tight as she' can. Sometimes she
moves her prey a whole half-Inch with
one thread. The next thing Is to cut
away all the outer threads that hold
Mm. This she does quickly, then
spins a new cable from the parlor.
Thus spinning and cutting, nnless the
prey be disproportionately big, she
brings it at last to the parlor, or very
close about it, and then stuck its
juices in leisurely content. But if it
is: too big to be moved,, she gnaws off
a leg,at .a time.-.swcks them, and after
awhile attacks the earcass. Sometimes,
with flerce-stinging insects, she bites
them just back of the neck so as to
paralyze them.
Knows aa Much About
China- as- Do the
Newspaper Men
the public opinion of intelligent na»
tions. sometimes hangs on the presum
ed omniscience of a correspondent who
flits in one day and skips the country
the' next. What did the ordinary cor
respondent know or find out. about tht
Chinese question? Nothing,, and many
of them did not try hard to learn that
mueh. Yet these men have told the
"general public that the missionaries
did it all. They caused the whole row,
etc.,- ad nauseam. The ordinary cor-,
respondent who has written to the
United' States, on this matter knows
no more about it than Tom Jones' cat.
Now I am not writing a diatribe on
newspaper men. I have been thrown
in quite intimate relations-with .them
for one year and a half,, but that does,
not blind me to the fact that they don't
'know it all' and they can't 'know it
all' In a week or two,, and that much ot
their inflated verbiage is nonsense writ
ten simply to fill the bill for the edito*
who pays them."
Armour's First Baths, lij
upon their heads and then rubbed in.
Long after Philip said:
"Often when the soapsuds were run
ning into my eyes, making them smart
like fire, I felt as though I would Ilka
to bite my mother's hand, and: I knew,
better than to do it. I felt that her
power was supreme, and that I must,
submit to it, as it was for the bsst."
Cnrioiw Warning Against Lying.
At least one monument has bean
erected as a warning against lying.
Such a monument exists in the Market
Square of Devizes, in Wiltshire, Eng
land. The inscription reads ast fol
lows: "The Mayor and Corporation of
Devizes avail themselves of the stabil
ity of this building to transmit to fu
ture times the record of an awful event
which occurred in the market place
in the year 1753, hoping that such a
record may serve as a salutary warn
ing against the danger of impiously in
voking the Divine vengeance, or of
calling on the Holy name of God to
conceal the deviccs of falsehood and
fraud. On Thursday, the 25th Janu
ary, 1753, Ruth Pierce of Posterne, in
this county, agreed with three other
women to buy a sack of wheat In tho,
market,each paying her due proportion
towards -the same. One of these wom
en, In collecting .the several quotas of
money discovered a deficiency, and de
manded of Ruth Pierce the sum whichi
Was wanted to make good the amount.
Ruth Pierce protested she had paid her
share, and said 'she wished she might
drop down dead if she had not.' She
rashly repeated this awful wish, when,
to the consternation of the surjojind
ing multitude, she instantly^
and expired, having the,
cealed in her hand."
Pitch Cloak for,
A pitch cloak is t]J
life-saving apparatj
invention. It weie
and will keep
soldier above tHei
It has water-pr^
food and drink
as blue lights,
shipwrecked in
Man must cd
i^elf before Go|
p.
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