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1 I X* I
THE VIRGINIA
I
VIRGINIA, 4R$»N*&.
W. E. HANNAFORD, Publisher.
The fire-bugs mast have an idea that
the Chicago hotels are cold.
The remark "as the crow flies" cannot
l»e applied to the dodging of the Omaha
kidnaper.
No amount of studied calmness can
prevent certain Chinese officials from los
ing their heads.
Mine ventilation as a science hasn't
developed past the stage of occasional
explosions with wholesale fatalities.
Andrew Carnegie is disbursing money
for libraries at a rate which indicates
that he has no intention to "die dis
graced."
Perhaps the rise in window glass may
be traced to a sudden demand from the
owners of buildings in Kansas formerly
occupied by joints.
There is a strong suggestion of humor
in the news from China that "sentence
death is suspended on those culprits
who are already dead."
There were days for both St. Paul and
Minneapolis when even a Chicago sur
geon's bill would have seemed a com
paratively small inflation.
Harvard University's inability to get
along without retrenchment is not dis
turbing to the presidents of state univer
sities, which don't have to economize.
England will launch four cruisers and
two battleships within a month, to serve
the new King during an era of peace
that is noted for its preparations for war.
In the declaration by W. D. Howells
that Mark Twain is an all-around think
er, discerning people will recognize evi
dence that Mr. Howells is competing
with Twain for the first place in the line
of American humorists.
King Edward's order limiting the pe
riod for the "outward and visible sign"
of mourning for the late Queen is a sen
sible act that will be commended by
many more of the King's subjects than
the shopkeepers in whose interest the or
der was issued.
Superposed turrets score a victory
through the bursting of the big gun on
the battleship Kearsarge, as the accident
leaves the ship with a good forward
lower turret provided with two guns. A
similar accident on a battleship without
two-story turrets would leave the ship
minus one turret and its two big guns.
The freedom with which the German
press is criticising the Emperor for his
decent observance of the proprieties on
the occasion of his grandmother's death
•has one feature that it not unpleasant—
that is, its freedom. It bad been sup
posed that the German press was arbi
trarily muzzled on all subjects involving
criticism of the Emperor.
An automobile truck which has made
its appearance in New York city is de
scribed as a "pulling, chattering, hideous
monster" which makes ordinary automo-1
biles shy and frightens horses almost to
death. The latest horseless vehicle
ought to be a better invention than that.
Snorting and roaring self-propelling fire
engines were discarded years ago for the
very faults which are pointed out in the
New iork vehicle.
It is stated that experiments with alu
minum as a substitute for paper are now
under way in France. It is now possible
to roll aluminium into sheets four-thou
sandths of an inch in thickness, in which
form it weighs less than paper. By the
adoption of suitable machinery these
sheets can be made even thinner, and can
be used for book and writing paper. The
metal will not oxidize, is practically fire
and water proof, and is indestructible by
worms.
Consul Agent Harris writes from Ei
benstock that German plantation experts
claim that the Samoan islands have a
groat future in coffee, tea, tobacco, cot
ton. etc. Upolu island, it seems, is espe
cialf-—suitable for the culture of all these
prof acts, possessing, as it does, favor
able position, a fruitful soil and a good
climate. A company is at present being
formed in Germany for the purpose of
exploiting this island—laying out planta
tions, establishing narrow-gauge rail
ways, etc. Men of practical experience,
who acquired their knowledge of planta
tions in East Africa and Brazil, are at
the head of the enterprise. Work is ex
pected to commence next spring.
In order to obtain a complete account
of the services of the volunteer regiments
in the Philippine islands, the 'secretary
of war recently instructed the command
ing officers of each returning regiment to
prepare, while his command is en route
to the I nited States, a succinct history
of its services, giving dates and places of
battles and engagements in which his
regiment, or a part of it, was engaged,
the number killed and wounded, and
other detailed data concerning its opera
tions in the Philippine campaign. These
reports are to be transmitted to Adjt.
Gen. Corbin and are called for in order
to obtain satisfactory information con
cerning each volunteer regiment's serv
ices before it is mustered out on arriving
in the United States.
Illinois fishermen caught and shipped
to the markets over 6000 tons of river
fish last year. The larger proportion of
this enormous catch of over 12,000,000
pounds of water-raised food was sent to
New York. The value of the river-fish
eatch of 1900 was nearly $400,0001,. a
slight decrease from the catch of the pre
vious year. The opening of Chicago's
sanitary canal, which starts a flood of
lake water toward the Mississippi river
through the Illinois river, was responsible
for this discrease in the number of
pounds in the year's catch. It was due
not to the scarcity of fish, but to the high
stage of water caused by the continuous
flow of 200,000 to 300,000 cubic feet of
water a mumtawhich e&eaped through
flie djmtrojfing works f|F Jut sanitary
canal at iftekport^ Th^l^pi |tage ^of
water gavethe fish wiaer area of rffer
and made
ft
more difficult for the fisher
men to use seines.
It is estimated that there are about
400,000 Angora goats in the United
States, and that our annual production
of mohair is about 1,000,000 pounds. Al
though very little has been said or writ
ten about Angora goats during the last
forty years, they have been extensively
bred in the Western states and terri
tories, especially Texas, New Mexico,
Nevada, Florida, California and Oregon.
Investigations prove that they are not
only classed among the most useful of the
domestic animals, and have been so
classed for thousands of years, but
their usefulness is manifested in various
ways. The fleece, called mohair, fur
nishes some of the finest fabrics among
women's goods, and is used in various
other manufactures. There is so much
interest in the goat question and the de
partment of agriculture has received so
many letters of inquiry about Angoras
that it has just issued an illustrated bul
letin of information on the subject.
.Tames Cahill of Honey's Point is the
only person in West Virginia, and prob
ably in the United States, who has in
regular use upon his farm an elephant
which is used for farm work, says a
special dispatch to the Baltimore Sun
from Parkersburg, W. Va. With the
swaying beast hitched up to a plow lie
can turn more ground than any of his
neighbors with a team of horses, and
when it comes to hauling logs the ele
phant will walk away with ease with
logs which the best teams of his neigh
bors cannot move. The elephant eats
little more than a horse and does many
times the work of one, is gentle and do
cile and little trouble, and Mr. Cahill is
more than pleased with his experiment.
Several months ago a small circus broke
up at Martin's Ferry and its property
was sold at auction. Mr. Cahill, who
was at the sale, bid in a few donkeys,
the elephant and a tent, and took them
home, expecting to start a small show
himself. His father, Patrick Cahill, a
frugal Irishman, decided that a beast of
the size of an elephant could not remain
on the farm and be fed unless it paid for
its board Avith labor, so he harnessed it
up and the animal worked nicely. He
did so well that they have given up the
idea of starting a circus, and will keep
the elephant on the farm.
The highest waterfall in the world is
the Sutherland falls, near Milford
sound, in far-off New Zealand, which
has a height of no less than 1904 feet.
The fall is situated on the southwestern
coast of the South island, in the vicinity
of Mount Jutoko, which rises to a height
of more than 8000 feet. Every season
hundreds of sight-seers from all parts of
the civilized world visit the west coast
sounds of the South islands, and it is safe
to say that no finer excursion can be ar
ranged in any other part of the world.
This whole part of the island abounds in
powerful waterfalls. The Stirling falls
is about 500 feet in height, and the
Bowen falls some 540 feet. The Suther
land fall itself is perhaps more remark
able for grandeur than for beauty, but
the scenery at the head of the surround
ing valley, which is hemmed in by pre
cipitous glacier-crowned mountains, is
splendid. A scheme is now under way
to utilize the power of the Sutherland
falls for industrial purposes, and with
this end in view a company has just
been formed at Dunedin, the chief com
mercial city of New Zealand. It is in
tended to install powerful turbines, and
to build an extensive power plant, from
which the current generated at the falls
is to be transmitted to the industrial
districts of the coast regions and in the
interior of the island.
STRANGE SEA LIFE.
Big Wormlike Creatures that
/V
A
Ex
plode After Being Captured.
What is believed to be a hitherto un
known species of the spoonworm has
been pumped up from the depths of El
liott bay by the dredger in operation near
the Centennial mill.
The animal found in the bay is of non
descript appearance. It resembles an ob
long transparent^ rubber bag filled with
water, and varies from three to five
inches in length. It is about as thick,
generally, as a man's thumb. At each
end are several circles of sharp bristles,
colored like brass and seemingly as hard.
These are believed to be its defensive
weapons. The bristles at one end are
stronger and more numerous than at the
other. Other species have the bristles
only at one end.
These peculiar animals were first
brought to the surface about two weeks
ago by the dredger of the Seattle and
Lake Washington Waterway company.
They were sucked up by the pumps from
a depth of from thirty to thirty-five feet
and carried through the discharge pipes
to the point where the filling is being
made. There they were found by mem
bers of the dredger's crew, whose curios
ity was aroused by the appearance of the
.worms. A number were collected and
given to the officers of the company.
'To a reporter Capt. W. E. Roberts of
the dredger stated yesterday that the spe
cies was found in schools. He believes
that tfyey live on rocks, and every time
'they have been pumped np so far they
gave bee®accompanied by pieces of stone
?nd cq4K'i 'Which had been dumped into
the bay" from ships discharging their bal
last.
"We-find none for several days," he
said, "and then they come in a bunch.
Tney appear to be able to travel on any
side, and wriggle along like a common
earthworm. As far as I can learn it is
not exactly known whether they live up
on the surface of the sea bottom or be
neath it. We always find them sub
merged and I believe they will die if kept
out of their natural element very long.
They live on smaller worm and marine
vegetation. I should judge that they do
not have much vitality, although they cut
some queer antics when out of the wa
ter."
A specimen of the worm sent to the
Post-Intelligence was submitted for ex
amination to Prof. Kincaid of the zoo
logicai chair at the State university. The
specimen had been kept over night in an
empty cigar box, and when examined
was found to have exploded, only a frag
ment of dried skin remaining. Prof.
Kincaid pronounced it a species of echi
nus, one of the spoonworms, or sopuncu
loldea. The latter, he said, were allied
to earthworms. There is a large differ
ence between them, however, as the sea
species does not have his body divided in
to compartments. Prof. Kincaid states
that the specimen submitted to him for
examination is unlike any species so far
recorded from Puget sound. They re
semble an Alaskan worm, differing from
the latter in the possession of bristles at
both ends instead of only at one extremi
ty.—Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
,v-~
Pills WWfafomb titer Wjrote this poem
for the lapanapolis Kej§§ on Maurice
i.- f
He would have holiday—outworn. In sooth.:
Would turn again to seek the old rele«e.
The open ilelds—the loved haunts of bis
youth,
The woods, the waters and the paths «f
peace.
The rest—the recreation he would choose
Be bis abidingly! Long has be served
And greatly—ay, and greatly let ns use
Our grief and yield him nobly as de
served.
Perchance—with subtler senses than our
own
And love exceeding ours—he listens thus
To ever nearer, clearer pipings blown
From out the tost lands of Theocritus.
Or, haply, he is beckoned from us here.
By knigbt or yeoinali of the bosky wood,
Or, chained in roses, haled a prisoner
Before the blithe, immortal llobin Hood.
Or. mayhap, Chaucer signals, and with him
And his rare fellows he goes pllgrlming:
Or Walton signs him o'er the morning brim
Of mystic waters mid the dales of spriug.
Ho! wheresoe'er he goes, or whosoe'er
He fares with, he has bravely earned the
boon.
Be his the open and the glory there
Of April buds, May blooms and flowers
of June!
Be his the glittering dawn, the 'twlnk'lag
dew,
The breathless pool or gush of laughing
streams,
Be his the triumph of the coming true
Of all his loveliest dreams!
—James Whitcomb Riley.
THE BLANK FILE.
to doss next to me,' he says, and with
that he bolts out o' the tent.
"In another minute there was nobody
—so far as we knew—left inside it. We
all wanted to keep the sentry comp'ny
till daylight."
Mr. Pagett paused to refill his pipe, an
operation he effected with characteristic
absentmindedness from my pouch.
feigned to be pondering his last words.
"After such a night of horror," I haz
arded, "the daylight must indeed have
been a welcome relief."
He slipped the pouch, with charming
naivete, into his pocket. "You mark time
a bit," he said "I 'aven't finished with
that night of 'orror yet."
I murmured an apology.
"No," he continued. "Before the ruu
rose we were destined to 'ave another
scare, compared with which the others
were child's play. It was this way, look.
"The eorpril was explainin' to Mr.«Jan
naway, who 'ad come out of his quarters
in his pyjammers, that the men couldn't
sleep in the minin' tent on account of the
heat, and Jannaway was just beginnin'
to talk sarcaustic about a girls' school
afraid o' the dark, when the sentry drops
his rifle with a clatter that brings all our
gallant hearts into our necks. His teeth
were rattlin' in his 'ead like a boxful o'
dice, you could 'ave 'ung up your coat
and 'at on his eyes, and he was pointin'
to his front like a sign post shook by the
wind. At first he thought it was an ap
plepletic fit, but after a bit we discov
ered that he was wishful for us to look
at the jackstaff.
"The first glimmer o' dawn was whiten
in' the eastern horizon, and there was
just light enough for us to see an ex
tr'ordin'ry phenomenon that made even
a detachment o' marines stare. There
wasn't air enough to chili your wetted
finger it was a dead tropical calm the
great jack and its 'alyards lay alongside
the staff as if they were glued to it. Yet
all of a sudden the long fold of bunting
stirred, and the double lines twanged
against the pole like a plucked 'arp
string!
"Five seconds later the thing 'appened
again, and then continued at perfectly
reg'lar intervals. Not a soul, as far as
we could see, was within ten yards of
that bewitched spar. Yet one thing was
quite plain. Someone was fingerin' the
'allyaros before oar very eyes!
"Presently Jannaway clears his-throat.
'Am I goin' stark mad like the rest
o' you,' he asks 'uskily, 'or is there a l»ell
ringin' somewhere?'
"You might 'ave stabbed the silence
which followed with a baynit.
'There is a bell, sir,' says one o' the
men at length, 'a big bell a-tolling. I
should judge it to be as far away as Ba
tavia, or pYhaps Plymouth,' he says,
'but in either case you may lay to it that
it's no earthly bell'
'"That's enough.' says Jannaway,
stampin' his foot. 'I won't 'ave no more
of it. Color-sergeant.' he says,
&
•if
"Durin' the next hour nothin' seemed
to be stirrin' under the Southern Cross.
The noo sentry either didn't see anything
to challenge, or didn't want to, and some
o' the men had even begun to snore. I
was just droppin' off to sleep myself,
when a snorer at the other end o' the
tent suddenly raps out an oath, and his
boot comes whizzin' down the gangway.
'The next swab as plays me that
trick,* he grumbles, 'will 'ave to take off
his toonik to me in the mornin'.'
'What trick, chum?' I asks, ehuckin'
him back his boot.
'Puttin' his icy cold foot on my
face,' he says, indignant.
"It didn't sound nice, some'ow, and my
'eart commenced to beat a devil's tattoo
under the blankets. But nobody said
nothin', and if it 'adn't been for the
tbumpin' of a dozen gaiiant 'earts be
sides mine you might 'ave 'eard a pin
drop.
"Presently, 'owever, the drummer, who
slep' next to the eorpril. calls out some
thin' beneath his bedclothes.
'What is "Sticks" a-sayin'?' asks one
o' the men anxiously.
'He's only talltin' in his sleep,' says
the eorpril.
'No, he ain't,' pipes the boy in his
'igh treble, 'but somebody's a-walkin' in
his'
"This statement was received with a
most oucomfortable silence of several
minutes. Then the man next to me be
gins 'urriedly to scramble into his trou
sers.
'The kid's quite Tight,' he says, 'and
I know bloomin' well who the sleep-walk
er is.'
'Who?' inquires a dozen voices at
once.
"'The Blank File,' says the man, 'and
he's lookin' for a sleepin' .billet,i thatVijpriinrose above the orange, till presently
what he's a-dom' of. But he amt goifl'Twe could see the bright blue o* the zenith.
4as
soon
as it's daylight fall the men in for bath
in' parade. There's nothin' like a sea dip
to steady the nerves.' And with that he
walks off into the middle o' the island.
"The detachment strolled down to the
water's edge, while I, disbelievin' in
ghosts now that the daylight was com'
in', sat down and lit my pipe. At first
I watched the sunrise, and it seemed to
me that the day was gettin' up with a
most disreputable black eye. Across the
red an' green an' orange inflammation of
the dawn was stuck a dark patch that
in the case of a pore soldier would 'ave
got him confined to barricks for a fort
night. Bat after a bit my attration was
attracted to Lootenant Jannaway, who
was peerin' under a great ledge o* rock
a couple of 'undred yards away. Pres
ently he stood up, and beckoned to me.
"Tell me what you see in there,' he
says, when I reached him.
'You ought to know,' I says, moppin'
my face, after I'd looked into the 'ole
'you've been starin' at it for the last five
minutes.'
'But I want to make sate, you in
solent vagabonev' he says. *Our nerves
are all endways, and p'r'aps I've been
mistook.'
'Very well, then,' says I, 'it's a rust
ed round shot mixed up with a 'uman
skeleton.'
'I thought so,' he returns, with a sigh
of relief. 'But since this island is a noo
born baby, in a manner o' speakin', it
licks me 'ow them things come there.'
'P'r'aps,' says I, after thinkin' 'ard
for some moments, 'they were born with
the bloomin' baby.'
'You're a fool, Pagett,' says he, 'and
you'd better go and fall in with the
rest.'
"Now. as I was carrying my wounded
feelin's back to my comrades, it suddenly
struck me that the dawn wasn't breakin'
as quickly as it usually does in those lati
toods. The black patch over the day's
eye had covered the entire face of the
eastern sky, and was spreadin' to the
zenith faster than the daylight itself.
It was plain, from the Incessant twink
ling that a tropical thunderstorm was
eomin' up with the sun. and you may
take my word for it that a bare rock in
midocean ain't the safest place to see
one from.
"The detachment 'ad already undressed
and were bein' mustered by the color ser
geant, so I slipped off my clothes and
joined them.
"Before the muster was over the
mornin' 'ad grown much darker than the
night had ever been, and the sky above
us was like a great velvet pall with its
borders trailin' in the sea. Long zigzag
rents were torn in the pall about once
every second, nor was there any interval
in the 'orrible din o' the thunder. Luck
ily we escaped the rainfall, but we could
'ear it liissin' on the sea a mile away like
forty thousand locomotives blowin' off
steam.
"As it was too dark to bathe, and too
dangerous to go into the tent where the
arms were, Jannaway fell us in two
deep in the rear of it. Before very long,
'owever, the eastern edge o' the pall be
gan to lift, and a streak of crimson sky
appeared beneath it. Then the streak
widened orange showed above the red,
The velvet pall had rolled away as quick
ly as it 'ad spread."
Mr. Pagett removed the pipe from his
mouth and laid it upon the table.
"You've been in the tropics yourself,
sir?" he observed, looking into the fire.
I nodded.
"Did you ever see one o' them lightnin'
photographs?"
"I'v heard of them," I admitted cau
tiously. "It is said that they cannot yet
be accounted for by science, though they
are undoubtedly electrical."
"I saw one that mornin' on the island."
he mused "the flash over the Tor just
now 'minded me of it.
"The first thing we noticed after Jan
naway dismissed us and we'd moved
away from the tent was the double line
of our shadows still fixed upon the cur
tain, where it 'ad been thrown by the
lightnin'."
"Yes." I admitted, "that was quite
possible."
"Quite possible. But 'ow about this?
The drummer, who was starin' at the
phenomenon from the front of the group,
suddenly turns round.
'I thought,' he squaked, 'that, count
in' Mr. Jannaway, we were thirty-three
all told.'
'Then, for once in your sinful young
life,' says the eorpril, "you thought right,
my son-.'
'Well,' said the boy, edgin' into the
middle o' the crowd, 'ow do you account
for there bein' thirty-rour shadows on
the bloomin' tent?'
"Nobody attempted to account for it
nobody even wanted to account for it.
What everybody did want, 'owever, was
to get off that cursed island without an
other minute's delay. Like one man the
detachment turned and bolted for the
pinnace in which we 'ad landed, and
which was moored a few yards from the
beach. It was the stampede of the pre
vious afternoon over again, with the dif
ference that this time me, an' the color
sergeant, an'. Jannaway were in it as
well.
"We splashed through the water,
shinned over the gunnel o' the big boat,
got out the oars and gave way like a
crew possessed. ..But we'd barely put a
hundred yards between us and the Blank
File's shadow on the tent before the sea
began to bubble about the pinnace like
water round an egg in a saucepan.
'For the Lord's sake,' cries one o' the
men, layin' on=his oar, 'look at the bloom
in' island!*
"Then we .saw. a most curious thing.
The island was gradually growin' small
er^in other words, it was sinkin' before
our eyes! ^Presently only the tops o' the
tents and .. the jackstaff were visible
above the water, and then only the Union
Jack itself. When that 'omely bit o'
buntin' 'ad gone,, too, the drummer burst
out'a^cryin'.
fAnjPow,' says the' icorpril, cheerily
'that exarsperatin'- Bla^k File's gone
with it.'
"'Aye.' chimes2in the -'Dismal Jimmy'
of the detachment, /but we .shall be nn
der stoppages o' pay until 'them arms and
accoutrements are m'aae good. I said at
the time,' he continued, 'that'-it was no
earthly bell a-tollin'——'
fTake that* man's name for disobedi
ence of orders,' roars- out Jannaway.
'Ow dare you make my flesh, creep,' he
sayi 'when I 'aven't got a stitch o' cloth-
[There's the Dutch flagship In the of
Ijust off the port beam, sir,' sings out,
her.
LThen I 'ope to goodness,'-' s$ys Jan
4y, casting' an anxious eye over the
forms before him, 'that the ad
,'asn't brought no ladies with him
the noo island!'
hoar later we clambered one by
the steep sides a' the Dutchman,
ere served out with a pair o' baggy
irs apiece. If there were any la
on board they must 'are been sent
before we got alongside^ and the
and men didn't matter, Mr. Jan
fold the adm'ral that we were
{*.?*n^{\0^
"s A
Z$£
"i ri J?
Here is a picture of the shed wherein the Lawson boat is being put together. Inside is a constant scene of great
activity. Designer Crowmnshield has promised that the yacht will be sailing by May 1 and he is makine everv effort to
carry out his promise. Two gangs of men are at work on the keel and stern casting. Bigger Billman has been offered
the work of rigging the Lawson boat, but he may have to decline or lose the Herreshoff contract.
pore castaways from a wrecked emigrant
ship, and the adm'ral, with one eye
cocked on me, said he'd had the pleasure
of meetin' one at least of the pore emi
grants before. Then, vsitn a chronic
twinkle in the same eye, he carried us
back to Batavia, and put us on board our
own ship.
"Before reportin' ourselves, 'owever,
Mr. Jannaway addressed us in a few
kind words.
'If you mention that there Blank
File,' he says, 'you will get the credit
of bein' bigger liars than what you really
are. Therefore,' he says, 'I .shouldn't.'
"And you may lay to it that we
didn't."
From a battered Service ditty-box on
the mantelpiece Mr. Pagett produced a
crumpled half sheet of note paper.
"That inscription," said he, "was sent
me by Lootenant Jannaway a year after
we were paid off. He copied it off an
old brass in the tower of a church at
Sandwich.'"
I refrained from commenting on the
remarkable resemblance of the writing
to Mr. Pagett's own cramped caligraphy,
and read it aloud:
"Sacred to the Memory," it ran, "of
Beltishazzar Farwig, Privat^ in the Ma
rines, and sometime a Bellringer of this
Church. Who died on the 29th Dec.
1770. on board His Majesty's ship En
deavor (commanded by the famous Navi
gator, Capt. James Cook), and was
buried at sea in Lat. 9 degrees 13 min
utes S. and Long. 104 degrees E."
"Wasn't it a most extr'ordin'ry thing,"
asked Mr. Pagett, regarding me out of
the tail of his eye, "that the pore feller
should 'ave come to the surface again on
the middle of a volcanic island?"
"Most extraordinary!" 1 murmured.
"And that, after ail them years, he
should 'ave drilled once more with his
old regiment and been photographed with
them by lightnin'?"
"I never heard anything like it be
fore," said I.
"And that he should have tolled that
onearthly bell to warn them that the is
land was goin' to sink?"
"Wonderful indeed! Yet to me, Mr,
Pagett, the most wonderful thing of all
is your own marvelous power of inven—
of memory, I mean."
Mr. Pagett stared at me in pained su*
price. "I was afraid," he said reproachful
ly, "that you were goin' to use another
word. In which case, Mister, me an'
you would 'ave 'ad to part brassrags!"—
Punch.
Dealing with Crimea In Canada.
(From the Chicago Tlmen-Hcrft!d on Jan. 12.
1001.)
The citizens of the Dpmtnlon of Can
ada have juat cause to be proud of their
record as law-abiding people. The an
nual report of the criminal statistics of
the Dominion, which has a population
of over 6,000,000, shows that there
"were ouly twenty-five indictments for
murder in 1899, of which only two
were left without final action. Eleven
of those in-dieted were hanged, nine ac
quitted and three confined as insane.
Canada is a country of vast propor
tions. Its people are scattered over a
wide stretch of territory, making police
surveillance particularly-difficult and
in many districts impossible. Yet a
city like New York or Chicago alone
furnishes a far greater criminal list
every year than the whole vast stretch
of territory from Quebec to Vancouver.
The Canadians ascribe their immu
nity from crime to the promptness with
which punishment is meted out to of
fenders. When a man is caught red
handed in the act of robbing another
he is not released on straw bail by
some Justice of the peace from the
slums, to go out and repeat the offense.
Sharp and sure justice is meted out to
criminals of all kinds, the result being
that when the guardians of the public
peace succeed in bringing a thug to the
bar they are seldom called upon to
hunt him a second time.
Furthermore, there are few court de
lays in Canada when a criminal is
brought to book. They have no Dreyer
cases over there. There are no meth
ods whereby Canadian criminals'.can
have the proceedings stayed from
month to month and from year to year
or after being convicted, appeal- from
one court to another until -witnesses
die of old age or opportunities for cor:'
ruption can be fofiiftl.'
Nor does this swift method of treat
ing with wroug-doers in Canada leave
the innocent unable to properly defend
themselves. .They have all the oppor
tunities and privileges that our own
laws extend to them. The extent to.
shield the guilty isr lacking—that is all.
The above taken from the editorial
column of the Times-Herald gives some
idea of the Immunity from crime that
exists in Canada, and this is one of the
many inducements held oqt for Ameri
cans to settle in the district known as
Western Canada. The season of 1901
will see a few new sections of the coun
try opened up for settlement. They are
attractive in every respect. It Is under
stood that one of the best lndiao re
serves In the: famous Vall^r of the
Saskatchewan will fee -opened up ttifa
year, «nd an invitation is extended to
those desiring homes to make inquiries.
The price, of the land is said to be nom
inal. Besides these, lands, the«everal
railway companies hare lahds to left
also the government. For particulars
-write to the agent of the government,
whose advertisement appears else
where.
compiled
Paris '4?
has
—The Imperial, librair in
twenty-six books printed oa white SHk.
-^O
|r
i-
Some New Touches in Furniture.
Weathered oak is the strictly new
tnmg in hall, dining Toom and library fur
niture. It is considered more beautiful
than the Flemish oak, as the treatment
given it permits the grain of the wood to
be seen more clearly. It has a charming,.
soft finish which is most artistic.
Round corners and edges are coming
back to sideboards and other articles of
furniture, in place of the straight, severe
lines in vogue for some time.
The dull finish is now given to mahog
any, oak and other woods. It is consid
ered more artistic, and it also has a util
ity side, In that it does not scratch so
easily.
We are going back to old-fashioned
shapes. A charming piece in weathered
oak is a regular old-fashioned settee. It
has a wooden slat back and broad arms
at the ends, and it is upholstered in hide
of the same tone as the oak.
Something new in chairs is the old
fashioned arm chair of our grandfather's
time. The seat is a single strip of hidu
nailed on with oxidized nails. One can
see the cattle brand in the leather. It is
as soft and springy as though piled high
with downy cushions, and it is as quaint
as though handed doiwn by our great
great-great-grandmother. It, too, is in
weathered oak, with the slat back and
broad arms.
New in chairs are those with the paint
ed panel backs. The paintings are after
the old Dutch and Flemish schools, and
the leather is tacked on with big oxi
dized nails. The chairs are quaint in
shape and altogether quite artistic.
The little nests of tables for afternoon
tea come in all manner of pretty styles,
Vernis Martin, mahogany, oak, and deco
rated in the pyrographic style.
Manufacturers this season are giving
us much more complete sets for bedrooms
than formerly. An immense variety of
designs is given in all woods, but the
charm lies in the fact that one can at
moderate cost get complete sets in the
same design, even to the little stool one
may want for the dressing table. For
merly, if we wanted extra pieces, our
rooms became a hodge-podge, a medley
of different styles, possibly different
vroods. But now we can get the bureau,
chiffonier, dressing table, cheval, chairs,
and any other little piece we may want
all alike, which, together with a dainty
brass bed, makes a room that is con
ducive to pleasant slumbers.—Philadel
phia Telegraph.
Fad for the Bride to Give Wedding1
Ring to the Groom.
It has been rumored that capricious
Madame la Mode is wearying of the soli
taire diamond as an engagement ring and
that she favors diamonds combined with
gems of color. So far, however, Madame
has kept her thoughts to herself pretty
well, for little consequence of their ex
pression has been noticed in the jewelry
shops. To be sure, colored stones of
many kinds are used as a betrothal
f(ledge,
and in various forms, frequent
with a colored stone in the center and
diamonds surrounding. The engagement
ring of the new Mrs. Vanderbilt was set
with two stones, a sapphire and a dia
mond, with the familiar diagonal setting.
The solitaire diamond ring has found
favor for so long a time as an engage
ment pledge that it has become tradi
tional, and to all appearances it still has
the stamp of approval from Dame Fash
ion. The mounting for the diamond is a
high setting, receding slightly toward the
base, without a display of much gold to
obtrude upon the rainbow scintillation of
the dazzling white stone.
Wedding rings are narrow and high,
some being perfectly round so that if the
ring were straightened out the form
would be cylindrical. A ring of this
shape goes by the name of the Tiffany
wedding ring, and it is much more ele
gant than the wide, barbarous-looking
wedding bands of times past.
Nowadays it is a fad for the bride to
five
a welding ring to the groom when
gives his, and since Wilhelmina did
this the fashion will probably receive a
new impetus. A ring given by thg bride
is exactly like the one she receives, be
ing, in fact, a typical wedding ring en
larged to fit masculine fingers..
Some fond, impassioned lovers, present
their sweethearts-with-a betrothal brace
let which is locked on with a padlock
and kept on the arm "until death do
them part."—Philadelphia Times.
South America a Field for Explorers.
The president of the Royal Geograph
ical society lately said that South Amer
ica contained a larger unexplored area
than Africa. Though the statement should
not be taken too iiterally, it is certainly
true that' there are considerable areas
awaiting exploration. West and North
west Brazil, for instance, contains sev
eral parts as little, known to the Euro
pean world as the darkest parts of Af
rica. The debatable territory between
Ecuador and Southeastern Colombia,
parts of Cuzco and. La Paz in Bolivia,
the Peruvian Andes, the upper basin of
the Piicomayo and an extensive portion
of Patagonia ate fregions qf great prom
ise to geographical investigators, and
whence valuable results may be antici
pated.—London Express.
^Deferred to Him.?..
"'t
Gilbert^-"! believe in a man being the
master of the house. He should have the f,,
say in eveirthing."
Mason—"How about the- naming of -v.
that baby of yours.?" L?
Gilbert—"My wife gave way, to me in 'V
*fj|^ properantffwtfcJriBaatier.
$ M.
mm
"4
4?
"I
I
:Slie
said she didn't care what name I gave
the little fellow so long as it was Hen
8o that's the name I gave him.
on know,! felt, after the hearty man
ner in which she deferred to me, ought
to yield a singfc point merely* out of ap- t'-Jt
jgeciatlqn^ of/her humility/'—Boston