Corvallis gazette. [volume], October 05, 1900, Image 4

About Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909

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TRY TO DODGE DEATH
MANY SCHEMES TRIED TO ES
CAPE THE DESTROYER.
Fear of Dissolution Leads Many Men
to Strange Freak and Unusual Ways
of Living Sometimes Hnrries Them
Into Their Graves.
A man who, while poor. Is not more
afraid to die than most people, often
develops a haunting terror of death
after he has made a big fortune and
spends an unhappy life and huge sums
of money in trying to avoid the coming
fate, frequently hurrying himself into
a premature grave through sheer worry
and fear. This passion has turned the
brains of a good many wealthy people
and made monomaniacs of them. They
tesort to the most childish expedients
to keep death from their doors.
You remember Kipling's- character
who had his chair slung on ropes from
it beam that the world might spin under
him instead of carrying him along to
grow older. There was an actual case
very like this a few years ago, when
John lslip, au Englishman, who made a
huge fortune out of silver in Mexico,
drove himself mad through worrying
about his death.
After exhausting all the safeguards
London could oiler, he bought a small
rocky island called Brycbll, on the west
Irish coast, taking with hiui one faith
ful servitor. Here, in feverish haste,
he had four stone pillars raised and a
Biuall one-storied cabin, witu three
rooms, rather like a houseboat, sluug
uu chairs from iron girders that crossed
the pillars and swung clear of the
ground. Once inside this he shut him
self up, with some books and a pet
jackdaw for company, and never left
his swinging house until his death.
The attendant, who lived in a small
aouse close by, used to row to the main
land a mile and a half when the
weather permitted for provisions. The
master spent his time reading aud look
ing out over the Atlantic from the cab
in windows. His brain had given way,
f course, aud he imagined his life
stood still while the earth revolved tin
ier him. He had no relatives to insist
ju his entering a private asylum, aud
he died three years later in the cabin,
worried out of life by the fear of death.
His hair was snow-white, though he
was only 43.
Another wealthy man, Jean Ingle
sant, though he had made a fortune by
shrewd speculation, also gave way to
the dread of death. He conceived the
idea that all movement and effort wast
ed the tissues of the body, and this no
tion sunk so deeply Into his mind that
tie went to bed in a quiet country house
and hardly moved hand or foot for
years; if he even stirred a finger he did
it with dread, believing it used up his
vitality and shortened his life by so
much time. He spoke as little as possi
ble, sometimes not opening his lips for
3ays, and was fed by attendants with
spoons. All his food consisted of
"slops," to save him the fatal exertion
f chewing, and his oue amusement
was being read to by the hour together.
For he would not hold a book. or turn
the pages. Even the reading he did
away with toward the close of his life.
Believing that listening shortened bis
existence.
One of the queerest cases was that of
i Mrs. Holmes, a very wealthy widow,
who had a terrible fear of germs and
oacilli of all kinds. She bad studied
the subject deeply and it affected her
reason, to all appearance. The dread
sf death seized her, aud she was con
vinced she would die by some wasting
disease inspired by microbes. Knowing
that cold is fatal to the average germ,
she had two rooms adjoining each other
fitted as refrigerators and kept con
stantly at a temperature of about 30
degrees or just below freezing point.
One would suppose this to be more try
lug than any quantity of microbes, but
I he owner was happy in her conscious
ness of freedom from germ diseases.
Winter and summer the rooms were
kept at the same point, and the adjoin
ing rooms aud hall were also kept cool
that no current of warm air might
bring bacilli in.
This lady lived clad in furs through
out the hottest days that blazed out
side, and her attendants and servants
were obliged to constantly disinfect
themselves before entering her pres
ent. They lived in a perpetual at
mosphere of carbolic acid, and their
mistress had to pay very high wages to
induce any servants to stay with her.
London Answer.
Where People Live in Trees.
The delta of the Orinoco Kiver In
South America is for a considerable
part of the year deep In water. Yet
this tract Is inhabited by the Warau
tribe, who find it their only mode of
escape from the terrible bites of the
mosquito. The Waraus, therefore,
make their habitations in the Ita Palm,
which loves moisture and grows abund
antly in this delta, connecting several
tf the trees together with cross-beams
and laying planks upon tbem for the
flooring. The natives of the Philippine
Islands and Borneo sleep In trees. The
ape men of India, "the Yeddas of Cey
lon, and the Bukones of the Andaman
Islands also live in trees. Some years
ago. Dr. Moffat, the great missionary,
while In South Africa, saw one tree in
which there were no fewer than twenty
colonial huts of a Kaffir tribe. A pow
erful chief had deprived them of all
their cattle and weapons. By degrees
the lions became so numerous and dar
ing that the slight Kaffir huts were an
insufficient protection during the night,
and the half-starved people perforce
took to the trees.
Gardening in Africa.
The main trouble in a British West
African diet is a lack of fresh green
food. So wrote the late Mary H. Kings
ley, the African explorer, in Climate,
and she proceeded to mention some of
the difficulties in the way of supplying
that deficiency.
Gardening in West Africa is nervous
work. I have worked in gardens there,
and know that even lifting a kale-pot
is not there, as it is here, a trifling act
because under the kale-pots you have
there a chance of finding divers things
that, if In spirits on a shelf of the Brit
ish Museum reptile gallery, would give
pleasure, but there, close to oae's
ankles and not lu,., led and corked
down, are merely exciting and unp.eas
aut. Still, if the suakes go iu the .hw
direction, one has the satisfaction of
having fresh vegetables.
There are plenty of -worse thing
than snakes connected with West Afri
can gardening. In some places then
are elephants, in others hippopotami
Specimens of either in a garden for a
night are incompatible with success,
for a season, at least. Then. If you hire
a man to sit up all night in the garden
ami ring a hand bell to keep such in
traders off, he keeps you a wale also
If you take away the bell and set him
up in business with a fire to scare ganic
off, a leopard usually comes and takes
him away, which distresses you very
much.
Gardening in West Africa Is not to be
undertaken light-heartedly by persons
of a nervous or irritable disposition.
Science
vention
The new German dictionary of the
carbon compounds uames 74.147 of
these substances, aud the end is yet far
off.
Elephants have only eight teeth two
below and two above on each side. All
an elephant's baby teeth fall out when
the animal is about fourteen years old,
aud a new set grows.
Experiments by Prof. Loeb show
tllat chemically pure salt is fatal to
fish, though present iu the same propor
tion as iu sea water. It is agreed that
it is useful to animals, but the mixture:
of it with other salts renders it non
toxic, as proved by bis further experi
ments. "Nature" notes a remarkable fact In
connection with the West indiau hur
ricane of September, 1898. It app.-a.s
that before the hurricane one of the
tamest and commonest birds on the isl
and of St. Yincent was a small hum
ming bird, but none of these birds have
been seen since September, 1808.
According to Mons. Sigriste. of the
French Academy of Sciences, the only
thoroughly scientific shutter for instan
taneous photography comsts of a slit
moving rapidly across the sensitive
plate. But to obtain good results the
space between the plate aud the shut
ter should not exceed one-teuth of a
millimetre, and the edges of the slit
must be sharp and caiefully beveled to
exclude reflection.
The blue coral is known as one of the
most isolated of living animals. It lias
been described as the ouly species of
Irs genus and the only member of Its
family, "with no close liviug relations
and uokuown ancestors." Recently,
however. Prof. J. W. Gregory has dis
covered in the British Museum what he
believes to be au ancestor of the louely
blue coral In a fossil coral of the Cre
taceous period, called Polytremacis.
By distilling fresh herring and oily
pine wood In an iron retort, and then
condensing the products in a Liebig
condenser, William C. Day reports, iu
the American Chemical .lournal, that he
has produced an artificial asphalt close
ly resembling the natural product. This
experiment is regarded as confirmatory
of the opinion that asphalt and petrol
eum are the products of a natural dis
tillation by which the remains of early
forms of animal and vegetable life
have been transformed in the heated
crust of the earth.
Bret Harte's "outcast In gray." the
coyote, is described by Prof. C. F.
Holder as a species of wolf which is
virtually a wild dog. Domestic dogs, he
says, although they will kill the male
coyote, will often refuse to injure the
female. Prof. Holder defends the
coyote against those who would exter
minate him, on the ground that he is
the only effective enemy of the jack
rabbit and the ground squirrel, which
cause so much damage in California
A coyote in a camp after chickens
yelps so fast that he creates the Impres
sion that a whole pack Is abroad.
Naturalists have generally accepted
the opinion that ants are not able to
perceive any souuds that are audible
to human ears. Prof. Weld, of the Iowa
State University, controverts this opin
ion. He describes In Science careful
experiments made by him with four
species of American ants, from which
he deduces the conclusion that these
species, at least, are able to, perceive
sounds, but whether they do it by
means of organs of hearing, or through
the sense of touch being excited by at
mospheric vibrations, he is unable to
say with certainty. He Inclines to the
opinion that they do really hear, as
some individuals showed a perception
of the direction of the sound, such as
that of a shrill whistle, and others,
which were not disturbed when vio
lently' shaken in their glass prisons,
seemed to be "driven nearly frantic by
shrill sounds."
Boats for Arctic Travel.
Boats described as steel rams are now
in use in Ice-locked Russian harbors
and rivers and have proved that they
can force their way through thick ice,
even with 72 degrees of frost. The
harbor of Vladivostok, till of late her
metically sealed for four or five
months, has since 1893 been kept ac
cessible through the winter; the Fiu
nish' port of Hango is now open to com
merce throughout the year. And last
winter a similar steam ram kept up
connection with the Ural railway
through the Ice of the Yolga at Sara
toff. It is proposed now to keep open
by stronger boats of this kind the com
munication of St. Petersburg with the
sea and to force a winter connection
through the ice from Archangel to the
mouth of the Yenisei. Admiral Maka
rof, addressing the Russian Geograph
ical Society, insists that still more pow
erful boats of this kind might safely
be counted on to cope with polar ice,
such as Nansen had to deal with, and
to cut a passage to the north pole.
Chambers' Journal.
Spain's Underground River.
The Guadiana, a Spanish river, aftei
flowing for thirty miles overhead, van-
! ishes underground, and for the next
thirty miles pursues its course as an
underground river, only appearing at
in:?rvals in the shape of lakelets, the
ogos or eyes of the Guadiana as they
are called. This is the largest under
ground river which has been fully
traced.
People are always disappointed in a
circus.
SEEK IMPURE MEATS.
GOVERNMENT INSPECTS CATTLE
AT CHICAGO YARDS.
Beeves, Hogs, Sheep and Calves Are
Searched for Disease Rigid Post
and Ante -Mortem Examination of
Kach Animal by Lynx-Eyed Officials.
Few people have even the least
knowledge of the great work doue by
the national government iu inspecting
the killing of cattle, hogs and sneep at
the Chicago stock yards. This inspec
tion is being carried on in the stock
yards of forty -eight other cities in the
United States, but it is operated on a
far greater sale in Chicago than at any
other point. Such a sharp watch for
diseased and objectionable animals is
maintained that it is practically an im
possibility for unlit meat, designed for
interstate or export shipment, to leave
the inspected slaughter-houses at the
yards. Every annual killed receives
two or three inspections aud when a
diseased oue is found the carcass is
guarded as carefully as a box of jew
elry until it is completely destroyed, as
far as edible purposes are concerned.
Two kinds of inspection are given
every beef, hog or sheep that goes out
of the yards as being fit to eat. These
examinations are autemortem and post
mortem. Sometimes the first one alone
Is sufficient to bar out animals and they
never get as far as the slaughtering
pens. The antemortem inspection, of
course, takes place "on the hoof" and
Is conducted just before the animals
are driven onto the scales to be weighed
for purchase by the packer from the
stockman. The Inspector examines
each animal as it is driven forward to
ward the platform of the scales. Any
animal that is evidently affected with
disease or is emaciated is ordered cut
out. The packer, of course, decliues to
buy an animal which the inspector has
GOVERNMENT
declined to pass, and the loss talis on
the stockman. But after this antemor
tem inspection the animals become the
property of the packer and all losses
through ultimate condemnation of the
stock must, of course, fall upon him.
A sheep which bears on its skin plain
evidence of "sheep scab," a hog with
large, red cholera splotches on his hide,
a steer with external tumors, sores or
abscesses, or any animal which exhibits
the ordinary indications of illness, such
as Inability to walk, etc., will be cut
out. Tlje law requires that the refused
animal must be killed and turned into
soap fat and fertilizer.
The number of animals cut out at the
antemortem examination varies so
greatly that the inspectors decline to
strike an average on the number ex
cluded per day. Thousands may be
passed without one being refused, but
in the next hundred 10 per cent or more
may be condemned. As a matter of
fact, however, many of the diseased
animals pass this first inspection with
out exciting the suspicion on the part
of the inspectors, for they bear no ex
terior evidence whatever of the fact
that they are suffering from a danger
ous illness.
Passing this first Inspection success
fully, the animals are weighed and sent
to the slaughter-houses of the company
purchasing them. Hogs receive by far
the most careful inspection. Two in
spectors watch the passing of the
slaughtered hogs, while but one ex
amines cattle, and there is also but
one each for sheep and calves. The
hogs are given the stricter examination
because of their greater liability to dis
ease and the greater danger to be found
In the Incipient stages o" hog diseases,
and it, of course, goes without saying
that early stages of disease in any ani
mals are more difficult to detect than
those more advanced.
After going through the first opera
tions at the slaughter-house the hog is
strung up by the heels with hundreds
of others and passes forward in a line
that seems endless. The device to
which the animals are strung up is fit
ted with a small wheel which rolls
along a single track. Not far from the
point where the hogs are first strung
up and only a few feet from the line of
moving carcasses sits the first of the
hog inspectors. As each hog passes in
front of him a workman with two
slashes of a knife removes the entire
viscera from the already partially open
ed body of the hog and throws them
on a platform at the side of the raised
chair in which the inspector is sitting.
Just above the head of the inspector
and a little to the rear is an electric
lamp, which throws a brilliant stream
of light down on the platform.
Each time as the entrails are thrown
down the inspector glances down at
them. One glance is sufficient. Long,
long practice at postmortems and fa
miliarity with normal viscera enable
j the inspector to tell quicker than the
I wink of an eye if anything is the mat
i ter with the hog whose vital organs
and Intestines have been .thrown before
him. Spots on the lungs, enlargement
of the lymph glands, darkened appear
ance of other glands, blackened spinal
column and perhaps half a dozen addi
tional points indicate to him at once
that the hog is diseased. Every time
this inspector finds a case which he
thinks suspicious or clearly denned as
unfit for food he steps forward from his
chair and slips a wire loop 'through the
flesh of the hog. The wire bears a large
yellow card stating that the carcass Is
condemned. Also attached to the -wire
Is a small lead seal for fastening the
two ends of the wire together.
At that moment the wire is not seal
ed, but its presence bearing the yellow
card signifies that the carcass is to lie
placed to one side for further examina
tion. For removing this wire and card
the United States laws prescribe a
heavy line and imprisonment.
Carcns.es Kxa mined Twice.
Further down the lino of moving
porkers is the second United States In
spector. The first inspector has neither
the time nor the opportunity for doing
more than to inspect that viscera of the'
animal. The hog has not yet been split
in twain aud he could not possibly see
the interior conditions of the carcass,
but before the swiue have been pushed
down as far as the second inspector
each oue lias been chopped into halves
by the sharp cleavers in the hand3 of
the workmen.. This official gives the
inner cavities an examination and also
carefully inspects the outer skin. Red
spots on the hide or granular tubercles
sticking to the abdominal or chest walls
are the most common evidences of dis
ease found by this inspector. The red
spots indicate cholera and the tubercles
are evideuce of tuberculosis, or con
sumption. The official goes through
the same tagging as was referred to
above, unless the carcass was one that
had already been tagged by the first in
spector. The yellow-carded hogs are run off on
a -side track and all of them kept to
gether until after they can be visited
MEAT INSPECTION AT THE CHICAGO STOCK YARDS.
by the inspectors after the killing day
is over. Each carcass is then given a
more thorough examination than was
possible at the time when they were
passing rapidly In front of the Inspec
tors. If it is found that the pork bears
evidence that it Is impregnated with
disease to an extent that would render
its use in the least dangerous, condem
nation Is then completed. The two ends
of the wire which was passed through
the llesh by the inspector are pulled to
gether, the loose end is Imbedded in a
slot in the piece of lead attached to the
other end and with pinchers the lead is
pressed over the wire. Thus the final
sealing is completed. On the lead seal
as well as upon the yellow cards ap
pears "U. S. Condemnation."
All of the carcasses condemned are
taken to refrigerated retaining rooms,
where they are locked up by the United
States employes, no one else having
keys to the lock. When a room Is filled
it is sealed as well as locked, and It is
a crime .or anyone other than an in
spector to break the seals. When the
packing-house Is ready to dispose-of the
condemned pork the seals are broken
and the doors of the retaining rooms
unlocked by the officials and, under the
eye of an inspector, each hog is re
moved and pushed down through the
hole in the top of the big rendering,
tank. Into this tank all kinds of offal
must be thrown, so that the pork may
at once be ruined for use as food. In
this tank the pork is steamed and boil
ed until Is decomposed. The fat rises
to the surface and the bones and meat
sink to the bottom. The fat skimmed
from the top to be used in the manu
facture of the cheapest kinds of so-Ap
and the bones and meat are taken out
to be used in making fertilizers.
With the passing of hogs by the sec
ond inspector all examination for pork
to be consumed in the United States is
complete. No record of the inspection
is stamped directly upon the carcass, as
in the case with cattle, for no whole or
half hogs are sent out from the slaughter-houses,
all swine being cut into
smaller pieces. The inspection brands
are later placed on these small pieces,
directly on the meat itself or in the
form of tags pasted upon the canvas
covers.
Pork for foreign export receives ex
amination after passing this regular in
spection which Is so elaborate and
thorough that it can scarcely be com
prehended by anyone who has not
made a personal visit to the yards and
witnessed the work. From three dif
ferent parts of the body of every hog
which is designed for export bits of
flesh are taken for microscopic examin
ation. Traces of trichinae and other
diseased conditions which can be de
tected only through the microscope are
sought for with the utmost diligence.
After the pork has satisfactorily pass
ed all of these microscopic tests it Is
placed in" casks and stowed away under
lock and key in cold storage rooms.
Here It Is watched and guarded as if It
were precious metal. At the gate open
ing into these rooms is a government
office which keeps track of everything
that goes into or out of these frigid
apartments. Foreign regulations have
been so rigid in relation to admission of
American pork that these extremely
strict and Iron-clad regulations have be
come absolutely necessary.
Accept Beef Inspection.
The requirements In regard to Ameri
can beef malntainel by foreign coun
tries are by no means as heavy as those
on pork, and the United States inspec
tion given for Interstate trade is ac
cepted as ample by all other coun
tries. Cattle are not nearly so liable to
disease as hogs and on a day when fif
teen or twenty hogs might be thrown
out in a single packing house there
might be only one, two or three cattle.
Diseased steers are often among the
very finest appearing and heaviest that
are purchased. That they" are worth
less is only discovered after they have
been killed and opened. ; Tuberculosis
is the disease with which the cattle are
most often found to be afflicted. It is
also often found among diseased bogs,
but cholera is most common with the
latter. The men who Inspect hogs can
just as well as not sit down while per
forming most of the work, so they re
main on duty a half a day at a time,
but those performing work over cattle
must constantly walk about, so they
are kept on duty only two hours at a
time, the men laboring In two alternat
ing shifts. In the cattle slaughtering de
partment one man does all of the actual
inspecting, but a second official puts the
purple stamps on the beeves.
The layman would at once' vote the
job of the cattle inspector most un
pleasant. In a long; yellow, oil coat the
Inspector tramps about in blood an
Inch or two deep, up and down the long
line of men who are doing various feat
ures ha the dressing of the cattie. He
can't sit down or stand still as can the
inspectors in the hog departments. Too
many important things are done or ex-
posures made at different places, so iu
order to see it all he must keep con
stantly on the move. Cattle are not
handled and shoved out of the way as
quickly as hogs, so there is time enough
for one man to walk here and there and
see the skinning, the fat that is soon re
moved after the killing, the viscera, the
exterior f the carcass, the interior, etc.
No workman dares remove any part of
the carcass from where it was taken
out until after it has been examined by
the inspector and passed as satisfac
tory. The vital organs and the intes
tines may then be thrown to the differ
ent places where they properly belong.
When the cattle inspector finds a sus
picious beef he tags it in the same way
as the hog inspector does a porker, and
it Is run off into a sidetrack, where It
is held to await final examination. The
half beeves which are passed as all
right are rolled on down the line to the
point where their dressing is completed
and here stands the stamper with his
rubber stamp and inked pad ready to
affix a purple oval stamp about three
inches long, In which are letters half
an inch high. At three different points
on the abdominal and chest walls, an
terior to the hind quarter, this official
places his stamp, the three sections
stamped being the three Into which the
half of the body of a beef is divided for
transportation to the butcher.
In the cooling room, when the outside
of the beef Is more thoroughly dried,
the same stamp is placed on the hind
quarter, making altogether four stamps
which are placed on each half of a
beef. Besides "U. S. Inspection" on the
stamp there are a letter and two num
bers, one number being immediately at
the side of the letter and the other be
tween two stars which are at the be
ginning and end of "U. S. Inspection,"
which curves about the oval. By these
figures and the letter on the meat the
department officials (-an tell if they are
ever called on to do so what inspector
passed the meat, in what abattoir it
was killed and the day upon which it
was killed. So, in case any dealer re- '
ceived a piece of the stamped meat and
claimed it was not good he could re
turn It to the stock yards and the gov
ernment officials would trace the trou
ble back to the very beginning.
Inspection of the slaughtering of ani
mals was established by the govern
ment in 1891, aud since the year of the
founding of the great plan it has grown
and flourished and spread like the tra
ditional green bay tree. Constantly In
creasing appropriations for its mainten
ance and support and increase of scope
have been made by Congress and all th
hopes and expectations of the promo:
ers of the scheme hare been, realized.
The burden of Inspection Is operated
under the government department of j
agriculture.
"Didn't you hear about it?" "No.'
"Why, the thing happened right dowi
In your own neighborhood." "I know
but my- wife's away for the summer.
Philadelphia Press.
! CANDLES ARE GOOD TIMEPIECES
Miner Note the Passing of the Honrs
by Watching the Burning Tapers.
Down In the coal mines, where sun
Hals would be quite useless, and where
watches are not always to be found,
some curious ways of keeping time are
3f ten resorted, to. Although the under
ground toilers spend their working
hours In what must be regarded as per
petual night, they are usually able to
form a fairly correct estimate of the
time of day. Even when a few men are
at work in a lonely and distant part of
the mine without a watch it is a rare
thing for any miner to remain at work
nfter the proper leaving-off time, and it
must be remembered that their work is
invariably piece work.
In those mines where candles are in
j use the miners are able to form a good
' Idea of the time by the number of "fat
sticks" they burn. Four ordinary tal-
low dips are given out each morning to
: the pony drivers, and when these are
! used or nearly used they know It is
time to "knock off" for the day.
A colliery manager once sent a man
to work by himself in a lonely part of
the pit, giving him four candles and
telling him that it would be time to go
home when they were gone. The man
was not a coal hewer, but a rod ciean
er, and worked by the day. He was
supposed to be a bit daft, but on arriv
ing at his lonely working place be was
wise enough to remember what the
manager had told him. Fixing up the
candles on a pit prop, he proceeded to
light all four of them at each end, with
the result that he "was soon oh his way
home again.
In some, of. the poorer rural districts,
where clock towers are "conspicuous
by their absence" and where watches
are still few and far between, various
methods of reckoning time are in vogue
at different places.- Flowers are often
found to open or close their petals at a
given time, and it is said that in a cer
tain rustic corner of Scotland, where
there is no clock, the children are dis
missed from school at a signal from
"the yellow goat's beard," which regu
larly closes its petals at 4 In the after
noon. - '
In a large workshop on the outskirts
j of a Pennsylvania town the workmen
usually stop for breakfast at the ap-
pea ranee of a passenger train which
! pulls up at the adjoining station at 8
j a. m. with remarkable promptness.
That irregular riser, the sun, is not a
; bad indicator of the time when he is
up and shining. Apart from the ordi
nary sun dial that his light may be
j and often Is adapted for time keeping
j in various other ways. When the shad-
ow of a house or other building reaches
j a given spot at, say, 12 o'clock a peg
may be driven into the ground, and
when the shadow creeps up to the peg
i the next day you may venture to
; -"knock off" for dinner that Is, provld
: Ing no one has moved the peg.
Another way of keeping time by the
1 sun Is to make a chalk mark on a wall
; where a streak of sunshine, coming
through a crevice or other opening in
the opposite wall, rests for the time be
ing. The worst of it Is that cloudy
days always put a stop to this method
of telling the time of day Cincinnati
Enquirer.
How the Eyesight Tires.
People speak of their eyes being tired,
meaning that the retina or seeing por
tion of the eye is fatigued, but such Is
not the case, as the retina hardly ever
gets tired. The fatigue is In the Inner
and other muscles attached to the eye- j
ball, and the muscle of accommodation
which surrounds the lens of the eye.
When a near object is to be looked at
this muscle relaxes and allows the lens
to thicken, increasing its refractive
power. The inner and outer muscles
are used In covering the eye on the ob
ject to be looked at, the Inner one le
lng especially used when A near object
is looked at. It is in the three muscles ;
mentioned that the fatigue is felt, and
relief is secured temporarily by closing
the eyes or gazing at far-distant ob
jec ts.
The usual Indication of strain is a
redness of the rim of the eyelid, be
tokening a congested state of the inner
surface, accompanied by some pain.
Sometimes this weariness indicates the
need of glasses rightly adapted to the
person, and In other cases the true
remedy is to massage the eye and its
surroundings as far as may be with the
hand wet in cold water. Philadelphia
Ledger.
Swiss Chimney Sweeps.
In Switzerland the chimney sweep Is
an official personage. He is the em
ploye of the commune, receiving a fixed
salary, his actions controlled by the
government, and he himself holding on
by the back straps to the car of state. !
He is also, as many tourists will have
noticed, qne of the few sons of the Hel- ,
vetian republic who on Sundays and
week days sports a tall silk hat. This
he wears with dignity, but It is gener- j
ally brushed .the wrong way. On his :
official tour he takes It off blandly, and
informs the householder that he is "em-
powered by the State to Inspect his ,
flues." In the canton of Grisons re- !
eently the post and title of "ramoneur .
communal' was opened to competition.
The salary was 32 a year, and the can- j
didates were numerous. But the !
strange thing was that they were most- !
ly village schoolmasters from Italy. A
painful sign of the times in that unrest
ful land. "Better," says L'ltalla del j
Popolo, "be a chimney sweep in Swltz-
erland than a schoolmaster In Italy."
But the Italia del Popolo has recently
been suppressed. Pa 11 Mall Gazette.
A Mother's Advice to Her Son.
So you are looking for a sweetheart?
Well, then, by her music you may
know Ler. If a girl manifests a predi
lection for Strauss, she Is frivolous; If !
for Beethoven, she is unpractical; if for j
Verdi, she is sentimental; if for Offen- j
bach, she is giddy; If for Gounod, she Is
lackadaisical; if for Gottscbalk, she is
superficial; if for Moaart, she Is pru- j
dish; If tor Flotow, she is common
place; if for Wagner, she Is Idiotic. The
girl who hammers away at "The Maid
en's Prayer," "The Anvil Chorus," and
"BUvery Waves," may be depended
upon as a good cook and a helpful wife; j
but last of all, my son, pin thy faith 1
on the calico dress of a girl who cannot
play at all."
Money even attracts bullets. A man
who missed a barn door with a rifle
yesterday easily plugged a silver dollar
at a distance of fifty yards. -
' WALKS BLINDLY TO 2GATH.
One of the Keenest Birds Is Often De
ceived by His Visual Organs.
After trudging all day long the top of
the mountain with no success at all, In
asmuch as I had shot several times, but
failed to bring down my game, 1 ran
across an old hunter, J. W. Hyde. After
the usual greeting we seated ourselves
on an old log to exchange notes. I put
the question:
"Why are the turkeys always on the
run when I see them?"
The old man spit through his teeth,
changed his position, laid bis long,
muzzle-loading rifle on the ground, put
the fourth portion of a plug of tobacco
In his mouth, and proceeded to tell me
why the turkeys were always on the
run when I saw them.
"Of all the game I have ever hunted,
turkeys display the most wonderful
power of vision. I cannot tell just why
this is. I have made a microscopical
examination of the eyes of the hawk,
eagle, fox, weasel and owl, but find no
material difference in the lens and
retina; the ciliary muscles and the iris
are exactly the same; yet none of these
keen-visioned creatures can compare
with the turkey In point of seeing. I
remember the acuteness of sight dis
played by an old gobbler in the spring
of 1892. I had carefully concealed my
self, and no part of my body was visi
ble but the upper portion of my head.
A. puff of wind slightly disturbed the
brim of my hat; he saw it and immedi
ately took to flight.
"On another occasion I was hunting
In the mountains of Georgia. I was ly
ing behind a log and was carefully hid
den, but all the upper part of my face.
A turkey was slowly coming in re
sponse to my call, and was carefully
noticing for signs of danger. A mos
quito was stinging me fearfully on the
forehead; I raised my finger slowly to
crush it, aud as soon as the finger came
within the range of vision, cluck went
the turkey and he was gone.
"Now, the most unexplicable thing
In regard to hunting turkeys Is that,
with all his acuteness of sight, the sur
est way to get a shot Is to sit down In
an open place with your back against a
tree, in full view, and, strange to say,
he" will walk up within ten steps with
out seeing you." Forest and Stream.
Edwin Markbam has nearly com
pleted his second volume of poems.
W. B. Yeats is working at his import
ant book on the folklore of Galway. He
Is also engaged on a new novel.
William Heinemann has brought out
In London Stephen Crane's two stories,
"George's Mother" and "Maggie," In
one volume, under the title of "Bowery
Tales."
A new novel by Gertrude Hall, the
title of which Is to be "April's Sowing,"
is announced. The name is said to
have been suggested by the following
lines in Browning's "Plppa Passes:"
You'll love me yet. and I can tarry f
Your love's protracted growing;
Juue reared the bunch of flowers you
carry,
From seeds of April sowing.
A historical novel, dealing with the
life of the earlier settlers of the Mo
hawk Valley just before the revolution,
has been written by Miss Pauline Brad
ford Mackie. author of "Ye Little Salem
Maid." It will be entitled "A Georgian
Actress."
A series of biographies of famous liv
ing actors and actresses is to be pub
lished soon. The first two biographies
will be "Ellen Terry," by Clement
Scott, and "John Drew," by Edward A.
Dithmar. The volumes are to be copi
ously illustrated with photographs In
character.
Hall Caine's forthcoming story Is not
to be called "The Roman," but "The
Eternal City." It will be published iu
England In the Lady's Magazine, a new
periodical which C. A. Pearson will
bring out next January, and In this
country in the New Magazine to be pub
lished in the fall by R, H. Russell. It
Is said that Mr. Caine received $7,500
for the serial rights.
Greatest Docks in the World.
The marine docks at Portsmouth, En
gland, are the largest in the world, cov
ering more than 300 acres aud employ
ing some 10,000 men. Two of the larg
est docks are OtjO feet long and 83
broad. All are what is knowu as stone
graving docks. They are dug out of a
sufficient depth, length and width to
enable vessels of a certain size to be
admitted. They are constructed of
granite and fitted with heavy gates;
the vessel is floated into the dock and
properly shored up on the keel blocks
the gates are closed the water then
pumped out. Such docks are below
the level of the dockyard. The walls
are built with stairs like the seats in
an amphitheater, so that workmen may
go up and down, and great cranes lift
ing forty tons are used iu handling ma
terials. When a vessel is completed all
that Is necessary to launch her is to
open the gates, fill the dock and she
floats out without risk or trouble. The
advantage of a number of docks at a
station is the readiness with which a
small vessel may be put into a small
dock and a large vessel Into a large
one at once, this being done with sq
much economy of time and labor.-.
Providence Journal.
A Randolph Anecdote.
In the "Green Bag" the sketch o;
John Randolph includes this illustra
tive anecdote, the Chief Justice alluded
to being, it is presumed, his political
foe, John Marshall, of the United States
Court: In some of Randolph's peculi
arities he seems to have taken pride.
One which he cultivated with care was
an exaggerated precision of pronuncia
tion. This led him to correct without
hesitation whatever he considered a
blunder In that respect. In one of his
irritable , moods at Roanoke he grew
very impatient for his cup of coffee, and
testily asked the woman who was wait
ing on him, "Why don't you make that
coffee?" "I wuz a-makin' it," she re
plied. "You 'wux' makin' it," retorted
the sick man. "Who ever said 'wits'
but you and the Chief Justice!" .'