Evening Star Newspaper, June 14, 1890, Page 12

12 EUROPEAN CAUSERIE. | Max O’Rell’s Chat About Sunday in England and France. CHEERFUL CHRISTIANITY, Luther's Sabbath—A Personal Remi- niscence America—The Author of Judah at Home—Public Dinners ti Engtand and America. — Special Correspondence of THE EVENING STAR Lospoy, June 4. ¥ the retirement of Dr. Momerie from the chvpiaincy of the Found- ling Hospita!, Londoners lose, but I ope only for a time, one of the brightest presel e-s that the metropo- | lis torsted. There are so few intellectual en- | joymeats to be had on Sunday in England that such a man can ill be spared. The noble army of preachers who e object in life is to ‘put another ‘o’ in God and take away the ‘d’ from devil.” is | still smal!. and not every member of it has the | logical tomgue and the humor and geniality of | this one. His anti-humbug discourses were wont to draw a crowd to the chapel of the oid | institution in Bloomsbury, and I hope } it is not the children who will miss the “bits o’ siller” that rained into the collection plate every Sunday when the doctor was announced to speak. He does not call it preaching. At all events it is teach- ing and of the right kind: the teaching of les- sons that have been too long neglected: the uv- importance of creed and the all-importance of ecouduct. “Apartfrom human love there can be no genuine love of God,” says this practical Christian. ‘There is only one thing we can do for God, and that is to perfect ourselves and the race.” Itis one of Dr. Momerie’s great aims to help his hearers to discard the holy | frown of Puritanism that has too long made the religious Briton a kill-joy. He thoroughiy be- lieves in a cheerful morality and is great on the subject of a little kindnesses and the “merry heart” that *‘doeth good like a medi- cine.” CHEERFUL CHRISTIANITY. Tama great believer in climatic influence en the character and am inclined to think the doctor has reckoned without his climate if he ever hopes to sees Britain full of cheerful Christians. M. Taine, in bis ‘History of Eng- lish Literature,” ascribes the unlovable mora!- ity of Puritanism to the influence of the British climate. Pleasure being out of tie question, he says, under such a sky, the himseif up to this forbidding vir Still, great strides toward a g: ity have been made within my recollection, and most noticeable of all its sigus has been the decay of that rigid Sabbatarianism which did its best to blot the sunshine out of ever Feeurring seventh d Ouly a few Sund ago a minister in the land of th was bold enough te advoc: foot ball ou Sunday . game, it seemed, left its devotees no energy for ehurch going next morning and so the rev- erend gentleman proposed the transferring of the romp to the Sabbath afternoon that they might not form an impediment to righteous- ness in the mornin, There have ulways been Protestants more Protestant than Luther and Christians more Christian than Christ. Luther taught that the Babbath was to be kept, uot because Moses | commanded it, but because nature teaches us | the necessity of the seventh day’s rest. He 0 work on it, ride on it. dance on it, do anything that will reprove this encroachment on Chris- tian spirit and liber The old Se: Man, of the well-known story, who * na think the mair ot” the Lord for that Sabbath day walk through the cornfield, is not a soli- tary type of Christian. SUNDAY IN PARIS. Puritan lack of charity and dread of cheer- fulness often leads Anglo-Naxon visitors to France to misjudge the French mode of spend- ing Sunday. Americans, as well as English ple, err in this matter, as I had ovcasi End out during my recen the pretty little city of Whit consin, and received an mvitation from a min- ister to address a meeting that was to be held ext day, in the largest church of the place, to discuss the question of how Sunday should be spent. [at first declined ou the ground that i might not be exactly in good foreigner to advise his hosts how Sunday. However, when it was ges! that I might simply go and tell them how Sunday was spent in France, I accepted the task. The proceedings opened with prayer and an anthem, and a hymn in 4 of the Jewish Sabbath hav- ing been chosen by the moderator. I thought the case looked bad for us French people and that I was going to cut a poor figure. How- ever, the repels rey unwittingly came to my Fescue by ing an onslaught upon the French mode of spending Sunday. “With all respect due to the native country of our visitor.” he said, “I am bound to say that on the one Bunday which I spent in Paris I saw a great deal of low immorality, and I could not help coming to the conclusion that this was due to the fact of the French not being a Sabbath- keeping people.” He having wound uy with a strong appeal to his townsmen to beware of any temptation to relax in their observance of the fourth commandment as given by Moses, Iwas called upon to speak. With alacrity I stepped forward, a littie staggered, perhaps, at fin myself for the first time in a pulpit, but quite ready for the fray. WHERE DID HE Go? Isaid: “I am sorry to hear the remarks made by the speaker who has just sat down. I cannot, however, help thinking that if our friend had spent the day in respectable places be would not have seen any low immorality. Where did he go, Ishould like to know? Be- ing an old Parisian, { have still in my mind's eye the numerous muscums that are open to people on Sundays ason other days. One of most edifying sights in the city is still that of our peasants and workmen in their clea: Sunday blouses enjoying themselves and ele- vating their taste among our art treasures. Did our friend go there? Iremember there are places where for little money the symphonies of Beethoven and other great masters might be and were — enjoyed by thousands every Sunday. Did our friend go there? Within easy reach of the people, too, are such places as the Jardin d’Ac- ¢limatation, where, for fifty centimes. a delight- ful day may be spent among the lawns and flower beds of the Parisian ‘Zo its goat cars, ostrich cars and elephant rides makes it ® paradise for children, and one might see whole families there ou Sunday afteruoons in summer, the parents refreshing their bodics With this contact with nature and their hearts with the sight of the children’s glee. Did oar friend go their? We have churches in Paris, churches that are crammed from 6 till noon with worshippers who go on their knees to God. Did he go there? if not, where did he 0? Iam quitting Whitewater tomorrow, and leave it to his townspeople to investigate the eae ul first visited New York stories were told me of strange things to be seen there even ou # Sunday. Who doubts that every great city bas its black spots? I had no desire to see those @f New York, there wasso much else that was better worth time and attention. The little encounter at Whitewater was only one more illustration of the strange fact that the Anglo- Saxon. who is so constant in bis attendanceat eburch at home, is seldom to be seen in a gacred edifice abroad unless, indeed, he has been led there by Baedeker. SCIENCE AND RELIGION. Mr. Henry Arthur Jones’ “Judah,” produced on the of May. proved. as i expected, that | the coutlict of science and religion is an almoxt | impossible subject to treat for the stage. ‘The working of sucha subject into such a play as its author has given us in “Judah” is a veritable tour de force. Itis rather doubtfu! whether the general piay-going public will appreciate the whole of this daring work at its worth, but the scene in which a male scientist unfolds» businesslike proposal of marriage to a scientist “of the female persuasion” is irresistibly fuuny aud almost makes one wish that the whole play had been in the same vein. Mr. Jones ust write us a hght comedy some day. Many people taking an evening walk along the north side of Kegeut's park must have no- ticed 4 house with a large studio window at the = ——e a et z hight, evidently own by «single lamp. Not man; erhaps, know that inthe great dim room “s Pagrigns | to sit | taken in as well as left out. ment—‘After you!” piot of the piece ripe in his brain he walks up and down his study, declaiming the different parts, while a stenographer takes down each utter- ance as it falls from his lips and rapidly notes his gestures. When the whole thing has been written out the author devotes weeks and in some cases months to the process of clearing and fining. Just as the lapidary cuts and pol- ishes to obtain the brilliancy of a gem, ¢0 Du- mas works at his manuseript till it leaves his hand carved into perfect shapeliness and scin- tilating with epigram. THE PLAYWRIGHT IN HIS STUDIO. Mr. H. A. Jones does all his work at night. “There is a glamour abont the evening hours,” he said to me one day, “that I miss in the morning,” and we all know that it is necessary for an author who would convey that magical influence to us to come under it himself, just as we find thata preacher who would rouse and touch ns must be himself full of fervor, But to return to the studio., The room in tself is a great aid to inspiration. Who that has done any literary work has not found out the value of the surroundings? Under its curiously painted ceiling Mr. Alma Tadema for the house formerly beionged to him) worked at the pictures that made his fame, ‘The light from that north window saw much wonderful marble grow under the master's hand and the creation of many a stately Roman, born to long life and celebrity. The painter who has made such a mark in the art world has left his mark here. Among the serolis of the ceiling is several times repeated his well-known monogram. Here and there’ on the walls 2 panel runs from floor to ceiling. One of these has the pxrapherpalia of the painter—brashes, pots and pelette—by one who used them, and. indeed, in all the adorn- ments of the room Alma Tadema greets you, ENGLISH PUBLIC DINNERS. To one fresh from America, the plaint of a dear lady, who had been among the few femi- ninities admitted to see the dinner of the lit ary association fund, was very funny, She ap- pealed to the editor of a daily paper to help her solve the problem, “Why are not Indies invited * meat with their lords or brothers on such occasion: From 2 gallery she had looked down upon tne black-coated crowd at the table below. expecting to sce something worth seeing and hear something worti hear- ing. ‘There are people who expect a cel to ask for the mustard in a different the baberdashers. All she saw. she sa: a number of men called distinguished. but looking for all the world just like any other set of n Whether she expected to sce them eat with ehop- sticks, dine off a lily and talk poetry, or what idea she had formed of the entertaiument she was going to have, did not appear. Those male creatures just ate their dinner in the ordinary way. Bye and bye came dessert. Here was the opportunity for them to redeem them- selves in the estimation of the fair gazer. When the good wine had done its work she thought she was gomg to hear floods of eloquence and flashes of wit which would m: her heedless of the rising clond from hundreds of cigars and send her home happy to have been pres- ent, even in the clouds, at such a gathering of alent. She declared that THE SPEECHES WERE AS 0 RDINARY AS THE MEN and came to the conclusion that she had been During the first years of my acquaintance with London life I used to ask the same question as that lady and wonder what entertainment thos» pre pants of the gallery got out of thei view. Now might be for no American after-dinner speech that ever 1 heard was unlightened by humor or anecdote. But at these English public dinners, with their solemn toasts of the queen, the royal family, the houses of parliament, the army and navy and reserved forces; ‘bah! ladies, _ que venezvous faire dans’ cette galere?| How cana poor fellow be humorous the reserved forces? The _ re- pout served forces are too tremendous to be tritled with. I once heard Mr. Chauncey Depew speak of the volunteers as “invincible in peace and invisible in war.” A stolid Briton said to me after the dinner was over that he thought Mr. Depew's remark about the volunteers in very doubtful taste. ‘The following is not from Mr. Edward Bel- lamy but from the Paris Figaro: A. D. 1900. Electrocutioner, very politely to condemned man as he points to the electric seat upon which he is presently to expiate his crime— “Pray be seated.” The Other, wit twentieth century refine- Max O'Rei. > HOME MATTERS. Seasonable Suggestions and Every-Day Hints to Practical Housekeepers. Soak Macuine Om Sratxs in cold water before washing. Grass Faurr Jars may well be utilized as tea and coffee receptacles. Leatuer Cuam Seats may be revived by rubbing with egg white, well beaten. IxpiGo Buve Caxico or gingham dresses will look more like new after washing if they are not starched. No Matrer How Smarr a Ksire May Be, cutting bread with it or dipping it in hot fat will dull the edge. Cuoraes Taat Have Beex Srainxiep will not mildew for days, even in the summer, if kept away from the fire. A Severe Heapacae is sometimes relieved by the application of a mustard plaster to the back of the neck. Ir You Ser Anyraixo Hor ox Orciora and it turns white, drop on a little spirits of camphor; rub with a dry cloth. Tar Most Errectuat Reaepr for slimy and greasy drain pipes is copperas dissolved and left to work gradually through the pipe. Tue Tovoaest Fown Cay pe Mave Eatante if pnt into cold water, plenty of it, and cooked very slowly frou five to six houre, Arrex Taxixa Cake From tan Oven let it remain in the pan about five minutes; it will then come out easily without breaking. Keer 4 Box or Powprrep Borax near the kitchen sink. A small quantity in the water in which dish towels are washed is helpful in the matter of cleansin, Ivy Oxe Wises to Coon a Hot Disa in a hurry, it will be found that if the dish be placed jn a vessel full of cold, salty water it will cool far more rapidly than if itstood in water free from salt. ‘Tae Best Warrewasa ror aCeuuar is made of lime and water only. The addition of other things hinders the purpose of keepin i lar pure and healthful pap ced toe, Grasses axp Disues Wier to Perrection when washed in very hot water. Use a dish mop, soap shaker and an iron dish washer. These also expedite the labor, as very hot water can be used. Strains or VeceTapte Corors, fruit, red wine and red ink may be removed from white goods by sulphur fumes or chlorine water. On colored cottons and woolens, wash with luke- warm soap lye or ammonia, Silk the same, but more cautiously, ‘Tue Sraixs o¥ Ixk on Boous and engravings may be removed by applying a ddlution of oxalic acid, citric acid or tartaric acid upon the paper without fear of damage. These acids take out writing ink, but do not interfere with the printing. A Hammock Priiow is an addition consid- ered necessary to complete the furniture of a garden in city or country during the summer, Filled with down, hair or the odorous twigs of pine, it 1 covered with the gay-striped tick- ing used by the manufacturers of awnings, Every Parricte or Far which is skimmed off soup, ail the suet left from steaks and chops should be saved, rendered, clarified and strained into a drippin, t. It not saves lard, but is Pe ogoy Maat it for oie’, doughnuts, and fritters are better fried in it, as they will not absorb so much of it, but it must be thoroughly clarified first, A Few Years AGo a Fasnionabee TaBie was | 8 piled with high dishes that it was impossible to see one’s vis-a-vis without peeping under the heavily laden silver and glass ware. Now a table is considered vulgar when not laid in a low, simple manner. Wuex Decanters ann Carares become so discolored inside that shot or fine coals will not cleanse them, fill the bottle with finely chopped potato skins, cork tightly and tet the bottle stand for three days, when the skins will fer- ment. Turn out and rinse. The bottle will be as bright and clean as when new. Tien Fioors Saoutp Be Wasuep with luke- warm water and soap, applied with a flannel, was at work and several plays which likel: they themselves may have laughed poe cried ever bad been written there. In that room scenes of the “Silver King,” “Middleman” were plauned and put op puper and the solitary lamp has lately been shining down on the rough copy of “Ju- dab.” as its author. Henry Arthur Jones, paced the door, working out its scenes and polishing its r into shape, for Mr. Jones, like Alesan- Dumas, fils, writes about three times as much as he wants, best aly and dried with a soft cloth and then rubbed over with a little linseed oil on a silk handker- chief and polished. ‘The oil need not be w an more than once s week; right appearance of the use is the INDIAN SWEAT BATH. A Novel Experience of An Army! Officer Among the Cheyennes. ALMOST STEAMED TO DEATH. een See How the Swent Lodges Are Made— Strange Feligious Rites and Ceremo- nies Accompanying the Bath-A Source of Mortality Among the Red Men. oe Special Correspondence of the EvENING Stan. Is Camp, Montana, May 28. URING the month of April I went into camp with three troops of my regiment on the Rosebud rive tana. The along this stream, and we had ridden in hot haste, at the summons of their agent, to quell a threatened outbreak among them, Onr work of pacification has oceupied sev- eral weeks. During this time we have been en- camped on a lovely little nook on the Lame Deer, a tributary of the Kosebud. Around us rise pine-dotted hills, fringed here aud there with rocky bluffs of rich and varied tits, and | on the plain above and below are scattered the smoky, conical lodges of our Cheyenne neigh- bors, The weather is sunny and m we have plenty of wood, water and grass--the holy trinity of the western cavalrrman—and, xbove all, we do not have to rise with each morning's dawn to pursue a hopeless Indian trail across weary miles of the sage-strewn alkaline desert, which is so familiar to our cavalry scoutiug columns. Mounted skirmish dri!l and daily forays into the surrouuding hiils give us plenty of fresh air and exercise, and for the rest we depend on our individual wits for the amuse- ment, which it is the prineiral duty of officer and trooper alike to seck in camp. INTERESTED IN THE SWEAT BATH. As a means toward this end, Capt. F—, first cavalry. my tent mate and troop commander, and I brought outa copy of Clark on “Indian Sign Language,” and with the assistance of our daiiy visitors from the Cheyenne tepces began, some time ago, to study this pantomimic method of intercourse common to all plains Indinns. In tarning over the p of Capt. Philo Clark’s book I came across, one lazy afternoon, description of the Indian “sweat bath.” lwas in need of a sensation and this should furnish it. I. too, would take a sweat bath, and right aw For eleven years I had seen ou every creek and river of various Iudian reservations, here and on the Pacific coast, the willow frames of the Indian “sweat lodge,” and [had often determined in a listless way to enter one and undergo the ceremo: Indian dirt or disease, or both, ar be washed away. There are the several of these lodges on the very creek in frontof my tent, and here was my opportu- nity. Ina few minutes, armed with an extra towel to ser 8 breech to the lodge of a Cheye to whom I made known my wish surprise at my remarkabie re- quest, a few minutes, called up a couple of squaws and preparations for my sacrifice be- gan, It was early in the afternoon, but a “medicine man” had to be sent for to properly conduct the ceremony, and this, with th other proceedings, consumed nearly three hours. A SWEAT LODGE. First, my Indian friend led me to the banks of the creek and offered me a choice of the three lodges standing, in skeleton, at different points along it. I selected the largest, and the women immediately began to put it in order. ‘These sweat lodges are built of young wiliows. Straight stems are cut toa length of often ten feet. The butt ends are sharpened 1 then stuck into the ground in ¢) form of a circle or more often of an ellipse. he number of tr inserted in the grouna ‘epends upon the elab- Orageness of the archiieci. Usually they are about one-and-a-half feet apart. "When the circle is completed the upper ends are bent toward each other and laced and bound to- gether. Blanketsor robes are then thrown over the frame thus formed, a hole about a foot deep dug in the center of the covered space and you have a sweat lodge such as is used by all the Indians of the prairie and the Pacific slope. The structure when completed is usually about six feet in diameter by about four feet high at the apex, Into this twelve or even fifteen Indians will sometimes crowd, and when I describe the process they undergo within some idea may be formed of the joyous- ness of the Indian sweat bath. When the bath is over the coverings are removed from the willow frame, which is left for another occa- sion. Often the tops of the willows are then untied so as not to be cracked by ® constant bent position. This explains the circles of up- right and apparently objectless willow boughs that are so frequently met with on the banks of western streams and that like the little cir- cular plats of dark green grass that still mark the old buffalo wallows on the prairie form in- variable food for puzzling conjecture to an eastern traveler. GETTING READY. Having selected our bath house, the squaws and a couple of young girls go to work upon it, ‘The wiilow work is freshly fasteaed, the hole in thecenter is cleared of the stone debris of the last bath and we girls are sent to a hillside across the creek to seek the proper stones for heating our new one. Stones must be found hard enough to reach a red heat without crumbling too fine, but they must also be soft enough to split in two or three pieces at that point so as better to diffuse the heat within the lodge. These are now heated by building a square crib-work of alternate stone and pine wood and applying fire beneath. Meantime the medicine man, Coal Bearer, followed by Last Bull, Sits-in-the-Night and another Chey- enney appear on the ground. ‘These are to be my fellow bathers—making five men im ali, While the stones heat the medicine man com- mences to disrobe and motions us toward the lodge. Each Indian, with a few simple move- ments, glides, snakelike, from his blanket garments and stands, bronzed and unabashed, in naught but breech clout before the women who have collected near us, Alas f esty and raiment of our so-called civilization, they cannot, either one, be so easily removed! Igo down beneath « little bluff fringing the creck and spend at least ten minutes in trying with my towel to imitate a breech clout, with considerable fear as to the solidity of this sin- gle garment, awkwardly tied on as it is, and with some embarrassment doubtless visible through my smile I pass in front of several squaws and enter the lodge. Dry sage has been spread upon the floor, and upon this are seated, smoking and silent, the victims who are to be cooked with me. ‘This to them, however, is A RELIGIOUS AS WELL AS SANITARY RITE and their countenances betray grave and sol- en satisfaction. I have worn my moccasins into the lodge and seeing that each Indian has his blanket spread loosely over his drawn-up legs 1 reach out for my officer's blouse and cover my own limbs similarly. My seat is di- rectly opposite the medicine man, an immense corpulent Indian, whose probable loss in avoir- dupois after this steaming I cannot help caleu- lating. By his side is a piece of buckskin from which he has just unwrapped some twisted to- bacco, a medicine rattle of rattlesnake skin, a bunch of green-colored, aromatic grass (the name of this I could not learn, though the In- dians say they have to i tains after it), looks like an infant's sagar ri pasered 2 bac hed beaver mi which Clark peaks ot own experience, and I afterward that I was rights oR ‘THE PRELIMINARY SMOKE. AsT take my seat the pipe, filled with equal Parts of tobacco and killikinnick, is passed me, I had decided to go the whole thing, so, crush- genes peace | gram. ‘The medicine man now gives some ! | toned directious, at which the pige is passed outside, blankets removed from the kuees and all clothing, except our breech clouts, handed out with the pipe. By means of # forked stick one of the squaws now commences to rake the red-hot stones from the pyre-iike crib im front and to shove them, one ‘by one, into the lodge. With the assisiance of ten bucks they are put into ten circular holes in the middie. where each falis apart into several cbfiuks radiating a red-hot temperature in ail directions. A bucket of water and tin bowl are shoved in with them, ‘The bowli s filled from the bucket and passed to the medicine man, who takes some of the water in his mouth and SPITS IT INTO THE OPEN PALMS of the man on his right. The latter anoints the upper part of his body and neck with it and makes rapid signs with his moistened hands in front of his face. These signs were the same for all, but Iam unfamiliar with anz of those used. Each tan whose palms had received the holy water seems endowed thereby with the sacred spirit and ejects a similar supply from bis mouth to the hands of his neighbor. While this is going on asquad pushes through the opening to me a bunch of ordmary green sage brush. I had noticed a like bundie in the hands of one or two of the bucks, [ tind it to be used asa fan and a sereeu against the heat, andI am grateful for it later. The bathers are now ali unointed, the heat, even with the lodge door open, is getting to a most Indian degree of cheerfulness, and nothing remains but to close the furnace. But sto) Phace aux dames! Two squaws leave the group of women that are chatting outside and in the door. There 18 no “iadies’ day these two women. in costume, however, some- what less scant than our own, are actually to be stewed with us. Tbs is a’ managerial sur- prise that Ihave not counted on, and when one of the squaws, about thirty years of age, ciably down beside me my blushes must shown gainfully througit the drops of cklin? down my checks, found after- common for the men and women to bathe together in this way, in the case of married women and very young girls, but only in the sweat bath, THE TORTURE COMMENCES, At last the chief orders the flap to be drawn over the door and our torture commences, Rayless darkness and intense heat surround us. Tcannot see anything that is done, but my other senses and explanations given by the In- diansafterward enable me to describe opera- t, some of the green aromatic grass is crumbled in the fingers of the and sprinkled on the hot stones, diately fills the itnerior with a delicious odor, and it may be here said that this exists during the whole time of our immersiou, When it becomes faint it is renewed by more grass or by the medicine man’s throwing some of the r musk into the center, ext, the tin bow! is filled with water and passed to the chiet—-he takes a drink and then blows several mouthfuls upon the stones. In- stantly THE LODGE IS FILLED WITH VAPOR. “Everhard’s” ew York and the’*Hammam” in Paris are never hotter at their hottest. I have spent minutes not uncomfortably in the highest temperature of both, but in this low lodge, filed with human beings, the heat is tor- ture. I bend my head as low as possible (the titade always maintained by the Indians )and at up my sage brush sereen, but all. is.po 88 to keep away the waves of red hot st that follow each dash of water on the roc It takes me oniy two or three minutes to con- clude that either d ith ora retreat devoid of honor to me as an > ‘cor is to be my fate, It does not encourage me that my Indian com- panions, led by the medicine man. now com- mence t weird, low, tuncless chants th: sof war and peac n sing under these distressing circumstances makes me feel very like the hard-spent racer who hears his adver- sary galloping lightly and with easy-coming breath just behind him, with the home stake ear the Indians washing their sli, pery bodies during all this and in a few min- utes the squaw on my right feels for my hand and puts the bowl of water within it. I have been posted this by Clark, sol drink some of the contents and then wet my hair, neck and shoulders plentifully. No relief was ever sweeter and nothing but a strong sense of fair play induces me to pass the precious vessel to my left-hand neighbor, THE DOOR OPENED AT LAST, More water, more singing and more steam, until, just asI believe I am losing conscious- ness and am thinking of springing up and throwing off some of the coverings of the lodge, the singing stops and the chief orders the door opened. God's free air, pure and cool, rushes in—and it was never so pure and ol. We had been shut up just ten minutes, The Indians were streaming with moisture, but looked depressingly healthy and able. I knew that the actual steaming process was to last about thirty minutes and that I was now but one-third through. Iam on the point of swallowing pride and going out right here, but a sight of the endurance displayed by the squaws restrains me. In about three minutes the blanket flap is again dropped over the door, Instead of being seasoned by my first experience the heat now seems worse than be- fore. This time the bowl of water is passed me butonce. Oh! that [ were truly a sala- mander, # Meshach or Shadrach, or the other gentleman who defied the furnace th them, Louder aud Jouder grows the singi hotter and hotter grows the steam, and dizzier and dizzier do Ll become. The minutes are hours, Itry, but in vain, to find » hole or seam through which I may seek a little air. Ten utes or so and the lodge is again An Indian asks me how I feel I smile feebly at him as I stagger out of the lodge and seek the creek. It is several min- utes before I cross the thirty yards between the lodge and stream. A severe nausea over- takes me and I sit down a moment on a grassy bank before taking the usual plunge into water, A SUDDEN DASH INTO THE STREAM and repeated immersion of my head clears my brain and set me up wonderfully. A squaw hands me my clothes, and in afew minutes Iam on my slow road to camp, the setting sun bearing wituess to my repentance and my vow to sin no more—in the direction of Cheyenne sweat baths. Inthe distance the singing of the inmates of the lodge, undergoing a third ordeal, falls upon my ear. Unhappy wretches, how I pity them! Thad some consolation next day in knowing that one of the Indians was himself laid out tor twenty-four hours by this bath. This was probably but retributive justice, for I shrewdly suspect them of having gotten’ up an extra warm ceremony for me as a soldier guest. When I say that I laughingly confessed myself to them next morning as being “all the same squaw,” and that I did not remind them that I was but a novice to the ordeal in which they had been trained since childhood, it will be seen that my nature is not entirely lacking in greatness, ‘This form of sweat bath is even yet a uni- versal purifier and panacea for sickness among nearly all the Indians of the west. Its terrible heat, followed by the sudden plunge, winter or summer, into the nearest ‘am produces re- sults among those already sick that may well be imagined, It is today one of the most fruit- ful causes of mortality among them und one which the doctors at their agencies have been entirely unable to eradicate by their teachings, My own experience well convinces me of its fatal tendencies, and if I have an enemy I shail surely lure him some day into one of these baths instead of getting him to write a book. The form of the sweat bath and the manner of generating the steam is the same in all western tribes, but the religious rites and signs just described very probably differ. Like Capt. Clark's my bath was taken on the Cheyenne reservation, but the similarity of the two in details somewhat surprised me. Unlike Clark’s, however. the ill effects in my own case did not last over night, I tried earnestly next day to induce some of my brother officers to partake of the delights I had experienced, but they had seen me on my return the night before, and I am still the only fox in camp without a tail, 8. C. Ropertsoy, First Lieutenant First Cavalry. setae Novelties in Jewelry. From the Jéwellers’ Weekly. A sash buckle that promises to become popu- lar this season is about three inches long and consists only of plain twisted silver wire. flask hasa jum bough with 8 rior. Several plums in gilt are show among the leaves, THE SILVER DOLLAR. How It Came Into Circulation and Its Checkered Career. SPANISH SILVER COIN. —_._—_ ‘The Dollar of the Colontes—How It Was Divided in Different States—author- ized Coinage of Gold and Sitver—The Silver Bill and What It W Pelicans! THE Written for Tae Evexrne Star. GAIN the silver dollar of the Unite@ States has got into the halls of legis- lation, and both political parties are \ anxiously inquiring what is to be | done with it. an aucient and eminently respectable piece of money. Long before its adoption asa coin under the Coustitution it had circulated freely among the colonists, gaining high favor and exercising an important influence on the future | monetary system of the country. This original dollar was a Spanish silver coin containing | 3863¢ grains of pure silver. From the impr {sion on one of its sides it was known he “pillar” dollar, and with its eight picces or “reals” furnished largely the monetary circula- tion of the colonial settlements. As early as 1645 Virginia adopted this dollar as a coin for | circulation and a unit of account, and soon after the other colonists adopted it for like purposes. . Most of the colonists came from England and had brought with them not only the habit of reckoning in pounds, shillings and pence, but many of the coins of that realm. Yet without hesitation they adopted the coins of Spain in preterence to those of their motner counti y were slow in accepting new names in their reckonings, and consequently, though treating the Spanish dollar as a unit of value, they reckoned largely im shillings and pence, accounting the dollar to be worth a certain number of shiilings, SIX SHILLINGS IN A DOLLAR, Tn 1652 Massachusetts set up a mint and coined a shilling piece containing about three- fourths as much silver as the shilling of Eng- land—the only coin in the world of that name— and declared the Spanish dollar contained six of them, and this reckoning was not far wrong. piece a shilling and the home government Promptly puta stop to its coinage. At that time the unit of English money sterling of silver and it was of such we that it equaled 4 4-9 of the Spanish dollars, As there were 20 shillings in a pound and pence inashilling a pound would con’ pence and a Spanish dollar would therefore contain as many pence as 44-9 was contained in 240, or 54 pence. By the Massachusetts reckoning, however, the dollar contained 6 shillings pence, a reduction of one-fourth in the value of the shilling at once. But the reckoning of 6 shillings toa dollar, false as it Was, got a strong foothold in the eastern colo- nies and became eventually the established method of expressing values, But no coin cir- culated having the value of six to a dollar. Virgima, which had no shillings of any kind, adopted those of New England and declared that the dollar in that golony also contained 6 shillings or 72 pence, South Carolina thonght differently, however, and deciared th iy 419 shillings or ckoning. Pennsylvania ed 74 shillings or 90 pence, Maryland and Jersey nee, the true ri clared it cont: a while New York, with equal reason declared it contained 8 sinil- lings or 96 pence, in this case making the “real” piece a ‘shilling in those colonics, though it was but a “ninopence” in Virginia and New England anda “levy” (11 pence) in Pennsylvania and a “sixpence” in South Caro- ina, DIVISIONS OF THE DOLLAR. At this time no decimal division of the dollar had been thought of, and as divisions of some kind were necessary the several colonies divided the dollar for purposes of accounts into as many parts as they had respectively de- clared it contained of pence. Thus in New England and Virginia accounts were express: in dollars and seventy-seconds; in Pennsylvania in dollars and ninetieths, and New York, New Jersey and Maryland in dowars and ninety- sixths; still using the real pieces, with no rela- tion to the system, in making fractional pay. ments. These different divisions of the dolla gave rise to endless confusion in the monetary transactions between the colonies, as is curi- ously illustrated in the account of George Woshington for expenses incurred in traveling by chaise from his home at Mount Vernon, Va., to take command of the army at Cambridge, Mass., in 1’ The account is stated ingthe handwriting of the illustrious traveler and is now on file in the office of the register of the ‘Treasury. The entries for expenses incurred in Virginia are stated in dollars and seventy- seconds; those in Maryland, in dollars and xths; in Pennsylvania, in dollars and New York, in dollars and ninety- ths, and in Massachusetts, as at the opening, in dollars and seventy-seconds. At the end the amounts are recapitulated and proper calcula- tious made to express correctly the amount due in dollars and reals, the coins with which he wasto be paid—a feat in accounting to which the historian has thus far done scant justice. As the congress of the confederation was held in Philadelphia the public accounts of that period, still preserved in the Treasury, were kept in dollars and ninetieths—the sys- tem of Pennsylvania. FOREIGN EXCHANGE, The confusion in domestic transactions arising from the false valuation of the dollar as expressed in shillings was even exceeded in conducting foreign exchanges. The pound sterling for this purpose employed was equal to 4 4-9 dollars, and no human law could change this relation without changing the weight of silver involved, but the New Eng- land and Virginia pound was declared worth but 334 dollars, the New York pound 23% dol- lars, the Pennsylvania pound 23% dollars, yet each of these pounds was supposed to contain 20 shillings of 12 pence each. Amid ali the con- fusion the silver dollar held its place and en- joyed the distinction of being the unitof value throughout the colonies—the standard by which all values, even those of foreign coins, came to be measured and it held its place largely owing to the reputation it had ever en- joyed as an honest coin issued by a nation whose commercial honor would permit the pillars on its coins to represent only metal of standard weight and purity. THE CONSTITUTIONAL DOLLAR. The Constitution was adopted in 1789, and soon thereafter, in accordance with the scheme of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, the silver dollar was legally accepted as the unit of account under the new government to be divided decimally imto tenths and han- dredths, with fractional coins to correspond. ‘The silver dollar now to be coined in this coun. try was to contain 871% grains of pure silver, about the average weight of the pure metal in one of the worn Spanish dollars in circula- tion, and the halves, quarters and dimes were to contain of pure metal an amount in the pro- portion they bore to the dollar. This arrange- ment would make no especial change in the expression of values in the colonies except for the fractional parts of the dollar, and the uni form, simple system of reckoning in decim: could hardly fail to be accepted in place of the cumbersome method before existing. The con- tinued circulation of the Spanish pieces at their full value and as a legal tender was authorized by law—a compliment paid to no other foreign coins, CONTESTING ITS CIRCULATION. money and distinguished financiers thought that both gold and silver might advantageously be employed for circulation at the same time in this country and at a relation-of value to be fixed by law. Hamilton and Jofferson con- curred in this opmion and thou,Lt that the two metals, coined in the ratio of 1 to 1di¢ without restriction, would circulate together, ving it : ra Ff ff ! i i * But Massachusetts had no right to caii this | The silver doliar is | j | | | coined, siupped abroad as bullion or me!tei down by the Silversmiths for nse in the arts, So persistently e pieces si ut of circuiation that President Jefferson in 1505 arbitrarily ordered the coinage of the dollar to be discontinued, although there had been coined only 1,439,517 of these picces. Perhaps the coinage of the other pieces would also have been stopped, but the mint at that time, restricted to fabricating fractional pieces, was not likely to largely af- fect tie silver market, Even until the discor- €ry of gold im California in 1849 the power used by that institution ix rolling the metai and tamping the coins was a horse. and in summer even this power was turned out to pasture in order to save the appropriation. The coinage of the fractional pieces was, therefore, con- tinued to # greater or less extent with but few Visible results, BRINGING GOLD INTO CIRCULATION. In 1837 an attempt was made by Congress to bring gold into circulation, and it mot with more success than anticipated. The weight of the pure metal in the dollar was reduced about SIX grains, thus requiring by law sixteen pounds of silver for coinage purposes to equal one por At that ratio silver was underva’ aud the few remaining silver coms, except the most worn of the Spanish pieces, suddenly disappeared, leaving the field to the goid coins, with no silver ever. for mak- ing change, a result entirely unanté apated. Silver no longer coming to the raint for coin- age except for exportation, Cungress in 1853 suthorized the mint to purchase silver bullion and to coin it into halves, quarters aud dimes of such weight that face for face they were about 7 1 per cent lighter than those before The dollar piece, however, was to re- main unchanged and the new fractional pieces were to be exchanged at the mint only at par for gold. Ia this way only the experience of England had demonstrated small silver coins would circulate al with coins of greater ion value without driving the latter from ion, they being paid out only at par for king their getting ito circulation ex- cept as imperatively demanded for making change. The scheme worked weil aud the new pieces issued from the mint remained in cireu- ation, threatening in turn the existence of the Spamsh pieces, which, though badly worn, were about as heavy as the new pieces of corresponding vate. Four years later, however, Cong: quairty Spanish coins, authori: their receipt for public purposes ‘at only fifths of their nominal value and directed that none of the pieces should thereafter be paid out by the government, but that all received and on haud shouid be recoined into halves, quarters and dimes, END OF THE SPANISH COIN. This brought an end to the Spanish pieces and for a season gold coin and the fractional silver pieces, purposely made lighter in weight than their face idicated, furnisied the coin cire! gold | 8 the silver dollar, but no bul- lion came to the mint for that parpose, In is61 the government issued sixty million of itsown notes, also payable on demand in coin. About the Ist of Jauuary, 1862, the banks declined to redeem their notes in gold and soon after the government suspende. payment, that is, refused to meet th in coin of its demand notes, atdiy commanded a premium e paper money of the banks and the became the oniy money im circulation, and this was followed by an exclusive circulation of of which the legal-tender to pay to the bearer one at no specified time. All the coin left the couutry, it being no longer required for circulation, except an amount sufficient to pay duties on imports and interest on the pub- lie debt, still made by law payable in coin, This mach remained. as would all of it if it had been needed for use. GOLD AT A PREMIUM, In 1872 gold was worth in paper a premium of about 20 per cent, Still considerable amounts of both gold and silver bullion came to the mint forcoining, but the new coins were shipped at once abroad. Even deposits of silver bullion for coinage into the silver dollar began to come in, holders of bullion finding it profitable to get the government stamp on their holdings as a guarantee to the foreign dealer of the weight and fineness of the bullion, thus avoiding any further expense in melting and as: Even a demand for half-dimes in exchange for gold coin at par arose at the San Francisco mint, although with the same gold coin the depositor could have purchased in thé market a far greater weight of silver bullion than the pieces contained, but theChinese shipped the half-dimes home, added shanks to them and sold them for buttons at an enormous profit, REVISION OF THE LAWS. About this time a carefully planned revision of the mint and coinage laws was submitted to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury. As the coinage of silver for exportation bi come quite a feature at the mint the specifically authorized such coinage. ‘The re- vision bill became a law in February, 1873, Thereafter the holder of silver bullion could have it assayed, melted and put iuto bar or coins with the weight and fineness stamped thereon by the United States at the actual cost to the mint for thus doing. If put into the form of coins the law specified that each piece should contain 420 grains 9-10 fine (378 pure metal) and should be known as the trade dollar, ‘The increased weight provided for was thought to be ample to prevent the coin from ever com- ing into circulation as against the gold coin, which had been cheaper for many years, dollar for dollar, than even the standard silver doliar containing only 41234 grains 9-10 fine (3711¢ pure metal). The “trade dollar” being au- thorized, no authority was given for the fur- ther coinage of the standard silver dollar. Practically, however, the law made no change in the coinage of the country. Paper money at a discount furnished the Circulation, while gold coin and fractional silver pieces could be coined at the mint as before, the gold dollar being represented by 25.8 grains of gold 9-10 fine, which the law declared should thereafter be the legal unit of vaiue in the United States. RESUMING SPECIE PAYMENTS, Not aripple of disturbance arose for some time from the operations of this law. But soon silver as compared with gold became much cheaper in the markets of the world. In 1875 Congress passed an act declaring that the gov- ernment would resume specie payments, that is, would on January 1, 1579, and thereafter re- deem its notes in coin, on demand. This act had a tendency to lower the difference be- tween notes and coin, and in 1876, with the ap- preciation in the value of the notes and the de- preciation in the value of silver. the fractional silver coins were worth about par in notes, The purchase of silver bullion, the fabrication of these coins and their issue for the fractional notes were therefore authorized, the notes to be destroyed as redeemed, In the course of another year silver had become so depreciated that the standard silver dollar could without loss be exchanged at par for notes, although the notes were yet at a considerable premium in gold. Then it was discovered that the silver dollar could no longer be coined. Great was the consternation which followed throughout the country, the producers of silver declaring themselves greatly wronged. In eighty-one years, however, there had been coined onl; $8,12i,238 standard silver dollars, none of which ever went into circulation, while under the same act which discontinued the coinage of this dollar there had been coined in six years about 36,000,000 of trade dollars of even greater weight. The demand, however, for the restora- tion of the silver dollar to its former place in the circulation became very general, especially in the western states. TO FULLY RESTORE IT at the depreciated price of silver bullion would, however, at once make it the unit of ac- count, inflating values to the extent of its depreciation beyond its gold value, To avoid this disturbance and at the same time to ap- pease partly the demand for the coinage of the silver dolar, Congress, in 1878, directed the miht to purchase not ‘less than 2,000,000 nor more than 4,000,000 of ounces of silver bul- lion each month ~~ aud to coin it into silver dollars of same weight ‘and fineness as before established, the govern- ment to retain the difference between ow actual cost of the er yA since, until more than ST pieces have been coined, of which about g id : ll i i rf i i & ie E ss took away the legal tender | d favorable for silver. Under these circum- | stances the Secretary of the Treasury, the assembling of Congress in December meter got a ——T « plan whic! subsequently presented seme= what modified in the form of « bill, and the ajority of the House committee on coinage ave agreed upon a substitute therefor, em- bracing substantially the recommendations of the Secretary. It is a novelty in financial measures and likely to produce much discus- sion and criticism, The bill, as it passed the House, provides for the parchase of, $4,500,000 worth of silver each month, for which certificates are to be issued. These certificates will be in the form of bank notes and they are intended to eircu- late as money. They area legal tender for private debts ‘and will be received by the gor- ernment like the preseut issue of mlver certifi- cates in the payment of all dues to the Treasury, and when thus received will be re- issued. They will be redeemed at the mints, upon demand, in silver dollars.or at the option of the government, in an amount of silver bullion equal in value to the number of dollars represented by the certificates, at the market rate of silver the day of presentation, and the present compulsory coimage of the silver dollar is to cease, The plan, as nfxtured, promises to be well received by allexcept those who will acce nothing léss than a return to the free coinage of mlver and those who have no use for silver at all except for making change, and the prospect of its becoming a law has already raised the builion value of a silver d@lar from 2 to 8lcents, No other matter before Con- gress is of greater importance to the country. At best the scheme is but an experiment without precedent. other plan, however, likely to receive serious consideration by Con- gress has yet been proposed. Unfortunate it is for any country when the condition of ite monetary circulation requires k cislative relict, bat that condition now confronts the United States and will not be put down or aside, The Unexpected results of previous financial legie- lation in this country demonstrates how | wisdom is involved in the best laid scheme: public financ and though the project Presented may prove botter than anticipate py its friends, or even worse than prophesied py its enemies, unless a one certainly better can be formulated it should be given a fair trial. No plan is likely to produce result embarrassing as the fiuancial conditi which the country is now suffering. aud there are certainly many reasons for believing that the scheme will bring great if utire relief to the unfortunate monetary condition of the country, retaining silver in the circulation even though it does not rehabilitate the silver dol- Jar in its queealy garb sired by stlver producers and their fr J = _ = LIBRARY SKELETONS. They are Hidden Away From the Publio Hye Ever so Carefully. BUT THEY ARE ONLY 5 TRE TROUBLE WITH THEM BEING THAT THER ARE IMPROPER CURIOUS CRANKS WHO FREQUENT THESE LINRARIES, RCTIONS OF BROOKS, AVE you ever examined the skele= tou in the library of Congress? Every big library has its skeleton, It is kept hidden away, so that people shall not see it, though one may obtain a glimpse, if he is old enough and knows how to go about it. Usually it is secreted in a locked chamber by itself. The library skeleton, a Sran reporter learned, is its collection of improper books. Unhappily there is a great deal of literature, most exc lent otherwise, that is the reverse of moral, Much of this is really classi ot so very many years ago it was decidedly the fashion be coarse and vulgar ¢ en in what was then the Polite society of the period, People laughed so hard at the pointless tilth written by a beast nuined Rabeiais that to this day it i considered the proper thing to pretend to understand and admire him. Sterne and Smollett earned theit | reputations as much t the skill with which their peus were wielded, The gentlemen in “Roderick Random” and “Peregrine Pickle” are hopeless blackguards, while scarce any person nowadays can read “— Shand without being disgusted by Tristram its laborious effort to introduce au impropriciy in every Dean Swift's f. Gulliver appears in the book shops of today in expurgated form, Nearly all | the great writers of those times had the same habit; the age was infected with it, Besides | what they produced there is much of the literse ture of other centuries that is not adapted to the domestic circle. To be sure, Smollett and Sterne would not be relegated to the skeleton closet; they are not bad enough for that. Uniuckily, there are plenty of other books far worse—more par- ticularly a certain class of them written purely and simply for the purpose of gratifying « morbid taste for immorality. Mr. Spofford says that the worst book he kuows of was writ~ ten by an English clergym ry bi library has its collection of such works, as @ matter of course. They are “kept apart by themselves and are not permitted to go out; permission to inspect any of them is granted at the discretion of the librarian, EXHIBITING THE SKELETON, Mr. Spofford is fairly liberal im exhibiti the skeleton at the Capitol. That is to say, b will permit any male person who appears to be uch as twenty-one years of age to read any book from the private collection that he may call for, so long as the volume is not taken out of the library. Women never ask for works of the sort, Aman who should come in aud ask merely for “something immoral” would as- suredly not be gratitied. Rules on this subject vary in different lie braries. In Boston they are probably more strict than anywhere else. The skeleton in the public library there, which is one of the largest in the world, is hfdden away in a series of modest little closets designated as the “in« In these on shelves are ranged in sug- rows all such volumes as ought to bring a blush to the cheek of innocence. The restrictions with relation to them are very rigid indeed. For it would seem that there are lots of people m the modern Athens who are always trying to get hold of something im- moral in the literary way. Almost invariably they give it as an excuse for demanding such books that they are going through a course of English or French literature and are compelled reluctantly to peruse the objectionable works as a portion of the task before them. The rule in this library is that if a reader comes up and says that he has heard that such and,such » book is wicked and that he would like’ to see it his request is granted usually; but if be tries the “course of literature” dodge he is apt to be refused. The applicant for an objectionable work is, as a rule,asked to fill out a slip, giving his age and occupution, together with his name, reference for ¢ ter and reason why he wants the book. This slip must be indorsed by the librarian before the petition is complied with. When a refusal is determined on the sort. THE RETREAT OF CRANKA, Alibrary is always the chosen retrest of cranks. Such an institution has its regular patrons, who turn up every day like clockwork ‘and spend most of their time over the books. Nearly every one of these has some screw volume over and over again for years, the aggressive female student of mathematics, who brings her lunch, and not least important, the almost inevitable epileptic. One of these we yyer se maven, | the habit of nearly every le Fe. By big i uf & it