Evening Star Newspaper, October 21, 1893, Page 17

THE EVENING STAR BS Real cage Sse Gages LOO Pe Tee: cal mail Ratee of advertising made tnows oa application The Palais Royal. Broussa Embroidered Cushion Covers, Anatolia Curtains and Bed Spreads. Phoolkaries, Uph ‘House ‘at the Office jashington, mail matter.) “ane eee must be paid in ad- HIS PORTION OF OUR ANNOUNCEMENT IS DEVOTED TO DETAILS OF THE PRACTICAL AND USEFUL NOT LESS THAN THE ORNA- MENTAL ARTICLES FOR HOME USE. WHILE THE MOST TRIVIAL DETAIL IS HERE AT A PRICE SURPRISE THE BEST BARGAINS ARE AMONG THE MOST EXPENSIVE GOODS. THUS WE HEAD THE LIST WITH Oriental Antiques, AMONG WHICH IS UNDOUBTEDLY THE LARGEST COLLECTION OF JAPANESE, CHINESE, TURKISH AND INDIA GOODS EVER SEEN IN WASHINGTON. AN INSPECTION CANNOT FAIL TO INTEREST THOSE WHO MAY BE CONNOISSEURS. MANY OF THE RARE GEMS ARE UNEQUALED IN SOME OF THE LARGEST COLLECTIONS IN THE COUNTRY. Rugs and Carpets That Increase in Value With Age. PRICES WERE NEVER BEFORE AS LITTLE AND ARE NOT LIKELY TO BE AGAIN QUOTED FoR THESE GEMS OF THE ORIENT. Fine Bokarah Rugs, value $23, for only .. Daghestan Rugs, 4x5, value $10, for only .. Antique Daghestan Rugs, 3.45.9, value $15, for only. 200 Lidik Kags, value $2.25, for only Fine Antique Saddle Bags, a curiosity.. Fine Kilem Portieres, value $25, for only. Japanese Rugs for 75c. ‘They sell very extensively for bath rooms, bed chambers and sum- $1.50 Carpets Up to $450. ‘The collection includes Savalan, Ispahan, Mobair, Demirdge, Persian, Camel's Hair and Bokarah Carpets. Prices in every instance the lowest ever quoted for such goods. Illustrative bargains are: BAHNDURR CARPETS, 8.11x13.8, VALUE $125. BAHNDURR CARPETS, 9.8x13.7, VALUE $120. BAHNDURR CARPETS, 10.8x13.1, VALUE $140. BAHNDURR CARPETS, 10.4x15.9, VALUE $175. BAHNDURR CARPETS, 8.5x13, VALUE $125. USHACK CARPETS, 7x11.7, VALUE $120. USHACK CARPETS, 9x11.9, VALUE $140 FEREHAN CARPETS, 10.5x14.4, VALUE $120. AFGHAN CARPETS, 737.10, VALUE $75. AFGHAN CARPETS, 5.11x11.10, VALUE $66. CASHMERE CARPETS, 7.1x11.10, VALUE $85. CASHMERE CARPETS, 7.10x9.7, VALUE $70. Turkish and India Goods. VALUED AT $18,000, 18 TO BE DISTRI- BUTED a’ DRE THAN EUROPEAN PRICES. A HUNDRED AND ONE SUGGESTIONS TO BEAUTIFY THE ARTISTIC IN TASTE. PRICES RANGE FROM A 20c A $200 TEMPLE HANGING. India Scarfs for drapery. Cofreya. Japanese Screens (From $1.35 to $60 each.) ra Four-fold Black Cloth Screens, embroidered in gold. Pop egg te Value $55 Ee 250 Four-foid amorted designs. Value $2.25 35 When rel letors and other &e..“patranise the Palsis Royal. thes ie it certata that quantities, gall: es and prices are right. fact 1s prices were never before as little. ‘The late trade sales and other opportunities have y, are as follows: $2.25 ESE CURTAINS ARE 3% YARDS BY 54 INCHES. FAITH! PULAR A BARGAIN THAT COPIES OF BRUSSELS LACE. SO POPUL! BS Z ONLY TWENTY PalRS REMAIN OF THE THAT WERE HERE LESS THAN 4 WEEK since, 85c pair tur $1.25 Lace Cartatns, 3% yards by 48 inches. QS o tor $1.50 Figured Chenille Covers, fringed, 1% yards square. K2Z.89 vair tor $5.50 quality Swiss Tamboor Lace Curtains $5.75 pate tor $7 quality Figured All-over Chenille Curtatus. $2.48 pair tor ei. Best Feather Pillows, usually $3.50. 17 c sara tor 18¢ quality Tambour Muslin for Sash Cortatns. 16 tor 25¢ quatity Window Shades, 36x72 inches. Spring rollers. 2Z9c tor soe quality Down Cushions, with ruffled silkaline covers 14.c yest. sox ste quatity 86-tach wide Cate Syst Dotted Swien. 7 The above are —— bargains. The fo is Milled fourth With these goods Bags and Carpets—no larger collection out- side of New York. That the Washington Palais Royal is the distributing depot for leading manufacturers and importers is evident by the result of our Mr. Wilson's late trip to the wholesale market. That such quantities and @uch qualities for the prices were never before offered in Washington Will be evident on Monday to hotel proprietors and others whe know bout these matters. 25 yard for 40c quality 56-inch Silver Bleached German Table Damask. 48 c sara tor ove quality G+1och Heavy Bleached Irish Table Damask. Bc each tor choice of 500 dozen Knotted Fringe Damask Towels. 29 c tor soe quality 72-inch Fringed Momle Bureau Scarfs, 3Y c cach tor 5,000 Heavy Ready-made Sheets, size 72x90 inches. $2.49 pair for $3.75 quality 10-4 Heavy Scotch Wool Blankets. $1.25 patr for $1.98 quality 10-4 Silver Gray Blankets. 163, yard for 20c quality Heavy White Wool Flannel. 19c for 25c Quality Brooms. (These Floor Brooms are made of best quality green corn.) 29c for 50c Quality Pitchers. (These are best Majoliea Syrup Pitchers, with metal covers.) ‘ 8gc for $1.25 Bath Sets, < (Comprising decorated china soap dish, >rush, vase and mug. EFA COMPLETE HOUSEFURNISHING DEPARTMENT iS THR BASEMENT OF THE NEW PALAIS ROYAL—S&ID BY VISITING MERCHANTS TO BE ONE OF THE MOST COMPLETE STOCKS 7HE COUNTRY. If WHAT YOU WANT IS NOT HERE WE WANT TO Clocks, Pictures, Cutlery. THE ABSENCE OF TRASHY GOODS Ww: To MANY LA . LOWEST PRIC FOR tae pBstt FULLY STOCKED ‘ARTMENTS, WITH COMPETENT MEN AT THEIR HEAD. $3.50 toe $4.50 quatits “ansonta’* Marbletsed Sday Clocks, strik- ing on cathedral gong. Guaranteed four years. $1.18 for $1.75 quality Pictures—Taber’s Photogravureg in solid oak and silver frames, 26x30 inches. Scissors for manicure, embroidi LIED HOTELS, ETC., MAT LOWEST QUOTA- MING BY A CAPABLE’ AkTIST—AT wale ART Art Needle Work. Daintiest novelties robbed of fancy prices. Everyday wants at less than urual quotations Brainerd & Armstrong’s Skein Silks, including Roman and Filo tows. ° -#¢ skein Traported i7e hank Inperted Spe 18. Initials stamp 2 a Martel Ls jong, for only $1.25," and’ Sorrento Table Covers for are less than usual prices. ‘A bundred and One other price surprises on this fourth floor. Ser Istery Departm’t. Lace Curtains for $1.40. keeping Goods. Pace 4 For Costxvation Or Tuts Assxouxcement, The Palais Royal. G & Eves Sruzers. A. Lisyzn, Paorateron. MESS HALL, NEW QUARTERS. FUTURE ADMIRALS. How Naval Officers Are Made at the Academy, THE LIFE OF THE PLEBE. His Lot is Not Always a Pleasant One. WORE AS WELL AS PLAY. Written for The Evening Star. HEN SPRING Makes all the world fresh and green, the host of candidates that seek admission to the Naval Acade- \ my at Annapolis, Md., = throng through the gateway, where a marine sentry stands guard day and night. = To those who leave through that gate af- ter an unsuccessful bout with the en- trance examinations, the glance back through the gate seems like a view of lost Paradise and the sentry seems a bar be- tween them and their fondest hopes. To the others—those who pass the entrance ex- aminations with fiying colors, the same Sentry seems like a prison guard, keeping them in from the world they have left out- side. The lesson of discipline, daily, hourly discipline, 1s hard to learn, and the course of dally ly and drill seems long to look forward to; but once through successfully, the reward is reached and the government gives the successful cadet a commission U. 8. S. Constellation, that is certainly most honorable, and reason- ably sure for life. Once passed, he takes the “iron bound” oath of allegiance from an old justice of the peace in Annapolis, whose office is in the building that served as a law office when Gen. Washington came to Annapolis to re- sign his commission, and has been doing the same duty ever since. And Now He is In. After this the young cadet, or “plebe,” in the parlance of the academy, gets a cap (the only part of his uniform that ts not made to order), and starts to his temporary home on the old Santee that does duty, tied to the dock and grounded in the mud, as quarters for the “‘new fourth” class, and as & prison ship for the unfortunate cadets who may commit any serious infractions of the regulations. Then begins the month of drilling him, and others with remarks upon his soldierly bearing—generally an awkward attempt to be milltary—or upon his which is likely at this time to be @ con- ee of uniform and civilian’s cloth- His First Cruise. At last the June ball and graduation over, the cadets left behind, except the sec- ond Gunior) class, embark on the Conste!- lation, a sailing frigate, over a hundred years old, for the three months’ summer cruise, when the plebes learn the first du- ties of a sailor and the upper classmen practice the duties of officers. Dressed in a blue jacket suit of white duck, sleeping in a hammock hung from the beams above the deck, and working from morning till night, the young plebe's life is a hard one now. It is not the work only that is hard; it ig the hazing and running that now be- come the bane of his existence, for it seems to him that every upper classman thinks it a duty to make a piebe's life mis- erable. The injurious hazing of former days, which often resulted in bodily injury, is gone, but enough remains to keep the plebes occupied. He may be required to eat a piece of candle, occasionally taste a cake of soap, but that is the limit, and the common forms of hazing amount only to saying over doggerel rhymes or standing on his head. And what if the plebe objects and refuses, you say. Well, generally, it is = Cadet Grounds. said that he does not refuse, but when he does, a fight may be arranged, and the mat- ter settled in the wash room up forward on the Constetlation, according to Queensbury rules. And many a fight has this old wash room seen, though rarely with any per- manenent injury to the combatants. The summer cruises generally start out from Annapolis, and make a short stop at Oid Point Comfort, where the cadets may get a chance to go ashore and charm the girls with their brass buttons and blue uniforms, for girls are always fond of uni- forms. Then the ship goes up the coast to New London and Newport. When the ship gets fairly out to sea, the woe of the plebe is multiplied, for sea sickness generally adds to hazing and hard work to make his life miserable. But once in port at some of the New England summer resorts, the half day’s leave to visit the shore on Saturdays and Sundays to those who remain on the the desert. The hotels on the beach are thronged with summer girls, who always appreciate the cadets, and look forward to the hop on board, which {s the last thing in port. Life on Board Ship. During these summer cruises the week days are spent cruising about in Long Island sound, the cadets working the ship, those in the lower classes doing the work of the blue jackets and those in the first class acting as officers, under the guidance and supervision of the regular officers. They learn to tie knots, clamber up the rigging, loose and furl the sails, heave the lead, and, in fact, to perform all the many duties of a sailor, The open sea air and pay of exercise make them strong and ealthy, and, in spite of the fact that their hammocks are hung as close as can be done on a poorly ventilated deck, and the food is often not particularly enticing, they come back from the cruise glowing with health and bronzed by sun and sea. The amusements aboard ship are few for cadets on a practice cruise. Smoking and card pigyins are crimes in the eyes of the regu- ions, yet a little danger only adds gest to the enjoyment, and wherever they can escape the vigilant eyes of the officers and THE U- 8. 8. SANTEE in “setting up” that precedes the first cruise. Of all drills, setting up drill, which consists of @ series of calesthentic and marching rilis, is the most prosaic and dull, and this, too, while the upper class cadets in the academy are enjoying the happy weeks pre- ceding graduation day and that culmination After Reveille, of @ series of calisthenic and marching While the other cadets spend their few spare hours in dancing at the hops and walking and filrting with the crowds of pretty girls that come to Annapolis at this time, the new plebe must spend his time either on the old Santee or drilling under the guidance of Swordmaster Corbesier and his assistants— and fine drillmasters they are, too. Then at nearly every turn some new and unexpected regulation confronts the inoffensive plebe and, whether he meant to do wrong or not, the demerits go down against him. But it 1s when he goes up to the mess hall to meals that his cup {s full of woe, for there the up- per classmen are upon him, some with strings of questions that bother and perplex cadet officers groups of cadets enjoy a few puffs or a game of cards.. On one cruise Pinckney. several cadets made a practice of wearing shirts and hats exactly lke the blue jackets when the evening shades came on, and smoking a clay pipe such as the sailors of every nationality use. With their hats well { pulled down over their eyes, there was Ht- tie danger of detection. On one occasion a cadet was thus enjoying the stolen sweets of his evening smoke when the officer of the deck came up suddenly, and, taking him to be a blue jacket, ordered him to at- tend to a very disagreeable duty, that a | cadet would not be expected to do. To re- |fuse was to be detected and “spotted, | which would give him enough demerits to | restrict him from goine ashore, so he swal- | lowed his pride and did as he was orfered, considering that he had paid dearly for his smoke that time. first conduct class comes lke an oasis in| ~ 0 ADVERTISERs, ‘AQvertisers are urgently re- Quested to hand in advertisements the Gay prior to publication, im order that insertion may be as- sured. Want ndvertisements will be received up to noon of the Gay of publication, precedence being Given to those first received. “he is not able to command until he is first able to do the same th! himself. Upon this maxim his education is founded. All Bat the Plebes. ‘The three months of cruising over all ex- cept the plebes go on a month's leave of and at its end the cadets come back laden with stories of the good times they have To the many visitors ing view of the Naval Academy with its well kept green lawns that stretch down to the white sea walls lapped by the waters of the Severn river the life of a cadet seems ideal, and they may even ask what he does to occupy his time. But the time is well occupied. Here is the daily routine during the eight months’ study from the Ist of October until the graduation in June: At 6 o'clock the buglers march through hall playing reveille, that familiar call that every cadet has hummed— “I can’t get them up, I can’t get them up, I can’t get them up, In the morning! Get up you lazy loungers, Put on your blouse and trousers, I can’t get them up in the morning! Then the cadet in charge of the floor starts at the last note to inspect the rooms and see that every one is turned out, and woe to the sleepy ones, for five demerits is the penalty. Thirty minutes lgter the as- The Study Hoar. sembly sounds and down the stairs all rush to formation for breakfast. The long lines fall in and the ranks are opened and mi- nutely inspected by officers who, according to the cadets’ ideas, can see a spot of dirt @ hundred yards away .All the formations are with exact military precision, the or- ders are read and the battalion marched into the mess hall. One half of the lower floor of the cadets’ new quarters is occupied by this mess hall, where the three hundred cadets are seated at the tables in three rows, about twenty-five at each table. At small table near the center are the of- ficer in charge (a Meutenant of the disct- pline department), the cadet lMeutenant commander (the ranking cadet officer), the cadet adjutant and the cadet officer of the day. ree times a day the assembly sounds for meal formations, and the cadets have just time to get tn ranks with clothes and shoes brushed, blouses buttoned und caps on square, when the bugle sounds “left face” and the rolls are called. the tardy and absent ones spotted, and after- wards assigned demerits unless their ex- cuses are infailible. The room itself is interesting, with its high ceiling and great windows looking out on the fair grounds of the academy. The walls and pillars are covered with trophies— won in the boat races in several quar- | ters of the globe,class pictures and banners, the names of crack shots of past classes and some of the targets showing their score and the bow and sculls of a famous racing A Popular Character. For thirty years London Pinckney, a negro servant of robust figure and universal good humor, tn spite of the joking cadets, presided over the mess hall as steward and chief waiter. “Pinckney” became a famous character, and his wonderful memory for the officers who had graduated any time since the war was always remarked. He ruled the servants with an iron hand and stood the vigorous protests of the cadets against the food without a complaint, ex- cept that they would make him poor—he weighed at least 250 pounds. In days when the food was worse than it is now all sorts of schemes were invented by the cadets to get an influence with “Pinckney,” but, though he accepted bribes with avidity and always had a place for old clothes, very few ever succeeded in getting any extras from him. The meals are composed of good, sub- stantial food, well cooked and fairly well served. For example, a recent day’s menu was as follows: Breakfast—Beefsteak, fried potatces, rolls, coffee, tea, chocolate; dinner—soup, roast beef, roast mutton, po- tatoes, corn, sliced tomatoes and ice cream; supper—cold meat, rolls, tea, coffee. While not elegant, this is enough to keep the young men in good health and strength,and on holidays a fine dinner is set out, in which all the skill of the gray-hatred cook and his three assistants is demonstrated. Three years ago “Pinckney” died, and a shade of genuine sorrow spread over the faces of the cadets, for they missed “Pinck- ney’s” excuses and unique rebukes to the servants. The Routine of the Day. But to return to the routine of daily du- ties. Breakfast over, thirty minutes ts given the cadet to put his room in order. The three upper floors of the quarters are 4i- vided Into rooms on either side of the halls that run lengthwise of the building, each room about twelve feet square and holding two cadets. In the center is a plain, square table, with a gas jet dropping from the ceiling over it. On either side of the single window stands a wardrobe, where the regu- lation clothing is kept neatly put away and ever ready for inspection, while on either side of the room is a narrow tron bedstead, with a hair mattress and hair pillow, with white sheets and spread. Two chairs and two shelves complete the furniture of these very plain and conven- tional rooms, yet they are comfortable enough. The two cadets in each room take turns for a week at a time as “cadet in charge of room” and each cadet is re- quired to make his own bed, keep his mir- ror and toilet articles clean and in order, his shoes neatly blacked and arranged beneath his bed, his wardrobe in order and his books dusted and arranged on the shelves, according to size and right side up. As a result every room looks exactly ike any other room. At 8 o’clock in the morning the “study call” is sounded and half of each class falls in to go to recitation, while the other half goes to the rooms to study. An hour later they alternate, at 10 again, and at stil in. Then a few minutes’ rest comes before dinner at half-past 12. From half-past 1 until 4 in the afternoon the study and recitation again alternate, then comes an hour or two of drill, then supper at half-past 6; while from half-past 7 till half-past 9 study hours are preserved, and at 10 taps sounds and “lights out” ends the busy day. During the study hours those Not All Play. The cadet who would stand well in his class must employ all the study hours in hard study and even some time outside of study hours. Some of the hard “boners,” as they are called, who study hard, turn out every morning and study an hour be- fore reveille in the attempt to master the intricacies of calculus or least squares. Saturday afternoon and evening and Sun- day afternoon are the hours of rest with one hour recreation on Wednesday after- noon, and at these times the fortunate ones who have not enough demerits to restrict them, generally spend these afternoons in the quaint old city of Annapolis. A famous resort is a little tobacco shop, where the smokers congregate to swap yarns with the proprietor, a very popular the|man among them, whose littie shop bids fair to rival the “Benny. Haven’s” of old West Point. During the winter months a series of hops form amusement for Satur- day nights. The holidays are few and short, only Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year and Washington’s birthday being allowed, and then the fortunate cadets on the first con- duct class who can find a relative in Wash- ington or Baltimore to visit go off for a day or two on Christmas and New Year, and the ones who stay behind find solace in a rest from study and the great boxes of cake and turkey and good things that come from home. The attempts at finding relatives to visit are many and a fellow is really glad if some Washington gir) has Promised to be “a sister to him” so he can stretch his conscience up to requesting leave to see his sister. Yet, despite the almost unremitting round of study and drill, the cadets have a good time and learn the lessons of discipline and forebearance that are n to an officer's education. It is not all the glamor and glare of romance that the passing visitor sees nor is it all the grind- ing work that the martinet disciplinarian advocates, but a combination of the two that turns the young men out at the end of four years robust and strong, good willed and good hearted and ready for the defense of the stars and stripes. —————— ———_~+e. ODDITIES OF REDEMPTION. Some Queer Things That Happened at the Treasury Department. “Two funny things I remember,” said a treasury official to a writer for The Star. “Not long ago a $20 note came in for re- demption from Minneapolis. That is to say, together with an affidavit saying that the owner had put it in a cigar box, where mice had got at it and nibbled it. “The note was a counterfeit. Not only that, but it had been through the treasury here at some previous time and had been stamped with the word “bad” in letters cut out of the paper. But the alleged mice had almost obliterated the letters by nib- bling around them. It was a queer way for mice to behave, to say the least of it. “In fact, we felt confident that the thing was a rank fraud. So we got a detective of the secret service to look the matter up. ae investigated the case fully and, much our 8 Fightain shore, inet, the ‘nate {ey Sa Someta owner, it a) 2 man sallor of respectable character, Nev- spree. ‘Waking’ up inthe maceaine hie Ent of dns utara ME et fone,cxcept this note for #0. doubtless passed it off on him. | “He noticed nothing wrong about it and put it into the cigar box in which he kept not only his ready money, but also bird seed for his pet canary. Mice, attracted by the bird seed, visited the box and inci- dentally chewed up the note. On finding it partly destroyed the sailor forwarded it to the treasury at Was! 5 e case = Maggies 3 re § as an illustration of e way in which an appearance of = —_ sometimes mislead. “The other case was that of a man who wandered into the treasury at the time of the G. A. R. convention here. He handed me a note which was @ most peculiar look- ing wreck. I said to him: “Why, it looks as if a railway train had run over it!” po replied: ietaas “You are mi en, mister. The fact is that my wife has been wearing that note in. Shoe all of this week in Washing- —__ A COLD WINTER PROMISED. Weather Prophet Cushman Gives Reasons for Believing So. Loren Cushman, an aged farmer of Ply- mouth, Chenango county, N. Y., has quite & reputation as a reliable weather prophet, and whenever he makes a prognostication his friends and acquaintances regard it as worthy of credence. Mr. Cushman believes the coming winter will be an unusually severe one, and bases his opinion on the following grounds: First, the husks on corn are much thicker than usual, and of a — orange tint, instead of a light lemon Second, the hog’s mel! jage | stead of eaneenat ee soba Third, the goose bone taken from a May-raised fowl shows larger and whiter spots than customary, which resemble canals of Mars. baal Fourth, the crop of nuts of all kinds is immense and the squirrels and chipmunks are laying in prodigious stores early in the season. Fifth, the partridges and woodcock are lighting in barns and outhouses, instead of trees, and ducks are flying in U-shaped, in- stead of V-shaped, flocks toward the south. | Sixth, the green frogs are changing their skins and are even now seeking cool wells and springs for their winter quarters. Mr, Cushman believes the coming winter will be the most severe this country has ex- perienced since the winter of 1533. —_+e+_____ The Wonders of Science. From Lffe. The first academy for the deaf and dumb was opened in Edinburg in 1773. WIND INSTRUMENTS. Primitive Kinds of Horns Used All Over the World, THE SHOFAR OF THE BIBLE. Alarm Horns Used For Battle in Africa. ANCIENT AND MODERN. One of the most interesting collections at the National Museum comprises a num- ber of primitive wind instruments used in modern as well as in ancient times by dif- ferent peoples in various parts of the world. Not the least remarkable of them ts kind of horn that is referred to in many places in the Bible under the name of “cornet.” ‘The reference is not to the cor- net-a-piston by any means, but to the “shofar,” which is the oldest form of wind instrument known to be retained in use om the earth. It is still employed in the cer- emonial of the modern Jewish Synagogue, being blown during the service on New Year's day and at several other religious festivals. The shofar, which is the only ancient musical instrument actually preserved im the Mosaic ritual, is usually made of ram's horn, straightened and fiattened heat, with the mouth expanded into the shape of a bell, All natural horns can be molded into any forms desired by the use of heat or by cooking them in oil. This style of “cornet” was no doubt employed before the dawn of history, and there seems to be little doubt that it has been continuousiy used by the Hebrews since the time of Moses. Very curious speci- mens have been dug up or otherwise res- cued from the dust of antiquity now and again. One of them bears an inscription, saying: “Happy are the people who know thy sound.” The method of sounding this kind of horn Only le has been three notes narily. Among a number of blowing it given by Saadia Ben of the great Jewish scholars of the middie ages, is that it should serve as a reminder of the destruction of the holy temple and the terrifying alarm of the enemy's war- riors shouting in battle. Also, the same authority, it calls to mind the great and awful day of judgment, on which, according to the Bible statement, the trumpet will be sounded, It is thought possible that the supposed sacredness of the ram's horn was alleged to be due to the fact that it was a ram which was caught in the thickets by its horns and which served as an offering in- stead of Isaac. The shofar of New Year day in ancient times was usually the straight horn of a kind of antelope or cha- mois, the mouthpiece of which was covered with gold. On the other hand, the “cornet” of fast days was a ram’s horn with a mouthpiece covered with silver. A shofar which had been broken and mended could New Year, under which the horn might be buried, to climb a@ tree, to ride on any animal, or to swim over water to get a “cornet.” ancient books of Hebrew religious law clared that children should not be prevent eda from blowing the horn, but that on the contrary they should be instructed in the art of sounding it. It was further provided that a person might, if he liked, pour water or wine into the shofar, to improve its sound. When David removed the ark to Jerusalem, the blowing of the shofar was heard in the procession. The most ancient use of signals of any sort was doubtless to apprise a tribe of the coming of an enemy and to call together the clansmen for defense. Possibly the ear- lest and certainly the most frequent em- ployment of this horn in Israel was for military purposes. The instrument played an important part in the imposing demon- stration made before the walls of Jericho, which is told about in the book of Joshua. To Give the Alarm. From the Talmud it is learned that the use of this horn to give the alarm of war was transferred to other seasons of danger and distress. Famine, plague of locusts aad drought occasioned the blowing of the shofar. It was also employed at the public ceremonies of excommunication. During hostilities it had various uses—as the signal for going out to battle, for the announcement of a victory and for the re- call of the troops. When Absalom was en- in a revolt against his father, he sent spies among all the tribes of Israel. an- nouncing his intentions and informing them that when they heard the shofar sounded they might say that he had become king. Many ancient and modern nations have used the horns of animals for wind instru- ments. At the time of the festival of the prophet the Berbers employ a horn, which consists of two rams’ horns joined at the ends and provided with metal mouthpieces. It is called a “zamr.” The horn of India is from the ox or buffalo. It is scraped and polished, the tip being cut off and the opening for the lips enlarged and with a hot iron. In form it is exactly like the shofar. This is supposed to be the favorite instrument of the Hindu god Siva. Dr. Cyrus Adler, who gave The Star writ- er this information, encountered not long ago @ curious survival of the manufacture and use of a musical instrument made of natural horn. While walking on Pennsyl- vania avenue in this city he saw a boy about ten years of age, with a cow's horn in his hand. He said that he had cut off the end, shaped the mouthpiece with @ hot poker, and had then scraped it with a knife. On being requested to blow it, he aid 80 quite easily. Dr. Adler tried to secure possession of it, but the urchin deciined to part with it