Evening Star Newspaper, February 17, 1894, Page 14

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 1894-TWENTY PAGES. A BIT OF OLD CHINA Memories of the Horrible Massacre of Tientsin. A PICTORE OF THIS QUAINT CITY Journeys Into the Interior of a! Chinese Shop. — PORCELAINS OF VALUE ‘Written Exclusively for The Evening Star. HE DREADFUL work of an infuriat- ed Chinese populace, which sent a thrill of horror over the whole world in 1871, entitles the Tientsin massa- cre to rank with that of St. Bartholomew. A visit to the scene of this atrocity was among the aims of our Chinese travels; but when the steamer that had brought us from Shanghai landed us on the Tientsin bund one brilliant July day,the history of the Past was almost forgotten in the charm of the present, and we found it difficult to | Fecall old terrors with the anticipated vivid- ness, so indefaticable was the social brightness that filled all our days in that | charming port. However, there is some- thing one never forgets in China, that is, old porcelain; and, in looking for the one we could hardly neglect the other, as curios of china and lacquer may be found ta their rarest glory in the vicinity where the good French nuns were haggled, butchered and burnt, and won their crowns of martyrdom | fn that dire long ago. There are, in reality, two Tientsins—the Foreign Settlement and the Old City. The | Europeaa city was a small setulement at | the time of the massacre, but ‘It is now a/ large, flourishing town, with well-paved | streets and substantial residences. In the | French quarter the consulate, banking | house and houses are on a large scale, and | stuccoed in brilliant white. Their glitter- ing effect of marble seems to cast a re- preach on the sober gray buildings that | prevail around them, which are really mere in keeping with the dust and dirt of | China. The missionary quarter is a sort of | “Park place.” it is distinguishable by its extent, {ts desirable situation, and the Rumerousness of its handsome residences, surrounded with well-tended tennis courts and large, beautiful gardens. There 1s po Chinese quarter; but the river is crowd- ed with house-boats that swarm with tan- ned bodies and waggling pigtails; coolies are numerous in the settlement thorough- | fares, and a mud-hut suburb straggles two | miles up the Peiho shore, and is merged | im Chinese Tientsin. A Different Picture. There the inhabitants are reckoned by millions, and instead of shaded avenues | we find narrow dirty alleys between jail- | like walls filled to overflowing with a rush- fag, half-naked throng; instead of cool, in- viting-looking houses we see wretched hovels, in which a self-respecting pig would in to live; instead of leafy, fragrant gardens there are horrid, sickening odors, Bot at all fit for polite noses. Lt sung Chang Yet this is the old home of the famous “peach-blow” vase. Peach-blow vases are not manifold, but if you will penetrate a shop that has a little overstepped the pave- ment, apparently for the purpose of exhibit- ing for sale some brass and iron cooking utensils and second-hand household furni- ture, you will find within a succession of dim back rooms jumbled and piled with bowls, plates and snuff bottles of porce- lain old enough and ugly enough to swal- low up a comfortable little fortune. You will find ruinously expensive jade stone ornaments, which a Chinese mandarin val- ues as he does his diamonds, thouzh else where they could hardly find a purchaser, unless some fanatical collector should im- agine them necessary to his happiness. ‘The ogre that presides over this den of se- creted treasures may prowl into sume dusky recess and bring out for your admiration a box of Pekin red lacquer no larger than an ostrich egg and shaped like one. The im- perial dragon is exquisitely carved upon it, but the price at which it is held makes you gasp with surprise. A little vase attracts your notice, not because it is beutiful, however, for it is exceptionally ugly, but because you have never seen one at all like it. With renewed consternation you learn that the best bargain you can per- suasively drive is $800, and this, not on ac- count of grace or splendor, but because there is no other in existence and it cannot be reproduced. Diverting Street Scenes. ‘To one unaccustomed to China sights the trip from European Tientsin to the native city is full of interest. The jinrikisha coolies travel well and are always good-natured, even to a jolly degree. Although they seem to be melting away with the heat, and it appears imminent that they will vanish and leave no trace but a tarry spot on the pave- ment, they do not slacken their speed or narrow their grin. In the cities of any country that is new to us the street sights are diverting; but it is doubtful if any streets are crowded so full of remarkable scenes as those of Chinese cities. There are barbers trudging along, with their whole establishment inclosed In two bright red and gold boxes at each end of a pole, which is slung over the shoulder; or we may see them at work, one of the boxes serving as a seat for the customer. It ts not surpris- ing that the streets should glow with bar- bers’ boxes, when we consider how many head tops there are to be kept closely shaved and how many queues to be braided. ‘There are the beggars by profession, all un- der the authority of one of their craft, who is known as king of the beggars. These are not numerous in the towns in summer, as } ft is their business stroke to go into the! country then; but they are of hideous qual-! ity. Many of them are in the worst stages of a certain form of leprosy. It is not as contagious as the leprosy of the Sandwich Islands, but it is more horrible in appear- ance. There are the fanmakers, dexterous- ly painting and folding paper fans, under a little canopy like a newspaper stall. There are the Chinese doctors, carrying on their unique treatment in boot dely exposed to the gaze of the passing multitudes. One or two patients may usually be seen lying about the tent, with long pins thrust in the temples, or arms, perhaps, or legs—that be- ing the very vigorous native medical prac- tice. And there are poor frights of women, | with their elaborate hair dressing, dangling earrings and deformed feet. It gives one both a footache 2 heartache to see the meal hobbling painfully constant danger of top- wooden toy. It is not feet have been so ban- i but all the toes, been broken ar the pointed sh Cookshops That Smet Above the Chinese sights rank the Chi- nese smells, whi valry. For many of these the numberless cookshops and their remarkable food are responsible. A popular preparation is in the form of thick, soggy, raw, dirty pastry lumps and loaves. One would fancy, lation was homeless, and that everybody's food Besides these “restaurants,” there are many soup kitchens for beggars, a charity heartily supported, even by the poorest laborer. The greatest curiosity in Tientsin is the ancient wall of the inner city. It is not much younger than the Great Wall, and it is in excellent preservation, in spite of present utter negiect; but miles of seething streets have stretched out beyond it on all sides, during its centuries of existence, so that one’s first attempt to find it lusively groping. From the outside one would hardly discover it, except by the towers, and an occasional glimpse of the crewela#ed top, as it is nearlv hidden by the buildings that lean against It. A Street Barber. At last we see a high, arched, impressive gateway, and we have reached the wall; we go through a passage so dim from the thickness of the wall it seems a little | } tunnel, and we are within the old, old city, where the roofs are grass- grown, and the streets quite huddled with carved arches in red and gold, dingy with antiquity. ef worn and loosening brick on the inner ide of the wall, in order to reach the pa- goda-like tower of the gateway, where we can get a sweeping view of the four miles of wall forming a square, with a pagoda- crowned gateway at each angle. Leaning over the balcony, we watch the stream of life rushing through the street beneath. A picture most harmonious with the quaint setting is a mandarin procession winding tnrough the dusky entrance, bound, per- haps, for the palace of Li Wung Chang The tasseled palanquin, jealously closed: the palanquin bearers, the scarlet canopy and gaily dressed canopy bearers, the long retinue of piratical-looking attendants, seem to belong to days of yore. We are sorry that we must waken from our mediaeval dream and turn away from the beautiful, venerable wall. The creweles have fallen, in some places, and the bricks on the inner side are crumbling and dropping out, but there is still the broad walk around the ar a and many feet of thickness remain intact. A Fatal Ride. Leaving the official city, we return to the settlement by the route over which a lovely sixteen-year-old bride, the daugh- ter of a wealthy Russian in the foreign town, was carried in her sedan chair the night of the frightful massacre. She and her husband had been dining with friends in the Old City and it was late in the.even- ing when, unconscious of danger,they start- ed on their return. They had traversed only a small part of the homeward dis- tance when they found the streets swarm- ing with human furies and blazing with th burning French Church and convent. E cape was impossible. They were dragged away from their attendants and fiendishly murdered. Although the glare of the fires in the di- rection of the French consulate—which was then in the Old City—had roused fears in the settlement, nothing was known of the riot until a Chinese servant, a faithful attendant of the poor little bride, ran to the father and mother at home with the gruesome tidings. He told, also, the plan of the mob leaders for burning and murder- ing the settlement. This information came in ‘ime for preparation for defense, and European Tientsin was saved ALETHE LOWBER CRAIG. ——--200 VAST TRADE IN FROZEN MEAT. Enormous Shipments of Food to Eng: land From Her Australasian Colonies. Some figures recently published show the enormous extent to which the frozen-meat trade in England has been developed during the last thirteen years. It appears that in 1893 no fewer than 2,514,541 carcasses of frozen sheep and lambs and 171,/40 quarters and pieces of beef arrived in London from New Zealand and Australia alone, without counting 1,373,723 sheep from the river Plate and 16,425 more from the Falkland Islands. The sheep are mainly bought direct from the farmers in New Zealand or Australia by representatives of the English companies, the amount paid being 4 cents per pound for animals not over seventy pounds in weight. The farmers also receive the skins, kidneys and fat. A few are sent on con- signment, but, according to the New York Evening Post, the other system is thought to work more satisfactorily, as under it the farmers know at once what they are to get, and are saved tedious delays and pos- sible disappointments. There are, altogeth- er, twenty-two meat-freezing works in New Zealand, of which thirteen are in the north island and nine in the south, and these works can freeze from 12,000 to 13,000 sheep in a day, or an aggregate of 4,440,000 in a year. The cost of a complete set of works, capable of dealing with 1,000 sheep a day, is estimated at from $55,000 to $100,000, Eighty-eight vesseis altogether have now been fitted with refrigerating apparatus, | and these have a maximum carrying capac- ity of 6,700,000 carcasses. The cost for slaughtering, freezing and putting the sheep on board {s about 1 cent per pound, and the freight, insurance and London ' charzes amount to about 3 cents. The present mar- ket price in London for the best New Zea- land mutton fs 4 1-8d (a trifle over 8 cents) per pound. a) Mee Rainy Day Dress. From the Philadelphia Times. The question of a rainy day dress has re- ceived much attention, but some women have objected to the skirt, which must be short enough to keep the dress out of the mud. This objection is somewhat irrational, as any person out on a rainy day inows that in lifting the dress much more of the ankle is exposed than was intended. What could be more modest than a skirt of dark rain-proof serge reaching to the ankles and met by high buttoned leggings of the same color; a coat of the same goods and a hat of the same would not be conspicuous and | would be becoming, economical and labor saving. Nothing puts a womin in such a bad temper as to be obliged io brush the mud from the skirts, and surely nothing is so likely to cause one to contract a cold as the flapping of bedraggled skirts ainst one’s ankles. ee Her Great Sorrow. From Puck. The clay-eating Indian was at no pains to conceal his dissatisfaction. “Away!” he cried, with a contemptuous gesture. His wife sighed. “Ah, me!” she murmured ‘ince my lord went to the world’s fair, and got a taste of the Chicago drinking water, I can pre- pare no food to suit him.” Hastily brushing away a tear, she pro- ceeded patienuly with her tenthold duties. Fired: From Puck. Mr. O'Malley. some foir insurance Mrs. O'Malley love av hivin, phwat for Mr. O' Mall “Phwy, so many av th’ min are bein’ discharged down to th’ mill, that Oi want to be prepared whin moi turn comes!"" ‘Kitty, Oi'm an goin’ to get e loife. surane For th’ from the fre- | quency of these stalls, that the entire popu- eems de- | We climb up an inclined plane | | 'SPURS ON THE WINGS | | Curious Weapons With Which Some | Birds Are Armed. fate at get FOWLS tut ARE BORN FIGHTERS Pek Sat ee a ene | South American Screamers Armed With Stilettos i THE EARLIEST OF BIRDS! Written Exclusively for The Evening Star. OME BIRDS HAVIS queer ways of doing battle,” said Usteolo- gist Lucas or tne Smithsonian institu- tion to a Star writer. “They not only ngnt ‘tooth and claw,’ but with their wings but- fet the adversary about the head. ine swan is a famous tighter and can ae- ver a tremendous wing blow. ‘Ihe com- mon pigeon, though held up as a type of sentleness, uses its wings in conflict with ;™uch effect. In fact, there are few birds of more quarrelsome disposition or more siven to picking upon their weaker neigh- | bors. | | “The pigeon is a sktlirul boxer, guard- ing with one wing and striking with tne | sae It strikes its adversary about the | jhead with its ‘wrist’—that is, the part |which people who are not anatomists call |the ‘shoulder.’ 1f you will carefully part the feathers on the outer edge of a pig- eon's wing, near the berd, you will find a | | small bare spot and a blunt, well-marked | horny prominence. It is with this that the | | blow is inflicted, “An extinct species of pigeon was pro- vided with a sort of natural stung snot, which must have addec not a little to tne effectiveness of the blow. This bird was the fat and -tightless solitaire of Rodri- quez Island, to the north and east of Mada- gascar, It was a near relative of the dodo and like it a great ungainly aberrent mem- ber of the pigeon family. All that we know | about the solitaire has beer gathered from the journal of Francois Leguat, who says that while the birds were mating they would not permit any of their own kind fo approach within 200 yards. ‘The male of the pair would drive away the males, while the female would fight off the fe- | males. gerouxs Weapon. het arrangement which sery- ed the solitaire as a weapon was simply an enlargement of the wrist bone, brought about by the combative habits of the birds. The joint having been banged and bruised until the sort of diseased outgrowth termed | ‘exostosis’ took place, in the course of gen- erations the swelling became a constant characteristic of the animal. | “There are some geese in Africa which | have pinions peculiarly armed. One of the | wrist bones projects considerably beyond the other and is capped with a sharp spur. Plovers are particularly remarkable for the spurs on their wings. In some species, which have small spurs, the weapon in- creases in size at the breeding season, so as to become available for fighting. A small and quarrelsome kind of plover is very abundant in northeast Africa. Its restless habits—for night and day it is per- | petually on the move—are explained by an Arab tradition to the effect that on account of former laziness it has been condemned | to live in a state of eternal unrest. H “The largest of the South American spurred plovers ranges southward to Pat- agonia, and is armed with a long, victous- looking spur just at the base of the met: | tarsus. I was about to say ‘thumb,’ but it | | seems probable, as I shall presently explain | {to you, that birds long ago lost their thumbs, and that the middle finger has come to do duty in its place. | “Among the gigantic extinct group of | reptiles called ‘dinosaurs’ the thumb itself | changed in function, and, instead of aiding | the other digits to lay hold of things, was | transformed into a long, sharp spike. | This | cecurs in the iguanodons—particularly in| a species of these monsters, two score of | which were by 2 lucky chance swept into | a gully, where they remained for long ages until brought to light by the picks of the | coal miners of Bernissart. That in this case, however, the spike did duty as a! Weapon is uncertain, and it may have served no more harmful purpose than that of ripping off the husk of some fruit or vegetable which formed the food of those mighty herbivorous lizards. “When the first iguanodons were re- | Stored by naturalists, it was not known | where these thumb spikes belonged, and the | reptile was figured with the spike on the end of its nose, like a rhinoceros. I men- | tion these lizards because marked likenesses | spect to many structural peculiarities. | “Among the most remarkable of the spur- winged birds are the jacanas—a family of small birds related to the rails. They have such long and slender toes that they run as easily over 1 pads and floating | vegetation as other birds do over dry land. One peculiarity of theirs is the activity which they exhibit on coming into the | world. On this subject I will read you a passage from the writings of the naturalist Hudson. He says: Soon Learned to Swim. “While I was looking closely at one of the eggs lying on the palm of my hand, all at once the cracked shell parted, and at the same moment the young bird leaped from my hand and fell into the water. It swam rapidly away to a small mound,and,es- caping from the water, concealed itself in the grass, lying close and perfectly mo- tionless like a young plover. I am quite sure that the bird's sudden escape was the result of a violent effort to free itself in- spired by the loud and persistent screaming ne ne parents, which it heard while in the shell.’ “The South American screamers are the most formidable of spur-winged birds. They are related to the ducks, though they don’t look it. They have two spurs on each wing —one a short affair, the other an ugly, three-sided, stiletto-like blade, almost as sharp as a needle. In fact, it is not unlike part of one of those large needles used by | sailmakers and known as ‘roping needles.” It could doubtless be driven clear through a man’s hand by a stroke of the bird's powerful wing. Yet the screamers are peaceable birds, associating amtcably in large flocks, so that this equipment of spurs, like our modern ironclads, may be strictly in the interest of peace. “Some birds have claws on their wings. These appendages serve no purpose as weapons and apparently are of no use at all to the grown-up birds, but merely to the young. You may, perhaps, have seen the Florida gallinule pulling itself up some little incline by its wings, somewhat as a bat hooks itself along. The claws on the wings which thus serve as hooks are fre- quent among water birds. “Without a knowledge of fossil biris,4 through which we are able to trace the hi tory and development of feathered crea- tures, it might be hard to explain the pres- ence of these claws. But, if we regard rudimentary organs in existing forms shadows of the past and vestiges of co! plete useful parts, the reason for the claws is clear. s An Early Bird. “The earliest bird of which we know any- thing was the archaeopteryx. A single fus- sil specimen has been dug out from the lithographic ‘slate beds of Bavaria. This | creature seems not only to have had wings for flyiag, but hands for climbing. In the ing are three well-formed clawed fingers, by means of which the bird could undoubt- edly climb about very readily. It is a long jump from the archaeopteryx to the next most ancient type of bird known. But, for- tunately, there is a bird still living, and not uncommon in parts of South America,which goes some distance toward bridging cver the gap between this biped with claws and the gallinule. he bird of which I speak, on account of its many pecuitarities, stands quite alone mong modern birds. It is looked upon as survivor of a great group of birds which has become extinct. It is called the hoat- zin. On account of the unpleasant odor of its flesh, acquired from its food of wild | | which takes place in the forelimb | clawed finge | of the old bird. are found between them and birds in re- | arum leaves, it is known as the or ‘stinking pheasant.’ ‘Now, the adult hoatzin not only has no claws on its wings, but its ‘thumbs’ are so roorly developed that cne would hardly suspect that in the nestlings we have the nearest approach to a quadruped found among existing birds. Soon after the hatch ing of the eggs the young ones begin to crawl about by means of their wings and legs, the well-developed claws on the ‘thumb’ and index being constantly in use for hold- ing and hooking en to surrounding cbjects. If they are drawn from the by their. legs, they cling firmly to the twigs with bili and wings. The nesttings, even when quite small, are frequently found far away f the nest, climbing by the help of their cl; after the parent bi It tink bird’ y ap- proaches, they crawl out of the aest and hide in the thicker bush close by. “Not the least of the many interesting features of the hoatzin is the ra during the growth of the bird, by which the hand of the nestling, with its well-levelopel and becomes the clawless wing It gives us, as it were, an epitome of the past history of birds, and, as the events of a century are summed up in a ge of history, so the slow birds in their development from the archae- opteryx to the thrush of to sented by a few hoatzin.”” ay is repre- weeks in the tife of the eee NEW PUBLICATIONS. its © wonderé il wor Its migaty races and ki Ne Ww bulingusne. bi ai An aeronautic delirium, an astronomic frenzy, and yet deeply interesting both in plot and treatment. Others have pictured Mars and described journeys thereto, but none have been so lavish of incident or so strongly desrirnive us Dr. Pope his been. The stry is told in a marvelously-written manuscript which, properly protected, is dropped on the deck of the good ship White } Gull during a terrific gale off the coast of South Wales on the night of December A lieutenant in the United States navy and a New Zealander are the princi- pal earth-born characters; they voyase to and from Mars and are about to return to the Martian world when the story breaks off short. Thrilling situations necessarily abound and there is an unbroken threat of accurate scientific information in the vol- ume, but there are several unexplained in- | the consistencies in the construction of narrative, not surprising when it is membered that the author has given the most of his life to the practice of medicine and not to the equally exacting and more easily criticised science of literature. Lo ers of the odd and the problematical will find the book much more pleasant reading than the average novel of today and vastly more instructive. A little of careful edit- ing would remove the crudities and make | the remainder a really excellent speciinen of what a Washington imagination can do | without overexerting itself. MEMOL HERLOCK HOLMES. By A. Conan Doy of “Adventures of Sherlock Hoimes,”* “The Refugee “Micah Clarke,” &¢ Illustrated. New York: Harper & Brothe Washington: Woodward & Lothrop. The concluding volume of a wonderful series, Full of the adventure of crime, but the crime is almost invariably puaished by the law and the law of course secures its just victims through the remarkable keenness of Sherlock Holmes, than whom— were he a real being—no more astute de- tective ever lived. Twelve tales that en- trarce are told in this book, the last one be- of ing descriptive of the strange death | Doyle's great creation. THE TRAFFIC IN . Mists rittenton Missions, Fy Charlton Eat perintendent press, a's Woman's t plishing Associatio: In this book of about three hundred pues are some of the most awful of revelations, closely related to those made public so: years ago by the Pall Mall Gazette. Then to lighten the gloom come several chapt: in which are details of the saving work be- ing done through the Crittenton Missions, SOUTHERN OUTRAGES. A. stuils: lawless doings. By KR. u tary of the Colored Lawyers’ Na sociation. Dedicated to the widows and orphans of the murdered black men of the south. A ghastly catalogue of crime committed in an- ticipation and defiance of law. Editor Mag- of al Bar As- jnus L, Robinson of the Leader of Alexan- dria contributes an arraigning introduction. WARISIAN POINTS OF VIEW. By Ludovie Ha- ‘The translation by Edith V.- B. Maj 8. Introduction by Brander "Matthews, New York: Harper & Brothers. Washington: Woodward & Lothrop. Nine charming short stories by a writer who is Parisian throughout and who in) | that particular fleld is supreme. THE WORLD'S CON the irrefutable ov f awind Edited Chicago: NATIONAL CONV Os CRATIC AND REPUBLICA 1Sk2 and | ISG, respectivel, edited by Her mith, compiler and w thor of the wal of the House of mith’s Parliamen- tar; ‘ihe J. M. W. Jones Stationery and Printiag Compan; THE CENTURY WAR ROOK. Part I of th Edition. Containing articles ‘on on the eve of the * and Fe: with many illustra pO of those Who made up administration, President Lin inet and Jefferson Davis and bis advise 1 entury Co. ineluetin “7 )N TO ELEMENTARY BIOLOGY. A labora’ student PRACTICAL for high Charles Wright Doc in the University of ew Harper & Brothers. Woodward & Lothrop. OF JOHN LOGAN AND TWO ROMEO AND JULIE AND \ SNOW IDYLL. By William 1 ew and revised edition, New York: Harper & Brothers. ‘Washing: Woodward & Lothrop. FAMOUS PAINTINGS OF THE WORLD, ‘of a collection of photographie reprod Pye THR PENANCI OTHER TALE HORACE CHASE. A novel. By more W author “of “East Ang &e. Ni : Brothers. Woodward & Lathroy IN DIREST PERIL. A novel. By David Curistle Murray, author. of “Time's” Revenges," "A Wasted’ Crime,” &e, New York: Narper & Brother. Washington: Woodward & Lott a The Living Words of the Dead States- man, From the Torouto Empire. (On the proposed monument to Hou. Jeremian Rusk it would seem better to record his homely Worth otherwise than in the Latin tongue.—Bosion Herald.) ‘The railroad men had struck, and fools Cried loud for troops to quell a riot; But Rusk said: “Arms are Satan's tool Can troops keep starving workmen qu! I'll save some blood by sending brea ‘The risk of murder—T'll not run it. When thanked for this, he simply said: “L seen my duty, and I done it.” A better boast was never heard. He was not blinded in the flurry; What matter if his noble word Could pot be parsed by Lindley Murray? Some see their duty, but, forsooth, Are somehow strangely apt to shin it; All praise to him who said with trut! “Tseen my duty, and I done it Rough, ready, reasoning Rusk’s at rest! ‘They weep who at his jokes made merry! The rich man was his friend confessed— ‘The poor man mourns for “Uncle Jerry?” He loved applause, but He did not cringe, for more; but won tt— Grave this, instead of learned to “I scen my duty, an Jone it. F seem my duty atti “A. WOODWORTH. eee A Place for Everything. From Puck. Mr. Neatly.—“I see you have been straightening up the bed room again.” Mrs. Neatly.—‘What makes you think sor" Mr. Neatly.—"I can’t find my slippers.” id change | progress of | e | in | = METEORS FROM THE SKY Messengers From Starry Space Which Fall to Earth, They Have a Very Considerable Vatae, but It Does Not Pay to Counterfeit Them, Written Exclusively for The Evening Star. “The queerest kind of counterfeiting 1 know of is the making of artificial meteor- ites im imitation of real ones,” said a scien- tific man to a reporter for The Star. “This kind of fraud has been often tried, because such missiles from the heavens are w ‘good deal of money. Sometimes one weig ing not more than a pound has fetched a: much as $2,000, its structure being peculiat | Specimens ordinarily are not kept whole, but are cut up into slices and disposed of to collectors. A collector of minerals makes it a matter of pride to have a piece of every known kind of meteorite in his cabi- net. If a new sort turns up and he has no bit of it he is unhappy. “But nobedy has ever succeeded in mak- jing a counterfeit that would impose on a decently-informed amateur, much less an expert. The slices cut from meteorites are sometimes prettily polished, or the cut sur- | faces are etched with acid so as to expose the crystalline structure. This structure is in no two such bodies precisely the same, and |the differences are considered weil worth |studying. They are mostly composed of iron, with a percentage of nickel and co- balt, and oceasionally copper and tin. No | precious metals have ever been found in | meteorites, though, as I have said, some of them are worth many times their weight in gold. “Not long ago a meteorite with smail, black diamonds was found in Arizona, jnear the Canon Diablo, The discoverers supposed that they had struck an iron mine of immense value, but investigation proved that the chunks of metal picked up had been shot out of the realms or space. The place where they were obtained is known as the ‘Crater,’ because it looks lke one, being a circuiar hollow 1 feet in depth, three-quarters of a mile wide and surrounded by a wail of rock su si@ep nat the bottom is strewn with the skeletons of animals which have got in and have been junable to climb out again. Nevertheless, it is not of voleanic origin. “Geologis' y that it was formed by the impact of a single gigantic meteor, which, Ume in the past, struck the earth jand buried itself out of sight, leaving a hole which has since become parily tied up, surrounded by a wail of rock that was ferced out of place. imagine what a big one it must have been to leave a cavity three-fourths of a mile wide where it hit this planet! The mass of iron of which it | was composed is there yet, of course. Per- | haps, supposing this theory true, it was | not sunk too deep to render mining for the | material unprotitable. 1t is worth consider- }ing tat the so-called ‘craters’ on the moun are now said to have been formed by me- teors in the same fashion. The Tenth Wonder. “The largest meteor ever actually seen to fall struck the earth in 1886, six miles east of Lamar, Ark., on the north side of the Arkansas river. five yards of the house of one Christopher jC. Shandy. At about jternoon of March Shandy was eng: occupation when report, which jac som in that year, Mrs. some housewilely she heard a tremendous caused the dishes in the china closet to rattle. ‘The report was jlouder than any thunder she nad ever eard. At first she thought it was caused by a bombshell, and ran out of the house > ty see the limbs fall from the top a tall pine tree which stood about s: -five yards from her dwelling. Mrs. Shandy had never come into close contact with a meteor before. Not liking the looks of it, nor understanding what it |was that had happened, she did not inves- gate the matier until G o’elock in «he evening, when her husband came home. | Then, accompanied by the hired man, chey went out to investigate. They discovered | that a large hole had been made in the ground by some falling object, and that the [resh earth had been thrown up to a height of thirty feet on the surrounding trees. They dug down, and a steam or ex- hhalation rose. “The tron had buried itself in the ground to the depth of three feet, and the earth around it to the thickness of one inch seemed to be burned. The earth was still warm when the mass was taken out, and the iron itself was as hot as the men could well handle. Mr. Shandy at first supposed | that their find was platinum; then he had a notion that it was silver, and finally, on | learning what it really was, he sold it to | Mayor Caraway of the town of Eureka. It |was again sold to Col. J. T. Betten, a lawyer of Eureka Springs, who exhibited it as the “Tenth Wonder of the World,’ jcharging twenty-five cents to look at it. Heard Seventy-Five Miles. “The noise made by this meteor when it appeared in the sky was so loud as to be heard seventy-five miles away. According to the testimony of observers, there was a loud report, followed by a hissing sound as lif hot metal had come in contact with wa- ter. It caused general alarm, and teams of | horses twenty-five miles distant, becoming frightened, broke loose and ran away. In Webb City, on the south side of the Ar- kansas river, a number of bells kept on sale lin a store are said to have been caused to |tinkle. A local newspaper said: ‘Attention was first attracted to the northwest by the report, after which there seemed to be an Jimmense and irregular body whiz toward |the zenith and somewhat north of ft, and there seemed to stop and whiz like 10,000 scalding hogs, and then, after another ter- rific report, to die away in the southwest.’ “It was contended by some observers that |the main body of the meteor did not fall, |but that the piece found was merely a | fragment that was broken off. The Nestor | of the little community of Southern Home, | Ark., settled the matter by stating em- |phatically that the phenomenon was a ‘comic busted.’ The mass dug up by Mr. * | Shandy and his hired man weighed 107 1-2 |pounds. The fact that {t only penetrated | to a ‘depth of three feet in the earth proves | that the ground where it struck must have been very compact, and the force of the body itself nearly speat. A meteorite which was seen to fall in Agram, Croatia, in 1751, penetrated fifteen feet in a freshly-plowed | field. It broke in two fragments. A Twenty-Five Ton Meteor. “The largest meteor known is now in the Royal Museum of Stockholm. It weighs 50,000 pounds, and was found on the west coast of Greenland. There is a meteor from Mexico of 1,400 pounds weight in the Smithsonian Institution. The fall of such bodies to the earth Is sometimes ac- companied by a great display of light, oc- casionally illuminating an area of thous- ands of square miles when such an event occurs at night. The loud détonations which are apt to characterize these phe- nomena are caused by the breaking up of the meteor. Meteorites, under such condi. tions, are said to ‘burst,’ but, as a mati of fact, they are broken to pieces by strik- ing the atmosphere of the earth. “It is reckoned that 10,000,000 meteorites enter the earth’s atmosphere every twenty- four hours. Nearly ali of them are burned up before they can fall to the ground, only a few very big ones actually reaching the crust of the planet. Thus, the layer of air which envelops the globe ‘serves as a pro- tection for its inhabitants, who would oth- erwise be pelted by such missiles to a dan- gerous extent. Astronomers think ft prob- able that some very large meteors have en- tered our atmosphere and have passed out into space again, their great momentum being sufficient to take them away from the earth’s attraction. The average meteor approaches the earth at a speed of some- thing like forty miles a second.” A Wit of the War. From the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. In our company during the civil war,” said Capt. T. E. Barlow of Milwaukee, “was a stuttering sergeant named Thomas and a chaplain named Chenautt, who was exceedingly untidy in personal appearance. The sergeant was a wit and gave the chap- lain no end of trouble. One cold day the parson had preached over an hour, and at the close of his discourse asked any one who felt serious to come forward. The ser- geant went at once. ‘Do you really feel serious?’ asked the chaplain, rather doubt- ful of his convert. ‘Se-se-serious. I sh-sh- sheuld say I I di-did. Any m-man w-would feel s-se-serious to s-s-sit on a c-ca-cake of ice t-t-two hours and h-he-hear y-you p-p- preach,’ was the reply. On another occa- sion, at mess, the sergeant began to eat | before the chaplain had asked the accus- tomed blessing. Extending his hands over the table the chaplain said: ‘Pause, ser- xeant, pause.’ [sa dirty ones, too. Yes, I s-s-see ‘em. D-d- lt dropped within seventy- | 3 o'clock on the af- | HEALTH MORE THAN SUCCESS, No One Has a Greater Share of Bath Than Beautiful Marie ‘That stage fright is a malady which afBicta the Most exper! ed and capable ors as well as | beginners, .@ unanimous verdict of the pro- | fession, Mixs Marie Tempest, whose many snecesses upon | the English and American stage, have placed ber iu the fromt rank of operatic stars, admitted trank- ty upon a recent occasion that she Is frequentl) attacked by stage fright. Miss 7, t comblacs: &® voice of extraordinary pitch and sweetness with | the dramatic fervor of ax emotional aciress to a] is greater degree provably than any other pri douna now upon English speaking stage, and | the statement will be # surprise to thousands of her admirers whom she has impressed as the personification of sapreme coniidence and self-con- ol. e sensation is one of utter collapse,” sa) “it te traly am awful feeling ay to seasickness than anything else I ers with a highly wervous organiz: attacked by it when approaching of al i first time ina mew play. Those playing emotional roles are more susceptible to stage fright than others, because the iydividual capable of portray-| ing those parts successfully is necessarily por: | Sested of @ highly nervous and impressionable tem- | perament “In one respect a highly developed nervous or- ganization is indispensable to success, as without it @ proper conception and feeling of the part to she is nearer the ‘tant part, or when appearing for the | ust not only understand ber part, but be so absorbed in it that she forgets ber own personal- ity, and for the time being lives in her assumed character.” “Then great nervous excitability is a decided | advantage to an actress?” “In the way I have described, yes; as a general | proposition, uo. The mental strain, the intense application necessary to a proper realization _o: the part, the apprehension that the audience ma | | be acted are impossible. You know a> actress i Tempest be criticising you odversely, and the constame study of new roles, undermines the health and often cuts short the career of the conscientions and ambitious actress. At the close of last sea- son I was completely prostrated by nervous excite- ment and overwork. My nerves were so unstrong that the slightest sounds led me, and I be sleepless, melancholy and irritable. Sick and disbeartened, I sought the home of an ola and dear frievd, who immediately advised me to prain and nerve food of which I bad bean’ bot Knew comparatively ttle. 1 wouk we taken anything she chose to give me, but I liked the taste of the preparation and continued its use. I had not consumed one bottle when £ found that my wervous system had resumed § normud tone. I no tonger jumped at shadows, my appetite came back, each night brought sound and refreshing sleep, and 1 am now in perfect healt’ nd vigor, through a systematic use of Paine’s celery compound. The present season bas been the fal, and therefore the most exacting of my career, but the invaluablp remedy which re- stored my health has also preserved it. 1 bave ommended it to numbers of my friends, and tm every case with most fortunate result The beautiful prima donna louked the picture of health as she spoke. Her large blue eyes sperkled with animation and her counteuance lt up with an expressive smile that enhanced the charming vivacity of ber manner as she remarked: “I have found thet devotion to a chosen pursult it mot incompatible with good aealth. If all the men and women, the clergymen, teachers, mer- chants and lawyers in this busy country, whose overtaxed brains cry out in protest against the heavy burdens laid upon them, were to embrace this remedy, I am sure there would be « marke@ ecee in that terrible @isease, nervous pros- sration, which seems fast becoming a national ae with you Americans, Success Is, indeed, « worlous thing, but believe me, bealth is better.” most succes BREAKFAST TIME. ‘The Morning Meal Should Be a Haj Reunion. From Harper's Bazar. Breakfast is a test of the housckeeper’s ability. Meeting, as she must, the various | tastes of even the smallest family, she | strives to have the day open with the grat- | ification of each, and to make all happy, | both physically and spiritually. it is she | who must always be punctual, who gives that last ttle touch which imparts grace | to the simplest table, and it is her duty fo | | be bright, sweet, and helpful. even if broken slumbers have left her unrefreshed, or vex- | ations, temporarily stilled, have renewed their wear and fret. How seldom do those | blessed with a real home-maker pause to | | analyze the elements which compose her ex- cellence! Like too many other gifts of God, mother’s virtues are accepted as mere mat- jter of course, and so tranquilly does she fulfill her manifold duties that one scarcely perceives their varied and exhausting na-| ture. If the mother be ill, or taking a rare | holiday, her substitute learns with surprise | that things do not go of themselves, as she | has been wont to think, if, indeed, she| thought at all about the matter. But it is not on the mother only that the | searching light of early morning falls. ‘The breakfast table offers unequaled opportu- | nities for the study of character and idio- syncrasies. Nature seems to assert itself | (more strongly es the individual emerges from the shadows of dreamland, and is less unde> the restraints which civilization im- posses and society exacts. The happily con- stituted beings who seem to retain perpet- ually the dew of their youth bring with them a cheerful atmosphere, and gladden | all who come within the circle of their ra-| diance. Where such bright natures pre-| dominate breakfast is a happy reunion— social with a specially sweet intimacy, and merry with the high spirits and gay sparile jof meeting after brief separation. There | |are others less fortunate who find it well- nigh impossible to shake off the drowsy in- | fluences of the night, and who therefore contribute nothing to the family gathering. And sometimes, alas! and most pitiable, are there victims of that unlucky mishap. the “getting out of bed on the wrong | Material peculiarities display themselves in ‘other directions. Behind the scenes, below the stairs, the powers that be frequently suffer from wayward wakenings, and ada to the morning cares, while they defeat the most carefully laid plans of the presiding genius. see LAND THAT NEVER CHANGES. Egypt Has Not Been Modernized Either as to Costume or Custom. The characters of the “Thousand and One Nights” may be almost imagined to step out | of their setting words, andtake form and glow with the generous warmth of life before one’s very eyes, says a writer in the Gen- tleman’s Magazine. The natives still drink the same coffee, and out of the same cups; they smoke the same pipes, they wear gen- erally the same dress, they play the same primitive instruments that whisper the same strange and plaintive tones. The funeral processions wend their way along the streets | as of old; the popular festivals or moolids are | still observed with the same untiring ca-) pacity for enjoyment: the public reciters still practice their professions before admir- | ing crowds; the water carriers still carry their burdens, so welcome to thirsty lips; except in the houses of the rich and thor- oughly Europeanized, food is still eaten with the fingers, and in the same manner, and the hands are washed with the same basins and ewers; the mosque of El Azhar still at- tracts its crowds of students. Even the old wooden locks and keys are still In use, and the water jars are still kept cool in the lat- | i i | ticework of the overhanging mushrabiyeh | | window frames. Instances of this sort} | might be multiplied a hundredfoid. It is, | | indeed, a wonderful change and contr: that ts presented to the eye when you leave the European and enter the native quarter. | And the mind and feelings turn in unison, | | and become attuned to the changed scene. | ‘The sense of taking part in a new and dif-| | ferent life steals over you, and you tempor- | arily throw off your affinity with the w and the nineteenth century. The clock of time is, for the moment, put back for you. TIGHT-FITTING CLOTHES. The Advantage of a Current of Air About+-the Body. It is to be regretted that, in his exhaustive work on the philosophy of clothes, Carlyle did not add a chapter on the influence cf tight clothing on happiness, says a physi- cien in Cassell’s Magazine. Perhaps he thought the dignity of his subject was too great for him to descend to a criticism of the follies in dress for which so many wo- men (and men) suffer in silence. The first and main object of wearing clothes is to protect the body—to keep it warm in cold weather and cool in hot Weather. Mere personal adornment was originally a secondary consideration. Clothes act in virtue of being bad con@uc- tors of heat and so preventing the too quick passage of heat to or from the body. Dif- ferent kinds of materials are efficacious ac- cording to the slowness or quickness with which they allow the conduction of heat. Woolen materials are best (hence the value of woolen underciothing, which tends to intain a very equable temperature of the body—so that we are better able to with- stand sudden changes of weather, draughts, etc.), and an order of comparative merit through furs, silk and cotton to linen might be drawn up. The more joosely clothing fits, the less it conducts heat, because a layer of air is in- terposed between it and the body—and air is an exceedingly bad conductor of heat. This protecting layer of air enables the body tn winter to keep its normal tempera- ture the more easily, because the heat given of at the surface of the body passes slowly through it; whereas if the clothing ft too closely to the skin, heat fs dissipated with much greater rapidity. In summer time, on the other hand, the air in which we move is not so warm as the objects upon which the sun's rays fall directly, and so the sur- face of the clothes may become much hotter than the air surrounding them. The ad- vantage of the layer of air is obvious also in this case. Therefore, we see that in hot and in cold weather, too tightly fitting clothing defeats the first and great object of wearing clothes and tends to exhanst the bodily strength and make it unfit for work, As Bare Floors. From the Philadelphia Times. It is noticeable that floors left bare for rugs are being painted in much lighter col- ors than formerly, the dark walnut shade having heretofore been the popular selec- tion. They are frequently painted with yellow ochre, mixed with white, and the change is desirable, first, because it ix a change, perhaps, and, again, necause they are more easily kept free from Cust, or, more correctly, dust is not in such con- stant evidence. The lighter floors are more cheery, too. Any one who has been in a convent, where the oiled and waxed floors are not painted, but take on 4 slightly deeper tint than the natural wood from the treatment of oiling and waxing, must have remarked the furnished look of the room: Without even a single rug to break ihe shining floor, and for which the lighter shade was undoubtedly responsible. —————oOoOoOoOOOOO NEW_ PUBLICATIONS. —— JUST FROM THE PRESS. THE GOVERNORS OF VIRGINIA, A BRIEF REVIEW OF THE DIS{OVERY OF THR CONTINENT OF NORTH AMERICA, WITH A HISTORY OF THE EXECUTIVES OF THE COIONY AND OF THE COMMON. WEALTH OF VIRGINIA, BY MARGARET VOWELL SMITA. Sro., Cloth, Mlustrated, 457 Pages; Price, $2.50, Postpaid. ‘The purpose of this book is to lay before the public, in @ convenient form, a review of the gov- ernors of Virginia from the establishment of the colony to the present day. Various rare ex- planators state papers are embodied in this vol ume, and the personal sketches are gathered from the most authentic scurces, W. H. LOWDERMILK & CO., Publishers, felT&24-2% 1424-1426 F st., Washington, D.C. STATES PHILOSOriY, STATES BOONOME AND FINANCES, tn coe volume of 100 paces, by ignatius Batory of Taltimore, for ‘sale BRENTANO’S, lth and Pa. ave, dé-més,3m