Evening Star Newspaper, March 24, 1894, Page 20

20 THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, MARCH 24, ee THE GREAT LARAN REBELLION -_—— + —— WRITTEN FOR THE EVENING STAR BY NYM CRINKLE. eS Copsrighted. 1894.) CHAPTER XIX. HE REGIMENT left Jersey City at half-past 3 with S75 men on board. It had not crossed the Jersey flats when the engineer was locked up in a clos- taken in charge by one of the general's own men. The first act was to cut the telegraph wires when ten miles out,at a secluded spot.and here twenty- five more men were dropped. The train was then run with a view to land the men at the best point and to keep ahead of the special that it was believed would be on its heeis. Gen. Waterson’s report leaves us in no doubt as to how his plan disposed of the forces. Fifty got off at or near Newark. Twenty-five were dropped at Waverly and twenty-five at Elizabeth. Fifty were dis- posed of at Rahway, and one hundred be- fore reaching New Brunswick. Between Deans and Monmouth Junction another hundred left, and at Princeton Junction, at the suburbs of Trenton, four hundred more disappeared. Fifteen miles out of Bristol the remaining hundred dropped from the cars. The engine was then reve-sed, and the train started backwards to meet the special. Most of these men adopted the plan that had been tried at St. Mary's. They started at once in diverging lines and disappeared in the surrourding country. The excitemem in New York over the affair was widespread, and was fanned into @ flame before evening by the news that came from Philadelphia that the United States mint had been similarly robbed by another regiment that had seized a train and gone to Lancaster. The next morning full details of the two exploits were printed, and there was no doubt that they were both parts of one plan. But no one app2ars to have suspect- ed the exact method of the regiments or their plan of subsequeat disintegration. The pepular imagination planted an armed force In the field somewnere and added untold resources of men out of its own terrors. Something of this feeling was re- flected by the press znd the action of the Secretary of the Treasury, for «li the en- deavors were directed to the interception and capture of an armed force, which as the reader knows did not exist. New York Row recalled the St. Sary’s affair, which it had formerly treated as a western prac- tical joke, and the Louisville papers were father exultant at what they called an @astern dose of the joke. But it must not be supposed that the central police office at New York had been entirely led astray by these events. It had quietly arrested six men whom its sharp- eyed detectives had recogaized as being in the ranks of the visiting regiment, and on one of them was found $ in gold. The Superintendent, who saw underneath the surface what he conceived to be a vast and brainy conspiracy, summoned his best men; put himseif in communication with the se- ¢ret service bureau at agton, and very soon began to formulate some of the imevitable deductions. In ihis he was for- tuaately ailed by one or two circum- stances. He ¢btatned from the Washington bureau the photographs of the men who had boarded the Cormthian, which photo- graphs had been forwarded froia Eneland. One of the persons in the sroup was di: covered to be Fenning. The other circum- stance was that .he Washiagton bureau had sent two men west on his trail and they had disappeared in Tennessee. With these facts before him, it did not take the Superintendent very long to focus his sus- Picions upon western Tennesse. CHAPTER XX. The one man who seemed to have the elearest comprehension of all this was Hendricks, who, from his retreat uner- ground, watched by some inscrutable pro- eess every move that was made. Gen. Waterson reached Laran on the 20th of July. He left New York just six hours be- fore the police began to look for him, and e found that 4%) of his men had preceded him to Laran. During his absence the sani- tarlum had been burned to the ground. This took place on the Sth. On the 9th Gen. Luscomb’s party had been attacked in the rear. The general had been killed and his men routed. Those that escaped got in at Covington and reported the sanitarium burnt and the gang gone eastward. In the public mind this appeared to explain the appear- gnce of the regiment in New York on the h. e Every Living Soul in Laran Would Be Killed.” About ten miles east of Laran, snugly Perched on the side of the wild gien, is a solitary Swiss cottage. It is built of stone and looks down upon a rugged but beautiful country. It is just three miles from the town of Hoxie on a branch of the Tennessee Failroad, where there is a post office and telegraph s: om. The people in the town understand that an eastern literary woman who has an enormous mail has hired the lace on account of its seciusion and salu- rity. She has 2 pony and two servants, one of whom is a man, and she comes to town fre ly with her pony to mail her letters, get her papers and meet an occa- sional visitor from the east whom she takes back with her. This Hterary woman i In ker preity little bour flcor she has a telegrap fr.to the wall, and she stantly with Hendricks an underground wire that Eas been laid with great care and expense through the wildest and most unfrequented part of the intervening country and which enters the cave through an artesian drill that is hid Gen by four feet of soil Mrs. Hendricks. loir on the nd >h instrument built communicates con- in the Laran by In a fresment ¢ preserved letter of Hendricks ays: “This wire cost more buble nd labor than anything e It had to be 1 at inte Is after a cere! gurvey In erder to avoi’ observation. and ft had to follow the unt ard escape the possible or cou! for if it had been bared and dis- eovered m woul! have had the on to the heart of my mystery hie The man servant in this establishment is Rone other thin Feuning. The room in Thich he and his commanion toil at theie mail is taste furn‘shed and the in- dow Blinds. Th have already ide are provided with steel Reval Dane mastiffs that seen at the sanitarium Tug. They can to hear a footfall on the efore it gets within a hun- In this comfortable and se+Iuded rot Mrs. Hendri ’ "the ter part of July. gSuariedly down t mails corres} cessity and to the daily 1 laree We ith a t was to the prosr us see how indifferent Hen- cts «fa direct the sanization scattered while he and his im- 2fe from moles fes lasted. July Fenning suc. safely and s¢ vast ments through ceeded in Hendricks to sen for Miss : But that | ne ve Laran vol- unt. rily. the influe of Ste Hendricks were th was made t ht under where on red with This was on the uphed is discovere 16 a an ‘ this a.m.. op- Posite the bayou: a force has been ashore. The probability is that this is one et and the engine | | feature of a general movement and other j | forces are concentrated. It is therefore ' = to send Miss Franklin at this; time.” It was Mrs. Hendricks’ custom to read off these messages to Fenning while she was, at the instrument and he wrote them down with a pencil in order to be sure of their a burning them immediately after- ward. They never suspected or ever knew that they were read by somebody else. But they were, and it is that curious fact which en- ables us to follow the details of his opera- tions. In the interval between the collision with Gen. Luscomb and the departure from Laran of Mrs. Hendricks and Fenning Cal- icot had had ample opportunity to cultivate the acquaintance of Miss Laport, whom he knew only as Miss Franklin, and as the two young women in the place were thrown much together, he saw a good deal of Miss Endicott. The doctor, who had found him a well-read man, had become quite attached to him and had told him a great deal about Miss Endicott’s peculiar temperament and condition. The young woman terself en- jJoyed Calicot’s society, and he 1 Miss Laport spent most of their evenings visit- ing her. On one of these occasions she had lapsed into her trance condition, and the doctor was not present. Something that was learned from her lips made Miss Laport and Calicot consult long and carefully. The very next night, when they were alone with her, she again passed into an abnormal state, and Calicot, with his companion's concurrence, questioned her. The doctor was busy elsewhere; there was no fear of interruption. Miss Laport got the packet o} hair that she knew to be Mrs. Hendricks’, and Calicot, with curious Interest, to the girl. Then it was that she described the scene in the Swiss cottage and read the telegram which Fenning had written down with a pencil from Mrs. Hendricks’ lips. tened Day after day, as the girl revealed in broken sentences the communications that were made from the cave to the cottage, the bulk of the information began to ar- Tange itself in his mind around certain well-defined points. The conspiracy, he now saw, over the whole United States. in men in official positions. extended ery hi brain of the movement was hidden away safely underground. As the magnitude and method of the pian were slowly gompre- hended, he asked himself: What is the gov- ernment doing? Can it be possible that the world has not yet discovered the two exits to this stronghold? And then he tried to forecast the result when the exits were dis- covered. Hendricks cannot be disiodged, he said, even by engineers, who would have to tunnel a mountain. He can only be sealed up and starved to death, and in any such attempt what unknown exits may he not have? He recalled the mysterious mag- azine in the southwestern wall of the ro- tunda, with its wooden doors and its sign ef danger. Was this a magazine? Might not that impression have been created to keep secret an unknown exit until an emer- gen occurred? He had heard Laport speak of the magazine. He would talk to the old man about it. His imagination pictured a long chasm leading to some unsuspected region of coun- try with its exit hidden in the mountains. He foresaw in his fancy a besieging army encamping over a mine or fallen upon by a sudden force that sprang up as if by megic in its rear—and then disappeared, and he began to ask himself if this con- spiracy had not gathered into its ranks most of the malign forces of civilization which, under the names of nihilism and anarchy, seck mainly to destroy. i Calicot was puzzled. He had no means of j finding out where this place was. Miss) Endicott could only describe what she sav She had no tions to make, but it suddenly dawned upon him that he had in | this young.woman a complete >ftset to | Hendricks’ secret advantages. Miss Laport | acknowledged to him, in corroboration of | what he had heard, that she had refused | to go away without her father, snd now that she had learned of the preparations to send her to Fenning, she was visibly alarm- ed. Caltcot encouraged her by every neans in his power. He pointed out to her how great an advantage their discovery gave them. She listened to him helplessly; but they became contidentlal confedera He cautioned her to say nothing to Stocking at present and got her to use her woman's in- fluence with the girl to carry on the ex- periments. They Never Suspected They were | Rend by Someone Else. When he was alone the discovery filled him with all manner of conjectures and alarms. It kept him awake all night in an effort to make a correct deduction from the information furnished. The next day he cautiously endeavored to test the truth of Miss Endicott’s vision. He met Hendricks in the rotunda, and, after a polite saluta- tion, sai t is impossible for me to wan- der about in this place and not hear the men occasionally discussing your affairs. I have just heard something that leads me to believe that a war vessel is watching the bayou. Is that true” “Ter repiied Headricks. yesterday morning. I expected her before.” He then walked away as if disinclined to talk upon the subject. So this piece of information was absolute- ly correct. Calicot saw that the affairs of Hendricks and his men were now too ur- gent to leave them much time to think of him and the women, and he resolved to improve the opportunity with Miss Endi cott. Miss Laport made the task an easy one, for she brought Miss Endicott into her apartment, gave her an invalid chair and admitted Calicot. He observed that the girl did not suffer in her trances when the doctor was not present. She even acknowl- edged that the doctor frightened and pained her, but volunteered to take the packet of hair and tried to do what Calicot desired. She closed her eyes a moment, gave way to a little tremor and then said: “Yes, there they are. He is reading the papers to her.” he arrived Caileot very soon discovered that she could not repeat what she heard, ff, in- deed, she heard anything at all. Whatever her special gifts were, they appeared to he confined to vision. She could read the title and the type of the paper in Fenning's hands, and she saw his lips move. He was undoubtedly reading to Hendricks, and she was summarizing intel!) ne in dispatches to Hendrie! Ss not diffi- cult to direct the girl's mind to the news in front of Fenning, and she read it off with her body bent forward as if straining to perceive an indistinct object and speaking Slowly like a child conning a lesson. What was Calicot’s astonishmeat to hear her, in this manner, convey the import of th> matter before her straage vision. He leurned that the suce: of the author- ities in tracking the source of the wide- io spread Junta conspiracy western n- nessee had 1ed to some curious develop- ments. The New York police had succeel- ed in linking together several mysterious events which pointed to fact that the master spirit of this new order was no le: a audacious pirate who ed the At- lantic steamship two years a The Unit- ed States government had taken means to stamp out this socialistic rebellion, and the gunboat Arapahoe had i Unite nzer to social personage than the | had als | of the fifth United S Benton, Tex., to pi Harvard Carroll was plac the forces, with his headqy c2h. Here the girl stopped, and Calicot, with asked her to go o paper do e ft, and he has got looking for something. It is a He sits down beside the wor t prt Gen, in comman4 cf al ves, yes. It is a_ tele: Can you read dricks.” She hesitated a moment. ‘Send cipher dispatch at St. Louis, to M at Chi. at Davenyort. Four 1 Leavenworth left unprotected b: drawal of troops; Kans at 9 o'clock a.m.; impress G. e hundred men hing; get answer once; watch Memphis papers ments of gunboat.” ence to G. for move- “They Are Sending a Wispaten.t Here the y woman made another pause. In h Calicot got up| pulsively and the littie | |room. He was in a liv-| ing tomb, and ev i like another w in, > some kind of 1 himself the instru- was evidentiy an uiricks, f the sading 1 to be answer rec girl began 3 written pag nd it was, he his memory for on. He heard her sayin at and seize arms; councti here on th make all instructions conform to that fle vunbe | were | blow his way out of the cave at some time, Intolerable as these reflections were to a man compelled to see the progress of all this diabolism and prevented from raising a warring cry or lifting a finger, there other “considerations that were ever more poignant. Here was an innocent and intelligent girl, who, with her father, would be involved in the inevitable cata: tropke or thrown into the hands of Fen- ning, and Calicot had grown to have a profound sympathy for her. Lieut. Stock- Ing, as he well knew, had with his impul- sive temperament developed a still stronger interest in her, and Stocking, by his very rature, could not be depended on to assist im. In turning over these perplexities in his mind he was aware of an undisturbed con- | viction hiding away in his nature that the | normal intelligence and moral force ought | in some w to be able to circumvent all this mischief. But how? me kind of vague scheme of escape | for Stocking and Miss Laport, through | what he conceived to be the secret exit of | the magazine, shaped itself in hiss mind, and then he got hold of Laport one day after conferring with thé old man’s daugh- ter. The three were eating their breakfast together when Calicot approached the sub- ject of the magazine guarde . With the one purpose of finding out, if possible, what Laport knew about it. To his astonishment, he knew about it. He had surveyed it. It was an enormous pocket in the} southwest wall of the rotunda, its mouth facing the northeastern direction of the cave, and it had no other outlet. Calicot felt his vague hopes all vanish as he heard | this, but Laport went on talking unsus- | piciously. “It is," said he, “a perflous piece of business, and T told Hendricks so at the start, but he never could see it in that Nght. He has an enormous amount of powder, fixed ammunition and other ex- plosives stored there. There must be a hundred thousand pounds. 1 believe he has me sort of a notion that he might have to but he never can do it at the point of the azin “And why not? Secause the rock {is seventy-five feet thick at that point.” “And suppose the magazine should ex- lode?" men that case, every living soul in the Laran on this side of the magazine would be killed.” Calicot was listening eagerly, but he did not clearly understand, so the old man glibly expiained. “If by & accident,” he said, “the pow- der is exploded there the magazine will simply go off like an enormous stone can- nor, Whose mouth points to the northeast passages. Can you not see that the sud len concussion and compression of the air in the confined spaces, reaching to the last wall of the arena, will kill every thing by shock? The whole force must expend itself in what is really an enormous *pneum: tube. Hendricks is a_ wonderful man in dealing wita events, but he makes some singular mistakes in dealing with physics.” CHAPTER. XXI. This information, disappointing as it was, produced a marked change in Calicot. His nervous anxiety gave place to a grim look of concentration and he grew visibly paler every day. The intelligence that he receiv- ed in three days, through Miss Endicott, amazed and excited him in spite of his self-control. He learned that Hendricks had captured the gunboat. He had to get “They Are Ventiluiag Tubes.” at the facts of the case from separate In- It had taken | Its agents were | in the government employ, in the railway | "e and in the telegraph offices. It must | e vast forces all ready to mass, and the | | that this is not a diseased fancy when I ex- !paign of destruction is going on. | tmized world cannot imagine, much less | invincible—in your mind. formation and from Hendricks’ orders, but he learned enough to convince him that the | commander in the boat had been led into! negligence by not finding a human soul in | the vicinity, and a force of his men had | ‘been surrounded and captured in the wood, | nd a party sent to their relief had been | overwhelmed. It was a dark night and two! large attacking forces from opposite sides of the river had sernriced the hos , after a desperate fight, taken possession of 7 his own men the uniform of | oldiers, and finding the books and | papers of the commanding officer, had got | a knowledge of his orders. The captured | ere sent to the Laran and the gun- | 1 gone up the Mississippi with her | narently under government | on the night of the 6th! ust. On the 7th the government stores at Leavenworth were seized by an | armed force, the troops at that place hav- | ing been reduced to a single company, ow- ing to the withdrawal of the sixth United | States inf: and troops A and F, which had been sent to Paducah. The arms, con- of carbines, five 12- | ing of 6,000 stand pound guns, thr tlings and four brass howitzers, with about 50,000 pounds of am. munition, had been loaded on the vessel at Leavenworth and started down the Mis- souri for St. Louls. Before she reached the Mississippi, Hendricks, rently under orders, was looking . and eaptured her about two mile » Alton He then started for Memphis with her in tow, hav- | fag sent a dispatch at Alton publicly an- | nouncing the victory of the United States | gunboat. The consequence was, he was in- | terfered with on his way dc the river, | | put Instead of going phis he ran | into th into tk ou and unloaded all his plunder n. ot this news veried be his He had only to go into one of the stations in the Laran southeast of the | a to find evidences of the truth of | he nad heard. He saw a strong! sard at the magazine and a hundred men| fly at we asporting the newly ar-| rived ammunition to the place. The wooden | ldcors of the m Ine st en and he | eould from across the rotunda that it | sa derk to the stone ceil- | h_ boxe He watched the! work with int interest. The electric | at in the rotunda shadows here and there, and, hic he serutiniz s en to living on Gockel i yin Miss | locusts, t diy made a Laport, neticed for the first t | sensible mark upon th odinary num- that there were iron tubes running down | ber that drifted that day over our heads. art of the the magazine that | ee, Xposed. ed like drain pipes | A Foot Ball Education. at di Laport about it} pegs t they were | From Life. ventilatin a cireula-| ‘Why, why, Johnnie," said the elderly 1 dry tourist to a cowpuncher he had known in Laport, other days, “what in the world are you about six feet above | dc int ild country, wast- put them in myseif | ing the college education your father paid and see that the men 1 fo working ‘there do not disturb Wasting my education! Why, man, all know about it. Wait till will zo with yo Calicot cam} es a g al drunk and ne met Calicot h me elean out the whole ouutt. This abrupt iss Isive way: ‘ he only place where I can r old friend, it is idiotic to let a | brumous as a London fog. | button the front not to h [or from any clump of trees, in a hungry coldness spring up between us at this time because we don’t think alike. “We do think alike,” replied Calicot, “and, allowing for differences of tempera- ment, we suffer alike.” The two men sat down on the bench in front of their quarters. Nearly everybody was in the rotunda or south of it. Save the men stationed as a guard at the portal and the workmen in the machine shop, there was nobody to be seen. The railway trucks were all at the other end of the Laran. Hendricks and his captains had their hands full at the military headquar- ters haif a mile aw “Have you anything to tell me?” asked Stocking, despairingly. “I shail lose my reason in this place in another week.” “I have been waiting for some time to tell you a great deal,” replied Calicot, “but I was afraid of your impetuosity and indis- cretion.” “They are dying out of me,” said Steck- ing, ruefully. “I feel like a man in a trance. If I do not get out of this tomb I shall perish of general paralysis.” “I propose to get you out,” remarked Cali- A NEW SCIENCE acter of Seasons. THE ASTRO-PHYSICAL OBSERVATORY An Institution Intended to Greatly Benefit Mankind. PROF. LANGLEY’S SUCCESS cot, calmly. Stocking smiled somewhat grimly. “I suppose the same conditions are breaking down your mind also,” said he. “Go on— insanity is at least a diversion.” “The conditions have not disturbed, they have only concentrated my faculties," re- plied Calicot, “and circumstances have aided me in an almost supernatural manner, I have been able to penetrate Hendricks’ de- signs beyond this stronghold. You will see plain to you. In the first place he has a wire underground to some other rendez- vous that is in communication with the world. Mrs, Hendricks and Fenning are at that place, wherever it is. But the !mport- ant thing is that I have been able to read their dispatches.” “Have you, indeed?” remarked Stocking. “Hendricks has taken you into his full confidence, then.” 0. But you forget Miss Endicott.” ‘And you depend upon her ravings?’ all. Events have corroborated her day by da: “What have you learned?” ‘This: that Hendricks’ co-conspirators have an army scattered through the coun- try ready to be massed at any moment. It is directed from this safe retreat; a cam- It is sweeping into its vortex all the mad ele- ments of our times, and the conceiving brain of it is hidden away safely; the vic- accept as a fact, the prodigious audacity upon which the whole scheme is built, and will not accept the consummate and incred- ible machinery of which we are witnesses. ee Written for The Evening Star. HE LEAST known scientific in- and yet the momentous results to the world and bu- mapity, is the Astro- Smithsonian and pre- sided over by Prof. no great stir in the country. Nevertheless it has already taken gigantic strides in a new domain of knowledge of vital, prac- tical importance, and from present indica- tions it seems destined to fulfill a mission of surpassing usefulness. Ultimate Ends Contemplated. To predict with positive certainty the course and character of coming seasons, to foretell the times of good an4 bad harvests, to announce long in advance of their oc- currence important atmospheric and terres- trial changes, and to make other forecasts having a like direct bearing on the affairs Hendricks has captured a United States gunboat off the bayou because the com- mander of the boat could not get it into his head that a sufficient force was organized to drop upon him from both sides of the river. The government arsenal at Leayen- worth has been robbed because the zovern- ment would not believe that there was a force sufficient to take that place. There is at this moment a large body of United States troops concentrating in Tipton coun- ty, but the move has been foreseen and cal- culated by Hendricks, and it takes place as if he were directing it. These men will be annihilated over our heads and we shall not hear a sound.” “Yes,"" said Stockin, with more bitter- ness than amazement, ‘s prescient and “On the contrary replied icot, “he is human, fallible and vulnerable. It bas cost me many sleepless nights to find it out, but I have found it out, and with that knowledge I will free you and Miss Frank- lin if you will follow my directions urnques- tioningly.” “I am afraid,” said Stocking, who was regarding him with something like “that you have worked y morbid condition of mind. your scheme were reasonable, why not appeal to my rea- son instead of my faith?’ “Because,” replied Calicot, ‘it is reason which is working all this mischief, and faith alone can circumvent ft. I don't’ want ta argue that with you now. I want your co-operation to demonstrate it, and, be- lieve me, when it ts demonstrated you will be the first to acknowledge its truth and efficacy. One other point—this man Fen- ning intends, with Hendricks’ assistance, to get pos ion of Miss Franklin. ‘The are only waiting for a favorable opportun- ity to send her away. At any moment she may disappear forever, so far as you and I are concerned. She is breaking down with the apprehension. To save ner, at least. I count upon your faith. If it were merely a matter of bravery I would not have to ask you.” Stocking was evidently touched. “You are thinking,” he said, “oniy of Miss — and me. Will you iot free your- self?" Calicot hesitated a moment. His face looked white and hard to Stockiag. “Yes, he replied, “I will be free, but it depends on your implicitly following my direc- tions.” There was a moment's silence. The two men looked et each other. “I wish,” said Stocking, “that you would tell me frankly what is in your mind.” But he had placed his hand in that of his friend. All Calicot said was: “I will write it all down carefully for you.” (To be continued.) see DENSE FLIGHT OF LOCUSTS, The Remarkable Scene Witnessed by 2 Noted Oricntalist in Syria. We were sitting on the hills with our backs turned to the west wind, which was softly blowing from the Mediterranean, says Sir Edwin Arnold in the London Tele- graph. The horses were picketed close by, grazing the sweet mountain grass. The Arabs of our caravan were cooking a “pil- law” a little distance off. Around us were laid out the wherewithals of a light lunch, among which was an open marmalade jar. 1 was thinking of Ahab, and wondering how he could put up so long with Elijah, especially when, on this very spot, the prophet said to the king, “As the Lord liveth, in this place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood —even thir e’’"—when suddenly right into the marmalade there dropped what I took for a large grasshopper. It was yellow and green, with long jumping legs and a big head, and while I was taking it out of the Jar two others fell into a plate of soup, and half a dozen more of the same kind upon a dish of salad. At the same moment my horse stamped and I saw more of these grasshoppers pelting his hocks and haunches. Turning round to find whence this insect shower came, I witness- ed what was to me an extraordinary spec- tacle, though common enough, of course, in the east. A large cloud, denser in its lower than its upper part, filled an eighth part of, the western hemicycle. The remoter portion of it. w: thick, as brown and The nearer side epened suddenly up into millions and bil- lions and trillions and sextillions of the same green and yellow insects pelting in a close-winged crowd quite as thickly as flakes of snow upon all the hillsides far and near. You could not stand a momeat against the aggressive and offensive rain of the buzzing creatures. The horses even swung themselves round and stood with lowered cres' taking the storm upon their backs and flanks. You had to turn up the collar of your coat to keep them out of your neck and ve your pockets filled with the repulsive swarm, which in two minutes had so peppered the whole scene round about that its color and char- acter were entirely altered. Every little ature of the interminable flight on alighting veered himself round head to wind on the earth, just as if he had dropped anchor and swung to the breeze; and it was curious to notice that the general tint of the grourd of their countless bodies was brown if you looked to windward and green if you gazed to leeward. But very quickly the only green to be seen round about was the hue afforded by this sudden invasion. Even while prepared to yield up the spot to them and pack our lunch baskets for departure they had cleared off grass and leaves and every verdant thing around und when they arose agair from the soi throng, the place they quitted had already ssumed a barren and wintry aspect. ‘The n peasants passing along the roads Were beating their breasts and cursing the of ill fortune none the sue. Some dup a r th the ple . gather of them, th full of locust is dis- ly Half in wrath and revenge and half a novelty in diet, the Arabs to this d: few of them, roasting earthen vessels over till the wings and legs drop oif locust becomes crisp, in which . as Tam able to say from ing like an_un- if, had all really utilize i it.” of the children of men—not from happy guesswork, but all with scientific precision and as the result of absolute knowledge of the relations between these effects and their causes—these are the ultimate ends con- templated by the new institution, and the achievements for which the disciples of the new science are now striving. This new science of astro-physics is culti- vated chiefly through examinations of the solar spectrum, the rainbow colors,which, in combination, form white light, and which are separated by refraction through a prism. It is a practical and a comparatively recent departure from the trodden paths of astronomy, and is, in fact, the study of the heavenly bodies, particularly the sun and moon, not with reference to their places, as in the case of the old astronomy, but with reference to their nature and their effects up- on the wants and existence of man. Prof. Langley. The sun, for instance, is acknowledged to be the physical source of life and motion on the earth, exerting an immediate and vital influence on every living thing, animal and vegetable, on this terrestrial globe. It is also known that all terrestrial and atraos- pheric chaages are but the natural conse- quences resulting from certain changing conditions in the sun, and that to the sun and our position with relation to it are to be attributed not only the varying seasons, but every minor change of weather and tem- perature which the farmer notices, and on which depend the success of his labors and all agricultural prosperity everywhere. Just how and why this is so, and exactly what the influence is, and in what way it can be profitably utilized in application to human needs, are the pressing problems demand- ing solution. The curtain of mystery that bars our sight in this direction has already been drawn aside sufficiently to reveal glimpses of startling natural wonders in the distance, and already enough definite knowledge has been derived from these to warrant the firm belief that truths of im- measurable value to the human race lie just a little beyond. What Can Be Done Now. Even now accurate forecasts for hours and days can be made simply by a study of the solar spectrum, and a further study of it along the track now being followed at the Astro-Phygical Observatory will, it is thought, speedily afford a clue to every kind of atmospheric disturbance and change, near and remote—a basis for a strictly scientific meteorology not deduced, as is the meteorology of our weather bureau, from premonitory signs and symp- toms, but from an unerring reading and interpretation of original causes. One of the most interesting features of the new scienc> is the observation of sun spots and of solar electrical storms by means of peculiar magnetic apparatus. These solar electrical stcrms have been found to occur almost invariably at times when the sun spots appear In greatest numbers. What their connection is with the sun spots and with auroral displays and other accom- panying phenomena no one has yet de- clared pcsitively, but that there fs a close ecnnection and that the character of the connection will soon be learned, are mat- ters on which there is general agreement among ustro-physicists. It is known fur- thes that the sun spots and the electric disturbances occur in greatest degree and violence every eleven years. Astro-Physical Qoservatory, Sun spots and the price of cereals seem to bear a definite relation with each cther. It is shown by statistics that crops are best in the years when sun spots do not appear, or when they appear in small num- bers, and it is inferred from this that the sun spots, or rather the caus2s of them, have a powerful action vpon the seasons and upon crops. At all events, it is certain beyond peradventure ‘chat the effects of disturbances in the sun do space to our little «arth and do powerfully operate upon human affairs in innimer- able ways. The task which the scientists of the Astro-Physi:al Observatory has set | before themselves is the pursuit of this in- quiry until they obtain cumulati data from which can be deduced positive con- clusions, and upon which can be formulated a system of facts as to immediate causes and effects. Of Humble Origin. Like many other beneficent — scientifie agencies now prominent in the world, this Astro-Physical Observatory is of humble origin. It was established by the Smith- sonian authorities only in a tentative way at first, and purely for experimental pur- poses, Its habitat is a small, unpreten- tious, one-story frame building not more than thirty feet square, situated south of the Smithsonian Institution end west of the National Museum, ‘vithin a stone's throw of the turrets and towers of elther. It is capped by a little skylight and connected with the outside by a network of wires. Any casual visitor walking about the grounds would pass by modest edifice without giving it a thouzat. Yet it is the repository of delicate apparatus and me- chanical devices that are troiy wonderful, and it is the scene of discovernes that will doubtless make it famous some day unless it should be torn down to make way for a more substantial structure worthy of the How to Predict the Course and Char- stitution in America, one . Promising the most Physical Observa- tory in Washington, attached to the $6. P. Langley. It is still an infant, heing but two years old, and thus far it has made reach across ! important use to which it is devoted. With more propriety it might be called a Ixbora- tory rather than an observatory. It has but two rooms, and both of these are kept constantly darkened by exterior shutters and interior screens, sn order to exclude extraneous sunlight and heat,end the whole building ts closed tightly so as to keep cut drafts, while the air within is maintained at a uniform dry artiiicial < between 10) and 110 degrees to prevent the moistuce from a: salt prisms used in the spectr 7 In one of the two apartinents 1 up a sensitive instrument Prof. Lang- ley’s invention, called a bolometer, and in the adjoining room is a galvanometer y vd in electrical connection with the bolom- eter. The bolometer is a marvelous crea- tion. It serves as a Jiminut and super- sensitive thermometer, and consists of a minute strip of metal 1-500 ef an inch wide and 1-5,000 of an inch thick; In appearance resembling a tiny hair. It indeed so sensitive Itselz, and tts mountifgs are so delicate, that it has to be imstalled on a stone foundation laid deep in the ground, lest it be disturbed and thrown into false vibration by the passage of wagons or car- riages, or the footfalls of occasional ped: trlans in the park outside, 2nd even by the movements of persons insid=. ‘Through this frail thread of metal a curreat of electric- ity is continually kept flowin: Whenever the spectrum, visible or oiherwise,is thrown upon it, the thread is warmed and the elec- tric current is decreased by an amount cor- responding to the inteas of the eff received. Other novel instraments, spect: ly mounted and constructed to connect with the galvanom automatically re- cord the slightest change in the current. So delicate are these insiruments that a variation of temperature to the extent of one-millionth of a -legree is readily de- tected and even measured. The Reflector. Outside the building is a round reflector of over a foot in diameter, made of perfect glass, ground flat. A frame holdiag the re- flector is mounted on a carriage connected with an ingeniously contrived machine, so adjusted as to keep the reflector moving gradually with the movement of the sun. A ray of sunlight reflected from this glass, passing through an aperture in the sky- light at the roof of the observatory, is re- fracted through a prism of salt as clear as sensitive bolometer, When a dark cold) line in the spectrum is upon the bo- lometer the instrument at once feels the change of temperature and experiences a chill. The observer, however, could not de- with the galvanometer and its fairy-like magnetic needle. This needle :z only one- sixteenth of an inch long, :nd is deflected in response to the movements of the bolom- eter. But even its variations could not easi- ly be observed directly, and so a device 15 attached to it by which the sligh move- ment is detected at once. espite tne smallness of the needle, it has an infinues- imal mirror on its end scarcely larger than the point of a pin. Additional rays o% licnt are trained by other reflectors so as to tai upon this mirror. In turn che ray is Te- flected so as to make a little point or dot or light on a screen a few feet away. But thar spot is sufficient. If the needle merely trembles, the angular movement of the re flected ray is so great as to make the spot of light move perceptibly on the = 2d if the needle is deflected considera the spot will make quite a journey across the screen, thus affording a means of observing and registering the readings of the bolom- eter from the variations of the needle. This record can be made permanent by substituting a sensitized photographic plate for the screen. The Science of Astro-Physics. The beginning of this new science of as- tro-physics dates back almost to the dis- covery of the spectroscope—that familiar optical instrument for examining the lines of the spectrum with a view to determin- ing from their position the composition of the substance from which they emanate— and the spectroscope has been largely em- ployed in the researches thus far conduct- ed. It is a we of the heat which the sun sends down to the earth the ordinary sceptroscope can recognize only one-fourth—the other three- fourths being in a form which the ordinary spectroscope cannot see or analyze, lying irvisible and beyond the “red-end the direct processes of photography can ex- amine it. For years this invisible portion of the solar spectrum has been known to exist, and yet nobody was able to exhibit it. But were the range of human vision vastly extended, so as to enable us to re- ceive optical impressions corresponding in character to the kind of energy present in this “infra-red” region, we could see in that region phenomena of precisely the same sort as we now note in the spectral region to which we are confined by the re- stricted powers of the human eye. It is to this hidden field, therefore, this great un- known dominion beyond the limit of the “reds,” that the modern astro-physicist now directs his attention. By a special method invented by Prof. Langley systematic explorations have been made of this unknown region, and, gratify- Ing to relate, a complete map of it has just been produced. With the aid of special ap- paratus constructed by him the lines of the invisible spectrum are shown almost as clearly as the lMnes of the visible. The the finest glass and made to fail upon the | (ana | tect this if 1t were not for ihe connection | of the | Ratiroad, Washington, spectrum, where also neither the eye nor | | 1e:43 EXN VI | | turning, arrive Wasbli | togton, #13 ‘au | furnisbed at | 36:20, 6:30, xd200, 8:13," x0: chart reproduced herewith of one of the | rock-salt spectra of the invisible spectrum is a sample of the valuable results already attained at the observatory within the la: two years by the new “spectro-bolographic’ process. In it the visible solar spectrum, | as known and investigated by Newton, is represented as to its length by the biank space on the left, from 4 to 8, while the lines mapped out to the right, from 8 to 6)—nearly thirteen times the ex- tent of those known to Newton—are among those newly discovered. The lines indicated were reduced from “bolographs manently registered by means of photog- raphy. This invisible portion of the spectrum, it is found, lke the visible, is marked by nar- row bands or lines, but almost entirely de- vold of what physicists call “energy.” The world owes to the study of the “Fraunhofer lines” of the visible spectrum nearly all those recent advances which have given us definite information regarding the consti- tution and composition of the heavenly bodies, and which have been of so great cal and atmospheric phenomena of ble spectrum by the new method is be- Meved to be of equal, or even greater prac- tical importance. Prof. Langley’s Success. Professor Langley has succeeded in bring- ing his original bolographic apparatus to a greater degree of perfection and effective- ness than has ever been ured before eisewhere, and it is a subject of pride with the Smithsonian people that our own mod- est little astro-physical observatory,the only one Uncle Sam possesses, has, in the tw years of its existence, enlarged the world’ knowledge of the solar spectrum—partt its bearings upon the questions of climate and agriculture—to a greater extent than all other astro-physical observatories In the world combined. And the this advancement will be all the more ap- preciated when it is borne in mind that the competing institutions in Europe are very elaborate and expensive establishments, heavily endowed and operated by savants of wide distinction. Most of the leading for the cultivation of this new branch of astronomy on a liberal scale. A portion of the big French indemnity fund was dev ed by the late Emperor William of Ger- many to establishing a magnificent astro- physical observatory at Potslam. Th public of France has also provided a su observatory on a similarly generow at Meudon, six miles from Paris. Ita’ Great Britain likewise support costly tablishments for this purpose at public ex- jpense. And all of these titution j Should be remembered, and separate from thos | pursuit of the s | example, the a Greenwich, England, and our own naval | observatory on the outskirts of Washing- ton, JOHN D. CREMER. — The Meeting of the Wate: From Life. e Tre- pe i st. sale—a bargain lvth st. ow. residence of Mr. H. Apply J. 8. Larcombe, and per- | advantage in the study of the meteorologi- | the | earth. The study of the lines in the invisi- | larly that part discovered since the time | of Newton, by far the most important in | significance of | European governments have, within the past twenty years, founded observatories | it | Sir Isaac | | | TON leave Washi known fact, though, that | Sanlay. | from Maysville serving reakfart. | 6:30 p.m; | WASHINGZUN STEAMBOAT CO.. “LIMITED: ee RAILROADS. SYLVANIA Pad.ROAD. ER OF 6TH AND B STREETS. January 1894, LVANIA Dine rep.—ranman Room, Sleeping. Dining, Smokr ing and Observation Cars ilarrishurg te fisclmati, Indianapolis and Cleveland. arlor Tr to Marrisbury AM. Fast LINE Fer Pittsburg, Parlor to Pitts CHICAGO AND ST. 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