Evening Star Newspaper, June 9, 1894, Page 15

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, -JUNE 9, 1894-TWENTY PAGES. 15 ca BUD CHINA’S GRANDCANAL One of the Great Wonders of the World. HOW THE TAXES ARE COLLECTED ———— A Look at Some of the Big Chinese Towns. DHIST PRIESTS BEGGING. is such that it will hardly be used again as the great waterway which it has been in the past. Li Hung Chang has asked the emperor to allow him to build a railroad along it from Tientsin to Chinkiang, and this will eventually be done. The boats along the canal are much like those I have described as lying at the mouths of the creeks of the Yangtse. In passing up it you are followed everywhere by crowds, who look with wonder on the foreign devils, and every here and there you meet boats containing begging Bud- ahist priests, who stick out long poles at you. These poles have bags fastened to their ends, and into these the Chinese drop cash or rice. This part of China ts full of priests. There is in the Yangtse river, just opposite where I am now writ- ing, an island which is just covered with Buddhist temples, and which has no in- habitants but priests. Massive granite ter- races, decorated with stone lions, lead up from the water, and the temples shine out of green trees and flowery gardens. In Nanking I visited a temple which contained 10,000 Images and golden statues of Bud- dha, and I have photographed a dozen or so PRIMITIVE FARM TOOLS (Copyrighted, 1804, by Frank G. Carpenter.) CHINKIANG, China, May 12, 1894. WRITE THIS LET- ter at Chinkiang, a walled city on the banks of the Yangtse river. It is just about 150 miles from the seacoast and is at the point where the Grand canal crosses the Yangtsa This ; canal is one of the great wonders of the world. It is now in bad repair and a large part of ft Is going to ruin. But it has been one of the greatest ‘Waterways of the world, and it extends from Peking south to Hang Chow, some 200 edd miles below this point, running through the great plain from north to middle China, a distance about as great as that between New York and Chicago. It cuts its way through a territory containing 170,000,000, or nearly three times as many people as the whole United States, and it taps some of the Chicken by the Pound. of the priests. In the Nanking temple I got a priest to kneel and put his hands in | the attitude of prayer while I took a timé ‘exposure of his devotions, and I am inelin- ed to think there is much hyprocrisy about | the profession. The priests are fat fellows, | {n long gowns of gray or yellow linen, and | they often have on three-cornered box- shaped hats of black. They shave their heads and faces and are but little respected | by the people. They are, I am told by the | best of authorities here, ignorant, iow and immoral. The most of them are opium ‘smokers, and they are the contempt and ridicule of the better classes of the Chinese. Buddhism in China ts, in fact, a religion gone to seed. It had its run in times past, and about a thousand odd years ago the greater proportion of the Chinese were Buddhists. It was then the center of cul- ture and learning, and now there are few 80 poor to do it reverence. The Chinese are full of superstitions, but their religion is more of a system of morals than one of theology, and they have as many pure ee and agnostics as any people im the wor! Chinese Morality. Speaking of Chinese morality, I believe there is as little crime here to the popula- tion as there is anywhere. I find the peo- ple, as a rule, well behaved, and I am sur- prised every day at the common decency with which they treat each other. These Chinese cities have many streets not over four feet wide. In those of Canton you can stand in the center and touch both walls with your two hands. There are no more thronged places in the world than these streets, and the crowd which moves through them 1s of all grades and of all occupa- tions. There are mandarins in chairs, who are preceded by their servants, who carry boards in front of them bearing the titles of their masters, There are coolies wheeling great barrows, which almost fill the street from side to side. There are donkeys by the dozen, and men loaded with all sorts of heavy burdens, some of which they carry upon their backs and others which they have hung to the ends of poles. There must be necessarily much pushing and ciowding, and such a scene in America One of the Nanking St Diggest cities of the world. Peking, where it finishes its course, not far from the Amer- fean legation at the palace, is a city of more than a million people. Tientsm,. below this about eighty miles, is still larger, and as it runs further south the canal is dotted with walled cities and great towns allalong its course to the Yangtse river. Chinkiang is about as big as Minneapolis. Yangchow, the next big city on the canal south of here, contains, I am told, a half a million people, and Suchau and Hangchow each have some- thing like three-quarters of a million souls. At every thirty miles along its course it is safe to say there is a walled city, containing many times ten thousand people, and the country back of it is a garden spotted with clumps of trees, each clump shading a Chinese village. The canal at Chinkiang cuts right around the city, forming the {sland upon which the main part of it is located. It runs from here northward for 890 miles without a lock, but above this, I am told, there are numerous sluices and locks, and in some places the water is car- ried through the country on great stone embankments, twenty and more feet high, and the stream at some of these places is fully 2 feet wide. It has stone flood gates managed by soidiers, and it is here and there fed by creeks and rivers. At one point a river was conducted into it in times past, and the Chinese say that 300,000 men Grinding Corn. would include a it on every block. Here there is nothing of the kind. The scholar and the gentleman give way, as a rule, to the heavily loaded laborer, and the working- man’s rights are generally respected. If they are not the trades unions are such that they bring the officials and people to time. A striking instance of this recently happened at Nanking. The Chinese, you know, have no such things as sewers, and all of the slops of each household are col- lected every day by men and carried out into the country to be stored in vats and afterward used as liquid manure. ta drop nor an Luo of anything of a ferttliz- ing nature is alf wed to go to waste, and slops have their fixed price in the market and are bought and sold. The collectors of these slops are the most offensive charac- ters of a Chinese city. They go about with two four-gallon buckets fastened to the ends of a long bamboo pole, which rests upon their shoulders. Carrying with them a smell worse than that of a bonedust fac- tory, they belong to the lowest classes of the people. The other day one of these men was rapidly waiking through Nanking when he happened on turning a corner to run into a high mandarin and spattered him with the contents of his buckets. The mandarin ordered him to be arrested, and he was taken to prison. The head of the siop union objected, and demanded that the man be freed. It was not done, and the slop carriers struck in a body. The five hundred thousand people of Nanking had no way to get rid of their slops, and the danger of an epidemic disease was imminent. Sup- pose you should, for instance, for a week stop up the sewers of your city you could then appreciate something of the state of Nanking at this time. Nanking, however, was far worse off, for it has no sewers at all. The result was that the mandarin was So besieged that he let his prisoner go free and remitted his fine. I find that the Chi- nese have a fair idea of justice. They will fight against wrong, and there is as much of a democracy here in this respect as there is in America. There is no place where debts are so punctually paid and where credit is so easily gotten by all class- Farmers Along the Ca: yed for seven months in turning this single stream. It cuts the and It is below this that the mankments above spoken of are ed. The parts which I have seen are | which run near here, through the valley, and those about Tientsin ing. Here the canal ts more like than anything else, and there | 2 army of men employed in| : It was in existence | housand years ago, and Kahn laid out the line upon which it runs A Highway for Rice. use for the canal in times pest n that of a trade artery from the » south. It taps by its connecting 1 rivers every part of the great ts used for the transportation tice to Peking. than The chic has be at taxes of China are to a .~and every about 133,000,000 ¢ to Peking for the . At t barns which were filled iting shipment, and every canal has its gove Just now the rice is being ta Ss bY sea, at by the Grand there are hun- and these gov- block the canal 2 are employed boats, and at cans of like a ation through {t On the Bont Landing es of peopie. Honesty and integrity are above par in Chi and foreigners tell me they would rather deal with the Chincse merchant than with any other business man in the world. He never goes back on his spoken or written word. and Mr. Ewen ctors oO a Cameron, one of the leading d the Hong Kong and Shanzhat establishment which does the bi st bank- these rice boats] ing business on the western Pacific and ing the past few | whose capital amounts to millio: a Peking until | i fo said t m x canal are closed | dealings of the ba vith Ch t r tribute rice, aud rying of the : ckants for a period of more than twenty the condition of it today years and in sums aggregating hundreds 4. Thi begins. is fi ha 4 try b; by pedd pped classes, of millions of dollars he had never met wie a defaulting Chinaman. this statement was made the bank has been defrauded by a Chinese cashier. In general, however, the statement is cor- rect. Panishing Maletactors. The penalties of the law are often very severe and the Chinese frequently take the punishment into their own hands. All along the Grand canal and the Yangtse you may see at the villages here and there boats cut in half and placed upon ends. I asked what these were, and was told that they were the boats of thieves or pirates who had been caught stealing. The criminals had had their heads cut off, and their boats Were thus set up as a warning to others. In hee ate I saw a dozen men with great boards four feet square and weighing as inuch as forty pounds each fastened about their necks sc that they could not move their hands to their faces, nor brush off the files. They were thieves. In Wuhu there a beggar who goes about on the stumps of his legs, which have been cut off juat below the knees. He was caught several times stealing, and this was the penalty of his crime. In some parts of the empire a man is punished with death at his third convic- ton of theft and pirates are always behead- ed. Law and order are, however, well pre- served, and, I believe, that human life and Property are as safe here ag they are in America, A large part of the farming of this region is done by irrigation, and the water rights of the Chinese are as full of complications as are those of Colorado. Still there are few troubles among the farmers, and with no fences to mark the lines of their prop- erty they work away in and quiet generation after generation. It is wonder- ful how well they work and how much they get off the land. Three crops a year is by no means uncommon, and if any sign of a failure of crop is seen, the seed for another crop is straightway sown. It is wonderful how small the farms are. There are thou- sands of holdings in China which are less than an acre, and some are even as small as the tenth of an acre. It is estimated that an acre of land will in the better parts of the empire support a family of six, and a velume could be written on Chinese agri- culture. The use of fertilizers is universal, and, though there are practically no horses and few cattle, there ts no land which ts so well fod. Everything is saved. Thousands of men do nothing else but gather up bits of fertilizing matter and sell them. The refuse of a rich family will bring more than that of @ poor one, and the slops of the for- eign part of Shanghai are farmed out an- nually for a sum which gives the city the rrest of its educational fund. Potato 1 ings, the parings of finger nails, the shav- ings of the head and ruined houses form Parts of the fertilizing material, and this is Usually put together in such Haquid form that not a bit of it is wasted. The manure is kept in great vats, and the farm is water- ed like a garden. Each plat gets its daily fcod and drink. A dipper full from the vat is put Into each bucket of water, and the n.ixture is poured in at the roots of the Plants. All throughout this rt of China such fertilization goes on, ‘and from twenty to thirty dollars a year is sometimes spent vpon an acre of land. Crude Implements. The tools used are crude in the extreme. I see men working in the fields near here with Jong-handled hoes. These have four teeth of the same length as those of a pitchfork and each tooth or tine is about an inch in width. They also use grubbing hoes or mattocks and they have a sort of a spade with a cross piece of wood two inches above where the iron plate of the spade They ash the spade down into the ground by pressing the bare foot against this cross bar instead of on the fron itself, we do. Their plows scratch the earth and are not much better than those used in Egypt. These are pulled by water buffalos, the Pirate nad Thief Boats as Warnings. ugliest cattle known to man. The buffalos grind the rice, tramp the mud and straw for making the sun-dried bricks of which their houses are made, and do all sorts of farm work. When grazing and when not at work they are minded by the little chil- dren, who sit upon thetr backs and who have a wonderful control over them. They crawl up on the back of the buffalo, get- ting first upon the horns of the animal, who bends down its head for them. As soon as they are astride of the neck the buffalo will gently ratse tts head and the boy will slide down its neck fill he has a irm seat just behind its shoulders. Here he will stay all day, and I have seen little fellows of five and six years sound asleep upon the backs of these animals, who are often dangerous and ugly in their actions toward strangers. A good buffalo !s worth about $20, and farmers often enter a sort of farmers’ loan association for the use of a common fund of money from year to year by which they stock their farms. I we seen some cows, but their milk is not used as food. Chinaman does not think milk fit to drink, and he only uses it as medicine, When he does that he prefers the human variety and gets a wet nurse. This is by no means an uncommon thing, and the empress dowager when she was sick not long ago put herself upon a diet of this kind. I venture the old lady id the milking herself. The mutton of this part of China is very fine and its flavor is said to be much improved by feed- ing the sheep on mulberry leaves. The hogs are of the lubberly black Chinese va- riety, the dirtiest and filthiest animals of their kind. They are always minded by a girl or boy when in the fields, and I saw today a little girl of ten whose feet were bandaged so that she seemed to be walking on red hot irons as she tottered about whipping the hogs. The pigs often sleep in the houses, and you find them grunting around in the busiest of the Chinese cities, There are lots of chickens, ducks and geese everywhere, and the scientific rals- ing of poul yy the Chinese would make a letter in itself. They are sold by the pound by lers, who carry them in reat baskets of bamboo open work, and are shi by the boat load from the country to the cities. Eggs are used by all and the favorite egg is from twen- ty to thirty years old. it is cooked before it is put away, when brought forth it is as black us your hat, and it tastes like chalk. Duc! are pressed and dried, and the cooked ones I see in the markets are oiled so that their picked skins shine as if covered with varnish. They are not at all bad to eat, however, and those which I have had in the native restaurants are fully as good as any you get in America. ’ _ ——_—— see THE ESSENTIAL VOINTS. The Reporter Was Asking Too Many Questions to Be Agreeable. From the Chicago Tribune. “What were the particulars of the acci- @ent*”’ inquired the reporter, “The cable car was going at a high rate of speed,” replied the little man who had rush- ed breathlessly into the city editor's room for the purpose of giving the Daily Bread an item of news. “Just as it turned the corner a man in a light open bugsy tried to drive acrosa the track. The grip car struck the bugsy squarely, knocked the man out and he fell senseless on the pavement. A policeman arrested the gripman and the in- jured man was carried into Van Plunk’s Grug store, right on the corner. Ever been in that drug store? Llegantiy fitted up, epen nearly all night, largest soda fountain in that part of town, and-—” “What was the extent of the man’s In- juries?” “He was hurt on the head, I think, but 1 didn’t wait to see how badly. I jumped on another car and came right down to give you the story. In writing it up you can “What was his name?” didn’t ascertain.” Who was the gripman?” “I didn’t inquire.” “Do you know the name or number of the policeman” “No.” “Then how do you suppose I can write the thing up if you don't give me any names?” “Great Scott! carried into Van Plunk’s drug store? more do you want?” “Yes, but——" Haven't I told you he was What “Anybody in that part of town can tell | you who Van Plunk ts and what kind of—" May I ask your name?” Yes, sir. Van Plunk.” My name t: A TONIC FOR NERVOUS PROSTRA- TION, Horsferd’s Acid Phosphate. Dr. “It is the best temic nervous prosiration, with slee IT know of in debility eat mental over work or prol Jessners, cw longed lactation." A. E. Carothers, San Antonio, Texas, says: | CABINET HOMES Where the Advisers of the President Spend Peaceful Moments. SOME PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS The Centers of Much of Official Society Life. MEN WHO LOVE FISHING Written for The Evening Star. HE MEN WHO hold portfolios tn Mr. Cleveland's cabinet have their hobbies and peculiarities like ordinary mortals. Think of the premier of this great republic walking across La- fayette Square with a pipe a foot and a half long in his mouth! That was what Secretary Gresham was seen doing one morning this week. From the pipe hung a long, green tassel, and the owner puffed at tt vigorously as he struck out for the Department of State. Lack of pretension is Gen. Gresham's most marked characteristic. He pays no attention whatever to fashion, and the rai- son d'etre of a duke is beyond his imagining. People who know him well say that he is a very companionable man. That must be true, else the President would not take him along on his fishing excursions. Secretary Gresham is as eager a sports- man as the President, and that is saying a good deal. A short tin.e ago Mr. Thurber suggested to Mr, Cleveland that the latter might as well go off into the country and take his work with him. But the President said: “Not much! When I take my vaca- tion, I'll fis And so he did. Gen, Gresh- am lives at the Arlington Hotel, but in a private way. He end his wife occupy fou. rooms on the ground floor of a house for- merly tenanted by Charies Sumner. This dwelling has been absorbed into the hotel premis The windows of the Secretary's drawing room look across Lafayette Square toward the White House. A sitting room and two bed rooms, adorned with ordinary hotel furniture, complete the suite, Out of the door from which Gen. Gresh- am emerged with hig pipe and tasse) Gro- ver Cleveland went to his inauguration a little over a year ago. The President had five rooms at the hotel, for which, with meals, &c., he paid $500 a day—half a week's salary as chief executive of the nation, But, then, he had nine servants at his exclusive disposal, and the table- ware furnished for his use included knives, forks and spoons once owned by the Em- press Eugenie and a coffee cup that be- longed to the great Napoleon. The Best-Dressed Man, A few doors further up the same street, Mkewise looking across Lafayette Square toward the White House, is a solid-looking cream-colored dwelling. Like nearly all the rest of tre houses facing upon that famous paralielo.ram of green, it has a history. ell, afterward confederate commissioner, lived in it. At present it is the home of the best-dressed man in the cabinet—Daniel Lamont. Secretary Lamont 1d hardly be called a dude, but he is always most taste- fully attired, and undoubtedly spends a good deal of money on dress. Nevertheless, costume claims a comparatively small frac- uon of his time and attention. His hobby is work. Next after the President, he is the hardest worker in the administration. He must have forgotten hew to play, for those who know him best say that he has no amusement. As one enters the front door of the cream- colored house on H street the library is the room on the right. This is Mr. La- snuggery—the “den” in which he spends his evenings when he ts not at the War Department. He works at night, as well as by day. No stimulant or narcotic helps him with his toil, for he netther drinks nor smokés. His bookshelves are laden with several thousand carefully selected volumes: Three children brighten the home of the Lamonts with their presence. The eldest, Bessie, is nearly grown up and will be going out in Washington society before the close of the present administration. The other two are also girls, Julia is ten years old, and the “baby” four years. Des- ste and Julia are taking lessons in music and dancing. Their mother plays the piano admirably. Mrs. Lamont goes out a great deal, her posttion requiring much attention to social duties. She could not be considered a real society woman, however. Both she and her husband are even, more devoted to their children than ean be sald of most affection ate parents. Next door to them lives Sen- ator Brice, in the old Corcoran house, which was owned and occupied formerly by Den- fel Webster. A Typical Bostonian. The handsomest cabinet residence in this administration is the house at No. 2111 Massachusetts avenue,occupied by Attorney General Olney. It has been leased by the latter from ex-Senator Edmunds, The dwell- ing has an English basement. In the hall is a cozy fireplace, with trophies of the chase, in the shape of heads of moose and deer, hung about. On the lower floor also is a billiard room, not now in use, for Mr. Olney does not play billiards, His game is tennis, and almost any day he may be seen disporting himself, racquet in hand, on his private court. Being in mourning for Mr. Minot, the At- torney General's son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Olney have not gone out in society at all of late. Next winter, however, they will give a series of dinners. Some people ac- cuse Mr. Olney of being an “iceberg.” Nev- ertheless, he is said to be very agreeable when properly thawed. At the entertain- ment given by his intimate friend, Mr. Endicott, when the latter was Secretary of War, under Mr. Cleveiund’s former admin- istration, icicles actually used to form on the chandeliers. The very proper hauteur and low-tem- perature manners of the typical Bostonian do not seem to be understood in this part of the country. Speaking of Mr. Olney, a Corgressman,remarked the other day that he was all right when the ice was broken. “But,” he added, “‘what I object to is that I have to break the ice anew every time I meet him.” Mr. Olney’s special hobby ts “family"—especially Boston family. Withal, though so proud, he is not a vain man. Wit- ness the fact that when he was chosen for Attorney General by Mr. Cleveland he had no photograph of himself to give to the newspapers. He had not had one taken since he was sixteen years of age. Re- porters were obliged to pursue him lke hired bravos, with pop cameras and sketch books, in order to catch his likeness for puBlication. A Musical Home. One of the most important features of the Postmaster General's home at 1609 K street is a superb piano, which adorns the main drawing room. Mrs. Bissell ts a remark- ably fine musician. On one occasion last winter she charmed Washington society by her singing and piaying at the home of Senator Hale, the entertainment be- ing siven for the benefit of a local charity. Upon the piano above re- ferred to stand two photographs of Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland in massive silver frames. Both Mr. and Mrs. Bissell have art tastes. Their dweliing is furnished with the utmost elegance, though simply. There ts a good deai of costly bric-a-brac scattered about, and the pictures on the walls are first-rate. On the floor below the drawing room is the Postmaster General's study. Here he sits often in the evenings, working and smoking big cigars. One little girl, two years old, is the only child. Next door but one to the Bissells lives the Secretary of the Interior, Hoke Smith. En- tering, the visitor finds himself in a small hall Mke an ente-room, “done” in light ‘woods. On the left is a little parlor, and beyond to the left a great drawing room. On the second floor, over the hall, is Mr. Smith's study, the windows of which look out on K street. Here is his library of 9,000 volumes—a remarkably comprehensive collection of books of reference for law, history and science. Adjoining the library \is the family sitting room. Often, while Mr. Smith is at work, he hears the chil- dren romping. Now and then the fancy seizes him to drop his busy pen, relinquish | his cigar for a moment, 0; e communi- cating door and kiss the baby. The ceremo- ny gives zest to toll. Lucy Ermina is the baby’s name. She is two years old. Her sister, Mary Brent Smith, is six years old. The eldest offspring is Marion Smith, a boy of ten. He accompanies his father every day on his pony when the man-on-horse- back of the administration goes riding. A Fishermen’s Administratio: The Secretary of the Navy lives in an old-fashioned double house on the north- west corner of F and 20th streets. It is a very comfortable dwelling, with big rooms and a good deal of ground around it. Mr. Herbert is a widower. His daughter, Miss Leila Herbert, is quite a belle in Washing- ton society. Another daughter, Mrs. Micou, and her husband make their home with the Secretary. Mr. Micou has recently been appointed chief clerk of the Navy Depart- ment. Whist is a favorite evening amuse- ment with Mr. Herbert. He goes out in so- ciety a good deal. Fishing is fond of. In fact, this is a fishermen’s administra- ion. It would be hard 2 ee wes so Reeaensy Carlisle's special hobby. le chews te- bacco industriously and is rarely seen with- out a quid in his mouth. Though provided by Uncie Sam with three or four carriages, he uses them little, preferring to go about on street cars, There is no more unpre- tentious man than he, and those who know him say that he is extremely generous and warm hearted. The house he dccupies, at 1426 K street, is rather a commonplace resi- dence, covered outside with ivy and with a homelike air within. The family comprises the Secretary, Mrs. Carlisle and their son Logan, who is chief clerk of the Treasury Department and his father’s right hand, Another son practices law in Chicago. The Secretary of Agriculture he econo- mist of the administration. His fad is re- trenchment. This hobby has already saved the government a good many thousands of dollars, He lives modestly at the id flats with an unmarried sister. Another fancy of hie ts for letter writing. He ts great on epigrams, and he loves to read clever letters of his own to the newspaper men, Withal, he is the jolliest of good fel- lows and puts on no airs whatever. He ts rather careless about his dress. As every- body knows, he was the originator of Arbor day, and his letter bpads always bear a pic. ture of a tree and the words “plant trees.” His four children are all boys, grown to manhood. Frequent at Banquets. A handsome apartment of three rooms on the second floor of the Normandie Hotel, overlooking McPherson Square, fs the tem- porary home of Adlai Stevenson. The du- ties of Vice President are not very arduous, and he and his wife devote a good deal of their time to society. Mrs. Stevenson is a patroness at neafly every farge social func- tion, while her husband takes in the din- ners, An old habit of his is to attend to all his correspondence just before going to hey He has a daughter of seventeen with Im. The place of private secretary to the President first assumed importance during Mr. Cleveland's first administration. Since then it has merited consideration as a quasi-cabl office, having retgined the size to which it was distended by the great- ness of Daniel Lamont. Mr. Thurber fills it well. His wife has a reputation as a beauty and a social leader in Detroit. She is a granddaughter of Gen. Brady of the regular army, and has a considerable for- tune in her own right. The home of the Thurbers in Washington is at 1718 I street, ‘There are four chtldren—Donald Dickinson, twelve years; Marion, nine years, and Elizabeth, just a year old. The private sec- retary is learning to ride horseback This is a Presbyterian administration. The Lamonts, Stevensons, Greshams and Smiths go to the Rev. Dr. Bartlett's church, on New York avenue, The Thurbers go with the Cleveland's to Dr. Sunderland's, on 4 1-2 street. The Lamonts are partieu- ists. Nevertheless, the Secretary himself does not go to church from one year’s end to the other, Presumably he has no time. DIAMOND SMUGGLING, Cunning Schemes for the Introduc- tion of Gems Without Paying Duties. From the Jewelers’ Weekly. One of the simplest devices for smuggling diamonds is that of the hollow-heeled shoe. It is asserted that boots and shoes con- structed so as to leave a small vacant space in the heels are easily obtained in Europe, and they are especially manufactured for the purpose of supplying smuggiers with a means for escaping detection. The porous plaster has often served as a means of secreting diamonds. When it ‘s understood that $10,000 worth of diamonds or more can easily be inelosed in a paper parcel about as wide as this column, one and one-half inches high and about a quar- ter of an inch thick, it 1s easy to compre- hend that such a package can be kept se- curely in place by means of an innocent but highly serviceable porous plaster. One of the most ingentous methods ever employed was the use of a cake of soap, wherein a number of diamonds had been imbedded. It is highly probable that this plan would have proved successful had it not been that the officers of the government had received information that the suspeeted person had diamonds with him, and search- ed his effects so thoroughly that they exam- ined even the gem-studded block of seap. The wife of this smuggler helped her spouse, and her plan was not less ingenious than that of her husband. Her hat was or- namented with bunches of grapes, which, under ordinary circumstances, would only have awakened the envy of other wearers of bonnets. Within the grapes were dia- monds and fancy stones of great value. Another smuggler was specially provided by Providence with a smuggling device in the shape of a heavy covering of thick, bushy hair, which he arranged so that it stood up from his forehead like an tmpene- trable bush, Within this mass of heavy hair he deposited a goodly stock of dia- monds and succeeded for @ time in escaping the vigilance of the custom house oilficials. ——__—29- ELECTRIC LIGHT GLOBES, Tests M to Show That They May Become a Source of Fire Danger. From Fire and Water. A fire occurred in the business portion of Victoria, B. C., on the Sth instant. Fortu- nately the loss was only $15,000, and the records would show the origin “unknown,” but for experiments made after the fire was extinguished. In the upper story of a ary geods house several 32-candle power incan- descent lights were installed. One of the lights was connected with a long insulated wire and several feet of spare wire allowed the moving of the light from one portion of the room to another, Through ignorance or carelessness the globe was laid on a pile of goods. The fire occurred shortly after the light was turned on at the power house, Which goes to prove that the globe was placed on the goods during the day. The tests were made in the room where the fire originated and were reported in the Victoria ‘Times as follows: 3 “There is no longer the slightest doubt as to how the fire staried, as two tests have shown that the incandescent light will ig- rite cloth. Last evening in the presence of Mr. Hutcheson, Chief Deasy, representa- tives of the Times and a few others a child’s woolen hood was tied around the 32- candle light, che latter having been turned on for ten minutes previously. Steam came from the wool almost immediately, and then smoke. At the end of eight minutes the hood was on fire and the globe burst. A similar attempt was made the evening be- fore and the cloth ignited tn six minutes. ‘Wool is the least inflammable of fabrics, and the test last evening was as severe as could be desired. All danger in this connec- tion can very easily be avoided, either by hanging the globes free from anything that will take fire or by placing fire around them. —_—_+0o—_. Artist a Brander Matthews in Century. I remember that in 1867, when I was but a boy, I had a chat in Naples with Big. Castellani, the antiquarian and goldsmith, about the fluctuations of the art of the silversmith. He told me that he had “more than one workman then in his shop of greater skill than Benvenuto Cellini of a more certain handicraft. These workmen could produce any of Cellini’s legacies to posterity, little masterpieces of goldsmith- ery and enameling, and they would make a better job of it than the great Itallan; for the modern imitation would show a finer technical skill than Cellini’s, and reveal fewer defects and blunders and accidents than the marvelous originals. But copy as accurately as they might, the modem workmen were wholly incapable of origi- nating anything. In Cellini there was a union of the head and the hand, of the artist and of the artisan, while in Castel- lani’s men the hand had gained skill, but the head had lost its force. The handicraft had improved, and the art had declined. There were now very expert artisans, there was no indisputably gifted artist. JOHN BULL’S PALATE | He Don’t Like American Cooking and the Compliment is Returned. EVEN RUINS GOOD OLD ENGLISH ROAST The English Cooks Never Season the Food for the Table. TEA VIES WITH ICE WATER Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. LONDON, May 16, 1804, OT ONE ENGLISH- man of letters visited America during fair | TN} time who did not | send across the At- lantie to the various London journals rath- er uncomplimentary opinions of American methods of cooking, mingled with expres- sions of regret for the flesh pots of Egypt in the of “good old . beef,” “prime joinis” and Yorkshire jp. ding. Our food was condemned as being too highly seasoned with pepper and salt, we had too much for breakfast, not enough for dinner, and, above all, persisted in eat- ing all our vegetables out of what he de- scribed ag “little soap dishes.” In fact, I have never met an Englishman who had been in America and neglected to refer to these “little soap dishes,” meaning the oval or round sauce plates from which Americans usually eat their corn and to- matoes. When recently interviewing Sir Edwin Arnold I asked him what he thought of America, he answered me by asking questions cancerning these soap dishes, Walter Besant made similar observagions | when I called on him the day after his re- turn. George R.Sims, of Mrs. James Krown Potter fame, who has never visited the land of liberty, says he is sure he will cb- ject to that style of eating when he does so, and W. T, Stead, when, as he stood on | the good ship New York at Southampton, | I called up to him to tell me his impres- | sions of America, answered me back h the tube of a rolled-up newspaper, “Say, what makes the Yankees eat out of soap dishes?’ Now, Mr. Stead is, without | doubt, the most enterprising journalist in Loni and as he usually has something original to say about everything, I was par- | lculariy disappointed that he should re-| turn with this miserably hackneyed ques- | tion on his lips. Mr. Stead also asserts that American cooking is one of the worst things he found in America. Americans | living in London can all return the com- Pliment, and say that English eooking ts diabolical to American tastes. Horrors of English Cooking. Take roast beef, for instance, the national j English dish. Prepared by an English cock, It is not nearly so tasty as when roasted by Bridget in New York, or Dinah in Baltimore or Washington. In England, it is more frequently overdone than under- done, but even when properly roasted, on taking it from the oven, or the old-fash- | foned roasting “spit,” which ts in general | ics, use here, about a quart of hot water is geo over it, and then, swlmming about | in the colored water, it is brought to the table, and woe be to the to carve it, for the so-c. bound to slop over somewhere. away the very best part of it, to our American ideas. Now’ when beef and the * the potatoes, never well | into the midst of it. If the potatoes are | boiled, they are only half done, if they are mashed, they are not well mashed. The English evok is invariably lazy, and she always does thing® the easiest way. ‘To mash potatoes properly requires con- siderable ume, else they will be lumpy, so lumpy they always are, with neither but- ter, pepper, salt nor milk to sive them that creamy appearance and delicious flavor | that American mashed potatoes always have. Other vegetables are put also on the | plate, unless they are each served in sep- arate courses. in short, the plate con- | tains a “mess” that could not be found jn | the cheapest restaurants or poorest homes | of America. The Wnglish woman, be she | of the higher or lower classes, is not rat- urally gifted in the way of cookery. The | ordinary Wnglish servant knows absolutely nothing about cooking, and the greatest curse @ man can have in his housé ts the self-styled “plain cook.” Now, this “plain cook” is the kind of cook | usually employed in the majority of London | houses. I refer, of course, to the middie classes of English people, and when I speak — of English cooking I mean that of the mid- | die classes. The wages of the “professed | cooks” are so high that only the wealthy | ean afford to hire them. They spend sev- | eral years in cooking schools, learning to cook, usually from French teachers, or, at least, teachers who have learned the French way of cooking. The professed cook ts somewhat of an improvement on the plain one, but even she will insist on pouring the ‘water over the beef. Steaks are treated in the same way and are brought to the table almost immersed in water. All English cooking, whether “professed” or “plain,” lacks seasoning. A Failure in Vegetables. Plum pudding, which has its origin in Engian4, is another of the dishes on which John Bull prides himself. And, indeed, it is not a thing to be despised, but we Amert- cans have improved on it, although ours is too rich for English tastes. No vegetables are properly cooked. Peas, beans, tomatoes, carrots, turnips are always hard when brought on the table. Stewed tomatoes, which the American cook so prides | herself upon, are always hard and insipid | im taste. In England there are but five ways of cooking potatoes—botied, mashed, fried in strips, baked and Saratoga chips. In| America we have twenty-three that every housewife knows. However, | must admit | that the profes: English cook knows how | to broil or “grill” a chop well, and, taking | into consideration the fact that English mutton is the best mutton in the world, it fs easy to understand just how Gelicious that | chop can be. To be sure, it heeds to be salted when it ts eaten, for the cook wil! not season her food under any considera- | tion. The roast mutton “joints” degs of mutton) would be quite tasty, except for the watery gravy that must needs also be | served with them. If the English people have a particular vice it is that of tea drinking. The mil- lions of gallons of tea that ure daily taken | into the English system would form an ocean enough for the whole British fleet to | upon. Tea before breakfast, tea at | breakfest, tea for luncheon, five o'clock tea, | and tea before going to bed, is a matter of | course. John Buil and his wife and his daughters cannot dispense with tea, any more than Jonathan can live without ice the ravy” are put on the plate, | i coaked, are put | water, and it is a question among doctors |* of both countries as to which of the two is | the more injurious. The Indian brand is / aimost always used, whether as a matter of | cheapness or preference, I do pot know, possibly it is ali three. Jerome | K. Jerome, who loves tea better than he/| loves his pipe, is an authority in the tea- brewing art. His receipt “Two tea- spoonsful of tea for each cup!” Let my readers judge of the strength of the bev- " ‘They Call Them Sweets. “Mince pies.” This is 2 sign often ob- served in the bakery windows of London, which often lures the hungry Yankee with- in, What is his disappointment to find a bit of pastry somewhat after the style of a baked apple dumpling, filled with a mixtere of suet, raisins and currants, without a sign of apple or meat! Still, the mincemeat is not half bad when taken hot, but from eating it cold, the saints deliver him! All things that are sweetened are called “sweets.” Cakes, candies, custards and puddings are all “sweets.” They lack the richness of the American sweet things. Goffee is usualiy made in the French coffee frets, after the French method. Except as an after-dinner drink, coffee is not often seen om the thoroughly English table. For Sinner, claret is as necessary to the Eng- lishman as ice water is to the American. Among the majority of Americans the California clarets are looked upon as some- ‘thi = pad but in England they are Mike recently read tn a book on etiquette by @ member of the aristocracy that properly- bred English girls would not eat cheese at "| dinner, neither should they partake of the savories. To do so would be considered but | incorrect. Since the “revoliing daughters” began to make their lately famous stir GROW OLD GRACEFOLLY There Is No! Reason Why You May Not Do So. WHAT SCIENCE HAS DONB It Is Now Possible To Live a Grew Many Years, and Still De Young Im Spirit and Vigorous In Body. “Tle doesn’t look half bis age,” sald a lady re contly when she was told that a bright, active 3 man wus nearly seventy years old. “ZT have seen many a young man who was iy nell are full of ambition and for no apparent reason, There ts @ secret in it, of course, has been discovered, “Many oe Mt out, and the knowledge bas endowed bealth, strength and vitality. Ex-Gov. Thomas Alvord, of Syracuse, N. ¥. ove of those fortunate persons over 60 of oge who find themselves strong and late in Ufe. He was lately asked to tell H ty nn ‘li: ak 33 my “ and fulluess in the lower part of followed by @ dull, throbbing pain, Pevied with @ sensation of fev chilly shudder. At times, fever seemed to estab Ush liself, then all the symptoms of @ jon would manifest themselves. I ® xeueral Weakness and an effort limbs or body was attended with a ices and exhaustion. “My whoje organization, im fact, giving out. I was unable to obtate by lying Gat upon my back, and even Was only temporary. 1 was really tn a ous condition, being not only coufinh to but to my Led the greater part of “I determined to take my case hands, and thezefore procured a sctentitic ich I had Leard @ greet deal. I ted by its use, and I continued unt now I am completely restored to health by its megna, { om satisned that for physica! atlmepts, and es pecially those incident to dectining years, there a nothing equal to Warner's Safe Cure, whieh se Siored and bas proserved my health.” Mrs. Surah K. Alen is one of the oldest settles ia Carlisle, Ind., where she is highly esteemed und respected. Tids lady recently guid: “In my opinion Warner's Safe Cure of all remedies. It worked wonders course it cannot renew my youth, for I ep 74 years old, but it has made the latter ent my life worth living. Vor six years previous Isey I suffered with disease of the liver and ness, general debility, @ tired feeling amd Or lens backache. 1 took quite « sumber tles of the Sete Cure, and as stated made my life worth living by completely me. I mow take tt for evers Kind of Keep ft fn the bouse all the time. died of typboid fever and Brighs’s years ago, and I luve since regret wot get the Safe Core for him, as question iu my miud that be would hove é g & e Bsklt hai E | ! Ce me. salak fa tle e a i ! fe sal i H | toany Lad I done so.” (Can you not sce how easy it ts to vitelity even to the later years of you pot desirous of doing sot i té ever here I understand that they taken up Usis question of cheese and savor and are declaring their rights. the Enelish girl is coming out of her and she ts not only determined to consulg her own tastes in eating, but she has rer belled against the chaperone. Lf she goes ‘on as she has begun she will pot be behind her Amrsican cousia in maiters liberty. On this side of the water there are rumors that while the English girl ig attempting to shake off the chaperone, the Americen mothers are taking the one up, and the English girl is laughing ta H ak her sleeve ELIZABETH L. Babs, pee ROSS ASLINIVS ARMY. An Old-Time Pilgrimage of the Kame sas Sons of Misfortgue. From the Chicago Record. “This talk im the Record about Kelley's said Uncle Job, “reminds me of @ Axline came to Kaasas right after the war. The first year was uncom- monly @ry, an’ his corn an’ wheat was burned out by the sun, But he hed spunie an’ stuck to it, an’ iived through the win- ter on h stuff as he could kill with bis gun, an’ produ his cow, But durin’ the winter the wolves got that, an’ his growl.’ fambly nearly famished. “The next yeor he @11 some better, bus only made expenses, an’ finally, when time came to prove up, he didn’t have enough te pay for his land with, so he cave & morte gage on it to a Kansas City firm, an’ got enough moncy to get a title. “Things were no better, though, am® finally, when time came to pey the morte gage, Ross had no money te ¢leer it, an® his land was took from him an’ he was give walkin’ papers. Ross argued that that wasn't right, an’ his boys stuck by him. “The more he thought "bout it the more he judged that the folks at Wi: should know, an’ finally he iay to an’ see "bout it “He got the echoolmaster to write a ter to the government, statin’ his then thought he would send it b; he was ‘spicious o' the mail, an’ as was goin’ to Washinton jest then he would take it himself. “He hed no money, but that @i@ not prive him o’ means to go, fer be had a p’ar 0 lnigs, an’ so hat his boys, an’ set out afoot. “The fust night he stopped et the house ole man Remis. The ole man hed his fortunes, an’ ealc"lated that he'd better Axliae on to Washin'ton. The Injuns stole two cows 0’ his'n some years before, ’ he reckonel he ought to have So in the mornin’ ole Remis an’ his two boys j'ined, an’ brung a store’o’ eatin’ with "em. More recruits followed, an’ before the week was out they had gathered a jong line o’ men, all with their woes, to carry to the government. “One feller hed be'n shot at by gang; another hed hed his crops spollt by floods; prairie fires hed burned out others; ye kicked on the price o’ sugar an’ whis- . It was e’ army 0’ disapp'inted folks, an’ all hed common wrongs ter right. They crossed the Osage, an’ Missouri, guinin’ in numbers every day, until there was near a hundred. “They hed to eat, an’ so when the Pikes wouldn't give ‘em grub they hed to take it, The sheriffs thought “twas better to let ‘em eat an’ run than to foller ‘em, an’ so they, was not molested "til they reached the Mise wis Ross Axline, who was ginere? 0” the ermy, planned to cross and continue march through Illinois, when, as luck would have it, he met a river raftsman. "peared to be a right nice feller, en’ took oncommon interest in the army, an’ finally offered to take the ermy on his flatboats free of change to Pittsburg. “Axline thought it over an’ tod him "twas “So the raftaman took his ten boats, am* dividin’ the army into groups o° ten men put a percel of ‘em im each raft. The kicked, but Axline quieted ‘em by seyin’ how the captain says the boats would if loaded too much. The captain also as how "twould be better to send the down one at a time. “So all was settled, an’ the rafte wae floated down one at e time an’ quite arate from one another. They were each charge o’ ten o° the worst river pirates you i set ¢ ESRF i i 55g ti: HB know who was runnin’ the “Th ORLA, tied up the recruits, an’ when they to Arkansaw they had the army ‘rested an’ sold the men to the planters under the vagrant act.” ——— -+0-+ —__ Hope Springs Eternal, Etc. From Texas Sittings. An old maid, at least seventy years of age, was heiped into a chair in the office of a New York police justice She was vary much excited. “Do I understand you te say that you think your pocket was picked by a young man who sat alongside of you im a 34 ave ue car?” “Yes, I'm sure of ft. He squeezed me up in the comer so that 1 could scarcely breathe, and he kept smiling at me ané smiling at me, as if he knew me.” “Why did you permit him to @o that? Why did you not complain to the com ductor?” asked the justice. “Out with It.” “I thought, perhaps, he was—he was—* “Was what?” “Going to propose to me.”