Evening Star Newspaper, June 9, 1894, Page 17

—— SSS THE EVENING STAR. PUBLISHED DAILY EXCEPT SUNDAY. AT THE STAR EUILDINGS, 1101 Pennsylvania Aroaue, Cor. lita Stret, by The Evening Star Newspaper Company, 5. H. KAUPPMANN, Pres't. Few York Ovice, 49 Potter Building, = 8 wit to sulscrtbers in the own acconnt, at 10 cents th. Copies at the counter where in the Uuited Drepald—SO cents per "Bac ‘Oleakante ‘ieee Star, $1.00 year: teidey Quintapte Shect Star, $1. = | with foretzn prs -e adilel. $3.00. oF wed ot the Post at Wasbington, D. C., es second-class mail ‘wa‘ter.) r S1 subscriptions must be paid tn 2dvance, ade knewn on annlication j i Part 3. Che EF pening Star. Pages 17-20. e WASHINGTON, D. ©, s | ! Written tur rhe Evening stm. T IS NOT OFTEN that a hotel is lost, except financially. This hotel diseppear- - ed from sight. It happened in this way: I am a promoter. , One day last fall a’ long-haired, eager-| eyed individual enter-, ed my office. He was! not apparently the | sort of man on whom | I could afford to: waste my but as I had Uttle to do! Just then I listened to him. He had a pro-! ject which, translated from his verbosity | into nineteenth century American, was as! follows: To construct a hotel of the lightest possi- ble materials, and suspend it from balloons | at a considerable elevation above the earth, | anchoring it securely. Located above a} great city, it would do a large business as & summer resort, access to it being easily and quickly had by means of passenger balloons, traveling up and down the anchor cables. Being something of an engineer as well as @ financier, I saw at once the feasibility of the project from both points of view, and atter a little dickering concerning the terms, for I naturally wanted most of the stock, I undertook to float the project. As times were flush, and the spirit of Speculation was abroad, I had little difficulty in organizing a company and in disposing of its bonds. We had selected the city of €hicago es the first to provide with the aerial summer resort, that being the city having the least conservatism (or the most enterprise), coupled with a plenty of capital —and our bonds were mainly taken there. As I considered the scheme to be a money- making one, I retained a majority of the stock, letting in only a few of my friends, @s a special favor. .The sale of bonds realized all the money required for construc- tion, estimated at a quarter of a million dollars. The stock represented the value of the idea and of the charter privileges, which were easily obtained from the state legis- lature. The plans, as developed by our architect | and engineer, specified a platform two hundred by five hundred the frame and trusses of aluminum and the flooring ef white’ pins. About one-fourth of this Fpace was occupied by the hotel, built in | three stories, of aluminum, glass and pine wood. It contained one hundred guest | Tooms, besides spacious parlors and: dining | fooms, and wide verandas. It was heated by gas and lighted by electricity, and both | were generated in the city. The plans for | the hotel posess little interest, as they were similar in ceneral to those of the ozdinary summer hotel. It was, however, built throughout as lightly as was con- sistent ith comfort and strength. The platform was surrounded by a rail- fe t high, made of sheet aluminum to prevent accidents. It was sufticiently | spacious to afford room for tennis, croquet, | other games. | selected for this summer house | om was carried on on Lake platform was first built, | s, from therm let jpon which it floated above mentioned, The hotel was then built the platform. This site was selected © building, as it had been found that a porary lease of suffi- reasonable distance of have i the « beem so expensive rprise. structure when com- 4 and peopled with two as found to be about one ‘> support this in the alr, ¢ a mile, required balloons | an thirty | hydrogen gas. This eight balloons, con- “rs and the middle of iatform. ul difficulty w s we had here to deal only with | es whose influences could be | nd provided for. But when we in anchorage ground for | h our structure to Mother red all the uncertainties rident to dealing with | attempted to purchase the | r cables, but found s as if paved with gold | | | a to anchor our cables with, incidentally, our packet balloons or | man cheaper and easier of | land, and soo possessed ail | parks, for saw everything in iatform and hotel | shed to the plat- built, and ready them. ed on May 6, a} As the balloons swelled | aised the structure fling the aluminum | air drifted it it neared lifficulties were, t I had uttle cise | “p and to let my { fcrtune pour into it; but I soon found that nt to the city govern- | p | cured it. pny. sl difficulties had but begun. Few men know how to run a hotel, and I discovered, to my surprise, that I was not one of the elect. After a brief experience I was giad to turn over the management, with all its | Yexations, to a professional expert, at an etormous salary. en, to my utter astonishment, some of the holders of real estate in Chicago, over which the hotel was anchored, brought Sult for trespass,on the preposterous ground that they owned the air all the way up. These suits bothered me a great deal, but I managed, by a series of injunctions, to Stave off adverse decisions, and finally suc- ceeded in making the state the defendant, since I was acting under a state charter, which gave me in terms the privilege of occupying the air above the city. The late carried the case forthwith to the United States Supreme Court, where it still awaits a hearing, although’ the bone in dispute long ago disaj-peared. The assertion of property rights in the alr produced @ curious result, which I may be pardoned for mentioning. It gave rise to most active speculation in such rights. Air was sold by the cubic foot, end the prices rose rapidly to slmost fabulous amounts. For instance, air over the audi- torium, from 200 to 500 feet above the city, sold as high as $1 per cubic foot, subject, moreover, to the uncertainty of the deci- sion of the Supreme Court. The specula- tion was as wild as that in water lots in San Francisco in the early fifties, and in climate in Southern California in more recent years, In spite of these troubles the hotel was a great success, whether considered from my point of view, as practically its owner, or from the position of the hotel guest. The rates were necessarily high, ten dollars per “I Looked Over the Railing on the Earth.” day, or two hundred and fifty dollars per month, being the price of an ordinary room with board. This insured a select clientage. Half of this was clear profit, and as the house was almost always well filled, I found that we could depend upon an annual profit, after providing for the interest on the bonds, of not less than fifty thousand dollars, without counting the returns from the privileges of cigar and news stands and the receipts from, uhe-risers, On the other hand, the guest enjoyed all the comforts of the best hotel life, in a cli- mate which was delightfully cool, even in the heat of summer. Being at an altigude of five thousand feet, the temperature was commonly fifteen degrees lower than in the city, and the air was always clear and pure, being constantly renewed by the winds. Rarely were we enveloped in clouds. These, with rains and mists, were commonly be- neath us, and while the earth was dark- ened by clouds and drenched in rain, we could look down and watch the play of ‘sun- light on their white billowy expanse; and when the storm was over and the clouds were breaking up and drifting and melting | away the cloud effects were magniticent. The husbands and fathers of families Were even more blessed. They were ena- bled to devote the entire day to busine: and then in five minutes to effect an ent ire change of climate and surroundings. In the morning they rose refreshed by a quiet sleep in the eool atmosphere, and ready for another day of struggle in ihe hot city. So I came to lock on myself as something of a public benefactor. The hotel was im- mensely popular; it was full all the time, and rooms were engaged ahead for the en- tire season. I was making plans for extend- ing our operations to several other cities, | When a catastrophe occurred. The hotel disappeared! It was on the evening .of the Fourth of July. As usual, the burning of gunpowder during the day had brought on a shower in the evening. This was exceptionally heavy, and had been ushered in by a tre- mendous squall. I had intended to spend the night up aloft, but the rain induced me to change my mind, and I had been at the club, and about midnight was making my way through the wet streets to the hotel, when I heard newsboys calling “‘Iox- tra Tribune,” “Full account of the loss of Airy Castle.” It is needless to say that I was interested at once. From the I that the opening gusts of the storm. broken away the anchorage of my breaking some of the cables, pull- ing others out of the rock, and in one case, neither cable nor anchorage would give way, literally lifting a block of lime- Stone from its bed, and carrying it off. The freed cables, before being lifted clear of the tall bulldings, played considerable havoc with plate glass windows and chim- neys, while the block of limestone had cut @ swarth for @ square or more, leveling a number of frame dwellings in its path and badly frightening their occupants. I passed a very bad night. Early in the morning I looked upward for Airy Castle. It was gone. I visited the anchorages. The Tribune’s account was correct, and the damage done by the freed cables had not been overestimated. I returned to my room at the hotel and thought the maiter out. The more I considered it the worse things appeared. In the first place, my property was gone, and since it had been destroyed by “act of God” I could collect no insur- ance. With it had gone 137 of the best people of Chicago, and their relatives were sure to sue me for damages. Then the cables had dene at least $160,000 worth of destruction in their escape, and that the company would have to make good. To | make matters even wcrse, this had occur- red on Saturday night, and as the receipts would not have been deposited until Mon- day, nearly a week's earnings had gone in the genera! smash. To this I may add incidentally that my wife and two children also disappeared in the catastrophe. MP? anticipations proved true. I was soon up to my neck in suits for damages, and, owing to a strong popular feeling against me, the decisions all went one way, and that was not my wa Sul, since this was a chartered company, with limited liability, I iost nothing except my interest in {t—my pularity—and my reputation as a success- ful promoter. Nothing was heard from the hotel or its contents. I read the papers assiduously for days and weeks, but my eyes were never gladdened by news of the lost. I offered re- wards for discovery of a “Hotel, lost, stray- ed or stolen,” with no results beyond ridi- ee and replies from cranks. e it up, and charged up the account to profit and loss. Among my fads is “Meteors.” I know something of the sub- ject. and when, a week or so after the dis- appearance of the hotel, I learned of a well- authenticated case of a meteor of strati- fied limestone, I was {nterested at once, for raeteors of stratified rock are extremely rare. A farmer in Georgia had seen it fall, Fad gone at once to the spot, and had se- Tracing it up I found it in the possession of my old friend Ro shington, D. C., who was evidently satisfied of the truth of the Georgia farm- s story. I saw the alleged meteor, and recognized it at once from Its shape, since it ficted the cavity left at the anchorage of No. 5 cable. Moreover, there was the hole SATURDAY, drilled in it for the anchor. So the plat- form and balloons had survived the storm. So, too, undoubtedly, was the case with the hotel, for it was securely bound toegther, and fastened to the platform. But “how about the occupants? Had they been spill- ed out? And where was the outfit now? It was then the Ist of August. It seemed in- credible that the structure could be still floating In the upper atmosphere, and equally Incredible that it could have landed anywhere In the United States, and no re- port have becn made of it. { was still wondering over this discovery when I received a letter bearing the post- mark “Winnipeg, Manitoba” This’ being in the well-known handwriting of my part- ner, the inventor Feusier, who was among the lost, gave me something of a shock, similar to that which we experience on seeing a ghost. This is his letter, minus a few expurgations. You see, Feusier has a way of talking a great deal without saying much, and he carries the same fault into his written communications, AIRY CASTLE, 10,000 FT. ABOVE RED RIVER VALLEY, MIN} U.S.A, July 10, 9 p.m. My Dear Boom: Since we left Chicago we have had many and strange adven- tures, most of which I have recounted in former communications, but as it is by no means certain that my letters have resched you, as I have had to drop them overtoard and take chances on thelr reaching Uncle Sam's mail bags, I will go over our experi- ences again briefly. When the storm struck us on the night of the “Fourth” F was sitting in my room reading, while most of the guests had re- tired for the night. Suddenly there came a shock as of air earthquake. The platform and hotel were tilted at an angle of 47 d grees 31 minutes, ® momentary glan: at my clinometer showed me, while I was sliding down to the leeward side of the room. (Feusier was ‘once a sailor.) For a moment only weré we inclined at that per- ‘lous angle, but that moment was enough to spill everybody on the floor, and to roll suests, furniture and all to the lowest parts of the rooms. The people, thus suddenly awakened by this unusual performance, were naturally frightened, and the chorus of screams was deafening. The hotel, how- ever,held together under the terrible strain, thanks to my firmness in insisting that it sbould be well braced and fastened down to the platform. (The confounded fellow! How he does enjoy saying “I told you Then the craft righted itself suddenly, the screaming ceased, and the guests collected together to talk the matter over, and to wonder at the cause of it. The electric lights had gone out,and when I attempted to light my room by means of a gas fire I found the supply of ga: as cut off. Then I began to suspect what had happened, and, lighting a match, I looked at the barometer. Instead of standing et 25 inches, as it should, the top of the col- umn of mercury was at 21 inches, indicat- ing an elevation of 10,000 feet, and was rapidly falling. We were adrift! As the wind was blowing hard from the north I ‘knew that we must be traveling south with e speed of an express train. ‘The gusts scon quieted down under my assurances that all was right, and slept more or less soundly upon the wrecks of their beds. I didn’t sleep, but sat up with my barometer. At midnight the mercury read fifteen inches (18,000 feet), and then stopped falling. The balloons had reached en equilibrium. Meantime, the storm had cleared, and the full moon made things almost as light as day, I went out amd looked over the railling on the eurth beneath. Three and a half miles below me I saw the light a city, which I judged to be Indianapolis. We were on a course S. S. E., and making, as I estimated, about fifty knots an hour, It was very cold, but in my disturbed con- Gition of mind I ‘could not remain in my Toom, so, wrapping myself in my heaviest ciothing, I spent the remainder of the might outside. As the sun was rising we pagsed over Cincinnati, and crossed the Ohio {nto Kentucky. The sunri: i it but I had little appetite forthe beauties. of rature, Soon the guests. would arise, covery of our position would follow, there would be trouble for me. * * (Heré Feusier devotes six pages and at ast two hours’ time in describing hits feel- ings, and talking about what he 1s going to 0.) I met the guests in the dining room and told them our situation and our prospects in as hopeful terms as I could. The result surprised me. Instead of wasting time in useless lamentations they forthwith re- solved themselves into a committee of safe- ty, elected officers and proceeded to consid- er measures for relief. You Americans are admirable! - (Feusier is a Frenchman by birth.) Hardy, the president of the C. and R. R., was made president, and I was made secretary and executive officer. We concluded, after a little discussion, that it would involve tuo great a risk to attempt a landing while the gale continued, so there was nothing left to do but to keep everything snug, and await favorable con- ditions of weather and landing piace. Mean- while, we examined into our supplies. For- tunately we had replenished our provisions and water on the day preceding the dis- *, and it was found that had suffi- ent of each to last, with economy, for a month The question of fuel gave us the most concern. We were in an arctic at- mcsphere, were unprovided with heavy clothing, and, apparently, without fuel, un- less we burned our house. Suddenty I re- membered the risers, all of which, as it happened, were at the upper end of the route when we broke loose. The gas with which they were inflated would, If used carefully, suffice to heat the parlors and @ining room for a week, at least. The guest rooms would, of course, have to go unheated. So that difficulty was overcome for the time. The committee adjourned after breakfast, the young folks going to their tennis and foot ball, the old ones to thelr whist and novels, while not a few spent the day in watching the changing landscape, as we We Were Sluwly Descending. sped swiftly southward. By night we had reached the low country of southern Geor- gia. The wind had fallen, and we decided to open the valves of the balloons on the morrow and risk a descent. We enjoyed a good night's rest, and rose with the sun the next morning, to find ourselves over the open sea, the land a mere thread upon the horizon. A west wind had blown us off over the Atlantic. I supposed that this unfavorable turn tn our affairs would plunge every one into de- spondency, and therefore was not a little surprised when Mr. Hardy remarked tn his easy way: “This is fortunate. I was afrald t today would end our adventure.” Dur- ing the day we drifted slowly eastward. We w several vessels, could not commu- nicate with them. In the evening all hands joined in a dance in the moonlight on the platform. The barometer had risen an inch during the past twenty-four hours, show- ing that we were slowly descending, prob- ably because of leakage of gas from the balloons. For three days we drifted about over the Atlantic in various directions, meeting with no adventures worth recording, when, on the night of the 8th of July, we found our- stlves In the track of a@ southeast storm. Tais has swept us to the northwest and north across the United States, and appar- ently we are now bound for Hudson ha: The leakage of gas from the balloons has lessened our altitude to 10,000 feet, which involves a grateful change of temperature, as our supply of gas for fuel ts nearly ex- hausted. We shall descend as soon as wind and weather permit. Ever yours, FEUSIER. This letter gave me a feeling of relief, which, however, soon passed away, leaving me as low as before. It was three weeks since it had been written, and nothing had been heard from them. It was little satis- Sem ont faction to know that they had been alive and well on the 10th, if they were dead now. Perhaps the balloons had burst, and they had fallen thousands of feet. Perhaps they had been forced to descend into Hudson bay and were drowned; or in the wilds of northern Canada, with no means of re- turning; or, perhaps, they were still wan- dering in the upper atmosphere, out of fuel, nearly out of food water, with starvation stating them in the face. These were the visions that kept me awake nights. rly in September, two months after the disappearance of the hotel, I received a cablegram. There wos nothing unusual about this, beyond the fact that the envel- ope was marked “Collect $52." I paid the requisite amount with some misgivings, and opened the cablegram. It was as follows: DUNDEE, September 3, Boom, Chicago: Arrived at Dundee this mornirg at 9 o'clock. All are well, and send kindest re- gards to you and to thelr many friends. Please inform them personally and through the papers of our safe arrival. I will send you the details by mail. We s! for home by the next steamer. Re Fifty dollars thrown into the fire! Why didn’t he wire “All O. K?" It would have told much. But it was just like Feusier. Well, they were safe; that was a great re- Nef to me. I learned the details afterward. It seems that while floating over Hudson bay one of the balloons gave way and the gas escaped. This gave a permanent slope to the platform, which was annoying, especially as it prevented playing of tennis, croquet and billiards; and in attempting to remedy it by drawing off gas from other balloons they lowered the hotel down into the water, where they found it floated as safely as in the air. They spent a happy week thus on the bosom of Hudson bay, fishing and shooting, when they were met by a Dundee whaler, whose captain offered to rescue them. As the season was rather advanced in this high latitude, they de- elded, after some hesitation, to allow them- selves to be rescued: and, abandoning my property, they took ship for Dundee. ——— COURTESY IN STORES. A Farther Contribution on a Much Discussed Topte. From the Philadelpbia Press. The woes of the saleswoman—or lady, if ehe so prefars it—have made many @ draught on public sympathy, so prompt to go out to the wrong person. Not that she is exactly the wrong person. There are doubtless martyrs on both sides of the coun- ter, but we hear less of the martyr on the outside, who is certainty as much of a “bruised and bleating worm,” as Sir Boyle says, as the other. The pale girl, pulling down box after box and bale after bale for the exacting shopper, who ends up with the purchase of a package of hairpins and the threat to report her to the floorwalker for lack of attention, 1s certainly a more ple- turesque object of compassion than the pale shopper who finds the fascinating pursuit of making one dollar do the work of (wo still further enhanced by the haughty indiffer- ence (when it is not active animosity) of the girl whom she is too good-natured to report. No one thinks of her rights and wrongs— least of all the saleswoman. I have heard of, but never seen, the wo- man to whom shopping was a diversion and the examination of articles she hasn't the remotest intention or means of purchasing a delight. The papers poke fun at her, the | faleswomen complain of her, but every wo- man I question responds with a groan, “Heavens, no! I hate to buy even a spol of cotton.” She may exist. however, and she may torment the girl behind the counter out of all patience; but that is no reason why the next shopper, an amiable and harmless person, should find her pleasant smile met with a look of severe rebuke which makes her feel like a little girl caught in some misdemeanor, her appeals to the othe! judgment with an icy “I don’t know, stre; Jast suft yourself."and then be obliged to wait from ten to iwenty minutes, with her pat®age'and change in full sight, while the young lady converses with a male fel- low-clerk, or with an interested feminine sSroup around her discusses the party she and “Mame” attended last night. It Hurts All Around. “What kind of manner do you expect for $4 a week?” was the parting shot of a girl discharged for rudeness to customers, and doubtless the same feeling underiies much of the inattention or incivility to which the unoffending shopper is subjected. Doubtless is contains a warning to employers, but to the saleswoman herself the obvious answer is that so long as her manners are as they are so long may she expect to be valued at $4, and dear at that. There are, doubtless, Proprietors who do not know that women Say of their stores: “Oh, don't go there; they have such horrid, disagreeable girls.” Those who do realize the harm wrought by one discourteous clerk occasionally put vp notices that “Customers will confer a favor by reporting inattention on the part of employes,” which, ike any other scare- crow, quickly outlives its usefulness. The more browbeaten the customer, usually the greater her disinclination to make trouble, and possibly lose a girl her place, and most of the complaints are made only by the ex- acting customers with imaginary griev- ances. Librarians, for some mysterious reason, are more disagrezable than all other cla: of female clerks put together. What su influence there shculd be in the atmosphere of books and letters—which is generally soothe the savage breast—to completely sour the milk of human kindness, I do not know; all I know is what every one can testify to— that a reduced princess, obliged to do menial work, could take lessons in disdainful con- tempt from the supercilious young lady who, ff you are patient and persistent enough, will go against her apparent conyictio: and give you the book you want. With her, as with a number of others, it is not a case of active rudeness so much as of non-agree- ability, which is quite as exasperating: calm indifference to your wants and even your existence, which proclaims you too mean a thing for contempt. Why They Are Disagrecable. The raison d'etre of the disagreeable sales- woman ts not very far to seek. The trouble in probably one-half the cases is simply that they are ignorant of the rules of good breed- ing, and do not know that iciness of de- meanor {s not a proof of refinement, and that the repose which marks the caste of Vere de Vere is out of plact behind a coun- ter. The others are merely tired and cross. Customers bother them, and they are going to retaliate. An important fact escapes the girls’ notice; it is their business to be polite; it is not the customers’. They are engaged and paid to make buying and selling easy; the customer {s piedged to nothing of the kind. And if they neglect their business, what can they expect of her? —s Wanted, a New Coin. From Shoe and Leather Facts. In these days of money discussion it is pertinent to call attention to a much need- ed coin. The denomination in mind is a Q-cent piece. Modern business ingenuity and enterprise have brought about a fine discrimination in the matter of selling prices and instead of being satisfied with decimal denominations, find {t to advantage to make the concession of a single penny } on a $5, $10 or $15 sale. In values that are | less than $5 it is almost as common to see 99 and 49 figures as it is those ending with 10 and 00, | Necesary as a 10-cent piece. It is very pleasant to our feelings and desirable to our purses to enter a large store and pur- chase a 20-cent collar for 19 cents, but it transforms us into pestiferous and cranky | individuals to be compelled to stand on one for the return of the penny due in change. The pennies we save in promiscuous buying would provide us with afternoon papers and postal cards, but the time lost in wait- ing for change would make an annual in- come sufficient for an African prince. ———-—-+e+. Pleasant All Round. From the Chicago Record. Vasn't it awful? The minute after they were-married she happened to discover that he wasn't a real duke.” “Huraph! Think of his predicament. The fact cropped out right at the time when he discoverd that she wasn’t @ rich reas.” ————SsS—C JUNE 9, 1894-TWENTY PAGES. supposed to be pre-eminently adapted to | fixing their profits in decimals and demi. } In fact a 9-cent ‘piece is now as | foot for twenty-seven minutes and walt | TO ADVERTISERS. ‘Advertisers are urgently re- ‘quested to hand in advertisements the day prior to publication, in ©rder that insertion may be ss- Sured. Want advertisements will be received up to noon of the day ©f publication, precedence being Given to those first received. —_—_—_—_—_—__.... FRONT VIEW OF THE EXPOSITION BUILDINGS. AT ANTWERP'S FAIR The World's Exposition in the Bel- gian City, THE GROUNDS AND THE BUILDINGS The First Impressions of an Ameri- can Visitor. A TRIO OF PLAISANCES Correspondence of The Evening Star. ANTWERP, May 22, 1804. aHE ‘ANTWERP exposition of this year, being really “universal” and act- ually very serious, despite its beer and fireworks and sweet music, ig the first which should attract the American sum- mer traveler. Europe has fallen head over ears into this exposi- thon habit. The pres- ent summer sees at good ones, not to speak of distant | Bucharest: The food products exposition at Vienna, a particularly important agricul- tural and cattle fair at Berlin, the curious “nine expositions united" of Milan, the Lyon . exposition, and this Antwerp world’s fair, which was formally opened on May 5 by Leopold iI, King of the Belgians, and will be fully opened by the month of June. ‘These fuirs ure all important to the natives from a bush ess point of view, as well as on the side of pleasure, which ts given much attention. They are important also to Americans who wish to get their share of European trade. Dia Without being charming in itself, the city | of Antwerp is a very central point for trips jot every kind, particularly for peaceful, | sleepy trips in Holland—the country of all |ccuntries for an overworked American. Antwerp, plus the joyaus Antwerp fair, is irresistible. So we quit Paris for a time, to | watch the hearty Flemings rollicking just as they rollick in the banquet scenes of thelr own Rubens, to giide down lazily among the creeks, canals and lakes of Zee- land, to the dull and lovely town of Rotter- dam, and then by Delft and The Hague to S| the Dutch coast, to Scheveningen, which | can give us points in seaside comfort. Antwerp is a sprawling town, 200,000 Strong, a town of dull cream-colored stone, relieved by some red brick, and much dark | foliage, luxuriating in a country of wet feet; |a sprawling town of broad and rambling Streets of wholesale commerce, flavorless and flat, besides a great free port; a town of drays and sailor-men, of merchants and their clerks and women folks. It has a ficshly population, lusty men and strapping women, easy-going, lacking in distinction, hearty workers, hearty eaters, hearty sleep- ers, hearty drinkers;Flemings, neither French nor Dutch, but with the thirst of each—a double thirst. The Antwerp fair reflects the sky of Ant- werp, which {s soft and damp, with massive and low-hanging clouds, which cast their shadows on the land. The Antwerp sky is damp, the Antwerp fair is damp. The Ant- werp fair is damp with bottled merchandise and kegs and barrels. This is my first im- pression of the Antwerp fair. Its spacious grounds are labyrinths of shady groves. Each alley of the labyrinth leads to a nook whoge tutelary nymph is some blonde Anversoise beside a beer pump. Of ninety monuments upon the numbered plan, some { pleasures of the table and the bottle. Not to speak of the great breweries of Munich, Wurzburg, Nuremburg, Pilsen and the rest in Germany and Austria, the British brew- ers of ale and stout, the Belgian brewers in their Infinite variety, and even one Amer- {can concern, contribute to the swelling of | the exposition’s floating population, a float- |{ng population in a double sense, according jto the loud denunciations of the Brussels | press. They say the architects neglected certain chalets. At the railway station you are met by English omnibuses, fresh from London, painted screaming red, and plastered. with advertisements in the true London styla. | They whirl you through two modern ave- nues of mingled retail trade and residences | into a modern avenue of residences pure and | simple—a very handsome avenue and beau- | tifully shaded, where you see at eventide | young couples promenading, just “as in America. It is agreeable and’ refreshing to | observe the liberty which Dutch and Flem- ish girls enjoy. This is my second impres- sion of the Antwerp fair. In the main building, as in the machinery hall, Belgium has properly the largest space, though not a half in either case. France | comes next, with Germany and England for close seconds. Russia, Austria and Italy also come strongly to the front. The other countries, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Hol- land, Turkey, Roumania, Bulgaria, Switz \erland, Norway and Sweden, Persia, China and Japan, are in sufficient force to give the fair a bona fide universal flavor. But the crown and ciou, as may be seen on the official map, is the great building of the American propaganda, where our own land, alone, apart, in its own halls, with what is no uncertain glory. The United States at Antwerp occupy a paradoxical position. (1) Ours is the only government which has officially accepted the invitation of Belgium to take in th ly Bov- exposition. And (2) it is th ernment which has not spent @ cent for forty-three are frankly given over to the| Nam — —— » ee in the parable of e two sons, the European governments have said “I will not,” yet have done their work. Our vernment has said “I will” ~and made default. Perhaps it is as well. Instead of the vague flutterings of poli- ticlans’ cousins, we have the trained work of business men, full of experience from Chicago, backed up by a syndicate with Thomas Bryan of Chicago at its head, and James P. Holland, an old newspaper man of the same city, as its active secretary on the grounds. This private enterprise, work- ing hand in hand with the American ex- hibitors in machinery hall, has made the American end of the Antwerp expositior more artintic, more systematic, more wise ly selected and fine> in every way than the American department at the Paris expo- sition of 188), when the United States gov- ernment spent some $200,000, For the first time the United States are represented in their own building, larger and prettier than the Congo Free State building, which is the special enterprise of Leopold II, to exploit a land of which he is half owner, larger than the art building or the salle des fetes, Im the Fine Arts Building. and competing in its size and beauty with the greatest monuments. This is my third im, ion of the Antwerp fair. e grounds are than those of the Paris exposition of . The buildings for the sericus exhibits are imposing, and take up almost a half of the full space. There are three “plaisances,”” one very oriental, one of “old Antwerp,” and the American plaisance with Pawnee Bill's wild west and Capt. Boyton’s great aquatic razzle-dazzle. These plaisances take up andther quarter of the ground plan the rest is shady walk, with full-grown trees and grassy hillocks, caves and caverns and fine spread- ing lawns. “Old Antwerp” is the great artistic and archaeological triumph of the Antwerp people, and it deserves, as it receives, a crowded patronage. Fancy seven streets of actual houses, backs and fronts, court yerds and ail, with practical interiors, 8 Anto each other like a rounding a Grande Place— anfnute qd ‘accurate rebuilding of the Antwerp Grande Place of the sixteenth pert looked on it. Every house is occupied by artisans and shopfolks in old costumes and good wives baking biscuits, scrubbing floors and wiping babies’ noses, babies in Slashed sky blue velvet breeches. There is an anachronism in one of the mediaeval court yards where you sit at beer, in the shape of an Italian family with a harp, three mandolins, two fageolets, one tambourine, one accordeon and one small pretty child,who is continually eating buns. These sweet buns, which we call in Amer- fea Dutch eke and cinnamon cake, are a | €reat feature of the fair. Sit here in the rain beneath a sixteenth century porch and drink your Schiedam schnapps, or “Gents dubbie beer” and smoke the long Dutch pipes they rent to visitors. Or, waiting in the hot sun on the pavement just before the “Aenghenaemen hof” to here Old Ant- werp’s orchestra discoursing polyphonic music, drink “RiddJer’s wit beer,”"which the Profane English call ‘ipes.” It will not riddle your wits, but it will swell and sour Within the copper-riveted stomach. One cannot become a Belgian in a single day, even to please girl waiters in blue skirts, white cotton stock! with green garters, yellow and red bodices and white and yel- low caps. The Old Antwerp or€hestra is something very special. The is are as musical as birds. The best folks of their towns form orchestras and choruses to solace them while drinking their sour beer. This orchestra, under the high patronage of the Burggraaf de Nieulant, has resurrected much of the concerted music of the six- teenth century in Antwerp, which it plays upon appropriate instruments with the dition of a chorus, in the ancient style of all orchestra: pieces. oh-oh, oh, 0-0-0-0-0-h, oh! It is a worthy kind of music, but it lacks the modern “go.” The dances are as solemn A Hearty Flem: jas the dirges, and an“Oud-Lied”of the time of Christopher Columbus is really stolen from Evangelist Sankey’s “Jesus of Nazar- jeth Passeth By,” and Mr. Sankey cannot 400 years. In the great main building Belgium has again the center and the place of honor. The most striking exhibits naturally pe: | tain to those industries in which the Be gians excel: Brass and iron art work, wood carving, diamonds (Antwerp is a’ great diamond-cutting center), coal (great quan- tities of “briquettes” are exported, even to the United States), tron and all kinds of tools, railway locomotives, rails and ¢ar- riages (Belgium supplies almost enrirtly the Spanish railway*lines), plate gias? and cut glass, lace, cloth, oilcloth, church orn: ments, tapestry, fine furniture, expensive wooden and meerschaum pipes and amber, chemical products, gins and alcohols and a section of brewery products and materials which shows 500 brands of bottled beer alone. Both Belgium and France are strong in school exhibits, large sections being given to industrial schools. There is the Ostend school of fishery, the Ghent school of brewing and several schools of com- merce, while in Antwerp there is the only actual university of commerce in the world. Then there are schools of housekeeping and wome! work, schools for the deaf and dumb and blind, and reform schools. Par- ticular attention is given to the exhibits of the Swiss and Belgian girls’ schools, where the making of ladies’ fine lingerie is taught, and to the boys’ schools of orna- mental iron work, always in demand, fur- nishing a healthy, paying and artistic trade for any boy. A notable display is made by Belgium from her commercial museum in Brussels, pertaining to the ministry of foreign af- fairs. It is a very business-like collection of the most varied articles of commerce, from felt hats down to shoes, from per- fumes to pipes. It is the business of each Belgian consul to collect full samples of ch articles of trade as other nations find @ profit hich in exporting to the foreign city to wi be is accredited. He affixes the rosecute the old composer, who is dead| Frice which native merchants pay, and also the retail price. Thus a Belgian consul in Mexico forwards to Brussels samples of English sheetings, shoes, cutlery, and so on, with the prices, so that the Belgian manu- facturer, desiring to inform himself what chance he has for competition, may ex~ amine the very articles aud make his esti- The Fair Lacks No Attraction. kept up to date by consuls and missions for the commercial cacenan em an allowance of $100 a month and tra’ expenses, given by the general government. England, France, Germany and Holland Push very sharply for the Antwerp trade, ‘*hich is a key to the continent of Europe and a distributing point for the whole world. All their exhibits here are sent by firms already doing much extensive busi- ess through the port. So it is a work of lively competition, not a simple scramble for the medals. And well chosen, knick-knacks. Thus the mense hal! of electricity, a fine arts exhibi- tion, which includes the Antwerp museum (ene of the finest picture galleries in Eu- rope), and the Congo Free State building, with its Diorama, and a genuine village of thatched huts by a lake where negroes pad- cle when the weather favors. These seri- ous exhibits a!so include the great aquarium ‘nd various horticultural and flower shows. Outside the great main building, to the left, there is a military exposition and a military park; and then the oriental quar- ters, with the danse due ventre ad nauseam. Each time one sees the true dance done by } genuine Egptians, Syrians and the rest in- | Jurious comparisons arise in favor of the | imitation danse due ventre of Paris, of the Moulin Rouge and the Casino, where pert girls from Montmartre, untraveled from their Paris, excel these mongrels of the east at their own exercise—excel in grace, im beauty, wit and cochonnerie, which ts the one and only epithet for what Kate Field mistook for calisthenics. The people linger round the plaisances. . There is a Vienna prater, a Moselle wine es- ‘ablishment, with grounds, a Hungarian Avenue du Sud, Antwerp. csardar, with a terrace and the most ase toundingiy luxuriant maidens from the low- er Danube, in full costume—full in every sense. There is an English dairy and a Belgian dai a Csardas Viennoise, ish wine bodega, and a terrace, where they sell you champagne by the glass, and give you music. The grounds excel those of Chicago, bot® in being smaller and in greenery and shade. The placid, easy-going Antwerp population, added to by Brussels smartness and a train of tourists from all countries, are not shocked at anything they see along the plaisances, except, perhaps. the Paris “‘cha- hut.” which was given until recently (and geographically out of place) inside the Wiener prater. Mtg ged small use for this abandoned dance, Tor at Vienna they know how to waltz. But it was in the Antwerp Wiener prater, and its proprietor, expecting trouble, gave a dancing girl her walking papers for the reason that her dance lacked the Vienna modes She sued the man in Brussels, where the judge said that he :eally could not make such fine distinctions in a show ard at a fair, where everything should be good-natured, tolerant and tmiernational. He gave the damsel judgment for her forfeit money, told her to go and sin again. This is my last impres- sion of the Antwerp fair. STERLING HEILIG, ee GOOD-BYE,”- BOOZE- | The Scientists Claim to Have Another Sober Cure for Snake Bites. From the Sctentifle American. George B. Pense, superintendent of a Nic. aragua gold mine, has sent the following | letter to the Scientific American: Last fall, in company with Mr. H. Carlos of Cape Gracias, Nicaragua, I was coming down the River Pis-pis, in the Sumo coun- try, from the Constancia gold mine. Stop- ping one evening at a Sumo Indian village we found that the chief had been bitten on the foot by a tomagas, the most venomous Shake in this country. The man was in the most pitiable condition. Then, watery blood was issuing from his mouth, nose, ears and | even from the tattoo marks on his arms and breast. His urine was also discolored by blood. The people were all clamorous fer us tc | give him some "Merican seekia (American | medicine), knowing that we alw a medicine chest with us. It happened tl we had been discussing that same day various remedies for snake bites, and Carlos had said that he heard that to | terize the wound with carbolic acid and | the same internally was a sure cure. explaining to them that :t had been so i |since he had been bitten it might n | possible to cyre him. we decided to try | above cure. The question was how much |give him. We decided upon three drops 4! | solved in glycerine, in half a wine glass « ‘ water. We gave him two doses at an inte? val of half hour that evening. Two hour: after the second dose we gave him emetic that greatly relieved him and soon went to sleep. ‘The next morning we gave him another dose of tife actd and left him. |""T was on my way to the world’s fair and | nave just returned. Mr. Carlos has rot back | trom another trip to the mine, and tells that jour patient is fully recovered and that he | had ‘successfully treated another one the same way. After ty