Evening Star Newspaper, September 8, 1894, Page 16

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1894-EIGHTEEN PAGES, WHIPPING THE SHINS. tain amount of money at a certain place the tablets would be returned to him. He followed the directions in the note, but in- stead of carrying a load of copper cash, he filled his bags with stones and had men in ambush to watch the thieves when - they came to get the money. As the robbers came forth these men sprang from their hiding places and attempted to catch them. They did not su either recognizing them or capturing them, but one of the thieves dropped his pipe as he ran. This pipe was shown about to the people, until finally one man said that it looked like that of a prominent noble. The magistrate at once arrested the suspected man and charg- ed him with the robbery. He that he had had nothing to do with it. He was put to torture. His hands were tied behind. him, and he was hung up by his elbows, while his feet were whipped. He refused to confess. The magistrate became angry, and he had the man’s whole family brought out and stoned. The man still refused to confess, and he actually buried the man and his family alive. This was such a hor- rible outrage that the people complained of the matter to the government. The mag- istrate, however, had a friend at court, and through the influence of the prime minister nothing was done to him. Torture and the Stocks. The torturing of prisoners to make them confess is common in Corea, and it is won- CRIME IN COREA The Horrible Punishment of Traitors and Rebels, THE PRISONS AND EXECUTION GROUNDS The Torture of Witnesses and Other Horrible Practices. Se SOME INHUMAN. DEVICES (Copyrighted, 1394. by-rank G. Carpenter.) N IS NO- so terribly re- warded as in Corea. blocd runs cold “When I think of the punishment which will be meted out to those who have re- belled against the king, should the Chinese become vic- torious and his ma- Jesty’s corrupt o<fi- cials be allowed to carry out the laws Which now exist. I have told you how the bedy of the dead rebel, Kim Ok Kiun, was brovght to Corea, hew it was cut into six Pieces, and how the bloody head, the hands, the feet and the trunk were carried over the country and hung above the gates of the cities as a warning to rebels. Not only this man himself was killed, but his whole family and all of his relatives have been terribly punished. His fatker did all hz could to prevent his boy from rising against the king ten years ago, and after his rebel- lion he went into retirement. He was old and blind, but after Kim’s death he was dregecd out and his head was cut off. The men of the family even of the third and fourth generation were executed, and the Women, Rcluding Kim's seventeen-year-old A Corean Jallor. @aughter, were given cver to be the slaves or concubines of the officials. After this re- dellion, the mothers, the wives and the daughters of all who have taken up arms against the king will become the common Property of the government and of the Magistrates of the provinces in which they live. They will be dragged from their ies to be concubines and slaves. As their beauty wanes, they will be handed one high official to a lower until they descend to the botton dregs of the govern- ment service. They will have no rights that anybody will be bound to t, and their only chance of happiness will be in death. At the Execution Grounds. I went out, one morning during my stay in Seoul, with a Corean noble to the execu- tion grounds. They are situated just out- side of the west gate of the city, at a point where the main roads crossing Corea from the nerth to the south meet, and at a spot which is considered the most public place in the whole hermit kingdom. There is quite a city surrounding it, though it is out- side of the walls of the capital, and a big business is done by the shopkeepers with the travelers who cross it on their way through the country. This west gate is the lowest and least honorable of any of the en- trances to the Corean capital. It is through this that all coffins are carried out of the city fer burial, and it is by this way that criminals must go on their way to execu- tion. The Corean who went with me was Well versed in the laws of the country, and he showed me just how traitors are execut- ed. They are brought from the prisons in rude carts drawn by bullocks, and their last days are tilled with the refinements of tor- ture. The carts have no springs, and the street through which they are carried is so full of stones that it cempares with the cor- duroy roads of the Black swamp of Ohio. ‘The crimiral ts not allowed to stand or sit in the cart. He is tied to a cross which is built up just over the wheels and nailed to the cet. This cross is so high that when his arms are stretched out and tied his toes still six inches from the bed of the cart. A bleck is then put beneath them, and this block is so short that the tips of his toes barely touch it. The road grows rougher as Tortured to Confess. west gate, and from thence to ton ground it is filled with ruts ks. At the west gate the block er the toes of the his arms and his n whipped by the es up and down the execution ne bullock is i rt b os un to . He is stripped of his clothes upon his back in the dust of the | Zr The executioner is always a mur- Gerer, and his weapon is a sword, which is go blunt that it mashes rather than cuts the head from the shoulders. There is one ich has been used for years for it is said, indeed, to be five years old, and it has hashed up thousands of necks. The worst of the rebels are cut into six parts, as was Kim Ok Kiun. Men of less prominence and of fess serious offenses are simply decapitated. derful what inventions of torture are some- times in use. Think of tying a man’s bare feet to a stake in the ground and burning his toes with powder. Think of all sorts of flogging and pinching and cutting, and-yow can get some idea. of the powers of a Corean magistrate. In the prisons: yow will find iron chains, stocks, and all sorts of manacles. These Coreans know how to whip so that the flesh is raveled off of the bones, and I have a photograph of a man tied in a chair, with his knees bare, and a jailer whipping his bare -shins.° In one of the prisons which I visited I saw three men fastened in stocks. The stocks con+ sisted of a log of wood about fifteen feet lorg and at teast a foot in: diameter,’ This had been split in two, and holes Fs bored through it gist large enough ‘te hold the bare ankle of a man. The three crim- inals each had one: foot fastened inthis log, and thé jailers, when I appeared with my soldiers and “photographer, tried to move them out into the sun so that I might get a good photograph ‘of ‘them. As they pulled them along I heard one ,of, them utter a cry of pain, and I saw that the features of all were contorted with agony. It made me sick, and I desisted. I told the jailers to let the men be, and that I would not take their pictures. I took a photo- graph, however, of one of the prisoners, who wearing the Corean cangue. This is different from the articles used in China, and I have never heard it described, nor read of it anywhere. You will find no de-, scription of it in the books of travel. I do not suppose that many know of its exist- But the bodies of all must lie out in the sun for three days before they can be carried away. How Thieves Are T ted. Ali sorts of crimes are terribly punished in Corea. The truth about such matters is kept, as far as possible, from the foreign- ers, and you will find little information about prisons and punishments in any of the books on Corea. There is, in fact, but little published on the country, and the in- formation which I give you was only ac- cessible to me on account of the letters of introduction which I carried and the risks which I took in going right in among the people and persisting in my questions and investigations, notwithstanding the objec- tions of the officials. I am, I believe, the first American who has ever visited the Corean prisons. They.are as bad almost as the hells into which I looked in some.of the interior cities of China. I can’t reconcile the cruelties I saw with the many noble qualities which I find among the. Coreans. They are in some ways the most polite and most refined people. They are lovers of poetry and flowers. They are particular as to etiquette, and-their souls in most ways are as refined as ours. Still, these punish- ments are such that they would be a dis- grace to the most ignorant and savage na- tions of the African wilds. Corea is practically a feudal nation today, and it is in fact in the same state that China was about four hundred years back. Corean thieves are decapitated for ence. The Chinese cangue consists of a rl square framework or board, in the center i of which a man's head is fixed, and which «| rests upon his shoulders, jutting about two feet out from his neck on every side. The Corean cangue is a plank, often longer than the man himself, with a hole in one end of it, in which the neck can be locked. If the man wishes to move about he must hold up. this plank with his hands, and when he’ sits down its heavy weight rests upon his neck. I found it in the jails of many of the magistrates which I visited in the coun- try districts, and it is by no means a mild instrument of torture. ‘ Horrors of Paddling and Spanking. Paddling and flogging are the most com- mon punishment. This preyails. every- where, and the official is very low inteed | who cannot order the common man’ down to be paddled. Every magistrate hag his pro- fessional paddlers, and matiy officials, when they go about, have officers who..go .with them,carrying these instruments of torture. afternoon I saw a number of these kesos, as they are called, with their paddles beside, them. Their masters had probably gone in to see the king, and they’were waiting out- side. These paddles are about six feet Jong five inches wide, and perhaps an inch thi: in the center, tapering down to a thickness their crimes. They.are only; cut into two pieces, however, and the law provides that their bodies need not lie on the execution grounds longer than two days before their relatives can take them away and bury them. The thief, when he Is first taken, is flogged by the officers. He-is' then asked as to his crime, and after this is taken to the house of ‘the judge. The judge de- mands what he has done with the property, and if the thief replies that it has been sold and gives the name of the party who has it, it is confiscated. He is then taken to jail and kept there for 100 days. At the end of this tims the police give him the option of life or death. If he accepts life he becomes a servant of the jail for the rest of his existence; if death, he is stran- gl end. They have small handles, and they | are made of a white, hard wood, which is j very flexible and elastic. These paddling kesos have a regular guild of ‘thei? )Jwhy,'} and the business often descends from father They are wonderfully expert in the to gon. Queer Methods of Strangling. This strangling 1s done in a curious way. There is a hole in the door of the cell just large enough for a piece of rope about the size of a clothes line to pass through. A noose is made at the end of the rope, and this noose is placed around the criminal’s neck. The other end of the rope is put through the hole in the door or the wall, and the police pull at the rope until they bring the man's chest and neck above and below the hole and until the neck breaks and the man is dead. The question as to whether a thief be strangled or decapitated depends upon the nature of the offense, Strangling is much the more respectable way of dying. Sometimes this is brought about by hanging. The thief’s* neck and hands are tied to a post, so that his fect are some distance above the ground. About his ankles a stout rope is then fast- ened, and to the end of this a stone, several times as heavy as his body, is hung. Of course, the man die: Killed by a Sheet of Paper. Another method of execution is by suffo- eation, and this, strange to say, is done with paper. The man is laid flat upon his back, and a sheet of Corean paper is spread over his facé. This has been soaked in water, and fits over the man’s face, be- ing pre down so that it makes a ver- itable death mask, shutting out every bit of air, and the man dies. Any one who has The Cangue. . use of the paddle, and the officers carry from two to a hundred of them with them, according to their rank. I had one or two with me during a large part of my_tours, but I, of course, did not use them. I can't describe the horrors of this paddling. Many foreigners have witnessed it, but few have been able to get a photograph of it. I have taken two; one was of one of the chair bearers, whom I had my keso tle to the rack to show me just how the paddling was done. He wi of course, not struck, but he was very angry at being placed in what he called a compromising position, and we had quite a row about the matter after we returned home. How the Paddling ts Done. ‘The other picture represents the paddling actually going on. The man is tied to a board, which lies on the ground on two small blocks of weed. His body is bared from the waist to his ankles, and he lies upon his belly on the plank. There is a rope around his waist which is fastened through a hole in the board, and there are also ropes about his feet, which bind him so tightly that he cannot move. The keso stands be- hind him with his paddle, and the officers look on to see that he is properly whipped. Often a half dozen men are paddled at the same time In this way. If there are no planks handy, they are laid flat on the ground on their faces, and their feet are s-metimes fastened in this position in wood- en stocks, so that they cannot move. They are laid out in rows, and each man has his paddler beside him. Each paddler’s arms are bare to the shoulder, and they work in unison. They have their paddles raised hack over their heads as far as their arms can reach, when they are ready for action, and they bring them down at the cry of the under officials, who, with swords at’ their sides, stand at the head of the line of half- raked men and yell out a sort of a chant, which sounds semething like this: La; hco-aa-hcoo-oo. ‘The paddles are raised at the first la, and as the final 00-00 is uttered. they are brought down with a crack like a istol on the bare skin of. the men, and the ecutioners grunt with the exertion, They have a way of pressing the paddle dwn on My Coolie on the Rack. seen the paper of Corea will appreciate how easily this form of execution could be carried out. It is made by hand. It is as thick as a sheet of blotting paper and al- mest as strong as leather. When moisture is applied to it it becomes exceedingly soft, but does not Jose its strength, and it would In passing the front gate of the palace, one.) other ipvallage of St, Any FEATHERED PETS The Oanary ig-a Prime Favorite PERILS WHICH THREATEN THEIR LIVES The Parrot ahd’ His Droll Tricks and Manners. THE MOCKING BIRD Written for The Evening Star. BIRD IN THE hand is worth twoin the bush,” the time- worn old proverb has it, and to some folks: a bird in a cage is worth the entire winged kingdom out- doors. There are many times when & man would rather go out and talk to his horse than listento the conversation of > his next door neigh= bor, and plenty of women lavish more-time and affection, it is said, on their poodies than they do on their husbands and children. } One advantage about an animal is that It ean't talk back. Furthermore a person's animal friends never bother him in th~| pleasant and embarrassing ways. They never touch him for the use of a V, advise him how to shake off his cold nor harrow him with a description and detailed treatise on the beauties and accomplishments of their latest infant. A writer for The Star had a talk with a bird dealer the other day and picked up some entertaining facts about cage birds and other pets of the housphold. Few per- ‘sons, it seems, really understand much | about the birds which they care for. Ignor- ance and neglect is the cause of many deaths among cage birds, which might otherwise have been avoided. As the lion is the king of beasts, so the canary is the King of tamed birds. Its sweet singing wins its way to the hearts of thousands a&nd it can be found anywhere and every~ where. The canary has been a pet ever since the commencement of the sixteenth century, steadily increasing in. populazity from the first. There is no bird which has proved easier to domesticate and ratse. The Canary Islands, as all know, were the original home of the canary, and they ,are now found to some extent in a wild state on the islands off the west coast of Africa, but are rarely broaght to civilized coun‘ tries on account of their inferiority. in every way to the domesticated bird. It is a commor belief with ‘some that the wild birds are imported t@this country and else- where, but this is‘nof!the case. The canary of today is a dombsde bird, bred in locai- ties where the peupié make their living by “the business. Eaew Wariety has in that way a natioralityyand the birds of one are easily dictingwtshable from those of an- kh on . Where Camirtés Are Reared., _ 5 “Most of the cat#id#s of the world come ficm Germany, ‘atid’ the most of these from the Hartz ;moyntains, All through that section the inhabitants earn ‘their of perhaps three-eighths of an’ inch’ atthe} bread in raising gapagies, and the indystey, is carzied on by y@rsons who have made it a life-long study, en whose fathers Were ghgaged in it before them. The raising of canaries 1s no ea¥% ‘task, and in order io produce sweet sinderty great pains must-de taken with each qdiyiqual bird, The little waberg., perched ajmast at the summit of He Hartz “mountait Sends out the most wonderful singers 'é any place in the world; and is known by all bird lovers, ‘The village itself has long béen @ resort fo: persons with lung and throat troubles, and its air has done marvels with the voice of the canary. The St. Andreas- berg canary has nothing in the way of Ppeurance to recommend itself. It is small: and poor-looking, but when once it opens its throat the conquest is made. The pure,. liquid and widely ranging gotes of these Dirds when rightly trained make theny sought for everywhere, and they command large sums of money in many cases. The »prevenue of the village is derived from the breeding aad training of these famous sing» ers, and their training has been brought down to a very fine point. ae Eack bird, when young, is put with some other bird with a perfectly developed voice. Simple tunes are commonly played to it on the piano or flute, and great care is taken that it hears no harsh or discordant sounds. The birds are fed on rape see] and most attentively watched. Only about 10 per cent of them ever become perfect singers, however. Although the German canaries have no rivals as singers, the English or Norwich canaries are valued by some peo- ple on account of their good size and beau- tful plumage, although they are very in- different songsters. “The question is sometimes asked,” sald the bird dealer, “as to whether a canary can be made to sing at night by gaslight. This can be accomplished in many cases by simply covering the cage of the bird during the day and letting it remain in darkness until night. It can be trained in this way to sing by gaslight. In the same way, if the singing of a bird should for any reason be annoying during the day, it can easily be stopped by darkening the cage with a ccver. Care of the Birds. A canary bicd will usually live to be about ten years oll They have been known to live as old as twenty, but this is rare. More canaries are lost every year, acco>diag to the bird man, from being hung up in draughts than from any other cause Care should always be taken iu regard to this, as a canary easily catenes cold and dies. Many birds, too, are lost during the moultiag sea- son, often from ignorance as to thei> care cr proper feeding. Good bird seed for ca- naries should consist of German rape mixed with Sicily carary seed. In the c there is a great quantity of millet worthless, and is never touched by the birds. In moulting time a canary should be supplied with the right so>: of fod, and, in addition, with some special tonic prepared for that purpose. A’ canary should not be given any meat, but shouid have frequentiy such things as lettuce, ceic pple, boiled egg, crackers, and the like. Candy and oth- er dainties are apt to be injurious. Cuttle the quivering flesh, and of pulling jt off with a rub before they raise it. Sandpaper the Skin rom the Flesh, The first strike usually makes a blister, and at the close of the-second! the” paddle is wet with water or blood. As these exe- cutioners drag it off, they rub ft ints’ the’ sand, pressing it there until the, kegos | again cry La-hoo-aa-hoo-od. ‘Then the pad- dies are raised again, and, as they are brought down this time, they are covered with sand. They pound (the particles into make an excellent molding material. ‘The Torture of Unfaithful Policemen. I was told of a curious custom as to po- licemea who make false arrests. They are terribly punished, and if something similar was adopted as to our American sheriffs there would be fewer mistakes made. The Corean policeman wino arrests a man as a thief waen he knows him to be innocent is liable to be caught by the man’s family, and his eyes may be burned out by them ‘with red-hot pokers, or iroa chop-sticks which have been heated in the coals. His eyes have not seen truly in arresting the wrong man, and it is thought to be just that they be put out. Another way of performing this pun- ishment ts by laying the policeman on the ground with his face upward. A tube of bamboo, just about one inch in thickness and as long as a lead pencil, is fitted over the eye, and the other end of it is pounded with a mallet until the eyes are squeezed up into the bamboo tubes, Such cases are not common, but a policeman who intentionally arrests an innocent man is liable to this treatment. A Family Buried Alive. Among the most terrible of Corean crimes are those against your parents or ancestors. There is a prison in Seoul that is devoted entirely to prisoners who commit crimes against their parents. If a rich son refuses to support his father he can be sent to jail, and the boy who strikes his father can be whipped to death. The parricide is burned to death, and it is in Corea much the same as in China, where the killing of one’s pa- rents subjects the child to be sliced into thirty-odd pieces or carved up by inches. I heard of a curious case which happened this spring in Corea, which shows the power of the officials and the terrible vengeance which they sometimes visit upon those whbm they hate. A certain magistrate had his ancestral tablets stolen, an offense somewhat similar to the stealing of a man’s they take away the skin as though it were sandpapered. I can give you no concep- tion of the punishment, and when you re- member that any official has. the right to paddle any maa below him, and almost any one of prominence can paddle those of lower rank, you can get some fdea of thé condi- tien ‘cf affairs in this country. I believe the people must be naturally kind, or lite here would be a hell to the masses. As It is, sometimes men are killed by paddling. Fifty blows would surely do it, and the or- dinary dose is about twelve strokes. Much paddling will reduce the flesh to a jelly, and even after slight punishment men have to be lifted up and carried away. They can- not rise of themselves. This paddling goes on in the army, and a general or a colonel can paddle a private, and the privates pad- dle the citizers, and so it goes. There is such a thing as bribing the paddlers, so that they pretend to kill the man, but mod- erate the stroke as it comes down and only punish him slightly. In fact, bribery is possible from the top to the bottom of Corean official life, and there will have to be an entire reorganization of the whole system of government here before the peo- ple ean have prosperity or peace. The king, it must be remembered, knows but lit- tle of the horrors which go on under his government. He has been doing the best he could for his people, and the rebellion has been against the officials and not fish should always be kept In a cage and there should be plenty of sand in the, bot. tom, otherwise a Wfrd cannot digest its Many canaries A&E fail to sing at all, o> ‘sing some harsh unpieasant notes and {thin silk, and the pockets are simply ro! and a profitable business is carried on in their shipment. Next to Cuba Mexico sup- plies us with the largest number of par- rots, most of them being the kind known as Mexican double yellow heads, and they are desirable birds. From Africa come the African grays, but these are seldom seen on account of the great difficulty in rais- them. The shippers think they are doing well if they can save half of them in the voyage across the ocean. Parrots are fed on sunflower seeds, hemp and unhulled rice.. They .eat a great variety of foods. Toasted bread, ant eggs and meal worms made-up into a preparation go very well. The Moching Bird. **What bird ‘next to the canary is kept most commonly as a pet?” The Star writer asked. “I should say the mocking bird came next, in this section of the country, at least,” said the bird man. “The mocking bird is found ail through the south in a wild state. In Texas especially the birds are found to a great extent and the col- ored people make quite a business of catch- ing and selling them to the dealers, who ship them. everywhere.” The bird man also said that he did a good business in selling pigeons. The dif- ferent varieties are always in demand for pets and can be obtained very cheaply. eons are easily raised and are particu- larly ‘the pets of boys and young folks, who find much pleasure as well as instruction in ee houses, feeding and caring for them, +._~.__. ATTRACTIVE BOOK COVERS. ‘Two New Designs Seen on a Summer Z Piazza. From the New York Times, Summer literature is apt to find itself be- tween flimsy or tasteless covers, and the woman who is willing to take a little pains to.do-‘away with an ugly thing slips on as quickly as may be an adjustable cover that glorifies at least the exterior of the volume. 43t is a pity,4t. may be added, that some transforming touch is not available for the interior as well occasionally. Some yearg.ago these slip covers came into vogue, and were made for the most part for magazines, but, as a clever woman Says. “‘Al, or.nearly all, novels are of the Same size, and if you make one or two gvod covers a bit larger all around, you can read in peace and elegance the summo-r through.” One of the very handsomest designs which the season has shown is of heavy white duck, and the werk of making it is sligh: in the extreme. Following the craze for white and silver, it is braided in an all- over pattern with silver braid. Tre girl who n.ade St is astute, and declares that sort of thing is for effect and temporary use, not for any permarent value, so she did all the work on the lune, and ob- tained a reaHy orilliant cove: with very iit- tle work. Being apt with the pencil, she drew the pattern herself on the under side, and then ran fine silver braid through the attachment of the machine. The ertire process cccupiel but a very few minutes’ time, yet the eover is a strikingly elegant one, and harmonizes to perfection with its owner's duck'suits. It is tlexibie, as all the best covers are, and has no inner lining. its pockets are folded under just half-way of the cover, and are laced to it with silver cord. The Mining of the whole is white India silk. As-its owner freely admits, the machine work is not high art, but it is effective, and it serves its purpose exceed- irgly well. A-second cover that has been seer upon the same piazza and 2s a rival to the duck, ‘is-of chd-pinkelines 1 shows one of the latest notions in embroidery. At each of | the feur-cornvrs and in the center is a semi-conventional figure out! f couching’ of gold and darned shade darker thaa the im ined with a h silk of a In the darning the novelty Mes, for .t is new to see the -attern itself so treated in place of the ued. is ; The lining of the cover landed fnto place. _ Nearly every woman wao appears with a book at ihe summer hotel has a cover of }fom@ sort, but.those two have the merit of eculior and new. Among the group there are sume lured Suede a gold thread. SURE CLRE FOR SNORING. It» Use Stops a Divorce Suit Unites an Estranged Pair. | From the Philadeluhia Times. One of the most remarkable divoree cases ever entered in a Philadeiphia court was <n Saturday settled without final appeal to (the blind goddess, when Attorney Robert Arundel filed a motion in the common pleas court that the case of Eleanor Kane against her hdsband, Hannibal A. Kane, be discon- tinued. Mrs. Kane filed her petition for an abso- lute divorce at the June term of court, al- leging as her reasons for wishing separa- | tien and alimony that her husband sub- jected her to cruel, unusual and barbarous treatment. Hannibal, the petition stated, had the habit of snoring stentoriously at unseemly and, in fact, at all hours of the night. Mrs. Kane, being of a fragile phy- sique and nervous temperament, had suf- fered intensely therefrom. Mr. Kane, after repeated protests from his wife, had, on several occasions, promised to break himself of the habit. The only remedy, however, that he had consented to use had proved worse than the disease itself. This remed: had consisted of an effort on Mr. Kane’ part to He awake all night and smoke a strong pipe loaded with bad-smelling tobac- co. As a consequence he had on several oc- casions set fire to the bed, and the unhap- py couple barely escaped ‘with their lives. On the night of last March 12 Mr. Kane set fire to the bed. Mrs. Kane's pet dog, Gyp, was so seriously burned that he died. Mrs. Kane placed her case in the hands cf Attorney Robert Arundel, and that genial aisciple of Blackstone, who is always anx- ious to patch up these little marital differ- ences, found, just after he had filed the case, a most novel method of healing the woes of the Kane family. At some place in his travels a friend of Mr. Arundel had come across a cure for snoring. t consists,” he said to the lawyer, “of olive oil and mustard—six drops of the for- mer to a pinch of the latter—taken just before getting Into bed. The function of the off is that of a lubricant to the larynx, while the mustard acts as a counter-irri- tant. The cure, I am told, was discovered by the late Dr. O'Dowd of Kilkenny, and has proved so effectual that no native of that county ever snores.” * ‘Attorney Arundel imparted his snore cure to Mr. Kane, with the result that the cou- ple Saturday resumed the felicities of mar- ried life. That is why he withdrew his case. / S Oe nguarded Gates. Fromr the Atlantic Monthly. nd ahitee cine, eat t is due to the fact that | Wide open and unguarded stand oar gates, pe ng ei son As they shoul ware Samad of the four winds, North, South, East and been when they #tre‘youns, but were al- | portals that lead to an enchanted land Yowed to learn fred #Hapertect singer® KEPUT hr tiles torete, Heite oe neta with them, or | wide at all ‘There are some ‘dis to whom tte ‘ca’ nary, with Its | ‘singing, naturally ap- the flesh, and as the men drag them off | peals, but, again, thers aze others for Whom’| it has few charms, and who would vastly prefer the company pf a parrot with {ts wers of converstt and its queer ways. The singing of #caffary bird 1s pleasa and sometimes reafiytartistic, and it holds ‘ts ground by the power of its voice. Popularity: e& the Parrot. Next to the carthryP however, comes the parrot in point of Popularity. The parrot is especially the pet fither of childrea. or of elderly people. The:+haman clement about a parrot is undoubtedly what has paved its way to the heart of most people. It has no rival in this respect, unless it be the mon- key, and its powers of conversation pildce it above the monkey, As a talker, it stands practically alone. In addition to its powers of conversation, the parrot is a delightful companion in many other ways. Its droll appearance, 4ts keen understanding, its lov of fun and habit of playing tricks, apparent ly, with malice aforethought, make it al- ways amusing, and sometimes equally an- noying. Taken all in all, the parrot is a queer kind of a bird. The parrot is a trepi- cal bird, the most of those that come to this country being imported from Cuba, Mexico and Africa. Parrots, in their native haunts, go in flocks and attain their full beauty of plumage at the age of about three years. There are said to be about 350 varieties of parrots, some of therA differing widely from against him. grandfather's gravestone in America, but really terrible thing in this superstitious land of Corea. Shortly after the theft was committed he received a notice that if he would go at a certain time and leave a cer- the others, and some of them most closely alike. t te great butk of parrots which come to this country are brought from Cuba. They are green in plumage, small and good talk- ers, They are captured in the wild state, Vast prairies, lordly sunuxits touched with snow, APSC rivers Sweeping pron past The Arab’s date palm and its bound, s him free! cons dreamed, in thelr eyes, * smiling to the fagot and the sword. guarded stand our gates, motley’ throng— xt and the Tartar steppes, ss figures of the Hoang-Ho, n, Kelt and Slay, poverty and seorn? se bringing With them unknown gods and rites, ‘These tiger passions hy stretch thelr claws, In street aud what strange tongues are alien to our air, ‘ower of Babel knew! white goddess! is it well gates unguarded? On thy breast the hurts of fate, with the hand of steel portals come Have a care ered stars be torn For so of old t row's chil Sta hy To waste the gifts of © Lest from thy brow th tran pled in the du And where the temples of the Caesars st The lean wolf unmolested made,her lair. coal —__——_= A Chinese Passport. From the New York Herald. The lines of no two human hands are ex- actly alike. The fact is utilized in China in an interesting way. When a traveler de- sires a passport the palm of his hand is cov- ered with fine oil t, and an impression is taken on thin, paper. This paper, officially signed, is Passport GIANTS AND PIGMIES They Are Considered Abnozmal Specimens of the Human Race. DISCOVERIES OF HUGE SKELETONS The Recent Find Reported to the British Association. VIEWS OF SCIENTISTS —— Written for The Evening Star, HE REPORTS from the meeting of wae the British Associa- tion in Oxford, which’ State that the recent discovery of huge hu- man skeletons in Mo- ravia seems to settle the dispute as to whether there were races of glants co-ex- istent with the mam- moths of the neolithic age, are given no sig- nificance by the gov- ernment scientist. Around the Smithsonian, the bureau of ethnology and the Medical Museum, there is a prevalent atmosphere of disbelief in anything so startling, and, @s the great thinkers of these departments of the government say, so utterly contrary to all laws which have been deducted from the mos; careful research. The question promises a great field for study in the fu- years, when continued to grow, some- ture, just as it has in the past. times until they were far up in the twen- The finding of the remains of giants in the | ties. old world, they say, proves no more than| But as far as giant races are concerned, the existence of freaks of large stature in | there are none in history. The Patagonians this country at the present day. All of our dime museum giants and dwarfs must die just as others have done before. In many centuries to come, when our descendants are rummaging around graveyards in search of relics of human bodies, they will come across the frames of some of these wonders. Perhaps they may find them alone, since lazger bones will last longer than smaller ones. Great tales will go abroad in our glorious land of the bright future to the effect that the American bone and sinew sprang from a race of giants or pigmies, just as do some attribute meanings to the discovery of a few abnormal skele- tons at the present day. The fact that these discoveries were made in the old world, however, does not deduct from the sensa- tional capacity of the United States for such stories. It was reported to one of our institutions some weeks ago that graves opened in one of the Dakotas disclosed the gigantic frames of a dozen skeletons meas- ton of the University of Pennsylvania, and the a to 5 be all cient exercise, and third, improper condi- tions of heredity. In the interior of Africa the lowest types of humanity, and who have even been called “the missing in the Darwinian chain. These lack proper uring from ter to twelve feet in length. | selection of food and exercise, while they, But this is all considered to be humbug and | violate Migher Ja of production, quackery by the dignitaries of Uncle Sam's | The Bete” found by y in the mid- circle of science. In the first place, they | die ot Africa, a four Say, no such family ever existed, and, in the neXt,-even though they did, nothing would be indicated by the fact further than the appearance of fréaks In the olden times. But when any one tries to go over the limit of eight feet in his ‘descriptions of mam- moth human skeletons, he is not going to be Balieved in Washifigton. The men who dig out such tremendous bofiés usually report them to have crumbled into dust as : as_efforts were made to remove them frem their original abode. of the Jarge traces of human bodies Seastes te hawt buen etesaed te sete parts af the ccuntry have turned out to be parts of mammoth animals. Noticeably in the case,of the mastodon; the»leg bones of this animal have frequently been taken for the corresponaing members of the human framework. This animal is known to have liyed usually in the marshes and bogs of the néolithic age. When it turned over ‘to die, the Bones of its body became partly buried in the muddy surface bottoms, whereas two of the leg bones remained uncovered, so, consequently, after decomposit'ea had taken place for many centuries, these parts re- mained whole, and were believed to have belonged to a Goliath or a Cyclops of the reel wotld. The leg bones of an animal are much harder and thicker than wny other parts of its skeleton, and will, consequently, last the longest, even under normal condi- tions. In seme cases scraps of imperfect bone are found mingling with the large leg tiquity, being mentioned by Herodotus and others in ancient . They were also have a language of their own, but are con- sidered to be the lowest tepe of the two, since they have a soft fur all over their bodies and run almost naked in the open air. They have a certain superstition in regard to Diety, which might be called re- ligion, although their moral faculties indi- cate no breadth. These, however, are not the only dwarf races. The others which colonies in ancient times. The inhabitants of Sumatra and Formosa have an average height of four feet ten and a half inches, and the Japanese, while still a little taller, bones of mammoth animals, and these dis- | PProachea by these inhabitants of the coveries aiways furnish the most desirable | arctic regions. wt -g y foundations for the theories continually | @re from desert la oy a gt Fe breaking out in regard to giant races, wartety of to be found, which is likewise the case with the most northern races. But in all these tribes moderately small in stature there are none on record whom we would call pigmies or who would create Sources of Great Stature. Prof. McGe> of the bureau of ethnology recently satd, in an interview with the writ that he believed the standard of human height has ever been increasing very minutely, century by century, rather than decreasing. He expresses his theory that great stature is acquired from three sources, viz: First, nutrition; second, exer- cise, ard third, heredity. In the case of nu- triton, it found, in studying the differ- ent types cf indians, that those inhabiting the arid regions of the west are very notice- ably smaller than those who hunt in the prairies and eat the best meat to be had in these parts. It has not until lately been appreciated that a low standard of health would soon make a race of dwarfs of a race of giants, if unhealthy races lasted, which they never do. The theories of the advocates of ancient giant races will not hold good under these conditions, since, whereas they would have us believe that the standard of man's height has decreased, we know that the standard of food, both aaimal and vegetable, has increased ma- terially even in the last century, and has been in a state of evolution ever since the beginning of the early past. The existence of lime and vegetable food is also pro- ductive of great growth of the frame; sec- tions wher€ considerable limestone abounds, actording to this, should be ihe places where we are to look for tall men. The Kentucky men are considered to be the largest American types, This state is sit- uated in one of the richest lime belts in the country. This is an immediate scbstantia- tion of the theory. Still another. During the war, just at the time when the repre- sentative men of évery locality were draft- ed to shoulder their muskets, examination in the federal forces proved Vermoni to be the state contributing the tallest soldiers. One 9f the most prominent chemiste con- nected with the government sdys tnat the drinking water all throughont Vermont is notable for its hardness; that on his own xamination it has been found to coniain a remarkable per cent of lime. As far as exercise is concerned In respect to the development of the trame, as well #8 the muscles, there is nothing to be said whith evéry school boy does not Anow, It has been found in nations whose iahabit- ants ‘have been hoted for their magnifi- cence of physique that a large frame ts the result of several generations. The Spar- tans grew to be heroes of strength and size because of their pride in respect. to physical culture. Warfare, nowever, in the modern time, is productive of unhealthy and small races rather than large ones. This is best illustrated in the case of the frerch, who are now suffering from a decrease in their healthy pulativa, Na- Paleon. is responsible for this condition. When he drafted all the iarze and healthy men of France into the army, confining them in the military camps for many years without issuing furloughs for their yaca- tions, the only productive element at home, in the cities and the country at large. was composed of the men who were physically unft to enter mihtary service. Hence the senerations which have grown up in France since these long periods of warfare are not of the highest physical type. As far as heredity affects height, It must be taken into consideration that its mys- teries always work in devious and obscure ways. The axiom of species production, in the long run, ts that like produces like, al- thovgh in the issue allowance must be made for any kind of variation. It is a scientific fact the world over that opposite sexes of different styles of physique usually attract one azother; hence, tall men in the gre: number of cases marry short women, vice versa, the tendency of nature being to draw always a complete diagonal of ex- tremes. This tends to cause an equalization of the human species, and the natural re- sult is a certain average of stature of both sexes, which is found to be, for the whole world, five feet five inches. These Were Giants. Although children generally avert toward the normal, there are certain unexplainatle conditions, jn some cases, which will en- able the whole issue to be tallor or shorter than either parent. The same laws cf frames, as they were born of parents of perfectly normal ‘s and under circum- stances which are not in any way sur- prising. Stratten of Connecticut, better known as “Tom Thumb,” was but thirty- four inches in height. The Princess Topas measured but thirty inches. Jeffries, the dwarf of Charles I, was likewise of re- markably small stature, as were Mrs. Tom Thumb and Mr. and Mrs. Commodore Nutt. None of these showed any particular gevity, but on the other hand were al ways sickly and weak. Tnere was, how- ever, a Pole, born in 1730, who made a vast fortune in various countries on ac- count of his remarkably diminutive height, living to be ninety years of age. The discovery of several small skeletons in Switzerland, also announced during the sessions of the British Association at Ox- given no more significance, by our Washington authorities, in regard to the existence of a race of pigmies, at one time in Europe, than js the giant story. The dimensio: of the skeletons found have not yet been reported to this country, al- though it ts supposed from the tions sent through foreign news dispatches that they are very minute. The stories of giants and plemle will go in the nursery, but the American scientist will have non of them. J. E. W., Jn ——~+e+ Some Foreign Advantages. From the Post Express. A man can divorce his wife in France if she persists in going on the stage without his consent, But Portugal goes France one better. There, if a wife publishes literary works without the husband's consent, the law frees him at once.