Evening Star Newspaper, October 6, 1894, Page 20

THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1894—TWENTY. PAGES. THE STATE DEPARTMENT AT PEKIN. IN MIGHTY PEKING All About Its Queer Sights and Strange People, CAPITAL OF ONE-THIRD OF THE WORLD The Walls of Peking and Three Different Cities Enclosed. THE GREAT MARKETS THERE Copyrighted, 1894, by Frank G. Carpenter. ‘Written for The Evening Star. HE DESTRUCTION of the Chinese army at Pinyang in Corea, and the crippling of their fleet at the mouth of the Yaloo river, indicate that the Japanese threat that they will march their . soldiers into Peking before win- ter, is by no means an idle one. The Ya- loo river is the boun- dary between Corea and China, and as it ts now, the Japanese Practically control the country. The terri- tory of North Corea Is very poor, and the Chinese will have to bring their supplies of food with them if they attempt another imvasion. The Japanese will not need a large army to keep them out, and they can now center their forces upon China. Peking i= by no means hard to reach. The ground between it and the sea is as flat as a floor, and if the Japanese can be landed on the wast coast of the Gulf of Pechill, they will be within a few days’ march of the great Maudarins Salutin; Chinese capital. The only thing that pre- vents them from getting near it by water 4s the big forts at the mouth of the Petho river. These are manned with Krupp and Armstrong guns, and Li Hung Chang’s army is behind them. Wherever they land, they will-have to fight what remains of this army, but a victory would mean the capture of Peking and the practical sub- dugation of China. ‘The Chinese Capital. Peking Is perhaps one of the least known ities of the world. I have paid two visits to it, and I spent a wonth In It six years ego. During the present spring I prowled about its streets for days and devoted my- to making a study of the town and its people. It is an immense city. It con- taims about fifteen hundred thousand, but these are scatiered over an area of twenty- five square miles, and the people as a rule live in one-story houses. The city is sur- rounded by walls which were built hun- @reds of years ago, and which must have cost many millions of dollars. These walls are in good condition with the exception of one or two places where the floods of last winter undermined them and carried parts of their facings away. It ig hard to give an American an idea of one of these walled cities of China. The walls of Peking are sixty feet thick at the bottom. They would fill the average country road or city street, and they are as tall as a four-story house. They are su wide at the top that you could run three railroad trains side by side around them, and they are so solid that the cars would move more smoothly over these tracks than they 4 on the trunk lines between New York and Chicago. These walls are faced inside and out with HO They Like Pork. tricks, each as big as a four-dollar Bible, and the space bet is filled with earth And stones so rammed de bave made the whole are built, in fact, muc ef China, and the br almost exactly the mass. They lke the great wall ks of the two are I have before me & brick which I brought from the great wall. It weighs about twenty pounds, or 3 a two-year-old baby. It is blue r, and ft ts covered with patches of white lime mortar just like those that I saw in the broken places of the walls of Peking. Gates and Towers. In approaching Pel ing, long before you get to the city, you see the immense towers which stand on the top of this wall over the gates which enter the city. These towers are as tall as a big New York flat. They rise nine stories above the wall, and they have roofs of blue tiles. They were used in the past as watch towers, and they have meny port holes for cannon. There are ates which lead Into the city, and | lis near these are lamations and bills poard. The gates of 7 through this wall, tas wide as the ordinary perhaps twenty feet high. They with stone and are beautifully arched. They are closed at night with great dcors thed with fron, and they are paved with heavy slabs of stone. The walls of Peking even miles long, and nelose is irregular in nhape, and it consists of two big parallelo- grams. The one at north is the real eapital of China, for it contains the Tartar great government departments, the zations, and the imperial city, in jed by from five to ten thou- chs, the emperor lives. The lower parallelocram toins Tartar city. It the area has half a dozen temples,including the Tem- ple of Heaven, which was burned down not long ago, and which is now being rebuilt of Oregon pine. Chin: Marts. The Chinese city is where all the mercan- tile business of this great capital is done. It fs cut up into narrow streets, and it is filled with all sorts of stores. It has mar- kets of all kinds, and its fur market covers several acres. It has its wholesale as well as its retail fur market, and I have gone out at 6 o'clock in the morning and found perhaps a thousand almond-eyed merchants dressed in gorgeous silks moving about through great beds of furs of all kinds. ‘The furs are piled upon the ground, and you can buy sables for about $3 a skin, and tiger skins for $75, which will be worth twice that eount anywhere else in the world. You can buy the finest of ermine, and for $10 you can get a coat of lamb’s wool, of the kind that our ladies use for long opera’ cloaks. This Chinese city is a city of banks and of stock exchanges. I visited one morning the silver exchange. It was a room like a barn, and the people were buying and sell- ing stocks just as they do on Wall street, yelling and howling and pushing each other like mad as they did so. It 1s a city of book stores, and there are some streets which contain no other shops. We have the idea that the Chinese merely live upon rice and on rats, and that their chief industries are the making of matting, of fans and of silks, The truth is that China does a vast bus!- ness, and she produces all sorts of commodi- ties. Nearly every cne of these Chinese streets contains shops of all kinds, and the main business of China is not the supplying goous for the foreign markets, but the mak- ing of those required for her own people. They have as many wants as we have, and they require as good goods. The nobles dress In the finest of silk, and there are hundreds of stores which sell nothing but pictures. The art displayed in most of the paintings is abominable, but they are pic- tures nevertheless, and the Chinese pay good money for them. Meat and Fish. I wish I could show you the markets of Peking. You can get as good meat there as you can In New York, and there is no finer mutton in the world than that of north China. The sheep are of the fat-tall- ed variety, and I saw many which had tails weighing over a pound. It is queer how they kill the animals whith they sell. They have no slaughter houses,and a sheep is often butchered in front of the shop and the hivod lies on the ground while you buy. There are all sorts of fish, and they are always sold alive. No China- man would by a dead fish, and In case you wrnt to buy less than a whole fish at a time, the Chinese peddiler will pull the fish cut of the water, lay him squirming on the bicck, and cut a picce of quivering flesh out of his side fur you while ycu wait. He does not kill the fish, and after you are through he throws it back into a separate pail of water and waits for another cus- tomer to take off the rest. One of the chief meats sold is pork, and you see hogs trot- ting about through the vets of Peking. They wallow in the puddles right under the shadow of the emperor's palaces, and they are the dirtiest hogs in the world. There are all sorts of game for sale in the mar- kets, and you can get snipe and quail and squirrels of all kin is. The Chineve are the best raisers of poultry In the world. They have duck farms and goose farms, and they know all about artificial incubation. They . A Noted Pekin Beggar. sell great quantities of dried geese and dried ducks, and they carry bushel-baskets full of dried ducks about the city for sale. They sell all kinds of fruit and they are adepts in the raising of the choicest of vegetables. They bury their grape vines in the north in the winter, and you can buy your ruts by the bushel. A+ to cats, dogs and rats, I did not sez any cold in Peking, and I don’t be- Meve that the better classes are accustomed to use them. I am told, however, that such cats as are sold in the south are rais- ed and fattened especially for the market, and that their diet is usually rice. 7 flesh is supposed, by the people, to give herole properties to those who feed on it, and the same effect is produced by bears’ meat and the ground-up bones of wild tigers, These things ought to bring a high price just now in Peking, for the people certainly have reason to increase their courage. Another queer article that you see In the Peking market is false hair. I passed several places where long-queued Chinamen stood beside a board upon which were hung long bunches of black Chinese locks. Each of these was a false pigtail, and it is said that one of the chief articles of export from Corea to China ts human hair. The Chinese braid extra locks into their queues and they often patch out their queues with silk thread. Queer Customs, 1 might write a fuil letter about the queer things shown in the Chinese part of the city of Peking. I could tell you of a vast business done in gold and silver paper which the Chinese burn at the graves to furnish their dead with money to pay their Passage to heaven. I could show you shops selling nothing but coffins, in which single articles of this kind cost as high as four thousand dollars, and where the dutiful son often buys hts father a coffin and makes it a present to the old man years before his death. I could tell you of stores where thousands of dollars’ worth of incense or joss sticks are sold every month, and I cculd take you into establishments which sell nothing but birds and gold fishes. There are big stores full of furniture and shops which make nothing but porcelain stoves. There are places where wood is sold in bundles by weight and establishments where coal dust is mixed up with mud and sold in lumps the size and shape of a base ball at so much aplece. There are great markets for the selling of chickens and flowers, and all sorts of toy stores and stores for the selling of paper and cloth. There are lock peddlers by hundreds and hardware establishments, and if you are very hard up and in want of a meal I can show you a little hole round the corner where you can get camel's meat soup and mule roast at low prices. There are places for gambling and dime museum shows. ‘There are restaurants of every description and opium joints without number. There are, in fact, stores of every sort and de- scription, and the best things in China come to Peking. The Imperial City. The most interesting part of Peking, how- ever, is the big Tartar city. It is the capital of one-third of the population on the globe, and in it lives the son of heaven, the Emperor of China, to whom all his subjects must bend their knees. It con- tains the thousands of Manchu officials, | the foreign legations, the government de- partments and all the paraphernalia of this queer Chinese court. It is the most inter- esting city on the face of the globe, and its sights really beggar description. From the walls the whole city looks like an im- mense orchard, with here and there one- story buildings shining out through the trees. In its center there is a walled off inclosure filled with massive buildings. roofed with yellow tiles. This is the im- periai city, in the innermost parts of which is a brick pen inclosing several square miles, where the emperor lives, surrounded by eunuchs. He is perha the rarest bird in the whole Chiense jary, and I will follow this with a special letter describing some of his antics. He ts kept apart from, Chinese and foreigners, and you might live in Peking fifty years and not see him. He really knows nothing about his people or his surroundings, and he Is a sort of a Puppet who stands still or dances when his highest officials or the old empress Gowager pulls at the string. Filthy Streets. No better Idea of the condition of the gov- ernment of China could be gotten than by @ trip through this Tartar city. It is one of the oldest towns in the world. It was fcunded more than a thousand years before Christ, and it has been the capital of mil- lions for ages. It ought to be the greatest city on the face of the globe, but there ts no spot more filthy and slimy and foul. The city knows nothing of modern improve- ments. It is cut up into wide streets, but the roads have no sidewalks, and the rude Clinese carts sink up to their hubs as they move through tae city. There are no water closets. The streets are the sewers, and the most degraded savage of our western plains has a greater regard for the exposure of his person than have these pig-tailed, silk- dressed, gaudy, fat Pekingese. The city has absolutely no sanitary improvements, and the street lamps are framework boxes back- ed with white paper, and they are seldom lighted except during full moon. It is ab- solutely unsafe to move about In the night- time without a lantern, if you wish to keep your feet clean, and you have to balance yourself in the day to keep out of the mud. All of the houses are of one story, and the Carpenter and His Brick From the "Great Wall, government departments look more like broken-down barns than the offices of a great empire. The Government Departments. I went one morning to visit the state de- partment, and as I looked at it I thought of our great building of the State, War and Navy, which cost, you know, more than ten million dollars, and which is the biggest granite building in the world. The street was a mud puddle, and I hugged low, shack- ly buildings till I finally came to a gate at which a dirty official was ‘standing. He shook his head as I entered, but I pretended not to see him, and pushed my way in. I entered a court, which looked for all the world like a barn yard surrounded by low wooden stables, with heavy tiled roofs. This court was filled wita donkeys, horses and dogs, and half-naked children sprawied in front of the doors to these buildings, which were, in fact, the offices of the de- partment. The buildings were filled with clerks, who wrote away at bare tables, the light coming in through latticework walls backed with white paper They scowled at me a® I looked, and one of them gave me to understand that I had better move on. I next visited the famous Hanlin College. It was worse than the state department, and everything about it was shabby and going to seed. I tried to get into the board of punishments, where the horrible cruelties which the Chinese government meies out to its rebels and criminals are passed upon, and where torture is common, but I was stopped at the door and was positively told that I could not go in. It was thé same with all the government departments. They could not have been shabbier had they been kr.ceked up out of odd pieces of old Noah's ark, and everything was filthy and the pic- ture of ruin. The only really new things in the city seemed to be the clothes of the officials, and 1 laughed again and again as I saw these mandarins bow down in the mud and go through the forms of the Chi- nese court smid their filthy surroundings. They are among themselves, as far as words go, the niost polite of all nations, and they look upon us as boors and barbarians. The most of the people believe that they will conquer the world, and I doubt wheth- er a thousand out of the million and a half peopie in Peking know anything of the Japanese victories. The court officials dis- tribute all sorts of lies, and they have prob- ably toid the people that they have whipped the Japanese on both land and on sea, and that the mikado will be brought to Peking. The majority of the citizens of the Chinese capital really believe that America is sub- ject to China. They think that Col. Denby is sent to the capital to pay Uncle Sam's tribute to their emperor, and this, I am told, is their opinion as to every foreign legation. They have nicknamed the street upon which the foreign ministers live “the street of the subject nations,’ and they would consider it a disgrace to ask our minister to dinner, and I venture that Col. Denby has never been on intimate terms with a dozen high- class Chinese officials. This, I know, will seem strange to Americans, but it is actu- ally the truth. A Cosmopolitan City, Peking is a most cosmopolitan city. We have in America only the Chinese of South China. These come from the hot countries at the southern part of the empire, and they are small and lean in comparison with the people of the north. They dress differently, and they have a different dialect and dif- A Manche Archer. ferent habits and customs. Peking ts frozen up for six months of the year, and you can have tce-sledging on the Peiho at Christ- mas. I found the people of every Chinese state different, and the dialects are as vari- ous as the languages of Europe. Here in Peking you find representatives of every Chinese state, and there are celestials from all the big cities. Thibet, Mongolia, Man- churia and parts of Afghanistan are all tributary to China, and people of a half dozen religions jostle each other they wade through the streets. The strangest sights to me at first entrance were the no- madiec Mongolians, who rode into the city on great camels or dromedaries, which were covered with wool from six to twelve inches long. These come from the cold regions of Mongolia or Siberia, and during my visit to the Chinese wall I passed caravans of these camels marching in single file and fastened together by sticks thrust through the thick flesh of their noses. They were loaded with great bundles of furs which they had brought down from the north for the dilet- tante mandarins of Peking, and were carry- ing back brick tea and coal to the Tartars and Russians. Many of these were ridden by Mongol women, who, ip coats, pantaloons and fur rode astride, with fur caps pull fierce Tartar eyes. 1 saw hundreds of Thib- etan lamas in their gorgeous robes, and I met many Mohammi is from the west part of China. In the (Stikets, I wish you could see one of these Peking- ese streets, and theJquér sights upon it. They are filled with a,stream cf yellow humanity of all classes, ages and sexes. You pass gorgeous Pope abe on Mongolian ponies, the backs ie of which are decorated with arrows, and you know they are on their way to the shooting matches outside of Peking. You go by silk-gowned mandarirs in carts, who scowl at you as you peep into the little glass windows in the walls of their vphicigs. You see schol- ars with spectacles &s-big as trade dollars, and everywhere you go you are assaulted by beggars. I remember one boy who fol- lowed me day after day. The weather was bitterly cold, and I shivered in my fur ulster This boy was naked to the waist, and his arms had been cut off at the shoulders. He held a pan in his mouth and followed me, switching his body this way and that to show me his mutilation. I was glad to give him two or three cents to be freed of the sight, Another beggar, who has long been in Peking, is a man who has an fron skewer thrust through his cheek. This skewer is a foot long, and is about as big around as your little finger. He twists it this way and that and keeps the flesh rag- sed and sore. He beats on a gong as he goes through the streets, and you are glad to pay him to keep out of your way. There is one gate in Peking which is always crowded with beggars, and one of the finest bridges of the city, a structure of marble. has been given up entirely to beggars. It is full of the lame, the halt and the blind, and men with festering sores, women without eyes, end persons possessing all sorts of horrible diseases crowd together upon It. They push their way from it into the city and threaten to cut themselves if you don’t give them aims. Side by side with these beggars walk the gorgeous o‘iciais, and poverty aud weaith march together in pairs. There is no plece in the world where the contrasis are so great, and for nine-tenths of the people it would seem to me their condition could not be worse. These Chinese are industrious as any race on the globe. They are peaceable and easily governed, and if the celestial offi cials, including th» emperor and all his court, could be wiped frcm the e of the slobe, the people wou!l quickiy grow rich and China would be one of the most fa- vored spots on the face of the earth. Damm A, Carfentes Seeing Mount $ Miles. From the N ork A dis u is & whether Mount be seen from the summit of in the former state. One ef a p. recently climbed Hood ins the other peak, with w familiar, The actual them is 276 mile first scouted, the ys on in ta in ria can unt Hood beiween 3 statement was distance at on being made omputa by one mathematician that Snasta is seven miles below the horizon line of Mount Hood. Lieut. Taylor of the United St engineer corps,being appealed to, consulted tables icial maps, with the {iiow results: “Horizon kine from Hvod (1 feet high), miles; horizon line Shasta (440 n), 147° mile visible distance, ts between the peaks, ! spare, one mile.” From this it wou that the projection pf thé horizon 1: the summit of Hodd wduld strike of Shasta were that niountain one further away than i ene who is not enovg! to dispute or computations the bearing upon mountain is. vi since an ascent of Mount Hood, which a scientitic party madé a fortnigh . there is reason to betieye from observations taken by them that the mountain is_con- sideraoly higher than the 11,200 feet @® the mile From the New York Advertiser. In the enrliest times of purchase a woman was bartered for useful goods or for services rendered to her fathor. Ip the latter way Jacob purchased Kachel and her sister Leah. This was a Beena marriage, where a man, as in Genesis, leaves his father and his mother and clexves unto his wife and they become one flesh or kin—the woman's. ‘The price of a bride in British Columbia and Vancouver Island varies from {20 to £40 worth of articles. In Oregon an Indian gives for a wife horses, blankets or buffalo robes; in California, shell money or horses; in Africa, cattle. A poor Damara will sell a daughter for one cow; a richer Kaffir ex- pects from three to thirty, With the Ban- yal, if nothing be given, her family ciaim her children. In Uganda, where no mar- riage recently existed, she may be obtained for half a dozen needles, or a coat, or a pair of shoes. An ordinary price is a box of per- cussion caps. In other parts, a goat or @ couple of buckskins will buy a girl. Pass- ing to Asia, we find her price is sometimes five to fifty roubles, or at others a cartload of wood or hay. A princess may be pur- chased for three thousand roubles. In Tar- tary, a woman can be obtained for a few pounds of butter, or where a rich man gives twenty smali oxen a poor man may succeed with a pig. In Fiji, her equivaient is a whale’s tooth or a musket. These, and similar prices elsewhere, are eloquent testi- mony to the little value a savage sets on his wife. es Japanese Window Artists. From the New York Herald. Living pictures, and not studies in still life, catch the »ye of the art-loving public, as is proven by the constant crowd atound a shop window on Broadway, where an enterprising firm hus a taking advertise- ment in the window in the form of a Japan- ese artist busily painting pictures, while the public criticises.: The window is made pretty with oriental draperies and bamboo furaiture. The artist, wearing a cool-look- ing robe of Chinese crepe, sits before an easel, with a stand beside him containing water colors, a palette and a bowl About every two minutes he has finished a picture There's a dab of white paint with a good- sized brush, which forms the breast of a flying bird. Then there’s a dexterous ming- ling of white, yellow and brown colors and another sweep of the brush and the wing appears. With a few deft touches of the brush the bird is complete, and the artist turns his attention to flowers. The pictures invariably contain a bird at the top, a couple of flowers In the upper right hand corner and a large cluster‘in the left hand corner, the two corners connected by queer, straggling green stems. The pictures are varied hy the position and color of the birds—one files up, another down, and still another sideways. The flowers are usually pink and white, roses or chrysan- themums. Although the artist seems to slap on the paint as unconcernedly as though he were painting the side of a barn,when the picture is complete there's a real charm about it. Until very recently Europeans have been inclined to turn up, their noses in scorn at the birds as the Japanese see them, but in- stantaneous photography has shown that the quick eye of tha Jap. saw the bird as it really is, while the rest of us have been picturing them as we thought they ought to be. soe Autumn. From the St. James Gazette, Ladies fatr, the end is near; Soon will lle upon ite bler Every lovely blossom here. Tostes ya with which the year Strives to hide her swift decay, Now must from us away, And in death laid aside ts that In summer died. flushing fire's bright hues Marigolds, whose buds pursue Golden Sol from east to west; Lilies, of all blossoms best For the dying season's shroud; Daisies, to St. Michael vowed; Dablias, set in order prim; Asters, loaded to the brim With the weight of tears unshed; Hollytocks, pink, white aod red; the end is near; . Dying is the sylvan year! IN A HATTERAS LAGOON. COONS AT HATTERAS A Hunting Trip That Brought More Vexation Than Game. THE PERILS OF THE DIAMOND SHOALS The Effort to Build a Light House on the Reef. eee CLEVELAND’S —— MR. VISIT Special, Correspondence of The Eventng Stat. CAPE HATTERAS, October 1, 1894. N MY FORMER letter to The Star I e of thé long de- and hardships lay incurred in reaching this place, but I felt amply repaid for all I had undergone when I reached the top of the tower and beheld This is lighthouse the finest I have ever seen. It is a new structure, situated about five hundred yards from the beach, and but a few rods from the old tower, the ruins of which still remain. where they fell, when it was blown up for safety by gunpowder, after the new one was erected. The present building is two hundred and ten feet high; the base is of solid granite, with handsomely decorated marble door- way, the whole surrounded by a stylish iron railing. The lenses are magnificent, and were made in France. They cast a flash light every ten seconds, which, in clear weather, can be seen twenty-five miles out at sea. The mterior of the building 4s spotlessly clean and smells sweet, as the ofl room is in a separate stone house, as is the tool room also. These, with the keeper's dwell- Jng—neat and commodious frames—are atout forty yards away, on the sands, with the end of a big swamp almost joining. ‘The life-saving station is over a half a mile away, and a telephone ts imperatively needed to connect these two important places. The keeper of the tower can dis- cern, from his lofty lookout, a vessel in distress much sooner than can the surt- men. It is apparent that precious time could be saved if a message could be called across the sand dunes the instant such a discovery is made. But 1 am forgetting my delight upon reaching the summit of the tower I have paused to describe. This bird's-eye view, every detail of which could be noted on this m, still day, will ever remain impressed my memory. The cape, running about ten miles out toward Pamlico sound, 1 breadth being about one mile, appeared Hk a long slender board shoved out into a pond. In the west could be seen the waters of the sound, shimmering golden in the sunlight, with tiny sails glinting silvery white on their surface. On the north is the beach and sand dunes, which separate sea and sound; on the east and south is the ecean. On Diamond Shoals, For ten miles the cape is surrounded by reefs and shoals in the shape of a crescent, which lle hidden beneath the water, and in foggy, stormy and snowy weather, when the revolving flash light cannot be scen, by the false reckoning of the navigator or The Usual Costume. by the irresistible drift of the ocean, ships are driven upon them, and are speedily broken up. Thirty-six vessels have been wrecked here during the last decade, and few lives were saved, while scores of steam and sailing craft were dashed upon the reef and succeeded in getting off with more or less damage. The government has been bending all its energies to the problem of accurately marking these dangerous reefs and to establish a lighthouse on Diamond shoals—distant about ten miles from the shore. Five hundred thousand dollars was the prize which the lighthouse board offered for the erection of a tower there. Last year contractors undertook the task—im comparison with which the building of the structures on Minot ledge or the Eddy. stone rocks were mere child’s play. The great caisson sunk last year remained tn its place three days and then disappeared, causing the loss of $1,000 to the contractor, This year another start was made, which was successful. A shaft was sunk 106 feet below the bottom, into the sand, and a foundation reached. An tron structure, supported by heavy tron piles, to be sunk by the water jet, will soon be built. ‘Only during the few calm days in sum- mer can the work be done. It will take a brave set of men to take charge of and live in this place when it is completed. The keeper of the Hatteras light said that no- body in that section would risk his life by remaining there, for none believe that any structure erected by mortal hands can withstand the force of the tremendous breakers which dash over Diamond reef. Fifteen hundred miles of coast line ts broken in its continuity by Hat teras. No land stretches so far out into the Atlantic. The gulf m often fio to within twenty mileslof this point, an Mathew Maury made the discovery that the violent and sudden storms for which Hat- teras is noted are caused by the great difference in temperature between warm air of the gulf stream and the winds off the shore. ‘™-se storms cause Hatteras to be held = greater dread by mariners than any other barrier to navigation in the world. During the war, when almost every southern lighthouse was either destroyed or abandoned, the light of Hatteras was kept steadily burning. The confederates, on their forays, spared the building and the keeper, with his one assistant, remained at pis Dost. Mr. Smith fs the present keeper, and has three assistants. I found them very gen- ilemaniy, well-informed men. One of them had been formerly a-member of the North olina legislature, but he seemed perfect- nt with the change. To any man d of the world, broken in fortune or in heart, I commend Hatteras as a retreat. Everyone I met there was con- tent. Mostly “Coons.” One might, while talking with “Capen” L., the nabob of the islands, I asked him What game was on the island, and he said, coons.” One of my friends im- mediately became imbued with the desire to take one of these “varmints” in his native lair, We talked coon until bed time, and I heard more stories of that animal’s than I can remember, each more jous than the last. as in Virginia I was perfectly famil- jar with, having often hunted them, and had greatly enjoyed the sport, but a Cape Hatteras coon was, from what I could learn, # specimen in itself. Very large, be- ing compared to a “Dismal Swamp bear,” wild, ferce and cunning, so it was not sur- prising that with our curiosity aroused, and our hunting instincts keenly alive, that we, on the very next evening, proposed that @ coun hunt be our next form of eptertain- t. The brakes around Hat were be the veritable coon paradise, and sald t that there were more of these animals to the acre here than in any other place on earth. There are regular paths through the vod and sea-grass leading to the edge, made by these nocturnal prowlers. The beach was their market place; here they would get their crabs, oysters,, young sea-birds, wounded water fowl, frogs, shell-fish and carrion. There has never been any organized ef- fort to thin out the coons, and they have multiplied to an enormcus extent. They rove at will all over the island, and the keeper cannot keep a cat upon the place, for just as sure as Mrs. Tabby or Mr. Tom A Canoe Party. remains out of doors at night, just so sure will her or his mangled body be found in the morning, for anywhere cat gan climb its foe can follow. A coon is as fond of a scrimmage as a grizzly bear, and he can whip anything of his own size (and fre- quently larger) or weight, that goes on four legs, for his hide is so tough, and his pluck so great, that he never gives up. A coon fights on his back, and his feet are armed with curved, keen claws, which he uses with dire effect, while as a reserve he has sharp teeth and a jaw like a bulldog’s. On many a Virginia plantation, where @ pack of hounds is kept, the largest and most savage dog has generally his ears torn to ribbons and his dewlaps cut in two. This is the mark of battles royal with the coons. Young hounds will attack the “varmints” on sight, but rarely a second time, and it ie only the leader of the pack, noted for his size, and strength and ferocity, that will undertake to “put a head” on a coon. In an evil moment the proposition for the “coon hunt” was acceded to. We urged the capen to go with us, but he deciined. “I don't want to spoil your pleasure, gentlemen,” he remarked, “but coon hunt- ing isn’t in my line.” listeners. agreed, ai nothing el The Coon and Capt. Scott. “Well, have it your own way,” he said, “but I would not go in the swamp tm the night not if every coon that was treed would come down, as he did to Captain Scott.” Probably all my readers have heard of the story of Captain Scott and the coon, but I will venture to say that not one of them who lives north of Mason and Dixon's ine could repeat the tradition correctly, Anyway, I will tell it. Captain Martin Scott, in the ante-bellum days, was a Virginian, and an officer in the regular army. The coon episode hap- pened some time in the year 1830. Captain, then Lieutenant, Scott was stationed at Fort Smith, a frontier post on the Arkan- sas river, which was commanded by Capt. Bradford, who was the author of the fa- mous story. It was a very common recrea- ton for Scott to shoot the darting chimney swallow on their circling, erratic flight, with a bullet from his long Kentucky rifle. This is a degree of skill almost incred- ible, for there are few shots of the present day who can kill three cut of five with the improved breech loader. Lieut. Scott's boon fompanion was Quartermaster Van Swear- ingen, who, ike many other amateurs, imagined that the rifle was bound to kili something when he was at the big end of it He was a great admirer of the Meu- tenant's sporting qualifications, and de- = cea rious Sport we all it was pure laziness in him, = Acream of tartar baking pow- der. Highest of all in leavening strength.—Latest United States Governmen Food Report, Boyal Baking Powder Oa, 106 Wall St, 5.¥. THE CLAR’S CONDITION, How the Peace of Emope 18 Be ing Undermined, THE SERIOUS RESULTS What People Are Saying About It an@ How It Was Ferctold in America, Two Years Ago. czar, bi dime cee Press Ceble, ‘This eunouncement, simple as it thrown the natious of Europe into a state of cltement. If the czar t suffering feelings, acute pains in various parts urcertain appetite, sleeplessness Wlaritics. A retiue of court udersiend what il if ! il fi ti rif if rl eee I been taken would today undoubtedly modern mauiady is Bright's & thief iuto the system, Dearly every disease, and gach person. It is ‘the most Known diseases, whether it attacks funocent chidrem. It is more sumption and fully as fatel. Ite ia its deceptive nature, for few they axe iis victims until it ts there are cases Whee men and z I i a 1 ¥ ti i i i if Without even suspecting they bad the disease, There has never beon but one remedy for it, ab though scientists strove fo. years to find ‘That remedy, which is kuown as @ household which ts U : of 96 many th which te the most Jupular remedy todas, is Warner's Safe oor Physiciaum, sclentists, the world in general, all wilt this, and whether high or low, rich whea any trouble of this nature attacks at once to this great scvercign remedy ‘The trouble ts that few people realue im He they are suffering from Brit's disease, It ts traq, they notice they are pot well, they feel up often It all as it should is this—wateR by bis Cote if H i Q § H § F ase i & H eee of coming down. This angry, and he continued his y: the coon called to him and ironically ed him not to break a blood vessel, the toon was so overcome with his wit that he wrapped his around a swung himself in the air and laughed he showed every tooth in his head. “You will laugh on the other side of mouth soon,” howled the dog; “and comes one who will carrion-eating, jaws, ashe had not the slightest made the & i Hl E i Bit thieving, chicken-stealing, sat moeins: old varmint, you.” “Who is he, you bandy-legged, stui tailed, ece-sucking reptile?” cried oom, as he repaired to the shelter of the tree, “it’s Lieut. Van Swearingen,” growled the exasperated canine. the coom smiled until his eyes peared in the wrinkies of his face. Tie Van,” he grunted, derisively, “well, he may shoot and be blanked. I'll bet my valuable hide against your mangy pelt that get me out of this tree.” Van Swearingen a away at the coon, who did not even scend to hide behind a branch. Having shot all his ammunition away, the quartermaster retired, in high dudgeon. Shortly after another figure loomed upon the scene pouring some fresh powder in the pan, pre to fire. “Who's that?” inquired the coon. “Scott,” yelled the dog, tri sq ® gone coon. Cap'n Scott, ‘n don't fire, I'm coming down.” Bo saying, he folded iimself in a ball and dropped the ground and yielded his life to the dog Without a struggle. it is needless to descirbe here that coom hunt. One hunt ts so much like another that one has but to recall some experience of his own to know what ours was—the only thickets, and to attempt to travel on @ dark night through such a labyrinth of sloughs and copse was really foolhardy. Our party of three struggled over prostrate Umber, whose branches were festooned with miry trailing vines, scrambled through felled trees and matted briars; we forced our way amid a jingle of mixed bamboo and wild grape vines, as strong as whip- cords, or run into the prickly pear, with ite needie-like points, end occasionally, by way of variety, going up to our armpits in some dark pool. Once we got into a veritable “chevaux de frise,” composed of every kind of vine, each seemingly as strong as manilia hemp and as elastic as india rubber; ev variety of trailing creeper, with thorns spines innumerable. We were to hterally cut our way out with our knives, and spent, breathless and in tatters, made the best of our way back to our q Did we catch the coon? Not much; not for every coon in Hatteras would take that trip again, and the capens “I told you so.” The President's Visit. Yachting trips and fishing excursions are favorite modes of recreation among the sportsmen of Washington. A fishing an@ hunting cruise along the Carolina Atlantie ccast is of very rare occurrence, however owing to the inaccessibility of the place an@ the time necessary to reach it. In addition to this, the mosquitos, sandfleas and midges make the trip one of real hardship, not te be invited by any save those who are hard- ened and weil seasoned by experience; but they are rewarded by getting such as they never find in inland waters, the hunting, at certain seasons, is of the finest. When President Cleveland, with Secretary Carlisle, came here last May, he made the urip in the Violet, from Norfolk, in a little more than two days, which is very good time, when it is considered that one day must be taken to get through the Chesapeake canal. The President, o sportsman’s suit, wandered around vicinity of the light house, or sat porch, chatting with the islanders. There Was no official dignity there, we may be sure. The President did not attempt to ascend the tower, thoigh Secretary Carlisle did, and expressed himself as enchanted with the glorious view. e Our pariy was fortunate in belng the in- vited guests of Capt. Payne of Currtt N. C., who sailed hi course, supplying the commissariat. astonishing how quickly men on such trips throw off the veneer of civilization and be come more and more like the original noble savage that he was. First coats are di» carded; then vests; then shoes and stock- ings, and so on until their usual costume be- comes one which would cause them to be speedily arrested if adopted on the streets athome. It was no uncommon sight to see an erstwhile Chesterficld wandering up an@ ¢@own the beach, clad in a single abbrevi- ated garment, @ hat on his head, a pair blue spectacles on his nose and a fishing or sling line in his hand. In conclusion, te the naturalist, the tourist and the sports- man who have plenty of time to spare, Cape Hatteras offers many attractions. ALEX. HUNTER.