Evening Star Newspaper, January 5, 1895, Page 16

16 THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1895-TWENTY PAGES. THE PARIS PRESS| American Newspapers Surpassed in | Everything Except the News. FEATURES OF FRENCH JOURNALISH es An Entertaining Account of What the Paris Public Read. ABOUNDS IN LITERATURE Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. PARIS, December 18, 1804. HE PARIS DAILY Newspaper press abounds in literature. It superabounds in personal opinion. It scolds, it defies, it justifies, it suppli- cates. It is rich in personal details and minute characteriza- tions of its enemies. It is lavish in “ pents,”” sei betrayers, and “lost ‘. lacks most is news. Paris journalists say that the Parisians do not care for news, it hurts their heads. This idea does not gee with the eternal gossiping which is the solace of French living. It is not consistent with the avidity with which the readers gobble up the mea- ger “Faits Divers” or local news, such as a dog im Asnieres having hatched out ducks’ eggs. Nor is it consistent with the praise the evening papers give themselves when they achieve a beat. In the Paris evening papers any bit of news is a sure beat, unless it happens in a cafe where there are thirty-five reporters sitting all day playing cards. In the more important papers news, to be printed even when got hold of, must have a certain character. It must be piquant, ex- ng clements of surprise or comedy. Politi fe al rumers lending them- selves more readily to such diste’ on than Readers of Figaro. simple facts could do, of. they are made much However, the Temps had for years a @ correspondent to whom the world 1 for accurate diplomatic stories; and Figaro often secures important expres- s trem diplomats, even those of other nations, Nevertheless, no Paris paper has ything in the nature of the diplomatic of the London Time j adard, Daily News, Chronicle and Tele aken as a whole, the Paris press gives out sd and bogus rumors than the mbined press of the outer world. ly needed the Lanterne to print the details of lish company then form- ing to go out and shoot the French in Madagascar, “being tired of game like lions and tigers,” to induce the whole Parisian to take it up. And the Parisian st swelled with hot pains until the wanterne literary supplement brought out @ picture showing one French soldier chas- ing fourteen Englishmen, with Lord Dun- dreary whiskers streaming through the hot air of the Hovas. Competition in Rig Type. The Paris dailies are regularly printed on bad pa and with bad ink. They are small in size and slovenly in appearance. It is a habit with the evening papers to pad their first page with great headlines raight acro: the sheet. They a full half of the page. Sometimes the letters are two inches tall. There is a reason for the gigantic head- s of the evening pap: rmment to vn men in Paris—are r erying the paper’s name and_the edition, such vague phrases as “Curious rex ceptional number!” This b Paris eve larly confined to its t ng ing paper's selling gees —one revelation per even- nd the being reg frg—the last result in what fs a struggle for life is to print the title of the revela- tion in a type so large that passers by may read it as the newsboy holds it spread out against hi . “Death of M. Bur- deau! A t into little pieces!” M. Burdeaw is « » Paris, the late president of the chamber. The man cut into pleces was found at Lyons. But there is nothing In the poster-like headliness to show it. A lady at my side in the cafe was greatly disappointed. She insisted that she “saw it M. deau cut in little pieces. That was of the date of December 13, 1894. Of all the Paris papers I will speak of that date only. Every evening paper had the death of the president of the chamber of deputies. The man cut into pie was the special revelation of the Cocarde and the France. Other second and third-class papers had a line of it or lacked it altogether. The two great evening papers, the Debats and the Temps, had an account, but made no They had other news from great parade. the “departments.” Of the twenty jour- nals which make up the daily evening s of Paris, only nine had this peculiar, extra beat, few with all its shocking de- tails. And so it illustrates two truths. @) Although an outrageous accident or rime is about the only news the Paris $ prints from “the provinces.” (2) The ohie service of the great majority Is ctive that they could only print a te so d line to state the fact. There were other provincial crimes and acctdent Eacn evening paper of the date had its small complement sent in scattered corre. spondents. Most were beats. This ill: trates a third truth. (3) There ts no com- munity of news ‘n the Paris press. The you-please etition. This ly to the of each you have ten you ¢ y an eleventh twelfth and get mo And so the of the world is not thrown at as 1s the case wken you daily in Americ of gauze are drawn up e veils Features of the Papers. news of Fra: outside of Paris is al’ news. The budget of the s must be sufficient. Bordeaux is not s what Chicago is to New York; is not to Paris what Philad ia to New York. Paris is the r of Lyons, Paris is the wax. This crowning madr tion is nowh more di to the Outsider than In the The Temps is @ great paper. Although an ing paper, it 1s larger, richer and more important than most of the «reat morning papers. And It should be said immediately that in Paris our distinction ef morning and evening papers has no veal For exampl the Temps, ich comes cut late this evening, will hive news more complete and accurate aad even later in date than will be found in the popular Petit Journal of tomorrow morning, with its boasted circulation of @ reillion copies daily. Therefore take the Temps and look at its provincial news, the whole of it. Here is the news of France according to the soberest, largest, richest paper of the capital. From Montpellier came the story of a mayor who had profited by his situa- tion to violate six graves, in order to fence @ corner ef a cemetery into his own land; from Dijon the story of a mayor who drew his revolver on the editor of a daily paper who had criticised him; from Carcasonne the note of a socialist meeting; from Villeneuve-Saint-Georges the question of the naming of a street; from Lyons a dis- Le Journal. pute between silk manufacturers and their mer; from Marseilles the important fact that’ a lady there holds notes of Max Lebaudy, the young spendthrift million- aire. From Aix was the bestowal by the min- istes of war of a medal for heroic con- due: on a nun; from Valence-sur-Rhone the accident of M. Joseph Demoulin, a notary, who, mistaking a bottle of am- monia for a purgative, died in great suf- feri from Lyons the man cut into pieces; from Toulouse the latest news of the electoral frauds; from Angouleme the trial of an ex-notary who set fire to a forest; from Amiens the trial of a Bame- keeper who murdered a boy; from Mon- taulon the arrest of a butler for a theft of money belonging to a regiment; from Angouleme the acquittal of an anarchist; lastly, from Perignan the news that sm glers are bringing Spanish tobacco ove the frontier. I have picked and chosen nothing. This is all the news of France. Importance of Financial Articles. Compare it with the Soir and this news of the Temps will seem imposing in its great variety. The Soir has the shooting mayor of Dijon, an anarchist from Besan- con, and the grave-desecrating mayor from Moatpellier—all in a quarter of a column. The Scir, which is also an evening paper, is that one which disclosed the celebrated blackmai practices in which many Faris edit d managers are implicated and whose imvestigation 1s scarcely yet be- ». In this matter the Soir was sued by the editor of the Paris for defamation of *. ‘The suit resui in the jailing he editor of the Paris. Naturally the enlarges on its victory in a double i column. “Arrest of M. Canivet! are not going to abuse our triumph, we are not of these who stamp the bellies of their fallen But—et news the Soir is stronger, giving salth of Minister Hanatoux and Col. Chamoin. It has the reception of a grand duke by the president, some consular and marine appointments, the “affair Favette,” a@ report cf a session of the municipal coun- mere complete even than that of the Temps or Debais, and, to complete its loco news, some seven good anecdotes of murders, accidents and suicides. In_for- eign dispatches the Soir, being a late night ent paper, is richer than the majority its second and third-class_contempor- It has a column and a half of dou- Then there is a half page of valuable ertistic and theatrical items sandwiched with paid notices. There a half page of sporting news, that is to the Auteuil races, sandwiched in with five advertisements of professional tp- sters. These, with the death of M. Bur- deau, which has the place of honor, with the bourse reports and some advertise- meats, make up the Soir, a 3-cent evening becau: their feet up: of aries. ble-leaded matter. Readers of L'intransigesant. paper, coming out in su ive editions, one as late as 10 p.m. All French papers attach great importance to the bourse, the exchange of money and international The greater morning papers and emps and Debats among the evening papers present to their readers weekly long essay vritten by specialists, on financial questions. Before this sentence be printetd in America it may be com- mon news by ¢: that, In the present blackmailing of the Paris press, some of these precious “essays” in some rs—naming none—will have achieved unpleasing notoriety. Vhird-Class Evening Papers. ‘The provincial news of third-class even- ing dailies, e. g., the Cocarde, is brief. Of what, then, is the Cocarde made up? It is a l-cent evening paper, edited by no less a personage than Maurice Barres, @ young man of great intellect, who 1s trying to introduce ideas into the Paris press. Alphonso Daudet has recently said thet the future of French literature rests with young Maurice Barres and a few men of his stamp. The paper is full of essa on burning topics—Capt. Dreyfus, patriot- ism, socialism, haracter in art,’ parlia- mentary impressions, bibliography and a good comic poem against all deputies in general, and especially against all persons decorated with the Legion of Honor. ‘There are third-class evening papers which have no foreign dispatches. All is taken up in literature, local horrors, “reve- lations” and the personal opinions of edi- ters on every subject under the sun. Take the Patrie, for instance. It is a 1-cent paper, ultra-patriotic in the Boulangist serse. Its name“is ‘“Patrie,”” and it is all for France, France, France. Its editor is a famous man, Lucien Millevoye, who was ts—Le Temps. led to believe in the negro Norton's docu- ments, supposed to have been stolen from the English embassy. When the forgery was discovered Millevoye had to resign his position as a deputy. A Swarm of Journals. To even hastily sum up the Paris evening papers would take more space than is de- sirable, even though the interest Is not lacking. There are twenty of them. A bare mention of them must suffice. Of the Cocarde and the Soir enough has been said. Of the Courrier du Soir there is little to be sad, except that it contains a prodigious amiount of railway advertising. The Debats needs a notice by itself. The France is an old paper, now fallen to an afternoon sheet, ing in successive editions with large . The Gazette de France ts the aper of the country. It is still y legitimist. It detests the republic in spite of the pope and considers “Catholic socialism” no better than Free Masonry, which latter means something very differ- n continental Europe from what is un- ood by it in America and England. Jour is a paper with gigantic headlines. Liberte is a rather colorless sheet, erate in its tone. The Monde is an old iolic organ, whi has recently gone socialis: against the archbishop oz Paris, but un- tion of the pope, as it is said. had great influence. holic paper has ary real political infty n France. ‘the National is fifty-seven years old. The Nation comes out from day to day. Its editor is in At the outse resolved to make no list of Paris editors in jail. I slipped into the error en this one occasion because there yas no other thing to say about the Nation. is that evening paper which did an any other to bring about the sian war. It is now simply an th large headlines. The Paris is a sensational paper, with head- lines. Its editor is in beg pardon. The Peit Moniteur is a little edition of the paper which was official under the empire, the famous Moniteur. It is still imperialist and small influence. The Republique Fran- ceise is the organ of Meline, the great pro- der the prot In its day the Monde At the present time no tectionist. Its opponent, the Siecle, is a morning paper, under the free trade influ- ence of Yves Guyot. But France is so firm- ly protectionist that the discussion of these topics brings small circulation to either. The Signal is a political paper, under Prot- estant evangelical influence. The Terre de France is an evening sheet recently got hold of by our old friend the Marquis de Mores. This will be sufficient to describe it to Americans. Just now Mores declares that Engiand is the real enemy. The Uni- vers has always been a Catholic paper. It had for its founder Louis Veuillot, a great writer. It is still carried on by his brother, but having recently gone over to ‘Catholic sccialism,” it is in disfavor with the old- fashioned abbes. Compared, as they must be, with the morning papers, the Temps and Debats are still grave. Indeed, few morning papers have anything like the actual amount of news of either of these two great evening sheets. Of their same class there are only four morning papers, the Figaro, the Soleil, the Eclair and the Matin. The Gaulois, on account of its being the organ of aristo- cratic society, might be classed as a first- class journal; but those who look in it for news must be content with the movements of duchesses. In a literary sense the Figaro has always had the highest name. In criticism, de- bates and the investigation of social ques- tions it is quite on a level with the great English weeklies and even the monthlies. Don’t Care for News. Of the second-class morning papers there are the Echo de Paris and the Gil Blas, both very literary and both devoted to the demi-monde; the Eyenen-ent, which tries to make a specialty of the Boulevard; the Journal, which pays great attention to literature; the Voltaire and the Consti- tutfonelle. Of all these papers, first or sec- ond-class, the Eclair and Matin are re- markable for news. But the third-class merning dailies throw aside all thought of news and revel in the eloquence of their proprietors. Oh, that there was space to give some extracts of the word-painting of the Petit Journal when it curses Amer- icans, Englishmen, Germans, Italians and Paris Newshoys. every othe- people! Oh, that one could give some of the pen pictures of the Petit sien, the Petite Republique, the Petit and the Autorite! The latter is er of the patriot Cz gnac. The Abbe Garnier protects workingmen in the Peuple Francais. Rochefort, from his exile in London, scolds everybody in the In- transigeant. The Lanterne corrupts youth with improper stories. Justice is sold for 1 cent; it is purely the organ of Clemenceau. The editor, manager and chief reporter of the Nineteenth Century are in jail. But the Rappel, the Radicale, the Paix and the Estafette are all respectable—and so, ac- cording to the Paris thought, are ail—un- interesting. For real, true eloquence, take up the Libre Parole. It is the paper of the aston- ishing louard Drumont. He never speaks of M. Ricard, the deputy, Belle’ ¥a : stomach, whose gests to Drumont’s s the danse du ventre. Under the title of “A French Reptile,” one of his editors whacks at the Gaulois, the Figaro and the Temps itself! Itis the Dreyfus affair again. “The Gazette de Munich has been distanced. M. Bucheron, called Saint-Ge! t, jealous of the laurels conquered by that German snake, has thrown yesterday, upon the min- ister of war, a full portion of insults, in comparison with which the ordures of the Bavarian sheet are nice.” What is all this about? Simply an article in the Figa Suggesting it would be weil to go siow in the Dreyfus treason ‘The Temps and i as being of the : 1 by the synagogue. The Libre Parole once called the Marauis de Mores a “merchwnt of tripe,” referring to his cattle raising venture on our west- ern plains. It is sald of Henry Strauss, un- fortunately now in jail, that he would “skin an egg.” Then, almost equaling, as it does, our own Sunday press in literature, surpassing us in headlines and personal at- tacks, abounding in advertisesnents, even in the midst of reading matter, the French press surpasses American newspayers in all but one thing—new: RLING HEILIG. RESTLESS CHILDRE The Fact Explained From a Scientitic Standpoint. From the Nineteenth Century. The movements and habits of a young baby seem so strange to us because they are so different from those made by adul and because they are so unconsciously per formed. Joy is expressed by muscular movements, by wriggling of the hands and toes, or by convulsive beatings of the arm when it is small; by “jigging,” when it is larger. These movements are expfessive of Joy because to any animal of highly-devel- oped muscular energy, movement is abso- lutely essential, and particularly pleasing, while stillness is the reverse. It is muscu- lar excitement, chiefly no doubt electrical, a heritage from ancestors who knew not what it was to be still, that gives that rest- lessness to children and causes them to find so much pleasure in mere motion and mus- cular exertion of any kind. Jumping for joy is very literally correct of a child's expression of pleasure. ‘The prospect of a sweet will excite a series of leaps to indicate delight, and they further serve the purpose of relieving the tedium of waiting the half second necessary to the denation. The pleasure of finding a bird's nest with the egg in it-a pleasure which must have been very real sometimes in the case of hungry monkeys and savage man, but is now only a survival of the instinct thus formed—this pleasure a boy expressed by a series of convulsive leaps into the air, and during the performance not only w the arms and iegs moved as much as pos- sible, but the muscles of the stomach and vecal organs had to be utilized to cause ac- companying shouts. It may be remarked that in adults, when limb movements are less active, shouts are, on account of the muscular action involved, a necessary accompaniment of joy, notice- able in ’Arry on a bank holiday; while in some cases expletives are symptomatic of joy and not of anger. All these outward sings have had their origin in that nerve- excitation inducing muscular action which is a heritage from ancestors who, impelled by hunger, by love, or by war, led more active lives and thereby obtained a desire for motion as a second nature. Children and young lambs are very famil- far examples; and so strongly will the latter pursue their gambols and racings that a broken heart is sometimes a cause of death in the middle of a sudden gallop. If chil- dren have to be still it is torture to the pcsitive torture in some cases—and grown- up people are unaware how much, or they would not thoughtfully inflict it on young children. Muscular ache, the fidgets, grow- ing pain in the limbs, are all the result of enforéed inactivity in children. It is similar with athletes; their muscular excitement is so strong that movement is pleasure, still- ness means pain, and they are noted for restlessnes: ee Ree A Possible Remedy. From Puck. Smith. ‘There is no doubt that some- thing will have te be done to make foot ball less dangerous.” Jones---“How would it do to make it more dangerous by adding the pessibility of the penitentiary?” Matrimonial. From the Indianapolis Journal. “Do you remember that letter you wrote to me before we were married, in which you said you would even give up your chances of heaven for me?” remarked Mrs. Peck. “Well,” said Mr. N. Peck, after he had got hold cf his hat and had the door open, “I guess I told the truth.” PLANT LIFE MARVELS Some Curious Facts About the Giant Flowers of Sumatra. SPIDER FLOWERS ‘OF SOUTH AFRICA Tropical Plants of Astonishing Size and Great Beauty. A FAMOUS LILY Written for The Evening Star. HE DEVELOP- ment of plant life is a page from the wonderland of nat- ural history. At the beginning of a line we have microscopic plants that are difft- cult to distinguish from animals; at the end we might place the giant redwoods or the colossi of the Calaveras gro ve— = trees centuries old, that tower high in air hundreds of feet above the pines, and others that look up to them as the giants of plant life. Giants are found in the ranks of animal life; but they do not attract so much at- tention or appeal to us as abnormally large plants. I shall never forget the feel- ing I experienced when in the California coast range I entered an ancient grove of redwoods. The giants that probably saw the ships of Drake, and possibly the car- avels of Cabullo in 1542, were gone, cut down and burned; but from the outer cirele of the trunks had grown a girdle of younger trees, one hundred feet high in some cases, that steod extending their limbs and branches to the vast hollow space that once marked the interior of the parent tree. I did not measure the trunk spaces of the old trees, but each inclosure would have held a large house, or two or three hundred people could have crowded into it. One of the most remarkable discoveries, sensational in every particular, comes from Sumatra. Some years ago several botan- sts were traveling through the country in arch of things in plant life, when » natives toid them of a giguntic flower, ribing it in such weird terms that they did not believe the account; but de: at fii on? day Dr. Arnold, one of the party, came upon the wonder. He was not only amazed, but dumfounded, the strange ob- ject that met his view impression upon him. tell the truth, had I t had been no witnes have been fearful men aking a profound ater he id: “To en alone and there I should, I think, ‘mentioning the of jons of this flower, so much does it exceed every flower 1 have ever seen or heard of.’” A Gigantic Flower. Passing from the bush to some trees, the discoverer was confronted by a gixantic | flower, apparently growing alone, without | leaves or verdure, from the ground. The | petals, five in number, were thick and | fleshy, over an inch in thickness, while the | center presented the appearance of a bow! | | | from which projected curious spikes. The | entire flower was nearly four feet across each petal weighed almost three pounds, and the entire flower, if it could have been held up, would have entirely concealed the person holding it. The flower weighed in some specimens twenty-five or — thirty | pounds. The nectary alone could catch | az hold twelve pinis of water, The new discovery was startling in many ways. It was a flower without leaves or anything but the attachment to the I= a_complete puzz! dat first it looked like a gigantic toadstool that had taken the form of a flower. Tipping one of the | flowers over, it was found that it gr from a delicate leafless stem not larger than two fin, and was, in a won- | derful flower parasite growing and de ing its sustenance from the body of a huge vine that in turn wound about the trees of the forest. The story of this flower was received with incredulity, but it has since been seen by many, and been named after Sir Stamford Raffles, Ratllesia. Higher Than a Man. No one would have thought of finding in Sumatra a giant ally of the litle “wake robin;” but such a discovery came to Bee- cari and amazed him equally as much as did the Rafflesia Dr. Arnold. Beccari also had heard rumors from the natives of a flower higher than a man, and that at/ certain times gave out an odor that was fatal to man or beast. The Italian natur- alist did not believe the latter, and deter- mined to make a vigorous search for the man-killing plant. Finally, deep in the fore he came upon it. It resembled a | lily, but a giant; and from the center of the | flower rose a spadix that was six feet in | height—or as tall as a large man. The stalked leaves were ten feet long, the whole peculiar plant taking up an area of forty-five square feet. The diameter of the spathe was about three feet, bell shap- ed, with serrated edges of a delicate xreen tint, while upon the outside it was a rich purple hue. The odor was not poisonous, but was well calculated to keep both man and beast at a distance. A few years ago a friend of Beccari, the Marchese Corsi-Salviati_ of Florence, pre- sented a potted tuber of this plant weish- ing fifty-seven pounds to the Royal Gar- dens at Kew, England, and one night it bloomed, to the astonishment and delight of those who saw it. The plant is called the giant-arum (amospho-phallus titanum). ‘Travelers who visited or passed the Cape Negro country of Africa often heard from the natives of a plant that was part spi- der, and that growing threw its legs about in continual struggles to escape. It was the good fortune of Dr. Welwitsch to discover the origin of the legend. Stroll- ing along through a wind-swept table land country, he came upon a plant that rested low upon the ground, but had two enor- mous leaves that blew and twisted about in the wind like serpents; in fact, it looked, as the natives had said, like a gigantic spider. Its stem was four feet across and but one foot high. It had but two leaves in reality, that were six or eight feet long and split up by the wind so that they re- sembled ribbons. This is probably the most extraordinary tree known. It grows for nearly if not quite a century, but never upward beyond about a foot, simply slowly expanding until it reaches the diameter given, looking in its adult state like a singular stool on the plain from ten to eighteen feet in circumference. Giants of the Grasses. ‘When the wind came rushing in from the sea, lifting the curious ribbon-like leaves and tossing them about, it almost seemed to the discoverer that the strange plant had suddenly become imbued with life and was struggling to escape. When a descrip- ticn and picture of the plant was sent to England, it was, like many other discov- ais: discredited; but soon the plant itself was received, and today Welwitschia mira- bilis is well Known to botanists, and stands first among the unique productions of the vegetable world. . *Sthe giants of the grass tribe are the bamboes, and they attain a height of over | the one hundred feet. The rattan that does not grow very high makes up in length, attaining, according to Rumphius, in some instances a length of twelve hundred feet. The ordinary cane of commerce attains a length of five hundred feet. The bamboo must have been the bean stalk of legend, as it has been known to grow one foot in twenty-four hours in a Glasgow hot house, and in Chinese jungles it often grows from two to two and a half feet in this time, the greatest increase being observed in the night. Some of the palms afe giants, even their leaves being enormous. A leaf of the Ra- phia, a Brazilian palm, is seventy feet long and forty in diameter. Another genus, Maximiliana regia, has leaves fifty feet long, while a single leaf of the Talipat palm of Ceylon is used as a tent, some- times covering fifteen people. But of all the leaves that strike us as re- markable that of the Victoria regia is the most phenomenal. On New Year, 1837, Sir Robert Schomburgh was sailing up the Berbice river, when he discovered the fa- mous lily with leaves six and a half feet across, with a rim five inches high, bright green above and crimson beneath. Large birds are often seen standing upon them, and one grown in a hot house served as a raft for a little child. ‘The seaweeds include some remarkable forms. On the south shore of Santa Cata- lina Island the great beds of kelp form in certain places a protection, and a small steamer in which the writer made trips scmetimes anchored by hauling aboard one of the enormous leaves. The Macrocystis pyrifera grows in Antarctic waters to a length of two hundred feet, and at Ker- gnelen's Land it has been found growing upward to a length of seven hundred feet, and strong enough to hold a good-sized vessel—a veritable giant of the ocean. CHARLES FREDERICK HOLDER. oo They Mistook the Sitnation. From the Detroit Free Press, The driver of a one-horse vehicle loaded with boxes halted on Gratiot avenue and got Gown and stood off a few feet and Iccked earnestly at the horse. Four or five pedestrians came to a halt, and one of them promptly called out: "That horse has got a chill and you ought to unhitch him!" “It’s a case of the bots!’ added a second. “He's got the blind staggers, or I don't aoee anything about horses,” put in a third. Tre four or five pedestrians grew to five or ten, and then to twenty or thirty. “He's balky, eh queried a fat man as he forced his way into the crowd. Holler in his ear!" shouted a boy, who s up on balky horses. Nl you feliers git hold and push the gin!’ commanded a citizen, who ap- peared to be a born leader of men. The crowd grew to fifty—eighty—a hnun- de and the street was blocked. Men ex- amined the wheels of the wagon, the feet of the horse and the harness. The driver stood there with lines snd whip in hand, but said nothing and mede no move until man forced his way into the crowd citedly asked: then, w then why don’t you go on?” I'm goin And he put his foot on the hub of a front wheel and s ng to his seat and drove off at a sharp trot. —+0+— Carrying Burdens, € From Blackwood's M I should explain that I em up country, 156 miles from the nearest treaty port (Swatow), and that my harness is “made in China, principally from bits of string. Then half an hour of waiting while Alt Nyi fills himself with rice as you stoke an engine for a long run, measuring out the amount of fuel necessary and methodic: ucking it away. actuated apparently by a | sense of duty rather than by appetite. This done, he proceeds to strap my impedi- | menta to the ends of his kandur (carrying stick), slips his shoulders underneath and we are off. Alas! not so soon in a land of delays. After three paces he steps! It seems that the h st at one end of the kandur out- weighs the guns at the other by some e after tentatively lifting his ve, he retires, to return i i sitting down, s his thigh, and on it rolis a dozen together into a string, with which he ties a blanket and a pair of s 10 the lighter end of the burden a kes balance true. He is provokingly deliberate in his mov ments, but he is right. He has to carry firty pounds fer thirty miles b dm fall, and a very little irregularity in the | spring of his burden will put him out of his stride. See “Husbands Ordered at Eleven.” From the New Yo.k Tribune. Duplicate whist is the rage among the ladies of Buffalo, and the Commercial of that city says that wh invitations now ke this form: “Duplicate wh two tables; individual scores. Husbs may be ordered at 11.” Which moves the cynical Rochester Express to remark: breezy frankness of this is delicious, and one can imagine Buffalo husbands ing about in desperate haste each evening at 11. Doubtless they mect on the door- steps of the houses where the symposia are held, and chat and jest together over the charms and whims of their 3 their own coachmen used to do in the simple and good old days when husband nd wife went to bails together or played ‘hearts,’ each with the other for part: But those evenings are long past. e ladies rule, and the only comfort that the docile but freezing Buffalo husbands have those in now is the remembrance that in same old days ladie ometimes fell love with coachmen, and so may yet s! with affection upon husbands!” +0. A French Sleeping Woman, From the Paris Republique Francaise. At the little village of Thonelles, near St. Quentin, there is a sleeping woman who is alleged to have been asleep for no less a period than twelve years. Her name is Marguerite Bouyenval. Twelve years ago Marguerite, then a young and beautiful girl of twenty-one years of age, was delivered of a child, which died almost immediately after its birth. Some of the village goss would have it that the child had been mu dered, and so persistent were the rumors that at length a police magistrate deter- mined to investigate the matter. Accom- panied by a couple of policemen, he called on the young mother. At the sight of the policemen she fainted away, and it is al- leged that ever since she has been in a cataleptic state. Only once, when needles were stuck in her flesh, has she ever ut- tered a sound during that time. The doc- tors have tried in vain to awaken her by means of electric batteries. She is artifi- cially fed four times a day with pepsin and milk. It is said that offers have been made to her family by enterprising showmen in France and America, who want to exhibit her publicly. oo A Fervent Hope. From Dunb Animals. A man, meeting on the street Henry W. Paine, the distinguished, honest and uni- versally respected member of our Boston bar, addressed him as Mr. D—, a man of very different reputation. “I am not Mr. D—,” was the answer, “put Mr. Henry W. Paine.” “I beg your pardon,” said the man, “for making the mistake.” “I will excuse you,” replied Mr. Paine, “put I sincerely hope the devil will not make the same mistake.” From Life, things All Going His Way.” j the ci The | SOME CARD TRICKS An Explanation of Ingenious and Puzzling Pasteboard Juggling. HOW SPELLING IS ACCOMPLISHED A Peculiar Effect in Electro-Mag- netism and in Card Choosing. THE FORCING PACK (Copyright, 1894.) Written for The Evening Star. HE PROFESSION- al prestidigitateur makes frequent use of playirg cards, and many of his tricks necessitate the most skillful- sleight of hand, but the pack contains many other tricks that do not re- quire especial train- 2 od ing, and only such apparatus as a boy can easily make for himself. Some of these are very mystifying, too. Take, for instance, one which the young entertainer should style “A Lesson in Spelling.” For it he uses a complete suit of playing cards, which are arranged in the fcllowing order: 3, §, 7, ace, queen, 6, 4, 2, jack, king, 10, 9, 5. To avoid sus- picion cf previous arrangement, scatter these cards through the pack in this order, the 3 spot being nearest the top when the pack is held face up. Then say, “I will show you a very curious fact regarding the suit of clubs, showing that suit to be, in at last one branch of education, the su- perior of any suit in the pack. It is In spelling that it excels.” While speaking pretend to be earnestly shufiling- the cards, but really leave them in the same order and go on as before. “I will pick out all the clubs in the pack and e to you that i am telling the truth.” While saying this run over the pack, pick cut the arranged suit and throw them in a separate pile on the table, being careful to put each one on top of the others so the order shall be preserved. Pick them up, turn them o and the 3 spot will then , etc, “I will now ask continue, “if they can ames, using the same lists use for the raps, ‘no’ and three for ‘yes.’ "” yeu N their own de that the spi! namely, one for Rap the top of the pack with the knuckles of the right ha' the the pack being held in “Hello, King of Civ left, your peop! ? Make a ruffiing neise on the corner of the pack with the thumb, “Ah! Here comes the answi Pick up the top card and show it. ‘Three. That means yes. Now let us see if it is true.” Commence spe ing o-n-e, putting a card trom rneath the pack for e you pick up U th ca and throw t ‘ace up on the table, when it will be scen to be the ace. Then tay-o, two, throw down the two sj the top e, and as kis’ roy to be placed below we must let him that of his subje ar trick the cr anything his intelligence 28 K, , 10, every other card is placed underneath and the alternate | thrown on the table, giving 1, 2, 3, 4, ete. After doing the spelling trick you can’ pick up in this order and repeat the s form, if desired. trick in t The Power of Magnetism. Because the werd magnetism means one thing to one person and something else to another, and because so-calied animal mag: netism is so little understood any either term is a good one to use to vestigators of mystifying tricks off on the wrong track. Sometimes they can be used in card tricks, end here is one which em- ploys electro-magnetism, a close relative of the other two. ing taken a pack of cerds and sho there is no prepara- tion about them, say: “I will now culiar effect in electro-mag, n. You have many of you doubtless experimented with a rubber comb or stick of sealing wax and found what a prising amount of energy can be gener- d by a little friction. Now, by applying this principle to an ordinary pack of play- ing cards a volume of magnetic atiraction ean be generated which is little short of marvelo. (Rub the pack briskly with the hand fo oment and place it on top of an inverted glass tumbler on the table.) I place the cards on this tumbler, as glass is a non-conductor and the currents of electricity which the friction generated are x thus prevented from escaping. I then place my left hand on the table, palm down- ward, and make a few passes with the right from the wrist to the tips of the finge: ing the hand with nega- tive electr Then I place the car by one beneath the hand, thus. (Occa: ally make the passes till all the cards lie between the palm of the hand and the table). Now the positive electricity in the cards, being attracted by the negative elec- tricity in the hand, causes the cards to cling to the palm 2s you see.” Then raise the hand and the cards cling to it. Pass among the audicnce and let them. see there is “no deception.” As you return to the table, turn the hand over and show the cards’ faces and wave the hand about as much as y. n to. Whenever desired the car je to drup to the Aoor, as a finish or clima<. The Useful Pin. To accomplish this trick it is necessa at the start to stick a small pin through the calloused skin at the root of ine mid- die finger (as in fig. 1). In placing the first two cards under the hand, slide the edges between the pin and the palm, the second two at right angles to these and between them and th2 palm. (See fig. 2.) The rest of the pack can be put in hit or miss, but ulways between the first four and the paim. At a very short distance the pin is invisible, even when the hand is turned over. A very slight sidewise mot:on will cause them to drop, the pin can be in- stantly removed and’ dropped on the floor and the hands shown to be in a normal condition. The concluding trick of this article ts called “Blonde and Brunette,” and though a very simple one, it invariably proves a puzzler, and for these very reasons is just the trick for a beginner. In starting it the following address to the audience is effective, especially when coming from a youngster: “I will now show you a very peculiar experiment, the principie of which is so baflling that although I have given the matter considerable study, I have been quite unable to fathom it.” Next say to one observer: “Will you draw a card? Now please look at it cerefully, so that you may remember it. Now return it to the pack.” Don't. Don’t imagine for a moment that happiness depends upon surround- ings. It is more often the result of disposition. Don’t deceive yourself by think- ing you can succeed or be happy witha bad disposition. You cannot. Don't make the mistake of think ing you can have an amiable dispo- sition if you have bad health, or if there is anything deranged about your system. Don’t misunderstand the cause of bad feelings, irregular pains, weak- nesses and depressions. They all have a common cause. Don’t doubt what so many emi- nent persons have declared, that there is one great cause for most of the troubles of men and women— deranged kidneys. Don't deceive yourself by allow- ing thesethings torunalong. Take them in time and by the best and most scientific manner possible. Don't let any one deceive you. There is only one great remedy known to the world for the cure of kidney and liver troubles. That remedy is Warner's Safe Cure. Don’t hesitate to use it promptly and constantly, so long as you feel any of the troubles above described. It is certain to keep you well and prove “a friend in need.” turned, ond you wiil notice that I was careful to have them selected by perscns of opposite complexions. This is absolute- ly necessary, as it is through the subtle influer:ces exerted by the opposing tempera- ments that the peculiar results are ob- tained. I will not even shuffle the cards, so, you see, that even if by any possible means I could know what cards 2 drawn I certainly have no way of knowing wher> in the pack they now are. Next T will take the top card from the pack and hold it thus, with the back toward you, end ask the first person who drew to name the d drawn. Five of clubs? Very well. ‘ow watch the card closely 2. be sare T don’t change it. You see, I s! turn its face toward you, and there ycu have the five of clubs. Now I will put it back on in orcer that top of the k fo: the counte. influe: . and then pick it again in exactly same man- net, holding it b: ‘oa as before. New, will the s please state what he clubs? Clubs seem to be popular to’ Vatch me closely while I turn it ro ine of clubs it is. ‘Then again 1 place the the tabie and cut it as near t possible, and 1 would like the to choose one of the pile be, the right or the left? The well. Now please say at w counting from the top of this pil would like your card, the five of cl appear. The tenth card two--three—tour — five — six—seven—eight— nine, and the tenth card is, as you can all see, the five of clubs. Let he who drew the second card say at t number his shall appear in the other pile. Third? All right, suit yourself; it makes no difference whatever to me. One- 1 the third is the nine of clubs. Rather s e, is it not? But I have tried thi great many times, and it out just that way It ix im the Pack. ret of this trick is in the pack used, which is what is called a one-half ck here on e middie as The sev of cari S “two-card forcing pack,” that i: of it is all tives of clubs and the other nines of the same suit. On the bottom of pack there should be a different card, so that if seen it will look all right, and on the top a card like the one wn in figure 3. Have the first card drawn from above the middle of the pack and returned to the same part, and the second from below the middie, thu: d to be the five and nine o 38 In show- ing the top card, hold as in ff and it will appear to be a five or a nine, according to the way you hold it. In cutting for the trick be sure to eut exactly in and one pile will be all f the top rd, and the other aii nin the bottom ‘one. In seeming to give the choice of the right or left pile of a little dece} You be the right- left ha kim in 3 on the proper pile be easily undersico rem the ter. To make the card as sh soak a card of the clu aier a few minutes till its lave be easil arated, then peel off the front irying this, cut out two of the paste them og a five spot of cards have indicators in the c make no difference, as it is impo distinguish them at a vers Forcing packs of this or you can buy a couple of dozen packs of cards (being sure that the backs are all of the same pattern) and make up the pack to suit yourself, The extra cards will be useful in making up other specially pre- pared packs, which will be needed in the other tricks that go to make up even a smail repertory. —_—_—.__ TORPEDOES FOR DEFENSE. in figure 3 ‘pips Some Interesting eriments Made at Willets Point. From the New York Herald. Skimming over the bosom of Long Isiand sound, either on pleasure bent or commerce bound, few people realize that every foot of the bottom has been carefully surveyed, jed and platted out for a most compre- sive system of torpedo planting, which would make that approach to New York harbor practically impassable for an ene- my’s vessels. Yet such is the case, and so carefully has it Leen done that within a very short space of time lines of electric wires could be running from all directions, con- verging at Willets Point and leading to big black engines of war underneath the water, which could be touched o# at will, sending the most formidable craft to quick destruction. Most of this work has been done under the supervision of Lieut. Col. William R. King, corps of engineers, U. S. A., who is now the commander in charge of the mili- post and engineers’ school at Willets Point. He is a most capable officer and has brought the work there up to a high state of efliciency. Experiments are being con- tinualiy made with high explosives, tor- pedoe nd new devices of rious kinds, in addition to the routine instruction and practice of an engineers’ school. Mounted within the fori ion are two heavy disappearing guus, which are the in- vention of Col. King. They are so arranged as to disappear from view by the force of the concussion caused their own dis- charge, only to be loaded under cover and brought again i tion. Other p- ring gun carria being tested the Sandy Hook proving grounds, w if satisfactory, will be mounte ind embankments which are iting the arrival of the heavy ordnance. ything is being done to make this fortification one of the strongest of the chain guarding the chief city of the nation. While guns of large caliber and great power are being thus d to the works, a constant improvement of the torpedo sys- tem i going on. This kind of defense is considered the best for the location, The waters of the sound, which stretch out for miles to seaward, are comparatively calm except when stirred by some severe storm. The depth is not great at any point ad- jacent to the fort, permitting torpedoes to be at the same time both near the bottom and surface of the water, which is an ad- vantage. Nearly every system for the planting end discharging of torpedoes has been experi- To a second listener: “Will you draw one, sir? Return it to the pi , if you feel sure you can remember it.” Choosing the Cards. : Again addressing all, you say 'Now,two cerds have been drawn, examined and re- mented with at Willets Point. The plan selected, together with a complete chart of the system, has been carefully stored away in the War Department at Washington, from where they would be immediately ob- tained should it be necessary to place New York on the defensive.