Evening Star Newspaper, February 16, 1895, Page 14

14 THE EVEN NG STAR, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1895-TWENTY PAGES. CHEESE IN FRANCE Where Some of the Famous Varieties Are Made. IN THE PEACEFUL NORMAN VALLEY 2S ee * The Process of Making the Camem- bert Cheese. : THE FACTORY PRODUCT Special Corresponence of The Evening Star. HAVRE, January 30, 1895. HE BOYS IN French schools are I apt to think that cheese for dinner is an article in con- stitution of the French republic,since it is invar! ry- ed to them at the en of that meal. The French go on the pri iple that “cheese digests everything except it- self,” and so they give it at the end of eating. The !talians, for the same reason, grate it and sprinkle it in their sovp at the beginning. Thoughts of cheese come to you naturally in this land. The traveler learns to know that Gruyere is from Switzerland, that Neu- ehatel is not from the Swiss town of that name, but from Normandy near Dieppe, that Brie ts from Champagne, and that the king of all the the Camembert, is from the solitary green valleys of Nor- mandy across the Seine, where he entered France at Havre. ‘These Norman valleys are remote from any line of rait which accounts for oy, _ Cheese for Market. thelr being so little visited. They are near- est to the stations of the road lea: direct from Paris to Trouville. You leave the train at the stationgef Vimoutiers and drive ever grassy bills along a road bord ed with ay le stream with its own r ated i off on eit ‘The most s all, just reach Camembe noted for son still conta uurished the finaily led her to lotte Co: visions of liberty w go up to Paris and plunge a knife into the heart of Marat, the evolutionist. The val- ley is round, with its edges rising like an tmimense amphitheater, down the slope which red and white cows are crop: even throvgh the winter; for the clim here so near to the sea is mild enough to keep them out of doors at all seasons. In among the pasture land are rows of num- berless Normandy being the land of ci as of cheese. So few s3 this way that the answers to your first inquiries are likely to be discouraging. “Which is the house of Chariotte Corday?” “She cannot belong to these parts, we do not know her.” “But she died a long time ago," persists the tor hey guillotine@ her because she killed Marat.” “Sir, this is a country of honest people; there are no assassins here.” When you at last come upon the house, ft is a simple cottage of clay wails, held together with cross beams of wood. There The Pig Has Eaten the Cheese. is @ great, low, whitewashed room, where now hangs a picture of Marshal MacMahon, cut from an filustrated paper. Upstairs there is a garret chamber, where an old spinning wheel, strings of dried apples, and other lumber of the farmer occupy’ the room where Charlotte was born and first looked out into the world. The scene has changed since then. Then all want and misery among the count ple; and she herseif said that the s' inflamed her with ing her peop! prosperity. A beautiful meadow spreads out in front, and you can hear the butter : coming below in its turning Norwegian ch There is nothing to recall the herotne. You reach the valley of Camembert ~ course of a cle nkS pear trees be along the wi Tet, by wi et appear. Soon you pass through the hills, and the great open valley. div! the well-paved as is customary in 5 re you. The hous 1, with the inevitable apr und them. e ir fine season gre open doors, full of r 4 tle open 1 beside the new wo milions of these eses are made each year and sen y_ te Parts of G s re of imitatic are elsewhere. a which te by ‘ “ st of the lesrned to club together; Lin 3 to a central niik of ¢ erent herds of ne in divers pastures Is mingled , amd the delicacy of the old-time rt fg lost. ws are milked in the morning, at bef the sua has The ng. morning and and at once made home-made ar shaken or ex result has so a In flaver. But in the e come up of late years tion to pro ything ts even a ream is taken froin the milk to be made Into but- ter. This gives those Inferior dry Camem- berts. which are sold at a frane apiece tn the P: in markets. In the old time each farmer carried his cheeses of the week on Ty Mond morning to the market of Virmoutiors. fo pald two-fifths of @ cents for every dozen of cheeses which he had brought with him to have a place to sell them himseif. Husband and wife stood to- gether, and when their cheeses were sold they celebrated the weekly event by a din- in the village hotel. ner Nowadays they ‘The Hotel Dinner. their miik for about four cents a to the factories. It brought them ent of five cents under the old . but then they had ihe trouble of g the cheese and curing it, and the of bad sive qua nse of going to the market, sales and the dinner at the hotel. The Norman peasant is thrifty. He does not care to keep bis Camembert up to the high- est standard, in view of the temptations which the factory offers him. abert is not one of the oldest Norman cheeses. It was invented g the French revolution by a brave “s wife, whose grandchildren are still connected with its us. This was 9 attended to the dairy Madame ifarel, wh husband's farm here in the valley. st improvement was to leave all the cream in the milk, except in the months from May to Aug when at are called “lean” cheeses are made. The good Cam must still be bought from the product of the winter season. The milk just as it mes from the cows, who have been feeding on the lush gress of the same pasture, is stirred gen- tly after the rennet to curdile it has been and is then left to stand in the poured great buckets, closed by a wooden cover. The curdling has lasted long enough when to the surface no ionser The mass is a ich the finger applic receives a stain of milk. ence poured into the little form: have openings at each end, throu: the whey can drip out. hung up in nets, made of rushes, until the ‘drippiv over. Then the are earefully salted and left to dr; twenty to twenty-five days. Madame Hare! turned over this part of the work to the market dealers,carrying the cheeses to be soid when they were quite new. But this nowadays done in a ng room of the factory. By the third day num- bers of Httle brown points begin to ap- pear on the surface of the cheese After a week fine white vegetation already cov- ers them—the mold, which is the true sign of the r 1 Camembert. When the cheeses, begin to sweat and no longer I< to the fingers, they are taken to a +, where they are left piled on boards, spection day by day.When jares them done, each one 2 in paper, six are nd to- gether in straw sheaves tied with cord, and these are packed away in wicker bas- kets or wooden crates, to be sent to the distant markets. ‘The Money in It. An average Camembert cheese weighs three-fifths of a pound, and to make it nearly two quarts of milk are required. A dozen of these cheeses bring to the farmer something Ike two dollars, and a good cow through the season will be ‘orth to him a hundred dollars in cheese alone, not to speak of the butter from the summer's skimming. The whole produc- tion in t valiey amounts to nearly nition dollars each year. Two things are in the farmor’s mind as necessary to the true Camembert. The cheese not be Iarge in size, for it wou! tastek And the cows mrst be in the open fields all the winter long. for if brought to the stable their milk would lose the pre ity which it derives froma the savory grass of the valley. There isalso the superstition, or perhaps the true belief derived from experience, that, just as in the wine countries, certain slopes of the hi i more exposed to the sun, give in or to the cheese made from the of cow pasture there. But this seruple is dying away, and you cannot have now your Camembert cheese ified with a particular “cote d'or. But Camembert is only ene of the many Norman cheeses, and each valley for miles around has its own special product. It must be said, however, that the fame of the Camembert is gradually bringing all the far ‘s of this entire region to turn over their milk to great factories, re the imitation Camember is made a al ‘ine, which all the t particles of cream from the miik. The peasants say, with bated breath, that when the machine is done with it the milk is good for noth- ing but to be fed to their pigs. But their love of m ater than their love for art Id is likely to be filled with the faise cheeses. STERLING HEILIG. OVER IN Light on Underground Trains—The London Sandwich Man. London Correspondence Philadelphia Press. “What's gocd’s all English; all that tsn’t ain't.” This, for instance: Railway trains, especially the undergrounds, are Illy light- ed. No one with any respect for his eye- sight would attempt to read by the inter- mittent flickering glimmer of this wretched excuse for a light. In the carriages, how- ever, have recently been placed four so- called electric reading lamps. By putting a penny in the slot you may have the tse of one of these things. While charging the highest rates for first-class travel of any nation in the world and giving the least ion the English railway com- pantes now propose to make the passengers pay for the light or go without. The petty exactions on English railways are so nu- merous that the British public will likely lock upon this as a kindly and enterprising act. To untutored mind it looks like saying, “Railway carriages can be lighted, but we won't light them unless you pay extri Without the sandwich man the streets of London would lose some queer con- trasts this winter. Step by step in the gutter go these poor wretched creatures, trudging about bearing their strange de- vices. I am told like everything else nowadays, these unhappy waifs of human- ity are syndicated, and some man or some cempany grows rich out of their patient misery. The range of advertising these dreary fellows bear upon their shoulders is marvelous to an American. I saw a swarm of them the other day _ trooping aicng with large photographs of the As- syrian antiquities of the British Museum. ‘Fo sce these human antiquities at their best one should walk along Piccadilly and the Strand. Contrast the appearance of the sandwich man with the bill board he carries and you will have some curious combination Sea It Was in Inverse Ratio. From the Chicago Record. “You don’t want that hat, Mary,” said Mr. Muggins, who was with his wife in the milliner’s store. “It’s too big, any- how. Now, if the milliner could only take off four or five feathers it would be all * interposed the milliner, the action to the word. i have a love of a little And then, as Mr. Muggins feit for his pocket book smilingly, thinking of eccnomy he d effected, she added, it's only $50. ee He Was Sorry He Spoke. From the Cincinnati Tribune. “f~ rather yuess I am onto yoi marked the man to the folding bed. The folding bed said nothing. It merely shut up. Then so did the man. tee Evolution. suiti sweeily, “And there yi bonnet. These forms are | LAVISH UNCLE SAM He Provides the Senators With Com- forts and Luxuries. OVER A HILLION DOLLARS ANNUALLY The Senate Barber Shop and the Drug Store. ———— SOME PECULIAR ITEMS NCLE SAM IS quite accustomed to have his pockets turned inside out every few days, as the frequent issue of bonds by the Treas- ury Department at- tests. But he has so long been the object of pillage and plun- der, andit has come to be such a regular, systematic affair, that, being a good- natured chap, he seldom grumbles and less often interferes. Could he be personified and individualized and turned loose among a lot of bunco stee-ers, he would undoubt- edly gladden their hearts as one of the of green victims. The records of the government show how soft a mark he is. It has been a custom for a number of years to call attention annually to the re- port of the secretary of the United States Senate, containing his account of the ex- penditures on behalf of that expensive bedy, as one of the exhibits in this record of systematic elongation of the limb of Uncle Sam. This report shows that the poor old ap is distorted out of all sym- metry, grace and beauty. In its 200 pages, packed closely with figures, are shown the various means by which over a million dol- lars are spent annually for one reason and another in order that the country may have the Senate and that the Senate may be comfortable and happy and well attended. This report shows that there is some luxury in being a Senator after all. It has often been declare by some of the more liberal-minded people of the country that the Senators are not paid enough; that 0 a year is hardly an adequate com- pensation for men who assume such risks to their political fortunes and devote so much time to their assiduous tasks. This view, however, is not well sustained by the secret: report, which shows that the mere salary attached to the office is but a little more than one-third of the total ex- pense of running this somewhat costly es- tablishment. Where the Money Goes. At $,000 a year the cighty-eight Senators comprising the upper house receive a total of $440,000. The total expenditures on ac- count of the Senate, including salaries, mileage, etce., aggregate $1,147,902.91, leay- ing a balance beyond the salaries of $7 902.91, Of this sum $f goes to the enators for mileage to and from their residences. cers and clerks of the enate’s share of the Capitol polic 2385; and one month’s additional p: usually voted each year to the odicers and em- ployes, cau es an expenditure of $42,448.78. is, of course, is a little gratuity, a bit of generous extravagance, a legislative tip, as it wer : teresting item of all is 2 spent for “contingent expenses.” ‘Thrown into the financial pot in a lump it might not be well understood, sum ap- ted for the money of the Senate, but when it is boiled down and disintegrated, spread out in detail on the records, through the medium of the seer tary’s report, it found to ‘contain some highly interest- ing items that throw some measure of light upon the rea- sons why $5,000 a year may after ail be quite an adequate compensation for a Senator. In these days of civil service reform and tricted patronage and lack of oppor- tunities for statesmen to remember their friends by shaking the public plum tree, this contingent fund of the Senate is a great blessing. ‘Pickings” is the word to express the situation, and yet there is nothing dishonest about it; everything is all open and at board, set down in the most honest frankness in the secretary's report, detailea with an innocence that is its own defense and that defies the world. Nevertheless the interest in the situation is net abated. The Committee Never Meets. There are very many ways of doing things apparently, according to the report. For instance, it is quite possible for the Senators to hire a clerk and let the clerk do outside business while drawing pay from the government, and then hire another clerk to do the work of the first clerk, but call the second clerk “an expert,” and pay the second clerk over twice as much as the first clerk draws, and yet not do any of the work that the first clerk is supposed to do. That sounds a little complicated, but just such a situation has developed in the Senate, and the figures in support of this proposition may be obtained from the annual report. And the most curious part of it all is that the committee for which these two clerks labor so violently has Jess to do than any other committee In the Senate, and costs more probably than any other. This is the committee on corporations within the District of Columbia, a committee or- ganized years ago for a specific purpose, which was long since accomplished. It has not held a meeting within the memory of man. It has not had a bill referred to it for several legislative epochs. It has not made a report for eras. Yet {t costs the government annually for clerk hire $5,090 and is a constant drain upon the contin- gent fund for minor expenses, rent of type- writers, phonographs, other machinery,pur- chase of books, and all sorts of things. The clerk of this committee is paid $1,440 per annum and is never seen at the Capi- tol. The “expert who is employed to un- tangle the vastly intricate problems that are supposed to come before this important body receives $10 per day for his arduous labors. It is a general supposition about the Senate that this is by no means an adequate compensation for this great serv- ice that he renders. AN Due to Custom, There is a reason for all this, of course, which, while it explains an apparent ab- surdity, shows how easy it is to pull the wool over the eyes of Uncle Sam and to turn his pockets in- side out. It is one of the historic customs of the Senate never, , under any pretext, to at abolish a select com- | mittee when it has } once been organized. Hence the committee roll of the Senate become choked with subordinate organiza- tions whose fune- tions have long de- parted and which are used merely to give chairmanships to certain Senators. Every member of the majority has a committee, and unless the majority is very large there are enough select committees left over to provide some of the members of the minority with chairmanships. The advantage of this arrangement is that it gives the Senators clerks at slightly !arger salaries than are paid the clerks of Sena- tors without committees. The latter are allowed $1,200 a year, while the lowest salary for a committee clerk is $1,440, and from that sum the compensations range upward to $3,000. The latter sum is paid to the clerk of the committee on appropria- tions and is not a cent too much, because tremendous duties devolve upon this posi- tion. It is one of the most important places under the government. The committee on corporations within the District of Columbia is one that is usually given to a member of the minority, and is now so held by Senator Aldrich. It has no more:use for an “expert” than Senator Aldrich:has for water in his shoes. But Senator Aldfich, as the parliamentary and tariff leader of the republican side, needs. expert services frequently, and, in- deed, almost canstantly, especially when financial matters are before the Senate for consideration, Then the expert is a very handy piece of furniture. Thus, it will be seen that there are more ways than one of getting /at the contingent fund. Experts come high, but they must be had. Ice and Apolinaris. Senator Allen,las already called atten- tion publicly tothe expenses of the Senate in furnishing and. maintaining the restau- rant, which is fwA by an outsider for his own profit, but for the “convenience’’ of Senators and visitors at the north end of the Capitol. All;the restaurateur has to pay for is his marketing. All the furniture of the kitchen and the restaurant are fur- nished to him free, as well as coal, gas, electric lights and ice. These items are lumped into the general bilis for those articles that are paid out of the contingent fund. Here is a sample ice bill picked at random from the seeretary’s report: “‘Na- tional Capital Ice Company, for 138,941 pounds of ice furnished the United States Senate, from September 1 to 3 S93, at 30 cent8 per hundredweight, $41 ‘That is $13.89 a day for ice alone during the month of September. On page iG1 of the secretary's report, directly opposite the item just mentioned, is the note of a voucher paid October 10, 1893, amounting to $175 for ice chests and refrigerators furnished by a local firm for the Senate, the restaurant and the Maltby building. There were two refrigerators for the res- taurant, one at $85 and one at $30. On the same page, chosen as a mere sample, is this entertaining voucher, num- bered 66, and paid on the same day to a local firm of grocers: September 1, for one box of lemons, $4; September 4, for one box of lemons, $4; September 30, for sixteen boxes best lemons, at $1.50, $ for 620 pounds granulated sugar, at 512 cents, $34.10; for twenty-six cases of Apollinaris water, at $7.50, $195; total, $309.10. Lemon- ade for the Senate!’ Soft drinks for states- men! That is the simple explanation of the foregoing item. Life is not a parched and howling wilder- ness in Congress. It is sweetened with cooling drinks by the way. Statesmanship finds its inspiration in hot weather from the flowing punch bowl. It is perhaps a wise precaution, for Apollinaris lemonade is not an intoxicant, and some other sum- mer drinks are. The Apollinaris biil of the Senate for the month of July last, which is not included in the last annual report, but will be in the next, was over $1,000. This delightful beverage is served in the cloak rooms of the Senate, and, as may be imagined from the bills, enormous quan- tities are consumed. It is quite free, and that may account somewhat for its great popularily. All-Night Sessions. Another instance of the generosity of Uncle Sam to hig senatorial servants is to be found in voucher No. 281 of miscel- laneous items paid May 16, 1894, to T. L. Page, the proprietor of the Senate restau- rant, for a matter of ¥45. Of this sum 380.75 was for coffee and chocolate served in the cloak rooms of the Senate from Octo- and $48.70 for lunches rved in the finance committee room. This is a relic of the great silver repeal fight of the autumn of 1893. For many days the Senate wes in continuous session, and it was necessary to keep a quorum on hand or within cali at all hours. Hence the cof- fee and chocolate in the cloak room. The coffee served the double purpose of keeping the Senators from going out for their lunches aud of preventing somnolence during the long watches of the weary gehts when interminable speeches on noth- ing in particular were being delivered by the enemies of repeal. The lunches in the com- mittee room were served as a means of saving time, for it-was important that the members of the committee should be kept together on certain occasions. The bill for this latter iteny was probably paid on the theory that the Senators would have paid for their own hinches if they had had the but, being forced to remain in sgion, they were in a meas- guests of Uncle Sam. ure the Another relicjof the all-night sessions is to be er 3h und in youch- of miscel- laneous items on page 170 paid January 2 toa 1894, goods cal di as folloy 1807 October four pairs bianicets at $17.50 per pair, 370. Those were beautiful blankets, and they kept many a Senator snug and warm while the fight for and gainst’ repeal was ng in tumultuous ‘ury on the other side of the cloakroom doors. ‘These blankets are now stored away in the Senate for po: le use at another time when all-night sessions may be neces- sary. Barber Shop Attachment. The Senate beasts of the most luxurious barber shop in the world. This is not be- cause it is so gorgeously furnished and fitted, although it will pass inspection on those points; it is because a shave or hair cut had there is absolutely free, and there is no obligation whatever on the part of the shavee to tip the barber. This shop is run for the exclusive benefit of the Senators, and is in charge of a “skilled laborer’ at $1,000 a year, assisted by two “laborers” at $720 a year. The barber shop docs not ap- pear in any way among the items of the Secretary's report. It is one of those things generally recog- nized by those who are in a position to do so. A stranger to this unique system of finance might read the book a dozen times end not knew that such an establishment existed. I barbers are provided for on the regular rolls, and their materials are paid for out of the contingent fund, under the head of miscellaneous items. Here is a sample bill, paid to a local drug firm under voucher 322, June 28, 1804: ‘Two kundred_two-grain quinine pills at 30 certs, GO) cents; one large bottle bro- mo seltzer, 85 cents; 10 pounds camphor, at 45 cents, $5.40; 4 1-2 gallons of alcohol, $10.80; 5 galions witch hazel, $5; 3 dozen boxes of blacking, $3.30; one bottle hair tonic, 45 cents; one-half dozen essence of Jamaica ginger, $2.25; 10 gallons bay rum, $37.50; one bag salt, $1; one quart glycerine, 75 cents; 7 bottles russet leather polish, $1.40; 2 dozen boxes cafebrine pow- ders, $3; ete., etc., etc., until this particular bill reaches @ total of $129.35. A Use for Drugs. The barber shop does not consume all these drugs, but many of them are kept in stcck in the office of the sergeant-of-arms, whither the sick and wounded repair dur- ing office hours. A page with a refractory stomach that rebels at too much green fruit is prescribed for and cured with neat- ness and dispatch. A messenger, with a morning headache that speaks of a good time over night, is dosed with a powder and sent back to his post of duty in a twinkling of an eye. Even a Senator with an incipient case of malaria is saved for the public service by a timely quinine pill. The apparently unwarranted extrava- gance of* this senatorial drug store is in reality an economy, for many hours are saved the government by prompt and time- ly doses. No mention, of course, is made in the report of stocks of headache pow- ders and other matutinal refreshments kept in the cloak room for strictly personal use, but they are there just the same. Space prevents that even feebly ade- quate justice be done to this entertaining volume. ‘The “list of miscellaneous ex- penses fairly ¥eeks with interesting ex- penditures. Columns could be written of the enterprise of the government in buy- ing mineral water at $3.75 a case and get- ting a rebate by selling the empty botiles at 5 cents apieee; much couid be said of the generosity of the Senate in paying $100 for a crayon portrait of Senator Voorhees for the “use” of the committee on finan-e; allusion ought to be made in passing to the good uses to which’ the fund is put, such as the purchase of “one Bible, with apoc- rypha and concordance,” at §8. Carriage and Funeral Expenses. ‘The carriage bill of the Senate fs not a small item. The sum of $7.50 a day for the use of a hack is, of course, quite mod- < j erate. That is to be =} found noted in vouch- er 83, miscellaneous items, paid October 28, 1893, where one John Little got $135 for eighteen days’ carriage hire for the use of the committee on finance. This was legitimate, for it en- abled the finance committee to keep in touch with the Sec- retary of the Treas- ury during the silver fight. Not exactly Bo, however, with voucher 238, whereby J. F. Edwards was paid $5.35 for cab hire in March and Feb- ruary. Had this not been paid, Mr. Ed- wards, who is a messenger of the Senate, would have been $5.35 out of pocket, for he had spent that sum in taking home belated Senators. Just why or where they were belated does not appear in the report. It is appropriate, in conclusion, to note the expenses of an ample senatorial fune- ral. The funeral of the late Senator Col- quitt cost the Senate $2,823.12, not to men- tion the $5,000 paid to his widow. This expense was divided as follows: $185.60 for hack hire and general expenses incurred by the assistant sergeant-at-arms in charge of the funeral; $088 to the undertaker fcr general funeral expenses; $27.36 to a local firm for the use of folding chairs; $27.25 to a dry goods firm for black cotton and white kid gloves; $550.27 to the Pullman Car Company, divided as foilow the use of two parlor cars and $28\ buffet service in the cars, and $1, Richmond and Danville road for the move- ment of these cars. Thus, the statesmen are tenderly cared for during their terms of service and ex- pensively buried when they die. Who wouldn’t be a Senator, even at $3,000 a year? —_> THE JAPANESE HOME. The Dwellings and the Domestic Life of the Quaint Oriental People. From Harper's Bezar. 1f a man of taste should enter a Jap- anese parlor he would not fail to be sur- prised at the display of marvelous and ex- quisite taste. Yet I have often heard the saying of foreigners that “the Japanese house has no furniture, and is absolutely cheerless and empty.” This is quite wrong. I must say that they have no taste of the Japanese art, for the men of taste are agreed in saying that the art of decoration in Japan is excellent. If any one has some taste in this art he will perceive that the hanging picture on the toko wall, elaborate arrangenient of flowers, pictures on the framed partitions and all decoration, how- ever trifling, reveal infinite taste. The tastes of the western people differ so much from ours that the decoration in their chambers seems almost childish to the Japanese eyes. The gorgeous display of colors in their rooms would please our children to look at. Drawing rooms piled up from corner to corner with toys, shells, stones, dishes, spoons and different novel things always remind us of our curio shops. A bunch of flowers is stuck in a vase without form and without order. The pictures in the rooms hang perpetually, though the face of nature and feeling of man change from time to time. All these sights which we are accustomed to see in the European house excite in us nothing but wonder. Yet this is the taste of the western people; we have no right to criti- cise it. In Japan the family never gathers around one table as the European or other Asiatic peoples do, but each person has his or her own separate table, a foot square and a foot hixh, and always highly decorated. When they take their meals they kneel upon the mat, each taking his table before him, The little lacquered table generally contains a small porcelain bowl, heaped up with delictously cooked rice, and several lacquered wooden bowls containing soup or meat, and numbers of little porcelain plates with fish, radishes and the like. The way of cooking, of course, is entirely different from the European. Two pp sticks, made of lacquered bamboo or wood, silver or ivory, are used instead of knife, fork and spoon, and all people use them with great skill. All foods are’ prepared in the kitchen, so as to avoid any trouble to use knife and fork. Soup is to be drunk trom the bowl by carrying it to the mouth by hand, in the same way as people drink tea or coffee. Table etiquette has elaborate rules, which high-bred ladies end gentle- men must strictly follow. A maid servant always waits, kneeling, at a short distance, before a clean pan of boiled rice, with lac- quered tray, on which she receives and de- livers the bowls for replenishing them. Fragrant green tea is always used at the end of a meal, but sugar and cream never. Se = AT IN THE PEW. END 5 It is the Place Occupied by the Pro- tector of the Family. From the New York Sun. “It fs common enough,” sald Mr. Grate- bar, “to see a may sitting in the aisle end of a pew in church get up on the arriv. of some other member of the family, step out into the aisle to let the late comer in, and then resume his seat at the end of the pew. It seems to me that I have read that this custom originated in New England in the early days, when the men all sat by the aisle so that they could seize their uns and get out promptly in case of at- tack by Indians. We don’t have much to fear from Indians nowadays, but the seat by the aisle is stili occupied by the head of the family. He stands in the aisle while the others pass in, and then calmiy takes his place in the end seat, at the head of the line, as a sort of general protector. “Sometimes in these days (we are so very free from Indians now) the head of the family thinks it is safe for him to stay at home when he has a headache, and then the young son takes his place. I imagine that he talks it over with his mother on the way _to church, so that it is all under- stood. When they get to the pew he stands in the aisle while his sisters and his mother pass in. I fancy that his sis- ters are rather glad when they are all seated and no longer conspicuous, but up- on his mother’s face as she brushes past him into the pew there is a s of af- fectionate pride, and then he takes his seat in his father’s place and sits there with fine boyish dignity.” as . He Was of an Inquiring Mind. From the Amusing Journal, An old and respected citizen of Windsor, whose mind goes off with a wet fuse, so to speak, recently met his neighb: wife with her two little daughters. He asked: “Are these your daughters?” “Yes.” “Little girls, I presume?” “Certainly.” “They do not lock like twins.” “No, indeed. This one is ten, other is seven years old.” “The one ten years old is the older. “Yes; and the other is the younger. ou st so, Thank you, I was about to ask that.” and the oe He Had Forgotten. From the Detroit Free Press. “J dreamed of you last night,” he said to her, as one dove coos another. “And what did you dream?” she whis- pered, as she nestled close to his wings. “J dreamed you had gone to heaven and become an angel.” “Mr. Van Smith,” she said, disengaging herself iustantiy, and speaking in icy tones, ‘ou forget yourself. This was a tremendous jar to hi hat is it,darling? ed. .“What have J done?” “you said only yesterday, sir, that I was an angel.” Half an hour later he had re-established his identity. 3 feelings. he gasp- A Case of Misplaced Confidence. From the Attanta Journal. “One of the most remarkable cases of falth I have ever seen,” said a well-known physician recently, “occurred when I was a student in Philadelphia. I had a patient, an Irishman, who had a broken lez. When the plaster bandage was removed and a lighter one put in its place, I noticed that one of the pins went in with great difa- culty and I could not understand it. A weck afterward, in removing the pin, T found that it Kad stuck hard and fast and I was forced to remove it with the forceps. What was my astonishment on making an examination to find that the pin had been run through the skin twice instead of the cloth. “Why, Pat,” said L * that pin was sticking you?” “ity be shure 1 did,’ replied Pat, ‘but I thought you knowed your business and so T hilt me tongue.’ | A Duel to the Denth, From the Argonaut. Some Frenchmen were boasting of their “gffairs of honor,” when one of them, a Marseillais, declared that he had inflicted upon an antagonist the most dreadful fate that a dvelist had ever met. “How was it?” asked everybody. “J was at a hotel, and I chanced to in- sult a total stranger. It turned out that he was a fencing master. “‘Qne or the other of us,” he declared in fearful wrath, ‘will not go out of this reom alive!” “So let it be!’ I shouted in response, and then I rushed out of the rcom, locked the door behind me and left him there to diel” dn't you know Highest of all in Leavening Power.— Latest U.S. Gov’t Report Ro AN| YAFZS Baking — Powder ABSOLUTELY PURE ESCAPED MURDERERS Unfinished Chapters in Several Local Cases of Crime. DISAPPEARANCES NOT ACCOUNTED FOR Men Who Have Taken Life and Have Gone Unpunished. ~ THE PASSAGE OF YEARS T HE EXPERIENCE of the police of this city during the past quarter of a century does not verify the saying “murder will out,” for several murderers have dis- appeared as com- pletely as If the earth had opened and swallowed them. ‘The present police force was organized in 1861, and since that time the city has been the scene of many sensational murders. About ten years after the organization of the force there was a brutal murder committed in the gas house one night before Christmas. Because of the brutality of the crime and the easy manner in which the criminal es- caped the police who were on the force at the time will never forget it. Michael Lyden killed Michael Welsh. The men were neighbors and had been on the best of terms previous to the evening of the fatal meeting. But with a certain class of the residents of that section of the city in those days it was the custom to cele- brate this holiday with rum drinking. One and perhaps both men had been drinking, and-when working side by side in the gas works they had a dispute, which resulted in Lyden using his shovel on Welsh’s head. The one blow was effective. The news of the homicide was soon known to every resident of “Foggy Bottom.” Singular as it may seem, many of the residents, while not particularly glad that Welsh had been killed, were not anxious that his slayer should be prosecuted. Lyden left the gas house without being pursued, and walked leisurely to his home,a few squares distant. “He told them what he had done,” said a fri of the family the other day, “and they told him to go. And he went.” Ii is said that the police made no special effort to capture this man, who is thought to have gone to the coal felds of Pe: 1- vania and entered the mines, where in a short time a man becomes unrecognizable by his dearest and most intimate friends. Others say he went to West Virginia an worked on the railroad a while. It is per- haps the general impression that he went across the ocean to his native land. In connection with this case there is an interesting bit of history. While the facts vere fresh in the public mind a man in New York imparted the information to an- other that he was the muréerer of Mike Welsh. He was under the influence of Nquor at the time, and his object was to make his newly made friend believe that he was not a meek citizen. Of course, friend was told to keep the secret, whic he did not do, and the arrest of the man foliowed. The late Lieut. Guy went over to York to see the prisoner, and entering the rcom he gave vent to his surprise, when he recognized the self-confessed murderer as Dice Moran. Moran was wanted here. He had been released on bail pending a trial for robbery, and, as the police call it, had “skipped his bond.” When the late lieutenant returned, Moran came with him, and was afterward sent over the road. Two Cases of Mystery. Thomes Fitzgerald, who was known as “Tom Fitz,” killed Charles Draeger, and ike Lyden, he soon shook from his feet the dust of Washington, and so far as is known there has since been no attraction here for him. This was about eighteen years ago. The murderer, a young man, had never been a source of much comfort to his friends, and even in his younger days he had kept bad company and been the recognized leader of a gang of boys who plundered country wegons ard did other things for which they may have been pun- ished. Charles Draezer was an ambitious young man, who conducted a grocery stcre in Northeast Washingion, and whom Fitzgerald had known in his boyhood days. One Sunday morning Draeger was in his store attending to his business when in walked “Fitz” and a companion. “{ want some whisky,” was the sub- stance of his remarks addressed to the grocer, Who was a quiet, easy-going man. He did not violate the Sunday law, and he so informed the man, who had probably not been home the night before. There wes an oath uttered by the in- truder, who also threw a heavy iron weight at the grocer, whom ke imagined had offended him. The blow proved fatal. During the inves.igaticn of the case the police made many searches, watched the mails and trains, but to no purpose. The only information they obteined was that the murderer had gone to the coal mines. At the time he committed the murder he was not alone, and his companion has since been sent to the penitentiary for an- other crime. In 1883 there was another murderer who escaped, and, like the others mentioned, he is still at large. This man was named Lucius Johnson, a heavy-set colored man, who killed a boy named King Howe, at 3d and M streets southwest. The affair happened late at night, when several col- ored men met young Howe and others on the sidewalk. It seemed that the colored men claimed the entire sidewalk, and be- cause ing Howe, who had only been here from the country a few weeks, did rot move fast enough for him, there was a quarrel, which ended in the Killing of the boy Lucius Johnson was well known here, both to the police and citizens of South Washington, and strenuous efforts were effect his capture. r int sevel He remained al weeks dress- ed in female wearing apparel, end when he thought the cceast wes clear he took a beat from a wharf near the point and went across the river to Pencote woods, from there made his way down through southern Maryland. They Also Escaped. nothe alraost ter named John Hain man, % ‘This occurred in the first ward, not far and lieideman from 20th and E streets, and some colored lends w ible for the affair. The huckster was to his business at the time and the strect, when he was The starting of the affair was re- garded as an alleged joke on the part of th2 colored men, but ihe huckster failed to see where the joke came in, when he saw his stock being ruincd, and it was while de- fending himself and property that he was shot and killed. After threatening tan- guage had been indulged in Hciceman went off, borrowed the pist and, upon his re- turn to the place, killed Haines. The last seen of the murderer was when he ran in the direction of the river and dis- appeared in the marsh. It was about sun- down when the effair happened, and it was thought that he lived in the marsh several days, but concerning this the police have changed their mi ds, and they now believe he left the city the evening the murder was committed. ‘The last crime of this kind In which tae culprit escaped arrest and punishment was enacted on the sidewalk at the corner of 3d and B streets less than two years ago. An old man nam: John Schoppech was stabbed after he had figured in a quarrel in a barber shop, and, although in his ante- mortem statement he declared he did not know the name of his assailant, the police will always believe that he did not con- fine himse!f entirety to the truth. ago these cases were called to the attertion of the police, when the Mexican authorities sent word here that a man in Monterey, while drunk, had said he killed a man here. His name was given as A. K. Travis. Descriptions of some cf the missing murderers were sent to Mexico, ae nothing has since been heard from there. > GOLD IN ALASKA, er How Placer Mining is Being De- veloped. - From the New York Herald. From all reports, the great gold fields to be developed are ir Africa and Alaska. English capital has been turned toward the African fields, and, as a result, it has become a less inviting region to the pros- pector. The more hazardous gold hunters are already 1,800 miles up the Yukon river, in Alaska, delving into a wild, unexplored country covered with goid-bearing gulches from Point Barrow, in the Arctic ocean, to the head waicrs of the Lewis river, southeast of Juneau. it was known years ago that rich placer grounds were plentiful in this vast terri- ; tory, but there were no means of reaching j the country until two years ago, when the | North Americaa Transportation and Trad- |ing Company established trading posts | along the Yukon as far as Fort Cudahy, which was built more than a year ago, and is the terminus for two steamer trips to be made this year. Only one trip was made last year, but Fort Cudahy—named aficr Joan Cudahy, the rival of Philip Armour of Chicago— was hardly started before it was populated by 600 miners and persons who follow stampedes. I learned much that was both new and interesting about this country in a chat with General Manager John J. Healy and Col. P. B. Weare, the president of the North American Company, who stopped several days at the Astor House this week, while purchasing goods for the trading posis along the Yukon river and the Ber- ing sca. To begia with, Col Weare tells me, no man should go into that far-away feld without a roll of from $700 to $1,000— a “stake,” es mincrs call it. The mining season last four months and will be well along before he reaches the fields. No encouragement is offered to credulous adventurers who see visions of ground strewn with goid nuggets. During the winter months—and winter comes pretty near absorbing the other seasons—the miners move from the diggings which lie from 40 to 1,000 miles from the river to Fort Cudahy, and there spend their money in such ways as are common to improvident persors in mining camps, or save it if they are thrifty The rewards are certain and the cost of living is surprisingly small. So far as is known there is an almost endless tract of country dotted with guiches along the streams flowing into the Yukon, which preduce from one to six ounces of clean blown gold dust a day to the miner. One miner alone took $1 a day from his claim last season, and dirt that pays very much better has been discovered in pockets, el- though the district within the narrow radi- us where the miners are now working has hardly been scratched over. Labor in the placers is worth $10 a day. The ground is cradled after the primitive fashion ef the early days. There is plenty of water, but so far no mining has been carried on by companies. A man who has a good cleim near the Yukon will some- times hire four or five men and make good profits. \ The Jew's Harp. From the London Daily News. Reference is made in the new “Quarter- ly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund” to a paragraph which appeared re- cently in the Daily News on the subject of that strangely named instrument, the Jew’s harp. Why a Jew’s harp? it has often becn asked, and no satisfactory so- lution, £0 far as we are aware, has ever been afforded. The writer fn the Pales- tine Exploration Fund's organ thinks the term may be derived frem “jeu-harpe,” or toy harp. This suggestion is not new, for it is to be found in Richardson's Diction- ary and other works of reference, but if is clearly madmissible. In French “ is a toy, not “jeu,” and, moreover, “jeu” is a substantive, and cannot possibly be employed 2s an adjective. it is more likely that Jew’s barp is a corruption of a word that had a somewhat similar scund. It is not impossible that it is de- rived from the French word “guimbarde, which refers to the same instrument, or peesibly from the word unknown, whence his was derived. The difference between “guimberde” and Jew's harp is, after all, less than that between “eveque” and “bishep,” which are both from pus.” The tendency to convert unknown words into words that are known is very common, and may be illustrated by “‘spar- rewgrass” from asparagus. ——_—_-oo—_____ Consumption of Alcohol. From All the Year Round. In 1885 the consumption of beer In Eng- land was 32 galions per head; in Scotland 16, and in Ireland 16; the consumption of cider in England, 0.4, and none at all in the other two countries; the consumption of spirits in England, 0.8; in Scotland, 1.9; in Ireland, 1; the consumption of wine 0.5 in England, 0.5 in Scotland, and 0.2 in Ire- land. The English drinker’s partiality for beer and the Scotch and the Irish drinker’s preference for spirits is clearly shown. When these amounts are converted into their equivalents of alcohol we see that Ireland censumes least—1.4 gallons per head, Scotland comes next with 16 and England heads ihe list with 2.13 gallons of alechol for each man, woman and child of the population; this, by a curious and undesigned coincidence, is just undcr ene ounce a dey per head, the quantity which so many medical authorities assume can be safely taken—the physiological quantity which the country has heard so much of late years. Children seldom teuch alcohol, most women take little, and many men do not take any at ali; so that the habitaal con- sumers of alcohol, whether they drink to e or not, get through three or four timts the amount which the leading med- ical authorities assert should not be ex- ceeded, a The Dend Babe. Last night, as my dear babe lay dead, In agony I kneit and said: n¢ 1 What have T done, Or in what wise oMended Thee, That Thou showld’st take away from me My Uttle son? take my little sen? vent Thy wrath upon Why should’st ‘fhon 5 ‘This inmocent it, as my doar Last nig’ Before im! Of th Licentious riv Forgotten pre: Dark red wasted life pherd, in whose keep ey lit y Wieder undedied, 2 ms be ehfldiess now, Tam content; to iim I bow Who knoweth best. From Good News. Small Son (look! with top scored). isn’t it?” Mother (surprised)—“Why, res. How did you know?” Smaii Son—“Easy ‘novgh. Lock at the marks of the barbed wirs fenca” at plece of roast pork, That's western pork, “