Evening Star Newspaper, March 23, 1895, Page 18

18 CHINA’S TEA TRADE The Effect of the War on This Busi- ness. flOW TEA IS FREPARED FOR THE MARKET Methods of Adulteration and the Coloring of Green Tea. - IN CHINA (Copyrighted, 1895, by Frark G. Carpenter.) ILL THE WAR IN W cniaa affect the tea trade? This is a matter which is agitating the merchants, and which will soon be of interest to tea drink- ers all over the Unit- ed States. The tea buds" have already sprouted, and by the first of May the new crops will begin to come into the mar- Fast steamers are now on their way kets. from Europe and Russia to China. They go by the Mediterranean and Suez canal, and they stop at Ceylon and Singapore. They go from hence to Shanghai and up the Yang-tse-Kiang 700 miles into the interior of China. They siop at the city of Han- kow, which is the greatest tea market in the world. Here they load as quickly as possible and steam back home as fast as they can. These tea ships run a race every year, and the steamer which gets in first receives the highest price for its tea. The first of the tea crop is considered the best, and should the Yangtse river be clos- ed by war in May it will result in a great loss to the tea merchants. The prices of Japanese tea will certainly be increased, and its export will probably be greater than ever. The Japanese tea is by no méans so good as that of China. It is nerve-cxciting, and if it stands it becomes bitter. The majority of people of this country do not know what good tea is. ‘fhey like green tea, and they mix the green and black together in a most bar- barous way. They think they are paying a bigh price when they give $1 for a pound ‘Ten Pickers. of tea, and it will be surprising to many of them to know that there is tea in China which is worth $25 a pound, and I have heard of tea which costs more than $100 a pound. Yerhaps the most costly tea ever brought to this country was some Indian tea which was presented to Benjamin Harrison while ke was President of the United States. It came from a great tea company in Cey- lon, and it was presented in a tea caddy made of an elephant’s foot, which had been hollowed out into a beautiful box. This contained several pounds of tea of 2 very choice variety, and in the cen- ter of the box there, was « little casket containing a handful ‘or so of tea which was worth $150 a pound, and was, per- haps, the..costliest tea in existence. The tea outside of this was delicious, but the $150 tea was a drink for the gods. Presi- dent Harrison ‘showed the tea to his friends, and now and then had a drawing made for those who were closest to him. One day a western Senator who knew as much about tea as a cow does about choc- olate carameis spent an evening at the White House. During his stay President Harrison spoke of this wonderful tea and said he would give him a bit of it, sup- posing, of course, the man would under- stand that he would have a drawing made and they would sip, it together. He sent one of the servants for the precious cask- et of one hundred and-fifty dollar tea and handed it over to the Senator to examine. The Senator. took it and looked at it, and then said, “I am much obliged, indeed, Mr. President, ahd: I -wili take it home to the madam.” He thereupon put the box in his pocket. One of the President's official family, Wno was present at the time, told me of the incident, and I asked him as to what the President did. : “What could he do?” was the reply. “He couldn't ask the man to give it back with- out offending him, and the result was that he carried away the box, which was worth more than its weight in gold, and which I venture was no more appreciated by the people who got it than the poorest cf the Japanese variety.” E What Good Tea Is. The Chinese tea which we get for a dol- lar a pound brings about twenty-five cents a ponnd in China, and what the Chinese call good tea is worth at least a dollar a pound wholesale in Chind, and it would bring in the United States two dollars a pound. Tea which costs ten dollars a pound is by no means uncommon among rich Chinamien, and there are some Chi- nese nabobs who serve up fifty dollar tea to their guests. The man who knows noth- ing of tea, but thinks he knows a good deal, wants the liguor to be dark colored and considers this a sign of strength. The best Chinese tea Is often as clear as crys- tal, and the color of good tea should be a very light yellow, hardly as dark as light amber. The first’ leaves of the tea vlant are the tenderest and the first picking, of course, brings the most money. We use every year about eleven million dollars’ worth of Chinese tea, and we are fast 1 coming big consumers of Ceylon and In- dian tea. I have traveled through the tea district of the Himalaya mountains, and have tasted the tea which grows on the border of Thibet. This is said to be the natural home of the tea plant, and it is claimed that the tea was taken from here to China and there grown. The En- glish now have vast tea plantatious in In- dia and these are increasing every year. The Chinese do not think that milk nor sugar should be used with tea. Boiling Packing Tea. water should be poured over the tea, Tut the tea should by no means be boiled. T was treated to a cup of tea during a visit I made. to How Qua, the famous millionaire of Canton. This mau is said to be worth fifty million dollars, and the tea which the servants brovght in was about the coler of Georgia pine. The Yangtse-kiang is the river which runs right through the center of the Chi- nese empire, cutting the country almost in half. I was told that the best teas were raised south of this river, and that no good tea could be grown above it. The great central tea market is, as I have said, at Hankow. Here there are vast tea facto- ries and tea warehouses, and the very air is filled with tea. I visited many of the factories during my stay, and the methods of preparing the tea for market are by no means of an appetizing nature. Just out- THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1895-TWENTY PAGES. 5 + side one of the largest establishments I saw a half-neked coolie who had pulled off his gown and was picking out of the seams certain unmentionable animals, which he cracked between his fingers and ate. A moment later I saw. that same coolie, with his pantaloons pulled up to his knees, standing in a box of tea which was about to be shipped to England, and treading the leaves within it in order to pack them closely to ship them. A dozen other coolies, also in their bare feet, were engaged in the same work. Tne weather was warm, and the perspiration was rolilng down their yel- low skins, and was, I judge, readily ab- sorbed by the tea in the boxes. In another part of the establishment I saw a lot of Curing Tea. Chinese girls, who had feet no bigger than your fists, picking over tea. Their feet, which were bandaged, were half-covered with the leaves of the second-grade tea, which they had thrown down into the bas- Kets below them, as they were rapidly handling the leaves, sorting over each and every one of the thousands of tiny bits of green before them. At Amoy I was told that a vast amount of tea was spoiled about a year or so ago. It was so ruined by dampness or something that the Chi- nese would not use it. The factors then spread it out on the dirty wharves, where it was mixed with all kinds of foul stuff, and dried for shipment to America and England. I have heard it stated that the tea grounds of some Chinese restaurants are taken out and redried and in some czses shipped to America. I doubt this very much, but it is true that the Chinese use their tea grounds over and over again, selling them to the poorer classes. ‘he Preparation of the tea for the market is almost altogether by hand. The tea dis- tricts are generally hilly and they ure laid out in beautiful terraces. About Foochow there are 40,000 men and women who do nothing but act as pack animals for the carrying of tea. They have it packed in baskets which they carry on poles across their shoulders up and down the mountain passes. They get abcut 25 cents a day. It costs about 2 cents a pound to pick the tea and there are a numper of local taxes which will now probapiy pe greatly in- creased on account of the war. How Brick Tea is Made. Great quantities of tea are exported to Russia and Mongolia every year in shape of bricks. These are made of the lower grades of tea and of tea dust. The leayes are ground up and steamed and cooked un- til they are soft and mushy. They are then Pat into molds about the size of an or- dinary brick and are pressed into shape, so that they become as hard as chocolate cakes. The finer varieties are molded into small cakes, in fact, of just about the size of the smallcakes of sweet chocolate which you buy in the candy stores. I visited sev- eral of the factories in Hankow, which make this kind of tea, and the process was even less appetizing than that which I described as to the ordinary tea. The factories, in the first place, are very warm. The steaming tea is handled by dirty coo- lies, and it is sweetened by perspiration. After the bricks are finished they are car- ried by boats up the rivers and canals to Tientsin, and from thence go on camels in- to Mongolia and on to Russia. There are about sixty bricks in one package, and they are so arranged that they can be carried en camels. This brick tea takes the place of money in many parts of Asia, and in Mongolia it passes as currency, each brick being worth from fifteen to twenty cents. The Mongols divide a brick into thirty equal parts. They boil it with milk, butter, sheep fat and salt, using camel dung for fuel. I visited one of the largest of the brick tea factories in Hankow,,and I met Russians there who were making for- tunes out of shipping brick tea to Russia. Some of the factories employ more than a thousand hands, and the business is almost as great as that of shipping tea to Europe. The Decline of the Tea Trade. The Chinese tea trade has been declining fcr years, and this war will be a terrible bicw to it. India is fast pushing its way into the tea markets of the world, and you find good Indian tea now sold all over the United States. The trade has practically grown up within the past twenty-five years, and since 1870 the Chinese markets have been steadily declining. In 1870 Eng- land imported ten million pounds of tea from Assam. Ten years Jater it was tak- ing more than sixty million pounds, and there are now more than a quarter of a million acres of tea plantations in India. The Chinese have been adulterating their tea, and they have been steadily losing ground, while the Japanese and the Indian merchants have been gaining... The Indian tea now brings a higher price in the Eng- lish markets than the Chinese tea, and not half as much of the Chinese tea is used as was twenty-five years ago. 1 had a chanc: to see something of the tea planta- ticns of India during a journey which I made six years ago to Darjiling, in the Himalaya mountains. Th{s’city is more than a mile above the sea, and -you ride for a long distance through well-kept tea A Private Opium Den. gardens, the bushes of which are very much like those of our currants. These gardens turn out more then three hundred pounds of tea per acre, and there are five pickings, beginning in March and ending in November. The most of the tea plants are raised from the seed. The tea seeds are of about the size of a hazelnut. They gre sown in nurseries in December and January, and by April the sprouts are ready to be transplanted. The best soil is virgin forest land, and the richer the bet- ter. The plants begin to bear in their third year, and they reach their best yield in their ninth year, after which the bush be- gins to decline. The Indian tea is general- ly grown in large plantations. The Chi- nese tea comes from. little patches scat- tered over the country, and the holdings are generally small. In China the tea plant is in full leaf during the latter part of May, at which time is the second pick- ing. A good tea tree will yield from ten to twenty ounces of leaf, and the best pick- ers average about fifteen pounds a day. The wages for such persons !s from six to eight cents per day, and women and chil- dren do the work. The most of the Japan- ese tea is now fired in copper or iron pans, which are set into bake ovens and kept hot by fires under them. A great deal of the Chinese tea is dried over charcoal in a sieve, being rubbed with the hand until the contents are perfectly dry and the leaves become dark. Green Tea and Black Tea. It is supposed by many in this country that green tea is caused by the copper basins in which the tea is fired. This is so to a certain extent, but there is a natural green tea, that is, a green tea produced without the use of coloring matter. Any kind of tea may be made green or black, according to the length of time of firing. If the tea is picked when not yet ripe and fired quickly it will have a green color. This green, however, is often produced hy putting indigo and soapstone into the dry- ing pans, and I met a tea merchant in Japan who told me that most of the green tea was colored in this way and not with copperas. The natural color of the tea leaf is green, and the purest of tea, which is known as the sun-dried tea, is of a green color. We are now using a great-deal of the Formosa tea, which ranks as one of the best teas of the world. Some varieties of this tea cost $25 and upward a pound, and quite a lot of Indian and Japan téa~has been put upon the market as Formosa tea. It will surprise many people to. know what an immense number of tea drinkers there are in the world. Great Britain is said to drink 100,000,000 cups of tea per day, and every man, woman or child in Great Britain consumes five pounds of tea every year. The Australians are the great- est tea drinkers in the world, and they average over seven pounds per year. They take a great deal of Chinese and Indian teas. The greatest consumers of the Jap- anese teas are the United States and Can- ada, and we take the bulk of the Japanese teas. Tea drinking is increasing in America, and the English drink more tea and less coffee every year. The Japanese and Chinese are drinking tea :ll the time, and a visitor is served with a cup whenever he calls. It is estimated that there are 500,000,000 tea drinkers in China and India. The Chinese and Opium. I am told that the falling off of the tea crop of China is more than made up by the increase in the opium product. Opium is grown now all over China, and there are plantations of it in the north beyond the Chinese wall. I was greeted with the sick- ‘ening smell of opium wherever I went, and in the city of Foochow, which is about as big as St. Louis, there are one thousand registered opium dens. Shanghai is filled with opium joints, and the biggest opium den in the world is to be found there. It is an immense three-story building covering what would be about one-half of an Ameri- can city block, and it is furnished as gor- geously as were the caves of Monte Cristo. The cushions of the beds are of the finest velvet, and the frames of the couches are inlaid with mother-of-pearl. There are hundreds of rooms, and when I visited this den, the air was blue with opium smoke. Upon some of the beds men and women laid together and smoked side by side. There were haggard old men and fresh yeung boys smoking together, and there were manderins in silks and coolies in rags in the different rooms. The entrance was lighted with the electric light, and the whole of the interior was made up of the finest carvings of costly teak wood. The different rooms were graded, and you could get a smoke here for a few cents, ur pay- ing nearly as high as a dollar for some of the pipes and the most gorgeously fitted up rooms. A great deal of the smoking is done in the private houses, and it is as common in China for your host to offer you a pipe of opfum as it is in America to be offered a cup of tea or a glass of wine. ‘There is considerable discussion among the fereigners of China as to the effect of opium upon those who use it. It is claimed by many that the habit is no worse than that of drinking, and a re- port from the hospital in Canton shows that the moderate opium smoker gains flesh rather than loses it. The effect of smoking opium is said to be less injurious than that of eating it, and the Chinese use the drug’ differently from us. We take it to make us sleep. The Chinaman uses it as we do wine, to stimulate conversation, sand two Chinese gentlemen will lie and smoke for hours while they chatter to one another. The habit is very costly, and the poorest of the Chinese cannot afford to smoke a great deal. There are thousands of moderate opium smokers in China, just as there are thousands of moderate drink- ers in the United States, and the number of smokers is said to be increasing. At the present time I wes told that about one- tenth of the people smoke opium, and I heard many instances of men having ruin- ed themselves by the habit. All of the hospitals which are kept up by the mis- sionaries have many patients who wish to be cured of opium smoking, and some of the wealthy Chinamen buy certain kinds of food with a hope of strengthening them- selves against it. I saw a number of opium sots in China. They are called by the peo- ple opium devils, and not a few of them smoke themselves into their graves. Now and then one of the mandarins will try to stop the traffic in his district,and the taxes on opium are always high. The great Chang Chi Tung, the viceroy of Hangkow, made such an attempt during my stay in China, but it was a failure, and the opium saloons are as wide open as ever. FRANK G. CARPENTER. —— ee TOOTH WoRMs. The Chinese Dentixt Looks for Them When the Teeth Ache. From the London Public Opinion. It would seem that in dentistry, as well as in ways that are dark, “the heathen Chinee is peculiar,” and in the Journal of the British Dental Association for January Mr. C. Robbins has communicated some curious essays on the subject written in English by Chinese students at the Anglo- Chinese College, Foochow. They describe ir quaint language the performance of the dentists, who are usually itinerants of the Sequah order. “Now let me advert to the practice of arresting the tooth worms. One of my relatives was once attacked by a severe cold, and after the cold was broken up by restoring activity to his skin he had a neu- ralgia, which gave him such an intense suffering that he could neither eat nor repcse, but moaned with a voice so audible and so plaintive that it sent a thrill to the heart of every one in the house. On the seccnd day his suffering increased to a remarkable degree; indeed, it is imposstble even at this distant period to reflect with- cut horror on the miseries of his tooth- ache state. Finally he submitted to the cperation .of a woman dentist, whose egency was to arrest tooth worms. Her general operation is as follows: A chdp- stick and a silver pin are the only instru- ments she requires in her normal act. She is willing to exhibit them to any one who conceives an inclination of discerning her trickery. She brings the chopstick in con- tact with the diseased tooth and cautious- ly pokes it through with a pin in search of the odious worms; after a while scrapes out a lump of yellow minute worms on the chepstick, and immerses it in a cup of water. Each lump consists of from ¢en to fifteen worms, and sometimes 200 or 300 worms are scraped, if the patient makes an exact bargain at first that the fee should be defrayed according to the num- ber of worms scraped. The general fee is 400 cash (1s. 2d.), and only the poor may take advantage of being in penury to pay 200 cash.” = ————-+e«+______ THE BALTIC SHIP CANAL. How It Will Make and Unmake Var- ious European Ports. : From the London Satuntay Review. — Germany does well to make the formal opening of the great Baltic ship canal next June a ceremonial affair of the first magni- tude. When ships of the largest burden can pass by a protected short cut of sixty length from the North sea to the tne ugliest as well as the oldest proble of North European navigation will have been solved. Incidentally it will destroy what little remains of Denmark's commercial importance. Copenhagen has endeavored to forestall disaster by making itself into a free port, and spending large sums of money upon doek and harbor fmprovements, but we fear all in vain. It is incredible that any shipping will hereafter be sent into Danish waters, to round the tiresome Jutland pen- insula and brave the dangers of thé treach- erous passage of the sound, which can take advantage of the shorter and entirely safe route across Holstein. Where the ecmmercial supremacy of the Baltic will resettle itself, when once it quits Copen- hagen, is not clear. Hamburg is very con- fident about its own succession to those rich honors. Ancient Lubeck is projecting an Elbe-Trave canal, by means of which she hopes to divert the increased trafiic and wealth to herself. The Courland port of Libau has spent £250,000 in enlarging its facilities for the competition, and even St. Petersburg, which, with its new deep- water dock in the Neva, becomes a seaport this year for the first time, has. visions of maritime greatness based on this novel rearrangement of trade currents. While these rival claims are as yet in the air the advantages to British shipping are tangi- ble and immediate. Not least among these advantages may be counted the increased incentives to peace which the financial im- portance of keeping this great canal open will give to the German empire. cee An Exception. From the Clothier and Furnisher. Young man (to stranger)—“Do you believe in_ advertising?” Stranger (emphatically)—“No, sir.” Young. man—“That’s strange. What's your business?” “Prison keeper!" PERILOUS FREIGHT o Discussing the NewLaw on the Ship- ment of Explosives. —— fo A RAIL AND 488. CLUB SESSION Stealing a Car fend of Dynamite by Mistal, fe Powder.» eet. Se cal 4 PRECAUTIONS ADOPTED era pce Writtea Exclusively for The,Evening Star. = HE RESOLUTION hen) a tadopted by the late & SS I Congress calling for S : an investigation into 2 the mode of shipping high and low explo- sives as freight on ‘steamship and car lines was before the “Rail and Tie Club” one night recently. ‘The points in the res- ~ olution were argued pro and con, and a = great deal of discus- sion indulged in, terminating with a vote of thanks for the passage of the bill. Then the talk drifted toward story tell- ing, in which dynamite and ordinary gun- powder figured as important parts. “The one feature in the bill that I ob- ject to,” a veteran of the throttle said, “is that which declares car loads of powder or other explosives must be separated by three cars not loaded with explosives. Now, suppose there are five ear loads to be ship- ped. That will make up a train of seven- teen cars; as now transported over the railroads the five cars would be hauled on the rear of a train coupled together. It has been demonstrated that three-fourths of the explosions on railroads of this kind of freight have been caused by concussion. The smashing of cars will produce friction resulting in sparks flying as from flint, and the disaster follows. “In cases like these the trainmen know where to look for trouble and govern them- selves accordingly. In the event of five cars, loaded with high explosives, being on one train under the new law, there will be no telling at what point the fun will be- gin. I have seen cars ten lengths back from a run-in smashed as badly as those directly at the point of collision. Imagine, fellows, a crew trying to get away from five cars of powder scattered all along the train. It would be a case of rooting under ground or being distributed around the neighborhood in bits.” A Strike Episode. “The late horrible blow up out in Seattle was the cause, no doubt, of the bill coming out,” spoke up a smart-looking brakeman. “Had the cars been properly marked out there, about half the lives would have been sacrificed. That is one good thing the bill insists on, carrying a black flag with every car of powder.” “There's anothe¥, Jim,” spoke up a com- panion brakeman,”“it" will insure careful handling of trains!“an¢ the infernal ‘push- ers’ will couple ub behind a leetle more gently.” wader you fel- In\"77, Bab?” called out gineer, back in a 5 You ‘were with the boys on that tri i it wasn’t a very dull one elther.” (4) & “So were you, yi replied the mai “Why don’t you Tco bashful, eh? my best, although: I go over that at “Well, boy®: tyS-,1%e trip wasn’t very duil, and he’ , dead right. When we went intg the 'stfike in "77 everybody became exclted,-and J winstadmit we mix- .ed things ap for the comppmies and the is r le throttle jerker,” jsnated as | “Bob.” the story yourself. ight, old pal, I'll do kes me shiver when men that wet bgelé on ui his, you all krcw, brought out a ell for ‘militia, and, be:ng hot headed, we:thopght we would fight. But our arms were few and the am- munition less. 4 “One of the boys, bad luck to him, just in off the line the day the militia was or- dered out, said there was a car load or two of gunpowder among the cars side- tracked about ten miles this side of Cum- berland. Six’ of us stole an engine, which wasn’t vury hard to do, as the ‘hostlers’ at. the round house helped us, and we set out to steal a car of ammunition. Well, we knew the road and soon found a car. One was enough for us. After getting it out on the main track, we started for Balti- more, and on the way there concocted a scheme to whirl it into Camden station and blow things to pieces in case the mili- tia was found in charge. An Ominous Sizn. “We were young and tough then, and fighting against tougher odds. A bottle of whisky was passed arqund, and we all be- came jolly over our great plot. Then the man at the throttle becamé-reckless, ‘and over the rails we wefe scon spinning. like mad. Then came @ down grade for about a mile, and our speed inereased. The car behind us rocked like a cradle, and we all sang songs in reckless bravado. “In rounding a sharp curve the coupling link or pin broke between the tender of the engine and car, and in a second we were twenty feet apart. The man that was at the throttle lost his head, and instead of gently picking the car up again, ran away from it, and on it came, gaining speed with every jump. “Remember, boys, we were on an old ‘dinky’ engine that was hardly good for a thirty-mile-an-hour gait. Then, to add to our trouble, one of the men in looking -back discovered on the rear off side a strip of muslin about a yard long tacked to the car, upon which were about a dozen big black letters. ‘This streamer had been overlooked by us in the hurry of switching the car out from the siding. The man that made the discovery only pointed with his finger and couldn’t say a word. We all looked back at the same time, as the car shot into sight around a bend, end from the light*of our engine fire box spelled out the word ‘dyna- mite.’ “We were sobered in a second, but then it was too late and we had to fly for our lives. We knew we dare not risk the small- est shock to the car, as it was an old one and sure to smash at the least resistance. And then—well, it was ‘Kitty, bar the door.’ A Big Hole in the Ground. “Jim, over there, didn’t have the throttle at first, but He was soon in charge, and you should have seen us dusting. But the car behind us was not losing any time, but to our strained nerves seemed to be gaining on us. When Jim first grabbed the throt- tle he thought of? picking the car up not- withstanding the Tisk, but when he dis- covered that it was dynamite behind us he turned to the eld engine and set about making her do the best time she ever did in her existence. “While we -verg tumning like lightning down the road wé gota blow between the eyes that added to oursmisery. The sparks which our engifi® (was throwing out a bushel at a timé, Set fire to the top of the car, and thej wisid soon hed quite a flame darting up,jntopthe air. “On a level stYétch, we would seem to gain on the car but on a down grade, heavens, how that car crept up on us. Then we rounded a sharp curve, then an- other, and the cat w4s lost to sight. Just as we began to wonder at its disappear- ance a noise like thunder shook the ground and engine under ws, and then we knew the cause. The car had Jeft the rails at the first curve, went over and down the high embankment, and the concussion and fire had done the rest. “But we kept on home, all the fight and whisky knocked out of us, and it was a month afterward before I saw the spot where the explosion occurred. The wheels and axles were there yet, but that was about all, and a deep hole in the side of the hill left no doubt in my mind that it was our stolen car of dynamite that did the digging. I resolved after that trip to steal no more cars.” A Ride of Peril. “Well, you fellows were lucky, but I've been luck myself,” chimed in another knight of the throttle, “only I had two cars of dynamite to.deal with instead of one. I was running a pusher between Conemaugh and Cresson up in the Alle- ghenies, helping freight and coal trains up the hill, at the time my little chase took place. “One night it was our turn to assist what was known as the national freight up the mountain. We started out from Conemaugh about midnight pushing the train, which was made up of about twelve cars of sheep, two box cars and fifteen or twenty four-wheeled coal cars. The box cars were at the rear; that is, right in front of us. We made pretty fair time up to South Fork, where the flood broke afterward, you know. Then the engine in front of the train began to steam badiy, and what with us pushing hard and it pulling by fits, it wasn’t long- before the cars were bumping and jerking pretty rough. Then I saw the conductor coming back as hard as he could. When he got within hearing he yelled: “Let up on that bumping, Jake, for God's sake! We have two cars of dyna- mite on the rear erd.’ "Did I let up? Well, you better believe I did, and mighty quick, too. I blowed for brakes, and the engineer in front an- swered, and, as the grade there is about seventy-five feet to the mile, we soon stop- ped. I sent the fireman forward to tell tke engineer in front to try and get his steam gauge up, and that I wasn't going to bump myself into eternity, if I knew it. After he was gone I discovered that the water in the tank was low, and concluded to run back to a standpipe about a mile down the track to fill it up. So, cutting the coupling myself, I dropped back to the water tank. I fcund out afterward that the crew didn’t know I had gone, and had failed to put the brakes on the last cars, thinking my engine would hold them, and being a little chary about handling brakes on the dynamite cars. The Runaway Cars. “When I reached the standpipe and was in the act of thrcwing the rubber hose into the opening of the tender I caught a glimpse of the tail lamps of the train com- ing toward me at a very high rate of speed. I knew at once what had happened The train had broken in two, and part of it was running wild down the side of the mountain toverd me. That often happens up there, you know, and there isn’t much danger in stopping the wild cars; all that is necessary is for the engineer of the ptsher to run backward slowly, so as to make the bump, when it comes, easier than if the engine was stopped. “Well, Bob, it was something like your case. You can bet I wasn’t hankering to stop two carloads of dynamite that way, and when I saw them coming I didn’t lose any time getting away from that stand- pipe. My old pusher jumped, and then lit out down the Jeruselum crickets, how she did hum in less than a minute, while the runaway cars were chasing us like the wind. Was I scared? Well, I'll ac- knowledge the corn. I think I had a spell of the chills, for I was shaking like when a man has the ague. “It wasn’t long before we began to gain on the cars and leave them further behind, and all this time I was thinking, and think- ing hard as well as fast. I knew that be- ing on the east track I might run slap bang into a train coming up, and what would be left after that wreck would be blown to the four parts of the earth when the two cars of dynamite arrived. In a case like that a man has got to think and act mighty prompt, and it didn’t take me long to form a plan. Opened the Switch. “T had a good half a-mile lead then and steadily gaining, and if I had wanted I could have had time to stop and crawl be- hind a rock up on the hillside and see the biggest display of fireworks ever known when the dynamite knocked the engine into smithereens.. But I conjured up a bet- ter scheme than that in iess time than it takes to tell. About three miles further down the road was an apandoned coal mine, with a siding connected with the east track. If I could reach it in time to throw the switch the runaway cars could be turn- ed off and do little damage beyond destroy- ing themselves. On the other hand if the night express should be near, and I knew she was about due, the consequences would be horrible if I failed. Bad predicament, wasn’t it? But, as I said, in such cases a man’s got to decide quick, and I made up my _ mind to risk it. “Well, I reached the siding, and by using sand and reversing, got my engine stopped. Then I jumped for the switch. It was rusty and bent, but fortunately not locked. I gave it a terrific jerk, got it turned, and then took to the woods as fast as my legs would carry me. I was too busy getting out of the way to watch the cars, but I heard them coming, and I remember think- ing that if they jumped the switch and kept on down the main track it wouldn't be my fault. = “Then there was a crash and a shock, which seemed to come out of the sky. I was knocked head over heels by the con- cussion of the air, and for a minute lost consciousness, my head having struck the stump of a tree. I was so weak I could hardly get back to my engine, but I man- -d io get her sidetracked and out of the y before the express came along. The company ftewarded me by clapping on a suspension for a month, but I refused to stand the layoff, and that’s the reason I'm down here talking to the members of the ‘Rail and Tie €lub’ tonigh ———— Death. Migcall_me pot! men have miscalled me much, Have given hard names and barsher thoughts to me, Keviled and evilly entreat me, Built me strange temples as an ‘unknown god, ‘rhen called me idol, devil, unclean thing, And to rude insult bowed my godbead down. Miseall me not! for men have marred my form, ‘And in the earthborn grossness of their thoughis Have coldly modeled me in their own clay, ‘Then fear to look on that themselves have made. Miscall me not! ye know not what I am, But ye shall see me face to face, and know. I take all sorrows from the sorrowful, And teach the joyful what it is to joy. I gather in my Iand-locked-harbor's clasp ‘The shattered vessels of a vexed world, And even the tiniest ripple upon life Is, to that calm sublime, as tropic storm. When other leecheraft fails the breaking brain, I, only, own the anodyne to still Tts eddies into visionless repose. ‘The fave distorted with life's latest pang, I smooth, in passing, with an angel’s wing, - And irom beneath the quiet eyelids steal ‘The hidden story of the eyes, to give A new and nobler beauty to the vest. ‘Belie me not! the plagues that walk the earth, ‘The wasting pain, the sudden agony, Famine and war and pestilence, and all ‘The terrors that have darkened round my name, These are the works of life, they are not mine; Vex when I tarry, vanish when I come, Instantly melting’ into perfect peace, As at hie word, whose master spirit am, The troubled waters slept on Galilee. ‘Tender Tam, not cruel; when I take ‘The shape most hard to human eyes, and pluck The little baby dlossom yet unblown, *Tis but to graft it on a kindlier stem, And leaping o'er the perilous years of growth, Unwept of sorrow, and unscathed of wrong, Clothe it at once With rich maturity. "Tis I that gave a soul to memory; For round the follies of the bad I throw ‘The mantle of a kind forgetfulness; But canonized in dear love's calendar, I sanctify the good for evermore. Miscall me not! my generous fullness lends Home to the homeless, to the friendless frie To the starved babe the mother’s tender bre Wealth to the poor, and to the restless—rest ! —HERMAN MERD —se<s—_ > Vaseline on Shoes. Use vaseline on your new shoes instead of any kind of polish. Vaseline put on at night and well rubbed in will soften and soak in the shoe by morning, and after ten minutes’ wearing a polish comes on the shoe as pretty as when new. It is so much better than polish, for that will stiffen and rot the leather, no matter how highly it is prajsed. If the vaseline alone does not seem to suit your requirements mix a little lamp black with it, and it will be all you can ask. —+e+—____ Business Went On. From the Chicago Tribune. A bow of crape was tied to a saloon door knob on Wabash avenue. The blinds were drawn, and on the door was a card on which was printed: “Please go to the Side Entrance Until After the Funeral.” poe eee ee ay How Electricity Kills. From the Cleveland Leader. The very interesting and valuable ex- periments which Dr. A. M. Bleile of the Ohio State University has been making with regard to the effects of electric shocks upon animal organism have reached a stage where a working theory can be predicated upon the results obtained. This theory is a complete departure from that most com- monly accepted. It has been supposed that the cause of death in cases of electrocution was the breaking down of the tissues. But the elaborate experiments which Professer Bleile has made during the last month or more leave no doubt in his mind that death results ftom “a very different cause., He has found by experimenting with a fa) ALE. number of dogs that an electric shock of | sufficient intensity to cause death resiiits in a contraction of the arteries so that they, refuse to perform their functions. This throws the blood from the veins upon the, heart and virtually drowns the operation of that organ. — ON PEARY’S EXPEDITION. Perfect-Reliance Was Placed in Paine’s —~ Celery Compound, Yh “When I. was selected by Lieut. Peary to ac- company him on his trip to the Arctic regions to try and find.a,way to the north pole,” says Mr. James W. Davidson in The Fourth Estate, “it was partly because of my strong, healthy constitutioa, and his belief that I could erdvre the fatigue and danger incident to the trip. I had been associated with him as his business manager on his lecturing tour, and was on terms of the greatest intimacy with bim. “When the ship Falcon left New York on her trip northwards ft had among the stores several eeses of Paine's celery compourd. The reputation of tlint medicine was Well established, so that it was the most natural thing in the world that the memters of the party, and they comprised men from geariy -every welk in life, from common sailors to men of science, should desire to use it. ‘Phe record: of our perilous trip to Camp Anni- versary is too well known to need repetition. Once it cam we natarally took an inventory of our possessions, and I was exceedingly glad to find ‘Paine’s celery compound. The medicine chest was open to all, and we were free to take from it what we thought advisable. I, in company with | ecveral others, setected rome of the compound, taking a bottle of it to my cabin, knowing that it would be handy when wanted. Nor was I mis- taken, for the excessive cold-weather soon bad | its effect, and I began to be troubled in a number of ways. In every case whenever I felt the clight- est indisposition, I used the compound, and fount relief. “One thing noticeable in the Arctic region was that the cold weather made us all exceedingly nervous. We became irritable and cross. Our nerves were all unstrung, and naturally it affect- ed our health. I talked the matter over with some of the others, avd made up my mind that possibly the e-lery compound would be beneficial, for I knew that it was used for nervons disorders at home. Well, sir, we .ried it, and I must say that it help every one of us. “When the long night of six months came on | 2nd we were in darkness, we found that the ef- fects were very depressing. Imagine, if you can, living for six months in darkne's such as occurs here every night, and you can readily understand how we were situated. It is a wonder that some of us did not go mad. We had not very mach to divert our attention, and the effect was something like solitary confinement in a dark cell. “I have used Paine’s celery compound for a-dozen ils such as a person is liable to have at any time, and especially in that desolate country. It has always‘helped me, and I should be pleased to have more of it should I go north again. “I do not know of my one thing I can say more of than Puine's celery compound, It <er- tainly is a great medicisie, and T’am an advocate of it.” WEALTH TO POVERTY. A Once Gifted Songstress With Barely Enough to Sustain Life. Fiom the Philadelphia Times. In that stony region given over to board- ing houses near 15th street and 3d avenue, in the city of New York, there lives in a small hall room a gray, withered woman whose gifts once made her famous. Her face is pailid and drawn, and around her sunken, black eyes are dark circles. She speaks to no one and only gocs out in the evening to get a meal at some cheap res- taurant on the East Side. And this woman is Mrs. Strakosch, nee Clara Louise Kel- logg. There is hardly a music-loving Phila- delphian who will fail to recall her. In 1835 Miss Kellogg was credited with a fortune of $200,000, and she was greedy for more. No poor were relieved by her bounty and her professional associates spoke of her as a hard, mercenary, grasping woman, who did not even enjoy her money. G. W. Stebbins, a dashing Wall street op- erator, was her financial adviser, and in 1865 he made a bold dash for a fortune in company with a well-known speculator named Marsden, who had graduated on a Kansas tecomotive engine and was a reck- less adventurer. The attempt was made to corner Rock Island stock, and Miss Kel- logg permitted Stebbins to use her money in the affair. The shorts were getting seared when a block of 10,000 shares that was supposed to be held in trust and out of the market was offered for sale, and the corner burst. Stebbins and Marsden disap- peared utterly and all of Miss Kellogg’s money was lost. Her voice was in its prime and she work- ed like a slave, making such close bargains that her managers could scarce make a liv- ing, and money rolled in. Some of her friends persuaded her to let stocks alone and invest in city real estate, and this she did te great advantage, but dealt in stecks on the sly. In 1872 Northwest railroad was suppcsed to be in a bad way. Every broker on the street had private information as to its coming insolvency end at about §8 the stock was sold short by every one. Miss Kellogg corsulted Banker George Scott of Scott, Strong & Co., and was told that it was Wall street wisdom to buy when every- body was selling. So at 8 the songbird provided berself with 1,500 shares of North- west common. The jump came. Gould put it up to 240°and in four hours Miss Clara got 210 and came out with a big fortune. She now had an estate amounting to Falf a_ million and took good care of it until 1881, when she met an Englishman named Durfee, a plausible fellow, who wanted to establish in England a big publishing house like Norman Munro & Co.’s, turn out the same class of literature, and Mrs. Stra- kosch put in $100,000, Her returns were 50 per cent, paid out of her money, as it was afterward discovered. Abouc $400,000 was obtained from her and then the smash came. There was still a moderate compe- tency left, but this went into bucket shops and mining shares, and with this came the end. ———_-co-—_ ‘Two Deadhends. From Yashions. - Ata -ecent gathering of notable men the after-dinner chat turned upon personal ex- periences, and a distinguished jurist related this: After graduation he migrated to a west- ern town. Months of idleness, with no prospect of improvement, induced him to seek a new home. Without money to pay his fare he bcnrded a train for Nashville, intending to seek employment as reporter on one of the daily newspapers. When the conductor called for his ticket he said “I am on the staff of the of Nash- ville; I suppose you will pass me?” The conductor looked at him sharply. “The editor of that paper is in the smoker; come with me; if he identifies you, all right.” He followed the conductor into the smoker; the situation was explained; Mr. Editor said: “Oh! yes, I recognize him as one of the staff: it is all right.” Before leaving the train the lawyer again sought the editor. Why did you say you recognized me? I'm not on your paper.” “I am not the editor, elther. I’m travel- ing on his pass, and was scared to death lest you should give me away.” eRe How the Moon Took Shape. From La Nature. rs A very interesting experiment in sidereal geology was shown recently by Stanislas Meunier, at the French Academy of Sci- Tee | ences. He placed a mixture of plaster of paris and water upon a gas stove and heat- ing it quickly, so as to bring about the boiling of the water, which forces jts way out in bubbles that burst on reaching the surface, he obtained an uneven surface that resembles strangely the photographs we have of the mcon, TYPEWRITTEN WILLS. Lawyers Prefer Them Written by Hand—They Are Admissible. From the New York World. Some comment has been caused in legal circles by the fact that the will of the late J. Hood Wright, disposing of an estate of over $5,000,000, is typewritten. The will occupies more than ten pages of typewrit- ten matter, and is ioosely boynd together by a silk cord. It appears that the highest form of legal practice in the matter of wilis is that these documents, no matter how long, should all be written by hand. This is not merely the survival of an old form still ad- hered to in spite of the greater legibility of typewriting. The opinion of lawyers who practice in the surrogate’s court and have to do with the disposition of great estates is that the writing of a will affords added protection against fraud. It is said that while it would be a com- Paratively easy matter to imitate type- writing and introduce a bogus sheet some- where in the body of the document if it ran over several pages, yet that this could not so easily be done when all the matter was written by hand. In the latter case not only would the handwriting of the gen- uine document have to be imitated, which imitation would in itself be forgery and a crime, but the ink and paper would also have to be imitated. There are only a few varieties of typewriter paper, and the inks used on typewriters do not’ number more Se ~ Vright was an active m the.firm of Drexel, Morgan & Tee customed to large business transactions. His counsel was one of the best-known ) firms of lawyers in this city, under whose advice, it is presumed, he acted when draw- ing his will. At the same time the files OF the surrogate’s office show that the will of William H. Vanderbilt, disposing of an estate of over $20,000,000, was typewritten, occupying many sheets of paper. - It would undoubtedly be-an added pro- tection against frauds in wills if these doc- uments, when on separate sheets, could be bound ‘together and sealed in such a way that one sheet covld not be removed and another substituted. The law does not make such a provision, however, and wills of all kinds have been probated in this county. One will, which was long a cu- riosity in the surrogate’s office, was writ- ten in pencil on the inside of a German primer. Another will, which was probated recently in this county, was between two sheets of glass, while many wills disposing of large fortunes have been accepted, al- though written altogether in pencil It is a matter of frequent occurrence for wills to be offered for probate, many of them leaving immense sums of money, where the testator did not know how to sign his or her name, and made a-“‘mark” or cross. That “goes” before the surrogate just as well as the signature which is signed with a flourish, providing the docu- ment is properly witnessed and otherwise complies with the requirements of the law. SS5S5 The Ashes of Your Cigar. From the New York World. Recent experiments in Germany show that the more ashes a cigar leaves the bet- ter and the longer it burns. Varieties of the weed that leave a large residue are, therefore, the most desirable. The most. mature tobacco is the largest ash producer, and hence burns better and longer than the others. It is found that the best vari- elies of tobacco also leave an ash that contains little chlorine. Fertilization of the plants with sulphate of potash not only diminishes the proportion of chlorine, but increases the Guantity of ash; hence, to- bacco raisers have learned that the best results are to be obtained by the use of this substance. Me Was an Impressionist. From Fliegende Blatter. Gend’arme—“‘Here, what are you doing? Drawing plans of yonder fortress, I supe pose.”” Artist—“No, indeed. I am only sketching yonder flock of sheep.” Gend’arme (examining the sketch)—“‘Can’t see the difference. Looks as much like ont as the other. You are arrested.” 2