Evening Star Newspaper, February 8, 1896, Page 17

ON THE BOULEVARD Toys Which Are Offered for Sale on the Paris Streets. NOTFOR THE AMUSEMENT OF CHILDREN They Represent the Ideas Which Aré Interesting the Public. POLITICAL SUBJECTS Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. PARIS, January 28, 1896. MEY AR#& NOT sold in the toy shops, the fin-de-siecle tcys of the Paris boule- vard. Their selling place is the open street, where they are hawked about by hoarse-voiced miser- ables and persuasive, red-faced old ladies. They are not expen- sive toys, but very cheap ones. There- fore the rich buy them willingly. They are supposed to be for children, like other toys, yet few of those who buy them, laughing, have a child at home to take them to. The Paris boule- vard ts broad and bright and gay. It is a street for loafing and laughter. These toys are of the boulevard. They and their hawkers are a part of the mise-en-scene, like the cafe chairs and tables on the side- walk, like the darting cabs, the colored ad- vertising posters, the shop windows, the loafing guides and interpreters, the theatri- cal photographs, the book stalls, the news- Paper kiosks and the everchanging, chat- tering crowd. The boulevard is very much of a fraud; but it Is a pleesing fraud, to which the tourist returns again and again. The toys sold by the fakirs of the boulevard are frauds all through. They will not hold to- gether half a day; their paint comes off, and frequently they will not function, as they say in French. Still you will buy them gleefully and play with them for half an hour, because they are not common tcys. The mark of these novelties is what the French call actuality. Actualities are everything in Paris. Just now Arton is an actuality, because he is going to be brought back to France; and Otero is an actuality, because she left France; Mazas prison is an actuality, because so many blackmailing gentlemen are down there: and the Chate- let Theater is an actuality, because there is talk of making it a theater-iyrique, for French composers. Actuality means news of the day, political, social, 2ducational, scandalous, sporting, or what not. But, as the Parisians regularly know nothing of the outside world, to be an actuality the man or thing must be Parisian. Of course. along great lines, Parisians keep touch with what goes on outside. For instance, they know that most of the uropean countries still have kings. The enly sensible ard honest government in t world bejng a republic based on the princi ple of ministerial responsibility to a cham- er of deputies, the fact that there are still kings in the world strikes the Parisians as amusing. The game of the “royal massa- ere” has had s me success this year, as it has always had, in the workingmen’s dis- tricts, where they still hate kings instead of being merely indifferent to them. But ordinarily a king must do something in or- der to become a Paris actuality. La Perfide Albion. The foremost of these fin-de-siecle toys of the moment have to do with money and prisons. Money is represented by the gold- mine shares seller, the exploiter of the South African gold fields. He is a little tin man, stout and bald, with a fur- lined coat, plug hat and massive watch chain, standing -be- hind an auctioneers counter covered with bags of gold. In each hand he holds out a bundle of mining stocks. The whole be- ing on wheels, his arms are made to agitate the mselves violently as he is pulled along; so he is al Ways fluttering his wild-cat shares, while a bell in his stomach makes a tinkling sound. It is a melancholy toy for most Parisians, for there are few who have not dropped some hundreds of franes in these goid speculations. They could not manu- facture the shares jn London quickly enough for the Parisians. Now everyone is cursing la perfide Albion again. France is again betrayed! They have taken our money fom us! And the Marquis de Mores wants Mr. Barney Barnato impris- oned the next time he comes to Franc Mazas prison has been a Paris actuatity more or less continually for the past four years. The toys based on it have been numberless. Regularly they are simply small models of a prison, with the word Mazas in terrible letters across its front. It is a good joke to put one on an empty cafe table and wait for the looks and re- marks of those who handle it. First there were the Panama people who went down to Mazas. Next came the anarchists, including the newspaper men sent down under the new press laws. Then came the maitres- chanteurs, who have been continuing ever “Chan| m since. means to sing, but “chantage” ms blackmailing—to make people sing. When the excitement over, newspaper blackmailing became too great, they needed a new word for the new high- class thug. Wagner's “Meistersinger” was just being talked of for the opera, and so the French translation—“‘Maitreschanteurs” —took its rise, to indicate these new Parisian figures — master-blackmailers, men high- placed in every walk of life, who ask for money, or will tell the cecrets they find out. This taste for blackmailing has eaten deeply into Parisian life. Nobody appears to be safe from it—because nobody appears to be inno- cent. You can easily blackmail a guilty man. The very government officers are hampered in their prosecutions by this con- sideration. To Mazas, the depot of accused persons, prisoners are taken In one of those peculiar vehicles called “‘salad-baskets,” which form the model of another boulevard toy of the hour. The “salad-basket” 1s simply our Biack Maria, except that it is divided into many small compartments, like a Paris huckster’s salad pannier. This toy selis for fteen cents, as it has two horses, a door that opens, with a movable municipal guard side. : ‘The people sit out on the Paris boulevard all winter, in front of the cafes and bras- series, at ‘thelr little sidewalk tables, after the manner eternally described by tourists and newspaper correspondents. In winter they drink hot chocolate instead of beer— that is all. They are always in touch with the street—and the street has always its cries. ‘The Panama Ditcher” has passed sway, with the hopes of the completion of the Panama canal. “President Carnot making his bow” no longer is seen or heard of. Even the always-delight- ful puzzle of “making the four pigs diseppear and show the face of Bis- marck” is out of date. Toys pass, but the toy sellers remain. And thelr wares, as they cry them, show more clearly than any other sign tne ideas agitating Paris at this moment. i “The Bug Arton!”” The fakir, or camelot, a dirty, hungry- looking boy, is crying out the name of Arton, the now historic go-between of Baron Reinach and the corrupted Panama depu- ties. Arton is the man the Paris police have been trying not to find for the “past three years. Will he be brought from London to Paris, and will he then be tried for his part in that corruption? This toy says that Arton has wings like a big gold-hug, and so can fly away when he gets ready. It is the same oid tin bug that crawls and buzzes as it has done on the sidewalks of New York and London for the past two years and more. Only its head is changed to an alleged likeness of Arton. Cornelius Herz, the other Pan- amist—‘‘the sick man of Bournemouth’’—Iis represented by a plas- ter-of-paris figurine. Herz has been sick unto death—according to doctors’ reports and government commissions—for the past three years. But the people do not believe that he is sick, and so this little statuette, which shows him with a nightcap and the colic, finds steady purchasers. Suppose that you are out walking with your wifes You buy one of these toys. While yaying for it you have an opportunity of delivering a lecture on corruption in high places, show- ing yourself to be a man of good principles and good sense, a lecture that you can re- Peat to visitors who note the figure on your parlor mantelpiece. So much for toys of political significance. A person may become an actuality and merit a toy called by his name for many another reason. When Miss Loie Fuller was at the height of her vogue in Paris her name was oftener on people's lips than that of Sarah Bernhardt or Jane Hading. A dozen toys were made and sold to imitate her color-spangled serpentine dance. The people would buy a paper doll trimmed round with multi-colored gauze, if sold in her name, where they would not look at nicer dolls without a name. Why? Perhaps because it gave a sub- ject for conversation. So the late la- mented young spendthrift millionaire Le- baudy had no end. of toys named after him. Once he gave a private bull fight, importing bulls and toreadors from Spain. It created a sensation, because to have a Public bull fight would have been against the law, and people had a chance to say: “You see the rich can do exactly as they please.” Next week out came a mechani- cal contrivance by which a gaily painted little leaden bull fighter was constantly retreating from a buil around a circle, and they called it “Max, the French Bull Fighter!" The peculiar railway accident of the Gare Montparnasse, where a locomo- tive engine went plump through a second- story window and out into the street, gave rise to a pasteboard model of the interesting event, whose chief use is to send, as a delicate attention, to friends or relatives about to take a railway trip. One of the steadiest sellers of all these boulevard toys is “The Little Dancer of the Moulin Rouge,” whict itself particularly to tourists. Its con- struction is exactly that of a jumping jack that works by means of a_ string that you pull, only instead of a jack there fs a pretty girl with a big hat and very blonde hair, and when she kicks she kicks high. Dur- ing the “war with Madagascar” an In- dia rubber figure of the queen of that un- happy island had g success. Just now the old ~ple of the “Heart Thermometer” is being utilized in a new direction. The heart thermometer, sold at all the European country fairs, is a glass bulb with a long tube protruding from it, after the fashion of a very large thermometer. The bulb contains some volatile liquid which can be set to boiling by the heat of the hand. The present toy utilizes this boiling property. Sometimes it is a club man in a cradle, sucking on a bettle labeled “Absinthe Pernod.” Judged by the test of the toys of the boulevard the most popular man in France today is President Felix Faure, and the most popular women the notorious Spanish dancer, “Otero.” The late lamented Carnot was never actually popular. He was looked cn as a cold, correct man. His toy carica- ture was a wooden image of himself, dressed in correct evening clothes, which made a bow and tipped its hat whenever the string was pulled. President Casimir Perier so shocked and humiliated the French peo- ple that his successor, Faure, came in on the high tide of national wounded pride, to begin with. This popularity has never waned. ‘The Tanner President,” a wood- en figure that beats a piece of skin with a wooden hammer, is his contribution to the gayety of Paris, and all in the best of good feeling. STERLING HEILIG. ee English Actors in America. From the Pall Mall Gazette. There is this season, fer once in a way, a bad theatrical harvest in America. None of the English companies out there is doing too well. Even Sir Henry Irving has not had such great good fortune as on pre- vicus occasions, and some of ithe new Co- lumbuses had better heve stayed at home. One very big and expensive company, which during its first week in New York drew $11,000, suffered a loss of custom during the second week to the extent of nearly a half. Perhaps the cream has been taken off the pail, and in future English companies will have other difficulties than the mere raising of the outward passage money. After that, all the rest was easy a few yeers ago. A good English company with a good piece or a classical repertory only had to go, out there. They had nothing to beat. But the Americans in the drama, as in everything else, have taken to making for themselves. There is a strong home- made competition that the English import- ed goods have now to meet. The kicking soubrette and the barnstormer are no longer types of the American drama. They have learned to act over there, and they have learned to produce. The na- tional smartness and enterprise mark the American manager as much as the busi- ‘The two most notable suc- cesses of the present season ‘n London, “Trilby” and “The Prisoner of* Zenda," were American productions. It was the enterprising American manager who first saw the dramatic possibilities of these two books by English authors, and it is to the enterprising American manager that ca- pable dramatists are now beginning to look for profitable commissions. For the good English author and the good English actor America will always be a country as long as the American language holds out, but there is every sign that the golden days heve gone by in America for the English touring company. —+o+___ Passes and Passes. ‘From the Woonsocket (R. I.) Reporter. The hypnotist smiled confidently. “Yes,” said he, “by making a few passes I oan cause a man to go to any part of the city I caper “Hm!” said the railroad magnate, “I can do the same thing and send a man clear from here to San Francisco.” ABOUT THE FAMILIES Varying Fortunes of the Ohildren of Presidents. A PENSION PROVIDED FOR THE WIDOWS Recent Death Here of the Son of the Tenth President. gee AID FROM CITIZENS a A SON OF A PRESI- dent of the United States died a few days ago in this city, where he had lived in poverty and ob- scurity for a number of years. Once he lived in the White House and went to the Capitol with the messages of the President, his father. His name was John 7 Tyler, and he was ie son of the tenth President of the United States. He drew a pension of $8 a fionth for service in the Mexican war until his death. For a number of years in the latter part of his life he held a po- sition in the department service in Wash- ington, but the changes of politics threw him out, and he was unable to obtain re- instatement. The problem, “What shall we do with our ex-Presidents?” is not nearly so important as “What shall we ‘io with the families of our ex-Presidents?” for of late years the ex-Presidents have taken care of them- elves, or have been cared for by their friends, but this kindness has not been extended always to their families. And the son of a President of the United States is handicapped for life. “My greatest mis- fortune is that I am the son of the Presi- dent,” said the child of a chief executive. Presidents’ wives have been cared for by Congress. Pensions of $5,000 a year have been granted to five of them—Mrs. Tyler, Mrs. Polk, Mrs. (rant, Mrs. Lin- coln and Mrs. Garfield. Mrs. Grant is com- paratively rich, the result of the success of her husband’s memoirs, and Mrs. Garfield has a very comfortable fortune, contributed by some rich friends of her late husband. As a rule, Presidents’ sons have shown themselves amply able to care for them- selves. John Adams left a fortune of $50,- 000 to his son, John Quincy Adams, but the younger Adams had been elected Pres- ident of the United States before he re- ceived his father’s bequest. He was a man of great mental capacity, and he was am- ply able to make his own way in the world. Jefferson's children were not so fortunate. He was so poor that he sold his library to Congress for $23,000 (about one-quarter of its value), and later he indorsed a note for $20,000 for a friend, which he Ss com- pelled to pay. He was in danger then of losing Monticello, but Philip Hone, mayor of New York, raised $8,000 in that city in 1826, and the people of Philadelphia and Baltimore added $5,000 and $3,000, respec’ ively; to the sum, so chat Jefferso1 soivent. His daughter, Mrs. Randolph, and her children, who had been with him’ dur- ing his last years, were !eft penniless, and Mrs. Randolph contemplated opening a school. But South Carolina and Virginia voted $10,000 each for her support, and she lived on the interest of tnis money tili her death, in 1836. u Some of the Presidents. Madison left no children to share his small estate. Monroe died poor, but his two daughters had married before his death, one of them being the wife of George Hay of Virginia, and the other of Samuel L. Gouverneur of New York. John Quincy Adams left an estate about as large as that of his father—$w,000; but the Adams family was quite able to take care of ‘tself without inheritance, and down to the present day it has earned hon- ors and wealth. Jackson left no children. His grand- niece is a clerk in the government depart- ments. Van Buren was one of the richest of the Presidents. It was said he drew ro salary till he left the White House, and that he received the $100,000 which had ac- cumulated during his term in one lump. He had a son, Abraham, who graduated at West Point and served with distinctiop in the army. He was brevetted for gallaniry at Churubusco. Abraham Van Buren mar- ried a woman who was well to do. Jokn Van Buren, President Van Buren's second son, graduated at Yale and became one of the leading members of the New York bar. He was elected attorney general of the state. William Henry Harrison left a small es- tate, which went eventually to his son, the father of Benjamin Harrison, who was a meinber of Congress from Indiana for four years. Benjamin Harrison inherited very little of his money, and he had te make his own way from the beginning of his career. But he showed conspicuous ability as a law- yer, and his practice since ke left the White House has been worth probably $20,000 or $30,000 a year to him. The Tyler Family. President Tyler’s first wife died while he was in th2 White House. One of his sons, Robert, went te Philadelphia, where he held several civil offices. Then he went to Richmond, where he was appointed register of the treasury. At the expiration of his term of office he moved to Montgomery, Ala., where he edited*a newspaper until his death. John Tyler, who has just died, was secretary to his father, though he did not hold the title of private secretary, as that office was created after he left the White House. He drew no salary, and he said not long ago that when he left the White House he pawned his watch for $30, because he had no money. John Tyler would have been one of the victims of the explosion on the Princeton, which killed his future stepmother's father, if he had rot been escorting Mrs. Gilmore, the wife of the Secretary of the Navy, to the cabin at the time the Peacemaker blew up. Mr. Gilmore was killed in the accident. So was Mr. Gardiner of New York, whose daughter became Mrs. Tyler not long afterward. President Tyler had a son by his second wife, who was conspicuous in the politics of Virginia, and who became president of William and Mary College, the institution from which his father had graduated. Mrs. Tyler was the first President's wife to re- ceive aid from Congress. A pension of $5,- 000 was granted to her. Mrs. Polk also réceived a pension from Congress. She had no children. President Taylor left several children, who were quite competent to take care of themselves. His eldest daughter married Jefferson Davis and is still alive. She draws a pension from some of the southern states. The sec- ond daughter married W. H. Bliss, major in the army, and she was the mistress of the White House during part of her father’s term. After the death of her father and her husband she married Philip Dandridge of Virginia, who left her comfortably pro- vided for. Her brother, “Dick” Taylor, was a man of much distinction. He was a member of the secession convention of Louisiana, entered the confederate army, served under Stonewall Jackson in the val- jey campaign, rose to the rank of general, and served with credit till the end of the war. After the war he went to New York, where, just before his death in 1879, he published a book with the title, “Destruc- tion and Reconstruction.” Gloom at the White House. Presijent Fillmore had only one child—a daughter, who died while he was yet alive. President Pierce had -three children—all boys. Two of them died while quite young. The third lived to be thirteen. He was kill- ed in a railroad accident while traveling with his father and mother from Andover to Lawrence, Mass., in January, 1853. it was only two months before the inaugura- tion of his father as President, and the ac- @iden: cast a gloom over the White House during the entire administration of Presi- dent Pierce. James Buchanan was a bachelor. The Lincolns brought three boys with them to the White House. One died during his father’s administration—he was the President’s favorite child—and another not long after the murder of the President. Robert T. Lincoln, the oldest of the three, was spared to his mother, and his career has been an honor to his father’s name. He has been Secret War, minister to England, and he is “a possibility in the presidential can! He has been successful as a era, His mother Teceived a pension of,$3, from 1870 till 1882, when It. was inc to $5,000. President Johnson - wo daughters, both of whom marti Martha be- came the wife of Ju and she was the mis! House -iuring her fathey’s ; ried Daniel Stover, yy. 'T. Patterson, , of the White rm. Mary mar- lied. before Mr. ; She, too, was hife House. After ;W. R. Bacon. airly well-to-do pded, but the Johnson became Pres with her father in the..\ his retirement she maxfi The Grant family wos when the second te! unfortunate connecti¢n With | Ferdinand Ward plunged it into poverty. When Grant was dying heacompleted his book of memoirs, havingj-in, view a pro- vision for his family. ;;Mrg, Grant has re- ceived half a million,dollars in royalties from the book. She; hag, a pension of $5,000 a year, too, granted to her by Con- gress soon ‘after her. husband's death. Fred. Grant is the only member of the fam- fly who has been at all conspicuous in public affairs. He was minister to Aus- tria, afd he is now cne of the police com- missioners of New -York city. He has be discussed as a vice presidential possibility. President Hayes retired to his old home in Fremont, Ohio, at the end.of his term, taking with him about $50,000 of his salary as President. He left a good estate. His four sons are all in business, and are said to be prospering. One of them is in-Cleve- land and another is in Toledo. The one daughter lives in the old homestead at Fremont. She never married. In Recent Years, There were four sons and a daughter in the Garfield family. Their future was as- sured by a popular subscription taken at the time of their father’s death. The $16,- 500 raised for Thomas ‘Jefferson was very small compared with the $360,000 contrib- uted by the people of the United States for the support of the Gartield family. This sum is held in trust, and the in- come Is paid to Mrs Garfield. At her death the principal will be divided among the children, Mrs. Garfizld has also a pension of $5,000 a year from the govern- ment. One of the Garfield boys has gone into politics, and is a member of the Ohio legislature. The daughter married her father’s private sccretary, Stanley Brown, and lives in this city. President Arthur left a modest fortune to his children, Allan and Nellie, when he died. President Cleveland will’ leave a large fortune to his little ones. He was worth comparatively little when he came to Washington, but between his first ard second terms ‘he was credited with ac- cumulating a large sum through fortunate speculations in Wall street. Ex-President Harrison's son is in business in Terre Havte, and he is prospering. Mrs. McKee, the ex-President’s other. child, is married. ———— FONDLING A TARANTULA. It in Best to Be Sure That the Taran- tula Knows You. From the St. Louis Star. “The tarantulas pine in confinement,” re- marked an amateur spider collector, “re- fuse to spin or eat and seldom live long. A centipede or scorpion, ot the other hand, commits suicide when it sees no chance of getting free.” “Commits svicide?’ how?” “By inoculating its body with its own poison. I have scen it do it time and time again. The ccntipede carries poison in two little teeth, besides the sack in each of his many feet. He bites his body savagely when he wants to kill shimself, just as a man would plunge a dagger in his heart.” “And how does the scorpion kill himself “His poicon lies in the end of his tail. He turns his tail up over his back and jabs it in sharply: ir a few seconds he is dead.” “Which do you think the most interest- ing, tarartulos or centipedes?” I inquired of this pructical student of natural‘ history. ‘Tarantulas,” he replied. ‘They have better dispositions and are much more in- telligent than their cousins, the centip- edes.”” I asked. “Why, ‘you-think they learn to know peo- ple? “Do I? Well, I'l show you. Look here, Browney ” The little slide down to Browney’s hatch was pulled back and_the fuzzy, round- bod:ed king of spi@érs crawled Out onto the promenade ground of nagd-boarg-in front of his dwelling. 5, “Here's a piece of pear for you, Brown- ey,” said the master. if “Docs he ike pears?” “Only the juice. He sucks the juice of raw beef occasionally, too, but he vastly prefers a good, fat grasshopner if he can get hum.” . Brownéy éxamined the piece of*pear crit- ically. with his feeler and pressed it as if to exiract the juice, but he did not seem hungry.’ The master then took up the star- shaped creature in his fingers and felt sep- arately every one of the fatal little legs. “You see he is not hostile to me. Now let my b-other attempt to play with him.” A curly headed young man of twenty or thereabouts drew near and called to the tarantula coaxingly. Browney instantly hunched kimself up and retracted in a pet, showing plainly ‘his dislike. “When he was free and very busy one day I watched him unwind yards and yards of spun thread and float down on a veritable ladder of it to a cranny half way down the rocky surface of a steep bluff. There he captured a juicy beetle. He drags his prey after him by folding it in his threads and hitching it to those pegs on his back. His eyes are in the top of his head.” “But tarentulas are deadly poison?” “Yes; but they use their foison as a de- fense. They have enemies to guard against just as >iher creatures. Their poison is carried in a Kttle sack in the last section of each foot and in the little sharp claw at the extremity, that is also hellow. They also have two teeth that are venomous. .“I have observed that they tend their young until they are four weeks old. After that they deliberately run away from them and leave them to look after themselves. ‘This plan teaches them self-reliance.” a A NEW DISEASE. Street Railroad Conductors Are Most Likely to Contract It. From the Syracuse Post. There is a new disease not down in the catalogue of the latest medical experts. Street railway conductors are the persons affected. As far as can be learned about a half dozen employes of the Syracuse Street Railroad Company have lately been afflict- ed more or less with a swelling of the eyes, accompanied by partial blindness. The con- ductors in question, without exception, stuck to their work, but one of them was forced to undergo medical treatment. He had observed from time to time that his hands grew black from contact with the brass railing of the car when he jumped on and off. In windy weather he had to wipe his eyes more or less to brush away the moisture. These two things he only ob- served after he was weil along in the stage of the eye trouble. Hexconsulted a physi- cian and was treated for mietallic poison- ing, finally recoveringzwithout difficulty. Then he came to the gonciusion that the contact with the railingwas.fesponsible for the trouble. Since thatitime he has worn gloves and has not experienced the disease. But those conductors who do not know his experience may yet suffer. This man was afflicted for four weeks, Motormen are not troubled with the digeasai as they wear gloves, ier “Jane, if any one calls, tell them I am not at home.” “If you think I’m going to tell a He for you, mum, you make a great mistake. You must tell them yourselff’—St. Paul's. Rattl SOSDOOSOSHOVOS SD HDOHH SSO SDSS SHSOS SSS OSI OSE 8 rest. THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY - 8, 1896-TWENTY-FOUR ‘PAGES. — as, Butterflies, and Washington Irving said, he supposed a certain hill was called “Rattlesnake Hill” because it abounded in—butterflies. The “rule of contrary” governs other names. labeled ‘‘Sarsaparilla’? because they are full of . . . well, we don’t know what they are full of, but we know it’s not sarsaparilla; except, perhaps, enough for a flavor. sarsaparilla that can be relied on to be all it claims. It has no secret to keep. Any doubt about it? Send for the “Curebook.” It kills doubts and cures doubters. Address: J. C. Ayer Co., Lowell, Mass. | : Some bottles are, supposedly, There’s only one make of Its formula is open to all physicians. This formula was examined by the Medical Committee at the ‘World’s Fair, with the result that while every other make of sarsaparilla was excluded from the Fair, Ayer’s Sarsaparilla was admitted and honored by awards. the best sarsaparilla. It was admitted because it was It received the medal as the best. other sarsapariila has been so tested or so honored. for the family as well as the Fair: Admit the best, exclude the 17 It’s Ayer’s, No Good motto SOSOSOSSSSS IDO DSSS OS OO DS OSSOOGOS OS GOOOCCOGSSSSSO® An Experiment in Reduced Theatri- cal Rates That Proved Successful. From the New York Tribu: ‘An experiment has been made in Boston | for a year which thoughtful people have watched with interest. There has long been a demand for a reduction in the prices of the average theater tickets, or rather a re- duction of the prices when poor or comimon- place attractions were offered, as is sure to be the case at every theater in Boston at times in every season. The public believes that $1.50 is too much to pay for a good seat fo See a second-rate lot of players perform in a second cr third-rate sort of play, but the prices at the majority of the theaters have remained the same, although occasion- ally they increase them 5) per cent, when Irving, Bernhardt or some other extra at- traction arrives. One of the cheaper grade of theaters, under a new manager, tried the low rates at the beginning of the season, gd the house is always full. -The grade o performaaces is quite as good as at hous where the high prices prevail, and some- times bettter. Just what tie exchequer will show at the end of the season, of course, cnly the managers know, but the fact that prices remain low the houses continue to be full is a pretty good indication that the ublic appreciates the opportunity. Py new theater was opened at the begin- ning of last season with a new melodrama at the ysual prices charged at most other theaters, and the result was bad business. sAfter an effectual struggle against the tide the manager decided to try comic opera, early last summer, at popular prices, and with a new opera every week. The prices were 50 cents for all seats on the first floor and 25 cents for those in the two balcon! ‘The business was good from the start. With the increase of business came improved casts for the operas. The sum- mer season was so satisfactory that the owners decided to continue the same pol- icy for the regular season, and the result is that the house is literally sold ont every week many days in advance for the ever- ing performances, while for the matine: when the price is uniformly 25 cents for every seat reserved in the house, it s pos- sible to get tickets only by applying at least two weeks in advance. ‘The class of people which goes there is sometimes as good as that which goes to the sympLony concerts, and is alway: cellent. ‘The ‘wealthy’ middle cl: SS OES there, and good musicians sit through performance of “Faust” (for they ar giving grand opera occasionally with gool results) with evident enjoyment. The boxes are sold by the season, for the most part, and it is rare to see a vacant seat in th: entire house on any night, and never at a matinee. This is regardeed by Bostonians as important, especially in view of its possi- ble effect on the theatrical business of the future. The operes given there this sea- son have been “Heart and Hand,” “The Mascot,” “Martha,” “The Merry War,” re now ‘he Bohemian Girl,” “Fra Diavolo,” “The Mikado,” “Chimes of Normandy,” “Billee Taylor,” ‘Olivette,” “The Lily of Killar- ney,’ “Carmen,” “Rip Van Winkle,” “Faust” and “Il Trovatore. Se Oe NO DIVORCES AMONG SLAVES. They Simply Agreed to Separate and That Ended It. From the Chicago Tribune. The Lightfoot family was probably the largest and most noted in all of Virginia or Kentucky in the old days before the war. The members of this family were certainly proud of their name, and the slaves were, of course, thoroughly inoculated with the same feeling of pride. Edward P. Settles of Mount Sterling, Ky., is visiting in Chicago, and incident to a dis- cussion regarding this city as an easy place to get a divorce he related a story of the old slavery days. “Marriages among slaves,” said Mr. Set- tles, “didn’t count for much, and, of course, divorces were an easy matter; easier, in fact, than they ever could have been here according to the most outrageous story ever told of the city. “T call to mind one funny thing which hap- pened in the Lightfoot family, into which I had the honor of marrying. “We had a colored woman called Aunt Patsey, and she married a slave named Dan. They lived together for twenty-five years, and then Dan got frisky and gay, and began to shine around another woman on a neigh- boring. plantation. Finally Dan came out flatly and told Aunt Patsey he wanted to quit her and was going to hitch to her rival in his affections. He said the day for the wedding was all fixed, and he informed Aunt Patsey that he desired her to do him up a shirt for the occasion. “Aunt Patsey did as she was bid, but it was noticed she was rather sad in those days. I well remember talking to her while she was doing up that shirt for the fickle Dan, Wiping.the tears from her eyes with her apron, she said: ‘I doan want yer fer to ’magine dat I. keer shucks fer dat nigger Dan; he’s jist a no-'count fool nigger any- way; but it jist makes me feel sorter bad beca’se no sich disgrace as dis evah ’curred in the Lightfoot family befoah.’” es eae No Scramble for This Place. ‘From Pearson's Weekly. Marie—“Women are fast leaving their own walks of life, aren’t they?” Billson—“Yes; but there is one walk which they will always leave to man.” Merie—‘What’s that?” . Billson—‘Up and down the bed room half the night with a restless baby.” WHO SMOKE. They Are Very Numerous in Russia and Not Rare in England. From the Queen. Not so long ago it was considered a risky and frisky thing for a woman to smoke a cigarette in the seclusion of the family circle, but today well-brought-up married ladies, without the least approach to fastness in behavior, smoke their three or four cigarettes a day, with the approval of their husbands, and in the presence of their servants. The ladies in Russian so- ety, one and all, smoke cigarettes as a mnatter of course, in private and in public. At an afternoon call in St. Petersburg, at 3 o'clock in the-day, a Russian lady offers a cigarette case and a match box in the mcst pattral manner to her visitors, and without any demur cigarettes are accepted and smoked. In the principul Russian hetels the ladies smoke their cigarettes after dinner in the presence of the assem- bled company, even to a burning end on the point of a’penknife. In London such a custom would not be allowed, and a fair smoker would be at once requested not to smoke. American ladies appear, from all that is said, to be going side by side with their English si some smoking con amore, h_ sister: others for the fun of the thing. Still it is apparent to all in society that smol among ladies is immensely on the increase. Husbands, men friends and even brothers Say nothing against the prac d, tener than not, encourage it, travagant indulgence is the result; then they put a limit to the number of cigarettes to be sinoked by the wife during the d: she has not sufficient sirergth of u do so for herself; and, indeed, most lady smokers make a point of limiting Ives to three cigarettes a day on an aver- of tobacco smoke; how can it e than that they should acqu a taste for it? Ina m form, it is true, than that of the pipe or cigar, which their male relatives so keenly enjoy, but in that of the dainty cigarette. The days have gone by when the smell of tobacco smoke made a woman faint. Among a few mz ed lacies an antipathy to it does still ex- nd these ladies, it must be confessed, their husbands rather uncomfortable, ch their restrictions against smoking here or smoking there, and render them a little envious of the freedom enjoyed by other men in this respect, whose wives are not So sensitive to this pungent scent. It may be the encouragement men give to the ladies of their families and to their charming friends to smoke by offering an occasional cigarette has a susp‘cion of self- ishness about it in thus subtly cultivating a liking for what they might otherwise consider obnoxious. So easily flattered are women—even the most strong-minded among them—that not seldom they profess an inclination for smoking when they do not actually care for it rather than ap- pear churlish_or prim in the eyes of the sterner sex. Smoking cigarettes after din- ner nas become so general that even in the most orthodox and highiy conventional famil'es cigarettes are smoked at dessert in the presence of the ladies, who not in- frequently smoke also. This is more par- teularly the case in country houses, but in town the fashion is followed to a great degree in smart society. — 20 THE MONGOOSE HAWAIL He Has Proven Himself a Great Pest and Destroyer of Game. From the Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Some five or six years ago the mongoose was imported into the islands for the pur- pose of exterminating rats in the cane fields. Various methods were adopted to rid the fields of the vermin, but all signally failed until the little animals were brought from Jamaica. They are repeating in Ha- wail what was done by them in the Island of Jamaica. After destroying rats in the cane fields the mongoose have attacked birds and fowls, materially decreasing their number by eating eggs and the young. As a con- quence there are but few quail and turkey on the islands. Especially is this notice- able in Hawaii, in the vicinity of the vol- cano, where previous to the introduction of the mongoose species of this game were plentiful. The country in that locality is simply alive with the pests, for they have proven to be that. They attack as well young fowl and sucking pigs, and have been known to attempt to carry off grown ani- mals, after first causing their death by strangulation. As the mongoose finds the rats, toads, and crabs disappearing, it attacks sitting fowls and carries off their eggs, and kills young pigs, kids, lambs, calves, pups, kit- tens, poultry and game birds, destroys fruits and vegetables, and is suspected of sucking sugar cane, eats meat and salt provisions and catches fish. eo The Newspapers in School. From the Springfield Republican, The growing influence of newspapers in school education was illustrated the other day at a conference of the Public Educa- ticn Association in New York, when Miss Jcsephine C. Locke, supervisor of drawing in the public schools of Chicago, told how the children are being trained to search the columns of the press in working on topics of a public nature. It should be one of the functions of every school to teach the children how to read a newspaper to the best advantage—and also what newspapers should be read. them- | THE LION'S ROAR. A Great Physical Effort is Necessary, to Produce the Full Effect. ‘ From the Spectator. Dr. Livingstone noted the odd reseme blance of the lion’s roar to that of the os- trich, Mr. Millais says that though the roar of the latter is not so loud, it has exactly the same tone as that of the lion. But the ostrich always roars his best, the iion very seldom. This is partly because a “good” rear needs a great physical effort. The whole interior and muscles of mouth, throat, stomach and abdomen are, for the moment, converted into an organ of ter- rific sound, and the sound does make the earth tremble—or appgar to do so. But the attitude is not that usually drawn. Un- less he roars lying down, when he puts his head up, like a dog barking, the lion “emits ae moan in any position, then draws in his neck and lowers his = tended jaws, rignt down to bis srigesn oa if about to be violently sick; while at the seme time the back is arched, and the whole animal bears an appearanci - wentroted strain.” eee ee is is Capt. Millais’ phonetic renderin; of the sound, taken when listening to thres |licns roaring their best: “Moan—roar— r-0-a-r — roar — roar — roar —srunt—grunt— grunt—grunt (dying away).” Why lions roar, when it ought to pay bet- ter to keep silent, is not yet explained. Gen. Hamilton was convinced that tigers hunting in company roar to confuse and | frighten the deer. Possibly the lion roars, | When prowling around a camp, in the hope | of causing some of the draught animals to | break loose; at other times it appears to be a form of conversation with Pee others at a — Ses Father's Voice. in” years Was just a I An’ after si ago, when I oh hours "used to work with dad, be so wearked out he same today d to me, For I am still so wearied out Vhen eventide is come, An’ still get kitder anxious-like About the journey home; & while T hear him So cheerin’-like, so tender—"" Come on, my'son, you're near! An’, same’as the helps Definite Information W From the Chicago Post. “The cause of his death,” said the phy- sician, “was heart failure.” “That was what I supposed,” replied the young man. “Most of us die of heart fa‘l- ure, but what I am anxious to learn is, what caused his heart: to fail.” “Dat cat fish must a-been out fishin’ for sumfin hisself.”—Life.