Evening Star Newspaper, July 18, 1896, Page 15

AN {SLAND OF REST Where People Neither Have Too Little Nor Too Much to Do. QUAINT SCENES IN A DURCH COLONY Curacao is Mainly Known by the Liqueur Bearing That Name. PHOSPHATE ae S E M I-PARADISE, an tsolated and a diminutive political and geographical fragment, where peace and perpetual summer reign, is the island discovered by Alonzo de Ojeda in the Caribbean sea in 1502, now known as Curacao. The island lies about fifty miles from the Venezuelan coast, and 1,860 miles almost due south from New York, the 70th degree of longi- tude passing as closely to it as to Boston. From New Orleans it is distant only 1,500, and from Key West 1,200 miles. It also Mes near the Gulf of Venezuela, which receives the waters of Lake Maracaibo. Its importance as a skipping and trans- shipping post is indisputable and perma- nent. The island is thirty-six miles long, not over eight wide in any part, and contains a hundred and sixty-four square miles. With Bonaire (Buen Aire), Aruba and Lit- tle Curacao, and St. Evstatius Saba, and the south part of St. Martin of the Wind- DEPOSITS and doing, no better people than all these, anywhere. Only their ways ure not what an American has been accustomed to. At 12 o’clock you all retire, with clear heads. The Liqueur Business. ‘The business of Curacao is mostly that of @ port of supply and transshipment—until lately the port of a non-producing country. ‘The productive exceptions are mainly two. Most people have heard of the liqueur sold under the name of “Curacao’—a word, 80 applied, which Thackeray, like most cpa ns, spells wrong, with a “‘coa.”” ere are aves ofa ‘small, bitterish orange in the islands, the skins of which, at full growth, but before turning yellow, are peeled, quartered, dried and shipped in half barrels to Amsterdam, and nowhere else. The oil distilled from these skins gives its distinct and distinguishing char- acter to the genuine “Curacao,” which is made only in Amsterdam, put up in bot- tles with necks as long as the bodies, hold- ing iess than a pint, and labeled diagonally across in three colors, according to grade, all the grades being pure, but not of equal excellence. The “peel” or skins fetch from 80 cents to $2 per pound, according to the bounty of the harvest. A more valuable product of Curacao Is- land is phosphate. Near Santa Barbara is @ tableland covering about two square miles, and reaching about six hundred feet above the adjoining sea. Until twenty years ago it was supposed to be nearly worthless. But it proved to be a solid bed of phosphatic matter of unusual richness, and now it is dumped into vessels from a tramway, a shipload a week, and shipped to England mostly, the shippers paying a royalty of $6 per ton to the government, and of $12 per ton, I think, to the owners of the land. Previous to this open “find” the United States could have had the Dutch West Indies as a gift. Now it is different. The Alabama lay some days in the port, and secured coal when in desper- ate need, during the late war. Suppose we had owned the islands then! Curacao also can produce enormous quan- titles of superior solar salt, and already furnishes us with over 20,900 tons per year. It is a stopping place for a regular line of steamers from New York to Venezuela, and through it come tons of goat skins and a vast amount of coffee from Colombia and Venezuela. The dealers sell the coffee to us as Mocha and Java, at about 100 per cent advance since the renaming. Do we see any “La Guaira” coffee now? A Sanitary Residence. Curacao is a healthy and pleasant place to dream time away in, if for nothing SYNAGOGUE, MASONIC TEMPLE AND LEG ISLATIVE BUILDING, CURACAO, DUTCH WEST INDIES. ward Islands, it forms the Dutch West In- ia Islands, Dutch Guiana being upon the under a separate colonial gov- The islands have a governor, . courts and a few troops and a r. The first named ts appointed hy the home government, as well as the members of his staff. The seat of govern- ment ts the city upon the Island of Cur: ally known as Willemstadt, bu: y the name of the island. It the bay into three parts; the government buildings business houses are; Otra r Side), a populous residence Parlo, the Sth avenue of the Ponda % the old Spanish city of Santa Ana, and its medern eastward extension 1s ed Pietermaai. The whole city has a population of over 12,000; the island, 25,000, of whom 4,000 are white; all the islands, about 40,00). The official language is ost of the officials and bus- in addition, English and aiso French. Besid ariety in so small a popula- business men must tion, the speak the ge of the islands, the one known to all the common people, and to their own wives and children—the language of the atholic churches and all the schools, and of the homes there—one spoken by 9 other country and in use in no books elsewhere—Papiamento. Flanked by Castles. The entrance to the harbor, and thence to the lard-lecked bay, is wide and deep enough for the largest class of vessels, and not wide enough for two vessels to pass, : it Is flanked by two old-time castles or forts of masonry. the inner bay Dominating these, by and upon a considerable bill, is Castle Nassau. Although manned by na- tive troops, under Dutch officers, they have seldom had occasion to fire a hostile gun. As one sails in by the harbor entrance a veritable surprise greets him. On cither side are buildings of stone, two or three s high, with queer gables— veritable . Like those in the cities of th, perhaps, pillared balconies in on the second floor, and places of bus- wernor’s spacious re: t storehouse below. ne Dutch Reformed Church Stuyvesant attended when dence Is j more. Its remarkable dryness, with tem- ering trade winds, makes it a sanitary residence for consumptives also. It is so dry that little can be raised, except fruit trees in its hollows, or where a little irri- gation can be given frcm brackish wells. It has but two rivulets, one trom the cu- rious cave of El Hato, yielding enough for the supply of that hacienda, and one on the higher west end of the island, where no one scarcely lives. Still, there Is con- siderable tropical fruit, of excetlent quality, and, with plenty of ice from Kennebec in store, the filtered cistern water saved from rains is usually enough fcr household pur- pos. Atound the extensive bay, which Mes in the crater of a long-extinct volcano, and in a few other localities, there are pleasant country residences, which by their hos- pitality relieve the monotony pertaining to fixed city life. Occasionally an opera troupe or a vagrant circus strays through the tropics and lingers a week in the city. When these fail the people find no difficulty in placing on the boards in an amateur way and with wonderful ability even the plays of Shakespeare. So, with christen- ings, weddings, nights at the governor's, hours at the clubs, advents and departures of steamers, with news from all the world, serene skies and seas, and steady, if slow, Prosperity, the people of quaint Curacao have neither too much nor too little to em- ploy them, on the whole, and do not “wear cut.” Their island has been a volcano and sunk beneath the rea and emerged several times, but that was long ago. There are no local earthquakes now, but there are occasionally hurricanes ' and - tidal waves. Events in American History. Twice at least has Curacao been intimate with events interesting in our history— once in the coaling of the confederate cruiser Alabama, the vice consul of the United States, but a native of the island, furnishing the coal; and in 1900 through a sea fight. Then, not far away, the United States frigate Constitution, Captain Trux- ton, vanquished the French frigate La Vengeance, disabling the ship and 160 of her crew. But the latter vessel escaped during a hurricane and was towed by her small boats into the harbor of Curacao. In cld times the bays of the islands were the refuge if not the homes of buccaneers, ENTRANCE TO THE HARBOR OF CARACAOS. governor, before he was transferred to New Amsterdam, now (beak of greater New York. A little way back fs the nearly Niterated ruin of the “Stuyvesant man- and In one of the cemeteries lies one ant’s legs. xe buildings, there are none other such in all the new world, unless in Suri- Their lines are divided by narrow some not six feet wide, others wide enough for carts. In each division of the city there is one broad, smooth main drive- way, and carriages have their will in them, with their brisk horses of Colombia, often half wild. Peeple pass from one separate part of the city to another fn flat-bottom beats or punts, this method of transporta- tion being a regular and well-conducted b And it all, buildings, streets, noats ané semi-nude boatmen, with pus colored fruit women, and oth- ers more curious, trailing their stifly starched skirts at their slippered heels, and the street urchins ready to dive, or diving. for the penny you throw into the twenty feet of water—all is quaint and !m- provable. All your experience is upset, and you have to take new bearings. For if you have acquaintences “in so- * and stay in pert over Sunday, you attend the Reformed Church in ‘the , and perhaps sit in the pew as d opposite to the pulpit, the gov- + and you wili deposit your of- a bag presented as you pass out and you will stop at the near sheid (Friendship), for your d you will take, “as the rere, a grog of old (truly) ; and after dinner, somewhere, at ‘k, you will follow the elite to the the governor's house, and prom- 8 to the music of the govern- nt band; and you will follow the band indoors, up the wide stairs, into a series of fine, lofty saloons, looking out on the bay, and then— le and horn; and the dancers form, and the stately yet subdued fun be- gins. and perhaps the governor, Baron Von Heerdtot Eversberg, says, “Permit me!’ fn the best of English, and takes you to the big room, where the asideboard is not so very lonely--and you take what you like; and then you go to the card room, and It is full of prosperous, gentlemanly-looking men, some chatting and some at whist: ard—there is the preacher cf the morning, dis hand full of cards, his little shilling or Hider stake on the table, a strong Havana In his lips, and a glass of brandy and water at his elbow. There are, in meaning and daily living and rumor has it that there are still in some of the old families valuable remnants cf ancient pillage, some of which occasion- ally find their way to the government pawn shop. As to the common language, soft and liquid as that of South Sea islands, it grew trom a Spanish base, beginning in the old slave times, and adopting many Dutch, Danish and some English words, but none of African origin. It abbreviates most of the Spanish words, either by elision or the rejection of harsh consonants, or both, and by transposing vowels it still more softens speech. The language, so far as it became one during more than 300 years of growth, answers the requirement of Talleyrand’s definition, for it was invented by the slaves as a means of communication among them- selves, and so to “disguise thought” from their severe masters But the children learned it, and the women, and the Roman clergy gave it fixed graramatical form, and row it is the common tongue of homes and schools and churches, except the official Reformed Church, the latter using the Duich language. The name of the new | tongue, Papiamento, mears to speak lies. A newer name, Iccalizing it as of the island, is papia curcou. ALMONT BARNES. a Strength of Man. From the Springfeld Union. The muscles, in common with all the other organs of the body, have their stages of development and decline; our physical strength increases up to a certain age and then decreases. Tests of the strength of several thousands of people have been made by means of a dynamometer (strength measurer) and the following are given as the average figures for the white race: The “lifting power” of a youth of seven- teen years is 280 pounds; in his twentieth year this increases to 320 pounds; and in the thirtieth and thirty-first years it reach- €s its height—856 pounds. At the end of the thirty-first year the strength begins to decline, very slowly at first. By the fortieth year it has decreased eight pounds; and this diminution continues at a slightly increasing rate until the fif- tieth year is reached, when the figure is 330 pounds. After this period the strength fails more and more rapidly until the weakness of old age is reached. It ts not to ‘give statistics of the decline of strength after the fiftieth year, as it varies to a large ex- tent in different individuals. THE EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1896—TWENTY-FOUR PAGES. —— —— FOUNTAINS PLAY That Were Too Costly for French -Monarchs to Set Going, AN OUTING ENJOYED AT VERSAILLES a Curious Devices Contrived for the Display of Water Effects. WHAT THE CROWDS SEE ————————— Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. PARIS, July 8, 1896. Bose ese HAS heard of Versailles, of the mighty palace built by Louis XIV to glorify his name, of its great foun- tains and its lakes and forest groves, its statues and its villas. Here were held the high jinks of Louis XV and his fair ladies. And here his trouble came to Louis XVI, in the midst of all its splendor. It is hard to think of Versailles without its old-time court, the loves of kings, the stately fash- ions of a by-gone day, and all that is aris- tocratic, seemly and well-ordered. As a matter of fact scarcely anything is chang- ed. The palaces, groves, fountains, statues and villas, down to the very “hamlet” wherein the lovely Marie Antoinette played milkmaid, are as if they had been left by their great tenants only yesterday. The Palace is denuded of its furniture and fill- ed with a great mass of only moderately interesting paintings, in the style of an his- torical museum. That is all. And lonely week-day tourists, strolling timidly through the echoless bowers, start at the sound of their own footsteps, lest the great bewigged, gold-laced and powder- ed king himself should step out from a Garkish nook and warn them off as tres- passers. It 1s a ghost of a place, for all its beauty and greatness. But its ghostly dignity receives rude shocks two Sundays every month in summer time. Louis XIV had not money enough to make his wonder- ful fountains go after he had constructed them. What he could not do, a modern railway company can do with ease, and make a profit. Versailles is a considerable town in itself, having something less than 50,000 inhabi- tants, a certain number of whom, how- ever, only occupy their villas and apart- ments in the summer. It lies about twelve miles to the southeast of Paris, and is the capital of the Seine-and-Oise department, one of the sleepiest and sweetest country- sides of France, for all that {t is so near to the great capital. From Paris to Ver- sailles is a region of suburban proprietors, exulting beneath their vines and pear trees. It is a region of business men who travel daily on the cars, of school children who are also commuters, of bicyclists and clerks who flee the Boulevard, of amateur chicken farmers, of chateaux and little country boxes end the stone cottages of peasants. French Country Life, There ts a deal of small manufacturing all along the route, and some tall, smoking chimneys do their necessary injury to the landscape. Also the French seem to have no sense of country comfort, and their dingy little red brick villas burning in the summer sun are not at all inviting to Americans. They know neither porches nor hammocks, nor fly screens nor the tse of ice. Acquaintance with these facts makes the little sun-baked villas look hot- ter than ever. They are also packed very closely together. Indeed, it looks a trifle messy. But there are trees and forests here and there. The people themselves are delighted with the airy spaciousness in which they live. “Ah!” drawing long breaths of pretended delight, they exclaim: “One breathes out here on these delicious heigats! In Paris you can’t breathe”—which is also true— “but here one is at ease with the dear chil- dren”—home from boarding school—‘and the birds, and the dogs, and the chickens, and the trains going by make it lively.” Which is also true. The railway is a dou- ble-track line, having its terminus at Ver- sailles aud doing all its business through this thickly populated twelve or fifteen miles of modified country side. Away from the railwey it is really sleepy and pretty. But near the railway it 1s convenient. The town of Versailles is both, being roomy, airy and shady in the bargain. One of its boasts is that it has never had the cholera down through all the centuries, a reputation which only one other large town in all Europe—Freiburg in Baden—can Prove a right to. Apartment houses rule here, as in Paris, which makes Versailles look much more orderly and spacious than the hit-or-miss untidiness of the country epproach by rail. Apart from this, Ver- sailles depends for its renown entirely on the palace and the park. And it is to in- crease its traffic and make money for the town that the railway company, aided by state and municipal subsidies, operates the fountains of King Louis XIV and gives the common people of the great capital an op- portunity to scatter paper bags, melon rinds, egg shells ond sandwich crusts over the green swards, where once rolled the regal Pompadour, where the fair but frail Dubarry waved her heels and where the easy-going Sabran took her bath. The Rococo Style. At Versailles the town !s passed through by a shcrt walk leading to the palace, and the week-day tourists even who come when the place is quiet and deserted, must make their choice—the palace or the gar- dens. There is no time in one short day to see the two. Gardens snd palace both speak with no uncertain vcice of their originator. The rococo style in building and decoration is found in sll its spreading glory here in the Versailles of Louis XIV. The pure Fococo, it is true, did not reach its height until his euccessor’s reign, but this is also the palace of Louis XV, and what one gen- eration began the other carried to comple- tion. The rococo style is always essentially the same—a decorative style in harmony with the wigged and rapiered courtiers of a pompous monarch, who had nothing to do but to idle away refined and voluptuous lives with court ladies like those who sur- rounded Madame de Pompadour. In such a life everything centers in the monarch’s making war or love. And so it came that Louis XIV’s wig— the mcst remarkable of the great king’ features—became the model of this -park and palace. With its even parting in the middle and its long, massive curls at the sides, it {s undoubtedly responsible for what the Germans derisively call the “peruckenstil.””. The great main palace of white stone on its commanding height be- hind the town is like the headpiece of the wig. The two wings that start at right angles from each end of it ere like the long curla that rolled down his shoulders. The carefully tended, regularly curving grounds continue the massive ringlets on each side down to what might be called the walst of the design. -The fountains of the upper terrace constitute bis glorious face. And dotting down the center to the boiling waters of the lake—which only boil, as I have waid, at decent intervals—there are the statues, flower beds and clipped hedges, which will represent his lace-edged coat, with in between them, for his green silk vest, the fair green stretches of the spi cious central lawn. Everything Regular. In the details of this decoration the chief object sesms to have been to subject nature to the laws of architecture, and to prac- tice geometry, sculpture and dressmaking on lawns, trees and ponds. ‘Trees and shrubs are clipped to resemble obeliske and pyramids. Others stand straight and pre- ternaturally slender, ke soldiers on pa- rade. An aliey running to the right is bal- anced by an alley running to the left. A sheet of water whose outlines are as un- yieldingly rectangular as those of a munic- jpal_ swimming ba! is “sustained” by smaller but no less rectangular sheets of water planted at ite front and back. A stone bench on one side of an avenue is matched by a’stone bench on the oppo- site side; and among. them, all, in exact order like lines of surveyors’ are rows of antique marble statues with no expression in their faces., At one place there are two guard houses, one on each gide of a gate. It in said that a guardian of the time of the great’Louis, having once a prisoner in one of:them, was so distressed at the unbalance@ condition of the other that he could ither eat nor eleep. Until the idea came to put his wife in the empty guerd house,’ he regarded himself as an unworthy servant of decency, regularity and order. + The shady forest glades, with their little fountains, marble benches and statues, are delightful, but viewed merely as a matter of luxury one cannot help thinking it was a losing speculation to build these grounds and this great palace. lve hundred great orange trees, growing jn great wood- en boxes, are still “dispersed” around the upper terraces in summer, time, and their potted artificiality is a sigh of the whole undertaking. 5 Although Louis XIV burned the accounts he is known to have expended on the park and palace something I'ke one thousand millions of francs. The details that are known seem almost fabulous. No fewer than 26,000 men and 6,000 horses were em- ployed at one time in forming the terraces and leveling the park. The whole soil of the park is simply a layer under whica there are subterranean vaults, sometimes fifteen fect high, filled with storage tanks for the fountains, water pipes and other complications. Water for the Fountains. After they had made the alleys and built the basins, they found that the situation was too high. The water of the neighbor- hood would not rise in the fountains. After a deal of projecting it was decided to have water drawn up from the river Seine, miles away; and an immense machine of water wheels, putting into play 220 pumps, was established at a place called Marly. The Marly water wheels still exist and still help to supply the water for these fount- ains. It took seven years to build the ma- chine, together with its aqueducts and res- ervoirs, and with all its expense it was but a partial success, for it did not furnish the three great mcnarchs who preceded the revolution with a sufficient amount of wa- ter to meet their ideas of what royal fountains should really be. Once an at- tempt was made to divert the course of the river Eure. Then an aqueduct four miles long was begun from the vailey of Mainte- non. The soldiers employed in its digging died off in great rumbers, and discontent followed because of the unheaithiness of the work. In the year 1688, after the revo- cation of the edict of Nantes, war stopped the enterprise. Later on a highly complicated system of Pipes, reservoirs and connected basins was begun to help out the Marly pumping ma- chine. These also still exist and form a subterranean network all about Versailles. The conduits lead from many a high plateau, gathering up rain water and melt- ing snow into ponds connected to receive them. The average quantity of water in the Versailles reservoir Is 5,500,000 cubfc yards, of which the city with its 50,000 in- habitants only uses 2,000,000 in the course of the year, paying for whatever else it needs—or has paid for it by the railroad company—to the Marly pumps, which, in their turn, are operated by the railroad company. ‘In this way, thanks to the add- ed assistance of steam pumps and the cap- ital to keep them running, so that the res- ervoirs may not be emptied every time the fountains play, the fountains of Versailles at last spout when desired. During two Sunday afternocns of each month in the summer time they may be seen by any one who has the price of a railroad ticket from Paris. The Sunday Growds. Early in the morning ‘the'trains begin arriving, crowded to their Tull capacity. Versailles brightens up to something of its ancient importance. On the,main streets there are restaurants andvdrinking estab- lishments everywhere. Crowds of sight- seers begin patrolling the'strects, surging up the avenue, inspecting the varracks, and pressing onward to the palacey In the pal- ace grounds they already begin to sit around the basins, munch gingeruread along the walks, whoop through the woeds and picnic on the marble benche 4 It is a wonderful sight to sée the people, nd thousands Strong, press into clusive pleasure domain of one-time There is nothingaristocratic about the present crowds. They are almost ex- clusively of the lower-middi,class. Their manners are frank and \freey; Their dress 1s very diverse. The gogd-ladies incline to stoutness and varicose veias Their simper- ing daughters are dressed~alike,-for the sake of equality and fraternity..:The young men sport remarkable neckties and delicate- tinted pantaloons, There are great num- bers of soldiers on leave. Wet-nurses, dry- nurs servant-maids and governesses chatter after packs of unmanageable chil- ren. sibyerybody has @ Joke for the old wigged ing. Everybody buys gingerbread, lemonade and bottled beer. Every one explains to every one else the history of France, the glorious struggles of the French revolution, and the present liberality of the Versailles Railroad Com- pany. They feel that they have not fought and bled in vain. And still the crowds in- crease and swell with every incoming train. Watching the Fountains Play. Hours before it is time for the greater pieces of water to play it is impossible to get within sight of them. The basin of Neptune, which is the greatest, fronts a great semi-circular space, which may be compared to the auditorium of a theater, the water works themselves being the stage. Ten thousand peopie can gather in the auditorium space, and every inch ts taken. Those who stand here must be con- tent to miss the most of the other foun- tains, scattered down the central alley and in many a nook throughout the forest. Yet this great crcwd arouad the Neptune basin seems scarcely to be a part of the great multitude that spends the early after- noons in rushing here and there, identify- ing every water battery beforehand, rioting through the forest paths, messing itself uncomfortably in the great green avenue, and shouting with enthusiusm as the first great spurts upon the heights below the palace anrource the coming of the gush- ing streams. Thence on, from fountain to fountain, from locality to locality, it is a mad rush. It ts understood that these fountains of Versailles are too great and too numerous for individual description. Their bases have different names, from the allegorical bronze figures, gods and goddesses, nymphs, sat- yrs, horses, dolphins, cupids, frogs and whatnot from which their waters rise. But essentially they are simply great fountains, spouting water to great heights, to fail and splash in basins to the great delight of every one who cares for fountains. Up and down the great green lawn, which typifies the green silk vest of Louis XIV,: there are some seven of thesé greater batteries, whose waters go to fill the. great rectangu- lar lake below, which every one has seen in photographs. These, with the Neptune basin at the side, form the Great Waters. The Little Waters sre smaller fountains of every description, spouting their white columns in many a quiet forest nook and unexpected circular clearing. The chief thing about them is their number. STERHING HEILIG. ° re y —E AT 'NIPER’S. 4 All Caused by Dustnk tae dontner for a Peddie Mr. Juniper was away ‘from home for a week last month, and d@jring his absence Mrs. Juniper engaged a few servant girl— a great, raw-boned, high-tempered Ama- zon, who, says the Detroit Free Press, had muscle enough to have made her eligible to the position of baggage smasher at a union railway station. Mrs. Juniper went oe fternoor and aid to the new girl before stmrting: “Do not admit any peddlers or agentts or strangers of any kind wysle J am away.” “No, ma’am,” said Jule’ Half an hour later My apiver arrived, ard, having lett his latch Rey at home, rang the bell. Julia appeared: ‘ “What do yeez want?’ she asked. “Want, girl? Well, now,-I like that!” “Begorry, an’ ye'll loike it less if yeez % ‘to put fut into this house! Be off wid ye! “Be off? “That's phwat Ol said, an’ Oi mane it!” “Bee here, you brazen”— = “Phwat!” shrieked Julia. “Ye red-whis- kered, red-headed ould thramp! yees tink O1’ll be called names be the loike av ye? Of'll not lave a bone in yef-scrawny little body, an’-ye’'ll shlape this fotght in de jug for thryin’ to break an’ inter a pri- vate risidince!”’ he grabbed Juniper, and when a police- man separated them ten minutes later Ju- niper had gotten a good deal. the worst of it, and was screeching for help. Julia went into the house to pack her trunk,; “Oi couldn‘t- be hoired to live in de same house wid de loikes ‘av ‘im!’ she -said, shaking her brawny fist at Juniper as she went up the front steps. this one: 15 HOUSE IN A CAVE. Ingenious Expedient of a Kentuck- ian Threatened With Consumption. He was a Kentuckian stopping at an up- town hotel, and he was ialking to a Star reporter.’ At the same time he was not six feet tall, he was not chewing tobacco, he was not twirling a corkscrew in his fingers and he was for sound money. ; “You know,” he was saying, “that in many parts of Kentucky there are remark- able caves. Of course, we all know of Mammoth Cave, and yet there are some quite as remarkable as that, and possibly as deep, if, indeed, they are not parts of it, and one can go from one end of the state to the other under the ground. Several towns have caves under them, and in Bowl- ing Green the sewage of one section of the town is simply the caves beneath, and if a Kouseholder wants a sink or pool for re- ceiving the waste water from his house he simply drills a hole down into the ground until he breaks through the rock into the cavity below, and he has what he wants. “In Mammoth Cave are houses where consumptives lived in hopes of cure, and so on, with a list of cave curios, but the odd- est one I know of is an old bachelor, who has made his home in one of these caves near a thrifty interior town. He is a man of sixty-odd now, and for more years than I can remember he has lived in this hole in the ground. The romance is that when he was @ young man he was in love with a girl who refused to marry him because there was consumption in his family, and her refusal crazed him and drove him clear into the ground, so to speak. “Whether she refused him on that ground I do not know, but it is true that he was threatened with consumption and began to try this life under ground, there being a fine cave on his father’s farm. Here he fixed himself a dwelling place, which was to all intents and purposes a house, for it was built of wood and celled throughout. The cave was perfectly dry, and so the house was, and the temperature being al- ways the same, it was not such a bad place to live. When the young man first took to the cave he had learned the trade of shoemaking, and this he has kept up all these years, having a shop near his house, “Since the introduction of electric light- ing he has had things much better down his way, and being a studious man he has found plenty of time to improve his mind. He isn’t a bit of a crank, and whenever the weather is pleasant he comes out_grag-ces around town attending to whatever business he may have on hand and making calls on his friends. A colored man does his cook- ing for him, and takes care of his house, does his marketing, and calls for and de- livers his cobbling and shoe work. He is a beautiful workman, and makes quite a comfortable little sum out of it to add to what he gets in rent for his farm, as he is the only survivor of the family. It is a rare tning to see him on the streets in win- ter, and then only on the balmiest days, end he never comes out in the summer time.” — 68 WIT FREE WITH FOOD. Baked Beans, Humor, Philosophy, Common Sense and Business. From the Buffalo Express. Genius thrives in strange places, some- times even in a cheap restaurant. A Bos- ton man has just opened a dime and a half-dime eating hovse on one of Buffalo's principal downtown streets. Besides baked beans, ham and eggs and such things, he dispenses gems of wit. Some of these Jewels are borrowed, it is true, but it takes genius to select and set them fittingly. The customer finds these gems plastered on the walls ell around the restaurant, in the shape of placards. ‘hey are a strange collection, representing humor, sarcasm, sacrilege, philosophy, common sense and business. Some of them are amusing, others insulting—at least to some people— but the proprietor shows a knowledge of men, reasoning that the class of people who patronize dime restaurants are not likely to take offense at the blunt truth. As the customer enters the door the first sign which catches his eye as he looks for the bill of fare is: “The Proprietor is Lame, and Dumb. Buys Nothing, Tries Nothing, Gives Nothing Away. Keeps a Dog. Pass mn Next to it is the reminder: “Do Not Ex- pect Ellicott-club Fare at Our Prices.” A lttle farther down the same wail is ‘If Your Wife’s Cooking Don't Sult You, “Don’t Expect Ours To.” The delicate insinvation of which is likely to strike the married customer pretty close to_home. Then, as the patron becomes more inter- ested and allows his eyes to peruse every inscription alcng that wall, he catches these ia quick succession: “You Dictate; We Obey.” “If Our Methods Don’t Suit You, There Are Others.” “All Complaints Respectfully Received.” “When You Feel Like Kicking, Just Don’t.” “You Gain Nothing by Being Cranky or Cress.” “Waiters’ Time Is Money. Please Order.” “Money is Not Our Object. It's Fun We're After.” “No Objection to You Running Our Bus- iness if You Will Pay the Bills.” “Provoking the Waiter Will Not Secure Good Service.” “Do Not Find Fault and Continue to Patronize Us.” “Loud Talk is No Mark of a Gentleman.” On tne back wall over the door leading to the kitchen is this aggressive quotation: “They Who Enter Here Leave Hope Be- hind.” And over the door of a little room which is curtained off from the restaurant proper, next to the kitchen, is the warning: ‘Fools Rush in Where Angels Fear to Tread.” ‘There is where the proprietor sleeps. On tbe other side-wall are these addi- tional pearls of wisdom, logic, advice, and so forth: “Do Your Kicking at the Desk.’ “Prepare te Meet Thy God. Mince Pie, 5 Cents.” “No Deubt You Could Run Our Business Better Than We.” “If You Can Improve on Our Way, Sug- gest It to the Proprietor.” “Instant Discharge Will Follow Incivil- ity From Our Waiter: “We All Have Our Off Days. This May Be Ours.” “Our Aim is to Please.” -“Good Temper Aids Digestion. Do You Tumble?” “If You Are Not Suited, You Can Pull Out at Any Stage of the Game.” “He Who Caters to the Public Worships a Fickle God.” “The Proprietor is Yourself Accordingly.” “Meet Us Half Way in Our Endeavor to Please.” E “If We Cannot Please You, Don’t You Care.” : “Boston Baked Beans.” —_—__+e- Altgeld’s Last Five-Cent Piece. From the Chicago Record. ‘There is an incident in Gov. Altgeld’s life which is not generally known. Having no money to pay car fare or hire horses, he walked from Mansfield, Ohio, to Savannah, Mo., and when he arrived at the bank of the Mississippi river he had just fifteen cents in his pocket. He pald five cents for his own fare across the ferry and five more for a fellow traveler who was broke. The rest of his capital was invested in a sheet of paper, an envelope and a postage stamp, which were used to tell the girl he left be- hind him that he had reached that point in his westward journey and that his heart was true to her. I think there is material for a love story in our governor's life if anybody is able to dig it out. Bryan and McClellan. From the Rochester Post. Mr. Bryan has now acquired a distinc- tion that for many years belonged to the late Gen. George B. McClellan. Up to yesterday Gen. McClellan stood in history as the youngest of the candidates ever named for the presidency by any of the great parties. He was a few months less than thirty-eight years of age when the democratic national convention nominated him in 1864. But Bryan was only thirt six on his last birthday, in March. He is barely within the constitutional limit bar- ring the presidency to citizens under thir- ty-five years of age. Ey Socialism in Brief. From tne Birmingham Post. A.—‘Now, if I understand correctly, the first principle of socialism is to divide with your brother man.” .—"“Then you don’t “understand it cor- rectly. The first principle of socialism is to make your brother man divide with you.” a Crank. Govern GOSSIP ABOUT ROYALTY. The Peculiarly Romantic Position of the Czarina of Russia. From the New York Recorder. Gossip about royalties is always interest- ing, but there is at present no royalty about whom every scrap of information is 80 welcome as the Czarina of Russia. Her youth and beauty, the gloom amid which her marriage to Nicholas I tcok place, and the melancholy, lonely splendor of the Rus- sian throne, all unite to make her position @ peculiarly romantic one, while her per- sonal character and attainments would at- tract attention, even if she were a less ex- alted personage. Her imperial majesty is the youngest sur- viving daughter of Princess Alice of Eng- land, and the granddaughter of the En glish queen. Ever since her elghteent! birthday her marriage with the presen czar has been discussed, and it is said tha he then declared to his father that he woul: marry no other princess. But there wer several difficulties in the way, and it was nearly five years later when their forma betrothal took place, while even then the course of true love did not run smoothly. The Russian law enacts that the wife oi the heir aparent to the Russian thron must belong to the Greek Orthodox Church. and Princess Alix was determined to be thoroughly convinced before she gave up the religion of her youth. When all other objections had been removed, she absolut. ly refused to declare (as is required of a convert to the Greek Church) that her former religion was utterly false, and for a leng time the Greek priests were equally firm in their refusal to waive the point. The situation began to look serious, but when the ecclesiastical powers had recov- ered from the shock of having a feminine will opposed to theirs, they began to see the light, and modified their views a little. The courageous young woman had her way, and was received into the Greek Church on her own terms. During this time Alexander III was suf- fering from the illness from which he died, and when he saw that the end was near. he expressed a wish to see his son married to the Princess Alix before his death. She Was accordingly sent for, and the formal betrothal, which in Russia fs as binding as marriage, took place, the marriage cere- mony being performed soon after the czar’s death. Since her marriage the czarina has de- voted herself to her husband and his peo- ple. She very soon beg: to interest her- self in the education of women, and it is certain that the Russian women will have, and already have, cause for deep thank- fulness to their empress for the efforts she is making in their behalf. Her majesty inherited from her mother a deep interest in everything relating to her sex, and sees the necessity of more liberty in their education, although she is not altogether in favor of their entering Public life. Covered His H: —eee—__-___ ie With Mother-of- Pearl. From the San Francisco Call. Odd habitations are to be found all over California. Sometimes there is a good rea- son for their being odd, but often it is the result of some crank ideas. On the beach near Cypress Point, in Monterey county, there Is une that cannot ccme under the first head and hardly under the last. The residence belonged to a Chinese fish- erman, and is part natural end part the work of his own hands. The natural por- tion of the house is a small cave in one of the many rocks that stick up all over the beach. The other part is a sort of wooden shed, which has been built in front of the opening. The lumber used is of the rough- est kind, but the esthetic Chinaman over- came this objection by covering the whole outside with abalone shelis, the hollow side being turned out. The Chinaman evidently did that many years ago, when the shells were plentiful and had scarcely any market value. Every shell used has been destroyed, as one or more nails have beer. driven through them according to their size. Some of the shells are magnificent in color and enormous in size. There is one at least fifteen inches in diameter, and a duplicate in good condition could noi be bought in San Francisco for any price. Most of the larger shells, if they were not punctured with nail holes, would readily sell for from $3 to $5 apiece. But that size cannot be had in the market now, and would be difficult to find on the rocks on any part of the coast. The general effect of the house, when the sun strikes it at the proper argle, is daz- ziing. The polished, pearly surfaces sparkle with astounding briiliancy and flash with ail the colors of the rainbow. It is a pleasing and surprising sight, and the only pity is that so many beautiful shells were destroyed to produce it ZEEE Interior Heat of the From the Baltimore Sun. Recent observations made by Professor A. Agassiz in the Calumet and Hecla mine, near Lake Superior, to ascertain the rate at which temperature increases toward the center of the earth, give a slower rate of increase than has been found in previous recorded observations. The observations, as described in the Popular Science Month- ly for June, were made at various depths by placing registering barometers in holes drilled ten feet into the rock and plugged with wood and clay. After the thermome- ters had remained in place three months the holes were opened and results obiained. The highest temperature recorded at a depth of 4,589 feet was 79 degrees Fahren- heit. At a depth of 105 feet the rock tem- perature was 59 degrees. Between these limits there was a column of rock, or 4,475 feet, with a difference of temperature of 20 degrees, or an average increase of 1 de- gree for each 223.7 feet. The observations in the St. Gothard tunnel gave an increase of 1 degree for each 60 feet, and those of Lord Kelvin elsewhere made the increase 1 degree for each 51 feet. The thickness of the crust of the earth deduced from Lord Kelvin’s rate of in- crease of temperature downward was twenty miles; from the St. Gothard rate twenty-six miles. Professor Agassiz’s rate would make the crust over eighty miles thick. It is conceded, however, that the close proximity of the enormous mass of cold water in Lake Superior is a possible source of error in observations made in the Calumet and Hecla mine. - So Particular About Style. From the New York Weekly. Mrs. Prim (stylish boarding-house keeper) —“It cannot be delayed any longer. We must have a new set of dishes. Daughter—“Yes, ma; the old set was very handsome in its day, but it’s all out of fashion now.” “Well, my dear, go to Brikaback & Co.’s and select a new dinner service; take noth- ing but Royal Windsor china or Dresden ware, no matter what the cost.” “Yes, ma.” “And, by the way, on your return step into the market and order twenty pounds of corn beef and forty pounds of liver.” ——_+es____ Hard Times. 7 From Harper's Bazar. “Where are you going to take your fam- ily this summer, Hicks?” “To Coney Island.” “What! For the summer?” “No; for a day.” Earth. > JACK TAR’S NEWSPAPER. The Ocean Wave, Which is Publisehd by the Sailors of the New York. From the New York Sun. The smallest newspaper published in New York this summer is the Ocean Wave, which is issued “in the interest of all good man-o’-warsmen around the world,” by the jack tars on the United States flagship New York, anchored off Tompkinsville. The editor states that it is “entered at the Post office of Neptunus Rex as sirictly first-class ‘male’ matter,” and that sub- scriptions may be paid in “gold, silver, or jewels.” It is a six-page paper, neatly printed in colors, and illustrated by sailor artists. The Ocean Wa) man-abo: ship, who writes “person: hides under he name of “Pompadour,” ‘and here is @ sample of his work frcm the last number of the Wave: J. H. Pickett, our comely apprentice, seems to be at loggerheads with somebody, who, we hope, will decline to pick it up. Our esteemed log writer of petticoat fame with auburn locks narrowly escaped & eae by a bevy of maidens rece vier, though slightly indisposed as soon as his whistie is we ly. . Kelly, the Indiana nightingale war- 2 The redoubtable “Nick,” the handsome bugler aboard the battle ship, is creating 4 sensation on board by his marvelous feats of chivalry among the fair maidens when aboard. W. Burke, G. A. Brown, T, J. Tom Kelly, the celebrated aboars ae) batde ship, are giving nightly formances on the i - fangs deck = ag er “Brutus,” the good-natured acting cox- Swain of the Indiana's fourth cutter, may seen every mcrning acquiring a’ profi- a, in the manty art of self-defense, with a view of challe i member of the fleet. echeubteanane Jack Howard, chief machinist, is not only a first-class mechanic, but a musician of the first order. Judging from the manner in which the Indiana's crew greets his mandolin serenades we suspicion Howard to be a professional—incog. —— POPULAR FALLACIES ABOUT Foon, Glover and comedians ed Theories @ Modern Ronin Suerte. From the New York Ledger, “The hygienic extremist is never tired of eapatiating on the advantages of fruit as @ breakfest dish,” says an oid doctor, “and there may be persons who are benefited by the use of fruit early in the day, but I know from careful observation that it is { positively injurious to a great number of | Persons. Robust peeple, with great vitality and strong digestion, often find themselves improved in condition by the use of fruits of all sorts, but thin, Pale, cold-blooded women and men rarely keep their health through a long course of fruit eating early a D in the day. “Just consider for a moment the absurd- ity of beginning the day with an orange or two, then some cereal with cream cr milk. The acid of the fruit curdies the milk, and often causes indigestion and the most acute pain. I believe that fruits and cereals and milk should never be taken one after the other If it is more agrec- able to the palate to take the fruit, omit the other or take the cereal with a little butter or sugar. As there are so many peo- ple who depena largely upon oatmeal and other farinaceous food for their morning meal, it would be found an excellent plan to take fruit much later tn the day. In- deed, I very decidedly approve of taking fruit between meals when one is the most likely to crave it. I know that many of my patients have declared that they ate fruit at breakfast simply because they had got into the habit of it, and because every- body said it was the proper thing to do. “I have been obliged to for! fruits of many sorts to scores of my patents. Fresh apples are almost always allowable, but when they are ccoked they are io many persons a decided irritant. One lady can eat fresh apples at any time of day or night with great benefit, but when they are cocked in any way, especially when made into apple sauce, ‘they cause indigestion almost as soon as they are eaten. Oranges disagree with many, especially when they are partaken of before meals, and two of my patients have had such violent par- oxyems of pain after cating them thai their use has heen abandoned altogether. “Rhubarb is snother article about which there are many opinions. It is almost like poison to certain temperaments, and seems to agree with others. I have often re- marked, however, that dishes of wich peo- ple are very fond are likely to be the last things that they will admit as disagreeing with them. It is always something else, or they are bilious, or have taken cold, or they invent some new and flimsy excuse for their indixposition. “We once had as a guest a very delicate young woman, who positively dissipated on @ morning diet of fruit. 1 knew that bringing on dyspepsia, but whatev said she met with a laugh and the a tion that she couldn't live. without for breakfast. It so chanced that our fam- ily went to the country for a few days, and subsisted on plain food, without a par- ticle of fruit. The young woman improved in health every day, and when we returned the customary fruit was omitted. And this would be the experience of a large number of persons if they would try the ex ment.” i= Im a Tarkish Library. From Longman’s Magazine. We found a charming old Turkish libra- rian, speaking no langvage but his own, but proud of and devoted to the books un- der his care He had six or eight intelli- gext assistants. We were soon seated at a table, & carefully prepared and very full catalogue before us, and our friend, Sadik Bey, at hand as interpreter. It was touch- ing to see the genuine anxiety of the old librarian to find any book my husband wished to see, and he was ably seconded by his assistants. They first brought us some exquirite Persian manuscripts, beau- tifully illuminated and bound; and when we made them understand that my hus- band would like to sce any books in the library from India, they eagerly produced all they had, bat they proved to be chiefly modern works on music. After they had brougat us some fine manuscripts of the Koran, with glosses and commentaries, they asked us to walk about and examine the general contents of the building. The bockcases were of the best construc- tion, with movable shelves, and at one end we found a very good collection of En- glish, French and German classics. The center of the room was occupied by glass cases, filled with gorgeously bound, il) trated works, chicfly gifts to the While my husband, with the aid of 5S: Bey, was talking to the old Mbrarian, the assistants showed my son and myself som fire photographs of places in the suita domains and of public buildings ‘n Stam- beul. A Bad Business. From the Woonsocket Reporter, Young Father (anxiously)—“Is it a boy or a girl, nurse?” Nurse—“It’s three of ‘em, sir. Three lovely boys.” Young Father—“Good gracious. ‘This ccmes of marrying a girl whose father w in the wholesale line of business.”’ THINGS ONE WOULD WISH TO From Punch. HAVE EXPRESSED DIFFERENTLY. ; I haven’t bad a duli n on is coming to an end that you've bee sorrent since I saw you lest!”