Evening Star Newspaper, July 18, 1896, Page 23

THE. EVENING STAR, SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1896-TWENTY-FOUR PAGES. A CAR LOAD OF CHINESE SMUGGLE > ACKOSS THE CANADIAN BORDER. WAYS OF SMUGGLERS Ingenious Devices for Outwitting the Customs Inspectors. FROM A LOAF OF BREAD TO A BIBLE John Chinaman is the Most Adept, and Opium is His Specialty. DIAMONDS AND SILK I N ALL COUNTRIES where customs duties are high the occupa- tion of smuggling is a lively and dangerous one. Professional smugglers are gen- erally men of a high order of intellect, and when engaged in stealing from the government display a great deal of cun- ning, activity, refine- ment and quick wit. ‘The customs inspectors, who have charge of the examination of baggage and the searching of vessels at the various docks. are nearly all of them experienced men and perfectly famflMar with all the tricks to which smugglers resort. They know when to look for diamonds or other valuable ar- ticles; have an eye which carefully meas- ures the capacity of trunks, so as to detect false bottoms; are sometimes somewhat af- fectionate in embracing passengers whose clothing seems too bulky; are careful stu- dents of human nature, and can discern in the appearance of satisfaction with which & passengers observes the process of ex- amination whether anything has been omit- in the search. Not infrequently diamonds are found con- cealed in false calves, in false shoe soles and keels, and In a thousand other places abeut tne person, particularly in the hair of women, where, wrapped in tissue paper just the color of the hair, they are securely fastened with silk thread. It used to be a common thing for smugglers to bring over diamonds in Edam cheese, silks, laces and shawls packed in bales of hops. Iron tubing A Smuggler Detected. used to be a good way of hiding goods. Pre- cious stones have been smuggled into the country in cakes of soap, in cavities of large corks used for perfumery and tollet articles, and in hollow canes and umbrella sticks. One old-fashioned _silver-mounted cane made twelve successful trips. The supposed unlucky thirteenth was started as a new number, one, with a new cane, which at last accounts was still on Its travels. Dia- mends, etc.. of value $25 to $50,000, have been carried in that old cane on each trip. Most frequently it came in through Canada. It is now tapping the pav=ments of Chicago as an ordinary walking stick. Concealed tm a Bible. One of the most remarkable devices used by a smuggier to conceal contraband articles was a Bible hollowed out inside, so that a number of valuable watches or other pre- cious articles could be concealed among the leaves. This was carried under the arm by 8 solemn-visaged and reverend-looking gen- tleman with white whiskers. He was noted among his fellow passengers on the steamer for the care and attachment he displayed toward te holy book. The man turned out to be a notorious smuggler, who, in a small way, had for years been defrauding the revenue by bringing in articles supposed to pay duty. Several loaves of bread hollowed out in- side so as to contain cigars have also lately been seized, and from the same gang of smugglers was taken a concertina filled with choice Havana cigars, upon which a high duty would have had to be paid if brought in in the ordinary way. Another ingenious device was a can made to tow overboard from the stern of a steamer. It was water-tight, and contained a large quantity of cigars when captured. An oil can with a chamber to contain brandy was also taken from one of the engineers of an incoming steamer. Perhaps one of the boldest of these devices was a bogus log of wood, or rather a log which had been hol- jowed out, and was found kicking about harmlessly on the deck of the steamer. It was closely packed with cigars. Another ingentous ruse was carried on for some years before it was discovered. Small-sized cedar logs were procured, which were sawed into boards, leaving an end of the Jog uncut, so that the thin planks would open like the leaves of a book. rts of the interior of the planks were carefully re- moved, leaving a hollow space, which was filled with fine Havana cigars, packed in boxes, and the logs were then carefully tied together, giving them the appearance usual to cigar box lumber sawed into planks. Imitation lumps of coal have also been made for this purpose, and these, painted black, have been almost impossible of de- n. It was a good joke on the smug- however, when one of these got lost in a load of coal, and the fine cigars which it contained ultimately went up in smoke througk the furnace of the steamer. Not long since a successful diamond smuggler who had grown gray in the ser- vice, and wno was so smart that he never was caught, brought over from Europe diamonds valued at over $100,000. He con- cealed them in the floor of his te room by artistically sawing out a piece of it and permitting them to re there until the sailing of the stei on her return trip. He landed from the steamer, and when his Wife went with him to his state room to bid him good-bye on his return voyage he gave her the diamonds, and she not only got safely cn shore with them, but disposed of them for their full value in a few days after. Diamonds have also been smuggled in the hollow legs of dolls and in toys of Various descriptions. A gentleman's silver or gold pencil case may contain stones of value securely put away inside, and knife handles have been known to contain them. Opium Smuggling. Opium smuggling 1s a great business on the Pacific coast, and, notwithstanding the tireless efforts of the Treasury Department officers, this business ts still carried on to an extent that is astonishing. Opium is of two kinds—prepared and crude. The pre- pared cen be used for nothing but smoking. On this there was a duty of $12 a pound under the McKinley tariff, but it has been reduced to $6 by the Wilson Dill. The treasury officers admit that practically all the drug brought into the United States while the McKinley tariff was in force was smuggled. At present, with the duty at one-half of the McKinley tariff, smuggling still continues, as prepared opium can be purchased in Chinatown for a little more than the cost price in Hong Kong or Victo- ria, B. C., where it is manufactured. Most of the opium smuggled into this country is manufactured at Victoria, and it nat- urally gets across the line by the nearest and most available routes. Puget sound, with its many harbors, in- lets and streams, affords landing places for all sorts of smuggling vessels, and its numerous islands, with rocks and crags and dense woods, offer the smuggler safety from pursuit. Not only do these heavily timbered localities afford concealment to the smuggler himself, but they also enable him to safely store away his contraband goods when hotly pursued. One of the most common receptacles for getting oplum across the line is the ordinary traveler's trunk, which ts checked as baggage and generally goes through unsearched. Satch- els and small parcels of every description are also made use of by the smuggler, and in one instance an old piano was stripped of its inner parts and filled up with cans of epium valued at $5,000. Even the most in- nocent-looking flower pots have been made to serve the smugglers. To a man the Chinese crews on the steamers plying between San Francisco and Mexico, South America and China, are smugglers. They hide their contraband gocds in the oddest places imaginable and get them ashore past the eyes of the cus- toms officers in ways that almost baffle de- tection. They have brought opium skillful- ly stuffed in bananas still hanging to the stalk and in oranges. A Chinese cook walk- ed ashore with several loaves of bread filled with opium. Chinese have been detected with boxes of the drug deftly bound in thelr queues or tied under their arms. Every bit of baggage and every articie they take ashore is a hiding place. Cheated the Government. In one Invoice of “chow” or chopped vegetables over $40,000 worth of opium was confiscated, and in one lot of “hardware simples” a seizure of the drug valued at $7,000 was made. At that time Secretary of the Treasury Folger was of the opinion that one ring of smugglers during its exist- ence had cheated the government out of more than $4,000,000. In one venture a syn- dicate with $100,000 capital made $800,000 in smuggling oplum from Vancouver, and dur- ing the trial of a smuggling case in San Francisco a United States treasury officer testified tnat during the previous ten years over $6,000,000 worth of opium had been smuggled into San Francisco. The Chinese resort to all manner of de- vices down to false heels and soles to thelr shoes. Some time ago $300 worth was seized in the “hump” of an alleged hump- back. A customs boat is nearly always stationed under the wharf during the stay of a China steamer, and from time to time the officers see planks, pieces of scantinig and tins with floats attached thrown over- board for some waiting boatman to pick up. When seized they nearly always prove devices for smuggling in the costly opium. ‘The planks and scantlings have long augur holes bored in them; these are filled with the drug and then carefully plugged up. Innocent-looking boards are taken from a steamer and laid carefully to one side on the wharf. They are not there long, for Eresently some watchful eye has discovered them and they are quickly “sneaked off.” These are likewise full of opium. One of these dummy planks four inches thick by fourteen wide arranged to contain several hundred dollars’ worth of the drug, is pre- served in the surveyor’s office at San Fran- cisco. Opium has been discovered in the hollow iron stringers of steamers, In the false bot- toms to the chain lockers and the holiow of the fron masts. Opium has been covered with ofl cloth and stowed away in the ship's bilge. It has been found in the tubes of the boilers inside the vessel’s skin, and it has been brought ashore in pockets on the per- son and in hats upon the head. It has been discovered behind panels in the staterooms, in partitions, strung up in sausage skins, in table legs, in false bottoms in cuddy holes and pantry drawers, in coal bunkers, and under engines and boilers, in the folds of extra sails, in the steerage stateroom, in barrels of pickled salmon, in mats of rice and in every nook and corner of the vessel. Recently, when one of the large steamers was on the dock for repairs, numbers of mattresses were thrown on the wharf with the apparent intent of letting them air. They were discovered to be stuffed with some of the finest silks that had come into that port. The government was defrauded out of more than $250,000 by a firm who had been imperting silks shipped as “crash toweling.” Along the Canadian Border. Smuggling is not confined to the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, but extends all along the Canadian border. The smuggling of clothing, silks, Jewelry, whisky, tobacco, butter, India goods, opium, etc., is conduct- ed on a very extensive scale across the Canadian border from Maine to the state of Washington. Buffalo, N. Y., has become known as the head center of a complete and profitable system of swindling. Where ® dollar's worth of dutiable property is brought from Canada by rail a thousand dollers’ worth ts shipped across Niagara river in skiffs between midnight and day- break. There are saloon keepers in that city who buy in Canada every gallon of the spirituous liquor which they sell, and they always know just where to find par- ties to smuggle a cask or two across the river. It is only about a mile from shore to shore. e The smuggling at Detroit, which is the second best point elong the border, is mere- ly a bagatelle in comparison with Buffalo. During the winter, when the lake is frozen, teams are driven a distance of twelve miles upon the ice, and not one load in fifty is overhauled. Most of them contain smug- gled goods. Suspension Bridge, Ogdens- burgh, Richford and St. Albans, Vt., and El Paso, Tex., are also famous points for smuggling, especially for Chinese laborers. Recently a car load of hay was sealed and passed across the border “in transit” to the United States. After arriving at o1 of the large towns on the border in ¢! United States a hidden trap door was opened in the bottom of the car and twen- ty-three smuggled Chinese laborers slid out and departed for parts unknown, Professional smugglers find their busi- ness so profitable at times that they devote their lives to the study of how they may defraud the revente, and when it is con- sidered that this class of persons are among the shrewdest of men and women, it 1s something surprising that the revenue officers catch them at all. Frequently they are detected. In this case the articles selzed are sent to the seizure room at the barge office, and the facts are reported to the collector for his action. 1 THOMAS SCHARF, Inspector of Immigration, 23 PLAY OF LIGHTNING Greater Danger From Thunderbolts in the Country Than the City. DEGREE OF POWER IN A FLASH Explanation of What is Termed Lightning Photography. SUSPENDED ANIMATION TATISTICS COL- lected for the past five years show that country people are in five times as great a danger from light- ning death as city people. A statistical inquiry made last summer in Germany shows that tele- phone, telegraph and trolley wires in large cities greatly dimin- ish the destructive- ness of lightning strokes by distributing the electricity evenly over the area covered. A well-known electrician recently said that on this account a seat in a trolley car is one of the safest places to which a person can resort during an electric storm. The con- tinuous underground piping and tin roofing ot city houses likewise aid in the distribu- tion of the lightning. Recent meteorological and astronomical observations have given rise to an interest- ing theory accounting for the source of elec- tric phenomena displayed in storms, as well as for the latent atmospheric and terrestriai currents always present, even in winter. This theory is that such commotions as lightning are only possible when the sun spots are in a particular locality over the surface of the sun, and when the earth oc- cuptes a certain position in relation to them. it 1s further believed that the masses of matter thrown off by the sun when the lat- ter is violently agitated at certain times constitute the medium through which elec- trical energy is conducted from the sun to the earth. This same cause has been at- tributed to the aurora borealis, thought by some authorities to be a form of lightning. Power of Lightning Flashes. Scientists in different parts of the world are at work devising means of determining the horse-powers, lengths, diameters and durations of lightning flashes. The most accurate computation of the power of an exceptionally severe flash is sald to have lately been made in Germany. The bolt en- tered a house and struck a wooden post, melting two nails, each a sixth of an inch in diameter. It was carefully estimated that in order to melt nails of this volume and material, and accomplishing the destruction in one-tenth of a second would require a thunderbolt acting with a power equal to that of 50,000 horses, each lifting one pound 33,000 feet in one minute. A bolt of this power, coming upon you, either above or below, would hardly be attracted by small conductors. Your Aunt Mary Jane will tell you not to hold a pair of scissors or a needle and not to wear steel bittons or buckles on your clothes during a thunder storm, lest these litile things coax the thunderbolt from tts regular path. Similarly ridiculous is the old-fashioned notion that a single pane of glass would refract the course of a bolt coming head on. As to the diameter of a flash, some severe ones have been found to measure a fcot in this particu- lar. A cross section of a thunderbolt looks Lke that of a round iron bar heated to whiteness. The particles of the atmosphere in reality become white hot on coming in contact with the lightning. The flashes which we commonly see during thunder- storms are found to be anywhere from 200 feeet to a half mile in length. Very recent studies of the duration of the Nghtning flash have disclosed a fact of great interest to every one. This is that what appears to us to be a sudden repeti- Uon, sometimes several times, of a light- ning flash is in reality an hallucination. You have invariably noticed that a lignt- ning flash seems to appear in sudden jerks, as though turned on and off again in rapid succession. It is now believed that sensa- tion is what realty acts in vibrations, and that the nervous current by which we see the flash 1s reflected at the cénter of the brain where the perception occurs, return- ing to the outer end of the seeing nerve, returning again to the brain, and so on. It has been scientifically proven in France that an impression of intense light of ul- most instantaneous duration {is followed by @ sensation of great darkness, then light, then lesser darkness, and so cn. Electric Photography. Herr Karyall of Vienna in a recent scl- entific publication of that city is sald to have solved the problem concerning the cause of lightning photography—that is, the imprint of certain forms upon persons as well as inanimate things struck by thunderbolts. With a powerful induction coil Herr Karyall produced an artificial electric storm and allowed the spark there- trom to strike a glass plate whose surface was smoked. The black was put on in such @ manner that each particle struck by the electric spark, as it hit and scat- tered, was knocked from its place. Glasses 0 treated were examined through a pow- erful microscope and projected on a screen. They were imprinted with various tree-like and moss-like forms. With an unusually strong current was made a fig- ure resembling a dim photograph of a rustic fence with trees in the background and birdlike figures flying about. Lightning, of course, ts no more than such sparks as experimented with greatly enlarged. A thunderbolt coming in contact with a person's skin leaves red marks wherever the electric fluid enters. Figures of supposed trees, flowers, birds and so on are those usually reported as having been imprinted upon the human form in this manner, and the tion of the phe- nomenon is- obvious, é = Careful study of - 'y supposed cases of death from lightning has lately revealed the fact that this force seldom kills per- scns outright, but reduces them to a state of suspended animajion. If they are left in this state unaided they will generally die. When the clothing is wet from per- spiration or rain, ag(is usually the case in summer, the bulk of the current produces unconsciousness by passing over the sur- face and not entering the body. The re- sult is usually the Tope arrest of the breathing and the Heating of the heart, caused by the excitement of the nerve cen- ters controlling these. By artificially caus- ing the breath and heart to continue phys- iclang can now, in pyost instances, rewind the machine of life and set it to ticking once more. +4 pores Hee IS A BIFURCATED BEING. Woman, Having Two Movable Legs, Should Dress Accordingly. From the New York Press. Elizabeth Cady Stanton ridicules the idea that a woman doesn’t look well on a bi- cycle. “No woman could look worse on a wheel than a man bent at an angle of 45 degrees, and with coat-tails flying,” she declares. As for dress she does not doubt that in time women will look pretty and sraceful in long stockings, knickerbockers, tight-fitting sacks and military caps. “I like a trig vessel in a storm, with all sails reefed. They will, as an object les- son, illustrate a great natural law; that woman is a bifurcated animal, and does not run, as she seems to the ordinary ob- server, like a churn on casters, a pyramid :n shape from waist downward. A being with two legs, for free motion, must of necessity have bifurcated garments. This revelation of legs has been a great shock to some senaitive souls, and the debates on the question of what women should wear have been as hysterical as on the first point, should she be permitted to ride at all? “As she decided the first for herself, and defiantly rode off in the face of her oppo- nents, she will decide the second point, and wear what she pleases, gradually making changes in dress and wheels, as added comfort and convenience demand; and pop- ular prejulfces must yield her undisputed sway in this new field of activity, just as they have other strongholds f:cm time to Ume in the past.” She believes in allowing women to ride on Sunday without criticism. If they prefer a ten miles’ ride in the open air to the close atmosphere of a church, or to an easy chair at their own fireside, perusing the Sunday papers, I say: Go on the wheel by all means. The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath. No ra- tional pleasure on that day should be for- bidden. Young men and women confined in schools and workshops during the week must appreciate a day of freedom in such exhilarating exercise in the cpen air. The rational idea of Sunday is simply a day of rest and recreation, a change from the regular routine and employments of our everyday working world. —___-e+______ ‘PECULIARITIES OF THE BRETONS. They Cling te Ancient Ways With Picturesque Tenacity. From the London News, I sce that Michelet is quoted by a cor- respondent to show how Brittany has ad- vanced since 1833. The Bretons are less altered by the events of the last hundred years than any other provincial people. Their culture is incentive. It has gone in the same lines fromttime immemorial. Thelr Catholicism when well looked into will be found to haye 3, Druidical complex- jon. The character 13’ narrow, deep and strong. S Bretons are good friends and nasty foca. They are very attached,relatives, but read- ily adopt the orphans. of strangers. Wid- ows are in Brittany held in pecullar honor. The widow is by ctistom absolute guardian of her orphan children ‘and administratrix of thelr properties. Her husband’s rela- Uves must not vex or grieve her by law Proceedings. She is'looked up to by all her neighbors as an almost sacred being, and in old age venerated by sons and grand- sons. Shakespeare, whe ‘knew everything, caught this trait 6f Brittany civilization, and embodied it in Constance, mother of Prince Arthur. ‘he widow of Jeoffrey lantagenet, who faces John, is a Breton vidow. Rosalie, the sister of Ernest 'Re- a truly sublime ¢haracter, was a Bre- ton. She had the intensiyeness already no- liced, and the hue and structure of her mind have much in common with the mind of Constance. There were wreckers certainly in former umes in Brittany, but Michelet did not know that province In 1833, unless through books. He was a painstaking man in try- ing to obtain colors for his palette, but he was a very imaginative writer, and the love of literary effect often led him away. Doubtless railways and steam navigation have done much for Bretons in enabling them to find easy markets for their butter and fish, but it may be said of Brittany: “As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.” Its archaic features make it a singularly interesting province. Some years ago, when on a tour in Brit- anny, I met a Parisian acquaintance going to a castle in Finisterre, not far from Le Conquet. He invited me to go with him. I hesitated; but, as he pressed, I went. We were received on the hall door steps by a most courteous old gentleman and lady. As I was apologizing for coming, he pointed to the family motto carved in stone above the door. It was in the Breton tongue, but he thus translated it: “The friends of friends are our friends.” The carved stone bore the date of 1596. I found that the motto had entered into the lives of the chatelain and chatelaine, who had always lived in Finisterre. The castle, or rather old manor house, had been in their family time out of mind. Might not the warmth of heart that dic- tated the motto have originated in such difficuliies and dangers as the inhabitants of the isles of the Ushant group are con- stantly obliged to face. Difficulties without dangers harden the disposition and make It selfish. Difficulties with dangers of the most appalling kind sublimate the character and give it a ro- mantic nature. They give it more than a touch of noble recklessness. One sees this in the women shrouding the corpses of the drowned English in their best sheets and dressing the young lady and child in pretty costumes. A Finisterre costume is made to jast a lifetime and is very valuable. One should understand what store the French- weman sets on her house linen to set a right value on the sacrifices made. » a Conductor—‘Emmersmith! Emmersmith! ’Rre ye are! Emmersmith!” Ana—"Oo er yer callin’ Emmer Smith? Sorcy *ound!’"—Punch. SALE OF PRETTY GIRLS. The Japanese Government Sanctions This Kind of Trade. From the San Francisco Examiner. The Japanese government is issuing wholesale legal permits to destitute parents to sell their daughters. It is the sorriest thing of the century, a thing which civilization well may blush for, a.shadow which Japan can never live down. Japan is in the grim clutch of famine—a famine so bitter that the Japanese govern- ment has encouraged this general vending of maidens to provide means of sustenance for the heads of suffering families. A correspondent of the Sunday San Fran- cisco Examiner writes from Tokio, in vin- dication of the strange system: “This phase of the unhappy condition of this people may be misunderstood, because of the peculiar social custom prevailing in the country, and the different aspect borne by this particular action to that given it in other parts of the world may not be known. “This is the first serious famine ev known in Japan, and the horrors of it can. not be told in language lurid enough to fur- nish an adequate portrayal. Entire house- holds are living on 8 cents a day, and thou- sands of families are without even that. “The bodies of those who have died of hunger strew the roads and fields in out- lying districts. Particularly in the Kwang Si province has the famine been fierce. “The fields, where starving people have grubbed in the ground for roots, look like stretches of plowed ground. All domestic animals, as well as cats, dogs and rats, have been eaten. Cannibalism ‘even has been resorted to in distant provinces, “There has been little or nothing done in the way of charity. The government has been incomprehensibly slow to act. Rice (and the crop everywhere has failed) is but Sparsely raised here, and its price has been raised by the shippers as the misery has grown. Speculators in it are growing rich. “This is the state of things which has led to the sale of girls. And such girls! From her earliest childhood the Japanese girl is trained in courteous ceremonials. To be amiable and gracious to those about her she learns before she learns to speak, and, naturally, if this regard for the stranger is instilled in the infant mind, how much greater must be the regard she is taught to shew for her parents! Filial affection and devotion is a tradition of the country. The absence of it is the most heinous of crimes. What sacrifice would not be made by a Japanese child to secure its parents sgairst privation? “This condition breeds in the minds cf the poorer classes a feeling of property in the girl, in which she acquiesces, that tempts the parents at times like these, without any evil thought, but solely under the stress of circumstances, to offer the daughter in open market. This open market embraces two avenues of disposal for the girl. She may be sold as a supplementary wife to some Japanese who 1s already wed/ed, but wishes to add to his menage, or she may be sold for something infinitely worse. “It is @ case of starvation, suicide, or selling their daughters. The minimum ege at which a girl may be sold is twelve years. The prices now have fallen as low ss $3. The price, under ordinary conditions, 1s about $200. Those figures show the awful need that exists. “The chief condition is that the girl shall remain the purchaser’s property for the space of three years. When ihe agreement is completed the deeds are signed before a police magistrate. “If everything is satisfactory, the girl’ name and a minute description of her are entered in a book, and this book is solely devoted to the record of her life ther2after. In it is kept an account of all the money the purchaser expends on her account; also @ full account of the obligations she takes upon herself, the right she has in the mat- ter, and the rules that prevail in the house- hold into which she enters, all of which 1s signed by the parties interested. At the end of three years the purchaser is bound to release the girl if the money he has ex- pended upon her during that time is repaid to him. The law declares the girl free at the end of six years, whether the morey Is repaid or not. And by that time the pur- chaser is generally tired of his purchase, anyhow. Ordinarily such saies of human beings are made only among tne lower classes, but since the famine hegan it is not rare for girls of good family to take this means of relieving their par=nts. “When a girl is sold to fill the post of supplementary wife she is taken by the purchaser to his own hom», where she re- mains until for one reason or another he pays her to go back :o ner people.” ——~- e+ ____ A QUEER MANIA. How a Sicilian Monomaniac Divertea Himself. From the London Standard. The Sicilian Prince of Valguanera at the beginning of this century was a mono- maniac of a rare description. He succeeded to one of the largest fortunes in Europe, his habits were studious and economical, be had no children; but, in spite of these advantages for saving money, he contrived to ruin himself. The prince had a fancy for grotesque statues, with which he adorn- ed the stately marsion of his forefathers. Many descriptions of the place are extant, for it was renowned through Europe in its day. Brydone visited it, and he has left us a piéasant picture. ’ Approaching by a noble avenue, one found the palace encircled by an “army” of monsters. ““The absurdity of the wretched imagination which created them is not less astonishing than its wonderful fertility,” says Brydone. “Some were a compound of five or six ani- mais which have no resemblance in nature. in one instance the head of a lion was set upon the neck of a goore, with the body of a lizard, the eye of a goat and the tall of a fox. Upon the back of this object stood another with five or six heads and a grove of horns. There is no kind of horn in the “orld that he has not collected, and his pleasure is tu them all flourishing on the same skull. Of such horrors there were 600 in the avenue and the courtyard alone when Bry- done saw ‘the collection, and the prince maintained a regiment of sculptors, who were rewarded proportionately to their suc- cess in designing new and unparalleled combinations. The effect upon a supersti- Ucus peasantry may be imagined. So se- rious was the agitation that the govern- ment of Sicily threatened to demolish the wondrous array several times, but a Prince of Valguanera was not to be offended in those days without the gravest cause. The inside of the house was eccentric in another fashion. Here the madman divert- ed himself with columns and arches and pyramids of cups and saucers, teapots and the like cemented together. One column, for instance, started from a great porcelain vase of shape familiar in bed rooms, but not elsewhere; the shaft was teapots, with the spouts protruding, graduated in size up to a capital of flower pots. The open- ings of windows were encrusted in this manner, the chimney pleces were loaded up to the cefling and the magnificent rooms of the palace were divided by fantastic arches of the same corstruction. China was rare and fine in Sicily at that day, and most of the pieces thus treated had great value. The prince’s bed rcom was a cham- ber of supreme horrors. Reptiles awful be- yond conception had their home there, in- termixed with pleasing busts and statues, which, if turned, showed a skeleton or a hideous representaticn of decrepitude. We have never observed an allusion to these things in a modern work of travel. Per- raps the government destroyed them at the prince's death, beggared by his mania. Stocking Pocket in From the Chicago Tribune. It 1s proverbial that a woman's ability in dispensing with pockets altogether is comparable only to her fertility in suggeet- ing urheard-of places for the pocket when she decides to adopt this convenience. The newest and most obscure position for a Pocket is one’s stocking. With her valu- ables stowea away in a pocket woven to the outside of the stocking Ieg the new woman feels exceedingly secure. It is claimed that this scheme has its defects: that a pocket so situated is impossible of -access, but no woman with e@ proper re- spect for the traditions of her sex would expect a pocket to be within reach. The pocket attached to stockings design- ed for indoor wear is usually of a contrast ing shade, and is elaborately embroider- ed. It is also placed near the top of the stocking. The wheelwoman, however, has also adopted the new fad. As she is likely to wear bloomers which fasten tightly about her knee, her stocking pocket Is placed just below the knee. She can tuck away in this silken case a very fat budget of valuables, and be sure that they are safe. And unless she wears leggins the Pocket is not inaccessible. The wheelwo- men who have realized the advantages of ‘the stocking pocket, however, have dis- carded leggins, and’ wear in their stead high bicycle boots, which lace up the front and back, and are, therefore, cool, flexible and comfortable. The stocking pocket has apparently come to stay. Evidence, HUNVADI JANOS, The World’s Best Natural Aperient Water. 25 Years’ Success in U. S. Highest Reputation all Over the World. CAUTION: None genuine without the signature of the firm “Andreas Saxlehner,” On the mbh21-sat,20t Label. Socfoslonlestontedtentogegtes’ ENTERTAINED TOO WELL. One Guest Cor Stand Atten- tion of the Whole Hotel Staff. From the New Orleans Times-Democrat. Seated amid the palms and shrubberies of the St. Charles Hotel roof garden, with a soft vapor of after-dinner cigars forming a luminous haze about them, they were discussing the liberality and charm of American hospitality. “Some years ago,” said Mr. W. T. Jones, when it came his turn, “many of you will remember that an Englishman with more money than sa- gacity built a magnificent hotel at Cum- berland Gap. There was nothing in par- ticular to recommend the place; it was out of the lire for traveling men, ard possessed no attractions for tourists, nothing daunted by these deficiencies, Englishman made of it @ veritable palace. The appointments were magnificeat in €v- ery particular, and, though I’ve put up at every hotel of any consequence in the country, I do not remember ever to have slept in a more luxurious bed room. But guests persistently refused to arrive, and one morning when I registered I found only five names on the book. Nor was this the worst, for turning back I found even fewer names, until I came to a space where for five days there had been only one man in the house. There was a man named Loomis, now clerk at the Cordova, behind the cesk, and I asked him how things were going. “Going! he exclaimed; then with a very long face: ‘When you ente-iain a man 50 well that you drive him out of the house, and he the only guest, you're in a bad way.’ Thereupon he told me about the solitary guest. It appears that he had call- ed the leader of the orchestra up and said to him: ‘Do you see that man? Keep your eye on him. He's our only guest. We can’t lose him, or the house must close. Give him a — of atime. When he goes to dinner take your orchestra outsije the door and play music for him. When he goes into the billiard room follow him and play music while he shoots the balls zround. When he goes to the bar follow him and play while he drinks. Keep your eye on him, bandmaster; give him music wher- ever he goes." Then he called the ward up and said: ‘Keep your eye on that man. He’s cur only salvation. Give him a high old time. None of his money goes at the bar. Throw open the wine room to hit keep him supplied with the best cigers serve him the whole bill of fare, and have extra meals sent to his room.’ “Then they started in on the guest. When he went into the billiard room the band would play marches while he caromed urd dirges when he massed. When he came out they would follow him to the bar pla: ing a march, and while the bartender pour- ed out bumpers of wine for him they would discourse the drinking song from “farn- hauser.’ Circus music would be played while he walked around the corridors, ard symphonies while he dined. After dinner relays of negro boys would® bring him in cigars, and the band would play ‘I Smoked My Last Cigar.’ When he went to bed the band played Ivllab‘es in the hall, and in the morning he was awakened with the reveille and Merdelssohn’s ‘Spring Song.” For five days the guest was drunk with the combined effects of food, music, cigars a1.d champagne, and then ali of a sudden, while the band was following him to the bath room playing ‘A Life on the Ocean Wave,’ he suddenly grew very white and fell all in a heap. He was carried out on a shutter and taken to the nospital at Hagerstown, where he soon recovered. Within twenty minutes after he left three guests ar- rived, and the hotel was saved.” 2 oskcaiieed To Step Bleeding With an Electric Current. From the Boston Evening Transcript. Mr. Lawson Tait has invented an electric haemostat, an instrument whereby the electric current is applied for the arrest of bleeding. The principle of the instrument is the generation of heat by the resistance to the current offered by certain metals, and the coagulation of all albuminous tis- sues by temperatures at or above 180 de- grees Fahrenheit. A platinum wire is in- clcsed in the blades ae, he a ~ ceps, or any other requisite instrument, the aS being isolated by a bed of burned ‘pipe clay. A current of suitable voltage is turn- ed on, the artery seized and compressed, and in a few seconds its tissues are 80 co- agulated and its walls agglutinated that further passage of blood is rendered impos- sible. The necessity for a ligature is thus removed, and a new and completely effec- tive method is placed in the hands of the surgeon for the treatment of surface ooz- ing. —_—_—_sos—__—_ A Wheel of Silver and Ivory. From a London Letter. I ahve just heard of an infatuated and plutocratic bridegroom who has presented his pretty little wife of a few weeks with a bicycle that is an edition de luxe of a mest ultra-sumptuous description. This “creation” in wheels has its frame and forks overlaid with silver openwork; the ivory handles are decorated with silver, and there are jade knobs at the ends. Part of its equipment are a solid silver cyclometer, a silver watch and bell and solid silver lamp with cut crystal side lights. The mud guard is silver-mounted and strung with the finest silk. What kind of frock will be the fortunate owner of this megnificent machine consider fit to wear when she mounts its white kid-covered saddle? I can think only of a gown of ivory white alpaca, silky and glistening, lined with deep dead white silk, and with a white kid belt trimmed with silver about her waist, and a hat of white fel, with no trimming except a band of silk and a snowy quill feather to break the outline of its graceful Alpine Many a leisure hour follows THE “FAME” DIDN'T SUIT. MacMonnies’ West Point Statue Gives Way to Another. From the Collsctor. The figure of “Fame,” modeled by Fred- erick MacMonnies for the battle monument at West Point, is the occasion of a mild commotion in the artistic camp. The great shaft of the monument was erected on Trophy Point in memory of the officers and enlisted men of the United States regular army who were killed or died of wounds received in action during the civil war. Every officer in the service contributed a sixth of his pay for one month to the com- mittee that had been appointed at West Point, and at the end of the month $0,000 had been raised. It was nearly thirty years later when the first stone was laid. A monolithic shaft of Splendid propor- tions rises to almost a height of eighty fect — the many trophies gathered on the pot. The figure which is to surmount the whole is supposed to be the crowning glory of the monument. It is this figure, soon to be unveiled, that has caused the trouble. erick MacMonnies was selected make it. Its name was to be “Fam: When the committee who had the matter in charge viewed the figure, after it had ar- rived from France, there was consideranle dissatisfaction expressed, but after a co: sultaticn an ee architects, the figure was placed on its lofty pedestal on the xi: of old Fort Shelbourne. = Pee A Gate had been set for the unveiling ceremonies, but the officers found fault with “Fame,” and the date was postponed in charge of th er clared that the = seg tee figure had not been d. ed for so lofty a pedestal. — f This dis; statues ever constructed by Mr. MacMon- placement of one of the finest mies has caused much public comment. Th. . Tho SES 2, or “Victory,” which will soon be erec: in its place, though dignified and poetical, does not sei eo Ee to lend the same inspiration or suggest the same force as the figure il replaces. Probably the only approach to motive in > latter is military ignorance of the fine s. A Joke From Engla: From the New York Herald. A small provincial paper in England, re- ferring to a man who hid a reputation for @ careless totlet, announced as follows: “Mr. Makeup will wash himself before he aesumes the office of parish clerk.” On reading this, Makeup was furious, and he cemanded retraction, which the paper made thus: “Mr. Makeup requests us to deny that he will wash himself before he esumes the office of parish clerk.” eccatlet a pt the Same, From Texas Sittings. Wifc—“George, didn’t you say you were the heaviest batter in the nine last sum- mer?” Husband—“Yes, dear.” Wife—“Well, would you mind beating @ carpet for me for about talf an hour?” other extremeis nearly as bad. Continually hammering away on the idea that any- thing connected with the repro- duction of the human species is of necessi and di § a v 2\ SxS RS STFS \ weloping a false modesty that has been prolific of weakness and disease. Four ont of every five womem in America are not perfect women in the sense of being perfectly healthy. They are not perfectly equipped for the performance of the duties of wifehood and motherhood. ‘Their training has made ther. feel that it is Detter to suffer in silence than to tell of their trouble and be cured. The doctors are much to blame for this, because when treating the diseases pecue Marly feminine they invariably insist on ex- cased and ad —— That these ings are generally absolutely unnece: has been proven by the wonderful success of Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Prescription. It is & positive specific for all forms of female weakness and disease. It purifies, strength- ens and regulates the organs distinctively feminine, restoring them to a state of = fect health, and in so doing cures four-fifths of all the illness of women, for almost all womanly illnesses spring from this one Cause. Any woman who wants to know just how to use the “‘ Favorite Prescription,’ and just what methods will be surely successful in her case, may have the desired information, free of cost if she will write to Dr. R. V. Pierce, chief consulting physician of the Hotel and Surgical Institute, a re re- these troubles, but only. rhe “ Pellets" do not gripe or cause any other um Pleasantnces. “Druggisis sell them 25 cesta,